Tag Archives: in progress

October 27, 2011 · 6:58 am

Buffy-tastic

Buffy the Vampire-Slayer Costume (in progress)

As I mentioned before, it took quite a bit of convincing to get Syo to agree to “Movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer” as opposed to “TV-show Buffy” for her Hallowe’en costume. Not that I have anything against Sarah Michelle Gellar’s take on the character—I haven’t watched enough to judge one way or another, but plenty of my friends and family, kids included, are firm fans—but in my mind the movie version is more iconic. That’s where Buffy started, y’know, the wonderful juxtaposition of teen-cheerleader-ditz with stark, undead horror. Or something. (OK, it’s been a while since I saw the movie, either, and unforgivably it’s not on Netflix. Dude.)

So, now the costume is progressing, and she’s still not overly thrilled. /sigh. I’m torn. On the one hand I have an intense recollection of that sinking dread/obligation feeling that goes with a costume being made for you that you don’t like. (Hmm, I think I was less tactful and thoughtful of my mother’s feelings than Syo, actually.) On the other hand, as an adult, I am serenely confident that my idea is better, and she should just suck it up. Gotta love how parenthood can bring out one’s inner dictator. Sigh.

In any case, the essential, iconic bits are done—crop-top and twirly skirt. Hopefully Syo will like the skirt better than the top (as I write this I just finished the skirt and she’s already in bed, so she will have to check it out tomorrow). Although technically she already had a skirt picked out (the black one in the photo. It’s not one I made). I’m hoping she’ll be amenable to layering them, with the yellow one on top. This may go over like a lead balloon—we’ll see.

T-Shirt pattern

Anyway, the top is drawn straight from the T-shirt portion of this Kwik Sew pattern, but cropped off at the handy “lengthen or shorten here” line. It’s snug in the sleeves and loose in the body, which works in my opinion but is less than thrilling to Syo who’d prefer it to be skin-tight. She likes everything skin-tight these days. >_<

Hem and navy strip closeup (I used Steam-a-Seam inside the hems, too, which makes them pretty much effortless)

The photo I’m going from has navy trim on the yellow costume, so I pulled out some navy stretch-velvet I bought on a whim last winter and have been too terrified to actually do anything with. It wasn’t actually cheap, and I have some very traumatic history involving sewing polyester velvet, although that horrible stuff wasn’t stretch. I cut some rectangles and topstitched the strips down the sleeves using a a handy-dandy stretch stitch on my machine that looks vaguely like the athletic-style coverstitching you get on some RTW. Most importantly, it makes a nice, stretchy topstitch—I actually used it on the hems in the shirt, too. It’s stretchier and less fiddly (and less tunnelly!) than twin-needling.  Anyway, I’m quite happy with how it worked for appliqueing the strips on the sleeves. I actually (first time ever!) used the pattern-piece for the neckband strip, and I have to admit I was a little disappointed. All my reading plus previous experience suggests to me that a neckband strip needs to be a wee bit shorter than the neckband when working in a knit. This one was dead on, if not in fact a teensy bit longer. Boo. It was easy enough to shorten, but if I’d been trying to put it on in the round and hadn’t checked, it would’ve been a bad situation. Perhaps the instructions have some clever notes about this—if I ever make an outfit from this pattern that isn’t a complete throwaway I may actually read them.

Skirt pattern (View D)

The skirt comes from this McCall’s pattern. View D is the handkerchief skirt in the middle. Now, remember my whining about excessively dumbed-down patterns? Well, my next-biggest pet-peeve is pattern-pieces that are shaped like squares and rectangles.

Square and rectangular pattern pieces

Now, just for the record, I understand why people selling patterns include pattern pieces like these. And I would actually be a bit dissatisfied if I opened a pattern and got a bunch of directions for cutting squares of a particular size. But square pattern pieces are still silly. The handkerchief-skirt piece almost has a right to exist because of that circle in the middle… almost.

Although I did a pretty decent job on the shirt, construction-wise (if I do say so myself), everything went to hell a bit on the skirt. First, I was comparing the yoke-size to the RTW skirt, which is also a pull-on elastic skirt that I knew fit Syo (perils of sewing for a child when the child is in bed—no fitting opportunities), and it was way too long (the smallest size in my envelope is 7, which is a bit big). So I shortened it. Of course, I did this from one edge, which threw all my notches off. Oops. Next, the skirt appears to be cut to a somewhat larger size than the yoke. WTF?

My basic approach at this point became: It’s a knit. It’ll stretch.

