Tanit-Isis Sews

July 20, 2016 · 6:00 am

Gabriola the Second

I’ll forgive you if you don’t remember Gabriola the first; I couldn’t even remember if I’d blogged about it. Two years, eh? Anyway. I like this version better.

A few months ago I made a new corset. But it wasn’t in my usual colour scheme, so I needed some kind of bottom.

A few days ago, I went stash diving for fabric. As I said, it’s not one of my usual colours. Pickings were slim. But at last I settled on this piece of rather drab tie-dye with a subtle embroidered border. It’s from a range of border-embroidered fabrics that were already marked down when I first started at Fabricland, and I picked up the last bits of an embarrassing number of the pieces. What can I say?

Fortunately, I had about 4m of this particular one—what with trying to at least roughly match the scalloped border, I needed every bit of fabric.

It was so nice to have the pattern all traced and ready to go. I made a couple of little mods this time around strictly for style purposes. I added a placket at the back and buttons, instead of a zipper.

The buttons are all mother of pearl, from the Antique Button Stash—they roughly match, except for the big one at the top.

And I left a slit between the left and centre panels on the front.

It ends really high if you do it that way, by the way. I did plan for this by adding little eyelets and a lacing cord to close it up a bit, which had the added benefit of gathering it up a little—a benefit because that seam must’ve stretched when I was doing the hemming (despite stay-stitching) because it’s the only part of the skirt that was too long. And you can’t adjust a border embroidery at the bottom.

I cut the embroidered overlays on the hips from the tiny scraps left over, so although I tried to get them mirroring left and right, the front and back are a bit different. On the other hand I managed to get all those points on the lower yokes to line up, which is good because had topstitched those panels with a cross stitch and that shit isn’t coming out.

Using the embroidered hem meant losing the curve along the bottom of the skirt pieces, which was a risk, but I think looks fine in this case, even if the finished hem is a bit angular and jagged.

All in all pretty happy! Not sure if it’ll be truly wearable or just another costume piece, but I sure do like it—considerably more than I thought I would, since the fabric was frankly kinda boring and ugly.

The colour is not quite spot on for the corset (although it varies since it’s a tie-dye) but I think it’s close enough. If not, I think a bit of a tea bath will fix that, but I’m not going to rush things. I managed to cut a tiny bodice from the scraps, as you can see in the “nice” photos, so I should be able to wear it with that on a slightly more every-day basis than with the corset. I’ll talk about the bodice next, though!

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Tagged as finished projects, Gabriola Skirt, Sewaholic Patterns

July 19, 2016 · 8:30 am

Grey-green Linen

God this fabric is gorgeous. The composition tag says “linen and rayon”—I’m thinking it’s rayon embroidery on linen background.

Sometimes a project is just fun to do. Not perfect, by any means, not at all flawless—but man it felt great.

The pattern I picked was the newish McCall’s 7339, mainly to be trying a new corset. It has some cute features, namely cup sizes and a raised back. Also, it doesn’t require a busk—Handy for a shop project since we don’t carry busks.

The materials I chose were affected quite a bit by this being a shop project. Aside from the busk, I used ticking instead of coutil, and tried substituting Bosal in-R-form (a bag making product) for the poly laminate foam the pattern calls for for the cups. What I didn’t make do on was the boning—I used my usual 1/4″ spiral steel, double boned at each seam. I kinda construct all my corsets the same way—one trick pony, I guess. I know it’s not he strongest way, but it makes them easier to adjust and alter, as you go or after the fact. And I haven’t had a seam split on me yet.

I found the finished sizing measurements a bit confusing. The size 10 was listed as having a 36″ bust and 23″ waist. Does this include lacing gap? How much of one? 5″ of waist compression is not realistic for me—but a 36″ bust is a little on the large side. (And that was the smallest cup size.)

No way I was going to skip a mockup, so that was the first order of business. I traced off a size 12 body with some minor grading down to the size 10 A/B bust pieces. I made only two preemptive fit changes, shortening below the bust 1/2″ and adding a small swayback adjustment. I don’t always need to shorten McCall’s patterns as much as other companies and I didn’t want to overdo it.

