Valerie Sews

I Am Still Alive

2009-12-28T15:18:00.001-08:00

I have not fallen off the face of the earth! I've actually been sewing for a friend. So busy sewing that I can't take the time to blog about it in fact. I'm making a ginormous fluffy skirt, like a petticoat that will be worn on the outside and keep running into problems like:

Not calculating enough yardage and having to go back to the fabric store twice more, only to find out they are out of the fabric I need, so none of the fabrics on the skirt now match (it will be "tea stained" in the end to get an antique look, so that part doesn't matter as much as it sounds).

Being told that I need to have it done by New Years Eve and not being able to sleep for 2 weeks because of that deadline.

Not calculating enough lace into the picture.

Not having enough time in the day to complete the thing. At this point, I don't even know if it will be ready by the 31st.

By the way, did I mention that I was only given 3 weeks to do this thing? An impossible task! After that project was given to me, I was asked by someone else to make a Victorian Walking Skirt like the one I have for myself. And I won't get the gal for a fitting until tomorrow...the 29th. Ah, impossibly tight deadines...I should remember never to accept them.

More to come, a couch cover, a quilted pillow, and a dog shirt.

A Cure for Wrinkled Interfacing

2009-10-28T17:27:00.000-07:00

I just came across a tip from Off the Cuff about wrinkled interfacing. I thought it was a wonderful tip and had to pass it along. How To Rescue Wrinkled Interfacing!

Review: SAS Fabrics Phoenix, AZ

2009-10-12T01:45:00.000-07:00

Review for:

SAS Fabrics

9840 N 19th Ave

Phoenix, AZ 85021-1906

(602) 943-7777

(I am providing the 19th Ave location information because I'm not sure the Indian School location information on Google is correct, although I did go to another location.)

The other day a friend took me to SAS Fabrics in Phoenix, AZ. I went to the 12th St/Indian School Rd location, although they do have more locations in the Valley area (see contact info above). I had never been, but heard stories. You know, the kind you dismiss as nothing but rumor, like Bigfoot.

The outside is uninspiring, with a large sign advertising that they have air conditioning (I thought, what is this, the 50's?), which I suppose in Phoenix, where summer temps can climb to above 110º F for weeks, isn't such a bad thing to advertise. Apparently before they revamped the place (and closed it for a time) there was no A/C, only an evap/swamp cooler, which for those that don't know, only works as long as the humidity is low.

Through the windows you can see piles of fabric in all colors. And then you walk in...

I've never seen the like. JoAnns doesn't even compare! From one wall to the next there was nothing but shelves with rolls of fabric, tables piled with cut pieces and bolts and boxes full of fabrics, trim, lace, ribbon and anything else you can imagine a sewist needing. They sell fabric both by the POUND and by yard. The prices are inbelievable. Beautiful silk for $6.99+ per yard, denim for $2.99 per yard, and suitings of all sorts for $2.99 per pound among other things. Their selection of faux fur was huge, they had a whole wall for upholstery fabrics (although I didn't browse those), fancies of all sorts from spangled to beaded. Cotton, silk, poly, wool and probably linen as well were there. They had boxes full of iron-ons in a great selection and while some were cheesy, there were others that were not. The only thing missing was a huge collection of buttons to browse through, which I was told by the friend that they do have at their 19th Ave location. They did have some buttons, but not a lot.

I was awestruck! It being a weekday and around 3pm as well, the place had a decent amount of people in there shopping, holding rolls of fabric. The cutters tables were very cramped, and they obviously didn't have enough room to roll out some of the large rolls. You took part in helping cut sometimes, as an extra hand to hold something, or to help unroll. After getting your fabric cut, your bag of fabric is placed behind the counter and they hand you a receipt that you then take to the cashier who finds your bag by your reciept number.

They accept most major credit cards and are open from 10am-6pm Monday through Saturday and closed on Sunday.

All in all, I will be back! I went there with a budget of $50 and only spent half on it, and came out very happy. I got 5 yards of a dark gray wool/polyester blend suiting for $2.99 per pound (about 3 pounds total) , 10 yards of some neat trim for $.25 per yard and 4 yards of denim for $2.99 per yard. And those are just "practical" things I bought. I think the next time I go back I'll get something a little more fun. A note though; there are no tags to tell you what the fabric is. You kind of need to know by feel what type of fabric is what and how blends feel as well, and treat later accordingly. It's a little like buying fabric at the thrift store, in that you don't know for sure exactly what you're getting since there are no tags, or labels stating the fabric content.

SAS Fabric gets 5 stars in my opinion. It could be better in indentification and sorting, but why fix something if it isn't broken? My friend called it "our Mood" (but cheaper!). perhaps I was just awestruck, but the place was amazing to me.

iDye Poly, My Experience

2009-10-09T05:02:00.000-07:00

A friend wanted something made with black lace, but Joanns didn't have much of a selection. I found some great lace, but it was white. What to do, what to do? I went to the fabric marker/paint section and actually found "over the counter" dye for polyester! Which was what the lace I found was made of. So, eagerly I bought 2 packs. One for practice and one for actual dyeing.

Once I got a pot big enough for the task from the thrift store (enamel, with a lid) I set to work. In the iDye pack there is the colorant and a small package of clear goo that you put into the mix. I got my lace all cut off the batch and some skewers to swish it around with, since I somehow lost my wooden dyeing spoon from my last foray into fabric dyeing. The mix was heating up and I tossed in the lace. The instructions say to simmer the concotion, so I cranked up the heat to about medium high and waited.

As soon as it started heating up the stench of the hot dye was incredible. It was like burned rubber, but boiling burned rubber. It was so overpowering! I ran to open windows and turn on fans, and then back to the pot of dye to see if it was simmering yet. Not yet, so I stirred and tried not to inhale too many of the fumes. I was gagging by then, and usually smells don't really get to me enough that I get all queasy. I ran, again, but this time to find my face mask that I use when I use my dremel, or for drilling type projects. It isn't the cheapest, but it isn't like a gas mask either. Just a surgical type mask with a little filter on the front. Thankfully it helped, but the damage was done, in more ways than one.

After running back from digging through things for the mask, I came back to find the pot angrily simmering away, on the point of boiling. I slapped the lid on (which I hadn't done before then) and stirred a little but upon closer inspection I realized that a fine mist had formed from the boiling/simmer and there were tiny blue dots all over my kitchen. Even across the kitchen! I can only imagine how much of that I inhaled before putting the mask on, which I didn't do until after I scrubbed at the counter tops to see if it would come off. For days afterwards my lungs hurt. I don't think there were any lasting effects, but it was a little scary.

Despite the mask, the smell was just too much. The instructions say to simmer it for 1/2 hour to 1 hour, but after about 25 minutes I had to stop that smell. So, I pulled everything out early, rinsed both pot and lid and lace and then spent the next hour using oxy clean and a scrubbie to get the blue mist off my counters, appliances and sink. I am still finding spots with blue mist all over it, where I didn't see it at first.

But, the lace came out great even though I pulled it out early! There is a faint green tinge to it in places, but for my first experiment with it, I'm happy with the product. At least in terms of how well it works. The stink on the other hand, really turns me off.

Dyed lace. Unfortunately Ed turned the lace with the wrong side up, so you don't get to see the cute ribbon detail on the front, but you get the point.

Next time I will use my little propane powered camp stove and do this outside. There is no way that I will have that disgusting smell in my house again. Oh, and another point: No where in the instructions did it say to ventilate! It said "do not inhale" but that is far different than talking about ventilation. I'm surprised at that.

If you do choose to use iDye Poly, you really, really need to have good ventilation. The smell lingers, but does dissipate with time. I think by the next day it no longer smelled like burned rubber in my apartment.

A Revisit, A Steampunk Halloween and Embroidery

2009-10-04T16:36:00.000-07:00

Last Halloween

I made the blouse in this picture last Halloween for a "Steampunk Halloween" with some friends and while I did more of a "proper Victorian lady" than a gal with hiked up skirts, a corset and a gun, which seems to be pretty popular, I still love the costume. Since then I've used it in a photo shoot for the same friend who hosted the Halloween party, for her photography class. In the time since last Halloween I've slowly collected some bits and bobs of brass stampings, some glass gems and some more brass jewelry pieces. I made myself some really cute hair clips and then decided that I should have matching buttons.

Hair clips and fabric covered button

The button in the picture is a fabric covered button with a blue glass stone in a brass setting (which is a little hard to see since it's got beads around it), with a little bead embroidery surrounding it. They all came out great! I used Czech 11's for the beads, in a pearlized white and just bead embroidered around the blue stone using Nymo, which is my personal favorite for anything bead woven or embroidered, although you don't have to use Nymo bead thread. I just happen to have a lot of it since I do bead.

Here is what the whole costume looked like at the photo shoot. Notice that I also have a "parasol". It was really just a blue umbrella that I sewed lace onto in 2 rows.

Photo shoot with new buttons, hair clips and parasol

Once I got home, I had started a little regular embroidery, just to practice. I thought that it would be a great idea to add a little embroidery to my costume. I found some images online (here is a great source, and these are from there) and traced them onto some thin-ish canvas to practice on.

After picking the flowers in blue as my choice I then copied the image to the corners of my collar on the blouse. It took a few days to get done, since I have to take a lot of breaks because of carpal tunnel, but I absolutely love it!

The blue smudges are just transfer paper marks that I haven't washed off yet. They aren't a part of the embroidery.

Close up of collar

I also plan to do some more embroidery on the sleeves or cuffs somehow. But since they are pretty baggy, I'm not quite sure where to place them or if it should be on the sleeves and cuffs, or just the sleeve OR cuff. A conundrum.

Quilts for Charity!

2009-09-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

I've mentione before that I was involved in my local Can't Stop the Serenity (or CSTS for short) this year, and we had a blast. I manned the merch table, while Ed did raffle tickets. We both busted butt. You can check out one of his projects for it, some bookmarks here.

But onto the quilts!

Baby Blanket Quilts (with Lily as a model)

Can't Stop the Serenity T-Shirt Quilts

This was my first foray into actual quilt making. All of these quilts are worked with t-shirt knit; actual t-shirts really! There was a lot of leftover merchandise from previous years of Can't Stop the Serenity and a whole tub full of t-shirts. I had a lot of red and black woven fabric donated by Ed's mom to turn into whatever, and some batting and fiberfil (which was used for pillows made out of the shirts as well). Me and a few other gals who helped piece and sew a little, ended up making 5 quilts, although I did all the construction, edging and quilt lines. All sold except one at the charity event on September 19th; one of the square block baby blankets.

I will admit that these quilts could have looked better, but in addition to myself never having made a quilt before, all the other gals had never even sewed! So, considering their crash course and my lack of experience I think they came out fabulously. The only problem I had was trying to do mitered corners on the baby blankets. It was impossible! I still don't know if what I did would be considered mitered corners on those, but I used this tute. I used actual baby blanket binding, the satin type. I just applied it like you would decorative bias binding, overlapping all layers and sewing through everything in one fell swoop.

The regular blankets got lapped corners. It was pretty simple and really I think it's my favorite way of doing this. The edges of those are the same color for the back. The baby blankets both got red backsides. I thought it was a nice contrast with the green/black/white of the front.

It did 3 of the quilts without a quilting foot (the kind that grips the top while the feed dogs grip the bottom) until I realized that I had one stashed away. What a difference it made! I kept getting little puckers, because of the knit fabric front and woven back, on the knit side, and the quilting foot really helped with that.

I also killed 2 of my best sewing machines making these quilts. Both of my Singer Stylists, one that uses cams, died in the process of making these quilts. I am and was so sad about that! One I have no clue what happened to it, but the other I think I can fix. I believe the problem is just an old gear that has been groud down into a flat piece of plastic/rubber. I just don't know how to disassemble the gears for it. There are some guides for a similar type of Stylist I can use for reference, and it's probably what I'll do, but other than just forking over the money to get it fixed, I'm not confident in my abilities. I don't want to make more of a mess than what is wrong now and then have to get all of THAT fixed too.

