After the dress...

Weekend Project: Dressing a Doll, Take 2

2012-02-12T11:24:00.001-05:00

The sound principle of a topsy-turvy lifestyle in the framework of an upside-down world order has stood every test.

~ Karl Kraus

You may remember from last weekend that my first attempt at dressmaking for Mattie using Patternmaker software yielded a dress that was baggy in the bodice, but fit well in the hips. I tried printing the pattern again in the same size, but using smaller seam allowances - 1/4 inch instead of 1/2 inch.

I also switched from a cotton print to a linen remnant from my stash.

While the fit is generally improved, for some reason Mattie feels off-kilter in this new version of the simple shift... ;)

Or maybe she is just a fan of Karl Klaus? (see quote above)

(Sometimes I hate Blogger.)

Notice that I've already broken Wendy's guideline to always insert the sleeves flat - before closing up the side seams... Oh-oh... :(

Guess what thought did NOT occur to Mrs. Genius here?

If reducing the SA might tighten up the extra fabric in the bust and waist area, it might also tighten up the nicely fitting hip area! ;)

It's not too bad, but it's definitely snugger in the hips than the first version. And it might be pulling downwards somehow - do you see those wrinkles slanting downwards from her right side towards the center of her back? What do you think is causing that? Tightness around the hips?

Working with Mattie's clothes may help me learn more about fitting - that would be a nice unintended consequence... :)

Another thing keeping me busy these days - planning a going away party for my friend Ana. Who knew, when I, a mono-lingual English speaker, hesitantly offered sewing lessons to a mono-lingual Spanish speaker 4 years ago, that I would end up with such a good friend?

Anyways, we looked at venues over the weekend and we are going to use this one:

Isn't it beautiful? (We'll be using larger round tables that seat 8.) Ana has put together a guest list of about 100 people, and a small group of her friends are going to be making the food and providing live music. I think it will be a very special night! :)

Finally, Oliver gives a sleepy-eyed blink "Hi!" from atop a pile of fabric remnants in the sewing room.

Friday Confession

2012-02-10T22:13:00.000-05:00

Photo from J & O Fabrics Store Blog.

As many of you know, I've decided to participate in the 1912 Vintage Pattern project by sewing the patterns for a 24 inch doll. I've never really sewn doll clothes before - with the minor exception of a couple of outfits for some "Build-A-Bears" belonging to my nieces.

So, this has got me wondering - do you sew for dolls? If not, why not? If so, what can you tell me about it? How does it compare to sewing for people? Similarities? Differences? Any advice? Can you point me towards any helpful resources? Do you have any favorite doll outfits or stories? If you have some pictures, I'd love to see them! I'll post then and link to you (of course!).

I'm looking forward to reading about your thoughts and your experiences! :)

Talk Back Thursday

2012-02-10T11:06:00.001-05:00

Image credit: Moma advertising agency, as found here. (Follow the link to see more delightful images like this one!)

Thank you so much to Wendy, Lynne, Becky, Carla, Katherine, Linda, Gwen, Patsijean, Elaina and Mary for talking back to my confession last week! I confessed that I don't have any experience sewing vintage patterns and asked for input - pros and cons, advice, etc.

One topic that came up - and inspired my image selection above - is what exactly counts as "vintage"? As Patsijean pointed out, it can be quite disconcerting to learn that the clothes you wore as an adult are now labeled "vintage" !

Well, I looked it up in the most comprehensive collection of unassailable wisdom on the internet - Wikipedia - and discovered that some random person believes that clothing between 1920 and 1960 is "vintage" and clothing before 1920 is "antique". ("citation needed")

Other websites say that anything 20 years old or older is "vintage". This is going to bum out Ana, who is in her mid-20s and still considers herself young. ;)

So, do the commenters sew vintage? Well, we had our fairly typical spread of answers. We had 2 "No" votes, 4 "Some, but not much" votes and 2 resounding "Yes!" votes. Can't spread much more evenly than that!

Oh, we also have a bit of a celebrity in our midst! Lynne used to sew historical costuming in Hollywood! How cool is that? Lynne - can you tell us any of the shows that include some of your work?

Regarding the folks with vintage sewing experience - what time frame are we talking about? Well, again we got a good range - everything from turn of the (last) century up through the 1970's. While not everyone reported this, several people find themselves drawn to clothing styles from their own teenage and young adult years - whenever that was.

The "why not" answers were pretty straightforward:

Modern patterns fit better - whether that be fit to the body or fit to the person's style (or both).
Vintage patterns can date you.
Already has enough modern patterns waiting to be sewn up - doesn't need to start a collection of vintage patterns! ;)

There was an interesting "no, but..." group. A couple of folks reported that they don't sew vintage patterns, but they regularly "borrow" vintage details and incorporate them into their modern patterns.

The "why yes?" answers were generally what you would expect - love the styles and the illustrations! Elaina pointed out that fashion really cycles, so that what was once "old-fashioned" and "out-dated" will come around and be in-style again someday. She also believes that vintage patterns were flat-drafted more accurately, so that even if the instructions are spottier, they come together better.

And that brings up the instructions - the main difference called out between current and vintage patterns. Five people weighed in and all pretty much agreed - the instructions and markings are different from what we have get on modern patterns.

Most said that the instructions are more sparse - although Wendy said that they can be more sparse in some areas and more detailed in others.

It makes sense - no pattern can explain every single detail - every pattern assumes that the reader has a certain basic knowledge of the sewing techniques that are common at that time in history. So vintage patterns will assume a different knowledge base on the reader's part than we are accustomed to (or that the typical seamstress of today is likely to have...)

Others also called out the markings as different. The vintage patterns that Katherine has used, for example, mark everything (grain lines, match points, etc.) with holes. She reported that it's very helpful to have a key to know how to interpret those holes.

Linda may have pointed out the most important bit of knowledge that you need to deal with vintage patterns - order of construction. I am already experiencing this issue with the one pattern that I printed for Mattie from the pattern making software. I've sewn 2 versions and found that using a different order of construction on the 2nd version was a big improvement on how easily it came together and how nice it looks on the inside...

A second big topic was (body) fit - although there were differing opinions on this. Wendy, for example, finds that she needs to make the same adjustments on her vintage patterns as on her modern patterns, to get a fit she likes. Lynne, on the other hand, has found that the fit can be very different - with smaller armholes, less ease in the bodice and the shoulder seams laying differently on the body.

I imagine that these different experiences may arise because Wendy's vintage patterns are from a different era than Lynne's vintage patterns. After all, the commenters were addressing patterns from anywhere between 1901 and the 1970s!

So, I had expected discussion of the instructions and the fit, but a couple of people brought up another significant consideration - the fabric! Lynne pointed out that historical garments were created from very high quality fabrics, which are not easily replicated. And Elaina explained that the textiles available 100 years ago were different from the ones available today - vintage patterns were designed to work with vintage fabrics. So, adopting them to work with modern fabrics can yield unexpected challenges.

Along these lines, Patsijean tells a story of making a smoking jacket for her husband and the "fun" of hand-stitching a poly lining! (Check out her whole story here - it's really interesting.)

Finally, Elaina, who loves vintage patterns, brought up one more challenge - giving a vintage pattern enough of a modern take to make sure that your garment doesn't look like a costume. This is why sewing is both a skill AND an art! :)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to tell me about your experiences and your thoughts on vintage sewing! :)

PS - don't worry, it's actually Friday! ;)

In the Queue Wednesday

2012-02-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

During my various work trips this last month, I've managed to squeeze in some fabric shopping. In Pensacola, Florida I discovered one of those wonderful Mom and Pop Pharmacy/Fabric-Store combinations - I'm sure you've seen those before, right? ;)

Here is the fabric for 2 more of those 1-yard toddler skirts. I figured I might want some easy, fun projects for when my 1912 project becomes a bit overwhelming. ;)

Not sure when I'll get to them - it'll depend on how soon my first 1912 project shows up. (And remember, these baby girls haven't arrived yet!) But don't worry, I'll be making these skirts someday! They're in the queue... :)

Talk Back Tuesday

2012-02-07T10:12:00.003-05:00

Thanks so much to BConky, Katherine, Alison, Linda, Debbie, Shannon, Gwen and Elaina for talking back to my confession a couple of weeks ago. :)

I confessed that I have some tools/notions in my sewing room that I've bought and then never used, and asked if I'm alone in this...

The Reader's Digest Condensed Version of the comments: "No." ;)

Everyone admitted to having at least one thing in her sewing room that she doesn't use. Linda represented one end of the continuum with her comment, "I buy them all and use most of them." A couple of folks were on the other end, with "many" untried or unused tools, notions, fabric and patterns in their sewing rooms.

The most commonly called out "never been used" item is machine feet - whether for a sewing machine, serger or coverstitch machine. Specific feet included: fagoting, ribbon, piping, elastic and gathering.

I'm not sure if those really are the most unused tools in general or if people were reminded of their machine feet because that is the thing that I called out as most neglected in my sewing room...

Other unused items called out included tailor's chalk, pressing cloths and Wild Ginger pattern making software. (I hope I don't end up in that category with the PatternMaker software that I got for the 1912 project...)

A couple of interesting themes emerged from the comments.

First, I didn't sense a lot of guilt. ;)

Elaina expressed it succinctly, "I don't feel too bad, because you know, one day I might need them."

And then there was Linda's thought, "She who dies with the most sewing notions... wins!"

Second - and this struck me as pretty insightful - why don't these items get used? It's the classic learning curve problem. Learning to use something new takes time - and for most of us that means taking precious time away from our sewing.

But, if we would devote a little time to getting good at using these new tools, they might prove worthwhile. For example, Linda talked about the Clover desktop needle threader (pictured above). She had one that languished on a shelf for ages, before she was inspired to try it. Now she loves it. :)

So what are my take-away messages? One - go easy on myself. Instead of feeling bad that I haven't used those feet, I'll modify that statement to "...haven't used them YET" and remember that I'm planning on many more years of sewing in my life!

Second, when opportunities do arise, I'm going to try to be patient and give myself some time to practice and really learn how to use each new tool. I'll try to remember that it won't pay off immediately, but if I give it some time, it may become one of my new favorite tools. :)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave a comment! As always, you help me feel not so alone and you inspire me! :)

Weekend Project: Dressing a Doll

2012-02-05T09:17:00.000-05:00

He dares to be a fool, and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom.

~ James Gibbons Huneker

Well, guess who showed up this week?

Yup - it's Mattie. My 1912 project model. :)

I would have preferred darker hair and eyes, but other than that, she is beautiful. And I was happy to discover that she came with a bathrobe - so I didn't have to wrap a hand towel around her to preserve her modesty until I could make her some clothes. ;)

Now, before she arrived, I scoured the internet looking for pictures to help me get a sense of her size, relative to every day objects. And couldn't find any! It's almost like there is a conspiracy to maintain the illusion that these dolls are full-size people.

So, I'm probably breaking some major taboo - but here is a shot of Mattie next to my Grandmother's sewing machine:

I don't have a pattern from 1912 yet - but I decided to use the pattern making software to try to make her a dress - mostly to get used to the software. It came with some basic patterns, and I decided to make her a basic shift dress.

This was a special type of file called a macro - you can enter a table of body measurements and the software automatically adjusts the pattern to fit those measurements. I started by putting in Mattie's measurements, but the software kept giving me a "math error" every time I tried to use it. I figured that maybe the software couldn't deal with measurements that small...

I saw that, in the print screen, I could scale down by different factors, so I multiplied Mattie's measurements by 4 and created a new table. At this point, I realized that I had entered Mattie's actual measurements incorrectly - a couple of measurements were supposed to be cut in half before entering them into the table - that probably accounted for the math error.

But I went forward with the (4x) larger measurements and had the pattern printed, reduced by 25%. In my very first version, the seam allowances were too small. (Turns out that 25% of 0.3 inches is, for all intents and purposes, 0 inches.) So I tried again - setting the SA to 2 inches before the 25% reduction to 0.5 inches.