I’m not sure the original skirt calls for an elastic at the waist (again, I could have read the instructions), but I figured one was in order. And then it just seemed easier to keep it place by turning the yoke into just a regular elastic-casing waistband. And then when I started to sew the skirt pieces to the yoke, I tried to match my notches, forgetting that that would throw off one side of the skirt. Also there are a lot of gathers, staring from the skirt’s centre hole being cut to a larger size, and ending with me taking a wider hem to narrow the yoke.  And because of the notches being off, the gathers are not particularly even.

It’s not quite the sleek, cute thing on the envelope cover. Oh, well—hopefully it’ll work anyway. I mean, what little girl can resist a handkerchief skirt?

Don’t ask that.

Kwik Sew 1670

So that’s the major bits. If I get time/energy, I may turn the rest of the velvet into a leotard and/or leggings from this pattern. I do in fact have a leggings pattern I drafted for Syo back this summer, but it has a fair bit of negative ease—which was perfect for the fabric I was using at that point—and this stretch velvet doesn’t stretch that much. On the other hand the smallest size of the Kwik Sew pattern is a bit big for Syo… but she’s growing. And I’m pretty sure she’d live in stretch velvet leggings.

We’ll see.

Probably I should figure out some pom-poms, too.

Oh, and it turns out we are actually going to the Hallowe’en dance on Friday, so everything needs to be done by tomorrow, not for Monday. Oopsie.

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October 23, 2011 · 5:46 pm

Bodge Job

Babydoll (Sucker Punch) costume

Botch job? That might make more sense. I think my spelling muscles have atrophied from years of spellcheck.

(Editor’s note: what follows is a really whiny, ranty post, heavy on the pet-peeves and largely self-created irritations. Despite the overall tone, it was really nice to spend a good chunk of time sewing—I haven’t had much time lately. But feel free to skip to something a little more cheery)

Hallowe’en sewing has been happening.

In theory, I should love Hallowe’en sewing. I love the holiday, the decorations, the costumes, everything. I love costumes in general, for pity’s sake. There’s just something about the thought of “worn only once” that I can’t shake out of my head, and it trickles down to crappy sewing. The overall look I’m happy with. The details suck balls.

An irksome skirt pattern

Let’s start with the skirt, since that’s where I started, too. The pattern is Simplicity 5084, a Lizzie McGuire pattern for a skirt in about a bajillion different options; View A was pretty much what I was going for, though. The package is for kids’ sizes 8-16, but whatever lovely soul owned it before me (and I shouldn’t complain too much since I paid less than a dollar for it, but it’s my blog and I’ll whine if I want to) cut it to the size 10. And then helpfully stuffed the cutoff little strips back in the envelope. I know I should be grateful for that, but I have to admit I find it even more irritating than just having a cut pattern set to that size in the first place. This is not terribly rational of me, I know. And ten is, technically, Tyo’s bottom-half size, so it wasn’t the end of the world.

This is not, however, the end of my irritations with the pattern. The next one comes from the drafting—there’s an identical yoke piece for front and back. Now, in my experience even children without Tyo’s particularly J-Lo-esque figures have a different shaped bottom than front. This kind of dumbed-down pattern drafting always annoys me. I traced out another version, keeping the waist the same but spreading the bottom to give it a little more room. I even managed to remember to add extra width to the pleated skirt piece when I cut it out. The fabric is a lightweight cotton denim, sturdy and nice to work with.

Poorly-executed lapped zipper

The next set of complaints are purely user error and failure-to-think-things through. I did a reasonably-successful blindstitch hem on the machine, but in hindsight I could totally have used the navy ribbon we got for trim to hide the hem—and then the ribbon would’ve been on BEFORE I topstitched the edges of the pleats down, rather than only trying to put it on after (which was really, really dumb. I think I was in Trim Denial.). Then I figured I’d try a lapped zipper. I followed the instructions from one of my vintage zippers, and basically it’s the

Lining creating weird pocket with the lapped zipper. I are speshul.

same idea as a jeans fly, except on a much narrower scale. I think it was the narrowness that befuddled me—anyway, results were not so good. Laughable, really. Although it works fine, it just isn’t pretty or well-finished. And then I couldn’t quite wrap my head around putting in the lining for the yoke, and managed to create some weird things like a part that folds over the top of the zipper. Ah, well. Costume-grade, sigh. I should’ve just put the lining in first. I should’ve done a lot of things differently, really. Live and learn, etc. The pleats didn’t come out even, either, even though I marked them off the pattern with remarkable (for me) precision.

Overall, though, it worked out. I’m very glad I added the extra width in the back. I also wound up scooping down the top of the front yoke a bit and letting out the yoke side-seams, which may have contribued to throwing off the pleats.

