Tag Archives: in progress

August 21, 2010 · 3:25 pm

Hyperventilation

I cut out my coat!

Yes, that is what you think it is.

It’s what, until a few hours ago, was 5 m of 60″ wide “unknow fibre” coating. Yup, this stuff.

Winter Coat Supplies

This is Progress On The Winter Coat. The project that, really, started it all.

I might just pass out with excitement. Or is it exhaustion?

I’ve probably rambled about this before, but not in a few months, so here it goes:

I wear long winter coats. Now, I live in Canada. The climate I grew up with is very similar to the climate of Siberia. The area I live in now is somewhat more moderate, but still, a nice warm winter coat is a must.

A nice, stylish winter coat, on the other hand, is almost impossible to find. Those which are warm enough are mostly down-filled parkas with all the flair and panache of the Marshmallow Man, and those with an ounce of style are never, ever, ever warm enough.

All right. I admit—I have not worn a full-length fur coat out in real cold. It’s possible that would be warm enough, and still stylish, depending on how much you wish to enrage the PETAns. But even this delightful, and very Canadian, Hudson’s Bay Blanket coat I had in University wasn’t really warm enough. Shortly after I

Old Winter Coat

tearfully acknowledged that I had worn it to death, my mom scrounged the coat to the left out of a duffel bag found in an alley. Thrifting at its best, right?

It’s lovely. (Well, it was, except for the sleeves being too short).  I would call it a fall weight, however; it’s a single layer of medium-weight wool coating and a thin lining. No tag indicating fibre content, but it certainly feels like wool. Made in Belarus, if that’s of interest. I’ve worn it for the last four or

My worn-out winter coat

five years, through two sets of buttons and some serious pocket surgery. I got through winter by the practical but not overly stylish method of layering two to three hooded sweaters underneath it, at least one as long as the coat itself, depending on the temperature. By this past spring, however, the back was getting… a little worn out. I won’t even show you the lining.

But—I had a plan. After Christmas, when I was searching out patterns for my girls’ coats, I had also stumbled upon this:

My Winter Coat Pattern

Butterick 5425. Everything I could possibly want, as far as I could tell, in a winter coat. I was going to make my own! It would be lined, underlined, interlined, and super-duper warm! It would be classy and stylish! It would have long enough sleeves! And really, considering that the kind of coats I like really cost hundreds of dollars, and still wouldn’t be warm enough and would have too-short sleeves, I could spend an awful lot of money on fabric and still come in cheaper.

Now, I will make a confession: if I were picking a pattern now, I might not choose this one. I’ve seen a lot more patterns for coats now, and having made the muslin I’m not totally thrilled with the armscye of this one. But I still love the princess seams and the full, long skirt and the pattern was almost twenty bucks, so I’m going with it. I made some alterations to the upper bodice (shortened the whole thing a touch) and I’m going with a different, two-piece sleeve. With any luck this will fix my dislikes, although given my recent track-record with jackets I’m not feeling as optimistic as I was a few months ago.

This spring, in the depths of the spring clearance at fabricland, I found my fabric. Like the pattern, it’s probably not perfect—I don’t think it’s pure wool, for one thing—but it will do. At least for this first coat. More recently, I finally got my other materials together. So for the last month or so I’ve been dodging around actually starting the damn thing.

But—as of today—it’s cut. Progress! I actually gave up on tracing the pattern, as that step was blocking me too much. Yes, I confess, I cut a pattern. I’m disappointed, too; I’m sure I’ll regret it later. I’d like to have it finished by the end of September, so I’ll be able to devote my full attention to the Lady Grey Coat Sew-Along!

(I know, a little weird to be making the winter coat before the fall one. Sorry, can’t be helped.)

All right… that was a lot of words for not a lot of actual progress. But it is progress, nonetheless.

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August 19, 2010 · 7:54 am

Kasia—fitting

Or, A Window To My Insecurities

Kasia: front

I hate fit photos. I have a really hard time making myself take them—straight on, rear view, side view, with no posing or angling or

Kasia: side

twisting to give me the illusion of a figure I don’t have. Also, as usual, any kind of a waistband at my waist makes me feel like an absolute blob. (I am trying very hard to remind myself this is just a feeling and does not necessarily reflect how I actually look in the item) But, for your amusement, here they are.

