04.26.09
Posted in sewing at 9:27 pm by wendy
Another one from Weekend Sewing! Told you I love this book.
(Despite all the errata. Make sure you google before even buying fabric if it’s for a specific WS project, the fabric allowances seem to be miscalculated in many of the patterns, and that’s just the start. Unfortunately, since I first posted this, HR has transformed all the wonderful feedback and information and workarounds left by helpful creative crafters into a stripped down pdf of errata that blithely ignores so many known issues that it’s kind of not cool, y’know? But I still love the book. Still going to make the Kimono Dress.)
This is one of those dresses that is completely unlike anything I’d buy, and really isn’t like anything I’d wear, I have no idea why I wanted to make it so bad, but I love it. It’s kind of maternity-wearish, earthmothery mumu-esque but love means not giving a shit about the hippo-esque silhouette.
(My back looks so broad and pale! Eek!)
It’s a happy dress, made from happy fabric. It looks bright yellow with red and white polka dots from a distance, but they’re actually ladybugs and flowers. Aw. I am probably 26 years too old to be wearing this dress, but again, not giving a shit. 
assorted modifications, heads up, errata, ciabatta stigmata.
This was pretty simple and easy to make. I made a lining for it, but this quilting cotton I used is so thick I think I could have got away without it, but I was experimenting to work out any kinks before I made it with the “juicy” fabric that I love so madly, and which is much lighter.
But there weren’t many modifications to be made. I had to make it smaller, since I’m about 31″ now above the titties for the bodice measurement, and the pattern is 36″ or so, but these modifications were easily made in cutting. For the body & bodice pieces, I just took two inches out of each center piece and a quarter inch off each side to take out the five inch difference all around.
The lining was easily made much like cutting out the exterior, except I took an additional bit (2″) off the center to account for the pleats that wouldn’t be happening on the inside and cut it shorter. Here it is, traced out in chalk in the muslin before cutting:
Sewed the front and back together, graded the seams, pressed ‘em open, put them inside the dress body wrong sides together matching side seams and raw edges, basted the raw edges together for ease of bodice install et voilá, easy peasy! (look at me, jargonizing like a pro: “graded the seams!” snort. Yes, so much quicker than saying “trimmed the seams.”)
The construction is quite simple, although I had a sticky moment where the directions say to sew the pocket pieces to the front and back pieces and press the seams open flat, then sew the front and back pieces together with a 3/8″ seam allowance along the sides of the front and back and the edges of the pockets–which I couldn’t see how to do without getting possibly an odd little pucker where the stitching goes over the pressed flat seam bit, not to mention when I go to press the side seams later. I probably should have just done it, might have been no big deal. I just couldn’t visualize it from here:
So I pressed the seams flat, closed and sewed it together that way and it turned out just dandy. I defied the directions and nothing terrible happened! Yay!
Also, the directions for the bodice say to press the bodice facing under 1/4″ and catch it by topstitching, enclosing the raw upper edges of the body inside the bodice. I had to rip mine out and do it again (as the topstitching along the front of the bodice came in along too high up on the facing to catch the folded under bit of the bodice facing) pressing considerably more than that under–just take yours, fold the bodice pieces the way that you want them to look and mark where that bottom of the front bodice piece lines up with the back section as a fold line and press under from there, to make sure you enclose that folded under raw edge when topstitching the bottom edge of the front of the bodice. Maybe this was just an issue for me, this is probably one of those deviations from directions that’s just a common sense modification for a more experienced sewist.
Also, this used a whole 100m spool of Gutterman thread, just a heads up. I found another spool of very similarly colored red, so I might sew another couple lines of stitching at the hem, but I was on the last yard of thread with my original color. Although, that’s with an extra couple of rounds of stitching to attach and enclose the bodice since I had to rip and redo, and I added another line of stitching on the bodice and of course, the lining took a little bit of extra thread. But, then, I made a slightly smaller size, soooooo…make sure you’ve got at least 100m.
There was some confusion I guess about the number of pleats, since there are three on the dress front pictured in the book, two on the pattern and two in the book illustration. Not a big deal, since as Heather Ross says in the errata, pleats can be placed anywhere and however you feel would fit and make you happy. I goofed a little in matching the dress body width with the bodice width, so while I planned to have just two pleats in the front, I ended up with a very small pleat in the center as well, to take up the slack. Which I dig, ‘cuz a central pleat gives nice boob definition. Down with uniboobs! 
I’ll try to get a good picture of the front and pleats up soon. It’s very cute.
Okay, no ciabatta stigmata here, I just felt a little rhythm going.
I love the pockets in this. Yay! A dress, but with pockets! Yay!
I tore off a section of red kona cotton I have and tried out the whole fabric sash thing to eliminate the whole ballooning thing, and it looks all right, although it’ll look a bit better after the cotton has been washed a few more times and softened up and gets more drape.
All in all, I really dig this. I don’t know how often I’ll actually wear it and I don’t know if I will make another one anytime soon, but I’m very happy with it.
I’m going to do the Kimono Dress next. Wish me luck, I guess this thing is famously huge so I’ll make mods to a muslin first, and this will be my first time using elastic thread, but I hope to have it done before we go to Spain and France so I can wear it there. I’ve got a great organic cotton/bamboo print for it.
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04.20.09
Posted in books, d'oh, sewing at 1:03 pm by wendy
I love, love, love, love, love Weekend Sewing. And Heather Ross’s Mendocino fabric line. Oh those gorgeous cephalopods. The charming retro subtlety of the seahorses. I lurve it. I bought two fat quarter packs from Spool in Philly, hoping that would be the end of it, but I’m going to have to buy some more yardage to make some shirts.
Weekend Sewing is just full of so many great projects–I’ve bookmarked about a third of the projects inside, which is really quite a lot considering the number of projects in this book.
