OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013

VOGUEPATTERNS.COM

THE ULTIMATE SEWING MAGAZINE

HOW TO MAKE YOUR ULTIMATE ARTISANAL JEANS

SOURCING MATERIALS | CONSTRUCTION DETAILS | CUSTOM FITTING

PLUS OVER 40 NEW FALL LOOKS

2 VOGUE PATTERNS

Contents Vogue Patterns Magazine October/November 2013

ON THE COVERV8884 in pinstripes, with

solid panels on the back

and under the collar, from

page 71. This page: Jeans

V8774 from page 48 and

shirt M6649 in striped

cotton. Shoes: French

Sole. Hair and makeup by

Joseph Boggess.

FEATURES

42Meet the MakersFrom sourcing durable

denim to stitching details,

today’s bespoke-jeans

designers offer advice for

building the perfect pair.

byJean Hartig

48Create Your Ultimate JeansWe examined some of the

best jeans on the market

to identify the details that

make them special. Here’s

how to incorporate these

artisanal touches in your

own sewing.

by Gillian Conahan

54A Passion for FashionSince the 1960s, Bellville

Sassoon has dressed

the world’s most stylish

women. David Sassoon

refl ects on fi fty years of

high fashion.

by Marilyn Stevens

68Borrowed From the BoysMasculine pieces show

versatility and style in

these exclusive looks

from the Vogue Patterns,

Butterick, and McCall’s

Patterns collections.

85Pattern GalleryNew looks from the

Vogue Patterns Fall

Collection.

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 3

FASHION HISTORY

Blue Gold or the Devil’s Dye? 38

Rich in symbolism and

dogged by confl ict, indigo

has a rare mystique and a

long, global history.

by Catherine McKinley

STYLE STRATEGY

Fabric Matching 62

FREE PROJECTS

Pocket Panache 64

Experiment with sashiko

embroidery for an

offbeat take on jeans

embellishment.

Straight Lines and Soft Edges 66

Create a statement piece

with raw-edged self-fabric

appliqué.

RESOURCES

Guide to Pattern and Fabric Requirements 82

Body Measurement Chart 95

Fabric and Accessories Guide 96

DEPARTMENTS

Editor’s Note 5

Letters | Contributors 7

What Are You Sewing? 8

Must-Haves 10

Destinations | Fifty years

of Ebony Fashion Fair 13

by Jean Hartig

SEW BIZ

Cone Denim, White Oak 14

by Paul Trynka

Coral and Tusk 18

TIPS & TOOLS

Fitting Jeans 22

Make a muslin and adjust

your jeans pattern for a

comfortable, stylish fi t.

by Jennifer Stern-

Hasemann

Trouser Closures 26

Choose the technique

best suited for your pants

project.

by Kathryn Brenne

MASTER INSTRUCTION

Corset Building 30

Part III: Cut a curvy corset

from striped fabric and

construct a fl oating busk

for a clean front fi nish.

by Linda Sparks

COUTURE CORNER

The Secret to Topstitching 34

Tips for banishing skipped

stitches, keeping seams

on track, and more.

by Claire Shaeffer

TK

18

62

68

34 VOGUE PATTERNS

COUTURE CORNER

Th e Secret to TopstitchingWhether Ostentatious or Unobtrusive, Flawless Topstitching

Is Within Reach With These Tips for Banishing Skipped Stitches, Keeping Seams on Track, and More

BY CLAIRE SHAEFFER

Opposite page, clockwise

from top left: The sig-

nature red zigzag stitch

of Stephen Burrows; a

Yves Saint Laurent haute

couture jacket; Geoffrey

Beene's decorative gold

topstitching from the

eighties; and a creme

Chanel jacket.

Topstitching is any stitching, decorative or func-

tional, matching or contrasting, that shows on

the outside of the garment. Frequently it is an

inconspicuous construction element at edges,

zipper plackets, hems, patch pockets, or tucks,

but it can also highlight the seams and edges

of tailored designs and sportswear and add

durability and body to other areas of a garment.

Sometimes it’s a row of straight or zigzag stitch-

ing with a single strand of standard machine-

stitching thread, silk buttonhole twist, or other

decorative thread; sometimes it’s multiple rows

of threads in simple or complex designs. Even a

machine-stitched buttonhole could be consid-

ered topstitching.

