~E Made This!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone (that’s me in 1986). I hope you have wonderful quality time with your families and good food to boot. I’m personally thankful for such a sweet supportive husband and family and the sweetest, funniest, most joy filled baby. How can you not melt when you see this:

In other arenas, next weekend I’m doing another craft show with my friend, and I thought in addition to my purses, I’d make some zippered bags. I love these things. I made 5 in a half hour and spent a little more time sewing in the linings by hand. This was totally the perfect project for me since I’ve put my jacket aside for a little while. No new fabric here either. Everything is recycled from my scrap pile, including the zippers which were previously recycled from a fabulous Ebay seller who sold me 200+ zippers plus thread, beads, bits of trim and other notions for $20 which included the shipping.

I was feeling pretty depressed about my jacket not turning out exactly as I’ve envisioned it, so this gave my mind some time to rest and recast the jacket in my mind. It’s crazy to me how emotionally attached we can become to the things we make.

No pics today.  My shirring worked out really great on the jacket.  The lining is currently giving me fits.  My idea of using my muslin to be the lining pattern didn’t work out as well as would have liked.  Things didn’t fit terribly, but mostly the lining added an incredible amount of bulk which I thought was weird.  I need to rip it all out.  I’m going to keep the sleeves lined, but the rest of it is toast.  It’s kind of irritating, but I think I’m going to try a hong kong finish to do the seams.  I think I could get away with pinking the seam allowances, but it just wouldn’t look as nice.  I figure I’ve waited like a year and a half to make this jacket it won’t hurt to take a little bit longer and ultimately it’ll look nicer.  Still I’m sad the lining didn’t work out.  Linings are so fast and easy and take care of hiding all those ugly seam bits.

The hem facing, which is quilted is also driving me nuts.  Either the facing or the jacket want to wrinkle while I’m pinning.   I feel like I’m always fighting the fabric.  My Mom wisely suggested that I step away from this project for a few days.  I think I will.  I need fresh legs for the rest of this.  I know that the problem is not as big as I feel like it is, but it’s always disappointing when the vision that you have in your head doesn’t match what actually happens.

I’m still working on my Burda jacket (02-2008-117).  Everything is constructed….I need to do the shirring, add the lining, do the hem facings and add the snaps.  So right now it looks rather large, but after the shirring, it will be considerable smaller. 

So far, I’m pretty excited.  The lapels look really good, and I’m proud of how they look what with being my first jacket.  The collar turned out pretty well too.  The sleeves are supposed to be 7/8 length.  Ha!  They’re full length on me.  This wasn’t apparent on my muslin since I didn’t add the sleeve cuffs.  And this is supposed to be a petite sized jacket.  But it’s not like I’m not aware of having short arms. 

It was a great tragedy earlier in my life that I couldn’t play viola what with my short arms.  Not being a cracker jack enough of a player to be a violinist in an orchestra, I briefly thought about tackling viola because you can be more of a stand out player because there are fewer of them.  But small violas sound terrible and my arms can only BARELY handle playing a 15″ viola (violin is 14″ from body to scroll and a good viola is several inches bigger).  Sadness.  I love viola.  That’s okay.  I loved violin first.

Back to sewing.  I LOVE this twill.  It drapes so beautifully and it feels really good to wear.  Sometime this week it’ll be done.  I’m hoping I can get most of it done today, but we’ll see.  I do have a very enthusiastic crawler who is very fond of power cords (including Gnomey’s)…

I love Threads.  It’s a great magazine.  I’ve been reading back issues at the library for months now and I’m so excited to pick up the little bits of wisdom that are all over it, but I’m a bit irritated with one thing.

In the letters section at least once (but often multiple times) per issue there’s someone who lambasts Threads for featuring “beginner” techniques and how Threads needs to be a couture magazine only.  It’s like the uproar that happened over the January 2004 of Gourmet (the cupcake tower sparked controversy because it was deemed by many as unworthy of Gourmet and somehow low brow).

