Tag: Amelia

That Perfect Shirt

Posted on by Felix

(…for a given value of perfect)

This is the story of Kitty yanking out all her fur while trying to design the perfect shirt for as many women’s bodies as possible, preferably without having to personally fit them all one at a time. 

If you read my last blog on what makes a shirt fit properly, you already know how challenging it is just to get reasonably good fit.  But I wanted this new design to have all of the following assets too:

  1. A simple enough line so you could wear it often, but also stylish enough that it doesn’t look like you bought it at Fast-Fashions-‘R’-Us.  Basically, you should be able to wear it under a business blazer AND a Victorian corset equally appropriately.
  • Some adjustability.  Much as I would love to have a separate pattern for each common figure variation (bust size, hip size, waist length, sleeve girth, etc), we’re not a mega-corporation with a sweatshop.  One Kitty can only sew so many things in a day, and we don’t have room to carry (or store) thousands of shirts.  Which means that there would need to be built-in features made for flexing around your diverse shapes.
  • Affordability, within reason.  Everybody needs a shirt that fits.  On the other hand, a truly custom-fitted, hand-made blouse, constructed with decent materials with all the fine details I’d like it to have, tends to cost about as much as a small car.  So, compromise is going to be a thing.

So this is the design so far:

We’re going with a standing collar because it gives a finished look without being generic.  I started with a front that closed all the way up the neck, but nixed that idea in favour of this neckline with a narrow V-shaped notch.  Seriously, no one can handle something buttoned under the chin unless you have a swan-like neck and chiselled jawline.  I actually really love the way this neckline turned out — oddly elegant and elongating.  Totally worth the dozens of attempts that it took.

The sleeves are three-quarter length, lightly gathered into a narrow cuff.  The cuff echoes the collar and pulls the look together, and the gathering adds a definite but not over-the-top softness.  Also, it accommodates more kinds of arms, softening the skinny and making room for the billowy.  I can’t be the only one with massive biceps compared to the rest of me, right?  And three-quarter is a universally flattering length, which also happens to look great even if your arms are an inch or three longer or shorter than average.

There is no way to adjust the bust fit on a fitted shirt that I know of.  I suppose I’ll just have to make these in multiple cup sizes.  Oh well.  But it’s worth it!  See how marvellous a shirt can look when it correctly cups your bosom and actually nips in at the waist?

The upper back actually has a built-in adjustment for a forward shoulder.  This is the one alteration you really need that you didn’t know you needed; almost EVERYONE needs it in this age of computers.  Your shoulders and neck curve forward more than they used to back when everyone was out chasing antelope or show-jumping on horseback.  This is why store-bought shirts sometimes fall back off the shoulder and, in extreme cases, crawl up and try to choke you (lots of people avoid high necklines just for this reason, and this is why you often have to pull your shirt down in the front).  See how the shoulder seam is shifted ever so slightly forward?

The blue ribbon in the previous photo is where a conventional shoulder seam sits.  It’s a very small change, but it ensures that the shirt will stay put on your shoulders.

There are adjustable lacings in the back.  Firstly, no one has the same waist length, and secondly, you may have no bum, an average bum, or a really fabulous bum with the full swayback deal.  A little manipulation of these lacings will help most of us skirt the issue, just enough to achieve decent fit.  I detest sewing loops, and I tried many ways to get around it, but I had to admit defeat — the lacing system really works well, and adds a nice detail besides.

It’s so much simpler to make the hem straight all the way around, but stark horizontal line right at the hip doesn’t do us any favours, especially in a crisp fitted item like this.  Ergo, we have a gently curved hem, which is a headache to sew correctly, but makes your legs look longer and enhances your curvature.  It’s subtle and you wouldn’t consciously notice it, but believe me, it makes a difference.

I’m satisfied (for now) that this us the best off-the-rack shirt I can make.  I realize that everything looks good on Amelia, my trusty and completely inhuman-looking dress form, but honestly, this looks halfway decent on me too (linebacker shoulders, Hanoverian bosom, no waist, hip-deficient, bum-less, truly epic biceps), which is rather a feat for any blouse.  There is a reason you’ve never, ever seen me in a button-down-style shirt before.

I may have ripped out all my hair while stitching the million or so sample shirts to get to this point, but hopefully it will be worth it in the end.  The plan is to debut these (yes, with different cup sizes) in April at Calgary, so come help me test out the prototypes. Then as usual, I’ll probably end up making a host of changes based on your suggestions.

Next up: Steampunk goes to Hogwarts.

Blouses for Bountiful Bosoms

Posted on by Felix

(…and other lost causes)

By Kitty

If you have a generous bosom, odds are your shirts don’t fit. 

