Calm Under Tension by Gwen Gyldenege
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The Art of the 20's Dress: Trying on Ideas in Pear Shape

6/25/2014

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Usually, I try to visualize an outfit before I wear it.  Sometimes I can, othertimes I cannot. If it's not a style I've worn, it can be a challenge to see what will my body shape look like.  The 1920's styles are boxy, straight, and very loose to allow a woman complete freedom around her midriff/ribcage.  They had just ditched corsets and were suffragettes, you know.  They were empowered!  So this boxy style symbolizes freedom. 
"Votes for women!" 

Oh, whoops. 

Heh heh... a little Glynis Johns as a suffragette in Mary Poppins for ya.  
20′s Sew Along
When I struggle to visualize, I am learning to sketch out what I feel or see in my minds eye. This is a challenge.  Instead of usually seeing myself as I am, I often get the image of the model or sketch on the pattern in my head. It's not that my body is of any less value, it's just that I see the pattern model and think, that's how it should look on me. It's sort of like the record in my head skips and then keeps skipping. 

Considering that I don't normally resonate with straight, boxy shapes, I knew I really needed to explore some designs that would be true to the era and flattering to my pear shaped/hour-glassy curves.   With the help of my mother, another excellent visualizer, I decided that a couple patterns from Past Patterns would be flattering and simple enough for me to take on as my first 1920's dress. With a style this unfamiliar to my sewing knowledge, I need a base to start from rather than drafting my entire pattern.  
Did you know the album to Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries and some song clips are available on Spotify?  How utterly divine.

Queue the Miss Fisher Theme Song! 

Though I must say in addition to the theme song, Positively Absolutely, Sad Snoop Blues, and Sailing on a Sunbeam are my favorites.  I bet my Grandma's loved them too!

I chose a girl's dress pattern and a woman's evening gown.  My intent is to make these into a summer sundress that could not only work as a 1920's costume, but also be wearable for an everyday 2014 summer frock.

#8721: Girl's Sleeveless Dress: Circa 1929-1930

I begin my sketch with an outline of my body, making sure to draw my full thighs, round hips, etc. If I make sure those are even a little larger than normal, my eye and memory can get a "feel" for my body.  This is really hard to describe. So much of this is intuitive, muscle memory, and remembering what I look like in the mirror and through photos. So, hips & thighs in place, I sketch the rest of me. Yes, always with big lips. That's my trademark from way back in elementary school days.  

After the body outline is in place, I begin to draw in clothes. I repeat this process, creating a new outline with every new sketch. It just feels right to recreate my foundation.  I could sketch one, photo copy it and use that as a base, but I like the practice and I'm rarely with any more materials than a pen.  As you can see from my instagram post in early May, when I was travelling, all I had was the local newspaper and my pen. That didn't stop me sketching out Deer & Doe's Chataigne short on my body shape.
I decided to play with the girls dress since I am usually attracted to kid styles anyway. Does that make me unsophisticated and declasse? Nah!  I think the swoosh or curved gathering at the yolk (left) is kind of cute.  Looks fun on me (right), but given the blousing at the waist, I'm not so sure.  I also think I didn't quite get the blousing low enough. Hmm... I feel ok about this one. I'll probably try making it and/or sketching it anyway, but it's not my first choice at this point.
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Source: Past Patterns. #8721: Girl's Sleeveless Dress: Circa 1929-1930
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Original sketch by Gwen Gyldenege. Sketch shows how Past Patterns #8721 would look on my pear shaped body.

#4990: Ladies’ and Misses’ Slip-On Dress: Autumn 1927

Moving right along to dress #2. This is a much more elegant dress. Plus I like how the flounce or draped rectangular panels give triangular impressions to the eye. After sketching it on my body and playing with design ideas, I like this one best. It appears to draw the eye down the body, whereas the girls dress draws my eye directly to the flounce and yolk point, then up.
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Source: Past Patterns. #4990: Ladies’ and Misses’ Slip-On Dress: Autumn 1927
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Original sketch by Gwen Gyldenege. Sketch shows how Past Patterns #4990 would look on my pear shaped body.
I'd love to know your impressions of the sketches.  Which would you choose?
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House of Pinheiro Name Tag Swap #NYlon2014 and Kiddie Adults Unite!

