Tag Archives: in progress

October 8, 2010 · 11:33 am

Heading off…

Bambi v. 2

I really had hoped the last few days would be more productive, but alas. Instead of a cute new sleep-set to take away with me, all I have is a half-stitched bodice about to be bundled away into the basement so my sewing clutter doesn’t drive my husband as nuts while I’m away as it does when I’m here. The downside of this thin voile, as you can see, is that the enclosed seam allowances still show through. Ah, well. Not much I can do about it.

My one (attempt) at innovation this time—I attached the bust pieces at the centre front along a short seam. I’m hoping this will give just enough room to allow me to sew the skirt to the top portion in a circle and enclose the whole seam, giving a nicer finish to the inside (like the inside of a collar). Typicaly this would be topstitched or stitched in the ditch, but I’m not great at that finish in these situations, so I may end up doing it by hand. We’ll see. Here’s a closeup of my attachment:

But pieces joined at centre front

And the decorative stitching I attempted on the straps. Getting it to go straight without pulling on the strap so much it distorted the stitching was pretty much impossible, but I’m hoping it gives it a subtly attractive texture. 😉

Fancy stitching no one will ever notice

I’ll be in Pittsburgh late tomorrow night, after zig-zagging across the continent (hooray for cheap flights :P), and be back home equally late Thursday. I’ve attempted to prepare a couple of posts for while I’m away, but it certainly won’t be my daily blurbs (not that those have been too spectacular this week anyway). I’ve been so proud of my more-or-less daily posting! Though realistically that’s going to have to taper off a bit anyway.

Now, wise readers—what do I need to see/do in Pittsburgh? (Keeping in mind that I’ll be downtown without a car). I hear there’s an awesome notions place… anywhere else? (And for the leads I’ve already gotten, thanks—I’ll get back to you soon!)

8 Comments

Filed under Sewing

Tagged as Bambi, in progress, too much talk

October 6, 2010 · 8:38 pm

Quick and simple

Bambi and Madeleine

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions on where to go next :). All the ideas were good. Since I’m about to be off to a conference for most of next week, I figured quick and simple was the way to go for now—I’ll tackle some new skillz and stuff when I get back.

So today I printed out and pieced together the Colette free pattern Madeleine bloomers, of which there are many cute versions inhabiting the internet (The Sew Convert’s being particularly recent and cute). I was hoping to make them out of the last of the black cotton, to go with my Bambi nightie—they seem like they’d make a nice bottom for that piece. However, there was even less fabric left than I had thought—not even enough for the teensiest pair of bloomers ever. So I had to search around a bit. I haven’t got the world’s largest stash, and not much of it is lightweight fabrics for summery sleepwear. Well, there is the chiffon, but I have about as much desire to sleep in that as I do to sew it. 😛

But, there was the remains of the crinkle cotton voile. The four metres of this fabric I bought back in July (?) have already successfully produced my husband’s shirt and the 70s sundress, but there was just enough left to squeeze out another Bambi and a Madeleine. Although I’m a little worried my straps may not end up long enough. Seriously, there isn’t a piece left as big as a washcloth :). Anyway, I shan’t have time to stitch them tonight, but maybe tomorrow. I widened the back of the Bambi by a couple of inches, we shall see if that makes it a little easier to wriggle into, or if it just ends up being floppy.

Bookemon & Ebichu label on the yellow sundress

And, I spent a little more time playing with labels. The kids were distinctly unimpressed by my labels—they wanted ones that had their names on. I thought about it, and eventually came up with these. I went through and picked every cute and cool-looking font on the computer (I have a lot of fonts), in a variety of colours. They say “Bookemon & Ebichu”, which are (two of) my husband’s nicknames for the girls. We’re not overly into Pokemon, so I’m not sure why, but there they are. I’ve already attached two, and need to stitch on some more.

Speaking of which, I guess I could finish putting labels

Bookemon & Ebichu label on the Little A-Line

into the other stuff I’ve made. I only have my labels on two or three things so far 🙂

And, just for fun, here’s the whole page:

Aren't they cute?

