Peach (in more ways than one) cotton shirt and skirt

I decided that I will make a shirt next, because I can use another plain shirt (as opposed to yet another one made from a print). I have several from the olden days but they are the kind that you tuck in and that isn't the style these day. Plus my skirts are without waistbands and that look doesn't lend itself to having shirts tucked in either. And when I got the raw silk, I also picked up for next to nothing this peach coloured cotton with 3% Lycra in it and it has not been put away and so is begging to be made into something.

The right side has a subtle tone-on-tone stripe and when I was smoothing out the fabric on the table, getting ready to pin the pattern pieces on it, I felt a slight nap to it too.

When I washed it with the silk, even though I also put the cotton in the dryer, it came out covered in lint. I had to use the lint brush over every inch of the fabric, on both sides. So I ironed it also, on the one side, after I had taken off the lint.

It is quite a substantial cotton and I had just enough of it that I could get a skirt out of it too, although I have decided to line the skirt as the cotton isn't that substantial. I am using tried and true Simplicity patterns, 9877 for the shirt and 9825 for the skirt.

I had purchased some pale pinky-beige lining for the silk but when I decided to make a skirt too, I looked through my stash and rediscovered some pale orangey lining that seemed to match wonderfully. So everything is cut out now and it's time to iron on the interfacing and start pinning pieces together.

Green wool suit finished

I really had very little left to do, in order to finish the jacket in the green wool. Here is the lining, being stitched in by hand.

Here's the interior of the jacket before I sewed on the buttons.

Here's a close-up of the running dog buttons I choose.

And here's the jacket, all finished! I like it. But I haven't worn it yet. Maybe tomorrow. I didn't wear it today although it was cool enough, because I wanted to take a yoga class and that meant scrunching up my work clothes into my backpack after class and walking home in my exercise gear.

Finally, I had bought a pair of pants at Winners and they were too long, so I needed to do some alterations. I still don't have a pants pattern I like and these were such a bargain at $35 - lined wool! - that I bought them. Now I've just discovered that there's a flaw in the zipper but if I need to, I can put in a new zip and still I couldn't have made them for less.

The jacket continued

Today, I added some notes to my pix at Flickr, so if you want to see detail and have it pointed out, click on the pix and then you can see more at Flickr. As you can see, I have finished the skirt - that's the easy bit. I made it shorter than the long skirt that I often make for Winter and longer than the skirt I have been making that hits above the knee cap. Once a woman reaches a certain age, I don't think many people want to see more kneecap, even if mine still look pretty good. Also, it's about proportion.

So I knew going in, because I have made this jacket a few times before, that I was going to have a struggle with the front facings. And I did. As usual, when it came time to pin the facings to the jacket, the facings were more than a quarter inch shorter. But, again I followed instructions and eased the jacket front along the facing edge.

In this photo, I've exaggerated the easing up of the jacket - it wasn't that much ease. I pinned it down using LOTS of pins (so it wouldn't shift and pile up) and then sewed the whole thing.

You sew one seam around the collar and then you sew another seam down the front. These two seams meet at the point where the collar and lapels meet. I never can quite match all those "large dots" and so I have to turn the garment over and see on the other side where I went wrong and then sew it again. It usually works out in the end.

Sometimes, after I am finished the jacket and it's all pressed, I might decide to take a few small stitches by hand to close up the tiny hole where my seams didn't quite meet.

Pressing is everything! I can't emphasize that enough. Once the facings are on, I press the seams open from the wrong side, even though they eventually get pressed back together. By pressing the seams open, you flatten the sewed part along the stitching line and so, when you turn it right side out, it comes out to where it should be, instead of caving in to a dent. If you haven't ever pressed a seam like, this, it may be hard to understand. But if you have done this before, next time, press it open from the wrong side and see how easy it becomes to press it once you get to the right side.

Here is the edge of the lapel, just before I press it. It's a bit hard to see the seam line but it's there and with my fingers, I'm about to "roll" it slightly (or push it into place) just as I come in with the iron. This way, the seam line ends up exactly on the fold.

Unfortunately (and as usual) the front of the jacket has ended up being pulled slightly to the inside of the jacket by the slightly shorter facings. I'm going to let the jacket rest on the dummy for now (tonight's an "Ugly Betty" night anyway) and then fix it with judicious pressing, but I am always annoyed that it doesn't work out better than I think it should.

Green suit continues

I have attached sleeves to both the jacket and the lining. I have added the collars too and am about to sew the lining to the jacket - big excitement! In the meantime, I needed some hand sewing to do while I watch Heroes so I added seam binding to the bottom edge of the skirt and turned it up 1 and 3/4 inches to give me a nice generous hem that stops right below the kneecap.

I take up one or two threads of the weave of the fabric at a time and move forward about 1/4 inch at a time (maybe 3/8) so the stitches are firm and sturdy but invisible on the right side.

