Workspace.

Workspace "perch".

Upstairs, pickled pine floors, drafting table with color and medium samples, strawberry jam jar with water for paint-wash, sketchbooks and scrapbooks stacked, piano bench where the cat ogles the birds, plaster lima bean sculpted in college, watercolors and gouache, and pencils of every type - if I like the color, I'll find a way to use it.

DIY Salopettes, Jumper, Overalls, Pinafore, Bubble Suit: Garment Conversion.

Some of you are asking about Do-It-Yourself Style and others are looking for Salopettes Patterns - with a twist.  Your thoughts happened to converge with a 2013 memory of 1980 Salopette / Overalls in hydrangea blue (... we called a Bubble Suit), which inspired a page of sketches.  

The conversion is for any pants, shorts, or skirt with a waistband.  The easiest way to visualize the bib is to think of a pillowcase (sized to cover a portion of your torso).  Using a fabric with more weight for the bib would eliminate the need for double-thickness and would only require pressed and stitched edges.  In the DIY sketches above, the rectangle (with buttonholes added) is stitched inside the waistband of the existing garment, straps are added... then it's time to customize.

To get nice corners on the bib-front, instead of forming an "L" at the tips - 2 or 3 diagonal stitches are the secret... (Thank you dear Professor B for teaching me this construction technique!)

Straps, Closures, Pockets, and Silhouettes provide so many variations to explore when making your own salopettes, overalls, pinafore, jumper.  Straps are simply long pressed and topstitched tubes of fabric.  Wide grosgrain ribbon would provide nice straps for a lightweight fabric and might work nicely with the knotting technique (keep buttonholes small and vertical).

My "dream variations" include a double-buttonhole "carrier" for flowers - or a stitched-on ribbon for securely tying flowers (muguet de bois - "lily of the valley"), a triple-function pocket with slots for pencils / brushes and flowers, and a stitched-on button securing a pencil - that idea made me so happy I could burst into confetti - like a fancy party cracker.  (Make a loop at one end of string, slip it around the button.  The other end of the string can be tied to a rubber band and wound around the top of the pencil.  Or, string tied around the pencil can be secured by adding a bigger slip-on eraser.)

Throw on a t-shirt (a short and puff-sleeved one with a bateau neckline is charming) and pull on your DIY Salopette, Overalls, Pinafore, Jumper.  Run outside to make the most of your Do-It-Yourself Fashion... because this is a one-piece garment that lends a carefree feeling - frisk about and have fun.  Head to the flower garden - or a florist and find fragrant blooms to add some Petit Trianon joie de vivre and pretty panache!

If you're looking for specific jumpsuit or salopettes sewing patterns, some of the ones I've seen available online are McCall's 6437 or 7581 - both NY NY Collection and from the 90s... with a looser fit - or Butterick 3989 overalls / dungarees from the 80s - or unique 1971 Simplicity 9533 knickerbockers with suspenders.  If you're interested in a garment more like a romper or sunsuit - for easier dressing - try McCall's 6083.  Select this link to see an Art Fashion Creation post featuring one of my practice toiles of a style similar to McCall's 6083 - the pattern was intended for a ballet / dance costume - but lent itself to playsuit variations.  The practice toile for the romper is also here (look for the orange strapless suit). 

Here - the miraculous dance-fever powers of a jumpsuit - from Booty Shaking, Pop and Lock, All Night Dancing at Art Fashion Creation.

Pencils, Paper, Marker, Glue.

My eyes like cameras my whole life - I absorb visually.  I live and communicate visually.  Editing personal sketchbooks and scrapbooks - looking for style and imagery both seen and imagined within those pages, every jotted note, every image clipped, every sketch and thought recorded represents a moment in time.

I created sketchbooks and scrapbooks during the 80s - because I felt inspired daily by my own perception of style and fashion, and as an art student - by color and line, shape... and the way images conveyed feeling, by music, beat, rhythm, movement.

In reviewing my paper archives, I see how artforms of a specific time are accurately representative of the mindset and ways in which artforms interweave, but also how prophetic imagery can be.

Soon, I hope to share my 80s scrapbooks/sketchbooks with you - in book form.

