Monthly Archives: May 2011

May 11, 2011 · 12:43 pm

Winged Cardigan

The Cushion of Doom

My stunning stitching

I finished the damn cushion cover. It fits, more or less. It looks OK, although my piping didn’t end up being as smooth as I would’ve liked (given how many needles I broke, though, my friend can deal.) Also, home-dec sewing can kiss my a$$. Though I really do love this fabric. And I did like sewing the zipper, which is one of those ones you buy by the length off a roll and then add the stops and pull after—so I was able to sew the entire zipper in BEFORE adding the pull. Much easier that way. Although there was that terrifying moment when I wasn’t sure whether I could figure out which end the pull goes on to…

Outdoors: overexposed

To make myself feel better, I spent some time yesterday messing around with drafting. As I mentioned before, I’m in need of me-made sweaters. So, I pulled out my various sweater fabrics and considered what they wanted to be, and eventually settled on a winged cardigan vaguely inspired by this project of Lauriana’s. I say vaguely only because I didn’t actually re-read her excellent tutorial, and was sorta winging it to get the look I had in my head, which is a bit different, more of a cropped, swing-jacket feel. It’s the same basic idea as the Simplicity 2603 cardi-wrap, the main differences being the size and shape of the front drape.

For my version, I wanted a comparatively short, hip-length sweater. I angled the side-seams and the back fold out at the bottom to get a looser, swingy fit at the back and sides, as well.

Winged Cardi Front

Be warned, at least in the short length, this is not a look for those who are, ah, well-endowed. I initially brought the line of the CF drape so it was 90° to the side seam, and when I tried it on—well, can you say “whoa mama!”? Needless to say, I will not be wearing this cardi with the bulletproof bras. I trimmed a significant wedge off the top of the drape, which has toned it down to where I no longer feel like my chest is entering the room several minutes before the rest of me. I have to admit, this is such an unusual sensation for me that I kinda enjoy it—I don’t think I’ve had it since I was breastfeeding. But not really what I want for everyday.

Winged Cardi---Open

Because this is technically a topper, I didn’t want to use my knit sloper (aka the Pattern Formerly Known as Lydia), as it’s super fitted. So I used another knit bodice pattern I had lying around. I did a lot of comparing for length etc, but I intentionally left the wider shoulders and lower armscyes. And that’s probably a good thing, but I sure don’t like the look as much. Especially the low armscye. Grr. The sleeves are pretty loose and shapeless, too—again, probably a good thing in a topper, but not my favourite look.

On the plus side, while drafting this took a bit of time (mostly due to my own futzing), sewing it up was ridiculously quick. Not more than half an hour, including cutting time. The nice thing about this shorter length of drape is that it JUST barely fit on the folded fabric, so I didn’t have to cut out the two fronts separately.

Winged Cardi---Back

We are having some of our first truly summery weather the last few days, so I tried to take photos outside. Sadly, photographing white outdoors in the morning was not happening, and the trees still haven’t any leaves so there’s not much shade in my back yard. So indoor pics it is. This fabric is an interesting, nubbly knit  with what looks like tinsel knitted in, that really screams “six-year-old princess”, but it was inexpensive and the right colour, so I’m going with it.  Fortunately my children have managed to break all the plastic tiaras in the house, or I might have had to don one for the photos.

I think if I were making the sweater purely to be itself, as opposed to being something I hope to wear, I would have flared the sleeves to match the bodice and cut them off at bracelet length (the same length as the sweater when the arm is at the side). But while I’m not completely against bracelet-length sweaters, they’re not my favourite as you have to worry about what you’re layering them over, so I went with regular sleeves for this. Meh.

As with the cardi-wrap, I did not finish the collar/front opening/hem of the sweater, just ran it through the unthreaded serger to trim off irregularities. I did hem the sleeves. We’ll see how that holds up, but it seems like the best way to maintain the drape and flow of the sweater.

Not sure if I’m in love with it—but it was fun to draft up and make.

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May 9, 2011 · 11:33 am

Shrugspotting

Quixotic Pixels version!

