Ever wondered what the inside a blazer looks like? Here’s a few shots of some typical inner construction details you will find inside a suit jacket.  The front of the jacket is interfaced with a hair canvas backing, fusible in this case.  Weft fusible is used in addition as a softer stabilizer at the shoulder/chest area.  Sleeve caps are supported by shoulder pads and sleeve headers.  The front welt pockets are supported by a muslin strip connected to the armscye.

I just finished making this “Rockabilly Blazer” for MacheteNSons.etsy.com – stay tuned for pictures of the completed blazer!

“Draped for dramatic effect and freedom of gesture, the cut of Valentina’s clothing effectively anticipated the wearer’s movement across the stage of life.  Be it costume or private client couture, Valentina challenged the demarcation between theatricality and fashion–for her, they were one and the same.” -Phyllis Magidson in Threads Magazine, Aug/Sept 10, Issue 150

image source

With an introduction like that, I was immediately drawn into the article on Valentina by Claire B. Shaeffer in the current issue of Threads Magazine.  Designing for the stage as well as elite socialites, Valentina had a masterful way of creating clothes that enhanced the body or minimized its shortcomings.  Growing up in the Ukraine, she had her beginnings as a dancer before emigrating to New York.  She pursued acting and modeling alongside of designing fashion and costume fom the 20′s to 50′s, and is now remembered as one of America’s great couturiers.

Valentina modeling one of her silk jersey dresses

Valentina believed that she was her own best model. She often posed in her designs for Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar–she was one of famed photographer Horst P. Horst’s favorite subjects–and held legendary one-woman fashion shows, in which she modeled all the clothes in the collection while her husband entertained champagne-sipping clients and editors during costume changes.

image source

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Here’s a collection of some more shots from a recent hike to the site of the Black Eagle Mine ruins, which is just up the mountainside behind our house.  Most of these are abstract detail shots; you can read more about the Black Eagle’s history and see more images of the mine itself in my previous post and on Flickr.

I have an obsession with old rusty metal…and found a whole pile of it! CONTINUE READING…

Here’s a recently completed Machete & Sons project: a custom Uncle Sam tailcoat that will be worn this weekend in celebration of the 4th of July.  Hope everyone has a safe and fun filled Independence weekend!

Black Eagle Mine in Idaho Springs, CO

Sunday was a beautiful day here in the mountains, and I got to spend most of it OUTSIDE!! I’ve been itching to get out and work in the yard, but I have been so busy with my sewing business transition that I haven’t had many free moments in recent weeks.  It was Memorial Day weekend, and I was thrilled to have a free day to spend outside.  I’ve been sewing every Sunday for months now, with Shabbat being my only day off each week.  Now that June is here, I am now working from home all but one day a week, which I’ll be spending at Bits and Pieces.  This is my first week of the new expanded sewing schedule, and I’m finally getting caught up on some things (including blogging!!)  The windows have been open, I’m eating lunch in the sun, and sewing for hours and hours at a time.

Which brings me back to the outside air….we made some good progress on “reclaiming” our yard and the beautiful stone landscaping.  I spent alot of time weeding and uprooting grass so that I could plant some new perennial flowers.  Everything just started budding and blooming here in the Rocky Mountains a few weeks ago, and now there are fresh green leaves and beautiful blossoms everywhere!  I’ll have to take pictures of the yard in a few weeks when it fills out with new growth.

Old power lines…they don’t make them quite like this any more!

After spending all day in the yard, with occasional thoughts ruminating regarding the possible hikes we could take straight from our house, I suggested that we just take a walk up the road behind our house.  It was already 5, but the sun would still be up for hours (it happened to stay up just long enough, until we got back about 9!).  I had only been up Black Eagle Road once since we bought the house two Septembers ago; I was alone and had turned around after encountering private driveways and a steep, rocky road up the mountain (in bear and mountain lion country!).  Now I was curious to see more of what’s up there.  So, Mark and I set off up the road that cuts into the hillside directly above the back of our house, and that serves the 5 or 6 neighboring houses above us.

Black Eagle Mill

Here’s some background: CONTINUE READING…

While I’ve mostly been staying busy sewing various clothing projects lately, these two custom home decor projects have been a nice diversion and I am pleased with how they turned out (and so are my customers!).  The first piece is a box-style cushion that sits in a metal bench frame.  The edges are piped and I placed a lapped zipper on the backside as you can see in the first image.

