Here’s a few more of the fully finished jeans. I wound up hemming them the full length; the physical inseam measures just over 33″. It would be perfect for a boot-cut with flats, too short for a boot cut with heels, and is maybe a teeny bit long for skinnies.
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Jalie jeans #2: Black and silver
Almost done! Just need rivets and hemming (which will wait until at least one more wash, I think.
I don’t know why I can’t stand to wait until after I’ve hemmed these to take pictures and post. It’s like my subconscious considers hemming superfluous.
Anyway, here they are: black jeans with bright silver topstitching, Eye-popping. Maybe not the best choice considering my mediocre topstitching skillz. Ah well. I shall be more restrained for my next pair. I just loved the contrast.
You already heard about the issues with the waistband. All fixed. It still came out narrower than the first
Jalie jeans front: no fly gapage!
waistband, a little too narrow in my opinion. Not sure how that works except that maybe the turn of cloth ate up more width in this pair? Anyway, next time I will either widen the pattern piece or use 1/4″ seam allowances. The narrower SA’s are probably not a bad idea for the waistband, anyway (reducing bulk, yadda yadda)
Getting pictures of these sucked, especially without a handy slave child around to take the pictures. My sweetie would probably do it but he would make fun of me in the process ;). I wish I could find my tripod… I tidied up a few weeks ago and have no idea where I stuffed it.
Other than the too-narrow waistband and the usual issues with my topstitching, I’m pretty happy with these. They feel right. For the next pair, I am going to try lengthening the centre back seam for a bit more rear coverage.
Full length jeans
This fabric was actually a 20% stretch, and I still wound up taking in the size Q about a cm on each side, so I think I should probably just narrow the pattern by that amount, as well. I’m a little torn about the length. If they were a boot cut, the length would actually be perfect. Skinnies, on the other hand, don’t need to be quite as long. And these mostly behave as skinnies, although
Doesn't show the jeans very well, but I liked the pose. So Nyah!
they’re actually straight-legged from the knee. I used someone’s suggestion (I forget where I read it, sorry) to extend the pocket lining pieces to the centre front to form the fly interfacing. I’m really happy with how this worked—keeps the front nice and smooth and no fly puckering! I still can’t insert a fly properly to save my life. It looks so simple when Sandra Betzina does it! But at least no one else will see.
So anyway, one more item down (yes, yes, except for the hemming) on my list for Self-Stitched September. Now, time to work on the kids’ jean jackets!
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Coat Materials: (clockwise from left) fashionf abric, foiled underlining, plain underlining, Kasha lining right side, Kasha lining wrong side
It always strikes right AFTER I’ve spent my (non-existent) fun money. But, this time I bit the bullet. I got the remainder of my coat materials (lining and interlining… even at 50% off, 5m of Kasha lining still adds up). I got a metre each of two different kinds of insulating underlining, one with a fancy silvery side to reflect heat, one which is just plain white. Neither is very thick; they’re not at all drapy, but I think they’ll be fine in the bodice and maybe sleeves. I’m thinking the reflective one for the bodice and maybe the plain white for the sleeves if I think they need it/can take it. And I gave in and got the grey Kasha. They didn’t have black, and I didn’t like the two possible colours, a dull dark blue and a very orangey red, that they did have. I love red, but I like my reds deep and possibly leaning towards maroon. Not orangey. So pale grey it is… though I will probably regret it when it gets incredibly dirty after a few weeks of wear. Anyway—excited to have progress (however expensive) on that front!
Cottons for unselfish sewing: (clockwise from upper left) print poplin, white crinkle voile, pink poplin solid, yellow stripe "seersucker"
I also picked up some lightweight cottons for my unselfish-sewing. Ugh. A pink solid and pink print of cotton poplin (somehow I thought poplin was heavier, but this is what the bolts said), for the one niece, and a nice yellow striped seersucker-looking thing from the bargain centre for the other (who doesn’t have to live in pink all the time). I would’ve liked a cool, edgier print… maybe little skulls with bows or something—but this was what they had (and lots of other, even more nauseating, prints). The white is a crinkle cotton voile I will use for the hubby’s flowy overshirt.
I resisted the denims staunchly.
Crappity crapola. Excuse my language.
