Dog Walking Clothes Part 1

Whenever I walk the dog in cold weather, I envision the perfect hat. It covers my forehead, while being high in the back. I like scarves and coat collars, but they have a tendency to push my hat up in back and down in front over my eyes. I hate that. In the perfect hat, I can lift my head up high to look at the sky and my hat never touches the back of my coat.

The perfect hat also covers my ears well, and withstands cold winds. One day I was browsing the catalogs and found simplicity 4801. It was perfect.


According to the outside of the pattern envelope, it comes in both youth and adult sizes, but I swear I could only find one set of pattern pieces inside the envelope and the instructions said nothing about other pieces, nor did it refer to youth or adult sizes. I made a muslin and decided it was definitely a youth size!

My kids kept calling me a pilgrim. I said they were jealous because they wished they were little and could get a World War One Flying Ace hat out of me. This is the perfect pattern for that!

I just sized it up myself. I increased the width of the top triangles to add an inch around, added an inch to the band, and lengthened the ear flaps.

I used black fleece, lined it, and included an inner layer of rip stop nylon. I added ties, too. It looked plain, so I made a tassel of fleece and attached it to the top.

In this picture it's tipped back a little because my photographer kept telling me that I looked like a dork. He'll still freeze to look cool. Not me. But, I'll only wear this to walk the dog. It's designed to withstand walking in cold, blowing winds whipping across open fields for half an hour. It's so warm, it's too warm for casual use. When I say it's warm, I mean really, really warm. And it meets all my persnickety desires.

Two Very Different Ties; Two Very Happy Guys

Cidell wasn't the only one making ties for guys this Christmas, but this was no seven fold tie.

Rob, my high school freshman, goes to an all boys' school with a dress code. He must wear a tie every day. I guess, after two years, this becomes boring. Rob requested a Sponge Bob light up tie. I love a sewing challenge. Of course I could make one!

We searched for small lights, which we found at the grocery store. Wegmans never fails! We considered a small necklace with lights from Hallmark, but this much larger string cost the same amount, and Rob felt it was more obnoxious, thus good. For someone who desires a more subdued light up tie, the necklace would have been nice. We bought the fabric using the yardage amount from a tie pattern I've had for thirty years. Yes, when my husband attended this same school, I was dating him and made him a tie! So I guess this is a second generation tie.

I ended up not using the pattern, though. I took an old tie and opened it for the interfacing. I sewed the lights by hand onto the interfacing.

That's when I realized that it would be much easier to just use the old tie for a pattern. My plan was to make circular buttonholes to slide the lights through. Um, bad idea. There was no way I could place the button holes correctly, so I fused interfacing onto the tie front and planned to make small slits, slide the lights through, and use glue stuff to seam them. Um, bad idea. After three holes, I determined that I still couldn't line up the holes. They were too big and raggedy, and the tie was looking bad.

I was very distressed, but for some reason, I just flipped the lights on. They looked great inside the tie! I interfaced the holes I'd made, glued them, and I sewed the tie closed. Success!

I can see in the picture that the little pocket that holds the battery pack is peaking out. I'll cinch in the top of that. The lights don't show in the picture, but they blink. I can just imagine Rob's teachers saying with a big sigh, "Rob, turn your tie off."

He's very happy. He's already decided on the next tie he wants: an Advent tie. It would have four candles, and each week of Advent he'd light another one. He knows how hard it would be for the teachers at a Catholic school to tell him to turn off his Advent lights!

Simplicity 3790

I was tempted, after muslin two, to skip the final version, but I wanted to carry this project to its end. I think the extra fabric right where I have extra me is not a good look for me, but one of these tops isn't too bad to own. I'm glad I finished this, since I discovered that it's not as bad as I had envisioned.

There are the changes I made to muslin two:

• trimmed a little from the sleeve cap in the front and back
• trimmed some of the front edge of the criss cross so it would end closer together. I wanted to create a deeper V in front, hoping to create a stronger vertical line and less bulk in front
• lengthened the bodice top three inches.
• replaced the fabric that I had removed from the bottom in muslin 2
• did a full back adjustment
• removed 3/4" from the back neck edge.

