About some clothes

[kate_schaefer]

I have sewn two brides into their gowns.

One was my own damn fault. I miscalculated, had to stay up all night before the wedding, sewed her into her gown. She looked great. It was a terrific party. I had a wonderful time. They had a good marriage, too.

The other was someone else's mistake, and I fixed it. Does this dress make my butt look funny? asked the bride, and I said, yes, yes, it did. Made her butt look like she had a prehensile tail, only the tail was kinda broken beside being inappropriate. I took the boning out, put flannel padding in, and sewed her in just before the photographer got there. Had to sew her into her longline bra, too, while her maid of honor steamed the wrinkles out of the wedding gown. She looked great.

I swore a mighty and completely unsustainable oath that I wouldn't ever sew another person into her dress at the last minute. So far, I have managed to keep that oath, but it's been a close thing. A week ago yesterday, I sewed the last bead onto Nisi Shawl's jacket about twenty minutes before she put the jacket on.

She looked fabulous when she made her guest of honor speech at Wiscon. The outfit did what I wanted it to do. It looked dignified and formal, with its dancing underside hidden for the moment. It said, This is a special occasion. It fit Nisi properly. The colors looked good on her. The style suited her. At the same time, the clothes weren't the thing one noticed first on looking at Nisi that evening. Somewhat surprisingly, the crown wasn't the thing one noticed first, either. The first impression (I think) was just that Nisi looked well and happy, and her festive clothes supported that impression.

Luke McGuff took a picture of Nisi with her niece and nephew (you have to imagine the other niece, who was across the hall at the time) at the Photobooth party that night. I need to get tgether with Nisi later this summer so I can take some pictures of details I like: the beading at the yokes, the pieced charmeuse in the yokes (Nisi's mom particularly liked that detail and said it looked African to her; that wasn't my model, but since how I piece comes out of American patchwork, which is strongly influenced by African patchwork, that influence is definitely there), and the way the pockets work. I wish I had seen Nisi dancing, because while the jacket was designed for the speechmaking part of the evening, the skirt was designed for the dancing part of the evening, with two hidden layers of brighter orange and pink chiffon under the visible formal gold top layer.

Comments

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Neat! The outfit doing what you wanted it to is a huge accomplishment. Congratulations. Based on the photo, I agree with your first impression assessment -- she looks well and happy. Her clothes are uniquely her, they help convey the wellness and happiness you mentioned. That, and comfort, too. Even knowing there was a crown there, I saw Nisi's face and hair before the crown itself.

I look forward seeing more photos!

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Nisi and I worked through the color palette together, starting from gold and coral and amber. All those colors are still there, along with some bronze. The person who made the crown (and Nisi told me who it was, but I have forgotten) worked independently, so having the clothes coordinate so well with the crown was terrific. Having everything she wore work as frame rather than as foreground was extremely satisfying.

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

Nisi looked great! You did a fine job.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm so grateful that you were willing to be an important part of Plan B, and thankful that Plan B didn't have to be implemented.

[slave2tehtink.livejournal.com]

I was going through those pics yesterday and paused to admire Nisi's clothing! I *love* the patchwork and keep thinking I need to learn to do that, because deep in my devious little heart I covet an entire skirt made of crazy-quilt patchwork, and it had occurred to me that the only way to do an entire skirt out of it would be to use silk because otherwise it would be too heavy.

Is there a pic of Nisi's skirt somewhere? But I do love the jacket, and like others had to go back to see the crown once you mentioned it.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen a picture of the skirt, and didn't have time to take any myself while constructing it. I had built a full week of extra time into my sewing schedule, but I should have built two weeks into it. I expected to need that time for some unexpected sewing problems (they always show up; one knows that, without knowing what they'll be), and then needed the time for unrelated crap instead.

It would be challenging to do a crazy-quilt skirt of silk, even more challenging than doing it in cotton, I think, because of the difficulty of stabilizing the pieces. I interlined the charmeuse/raw silk piecing with flannel, which may have added a hair too much stability but still worked in the yokes. For the side piecing, which I did because putting pockets into crinkle silk chiffon was much more of a challenge than I was ready for, I kept all the charmeuse and raw silk strictly on grain and used big pieces.

In theory, one could use silk organza to stabilize. In practice, I still find silk organza so slippery that I haven't been able to sew with it successfully yet. It's also dangerous in the sewing room, because of that slipperiness and because it's so translucent that it's hard to see. Drop a scrap on the floor, and you have a falling hazard. The chiffon was enough of a challenge this time. It was like cutting and sewing spiderwebs. Beautiful, light, and and a pain in the neck.

[slave2tehtink.livejournal.com]

My quandary, of course, is that cotton is so dang hard to dye, compared to silk, and if you're using natural dyes then it will never be as light-fast and wash-fast as it would be on silk or wool. Possible I could make myself a glorious winter skirt of patchwork, from wool. Hrm.