Prior to this, I lined the skirt by sewing the lining to the top raw edge of the skirt, before attaching the facing. Here is the inside of the skirt, showing the lining on one side of the zipper and not on the other. I also decided to convert darts into ease (which concept I got years ago from my couture sewing book) and so the lining is eased also (i.e. ruffled a bit to fit into the skirt).

The green suit continued

Forging ahead with the green suit, now that I have incentive to sew with the cheap raw silk.

I have sewn together all the body pieces of both the lining and the jacket and have also sewn on the patch pockets. You can see a little bit of the silver thread sparkle here but it shows up better if you click on the photo and make it bigger at Flickr. Of course, it looks even better in real life. The sleeves (all four of them) are sewn together and the skirt also, including the lining. Now for more assembly.

More fabric - imagine that

Okay, call me crazy. Yesterday, I wanted to get my hair cut which meant biking over to Merivale Road. Since I was already all the way over there and I had the bike, I thought, "why not continue on to see what Fabricland might have for sale?" I had just got the green wool and am only halfway through making the suit but I thought I would toddle over there anyway. When I got there, I remembered that my stamp-and-save card was full and so whatever I might buy might not cost that much.

I looked at the Butterick patterns which were on sale for only $3.49 that week (every week, one of the pattern manufacturers is on sale) but I didn't find any that turned my crank. Then I wandered back to the "get rid of it fast" tables at the back, where the fabric is piled and you have to dig to find anything. Right away, I found a bolt of peach coloured cotton with 3% Lycra and I snatched it up in a hurry. I have been thinking I would like to have more solid coloured shirts because all the patterns I have are too hard to match to the patterned skirts and things. And then I saw this other, funny-looking fabric. Initially, I didn't realize that it was the wrong side of the fabric but something drew me to it anyway. I looked at the label on the bolt and it said "80% silk" and I couldn't recall ever having seen this fabric in the store before. I unfolded it and looked at the right side and it spoke to me. It was marked down to $5 per meter and I glanced from side to side to see if anyone else was interested in it. No one was. I took it to the cutting table, together with the peach cotton. It was 140 cm (55 inches) wide and when measured, came to 2 meters in length. I smelled it and it smelled like raw silk. I took what was left on the bolt. (I also bought the 2 meters of cotton left on that bolt.)

The when I got it home, I washed it. Yes! Raw silk, into the washing machine on the delicate cycle. When it was finished, I took it out and it looked a little "fluffier" but still good. I hung it on the rack to dry and later, put it into the dryer for only ten minutes. It still looked okay. When I took it upstairs to iron it today, I discovered that it had shrunk mightily, and just from the washing. Where it had been 55 inches wide, it was now only 45 inches wide! That's what I call shrinkage. But now I can cut a suit out of it (or at least a jacket) and clean it very carefully but not with the fear that it will be ruined.

I got 2 m of cotton, 2 m of silk, 2 m of lining and 2 zippers and 2 threads, all for $21.45. Because of all the stamp-and-save points, the whole thing cost me $1.45. Amazing.

Continuing with the green suit

It took quite a while to get ALL the pieces cut out, as there was lining and interfacing too. Then I had to iron on the interfacing and finally I was ready to start the assembly.

I did my usual thing which is to say I pinned together as many pieces as I could, regardless of where they were in the order of instructions. Once I had used up all my pins, I sewed all the pieces I had put together in one big assembly line, spitting them out the back of the feed dogs and running a new piece in. Then I ironed all the seams I had made and started in with more seams.

Because the sleeves are two-piece and there is no matching underarm seam on the sleeve to correspond with the body of the jacket, I have to make the sleeves into tubes and then fit them into the jacket. I do this with both the jacket and the lining sleeves. I also make the outer jacket and the lining jacket and then put them together around the front edge, which we'll get to later. I also zigzag stitched all down the seam allowances on the skirt because I will be pressing the seams open and not finishing them in a flat fell. The skirt is also fully lined so I don't feel the need to finish the raw edges more than that.

Green Wool Suit

I finally put away some patterns I had scattered all over my sewing room and found the jacket and skirt patterns I want to use for the green wool. I ironed the paper pieces and organized them and then I looked at the fabric, which I had laid out on my cutting table, folded in half lengthwise. I knew then I should cut out each piece in a single layer, not two pieces at a time as it would be if the fabric were folded in half. So I unfolded the fabric and staked it down with 48 oz. cans to prevent it from sliding off the table.

I was going to write about how much extra work it was, to cut out each piece twice, but as I cut, I realized that it was just a bit of extra time and not extra work, really. As I cut each piece, I realized how nice and precise it felt, to only cut one layer at a time. I knew that each piece lined up exactly with the stripes in the fabric, and that the under piece (because there wasn't one) wouldn't be slightly skewed. I also knew that each piece would be flaw-free.