If I was going to make it again, I'd remove about an inch of that 3 inches I added to the bodice top.

The biggest thing I learned is that I need to adjust for my high round back. I thought I had a broad back, but considering my narrow shoulders, that didn't seem to make sense. I have a hump on my back, which I share with many family members. My son asked if he has one, and yes he does. I suggested he get a good look at his relatives' backs this Sunday. They are all coming for dinner. I don't know what he's more horrified over, that his mother said he had a hump, or that his mother said to check out all his relatives' humps.

I wore muslin two a few times around the house, and I found myself pulling on the back, trying to get it off my neck. It felt high on my back neck and like it was riding up. If you click on the picture for the big view, you can see the hump.

I used the directions on page 86 of Perfect Fit from the Singer Sewing Reference Library. Their directions are much like the directions for a high round back alteration in Fit For Real People on page 123 under add a neck dart.

A high round back alteration is really a full bust alteration where you put the dart into the neck edge instead of the side seam. Once I thought of my hump like one boob centered high on my back, I realized I had the skills to deal with it.

I like it.

It's a fine line

When do you go from being a quitter to wisely cutting your loses and moving on?

When I decided I wanted a cover stitch machine, I made the decision not to be frustrated by it. I would choose to see every obstacle as surmountable and I'd just slow down and tackle that problem. I have, in the past, tended to create artificial time lines in my head that magnify the significance of a problem, causing me to accept poor quality work or to give up on a technique. I resolved to change. My successful sewing was to be measured by being an adventure, not by a production quota.

I wanted a binding on a thin jersey. I think it's rayon/lycra. I got it at Joann's. I tried it and it was a disaster, but I remembered a solution where you interface a thin jersey, so that was my first step. I used a fusible knit interfacing. Didn't work. I cut different width strips. Didn't work. I moved my adjusters on my binding attachment numerous times. Didn't work. I took day-long breaks and even did a UDP (undocumented project). At least I hadn't given up.

This morning I moved this project into the coveted "first thing in the morning when I'm most patient and smart" spot, a rare thing for a sewing project. I still couldn't make it work.

I felt like there was one more adjustment I could make, but I was running out of ideas and patience. As I sewed, I prayed, not so much that my sewing would work, but that I was quitting appropriately. I also prayed for those in India, and how lucky I am to be fussing over some sewing. I felt thankful for all I had, even failed sewing, and boom, out came an acceptable binding!

I went for it and bound my edge. Not bad! After six days of work, I'm quite pleased with this!

Does God hear your sewing prayers?

Is there a sewer in the house?

When I was newly married, I had a neighbor, Darren. He was a tanker pilot in the Air Force. One night he was over and talking about being a pilot. He said one of his dreams was to be on a commercial airline when the flight attendant came out and yelled, "Unless there's a pilot on board, we are all going to die. Is there a pilot in the house? Is there a pilot in the house?"

Dareen, being a few beers in, then demonstrated how he would stand up and say, "Why yes, I happen to be a pilot," and stroll into the cockpit and save everyone.

This was followed by his realization that, as a tanker pilot, he was really a gas station attendant. He basically went up to fighter jets and asked, "Fill 'er up?"

I've never forgotten Darren's ability to laugh at himself. When Rob was in fifth grade, he became an altar server at church. We happened to be in a dearthly phase of altar servers. Rob would go to church each week and hope that the server would not show up and he could serve. I'd think of Darren's joy every time and say, "Maybe Irene will look out and yell, 'Is there an altar server in the house?'"

Saturday it was my turn. Julie called with a problem. The purple altar cloth used for Advent was missing. She had already bought material, but it needed hemming. Could I hem it? Sure! Sue dropped it off and I got to work. I only had a few hours.

I realized how having the right tools makes a job easy.


I spread it out on my long sewing table and squared the edges with my rotary mat and rotary cutter, using my big t-square ruler. It looks blue here, but it's a deep purple.