Mais, Voila Mes Amies!  Here are some peeks into pages already posted at Art Fashion Creation, but the book will contain things yet unseen.

• 80s Fashion - Part 3 - "Sense of Otherness" link.
• 80s Fashion - Part 2 - Menswear / Fitness / Dance-Wear Influences link.
• First Glimpse of Toile La La 80s Sketchbooks / Scrapbooks.
• Origin of my sketchbooks / scrapbooks.

There are a total of six 80s scrapbook / sketchbook posts at Art Fashion Creation, but here's a related Art Fashion Creation post about tracing the origin of trends through analysis of fashion tear-sheets.

Bookstacks of Art Fashion Creation.

Fashion Bookstacks.

My heart and eyes seem connected when rows of fashion, textile, or art bookshelves come into view:  pupils dilate, heart flutters like the wings of a bird in a hurry.

See more fashion books (and details) on the shelves footing the Art Fashion Creation blog.

Number One Good Luck Employee.

Number One Good Luck Employee Cat - hard at work... dreaming.  Photo Toile La La.

Photo Toile La La.

Introducing Toile La La and Art Fashion Creation's Newest Model - Feuille.

Feuille with Tulips - in early morning April fog.  Photo Toile La La.

Olympia Le-Tan's Perfect Prom Purse for a Bookish Beauty.

Olympia Le-Tan embroidered book and album clutch purses in April 2013 InStyle magazine, p. 340.

Perfect for the prom look I describe in this post.

ZiZi Bleu in the Snow.

ZiZi Bleu in the Snow. Photos Toile La La.

Introducing the beautiful ZiZi Bleu... with the soulful eyes of 20s silent cinema actress Zasu and the vivacious spirit of a 40s Zazou, ZiZi makes the perfect model in motion.  Can't you picture her zipping by on a bike - pedals whirring?  

For her debut, ZiZi has made for you - snow angels with flapping wings.  She also appears in the Toile La La Photo Poem Elle Fait La Criniere d'Un Lion.

Full name:  ZaSu Zazou Ciseaux, but just call her ZiZi Bleu.

Elle Fait La Criniere d'Un Lion.

"C'est la fin de fevrier,

Sa peau d'hiver est blanc.

Elle fait la criniere d'un lion 

de fleurs jaune bouton.

Elle capte la chaleur du soleil."

Photo poem by Toile La La - March 6, 2013.  For Nana.

Toile La La Solves a Fashion Mystery!

While appreciating all the lovely artwork gracing the faces of sewing pattern envelopes, have You ever imagined the origin of those images?  If so, go to Art Fashion Creation to see my interview with 1970s sewing pattern fashion illustrator Karen Winslow.  Karen continues to perfect her talent for observation and brushwork. Today she creates fine art paintings and teaches other artists to do the same.

Karen Winslow 1970s fashion illustration.

Never-Seen-Before Prom Ideas from Toile La La.

Books:  The New Prom Date - Toile La La February 2013 illustration.

Here's the Art Fashion Creation link.  There you'll also find a prom poem.

Perhaps it's the February-dreariness or maybe it's Little Augury's "Edward Gorey Catwalk" post, but my long-dormant inner rebel is awake today.

On a day promoting sweeter thoughts of proms past, I created an Art Fashion Creation 80s prom post with images from scrapbooks / sketchbooks of that era... you can see it here.

If you're seeking prom / party ideas... here in a roundabout way - is one of the most quirky and interesting party ideas I've ever encountered - courtesy of the Victorians... how they went bananas - for bananas.

Headlong into Hats: Millinery Adventures.

Pictured below are several dressmaker hats - requiring no blocking, although hat-blocking is an art I wish to master. 

With the excellent tutorials explained in several millinery books - but otherwise on my own - I began seriously studying dressmaker millinery techniques about a year and a half ago.  Prior to serious study, the mock-up of a sewn Vogue pattern sunhat was my millinery initiation.  Confidence boosted, the sunhat experiment was intriguing and successful enough to encourage the creation of my own pattern for a hoodie-hat with ears - named "The Bearhead" - and I produced two, in a purple and navy faux fur - which gave my daughter and her roommate the appearance of jolly Sesame Street muppets. 