Over the past thirty years, I’ve examined

topstitching in many designs, in all price ranges,

and am regularly reassured that the topstitching

from even the crème de la crème of the fashion

industry isn’t always perfect. One design that

comes to mind is a Chanel suit with a cardi-

gan jacket that I once saw in the Victoria &

Albert Museum in London, a simple tweed suit

trimmed with multiple rows of decorative top-

stitching. Although it’s an attractive design, the

topstitching rows are not parallel to each other

along the curved edges.

Generally, decorative topstitching is used

more frequently on ready-to-wear than on haute

couture, but a few designers used it generously

for both collections throughout their careers.

The most noteworthy are Yves Saint Laurent,

who was greatly influenced by menswear, and

Pierre Cardin and André Courrèges who created

“space age” collections in which the topstitching

added a harder, sportier look. Designers such as

Dior, Balenciaga, and Balmain, who specialized

in soft tailored suits, rarely used topstitching.

There may be several reasons why topstitch-

ing is used less often in couture garments. The

construction of a couture jacket, for example,

focuses on manipulating the fabric in your

hands from the beginning, so the finished col-

lar and lapels are shaped into their final posi-

tions during construction. In contrast, the

topstitching on a ready-to-wear jacket is applied

at the edges after the garment is assembled,

and it holds the layers in the finished posi-

tion. Remember when comparing couture and

ready-to-wear that each couture garment is

made for a single client—just as in home sew-

ing—on a machine similar to the machines you

use. Ready-to-wear is mass produced on special

machines with multiple needles, special feet,

and guides to create perfectly straight and paral-

lel stitches.

GET READY If you haven’t had your sewing machine main-

tained recently, now is a good time to take it to

the dealer for a checkup. Tell your dealer what

you’re planning to sew and topstitch, and ask for

suggestions about threads, needles, machine feet,

and stabilizers. You’re likely to find a wider selec-

tion of products to improve stitch quality and

consistency than are available at the chain stores.

A new needle of good quality and an appropri-

ate type is a must to prevent skipped stitches,

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 35

48 VOGUE PATTERNS

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 49

Just what makes the ultimate pair of jeans?

In a market swamped with denim in every

imaginable color and wash, many of them

pre-destructed or elaborately embellished, a

growing faction of enthusiasts is returning to

denim’s roots in a quest for quality, authenticity,

and timeless style. These people choose classic

details inspired by the Levi’s of yore, and favor

heavy, raw selvage denims that have no artificial

washes or distressing so the fade patterns devel-

op naturally over time, creating a look reflective

of the wearer’s lifestyle.

To learn more about what goes into artisanal

jeans we visited Kiya Babzani, co-owner of Self

Edge—a shop specializing in Japanese reproduc-

tions of vintage denim. According to Babzani, the

Japanese interest in heritage denim was driven

by a fascination with vintage Americana that

began in the 1980s. The original goal was not to

create fashionable jeans but to create reproduc-

tions authentic in every detail, from thread and

fabric to hardware, construction, and finishing.

More recently, some companies have reinterpret-

ed the classic styles to incorporate features such

as lined back pockets, which make wear-prone

areas more robust. “The Japanese take the vin-

tage style and make improvements, but they try

to make it all invisible,” Babzani says.

These styles have made their way back to

the United States over the years following their

boom in Japan—a dissemination driven in part

by the efforts of Babzani and Self Edge—and in

recent years have found a market among denim

lovers of all stripes. Premium brands in the

United States and elsewhere have also adopted

this restrained, detail-oriented approach to pro-

duce vintage-style jeans with a modern twist.

The cost of these jeans often exceeds $300, and

bespoke denim surpasses that by far. But for

hard-core denim lovers who wear their jeans

daily, lovingly repairing the inevitable holes

and rips, and share photos and tips in a host

of online forums, blogs, and lifestyle sites, the

beauty, durability, and authenticity are worth

the price.

It’s a mind-set that any lover of fine sewing

can appreciate, and much of it translates beauti-

fully to sewing at home.

RAW MATERIALSTrendy denim producers, including a number

of Japanese mills as well as Cone Denim in

Greensboro, North Carolina, weave the cloth on

old-style narrow shuttle looms, using a single

thread that passes back and forth to produce

the neat selvage edge that has become a hall-

mark of quality jeans. Although thick, heavy

jeans aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, we found our

denim to be surprisingly soft and malleable for

its weight, and it proved manageable to sew on

a domestic machine.