It turned out the size 12 was a bit big, as I wound up taking it in 1/4″ all along the side seams, plus a bunch in the upper back and lower tummy. The waist seemed essentially perfect. The result is a corset that fits beautifully slimly, but doesn’t exactly add to my meager curves. I am really tempted to try again starting with a size 10 and see if I could make it fit while keeping more of the original curves.

I did all my fitting in the mockup in this one, starting with just bones front and back and adding more as I went (once I was satisfied that length was going to be ok.

The bust cups affect the fit a lot, too, incidentally, so don’t take your fitting too far without them, if you’re going to use them. I don’t think I’ve really nailed the bust fit. Even downsizing to a 10 in those pieces the cups were a bit large, though with the foam lining it doesn’t show so much in the photos. I made some minor tweaks to the shape to round the bottom a little more smoothly and bring in the top 1/8″, and I played around with making some little chicken fillet push-up pads.

I do like how the pads turned out. Once the lining was in the cups they look and feel almost exactly like a pre-formed foam cup. (I know that’s not a pro to everyone, but it’s what I am going for here. 😉 ) I do think the polylaminate foam would be more resilient and less likely to be damaged by crushing.

By some miracle the size of underwire I prefer also fitted the cups perfectly, without needing to be trimmed or anything. So really, a lot of wins. But. In the finished corset, the cups don’t sit right. The gore doesn’t tack (it doesn’t in the cover photo either, but she’s a much bustier lady than I.) and somehow the front is too wide apart while the back doesn’t reach to where the side of my breasts end on the side of my body.

It looks fine, from a visual if not an actual bra making perspective. I just have this nagging feeling that the cups could sit better.

Oh, and here’s a thing I tried: accommodating turn of cloth at the seamlines in my pieces. So though I cut them the same, when I serged the edges of all my pieces (I am stuck on the mode of construction where I basically treat all the layers as underlinings) together I folded the piece in half when I serge the second side, and just cut off the excess on the inner layers with the serger blades. So when my pieces were still flat, the outer layer bubbled up kinda conspicuously, but now they’re all sewn together with the seam allowances pressed open they sit nicely flat. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

The pattern is drafted with a front seam (so you could add a busk if you wanted) but since I wasn’t, and I wanted my embroidery motif to match flawlessly, I cut it on the fold. In hindsight I may have stuffed that up, actually, and added the seam allowances to the front width. This would explain why my front gore looked extra wide compared to the mockup, and also how my lacing gap is so much narrower in the final corset than it was in the muslin. I did trim down the gore so it was more reasonable width before I added the cups, but it’s still quite wide. I think there are also some cup/bra making subtleties I haven’t fully grasped at work, to do with the difference between cups where the seam allowance goes up as it does here (and as in partial-band bras) vs where it goes down, as in the full band bras I’ve ever made.

The biggest problem is that the back and sides, now they have a firm binding on, are apparently a little high and cut in under my arm.

I feel like the corset is trying to crawl up under my shoulder blades.

This isn’t particularly attractive or comfortable. I didn’t notice until the binding was on, otherwise it would’ve been a very simple fix to trim it down. So I’m kinda bummed about that. I should really go back in and fix it, as otherwise it’s a very comfortable corset.

The inside is nothing special, but the lining fabric is the same linen-cotton as my Vogue dress.

All in all it’s very pretty, and feels very sleek and smooth, so that’s nice. It makes me think of an elven princess. Probably some delicate silver jewelry would be in order.

We’ll talk about the skirt next time!

(And my apologies to everyone who got a half-finished version of this post on their feeds months ago—I went to hit “save draft” and hit publish by mistake!)

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July 18, 2016 · 8:25 pm

Bodicery

Yes, there will be repeat pictures between this post and the last. I think they’re pretty, so suck it up. 🙂

After I finished Gabriola 2, I knew I would want to wear it more than just for the occasional photo shoot with the matching corset. While it may never quite be “work wear,” surely sooner or later I’ll go to a party or out to dinner or something.

