Hadestown at Henley: The Hades Jacket

Updated and republished post to include the link to the dress.

Read up on why I needed a Henley outfit here.

The Jacket

The story of this jacket's inception is almost the opposite of the dress. While the dress was created for the event and became a reference to the theatre show, the jacket was directly inspired by the show and accidentally became part of the outfit. I had coveted the Burdastyle Crossover Jacket since its launch - I dread to think how many times I'd Googled it and checked for other internet versions. I also bought the pattern, printed it and cut out size 36 before leaving it in an envelope for 2+ years. 

Having waited so long before attempting to make it, I had spotted some of the issues with the pattern in other people's reviews. Some of the important elements to flag were:

• Sleeves needing a lot of care and attention to insert without visible gathering at the head
• It only really looks good in photos when it's partially buttoned.
• Two layer jacket - it has no facing/lining. Rather, all of the inside is made up of the same fabric
• Sleeve seam shaping and the long sleeve vent - most people had puckers/dimples at the elbow where the vent becomes the seam.

It's a tricky pattern because the design is so strong - it needs to be executed well, otherwise it will look really bad. If I had attempted this in 2012 or 13, it would have ruined me - this is as good as my version of the jacket was ever going to get, so now I let it rest.

I'm trying to remember how this jacket got started. You remember how I fell in love with Hades' glittery pinstripes, I was determined to find the fabric. Well, I fell short but I did find a beautiful reasonably priced pinstripe on Fabworks. While I coveted it as the closest possible thing to the sparkly Hades fabric, I think it took me a few days to marry the fabric to the pattern in my head. It's a virgin wool, with some elastane built in. Interestingly, it is definitely a charcoal grey (not black) as I trialled about a dozen threads for it. I know it isn't glittery, but the slubby effect of the pinstripes does reference how they should glimmer. Besides, I told myself, I could just stitch in glittery lines on the jacket with some iridescent thread. It is a gem of a fabric, I love it so much.

Once I got it and started work, the first thing to do was to cut out the pattern pieces and start stitching in glittery lines on each pattern piece. I made slow progress for about 4 days and then gave up. However, I was too lazy to rip it out so there's still a hint of sparkliness on the front of the jacket.

Then I needed to to line up all of the stripes and make all of the bound buttonholes. Now, I've never done them before and while I knew they were basically welts, I wasn't sure about the finishing steps. I looked up some tutorials before attempting them, given that the jacket requires so many of them. They worked out okay, although I made a lot of effort to match the welt/lip stipes with the surrounding jacket, and I think that was only a partial success. This was my first time doing bound buttonholes, so I'll take them.

The lining is made from blue charmeuse and some turquiose bemberg. They were both in my stash at the time of cutting out the fabric - I don't think there's any more profound reasoning to the fabric choice. I think it looks really good with the pinstirpe (red is more common?), and I had some Nani Iro bias binding in my stash too which makes a fun accent between the lining/facing.

I made no fitting adjustments (because I'm lazy) but did alter the pattern to have a facing on the front, and around the sleeve cuffs.I should have done a Small Bust Adjustment, but didn't. It should be a learning point for me to refit every single jacket I make (even if it's a TNT) - they are so variable.

Finding buttons was a nightmare. I toured M&W, Fan New Trimmings and John Lewis looking for suitable candidates. I spent an hour in John Lewis with 2 viable candidates and then settled on these because they were sufficiently busy to blend with the jacket from a distance. They also came in two sizes, which was helpful because the pattern calls for the cuff buttons to be slightly smaller than the front ones. I bought extra (for repairs) but ended up using an extra button on each of the cuffs, because it filled the space better. So I have 6 buttons on each cuff when the pattern only calls for 5. The cuffs are interesting because the buttonhole is one big welt, and you hand-stitch the lips together at intervals, creating space for individual buttons. I've just remembered the buttons cost me £28 (twenty eight quid!) total. That was definitely bruising.

