The Handmade Christmas Gift

This year I made just the one handmade Xmas gift, which was totally unplanned. Jon had ripped out a picture of this posh looking Drake's tie from a copy of Time Out, complete with £125 price tag. 

Drake's silk tie

Now I know he would never spend this amount of money on a tie himself (he hardly ever wears them, except to pose for pictures on this blog...) and would be equally horrified if I shelled out big bucks too. I think he just liked the look of it. It got me thinking though - if I could find a nice looking Prince of Wales check, I could whip him one up myself and surprise him on Christmas Day...

So three days before Christmas I hot footed it down to Goldhawk Road to hunt for some fabric. As the schools had broken up I had Charlie with me and I knew it would have to be a lightning quick visit (he's not keen on lingering in shops, unless they happen to sell watering cans). In the end I had to bribe him with lunch at Pizza Express, but it was well worth it because I found the perfect fabric pretty quickly. It was from a new, posh looking fabric shop called Misan West, which isn't the cheapest, but has lots of good quality suitings and silks. I bought a metre of Prince of Wales check lightweight wool suiting for £15 and the girl kindly added a bit extra in case I mucked up. I didn't muck up as it happens, and as the fabric is quite wide, I still have enough for a pencil skirt if I so wish, hoorah! For the lining I used some scraps of Venezia lining fabric left over from this skirt.

Sadly my tie making partner in crime - Joe - was busy doing a panto run (he's a fabulous Ugly Sister in Cinderella if you're interested!) and I must admit, I missed his expertise. I also realised he had all the tie patterns we'd worked on together so I had to improvise! I remembered that there was a tie in the Sew Over It Vintage book, so set about drafting one from the book myself. I made a couple of small changes: lengthened it by 10cms to match an existing tie and narrowed the bit that goes around the back of the neck so that the shirt collar would cover it. The drafting took one afternoon and I spent another afternoon actually sewing it. There are only a few bits of machine sewing involved, the lengthy parts of the process were spent at the ironing board and hand stitching the central seam. 

Apart from the obvious difference i.e the posh Drake's tie is silk and the one I made is wool, I don't think they're that different to the untrained eye. I couldn't adjust the colour properly on my photos, so you'll have to take my word for it that my tie is much lighter in real life - the colours and checks really are very similar. And Jon's face on Christmas Day when he realised I'd made it was a picture!

Drake's Tie

Jane's Tie

Tie by Joe

Today I have another gent-in-a-tie combo on the blog and it's not even Christmas! Let me introduce you to my friend Joe Alessi - actor, bon viveur, devoted uncle and snappy dresser. I've known him since I was 16, which will be 30 YEARS AGO this year. god that makes me feel old! Anyway, here we are in about 1987, when oversized baggy T shirts were flavour of the month…. 

…and here we are during OWOP last year outside Liberty. Thankfully we've both scrubbed up a bit in the intervening years. 

When I posted about my tie making adventures at Christmas, Joe was super keen on the idea of making a tie himself, so last week he came over for a fabulous day of sewing. And cake eating. And visiting the allotment. And looking at old maps with Jon (what is it with men and maps?!) Amidst all this high octane excitement, we did eventually find some time for tie making and let me tell you, he's a natural!  I should point out that his dad was a tailor so it's in the blood, but still, he was fab.

Pinning the pattern to the fabric - note the sophisticated pattern weights

For fabric he chose a Liberty-esque floral lawn from Classic Textiles on the Goldhawk Road. The fabric is a lovely weight, with a bit of a silky hand to it, so perfect for a tie. In fact it's much better suited than the quilting cotton I used for Jon's tie, which looked bulky by comparison. For the pattern, we used Sew Over It's Tie Making Kit, with the following small changes:

Increased the length of the back tie piece and the back lining piece by 10cms. This matched the length of a RTW tie Joe had brought along for comparison. 

Decreased the width of the back neck section by about 5mm on either side, as it overlapped his shirt collar. Well, we drew the changes onto the pattern, but were too busy chatting to actually cut along the lines. Whoops! It's a change he can implement on his next tie in any case!

First seam!

Here it is later, all pressed and gorgeous

We'd ran out of domette, which is the special tie lining that comes with the kit, so improvised and used a double layer of cotton flannel instead. Personally, I think the flannel is an improvement as it's not quite as springy as the domette. Pressing the tie into shape around the lining is the only slightly tricky part of the whole proceedings. You've got to line it up perfectly in order to get that central line down the back of the tie. Look at that furrowed brow concentrating! If he was a toddler he'd have his tongue sticking out.

By the time Joe left, all he had to do at home was invisibly catchstitch the central back seam, which he did beautifully.

Look! A 'Tie by Joe' label.  I'm not going to lie, when he sent me the final photos of his tie, all perfectly stitched and labelled, I totally blubbed (it doesn't take much!) Just look at it though - it wouldn't look out of place in Liberty or Paul Smith, I'm so bloody proud of him! He's got fabric to make more ties and when he posted these photos on Twitter his friends were lining up to place orders! I'm not surprised, I think this is the start of a wonderful tie empire. Remember, you saw it here first!  x

Mr Dapper

Buying Luxury, Acquiring Style - Georgian Menswear

When my friend Liz sent me details of Buying Luxury, Acquiring Style, a talk on Georgian fashion and menswear at the British Library, my interested was piqued. I find the Georgian period fascinating (mainly down to Georgette Heyer novels: all those duplicitous cads and scoundrels in their splendid silks) and I'm rather partial to finding out whatever I can about gents trousers. Could this possibly get any better? Yes it could. The talk was co-hosted by menswear guru and GBSB hottie Patrick Grant!!! The deal was immediately sealed and we hot footed it to the British Library on Monday evening.

The talk started with co-host Dr Hannah Greig, a specialist in 18th Century British history, who discussed the concept of 18th Century fashion - the Beau Monde.

She described how attention to detail was paid not just to clothes, but also shoes (£3 million diamond shoe buckles anyone?!), swords, fans and snuffboxes. I also learnt that as a fashionable person in the 18th century, you would have had a direct role in commissioning your own clothes, dictating the style, colour, choice of ribbons etc. Very different from today, where the power appears to lie with designers rather than the individual. Unless, of course, you're lucky enough to be able to make your own clothes….! Hannah Greig obviously knew her stuff and to be honest, I could have listened to her all night. But she only had limited time available and had to make way for Patrick.

Ah Patrick, tall, debonair and sporting a sharply cut First World War-style haircut, he was a delight to watch listen to. He talked engagingly about the historical resources he'd used as inspiration for his latest menswear collections. Drawing influences from the Bayeux Tapestry, heraldic imagery and Hogarth's The Rake's Progress (after the Rake has come into money and starts hanging out with tailors and musicians). Again, I could have listened to him all night…. but it was difficult to pack every single topic into the allocated hour and a bit. Sadly, I didn't find out the story behind the three piece suit, which was the bit I was most looking forward to. But it's actually spurred me on to look it up myself, unless anybody would care to enlighten me?

The talk accompanies the British Library's new exhibition - The Georgians Revealed - which looks amazing and runs until 11th March 2014. Liz and I will definitely be back to learn all we can about gambling dens, coffee houses, shopping and celebrity - not much different from modern London in fact!

Right, cultural interlude over, next up: a party dress! x