Julia's Sewing Blog

Vests and the next project

2011-09-30T16:58:00.000-04:00

I don't think I posted a photo of the blue wool vest I made. I hadn't decided on the buttons, the last time I posted. I went with the same clear plastic button as I used on the jacket of the same fabric.I also made real welt pockets. I love wee, vest pockets!Here is the newest vest (waistcoat to my English readers), made from the beautiful but thick, orange Italian wool I got from Darrell's and from which I also made a jacket (but maybe didn't blog about - I can't find an appropriate entry anyway). In spite of loving vest pockets, I didn't make them on this one because the wool is too substantial and would only cause me more grief than they are worth.I used the fabulous printed lining from the pink raw silk jacket.I put in a piece of elastic at the back waist so the garment would have a bit of shape.Next, I have been wanting to make a fitted jacket with a peplum for some time, and I got this Vogue pattern because of the jacket.I believe I am too short/small to wear the full skirt, as much as I might like it. But the jacket appeals to me.I got a remnant of some plaid wool at Darrell's this summer but I may have been dreaming in technicolor to think that all the pieces of this jacket would fit onto the fabric, especially as the plaid is about 4 inches on a side! The extra fabric required for the peplum might sink using the plaid for this jacket pattern. I have to go back upstairs now to play around with it all.

I'm back!

2011-09-26T18:59:00.001-04:00

I seem to have taken the entire summer off and more. Good for me! You can check out a bit of a holiday we had in New York State, if you are interested, at my Flickr site here. I taught at Algonquin College all summer too, but they didn't ask me back for the Fall semester. Then, I got the brainstorm that everything in my life had been leading me to study philosophy, so I signed up for two undergrad courses in philosophy at Carleton University! I've been biking over to the campus every day, Monday through Thursday, 8 kms each way, and reading and reading and reading. I love it.Anyway, my "Rule" prevented me from starting a new sewing project, so I had to finish that raw silk jacket I last blogged about in May. So I did.Where I left off was with a problem of a sagging hem. Because of the method of construction suggested in the pattern, I didn't sew the hem up first and just attached the lining hem to the jacket fabric hem and this was the result. I had to go in and sew up the hem - attach it to the body of the jacket. Thankfully, this fabric is so loose and coarsely woven that I was able to stitch it up and have the stitches blend in with the fabric.Then I saw that the raw edge of the front facing was going to unravel even if I sewed it down, so I decided to attach a wee bit of bias made from lining fabric.I folded the bias around the raw edge and folded under the ends and sewed the whole thing down.I'm aware that only I will see this or even know about it but it makes me satisfied to know that it has been done right.I also pick stitched all around the neck edge, to keep the lining from rolling out and give a nice, flat finish.Here it is! Very plain in terms of construction, because the fabric is so busy, especially with that gold thread. Because the fabric is so loosely woven, I had to think more than twice about how I would do the buttonholes. I ended up using a broad zigzag machine stitch all around where the hole was going to be, to secure all the loose weave and reinforce the fabric. Both the jacket and the facing fabric have iron-on interfacing backing them all along the front. Then, I cut open a buttonhole and stitched all around the edges with a small blanket stitch. If you click on this photo and go to Flickr and make it as big as possible, you can see that detail. I got some cheap but interesting buttons. I did my usual comparison method of choosing - you pick one button, then choose another and toss the one you like least. Keep doing that until you settle on one. The buttonholes are large enough that I could go get some different buttons and substitute them.Next, I have a simple vest that I am tossing together, made from a remnant bit of orange wool. I have come to terms with the fact that I really like to wear vests and I am not going to worry about what others may think. Vests are a small bit of extra warmth and they can dress up a casual outfit. The more I have, the better!

Not another pink jacket!?

2011-05-19T15:59:00.003-04:00

So there I was, having finished the reversible pink jacket, wondering what to do next. I got out my new Badgley Mischka pattern, thinking I would use it to make the raw silk fabric that I've had for ages, into a Chanel-like jacket.

I even got new fabric, so I could make it the first time without using expensive or coveted fabric and not worry about having it turn out poorly. But the idea of the stand-up collar didn't sit well with the loose, scratchy silk fabric.

Then I found myself thinking ahead to the weekend, when we are attending a wedding. It's not like I have nothing to wear! I got out the linen dress and jacket I made last year and wore at the Pink Tea. I wasn't happy about how high the slit in the back went. At the time, I sewed it down so it wasn't so long. But I felt nervous about what might happen if I bent over - would my underwear show?

So I jury-rigged a box pleat over the open slit.

I cut a piece of fabric about 16 inches wide, so it would form a deep pleat in the back. I figured out how to attach it to the existing opening.

And now my dress has a nice big pleat in the back!

Something prompted me to pull out my well-used vest pattern and I dug out the little bit of left-over pale blue wool from the suit I had just made. I knew when I cut the suit out, that I had just enough fabric for a vest. It might be a bit 80s but I don't care - I really like a vest as it gives me a bit of extra coverage and warmth without being a whole jacket.

And vest are such fun to make! Almost like baby clothes, because they are small and fast.

I even made real, working welt pockets, just for fun. When I made the suit, I speculated about brass buttons but ended up with clear plastic which I still like. I got out a treasure trove of metal buttons I have to see if they might work on the vest. I don't think the gold works but the silver might. I only have one of the silver button that I do like (third from the left at the top - I used them on another wool vest I wear a lot), so I'll have to go shopping.Making that vest reminded me that I had just enough orange wool to make another vest so I pulled out the wool, the raw silk, the lining I had bought for the silk, and some other pieces that might serve as vest lining. Another embarrassment of riches!I got out the first and only jacket I have made with New Look 6619.Tried it on and it fits nicely. So I made a command decision to cut out the silk and be done with it. I got the lining a couple of years ago at Darrell's, specifically with this silk in mind. It is substantial fabric in some man-made fabric (acetate or polyester, I can't remember), and funky fun with the print on it. As I was cutting, I realized it would work equally well with the orange wool for lining.

Here is the original plan, with the silk and the printed lining.

And here is the jacket body, on the judy. I have fused interfacing to the entire front and around the back neck edge. The fabric is a loose weave so it will benefit from this. I have already started to sew the lining pieces together. As Hannibal Smith used to say, "I love it when a plan comes together."

Reversible jacket finished

2011-05-13T14:26:00.002-04:00

My pink reversible jacket is done!

I am especially pleased with how comfortable it is. It is soft and cozy and unrestricting. I decided in the end to sew on large snaps as fasteners. I had thought of using the hammer-on snaps, knowing they would show on the outside of the garment but when it occurred to me that I could sew them on inside the fronts, I realized they would not show on the outside and so make the reversibility even less obvious. I had some 11 mm snaps but went out and got the biggest sew-on snaps they had - the 15 mm variety.

Going back to where I left off, I did a flat fell of the entire underarm seam (as usual). This jacket has to look as good on the blue side as the pink side. The fabric is a little bulky, being double-sided, but it isn't as stiff as 10 ounce denim so it wasn't that difficult.

It's always fun to sew down into the tube of the sleeve and come out at the far end of the sleeve. I put this photo in for a friend in my writers group who sewed his own shirt recently and wondered how flat felling this seam worked.

I made a sort of "couture" hem on the back (and then the sleeves). I used a single layer of the pink fabric that I got from the selvages and folded it over the raw edge of the hem. This photo is at the back where the side seams meet and the front bands end. On the right, everything is unfolded and on the left, I have started to pin everything down for top stitching.

Here are the cuffs, before and during hemming. Another friend said I should make turned-up cuffs in the contrasting colour, even though I made a point of really limiting the amount of contrast elsewhere on the jacket. I thought she was right.

Here's the jacket, almost finished (I haven't sewed the snaps on yet) with the cuffs turned up. Now that I have been nominated the next president of the board at BCA, it will be nice to have another bright pink jacket to wear for certain occasions. Breast cancer has surely appropriated the colour pink and it will serve to promote our charity.

Reversible jacket and other things

2011-05-03T16:11:00.003-04:00

Other things first: My Dad wrote a book some years ago, about his time in Korea in the early 1950s. It is well written, nice clear prose, and interesting. What was especially poignant was the fact that when he was in Korea, he was only 24 years old. It is interesting to think back to when I was 24, and compare our life experiences. He has set up a website now, and will be posting reminiscences in the form of a blog. He can use some traffic, so here is the URL:
http://koreanwarmlbu.wordpress.com/
If any of my readers have a military connexion, you might be interested in the book. It also has U.S. military connexions, as he got some training at Fort Lewis in Washington (chapter 4). That chapter contains an intriguing anecdote about the recycled barrack box he was assigned and which now rests in my garage. In any event, I wanted to give old Dad a plug here, until he figures out how to increase his blog traffic. Go check it out!

Back to sewing! Here is the two-sided denim, all ironed and laid out. I have far more than I need for a jacket and I don't know what to do with the yard or so I have left over. Not a skirt - it is too quilted and bulky for that.

I am modifying this pattern.

I used the original to good effect on this jacket that I wore all over France in 2008. But since I wanted to make the jacket truly reversible, I needed to make some changes.

I wanted to have a one piece sleeve with no cuff. I also needed the front to be plain so I could turn it inside out. I pinned the two front pieces together so they wouldn't have a seam (or a pocket). I might still add a pocket later, but not until I try wearing it.

I thought I would use two colours of thread on top and bobbin but it turns out I can use just the pink successfully, due to all the quilting stitching.

Another reason for a one piece sleeve is to make the flat felling of the armscye easier and neater. Once that is done, I can sew up the entire underarm and side seam in one go and finish it neatly also.

I have decided to limit the amount of the other fabric that shows on each side. I could make the band around the front contrasty and have cuffs that turn up and such like but I think it is busy enough without that. I have the single sided selvages that I can use when I hem the bottom at the back or I could let the blue show more on the pink side. I believe I will wear the blue side out more of the time than the pink side but I don't know for sure. I have decided it is a lot more casual fabric that I remembered it being. Anyway, by modifying the pattern it is going together very quickly (fewer pieces) so I'm not investing tons of time in it.

An embarrassment of riches

2011-04-30T08:13:00.004-04:00

Now that I've finished the red linen outfit, I am on to new things. I have been thinking about this double-sided (two layered) fabric I bought some years ago after I won a gift certificate to spend at Fabricland.

It's a thin layer of denim embroidered to a thin layer of bright pink cotton. In addition, there are frayed flower shapes on the denim, which actually make it less sturdy. My plan is to make a reversible jacket, even though I will probably wear the denim side out most of the time. But making it reversible will allow me to have a bright pink jacket for the times that I want one. Now that I'm doing a fair bit of breast cancer awareness work, I suppose the pink will come in handy, although I bought it years before I even got diagnosed. I'm planning to use the Butterick 4741 pattern I used for the bright yellow twill jacket I wore to France in 2008, but adapt it with plain sleeves (no cuffs or placket) and a one piece front so the jacket can be truly reversible.

While I was hauling the denim out of the stash, I re-discovered all these other fabrics too! Hence the title of this post.

Speaking of France 2008, here are four of the Provencal cottons I got on that trip. I think I will make either shirts or skirts out of them. They are not heavy weight fabric and will probably wear forever as shirts. Delicious looking!

Then there are these lengths of rayon of the soft, challis variety. I bought the two complementary blue ones on the left side and have made a dress out of the larger print already, with accents in the small, geometric print. So now I have to make something with the geometric print. This fabric is actually stiffer than the other rayons and seems to have more dye in it or something. It has a batik look to it. I am thinking I should make dresses out of this fabric, as it is lightweight and drapes well. My only "issue" is that I don't really have much need for dresses - I can get more wear out of shirts. On the other hand, if you build it, they will come. Maybe if I make dresses, I will find places I can wear them!

Anyway, all this to say that I am still sewing up my stash - no new fabric for me! And I write this to help myself resist going and getting this green polka-dot fabric I saw when I was getting the lining for the red outfit. It reminded me of this cute shirt dress I had when I first went to law school, that I wore with a pink jacket. That was 1981 folks. Good times.

Red dress success!

2011-04-29T13:01:00.004-04:00

I was really pleased with the outfit (and it was comfortable!) and got lots of compliments on it. The Taiwanese folks at the residence were kind enough to tell me that the large gold character probably was "horse" and it was right side up, even if they thought it might be a mirror image. The jewelry I am wearing was created by Karen McClintock and worked perfectly with the outfit. Each earring is one of the square Swarovski crystals that make up the necklace and the bracelet. I couldn't afford all the pieces and frankly, I hardly ever wear necklaces and bracelets. However, I did buy the earrings and I do wear earrings all the time. They were over $100 with tax.

Here is a bit of a close-up. This photo was taken using my little camera by a local photographer who does charity events like this, Frank Scheme. He has posted his pix over at his website.

Let me just back track a little. Here, I am flat felling the armscye which can get tricky when the fabric frays or is too stiff. I was lucky that the linen, while substantial, was not that thick. I have done this with denim, so it isn't too horrible. [I went to dictionary dot com and discovered I have been mispronouncing "armscye"! Horrors. I have been saying arm-ski, when it should be arm-sigh.]

I decided instead of just turning up the sleeve hems, I would do a sort of couture hem, even though no one but me would ever know it is there. I used a strip of the black linen...

... which I machine sewed to the raw edge of the bottom of the sleeve. Then I ironed it up and hand sewed the folded edge of the black linen to the sleeve.

I remembered I had a single large brass/gold button leftover in my collection and it even had a sort of Oriental look to it. It works well.

I look a little glassy in the flash! But I'm really not. And I see I will eventually have to do something with that dark front tooth. I fell off my bicycle when I was 8, scraping my face down the pavement. The tooth bled into the enamel and made it darker than the others. On the other hand, I am aging all over and getting a bit of a chicken neck and age spots, so I have to ask myself if I care about the tooth.

Here are a couple of more pix from the event. It is graciously held at the residence of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Ambassador, Dr. David and Mrs. Lin Chih Lee. They even feed us while we are there. We have a silent auction too. Mostly, I like it as a social event that raises awareness but also provides an excuse for survivors getting together. All in all, a success.

Red linen dress and jacket

2011-04-26T15:21:00.003-04:00

Into the home stretch! I have to wear it in two days, so I'd better be getting finished. On the Friday, some of us going to the charity event went to choose jewelry for our outfits. A jewelry designer (Karen McClintock) is showcasing her work at the charity event and some of us at BCA get to wear pieces as models. Our Executive Director found the perfect piece of clear gold Swarovski crystals necklace with matching earrings and bracelet for my outfit. I can wear the bracelet to good effect because the sleeves on the jacket are three-quarter length. I'll try to get photos on Thursday, of the whole ensemble.

Here's the dress, with the lining and the facing, ready to sew together. I wanted the lining to end up with the wrong side of it touching the wrong side of the dress and the black facings on the inside of the dress where they belong. I was successful!

Here, I've sewn them all together and I'm reaching under the facing to pull the individual dress back pieces out through the facings. Looks like a weird glove, but it's not. Also, I didn't realize how hairy my arms are! I should take a loofa to them.

Once I had turned the dress right-side-out, I put it on the dummy to ascertain how I should fasten the side seams together. It all worked out as I had imagined.

I pinned the dress (linen) side seams together and continued pinning down the sides of the lining, catching the black facings in with the lining. Then I sewed all down the sides of the dress and the lining in one go.

Rather than top stitching around the facings, I under-stitched them so they would lie flat and not creep out from under the dress. There's more under-stitching in a minute.

Once I got all the pieces of the dress sorted out, I put the zipper down the back, leaving the facings and lining free. Once the zipper was in, I sewed the bottom of the back centre seam on the lining and hand sewed the edges of the lining to the zipper tape, enclosing the raw inside of the dress in the lining. I've also hand sewed the hem but still have to tack the lining to the dress at the one side seam split I left for freer walking.

I decided I would go ahead and make unlined pockets for the jacket. I had a couple of small pieces left over - scraps really - and just enough for pockets.

Ironing those rounded corners can get very tricky without burning your fingers so I hold down the fabric with pins, do an initial press and then take the pins out and press the pockets and pound them with a clapper.

After the pockets were sewn onto the jacket, I sewed on the black facings. The jacket is considered to be unlined, but it does have a little bit of lining at the front and a bit around the back of the neck.

Here, I am under-stitching the jacket facing. I am using black thread top and bottom so it doesn't show any red on the black linen facing. I switched to red thread for the part around the back of the neck. The spot shown here is where those seams meet at the shoulder.

Now, I have basted the lining and facing bits to the jacket at the armholes, in preparation for inserting the sleeves. I have also flat felled all the seams that will show on the inside of the jacket, including the sleeves, even though I wouldn't roll the sleeves up or anything. I just like to know that when I take off the jacket, if someone sees the inside, it will be as nicely finished as the outside. The hard part left is finishing the armscye seams with the flat fell. I've done it before - that's why I know it's difficult.

Red linen dress

2011-04-17T17:31:00.003-04:00

I have been cutting and cutting and marking and pinning. Now I am sewing.

I am doing my usual "assembly line" procedure, sewing all the preliminary bits like darts first. I also have to switch back and forth between red and black thread, because of the facings.

Right now, I am taking a break to imagine how I will attach the lining into the dress. The pattern does not call for lining the dress. And it calls for this one piece facing where you have to pull the two back pieces out through the shoulders, in order to turn it right side out. I think I will attach the lining to the dress, right sides together, at the shoulder, and sew the shoulders together with all four layers sandwiched together. Then I will attach the facing as instructed and pull everything out through the shoulders, following the plan. Once I have that accomplished, all the long seams (sides and back) will be free and I can sew the lining seams, right sides together, and the dress seams, right sides together, and then when they are done, the dress should be all lined nicely. It's a theory! I'll let you know how it works.

Figuring out Chinese characters

2011-04-16T15:39:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, I took a photo of the gold character on the fabric and ran over to my friend May's house and asked her to tell me what it was, or at least, which way was up.

The gold one seemed to me to be the most legible of the three large characters, so I thought I'd make sure it at least, was right side up. I had already pinned the dress pattern pieces on the fabric and had made the assumption that the three strokes with the vertical line were at the bottom of the character. May looked at it and said she wasn't sure what it was exactly, but she was pretty sure that the three lines would be at the top of the character, not the bottom.

Later, May came over with a book of Chinese characters and I spent some time poring over them. It is possible that the gold character is "biao" or "manifest" (show), although I don't know why that would be on fabric. I think that fabric is more likely to have zodiac characters, or words like "love" or "soup". [This is a reference to one of my favourite shows "Big Bang Theory" and the episode in which Sheldon asks Penny why she has a tattoo of "soup" on her hip. She says it is "courage", not "soup". It is discussed more here and someone has even posted a GIF of the two characters here.]

I couldn't manage to get the pattern pieces for the jacket with the pleat in the back to fit on the fabric, after I had pinned the dress on, even when I eliminated the pleat. So I went with a tried and true pattern, Simplicity 4698, which has lots of smaller pattern pieces that I can juggle around.

I managed to squeeze them all on there. At least, I got the main pieces on.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to get them all on, so I bought some black linen for all the facings. I am making the jacket with no collar but it has large front facings. Also, the dress has facings all around the top edges. I toyed with the idea of red linen facings but thought the black would make a nice contrast and then I wouldn't have to match the red. I also bought plain red lining as I have decided it will be best to line the entire dress. It kind of negates the point of linen being worn when it's hot but this is pretty substantial linen and I think the dress will hang much better lined.

