Sew Motivated

It's a Mom Pinata!

2009-01-01T16:23:00.009-05:00

That's what Andy, my college freshman, said. I thought that was a good description. My husband, Mark, and I decided to make me a dress form for Christmas. Now, when I say "we" decided, I mean I worked on getting him to agree to do this for a few years, finally announcing last Christmas that it was what I wanted for Christmas. It really took awhile to convince him to do this, but once he decided to do it, he was a real sport. He tried to do a good job.

I took an old turtle neck and sewed it a bit tighter, to get rid of the extra material. He wrapped some duct tape around my indentation areas, to get a closer fit. We used artists gummed paper tape, which I got at an artist supply store. I bought five rolls, but we only used three and a half.

I was so cold. As he wet each strip, it slowly soaked through the shirt. I was wet inside there the whole time, even when the tape was dry. We set up a little space heater that blew heat on me, which also helped the tape to dry, and while it helped, I was still very cold. If I were to do this again, I'd put a garbage bag over the shirt to keep me dry.

This boob shot shows how hard it was to really make a "casting." My boobs are the same size. These are not. It was harder to get the tape to stick with consistent pressure than one would think.

And yet, oddly, he diligently got every swerve here. Hmmm. I had him put little caps on my shoulders, since this is a difficult area for me to fit. I didn't worry too much about making the perfect form. Since fitting is hard for me, even a slightly distorted form will help! Besides, I'm hoping to use our new-found knowledge to make another one.

I had anticipated that it would feel very claustrophobic, but it did not. I made this with someone I trust. If I was afraid I was with someone who'd wimp out and claim to be unable to cut through the tape, I might have been nervous, but Mark's pretty strong and determined, so I was quite relaxed, but still cold.

We wanted to do five layers of tape, but after four hours, we had three layers or one layer, depending on the location. We both bailed. Mark said he didn't feel it took an unusual amount of strength to cut off of me, but he's very strong, so I'd take that with a grain of salt.

We discussed options for strengthening it from the inside, to avoid adding more distortions through additional outer layers. I was going to paper mache the inside, but when I read about bugs and mold, I decided against it. Mark recommended this product, then he went and bought it for me. By this time, he was very invested in our success!

It comes in two parts, which you mix together. It then has 12 1/2 minutes to stay a liquid. I found that precise time funny, but when I experienced it turn to a solid almost instantaneously, I realized they weren't kidding! Here's how much I could get done in 12 1/2 minutes:

The can suggests that you only mix 1/4 of the can at a time. Turns out to be good advice. I slapped the last bit on as it was hardening, so it was just the right amount. I just used a foam paint brush and applied resin to the turtle neck. The fabric soaked it up and turned the shirt into a rigid form. I love to tap on the hardened part of the turtle neck. It's as hard as a rock. I think I could do everything short of sit on it and it wouldn't distort the form.

The only hard part was creating a true representation of my form in the right size. There was no way to pull the tape tight enough to get my actual dimensions. It came out one inch bigger than me. The paper tape just didn't hold well enough. It was hard to get it to told the shape of my body, too. Hollows were particularly hard. While it will help me a lot, it will not replace me. I tend to like my clothes with plenty of wearing ease, so I'll just fit them tighter on her and I'll probably like them.

Price: $20 in tape and $15 in epoxy so far. I might buy a second can of epoxy, but I won't need it all. Next we tackle building a stand.

Dog Walking Clothes Part 1

2008-12-29T16:46:00.006-05:00

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

2008-12-29T12:37:00.007-05:00

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

2008-12-06T18:20:00.004-05:00

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

2008-12-02T10:11:00.002-05:00

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?

2008-12-01T07:16:00.000-05:00

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

2008-11-26T15:13:00.006-05:00

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

2008-11-20T09:19:00.003-05:00

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.

2008-11-19T10:20:00.011-05:00

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

2008-10-27T16:18:00.005-04:00

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.

2008-10-09T15:31:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-09T14:58:00.003-04:00

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

2008-10-09T13:04:00.005-04:00

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

2008-09-23T18:53:00.011-04:00

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

2008-09-23T16:19:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-21T17:08:00.010-04:00

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

2008-08-27T17:57:00.003-04:00

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

2008-06-21T16:41:00.004-04:00

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!

X marks the spot

2008-06-21T16:32:00.003-04:00

The wrinkles point to the problem, right? I made these jeans with my long-since-forgotten-what-pattern pattern. The legs are too wide for jeans, but that's an easy problem. The crotch is the problem. (My son my never recover from the re-take: "No honey, do it again and this time, focus on mommy's crotch.")

I did my own retake, too.

Pants and Memories

2008-04-28T19:52:00.001-04:00

I haven't been sewing much, only because I've been busy doing other things. My sewing life is like that. It ebbs and flows with the tides of my life, but it never comes to an end. Life, and it's many pleasures and obligations, pulls at my time.