Hey, a girl can dream. I can also wear it swanning around the house (as I did the day I wrote this). I’m getting to like this crop-top-with-high-waist thing. (It only took me what, three years, to wrap my head around it? Bear with me, I’m well past the prime age for adopting new styles.)

ANYWAY.

The way I cut the skirt with the embroidered border meant that there was an abundance of small-ish, weird shaped scraps that I was fairly confident could be turned into some kind of bustier or bodice. And after a bit of waffling, I settled on this bodice from the same Burda issue I got Tyo’s tie-up shirt out of a couple of years ago.

115_technical_large I had hoped to cut the centre front panels from the last “large” scrap of the embroidery, but alas it was too small—I had to settle for just making that the lower portion of the side fronts.

This left the front rather boring, so I ended up hand-stitching a little embroidered bit in place over the closure.

It’s simple but I like it.

The closure, by the way, is hook and eyes, as per the pattern. Seven of them. Stitched on individually by hand (the pattern calls for hook & eye tape, but of course I don’t have that hanging around. And it wouldn’t have come in drab tie-dye, anyway. Fortunately I have plenty of back-episodes of my current obsession, the British History Podcast, to listen to; Hengist and Horsa got me through.

I had a lot of fun with the construction; everything is clean-finished inside and out except the bottom hem. I wish I could describe all the inside-folding-burrito shapes I got this thing into, but words fail me.

The bodice would probably sit more smoothly with boning or something, but I kinda like how scrunchy and slouchy it is (did I mention comfy?).

I initially skipped my usual petite alterations (not sure why), but then I wound up taking in the shoulders and cutting off a good 1/2″ from the bottom (more like 1″ at the back), so I probably wound up in much the same place. Ah, well.

I was surprised to find that it actually has pretty decent bra coverage. I was thinking the straps would be too wide set. (They are set quite wide, but my shoulders aren’t particularly narrow. If yours are, and for some reason you feel the urge to make this, be aware.)

Once it was all done, it still remained a little boring, so I added more machine cross-stitch.

It’s still a little boring (in my head there should be pin-tucks and piping and MOAR EBROIDERY) but I think I’ll let it be. Also I’m down to really small, random scraps at this point.

The whole outfit feels wild and wood-witchy and mysterious to me, which I am enjoying immensely. (And if you don’t think so, well, feel free to keep it to yourself. I’m having fun here 😉 ) Now if only I could be taking photos in an ancient oak grove, maybe with a few standing stones kicking around for ambiance…

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Tagged as Burda, Burda 04/2013-115, Gabriola

July 17, 2016 · 9:00 pm

Rub-a-dub

Have you ever made a rub-off of a pattern?

Syo has these red jeans. They’ve got some really nifty features. And apparently she is dying for shorts what with it being summer ‘n all. And it was just her birthday. (She’s 13. How the duck did that happen?) And her sister got to go to the lake with a friend for the long weekend.

So by various means I got guilted into rubbing off a pattern from them. My method of choice involves using Press ‘n Seal, a Glad product that is basically like plastic wrap with a tacky backing. I first heard about this method from Trumbelina Sews, but I’m no expert on it, especially when approaching darts etc. Fortunately jeans don’t have darts or easing, so I didn’t have to figure it out this time, either.

You stick the press n seal to the clothing, spreading it out so it covers from seam to seam, and trace off the seams with a marker. Then you peel off the plastic, slap it on some paper, and start adding seam allowances. It gets a little complicated in the pocket area, but if you’ve ever looked at a jeans pattern it’s pretty obvious.

The world’s weeniest and most pointless zipper.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how well everything marked out and looked roughly like it was supposed to, and how little I had to correct my new pattern when I checked the seam-lengths.

They fit! Well, at least as well as the originals. Which are definitely one of those fast-fashion garments that relies more on stretch than cut for fit.

The construction is less than perfect and I wish I’d spaced out the three bottom buttons a bit more.

