Look what I found!

I don't even know why or where any more but while I was thinking about what to make for my summer wardrobe I saw a picture of an Indian woman wrapping her saree (or sari). What really spiked my interest was the that you could see what we westerners call her "sari blouse". Indians call them choli blouses as far as I know. They're midriff baring, made out of cool linen or cotton fabrics, they come in bright colours and I think they're worn without bras. Or they can be anyway. All of this makes them perfect for summer. I don't think I'll dare to wear them as a normal top (it has actually cooled down a bit but when it gets warmer ... who knows?) But me thinks they'd make a perfect sports bra or sleep top if they're sewn with a bit more ease.

Wouldn't this make a perfect running ensemble? It's a choli top (I might have forgotten to draw in the three bust darts) and a wrap skort (which is going to be longer than that due to the fact that minis don't suit my body shape very well).

So much for bright colours :P

I wanted the skort to mimic a sari. Looking at the video bellow I could tell that I'd need pleats with lots and lots of fabric gathered into them (they've got to walk somehow right) and a wrapping section after that. I might drape the wrapped over part a little bit to mimic the draping going up to the shoulder.

So as soon as the idea hit I started looking into the making of choli blouses. I found this video series which is great. It would be perfect if I could actually understand what they're saying. I'm quite sure it's English thanks to words like "margin" and "dart" and I've always prided myself in beeing able to understand as good as every person who speaks English. Yep even Chinese Business English. But this? It feels like a completely different language :( This is the earliest video I could find. You'll have to go to their channel and search for the others. I'm not through all of them yet since searching takes up a lot of time. Time I'm stealing from sewing my evening/dance dress muslin.


Look! No back stitching, no smooth curve at the end of the dart. I imagine it would be under quite a lot of stress since these blouses have no ease so that probably solves the nipply-dart-problem but why doesn't the stitching become undone?

Butterfly

Can you tell?

... that I have time of college? After weeks of writing one test after another I finally have time to lounge around my parents house, cook, sew and write blog posts :) Today is all about my personal colour palette. And how to find yours if you're hard to fit into the classical four colour seasons or the 12 or even 16 flow colour seasons.

A new dress for me!!! Let's look at what I should be wearing ...

So I have three month until I need a prom dress. That gave me a real kick in the butt to continue contemplating what looks good on me and what doesn't and also what I feel comfortable in because it's just so me :)

So first things first: My body shape! After looking at the photos from my last post again I decided that I'm really more of an hourglass. I'm still confused about the difference though. It seems to me as if a cello is just a plus-sized hourglass but then again they said, that size doesn't matter ... I think the hourglass would have needed a more fitted top to truly show the proportions of her waist. And a better bra. Or it might just be my weirdly high bust that makes me think everyone isn't supported as well as they should be.

But the thing that tipped me in the end was the legs and the high hip. Mine just look more like the hourglass' to me. The hourglass has more rounded calves and the thighs have more weight towards the crotch instead of resembling cut of cones.

The cello's legs (on the left) don't seem to fit mine, the hourglass' come closer to the truth.

The hourglass' high hip is also more dramatic which also more closely resembles mine.

The hourglass' high hip (on the right) seems to flare out like mine does.

So I'm an hourglass. But what the pictures also showed is that my shoulders are squarer and also wider:

This might just be the result of a weird camera angle (photographed by tiny tots), but I know that my shoulders are pretty square. Therefore my primary figure type is an hourglass, my secondary is probably a goblet even though my back is anything but wide. So what does that mean for me?

I'm going to stick to all clothing recommendations for hourglass body types. And I'm going to pick out anything for goblets that I think applies to me. Even though I might just take the hints for cornets instead since they are supposed to minimise only the shoulders and not the bust and I kind of like my bust ;)

The Influence Films have

To start of with: It's perfectly acceptable for me to think about selfish Me!-Me!-Me!-projects again. My mum actually bought a new coat. The fit is horrible. But it's much better than the last one. So I'm not going to complain (as long as you don't get me started on the princess seams that is). So there goes the CCP.

So what's the next selfish project? As you can tell from the post title it comes from a film. "Enchanted" to be precise. I got around to watching it. I know a lot of people consider it overly kitchy (why hasn't blogger spell-check heard of it?). I for one think the producers where mocking themselves with it. No? Well you don't have to believe me of course ^^. I will however stick to my hypothesis.

If you start from 4:44 you can see the dress I mean in action. As well as Giselle's "cutting layout". That shot actually made me smile. But not for the same reason as HE did. It's more like the seamstresses perspective  ;).

Anyone who knows me also knows how much I love dresses like that. The full skirt and the fitted bodice: Oh my! I do believe the bodice has a lot of boning, with the bones between the lining and the fashion fabric. The boning channels seem to be by sewing straight seams down the bodice. All in all it reminds me of stays.

So that's the dress I'd like to sew. Do you think it's prom worthy? I know I can neither pull of the colours nor the flowery print. I can't pull of prints in general. In the little flowery ones I look like a child in a nightgown. And quite frumpy too. In the large prints I tend to look like an overhung Christmas tree. Geometric and non-flowery prints work from time to time. But I don't think it would be formal enough. So maybe shiny, navy fabric? I wear a lot of navy as it is my favourite colour. So to spice it up maybe a bright pink petticoat?

Come to think of it, the first dress would probably suit me well too. And it reminds me of the Titanic swim dress. As a matter of fact I haven't seen Titanic yet. As far as I know there's no book that says you can't admire the costumes though.And know the music of by heart. I'm strange like that.