Sewing Up the Neighbourhood

Utility Sewing - Ironing Board Cover

2012-01-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends,

After I cleaned up my sewing space, I had that one bin that was so full of fabrics it wouldn't close, remember? Well, down in the depths of that bin were two lengths of spongy boiled wool that I had bought on clearance to use as padding for a replacement ironing board cover. See, my old cover was just something I bought who knows how many years ago (before marriage? after?) and was not only ugly, but had these wrinkles that would transfer to my material particularly when I was fusing interfacing.

I do NOT recommend the iron pictured for sewing. It has an automatic shutoff that is so sensitive, you can't fuse interfacing without the iron shutting off. It went right back to the store.

See those wrinkles? They were a pain - literally as well as figuratively. If I was pressing anything fine or detailed like a very narrow hem on a handkerchief, the wrinkles made channels for the steam to shoot out and burn my fingers! Yeeouch!

But now they are gone. Behold my new cover!

Granted, it isn't beautiful. The top is made from two layers of a pale pink duvet that was given to me by a friend. I kept hoping to find a cheap 100% cotton fabric with a large check to use for a cover, but this seems to be the holy grail of utilitarian fabric purchases. So, I ended up giving up the check in favour of cheap (free) cotton. And really, in the end, the check might have driven me crazy if it was pulled a little off-grain, so it's probably a good thing I went with the solid.

I have no great words of wisdom for you if you want to recover your own ironing board. There are only about a gajillion tutorials out there. My new cover has five layers of wool and two layers of cotton (it was quite thin). The cotton has double fold bias tape stitched on to the edge with elastic within. Here's a shot of the underside:

Part of my goal with this project was to use only materials I had on hand. So this means that my bias tape and elastic are quite narrow. The narrow elastic doesn't quite have as much oomph as a wider one might, so I pinned pieces of remnant elastic across the underside to hold it tighter. It works.

And the best thing is, the fabric bin can close with room to spare!

Tartan Dress

2012-01-07T21:41:00.000-08:00

Hello All! I hope you all have made it nicely through the Christmas Season and into the New Year with relatively few scrapes and bangs. I thought I would post about a piece of fabric that haunted me for months until I bought it and then only took a week to transform it into a dress (And then only two months to blog about it!)

But before I can tell you that story, I have to tell you this story... (my apologies to Dav Pilkey)

Once upon a time there was a little girl who attended grades 1 through 4 at a tiny private school in her hometown. The school required uniforms - and not dress codes masquerading as uniforms, but actual, honest-to-God uniforms - that required a special trip to the industrial section of Portland to the uniform shop. The little girl's uniform consisted of a plaid jumper with a pleated skirt, a white blouse with a Peter Pan collar, and a red cardigan. All items contained a significant amount of polyester (for sturdiness and washability, I imagine) and were relatively comfortable, but the jumper was both a source of pleasure and pain for the little girl.

The little girl was pained by the jumper, because it was breezy and it showed off undergarments. The little girl had accompanied her mother to the uniform store and knew that plaid slacks were available. But alas, the school board (or whoever made the decisions) was not amenable to the idea. The undergarment issue was solved by wearing summer shorts underneath.

But the plaid of the jumper was a source of pleasure to the little girl. Countless hours were spent admiring the lines of colour intersecting, blending, and making new colours. The geometry was symmetrical, which pleased the girl's mathematical side a great deal. Over time the girl grew to love plaids - particularly even plaids - they spoke to her of order, neatness, and class.

Flash forward nearly 30 years and the girl - now grown with small creatures of her own - is waiting in line at a large fabric store, standing near a remnant bin. Something catches her eye. It is the plaid from her childhood! She picks up the carefully rolled and labeled fabric. The plaid is a bit larger in scale and certainly without polyester content, but the same plaid, nonetheless. Unfortunately, even at 50% off the original price, the remnant is far outside the woman's price range.

Over the next five or six months, the woman makes two or three more visits to this particular fabric store and each time, she lovingly picks up the remnant, places it in her basket, and carries it around the store. But also, each time, when she heads to the cash register, she sadly returns the fabric to the remnant bin. It is just too expensive and the wool is perhaps too high-maintenance for her lifestyle.

But! On her next trip, the fabric is still there and the store is having a remnant bin sale - buy one remnant get another remnant free! Luckily, there is a thin pinstriped fabric also calling the woman's name. The purchase is made and within a week, the plaid is transformed from flat fabric into a simple dress. No pleats this time as there isn't enough fabric.

Truly, I am far more happy with this dress than I appear to be. This was photographed on its fourth or fifth wearing and I can see that the wool has loosened up in spots. The first time I wore the dress without a shirt underneath and with a sheer black wrap, black hose, and black heeled oxfords to go to a fundraising dinner. Daily wear sees it more like this: white-ish turtleneck sweater, leggings and boots (here the boots have been replaced with my slippers - it's a sewing blog, not a style blog, after all).

Here you can see the store-bought piping I used. I would have made my own, but time was running out. I like to make my own because I can control the amount of seam allowance on the piping. As it was I forgot that the two seam allowances were not the same and thus the straps are a bit wider than I'd like. But, that's a small thing and not worth taking the entire dress apart.

This photo of the back does show me that I need to put a hook and eye or loop and button at the top of the zipper.

And here I shamelessly show off my plaid matching skills. Not that it was difficult. Since my body requires little to no waist shaping, matching plaid across a princess seamed dress simply takes a little time and a forgiving fabric.

I did line the dress in Bemberg rayon in a green that matches almost exactly.

It's such a comfortable dress to wear - light but warm. I am so thrilled the fabric waited for me.

My Sewing Mess -or- Shout Out to Karen!

2011-12-29T23:58:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends,

Recently, Karen of Sewing by the Seat of My Pants posted about the, erm, tremendously cluttered state of her workroom. I thought I would attempt to stand in solidarity with her. Here are a few before and after photos of my sewing space.

Here I have attempted to label all of the interesting and not-so-interesting clutter. I was totally at my limit trying to organize this space and get the fabric to fit neatly into my bins. You see them below blocking the doorways. They usually live in a closet off our daughters' room, but I had dragged them out so things could be put away.

My worst enemy are my remnants. In my mind a scrap is something smaller than my hand, but a remnant is larger. I have no good system for keeping them tidy. I know that fabric remnants can be terribly useful with crafty sewing, but they drive me crazy. As I have gained more experience with sewing, I have become more of a fabric snob, so getting rid of some of the fabrics was easy. But the cottons and the wools and the lining and the fleece... I finally had to hand my husband a bag of possibly useful scraps and tell him to just stick them in some bin. I just couldn't make any more organizational decisions!

I kept at it, with David sitting at the kids' art table working at his lap top and playing upbeat music. Slowly, everything found a home (or its way into the fabric recycling bin). Look! I can actually access my BurdaStyle and Threads collections without knocking over other pattern books or bike locks or anything else:

And there are no bags of fabric on the floor. Here is the proud stack of bins:

The blue plastic Ikea bag holds foam and stuffing. Below it is the uncloseable bin of large pieces of thick fabric, then craft sale/Etsy materials, and finally a bin of home dec, vinyl, and quilting cottons. The shorter stack is topped by a white plastic bag holding the materials for my Cruella DeVil fake fur coat, underneath this is a bin of lighter weight fabric (which is far heavier than anyone ever anticipates), and finally a bin with fake fur and batting.

The good news is that I was inspired to whittle down the uncloseable bin and now it can close with plenty of room to spare (blog posts forthcoming). The bad news is that my sewing space is getting a little ridiculous again - so much so that I am avoiding being in there. The never-ending cycle begins again...

Sham's Tablecloth Skirt

2011-12-24T11:53:00.000-08:00

Another moment of planets aligning! Toward the end of November, I was given the task of making seven "simple" skirts for a group of girls to wear in a presentation at our church. I agreed to do it even though I am not thrilled with the thought of making seven of anything, but then I was given the fabric and nearly fainted. Polyester organza, people. Just about my least favourite. And the girls who were to wear the skirts are roughly 10 or 11 years old (larger than any of the child models I have running around my house) and not at all the same size. Ack! This project went from simple to not-so-simple in the blink of an eye.

Then I stumbled across Sham's Tablecloth Skirt tutorial. Actually, I think I followed a link to it from Myrna's blog. Anyway, the simplicity of the rectangles appealed to me and my loathing of laying poly organza out for cutting. I asked a friend if I could borrow her serger, which I thought would make the process easier. This was my first time using a serger and I did appreciate not having to finish the seams.

Here is one of the finished skirts backstage. I couldn't get a decent shot of all eight on stage together. As it turned out, I ended up making eight skirts. There were two skirts made from pink squares, two from navy blue squares, two from forest green squares, and two from light blue squares. The pink fabric shredded when you looked at it funny (certainly when young people are struggling into their clothing during a quick scene change), so there were repairs that needed to be made after the first rehearsal to the ones with pink. I used a very wide black elastic for the waistbands, which helped them to blend in with the black t-shirts and pants the kids wear during the performances.

The girls loved their skirts and so did the director. They were easy to make - so easy that I didn't bat an eye over making an eighth one the night before the opening performance.

I've actually torn the fabric to make myself one of these skirts. Mine will be a linen-rayon-lycra blend.

Here is the serger I have borrowed. It's a Pfaff Hobbylock 2.0. I made a few other things with it (posts forthcoming) and have enjoyed having it around, but I am ready to send it back.

My Birds on a Wire/Blank Canvas Tee

2011-12-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

Many of you know that Steph of 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World has drafted a t-shirt pattern with cut on sleeves. She has also, kindly, drafted it in various sizes and made it available to anyone free of charge. Steph's generosity was the last planet to come into alignment as I happened to have a length of sequined fabric that wanted to be made into a simple top as well as tickets to a show this past Monday.

My bust is 35" exactly and my waist is not well-defined, so I printed out the 35II pattern and grabbed a length of bamboo/cotton jersey that has been aging in my stash and whipped out a shirt - as is, no measuring. Here are the results:

Hoo boy! That is one tight shirt! It's a good thing that jersey is very stretchy, or I wouldn't have been able to get into it. And it is short - I didn't hem it and it barely covers my belt. It certainly wouldn't stay tucked into anything.

Now, I am not pointing any fingers at Steph. I very easily could have made a mistake when I printed the pattern. And really, that's neither here nor there. With every pattern I make I have to remove almost all of the waist shaping, so this is nothing new. I did notice that the shoulders of the shirt did not land on my shoulders properly - the only part that was too large.

So I thought about it and tried again. Of course, I still did no real measuring (I might could have saved myself some work if I had), I added one inch to the center and one inch (roughly) to the side seams on the front and back pattern pieces. Obviously, I was terrified of making another too small shirt, because instead I made a too large shirt! I added about 2 inches to the length and I smoothed out the shoulder line. I also changed the shape of the front neckline a bit - raised it and widened it a tad - but maybe I shouldn't have.

Ha! I saw from the pictures (and the mirror) that the added amount to the center front and back made the neckline too large. I did the math and realized that I added 8 inches to the girth of the pattern overall. Silly me. So it was back to the drawing board. I removed half of what I added. I unpicked version two and was able to cut out version three from those pieces. For version three I did no hemming or finishing of the neckline.

This was a pretty close fit! For my final version, I scooped a bit more out of the underarm to make the bust a bit more snug. The final version is two layers, square sequined mesh on the outside and a soft thin jersey on the inside. I decided to wrap a binding around the raw edges of the two layers on the neck edge and the sleeve hems. I will also do this for the lower hem. For this picture (and for our night out) I wore it unhemmed.

Aside from finishing the bottom edge, I also want to handstitch a few "quilting" lines between the rows of sequins to connect the layers. As I wear it now, when I lift my arms, the outer layer lifts up more than the lining and then doesn't slide back down into place. I am hoping that if the two pieces are connected throughout, it will behave better. I also need to remove the sequins that are caught in the side seams - they are poking out and are uncomfortable on my bare arms.

All in all, I like this shirt. I am not as thrilled with the fabric - sequins just aren't nice to touch - but it's a useful addition to my wardrobe.

Sewing Geek Moment

2011-12-16T23:55:00.000-08:00

One Sunday in late November, we took our kids to the movies. Now this was only their second time in a movie theatre for two reasons: 1) we are not made of money, and 2) a year and a half ago, when they went to see a movie for the first time (it was some talking dog movie), it was TOO SCARY for my 6 year old son who had to keep leaving the theatre - yes, we were that family.

So anyway, this time we took our kids to see The Muppets. We have rented DVDs of The Muppet Show, so they were acquainted with the characters and some of the regular jokes. The movie was a hit with all of them. But this isn't a charming family moment blog post. No.

Throughout the movie, I was struck by the costumes for Amy Adams. Very vintage inspired. But toward the end of the movie something made me sit bolt upright in my seat and poke my husband and whisper furiously to him. Unfortunately, he was entirely the wrong audience. You are the correct audience.

So I'm calling a do-over. You sit there all still and attentive, scroll down to the picture, and then imagine me poking you in the arm.

Sarah: (whispering loudly) That blouse!! It's made of silk twill! Some of the bloggers I read have sewn with that EXACT material!
Esteemed Blog Reader: You're right! How fun is that! (end scene)

For the record, Carolyn made a jacket from it, Elizabeth made a dress from it, and Trena admits to buying the fabric and later says she made a dress - but I can't find the evidence. I am sure other bloggers I read bought and sewed up that fabric, but my rudimentary Google searching skills haven't located them.

I'm such a sewing geek.

Dropped Off the Face of the Earth

2011-12-13T16:41:00.000-08:00

You know how it goes when a blogger stops posting for a long time and then they come back with either lame excuses for not posting (like life got busy) or some sad story (death of a beloved pet)?

Well, I actually dropped off the face of the earth. And there's no internet connection out there.

But I'm back now.

Halloween Completed!

2011-11-10T00:04:00.000-08:00

So I guess as a sewing blogger, you either post the Halloween photos and discussion on November 1 when everyone else is doing so, or you wait more than a week when maybe people are interested again? That's what I'm hoping, anyway!

Halloween has come and gone and we had a good time. Clara decided to be a true four year old and not allow me to photograph her in her costume, so I only have this one from when I was constructing her wings:

I looked at a couple of homemade parrot costumes for tiny children to draft the wings, but if I had to do it again, I would make them differently. Clara decided against tailfeathers, which was probably a very wise choice as the felt wing feathers were heavy and kind of stiff. I should have invested a tad more cash and bought a couple of "feather" boas in each colour. That would have been lighter and would have pleased Clara a great deal.

At the last post, Peter's costume only lacked a holster. I had to drive a couple of towns over to buy some brown vinyl that I deemed thick enough for a holster, but it went together fairly easily. I used a diagram from this site to guide my construction and actually made him stand with a sheet of tissue paper wrapped around his body to sketch the holster outline to fit him. The holster attaches to his belt by way of two snaps on each end. The only four small snaps I owned - none of them match each other! I need to remember to pick up snaps next time I am at Dressew. He decided (and received permission) to carry his sister's "space blaster" as his gun - as it lights up and makes noise.

Lucy's cape came together very simply, though I kind-of wish that I had held firm on making it out of red wool as it would have been warmer. But, it also would have been more expensive and bulkier and wouldn't have fit nicely into the dress-up box. So probably the crushed panne velour and tricot lining were the correct choice. It is simply a half-circle and a hood copied from Oliver + S Little Things to Sew. This hood is nice because it isn't pointy like the one from the Simplicity pattern last year was.

As much as I like sewing complete costumes, I am glad we were able to buy her dress and turtleneck at a thrift store. Ideally, she would have had black boots that buttoned up the sides, but we both realized that was incredibly unlikely. She desperately wanted ringlets, so off to youtube we went and found that most of the instructions for ringlets called for curling irons and hair products that I didn't have. Then I thought of rag curls and found a helpful video (which I can't find now, but there are a hundred or more of them), so that's what we tried. It worked pretty well and she was very pleased.

Oh and would you just look at this face! She's so blasted cute! And those teeth (or the lack thereof)!

Han Solo Pants Simplicity 9499

2011-10-20T17:16:00.000-07:00

Here are the Han Solo pants, completed. I have used this pattern many times - for Peter's Anakin Skywalker pants last year as well as a few pairs of pajama pants. This time I made them out of stretch fine-wale corduroy.

The picture of Han Solo I was working from has him dressed in quite skinny pants, so I took a good bit out of the outseam. Given the stretch of the fabric this was no problem. They aren't "skinny jeans" but they do get at the general look of Han.

Once I had the fit correct, I sewed the outseams with a flat-felled seam. (I have no picture of this - it turned out blurry.) Then I sewed the crotch seams separately with a faux-felled seam. I found during fitting that I needed to reduce the seam allowance to 3/8" in the crotch curve, which is not enough of a seam allowance to flat-fell. I sewed the seam and then zigzagged the seam allowances together, then pressed them to one side and topstitched them down.

I used 2" wide waistband elastic in the casing - I added extra to the top of the pattern before cutting the fabric to accommodate this. Han Solo wears a belt so I had to figure out a way to make belt loops. I cut strips of fabric from my scraps that were 1 1/2" wide. I pressed them in half - wrong sides together, then turned the raw edges in to the center and pressed again. I then edgestitched along both long edges. I pinned them into place below the waistband and zigzagged them down. Then I marked the point where the belt loop should meet the top of the waistband and wrapped the loop material to the inside of the pants and zigzagged again - without catching the elastic. I trimmed the loop material and hand-stitched the cut edge to the inside of the waistband. (Phew! That's a lot to explain - I hope I did't lose you.) And, once Peter tried the pants on it became obvious that the belt loops are HUGE and need to be stitched down a bit more.

I have enough belt loop material to make a loop at the center back after Halloween. I won't do it now, because we still have to rig up a holster that attaches to the center front and the center back of the belt - and a belt loop there would get in the way. Either that or I will just remove all of the loops.

Here is the shot of Peter wearing the pants. The fit isn't great. I realized while driving yesterday hat I should have taken them in at the inseam to snug up the crotch. Oh well. Peter loves them. He wore them two days in a row to school and wanted to sleep in them, but I drew the line at sleeping in cords. That's just silly.

And here is a gratuitous shot of Clara while we were making chocolate chip cookies. She is impersonating the beater. She says it looks like a "tough guy" spinning around in the bowl.

Han Solo Shirt Finished! BurdaStyle 05-2010-145

2011-10-12T13:34:00.000-07:00

I finished the shirt late Sunday afternoon. Peter loves it. It all went together pretty easily, but the cuffs were a bit finicky. It's definitely NOT perfect. None of the edges are identical to their mates, but it's not so far off to be noticeable. This fabric has a fair bit of stretch to it, which made edge stitching the collar and cuffs a bit tricky, but I am hopeful that after a trip through the wash everything will be just fine. speaking of the cuffs...

They turned out pretty well! I sewed almost the entire shirt on my vintage Singer and of course used the buttonhole attachment to make those lovely buttonholes.

They only time I used my Janome was to zigzag the seam allowances in the sleeves and side seams. Then I topstitched them in place as a faux flat-felled seam. I actually couldn't topstitch the entire side and sleeve seam because the sleeve is simply too narrow to manage it. On an adult shirt I think it would be possible.

I used my narrow hem foot to hem the shirt, but had to stop near the side seams because the layers of fabric were entirely too thick to go through the spiral on the foot, so I had to go back and finish those sections by hand.

Here are some shots of Peter wearing the shirt. Obviously the sleeves are too long, but he will continue to grow, so temporarily, I am going to remove and move the buttons on the cuffs to make them more snug. That should keep the sleeves off his hands. He wore the shirt to church Sunday evening and received PILES of compliments. He then wore it all the next day playing Star Wars with the other kids (and got it dirty! Let's hope the fabric comes clean easily!).

In Progress: Han Solo Shirt Burda Style 05-2010-145

2011-10-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

I sit here at the computer feeling rather smug and pleased with myself. Over the last few afternoons I tissue fitted and cut out the pattern pieces for Peter's Han Solo shirt. Then, on Friday morning I had a stroke of brilliance. I checked the Vancouver Public Library catalog for David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking. To my luck, both copies were available at the central branch. I had just enough time - and a willing six-year-old - to jump in the van, drive downtown to the library, park on the street (45 cents in the meter), dash in the library, find and check out the book, dash back to the van, and drive back past my own neighbourhood and over to Clara's preschool just in time to pick her up.