You will see that I failed to insert the sleeves without puckers. I seem to have this recurrent problem with jacket sleeves, no other garment sleeves pucker! They were ripped out and reinserted several times and settled for this. I did add shoulder pads and sleeve head roll, but the jacket looked awful. I removed the sleeve roll and kept the shoulder pads, tacking them only at the princess seams. This is another recurrent problem with jacket shoulders - the more I try to anchor them securely into place with lots of stitching, the worse they look.

Working on this pattern revealed a few more issues which might be interesting for people thinking of making the jacket:

• The pockets (or their seam allowance) might get in the way of the jacket centre front seam. They really don't have much space.
• My notes say "WTF sleeve vent pattern" - I remember it being counter-intuitive, and I think I redrafted my own. Be prepared for that to be confusing

I would like to find a way of incorporating a feather motif in the jacket the future, but haven't worked that out yet. I got some iron-on feather patches from the Dior exhibition at the V&A in 2019, but they're not quite right for this.

I am utterly surprised at how much I've worn this jacket since I made it. It's a pretty common work attire piece and I found that it works really well in the winter months (it fits nicely under my Mei jacket). It provides more warmth/wind resistance that I would have expected from such a thin fabric.On the other hand, I have never ever worn it with the buttons undone or sleeves rolled up. Seems odd, given that the cuffs are the man design feature, no?

The Outfit

Unexpectedly, I finished the outfit with a day to spare. I toyed with the idea of making a custom bag, but decided against it. Conveniently, I had a bag already that's printed with vintage microphones which nicely references 'Why We Build the Wall', and I paired it with my Aussie Pink Floyd The Wall pin badge just to hammer the point home. 

I had planned to debut the hat from my Summer 2019 millinery course, but there were some problems. Instead I used my standard sunhat and switched out the trim to match the Persephone Dress.

We were in full heatwave at the time and I knew that our day by the river was going to be hotter than hell. The jacket lasted approx 90 minutes on the day before being bundled in the bag, but the dress held up very well.

Ultimately I don't think anyone really noticed/cared about the dress in great measure. I don't remember if there were any compliments on it (it was noisy and the Pimms flowed freely). I am pleased I didn't stick out like a sore thumb. But in my head, on the day, I was utterly bulletproof. Smug. Chest puffed out. Striding around between the ice cream van/deck chairs/afternoon tea. Sure, there probably were a few more handmade outfits on the riverbank, and I couldn't tell one blazer from the next. But no one else at that event, under the blazing sun, was dressed simultaneously as the lord of the underworld and the goddess of summer. And that, I'll take as a win.

K

Hadestown at Henley: The Persephone Dress

A toast to the world we dream about, and the one we live in now...

Today I have something wacky to share with you: a jacket and a [formal-ish] dress. I don't remember when I realised that I had to fully embrace the Hadestown theme, but when the idea got into my brain it wasn't going to leave until the outfit had been made.

It all started one a cold winter night when B and I went to see Hadestown at the National Theatre. It was a good show, a really good show. A really, really good show. I became obsessed with Hades' costume (and proving that his suit had sparkly pinstripes) and then found a good Playbill article highlighting some of the costume features across the cast. Once I knew for sure that Hades definitely has a sparkly pinstripe suit I was determined to find that fabric. I didn't need to have a project for it, I just needed to own some sparkly pinstripe fabric. For the stash. You know.

Separately, some rumours started emerging at work that our team might get to attend Henley Royal Regatta (2019, obvs). We were asked for our opinions. I was skeptical, I am not a boat person (nor a horse person, not a golf person, nor a ski person) and didn't want to be the only loser in the Stewards' Circle. But, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to do something completely outside of my ordinary. I sucked up my worry and signed up.

It's worth noting that I had kept this little sewing habit hidden from my colleagues since I joined the team (well over a year at this point). This would be the event where I get outed as someone who makes their own clothes. The reveal (so to speak). No pressure.

