Category Archives: Sewing

March 17, 2012 · 11:46 am

Comfies

Comfies!

When I first moved in with my husband, I discovered something that surprised me: one of his favourite things, upon getting home, was to get rid of the day’s clothes (be they casual jeans or the monkey suits he wore to work in those days) and put on his “comfies”. These could be an array of things—mostly flannel pyjama pants and a T-shirt, but really anything would do that was soft, unrestrictive, and, well, comfy.

The idea of wearing particular clothes for lounging around had never really occurred to me.  I mean, my day-to-day stuff isn’t exactly screamingly uncomfortable, for the most part. And the problem, the biggest single problem, for my poor little brain, was this: comfies aren’t sexy.

Hmm, didn’t Peter post about this recently?

Er, yeah. I have a hard time feeling comfortable—relaxed and happy—if I don’t also feel attractive. Feel free to dissect my psychological quirks if you like, but that’s just the way it is. This discomfort is waning a bit as I get older, but the fact is that I still don’t really enjoy “comfy” clothes if I don’t like how they look on me. So aside from the odd pair of yoga pants and a few fitted tanks and tees, I’ve never had much in the way of “comfies.”

But now (perhaps spurred on by the amount of time I’m spending in bed writing these days), I want to try to change that.

Comfy pants!

Step 1 was the arrival of Jalie 2033, the yoga pants*. I’ve been meaning to clone my favourite pair of yoga pants ever since they developed holes in the butt years ago, but since I haven’t gotten around to it yet, Jalie 2033 will be a good substitute, especially since I can barely get the shorts versions off my kids.

Comfy tops!

Step 2 was getting the Renfrew pattern from Sewaholic. It’s just that bit easier-fitting than my knit sloper—perfect for comfies, right?—and what better way to give it a trial run than to make something intended to be worn around the house? I’m thinking V-neck with 3/4 length sleeves.

Comfy Fabric!

Step 3 was the arrival of a package of knit fabric from Lady Katza of Peanut Butter Macrame (doesn’t that name suggest a story?), I believe salvaged from her late (and much missed) mother’s stash. Thank you, Katza! Included was approximately a mile and a half of awesome sturdy knit in a pretty, if slightly twee, peach colour. It’s somewhat sun-damaged as well, although given how much yardage there is that shouldn’t be too hard to work around.

All I need to do now is, y’know, actually do it. 😉

 

*not that I do yoga. I mean, I should, but I don’t.

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March 15, 2012 · 1:09 pm

Happy Blogiversary to Me!

Blogiversary Dance

Yup, Tanit-Isis Sews is TWO! Oof. Two years ago today, I introduced myself to the blogging world. And I just chugged past my 400th post last week.

Now, it’s a common practice to commemorate a blogiversary with giveaways, but that would require actually, y’know, mailing stuff. Which gives me Issues. And I feel really, really bad about it because I LOVE winning giveaways and have gotten some really kick-ass stuff that way, and it’s horrifically selfish to receive and not reciprocate. In an attempt to assuage the guilt, allow me to attempt to reciprocate electronically: may I present, for your (I hope) enjoyment, another Tanit-Isis Pattern: the Ariadne Tunic!

Front view

Inspired by my favourite RTW top, it’s taken me quite a few tweaks to get this tunic to wearable. You can see my first attempt, last spring, which was too short, among other issues. My next version was way too long. Now, finally, I think I’ve (close to) nailed it. I’ve also made the flutter sleeves in the pattern a wee bit longer than in this version, as I thought they were a bit short.

(sizing table)

Back View

The pattern is available in five sizes, XS-XL, for busts 82-106 cm (that’s like 31″ to 42″), and is pretty easy-fitting. It’s designed for thin, drapey knits with 4-way stretch. Y’know, the kind that are really, really annoying to sew with? Yeah.

Click on image to see pattern page and download the pattern!

