Alterations, yuk!

I abhor alterations. They are something I do for only the closest of family. I don't even like to do them for myself. I just as soon buy or make something new to take the alteration needing garment's place. At Christmas DD asked me to hem some pants she got on sale for her hubby. Of course I acquiesced. But that is as far as it goes, children and children of my children and no one else. I have had family, as in the out-laws, suggest I should be doing this for those who can't Oh, yeah? I don't think so. I have no problem saying no to these requests. Life is too short and I am not about to spend time helping the world get it's hems out of the gutter. Just my selfish way and that's all there is too it.

I mention all of this because right now I am faced with two projects. One is hemming DSIL's CUFFED pants and the other is getting back to my furballs. What's a women to do? Well, how about procrastinate? So rather than face more fluff to vaccuum or doing the math to figure cuffed hems, I decided to clean the basement. It was desperately needed as you can see. We have woodpiles, two freezers, business acquisitions, etc... Well, I got this room clean and then went to the next basement room.
I attacked another room, worse than this one, and then from there went into my 3x12 foot fabric closet. I decided to refold all my fabric. I like to do this once a year. It gives me great inspiration and reminds me of some of the neat things hiding in the stash. I have about half folded and put away right now. Here are just a few of the bottomweights. I am using the folding technique in Happy Zhombie's link highlighted above.



So all of this was to avoid doing the hems, which I have since faced and are almost done, and to avoid dealing with fuzzballmania from the fur vest. Here is where we are with that project. the lining is done, serged, and taped and ready to go into the vest. The vest needs the collar sewn on. It's just basted at the moment, and it needs the sleeved flanges put on as well. This has to happen before putting in the lining. So we are slowly getting there. I cannot wait to be done with this project and back to some real eye candy.







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That brings me to some New Years's sewing goals. I have chosen not to look back and count or judge what I have done in 08. Instead I will move forward to 09. That is basically my life's philosophy, move on! So I will. And with that I am thinking of what I have planned for 09. I would like to accomplish the following:

* Master picture smocking. I mean really do an elaborate few pieces well. This is one of those skills that eludes many so I am not alone here. But that is one of my top goals.

* Make more little heirloom outfits for all the tiny young girls I know. It is just such delectable fun.

* Make friends with BWOF and sew a few patterns from the magazine. You have all inspired me. I can't wait to get my subscription and give it a go. Rest assured, I will be asking for imput on this endeavor.

* Meet some of my sewing friends. I have made some wonderful friends via the internet, friends who share the passion and love of sewing. I have even met a few. But I would love to meet more. Even better than that, I would love to meet someone up here who sews actual clothing, not quilts. Are you out there? I did sign up on Meetup.com but so far no response. But I won't give up. Part of the problem is I am just not into the quilting at this stage. I did that bigtime when my girls were little, but that was because it was easier to hand piece than machine sew a garment. My true love is garment sewing and I got back into it as soon as I could. Dropped the quilts, period!

* I would like to make another winter coat. I have even picked out the pattern. I would love a black cashmere or melton and will probably keep my eye out for that at Fabric Fix. I am in no rush at the moment.

So those are the goals for 2009. I have seen your accomplishments, now what are your goals? Please share and lets inspire each other. ..........Bunny

Pthewy.......Spitting and Sewing Faux Fur

Well, this sewing of faux fur is quite, well,,,,spittable! In the two hours I worked on this project yesterday I vacuumed all my clothes and the entire sewing room twice! When I started to cough it up I went into my painting gear and found a mask to wear. That really helped and I highly advise if you give this fabric a try.

This project definitely has its challenges. On my vertical seams I cut off one half inch of the seam allowance. Then I shaved the fur off with my pelican billed scissors an additional 1/8th inch. I got the best results then sewing two pieces of fur together with a straight stitch on a 1/8 inch SA. I then zigzagged to enclose all the edges. I guess this amounts to the same as serging but this needed a lot of control and I really don't think I could have pulled it off in the serger.
You can see in this pic that the left side is a clean cut. On the right side of the pencil is the 1/8th inch shaved back area. Before sewing a seam I used 1/4 inch masking tape to tape down and hold back the fur. This kept it out of the way while sewing. I left long tails on the tape and if you pull in the direction of the nap it is a clean pull. You can see also how my seams looked when done.I am definitely not an expert on this stuff and it is a definite learn as you go project. But given the amount of fluff around the studio, I am not sure when I will try this again! If anyone has a better way of doing things please let me know. I am a newbie on this one. Thanks.