14 Comments

Filed under Sewing

Tagged as Bambi, DIY clothing labels, in progress, Madelein Bloomers, plans

September 30, 2010 · 9:42 am

Lady Grey Muslin

So last night I managed to get the sleeves on and make some preliminary adjustments to the fit. Namely, I took in the centre back about 2″ and each back princess seam about another 1″. I might let the CB out a tiny bit—it looks awesome as is, but it’s probably a little more snug than an overgarment should be. Though I’m not aiming for this to be my awesome-warm-all-winter garment. Just a nice spring/fall coat. I also lowered the armscye by just taking another seam 1/4″ below the existing one, which eased that area a lot. I may experiment with taking it down a bit more. There’s still a bit of extra width in the upper back, but if I take that in I lose range of motion.

I think I really do have to fix that lapel. 😛 What do you think of the back? There is still some wrinkling around the sleeves, but everyone seems to have that.

What about the length? I haven’t turned anything under yet (hopefully get to that tonight). It really looks pretty ok just how it is… does this mean I should be adding hem-allowances? 😉 But that’s probably getting ahead of ourselves. Anyhoo, further thoughts/comments would be very, very, very welcome.

In Self-Stitched September news, I’ve been kinda slack documenting the last couple of days. I’ve been wearing the ex-capri Jalie jeans, tuesday with the red JJ blouse, yesterday with one of the Lydia tops. You can see portions of those outfits in today and yesterday’s muslin pics, but I didn’t get proper outfit photos. Today, for the finale, I’m attempting to jazz it up a bit with my Kasia skirt.

Trying to fix my hair while posing (windy!)

Top: black JJ, red Simplicity 2603 cardi-wrap
Bottom: Kasia skirt from burdastyle.com, lacey tights from Joe (AKA Superstore) and my cute-librarian heels. I’m nots ure the busy tights work with the outfit, but oh well.

Also, while running up the steps of the deck I ripped the back slit of the Kasia up about three inches. Have to decide what to do about that (shoulda done a vent! 😉 )

This would've been a cut pose except that it looks like I'm doing the dandruff check :P. Again trying to fix my hair in the wind at the wrong moment.

17 Comments

Filed under Sewing

Tagged as coat, coats, fitting, in progress, Lady Grey, muslin, Self-stitched September

September 29, 2010 · 6:12 am

Lady Grey Muslin… on your mark, get set…

So, I have dryer-steamed my “muslin” fabric. I attempted a tissue-fit of the pattern, with limited success, but I did decide to shorten the waist slightly and do a small swayback adjustment before I begin. Probably I should’ve done an SBA to start, too, but we’ll see. May I just say that swayback adjustments do scary thing to pattern pieces?

Anyway, yesterday I managed to cut out the pieces for the muslin and get the bodice, at least, sewn together.

: Side—holy swayback adjustment, Batman! But, the bust curve actually looks good

: Pinching in rear seam for swayback

: Front: slightly gapy across the lapel

: Back—not puddling, just loose as hell

: front—looking halfway decent.

I won’t post them up to the group until I get the sleeves and collar sewn on, but I couldn’t resist a quick preview for you guys (and myself).

The biggest issue I see is need for further swayback work. There’s also a slight gaping/sagging of the lapels at the front, but the princess-seam curve works surprisingly well (the whole time I was cutting it out, I was thinking “this is a really intense princess curve. It’s totally not going to fit me.” Once I get done butchering the swayback, I think I will need to lengthen the back hem by a couple of inches.

Now, my bust and hip measurements correspond to a Colette size 0. My waist, by contrast, is a size 6. So I was really worried about this coat wrapping around enough to sit properly. Also, since my shoulders are fairly broad (or at least, since I definitely do not have a C cup), I decided to cut the size 2. I thought this *might* give me a better fit than the 0 which is presumably designed for someone with a larger bust hung on a smaller frame. Additionally, when I shortened the waist, I did my best to remove/widen the smallest part of the waist, although it didn’t amount to more than a few milimetres at any given seam, so I’m not sure if it’s noticeably affecting the fit. It seems like there might be a little too much width across the back now, but I don’t really want to mess with that until after I’ve got the sleeves attached.