Finally, pattern pieces that I could work with! :)

Mattie oversaw the process of pinning and cutting. (Okay, I know it's hokey to pose her like this - don't worry, once the novelty wears off I'll quit, I promise!)

Oh, one interesting thing - the program put seam allowances around all sides of the pattern pieces - even the edge that was supposed to be lined up along the fold. I cut that one off.

Of course, there were no assembly instructions, but I've made enough dresses that it wasn't hard to put it together. And here is my first attempt at sewing for Mattie:

The fit was okay - but not great. The fit was actually pretty good in the length and around the hips. But the top half - not so much.

The shoulders were too long and the top was baggy around the bust and waist - although the princess seams lined up pretty nicely where they were supposed to.

If you look carefully you can see the 2 pins (with red heads) below:

I'm wondering how much of this was mis-adjustments on the part of the software and how much was because of my seam allowances. Making 1/2 seam allowances on such a small pattern didn't work very well - look at how the front and back neckline facing patterns fit together with such a large SA:

So, I went back to the software and changed the SA to 1 inch (with 25% reduction that became 0.25 inches). Take a look at the SAs around the 2 sleeve patterns - my first and the new one:

We'll see if this produces a dress that fits better or not. I also may go back to using her measurements directly, now that I realize that I made that mistake the first time.

Of course, the 1912 patterns are not going to come as these nice macros that automatically adjust to a table of body measurements - so I have a lot more to learn about the software!

But, so far, I'm pretty happy with my plan to sew for a doll this size. Too small (i.e., Barbie) would bring its own challenges! But at this size, Mattie's clothes don't use much fabric and go together quickly, but are big enough that I can handle them on my machine.

That's about it for me this weekend. I doubt I'll get any more sewing in, as I have to get ready for my Tuesday night ESL class today. I know that I owe you all a "Talk Back Thursday" post - sorry about that. I was on a work trip all last week and wasn't able to get it done. I'll get it up sometime this week.

I hope everyone had a wonderful sewing weekend and feels ready for the start of a new week! :)

Friday Confession

2012-02-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

My upcoming foray into the world of vintage sewing has me wondering what I am "in for" - and so, of course, I am turning to you guys to hear about your experiences, opinions and advice! :)

Do you sew vintage patterns?

If no, why not?

If yes, why?

What is the oldest pattern you have ever sewn?

What do you like / dislike about vintage patterns?

What are the most significant differences between vintage and current patterns (from a sewing perspective, not from a fashion perspective)?

What are the biggest challenges associated with sewing vintage patterns?

Any advice for a newbie?

I can't wait to hear your thoughts! Thanks in advance! :)

In the Queue Wednesday

2012-02-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

A few more projects are trying to sneak into my queue as I wait for my first 1912 project assignment. Remember the 3 baby girls that are soon to grace my work group with their presence? Two of the parents are major football fans and so I thought I'd take a temporary sabbatical from the adorably cute girly stuff and make the less traditional football-watching-with-my-folks pinafores!

Again, the pattern is from the One Yard Wonders book. It has a lined bodice, gathered skirt made of rectangular pieces of fabric, and (barely) closes in the back with a single ribbon tie. It's meant to be worn on top of other clothes.

I think this will be a very quick and easy project - so I'm hoping to get to it soon.... No promises, of course. But don't worry, I will get to it! It's in the queue...

Weekend Project: Making the 1912 Project My Own

2012-01-29T13:00:00.000-05:00

Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish.

~ John Jakes

As you know, Janyce of the Vintage Pattern Lending Library is hosting a major project to digitize and sew all of the patterns that were published in “La Mode Illustree” (a French pattern magazine) in 1912.

This is in honor of the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.

Approximately 350 people have volunteered to serve as test sewers on this project, and I am one of them.

A Facebook page has been set up and there has been a lot of chatter as the volunteers ask questions and get to know one another.

Some of the people are seriously experienced and incredibly skilled in historical sewing and plan to apply historically accurate techniques to historically accurate fabrics in order to make museum-quality reproductions.

“Not it!” ;)

Others plan to make wearable garments for themselves.

Have you SEEN the waists on the women in 1912? (Okay, I realize that there were corsets involved, but still…) I have one of those waists. Heck, I have THREE of those waists!

Let’s face it – the typical pattern from 1912 does not suit my silhouette or my style. (Remember – this is the brightly-colored-hearts-flowers-and-kittens-print sundress girl here.)

So, how do I make this project my own?

Well, allow me to introduce you to the new member of our household and my model for this project: Mattie.

(This is actually a publicity shot for Mattie and her sisters - my Mattie hasn't made her appearance yet.)

Mattie is a “BJD” or ball-jointed doll. She has (roughly) the proportions of a young woman, scaled to 1/3 size. And I will be sewing my assigned 1912 patterns for her. :)

The world of BJDs is new to me – but here is what I discovered with a little exploring on the internet:

New ones are outrageously expensive.
They are primarily made in Asia.
New ones are outrageously expensive.
Typically they have to be pre-ordered and delivery can take 3 months or so.
New ones are outrageously expensive.

And by outrageously expensive, I mean in the $750 - $2,000 range! For a doll! Yikes!

Luckily, like everything else (with the possible exception of husbands), they can be purchased used on eBay. ;)

How did I come up with Mattie’s name? Oh, I just picked a random name that I liked…

I certainly did not estimate that, if she was in her early 20’s in 1912, then she must have been born in the 1890’s, and then Google popular girl names in the 1890’s to find one that I liked. I mean, come on, how OCD would that be!?!?

The name “Mattie” was ranked #50 in the 1890’s, by the way… ;)

Finally, one last detail, we have the option of downloading our patterns electronically and working with them in PatternMaker software.

I downloaded the (free) basic version – but I think that even the basic version will allow me to re-scale and/or re-size the patterns relatively easily. (Fingers crossed!)

So, there it is in a nutshell – my plan. I will be making smaller versions of the 1912 patterns for Mattie and blogging about my adventure here, all year long. Wish me luck!

PS – While Mattie is definitely more chic, classy and sophisticated than I am, she does harbor a small guilty attraction to bright colors and happy prints, so those may creep into some of her garments in unexpected ways… ;)

Friday Confession

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-05:00

So, today's topic is not just a fun question - it's a real confession. I have got a tool in my sewing room that I have never used. :(

It is the complete set of Creative Feet. I got them last year at the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo when it was in Lakeland, Florida.

I keep meaning to try them out, but I haven't done it yet. I hate buying things and then not using them.

How about you? Is there anything in your sewing room that you don't use? How do you make sure that you only buy things that you use?

Talk Back Thursday

2012-01-26T22:01:00.000-05:00

Image from the book "Sew It In Minutes: 24 Projects to Fit Your Style and Schedule" by Chris Malone. Thanks to Claire for the pointer! :)

Thank you so much to Claire, BConky, Draculash, Elaina,Webfrau, Mamafitz, Carla, Patsijean, Prttynpnk, Linda, Shannon, Mary, Becky andGwen for talking back to my confession last week! :) Iasked about “chain-stitching” (although I wasn’t aware of the official termuntil reading the comments!).

I recently tried it when making 9 wine totes and 9 casserole totes assembly line style and liked it. I asked what others thought of this technique.

When it comes to sewing garments, people were fairly evenly split between voting "yes" (4), "sometimes" (3) and "no" (3). The most commonly called out reason to do it is exactly the reason that I did it - sewing multiple copies of the same pattern.

BConky, for example, sewed 9 sets of Christmas PJs for her grands a couple of months ago. Prttynpnk used to sew and sell scrub caps and Mary makes boxers for her DH in batches. And Shannon learned the technique doing production sewing for her aunt's clothing business.

But some people use it even when they are not making multiple copies. Patsijean, Linda and Shannon, for example, explained how they do it when sewing a single garment - like chain stitching shoulder seams or side seams, and chain-serging to finish the seams.

The advantages that were cited include saving time, saving thread and protecting the edges of your fabric from being "eaten up" by the feed dogs.

Several people (4, in fact) said that chain stitching is a mainstay technique in quilting - which is, when you think about it, another place where you are doing multiple copies assembly line style. And Webfrau pointed out that it's particularly good when you are trying to deal with little pieces of fabric - again, protection for those pieces from the hungry feed dogs! ;)

But, as you saw from the initial counts, not everyone does it. Some people rarely find themselves sewing more than 1 garment at a time. And others, like Elaina, are perfectionists when it comes to their garment sewing, and prefer to focus on each seam, one at a time.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave a comment with your thoughts! :)

In the Queue Wednesday

2012-01-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

Before Christmas, Christie of Fabric Shopper Online held a charity raffle, and I won one of the prizes! My prize included a gift certificate to FabricWorm and with that certificate I picked out these 3 fabrics.

I'm imagining a skirt with the body made of the large flowered print (displayed on the top) and either a yoke or a bottom flounce out of one of the other 2 fabrics.

I would use the final fabric to make a short sleeved button-up-the-front blouse to go with the skirt.

The colors are a bit darker than I usually get, but I like them... What do you think?

I don't have the specific patterns picked out yet, and what with the 1912 project starting up, I have no idea when I'll get around to this.

But, don't worry, I'll get to it. It's in the queue... :)

Weekend Project: Seeing Triple

2012-01-22T17:00:00.000-05:00

The best things in life come in threes, like friends, dreams and memories.

~ Anonymous

Well, I finished my first "project" from the One-Yard Wonders book - matching tops and skirts for the 3 baby girls that are in the process of arriving in the families of the people in my work group. The one who has already made her appearance is Adalyn, who is about 5 months old. Evie and Lena are due this spring. I made the smallest size in the book - 2T - so it may be a while before we see these modeled! ;)

The skirt was super simple - no pattern pieces needed - just the dimensions of 2 rectangles. One rectangle (cut 2) makes the front and the back of the skirt. The other rectangle (cut 1) makes the waist band. The skirt is pleated and has an elastic waist.

The lined tops - which I showed a bit of last weekend - came out to be adorable! Here is the complete outfit (for Adalyn) from the front:

And the back - with big, green buttons! :)

And here is Evie's outfit from the front. (Evie's Mom - who, despite what I am about to tell you is a very good friend - doesn't like pink!)

And from the back with matching blue buttons:

And finally Lena's outfit from the front:

One feature that I really like about the top pattern is how the ruffles are only along the sides. It just seems like a slightly unusual and nice details - rather than having ruffles all the way around...

I couldn't find matching pink buttons, but I found a translucent orange button that fits within the whole color scheme. :)

Are these cute, or what? :)

And they were so much fun to sew...

Which leads to the question that has been plaguing me lately: What am I doing participating in a project focused on historic haute couture, when I am so clearly a bright-cotton-print-sundress kind of a person? Yikes!

Oh well... I guess I should think of it as a "stretch goal" instead of as taking on something that is a mismatch for me, right? Maybe by next weekend I'll be able to show you my first Vintage 1912 assignment.

In the meantime, I hope you had a wonderful sewing weekend and are ready for a new week! :)

1912 Sewing Project Update

2012-01-21T20:55:00.000-05:00

I haven't received my first assignment yet, but if you want to get a look at some of the first patterns that we will be tackling from La Mode Illustree - browse through the links on this site! :)
(You need to click on the title of a post to get to see the pictures.)

Friday Confession

2012-01-20T08:00:00.000-05:00

Remember when I was making all those wine and casserole totes for my friends a few weeks ago? I did them assembly-line style, and I tried this "quick sewing technique." Instead of stitching each seam independently (and trimming the threads, etc. before moving on to the next piece), I just kept feeding the next piece under the machine foot as soon as the previous piece was clear.

It worked really well for things like doing all 18 handles - 18 versions of the same pattern piece. This was a time when I didn't have to think about the next seam, because they were all the same.

I'm not as convinced that it would work well for assembling a single garment - where you rarely sew the same seam more than twice (2 sleeves, 2 shoulder seams, 2 side seams, etc.).