Simplicity 7401

The top needed to be a basic, short-sleeved, cropped top with a sailor collar. I figured pullover-the-head with elastic at the bottom. I have no idea how the tight-fitted movie version of the costume opens, but pull-over is good enough for Hallowe’en. Digging through the stash produced Simplicity 7401, which has a very basic top. My package goes up to size 8, which is technically Tyo’s upper-body size. So, whee! I traced it off, roughly measured to the length Tyo wanted, just above her belly-button—she informed me that the shorter original was too short. I’m not sure where she picked this modesty up from (especially as she’s going to be wearing a leotard, AT LEAST, underneath) but, well, I’m not going to complain. Syo doesn’t suffer from it in the least, I’ll add.

Poorly-finished V-neck with sailor-collar

Anyway, modifying to a V-neck (making sure it would be large enough to pull over the head) wasn’t too tough, nor was drafting a collar to match. Figuring out how to finish the collar—now that kinda broke my brain. A facing would probably have been a good idea, but I was lazy and just wanted to hide the seam on the outside under the collar. It worked great except for the bit at the V right in the front. I’ve never done a sailor collar before—I imagine there’s a trick to finishing the front. I could probably even have learned it if I’d bothered to do ten seconds of research. I didn’t. So it’s a bit, erm, rough. There may be some fray-check involved.

The sleeve cap-ease seemed weirdly distributed, although in hindsight that’s probably because the shoulders are supposed to have button-overlaps and I forgot to remove the extra length on the back piece.  Which is probably throwing something really off somewhere, although I think it looks fine. Teehee-whoops. Either way, there’s a fair bit of ease and denim doesn’t do ease, so I didn’t even try. There’s some weird gathering and pleating going on in the shoulders. Costume.

I did think to use my navy trim to cover the hems for the sleeves—nice, clean finish. This mock-grosgrain ribbon doesn’t go around curves as nicely as real grosgrain, but with the running stitch decoration you can tighten up the inner side and make it curve fairly nicely, which I do like.

It was determined that Tyo could, in fact, slip the thing on and off over her head, although it takes a bit of wriggling. Maybe I need to check her measurements again, although I measured her only a few weeks back. In particular, the arms seem tight. Ah, well.

Then, I decided to stitch the elastic at the bottom to the fabric, the same method Peter covers in his boxers sewalong. I’ve been meaning to try this for a while, and figured it was as good a place to try as any.

Silly, silly girl.

Erm, so this technique probably works really well with light, thin fabrics, the kind you might used for boxers. With denim, not so much. I mean it looks fine. It’s just that the elastic, which was snugly comfortable around Tyo’s ribcage when I measured it, now doesn’t pull in nearly enough, because of the thicker denim. And unlike a plain elastic casing, it’s a PITA to fix. I tried ironing with lots of steam to tighten it up (as sometimes help with shirring) and that produced a small improvement. Next step may be soaking and throwing in the dryer.

The last bit of the costume (aside from accessories like a gun with charms hanging from it and two katanas) is a neck-tie which goes under the collar and ties at the front and, mercifully, covers my nasty collar finish where it shows at the front. Yay! Even better, this  light-weight navy cotton with a little white flower-print was in stash, from the stuff my grandma gave me last summer. Even even better, there was a long, narrow, folded bit hanging off one end of the remnant that, when snipped off, was perfect for being finished into this long, narrow tie. Yay!

Buffy Sleeves

Next up: Syo’s costume. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as cheerleader. So far, I have the sleeves! (The “black” stripe is actually blue stretch velvet I have lying around. If I get crazy ambitious, she may even get a leotard out of it.)

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October 7, 2011 · 9:03 am

You know you have a winner when…

Mr. Isis's Shirt. Photographing black sucks.

… he’s wearing it before you even have a chance to put buttons on.

I finished Mr. Isis’s shirt, and realized I have no matched black shirt-type buttons. So it is still lacking in buttons and buttonholes. Although Sewing World, on my way home, has a fabulous selection of thread and zippers (and every gizmo known to seamstress), they have zilch for buttons. Well, there might be a few novelty ones. Nothing shirt-worthy, anyway. But the plan is to trek out to Fabricland for kids’ Hallowe’en costume fabric this weekend, so I should be able to remedy that.

None of which stopped Mr. Isis from throwing it on, tucking it in, and rolling up the sleeves, and wearing it around the house the last several evenings.  And he does indeed look a little “Dread Pirate Roberts,” if I do say so myself. >:D

So yeah, I think this one, at least, is a winner…

You may now begin to place bets on how long it takes me to corral him into letting me photograph him in it.