Please enjoy. And thank you all so much for reading. This has been (and will continue to be) a really hectic year in my life, and sewing is both a welcome distraction and a refuge. While I feel quite a bit lately like my head isn’t quite in the game—lots of low-thought projects—I still really enjoy the opportunity to blog, even if it’s not as frequently as I used to. And I really, really, really appreciate everyone who comments (and everyone else who just stops by for a peek). This wouldn’t be nearly as much fun without you. Thank you.

(erm, and please let me know if any of the links aren’t working or if you have any trouble downloading the pattern—I’m trying to organize things a bit differently this time, so hopefully everything works!)

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March 13, 2012 · 10:21 pm

In which Tanit-Isis buys fabric and socializes with a real, in-the-flesh person.

Fabricland, the Canadian generic fabric chain, was having one of their fairly regular sales this past weekend, with pretty much everything in store 50% off. This exciting news prompted me to finally (after many attempts and broken engagements on both sides) to get together with Funnygrrl of Falling Through Your Clothes. Astoundingly, we actually pulled it off.

Extra-grainy iPhone photo.

The sewing gods were feeling magnanimous, for we both managed to arrive at Fabricland, find parking (not a small feat!), and even recognize each other. It was also the warmest day of the year yet, to the point where my children were running around the back yard in their booty shorts (the daytime high reached 13C), so I actually got to wear my springy coat for the first time this year! Very non-creatively I wore this exact outfit. With these boots.

While Ms. Falling was remarkably restrained (peeps, her Fabricland membership had lapsed!) I, um, was not. Erm.

I’d like to maintain I was not whimsical or frivolous, but the fact is I was pretty darn excessive.

The boring (and sort of justifiable)

Dude. They had hair canvas. In the clearance. For $4/m. At 50% off. (original price was about $14/m) I bought 4m. In hindsight I should’ve bought the whole bolt. I also re-stocked my other typical interfacings, but that’s not quite as astounding as finding good interfacing in the clearance section.

Unnecessary (but practical!) stash-building

Hmm. I knew there was a reason why I don’t like fabric posts. Mine, that is. I buy boring fabric! I mean, how can I compete with this? I bought denim—red cotton twill (Tyo wants red jeans)  and a couple of remnants of a really nice dark-wash. Where the heck was this colour denim when it was on the bolts? If I want to make jeans from them I’ll have to piece, but I’m thinking it might be worth it.) I splurged on some basic black athletic knit, the type of beefy cotton-lycra blend that’s normally over $20/m in these parts. Even at 50% off it’s still kinda pricey, but a) this stuff never goes on clearance and b) you never find it in thrift stores, either.

Prezzies!

Best of all was Funnygrrl’s contribution, though—aside from a pay-it-forward pattern, she offered me my choice of linens—black with white embroidered border, or white with black. The idea is something along the lines of she keeps the other piece and we make “twin” garments. There’s not a huge amount, but enough for a skirt or a slim dress, I think. Possibly from the pattern she gave me (also photographed) but there’s so many adorable dress patterns in my stash at the moment I may be paralyzed by indecision. This is the (much more interesting) kind of fabric I ogle but never actually jump on, so getting it as a present is AWESOME. I am now paging avidly through the dress patterns on my iPhone sewing app…

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March 11, 2012 · 3:42 pm

Whew!

Action shots

This post was almost titled “Disaster, Part II.” But at least temporarily, disaster appears to have been avoided.

Finished (?)

I finished Tyo’s Jalie 2795 bunnyhug late Saturday, and handed it to her to try on. I was a little apprehensive since an early test fitting had suggested it was going to be snug; the sleeves had been a little short, so I had added an extension to the cuffs, as you can see.

Well, Tyo couldn’t even get her hands through the cuffs without major pinching and pulling. That being said, once she did get it on, she didn’t even want to take it off to go to bed, always a good sign. So when I got up this morning I sliced off the old cuffs, grabbed the pattern piece, and dug through the mass of scraps under my cutting table in search of something I could make a new pair of cuffs from (since the rest of the fabric I used for this has now been reduced to scraps none of which are much bigger than 4″ square. I eventually (to my great relief!) turned up the remnant of the fabric from when I made this sweater last winter. It’s not as fresh and dark a black as the other sweatshirt knit, but there was enough of it and I was beyond caring (and I suspect things will even out after a wash or three)

Cuffs!