So, how about you? Do you sew like this? If so, when - on lots of projects, or mostly just when you are sewing multiple copies of the same pattern pieces? If not, why not? Any suggestions or recommendations? Any other "speed sewing" techniques you can recommend?

Talk Back Thursday

2012-01-19T20:33:00.003-05:00

Thank you so much to Gwen, Becky, Elaina, Marie, Katherine,Mamafitz, Mary, Patsijean, Linda, Carla and Mrs. Mole for talking back to myconfession last week! I confessed that Iresorted to (what I thought were) desperate measures when sewing dozens of rectanglestogether to make all those wine and casserole totes – in order to get myrectangles to line up nicely, I held the fabric tightly and “helped” it movethrough the machine.

As usual, we got a ton of good information from thecommenters! Gwen kicked it off byexplaining that we are really dealing with a somewhat complex system that hasat least three variables.

The feed dogs (under your fabric) are doing their job and“marching to their own drum”, so to speak, pulling the bottom layer of fabric (primarily)along.

Then there is the presser foot pushing along the top layerof fabric – and its impact depends on things like how tightly it is pressingdown on the fabric.

But all of these things can change, depending on what typeof fabric you are working with!

So, the odds that 2 equal length pieces of fabric that starttogether are also going to end together fall somewhat short of the 100% that wewould like to see! ;)

Of course, a couple of people pointed out that sometimes wecan take advantage of this – something we’ve talked about before – the feeddogs usually move the bottom layer of fabric a bit faster than the top layer,and so they will help ease a longer piece (placed on the bottom) into a shorterpiece (on top).

But sometimes we have to overcome this “feature.” And, as far as my 2 suggestions for how toovercome it, I had one hit and one strike. ;)

While a couple of folks didn’t really have a strong opinioneither way, holding the fabric tight – or, “taut sewing” as (I learned) it is officiallycalled – got a big thumbs up from our commenters. Seven people wholeheartedly approved ofit. And Katherine even said that it hasthe David Coffin seal of approval! Infact the only potential negative that was mentioned was the stress it can puton your shoulders and back. Lindareminded everyone to take the time to stretch when you use this method.

Several people had suggestions for exactly how they doit. For Patsijean, it depends on thelength of the seam to be sewn. Forshorter seams, she only holds the fabric taut in front of the needle. For longer seams, she holds it taut both infront of and behind the needle.

Mrs. Mole learned taut sewing on a sewing factory floor andshe adjusts her hold every 12 inches or so.

When Gwen is using taut sewing, she lifts the presser footevery few inches to let the fabric relax. She mentioned that having a knee-lift on the machine (something I neverunderstood before!) makes this easier.

The topic that elicited a bit of disagreement had to do withthe use of pins in taut sewing. Some folksadvocate using pins and at any given time are holding the fabric taut up to thenext upcoming pin. And Elaina oftenrelies on heavy pin use (or, in her words, she “pin[s] the goober out of it”)instead of taut sewing.

But not everyonefeels this way. Mrs. Mole, for example,said that there were no pins used on the sewing factory floor – not only didshe do taut sewing without pins, but she even used to use her fingernails totrim threads.

Now, my second idea - “helping” the fabric move through themachine – wasn’t quite so well received. To put it mildly! ;)

Most everyone who commented on this gave it a big: N.O.

The two exceptions were Becky, who sometimes does it a little bit, but is extremelycareful to keep her pressure smooth and even, and Linda, who only does it to help the machine get over bulky seams. Speaking of bulky seams, has anyone ever tried presser foot spacers to help with bulky seams? They are pictured above, and I found them at this website.

And the reasons for not pulling or pushing on your fabricincluded: breaking needles flying everywhere (What? You don’t enjoy a bit of danger andexcitement in your sewing room?) and pitting your needle plate. I have also heard that, if your machine iscomputerized, you could pull it out of alignment. I’m not sure if that applies to 100%mechanical machines too or not…

So, my take-away from all this is that I am going to try todeliberately use taut sewing more often, and I am going to try very hard to NOTcontrol the fabric’s movement through the machine… Wish me luck! :)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave acomment! You guys rock! :)

In the Queue Wednesday

2012-01-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

Just in case there is any remaining doubt, I think this has finally settled it - I am crazy! ;)

Why? Well, I have joined my first "sew-along" so to speak - and it's not for a spring wardrobe or anything useful (and normal) like that...

Nope. I have joined the 1912 project.

Janyce of the Vintage Pattern Lending Library is organizing this project in honor of the 100th year of the sinking of the Titanic.

She's going to be "transcribing patterns, graphics and information from the 1912 editions of La Mode Illustree – a beautiful French fashion journal of the period – with the goal of making all of the patterns from the entire year available."

And she's looking for test sewers who will sew these patterns and blog about their experiences.

And I've signed up! Yikes! ;)

It's really Elaina's fault - she's the one who told me about this project. ;)

So far, almost 350 people have asked to participate. Janyce set up a Facebook page for the project here. If you are interested, I'm sure it's not too late to sign up. :)

So, I don't know exactly which project will be in my queue - but it's something from high fashion 100 years ago! I can't wait to see it and share it with you! Don't worry, I'll get to it. It's in the queue... :)

Weekend Project: Toddler Tops

2012-01-16T10:29:00.002-05:00

The reverse side also has a reverse side.

~ Japanese Proverb

I've been having a wonderful time this weekend diving into the patterns in this book - one of my Christmas presents.

I started with a lined top for a toddler. Three of my friends at work have (or are about to have) a little girl and so I'm making 3 of these tops. The instructions for making the lined top are okay, but not well illustrated, and if you have never done this before it could be confusing. Here are some photos illustrating the steps using the 3 different tops that I am making:

After assembling the outside layer (front piece to 2 back pieces at shoulder seams) and the lining layer (same way), you lay them right-sides-together and stitch:

(a) the arm hole seams (but not the side seams)

(b) all the way up one back center edge, around the neckline and down the other back center edge

Do not stitch any of the bottom seams.

Then you turn it right side out by pulling each back piece through the opening in the shoulder.

And press it. :)

Here I've draped the shoulder over my ham and you can see the 2 side seams:

I stuffed some tissue paper inside, to show you how the side seams are open:

Imagine opening upwards the outside layer of each side seam and aligning those together in one long seam. That's what you are seeing below (sideways):

This gives you one long seam that aligns the sides of the outside fabric and the sides of the lining fabric and, once sewn, closes up the side inside and out. :)

Hopefully by next weekend I can show you the completed tops AND the matching skirts that I am making. :)

I hope you had a wonderful sewing weekend!

Weekend Project: Giving Away Sewing Books

2012-01-14T20:51:00.001-05:00

Thank you for all the kind words about my blog and reaching 800 posts!

I split the commenters into 2 piles - those who were interested in the PR 1,000 Tips book and those who were interested in the BurdaStyle book.

If you said "both" then I put you in the PR 1,000 Tips group, because there were fewer people in that pile and so I figured it gave you better odds. ;)

(I'm guessing that fewer people called out the PR book just because it's been out longer, and so more people already have it.)

Then I randomly drew one name from each pile. And the winners are:

PR 1,000 Tips

Lynne

BurdaStyle

Sewing Geek

Congratulations!

Shoot me an email, gwendolyn_campbell@hotmail.com, with your address and I'll get your books in the mail ASAP. :)

I wish I could send books to everyone... March 11th will be my 4 year blog-i-versary, and I'll have another give-away to celebrate that. :)

Friday Confession

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

I was taught (lo, these many years ago) to be careful to only use my hands to GUIDE the fabric through the sewing machine, but to let the sewing machine do the actual work of moving the fabric.

And for the last 10 years one of the things that I could never do well - something that seemed like it should be simple - was sewing large rectangles together. They would always start out lined up nicely, and then end up out of alignment - often with little fabric bubbles. Even when I used my walking foot (although that did help).

Making 9 casserole totes required sewing A LOT of large rectangles. So I tried something new. I held the fabric taut and kind of pulled it through my machine. At first it felt wrong - but, you know what? It worked! My rectangles came out nicely aligned with basically no fabric bubbles across all 9 totes. :)

It may help that my machine is mechanical, not computerized.

So, how about you? Are you careful never to push or pull your fabric through the machine? Or do you sometimes take control? What do you think about this?

Talk Back Thursday

2012-01-12T07:00:00.000-05:00

Thank you so much to Elaina, Lynne, Mary, Carla, Linda, Marie and Patsijean for talking back to my confession last week. I confessed that I hadn't done a year-end review of my sewing in 2011, nor had I made any sewing-related resolutions for 2012. Those things were feeling stressful to me, and I asked if others participate in these traditions.

On the surface, we got the usual variety of responses - some saying "yes" and some saying "no". But, looking a little deeper, I think that a powerful, common theme emerged.

First, the influence of the internet: Several people reported that they did at least some wrap-up and new year planning, in large part due to reading other sewing blogs and/or working on their own blogs.

Second, no one thought that hobbies should be stressful - but they ARE about learning and growing and stretching and excelling... So, while some people said "No" to setting traditional resolutions for their sewing - like "producing x garments per month" or "sewing for y time every day" - many people are feeling inspired and striving to improve in some way.

For example, Elaina is hoping to do more sewing in 2012 than she was able to do in 2011. Carla is continuing her longtime quest to learn how to alter patterns for the perfect fit. Linda is planning to focus on finishing many of her UFOs (and 'PIGS' ?? That's a new one to me...). Last year, Marie tried to use more fabric than she bought. And Patsijean is really excited about her plan to do a SWAP this year. In fact, she has already planned the projects, shopped her stash for the fabric (with one exception - the beautiful spoonflower print pictured above), and started the first jacket!

So, what's the theme? Well, when it comes to our sewing, it isn't about making a list of "shoulds" and feeling guilty when we can't keep them. It's about being inspired and excited and passionate. :)

Apparently the idea has been around for a while. Lynne provided the most beautiful and powerful quote to summarize this - by Aristotle!

"Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work."

So, I guess I WILL set a "resolution" for 2012. I will try to live by Lynne's motto and follow Aristotle's advice... :)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave a comment! Here's wishing a wonderful sewing year for all of us! :)

In the Queue Wednesday

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

You've already seen this project - it was a Christmas gift from Ana. :)

She picked out the pattern, the fabric - even a contrasting fabric for the yoke - and got me matching thread and a zipper. I love it all!

I'm almost as happy about the fact that she did it all by herself! I remember the first time she ever stepped foot into a fabric store - I took her to pick out the fabric for her first sewing lesson. She didn't speak English and it was all new and strange to her - the books of patterns, the file cabinet of patterns, the rows of fabric, having the fabric cut, reading the table on the back of the pattern to figure out how much to buy and what size zipper to get - it was ALL as foreign as our language...

Now she can do it all herself. She can waltz into Joann's, go straight to the pattern books, find a picture she likes, pull the pattern out of the file cabinet, select the fabric(s), wait in line to have it cut, tell the woman behind the counter how much she wants, pick out the required notions, and then pay for it all. She is comfortable and confident and speaks easily in English with the people who work there.

Of course, I don't get credit for teaching her English - she went to school to learn that. But I do think that practicing with me and my husband helped her gain confidence outside of the classroom.

Anyways, every time I wear this skirt I'll remember that she picked it out for me and that it shows how far she has come since that first day that we got together and I showed her how to thread a sewing machine...

So, I'll be getting to this skirt soon! It's in the queue... :)

Weekend Project: Christmas Presents Finished!

2012-01-10T08:14:00.003-05:00

He was always late on principle, the principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.

~ Oscar Wilde

I wish I could say that I was following some kind of principle when I was working on these Christmas presents last weekend (in January), but I don't like being late. I just have a bad tendency, when making plans, to over estimate what I can accomplish and under estimate how busy I'm going to be...

But - thanks to Ana's help! - the last of my Christmas presents, 9 insulated casserole totes, were finished over the weekend and passed out at work yesterday! :)

(I passed out the wine totes on our first day back to work after New Year's and those were a big hit too!)