Finally, instead of a back vent, I am going to make a side slit at the bottom of the dress. I made a back vent the first time I made this dress (last January, also in linen) and I wasn't happy with how it rode up when I bent over. I know I can just avoid bending over, but with the Chinese fabric and everything, I thought a side vent or slit would work.

The red Chinese linen

2011-04-14T17:45:00.004-04:00

I have decided to whip up a dress and hopefully some kind of jacket combo in the red linen.

My big problem to start with, is that I don't know which way is "up"!

I remember the student who gave me this as a present, told me that one of the characters was "horse". I think it's that block at the bottom, which means that it is right side up. But I can't identify the other two big block characters - the other red one and the gold one. Does any reader here know? All the little gold characters go both ways, so it doesn't matter for them.

My other problem is getting a jacket out of the fabric. It is nice and wide and I am not worrying about matching characters and I am sure I can get a short sleeve (if not a 3/4 sleeve) out of it. But it's going to be tight. (Don't worry - I will make sure the pattern pieces are all the same way up, not like they are in the photo!)

I'm going to make this Vogue dress again. I made it last year in linen and wore it to a fundraiser as it was a hot day. I want to wear the red linen to the same fundraiser this year but I have no idea what the weather will be. It's at the end of April which shouldn't be that hot and it's freezing right now. I have another unlined jacket pattern that is much closer fitting (uses less fabric) so I'll see after I sort things out, which one it will be.

Finally, I made some pot holders for the wedding gifts and now I just have to decide how to wrap them. If I can't find the right sized box, I think I will go with the tried-and-true gift bag.

Placemats and stuff

2011-04-10T18:23:00.003-04:00

I do like making some things for other people, especially when I'm working with nice fabric. I started by tearing all the placemat sides into the same size for the print and the other side.

Then I sewed them right sides together along the long sides, using different coloured threads for the different sides.

I like to work like an assembly line, so after I sewed all the long seams, I pressed them all open. This made the seam flat for when I turned the mats right side out.

Once they were right side out, I pressed the long seams flat.

Then I pressed the raw edges of the short sides of the mats under so that they lined up for top stitching.

Doing it this way meant that I didn't have to line up ALL the edges and I could get a cleaner line along all four edges for the top stitching. I then top stitched all the edges very close to the seam or the opening (as the case may be). I also stitched in 5/8 of an inch from the outer edge, to give the mats more substance. I decided to go with a flat placemat and not a quilted one. It's a choice. All of my own mats are quilted but I think the flat ones are more elegant.

Here they are. I made all the napkins and used up every inch of that fabric (they are large napkins). Then I made the reversible placemats in the two colours for the two different recipients.

My cousin had asked for a tea cozy so I pulled out one I made but don't really use (I nuke my tea when it gets cold). I thought it would look nicer with a rounded top so I drafted a template for that.

I only needed a little bit of seam binding so I cut a strip of fabric in several diagonal pieces using my self-healing mat and rotary cutter and stitching them together.

This recipient wanted a burgundy colour scheme, so I machine quilted the two fabrics together with the burgundy on what was going to be the outside. It's always surprising how long that takes!

I put a little loop for a pull on the top and stitched the seam binding on one side by machine.

I stitched the second side of the seam binding by hand, so the machine stitched line would be hidden. I think it looks pretty good myself.

I think I'll still make some potholders because I have some scraps left over but I'm already wondering what project to do next.

The blue suit

2011-04-06T15:57:00.004-04:00

I said I was going to wear it and I did. I asked Peter to take a picture of me just before I left for class:

I look like I'm holding my breath. But I think I am just standing up straight after all the yoga I have been doing. I see the one sleeve looks like it needs some more pressing, alas. But I have to say, it fit well and the fabric is very light so it was very comfortable to wear and teach in (which involves a lot of arm waving for me). And because it is wool, it was warm and yet breathable. I wasn't actually sure if I was going to like it after I made it but now that I have worn it, I think it will get fairly frequent rotation.

Wedding presents

2011-04-03T21:47:00.003-04:00

I have two weddings to attend this summer for people who don't know each other and will never meet, so I am making the same thing for each of them. One asked for placemats and the other already has everything but you can always use some new table linens, so I got fabric enough for two sets and will make them up in one batch.

The younger couple asked for a burgundy colour scheme. Did I ever have trouble finding that colour in the quilting cottons! I was surprised at how little there was of it. After some searching, I found two complimentary prints in a really nice, smooth cotton. It was so nice in fact, I wonder if I should go back and get some of that fabric for myself. I am going to use the larger, abstract "flower" print for the napkins and the smaller print for one side of the placement. I know the main colour is blue but there IS burgundy in the print. I will use the dark, solid burgundy for the other side of the placemats.

For the other couple, I chose green for the opposite side of the placemat but everything else will be the same.

I've already pressed all the napkins, ready for sewing the edges. I'm going to miter the corners. I press over each edge twice, to enfold the raw edge. Then I find the creased corner and stick a pin in it.

Then I open out the pressed edges and fold the corner over on the diagonal, twice, to encase the raw edge.

Then I fold the long edges back in and secure them for now with a pin.

Here's the mitered corner, ready for sewing. I'll use a zipper foot and stitch right along the folded edge on the "wrong" side of the napkin, using off white thread on both upper and bobbin threads. I like doing stuff like this in assembly line style, where I complete all the same steps and then move on to the next thing. After I finish sewing the napkins, I'll rip the other fabrics up into the placemat pieces and get to work on them.

Blue wool suit finished

2011-04-03T17:22:00.005-04:00

I have finally finished the blue wool suit. It didn't really give me grief, but the fabric appears to want to wrinkle when you just look at it, so I don't know how happy I am going to be with it. I'll wear it to teach on Tuesday night and then I'll know better.

I press diligently as I go. This is the shoulder/armscye area with a ham under it, so I can press the seam flat without creasing the fabric.

Here's the hem going up. You can see how I had a little bubbling of the iron-on interfacing on the facing on the right. I ironed it out but it's annoying when that happens because then you always have to be so careful with pressing afterward. It is for this reason that I sometimes use sew-in interfacing, even though it might be considered old fashioned these days. It depends on the fabric and how fond I am of it and the garment I intend to make.

And here it is, all sewn and pressed. The bottoms of the fronts want to curl under a little. Perhaps when I wear it, it won't be a problem. I have only made one previous jacket with this version of this pattern - the red wool with the black embroidery - and it doesn't have this problem. But the red wool is more substantial and heavier. I know I always have this problem with the square bottomed version of this pattern.

I opted for clear buttons. I can always change them if I don't care for them but they look okay for now. The skirt is a fairly simple a-line with a yoke, which I lined. As I said, I'll wear the whole suit on Tuesday and we shall see. Next, some wedding gifts!

Wool suit

2011-03-14T18:10:00.003-04:00

I am doing pretty well in the fabrication of the suit.

I decided on this skirt pattern, even though it is a-line and the fabric has stripes. It is a comfortable skirt, easily lined and wears well.

I got all the pieces cut out. The skirt has four gores and two pieces for the yoke and then there's the lining. The jacket has lots of pieces! Each sleeve has two, the back has four, there are facings and the collar, and then there is the lining.

I'm making the patch pockets as I did for the red wool of the same pattern (see previous entry). I may have just enough of this blue wool left over for a vest but that will wait until I get these main two pieces finished. I found my "old" (1995) inspiration book for vests recently (I was hunting for printer paper) and suddenly, I am motivated to make more vests. I have quite a few already but I do wear them, especially when I'm wearing a dress shirt with a skirt. A vest adds a layer of warmth without being as warm as a whole jacket.

I have the body of the jacket done and the sleeves are ready to attach. The gores of the skirt are sewn together and I discovered that I had a matching skirt zipper in my stash, so I don't even need to go out for that. The only thing I'll go buy for this will be the buttons - I don't think I have anything that will work, although I will check of course. I wonder if brass or gold buttons would work?

New project - wool suit

2011-02-28T18:21:00.002-05:00

I am being a good girl and only using up my stash. I bought all those pieces of fabric on speculation, so it is only fair that I finally sew something with them. The difficulty is deciding what fabric will go with what pattern.

First of all, I finished that striped shirt and it looks pretty good. I sewed down the facings with a single line of topstitching. I put it on the dress form for a photo before I realized that I should press the topstitching and buttonholes. You can see a little of the "puckering" caused by the topstitching in this photo but it disappeared after I ironed it.

I got out a bunch of my "outfit" patterns, to ponder over and speculate what I would make with them. I'm going to a wedding at the end of May, and it would be fun to have a new dress and matching jacket. I have made the two Vogue patterns with the short jackets with the swing backs and I could definitely do them again. I haven't made the plaid outfit (V1132). I got that jacket pattern for the back on it too, having in mind my "Edwardian" (or maybe it is Victorian?) jacket that I was planning a couple of years ago.

I have these long lengths of fabric in the pale pink with the same stuff in navy, and then there's the bright pink. I laid them out on my ironing board to think about them.

Then I remembered this pale blue (ice blue) pure wool with a thin white stripe, that I had bought at Darrell's a few years ago. It was actually two remnants. I got some matching lining at the time and planned to make a suit out of it. It is nicer in real life, compared to this photo.

I had thought I would use this jacket pattern that I have made a few jackets out of in the square bottomed, notched collar views, but only once in the rounded bottom view. The one I made in the rounded bottom view was this one:

It is also pure wool with embroidery on it. Every time I wear it, I feel great and I get compliments. Of course, it is mostly the fabric and the colour, but I like the fit also. For some reason, even though it is virtually the same pattern as the square bottomed jacket, it works much better than the square jacket, in terms of the hem lying flat and the pockets working. It is very odd how that happens. I wonder if it was a fluke, that the red one works so nicely, but I am willing to gamble on the ice blue wool, and see how it turns out.

Wanting to start something new

2011-02-18T17:33:00.003-05:00

Still working on that shirt. I get so impatient when I want a project to be finished already. I prefer the phase where I wonder what fabric to use with which pattern, to the nitty gritty of finishing.

In the meantime, tragedy befell my favourite track pants!

I don't know how long I have had these Pearl Izumi pants but it has to be close to 15 years. I love them. They make my butt look small. They fit comfortably over my yoga pants and I wear them to the gym three days a week. Last week, I was zipping down the ankle zipper when it suddenly parted company with itself! The zippy mechanism jumped off the teeth. I can rip everything apart and install a new zipper. But I was wondering if any of you clever sewers out there had a magic fix? You have to get the zipper teeth back into the zipper pull and I'm not sure if I can do that.

I finished the cute little blouse with clear buttons. They have a little band of "cut glass" around the edge which sparkles nicely. I haven't worn it yet but plan to, the first warm day. Today was warm and it got up to 10C (50F) but that isn't really warm enough for a short sleeved blouse. And I have a cold so I didn't even get to go out and enjoy the weather much. But soon!

I decided to flat fell the armhole edge, to contain the ravelly polyester fabric edges. I've been doing French seams for all the rest.

It turned out well.

I put the cuffs on by sewing the right side of the cuff to the wrong side of the sleeve first.

Then after I sewed up the ends, I turned the cuff to the right side and used the zipper foot to sew the folded edge to just over the sewing line.

Here's the finished cuff. I still think I'm going to sew a line of top stitching around the other three sides.

After I turned the facings to the inside down the front, I saw that there was going to be bagging. This might fix itself after I put on the buttons and buttonholes, but in the meantime, I hand sewed a line of basting down the fronts to hold the facings down flat.

So I have just got buttons and buttonholes to go, and maybe some top stitching.

Yet another blouse

2011-02-01T13:25:00.004-05:00

In using up my stash, I seem to be gravitating towards shirts. Someone made a comment here not long ago, and their Blogger link led to a blog project called Never too many white shirts. While I've got my own issues, I happen to agree with the idea of "no such thing as too many white shirts". But this one is striped.

First of all, I was rummaging around my sewing room when my husband came by and snapped this picture of me. Silly. The tin man red hat on the far right is the funnel I use to refill my steam iron, perched on the water bottle. On the chair on the left is that gold silk still waiting to be cut. In woodworking, they say "measure twice cut once" and in sewing with expensive fabric, I say "think 20 times, cut once".

I got out ALL my blouse patterns and stared at them. I really liked that Calvin Klein pattern but it is dated with the gathered sleeves. On the other hand, it is a nice pattern and maybe it's not so bad with gathered sleeves. It comes with French cuffs too. I always liked the high neck band and the possibility of flipping the collar like in the photo, with a tiny cummerbund around the neck. That's dated too, I suppose. In the end, I chose the also old but not as dated Vogue 7332 on the right.

My fabric from the stash is quite a few years old now, a polyester (cringe) but with a bit of a texture to it. Bright white with navy and red pin stripes. I recall it being on sale (of course).

I'm making the B view with the stand-up collar. I've made it before so I know it works. I think it'll be a nice addition to my red or navy jackets and skirts.

I took the "risk" of cutting it out on folded double fabric. When I have stripes like this, I will often cut the pieces out one single layer at a time, to make sure nothing gets crooked or doesn't match. However, you can see through the fabric enough that you can see the stripes on the second (bottom) layer, so I straightened everything up properly and used lots and lots of pins to hold everything exactly in place and just cut.

So far so good. I've got the collar on. I think I will end up putting a single row of top stitching along the fronts, as the bands are just facings turned inside and the stitching will make them flatter. I might even sew a second row of stitching down the fronts, to hold the facings in place for the buttons and buttonholes. We shall see.

New blouse and no thread issues

2011-01-20T13:20:00.003-05:00

I sanded down the throat plate, held my breath and started sewing. It worked! I made a complete blouse without the thread breaking once. I feel a little embarrassed, having ranted so long about it being the needle hitting the bobbin case. I even heard back from Singer, who wrote that they thought it might be a timing issue. But that was after I finished the blouse, so I'm off to the races, I suppose.

I've had this pattern for a little while but never made it. It's cute. I rummaged through my stash and hauled out this white stuff that I had bought at Darrell's years ago. It is a weave but it feels a little like a knit (it is textured), and it has a fine silver thread that you can glimpse occasionally. It also ravels quite a bit and is one of those fabrics for which you keep your lint brush always at the ready on the ironing board.

I think it might have been a remnant because it was only through clever cutting that I managed to get short sleeves out of the piece I had.

I decided on French seams for the shoulders and side seams, to keep the ravelly ends in. Around the armholes, I trimmed one side (the shirt side) and folded the sleeve-side-seam allowance over to contain the ravelly bits and then sewed that down with a zigzag stitch. Yes, it would be easier if I had a serger! But I don't.

The front bands are sewn across the bottom, right sides together, to make a nice square finish. But instead of hand sewing the band to the wrong or inside, I sewed it first by machine, wrong side to right side, then I sewed the square bottom, right sides together, THEN I folded it over to the RIGHT side of the blouse (the outside) and sewed it by machine with a topstitch.

It's a bit faster that way -- no hand sewing -- and it gives it a professional or maybe commercial look. Anyway, I like it and since I learned to do this with all the jean jacket bands I have sewed, I now do it with all the other bands I sew.

I also used the same technique on the bands that hem the slightly puffy sleeves.

Here is the puffy part of the short sleeve being sewn to the band and you can see how much the fabric ravels. The green thread is there to gather up the puffy part.

I have yet to go get buttons. This is a single button I have in my button box. It has no mates -- too bad because it is just like what I think would go best with this blouse. The silver thread makes the blouse sparkle a tiny bit but silver buttons would be way over the top. This one is a clear plastic button with a flower motif embossed on it and so it "sparkles" just a little bit. Plus, it is a bit bigger around than most of the shirt buttons I normally use and I think that would suit this fabric, since it is textured and not sleek.

Here is the blouse, awaiting my trip to the button store. Cute!

Tunic shirt done!

2011-01-08T17:49:00.003-05:00

Whoosh. Well, it wasn't difficult.

I usually flat fell my seams to finish them but I didn't want to do that on the light weight silk, so I thought I would use a French seam finish. I did that on the shoulders but zigzagged around the armholes. Then, I was going to French seam the underarm/side seams when I realized that wouldn't work with having vents on the sides. Instead, I sewed a "normal" right-sides-together seam and then ironed the seam allowance under, thus also making the vent edge finished.

It was at this point that I decided to re-examine my sewing machine for why it was breaking threads. I have a follower who also works where I shop for groceries and we had a nice long talk this week, about threads breaking and people who fix sewing machines. She said something like, "of course, you have checked the throat plate for snags" and I said "of course". But when I was sitting there, this afternoon, staring at my machine, I realized that I had not looked at the throat plate (the plate with the lines on it for 5/8 seam allowances, where the needle goes through the hole into the bobbin area). So I took it out and looked at it and sure enough! There were tiny metal snags where needles have broken over the years. Well. I thought that the sewing machine guy might have said something to me, especially as when I took the machine in, I said "it is breaking the top thread". So I got a tiny piece of very fine emery paper for sanding metal and spent 10 minutes buffing the snags. Then I proceeded to sew rapidly, using straight and zigzag stitches and the thread didn't break once! I did not allow myself to feel elated yet. Then I made six buttonholes and the thread broke twice! Grr. I am going to sand the heck out of the throat plate again and make sure there is nothing snaggy on it and then start a new project and see what happens. I suppose I could also buy a new one.

Anyway, here it is, a tunic length shirt with 3/4 sleeves. It fits and I am happy with the way it turned out. I'll want to wear it once to be sure but I think I have found the pattern for my gold silk. Now, for the sand paper...

A shirt muslin

2011-01-07T17:17:00.003-05:00

Yes, I am still hanging in here. :) Last time I was here, I had made a shirt. I have now worn it and it fits and wears very well, so that's gratifying. But Christmas was approaching and I wanted to make a few little things for the family, as we were all getting together for two whole days over the holidays. I rooted through my stash and came up with fabric for nine different shoe bags. In Canada, in the winter, you are always carrying your shoes when visiting other people's places (unless you just take off your boots and go around in socks, which is also acceptable). So that was fun and I hope well received.

I had thought I wanted to try out a new suit pattern, a nice Badgley Mischka Chanel looking thing, so I hauled out some navy fabric and stared at that for a few days. The jacket pattern is only lined in the sleeves, which is interesting. I had thought I might use this pattern for that raw silk I found years ago and which is still hanging about my sewing room. But it is kind of scratchy (with a metallic thread) and I am not convinced any part of it should be unlined.

So I stewed some more. Then I put the navy stuff away and folded up the suit pattern pieces and thought some more about the gold silk. If you go back to the August 3, 2010 entry (which isn't that far down because I have hardly been blogging), you will see that silk.

I got some helpful comments about making a tunic length shirt and so I took out my Vogue pattern 2634 and thought about it. I had made some sleeveless shirts with it and discovered that it was too small because it was a size 10 and not my usual 12. However, over the last little while, my husband has been losing weight by eating vegan and I have benefitted by losing a few pounds too and now the size 10 almost fits across the chest. I added one centimetre to the centre back fold (adding 2 centimetres to the total width) and am hopeful this will work.

It is crazy busy fabric but it has an interesting provenance. I went to Darrell Thomas to see what he had in his annual "cat rescue" fund raising sale and found this piece of polyester for only $3. It is the same weight and feel as the gold silk, so I determined I would use it as a muslin for the tunic length shirt in the Vogue 2634. I may not wear it but if it fits and works, I will have made my decision about what to make with the gold silk.

In the meantime, my Singer has been breaking the top thread again. It did this some years ago and I took it to the sewing machine hospital and he fixed it. I took it back in October and he gave it a tune up but it was still breaking threads - most aggravating. I hate it when things don't work according to their nature. Then I changed the threads and bobbins and am sewing very slowly and the last few metres of sewing have been okay. But I wrote Singer anyway and will see what they say, if anything. I promise to report, if anything happens.

That shirt

2010-11-23T17:38:00.003-05:00

Well let's see, it's only been two months since I last blogged here. Good grief. But in the meantime, I ran an election (and lost) and learned a whole lot (and blogged over there). And I started novelizing the emails I wrote in 1995-6 when I was in London for a year (for NaNoWriMo). And yes, I finally finished that shirt:

I can't believe the rookie mistakes I made on it, which came from not being able to tell the right side from the wrong side of the fabric. Only I can tell where the errors are but I do know what I did. I used to sew the collar and cuff facings down by hand but for some years, I've been attaching the whole thing by machine. I describe the process here where I attach a collar to one of my husband's shirts. What I did with this shirt was attach the band to the right side (instead of the wrong side) and now I have to deal with the machine stitching being more visible (to me at least) that I would have liked. C'est la vie.

So, now I'm free to start a new project, and I don't know what yet. I was making this template shirt in anticipation of wearing the finished gold silk one to my charity gala, but as the date got closer, I knew I wasn't going to get it done, so I looked at some of my "old" fancy dress things to see what I might wear instead. I had made a "Chinese" dress quite a while ago (I don't think I blogged about it so it must have been before 2005) and used a new pattern to do it. When I tried the finished dress on, I was shocked that it didn't go over my butt and so I never wore it. I kept it because it looked so cute, in red faux Chinese embroidered satin, and because I had hopes that I would lose ten pounds or so. When the Oriental theme of the gala was announced, I hauled it out of the cupboard, dusted it off (literally) and tried it on, thinking I'll finally give it away to the Sally Ann. Imagine my surprise when it fit! My husband has been cooking vegan for the last few months and I have benefited by losing enough weight that the dress now fits. So that's what I wore!

I told people that I have lost ten pounds because of my husband's cooking but that never does come out right. He has lost over 25 pounds. It's cutting back calories of course, but also no saturated animal fat that makes a big difference. These two photos are a good contrast too, showing me tense in one and relaxed in the other. The camera does not love me, I know, but it is interesting how some pix are so much better than others. Plus you get to meet my hubby, although you can do that more at his blog which he kept nicely over the summer when he was biking to work and taking photos. Now that he is on the bus for the winter, he is not taking so many pix.

So there, I am mostly caught up to date. Oh yes, I had to take my sewing machine in again to be repaired, as it was breaking threads yet again. Most aggravating and disappointing, as I bought a Singer to have a better quality machine.

The perfect shirt, template

2010-08-22T18:11:00.003-04:00

I pulled out sleeve pattern pieces, and front and back pieces from different patterns, and layered them to see how different they were from each other, and maybe try to figure out why some shirts wouldn't allow me to stretch my arms out in front of me.

I didn't find anything! The sleeves were practically identical in the shirts that didn't work, compared to the shirts that did work. Same with the fronts and backs. I went to the closet and tried on the shirts that don't work (why do I still have them hanging there, you ask? I ask that too.) The only thing I can think of is that all the shirts that work have a little Lycra in the fabric. And I think it is the width of the back that makes the difference, not the type of sleeve. In other words, my problem is that the back isn't wide enough, which means I am too big for the pattern. I can stand to lose 10 to 15 pounds and there it is - a whole pattern size. sigh.

I also looked at the sleeveless shirts I had made (and never worn) from the Vogue pattern 2634 and then I looked at the pattern and slapped myself up-side the head. It was a size 10, even smaller than the 12 with which I was having issues.

I decided to go with the McCall's 5630 "perfect fit" pattern and start to modify it. I pulled out the pattern pieces and discovered that I had already made this pattern!

Again, I used cotton with a little Lycra in it. I wasn't all that happy with how big the collar was but the shirt was a pretty good fit otherwise.

So what I did was cut the collar back at the points, so it would be a bit smaller. I've done this before with good results.

I had it in mind that I would use some plain cream coloured fabric I had, but in the process of looking for it (I have boxes and boxes of fabric), I found some nice striped cotton (no Lycra!). It is a little thicker than the silk but I think it will be okay for a template. My plan is to make the body straight, so it is more like a tunic than a shaped shirt. It won't be as long or as baggy as a tunic, but I want the stripes to be straight, all the way up and down.

When I cut out the front and back pieces, I cut as straight down the stripes in the fabric as I could, eliminating the curve in at the waist. I will still put in the bust darts but I won't put in the vertical front and back shaping darts. It will be interesting to see how boxy and bulky the shirt looks with no vertical shaping.

The Perfect Shirt

2010-08-16T17:45:00.001-04:00

I appreciate the comments on the gold silk. I really want to make some sort of shirt with it but not an entire "shirt dress". The comment about a tunic length got me to thinking about all the shirt patterns I have used of the years and those that I have bought but never used.

When I started making shirts (as opposed to blouses) for myself, I used one pattern exclusively. It wasn't a true shirt like a tailored man's shirt but it was good enough to make many (dare I say dozens) of shirts over the years. It's the McCall's 8053 on the right. It has a proper two piece collar and nice long shirt tails, for when we used to tuck our shirts into our skirt or pants. It doesn't have a separate band on the front, for both buttons and buttonholes. Instead, it does what many of the women's shirt patterns do and that is, fold over the front into a facing, which flares out at the top and has to be ironed down with each washing. It is also very wide and boxy and goes straight down, with no darts.

On the other side of the photo above is Simplicity 9210. This is what I've been using lately (and for some years) to make what I call the "camp shirt" (or I suppose you could call it a bowling shirt). It has a one piece, spread collar. I like the two piece collar because it looks more formal or dressy and can take a tie (I sometimes, used to - rarely - wear ties). The camp shirt also has the facings. It is square but it does have bust darts to give it a little shape. And the bottom is hemmed straight across with vents at the bottom for ease of movement.

The next pattern on the right is Simplicity 9877. I started making this very fitted shirt when I started leaving my shirt tails untucked. Despite the cowgirl motif in the main photo, I have used this pattern successfully for quite a few cotton/Lycra shirts and I wear them a LOT. It has a one piece collar that has the shape of a two piece. That means when undone, it sort of looks like a two piece but it doesn't do up (at the very top) square enough to wear a tie. It has separate bands on the front that are interfaced and topstitched and look more like a tailored man's shirt. It also, despite it being so fitted, allows my arms to move. (That sounds strange but I went through a couple of patterns which were sized correctly but for some reason, I couldn't stretch my arms out in front of me.) I have made a few of these shirts with vertical stripes and they work, even with the deep darts in front. But for the gold silk, I didn't want the stripes to be interrupted like that.

On the left is McCall's 5630 which I have never used. I bought it because it is billed as "perfect fit" and it has a two piece collar, front bands and a slight shirttail hem. But it has body darts and I am not convinced I want to use those for the gold silk (because of the stripes in the fabric but also, I think the finished look should be a little loose).

Next is Vogue 2634 which I had to have because those women just look so lanky and elegant. I can be elegant (given the right circumstances) but I'll never be lanky. It has a very long, tunic length option, a two piece collar but no front bands.

Finally, we have a pattern that is very 80s but which I love in spite of its shoulder pads, gathered sleeves and tucks. Of course, it is very Vogue and so the photos look so elegant. I only had one shirt made from it and it didn't have the shoulder pads and I never made the cool neck cummerbund and I really got it for the neck detail. Because I like to wear ties. Plus, it has a French cuff option and one of these days, I'm going to wear cufflinks too. [I just like the look of a tie and cufflinks and I can get away with it because I'm pretty small and fairly feminine (how's that for non-commitment and lack of superlatives?)].

What's next for me is to compare pattern pieces to determine why some patterns restrict my arms (I didn't include those patterns above because, in my opinion, they don't work). Then I want to combine the best parts of the patterns that do work, to make a shirt that will be "the perfect shirt". It will have a two piece collar, front bands, hopefully no darts (I'll allow bust darts if I have to) and be loose-ish but not boxy. For the gold silk, I would like a long body but a straight hem, so I can wear it out like a tunic but tuck it in if I want. I will make the first prototype of this perfect shirt using some piece of some fabric I have squirreled away over the years and if it works, the gold silk will be next. I've been mulling over this puzzle for ages. It's very much like the mulling I do when I try to come up with what will be for me, the perfect bicycle. But that's another story.

New project with silk?

2010-08-03T19:11:00.004-04:00

I came down from sewing to blog about sewing and was sitting here (at the computer at 7pm) when suddenly, I thought I was going blind, it got so dark. We have some dense red cells moving through the area and there have been funnel clouds west of here. I thought I'd better post this before I lose power.

I finally finished the red rayon camp shirt. It is such a pretty colour, I am glad I have a new one of these shirts to wear.

I made the buttonholes vertically for a change. It fits loosely so there won't be any straining at the buttonholes or fear of gaping.

Now I have ironed the other piece of silk I got in California a year ago. It is a sort of Dupioni, in that it is stiff-ish with slubs in it but it is fairly thin too. I had thought I would make a dress out of it but I think it is too thin. Then I thought I would make a camp shirt, as the pattern works so well and I could tuck it into a skirt to make it look less caasual. But then I measured it and found out it is 136 cm wide and 190 cm long - almost 2 yards! I can get the shirt out of it but then I will have quite a bit left over and don't know what to do with that. Any ideas? Shirt and something, or something other than a shirt? Or maybe a long sleeved shirt!

It turned out to be nothing

2010-07-21T11:10:00.000-04:00

About 3 weeks ago, I felt a small lump in my right breast, right where the cancerous one had been removed 2 years ago. I got an appointment with my GP for July 13 and spent a nasty weekend prior to that, thinking dark thoughts. After she felt the lump, she referred me to the clinic at the Civic where I had my first ultrasound in July of 2008, when they found the cancer. I could only get an ultrasound appointment for this morning at 8 am.

Peter was planning to take holidays starting July 16 and he was going to bike around Lake Ontario or somewhere, while I campaigned. This lump put us both in limbo. He started his holidays anyway, so he could just hang out with me and be supportive, and we had a very quiet weekend, where we got in some nice biking and spent a lot of time on patios, thinking our own dark thoughts.

I have been thinking about the meaning of life. I have also been thinking about whether my body had betrayed me (again), what kind of surgery I would have this time and whether I would opt for chemo (again). I have been planning final trips and holidays in my head, thinking about cashing in my life insurance and RRSPs to do so, and other similarly grim thoughts.

This morning, we were up at 6 and out the door at 7, to bike over to the Civic. We got there in 35 minutes, so we were a tad early. My heart rate was up and I felt quite gloomy. When I was ushered in to the exam room, I asked if Peter could come with me, so I wouldn't have to tell him everything after it happened and so re-live a potentially negative experience. They said he couldn't come in with me. I shrugged. First a technician gave me the ultrasound and I watched the monitor while she ran the wand over me. I could see a dark lump on the screen but it looked different from the one 2 years ago. Then a very nice woman doctor (sweetly named Dr. Petal) came in and talked to me while she ran the wand over me. She pointed out the characteristics of this lump and told me that to her, it looked like it was a fat necrosis, or dead fat cells in a lump. In other words, scar tissue. It was still evolving, the scar tissue, because of the damage done by surgery and radiation and the fact that the fat lump wasn't getting any blood supply.

In fact, this is a key thing that distinguishes cancer from other tissue - it has a vigorous blood supply. And this lump had none. I let out my breath that I'd been holding for the last few weeks. She then asked the technician to go get Peter. They don't like other people in the room initially, because it is a small room and they can be distracting. But now that the work had been done, she allowed Peter in. He was relieved to hear what she had to say and she showed him what she was looking at on the monitor. She also said that she had looked at my file from 2 years ago, as well as the mammogram I had in November. She could see the lump on the mammogram (and she got out the film and showed it to me) and pointed out that it looked like scar tissue there also.

Nevertheless, to be entirely sure, I am going to have a needle biopsy, some time in the next 2 weeks. It will be one of those rare occasions when I willingly say to someone, "yes, please do stick a large needle into my chest and pull out tissue." However, I agree with her that it is probably just scar tissue and therefore, I can write this and get back to living. And running for office. And sewing. I've been a little distracted lately.

This is what I sound lke!

2010-07-10T14:45:00.001-04:00

My first time on the radio (ever!). Enjoy:

Part 1

Part 2

(If you prefer to copy and paste into your browser the links are:
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/The_Challengers.Pt1.July08.10.mp3
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/The_Challengers.Pt2July08.10.mp3
And if you want to explore more listening options at CFRA, go here:
http://www.cfra.com/interviews/default.asp )

Camp shirt

2010-07-06T17:47:00.001-04:00

Steaming right along, it is a "feels like" temperature of 42C (109F) here right now. Thank my dog (even though she has been gone for five years now) that I have air conditioning! I didn't use it last week when all the ACs in the 'hood were grinding away but I am glad I have it today.

In campaign news, I will be on our local talk radio (CFRA 580 AM) this Thursday the 8th, between 3 and 4 pm EDT. You can listen to it here:
http://cfra.com/listen/listen-CFRA-StW.html
Or if you miss it, I will put up a link on my web site after, or you can go here to find the link yourself.

I dressed up to go downtown the other day, to attend an info session at city hall and on the way home, stopped at a local coffee shop to have a coffee with my husband. He has a blog too and he posted a couple of photos of me with my Britex silk shirt in action!

The weekend just past, I decided since it was supposed to not rain all weekend, I would finally get the two big area rugs out and wash them.

I do it the old fashioned way, on my hands and knees, using dishwashing soap and a brush. I now have rug burns on my knees but it was worth it. I hung them on the chain link fence to rinse them and then let them dry. It was an all day job.

I am still resisting the purchase of new fabric and trying to use up my stash. I had a large length of this very soft, drapey rayon left over after I made a dress out of it (which is now too short to wear given my age and has gone into the Sally Ann pile) years ago and I determined that it would make a nice addition to my "camp shirt" collection. I have been using this Simplicity 9210 pattern for years, to make a loose, short sleeved shirt that I wear untucked (although I can tuck it in if I want). I call them "camp shirts" because I got the moniker from old LLBean catalogues.

These are four in my collection - I made the purple flowered one last. Yeesh! I see it was in 2007. I guess I didn't get much done in the last two years. But, we all know why. Never mind!

Since it is old, left over stash fabric, I refuse to buy new thread. I got out all my threads that were remotely reddish and I am going to use them up.

Here is a close-up of the facings and loops that I sewed at the start and if you really look closely, you can see different colours of thread. I agree - who will notice!

All new stuff!

2010-06-06T18:59:00.001-04:00

I can't believe you guys keep coming back to check on this blog! You are amazing. And here is your reward!

First of all, let me say that I have been blogging (although not here) since about March, when I decided to run for city councillor here in Ottawa. My web site is at http://juliaringma.ca/
and the blog is at http://juliaringma.ca/?page_id=69

I need some more traffic over there! And if you live in College Ward in Ottawa, vote for me! Or tell anyone who lives there to vote for me.

Let's see... I also put up a whack of pix at Flickr, about my Florida trip. It's in two sets and often, the individual photos have captions and commentary that are sometimes amusing. They are at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliar/sets/72157623372064884/
and the second set is at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliar/sets/72157623481897656/

I've been reading and reading about urban planning and city stuff and politics but I also laid out that gorgeous piece of silk I bought at Britex on our California trip. Britex even has a Facebook site! I'll have to send them a photo for their site, where customers make stuff. Oh, speaking of Facebook, you can find me there too, at my political "fan site" at or just search for Julia Ringma. I have always said I'm the only one on the planet with that name combo and now that I have decided to become a public person by running for office, I guess I can tell everyone who I am! Not that I ever really hid it.

Okay! Back to the silk. There are different weights and textures of silk and this stuff is the kind that makes you think you could eat it, it is so scrumptious. I only had 1 and 5/8 yards so I determined I would make that little pullover top with no buttons and no seam down the back.

And a few hours later, here it is:

I picture it under a jacket, while I am sitting at council meetings. And yes, I need to iron the hand stitched hem!

So thanks again for hanging in there. For the blogs I follow that have infrequent posts, I have learned to love Google Reader, as it will tell me when there is finally a blog entry to read.

Florida pix

2010-02-14T16:04:00.001-05:00

Just a tidbit for while I am away... if you are so inclined, you can check out my growing collection of holiday snaps at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliar/sets/72157623372064884/
There are 90 there now but every now and then, I add a few more.

Enjoy!

Just before I go

2010-01-29T10:13:00.003-05:00

I have decided NOT to bring the new linen outfit I just made. Not because I haven't decided on the buttons (although, I am pretty sure I want to do covered buttons). But because I am leaving tomorrow and I want to take a minimum of fuss outfits with me and you can't say that linen is no-fuss. So I will go through my tried and true clothes, like the kind I took to California with me in August. Only I will bring more layers and long sleeves to Florida! If it gets hot, great. But even in California in August, on the coast I was wishing I had more things with sleeves.

I finished the robe and now it is packed. If I blog on this trip it will be to juliaringma.blogspot.com as that is the default I set my EeePC to just now. I'd better go finish packing! Thanks everyone for your comments!

PJs and robe

2010-01-26T18:16:00.001-05:00

Almost there!

I finished the top first.

Here's how I finished the seams. The one on the left is "wrong sides together" and sewn in about a 1/4 inch seam. The one on the right has been trimmed down to about 1/8 of an inch.

After I iron the seam to one side, then I iron it "right sides together" and stick a few pins in to hold it in place, with the stitching running along the fold. Then I sew another 1/4 inch (or maybe 3/8) seam, with the right sides together, encasing the raw, trimmed edges.

I couldn't do a French finish on the crotch seam of the pants because it bends sharply. Here is a french seam (the lower one) compared with the seam that I sewed a double line of stitching on. I am pulling away the threads that fray madly. I will trim those but they will continue to fray whenever I wash the pants, until they reach a kind of stasis. C'est la vie.

Speaking of the pants, here they are before I have installed the elestic/drawstring combo through the waist casing. They look huge! And they look like those silly basketball shorts. Sorry if anyone reading this admires basketball shorts but I think they look silly.

Here I have completed the drawstring waist and tied the strings in a bow. They'll sort of look like culottes when I wear them, I am thinking.

See how madly the cut edges of this fabric fray, even when I've hardly handled them.

I haven't finished the robe yet but I thought I'd bundle all three pieces up to see how small they will pack. That was the point of this exercise after all - to make something that packs up pretty small. I am happy with the size of this bundle.

Sewing the robe and PJs

2010-01-24T15:42:00.000-05:00

So I cut out the robe and PJs and now I am doing the preliminary work - making bias binding, turning drawstring tubes. I have decided to finish all the seams by making French seams, except for the centre front and back of the PJ shorts. This fabric is quite ravelly and there are really fine threads that appear everywhere on cut edges. I wouldn't like the look of the insides of the garments if I zigzagged the raw edges to keep them from ravelling, so I am going for the encased French seam. I am also putting the shiny and smooth side inside, next to my skin. While it looks like the nicest side, since hardly anyone is going to see these things, I am choosing the feel-nice over the look-nice.

Interestingly, even the robe bands don't call for interfacing so there is zero interfacing in this outfit. I guess that will allow it to pack even smaller. Which addresses Heather's suggestion about what fabric to use - I am going with this thin stuff because it packs light. Your suggestion would definitely be warmer but I am hoping Florida won't be too cold in a week! Dog forbid we should have a hotel fire.