Now I'm stuck with my cheapy Brother and maybe I can get my Singer 66 up and running if I replace the belt (that I bought and has been sitting here for months). I need a good "jeans making" machine and my Stylists were it. My Brother can NOT handle thick material or topstitching through it.

Underwhelmed with 2009 Fall Collections

2009-09-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

I got an email from McCalls saying that their fall collection was ready, so I got all excited and headed over there to check it out especially since JoAnns has a bunch of patterns on sale in the coming days/month. It was rather pitiful IMO, and then I decided to check out some others.

I'm not impressed. Somehow I remember last year had a lot of new stuff, with more than 1 or 2 patterns in each category and a ton of coats and fall clothes. Now I haven't checked out Vogue yet, but out of them all besides Vogue, I think that Butterick has the best selection and "look" going for them this time around. The plus size category, of which I fit into, is sadly lacking everywhere. It is a good thing that I know how to alter regular patterns and have a decent stash. Plus since I live in a pretty temperate climate, I can still wear some favorites year round.

But, other than eye candy drooling I haven't been doing much sewing related things. I sewed my first quilt a few weeks ago for a charity event called Can't Stop the Serenity, made out of old Can't Stop the Serenity merchandise, but sadly I forgot to take a picture. I have a few more to do though, so pics will be taken this time! It wasn't a traditional size, but the one I made (with another member putting the top together) was already spoken for! Some pillows, grocery bags made from t-shirts and a few other crafty projects are also on the list of things to do before the screening, which is our big event. We show a screening of the movie Serenity on the big screen, with a similar showing of Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog. All proceeds go to charity, one being Equality Now and another local charity. Can't Stop the Serenity is a worldwide effort put on by Browncoats everywhere. There is a raffle, the movies of course, merchandise, handmade goodies by people like me, and general fun and merriment.

Shiny!

It's Been A While

2009-08-20T04:32:00.000-07:00

Due to a recent vacation and health reasons (this won't be the first time or the last time for a hiatus due to health reasons) I haven't been posting anything on here. Currently I'm rather incapacitated and am not leaving the bed much, but with my trusty and convenient Eee PC laptop I can putter around online from the comfort of my bed, even when I'm too sore to get up.

While on vacation I was given some amazing vintage fabric from Ed's aunt. She said that she's had it for over 40 years but never did anything with it, and since she knows that I like vintage things, fabric and crafty things in particular, she gave it to me, along with some very cool carved coral beads that have an interesting family history that goes with them. I also have a large amount of vintage craft magazines that have some rather interesting projects and pictures in them, that I hope to scan at some point and post about on here. There is one picture in particular that shows a "cuddly" stuffed bear that has the most horrific teeth I've ever seen that I think are glued cowry shells. The grin on this thing is nightmarish! But, that is a post for another time and I will get on with my show and tell for today.

We have a small, foreign car that doesn't have many perks and has pretty small sun visors. Since we also live in the desert and the sun is constantly beating down on us, often when we are out driving around doing errands, we have the sun blazing in our faces despite pulling and maneuvering the sun visors. So, I decided to make some extenders. It was a pretty simple project that has made driving around much more pleasurable.

Basically what I did was measure around the visor and the length of the visor. I added seam allowances and hems for the sides and also added tabs to the edges for easier pulling. The fabric was a remnant that I got in a thrift store bag and is a thick and heavy home dec weight. It is dark blue floral brocade. Ed's side has an open pocket for sticking pens and the gate clicker, which he requested. Since I keep that kind of stuff in my purse I didn't bother with my side of the car (I do not drive). His was a little stiff since I didn't account for the thicker seam allowances by the pocket, and it was requested after I had cut everything out. But, with time the seam allowances have "softened" and it slides nicely for him.

A Quick Tip

2009-07-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

I use pastels in art and before I even had transfer pencils I logically turned to my pastel pencils to mark off dots and other marks onto fabric. You do have to test first to see if it will come out, but I use my white pastel pencil more than any other marking tool I have besides chalk transfer papers. It lasts forever because of the pigment saturation and gives a nice solid marking.

Usually the higher the price of your pastel pencil the more actual pigment is in it (depending on the color and if it will come out, that can be a bad thing). I sew a lot of dark colors because that is mainly the colors Ed and I like, so that white pastel pencil gets some use. I also use a blue and a red, although the red is harder to get out and should never be used on white fabric.

Pastel pencils can be found in art supply stores. My favorite is Jerry's Artarama.

Coming up: Car visor covers, my first quilt project and Simplicity cargo shorts for Ed and why their pattern wasn't thought out very well.

When there is no budget...

2009-07-02T01:46:00.000-07:00

When there is no sewing budget, not much sewing gets done! It's a lean time for us this summer. I managed to buy a quilting ruler on my birthday but that was about it. I have a great book of quilt blocks, but I just haven't had the mojo to start on one. It is very hard to pick out fabrics for quilting block patterns! I didn't realize that half of the planning of a quilt was picking out the fabrics.

In any case, sewing will resume at some point. No budget and really no inspiration, although there are quite a few things I should get done so I have some summer lounging clothes when it is just too hot to do anything more than watch TV with all the lights off and the ac blasting. Rather than sew my own tank tops, I just went to the big bad Walmart and bought a bunch with what should have been my very limited sewing budget.

I got some absolutely gorgeous knit fabric in what I think is rayon (and one cotton) from Goodwill some time ago. I handwashed and hung dry all of it, and there was some serious yardage in it. I had intended on sewing tank tops with it, but it was so much easier to just buy some. I may pick apart one of the one's I bought to use as a pattern though, since when I went shopping for a knit tank pattern at Joanns, the drawer was an absolute mess and they were out of what I had. Or it was there and I just couldn't find it. I don't have a coverstitch machine so I'm a little leery of doing any binding. I need to read up more on that clear elastic stuff that can be used with sewing knits. Perhaps that is my answer.

No Sewing, A Little Talk

2009-06-11T03:31:00.000-07:00

My last project was a plain shirt that I will get pictures of soon, but I've currently been busy making beads. I have a few orders that need to get done and I fell sick the past few days, so it is slowing it even more.

I woke up the other morning with a swollen throat and uvula. Seriously, a swollen uvula (that thing in your throat). It never happened to me before. Now it is less swollen but I'm dragging and all nasal. Woe is me!

But, after all the business of making beads gets done, I have a plan to stencil/paint a Dalek onto some black fabric (white paint with perhaps some red somewhere) to then sew onto Ed's school bag for next semester. He has a fondness for Dr Who and all things Dalek and created his own rendering of it while bored at work one day (shhhh, don't tell his boss). If he'll touch it up a bit so that it can be printed, I'll turn it into a stencil and make something cool. Right now it is his Yahoo avatar, so a bit small.

I tried stencilling onto tshirts a while back and they came out ok. I used regular acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium, but it made the white paint a little less than opaque. One day while wandering the aisles at the craft store I saw some fabric paint and on the back it said it was good for covering black fabric, so I picked it up (with a coupon!). I have yet to try it, mainly from lack of time or space.

Our craft area is turning more into a storage area for art papers, scrapbooking papers which I make cards and bookmarks out of, and other crafty things like the paper cutter, cutting mats and of course the pencils, paints and regular stuff that belongs there. So, it is a bit of a mess and until I can get it clean, or beg it of Ed, this project may have to wait a teeny bit.

Thankfully I have a seperate sewing area, so if I choose to sew in the mean time, I can.

A Pin Cushion For Me

2009-05-28T03:22:00.000-07:00

Tired of dragging my tomato pin cushion around with me when I go from my cutting and pinning table to my sewing machine, I went browsing JoAnns the other day for a wrist pin cushion. What a poor selection! Not to mention I figured I could make one for about 50 cents, when they were selling ugly ones for about $8. So I did just that.

From the front: I used some scrap fabric and scrap elastic. I doubled the fabric thinking that it would hold up more. My tomato pin cushion is starting to wear in a certain spot where I stab my pins into, and I didn't want that happening to this one. But, the drawback is that it is almost too tough to poke a pin through easily. I have to touch a finger to the pin cushion to steady it while putting the pin into it. Not a big deal though since sometimes I have to do that with the other one anyways to keep it from sliding away from me.

From the back: Yeah, I know you can see the thread. I wasn't going for looks, just functionality and I have a bunch of little bits of thread on the spools left that need to be used up. I usually use them for the hand sewing that I have to do if it either doesn't show or doesn't matter if it does.

Anyways, what I did was cut out 4 circles of suede and blanket stitched them together. The layers of suede are a safeguard against poking myself. The leather should stop it if it gets down that far. Then, I sewed the suede circle onto the pin cushion by tacking down around the blanket stitch, going through a little leather if I could. Finally I sewed the elastic onto the pin cushion and sized it to my left wrist (I'm a righty and pin with my right hand), gave it a couple zigzag stitches to secure the elastic and I was done!

So, my first and very own handmade wrist pin cushion! It is coming in very handy and I've already used it several times.

Jeans, For Her

2009-05-25T22:43:00.000-07:00

I finished my jeans, at last! At last! I finally dragged them out and did the hems. But rather than have Ed help me do the hems I just measured from an existing pair that I have that fits well and used that to find the best inseam measurement. Quick and dirty I suppose. But, it came out well.

The pattern is McCalls 5142:

I used red for the topstitching. I've always worn jeans with the typical yellowish/gold topstitching thread and wanted something different, especially since I saw that there was a nice variety of colors to choose from. So red it was!

The photos are a little washed out, but it is because we took them outside in the blazing sunlight. The sun here is intense! The denim is darker in real life than in the pictures; a very navy denim color.

Front

Side

Back

I also realized as I was doing the hems that I didn't topstitch the outside seams. I don't know if I forgot to do that, or if the instructions skipped it. Next time I will topstitch the outside seams, but for this pair, they are done!

As for the pattern, I think it is an excellent pattern. It shows you how to fit yourself and gives ample seam allowances (I believe 1" seam allowances) for the "perfect fit". Seriously, I will be using this pattern again and again. Paired with the book, Pants For Real People, by the same people that created the pattern, I think that this will be a pattern that I turn to over and over again when I want or need a new pair of jeans. And since I live in jeans, but it is hard to find the right size, this is a perfect pattern for me. Good job McCalls and the Palmer/Pletsch team!

Home Dec - Table Cover

2009-05-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

I don't do much home dec sewing, mainly because I'm not into interior design and whatnot. We like a modern look and that doesn't use things like ruffles and frilly fabrics. But, we acquired a table from the side of the dumpster (yes, we "dumpster dive", although rarely do we actually get in one unless there is something awesome in there). We live in a college aged apartment complex and we've found that college aged people love to throw perfectly fine things away. Actually most of the furniture in our apartment is used or from collecting things that are on the side of the trash. The folding table I use for sewing is one of those items!

In any case, we got this cute, retro looking table. It was absolutley filthy with old wax from candles all over it, along with the dust that any outdoor item here in the desert accumulates. After a through cleaning and some elbow grease, the table emerged clean but with a few scars on it. Since the gouges were a little large, but didn't actually go into the table (just into the veneer) I decided to make a table cover for it.

But, the table is round. That means math doesn't it? Yikes, I hate math. But I was determined, so I went in search of the formula to find circumference. Measuring the diameter was a simple as measuring from one end of the table to the other. Entering that measurement into the equation gave me the circumference so I would know how much fabric I would need.

Keeping with the retro feel, even though I will be covering the table and the retro details I decided to give the table cover cording and rick rack. But since I had no cording that was as thick as I wanted I had to make my own. That was only a matter of covering the cording with bias tape, a very simple task.

This is the finished result:

The covering is a tad large and the cording doesn't sit at the very edge in some places, but that was from my late night sewing job rather than from the measuring. There are a few places where the cording slipped to the edge of the fabric circle because I didn't use enough pins. My bad. But, it is still perfectly functional and only I will notice that flaw.

The only problem now is that when you sit in the chair at the right there is a hummingbird feeder above your head, so our little hummingbirds won't feed because we are so close! Note: the chair to the left is the chair that our dog lays in when she suns herself, isn't she just the queen? She has her own THRONE.