I’ve already made the Pajamas for Everyone out of a great woven bamboo I bought from Fabric of Vision for Nick, but I failed to finish the fabric edges properly and trimmed them too close, so after washing and wearing, there’s a big ol’ hole in the arse, and some in the sides. It frankly adds to the appeal when he wears them, but you’ll understand the lack of pictures. (I’m going to fix them, and keep them for me and make him a new pair with french seams.)
The pattern was easy and simple. I’ve already made pj bottoms from a Simplicity pattern, and these weren’t really any different except that the simplicity pattern is only in two pieces instead of four, so there are no outside side seams for the legs, but the width and length make the simplicity pattern a bit of a bugger to cut out; I had to use the floor, so of course I had lots of help from the dogs walking on the fabric and pattern sheets. The four-pieced pattern from WS, while perhaps not as quick from an actual sewing perspective with the extra seaming was easy-peasy.
Anyway.
And, I’ve made the Summer Blouse, which I’m happy with now, but holy cow. I had a problem with about every single freaking step. Sigh.
But I’m pretty happy with it now.
So, here’s a breakdown of the problems I had, since forewarned is forearmed and I will be making this again, so I’ll probably make a printable pdf for myself to stick in the book, since I always think I’ll remember next time and only sometimes do.
Step 1.) Layout and Cut Pattern.
No problems tracing the pattern or anything like that, (although don’t bother to transfer the placket lines to the fabric) but I had a different need for fabric amounts in mine. I made the smallest size, and even reduced the trunk widths because I knew I didn’t need it so big and still couldn’t lay it out for cutting the way it was in the book. I ended up using 68″ of the main color (just 4″ shy of two yards) so, just a heads up.
Of course, If I’d looked at the errata on the web page first, I would have seen that. One commenter (Jenn from KS) said she was able to get hers out of the amount, but I really tried a lot of different ways and it was just mathematically impossible from my nearly 46″ width, even with the trunk widths reduced.
I have been trying to go to the fabric store and just buy the stated required materials and no more, in a fruitless attempt to thwart the inevitable stash-building.
Thankfully, the shot cotton is one of those OTHER fabric store visit purchases, where I just loved the fabric, didn’t really know what I’d do with it… So I bought three yards of each color combo, and good thing too, since I wouldn’t have had enough if I’d done my usual purchasing with the project in mind and just the amounts I needed. Yeah, sure. See how this crap gets rationalised? And before you know it, your house is crammed with stash that’s too lovely to use and can’t be written off in your taxes and gets put on craigslist by your kids when you die.
Um, anyway, so I needed more than was stated, so buy extra to be safe, although if your fabric is 60″ instead of 45″ you should be okay. Also, if you’re taller than I am (5′4″) you might want to increase the length of the body, and maybe the sleeves as well. CraftyClaire ended up using 78″ of fabric for cutting out hers, adding length to the sleeves and body. I had plenty of hemming room for the sleeves, but a fairly narrow hem on the body to hit at the hipbone.
And I get why we sometimes have to buy extra when we buy yarn for knitting, but for sewing, it’s kind of basic math to figure out how much yardage is needed, so I don’t understand how the allowance and cutting layout can be so far off the reality. It made me nervous about the rest of the pattern. After doing a lot more looking around the internet, it seems like there are a few differences between the actual samples made and the directions, and these differences are the root of the problems/some lack of clarity.
Also, when I make this again, I’ll reduce the placket length by 40%. There’s no reason (to my way of thinking) to make the placket so long just to stitch it up and I don’t think it adds much as a design detail. YMMV, of course, and I’ll still stitch up a bit of the placket to reinforce it, but that’s my Next Version Plan: shorter placket.
Also, since I cut one day, put away the fabric (at least in theory, in practice this is a bit like “I only buy as fabric as the pattern calls for”) and then sew, I was a bit annoyed to have to haul out the contrast fabric just to cut out a 1″ by 3″ piece of fabric for the spaghetti strap loop that as far as I can tell isn’t mentioned anywhere but step 7. Thankfully I still had it out to cut out another little chunk after following the erroneous instructions of Step 7. So, when you’re cutting out your placket, cut out a 1″ by 3″ rectangle as well.
2.) Make bust darts: I should have shortened my bust darts to account for my narrowing of the trunk width, and maybe made them a little wider at the base, as the breast shape they make is a little unflattering and they’re placed a little low for me. My mistake.
3.) Sew shoulder seams. No problem there. But maybe if I’d tried the blouse on there, and made the decision as to how wide I wanted the neckline to be, then and there, I could have avoided a fair amount of confusion and irritation later.
4.) Finish Placket Edges and Sew Placket to Shirt: The placket marking that you’re supposed to transfer to the fabric is much wider than the placket, you’ll get better placement if you just fold the front in half and press a nice sharp crease in the center of the shirt and placket and line the creases up for placement, since there’s always a chance that the chalkmarks might stain if they’re ironed.
5.) No problem with this step. It was like a big-ass button hole. Heheh.
6.) Begin Binding Neck Opening with Bias Tape: Oh, this bias tape thing gave me such fits. Such a stupid little thing to have problems with, but I guess the devil really is in the details.
The short version with All the Right Way Which I Wish I’d Known is:
Decide how much wider you want to make the neckhole, e.g., a half inch. Cut out strips of fabric on the bias that are twice that width, in this case 1″ wide and press them in half lengthwise, and sewing them together at the right angle, trimming off excess –there are lots of online tutorials for this, and since you don’t really need that much you don’t need such a big fabric section to cut from as you’ll see in the tutorials. And if you love the fabric you use, I’m sure you can find something to do with the extra. Doublefold bias tape isn’t necessary and eliminating its bulk when tucking in the ends for finishing the edge and sewing in the spaghetti strap loop would be quite helpful.
Follow myloosethreads instructions for this in this thread. Quoted here to be preserved for posterity:
I also saw a rather easy alternative for this (I agree the book’s instructions were confusing!!)
cut a 1″ bias strip
press in half, wrong sides together
Pin it to the right side of the blouse, all raw edges together
edge stitch with 1/8″ allowance
flip the binding to the wrong side of your shirt and you’ll have a 3/8″ binding
top stitch all sides of the binding
The directions and pictures show something quite different from this, but this is much better and what I’m going to do when I make this blouse again.