Wow! I am loving this book. It is totally worth all of the accolades it receives. I just wish I had read through it to find the seam allowances he recommends before cutting out all of my pieces. I did use the book to draft plackets for the sleeves and the neckline. I was so scared that I would do something bone-headed, but so far I haven't. Everything has been pretty easy, though very precise. The only thing I would change about the book are the instructions for attaching the back yoke to the shirt fronts. He describes the "burrito" method, but there are no illustrations. Seriously.

Anyway, here are some of my highlights so far:

Front, Inside, and Reverse side of the neck placket (my first ever!!)

(Those lumpy areas are not really puckery - they are just wet. I was removing some washable marker.)

Attaching the yoke with the "burrito" method.

Yoke turned right side out (before pressing).

Close up of the finished collar.

Sleeve plackets. Nearly identical.

And, how I managed to keep my sleeves straight. The fabric Peter chose has a lovely texture woven in it, but both sides are nearly identical. I went through all of the pieces and marked each right side with a yellow pin. Then, once I figure out which sleeve was which and which placket went with which sleeve (thanks, David Coffin!), I pinned the pieces together and pinned a label on them as well. Phew!

I had a lot of fun today working on this and contemplating all of the different precise steps. The shirt just needs the sleeves attached (these will be faux flat felled seams since I don't have enough seam allowance to do it properly), the side seams sewn, the cuffs attached, and the hem finished. Definitely doable.

We interrupt costume sewing...

2011-10-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

to bring you a finished item from the summer.

I made this quilt using all but four pieces from two charm packs. The fabrics are Central Park by Kate Spain for Moda. The border fabrics are a couple of things I picked up to go along and the back is a plain yellow I've had in the stash for a few years. I used an inexpensive polyester batting in the middle. The layers are hand stitched together at intermittent intersections with some embroidery floss. The binding is bias and sewn by machine, but finished with a prick stitch (the same stitch that I use on zippers) on the back side.

It's a cheerful little throw, but I think I would really like something a little bigger and with more drape.

****************************

On the costume front, I have had to re-assess what I have to accomplish and the time I have to get it done. I have altered my coat pattern pieces, but I am putting cutting and sewing the coat on the back burner. If I get it done in time, great, but if not, so be it.

David has been delegated the tasks of taking Lucy shopping for an appropriate dress to wear under her cape and finding Peter a belt that we can add a holster to for his costume. Nobody really cares if I make the costumes except me. I love doing it, but it does get to be a bit much sometimes.

Parrot Costume Progress - Burda Style 01-2011-145

2011-10-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

The lumpiness around her hips is caused by the sweater dress she was wearing underneath.

The jumpsuit is done! Now she just needs bird parts (wings, beak, tailfeathers, etc.). I used one of the costume patterns from the January 2011 Burda Style. You could probably use any jumpsuit pattern, but this one includes instruction for a lining. I don't know if the Big 4 patterns include that or not. I ended up removing a bit of length and a fair bit of the width from the sleeves and legs. I thought a parrot ought to be more streamlined than a teddy bear or rabbit would be.

Clara is going to be a red macaw, and last year we learned the hard way about costumes that were too cold, so this is made of polar fleece with a lining of knit pique (think golf shirts). It's cozy! I decided against putting elastic in the sleeve and leg hems, figuring that if they were narrower, elastic wouldn't be needed. I think I was right, but I can see now that I should go back and topstitch the sleeve hems so the lining doesn't peek out. You can probably just see the lining peeking out right above her hand in the photo below.

The zipper went in pretty well. The zipper called for is a couple of inches longer than the opening. I may rip out a few more stitches on that center seam to give Clara a bit more access with the zipper.

I chose cotton pique knit for the lining - which may prove to be a mistake - but it was inexpensive and not sticky or static-prone. I did change the way the lining is attached at the hood. The instructions call for sewing the body lining around the neck edge to the seam allowances of the the neck edge of the outer fabric, then attaching the hood lining to the neck edge by pressing the seam allowances under and hand-stitching. Instead, I attached the hood lining to the body lining and hand stitched through all of the layers along the neck seam. Then I used a bit of the lining cut on the bias and finished off the remaining raw edges of the hood.

Now it's time to do a little wing planning. I'm using felt for the "feathers". I'd like them to be easily removed so that the suit can be easily washed. Fun times!

Back from the Dead? or Halloween is Coming!

2011-09-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

I am still here and sewing. Summer is just a crazy hard time for me. No routines. (And I've gotten hooked on Grey's Anatomy - thankfully, I'm almost all caught up.)

But Halloween is coming and that means exciting sewing around here! Here's the list of costumes:

Me!: Cruella DeVil - fake fur coat
Clara: Red Macaw Parrot - fleece jumpsuit with wings and beak attached
Lucy: Little Red Riding Hood - Red cape with hood, simple red and white dress
Peter: Han Solo - black denim slim cut pants, white shirt with standing collar, black vest with round neck, belt/holster

That's a lot! I have muslined my coat and tissue fitted Clara's jumpsuit. Here is what the coat looks like:

I am using out of print McCall's 5064 - A Palmer/Pletsch wardrobe pattern that I bought at the Pattern Review weekend in Portland. For Cruella DeVil, I think the coat needs larger lapels (double the size?) and perhaps narrower sleeves. I like the size of the main body of the coat. I have purchased my fabric - four metres of a long-haired white fake fur and red lining.

True Confessions

2011-07-08T21:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I posted because I let myself get stymied by a lack of photographs. For a nice-ish outdoor shot, I need someone else to take the photo. And even though I live with 8 other people on a regular basis, five of them are under the age of nine (and I don't trust them with our camera) and the other three are often busy either earning money or wrangling the aforementioned youngsters. Anyway, I let a lack of photos keep me from blogging and it's been bugging me. Tonight there was still enough light left, so I dragged David out for a quick photo shoot.

I only finished two of the three dresses I had hoped to make last month. June is a crazy month for us - it's the last month of the school year, which means parties and celebrations and special events galore, and we had two (TWO!) group camping retreats planned. When we were home we were mostly just working on organizing the space from our mess - not creating anything.

But, without further ado, I present you with the two dresses that I did finish:

How cute is this? And so blessed easy to wear! I even took it to the pool a couple of weekends ago and it made changing into dry clothes so much quicker. The skirt is A-line enough to give me some shape, but not so wide that I flash everyone around if I wear it to ride my bike. And I get compliments on it.

This is a basic princess seamed dress. Last year my mother-in-law gave it to me (along with others from her collection) while we were visiting. I changed the neckline, added piping to the neck and armholes, and added a lining. I made a muslin and the dress went together super fast. I did add in-seam pockets, but they gaped funny, so I stitched them shut and cut out the pocket bags. Problem solved. The fabric is a batiked thick cotton from the clearance section at Fabricland. The lining is black Bemberg rayon. This does make the dress warmer in the warm weather, but since it is black it will get a fair amount of spring and fall use. I could definitely do with a couple more dresses like this one for the summer.

BurdaStyle 05-2010-105 is a complete departure from my norm. I've known that I wanted to make this dress out of this fabric for quite a while now. It has a bit of a rock-n-roll vibe, I think. It's good for a hot day when you would like a fair bit of breeze on your arms and upper body. And, since the cut of the dress is rectangular, it suits my rectangular shape. I get compliments every time I wear it. It is as comfortable as wearing pajamas. I just need to find the perfect belt. And a bracelet/cuff thing.

I did get the center back seam of my nearly finished dress pinned, chalked and thread basted, but I didn't have the time to consider my zipper options. I have a lovely metal-toothed zipper that I would like to insert with just the teeth exposed, but the teeth are quite scratchy, so it would need a little flap of fabric to protect my back. I might end up just dropping by Dressew and picking up a nylon zip.

My last dress never made it out of either the fabric or the pattern bins. I want to remake this dress in black eyelet with yellow batiste underneath and yellow piping. This time I will know to interface the top edge of the bodice so it doesn't stretch out.

This week I have been cranking out a handmade wedding present. Our friend is getting married tomorrow. He is a woodworker/furniture maker and they asked specifically for handmade gifts. Here is their gift from me/us.

I still need to finish the card with the explanatory drawing and wrap the gift, but it is essentially done!

Phew! Now maybe I can try to return to more regular sewing and blogging.

Little Girl Dresses Simplicity 5540

2011-06-01T14:26:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

I am still working away at the muslin for my princess seamed dress, but I wanted to show off these two dresses I made last month for my daughters. A while back I hunted and hunted through the pattern catalogues at Fabricana looking for anything that would suit Lucy. One of the patterns I found was Simplicity 5540. It's a keeper!

This fabric was found in the clearance section at Fabricana. It's cotton with a good bit of stretch, just perfect for dresses. It has metallic stripes around the textured stripe. I did all of the sewing on my vintage machine. It's a good little workhorse! And it makes such lovely buttonholes! But here, of course, I must confess to you my major rookie mistake: My sample buttonholes were made in four layers of dress fabric on the bias - with no layer of anything on the straight of grain. The actual button bands have a layer of straight-grain interfacing in the middle. This wasn't a problem with Clara's dress, but the thick square buttons we picked for Lucy's dress just wouldn't squeeze through the buttonholes. Curses! I couldn't find any solutions for making already cut buttonholes bigger, so I had to go out and purchase new, smaller buttons for Lucy. Now, when the girls wear their dresses at the same time and stand near each other the button discrepancy is quite noticeable. Oh well.

I am not terribly fond of the method used for attaching the button band and the bodice lining. The instructions have you use two different methods (one for the bodice, one for the skirt) which makes it very difficult to get the button bands to match exactly at the waist seam.

For the record, Lucy threw her dress on over her UV shirt and shorts.

I don't think she will normally wear the dress with this particular shirt!

Speaking of bodice lining, I used a remnant of an organic cotton lawn/voile/whatever. I bought it because I loved the white on white print, but when I washed it, easily half of the print washed away! So disappointing. But it makes a lovely lining - soft and breathable. If I were to do it again, however, I would use either the same fabric as the outside or a matching fabric. The lining does show at the edges of the bodice.

Here are the backs of the dresses. Clara opted to not have ties as she finds them troubling when she needs to use the toilet. I think I actually prefer the dress without the ties, though Lucy's looks fine with a bow in the back.

Hooray for nice little dresses! I have a couple of quilting cottons that are slated to be made into these dresses as well.

And from the department of random... How crazy is it that my kids' Playmobil has a dressform, but I do not?

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Remember! You can still donate to the Pottery 24 Fundraiser!

The 4 x 1 June Challenge

2011-05-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

Perhaps foolishly, I have decided to join in The Naked Seamstress's 4 x 1 June Challenge. Essentially, make four dresses in one month. Let me begin by saying that I am fully intending to cheat a little. June is a CRAZY month for me to take on any challenge, but most months are, so what's a little more crazy, really?

I have a dress that is complete except for the zipper and the hems. But it has been like this for close to a year now. I need someone to pin me into the dress and then mark the center back seamline (and the hem), and my husband is no help. So the task of finding someone to help and then actually meeting with them and then doing the work of installing the zipper and stitching up the hem will take nearly as long as starting a simpler dress from scratch. (I feel I should add that my eight-year-old son told me this is STILL cheating.)

In preparation for sewing, I made a muslin of long out-of-print Simplicity 8884 - a very basic princess seam dress with no waist seam (from my mother-in-law's collection). And here is where I show you what I look like in the morning when the very first thing I have done is head to the sewing machine.

Puffy morning face!

Bedhead!

Hello crooked back!

So, looking at these photos, I want to change the neckline like so (drawn in orange):

The orange lines at my shoulders indicate what the shoulders should look like.

Mostly it's the back that has me wondering. Because my spine/pelvis/hips/legs/whatever is uneven, the dress appears to pull to one side. I am wondering if I simply shift the seamlines of the back side panels if this would fix the visual problem.

Do you experienced folks out there think that shifting the seamlines will do the job? I'm going to give it a go on my muslin and see how it turns out.

I plan to make this dress out of a black batik which is a fair bit stiffer than the old old bedsheet I used for the muslin. At present, I do not know if I will line the finished dress or use facings. I will probably line it with Bemberg, since that will make the dress far more wearable in our mild climate.

I also have plans for a tie-dye cotton jersey dress from BurdaStyle 05-2010-105. Based on the reviews, I might need to figure a way to make the lower edge of the armhole higher. Maybe I will be able to trace this dress today!

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Remember! You can still donate to the Pottery 24 Fundraiser!

Have I Ever Told You

2011-05-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

the amazing thing my husband does for work? No?

David works for an organisation called JustWork. It's this unique social enterprise that employs folks who have significant barriers to traditional employment - barriers like mental illness, addictions, and homelessness. They operate out of a community-based mindset rather than a profit-margin mindset (or even a traditional charity mindset), focusing on what people can do rather than focusing on their struggles. These folks often feel worthless and useless because of their barriers, but through their work and the community of workers they find affirmation and validation.

JustWork runs three small businesses: JustRenos, JustCatering, and JustPotters. It's JustPotters that I want to tell you about. They are gearing up for a big fundraiser...

Their plan is to throw pottery for 24 hours. They are looking for folks who would donate a minimum of $1 per hour. The money they raise will purchase a new kiln and continue to pay good folks for beautiful work. It's really easy to donate money, you don't have to be local and you don't have to mail a cheque. Through CanadaHelps, you can donate online using a credit card or PayPal*.

Here's a lovely little video about the pottery studio:

If you do happen to be local and want to see the pottery being thrown, you can come on down to the Commercial Drive Car-Free Festival on June 19th. JustPotters will be near the Ten Thousand Villages shop at Commercial Drive and William Street. You can follow updates on this event on the Pottery-24 facebook page, too.

*Full disclosure: To reiterate, I am married to the Community Manager of this organisation and I am friends with several of the staff. Also, for every ten of you who donate $24 (and include my name in the message box), I will receive a teacup made during the marathon.

I will have a sewing post in another day or two.

EDITED on May 31 to fix the Canada Helps link. Sorry about that, everyone.

Buttonholes!!

2011-05-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

Hello friends!

I have to confess that I had just about stalled out on finishing up the dresses I am making for Lucy and Clara. Why? Because each dress requires 7 buttonholes. Since my modern machine was in the shop, I was sewing the dresses on my Singer 99K. It's a sweet little machine, even if the foot pedal is hard to control.

So last week I dragged out the buttonhole attachment and the cams and the instructions. Then I made samples (inspired by Susan's exhaustive demonstrations at Spare Time)

The purple fabric is a sample of different sizes (not all of the ones I have as I ran out of fabric) and the pink fabric is a sample of different bights (thicknesses). This attachment makes buttonholes like a dream! In all of the samples above, I went around the button hole twice. So easy! And the fabric has a raised stripe which would have completely befuddled my modern machine. (It had significant difficulty with the texture on this fabric.)

But even with those encouraging samples, I was still terrified of actually stitching the buttonholes into the dresses. I dragged my feet on getting Clara to try on her dress so that I could get the hem marked and the button holes placed. But finally, yesterday afternoon, I tackled it.

I was so impressed (with my machine and myself), that I made a video! So now you get to hear me and my machine AND watch the buttonhole attachment in action!

My apologies for the wiggley video. I was trying to do everything myself. And then, of course, Lucy walked in and interrupted, so I had to stop and start again.

Success! Now I just have to topstitch the hem on Clara's dress and sew on the buttons (a good playground task), and her dress will be done! Lucy and I plan to shop for her buttons this afternoon. HOORAY!

Are Sewing Bloggers Cultural Leaders?

2011-05-07T22:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends.

A few weeks ago I started subscribing to a sewing blog called Tilly and the Buttons. In addition to being an active sewist, Tilly is also an academic type and is writing a paper on leadership, using "the online sewing network as a microcosm of the user-led world and as a collaborative model of leadership". Sounds pretty interesting to me, so I thought I'd help out a bit by writing my own response to Tilly's questions.

I never would have thought to take a photo of one of my garments inside out before reading sewing blogs!

What does the online sewing community mean to you? Why do you participate?
I participate in the online sewing community because I find sewing to be a primarily solitary hobby. Getting together with friends to sew requires a fair bit of space and organization, it's a lot of fun, but it's not something I can do every day. Actually, I have recently discovered that there are a fair number of people in my community who at least have a working knowledge of a sewing machine! I can and do read sewing blogs daily. I have learned many techniques through all of this reading, but most of all, I find that I feel less weird about my hobby. My experiments in sewing and excitement over new fabric or getting stripes to match or simply my pride in something well-made all seems terribly normal.

Another reason that I participate in this community is because it is such a diverse one. Granted, nearly 90% are female and another 90% are white, but I would be very surprised if there is any other demographic category that clearly represents a majority of this community's members. There are so many ages, ideologies, geographic locations, preferences, styles, and voices. It's exciting! I want to be part of something that brings people together - something that helps us to lay aside our differences, find our similarities and improve upon them.

What are your favourite examples of projects initiated by sewing bloggers that capture this spirit of collaboration, creativity and innovation?
I have to confess that I have yet to participate in a sew-along. I also do not have anywhere near the amount of home-made garments to participate in a Me-Made-Month. One day, the right sew-along will come along at the right time, and one day, I will have enough of my own garments. It is something I can look forward to. (I may retroactively participate in the jeans sew-along. Currently, I am working on dresses for little girls.)

Who are the “leaders” in the sewing blogosphere? Is everyone / can anyone be a leader?
I have thought a lot about this. I think the leaders in this online sewing community are the folks who produce quality, interesting garments AND have natural abilities as writers. Most are childless or have older/grown children. It takes time to blog well - in a way that is interesting and invites response. I have always struggled with writing and I have three young children, so it makes sense that at this point, I am not a leader.

There is also a difference between those who simply are leaders because of their great love of the craft and their ability to invite response and those who love the craft but write with the intent to position themselves in the limelight. I think Peter, Melissa, Steph, Myrna, Shams, Carolyn, Nancy K, Lauriana, Bunny, Summerset, and Trena fall into the first category. (And goodness, I keep thinking of others who I am leaving out. Sorry, everyone.)

Are you involved in any other network of makers, whether online or offline? What makes sewing blogs unique?
For the last two years, I have helped coordinate The All-Handmade Sale held at my church every year. It's a sale of handmade, homemade, and home grown items made by folks in our neighbourhood. Just the artisans and their art. It is such a great event, that even last year, when all of the other craft markets were doing poorly in Vancouver, our little sale still sold $10,000 worth of product. That's amazing!

But at a craft sale there is little to no chance for learning. Copying someone else's work is seen as an infringement rather than inspiration. The sewing blogs give me that opportunity. My recent failure with Simplicity 3775 is a case in point. I have seen so many beautiful and inspiring versions of this dress over the years that I bought the pattern and then finally made it up. And guess what? It isn't flattering or lovely on me! Hahaha! And that's the way it goes. I am learning. My online sewing friends help me along.

(I'm going to work on updating my blog roll. There are so many good sewing blogs out there!)

Simplicity 3775 Fail

2011-05-05T20:30:00.000-07:00

Attentive readers who hang on my every utterance will recall that after I made my first version of Simplicity 3775, I was a little overwhelmed by the print. This is reasonable since I almost never wear that much print. So I promptly made a couple of alterations to the length of the ruched waistband and stitched up another in a solid.

Sigh. Look:

Don't I look like a rectangle in a dress? It's really pretty funny. I am so glad that I didn't cut out another one. Obviously drapey skirts do a whole lot of nothing for my narrow hips. Particularly with a snug fitting top that accentuates my curve-less middle.

All that to say that I have carefully folded this pattern back up into its envelope to save for someone else down the road. I will still wear these dresses, but I will wear them with my denim jacket over the top, masking the rectangularity.

New Knit Top! Burda 02-2009-118

2011-05-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

I have had the pattern for this top traced out for over a year now. Probably close to two years. I finally made it and boy, do I like it! I made it from a remnant I picked up at Fabricana. I didn't try a burn test, but I'm pretty sure this is a cotton and bamboo blend. It's a nice kelly green and there was just enough for the shirt with the exception of the inner sleeves.