I did make these black pants. They are nothing fancy, although I did try Laura's suggestion to interface the entire hem, up past the hem allowance. I fused the interfacing to the bottom of the pants before any seams were sewn, then, after the side seams were sewn, I serged the hem allowance and hemmed them by catching just the interfacing. It has proven to be very swanky. I feel luxurious and well dressed.

I was thinking about some sewing memories, so I thought I share them.

My earliest sewing memory is from watching my mom sew. I was about six. I decided to make pants for my Barbie doll. I didn’t use a pattern but cut out what I thought would be pants, sewed them together, and tried to slip them on. They would not go on. As I sobbed, my mom said that I needed to add a crotch. I sobbed hysterically, since I was feeling that this was the worst thing that had ever happened to me, but I also remember thinking, "What is this crotch thing of which she speaks? I must learn about it." Forty years later, not much has really changed.

When I was thirteen, I had an appointment with my junior high guidance counselor to select my classes for high school. Part of the interview was about my interests. I said I sewed and that I had made the pants I was wearing. I still remember the incredulous look on his face. He asked me to stand up and turn around. They were denim overalls with pictures of candy bars. Who but a thirteen-year-old would pick that fabric? He asked where I got the buckles and how I attached the studs. It was the first time that an adult asked me about something I did as if I was a source of knowledge, not just to be tested on what I’d been taught.

My high school sewing teacher gave me a 100 on a project without checking it. She said she’d seen me working on it, and didn’t need to look at it to know it was my best work. After she graded it, she asked me to show it to her and tell her about it. It was a lesson I’ve never forgotten. I was a miserable high school student. She was the only teacher who taught a class I found worth taking in high school; she told me to go to college. She said that college was a completely different experience than high school, and because she knew me, she knew I’d love college. She was the only teacher who said that, and the only one who turned out right.

Oh! That's how it works!

2008-02-12T15:06:00.000-05:00

Ever wonder how a sewing machine works? These guys show you, and it's so cool! You can skip up to 4:29. That's where they really show how the sewing machine works. Very cool video if you've every had trouble envisioning how the threads do that!

But I do like the jeans

2008-01-27T16:59:00.001-05:00

Eh. It's ok. I over compensated and made it too big around the hips. The three quarter length sleeves look dumpy. I'm just too cute for this top.

But the worst part is whatever is going on under my arms. Those lumps are not illusions. Funny, but Debbie just had a similar problem with her Burda WOF tee. I plan to reread her post carefully and alter the tissue. I'm not feeling like altering this one.

My husband burst out laughing once when I'd said for the hundredth time in response to a wadder, "I'll just use it to garden and exercise in." I rarely do either, but it makes it seem ok to just move on.

My rib knit trim came out shabby, too. I was going to use clear elastic, but lost my nerve at the last minute. I couldn't get it right. I really wanted it to look like ready to wear, and it just doesn't. I lost my motivation when I could tell it wasn't coming out like I wanted. Instead of stopping and trying something else, I just kept thinking, "cover stitch machine, cover stitch machine." That didn't exactly help.

The trim looks better in the picture than in real life. It isn't that it looks bad; it just looks unique, which was not what I was going for.

And, yes, I made the jeans, and I like them. They are about four years old, have seams that are worn through to the next layer of fabric, and have a blown-out fly that's been hand repaired numerous times. They have belt loops, a back yoke, back patch pockets, two front pockets, a watch pocket, and a metal button. They are something good that once came out of a bad year.

Life is good.

I Want To See Sandra Betzina's Boobs

2008-01-22T17:03:00.000-05:00

I've picked up my sewing room and have decided to finish my black knit top before I vacuum and dust, tackle the mending pile, or seriously organize in there. I'd rather get some sewing in to motivate me.

As I unearthed the top in the excavation, I discovered some poorly written notes, which led me to some long-ago photos. My memory has been joggled.

I took the time to do a real basted fitting, and what a good idea! For a pattern that boasts of Today's Fit for older women, the bust point seemed to expect a much younger woman in there!

I moved the bust point down 1 3/4 inches! This created a problem. If you think of the upper left circle as a hinge and slip down the bust point, it swings out the lower left circle out past the available seam allowance. I had already cut my fabric. Oh well, live and learn.

Once that dart is sewn, it is obvious that the needed seam allowance does not exist. To compensate, the top got a bit slimmer down the side seams.

For comparison, this is the original dart, which had plenty of seam allowance.

So, first on my list of alterations: literally cut and swing out that bust dart and redraw the tissue.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race... or, um, maybe not so much

2008-01-22T13:01:00.000-05:00

My over-scheduled fall has ended, and my new commitment to my sewing is about to begin. My first task is to fix this little problem:

My sewing room is a disaster! This picture cracked me up. Notice the back of the dresser? That's because I pulled it out one day to plug something in, and I actually believed that I was so busy, I did not have time to push it back against the wall! OK, maybe it isn't all busy-ness; maybe some of it is lazy-ness!

