Sewing – Page 11 – No Idle hands here

Meh

Not everything I do is successful and it’s time I shared some of my meh with you, shirt, skirt and photography – all fit that category. See, even my expression is MEH! The skirt just gives me massive hips that I don’t have in real life. There is A line, then there is, no this isn’t working.

I wasn’t happy with the shirt from the get go, but I kept on going. I could either go up a size, or make the side darts smaller, or find a pattern with princess seams. Also, my fabric choice -not good. I guess if I had made it all with the pink stripe it would hang better. I bought the pink at Michael Levine Loft, not even sure it’s cotton, but it only cost maybe a dollar. It is too sleazy (yes that is a garment industry term), as in too see through. The other two fabrics are from my stash, the print is quilting weight, which doesn’t work too well with the others..Bad fit! look at the creases in the back.Bad photography, I had just finished the shirt and had to leave 10 minutes latter, I just grabbed the camera and the tripod. It’s ok, the whole thing isn’t great, so it’s appropriate that the photos aren’t either.

So there you have it, sewing mishaps. Not quite fails, but not successes either. In other words – Meh.

Leah

Gifts for Knitters

The holidays are over, you’d think making gifts would be on hiatus. People still have birthdays and babies, so gift making continues.

A welcome gift for any knitter is a project bag, a place to corral the yarn, the needles and other incidentals related to one knitting project. There is the easy draw string bag, having made a few recently I went looking online for something different. I found a very cute bag with instructions. It reminds me of some Delia Q bags I have pinned on Pinterest. Fat Quarter project bag. Here’s my assembly line. This will be the bottom of the bag.These are a little floppy, but they are actually little square boxes.An interesting closure that draws the top closed, always a good thing for a project bag.Another item that knitters always need is more stitch markers.The most fun part is actually giving the gifts.Yeah, I think this was a winner.

Leah

Quick sewing

With the quilt done, I’ve been whipping out some quick knit shirts.I used up the rest of the fabric from my Moneta dress. That was a summer dress, this shirt is fall or winter, so I won’t be wearing them in the same season.Cute diagonal plaid on a cotton jersey. I also made the skirt from a new to me fabric, knit denim. Yes, it has stretch to it, but not a lot, so I used a pattern for woven fabric.I inserted an invisible zipper. The skirt has a nice snug fit, but not enough stretch to eliminate the zipper. I made a few more skirts, but forgot to photograph them.

Now, on to Thanksgiving cooking.

Leah

Spiderman!

These days when a cartoon movie comes out, along side all the usual paraphernalia, fabric companies will buy the rights and print fabric to match. The best place to buy such fabric is JoAnn’s, the independent stores can’t be bothered to carry the fads.

Yes my grandson is still enamored with Spiderman, so I grabbed two prints.And started my little sweatshop.Practice makes almost perfect, the collars went in easily as did the sleeves.I had recently taken the craftsy class, 40 techniques every sewer should know. Btw, can I just state that I am perfectly fine with the term, sewer? I really dislike sewist – it seems so contrived and elitist, a younger generation has discovered what women have been doing since the dawn of time and they feel the need to give it a new name? Anyway, one of the best tips was to use a water soluble stabilizer when sewing button holes.I have always struggled with the buttonhole, yes my machine has about 8 types and it’s own dedicated foot, but for some reason after the first buttonhole (always done on scrap fabric), they get wonky and unruly. Using the stabilizer really really helped! Yes, I still had a wonky buttonhole (I’ve learned to reset the stitch before every buttonhole – that helps some).Finished shirt!

I went over to deliver them and Aytan announced (as he had when I showed him the fabric) that the red is his and the blue is for his dad.He even went and put the blue shirt in Dad’s closet. No, he wouldn’t put the shirt on at the time, so no photos of him modeling it, but we did take a bike ride down the street to the yogurt shop.

Leah

Not all sewing advice is good.

Last year I made this shirt. Looks nice right? WrongAfter one wash this is what happened to the hem. (this photo is after many washes, but it happened right away). People are always posting great tips and I love trying them out. This one was a failure. The advice was to put elastic in the bobbin when sewing with twin needles so there would be stretch and it would lie flat. Clearly it didn’t lie flat, it actually pulled in more than plain old sewing thread in the bobbin would have.

Thank you again Coletterie tips, I pulled out the seam ripper, removed the offending elastic and now have nice hems.I didn’t wear this shirt much last year, the puckered hems really bothered me. It was well worth my while making this adjustment.Now I have a shirt I can wear with pride.Unbelievable what has happened to me, I love to sew new clothes, I hate mending, yet here I am, pulling out another tunic I made a few years ago, ripping out the twin needle hem and replacing it.A nice clean finish, it’s worth the effort. (btw, are noticing that purple is a theme in my wardrobe?)

Leah

Another Moneta

Recently I shared the wonders of the Moneta Dress with a friend who hadn’t sewn in a while, I think she has just bought up all the patterns available in The Colette Collection. I find that these patterns are well designed, well written and come with booklets of instructions as well as online information. For my friend it’s a sewing lesson, for me, it’s reminders and wonderful new tips.

