Do YOU see what's wrong?
I would be less ticked if I hadn’t broken my seam ripper last week, and forgotten to get a new one when I picked up thread this morning.
Category Archives: Sewing
Isn’t it amazing
2nd kids' jean jacket, under way.
how having the right tools at hand makes all the difference? You may (or may not) recall how nuts I went trying to install these pretty pearl snaps on my older daughter’s jean jacket. I never did get any put in that actually functioned. The one at the link above looks cute but doesn’t stay snapped to save its life. I couldn’t get any other ones to even attach properly.
So, last weekend, I put on my big-girl panties and bought the little tool (along with a bunch more snaps, since they had a colour they hadn’t had before, that I liked better… I know, I know). And last night I cut out and got started on the construction for the younger daughter’s jean jacket.
So far, it’s going well. I like the lace around the pocket flap; hopefully I’ll remember to put it in a couple of other seams so it doesn’t look totally weird. I get to use up more of that damn seersucker fabric (featured here and here) for the pockets and bias binding. Actually it’s a perfectly good fabric, I just didn’t realize how far 2m would go when it’s not really suitable for anything but clothes for little girls. I made the bias binding much wider this time (a whole 5 cm!) and it’s much easier to sew evenly. I think I’m slowly getting a bit better at cutting bias binding. The amount I have to trim off kills me, though. It’s almost as wide as the entire binding I used in the first jean jacket.
There is one problem, however. When I was purchasing this denim, I didn’t have the envelope with me. I had written down about 1.5 m for each jacket—actually 1 5/8 yards, but of course fabric is sold by the metre. I figured this was a good, if slightly generous, conversion. I forgot that this was the yardage for 45″ wide fabric, and the denim I got is more like 60″. I bought 3m.
Each of these jackets took less than a metre of fabric. I have at least a metre and a half of sparkly denim left over.
I guess I’m going to be sewing more kids’ jeans.
Just not right now.
And, on that note, I should really get to work. Also, I’m out of white thread.
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The Evil Shirt of Doom
Don't be fooled by its innocent appearance... this is truly the Evil Shirt of Doom
Is finished, and actually doesn’t look as terrible as I had thought it might. The construction is still pretty bad—the worst since the sheer JJ blouse—but it’s basically impossible to take stitches out of this fabric, so it’s just going to have to stay that way. It is very drapey, and hangs quite close to the body compared to the other shirt from this pattern, probably in part due to the narrower yoke, but partly just the different fabric. I do like the wider cuffs. I was worried about the lengthwise stretch, especially beside the button placket, but at least so far it isn’t noticeable. I did a crapload of reinforcing on the shoulder and armscye seams, hence the double rows of double-stitching on the yoke.
Anyway, it’s done. Warts, wrinkles, wavy seams and all. And, once again, he won’t let me take a picture, so
Doom Shirt---back view. Note the highly uneven hem. Actually, don't.
here it is on a hanger. When worn, it has a much more casual look than the other shirt, which is a tad dressy; I’m not really sure the distinction shows as well on the hanger, though. I don’t think any of us were sure how the gathers would work in a knit, but they are actually not bad (though they were a pain to sew). I guess it helps that my expectations for this shirt were so low, low, low.
I think I need to add a small component to my documenting of my sewing, and that is the Laundering Factor. Sorry to talk about my laundry, folks, but this is an issue: I can make the nicest clothes in the world, but if they don’t survive the laundry, it’s just a big waste. I don’t mind hand-washing some stuff (the sheer JJ has had this treatment several times now, and while its seams continue to pull, they’ve been doing that since five minutes after I first put it on), but the real, heavy-duty, day-to-day stuff has to survive the machine. I’ll do it on delicate in cold water, throw it in a lingerie bag, hang it to dry after—but it has to get through the machine.
