Happy New Year

What to do when you are waiting for your fingernail polish to dry? Blog! (Very carefully, of course...)

I followed Erica's example and have assembled a collage of my completed garments since I started this blog in March 2007. Looking at it this way helps me to forget the pain of all the ripped seams. I hope to get even more done in 2008.

Although I have a few ideas swirling in my head, I am not making a public list of resolutions. The one thing I will share, though, is that I am going to start keeping track of my "yards sewn". Melissa and I talked about how she does this; I think it would be interesting to see what my actual usage is. Will I track "yards purchased"? Well, I suppose in all fairness I should do that too...

Last project of 2007!

First, thank you for your words of comfort about the Butterick dress disaster. I'll keep the muslin and perhaps at a later date I'll fuss with the fit, but I'm planning to wear the sequined H&M dress tonight. I wore it earlier this month to my husband's work holiday party (at a cabaret club!), but we'll be with a completely different group of people on new years eve so I can get away with it!

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Do you ever see or think of an idea for a project, and once it's there, you just can't get it out of your head? It's there perched in the back of your mind, nudging you, loudly clearing it's throat "ahem!"... That's how I've felt ever since I read Sewing Diva Els' how-to on making a "stuffed" neckband.

A little backstory - a couple of years ago I purchased this Stella McCartney skirt (majorly on sale of course!). One of the things I love about it is the waistband, it feels like there is a fat piece of piping cord in there. I was thrilled when Els showed how to create a similar finish on a knit top.

I started with an older BWOF v-neck t-shirt pattern that I redrafted to be a scoopneck, and a knit fabric I bought last month at Stonemountain in Berkeley. I made a tube the same size as the neckline, stuffed it with fiberfill, sewed it on, and understitched. Easy, right? Yes... but I did learn a couple of things during the process:

1. Patience is a virtue here - To avoid getting a lumpy neckband, take your time stuffing the neckband with the fiberfill. Tear the fiberfill into the smallest possible pieces, put a few pieces in, push them into the tube, repeat. I used both a wooden spoon to push the fiberfill in and a chopstick to push and pull pieces around.

2. Use a large seam allowance on the neckband, I'd say, oh, 1.5 inches. You can always trim it after you've sewn it to the neckline. Why? Because if you use only 0.5 inch seam allowances like I did, the ugly raw edges will show from the right side of the garment, as above. You want the raw edges of the seam allowance fabric to wide enough curl under and be hidden on the wrong side. I remedied this by covering the ugly raw eges with another strip of my fashion fabric. But, I recommend you avoid having to do that in the first place.

Now, let me just tell you I love this top! It feels almost elegant to wear, and it looks a bit mod, doesn't it?

Dashed hopes

Yes, I used ric-rac for one of the shoulder straps - use what you have!

This is my muslin for Butterick 5136 which I was hoping to wear on new years eve. Okay, I know I'm small busted, but you've got to be kidding me. I figured I'd have to improve the fit but I wasn't expecting this.

I think there are several factors at play here:

• The fabric I used for my muslin is a slinky rayon. I figured it would mimic charmeuse the best out of anything in my stash. Although I tried to have it totally on grain when cutting it out, perhaps it wasn't.
• The bodice is self-lined, and the top horizontal-ish seam could have stretched out when when sewing (the fabric is cut somewhat on the bias).
• Knowing what I know about Butterick (and the big 4) and how it fits me, I should have cut a smaller size for the bust. The waist is perfect, though.

At this point, I'm hesitant to try to improve the fit because I think I'll have the same issues with the silk charmeuse I was planning on using.

I guess this is what I get for waiting until essentially the last minute to start on this. The construction is very easy, but the fit is going to require some major finagling.

My two rational options at this point are to (1) find another simple pattern to sew that I've had experience with, or (2) find something in my closet. This sequin dress I got at H&M last month is more appealing by the minute...