Obviously the waistband needs to come in a bit, chiefly at the centre back. Big surprise. Also, despite my grading of the waist up a size, the curve of the hips is still a little generous (aka poufy. This hip-pouf is the reason I originally abandoned high-waisted anything), so I will need to take that in. It’s

Kasia: rear

especially obvious in the rear view.

Other than those fairly minor tweaks it’s looking not bad. I think the length will be nice once it’s hemmed. (This is also outside the comfort zone for me… I traditionally wear my skirts really long, like full length, or really short. For functional reasons, this mostly means I don’t wear my skirts. However, the one skirt in my wardrobe that actually gest worn on a regular basis is just above knee-length.)

I have some issue with my zipper insertion (don’t I always?) but since it doesn’t show I’m not overly bothered by it. Now I’m debating how much topstitching to do (all there is right now is around the hip panels). Emphasize the waistband, or the vertical seams? (or both?) Invisible hem or topstitched hem at the bottom? I’m sooo tempted to peg the bottom sides in a bit, too, but I’m trying to resist, as it really looks fine and if it’s too narrow to walk in, I won’t wear it.

Then there’s the issue of how much ease I need in the waistband. Ease at the waist has always been tricky for me. The amount that feels comfortable (i. e. doesn’t leave me feeling like I instantly gained 20 lbs) is very little, which tends to produce rolls when I sit down. Now, muffin-top at my hips bothers me not at all, but rolls at the waist drive me nuts. But so does a loose waistband.

Funny how your feelings about how you look can be so disconnected from how you actually look, hey? Looking at the pictures, I actually don’t mind the skirt. There’s even some curviness at the hip there (aside from the poufy part) that is the main draw of a pencil skirt; though not seeing my bellybutton above a waistband is very disorienting. Wearing it, I feel big as a house. Pregnant. Like I’m driving a minivan. (Yes, driving minivans makes me feel fat. Something about the way they maneuver…)

Hopefully some careful fitting and lots of awesome photos later will help me take care of that.

Well, I hope that was an interesting window into all my little figure-insecurities. Now, I need a cup of tea.

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August 18, 2010 · 9:48 pm

Slow and (not so) steady…

Kasia skirt front, showing one of the inner panels

I thought I’d have more progress to report on the Kasia by now. I had hopes of prancing around in it by tonight. Alas… things come up. I did at one point today have the side-seams stitched together enough to try it on (so far so good… the waistband will be the make-or-break, of course), then I had to pull them apart to add the waistband. Which is really confusing, by the way, since it’s in about seven different pieces. Two of which are the same piece (centre front) in different layers. I thought skirts were supposed to be easy? And then I had to drive out to Fabricland to get more topstitching thread—more of that famous silvery-grey that I used on the black jeans and the kids’ jean jackets. It’s a pain in the butt to sew with, especially since using some normal “jeans thread” on the last pair of capris, which was much better behaved, but I love the bright silvery colour, and I didn’t want denim-gold topstitching on this skirt. Although it is denim, I’m looking for something that reads a bit classier than “jean skirt.”

I’m not totally sold on the colour of the contrast inserts (it’s the same sparkly denim from the kids’ jackets) but I like that it’s much lighter-weight (better for gathering) than the striped denim.

Sadly, the Cupcake Goddess’s tutorial on sewing a skirt vent came a day late for me to put one in the back skirt, so a slit it will have to be.

Next trick… get the sides all sewn up and figure out if I need to make any sway-back adjustments to the waistband. Shouldn’t be hard with all the seams in it, but here’s hoping it won’t be necessary.

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August 15, 2010 · 10:06 am

Fools rush in…

oops... a jacket.

Where wiser seamstresses fear to tread.

This is a jacket from my new Burda mag. This jacket, actually. Minus pockets, on account of I don’t really like patch pockets on coats and I’m too lazy to learn to do the welt pocket on the left breast right now.