So far the other JJ blouses have survived the machine quite nicely, though they could use a bit of pressing, and I hate ironing (other than when I’m sewing). My first cowl top has popped in and out of the wash a couple of times now and aside from a bit of pilling (it’s the same Evil Fabric as the Shirt of Doom, by the way) it’s fine. But the Manequim cowl top came out (of the lingerie bag!!!) with a big hole in the back drape. Seriously? In the bag? I don’t know what happened except maybe it got caught in the bag’s zipper? Anyway, I’m a bit choked over that. It was its first trip through the laundry! But, in the end, the shirt was basically a muslin, and I have no qualms with re-making it in a better fabric at some point. No, what I’m really choked about is the Black Jalie Jeans. These things fit like a dream. I fought with the waistband, had to pulll the twill tape out because it was too tight, tweaked and tugged… and then I washed them.
Now, I never put my stretch jeans in the dryer. This is one of those things that Is Not Done. But I did (in the interests of shrinking things up) put the fabric in the dryer when I pre-washed it. Also I have nowhere to hang 4m of denim to dry. And I made them, and got them fitting wonderfully, and then I washed them again. Hanging to dry.
After hang-drying, they were a good 1/4″ too big on each leg, and the whole waistband was loose and gaping. Seriously, folks, I could’ve screamed.
So this last time when I washed them, I (cringed and) threw them in the dryer. And, of course, they come out fitting beautifully. The waistband is still a little soft—I think a problem with my interfacing, more than anything, and I”ve bought some different stuff to try next time—but the fit is snug where it should be, and the waistband is no longer actively gaping, even if it is a little stretchier than I’d like.
So, here’s my problem. Should I give up pre-washing the stretch denim, on the grounds that the dryer causes more stretching (later) than it prevents shrinking? Should I add a wash to the construction phase, before I put on the waistband (which won’t help with the waistband stretching out part, alas)? Or just continue to (sob) throw them in the dryer, accepting that they’ll die much sooner than they would otherwise (Which, I guess, is a lot easier to do for jeans that cost me $20 of fabric instead of $80 and up). Don’t ask me to give up wearing jeans that look like they’ve been spray-painted on, I’ve been doing that since I was twenty and the hunt for that elusive fit is the main reason I spend so much on RTW jeans. Even then the ratio of jeans I still like after a full day’s wear is not much more than 50/50. I guess we’ll have to see. Play it by ear. Experiment. The biggest problem with sewing with stretch fabrics, I’m concluding, is that they are unpredictable. There’s too many variables—shrinkage, stretch, recovery—that are really hard to fully comprehend before you’re wearing the finished garment. At which point, it’s too late.
Anyway, that’s my whining for the day. Time to get to work.
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A quick Sunday afternoon project
Quick shirred sundress for a Very Little Girl
I needed a break from the Knit Shirt of Doom (yes, the Boy is whining about it), and I’ve been meaning to give shirring a try. I want to make myself a shirred tunic top out of the same white crinkle voile as the Boy’s shirt. But I’ve never shirred anything before, certainly not on this machine. And, as is usually the case when I have no idea how something’s going to work, I opted to try the method out on a kid’s garment first.
Now, with shirring, you have to hand-wind the elastic thread around a bobbin; then you sew parallel rows with regular thread in the top and the elastic thread in the bobbin of your machine. Opinions are divided over whether you should stretch the elastic thread as you wind it or not. I suspect it has everything to do with your machine and its bobbin tension. My machine seems to have a fairly high bobbin tension (some day I’ll figure out how to adjust that, too), so I opted for no, or at least very little, stretching as I wound.
As you can see, it worked just fine (or at least well enough). It was a smidge less than a 2:1 gather ratio. The amount of gather is also affected by stitch length, which in turn is affected by how you handle the fabric especially once the scrunching of the other rows of shirring comes into effect. I did about 1/4″ between each of my rows, or rather, the width of one side of my presser foot. I’m getting better at doing parallel rows of stitching, but not that good, especially when one side is trying to ruch up on you. I also ran a 3/8″ elastic through a casing just below the top, to keep the top nice and snug, since that is the part that seems to go first in shirred items, in my experience.
I think this will probably end up a present for the daughter of my kids’ Fairy Gothmother, a lovely and
Skull button flower
intimidating seamstress herself, whose gifts to my children over the years have included a Gothic Princess dress, a spiderweb-print sundress, and numerous other wonders. I’ve always wanted to sew something for her daughter (now two) in return, but have been too intimidated by her awesomeness vs. my own mediocre skillz. Maybe now, though, they’re up to a point where I can attempt to repay the favours?