 The only difference here is that it happens it seems in every issue of Threads that someone gets upset and says that they were just about to cancel their subscription and then they got the next issue.  Maybe it strokes the editors’ egos to hear people say how much they like issue X, but I resent the cattiness displayed by these comments.  Not all of us grew up at our Grandmother’s knees sewing.  Both my Grandmas sewed, but I never knew until one had died that she did sew, and the other died when I was 10 before she could show me much of anything.  My Mom very proudly duct tapes hems.  Everything I’ve learned about sewing has been from what I’ve read/heard/discovered.  While it may be that a lot of Threads’ readers have moved beyond “beginner” land, there’s no shame in that.

I will say as a musician that I’ve learned more from teaching first graders sol-mi- and la songs than I did playing Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique.  You can learn things from people at every level, even if it’s just–hey, don’t do that (valuable lesson indeed).  There.  I said it.  I’m not into snobby.

Okay, I don’t hate football–it’s kind of nice, but watching HOURS on end of it on Sundays with my husband behind like 3 computers checking his Fantasy team and stats (maybe there’s only 1 computer…I’m sure I exaggerate here) makes me a little crazy.  With all of this being said, I’ve decided I love football because it provides me hours of uninterrupted sewing.

We missed church yesterday because we got tons of snow, so today I was able to make a whole garment during football and minus feeding Noah, and myself I was completely undisturbed (my in-laws are in town too so they watched Noah so I was even more free–such a treat!).  This is Simplicity 2603–the DKNY cozy knockoff.  It’s a ridiculously easy pattern, and it’s almost instant gratification because you don’t really need to make any alterations (well, I should say the next one I’ll narrow the shoulders because the cap is off my shoulder). 

I went really slow because I used a really fussy lightweight knit (I won’t talk about my cruddy serger work on the inside–does anyone know how to get nice sergerness on really lightweight, really stretchy knits?).  Of course I would do this, but I couldn’t pass this fabric up because it’s robin’s egg blue, it’s a small enough stripe I could get away with it, and it has gold metallic threads running through it.  It does have the perfect drape for this pattern.  Even going as slow as I was, I finished the entire thing from start to finish in the time it took for my pot roast to cook for dinner.  I made view D because I didn’t have enough yardage for the long cozy, but that’s okay.  I’ll make a longer one when I get some more fabric.

Deepika recommended the pattern in one of Pattern Review’s newsletters, so I checked it out.  Reading through the pattern reviews on PR, everyone’s turned out really great, plus there’s this swell video from DKNY on how to wear this thing which got me all giddy excited about sewing it (note how often the girl says”effortless” and “versatility”–it’s funny).  Particularly since my version cost me $7 to make and the DKNY one would set me back $195.  My cheap heart is happy.

What did I learn?

Wooly nylon is your BFF when dealing with knit fabrics:  So what if you have to hand wind the bobbin…after struggling for-ev-er with getting a decent stitch that didn’t pull out or break, I tried a different needle and wooly nylon.  I’m using it on all my knits from now on.  It helps the tension SO much!

My machine is not a fan of ballpoints: Gnomey showed a clear preference for 75/11 stretch needles.  Ballpoint needles are supposed to PREVENT skipped stitches, right?  Gnomey thinks not. 

Steam a seam is also your friend:  Hemming knits is such a pain.  With this stuff being as slippery and fussy as it was, I wanted something easy, so I applied Steam a Seam on the edges, folded over, steamed, and folded over again and used a narrow zigzag to topstitch.  The hem is less wavy and it was fast and easy.

I finished my Butterick 5386 top the other day.  I’ll write about a full bust adjustment on another top.  I filed my pattern and forgot to get good pictures while I was making the alteration…next knit top–I promise, I’ll show you.

Anyhow, here is the top, and it’s super comfortable and lovely.  It’s a t-shirt, kids, but it looks and feels quite a bit dressier.  This is from a really nice mystery content jersey from Denver Fabrics that I got for like $3/yd.  I’m going to look for more of this fabric the next time I’m there because it’s perfect for this top.  It’s a little heavier weight but still with some good stretch and a very soft hand. 

