Monthly Archives: February 2011

February 7, 2011 · 9:36 pm

Oooh, a goodie!

Sew and Save by Madeleine Hunt "The Key Book to Professional and Home Sewing"

My mother, in her assiduous trawling of the charity shops in my home town, stumbled upon this gem of a book, published and distributed by a local sewing school in 1953! It appears to have been the textbook for their course, which was available at least in part by mail as there is a note concerning a charge of $.50 to $1.00 plus return postage for correcting each assignment.

Assignment one included making samplers of tucks, pin-tucks, lapped tucks, gathers, gathered darts, and corded shirring. Assignment two was samplers of a shirt-waist collar, a plain sleeve, a hem with seam-binding, and a zipper at the side of dress. Obviously the target audience was not the novice seamstress, but the home sewist with ambitions of improving her craft.

Topics include fabric and style info (including non-washing-machine methods for pre-shrinking fabrics… apparently only linens and white cottons should be boiled; other cottons should be soaked in warm water, not wrung out, and hung to dry still folded). There’s an extensive section on fit (actually, about four separate sections… the layout is a bit confusing), with a large emphasis on pattern measuring (sensible since muslin-making was impractical and frowned on); at least fifteen different kinds of seams. Also a (short) section on lingerie, and a much longer section on sewing for children, with such highlights as “How to Dress the Stout and Slender Child” and “Styles to Suit a Stout Little Girl”.

I’ll post more once I have more of a chance to go through it, but I couldn’t resist passing on this princess-seam FBA (also suitable for a rounded back), which is a bit more free-wheeling than the Palmer-Pletsch method I’ve usually seen (not that I’m any kind of expert).

FBA, c. 1953

And also, this full-bicep alteration, which I know for a fact I’ve seen out there somewhere, but can’t for the life of me recall where.

Full biceps adjustment

And it begins with this lovely admonishment:

You are judged by your Appearance!

Dontcha just love the fifties?

If I were ambitious and dedicated, I’d do like Gertie or Megan and take up the challenge to sew my way through the course. I don’t think that’s going to happen. Sorry. But I will pass on whatever gems I do find! 🙂

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February 6, 2011 · 3:53 pm

MEN!!1!!!

Butterick 3364 muslin---waiting to be fitted.

I ask you, people, if YOU had your very own personal, dedicated seamstress/sex-slave (oops, did I type that out loud?)  in YOUR house working her poor little fingers to the pin-pricked bone to make you a muslin for a dress shirt with your EXACT FAVOURITE details—band collar, no pockets—fitted to your exact, freakish body, just waiting to be translated into an array of final fabulous fabrics… would you be snoozing on the couch all afternoon while the light fades away? When she actually finished the muslin the NIGHT BEFORE, and you refused to try it on then… and again this morning when you got up… and now it’s almost suppertime and you’re still refusing?!?!

Honestly! Why do I bother again?

… oh, yeah. I’m insanely, madly in love with him. And he’s going to look HAWT in this shirt.

Doesn’t mean I have to like it, though.

I think I’ll go make myself another circle skirt.

Men!

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February 4, 2011 · 10:17 pm

Skully Pants and Sleevy Plackets

Tyo’s pants may now be unveiled! They still need hemming, but taking photos before hemming is practically a tradition around here…

Tyo's Skuly Pants. Poses by Tyo. Guest appearance by Slimer the Turtle.

And, y’know, they turned out ok. Especially considering my various screw ups (the original drafting, and then pinning the two edges of the fronts together instead of front-to-back and not noticing until Tyo had it all sewn up…)

Tyo did all the sewing, on the serger, except for the elastic casing, which I sewed in a stretch stitch on the regular machine. She was really unsure and irregular to begin with but by the last few seams she was getting much more consistent and steady. She threaded the elastic into the casing, too.

May I just say I detest this skull-printed fabric? It’s a thin, stretchy cotton rib-knit with no recovery, and the printed pattern is not as stretchy as the fabric, so it’s already looking worn and crappy anywhere that gets a bit of stretch.

In MPB Sewalong News

Shirt plackets: the ugly truth

I sewed my plackets! Urg. This is the kind of precision sewing I normally resort to hand-sewing to deal with, but obviously that’s not quite appropriate here. I tried using my blind-stitch foot for the topstitching the first time, as it has a keel that theoretically should help guide the stitching. I say theoretically because it’s mounted on a screw and doesn’t stay in place. Ever. Second attempt, I reverted to using my rolled hem foot, of all things. Something about the way the toes of the foot are positioned (not the roll part) works really nicely for guiding the fabric for perfect edgestitching.