In an effort to avoid sewing for my children, I cut out my second pair of Jalie jeans. The waistband on the first pair still felt a little flabby, so I figured I would put some twill tape in it this time (I meant to but chickened out last time). I tacked one piece along the top of the waistband (I used a curved waistband from another pattern) and another around the top of the jeans themselves (to be enclosed by the waistband once it was sewn on. I even tried them on to make sure I could still get into them with the stay tape eliminating the stretch in the jeans themselves. Snug, but doable. So I sewed the waistband on. It wound up being about an inch too long (it is from another pattern, after all), so I trimmed it down, turned it, and slipstitched the inside closed. Tried on again.
I could still get into them. No WAY that waistband was going to close. The extra inch that got trimmed off woulda done it, I’m sure.
/cry.
So, I guess I am running into a conflict between my desire for stretch jeans but a non-stretch waistband. I don’t know how it works in my RTW jeans… the waistbands still have some stretch, but it’s like 10% rather than 30% (yes, I’ve been testing these things). I don’t think they’re interfaced or anything, I think it’s just an effect of the heavier denim. Anyway, I guess if I really want a stretch-free waistband, I need to stretch the jeans as I sew them to the waistband (eww) so that I don’t have that extra inch. Otherwise, bite the bullet and deal with a stretchy waistband.
For now, I guess I’ll open up the waistband and see if taking off the stay tapes helps. If not… new waistband time.
Crap.
Update: removing the tapes seems to have done the trick. They are still snug, but no harder to wriggle into than my favourite ready-to-wear, and will definitely close. Tomorrow I’ll hammer them and hopefully pick up more topstitching thread so I can finish them off.
Patch pockets for black jeans
My topstitching still sucks.
That is all.
Kids' Jean Jacket pattern
Last night I traced out Burda 9610 (jacket only) in kids size 7 and 9 (122 and 134 Burda sizes). These may be a bit big (the other stuff I’ve made them has been size 7 and 4, respectively, but I’m not sure that the Burda “equivalent US sizes” are actually equivalent) but I don’t have the kids handy to measure, and I kinda want these jackets to be presents for when we do see them next at the end of July. And yes, I have measured them before and written it all down. And promptly lost the paper. Although that was a few months ago, and the pesky things do tend to keep growing.
So, now I have the patterns traced out (fifteen pieces each for the jacket! That’s a bit different from that cowl-neck top!) and a *bit* more of an insight into how they will eventually go together. My main disappointment at the moment is to realize that they don’t really have pockets. Not only are there no side pockets, that flap is strictly decorative.
I am of course plotting how to change this. Making a pocket bag and an opening underneath the flap shouldn’t be too hard. Leaving a gap in the side of the centre-front/side-front seam and putting a bag behind this should be doable with just a little bit more ingenuity.
Also, I should think about seam bindings. I’ve never done un-lined jackets before (Hmm, now I’m thinking about lining them, maybe in a colourful fleece. Next time, Taran!). Since I can’t just serge everything, I’m thinking a hong-kong finish kinda thing. Best of all, since I’m not going to be fitting these as I go, I can do at least some of the bindings before the seams are sewn. Yay!
Next question: sparkly (under) side of the denim out, or subtler, less-sparkly “right” side of the denim out? Or a mix? Or just make at least the older daughter’s out of my black denim? (But I want the black denim for me!)
Also, while I’m sewing for children, I should whip up some little sundresses or something for my nieces. I hate to do this much unselfish sewing (I’m not as vocal about it as the Selfish Seamstress but I really do have a hard time putting a whole lot of effort into sewing for other people), but my sister-in-law is looking after my kids for the month. So that might fall under Advanced Selfish Seamstressing. I should call her and get their measurements and maybe quiz her on good colours/styles they don’t already have.
And, because I can’t spend all this time just sewing for others, I’m going to lengthen my Jalie capris pattern and get started on some full-length jeans for me! 🙂
Wow, ambitious much?
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First ever knit top!
Wow, that was fast. My very first knit top. Two pattern pieces, four seams (two of them not even an inch long), a little bit of time messing around with edge finishes… and voila! A top cute enough that my hubby insisted I wear it agan this morning.