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October 4, 2011 · 9:31 am

Shirt Progress and mana (I mean fabric) from heaven

Shirt collar

There has been sewing happening, albeit of the “one seam a day” variety. The shirt is taking form. I considered and tested doing flat-felled seams, but have abandoned the idea for this project, anyway. Maybe the next one…

Shirt back

Last week I got an unexpected call from an Aunt—she and my uncle were on their way into town and wanted to take us for dinner. Mr. Isis feeling a bit sickly, the girls and I trotted off to the far side of town (in rush hour traffic) and had a lovely dinner with them, over the course of which my aunt mentioned that she had three boxes of fabric in the car for me.

Free Fabric

Now, as has been mentioned before, I am not one to look gift fabric in the fibre content (or whatever), but I also knew that my aunt probably did most of her stitching fifteen to thirty years ago.

Yes, ladies and gents, the 80s called, it wants its fabric back.

"Heirloom" fabric

I am pretty sure I recall my cousins wearing sweaters of this gorgeous period fabric in, oh, 1988. Tyo figures it would make a good nightie. Or boxers. Or housecoat. I was thinking interlining inside a jacket where it will never irradiate another eyeball again. We’ll see.

Cottons

On a more promising note, there were some nice cottons. I quite like the paisley print, and the colour of the pink broadcloth. And see the red polkadot on the bottom left? Look familiar?

Yes, I now have two metres MORE of the exact same fabric I used for my niece’s and Syo’s polkadot dresses.

Faves

I think my personal favourite of the whole lot is these two, though. The tan colour is a a fleece/fun-fur thing, the black print is a weird, faintly stretchy woven that for some reason I really like. I’m picturing the two together in a fur-lined hoodie of some kind… maybe similar to this one. Although my fabrics are not quite so lush.

There’s also a strange snowman quilt-kit-thingy half-completed. It scares me.

Anyway, thank you Auntie for the hand-me-downs. I shall do my best to make sure they get the usage they deserve. 😉

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September 30, 2011 · 10:11 pm

DETOUR! (Or, way too much sewing for my man)

White version from Summer 2010

While I wait for Mr. Isis to deign to try on the muslin for his coat again, I’m stalled on that front. Yes, again.

So, what should I do? Start Hallowe’en costumes? Well, yes, except that I haven’t got the fabric for them yet, and there’s nothing in stash suitable.

I know, I’ll start a shirt for him!

All y’all recall how well the last one went.

Why yes, I am off my rocker, why do you ask? Obviously Her Selfishness needs to start posting more, because I’m clearly suffering badly from unselfish-sewing-itis.

The shirt he actually wears...

In my defense, this is a different shirt pattern than the one I made for the Men’s Shirt Sewalong last winter, which is the one that has never been worn. In fact, it’s the poet-shirt pattern that I made Mr. Isis twice last summer. Those shirts, he wears to death (just don’t let him see the pattern envelope or he’ll never wear any of those shirts again). The knit one is a strictly bumming-around-the-house shirt (and I wince a little every time I see it…), but the crinkle-voile version gets called on frequently for looking spiffy while out (and he does look spiffy in it, I will admit). And probably not long after I finished those two, he may have dropped the hint that he would love a black version.

And sometime last spring, I may even have gotten around to picking up a couple of metres of black cotton voile (which cost quite a lot. Plain black or white cotton voile is one of those fabrics that somehow just doesn’t quite make it to the discount racks I usually haunt…)

And for some reason, today I was itching to get it out of the stash.*

Tracing pattern

Anyway, I pulled it out, spent way too much time ironing (I even ironed my pattern!) and started cutting. Er, I also tried something new. I used my (kinda) new tailor’s chalk thingy to trace the patterns with weights, rather than pin them down. It works fairly well with this pattern, which I traced onto heavy paper last summer, but I think would be more annoying with tissue. The trick, I gather, is to cut to the inside of the chalk lines once you are cutting out. I’m not sure if it’s a lot faster than pinning, but, well, it was fun at least for a change. I think I will definitely consider giving it a try next time I make a pair of jeans, too, although I think it might be a bad idea with a more shifty, less cooperative fabric.

Jeans, incidentally, are another thing I want to make for my husband. It’s been itching at me for a long time (buying him RTW jeans is kind of like banging your head into the wall repeatedly), but when ElleC sent me this cool men’s jeans pattern back earlier in the summer the itch became almost unbearable. The only reason I haven’t tried to scratch it before now is he kept saying he wanted the coat more. Silly man. And I have plenty of denim in stash.