Slow and Steady Wins The Race

2007-09-16T16:21:00.000-04:00

After much thought, which was the only resource I could devote to sewing this week, I decided to make a black muslin of the pink knit workout shirt I'm making with Vogue 8151. The pink shirt is to go with the brown yoga pants I have not yet made. Sigh.

Today I made the pattern adjustments and cut out the black knit.

I'm using size G, but I tapered to J in the hips. That sounds so easy, but deciding how to taper under the bust dart was hard. It seems to be a sharp angle. We'll see if it works. I lengthened it six inches, because I like long shirts with pants. I also lowered the front neck edge one inch and shortened the sleeve cap one inch based on various reviews on Pattern Review. That's all I was able to get done this weekend.

I've been busy teaching and learning. I'm teaching a new course this semester, so I have new materials to constantly read. I'm also taking a Web Design course, which is very fun, but time consuming. For instance, I just got distracted reading my "Edit Html" screen. I often get extra breaks between paragraphs in blogger, and I haven't yet figured out exactly why or how. I'm getting close to knowing enough to go in there and really edit. Cool, huh? Well, it is to me because I'm not technologically astute. Only one more week of various parent's nights and other beginning of school time-suckers, so hopefully I can get more obligatory tasks done during the week and more sewing in on weekends.

First week of school and still got something done!

2007-09-09T16:05:00.000-04:00

I've finished my big-legged pants. My husband and 13-year-old son say they are weird, but my 17-year-old son says they are fashionable. Since he's the one checking out girls, he's the one whose fashion judgment I'll trust. Mine are a bit big in the thighs compared to today's wide-leg pants, but that's a problem with my body. My hips are large while my thighs are very skinny. If you cut me horizontally right through the waist, the part that's left below would look just like a mushroom. It's hard to fit something on my hips and thighs at the same time. If the fabric fits, I still look weird.

In the end, I like them. They are comfortable. The fit in the butt better than any pants I've ever made. I finally got the crotch curve lowered right to I don't have wrinkles pointing to my butt.

The fabric was very loosely woven. I interfaced the seams along the hip area, where I would expect stress. I also zig-zagged along the seam allowance, catching the serging threads and extending the anchoring closer to the straight stitch. Without the zig-zag, I think the serging would have unraveled after a few washings. The hem needed something to stop the unraveling, so I interfaced the hem allowance and serged the edge of both fabric and interfacing, then folded up right along the other edge of the interfacing. I'm intrigued by Laura's comment about interfacing past the hem allowance, so I'll try that soon.

There are loose thread all over my sewing room. I was trying to get to a deep cleaning before school started, but I didn't make it. I'm glad, since I would have had to vacuum up all those threads anyway. Now I really need to get in there and vacuum!

It's a Hybrid

2007-09-08T21:58:00.000-04:00

I tried a new method of attaching my waistband. I don't like it. I usually use the method on page 116 of Pants for Real People (PFRP). It's a combination of a regular waistband and an elastic waistband.

In real elastic waistband, the fabric would measure the same circumference around the hips and waist, with only the elastic bringing in the fabric to the waist measurement. In a real waistband, the fabric measures more around the hips and is brought in with darts and curves at the waist. The waist is fitted and the zipper opens the smaller waist circumference to go over the larger hips.

The combo method combines the darts, curves, and zipper to allow less fabric gathered at the wast, while it also uses elastic to cinch in the bit of extra waist ease. I have many pants where I've used the PFRP page 116 method. It gives me the best of both worlds. I often think of the elastic as the interfacing of the waistband. It gives it a rigidness that is firm, but flexible.

I saw something somewhere that may have been this exact new method, but I didn't read it and don't remember it enough to be sure. It got my mind thinking that this would be a good new method to try. I was wrong.

I started by serging one raw edge of my waistband and attaching the other raw edge to the pants.
Then I attached the ends of the elastic to the seam allowance of the pants, lining up one edge with the edge of the zipper and letting the other edge hang over for the under flap. I did not stretch the elastic in these spots. I could not decide if it mattered which side I attached the elastic to -- the inside or the outside. I attached it inside, but it would have been better attached to the outside. I'll tell you why when we get to it.
Next I stretched the elastic as I sewed it to the seam allowance. This turned out to be the fatal flaw. The elastic did not shrink back to its original size.

Then I sewed the ends neatly by hand. This is where I discovered that had I put the elastic on the outside of the pants, the seam allowance would have folded over it and covered it. I had to hand sew carefully to cover the elastic. It worked fine, but the elastic on the other side would have been a tiny bit easier.

Then I stitched in the ditch. As I imagined, this step was much easier than the PFRP technique. It was the desire to avoid the anxiety of accidentally stitching through my elastic on this step that prompted trying this new method.

The final waistband looks fantastic, but it left the pants too big in the waist. In PFRP, the elastic casing is sewn with the elastic in there, attached only at one end. Then the loose elastic which is hanging out is pulled to fit your waist while you wear them. It's fool proof on final fit.

