Christmas Project #1

You would think, since it is the day before Thanksgiving, my mom is coming this afternoon, and my house is still somewhat of a mess, that I would have better things to do than post a blog. You would be right, but I just finished this quilt, and want to show it off.

I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out, but I wish I had done a little more planning during its construction. I just sort of made it up as I went, making the center blocks first and proceeding outwards from the center, and it was kind of a pain to quilt because of the different sizes of blocks.

I originally started with the idea of a star theme, but then I thought airplanes would be nice, so I put some of those in, too.

I tried to use only scraps, and not purchase any more fabric for this (my stash is getting out of control) and I did manage to do that. I purchased the bias tape for the binding, but even the backing is pieced out of fabric that I had in my stash, which had already been used for other projects.

There are some wierd puckers in the quilting, but in the welter of plaid I hope they don't stand out. I really like the quilting on the center rectangle. It's the first time I've done anything other than outlining blocks by stitching in the ditch.

I keep thinking I will post pics of my sewing shack, but I haven't got the curtains done, and right now it really needs cleaned. It looks like a plaid factory explosion.

Slippers!

This morning I realized that my old slippers, which really aren't that old, since I've only had them about a year and a half, have mooshed down in the heel so much that it turns my ankles in. This is not a desirable position for my ankles. So I thought, "I need some new slippers." I wrote it on my shopping list.

If I didn't live in the country, instant gratification would mean that I dropped by a store and bought some that day. Since I only go to Clovis once a week, though, and there are no stores in Farwell besides Family Dollar that would have slippers (and I try to avoid Family Dollar for a number of reasons), instant gratification meant that I looked online for a free slipper pattern and made them myself (in my new sewing shack, more on that some other time). Finding the pattern was surprisingly difficult; I bet it took half an hour using Yahoo, and then it turned out that the pattern I chose was on Burdastyle, where I should have looked first.

The pattern calls for 2mm thick felt. I don't have any of that, so I used some felted wool (turquoise) that I had in my stash. For the sole I used three layers: one of denim for the bottom, a middle layer of batting, and a top layer of soft fuzzy yellow flannel. To give it a bit more stiffness I quilted the three layers by machine.

This was a very very easy project, except for applying the bias binding that keeps it all together. That was only difficult because of the many thick layers. I poked myself with the pins A LOT. But I am thinking of making a couple of pairs of these as Christmas gifts. It only took about an hour, and if I hadn't quilted the soles, would have taken a good bit less than that.

I must say, I am particularly pleased with the color scheme. Very cheerful, and since I'm not a morning person, I need that when I first get up. There's a lot of talk on Burdastyle about how to attain non-slip soles, but I didn't bother with that, since I won't be moving fast enough in the morning for that to be a problem. :)

Nichola skirt finished!

I actually finished the skirt Wednesday, but Brandon hasn't been home while it was light enough outside to take pictures until today.

I am very pleased with the way it turned out. I should get a lot of use out of this.

I expected the skirt version of Burdastyle's Nichola pattern to go faster than the pants, since I'd already done the fly once and was more familiar with the construction of skirts than pants.

I did not count on the fact that altering the pants pattern into a skirt pattern was a little more complex than I first imagined (I'll post more completely on that soon, for those who might want to do the same type of thing), and also that I added jeans-style front pockets, which I had never made before. I got the instructions out of Vogue Sewing, my trusty first resort in such matters.

Figuring out those details of this project took up a lot of my head time. Also, I had to figure out the best layout to maximize skirt length and flare, given my very limited yardage (One 60" yard). I used a contrasting striped cotton for the underside of the pocket flaps, front pockets, and waistline facing so that I would have more khaki yardage for the skirt. This is the same fabric used for the pocket flaps and waistline facing of the Nichola pants, only on the pants it was a purely aesthetic decision.

I omitted the buttons on the waist tabs of the skirt, because when I put all those big buttons on, it was too much bling for me. I love the buttons (they've got little sunburst shapes in the center), but on the pants I had two different sizes of the same grey vintage buttons with smaller ones on the tabs, and the overall effect wasn't as overwhelming.

