MATERIAL ME: FASHION AFTER 60: BurdaStyle

The title of this story is only partially true. In June I decided to sew a cotton teeshirt or two for the summer months. Fabric stores were closed so I had to make my selection online. This was a dilemma because the joy of fabric selection is to feel the fabric and note its color, texture, stretch and thickness. After much perusing of fabric stores, I landed on Britex Fabrics. Their selections are not cheap but they have carefully curated bolts of imported fabric that can only be described as scrumptious. And so I was tempted by a fabric imported from Japan. It was called "pistachio sherbet cotton tissue knit." Its name alone was enough temptation. But its price of $29.99 was beyond my teeshirt budget. So I ended up buying a practical Italian cotton knit in white, which I was going to use to make a funky teeshirt designed by Issey Miyake. I won't discuss that project here, but suffice it say, I was proud that I had made a practical fabric decision. But the words "pistachio sherbet" created a mental craving that was not going to go away through the passage of time.

Tragically two weeks after I purchased the practical white knit fabric, I received an email advertisement from Britex informing me that all their knits were on sale for a very limited time. When I paid a visit to the pistachio sherbet page, sure enough, it was now $15.00 a yard. Before the price magically changed back to $29.99, I ordered 2 yards.

Britex offered curbside pickup so after almost a week of anxious waiting, I finally went to pick up the fabric. When the masked store person handed over the bag, I was concerned that she had forgotten to put the fabric in. I opened it to make sure. It was in there. And I realized that I had not paid attention to one word in the fabric's description: "tissue." The fabric was amazing - 100% cotton, the stretch was only in the weft, and the color was glorious. But it was very very thin. Tissue paper thin. Like one-ply kleenex. When I went back to the description of the fabric, I saw that Britex described the fabric as being a great layering piece and "fabulous for the rigors of travel." I guess that is true - it was so light it could easily be folded into a tissue packet. Such lightweight, stretchy fabric is a devil to work with, particularly for someone as inexperienced as me. The challenge was to find a pattern that was simple enough to engage with this light-as-air knit. That - and not throwing away the fabric out of frustration or an irreversible goof.

The pattern I finally selected was Burda 108, which is described dryly as "polyester/cotton shirt." Burda does not use exuberant language in their pattern descriptions. It was disappointing to select such a bare-bones pattern for this exceptional fabric. Still, I liked the simplicity of the pattern and thought that the oversized cut would allow the fabric to drape nicely. After printing the PDF pages, taping them together, adding the seams and cutting the pattern, I was ready to begin. Because pins simply fell out of the fabric, I used sewing weights to steady the fabric. It took quite a number of tries to flatten the wrinkles and creases so that the fabric could be cut without the edges looking ragged.

The next challenge was to sew this tissue-thin fabric without having the bottom layer slip out of the serger. Fortunately there was a solution to this - Sulky's totally stable iron-on, tear away stabilizer. I cut 1" strips of this material and ironed it onto the fabric. Through this method I was able to serge the seams without any slippage. After sewing, I tore off the excess Sulky. It remained within the serged areas but I assumed that it wouldn't do any harm and would probably wash away over time. I would say that without this stabilizer it would have been impossible to sew this shirt together. As it was, I made plenty of mistakes such as cutting into the fabric accidentally, sewing the wrong side of the fabric with the right side of the fabric, and tearing the fabric while tearing off the Sulky material too vigorously. One good thing about the fabric was that sewing machine and hand-sewing needles did not poke permanent holes in it. I used the serger as much as possible to put this shirt together. The only areas where I used my sewing machine were the hem, sleeve insertion and cowl insertion. I added a cowl to the shirt pattern because a single layer of fabric and serged stitches alone weren't strong enough. The neckline unraveled each time I tried on the shirt. Somehow I managed to improvise a cowl collar with leftover fabric.

What to wear under this shirt? I found that a short sleeved Unqlo AIRism shirt in "natural" works really well. A thin black teeshirt or tank top would also look great.

And the end result is...I am very pleased with the pistachio shirt. It drapes beautifully and because it is 100% cotton and very lightweight, it is a perfect summer teeshirt. However, I will not be sewing with stretchy tissue cotton again. It is not quite easy breezy.

At the beginning of the stay-at-home period this year I subscribed to the Criterion Channel because of their excellent collection of foreign films. I immediately bookmarked several Japanese movies as well as French and Italian favorites. One was the 1975 version of Cousin Cousine with actors Marie-Christine Barrault and Victor Lanoux. In seeing the movie again in 2020, I was struck by the way people fell in and out of bed so casually - the elderly, young adults and teens alike. It was after all, pre-AIDS days.

But more than the bed scenes, I took the greatest pleasure in watching Barrault and Lanoux savor and demolish a tray full of glorious pastries. It immediately brought to mind the assortment at our local "b. patisserie" on California Street. No guilty pleasures in this scene, just pure indulgence. The other thing that lingered in my mind was Barrault's wardrobing. From the beginning wedding reception scene where she wore a dreamy blue print dress that captured her distant cousin's gaze, Barrault's selections of creamy silk blouses, bias-cut skirts and soft sweaters throughout the film emphasized the curves of her womanly body. She didn't wear a pair of jeans or trousers in a single scene, yet she looked perfectly comfortable in her sexy clothes. I was amazed that her wardrobe in the movie didn't look dated at all.

I developed wardrobe envy after watching Cousin Cousine and decided to recreate the blue wedding reception dress. Surprisingly, BurdaStyle Silk Dress #106 05/19 came close to that iconic dress. I wanted the dress right away, but sewing is all about delayed gratification. I downloaded the pattern from BurdaStyle, taped the pieces together, then cut out the pattern and added back in the seam allowances. I made some alterations in the bust line and sewed a muslin to check the fit. Afterwards, I cut out the fabric, marked the notches and circles, serged the edges and finally got to sewing. This pattern had a lot of details such as self-covered buttons, 13 buttonholes, hand-sewing and lace trim. I also added pockets. Due to mail delays brought on by COVID between ordering fabric and notions and preparing and sewing the dress, it took about 2 months to finish.

For the dress, I used a Liberty of London cotton lawn purchased from Fabric.com. The print is gorgeous and the fabric feels light as air. I call this my Cousin Cousine Dress because it brings back nostalgic memories of that romantic movie.