So I improvised some wider, extra-long cuffs, slapped them on, and the child was happy to go. Further examination indicated that the problem with the cuffs may have been more me than the pattern—I think I reversed the direction of maximum stretch in my attempts to cut thriftily, as the fleece grainline isn’t obvious, the only way to tell is by stretching the fabric experimentally.

Slim fit

The size, which I was really worried about, is definitely not generous. This will be great when I make one for myself, but isn’t exactly what you’re usually looking for for kids. I have a feeling the time she’ll be wearing this one will be measured in months as opposed to years or even seasons.

j

Interfaced zipper

In an attempt to avoid wavy-zipper issues, I used a small strip of interfacing on either size of the zipper insertion. This seems to have (mostly) done its job, except I should probably have put it on the other side—the way I folded the zipper in to finish everything the edges of the strip show on the inside, which isn’t ideal.

Back view

I wasn’t too keen with how the hood, which inserts on top of the collar, looked when I first stitched it up, but I actually like it quite a bit when worn. The size is ok, not big but not too small to be functional, and the unusual seaming looks really nice when it’s down.

I used two main seam finishes in this piece, serging and topstitching on the black sweatshirt material and stitching the seams inside-out and covering the seam allowance with twill tape on the fleece. Both are pretty fun and make for a nice finish, but are a bit time-consuming (you have to go over each seam three times). A few seams, like the underarm/sideseams, I just stitched and then serged for finish.

Pocket and side panels

The one interesting bit of construction was the pocket openings. They’re set into the side seams, and you basically make a single welt and insert it into the cut-out in the side-piece. It gapes a bit towards the centre, but I don’t actually mind the look, and it meant that I was less likely to catch the welt in the seam. Yay! It also helps that my pocket lining and my side-panel material matched—I wouldn’t want to use a different material for the pocket lining (not that you normally would on a sweatshirt).

Most importantly, though, it was perfect for a day at the playground.

Play!

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March 9, 2012 · 7:28 am

Disaster!

Desperate piecing

So, remember when I posted how I’d finished cutting out the last bits for Tyo’s bunnyhug and had enough fabric left for her pair of shorts?

Well, as soon as I finished cutting them out, I had a little niggle. What if. What if I messed up one of the pieces? What if I have a serging accident? I just officially used up all but the smallest scraps of my matching fabric, with no hope of replacing any of it.

Well, when I finally started tidying up, guess what I discovered?

One more pattern piece for the bunnyhug, which I hadn’t cut out.

Not only that, the single longest pattern-piece in the entire pattern, the sleeve sides. Of which I need not one, not two, but four copies.

I think there’s a sequence to this, kind of like the stages of grief. Denial—maybe I took the pieces off the pattern and they’re kicking around somehwere? Anger—how could I do this? Oh, I’m so stupid. Bargaining—maybe I can match in some other fabric? What about the scraps from hubs’ coat? no?

Fortunately with sewing, at least, there’s the potential for action, not just acceptance.

I gathered up my largest remaining scraps (most of which weren’t more than 6″ in any given direction.

I roughly, ever so roughly, matched the grain-lines.

And I pieced them together, using the same serge & topstitch methodology I used on Tyo’s shorts.

This was a wild affront to the sewing gods, peeps. If I die in a freak serging accident next week, you’ll know why.

And I cut out not one, not two, but four side-sleeve pieces.

Whew.

Nothing like a new design feature or two 😉

Pieced sleeve (almost finished)

I’m actually pretty satisfied with how they look. Not exactly intentional, but not exactly unintentional, either. I used some black twill tape to cover over the seam on the top part of the sleeve, which echoes the topstitched ridges in the black nicely, I think. This is the same method I used for Syo’s hoodie here.