4/29/2014

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The amazing Rachel of House of Pinheiro is hosting a Name Tag Swap for the #NYlon2014 meet up. However, even those who wouldn't be able to make the event are able to participate in the swap, so I eagerly joined!  I've admired Rachel's work for a while and was thrilled at a chance to meet some other sewing bloggers and challenge myself in new ways.   

While I've definitely made use of "Hello my name is..." name tags, I haven't yet made a durable, lasting, fabric nametag before.  Besides, it would give me yet another opportunity to use the stamps I carved from art in my sketchbook.  See, a couple years ago I caught the carving bug and started drawing these funny cartoony skeletons.  I carved a series of them, then made & sold embellished versions of them as pins.  I have big dreams for what I will do with carved skelly's, but have had too many other projects in my queue.  
Skelly & Eye designs sketched, colored, carved, and embellished, then sold by Gwen Gyldenege at local art events in 2012.
Original, "One of" Skelly & Eye designs sketched, colored, carved, and embellished, then sold by Gwen Gyldenege at local art events in 2012. Each are pins that have been adopted by art lovers.
Before I decided the skelly would be suitable for my swap partner, I did a little research (after she emailed me to let me know we were paired).  

I was paired with 
Vicki of Yellow Submarine Time.  I couldn't have been paired with a better person.  

Vicki is fun, silly, adores + uses her vintage sewing patterns and loves things that most adults would associate with children.  

For her birthday, she made herself this silly shirt (left) in Sewaholic's Renfrew pattern and loves it because it makes her laugh.  

How cool is that?!
Image Source: Vicki of YellowSubmarineTime.blogspot.com
Image Source: Vicki of YellowSubmarineTime.blogspot.com
This is all especially cool because I use kids patterns (both sewing patterns and fabric) regularly to make my own clothing. My Madd Hattress dress (photo to the right), a costume I made for my one of my milestone birthday parties, which was an Alice in Wonderland Costume Party, was made from a vintage 1940's little girl's dress/jumper pattern. 

Really, I think of myself as just a big kid.  Which is rather appropriate given my wacky humor, "clown school" (Yes I went to "clown school" of a sort.), My  love of puppets and gleeful attitude I fall into when reading to kids. 

Please do click the "reading to kids" link above to request a story and Pi & I or one of my other puppets will read to you or your kids!  We love to read and be silly! 
Image Source: Vicki of YellowSubmarineTime.blogspot.com
Image Source: Vicki of YellowSubmarineTime.blogspot.com
Gwen Gyldenege of Calm Under Tension as the Madd Hattress wearing Adult Sized Vintage Child's Pinafore pattern
Gwen Gyldenege of Calm Under Tension as the Madd Hattress wearing Adult Sized Vintage Child's Pinafore pattern
Given all that, I say to Vicki and I 
and anyone else who loves kid things or is just a big kid at heart, 
Kiddie Adults Unite!  
I think that sounds like a sew-along I need to host, don't you?
Vicki is amazingly driven when it comes to deadlines.  Before I even got started with her nametag, I received mine from her!  Isn't this fun?!?!  

