Religious Costume of the "Old Believers"

Kat responded to a comment I had made about the Dries Van Noten dress resembling a Russian ethnic dress we see often here in our Alaskan valley. She was wanting to know more about this. Actually, I should have described it as religious dress rather than ethnic.

In my local area we have a large population of Russian immigrants. Some of them live fairly secular lifestyles and dress in western garb. But most of them wear contemporary version of "Old Believer" religious wear. The Old Believers is a sect of the Russian Orthodox church which broke away during The Great Schism of 1650 when Nikon began to enact religious reforms of the mass and to make changes to holy texts. The Old Believers rejected these reforms. They were persecuted under the reign of Peter the Great, who they believed to be the Anti-Christ. They have been frequently on the move since. They escaped from the persecutions under Peter the Great to China and stayed there until the Chinese revolution in the late forties. They then escaped to South America, but poverty there resulted in a large migration of the population to Oregon. The largest community of Old Believers in the world still resides there. I believe about 10,000? Part of this community came to Alaska. Many are in small villages and live in preferred seclusion, but we do have a population here in the valley that has mainstreamed into the community here.

But enough history..back to Kat's question. This community is easily recognizable by their dress. The women wear a long-flowing jumper like garment that falls from a very high tight bodice. Usually over a full-sleeved blouse. The dress version has the same bodice, really almost simply a yoke, but a very full skirt, deeply pleated that falls from above the bustline to the ground. They usually make these from beautiful fabrics. Silks, sheers. Slippery stuff and I'm often intrigued by what a pain it must be to control the sheer volume of fabric in these garments. It must take six or seven yard to make these. They are always flawlessly constructed. It is interesting to see how the women still make their individual style statements. The young girls can sometimes be spotted in trendy prints and colors. They also wear a head scarf and the teens like to make these from sequined slinky fabric,

Here are some pics from the Costume Manifesto website, but the versions I see in Alaska are much more westernized.

It's 1:00 AM and Do You Know Where Your Seam Rippers Are?

I intended to put down the Van Noten dress for the evening, but here it is 12:55 am Alaska time and I'm still trying to smack the dowdy out of it! I figured out what was bugging me about the sleeves. The lines and proportions just weren't right. But I've got it looking more like my inspiration pic now. Here's what I did...

Took 2 inches off the length of the upper sleeve piece (black dot)

Altered the fullness of the bottom sleeve portion (lavender floral). I placed the ruler at the upper edge where the bottom sleeve would join to the upper sleeve and then angled it so that I tapered off 1.5 inches of fullness from the hem edge. Rotary cut that baby.

I then put the sleeve pieces together, basted their side seams and basted it into the armscye. The sleeve silhouette was now correct, but something still looked dowdy when I slipped the garment on. I finally figured out it was the shoulder line that was throwing things off. It was sitting ever so slightly off my shoulder. Only about 1/2 inch, but enough to give it that droopy shoulder line that made the whole thing look matronly. So I shaved off a 1/2 inch from the shoulder line and slipped the dress back on. MUCH better. However, I noticed that the bodice of the dress felt like it was pulling towards the back. The back of the dress is significantly heavier because of interfaced facings on both center back edges to accommodate buttons and buttonholes. However, I didn't think that could account for the way the bodice was looking weighted towards the back. It finally dawned on me to checked the shoulder seam placement and sure enough, it does not fall at the height of my shoulders. The shoulder seam sits a good 3/4 of an inch off my shoulder towards the back. There isn't really much I can do about that at this point as the bodice is already lined and facings set. :( :( I've made a note for the next time I opt for this OOP Vogue that I used for the dress bodice. If this was a fine fabric purchased just for this project, I would pull it all apart and reshape that shoulder seam. But this was an impulse project after falling in love with a magazine photo. The fabrics are "make do" pulled from my stash. This is, afterall, the year of the Fabric Fast.

So...the evening's Dowdy Smackdown is over. I am heading off for a bubble bath. Tomorrow, I will finish and reset the sleeves. All that will then be left is hem, buttons and buttonholes.

Anyone have a hint they want to send me for making buttonholes in satin????? :( :(

Charity

More of the Same

Today I plan to continue yesterday's theme of balancing household chores with sewing productivity. Yesterday I finished the gray pinstriped shirt, a muslin for the baby doll dress (still on the fence about that one) and cut out the Dries Van Noten knock-off. Sewing goals for today are to finish the Van Noten dress and then make some serious progress on my Wardrobe Capsule plan. I will post pics of finished pieces as I progress updating this same post.

UPDATE

I've assembled the yoked upper portion of the Van Noten dress. This is made from a black and white irregular dot lined with a lime green and white floral. This upper bodice is taken from an OOP Vogue 8145. It differs from the inspiration pic in that it has a notched neckline rather than the bateau neck. I shaved a tiny bit off the black and white neckline so that the lime print would roll ever so slightly towards the front, creating a faux piping effect that gives just a touch of color to the black print. Next up...creating the shift part of the dress from a lavender, black and lime floral satin with the lime green from the lining repeated in a hem band.



UPDATE

The lower front and lower back have been attached to their respective yokes. Next up are side seams and hem band. And I'm still trying to decide how to salvage my desired sleeve design from my cutting mistake.

UPDATE

French side seams are done. Hem band is in process. Sleeve assembly will be up after that, but I need to take a break to get some household chores and meal preparation done. Not sure I'll get this done today. Maybe by late tonight...