For the other sleeve, I decided to add a little pocket just above the top-sleeve seam.

Pocket sleeve

I even *almost* managed to match up that one piecing seam. So close…

So I think it’ll work. But I still don’t recommend it. Now tell me your latest offence against the sewing gods (intentional or otherwise) to make me feel better! 🙂

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March 8, 2012 · 8:00 am

And a pair for Tyo.

Tyo's shorts (front)

Having finished cutting the last bits for Tyo’s bunnyhug last night, I had about half a men’s XL sweatshirt left sitting on the basement floor, so I decided to cut the shorties (Jalie 3022)  for Tyo out of it. It may be borderline in terms of stretch, but then so was the red striped fabric I used for Syo’s pair. I tend to round up the Jalie patterns for the kids, because I’d rather make their clothes a little loose and have them grow into them. (This does not always thrill my children.) On the other hand, I really need to re-measure them; Tyo grew something like two inches since Christmas.

The photos pretty much all suck—black, y’know–but I think you get the idea. Though I think the shorts are much cuter in real life.

Tyo 'Tude

Knowing that Tyo’s derriere requires rather more room than Syo’s, I wanted to add more height to the rear crotch curve. Normally to do this I just add a wedge at the CB seam, about halfway up the curve, tapering to nothing at the side-seam. For this particular pattern, though, this is complicated by the vertical seam along the back of the leg. This incorporates a little bit of shaping at the top, and the potential for a lot more if you needed it. For this first try, I didn’t add any shaping on this seam, and they seem fine, but it’s certainly an option if you need it. Anyway, I basically added 1.5 cm in height all along the centre-back pattern piece (piece B), and made a wedge on the side-back pattern piece (piece C).

My changes

I am very, very, very glad I did this little alteration, as Tyo’s shorts cover very nicely—high enough at the back and covering her entire butt. Yay! Hence the modeled shots here. 1.5 cm may have been a bit excessive, but I’d rather be safe than sorry in this case.

Side view---great rear coverage

For construction I followed the Jalie instructions much more closely this time, especially for the waistband, which is the full height with the decorative “contrast” band—in this case it’s made of blue stretch velvet, from a tiny remnant I had to piece at the CF (in hindsight, it would’ve made much more sense to put the seams at the sides, but I wasn’t thinking far enough ahead.)

Tyo's shorts, rear view

I stitched all my seams in three passes, straight triple stitch for the seam itself and then using the serger to finish it, and then topstitching. It makes a much nicer finish inside than the overedge stitch on my machine, and with the topstitching the seam-allowances are flattened down nicely on the inside, which looks much more professional, if not 100% RTW.

Inside waistband.

When I posted about Syo’s Leotard and using the three-step zig-zag to attach it, I got a lot of comments from people who found this stitch stretched out the elastic too much, keeping it from recovering fully. I didn’t find that at all on the leotard, but I was using clear plastic swimsuit elastic in that case, and I wonder if the commenters were referring to standard elastic instead—because when I triple-stitched the (regular) elastic to the inside of the waistband (basically understitching) with a three-step zig-zag, it definitely ended up longer than when it started. It’s fine on, but you can see the top of the waistband is a little ripply when it’s not being worn. So, commenters—have you had this problem with clear plastic elastic? Or is it just (as here) with standard elastic? I don’t know if I’d use clear plastic elastic in a waistband like this anyway, but it’s definitely something I’ll keep in mind when making my stitch-choices in the future.

Rear view---coverage!

Incidentally, I sewed the entire project with my 1/4″ edgestitching foot. This worked great, because the keel on the foot is right at the edge of the seam-allowance. I mean, it’s not hard to line up a 1/4″ seam allowance with the edge of the regular zig-zag foot, but this was practically brainless. It wouldn’t have worked if I’d been trying to use my over-edge stitch, though, because the edgestitching foot is a straight-stitch-only foot.

