Because my Mom really likes green

The shirt construction is going really well.  I misread the directions for the sleeve cuff and cut off something I shouldn’t have.  Whoops!  It’s okay…the solution involved a little more pressing and a tiny bit of hand stitching, but it’s not a glaring mistake.  I learned something about cuffs at any rate. 

So far my favorite part are the buttons.  Mom and I were looking for buttons and I saw these and I knew they were perfect.  I love the subtle color contrast they provide, and the lacy edge and especially the green color is so absurdly my Mom.  I finished the sleeves just before lunch and I’m working on the collar now.  Then just the front bands/buttons/buttonholes and I’m done!

Poco a poco

This was a phrase that was the motto of my Junior Bible Quiz team way back when I was 8 (I still have the t-shirt–it has my name on it…I love how Elizabeth doesn’t quite fit across it–my favorite t-shirt EVER!!!).  The idea was that little by little we’d work our way towards learning all the stuff we needed to learn for competitions.  It’s been a long time since then, but those words have always stuck with me.

I’m glad they were etched in my mind because I need them!  This week I’m going to make a button-down shirt for my Mom.  It’s her Christmas gift (she knows about it, so it’s okay for me to write about it here).  I’m not sure why I’m so scared of it, I mean,  it’s a shirt…with buttons, but  the devil, I know is in the details.  I really want to do a nice job–I mean, it’s for my Mom.  Okay, freak out aside, I’m going to do things one step at a time, and though I don’t expect it to be totally 100% perfect, I know I’m going to learn a lot from this project.

To gear up for it, I checked out this book from the library: Shirtmaking by David Page Coffin.  I need to buy my own copy.  There is so much excellent information in it, plus Mr. Coffin has some rather strong opinions that make what could otherwise be a rather dry book much more interesting.  I am excited about working with this fabric too–it’s a nice shirting cotton floral print of green, purple, and Copenhagen blue on a nice French vanilla background.    I’m taking a break this morning from sewing to go see The Tales of Hoffmann with my opera buddy, Tamara, then off to the shirtmaking!  Wish me luck.

The I.C. in the W.C.

In general, neither I nor my husband is too batty about babyproofing things.  I watch my son like a hawk (I know you’d be proud Mom), and they have to figure out that hot will burn you sometime, right.  That being said, I’m not nearly so negligent, and we keep the truly dangerous items well out of the way…like the iron.  Heavy, steam-shooting, and attached to an irresistible cord, it is simultaneously an item of fascination for my son and an object of horror for me.  And me, being the stubborn type with a just-do-it mentality am not willing to give up sewing.  So what’s a girl to do when one of your most essential parts in your sewing arsenal can’t be left unattended?

Build an I.C. (ironing closet)!  Thankfully, we have a second bathroom whose tub has been used less than 10 times since we moved in–a few times when they had to repair a leak in the ceiling in our bathroom and a couple more times when my brother-in-law has visited us.  This sad little tub has been the scene of much craft storage.  It held Tina, my dress form during my pregnancy when she was entirely not my size (she mysteriously shifted her weight though, and I can’t decide if she looks pregnant or what my Mom affectionately terms “menopausal” now), lots of screenprinting gear, I’ve dyed things in there…etc.  So it was a natural choice when we were puzzling through what to do with the iron. 

Good things about an ironing closet:

1. The iron is far away from baby.
2. I made up a little strand of lanyard pieces hooked together that the cord runs through so it is suspended high above where it is enticing to baby.  This little job has the bonus feature of keeping the cord off of the fabric so it doesn’t tangle.  
3. The sides of the tub are excellent places to store my pressing ham, my sleeve roll, and a spray bottle.
4. Not being a napper myself, when Noah’s out for a nap, I will work so non-stop that I will forget to use the facilities…hey, they’re right next to the ironing board!  So convenient.
5. My toilet is now cleaned daily because Noah will scale it to see what I’m working on, and baby + toilet is not an equation that sounds too pleasant to me.
6. I can shut the door to the bathroom, which lets me leave the iron on like I need it to be but keep the baby out.
7. It’s a bit of a conversation piece when we have guests. 
8. When I’m done I can pull the curtain and, tada, it’s all gone.  

Less good things about the I.C.

1. My ironing work is a little far from me what with the lip of the tub.
2. It’s a bit dark in there.  This can be remedied with some of those fancy contraptions people call lights.

Forget the dog

…after all, I have a seam ripper.  I think I’ve said it before, but I love my seam ripper.  Just when you royally screw up (today I sewed the wrong side of a blouse to the right side at the shoulders…ooh and I had already finished the seams too), the seam ripper calmly implies that you should make yourself an enormous pot of tea, and after you have greedily consumed it all assures you that it will be there for you as you painstakingly pick out each little irritating stitch.  It doesn’t judge.  It doesn’t call you the moron that you feel like you are.  And somehow when it’s done it’s work, you feel better.  Thanks seam ripper.  I needed that.

Kurt Wallander would not approve

If you’re looking for a good mystery to read, I totally recommend all the Wallander mysteries by Henning Mankell.  His stories are so well thought out, and he does a great job with character.  I love the portrait that he paints of Wallander–the police inspector who is absolutely brilliant at his job but completely inept in every other part of his life.  I also love that Wallander is an opera nut–a characteristic that I highly suspect is the source of his genius.   What does this have to do with sewing?  I’ll tell you. 

One of Wallander’s many oddities is that he has a collection of sweaters that he wears only in certain temperature ranges.  He has one sweater that he wears from 0-10 C etc.  Inept though he may be in life, he very practically likes being warm without sweating and having to change later in the day.  So naturally, he would wisely put my new jacket safely back in the closet since it’s appropriate for 40-60F and not the 12F it is currently.  No matter.  I LOVE it and nobody can stop me from waltzing around the house in it.

