Patience, grasshopper

I’m off to a good start on my skirt.  Drafting was really quite simple and things fit pretty well out of the gate.

It is pulling up at center back though.  I THINK this has to do with my, ahem, curvy backside.  I think I know how to fix it, but I need to have a little more time to mess around with it.  I have to say I’m not a fan of doing multiple muslins, but it has been long enough that I’ve struggled with skirt fit, that I’m willing to wait a little longer.  I have to focus on the more immediate rewards to keep myself going…like the fact that I drafted my own skirt?! 

I also made some pattern weights–some being 3 dozen.  Laying out pieces to cut is the most dreary part of sewing for me and pinning takes forever, making the process so much worse.  Given that I never have enough canned goods in the house and that it stresses me out to be missing them when I’m cooking, I figured it was time to get serious. 

Off to Home Depot I went and got 6 dozen (!) big washers for 11 cents each.  They were pretty greasy (hey, they were 11 cents), so I scrubbed them off, put them in stacks of two and covered them with bits of leftover ribbon/bias tape/fabric strips/piping…whatever.  A little  hot glue to keep everything tacked down and I have a huge set of cute, functional weights that pretty much eliminate my need for time sucking pins.  Woo hoo!

ISO a decent skirt

I’ve been wanting to make a basic skirt for a really long time.  Really.  The problem is I can’t seem to find a good basic pattern that I like.  I tried a muslin a few weeks ago of McCall’s 5590, which is a high waisted pencil skirt.  After spending a long time fiddling with it (and admittedly a lot of tears), I came to the conclusion that pencil skirts are not particularly flattering on me, nor is it a shape I’m terribly comfortable wearing.  They just emphasize how I carry my weight in my legs and make me look shorter than I already am.  But I’m glad to figure this out. 

So, while I’ve been looking for a pattern, I came across this Simplicity one.

This one looks fairly promising to me.  It still has a little curve to it, but not as severe as in a pencil skirt, but not so much flare as a typical A-line skirt either.  It has princess seams which should make fitting my fuller legs thighs easy.  So, I’ve been pretty excited that Hancock’s and JoAnn both have Simplicity on sale this weekend for 99 cents.  Usually 99 cent sales are good to me, but for some reason, I’m striking out big time this go.  I’ve been to 3 seperate stores and all of them only have the 16-24 size range.  Arghh. 

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at drafting too, though, so maybe this is a good opportunity for me to not just phone in this project and dig deep and learn something.  I found these two links and I’m feeling confident that I can do a decent job at this. 

http://rowena.typepad.com/rostitchery/2008/10/princess-seams-not-just-for-princesses-anymore.html

http://www.fashion-era.com/Pattern_drafting/pattern_drafting_introduction_skirt2_measuring.htm

Perhaps I’m biting off more than I can chew, but having always been up for a challenge and one that never says die, I’m going draftin, y’all.

Mixed bag

I hate sweaters, people.  I love wool, but it does not love me back…within seconds of putting on a sweater, I’m itching and covered in hives.  It’s probably all of the chemicals sheep get dipped in that makes my skin freak out, but I have neither the budget for organic wool nor the heart to wear such sad colors (why do natural dyes have to be so ugly?).  This makes my life as someone living in a colder climate a little dicey at times. 

So when I came across Simplicity 2603, I was excited.  Why wouldn’t I want to swathe myself in fabric when I’m a bit chilly?  But this wrap was limited in what I could do with it because of its length, but also because of the shape of the extensions which for whatever reason didn’t work on my body so well, even after I tried on the full length version that I made for my Mother-in-law for Christmas.  So I went back to the drawing board.

Enter Vogue 8463.  One of my sewing goals this year was to attempt a Vogue pattern.  I don’t think I can count this one because it’s so ridiculously easy.  The hardest thing you have to do is hem a lot of fabric.  I liked that the extensions are longer on this one versus the Simplicity pattern (I didn’t have enough length to tie it in interesting ways) and that it very economically uses less than 2 yds which is quite a bit less than the Simplicity.   