Anyway, please share any thoughts you have. Hopefully I’ll have the sleeves attached, hems pressed up, etc. by the end of the day to post to the flickr group 🙂

13 Comments

Filed under Sewing

Tagged as coat, fitting, in progress, Lady Grey, muslin

September 24, 2010 · 10:53 pm

Minor movement

Today was my official return to public life. Or, at least, life that doesn’t involve spending about eighteen hours a day in bed. Kids are off school (four day weekend…. ugh, what’s up with my state-sponsored daycare system, as my mother used to say). Had parent-teacher meetings which went well—for both kids, which is unusual. Bought a rather frightening amount of groceries (yes, the cash crisis has eased, at least for the moment. Tomorrow I will pay a frightening amount of bills, too) And, I actually made some pretense of sewing. Not, of course, my winter coat (still no buttons, haven’t decided what to do about the buttonholes). Nor have I progressed in tracing out the Lady Grey pattern (not that I have muslin fabric or regular coat fabric for that, either, mind you) No, smarty-pants that I am, I spied the thread for a Pyjama Sew-Along on PR and just had to jump in. Now, I have been wishing most of this past week that I had self-stitched pyjamas, and I definitely need pyjamas (I have three nighties, only one of which is actually cute)… but really, I should be working on either the Lady Grey prep or my big coat. Or, y’know, the talk I’m supposed to be giving at this conference in a couple of weeks. Ulp.

But we won’t talk about that. No, we’re going to talk about Bambi.

Bambi nightie bust pieces and straps

Not really much to say. Cute (I’m not going to make those arm flounces…)… free. I like free patterns. I decided to cut the 34, despite my measurements being squarely in the 36 range, because I often have to take stuff in through the bust. We’ll see if this was a wise decision. I’m a little nervous about the shirred back-panel providing the right amount of stretch, but I guess we’ll just have to see. I should probably have straightened the princess seams on the cups for a slight SBA… we’ll call this version the wearable muslin, before I break out the crazy silks. From, y’know, my huge stash of expensive luxury fabrics. Anyway, so far I have the bust pieces put together. Big whoop. But, considering that just walking around the grocery store for a couple hours this afternoon almost put me out, I’m going to call it a productive day.

In Self-Stitched September news, the parent-teacher conference gave me an excuse to dress up nice. Mmm, I love this combination.

Lydia and Danielle layered on top, Jalie jeans beneath

For the sake of the photos I figured I’d accessorize. This is a vintage mink-trimmed coat my sister-in-law gave her; she got it from her father, and I have absolutely no idea whence it came beyond that except it’s old. It’s got the oddest stand to the collar, too, that appears to have been hand-stitched down, although that’s the only obvious couture thing about it. It really is a lovely coat, other than the sleeves being about an inch too long, and I wish I went off to the symphony or the theatre (NOT the local cineplex, either) more often so I would have a reason to wear it. Ironically, today is pretty much the first day all month I didn’t need a jacket of any kind to go out in, but it was still fun to model.

Accessories: nifty mink-trimmed coat, vintage; kick-ass boots, Walmart.

Hmm. Do I need to mow my grass one last time?

I was going for cute and demure. A girl can dream, right?

You can tell I had a lot of fun taking these, because there’s way too many of them. There’s a few more on Flickr itself.

Now, I’d better go do some family time before I get in (even more) trouble, but I wanted to bang this out before I fall over after my Big Day Back. Talk to you tomorrow!

8 Comments

Filed under Sewing

Tagged as Bambi, in progress, nightie, Self-stitched September

September 21, 2010 · 8:47 pm

Bleeeuuuuuaauauagh…

Yeah, that about sums it up. Sorry for the no-post yesterday… I have about enough stamina to run downstairs and heat up some tea before collapsing back into bed right now. Probably I’d be doing better if I could actually sleep, but the general malaise and sinus-balloons aren’t helping there, either. So, anyway, enough whining.