So, in conclusion, pretty definitely a win.

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March 7, 2012 · 10:46 am

Shorts for the shortie

Almost-undies

One of the things I traced off last week was Jalie 3022, a cute yoga-pants pattern.

In the shorts length.

In sizes for my kids.

This allows me to use up yet more teeny knit scraps, test out the pattern, and, in all probability, contribute to my children’s chronic habit of dressing extremely inappropriately for the weather.

So, over the last week, I managed, in approximately five-second intervals, to get a pair of the shorts together for Syo. I traced of the size J pattern, in shorts length, making no adjustments on this initial pair. This is the equivalent of the size 6, for my nearly-nine-year-old, but it matched her measurements and the fit is pretty much spot on.

I should, however, have remembered that Jalie drafts for the flat-of-butt. Syo’s derriere is not quite as J-Lo-esque as her older sister’s, but it’s still decently protruberant. The rise in the front is good, even a little high, but the rise in the back is a bit meager. And, while the shorts version is pretty short, I don’t actually think the bottom of her butt is supposed to be hanging out. And there’s a wee bit of wedgie action going on.

None of which prevented her from bouncing up and down upon seeing them, squealing “Mommy made me booty shorts!”. She has also slept in them every night since, and worn them to school under her (very) skinny jeans because she forgot to take them off, so they must be fairly comfortable. It’s also why they look a bit stretched out and beat up in the photo…

As to the pattern itself…

The main feature that makes this pattern a little different is the additional vertical seam down the back. This allows for a bit more shaping in the butt region, not to mention lets me use even smaller scraps of fabric to make up the shorts. It does increase the construction time a wee bit.

I took some major liberties with the waistband, partly due to fabric limitations and partly due to not having a nice contrast-fabric to make the oramental panel on the outside. I just cut the single, inside piece, and folded it over around some wide elastic. This worked, but it didn’t produce a particularly nice waistband—partly because the waistband elastic I had on hand was a bit heavy for the purposes, and partly because my fabric is not overly stretchy, so rather than easing neatly to the waistband it’s pretty harshly gathered. it looks fine on, though. I have since actually read the instructions, and they make much more sense and give a much nicer finish, calling for a narrow, 1 cm elastic to be attached inside the top of the waistband. So don’t judge the pattern by the crap-tacle I made of the waistband.

I used a faux-athletic-looking stitch for hemming the legs. I will note this is the first time I’ve successfully hemmed this particular, rolly fabric without adding elastic or a band. I stitched the hem from the wrong side so I could flatten out the rolling manually as I went, and it worked really well, but obviously wouldn’t’ve been possible if I’d wanted to use a twin needle topstitch, for example.

All in all these are a quick, not terribly nicely-finished test piece. But Syo seems completely happy with them. I’m not sure how many booty shorts my kids need (they actually cover less of her butt than some of her underwear), but it’s a great way of using up spare fabric, especially little teeny bits. And yes, she wears them with the matching bralette from the photo.

I have a pair ready for Tyo, too, but I’ll do a separate post on them once I get her to try them on…

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March 3, 2012 · 1:12 pm

Those who can’t sew…

Buy.

Well, that’s part of the problem, anyway. I’d rather be sewing, but shopping is a quick fix.

So, in order from least guilty to most guilty:

Sewaholic Patterns:

Minoru Jacket & Renfrew top

Tasia is a sweetie at the best of times, and while I resisted all through the pre-sales of both these patterns, the deluge of awesome internet versions and her birthday sale totally put me over the edge. Plus, even though the shop was down when I tried to use it (overloaded by others drawn in by the sale), she replied to my plaintive email (delivered in obnoxious triplicate—OOPS! 😦 ) the very next day and was super-quick to put together an email invoice at the sale rate. And I had my patterns in only four days—hooray for in-Canada shipping! And supporting an independent small business, yadda yadda. So I am refusing to allow myself to feel guilty for this one.