Several other people made this top back when it was published and struggled along with Burda's completely mystical instructions and forged ahead with their own. Special thanks go to Dawn of Two On Two Off and Kay of The Sewing Lawyer. Together they are quite the duo (at least for this shirt). Dawn's tutorial is here and Kay's is here (it predates her blog). You see, the tricky bit is the way the puffed sleeves are constructed so close to the underarm seam. There's just an awful lot going on there and Burda couldn't even figure out how to make it make sense.

I ran out of the green fabric and had to make the inner sleeves out of something else. I still have a bit of this thin white knit blend that I bought a ton of to use for knit muslins, so I used that. Beware! No matter what you do, that inner sleeve is going to show a bit, so it would be best to use a coordinating fabric. After I constructed the top, I felt the sleeves were too long and droopy, so I pinched up a pleat all around the inner sleeve to shorten the sleeve. There was just no way I was going to attempt to pick out all of the stitching and gathering, etc. I think I took up the inner sleeve by about an inch all together.

This top has already had a fair bit of wear even though it is nowhere near warm enough for short sleeves here. I've been wearing it as shown above, with a long-sleeved white top underneath. That works well for now. I think I'll probably make another one for this summer as well. The puffs are somewhat feminine but the dropped shoulder and the seaming is interesting enough to keep it from looking childish.

Hooray!

Banded Collar Ruffle Front Blouse (Burda 04-2010-105)

2011-04-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Colour altered. It is difficult to photograph colours accurately indoors.

Hello friends, long time no blog! But it's not for lack of sewing here in the neighbourhood - it's for lack of photography. Ah well.

Last time I wrote, I was working on a muslin of this blouse. I liked the lines of the blouse and the way it felt when it was on, so I left off the ruffles and changed a bit of the construction. I made this top out of a wonderfully soft cotton batiste that I found in a remnant bin ages ago. Seriously, this fabric feels like a well-washed and worn favorite t-shirt. It is, however fairly sheer, so I decided to make it a double-layered shirt.

Here in Vancouver there are only a couple of weeks out of every summer where sleeveless tops are absolutely necessary, and only a couple of days where you might want your clothes to be as non-existent as possible, so doubling the fabric is a practical choice. As a bonus, it solved a few construction issues as well.

I constructed this garment (almost entirely) on my Singer 99K. I was glad of the tiny hole in the plate which meant my delicate fabric was less likely to get crammed into the bobbin chase. I even used the zipper foot from my Janome on the Singer to install the invisible zipper. Worked like a charm!

By choosing to make the front a double layer, I was able to omit the facing around the slit at the neck. This made everything so much simpler! I fused a piece of Pro-Sheer interfacing (that came in a sampler pack that I won on Pam's blog) to the inner layer straight down the middle of the slit before it was cut.* Then I stitched the neckline edge of both layers of batiste together. Once that was done, I reinforced the bottom of the slit with a drop of fray-check (a little extra insurance never hurts). When that was dry, I cut the center of the slit, pressed the neckline, then turned it and pressed again. Voila! A finished slit that won't flop around!

After that business, I proceeded to treat the two layers as one. I used the popular "burrito" method of attaching the back yoke. In this way, I could do that entire part by machine rather than by hand. I also used a French seam on the side seam without the zipper.

Here is a French seam (on the left side) and a bust dart.

I finished the armholes with bias made from the batiste scraps. I folded the bias in half and machine-stitched the raw edges of the armhole and the bias together, then pressed the bias to the inside and hand-stitched the folded edge in place, only catching the inner layers. (Another point where having two layers everywhere came in handy.)

Bias around the armhole.

I mentioned earlier that I was able to install the invisible zipper pretty well by using the zipper foot that came with my Janome (those plastic invisible zipper feet never work for me). I did switch over to my Janome to zigzag the raw seam allowances to the zipper tape. I just didn't have it in me to bind those edges with more bias.

Now for the embellishment. The neckline as drafted is far too low for my lifestyle. My idea to counter this without redrawing the neckline was to add a button and loop at the fullest point of my bust. I had planned on making a narrow tube of bias and inserting it into the neckline seam for the button loop, but I forgot in the excitement of figuring out how I was going to sew the neckline. I tossed around idea after idea and finally decided to sew two small covered buttons to the front of the blouse, supporting them on the inside of the shirt with two tiny shirt buttons (I think they are the size you might use for the collars of a button-down collar).

Two small covered buttons. I used two layers here, too, to avoid the button form shining through the fabric.

Then I took a small length of shirring elastic and threaded it through the holes of one of the shirt buttons (on the inside) and made a loop to go around the other shirt button. The elastic gives me a little stretch just in case and the loop allows me to open the shirt completely if I need to while dressing/undressing.

Pretty ingenious if I do say so myself!

And last of course was the hem. I am not usually one for making more work for myself, but I just couldn't bring myself to machine stitch the hem on a shirt that had no visible stitching from the outside. So I hand-stitched it, making use of the double layer again to hide my work. I noticed on this project just how much faster and more even my hand stitches are now compared to a few years ago. That's an encouraging thought!

This shirt is so comfortable! I can't wait for the weather to warm up! I have another version of this shirt cut out too - this one out of a silk-cotton print! Hooray!

*The front of this top is cut on the fold without cutting the slit. So before you sew the neckline, the front of the blouse just has a round neckline. Does that make sense?

Ruffle-Front Blouse? Not Anymore!

2011-03-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hey friends!

So, I more or less ignored my children today (OK, not really - but they did play happily for quite some time) and got to work making a muslin of the banded collar ruffle front blouse (Burda 04-2010-105). Of course, I got so into making the ruffles and checking all of the instructions to be sure I understood everything, it wasn't until late tonight that I realized that the ruffles on the front of this blouse just aren't my thing.

First off, the ruffles were HUGE. I tried cutting them in half, but it still just looked like I was wearing a bib. The top itself fit very nicely, and I really liked the collar and the neckline, so I started playing around. The slit neckline is at least an inch and a half too low for my lifestyle, but I think that rather than try to engineer a new slit, I think I will add a cute button and loop right at the fullest part of my bust. I think the button will add a bit of interest to what will be a fairly plain top since I am eliminating all of the ruffles.

I also added fisheye darts to the front, to give the top a bit more shape. Without the darts, I could pull the top over my head without a zipper in the side seam, which makes it easy to wear, but it puffed out funny around my stomach. I just tried on my new and improved muslin and I am terribly excited! Now I just need to make sure I have matching thread and appropriate buttons and I am all set to make a couple of summer blouses! Stay tuned for some photos...

Then it's back to the realistic sewing of making a couple of knit dresses for spring.

Planning/Dreaming

2011-03-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today I am not feeling 100%. I may be about to come down with whatever bug has the rest of my family. I am certainly in a funk of some sort. I stayed in bed for a long time this morning and then this afternoon I got back into bed and mostly stayed there.

I wasn't tired enough to sleep and I am all caught up on my promised sewing (well, except for one shirt, but I still need to measure that friend), so I decided to pull out my most recent fabric purchases and my pattern notebook. Without further ado, here are the fabrics:

Nice, eh? I definitely gravitate towards cool pinks, purples, and blues. I also tend toward black in the summer, but charcoal grey in the winter. Here are some of the ideas for the fabrics:

I am hoping I have enough blue batiste/lawn/voile for that ruffled blouse (Burda 04-2010-105). The blue is the third from the left in the top photo. It is quite sheer, however, so I might need to line it. If that pattern turns out well, I'll make it again in the white and purple print silk-cotton batiste/lawn/voile (it's between the stripe and the darker purple print) which would also need lining.

The tie-dyed jersey will become the drapey dress (Burda 05-2010-105). I am hoping it will look edgy rather than dumpy. I'm not sure about the ruffled skirt dress. At this very minute I am not inspired to make it, so I should have cropped it from the photo.

I'd like to turn the grass-green jersey into the bubble-sleeved top (Burda 02-2009-118). And I am intrigued by the idea of making the godets of the girl's skirt (Burda 05-2007-138) out of the polka dotted lawn, but that would require a coordinating fabric in just the right weight for the rest of the skirt.

The raspberry jersey (near the polka-dot lawn) and the aqua jersey will become more Simplicity 3775s, though the aqua will have short sleeves and a round neck (and maybe the twist at the midriff rather than the ruching).

A closer look at the black fabrics.

I'd like to try turning the batik into the princess seamed shift Simplicity 8884 (vintage: from my mother-in-law) albeit with a bateau neckline. The embroidered eyelet will become the spaghetti-strap dress (Burda 05-2007-124).

Some of the other fabric shown has plans in store for my little girls. Perhaps I will trace those and post them later.

A little this, a little that

2011-03-08T11:18:00.000-08:00

I'm in that wacky stage of being between sewing projects. I really want to sew something else for myself, but I don't quite know what and I have other obligations first.

I did make a wool plaid jumper for Clara (this was actually before I made the red and black print dress for myself). Her wool is less fuzzy - more of a suiting - but her plaid was rectangular, so everything is straight - no bias. She loves it a lot (wore it three days in a row!). It's fully lined with the remnants of some blue Bemberg from this Burda dress. (That dress is completed, but needs to be taken in on the sides.)

This time I put a tad more thought into my construction, which resulted in far less handsewing to make things work. I still underlined the pleated skirt while lining the bodice in a more traditional manner. This time I used my rolled hem foot to hem the lower edge of the bodice lining before I catch-stitched it to the skirt.

I also scored by finding a nearly identical colour of bias rayon seam binding in my stash. There was enough left to use as piping along the accent band at the dropped waist. I don't know where one might purchase bias rayon seam binding these days. This bit was from my mother's box of sewing gear.

I whipped out another shirt and a pair of sweatpants for Peter. Good old Kwik Sew 3234 for the shirt and Simplicity 9949 for the pants. I've had them cut out for months, but recently, in a fit of cleaning up my sewing space, I finished them up. Of course, Peter has sprouted up in the last month or so, so these won't fit him for long.

The next big thing is checking my draft for a hooded cape. The kids' drama group at our church needs eight of them. I made Simplicity 5512 for Peter for Halloween, but the hood is too pointy and not drapey enough. They want the hoods to drape heavily, reminiscent of Palpatine's hood. They want the feeling to be evil, not elvin. I think I have the hood figured out, but I need to plan out a swift method for making the capes and then organize a group sewing night to get them done. All I need to do is buy some fabric to make a sample with.

While waiting for a chance to go to Dressew (my closest fabric store), I pulled out an unfinished dress from my closet, tried it on again, took apart the horizontal bust darts, repositioned them and stitched them back down. The darts aren't perfect now, but they look a lot better. Definitely wearable. Finishing the dress, however, will require a helper. When I cut out the dress, I wasn't sure exactly how I wanted to install the back zipper, so I added a fair bit to both seam allowances. Of course now I have no idea how much extra there is back there. I need someone to come over and pin me into my dress and then mark the seamline with chalk. Then I can go over the chalk with thread basting and figure out my zipper insertion method from there. Unfortunately, my dear husband is not the best pinner. Anyone local up for the task?

Having hit that stopping point, I traced off one of the dress patterns for the girls, Simplicity 2825, thinking I would try changing it up to be a pull-over knit dress. All of the tissue work went well until I laid it out on the fabric. I don't have enough for the skirt! Maybe I can find a coordinating solid knit in a similar weight for the skirt. That might actually really help the dress look more like clothes and less like PJs.

And in thinking-about-sewing-but-not-actually-sewing-news, I checked out two Threads DVDs from our central library. Industry Insider Techniques and the Waist and Hips fitting DVD. I also picked up Pattern Making made Easy by Connie Amaden-Crawford, because really, making my own patterns would be so much easier, right? LOL! Seriously though, I might get there one day. For right now, this makes good bedtime reading.

That '70s Dress

2011-03-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

This is hot off the press - er - ironing board. I finally jumped on the (now OOP) Simplicity 3775 bandwagon (along with nearly everyone else who sews dresses). I'm not sure if I like it. Well, I do like the pattern and it fits really well, but I'm not certain about the print on my fabric.

This fabric marks my first online fabric purchase and my first eBay purchase. I purchased this lovely thin, heavy, drapey modal jersey from highendfabrics. This seller will not ship to Canada, but Vancouver is pretty close to the border and there is a company called Hagen's of Blaine (about two minutes across the border) that will receive packages for a small fee. Thankfully, I was able to coordinate picking up the fabric with visiting my friend who lives nearby, so I wasn't spending gas on fabric alone.

The fabric does seem to be of very good quality. It is not sheer, even though it is quite thin. I had hoped that the lighter portions of the print were white, but they are actually a very yellowy-beigey off-white. This was disappointing once I tried on my dress partway through construction, because I don't find warm off-white suits my colouring. It was the black and red portions of the print that really drew my eye. I am not normally drawn to prints next to my face. Now I get to find a way to make it work.

No gaps!

Usually I muslin new patterns - at least partially, but I was so eager, that I just dove in. I cut view F in size 10 (flattening the curves on the midriff panels out to the size 12 at the waist). Everything went pretty smoothly. I did pull the overlap a bit farther across to raise the neckline a tad, and I also stretched the neckband a bit more than prescribed to keep the neck from gaping. That seemed to work very well. I cut the shorter length skirt and still cut off five inches and hemmed it one inch more.

Because this fabric is so thin and because the colours of the print feel more like fall and winter, I wanted this dress to be warmer. I used a similarly thin white nylon/rayon/spandex blend jersey to underline the bodice (fronts and back) as well as the skirt. I left the sleeves one layer.

All in all, it is a comfortable cozy dress. I am having difficulty coming to terms with the all-over print. EEEEK! It just feels like it screams late '70s. At least the '70s are still "in" in the fashion world.

Pardon my wonky posture - we were in a bit of a rush this morning...

After I finished the dress, I scanned through all of the reviews (88 of them!) of this pattern in the gallery at Pattern Review. Guess what? Almost every single dress that I thought looked spectacular was made in a solid colour. LOL! There were two that were a print that I also liked, but one was a windowpane print and the other was tie-dyed fabric. Go figure. I guess next time I will make it in a solid colour. I will also shorten the midriff band by half an inch or so. I may make the round neckline and add more length to the sleeves, as well.

In Progress: Croquis of Me!

2011-02-23T21:35:00.000-08:00

In and among some other sewing I have been doing (some paid work for other people), I have been dabbling with making croquis of myself. I have been thinking about it for a while (ever since some blogger wrote a series of posts on making croquis from photographs), but when Steph mentioned the Golden Ratio in a post on pant length last month, I decided the time had come.

That last sentence probably doesn't make any sense. Here's my idea: if I can have croquis of my own body and its proportions then I can experiment with clothing designs and try to establish garment proportions that will "work" on my body. I always try to pay attention to comments on proportion made by other short sewing bloggers. There's Summerset and Juebejue and Sharon and Yoshimi (at least, I think Yoshimi is short - she is often wearing platformed heels...) and Elaine - to name a few. I am not always able to translate their comments into reality on myself. My hope is that the croquis will help.

I can't find the series of posts some lovely sewing blogger made on fashioning croquis. (If you know who it was, please let me know!) Here are two ways I was able to find that describe making croquis of yourself. Both methods have you begin with taking photographs of yourself in snug-fitting clothing or just underwear. I do not own Photoshop, so I went with the print out the picture and then trace the outline routine. The first time I tried to do this, I had a lot of difficulty figuring out where my waist, bust, etc. were located. Sounds pretty silly, but looking at me straight on, I have a rectangular shape. (I also wore a shirt that was a smidge too big and had too many wrinkles.)

I thought about this a bit then changed clothes, got out my huge roll of elastic ($2.99 for the whole thing and I think it will degrade before I use it all), cut off a few lengths, and tied them on my body at my bust, waist, hips, and each knee.

Then I had David take photos from other angles. I rotated the elastic so that the ties would not show.

And then, due to the lateness of the hour, I got a little silly.

I printed the photos with my housemate's laser printer and traced them in pencil with my daughter's tracing paper. Now I need to go over the lines with a fine black pen and make some photocopies. I could even put together my own journal like this one you can buy from Hokey Croquis!

Parting Shot: Leaning Tower of Sarah?
David was checking the pictures as he took them, and asked me if I was standing up straight. I was. I asked him why and he said that it looked like my torso was out of line with my legs. Now, I have known since high school that one of my hips is significantly curvier than the other, but this was new. To illustrate it further, we fashioned a plumb line out of one of the pieces of elastic and David's house keys. Check this out, the line goes from my nose to the middle of my chin, between my breasts, right over my belly button and then along the side of my right leg!

I don't know what I will do with this particular information, except maybe take it with me to a chiropractor or massage therapist and see if they can even me out!

Drop-Waist Wool Jumper for Lucy

2011-02-18T07:35:00.000-08:00

My middle child, my daughter, Lucy, has very distinct ideas about her clothes. She likes things to be girly and sparkly and spinny - for dress up and Halloween. But for everyday wear, especially in the winter, she gravitates toward dark coloured clothing with classic - even uniform-like style.

One of her favorite outfits last year was a long navy blue skirt and matching waist-length jacket made from something very similar to sweatshirt fleece. Another favorite item was a navy blue cotton twill jumper with princess seams, a dropped waist, and a pleated skirt. (Both items were thrifted, not made by me.) As with most of the rest of her clothes, the jumper is getting to be too short just as it is finally fitting in width.

I happened to pick up a remnant of wool plaid thinking I could make a skirt out of it, when Lucy saw it and asked for a winter dress. This particular wool is quite fuzzy and itchy, so I thought a lined jumper would be a good use for the fabric, since she would be wearing a shirt and tights under it anyway.

I searched high and low for a pattern for the dress before I finally found Simplicity 2574. Have you looked through pattern options for little girls lately? It's like driving through the subdivision I grew up in... every fourth dress looks remarkably the same. You have the shapeless shifts*, the yoke (square or round) with gathered and shapeless shift, or the plain bodice with dirndl skirt. Just try to find a dress with long sleeves, by the way. There are only a couple out there. Most of them seem to be designed for kids with a bit more weight on their frames. Even the independents! Lucy would look absolutely swallowed up in either of these.

Anyway, all of this pattern searching lead me to purchase the patterns which were in Lucy's size, but more like her style. In addition to 2574, I also purchased Simplicity 5540, 2675, and 2825 (as well as Burda 9614 for my son, but don't tell him there are girls on the cover - the same pattern for bigger kids is illustrated with boys). I also really wanted to find a legging pattern, but Fabricana was out of the particular pattern I liked.

So, back to the jumper. I made a quick muslin and determined that the size 4 would fit both Lucy and Clara around, but Lucy needed the skirt to be a size 6 in length. So, with that knowledge, I went straight to the fashion fabric. Somehow when I washed and dried the wool fabric (I am not going to make a dress for a child that needs to be drycleaned) the grain got distorted, so I had to spend a little time working with the iron and a fair amount of steam to true up the grain. I then placed my pieces. I managed to match the plaids pretty well except for one side seam (the front is a bit off-grain on that side somehow).

I did think to cut the skirt so that the center of the front and the back was in the same place as the center front/back of the bodice. As luck would have it, this plaid is even, so I cut the yoke on the bias. I cut pockets on the bias, too, but then I realized that they wouldn't fit on the dress with the band at the drop waist. That band was necessary to visually break up the plaid, so I used a bit of black no-wale corduroy. Similarly, I put a bit of black piping between the bias-cut yoke and the rest of the bodice.

This pattern does not come with instructions for lining. Why, I don't know. Many of the illustrations have a definite winter feel. The yoke is lined (instead of many little facings), so without thinking too clearly, I used a thick hot pink satin that I pulled from a remnant bin some years ago. I forgot that this fabric frays when you look at it the wrong way.

(The photo is a bit blurry, but you can see where the pink satin is fraying a bit between my hand stitches.)

I should have run a thin line of fray check along all of the cut edges as soon as I cut out the pieces. This came back to haunt me later. Anyway, because I used hot pink for under the yoke, and because I didn't remember to make the hot pink piece a tad smaller than the plaid, you can see just a bit of pink at the armhole in the finished garment. To make this error look intentional, I added a small bias strip of the satin to the edge of the band at the dropped waist.