I'm having one depressing realization. No matter how cute a creation is. No matter how creative or beautifully executed. No matter how perfect the fit. I just can't really showcase my work properly at this weight. :( :( There is a reason why runway models are bone thin. As much as I'd like to champion for "real bodies", the truth is that clothes DO look better on thin women. And I LOVE clothes. I love fashion. I love making clothes. I love wearing clothes. And I really need to get the rest of my weight off to look good in my clothes. Yes, I should want to do it to be healthy and be a good steward of my body and all that. And yes, those are important reasons. But for me, I can't stand taking a pic of myself and knowing how much cuter that dress would look in a Size 8 on a Size 8 body (at 5'9" and 47 years old, I'll never see a Size 4 and actually would be thrilled to see a Size 10!) Besides making time to sew, I've got to start making time to exercise again now that the snow and ice are finally clearing off outside!

UPDATE

I've assembled one sleeve and pinned it in place to get the effect. ICK! Something about the high bodice, the poufy sleeve and the floral satin is making it look like the Russian orthodox dresses our Russian community wears here in Alaska. It's beautiful on them, but it will look ridiculous on me. :( :( I'm going to have to restudy the inspiration pic and try to reshape the sleeve. I think the problem is that the upper sleeve (the one that matches the bodice print) is too long and the longer portion is too full at the cuff - almost a lantern style. Sigh...I think I'll step back and readdress this tomm. I'm done for the day. Time to clean up dinner dishes and spend time with my kiddo.

Overly Ambitious Day

Okay...youngest son (Casey) is out for Spring Break and we've been doing nothing but partying for days now. I have GOT to get some stuff done today. I want to get a hunky chunk of the Spring Deep-Cleaning Thing done. I want to sew several skirts for The Hundred Skirt Project. I want to reorganize my jewelry (my pocketed hanger fell off the back of the door and all the contents spilled out). I want to start in on reshuffling around my sewing room. I want to cook and put away several meals. I want to finish two UFO sewing projects and start a new one. Obviously, not going to get to it all done today, but there it is.

To keep me really hopping, I'm going to post everything I get done today. I'll just keep updating this post. Hopefully the thought of public exposure will keep me from hanging on the couch with my kid (as important as that truly is!).

TODAY'S ACHIEVEMENTS

Dressed
Hair Done
Make-up Done
Stripped Bed
Made Up Bed With Fresh Linens
Picked Up Master Bedroom (not a deep clean yet)
Vacuumed Master Bedroom
Wiped Down Master Bath (not a deep clean yet)
Fed Pets
Scouted Out Message Boards and Read Email (okay, this one should have gotten skipped)
Picked up Homeschool Room (not a deep clean yet)
Vacuumed Homeschool Room
Dusted Homeschool Room
Lysol'ed Down Computer Desk
Finished Gray-Pinstriped Shirt
Wrote Pattern Review for the above
Ironed Caleb's dress shirt and dress pants
Ironed 1920s vintage toddler bubble romper
Picked up Foyer (still need to mop, clean woodwork and dust furniture!)
Hauled 5 loads of stuff from upstairs to storage
Washed, Dried, Folded, Put Away Three Loads Laundry
Ran an Errand
Finished muslin of Bubble Dress (but decided against it in a woven solid and scrapped the muslin. However, I want to give this pattern one more try in a print matte jersey)
Cut Out the Dries Van Noten Knock Off

PICS OF UFOs FINISHED TODAY


You can see a review of this design here

Sewing Lessons Monday

I'm a day late getting this up because of a freak accident that crushed our phone jack box, knocking out our internet and phone connection for a day and a half. I'd like to say that I was super productive during that time, but....um....I wasn't. :)

We did, however, go forward with our Sewing Lessons day. During our "teaching time" we began our unit on applique covering fusible web with satin stitch, fusible web with zig-zag, fusible web with machine blanket stitch, fusible web with hand-embroidered blanket stitch and raw edge applique with thread painting. Next week we will cover the freezer paper method and needle turn applique.

Project time was shorter than usual because we got a later start than normal. But the girls did make some progress. Sarah constructed her shell and her lining and then began bagging. I had sent Emily's sheath dress home with her last week for hand-hemming and a few other minor hand-sewing details. She didn't get it completed so she wrapped that up.

Next week, I hope to see Sarah complete her vest (except for buttonholes) and Emily begin cutting her fashion fabric on her coat. We'll see how it goes!

Charity

Just Ordered

I have been wanting to improve my fashion illustrating ability for a long time. I keep a sketchbook full of my design ideas, but the illustrations are so amateurish. I heard from others that these two books were particularly helpful, providing fashion illustration tutorials. I just ordered them from Amazon today and should receive them by week's end. I'll post a review here after I've had a chance to peruse them.





And just so you can imagine the dire necessity...here is a sketch for a child's design from my notebook.



Charity

Vintage Pattern Sunday

I have been inspired by some vintage pattern websites I discovered recently. I love vintage patterns. The more contemporary ones remind me of my childhood and teen years. The older ones recall a ladylike era where fashion, femininity and glamor were synonymous. I have a fairly large vintage pattern collection and thought it would be fun to share it with my readers. So I'm going to implement "Vintage Pattern Sunday." Each Sunday I'll share one of the patterns from my vintage stash. And perhaps I'll do the occasional give-away. :)

Below is a Jane Tise pattern. This was a designer that was popular during my teen years , along with John Kloss, Betsey Johnson, Willi Smith and others. While this is a design that is too young and too bare for me to wear now, I still love the style. It is reminiscent of something I'd wear as a girl. I found this pattern at a local thrift store for ten cents. :)



Not patterns I own, but other wonderful Jane Tise Designs...





This one I remember having and sewing as a teen! I soooo wish I had kept it or had a photo of it. I can't even remember the fabric I used, but I do remember the pattern.









And a final tidbit...Did you know Jane Tise was one of the founders of Esprit?

Charity