7.) Make Neckline Loop and Finish Binding Neck Opening: Do not sew this 1″ by 3″ strip, folded and pressed in half lengthwise, with a 3/8″ seam. Basic math and common sense shows that there is no way in hell you’ll be able to turn it inside out. Unfortunately, I lack for either and I went ahead and sewed it with a 3/8″ seam and looked at the tiny 1/4″ section that 3/4″ were supposed to be turned inside out into, smacked my forehead and dragged out the fabric again to cut out another little chunk, this time to press it in half and just sew right down the center, which was difficult enough to turn out (just hard to start it). Again, a little thing, but an irritating error.
8.) Topstitch placket. No problems there.
9.) Sew Sleeve Seams: Don’t bother looking for the basting lines that are mentioned in the pattern instructions, they aren’t there. If I had looked at the errata beforehand, I would have known this. Instead, I hauled out the pattern piece pages again, assuming I’d stupidly forgot to transfer the markings. Nope. Not there. Oh well, obvious enough from the instructions actually.
But. I really don’t like the leg o’ mutton look this gathering creates. It looks fussy on what is just a simple casual blouse. The puffiness relaxed a bit after the fabric was washed again, but it makes it look a bit like bad sewing since it doesn’t really match the look/feel of the casual blouse. So, when I make this again, no gathers. I’ll have to look up how to modify the sleeves caps to get them to fit in flat. But I was annoyed again because you don’t see this puffiness in the modeled blouse in the book, maybe it’s there but just not apparent because the blouse is so big on the model and the fabric is much drapier. (More drapey?)
10) Sew Side Seams: I suffered a brain fart and sewed the side seams WRONG SIDES TOGETHER. D’oh. My mistake, and my french seams were halfway done! Whee. Quite happy with that actually.
11) Shockingly, I didn’t spaz out when I set in the sleeves.
12) No problem with hemming really, beyond my usual lack of skill with ironing and sewing an even hem.
I tried it on and took some pictures at this point, not happy with what I saw.
The back is huge, and just not to my tastes. I saw that with other people’s too, but I had ignored it since it didn’t suit the reality I wanted to see.
And the collar was way too tight and narrow. (My bias tape confusion* + my lack of cutting a roomier neckline when I cut a narrower width back and front section, see saga below if you care to).
So, I ended up ripping out the bias tape collar and cutting what was basically a huge dart out of the back, which narrowed the neckline a bit further, but redoing it with much wider bias tape fixed that, and I’m fairly happy with the result, fitting much better in the back and neckline.
So, in sum, when I do this Blouse again, I will just use the pattern pieces as a guide and cut them quite a bit more narrow in the waist and hips, but leave the shoulder and neck alone, although I might still need to make a dart in the back, as I suck at viualising sewing pattern changes into 3D shape effects. I’ll make the changes to sleeve caps, shorten the placket, change the bust darts and do the much simpler bias tape adaptation.
Next up, the Trapeze Dress out of this fabric:
which will also have to be significantly down-sized, so wish me luck, and let me know if there’s anything to be added to the errata on the page here.
* The long irritating whiny rest of the double fold bias tape saga from my notes from making this:
Also, “3/4″ of double fold bias tape” maybe means bias tape made from a 3/4″ strip of bias cut fabric. This seems obvious after you’ve made 3/4″ bias tape and see that proportion-wise it won’t look like the picture. This lack of picture matching didn’t seem too much of a problem, especially as it all ends up on the inside, but attaching such wide tape around the tight curve of the neck at the shoulders proved problematic for me and I had to rip out the stitching and remake the bias tape. (Turns out it was just me being a spaz, and the collar made with thin bias tape as it looks in the book picture is very tight if you forget to compensate for the modifications made in bodice width and adjust the collar width accordingly. My mistake, contributed by lack of clarity of instruction and confusion from the difference between the picture and what the instructions seemed to say, all obviated by the better alternative way to handle the bias tape issue, see above.)
Then I sewed it on, folded it over, then realized I’d guesses wrong as to whether the skinny or the fat side should be attached to the outside, a failure of vision on my part. It’s the relatively thin half of the double fold you’ll want attached to the right side, otherwise, when you fold it to the inside it will look like this:
which while it’s on the wrong side of the garment it doesn’t really matter that it doesn’t look smoothly finished, but the important bit is that unless you trim the raw edge of the body it won’t really enclose the raw edge of the blouse collar on the other side of the bias tape. And using double fold means that when you tuck in the ends and sew in the spaghetti strap and placket you end up having to sew through quite a bulky bunch of fabric at an edge, which is quite tricky, on my machine at least.
Since I ended up doing this collar several times, it will be child’s play next time. Staying positive.
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11.27.08
Posted in d'oh, knitting, love, random, sewing at 5:37 pm by wendy
I’ve actually got lots of drafts, but I never seem to have enough time to really wrap up everything I’d like to say re: the election and results, so that’s part of the radio silence. I can’t not say something, right?
But I think I’ll save it all for another day.
But I am thankful for the promise, the idea of a change in policies. The last eight years there have been things done in my name as an American that I am frankly ashamed of and have huge difficulty reconciling within our collective identity. I know that these things aren’t new (concentration camps, secret prisons, black ops, torture, war and fear profiteering) but it has been so baldfaced and shamelessly done, with so little apparent outrage when exposed, that it has been very dispiriting.
So I am thankful and hopeful for the new period in our history which will be here before we know it if the fleet footed passage of this past year is any gauge.
I am however, in the parlance of my people, “massively bummed” about the California election results, but not surprised.
