I Am Still Alive

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

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

Review for:

SAS Fabrics

9840 N 19th Ave

Phoenix, AZ 85021-1906

Get Directions

(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

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

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!

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

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

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

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...

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.