Thrift store books

Circumstances conspired to have me at Value Village not one, not two, but three times this week, and different things appeared every time. I doubt you’re terribly interested in the shoes Tyo picked out for her Gr. 6 grad this spring, or the Pampered Chef stoneware, but two sewing books did throw themselves at me (I resisted another beginner-level one as I already have several of those and the only one you really need is Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing anyway 😉 )

Sandra Betzina's Fabric Savvy

Fabric Savvy by Sandra Betzina. I’ve heard good things about this one. And aside from a no-illustrations 70s paperback, I didn’t have any other books on different fabric types and how to work with them. So yeah, it was coming home. Although so much of what I sew with is bargain-store mystery (and even if it’s not, I’m abysmal at remembering what it is I’ve actually bought) I’m not sure how useful it’ll be. But it’s one of those resources you ought to have, right?

The page on denim.

I like the layout and illustrations—the front is a big alphabetical section on different fabric types and how to work with them, including laundering, needles, thread, sewing-machine feet, and seam-finishes. And it’s got the coil-binding so it lies flat open, which seems to be considered a bonus. I can’t say I’ve felt the need to have one of my reference books open on the table while sewing yet, but if I did, it would be great.

The techniques section

The back has quick overviews of the seam-finishes and other techniques referred to in the front. It’s a great idea and the drawings are lovely, although I’m not sure I’d be able to figure all the techniques out if I were a complete beginner.

Then there was this one:

Sewing Tops & T-Shirts by Marcy Tilton

The Easy Guide to Sewing Tops & T-Shirts, by Marcy Tilton (which I did a bang-up job photographing :P). I bought this more because I really like the other couple of books I have in this series than because I was sucked in by the cover or even content. But I do like how these books are set up—to help you take a basic pattern and adjust it and construct it just that bit above and beyond the basic standard instructions.

Cheater Full-Bust Adjustment

It has some interesting tips, including favouring stitching seams with a regular straight stitch (I’m guessing Marcy wears her knits looser than I often do) and the “cheater knit FBA” that I’ve read about online but never seen endorsed in an actual sewing book.

Thrift store fabric

Oops?

I should’ve resisted, because the price, while low, was not great for the length available, which is less than half a metre. But It’s absolutely perfect to make a bunnyhug for Tyo. Except, of course, there wasn’t enough fleece, so I had to go back and hunt down an oversize men’s sweatshirt in black to fill in the other pieces. But I already have the pattern traced out (Jalie 2795), so assuming I get it sewn up with sufficient speed, I won’t feel too guilty for stash-building.

Expensive Book

Closet Monsters

And this would be the maximum-guilt item, because it didn’t come from the thrift store. Rather, we were at the book-store looking for a birthday present and I made the mistake of showing this book to Tyo. Tyo has a big black plastic bag of clothing sitting on her closet floor waiting to head to the thrift store, so she’s over the moon at the prospect of getting to turn it into monsters instead. And it’s a pretty cute book, with charming, wacky creatures. My only dislike is that there are no actual patterns—the book gives you detailed instructions for drawing out the pattern pieces (a lot of which are rectangles) on the clothes you’re de-constructing, but that’s not so helpful if you don’t have the exact same garment they’re deconstructing.

However, it shouldn’t be too hard to improvise—I’m just hoping Tyo can achieve some degree of independence on these projects, since my actual interest in making stuffed monsters is, um, fairly limited.

Ehm. So there it is, the whole shameful, consumeristic list. I did get a bit of pattern tracing done this week, so it’s conceivable that a finished item might make an appearance. I hope so. I’m getting tired of writing “look what I bought” posts, as I’m sure you’re getting bored of reading them.

And thanks, everyone, for your commiserating on my last post. Even if this one is basically an illustration of how I’m entirely my own problem. /sigh.

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February 27, 2012 · 11:49 am

Round and round and round she goes…

Brace yourself for a whiny post. I’m resisting, but I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going to come out.

I spent a good three or four hours in the sewing room over the weekend, not sewing a single stitch (actually that’s a lie, but anyway).