I narrowed the shoulders because the pattern look crazy wide there in comparison to my own shoulders which made for a more flattering and a more comfortable sleeve.  Woohoo!

I think I said this a couple posts back–I love this collar.  I folded it over here, but you could wear it up  and it’d be very dramatic.  I probably got a little carried away with raising the neckline 3″ and I didn’t really factor in the collar.  It version 2, I’m going to lower my 3″ to 1 1/2, and I think it’ll be just right.  As it looks now, this top reminds me of this:

Not that that’s bad…I kind of like feeling all Jedi princessy.  If I could just find my light saber…

I don’t get too ranty here, but this is a pet peeve:  Perhaps it’s just me but it seems like V-necks are always too low.  I love wearing them, but I hate having to constantly be rearranging them just so my business isn’t being flashed to the whole world.  I also internally cringe when I see other women’s girls hanging out for all to view I feel sad that they feel they need to do that to get attention as if that were all they had to offer.  So what to do so I still get to wear a style I like without worrying about modesty?

Be empowered!  You have tape and a ruler!

Raising a neckline:

Here’s the front piece from my Butterick 5386 top.  I decided to raise this neckline by 3″ (After finishing, I think 2″ would’ve done the trick which I’ll keep in mind when I make this again).  To do this, I tacked down the piece on my cardboard grid, lining up the center front line with one of the lines.  I put tissue paper under the pattern piece, taped the tissue paper to the pattern, and drew a mark 3″ above the top of the center front line.  Using a design ruler, I drew a new curve.  The curve tapers to nothing at the shoulder and at the outer edge of the front and the 3″ mark is the high point of the curve.  Cut at the new curve and you’re almost done.

On this top I needed to change the collar piece so that its curve matched the front piece.  On other tops, you’d have to change the facing.  I matched the edge of the collar to the front.  I slid the part of the collar that was too wide underneath the altered front piece and traced the new curve on the collar.  I cut along this line to remove the excess tissue.  I then folded the collar on the foldline and removed the same amount of tissue from the other side.   

So much better!  Tomorrow, I’ll show you how I did my full bust adjustment.

Because I have some cotton jersey and because I wanted a quick fast project and because I am in need of long sleeved shirts and am not brave enough to tackle a button down shirt just quite yet, I pulled out this pattern:

I’ve been stalking Patternreview for a while seeing if anyone had made view E yet.  No dice.  So I thought I’d take it on.

It’s really a simple top.  There’s 4 pieces and the instructions are barely necessary.  Sewing is one thing, but the alterations are a whole other can of worms.  For something so simple, there were a lot of changes I needed to make.  For the sake of education, this week I will write about each alteration in how-to style so as not to overwhelm this post with information.  Today I’ll talk about sleeve length.

Changing sleeve length in a pattern:  Sleeve lengths will vary from pattern to pattern based on style, so I think a lot of sleeve length comes down to where you like your sleeves to hit, kind of like a hem.  I typically like long sleeves (like the one on this pattern) to hit me right at the wrist bone.  Being petite, long sleeves in pattern are always too long for me, so here’s how I go about fixing them.

Measure from the end of your shoulder to your elbow and from elbow to wrist.  For me these measurements are 13″ and 9 1/2″ respectively.  Before you get started, take the tissue pattern sleeve and pin it together along the seam line and try it on.  Mark on the pattern where your elbow hits.  If you need to change length, you’ll want to do so above the elbow and below the elbow.