Stitched-on placket

Anyhoo, there’s not much progress to report yet—everything’s cut out and I did stitch on the front plackets and apply the continuous-lap placket (bias-strip placket), which I now realize is the cheesy, chintzy way of doing a shirt placket, in keeping with the “Learn to Sew” designation of this pattern. Ah, well. I think it works with this style, which has that kind of archaic/romantic/poet/cowboy sort of look.

Incidentally, I *think* I may prefer a cut-on button placket. The main reason this shirt doesn’t have one is that the original pattern isn’t actually buttoned all the way down. Which you can’t tell by looking at the pattern envelope—but that’s a whole ‘nother beef.

Continuous-lap plackets (rather fuzzy pic)

I’ll leave you with that. We just had the most fabulous Last-Day-of-September weather I think I’ve ever experienced in my life (daytime high of 26C) and tomorrow it’s not supposed to make it into double digits! Yay, spastic weather! So maybe there’ll be more stitching tomorrow…

*It has occurred to me that if we’re going to be moving next summer, it would behoove me to do some serious stash-whittling over the winter. This is rather saddening because I’ve really enjoyed building my stash, and it’s just now reaching a “mature” level where I can often have a loose concept in mind and shop the stash rather than having to run out to the fabric store. I really like this, honestly. It may be indulgent, but I like that freedom. As ElleC says, stash fabric, like excess patterns, is an important part of our fantasy lives.

In any case, it’s going to be very un-fantastic to box up.

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September 26, 2011 · 9:44 am

Frock Coat Muslin

Coat muslin, finished

Once again, I’m not allowed to photograph Mr. Isis in the muslin—heck, I’m barely allowed to PUT him in the muslin, and then it’s off before I have a chance to really check the fit. Argh. Anyway, I shall attempt to write down some notes of the fit so I don’t forget.

So, the good:

  • shoulder breadth is spot on
  • waist length  is good (I shortened 3.5 cm after comparing his neck-waist back measurement to that of the pattern)
  • sleeve length (I lengthened 3 cm in the pattern). I need to remember to add the flap for sleeve vents!
  • overall length is good, although I have to nail him down on that issue (see below).
  • collar fits nicely
  • a nicely small amount of ease in the sleeve-cap.
The bad:
  • Too TIGHT! in select areas.  My well-muscled hubs needs, at minimum, a broad-back adjustment

  • Full biceps adjustment

    and a wide biceps adjustment. The shoulders are really binding—I’m hoping that the broad biceps adjustment, which shortens the sleeve-cap as well as widening the arm, will help with the shoulder binding as well. I may actually just widen the entire sleeve a bit, too—really narrow sleeves is a problem I’ve run into in Lekala patterns before, in Tyo’s coat.

New Inspiration---the Prophecy

The annoying:

  • Christopher Walken in The Prophecy

    the other night hubs comes up with another source of inspiration: the coat worn by Christopher Walken as Gabriel in the movie the Prophecy. Fortunately for my blood pressure, it turns out on research that aside from the buttons and length (Walken’s coat is above the knee, a bit shorter than this one) it’s for all intents and purposes the same coat. However, hubs does need to decide whether he wants a single buttonhole or a bunch down the front. I HATE it when people I’m sewing for try to change the design midway through the process.

Things I still have to check because I don’t have photographs to reference:
  • side-seam (is it straight?)
  • rear vent (does it gape—do I need to add more room in the bottom half?)
  • sleeve length (double-check)
  • how MUCH extra space across the back does he need?
What’s particularly amusing to me is that some of these changes, in particular the shortening of the body and lengthening of the sleeves, are ones that I typically do as well. Which means that our children are probably doomed in this department. Sorry, kids.
And now the ten-million-dollar question—second muslin or not? >_<

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September 17, 2011 · 9:04 am

Fly Fronts

Fly Front

As I’m working on one, I thought I’d muse a bit on fly fronts.

I am not an expert, mind you. Not by a million miles, and this is not a tutorial. So long as I follow a tutorial closely, I don’t find them horrifically traumatic to put in, but how well they turn out, that varies dramatically.

First off (once again) I’ll link to my two favourite tutorials. I mostly use Debbie Cook’s because I have a hard time following video tutorials. But for those of you who like to see it in action,  Sandra Betzina has a gread video on the Threads website. It’s pretty much the same technique both times, except Debbie uses double-sided tape to hold the zipper down instead of pins.

Anyway, here are some thoughts. Insightfulness, organization, and usefulness are not guaranteed.