The linen outfit and then PJs and a robe

2010-01-21T17:29:00.001-05:00

What a klutz! I accidentally deleted a set of photos at Flickr (I still don't know how I did that) and they all disappeared from my blog. So I had to edit the last entry and stick them all back in there.

I would like to thank all those who have already commented on my last entry - you guys are great! I can't believe you are still lurking after all those months. And I have to say, I felt guilty for not blogging.

Rose, it is interesting that you used the word "neighbour" because I AM going to be in Florida in about a week and a half! Since my parents are at the wheel (literally), I probably won't be dropping in, but I'll think of you as I drive past DeLand! I am hoping the parental units want to spend some time on an Atlantic beach but really, anywhere is great. I also bought the Lonely Planet guide to Florida and am already making notes in it. DeLand is on page 387. :) I think I want to get further south and am still voting for the Keys.

Back to the linen: So the jacket calls for a bow in the back and while I don't think it is twee (I do love the girls over at Go Fug Yourself), I also don't think I am going to put one on this jacket. Maybe if the fabric was plain and draped a little more.

I put the collar on opposite to the instructions, so that the hand sewing of the facing would be underneath the collar, as it lay on the jacket when worn. Look at those tiny stitches! I've still got it.

This is the jacket inside-out and if you click on the photo and make it as large as possible, you can see that I have flat felled the seams. I didn't do what I often do, which is the modified flat fell, because then you would see strips of the right side of the fabric. I thought the inside of the jacket would look better if it all looked like the wrong side of the fabric, instead of with little patterned strips running all over it.

I also decided against using seam binding of any kind on the hems. Instead, I folded over the raw edge of the hem and then folded up the hem and hand sewed it in place.

Again, you'll have to make this photo larger, but I topstitched around the neck and armholes on the dress, to keep the facings in place.

It's just a plain, sheath dress but that style works on me.

Here's the little jacket. You can't see all the fabric that is in the body of it but the hem is practically a half circle. Now I just have to decide on buttons. The pattern calls for four and I am okay with that but I am wondering if I should make covered buttons in this same fabric?

Next: PJs! And a robe. My last bathrobe was a long corduroy thing that I made to wear at university in -- wait for it -- 1975! Yeowsers. Since I will be travelling with my folks, I thought I should have at the ready, a robe, because you know there is going to be at least one time where I am going to have to wander around in the night. At home, I don't even bother with PJs, never mind a robe but this isn't home. What if there was a hotel fire or something? Anyway, I wanted fabric that was light weight and yet patterned so that you couldn't see through it. I got this polyester that folds up into a small bundle so I can keep the packing light. I am going to put the shiny, soft side in and the less attractive dull side out.

Here is my robe pattern - the very one I used in 1975! It cost $1.35. I'm thinking I won't even put pockets on it to make it as small as possible when folded up.

I used this PJ pattern a couple of years ago and made shorts and the B view top for a summer bike holiday. I am going to use just the pants (shorts) in the same "leopard" print as the robe.

And I am going to use my trusty, tried-and-true Vogue tank top pattern for the PJ top. It doesn't have facings - just bias strips around the neck and armholes. My goal here is to have something I can wear to bed at night that will cover me up and yet not be restrictive or too hot (I am hoping Florida will be warm!) and the matching robe in case it is a bit cool. All of which should pack up into as small a bundle as possible.

I'm back sewing linen

2010-01-19T16:02:00.003-05:00

I would like to thank all my die-hard fans who keep checking this moribund blog and wishing me well in the comments. Not only am I not dead, I am doing great! But I have not been sewing since July and so I haven't blogged since then.

In July, I sewed up a cotton jacket and skirt outfit for my trip to California.
You can read all about the trip here if you like.
There is even a photo of me wearing that jacket (I paired it with a dark blue denim jean skirt that day) in this entry, meeting with a fellow dog blogger (not a sewing blogger, sorry!) that day.

Of course, I trailed off the end of that travel blog too, and have not written about our last three days in San Francisco, where I bought a couple of remnants at Britex Fabrics, a very cool store. I even became a fan of the store on Facebook, even though I may never get back to SF. But they have a fun "button du jour" on FB and as you may know, on FB, you can ignore whatever you like!

I was thinking I would make nice tops to go under jackets, with these silks. The gold on the left is a stiffer dupioni type silk and the print on the right is a soft, charmeuse silk.

In the meantime, I never finished that "gala dress" I was making. It just failed to inspire me in any way. But since I have my "rule" about not making a new thing until the current thing is finished, I stared at the unfinished bodice hanging on my dummy, week after week. I only went into my sewing room to iron shirts and darn socks. I tried my hand at writing some stories (I am still working on those). I decided I was not willing to go back and teach only 6 hours a week.

In November, one of my neighbours fell while running and broke both ankles, so I volunteered to walk her dog for her every night. Then another neighbour went in for a total knee replacement and I volunteered to walk her dog every morning. So I've been doing that. The one with the broken ankles has healed up nicely and she has taken over walking her dog again. The other has a younger dog and I am still walking him for exercise around the park. It gets me up in the morning, I get a little exercise and then Kathleen and I sit and have coffee and solve the world's problems.

Then, at Christmas, my parents announced that they were going to drive to Florida this year and stay for the month of February. They were going to just drive down and see where they would stay, once they got there. They are really good travellers but Dad is 81 this year and so I piped up, "What would you think if I went with you and shared the driving?" In fact, they seemed to brighten right up and said they thought that was a great idea. So I am going to Florida for a month!

When am I ever going to have this opportunity again? Maybe never, so I jumped at the chance. Some people might think I am a little crazy for wanting to spend an entire month with my folks but we get along great when they come to visit here and we are all pretty low maintenance. I told a girlfriend about it and she told me that she had gone to Spain some years ago, with her parents when they were in their 80s and she never regretted the memories that she made, especially now that they are gone.

So I decided I needed to make a travel dressing gown but first, I fished some linen out of my stash and I am making a dress and jacket. Not sure if I will take them to Florida, as linen wrinkles but I am halfway through them now, so there you go.

I am using Vogue 8146 for the first time. The jacket is similar to the other swing-back jacket I made out of linen here. It is also unlined. And the dress is virtually the same as a McCall's pattern (8017) that I used for years and years - just a shift with some darts.

I have this big hunk of very pale green linen and I had thought the print and it might go together but not really. They don't clash, but it's not a brilliant match.
Back here I also made a dark navy linen skirt and short, unlined jacket and I think I had in mind that all the pieces would mix and match. The embroidered linen is quite different in texture from the other three, lighter weight linens but I think I may be able to to some switching of skirts.

There is something about that swing, pleated back that I really like!

I decided to sew quite quickly, in spite of it being a new pattern. I am finishing some edges with a simple zigzag fold.

But I should have used pinking shears on the long edges of the dress. I am not going to flat fell those seams (so I can let them out or more hopefully, take them in, if my weight changes) so I have had to zigzag all down the edges to prevent raveling. I also decided not to line the dress, as it sort of defeats the purpose of linen being cool. I will probably wear a short half slip if I feel there is any possibility of seeing through the fabric.

So there! I am sort of caught up to date with you, my readers. I am sorry I haven't blogged in SO long and there'll be another dearth of blogging while I am away in February. And in case you are wondering, yes, my long--suffering husband has to stay home and earn a living. But I will email him and Skype when I get internet access so the time will pass pretty quickly I think. All the best to you-all!

Not about sewing so much...

2009-07-24T09:50:00.002-04:00

I'm kind of bummed. As you know, all last winter, I lay around the house feeling like death warmed over from the chemo. It was while I was lying on the couch, watching reruns of "The Dog Whisperer", that I conceived the idea of a reward holiday. I said, "I want a reward for going through this slow motion hell and I want to go to California and meet Cesar Millan!" And so our trip to California in August was born.

I wrote Cesar a letter, explaining my circumstances and wondering if I could meet him, or just his dogs if he wasn't going to be there. I wrote it on real stationery with a fountain pen, so it would stand out as well as look sincere. If nothing else, I AM sincere! I wrote it on the computer first, so I could redraft parts, so I'll include what I wrote at the bottom here. I had even seen that episode with the teenaged girl who got to see him about her dog because she went through the Children's Wish Foundation and since I am way too old for that, I determined that I would grant my own wish.

After a while and no answer, I went to his web site and to the "contact" page and sent my letter as an email. It was interesting that the contact pages asks for fewer than 500 words and I had only written about 360 to begin with (it was small stationery). At the contact page, there are drop down menus to identify the subject matter of your inquiry. The first one I choose was "The dog psychology centre" and the second one that arose from that had "Can I visit the D.P.C.?" as an option.

The next day, I got this response by email:
"Thank you for contacting the Dog Psychology Center. This is an auto-reply.
We appreciate your interest in Cesar and the dedicated staff at the Dog Psychology Center. Unfortunately, at this time, the center is not open to the public, and no visitors or tours are permitted on the grounds."

Well, I do understand that he must get millions of inquiries every year and that there are lots of crazies out there (I have seen some on his show!). But this is why I am bummed, because the entire impetus for going to California (as opposed to say, Spain to watch Lance on the Tour this year) was to see Cesar and tell him how much his show meant to me last winter. *sigh*

Here is my original letter:
"I am writing to see if I may visit the Dog Psychology Centre and meet you. I checked your web site and there are no "public tours" that I can see, so I realize this sort of visit would have to be arranged particularly for me.

This last winter, I was having chemotherapy for breast cancer and I found myself lying on the couch every day at 5 pm, watching "The Dog Whisperer" on the National Geographic channel. I'd seen all the shows before but I watched them again anyway because I love the message that is in each episode and I think you are a genius when it comes to dogs. I also had finally come to understand what you mean about the energy that people have and how it affects dogs. When I was first diagnosed and I told people, I would often feel a wave of negative energy coming off them, in the form of fear and pity. It was very interesting to see how I became so attuned to feeling energy and that's when I clicked with your message in the show.

So there I was, lying on the couch, enduring until I finished my treatments, and I turned to my husband and said, "when I am done this, my reward will be to go to California and meet the Dog Whisperer!" I know kids can get such things through the Children's Wish Foundation but as someone past 50, I will have to give this wish to myself. Now we have booked our tickets and we will be spending some quality time with wine and food in Napa, seeing San Francisco, driving down through Monterey and ending up in Los Angeles on August 17-19. I am hoping you will be in town at that time because I would love to meet you. But even if you are not, I would like to visit the Centre and meet some of the dogs I have seen on your show, like Junior, who must be fully grown now!

Please let me know if it will be possible for us to visit the Centre in August."

I'm only posting this because I'm a bit blue about the results of the inquiry and I hope by getting it off my chest (pun?) it will make me feel better. It would have been great to visit with Cesar, or his lovely wife, or Daddy or Junior. I know, I should just get a dog already! Soon...

More sewing shortly!

Gala dress muslin creeps along

2009-07-18T14:39:00.001-04:00

Here are the French seams.

First you have to sew the pieces together, wrong sides together, with a seam allowance of about 1/4 inch. Then you trim the raw edges down to less than 1/4 inch. Then you iron the seam and fold the pieces with the right sides together, encasing the raw edges.

Then you sew the seam again, at about 3/8 of an inch, so you get the full 5/8 seam allowance, with the right sides together, so you end up with the raw edges enclosed in the seam itself.

Here's what it looks like, finished and pressed, from the right and the wrong sides.

The bodice is gathered where it meets the midriff and from what I learned with the prom dresses, I now gather by hand. I simply sew a long, running stitch along the gather line and it is just easier to gather up than a machine sewn line.

The bodice also gathers into the yokes that form the shoulders. This is the back, which has a Vee where the yokes meet the gathered part of the bodice. I've got one of the yokes up and one down, just to show the construction a bit.

I am also noticing that I am going to have to be a lot more picky when I make the real gala dress. I put the ruler in the photo because the stitching line is supposed to be 5/8 inch (1.5 cm) from the end of this point on the yoke and from each edge and I am out of alignment. I think I will have to make accurate tailor tacks on the real dress, to ensure that the dots all line up.

This looks like a jumble of pieces (there are three) all coming together at one point.

Here is the bodice with the yokes coming together at the gathered parts from another angle. This time, I have got the yoke facings sew on as well, so now I have all sorts of pieces all converging.

I have sewn the yoke facings down by hand on the inside. This is what the bodice looks like, draping on the judy, from the back.

Here is the bodice from the front. It looks like the Vee in the front will be quite low. I am not sure if this will be too low. For this dress (muslin), should I wear it, I may have to put a triangle of fabric in the front, like a camisole - or just wear a camisole under it. I am now thinking of how I would alter the pattern to prevent this from happening when I make the real dress. I can't just hike it up at the shoulder seams because then the midriff will be too high. I want the seam line where the midriff meets the bodice to be right at the bra band line.

The gala dress muslin

2009-07-07T16:53:00.001-04:00

Remembering the 52 people killed in London on this day, 4 years ago.
It rained on and off all day too, which I always find appropriate. And since it was raining, I didn't even go out at all. I got some reading done and then I cut out the muslin. It was easy because I didn't cut a single layer but allowed the fabric to be double thickness, saving myself a lot of time and fussing. And I didn't use pinking shears, as all the seams will be finished in some way.

Then I fused on the interfacing to the yoke and midriff. I may go with sew-in interfacing on the actual dress, depending on the fabric. I often find fusible interfacing eventually bubbles in some fashion. I looked at the over-all colour of the fabric and decided on the ocher colour for the thread and zipper. It was a toss up, really, but I figured the ocher colour was the most muted and least likely to stand out.

I have started to stack up the pieces to be sewed together. You can't really tell from this photo but the instructions call for french seams and I have pinned the pieces together, wrong sides together. That always goes against the grain (whoo, all these sewing metaphors!) as the pieces are usually right sides together. I have to double check each one before I stick it under the needle and get going.

Starting something new (finally)

2009-07-06T16:46:00.001-04:00

I have given up (for now, at least) on the blue coat.

I noticed that the front (interfaced) edges curled in. This made me avoid working on it, as I knew I was going to have to do something to fix it.

I decided to hem it, to see if this would help. I finished the raw edge with seam binding and sewed it up by hand. The lining hangs free all around the bottom.

I even sewed on a little bit of seam binding on the raw edge of the facing.

I hemmed up the sleeves and had to cut off several inches. When I hung it on my judy it became clear that the fabric was sagging. In this photo, I am holding up the waist seam and the curved-in fabric on that side corrects itself. I have therefore given up for now and won't continue to struggle with this. In fact, I wasn't so much struggling as avoiding. It seems a shame to put so much time into something and then pitch it. But it is a good lesson for me, not to buy mysterious cheap fabric. The clothes I have made recently that I wear a lot and love to wear are the ones I made with quality fabric or at least known quantities, like 100% cotton that I washed and dried and it survived.

So! In the meantime, I have become a volunteer member of the board of Breast Cancer Action and they have several fund raising events, one of which is a Gala in November. So I went looking for patterns!

After seeing the same dress over and over in other books, I got this pattern from Vogue (V1086). It is a designer (Tracy Reese) pattern but it seems quite straightforward. It has the things they keep mentioning on "What Not To Wear", such as a high midriff and a skirt that floats away from the body. Of course, I was seduced by how lovely this model looks and I will never be that thin, but it might still work well on me.
Her dress appears to be made of batiste and as such, it is not as "fancy" as a gala dress. But I wanted to go short, not long, and I had had enough of the red carpet type dress after my last creation! It may be, after I make the muslin, that I will think the pattern itself is not fancy enough but time will tell.

Now in spite of what I just wrote about mystery fabric, I got some $3/yard stuff in pure polyester but that is to make the muslin for this pattern. It is even possible that I might get a wear or two out of it, if it turns out to fit me and doesn't look too horrible. But the main goal is to fit the pattern properly.
 
In spite of the polyester pansies, this fabric actually doesn't feel too bad and the weight is probably good for whatever, better, fabric I end up buying. Which will probably be at
Darrell's.

I like the fact that it looks like there is a fair bit of detail in the dress, even though it should not be that difficult to sew. The bodice is gathered which is nice for ease and so is the skirt. The most fitted part will be the midriff and the shoulders, which are yokes. It has a side, invisible zipper so it does not pull over the head.

There's only one version of the dress, so I will be using all the pattern pieces, and there aren't that many of them.

The only interfacing is in the yoke, on the pieces that you have to cut four of, and the midriff, which is double thickness.

I have pinned the midriff to the judy and I think I will cut on the safe side, at size 14, and then take in where necessary. I have to say, it is a relief to have decided to move on to something else, even if it does violate my "Rule" about having no UFOs.

Working on the blue coat (still)

2009-06-16T14:19:00.000-04:00

Why does my life seem so busy and I am not even "gainfully employed outside the home"?

I have been working back on the blue coat since I finished the dresses but I still have not managed to finish it yet.

I finished putting the lining pieces together and then attached the lining to the coat.

Then I machine sewed seam tape to the hem and hand sewed the hem up. I am doing it this way because the lining hem is not going to be attached to the coat hem - it will float separately because of the pleat in the middle of the back. I have to press the heck out of it now and finish the lining hem. Next will be some top stitching and then the buttons and I'll be done.

Matching purses

2009-06-08T20:31:00.001-04:00

At last! I can allow myself to think about something ELSE.
I spent all day Sunday (off and on) sewing up the two matching purses. So cute!

It is almost like making baby clothes, because they are so small. But there is still a fair bit of construction. I used Butterick 6371, the middle silver purse on the right.

It calls for buckram on the bottom oval piece but I used two layers of the hair canvas (because I had it) on both the lining and the purse oval pieces. So there are six layers on the bottom, which is still one less than in the bodice of that dress!

I cleverly discovered that my pressing ham is the perfect size and shap for pressing out the side seams on the purse.

The bottom looks complicated with all the pleats and easing the sides onto the oval, but it is surprisingly easy.

There is a layer of quilt batting between the outside and the lining but it is just held in around the edges or the seams - there is no actual quilting going on.

Once you have the inside and outside done and the handles attached to the outside, you put the lining inside and sew it around the top edge.

The oval piece on the lining is supposed to be made out of lining fabric but I used the outside fabric for a fun, finishing touch.

And there they are!

Prom dress finished!

2009-06-05T09:26:00.000-04:00

The day before D-Day! I spent 2 and a half hours last night, hand sewing a hand rolled hem. This morning, I put on the finishing touches and now I just have to make the two matching purses (one for the turquoise dress too).

It started with having to rip out some of the back of the dress. The bodice fit great around the shoulder blades, where I had added the quilted "design feature" but it bagged out at the waist so I had to take it in. So I had to rip out the zipper too. I had not put it in properly with the proper zipper foot so I had to rip it out anyway, but it was sewn and basted in so there was much ripping.

Once I had ripped it all out, I decided to reinforce the skirt back with two pieces of lining fabric. I had not been able to cut the back exactly on the straight of grain and it bagged a little, so by reinforcing the edge with lining fabric, I was able to get a clean look on the back.

I also trimmed the quilted "design feature" so it would come in at the waist. Here is the zipper, ready to be installed.

This is how that zipper foot pushes out the rolled zipper teeth as you sew. It is still fussy and you have to be slow and careful but it works.

Once I had the zipper installed, I had to gently press the quilted part of the back to get the fat edges to meet properly. It was especially fat around the bottom of the bodice because I was into all those layers of hair canvas. I don't know how the zipper would have worked if all I'd had to work with was that heavily constructed part, so I am glad I put in the "design feature".