I'm sorry that the pictures aren't better - I had gotten up around 4 am on Monday to finish them up and was in serious danger of being late for work. So I just grabbed a few snaps.

You may remember that I had all my friends browse the website fabric.com and pick out 2 fabrics that they liked. All I told them was that it was kitchen-related. Each person told me his/her choices and I ordered the fabric and 9 Pyrex, 9 x 13 casserole dishes.

Notice the little tab on the front to hold a spoon or spatula? I considered buying each person a spoon, but I had already gone over any kind of budget, so I let that go...

It was fun working with all those different fabrics. The pattern was pretty reasonable. About the only change that I made was a minor one - the instructions called for making the handles by sewing both side seams while the 40 inch strips were right-sides-together and then turning the tubes.

I found that turning tubes that long was a bit tedious, so I only stitched one seam with the fabric right-sides-together. Then I pressed under the other seam and top stitched the handle to seal it. (The instructions called for top stitching anyways...)

I also had fun deciding which fabric to put on the outside and which on the inside and whether to mix them a bit (like making the handles out of the contrasting fabric, etc.). Hopefully each person will think that I made the best decision on his/her tote.

They were a pretty big hit when I passed them out yesterday. :)

We have semi-regular potlucks at work and most everybody does some pretty serious cooking, so I figured that these would be generally useful. :)

Next year, I'm thinking of putting my new "One Yard Wonders" book out on the conference table and letting each person pick the project that he/she would like for me to make as his/her Christmas present. And I will try to remember to start in September, not November! Maybe, for once, I won't be late... ;)

Post # 800 !!! (Thank you & give-away)

2012-01-07T15:30:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it? I'm not sure I can... My 800th post!

And that means - time to get all sentimental and mushy. ;)

Okay, okay... I'll try to keep it brief. ;)

Thank you. :)

Thank you for reading my posts - even though I am FAR from the best at sewing or writing out there.

Thank you for commenting - even though I am horrible about commenting on the blogs that I read.

Thank you for encouraging me when I mess up or get tired and discouraged.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom and insights and funny stories - to help me learn and to make me laugh and to make my Friday/Thursday posts worthwhile.

Thank you for... everything! :)

The words are for everyone.

And for two of you, I have sewing books!

I will be randomly drawing 2 names from among the people who comment on this post. One will win a copy of this book from one of my favorite sewing sites:

And the other will win this book, from another of my favorite sewing sites:

In your comment, let me know which book you are hoping to win.

This drawing is open to everyone in the world. (Not just U.S.)

Good luck to everyone!

And, again, thank you! :)

Friday Confession

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

As I've been reading through the blogs in my blog roll for the past few weeks, I've been feeling more and more alone on this one... but I have not taken the time to review 2011 or set specific goals for 2012.

Don't get me wrong - I know that periodically taking stock of where you are and looking ahead to where you want to be can be powerful tools for improving your skills.

And, unlike Calvin (above), I know that I still have a loooong way to go before I will be happy with my sewing skills... If that thought slipped my mind, my recent dancing dress experience was a vivid reminder! :(

But I'm just feeling so stressed - so much of my life is dominated by goals and timelines and evaluations... Sometimes I just want my sewing to be fun and pressure-free. Even though, in general, I do get a lot of satisfaction in achieving goals and improving my skills.

So, do I sound as "house divided against itself" as I feel? ;)

Okay already, enough about me! ;)

How about you? What is your stance on using the end of the year to taking stock and setting goals for your sewing? Do you do it? If so, why? If not, why not? If so, how was 2011 for you in your sewing? And what are you planning for 2012?

Talk Back Thursday

2012-01-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

Thank you so much to Gwen, Linda, Elaina and Mamafitz for talking back to my confession last week! I asked what everyone got for Christmas and, like me, these folks got some special sewing gifts. :)

Gwen got a new yarn swift and ball winder - allowing her to replace her older model (aka her husband!) Thanks to her FIL, Linda was able to get a binding attachment for her new machine. Elaina, like me, got a fabric gift card, and she also got a dress form.

Finally, Mamafitz's puppy helped her get a coverstitch machine for Christmas. Now you are probably wondering, "How did a PUPPY help her get a coverstitch machine?" Well, her puppy chewed the power cord on her serger, forcing her to go to the dealer to get it fixed, where she found an amazing deal on the coverstitch machine! You see - her puppy had her best interests at heart from the beginning! ;)

It sounds like a wonderful Christmas for all. I can only infer that Santa has a soft spot for sewing! :)

Thank you to everyone who shared their Christmas stories! And thanks also to Mary for the advice on using MS Paint to prevent Blogger from flipping my pictures! That has been driving me crazy!

Wednesday Inspiration

2012-01-04T06:31:00.000-05:00

One last inspiration post, before I return to my regular Wednesday schedule and try to rassle some more projects into my queue. ;)

Last December, I was on a work trip with a new-to-me colleague and my sewing came up. (I can't imagine how that would have happened - after all, it's not like I talk about it every opportunity I get!)

It turns out that his grandmother was recognized as an international authority on a form of Norwegian embroidery called "hardanger". And, she made a piece (~ 10" square) for him and his bride about 25 years ago, as a wedding gift. He brought it in to work to show me:

Not only is this a gift of love and artistry from his grandmother, but she used a design originally created by HER grandmother, around the turn of the century!

In the picture below, you can just make out her initials, stitched into the lower right-hand corner:

I don't even know where to start to try to capture the beauty of this piece. When I focused in tightly I was just amazed by the precision of the hand stitches. When I examined the piece as a whole, I was struck by how the geometry and symmetry were used to create a beautiful design that somehow transcends the individual bits and pieces...

It is thought that the roots of this art form can be found in ancient Persia and thread their way through Italian reticella and Venetian lacework before becoming firmly established in Norway in the late 1600's. I love this connection to women throughout all of history...

Thanks to my colleague and friend, Ed, for going to the trouble of bringing in this sample to let me see it in person! To most people this might seem like no big deal, but I know that those of you reading this blog will understand how special it was to me... :)

For more information on hardanger, here are a couple of sites to check out:

fibre2fashion.com

nordic needle

Weekend Projects: Yikes!

2012-01-01T13:23:00.001-05:00

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

~ Oprah Winfrey

Happy New Year! Have you been enjoying the holidays? I took last week off - we visited family in Ohio for Christmas, and since then I've been so busy at home that I need to go back to work to get some rest! ;)

First, I started working on the casserole totes for my friends at work. I'm doing them assembly-line style and the first step was to cut all the pieces of fabric. Actually, all of the pieces are rectangular, so I was able to snip the edges at the correct measurements and then just rip the pieces. That was much faster and more accurate than having to cut all those straight edges.

I had to put this on hold, so that I could make my New Year's Eve dancing dress. The silk material was a bit expensive, so I actually made a muslin first. Ana helped me fit it, by pinning it where it needed to be taken in.

Basically, I'm thick in the mid-section - I picked the size that fits my middle and we took it in around bust and shoulders...

Here you can see the muslin in-between the pattern piece and where/how I graded the pattern:

Truthfully, I was disappointed with the color of the fabric - it was called "coral" and on my computer screen it appeared to lean towards a salmon-pinkish coral. But, in person, it was more of a burnt orange coral.

As I worked on the dress, each step was a little bit more of a nuisance than it should have been - and I had to re-do many of the seams - but there were no major screw-ups... UNTIL I had the "bright idea" of finishing the neckline with bias tape instead of a facing.

Here is the point at which I was ready to call of the New Year's Eve dance and spend the evening in bed:

Yup, the neckline stretched out horribly when I added the bias binding. I was so upset! (This was late afternoon on Saturday - maybe 4 hours before the dance...) I was ready to throw in the towel, but Ana was determined that it could be fixed and so she and I tried a bunch of alternatives - pulling up the shoulder seams, adding "decorative" darts / tucks along the neckline, etc.

In the end, I came up with this idea:

It wasn't perfect, but it helped a lot and I actually thought it was a nice feature on the dress.

Ana took pictures of us before we headed off to our dance:

The seated pose was her idea - it came out nicer than I expected. :)

So, the dress was not a smashing success, but I guess it wasn't a total failure. And the dance turned out to be pretty fun... :)

In between all that sewing, I also squeezed in a couple of afternoons of working on my business. Ana and some of her friends came over and we had a "card set assembly" and pizza party.

Altogether I think we got over 500 sets of cards put together. :)

We tried to protect the boxes of cards from the cats by covering them with fabric when we took a break for pizza. Unfortunately, Oliver's little stuffed mouse INSISTED on hiding in the folds of the fabric, so, of course, Oliver HAD to rummage around in the fabric looking for it! ;)

Speaking of the "How Much Fabric?" reference cards, we've got one last holiday give-away going on, over at Claire's blog. She's giving away 2 bundles - each includes a BuraStyle pattern magazine and 2 meters of pattern drafting paper! It's her one year blog-i-versary, so, if you've got a minute, stop by and congratulate her. :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve and is excited about 2012! :)

Now, it's back to the casserole totes for me! ;)

Friday Confession

2011-12-30T07:59:00.000-05:00

How was your Christmas? Did people love the gifts that you gave them? Did you get the things that you had been hoping for?

I asked for Jo-Ann gift cards, and it appears that people listened! From a couple of friends at work to my husband to relatives on both sides of the family, almost everybody got me gift cards! Will you look at this pile!

*** Arghhh! Why does Blogger insist on flipping my images sideways? :( ***

Anyways, I'm going to have to take my sleeping bag to Jo-Ann's and camp out there for a few days of shopping! These cards are likely to last me for months and months! I am so happy and excited! :)

But those weren't my only sewing-related gifts. Another friend from work got me this book:

There are a lot of fun looking projects in here! I foresee a wealth of Christmas projects from this book in my future! ;)

Finally, Ana completely surprised me by picking out a pattern, fabric and notions for me:

Is that gorgeous, or what? And, most of all - is that ME, or what?!?! There's no better test of how well you know someone than whether or not you can pick out a pattern and fabric that will make them happy, and you can tell that Ana knows me very, very well! :)

So, those are my favorite Christmas gifts this year. What about you? What are YOUR favorite Christmas gifts this year?

Regardless of the gifts, I hope that everyone had a wonderful time sharing food and memories and laughter with their friends and family. And that you are all looking forward to the wonderful things that 2012 has in store for us! :)

Wednesday Inspiration

2011-12-28T08:18:00.001-05:00

My queue has started rejecting new projects, and so, for the holiday season, I'm going to use Wednesday posts to show you pictures of gorgeous fashions that inspire me. Enjoy! :)

Evening dress from Cristobal Balenciaga, 1950.

This sash would be a disaster on my "womanly" hips, but I love the rich, fullness of it and the colors...

Image from the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

Note: I announced my give-away winners yesterday.

If you missed it, scroll down or click here. :)

Give-Away Winners Announced

2011-12-27T14:53:00.001-05:00

First, I'm so sorry about not getting this post up last Friday. We went away for the long holiday weekend and I thought I'd have internet access, but the computer I was using had an old version of IE on it (and I didn't have "administrator permission" to install any other software), and Blogger suddenly decided not to work with that version! So I couldn't do anything to my blog! :(

Anyways, we're back home and I'm happy to finally be able to announce the 2 winners of my Christmas Stocking Stuffer give-away!

I had 9 US entrants and the randomly drawn winner from this pool is:

Sarah McClelland

I had 7 international (to me) entrants and the randomly drawn winner from this pool is:

NikkiHe

Congratulations to you both! Please send me an email (gwynhug@gmail.com) and let me know which set of The Original "How Much Fabric?" Reference Cards you would like to receive, and send me your mailing address. I'll get everything off in the mail ASAP. :)

As always, the only sad thing for me about a give-away is that I can't send something to every single one of the people who entered - and especially to everyone who supports my blog by leaving comments. It may seem like a little thing, but it means so much to me! Thank you! :)

I hope that each and every one of you is enjoying a wonderful holiday season and is looking forward to the start of a new year!