I have a confession to make. I did no sewing this weekend. Well, a bit of unpicking on the pillow cover, but no real progress. Partly I woke up Thursday with that dreaded omg-everything-aches-too-tired-to-move-but-can’t-sleep sick feeling, and didn’t really leave my bed for the next three days. I was feeling a bit better by Sunday, but my sweetie brought home Two Worlds II, which I’d never heard of but hits pretty much all my RPG buttons just right, despite it’s glitchiness and occasionally clunky animation. So Sunday was spent on the couch cheerfully wrangling over which side-quest/dungeon/area to explore next. GINORMOUS world map. Need I say more?

Anyway, in lieu of actual content, I’m thrilled to report that another version of my 50s Shrug has been unveiled in blogland. Amy of Quixotic Pixels made this version not just on a whim, but for her Sew Weekly challenge (inspired by none other than Olivia the pig!) (I’ve seen several of these outfits inspired by children’s books, but somehow I can’t find the link to the original challenge itself. Weird!)

Some of you may remember me lamenting that the shrug was not quite the right size for me. Well, I must say it is a MUCH better size on Amy, and she is smoking in it!

This makes, to my knowledge, the second version of the shrug that has been stitched up (other than my own). The first  belongs to Karen of Sewing by the Seat of My Pants, and looks like it would be so yummy and warm!

Anyway, it thrills me to bits to see these other versions out there, and reminds me that I really should get around to grading this pattern—the sizing is so flexible, a S, M, L size range would cover most people.

Are there any other versions of the shrug out there I haven’t spotted? What did you guys do for Mother’s day? (My children forgot, if you can believe it! So my hubby brought me cereal in bed…)

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May 6, 2011 · 2:07 pm

Blog Voices

Last weekend while messing around, I finally manged to record my contribution to the language vlog meme that’s been going around; my inspirations in this are Louise of A View into my World and Steph of 3 Hours Past the End of the World. The idea is to actually hear how some of our bloggy friends around the world sound, and get a sense for the differences in both accent and idiom that don’t always come across in text. Lots of fun. I found it pretty interesting that while I’d say that Steph and I have the same “general” accent (she may disagree 😉 ), we differed on a lot of the vocabulary points.

Anyway, the words are:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

And these are the questions:


What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?

I hope you enjoyed this (and I appologize for my many ums and ahs… I can do public speaking, but apparently not without a few more dry runs, sigh.) I’d love to see more of these, if anyone out there wants to join in!

I promise I’ll be back with actual sewing soon! 🙂

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May 4, 2011 · 8:42 am

The Queue

Cushion cover. Sewing at its least glamorous.

I never know how much to write about planned projects. While it’s hard to resist showing off a new pattern or fabric and expounding on the fabulous garment it will become (or, y’know not), my “queue” is, ah, a bit fluid. A lot of ideas change, or get pushed off as new projects pop to the fore, and stuff can go on the back burner pretty much indefinitely. On the other hand, my theory is to write about whatever I happen to be sewing—and if the only sewing to write about is planning, well, there you go.

That being said, I’m at a transition point. The “let down” of finishing the Spring Coat was rather softened by having the plaid dress already underway, but now that’s done, too, I’m feeling a little floaty. There are several projects I SHOULD tackle, but of course they’re all non-selfish, and therefore not nearly as much fun:

I have to finish my friend’s cushion cover (now that I have the right zipper foot!). I actually made some good progress on this on Sunday, until I realized that somehow, despite loads of careful measuring, my cushion-wall-piece-band (whatever) is a good 7″ too short. So I need to unpick, insert a piece, and re-do the piping. Argh. I put it down. Hopefully I’ll tackle it on the weekend.

My friend Serena's costume coat

And then there’s Serena’s tailcoat. I’ve done most of the initial pattern alterations and really need to whip up a muslin.

I should also whip up the fleece-lined coat for Niece #2, just to get the fabrics out of stash (Now that the fabric has resurfaced). She won’t get to wear it until the fall, but that’s fine as I’m a little afraid she’d drown in it. She will be three in June, which is the size I’m making, but she’s still not 30 lbs (which I’m pretty sure Tyo was by 18 months). A little more time to grow won’t hurt. It needs to get done before the end of June, though, to make sure it gets there this summer.