The only cotton I have around the house right now is scarves I bought to subject to indigo. Now that the weather's warm, I really need to pick a resist and do up my vat and turn things glorious blue.

[e-bourne.livejournal.com]

It does look African -- I saw it the same way even with the patchwork story -- and it looks splendid on Nisi. She does indeed look like an African queen, no I take that back. More like an African priestess.

Just wonderful!

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

One of the humorous tributes to Nisi was a roving flashmob organized by Tempest Bradford. We'd show up at the end of panels Nisi was on and sing a bit of doggerel called, "Nisi Is Our Queen." The lyrics were, um, what you'd expect.

It made Nisi (and all of us) laugh.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I heard that song in the lobby Saturday night -- funny!

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you designed and made clothes. I love the idea of the bright underskirt under a formal top layer.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Oh, my, yes. It's a major part of my identity in this later part of my life. I find it hilarious that I do this, because I spent a lot of time being contemptuous of fashion in my youth, but now I think of it as language. I am fascinated with the way humans express and conceal information about ourselves through the things we put on our bodies, and mystified about why we do this, when very few other animals have ever done so. Orangutans in captivity will put on pieces of fabric and wear them around for a while; I haven't heard of any other animals that voluntarily wear clothes, though I wouldn't be surprised to learn that other primates do so from time to time.

I know that people generally think of clothing as an invention that allowed us to move into more difficult climates, but I think that's a side benefit that came after we started wearing clothes. All human cultures seem to have invented clothing, even if they live in completely benign climates, which suggests strongly that we have some other reason for clothing ourselves. My guess is that we wear clothes because it makes us sexy; that's generally the reason for any otherwise inexplicable animal behavior.

Whoops, you got the isn't-clothing-weird? speech rather than the simple, straightforward response. I know you'll be more entertained by the convoluted answer than the simple one, so I'll leave it.

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not weird. I've had very similar thoughts about clothing and the way we use it to send messages and express things about how we want to be perceived in the world. Humans don't have much in the way of color, pattern, or very spectacular sexual dimorphism (face it, mating plumage is much more compelling than a dangly bit between the legs or enlarged mammary glands), so I suspect we took to ornamenting ourselves very early in our history.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

In my mother's family, there was a superstition that if you were wearing clothes that were being sewed while on you, you had to chew a piece of thread or your brains would get "sewed up." (I just thought you might enjoy that.)

Nisi always looks beautiful. I took in how well the color of her outfit suited her, but didn't really look at the cut. *scurries off to look at pictures*

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

I've never run into that superstition before. You're right, I do enjoy knowing about it.

I enjoyed the few minutes we grabbed here and there during Wiscon and look forward to a few more minutes later this month. That really is the history of friendship for anyone except the people one lives with, isn't it? I had no idea when I was young that the time I spent with friends and even with casual acquaintances was a luxury that I wouldn't get again.

[lcohen]

i didn't know that you designed and made her outfit--it's beautiful!

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The only downside for me was that I did spend a lot more time in my hotel room sewing than is usual for me at Wiscon. I got out for meals and meetings and parties and working out and a few panels, so I couldn't have suffered too much for my art. Didn't ever get into the dealers' room, so I didn't bring any new books home this year.

It was good to hang out with you in the tiredness of Monday.

[lcohen]

it was great to see you, even briefly. especially since god knows when i'll get out to seattle again.

i once wound up sewing the train of a bride when i was the maid of honor--always bring needle and white thread if you're an attendant in a wedding, i always say ;-) !

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

Needle and white thread, and a large bag of those little gold safety pins...

[selkie-b.livejournal.com]

Done my time doing that job... three brides, and two b-maids... oddly? most of them were actually faults of the bride's MOM trying to over-rule what I very carefully wrote out ahead of time. Good thing they paid the tickets to NY on that one, or they'd have all looked a right shambles.

Stupid bride didn't buy the hoops or crinoline ahead of time either - wedding late due to bride idiocy (and rescued - driven around Long Island by my husband - ON A SUNDAY) We are no longer friends, I can say these things *LAUGH!* At least they are still married...

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

At the first sew-in wedding, my tardiness was overshadowed by the groom having left the wedding license at home, miles away, along with something else needed for the reception. Glenn drove the groom round-trip and calmed him down. The bride was calm about everything; she took all vicissitudes in stride, always.

The second sew-in was a consequence of the bride living thousands of miles away from the wedding site. She ordered the dress in the size she wore, which was way too big for her. The alterations person took it in and did a pretty good job, but she needed to have at least one final fitting to catch the weirdness of the back zipper boning.

The idea of having to procure hoops and crinoline at the last minute fills me with dread and awe. I know how to improvise such a thing using packing straps, but I wouldn't want to.