Cut-on vs. stitched on fly facing

This is the part of the fly that folds back to the inside to make that nice little flap that hides the ziper. The flies I’ve used in patterns all have a cut-on fly-facing. The ones in my ready-to-wear jeans all have a stitched-on fly facing. I don’t know if this reflects cutting economy (not sure how, but who knows) or if the added reinforcement of the seam is really so important that RTW feels the need to include it. It does reinforce the edge of the fly-front. I think you’d have to do the construction slightly differently, though, as I don’t think you’d baste the front seam all the way to the top before installing the zipper. On the other hand, you’d only need to add the fly facing to the overlap side, which would make it (possibly) less confusing about which side is which.

Pockets, including extensions into the fly.

Interfacing/reinforcement.

I have varied a lot on the amount of interfacing I put into my flies (and how I put it in) and come to the conclusion that, at least in my opinion, more is better. Maybe if I can find some really nice beefy stretch denim it won’t matter so much, but most of the stuff I can get my hands on is fairly thin and wimpy.

Layers of interfacing: fusible and pocket-lining.

I generally interface my flies two ways: iron-on interfacing in the fly-facing area, and with fabric from the pocket extensions. Often in the same pairs of pants. I’ve tried omitting one or the other, but so far I’ve usually been happiest when I included both.

The iron-on interfacing is pretty obvious: it’s a piece cut to the same shape as the fly facing extension, plus a little bit, and fused in place. I generally do it on both sides, although I could probably do it just on the overlap side. I’ve used a variety of interfacings (woven fusible, knit fusible, Armoweft), but been happiest with a sturdy, medium-weight woven fusible; it looks like muslin with a fusible side, if you ask me. Once this is fused on, continue construction as normal.

When I was first researching making jeans, I came across the concept of pocket-extensions. Basically you re-draw you pocketing pieces so that they extend all the way to the front fly-extension. They provide sew-in interfacing to the fly and a non-stretch tummy support if that’s your thing. (My jeans run below my tummy, so I don’t really benefit from that aspect. I do like the interfacing-aspect, though.)

Extra-long zipper

A lot of people recommend using a somewhat longer zipper so you can stitch on the fly without worrying about stitching around the pull. I like this because I hate stitching around the pull (I am not a zipper queen), but also because the shortest jeans zippers I can find are about 8 cm long and as you can see from the top photo, in the rise I use the zipper opening is about 6 cm long, tops.

Yes, this is about the same as in my RTW jeans.

When applying the waistband, you use needle-nose pliers to take the teeth off where you’re stitching, and trim the zipper tape to fit. You do lose the little top-stops this way. This isn’t a problem except that if you  remove too many teeth and have a gap between the last tooth and your waistband, it is possible to pull the zipper-pull right off the top. This was the fate of these jeans. (It didn’t help that I had positioned the button wrong so they didn’t zip up easily.)

Folding back the fly shield

Fly Shield

This is a weird and mysterious rectangle of fabric you stitch to the under-lapping side of the fly, behind the zipper. It keeps zipper from catching undies/flesh/whatever, and gives the under-lapping part of the waistband something to attach to. I never even realized it wasn’t an integral part of my usual jeans until I was making a pair and actually took a good look at the fly construction. Who knew? Anyway, I always find this piece a bit suprising—oh, yeah, I almost forgot that! Now how do I put it on straight again?

Fortunately, no one will see it. The only external evidence of it is the little zig-zag bar tacks that adorn the bottom part of the fly curve in most jeans. They keep the bottom of the fly shield more-or-less in place and reinforce the bottom of the zipper.

Pockets!

Topstitching and Pockets

I just gave in and made a cardboard template to trace around for my fly-topstitching shape. The Jalie pattern comes with a piece, but I can never find it and usually end up free-handing the shape. Which can end up a little wonky.

Bar-Tacks on a jeans fly (and on the belt-loops, for that matter) (you can see this is one of the less-interfaced flies)

I’ve been doing the topstitching in my Featherweight, which means I can keep the Janome threaded for regular seams (which speeds things up considerably), but it does mean that it’s a little harder to do bar-tacks (those short bars of zig-zags that reinforce the pockets and help hold the fly shield in place under the fly. I guess I’ll do them at the end when I put the belt-loops on.

I am a little worried about this cotton topstitching thread’s longevity. I broke  it about fifty times while topstitching these back pockets (more shapes courtesy of my itty-bitty French Curve set). To make the design a little heavier, I stitched over it three times. I’m totally going for a bit of a free-hand, sketchy kind of look with the stitching. Totally. Not because I suck at free-motion embroidery or anything. (It’s a little better on the Featherweight, which is much happier to go slow than my Janome, but I still suck. One of these days I need to get one of those little round darning/embroidery feet to see if that helps.)

OK, I know this mostly has nothing to do with the fly front. Oops.