Yes, THAT jacket.

Yes, I went ahead and cut it without doing a proper muslin or anything. I am not in the right headspace to be tackling this, by any means. I haven’t read up on my tailoring in a few months. I haven’t gone through my sole sewing book for whatever tips may lurk within. Most of all, I’m not feeling patient, although I am working on it.

I traced off a size 18; this is the Burda petite size equivalent to my regular size, 36. The arms of the pattern

front of lining/muslin

are long to begin with, but let’s face it, I’m no petite. I measured the pattern pieces, and my own arms (this is always touch-and-go as it varied by where the shoulder/sleeve seam falls), and added an inch for good measure. Plus a 4cm hem allowance, so really I should have plenty to play with.

I cut out the lining first and sewed it up quickly to test the fit. The bodice was surprisingly good, although I’m not quite sure there’s going to be enough overlap in the front. Odd, since that should be the one dimension it actually fits me in. Here’s a few shots of it, though they’re mostly terrible. The darts actually fall in a really good place for me (which never happens). The bodice length is awesome (Ok, an extra half-inch somewhere probably wouldn’t’ve hurt, but I like a short jacket so I’m not going to bother). The fit at the curve of my (sway) back is great, too.

Back of lining/muslin. Something is WRONG with those shoulders.

Something is WRONG with the shoulders. It’s like all the fullness is gathered behind the shoulder, pulling the shoulder-seam back and making it poufy at the back there. I think I got the easing in the right place according to the pattern, but it does not look right at all. I think it’s just a problem in how the ease is distributed, though (as opposed to how the pattern is cut.) Also, I sewed the side pieces in backwards, which may have thrown off the armscye a bit.

Don’t ever try to use your lining as a muslin. It’s way too slippery and hard to get right—and then you won’t know which fitting issues are genuine and which just come from your own screw-ups. And then you pretty much have to pull it all apart to sew the facings in anyway.

Also, Things I Learned Tracing My First Burda Magazine Pattern

  • even if you remember to leave space for the seam allowances, leave more, they are LARGER than you think.
  • try to get all the pattern markings, including the seam numbers, down when you first trace it. You WILL need this info, and going back and finding the pieces again on the pattern is a PITA.
  • However, you will miss some markings. Go back and add them as soon as you realize it.
  • Burda uses little lines instead of notches. Draw your notches in (or out 😉 ) because you will forget them, otherwise. Don’t forget to do this at the seam allowance line, not just the stitching line.
  • the information is there. It’s just not always where you think it is.
  • look up how to sew a mitred corner.

Ok the last one probably isn’t very widely applicable. That’s all the instructions say for finishing the rear vent.

Anyway, I have a bit more interfacing and a LOT more reading to do. I have a feeling there will be a fair bit of basting and fitting for this one, especially around the shoulder area. But if I end up with a nice fall-weight jacket for Self Stitched September, I’ll be swimming, right?

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July 29, 2010 · 6:47 am

Summery black shirt—another whine.

Black halter top... so close!

Aaargh!

Well, I was progressing along nicely. Shirring the back took forever (and used up all my black elastic thread). It’s kinda boring, really. Thank goodness for podcasts. And it took three or four different attempts to get the triangle tops put on with the gathers distributed nicely; they’re still not perfect but I think they’ll do. And then I hemmed it and measured the front and put in the buttonholes (why does it always mess up on the very last buttonhole? why?) and started merrily sewing on the buttons and…

My fronts aren’t even.

There is a significant gap where the buttonhole side is longer than the button side.

Back looks pretty good.

WTF? The pattern pieces were identical, I promise you. Were the top parts sewn asymmetrically? Possibly, but not by the inch-inch and a half that they’re off.

No, the culprit in this case is my eyeballed hemming. For some reason when I was ironing the hems I couldn’t find the little hem measurer that I keep downstairs with the iron, so I eyeballed it.

My bad, apparently.

Not un-fixable, but yet another seam to rip out. Maybe I’ll remember to pick up a seam ripper today.

