New blouse and no thread issues

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!

All new stuff!

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.

An experimental, two-sided top

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!"