I did not mean to use this Portlandia episode as my personal sartorial and decorating mantra, but it happened anyway. As I was finishing up this coat, with birds on it, I realized that I just wallpapered my dining with, you guessed it, birds. So I figured I would photograph the coat in the dining […]
I’ve been thinking about shirts for spring, and am looking for a slightly more casual take on the classic shirt. I’ve seen some interesting use of contrast out and about from designers, and thought it would be nice to try it. Looking in my fabric closet, I did not seem to have any shirting fabrics […]
Most of the fun of this project is the details. I finished the belts and buttonholes recently. I had the buttonholes professionally made at Jonathan Embroidery in NYC. They look lovely, but it was a bit of a learning experience. I now realize that I should have been more specific about the right and wrong […]
I’m still chugging along on my silk trench. I applied the patches yesterday, and I think they look right. Some of the roses are printed onto the trench fabric, and some are patches.
When I’m working on an involved project like this, I like to start with the smaller pieces. This way, when I need to attach the collar, I can just grab the collar and put it on. Also, when the collar is already assembled, it looks like something and is less likely to be mistaken for […]
Here is the result of all of my waterproofing experiments! It’s a trench coat made from waxed silk taffeta. I’ve been wearing it in light rain for 2 days now, and it seems waterproof. I have not yet tried it in a downpour, though, so I’m not sure how it would behave in extreme conditions. […]
My shirt compulsion continues. The inspiration for this shirt is a photo that Shams pinned to her Pinterest page. I thought it was cool. Then I thought, “I could do that.” The pattern is from The Book of Mens Shirts by Ryuichiro Shimazaki. This is the third, or possibly fourth, shirt I have made with […]
Perhaps I mentioned my fascination with shirts lately. Here’s my latest. It is a pattern from the book “Book of Mens Shirts” by Ryuichiro Shimazaki, altered for me. The fabric is a silk sheer-and-opaque stripe with dots printed on. I think it looks a bit like a pajama top, but nice enough that it would […]
This shirt is all about the fabric. It’s a seersucker that alternates opaque and sheer stripes! How amazing is that? I used a very simple camp shirt pattern so the fabric could really shine. The pattern came from a Japanese shirtmaking book by Ryuichiro Shimazaki that I bought a while back. Initially, I was thinking […]
Rolling in Cloth 