To the lining. Oh, did I mess this up right and left! I used some black Bemberg rayon that I had in the stash from a 50% off sale back in the summer. I chose to underline the skirt portion and to attach the bodice lining in a more traditional way. Except that I didn't really think through those steps very well before plowing ahead with dress construction. Much of the lining is hand-stitched to the dress. It seems to be holding up, though, so I guess it's all right in the end (and now I know so I can do it by machine when I make Clara's dress).

I moved the pleats so that it would fit the plaid nicely and I decided to help myself out a bit and edgestitched both the inner and the outer pleated edges. I am really glad I did this, because every time the dress comes out of the wash (cold water - hang to dry), the pleats need to be ironed again. The edgestitching makes quicker work of the ironing.

The zipper instructions call for a lapped zipper - which is currently my favorite method of zipper installation - particularly when there are any horizontal seams to pull the zipper through. In this instance I sewed part of the zipper in by machine, but used hand stitching to sew the visible side. Looks pretty nice!

* I do realize that this dress is essentially a shapeless shift with a skirt attached to the bottom. Next time I'll take the sides in a bit.

Fleece Top for Me!

2011-02-06T16:03:00.000-08:00

So, the last time I posted about Jalie 2682 I said I wanted to give the pattern away. I think I still do.

It's a fine pattern, but I think the collar/shoulder area doesn't sit right on my body and due to the funky nature of the pattern pieces, I'm not sure how I would adjust this.

But! The fleece top is warm and cozy without being bulky. The collar does come up onto the back of my neck to help keep me warm, and the front makes a nice narrow V to keep me from looking like a sausage. The other bonus is that the front bodice/collar piece is folded over on itself, so it is extra warm. I wonder if I would like a more traditional shawl-collared top for a fleece top. Hmmm.

Anyway, I am fairly certain that I only bought the amount of fleece suggested by the pattern, but I ended up with enough leftover to make a nightgown for Clara. So I did.

And now I have a fleece top to replace the old old old one I had in a similar colour! Hooray!

Nightgowns and Sewing Goals

2011-01-24T22:23:00.000-08:00

You see before you my two crazy girls wearing matching fleece nightgowns. I also made another matching nightgown for the daughter of our friends who moved away as well, but I couldn't get a photo with her, because, well, three, four, and five year olds aren't always the most cooperative or logical creatures.

This is the nightgown pattern I drafted from Jalie 2212 a year ago in the fall. This pattern draft works very well - the only change I have made is to swap out the sleeve with one from Jalie 2682. This one fits much better - slim, but not restricting. Clara now fits the size I then drafted for Lucy and Lucy only needed extra length.

Why fleece? I mean, we don't live in the tundra and we have a perfectly working heating system. Well, let me tell you. Lucy has this fleece nightgown that my sister-in-law sent her three years ago. She loves it and wears it all the time. We have to sneak it out of the rotation in the summer. But it is too short now (about tunic length) and the time had come to replace it. Since I had a simple nightgown pattern ready, and I knew that Fabricland had piles of novelty PJ fleece, that's the direction I took. Clara also needed nightgowns as hers were too tight and were splitting at the seams (and she likes nothing better right now than to be just like Lucy).

After I cut out the two nightgowns for my girls, I still had a lot of fabric left over and realized that I could make another nightgown if I split the pattern and gave it a bodice seam. That's how the third nightgown for our friends' daughter came to be (and thus, why I had to make a matching set of PJs for our boys). But even after cutting out the third nightgown, I still had too much fabric to simply recycle, but not enough to merit keeping, so I tossed the idea around a while, googled a bit, and came up with the beret.

And this, of course leads to my sewing goals for this year. Along with my previous goals of trying something new with nearly every sewing project, this year I want to sew every usable bit of every length of fabric I sew. Enough with the half-metres of fabric taking up space in my bins of fabric. If I am sewing the fabric, then I have matching thread in the machine, so I am going to just keep sewing the fabric until I am comfortable with recycling the remains.

In this light, I made Clara another fleece nightgown after I made a fleece pullover for myself (that will come in another post).

Because the fleece is a solid colour, I thought it needed a bit of jazzing up, so I quickly appliqued a butterfly using a scrap f fleece and some hem lace and a button from my mother's stash. Clara thinks it is lovely, and I didn't have any fabric to put away afterward! Hooray!

Pajamas!

2011-01-20T00:19:00.000-08:00

Very good friends of ours moved away between Christmas and New Year's. We used to live around the corner from each other, then we moved five blocks away and now they live a 45 minute drive away. Anyway, we had plans to spend the night with them in their new house on New Year's Eve, and my kids were needing new PJs, so I got it into my head to make matching PJs for the boys (and matching nightgowns for the girls - that will come later).

I wanted to make knit PJs, but it is next to impossible to find printed interlock or jersey that isn't baby-themed. So I spent a good chunk of time at the local Fabricland staring at all of the printed flannel. Seriously, I think I spent more than 45 minutes wandering around and around the racks of flannel. There just wasn't anything that would suit these boys who like bright colours and have parents who strive to not surround them with gender stereotypes. I ended up buying this absolutely gorgeous yarn-dyed plaid flannel. It is thick and luxurious. One of the nicest fabrics I have ever purchased. Luckily it was 50% off.

Of course, the plaid is uneven and has one direction of stripe far more prominent than the other, and no stretch whatsoever. I was concerned about the stretch because I intended to use Simplicity 9949 (previously used for Peter's Halloween costume), which has a tapered leg that I thought might be restrictive in a non-stretch fabric. So what did I do? I cut it on the bias! And then, after trying to figure out which way I wanted the dominant strips to go and struggling through and evening of cutting out the pieces and attempting to get them to match (if you notice, one boy's pants have the V pointing up and one has the V pointing down - oops!), I decided to sew the crotch seam and the outer leg seams flat-felled. I do like to make my life as complicated as possible.

What I didn't realize until part way through one seam is that the flat-felling messed up all of my careful plaid matching! LOL. So the boys' pants have plaids that match (or come very close to matching) on the INSIDE!! Oh well.

Clara helped me pick out the interlock used for the shirts. I bought it at Dressew and it is definitely not the best quality, but it was significantly less expensive than anything at Fabricland. The pattern here is Kwik Sew 3234 (previously used for PJs). I really like this shirt. Peter has moved up to the Small, but I cut the neck at XL because I wasn't confident that this interlock would be stretchy enough.

Next Up: Fleece nightgowns!

Last Post was December 21?? You are kidding me!

2011-01-19T00:53:00.000-08:00

I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I have been sewing, but it has been ridiculously difficult for me to get blogging again. Aaack.

Mostly I have been sewing for the kids. Fleece nightgowns for the girls and a PJ set for Peter. That one merits its own post because I made the pants on the bias and tried flat-fell seams!

I have also been doing a little sewing for pay. That's pretty fun, too. I thought I wouldn't enjoy it, but it's been fine. There will be more of that as well. I finally received some fabric I ordered ages ago. Either they shipped it via pack mule or the folks at the border all decided to play dress-up with it.

Currently I am working on a dress for Lucy. I finally found a drop waist jumper pattern that is nearly like the one she has that is getting to be too short (unless we travel back in time to the '60s). I'm making it out of wool plaid. I also started the corset-belt from the June 2009 Burda. But it is still in pieces.

I was going to try to sew down my fabric collection, but I mostly managed to accumulate more. LOL I should definitely do a post on my fabric acquisitions and the plans for the fabrics.

So there's lots to blog about. I just need to schedule some time every week to do so! Bear with me, friends.

Fleece Beret

2010-12-21T00:07:00.000-08:00

Please excuse the peanut butter face.

I have a bit of blogging catch-up to do! I'm going to start with this fleece beret/tam. This little hat is a great way to use up those pesky remnants of fabric that are too big/"useful" to throw out, but seem too small to really make into anything.

To make a pattern for a hat for a child with a head about 19" - 21" in circumference (in my house, the hat fits the 3.5 year old and the 5.5 year old - but the 5.5 year old has a slender bone structure), you first you make a circle with a radius of 3 1/8" or thereabouts. The idea is to dust off your high school math skills and make a circle with a circumference that equals the circumference of the child's head. Thinking back to those math classes, you might remember that circumference, C=2Pi r. So, if the circumference of your child's head is 19", then your radius is figured by dividing the circumference by 2Pi: C/(2Pi). (Sorry, I can't figure out how to insert the symbol for Pi). In my case, that's a smidge over 3 inches and since the fabric being used is stretchy, there's no use in quibbling! (I used a scrap of a sheet that I've kept for muslins to make my pattern.)

Then make one circle with a radius about two inches larger than the radius of the smaller circle. The difference between the lengths of the radii controls how big the hat appears on the child's head. I just guessed that two inches would be fine. For a bigger head, you might want to make the difference larger.

Now, take your large circle and cut two of them from your fleece fabric. Then take one of those fleece circles and lay the smaller circle centered on top of it. Trace that circle and cut it out of the larger circle. (Set this small circle scrap aside in case you want to make an embellishment later.) You should now have one large circle of fleece and one large O of fleece.

Next you cut a rectangle of fleece. My rectangle was 19.5" long by 3" wide. That long measurement comes from the head circumference plus seam allowances. I used about 1/4" seam allowances. This rectangle will be the hat band. Edited to Add: Make sure the long measurement follows the stretch of the material!

If you want to underline the hat, cut out the large circle and large O from your choice of fabric, just be sure that the fabric has similar stretchiness. Now attach the underlining to the outer fabric wrong sides together along the cut edges. I used a three-step zigzag. You could also just use a simple zigzag.

Now sew the outer edges of the large circle and the large O together, with right sides together. I used a very narrow (.5 mm) regular zigzag with a stitch length of 3 mm. Flip it right side out and admire your work! You are almost done!

Now take your rectangle of fleece and sew the 3" ends together (right sides together). Fold the loop so that the wrong sides are together, and edge stitch with that triple-step zigzag. Look at the hat band in that photo just above to help you.

Next, divide the inner circle of the hat into fourths, marking those spots with pins. Also divide your hat band into fourths and mark those spots with pins. Attach the hat band to the hat, right sides together, matching up the pins. Sew the pieces together (again with that narrow (.5 mm) zigzag). You should have something that looks like this:

Good work! If you want, now is the time to get a little crazy with an embellishment and stitch it onto the hat. This particular fleece is a bit busy for an embellishment. But I made a plain lavender one for a little friend's birthday, and it required a butterfly.

I hope this tutorial is useful. The hat really does go together quickly. It takes about as long to make one as it did for me to explain it all!

It's Curtains for Me

2010-12-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

Don't fret. Not "curtains" in the melodramatic sense. It;s curtains in the entirely practical keep-the-neighbours-from-looking-in-my-bedroom sense. A careful observer will note that the new curtains in my bedroom are not finished. I haven't hemmed them yet. But hemming curtains isn't interesting to most people. I will do it one of these days, but the curtains work as they are and that is what is important.

Why would I even bother to write about curtains? And fairly plain brown curtains at that? The answer to those questions lies in the window itself. My bedroom window is a whopping 93" long (that's 236.2 cm). Pretty big when you consider that the longest length you can purchase ready-made blinds is 72" (182.8 cm). And then there's the issue of the new, nearby closet. Originally, there was no closet in this space because originally this was not a bedroom. The short distance between the edge of the window and the corner of the two walls eliminated the potential for hanging a curtain rod above the window on brackets.

This left me with some sort of inside-the-window-frame lightweight fabric curtain. Enter this clever little device from Ikea (whatever you have to say about them, they do know small spaces). I mounted this inside the window frame, fiddled around for over half an hour to get the length of the wire just perfect, and hung these little hook/clamps over the wire. Now I just needed to buy fabric and make curtains!

The walls in my bedroom are a peachy shade, the closet material is a dark brown as is the bedside table. I decided that a dark brown lightweight fabric would be just the thing. I bought many metres (5? 6?) of a chocolatey brown polyester dupioni/shantung. (I don't know the difference between dupioni and shantung, do you?) For a few weeks we simply clipped the unsewn fabric in the window to try it out. Guess what? You could see right through the fabric! If I were to be changing clothes or smooching my husband in my bedroom with the lights on and the curtains pulled, the whole neighbourhood could set up chairs on the sidewalk and watch the show! This was not acceptable. I have lived without any privacy for a long time, and that time was so close to coming to an end. Another layer of fabric was needed.

At my local crazy fabric store (shout out for the wackiness that is Dressew!) I found, with the broadcloth, a very lightweight brown poly-cotton. It's as light as a batiste. In fact that's what I was looking for, but it was entirely the wrong season for batiste. Good ol' Dressew. And get this: it was only $3.99 per metre!! Unheard of in fabric stores in Vancouver! I bought many metres (6? 7?). We tried it out and guess what? You can't see anything through the combination of fabrics! Woot! Now I just needed to get sewing.

I should have done a little research first. But I seem to be the kind who likes to reinvent the wheel. Here is what I did:

I wanted the curtains to have a bit of a wave to them when they were closed (not a flat panel of fabric), so I think each panel is 93" wide. I think this is correct because I have lost that page of notes and I am too lazy to go measure the curtains. So I began by cutting the fabric into lengths that, when sewn together, would arrive at my desired width. I sewed those panels together and then hemmed the edges. I did not hem the selvedge edges on the lining where it met the edge of the window. I stitched a strip of interfacing about 3 inches high by the width of the panel to the top edge of either the lining or the outer fabric - I don't remember which now. I then placed the lining and the outer fabric right sides together and sewed a seam 2" from the raw edge.

This was then pressed, turned, pressed again, and pinned back together another 2" from the seam edge. Next came marking the placement of each hook/clamp. I think I put them 7 and 7/8" apart on center - whatever it was, I used eleven hook/clamps per panel. I then ransacked my supply of seam binding from my mother's stash, found a navy blue that would be unnoticeable from outside the window and pressed the decades of creases out of it. The seam binding was then pinned at each hook/clamp placement mark, and a generous 1/4" was measured out from either side of each pin (maybe it was really closer to 3/8") leaving about a 1/2 inch space.

At each of those marks I stitched a narrow zigzag across the seam binding, completely backstitching for security. After all of the spaces for the clamps were made (and checked, and fixed, and checked again), I stitched the top edge of the seam binding to the curtain in the spaces between the clamps (to keep them from getting caught on anything).

I stuck the clamps in their little spaces and hung the curtains up! I could probably cut six inches off the bottom and still be able to have a nice three inch hem, but that will wait for a day when I have a couple of hours to sew and nothing else to do. No breath-holding, please.

Advent 2010

2010-12-01T15:51:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends!

The season of Advent is upon us. Technically, it started on Sunday, but at our house we begin on December 1. (It's easier for us to keep track of that way.) Long time readers may remember that last year we observed Advent with Afternoon Activities. We enjoyed it so much, that we are doing it again! Luckily we saved all of the little envelopes and a few of the slips of paper with the activities written on them.

And yes, those are dirty lunch dishes still on the table, thankyouverymuch.

In the interest of transparency, I would like to point out that while overall the project was a success, several of the activities flopped. We have left those activities out. We added in activities that prepare our house for Christmas. We also replaced a few of the crafty activities with new crafty activities.

Here's our list for the year (and we may switch a few things around yet...)

Make hot chocolate with whipped cream
Play Uno
Make paper snowflakes
Package gifts for family and friends
Go for a walk in the woods
Make a list of gifts you want to give
Get out Christmas CDs
Have pancakes for dinner
Bake cookies
Watch A Charlie Brown Christmas
Put out Nativity set
Put up outside lights
Make cardboard marionnettes
Make paper chains
Dress fancy for dinner
Sing Christmas carols
Look at Christmas lights after dinner
Get Christmas tree
Build a fort
Begin a puzzle
Decorate Christmas tree
Watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Board Game Day
Roll pennies and give them away

Sorry for the Blog Silence

2010-11-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

I have all kinds of things I want to write about, but for the past week my every spare moment has been taken up with this:

I have participated in this sale the previous two years. Last year I volunteered on the committee and organized the vendors. This year I am coordinating the entire thing (with help from two volunteers). If you live in the area, please come. There is no cover charge, and this sale is almost entirely folks from our neighbourhood.

If you like pottery, come to the sale. If you like jewelry, come to the sale. If you like knitting, come to the sale. If you like food, come to the sale. If you feel the urge to compete in an apple pie contest, leave a comment and I will send you the pertinent details, and then come to the sale.

Seriously, this sale is so much more fun and has such a more welcoming vibe than most others I've been to.

Halloween 2010 - Part 3 Elephant

2010-11-17T22:52:00.000-08:00

Clara, thankfully, decided that she would wear the elephant costume that we already had (I made it for Peter when he was four.) I only had to shorten the legs a bit, and did that by adding more wrinkles! This costume was made from a thrifted hoodie and sweat pants with stiff felt ears attached to the hood and a tail attached to the back of the jacket.

The trunk was made from a piece of pipe insulation wrapped around some wire filled foam thing we had around the house. That was then wrapped with grey felt hot glued in place. The trunk is held to the hood with a piece of elastic, but she has to lift it over her nose for the full effect.

She had a pretty good time in this costume and she stayed warm since it was easy to put on over other layers of clothes.

This concludes my posts of Halloween 2010. You can be looking forward to posts about curtain-making and purchased turtleneck revamping (sausage no more!)

Halloween 2010 - Part 2 Tinkerbell

2010-11-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned in my previous Halloween 2010 post, Lucy chose to be Tinkerbell. I was not thrilled with this decision, since I knew she would want to replicate Disney's Tinkerbell as closely as possible. (I do realize that this sounds silly since I did closely replicate Peter's Anakin Skywalker costume. I just have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Disney's portrayal of female characters. So I'm inconsistent - who isn't?) I thought Alice was such a much more interesting costume choice for a five year old. (Actually, I thought she should go as Coco Chanel, as I would have loved to make that costume, but Lucy doesn't know who Chanel is - and neither do any of her friends.)*

Earlier in the spring I purchased a few patterns from Simplicity when they were having a sale, including 2716 , a Daisy Kingdom dress with a layered handkerchief skirt. I never got around to making the dress this summer, but it came immediately to mind when Lucy decided on Tinkerbell. At the fabric store I picked out a lime green poly satin with a bit of a pebbly texture, a similar-coloured poly crystal organza (much shinier than pictured below), and a light green netting that had gold glitter glued on.

I made a quick muslin of the bodice. I wanted to remove the drawstring and casing going on in the shoulder seam and that involved narrowing the straps. I planned to use nude mesh for the bodice with the "strapless" top essentially appliqued on. So I also sketched the line of the strapless top onto the muslin and traced a pattern piece from that drawing.

This plan worked pretty well except for finishing the neckline. The pattern calls for lining the entire bodice (which I did - every little bit of extra warmth helps), and I was going along thinking that I could just stitch the necklines together and then feed it through the shoulder "tunnels to turn it around when it hit me... There is no opening at center front or back! Eeek! I decided to finish the neck edge with a bias strip of the crystal organza. I told Lucy it would look like a matching necklace. I don't think she was really convinced but she went along with it.

There you see a fine example of my nearly-famous Thousand Pin Technique for attaching anything slippery or doing anything tricky. Below is a close up of the finished neckline and shoulder seam. The neckline isn't as crisp as I would have liked because polyester crystal organza doesn't like to be pressed, thankyouverymuch.

The rest of the garment went together well except for the skirt. It was too long and not pointy enough. One of these days I am going to stop buying patterns that only have artist's renditions of the garment on a person. It is just not accurate. Photos only from now on! Anyway, luck was with me a bit because I had not yet hemmed the skirt pieces (satin underskirt, crystal organza overlay, and glittered net overlay). So I made a few marks with pins while Lucy tried the dress on and then whacked at it with my pinking shears. I AM SUCH A CHEATER!! (But wait, it gets worse...)

