I have been sewing again this week, and it feels like a vacation after working at the winery for five days straight. It's funny how you get into habits and when they change everything gets discombobulated. You do get a lot of thinking done while working on the bottling line though; I kept getting Alice's Restaurant stuck in my head while waiting for the bottles to 'come around again on the guitar' as it were. Paul didn't think that was funny but I sure did. Maybe it was the up at 5am talking.
Yesterday I got two shirts finished and shipped out the door. One was another Rick Deckard shirt, which is becoming my staple garment. However, my long saga of searching for black geometric print fabric continues, and I am sad to say that my favorite fabric so far is now on its way to Kentucky, never to be seen again. I would love to find some kind old lady who has a bolt of fabric just like they used in Blade Runner laying around her attic. Meanwhile, at least it keeps variety in the sewing.
The other shirt to go yesterday was a blue chambray work shirt, which is always an easy project to put together. It doesn't even involve a pattern (we don't need no stinkin' pattern) or much cutting; I just tear rectangles for the shirt body, sleeves, cuffs, and placket. I do cut the underarm gussets and the collar but everything else is torn. Easy to do, but there is the issue of long cotton threads everywhere until construction gets well underway. The simplicity of making these shirts is very comforting, and I'm able to churn one out in less than two hours. I had thought there were some pewter shirt buttons lying around but was mistaken, so the customer lucked out and has mother of pearl buttons on his work shirt. The blue/gray hue looks very nice with the fabric so I'm sure he'll be pleased.
Between finishing the black shirt and starting the blue, I did manage to squeeze in some sewing for me; I got the rayon knit top made. It was done almost completely on the serger so I wanted to get it finished before changing out the cones. The pictures I took came out blurry, so I'll have to retake them. Or maybe I can get someone to get some pictures of me in it tomorrow night.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Using the Stash
I have finished the second item from my swap; actually it's been done for almost a week but I got distracted by work. Very annoying, when working tries to take precedence over sewing; I'm working on how to eliminate that problem. Meanwhile, back to our regularly scheduled programming: 
For this blouse, I used S7167(oop) with a few alterations. First, since I am planning to make a 1/2 sleeve jacket, I shortened the sleeve to match. When worn with the jacket, the turned cuff will turn up over the jacket sleeve.
The other alteration just, well, happened. This is one made from a stash piece of corded swiss dot. Not from my stash, mind you, but from a friend's stash. The best part of having good friends who sew is the communal nature of the stacks. It is a wonderful fabric, but being the end of a bolt (I think there was a full yard but I could be wrong), there were a few interesting bits to contend with.
First off, matching stripes was not an option. I'm not too worried about that since they are white on white so any random meetings at the seams aren't glaring at anyone. The second issue with this piece was tape residue. I didn't even notice until after I had cut out the blouse that one of the front pieces had a yellow streak on the reverse that showed through.
But never to be deterred by little things, I started looking at options to hide the icky yellow dried glue bit. After reviewing my scraps (I don't throw them out for a reason), I found a piece large enough to cut a front yoke. Because the offending mark was near the neckline, I was able to cut it off and replace it with this design detail. Yup, that's what we call this in 'the biz'. I considered inserting some irish lace in the seam, but that didn't seem to go with the style. Instead, I found a few scraps of entre-deux that matched the fabric perfectly.
So that neat yoke? Did it on purpose. Matching the stripe there was important, so I hand-basted to make sure nothing slipped in the sewing process. I then serged off the seams, and was back in business.
One note about fit; I noticed after I took this picture that there is a bit of stress at the bustline. Don't worry, my mannequin is more blessed than I and the pulling doesn't happen when I'm the one wearing the blouse.
Because I just love bias-cut stripes, I cut the sleeve facing on the bias. I really like how crisp it all turned out; I used some fusible shirtailor on the facings which worked beautifully. I need to get more.
The buttons were a perfect find too; I'm not sure why but several of my swap pieces have square or diamond buttons. Maybe I'm just drawn to unique shapes, or perhaps it's the clean lines that make me want to spice it up a bit with the buttons.
There's black thread on the serger now, which means the next thing up will be my black knit top. I can't wait; there is just something about rayon knit.
For this blouse, I used S7167(oop) with a few alterations. First, since I am planning to make a 1/2 sleeve jacket, I shortened the sleeve to match. When worn with the jacket, the turned cuff will turn up over the jacket sleeve.