Then it was time to hem. I had to take it up about 2 and 1/2 inches so I set a rubber band on my machine at 2 and 3/8 inches.

Then I sewed all around the hem so the line of stitching was at 2 and 3/8 inches.

I trimmed off 2 and a quarter inches of fabric, leaving an eighth of an inch outside the line of stitching.

About an inch at a time, I rolled the fabric over at the stitching line and then rolled it again to conceal the raw edge.

Alternating tiny stitches in the fabric and small stitches in the hem, it took me as I said, about 2 and a half hours to sew around the bottom of the dress.

Here's what it looks like on the outside.

I sewed on the hooks and eyes for the halter top part.

And I sewed on the hangers on the inside.

I'll try to get pictures of her wearing it at the prom! And now for purses...

Prom dress continues, stuck at the zipper

2009-05-31T18:23:00.002-04:00

Well, I thought I could fake the invisible zipper as I have done once before, without the proper invisible zipper foot, but I was wrong. sigh. Let's start where we left off last time.

I added the vertically quilted pieces to the back, where I needed a little extra width. They were quite a bit wider than I needed but I wanted to give myself wiggle room. I also noticed that putting the zipper in might be easier with the simply quilted piece, rather than trying to sew the zipper to all those layers of hair canvas interfacing, so I think that part turned out for the best.

I trimmed those pieces up a bit more and here, I am illustrating what it will look like once the zipper is in. I have been hoping this "fix" will look like a "design feature" and I think it will!

This is just one panel of how odd the construction of the skirt seemed, before I actually followed the instructions and sewed all four of the skirt pieces together.

Here is the dress, just hanging around the neck of my judy, which is why the skirt looks oddly wide (because it's not actually ON the judy). But it does look exactly like the pattern instructions.

Once the skirt is sewn onto the bodice, you have to press the seam allowance UP, into the bodice, so that it can get concealed by the lining. This is difficult because of the layers of interfacing that have to be folded up. So I decided to sew up the seam allowance by hand (instead of just pressing it up), taking some internal stitches here and there but also making pick stitches right through to the quilting on the outside. This is turning into a true couture garment, with all this hand sewing.

The instructions also called for understitching the top edge of the bodice as much as possible by machine, which I did. But it still tended to roll out so I pick stitched the entire thing around the inside, including the two "drape" pieces (the things that go around the neck to make the halter).

These pick stitches are all on the inside and never show on the outside.

So then it came time to put in the invisible zipper. I basted it all in by hand first (of course!). Then I tried cheating with a non-invisible zipper foot and couldn't get the zipper teeth to roll out far enough to give it the proper "invisible" effect. So now I have to call my sister (my niece's mother) and see if she has this foot attachment on her machine. If so, I can go over and first do a fitting and then sew it up. If not, I will have to go find one. But I'm almost done!

Prom dress continues

2009-05-29T18:29:00.001-04:00

I was glad I made that draping piece "#9" larger - it would have been a disaster if I'd cut it according to the pattern piece.

Here it is, with the corresponding piece turned over, showing the interfacing. On both pieces, I have pinned the drape and it would have shrunk the underlying "10" piece by a considerable amount, if I'd had to "stretch" the drape to fit, as the instructions said. I have been trying to follow the instructions to the letter but I just knew something was wrong with this piece. And it did NOT stretch one bit.

Here is the draping pinned to the piece that goes up and around the neck. They actually call this whole piece "the drape" (to distinguish it from upper bodice and side bodice and stuff.) You can see that the underlying, interfaced piece has curved up a little, because the draping overlay is a little bit smaller. Here, those instructions work but not on the back!

Backing up a little, here are all the bodice pieces with their corresponding interfacing pieces stitched to them.

These pieces are obvious! Looks like something Madonna would have worn. The interfacing makes it very structured.

This is the drape that goes on top of the piece.

This is how I gathered all the draping pieces - by hand.

Here's the draping piece pinned on the ungathered edge.

And here it is, all gathered up and basted on.

Back to the midriff - I finished the quilting to the interfacing and then the instructions called for a double layer of interfacing to be hand sewn into the midriff.

The instructions called for a catch stitch so that's what I used to sew in the extra midriff interfacing.

The bodice also called for two layers of interfacing to be sewn in there too. This is the bodice and the midriff, sewn together.

The bodice and midriff, from the right side. I had not, at this stage, sewn the interior or lining on the piece. When I did and after I fitted it on my niece, I had a major problem - it did not meet at the back! I had to devise a way of adding an inch or so of fabric to the back where the zipper will go, without making it look odd.

I decided to quilt a piece of fabric to some lining so it would look like the midriff. We're only talking an extra inch here but I made a good 8 inches (in width) of quilted fabric so I would have room to manoeuver.

Next, I have to attach the extra strip of quilted fabric to the back and then attach the skirts. Whew.

Prom dress II

2009-05-18T15:26:00.001-04:00

Oy, this dress IS a lot of work! After I had cut out the dress, I went to buy interfacing. The pattern calls for "hair canvas" so I checked it out at the store. They had it and it was actually looser in weave compared to the heavy duty interfacing, but I over-thought it (the word "hair" bothered me even though it shouldn't have and I worried that it was used in men's suits) and bought the regular interfacing. This kept me up at night, worrying that the bodice wouldn't work if I used the wrong thing. So I went back and bought the proper, called-for hair canvas.

This is lightweight, sew-in interfacing on the right and the heavy duty sew-in interfacing on the left. You can't really tell from the picture but the tighter weave lightweight stuff is thinner and more pliable than the stuff on the left.

The heavy interfacing is on the left again. It is surprising to me that the hair canvas, which I had imagined to be thick and unwieldy, is actually more pliable than the regular interfacing. It is used in several layers in the bodice which is why I was worried about the finished product. But then I figured that the designer of the dress should know what he is doing.

Here are all the pieces of the bodice and the midriff that are cut out of the hair canvas. Yikes.

Here's how I marked the topstitching lines on the midriff. I put pins in, along the stitching line shown on the pattern piece. I marked them on the wrong side of the fabric with chalk. Then I marked the mirror image piece the same way. Then I separated the pieces and sewed along the chalk lines with contrasting basting thread so the line would show up on the right side when it came time to topstitch.

I got a brainstorm to cut the quilt batting with my rotary cutter on the mat. Whenever I have pinned pattern pieces to batting in the past, the batting distorts the pattern piece. Cutting it with the rotary tool eliminated that fussing.

I also thought I'd get less distortion if I hand basted the fabric to the batting and I was right there too. It's a lot more time consuming but way less frustrating.

However, after I pinned the hair canvas pieces to the fabric and batting pieces, I machine basted them together because the hair canvas acted as a backing and sandwiched the batting between it and the fabric.

This is the midriff, all sewed together but not pressed. Very poofy.

Here, I've pressed the midriff three times and used the clapper on it.

Here, I've started the machine quilting. They just call it "topstitching" in the pattern instructions.

I've got a lot more of the quilting done but still haven't finished. And it will need a good pressing when I'm done too.

After I'm done the midriff, I am going to start worrying at (about?) the draping on the bodice. In this photo, you can see there is a small discrepancy between how long the stay piece is and how the draping piece is a little bit shorter. It says "stretch" on the draping piece.

However, there is a huge discrepancy between this stay piece (number 10) and the draping piece (number 9). In the muslin, the draping piece pulled the stay piece up and puckered it. On the other however, I didn't use interfacing and hair canvas and all that in the muslin. I hardly have any of this fabric left so whatever happens, I am going to have to MAKE this work. I did take the liberty of cutting this draping piece wider than the pattern calls for and so we shall see how it will work. I'll do all the other draping pieces first.

The next prom dress

2009-05-12T09:54:00.000-04:00

My niece came over to get the dress and she tried it on and I think you'll agree - so cute! Her, not the dress. Well okay, the dress too but she really is. She's still not sure what to do with her hair - all up, part up, curled?

The engineering (or lack of it) allows the dress to sag a little on the side without the shoulder to hold it up. She and her mum are going to figure out what to do about it. I lean toward a small safety pin attaching it under that arm to the bra. We wondered if reefing it tighter would work but there wasn't much room for that maneuver and all that would do would make it tighter. In any event, it's not a deal breaker and I think the pin would work fine.

Now I am onto the next dress. The skirt pieces are large and single layered so I will cut out the smaller bodice pieces first. The straight of grain arrow shows that the skirt is cut on the bias and I am not sure how I am going to work this out on my cutting table. I may have to work on the floor for these pieces.

For all the layers in the bodice, only the midriff is lined. The upper bodice is faced with the the fabric itself. More as it happens!

Prom dress finished!

2009-05-10T16:52:00.001-04:00

I'm done! And it all came together smoothly, much to my relief. Not that I expected trouble but when you are sewing for someone else, you kind of hold your breath.

Even when sewing the midriff lining down, on the inside, I tried to keep the stitches tiny and invisible.

I put the zipper in exactly the way the instructions said and it went well too. In this photo, the zipper allowances are still basted together.

This is what the zipper looks like on the inside, with the tops of the tape tucked in and the top edges of the bodice folded under. I took some tiny hand stitches to secure the edges even more and then added a hook and eye at the top.

And here is the dress, on my judy. It doesn't zip up the back because my niece is narrower than I am. And it will look even cuter on her, as she is cute too! I am going to request a copy of a photo of the dress in action but that won't be until June. And now for the Vogue dress!

Prom dress almost finished

2009-05-10T13:57:00.001-04:00

Into the home stretch!

First, I had to adjust the back, where I had added an inch extra width "just in case". Not only did I not need that inch, I had to take the back in by another half inch on both sides.

I sewed a new line of basting where the zipper will go and basted the raw edges together and then cut off an inch and a half on both ends of the back. Unfortunately, this made the tops of the two back pieces no longer line up, because they are not mirror images of each other.

I thought about taking the side that was higher all apart, which would include undoing the understitching and everything. Then I thought I would never get it lined up as well as if I just folded it over so that's what I did and sewed it down with tiny stitches. After I press it carefully, it should be invisible on the outside.

Now you can see how the top edges will line up properly once the zipper is in.

Next I hand basted the upper and lower edges of the bubble skirt, so that I could make the gathers evenly. That went surprisingly quickly.

I pinned the soon-to-be gathered skirt to the skirt lining.

And the gathers were remarkably easy to make too. I may have to consider hand basting all my gathers from now on. The thread is much looser than if it was machine basted and so it is easier to pull.

Here, I've sewn the skirt to the lining around the bottom and given that seam a bit of a press in anticipation of understitching the lining.

Here's the bubble skirt, sewed top and bottom to the shorter, narrower lining. I'm ready to attach the skirt to the midriff and the last step will be putting in the zipper!

Prom dress continues

2009-05-05T09:50:00.000-04:00

Nobody panic! That's the lining attached to the bodice!

I wanted to be sure that the whole thing fit, as the lining is narrow in order to make the whole bubble skirt effect. I hand sewed it to the midriff with a loose running stitch so that when I do the fitting, I will be able to tell if I need to let out the back darts or not.
Next, I have to run a loose stitch through the bottom and the top of the silk outer skirt so I can gather it up when I sew it to the lining. I have decided to do that by hand so it will be looser than machine stitching and give me an easier gather. Also, my machine seems to be breaking the upper thread again and if cleaning out the bobbin case doesn't work, it will be easier to work with a hand sewn gathering stitch.

Prom dress progresses

2009-05-04T10:54:00.001-04:00

Despite my lack of blogging (and responding to comments), I am here working away! To update the boob thing, I have only got three more radiation treatments to go, and then I am done! They are a walk in the park (or a ride on the bike in my case, as I am biking every day to the hospital for them - 17 kms round trip!) compared to chemo. In fact, I am saying these days, "if I can do chemo, I can do ANYTHING."

I worked on the blue coat for a while, before I got the prom dress fabric.

It could turn out okay, I guess. But it seems the sleeves are, like, a foot longer than they should be. In any event, I won't deal with this until I finish the dresses now.

In the meantime, my niece and I bought some turquoise silk charmeuse for the bubble dress. (In the above photo, it is greener than it really is. The next photo is more accurate.)

Beautiful! And as it is real silk, it is surprisingly easy to work with.

I also worked on making the bodice muslin for the Vogue dress so it more accurately represented the real bodice. It must have eleventeen layers! The midriff is quilted.

And there is draping on the outside. That is going to be a pile of work. In this photo, you can just see a glimpse of the magenta fabric she and her mother bought. So I decided to go with the bubble dress first.

Each bodice piece is only cut out once. Because it is asymmetrical, there is no duplication of the pieces.

And each silk piece is backed by the same piece in lining.

I ironed each and every piece first. I laid the lining piece on the ironing board and then laid the silk piece on top of it. Then I pinned them both to the board so that I would be sure they would lie perfectly flat against each other as I went around them and pinned them together. With a lot of pins. Then I sewed them all together.

The bodice gets an additional layer of lining. Here I am making sure that I am pinning the lining pieces together correctly, so that they will be sewed right when I attach the lining to the bodice, right sides together.

Here I am, making double sure they are sewed correctly, before I get them all sewed together. It's because the lining doesn't have a right and wrong side and because the bodice is asymmetrical that I went to this trouble. And you might note that I cut everything out with pinking shears, to prevent raveling and give a softened edge.

Once I sewed the lining to the bodice, I also understitched the lining to keep it from curling out.

(Extreme close up!) Then I had to turn the bodice right side out and attach the shoulder seams and hand stitch that opening closed.

Here it is, pinned onto my Judy. I added extra width to the back pieces, "just in case". I can trim them easily when I do the fitting and establish where the zipper should go. Next, sew the midriff to the bodice and the skirt to the midriff.

Some muslins

2009-04-17T15:28:00.001-04:00

I put the coat on hold so I could get the muslins done.

I am not loving the coat (yet - we'll see) and the fabric walks around a little so I have to use lots of pins when putting pieces together. This photo shows that one side of the seam allowance ended up narrower than the other, even those these pieces were backed with interfacing. This is the under collar.

Even though the pattern (like most) calls for the sleeves to be set-in, I am sewing the sleeves on first around the shoulder and then I will sew up the underarm seam.

This is the stage the coat has been left at - I haven't even done up the underarm seams. The sleeves look awfully long but I think that's because the bodice has an empire waist. The front facings are "self facings", as opposed to separate pieces.

In the meantime, I cut out the bodices on both prom dress patterns. I got this fabric for $3/metre and it feels like it - it is some sort of polyester, I think. But it drapes okay as a stand-in for whatever will be the real thing. For the bubble dress, I am thinking a silk charmeuse.

I've never made a real muslin before so I went to town with the Sharpie! I wrote the pattern piece number on each and did all the markings, whether I'd need them or not for just the muslin. It was kind of fun. I pinned the pieces together wrong side to wrong side so that I would have the seams showing on the right side for fitting this weekend.

This is the one-shoulder model that I am leaning toward, not the least of which because it is a lot less fiddly sewing. It is inter-lined and then lined but it is not as fussy as the Vogue pattern. I cut this one out in the size 14 to give myself room to manoeuver in the fitting.

I stupidly bought the Vogue only up to size 12 and could not return it for a pure exchange, even though I asked very nicely. So we'll have to see in the fitting what work may need to be done. The bodice is also lined but there is, in addition, draping fabric on the outside for a third layer. And the midriff can be made of contrast fabric (like velvet, say) and it is all topstitched with batting and everything. I'm going to get together with my niece this weekend and we'll do fitting and discuss which pattern and fabric.

Belaboring the blue coat, and prom time

2009-04-05T16:16:00.001-04:00

Okay, this time, it is taking me so long to blog because the coat was NOT speaking to me. I somehow did not want to be bothered cutting it out. And when I started, it kind of slid around on me and the selvages would not line up and behave and I felt discouraged. So I left it alone for a while and it mocked me from the sewing room every time I went by. So I kept on cutting it out, bit by bit, and now all the blue pieces are done and I even discovered I had enough lining in my stash to completely line it.

I did however, have to make the second shortest view (View B) because the skirt is wide enough that I couldn't overlap the pieces with the fabric that I had. I'm still going to make the pockets on the side seam, not the patch pockets.

In the meantime, I have promised my niece that I will make her prom dress and so today, we went looking for patterns. She had seen some nice dresses on the internet and leaned toward a one-shoulder style (no pun intended). Unfortunately, there were hardly any one-shoulder style patterns out there (in the books that we looked at). In the end, we bought two very different patterns and she is going to talk to her friends and think about which one she would prefer for the prom.

This one is cute and young and because it is short, she may be able to wear it somewhere else, later. We'd make the pink view bodice and band, with the yellow view bubble skirt.

It will take about 2.7 metres of fabric.

This one is much more sophisticated but I still think it wouldn't look too old on her, as long as she didn't make it in black (and she is not wanting black - we looked at some lovely turquoise silk charmeuse).

It will take 3.8 metres of fabric. Both dresses are fully lined so she can choose any fabric and not worry about revealing anything. The Vogue dress is much more structured and the midriff is all top-stitched. Plus it has the effect of two skirts and a small train.

I don't want to influence her one way or the other. This is a once in a lifetime event and she should be happy with her dress without feeling like she "should" choose one sort of style over another. It may even turn out that we will look at more patterns after I make the bodices in a muslin for fitting. This will be the first time I have made a muslin! Patterns generally fit me right out of the envelope so I never bother with a muslin. But sewing for someone else is a different proposition.

Blue Spring Coat

2009-03-24T11:01:00.001-04:00

You guys rise to the occasion! The consensus is overwhelmingly in favour of a coat.

I am going to use Butterick B5145 and one of the longer views like C or D (pink or blue), with the regular collar. I will cut out the tabs for the back and sleeves, even if I'm not sure if I will use them yet.

I am not sure how long a skirt I can get out of the fabric I have but I'll try for about knee-length. I am also not sure if I will put more than the three buttons down the front part of the bodice. In a wind, the skirt will fly open if it is not buttoned down. When it's 20 below, that is a big deal. But since this is only a Spring coat, we're not talking 20 velow.

I was hoping to make the cutting easier by folding the fabric in half but when I did that, the selvages didn't match up, even though I carefully folded the fabric along a particular white line. This means I will have to cut each piece out of a single layer of fabric. sigh.

I'm back!

2009-03-21T15:08:00.002-04:00

I'm back! It is two weeks now, after the last chemo, and my energy is slowly coming back. And I have the comfort of knowing that I won't be getting zapped again next Friday, as I have been for the last 5 months, every third Friday, so I am feeling even better about that mentally! My DH is out all day Saturday taking a cooking course and after I finished the newspaper and felt at a loose end, I went upstairs and did the ironing. After that, finding myself still in my sewing room, I started looking at patterns and fabric.

I have been day dreaming about my fabrics and patterns, wondering what to do next. I have this blue acrylic fabric that, when I bought it, I thought "jumper".

The photo shows it is not very thick fabric. But I think it is entirely too busy, too "much" for a jumper. So I started thinking about a jacket or even a Spring coat.

But did I want to line it? But did I want an unlined coat? Not really.

Then I was watching "What Not To Wear" and this really short woman was being told that short, fitted jackets would suit her and I remembered the unlined, short, fitted jacket pattern that is really flattering on me. And so why not make a little jacket out of this blue stuff?

So of course, I have 2.5 metres of the stuff and therefore have enough for a skirt too. Would a skirt and jacket be "too much" like the jumper? I could always just wear them separately. Or maybe I should make a lined, Spring coat with one of the patterns I have not used before and make my mistakes (if any) using this stuff from my stash. What do you think?

