Month's Obsession: 30's evening gowns.

I know I'm supposed to be writing the second part of the tutorial, but I lost a piece (again), my machine is making a weird noise (Is starting to bum me out) and I have this huge test tomorrow.

So I've decided to post some inspiring images of the 30's, because I love that era and actually was my costume for this year's Carnival party. (Amusing how so many people recognizes the 20's but not the 30's.)

I don't really use to dress up for this kind of parties, I use to just put on a wig for the fun of it, but this year I kinda got inspired while downloading some books of this amazing page. http://vintagesewing.com

It actually teaches you some really good techniques of sewing and, great ideas of how to build a wardrobe, and my favorite ones: tutorials of how to make hats and patterns of clothes of different decades.

As I was reading I discovered that the fashion in evening gowns had changed. I know, I should had figure that one out back in College, when I took Fashion History... but yet again, I rarely attended that class.

In the 30s, the feminine silhouette came back; bosom, and hips were clearly defined by the shape of the clothing and the waistline returned to its natural position.

And my favorite part: bare-backed gowns! Now, that's gorgeous. Actually that's what I told the two girls that asked me for a dress: You're gonna go bare backed.

This is what I wore to the party, a red dress I found in a street market and that I restored to look more 30'sly? Wow, that's a word... cause the blogger Spell check is not marking it.... Amazing.

Anyway, all I did was to tie a belt of the same color in my waist, making two holes in the sides so I could mark my waist and leave the back bare. It looked so good, and I would love to have more pictures but it was freaking cold and I didn't take the jacket off at any moment. Let's hope next time I wear it, is hotter outside because I'm totally going to wear it so many times this summer and I would make photos and update them in Trendation or here, because I simply love this piece of fabric and I think it could look great with Docs and a denim or leather jacket.

The party was not the party of the year, but if you wore a costume you had beer and a tapa for 50c.

All I need to say is that I sported my costume with dignity until 2 am when vowels stopped to be a part of my vocabulary and I started to ramble to whoever that asked me about the dress about the 30's.
As I'm doing right now. So I think I'm going to shut up and come back to study, because one of this days, I actually want to graduate.

We're the weirdos, mister.

I'm a person who gets a lot to get inspired with something, but the last time I watched The Craft I was watching it throw a brand new light.
The plot is kind of lame so I can't remember it properly. A bunch of teens filled of issues and use magic to go throw them... whatever.

When I was a teen I think there was a moment I thought it was worth of something, because I actually found a tape of it in the garage a couple of years ago.

I suppose we all had dark times and were lame and felt identified with the urban pseudo-punk decadence of the depressive preppy girls. Didn't you? Just me? Whatever...

The thing is that this time I was more interested in the outfits, I mean, how comes I hadn't notice how great they were before? Ok, that's a lie, maybe I kinda sported Docs with a plaid skirt when I was 12. Maybe my mom gave me a long speech of her concept of Do and Don't in fashion for a young lady, but we had that conversation thousand of times along my life and maybe I'm just making it up and she just told me to stop wearing that outfit... and my answer surely was a huge whatever again, tons of communication back then.

But now I'm older, and my mom gave up on me and my fashion sense when I was 16 and I thought that Courtney Love, Debbie Harry, Linda Perry and the rest of the 4 non Blondes, Angelina Jolie, Kathleen Hanna and Helena Bonham Carter were some of the most awesome and greatest-best dressed women in Earth... I think you can get the picture...; so I watched the flick and I actually got inspired. Miracle! And I was so happy that the skirt worked out that I needed to share with you the idea.



Something inspired in the fashion decay proper of the nineties in a prep school that Neve Campbell and the rest of the cast pulls out in an awesome way.

So I joined together two concepts: the plaid fabric and also the skirt I loved this season: the bandage skirt.

I bought like six of them along the winter in different colors and models, but my favorite is the bandage skirt of pieces. I found one in Zara but it was elastic and experimenting I was wondering if I could make a bandage skirt of pieces but not elastic.

And it actually worked and is kind of easy so here you have the first part of the tutorial.

You're going to need:

The skirt pattern.

Scissors

A tape measure

A pencil or a pen

Enough fabric for make a skirt and a metre more.

Instructions:

1. Cut the pattern of your skirt in four pieces

2. Measure under your butt all the way throw your tights.

3. Measure your tights.

4. Measure over your knees.

This last three measurements are the ones we're going to use in each new piece.