Doubtful, but anyway… she gave my girls these skull buttons years ago and we never managed to actually put the darling things on anything, and now I can only find the one. But I think it makes a nice centre for a flower, to make the dress a little less plain, right?
At long last
McCall's 7123 front view
The Boy’s first shirt (made by me, anyway). Not the evil knit one, the lovely crinkle cotton voile. It’s been finished a week, easy, but this was the first time I could tempt (read: coerce) him into letting me take a proper photo. You may recall my previous attempt. Anyway, I love this shirt, and he seems to as well, judging by the number of times he’s worn it already. It is distinctly sheer, so it’s probably at its best with an undershirt, but ah well. It was like pulling teeth just to get these pictures, I wasn’t going to make him go change too…
When/if I make this shirt again (the knit version doesn’t count), I’ll change the cuffs so they are wider, as the narrower width gives it a costumey, home-made look. I’m considering trying to move the neck further back in the yoke, since as is the “front yoke” seam, which is supposed to be a bit in front of the shoulder line, is pretty much right at the top of his shoulder. Alternatively, I suppose I could lengthen the front of the yoke and just shorten the shirt front by a corresponding amount, and leave the back alone. Probably simpler that way…
I think he was wearing a shirt very much like this the first time I spotted him at the goth bar,
McCall's 7123, rear view
more than eleven years ago, now… 😉
Mine is nicer.
Also, I still can’t post projects on Burdastyle. I can finally see my profile and activity again (after three days without! C’mon, people! The torture!), but no project love. /whine.
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What do you do…
When your interfacing doesn’t come wide enough for the piece that needs to be interfaced? What a pain in the butt! Anyway, the 2nd shirt for the sweetie is cut out. This pretty much uses up the last of that fabric, thank the gods. Really thin, no recovery, and a b#$% to cut out. I am much more excited about the other two knits I have, especially this blue one I posted yesterday. It’s going to look adorable with the cream elastic and cream topstitching. But the sweetie’s shirt first. I bought a metre of knit interfacing, thinking surely this would be plenty. This is my first time using a knit interfacing, and my first time interfacing a knit.
Can I just say, what a pain? Although the fabric doesn’t roll too badly at the edges (its one saving grace), the interfacing does like CRAZY. Also, do not drag the iron while you’re fusing.
Did I mention, don’t drag the iron around?
Even once you think it’s all fused in place.
Don’t even slide it. Not even a millimetre.
Yes, you. You, too.
Let’s just say, there’s going to be some bad creases that will hopefully be hidden inside the button placket.
And then, after blockfusing a ton, I realize that the interfacing itself isn’t wide enough for the back piece. What do you do in this situation? I wouldn’t want to change the grain (the knit interfacing stops almost all lengthwise stretch but leaves plenty widthwise). Butt the interfacing pieces up against each other? Overlap slightly? Either way, I think you’d have a problem. What I did, since I had already blockfused the whole freakin’ piece, was to narrow the back yoke. So now I need to mess with the neckline and quite possibly the shoulder-widths. Bleh. And, after cutting out the back yoke, the rest wasn’t long enough to do my front placket, so the bottom of that is pieced in. Hopefully I can get the seams to line up, although with the bubbling I mentioned above, I think I’m just going to hope no one ever looks closely at the inner placket at all. Ever.
The interfacing leaves the fabric surprisingly soft. Although it no longer crawls around and sticks to itself, it’s still very pliable and slippery. So it goes from being an absolute pain in the backside to cut, to merely being annoying.
I also tried out the pinning-the-fabric-to-the-carpet method for cutting it out this time. I think that’s a real method. At least, I’m pretty sure I’ve read about other people pinning out difficult fabric on various boards and things. Anyway, I had the carpet.