Pants For Real People - Like Me

2009-05-14T22:54:00.000-07:00

I've been sewing jeans on and off for a little while. I've completed mine and they fit ok, although I think I need to take in the waist a little. I didn't account for the stretch in the denim. Those STILL need to be hemmed though.

But I also completed Burda 7733 for Ed.

The jeans came out ok. Those too need to be hemmed! Can you tell it is one of my least favorite sewing activities? I didn't pattern fit him, figuring that he is pretty normally shaped. When he tried the jeans on they were skin tight in the thigh and the crotch was so tight it looked uncomfortable. The waist is really low on him as well, but I think it is because he has such a nice behind (lol, he's going to hate me for writing that!) and it isn't flat like most men. I'm not so great at altering pants since I haven't made that many, so with Barnes and Noble gift cards in hand (that we got free through Mypoints) we journeyed to B&N only to find that they didn't have Pants For Real People. So, off we went to another B&N only to find there that all they had was Fit For Real People, which I already have, and love.

We ended up ordering it online and having to pay for shipping. Why do I hate to pay for shipping so much? It seems to take away from the fun of using a free gift card. But, I digress. After reading some of the book, I realized that I needed to adjust the crotch by sewing it deeper. I also ended up adjusting the thigh area, although when I originally sewed it, I had trimmed the seam allowances (which I shouldn't have done in the first place, but hey, it happened) so I didn't have much to work with. Because of that, some of the overlocked edge shows where I came thisclose to the edge of the fabric. I don't know how long the seams will last on this pair of jeans, but I can always sew Ed another pair can't I?

Once the jeans are hemmed, which I hope to get done this weekend for both of us, I will post pics. In the mean time I suggest checking out Pants For Real People if you are planning on making a pair of jeans. I really like the idea of pattern fitting, although it is a slow and time eating process, but once it is done, you have a great altered pattern to work from.

JoAnns (yes, I know some hate the place, but it is one of the few places to buy fabric locally) is having a 50% off sale on denim on Sunday I think, so we're going to hit that and I'll have another 3 yards to make Ed a better fitting pair of jeans. He will be going through a pattern fitting, of that I have promised (or threatened? I will be wielding sharp pins...) because I think we will get the best fit that way.

All in all I think Burda 7733 is a pretty good pattern. The instructions were relatively easy to follow, they include seam allowances and what I created looked just like what the pattern looked like, with a few topstitching alterations on my part.

Now I just need to work on that topstitching...

Vogue 1107, Got It!

2009-05-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

I got a steal on the Vogue dress 1107 that I spotlighted in this post. The description says it is a lined, A-line dress, fitted at the bust, above knee length. It has edge stitched princess seams, welt pockets with flaps, pleats with underlays and bound buttonholes. It says it is "advanced", but never to shy away from a pretty pattern I think I can tackle it.

I will probably do it in a black as the pattern front shows, mainly because I am partial to black. I don't have the fabric yet and may save a bit so that I can get better materials to work with. It suggests Peau de soie, lightweight garbardine and shantung with china silk for lining. Since I sew on a budget I probably won't be getting silk, but some compatible fabric with the same drape. Most likely I'll sew this first in a poly satin of some sort or find a lightweight garbardine as suggested. Lining will be poly, no doubt.

I don't know when I will get around to sewing this but it only goes up to a size 20 and I'm a 22 so I will have some alterations to do on it to grade it up to my size.

I also managed to pick up another 3 yards of denim to make another pair of jeans. I know I have yet to post about them, but it is coming up. I still have yet to hem them.

Fun with Boxers!

2009-04-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

Ed loves it when I make him boxers. It means he doesn't have to shop for them, lucky man! Since the pattern I use only uses 1 yard of fabric sometimes he gets rather interesting (or ugly!) boxers. 2 of these 3 pairs are pretty fun. Apples and airplanes; what more could a man want?
Kwik Sew 1672 which I ordered off eBay and is probably OOP now. It looks like it is from the 80's truth be told. They also have a "high cut" version that has a rounded hem rather than a straight. Not that Ed would ever be caught dead in a pair like that, so that version doesn't ever get made.

The pattern is extremely fast to make and you can do it assembly line if preferred, although I do them one at a time. The elastic waist is pretty fun to do, although the first line of stitching can be tricky, which it wouldn't be if I pinned the elastic more than I do. The seams are 1/4 except for the waist and I use my Singer Tiny Serger (just an overedger really it doesn't do any cutting) for all the seams to that they will stand up to the abuse that undies can get. The fly stitching can be a pain, but really I'm not that accurate with it. I could do better on the fly stitching, but seriously they are just boxers so why bother? I hate unpicking, so if the stitching line goes a little further than it should who is going to notice? The only person looking at Ed's boxers is Ed and myself, lol!

For now my cutting tables (card tables) are on loan from a charity yard sale we did last weekend for a group of Firefly/Serenity fans that we belong to. So, I can't cut out anything else for a few days and my rivets still haven't arrived. I'm project-less, egad!

Some Actual Sewing For a Change

2009-04-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

I've actually been sewing! I've worked on a great pair of jeans that have yet to be hemmed and am working on another pair for Ed. We bought some rivets for them online and are just waiting for them to arrive. Until then the project sits undisturbed.

But, I sewed my butt off last week and made 4 little girls shirts for my neice. Her mother commented to me that she could never find school shirts that fit her (she is in between a size 1/2 and 1 in kids - sewing pattern size that is). She is 3 years old and in some pre-k program at her big brothers school and they require all children to wear uniforms. Either tan or navy shorts with a plain colored shirt. Not terribly restricting but everything that comes in an XS for the girl is always in a print of some sort. So she doesn't have a great variety of school shirts to wear.

Well, I've fixed that. The shirts will go out in the mail probably this week after I put the buttons on the red shirt. I made 4 shirts, all in different colors and using either large scraps or one yard-1 1/2 yard pieces. I guess this could be considered a one yarder project (in fact, so are the boxers I did that are coming up next):

View B

View A sleeves, view B collar

View A

View B

The pattern for the shirt is New Look 6880. It has two views, one for a girl with the peter pan collar and puffy, gathered sleeves and one for a boy with the traditional collar and regular set in sleeves. On one version of mine (the red) I switched things up a bit and gave her the regular collar with the puffy, gathered sleeves.

The collar in view A is a pain to make, which is why I made more of the collars in view B for most of her shirts. They were extremely quick to make and simple. There was no interfacing to be cut anywhere and all the facings were of plain fabric, which gives for a softer look and feel than collars for adults in a similar pattern. View A also has you insert elastic into the sleeve hem, forming a casing. Which isn't a big deal, it actually makes that sleeves bigger so they fit around the arm on my sewing machine, which view B sleeves do not.

All in all I give New Look 6880 a thumbs up. I can't comment on the sizing since I don't have the neice here to try it on for me, but if it does run big I can always go down a size on the next batch of shirts since I think that this pattern is going to be a staple in her wardrobe for school.

Up next...boxers. Stay tuned.

Fabric Splurge

2009-04-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

I don't often buy retail fabric. I sew on a budget and most of my fabric comes from thrift stores. But, I've gone into a certain "large chain store" fabric department and touched this stuff every time I've seen it. I finally broke down and bought 4 yards of it:

I figured that 4 yards would be enough to make a long skirt or short dress (or a couple short things), although I'm thinking more along the skirt line since I'm not a very "dress" person. I like my 2 piece outfits better than a 1 piece dress. I think I'm a little neurotic that way. Actually I'm a jeans and shirt gal and I think having 2 pieces rather than 1 keeps me in my comfort zone. Which, I don't like to leave often, lol!

I wear a lot of muted colors. Or as I like to call them, "non-colors". Black, gray, dark reds and blues. I will also wear pastels if they aren't too bright, like in this fabric. This fabric gives me a little cheer to my normally toned down look. I'm terrified of bright colors in the yellow, orange and bright red range.

I got this orange/peach sweater once from my mother because she said that I never wore color. It was hideous. The sweater itself was cute and in a trendy style but the color...oh the horror! I'm also very pale and freckly and this color was NOT a good color for me. I know my mother was only trying to get me out of my box so to speak, but she could have asked me what color range I would wear if I was going to wear bright colors. I think ever since then I've been very stubborn about letting color into my daily wardrobe (that story took place probably over 10 years ago). And yes, I did give the sweater a try. I wore it twice, once on the day I got it and again at a family function. It was "that" sweater to me.

So perhaps in the next few months (I sew slowly and like to procrastinate) I'll have a pretty little piece to show using this fabric.

Intermission - The Good, The Bad and The Hideous

2009-04-02T00:20:00.000-07:00

I'm a slacker, I admit it. I promised another post about the shorts that gave me fits, but I just haven't gotten around to taking pics of it (what I really mean is I haven't bothered Ed to take them for me; he's got a lot of school work this week). But yesterday I got an email from Vogue Patterns showing the recent stuff they have out and all I have to say is:

What were they thinking?

This is Vogue 1116. The top isn't so bad, but those pants. Those pants! Is it supposed to be a cross between those parachute pants worn by MC Hammer in the 80's, and some sort of weird chef outfit? I'm seriously puzzled over this one.

They have an asymmetrical top pattern, Vogue 8582 that is pretty cute. The line drawing looks bizarre, but shown in fabric it has a nice flow to it.

And I do really like this dress, although I'm not much of a dress person. I may even see if my local JoAnns has it on their next Vogue pattern sale day (which is coming up I think):

Vogue 1107. I think the pleats in the skirt are really cute and I like how it has sleeves. I've got some arms on me, so I like patterns that help me hide them. There are a lot of sleeveless patterns out there that are cute, but I just like my sleeves I suppose. I know I could adapt a sleeve for a sleeveless pattern, but frankly it is too much work unless I really love the dress. and then I'd probably just bite the bullet and wear it sleeveless.

But man those pants just get me. I can't imagine wearing them, or making them. I'm sorry if some of you out there like those pants from 1116, but I just can't stop laughing!

Lots of Sewing! Part 2

2009-03-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

Gray Knit Shirt and Pinstripe Pants

That is my little helper, Lily, in the bottom left. She really wanted to be a part of all the excitement!

The shirt's first incarnation was in the form of an ugly blue polyester. Like the polyester from the 70's, although I think it was a relatively recent style. In other words, cheap. I got it at the thrift store for about $6 and took it home to demolish it and pick apart all the seams. I created a pattern from the pieces and first (stupidly) used a knit without the same amount of stretch. Obviously it didn't fit right, which I could tell from the start of the fitting process. I found the gray stretchier knit and gave it a second try. Perfecto!

It crosses across the breasts, like it's a wrap style. The midriff on the original had the grain running crosswise, and I liked the detail, so I did the same. All in all it shows a bit of cleavage, and you do need to watch your position depending on what you're doing. But, for normal movement it doesn't gap or show any bra, so I'm happy with it.

The pants are Simplicity 2860 "Amazing Fit" pants.

They give 3 options to choose from, depending on your body type; "slim", "average" or "curvy". Obviously I had to use the "curvy" option. Overall I liked the pattern. It enabled you to really make a perfect fit in the waist, crotch and butt. The instructions were great and they make it so your have a 4 piece waistband which helps you fit your waist better. What I didn't like was that the pant legs were SO WIDE! Like, flopping when you walk wide. As you can see from my body type, I'm big in the middle and thin at the legs. I had to chop off a significant amount from the side seams to get it to look right. They assume, like most patterns do, that if you're large in the bust or waist, you need large in the shoulders or legs. Not true!

But despite that, you didn't need any special books to help fit; the instructions covered what you needed to know for the most part. The rest is pretty intuitive if you've sewn a bit.

One last shot of the pants, a close up of the zipper and closure. The pants use a regular zipper insertion, which IMO goes faster than something like a side zip on a dress. It also uses a button and hook and eye closure. I didn't have the larger kind at the time and used a smaller hook and eye, but I actually like it better I think. It gives a more secure closure for me, as opposed to the kind you just slip into the "eye". Plus it gives a little satisfying click when you secure it!