Next lay out the pattern piece.  I measured from the top of the sleeve cap to the 13″ mark and drew a line parallel to the sleeve hem.  At the line indicated on the pattern for altering the length, I folded the pattern to my 13″ line and taped up the fold.  Next I measured from the bottom of the altering line to the hem.  Because the hem is involved from elbow to wrist, I’ll have to add in the hem allowance to my elbow to wrist measurement…which will be 10 3/4″.  When I measured, I was within 1/8″ of that, so I didn’t bother to change the length.  If I needed to add length from elbow to wrist, I would have drawn a line below the alter line (if there wasn’t already one on the pattern) and cut along that line, spread the pattern as much as I needed and filled in with tissue.  To make it shorter, just fold out what you need at the altering line you drew and tape.  It seems fussy to take out (or add) length from shoulder to elbow and elbow to wrist rather than just in one place, but taking out length in 2 places helps maintain the shape and style of the sleeve better.  The only thing you don’t want to do is take off or add length to the bottom of the sleeve because the shape of them is often different than it is through the rest of the sleeve and whacking it off will make for a weird fit. 

Tada!  A sleeve that is the right length.

Stay tuned for tomorrow–I’ll talk about raising a neckline.

Hello blog.  Let me explain my absence.  I’ve been sewing like N.U.T.S.

My friend MB, whom I’ve worked with at my school for the past 7 years (she’s the art teacher) asked me a few months ago to make some of my bags for a craft show with her.  She has such an amazing design aesthetic and is mondo talented.  So the past week or so I’ve been sewing away.  I’ve cranked out 9 handbags and 3 scrap scarves.  I had some totes that I had made previously as well as another wristlet.  She made a lot of jewelry from found objects and hairclips and headbands adorned with felt flowers.  The hit of the weekend were her hats with felt flowers on them.  Everyone tried them on and they looked great on everyone.  Here’s our table:

Business was generally slow both days.  Yesterday things did pick up considerably.  MB had a lot of her friends come by and they were very generous, but I imagine if they hadn’t have come, we would have done not so greatly.  I ended up selling 5 out of 6 of my totes, and 3 of my purses…not bad and it’s enough to fund my purchase of a little fabric and the Threads Fitting DVD series which I got for $35 cheaper than list price at Alibris.  We certainly learned a lot about craft shows though and I think we’ll be doing more of this.  If I make a little money to fund my learning in sewing, I’ll be happy, and it’s fun to spend time with MB. 

I learned a lot about sewing a lot of things in a short amount of time too:

1.  Forget pinning when you’re cutting things out.  Stack things on a rotary cutting mat, use canned goods to keep the pattern pieces in place and use the cutter.  It saves time and lots of pin pricks.

2.  Denim makes an AWESOME bag interfacing.  I usually use plain canvas to add weight and structure to my bags, and I like it, despite the fact that its a nightmare to iron and hard to pin.  Around bag #5, I ran out of my stash of canvas.  Not wanting to spend money on more canvas or leave the house, for that matter, I went shopping in the closet and discovered a really big stash of old denim Nathan had been saving for “paint pants.”  After happily hacking up a couple of pairs of “paint pants” and sewing them up in the bags, I found out that denim makes for a sturdy, yet supple hand when used as an interfacing.  When the “paint pants” stash is depleted, perhaps I’ll just keep a stash of thrifted jeans for purses on hand.

3.  Fusible interfacing is not entirely awful to deal with.  There’s not too much that I hate about sewing, but I really do hate cutting out fusible interfacing.  It’s always being done when everything else is ready to go and all I want to do is sew, and when I make bags, there’s a lot of interfacing to be done.  I interface and line my patch pockets, I interface the linings themselves and if there’s a zipper involved, you can bet there’s interfacing there too.  Knowing this, I took this approach, which is not revolutionary, but it was new to me.  I unfolded my width of interfacing, sticky side up and layed out my pattern pieces which needed interfacing right side up right on my ironing board.  Using a press cloth (so I didn’t get the interfacing goo on my iron) I fused everything, peeling off the excess interfacing from the press cloth.  Then I cut around the pieces.  This saved me from cutting out the interfacing from pattern pieces, laying them out with the fabric to be fused, having them shift all over the place before and during fusing just generally being frustrated with interfacing.  The best part was not having weird scraps of interfacing leftover at the end. 

There’s a lot more pictures of my individual bags, so here’s a link to my Flickr stream.