It worked… somewhat. Though I tried not to stretch it too much, a certain amount of that almost has to happen with this fabric to get it to sit smooth (or, y’know, I’m incompetent). Even with all the fussing with pins, it was less of a pain to get the two layers spread out with a passably straight folded edge. Cutting out itself was a little trickier; I think some angled shears would be perfect for this kind of thing. Or a rotary cutter—except, y’know, my carpet. My biggest hesitation is, due to the stretching, I’m not sure that the actual size of the pieces was particularly true, nor am I sure how consistent the stretching was. Ah well. I guess we’ll see how it all sews up, won’t we?
“Gonna finish my shirt today?” says the boy as he leaves for work this morning.
I may have created a monster. I need to get some “u owe me” labels like the Selfish Seamstress has. Ones that come with an itemized list.
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Weak
3m for 99 cents? I'll take it (now what do I do with it?)
Weak, weak, weak. Bad enough I snatched up this huge bit of upholstry fabric at Value Village (it was mis-priced to $0.99—who could resist?) and then splurged on cute ribbons at Michael’s. Then I popped by Fabricland to pick up knit fusible interfacing and discovered the lace and fancy elastic section (apparenly I had been looking the wrong areas). And some other interfacings and a blue knit and the Burda tracing paper. I couldn’t find the Solvy I swear I saw there last time, and I resisted the darker shade of red Kasha lining they now apparently have (where were you last week during the 50% off sale, I ask you?). It’s amazing how all the little things add up, really. But I think I’m set for my next few projects, anyway.
Ribbons and lace and elastic, oh my!
At VV I did also pick up a couple of patterns, a very 70s halter sundress (not exactly what I’ve been envisioning, but I can see it making a nice summery dress, not to mention a top or two) and this cute little A-line kids sundress pattern. Y’know,
Patterns!
as if there weren’t enough things you could do with the Popover Sundress.
Foiled! … and some minor progress
A ruffly halter for my younger niece
Aww, I’d been doing so well at posting daily, too. Ah well. I have good news and bad news. The bad news is twofold. On the one hand, I ran out of tracing paper while trying to trace out a full version of my winter coat. I’ve been using one of those big Ikea rolls of kids’ paper; not ideal, but cheap. However, maybe for this I should deal and get the real pattern tracing paper, that might have wider piece? Either way, it’s not likely to be before this weekend. So much for my resolution to do at least one thing per week on the winter coat. Meh. The other bad news is that I wore my nifty cowl top today, and once again this fabric has like no recovery. I swear it grew a good two inches all around on me today. Also I should’ve ran some elastic inside the cowl itself to help it stay on my shoulders better. Next time. If there is a next time. So not really a problem with the pattern or even my sewing, just the crummy fabric. That’s what you get for $2/metre.
back view of ruffled halter top
On the plus side, I got this twee little ruffled halter from Oliver + S finished for my younger niece. Because I am teh awesome at placing, it used up less than 1m of fabric despite the bias ruffles, so I am thinking of making some shorts (with a ruffle) to go with it. I have a pattern I could use from my store of “vintage” (mostly eighties) kids and babies patterns. Heck, with the fabric I have leftover I could make a whole nother popover dress (not the gathered version, though, which took a bit over 2m of fabric.)
I think I’d enjoy sewing kids clothing much more if I weren’t doing it in such candy-sweet colours. My own fault, I know. My hubby’s best friend is expecting a second baby this summer… I should really make something for them (especially as his wife, who terrifies me with her sewing prowess, has done the same for our girls a couple of times. I finally feel like I might be able to make something worthy of her children. Actually… this exact same halter in black would be awesome for their older daughter… :D) Just what I need. More sewing for kids. At least it’s quick and doesn’t take up much fabric. Just not nearly so satisfying…
I should probably bite the bullet and cut out my hubby’s next shirt, since the pattern’s out and lying on the livingroom floor (no doubt driving him nuts… he’s the neat freak in the family). But I don’t wanna! I wanna sew something else for meeee. Something that’s not out of crappy knit. I have another knit to try, after all. Or I could give the Anna top another try. I really think it would work if I switched back to the original cup piece (I had reduced the size and it was too small, believe it or not. My hubby says my breasts are nowhere near as small as I think they are… I think he’s on glue, of course). There’s still some issues with the back, but I could just add some lacing in back there to make the fit adjustable. I love lacing. :). And then there’s this awesome pattern I’m just salivating over… I think that might be the winner for what to do with my striped denim, except there’s no way I’d have enough to do the flounce. I could do that out of something else, though… another denim, or maybe a cotton eyelet (would that be too country?).
