Monday, May 18, 2015

Jotera Outfit



This is the traditional dress for Aragon girls who dance its traditional dance: la jota. My two nieces are now five year old and they are training themselves to dance the jota, so we decided to make them the complete outfit. Since we have their birthday as the deadline and it is next week, we have to hurry hurry and their mom has distributed the work: granny is making the skirts and underskrits, I am making the overalls, the knee-breeches they wear under their underskirts and the bodice.
I copied a borrowed model, which with the overall was simple enough. With the knee-breeches, I followed the rub-off method I've learnt from this book.

Notice the pintucks all over the aprons and breeches. They are meant to be undone progresively as the kids grow up.
The completley reversible waistcoasts. I also used a model to rub-off, and enlarged it 10 cm after its fitting.

Here are my beautiful nieces wearing the complete outfit: white cotton blouse, knee breeches, underskirt, skirt, apron, wastcoat and shawl. They are ready to dance. Not a very practical outfit to exercise in june, but hey, it's tradition!


Thursday, May 7, 2015

Widow's Set


Well, I must reckon this project is a letdown somewhow. Although, I don't know yet...
Let me explain. I had this wonderful sheer fabric with little white stars on a black backgorund. It was perfect for a blouse with a bow at the neck and had been sitting in my little stash for a couple of years, wainting for inspiration.
One day, in the library on wheels that visits our small village once a month (which brings pattern magazines, it's wonderful!!!) I saw this wonderful design:
It was perfect for my fabric! Two pieces for a set, perfect for spring! I had some cotton with ellastane to make the sleveless dress, and I bought some black sheer fabric to make the underskirt. 

I did not have any problem during contruction. For the skirt hem, I used a stright machine stitch in a very small double loop that I was doing as I was sewing.
For the elasticated band at the bottom of the blouse, I used the shirring method: you put some elastic thread in the bobin (withour pulling it) and machine sew it in straight lines, four or five, every 1 cm. I did the same with the sleves.
The result is quite nice theoretically, but I am not crazy about how it looks on me :-( Probably because I am not tanned and my legs are not that nice without stockings now. And this has to be worn with sandals. I will give it a try soon enough, and if it wears nice I might upload a picture with the set on actual me, hehe... Meanwhile, enjoy it in my manequin: