Tag Archives: too much talk

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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August 25, 2011 · 4:54 pm

My Grandma’s Stash

Quilts from my Grandma

My father’s mother was the family quilter. I’ve mentioned my quilt before, and I believe she was also the source of the homemade christmas undies I used to get each year (my mother frequently received a matching pair). I am sad to say I was not particularly thrilled by these (not by the homemade factor, but by the slippery satiny tricot used), and when I was eight or nine finally managed to express this to my mother. The flow of home-made undies stopped—just in time for me to decide I did actually like satiny underthings after all. Kids, I tell ya.

A few years back, grandma moved from the farm to a little one-bedroom in a seniors’ complex in town. As she was giving away a good number of things, I held my breath hoping for something sewing-related, but alas received only a few photos and knicknacks. Her little cabinet sewing machine still sits in her new bedroom, with a small chair in front of it, ready to be opened out of the cabinet should the need arise. I do wonder where the cutting mat and rotary cutter got to—I suspect one of my aunts nabbed them.

Grandma's Stash

Anyway, apparently Grandma has gotten wind of my sewing exploits, because this summer she decided to send me a few small bags of old stash. Being quilter’s stash, it’s a bit different from my usual sorts. A lot of small pieces, which will be perfect for pocket linings and waistband facings, although I’m a little terrified to wash them and have them half-ravel away, some are so small. My grandma predates the concept of quilter’s cotton—most of these are poly-cotton blends if not pure polyester; they have the softness and drape of a lettuce leaf. But I have never been one to look free fabric in the drape. 😉

There are a few larger pieces—some flannel with a cute bear print, intended, no doubt, for the back of a girl’s quilt; a medium-sized piece of red and white check that wants to be a tablecloth for picnics. And, the oddest prize of them all, two pieces that appear to be intended for pillowcases, with large prints from the 80s movie Black Hole.

Now, personally I didn’t care for the movie when I first saw it and don’t like it much better now that it doesn’t completely terrify the crap out of me, but my husband, on the other hand, has quite the soft spot for it. So Black Hole pillowcases he will have.

They’ll go with the Transformers pillowcase  that recently emerged from a box of stuff I had abandoned at my father’s. I assume it must have been admixed from my brother’s stuff (also abandoned at my father’s), although I have no idea where he would’ve gotten a Transformers pillowcase. We’re the right age, but my mother was not the kind  to buy her kids themed bedsheets.

I know this fabric!

I don’t know how old most of this fabric is, but there is one piece I recognized. As a very small child I had a home-made (not by me) barbie cowgirl outfit—blue denim skirt and vest, blue-flowered blouse. And the blouse was made of this exact fabric. I had always sort of assumed my mom made that outfit, but maybe it was from Grandma. Or maybe my mom passed the fabric on to Grandma after. Or… who knows. One of the scraps here looks to be a rather shapeless sleeve that was cut but never stitched up into a garment…

Ok, I admit it, I’m pretty stoked about those Black Hole pillowcases, too.

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August 16, 2011 · 10:08 pm

Oof-Da

Vacation

So, now we’re home, it should be back to life as usual, right?

Erm. Not quite yet.

You see, memory is a finicky thing. Much as we swear that we’ll never forget the little things, they still get fuzzy as the years go by. I no longer remember which of my children was born at 4:00 am vs. 6:00 am.  I don’t remember whether Syo walked at nine months or ten (either way, it was far too early…)

And I didn’t remember quite what it was like to have pre-schoolers in the house. So when my stylish sister-in-law asked if we could watch her girls (yes, the ones I occasionally sew for, currently aged 4.5 and 3) for a couple of days while she and her hubby take their first-ever post-child vacation, I blithely said yes. She took my kids all freakin’ July, people. It was the least I could do. Especially since we shanghaied my father-in-law to provide “childcare” for us for the rest of August.

So, yeah. I have a serious infestation of pre-schoolers. And while they’re both past the everything-goes-in-the-mouth-first stage, there’s such a lot of, well, chaos. Syo, freshly turned eight, can whip up a jug of orange-juice from concentrate without me having to do more than wipe the counter after. Syo assisted by the three-year-old niece gets orange goop all over said counter, floor, stack of mail, and the orange-juice has bran flakes in it when finished. And they don’t know that the sewing room is a no-play zone. Same with the furnace room. Same with—ARGH! WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU NEED YOUR BUM WIPED? WOULD YOU JUST GO PLAY OUTSIDE NOW? NO, WE DON’T HAVE A PADDLING POOL! WHY ARE YOU CRYING NOW????

Ahem.

So I’m feeling just a wee bit like I’m running around like a chicken with my head cut off. >_<

On the plus side, I did retrieve my Janome from the sewing-machine hospital, and she seems to be working again—at least, the flywheel turns freely and there was a nice little piece of fabric decorated with some gorgeous stitching stuffed under the needle when I picked it up. I haven’t had a chance to actually set her up and give her a run (see previous paragraph).

So instead I’ll show you a couple of glimpses of stuff that was in-progress when I left, lo these many moons ago. Ok, two weeks back. That’s, like, forever in internetland, people.

A handsome cuff

Of course, there’s Serena’s jacket. I really need to get cracking on this one.  But doesn’t the cuff look nice? I should’ve used more interfacing, though. When in doubt, add more interfacing. Ah, well.

Collar: a diptych

And there’s Tyo’s shirt. Here’s my nice collar. I had to show you both sides so you could see how (not) awesome my stripes are. I managed to cut one of each piece on-grain. Obviously this is one of those situations where you (I) should cut your pieces individually. Or match the freakin’ plaid. Either of which I was too lazy rushed  to do. However I did swing it so that the nice-looking side of the collar will fold out over the nice-looking side of the stand, which is why they’re on opposite sides in this flat view. Having just tried it around her neck, I may have to junk the whole thing and cut out another anyway, as this one’s going to be a bit snug. Perils of using a pattern that’s technically too small even if it is the right chest measurement.

Tyo's shirt back

I’m pretty happy with how the back is looking, though.

Hmm, have I even mentioned this shirt properly?

Tyo wanted a shirt. Way back before she went on vacation. She picked out the fabric back in the spring, and then found a pattern (7171) off the Lekala site. Their sample size is for a child of 120 cm height, which Tyo is far beyond, but the chest measurements were the same, so I went for it (with considerable lengthening of the sleeve). As I mentioned, the collar is small, so I may end up regretting that.

Technical drawing of the pattern

As you can see, instead of buttons, I’ve opted for loops of elastic on each side, which will be threaded with black velvet ribbon. Because everyone loves lacing, don’t they? You can also see my clever use of bias to avoid all semblance of having to match my plaid. Except at the side-seams, but I wasn’t even thinking about that. Figuring out how to finish the seam where the little loops are inserted was a little, ah, mind-expanding. There was seam-ripping, and possibly even a little swearing. I wound up basically doing a

You can perhaps see how I flared out the bottom of the side-back and centre-back pieces a little bit. This will hopefully accomodate Tyo’s generous derriere. I’m a touch stalled because I need to go back over the Men’s Shirt Sewalong before I get much further, to do the cuffs and plackets.

And I don’t multitask well (at sewing or at anything else) so I really need to just hunker down and finish Serena’s coat. Before I do anything else.

Dammit.

I want to make my Lonsdale…

EDIT: Just got a call from the MIL that Niece #1’s tests just came back positive for strep. And Syo is already showing the same symptoms she had… Life just keeps getting better. >_<

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August 14, 2011 · 10:36 pm

A Sewing Interview (Part II)

As soon as I got my mom’s interview made up, it was obvious that I needed to pop the same questions to my grandmothers. Since neither of my grandmothers are computer-users and I’m the world’s worst snail-mailer, this took some doing: getting my mom to print out the questions, having a cousin ferry them out to the farm, and finally being able to pick them up while on my current bout of holidays. But anyway, here is the first, coming from my mother’s mother, who grew up the daughter of the shopkeeper in a small town in southern Saskatchewan. She married a farmer and went on to have four children to sew (or not) for. Just for reference, she was born in the 1920s, grew up during the Depression, and was married and had most of her children in the 1950s. Once again, my interjections are italicized.

Were you exposed to sewing in the home growing up?

Yes! My mother made a lot of our dresses for school & our “Best dresses” for church or special occasions, with hems that could be let down as we grew taller. (no slacks in those days)

How did you and your peers view sewing? What about the older generation?

It was expected for girls to learn to sew a little, and our mothers expected us to learn. (This is where I wish it was an in-person interview. The next question would be: did you enjoy sewing, did it provide a creative outlet, or was it just another household chore?)

How and from whom did you learn to sew?

My mother. (No Home Ec in the one-room schoolhouse, I guess)

On what kind of machine(s)?

Eatons pedal (a treadle machine. If I’m not mistaken, she still has it stashed somewhere.)

Where did you get your fabric, patterns, other supplies?

We ordered some of our fabric from the Eatons or Simpson catalogs. Sometimes cut down an older, larger dress etc. We also could buy patterns. Patterns could also be sent for to (ordered from) Eatons or Simpsons or sometimes from some patterns advertized in the newspapers.

What kind of finishing/techniques did you use?

We trimmed collars etc. with lace, rickrack, bias tape, etc. Made tucks and pleats and ruffles. We also made our own nighties and pyjamas.

Did you learn much about fitting?

My mother taught me. Her mother, my grandmother, was a seamstress in Ontario. She would go from one family to another, sewing for the whole family. She would stay at their place for a few days or a week or so. She had her own portable sewing machine. They gave her meals & a bed to sleep in. On some patterns you had to shorten or lengthen the bodice to the waist line etc. or widen it. (Wow, this is so neat! I had never even heard that before. Hmm, I will have to do some more digging to see if I can come up with a time period for that…)

Did you at any point feel like part of a sewing community, or was it a solitary activity?

Most of my friends sewed a little. Blouses and dresses etc. During the war the Ladies Aid would get together and make & quilt quilts for the refugees. We also knitted socks and mitts for the soldiers.

What (if anything) inspired you to sew in the first place?

It was expected that you learn to sew. I sewed my own wedding dress and dressing gown (which I still have). (must get some pictures of that…)

How has your interest in sewing changed over the years?

I sewed for [my daughters] as they grew up making pleated skirts, slacks, dresses, nighties, etc. (My mother informs me that most of this sewing stopped by the time she was about nine. At this point, in the early sixties, Grandma had four kids, lots to do, and it had become easier to buy ready-made clothes than make them.)

When did you stop sewing (or did you?)

I still sew, but it is patching overalls, hemming tea towels, making curtains and sewing up seams.

Anything else you’d like to mention?

Flour bags made of cotton were washed and hemmed for tea towels. Five bags opened up made a sheet for your bed. They made nice pillow cases if embroidered with flowers etc (P.S.) I still have some. Sugar bags (100 lbs) made small table cloths with embroidery corners or centers. I now use an electric portable. (My mother think Grandma still has some of these stashed around the house… I will have to go hunting next time I make it to the farm…)

PS: I am home at last from a delightful couple of weeks Back Home (if you get the distinction). Hopefully there will be sewing in the very, very near future. In the meantime, I apologize for the long silence…

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July 27, 2011 · 2:46 pm

Madly off in all directions

The Scissors Family

The crunch is here and as usual I’m not ready.  Precious minutes are trickling away when I could be Accomplishing Things. So, I’ll keep this brief.

Sewing World called and the psycho-god scissors were in (pictured bottom right). My willpower shredded under their seductive snipping, and they came home with me. Cutting with them is almost like… hmm, maybe I won’t go there. Let’s just say cutting may no longer be my least favourite part of sewing. The blades are very short, something on the packaging it touting equal length for blade and handle as being important for some reason. Oookay, if you say so. All I know is they cut like… mmmm…. ok, just give me a moment (fans self). The most comfy for the hands are still the old blue ones, though.

Fabric: for niece's dress (left) and my Lonsdale (right). Yes, a print!

I bought fabric.

I started a dress.

It’s neither Lonsdale nor for me. *headdesk*

Dress in progress. Not for me. Obviously.

Underskirt for dress for niece.

It’s for my four-year-old niece, who very cleverly spent most of the two days I was down there at the end of June telling me how much she loves me, and also how much she loves the red sundress and wants one just like it. Sometimes not even in the same sentence. It’s based off a pattern from the Young Image magazine (I added the front ruching), but as usual I’m off in my own little universe so the finished product will be “inspired by” at best. Also, can you spot my goof in the picture?

I’ve made a bit more progress on the coat, then got stalled because I needed more trim. Because 4m of three different kinds of trim was obviously not enough, and I’m a complete idiot for thinking under any circumstances that it would be.

And, I’m going to feel really guilty that I have a home-made present for my niece and not for my daughter whose birthday is on Sunday.

*headdesk*

And I really want to start my Lonsdale…

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July 23, 2011 · 8:36 am

Fortunately, unfortunately

New Fabric Scissors!

Fortunately, I got some fun new sewing stuff in the mail this week. I was especially excited to try out the Seam-Gauge Guide.

Unfortunately, when I went to try it, my fabric scissors were nowhere to be found.

Fortunately, this motivated me to clean up my sewing room.

Unfortunately, I STILL couldn’t find them.

Fortunately, I’d been thinking of getting another pair anyway, since my old ones no longer cut to the very tip, which makes notching difficult.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of time in my week-days lately to trot off to the fabric store.

Fortunately, there’s a shop called Sewing World on my walk from work to the train. They sell sewing machines, sewing gizmos, and notions, albeit with a bit of a focus on the quilter.

Unfortunately they’re usually closed by the time I leave work.

Fortunately, one morning this week I managed to get in early enough to stop on my way too work.

Unfortunately they have about eighty bazillion different sizes, styles, and price-points of scissors to choose from.

Fortunately, the lady working was willing to pull out about a dozen, mostly Ginghers, and provide fabric samples for me to snip up.

Unfortunately, the best-quality Ginghers have metal handles. This makes them very pretty and sturdy, but sets off some nerve damage in my thumb.

Fortunately, she pulled out another kind that cut even better than the Ginghers.

Unfortunately, they were really large. This wasn’t a problem for the blade length so much as that my fingers flopped around in the handle. Maybe they’re men’s fabric scissors.

Fortunately, the lady promptly called up her supplier and ordered in a couple of pairs of the same kind in a smaller model.

Unfortunately, they won’t be in until next week at the earliest and I need scissors right away. However, I didn’t want to buy an expensive pair when there was a pretty good chance I’d be coming back for the freakin’ sweet crazy ones in a week or two.

Fortunately, there were some “Featherweight” Ginghers, which while not as awesome as the regular Ginghers, were still pretty sweet, and most importantly, have a plastic handle and are much cheaper. So I have new fabric scissors!

Unfortunately, the plastic extends along the blades, making an odd lump, so that even though the seam allowance gauges still stick, they angle downward too sharply to really work, plus the magnetism isn’t quite as strong so it would get knocked off easily.

Fortunately, I might even have time to come to my senses about the price of those godlike scissors by the time they’re in stock.

Although I wouldn’t bet on it.

And in the meantime, I have new scissors anyway! And they snip! So my notches will (hopefully) no longer resemble irregular blobs somewhere in the general vicinity of where they’re marked on the pattern. Hooray!

PS: writing in that “fortunately, unfortunately” format is kinda addictive. I find my thoughts now composing everything as a series of fortunate and unfortunate happenings.

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July 20, 2011 · 9:56 pm

Fitting Serena

Tailocat---Fabric and sketch

Continue reading →

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July 16, 2011 · 6:03 pm

All I need now is the Lonsdale…

Patterns! Thank you, ElleC!

It was a good week, mail-wise, if not sewing-wise*. Several really awesome things came through, but I’ll stick to the sewing-related ones.

Very sweet (and tragically blogless) commentor ElleC send me a delightful package of her own Value Village pattern finds. More 70s Simplicity than you can shake a stick at (including more maxi-dreses!)! And that retro black-dress pattern is the Simplicity take on the Audrey Hepburn dress Her Selfishness copied, lo these many moons ago (It might be fun to compare Selfish’s pattern to the Simplicity one, someday when I’m in an LBD mood…). But I’m especially, super-duper, stoked about the men’s “Designer Jeans” pattern front and centre. Copyright 1981, from a design house I’d never heard of in Edmonton, Alberta, it looks guaranteed to be pure cowboy. The legs are straight, not flared (I checked carefully 😉 ), although I have a feeling they’re not very roomy. Good for me, less good for my hubster. There’s also two versions of the instructions, both of which are really nice, although I still haven’t managed to figure out what the seam allowance is. Sadly, the man has informed me that he wants the jacket I promised him more than anything else. He doesn’t seem to grasp that my jacket motivation now that real summer is here is somewhere below zero. Blergh.

Building Patterns

Equally thrilling, this pattern-drafting book arrived. I actually won it back in May after commenting on a giveaway/article on Burdastyle.com, but it probably got shipped out right around the time the postal strike got serious. Anyway, it’s here, now, and came with a cute little note from the author herself, and it looks like fun although I haven’t had a real chance to dig into it. It’s definitely text-book weight, anyway!

All I’m waiting on now is for my Lonsdale Dress pattern to arrive! Tasia shipped them out last weekend, so hopefully sometime next week…

Anyway. I am trying to spend my weekend sewing, rather than blogging (so I might actually have something worth blogging about later), so I’ll leave you with that.

 

*this not getting home from work until 6:30 thing really chokes my mojo. Bleh.

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July 14, 2011 · 8:51 am

One year of jeans

Unsewing 😦

Since the picture above  constitutes the grand total of my (un)sewing the last couple of days, I thought I’d talk about jeans.

First me-made jeans for me, ever.

I just checked back and realized it’s been over a year since I made my first pair of jeans for myself! Wow. Where did that time go?  Geez, I was so darned proud of that first pair. Funny considering I really hate wearing them now, although more because of the fabric, which I never did like, than anything else.

Anyway, inspired by Carolyn’s autopsy of her recently-deceased black jeans, I thought I’d muse self-indulgently a bit over one of my favourite things to stitch up.

Depending on how you count it, I’ve now made seven or eight pairs of jeans for myself. Nine if you count the Lekala sailor shorts. These fall into two categories, stretch and non-stretch. Since I made my first pair of non-stretch jeans not that long ago, I can’t really comment on quality, so today I’ll just be talking about my stretch jeans, all of which are based on the infamous Jalie 2908 pattern. You can find all the Jalie jeans posts here, or all the jeans posts ever here.

I picked this pattern because it was highly recommended on PatternReview.com for something approaching the kind of jeans I like to wear, which are low-rise, tight-fitting stretch denim. The Jalie pattern is mid-rise, close fitting, stretch flares. From my reading, I was pretty sure that I would be making several stylistic modifications, and probably a couple of fit ones as well. For style, I would be lowering the rise and reducing the leg-flare to a straight-below-the-knee style (something I’d found in a single RTW pair back in 2004 or so and been looking for ever since that one beloved pair went to the great closet in the sky), and probably going down a size as, based on the models in the photo, I thought the jeans as pictured were a little loose for stretch denim (your mileage may vary.) For fit, I expected to dart the yoke and add, oh, 5″ of length to the leg or so.

Procedure for putting dart in yoke pattern piece. A small amount of additional width can be trimmed at the centre back (step 4) if necessary; alternatively, two darts could be used to spread the amount removed over a more gentle curve.

At the time I was a bit perplexed by why the Jalie jeans were drafted with such a flat butt. It seemed like pretty much everyone needed to modify the yoke, and the lady behind Jalie even has a tutorial out there on how to do the fix, both during construction and on the pattern for your next pair. Then I watched (well, over the phone) my mom try to make flat-seat adjustments on some pants she made back in the winter.

Best pair ever.

WAY harder than just taking a little dart out of the yoke. So. Yoke-dart for the win.

Anyway.

Jeans are actually not terribly difficult to make. Denim, even stretch denim, is a lovely fabric to work with, sturdy and well behaved. Where you run into trouble is:

  1. bulk
  2. topstitching.
  3. fly
So, let’s start with 1.

Bulk:

Denim is thick. Good denim is thicker. In a few places, like where the yokes meed the centre-back seam, you’ll be stitching through up to eight layers (more if you’re doing proper felled seams). If you’re lucky enough to have a chew-through-nails-clunk-over-everything vintage or industrial machine, you’re probably good to go. If, like me (up until a week ago) you don’t, you will probably need to resort to a few tricks.

  1. Clapper/point presser and hammer

    The clapper. This is one of those unfinished blocks of smooth wood, often topped with a point presser. You iron your seam, get it good and steams up, and then press and hold this on top until it cools down. It’s amazing how much more this flattens out fabric than ironing alone—I know I was always pressing the iron on longer than I should and then scorching my fingers trying to push things down after taking the iron off. Trust me, the clapper is better.

  2. A hammer. Yes, you heard me. Technically this is best done with a rubber mallet, as a metal hammer has a tendency to break some of the fibres around the edges. A sharp-edged rock-hammer even more. Although probably most of you don’t have rock-hammers lying around, so you won’t run into this problem. Anyway, hammering a bulky seam also flattens it, even more dramatically than the clapepr, just be careful you don’t put holes in your fabric. Especially if it’s a thin denim. [Rock-hammer pic]
  3. Handwheel. Most of the thick spots in jeans are going over seams, and don’t last very long. A lot of places where the machine motor jams up and just won’t go through all the layers, you can carefully handwheel a stitch or two to get it started, or even get you past the trouple spot completely.

Jalie 2908 made skinny

Topstitching:

Presumably my topstitching woes are over now that I have the Featherweight, but topstitching on my modern Janome was certainly an adventure. There are several options I’ve used at different times. Generally the advice is to use regular thread in the bobbin, regardless of what you’re doing with the top thread. Topstitching generally looks better with a slightly longer stitch; I usually use 3mm for mine. Backstitching on topstitching can look messy, and many people recommend pulling the ends to the inside and knotting afterwards. I’ve experimented with both ways and came to the conclusion that the messy backstitch is, for me, more secure, usually not noticeable, and certainly not any more unsightly than some of my other topstitch booboos. Your mileage may vary.
    1. Two threads through the needle. If you can rig your machine to hold two spools, then hold the threads together and thread the machine as usual. This gives the top side of the stitch more oomph, plus you can use any regular thread, which gives you an extra-wide colour range to choose from.
    2. Triple stitch. Sometimes called (at least by me) a “stretch straight stitch”, this is where your machine takes two stitches forward, then one stitch back all the way along. The symbol on my Janome looks like this: ||| Basically, it ends up stitching each stitch twice, looking (ideally) just like #1. The down-side is that sometimes the forward and back stitches don’t line up perfectly, and if you don’t turn corners (say, on the pockets) just after the 1st forward stitch, it will take a stitch back after and make your corner look messy. The up-sides are: like #1 you have every colour imaginable to choose from; the top and the bottom look the same; and for stretch denim, this stitch has a bit of stretch to it.
    3. Heavy duty thread (including Coats & Clark Heavy Duty, buttonhole thread, and Guterman Jeans or upholstery thread). This heavier thread has a more striking appearance than regular-stitched regular thread, and looks more like “regular” jeans topstitching. You will probably need to turn up the tension a bit (do some tests) but my Janome handles this kind of thread quite well.
    4. Topstitching thread.

      Thread setup for dealing with mega topstitching thread: wrap around the little round bobbin-winding doohickey before threading as usual. Actual Guterman Topstitching thread not shown.

      By this I’m referring to the Guterman Tops-titching thread, which is the thickest of the threads I’ve found. It’s also a bit “fluffier” than, the heavy-duty threads above. But it comes in a wide range of colours and looks really striking. My Janome has major problems with this thread, which basically come down to the tension. The highest tension setting on my machine is too low. Possibly I could adjust the bobbin tension to compensate, but when stitching jeans on a single machine you’re re-threading just about every other seam. I wouldn’t want to add constant bobbin-adjusting to that procedure. Eventually, I came up with a sneaky tension fix where I wrap the thread once around the bobbin-feeder, which has its own little tension disk, before threading as normal. This increased the tension significantly, to the point where I could actually keep the regular tension pretty close to its normal setting. The other problem I have with this thread is it often gets snarled in the bobbin in the first couple of stitches. I found it was possible to keep this from happening by holding on (firmly!) to the tail of the thread when starting the seam.

Topstitching feet: 1) 1/4" edge-stitcher; 2) rolled-hem foot; 3) blind-hem foot

Topstitching foot. There are a lot of different sewing-machine feet that will work for topstitching, but your standard zig-zag foot is not the

Straight stitch foot (on Featherweight) and adjustable zipper foot. Both have open toes and can work well for topstitching.

best. Basically you want something with an open toe, so you can see precisely where the needle is on your fabric, and edges you can line up to get a consistent width. I don’t recommend trying to twin-needle denim, although I did hem some jeans this way early on—you’re liable to break at least one needle, at which point it gets very expensive very fast. My favourite topstitching foot is an actual edge-stitching foot with a handy keel (mine cost five or six bucks), but an ordinary straight-stitch foot like the kind that my Featherweight has also works really well. A blind-hemming foot works well in theory, but my particular foot the movable keel has a tendency to wander along its screw over long seams, which is less than useful, and it’s hard to re-set it to a precise width. My rolled-hem foot actually worked surprisingly well—just ignore the little scroll part and it’s got sides the right width and some handy grooves in the bottom. This was my favourite until I got the edge-stitch foot.

Fly:

I don’t have a HUGE number of tips on stitching up the fly.
  1. Find the tutorial that works for you. I have good luck with Debbie Cook’s; if you’re a video person (I’m not), Sandra Betzina’s video on the Threads website also comes highly recommended.
  2. Keep a RTW pair on hand for reference. This makes it much easier to keep track of which side to topstitch and stuff like that.
  3. Interface the fly, either with something fusible or with fabric from a front pocket extension. It will be a much happier fly later on if it’s a little more substantial.
  4. TRUST THE FLY. This is one I’ve only recently come around to. After you’ve got your fly constructed and your waistband on, it’s very tempting to try and tweak your fit that last little bit by moving the button one way or the other. Don’t. The button needs to sit so its shank is just at the end of your buttonhole. If you try to mess with this, you will end up with a gaping fly.
My own jeans have ranged from barely wearable to being far and away my favourite pair. I wish I could say there was a consistent improvement in this, or that I’d made the absolute perfect jeans even ones. I haven’t.  But I have had a lot of fun, and gotten some very wearable jeans for a lot less than I would pay at the store. There’s a lot of things RTW jeans have that I can’t imitate—fabrics I can’t find, embroidery I can’t do. My next step will be hunting down some really quality buttons and rivets, as the ones I can get locally are slightly sub-par, or at least, not quite right for jeans. I haven’t even tried my hand at distressing any of my me-made jeans, although I won’t totally rule it out in the future. But there’s plenty of other neat touches I can add, and thinking of what little detail will make that next pair special is one of my favourite things about making jeans. If you can pick up a pair at Walmart and are good to go, then making your own jeans probably won’t be your thing. But if, like me, you’re picky, hard to fit, or get stressed out trying to find that perfect style, making your own can be both fun and money-saving. I’m one of those people who regularly spends over $100 on new jeans, and I can’t reliably find any at the thrift store that are long enough and haven’t been worn to ribbons. Even paying full-price for quality denim, I can cut that price in half, and be just as happy—or happier—with the final product.
Damn. Now I want to make some more jeans.

Jeans!

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July 12, 2011 · 8:08 am

I want to work for Colette Patterns

If I can draw this…

Colette patterns is looking for a technical illustrator to do contract work. I want this job. If I can illustrate Carboniferous lizard pancakes, I can totally illustrate sewing instructions, right?

Of course, they’re looking for someone experienced. Y’know, someone who’s an expert with Illustrator and InDesign. I’m almost passable with Illustrator. I’ve never even looked at InDesign (although now I’m curious). The extent of my experience readying illustrations for print is making sure my DPI is within the journal’s recommended range.

Who prides themselves on meeting deadlines. Um, well, as long as I don’t put my supervisor as a reference…

Who answers email quickly. Um. See above.

Can easily translate complex sewing tasks into clear visual instructions. Hmm. I’d like to be such a person. I haven’t tried yet. Although having tried to write up instructions for a couple of patterns at this point, I gotta say, that’s the hardest part. And not nearly as fun as drafting up the pattern itself.

And there’s that whole thesis thing I’m supposed to be working on. Y’know, that little detail.

So basically, they’re not actually looking for me, and I couldn’t really jump on it if they were. /Sigh.

But if that description is you, go for it, and know that at least one person out there will be green with envy…

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