In the end, this method was easier, but not worth the loss of fit. I'll go back to page 116 and just get through the anxiety. Funny thing is, I've never sewn through the elastic accidentally!

Happy Day

2007-09-01T19:37:00.001-04:00

That's better! My knit fabric from Sew Baby arrived. The pink goes so nicely with the brown. It's not a jersey like a t-shirt. It's a very thin interlock, but it is thin like a t-shirt. It's not thin as in cheesy. It's quite luxurious and of high quality. I've already washed the black and it washed beautifully.

I also received my Burda World of Fashion, quickly joined by a copy of Stitches, which I picked up when I went out to buy that pesky zipper I was missing. Stitches appears to be a very good magazine. It has detailed articles about garment sewing with many diagrams and photographs. I've only had time to flip through it so far, but I'm impressed.

I finally got some time to actually sew, and I put in my first lapped zipper. It was easy and the results are very professional looking. I did my first one right on my actual project. That caused some stress, but no real problems. I used these directions, but also discovered some directions inside the zipper package. The two sets of directions were the same except for the direction from which you viewed your work.

I started by reinforcing my seam allowance because the fabric is very loosely woven. My center back seam on my pants is curved because it has a built in dart. I curve A LOT in my butt. I refer to this as my "Butt Shelf." I swear you could set a drink on it. I was worried about the zipper application with such a curve, but it worked fine.

As you can see, the final result is wonderful. I love it. You can see the chevron that's made by the darting that sits on my "Butt Shelf."

I've finished the side seams and the inseams, as well as all the crotch seams. I need to fit my darts, attach the waist band, then hem them. I've already pressed the seams and tried them on. They look great! I altered these to fit better so I've made a lot of changes, as well as a style change. I've made the legs very wide. I like them!

Plans Gone Awry

2007-08-30T12:55:00.000-04:00

I went to put a zipper in the pants I'm working on, but after printing directions for a lapped zipper (which I've never done before) and finding black interfacing to interface the zipper area, I went to measure the width of the zipper and discovered -- no zipper!

I didn't feel like driving to the store, so I cleaned out the cupboards in my sewing room and sorted most of my stash.

This looks quite formidable in real life. This picture makes it look dinky in comparison to some of the stashes you guys have posted! There is fabric for 31 garments there. Thirty-one!

Having it all in one place will help me use it up more, I hope.

This is one last pile of miscellaneous fabric and half-done projects that I need to sort. It's sitting on the floor under my large ironing board/cutting table. These are abandoned home-related sewing projects: a cat bed, couch cover, and table cloth set. All half-done!

Here's the pile of ready-to-wear that I'd like to alter, with a few abandoned muslins thrown in.

I long for my old life in North Carolina. My husband once referred to our lives in North Carolina as "the gold standard of family happiness." I did the most sewing in the least space there. In my bedroom, I had an ironing board and a small table with my serger and sewing machine. I had two large Rubbermaid tubs of sewing stuff in my closet. That was it. I cranked out a lot of garments, made a house full of curtains, and had no mending pile. I used to mend whatever had gathered during a project before I started the next one. I alternated between a garment for me and a house project until I had made curtains for every room in the house. I tried a lot of new things there and improved my sewing skills tremendously. Sigh. I sure was productive then.

So, after that reminder that I was just as busy but more productive in North Carolina, here are my excuses. I'm sewing slowly these days because we've been making great progress on cleaning the house. One teenage boys has inexplicably started helping, so I'm seizing the moment. School starts for me soon, so I've been getting my stuff ready, and I'm taking a class on Web Site Design. I'll be learning about Dreamweaver, HTML, XHTML, and CSS, whatever they are. I bought the books and have been reading to prepare for class. I'm such a good student!

I'll buy that zipper tomorrow.

Went Shopping with Mom!

2007-08-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

When my mom came to visit from Phoenix, we went fabric shopping.

My mom's friend lives half of the year in Syracuse and half of the year in Phoenix. Syracuse is a bit of a drive from my house, but we went to visit mom's friend. Mom's friend's sister-in-law owns Cottons, Etc near Syracuse, so they figured that, since I love sewing, we'd go there. I was a little worried because it is predominately a quilt shop, and non-garment-sewers don't often understand why I think a fabric shop full of fabric could have nothing worth buying.

It turned out that the fabric alone was worth the trip. Cottons, Etc has a room they call the "fashion room," and it is full of a variety of garment fabrics. Here's what I got:

The fabric on the left on 2 3/4 yards of a woven cotton/ploy/rayon blend. It's soft and flowing. It's for a non-specific skirt.

The next is 2 3/4 yards of a woven 100% rayon. It is also soft and flowing. It is also for a non-specific skirt.

The one on the right is a thin 100% rayon knit. I bought that with V8151 in mind.

In the second photo, the fabric on the left is 2 1/2 yards of a linen-like 40% rayon, 40% poly, 15% flax blend.