These are pumpkins I carved for my my Grammy’s windowsill, my two favorite designs ripped straight from yeswecarve.com. I did the stencils for them myself, and it shows— Obama has kind of a tricky profile (well, that’s my excuse) and to capture it first in simple line on paper, and then transfer from flat paper to a convex shape…well, it looks more like my profile than his, but my Grammy still loved it.
She even wanted to have them up the night before Halloween and every night until the election, which made me very very happy that they were received so well and she was so excited about them. She’s in a lot of pain which none of us (including apparently, the pain specialists who sold her on a very expensive surgery [$82k] that if anything may have made things worse since it required her to be as still as possible for two months, a very debilitating “recuperation” for someone as active and unstoppable as my Grammy was and hopefully will be again) can do anything about, so it was thrilling to find something that made her smile.
I’d never used one of those special carving knife/saw kits before and I’ll never carve another pumpkin without them again. HUGE difference: so much easier.
I am thankful I had my Grammy’s help in sewing together some stuff for Amalia–I forgot to take pictures of the reversible outfit and hat, but they’re so big (baby sizes are all over the place!) that she’ll probably wear them for her fourth birthday and we’ll see them then. In the meantime, here’s a piccie of the matching hat and bloomers.
I picked the fabrics at a time when Amalia was drooling so much she had a perpetual rash–she was definitely what Heidi calls a “juicy baby.”
Ugh, I still need to put elastic in the bloomers. I’m not thankful for that, inserting elastic is a pain. A little chore, but easily put off…
And I was thankful to have my Grammy there while I tried to work from a pattern, reassuring me that it wasn’t just me who thought the pattern was perhaps too pithy and reliant on jargon as to be vague in what to actually specifically in this case do. Yo sewing pattern-writing peeps, I know if you’ve been sewing for ages it’s all obvious, but then I don’t get why a pattern is even needed then! It was totally like a form response from tech support.
I also did the Lorelei apron from A is for Apron (designer Joan Hand Stroh) while I was down in San Diego and I’m fairly happy with how it turned out. I think these two fabrics might have done better separately than together, but I couldn’t help myself, I couldn’t choose between them.
I funked up the very wide rickrack–it shreds like the dickens when cut and had to be placed just right. I did stitching lines on the cut ends to keep it from fraying.
I like topstitching; I love the way it looks, especially with contrasting thread, and for the most part, I think my control has grown by leaps and bounds–but every once in a while, there’s a hiccup that will remind the recipient that this is very human hand-made indeed.
This will be a thank you present (long overdue).
I’ve pieced together a quilt top for a baby my stepsister is having next month, her first and my father’s first grandchild, so pretty exciting and worthy of trying to expand the whole sewing skill set thingummy.
I’m not sure if I’m terribly happy with how it turned out, but I’d like to think that with the odd colors and pattern going on it will have to be good for stimulating the ol’ baby brain.
I’ll finish it with some white space surrounding the top for visual separation from the bias binding edging, and I don’t know what kind of patterning for the top stitching, we’ll see.
I made a rough draft on paper first for the shape pattern of the thing, then plotted out the numbers I’d need to fit the proportions to end up with the crib size, then filled it in color-wise.
There’s some difference; there’s a pattern and some movement obvious in the rough draft, but isn’t readily apparent in the final top. I vacillate between finding it hideous and being very proud. Maybe pink, orange and green aren’t the best color combos, but I loved the poppy fabric and picked out the coordinating pinks, oranges and greens from those. So yeah, like I said, let’s hope it’ll at least be good for growing baby brains on.
Maybe better with more white space between some of the shapes, or a lesson in there about proportions. Or maybe it’s gorgeous and awesome and I’m a complete freaking color and quilting genius. Probably not.
I am thankful for Straus organic ice cream, the best ice cream ever.
I am thankful that I made a big pot of lentil soup last night, because I completely spaced on doing the grocery shopping and that’s what we’ll be having for our Thanksgiving meal since the shop was shut today when I went, last minute as always…and I am thankful Nick loves lentil soup. (I’m making a cake too, so I am also thankful for a stocked up baking cupboard.)
I am thankful that after all this time, Nick and I still fit together like were made just new for each other.
While we miss our families, I am thankful we live here in Yreka, in the middle of gorgeousness and lovely weather. We are also thankful for the health of our families, even if we can no longer spend so much time with them as to make them thoroughly sick of us.
I am thankful for handspun yarn, there’s really no substitute for its squooshiness, even if it’s not your own.
Messy coffee table. I would have trimmed the photo, but I liked the light and the serendipity of all the color coincidences.
I’ve been working on the same project for the last month, how sad is that? I just don’t pick it up much.
Tomorrow is my mother’s birthday, and I will try to focus on being thankful that we had her with us as long as we did and that we able to know each other as adults and share books, and that if there is an afterlife, and if people are able to communicate at all, perhaps through dreams, the dreams that Grammy and I have been having with Mom in them indicate she is having a great time. So I am grateful and thankful for the happiness this idea gives us, and thankful for the dreams which seem so real that it’s like being given more time.
Really, truly, I am so thankful for so many things. Nick, the dogs, this beautiful place, our happy home full of silliness and dog hair and sweet monkey love. I wish everyone could have what we have and feel what we feel.
See this is why I don’t post very often. I’m a dork, a smug braggart, a slow and sporadic knitter, a spasmodic sewist, I stink at taking pictures of finished objects and I end up not posting for so long that there seems to be too much to catch up on, or, sometimes surprisingly little and not worth the bother, or completely lose focus and end with something random and kind of gross.
I am not thankful for the return of the box elder beetles.
These guys get everywhere. At the end of last winter, they were piled in the tracks of our windows in crunchy little drifts of dried exoskeletons. And they look like mini cockroaches at first glance.
Yuck.
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10.20.08
Posted in holidays, knitting, love, sewing at 9:04 pm by wendy
Long time no post. Time just flies by when you’re living in one of the most beautiful places on earth, I tell you what. We have been busy, but that’s no excuse. We’ve basically been blogging via flickr, but even that, sporadically.