I purchased the wings at a local "dollar" store, but they had to be altered as they were too wide for Lucy's back and had these annoying little elastic arm straps. I shortened the width of the backing material pretty easily (fold in half, sew off a chunk, trim, press). We tried tightening the straps, but they bothered Lucy, so I ended up sticking ADHESIVE VELCRO to the wings AND TO THE DRESS!! Can you believe it? I stuck something very sticky to a garment that I lovingly made and altered/redesigned! But I just was not going to hand sew large snaps on to those wings through the thick, stiff back material and around the wires that give the wings shape. And you know what? She loved it!

She did discover that her mother was correct in saying that a Tinkerbell costume was not appropriate for the weather here in Vancouver on Halloween night. She wore a couple of shirts under the dress as well as tights and another skirt (she refused leggings) and she got very cold. On the way home from trick-or-treating we spoke about how for next year she should choose a warmer costume. She has decided - temporarily of course - that next year she wants to be Sleeping Beauty because she wears a long sleeved gown and a cape. (That's my girl, way to plan another use of that cape pattern!)

Stick around for a shorter post about Clara's elephant costume!

*Actually, it would amuse me greatly if I could get my whole family to dress up as famous designers. Three women and two men. Peter could go as Karl Lagerfeld. Lucy could be Chanel. Clara could be Betsy Johnson (that last link opens up a little video in the sidebar, sorry). What about David and me? Ideas?

Halloween 2010 - Part 1 Anakin Skywalker

2010-11-08T21:43:00.000-08:00

Hopefully all of you are well rested from Halloween and the post holiday sugar crashes. I thought I'd write a little about the costumes that came gallumping out of my house this year.

After many changes of mind, Peter finally settled on dressing up as Anakin Skywalker. (I was really pulling for Captain Underpants, having been inspired last year by this costume made by Debbie Cook.) Lucy, after nearly deciding on Alice (from Alice in Wonderland) changed her mind to Tinkerbell. And Clara, in keeping with her laid-back nature, decided that she would wear the elephant costume I made for Peter a few years ago. I think it's kind of funny that both Lucy and Peter chose mean characters for Halloween. (Pixies, I think, are usually pranksters.)

Peter's costume wasn't immediately obvious. I did a little research, looking at image after image of Anakin Skywalker. I decided to make a wrap-front shirt, elastic waist pants, the black leather vest-thing, and a cloak. That's a lot of pieces for one costume, I know. I decided to give the lounge pants from Simplicity 9499 a try (I had purchased the pattern for the raglan-sleeved t-shirt). They were fabulous! I made a muslin out of a sheet and all that needed to be adjusted was the length. The pants have enough ease for sitting, but not so much that there is a lot of bagginess at the bum or front crotch. They also have slim-ish legs, not the wide, flappy things one so often finds in loungewear. And of course, with a fold over casing for the elastic waist, and no pockets, they went together in a snap. I made the final version out of brown stretch cotton sateen.

A wrap-front shirt for a boy is no easy matter. I considered using one of the bathrobe patterns I happen to have (Simplicity 9853), but the thought of having to remove all of the ease and fiddling with armholes didn't sound appealing. I have Jalie 2910 in my collection of patterns, though I had yet to make it. Knowing that children's bodies aren't all that different, I decided to let go of any gender-based sewing hang-ups I might have (not many, I'll tell you) and gave that a go, making a muslin out of a stable black knit. I doubled the width of the neckband to give more coverage and to make it look a bit more costumey. Success again! In this case we just needed to add length to the hems (both sleeve and body). I made the final version of this pattern in a soft brown cotton jersey.

Peter loves the shirt and pants from this costume so much that he wore them the first two nights after they were made as pajamas. He has gone on to wear the shirt to school as a regular shirt.

Now for the cloak and vest-thing. There was a bit of luck, here as well. I originally planned to use the hooded bathrobe pattern from the December 2009 Burda, which would have totally worked. And I planned to fiddle with a basic t-shirt pattern for the vest-thing. But as I walked past the cutting table at Fabricana, I saw Simplicity 5512 sitting on the counter along with a pile of fabric belonging to another customer. Perfect! A pattern for a lined hooded cloak and a tabbard (which could be easily cut down the center front for the leather garment). What's more, there was only one of these pattern left in the drawer. Totally worth the investment, in my opinion, even if it used more fabric than the bathrobe pattern called for. I will use this pattern again and again.

These two pieces went together pretty well. I had to change the slope of the shoulder seam on both garments. Peter's shoulders are not as square as the pattern. I had a limited amount of fashion fabric for the cloak (there was only 1.5 metres on the bolt), so I was limited to making the cape (not the sleeved cloak), but I put slits in the side seams for ease of use. I muslined the cape using sheets, and finished it fully so now we have a purple flowered hooded cape in our dress-up box.

The finished cloak was made out of a brown/black stretch suiting blend. I was certain I would have enough suitable fabric somewhere in my stash to line the cape, so I didn't purchase any. This was a bit of a tricky decision. The only suitable fabric I had was black Bemberg rayon, but I was not about to use up my Bemberg lining on a costume (granted I got it on sale at half price, but it was still five dollars a metre!) After much frustration and disappointment at the size and uselessness of my fabric stash, I decided to use a white all-cotton sheet and two packages of dye that I happened to have - a purple and a brown. I had hoped I would end up with a dark brown, but instead I ended up with a muted dark purple. But it worked. I used a button from my jar and made a loop of bias from the suiting fabric. I covered the raw ends of the loop with a square of the black vinyl that I used for the tabbard.

The tabbard was pretty straightforward. I was pretty excited to get to use my teflon presser foot that I received from David for Christmas last year. I made it as stated, with the exception of cutting and hemming the center front, so that the fronts could overlap under the belt. I didn't muslin this garment, just bit the bullet and cut into the black vinyl.

This is what he wore to school on Friday. He added the cloak for trick-or-treating. All in all a success! Everything fit and it was impressive (important to me), but did not draw attention to him (important to Peter). He was also warm enough on Halloween night. This is something to consider around here.

Stay tuned for a Tinkerbell post!

Long Time Gone

2010-11-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been pretty nearly forever. Sorry about that.

The good news is that I have a sewing space again! Hooray! And, since The Blue Gardenia is not terribly likely to ask me to give you all a tour, I'll give you one myself!

To begin, I would like to point out that there are now curtains up in my room, but they are not fully hemmed. I bought the panels from IKEA and chopped them to fit. they are sheer white with rows of white nubby bits. Also, with the exception of the stucco wall, everything else is just primed. Eventually this room will be painted green. The flooring is vinyl. I really wanted linoleum, but we couldn't afford it, so we went with vinyl. I would have preferred a plainer dark brown, but this was available, good quality, and a good price (and I can only stand to interact with so many sales people, you know?). The important thing is that it hides art dirt, cleans easily, and doesn't trap pins the way carpet or a grooved flooring (tile or some laminate) would.

The table is a piece of 3/4" plywood leftover from the renovations (bookshelves, I think). A friend sawed it off to the length I specified and I attached my old table legs to one end and the middle. Then I wrapped the top with inexpensive vinyl. This will undoubtedly need to change before too long. The board is too flexible, so I can't sew at top speed. Perhaps I can simply add another layer of plywood to the top. I am able to use the open end of the table to cut small pattern pieces. My cardboard pinning/cutting board fits on it opened partially as does my rotary cutter mat. I could also maybe set up my vintage machine there, but I am afraid it will be too bouncy. Perhaps after another layer of plywood is added.

The other end of the table is supported by a set of drawers from IKEA. I almost talked myself out of getting these drawers as they were $80. They are so lovely (in a purely functional way).

The top two are shallow and hold all of the things I use most frequently.

The lower three are deeper and hold thread, notions, and my vintage Singer attachments.

I had hoped to find a wardrobe that would fit in the room and hold my fabric collection, but the space didn't work out. What with the easel and the kids' art table and cupboard of supplies, there is no room for fabric storage in the sewing room. For the time being, the fabric is housed in four Rubbermaid bins in the odd closet off the girls' room. I am appalled at the size of my collection and need to sew it down. No new fabric until one of the bins is empty!*

I repurposed a little cupboard that we have had for years to store a few other notions/tools, patterns, reference books, etc. We bought this cupboard from friends maybe ten years ago when they moved and we have used it in so many different ways over the years. On the top there you see wooden magazine files filled with Burda magazines, envelopes of Burda pattern sheets, traced patterns, and my growing Threads collection. The envelope patterns inside the cupboard need boxes to keep them from shifting all over. One day I will figure that out.

My iron and board live across the room near the easel. I had hoped to put it under the window where the pattern cupboard is now, but it didn't fit. The board needs a new cover, and I have some wool coating to use as padding for a new cover, but I would really like a different ironing board. The pointy end takes up so much room and rarely gets used since I now own two sleeve boards. I have thought about trying to construct a rectangular ironing board, but haven't done much research yet. Any ideas?

Under my ironing board is a crate filled with two sleeve boards, a press mitt, a wooden clapper, and a piece of silk organza that I use as a press cloth.

It was a lot of fun making the kids' Halloween costumes in my new space. So nice to be able to access my tools with ease. Really wonderful.

*I have already broken this resolution. I walked past a bolt of lovely of cotton lawn today as I was shopping for lining for my bedroom curtains. Two metres of it came home with me. (At least lawn folds up small.)

Little Girl Skirts

2010-09-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

I finally did a little sewing! The work crew is done in my bedroom, so this past Thursday I set up a temporary sewing space in there and whipped out a couple of little girl skirts. My inspiration was this patchwork skirt. However, I was not able to find charm packs of coordinating fabrics at my local fabric shops (not even the quilt shop). So I decided to use only one fabric for the main skirt panel. I chose the fabrics for Clara's skirt (she's the smaller one). The fabric for the ties and the main skirt fabric are quilting cottons. The accent band at the hem is a lightweight polyester satin. Lucy chose her own fabrics. The waistband fabric is a lightweight lavender twill, the main skirt fabric is a quilting cotton with silver glitter accents and the accent band at the hem is a spandex-y silvery dance fabric. Fall is fast upon us here, so I chose to line the skirts with Bemberg to increase their warmth (a minor amount) and to help them keep from sticking to tights later this season.

I made only two main mistakes in the construction of these skirts: Firstly, made the waistband to their hip measurement plus seam allowances. I should have added another inch or so for ease in getting the skirts on and off. Secondly, I read the instructions incorrectly and made the ties the width of the fabric. Notice:

Clara is holding the end of one of Lucy's ties. I have since trimmed 20 inches off the ends of each of the ties.

But the skirts are still good for a spin!

Almost Sewing

2010-08-26T14:07:00.000-07:00

We are moving out of our temporary residence this weekend and will make do with the chaos in our still-being-renovated home. I dropped by this afternoon and there was a flurry of activity. Painting, assembling cupboards (thanks, Ikea), scrubbing blobs of drywall mud off the floor and laying down flooring - wild times!

Yesterday I was purchasing light fixtures (still haven't found a pendant for over the table) and decided to treat myself to a trip to Fabricana - one of the big fabric stores in the general area. I want to make a couple of skirts for the girls. I spent nearly 20 minutes trying to decide on fabrics for Lucy, but then I realized my effort would not be appreciated - I need to take her to the fabric store herself. So I found fabric for Clara instead.

This is my inspiration skirt. However, I will not be making patchwork for the main skirt body. Two reasons: 1. none of the fabric stores in my area carry a variety of those pre-cut charm packs of assorted fabrics and 2. assembling 6 or 8 fabrics is crazy daunting to me. But I like the waistband with bow and the hem band, so here are the fabrics I chose:

The top two are quilting cottons. The bottom is a lightweight poly satin. I plan to wrap the satin around the raw edge of the main skirt, rather than hem the satin and stitch it to the skirt. Should be nice! I just need to measure Clara and do a little math.

What could be more fun than an Uno game played by a seven year old, two five year olds, and a three year old? (Watch out for that little one, she's good!)

A Little Slapdash Sewing

2010-08-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

So. I still haven't begun to take apart the chambray dress. But I am very pleased with the way I finished the armholes, so I thought I would share that with you all.

To recap: I added both a lining and piping to the bodice of The Monique Dress. Everything was going very smoothly, see?

I dutifully graded and clipped the neckline seam allowance, then I tried to turn it right side out as described many places about the web (most recently at The Slapdash Sewist). Alas! The straps are quite narrow and with the addition of corded piping, there was no possibility to turn the bodice right side out through the shoulder "tunnels".

I posted the above photo in the pattern modifications forum at Pattern Review.com and got one response telling me that there was nothing to be done with the piping already in place. Well. I knew there had to be something. But here I am, away from home during renovations, all my sewing references packed away, etc. So I made something up.

First, I picked out the stitching along the armholes.

Then, I made bias strips from my lining fabric (bemburg rayon). This is not an easy task without my rotary cutter and mat. Slippy slippy slippy.

I then pressed the bias in half lengthwise and pinned it to the armhole, raw edges together. I used a technique I like to call "The Thousand Pin Method".

Next I stitched the bias to the armhole using my zipper foot.

Here are my stitch settings for that part: a straight stitch almost 3mm long and moved to the left almost 2mm (to get the stitching as close as possible to the piping).

I then graded and clipped my seam allowances. Here you can see that I made a "sandwich", if you will, of the seam allowances. The bodice seam allowance was left as is, but clipped. The piping seam allowances were graded one side shorter than the other. The bias was left as is (it didn't add significant bulk, and I felt it would help hold everything in place).

The next step was to trim away the seam allowance on the armholes of the bodice lining. This proved to be fairly easy because the holes from my previous stitching were visible. Then I pressed the bias back over the bodice lining and secured it again using The Thousand Pin Method.

Finally, I hand stitched the bias to the lining. I think this is called a catch stitch, but all of my hand sewing has been self-taught, so don't quote me on that one.

Here's what the finished armholes look like: on the inside

and the outside

And to entertain myself through all of this craziness, I watched episode after episode of Mad Men. (I am trying to catch up to the current season.) While watching a show with fabulous vintage fashion might be inspiring, I suppose it could also be a tad distracting...

Oh, woe.

2010-08-03T23:13:00.000-07:00

I am defeated and heartbroken. (Hyperbole is the best, don't you think?)

The Monique Dress. Made of dark wash chambray. That I lined. And added corded piping. And increased the waistband so as to make me look less pregnant. And added side seam pockets.

Tonight I got David to pin me into the thing and have him mark the seam line so that I could insert the lapped zipper (another pattern change from the invisible zipper called for) and hem the dress tomorrow.

It's not flattering. As my very kind husband put it, "The weight that you have lost doesn't show." (Diplomatic, isn't he? He should really work for the UN or something.) And the bust darts are screwy.

Woe is me. I have to take much of it apart. I have to fix bust darts. I have to remove piping from the current waistband. I have to re-draft the waist band to make it wider yet. And add piping to it. And reattach the skirt. And remake the lower half of the lining (waistband and skirt).

And then I have to insert the lapped zipper and hem.

It will be cute. One day.

Nothing Tastes as Good...

2010-07-29T00:46:00.000-07:00

I'm no Kate Moss. Granted. But there is something to her infamous quote.

A few months ago I joined Weight Watchers. Prior to joining I spent a couple of months taking a dance class that gave me a weekly look at my body in the mirror.

The first thing that I noticed? I am SHORT. Seriously! There is a reason why I use a step ladder in my kitchen every single day. I don't feel any shorter than anyone else (except remarkably tall people) but I am. I measure just about up to 5' 4" with my best posture. Of course the next thing I thought of was how this relates to my sewing - perhaps I need to study petite alterations.

The next thing I realized? I carry weight the same way my mother did. Only she was 6" taller than I am.

I saw myself heading down a path and I decided that it was time to really turn it around. No guilt. I have seen friends try Weight Watchers and it worked for them (at least for a time) and the idea of going to meetings for support and comraderie really appealed to me. My beloved husband is the same size as he was in high school (nearly 30 years ago) and he has amazing will power, so he really isn't much help when it comes to me changing my eating habits.

I spent the first two weeks being hungry and resentful. Then I got on a roll. I found a rhythm. About a month ago I noticed that when I eat as much as I used to (dinner for two, for me alone) I don't feel very well afterward. I still struggle when I am stressed. I don't want to eat, but I haven't figured out a workable alternative.

I feel good about myself. Not so much because I have lost a chunk of weight, but because I was determined to change and I did. Body image is important - anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Steph from 3 Hours Past the Edge of the World agrees. Sometimes the way we feel about our bodies is a clue that we should do something about it. When you are healthy you have a better body image. It's as simple as that. Shannon at Hungry Zombie Couture has heard her call to make a U turn on her path, too.

Keep it up folks! Here's to 11 pounds less of me and new focus on building muscle. (And seriously, most days, no serving of ice cream would ever come close to tasting as good as my changing healthy body feels.)

Vacation Pattern Acquisition Part 3 - Serendipity Studio

2010-07-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone! I am back from a brief radio silence due to a virus of some sort. Thankfully there is a good computer shop nearby.

What you almost see in that reflective photo are the three patterns that I WON from Serendipity Studio! Kay Whitt, the designer for Serendipity Studio, has a blog called Sew Serendipity (and a book by the same title, I might add) and hosted a giveaway. Hooray!

From left to right the patterns are: The Claire Cami Dress SDG-110, The Rachel Cross Body Bag SDG-111, and The Monique Dress SDG-109. Each pattern retails for $11. Aren't I a lucky duck?

What's better? I have already made a muslin, noted changes, and cut out the fashion fabric for the Monique! I am making mine out of a dark wash chambray. Instead of facings I am going to line the dress so that it might get more use in the fall and spring when layering is a must. I picked up some tomato red bemberg today and it is now washed, dried, ironed, and ready to cut.

I am also thinking about piping the waistband, neck, and armhole edges. I picked up some rattail today, too. I think I want to make the piping out of the same chambray. This way the piping adds texture and definition, but not contrast. What do you think?

I also have a metal zipper which could either be exposed or lapped. I am leaning toward lapped, right now, and I included extra seam allowance on the center back to accommodate this change. The instructions call for an invisible zipper, but I have had trouble in the past with invisible zippers and piping.

I am really hoping that I have found a tried and true dress!

Vacation Pattern Acquisition Part 2 - Vintage Patterns

2010-07-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! One day while we were visiting my husband's family, his mom asked me if I would want to look through her collection of patterns to see if any were usable to me. Ermmm, YES!

There were several beautiful patterns that I left, but that I would gladly take if they are in danger of being tossed. They were sort of sentimental patterns. Not things I'd be likely to make, but beautiful garments that were some of the first that my mother-in-law ever sewed after she was given a sewing machine when she was thirteen. Hello, flirty '50s dresses! I left them in case my sister-in-law or her daughter might find them more sentimental than I do.

So instead I picked out a few others that I thought would look good on me and would translate well today.

For me:

For the girls:

And this terribly cute mother/daughter set:

One day I will whip some of these out. It will be interesting to compare the instructions to modern day patterns. Oh, and they are all Simplicity - except for the on McCall's (and I only brought that home to check out the instructions for the fly front).

Vacation Pattern Acquisition Part 1

2010-07-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well, if you can't actually sew, you might as well buy patterns, right?

A couple of weeks before we left for our vacation Simplicity had a pattern sale that was only advertised through sewing blogs. I decided that this was the moment that I was waiting for. Here are the patterns that I ordered for myself:

I like square necklines and I have been looking for a sundress/pinafore/jumper with a square-ish neckline to make out of dark chambray. Then there's the now out-of-print knit dress 3775. The only reason I can think of that it is out of print is that everyone who sews already has a copy and the good folks at Simplicity were simply waiting for me to buy my copy. The last one, well, I don't actually remember. It has a square neckline, so that may have been my motivation.

And then there are the patterns that I purchased for the children.

I think the girls will love the first pattern. And it makes me laugh. I remember back when Daisy Kingdom was wildly popular in the '80s. And the fabric suggestions make me laugh also. Are you ready? "Daisy Kingdom fabrics" No joke. Mighty helpful with their descriptions, those Simplicity people. The other was purchased entirely out of guilt. And Peter's recent fascination with baseball.

Next time I'll have vintage patterns to share!

A Long Month...

2010-07-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

I'm back from my gallivanting around the American south... Settling in to temporary accommodations as we still have no drywall or flooring in our home... Uploading photos so that I can blog more interestingly... Finally caught up on all the sewing blogs in my reader!