Twin Shirts

I finished the two shirts for the mini-wardrobe. The grey one I finished Saturday afternoon, and the green one yesterday.

I like the green tee better, especially with the grey pants. The grey shirt and the grey pants together is very...monochromatic. I feel like I need an orange cardigan or a big red necklace to go with that outfit. The green knit is also a little more substantial.

This pattern is actually a pajama top pattern. I love the raglan sleeves. They're super comfortable, even for a tee shirt.

Still working on the skirt, sort of.

I haven't finished the skirt from the Nichola pants pattern yet. I altered the pattern pieces of the pants to make a skirt, and cut the skirt out, and basted it together to make sure it worked, and then I laid the skirt aside and started work on the two tee shirts.

There is a method to this madness. I have black thread in the serger now from the pants, and the skirt will need white thread, but both tees would be better with black than white. Rethreading the serger and getting the tension right is a pain, so I decided to get the shirts done now, while the black thread is on there.

I thought I'd post a blog about a technique I used to make the pocket pattern for the skirt, and to help me determine how to alter the pants pattern, though. It's called making a ruboff pattern, and you can use it to copy entire garments without unpicking the seams. I haven't been that ambitious, but I have found it useful in the limited ways I've used it.

It's similar to what you did as a kid, with paper and a crayon, to make rubbings of tombstones and stuff (Don't tell me I was the only kid wandering around making rubbings of tombstones. And less morbidly, the brass plaques on buildings.) It's also similar to how Indy made a tracing of the inscription on a tomb in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusades.

For the skirt, I wanted to add jeans-style hip pockets. My favorite khaki skirt has nice deep pockets that I wanted to copy. I turned the skirt inside out and laid it flat, then pinned an old flour-sack dish towel over the pocket and rubbed it with a black crayon over the pocket seams.

Then I cut out the rubbing and traced around it and added seam allowances to make a pattern piece. That's really all there is to it, although of course copying something that doesn't lay flat, like the crotch curve of a pair of jeans, is a little more finicky.

Knit Top - It's So Easy!

This is Simplicity 3548. It was the test project for the pattern, which I bought on a whim, because I'd noticed my sister had several tops of this type (with the gathered neckline) and they were really cute. It makes a prettier change from plain tee-shirts, which I have a lot of, while still being comfortable and casual.

A very quick sew. The fabric is very soft and drapey, too.

Unfortunately, $2 a yard knit fabric from Wal-Mart isn't really high quality, no matter how attractively cheap it is (When will I learn this lesson? When?), so the first time I washed it, three holes developed on the front (which was after I took the picture). So I sewed on a little fabric embroidered applique. Like so:

In my absence...

I have been a bad blogger for the past couple of weeks. But this week I actually have an excuse. I was staying with my sister, watching Connor because his regular babysitter (the one who actually gets paid for it) had the week off. "Fun" is not the word I would use to describe it, exactly, because there were a lot of dirty diapers involved, and a fair amount of screaming and crying (not me, Connor), but I really enjoyed spending so much time with him. He has such a cute button nose, such cute blue eyes, etc.

I made my sister a baby sling, but I didn't get a pic taken. It wasn't really exciting to look at, anyway, just a bunch of navy blue cloth.

Stop here if you really don't want to know anything about my husband's underwear.

The other project I've been working on is boxers for Brandon (that's a nice bit of alliteration for you). There are actual boxer patterns out there, and I thought about buying one of them, but ordering a pattern over the internet would cost me $12 or $15, and wouldn't be nearly as instant-gratification as taking apart a pair of his old ones and using them for a pattern. Well, if by "instant gratification" you mean "an hour hunched over with a seam ripper, taking notes as you go". I love ordering things over the Internet, but I hate waiting for it to get here.

It worked. I had been wanting to try making a pattern from an existing garment for awhile, anyway. And this was a project of manageable size. I actually made the pattern and the muslin before I went to watch Connor, and while he was napping this week I managed to make two pairs.