1. The first piece:

Waist x 2cm + 10cm x hips +2cm x 14cm

2. The second piece

Hips + 2cm x 14cm x Measure under your butt + 2cm x 14cm

3. The third piece:

Measure of under your butt + 2cm x 10cm x measure of tights +2cm x 10cm

4. The fourth piece:

Measure of your tights + 2cm x 10 cm x measure of over your knees +2cm x 10cm

Now you must give the skirt the form of your body with the burmester ruler. You need to do it in the right side of the pattern because the left one is the one who is going to go double over the fabric.
Soon how to cut and sew this kind of skirt

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NOTA: RECUERDA QUE LOS RECTANGULOS DE LAS IMG SON SOLO ILUSTRATIVOS, AL CORTAR EL PATRON EN CUATRO PIEZAS TENDRA LA FORMA DE LA FALDA RECTA, POR LO QUE AFINAREMOS EL COSTADO DONDE VA EL MARGEN DE COSTURA CON LA REGLA BURMESTER PARA DARLE LA FORMA DE UNA FALDA TUBO.

Para cualquier duda, deja tu mail y respondere lo antes posible :D


Pronto: Cómo coser y cortar la falda de piezas

X gone Y 2: Elastic ugly jeans gone funny treggins.

Poneos en situacion, un mercadillo de Valencia.

Murmullos, gentio. "Calcetines, tres por un Euro nena." "Ajos. Dos bolsas un Euro." "Pantalones estilosos, dos por un Euro." Ahi, me pare. Me sorprendieron dos cosas:

1. Escuchar la expresion estiloso...

2. Que la mujer que habia gritado eso en cuestion vendia flores.

Pero al final del puesto, tenia una mesilla con prendas. Hállome sorprendida otra vez, puesto que no eran de segunda mano, eran noves de trinca.

Faldas de cuadros "Como en el internado, esto es lo ultimo." me dice la Señora. No puedo evitar sonreirle, y me convezco a mi misma de que voy a comprar algo solo por lo bien que me cae.

Pero esque todo era muy cohent.

Pero mucho, mucho. Hasta que aparecieron estos pantalones, que oye, son cohents a mas no poder, pero al ver que eran elasticos me dije a mi misma. Si, en pantalon seran feos, pero y en leggins para la primavera?

O mejor dicho, y en treggins?

Asi que compre la falda y los pantalones y me puse manos a la obra esa misma mañana, puesto que es bastante facil convertir tus pantalones rectos o de campana en skinny.

Aunque hay algunos condicionantes:

1. Te tienen que venir bien, porque si no te quedaran bolsas en las caderas. (Si no es el efecto que buscas, que puede que si)

2. Si son de campana muy ancha, el tutorial cambia. Ya lo veremos otro dia. Asi que coje unos rectos o unos pantalones de pitillo normales.

Los materiales que vas a necesitar son una cinta metrica, una tiza para tela o un lapiz; tijeras y tu maquina de coser.

1. Pruebate los pantalones del reves y marca donde estan la rodillas con una linea.

2. Mide tu circunferencia de rodilla y de tobillo y dividelo por cuatro.

3. Mide el largo que deseas de pantalon.

4. Marca en el pantalon donde estan tu tobillo y tu rodilla. Puede que la linea de tobillo cambie y ahora lo quieras mas corto, pero la de rodilla siempre sera la misma.

5. Descose por la parte de dentro del pantalon desde 5cm mas arriba de la rodilla hasta el bajo. Esto es porque la mayoria de los pantalones se les empieza a dar forma un poco mas arribe de las rodillas.

6. Ahora crea una linea recta para eliminar la campana. Si es un pantalon pitillo pero no muy ajustado en el tobillo crea lineas hacia dentro. Depende del modelo que quieras.

7. Asegurate de que el bajo mide como minimo 2cm mas que tu tobillo o tu pie no pasara y se te rompera al ponertelo. Si son elasticos como es el caso de estos pantalones entonces pudes meter mas de lo que mide tu tobillo.

Recuerda: Cuando digo tobillo digo 1/4 del tobillo.

9. Cose por la linea.

10. Cose el bajo.

Pic de Carles Rodrigo. Fashionalistas.

Las Pinzas

Las pinzas son amigas. Esta es una maxima.

Ahora que me he introducido un poco mas en el mundo del patronaje y la confeccion me doy cuenta de que hay mucho mas detras, y entiendes la frase de tu madre de "no te preocupes, te pongo una pinza y ya esta."

Y esque teniendo las caderas anchas como las mias, las pinzas durante mucho tiempo, me sirvieron para poder llevar vaqueros ajustados pq obviamente me sobraban de cintura pero no en otros lados. Aunque dicho sea de paso, este es el primer año que llevo vaqueros ajustados porque quiero y no porque quedan mejor que enseñar las bragas cuando viene la familia a comer un domingo. ;D

Pero las pinzas tambien sirven en otras partes, como para meter un vestido o conseguir que una prenda te ajuste en un lado o en otro, o tenga cierta caida.