The other alteration just, well, happened. This is one made from a stash piece of corded swiss dot. Not from my stash, mind you, but from a friend's stash. The best part of having good friends who sew is the communal nature of the stacks. It is a wonderful fabric, but being the end of a bolt (I think there was a full yard but I could be wrong), there were a few interesting bits to contend with.
First off, matching stripes was not an option. I'm not too worried about that since they are white on white so any random meetings at the seams aren't glaring at anyone. The second issue with this piece was tape residue. I didn't even notice until after I had cut out the blouse that one of the front pieces had a yellow streak on the reverse that showed through.
But never to be deterred by little things, I started looking at options to hide the icky yellow dried glue bit. After reviewing my scraps (I don't throw them out for a reason), I found a piece large enough to cut a front yoke. Because the offending mark was near the neckline, I was able to cut it off and replace it with this design detail. Yup, that's what we call this in 'the biz'. I considered inserting some irish lace in the seam, but that didn't seem to go with the style. Instead, I found a few scraps of entre-deux that matched the fabric perfectly. So that neat yoke? Did it on purpose. Matching the stripe there was important, so I hand-basted to make sure nothing slipped in the sewing process. I then serged off the seams, and was back in business.
One note about fit; I noticed after I took this picture that there is a bit of stress at the bustline. Don't worry, my mannequin is more blessed than I and the pulling doesn't happen when I'm the one wearing the blouse.
Because I just love bias-cut stripes, I cut the sleeve facing on the bias. I really like how crisp it all turned out; I used some fusible shirtailor on the facings which worked beautifully. I need to get more.The buttons were a perfect find too; I'm not sure why but several of my swap pieces have square or diamond buttons. Maybe I'm just drawn to unique shapes, or perhaps it's the clean lines that make me want to spice it up a bit with the buttons.
There's black thread on the serger now, which means the next thing up will be my black knit top. I can't wait; there is just something about rayon knit.
Friday, March 6, 2009
One down..
I started working on this a few days ago, but forced myself to get the 'real work' done before going back to it. I'm grouping my items by color, which is how I like to manage my work sewing as well. This keeps me from having to change out the serger cones five times a day. So since I was working on a linen/rayon shirt and a cream sheer dress this week, it made sense to finish up my linen skirt.
A few notes about fibers; when sewing on linen, I really prefer to use cotton thread. It has a similar sheen to the fabric, and allows me to use the high heat when pressing. This was particularly useful on this skirt, since it's a 'crisp' linen and needed to be steamed and smashed into submission. I like to fool myself into believing it will be less wrinkly than other linens. We all know that it means when I sit down ginormous creases will appear and refuse to go away until the skirt is washed. hmmmph.
Also on the topic of fibers, I chose organdy to interface the waist since it has a great crispness which accents the hand of the fashion fabric. Why is organdy always twisted off grain? One of those mysteries I suppose. So after yanking it the other direction and steaming it back on grain, I cut the facing pieces and then 130" of 4" bias strips for the hem facing. Because this skirt will only occasionally worn with a crinoline, I wanted to give the hem some oomph to keep it from collapsing.
Enough about fibers, on to cutting. As I have said before, this is an adapted 1949 pattern. The original was a formal skirt which showed options for either floor length or mid-calf. I think this is why the pattern has been in my files for so many years; I love the waist detail but when would I wear a floor-length skirt? To shorten the skirt, I took a 4" tuck in the pattern pieces to keep the hem width. Also, since the original is extremely high waisted, I made the 'petite' adjustment at the waist. That's something I've never needed to do before! Because this is an eight-gore skirt, I marked each piece in the seam allowance to keep them from getting mixed up. This was a trick I picked up when learning to make corsets: number each seam. So CF is 1, CF to SF is 2, SF to SB is 3, etc. I did this on the facing pieces as well.
Once I had done the basic long seams, I found that the skirt was too large at the waist by almost 8 inches. I should have measured the pattern when cutting, but relied on the printed actual size measurements instead. Better than to small I suppose, since I had used up the fabric and didn't want to go adding gores or spending more. It was an easy enough fix; with eight seams on the skirt I simply increased the seam allowance on all seams by 1/2". I tapered that out to avoid loosing the fullness at the hem. Once I had tried on the skirt, I serged the seams and finished them with an edgestitching.