An experimental, two-sided top

2009-02-07T13:08:00.001-05:00

So there I was, staring at everything in my sewing room, wondering what to do. I decided I had to put away some stuff first and packed up some patterns into their envelopes. As I picked up a few pattern pieces (Butterick 4056), I realized they had been left out because I thought I would make a few more easy little tops.

Back in the Fall, I had made three of these little pull-over tops in silk which are great for under any suit jacket. I remembered I had some small pieces of fabric left over from these shirts I made years before I started this blog. In those days, I was using a shirt pattern (McCall's 8053) that fitted very loosely, with long tails that you had to tuck in - way too loose for leaving outside of the pants or skirt. When I got this fabric that resembled silk (but was polyester and so washable with no ironing), I remember the store table had about a dozen beautiful jewel colours and all I got were two - a burnt orange and a pea green. When I went back after realizing how great the fabric was, it was all gone. Boo.

So I went to the stash and found a piece of orange and one of green, not enough to make a top out of each. But I imagined that I could use the front part of the pattern and cut and green side and an orange side and have a "reversible" top!

I found some green thread and some orange and loaded a bobbin with the green and put the orange on the top thread. It's such a simple top, there are only facings around the neck and they were easy.

I hemmed the facings by machine, with the matching thread on the outside (but forgot to take a picture of the hemmed facings).

Here's the top with the two sides stitched together, lying on the ironing board.

And here it is, with the neck facings on. I am going to stitch the hems all by hand, as I did for the silk tops. I haven't tried the top on, under a jacket, but I believe it may work. I hung it on the hanger with the "front" hanging down so you can see the "back" but when I wear it, it should be balanced so the "back" hides beneath the jacket. It's an experiment! Of course, I'm in no position to wear a suit jacket these days but it'll be ready for when I am. Looking at the final picture, I am reminded of the Go Fug Yourself girls: "ooh, shiny!"

The doldrums

2009-02-05T17:29:00.001-05:00

Sorry about the dearth of blogging. But thanks for all the kind comments you have been sending lately. They are appreciated! I feel like I just don't have mental energy and what physical energy I do have, I use it to go to the gym to keep myself semi-fit and sane. I do yoga combined with tai-chi and pilates three times a week at the gym. It's an hour of quiet exercise where I don't sweat but I feel good after. But then I am tired a lot and I just come home and read (or nap). I wanted to devise an original jacket for myself during chemo but I don't have the energy for it.

So I finished my little bags and still haven't given them away. Each large bag has a smaller one inside. One is going to my Mum when I see her this weekend. Don't know about the other two!

So I decided to look at ALL the new patterns I have bought over the last few months. And compare them with the fabrics I have in my stash because I'm not going to buy more. I have some shirt fabric of course and could make some of them but I would like to try out a new pattern. Maybe not the pants - those will require effort to fit properly. I have some twill that I could use for an unlined jacket. I have some nice wool for a work outfit. Not sure when I will be going out to work next! Anyway, that's the plan now - I'll pick a pattern and some fabric and just make something easy.

More little bags

2009-01-08T14:07:00.001-05:00

Call me crazy but I'm making more bags. I had such fun making the last set that I decided to use up the rest of the upholstery type fabric and I got another two sets of bags out of it.

I ran out of the pale green rayon for the lining so I am using some craft fabric I bought ages ago for the second set.

I also had to make more bias tape for the larger bag. For a complete tutorial on how to make a batch of bias tape, go here, from March 8, 2008.

Now I have just enough bias tape in both fabrics to make a large bag with each kind of lining.

Here are all the pieces, waiting for me to get zippers for them. For the sharp-eyed, there is a bonus fifth bag in there. I just can't throw away even a small piece of fabric if it can possibly be turned into a bag. Tomorrow, I'll be getting the zippers. I was going to walk - it is "only" a 10 km round trip - but I am getting a ride instead by a fortuitous set of circumstances.

A hat

2009-01-06T17:43:00.002-05:00

I'm rummaging around my sewing room, looking for things to make, fabric for some more bags as the last set were pretty popular. I spied the messy purple fabric I made a coat from last year and remembered I thought I could make a tam out of it. This time, I have a pattern which includes a tam but I have it in my mind that a trilby style hat would work and I have a pattern for that too.

I'm using McCall's M5773 and decide to go with view F, the blue one with the brim. Actually, I really want to make view E in the red, using the red boiled wool from that jacket I recently finished. But I figure the purple wool will serve as a template and I can pitch it if I don't like it.

It's very simple and I use some cream coloured lining scraps I have for the inside.

I decide to interface one side of the brim, even though the pattern doesn't cal for it. This wool is very loose and I figure I can't go too wrong with interfacing.

I get the crown of the hat put together and try it on and it's HUGE. I think it's the fabric, more than the pattern, so I take up one half of the crown seams by another 5/8 inch and it seems to work better. I sew the interfaced brim to the outside of the hat.

I sew the lining to the other brim. Then I sew the hats together at the edge of the brims, leaving a small opening to turn them right side out. The hat sheds mightily each time I hold it.

After I turn the hat, I sew around the brim, first to seal the open edges together, then to add rigidity to it, with a line of stitching about 1/4 inch from the edge stitching and one around where the lining joins the brim, to keep the lining at bay. It's not brilliant but it's okay and gives me hope that the red one will look better. And now of course, I have "the ensemble", with the coat and the hat. Hmm. At any rate, it is covering up my bald chemo head and that's the main thing. You can just see that I am wearing a blue skull cap under the hat. When I have hair again, it will fit over the the hair too.

Some little bags

2009-01-01T18:37:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

When I went up to my sewing room, I played around with some fabrics and patterns and put some things away and then thought, I'd like to make a couple of little bags to give away.

At Christmas when she was here, Mum admired the bag I made as a pencil case for work so when I discovered I had a fair bit left of that upholstery fabric, I thought I would make one for her.

I got out my trusty bag pattern (Simplicity 9949) and examined what bits of fabric I had.

I had enough of the upholstery fabric for four bags and found some rayon that I had made a shirt out of that would be suitable for lining.

I also used the rayon to make seam binding.

It was a good plan when I put the seam binding on the one larger bag. I pinned one side over the stitching line and then sewed from the other, unpinned side.

The idea was that because I had pinned it on the underside, I would catch that side of the seam binding when I sewed it from the other side. It worked all around the zipper but not on the ends so I had to sew it twice - the second time from the pinned side that had not caught in the first stitching.

Consequently, the seam binding is a little rippley but it'll never come off!

I'll put the smaller "pencil case" bag inside the larger one when I give it.

And here's what they look like separately. That larger bag can hold a surprising amount of stuff. I just find it fun to make these things and then give them away. Mum will get one set and I think I know who will get the second set.

My third chemo is tomorrow so I may feel a little too crappy to sew for a few days, if it's like last time. I'm hoping it won't be but I am prepared to spend the rest of the day in bed.

Jacket's done and some other stuff

2008-12-24T16:12:00.001-05:00

First of all, let me say thank you for your kind comments. And all of them positive, as I had asked for! That whole energy thing is a force to be reckoned with.

Now, back to the jacket. This is the cuff. I have sewed it to the wrong side of the sleeve, sewed the ends together and turned them and now I have pinned the folded and trimmed edge to the outside. If you make the photo large and look closely, you can see the line of stitching that attaches the cuff. The folded edge will just cover that line and the cuff itself will be sewed to the sleeve with topstitching.

Here I am, sewing the cuff to the sleeve with a line of topstitching.

Once I had finished ALL the topstitching (each line has a duplicate, parallel line so there are two rows everywhere), it was time to attach the snaps. I just use the kit snaps and they come with two tools. You cut a tiny hole in the fabric with this one tool, by hammering it through the fabric and then you put the snap pieces in place and hammer them together using the other tool to crimp the pieces of metal together.

It works pretty well until the hammer slips off the tiny tool and smashes you in the thumb. Not a crisis (although it does really hurt) but when you have chemo, the chemicals break down your blood cells too and you can bleed pretty badly, so I iced this as soon as I had smashed it.

Once I got back upstairs, I realized I could hold the tiny tool with a pair of pliers and couldn't believe I had not thought of it before. It was a slap myself in the head, duh kind of moment.

And here it is! I am all decked out with Christmas colour accessories because Christmas is tomorrow. I bought some large scarves for my now bald head but I find I am most comfortable in this little knit cap I got from the MEC for bike camping, or all the old scarves I bought for my beloved dog when she was alive. Wearing her scarves is a sort of homage to her too.

And then I had some time to make a couple of gift bags that can also be used as shoe bags. When you live in snow country, you wear boots everywhere but bring your shoes when you visit peoples' homes and shoe bags are always welcome.

I had two pieces of some upholstery fabric that were just big enough for women's shoe bags. The only thing I miscalculated was the size of the pocket for the draw string. If in doubt, leave more room.

I was using this fairly fine, nylon cord I had so I thought I didn't need much room. And it does move through the sleeve well enough.

But the fabric is so thick that it doesn't bunch up much and it would have been better to have a slightly larger casing. However, I am not willing to re-do it now. Anyway, if it's just for shoes, it doesn't need to be tight at the top.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas for tomorrow.

Why everything is taking so long

2008-12-19T13:51:00.001-05:00

Okay, it's time for an explanation why my blog entries are taking forever. I have a really good excuse - it's a humdinger, in fact. In August, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. In September I had surgery which got it all, and it had not spread to the nodes - great news. But it was a really aggressive tumour so they recommended chemotherapy first and then radiation as preventive, adjuvant measures and I have just had my second round of six chemo sessions and it is tiring me out. I am thinking radiation in the Spring will be a walk in the park compared to chemo.

I decided to go ahead and teach this past semester, as I had already committed to it, but I am not going to be teaching in January. I am thinking I want all my energy to get well - not from the cancer which is gone but from the chemo - that is some toxic stuff. So I have planned some creative projects for myself that I can work on when I feel well, which really, is most of the time.

Before people respond with sympathetic comments, let me tell you what I have learned about energy. I have learned that there really IS negative and positive energy and people can project it like quills on a porcupine. I have discovered that, however well-meant, expressions of sympathy are negative energy. Negative energy requires effort to resist and I am not willing to expend that valuable part of my own energy resisting it. I intend to be relentlessly cheerful and positive about this entire experience and I have been therefore avoiding anybody who can bring me down, even if they really do mean well.

I have been writing about the experience from the get-go and that has been tremendously therapeutic. I am now trying to come up with suggestions for how people can respond when they hear about something major like this. Don't say "I'm sorry". I know that's almost always the first reaction but don't say it. I have been thinking people could say something like "Wow, how are you coping with that?" I had one person respond with "God love ya!" which I felt was not negative. So my challenge to you, my dear readers, is to come up with other initial expressions of caring that are not negative. I'm currently stumped.

In the meantime, I am carrying on with the corduroy jacket.

Here are my nice flat felled seams, from the inside and the outside.

Here's the back yoke from the inside, pinned and ready to be sewn down. I actually turn it over and sew it from the outside to make sure the topstitching goes in the right place. I sew very slowly because the pins are underneath then and I can't take them out as I go.

This is the shoulder seam, after it has been sewn and then one side of the seam allowance has been trimmed. I trim off the seam allowance belonging to the body of the jacket because there is only one seam in the sleeve part that will need to be folded over to make the flat fell.

Here I am pressing the outside of the shoulder seam over the ham. Because of how awkward it is, I don't press the flat fell over on the inside around the shoulder seam. I just fold it over once the outside is pressed flat and then pin it and sew, also very slowly.

And here is the jacket, taking shape. I have sewed on the bottom band to the inside of the body. After I sew up the ends, I will sew the folded edge of the band on the outside of the jacket with topstitching.

Green jean jacket continued

2008-12-01T13:50:00.001-05:00

It wasn't until I had the fronts all assembled that I realized I had not made allowances for the fasteners! I had not decided before this, whether I wanted to go with buttons or snaps. I like buttons but they can be awkward on thicker material like corduroy and the buttonholes can be a pain. However, now that the pocket flaps are sewed in place, I am never going to get buttonholes made on those things and it has been decided for me that I am going to go with nice black snaps.

As for putting on the facing, at least I thought that one out in advance. Part of the finishing is to understitch the facing to the neck seam allowances. But if you sew the facing to the fronts of the jacket before you do the understitching, it makes it awkward to get to the ends of the collar. So I did the understitching before I sewed down the fronts.
I also realize that I should probably never wear this jacket on television, as it would make viewers eyes go all buggy. Good thing I'm not ever on television.

Green jean jacket continued

2008-11-30T16:09:00.000-05:00

Steaming ahead (literally)! There's a powerful lot of ironing in this jacket -- all those flat felled seams and pockets and things.

I always haul a previously made jacket out of the closet so I can look at it, more than the instructions even. This is one I get a lot of wear out of, made of a pale lilac pinwale cord.

Here are all the pieces ready to be assembled, after I have ironed on the interfacing. I decided to go with the black interfacing, to be one less colour in the palette. The interfacing occasionally shows, like when the front facings flip out in a wind or something.

Here are the pieces as I've started to assemble them. I've made this jacket so many times that I can assemble it out of order (and practically from memory) so that I can make it fairly quickly, sewing a pile of pieces and then ironing them all at once.

These are the two seams on one half of the front and I'm ironing them over after I've clipped one of the seam allowances, so I can make the flat fell. Onwards!

Another Jean Jacket

2008-11-29T13:27:00.000-05:00

I do apologize for not blogging in so long. I have a lot going on in my other life right now.

After I finished my last project - which I have worn quite a few times now! - I decided I would make up this fine wale corduroy I had in the stash.

I got it with another jean jacket in mind (and because it was on the sale table of course). It is a print and the contrast between the black and green makes it look intense. Because it is SO green, I thought it would be cute for wearing at Christmas with something red. Or black.

Since it is a print, I have had to cut out each piece of the pattern (my old tried and true Vogue 7610) in one layer only, so I can make sure the lines of houndstooth print are all straight. I am just glad they are tiny enough that I don't have to think about trying to match them vertically or horizontally. It was fairly tedious and made my back ache, bending over the table like that for hours. Or what seemed like hours. Anyway, it is all cut out now except for the interfacing and now I can finally assemble it.

Working on this jacket has got me to thinking yet again about this jacket I cannot find but want to make. I have it in my head that I saw a photo of such a jacket in a Laura Ashley catalogue back in the 80s. My sister used to work there - they had a store right here in Ottawa with the most beautiful home dec fabrics and the clothing too. I even sewed for patrons of the store who wanted stuff that I called "soft furnishings for the home" made but couldn't do it themselves. Anyway, I only remember this jacket from this one catalogue. They had such beautiful stuff back then, when it was still family owned. Something has happened to them in the last 10 or 15 years and they aren't the same at all.

This imaginary jacket was a dark green wool, hip length jacket that might possibly be called Edwardian. Except when I look up Edwardian jackets, they don't look at all like what I have in my head. So I have decided that after I finish this jean jacket, I am going to design my imaginary jacket. It will be a first - I have always used patterns. And I will use pieces from my existing patterns to help me. But I am quite excited about this! I will make a muslin too - another first for me. And when I am ready, I plan to go see what Darrell can find me in the way of a beautiful fine dark wool tweed. Mmm, I can taste it already.

Boiled wool jacket, finished!

2008-10-29T19:04:00.001-04:00

I'm done!

And just in time too, what with the snow we had last night. Yikes. Those are baby pumpkins under the snow on the lower right. It was really windy too and the snow stuck to the door. This shot was taken just as I was leaving for work at about 7:45 am.

To go back to where I left off, here is how I sewed the buttons to the sleeve tab detail. I sewed them to the tab and the sleeve, through all layers, before I sewed the lining hem up on the sleeve. That way, I could push the needle in straight through all the layers of thick wool fabric and not catch the lining, nor worry about trying to angle the needle in vain.

Here are the sleeves, from different perspectives, all finished.

The pattern instructions called for a maximum of three buttons down on the short sleeved jackets (and only 2 down on the long sleeved version). They also called for a button to be sewed on the inside with a corresponding buttonhole on the inside of the flap. I decided to make four buttons down (making 8 to sew on for the double breasted effect) and not do the inside buttonhole. If it turns out that I need it, I will sew a large snap on the inside part of the flap.

I decided to make the four buttonholes (it is only a faux double breasted) the old fashioned way, which is to say I knew where they were going and put pins in but I free-handed the zigzag stitching to make the buttonhole. The stitching was therefore a tad wobbly (this is actually the best of a bad bunch) but now that I have worn it, you really don't notice at all.

Here I am modelling it the night before, as the snow has started to fly.

Here you can see a hint of the dotted lining - so cute!

It was a pleasure to wear and really warm too! I am so pleased that I am going to get a lot of wear out of this jacket. It turns out I can fit a shirt and suit jacket under it but not the five layers for when it is 20 below. But when it is that cold, I will want something that covers my bum anyway. What next?

Boiled wool jacket, almost done

2008-10-27T11:24:00.002-04:00

Almost done! I got some buttons on Thursday:

I looked at all kinds of red buttons, plain, patterned, matte, glossy. I looked at black buttons too and even metal ones but I liked these red buttons the best. They are not very contrasty and yet they stand out a little bit. I think I am going to have to do the buttonholes the old way, because the fabric is so thick my automatic buttonholer won't work on it.

I've sewed the inside and outside together and pressed all around the edges. I have sewed up the jacket hem but not the lining - that is the lining hanging down below the hem there which of course, it won't do after I've sewed it up.

I haven't hemmed the sleeves yet either. I think I'll wait to the end for that, as I want to make sure they are fairly long, to cover the cuffs of whatever I will wear underneath the jacket. It is heavy too! For such a short garment, it weighs a lot. That is partly the kind of fabric and partly the volume of the jacket with the pleats at the back. Next, more hemming, topstitching all around and buttonholes.

Red, boiled wool jacket

2008-10-19T17:11:00.001-04:00

It's funny how, even after 30 years of sewing and many of those years realizing that sleeves aren't so hard, I still put off making sleeves because they used to be difficult.

With a fully lined jacket, there are FOUR sleeves! And these are slightly different, in that they have a pleat at the top and a clip on the sides. Halfway between the top of the shoulder and the notch, there is a spot where you sew a retaining line of stitching and then you clip in almost 5/8 of an inch to the small dot. When you split the fabric at the clip, it makes for a square spot on the outside on the finished sleeve.

I haven't pressed this sleeve, nor have I unpicked the basting for the pleat, but you can see where the seam goes square on the front there.

Here's what the back looks like, before the sleeves were put on. So cute with the pleats! And you can see I have marked with white thread, the small dots on the sleeve seam allowance, where they will be clipped for that square spot.

I decided to use the wool yoke in the back for warmth but I also put the lining fabric over it, for a uniform inside, non-stick finish, as well as additional warmth.

Here's the lining all put together. There is no extra band on the inside, like there is on the finished back outside. Now I "just" have to put the outside and the lining together!

Red, boiled wool jacket

2008-10-06T15:54:00.001-04:00

Everything is cut out, the interfacing applied and I have started to assemble the jacket.

Here's the lining. It's polyester (most lining is that or acetate) and substantial so I think it will serve as a bit of a wind break. You won't see it unless I flash the inside of the coat but it's fun to know it's there.

The jacket will be fully lined - sleeves, body, pockets.