Also I put a bat symbol on the pocket. Because I could. I wish I could’ve found my Fairy Tail template, but it is in hiding.

I really like that seam in the yoke; fitting opportunities abound (not that I actually took advantage of it, mind you.)

I asked for attitude.

And here’s a shot of the final pattern pieces. The lengths were strictly approximate, since the originals were jeans and Syo was talking about having them roll up so I was aiming long. (Oh, and the pocket pieces are off to the side somewhere out of frame.)

They seem to work, though.

So, happy Thirteen, Syo. Twelve wasn’t all a picnic and I’m sure thirteen won’t be either, but it’s pretty cool to watch you grow up and into yourself. And I could totally steal these shorts if I wanted, so we’ll call that a bonus. 😉

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July 14, 2016 · 6:38 am

A Tale of Two Dresses (Part 2)

Literally the day after I finished Simplicity 7514, I cut out McCall’s 7640. And sewed it up right away, for the most part, until I realised I had made fifteen buttonholes. And I couldn’t even find my container of dark-coloured buttons, not that I’m likely to have fifteen of any one kind kicking around. So it had to wait until I could get to Fabricland, and then THAT had to wait until I could stand the thought of sewing on fifteen buttons, so it took a bit longer to finish.

And, well, it ain’t Simplicity 7514. I did more fit-fiddling on this damn thing than I have in quite a while. At least that’s easy with all the different seams on this pattern.

I’m not sure how entirely I can blame the pattern, however. I cut a size 12 knowing it would probably be large, but that was the largest size in my pattern envelope and I was too ~~lazy~~ impatient to trace, but willing to cut if it didn’t obliterate other sizes. And then I assumed my fairly stable fabric didn’t need added stabilization along the top, despite all the blithe trying-on-and-wriggling-princess-seams-into-place I was doing. Although the bust size was about right right off the bat, and I got the waist length down with my usual petite alteration, I had to take in the front above the bust, and the sides right at the top, too—maybe not ENTIRELY because of handling without stabilization, but that definitely didn’t help. Plus some weird let-it-out-here-then-take-it-in-there fiddling.

Hem & front

It was still a pretty darn fun fabric to work with, sturdy and forgiving of seam-ripping.

AND the pattern was meant to be lined, so doesn’t have facings or any other nice way to finish the top, and again I was too ~~lazy~~ impatient to draft a proper facing so I tried to wing it and that created a few more minor issues.

Because I had lots of fabric to play with I even added 8 cm to the length, making it pleasantly floor-swishy, although that doesn’t show so much in these pictures as I am wearing some pretty epic blog shoes. Which my long grass almost completely hides, but oh well.

In the end, this is a fairly heavy linen and still a bit stiff (I imagine enough washing and wear will help with that, eventually…) so it just doesn’t drape and caress the body like the wool did. Not to mention the wrinkling. You have to just embrace the wrinkling, people.

It’s still pretty fun, though, and will undoubtedly be the coolest a long black dress could possibly me. My eighteen-year-old goth self is drooling jealously.

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Tagged as finished projects, McCalls 7640, Simplicity 7514

July 13, 2016 · 7:00 am

A tale of two dresses (Part 1)

So a few years ago I got this nice, substantial, shiny black linen with the plan of making a shirt for my husband—but it’s a bit heavy for his taste in linen shirts, so it has languished. And it surfaced during some recent stash diving, and I realized that there’s way more than the two-ish metres I had thought I’d bought—more like four or five. Yowza! And I was suddenly seized by the need for a swishy long black linen sundress. I dug up some options and posted them on Instagram, and the chorus was in favour of McCall’s 7640. And it did seem like it would be a really great linen sundress.

But I still REALLY liked the idea of a long black version of Simplicity 7514. So I dug around stash some more, and stumbled upon this piece of black bargain centre fabric ($4.00/m tag still attached) that I didn’t have earmarked for anything. (I didn’t recall right off the bat but as construction, especially ironing, went on, I remembered the reason I picked it up. 100% wool, in what I suspect they would call a tropical weight.

