Tag Archives: plans

June 13, 2010 · 7:00 pm

A weekend without sewing :(

What an incredibly crazy-busy weekend. Not bad in anyway, but very busy. The first weekend in at least a month with no sewing done.

Fortunately, I have pictures of the gambeson to post finally. Apparently it is serving its purpose very well, though there are a few places where the outer fabric didn’t get caught properly in the seams, despite my best efforts. All in all, pretty nice though.

Jason's gambeson. With totally-non-period fedora.

There was no pattern for this. The materials consisted of an Ikea curtain, a white twill tablecloth (really nice!) and a gross old polyester duvet for the filler. I took his measurements and had him rip/cut various squares and rectangles for front, back, and sleeves. We tacked these together in their layers, pinned it together, and started fitting. At the beginning, it looked pretty much like he was wearing a large blue pillow. By the end, we had something that actually aproximated the look of a rather boxy shirt-pattern. I guess this is akin to pattern-draping, right? It’s much easier to do on someone else. Maybe I do need to bite the bullet and make a duct-tape double.

Side view. The sleevelets stick out like that when the arms are at the side, but when extended forward are flat. It seemed like the only way to get them to fill the gap and still provide enough freedom of movement. And he thinks they look kinda cool. And we can always change them later.

Once we had the pieces approximately the right shape, I set Jason to marking the quilting on the inside (in pen… you don’t want to see it.) We toyed with the idea of hand-quilting, as I mentioned, but went with machine. Because Jason’s sewing machine skills are limited (as yet) I did most of the quilting. I’ll make him pay for that at some point ;).

There were some glitches. The sleeves wound up being too narrow at the upper arm, so we inserted triangular gussets at the underarm (not padded, fortunately). They also seemed to be about 5″ too long, so we trimmed them down (from the narrow wrist end). He changed his mind and decided the body should be thigh-length rather than hip length, so we added the bottom panel (took some figuring out how to get the back slit attached properly. I’m actually kinda proud of how that part came out. When we got it actually put together, it was revealed that the sleeves were really about two inches too short (one slightly worse than the other). Oopsie. We were already not planning to attach them directly to the body, but we wound up needing the little leather cap-sleeves  to bridge the gap and replace the missing length.

The back, showing the rear slit (for riding, theoretically). The lining shows a bit along the edge where the crude quilting leaves a fold of the lining fabric. In my ideal world we'd bind the whole thing in black. Maybe someday.

Despite the general wonkiness and costume-grade-ness, there are a few points I’m quite proud of. The quilting on the collar is a thing of beauty; by dint of pulling the bottom layer and pushing the top I managed to keep the fabrics feeding evenly (though the stitch-lengths are awful). I did a pretty good job on the black binding, which is pre-packaged bias binding; I sewed the first side by machine and hand-finished the other side, which made a very nice, tight effect once I figured out how to do it neatly (the first cuff was a little wonky). Ok, that might be it. Jason did the leather sleevelets all by himself, and the strapping and attaching of the buckles. He’s quite happy with it, and it seems to have served its purpose admirably. Next he wants to make a surcoat. He will be doing a lot more of that by himself, I promise.

I am a little torn, though. I like making something from scratch. It’s the attitude that started me sewing, just looking at pieces of cloth and going ahead and DOING. But, it’s also the antithesis of the kind of precision and craft I’m trying to cultivate toward producing everyday-wearable garments. I’d rather avoid the little glitches than fix them.

I did start cutting out the Danielle dress. Still need to cut out the sleeves and “waist” band (contrast fabric) and underlining. Hopefully make some more progress this week as we have kids’ birthday parties next weekend and I won’t get anything done then, either. And I’d really like to wear it (assuming wadders can be avoided) to my friend’s wedding reception the weekend after.

Oh, and a quick fitting redux: it was finally hot enough here to wear my (still un-hemmed) capris. Yay! And… (surprise, surprise) with wear, they’re stretching out. They seem to be doing it more slowly than most of my other stretch jeans (this fabric is so weird) but right now I could happily take them in at least another centimetre on each side. The waistband also stretches more than I would like, but it also seems fairly resilient so it’s not bugging me as much as some of my less-elastic jeans. Next time I do a fitting I just need to remind myself that the jeans whose fit I like, when they’re unstretched, I have to jump up and down to get into.

I really want to make a pair with my new black denim, but I’m holding off until I can pick up a new double needle—denim weight, 1/4″ spread on the needles (I must be a sucker for the double needles) and some more top-stitching thread. I know the top-stitching is tricky enough without the double needles, so maybe that’s just asking for trouble… but although I’m reasonably happy with my manual topstitching on the jeans, it’s just not as crisp as the double needle would be. If, y’know, I can do it without destroying the needle. Or my eye.

I know what I’ll do to bring these ones in a bit in the leg. My daughter’s friend has the coolest detail on the back of a set of her jeans, a fold taken out and topstitched down, with a rivet at the top end. Hers run from below the knee, but on my carpis I could do that from the bottom of the pocket…

Anyway, enough rambling? More sewing!

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June 10, 2010 · 12:04 pm

Self-Stitched September?

I’m thinking about doing it.

Zoe of So, Zo announced Self-Stitched September a week or so ago. I discovered Me-Made-May halfway through last month and it seemed like a really cool challenge. I’m not ready for the full version—no way am I going to have enough self-made stuff by September to wear it exclusively—but I think I could maybe pull off the lite version of one self-made item per day. Especially if I get a couple more pairs of self-made jeans done by then. I can easily rotate the same two pairs of jeans almost indefinitely (and have done, on the several occasions where I only HAD two wearable pairs of jeans to my name… but maybe that’s more about me than you wanted to know), though it’s nice to have a few more for variety especially if I miss a laundry day. But if I had two pairs of full-length Jalies, I could wear those most days, swap in regular jeans with a self-made top every now and then, and the weather might still be amenable to the capris I just made (and haven’t able to wear yet as i’s been $%&%$$#$ COLD and raining here all week… at least no snow this week…) from time to time.  But anyway, let’s face it, my typical “everyday” wardrobe consists of 3 pairs of jeans in rotation and about 5-7 tops (plus grubbies/slub wear for the weekend). That’s not that much to come up with, is it?

So, to be ready for Self-Stitched September (also my birthday month… I could make myself clothes for a birthday present!), I would need to make:

Bottoms:

  • 2 pairs of Jalie jeans: plain dark jeans, maybe one stovepipe leg pair and one boot cut (since I don’t have any non-trashed boot-cut jeans at the moment… how did I end up with nothing but skinnies? I don’t even like skinnies that much except under boots!).
  • Ellen trousers? (I have been thinking of them for this grey wool. Though given I have only 3 yards perhaps a pencil skirt and a blazer would be better? Would I wear a pencil skirt? would I wear any skirt enough to justify making it for Self-Stitched September?) I haven’t had a pair of non-jeans other than camos in… decades. Like, since I stopped wearing the pink corduroy overalls. There was that one pair of black slacks I bought for the job interview that one time, but they were too short and I never wore them again. And yet, a presentable pair of dress-trousers would be a good thing to have, especially for conferences/job interviews (which I will, presumably, be facing at some point in the next few years). Palaeo is a pretty casual science, and I don’t feel like skirts are appropriate for an interview for a job that involves working with pneumatic tools and tromping through the dirt… but jeans are still not really it for a job interview)… so I’d like to have something.
  • Skirts??? See above. I like skirts just fine. Especially if they’re ridiculously long or ridiculously short. Neither of which are particularly practical… so they sit in the closet. I try them on once or twice a year to gauge fit—I can track my figure variations by where a skirt is sitting on my hips at any given moment. There was a period early in my Master’s thesis where I was over-dressing and wearing the long ones a lot, and it was fun, but I don’t seem to have that momentum these days. And my desire to show off my undies with the really short ones has waned over the years (though I did wear to death that one with the under-shorts liner… maybe I should make more like that)

Tops (Have to think about these… I think I have enough JJ’s, though I wouldn’t mind a white variation, maybe with a neck bow, though I’m not 100% about these paired with my wide shoulders)

  • 3 JJ blouses. Even just the ones I have would be enough to spell the Jalie jeans for a day or two, paired with RTW jeans)
  • Something knit? All my tops are currently knits. I’m terrified of sewing with knits… and I never seem to find any good ones in good colours, so I never have any to practice on, so I never get over my fear. Maybe if I can get my serger functioning over the summer? The Lydia pattern at Burdastyle is only a dollar, though I have a feeling I could trace my own off an existing shirt without too much trouble… Or maybe the free Batwing pattern, though it’s not a style I’d normally wear.
  • Sencha-style blouse? I’ve been musing over trying to draft a pattern like this myself the last few days. Not that I don’t want to support Colette Patterns but the Ceylon dress and the Beignet skirt and the Lady Grey coat are way higher up the list.  And the blouse I’m picturing is a bit different… no tucks, just some side bust darts (very plain, actually). It would have to be in a really luxuriously wonderful fabric, too, silk or a really nice rayon. And I’m not sure how it would work with the rest of my wardrobe, since these blouses (IMHO) look best tucked into a waistband at the waist (on people with itty bitty waists who look good in such things). It would go great (in my head) with a Beignet skirt though…
  • Danielle dress? I was thinking about the dresses in my closet (trying to justify adding this one), and remembered a certain pattern. A large majority of my dresses are short, spaghetti-strapped, empire-waisted confections. At least one I’ve had since I was 15. Aside from the spaghetti straps, the Danielle dress fits in nicely… and the big plus about these dresses is that they go over jeans well for everyday wear. Well, some of them do. The sparkly grad/bridesmaid ones not so much. Anyway, if I could put a Danielle into regular rotation, it would be a lot more justifiable than just making it for my friend’s wedding reception… depends on my ability to conquer my Fear of the Zipper, I suppose (which is almost as great as my Fear of Knits)

On an unrelated, parental sewing triumph note, my younger daughter wore her vintage A-line dress/shirt to school again today, without me even suggesting it. Considering how picky she is with her clothes, this is a major triumph (she also wore it for spring picture day). The only downside of this little dress/top (it’s really too short to be a dress) is that it needs ironing. I iron LOTS when I sew—and very rarely for anything else. Also the square neckline is fraying a bit at the corners after washing; I clipped too close to the seam when turning it, I guess. I should ask my mom if she has any tips or tricks for square necklines.

Anyway, what was that tag again? Ah, yes, too much talk…

Ok, you’ve talked me into it.

‘I, Taran of Tanit-Isis Sews,, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavour to wear at least one handmade item of clothing every day for the duration of September 2010′.

Now off to apply for the flickr group…

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June 6, 2010 · 11:34 pm

Measurements

So it just occurred to me… I am usually about two sizes larger in the waist than in the chest/hips. I am resigned to that. But I’ve been musing about trying to make a vest for my hubby (he likes vests), and I can’t find any free patterns for men’s vests, but there are several for women’s. And then I go to check the sizing, and it dawns on me.

My husband has a 40″ chest and a 32″ waist. This proportion fits much more squarely with women’s sizing than men’s… and much more with women’s than mine.

/sigh.

Damn man.

So maybe he will get a vest made from a woman’s pattern after all ;). As long as I don’t tell him…

PS: I have actually been sewing madly this weekend, just nothing completely finished. The gambeson I am helping a friend make is almost finished (and actually got worn today… aparently it served its purpose well) is almost finished… we’ll get pics once he has all the buckles on it. For something that looked pretty much like a pillow when we started, I’m kinda impressed with how it’s turned out. And I am working on my third JJ, in black cotton this time, which is shaping up nicely and will hopefully be done tomorrow evening. And I want to make jeans. More jeans. (I don’t actually need jeans now. Nor do I have money for fabric. Ok, maybe one pair of dark, “presentable” jeans so I can give the crazy-eighties washes a rest would be nice. And a pair of boot-cuts… everything I have right now that doesn’t have holes in the knees are skinnies. And there might be enough of my stretch-denim left to whip up a pair of short shorts… just to practice my pocket stitching, you understand ) And jean jackets for my kids. But I think I’ll have to actually buy a pattern for that.) And I want to make a Danielle dress up for a friend’s wedding reception at the end of the month, but really I already have LOADS of formalwear that would be appropriate that gets very little use) Anyway, I keep hoping that the sewing bug will wane so I can get back to something else like, oh, cleaning my house… but no luck so far.

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May 3, 2010 · 3:14 pm

I done a bad.

I just ordered Jalie 2908 (women’s stretch jeans) pattern. What on EARTH am I thinking? Even if I had time to mess around with these, they’re probably WAY beyond my skill set. But… damn it would be nice to make my own jeans.

The plusses:

  • the pattern has REALLY good reviews
  • it doesn’t use much fabric (less than 1.5 m, and if I did capris for practice runs it would take even less)
  • I am really picky about my jeans fit… I have a hard time with ready to wear (and I end up paying A LOT) so being able to make my own (and have them fit… the big if) would be really awesome.
  • I could make them LONG enough!
  • pattern includes kids sizes too so I could make pants for the kids
  • I could finally make the stove-pipe legs I love so much (not skinnies, not boot cut… straight up and down below the knee)
  • I might actually be able to fit into the largest kids’ size (that’s not actually a plus, except to my ego)

The minuses:

  • most of those reviews also mention how much work the pattern was
  • I am not sure if my fitting skills are quite up to the challenge
  • I think my usual low-rise preference is even lower than the pattern’s “low rise” version.
  • I don’t have any stretch denim; I have never sewn stretch denim; I have no money for the foreseeable future to buy stretch denim.
  • nor do I have the time, really, to be messing around with major sewing.
  • they’ll require a lot of hardware I don’t possess (rivets, jeans buttons, zippers etc.)

I am nuts.

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April 23, 2010 · 5:58 pm

Fantasizing…

I’m going out of town tomorrow, and am still (ok, perpetually) broke, so I won’t be doing a whole lot of sewing for a while, but a girl can dream, right? I want to make the Burdastyle JJ blouse. I’m not super-keen on the ruffles, although they are cute and I think it might look a bit bare without them. Mostly I would just really like to have a nice, princess-lined bodice pattern to play with… and the price is right ;). There’s also a variation posted with a bib front that’s cute as well. And when I mess up, it’s not a whole lot of fabric wasted. I am also looking at a lot of blazer patterns. I used to really love a nice, fitted blazer, before the fact that the sleeves are all to short for me really hit home. I really like the Eva blazer, too, but no jackets for me until the winter coat is finished. I’m also beginning to be temped by some of the pants patterns… I am so picky about how my jeans fit… and I pay SO much for them… but what are the odds of my sewing skillz reaching the point where I can actually make jeans that fit me as good as my old Buffalos? Better try a few JJ shirts first and figure out if I really can sew at all, anyway 😉

Eva blazer

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April 23, 2010 · 5:13 pm

Coat “Muslin”

So I made (finally) a hip-length muslin from that Value Village wool. Nice fabric (except for the colour). Really nice. I was hoping the muslin might turn out nice enough to make into a coat for my mom, but at this point I’m thinking not. At least, not without a crapload of re-sewing. Maybe.

Winter coat muslin

I decided to cut a size 12 (the largest size in my pattern packet). According to the measurements on the pattern, I’m in between a size 10 and 12. (Technically speaking, I’m a 12 in the bust, a 14 at the waist, and a 10 in the hips, but anyway).

The 12 was huge. I mean, I know it’s a coat, it’s supposed to fit OVER clothes (I’m wearing my sweater under it in the pictures because that’s what I pretty much ALWAYS wear in the winter. I made it through the last 3 winters with a fall-weight jacket (Canadian winters, mind you… REAL winters) just by increasing the numbers of layers under the coat. At times I did look like a stuffed sausage, but you look like that in a parka, too ;). So I took the muslin in by a 1/2 inch at each side seam (so a total of 2 inches less around). This improved it a lot; it might be a trifle too snug at the waist (I tend to underestimate things like overlap, as we discovered from the “Anna top” disaster). Anyway, I think I will cut the 10, and go with that.

Sleeve caps:

The other thing I did was shorten the sleeve cap (basically I blended the sleeve cap from the 12 width to the 6 cap height). I did that to both sleeves. However, when I went to sew them on, I was in a quandary, since by taking in the side-seam I had made the armscye a full inch smaller. (In hindsight, perhaps I should just have taken it in along the princess seam. Ah, hindsight.) So I had two alternatives—sew the sleeve narrower by the same amount, or sew it with a normal seam allowance and see how much extra puff that generated. Since I was planning to sew the 10 next time (but with the same 6 sleeve cap), I figured this would at least show me the range of puff I was going to be dealing with. So the left sleeve has the normal seam allowance (more puff) and the right sleeve has the increased seam allowance (less puff). I think I might actually want even less puff than either, but they’re both tolerable. (I shudder to think how pouffy the original ones are)

Right sleeve---less pouffy

Left sleeve---pouffy

Sleeve length:

I had measured the sleeve pattern and was pleasantly surprised at how long it was. In the photos it’s very long, but I hadn’t folded them up to the hem length; even folded in an inch for the sleeve hem, they’re not bad. I could probably increase the length by half an inch, but not much more than that, and even at their current length I think they’d be better than any other coat I’ve ever owned… and with an inch of fold-over to play with, I could probably just lengthen them a bit out of the hem allowance (cuff allowance?) if I decided they really weren’t quite long enough. Decisions, decisions…

Shoulder Pads:

The pattern calls for 1/2 inch shoulder pads. Now, I have broad shoulders to begin with… 1/2 shoulder pads is getting me into 80s territory, which is not really where I want to go. In the muslin, I don’t have anything in. I looked at the shoulderpads in my current coat (which was a pretty awesome coat, as I may have mentioned, before I wore it to death) and the “pads” in there are really just a thin, thin layer of foam sandwiched between some iron-on interfacing… enough to smooth the lines but not really adding much bulk.  I think a double-layer of thinsulate or something would be plenty (plus I am planning on doing a sleeve-header, if I can get the sleeve cap nice and smooth). I do want the coat to look like it has some structure, but I still think, for me, 1/2 inch pads would be overkill.

Other issues:

The skirt widens really abruptly below the waist, which I’m not sure I like, but hopefully with a full length to pull on it that pouffiness will be toned down, as well. I don’t think I’m going to try and mess with it at this point (though it would be really fun to draft a pattern that was fitted down to the hips and then flared from there… maybe some time in the future when I am better at this.

I have a small issue with the bust of the princess-seam as well; it seams really low. Like, droopy low. It doesn’t stand out to me as badly in the pictures as it did in real life, so maybe it would be fine to leave it, but… I think I’d like it if I lift it up a bid. I wouldn’t need to move the curve really, just cut off the lower portion of it, I think.

But, in general, I think it’s looking promising. I had cut the variation for the round standing collar, but I’m still thinking for the final I might go with the traditional fold-back lapels. Although that would look nicer with a black wool or something for the facing… I think lapels in my patterned grey might be too busy (or just fade in with the rest of the jacket). Have to think about that, too.

Still, progress, however halting. Next things to do: find lining and interlining. The lining won’t be too hard, though it will be pricy unless I can catch it on sale (If I end up paying more per metre for my lining than my coating, I might have to kill myself). There’s apparently an outdoor textiles store downtown that I want to check out for insulation options, although their website appears to be non-functional. I hope they’re still there… otherwise I’m stuck with what I can find at Fabricland :P.

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March 17, 2010 · 10:21 pm

Things to do

I guess I’ll get started with a list of what I WANT to do right now.

1) At Christmas I purchased a coat pattern, Butterick 5425. It’s a full-length, princess-seamed coat with collar variations (a classic lapel and a closed, round-neck), both of which I like. It’s fitted in the body and has a lovely full skirt. Just for background, I’ve been wearing full-length, wool coats since I first stole my mom’s old Hudson’s Bay coat back in highschool. And they all have two problems—they’re not quite warm enough (I live in Canada) and the sleeves are too short. Also, my current incarnation is on its last legs; the lining is giving way, as is the fashion fabric around the buttons.

The coat I WANT to make

In preparation for this, I just finished making coats for my two daughters (I’ll blog that next, I promise)… my first experiments with coats, collars, lining, underlining, and buttonholes. (Ok, I’ve lined dance vests before, but that was a rather different process than lining a coat). Next step is to start collecting my finished materials (the yardage for the full-length version is grotesque… over 8 meters of 45″ cloth (it occurs to me that measuring my cloth “yardage” in meters but my width in inches is probably a uniquely Canadian messed up sort of thing to do).) So no way am I going to be able to eke that out of old curtains or thrift-store finds. Also, I want this to be an AWESOME coat. This will require AWESOME fabric. Which I have very little guarantee of finding around here, especially at a price I can afford. It will also need and AWESOME lining, quite possibly underlining, and some kind of super-warm interfacing as well. Well…

Ok, I am getting a little ahead of myself. While I would ultimately like to make the uber-winter version of this coat, there are a lot of steps to go first. A muslin, for one, to gauge the fit. Then probably a light-weight but fully-lined version, before I attempt to stuff one up with quilting batten for warmth. The pattern I bought only goes up to size 12, which is my size, but may be a bit snug depending on how much batten I stuff inside it. Also the sleeves have a bit of gather at the shoulder, which I’m not thrilled by; it shouldn’t be TOO complicated to shorten the sleeve cap to take it out, but I’ve never done it before. No doubt it will require a sleeve-length alteration (I have monkey arms), and possibly some tweaking around the midsection, although I’m hoping to avoid that. Which brings me to my big recurring fitting issues: the long arms are matched by long legs; (I know, I know, shut up already); although I’m 5’7″, my torso-length measurements are actually petite. On top of that I have a “boyish figure” (no breasts and hips, a wide waist), which means that my bust and hip measurements fall under the size-12 range, but my waist is firmly in the 14 zone. I’m hoping that won’t be an issue with a coat pattern, but it’s possible I’ll have to grade the outer shell up for my final version, especially if I want to put a heavy interlining in.

Anyway, that is the long-term goal (I would like to have it to wear by next winter, but if not I’m sure I can get another winter’s wear out of my current coat). In the meantime a couple of other projects have suggested themselves:

2) personal sloper: I’ve been reading a lot about how constructing your personal sloper can speed up making alterations, not to mention facilitating drafting your own patterns (something I’d REALLY like to do). This is something I really should move forward on before anything else… it could help me figure out at least some of my potential pitfalls for fitting (like sleeve length)  BEFORE cutting out the muslin, which would be nice.

3)McCall’s 2324 This is an 80s dress-suit pattern I acquired in a mess of old patterns I inherited (in a rather roundabout way) from my mother-in-law.  The picture above is the best I could find on the internet… the pattern itself came to me as a scatter of still-uncut tissue leaves, missing both envelope and instructions. I love little tailored jackets like these, but I can never find them as the sleeves are always too short. Perfect for a trial-run of my full coat, right? Er, not. This is easily the most complicated pattern I’ve ever looked at (keeping in mind that my pattern experience is pretty rudimentary). It has separate pattern pieces for both the interfacing and the lining. It has 2-part sleeves! Add to that a lack of instructions of any kind? Um, well… You know, I probably will try it eventually. well, maybe just a muslin… well…

4)I also picked up a nice, U-necked, princess-seamed dress pattern at Value Village back at Christmas. I don’t have any fabric that’s crying out to me to make it, but it’s a lovely pattern (I had a dress very similar I used to love, except that… wait for it… the sleeves were too short). So that’s a possibility too, although the amount of fabric necessary for a dress seems unlikely to materialize for me in the near future.

5)Tops. It would be nice to find/buy/draft a nice top pattern or two, something I could really use in my daily wardrobe. And it wouldn’t take up as much fabric as dresses or long coats. I’ve looked at a bunch of patterns online, but most of my favourites are for knits only and knits scare me. I have a serger, but it’s in need of some TLC. Also finding nice knits is HARD.

Ok, that’s enough blathering about plans… how about a little action?

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March 15, 2010 · 9:13 pm

Some Goals

I guess I’ll get started with a list of what I WANT to do right now.

1) At Christmas I purchased a coat pattern, Butterick 5425. It’s a full-length, princess-seamed coat with collar variations (a classic lapel and a closed, round-neck), both of which I like. It’s fitted in the body and has a lovely full skirt. Just for background, I’ve been wearing full-length, wool coats since I first stole my mom’s old Hudson’s Bay coat back in highschool. And they all have two problems—they’re not quite warm enough (I live in Canada) and the sleeves are too short. Also, my current incarnation is on its last legs; the lining is giving way, as is the fashion fabric around the buttons.

The coat I WANT to make

In preparation for this, I just finished making coats for my two daughters (I’ll blog that next, I promise)… my first experiments with coats, collars, lining, underlining, and buttonholes. (Ok, I’ve lined dance vests before, but that was a rather different process than lining a coat). Next step is to start collecting my finished materials (the yardage for the full-length version is grotesque… over 8 meters of 45″ cloth (it occurs to me that measuring my cloth “yardage” in meters but my width in inches is probably a uniquely Canadian messed up sort of thing to do).) So no way am I going to be able to eke that out of old curtains or thrift-store finds. Also, I want this to be an AWESOME coat. This will require AWESOME fabric. Which I have very little guarantee of finding around here, especially at a price I can afford. It will also need and AWESOME lining, quite possibly underlining, and some kind of super-warm interfacing as well. Well…

Ok, I am getting a little ahead of myself. While I would ultimately like to make the uber-winter version of this coat, there are a lot of steps to go first. A muslin, for one, to gauge the fit. Then probably a light-weight but fully-lined version, before I attempt to stuff one up with quilting batten for warmth. The pattern I bought only goes up to size 12, which is my size, but may be a bit snug depending on how much batten I stuff inside it. Also the sleeves have a bit of gather at the shoulder, which I’m not thrilled by; it shouldn’t be TOO complicated to shorten the sleeve cap to take it out, but I’ve never done it before. No doubt it will require a sleeve-length alteration (I have monkey arms), and possibly some tweaking around the midsection, although I’m hoping to avoid that. Which brings me to my big recurring fitting issues: the long arms are matched by long legs; (I know, I know, shut up already); although I’m 5’7″, my torso-length measurements are actually petite. On top of that I have a “boyish figure” (no breasts and hips, a wide waist), which means that my bust and hip measurements fall under the size-12 range, but my waist is firmly in the 14 zone. I’m hoping that won’t be an issue with a coat pattern, but it’s possible I’ll have to grade the outer shell up for my final version, especially if I want to put a heavy interlining in.

Anyway, that is the long-term goal (I would like to have it to wear by next winter, but if not I’m sure I can get another winter’s wear out of my current coat). In the meantime a couple of other projects have suggested themselves:

2) personal sloper: I’ve been reading a lot about how constructing your personal sloper can speed up making alterations, not to mention facilitating drafting your own patterns (something I’d REALLY like to do). This is something I really should move forward on before anything else… it could help me figure out at least some of my potential pitfalls for fitting (like sleeve length)  BEFORE cutting out the muslin, which would be nice.

3)McCall’s 2324 This is an 80s dress-suit pattern I acquired in a mess of old patterns I inherited (in a rather roundabout way) from my mother-in-law.  The picture above is the best I could find on the internet… the pattern itself came to me as a scatter of still-uncut tissue leaves, missing both envelope and instructions. I love little tailored jackets like these, but I can never find them as the sleeves are always too short. Perfect for a trial-run of my full coat, right? Er, not. This is easily the most complicated pattern I’ve ever looked at (keeping in mind that my pattern experience is pretty rudimentary). It has separate pattern pieces for both the interfacing and the lining. It has 2-part sleeves! Add to that a lack of instructions of any kind? Um, well… You know, I probably will try it eventually. well, maybe just a muslin… well…

4)I also picked up a nice, U-necked, princess-seamed dress pattern at Value Village back at Christmas. I don’t have any fabric that’s crying out to me to make it, but it’s a lovely pattern (I had a dress very similar I used to love, except that… wait for it… the sleeves were too short). So that’s a possibility too, although the amount of fabric necessary for a dress seems unlikely to materialize for me in the near future.

5)Tops. It would be nice to find/buy/draft a nice top pattern or two, something I could really use in my daily wardrobe. And it wouldn’t take up as much fabric as dresses or long coats. I’ve looked at a bunch of patterns online, but most of my favourites are for knits only and knits scare me. I have a serger, but it’s in need of some TLC. Also finding nice knits is HARD.

Ok, that’s enough blathering about plans… how about a little action?

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March 15, 2010 · 8:23 pm

An introduction…

Hi. This is me. There are probably about fourteen million other things I should be doing right now, but I feel like sewing and I can’t, so I figure I’ll write about it for a bit.

I guess I’ll start with how I got started.

My mother sewed, not huge amounts, but I usually had a few home-made dresses around when I was little. When I was about nine I started getting into her scrap box and making clothes for my barbies. Aside from basic instruction on how to thread the machine (a glorious old Pfaff from the 60s), I taught myself. Patterns were foreign to me, as were concepts like “fitting” and “seam allowances.” Nevertheless, I developed a fair range of “fashions,” mostly using basic rectangle construction, with belts and ties for fit. Fortunately for me, Barbie doesn’t require movement ease. What I did develop (rightly or not) was the idea that I could sew.

After I outgrew the barbies, I didn’t sew much for quite a while. I did doodle a lot of costumes and exotic outfits, but nothing I thought I could ever practically make (or that anyone, including me, would wear if I did). But then, towards the end of high school, I took up bellydancing. All of a sudden there were PLENTY of ideas I wanted to sew: harem pants, circle skirts, hip-belts, covered bras, cholis.

And that was most of my sewing for the last 10 years… lots of project photos up on my dance profile at http://people.tribe.net/taran. I learned a lot—especially about seam allowances (1/4 inch may be fine for Barbie, but it doesn’t work so well for me), but it was still at a costume level. Zippers, buttonholes, seam finishing, even most patterns… all remained essentially foreign to me. A few more advanced projects, like making a shirt for my husband or a dress for one of my daughters, have met with patchy success. And while I adore a LOT of my costumes, they’re not exactly daily items in my wardrobe.

So lately, I’ve been trying to Improve Myself. I’ve been reading up on pattern-drafting and alterations. I found a copy of the “Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing” at Value Village, the first actual sewing instruction I’ve ever had (This is a lie, I learnt most of the basics from my mom… just never in a formal “this is how you do this…” kind of way). I found an awesome (if dated) text on pattern drafting online: Modern Pattern Design . Most recently, I’ve completed some cute little lined jackets for my daughters (more on that later) and I’m hoping to work up to making a gorgeous, sleek winter coat for myself. And when I do succeed in making stuff… well, I want to show it off (or cry about it). So that’s what this blog is for. 😉

I think I’ll conclude with a brief summary of where I am as a sewist (I just found that word… it’s cute, and definitely better than “seamstress” or “tailor” since I am definitely lacking in a lot of the skills required for those labels).

My main strength: naive inclination to assume that I can do whatever sewing project comes to mind.

My main weakness: lack of actual skills and techniques, not to mention the resources to do it properly.

Where I am, skill-wise?

Well, I can read a pattern. Usually I don’t have too much trouble with construction, although there’s been a few things that flummox me (shirt plackets for one). I can make minor alterations to a pattern, although I’m not especially good at predicting the outcome. I have recently been expanding my repertoire to include zippers, buttonholes, and even lining, underlining, and interfacing, not to mention pockets. I think I could get to like this interfacing thing…

My big hangups when it comes to sewing tend to stem from lack of money. I don’t have money for fabric. I don’t have money for notions. I especially don’t have money for patterns, which is why I tend to try to draft my own (emphasis on try). I also tend to take shortcuts, forget to transfer pattern markings to my fabric, and get too impatient to pin stuff. I am slowly getting better at most of these… a few months ago I actually BOUGHT some patterns and have now used them. Mostly I try to scavenge—recycling curtains or old bed-linens or the odd length of fabric found at Value Village; altering patterns my mother or mother-in-law have had lying around for ages. This is all well and good, but it only gets you so far, especially since I can’t afford (in terms of money or space) a huge stash from which I can mix ‘n match stuff.

I think my first few posts will be a mish-mash of recent projects and some older ones I’m still proud of, plus some goals. Yup, sounds good. Ok, here I go…

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