Center For Pattern Design - Spiraling In Control!

The intrigue of the Center for Pattern Design's creativity absolutely captivates me!   When Sandra Ericson spoke at Canada College's Artistry In Fashion event last year I was hooked!   I bought 3 patterns, all inspired by Cristobal Balenciaga (a genius!).

My first make was the CB Bolero,  blogged here.   I have mixed feelings about this one, only because it's a little dressy for me, and also a little fidgity, so it doesn't really get that much wear.   The CB Spiral Blouse, however, is another matter - totally wearable, and in spite of the unusual design, it has a lot of possible ways to change it up.   Buttoned & closed, no buttons & open, drapey or stiffer fabric, collar, no collar, long or short sleeves - shams even made a knit top from it! 

One of the amazing aspects of Ericson's designs - her focus, really - is that she uses as few pattern pieces as possible & puts the seaming together in totally unique and ingenious ways.  The spiral top has one pattern piece, and if your fabric is wide enough, you can cut the entire top from ONE piece of fabric - rather mind-boggling, if you ask me!  I would take a pic of the pattern piece, but I have vague memories of someone getting in hot water for doing that, and I don't think it's fair or appropriate to the designer anyway.  Just trust me, it's impossible to imagine the finished product from the flat pattern piece without instructions - at least my brain certainly doesn't work that way!  The first time through I really stretched my mind muscles just figuring out how to put it together WITH instructions!

The description from the pattern: "This full scale pattern is fashioned after one demonstrated by Salvador who managed Monsieur Balenciaga’s tailoring atelier during the Golden Age of Couture in the mid-20th Century. It is a single bias-cut pattern piece which comprises the front, back and spiral sleeve of an easy fitting top. The back hangs in a cowl at the hip and there are no side or shoulder seams. It may be worn open or closed in front. Fits 8 - 16 with adjustments.
This pattern is is appropriate for intermediate or advanced skills."

The pattern itself comes in one size (Medium), and adjustments are made along 2 lines marked on the pattern piece. A muslin is recommended, since it's hard to tell how it will fit just looking at the pattern piece. The entire top is cut on the bias, so even if you have the sizing down in one fabric, another fabric may behave differently with a bias cut.

Step one is figuring out the layout of the pattern on your fabric.  With short sleeves, you might be able to use one solid piece of fabric.   With long sleeves, you probably will need a center back seam - it took me a bit of maneuvering to match things up & still fit it onto my (JUST big enough) piece of fabric!  In fact, Step #1 of the pattern instructions say, and I quote, "Study the pattern diagram carefully...."

Uh huh.

Instructions are fairly minimal.  To give you an idea, the last 2 steps are 

4. "Finish hems as you wish." and 

5.  "Finish CF closure as desired."

Be forewarned.  

Construction Notes:  Mark the dot at the underarm carefully (once you've figured out just where the underarm is...seriously, it does not make immediate sense!)   This dot you need.   The notches and other dots are handy more for placement guidelines than for exact seam matching.   These pics may (or may not) help:

 Matching the dots (tailor tacked with red thread) at underarm:

Biggify the pic and note that the notches do NOT match up.

This doesn't matter - as you sew the seam, just let the fabric come together where it wants to,

you can trim the bottom of the sleeve later.

The fabric I used was a yummy silk charmeuse, which worked great for this pattern.   I also used a thin cotton for my toile, which turned into a wearable piece (sorry, no pics of that one).   I've seen it made up in a number of different fabrics; the choice is very versatile!   The pattern calls for "softly woven wools, silks or cottons; wool or silk crepe, crepe-backed satin, silk velvet, georgette or chiffon, medium weight rayons and novelty fabrics with bias elasticity."   LOTS of choice here!

Here's how the center back comes together:

I decided to use double buttons and a single buttonhole with a bar tack in the center.

I started with a machine made bar tack, but ended up doing it by hand:

The finished piece:

The wind blew my collar into odd positions.   I'm way too lazy to redo another photo shoot, and if that's how it's going to lie, then so be it!  

I've already worn this one several times, and will likely make another version or 2 of it.  Love the fabric, love the design -  thumbs way up for this pattern!

Balenciaga + Ericson = CB Bolero = Win!

As I mentioned in my previous posts, I recently bought 3 patterns from Sandra Ericson of Center for Pattern Design, all inspired by Balenciaga.  I've already made up 2 of them, and the 3rd is ready for a muslin- that should give you an idea of how impressed I am with the designs!   But it's more than being impressed.  There is intrigue, puzzlement, challenge, awe, and in the end, a highly wearable piece that is as much a simple work of art as it is practical clothing!

Imho, Balenciaga +  Ericson = wearable haute couture for the masses!  OK, so not exactly haute couture technique, but you get my drift, right?  I certainly give thanks to Ms. E. for bringing his patterns to the public!

I'll start with a shot of the finished CB Bolero:

I'm delighted with the results!   The fabric is an unusual double knit of unknown content - it has almost a neoprene-like feel to it, but not really....   It was such an odd fabric that I only bought a shade over 2 yards (and that presented a major challenge fitting this pattern on it!)  Now that I've worked with it, I wish I'd bought more!  It's stable and easy to work with, and the cut edges are so clean I left the hemlines raw (something you RARELY see on anything I make!)  To see just how versatile the fabric can be (is it fair of me to rave about a fabric that is probably impossible to find anymore?  sorry......[evilgrin]), check out shams' dress (which, btw, is an entry in the Fabric Mart Challenge - visit the link  & please vote for your favorite in the contest)!  (Do I need to say out loud that my personal favorite dress was made by shams?)  ;-)  The fabric, btw,  came from Fabrix in SF, my absolute favorite discount fabric destination! 