Based, as you may recall, on Ichigogirl’s cowl top/dress pattern. I narrowed the shoulders, though in hindsight I should have widened the neck. This is a very deep, drapy, almost V-neck cowl; I think if I make it again I’ll try and reduce that… right now I have to be pretty careful when I shift around that, ah, all of me stays inside the shirt. I made the entire front double, since my knit is very thin and a touch sheer.
The part I was afraid of about sewing with knits was finishing edges without stretching them entirely out of shape. I
knit top---rear view
would have to say I think my fears were justified, at least with this fabric. The back neck is… less than perfect. I tried to do a double-fold band there and… well, I’ve never had much luck with getting these to look good in wovens, so I don’t know why I thought it might be any different in a knit. It is, shall we say, a little wonky, AND stretched out (I have some hopes that it will un-stretch a tiny bit once it’s washed. We’ll see. I did manage to do a nice, scalloped rolled hem along the arm-holes, which looks cute and didn’t stretch out that much, but I don’t think really matches the rest of the top. I haven’t hemmed the bottom yet. Trying to decide whether to do another scalloped edge or just a flat hem. Also now that I’ve worn it a bit it’s stretched out and is bagging at the back, so I’m debating bringing it in at the sides…
But, anyway, semi-wearable and self-sewn, so that’s a good start, right?
In other news, my hubby declared that he really likes this fabric. Will I make him a shirt from it? Sure, dear. (I’m picturing a nice long-sleeved T-shirt. He always has a hard time finding ones where the sleeves are long enough… we’re well matched that way. Our poor kids)
Will I make him a button-up dress shirt from it?
Um, what?
So, yeah… he wants a typical button-up shirt made out of a super-stretchy, drapy knit. I think he is insane. The question is… can it work? Maybe with an underlined yoke and cuffs and lots of stay-tape at the seams? I’m having a hard time picturing it, though…
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Wow, the Danielle Dress has occupied my brain so long, I feel all floaty now that it’s done. What will I do? What will I sew?
Now, I’ve spent lots of time rambling in the past about things I want to make in the future. It is a very long, ever-evolving list. It includes:
This is without even bringing up crazier things like making my own sailor-shorts.
Most of the heavier stuff I don’t really want to tackle until August (though I would like to knock out one pair of jeans in July), but right now I think I’m leaning towards starting the burda jackets and (because I want to be working on something for me, as well) experimenting with a knit top or two. Which raises the question: which knit top?
The options are as follows:
In other news, I had a bit of a me-made holiday over the weekend, since I got to wear my Danielle Dress to the wedding and my Jalie capris almost every other day. Now I’m home, wearing all RTW feels sorta… boring.
Okay, I think I’ve convinced myself. It will be Ichigogirl’s cowl-neck top/dress (top version), out of my flimsy white knit. I will double-line the top, so it doesn’t need a facing. I may narrow the shoulder-seams a bit, too, as I think that would look cute. Down with knitophobia!
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Danielle Dress!
Ah, the Danielle Dress in all its glory! Oh happy day! Of course you’ve already seen photos of the dress with everything but the final hem, so it won’t be that huge of a deal. Ah well.
It has taken a LONG time to get this post up, due to lack of awesome pictures worthy of this awesome dress. Lots of fuzzy ones, ones that don’t show the hem, ones where I’m making a wonky face… you get the idea. These still aren’t them, but they’ll have to do for now. My usual photographer (AKA daughter) is spending the month with her cousins!
It occurs to me that this is my first fully-lined dress. Also my first “everyday” (as opposed to costume) dress.
A quick recap on the construction… the fashion fabric is some kind of crinkly chiffon (possibly crepe?),
Danielle---rear view
very thin, in a bold black and white print (I don’t usually go for prints) that has been in my stash for at least five years, since I made a tiered dance skirt for my older daughter out of it. I underlined it with a plain black cotton (from my old duvet cover, the same stuff I used to underline my girls’ coats) to give it a bit more body, and lined it with a very plain, very cheap black lining fabric. While I cutting I committed the major sin of not cutting the centre front on the fold, so I had to improvise and add a third pleat and centre front with a black inset of the same fabric as the “waist” band. Since I now had a seam allowance at the centre front, this meant I had to fiddle with the other pleats a bit to maintain the skirt width, but I think it worked out all right.