Later dressmaker hats included a toile de jouy-covered trilby (enhanced with machine embroidery), a newsboy hat - created from an upcycled jacket and '70s tie, a tall hat with brim - "The Conductor", and a small hat, worn perched askew - my favorite because of its odd shape, I called Petit Chapeau Cameo.  Those are hats to be found in older Art Fashion Creation posts.

Overhead zoom-view of Toile La La embroidered toile de jouy trilby.

Peering over the shoulder of the Toile La La Number One Good Luck Employee Cat, you see Coco the obviously- handmade millinery model - wearing a vintage chapeau.

A sunshine-yellow "Sunray-Cloche", photographed near an Asheville, NC mural.

La Belle Strasbourgeoise  -  Nicolas de Largilliere 1703, my next millinery inspiration.  Toile La La.

Coco (the obviously-handmade millinery model peeking over the shoulder of the cat) will serve as model for the Belle Strasbourgeoise Chapeau millinery mock-up, which may require a wire armature. To achieve the grandeur of this most wonderful and triangular La Belle Strasbourgeoise Chapeau, I may have to dive headfirst into blocking.  If you have millinery suggestions to help me in this millinery quest - your comments will be greatly appreciated.

A Packable, Crushable, Washable, Soft Sunhat - also reversible. Toile La La.

"Floriental" - Packable, Crushable, Washable, Soft Sunhat. Toile La La.

All the Early Toile La La Small Pattern Toiles.

Beginning mid-2010 - with a wish to revolutionize my summer wardrobe, I began sewing small-scale versions of sewing patterns - chosen from an older trove.  Trip to the beach - everywhere the eye could see - too much exposure... so I chose another path:  the look of the glamorous resort vacationer of the past.  Within the Art Fashion Creation blog archives - August 3, 2010 - you can see some vintage resort photo inspiration for that wardrobe.

Fabric, time, energy, and money were saved by sewing preliminary test-versions of the garments:  toiles. 

Learning of Vintage Pattern Lending Library's 1912 Sew La Mode Illustree Project - in April 2012 - I became a participant - test-sewing vintage La Mode Illustree patterns, with over 750 fellow-participants.  My first La Mode Illustree practice-pattern - coincidentally - began not with fabric and thread, but wire:  it was a Ladies Spring Hat, built upon a wire armature.

Later, Bill Cunningham's "On the Street: Sun Spot" New York Times feature piqued my interest - with its attention to Jil Sander's veiled beanies by Stephen Jones, so it was time for another toile.  For the veiled beanie, I had no pattern and had to create one - with paper, fabric, patience, and the assistance of the patient small-scale millinery model Hattie - and my Number One Good Luck Employee Cat.  Link to the "Sewing a Slouchy Veiled Rib-Knit Cap" post here.

A first small-scale practice toile - McCall's 3232 halter, worn by Hattie.

Bralette and high-waisted shorts small-scale toile, vintage Simplicity 1632.

Hattie wearing small-scale toile for a sarong that was so right - Simplicity 9702.

Small-scale practice toile for romper - from a vintage costume sewing pattern.

Small-scale toile for bloomer-skirt - clever Willi Wear for McCall's 7947.

Fleur's Simplicity 7581 pantdress jumpsuit small-scale toile in progress.  See pantdress at Art Fashion Creation header photo.

Hattie wearing a crown-variation small-scale toile for Vogue 8213 sunhat.

Hattie wearing small-scale Vogue 8213 sunhat with large brim, contrast lining, and added ties.

Hattie assisting with VPLL Ladies Spring Hat test-armature.

Model Mimi wearing test-toile for La Mode Illustree Child's Apron, during participation in Vintage Pattern Lending Library 1912 Project.

Bebe Bouton wearing miniscule test-toile for La Mode Illustree blouse - E1000 - VPLL 1912 Project.

Vintage Pattern Lending Library 1912 Project - E1000 Blouse, La Mode Illustree practice toile in progress.

VPLL 1912 Project small-scale toile for intelligently-designed La Mode Illustree Blouse 0219.