I was trying to organize my patterns.

Emphasis on trying.

In the last few months my pattern collection has gotten a bit, um, bloated. Bernie’s gift really put it over the top, but seriously, I was in trouble well before that. In particular, I’ve reached the point where I can no longer keep a reasonable mental catalogue of the patterns I have.

Now, in theory I’m prepared for that. I even have a pricey (if somewhat defective) little app on my iPhone for tracking patterns, stash, projects, etc, and I’ve made a half-ass attempt to enter at least the most important patterns into it. I have photos of most of my patterns, somewhere on the computer and somewhere on the blog, so I could potentially make a spreadsheet or database or *something*

The problem is, handy as all that electronic organization might be (and I do much better with electronic organization than with real-life organization), when I’m considering a project, what I really want to do is sit there and dive—through the fabric, of course, but through the patterns, too. Little pictures on a screen (especially a phone-size screen) just aren’t tactile enough. And since I can no longer think “hmm, I’d like to make a dress,” and bring to mind a reasonable list of the dress patterns I have, that means I need to actually sort my physical patterns.

I had started this back in the summer. I got a tall plastic set of drawers for the sewing room, which holds notions in the three top drawers and patterns in the three big bottom drawers. I sorted out the stash of kids’ patterns, too, into a large shoe-box (boot-box, really) and that worked fairly well since when the kids wanted to plan the next project I should make them (eyeroll). But I never made any pretext of sorting the patterns in those three drawers—two held patterns I’d made up, which I generally give a big manilla envelope and, if I’m really organized, print out a photo of the finished project to stick to. This works well because it gives me somewhere to store printed-out patterns, patterns that don’t come with an envelope (like Jalie’s), and holds whatever excess tracings I have, which don’t always fit in the original envelope. But it does take up a lot of space.

So on Saturday, I went through patterns, photographing and adding a whole bunch to my phone app, and beginning the rudiments of sorting. I’m most concerned to sort by type. But I don’t want to lose all my special independent patterns in with the regular ones (currently this is Colette, Sewaholic, and Folkwear. Not sure why I don’t include Jalie in this group…). And then there’s the really old vintage ones (fifties mostly) that I don’t want to get wrecked with too much pawing through. So they need their own place. And I’d really like to keep the jackets and sweaters separate from the other tops. And…

Well, you can see what’s happening. No way are all those categories happening in three drawers (even with dividers), nevermind that the patterns were already overflowing the drawers.

So I co-opted all the shoeboxes I could find, but now I have five shoeboxes kicking around the sewing room floor, which is considerably less than ideal. I can label them, which will help, but they’re still… floating. And in danger of getting stepped on, or buried by fabric.

Which brings me to another issue. The stash is out of control. Or at least, overflowing. I want to sew it down. But the projects in my head keep failing to line up with the fabrics on hand. What is necessary is letting the fabric lead. But how do I pick which fabric? There’s so many luscious and awesome ones to go with. Not to mention all the little bits that I’d like to use up—kids clothes, *something*. I made some of the last remnant of  the Where’s Waldo fabric into another bralette, which was going to be for Tyo but the elastic straps weren’t long enough, so it’s gone to Syo (who’s super happy about it even though I can’t figure out why she would even *want* a bralette), but Tyo still wants one of her own.

And at the crux of it, everything is too messy.

I’m not one of nature’s tidy people. I can generally work just fine surrounded by a complete disaster (and tend to generate such a disaster if one wasn’t present to start with). It’s a constant trial to my husband, whose neat-freak tendencies border on the obsessive. But right now, there isn’t even room to work. Or at least, to work on anything big—hence the bralettes and other mini-projects I’ve been coming out with lately. Add to that the general lack of mental energy to contribute and, well, the situation isn’t quite paralysis, but it’s not far off, either. Can’t clean, too much stuff, it just doesn’t fit in the space. Need to sew it up. Can’t decide what to sew—too much to choose from. Can’t sew anything large—not enough room. Need more room—got to clean up. And round and round I go…

One partial solution would be to buy more organizational stuff—another set of shelves for fabric or drawers for patterns. But with a move on the horizon, I really, really don’t want to add to the furniture in the house, either.