Then I covered the table with my handy dandy ironing board cover that I made for ironing large pieces of fabric. I used my new Dritz hem marker to iron up a 1/2 inch seam allowance on the two long sides. I got it Friday at JoAnn's during the 50% notions wall sale. It turns out to be well worth the money!

I folded under the seam allowance as I sewed, which resulted in a 1/4 inch hem. I managed (I really don't know how) to slide in too far three times, and had to resew a few one or two inch sections.

I ironed, folded, and sewed the two short sides, then used the thread tails to sew the corner folds shut. I had considered making mitered corners, but I remembered that I don't know how to do mitered corners, so I dropped that idea.

Hemming a simple cotton cloth is easy sewing, but I kept thinking how big a difference the right tools make. Julie has many amazing talents, but if she had tried to hem this, she would have had to work much harder than me mostly because she's not a sewer and doesn't have these tools.


Here is is on the altar Sunday morning.


And here's Julie, pleased as punch that it all worked out. I'm glad you called, Julie!

Muslin #2

My goals for muslin #2 were:

• make fitting changes to Simplicity 3790
• learn to use my binder attachment for my brother 2340 CV coverstitch machine

Fitting:

• I added a separate sleeve by overlaying the bodice from view D on view A.
• I added length for my dropped waist to the "flounce," as it is now called at my house, and also to the bodice.
• I brought in the neckline a little.

The shoulder was way to big. It just flopped off of me.

I cut out a 22. According to the measurements, it would be too small for me, yet I still needed to take 2 inches off of each shoulder. I went to both Sherril's and Debbie's blog and stared at some of their knit tops. In their knit tops, the shoulder seam sits on the shoulder point. I took a deep breath and did it.

I'm glad I did it. I don't think the style suits me, but the shoulders fit to beat the band! I really learned something. Apparently, the only part of me that is small is the distance from my neck to my shoulder. Humph.

My husband took the picture of me in the sleeveless version. I told him that if one takes a picture of something sewed for a sewing blog, it is customary in include the sewed garment. He said, "What? The flounce matters? Tell them it looks like every other flounce." Usually my son takes the pictures. He's more patient.

I ended up taking 3 inches of length off the flounce and four inches off the bell shaped sleeves at the wrist, tapering to the seamline above the elbow.

Thanks to Sherril and Debbie for including muslins and discussions of fitting issues. You have helped me push myself out of my comfort zone to try to tackle my fitting challenges. I am tempted to leave off pictures of myself in anything less that successful garments, but showing each other how we get to success is as worthwhile as sharing our success. Thanks, guys!

Binder Attachment:

The binder attachment was easy! I was so afraid that I'd have trouble getting it right. I have little patience with sewing machines. But it was easy! I had to fiddle a bit, but things got corrected simply and quickly. I like it! It looks so professional. I am also getting smoother with thread removal and such. My problems the first day were definitely thread related. For this project, I started with two new spools of thread, and I had no problems.

For Vanessa

In reference to the liturgical swags and jabots for church, Vanessa asked: what's the difference between a swag and jabot?



The swag is the half moon shape on top; there are two jabots, one on each side.

My design for church flips the jabots and merges them, so maybe it's not a jabot anymore. I don't know what else to call it, so I'm calling it a jabot.

I made one larger prototype for the two columns in front. I took it to church and Julie held it up and we guesstimated how long it should be to look right compared to the small ones. I forgot to take Julie's picture, which saddened me, but she'll be part of the sewing/pressing/hanging team, and I'll get pictures then.

We went to order the sage green fabric for ordinary time using my basic sample set from Thai Silks, but the color disappeared. On the silk charmeuse page, the 011-401 is now gray. I called, since some pictures were missing. Maybe the green fabric is now one of the colors without a picture?

That gray picture is a picture of the sage green! Good thing I called. I knew computer screens do a bad job of representing fabric color, but wow!

We are scheduling a sewing extravaganza after Epiphany. My little church can only do one big project at a time! Last year's Epiphany event was A Night in Bethlehem. This year is One Solitary Life.