I aslo did some trial runs on snap installation on the faux tooled leather. I hit Joanns today and found just what I needed. I had also been toying with the idea of bronze-y snaps on the placket. Then Summerset mentioned it on a comment and I decided to try a sample. I am really pleased with this look and it is more in the casual vein I was going for. Thanks for the inspiration, Summerset. I also played with topstitching and have decided to use a buttonhole twist and larger stitch to look more "authentic." I think I will try a few more samples of that tomorrow. This fur business is not one I will try often. It is just a real PITA and who needs to cough up furballs in the middle of the night? .......Bunny

MERRY CHRISTMAS !

With just hours to spare, DH and I have returned home from our holiday travels. And it is still Christmas and still time to wish you all the best of the holiday season. I hope you have been able to spend it with loved ones close by and that Santa gifted you generously in the sewing department!

In the spirit of the season I share with you some pics of our gorgeous grandchildren as they enjoy their day.

The twins just loved this "walking" toy. It just couldn't do enough and they played with it for the longest time.
Here our Graham is trying on his new high tech back pack for hiking with Mom and Dad. He is so happy because it was filled with loads of Bak-U-Gons. If you have been anywhere near a young boy in the last two months, you know what Bak-U-Gons are and yes, this grandma was able to find them in a lucky moment shopping.

And our beautiful Jack and Sophie investigating part of their stash as Dad puts a toy together.









Whatever holiday celebration you partake in, I wish you the best of times with those you love......Bunny

The Faux Fur Vest Begins

Over the past couple of weeks, amidst traveling, shopping, cooking, and cleaning, I have managed to get my fur vest cut out. This fur is a different look from the hat I just made. I am guessing it is a faux beaver. It has nice guard hairs, natural color variation, and a soft knit backing. The pattern is Simplicity 2780, a Daisy Kingdom pattern that has outfits for a child as well as a vest for Mom. It is the mommy thing I am going after. This pattern has flanges added to the armscye which kind of amplify the fur effect. I have since seen this design technique in RTW fur vests. There is a band around the CF and bottom edge but I have eliminated that, choosing to use the lining pattern for my actual pattern. Vests fit me notoriously badly and hopefully this will be the exception. I did a muslin. I removed about an inch from the upper back. I usually remove a similar amount from the upper chest, but in this case rotated it down to a dart on the side. The muslin worked with these adjustments so hopefully the fur will too. Because of the dart, length was added to the front bodice as well.
A lot of attention was paid to nap, and "pelts". You can see from the reverse of the fabric here that the fabric is "pelted" with a slight color variation. This needed to be matched on all pieces. Once the muslin was fitted the adjustments were made to the pattern pieces. They were then laid on the back side of the fur and traced with a Sharpie (!). The fur was cut with tiny, tedious, tedious snips of the points of my shears. Of the various techniques tried this was the least messy. I have asthma and did not want to be coughing up furballs in the night and this worked quite well. I did use a mask when cutting most of it.
So now the fur sits. I probably won't get to this till after Christmas. In the meantime, tonight I made samples of buttonholes. I am still toying with the idea of a faux tooled leather placket. I would really like this but am not sure of the button situation. I don't want this to look homemade. Tonight I made a faux placket and did lots of buttonhole samples with my Pfaff. The arrowed, corded one is the best. I am going to do some more buttonhole samples with my mechanical Kenmore, a real buttonhole queen, before making up my mind. If you click on the photo it will enlarge and you can get a better idea of the results. Not stellar!

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In a recent post I was asked what interfacings I used in the cashmere coat. I chose to interface the flannel interlining for starters and not fusing anything to the cashmere. The entire front underlining and facings were fused with a weft interfacing. I get it from Fabric Fix and they get it from somewhere in the garment district. It is great stuff and 60 inches wide. I also used sew in Acro as well for upper back, collar, cuff hems, jacket hem, and welts. I got out my Claire Schaeffer "Designer Secrets" and interfaced per her instructions. That is a great book set up in a really organized way. I like that.