I am trying to decide how to make the back yoke. The pattern instructions call for the inner layer of the yoke to be the same fabric as the coat, so I have cut out two wool yokes. I also cut out one lining yoke on speculation. I think it will act as a wind break, sandwiched between the two wool yokes (which are more porous than the polyester lining). My conundrum is whether to put the lining on the inside layer instead, so the entire inside of the jacket is lining. Will the wool yoke drag on a sweater worn beneath the jacket? Why would the pattern makers call for the yoke to be made of wool on the inside, except for warmth? Will I screw up if I put the lining on the inside?
If no one has ever done this and I don't get any answers to my conundrum, if in doubt, I will do it the way the pattern says.

Here is my assembly line for some of the small pieces. I have made the "welt" pocket flaps and they are ready to be topstitched. The things on the machine are the sleeve tabs which then need to be turned right-side-out. I parked the red thread there because I have fifteen shades of red and I am using up some brighter stuff first, before I start the shade I bought for this fabric. And that's a good reproduction of the way this red looks - nice and red, tomato red. Not the pink-red you see in some pix.

Here's the welt for the pocket sewn on and there are two pieces of pocket lining that I have sewn on and tucked behind it. The slash pocket is right in the front dart - interesting.

Here are all the layers for the back at the yoke. There is the back, its deep pleat, the band (folded in two) and the yoke. Six layers in two places.

Here's the back from the outside, before it is pressed. Too pink by half. Onward!

Red wool coat

2008-09-30T15:58:00.001-04:00

How did it get to be the last day of September?

One thing I don't often mention is the prep work for starting a project. I have never used this pattern before so I like to read the instructions first. Then I have to cut apart all the pattern pieces and see which ones I need to use. I double-check them with the list shown above.

The only garment in this pattern is the coat (some have all sorts of things like pants and skirts and things) but there are some variations. I'll be using all the big pattern pieces but maybe not all of the small ones. Once I have the pieces separated, I iron them flat.

I am going to make the long sleeves with 6 buttons on the front (view C) but I want to make the slash/welt pockets (views A and B), not the patch pockets. I also like the detail of the band around the sleeve but it is only on the short sleeve and the 3/4 sleeve.

When you look at the instructions for the sleeve band, you see it is only decorative and not functional. Interestingly, it is made from three pieces of fabric so that the seaming becomes part of the decorative design. I have been debating with myself if I want to use the print lining I got for the backing of the sleeve bands and I haven't finished that debate yet. I lean toward NOT doing it, just because I am not familiar with this pattern and there may be a good reason not to use lining fabric to back the band.

I have got enough fabric that I could make them both ways and see which looked better. You can see that the band gets sewn to the sleeve and the button is just for show. But I like the way it looks on the photo and in the drawings so I think I will make bands and then decide as I go along, whether I will attach them to the sleeve. They get sewn into a seam but I could still pick them out later if I don't like them.

Here I have laid out all the pieces and pinned them, except for the bands. I am going to use Mum's old electric scissors to cut this coat out. I keep forgetting I have electric scissors and while I may not use them for delicate stuff, they should be perfect for this sort of wool.

Finishing things up and a new jacket

2008-09-18T13:44:00.001-04:00

I am making progress! I have made a pot of blueberry tea to have while I blog. Then I have to study some for this test I am taking on Monday. It may lead to a job as an adjudicator at a tribunal so keep your fingers crossed. Then I will finally have somewhere other than school whence I can wear all my fancy duds! (Hmm, that doesn't look right but my understanding is that "whence" means "to where" so it should be correct.) I'll alternate between studying and sewing to keep fresh at both.

First I took a photo of the two tops I finished. I haven't worn them yet but I have worn the cream silk one I made three times now! It works beautifully under a suit jacket and I can get warm at the front of the class without dying from dehydration.

I finally sewed a buttonhole on that checked jacket and finished it with the large, slightly sparkly gold button that won the contest. There is a sparkly gold thread that runs through the brown stripes in the check and I think the button goes well with the whole thing. Not having worn this yet, I will reserve judgment on the total effect.

I finished the wool skirt. As usual, I converted darts to ease - those are the wrinkles you see pinned into the skirt as it is attached to the facing. I also basted the lining to the skirt around the top before sewing it all to the facing. That's that line of stitching you see showing on the lining.

Because this is such nice fabric and I want the skirt to look polished, I sewed seam binding to the raw edge of the hem and hand sewed the hem up. The lining hem has not been sewed yet - that's the raw pinked edge you see.

Because the skirt is surprisingly heavy, I sewed hangar tabs to the facing. It makes the skirt hang like this and I have to iron it the morning I want to wear it, to get those drape marks out.

But if I hang it with clothespins like this, it falls off the hangar after a while.

In the meantime, I have been thinking about my old LL Bean barn jacket. I have had this great coat for over 15 years now and I used to wash it whenever the dog put her muddy paws on it so it got washed often. Now it has frayed around the pockets (which are lined at the edge with dark green corduroy),

and it has frayed on the sleeves where I used to turn up the cuffs, which are also lined at the bottom edge with the corduroy. I still think I can get some wear out of it so I am wondering if I should get some gimp or other braid and sew it over the broken bits?

That said, my next project is a new, cool weather jacket. I thought this pattern was so cute, but of course, I cannot imagine making a jacket that you wear outside in anything other than full length sleeves! Maybe someone meant for this jacket to be worn walking around the mall but if I was inside, it would be too hot and when I am outside, I want proper sleeves. So I am going to make it in the full sleeve but with the slash pocket of the other views (A and B). I have not decided on the buttons but I think I will be going for 6 of them, not 4, for better control in the wind. It is certainly not a jacket I would wear when it's minus 10C but I think with the right layers and accessories, I could wear it to minus 5C. I'll let you know later.

When you wear some kind of outer garment 9 months of the year, you want a selection and you want one of them to be red. I have some "boiled wool" in a nice bright red here, although I think it is mixed with some nylon. For a change, I didn't pre-wash it and so once a year, I will have to dry clean this. I think I was afraid the fabric would shrivel into weirdness so I decided to go for dry cleaning later. I also got some "fashion polyester" for the lining. Instead of getting "regular" lining, I saw this fun polka dot stuff on sale and thought it would be cute whenever I took the jacket off. I have not made this pattern before so I suppose I am risking a bit here but it is a coat and so it won't be fitted too closely and I think I can get away with not making a muslin - which I never make anyway. If it doesn't work for me, some lucky Sally Ann client will get a unique jacket!

Silk tops and wool skirt

2008-09-14T19:12:00.001-04:00

Ten days since my last post. Hmm. I've been busy! But I haven't even finished those tops. So back to where I left off...

That silk I bought on sale was so narrow (how narrow was it?) that I had to cheat to get the tops cut out. I had only bought a metre of each colour, thinking that was enough. As you can see in this layout photo, there was no way I could get both the front and the back cut out on a fold. I thought I could fold each selvage into the middle and do it that way but it was just too narrow.

Even though I put the back seam right on the selvages, the sides overlapped by a few millimetres and I had to make them with a 3/8 seam allowance. Talk about cutting it close.

Here is the blue top, inside out, with the back up. You can see I didn't need to finish the centre back seam because the selvages are already finished. I zigzagged the other seams and trimmed them, although they are not trimmed yet in this photo.

Here I am, ironing the neck facing on the ham. It really is easier on something like a neckline or shoulder, to use the ham, instead of trying to iron it on a flat board. In this photo, I have already understitched the facing and all I need to do now, is iron it folded under.

Here's the ham from another angle. After this, I stitched the facing down to the shoulder seam by machine stitching in the ditch of the shoulder seam from the outside of the garment.

That was the end of the machine sewing. From here, to finish the tops, I have to hand stitch the hems. They are pinned up and ready to go. I generally save my hand sewing for sitting in front of the tv. These tops look awfully shiny and that pink one is very pink, but when I wear them, it will only be under jackets so all you will see is a little bit of the top at the neck.

Because I only have hand sewing left, I am not breaking My Rule by starting a new project upstairs in my sewing room! This is the beautiful wool I got at Darrell's sale. He only had the oatmeal colour left at the sale and I kicked myself when I discovered he had had two other colours - blue and green - as they would have made perfect, all-purpose serviceable skirts. Oh well.

I am making my tried and true, no-waistband, knee-length skirt with a small vent in the back. It will go with everything this Winter!

Votes are in!

2008-09-04T10:50:00.002-04:00

I got 16 votes, including one on Flickr. I thank you all for spending the time to look at these things! My husband says that the pictures don't really show how the buttons look but they are the best I can do. If I count his vote, I have 17 in total.

I got 5 for the small gold spiral. I got 3 for the brown plastic one. And I got 8 for the large gold one. I was leaning toward the large gold one all along, and in fact, when I was thinking buttons, before I even pulled them out of my stash, I thought of it as an option. I was concerned that it would be too sparkly and when I looked at the three finalists over and over, I started leaning toward the smaller gold spiral. It blends right into the jacket fabric, which is both good and bad, depending on the look you want to achieve. I also had a vote for doing the snap and no buttonhole thing but it is a little fiddly to be doing and undoing snaps and I am not a fan of fiddly. Form should follow function!

I am therefore going to make a large buttonhole, the size of the big gold one and sew on the big gold button. Then, if I have doubts or get weird looks, I can hand stitch the end of the buttonhole closed and take off the large button and go for a smaller one. How's that?

In the meantime, I have started back to work and am scrambling to finish the little silk tops for under jackets. I wore the embroidered linen to my first classes yesterday and felt very cute. :) But no one commented on it. :( I wore the cream silk top too. It was a hot day and although the college is sort of air conditioned, because I was not told my first class was in a different room, I had to sprint around the campus and was sweating freely by the time I found my proper classroom. I was glad I had on light and natural fabrics! Tomorrow is also supposed to be hot so I am thinking I will wear one of the new silk tops under a light cotton jacket with the shorter, "extra" navy linen skirt (that I got out of the left-over linen). We'll see.

Buttons

2008-08-29T13:17:00.001-04:00

Votes are split between the shiny brown plastic button and the larger shiny gold button. I myself am still leaning toward the smaller, duller gold button. I need more votes! Four does not a survey make.

Here they are again, pinned on to the neck of the jackette.
First the shiny brown.

Next, the large gold.

Then the smaller gold.
I suppose I could make the largest size of buttonhole and then switch out the buttons from time to time. More votes!

Speaking of buttons, I finally got some for the embroidered linen. It was a tough contest at the store, with Darrell and Carmen going their ways and me going mine. Carmen didn't care for my final choice (too sparkly) but Darrell picked it out as a possibility so I guess he's okay with it.

I settled on making the stripes in the "shell" go horizontal and the metallic stripe goes up toward my right shoulder, instead of the way it is in the previous close-up. The buttons are a little oddly paced in this pic because I had just pinned them on. Now I have sewed them on but I was too lazy to put the finished jacket back on Rose.

While I am prewashing some oatmeal coloured wool for a skirt, I am going to quickly sew up another top in some silk charmeuse. I love silk next to my skin and have decided to have a few tops to be worn under a jacket. Since it is so small, and since I have modified the pattern, it only takes one meter to make, as long as the fabric is at least 112 cm wide. It's a squeaker!

Woolly jacket

2008-08-28T16:21:00.000-04:00

Nearly done!

I decided to topstitch around the back of the neck only. The fronts are all interfaced so I don't have to worry about the seams coming unravelled. But at the back of the neck, the thin lining fabric is sewn to the loosely woven woolly fabric and I feared an early dismantling of the neck due to fabric failure. I sewed a second line of stitching beside the first but then, after I had turned the jacket right side out, I put a line of topstitching on to reinforce everything.

It fits and doesn't bind anywhere. Maybe they fixed the pattern after earlier complaints? Maybe that little side piece went missing? It is very small - a "jackette". The sleeves are 3/4 and the hem hits only a few inches below my waist. But I did only have 1.1 metres of fabric! But I like it. It's light and shouldn't make me too hot while I wave my arms about in the front of the classroom.

Now I just have to choose the button. There's only one button at the neck. Carmen suggested yesterday in the comments that she liked the largest gold button, in the lower right in this pic. I like that big button too but I am also leaning toward the shiny plastic brown button in the lower left. The big gold one is really big and almost sparkly. Maybe I should go for the smaller, duller gold one in the upper right?

Woolly jacket

2008-08-27T15:14:00.001-04:00

I really put a push on to work on this jacket last night, as I knew I was heading to Darrell's today for his one-day-only 50% sale. And I got some lovely wool too! So now I really have to get cracking.

Last night, I got all the pieces together. Here are the sleeves, one right side out and the other wrong side out. I got the horizontal stripes lined up as sharp as can be.

I got the lining and facing pieces together.

And I got the jacket pieces together, before I put the sleeves on. I tried it on and it didn't seem like I was going to have problems with the armpits.

Then I put the sleeves on and tried it on and still no problems. This picture doesn't tell you much! But I thought I'd see how I could do a solo photo, holding the camera at arm's length, standing in front of the bathroom mirror, so I could see what was on the camera screen. Anyway, then I attached the lining jacket to the jacket, around the edges of the front and neck. The pattern instructions called for some other, more complicated way of putting it together and I bailed, because I know how to make a lined jacket without fiddling around.

Here's another shot of the jacket inside-out, but after I attached the lining to it. I have lifted up one sleeve. It looks like it bags under the arm but it doesn't bind. Maybe the problem mentioned earlier came from how that small side piece under the arm was handled? I can't say.

Here's what the seam looks like where I attached the front to the facing. Even though I lined up the bottom stripe, the stripes don't match all the way up. Weird. It won't matter because there are no lapels and so you won't see how the stripes don't match. Of course, I haven't ironed the seam open and haven't turned the jacket and haven't ironed it flat again. So maybe it will be okay. I'll know when I run back upstairs now, to finish this jacket, so I can sew something else!

In the meantime, this jacket (it's so small I want to call it a jackette) calls for one large button at the neckline. Here is a collection from my stash. Hmm.

Woolly jacket

2008-08-26T14:20:00.001-04:00

I had a lovely parental unit visit over the weekend, but with that and trying to squeeze that last of the Summer out of the last of Summer, and school starting next week (I teach), I have not been sewing!

Even though this jacket is really a muslin (and if it doesn't work, it'll go to the Sally Ann), I am compelled to finish the inside as well as if it wasn't. And if it does work and I do wear it, then I will be glad I did finish the inside. I used pinking shears to cut the lining pieces. The "wool" is loosely woven so I have zigzagged all the edges that will be ironed open at seams. The shoulders will be zigagged and trimmed after they are sewn so I didn't do those ahead of the construction. The entire fronts are interfaced and I used iron-on interfacing so I didn't need to zigzag those edges. And the front facings are also interfaced. This is one of the few times I have put interfacing on the entire front (not just the facings) so I am looking forward to how that works and feels, assuming I end up wearing the jacket.

Little woolly jacket - we hope

2008-08-15T14:34:00.002-04:00

First, cleaning up leftovers.

I had quite a bit of the navy linen blend left over so I decided to make a plain skirt. I had made a long, high-waisted skirt to match the short navy jacket. But like white shirts, I don't think you can ever have too many navy skirts. So I used the reliable, slightly below the waist, waistband-less skirt and hemmed it at the knee. This also allowed me to verify how much fabric I need to make one of these skirts, so I can get 0.8 metres of some plain wool to make a few more. I seem to have a lot of wacky jackets and print shirts so I need plain skirts to go with.

Next, a new jacket pattern.
In a previous post, I was warned in the comments against using this pattern. Marji said she and other people had ended up throwing out the jacket after they made it, due to problems under the arm.

I laid out the pattern pieces and overlaid them with tried-and-true pieces from other patterns. Nothing seemed too amiss. And since I had this piece of acrylic that I got as a remnant just sitting there in my stash, I decided to be reckless and make the new pattern.

I had exactly 1.1 metres of this acrylic stuff. I got the remnant thinking I would make a skirt but the more I looked at the loose weave, the less I liked the skirt idea. I decided to make the view with no collar at all and three-quarter sleeves and I just squeezed all the pattern pieces on to the fabric.

In the hopeful anticipation that the jacket will work, I cut each piece out in a single layer so that the houndstooth will match everywhere and be straight. I even cut the back out, which is normally on the fold, by cutting out one half and then folding the pattern piece over and cutting out the other half.

Rather than trying to match the notches, I cut out the front and back and side pieces with the bottoms lined up with a white stripe.

When I got one piece cut out, I laid it down on the fabric, right sides together and lined up all the stripes and pinned the pieces together and cut out the corresponding other piece, so they would be identical mirror image pieces. Now for the interfacing and lining and then we shall see if this thing goes together or not.

White jacket and other things finished

2008-08-11T21:00:00.000-04:00

I got bored with sewing the white jacket and violated my Rule and made a navy denim skirt in the meantime. In my defense, I had had the navy denim hanging over the railing since Spring, planning to make the skirt. It was after I finished the white denim skirt and realized what a good job I'd done and how much I was already wearing it, that I caved and interrupted the jacket to make the other skirt.

It's like my navy denim jacket - something I have always wanted but never had until I made it for myself. It has pockets, a "waist"band, front fly and flat felled seams. A classic.

To cut down on bulk, I lined the pockets with some craft cotton I had, just for fun.

Since I was on a roll with finishing projects, I sewed three snaps to the embroidered linen jacket. I didn't cover them because, when I tried putting even the thin silk over the snap, it snagged and made the unsnapping difficult. I will probably always wear this jacket done up anyway. Now I just have to find new buttons.

Next, I pick-stitched the facings to the front of the navy linen blend jacket.

I used navy thread and you really can't see the stitching, which is what I wanted in this case.

Finally, I also finished the white jacket. I really like the accent of the wood buttons. What next!?

White denim jacket

2008-08-06T16:41:00.001-04:00

If I can put the sleeve in around the shoulder, before I sew up the underarm seam, I will. It makes the finishing flat fell so much easier. And flatter.

I flat fell the underarm seam as well. Here, I have trimmed off the seam allowance on the back part of that seam, in preparation for ironing it so I can finish it. First I iron the seam open. Then I iron it closed, with the untrimmed seam allowance overlapping the other. Then I turn it right side out and iron it all again with the clapper. Then I turn it back, wrong side out and iron the untrimmed seam allowance folded over the other trimmed seam allowance, and also use the clapper. That's four separate presses of the same seam.

I haven't shown this shot in a while. To sew down the flat fell, you have to have the garment turned right side out, even though you are sewing from the inside (or wrong side). You start at the bottom edge of the jacket and, up to the armpit, the sewing is easy. Then you have to keep sewing the folded-over seam allowance but now you are sewing inside a "tube" which is the arm itself. Once you get to the wrist (which is where I am in the photo), you are done but you are also down in a "well" of fabric that is the inside of the arm. I was quite excited the first time I ever did that!

I like it when a garment starts to look like what it is supposed to be. That usually isn't until after the sleeves go on, with a jacket. The jacket is hanging in front of the first one I made in this pattern. It is all wrinkly from being bunched around under the needle of the sewing machine - but the seams are good and flat! Next - cuffs, the rest of the hem, buttonholes and buttons.

White denim skirt

2008-08-04T14:17:00.003-04:00

Working on the skirt. I have made this pattern a few times before.

I always put on the belt loops, even though almost all of my belts date from when they went around the waist itself, and so they are 6 inches too short for going around the below-waist area now. I really need to get over to Winners and get a couple of longer belts. AND I need some more leotards (tights) for the Fall. I know! It is too early to think about putting leotards on! I haven't even worn this white summer skirt yet! But, I DO need leotards, more than pantyhose.