I adore the Sword in the Stone, especially since it's about our namesake.  One of my all time favorite characters is Madd Madam Mimm.  In the movie, she & Merlin are going to have a Wizard's Duel, essentially fight over The Wort (that's Arthur as a young lad).  She turns to Merlin, "first of all, I'll make the rules!"  To which she names the weirdest and craziest things possible, ending with "No Pink Dragons and such!" whilst walking away with a wicked gleam in her eye, twirling her wand.  Nearly exasperated from all the transformation they've both taken to "out do one another" Mimm turns to Merlin and says, 
"DID I SAY NO PURPLE DRAGONS????!!! DID I?!?!?!?!?!?"  And that is exactly what comes to mind when I see this fun purple dragon on my name tag.  Vicki even modeled her design off the awesome vintage 1970's sun rise shirt pattern she got from her mom's stash. 
Name Tag made for Gwen by Vicki in the #NYlon14 Name Tag Swap
Name Tag made for Gwen by Vicki in the #NYlon14 Name Tag Swap
Given the name of Vicki's blog and the lovely yellow color of her sewing room (see photo above), I decided to make yellow the prominant color.  I also wanted to play with cotton scraps so I cut them into 1.5" squares and quilted them. I've long admired others who have quilted teeny tiny squares and was excited to try.  God was that fun. Far from tedious. I loved working that small.  I made sure to include the bats because a) they're funny and cartoony and b) bats mean good luck. 
I began to play around with placement of my "Neener Neener" skelly design. Middle, lower corner, elsewhere... Hmm. You can see on my well loved ironing board (I just can't bring myself to replace that cover even though it's looking rough), that I was playing with all kinds of sizes, carvings, ribbons, etc.  In the lower right of the corner on the far right you can see that the original carving I did of "Neener Neener" is nearly the same size as the pre-finished bag.  Well, that wouldn't do. I wanted Vicki's name and blog to be more prominent. Hmm... time to move on to other parts while I let the possibilities roll around in my brain.
I went on to lining the quilted pocket and then using my new found joy, Soft and Stable, by Annie, I used it for the main body of the bag. What a joy to sew with!  Seriously. This gave body and was super easy to sew. I even had to rip the bag seams out and it still handled that well. Color me impressed!  This is something I picked up at Sew Expo in February/March of this year. I stumbled on Annie's booth, patterns, bag hardware, etc. and was fascinated. I picked up several patterns and enough soft & stable to make her yoga bag.  She all her patterns, kits, and hardware listed on her site which I love because it's easy to get to again, and her finished products are so well organized (it appeals to the engineer in me).  
I created this entire project without using a pattern, template, or otherwise. It's all from a vision I've had or based on what I thought deeply about would result in the best overall finish.  Here are a few of my design considerations: 
  • I considered making a fold flap on top of the pocket to keep objects in, but it would cover the quilted squares and it would result in fumbling by the wearer.  
  • I made the strap really long because it can always be tied short and worn as a necklace or let out really long and worn as a mini purse.  
  • I chose to quilt pieces of the straps because that would help tie into the quilted back and top row/band quilting.  Plus, doing so helped me continue to use up bits and scraps.
  • I made 2 pockets because it's always nice to separate and organize objects or put your cell phone in a separate pocket so it's protected.
I used fabric markers and hand lettered Vicki's name & blog name. Then, after stamping my "neener, neener" skelly design, I embellished her with fabric crayons, pastels, and markers, then heat set it all. 
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When I designed "Neener, neener" I had 2 visions - one of my brother putting all his fingers in his mouth and showing us his full set of chompers, one of my friend's toddler as a kindergarten aged boy being silly, wobbling side to side singing, "neener, neener, neener!" then running away giggling.  The perfect energy to pour into an object destined for a Kiddie Adult.  Then too, while I sewed, I watched Nanny McPhee Returns.  More good, clean kid fun!

I must say, if it didn't have Vicki's name on it, I would have had a really hard time letting it leave my possession.  
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    Gwen Gyldenege

    Author: 
    Gwen Gyldenege

    I'm a one woman circus.  
    I'm curvy and athletic.
    ​I am a dancer.
    My last name translates 
    to "Golden Oak". 

    I'm an artist, intuitive, engineer, seamstress 
    and performer.

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Except for sources otherwise stated beneath images or bottom of the page (Creative Commons), all images and works are copyright Gwen Gyldenege, all rights reserved.  Contact Gwen to request permission.
Photos used under Creative Commons from I Robertson, DoNotLick, Gustty, Jayson Emery, Nbepko, Gamma Man, I Robertson, Lars Plougmann, RowdyKittens, Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious, The Wandering Angel, VasenkaPhotography, quinn.anya, Léa Chvrl, Lost Albatross, Guttorm Flatabø, BEST PHOTO, RowdyKittens, allistair, BozDoz, tanakawho, Navicore, Bilal Kamoon, D-Stanley, Kris Krug, glasseyes view, essers, Richard Masoner / Cyclelicious, Alex Pepperhill, Found Animals, adactio, Office Now