Don't Panic. I Know About The Fabric.

Yes, I finished this, and I have a lot to say about it. I just don't feel like saying it now because......

I got a Brother 2340CV coverstitch machine for Christmas! And that prompted this:


I'm still somewhat shocked that it didn't transform me into a tall, skinny, cute girl, like on the pattern envelope. To understand that intellectually, to experience that repeatedly, still doesn't lessen the shock. It's Simplicity 3790.

I know the fabric is ghastly. I bought it about 14 years ago at Jackman Fabrics in Illinois. I intended to make an exercise top and -- brace yourself -- bike shorts. Remember those?

I bought that fabric out of desperation. It was before the internet, so it was the best of my bad choices. It was so bad, I never could make it. The fabric moved three times and has lived in three states. I have finally killed it.

I knew that this pattern would be so different for me that I should just make a muslin right out of the envelope. This fabric, with its coordinating bike shorts, was perfect. It's kind of like finding a vampire in your basement and realizing that you have a golden stake in your closet from Halloween 1994. Finally, a use for it!

I had two goals:

• make a muslin to determine needed changes to the pattern
• use my coverstitch machine and get good at it

The cover stitch machine:

I've had a tough time of it with the coverstitch machine, but I 've slowly narrowed it all down to thread problems. I read Belinda's tutorials on removing the fabric, but found the actual process of getting my fabric out of the machine torturous and complicated. I stuck with it, and can now thread the machine without the book and get the fabric back out without breaking my threads.

I discovered that putting the proper color thread on a bobbin was a bad idea. My thread kept catching and breaking. I also kept getting broken threads for unknown reasons, but when I changed to two new spools of thread (the newer kind without the slice to hold the end of your thread), I did 60 straight inches without a broken thread, so there's nothing wrong with the machine. I experimented with thread nets, those circle things that you put on the top, and bizarre methods of my own design, like putting a bobbin in a beer mug. I have no idea why the new spools worked, but they did.

I just hate to buy that many spools of colored thread to match a garment. It piles up, you know?

Fitting:

If I could think of a reason to just stand with my arms out like this all day, I think these sleeves suit me. However, I stand like this:



I was well aware that this style sleeve does not suit me, but I didn't want to make changes until I'd seen the whole thing on me. I made view A, but view D has sleeves, so I'll overlay the bodice of view D on view A to cut off the sleeve part and use the sleeve from view D. I'm starting to notice this cut-on sleeve a lot, so I'll have to get used to doing this!

The neck is just a tad bit too wide for me, so I'll bring that in.

Here's the part that needs the most work. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a piece of elastic will always migrate to my tilted waist. I will lengthen the bottom bodice piece to make the grain lines horizontal. I always have to alter the waist with skirts and pants; adding to the back rather than removing from the front will be a simple change. But adding to the back top bodice and making it match the front is making my head spin.

Next up: make the pattern changes and make muslin number two, which might be wearable. I already have the fabric for the real one, but I like the fabric so much, I don't want to mess it up.

Herstory

I'm Catholic, and one of the distinguishing characteristics of my church is liturgy. We are liturgical in our worship. This means that we incorporate signs and symbols of God and his story in our encounters with Him.

What's really cool about that is the history of how we have done that. Every age has represented their knowledge of God's story using what they had. I like that.

Irene and I took this picture, and I thought it would just be a documentation of some sewing, but I see so much more. Check out what's in the background.

There are two of the stations from the Stations of the Cross and one stained glass window. The Stations of the Cross evolved from people being unable to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, so they made representations and walked from one to another, remembering the events of Christ's passion and death. They can be quite ornate or quite plain. Stained glass windows were used as teaching devices, giving the important parts of stories for people to remember and retell.

And on the column, you see Irene holding up our idea for our symbolic representation. It's a swag and jabot, modified from OOP McCall's 8078.


I've made it as curtains numerous times, so when Irene talked about fabric for the columns, I pictured this right away. The white one is made from cotton and is stapled to a square dowel.