Hooray!

It's good to be home (more or less).

I Finally Did It

2010-06-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

I packed up the sewing room. I haven't really used anything other than the iron, board, and hand-sewing gear in weeks and it was killing me.

Tomorrow the mobile storage unit will arrive and a fair bit of my sewing gear will go in it. The photo below shows the gear I wanted to keep handy for next month - when we can (hopefully) inhabit at least the basement of our house.

From left to right across the top: drawers with sharps, marking and measuring tools, and bias tape; cardboard cutting surface; white box containing many of my patterns and my sewing reference books; ironing board. Next row: blue milk crate containing my Burda magazine collection - including pattern sheets and traced patterns, and other sewing magazines; Janome sewing machine; wine box containing sleeve board, press cloths, iron, desk lamp, tin of thread, power strips; under bed box containing fabric that I have plans/commitments to use upon our return.

This photo contains the items that will live for a few months in mobile storage: four large Rubbermaid bins of fabrics, vintage Singer, collapsible fabric scrap hamper, plastic bag chock full of mending, three more notion drawers, two boxes of patterns and other random stuff. I can't think about all of this too much or I will start to pilfer through it again.

And here is what I will pack to take with me when we visit in-laws and other friends. The wool pleat-front dress that needs its lining hemmed, the blue circle dress fiasco, and a small bag of hand-sewing gear.

In other news I recently went shopping for a bit more summer clothing. I am fairly certain that I will be sporting this outfit pretty frequently:

The stripes and the polka dots amuse me. And just in case you feel that pattern mixing/high-contrast outfit is clownish, I present you with the outfit my eldest daughter chose to wear down the hill to pick up Peter from school:

The little acorn didn't fall too far from the tree...

Putting things off...

2010-05-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

So there is some nasty bug raging around my neighbourhood and both Peter and I caught it. Bleh. I was still confined to bed today - but that was simply due to lack of energy rather than active illness. It is so annoying. When I am in bed I feel fine. Then I get out of bed and try to do something normal and I can't manage it. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

At one point this afternoon, I was so completely bored, that I actually wandered into my sewing area to think about packing (not to actually pack - that would have been pushing it) and I was inspired to take down my wool dress, decide on a hem length and pin up the hem. It still needs pressing and sewing (and the lining needs the same treatments), but that was all I had in me for that moment.

I haven't yet packed up my sewing stuff because demolition is on hold for a bit. The mud on the drywall has asbestos. Apparently this is actually pretty common and the variety of the asbestos is the "least harmful" type, but you have to have a licensed professional to dispose of it. (Anyone can take it down, but only a pro can take it to the disposal site. **eyeroll**) So tomorrow asbestos folks are coming to give us estimates. All this means that we may not have to pack up all our gear for another week or so. If only I felt better I might actually take advantage of this.

Oh, and Simplicity is having a sale only advertised through blogs and Facebook. Carolyn and Lori both posted about it, so I trucked on over (sitting in bed) and finally ordered the now out-of-print 3775 as well as a few other things.

In Progress: Butterick 5348 (Double Drat)

2010-05-21T22:34:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, the time is swift approaching to pack up my sewing. I had hoped to finish this dress but, it's just not happening. It looks a lot better than the muu muu it used to be, but it's still not right.

Please note that neither the skirt nor the sleeves are at their final length.

I took it all apart. (First I did try making a casing and inserting elastic, but it was too lumpy.) I cut a center back seam in the skirt. I snugged up the waist band taking it in by about 4 inches total. I then gathered both the top and the bodice onto the band and inserted a zipper. Well, in the interest of transparency, I should mention that I first inserted an invisible zipper even though I was fairly certain that it wouldn't work through the seams.

What is jumping out at me now is the width of the waistband. I think, that for it to give me a nice shape, it needs to be about twice as wide. My friend K mentioned this to me, but I forgot it once I got everything taken apart. I could maybe stomach that problem, but then there is this:

Wow, what a bad zipper! I knew I should have hand picked it!

So back it goes. It needs to be taken apart. I need to cut a new waistband twice as wide as this one (this one is the same width as the neck band). Then I need to put it all back together and hand pick the durned zipper! (Then I need to hem the sleeves - by about an inch, shorten the skirt and gather and attach the (hemmed already!) ruffle.)

It's too much for right now. This brings my UFO (UnFinished Object) count up to three. The first is the hoodie that I tried to make for Peter, the second is my cute little charcoal grey wool dress that just needs hemming. Now this. David suggested that I bring it with me on our trip and maybe I can finish it up on his mother's machine. I may think about that, but it still seems a bit too much.

Demolitions and Dreams

2010-05-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone.

We are FINALLY going to be able to begin renovating our house. It's been a year-long saga of trying something/suggesting something only to be told no by the City of Vancouver building permit folks. (Vancouver is the only city in the country that has its OWN set of building codes - more codes than the national standard.) Demolition begins next week, so everything must be packed away so that walls can be knocked down, drywall removed from all of the exterior walls, insulation put in (currently it's drywall on top of lath and plaster), new walls built, new stairs put in, windows replaced, etc, etc.

With any luck, by the end of June our home will have drywall back up, interior walls in their correct spots, electricity, plumbing, and flooring. This may be unrealistic, but we are hiring people to do the work (the contractor has been in on the journey for the entire year), and we won't be trying to live here during the worst of it.

I ordered the tile for the kitchen today. Hooray! One thing to check off the list!

You may well be wondering, "What does this have to do with me?" Dear reader, this means that I will not be sewing anything for a few weeks. All of my gear must be packed away. I will keep posting, though, so hang in with me! I have a few ideas...

Currently I am dreaming about my sewing space to come. Eventually I will have space in our new sun room (the old one will be demolished). I still will not have much room. I am wondering about fabric storage, dreaming of a folding table for cutting, and plotting a design for a rectangular pressing surface that would fit over my standard ironing board. Of course none of this even begins to address my need for a new sewing table and general organization for my notions!

I need more ideas of things that work in sewing rooms - particularly in sewing rooms belonging to people who can't sew full time. I have wiped the drool off my chin a few times looking at professional photos of sewing studios, but I am not going to have that much space. Please share photos of your sewing spaces, highlighting the parts you most appreciate! With your permission, I can post them, include your thoughts, and consider the aspects that might work here. Whaddya say? Fifteen minutes of nothing resembling FAME could be yours!

Nearly Finished! Jalie 2804 and BurdaMag 03-2009-105

2010-05-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

Sewing for myself! I finished the pink top (except for the hem - more on that later) on Saturday and the flowered skirt yesterday afternoon. The weather was sunny and 16C (about 61F) so I wore this paired with my new (thrifted) denim jacket.

This is the third time I've made the top. The first was a wadder. I used fabric without enough stretch and didn't alter the pattern pieces. My major mistake here was that I was so annoyed with the fit that I didn't even bother to really look at it to see what needed to be changed (other than adding a bit more to the crossover pieces to accommodate my bust). The second time, I was deconstructing another Jalie top into this top.

I haven't hemmed the top because I am tempted to take this it apart and rework it. Here's why: It's too long. Everywhere. I think I must be petite. There is too much fabric between my shoulders and my bust. The spacing between the empire seam and the ruching is too long - the ruching sits low on my stomach unless I scrunch it under my bust. I have made some adjustments to the my paper patterns to avoid these issues in the future.

Also the neckline is too plunging. Definitely not toddler friendly. I tried the top on at least three times to check the crossover placement. Somehow, when it is all sewn together it pulls open. I'm not really certain how to fix this except to overlap the pieces more. While Jalie does offer instructions for a modesty panel, I am not thrilled by the construction. That empire seam at its thinnest is three layers of fabric. At its thickest (where the neckbands attach) it is six layers. That's a lot of fabric.

Around here it's rarely warm enough to prohibit wearing a cami/singlet underneath - if there is only one layer of fabric across the stomach.

What to do, what to do?

I can take it apart. (Did I mention that I twin needle topstitched the empire seam to hold it flat?) Take off the ruched layer. Increase the overlap of the crossover top. Remove some of the extra fabric at the top edge of the lower bodice. Sew it all back together, making the hem even. This would hopefully solve all of the problems except the extra fabric from shoulder to bust.
I could cut it apart. Including cutting across the empire line in the back. Trim a bit more off the top edge of the lower bodice. Increase the overlap of the crossover pieces. Sew it back together. This would solve the same problems as the previous method, only it would be quicker as I would avoid picking out stitching.

Hmmmm. Do any of you have advice on this?

I will have to consider this as I am having my teeth cleaned today.

The skirt, by the way, is somewhat unremarkable comparatively. I have made it once before, but this time solved my fit problems (again, I needed to petite the length at the waist and the length of the pleat stitching - I also took the skirt in a bit at every pleat).

Jesus Costume in Action

2010-05-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

There it is, folks! That's Jesus facing temptation. And no, that Jesus is not holding a broom. It's a staff, decorated may pole style with the colours of the different groups of actors (green: earth, brown and white: people (unless I missed a finer distinction), and gold: angels).

It was a good show. They will run it again on 5 June along with the first part of the story they presented in December.

Now I have one more other-people project to finish this month, but I am sewing for myself, too. I hope to have some finished work to show you Wednesday!

Jesus Costume McCall's 2060

2010-05-05T15:17:00.000-07:00

It is finished. (Pun intended.)

Phew! I made the vest (view D) which is terribly simple, but with some complicating changes. First off, the vest needed to be reversible. One side is out prior to Jesus' death and the other side is out after Jesus' resurrection. Secondly, the main side needed to be a patchwork of four colours: green, brown, white, and gold. These colours are represented by other groups in the cast. Thirdly, the gold that was chosen was a tissue lame'. (Pardon me there, I don't know how to add an accent mark in blogger.)

Making the vest reversible meant that I could eliminate facings, which, in my mind is a bit easier as I would not have to hand-tack down facings. Of course, I forgot that on something this big, a lining is a lot of fabric and a lot of machine stitching to deal with.

But it was the patchwork on the main side that really stuck it to me. I had asked the director to sketch something up for me, but she didn't, so I made a few sketches myself. She chose the design with all of the arcs.

Now that it's done, I am very glad she didn't pick the stained glass window inspired sketch.

To go about making the arced patchwork pattern, I first adjusted the muslin and then used it to cut out the lining pieces. Then I took the lining pieces, pinned them to large sheets of easel paper and traced around them.

Back piece pinned, ready to trace.

Then I measured off the seam and hem allowances and drew the patchwork design onto the paper. I made registration marks to make matching up the cut pieces easier and then cut the patchwork pieces apart.

Front piece, ready to cut apart.

After I decided which pieces would be in which fabrics, I traced around the outside of each piece (adding back the seam and hem allowances that I had previously removed), cut them out and laid them out to see how they looked.

Pieces laid out.

I really liked how one of the sides looked, but not the other, so I played around with it a bit, made a decision and then cut a few new pieces.

Playing around prior to cutting out new pieces.

Each piece had to be sewn together to assemble each front and the back. Then construction went along pretty much as usual.

The tissue lame' proved to be quite tricky to work with as it is sheer and, well, rather like working with flexible tinfoil. I decided to underline it with flannel. This, I think was a mistake. I should have gone for a thinner broadcloth. But, as I have been reminding myself all day, this is a costume not a real garment.

I used the triple-stitch zigzag to attach the tissue lame' to the flannel underlining.

Oh well. The vest is done. Here David is modeling it before I finished the side seams. The actor playing Jesus is a fair bit taller and broader in the shoulders than my dear husband.

Front.

Back.

Monday, Monday - Spread a bit thin

2010-05-03T12:42:00.001-07:00

Gracious! Last week whipped by! Sorry for the blog silence. Sorry for the lack of photos. I can't seem to find my cable for my camera.

I am sorry to report that the rest of my life got in the way of my sewing. This left me a tad on the cranky side.

This week's sewing goals are:

Finish the costume vest. (The play is this weekend.) I have taken photos of the vest in progress, so I should have a blog post on that in a day or so.
And all the others from last week.

In other news, I have joined Weight Watchers. I don't have a lot to lose, but I haven't managed to do it on my own over the past year or two. I really enjoy eating (and I eat when I am stressed) and I don't like being sweaty. This makes weight gain nearly unavoidable. Hopefully, I will be able to change some of my habits.

Monday, Monday (nearly Tuesday)

2010-04-26T22:51:00.000-07:00

Hey folks!

What's up for you this week?

Around here there's a visit from the tooth fairy, an exterior inspection by the Vancouver building permit folks, a meeting with the city and the Board of Variance, a birthday party (someone is turning 7), and a silent auction. All on top of regularly scheduled activities. Phew! End April with a bang, why don't we?

Sewing goals for the week include:

Fabric shopping for the costume vest (which has been muslined and fitted)
Trying my slapdash attempt at fixing the blue circle dress
Cutting out another BWOF 05-2007-124 out of a purple print rayon. (see above photo)
Begin to work on a small folder project for a friend.

Thankfully, the couch cover project is officially on hold. The family drop-in center has ordered new couches (very similar in style, but slightly different measurements). Once they have the couches in, I will set myself a deadline and get the blessed things DONE!

Weekend Inspiration: April 23

2010-04-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

Image from The Guardian.

I have been cleaning out my sewing area and dreaming of what my sewing space could become. I have come to realize that while I value saving fabric scraps to make into other things, the likelihood of my doing so is slim - as is my physical space.

I gathered together all of my accumulated fabric scraps and paled at the thought of throwing them in the garbage. What can a home sewist do with all of these scraps? Who can turn them into something else?

A Google search for fabric recycling in my area turned up a few thrift stores (which I ignored) and one business: Trans Continental Textile Recycling. They have no website, so I gave them a call. The phone was answered by a very helpful person who listened to my question. She said that they do recycle fabric - both used garments and scraps. They purchase their materials by the pound from local thrift stores. So the best way for me to deal with my scraps is to bag them up and take them to the thrift store of my choice and Trans Continental will give the thrift store some money for them. Hooray!

What do you do with your scraps? Is there a textile recycling program in your area?

In Progress: Butterick 5348 (Drat)

2010-04-21T12:17:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,

This morning I hemmed the ruffle and stitched in the gathering stitches on both the ruffle and the skirt. I then attached the skirt and HORRORS! It's no longer cute! It looks like a muu muu!

Check it out:

Hem ruffle has not yet been attached and the sleeves aren't hemmed either.

It looks a tad better in the breeze...

You can tell by my facial expression that I am less than thrilled. So, what can I do from here?

Here's what I have come up with, please feel free to add your own ideas:

Cut the skirt to give it a center back seam and open up all of the center back seams on the bodice. Take the dress in a bit at the band and insert a zipper at the center back.
Cut the skirt to give it a center back seam and open up all of the center back seams on the bodice. Remove the band from both the skirt and the bodice. Make the band smaller. Gather the bodice onto the smaller band. Reattach the skirt and insert a zipper at the center back.
Take out the stitching on one side seam. Snug up the band and the skirt on the side seams and the back and figure out how to insert a zipper in a side seam.
Buy very wide elastic and make a casing inside the band.

I am leaning toward starting with the last option. It's the least intrusive. And the neckline is just so lovely right now. Thinking about taking it apart and sticking a zipper in it makes my stomach hurt.

I retrospect, it would have been nice to use the solid color fabric for the skirt. But the only matching fabric I found was linen. And I would look a wrinkled mess in a matter of moments in a full linen skirt. (Not to mention that it would probably need to be cut on the bias in order to drape well - oh the yardage!)

What do you think? Do you have any other ideas? Sorry to hit everyone with two consecutive requests for help, but there it is.

Ideas Needed!

2010-04-20T19:03:00.001-07:00

Nearly a year ago I agreed to make new slipcovers for the local family drop-in. As loosely arranged things go, it took a LOOOOOOONG time to get to the point of actually sewing something. I am very near that point. The fabric has been purchased and pre-washed (both by me and by the cleaners as my machine wasn't too fond of 7 meters of home dec weight cotton).

The only thing is that I can't come up with anything much better than what they already have. The cover has to be easily removed for washing at least twice a week. The covers they currently (see above photo) have used velcro-style fasteners, but those tangled around the fabric during the wash and so had to be cut off.

My thought is to make something in a similar style, but run a heavy duty industrial zipper along the length of the couch. But should I make essentially two zippered sleeves? One for the couch back and one for the couch seat? Or would it be possible to make one "sleeve", but with two zippers at the meeting of the seat and the back (in cross-section, it would look a bit like a scrunched capital B).

I am kind of leaning toward the two sleeves idea as this seems easier. Did I mention that there are two couches to cover? They are different sizes, but identical construction.

Any help or advice you have on this topic (about the actual construction - not about agreeing to do things that turn out to be difficult/uninspiring) would be greatly appreciated.

Monday, Monday

2010-04-19T11:20:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone! Here's my sewing to-do list for this week:

Finish the Butterick dress. It's looking really nice so far. I added a contrasting band of fabric between the bodice and the skirt and that is working quite well.
Measure the person who will wear the vest from this costume.

And really, that's it. Once I get this dress done I have to make a serious plan about how much sewing I will get done (and when) for the next month. I have had a few requests from friends and from my girls that I would like to honor, but I need to be realistic.

What are you all up to this week?

Weekend Inspiration: April 16

2010-04-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the weekend, everyone! It's time to think and dream.

Peter (not my little Peter) is wondering if glamour is dead. If glamour equals dressing in an unapproachable way, then for me, yes, glamour is dead. But drama and spark are not.

Kristy made the same dress I made... only hers is actually done! I still have to get someone to help me hem mine...

Neither Carolyn nor I will be placing ads of any sort on our blogs. She has enough readers that she is getting offers. The world at large has yet to discover that I am fabulously opinionated.

Steph has two practices I applaud: avoiding lying in bed unable to sleep for thinking through large/new sewing projects by organizing all of her work in a notebook AND she is making coats for herself and her spouse in an attempt toward sustainability in fashion.

In related news, I am actually slogging through the academic text Sustainable Fashion and Textiles by Kate Fletcher. Style blogger Franca reviewed the book most thoroughly. Even though it took three posts.

Elaine has exposed herself as not all that selfish. Perhaps she should seek medical help, but most certainly you (and I) should send a little something to her friend in Haiti.

Oh. If only I needed this guide to fabric shopping in Paris. Have I ever told you that I've never been off the continent of North America?

I love the colorful top Stephanie made for her sister.

What is inspiring you?

The lead photo is my little Clara. She is an inspiration to me. She generally enjoys life and has a great love of stories. When she plays by herself, she is usually telling stories - making up her own or remixing the ones we have read recently.

In Progress: Butterick 5348

2010-04-14T16:42:00.000-07:00

This dress is in parts and ready to assemble! I have already fused the interfacing to the neckband, so I am ready to sew!

Unfortunately, it is time to get dinner ready.

In the photo above, you can see me on the floor busily cutting out the ruffles with my rotary cutter and quilting ruler. I don't know how other people cut out entire garments with a rotary cutter. I have the second to largest rotary cutter mat (18" x 24") available in my local shop and it is only big enough to do most bodice pieces. For the sake of my vanity, please note that my shirt (BWOF 02-2009-108) is hanging away from my front as I work.

Here are a couple of altered pattern pieces.

This is the back bodice. You can see that I have removed some width. The muslin had a very poofy back and this seemed to fix the problem. I also trimmed off half an inch from the bottom of the center back, through the folded bit and then tapered to nothing at the side seam. My muslin hung much longer in back than in front. I liked where it fell in the front, so I shortened the back.

This is the sleeve. I lengthened it by 3". There is no science to this measurement. The sleeves of my muslin were hitting my arm at an unflattering spot, so I lengthened them. I can always shorten them again if needed.

And here are the fabrics: a swirly brush stroke print cotton pique and a MATCHING linen (purchased at two different stores weeks apart). How excellent is that!? The linen will be used for the neckband and a waistband I am considering adding.