Next to it is 2 1/2 yards of a linen-like 100% rayon purchased to match. Here's where the mystery comes in. After washing all the fabric and setting it aside for a month, I pulled it out and thought, "Hmm. Where did my green go and why is this brown fabric here? Did I buy brown and I'm remembering wrong?" Looking at my notes, I found it listed as green. It's as brown as brown can be. I don't know if this color change happened in the wash or in my mind. Could be either. I'm bad with colors.

I'm not planning to use any of these fabrics too soon. I bought them for my stash, not for any current projects. I'm working on a pair of pants from an alteration of these pants. I have lots of pictures, but little courage to post them. When I'm done with the pants I'll have to see what I end up having the courage to post.

Eight Years and Two Millennia

2007-08-24T12:06:00.000-04:00

My family was cleaning the garage a few weeks ago and we found this quilt. It was in a box labeled toys from my now 17 year old son's room that never got unpacked when we moved here from North Carolina.

Here's my quilt history: I always loved to sew clothes. During the years when my weight fluctuated because of pregnancies, I got frustrated. I wanted to try quilting because it sounded easy. I knew I could make beautiful clothes, so how hard could a couple of squares be? I moved to Illinois and made friends with my neighbor, Julie, a quilter. She encouraged me to try and helped me get started. It was the most humbling sewing experience of my life. It was way harder than it looked. I made a hand quilted quilt that I hung on the large expanse of wall created by my cathedral ceilings in North Carolina. People would come in, admire it, and exclaim, "Oh, you make quilts!" I would answer, "No. I made quilt. That's it."

I often said, "Thank goodness for Sears quilts. Because of them, few notice how bad mine is!" I enjoyed my quilting phase, but I knew I wanted to return to making clothes. I have some pretty wall hangings and one lap quilt to remember the phase by, but I don't quilt now.

In the meantime, my oldest son was intrigued by my quilting. I have a little wall hanging he made that has six enormous squares on it. He was five when he made it. He named it "shapes." It is machine quilted and the stitching lines bear little resemblance to the seam lines. It's very cute.

He started this quilt in 1999 in Watertown when he was nine and in fourth grade. He machine pieced all the squares himself and hand quilted three lines of stitching before he forgot about it. You can see in the photo that some of his stitches are perpendicular to each other. He, too, was humbled by quilting!

I remember this quilt lying around in North Carolina and I occasionally suggested he work on it, but he never did. When we found it in the garage, he seemed so pleased to remember it and his quilting. I knew I needed to finish it so it would be a displayable memory.

I really finished it more for his future wife than for him. I hope he has a wife who will respond to a guest's exclamation of "Oh, you quilt!" by plucking it off the wall, saying "No, Andy did," and telling the whole story.

I took the lazy way out and just folded the backing over the front for the binding. I don't like it. First, I prefer a contrast binding, and second, the machine stitching that secures the binding to the quilt before it's folded over helps anchor the batting, and this minimally quilted quilt could have used it. I didn't want to put too much time into this, though. I think the abandoned quilting adds to its charm as a young boy's project.

I did machine stitch between the squares and the border, because it really needed something to anchor it.

The best part of the quilt is the name Andy chose. He seemed so pleased that I was finishing it, and he found it funny that it had taken so long. I told him that since it's his quilt, he needs to name it, so he came up with "Eight Years and Two Millennia." The label says "pieced and hand quilted by Andy, 1999" and "machine quilted and bound by Alana, 2007."

We've covered a lot of ground since "Shapes."

What was I thinking?

2007-08-20T23:03:00.000-04:00

I decided that I want a stripe down the leg of my brown yoga pants that matches my shirt, so I came up with what seemed like a good idea. I would buy two pink t-shirts and use one for the stripe and one to wear with the pants. I went to ONE store, a K-Mart at that, couldn't find a nice, pink t-shirt, so bought two of these ghastly green t-shirts. Why do I do such things?!?

I couldn't bring myself to do it. First, I look terrible in the green t-shirt. It's thin and cheap and it shows. Second, the green doesn't go with the brown at all. It looks like puke together. What was I thinking?!? Probably something along the lines of, "I have so much to do that if I don't buy something today, I'll never get anything, every." I'm very dramatic about such things.

Today I took decisive action. I put the two new t-shirts aside and ordered some pink fabric. I got it at Sew Baby. I'm planning to make Vogue 8151 for the top. I ordered the fabric from Sew Baby because they have the matching fabric and rib knit trim. I'm a bit confused because the site describes the fabric as "t-shirt knit (interlock)" which is a contradiction to me. I think of t-shirt knit as jersey and I don't think of interlock as t-shirt fabric. I'm not sure which I hope it turns out to be, jersey or interlock, since what I'd really like is a source for both. Whichever it is, I'm excited to have a source that sells matching rib knit trim.

I also ordered enough black to make two tops. I've realized that black is the perfect wearable muslin color. One can never have too many black clothes, I've discovered. I also ordered the August edition of Burda World of Fashion. Might be a bust for me, since it has few plus sizes, but all the other sewing bloggers use it, so I must explore.