I have been knitting, but have already put these down in favor of some fingerless gloves with a mitten overlap flap.
I finally finished the Amy Butler Anna Mini Dress. Holy cow, I measured beforehand, but this dress really is mini. I can’t bend over and touch my toes without showing my goodies. So I just don’t bend over and touch my toes while wearing that. Problem solved.
(The boots are the closest I have to go-go boots. I don’t think they really work. )
I had recut the waistline, but I didn’t want to lose the fullness of the skirt, or the ease in the chest and ribs, and I think the incut/slope of that shaping could have been more subtle, but I’m not sure how. Even so it looks rather sacklike from the side without the belt. I’d seen people mention the snugness of the armholes, and it is on the borderline for me.
Not too snug, but close–this isn’t a dress to be doing a lot of reaching or bending in, so I’m going to try not to wear it working on any loading docks, yo.
Over all, I’m very happy with it and what I learned from making it. Definitely the trickiest most challenging sewing I’ve done and I kept ripping stitching until I got it (mostly) right.
It’s the yoke that makes this dress distinctive, and was the trickiest part:
(although since buying this, I’ve seen that Vogue or McCall’s has a very similarly style pattern)
But my favorite part are the buttons from my Mom’s stash. The whole dress is very 60’s air hostess-y to me, so I thought they fit.
Anyway, I love this fabric, and I’m very happy with the dress and the project overall, but I know I won’t be making this again. Because I thought I might be, I had cut out the dress and pattern pieces on separate tracing paper and left the pattern uncut–what if I’d totally n00b’d and cut the wrong size? So, if anyone wants this pattern, leave me a comment and I’ll send it to you. The instruction sheet’s a bit rumpled, but it’s fine, really.
That’s all the time I have for blogging now, I still have to pack for my trip tomorrow. I’m visiting my Grammy (and taking Tahoe so Nick and the kids aren’t tempted to move away while I’m gone ) for the next week and Halloween and I’m going to bring my sewing machine and a whole bunch of projects that she’s going to help me with and together we’re going to miss my Mom a lot, because she was an amazing seamstress. But she learned from my Grammy and now so will I.
Anyone know what kind of berries these are?
ETA: Grammy knew! This is Toyon, or California Holly, apparently a food staple and medicinal plant. And amazing family fact: Crater Lake, where I took this picture and the fish are incredibly aloof to my favorite kastmaster, was the last place my grandmother & grandfather went as a family before my grandfather was killed. (He was a naval aviator and died during a NATO exercise. There is a cool story of a watch in there.) My uncle was still in diapers, and having navigated that lakeside terrain, I marvel that he is still with us, since the shore is mostly boulders all jumbled together that must be navigated carefully and seem just made for swallowing babies up whole.
Anyway, I was showing pictures to my Grammy and asked her about the plant ID, and pictures of Crater Lake and I found that out, so chalk up another win for technology building bridges in information and experiences.
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07.21.08
Posted in sewing at 1:49 pm by wendy
This is my maybe my favorite thing made so far:
I was in one of our two local local quilting stores (two! yet we have no yarn store) and saw that they had two different comics-themed fabrics: one very busy print with the “POW! Aaargh! To be continued…” and one with panels on it and I thought of Lionel and Heidi and making a Comic-Con outfit for Sophie.
Originally, I thought I’d make some super-girly type pinafore dress with satin ribbon accents just for a little bit of irony with the generally violent action in the fabric and use the only woman in the panels as a centered pocket for the dress. Because I love pockets.
This:
was the proto-type for the comic dress, cutting out a full circle for the skirt and with the girly satin ribbon accents…but I didn’t leave enough room for the panel to be a pocket, and well, I started thinking I’d like something else and did some different sketches.
I would have liked the straps I made to have ended up wider, so I’ll just have to cut wider strips if/when I make this again, since I made my own double fold bias tape.
I made template pieces and wrote down some of the process, so if I get around to putting together a tutorial, I’ll update this entry and post a link to it.
I ended up using a plain black cotton as well because in my mind the busy fabric as a whole dress looked too busy and would have overwhelmed the pocket panel, which is my favorite part. Unfortunately, I decided that for sure kind of last minute and bought the black from WalMart, and it was so thin in comparison to the heavily printed comic fabric that I knew I’d have to line everything, which made the whole dress a bit heavier and less drapey. But worked out in my favor, since instead of lining it as a separate inner dress style o’ fing since I wasn’t completely sure how to do that, I just sewed the lining fabric and the panels right sides together and turned them right side out, which while it made for bulky seams it meant less finishing of edges. Whee.
Anyway, so that was fun, and I really enjoyed making it.
I do eventually need to get over my fear of patterns. To that end, I went on a shopping spree–
(listed in no particular order)
Simplicity 3774 (inspired by Rachael and to be made in this fabric from Reprodepot, which must have sold out as it isn’t listed on the site anymore)
McCalls 2213 (various fabrics already stashed)
Amy Butler:
- Anna Mini Dress
- Lotus Mini Dress
Oliver + S:
- Swingset Tunic & Skirt
- Tea Party Sundress + Bloomer
- Bubble Dress
Plus in the queue are oodles of stuff from the books I already have, that I’ve put in a sewing queue photoset on flickr so I can access it while I’m out and see how much fabric/ which notions are required.
I’ve started with the Anna Mini Dress from Amy Butler as everyone says the directions are very thorough (and they are right, the directions do seem pretty clear, well illustrated and explained, at least at this point) and I like the simplicity of the shape.
I have thus far been a little confused by the sizing issue though. On the pattern packet, it defines the sizes, and I picked the xs size since the measurements of bust 32.5-waist 26-hips 36 most closely matched my 34-25-35, but when I cut out and sewed together the panel pieces, it didn’t look right.
I asked a few people and the general consensus is that the yoke would change it a bit and that yes, her patterns seem to be cut a bit big. I measured the dress at the narrowest point and found it to be 17 wide, i.e. 34 inch waistline, which is a heck of a lot of ease.