I need to start sketching out pocket ideas when I’m NOT in mid-construction. There are a bazillion and one cool things you can do with jeans pockets, and I never can think of any when I’m in the middle of making a pair and realize: oh, yeah, I need something cool and unique for the pockets. I managed with my cream capris, but that’s about it. Also, I need to start photographing my kids’ jeans pockets. They have some nifty, nifty pockets.

I like my pockets smallish on the theory that they make my butt look bigger by comparison. I also like them highlydecorated; according to the fashion magazines I don’t read, this is also better for those of us who are under-endowed in the derriere department. They could probably be a bit bigger than this, though, and still look fine. Thoughts for the future.

Can I just have my jeans now? I feel like it’s taking forever. I could’ve finished them yesterday, perhaps, except that we were out (are you bored of hearing this yet?) at the creek. Today is supposed to be cold and rainy, so there may be sewing hope, but I also have a house to clean.

Tyo, Fishing Queen

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September 13, 2011 · 9:30 am

Jalie 2908 version 67 80 342 897 893 (and other projects)

Does there reach a point where you’ve made up the same pattern so many times it’s not worth reblogging? I hope not.

Just another set of Jalie Jeans

Anyway, on the weekend between tromping up and down the creek, I managed to cut out my next set of jeans. I would’ve started stitching them up, too, but I discovered unexpectedly that I was out of topstitching thread. How is this possible? Probably I’ve just mislaid it somewhere. So I had to wait until I could pop by a sewing store. Fortunately (or not) Sewing World, the peddler of fabric scissors crack, is right by the train station on my way home from work. They sell a LOT of thread. Much of it aimed at embroidery machines, but anyway. I was able to pick up a couple of spools—my usual Gutterman jeans thread, and some cotton topstitching-type-thread in a somewhat darker gold. I really like the colour, but I’m a bit hesitant about the cotton thread’s strength. I’ve had issues of thread-failure on my self-stitched jeans before, not in the topstitching thread, but in the regular threads. But all the previous topstitching threads I’ve used have been polyester. Hmm. Probably I’ll try it anyway, but now if it craps out after six months I’ll be able to tell myself “I told you so.”

For all the good that will do.

Tyo's Nightgown

The kids have also picked out their next projects. Tyo wants a nightgown to replace some of the ones she’s outgrown the last little while. The plan is to use Kwik Sew 2893, a raglan-sleeved tee (and another thrift-store find), and extend it to nightgown length. Maybe add some shaping to the bottom, like on view C there. This is some fabric she picked out for making her teddy bear (did I ever blog her teddybear? We stuffed it with rice so you can throw it in the microwave and use it as a heating pad). Let’s just say that I have no qualms about letting her do whatever she wants with it, as long as it gets it out of my stash. 😉

Syo just wants  a quick sundress of the shirr-the-top-of-the-rectangle variety, out of the leftover fabric from my niece’s Mini-me (or is that Minnie-me?) dress. I think there’s enough. Of course, sundress season is largely if not completely past, but when has that ever stopped me? (Plus she’d probably wear it, happily, over T-shirt and jeans, to school all winter).

I keep talking (whining) about all the time we’re spending at the creek. I shouldn’t complain, it beats sitting around the house in front of the TV, which is what the rest of the family does the majority of the time (I, on the other hand, am far more virtuous and sit in front of the sewing machine, or the computer.) And it’s a good excuse not to get any housework done, at all. But it really cuts into the sewing time. Anyway, I suspect last weekend was the last of the creek-walking—the water gets VERY COLD VERY QUICKLY this close to the mountains, so I thought I’d share some pictures. Just because I can.

The Creek

Building with Rocks

Yay! Rocks!

Yay, fish!

You may now return to your regularly scheduled sewing blogs. I’ll get to that soon, I promise.

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September 2, 2011 · 10:57 am

So Close I Can Taste It…

Almost done!

The zipper is in. I’ve tried it on. All that remains is trimming and binding the back seam and then hemming. I hate to lose any length in the hemming so I will probably do a bias hem facing.

And there’s just no time…

I don’t think Self-Stitched September is going to happen herabouts, either. Two days in and while I’ve dressed self-stitched, no photos have been taken. It’s hard when my main camera is sans battery charger (and a call to my mother-in-law has determined that the charger is NOT where I thought I left it in her basement… 😦 ), not to mention the complete lack of time.

I am liking the piped waistband...