Yesterday, I did manage to take in the white Lydia and hem the sleeves, but not the bottom as I like to iron in some wash-away stabilizer for that, and I’m not up for that much running-up-and-down of stairs. I also spent some time working on The Coat—finishing the hem and making chain tacks between lining hem and shell hem out of some silver embroidery floss I happened to have handy. I have a small

Chain-tack to keep lining and coat hems from shifting too much.

stash of embroidery floss, mostly dating from high-school, when I enjoyed cross stitch, before I realized that if you do cross-stitch, what you end up with at the end of the day is a piece of cross-stitch.

Man, I’m a pack-rat.

Anyway, the exertion of sitting upright for a whole three hours or so was enough to send me back to bed for the evening too wiped to even write, much less photograph my accomplishments.

Today, by contrast, I lay in bed. I did bestir myself enough to open up my Lady Grey pattern, unfold the tissue, separate the pieces, and mark out the size 2 in a felt marker so I can trace them off more easily later. I napped, or tried to. In a fit of boredom, I took another stab at designing labels, this time using Inkscape (since I have it on my laptop, whereas my elderly copy of

Labels made in Inkscape. Also a cooler font.

Illustrator only runs on the old XP desktop). Inkscape is another vector graphics program, rather like Illustrator’s awkward, ungainly cousin. It has one huge advantage over Illustrator—it’s free—and one smaller one, which is that although its user-interface is fairly clunky, I actually find it more intuitive than Illustrator’s, which has to be the least-intuitive graphics program I’ve ever messed with*.

Anyway, you can see the outcome. The illustration actually printed out quite nicely… I was a little worried about

Label, v. 2.0

that. And here is the label in place in my coat:

So that’s where I’m at.

Oh, Self-stitched September.

Yesterday

Today.

All right. Off to bed.

*I’ve never actually had any formal training in graphic arts. All of my photoshop prowess, which is passable, and my Illustrator and Inkscape and GIMP fu, which are rather less, come from messing around. A lot of messing around. If you have actual training in any of these programs, my hat is off to you and you can undoubtedly make them dance circles around what little I can do.

24 Comments

Filed under Sewing

Tagged as DIY clothing labels, in progress, Self-stitched September, too much talk, whining, Winter Coat

September 18, 2010 · 8:55 pm

Halt!

I hung the coat from my upstairs railings down into the kitchen below to facilitate hemming it.

Erm, y’know that coat?

Yeah, the one I’ve been cracking away at all week?

That I was hoping to finish today or tomorrow?

So here’s the thing.

I don’t have any buttons for it.

Yeah, I know. Wee bit of an oversight, there.

Um. I’m forgetful that way?

I do have the button insta-stash now, but while it does have a few large buttons, it has nothing like the eight to ten matching ones I need for this coat.

Now, in addition to having no buttons, I have no money. Zero cash. As in, bank overdrawn, credit card maxed, parents already hit up for money this month. Ouch. September always bites this way, and every year I swear I’m going to plan for it, and every year it whams us like a frying pan. I had tuition to pay, kids have school fees (most of which I put off but I kinda have to pay for Syo’s school bus fees up front because… well, it’s a long, ranting story better saved for the non-existant “Kids school blog.” And I had to register and book a plane ticket to the big yearly conference I’m presenting at next month. Speaking of which, anyone know any good fabric stores in Pittsburgh?

Anyway, next installment of money comes soon, we are not about to starve or lose the house or anything, but it does mean I can’t justify buying buttons until at least next week. No coat for me. 😦

However, that didn’t stop me from spending most of my Saturday (between ferrying hubby to work and Syo to buy a birthday present

A whole lotta coat!

and then later go to the birthday party) working at the coat. It’s almost entirely hemmed now. The front facings still hate me (or each other). I swear by the time I’m done the front panels are pretty much going to be pad-stitched to each other. It’s like some part of my brain is convinced that if I throw enough hand-stitching at it, it’ll all turn out alright. I think I need to coin a new word for this… basse couture? Pauvre couture? Whatever it is, it’s like the opposite of haute couture, but still with all the hand-work.

Also, I spread it out on the floor just to see, and the skirt is almost a full three-quarter circle. That’s a whole lotta coat!