El concepto de la pinza es bastante sencillo: Es un pliegue cosido en la tela de una prenda de vestir.

Imaginate que tienes una falda que te sobra 3 cm.

A mi me sirven en su mayoria para conseguir que ciertas prendas de segunda mano se conviertan en algo completamente diferente añadiendo o quitando pinzas. O que una blazer de la talla 40 me sirva.

Has de tener en cuenta, de que cuando te sobran mas de 8cm la pinza ya no puede hacerse bien, puesto que esos cuatro cm corresponde a la diferencia entre dos tallas. Y meter dos tallas afea las prendas. Pero si que pueden ser lo largas que quieras.

Lo que tienes que tener muy encuenta es que la pinza no ha de notarse. Asi que si cuando la marcas, se queda un pliegue feo, busca otro lugar donde hacer la pinza u otra solucion como descoser y coser otra vez con las medidas reales. (Cosa que veremos en futuros tutoriales)

Con la falda, por ejemplo puedes hacerlo facilmente, ya que ya sabemos el proceso de construccion de una falda.

Las pinzas son practicamente invisibles, solo ha de notarse la costura.

Por ejemplo.


He conseguido que este abrigo de primavera largo se convierta en un minivestido peligrosamente corto.

¿Nunca has estado en una tienda de segunda mano y te ha gustado una prenda y te ha venido un poco demasiado grande? Pero era tan chula y barata que la has tenido que comprar.

Antes solia solucionarlo con mini cinturones pero ahora me siento y con una pinza en el lugar apropiado consigo una prenda completamente diferente.

Los pasos que he seguido en esta en cuestion son los siguientes:

1. Marcar en el abrigo la altura de la cintura.

2. Cortar 2cm mas hacia abajo de la linea marcada (Linea de cintura). Dando lugar a dos piezas. La de arriba y la falda.

3. Hacer una pinza en la espalda del abrigo.

4. Coser la pinza y planchar hacia el costado.

Ahora la parte de arriba mide menos (de ancho) que la de abajo. Bueno, lo suyo es unir falda y parte de arriba frunciendo a medida que vamos cosiendo.

Como? Muy facil.

5.1. Une con dos alfileres los dos extremos de las prendas.

5.2 Cuidadosamente frunce la tela a medida que coses. Este efecto se llama embebido, las que sabeis coser sabeis a lo que merefiero.

6. Plancha las costuras de la cintura hacia arriba dando lugar a que el canesu (Parte de arriba de la prenda) se superponga a la falda.

7. Sobrehila las costuras si lo ves necesario. Esto dependera del material. Si éste se desilacha pues hazlo o al quinto lavado te quedaras sin prenda.

Y ya has convertido un abrigo fino de verano en un vestido para esta primavera.

Preguntas y dudas en el apartado de comentarios.

P.D Si le das a seguir al blog pronto recibiras muchas sorpresas!! Aun las estoy preparando pero solo puedo decir que habran sorteos esta primavera, eso o mi novio me acabara echando de casa gracias a mi costura compulsiva ;D

Y pronto, cómo hacer una Bandage Skirt de piezas.

A piece of you in me.

In the spring of 2006 I was a clueless 19 years old girl without a single idea of what the fashion design was. I never followed the trends or read fashion magazines and I was told in class that it needed to change my mind.

That I needed to buy some basic magazines every month. Glamour, Vogue, Tendencias and Harper's Bazar became something I needed to buy as cigarettes. And with the years I added Neo2, the British Vogue. Or Dazed and Confused, Must and Nylong were tags in my browser that I always visited. Afterwards the fashion blogs, Fotologs, Lookbooks...

Suddenly I was in a universe of fashion designers, celebrities, trends, colors, inspiration... And the thing was that I was learning.

A lot.

I always critiquized the fashion magazines for creating a need we didn't have. Critiquzing the consumism I always fought against of.

But I was wrong.

Fashion is an art. And fashion magazines are able to take to our hands pages and pages of art.

Is a fact.

And saddly is unknown for some people (The kind of people I used to be) and maybe is getting now the recognition it should had had long time ago.

Sure, I still have some reservations towards the art of fashion. Opinions I would share some other day. But I can't deny that fashion is an art and designers are artists.

I was aware of that the first time I heard about Elsa Schiaparelli who soon became my favorite designer. A fashion icon I needed to know everything about of.

Someone who I deeply admired.

And starting with her I started understanding the catwalks, the designs, the trends, the ideas.

