Alter It In August Is Just Like Every Other Month Around Here

The unaltered version of the photo 

I do a lot of alterations and mending, but this month was kinda slow (kinda working on going to work during the day and just draaaaaagging home at the end of it)

This was a skirt my sister wanted made into a shirt.

About three years ago.

Happy birthday!

You can see where the kick pleat adds to the width of the fabric (shown folded at the bottom edge). I had to stare at this photo for awhile until I realized I could cut the front piece in one on the crossgrain, most of the back on the cross, and the back with the top of it as a yoke cut on the straight, with enough to make bias strips for the facings.

actual layout of pieces on fabric not shown. Got too busy to stop for photos.

August is not a great time to try on new stuff, it's really suited to mending and remaking.

There was dyeing for future pants (I can't get the colors to look as sharp as in real life, sorry)

T shirt hems were transmogrified into face mask straps

There were a lot of masks made

And there was some altering to suit.

This Gudren Sjoden dress made from floaty cotton got turned into a tunic length top with a faced hem and a matching facemask.

final products, edited photo

Every alteration is 50% unpicking. God I love that seam ripper. Saturday night television watching/unpicking featured Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, episodes of Star Trek, Buck Rogers (the Erin Grey one), The Invaders (guest starring William Windom as the heroic defense contractor and Micheal Rennie as an alien bad guy. That show was a snore, so I went to bed and continued this morning) so I'd be fresh with the rotary cutter.

cut off the too long

trimmed one side into hem facings (left the other for the mask)

stitched a line where the finished interior seam will be

Pinned one into place.

Stitched and turned and ironed (in progress)

And made a mask. This fabric almost like crepe, so this was the hardest part after picking out the seams last night.

Fortunately the Nordic Museum, attached to the gift shop this was purchased online from:  

IS OPENING AGAIN!

and I will get to see this show in a couple weeks. 

https://www.nordicmuseum.org/exhibition/sjoden

Yes, there will be photos if allowed.

Qipao? Cheongsam? : Depends on Where You Look At It From

This doesn't begin to explain why a green gummy bear is celebrating the new year in a qi pao in the same damn game that has nothing to do with the new year or anything.

This ad is all over my game feed this week. Yes, the animated bear is wearing a qi pao. Why? Some vague fireworks and lantern imagery.
 This topic will not leave me alone.

In reading Second Skin, I stumbled on the following:

from Marilyn Horn's The Second Skin, 1968 edition . Note 'lady of fashion' captions

or summarized: "Chinese women had at last achieved a basic style that represented the important values of the period, a costume that was both fashionable and flattering to their racial characteristics." You can read it below, but you get the drift. It's a Western piece of clothing for sexy Asian women. "The values placed on beauty and attractiveness are gradually gaining importance"

Ms Horn writes from where she is (1950-60s) and what she knows (Is a 'lady of fashion' more or less genuine than a Peking lady of similar dress? What is the real difference?).  History is written in the west as if the very moment it is written is the pinnacle of all achievement, and we can understand everything through our own perfect cultural lens. That is the methodology of her times. It is the one I was taught in the late 70s. You could rewrite this entire book totally differently today. 

enbiggened, from previous

There is an interesting division of thinking about this article of clothing, and this paragraph tipped me as to perhaps why.

"The qipao is a Chinese dress for women. The style is also called cheongsam in Cantonese, and this term has come to be the more widely used one in English, though spelled in several different ways". This is a broad history of the dress as a traditional Chinese garment, from https://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/clothing-types-styles/qipao

also

https://www.thoughtco.com/chinese-dress-qipao-687453

with a little more history

As ever, I have buried the lead.  

Want to know what a piece of clothing means to people? 

Ask them.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/15604/

You can download it from here

It's fascinating. I am vaguely familiar with the multitude of differences and politics in greater Chinese culture, but most of my pals are Taiwanese, and that's the view I get.  It covers this topic better than anything I can write. Yes, it's someone's dissertation. It's well written. It goes deep, it goes long, it's got background and opinions and knowledge.  Yes, I am sure she is using her own personal lens to examine the history through, but it's not the same old one I read around here. Methodology is discussed at length; in some respects thus is analogous to Second Skin in discussing the role of clothing in society

On a similar but not the same topic
https://twitter.com/starjumi/status/1285987078593896448
a thread about the ao dai.