BWOF Project of the Month: December, or, How you'll find me on any given Saturday morning

Since I don't work with Cidell, I had to make my own kimono pajamas. That's okay, I wanted the pants instead of the shorts anyway.

Jacket: 12-2007-125, Pants: 12-2007-127

Fabric

Fashion fabric: embroidered linen(?) - It was included in a mystery bundle from Fabric Mart. I had no idea what to do with it, until I saw these PJs.

Contrast bands: cotton/linen leftover from another project

Construction/alterations

Beware, there are lot of contrast bands to keep track of. I stuck post-it notes on all of them to keep track of the different lengths.

The top is closed on the inside by two small ties.

The elastic doesn't go all the way around the waist - the ends of the elastic are sewn down into the dart seams in the front. I really like this look.

Conclusion

Fun, easy to wear pajamas! I imagine I'll sleep in the pants and a t-shirt, then put on the kimono jacket once I wake up and I'm starting my day with a cup of coffee and some web-surfing.

Frohe Weihnachten

Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël, Feliz Navidad, God Jul, Buon Natale!

"She must be throwing Harry's money around!"

My mom just sent me this adorable booklet she found at a thrift store, called "Home Sewing is Easy" by none other than Sally Stitch. It's 60 pages long, and undated, but I'm guessing it's from sometime around the late 40s/early 50s. Free-Westinghouse is the sewing machine featured on the cover so I assume they prepared this booklet. I'll forgo any commentary because it pretty much speaks for itself...

Click on any image to enlarge.

I'm committed

Today I booked my flight to LA for the West Coast PR Weekend in March! Check out the Fashion District's website – it looks like a fun place to visit with fellow seamstresses.

I used Farecast to monitor the airfare - today it dropped so I bought. You can create a free account and a "farewatch" in which you tell it your destination and the dates and it'll send you daily emails of the current fares, as well as a prediction of whether the lowest price will rise, hold steady, or fall. This is the first time I've used this service so I can't attest to how good its predictive power is. At a minimum though, it's certainly nice to have someone else doing the obsessive searches and comparisons every day for you.

I look forward to meeting some of you in March!

New winter coat

I am soooo happy to finally be writing this post. My coat is complete!

Burda World of Fashion 10-2007-119

Fabric
Fashion fabric: Wool herringbone from Fashion Fabrics Club, purchased ~1 year ago
Lining: Flannel backed satin (aka Kasha lining)
Interfacing: Fusible weft

Construction/alterations
I decided to follow Laura's example and skip the shoulder pads that were causing me such grief. It looks and feels fine without them.

Also some minor tweaking for fit and personal preference:

• Widened the back "belt" tab to 10 inches
• Added 1/2 inch height to the collar
• Added 1/2 inch length between the bust and waist
• Added 1 inch length to the sleeves
• Took out 2 inches length near hem

I used the lining for the front part of the pocket. The back of the pocket is cut on with the upper side front pattern piece.

The third row of buttons has an in-seam buttonhole. I considered removing the seam and making a bound buttonhole like the others, but as others mentioned, it is a really neat feature so I kept it.

I added a hidden snap below the bottom button (near the waistline) to help keep the coat closed. When wearing, the coat openings below the buttons have a tendency to drift open.

Each of the sleeves has a buttoned tab.

I hemmed the coat and the lining by hand.

I added a grosgrain ribbon at the back of the neck so I can hang the coat from a hook.

Conclusion

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. The flannel backed satin lining really does add warmth, it's a cozy coat. Also, I think I opened up a whole new world for myself - I am no longer going to avoid BWOF's coat patterns (the combination of my lack of experience with coats and their terse instructions scared me off). In fact, I already have my eyes on another BWOF coat...

Add a ruffle if you're so inclined

Today while sifting through my fashion email spam (I have a separate Hotmail account dedicated to this kind of stuff), I came across these pants - the foldover pant with ruffle by So Low. They remind me of the Burda yoga/lounge pants (11-2007-122) that I made recently. What a fun idea to add a ruffle to the waistband. I'd love to see someone try this...