I really thought I would end up with a casual piece, but once it started coming together I was concerned that it was going to be too dressy for me to get much wear from!  (clearly I don't get out on the town in a fancy way much).   In the end though, this is a piece that can be dressed up or down, and I WILL get a lot of wear from it!

The sizing is 8-18.  This pattern appears to run on the small side - I made a 14, but I added length by cutting it at the size 18 at the bottom.   And then I left the hem as a raw edge, so this added a total of 2-4" in the length.   I did end up cutting in the shoulders by almost 2" at the widest cut (to accommodate my narrow, sloping shoulders), but I think I would need to do this even on a smaller size.  The bias drape of the piece allows for a lot of flexibility in fit, but if you want to make it from a piece of precious fabric, I would definitely recommend a muslin.

On to the construction.   I don't know how helpful my pics & explanations will be, because the way it's put together is far more puzzling than meets the eye when looking at the pattern pieces.  Genius is what it is, imho!   To look at the finished piece, one can easily think it's just a circle with sleeves cut in.   Hah.   I HIGHLY recommend a dress form helper, and if you're like me, you'll be draping the pieces on over & over again trying to figure out exactly how it all goes together & which edges to put together for the seams, and which sides are RS and which are WS....  Of course, there are NO hints or instructions on seam finishes, or any sort of finishing tips at all.   This is stated up front - these are "'educational patterns'; that is, they are unusual and most often have some feature that is a learning experience which is the whole point in publishing them."

Note:  I don't mean to discourage anyone - sewing it all together is really quite easy, once you understand how it works.   It just took my brain on a bit of a voyage before it all made sense to me.

Construction Steps (the dry & potentially boring stuff - but if you end up making this, hopefully the following will be helpful!):

After sewing in the darts, you sew the shoulder seams (instructions say to sew the side seams as well, but since I was figuring it all out step by step [I did not muslin it],  I used slightly different steps.)

Note the folded over section at the neckline -
when I was cutting this out I thought that the CF was at the lower edge of that fold.
Wrong.
CF is on a folded part somewhere in the center of that piece!
Not obvious until you start putting it together....

Enclosed seams are advised for all of the seams.  In the following pic, note that the shoulder seam is sewn by matching the armscyes of the front and back pieces.  The extra fabric on the front will be folder over to meet the "collar", or "cape".

  

Once you attach the 'collar' (i.e., the back portion of the cape), at the shoulder seams, there can be a lot of bulk at the shoulder seams if you use a fairly thick fabric (which this is).   With a fair amount of seam trimming, it worked well though.   A thicker fabric like this will really stand away from the body; a thinner fabric would give more drape, but one of the beauties of this pattern is that many fabrics will work well with it, even sheers!

I won't even pretend that I can explain what's happening in the following pic.   I just added it to show you how confused someone (i.e., ME, can get while trying to figure out how the puzzle pieces go together!   Really, it isn't all THAT confusing, it's just that, for me, draping it on another body was a necessity to have it all fall into place!

The following pic shows the collar/cape and the front piece sewn together, after the collar has been attached at the shoulder seams, and the front piece has been folded back to meet the edge of the collar piece.

Are ya with me?

A try-on at this stage showed that the shoulder slope was  too broad on me, in no small part due to the stable thickness of the fabric.   I adjusted the seamline, bringing the back (collar) piece forward a bit, and trimmed it by over 1-1/2" at the deepest cut.

Finished Jacket, with sleeves set in, inside out:

Reminder to Self (for the Umpteenth Time):

Certain actions are OK to perform post-midnight.

Serging Set-in Sleeves is not one of those actions.

 

After the bolero was completed, I realized that it was just a tad bit fiddly/slippery, and decided that buttons were called for.   I added a button on each side of CF, and in order to keep some flexibility, decided to just use various ties as closures, so that I could mix & match whatever I want to wear it with.  A little touch of brilliance, if I do say so myself! ;-)

A few shots of the finished piece in action.  

A slightly more casual look:

Note:  The green tie here is just a cut-at-the-last-minute strip of fabric 

matching the top (a Burda T-neck).  

 I promise I won't go out in public without a more finished tie!

And a dressier option:

(Worn with The Dress, and The Trippens)  

The tie closure here is a a scrunchie hair tie

(something that has never worked on my barely-there hair, even when it was long!)

The feedback I've had from everyone who's seen this cape/bolero/jacket/thingy in person has all been very positive.   Even from people who don't normally like capes!  I expect to see a lot more versions, since I personally know half a dozen or so people who ordered it after Sandra's presentation at Artistry in Fashion.

Besides a variety of fabrics, Sandra suggests options like cutting the back a lot longer for a more elegant look.   You could also easily eliminate the sleeves for a sleeveless version.   I can see a slew of very different-looking pieces from this pattern!  I have a lot of other projects on my plate, so I don't think I'll be making another one immediately, but I'll definitely keep this in stash for another fabric to jump up & down wanting to become another CB Bolero.

How about you?  Have I convinced you that it's worth a go?