The real ones will be made of silk, so I made a silk one with Julie's idea of a sleeve to simplify the hardware. We use colors to signify the changing of the liturgical time, so we will make red ones for Advent, violet for Lent, white for Easter, and green for ordinary time.

If someone doesn't know the liturgical calendar well, as soon as they see that the colors have changed, they know something's up. It creates an awareness that the year has a pattern that repeats each year. I remember when my knowledge of the liturgical year was weak, and the different colors always caught my attention. It's just one more way to engage ourselves in the events of Christ's life.

When I look at that picture and see the carvings, stained glass, and the fabric, I know I am in there. I'm not a sculptor; I'm not a stained glass maker; I don't build cathedrals, paint masterpieces on ceilings, or see visions. But fabric? That I do.

I took the swag pattern and drew my best guess for a small swag. I have lots of cottons scraps, so I cut it out and tried the pleats on top. It took about 7 tries to get it right, but each one took about ten minutes, so it wasn't so hard. I was aiming for a smaller swag, but each fix made it bigger, so bigger it got!

Then I made a jabot to match the width I'd ended up with. Now I just need to make a sample for the two large ones that will go on the front columns, then order the fabric. We will get a team of sewers, pressers and hangers to help us, so I think this will take only one day to make and hang.

And I vowed I'd never sew for church. I guess that if the project's right, I will!

Look Away. I'm Hideous.

This is what I see as the problems:
My upper torso seems to be behind the center line of my hips and ears. I think my hip, shoulder, and ear are supposed to line up. The long vertical line on the right bisects my shoulder point. It does not bisect my hips or ear. The long vertical line on the left bisects my hip but is way in front of my shoulder point.

I seem to have a lot of depth between my front and back. I think my posture creates that. I need more length up and over my shoulder. Plus, I think I have a broad back.

1.) The back is tight under the arms in back. I'm considering adding a back seam allowance and adding some fabric in the center back area. The neck gaps a bit in back, so I could tuck out a teeny bit from the neck edge.

2.) There's a green arrow pointing to the lower front hem. It's higher than the back. I think the front needs a bit of length in the upper chest, where that short angled line is. That would level the front hem.

One and two together should fix the drag lines.

3.) I think I'll need to raise the bust dart a bit and I'll shortened it a bit more.

4.) That just leaves the shoulder. Sigh. That's a lot of space between the sleeve edge and my actual shoulder. Should I cut it off the bodice, tapering to the under arm seam, then add the same amount to the sleeve? I'm starting to envision a sasquach sleeve.

I'm pretty sure I'll make another muslin. It's a basic pattern, so if I get it right, it would be a good TNT to compare other patterns to.

Muslin Number Three

Here's what I did to the original size 22:

• added 5/8" to the front shoulder seam
• added 5/8" to the back shoulder seam at neck edge
• added 1 1/8" to the back shoulder seam at arm edge, tapered from neck edge
• added 1 1/8" to sleeve width behind the center dot
  
• moved the bust dart back 1"
• moved the v-neck up 2"
• shortened hem by 2 1/4"

My conclusions? My posture is ghastly! Mom, I am so sorry. When you kept saying, "Stand up straight. Tuck your bottom under," you were right.

I have analyzed these pictures to death. I will now try to draw some lines on them in my image editor. I'll post the elaborated ones soon, but would love some suggestions.

Saved by the muslin

I couldn't get myself motivated to tackle my pants fitting problems, so I thought I'd whip off a quick and easy project in a fabric I have that coordinates in another fabric I'm saving for pants. I thought that would get me motivated to work on pants. So, I'm working on McCall's 2208, the tunic top shown buttoned in solid blue.

Using the Fit for Real People method of using my high bust measurement and adding inches for my bust and hips, I should use the size 22 because my high bust is 44 and the size 22 bust is 44. To accommodate my bust and hip measurements, I'd have to add 4 inches to the pattern's 44 bust to get my 48. I'd have to add 4 inches to the patterns 46 hip to get my 50.