And, just to illustrate the extent of my problem, here’s last week’s thrift store aquisitions (the fabrics and patterns at the local Value Village have recently been reinvigorated after several stagnant months, and I’m relieved to report that the attempt to sell the patterns bagged seems to have lapsed—this last batch were even quite cheap!)

Sweater fabric.

Fabric. I’ve been trying to be good about the thrift store fabrics, only biting when it’s a fabric/colour/quality on “the list”. Both these pieces were. On the left is a very thick sweater-knit with an almost Persian-lamb type texture, in a rich red colour that would be AWESOME… whenever I figure out what kind of a style would work for it.  There’s 2m, so plenty to play with. On the right is a dull purple/grey fleece, also extra-thick. I suspect it will become a housecoat for Syo, although it’s so thick I’m tempted to just get some binding for the edges and call it a blanket.

Patterns

The patterns are rather more whimsical. I couldn’t resist the Kwik Sew men’s dance wear on the left, even though my husband would probably disown me if I actually made him one (I don’t have a plain men’s tee pattern, though, and this one looks fine if you just lengthen it). I also don’t have any little boys to sew suits for, but cmon—a Vogue little boy’s suit, with single and double breasted options? For less than fifty cents—how could I resist?

The 70s tracksuit in the middle falls into that awkward sizing in between Syo and myself. I currently have sweaters, bunnyhugs, and hoodies on the brain, which may explain why I couldn’t just leave it. The late-70s vibe reminds me so much of things I wore as a small child (I was born in 1980, but grew up in hand-me-downs)… which isn’t necessarily a good thing, but, I dunno. I’m feeling nostalgic, I suppose.

Two-toned printing

It’s also uncut and comes in two sizes, each printed in a different colour. Nifty!

Yup, that was whiny. Sorry. Have a great week!

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February 24, 2012 · 6:05 pm

Another Thank You

Box!

Ok, this one’s been a LONG time coming.

You see, way back before Christmas, Bernie, a friend of my mom’s (my mom is my blog pimp) stopped by the blog and left me a comment that her mother had  a bunch of patterns she no longer wanted, and would I be interested.

Um.

Hell yeah?

Of course, what with distances and things like that, it made the most sense for her to drop them off at my mom’s. I picked them up over Christmas, and got—well, a little more than I bargained for. 🙂

Magazines

Aside from the patterns (we’ll get to those), there was a bag of fabric—an assortment of wool tartans, one partially assembled into a kilt) and a bunch of 80s sewing magazines—too new to really feel vintage, but too old to just chuck. Hmm.

Patterns!

The vast majority of the patterns were 80s, as well, and a fair number aren’t in my size range. But, in amidst the dross, there were gems, oh yes. (oh, and do click to see the full-size photo below)

The gems

Isn’t this a cute 50s shirtdress (top right)? Classic. It’s the right size, too—the only issue is that that blousy top and gathered skirt absolutely don’t work on my figure. /sigh. And yes, there’s several simple full-ish skirts in there (one of them twice, now that I look closer… *headdesk*) The Vogue wardrobe pattern (bottom right) I mostly like for the cap-sleeve blouse, by the way. Erm, yeah, basically identical to McCall’s 6288.

But the kicker, oh yes, the one that made my heart go pit-a-pat, was Simplicity 7376. Yeah, I’m a sucker for a sleek 70s suit jacket, but there’s a bit of extra back-story here. I found this exact same Simplicity pattern at Value Village back in the fall, and fell totally in love—and then was crushed to realize it was in a size 20. I nearly bought it anyway, just to look at. But this is so much better—it’s a size 14, a little larger than my usual 12, but much more manageable than the 20!

So thank you very much, Bernie—because that pattern alone totally made my day!

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