/sigh

Like my buttons? Unlike my uneven hems?

But the shirt as a whole is looking pretty good, if a little scanty in the bottom-half coverage. I’ll have to think about drafting that downward dip in the front that was there in my original drawing.

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July 28, 2010 · 4:20 pm

Setbacks

Frank-Halter-Top

I wish I had more progress to show you, especially as I’ll be disappearing for a bit in a few days. As usually happens when I venture into “my own design” (even when franken-patterning), progress is, shall we say, not so smooth. I was progressing at a good clip this morning (barring my usual haven’t-thought-things-through construction errors), got everything together except the buttonholes, and realized I need to re-adjust the position of the triangle tops and their gathering. The first iteration of this top, in the sundress, was a little

Showing: gathered triangle on left; shirred back on right.

too spread out and flat. This version, a little too concentrated and gathered. Not quite in my “just right” zone. Of course I didn’t discover this until I not only had both tops attached, but had bound the edges. Fortunately I didn’t trim (much) off, but that means I have about three times as many seams to pick out. And I still haven’t remembered to get a new seam-ripper, by the way.

My original length of shirring was too loose, so I shortened it by a couple of inches; now it’s very snug. This thing is going to need a lot of buttons. What do you think—boring black, or bright and vibrant? Might have to spend some time tonight digging through the button collection! 🙂

Hopefully I’ll make some more progress tonight. I’d really like to have this to wear on the vacay, and I am running out of evenings to work on it.

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July 22, 2010 · 7:44 am

Speaking of impatience…

Sundress Start

Last night when I couldn’t proceed any further on the jean jacket, I pulled out the sundress pattern, read the instructions (!), even  did something approaching a tissue fit, and started cutting. Remember when I said I would make a top-length first, to try it out?

Ah, no.

I have now cut the rest of my white crinkle voile (otherwise known as this shirt) in a full-length version of the dress. The top is self-lined, by the way, so I decided to cut the outer layer of the top out of this print gauze, and add a 3/4 length overskirt of the same gauze.

The gauze, by the way, is a (now) former broomstick skirt I’ve had forever. Ok, since the early nineties. I wore it to my grade-8 grad, and it was not new then. Broomstick skirts no longer do it for me, but I’ve always loved the colour and the pattern. I’m not much of a print person, really, but this one works for me. Hopefully, it will also work for this dress. I’m going to do it as an overskirt, open in the front. I’m hoping it’ll be enough to make the voile non-transparent, but we’ll see. I may have to make a slip or something. Definitely not a dress to wear with black undies.

I did not trace this pattern out. It was already cut, apparently by someone with a lot more cutting skill than me. Also she appears to have used weights. There are no pin-marks. So when cutting mine, I used weights (aka soup cans), too.

I am not real good at that. Also, I think I may need to think about new fabric scissors. Mine are pretty good, but they don’t snip. You know, with the very tips. I have so many memories of my mom cutting out fabric, going *snip, snip* with just the tips of the scissors around the notches, and they would come out perfectly. My scissors cut really well except for the last half-centimetre or so at the tips. This makes snipping around notches really crappy. Especially with weights rather than pins. Especially with precious vintage tissue I don’t want to damage. It would be nice to have some bent shears, as well. The kind where you don’t have to lift the fabric as much to cut.

Anyway, here’s hoping. Stay tuned!

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July 21, 2010 · 8:06 pm

Impatient

Second Kids' Jean Jacket

As usual, I can’t wait until the thing is fully finished. Sorry. Also I ran out of topstitching thread, so I’m not going to be able to finish it until tomorrow.

This project has been such a brat, and it’s all my fault. It’s like my brain was broken; I was incapable of

Second kids' jean jacket---back

thinking logically about the order in which it had to be constructed. Not looking at the instructions didn’t help, but I didn’t really look at them last time and it went much better. I have no excuses. It was simple incompetence, with perhaps a dose of hubris. Hopefully I’ll learn my lesson, o great Sewing Gods.