Some pattern tetris followed, and I determined I could, in fact, fit a long, but short sleeved, version on my 4m of fabric. This is pretty awesome since the envelope called for about 6m. Woohoo!

It’s been a long time since I made a Simplicity pattern, what with them not really being available up here any more. It was really nice, especially since the ‘vintage’ pattern (© 1997) has much thicker tissue paper than the current patterns seem to.

That is a LOT of skirt.

I made my usual petite alterations, half below bust and half above. This always scares me in raglan sleeve styles, but it seems to work. The bust and waist are pretty much exactly where I want them. I maybe took it in a smidgeon at the sides. No square shoulder adjustment (I try to skip them on raglan sleeves) and no swayback alteration.

The skirt is very, very swishy, and the fabric has a great drape.

Back view.

The back neck does gape a bit, which isn’t common for me. The zipper is just a regular zipper, since I didn’t have any black invisible ones, and I kind of hate it, so if I decide I hate it enough to replace I’ll take it in. Otherwise, meh.

Can I tell you a secret? This dress reminds me of a mediaeval kirtle. Just needs something white and long-sleeved underneath. I’m very tempted to add a row of little buttons down the front…

Except it’s a real, every day dress. I love it. Whether I get to wear it enough to justify the excitement, I suppose, is a different story, especially as cleaning it may be, um, an issue.

So yeah, instead of a linen sundress, I made a wool regular-dress. Hmm. Well, we’ll get to the sundress in time…

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Tagged as finished projects, McCalls 7640, Simplicity 7514

July 9, 2016 · 7:00 am

Actually simple

Vogue 2960 looks pretty intense, with that crazy skirt and underbust gathers. And some of those Vintage Vogue patterns are just weird, man.

Also a shameless envelope imitator. Could I get my dress much closer to the picture? I just need the gloves and jewelry.

And what if the bust gathers were weird or I didn’t like the neckline? I won’t lie, I was a little intimidated.

And I didn’t need to be. What a sweet, straightforward sew.

The pattern breaks between 10 and 12, which is awkward since I usually blend between those sizes, but as I’m generally happier with the shoulders of a 10, and I wasn’t too worried about the hips fitting, I went with the size 10. no regrets! The only fitting change I made prior to cutting was to petite between bust and waist. I don’t think I even did a swayback adjustment on the bodice.

I basted the side seams of the bodice to check fit, decided to take up the shoulders 1/4″ each on trying it on (not surprising for me) and then ripped them out so I could “clean finish” with the facings. A la the Slapdash Sewist, to dig a tutorial from the deep web.

I used a fair bit of stabilization at the neckline, as my fabric, a very soft cotton linen blend, stretched easily. (I will take the stretch, though, otherwise I would probably have had to let out the waist.)

I’m not sure I did the pleats correctly—I followed the markings but then stitched them down, whereas in hindsight the pattern illustration just shows them being pleated. And my rear pleats don’t meet the way they seem to in the illustration, either. Probably because of the stitching-down thing. I like the stitching down, though, as it controls the fullness right below my waist—I don’t like gathered skirts at my natural waist as they just make me look boxy, and I was a little nervous of the pleats.

I like the lace at the neckline; I was initially on the fence about the lace at the hem, but I got it as part of the project so I thought I’d better use it, and it’s grown on me.

I shortened the skirt by about 4.5″—it is definitely on the long side. I didn’t want to go too short and ruin the proportions, but I think it’s still long enough. I’m really terrible at leveling hems, though, so I’m nervous about that.

The trickiest part may have been the little jut over where the buttons end, and even that wasn’t too hard after a quick glance at the instructions. I did not do the bound buttonholes the directions called for. I have a perfectly good vintage buttonholer thank you. And that is a lot of buttons on a very short placket! But necessary with the close fit of the bodice.

Even without the petticoat it’s not half bad, though as with all 50s-style dresses it’s more fun with.

All in all, this was a nice, quick project with a nice fabric and surprisingly little drama. I’ll take it!

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Tagged as finished projects, Vogue 2960

July 2, 2016 · 7:47 pm

Happy Canada Day!