When I was 16 or 17 I wasn't able to understand the impossible outfits I could see in the TV or in one of my mom's magazines.

Now I do.

Is art.

As simply as that.

You don't look at a Picasso or one of Giacommeti sculptures because it has a defined form, or idea. You do it because is art. And you enjoy it. I was able to enjoy and smile to the surrealist art.
And suddenly I was able to take fashion as another form of art.

Because so little people has the talent to make you feel with their work. In my case, I couldn't help but the moment I saw a piece of art I liked. Not a mocking smile but a smile of admiration.

And that's what some fashion designers are able to make me feel.

Elsa Schiaparelli was the first one.

Maybe because I liked surrealism, or maybe because now, years later, I'm able to sit and watch an image of something she designed and enjoy it beyond the cloth or the era.

Maybe because I could see her direct relation with surrealism, dadaism and a lot of isms made cloths.

Maybe this finding lead me to find the beauty in the surrealist fashion. That fashion that looks great in the catwalks. Those clothes that are walking pieces of art.

And if Elsa was who I think started this trend (If I'm wrong I would like to be corrected) Alexander McQueen was who finally made me realize that fashion is art.

It was in 2006.

Pardon me, but I didn't know who Alexander McQueen was. Sure, I could had seen some pieces of his in a page of a Vogue, but I had never sit and watch his work closely.

The first thing that took my attention of that collection was the hair of the models. A friend of mine told me the moment we saw the image of Anna Marya Urazhevskaya wearing one of his Spring ready to wear collection pieces, was that her hair looked like mine recently awaken.
I couldn't help but laugh. But it was truth. And image after image, I don't know if because of the hairdo, I couldn't help but think about that comment and smile.




I know, it wasn't yet about the clothes, but when I got home I began to look some pieces. To look closelly at the collection again and again. And to look for more pics of his work. And I discovered his shoes. I love them. From the simplest piece to the most bizarre thing that he could had marvel.



He was definitely a sculptor of shoes.

Of clothes.

In that collection he was showing us some pieces with a really exaggerated round hips, impossible hats or hairdos, nightdresses with awesome volumes...

A walk throw centuries of fashion taking for me the term of romanticism to a brand new level.

He took my love and admiration for fashion to a brand new level.

He, (with some others) became this girl someone who stopped being a skeptic prune who thought that fashion was for shallow people in someone who could see the art in a piece of cloth.

And I'm never going to be a fashion designer, I found my pleasure and ambition in life in something else, but I'm always going to smile admired when I see my folder of almost 2G filled of pics of his work.

I'm wide awake, is morning.

It makes me smile proud seeing how our fashion week had grow so much.
And yes, I said our because I've been attending the last five years without missing a single day, and I kinda feel as if I was part of it.

The ambient was amazing. Thousand of people wearing their best street or party outfits to watch the catwalks. It actually made me wonder for a second why do we dress up to attend a fashion week, but my questions were answered the moment I stepped inside the building when the official cool hunter of the Fashion Week asked me to make a photo. You can watch her work in http://www.semanadelamodadevalencia.com/es/tendencias/ with also a report of the Fashion week that would be updated soon.

The following three days, coolhunters kept coming to ask you to pose for them, which was what lighted a white bulb in my head and I became aware that the Valencia Fashion Week went big while I was doing something else (God knows what...). But what the hell, there's so much talent here, It took me a couple of years to realize it but I did.

Young people are going big and is a fact.

The first designers I fell in love with were Lola Cuello, Georgina Vendrell and Retal Reciclaje. Ok, maybe you can think it was because the two of them won the Zona D contest, but it wasn't because of that. I sat there, and watch from 11 to 16 30 all of what the designers have to show us, and those three were the best ones.

Once it was over the younger designers time (and I said younger because they firms had just started and that's why they took part in Zona D) and the prices were delivered and my heart was touched watching Georgina Vendrell cry and Gonzalo Miró try to make her talk and give thanks, the Fashion week kept going with Alejandro Saez de la Torre, aka Por Fin!, I'm not a real fan of his work, I love his tights. And what the hell, tights in men are cool.

Really cool.

It reminds me of my time when I used to be a real punk kid with stripped tights and all of my clothes were of jersey material. But said is that I'm not much objective. I had the chance to meet him when I attended the EASD, go to his studio and have a long chat over coffees about his work, his carreer and his experience and life and I think it was the last drop I needed in my glass to drop off the School of Design and look for a new carreer path in the Patterning and sewing. His own curiosity about learning the making of the clothes and not only the designing part helped me to understand myself and why was I so down.

Following him, it came Jose Zambrano. I have friends that know him, I had the chance to listening to him talk with them the following day. His oversized sweater touched my heart, again.