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Here is a picture I took last week of our darling grand twins. They are such great fun and cute as the dickens! Enjoy...

Cashmere Coat Done!

This baby is put to bed! Over all I am pleased with the results. So here are some pics and comments. I used Simplicity 2812.
This pattern has great princess seams, the better for fit adjustments, several collar options, and a raised defined waistline, one of my better looks. I chose to do the view with the stand up collar and shorter length. I used a size 6 pattern. I "petited" it by folding out a good inch on the upper chest, back, and sleeve cap. I do this with all my patterns right out of the envelope. I did a full bust adjustment and also widened the waist and hips a tad. Upon flat pattern measuring the upper sleeve and comparing to my upper arm, I realized there was NO ease. I proceeded to widen the upper arm to accommodate mine. I have to tell you though, I am not a big person with big fleshy arms. So I didn't quite get this but the numbers didn't lie. This brings me to one of the things I don't like about this pattern and that is the sleeves. They are puffy. So I am thinking the top of the sleeve is over fitted and the bottom just too puffy. If you look at the full length coats on the pattern envelope you will see they are definitely puffy, something that I did not pick up on till my coat was cut and sewn. When I did my muslin I just did the bodice and upper hip. Shame on me. If I ever re do this pattern I will search out a two piece sleeve to use instead of the puffy version. To deal with the width I darted the lower sleeve and prickstitched it. The pattern offers a similar option as well as a tab option. I will say that the big sleeve is very comfortable, especially with a sweater underneath, the way I wore it shopping the other day.


One thing I do really like about the pattern is the collar. It is a wide stand away mandarin collar. Is there another name for this? It is easy to sneak a scarf in there, something very necessary in our climate and the way the collar stands away is very flattering to the neck and face. So that I like.
Another like is the lining. It is a silk crepe de chine. I was back and forth over whether to add a back neck facing or not. Then one night I stumbled on to Ann Rowley's pearls of wisdom from Stitcher's guild. In answer to the same question, she said that back neck facings were rarely seen in couture and the lining was always brought up to the neckline. Talk about a lucky lurk!.

Another thing I did not like about this pattern that did not become evident until construction was completed were the pocket flaps. They set way too low for my short body. I faced the hem to add additional length below the flaps and I think this saved the day. If I did this pattern again I would set the pockets and flaps much higher. Its a "short" thing. I know you petites understand.

My details included hand picking all the princess seams and flap and collar edges for additional definition. This detail really went quickly and I would not hesitate to do it again. If you try this do some samples first, trying different threads. Measure out your stitches for accuracy. The coat also has bound buttonholes which I hadn't done in a few years. I did LOTS of samples before I started on the actual coat and am glad I did. I actually put one of my samples in backwards and perish what that would have looked like on the coat! Irretrievable!

The buttons are JHB and I love them. Let's face it. The coat is pretty plain. The buttons jazzed it up just enough.

All in all, I am very happy with my new winter coat. It feels just scrumptious with its lighter than air cashmere shell, heavy flannel interlining, and silk crepe de chine lining. The other day we had a high of 12º and I tooled about town in my new coat and hat. I was warm as a brown marshmallow on a summer's night. This coat is really quite light to carry.

A few words about the cashmere. This stuff is yummy. HOWEVER, and it is a big however, it has a wicked nap. You need to baste your brains out here. It just moves everywhere, worse than velvet. The other caveat is the ironing. I used a medium/low setting and my own moisture put on with a dauber for the most part. In the beginning, while making samples, I figured out the ironing challenges. Thank goodness that lesson was learned before I ruined the coat. I did scorch a sample for failure to use a press cloth. Remember this stuff is hair from a goat, not fur. So it scorches. If this happens, take an emery board and just rub the scorch off. I did this on the sample and you never would have know it had burned. So always a press cloth, gentle touch, and moisture in those seams. All the tools came in handy for this, my pressing mitt, seam roll, ham, etc.

I will be away holiday visiting down on the Cape and the North Shore for the next week. When I get back it will be full tilt on the fur vest. At this point the pattern is all drawn out on the backing and I have started the tedious step of cutting it out, using little nips with the points of the scissors. Every time I go downstairs I do a few more inches. I hope to make another hat to go with it. Till next week..........Bunny

Can You Tell Me..........