I don’t mean spandex T-shirts that can stretch over the Taj Mahal.  I mean dress(ish) shirts with actual buttons and a collar that you could actually wear to a job interview, or Cousin Sally’s sixth wedding.  The bigger your bust, the harder it is to find a blouse that stays decently buttoned without pulling across your breasts – unless it’s a vast tent that drowns the rest of your torso in enough excess fabric to conceal an Alsatian. 

As you already know, the fashion industry mostly consists of people who think all women are built like 10-year-old boys, maybe with plums in their breast pockets.  If you look at the average “women’s” shirt, you’ll find that its anatomy is basically the same as a man’s shirt: flat front and back.  You might get curved seams, usually only at the sides, if someone wants you to think it’s extra-feminine. 

Spoiler alert: your breasts don’t grow out of your sides, so curving the side seams do exactly nothing toward fitting them.  If there isn’t a seam or dart that actually touches the peak of your puppies, that shirt will NEVER fit you correctly.

Allow your Aunt Kitty to illustrate.  Meet Amelia, my unrealistic dress form.  She is shaped like no woman ever, but she’ll do to demonstrate how bust fit works.

Amelia has a fairly generous bust, disproportionately tiny waist, and moderate hips.  By measurements, she’s something like a DD cup.  But because of the huge bust-to-hip ratio, you will really be able to see how cup size in shirts work. 

For instance, here is a shirt mock-up made to her supposed size, but with no shaping other than at the side seams (I left the sleeves off, so you get an unobstructed view of the torso).  This is essentially an A-cup equivalent.

Does this look familiar? The shirt gapes open over the fullest part of the chest, and because she’s rigid, I can’t even pull it closed (if she was squishy, like human breasts, you’d be able to force the buttons closed, until they popped off and flew across the room).  The area below the bust is super-boxy, and completely hides the fact that she has a magnificent waist.

From the side, you can see pull lines pointing to where the bust is desperately trying to steal some fabric to cover itself, and the pulling actually causes even the back waist to ride up and get all weird and wrinkly over the butt.  If you’re a D cup or larger, you’ve been there.

Now, here’s a different shirt, but note that this one has actual seams running over the middle of both the front and back panels; it’s drafted to a B cup:  

I picked the pattern size according to Amelia’s BUST size, meaning it fits pretty well there.  But now it’s baggy and loose at the waist, hips, and back, though it’s a huge improvement over the no-shaping-at-all shirt.

Now, for illustration purposes, look at the exact same B-cup shirt pattern, but this time, I used the size intended for her WAIST measurement instead of the bust.  This one fits better over the waist and hips, but you can’t get it closed over the chest.

Finally, look at the same design, but with a DD cup size.  Ladies, this is how your shirts are supposed to fit.

Why don’t all the clothing manufacturers make clothes this way, with actual shaping seams that travel over the actual bits of you that stick out and need actual shaping?  Would it kill them to offer tops in different cup sizes?

In fact, it just might.  It took me three times as long to cut and sew together the pink shirts (with the extra seams that go over the bust and back shoulders) than the red one with only side seams.  Not only do clothes made with built-in shaping usually need more pattern pieces, the pieces themselves are more complex and the seams are more curved, making them much harder to stabilize and stitch accurately. 

As an indie designer who still does all my own sewing, I’m willing to take the extra time and care – but if I were a mass-manufacturing giant who makes millions of each piece, the cost would be drastically higher, especially if the target market just wanted low-priced fast fashion.  Maybe high enough to drive me out of the business altogether.

Even for me, making each size in multiple cup sizes means investing many times the amount of time and materials for any given design, and carrying around three or four times as much inventory when we go to events (and we only have so much storage space!).  I sort of understand why not many people offer this option. 

Still, as a woman who has NEVER (never, never, never, ever) found a shirt that fit until I started sewing for myself, I’m finally planning on giving it a go.  So, this is my design project for the upcoming season – fitted button-down shirts for every bosom!  I’ll try to document my progress in the next blog.

Obviously, real bodies have fit issues other than just bust-related.  We’ve got wide or narrow hips, flat or protruding bums, long and short waists, wide or skinny biceps, square or sloping shoulders, and a hundred more variations.  Any and all of those can look marvellous if you fit them right, and as Amelia proves, the most idealized figure can look dumpy if the fit is wrong. 

The next time you have a frustrating shopping experience, try and remember that it’s not your body that’s at fault, but an industry that prioritized cheap mass production and absurd standards over you, their customer.   And also that when we prove that we want diversely shaped, properly made clothing and are willing to pay what it’s worth, maybe (just maybe) the industry will decide it’s worth making.

New Design: Regency Jacket

Posted on by Felix

Sometimes one thing really does lead to another.  In this case a single image made Kitty think “I’d like to try something like that for myself!”  It was only meant to be for her own wardrobe, but  – after many interations and discussions and quibbles over quarter inches – the end result made us think that it had more of a future than that.