Subtle Yet Satisfying

2007-08-20T22:48:00.000-04:00

Here's the before picture.

Here is the after picture. I raised the sleeves up and opened up the neckline.

I learned some interesting things on this t-shirt. It was a size 2X. I think a 3X is easier to alter and get just like I like it. First of all, the hips only just fit. I would prefer more wiggle room. Next, there wasn't that much shoulder width to cut off, so when I wanted to raise up the underarm hole, I didn't have the left over shoulder fabric to fill in the underarm. I ended up with a very long armscye and not that much sleeve seam line. I had to stretch the sleeve to fit, so the sleeves look a little less fitted than I would like. My next t-shirt alteration is a 3X, so we'll see if a slow careful 3X alteration gives me the best results.

The Short Answer is 2 1/2 Hours

2007-08-19T16:08:00.000-04:00

I received a question asking how long it takes to alter a t-shirt like this. It really got me thinking. I suppose, if I worked faster, I could do it in an hour. However, I'm a very slow sewer.

I spent about an hour and a half on the sleeves and an hour on the neck and hem together. That includes at least forty-five minutes hemming and hawing about what I needed to do. That's the part that's a problem when I'm rushed. It eats a up a lot of time, but I don't mind doing it. Actually, I seem to need to do it.

Being able to think about all my alternatives and choosing the one I really want is a big part of my sewing enjoyment. Over the years I have realized that sewing is the only thing I do that is completely for me. I get to make any decision I want. I can keep a mistake or redo it. I can go get more notions or use what I have. I can do the quick fix or the long solution. It's all in my hands. Real life isn't like that. I have to work around other's needs and desires, using limited resources and limited time. But with sewing, I can do whatever I want. I often choose the long way and the hard way. Not always, but often.

I wonder if this is what makes hobbies enjoyable to people. Is this why the guy who builds train villages in his basement does it? Is this why a painter paints? A stamp collector collects? Or is it some other reason?

One of the sewing blogs I enjoy is The Slapdash Sewist. I think she is experiencing the same thing. Sure, she chooses the slapdash solution, but the same principle is at work. She can make any decision she wants, so she makes the one that pleases her. So do I. I think we could happily sew along side each other, laughing at each other's decisions, but totally getting it.

Friday night I sewed the pre-pinned binding of a small wall quilt. Took about two hours. It was maybe thirty minutes of work. I was watching TV. Yesterday I altered the sleeves of another t-shirt and it took one hour. I timed it this time with my stop watch. For the first five minutes, just having the stop watch going freaked me out. It was taking away my joy.

I once seriously contemplated being a sewing professional. I started timing myself. It took eight hours to make a pair of jeans and five hours to make a pair of dress pants with all the details like welt pockets. I suspect that's a really long time. Speeding up is no fun for me.

I am enjoying the process of altering t-shits as much for the acquisition of skills as for the new, fitted shirts. I think if sewing was about saving money at a minimum cost of time, I'd have quit as a failure a long time ago. For me, sewing is about having exactly what I want, made exactly the way I feel like making it.

exercise 0, sewing 1, God 100

2007-08-14T12:36:00.000-04:00

What a week! I didn't "exercise" once, but I was on my feet the whole week. I had a blast at Faith Formation week, sometimes lovingly called Catholic Boot Camp. It was worth all the work. I hope my students learned a lot, but in the end, if the only thing they learned was "I belong," I've done my job. I know God will do the rest. To belong to our motley crew of dedicated Christians is not a bad fate at all. With all that confidence in God on my side, I managed to teach them much more.

I manged to sew a little bit, but am I mad at myself. I told myself a million times, "When you get your 'Walk (T)His Way' t-shirt, take a picture of it before you alter it!" After I started hacking into it, I remembered! GRRRR. I was rushed.

I requested a 3X, because I wanted it loose around my hips. It was, but like any man's t-shirt, the arms hung off my shoulders and I hated it. I took off the sleeves and put little darts down the under arms, stopping at the top of my hips. The underarm hole was way too deep, so I took the extra shoulder fabric and put in an underarm patch. That raised up the underarm. Then I cut the new sleeve and reattached it. I love the underarm patches, but I hate how the t-shirt turned out. I cut too much shoulder width off and cut the sleeve too short. Half an inch on each would have made them hang nicer. Sigh. I was rushed since I got the shirt after Catholic Boot Camp started and needed it finished before Friday.

Next I unpicked the neck trim and lowered the front neckline, reattaching the neck trim just like in this earlier post. I hate how it turned out! I must learn to use a shorter piece of trim and stretch it out more. Sigh. I was rushed.