The seams are flat-felled, which doesn't take long as there are only four seams, one of which is very short. I did make a casing for the elastic instead of sewing through it, because I am just not confident that I can do that without messing something up. Brandon said he couldn't tell the difference (wearing them) from store-bought, though.

And that pair on the left? The print is of corn. Perfect for a farmer. Except he doesn't grow corn. But there aren't any prints of milo out there that I've run across. Definitely not in the sale section of Joanne fabric.

Another day, another dress

Last Saturday I finished another dress. It's funny, I had very little desire to sew dresses from October on until the weather started warming up, and suddenly that's all I want to sew. It's just the weather. I don't like cold legs, so I don't like to wear dresses in the winter.

For some time, I've been searching for the mythical "instant gratification dress". I want a dress pattern that is both quick and easy to make, but which is flattering. I made a couple of dresses in high school that were "2 hour dresses" (although believe me, they took me longer than that), and the reason they were so fast is that there was NO SHAPING and no details (pockets, collars, belts, etc). So they weren't very flattering, and I didn't wear them often. Unfortunately, I've decided that I probably won't find the kind of instant gratification pattern that I am looking for, because I like details and shaping, which add time to both cutting out and sewing.

Another feature of this mythical dress is that it is something not too dressy, that I would feel comfortable wearing on everyday occasions. A day dress. Now, if you've seen the last two dresses I've made this spring, neither of them is what you'd call a day dress.

Though it falls short of my lofty ideals for an instant gratification dress, this pattern comes as close as anything I've seen (it's the only pattern I've liked enough to actually try). It went pretty fast, but I still spent between five and six hours on it, including cutting out, but not including the changes I made to the pattern itself before I actually cut the pieces out.

The changes I made were: adding side seam pockets, lengthening it by 6 inches (the previous user of the pattern had cut it to the mini-length view), and changing the collar shape. I also omitted the top button and loop, so that the collar would spread out and turn to expose the facing a little.

In the end, I only spent a total of $0.59 on this dress, since the tan fabric came from Goodwill, and the contrast collar fabric was given to me, as were the vintage buttons and the belt. Okay, and maybe a quarter's worth of interfacing on the collar and facings.

Although the dress looks okay without a belt (better on me than my dress form), the belt does improve it a bit.

Indiana Jones / Patsy Cline Dress

While I was making this dress, I happened to do a google search for images of dresses that Patsy Cline wore (The Internet is great, instant whim-gratification!) and noticed that when she wore dresses they were often the slim-skirted style, instead of full. So I began thinking of it as the "Patsy Cline dress". I usually prefer full skirts, and so this dress was sort of an experiment for me. I prefer the look of full skirts, but then you have to buy four or five yards at a time, and so slim skirts are definitely less expensive. This dress took just under three yards, and if I'd been more careful with the layout, might have taken less.

The night before I finished the dress, when it was all starting to come together, I had Brandon pin it up the back so I could try it on (before hemming and the zipper, before the belt was made). I nearly quit right then, because it looked sort of like a potato sack. A bright blue potato sack, but still. Brandon said something about Mormon religious compound ladies. I figured since I'd come that far, though, and I loved the fabric so much, I'd at least try to finish it.

Actually hemming it (it called for a 3" deep hem) to a more flattering length helped a lot. Putting in a zipper helped some too. What really makes the dress, though, is the belt, which I modified from another pattern (from the 1970's).

I think of it as the Indiana Jones dress because I finished it right before we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie, and I decided to wear it. I always have an awful itch to wear something the moment it is finished, and I was literally cutting the last loose threads off as we got into the car. I was a little over-dressed for a matinee, but the movie was set in the 1950's, so I was decade-appropriate.

Then I wore it Brandon's cousin's wedding, which was actually the reason I was making the dress now and not later. Weddings are a great excuse to start a new dress.

Past Projects #3

This is probably my favorite dress that I've made myself recently (recently as in a year ago, actually). It was my going away dress for my wedding. I love it, but it takes so much fabric, and so long to cut out, and hem, that I will probably not do another one.