Monday, Monday

2010-04-12T14:00:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

Well, it's Monday. And among other things, today is the day I chart out my week (more or less). Here are my sewing goals for the week:

1. Finish sewing blanket for client. (Down to the ombre rainbow satin binding.) Must be finished tonight.

2. Cut out blue circle fabric into altered pattern pieces of Butterick 5348. Maybe I will have a bit of time for this Tuesday afternoon.
3. Find matching blue fabric for neckband. Wednesday morning, should the fabric gods smile upon me.
4. Begin assembling dress. Wednesday and in bits of time the rest of the week.

5. Read through Kids Sewing Company texts and consider the ins and outs of teaching sewing lessons in the fall. Anytime I'm not doing the other 4 things.

Weekend Inspiration: April 9

2010-04-09T23:28:00.000-07:00

May you enjoy these as much as I did!

Casey is Getting Organized. Her jewelry frames make me wonder if I could figure a way to display buttons or other sewing notions in a similar manner. Sort of tools as art, if you will.

Amanda (who deserves congratulations and regular foot massages) made this lovely blouse. I have that pattern, but am thinking about a lightweight knit rather than a woven. Possible?

Claudine made matching silk trench coats for her young daughters. Let me say that again. Matching. Silk. Trench. Coats.

Sharon whipped up Simplicity 3775 recently. I may now actually order the blessed pattern and make one just like it (different colors).

Sal has a Big Secret. When I read it I wanted to gather my friends together and walk down the street proud and confident in our real fabulousness.

I found this photo on flickr (investigating photo hosting methods as part of my blog overhaul) and am filled with desire to visit exotic places. However, I am not very tolerant of insects. Anyplace that lush must be teeming with them, right?

In the seemingly incessant rain, I found this outfit on What Would a Nerd Wear extremely pleasing. It's something about the juxtaposition of the floral and tulle with the utilitarian rubber.

We are finally at the stage of kitchen planning where we are considering colour, surfaces, etc. I have had this bookmarked for months.

And finally, because of the impending renovations, I am finding most of the entries at Unhappy Hipsters hilarious.

In Progress:

2010-04-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

My intention was to begin posting a regular "In Progress" entry every Wednesday. Unfortunately, this Wednesday was almost entirely consumed by going to and recovering from a dental appointment (Surprise! Let's fix those fillings RIGHT NOW!). So almost nothing related to sewing got done.

I did tidy up my sewing space a bit and pulled out and rearranged my fabrics. But life got the best of me and I wasn't even able to post this until Thursday!

I'll see you all tomorrow with my weekly plan.

Changes Afoot

2010-04-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Hello friends,

I am changing my blog around a bit over the next few days. My new domain will be www.sewinguptheneighbourhood.com but you should still be able to access my blog using thoughtsfromthesecondfloor.blogspot.com

So no worries everyone. I hope you like the changes!

UPDATE: As luck would have it, I again lost my blogrolls. I will do my best to recover them, but if you know of a blog (perhaps yours - particularly my "Friends Blogs") for which I used to have a link, please leave me a comment with the address.

Feeling Introspective

2010-03-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

So, Wednesday is supposed to be my sewing day, but today - mostly for circumstances beyond my control, not much sewing is happening.

I did get black hem lace stitched to the raw edge of my wool dress so I am another step closer to hemming it.

I also pulled out a couple of patterns - one to trace and muslin and one to cut out and sew - and I photocopied the fronts of a few envelope patterns for my pattern binder.

But beyond that I have spent my day reeling from a blow up with Lucy, then delving into a book about the Enneagram and generally being more introspective than usual.

I guess that's how life goes...

And the Winner Is...

2010-03-27T00:13:00.000-07:00

well, not me. I am disappointed, of course, but I am trying to look on the bright side.

I received 39 VOTES!! That's pretty darn good! And I have a fabulous, perfect for me, not available anywhere bag for this summer. And I used my brain and my hands to make something. All told that's worth an awful lot.

So deep congratulations to Nancy2001 for her Akris Ai Bag Knockoff, to Jaggs for her version of Lisa Galvin's Stenciled Suede Handbag, and to fiberosity for her Self-Drafted Purse inspired by one from Coach.

Now, if only the weather would start being a little more pleasant...

Too Late to the Simplicity 3775 Party

2010-03-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

Well folks, whether you know it or not, I have been meaning for MONTHS to buy Simplicity 3775.

I waited too long. The highly reviewed dress is now out of print and no longer available at my local fabric stores. I'll have to see if Simplicity has a spare one lying around or if I can find one used somewhere...

Boo.

Still here...

2010-03-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

Just thought I would let you all know that I am still here. I even made a dress last week. But I have to take it apart and redo it.

I added too much fabric to the center back and didn't insert a zipper when I made the muslin, so I had no idea the back neck would gape when finished. And I added in-seam side seam pockets, but I managed to place them too low. So I have to take apart the entire center back and a good chunk of both side seams and redo them. Bleh.

I really need a dressform. I think I'll go check Craigslist.

Also the handbag contest is still open for voting for a few days, so drop in and vote for something you like!

The Bag is Done!! Updated!

2010-03-13T17:20:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone! I'll update this post later, but I am so excited that I just finished reviewing and entering my bag in the March Handbag contest over at Pattern Review.

Woo-hoo!
************************
OK, so here's the real post (although much of it is lifted straight from my review):
************************
The inspiration of the design elements of this bag came chiefly from two bags that I already own and have used extensively. But first and foremost, I needed a summer bag. Last year at the end of the spring, I bought myself a leather Fossil bag which I love, but found it very uncomfortable to wear during the summer. (Leather straps do not slide freely on bare skin.)

For the handbag contest at Pattern Review, I made a small lined messenger-style bag with an adjustable strap and magnetic snap closures on the flap and back pocket. There are two main exterior pockets (front and back) as well as two side pockets for cell phone and keys. There is one interior pocket for pens and another specifically to carry the little urn of my mother's ashes.

The finished bag is roughly 9" x 11". The strap is about 50" long. This means that this bag is on the small-ish side which is good for someone my height. My life dictates a functional bag, but I wanted it to be a little fun, classic, and summery at the same time.

I spent who knows how much time searching for a bag pattern, but I couldn't find a commercial pattern that even somewhat resembled this bag, so I ended up drafting it myself. It wasn't too hard - just rectangles, and using graph paper made the drafting much simpler. (I do not profess to be any good at searching the internet, however. There could be thousands of patterns like this out there...)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had originally hoped to put small zippered pockets on both the front and back pocket pieces. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do the research and testing needed to learn how to make and assemble any zippered pockets.

I am very pleased withthe tiny urn pocket. My mother taught me to sew, so it is nice to have a little spot for her ashes in my bag.

I used a very stiff sew-in interfacing to support the body of the bag. It sewed remarkably well, but was difficult to pin without distorting the seam. To solve this dilemma, I used small squares of fusible tape left over from an old set of Ikea curtains, and fused the outer fabric to the stiff interfacing. I also used small binder clips to hold multiple layers together.

My machine had more trouble sewing through many layers of the outer fabric (when attaching the straps to the bag) than it had sewing through two layers of outer fabric, two layers of lining fabric, piping, and two layers of interfacing (sewing the bottom/side panel to the front/back of the bag).

I used the fusible interfacing on the wrong side of the lining to add support for the inner pockets. I also used fusible interfacing to support the magnetic snap closures. On the flap, I attached a piece of the stiffer interfacing opposite the magnetic snaps to prevent the fabric from wearing thin.

The strap is many layers thick - maybe six? I thought about adding fusible interfacing, but the methods I tried didn't work. The sliding buckle is just a regular buckle, but I removed the prong from the center bar. Works like a charm!

I had so much fun designing and making this bag! A friend asked me how many hours I put into it, and I can't even say. Definitely more than ten hours of actual working time, but then I also spent countless hours thinking through the steps and my techniques (and then there's all the time spent schlepping around town to purchase materials - I never manage to correctly estimate the amount of piping I actually need...).

Here is a slideshow so you can look at the entire album of photos with captions below. (The slideshow goes crazy fast and I wrote a lot in the captions, sorry. You can pause the slideshow by mousing over the photos and clicking the pause button that appears.)

Handbag Status and Thrift Store Finds

2010-03-09T19:22:00.000-08:00

I had hoped to get farther along on my bag, but it just wasn't happening. I have also given up exposed zippers in a welt opening with a pocket bag behind. That's just too much for me to work out without a pattern and instructions. At least, too much to be done soon.

So my bag is all in pieces. The lining still needs to be cut out, but I'm not exactly sold on the print. The interfacing is fused to the outer fabric. With any luck, I will be able to get it rolling this week.

No sewing this Wednesday, however. We were away visiting friends on Vancouver Island over the weekend, so David lost days of work and has meetings on Wednesday. Hopefully, I will be able to have sewing time on Thursday or Friday.

While we were away we stopped at a few thrift stores. Here are a few of the things I picked up:

Up first, an original Trivial Pursuit and Mastermind game! Peter has really taken to Mastermind, so now I just have to find someone willing to play Trivial Pursuit with me...

Next are some lovely sewing things, each for 25 cents. Clockwise from upper left:

Threads magazine from September of 199something. I haven't even looked through it yet. It was a sure buy, because as best as I can figure, EVERY issue of Threads has gold within its pages.
Spadea Sewing Book from the 1960s - a compilation of some construction tips from clothing designers. It's full of the same helpful hints that are now all over the internet and current sewing books, but it is written in a way that makes you feel like an insider.
Vintage Simplicity pattern for dolls and doll clothes. I don't know that I will ever make it, but it was impossible to leave.
Anchor 100 Embridery Stitches book. I began fiddling around with embroidery a little while back, chiefly to have handwork to do at meetings and the playground (when other people knit or crochet). I checked out a couple of books from the library, but now I have one of my own - and, since it is small, it will be easier to carry!
The Busy Woman's Sewing Book by Nancy Ziemann. I don't know how helpful this text will be, but it was hard to leave behind as well.

I'll leave with a snapshot from our weekend:

That's David with our kids and two of our friends' kids on a little suspension bridge at Bright Angel Park. A very nice little park where you can throw rocks or splash in the water (splashing in the warmer weather) as well as play at a lovely playground with real teeter totters and a merry-go-round (or wheel of death as our friends call it).

Meet my "New" Machine!

2010-03-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

Found this lovely on Craigslist for $30 and a bit of a drive.

I am SO excited, but of course and things have happened, I have yet to peruse the three instruction manuals. I have such high hopes for the buttonholer.

Briansews? I may be hitting you up for some advice!

Wednesday Sewing - bits and bobs

2010-02-24T23:16:00.000-08:00

I managed several little things today.

I took in the waistband of the brown wool skirt so I might wear it tomorrow. This was a totally slapdash endeavor since I didn't remove any existing stitching. If it is still a tad big when I wear it, I can throw in some elastic.
I added a bit of length to a mini skirt that I made a couple of weeks ago by chopping and hemming a long knit skirt from the thrift store. (It's a perfectly fine length with leggings under it, but I got to thinking that I might want to wear it when the weather is warm enough to not require leggings, but then it might be too short.)
I cut out and stitched together a sample nightgown for Lucy. Of course it turned out that she couldn't try it on because the neck opening was too small. I actually made a lot of mistakes on the nightgown because I was rushing. I'll fix the neckline tomorrow morning.
I caught up on my photocopying of the Burda magazine's All Styles At-A-Glance for my pattern notebook.
I sketched out my ideas for a summer handbag/purse. Pattern Review is holding a contest this March and I hope to enter.
Tonight I started drafting the bag. I already have the outer fabric, but I will still need the lining fabric, interfacing, zippers, thread, and hardware. Exposed zippers in a welt opening, here I come!

That's all. Sorry I have no photos from today.

It's Beginning to Look Like a Dress! BurdaMag 10-2009-119

2010-02-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

My sewing today was constant, but I still didn't get quite as far as I would have liked. BUT! I have something that actually resembles a dress!

Let's see if I can remember all that I accomplished today.

Sewed the back bodices to the back skirts.
Sewed the front to the back at the shoulders only.
Cut out lining.
Attached pockets to side seams using this tutorial.
Trimmed the neckline of the lining bodice to match the new curve I made.
Sewed the skirt front lining together.
Sewed the bodice linings to the skirt linings
Sewed the front and back linings together at the shoulders only.
Pressed the pleated front of my dress very well.
Topstitched the pleats on the bodice and below the empire seam enough to make the dress clearly not maternity wear.
Removed all basting threads.
Followed the tutorial in this pattern review to attach the lining to the fashion fabric.

Here are the topstitched pleats (step 10). You can also see that I didn't quite get all of my stripes to match up. In some cases it was impossible, but in others I went for close enough. The plaid is subtle and my current sewing area is dim. This is also my first time working with plaid.

Here I am turning the dress right side out by pulling it through the shoulder "tunnels" (step 12). If you look closely at the second photo, you can see how closely I was able to understitch the lining.

Here I am with the dress draped over my shoulders. It's looking a little Pilgrimy now, but that's because the side seams and center back seam aren't sewn. Nice clean finished neckline, eh? And no hand stitching!

Phew!
I still need to sew the side seams of the lining and the dress. I might get that done tonight. The center back zipper and seam need to be finished as well as the hem on both the lining and the pleated dress. That might take another week.

All in all a productive day!

***********************

Last week my kids had their Valentine's Day parties at their schools. I am loathe to purchase valentines, because they almost all have licensed characters on them. Either that or they cost too much. (And I'm just not a card person, anyway.)

So this year, we decided to make cookies. I made my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe and spread it out into a jelly roll pan. I baked it about the same amount of time I would bake a pan of dropped cookies and let it cool several hours. I then cut out cookie hearts using a cookie cutter and put one cookie in a little cellophane bag for each recipient. My kids labeled them and we happily ate up the scraps.

Lost in Translation...

2010-02-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I stopped in for a bit at a local thrift store and picked up a "vintage" Nordstrom cotton velvet blazer. The only problem is that it is a caramel/camel brown (a very yellow brown). But it was inexpensive and it fit well so I figured I would try dyeing it.

Today I went to the fabric store downtown and purchased (among other things) a packet of dye. I opened the packet after lunch to read through the directions since this is a brand of dye I had never used before. SURPRISE! All of the instructions are written in Spanish! Now I did take Spanish in university, but that was a long time ago.

I went to the company's website hoping they would also have English instructions there, but no. So I copied the Spanish instructions from the website into Yahoo's Babel Fish and here is the result (there's a fair bit of Spanish remaining, but I think I get the gist):

DYEING WITH WASHING MACHINE (NEITHER WOOL CAN BE DYED NOR SOOTHES) It uses rubber gloves. Although some parts of the washing machine (rubbers of the door), can be stained with the dye, these will not fade in later washings.
1º) Weighs the dry weave in and lávelo even if he is new, to clear the spots or nonvisible dirt to the eyes and déjelo humid.
2º) Programs the washing machine in the longest cycle and warms up without using prewashing.
3º) Abra to the tin with a can opener either sharp object, in the middle dissolves to the dye liter of very hot water, remuévalo or and introdúzcalo in the drum of the washing machine.
4º) By each dye tin 30 gr. of hot water salt (of the faucet) and introdúzcalo in the drum of the washing machine.
5º) Puts the humid and unfolded weave in the washing machine, prepares the washing machine in the longest program and warms up WITHOUT PRELAVADO, póngala in march and leaves I carried out the complete cycle.
6º) Serve the weave of the washing machine and dries it in the shade and far from any source of heat, it does not use the dryer.
7º) Washing the washing machine putting it in the longest cycle and warms up with its habitual detergent and a lye cup.

Good times... wish me luck!

Pleating, Pleating. BWOF 10-2009-119

2010-02-08T14:16:00.001-08:00

Lucky me, Clara and her little friend decided to play happily for long enough today that I felt courageous enough to try pleating a piece of the plaid wool large enough for the center front piece.

I started out by marking each of the previously pinned pleats with chalk. Then I put in a little thread tracing. The orange thread is the outside of the pleat and the lavender thread is where the fold meets the flat fabric. (Clever of myself, I thought... colour coding!)

Then I took my new seam gauge and proceeded to carefeully iron in all of the pleats.

The result of all of this careful (but blind) ironing was this:

Look at that the light blue stripes are in the center of each pleat! HOORAY!! But wait. The pleat on the left looks bigger than the pleat on the right. Awwww maaaaan.

So I undid the smaller side and repressed the pleats using my handy seam gauge to make the pleat on the right match the pleat on the left...

Look at that! The light blue stripe is in the center of each pleat and the pleats are almost precisely the same size! HOORAY!!

Thanks for everyone's comments and encouragement on the last post. You all are fabulous!

Fabric Photos and Fretting about Pleats and Plaids and Zippers

2010-02-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

Lucy had her 5th birthday on Wednesday, so I didn't get much sewing done. She requested a layer cake and I forgot (again) that I don't actually own any round cake pans. Last year I borrowed cake pans from the neighbours, but this year I decided to bite the bullet and buy two 8" round pans. (I do miss my baking-happy housemates of a few years ago...)

But! I have done a lot of thinking and reading about sewing, particularly around this dress. Last week I made a muslin of the bodice - raising the waistline to empire height. I think this will look far more flattering on me. I want to make two versions of the dress: one in a charcoal plaid wool suiting fabric and one in a lightweight dark denim/chambray (shirt weight). Here is a photo of the two wool fabrics I recently purchased:

The fabric for the dress is on the right. The wool on the left might be made into a vest, but then again, it might need to age in the stash a bit. Boy is it ever hard to get a good photo of dark fabric! In the photo above, the fabric looks like a medium gray, but in reality it is a dark charcoal gray. I couldn't manage a decent photo of the dark chambray.

Here is a photo of the dress fabric with roughly pinned in pleats along with the bemberg rayon lining. The blue is actually quite similar to the light blue stripes in the plaid. If you look at the darker blue shade in the far left of the photo, that is a more accurate color. There are also dark blue stripes in the wool, but they are crazy difficult to notice.

I think I like this arrangement for the pleated section on the center of the bodice. But it makes me nervous. I think - based on what I have read - that I should go ahead and iron in the pleats on the fabric, then take the pattern piece and tape the pleats shut, then pin it to the fabric and cut it out. Does that sound correct? I am so nervous that I am going to mess things up. I think I have enough fabric that I could even cut this piece wrong and still be able to cut another one, but then again, I don't know that I could do that and still get the plaid to match.

I may need one of you more experienced people to hold my hand through this.

I want to make the wool one first. Otherwise I might not ever make it. The chambray one will get far more wear through the coming Spring/Summer/Fall, but because I won't have to match plaids, I think it will be easier.

I am thinking of lining the chambray dress also. I am worried that all the pleats in the front will be uncomfortable on my skin. I am thinking about lining the dress with this fabric:

Now I bought this with the idea that I would make a loud and crazy version of McCall's 5860, but this is quilting cotton and I have since learned my lesson about making clothing out of quilting cotton. But what about lining a dress? Do you think cutting it on the bias would help?

I am also thinking of putting an exposed zipper into the back of the chambray dress. What do you think of exposed zippers? I know they are probably on the way out as trends go, but something about a sassy zipper in a sweet dress with a surprisingly loud lining rings true with me. My chief concerns around an exposed zipper are functional concerns. Will it be itchy/hot/cold/otherwise annoying? How would I prevent these potential problems?

So many questions...

Sewing for the Kids

2010-01-29T22:32:00.000-08:00

I completely forgot to post this outfit I made for Lucy this past December.

Posing...

I used Jalie's basic t-shirt pattern, but gave it the long sleeves from another of their patterns. The skirt is just rectangles and out of my head. Lucy was very specific about the colours and placement (no surprise there - she is always specific). I also refashioned the tights into stirrup tights. (In the photo, she is wearing the tights over a pair of fuzzy athletic socks - in ballet flats. She's nearly five, what can I say?)

Here's the story on the outfit. Lucy was invited to the birthday party for a friend from preschool. The party was held at a local gymnastics facility. The invitation specifically mentioned wearing sports clothes. As it turns out, nothing puts horror in my older daughter's heart more than the thought of "sports clothes".

The day before the party Lucy was falling apart right and left. Seriously. Extreme emotion over anything and everything. All day. Now Lucy has strong emotions even on her calm days, but this took the cake. It didn't hit me until bedtime that this was tied to some kind of anxiety about the party. As I coaxed her into her PJs and talked her down out of her tree, it hit me, so I asked her if she was concerned about the party.