The following favorite in my list was Siglo Cero. All white. The monochromatism took the catwalk the following two hours. First with Siglo Cero and their really cool collection for the next winter with all in white. I couldn't help but think about how would Serial Mom react to this.

But Fashion is made to break frontiers, and they made it with honors. I was mouth hang open all the time, when I thought the dress I was watching was amazing they totally redeemed themselves with the following ones. There was a special light during those ten minutes, that was a fact.


A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

And the monochromatism took us to another shocking collection making me declare fan of Juan Vidal. I think the photo talks for itself and that I don't need to say anything else, but that his usage of gabardine elements in dresses was one of the best ideas I saw during the fashion week.





The lady in red, ruled the catwalk.

Jaime Piquer, who offers internships in my school too, and that I'm thinking to ask him to internship over his studio this summer, was amazing. Not much objective again, because as I said a friend of mine works in his studio.

And my last but not less favorites were Ion Fitz, the first one of the February 4th, with the ruffles, the bows, laces and his creamy colors amazed me, cause I'm a declared fan already of bows, ruffles and cream;




and Tonuca.

Who took us to a real circus. The hairdos, the colors and the patterning work was impressive. I'm again a fan of how she took the tamer jacket to a brand new level. The real level of it. Without giving it any other cool element, just the model for itself and the color was enough to make everybody clap her and be the second time I stood on my feet for a designer.


I'm not objective again, cause since the first time I saw the designer with her killing blue hair I acted like a teen watching a BSB in a bathroom.

Cause yeah, lots of stuff happen in the bathrooms too, not only in the Kissing area, the backstage or the halls. Years ago, I saw Tonuca in a bathroom of the backstage, this year it was Rosi de Palma. She got in there like any other mortal with a credential to take a pee, and when she got in the stall I knew the door didn't work and I told her "Rosi (Cause we're totally in first name basis right now) that one is broken." and she said "Then, please don't enter." And when people came in I stopped them to get in there. And then she came out and we started acting like crazy fans. Cause well, we're the Almodovar Generation and she's one of his muses who sports killing Loubutins.


Rosi de Palma was here to deliver the jury prices to the designers and introduce us Maya Hansen. Can you be in love with a collection? I kinda felt like cheating on Siglo Cero or Zambrano, but it was the appropriate way to close the Fashion week. It was amazing, the only bad thing I could say about is, did the models need to be so skinny? I mean it, some of them didn't look sexy with those gorgeous pieces of clothes only the ones sporting leggins.

From here, I encourage Maya Hansen to pick normal girls to wear'em. I know a long list of girls who would offer themselves to sport for a couple of minutes her collection and feel like real sexy pseudo punk girls.




Finally, other of my favorite parts of the Fashion week were, besides of the parties all around the city, the Kissing Area. Where you go in there, meet the designers and take photos in the photocall for the press. Yeah, it's kinda fun they take you photos in that wall just because you're in front of it.

And of course the free white wine they delivered to us along the three days. I need to say that one of the reasons, maybe even the only, I got in there was because of the wine, because I've got friends who are real social butterflies and always approach the designers and congratulate them, but I'm unable to do it. I'm just really shy for that. I already knew it but I discovered it along the week. Everytime a coolhunter or someone I didn't know approached me my conversation skills went dumb and I could just say yes to everything I was told, reason on why I took photos for the different Style Lab coolhunters the whole week without knowing.

But if you want to see all of the happens in the Fashion Week, you just need to enter in
WWW.semanadelamodadevalencia.com

Or http://neomoda.com/

You can watch and enjoy everything there. The amazing thing of the Valencia Fashion week is that they deliver to you invitations to attend it so everybody can watch and enjoy the fashion of the burgeon Valencian designers, and if you can't, you can watch them online.

I was too amazed, having so much fun (and kinda drunk after all the kissings) for take any photo. And I'm also too bad with the camera, my hands are always shaky, so all of the photos of the catwalks are of

Las Provincias database.

And a friend of mine who is an amazing photographer.

And if you were there and approached for cool hunters you can find yourself in these different webs.

http://stylelabmagazine.com/category/valencia-fashion-week/

http://www.semanadelamodadevalencia.com/es/tendencias/

http://autourdetoi.blogspot.com/

http://www.fashionalistas.com/ and I suppose they would also update photos of yesterday's party in Picadilly, so if you passed throw the cool photo call there you know where to find yourself.

http://neomoda.com/

They're not updated yet but they would, eventually. Let the bloggers, coolhunters, stylists and fashion designers rest in peace for the rest of the weekend. They kinda deserve it.

But watch it Cibeles, Valencia is waking up.