Thursday, May 27, 2010

A skirt

This time I feature someone elses work. Today I met Valerie, a real life sewing friend. We got in contact last year and have met several times and visited the exhibition in The Hague together. It’s such fun to actually talk sewing a lot of the time and knowing the person you’re talking to is knowing what you’re talking about and not bored stiff.

Valerie already told me she liked this skirt in my inspiration folder and today she was actually working on it.

 

The pictures are taken with my cell phone, so the quality is not very good, but you’ll get the idea.

She took a medium weight black denim and ribbon in 3 different widths. Together we placed the ribbons. She could have done that by herself, but as I was there it was nice to do it together. We did the front first, then marked the matching points for the ribbons on the side seams  and continued on the back. The result looks very special and could be dressed up or down. Accurately stitching the ribbons in place will be quite a job, but when it’s done sewing the skirt will be easy. Valerie, I’m looking forward to seeing the result.

She wants to finish the waist with petersham. In the Netherlands this is not available (as far as we know). Does anyone know a good European source to buy this online? And next month I will be in the UK for a few days, is this available there? Any tips for fabric/notions shops that I could visit (Sevenoaks/Tunbridge Wells region).

28 comments:

  1. What a great and original skirt. I am sure it will be wonderful!

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  2. I'll check this weekend for black petersham at A Fabric Place. If they have it, I could send you some. I know I've seen it. But, it may have been NYC.

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  3. I love the looks of the skirt. I can't wait to see it done.

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  4. Love this idea with the ribbons.Please say hi to Valerie!

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  5. Wow, what a very cute skirt! Love the ribbon embellishment!

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  6. Love the skirt! What a fun project to make!

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  7. That will make a gorgeous skirt. What a great, yet simple, idea!

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  8. What a fantastic and original idea, thanks for sharing. I'm pretty sure I've seen Petersham here in Sydney, and will happily send you some if Cidell is unable to source it for you.

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  9. I live in the U.S., but have a good source I've ordered from in London. It is called MacCulloch & Wallis. They have a web site (that's wear I have ordered cotton foldover, and they have lots of Petersham, too.) They are located at 25-26 Dering Street in London. Hope this helps!

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  10. The ribbon treatment is fantastic! It looks random, but I see it took some planning.

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  11. Wow! I really like this idea, can hardly wait to see your finished project.

    Christiana
    sewamusing.blogspot.com

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  12. I love this skirt. The ribbon treatment is wonderful. I wonder why petersham is so hard to find. Here too. I will say that Pacific Trimming in NYC has real petersham that they display as 100% rayon, but it's real, honest to goodness petersham. When I told the woman this and that they should display it as such, she looked at me like I had two heads. Of course, she didn't speak really great English.

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  13. I love how you can take a basic straight skirt and by adding the ribbon turn it into a hero piece.

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  14. Fantastic post. I love the technique.

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  15. Wow this skirt looks gorgeous already! The yahoo group I'm in fabricsandnotions, just had a co-op on petersham of all colors, I'm not sure if the buy is closed or not. But it's a great fabric source!

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  16. McCulloch and Wallis have an online store - they have curved skirt petersham listed there - see
    http://www.macculloch-wallis.co.uk/Product.aspx/!84300
    - in black or white, by the metre or a 40m box.
    If you need a larger range of colours, try V.V Rouleaux -
    http://www.vvrouleaux.com/products/results_retail.asp?createbasket=&category=&keyword=petersham&submit=Search

    Good luck, looking forward to seeing the result!

    Kate

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  17. PS - should have also said that both these shops are in London!
    If you can take a train from Sevenoaks/Tunbridge Wells to London Victoria station, then it's only one stop on the tube to Sloane Square, where there's a branch of VVRouleaux. If you're in Sloane Sq, it's also worth checking out the haberdashery dept of Peter Jones.
    Kate

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  18. For the petersham call http://www.schwitzner.nl/fournituren.html
    maybe they have it.

    Hester

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  19. Hier in Maastricht is ripsband, mét de geschulpte rand, op de markt te koop. Kleuren beperkt en in wisselend aanbod.
    Ook in `het Panhuis`hebben ze ripsband zoals jij bedoelt. 2.50 euro de meter. Ik wil hem met liefde voor je kopen en opsturen :-)

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  20. oh WOW that is such an amazing design! So simple, yet so cool. It'd be amazing paired with a black silk satin blouse...

    As for Petersham, Sew Essential have it for very cheap and you could get it shipped to wherever you're staying in Kent to pick up when you're there. Or just pay the extra for NL delivery. They're very quick with shipping.

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  21. That detail looks amazing - just stunning!

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  22. What fun to have a sewing friend! I belong to a couple of sewing clubs, and thank goodness for then and these blogs!

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  23. What a great skirt and how wonderful that you had the opportunity to work on it together!

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  24. Sigrid, I have about 30 meters of 36 mm rayon petersham ribbon. Just let me know how much you need and I will be happy to send it to you. I live in the US so it would take a few days to reach you.

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  25. Hi there.

    You wrote that it would be precisionwork to sew on the ribbons.

    I usually just glue on the ribbons with a children's water soluble glue stick, leave to dry for half an hour and sew along smoothly after that. If you don't give it enough time to dry, the needle will become gunky with glue :-)

    Hope that small trick may help Valerie :-)

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  26. The is a great inspiration project. Thank you for sharing.

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