The other major alteration I did to this pattern was the closure. The pattern called for a front button closure, but I just couldn't find any buttons that worked well with the fabric. Because of the print, it would have taken some pretty bold buttons to stand out, and I was afraid that would make the skirt difficult to pair with a variety of tops. Since the point of the swap is to make versatile garments, I chose instead to use a CB invisible zipper. It was easy enough to disregard the front facing, and the zipper just sits in a regular seam allowance. I did leave the back seam open until all fitting was finished so that I wouldn't have to futz with the zipper once it was in.
After trying on the skirt, I found that the waist detail was still much too high waisted; the original would have made an empire waist effect. That would actually be stunning in a velveteen with a satin blouse, and I may one day make that. But for my purposes, I took another 1/2" off the top when I applied the facing. After trimming and turning, I pressed the facing and finished with an edgestich as with the long seams.
For the hem, I used a facing instead of a turned hem. With a circle hem, it is never fun to draw up the excess and I prefer to avoid that if possible. By using bias organdy strips, I was able to steam the facing to the shape of the skirt easily.
Because edgestitching is a feature on the rest of the skirt as well as my other garments, I topstitched the hem to complete the semi-tailored look.
In all, I am very pleased with this skirt. I can't wait to wear it out and show off.
Next up will be my white cotton shirt since the white cotton thread is still on the machine.
A few notes about fibers; when sewing on linen, I really prefer to use cotton thread. It has a similar sheen to the fabric, and allows me to use the high heat when pressing. This was particularly useful on this skirt, since it's a 'crisp' linen and needed to be steamed and smashed into submission. I like to fool myself into believing it will be less wrinkly than other linens. We all know that it means when I sit down ginormous creases will appear and refuse to go away until the skirt is washed. hmmmph.
Also on the topic of fibers, I chose organdy to interface the waist since it has a great crispness which accents the hand of the fashion fabric. Why is organdy always twisted off grain? One of those mysteries I suppose. So after yanking it the other direction and steaming it back on grain, I cut the facing pieces and then 130" of 4" bias strips for the hem facing. Because this skirt will only occasionally worn with a crinoline, I wanted to give the hem some oomph to keep it from collapsing.
Enough about fibers, on to cutting. As I have said before, this is an adapted 1949 pattern. The original was a formal skirt which showed options for either floor length or mid-calf. I think this is why the pattern has been in my files for so many years; I love the waist detail but when would I wear a floor-length skirt? To shorten the skirt, I took a 4" tuck in the pattern pieces to keep the hem width. Also, since the original is extremely high waisted, I made the 'petite' adjustment at the waist. That's something I've never needed to do before! Because this is an eight-gore skirt, I marked each piece in the seam allowance to keep them from getting mixed up. This was a trick I picked up when learning to make corsets: number each seam. So CF is 1, CF to SF is 2, SF to SB is 3, etc. I did this on the facing pieces as well.
Once I had done the basic long seams, I found that the skirt was too large at the waist by almost 8 inches. I should have measured the pattern when cutting, but relied on the printed actual size measurements instead. Better than to small I suppose, since I had used up the fabric and didn't want to go adding gores or spending more. It was an easy enough fix; with eight seams on the skirt I simply increased the seam allowance on all seams by 1/2". I tapered that out to avoid loosing the fullness at the hem. Once I had tried on the skirt, I serged the seams and finished them with an edgestitching.
The other major alteration I did to this pattern was the closure. The pattern called for a front button closure, but I just couldn't find any buttons that worked well with the fabric. Because of the print, it would have taken some pretty bold buttons to stand out, and I was afraid that would make the skirt difficult to pair with a variety of tops. Since the point of the swap is to make versatile garments, I chose instead to use a CB invisible zipper. It was easy enough to disregard the front facing, and the zipper just sits in a regular seam allowance. I did leave the back seam open until all fitting was finished so that I wouldn't have to futz with the zipper once it was in.
After trying on the skirt, I found that the waist detail was still much too high waisted; the original would have made an empire waist effect. That would actually be stunning in a velveteen with a satin blouse, and I may one day make that. But for my purposes, I took another 1/2" off the top when I applied the facing. After trimming and turning, I pressed the facing and finished with an edgestich as with the long seams.
For the hem, I used a facing instead of a turned hem. With a circle hem, it is never fun to draw up the excess and I prefer to avoid that if possible. By using bias organdy strips, I was able to steam the facing to the shape of the skirt easily.
Because edgestitching is a feature on the rest of the skirt as well as my other garments, I topstitched the hem to complete the semi-tailored look.
In all, I am very pleased with this skirt. I can't wait to wear it out and show off.
Next up will be my white cotton shirt since the white cotton thread is still on the machine.
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