I used some handy techniques for constructing this style of piped and gusseted cushion with clean edges and sharp corners (it can be tricky to make those corners look good!), and I promise to take pictures next time and post a tutorial.

Next up is one of my favorite pillow designs.  I love the organic nature of the raw edges of leather hides, and I enjoy piecing together scraps in ways that highlight this detail.  This brown and tan pillow features decorative machine stitching along the raw edge in a variegated brown and tan thread.  The backside of the pillow features the same detail in an envelope closure, complete with horn button.  This pillow was made to coordinate with the other two leather pillows pictured below that I sold on Etsy; I can’t wait until I have some more free time in the studio to make more of these designs in a variety of colored leathers!

The word “Assemblage“ has caught my creative focus this evening.  Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects. -Wikipedia

I’ve always loved to make collages, and I collect small odds and ends with the intention of one day using them in some sort of assemblage. Trouble is, I haven’t spent enough time creating.  The good news is that I’ve got some pretty great collections started, so I have some inspiring materials to draw from!  Both my fabric clothing label collection and my selvedge edge collection will no doubt be appearing once I have some free time to create…right now I’m so busy sewing in many moments of what used to be spare time that this blog post is the closest I’ve made it to creating something new. (unless you count that I’ve made a suit jacket and vest already this week…but that’s still in the work category.)

This is WAY cool: This Sewing Queen Marionette Assemblage by Jeanne Rhea was made from old sewing machine parts, old spools, mirror, silk, box, notions, bobbins and other found objects.

I can see a doing a regular feature on assemblage artists…these are just a few with the sewing bird theme for starters…

Check out the details in this “Hen” by whileshenaps on Etsy….I love the fabric measuring tape trim and the intricately wrapped wire and fabric legs.  What a great use for fabric scraps!

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The stunning Quetzal bird resides in Costa Rica and other tropical, mountainous forests in Central America and is considered one of the most beautiful birds in the Western Hemisphere.  The males have extraordinarily long tail feathers and resplendent coloring unlike any other bird.

Image via spiderhunters

I’ve been thinking about these magnificent birds ever since having a conversation on Tuesday with some dear friends and Bits & Pieces customers Pam and Don Berns.  They recently took a trip to Costa Rica with their daughter Chelsea (who studies birds in great detail while working on her Ph.D. at Iowa State) and they came across a rare sighting of a male Quetzal who was in the middle of feeding his babies fresh raspberries!! Their bird guide told them that the likelihood of seeing a Quetzal was slim; seeing one feeding babies is even more rare so I can only imagine how momentous this sighting was. Evidently the mother feeds the babies for a few weeks before flying away and leaving the father to feed for the last few days before the young Quetzals are on their own and ready to fly away.  The young birds blend into the tree bark for safety and will develop their bright colorings as they grow older.

image via ppoggio2

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It’s been an exiting week so far…actually, it’s been pretty busy in my world lately.  I haven’t had the spare time to blog, and decided to take a few minutes tonight to continue acquainting myself with my new home here at Studio Ladybird.  I’m excited to have my new site up and running, but I’ve been working on so many other projects the past few weeks that I haven’t even had a chance to break in my new nest!  Lots of sewing has been happening this week, and multiple new custom projects and alterations are in the works.  Plus, I’ve sold 3 sets of napkins and a couple of my favorite leather pillows on Etsy in the past 4 days! As a new shop (launched at the beginning of 2010), these first sales are quite exciting and I can’t wait to hear feedback from my new customers once they receive their items.

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Lately I’ve been sewing a number of muslin mock-ups of men’s suit jackets, vests, and pants.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the muslin process, it is most often used in custom fit, complicated, and/or high end garments.  A prototype is cut and sewn out of cheap muslin fabric in order to test the fit and pattern details before cutting the actual garment out of more expensive fabric.  On the suit muslins I’ve been working on, details such as pockets and buttons are drawn directly on the fabric and the construction process is greatly simplified by leaving edges raw, omitting linings and eliminating other finishing details.

In this process of my recent muslin making, I remembered an article on haute couture prototypes I had clipped out of a fashion magazine back in college while I was studying costume design and construction.  Alas, at the time I didn’t think about documenting the sources of all the pictures I clipped from various magazines, so I can’t give as much credit as I’d like.  However, I can reference that all photography is by Jean-Baptiste Mondino and is from an article titled “Shabby Chic,” dated February 6, 2005.  Now that I’m thinking of it, I’m pretty sure that this is from a New York Times glossy fashion magazine insert that appears occasionally in the Sunday paper. CONTINUE READING…