What the heck this is?
It's not an Adirondack yamulka. It's not a hat for my laughing resistant model of a husband. Is it one of those fabric bowls that a drunk has put on their head before they hit the lamp shades? I don't know. All I know is it sure isn't what the picture looked like that I was working off of. Ok, part of the issue is me and I take responsibility for that. There is a blog that had a great fur hat tutorial on it. It gave great detail on the drafting and construction. But despite my errors, I think it still should have worked. I drafted the pattern and proceeded to cut out my six sections of fabric and six of lining. Right before I hit the machine it occurred to me that I didn't add the 1/4 inch seam allowances. There was not enough ease to make this work. So I did what any creative seamstress would do. I did some samples butting the edges of wool and using decorative stitching to sew them together. Not bad. I landed on a triple zig zag and started butting. It was working great until I realized my hat looked like the ass side of a pumpkin. Go get the handsome model.........

Then I remembered that Threads had an article on this exact hat as well and I hit their site, did a search on their index, and came up with the right issue. There are definite advantages to hording the magazine for many many years. This hat was very similar and upon comparing both sites the hat on the Threads model sat smoothly on her noggin. Proceed.



You can see the difference in the cut of the sections. The Threads section comes to a clear point. The original effort is more curved. My draft of the original pattern does look just like the one pictured on that site. The other great thing for Miss Moron is that the Threads pattern included the 1/4 inch seam allowances. Sometimes I need all the help I can get. So in the end I am please and am looking forward to making a couple more of these as gifts. They go together really quickly. Here you can really see the difference in the crown:




























This afternoon we are getting slammed with lake effect snow and I ran out in the back yard to do the pictures during a brief respite. It was 12º at the time. Out front of our property we had other visitors strutting their stuff.
This is our local turkey flock. Guess they survived the holiday!

Yes that's the new coat and more on that later..........Bunny

Miscellanea

I have been battling a nasty nasty head cold the past few days. Ever notice how these things get passed around at Thanksgiving and Christmas? I haven't had a cold in a few years so this is not something I am used to or want to deal with. Either way, I have not found the energy to put my hand to needle. Instead I will just post on a few things rambling thru my sinus filled, itchy, gland swollen head.
For those of you who have been completely disgusted and grossed out over the state of my ironing board cover, well, it's clean now! It shocked me to see it in the photos. While it doesn't look like new, it is clean in this picture and most of the yuk is gone, the better to iron my pretties. Next is the iron! Dang is that thing nasty!






I figured out what I wanted to do with my facing to lining area. I decided to simply to a "Made by Mary P---- November 2008". I wrote the words out with a sharpie (!) and used one strand of floss to do a tiny backstitch.














And last but not least, these are one of the favorite things in my studio, my pattern weights. They are beach rocks from the coast of Maine. My sister lives one block from the ocean and we have a tradition of a long ocean walk after Thanksgiving Day dinner. We always try to bring an old tote and bring back some of the gorgeous beach stones that inhabit her little cove. They are incredibly smooth and impeccably clean from eons of thrashing waves. There are millions of them in the cove, literally. I love them.














Till my head clears.................Bunny

The Intersection of Facing and Jump Hem

This can be a nasty little area to deal with. It is often forgotten about until the lining is all bagged. Then you are faced with a raw edge from the bottom hem edge to the jump in the lining hem. I've yet to see a pattern that refers to this either. Sometimes the lining can cover a lot of it. Sometimes it can be turned under with a tiny hem. If you deal with it before installing the lining you can finish it a couple of ways. One is to simply turn it under about a 1/4 inch and hand stitch. The other, and in my opinion a much nicer finish, is a simple little Hong Kong seam finish on this edge. Here's how I go about it.

Sew the facing to the lining. Iron the seam toward the lining. One half inch above the end of the seam start trimming the seam back to a `1/4 inch. Before proceeding, pin the lining and its seam allowance way out of the way.










Cut a bias strip of the lining fabric a rough inch and a quarter wide. Match the edges with the raw edge of the SA that you DID NOT trim. Sew a 1/4 inch seam. Trim it down to a healthy 1/8 of an inch. Be VERY careful that your lining is folded out of the way and that you don't cut it by accident.







Press the bias away from the facing. Trim it evenly to about 3/4 of an inch.