There were several flaws in the fabric, which I noticed and marked with contrasting thread as I ironed the fabric originally. Now that I'm cutting out each piece, one at a time, I can position the pattern piece carefully to avoid the flaws. It's actually less stressful to do it this way, than to cut two pieces out at once, on folded fabric. And easier on the hand too, because you are only cutting one layer of fabric. Which is not to say that I won't ever cut two layers at a time, ever again. But I am not minding this step at all, this time.

I know I've posted this jacket before, but it was easier to take a new photo, rather than find the old one. This is the McCall's 3796 pattern made in a raw silk. I won't be doing piping with the green wool but everything else will be the same.

For fun, I draped the front jacket pieces on the dummy, over the silk jacket, just to see how they will hang. I am quite happy with the fabric so far.

Back to posting!

It has been far too long but I am finally blogging again. No real reason - just distraction.

Back on August 3, I was making a black jacket and I just finished it today. Now I am "allowed" to start a new project. But first, the jacket and a few other things.

So cute! Even if it is just plain black. It is the same pattern as some other jackets I have made (Simplicity 4698) and I went with the "no lapels" variation because I didn't have enough fabric. I decided to make it less plain by adding a bit of satin piping around the front edge and a not-too-boring button. The sleeves are 3/4 length so I will wear it with a sleeveless or short sleeved top. That works for me because when I teach, I am always very warm, waving my arms about and standing in front of the class. Plus the jacket is only partly lined so it will be nice for Summer too.

Because of the way the jacket is constructed, with a partial lining, I decided to sew the sleeves into their tube shape and sew the body of the jacket together, and then set in the sleeves and finish the raw armhole edge with a flat fell. It does make it more tricky and fiddly, especially when the fabric frays a bit, but with patience, you can tuck in the raw edge of the sleeve all the way around the armhole edge and then sew it down to the body of the jacket to encase all the raw edges.

Anyway, I am quite pleased with it and think I will get a fair bit of wear out of it.

This is a shot of that blue twill jean jacket I made a while ago, with the complimentary patterned skirt. I find both patterns very comfortable to wear and thought I'd illustrate that I really do wear the clothes I blog about - in this case, at a family gathering this Summer.

I had a student from last year become a friend and when she went home to China for the Summer, she came back with a couple of meters of red linen for me! She says the Chinese characters on the fabric are very old and not in use as "letters" these days, so chances are they don't really spell anything and won't offend anyone. Now I have to decide how to prep this fabric - should I wash it or will the gold come off? She said it was linen and it feels like it, which means it will shrink. But even if I only ever dry clean it, I worry about the gold. We debated about what I might make with it and I thought "jacket" and she thought "dress". I am leaning more toward something that I won't have to clean very often, which rules out dress.

A Dress A Day had a post recently about fabric stashes and deciding what to use next, and I related to it a lot. So I think this red linen will join the stash for a while. In that same vein, I am putting the expensive navy wool aside, while I make my next project.

I plan to make a two piece suit with this green wool. It's only partly wool and has a bunch of other fibers in it, including a thin silver stripe which you will be better able to see in later photos as I make the suit. I pre-washed and dried it in the dryer and it came out perfectly, much to my relief. It was originally $20/metre but I got it on sale for only $5/metre, which is why I dared to wash and dry it. I will use the same patterns that I plan to use for the navy wool, as a sort of practice run. I have used the patterns several times before but not since I got my dress form (whose name I still don't know in spite of what I wrote earlier). There is a troubling tendency of the front facings on the jacket to seem shorter than the outside pieces and therefore, curl the front up slightly. I don't know why this happens and can "cure" it by pressing and pounding the heck out of it. But maybe with the dress form, I can see what is happening. I'll know soon.

Handlebar bag finished

And we're ready to rock and roll. I got a length of soft braid (they had shinier stuff but mine seems to be made of something cottony) to act as the shoulder strap.

I had to figure out how to insert it between the zippered top and the body of the bag so that it would end up on the outside where it belonged but that wasn't too difficult. Here I've pinned the zippered top to the bag and the shoulder strap is inside the bag about 2 inches so I can sew it down for extra strength.

The handlebar itself is packed so I used a lamp to simulate the bar. It doesn't show very well here but my plan is to loop the whole strap over the handlebar and then snap the loops onto the bar as well, creating a redundancy. This bag will contain all the little things we want to keep handy while riding (like the camera and money) so I don't want it to fall off.

I figured that I could use an 8 inch loop over the handlebar on each side so that's where I placed the hammer-on snaps. Here is the bag hanging up, with the loops snapped shut. I'm pretty pleased with it even if I won't get to test it in action until we get to Halifax. I've put a few notes on the photo if you want to go see them at Flickr - nothing exciting.

bike bag redesign

Well I am cleverer than I look because the bike bag worked with the measurements I gave it! It only connected with my knees when I was pedalling into the wind or when we hit a really big bump. We biked about 30 kms with it and I loaded stuff into it and was pleased with it. I think I'll use it again on treks to the market or elsewhere.