And of course, there’s Peter’s Jeans Sewalong, which is already underway. I don’t NEED a sewalong to make jeans (although I’m sure I’ll learn plenty, even just reading along), but I certainly could. Tyo’s due for another pair, even if I don’t need any myself. I had thought about making some for the hubby, as finding him jeans is a nightmare, but since he’s picky about their fit and, as you all know, skittish about photography, I figure I’ll leave that headache for some time in the future.

Of course the main problem with all of these projects is that they’re not for me. I really am a selfish seamstress at heart, I guess…

On the practical side, I need to make myself a sweater (or three). I have plenty of fabric, I just need to decide on a style and make them. Partly because I left my lone, hard-working, long-cherished RTW hoodie behind when we went home for Easter, and partly because I will need them come June.

Speaking of which:

I, Tanit-Isis, of Tanit-Isis Sews, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-June ’11. I endeavour to wear entirely handmade clothing, including outerwear (but excluding underwear and socks), each day for the duration of June 2011, and to document this to the best of my abilities.

This is upping my game, if only slightly, as the last couple of times I have still incorporated RTW jackets (SSS) and sweaters (MMM, but just the one hoodie mentioned above). I will also try to avoid repeat outfits (although not repeat items), but I can’t promise these won’t creep in by accident.

A dress I don't need.

On the less practical side, there are at least two dresses in queue—McCall’s 315, and a real, dress-version of the Ceylon out of some grey-blue crepe. I must admit the Ceylon seems much less daunting now that I have my buttonholer!

Crepe Ceylon

And the 70s suit, Simplicity 6602, which could also fulfill Joy’s Bellbottom Challenge

70s Suit in narrow-wale corduroy

Despite the photography, the Ceylon crepe fabric and the corduroy are the exact same shade of dusty blue.

Another 70s jacket

Incidentally, the fabric for this jacket is still preying on my mind. And do you notice, the skirt and waistband detail are basically identical to one view of Colette’s new skirt?

Of course, if you recall, that waistband piece is one of several that are missing from this pattern. But it wouldn’t be hard to replicate.

Hmm. Never mind the Bellbottom Challenge. I’m looking at a whole frickin’ 70s wardrobe!

But first thing’s first. Cushion cover.

Blergh.

UPDATE: Oh yeah! And voting is now open in the Pattern Review Lined Jacket contest, for those of you who are PR members and interested. As Steph points out, these things work better the more people who vote, so go take a look! There are some awesome entries (and no, I’m not just talking about mine.)

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May 1, 2011 · 10:02 pm

That 70s Dress (The Next Generation)

Simplicity 6023

I hate to admit it, but I sorta love the Saturdays my hubby works (don’t tell him!). There’s nothing to do but a bit of house-cleaning, some light yelling at the children (usually over their bedrooms, but this week, for variety, it was the back yard, which somehow became encrusted in stray bits of wood and empty pop bottles over the winter*), and, of course, sewing.

This weekend’s project was, natch, Simplicity 6023, that same pattern I won in Peter’s giveaway a few weeks back. Much easier to focus now that I have the Springy Coat out of the way. Which is good, because this was definitely one of those two steps forward, one step back projects. Not because the pattern was tricky, or the instructions were bad, or the fabric was ill-behaved. No, this was all about the stripes.

You may have noticed how little print and pattern matching I do? How I will move mountains (ok, cut bits on the bias) to avoid having to line things up? Precision sewing has never been my strong suit. I’ve improved, mind you, but I still regularly fall short of my heroes. Or just plain adequacy.

Stripe matching? At least the hem's nice.

I did not rip out every single seam in this thing but… well, there were a lot. A lot of perfectly good seams, too, except that the stripes were off. Well, more off than all the rest. Probably if I’d gone all couture and hand-basted everything, I could’ve gotten them mostly even. None of them are even remotely like perfect, but at least they generally line up (except across the bodice side-seams, there was no way to make that work with the amount of fabric I had.

Invisizip

On the up side, I conquered my first invisible zipper! And, I hate to say it, but I might actually be a convert. I used Sherry’s tutorial (though I read through Sunni’s, which is similar, and used some elements from it as well), and a regular zipper foot, and it went in like a dream. Aside from the fact that my impecise waistline stitching meant that, although I matched up the waist seam perfectly using Sherry’s tips, the stripes above the waist didn’t match up at all. So I had to rip half of it, fudge the waist a tiny bit (since it’s less visible than the stripes) and go with that. Pooh.