If I was really pregnant and didn't just look pregnant, I'd have loved it. But the long length made it look like such a cute maternity top that I needed to shorten it to look more like a traditional t-shirt length. New problem. I was having a terrible time with my top thread tension. After checking my instruction book and finding nothing, I remembered a long ago experience with the same thing, and that was a thread problem. I switched threads, and sure enough, no problem. That solved everything but my top stitching problems since I was using a thread that no longer matched. I had no time to go to the store. I was afraid to use a double needle with the bad matching thread, so I went ahead and used a single needle. The thread tension pulled through OK, but it looks so "home made," in a bad way. GRRRR. I was rushed.

So what did I learn this week? God is good and gives me all I need to flourish; the first thing to go when I get busy is exercise; I love to sew for fun, but never on things that have a dead line! Oh yea, I knew all that already.

Sew much fabric, sew little time

2007-08-05T10:23:00.000-04:00

I've not been sewing because I am teaching Faith Formation at church next week. It's like Vacation Bible School, only I'm Catholic, so we call it Faith Formation. I'll be teaching fourth graders. I've been getting ready. After that, I have three weeks until school starts, and I plan to sew up a storm!

5K update: I am doing 30 minutes on the elliptical machine now, covering 2.25 miles. That's about a 13 minute mile. Bad news, though. I didn't exercise Thursday or Saturday. I was busy with other things, but that's how it starts. One day slips into two, then a week.

During Faith Formation week, my goal is to work out at least three times. That seems like a realistic goal. I'll report my stats. There, now I have to be accountable.

No Sisters, No Daughters

2007-07-29T16:20:00.000-04:00

I live in a boy world. Always have. I have two brothers and two sons. The only close female relative that I have is the one required by nature -- a mom. I always thought of myself as a bit of a tomboy, so I was surprised when a friend mentioned that I was such a "girly-girl" in spite of my male surroundings. Her comment made me start to notice. Somewhere between being determined not to let my older brothers get the better of me and raising my sons into fine young men, I've adopted all the trappings of femininity. It's not that I mind, it's just that I didn't notice it happen.

I hate T-shits. I won't wear them if I can avoid them. I hate two things about them: the choking necklines and the boy sleeves.

Starting with a standard T-shirt, I lowered the neckline and made girl sleeves. I didn't have a pattern to follow, so I just hacked the sleeves off. I cut the T-shirt body along the curve of my body to make an armscye. Then I just cut the sleeve to look like a fitted sleeve. I left the underarm seam and hem and basted the sleeve into the armscye in the round. I needed to be more daring, so I unbasted and took off some more fabric, making a more pronounced curve between the sleeve cap and underarm seam.

The picture makes the sleeves look crooked, but I ran upstairs and tried the T-shirt on in a panic, and it's just the picture, not the shirt. I'd take another picture, but I'd rather sew, so I'll leave it at that.

For the neckline, I removed the trim by unpicking the seam, cut the rib in half longways, then sewed two of the short ends together. I measured how much I'd need, cut it, and sewed the other two short ends together. I folded it in half longways, pressed, and sewed it to the new, lowered neckline. Then I top stitched it to the seam allowance. The rib trim is now half the width of the original, but lowering the neckline created the need for a longer length, which I got by cutting it in half.

Ha! No one around here ever borrows my clothes. My dastardly plan is working!

Oops!

2007-07-28T16:49:00.000-04:00

I accidentally made a pair of dress pants. If you don't know how someone could accidentally sew something, imagine you are at a party, don't plan to eat dessert, but someone places some cheesecake right in front of you. A little later, you notice it's gone. You've accidentally eaten it.

Sewing is just as tempting.

Although I started my first post by saying that I was on an exercise clothes sewing jag, I was interrupted by the need to figure out how to start a blog, use my camera, store and upload pictures, etc. In the meantime, I needed some sewing to do to relax between learning new things. Before I knew it, I'd made pair of pants, sans photos of process. I'm a good sewer, bad blogger.

I won't go into detail on this pair. They are made from a modification of a pants pattern whose original identity is long gone. The pattern had an elastic waist. I took out the gather room with curved seams and darts and added a back zipper for this pair. They have multiple fitting problems under the blouse. I'll be making more in the fall and I'll give more info then as I modify the pattern.

I used a rayon/poly blend from Joann's, but they feel awfully hot, more than the poly content led me to anticipate back when I remembered what it was. Oh well, as a wearable muslin of my new adaptation of this pattern, they are OK. I'd wear them to work if I was in a bad mood.

5K Update and Goals

2007-07-27T19:01:00.000-04:00

Since I decided to run in a 5K, I have done physical activity every day for eight straight days. That's exactly what I was hoping the commitment would motivated me to do.

I am working out at the YMCA on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Right now I do a seven minute warm up on the rowing machine, 25 minutes on the elliptical machine, and use the FitLinxx machines to do weight training. Today I had my first Women's Free Weight Training class. It went well. There are three more classes, so my goal next week is to try each of the exercises that I was taught at least once before the next class.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays I will try an "active lifestyle" activity. For instance, this past Thursday I did 25 minutes of skipping in my back yard pool, since it was hot and humid. I started out water walking, but found skipping more fun and challenging. I might walk the dog, go for a bike ride, or take a short run.

