on January 27, 2017
As I sit here in the dead of Ottawa winter with 2 inches of fresh snow outside, my mind wanders back to last May. The trees had magically filled out overnight, I had finally packed away my winter coats, and I was headed to my first local sewing retreat! It was hosted by Darrell Thomas Textiles at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte.
First of all, I had no idea we had such a cool museum less than an hour’s drive from Ottawa. Formerly owned by the Rosamond Woolen Company, the building was erected in the mid-1800’s. At that time, there were several wool mills in Almonte – it was known as The Woolen Town. The mill operated until 1986, at which time the mill was converted to condos and the warehouse next door became the MVT Museum. The museum has a permanent exhibit showing industrial textile machinery of the era on the second floor, and the sun-filled space downstairs has a variety of art and textile exhibits at any given time. Here are just a few of the pics I took that day – they don’t do justice to the scale of the machinery, believe me!
During this retreat Darrell taught the construction of two garments I have made before, the Vogue 8146 sheath dress and a Chanel-style jacket. Since I had already made the dress sleeveless, I decided to draft a short sleeve pattern to add to it.
Cutting, serging and darts were done at home prior to the retreat. I used a cotton blend fabric with a herringbone type pattern to it; it was quite a thick fabric so I didn’t feel the need to line the dress.
This Vogue pattern is a wonderful basic and a great jumping off point if you want to experiment with pattern alterations. As mentioned, I drafted a sleeve pattern to add to this sleeveless sheath. I simply measured the armhole, found a sleeve pattern in my myriad of patterns that seemed to most closely match the armhole measurement, and then created a muslin and adjusted as required. Easy peasy! In this version I also lowered the neckline. I found the original pattern sat up past my collarbone and felt too restrictive, so I dropped the front almost to a scoop neck and I drafted a new facing pattern to fit! If this stuff sounds scary, then you definitely need to grab a roll of tracing paper and some muslin and play with this pattern. (You can also take a pattern alteration class like the one Darrell offers, but I promise this stuff isn’t as hard as it sounds!)
So, back to the museum! The classroom was perfect for us. Tables and extra power outlets had been set up, and the high ceilings and large windows created a spacious and light-filled space in which to get inspired.
Sewing this dress ain’t no thang. First there are the bust darts and back darts, then there are the shoulder seams. Next I attached my self-drafted neckline facing, and then I sewed up the side seams. Invisible zipper at the back, setting in sleeves (which was totally my own mod), and a simple hem! Voila – a dress in a day!
And there you have it folks – my sheath dress retreat daydream. Can’t wait until the view out of my sewing room window looks like this again!!