So, I pulled out the pattern, went to Mood Fabrics and bought some lovely cotton jersey.

I added sleeves and the tie collar from the wonderful free collar options made for this dress.I believe the inside should be as neat as the outside. I didn’t ‘need’ to line the bodice, since there are both sleeves and a collar but I feel that extra layer makes the dress look more professional.At first I had cut the pocket out of the lining fabric, it’s thiner so won’t add any bulk. Problem was it stood out like a sore thumb, white against the dark purple, so off it came. Aside from the twin needle hem and gathering the skirt with clear elastic, the whole dress was made on the serger. 4 needle, for a little extra security.Nice fitting, comfy and soft.It even moves well.I like the front tie, although with such a busy print, it’s hard to see.The pearl necklace is one I made years ago. That is the difference between making dresses and jewelry, the dresses wear out, or go out of fashion, the jewelry will match many different outfits.

Leah

Sewing with wool jersey

One of these days it will get cooler here. In preparation I bought some wool jersey from The Fabric Store.

I pulled out my Renfrew shirt pattern and got to work.This is an easy afternoon sew.Most of the work being done on my serger.Since this is wool, along with long sleeves I made the cowl neck.For the hems I followed Coletterie’s excellent tutorial on hemming knits with a twin needle. I have used a twin needle before, trying to mimic the look of a cover stitch. It never looked smooth or professional – until now.I really like the look and feel of this shirt. The wool jersey is very light weight and comfortable, although being 85 degrees at 5:30, it is still too warm. One of these days I’ll be able to wear this and really enjoy it.

Leah

Final gifts before grandson is born

Of course once he’s here there will be a slew of new handmade items. Right now, it’s get the nursing cover in before he’s born.This time I chose quiet colors, the idea when nursing in public is not to draw attention to yourself.Inserting some boning ensures that Mommy can peak down at the baby.There are many instructions online, this one included a pocket! Pockets are always great.D-rings to fit the strap.Mom modeling the cover-up, right now it’s covering a very big belly! Soon, he’s gonna show up soon!Hey, I chose the right colors, matches her dress perfectly.

Leah

Saving a dress

A few years ago I made this dress.An example of Frankensewing, I took a shirt pattern, added a pleated skirt – and voila – a shirtdress.Nice, sort of Betty Draper style from season 3 or 4 of Madmen.

But I’m no longer in love. I’ve gotten better at adapting patterns to fit me. Clearly I hadn’t done so with this pattern. Well, what I did was arbitrarily lower the waist – I lowered it to much. I also didn’t take in the extra ease in the blouse and the skirt is too long.

Instead of giving the dress to goodwill, I decided first to make a few changes.I raised the waist (probably not enough, but it’s better. I chopped off a good 4″ from the hem and I took in the side seams.

Better, much betterDo I love the dress? No, but now I’m willing to wear it, so I’d call that a win.

And no, I won’t be making this style again. If I do make another shirtdress (which I might) I’ll make sure that the skirt isn’t so full. I’m thinking I should go through and see if I still have that shirt pattern, I really do like the collar.

Leah

Seattle Dress

In general I don’t name my dresses. There always are exceptions, like now. I love buying fabric and yarn on vacation, this fabric was bought in Seattle – hence the name.I’ve had this pattern for quite a while. I had used the skirt portion before but not the whole dress. I was debating which neckline. I like the drawing of the stand-up collar but how will it actually look on the dress? I checked out the reviews on Pattern Review, most people like the pattern and a few even had examples with the stand up collar. They look good.I learned as a child that the backside of the work should looks as clean and as neat as the front. This referred to embroidery, but the same is true with garment sewing. Having a serger makes cleans seams easy. After inserting a sleeve, once I’m sure there are no ripples or tucks – I serge them as well.I served the seams open, the fabric is thick (yes it’s a thicker quilting fabric, I just love the print). Sometimes after pressing the seams open I will serge the seam allowance together. You can even see where I marked the pleats and darts. No, this won’t come out in the wash, I use Wax Tracing Paper from Richard the Thread. If I am sewing with a very fine or sheer fabric I will actually do thread marking. But I wasn’t worried about the blue showing through to the front, if any did – it would simply blend in with the very busy print pattern.The hem was done on the machine as well. Once again, no one will see the tiny threads on the front of the dress. The amount of hand work I do on a dress really depends on the fabric and pattern.Having a pocket is veery nice on a dress. It has to be a full skirt, I don’t want pockets to mar the look of a tight pencil skirt. I faced the front with white lining fabric and the back with the fashion fabric. That way the pocket isn’t as heavy, but the visible part, when using the pocket is actually the back.A lapped zipper is a very classy look. One thing is I had to cut the back pattern pieces with 1″ seam allowance rather than 5/8″ which is the standard for home sewing patterns. Wonderful instructions are available in this Craftsy Mini class (which means it is free!) Mastering Zipper Techniques.I love this dress. The neckline came out perfectly. I love the way the dress looks and of course I’m thrilled with the fabric. For Southern CA, this is a transition or even winter dress.I have also discovered that these days, I like my skirts to hit mid knee, longer than that is looking dowdy to me right now. Of course that may change in a few years.Looking good from the back as well.

Leah