Now that I have discovered how to put a waistband (or collar, etc.) on without hand-sewing the facing to the inside, it is a more straightforward procedure and takes less time. (You sew the band on to the INside of the skirt and then sew the band to the outside with topstitching.)

Then you figure out where you want to place the belt loops.

I tack the loop down about a half an inch onto the body of the skirt, so it won't stick out later. Then you sew the band down, catching in the bottom of the loop.

After that, you fold over the top of the belt loop and get it ready to be sewn down to the band but the line of topstitching at the top of the band.

Voila! A finished band and belt loop.

I was going to blog just about the loops when I realized that all I needed was a button at the top and to hem it, and the skirt would be finished. I am only tucking my shirt in to show the top. I am glad fashion these days does not call for tucking things in because I am so short-waisted that the proportion does look better without the shirt tucked in.
(edit: I just realized that I am wearing a smallish belt and so the skirt is riding higher than if I had on a longer belt.)
Next - keep working on the jacket.

White denim jacket and skirt

2008-08-01T16:42:00.001-04:00

So I got some plain wood buttons. There wasn't a huge choice so I settled on some shank buttons because they weren't very dark, or very big or very textured. Sort of like the Baby Bear's middle of the road choices.

I wanted to get them now because it is far easier to put a buttonhole on the pocket flap before you sew it to the jacket.

Here, I've made the holes and set the buttons on the flaps, with the shank in the buttonhole.

The other decision I made was about the skirt pocket facing or lining. I didn't want to use the denim because then the pockets would be too thick and look weird. I had some almost white lining but then I remembered the thinner cotton I used to make the last two white shirts I made so I used that instead. You can't really tell from the photo but the denim is in the middle, the lining on the left and the shirt fabric on the right.

The skirt zipper is a mock fly - a real one is more complicated.

The zipper itself is too long, even at the regular skirt size, 18 cm length, because the waistband is supposed to sit just below the waist. So I sew a zigzag stitch in one spot as a new stop, above the original metal stop at the bottom, and cut off the excess zipper tape.

Here's the fly with just the one side sewed down.

Here's the fly with both sides sewed down. Not too exciting but simple is good too.

White denim jacket and skirt

2008-07-30T17:19:00.002-04:00

I decided to use the 3 or more yards of white "ten ounce" denim I have and make it into a jacket and skirt. Not to wear all together of course, lest I look like the Man from Glad. I am calling it "ten ounce" because it is very substantial, like the denim you get in traditional jeans.

I am using Butterick 4741, view D (the red one), the same pattern I used for the yellow cotton jacket I wore to death in France. This time, I am taking up the sleeves by 1/2 inch and the body by a whole inch. The sleeves were really long on the yellow jacket and I ended up rolling the cuffs up almost the whole time I wore the jacket. I didn't notice that the body itself was really long but looking at it in the mirror, I realize it could come up a bit too.

I am using McCall's 3656 in a modified version of the fly-front with pockets skirt. It is way too short for 50 year old knees so I have lengthened it over the years.

That looks lame but it is still just above the knee, even with the extension. When you are 6 feet tall, you can wear a skirt that goes half way down the thigh and it is wearable. But when you are 5'2", the femur just isn't that long and halfway down it can mean disaster for sitting in a short skirt. So I go just above the knee for a casual, cotton skirt.

I've been thinking about what buttons to use. As is my wont, when I can't sleep, I go through my fabric boxes in my head and sometimes, I think about the next project. I have a white corduroy jacket in the "classic" jean jacket pattern and I used silver snaps for that. I didn't want to go with plain white boring buttons on this jacket but couldn't decide until I thought about wooden buttons!

Of course, I shall have to go get some new ones and they won't be very dark wood but what do you think of the concept?

Man's casual shirt

2008-07-29T16:49:00.001-04:00

Vroom! Bird shirt done!

We have had some wet summer so far so maybe this bright shirt will perk things up. If nothing else, they will see him coming on the bike path.

I used my old tried and true pattern - McCall's 8409. It makes a roomy short sleeved casual shirt and he likes it.

This time, I modified the front bands. The pattern calls for the buttonhole (left) side to be a true band and the other side (the right or button side) was just folded over. I decided to make both sides true bands and I like the difference. It's sturdier and looks more professional.

As usual, I put the sleeve on first, before I did the underarm seam.

This allows the flat fell finish to be even easier around the shoulder.

Then I finished it up in a trice! What next, I wonder?

Navy linen outfit, finished

2008-07-26T14:16:00.002-04:00

Done! Well, mostly anyway.

I have put a line of basting down the edge of the facing, to keep it from bagging at the bottom, which is often a problem. I pressed the heck out of the fronts at the facings, because one was bagging more than the other. Then, while it was still flat on the ironing board, I basted the facing to the front.

Now that the buttons and buttonholes are done, I am thinking about pick stitching (in navy) where the basting is now. I have always had "issues" with facings - they flap open, the raw edge ravels even if it is finished. So if I pick stitch the edge of the facing to the front, I won't have those problems and I won't have bagging of the front. Hopefully, the hand stitching will be a design feature, especially because the jacket is quite plain to begin with. I have tried the jacket on and it is loose and therefore very comfortable, in that it doesn't bind anywhere. While I am thinking about it, I will cut out a cycling shirt for Peter.

Navy linen outfit

2008-07-25T14:56:00.001-04:00

I have been picking away at the navy outfit. Once I am almost done an outfit, I tend to lose momentum because I start thinking about the next project. It is ever thus and therefore why I have my "rule" whereby I cannot start one project without completely finishing the one before.

I have got the skirt almost done. I put hangers on the facing because the other linen skirt kept falling off the hanger when I used wooden clothespins because it was extra long and extra heavy. i.e. I put hangers on it too. I have to hand sew around the zipper and hand sew the hem. All I have left is to machine sew the lining hem. Not too exciting - it's just a plain navy skirt.

Here is the back of the jacket before I pressed the hem.

And here is the benefit of pressing and clapping the hem. I have also added the two decorative buttons as detail to the back. All that is left is the front buttonholes and buttons.

I has a ham!

2008-07-17T15:27:00.001-04:00

Well that was the most thorough breast exam I've ever had. And the mammogram was the least objectionable. Those women know what they are doing. The only bad thing was that I got lost on the way and arrived 10 minutes late and in a positive lather. I kept apologizing for dripping sweat all over their machines. I loathe and detest whoever designed how the Queensway crosses Carling and splits Carling and all the other idiots who don't put visible numbers on their stupid buildings. I was also mad at myself for imagining the building when I heard the person tell me it was in a "small mall". I was envisioning a 4 or 6 plex but it turns out it is in a much larger place than that, which has an anchor grocery store for heaven's sake. Anyway, I rode sedately back to the Fabricland on the way home and got the seam binding I needed. I also escaped buying more fabric.

I got some nice, plain dark buttons for the navy linen blend jacket. Mostly matte with a little shine around the edges.

And I got a ham! I has a ham! Okay, it's a walrus with a bucket, but it cracks me up too. I have grown tired of pressing shoulders and other curvy bits inadequately on the sleeve board. Hmm, bad photo, but then, you know what a ham is. And if not, I'll be sure to show pix of me using it.

And I have acquired some more jacket patterns (Vogue V8146). I seem to be obsessed with detail on the back. It's similar to the linen jacket I just made but has no yoke and it's not pleated.

I have continued to muse about the red Chinese linen that a student who became a friend got me from China.

And now I think I have the right pattern (New Look 6619). I just have to decide whether to make the large collar or the smaller, stand-up one. I am leaning toward the large one because the fabric is already Chinese enough, without going for the look of the mandarin collar.

Meanwhile...

2008-07-16T17:26:00.003-04:00

I was right - I ran out of seam binding. I have done the entire under-arm seam, both sides of the seam, on one side of the jacket but still have the other (about 2 meters), the hem (about 1.5 m) and sleeve hems to do so I need at least one more package for the jacket and then there's the skirt hem. So tomorrow, I'll be out on my bike, going to my fourth annual mammogram test - I'm telling you, they have GOT to invent a better way! - and on my way home, I'll swing by the store to get 2 more packages.

In the meantime, I thought I'd try again to illustrate the benefit of a clappered (or is it clapped?) seam. (There is no definition for the wooden tool that is the almighty clapper in any online dictionary I have found. I just discovered Wikitionary and now I guess I have to add to it but whatta pain to sign up, etc.) Anyway, these are the underarm seams, put side by side. I have pressed both but only clappered the right one. I can see the difference, so I hope you can too. If you are still straining to tell the difference, the right hand one is a little bit flatter, so the tiny trench formed by the seam is a tiny bit deeper on the left hand one. It may not seem like much but when the entire garment has been carefully pressed like this, it looks more professional than if it wasn't.

Okay, I just went back and made the photo "original" size and Flickr and it really is hard to tell the difference. That big fold in the middle is the entire jacket back folded out of the way, so I am pointing to the seams! Trust me. :)

In the meantime, while I wait to get my seam binding, I ironed and laid out some inexpensive but fun cotton with which I will zip up another of the bike shirts that Peter loves. It's just a plain old shirt pattern with short sleeves but he likes the roomy (capacious, even), breezy style as he commutes to work. I wasn't sure if he'd like these birds but he claims to. I am wondering which way is "up". I think "up" looks like it is on the left but that's the cross grain so I have to choose one of the other ways.

Navy linen outfit

2008-07-15T14:59:00.001-04:00

Forging ahead. But first, I had a question on an old post about sewing skirt linings to the zipper tape. On the recent linen skirt and on the one I am making now, I will hand sew the lining to the zipper tape.

This is not complicated and in fact, it is easier except for the time it takes, than machine sewing. I like machine sewing because it never lets go. Sometimes, in my hand sewing the original knot will come undone or something and then I have to re-stitch. But you don't see the stitching from the outside and it is more elegant.

When I machine sew my lining down, I pin it from the wrong side and then sew it from the outside, running the line of stitching down the original line where the zipper was sewed in the first place. You can see this on the outside of this peach skirt - the two lines of stitching, one on top of the other. The trouble I run into with machine sewing is that sometimes I miss catching the lining on the inside and then I have to either sew it a third time or do it by hand.

On this navy skirt and the previous linen skirt, the pattern called for the use of grosgrain ribbon at the top instead of a facing. I also decided to line the skirt which is a simple enough thing to do.

Once the ribbon is sewn on, you just trim the seam and fold it over and tuck in the raw end of the ribbon by the zipper. I haven't worn the linen skirt yet so I don't know if the ribbon might feel uncomfortable at the top, especially as this is a high-waisted skirt but since it is high-waisted, I plan to tuck in whatever shirt I am wearing so I hope it won't be an issue.

I decided to set the sleeve in first, before I sewed up the underarm seam, because it is generally a little easier to get it in flat that way.

Then I trim the seam and sew on the double fold bias tape to finish it (since there isn't a lining with this jacket). I am using purchased tape because it is easier to let some machine in a factory make it uniform and nicely folded. But they only had one package of navy when I bought it and I think I will have to go back for a second package because, now that I am doing the sleeve this way, I might as well put seam binding all the way down the entire underarm seam including that of the sleeve as well. Of course, you can't do any of this if the sleeve seam doesn't match the side seam of the body of the jacket.

There is a white ribbon tied at Rose's waist and you can see that this jacket, while not a bolero length, is short. That's why I went with a high-waisted skirt.

Navy linen outfit

2008-07-14T20:45:00.000-04:00

July 14
I have put the zipper in the navy skirt. (It doesn't look navy at all, but that's a trick of the light.)

As usual, I machine baste the opening edges together and then pin the zipper from the inside, pinning down the middle of the zipper tape. Then I baste down the outside edges of the zipper tape, because I sew down the middle from the right (outside) side and I don't want to try to pick basting thread out from machine sewed thread.

Here's the back of the jacket showing the one large pleat. I put the jacket on Rose inside out to show it from the wrong side.

Here's a close-up of the shoulder seam. I am putting seam binding on only one side of this seam to finish it. The other side, I zigzagged to make it more sturdy for future long-term wearing, but it will be covered by the front facing so I don't need to put seam binding on both sides of the seam.

And here is where I am tonight, hand sewing the collar facing in between the edges of the front facings. I often machine sew these things but when I am trying to achieve a more couture look, I will make the effort and hand sew with tiny stitches.

Catching up

2008-07-12T13:17:00.001-04:00

Where does the time go?? I can't believe it has been weeks since I blogged and this time, I don't even have the excuse that I went to France. I may have a touch of the ennui of Henri. Not really but every time I watch that video, it cracks me up.

SO! I made the two white shirts.

I've been wanting to try this new shirt pattern, McCall's M5630 because it has a classic two piece collar. I'd made Simplicity 9877 to death and it fits really well but it has a one piece collar that doesn't do up properly. Not that I will be wearing a tie but I used to sometimes (I think it was the 80s when the style was in) and you need a proper collar to take a tie. Anyway, this new pattern also fits really well so I may make it for a while now.

I had quite a bit of some white cotton that had been on sale and it has a bit of Lycra in it which makes for ease in wearing. After the long sleeved shirt, I had just enough left over to make this other sleeveless white "shirt", of which I have at least half a dozen variations. It's very simple to make and very comfortable when it gets hot and humid, especially with no collar to heat up the neck. I can wear it over a t-shirt too as a sort of vest. Very versatile.

One "excuse" for not blogging was that I spent a whole day (yeah, only one) on July 3 at the Habitat build. It was pouring rain that morning but I had already planned to bike (otherwise, I could have taken a bus I suppose) so I went and got soaked from the knees down. But there was so much rain and water on the street that I got soaked every time I took my butt off the bike seat for a traffic light and then got back on the seat. So until the rain stopped and the place dried out a bit (some time after 2 pm), the water wicked up my cotton pants and I was wet from the ribs down, despite my good Goretex rain jacket. I was wearing my Habitat t-shirt from last year and they offered me a new one for this year, which I wasn't going to take until I realized that I was freezing so the rest of the day, I wore two t-shirts. Next time, I will wear a fleece that stays warm, even if it gets wet. I ended up shoveling about a ton of gravel in the basement and could hardly lift my arms the next day.

So after the success (at least in terms of the sewing) of my linen outfit, which I know isn't finished yet because I need to sew on snaps and get different buttons but that will wait until later, I decided to make this other short, unlined jacket pattern in a navy linen-rayon blend. I figured I could wear the navy skirt with the natural coloured flowered linen and it could work together. This is Butterick B5143.

I usually fold up the long views if I am making the short and then I don't have to try to fit the cut-off pattern pieces together again but with the curves and things in this hemline, I had to cut off the long views. I don't think I would make the long versions anyway. I am going to make the stand-up collar, not the two piece collar, just like view A. So far, I have cut everything out, including lining for the skirt (which will be the same as the previous, high-waisted linen skirt) and have done most of what I call the prep work, which is sewing on the interfacing (I went with sew-in this time, as I did with the linen), finishing some edges, making darts. Since it is supposed to rain tomorrow, I think I will go read on the patio now, and save the sewing for after dinner.

We interrupt this for a message from our sponsor (me)

2008-06-30T19:28:00.000-04:00

Last day of June and my Dad's 80th birthday! Happy birthday, Dad (even though I am pretty sure you are not reading my sewing blog). I am making up a batch of shirts (you can never have too many white shirts) and may post a little about it but since they are just shirts, I thought I would direct traffic over to my other blog. I have been writing about our trip to France over on my guru blog and I am enjoying the writing, as well as re-reading. If you want to start at the beginning, you have to go to the archives and start at May 31 and then read forward. Here is the May 31 entry but then you'll have to get into the blog and move through the entries anyway so you might as well just go to May in the archives. Or whatever -- you can figure it out, I know.

If you click on most of the pix, they are at my Flickr site, so you can go there just to look at the slideshow. Some pix, I took from Peter's Flickr site but those I tended to just link to like this. If you really want to be dazzled, go to his sets at Flickr and enjoy.

Happy Canada Day for tomorrow!

Silk top

2008-06-26T17:53:00.000-04:00

While I was (still am) thinking about the buttons for the linen jacket, I made the silk top.

I used a modified Butterick 4056 pattern. I found when I made this top the first time, that it had a wide enough neckline that it didn't need a seam and a button at the neck opening in the back.

I could cut both the back and the front on the fold and modify the back neck facing. I decided I would use a facing and not just some self-bias tape because I thought the interfaced facing would give the neck more structure.

It's an extremely simple top, even with the facing. You can see a little bit, how there is a sheen to the right side of this beautiful silk, when you look at the facing here, contrasted with the top itself which is wrong side out on the table. I also finished the seams by sewing a simple zigzag stitch and trimming the excess material.

After only about an hour from start to almost finish, the top is done except for the hems. I have decided to hand sew the cap sleeve and bottom hems, to give a higher tone, a more couture finish, to the top. This lovely silk demands it. But I have to wait until it cools down because I don't want to stain the silk with my sweat.

Linen outfit, jacket

2008-06-25T17:57:00.000-04:00

On to finishing touches. I am hemming the skirt tonight but that's a simple proposition.

I have put on all the seam binding and hemmed up the jacket. Looking good!

Now I just have to figure out the buttons. The three I have are different from each other, with one having a dark brown spot on it, one medium and the third light.

I have to decide what order to place them. Should the darkest one be at the top, in the middle or at the bottom? Not a crisis either way, I am thinking.

I have discovered that the top buttonhole will have to go right through the middle of an embroidered flower. Nothing I can do about that now. I have made an experimental buttonhole through a flower and it's not bad. But I wonder if there might be anything else I could do?

After I made the sample buttonhole, I pinned it on the jacket, put it on Miss Pink, and stuck a button into it, to get a feel for the thing. I also have to calculate where I want to sew the buttonhole, because when done up, the buttons will stop at the shank (or where they are sewed) and I don't want them overlapping the edge of the front of the jacket. So the buttonhole has to stop about 1.5 cm from the edge of the jacket, which looks kind of far back to me, when the jacket is unbuttoned.

Linen outfit, jacket

2008-06-20T10:22:00.002-04:00

The sleeves are on!

After I sewed them on, I finished that seam with bias tape. It was kind of fiddly work. There were places along the seam where the fabric was several layers thick (at the back yoke seams) where I had to pin the bias to the inside and then pin it around the outside too. With pins on the upper and lower sides of the seam as it is feeding through the sewing machine, you have to go slowly and carefully so as not to jam your needle on all those pins, or catch the pins under the plate where the feed dogs are. (That unfinished looking seam on the above photo is the zigzagged one inside the sleeve.)

It doesn't look too beautiful but it is on the inside of the jacket and won't be seen except as a flash when I take the jacket off.

Somebody asked in a previous comment if I'd lengthened the jacket (no) and if the back was longer than the front (also no). This photo sort of shows that the jacket is the same length all around. (The blue top on Pinky isn't on straight.) And the jacket is pretty short - it will just stop at my waist when hemmed - but that's the style so I didn't change the length.

Here's the front with sleeves. I have turned one up just to see what it might look like because of the V detail on the bottom of the 3/4 sleeve.

Here it is from the back, with one sleeve turned up. The pattern doesn't call for any turning up of the sleeves but I didn't shorten them when I made them and they are a tad longish. Next time I make this, I will shorten the sleeve pattern piece by about 3/4 of an inch. My arms are not weirdly short and they don't look funny but I usually have to take up regular length sleeves and I wondered what would happen with the 3/4 sleeve if I didn't take it up, since it was short to begin with. It's all about proportion.