PS - Speaking of give-aways, I see that I am almost up to my 800th post - so there will be another give-away soon! :)

Wednesday Inspiration

2011-12-21T08:17:00.003-05:00

My queue has started rejecting new projects, and so, for the holiday season, I'm going to use Wednesday posts to show you pictures of gorgeous fashions that inspire me. Enjoy! :)

French dresses, circa 1810.

Okay, these dresses aren't actually "me"...

But they evoke such a strong feeling of the classics in me that I still find myself drawn to them.

Image from the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

Monday Morning Quarterback

2011-12-19T06:59:00.000-05:00

Size matters.

~ Anonymous

Okay, I wasn't really quite as bad over the weekend as I intimated in yesterday's post. I made Ana's equipment roll on Saturday and went back into my sewing room on Sunday to work on the wine totes. :)

You may remember that I complained about 2 things about this pattern. One was that the directions for making the box-shaped bottom were unclear. The other was that it was difficult to attach the handle because it was too short.

Here's what I mean - when you tried to wrap the handle around to attach both ends, the tote gets squished up inside and the ends of the handle try to pull at an angle...

Well, I managed to make it (almost) work on one tote, but there was no way I was going to fight my way through this problem on EIGHT more totes. So, I re-cut all of the handles and added 2 inches. Voila!

Doesn't that look much less painful? It made a huge difference! The final handle is a bit longer, but it's actually better for sliding up your forearm when you are trying to juggle wine, presents and a plate full of homemade cookies! ;)

Notice that the handle on the owl bag is straight and the other one is slightly askew? That's because that short handle was fighting me... :(

Anyways, once I re-cut all the handles, and given that I had figured out how to deal with the bottoms, the wine totes went reasonably quickly and I was able to finish them all! :)

On some of them I made the handle match the outer tote fabric and on others I reversed the handle, so that it was the lining fabric that showed. I just went by which looked better to me...

I hope my friends think I made good decisions! :)

It feels good to have this part of their Christmas gifts done. Next up - casserole totes! I think these are going to be more work... Yikes!

Weekend Project: Sewing Diversion

2011-12-18T07:47:00.000-05:00

There is no pleasure in having nothing to do;

the fun is having lots to do and not doing it.

~ Andrew Jackson

Let's summarize the most urgent projects in my queue, shall we? I committed to making 9 insulted wine totes and 9 insulated casserole carriers as Christmas gifts for my friends at work AND I decided to make a dancing dress for a New Year's Eve dance at our dancing teacher's studio.

So, what do I do in my sewing room the weekend before Christmas?

Work on insulated wine totes? - you guess...

No, try again, I reply.

Hmmm... insulted casserole carriers, maybe?

Not quite - one more guess.

Then it must be your dancing dress, right?

Strike three! And you're out! (Or maybe I'm the one who is out - as in "out of her mind!")

For Christmas we got Ana a device that will let her access the internet on her little laptop (really, a "netbook") and this weekend I designed and sewed a little fabric roll to carry it:

She really likes red and I found this little collection of bundled fat quarters that I thought would appeal to her:

The base is like one of those pencil rolls (free patterns abound on the internet).

Inside, I attached 2 pouches with flaps and one velcro strip - to hold the device, the cable and the USB/electric plug converter.

The flaps attach to the pouches with velcro, to keep the equipment from spilling out.

I put a layer of batting inside everything (the base and the pouches) to provide a touch of padding / protection for the equipment.

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, especially given that it is my first experiment. :)

I think Ana will really like it!

And even if I wasn't sewing on what I SHOULD have been sewing on, at least I was SEWING! Yay! :)

I hope you had a wonderful weekend and (if you celebrate it) are ready for Christmas next week!

Holiday Give-Away!

2011-12-16T07:19:00.008-05:00

I've been running around sponsoring holiday give-aways on other blogs, and it finally occured to me that I should have a give-away here too! ;)

So, in honor of this holiday season, I'll be giving away TWO stocking stuffer packages - each with three notions designed to get you to your sewing machine as quickly as possible. :)

Each package will contain:

For fabric shopping: One set of The Original "How Much Fabric?" Reference Cards (winner's choice)

For fabric cutting: One Seam Allowance Guide - you'll never have to add seam allowances by hand to your Burda Style magazine patterns again!

For fabric marking: One chalkoner - the quickest and neatest method to transfer pattern markings to your fabric.

To enter, leave a comment and tell me where you are from.

I'll randomly draw one winner from among the U.S. commenters and one winner from among the International (to me) commenters.

Good luck to everyone! :)

Talk Back Thursday

2011-12-15T10:21:00.001-05:00

Thank you so much to Mamafitz, Carla, Becky, Marie, Alison, Elaina, Debbie, Linda, Patsijean, Katherine, Christine and Katie for talking back to my confession last week! I confessed that, not counting an unfortunate tie-dye experience in the 70's and some washing machine mishaps, I have never dyed any fabric.

People were pretty evenly split - with 6 reporting that they haven't tried it (although some, like Carla, plan to try it soon!) and 6 reporting some experience.

Definitely the person to turn to for advice is Marie - she has dyed fabrics using a wide variety of techniques - such as low water immersion, tray dyeing, marble dyeing, gradients and space dyeing - and provided all of the pictures above! I didn't realize that there were so many different methods - I found her dye tray example particularly beautiful. :)

Becky and Alison also provided links to examples of their dyeing projects (follow embedded links for full posts):

Becky gave two bits of advice - follow the directions and use quality dye! She recommended Dharma Trading Co. dyes.

On the downside, a couple of people mentioned that it can be messy and non-trivial to dispose of the dye bath responsibly.

And Katherine commented that the only time she really got the dye to distribute evenly was when she accidentally put something red in the washing machine with her whites! Been there, done that... ;)

(Good thing I love pink!)

Finally, Christine mentioned that fabric dyeing has been all the rage on Project Runway this season. I've lost track of that show - I want to start watching it again...

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave a comment! I hope everyone is ready for the holidays and feeling excited and happy and festive! I have a special sewing stocking stuffers give-away for you tomorrow! :)

Wednesday Inspiration

2011-12-14T08:09:00.002-05:00

My queue has started rejecting new projects, and so, for the holiday season, I'm going to use Wednesday posts to show you pictures of gorgeous fashions that inspire me. Enjoy! :)

Evening dress from the House of Worth, circa 1900.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for small, fitted tops and wide, flowing skirts...

I'm sure it has nothing whatsoever to do with my figure! ;)

Image from the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.

Weekend Project: A Reason to Celebrate!

2011-12-11T18:57:00.009-05:00

The day is committed to error and floundering;

success and achievement are matters of long range.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Well, it took over two years - and there were times when I didn't really believe it would ever happen - but I am proud and happy to introduce to you:

The complete line of "How Much Fabric?" Reference cards!

It all started in May of 2009, after a particularly egregious overbuying episode during a Memorial Day sale at Gorgeous Fabrics, when I asked my blog readers how they decided how much fabric to buy when they didn't have the right pattern(s) available to guide them.

And I discovered that many people were just as stumped as I was...

I was worrying the problem in my mind, trying to come up with a rule of thumb to guide my future buying - when an idea hit me. I didn't have to guess - I could actually calculate how much fabric different types of garments needed!

And thus began my love/hate relationship with Excel. I started entering numbers from the back of pattern envelopes into a spreadsheet...

Over the summer, with the help of three wonderful friends and the support of my amazing husband, my little tables turned into a real product - statistically validated tables, representative sketches, all printed onto sturdy plastic cards that slip easily into a purse.

On September 12, 2009, approximately 2,000 patterns later, my e-store went live, with exactly 1 card set - for women's clothes. (Okay, we had 2 versions - one for US shoppers and one in metric - but let's not mess with the narrative flow...)

And now, over two years and approximately 8,000 sewing patterns (!) later, our complete line is... well... complete. :)

We have sets that cover (1) Women's clothes, (2) Women's plus sizes, (3) Men's clothes, (4) Baby & toddler clothes and (5) Children's clothes.

So much has happened during these two years and I have learned so much - things about starting a small business, stuff about accounting (yuck!), how expensive advertising is (!), how to file and pay sales tax quarterly, how to edit html code...

We have been featured as a "Cool Tool" in Tauton Press's "Quick Stuff to Sew", in Interweave Press's "Stitch" magazine, in the ASG's Notions publication and in "Sew News".

And, best of all, I have e-met the most amazing people from around the world!

My mind is already buzzing with more plans - a video showing how to use the cards, an app, getting the cards into fabric shops, etc.

But, after the holiday madness is over, I'm going to put aside time to get together with the people that made this possible and celebrate our accomplishment. :)

Right now, however, I have to get back into the sewing room and finish those Christmas presents... ;)

I hope everyone had a wonderful sewing weekend and feels that life is under control as the holiday season comes barreling down on us! :)

Friday Confession

2011-12-09T08:41:00.000-05:00

For some reason, ever since my friends/co-workers chose the fabrics for their Christmas presents and one of them was unfamiliar with the word "batik", it seems like I keep running into things about hand dyeing fabric.

I have a vague middle school memory of an art class tie-dye project, but I certainly haven't tried any fabric dyeing since I started sewing about 10 years ago.

How about you? Have you done any fabric dyeing? If so, I'd love to hear about it - the how and the why... If you point me to pictures, I'll include them (and credit you, of course!) in my Talk Back Thursday post. And what advice would you give to someone who was considering trying it?

If not, is it something that you'd like to try someday? Or on your "meh, not so much..." list?

Talk Back Thursday

2011-12-08T10:07:00.001-05:00

Thank you so much to Becky, Debbie, Mary, Katie, Gwen, Elaina and Linda for talking back to my confession last week! I asked what sewing-related gifts people were hoping that Santa had stashed in his big red bag for them.

The most popular gift requests revolved around FABRIC! Becky and Katie are hoping that people will buy fabric for them. Becky has been restricting herself to sewing from her stash all year, so she is really excited about getting some new fabric! And Katie is hoping/hinting for some Dr. Who fabric. Gwen and Linda are hoping for gift cards to a fabric store, so that they can indulge themselves and buy fabric without worrying about each penny. And Elaina’s Secret Santa has already given her a fabric gift card – I hope she can find something truly gorgeous to buy! :)

Beyond fabric, a few tools were mentioned – Becky could also use a new pair of scissors, Debbie wants a bendable light for her sewing machine and Linda would like the binding attachment that goes with her Janome machine.

I think Mary called out the gift that all of us could really use – more TIME to sew!

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to talk back to me! And here’s wishing that ALL OF US receive the supplies, the time, the energy, the renewed spirit and the inspiration to take us into a wonderful year of sewing!

Wednesday Inspiration

2011-12-07T08:02:00.002-05:00

My queue has started rejecting new projects, and so, for the holiday season, I'm going to use Wednesday posts to show you pictures of gorgeous fashions that inspire me. Enjoy! :)

An evening dress from the House of Dior, 1952-1953.

I love the shape of this dress, the bottom ruffle and the uneven length. :)

Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art Dress Collection.

Tuesday's Torch Story

2011-12-05T08:40:00.000-05:00

Keep the circus going inside you,

keep it going,

don't take anything too seriously,

it'll all work out in the end.

~ David Niven

Our last ESL class of the term was a birthday party for one of our aides, Emilia.

We had a circus theme, because, as a young woman, Emilia was actually a circus performer! Here she looks at one of her gifts - a photo collage from her circus career:

Here she blows out the candles on her birthday cupcakes.

It was her 90th birthday!

I was in charge of games. I had three - throw rings around coke bottles, this bean bag toss game:

And a dart game to pop balloons.

You may be thinking that the cones are a bit close to the balloon board. If so, you would be right. This was the most popular game (sharp objects flying dangerously through the air, loud noises - it had everything!) and they went through 50 balloons!

As can be seen by this shot of the backs of lots of random people milling about, everyone had a nice time. ;)

Seriously, it was a nice evening. I think Emilia was really touched. As much as I love my class, it's going to be nice to have a break for a few weeks - we start up again in January. I have a lot of work to do to get ready for the new term - you know, in my free time... ;)

Weekend Project: Someone Knock Some Sense into Me!