On Saturdays and Sundays I will walk and/or run around the four mile block near my house as fast as I can. I found out last weekend that I can walk it in one hour and sixteen minutes. I'd like to work up to running part of it, then slowly running more and walking less. I don't really have any concrete goals on that right now, since I really don't know what's realistic. I'll just have to keep moving and see what I discover.

When school starts, this will all change. I teach, so my kids and I are home for the summer. Once we all go back to school, we'll adapt. I work part time, so I can be done at 3 PM. When DS #1 has to work, I'll pick up both boys, take one to work, and walk in the neighborhood. On non-DS#1 work days, I'll pick up both boys and go right to the YMCA. We'll all work out and then go home.

OK, those are my goals. If I stick with this, I'll need all new clothes, clothes to work out in, clothes for the race, clothes to wear to work cause I'll be thinner, clothes to wear around since I'm thinner. Woo Hoo!

My First Post

2007-07-25T23:33:00.000-04:00

Right now I’m on a fitness clothes sewing jag. I’ve decided to run in a 5K race next summer. It’s next summer, not this summer, because I need a whole year to get in shape!

My goal is to be in the race and cross the finish line. I might walk all or part of it, but I’ll do it with one full year’s worth of training to be my own personal best. Whatever that creates for me, I’ll celebrate it after I cross the finish line. I hope to lose a few pounds in the process, but it would only take 20 pounds for me to be extremely happy. I’m really not that motivated to be thin, just thinner. I don’t want to stay disproportionally "hippy." My disproportionate hips interfere with my sewing happiness.

This is me in my favorite green exercise pants, which I bought.

When my family joined the YMCA, I bought three pairs of work-out pants. I ended up hating two of them. One pair shrunk, and I just couldn’t get used to the short length. I tried to think "capris, capris," but it just didn’t work for me. The other pair was heavy fleece, and I found myself always pulling out the green pair and passing up the fleece pair. I hate to be hot, and the green pair is made of a thinner cotton interlock.

When I decided to get in shape for the 5K, I knew I needed work out clothes. I needed to eliminate one more excuse not to work out, and not having a clean set of work out clothes that I like is a great excuse! Works every time. Rather than get frustrated with purchased pants again, I decided to copy my green pants. It worked well. I did not take pictures as I went along, since I was only just beginning to think about a sewing blog, but I will on future projects.

Here I am in my first pair of black yoga pants.

I used a poly/cotton blend from Joann’s. I copied the pattern by putting the green pants on my cutting/ironing table.

It’s a buffet table that I made an ironing board cover for. I only use it to iron large cuts of fabric before I cut out. For ironing everything else, I use my regular ironing board. I poked pins through the fabric along the seam lines. Then I took off the ironing board cover and placed the tracing paper on the table. I drew lines along the pin holes, then added very generous seam allowances. The legs looked very crooked. I was stumped, as the green pants looked straight and I poked my holes very carefully, but I trusted my instincts and straightened up the legs to look like all those pants tissues I’ve used. Turned out to be a good gut instinct. The legs on the finished pants are very straight.

The first pair were a bit big. Since I have a history of sadly growing out of my favorite clothes, I tend to over compensate and make things too big. I’d still rather end up with something too big than too small. The casing was also way too big for my ¾ inch elastic. On the pattern, I took in about four inches and measured the casing and bought 1 ¼ inch elastic for the next pair.

I originally planned two white stripes for the second pair, but after I sewed on the first stripe, I was worried that the second stripe would show any slight crookedness and that I should leave well enough alone. Then I realized that I think I have enough black fabric and trim left over to make a third black pair. We’ll see.

I used a stiff interfacing inside the hem before I used a ball point 4 mm double needle. One the second pair I forgot to use the interfacing. It looked so much worse that I removed the stitching and redid it with the interfacing. So far both have washed nicely and maintained a neat look.

They have one fitting problem. The center crease rolls in when I sit down. This is a problem with all my pants I make. I’m not sure what to do about this, but I am continuing my exploration of pants making, and I will be dealing with this more aggressively in the future.

The photo looks grey, but they are black. I couldn't figure out how to make the photo come out black!

Then I went out and bought the brown poly/cotton interlock. The brown fabric has been washed and dried twice. I bought 2 5/8 yards each time and they all shrunk to 2 3/8 yards. The brown is waiting to be cut out. This time I bought the matching rib knit trim and two inch elastic. I’ll need to modify the pattern a bit.

For the brown pair I’ve realized that I need to add a loop to hold my YMCA locker key. I use a large safety pin to pin my locker key to my pants while I work out. The first day at the gym in my new pants, I panicked as I realized that I had a sharp point pin for knit pants. I paused in horror as only a sewer with multiple sets of clearly labeled pins would do.

I quickly envisioned a loop sewn into the waistband seam in the next pair, jammed the pin in the fabric, and thought, "Guess I’ll have to make some new ones."