So Kitty made up a couple of samples for Amelia (our mannequin).  It looked good on her too (see the gallery)!  Since Kitty and Amelia don’t resemble each other in the slightest, we’re optimistic that this jacket will look good on most women of various shapes.

Hopefully, Kitty will be able to get a small batch of these made up for Calgary Comic Expo (April 27-30th).

Why call it the Regency Jacket?

The English Regency took place 200 years ago (1811-1820) and dresses of the period typically had a very high waistline, often referred to as an empire waist.  Given that this jacket has a waistline up to the same level, it seemed natural to name it after the period.

Felix

Amelia’s New Clothes

Posted on by Felix

Kitty has been designing again!

Some ideas take a while to come to fruition.  This one has been percolating on the back burner for a while now.  Inspired in part by Steampunk harnesses, vests, and mini-corsets, Kitty finally had the  time to put these various ideas together and try making a prototype.

And then she made some corections and made another prototype…

And then she made another one…

And another…

You get the idea.  It takes a while to design something.  You go through as many iterations as it takes until you either laugh manaically and throw it on the fire, or you stand back and think “I like it.”

We like it.  Here are a few snaps:

What to call it?  Until a better name comes along, I will use the term Amelia’s Vestlet.  Amelia (our mannequin) is wearing it and it’s vesty. Vest-ish?

Regardless of what it’s called, we’re planning to have a small number of them with us at CCEE (April 27-30th).  See you then!

Felix

It’s Smaller on the Outside

Posted on by Kitty

(Or, Kitty makes a TARDIS-inspired corset)

As promised, here is the TARDIS corset, a la Felix & Kitty.

Felix and Kitty are newcomers to the Doctor Who phenomenon.  And Kitty is a newcomer to just about anything from the 20th century onwards, being a technophobe and general crank regarding all things Pop Culture.  But who doesn’t like the idea of a stark barking mad man in a box that can take you anywhere (and anywhen)?

There’s something about the dramatic blue-and-white-and-black lines of the TARDIS that immediately made Kitty think of corsets.  While a corset can’t transport you in space and time, at least it CAN make you smaller on the outside!

The Materials

First, you’ve got to have the right blue.  Murphy’s Law of Textiles says that the moment you start looking for a particular colour of fabric, it instantly vanishes from the universe, or at least the local fabric stores.  But Felix & Kitty’s usual flannel-backed satin in royal blue was close enough for now.

It’s a bit shiny for wood, so next time, Kitty might try a blue suede.  But it gives you the general idea of police box blue.

Next, the windows.  Any old plain white material might do, but where’s the fun in that?  Kitty has found that many character-inspired costume wearables have a tendency to look cartoonish or cheap; she thinks it’s partly due to overly graphic blocks of plain materials.  Subtly textured fabrics add depth and richness, which the brain subconsciously interprets as “real.”  So she went with this white check material with silver lines and dots.  It suggests windowpanes without being too literal about it, and adds lovely visual complexity.

Finally, the framework.  No, police boxes don’t have black trim running down their length, but this corset needed a strong vertical accent and a contrast colour to make the blue and white pop properly.  Good design sometimes means taking liberties.  Kitty chose this black velvet ribbon to add yet another layer of texture.

The Finished TARDIS corset

And here’s Amelia in the completed corset.  In the background, you see the Wall of 1001 Corsets, aka Felix & Kitty’s living room.

Kitty stuck with the usual front-laced closure, and she thinks it doesn’t interfere with the general TARDIS-ish quality of the corset.  But it could be made with a solid closed front if you didn’t mind needing minions to do up the back for you.  Or a busk, if you were willing to deal with the many fussy issues that accompanies a busk.  Or even a super-heavy-duty upholstery-weight zipper, which Kitty wouldn’t normally recommend, but which really does go well with this look (but only if you were willing to follow the rules regarding zipped corsets).

Kitty intends to make one for herself for the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, and maybe a few more in popular sizes if she can squeeze out the time.  These things are a labour of love – they’re very time-consuming to make!

This is because you can’t just slap on rectangles for the “windows” over the bust area; they need to navigate the 3-dimensional curve of the breast, so each window panel must be carefully cut and shaped differently for each cup size and shape.  Trust Kitty – if you just try the rectangle trick, you’ll look like you’re wearing placards stuck to your bosom.  She speaks with the voice of experience, having tried to cover her bountiful tracts of chest real estate with puny flat rectangles during her first attempt.  No, you don’t get to see that, unless you bribe her with puppies and kittens.

NEXT TIME: The trumpet skirt (is it worth developing, or should Kitty stick to pre-Edwardian designs?)

P.S.: If you think you might want one of these corsets for yourself, email us.  If you want one at CCEE, give Kitty as much notice as you can, because, as mentioned, these things take a bit of extra fiddling (no one wants windows that don’t fit right over the girls!).