Sunday afternoon sewing, or, How an inanimate object tested my patience

It was all going along so nicely. Sunday was turning out to be a productive day.

And then, I got to the shoulder pads.

I don't know how many times I tried the coat on, pinning the shoulder pads here, there, then a quarter-inch that way. Now, the sleeve seam is puffing out. Let's try some basting stitches to see if that helps.

All I know is, I am burning up from the action of putting on and taking off a wool coat all afternoon.

I'm so glad Google led me to this Simplicity tip on inserting shoulder pads - I would have put it them backwards otherwise.

Anyway, it's good enough, for now at least. I'm going to sleep on it and I hope to see it in a new light tomorrow!

A little bit of everything

Thanks for all of your kind words about my mom's knitted pieces! Yes, I do believe I got some of her genes. (Thank goodness - if I had more of my dad's genes, I'd have a blog about car mechanics. Or the Denver Broncos.) Someone asked about the pattern for the scarf; I just updated the last post to include a link to that.

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I have been very tardy in responding to a query or two about thread tracing. Thread tracing is when you mark the sewing lines on your fabric pieces with a long running stitch made by hand. This is done in contrasting thread. One reason to do this is you don't have to rely on a particular seam allowance width to know where the sewing line is. Also, the sewing line and other markings are visible from both sides of the fabric. Tany thread traces most of her garments; following her blog is really what inspired me to try this technique. She has created some excellent tutorials on thread tracing so I will defer to those for the details:

Thread tracing part 1: Tailor's tacks and thread tracing basics

Thread tracing part 2: Darts and other markings inside the pattern piece

Thread tracing part 3: Thread tracing fabric that needs to be interfaced

This is the first time I have thread traced all fabric pieces for a garment. I decided to do this because the wool I'm using for my coat is somewhat thick and woven, I was concerned about the raw edges unravelling while handling the pieces, so I wanted to cut large seam allowances.

Every single one of my fabric pieces required at least some interfacing (the hems, the upper bodice, the pocket openings), so I skipped the tailors tacks; after fusing, I thread traced each fabric piece in a single layer using the pattern piece pinned on as a guide (as described in Part 3 of Tany's tutorial).

Yes, it takes a little bit of time, but I'm sooo glad I did it. I feel confident that I'm putting the pieces together accurately, and it's actually easier to sew the pieces together right along the thread tracing than to try to maintain the SA width by watching the gauge on the machine.

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Speaking of the coat, I am actually making progress. The first thing I tackled was the buttonholes. I tried a bound buttonhole technique described in The Bishop Method of Clothing Construction (thanks Cidell for reminding me to take a look at this book). It's found on page 192 of the book (the 1966 edition), and it's referred to as the "trade-method".

I'm not sure that you can see the buttonholes very clearly, the herringbone fabric kind of hides the details (which may be a good thing). But I am really happy with how these turned out, and they were very easy to do.

Special delivery from Mom

Last week I got an unexpected package in the mail. It was from my mom, so I knew there would be good treats inside...

Recently I asked my mom if she would knit a grey scarf for me... check out this lacey, scalloped-edged alpaca beauty she made! I love love love it.

Edited 12/8/07: The pattern for this scarf can be found HERE.

My mom is an excellent sock knitter, I wear her creations all winter. This pair, Monkey from Knitty, is the newest member of the rotation (I am wearing these with my new lounge pants in the previous post).

What timing - a Christmas apron! This is a recent find from a Goodwill in Colorado. I like how the person who made it stitched some of the green bias tape in the center of the band, just for decorative purposes.

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This is my most recent completed project. Catnip toys! Every December at work, my group holds a day-long sale of books, baked goods, crafted/donated items, etc, and the money raised is given to a local food bank. The first year I was at this job, I made some cat toys, and that has been "my thing" ever since.