Are all patterns like this, or is every maker different with how much ease they put in?
It makes me miss the knitting pattern standard directions of “size x to fit bust measurement z, finished measurements of garment are y” so you can decide yourself if that’s the right amount of ease, or depending on the material, calculate negative ease if need be.
Anyway, so I mocked up the dress in muslin, just to be sure I wasn’t fussing over nothing:
and I definitely want to take it in a bit.
Nick and I will be attempting to make a dress form later so I can experiment with fitting, and Heidi has suggested almond shaped darts to tame that poofy small of the back area or just making the “damn belt” –certainly using the belt would continue the gathered material theme that is at the yoke top between the breasts, a detail I quite like because it makes them look all lovely and pillowy, and would fit with the 70s feel of the design and fabric choice (I just love that fabric, and since the end result will look so much like a 60s/70s air stewardess, I’ll be using some little airplane buttons from my Mom’s stash as the closure) not to mention make it more versatile, comfort and shape-wise, what with adding yet another sedentary hobby to my list of butt-width expanding habits.
But still, I’m gonna be stubborn and try to make the waist shaping more pronounced. So if you never see this project mentioned again, you’ll know it didn’t work out.
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07.08.08
Posted in natural dyeing, sewing, spinning at 11:25 pm by wendy
I was talking to my Grammy on the phone and realised I haven’t posted the apron kit I finished, or the disaster of a reversible wrap skirt.
I’m very happy with the apron, although of course it’s not perfect. I had some trouble easing in the ruffle, I think because my seam allowances are always so inconsistent. I don’t think there was originally supposed to be any easing in needed.
(click the pic to view more in the set)
The pockets came in handy when I wore it during the dyeing workshops at BSG for keeping my tissues in for my constantly dribbling schnozzle.
For one reason or another, I’m fascinated with aprons lately. They’re not too intimidating to make, and I like the pretty vintage lines. And, since I’m still learning and trying to be better and more consistent in my sewing, they’re a good exercise. I’ll be doing some more, from this book A is for Apron.
But this:
was supposed to be a reversible wrap skirt. But it’s awful. I love the fabrics, but together, the bubble fabric is just too thick and the skirt has no drape. So, I’m going to plan out some pockets for it and give it to a friend up here as an apron. Ze circle of sewing and apronage, she continues.
I haven’t sewn anything since that devastating blow to my fragile sewer’s self-esteem.
No, it’s just been hot, and I disassembled the sewing portion of the room to take the table to BSG and haven’t reset everything up. I’ll do it tonight, maybe plan out a couple projects.
On spinning:
July 5th was the start of the Tour de France, and I figured I’d do the Tour de Fleece this year again. There’s actually two different groups–I love Katherine’s philosophy of it, but I also joined the newer organiser’s Ravelry group because it was there and easy to do.
Other than that, the only official joining of all this is in my head, since my goals are loose and vague and don’t necessarily conform to the rules well. Essentially, my goal is to finish up the projects I’ve already started, to put a serious dent in my stash, and to try to do something different and improve on skills outside my usual comfort range. So, really, I’m just going to use the group thought of the Tour as an impetus to be a little more spinning-focused this month, and a little more goal oriented and end product-minded than usual.
I had three goals last year and only completed one, and I’ve already failed out this year by not doing any spinning on Sunday.
But I’ve got a darn good reason.
Nick and I had the World’s Worst Day of Fishing–seriously, we got up at 5 am and went to Trout Lake, which was gorgeous, where I used my early birthday present (a great whippy rod and new reel setup from Nick) to not catch any d@mn fish, but a lot of weeds. And occasionally reeds. I was a danger to myself and others (as long as they were not fish).
Nick was equally skunked, with only two nibbles between us and again, no fish.
This was our first time at Trout Lake, and we didn’t realise that at this time of the year, it is really only set up for boat fishing. There’s a relatively weed-free area by the boat ramp, but that’s about it.
It was still relatively early and cool, so we went to breakfast and then fished at Greenhorn. There I managed to really spaaz in my casting, catching lots of branches and logs and reeds and more lakebottom. I had no idea how lazy I had become with the Zebco reels, which are pushbutton, one handed dealies, but needlessly complicated inside and snag like the dickens and can be fiddly to fix.
We left, went home and napped.
Because that is how we deal with disappointment in this house.
We snuggle up in a tangle of blankets and dogs, each with an iPod earbud in and fall asleep listening to some Terry Pratchett book we’ve heard a bazillion times before.
We woke up, we puttered.
We thought about going to see Wall-E at the Broadway Twin, but I didn’t want those stupid fish to think they’d won so we went to Greenhorn again. And fished and fished (and actually, can you call it fishing if there are apparently no freakin’ fish involved?) and snagged more reeds and Nick lost his second lure of the day and I lost my first, and then, since I’d just spent the last twenty minutes carefully retrieving that lure from the reeds and untangling all the line I’d fed out to it…I flopped onto the bank crosslegged like a little kid about to tantrum cry in utter frustration and said, “f#ck it, I’m done.”
So we went to the grocery and video store, got Death at a Funeral, Beast with a Billion Backs and The Golden Compass, a six pack of beer and a frozen pizza and slunk home. We drowned our sorrows with pizza and beer and zany comedy and dealt with the next morning’s headache as the logical aftermath of the World’s Worst Day of Fishing (Hopefully Ever).
So obviously, there was no room for spinning in there.
Anyway, though, I turned the silk top I dyed during the Nancy Finn workshop:
into a bobbin full of singles while waiting in the mechanic’s office while the wagon had its 100,000 mile service:
And then, put into a center pull ball, I navajo plied it into a teeny little skein: 2 oz., 124 yards, approx. 14 wpi. I knew I wanted to spin it with texture, so I hadn’t been too careful about consistency when spinning the single, because originally I thought I might do a coil yarn, spinning the silk single over a some fine thread.