I measured the pattern and found that the actual hip and bust measurements were close to mine, so it must include a lot of wearing ease. I decided to make a muslin of the 22, but added two inches to the back, one inch on each side, using a dart to keep the shoulder seam the original size. I didn't need to do that, though. I was confused and sewed a seam down the center back when it was supposed to be cut on the fold. I ended up only adding 6/8 inch to the width compared to the pattern because of my mistake.


I was surprised at how well it fit. I did not need to add width to the back, but the armscyes are very tight. I decided to just go up one size. The pattern only has 18, 20, and 22, but I just traced the ungraded half, made dotted lines along the 22 on the graded side and slide it over one size and traced new lines along the 22. That left me with a 24.

I couldn't stop myself. I also shortened it 2 1/4 inches, lowered the bust point and the entire dart, lowered the underarm seam a half inch, and took off about 1/2 inch of the sleeve cap. I almost made it up in my fabric. Am I glad I forced myself to make another muslin.

UGH!
Mostly, though it's too big now and the sleeves are still tight. The shoulder point is way past my shoulder point now. I think I need to make a wider armscye, which is so unusual! Maybe that's because this is a "Woman Style" so it's not just graded up and up with enormous armscyes? I don't know.

So I went back to my muslin in the 22 and cut the shoulder seam, to estimate how much width I'd need to add. I also cut the sleeve to see how much. I was looking at The Singer Reference Library book "The Perfect Fit," and it looks like the broad back alteration is what I need. It adds fabric to the armscye only at the side, not the top or the underarm. I think I need that in the back and the front.

They passed the test last night

My husband retired from the Air Force about three years ago. For the last two years of his career, he lived in another state, while we lived here, where we knew we would retire. For the first year, I slept alone. For the second year, I slept with my new, post-robbery, pit bull.

I wanted "a cuddly pit bull." That's what I got. He's the sweetest, nicest dog. When Mark returned, Mark started pulling the covers off of me. Blaise kept them pinned beneath him. I'd complain, but Mark says, "You throw them off." How come I never threw them off when he lived in Pennsylvania?

We have tried numerous solutions, including a heating pad and blankets stored on the floor for middle of the night reinforcements.

When we cleaned out some closets this year, a cream fleece was rejected by all three guys, so I put it in the pile for the Salvation Army, but it occurred to me that it might might a warm PJ top. I decided to get some fleece and make warm PJ pants to go with it. I used Butterick 3314.


I liked how they turned out, except yet again, I realized after I was done that I had chosen a hideous print. I had just been telling Mark how I was really trying to wear solid colors, since my taste in prints can't be trusted. I'm like some kind of pastel flower queen. It's a tough habit to break.

The scraps that were left over were too good to let languish in a scrap pile, so I went to work. I cut out a self-drawn neck gator and a pair of slippers. I still have enough for mittens, but I'm getting bored and want to move on. My hands don't get cold when I sleep either, so my motivation has waned.

I slept in them all last night. I woke up with no covers and I wasn't cold. I wasn't toasty warm, but I wasn't cold either. I pulled the back-up blanket up off the floor and smiled myself back to sleep. I was also a bit delighted to find that my neck gator hadn't choked me to death. I was a little worried.


I really enjoyed making the slippers. I have really wide, short feet. I used Butterick 4184 (OOP) but I put my foot over the traced sole pattern and altered it to be much more duck-like, like my feet. I didn't want to use up too much of my fabric scraps, so I used scraps from other projects as much as possible. I used some white fleece scraps for the inside, that grippery stuff for the bottoms of the soles, and for the inside sole, I used terry cloth. I used short scraps of elastic to make an elastic ring around the ankle, which is only sewn to the inside layer. I also used up a bunch of bobbins that had short bits of thread on them. I was on a thrift roll!



I find the slippers to be very warm to sleep in, but not comfortable to walk around in. The seam allowances slip under my feet and there is some ease, so I think I'm going to trip. But, if there's a fire, that grippy stuff will get me down the stairs safely, so I'm glad it's there!