Vogue 8463–wrap cardigan

What I learned:

1.  Interfacing the hem:  I did several tests on scraps to figure out which hem I like the best, and my usual steam-a-seam yielding a really crunchy hem on this amazing rayon knit from Gorgeous Fabrics.  Instead, I ironed on some SewKeysE all the way up to the hemline and pressed and topstitched accordingly.

2.  Look ma!  No pins!:  One of the other things Peggy Sagers said at the Sew Expo was that home sewers use way too many pins.  Pins slow you down whether you’re laying out a pattern or in the midst of construction, she asserted.  Of course, she’s right, but who wants to give up their security blanket?  I’m experimenting on how to go about incorporating this into my life, and this is what I’ve come up with for hems.  I pressed my hem like normal and ran a basting stitch about halfway between the top of the hem and the fold line from the wrong side and then I topstitched as normal.  This saved me like 8 years in pins, kept Noah away from my pins, and I was a lot less stressed.  I’m sure Peggy Sagers would say there’s an easier, faster way with hems, but this will do for now.

3.  I need to pull out my measuring tape and take an honest look at everything:  I’ve lost all my baby weight now.  Actually, I weigh less than I did before Noah.  This is great, but altering for my full bust does not need to be so dramatic, and my ribcage is more narrow again, the result being that I’m swimming in fabric.  So, while I love this finished garment for the color and for the style and versatility of wearing, I’m not too happy about it being too wide across the shoulders and all this extrey fabric at center back that’s happening I assume because of that.  You can get a little idea of the extra fluff here.

I imagine I’ll be making more muslins than anything the next few weeks just to figure out what on earth is going on with my changing body and to practice some of the techniques I learned this past week.

             3a) Tracing patterns: Fit for Real People is quite assertive in how they tell you to deal with patterns.  They have you slashing them up and shimming them with bobs of tissue paper and so forth.  This is great, but I’m coming to realize that perhaps this isn’t the best way [for me].  There are some styles that I love and will make a gazillion times and a few that I’ll only make once–like everyone else.  But seriously, God-willing, Noah is not our last kid, and this cycle of being a little heavier/fuller in some places back to being my usual self will be repeated here, so if there are things that I like, I best be treating my patterns nicer if it turns out that I have to alter them again.  So from now on, if there  is something that I make that I know I’ll want to make again in whatever capacity, I’m going to trace it off first, though it pains me to add the extra step.  It’s cheaper timewise and monetarily to do this versus buying another pattern, or so I’m telling my impetuous self.

4.  My camera has a self-timer?:  I’m such a camera dork.  I get the concept, but it’s like gardening for me…I just can’t be bothered with the details.  You lovely folk who read my blog put up with a lot where my pictures are concerned.  Bless you all.  So, miraculously, I figured out the self-timer, and these two pictures look a little better than my average. Phew.

Drinking from firehoses

 

(picture from here)

I’ve been at the Rocky Mountain Sewing Expo the past 3 days taking classes on fitting, with a couple of sides of construction and a nod to drafting.  I’m kind of just staring at my machine, trying to figure out where to start, I’ve picked up so many things.  I will try, for myself, as much as you, dear readers to condense my learnings, which I’m going to try to put into application like yesterday.

What I learned:

1.  What you don’t know about sewing is a lot.:  But I do know more than I give myself credit for.  I’m saying this realistically, not negatively.  I’m pretty bowled over by the depth of the knowledge that my teachers unloaded on me this week.  Holy cats.  I want to teach sewing someday?   I need a lot more experience.

2.  FBA’s don’t work for me:  I’ve been suspicious for a while of FFRP’s method of FBA’s.  I get plenty of room upstairs, but the method adds width at the hip and, worse yet, the waist…totally not where I need it.  For my Mom, this is a perfect method.  She needs extra room in the waist and the hip, but for me it distorts everything.  Remember this top?  I’ve lost maybe 5 pounds since I made it, but I seriously should not be able to pinch out 3″ on each side and still be comfortable.  The problems I had with this top (see waist darts) taking out extra room in the waist…it was from the alteration, not the original side seams as I thought.