But then, when I finally finished spinning up the dark BFL Nick bought me from Copper Moose way back when I first started spinning,
I ended up with a spare ball of singles and no other balls to finish plying it up with as a 3 ply yarn. So I navajo plied it.
But first, I used some leftover singles from another project.
My texture and consistency was all over the place, but I loved the way it looked, all the unexpected coils. (I wasn’t pinching back the twist, just doing it one handed. Oops, that’s what working from memory using a technique you only know the theory of and not the practice will get you–and not logically transferring process elements…) Then I did it on the BFL.
I liked the texture so much I figured I’d do it with the silk. But I fired up youtube and watched this video in the interim and pinched back the twist and…blech.
Boring.
It just looks like bad spinning, badly plied.
Which I guess it is, really, but I had envisioned a much more interesting effect and shouldn’t have changed the game plan. Kind of ironic I suppose, that an impulsive change in process created a yarn I dislike for its mundane predictability revealing its poor textural planning in an uninteresting way.
And of course, this ordinary 3 ply thing was the effect to be expected by controlling the twist: the elimination of coils, so why the heck did I do it?
I guess I just got caught up in practicing this new-to-me technique and forgot about what I had wanted and envisioned as the end product. I don’t know what I’ll do with the yarn now.
Another disappointing aspect is that the color seems to have fled from it. Such strong fantastic colors in the single, even though plied to preserve the blocks of color, have become nearly pastel.
Perhaps a combination of some color lost during the wash to finish the yarn and the 3 ply breaking up the way the light reflects from the yarn? I had thought it was the opposite however, where the smoother the yarn, the lighter it appears because of the greater surface reflection…ah, I dunno.
Speaking of disappointments in color, I did a lightfastness test on the natural dye samples (well, pieces, at any rate) and turmeric is definitely not lightfast.
Unfotunately, I’d already wound out, mordanted, and plunked a whole bunch of yarn into the turmeric dye pot:
If you click on the really yellow one, it has notes as to all the samples’ fiber contents.
It’s a bummer, but oh well. Some will be overdyed in the indigo vat, including that skein of dark BFL. I’ll either figure out a usage for these yarns that will take the light sensitivity into account, and/or just deal with the future fading. Fortunately, yellow is not that hard to get in the world of natural dyeing, even such a strong lovely orange yellow. I’ll have to plant the weld seeds I got, and of course, I have some osage dust. Different, perhaps, but better in the lightfast category.
On the knitting front…meh. Knitting is boring.
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05.30.08
Posted in d'oh, sewing at 8:18 pm by wendy
(edited to say: this post is about transvestites and sewing. Needless to say, some links may be NSFW. Also, needless to say, since I know anyone who reads my blog is a lovely positive tolerant thinking person who recognises internet flaming for the weak-minded cowardice it is, that I am not linking to these guys to have them razzed at. If someone razzes them and I find out they came from my blog…I will feel guilty. And I will block your IP. Ooh, what punishment that would be, eh?)
Sewing has opened up a whole new flickr world for me. June in a comment suggested that the Sew What skirts might need some darting and I should take a look at flickr for examples.
I have to admit, I don’t think I’ve ever really used the flickr search function for much beyond “greyhounds” or searching some random thing I’d seen out and about and wondering what it was, or just had someone else been captivated by this image too? Like the Iraq War Exhibit in Ashland (linked pic is when it was in Portland).
But searching for Sew What Skirts yielded a ton of results to sift through, and it seems like a lot of people had trouble with choosing or achieving appropriate hem lengths for their body types. I have to admit, I struggle with this too. I’m so short, the skirts should probably be shorter, but I have a comfort zone that is very jeans oriented. (BTW, the section of that book mentions specifically that they use 45″ fabric…they just didn’t expect someone 6′3″ or thereabouts to make it without taking the fact that the average woman (aka the woman the sew what skirts book was written with in mind) is 5′4″ into consideration and modifying accordingly. The whole book is about adapting to fit you…a great concept, but not that easy for us n0oBs.)
Anyway, so while searching for pictures of projects I’ve been thinking of making or looking for ideas, I keep coming across photos that make me go, “Lady looks like a dude!” and invariably, they are.
I had no idea the transvestite culture was so into sewing, but it makes sense, I mean, it’s got to be hard to find stuff that fits and looks good. Except there’s very much a theme of over-idealised femininity, lots of lace, satiny fabrics, ruffles and such, which on a girl I find ironic in a third wave feminist sort of way, and on a man, a little sad.
Anyway, I was looking for pictures of pinafores and was reminded of this new-to-me phenomenon. Every single sewing related search I’ve done has turned up one or more results of men wearing their homemade girly gear–this guy looks a bit like the dad in Punky Brewster and I love the stuff he makes, it looks pretty complicated and well-executed from where I’m sitting.
And it seems a pretty big culture on flickr. There are photo pools/groups and as far as I’ve seen, they leave supportive, appreciative comments for each other and while I may be surprised every time I run into one and I’m still not sure what I think about it all, exactly, they aren’t hurting anyone that I can see and it’s an interesting peek into a subculture that could be everywhere and anywhere.
These guys look like dads and brothers, some of them practically scream “I work in IT!”
Some of the comments and piccies are maybe a little icky though…funny, but kinda icky.
And I guess I’d never looked at an “unsafe” photostream before: Flickr (after warning you that the photostream of the user you’ve clicked on is outside the safe filter and do you still want to click through?)has a header on the photostreams page that says “If you’ve changed your mind about wanting to see this content, you can ESCAPE.” And then a blue box that says, “TAKE ME TO THE KITTENS!”
So freaking cute, these kittens. Anyway, I found it a cute bit of site programming.
“I’m feeling uncomfortable because of these images and I don’t know what to do to get away!”
Sure, you could just close the browser window/tab, but it’s funnier to wash the taste out of your brain with cute kitten pictures.