Actually Canada Day was yesterday (July 1). I barely left the house and didn’t put on makeup, and we were total hermit bums and completely avoided the fireworks and all possible forms of merrymaking. I helped my daughter sew shorts. It was heavenly. But that’s another story for another blog post, because today I’m talking about my Canada Day outfit. Which, as I said, I didn’t wear on Canada day, because that would’ve required changing out of my PJs. I wore it to work today, though, styled as above, though I don’t think that much of my belly was showing. I got plenty of compliments, anyway, even from the Mennonite ladies, so it can’t have been too scandalous.

I won’t exactly say this outfit feels “me” but it was pretty fun to make. The fabric is a quilting cotton, lined with white muslin, so basically heaven to sew. The pattern, of course, is Gertie’s Butterick 6354.

I was originally envisioning some kind of simple strappy sundress for this fabric, but when B6354 came out, my plans changed pretty quickly. This would’ve been the perfect outfit for spending a day at the celebrations in the park, eating cake and watching multicultural dancing and topping it off with fireworks. If only I weren’t such a lazy bum.

Anyway, the skirt was super simple and fun to sew. And it has a pretty cool shape, though maybe it’s a bit long on me.

The bodice was a bit more complicated but still not technically bad. I’d never done centre darts before—it was interesting to try but I don’t love them. And I feel like I should’ve shortened my bias front flap pieces a little as they stick out kinda funny. Oh, and did I mention how small I feel like my boobs are in this?

An SBA might have been a good idea. As it was, by the time I could really try it on it was fully assembled, so I wound up taking a couple of tucks out of the back to bring the whole thing in. Much better, for a last-minute on the fly fix. So if you’re minimal-boobed, like me, you might want to size down. Or add in padded cups. That would’ve been fun. 🙂

The back view.

And that’s about all I can remember, since of course I made this over a month ago so it could hang for a shop project. Happy Canada day, to my fellow Canadians—and happy Indpendence Day to anyone reading from the States. And if you have some other national holiday to be happy about, well, that’s awesome too. And if not, well, have cake anyway!

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Tagged as Butterick 6354, Canada Day, finished projects

June 27, 2016 · 7:37 am

Conquering (?)

One of the first times I saw my husband, across a crowded goth club, he was wearing a romantic, slightly pouffy white blouse.

This was the intended effect, though that was long before cellphone selfies so I have no photographic evidence.

Now, in the early days of this blog, the first shirt I ever blogged about making him was an attempt at recreating that long-lost shirt. But this wasn’t my first attempt.

A few years before that, shortly after we moved to Cowtown, I had tried to create much the same look, using Butterick 4486. I don’t even know how I came to own the pattern, though it’s still in print.

I didn’t have much success. My fabric was a slippery, textured synthetic that had a vague linen “look” with none of the joy of sewing actual linen. I was completely mystified by the placket construction on the front, and had to bring the half-finished shirt front back to Saskabush to consult both my mom and her best-sewing friend. I was still puzzled. and then, after all that angst and anguish, when giving the shirt a final press I managed to iron a hole right through it. Argh!!! Into the bin.

Needless to say, I was not a fan of the pattern. But I’m also a hoarder-in-training, so in stash it stayed. Until early this spring, when an old family friend contacted me, looking for a vaguely Mediaeval-looking shirt to wear for performances of a choir he’s part of that does Mediaeval and Renaissance style music.

Well, I hemmed and I hawed and finally admitted to myself that I was intrigued (especially if it meant I could sew with some yummy fabric like linen) and I emailed him back with a price that I was fairly sure would send him packing, but he didn’t even blink.

Next thing I knew we were exchanging inspiration photos and I was building a Pinterest board and a lot of what we were looking at was very reminiscent of Butterick 4486—not overly historically accurate, but certainly fun and evocative. It appeared the pattern would be coming out of 7 or 8 years in the naughty bin.