The Yamamoto Rectangle Dress

photos from SAM

I first saw this dress on the last day of the Future Beauty exhibit at Seattle Art Museum in 2013.

(I only got to go that one time)

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2013/09/future-beauty-finally.html

I was smitten.

From the Barbican book of the exhibit:

Black is such a bitch to see details on.

I took awful notes in a notebook, and then I lost the notes.

I made one for myself out of black poly crepe, and I put an instruction sheet up on Craftsy, but I wasn't happy with it. And Craftsy is no more. I'm still not satisfied with the original instructions from 2013, but I can't seem to correct them to my satisfaction, so I'm just putting up this illustration here. It's dead simple. The central pleats are the conceit, otherwise it's just another rectangle dress.

The trick on this is to cut the front piece in two, and make three big pleats up the center seam. Finish armholes and hem and neckline to taste. I suggest making a facing piece for the back of the neck for comfort and stability. 

After a crepe dress hangs for 5 years, the folds flatten out in front.

I needed to puff them up.

So I cut stuffing pieces from some super fat felt I have in the stash

And stuffed them into the seams

(yes, these are the overexposed versions of these photos)

I am going to redo this dress, probably in a different color of crepe, with the bigger gathers as in the original, and some organza in the folds for floofiness.

I even wore it out of the house to Seattle Frocktails 2018.

Yes, all photos taken in a cave, in the before-times.

Once again, a tip of the hat for the reminder that it's a rectangular world of free patterns
http://rhondabuss.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-magic-rectangle-dress.html

Repair Cafe with Dragon Poodle: The Upside to Staying Home

Cheryl of Dragon Poodle Studio is my sewing machine hero. In addition to her instruction, her good humor and generosity, there's MINIKENNIE LOVE! And courtesy of socially distanced times, we can see her doing her stuff online, now posted on YouTube.

https://dragonpoodle.blogspot.com/2020/08/workshop-up-on-youtube.html

 Repair Cafe is an inperson meetup in many areas, where you bring in your broken or injured object and the coaches help you determine what's the matter and help you fix it. It's the best idea ever, but in these distanced times, impossible to meet up for.

Except online.

https://youtu.be/z_LCxh8YnQA

It was a genuine thrill to watch this live. Yes, I am that geek. Cheryl gives very good advice that is well worth your time. Even if you never repair your own machine, this maintenance instruction will keep your machine and you very very happy. I cannot stress this enough; it's solid gold.

LIVE! I watched it LIVE.

In the same vein, the Costume College moved online, so I got to attend some of the panels, albeit after they ran. Here's your cheat sheet to links to those events. I'd like to thank Cindy over at Cation Designs for the nudge and the link up.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kqbvE_sdgdZyjHxxwUtC8Pmn_MPAuA7z/view

My bucket list now has fewer things on it, though I would ADORE the chance to attend any of these events in person. Any opportunity is a pleasure.

But what about..... San Diego Comic Con? And MST3K? 

https://youtu.be/E_cL3l76EwM

I got to go to Virtual Hall H at San Diego Comic Con for several events. You can use the video link to find the others on YourTube. His Dark Materials and Nathan Fillion were two others I watched.

(I can't post you the link to the Phineas and Ferb panel because it's now blocked in the US. Damn you Disney!Spoiler: we get one more movie later this August)

Adding one more helpful link: Atlas Obscura has loads and loads of fun and weird online events. I have 'attended' a concert of sound effects for horror films, a private tour of a comic book collection and hope to hit a few more.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/experiences?

This is no replacement for the real thing. But these are things I have wanted to do for some time and been unable to attend for time and money and access issues. Because of online access, I've been to concerts in people's homes, a lecture on the costumes of the Ballet Russes, a couple of Mark Morris Dance Company events, I finally even saw Basil Twist and Joey Arias. I have been happy to pay for the privilege, nominal amounts given the costs I would incur in person.

Until the time we can meet in person again, I am going to enjoy what I can in the meantime.
I hope you can, too.