Original jeans threads were 100 percent cot-

ton, a relatively weak fiber that frays and breaks

over time. Most modern producers use polyester

threads, either all poly or a cotton-wrapped

poly core, so the stitching remains pristine even

when the jeans themselves start to disintegrate.

Premium producers such as Flat Head and Strike

Gold have returned to using all-cotton thread in

pursuit of a jean that will distress authentically.

Although we tested a variety of cotton

threads for topstitching—using a freestanding

SUPPLIESVogue Patterns 8774

or your favorite jeans

pattern

Selvage denim

Mattress ticking or

other sturdy cotton for

pocket linings

High quality jeans

zipper (we used a

Super Lampo T5)

Silk or cotton top-

stitching thread

Jeans button and

rivets

Leather scraps for

logo patch and rivet

spacers

Jeans needle of size

appropriate to your

fabric (we used size

110/18)

Create Your Ultimate JeansWe Examined Some of the Best Jeans on the Market to Identify the Details That Make Them Special. Here’s How to Sew Them Yourself.

BY GILLIAN CONAHAN

54 VOGUE PATTERNS

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013 55

BY MARILYN STEVENS

Since the 1960s the Couture House of Bellville Sassoon Has Dressed Many of the World’s Most Stylish Women. Now in His Early Eighties,

David Sassoon Refl ects on Fifty Years of High Fashion.

A Passion for Fashion

David Sassoon working

with Belinda Bellville at

Cadogan Lane in 1967.

Slim, well-groomed, and fashionably

dressed in a blue sweater and skinny

jeans, David Sassoon greets me warmly as

I arrive at his Kensington apartment, which is

situated in an imposing Victorian mansion that

overlooks one of London’s leafy garden squares.

He disappears into the kitchen to make tea, giv-

ing me the chance to admire his elegant drawing

room. It has a tranquil, Zen-like feel—formal

sofas piled with pillows in rich jeweled colors,

flanked by low, dark wooden tables stacked with

art and fashion books.

Now in his early eighties (though he doesn’t

look it), Sassoon has retired from Bellville

Sassoon, a couture house synonymous with high

fashion for over fifty years. Retired is a bit of a

misnomer, however: For the last twelve months

he’s been planning for the forthcoming exhibi-

tion The Glamour of Bellville Sassoon, scheduled to

take place this autumn at the Fashion and Textile

Museum in London. Unlike his good friend the

designer Zandra Rhodes—who has squirreled

away dresses and textiles throughout her equally

long fashion career and also exhibited at the

Fashion and Textile Museum this past summer—

Sassoon has kept very little. His press scrapbooks

and archives have since been donated to fashion

museums in London and Bath. So lately he’s been

busy writing letters, making calls, and meeting

with former clients and the representatives at the

various museums where Bellville Sassoon gar-

ments are on display in order to assemble the col-

lection of sixty garments that will tell the house’s

story of couture and glamour, from the late fifties

to the present day.

Belinda Bellville offered Sassoon a job in

1958, after seeing his final-year student

collection at the Royal College of Art

graduation show. With no interest in tailoring or

in “little day dresses,” he says—just glamour—

all his garments were evening dresses. Bellville

went to the show looking for someone to assist

her in her growing business, and that meet-

ing, he says, was when his life in fashion really

began—at a time when London was setting the

pace for a new mood of fashion.

During that same year, Sassoon made his first

visit to Buckingham Palace to oversee the fit-

ting of a bridesmaid’s dress for Princess Anne,

the first of a list of royal clients that went on to

include Princess Margaret, Princess Alexandra,

Princess Michael of Kent (who will open the

exhibit at the Fashion and Textile Museum), the

Duchess of Cornwall, and the Duchess of York.

Sassoon dressed Diana, Princess of Wales, on

many occasions, creating the glamorous black,

strapless gown she wore for a benefit recital; the

blue sailor suit for the official engagement por-

traits with the Queen and Prince Charles; and,

74

75

Opposite page: A touch of fusible interfac-ing helps to make the faced waistline of this skirt more substantial and prevents it from crumpling when worn. V8603, Misses’ (6–20). A men’s shirt contrasts nicely with the feminine silhouette. V8889, Men’s (34–46). Purchased vest. This page: The blue skirt has a center-front seam, which makes this style a great choice when you’re short on fabric. M6608, Misses’ (4–20). Purchased shirt. Shoes: J Shoes.

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