Wrap the bias around the seam allowance tightly and press. Be careful of your fingers. I used a press cloth which is a little awkward but can be done.










Set your stitch length at 1.5 and stitch in the ditch to catch the seam allowance on the back. Press. Trim off the extra fabric at the ends of the Hong Kong finish. This is now ready to show its pretty face to the world when you whip open your new coat and casually expose that expensive silk lining! ;) See the top photo.........You know, I wish they had a name for this intersection. Maybe there is one. If you know it let me know. Its kind of like that funny space between your nose and your upper lip. What's that called???......Bunny

Now the Lining!

All interior seams of the coat have been catchstitched to the underlining. The hem is faced to add additional length. And now its lining time. Anyone who has tracked my sewing efforts thru the blog knows that I have a sewing "fatal flaw." I can't leave things alone. So in that spirit, I have decided to add some additional detail to where the lining meets the facing. I did not want to do piping. I use piping all the time and wanted something different. I haven't firmed up on this yet but one idea is a wrapped rat tail cord. another is some featherstitching or other embroidery. I feel some samples coming on here............


This Daisy Kingdom pattern from Simplicity is my next inspiration. I am talking the Woman's vest here. First let's say the bows will be nixed. Give me a break! What I like, and it is not evident from the picture, is that there is a band the goes down the CF and the hem. I am looking for something with a band so I can use my tooled leather in combo with the fur. I like the way the shoulders are slightly extended, the better to give a little width to balance out my hips. And I like the collar. I am thinking I will have to extend the band at the CF so it will overlap and I can use either some snaps or buttons from the leather. I am also thinking of making the collar deeper, to get more fur up around my face. So that's what I am aching to stitch up as soon as my coat is in the closet. I am feeling another healthy week of sewing to get it done and with Thanksgiving coming up, this may be the Christmas coat.




Tomorrow, early AM, we will be leaving to see our babies in NH and Mass. for a couple of days. Then it will be up to Cape Elizabeth, Maine for the holiday and a few days with my sister. I am so looking forward to seeing my little angels and commiserating with my sis. We will have a large dinner with lots of extended family on Thanksgiving day and have been discussing menu and recipes for days. We all love to cook. My assignment is the stuffings and the pies. I will be doing two stuffings, a Sage, Hazelnut, and Sausage bread stuffing, and an Oyster stuffing. My pies are Brown Butter Pecan Pie, a traditional pumpkin pie laden with heavy cream, and a cold Pumpkin Mousse Pie. Can't wait to start cooking with sis and family.

I sincerely hope and pray that all of you are able to sit around the table with your loved ones. May they have safe traveling to your home and may you all celebrate in the feast of shared food and thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!......................Bunny

Prickstitching, Pockets, and Buttonholes, Oh, My!

Lots going on with the Cashmere jacket and I thought I would point up a few things I have done contra the pattern. Come to think of it, can't really say that I have actually looked at the pattern. Maybe a cursory view now and then, but that's it. You can see my lining fabric. I love it. Its a silk crepe de chine that has a wonderful shade of the necessary gray amidst all those red circles. I don't like the idea of lining fabric, especially a red one, peeking out of my pockets so I cut a piece of the facing fabric 2 1/4 inches wide by the length of the pocket. I cut with the selvedge on the edge so the selvedge would stay the pocket opening and I wouldn't have to further tape it. This strip was attached to the pocket and then it was installed in the seam. I get the great feel of the silk pockets but no possiblity of red peek a boo.

Cashmere is a pisser. The nap is long and therefore very difficult to mark accurately, even with basting. The best I could come up with was using 1/4 inch quilter's tape for my marking needs. I planned on prickstitching most of the seams. I made some samples and decided on the thread I would use for the prickstitching. (Luv that word.) Once that was set, the challenge of how to accurately mark this deep nappy stuff had to be dealt with. I wanted my stitches accurate and equal. I thought of tiger tape which is hard to find and only comes in 1/4 inch increments that I know of. So I decided to make my own tiger tape.
I used 1/4 inch masking tape and laid it down an 1/8 of an inch from the seam. Then I took my trusted sharpie and a crappy little plastic ruler and marked it out in 3/8 inch increments. That was the measurement that seemed to work best with the samples. This worked great. As of tonight most of the coat has been marked and stitched.
You can see how this worked out on the inseam pockets above.