To keep the chiffon (which was a b*tch to cut out, by the way) from sliding around on the underlining, I
More Danielle!
hand-basted all the pieces of the shell together. This was probably the single most time-consuming part of constructing the entire dress. On the other hand, it was handwork, so I could do it in the livingroom with the family instead of ditching them to sew, so I get less (though not no) hassle for it, and not once during the actual construction did I want to shoot myself in the head due to my slippery, misshapen chiffon fabric pieces, as I usually do when working with this kind of fabric.)
My cutting wasn’t as precise as I would like (as usual), partly due to the chiffon, partly due to sloppiness. Precise cutting is definitely one of my Areas to Improve, although I’d like to say this dress was quite a bit worse in that department than most of my recent efforts. Cotton and denim (which is of course cotton too) are really dreams to cut out. My biggest goal was to get the front pleats to line up with the front darts (and to not totally ruin the darts). I was not 100% successful, but managed adequately. The darts are at least more symmetrical than most of my previous attempts, though I’m still not 100% happy with them, either.
The lining was fairly rushed and fudgetastic. I didn’t do a separate waistband for it (I meant to make the skirt longer to compensate, but didn’t, but due to sloppy/generous cutting of length this didn’t actually matter. My goal was to make the lining slightly smaller, which I achieved a little too well, but at least my zipper doesn’t get caught in its fabric (!) and the outer shell doesn’t look strained.
I didn’t want to finish the arm-holes by hand, so I wound up releasing my shoulder seams so I could machine-stitch the lining to
Hand-finished hem---the large stitches you see are actually the hand-basting I neglected to remove since it was on the inside. You don't see ANY of the actual hem stitches.
the arms and neck and then reverse it, then hand-finished the shoulder seams. This is easy, but somehow when I do this the shoulder seams never match up as nicely as they ought to… the front is always a little too narrow for some reason. There’s probably a better method out there, but I’m too lazy to research is right now.
The zipper was a bit of an experiment. I’ve read the standard method for inserting them (and this was a standard, not an invisible zipper), but I’ve never had great success in this department. Usually they end up catching on the fabric around them, at least a bit. I was attracted by the idea of installing it by hand, but also short of time. In the end I sewed it to the lining by machine (carefully well back of the zipper teeth) and then picked it to the outside by hand. It looks great, at least on the outside. My hand stitches show on the inside (perhaps with a little more thought or paying more attention to some tutorials, I could have avoided this, but I was in a rush at this point). I also finished the hem by hand, which is lovely when you have an underlining to catch the stitches on, and I’m quite happy with that,
Hand-picked zipper
though there is one spot where I accidentally caught the fashion fabric and it shows. I could fix it, but I probably won’t bother. I just hemmed the lining by machine. I really should pick up some finer machine needles… the ones I have are a bit too thick and the lining fabric puckers.
On the whole, the dress was a smashing success. It fitted well with minor alterations (though the bust is still a bit generous for me… I suspect I need to narrow the front and then make the darts smaller). I did end up taking it in almost an inch on each side at the back seam, so perhaps I could have cut the size 34 instead of the size 36. The only disappointment? I it’s a bit too fancy for everyday, and who knows when I’ll get to wear it again?
Shoulder seam---not a great match up.
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to feel smug that your self-sewn dress fits you better than the bride`s? (Not that hers wasn’t adorable, and also knee-length and empire-waisted, but it was just a tad big on her)
No photos yet (they are stuck on my camera until I get home) but the reception was smashing and so was the Danielle dress. I felt very on-trend (not a feeling I actually pursue) as almost all the dresses on display last night (and there were lots of lovely ones) were just shy of knee length, and over half were empire waists. I also got lots of complements on my “design feature”… the third front pleat (AKA where I failed to cut the fabric on the fold.) However, the bodice that felt a little snug in trying on was VERY snug for a whole evening… not a lot of deep breathing going on. Still, awesome, fun, and looked really good (and not at all home-made, I think 😉 ). It is, however, not my favourite thing ever for dancing in (not that that stopped me)… for dancing I like something that accentuates the hips and has some swish; the lovely Danielle dress has neither. Still delightful. I can’t think of a much better bunch of people I’d like to have at a wedding. Almost makes me want to get married…
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Sewing is what I do when I'm cheating on all my other hobbies...
Tanit-Isis Sews 