He found me several links to linen fabrics on Canadian fabric websites I hadn’t even heard of—with reasonable shipping rates! OMG!!! So once we settled on a colour, we were off to the races. (By the way, despite all my camera’s efforts to make it look grey, the colour is a medium muted blue.)

I feel I need to proclaim right off the bat that this is not meant in any way to be a genuine historical outfit. It’s more 60s-Hollywood-does-Mediaeval. 😉 but I added little “authentic” touches as I could—all the visible stitching (except the felling on the sleeve seams) is done by hand. The buttons are cloth balls, sewn directly to the edge of the cuff.

They’re pretty adorable, actually.

Though I think making more than six would get pretty tiresome. My hand worked buttonholes are… Not as terrible as they used to be? I’m still a little squirrelly about charging someone money for them, but I’m tamping that down hard under the “my time is worth it, dammit!” mantra.

I had a hard time settling on a seam finish. My first impulse was to flat fell everything. But, I was reluctant to do it all by hand (after all, this is a costume piece, not some intensively-researched recreation.) I tested the machine fell on the sleeves, but that still leaves a line of machine stitching on the outside. Which I didn’t hate enough to rip out, but I wasn’t loving.

I had plenty of time to ruminate on it, mind you, while sewing the endless eyelets of the placket. (And finishing both placket and cuffs by hand.) I tucked under the end of the placket and hand-stitched it down—not perfectly invisible but all the seams are enclosed! Which is not the case in the instructions. Still not loving the construction, but at least I knew what they wanted me to do this time.

I hand-felled the shoulder seams, which is lovely and authentic and stuff. For the side seams, I made French seams—maybe less authentic but a clean finish with no visible stitching.

The hardest decision was how to finish the armscyes. I didn’t think there would be enough seam allowance to fell over the bulky gathers, so I spent a bunch of time researching and dithering, and then eventually just did it.

I guess there was enough seam allowance after all. It’s a little odd with the gathering but I don’t mind it.

Then there was the fitting angst, as this is a long-distance project and while I worked from measurements, things like the dropped shoulder and the amount of length that will be lost when the tunic-length shirt is bloused over a belt are wild cards I can’t really predict. And then I realized I had messed up my interpretation of my measurements and had to shorten the sleeves by several inches. Infinitely better than the opposite, of course, but it meant taking off the cuffs. Which I then proceeded to sew back on inside out. Twice. Kill me. Please.

But the linen was a hell of a lot of fun to sew with! And it’s done, after a month of faffing around and endless hand-sewing. I’m in the middle of way too many intensive projects, by the way, mainly for other people. Blerg!

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Tagged as Butterick 4486, finished projects, men's sewing

May 29, 2016 · 7:00 am

Epic.

Never let it be said that I was afraid of a challenge. Well, a sewing one. I shy away from non-sewing ones in my daily life all the time. But that’s for my shrink to work out. In the meantime, what the fuck was I thinking?

Oh, yeah.

I’ve been playing with the idea of a quilted skirt since even before Gertie first made one last year. I’ve been intrigued by the idea of free motion quilting ever since I discovered it was a thing that exists. (Especially once I got a machine with feed dogs you could drop.) And while I’m intrigued by the thriftiness of patchwork, I am less attracted to the mysterious desire to chop perfectly good bits of fabric up into ittybitty pieces, however charming and artistic the result may be. But free motion quilting—drawing with thread—seemed right up my alley.

Especially when I started researching historical costuming and ran across the fabulous quilted silk “petticoats” of the 1700s.

Now, odds of me wearing a fabulous silk petticoat like the one above (from the Met)are fairly low, but odds of wearing a fifties-style quilted skirt? Well, that seemed at least probable.

(Incidentally, throw the term “boutis” in the search in Pinterest. OMG.)

And if I can do it as a shop project without having to fork out for the weird stuff I don’t have lying around (like batting)? Even better.

My fabric of choice was the “cotton satin” Fabricland got in again this spring. (I thought cotton satin was sateen, but anyway.) it’s delicious. It’s the same fabric I used for my polkadot dress last summer. I don’t know if it really is different from, say, a quilting cotton for this application, but I love it so whatever. 🙂

For the pattern, I went with McCall’s 7197. I wanted a flared skirt without darts, but not a full circle as I thought that might be too much.