2011-12-04T09:47:00.005-05:00

If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it.

~ Lucille Ball

I. AM. IN. SANE.

I haven't made any progress on the Christmas gifts for my co-workers. And yet I just took on another project.

(By the way, I'm hoping that, if I don't post this as a project in my Wednesday Queue series, my queue won't be able to reject it...)

My husband and I are taking dance lessons. (So far, we can lurch around the floor endangering other couples during swing dances, fox trots, the hustle and rumbas.) And our dance teacher just announced that her studio would be having a New Year's Eve Cinderella-themed Ball.

Yup - you guessed it - I'm going to try to make my dress...

I. AM. IN. SANE.

I went shopping yesterday and picked out this pattern:

I'm going to make the version in the lower right corner - with long sleeves. It seemed like something that would work for both a swing dance and a fox trot. A compromise between bouncy-cute and regal.

I also ordered some coral silk stretch charmuese fabric - I'm hoping it will be a good compromise between holding the shape of the sleeves and flowing nicely when I dance.

Of course, most of all, I just hope that Lucille Ball is right! Yikes!

Friday Confession

2011-12-02T07:37:00.001-05:00

After almost 4 years of publishing this blog, I actually have to search my old Friday Confessions to make sure that I haven't already used a topic before I post a new one... (And it is SO distressing each time I discover that my "new" confession idea is actually an old one.) But this is one confession topic that I can re-use every year! :)

We've already talked about whether or not you are sewing any of your holiday gifts this year. How about the opposite? What sewing-related gifts are on YOUR wish list? Anything big? A new machine? My sewing room is pretty well supplied (and COMPLETELY full!) and so my wish list is basically lots of gift cards for buying fabric and patterns and notions, oh my! ;)

Of course, what I really want is more time to sew, but I've been asking for that every year for the last 9 years and never received it, so I am not hopeful for this year either... ;)

I'm looking forward to hearing what gifts are keeping you on your best behavior these days!

Talk Back Thursday

2011-12-01T07:16:00.004-05:00

Thank you so much to Lynne, Shelia, Sarah, Mamafitz, Mary, Patsijean, Gwen, Shannon, Linda, Summerset and Elaina for talking back to my confession a couple of weeks ago. I asked what people think about snap tape for baby clothes, and if anyone had any tips to help me apply it more neatly...

To summarize:

SNAP! Snap tape - you have been dissed!

Not one single person spoke up strongly in favor of snap tape. Four people did suggest that, if I'm going to use snap tape, I should use a zipper foot. And a couple of those folks said not just any zipper foot - Linda, for example, recommended a Janome two-toed adjustable zipper foot.

But the vast majority of the commenters recommended using some kind of snap setter tool. Here are some of the links that people offered up to find snap setting tools:

Joann's

Snap Setter

Kam Snaps

What's funny, is that I use the low tech version of this approach (i.e., a hammer) to set in grommets on my chalk bags - but it never occurred to me that this would work for snaps too! Doh!

And two last cool ideas:

Shelia pointed us to this tutorial on making your own snap tape using twill tape and Mary said, forget the snap tape and baby clothes - a great home-sewn gift for new moms is a flannel sheet set (flat & fitted).

Oh, yeah - when I was googling snap tape to learn more about it, I found this nice overview about snaps on the Denver Fabrics website.

Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to leave a comment! I might just have to add a snap setter tool to my Christmas wish list... ;)

Wednesday Inspiration

2011-11-30T07:55:00.004-05:00

My queue has started rejecting new projects, and so, for the holiday season, I'm going to use Wednesday posts to show you pictures of gorgeous fashions that inspire me. Enjoy! :)

An evening dress by Sarmi, from 1970.

I think part of the appeal of this image to me is the dress form...

Image from The Metropolitan Museum of Art dress collection.

Tuesday's Torch Story

2011-11-29T07:04:00.001-05:00

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.

If you talk to a man in his language, that goes to his heart.

~ Nelson Mandela

We're wrapping up our semester - we'll have an end-of-the-semester party on our last week. I had our class photo made into Christmas tree ornaments (www.zazzle.com) and will give them out as small gifts to everyone...

It's kind of going to be a joint celebration - my class aide, Emilia, is turning 90! Can you believe it?!?! And it gets better - when she was younger, she spent years working in a real-honest-to-god circus! (Her favorite animal is the elephant.) So, we're combining our holiday party with a birthday party for Emilia. And we're going to have a circus theme - right down to the food (popcorn & peanuts) and the games (ring toss & pop the balloons with a dart). I'll have pictures for you next week! :)

Black Friday Greetings!

2011-11-25T13:35:00.002-05:00

I hope everyone (well, all my US readers) had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday! And I hope that all who brave the Black Friday mobs return home triumphant (and in one piece!).

I'll resume my regularly scheduled posts next week.

For now, I did want to point you towards another give-away of The Original "How Much Fabric?" Reference Cards going on at Frabjous Couture (here).

The give-away is open to both US and international entrants and we will ship anywhere in the world. :)

Good luck to everyone!

In the Queue Wednesday

2011-11-23T10:15:00.002-05:00

I imagine that many of us have similar short-term queues right now! ;)

We're far from family, but having a handful of friends over for a traditional meal. This year Ana is helping me prepare the food. It will be the first time she's helped me cook, the fourth time she's spent the holiday with us and our last Thanksgiving together. Next spring she'll finish school and return home to Mexico, most likely for good. We're really going to miss her...

What are you doing for Thanksgiving this year?

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! :)

PS - Christie has a review up on her blog, fabricshopperonline, of The Original "How Much Fabric?" Reference Cards - plus, a set will be included in her charity raffle on Black Friday. Stop by and check it out! :)

Tuesday's Torch Story

2011-11-22T09:06:00.006-05:00

We should not look back unless it is to derive useful lessons from past errors,

and for the purpose of profiting by dearly bought experience.

~ George Washington

I tried to preserve the good from last week's activity and discard the bad - and I think this week's activity was a success!

The good (the goal) was to design an activity that small groups could do independently, with a way to check their answers.

The bad was the overly complicated method of revealing the answers (here).

This week, the topic was forming questions and negatives, in present and past tenses. I selected some of the verbs we had already seen (both regular and irregular) and created tables that detailed the positive statement, negative statement and question associated with each pronoun.

Then I cut up post-it notes so that each one covered one square in my table. I numbered those post-it notes and made little slips of paper with those numbers on them. I put all those little slips of paper in a ziploc bag and mixed them up.

The idea was that students would take turns drawing a number. The number would tell them a verb, in a tense, conjugated to a pronoun - and they would have to generate the 3 phrases. Then they could remove the post-it note and check their work!

It worked! I am at least partially redeemed after the previous failed activity... ;)

Weekend Project: A Little Bit of Progress

2011-11-20T11:46:00.005-05:00

He who moves not forward, goes backward.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

By this standard, I may have just managed to stand still... ;)

But I did get a little bit of work done on the insulated wine totes this weekend. More specifically, I finished all of the linings:

And made a small start on the insulated outer layers:

I think I need a sturdier needle to deal with the insul-brite and all these layers...

Meanwhile, my kitties continue to lead by example, regarding how weekends should be spent...

I hope everyone had a wonderful sewing weekend and feels ready for the start of a new week!

Holiday Give-Away Alert

2011-11-19T10:56:00.003-05:00

In celebration of (a) this holiday season and (b) the fact that we have (finally!) finished ALL FIVE sets of The Original "How Much Fabric?" Reference Cards (Children's clothes, sizes 7-16, will start shipping on 12 December), I'm going to be supporting a number of give-aways around the internet.

And the first one is up: Check out see kate sew's group give-away for a chance to win a package that includes your choice of 3 yards of Amy Butler fabric from Modern Fabric Studio, an e-reader case of your choice from Liz Ann Necessities AND a card set of your choice from me! :)

I'll let you know as other give-aways are posted. Oh, and if you are planning a holiday give-away and would be interested in including a set of the cards, shoot me an email: gwynhug@gmail.com.

Good luck! :)

Friday Confession

2011-11-18T07:04:00.003-05:00

Everyone's joking that there's something in the air at work. Eighteen months ago, between the 9 full time people on our team, we had NO children. Six months from now, this same group of people will have 5 children, all under the age of 2.

And what does that mean for me? LOTS of sewing for babies! Which is generally a good thing - with one exception. Snap tape. I admit it - I hate it. I can't get a nice straight row of stitches along the side. The stupid snaps get in the way. :(

It's not the end of the world - I usually substitute Velcro and the Moms don't seem to mind too much.

But, how about you? Do you sew with snap tape? Do you have any tips for me? Or, like me, do you substitute something else when the pattern calls for snap tape?

Talk Back Thursday

2011-11-17T10:04:00.015-05:00

Thank you so much to Sarah, Becky, Carla, Mary, Mamafitz, Katherine, Gwen and Linda for talking back to my confession last week! I admitted that I don’t consciously shop the independents for my sewing supplies (patterns, fabric, notions, etc.) and asked about other people’s shopping habits.

I got some really thoughtful replies, but before I delve into the philosophies, let me summarize the more factual bits of the comments.

On the main question, we got a pretty big spread, with a definite skew towards the positive.

Well, we didn’t get the FULL range of possible answers… No one is actually opposed to shopping at small businesses. ;)

But we did have everything from one person who hasn’t been consciously trying to support small businesses to one person who will go so far as to buy things she doesn’t need, just to support her local independent shops. Most people fell in between, with an estimate of 50-50 (big chain purchases versus small indy purchases) from one commenter, an “I’ve been trying more lately” vote, a “whenever I can” vote and 2 solid “yes” votes.

The main “why not more often?” reason given was, not surprisingly, lack of accessibility (called out by 3 people).

On the other hand, I hadn’t anticipated the “why should you?” reason given by Katherine. I was thinking that supporting individuals is just a good thing to do. But she pointed out that it also benefits all of us in the long run, because it is the only way we ensure that we will have choices in the future! If we all shop 100% of the time at one or two big chains, before you know it, those will be the only stores in business… Wow, that’s a good point!

One last listy-bit – here are the indy companies and indy stores that were specifically called out:

Sewaholic patterns

A Fashionable Stitch

Etsy

Colette book & patterns

Whip Stitch

Needle Nook

Gorgeous Fabrics

Hot Patterns

Sew Thankful

Jalie

Now, on to the philosophy…

Sarah pointed out that sewing in-and-of-itself is already moving away from the buy-cheap-mass-produced-goods-at-a-big-box-store mentality. Even if we buy our fabric at Joann’s, we are still supporting the notions of individual expression, creativity, and skill.

And three people advocated buying less altogether, and focusing on “shopping” from your own stash of fabrics and patterns. I think it’s worth reading the original comments on these points – you can find them here. :)

Thank you again, to everyone who took the time to write such thoughtful replies! You’ve given me a lot to think about… :)

In the Queue Wednesday

2011-11-16T19:48:00.009-05:00

Okay, so I've been revealing the fabric pairs picked by my friends and co-workers for their Christmas presents (insulated wine totes and casserole totes) in batches of 3 per week - but I recently found out that I made a mistake and mis-paired fabrics from 2 different people last week! Yikes! Good thing I found that out BEFORE actually sewing anything!

Anyways, I decided to just show all 9 pairs in this one post. Here they are:

(See if you can figure out which pairs were selected by women [6] and which pairs were selected by men [3]. Bonus points if you can guess which man is going to get in trouble with his wife when he brings home his kitchen-related Christmas gifts!)

(A)

(B)

(C)

(D)

(E)

(F)

(G)

(H)

(I)

Ready for the answers?

Women: A-F

Men: G-I

Bonus question - I think you can figure that out for yourself! ;)

So, I had hoped to finish the wine totes last weekend, but an unexpected turn of events changed my plans...