(And of course, all this means that when I stumble across my own pictures in the jumbled skirt search pile…I look at those bird legs in those twee socks and trampy cheap Target shoes and I can’t help but shout “tr@nnie alert!” )
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05.18.08
Posted in love, sewing, spinning, travel at 1:45 pm by wendy
Bet you didn’t even know I was gone. I’m veddy veddy sneaky that way.
(click on any pics to go to flickr and descriptions with more info)
I went down to San Diego to see my Grammy the Friday before Mother’s Day (I never knew the holiday has partial roots in the States as a war protest before this year) and hang out with her for a week, and I was able to meet up with Hilari, Jessica, Cheryl, Heidi, Nancy, my stapler, and Cristina (and Peter and Jason and Lionel and Sami and Sophie and Amalia) and except for me smashing a jar of sourdough starter so the kids could have some jagged glass to play with, it was great.
I got to see my Dad and Juana, and their dogs and that was great.
I went to the Wednesday spinning group and everybody’s doing great and that was great.
And it was great to spend the week just being with my Grammy, and I cooked a bit and we talked a bit, and I flirted via text messaging with Nick like mad and it was all just…great.
But it’s really great to be back.
I love it here, and I don’t miss San Diego at all.
I wish I could get there faster, in case my Grammy needs me, I wish we had Tabu Sushi in Yreka, and I wish all my friends could be here and be as happy as we are, and I wish we had Balboa Park here, but being in San Diego is to miss my mother so fiercely it’s like anxiety. Coming back to a place you’ve lived is to re-live and my mother is in everything I feel and see in San Diego, especially Coronado which she loved with a muleheaded stubbornness. It was like an echo of that terrible time after she died, where everywhere I went and everything I saw was painful because I used to go there with her or was something about which we would have talked.
I hope it won’t always be the city I lost my mother in, but I think it’s easier to live with all the memories and reminders and feel them with fondness or mild wistfulness in a place that doesn’t press those memories physically into you with all its concrete landscape and smells and sounds. I will always hold my mother in my heart, but in San Diego that hold squeezes my heart tight and sometimes it is hard to breathe with all the childish feelings of unfairness and regret.
Anyway. I didn’t mean to go into all that. It was a great visit, it really was. Really, really great.
I’ve got a lot of sewing and spinning and knitting stuff to catch up on in updating this here blog, but I just spent a ton of time editing the descriptions in flickr, so I’m done for today.
Well, one more thing.
I’ve been doing a lot of sewing, and I’m even getting a little better, a little more confident.
I’ve done two bags, two dresses and finished a hat. And still haven’t sewn my finger into anything. Woohoo!
And one more thing.
And I went over to a local shepherdess’ and got two fleeces, despite the seven or so still in the room. Madness.
And another thing. Really, the last thing for today, my bottom hurts from sitting on it and it is a beautiful day outside. Again.
The lawn was getting crispy and Nick mentioned that he was thinking he might go and get a sprinkler.
I mentioned he might want to call the landlords and ask about all the sprinkler heads already in the lawn and the automated water station in the big hole in the wall we keep covered by a horse picture first.
So while the landlord was over turning it on and making sure it was running all right, he told Nick that they are putting this house on the market. They’ve offered to sell it to us, and we do love this house, but we want land most of all. So, that’s kind of a bummer except that I doubt it will happen soon, for various reasons (#1 being there isn’t even a real estate sign on the lawn yet) although this is without a doubt the nicest house on the block.
But we expect to add more pictures to the housing browsing flickr set in the next few weeks. The thrill of the hunt and the scent of paperwork is in the air…
Permalink
04.09.08
Posted in love, sewing at 12:08 pm by wendy
This is the fabric I bought yesterday that I told you about–a very, very Seventies Spree.
The smokey blue at the top is cotton canvas (and pretty thin) and the rest are quilting cottons. I got three yards of each thinking I’d do the pintucked table runner and matching placemats with the the blue canvas on the top and the orange swirly as the backing, with orange rayon thread as the contrasting thread…but I think I was thinking the canvas was more blue than it is. I’m not sure they’ll work together.
So I might try to do a wrap dress a lá Bottega Veneta:
(picture taken by digital camera off a computer screen, how lowtech lame am I?)
I have to admit I’d never heard of him before I saw the ad on the back of the March 10, 2008 New Yorker, and I just fell in love with the dress there. Unfortunately, there’s no good pics online, maybe I’ll scan the ad in. Anyway, the wrap-type looking dress looks like a less challenging place to start. But I guess all those woven leather vinyl and leather bags and wallets and belts and such are his fault. (and best sellers) I think they remind me of those chairs you had in Scottsdale, with the woven Mexican leather backs and seats that were that terra cotta pinky color. Am I remembering them right?
Anyway, at least I’ve got enough fabric to make a few attempts at the dress, we’ll see.
And I have no idea why I bought three yards of that flowery fabric, holy cow, I think a little of that will go a long way in something. I no longer know what I was envisioning when I picked that up and put it on the cutting table. Crazy person.
Well, I’ll post pictures when I’ve actually done something with them.
I hope you have a great birthday and know that I love you and miss you Grammy!
(Libélula sends her love, Crivens is whining and Tahoe has no idea what the heck is going on, so business as usual up here…give Nick a big hug from me when you see him, the depo was a lame waste of time and state money.)
Permalink
04.03.08
Posted in sewing at 6:17 pm by wendy
Originally uploaded by tortadetortuga
(well and just generally sewing too, although I think we are all agreed that sewing is mostly ironing)
I finished something! Actually a bit ago, and finished a sweater as well, but I didn’t want to scare people into thinking the Endtimes are nigh what with all that finishing which I never do and I am a lazy, lazy blogger.
I’m not entirely happy with it, but Nick likes it and it was a good learning exercise.
Lots of pictures in the flickr set, if’n you want to see ‘em just click the piccie.
And a big thank you to everyone who clicked through and voted for my cousin’s band! They won and got to open for Fergie at the Tempe Music Festival, so that was an awesome experience for them and thank you for helping get them there!
Next time, an actual knitting post.
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