Refashioning

I enjoy refashioning for a number of reasons. First, I just enjoy the thrill of a good bargain. Second, I enjoy the lack of pressure when fooling around with a Salvation Army purchase. If I ruin it, I haven't just spent a ton of money on it. Third, I like limiting my carbon foot print. That's tied up a lot with my faith. I think God put the world's resources on the earth for all of us, so I try not to use more than my share. The less I buy and the less I strive for material success, the more I look at God's gifts to me with thankfulness. I haven't purchased a piece of clothing for myself, other than stuff like bras, socks, and underwear, in a store in, I don't know, seven or eight years. Oh wait, there were two brides maid's dresses. That almost killed me both times, since not only did I buy the $200 polyester dresses, but I took them apart, altered them, and put in Bemberg linings. I could have had silk dresses for way less money and less work. (Lately I've been thinking of ways to refashion them.)

I feel so blessed by all God has given me that clothes from a store just seem unnecessary. By not buying clothes I get a fun hobby and a faith in action. It's a win/win.

I bought this dress for maybe four or five dollars. I loved it in the store and had a plan to refashion it. It was going to be quite a transformation, but after a few months, I couldn't remember my plan. I could not, for the life of me, remember what I saw in this dress. I'm standing there with my arms up to show the low armscyes. Man, I hate that. Plus sizes cut low armscyes to make up for bad fit. I just hate it. I'm fat. Do I need my armpits to show, too?

Notice how big it is? That's because it was dry clean only, and I planned to wash it. It's 100% rayon, but it didn't shrink one bit. I feel bad for whoever was dry cleaning it!


It had this bizarre double tail thing in the back. It looked weird left hanging, and it looked cute but was uncomfortable sitting when tied. I lost interest in my forgotten plan and made it into a skirt. I used my TNT skirt pattern, Simplicity 8001 (OOP).

I hung onto the scraps. If I find a nice cream colored sweater at the Salvation Army, I might try sewing a collar onto it to go with this. I haven't sewed much with sweaters, but I've been wanting to try. Seems like a project that might pay off.

A Summer of Sewing in One Post

I sew, but I'm no fashionista. I'm boring. I just like to sew.

I wear flowy skirts and knit tops like other people wear jean shorts and a t-shirt. If it's hot, that's what I wear. I hate the heat. I really hate it. I've lived in some hot places that are worse than New York because the heat goes on for so much longer. But if it's so hot and humid that you are covered in sweat all day, it's uncomfortable. It's no comfort on those days that it will end sooner than it will in other parts of the country.

I teach summer faith formation at my church. It's a one week program that's all day. Last year, the weather was very, very hot. This year, I wanted to be prepared. I wanted a skirt for every day, including the set up and clean up days. That meant seven. A little part of me said, "Hmm. This might be over-kill." But the other part of me always answered, "Don't you remember how hot last year was?"

So this summer, I decided to be proactive. I bought knit tops and altered them all under the arms. (Why are the arm holes so big!?!) Then I took them to JoAnn's, bought fabric to go with each, and started the skirt marathon. They couldn't have been easier. I used OOP Simplicity 8001:
It has four seams, a hem, and an elastic waist. I used Gail Grigg Hazen's idea from Fantastic Fit for Every Body and created a separate waist casing piece so I could more easily accommodate my dropped waist.

There was a problem, though. As the marathon wore on, I was wearing older skirts and my summer slips were all disintegrating. Really, they were disintegrating.

When I first started wearing summer skirts, I bought many types of slips, but none was perfect. Eventually, I realized the exact features I needed and did the only thing a sewer can do. I drew the pattern by hand and special ordered the fabric. This was before the internet! This was back in the day when we wrote to mail order places in the back of Threads. I ordered silk/cotton batiste from Thai Silks.

One year at summer faith formation, someone was complimenting me for being so dressed up. I explained that to me, I was more comfortable than I would be in shorts. I said that the secret was in my slip. I then proceeded to hoist up my skirt and model my slip.
If I'm really hot, when I stand up, fabric sticks to my legs. I hate that. With a split slip and a skirt, I can ignore the sticking fabric and walk away without pulling my wedgy out. Yes, I demonstrated that to the girls, too.