Then came the bound buttonholes that have so set me to procrastinating. Loads of samples once again. Do I do windowpane or strips? I wanted to do the windowpane method but the fabric was just too bulky. I did the strip method and was pleased with the final results. Again, the biggest challenge was the marking, absolutely critical for BBs. I went to the 1/4 inch masking tape again. One trick with using this method is to make sure you pull the tape off with the nap so as not to damage the fabric.
So I taped off the grid for the buttonholes, made myself a few notes on placement, and forged ahead. I went really slowly with the stitching. The tape worked beautifully here and I would highly recommend this technique if you are dealing with nappy fabric and BBs. In the end I am pleased with the results.

Next I did some tweaking on the fit in the armscye area. Ever try your garment on and you see something thats not quite right but just in an ever so teeny way? That was the armscye. I took it in a little more deeply from notch to sides seam and it all worked out fine, more comfortable too!

So as soon as all prickstitching is done, next will be a hem facing and then the lining. Will this make my turkey day deadline? No.........................Bunny

Molding Sleeve Caps

I thought as I go thru my jacket project that if I do anything different from the norm or "my way" as opposed to "other ways" I publish the details. As I was working on the second sleeve the camera was handy. I love a well molded sleeve cap and this shows part of the way I try to achieve that. On the left you see my June Tailor sleeve mitt. I LOVE this pressing tool and find it indispensable. I can squeeze it into the smallest areas and literally can press on my hand with it. You can see the sleeve is underlined with the flannel and the Acro is on the bias across the cap. I chose to attach my interfacings to the flannel to prevent possible ridge show thru. The sleeve head is gathered notch to notch. I don't know who taught me this years ago, but I always leave the half inch left and right of the shoulder seam flat, with not gathers pulled up. So the gathering is is from a half inch left and right of the shoulder seam to the notches and it pulled up. You also see my organdy press cloth.

The sleeve mitt is put into the sleeve cap and tucked up into the gathers. The press cloth is placed under the sleeve.











The press cloth is then pulled around the sleeve cap tightly.












Heavy steam is used to mold the cap while holding the press cloth tight with the other hand. Be careful you don't burn your self here. After I remove the iron I hold the cloth around the cap tightly for a minute or so till it cools down. Then I just let go and let the sleeve lay there and cool down on its own. Don't move the sleeve until its cool, the longer the better. After these steps are completed I install my sleeve into the bodice and then put in a sleeve head. I used a folded layer of more of the flannelette for the sleeve head. .........Bunny

Bonnet Done!

The little bonnet to go with Blue Hyacinth is done! As you can tell I couldn't frufru this up enough. It was lots of fun to sew. I threw in a pair of socks to match as well. On the socks I stretched out the edge of the cuff and stitched on the large ricrac. When released the ricrac ruffles. It was one of those techniques where having a third hand would have helped. I had to stretch the sock out as much as possible with one hand and feed the ricrac slowly with the other. Kind of like the gum chewing tummy rubbing enigma, but worth it.

I have a go2 bonnet pattern I use all the time but it did not have the scalloped brim. That was easy enough to achieve with a roll of tearaway I had that I simply measured and traced. When sewing the scallops I did two stitches across in the depths of the points. This made it curve a little better and turn nicely.

The netting is not that scratchy nylon ick. It is a lycra stretch netting I picked up on clearance a while back for a dollar a yard. I bought tons. It is very soft and you would swear it was the uber expensive imported cotton netting. Given that its very washable, its a great choice for little baby. I cut the edges raw, no ravelling here, and simply gathered them up and hand stitched inside the brim. I know this will frame her face so sweetly and have that retro look.

The back of the bonnet has a circle crown in the blue flower print that is encircled by the tiny ric rac. At the bottom of the circle near the neck the ricrac is crossed and a lavender flower placed on top like the ones on the brim. That flower has the tiny beads lumped up in the center.

This project is now in the bag and ready to be wrapped and shipped to shower headquarters. I have motivated myself to finish the jacket with a purchase of some really good looking faux fur. It goes beautifully with some tooled faux leather I have and I am working in my brain the design to combine the two. I have promised not to touch this project until the jacket is finished! Smack me if I do......Bunny