And an action shot:













(Yes, our "getaway vehicle" was my a truck. We drove it to where the car was parked and went on from there.)It isn't a vintage pattern (it was McCalls, darn if I remember the number), but it has a very retro look, to me. It's a wrap dress, so at least it didn't have a zipper, but the circle skirt was a big pain to hem. It wraps very far over, and even on a windy day it doesn't come unwrapped, however, so I guess all that fabric and hemming was necessary.

Busy Like a Bee

I have been busy the past three days getting two things ready: one, my mom's Mother's Day present, and two, Connor's baby quilt. I am going to Texline this weekend for Mother's Day, and Sam and the baby will be there (so I am told). There is nothing like a deadline to get me motivated.

The apron pattern is a sort of heirloom; my grandmother gave it to me after finding it amongst some of her stored things. You can see in the picture that a mouse has nibbled on the priceless heirloom. When she gave it to me, my mom strongly hinted that she would really like one, too.

It turns out to be a size large, a bit too big for me, but it will fit my mom better. I did take a few inches off of the shoulder straps in the hopes that it will help the fit. My mom isn't really a large, either. And given that she is just about five foot tall, the apron will be even longer on her than on me.

The quilt is finally done. It only took so long because I procrastinate. Once I got all of the pieced squares made, I sewed the top together and quilted it in about five hours split between last night and this morning/afternoon. I learned a lot doing this one (Like, had I known about strip piecing, it would have been way, way faster to strip piece the tiny border rectangles, instead of cutting out a bazillion tiny rectangles and sewing them all together individually), and since the pink baby quilt came before this one, I was able to apply a lot of what I learned with that one. The walking foot helped a lot, that's for sure, and the corners are mitered more neatly.

I hope Connor will enjoy it for several years. I'm glad that he turned out to be a boy, since I bought most of the material intending to make a sort of unisex quilt, but the orange seems to me to make it more of a boy quilt. (Lesson learned: just go ahead and wait until you know the sex of the baby. You'll have plenty of time. Unless you procrastinate. And even then, the baby won't care if it's a little late.)

What I've been up to lately

Ever since we got back from Dallas, where we went for our anniversary, I haven't been doing much sewing. Until last Friday, when my best friend from high school called and said she was going to come visit.

I had been thinking I'd like to do some plus size clothing for my Etsy store, so I took the opportunity to get her measurements and make two skirts - one to sell, and one for her. Both were fairly simple patterns that I drafted from her measurements. The brown one has a paisley design, and is the one I made for her to keep. I'm not entirely displeased with the way it turned out, but I need more practice sewing from just measurements.

The red one is made from a tablecloth and the ruffle off of a vintage curtain, both of which I picked up secondhand. It has an elastic waist, to fit a broader range of size.

The Idea and the Execution

I haven't done much fashion drawing since I was a kid, but now that I am trying to put more clothing in my Etsy store, I am dabbling at it again. This is the first one that I've actually made up. I drafted it to my measurements, from scratch. It is very simple, but its a start, anyway. You can see there are a couple of changes I made, no contrast waistband (I had second thoughts about the attractiveness of that), and the ruffle is shorter. I was using scraps of leftover from a previous project for the ruffle and pockets and such, and just didn't have enough for the wider ruffle.

The waist facings are polka dot too, just for fun.

If you are interested, I am selling this skirt in my shop. (And if you aren't my size, I do custom work!)

Past Projects - Number 2

This is the dress that the blue floral dress was a muslin of. I loved the fabric, which has cats on it and has great colors, but didn't want a whole dress out of it.

Changes I made from the muslin:

1. I added pockets modeled off of an apron my great-grandmother made (turns out they are too shallow to be very useful, though).

2. I lengthened the bodice by 2 inches (though 1 inch might have done fine)


3. I shortened the hem by a few inches, I can't remember how many.

4. I brought the sides of the neckline in a little, since the neckline of the muslin almost constantly revealed my bra straps (I ended up sewing little loops and buttons on the inside neckline of the muslin to keep them pulled back out of site, a trick from the Vogue Sewing book.)