So, my final decision? I will be making both the pants (with thinner legs!) and the shirt again! I really love the fit of the pants and may fiddle with it a bit and add pockets or something next time.

I wish I could find better knit fabrics here. I may have to break down and order something online, but I have reservations about that since I LOVE to fondle fabrics and it really does help with the decision process.

Stay tuned, there will be more! I have that pesky pair of short to post about that I mentioned in a previous post and another shirt from a Simplicity pattern.

Lots of Sewing! Part 1

2009-03-19T23:22:00.000-07:00

I have a huge update to do and here is the first parter:

The Little Girl Dress

I made this dress for my niece, before I left on a rather short-lived vacation. I ended up coming home early, but I was still able to give her the dress. This is a size 3, although she is a little bit smaller than that, but the pattern didn't go to a size 2. It's McCalls 3949 View C. It is lined in the bodice, and has a petticoat in a contrast color. Ed actually picked out the dress fabric which is a polka dot chiffon. The lining fabric and what was used for the petticoat was simple broadcloth.
Ed also picked out the buttons:

The ruffle took the longest to do, but it was just from the quantity of fabric used rather than it going wrong or anything. It actually went rather quickly since I used a technique I learned on Sewing With Nancy tv. You take a thick button or upholstery thread and do a small zig zag over top of it, without catching it in any stitching. Then once you're done you use that to pull along to gather the ruffle. It was the first time since I watched it that I was able to use it. It came out perfect the first time!

Has It Been That Long?

2009-03-05T16:57:00.001-08:00

I've been absent a while. I have been having some medical problems, some from my recent surgery and some totally unrelated. It's been hard for me to get around, but I did manage to sew a few things and will show them in my next post. Ed is a much better photographer than I am, so I try and get him to take the pics.

I will say that I worked on Simplicity 2860 and 2705.

On the pants pattern it went along very well but I came to a few problems with 2705, the shorts view in the middle. That one made me want to scream, not from difficulty but because there was an error with my pattern pieces. I don't know if it's in them all, or just mine but the waistband was too short for the waist. I made some alterations, but only by adding a little to it, so it shouldn't have been short at all if I did that, even if I messed up by NOT adding to the increase to the shorts pieces. I ended up adding the width of the pocket to the waistband (it's an overlapping waistband that secures on the side). Obviously, Simplicity neglected to do that to the original piece.

Pictures will come soon! I'm also in the process of remaking a very, very nasty polyester shirt that I found at the thrift store. I took out the seams and made pattern pieces of them. I've actually made most of the shirt but realized too late that I needed a stretchier knit than I had used. I've pulled out one with the same stretch as the original, so my next one should turn out better. The shirt itself, originally, cost about $6, but $6 for a pattern isn't too bad!

I'm Not Gone, Just Forgotten

2009-01-17T00:45:00.000-08:00

I'm still around. My "almost" MIL is still staying with us and making use of the new sewing machine, while I learn to crochet and buy more fabric (well, thrift store fabric and Jo-Ann sales). It's about the only getting out I do while I recover from back surgery.

Speaking of which, I'm healing. Having to deal with gross wound care that makes me queasy and taking it easy mostly. No sewing done. Leaning over and keeping the foot to a pedal sounds easy but when you've had your back opened up, it doesn't sound like something fun to do. Nope, not just yet anyways. Plus there are the heavy duty meds and I think it even says on the bottle not to use heavy machinery...which isn't really a sewing machine, but with that sharp needle just sitting there waiting for my innocent finger to come close, I think it's better that I refrain from using it for a bit.

I have a no bending rule, so I got one of those hand-held gripper things. It's a lifesaver! It can't pick up anything heavy but for picking up something dropped (or stored) on the floor, it's great. Helps for reaching something on the top level of the cabinet too.

As for the crochet, I have completed a small purse using half double crochet and am finishing up the strap for it. I'll take pics (which means Ed will take pics) of it and post about it soon. While it's not sewing exactly, it's closely related since it does at least use fibers of some sort. It's my first ever crochet piece and I think it's pretty cool. My first knitted piece was a scarf, and this is just a teeny bit more advanced than that, so I feel all kinds of proud of myself.

Sewing Hiatus

2009-01-04T08:12:00.000-08:00

I am going into an involuntary sewing hiatus. Involuntary because I don't want to be in it! But, alas, I have had not fun and painful back surgery and am recovering. That means long long days of being in bed and you certainly can't sew in bed with a sewing machine! The sewing machine is getting plenty of use with my almost MIL though. She's been sewing aprons, a doll and a dinosaur, and is working on a scrap quilt for each of the dogs. She also has a wardrobe to create. At the moment I am sewing vicariously through her.

I had all the good intentions in the world to get pictures taken of me in my new skirts from last month, but then I broke our bed and we had to hunt for a new one the day before surgery. You can't have a broken bed when you are about to have back surgery!

I am teaching myself how to crochet though. I've known how to knit for some time but it takes forever to knit something. I have heard that crochet is faster and figured that being bed-ridden was a good time to learn. My first project will be a small purse with a flap that uses half double crochet. I practiced single, double and half double all last night, so I may tackle my project today if I am feeling up to it.

Books!

2008-12-28T17:48:00.000-08:00

A Christmas present from a good friend were 2 sewing books. One was 201 Quilt Blocks: Motifs, Projects, and Ideas by Louise Bell and another was Making Your House a Home by Lynette Jensen.

These came right in time for my almost MIL to teach me a simple block quilt, which will be my first. When I started sewing I said to myself that I wouldn't do quilts, that it was too cliche and that I didn't have the room.

This, of course, was before I fell in love with sewing and when Ed and I were living with 2 other roommates in a tiny 2 bedroom condo. 5 sewing machines later to add to the collection and a nice fabric stash and I'm ready to tackle quilting. Plus I just love those little darning/embroidery feet and need a reason to buy one.

A Splurge!

2008-12-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

I know I have pictures due, but right now I've caught a cold after a long week of flying to and from Oregon to pick up my MIL (she sews too). She and I went shopping yesterday, with Ed in tow and split the 26 pack of Gutermann thread. In addition it was half off and she had a 10% off your entire purchase coupon, so we made out of there like bandits. We divvied up the contents since she sews a lot of brights and I don't and I stuck all my other Gutermann threads in the box.

And to my surprise...she bought me a brand spankin' new sewing machine! Nothing fancy, but it's new and isn't as temperamental as my old Babylock. My recent used Babylock died on me and no longer will pick up the bobbin thread no matter what I do. Very sad, since I was so happy to find a nice one for so cheap. I'm sure once I get it serviced that it will be fine again, although who knows when I will get around to doing that. I have a ton more to service before that one. But the new one is my primary machine for the moment. It's just a little Brother machine, but straight out of the box it was sewing perfect stitches with no hang ups like I have with my others. I love it!

Everything I Touch Turns To Garbage - A Rant

2008-12-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

I have had two duds in a row recently! I first made Simplicity 3990 for Halloween. It was the one with the pleats in the front and it turned out pretty well, so I thought that I would make another in a different version. I went for the plain button down with the slit sleeves and altered it for my formidable arms. Ok, they are fat but formidable sounds much cooler. That shirt came out ok but was still a bit tight when I stretched my arms forward.

I decided to cut out the next size and blend it to fit. I chose this pretty silky black and silver/gray leaf patterned fabric that I've been saving for something special. It's one of my favorite fabric pieces in my small stash. After cutting it out I sewed it up to the point before attaching the sleeves and tried it on. I LOOKED LIKE AN OLD LADY. Yep, my favorite fabric that I loved so much would have been better suited for a skirt because as a shirt it made me look like I shopped in the old lady section of Ross or Marshalls. Bleh. Into the trash it went.

Then I started on a muslin of Simplicity 5914 version A I believe (the long bell shaped skirt) and made a few alterations because a pin fit showed that it may or may not fit. After cutting the ugly fabric I sewed it up and tried it on, just cinching it to me without a zipper or anything. Horrid! I was trying to convert it to an elastic waist rather than a zipper (but not a really bulky waist) and I cut the pattern far too big. I thought that adding the elastic may make it better. Oh how wrong I was! This time rather than an old lady I looked like one of those poor women in those scary Mormon Fundamentalist compounds. It didn't help that I chose such a drab color for the muslin, which happened to be the only fabric I have on hand other than my *final* choice that was enough yardage.

So, bleh. I'm really rather over all these duds!

Handbags

2008-11-25T03:14:00.000-08:00

I was recently sent a link to this CraftBits project that uses old silk ties to make a handbag. Since we have ties coming out of our ears from buying them by bag at the thrift store (which they don't always have, you have to be there at the right time I think). After we sorted the one's that Ed liked, which weren't many, I had a lot of ties left. So, I made this bag:

Front

Back

Top/Flap

I'm not completely happy with the way it gapes open at the top, and will try another to fix this issues, especially since we just got 2 more bags of ties this past weekend. The project does take a lot of ties, and you have about half of each tie leftover. So what to do with those pieces?

I also made myself a larger messenger bag that acts as my purse. I'm one of those people who have a lot to carry around, so a large bag is what suits my needs. Since I'm not into the fancier types of bags, this one is simple.

Front

Topstitching

Pocket and Lining

The outside is made with thrifted home dec weight fabric in a neat stripe and dot pattern. The inside is lined with simple quilters cotton, and I even went so fancy as to give myself a pocket. The first one I ever made, which was one of the first projects I ever made, had no pocket and was made of beige corduroy and lined in a white heavy weight canvas. Pretty boring! I needed a little more oomph, although this one is still pretty mild in comparison to others I see.

So, as I type this I'm sitting in my newly sewn jammie pants that I just made out of a thin knit that feels so soft! I probably won't post pictures about these since they are pretty standard and boring. Nothing cute or fancy about them, just plain blue but I tried to recreate a pair I wore and loved to death until the holes I sewed closed started to have their own holes. Yeah, they were pretty ratty, but they were so soft it was like wearing nothing and I just couldn't let them go until I wore every seam out. Ah, I still miss those jammie pants!

Small sewing slump

2008-11-22T23:42:00.000-08:00

I've been in a small sewing slump. I think I burned myself out a bit with the huge Halloween costume projects. I've been doing some other stuff lately and am in an ornament swap that I need to start working on since the deadline is approaching. Not sewing related, but something to keep myself occupied. I did make a couple handbags that I have yet to upload the pictures on, but rest assured, another post is coming soon!

And speaking of handbags, a friend sent me this link to an adorable (free) pattern for a bag that I hope to make soon, by Oh Fransson called the Margaret Sling Bag. I love the fabric she uses, and it really just showcases the cuteness of the bag even more!

A Word About Thread

2008-11-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

Image by Edward Ellsworth

I never have said yet, how I feel about thread. I started out with the cheapo stuff and constantly had problems with thread breaking, or bunching up at the needle hole because of a slub and then breaking. It's extremely frustrating to a beginner to have thread break constantly, even though you know the tension is correct and it's the right needle for the job. You start to second guess your abilities and think maybe you suck at sewing.

Don't think that. I swear, it's the thread!

But, lately I've been taking advantage of the 50% off thread sales at JoAnns.

Yes, I know some hate JoAnns, but when you are sewing on a budget you don't really have a choice of ordering good thread on the internet as opposed to a 50% off sale. The sale is just too good.

So, as I was saying, lately I've been using the better stuff like Gutermann for the plain thread, top stitching and such. Boy can I tell a difference! It's like night and day. Coats and Clark Dual Duty XP is better than the Dual Duty Plus (found at Walmart often), but I am just blown away with how Gutermann handles. I haven't yet tried the fun metallics and specialty threads, although I do eye them often, but those will be my next step when I'm confident that I won't waste my money because I am not skilled enough to work with those thread types.

There comes a time, when on a budget when the cheapest isn't always the best. You might save a pocketful of money buying a lesser brand, but in terms of ease of use, and quality, stepping up to the "little more expensive" item can be a better choice. I think that I will still use the lesser brands for my practice pieces and muslins, but for the final piece I will be going with the good stuff, provided I can afford it and...it stays within the budget I allow myself.