The slight irregularity at the top is due to my not reading Sherry’s other tute, on facing an invisible zipper, until after I’d half attached one of the facings. Silly me, thinking I’d just follow the pattern instructions… The side on the left in the photo, which I did following Sherry’s method, turned out much better. I should probably have stayed the back of neck before all the messing around, though—it’s a bit stretched out and threatens to gape.

My new best friend

Speaking of zippers, let me introduce you to my new best friend! A few weeks back I had lamented the inadequacy of my zipper foot, and some of you wise people had told me that there were much better fish in the sea. So last week I finally made it to the sewing-machine store, discovered that my machine is an “oscillating hook” Janome, and came home with this little gem on the right.

Isn’t that the cutest little foot ever?

By twiddling the green knob at the back, you can adjust the foot’s position to the left or right of the needle, or right in the middle for straight stitching. Perfect for edge-stitching! And, because it’s so finely adjustable, perfect for pushing up the edge of the invisible-zip coils to stitch right alongside them. Yay! I interfaced the entire zipper length plus a bit with knit fusible and had no problem with the zipper bubbling, buckling, or anything.

The back---wrinkled from being tied 😛

FIT: Despite the photo (wrinkled from being tied), the back fits really well with my little swayback adjustment (though it wreaks havoc with the stripes). Although the tie pretty much disguises most issues in this area, anyway. I made my ties extra-long, because it seemed like a good idea at the time, which turned out fun—I like pulling them around to tie in the front. A nice option to have, since often back ties drive me nuts.

With my bodice-shortening, the waist-seam falls about a thumb’s width above my natural waist, which is roughly where it’s supposed to according to the pattern, so yay! That being said, my bodice-shortening alteration raised the neckline, and I would probably have been just as happy with the lower neckline. This is a bid demure.

I did take each side-seam in about 1cm (so a total of 4cm reduction all around). This is similar to what I did on the first 70s dress; I’m not sure if it’s because I’m more of a 10 (bust measurement would suggest this but everything else says 12 or larger), ease in the dress, or, most likely, the fact that I keep using stretch wovens.

I took the same 1 1/4″ hem the pattern allowed for, but because of my fiddling pieces up and down to get the stripes to match (yes, my cutting was even less precise than my sewing!) I probably lost about an inch in length there. It’s fine, though, falling at a good spot above my knees.

Buttons---Yoke (left) and Cuff (right)

I did the cuffs with the wrong side lapped out. D’oh. Figuring out which way they should lap, BEFORE the sleeve is set, was a head trip in itself—I’m actually impressed that I got them both the same way, so I’m not going to sweat it.

I had three of these vintage plastic flower buttons in one of the random button baggies I’ve picked up over the last six months. I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing over buttons (and Syo spent a lot of time making art with them while I did it, and then being irate when I broke up her faces to lay different combinations on the dress).  I covered a key-chain ring with fabric to put behind the one on the yoke, which hopefully looks more centred in real-life than it

Simplicity 6023

does in this photo. The third button I sewed on turned out to have a broken shank (I’m not sure how this worked since all three were held together at the shanks by thread in the button jar…); fortunately, none of the buttons are functional, so I just stitched through the holes in the flower. You can see it if you click on the photo to get the full-size.

As you can see from the outdoor photos, we are finally not only snow-free, but practically warm here today! (Temperatures were in the low teens C!!!1! That’s like, gosh, almost 60F.) And tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer… maybe I can actually wear a skirt. Or a dress…

So, another contribution to my 70s wardrobe. Although it’s not getting me any closer to fulfilling Joy’s  Bellbottom Challenge. Maybe I’ll move on to the Simplicity 6602 suit next… though I think I would probably try to merge the pants legs with my Ellen pattern. I have no particular desire to mess around with high-waisted pants.

Toodles!

*I feel it necessary to explain that I DON’T randomly chuck my recycling around the yard… but the kids apparently think that empty bottles are the cat’s meow in playthings, especially when you can fill them with water and leave it outside to freeze and then it snows and they get buried and you have to get more and… well, it was a mess.

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