Past Projects - Number 1

I thought it would be nice to show some pics of the dresses I made before I had a blog. If I can, I'm going to dig up some of the REALLY old pictures from junior high and high school (4-H and home ec. projects). But we'll see. I'm not sure some of those should be seen by the general public.
This I made maybe two years? ago, when I first started dreaming about making dresses from vintage patterns. It is a muslin, made of the cheapest, lowest quality cotton I've seen. It was fifty cents a yard. The fabric is very thin. I had to make the bodice of a double layer, and a slip is absolutely necessary. I like blue, but the pattern, a sort of batik-looking violet floral, isn't really something I'm wild about.

It was a Frankenstein of these two patterns, plus sleeves I drafted from scratch:





I feel very much like a Mennonite when I wear it, although truthfully, they would never wear something with that neckline. Mostly, this is a wear-around-the-house dress, although it makes me look somewhat overdressed. Thus the sandals. I find in the summer when it is hot, a dress or skirt is more comfortable than pants, as long as I don't feel like I need to wear uncomfortable shoes, and the skirt is full enough for free movement.

Easter Dress

I'm calling this my Easter dress, because hey, that's as good an excuse as any to make a dress. Although I made less for wearing to church and more for wearing around casually. I finished it last night and pressed Brandon into service as my photographer.

I got three yards of the butterfly fabric on impulse. That was all there was left. The pattern, it turned out, called for more, because the skirt is meant to be on the bias. I laid it out and had just enough to cut it on the straight grain(and absolutely no margin for error. The pockets are in red because I didn't have enough of the butterfly print for pockets.) As you can see, it didn't noticeably affect much.

The dress went together well, and I used a new zipper technique (out of Sew What! Skirts). You baste the zipper seam together and then use fabric glue to tack the zipper down to the wrong side of the fabric, centered over the seam. Then you stitch neatly (in theory at least) 1/4" on each side of the zipper seam on the right side of the fabric to fasten the zipper down, and rip out the basting stitches. And voila! There you have it, the easiest zipper installation method I've tried, even if it doesn't look any better than any other zipper I've done.

I used the new rolled hem foot to hem it, and while it looks okay from a distance in the picture, in real life I need to go back and redo some parts. I have pretty much mastered the rolled hem foot for straight hems, but the slight curve of this hem kept throwing me off.

I really like how this dress turned out. The bodice isn't really my favorite, but the shape of the skirt is very nice. I can't wait for some actual warm weather to wear it in. Right now it is blustery and cold out, although the sun is shining, deceitfully making it look warm.

Another Quilting Project

To practice quilting BEFORE I did any on the baby quilt, I made this little table mat from a free pattern at Perkins Drygoods.

I love the way it turned out! It is strip pieced, so it went very quickly, but the scalloped borders make it look unique (and more complicated than it is). I am also in love with the fabric I used, although the pitfall of buying fabric at Alco (which is like Wal-Mart's country cousin) became apparent. The girl who cut it out for me was obviously annoyed to have to come cut the fabric, and she was muttering and jerking the scissors around (I don't think she was upset with me, just frustrated with the fabric, which wasn't on bolts but folded). The cuts of fabric I got weren't straight at all, and varied two to three inches between the low side and the high side. For one of the wide border sides, I had to piece two rectangles together because of the badly-cut material. You can hardly tell, though, because the print is so busy.

I also had to piece the batting together because I was using odds and ends leftover from my Christmas projects. There was a large piece that was big enough except a square was cut out of one corner, so I just cut a square to fill it in and zig-zagged the two pieces together.

I don't think I attached the bias binding in the approved quilter's way of attaching bias binding. I thought about it, but my only instructions were the "Quilting for Dummies" I borrowed from the library, and I couldn't make heads or tails the directions. So I made bias tape and put it on like I usually do, folding it in half across the raw edge and stitching through all layers. The top looks fine, but I had to go back and tack down some places on the back where the stitches didn't catch the back half of the bias tape.