I really hope this coat ends up gorgeous at some point. Because on the hanger it just sorta looks bleh. And I was not going for bleh. Not at all. 😦

I think tomorrow I need a quick, satisfying project. Another Lydia or something.

In Self-Stitched September news, the outfit is a complete, item-for-item repeat of the ninth, so I decided to accessorize.

The backdrop of my crummy garage really doesn't do us justice, I know.

I know, you can’t really see the clothes.

In real life the skulls are actually a medium grey. They reflect the flash from the camera, however.

Sadly, I don’t actually ride this myself. I do an awesome job of looking cute on the back, however (or so my hubby assures me). I hope we get at least a few more days in before the season truly ends.

14 Comments

Filed under Sewing

Tagged as in progress, Self-stitched September, too much talk, Winter Coat

September 16, 2010 · 8:50 pm

So close…

Zig-zag butted edges and twill-tape covering

And yet so far away.

The interlining is assembled. This was interesting and kind of fun, but not very tricky. I cut it out sans seam allowance, butted the edges, and stitched them together with a three-step zig-zag. Then, just to make the join stronger, I covered it with twill tape stitched down on each side.

Then I ran out of twill tape.

Unwilling to be delayed or sacrifice the two hours it would take to get to Fabricland on transit to get more twill tape, I

My space suit!

sacrificed some nice ribbon instead. Sorry. If I’d had crummy ribbon I would’ve used that. Well, at least it’s pretty.

I actually have gotten quite a bit further… I have lining inserted, collar attached, and am currently fighting with the hem. It’s not going well. The front panel has an edge on the bias, which stretched out when I hung it up. Now, I’m pretty sure the instructions included a part on hanging before hemming… but anyway, it threw off the fit with the front facing, which is interfaced so didn’t stretch… I was suppose to interface the front itself but I messed it up… actually the instructions didn’t say which until AFTER, I guess assuming your front and facing pieces will be interchangeable. Sine I had to piece together my facings, that wasn’t really an option. So anyway, I’m having some issues there. I’ll take pictures when it’s looking a little more kick-ass than it is now, hopefully by the end of the weekend.

In Self-Stitched September news, here’s today’s outfit:

I am a goddess of compassion.

As you can see, it’s only one piece (the pants… ok it’s actually the other Lydia shirt but really, the arms are identical) off from this much better pic from last week.

But really, I'm just a goofball.

Taking pics outside is WAY more fun, I think.

Anyway, having sewed more than I ought to today (even if I don’t have much to show for it yet), I will take my leave… hopefully when we meet again I’ll have a coat to show off!

7 Comments

Filed under Sewing

Tagged as in progress, Self-stitched September, too much talk, Winter Coat

September 14, 2010 · 9:05 pm

Twinkle, twinkle, little bat

More edgy photography by Tyo... if you tilt your head right you can see a few under-arm wrinkles left.

How I wonder where I’m at?

Hrrrmm. Working on this coat definitely does not produce the kind of instant satisfaction sewing a Lydia or a cardi-wrap does. But, I have conquered the sleeves of doom. Or, at least, we’ve fought each other to a standstill, an uneasy cease-fire marred only by occasional skirmishes as I tug futilely at the remaining wrinkles under the sleeve. It’s not perfect, but considering my limitations in the no-dressform department and my idiotic abandonment of the idea of using pieces from the same pattern that actually match… well, I can’t really complain. It took many rounds of pinning, basting, and ultimately a felt-tip marker, but they’re in.

Oh crap. Now I have to do that all over again with the lining.

MOVING ON…

I tackled that touchy subject, the shoulder-pad. Now, my original pattern called for 1/2 shoulder pads. Can we say 80s, anyone? I generally

Believe it or not, this is the inside of my coat (sleeve to the bottom). The blobby half-circle thing is the shoulder pad, the white thing is the sleeve head.

don’t think my shoulders need much additional breadth, plus I’m pretty sure I removed most of that ease when I petite’d the jacket bodice, but I figured I’d give some thin pads a try. I took two layers of my coat fabric, cut into half-circles and zig-zagged along one edge, with a smaller half-circle inserted between to give it a bit more substance. And, y’know, it really does smooth out the look of the shoulder. I also did my own improvised sleeve-heads, which I may even have inserted properly, and they seem to help, too, with giving a nice, smooth line to the shoulder. So I may be half-ass, but I’m only a half-ass half-ass. Or something. For some reason in the picture above one side looks pointier than the other, which is certainly possible but I don’t really see it in the real coat so I’m going to hope it’s an artefacte of the monster’s photography.