Ana has been wanting to go horseback riding forever and I finally got around to scheduling a trail ride for us on Saturday. I was surprised when Ana seemed more nervous around the horses than I was - it had only been 5 years for her, vice 35 years for me, since either of us had been riding.

(On a side note - I often help Ana study her English by writing sentences that use the phrases she is trying to learn, but leave blanks in those sentence and she has to figure out which phrase fits. In honor of our upcoming ride, I wrote the following sentence, designed to use the phrase "chances are":

This weekend I'm going horseback riding for the first time in 35 years - _______, I'm going to be sore afterwards."

She filled in "I'm sure" - which was NOT one of her phrases. When I said that the answer was supposed to be "chances are," she replied that she had considered that, but rejected it because after 35 years, soreness was a sure thing, not a good chance. Thanks, Ana!)

Anyways, the weather was beautiful and it was a perfect day for a ride!

She calmed down quickly and really enjoyed herself!

I, on the other hand, would have perhaps benefited by being a bit MORE nervous and cautious... My horse threw me! (And, in later versions of this story, proceeded to try to trample me to death underneath its razor sharp hooves of steel!)

I was extremely lucky and not seriously injured...but man, was I one incapacitated, massive, aching bruise for the next few days! :(

Tuesday's Torch Story

2011-11-15T07:53:00.006-05:00

Failure is the tuition you pay for success.

~ Walter Brunell

Remember my super cool idea for an activity with my class?

How did it go?

Oh, let's just say:

Gwen: 0

K.I.S.S.: 1

There was one funny-in-a-hopeless-kind-of-way moment, when I looked out over my class and all of my students were squinting and holding the red filters and answer cards up in front of their faces and moving them closer and further away, and turning them backwards and forwards and upside-down, trying to make out the words...

In the end, maybe one quarter of the students were able to read the words through the filter and complete the activity on their own. I was really scrambling to keep the rest of them on track and doing something productive.

In an attempt to salvage something, I taught them about the K.I.S.S. principle. ;)

Now, if I can just learn to follow it!

Weekend Project: Sometimes You Have to Trust Yourself

2011-11-13T08:40:00.015-05:00

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.

~ Benjamin Spock

Well, my first Christmas present project (the wine totes) got off to a rocky start... I skimmed the instructions from front to back before doing anything, and was intrigued by the instructions for squaring off the bottom of the tote. I've made a handful of bags and learned various methods for forming bottoms - but these looked different. It appeared that there was only ONE step, and I was accustomed to doing each of the 2 corners separately.

Here is EVERYTHING in the instructions referring to making the bottom:

I didn't quite understand the instructions, but assumed that it would make sense when I actually followed them, and was happily anticipating learning a new, easier and possibly ingenious method. :)

Alas, it was not to be...

The first step was to fold the square piece of fabric in half and stitch along the side and the bottom, leaving only the top open. Next was to turn the fabric 90 degrees and open it up, forming a triangle at the bottom.

My first interpretation problem came when I was trying to decide where to measure the 3.5 inches. The picture seemed to indicate that it was from side to side on the tote. But the instructions said "...from the corner" I decided to follow the words and use what I thought was "the corner":

It turned out that my stitching line fell just before the start of all the folded over fabric, so that made me think that maybe this was right. I stitched the line and cut off the excess and couldn't wait to see the miraculous squared off bottom! Ta Da!

Ooops - that is not a squared off bottom.

Okay, back to the drawing board - apparently they DID mean from side-to-side, as illustrated in the drawing. I could do that:

I still didn't see how it was going to produce a cool, squared off bottom, and I was still excited to see. I stitched and cut and...

Huh?

What the heck?

Realization dawned. The instructions were fundamentally flawed and this was one case where I should trust my knowledge of how to make squared off bottoms. EACH corner had to be made separately:

I stitched the lines (3.5 inches from side-to-side) on EACH corner and trimmed the excess fabric:

Now, turn it right-side out and... voila!

Finally! :)

Other than that, the rest of the first wine tote came together pretty smoothly. My only other minor quibble was the length of the strap (10 inches). It might be a good length for the finished tote, but it was just a tiny bit too short to fit comfortably in place during construction. If I were to do this again, I'd probably go with 11 or 12 inches...

Anyways, without further ado, here are a couple of pictures of my first, completed wine tote:

Only 8 more to go! ;)

I hope you had a wonderful sewing weekend and are ready for a new week... :)

Friday Confession

2011-11-11T11:11:00.002-05:00

I made a joke last weekend about "Sewing Pattern Company Transfer Day", but it got me thinking - I spend money on my sewing, and, to be honest, the majority of that money goes to big companies - Joann Fabrics, the big 4 pattern companies, etc...

I have my own small, sewing-related business, so you would think that I would work harder at supporting other small, independent sewing-related businesses. But I haven't. In part, I suppose, because of the convenience of the big companies and in part because of inertia - I just keep doing what I'm used to doing.

But maybe I should make a conscious effort to change this.

How about you? Do you make an effort to support small, independent sewing-related businesses? If so, what types - fabric stores? pattern makers? others? And, why do you do it? If not, why not? What do you think about all this "Occupy" stuff? Should it extend to our hobby?

Talk Back Thursday

2011-11-10T09:55:00.013-05:00

Thank you so much to Marie, Gwen, Linda, Anonymous and Christine for talking back to my confession a couple of weeks ago! I mentioned an "aha!" moment when I realized how much my sewing skills have improved over the last few years, and asked if others had similar revelation stories to share...

The stories were wonderful, and I recommend that you read them for yourself (here) to get the full impact. But I'll do my best to summarize... ;)

I think every possible aspect associated with sewing was covered by someone in her "aha!" moment:

Before even entering the sewing room: Gwen recognized how far her skills had developed when she realized that she could look at a garment and figure out how it was constructed and how the design of that garment would be represented in pattern pieces.

In the sewing room - normal processes: For Linda and Marie, it was realizing that they no longer had to painstakingly read each step of the instructions before completing it. Linda reported that a year ago she couldn't have imagined herself at this point, but now, few things scare her and she only uses instructions for periodic reference material.

Similarly, Marie finds it easy to remember all the steps and techniques associated with each garment that she makes. As she said, "Things fall into place when I am sewing," and she knows how to adapt techniques to new situations.

In the sewing room - dealing with mistakes: For an anonymous commenter, it was recognizing that she could deal with mistakes. Instead of letting a project stall when she messes up, now she just rips things out (even tiny black stitches on black fabric!), and re-does them!

Okay, maybe she doesn't LOVE ripping things out, but it's no longer a show-stopper. ;)

The Finished Garment: For Christine, it was actually a comment made by someone else on one of her creations. She made Halloween costumes for her nieces (see picture above) and her brother-in-law commented that "he was so impressed by the detail that he checked them a couple of times for [RTW] tags." :)

She didn't mention this in her comment, but I happen to know that, when the girls found out that the costumes shouldn't be washed, one of them refused to wear her costume to all the pre-Halloween festivities, because she loved it so much that she wanted to make sure it was perfect and clean for the big night!

Those are some pretty powerful compliments!

I think I know how good she must feel - for years, my nephews always made sure to wear the shirts that I made for them on School Picture Day. That was their own idea - not mine or their mother's. It made me feel pretty happy. :)

So, there are lots of different and wonderful ways to realize that your sewing skills are growing and you are learning! Gwen summed it up best: "One thing about sewing - you never, ever quit learning."

Thanks again to everyone for your wonderful stories! I loved reading about your "Aha!" moments! :)

In the Queue Wednesday

2011-11-09T07:18:00.001-05:00

Here are 3 more fabric pairs (out of 9) selected by friends / co-workers for their Christmas presents:

Remember that I'm making each person an insulated wine tote and an insulated casserole carrier.

Don't these choices highlight the unique personalities of each person? I love that!

Oh, thanks for the suggestions regarding which fabric to put on the outside and which fabric to put on the inside!

I was hoping to have one general rule to follow, but I think I'm going to have to decide on a case by case basis...

I reviewed the wine tote instructions and it looks pretty quick and easy. I'm hoping to get started this weekend - it's a long one thanks to Veteran's Day. :)

Don't worry - I'll get to these soon! They're in my queue...

Tuesday's Torch Story

2011-11-08T07:33:00.002-05:00

Secrets are made to be found out with time.

~ Charles Sanford

In my continuing quest to go over-the-top when planning our ESL classroom activities, I've come up with a secret message game to practice conjugating verbs. ;)

Does anyone remember that old board game (based on a TV game show) "Password"? There were game cards that you couldn't read, until you slid them into the magic decoder sleeve - with a red filter. Once the information was behind the red filter - voila! - suddenly you could read it!

Well, I thought I'd put my students in pairs and give each one a card and magic decoder sleeve. For each item, one card would have the verb conjugation problem and the other card would have the answer. And the cards would alternate, so that each student was solving half the problems and knowing the right answer to double-check his/her partner on the other half of the problems.

This way, the student pairs can work independently and all I have to do is wander around the classroom, making sure that everything was going smoothly.

So, how do I make these cards and magic decoder sleeves? A little internet research turned up the answer! It's not difficult - although it will be a bit hard on the red ink supply in my printer... :(

I write the messages in a fat, dotted blue font (see first row in figure below) and create a box with a red checked pattern (see second row).

When the overlay is on top of the text (see third row in the figure above), it's difficult (although not completely impossible) to read the text underneath. But when you slide this behind a red filter, it becomes easy (well, easier, at least) to read the text.

I can see what you are thinking... Why not just write the problems and the answers on pieces of paper and pass them out?

Oh, come on - where's the fun in that? ;)

Besides, who needs red ink in their printer anyways? ;)

(I'll probably make back-up pages, just in case anyone has too much trouble reading the words inside the magic decoder sleeve...)

So, that's the craziness I'm up to this week. Stay tuned for my next adventure in flying dangerously in the face of the basic "KISS" principle of life! ;)

Weekend Project: Sewing Pattern Company Transfer Day

2011-11-06T18:16:00.005-05:00

Think globally, act locally.

~ Patrick Geddes

In honor of bank transfer day, I made this pattern from a small, independent sewing pattern publisher.

Okay, it was mostly a coincidence - I made the pattern because I like it and I had this gorgeous pink fabric waiting for me. ;)

It went together very easily. As you can see, there are princess seams - and I was careful to place the longer piece of fabric on the bottom, to let the feed dogs help me ease it in - another thing I learned from you guys! :)

The only odd thing about the pattern was that the instructions didn't call for any type of reinforcing the waistband - no interfacing and no second layer of fabric... I went ahead and interfaced it, because it seems like the majority of the patterns I make call for that. I'm not sure why - maybe this piece receives extra stress?

I did have to take in the hips - but that is most likely a reflection of the disproportions of my body, not any issues with the pattern.

I love the neckline - isn't that a nice detail?

It is super comfortable, suitable for work and a reasonably flattering silhouette. I'm really happy with it! :)

I hope you had a wonderful sewing weekend and are ready to start another week!

In the Queue Wednesday

2011-11-02T07:58:00.004-04:00

For my friends / co-workers, I'm making insulated wine totes and casserole totes as Christmas gifts. I sent everyone a link to fabric.com and asked them to pick out 2 cotton quilting fabrics that they liked. My plan is to use both fabrics on both totes - one on the outside and one on the inside - to make a matched set.

One of the things I love most about projects like this is letting people pick their own fabric and then getting to work with all the colors and patterns that they pick.

Fabrics have started coming in - here are pairs picked by 3 of my friends:

One question to decide is which fabric to put on the outside and which fabric to put on the inside on each tote. Of course, I don't have to use the same fabric on the outside of both totes - I could switch it up...

With the casserole tote, both the outside and the inside will show (at one time or another). With the wine tote, really only the outside will show - people will never get more than a peek at the inside.

So, for each pair, I'm trying to figure out how to arrange them. Any suggestions for these 3 pairs?

I'll be starting on these soon. They are in my queue... :)

Tuesday's Torch Story

2011-11-01T21:31:00.004-04:00

We are in community each time we find a place where we belong.