There is a dress code, and I needed to find a way to fully respect it while also feeling confident in whatever I ended up in. I needed a fairly formal long dress, and probably something to cover my shoulders. For several months, I didn't give it much more thought. I browsed ideas idly and tried to think of something good that wouldn't be too much fuss to make. This deadline was fully in the middle of of millinery-tutu-summer dancing-volunteering madness* so while I had a fair amount of notice, I had very limited time to dedicate to the make. You guess what happened next.

The Dress (Persephone)

Ah, Persephone. I found it hard to get my head around her as a character - the fact that trashiness was a positive trait only came across after reading the Playbill article (amongst others). But her energy and exuberance is, literally, intoxicating.

I didn't start the dress design with Persephone in mind. I had been obsessed for a long time with the idea of a lace or embroidered net dress. This seemed like a good opportunity to use up the floral net remnants from my Molly Gaiters (honestly, a pretty trashy fabric). The embroidery design was all over eBay and RTW summer 2018 so I figured it would be relatively easy to get more and make a whole dress. I also figured that it might be a design that other people had seen before in RTW - therefore 'passing' potential scrutiny.

I had the net draped over my mannequin for a while and tested different fabrics/colours as underlinings. I had a vague idea that a green would make it look like the dress was growing a meadow, and the flowers on net would stand away a little. I shoved some green babycord remnants under the net and then left it in place for a few days. It was pure coincidence that the (soon to be) Hades Blazer was already partially constructed and also resting on my mannequin.

I think this was the first time I had the idea of the Hades/Persephone vibe. I yawned and went to bed. Never make important design decisions at 1am.

Anyway, the underlining fabric is a cotton sateen from Goldhawk Road. I tried to find a good colour match to Persephone's dress, this was the best I could do. It's very yellow, so I am a little worried about how it will fade. In Persephone style, I think these fabrics are probably quite cheap and trashy.

The bodice is underlined and has facings, but I wanted the skirt to be stand out more and have a visible separation between the green and the net. So I only joined them at the waist here. The net is hemmed with horsehair braid and it's a little bulkier than I would have liked. I mis-calculated the skirt length and I needed to turn it up one more time than I'd originally planned. I guess if I ever plan to wear this dress with heels, there's a little bit of excess length I can let out.

The pattern is a mashup of Vogue V8875 and the By Hand London Anna Dress. The skirt is drafted for a giant, so I removed 3" length and also turned the hem up an extra time. I added inseam pockets and am very pleased with them!

***This is how NOT to do pockets in a net/mesh dress***

I was working to a hideous time limit on this dress and the insides are mostly overlocked. Still, there were a few construction mishaps.

Firstly, the mesh fabric. Do you remember I said it was all over the place in summer 2018? Wel, unfortunately, by spring 2019 the supplies had mostly dried up! I bought this off eBay and though I ordered 3 metres, I received 3x 1m lengths instead. I took it up with the seller but they were having none of it, so I had to use what arrived. The issue here is that the Anna skirt is a fabric hog and I'd gone from having comfortably enough fabric to calculating where I might need to piece the skirt (don't forget it's a border print, therefore directional). Eventually, it all fit and I only had to get creative with how/where the bodice was cut out.

Secondly, I wanted to be nice and neat with the skirt seams so I french seamed them all. I looked at it afterwards and they were very thick/ugly, so I cut all of them out.

Thirdly, you remember that I said I wanted to use the remainder of my Molly Gaiters fabric? Well, I diligently matched the embroidery design on the new fabric, made up the skirt, stood back to take a look and saw a big problem. It's a different net!

I'm glad this was the CF skirt panel - it meant there was only one real solution: cut it out, find a big scrap of fabric and recut the piece. I was not very confident there would be a piece the right size, but I got very lucky. I assembled most of the skirt before attempting to cut out the bodice, and this really paid off here. If I had cut the bodice first, there would have been no big fabric scraps for the replacement skirt piece.

The dress closes with an invisible zip in the CB seam - it finished well but the zip is slightly too short and so there is only one way in/out of the dress.

Anyway - this is the Persephone dress. I think it ended up okay, though I can't decide if it's a bit dumpy/childish or not.

Next up: the Hades Jacket

K


*More on that later