Halloween Costumes - Details Part 4 - The Accessories

2008-11-10T00:34:00.000-08:00

While not technically sewing, I am dying to show off the cool little accessories that we made for the halloween costumes. People got quite a kick out of them!

First, the man accessories, one of which I already gave a sneak peek of before anything else:

The top hat

Top Hat Accessory on the Band

And to show you that this isn't a fancy, store bought hat, I will show the insides of it and give you and idea as to how it was created:

Inside the Top Hat, Construction Details

The other major man accessory, for any Victorian gentleman is the cane:

The cane

The cane was made out of a large copper painted wooden dowel, a copper painted wooden door knob for the head and was studded with copper upholstery nails that were outlined in permanent marker. The end was one of those feet you put on the legs of chairs to keep them from skidding across the floor.

Copper Painted Wooden Door Knob

Cane Details: Copper Nails Outlined in Black Marker

Now, the ladies accessories, which are a lot more of, so if you bore easily you may want to step away. We'll start from the top down.

While I don't have the greatest picture of how my hair was done, on the opposite side I had a hair fascinator that I made out of feathers, a gear, a vintage ruby colored glass gem, and a brass floral stamping that I got from the hardware store that is used for a decorative touch in the hardware for holding up a mirror. Also in my hair was a hair clip that I made with gears, a washer, a vintage brass stamping and swarovski crystals. Unfortunately by the time I got home and took it out, the rush glue job I did stopped holding and it's now in two pieces, but you get the idea:

Hair Fascinator

Hair Clip

The earrings I accumulated somehow, probably something my grandmother or mother gave me at one point, long ago:

Earrings of Unknown Origin

Next is a vintage rhinestone necklace from the 1930's that came all the way from England that an old friend sent me ages ago:

Vintage Rhinestone Necklace, circa 1930

Vintage Rhinestone Necklace, circa 1930, detail

The next item down was a brooch that I made to coordinate with the hair fascinator, using again the floral brass stamping, a gear and a vintage ruby colored glass gem. Nesting the gem is another vintage brass stamping that I just adore, of a flower. The gem rests so perfectly in there:

Feminine Gear Brooch

The last on my body was a gorgeous bracelet that I got from Carol of Beaded Baubles. She does absolutely amazing chain maille. This is in copper which went fabulously well with my whole attire.

Copper Chain Maille Bracelet by Carol of BeadedBaubles.com

And that completes the costumes! The accessories are the last part and I must say that we had a blast creating these babies, in addition to the party that gave us the ideas for everything. Once given a theme we just ran with it.

Halloween Costumes - Details Part 3 - The Vogue Vest

2008-11-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

Vogue Vest 7488

The Vogue vest 7488, version B. I made mine out of a home dec weight velvet, or velour (I'm ignorant of the differences). The fabric was pretty thick at the seams and gave me a couple problems. One was that the instructions want you to line the vest and pull it through the shoulder seams and then fold over the lining and stitch it closed by hand. Since my seams were so thick, I didn't have enough lining fabric to do this. So, what I did instead was to sew the seams as normal and then trim them down. I then covered them with ribbon to hide the exposed seams.

Shoulder seam covering

The double breast is supposed to have buttons for the closure but I found a very cool washer "thing" at the hardware store that I painted copper that I wanted to use instead. So since I couldn't make buttons or buttonholes I decided to use snaps as the closure. Each washer had a single stitch on each side to hold it on, using the matching topstitching thread. It matched perfectly was was very hard to tell that it was stitched on. Behind each washer I stitched a snap that corresponded with the opposite side.

Front of vest

Copper painted washer

Snaps

And finally instead of using a buckle for the back, I ended up using a large hook and eye, leftover from another project, stitched on with the matching topstitching thread.

Back closure

The vest, is a rather involved pattern, but the result is wonderful. I will make this again, for another Steampunk event, or just for a fancy shindig.

Halloween Costumes - Details Part 2 - The Vest and Shirt

2008-11-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

The Vest

The vest is a vintage 1979 McCalls 5297. It came in a smaller size than what I am, but being the industrious gal I am, I decided to try grading it. Scary eh? It was to me at first as well. But, following a few online tutorials, I was able to find that I needed to add more to the bust (since a woman's body has the most area there) rather than the back and/or sides. Doing so brought it up to my size, but I still had to do a full bust adjustment to it for it to fit right. It took even more pinning after I sewed the FBA to get it just right, since it had to be pretty much a perfect fit because of how fitted it actually needed to be. The vest is unlined, but does have a facing around the whole edge. I did make a muslin first to see where I needed to take in seams or add them and found that I had mismeasured somewhere in the grading for the bottom facing. I had to re-draft the bottom facing to fit, but it wasn't a terrible setback. Just an extra few hours.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the vest was made out of some $1 fabric. Now that I think about it, I may have gotten it from a thrift store rather than Wal-Mart since I found a piece that is identical a few weeks ago in a thift store. Sometimes I don't know where all this fabric comes from! But anyways, it's made from the wrong side of some lovely twill. I chose the wrong side because it was a shade darker than the right side and I wasn't too worried about doing things the "right way" for a costume.

The black lace on the bottom edge was actually one of the most expensive items I bought for the outfit. I did use a coupon for it, but it was still pretty expensive for my way of life. But, I do think it was worth every penny and am very happy that I chose to add it. I think it lent an air of "old time" to it that was perfect for a Victorian aristocrat.

The Shirt

The shirt is made from Simplicity 3990 and is the version that the model is wearing. This was one of the very cool B, C, D cup options that Simplicity has come out with. The fitting wasn't even an issue in the bust area and other than the pleating (which did take a while), this shirt was quick to make up since I didn't have to do an FBA on it. There are some minor fitting issues that I will tweak in future garments made from this pattern, but it's nothing I can't fiddle with and try and change.

Halloween Costumes - Details Part 1 - The Skirt

2008-11-01T23:35:00.000-07:00

So, as promised here are some detail pictures.

The Skirt

This is made from these instructions. There are measurements on there, but to get my own waist size I took my own waist measurement and divided it between all of the pieces. I then made a pattern out of plastic sheeting since I really don't like tissue paper for pattern making. It's cheap, and you can cut it as huge as you want. The only drawback is that you can't iron it and all you can really do is run your hands over it to get the wrinkles out. I also made myself a large graph board with 1 inch increments marked on it to help with accuracy, which I pinned the pattern to as I created it.

The front is one large piece cut on the fold and the back has 4 gores (I think!) to make it sweeping and froofy. I measured from hip to hip to start the construction and then divided the remaining inches into the gores, since it really didn't matter to me where those ended up in relation to my body.

The pattern doesn't include a waist, so what I used was some black fabric and interfacing cut in a rectangle to my waist size, doubled it over lenghtwise and sewed it to the skirt. I left one seam open for a zipper which is on my side since the skirt doesn't have a back seam.

I winged the lining. I really had no idea what to do with the lining since I had never lined a skirt (or dress) with a zipper before. My attire doesn't tend towards lined skirts, so I haven't ever made one. The skirt is lined with a thrifted sateen bedsheet, which is thick and luxurious and which also added a lot of weight.

The skirt had some serious body and weight to it from all the layers and the thickness of both fabrics.

The hem took me over 3 hours to do! The skirt itself took a few weeks working on it on and off, although I didn't time myself. It was a large job considering the amount of fabric I had to work with and I don't envy those thrifty Victorian women that had to sew skirts and clothes either by hand or with a treadle.

The Halloween Costumes

2008-11-01T02:28:00.000-07:00

And we have pictures!

A Victorian Steampunk Halloween Costume

The details of the costume will come later. For now, I'll tell you what each piece is. Ed's vest is Vogue 7488, view B the double-breasted version, and his shirt and pants are store bought and something he already owned. My shirt is Simplicity 3990 the pleated version, while the vest is a vintage 1979 McCalls 5297. The skirt is a repro of an actual Victorian/Edwardian walking skirt made from instructions here. I decided not to use a bustle since I had plenty of rear end once I tried it on!

The hat and cane I made. The hat went over extremely well at the party! People couldn't believe it was made out of poster board (and fabric of course). Overall, we were very happy with the way our costumes turned out. More details to come...

A sneak peek - The Top Hat

2008-10-30T15:23:00.000-07:00

I thought I would show a sneak peek of Ed's top hat. Since we're running behind on everything costume wise I doubt I will get a picture of us both before Halloween, all dressed up. So, I'll show one of the coolest items other than the cane that is in Ed's costume:

And here is a close up of the cool little doo-hickey on the side:

Ed chose both the fabric and helped me put together the accessory for the hat. The fabric is a spiderweb design that was on sale at JoAnns the other day. We had decided on a plain black satin but he fell in love with this fabric some time ago. Since it was on sale he splurged a bit and bought a yard for the hat.

So last night I had him sit down and I measured his head using a piece of black posterboard and marked where it stopped. It took 3 pieces of posterboard and fabric; one for the top of the hat, one for the middle/sides and one for the brim. All I did was eyeball everything, and it went ok except that I screwed up on the middle part and didn't cut enough fabric. At least, I did originally but I measured the middle and it bent inward a bit when I measured, so there is a small patch on the other side, which I won't show you, that covers my boo boo. But it's hardly noticable since the fabric is pretty busy and the accessory is on the opposite side which draws the eye there.

Just for reference the "top hat" part, that starts at the top part of the brim, is 5 inches high. It seemed like a reasonable height, since neither of us had ever seen a real top hat before. There was no sewing involved though because I hot glued everything on the hat.

Halloween Costume Update

2008-10-24T01:19:00.001-07:00

I've been pretty quiet the past few days, but it's only because I've been busy! I have completed my own costume that consists of a Victorian walking skirt that I found here, a 70's Simplicity vest and the pleated shirt from Simplicity 3990 that the model is wearing.

The Simplicity shirt was pretty easy to make and I didn't have to do a bust alteration since this is one of the patterns that come in B, C, and D sizes. I love that feature and actually wrote the company to say so. Hopefully they will continue to make them. The only fitting issue I have is that the upper arms, in the cap of the sleeve is a little tight, but that's from my own large upper arms. If I make the shirt again I'll have to figure out how to alter that. I always seem to have issues with sleeves since my arms seem to gain most of my weight! But that shirt is very pretty. I did it in some kind of bridal satin that was in the red tag section of JoAnns, but it works for the costume. It's now awaiting a wash to get the marks out.

Right now I'm working on Ed's fancy Vogue 7488 (view B) double-breasted vest. I'm using a home dec weight velvet or velour (I have no idea which is which) since I found it in a thrift store for cheap. The back of the vest is done in crepe backed satin and it's lined in some kind of poly. The pattern is probably an intermediate level and since it has things like welt pockets and interesting lapels, facings and collar it's a little complicated. I'm "getting it" as I go along but I do have to read the directions closely and heaven forbid I work on it while I'm tired. I already screwed up a pocket from doing that. Thankfully I saved it, but it could have been worse.

Once everything is finished I will show pics of us both. I may even do my hair the way I plan to for Halloween; I need to do a test run anyways. I have waist length hair, so figuring out a way to contain it all in a fancy 'do has been a little hard, without having to go to a salon to get a good look. I think I'm going to go with a fancy chignon of sorts; similar to this YouTube video from Johnny Lavoy.

Oh What a Haul!

2008-10-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

I haven't been sewing a lot lately because I've been recovering from a medical procedure. It's had me pretty sore and not wanting to move about much. But, to lift my spirits, Ed and I went to a thrift store that isn't that close to our place, one we don't get to go to a lot but one that usually yields something cool, even if it's only a book. This time I went in search of these bags of mens ties they sometimes have for a few bucks. Instead Ed once again spotted a sewing machine!

This time it was a Babylock BL6600, all fancy and electronic sans manual of course. It has the same amount of stitches as my other babylock, but this one is much newer and in better shape. The price tag was a little steep for our budget, which is pretty non-exsistent right now, but how could we pass up a $$$ sewing machine for under $40? Yes, under $40. To top that they were having a deal where if you spent $50 or over you got a coupon for $5 off your next purchase. So I had to go find something else to round out the total. There were no ties to be found that weren't priced singly, but I found yet another bag of fabric that looked like it had a few neat and colorful items in it for $3. And of course we had to get some books. Always books.