Er.

This is me we’re talking about. Perfection and precision are not my strong suits.

I used washable glue-stick to try to hold the triangles in place, which worked better than pins, and might’ve worked better still if I had the patience to let it dry for a few minutes before sewing. I wonder if making a template to press the triangle top around would be worth it…

I made the row of stitches crossing the placket run just above the funny folded part on the inside (bottom right picture), but a quick inspection of my hubby’s RTW shirts shows that they run the stitch about 1/4″ below this. Will keep this in mind for the next version.

Testing my fabric marker

Also, I decided to test out my blue disappears-in-water marker. I’ve heard horror-stories about these before (especially if you press the ink), so I’ve been pretty skeptical about it and haven’t actually used it until now. Well, the fact that it’s a fine-tip and doesn’t really mark most of my fabrics well didn’t help.

Anyway, here you can see on the top, the plain marker, and the bottom which I wrote and then ironed over (with heavy steam on maximum heat, my typical MO as long as the fabric will take it.) Interestingly, even the steam seemed to start to lighten the markings, which could be annoying.

Took the piece to the sink, add water, and—voila!

Just add water!

Anyway, that’s enough for tonight. Tomorrow I will get the yoke sewn up and maybe even rope my hubby into a fitting if I’m extremely-extra-lucky. And Syo is agitating for a project she can help with, so if I’m extra ambitious maybe we’ll start on some skinny jeans for her, as she’s been begging for a pair of those since last summer.

Speaking of Syo, we must keep the post balanced, so I will leave you with:

Syo---yes, she knows exactly how cute she is.

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February 3, 2011 · 12:10 pm

Bits ‘n Bobs

Men's shirt pieces

As usual, the during-week sewing is scant and slow. I did manage to cut out my mens shirt muslin, as the long-awaited MPB sewalong is finally under way. I’ve marked (a lot more than I typically do), with my “allegedly disappears with water” marker, and interfaced half the cuffs and one of the collar bands. I am not going to interface the front button placket, as per discussions with the Sewista Fashionista. I can’t wait to start sewing, but I guess I should keep in step with the sewalong. I’m not doing pockets (today’s post) but maybe I’ll take a stab at the sleeve plackets. Or not, as I’d kind of like to hear what tips the other sewalongers have for them (and if any of the allegedly fabulous Negroni instructions for this area get passed on). I’ve only done continuous lap plackets before. Grum. Maybe I’ll prep the collar band or sew up the yoke (since I now know how to do that!)

I’m still up in the air over whether to bother with flat-felled seams on this one. On the one hand it’s a muslin and if I do need to make fitting changes it’d be much better to not have the seams felled. On the other hand, I could probably use as much practice as I can get my hands on, right? Blargh.

Tyo and her skull-print fabric

Just to keep me on my toes, though, Tyo decided to pull out the skull-print knit she picked out back in the fall. Apparently it needs to become a set of lounge pants. Unfortunately, I haven’t got a pattern for these. Well, how hard can it be to make one up? Just a narrow set of pantaloons, really, right? In a knit, no less.

Er. Well, I should’ve cut them wider. I forgot to add in width for the crotch. I should know better by

Tyo, cutting out her pants.

 now. Sorry, kiddo. The good news is we’ll add in strips up the outside of the legs and they will look just fine. Intentional even. It’s a design feature, dontcha know? The bad news is she managed to cut one of the strips in half while she was cutting it out. Kid’s got talent, I tell ya. Hopefully there’s enough of the insert fabric (we’re using the remnant from my Kimono Lady Grey) to cut another one…

I did make her sew the crotch seam (on the serger, no less) and will be putting gentle pressure on her to do the rest herself as well. Well, as independently as Tyo does anything, anyway. I suspect the hemming and possibly the elastic casing will fall to me.

Can I blame it on the fact that I was trying to measure Tyo and “draft ” the pattern while cooking supper and supervising Syo, who decided she should cut up the chicken for last night’s supper*?

Oops. Too narrow.

Hmm, in hindsight, I think there probably is a kid’s shorts or karate-gi pattern in the basement that would have a basic, unfitted pants-type-pieces.

Aaargh.

*I hate to discourage her, as the only person in the house who seems to actually enjoy cooking. I have visions of my children turning into culinary geniuses who get home from school, throw me out of the kitchen, and emerge two hours later with a three-course sit-down meal. No? Hey, a girl can dream.

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