She looked at me with nearly tangible relief. I went on to talk with her about how this was a party so the teachers leading the gymnastics activities were going to be nice (we had just dropped out of horribly taught swimming lessons), and that I would be there if she wanted, etc. She looked at me again, took a breath and said, trembling, "But what am I going to WEAR?"

I nearly laughed out loud.

I said, "Well, you should wear something that is comfortable and allows you to move. Something stretchy. Maybe a shirt and leggings."

"But I want to wear a skirt, and I (beginning to SOB) don't have any stretchy skirts!"

Hoo boy!

We did some quick thinking and remembered that she had the black and yellow shirt (maybe I made that in November?), so we decided that I would make a black and yellow spinny skirt. I mentioned that she might want something to cover her legs (weather-appropriate clothing is an important thing). Lucy wanted to wear tights, but I thought they might be too slippery. We had this pair of tights from Children's Place that Lucy refused to wear and that I had forgotten to return. I suggested that I could cut out the toe and the heel from the tights.

And that was that. Lucy went to bed calmly and pleasantly.

Both the tights and the skirt were finished before the party the next afternoon. (I did have to shorten the skirt and tighten the elastic after the party - we didn't have enough time for a proper fitting.) The yellow portion of the skirt is pleated, because I find that far less frustrating than gathering. The tights were cut off in spots (I had her try them on to figure out exactly where to cut the feet),then I stitched clear elastic to the openings, then turned them under and stitched them again. Tricky, slippery work, but not difficult.

*****************************

Now for more recent (and not nearly as humorous) kid sewing. Peter needs PJs. He has been wearing the same PJs for two years and it shows. He prefers his PJs to be snug -like thermal underwear. Unfortunately, he has reached the age and size where store-bought PJs are loose - like lounge pants and a t-shirt. Then I remembered that Dawn of Two On Two Off makes thermal underwear and PJs for her kids. I did a quick search and found the local fabric store that carries Kwik Sew patterns.

This Wednesday, I bought the pattern and on Thursday I sewed a sample of the XS. It fits very well, but could maybe be a bit longer in the leg. Peter loves them. He also loves the fabric I bought for the "real" PJs. White knit printed with bright blue plaid on the bias. I have to keep my eye out for printed knit that is boy-appropriate, but not camo (we don't do camo at our house) and speaks to me of children and the silliness that is PJs.

Phew! Now I need to make the "real" PJs. Lucy wants a nightgown ("Please, Mommy? You made THREE for Clara." - two were muslins), but that can wait a bit. I want a dress. Two dresses, actually. I have been busily working today on fitting a muslin of the bodice of Burda's 10-2009-119. I just washed my fabric and I need to think about cutting into it.

Deconstruct - Reconstruct

2010-01-27T12:29:00.000-08:00

Remember this shirt? Well, I wore it twice maybe and then decided that it really was the wrong fabric for the style (and that I didn't like the style, but more on that later). So it sat on my sewing table for a few weeks. Then one night I bit the bullet and started ripping out the stitching. I carefully detached the bodice pieces and the sleeves. I also opened a few inches on the sleeve seam and the remaining side seam.

I found I had more than enough fabric from the old bodice fronts for the new bodice pieces and a little extra to add to the bodice back to bring it up to the shoulder seams (sorry, I forgot to get a photo of that bit - although I am pretty pleased with myself). I had plenty in my stash to cut a binding piece for the new neckline edge. And voila! I now have a cute comfortable top that suits my style!

And now, thanks to Cidell, I want to make this dress. It's Burda 10-2009-119 and I don't know how I missed it before. (I would include a link to the line drawing, but Burda has yet to update their archives.) As I was walking to an appointment this morning, I realized that there is a waist seam. Boo. My "waist" is not my narrowest area and certainly not something I'd like to highlight. Here is a perfectly lovely dress from Banana Republic to illustrate what I mean.

Yeeouch!

I thought about trying to change this to princess seams, but then it hit me that it would probably be easier to simply raise the waist seam to an empire waist. What do you think? Empire waists are far more flattering on me as long as there is not so much fabric that it looks like maternity wear. I think the tucks will mitigate that. I'm heading to a fabric store to look for inspiring fabric to keep my momentum going.

Oh! and if anyone would really love to have the Jalie pattern in the top photo, I'll send it to you!

Joining the "No Poo" Crowd

2010-01-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

Like many of you, I have been conditioned to dislike my hair and to fix it with as many products as I can manage. Luckily for me and for the health of my hair, I haven't ever been able to manage more than shampoo, conditioner, and some kind of hair goop to give it oomph and possibly wave holding power.

I have purchased cheap shampoos (Suave), expensive shampoos (Aveda), and a myriad in between (Prairie Naturals, among others). I used to wash my hair every day in the shower. Then I had tiny kids and just couldn't manage a daily shower, so David and I switched to alternating days. This was a hard go for my hair for a while. Midway through the second day I would begin to smell my hair and by the next morning, my hair was limp and stringy.

I've had friends and acquaintances all along who only washed their hair once a week or not at all, but this was never appealing to me because, though several of them had nice looking hair, these people always smelled like they hadn't showered or washed their hair. I'm just not that counter-cultural.

About two years ago, I bought my first bottles of Aveda. I loved it. The ingredients are often organic, the company supports wind power, etc. etc. And, above all, it smelled heavenly. When I finally finished those bottles, I bought larger bottles. Only I bought different Aveda shampoo. Major disappointment. But I had these huge bottles of shampoo that I had shelled out quite a chunk of money for, so instead of selling the remainder on Craigslist, I trudged ahead and continued to use the shampoo.

This past fall, I was reading a sewing blog written by someone in Japan (I have forgotten the name of the blog now), when she mentioned that she and her whole family had given up shampoo and were now washing their hair with baking soda. She said (if I remember correctly) that she was concerned about the number of plastic bottles she was throwing away/recycling.

Living in Vancouver, where living spaces are small, I am often on the lookout for how people organize their lives in other small-space places. Japan certainly fits that category. So this jumped out at me as a legitimate way to reduce the number of bottles that need to be readily accessed in our washroom. (I am going to be the parent of three teenagers in a few years - two of them girls.)

So I thought about it for a few months. Wondered when a good time would be to try to ditch my shampoo. Then NPR ran a story on the "No Poo" movement. Then S. at Academichic posted her attempts at not using shampoo. I did some research on the internet and I finally decided to wash my hair with my shampoo for the last time on December 31.

It took a few trials to work out a routine that I feel works for my hair and for my already established morning routines (which affect 4 other people), but right away, I noticed a difference! My hair stopped smelling bad. It stopped being limp and stringy.

I have a four day cycle.
On day one, I first massage my scalp in the hot shower water. Then I wash my hair with a paste made of 1 tablespoon baking soda and a little water. I start at the nape of my neck, then work up to my crown and temples, and then do the top. I do not actively scrub my hair - I scrub my scalp using the pads of my fingers. Then I rinse with hot water. I do usually blow dry my hair. Done.
On day two, I do nothing - not even shower.
On day three, I massage my scalp in the hot shower water. I can feel the oils in my hair, but instead of feeling greasy, it feels a bit more like a protective coating. I do usually blow dry my hair. Done.
On day four, I do nothing - not even shower.

The next day is day one again. I have now been experimenting with adding an additional rinse of diluted apple cider vinegar. This controls some of my flyaway little hairs, but I think that for my hair length and texture, it is unnecessary. Folks with longer or curlier hair may want to do this.

This last hair cycle, I took pictures every day for documentation. (You'll have to just believe me that my hair doesn't smell.) The collages below go from day 1 to day 4 from left to right. Please note, I still don't actively style my hair. This is just not in my skill set.

Of particular interest to me is the indoor shot on the evening of day two. This is when my hair used to begin to smell and look bad. Looks pretty good, eh?

Skirt BurdaMag 03-2009-104

2010-01-22T20:15:00.000-08:00

I made this skirt using a rough wool remnant that after washing shrunk, fluffed, and felted into an almost blanket-like material. It does look a bit like I am wearing a blanket - particularly in the way I wore it today, with a long shirt over the yoke, but it is warm for a knee-length skirt. It's not terribly frigid here, but wearing "shorter" skirts any time from September to April is pretty much unheard of for me.

I recently posted that wool is not a mom-of-small-children friendly fabric, but I decided to go ahead and use this wool because I think I paid all of $4 for the piece and I'm just trying out this skirt style. It finally dawned on me that I could use another fabric for the yoke (so as not to have any itchy wool near my waist), so I chose the polyester brocade. It's stiffer and slicker, which are good properties in this case. This is also my first foray into a proper lining (though I am certain I didn't do it properly), and I chose a bemberg rayon ($10/metre for lining fabric! Yikes!)

Because the pattern called for stretch fabric, I decided to cut my skirt fabric on the bias. I wanted it to have as much chance as possible to drape well. I cut the yoke on the straight grain, however. I used a fusible woven interfacing on the brocade yoke to increase the fabric's stiffness, and even purchased a lightweight boning, but I don't think the yoke needs it.

I had quite a laugh when I pin fitted the yoke pieces together and marked the new stitching line. I know I am anything but a curvy person, but this is hilarious:
The blue chalk lines are my new sewing lines based on a pin fitting. You can compare them to the pattern's stitching lines on the top two pieces. Waist? What waist? Hahahahaha!

Of course, as it turned out, I could probably take in the yoke by another inch. I don't quite know how I am going to do this yet.

I did make a few changes to the pattern. First off, I was concerned that I wasn't going to be able to walk in the skirt without a slit or vent, so I scoured through my Burdas and found a skirt with a vent in the front and traced that off onto the back. This eliminated my chance to cut the back on the fold, but it gave me the chance to move the zipper from the side to the back. And since everyone has been talking about it lately, I decided to try a handpicked zipper. Here it is:

Not bad for a first go! It's not invisible, but I've never been great at hand stitching. I'll get better, but for now I am pleased that the stitching is straight and not wonky like I am certain it would have been had I tried to sew it with my machine.

My lining turned out alright also. The pattern does not include instructions for a lining, so I did the best that I could. I chose to cut the lining on the bias since I wasn't certain that I would be able to fit into the skirt otherwise. I lined the yoke (on the straight grain), which I think was a mistake. All day the skirt kept sliding around and my camisole kept riding up. The lining around my zipper looks very nice, but I have to do a little bit more work on the lining near the walking slit as it keeps peeking out.

Should I make this skirt again (and I might since it is a fairly functional skirt - wore it all day today - to the playground, too) I will remember to make a new pocket lining piece so the fashion fabric isn't doubled up on my thighs. I will also line the yoke with a quilting cotton and take the yoke in some. I have to get over my fear of making the waist too tight.

Child's Waistcoat Burda Mag 06-2009-142

2010-01-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

Peter specifically requested that I make him a waistcoat (buttoned vest) after seeing some in a shop. I had this pattern and since I want to make a waistcoat for myself, this made a good trial run.

He picked out his fabric. Well... that's not entirely true. I told him what kinds of fabric he could pick - otherwise he would have had bright red satin on the outside. So he ended up choosing a paisley printed corduroy and an ombre blue lining. He chose shiny black faceted buttons as well. (Vancouver is such a casually dressed place. I think it makes us all crave something a little fancy.)

The pattern went together very well. I left out the darts - Peter's belly is bigger than his chest. In fact, it was all smooth sailing until I tried to make the buttonholes. Hmmm. Does that sound familiar? Everything going well until the buttonholes? I'm beginning to think my machine just can't make a good buttonhole in anything other than quilting cotton. Bleh. I did make test buttonholes and found that I needed to run the fabric lining side up with a piece of tissue underneath the corduroy. Even so I ended up picking out two buttonholes - which was painstaking, neck breaking, eye straining work. I did manage to avoid tearing the lining fabric, but only just. If only I had more space, I would totally buy an old solid machine and one of those vintage buttonhole making devices.

Here is the collage of the waistcoat. It turned out nicely. I have no idea when he will wear it since he wears sweatpants and t-shirts fairly exclusively. Click on the collage for a larger view.

Next up, I am making this skirt for myself. I am using these fabrics:

The brocade is for the waistband/yoke and the wool I have cut on the bias for the skirt (the pattern called for stretch fabric). This wool is like a blanket. I found it in the remnant bin at Dressew. It originally had a open rough looking weave. I tossed it in the washer and dryer and it shrunk and felted a bit. Now it is spongy and soft.

This is the best photo I could come up with to show how thick the fabric is. The cut edge you see there is along the bias. It is doubled and scrunched in my hand.

Other changes to this pattern include adding a lining and adding a walking vent (slit) at the back - which also means adding a center back seam, so I am considering moving the zipper to the back as well.

Wednesday is my sewing day. I hope to get a fair bit done on the skirt!

Backward and Forward

2009-12-31T10:07:00.000-08:00

I am looking back at the sewing I did this past year. When I count through the slideshow, it looks like close to 30 items (not including the items I made for the all-handmade sale*). That's a fair bit for someone who only started sewing garments a year and a half ago!

I am still figuring out what shapes look good on my body as well as learning how to fit my body. I am also learning how to choose attractive clothes that work with my stay-at-home-mom-of-small-children lifestyle.

Last year I tried to incorporate one new thing in each garment to help me expand my capabilities - either a new technique or a new fabric. I didn't always manage this, but I think it is a worthy goal for this year's sewing as well.

Here is the slideshow:

In addition to trying something new with each project, in 2010, I need to find sources of quality fabric that works with my lifestyle and preferences. I tend to get all excited by my fellow sewists' use of wool and silk and I am terribly covetous of the brilliant polyester knit prints. But none of these work for me.

Wool is itchy on me - no matter how low the content and both wool and silk must be treated with more care than I can give my clothes (and certainly more care than my kids are going to give my clothes - sticky fingers, sand, snot, the random marker streak, etc.). I try to use "natural" fibers whenever I can as an effort to care for the earth. This generally prohibits polyester from my wardrobe. My blazer and the costumes were the main exceptions this year.

I still have several patterns and fabric just waiting for the time and energy to sew them. Here's to getting back to a sustainable schedule soon!

* For the all handmade sale, I made over 40 handkerchiefs, more than 12 backpack doll carriers, more than 40 bookmarks, 7 checkers sets, and one moebius scarf (which needs its own picture).

Comment Moderation On

2009-12-29T16:27:00.000-08:00

Hello friendly readers!

Welp, this blog has been the recipient of some lovely comment spam, so I have turned comment moderation on for the time being. Lucky for us, there are no lively discussions in the comments as of yet, so nothing should be too slowed down by this extra step. (Ha!)

Feeling Better

2009-12-22T22:32:00.000-08:00

Thanks to all of you who willingly read through my rant yesterday.

Today I took the opportunity to tidy up my sewing table while the kids were glued to a video. Then, during naptime, I finished fixing Lucy's impromptu skirt from a couple of weeks ago and had Peter help me trace and cut out the pattern pieces for the waistcoat he wants. That went so quickly that I even managed to cut out and quickly stitch up a muslin for the waistcoat in a cheap fabric from my stash (thin poly-cotton cow print anyone?). I need to add width to the side fronts and maybe a tad to the neckline, but it looks like the hardest part will be the buttonholes.

I sewed nothing for myself, but I feel better.

****
Wardrobe update: I stopped in at American Apparel* today to check out their t-shirts. I didn't find anything I wanted to try on, but I might have missed something, so I will check their website. I took a look at their leggings. HOLY MOLY! They want something like $50 for a pair of leggings. Zoinks! I have a leggings pattern I downloaded from burdastyle. I need to get on making a muslin for those.

* Which is worse, buying from a company with potentially sketchy employment practices (sweatshops overseas) or buying from a company with advertising that seems to exploit women?

Wardrobe Crisis

2009-12-22T00:12:00.000-08:00

Warning. Whining about clothing follows. Feel free to click away.

Aaack. I have nothing to wear.

OK, this isn't entirely true. I have things to wear, but most are not terribly functional for winter-winter. They are fine for fall-winter and winter-spring, but too open at the neck or un-layerable (allowing no more than a singlet underneath and not functioning as an underlayer). Most are also made of cotton (including pants and skirts).

I don't like being cold. It makes me grumpy.

The rest of my garments that are in some way winter-winter appropriate are getting such hard use and are showing the wear so much that I feel a bit like I am wearing rags. Add to this that I have little time to sew or shop and even less time to make mistakes and you get a wardrobe crisis.

David has promised me the chance to go clothes shopping after Christmas. But after briefly trying on jeans at the Gap and t-shirts at Target last week, I'm just not excited about it. Honestly, I do not have anything resembling a defined waist and the waistbands on all of the Gap jeans are HUGE even if they are snug in the seat and thighs. (What do their mannequins look like???) And the t-shirts specifically designed for layering at Target are crazy tight yet have huge armholes. So if I got a larger size in order to have enough girth so as not to feel like a sausage, I would have batwing sleeves and shoulder seams closer to my bicep. Bleh. I could sew better than this, but I have yet to try to make pants other than PJs and I am certain that my machine would not be fond of multiple layers of denim.

In related news, I ordered a pair of boots. I will have to send them back. They are too narrow across my foot and I can just barely get my leg zipped into them (I have short legs with wide calves - this makes boot-buying tricky - not to mention depressing), so I certainly could not tuck in pants. Not that this would be a flattering look for me, but it would be nice to have the option.

Things I hope to find(in colours that work for me and prices I can justify):
silk long johns/leggings
dark slim jeans with a mid to high waist (I never tuck anything other than singlets in anyway.)
long sleeve crew neck t-shirts for layering**
turtlenecks for layering**
a open -necked body skimming sweater or two (with wool content for warmth)
mid-heel knee-high boots
just below knee-length skirt (with wool content for warmth)

**I do have time to crank out a few t-shirts, but I don't have patterns for these basics.

There are mental piles of things that I want to make - many of them have patterns ready and waiting, some even have fabric waiting - but I have gotten out of my sewing routine since I moved my sewing gear.

It's time for my wardrobe planets to come into alignment.

Wasting Time Tonight

2009-12-10T23:19:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Two new knit tops!

2009-12-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

I finally finished hemming Burda 02-2009-108. I love this top even though it is nothing approaching appropriate for the season. I made this once before and discovered that the shoulders were drafted too narrow for me, so I gave it to a narrow-shouldered friend. Here is the improved version (organic(?) cotton and bamboo rayon fabric):

Flattering, no? (Don't tell me if you don't think it is flattering. Let the newness of it wear off first.)

And now to less flattering. Or rather, poor fabric choice. I used a lovely cotton rayon knit that I bought in Portland at the 2009 PR Weekend at Mill End, I think. But it is entirely too soft and drapey a knit for Jalie 2682. The collar just flops around. I am bummed that I used my pretty Portland fabric for a shirt that I am not thrilled with. I will still wear it, because I am in great need for long-sleeve shirts. Here it is (and this is the most flattering shot - I deleted about four others that had wonky wrinkles everywhere):

And in Advent news, we have made little windboats (a big hit) and fingerprint pictures. Today we are scheduled to make paper chains, but we are again supposed to have spackle sanding done in the bathroom so we are going out for dinner. I don't know if we will have time to generate any chains...

Holy Packaging, Batman!

2009-12-07T22:27:00.001-08:00

On Friday, I found a little notice on my door that said a delivery had been attempted and that my package was now being held for pick-up. Of course, I wasn't allowed to attempt to pick up said package until after 11 AM Monday. Annoying, but whatever, I can't do anything about it.
I get to the pick-up location this afternoon and am handed this large lightweight box. I can't remember anything that I have ordered from this company that would necessitate such a large box. In fact I can only recall ordering one thing (which I fully expected to arrive in a large padded envelope).

Yes folks, it was the item I ordered. A real thread chart for Guterman's 100% polyester thread. Check out the photos below. That is a seriously excessive amount of packaging!

And, in Advent news, Saturday's activity bombed. Usually the kids are all for a play bath, but David let the girls have a long playing bath the night before and Lucy really had her hopes up for something ridiculously exciting. She literally broke into tears.
Sunday's activity was build a fort. This went quite well, but was difficult to photograph. Here is Peter inside the thing before it collapsed.