As I did on Sunday! Here I am in one of my rayon bike shirts. You can just see part of the bag behind my right hip. More importantly, there are horses in the background!

Here's Peter in one of my shirts, and you can see the bag hanging from the stoker's handlebar. In spite of its success, I had decided to redesign it anyway, especially as the zipper was not easy to operate one-handedly.

So I am basing the bag on the tote bag pattern I have used many times (especially for gifts). I am using the smaller of the sizes and modifying it a fair bit. I wanted an exterior pocket that was easily accessible so I could whip out the camera at a moment's notice while pedalling. I decided to make a gusseted pocket to accommodate the bulk of the camera and prevent the bag itself from being distorted when the camera was in the pocket. Of course, I couldn't make a pocket on only one side so I did a matching one for the other side of the main bag. In this photo, on the right-hand side, I have stuffed a kerchief into the pocket before the bottom has been sewn down. On the left, I have sewn the bottom of the pocket down.

After I tested the pocket, I realized that the camera would not be totally secure and decided to close it with some velcro. I tried closing the pocket top with the velcro attached directly to the inner edge of the pocket but the top of the pocket buckled too much. So I sewed the bit of Velcro to a bit of a tab and then I could secure the open edge of the pocket to keep the camera from falling out (if the bag tipped badly) but still have easy access to it.

Here is a finished pocket, stuffed with the handkerchief. Then I applied two interior flat pockets and sewed the sides of the bag together.

Here is the bag before I put on the zippered top and attach the handle. The handle is going to be the really clever part, although I have only designed it in my head so far.

Bike bag template finished

Wow, that bike bag is HUGE.

First, I got all balled up at the corners because I was fitting half moon pieces into straight pieces. Not my usual "so tidy on the inside" at all. When I turned the bag right-side-out however, it looked fine so I guess I can live with it.

Next, I saw that the straps or loops were too small to put buttons on so I went for some left-over snaps I had. I think I may go for snaps in the finished product also. Then I stuffed the bag FULL of every hand towel I own (it is very capacious) and went to the garage.

As I planned, I slid one fixed loop over one end of the handlebars and then slid it to the middle to get the other loop over the end of the bar. That went well.

Then I centered it and snapped the middle loops shut and there it was - the biggest handlebar bag I've ever seen. I think it will connect with my knees as I pedal but I won't know for sure until we go for a ride or at least until Peter holds the bike for me while I sit on it. It sure didn't seem very big with the dimensions I wrote down, nor while I was making it. So I am glad I made this template and will go back to the drawing board after a test drive.

Brief bike interlude

So there I was, sewing away on the black 3/4 sleeve unlined jacket and thinking that black is sure hard to photograph, when it occurred to me that I needed to make a handlebar bag for the tandem. First, where I have got to on the jacket.

The instructions call for all four front pieces (two fronts, to facings) to be interfaced. All I had in black was sew-in interfacing but I thought it would be best to use that in any event, as the iron-on stuff still seems to bubble and I am not convinced it is the best choice for large pieces like these. Plus, I am going to use it (sew-in) for the navy wool (whenever I get to it) and it's good to practise.

I'm sewing all the vertical seams and flat felling them in the modified fell, mostly because the jacket is only partly lined. Even though it is cotton, this fabric doesn't take a crease very well, and it frays and sheds, so the flat felling has been awkward. Here, you can see two seams, one unfinished at the top and the other is the seam between the interfacing front piece and the front side piece. I had to resort to pinning the curves after I ironed the seam allowances. Anyway, it is coming along but first, the bike bag.

I made a sketch of what I wanted and filled in dimensions after going into the garage to measure distances between handlebar ends, stems and water bottle cages. I figure I can slip the sewn-in loops over the ends of the handlebar (first one side and then the other) and then secure the middle tabs or loops once the bag was hanging from the bar. A zipper the entire width of the bag would allow easy access.

The bag is effectively a muslin because I'm going to have to use it on a ride to determine what changes might have to be made. I'm also going to have internal pockets and an external zipped pocket on the finished model. Here are the top and bottom of the bag. You can see I have split the top and added seam allowances in order to allow a zipper along the front (close to me the rider) edge.

Here are the top and bottom again, without the zipper yet. The bottom (I left the white selvage on it) is folded back on itself.

After I installed the zipper, I cut a piece for the curved back and without thinking, sewed it on to the top. I was so concerned about how I was going to fit a curved piece onto a flat piece that I totally forgot I wanted to sew in the four tabs that are needed to secure the bag to the bar. Stupid. Now I have to pick the seam apart in four places and insert the tabs. Grr.