It’s still a good chunk of a circle, about 2/3?

The batting is a bamboo needlepunch because it feels so soft and yummy to touch as well as being quite thin. I was hoping it might make a softer final fabric than a cotton batting, although then I went and double-layered it since the quilting on my samples looked much better double-layered, and then I quilted the whole border so densely it could probably stand up all by itself. So I suspect my final product is not readily distinguishable from the final result of any of the cotton battings.

Initially I had grand hopes of making my skirt reversible, one side black, one side white, and contrast quilting on the white side.

My first tests of actual quilting quickly convinced me that contrast quilting is just not a good idea at my current skill level (I have improved a bit since the above sample, my ego wants me to mention, but nowhere near enough.)

And balancing tension while free motion quilting is tricky enough (again, at my skill level) that using different colour threads top and bottom is also a bad idea.

As for the finer points of free motioning, I confess my research was not extensive. I spent some time on Pinterest gathering links, read a web tute on the basics, which didn’t tell me much I didn’t already know. It may have helped that while I’ve done little quilting and no free motion quilting before, I’ve appliquéd and I darn jeans like nobody’s business, which is much like free motion except for all the pretty and artistic parts.

The most helpful info was a collection of tutorials from a site called The Inbox Jaunt on various motifs. Most of which are way beyond me, but they were fun to play with and give me an idea of the range of possibilities, and the few I could master I used to death in the skirt. Mainly those big peony-looking flowers, also the leaves and the checkerboard squares.

I started with a “frame” of conventional quilting, using my walking foot. Last time I quilted anything, I didn’t have such a foot, and boy what a difference it makes. The layers just stayed together. Nothing crept or pulled—even my pin basting was minimal and almost unnecessary. And the quilting bar made it much faster to quilt all those little squares.

Initially I had envisioned a sinuous or spiraled motif for the border, but my skillz were inadequate to the challenge. I settled instead for lots of playing with those big flowers; the organic shape seemed to be the most tolerant of my inability to keep my free motion curves smooth and my hands’ occasional tendency to twitch sideways.

I made liberal use of the wash-away marker, and less liberal use of the pale peach chalk pencil. I prefer the wash away marker, FYI. I still can’t get all the damn peach out. I only used it because my wash away marker died and I couldn’t get a new one for a few days.

I wish I could say my quilting has improved exponentially, but I think all the spirals and feathers I yearn for are still beyond me. I did get a lot smoother over the course of my practicing, though, and I only sometimes jerk randomly any more. So there’s that.

I cut a size 10 based on the final measurements given on the pattern. It’s small on my waist, but I really wanted it to be snug to hold up the weight of the quilted skirt. If you look at the pattern it’s a contoured waistband, so technically the top of the waist band would be the natural waist, which is what the pics show. But the pattern piece has the waist line marked at halfway down the waist band. And personally, I wanted it to sit so the bottom of the waistband was at the natural waist. So we’ll see how that turns out.

Other than the flower motif, I filled in the border with leaves and scallops and squiggles. Above the border, I wanted a checkerboard pattern sort of randomly fading out into the upper skirt, and I threw the occasional little flower in there too.

I bound the edges of the skirt just like a quilt, though the waistband I finished more normally, for less bulk. Instead of a zip I went with buttons at the back, and so far the back seam isn’t stitched at all, just tacked with a nonfunctioning button partway down. If this isn’t enough I will hand-stitch it shut invisibly.

Guys, I won’t lie. This was a shitload of fun and I am so fucking proud of myself right now I can’t even. It was a lot of very intense work, but I love the level of detail I got, the intensity of the texture. I love crazy intricate detailing (hence the intermittent Victorian obsession) but very rarely reach that level in my own work, so to achieve it feels amazing. I want to just sit there and pet it and gaze at the glorious texture. Which is not to say it’s perfect, far from it, but where I got from where I started? That feels truly epic.