Bebe Bouton in her futurist tuta-jumpsuit toile and Enormous Pompon Zinnia Bonnet.  Bebe was a doll in need of a new body and this starfish-shaped pattern is the prototype.

Slouch cloche-beanie small-scale toile - fit for Hattie at Art Fashion Creation.

At the Wordpress blog Dresses and Hats, there are reviews of the La Mode Illustree patterns - and also a post featuring my Great Grandmother's sewing sampler scrapbook - with vintage small-scale toiles.

Small-scale apron toile in very old sewing sampler scrapbook - created by the Great Grandmother of Toile La La.

If you've test-sewn garments using small-scale practice samples, or have comments about vintage sewing samplers - I would love to hear from you here at Toile La La, just click the comment form below. 

If you wish to read more about the summer wardrobe practice toiles above, see the Art Fashion Creation blog archives - select the July 2010 posts to begin. 

If you wish to read more about the Vintage Pattern Lending Library 1913 Project or the La Mode Illustree small-scale toiles pictured above, see my dressesandhats blog.

A Klimt, Bakst, Delaunay Moment.

Sifting through my old fashion illustrations, this one from the late 1980s was interesting - because of the proportion.  It's an illustration that does not conform to the usual "tall and thin" fashion figure stereotype. The sheer scarf-like skirt was intended to transform the fitnesswear leggings and crop-top (with hook-and-eye back closure).  The skirt waist was intended to be cummerbund-style - with a button and loop closure.

Fitnesswear and Cover-Up sketch from the 1980s - marker pens.

Burnout fabrics, originated in the 1920s. They most recently regained popularity during the late 90s,  holding steady through the early part of the twenty-first century.  At the time, I created the illustration - the vision for the skirt was sheer with bits of raised flocking (like Dotted Swiss fabric).  "Burnout" was not yet part of my fashion vocabulary in the late 1980s.

To revisit this pose and body-type was fun, but the updated fashion illustration is watercolor and gouache and the model has a chic bob, cinched with a flapper-style bandeau.

Instead of fitnesswear, the design is now a creative day ensemble of tunic over slim pants - topped by an overdress of gauze-y voile burnout fabric (with colorful satin figures remaining).  I think the overdress should be almost-white transparent.  Tunic and pants in satin charmeuse with a bit of stretch.  Boots are bronze-studded pale-nude leather.

Toile La La Klimt Ensemble Fashion Illustration - 2013.

For the neckline treatment and closure, I have an idea - to be finalized later.  The burnout textile overtunic is something requiring more thought as well - because of the specific placement of squiggles and zigzags.

To just be able to draw a garment and have it materialize would be fantastic - for upon outlining the bronze studs on my imagined boots, I immediately wanted to frolic and trot about in them. 

My Fashion Illustrations.

Very very early, I began drawing fashion.  It did not correlate with my own era either.  Gloved and hatted elegant ladies in high-necked long dresses - shaped like bells and gathered together holding parasols were very different from the bell-bottoms and plain A-line dresses seen as a child.

I love the art of fashion illustration - being surrounded by the smell of pencil shavings, swishing my brushes in watercolor and gouache, refining lines, researching the details.  The art of fashion is very thrilling.  The history of the art of fashion illustration - for me - is a history just as fascinating as that of fashion itself.

For many years I thought the imagining of the designs of fashion might be minor - compared to the actual art of construction - and the idea served as impetus for a desire to learn to sew.  All told, both the imagining and the construction are necessary for the design to appear - realized.

The love of detail, line, color, and the Need to record those ideas - which have always appeared to me - has never diminished.

Sea Anemone Corsages at Shoulders of Sailor Shirt - Fashion Illustration Toile La La.

The fashion illustration above - appeared with a tutorial post demonstrating construction of the Sea Anemone Corsages - created with simple fabric tubes.  Learn how to make them at the Art Fashion Creation link here.


   

The Edwardian Dress Re-Appears.

Toile La La 2010 illustration - Jade in Edwardian Dress.

Edwardian Dresses - vintage image scanned by Toile La La.

See the entire post at this Art Fashion Creation link.  There, you will also find links for paper time travel - courtesy of Toile La La and Art Fashion Creation.  Bon Voyage.