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My head is full…
Of ideas I’m not going to have time to make.
I still have at least 3 items to make on the “for other people” list. None of these are really optional.
- jean jacket for my younger daughter
- top/dress for my younger niece
- another shirt for the hubby (actually the same shirt, but in this fabric.) This one will probably drive me nuts. But not as nuts him bugging me about sewing it for him. I’ll start as soon as I’ve picked up some knit interfacing. And recovered from the trauma of cutting out that cowl top.
As for the “me” list? It’s long, disorganized, and different things keep bubbling to the top.
- I want to do another set of jeans (and so much for having the fit scoped out… the black ones stretched out when I washed them and now need to be taken in at least 1/4″ on each side. I guess I should wash and re-try them on before I put the waistband on…)
- I want to try a simple shirred top out of the white crinkle voile. But if I’m going to do shirring, I should really do some things for the kids to practice first.
- I want to make a white sundress (also out of the crinkle voile, but I would need something else for the lining, and I really don’t want to buy more fabric right now)
- It would be fun to make a skirt. I haven’t made myself an everyday kind of skirt, ever, I guess.
- various tunic tops keep bubbling through my head. I like things fitted around the bust, but I don’t like zippers for everyday clothes… I saw an idea on Burdastyle where a simple top like this was pulled in at the back with several horizontal elastics. Lacing could also work, but that’s a bit more work…
- and a tank top
- and a batwing top
- and another whack at the Anna top
- and, and, and…
Okies, you get the idea.
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Another (not so) quick cowl top
Manequim Cowl Top
This one is based on another free online pattern. The catch? It’s this pattern! Yup, you’re right, that entire website, complete with plenty of gorgeous patterns, is in Portuguese. And no, my Portuguese isn’t so good. Actualy it’s nonexistent. But seriously, we all know how well I read instructions,
anyway, right? And this particular pattern has a two star difficulty rating. “Facil” it says. My Portuguese may suck, but my French is halfway-decent… I know easy when I see it. The size range isn’t great, but it works for me.
Of course, I couldn’t just sew it as is. The pattern as is (not that you can tell based on the photo since the model’s got those crazy-high waisted pants on) has a really wide, blousy bodice. Not my thing. So I pulled out the pattern for my other cowl top, compared, and pivoted until I had what I thought was a reasonable width.
I had a Plan.
I was using more of the same light, ultra-stretchy knit fabric from the first cowl. The upside of this is it was super cheap and I have a ton of it. The downside is that it’s ultra light and ultra-stretchy. Stable it is not. Sewing it actually isn’t even the problem—it’s
Manequim Cowl Top---back
getting it lined up smoothly to cut the pattern. So I really couldn’t tell you if the various places my pieces didn’t match up correspond to the problems in the pattern itself, my changes to the bodice, or my poor cutting. My guess is mostly the last. When I made the first cowl top, I doubled the front. This
Mannequim cowl top
time, I planned to double both, and thus avoid having to bind any edges. And I did it! Aside from a couple of glitches, I managed to sew every single seam on this shirt so it faced the inside, except for about three inches along one edge of the cowl drape, which I finished by hand.
Then I tried it on and had to take each side in by about half an inch. So now the side-seams aren’t nicely finished. But otherwise, it’s great! I’ll let you know how badly it stretches out in the wearing, though… that seems to be the key issue with this fabric.
As to the top itself—it’s nifty. Doesn’t really look like the model’s… I think my fabric is way too different (also my seam along the edge of the cowl really makes it less flippy, more drapy. The cowl part is really big and drapy—cool looking, but I’m still a little nervous about the way it falls. It seems like it will shift around a lot with wearing. I’m actually tempted to make some straps… we’ll see. But here’s some different possibilities for wearing it, which is kinda nifty. If I ever do make it again, I’ll make the body about an inch longer…
off-the-shoulder variation
High shoulder variation
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Tanit-Isis Sews 