Fall Sewing I would like to get to:

  • Grecian Sundress pattern/new piece: since this seems to be the winner of the poll, it will be the pattern I put up for my birthday next week. The flutter-sleeved tunic was not far behind, though, so I’ll try and get that one done and up some time this fall.
  • jeans for me: some of the early pairs, not to mention all of my RTW, are getting ratty, and I have some “heavy duty” stretch denim just waiting to be stitched up…
  • frock coat for my husband: based on this pattern, sans pockets and lengthened to knee length. I am pretty excited for this one, and now that the weather has turned, I’m feeling more inclined to actually work on a jacket.
  • sweaters and shrug for me: I’ve been meaning to make another version of my shrug, as I wore the cream one to death over the summer. And I really, really, really  need a new hooded sweatshirt to wear this winter.
  • jeans for my husband. I am totally stoked to try out this semi-vintage men’s jeans pattern ElleC sent me! And I have that denim in stash, too…
And even that modest list seems incredibly ambitious right now, when I haven’t managed much more than a seam a night all week…

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August 28, 2011 · 12:51 am

Last Gasp of Summer Dress (II)

Thar' be minnows

Bonez

Well, I didn’t actually think this dress would make it to a three-part series, but sewing’s been slow. Largely because summer has been having a last gasp, so instead of sewing I’ve been out wading in the creek, dutifully snapping photos while my hubby and Syo (Tyo’s gone camping with a friend) hunt minnows with their nets. They are getting disturbingly good at it. Today we saw two guys fly-fishing, which is incredibly elegant to watch. They weren’t catching anything bigger than we were with nets, though. (Mind you, they were staying dry… not sure if that’s a bonus or not, though, given the heat. I was very happy to have my feet in the water most of the time.) We stumbled upon a geocache, as well, or rather, a geocache box that appeared to have been swept downstream and spilled all over. The creek is odd, a Provincial Park in the middle of the city, the illusion of unspoilt nature—a sliver of mountain stream—with freeways arching overhead and houses only a stone’s throw away, just barely hidden by the banks. And, of course, plenty of trash. And bones, mostly bovine. I can’t resist picking those up and seeing what I can still identify.

Bodice with seam-binding for stay tape

So—I got the bodice constructed. I decided to stay the edges of the top by stitching some random pink seam binding down. Syo was helping, so I let her do one side, since I figured the stitching wouldn’t show anyway.

Erm. Oops. Stitching on slippery seam-binding was probably a bit advanced, I admit, even with all the pins. I had to redo it later. She also doesn’t like the Featherweight as much as the Janome, but I didn’t have the Janome threaded. So she threaded it herself. I didn’t realize she knew how to do that. She also stitched the little back loops for me, but got bored halfway through turning them and spent the rest of the time dressing my half-ass dress form in this awesome blue fun-fur I found at Value Village last week.

I managed to understitch the bodice without mystery weirdness. I do not have a good track-record with understitching, so this was good.

I went to attach the waistband and realized that, either through some error of tracing (not at all impossible) or just the extreme cross-grain stretchiness of this clearance mystery fabric (which I would swear is pure cotton, but anyway), my waistband piece was over an inch too short for my actual bodice waistband. Oh, yeah, I had cut the waistband piece on the straight grain, for print-interest. So no stretch at all, there. Easing was possible, but did not create a good look—Lonsdale is supposed to be sleek through the bodice, not poofy. Rrrrrippit. Recut on the cross-grain.

Piped waistband

I didn’t like how the waistband just sort of disappeared into the pattern, so I decided to pipe the waistband. I didn’t have quite enough white piping left over from whatever it was that I last made white piping for (wait, it was the airline stewardess dress, of course), so I had to do a little splice, but hopefully it looks all right.

Pockets! (Any matching of the prints is purely coincidental)

The pockets are cute and fun. Tasia mentions staying them as an option in her sewalong, which I decided to do by my favourite method, fuse-tape. I should’ve used that on the bodice, in hindsight, and saved Syo and I both a headache. Not sure what I was thinking there…

Even more miraculous, I then managed to understitch the pockets! Around a curve! Will wonders never cease?

Of course now I kinda wish I’d piped the pockets. But then I’d wish I’d piped the top of the bodice, too, and that way lies madness, so it’s probably just as well it’s only the waistband.

I had enough fabric to cut the skirt full-length-extra-long (what, you thought I could resist the maxi?), that is about an inch longer than the longest length drafted—which in theory makes up for the height I removed in the bodice. Belatedly I decided it really should have a lining, so I dug around and found the last of the cotton batiste (or whatever) from the lining of my tunic and Syo’s dress and managed to squeeze an under-layer only a few inches shorter out of that. Yay!

Oh, and I did remember to include the swayback adjustment, about 1 cm taken out at centre back, tapering to nothing at the side-seams, from the bottom of the bodice (above the waistband) and the top of the skirt (below the waistband). I even remembered to lengthen the hem of the skirt to make up for the amount taken out!

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