The pattern was very clear and easy to follow, however there was one small error. I emailed the owner of the site/pattern designer, and she told me she'll get it fixed soon as she can, but just in case, be aware. The "outer border" instructions say to "Cut two strips 3.5" x 20.5" Those strips actually need to be about 22.5" long. Just to make sure, cut the first two (16") outer border strips, sew them on, and then measure to see exactly how long the last two outer border strips need to be. For this kind of project, especially if you are a beginner like me, it is probably better to measure all the border strips and do them as you go instead of trying to cut them all out beforehand. That way you don't waste any material cutting to the wrong measurements if your seam allowances are a little too wide or narrow.

I am getting addicted to this quilting thing. It allows me to buy small amounts of fabric, and in patterns that are cool, but that I would never use for a whole garment. Also, to make someone a quilt gift, you don't have to know their measurements.

Baby Quilt Numero Uno

The last few days I have not been working on the squares for my sister's baby quilt, because I have been working on this one. I waffled back and forth over whether I would sew this one, for a friend at church, or give her something smaller, since I was already embroiled in one baby quilt. But the fabric was so cute, a soft cozy flannel, so I went ahead and bought some pieces. Then Sunday we were given the news that THIS SATURDAY is the shower, so I had to hurry up and get it done. This Sunday is my sister's shower, but I made her some smaller things and will get the quilt to her after the baby is born. He can't use it until then anyway.

It was good that I did this one, for the practice in machine quilting at least. I have a lot of kinks to work out in my quilting technique (maybe I need a walker foot?). At any rate, I now know to cut the backing fabric larger than the quilt top.

I wish the quilting and the border had turned out more perfectly, but I really love the quilt top, and for a quick and easy baby quilt the four-patch design can't be beat. I think cutting out and sewing the quilt top took only four or five hours (Can I mention here how I love, love, love my rotary cutter and mat?). Would have been less if I had planned better. I had to stop partway in and rethink my arrangement of the pieces. They are 5" squares with a 2" border (that is covered up by the satin binding.

The Pitfalls of Optimism

Last week we had some lovely weather. Sunny, not so windy that you ended up with grit in your teeth walking to the car from the house (that "in like a lion" thing is really getting old). I knew parts of the country were having awful snowstorms, but here it was nice. So in a burst of optimism, I cut out this dress: (the middle one, shown in blue, but I nixed the sleeve ruffles)

Saturday the weather was beautiful, high 60's, and I wished I had worn a dress. Sunday, the weather turned bad again, and this morning I woke up to this (this is not terrible winter weather for this part of the country, we usually get a lot more snow than we have this year):
So I guess I will be waiting a bit before I actually get to wear that dress. I haven't sewn it together anyway. I have too many baby quilts to do. Of course, next week it could be in the 70's, you never know. That's about the only thing that you can count on about the weather here in the Texas Panhandle. It will change (and it will be windy).

Another Pattern, Another Muslin

So being as the vintage jeans jacket pattern isn't going to work for the corduroy and minky, I had to find another pattern that required only 1.5 yards of 60" fabric, which severely limits my options. This is the second candidate, and the one I will use, if I can get a couple of kinks worked out.

I made a muslin (out of black fleece and some scraps of houndstooth flannel from my jumper) up yesterday. There are reasons that I rarely cut out and finish sewing anything in one day. For one, the quality of my work suffers as I get frustrated and in a hurry. If I spread things out, and work at them at my leisure, I don't get nearly so upset about things like, oh, redoing the pockets three times before I get it right.

However, this did turn out wearable, and I like it except for a few imperfections that were totally caused by me doing a lined jacket as unlined, without a clear understanding of how that affected the construction and shaping of the pattern pieces. I had to make several "design decisions" like edging the front with bias tape made from the houndstooth. I also lengthened the sleeves, but not quite enough. They need another inch or two. I can eke another inch out by letting out the 1" hem and making some more bias tape to edge the sleeves.

I think it looks cute with the jumper that it matches, too, and the collar gives it a very retro look. The best part, though, is the buttons. They're like giant pound symbols.

McCall's 5007, by the way, appears to have just gone out of print, but Etsy seller backalleydesign has some new and uncut in her store, for very reasonable prices (they are listed in a batch with three other patterns, but when I asked she was willing to break the batch up and sell me only the ones I wanted).