Once home, I opened up the bag and whoa what a haul! All of the fabric in the photo was crammed into a bag about the size of a brown shopping bag. Yards and yards of gorgeous fabric (and a few scary ones too)! Usually there are a few good choices in these grab bags, and a lot of "eh" scraps and such. This one had only one print of scraps. The rest was between one yard and 6! 6 yards of a lining fabric was the big yardage but most averaged about 2 yards per piece.

In with the bag were a couple, obviously, vintage pieces. The white, orange and green piece in the lower right is one, along with the burgandy/brown and white elephant home dec weight fabric. There is also a curious white, blue and gold toile-like fabric of Japanese scenes with little Mickey and Minnie dotted throughout. Ed actually spotted that one when I showed it to him; I completely missed it! I'd love to find out where it originates from, or when it was made but alas, there is nothing similar online that I can find or perhaps I'm not searching right.

The green fabric in the upper right is an adorable border print with little people holding umbrellas, or newspapers over their heads and walking around. There is 4 yards of this fabric.

Boy, talk about a good haul! This just goes to show that you can find some remarkable sewing items in thrift stores for not a lot of money. The one's I frequent aren't the smokey, antiquey type either but modern places like Goodwill and Savers, with the occassional independent thrown in there when I can find them.

Sure, you have to "make do" with what you have (and supplement it with new/on sale fabric) sometimes, but once you build up your thirft store fabric stash, usually you have a nice little selection to work from.

A Tiny Serger, New Fabric

2008-10-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

A while ago (more like months) I came across a Singer Tiny Serger and snatched it up. I found it in Savers, a local thrift store for $10. It was a little splurge, but I had been wanting to try using a serger to see if I wanted to save the money to buy one. This little thing was the perfect solution! Really, it only does the overlock stitching and not the cutting. You have to trim the fabric back yourself. Now, I'm addicted to the machine and have decided that when this one stops working, because how long will a Mini Serger last when I give it the workout of a lifetime each week, I will invest in a real serger! I suppose I should start saving now...

I also hit upon Goodwill's 50% off Saturday this past weekend and got a bag of fabric for the princely sum of $4. In it is 4 yards of some lightweight black twill, which could be something like chino but I am so ignorant in fabric types I'm not sure. Also a few yards of black crepe backed satin that I may use for Ed's Halloween vest if there is enough, some scraps of some purple polyester junk and some cotton print that is pretty, but totally not my style. Those will probably get made into jammie pants since I'll never leave the house with them anyways. There may be about 2-3 yards of that.

So, overall a nice haul!

I've also been working on my Victorian skirt and have finished the vest. I want to take a picture of them both together, because otherwise the vest would ride way too high on me with normal clothes on, so patience my dear readers. The skirt is heavy to begin with since it requires so many yards, but I'm also lining it so I don't have to have my body touch the icky polyester feel, which just adds onto the weight. I can't imagine what the ladies of long ago had to endure when they got dressed. I mean, I'm only going to be wearing this thing for a few hours; they had to wear it all the time! With all the layers, it's like you are wearing armor.

Thrift Store Find - Book

2008-09-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

I found in a thrift store the other day, Better Homes and Gardens Sewing Book from 1970. I'm sure this little gem sat there for some time before I came across it. It is actually a binder book, similar to what you use in school, with pages that come out. But it is filled with a ton of useful information that I couldn't find in my other (admittedly a limited selection) sewing books.

It talks about things like how to make a ribbon waistline so that your dress doesn't pull out of shape, and how to line a garment, which I really needed to know! I've been looking for a book about lining for some time now.

The illustrations and explantions are great and put across their point. I haven't even finished reading it yet and in love with it. I think I'll be referring back to it quite often, as I do with "Fit for Real People". Plus, the little line drawings of the ladies are just too cute, aren't they?

Steampunk Halloween - a long post

2008-09-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

This Halloween Ed and I have been invited to a steampunk Halloween by one of our Browncoat buddies. A few Saturdays ago the invitee and I went on a thrifting and craft store hunt for pieces of the steampunk costumes. She walked away with gorgeous dupioni silk (albiet from JoAnns) and some pretty red tag sari fabric. We also hit some of the local thrift stores and found some tablecloth things that were edged in scalloped eyelet, which was just perfect for the bloomers she had in mind. This Sunday she came over for a fitting and walked home with the things that just needed a waistband put in or something.

The silk has been turned into a skirt that has been pulled up in front to come above the bloomers so 'er knickers show, and has been bustled in the back. The hook and eye's we chose are large and brass and probably belong in something home decor but she though they were steampunkish so we're adding them to the back. Since we only have 6 of them and there are 8 points in the back that are pulled up, some of the bottom row will have regular, smaller hook and eyes.

I've planned for Ed and I to dress in shades of gray and black. Not the most exciting, but I think I can make some fun things using that palette. It also happens to be that I have found more fabric in gray and black that will suit our Halloween needs than any other...

My costume will consist of a 70's vest, a skirt with a bustle I'll make that ties around the waist to floof out the tush area and some kind of shirt (I haven't decided on the shirt yet but am thinking Simplicity 3990 with the pleated front). The vest is one that I graded! My first time grading anything actually. I got a tutorial from here to help me muddle through things. The original vest pattern is McCall 5297 from 1979. It contains, among the very dated pants, a princess seam close fitting vest that was perfect for my idea. The vest comes to points at the hem in the front and back. The weird thing I found was that the facings (yes, I graded and changed those too) connected neck to front to back, so all around the edge is a facing. Perhaps this is common with unlined vests since I've never made one before and I just don't know.

I went out and bought a tummy tucker thing, almost like a corset except that I have to pull it over my head (and isn't that a sight; I got stuck in the fitting rooms with nobody to help me when I first tried it on). I almost bought a corset type thing but the price just drew me off; this whole Halloween needs to be done as cheaply as possible but without looking cheap. This isn't a piece of undergarment that I will use repeatedly. My style of clothing does not consist of me wearing uncomfortable underclothes. Like ever. So, my hourglass figure (yes, I have one of those, although a little curvier than most) will be sucked in, although my ample busom won't be. I'm going for the tiny waisted Victorian look, but...not so tiny waisted that I need armor under my clothing like the days of old.

The skirt I already have material for and I found it of all places at WalMart for $1 per yard. I bought the whole bolt which was only a little over 7 yards. It's some icky polyester but the fabric pattern is perfect for something a little steampunk.

The fabric has a large black grid that is filled in with kind of a puffy gray fabric. As a skirt, it should do fine. As a short lived costume it should do even better since the fabric really is kind of polyester-y to the touch. If I'm feeling ambitious enough I may even line it, but I may not have the time.

The fabric for the vest is another $1 per yard beauty and I'm still not sure which side I want to use since they both would work for my needs:

Ed's costume will be a Vogue vest pattern for men. Vogue 7488 has a doublebreasted vest pattern that suits the need for him:

It will be done in black with a copper top stitching, which will be my first time top stitching with actual top stitching thread, which will probably be much different than the "top stitching" I do with regular thread. I know there is some adjustment of tensions with top stitiching thread. In any case, we'll just do a fancy dress shirt for him (perhaps in gray, which he already has in his closet) and some black pants (which too he already has). Ed will be sporting a handmade walking cane and a top hat.

The top hat, frankly, was kind of hard to research. There aren't many good tutorials for making a top hat in real size and all the old ones are very expensive. What we're going to do is make a base in poster board, like this link. After we finish the base we will glue or adhere a satiny fabric to it to mimic a real silk top hat. I think for a night of Halloween fun, which I may add is our favorite day of the year that supasses even Christmas, it should hold up fine.

I won, I won!

2008-09-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

I won free patterns from The Hem Line that is. Lisa at The Hem Line has a weekly pattern drawing for free patterns. If you are in the US you pay nothing in postage, if you live in Canada or in other parts of the world all she asks is postage costs (which are mentioned each week in the post). I was the lucky winner of this:

What I wanted the most was that pattern without the envelope of the ponchos and capes! Those just rock my socks. But, how can you resist that look on the fella's face in the hat pattern pictures? It looks like he was eyeing some juicy morsel out of sight of the camera. I can only guess what kind of juicy morsel it was!

Lisa also has an etsy shop of fabric and notions and an extensive ebay store full of patterns. A very serious temptress!

Here There Be Pirates!

2008-09-12T01:28:00.001-07:00

This is the pirate costume from Simplicity 5446, the adult size, medium. I had nobody to model the children's pattern for me, so it will go unphotographed until I get pics back from my family. It is a tad big on Ed, but we were able to pin the pants so they fit. The vest is supposed to be the correct size for him though, had we made this for Ed instead of my brother for whom it is intended.

You can see our little picture pal Lily in the background of the second photo. She just wanted to get in on that attention!

Anyways, the pants are made of some cotton/poly blend that really could stand a few more washes to make it a little softer. I have no idea what it's original purpose was since I found it in the thrift store, but the pattern sure makes good pirate pants (or prison pants if you were going for that look!). The floofy pirate shirt is made of a recycled queen sized bed sheet and the vest is some faux suede fabric, again found at a thrift store.

The vest material was actually a huge pain to work with because the minute you touched the fabric your hands turned brown! It practically oozed dye. I gave it a soak 3 times in the bathtub with some Woolite before I judged it had released enough dye that it could stand a turn through the washing machine.

After it came out there were white spots (probably from the fabric softener that was in the detergent) that I had to scrub out with a brush before I was satisfied of it's appearance. Definitely something I do not want to work with again if I have to, which is a pity since the fabric itself is so pretty and suede soft.

All in all, the pattern was pretty easy to work with. I had some trouble with the vest lining, and I do blame that on the vague instructions. If I had lined more things I probably wouldn't have been so confused I think. But, other than that one mishap, the pattern was very fun and quick to work with. I would recommend this pattern if you are looking for something piratey, or even to use as a Ren Faire costume since the pants and shirt could easily be from that time period. They are pretty versatile!

I know, I know, I owe some pics

2008-09-10T13:59:00.000-07:00

But, I don't have them yet. I have finished the tops and bottoms, both man and child for the pirate costume. AND I still haven't posted a final photo of the Superman jacket (which I still haven't sent off because of that reason). I also have made a pair of cargo pocket capri's that I need to show, and...no wait, that's it. ;) I haven't started on anything else yet.

I was asked to make bloomers and wide legged shorts for a Halloween costume. Ed and I will be attending a "Steampunk Halloween" with some Browncoats we know. Browncoats being fans of anything Serenity, Firelfy or Joss Whedon; you know, they guy who created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and more recently Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. Ok, so I'm a fan... Anyways, a gal I know has asked me to do the culottes and bloomers so that the bloomers peek out at the bottom. I'll be adapting Simplicity 9871, which is a pj bottom pattern that I use for myself.

Pics to come!

Ahoy me mateys!

2008-09-02T15:07:00.000-07:00

My nephew, who is 6, is in love with pirates and everything pirate related. Ed and I were in Hobby Lobby looking at patterns. Yes, Ed looks at pattern books! I send him in search of guy stuff that I can make for him. He was flipping through McCalls costume section when he came across 5446, a pirate costume. We called my brother to see if he and his son would like to be matching pirates for Halloween, and of course he said yes. We're doing the more ruffian type of pirate (the larger image in the pic) than the tailored type, as per my brothers wishes, although I would have liked to make them the fancy coat.

So, we bought the pattern and the next day I went to the thrift store (I go to the thrift stores around here a LOT, as in I think it's another hobby of mine, but I refuse to admit it) and found this great length of black and white, jagged striped fabric that would be perfect for pants. So I've sewn the pants already and they look great, and started onto the shirt in the boy size last night.