Anyway, here’s the front view:

Gee, I look short. That's kind of amazing, actually.

And the back view:

Coat back. I look less short, for some reason.

And this is the inside where the pocket is hanging out (Tyo figured you needed to see this. I’m mostly including it because it’s the closest we got to photographing my clothing today—the

Coat inside, and today's outfit.

Manequim cowl top and the black Jalie jeans again. I believe I’m wearing them both in this original picture, anyway, which is much more flattering than anything I can pull of today. I won’t lie, I came close to cracking and putting on RTW jeans today… but I gritted my teeth and got another day’s wear out of the black jalies. The nice thing about this overly-stretchy fabric-store denim is it doesn’t bag out as badly at the knees as the RTW does, which is usually my cue to change my pants. The ex-capris are washed now and assuming they’re dry by tomorrow I’ll be back in them. Isn’t this exciting?!?)

Ok, the hubby is whining that I’m not spending time (aka watching TV) with him, so I’d better go bum around support my marriage. Tomorrow… lining sleeves! And interlining.

10 Comments

Filed under Sewing

Tagged as in progress, plans, Self-stitched September, Winter Coat

September 13, 2010 · 8:50 pm

This would be infinitely easier…

Sleeve pinned---almost looking good.

… if I had a dress-form.

I speak, of course, of trying to get the sleeves set in my winter coat. I got the rest of the lining cut out and mostly assembled, so all I need to do at this point is set the sleeves, construct the interlining, and then put the whole thing together.

Setting the sleeves is a problem.

This is because the sleeve I chose to use is not the sleeve which came with the pattern.

Typically when you do this, you choose a sleeve from a pattern that has worked well for you in the past, and then you copy the armscye from that

And straight... still some wrinkling on the inside.

pattern as well.

However, I didn’t actually have a sleeve from a jacket pattern that I liked. All I knew was that I wanted a two-piece sleeve and I didn’t like the sleeve that came with the pattern (which was one piece and designed for a puffed sleeve-head.)

So, I’m using the sleeve from this coat. Yeah, the one that I had all the trouble with. And there was no way I was copying the armscye that went with it.

I’m stupid that way. The armscye length was actually perfect (I measured), but I thought I should enlarge the sleeve a bit and cut the head extra-generous so I would have some wiggle room.

And, y’know, I think it can work. I’ve had it pinned into a reasonably functional position (on me) about five times in the last two hours.

I just can’t get it off to baste it without the pins popping. And I don’t think I can really baste it while I’m wearing it.

I was hoping to make a paper-tape dress form on the weekend, to address this very problem, but that didn’t happen (see the post about Sunday). And it probably won’t happen next weekend, as the hubby works. Unless I can conscript the children… I’ve already had to fight to keep them out of my precious paper tape. We’ll see how desperate I get.

I really, really, really would like to get this coat finished. It’s frickin’ cold here right now and the only coat I have is a very stylish, beautifully-draping raglan-sleeve dress coat I got at Value Village about twelve years ago. It’s been sitting mostly in my closet since then, probably for the same reason it was at Value Village in the first place: it has no buttons.

Yes, function was definitely secondary to form when that coat was designed. This is a bit of a pain, although it works pretty well with my new cardi-wrap if I throw one side of the wrap over my shoulder before I put on the coat. Just like having a big red scarf.

Oh, I guess there is the fur coat from my grandmother and the mink-trimmed coat from my sister-in-law, but a) that’s a bit dressy even for me and b) I don’t really need to be assaulted by PETAns on my way to work.

And speaking of the crappy weather, here’s my outfit today:

Self-Stitched September Day 13