So the skirt marathon was toodling along when the slips started to disintegrate. I had been drying my slips in the dryer. Yup. Half silk. I knew it was a bad idea, but they lasted over seven years that way. But when they gave up, they all just went "poof" one week. They were in shreds.

I had no lingerie elastic, and JoAnn's only has that pre-cut stuff, so I needed to order lingerie elastic. I could not find a good source that had fabric, too. The problem was that even though I wanted 20 yards, it was only 36 cents a yard (that's $7.20). Yet shipping would be $7.85. Any sewer worth her salt would order $25 worth of fabric to cushion the blow of that shipping cost. I'm not a fool. I finally found that Wazoodle had elastic and PUL, which I wanted, so I ordered.

It was too late. I went through faith formation in the most beautiful skirts, wearing shredded slips underneath. By Friday, I was so hot and tired, I wore a too short slip that was comfortable. I decided that if you could see through my skirt, I was too tired to care.

But I did finish my six slips later. I'm very pleased. Having enough basic summer skirt outfits is like having enough bras and underware. It's not the biggest deal in the word, but it's nice, in a content kind of way.

TMI

I've been making underwear and enjoying it, except for pinning the elastic. When I pin, it slips out, or disrupts the smooth lie of the fabric.

So I started basting it on with little stitches, which made the sewing fool proof and enjoyable, but I hated the basting. I was tossing around the idea of how to hold those two layers together quickly, tightly, and unobtrusively. I thought of clothes pins, but they are so big.

I went to the store for school supplies with Rob, and happened to notice some binder clips. I instantly remembered this picture:

I could see that picture as clear as day. I wasn't sure from where or from how long ago, but there it was in my head. I felt like an idiot. Why hadn't I remember this sooner? I bought the binder clips, came home, and looked though some books. It was in this:


I bought that book 18 years ago. (Mommy Math: kid at college today minus sewing surge when first baby was born equals 18 years.)



Making my underwear is improving my knit sewing skills. My elastic is looking very professional. The bad news is they are making me think of trying to sew a bra. When I got excited because I discovered that Sew Sassy has kits, I knew my resistance was falteringly. It's only a matter of time.

I used a t-shirt from a 5K I was in a few weeks ago. I don't like t-shirts, so I thought this was a good way to have the spirit of the garment, without the garment.

There's been a lot of undocumented sewing since my last post. I keep meaning to take a picture of my skirts, but I made about six. I want to do a group shot because I'm lazy, but at least one is always dirty.

Ugh

I sewed this crotch together after the leg seams. In the jeans, I sewed the crotch seems, then joined the inner leg seams. I thought that might be my problem, but it didn't fix them.

It might look like my crotch seam is tilted, but the picture is tilted. My waist is lower in front than back. You have to tip your head to the right to see it correctly.

I'm pretty sure I need more fabric somewhere, but I don't know where. Now that I get a good look at the pcitures, I think I need to add fabric to the inseam of the legs at the crotch. I suspect that in order to accommodate my large hips, I'm going to have to deal with baggy thighs.

It's such nice fabric, too. It's a rayon blend of some sort that I bought at Patricia's Fabric House in East Rochester. I bought it a few years ago. I grew up there and used to walk to the local grocery store to buy fabric to fill my time with sewing in the summer. Yup, I bought fabric at the grocery store. For you locals, it was a Wegman's. Of course, they didn't carry any good fashion fabric, so I made do. When I was about 22 I moved away, and Patricia's must have gone in while I was pulling the car out of the driveway. Twenty years later, they are still there. I lived in ER in the wrong era. When I first moved back to Rochester, my mother-in-law still lived in ER, so I got out there once in awhile and always stopped at Patricia's. I haven't been there since she died. Too far now.

Thank goodness I have some summer skirts planned. Then I don't have to deal with fitting!