I must have picked the wrong fabric to work with. It's some poly blend that is really soft, but a little slinky. I should have known from previous experiences with similar fabric. I just couldn't get this stuff to stay put. The seams were puckered and wavy, when I tired to attach the collar I got little pleats from the fabric straying from it's position, no matter how careful I was. I spent 6 hours between cutting and sewing this thing before I just chucked it in the trash and went to bed. I have another, more losely woven white cotton, similar to the faux linen they sell at JoAnns that I think I'll use instead. It should behave a lot better.

I will keep updated on the costumes and have some pictures to show once Ed gets his new camera up and running. He even bought a macro lens to take close up pictures of the beads I make, for me! What a guy. Of course he too wants to do macro photography, but the bead thing was what sealed the deal for him I think.

Baby Shorts

2008-08-29T05:11:00.000-07:00

I don't have kids, but my brother has 2 little ones that are 3 and 6 and they just had another not too long ago. If my sister-in-law ever gets me the measurements for the bigger kids (it's going on a month now...ahem) I can make them some cute clothes and I have a pirate costume planned for my nephew. But, I digress...I picked up a kids pattern at the thrift store for 69 cents and it has a cute and very simple pair of baby shorts or panties, depending on what material you make them out of I guess. So far I've made 2:

One in a scrap of floral fabric that I got in a grab bag that was too small for anything else and another in a light weight denim. I hemmed and hawwed (or is that hawed?) about the denim thinking it may be a little too rough, but I'll let mommy decide that. These are sized to a small since I got the baby's weight and the pattern thankfully wasn't in measurements, which is a little bigger than my neice but babies grow fast, so I figure by the time I have these in the mail she'll fit into them.

And an update to the Superman Project...it's done! I just need to get it washed since it has picked up every since piece of thread it touched, and then photographed. Stay tuned for the grand finale!

Superman Progress Pt 3

2008-08-16T02:56:00.001-07:00

The hood is attached! It took a while for me to get it just right. After the buttonhole mishap and having to recut another hood in both the red fabric and lining, I was a little discouraged and needed a small break. But, I pulled the jacket out again tonight and attached the hood. And my thanks to Ed for being a good sport about modelling it for me.

Since the two layers are pretty thick, I needed to use double wide bias tape, rather than regular bias tape, where it said to use it as the neck facing. Since I didn't have the light blue I originally had bought for it, in double wide, I ended up just using black. But that matches too since the Superman fabric has enough black in it, and a lot of the top stitching was done in black. Which brings me to the details that I promised a few posts ago.

The first image is the top stitching I achieved using a twin needle. I am in LOVE with my twin needle! And it makes such a nice finish on the inside as well, which you can see in the second photo. Since I didn't plan well about pocket placement and the hem, I started the hem stitching further towards the back of the pocket, though I did hand stitch to the lining on the inside. Basically it looks like the pocket is placed over the hem stitching, though it's not. I saved myself by that idea! I really didn't want to have to rip apart half the zipper and place the pockets higher up so that I could make a hem.

I realized too late to go out for it, but I didn't have nearly enough elastic. So, the project waits on hold, again, until I can get both more elastic for the hem and cuffs and a drawstring for the hood. I made a point NOT to photograph the buttonholes because those are pretty bad. My idea to put in the buttonholes after the hood was stitched in place wasn't a good one.

A Brief Intermission

2008-08-13T00:36:00.000-07:00

I've been a little ill the last few days and haven't been up to working on the Superman jacket. So, I made what we've been needing badly. Zippered pouches to hold our mp3 players. It's hard to keep the earbuds and the player all together in a pocket or a purse without it tangling, so I used this tutorial to make a lined zippered pouch. Mine is on the left and is larger because I wanted the ability to watch movies on my player (which means it has a small screen) if I was sitting in a doctors office, and Ed's is the smaller and just functions as an mp3 player so he can listen to audiobooks at work (he does graphic design work). Both were bought, I might add, utilizing sales and shopping the best deals at the time, and were also saved for, rather than it being a rash decision. The Budget and all...

The larger polka dot pouch has a blue heart lining and uses a vintage zipper, bought at one thrift store or another. The smaller, check pattern (which only matches by chance!) has a red lining to match the vintage red zipper. Very guy, if I do say so. Thankfully I had a small scrap of the check fabric that I got in some large bag of scraps. It wasn't big enough to make much else, except maybe another pouch.

The Big List of Sewing Blogs

2008-08-09T12:06:00.001-07:00

I first came across these little badges proclaiming "I'm on the Big List of Sewing Blogs" about 2 months ago, a bit before I first started this blog.
It provided me with hours and hours of blog reading pleasure and gave me a lot of new information. So, if you haven't checked out Suzical's Big List of Sewing Blogs, I suggest you run over there right now!

Vogue 8333

2008-08-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

(Photo from here)
JoAnn Fabric was having a sale on Vogue patterns from the 7th-9th. Thankfully I remembered a half an hour before they closed tonight that I have been drooling over this jacket for months now. Every time I cruise the site, I always, always end up back at this pattern. I don't usually buy Vogue since they are a lot more expenisive than the other big pattern names. Budget sewing doesn't allow for frivilous pattern buying, unless of course, it's one of those 99 cent sales. Because of this, I own a lot of Simplicity and Butterick, but less Vogue and the lesser known names. I'm not saying that the money they want isn't justified (though I've never been a brand name/designer kind of girl), but I just simply can't spend over $10 on one pattern. There is that pesky budget after all, and that means being thrifty.

But, $3.99 I can do! This pattern probably won't get made for some time, but it's pretty classic and probably won't go out of style quickly. It's an advanced pattern, and I'm not confident enough about my skills to attempt it. Yet. But, I will. I will choose my fabric carefully and make sure I utilize sales and/or coupons, but some day you'll see another blog post about this beautiful Vogue 8333.

More Superman Progress Pt 2

2008-08-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

I've made some progress lately by sewing up the side and arm seams and adding the pockets, and even attached the hood until I realized that I had made the buttonholes a bit wrong. Though, in all honesty I don't think it was my fault. I reread the instructions many times and the buttonholes are just in the wrong place on the hood. The need to be closer to the hood edge, but they are pretty far back. I ened up ripping out the hood and scrounging for more of the blue flannel, except I didn't have any blue flannel left. So I had to wait to go to the store for more RIT Dye (and now, at this point I'm getting frustrated). So I have some flannel to dye and then a hood to attach again. I'm going to wait on making the buttonholes until I have to sew up the hood's self facing this time. Lets hope that it works!

But, I'm very pleased with how it is coming out. The pattern is pretty easy, as I've found most Kwik Sew patterns to be. From what I've found, Kwik Sew has some great mens patterns that aren't too difficult and that work up so nicely. I have had to make a few alterations on the Kwik Sew patterns I've used, but what pattern doesn't need at least a few alterations to make it "yours"?

And I just realized that I need to take pictures of the details since I promised that as well. The inside is pretty as well since I used a twin needle and the twin needle also kind of finishes the inside as well as sewing the outside details. Closest I'll come to a coverstitch machine is the good 'ole twin needle

Superman Jacket

2008-08-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

I found this incredible Superman sheet at Goodwill about 6 months ago. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do with it when I bought it, except make something for my cousin who lives and breathes Superman. Seriously, the guy has about 4 tattoos of Superman and related things and that's a rough estimate. As soon as I left, it hit me that I should do a raglan hoodie jacket. He lives in Tennessee and it gets cold there and it would showcase the Superman graphic perfectly. So I searched high and low for an appropriate jacket pattern and found Kwik Sew 1367, an out of print pattern from the 80's I believe, on ebay soon after.

I chose to do view B which is the guy in the turquoise jacket, but I altered the pattern so that the pocket holes started on the side of the stomach rather than the side seams. That just looked awkward and weird to me. I also angled the pockets so that things wouldn't fall out of them, like your pocket litter does on regular RTW hoodies. Boy, does that drive me nuts! I can't tell you how many things I've dropped in the toilet because of that (yeah, eww!).

After consulting him on it, he wanted blue arms, so it would be like Superman's outfit, and a red hood to resemble Superman's cape. I decided to make the pockets blue as well because more Superman would just be too busy on the front. The blue pockets give it a little breather.

I'm not finished yet on the jacket because I ran out of thread and needed to pick some up. I lucked out because JoAnn's is having a 50% off sale on Coats and Clark XP brand thread (which I didn't know about going in there).

I did line it with flannel. I actually dyed it blue after testing a batch a while ago. The larger pieces came out a lot lighter than the test pieces, and mottled looking at that. But since it's inside and it kind of looks like the sky, which goes with the Superman fabric, I kept it as is. I know that the flannel will likely make getting it on and off slightly difficult, but I explained that to my cousin who wanted the flannel anyways. The flannel is a queen sized blanket I found for probably under $3 at some thrift store or another.

I had to baste ALL the flannel to the outside fabric to keep it secure. In planning this, I didn't realize that I would have to do that. But, it makes for more precise construction. Sometimes the flannel was larger than the outer fabric and I'd have to trim it.

I'll post more about the details once it's completed!

My new machine

2008-07-27T23:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it's far, far from "new" actually! My beloved boyfriend Ed bought me a gorgeous Singer 201 sewing machine made in 1938! Amazingly, he got it at Goodwill for a princely sum of $50. To those on a budget you know that is a splurge, but in this instance, well worth the money! It came with the table and works off of a knee controller. It worked when we tested it in the store, but upon bringing it home we noticed that the wiring is completely shot. Once we started fiddling with it (and after consulting a vintage Singer sewing group I've been in since I got the Stylist), we've decided to re-wire the motor and controller. The wires to the light and switch seem to be ok for now, so rather than make more work for us, we're leaving it alone, unless those start to disinegrate too. The other wires just crumble to the touch.

We're going to do some before and after pics of the parts. The metal plates on the front and the back (not pictured) were just filthy!

Here is what the cord that goes from the machine to the controller looked like. You can also see the motor wires above that (they look like a join in the machine). We've already bought some replacement cord/wire. The friendly sale guy at Ace Hardware told us we might want something a little more heavy duty than simple lamp wire, so we got a 6 ft power cord we're going to use instead. Apparently it can stand a higher temp if this machine runs hot. We are going to try and find a service manual, in addition to the regular manual, so we will kind of know what we're doing. There seems to be a seller on ebay that has a copy of a service manual that I'm thinking about getting.

We sure got ourselves into something with this baby! But, it will be a fun project we both can work on, and not too much of an investment. Since it doesn't seem to need any other replacements that I can tell, and the finish of it is in great condition, I think that Ed got me a pretty sweet gift! Though, I think he now has a "thing" for these older machines. He seems to spot them faster than I can.

I'll keep posted about the progress, for those that are looking for the same information. I'll try and document what we do as well. I've searched high and low for instructions on how to rewire this thing, and haven't found anything. A very helpful member of the Singer group I'm on has given me a wealth of information though. So, with trial and error and hopefully a serivce manual, we'll get this thing done!

Simplicity 5194 - Shirt

2008-07-21T22:51:00.001-07:00

This is an OOP, from 2004 but I got it from the thrift store for 69 cents, so I couldn't beat that. I went with view A, that had the longer sleeves and the regular bottom. The design was cute, and has a V neck that isn't too low.

I ended up making 3 different muslins trying to get the right fit. I did an FBA and the front fit ok, but the sleeves, where it meets the bodice and back around the bust area was very tight and the sleeve cap seam was too far away from where it needed to be. I couldn't move my arm forward or back without a terrible pull. I had a hell of a time trying to figure out what to do.

I ended up using a slope shoulder adjustment and adding to the areas where it pulled. That meant that the whole arm area needed to be redrawn. To add to that, I originally had made an adjustment on the sleeve and facing because my arms are fat and probably wouldn't have even fit in the original sleeve. That meant that I had to re-do the sleeve cap too, which too a lot of fiddling and trimming off. I also added to the length. All in all, a kind of frustrating fitting for this pattern, but it ended up coming out ok.

As you can see on the right arm (your left in the photo) it still pulls some when I reach back. But, once I got to this point I quit. I ran out of patience. But, it's not too bad. I have some RTW shirts that have a pull like that, and I guess it's expected in more fitted shirts (and with a full bust).

The fabric is some kind of poly I think. I got it at a going out of business sale at a Joanns for a dollar a yard. It is very silky feeling and is so drapey it's limp.