Burda 02-2008-117 Trench Coat

What I learned:

Coats need FBA’s too: well, at least this one did.  With as fitted as it is through the top there wasn’t enough ease to get away with not doing an FBA.  Thankfully I’ve gotten quite quick with this particular alteration.

You can’t always make an apple into an orange:  So I tried lining this, but there wasn’t enough ease to make that work without the jacket being all weird and bulky and tight.  Also my method of using my smocked muslin to produce pattern pieces for the lining that were nice and smooth also didn’t work out.  Poo.  I’ll learn to line a jacket another day.

Lapels are a bit of sewing magic: It took me some time to figure out how the lapel thing was supposed to work, but eventually from the drawings in the pattern and the modeled picture and the pattern lines, I figured it out and it’s kind of wacky to me that the things just kind of magically fold over (okay, I put a 1/2″ strip of interfacing along the lapel fold line per Sandra Betzina) on their own.

Collars are a little fussy:  The collar on this is a LOT better than the last collar I put in, but the undercollar is a bit wrinkly and so forth, probably because it needed a little tailoring.  It’s okay–it’s still functional and the next one will be better.

Why haven’t I learned how to put my walking foot on before?:  There’s a lot of topstitching (that’s really quilting) on the hem facing and the sleeve cuffs (10 rows if I remember on each cuff and 20 on the hem).  I didn’t use the walking foot on the cuffs but I did on the hem and there’s a big difference even though the cuffs look really nice.  I can’t imagine trying to do the hem facing without the walking foot–the coat was pretty bulky at that point to be monkeying it through the feed dogs, so the walking foot made nice even rows with a good stitch.

Thread is different:  I used polyester to construct the jacket for it’s strength and Mettler cotton silk finish thread for the topstitching because it’s beautiful and silk thread to hand sew the snaps.  The silk thread was the biggest aha for me.  It’s SO nice for hand stitching because it glides through the fabric with less tangling, has a great finish which looks really nice, and it just plain feels good while you’re stitching.  

Jackets are less daunting than I thought:  The construction of this jacket is really very simple.  The details take a long time.  I realize that I have a lot to learn in the way of tailored garments and so forth, but this is a good start and it makes me believe that I can try something harder the next time.

As for what I like about this jacket–I love the feminine detail of the smocking at the waist.  The jumbo snaps are so fun to snap and I love how they look and they were worth every last hand stitch.  And I love this fabric.  It’s a really silky lightweight cotton twill from fabric.com.  It has awesome drape and it feels marvelous to wear. 

I reckon there should be a drumroll, but thankfully the guy who lives above us who is always drumming is not at the moment which gives me a bit of peace and allows me

to announce the winners of the giveway!!!

I popped in everyone’s names and emails into Excel and the random number generator named these three people as winners:

Lisa Beamer (who crazy enough is one of my dearest friends and I swear the random number generator picked her)

Willa

and Lisa (socmama). 

Thanks for playing everyone!  This giveaway day thing is always a hoot.  I love reading people’s comments and getting to talk to more people than I usually do on a regular basis here.  Hopefully some of you will still hang around for all my sewing adventures.

Giveaway Day

 

I participated in Sew Mama Sew’s Giveaway Day in May, and it was so fun, here I am again.  If you’re here because of Giveaway Day, welcome and I’ll tell you a wee bit about myself in hopes that you’ll hang around here often. 

I’m Elizabeth, or E (because I always sign emails with E because it’s faster).  I’m married to a wonderful man and we have one terribly adorable little 7 month old son and I make stuff.  I love to cook and when I think about it, I write about that here.  This space here is devoted to my sewing.  I’ve made a commitment to sew as many of my own clothes as I can and as I truck through every project, I would like to pass on what I’ve learned in hopes of sharing my experience and filling my need to teach (did I mention I taught elementary music for 7 years before I had my son?).

As I’ve been learning to sew my own clothes, I’ve really become obsessed interested in fit.  I figure, if you’re going through the trouble of making your own clothes, they might as well fit and be flattering at that.  So from time to time I’m trying to write about alterations I’ve needed to make and why they were helpful for me.

Onto the GIVEAWAY!

This round, I’m giving away a scrap scarf that I made from my mountains of scraps.  I’m giving away 3 to you lucky people who comment by 8 p.m. Mountain time December 6th.  They are made from wool and cotton scraps, backed with cotton and quilted simply by hand by me with fleece as my batting.  Warm for your neck and color for your eyes, you’ll be super cute as you wander about your daily tasks wearing it.

Scarf #1

Teals and Yellows: 100% cotton quilting fabrics make up this scarf.  It’s backed with Anna Maria Horner Drawing Room blue volumes fabric and the pieced front has some Amy Butler, some Anna Maria Horner Good Folks, some Michael Miller  and other various prints. 

Scarf #2

Primaries:  There is some royal blue linen, more Amy Butler, some Alexander Henry, other various cotton prints, and some vintage plaid shirting from my husband’s Grandmother’s stash.

Scarf #3

Pinks and Blacks:  Pieced from lovely grey shirting, some velvet flocked wool, pieces of grey wool pants (including a functioning welt pocket), a pink lace cotton print, and a little Joel Dewberry Aviary woodgrain in pink.  It is backed with a nice pink ticking stripe.  This one’s my favorite.

How to enter:

Leave a comment telling me which scarf is your favorite.  After my son goes to bed (about 8 pm MST) on December 6th, I’ll draw 3 winners at random.

For 1 extra entry, blog about this giveaway and put the link to your blog in your comment.

For every person you personally send to the blog who has left a comment, I’ll give you 1 more entry.   (Please name the people you send over here so I don’t have to use Jedi powers to figure that out).

Good luck to everyone!