~ Peter F. Block

This is what I want my class to be for my students - a place where they belong. And beyond that, I hope that by helping them improve their English, they will begin to feel that they belong to the larger community of this town... this state... this county. :)

No story for you today - just a group picture of the students who showed up this week. I'm having it imprinted onto ceramic Christmas tree ornaments and I'll pass them out as Christmas gifts this year. Just one small symbol of our community. :)

Weekend Project: Number Crunching

2011-10-30T18:07:00.004-04:00

In God we trust. All others must bring data.

~ W. Edwards Deming

No sewing for me this weekend - I spent the majority of my time in front of my computer, typing in numbers from the backs of sewing patterns for children.

The process to create a set of The Original "How Much Fabric?" Reference Cards goes like this:

Christine and I scour the internet for sewing patterns and print out the images of the envelopes' fronts and backs.
We divvy up the printouts and type the tables into spreadsheets, which have lots of formulas going on in the background.
Once we get enough patterns to establish a stable average number for every size, we copy the tables into PowerPoint slides and look up representative examples of patterns that require the minimum, average and maximum amounts of fabric for each type of garment.
We paste those images into the PowerPoint file as well and then ship the whole thing off to our graphic artist, Beth.
She creates the artwork - putting our numbers into nicely formatted tables and creating sketches of the representative patterns that we provided to her.
Once we approve the artwork she emails the files off to the card printers and they work up proofs for us.
Once we approve the proofs, they print the cards for us and punch holes in the upper left hand corner of each card.
When the cards are delivered to my house, we hand check each one to make sure it's a good print, collate them into sets and slide a ring (like a key ring) into each set.

One thing that this process really illustrates for me is the uneven production of patterns across sizes. We easily found over 200 top patterns for children's sizes 7 & 8, 175 patterns for size 10, 160 patterns for size 12 and 138 patterns for size 14.

Guess how many for size 16?

25.

Yup - just 25 of those patterns went up to size 16.

Of course, for children it's probably not so bad, because by that time they may be fitting into adult patterns. But we had the same experience with women's plus sized patterns - we had a very hard time finding enough patterns to establish stable averages. It was really frustrating.

Anyways, I had hoped to get all of the materials to Beth by the end of September, so I'm already a month late. :(

But this weekend I was able to get her the materials for 3 of the cards (dresses, pants & tops) and I should be done with the other 3 cards (jackets, skirts & pajamas) within the week.

So, we should still be able to have our LAST set ready for Christmas! Yay!

And I can turn my attention to my Christmas sewing plans... :)

I hope you had a great sewing weekend! To those suffering from early winter weather - I'm thinking of you and hoping that life gets back to normal soon!

Friday Confession

2011-10-28T07:32:00.002-04:00

I was caught by surprise, recently, by a "look how far I've come!" moment with my sewing. I was making a dress for a young friend and was able to adjust my method of construction to adapt to the fact that I wasn't going to line it.

And suddenly I remembered an experience that I had early in my sewing, when I treated each set of pattern instructions as if they had been carved on Stone Tablets by a Divine Hand and couldn't even imagine trying to do anything different on my own... A woman at the fabric cutting table at my local Walmart kept trying to convince me that I could make a particular dress pattern without lining it and I grew frustrated when she wouldn't accept the fact that - maybe SHE could make it without lining it, but I couldn't.

And now I can. I'm not sure when it happened. I don't remember any particular moment - no ceremony, no sky opening up with trumpeting angels, nothing... It just kind of sneaked up on me. But I used to be in the group that couldn't, and now, somehow, I'm in the group that can.

So, how about you? Have you had any moments like this? Times when you suddenly realized - Hey! I really have learned a lot! I really am better at sewing than I used to be! I'd love to hear your stories! :)

Talk Back Thursday

2011-10-27T09:25:00.008-04:00

Thank you so much to Eileen, Carla, Anne, Sarah, Debbie, Gwen, Mary, Patsijean, Marie, Linda & Sarah for talking back to my confession last week! I asked if people were sewing any Christmas presents and the answers came from all points along the spectrum. ;)

Carla and Gwen came down firmly on the "no way!" side - with Carla saying (with a smile) "You can't make me!" and Gwen explaining that she finds it too stressful. I do agree that the last thing anyone needs is to have more stress associated with either your hobby or the holidays...

Taking an "intermediate" (i.e., reasonable) stance, 5 people reported that they do sew individual gifts for specific people, when appropriate. Anne, for example, has had requests for a lined bathrobe and soft pants for a niece and nephew respectively, and a doctor costume for the same nephew. Patsijean is making a set of camp shirts in jewel tones for a good friend. Marie is making her Mom an apron and Linda is making lap quilts for her parents.

Get this - Linda actually started her projects in May! Now THAT is being on top of things! And I was proud of myself for having a plan in place before the end of October... ;)

Sarah makes jewelry - necklaces and earrings - for the people in her life that she knows will appreciate and wear them - not an "en mass" project by any means - but (I think) more than 1 or 2.

At the other extreme, there was a substantial contingent reporting a history of making and/or plans for this year to make group gifts - a large number of the same item, in different fabrics - to be distributed to friends and/or family. Eileen is making potholders, Sarah hopes to make Bible covers, Marie has done coin purses, aprons and tissue holders in the past.

Patsijean is doing singlet shopping bags - that's a picture of one above - and you can read about it and see more pictures and useful links here and here. A friend in my office did that for co-workers one year and it was a huge hit! I use mine all the time. :)

Linda thinks she has just come up with a great mass gift idea, but she won't share just yet... I'm really looking forward to hearing about it! I'm starting to run low on ideas...

Finally, a couple of folks haven't really started thinking about Christmas just yet. I can relate - I just started thinking about it a week ago...

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to leave a comment! Best wishes with your sewing plans - whether they are for Christmas gifts or not. :)

In the Queue Wednesday

2011-10-26T07:59:00.004-04:00

Okay, here's what I'm thinking of making for my friends and co-workers for Christmas (at least 9 people, maybe more) - matching, insulated kitchen carrying cases - one for a bottle of wine and one for a casserole dish.

One of the reasons I think that this gift will be well-received (for the most part) is that we regularly have potlucks at work and most everyone brings in delicious home-made dishes! Plus, many folks are also "into" wine. So, it may not be perfect for everyone, but it should work.

Of course, each person's set will be made from different fabric - either I'll choose designs and colors that I think they'll like OR I may even let them choose the fabric... Still thinking about that.

The internet has tons of free patterns for both of these items. I did some browsing and the patterns (pictured above) that I like best (so far) are these:

Kathryn Goodman's Wine Tote

2 Little Hooligan's Casserole Tote

If you know of other patterns to recommend, please let me know. :)

Well, another project with a deadline - for now, at least, I'd better order the insul-brite insulation... Don't worry, I'll get to them! They're in the queue. ;)

Tuesday's Torch Story

2011-10-25T08:21:00.002-04:00

There are toys for all ages.

~French proverb

Sometimes I think that part of the reason that I enjoy teaching my ESL class so much is the fun of going overboard with my "props". ;)

For example, I got the idea to model this week's activity on the game show, Family Feud. So, clearly a trip to Home Depot and Staples was in order...

What?!? Have people raise their hands when they know the answer?!? Keep score on the black board?!? Are you kidding?!?

OF COURSE we need bells for them to ring when they know the answer and OF COURSE we need a super cool pegboard score board system! ;)

The topic is comparisons - Shaquille O'Neal (famous basketball player) is taller than Einstein; Einstein is more intelligent than Shaquille O'Neal - that kind of thing.

I've got this software (another prop!) that lets me design electronic spinners and I'll set 3 up - two with names of famous people and one with adjectives. For each turn, I'll "spin" all 3 spinners and my students will have to say a grammatically correct sentence comparing the 2 designated people with respect to the designated adjective.

The main objective is to get them to distinguish between those cases when they can add "er" to the end of the adjective (basically, short adjectives with only 1 syllable) and those cases when they need to put the word "more" in front of the adjective (adjectives with 3 or more syllables.) Adjectives with 2 syllables are just a nuisance. ;)

Comparisons get a little more complicated in writing - because there are rules like "change the terminal 'y' to an 'i' before adding 'er' (pretty -> prettier)" and "if the word ends in 'consonant-vowel-consonant' then double the last consonant before adding 'er' (big -> bigger)". But, when you are speaking, people can't tell if you are spelling it correctly or not! ;)

Anyways, I haven't quite sorted out how I want to handle the accuracy of the sentences. For example, if a student says "Willie Shoemaker (a famous jockey) is taller than Shaquille O'Neal" is it fine because it's correct grammatically?

Of course, I'll try to use people they know. Last year I used characters from a famous Hispanic sitcom, El Chavo del Ocho and that seemed to work pretty well.

So, I'll be dragging my props off to class soon, and I'll let you know how our version of "Family Feud" goes! Wish me luck! :)

Weekend Project: The Prettiest Girls...

2011-10-23T17:22:00.006-04:00

I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls.

~ Audrey Hepburn

This is why I sew for girls and why I always let them choose the pattern and the fabrics - even if their choices are ... um ... well, let's say, unusual. My sewing skills are average and the clothes that I make are adequate. But when a little girl puts on something that is EXACTLY what she wanted, the glow of her happiness outshines any of the flaws in my sewing...

So, I crammed over the weekend to make this dress for my friend Carolyn, for her baptism. She wanted the short version, with a short sleeved jacket.

She picked a white, satin polyester fabric - and a white lace overlay for the jacket - and a white tulle with sparkles overlay for the dress itself.

I didn't have time to follow the proper hand-basted underlining approach to create fabric sandwiches of the satin and the overlays, so I used a walking foot and machine basted the pieces together.

(Note that I only use a walking foot because you guys explained it to me and recommended it on one of my Friday Confessions. And I really like it!)

I hadn't realized that the pattern called for a lining, and I didn't have lining material readily available - so I adjusted the instructions and made it without a lining. The only place it really mattered was along the top of the bodice.

The instructions called for me to align the pieces like this:

dress - right side up

band - right side up

strap - upside down

(You couldn't have seen anything with all the white fabrics, so I'm illustrating it with scraps.)

Then, once you laid the lining over top of everything, sewed it on and flipped it to the inside, no raw edges would show along the top.

Given that I didn't have a lining, I aligned the pieces like this:

dress - upside down

strap - right side up

band - upside down

Then, once I flipped the band over to the front, everything was right side up in the front and no raw edges were showing. (The band was doubled over so that there wasn't a raw edge along its bottom.)

Does that make sense? Anyways, I was kind of proud that I was able to reason out how to do it. And it sparked a memory. Maybe the second dress I made 9 years ago when I first got a sewing machine - the pattern called for a lining and I was shopping at (brace yourself) Walmart for a lining fabric. The woman at the cutting table looked at my pattern and pronounced, "Oh, you don't need to line that pattern." I tried to explain that I didn't know enough about sewing to diverge from the instructions that much, but she didn't get it. She just kept saying that I didn't need to line the dress.

And now, here I am - able to adjust a pattern so that I don't need to line it if I don't want to.

Oh, and I dealt with the unlined jacket by using bias tape around the edge - another thing I learned from you guys in one of my Friday Confessions!

The dress was a tiny bit big, but Carolyn absolutely loved it! :)

Without further ado, here are some pictures from after the baptism ceremony. Carolyn is the young girl in the white dress.

I'm not the best seamstress in the world - not even close! But it doesn't matter - it's still worth sewing for people. Because it makes them happy. And happy girls are the prettiest girls. :)

Friday Confession

2011-10-21T07:52:00.001-04:00

So, the LAST thing I should be thinking about is more sewing projects, but my mind is wandering to projects that I might make as Christmas gifts for my friends and co-workers... I have a couple of ideas, which I'll show you soon. ;)

But first, I wanted to ask - what about you? Will you be making any Christmas presents this year? If so, what and for whom? And, have you started yet? I'm looking forward to hearing about your holiday sewing plans!