I did have to add a snap to the top of the button/button loop area because in my alterations, somewhere along the line, the facing for the neckline and along the front of the shirt got skewed and my dots weren't in the right place. I had to wing it on collar placement and it ended up being a little off, so then I had to re-do the buttons so that it wouldn't sit skewed. That gave me too much room at the very top, so if I didn't want the front to gape open a bit, I needed a snap.

Fit For Real People

2008-07-20T02:40:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned before that I have found Fit For Real People an absolute goldmine of information for the beginning sewist. I have been hoarding the copy I have from the library for about 2 months now (thankfully nobody else has put it on hold) and using it every chance I get on the projects I work on. Since this blog is about sewing on a budget, since I am on one, I haven't purchased it yet. I've been patiently waiting for my next gift card to Barnes and Noble to arrive that I get (for free) from Mypoints. I receive emails from them and "clickthru" to a site they link to in the email, occasionally buy something and "clickthru" from their website to the retailer, and do surverys. I accumulate points that I can then redeem for gift cards, of which, Barnes and Noble is my favorite.

Today I finally got another gift card and was able to place my order for my own copy of Fit For Real People. I'm sure the library will be very happy once I return the book I've been using, even if it is maybe a little more worn than when I checked it out.

One Yarder, Fast Project

2008-07-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

I'm recovering from a small medical procedure, so any long term projects are put on hold. But, I've managed to start and finish a small project using only a single yard of fabric, which is great to use up leftover fabric too.

This is Kwik Sew 1672 an 80's OOP that I purchased off of ebay some time ago. It uses a single yard of fabric and is absolutely perfect for making boxers for Ed because getting him to go shopping for anything new is like pulling teeth. On the other hand he doesn't mind going fabric shopping with me, so if we find a cool fabric he likes it usually gets made into another pair of boxers. This fabric was a whopping dollar from the big W. Cost is about $2.00 per pair or less if I can find el cheapo fabric, which isn't bad considering that it's easier to make a pair than to get him to go buy clothes. It uses plain pajama/underwear elastic along the waistband and is a pretty fun and easy pattern to make. There are two views, one that has the squared leg and one that curves upwards (think 80's short short for men).

The leg detail is the fiddliest:
And yes, the sides don't match. I'm not that advanced yet, and it would mean I had to use more than one yard.

I did have to make some adjustments since the seam allowance is only 1/4 inch. The slits needed have an additional 1/4 added to each edge since it would have left a raw edge if I only folded it over once, like the instructions say to.

Tips For Sewing On A Budget

2008-07-06T12:31:00.001-07:00

It's hard to have any craft or hobby and do it on a budget. That means no credit cards too. I don't use credit cards, so any new hobby I have I have to pay for in cash, when I have a little extra.

So, my tips for sewing on a budget:

Shop at thrift stores

This is my key to sewing on a budget. I buy sheets, as long as they don't have holes or smell for cheap muslin fabric (and for garments when approriate) and shop the "tag of the day" when possible. I have a rule that I usually stick to and that is, if the fabric is under $2.50 I'll buy it without a tag (for something over one yard) and if it's over I will wait for that tag to go on sale. Ask the sales people when the tags are. Don't just limit yourself to fabric either, check out the bagged items (Goodwill and Savers have bagged items on the walls). Thread and other notions can be found there. From my experience, bagged items are usually under $4-5.

Shop yard sales

Technically I don't yard sale, but if you do and don't have good thrift stores near you, yard sales are a good way to go. If possible call them the day of and ask if they have linens and/or sewing things. A lot of people will post their phone number along with an address if they aren't just off the main street so you can call for directions. When I've done yard sales I haven't minded at all if someone called me and asked if I had large furniture or whatever. It saves on gas and a wasted trip.

Have patience

You don't need those brand new pinking shears right this instant. There are other ways to finish your work; it just takes longer. Wait for the really good sales! Make do until you can upgrade cheaply, but not by sacrificing quality. Use coupons! A lot of craft and fabric stores will take competitors coupons.

Ask on Freecycle

If you aren't aware of Freecycle yet, get your butt off to Freecycle.org and find your local group. I got my first sewing machine, a Babylock, off of someone from Freecycle in my area. I always see people asking for and giving away bags of scraps (perhaps you quilt?), and I'm collecting a little stash of scraps myself that I will give away on Freecycle too. Be willing to drive and use the gas to go pick up a sewing machine, or something that you really want. What is gas money when in the end you could be saving hundreds? Also, ask nicely. My mother always said that you could attract more flies with honey than you could with vinegar (um, ew), but that is pretty true when asking for something. Please's and thank you's make a world of difference. Post a "want" and not "need" and be polite. I know I shouldn't even have to say that, but I can't tell you how many rude posts asking for things I see on my local group.

Go to Walmart

Yes, I said it. I'm no fan of Walmart as a whole, but when you are on a budget, Walmart is a nessesary evil. I buy all my bobbins there, and dig through the clearance fabric. I know that a lot of Walmarts have taken away the fabric section, but if you do have one, take advantage before they take away yours too! I haven't yet had a problem with the tracing paper, bobbins, fabric, and inexpensive scissors (though I will upgrade those eventually) that I've gotten from Walmart.

Learn shortcuts or tips

Things like using a pin pinned to an ironing board to make bias tape instead of buying a fancy bias tape maker, or using a sponge (which can be found at the dollar store) as a pin cushion. There are tons of tips and sewing advice to be had if you read blogs, websites and use your friendly pal Google.

Pin cushion image courtesy of erellsworth.com

Note: Don't Sew While Tired

2008-07-01T14:29:00.001-07:00

Last night I wanted to get some sewing time in between the hours of 12am and 3am. I've been trying to adjust my schedule (I'm a night owl) from going to bed at 4am to something earlier because of a terribly early doctors appointment in about a week. So, I've been pretty tired lately, especially since I've been on some medication that causes drowsiness. I was pretty much a zombie last night, but I was determined to finish sewing the McCalls 8107 2nd wearable muslin. I ended up sewing the neckline/armhole facings (all in one), grading and clipping before I realized that it was backwards. I also realized that I had been working off of the wrong set of instructions and had inserted the zipper before I should have, which I had to tear out today since I was disgusted with the whole thing last night by the time I had corrected my mistake.

So, lets hope the next time I decide that I'm bound and determined to sew, that I'm not so tired.

Thrift Store Fabric and Current Project

2008-06-30T12:45:00.000-07:00

This is the latest acquisition from Savers (thrift store)

One yard of the butterflies for 99 cents and about 2 1/2 yards of the funky orange retro stretch twill for $2.99. The orange print just screamed to me to buy it, though I am NOT a fan of orange at all. But, look at that pattern! So funky! I was thinking a handbag of some sort from it.

My current project is McCall's 8107, princess seam dress, view G (the center one with the belt). I'm not really a dress person, but I figure if I go to the trouble of making a muslin, doing the fitting and then another muslin and finally a finished object that I will probably wear it! So far I just cut out the second muslin after the first turned out to be a size too big. Who knew? I should have started with the high bust measurement, but that hasn't worked for me in the past, so I decided to just go with a size 20 off the bat. I was swimming in the dress (what I hoped would be a wearable muslin). I have had to do an FBA on the size 18, and trimmed away some excess in the back. The book Fit For Real People was instrumental in learning how to do adjustments on princess seamed dresses; I didn't know it needed all that!

I hope this fitting and muslin does it; by now I 'm a little tired of all the pattern pieces. Thankfully it sews up rather quickly, even with the little inside out thing the pattern has you do with the facings.

Now, where to find a belt for this dress. I don't even own a belt!

Vintage McCall's Pattern Find

2008-06-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

Boy do I love thift stores! I stopped in one last night and they had a lot of nice fabric, which I didn't buy because while it wasn't over priced, I wanted a bargain which some of it wasn't. They normally don't have a great pattern selection, but while walking by it this caught my eye:

So I snatched it up in a heartbeat and saw this one behind it:
Not that I am either bust size (guess higher. No, higher!) but someday I will either be a size 14 (quit laughing) or I will learn how to grade a pattern, which is beyond my abilities right now. Of course I could also turn into an obsessive pattern collector and just buy patterns willy nilly. That is something I'm debating on...since it's already started. I think I have about 50/50 of patterns that fit and those that don't. Quite a few from the 70's, although these are the oldest I've found yet. But I digress; I think these are complete. One is certainly still in factory folds (6759), and the other I haven't taken out yet since I don't have enough room on any surface to spread out until I get my sewing area cleaned up (and a project completed). Overall, a great find for $1.38 total!

Thrift Store Thread

2008-06-16T23:59:00.001-07:00

I stopped by Goodwill this evening since Mondays are dollar days on the previous week's tags and after 5pm they reveal the new tag. Not much there for that dollar tag but I found one on a cheapo sheet that I will use for a muslin. But I did find 2 yards of some rad dinosaur fabric for a dollar (50% off tag) and a bag of thread for $1.99. I just now got around to opening up the thread and checking it out. I really just blindly grabbed it thinking that even if it's the cheap stuff I can use it for testing things out. The majority of it turned out to be Lily brand thread, originally priced at 19 cents. About half of it is still wrapped in the plastic sleeve that protects the thread. The other half is loose and very, very weak. I can snap a short length easily. Too easy to actually use in anything.

The greatest find in the bag though were 3 wooden spools of thread. 15 cents? From what little research I did on them they seem to be from the 50's to 70's. I had no clue what boilfast or fast to boiling meant, but apparently I learned something new today when I found out that it means it will retain the color if boiled, since before washing machines people would boil their clothes to clean them.

Ah, modern conveniences, how I love them so.

Color me

2008-06-10T01:09:00.000-07:00

I often get yardage or used sheets at thrift stores to try out new things, use for muslins and what not. I got about 4 yards of what I thought was cotton quite some time ago, until I did a burn test this evening and found it to be some kind of poly cotton. I also picked up a queen (or king?) sized flannel sheet to mess with. What I ended up doing with them both was testing my first ever batch of RIT dye on scraps of them. Both were an off white, with the flannel having a pattern along the top edge, which is where I took the scrap from, and the poly cotton having a "natural" linen type look to it.

Flannel is on the left, the blend is on the right

Quite a difference! It was an interesting test. I used the bucket/sink and hot water method to dye these as I don't have a pot that I can dedicate to stovetop dyeing. The cotton flannel took a deeper color almost immediately and seemed to rinse out easier as well. I chose the Royal Blue color because I have an obsession with blue, thinking that no matter what it turned out like, I would probably like it no matter the hue. And, I was correct. Both of them I like and now just need to figure out what to do with them. I don't know if the whole 4 yards (minus 1/4 or so that I cut off for this test) will fit in my container, which is an oh-so-fancy plastic storage container that I got from Walmart.

The Hardware

2008-06-05T22:38:00.001-07:00

I decided to create a seperate blog for my sewing endeavors since beginner sewing doesn't really belong on an art blog. But, I mentioned there that I had gotten a sewing machine that my beloved boyfriend found for me at a thrift store for the princely sum of $21. It is a Singer Stylist 6548. It uses discs to get the fancier stitches, but I found out a while ago after playing with it that it won't do any of the fancy stitches. What a bummer! It beats the hell out of my Babylock for straight and zigzag though. Pictures of both machines are below:

The Singer

The Babylock

The Babylock I got from a nice lady on freecycle but it's persnickity. The zig zag skips and the fancy stitches start out well but then start looking messy. I'm sure it could use an overhaul. The Singer is by far the easier to work with. It can pull many layers through while the Babylock gets bogged down without much effort.

I had been doing zippers on the Baby but I just found a Singer zipper foot (that was missing from mine) at JoAnn's tonight and it seems to work. I was putting off ordering online, just because I don't know where to order from. I'm still new to this!

Soon I hope to post some of the things I have made so far. I've been seriously sewing for about 6 months now, but building up the stash, thread, and other notions takes a while when you're a starving artist. Actually I'm not starving and am in fact rather plump, but it's such a visual term isn't it?