What’s the solution?  The wonderful Lorraine Henry kept saying over and over again this weekend “When you alter any part of your pattern, it should not affect any other part of the pattern.”  This makes total sense, but how many alteration methods actually preserve the rest of the pattern?  She gave us all a quick blast of the seam method (there’s a little intro on it in this Threads article), which basically has you cutting into patterns along seam lines, adding hinges and pivoting things out where you need extra space.  The beauty of all of this is that the seams themselves are totally preserved, so there is no distortion in your final product, meaning there’s less distortion in your fabric too.  It’s so simple, and it makes so much sense.

3.  Pattern sizing, oy!  Dearest Cynthia Guffey talked at length on Saturday that you should buy patterns not based at all on your high bust but by the size that fits your neck and shoulders the best.  Her logic is that it’s easier to alter for waist/hips/bust if you need to than the neck and shoulders, plus, your garments hang from there, so give yourself the best chance of success and start with neck/shoulder bits that are closest to your measurements.  Looking at me, she said I should be sewing from an 8 or a 10 at the max, not the 12 that I have been using.  What? Really?  Of course my ego is happy over this, but I’m not really sure what to make of this one–I need to mess around with it.  Now that I think about it, looking back at the last couple of projects that I’ve made, there’s a noticeable amount of space around the neck and I’ve had to fuss to make the shoulders work for me.  Back to the drawing board…

4.  Princess seams are your friends:  One of the other things Cynthia Guffey kept saying was that if you have a particular fitting concern, you should pick styles that give you the most opportunities to make changes to address that.  So, for example, I can sew tops with just one dart at the side to fit my bust, but that’s going to be a big weird looking dart (and they are every time) because ALL of the fullness has to be dealt with in that one location.  In contrast, princess seams give you multiple chances to split up that fullness, the end result being a much smoother transition between the fullness and the remainder of the seam and less of that Eat-At-Joe’s look that you get from side bust darts.

5.  “God gave you a finger before He gave you a blending stump”:  My 7th grade art teacher, Mrs. Gast told us this one day…her point being that if you needed to blend your shading in a little corner, use your finger before you bust out your little paper cone blending stump.  It was a long time ago, but that phrase stuck with me.  Not surprisingly, something like that is true with sewing.  I have two hands, therefore I don’t really need to use my walking foot.  Peggy Sagers went so far as to say that walking feet are pricey gimmicks.  Instead of relying on my walking foot to be the extra guide to move the fabric under my needle evenly, she said you should be holding your fabric taut behind your work while you are guiding the fabric in front with your other hand.  I think I’ve noticed that the people on Project Runway sew like this too, and I’ve been curious about it.  I haven’t tried it because I’ve been worried that I’d bust a needle, but after playing around with this a little, I’m pretty shocked at how well this works.  The tension problems I usually have disappeared.  I have the most even, nicest looking hem on my latest project that I’ve ever made.  Not only that, the ugly shine marks that I get on my fabric from the walking foot are gone because I’m just using my favorite basic foot.

I picked up a lot more this weekend, but I will save that for later posts in the contexts of projects.

Quilts for Mexico

So I haven’t mentioned it before, but I’m pretty excited about this group I’ve started of stitchers and knitters and crocheters at church to make items for outreaches/missionaries/other people nearby that my church supports.  At some point after I joined Craft Hope, it occurred to me that I didn’t need to wait to make things for them because my church sends several teams around the world to care for the least of these.  I may not be able to go right now with Noah, but I can make blankets or dolls or whatever that might help communicate love and care. 

Our first project is making blankets for kids at a children’s home in Juarez.  The director of the children’s home is a well-educated middle class woman who left her comfortable life in Mexico City to help these kids.  Somewhere along the way, her husband died and 4 of  her 5 grown children (the 5th is a missionary in Haiti) have helped her run the home since.  They chose to not receive any funding from the Mexican government because if they did, the kids would be subject to being moved around at will.  So she, with the help of her own children is raising these beautiful 22 kids as if they were her own.  Our goal is to make a blanket for each child and my Mom and a Mom and daughter are making a yoyo quilt for this amazing woman.  My wee part is a few simple tied quilts.  Here’s a detail of the binding of this pink one I’ve made:

If you would like to help us out, I know we could use it!  For quilts, we’re shooting for at least 50″X60″ and crocheted or knitted blankets as close to that as you can get or bigger”.  Leave a comment if you’re interested and I can give you more details.