I figured out my problem with the collar being too big, by the way. I had been trying to fit it on only the jacket part. It is, of course, supposed to extend to the centre front on both sides—that is, about halfway across the front placket. The collar on the JJ blouse is exactly the same (except its button placket is cut on, not sewn on). Heck, pretty much any collar that doesn’t have a stand is done like this.

Inside---pocket linings and bias binding

And it took me two tries to figure this out (too late). In my defense, the illustration shows the inside (facing) so you can’t really tell where the collar should end relative to the band, but still. My bad. My stupid.

Ok, let’s look at the positives. The lace worked out surprisingly well. I might have used a bit more, but I ran out (seriously, I bought two metres. Who could imagine a jean-jacket could use up two metres of lace??). The pearl snaps are very cute, and much easier to put in now I have the proper tools. The topstitching is relatively flawless. The wider bias-binding inside

Snazzy under-collar

worked very nicely, and there’s only one seam I proceeded to fold and topstitch the wrong way (can you spot it?). I like the touch of colour and pattern inside, and on the under-collar (I should probably have interfaced the undercollar, too, rather than just adding a second layer of the seersucker. I am reasonably confident that my seven-year-old will not give a crap at all about my various booboos.

I may still give in and get some crystal iron-ons or something equally twee for both jackets. Even with the lace, this one’s very plain, and the other even more so.

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July 16, 2010 · 8:14 am

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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July 10, 2010 · 9:29 am

Diabetic shock…

Pink Overload!

I am in the throes of sewing a ruffly pink sundress for my niece. It is really, really sweet. I just might barf.

Can I just say, I am suddenly very proud that I never sewed anything pink for either of my daughters? Thank you, thank you very much. (Honestly, I don’t mind pink in moderation. but this… that’s a lot of pink. And it’s not cool, edgy pink with skulls on or something)

It’s based on the Oliver & S Popover Sundress, a free pattern. You can see the difference in my stylish sketch there.

My snazzy sketch.

I’m actually only using about the top 5″ of the pattern, since I needed the dress to be twirly (my niece is 3 1/2, and any skirt that doesn’t twirl out is “broken”). The rest is gathered tiers.

Which brings me to the second problem… the ruffler foot.

I learned to use a ruffler foot on my mother’s gorgeous, ancient 1960s Pfaff. You could ruffle, pleat, gather pretty near anything on that machine. And I did. Ok, I didn’t, but I made a number of tiered skirts for bellydance, which is pretty much anyone’s ruffling quotient for a lifetime (the one in that picture has 9 tiers, 7 of them ruffled, and the bottom hem consists of over 30 fabric-width (45″) strips.

When I moved away, my mom bought me a new sewing machine as a going-away present. Aww. It’s a lovely little Janome, and as you know it has sewn me through jackets and jeans with relatively little hassle. Things could be much worse. One of the little things I asked for when we got the machine, though, was a ruffler foot. I was still in dance-sewing mode, after all.

And I did, actually, manage to make one more full scale tiered skirt on my Janome. So I guess I can’t say the ruffler doesn’t work… it just doesn’t work as well. I don’t know if it’s the machine (not quite as sturdy) or the ruffler (also not quite as sturdy). It certainly can’t pleat to save your life. It does a roughly 2:1 gather on its lowest setting, and heaven help me if I want to change that. It’s little things, like the poky bit the needle sometimes hits on…

Of course, it didn’t help that last night when I was trying to start on it, I kept forgetting to put the presser foot down (it’s very hard to see the difference with the ruffler foot on… and it still ruffles, just even less well). And then somehow I managed to switch it to a zig-zag stitch…

Yeah, that doesn’t work. Remind me to pick up more needles when I’m out this afternoon…

But things are going much better this morning. I got the whole bottom tier ruffled. When I finish this post I’ll go do the second tier up. I always start at the bottom on these things, otherwise my brain breaks with the enormity of the task.

I always forget how the tiers multiply. That bottom tier was 6.6m long (6 fabric width strips) before I ruffled it. At least it’s done now!

The best thing about ruffled tiers? They use up almost ALL of the fabric. All I have left over of that ghastly pink solid is a 10″ square.

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