Weekend Project: Sew Much Comfort

Everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit.

John Stewart Mill

I finally got around to making my "quality check" pair of adaptive pants for the organization "Sew Much Comfort". As you may remember, this organization seeks volunteers to sew clothes that wounded veterans can easily put on and take off over medical "devices", such as casts and braces.

In general, they went together well, but it is a little bit unnerving working on a project that you know is going to be judged by experienced sewers...

As you can see from this layout, the adaptive pants have one "normal" pant leg and one extra wide pant leg to accommodate a medical device.

The assembly steps are pretty standard. You start by sewing up one side seam, the crotch and then the inseams. The only difference between these pants and regular pants at this point is, of course, that you leave one side seam open (on the extra large leg).

Next they ask you to attach their label on the center front of the pants.

Then, you form a facing on the two sides of the adaptive leg by folding and pressing the fabric.

Next, you make the casing for the elastic waist band,

insert the elastic and attach near each end.

The next step is to add hook and loop tape along the two edges of the adaptive pant leg. The instructions describe the "x in the box" stitching method to reinforce the hook and loop tape at the top and bottom.

The instructions direct you to put the soft (loop) tape on the inside of the front pant leg and the rough (hook) tape on the outside of the back pant leg, so that this opening doesn't show from the front.

Finally, the hem...

and a snap. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)

My husband graciously modeled these 'shorts' for me (even though they aren't really a good fit for him.)

They seem pretty long for 'shorts' to me, but the instructions specify a 15 inch inseam measurement.

Back view - you can see the seam on the adaptive pant leg.

Not very exciting, but I guess that's kind of the point - nothing fancy, just ordinary looking clothes that veterans can actually put on over casts and such.

I'll let you know whether or not I pass my quality check. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Friday Confession

Labeling Myself

I'm bored with my label. I have used the same one for years. It is one of the standard options available from NameMaker:

I was inspired by Emily, who "named" her clothing line and had designer labels printed up (see this post). I decided to do the same and spent quite a bit of time playing with ideas for a name of my own.

I wanted to capture the joy and happiness that sewing brings into my life, as well as the love that I feel for the people that I sew for. I thought about using a foreign word, such as "joyeux", the French word for joyous.

But for some reason, I struggled with picking a language - French, Spanish, Italian... Nothing seemed right. None of those languages really have anything to do with me. Then it hit me - I'm half Welsh. Why not find a word or phrase in Welsh for my label?

As usual, the internet rode to the rescue and I found a number of English - Welsh translation sites to help in my search. (Click here for the one I used the most.) Imagine my delight to discover that "gwyn" (a variant of my name) means (among other things) "blessed" and that one of the Welsh words for "cloak" is "hug"!

In other words, the phrase "gwyn hug" looks like "a hug from Gwen" in English, and (loosely translated) means "a blessed cloak" in Welsh! How perfect is that for a label for my clothing? (Especially for clothes that I make for others!)

Note: I say "loosely translated" because apparently, in Welsh, adjectives are supposed to follow their nouns - so strictly speaking I have the order wrong. On the other hand, Welsh doesn't have an indefinite article ("a" or "an"), so "hug" really does translate to "a cloak".

I'm thinking of making my label look something like this:

I picked a fun font, instead of a flowing, graceful font, because most of my sewing is bright, happy and fun. (Think Hawaiian shirts, wild outfits for kids, summer sundresses, etc...)

So, what do you think? Do you like it? And how about you? Do you put labels in the clothes that you sew? What do your labels look like and where do you get them?

Talk Back Thursday

Thanks to Carolyn, Donna, mamafitz, toni, Vicki and Claire for "talking back" to my Friday Confession a couple of weeks ago! I confessed that I don't always read the sewing books that I buy as thoroughly as I should...

It sounds like most people are better than I am at reading their books through, at least once, pretty much cover-to-cover.

Almost everyone agreed that having a library of reference books available for help with new or difficult projects was invaluable. One slightly different perspective was offered by mamafitz, who doesn't buy many sewing books, and prefers books of sewing projects and text books on topics like pattern making, over general reference books.

Donna is incredibly disciplined (in my mind) and regularly purges her library of books that haven't proven useful, in order to make room for new purchases. (And here I was just bracing myself for a move to a bigger house!)

One thing is certain, lifelong sewers are lifelong learners - always pushing, always growing...

Thanks again to everyone who responded! :)

In the Queue Wednesday

In between all that hiking, climbing and communing with nature in Colorado, I did manage to sneak in a little bit of fabric shopping! Turns out, Grand Junction Colorado has a really huge, really nice store called "Hi Fashion Fabrics". I found this cotton print for my Dad, an avid bicyclist:

I think it will make the perfect Hawaiian shirt with my gold medal winning TNT (tried 'n true) pattern:

My goal is to make it before his birthday (which is not until January). In any event, don't worry, I'll get to it... It's in the queue. ;)

KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid

Feed Dogs and Buttons and Keeping it Simple...

Of all the issues I never thought I'd have teaching sewing in Spanish - a language I don't actually speak! - "rambling on unnecessarily" was probably at the top of my list. Apparently, however, a tiger can't change its stripes, and my tendency to ramble transcends my lack of fluency in a language!

As we were setting up Ana's machine to sew the buttons onto David's shirt, I managed to generate a multi-sentence monologue about how normally the fabric moves when you sew, but when you are putting on buttons you don't want the fabric to move... etc. All leading up to showing her how to drop the feed dogs.

All this time, Juana was still working on her buttonholes, and so she missed it all. A few minutes later, when Juana was ready to attach her buttons, I asked Ana to explain it to her - figuring that Ana would be more coherent than I had been.

Ana pointed to the feed dog switch and said "normal" and then she pushed the switch into the other position and said "boton".

Enough said... ;)

Weekend Project: Another One Bites the Dust

See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little.

Pope John XXIII

A good motto for a sewing teacher, I think. I have gotten together with Ana and Juana twice since my last report. A week ago we assembled the main bodies of the shirts. The boyfriends, David and Abel respectively, tried them on and announced the fits to be good. (Phew!)

Today was a long, but very productive day. Our goal was to get enough done so that they could finish the shirts by themselves during the week. In other words, I wanted to be with them while they did the collars, the sleeves and at least one buttonhole and one button.

Have I mentioned that they seem to be naturally drawn to difficult patterns? I had hoped that their first collar would be a one piece collar, but no, Ana picked a pattern with the additional collar stand... Still I was very happy with how well the collars came out. Here is a picture of Ana's collar right before she closed up the collar stand:

Notice the two rows of decorative top stitching around the collar proper. :)

Here is Ana's (David's) shirt with the collar completed:

Note the contrasting inside button band. :)

And here is Juana's (Abel's) shirt with the collar completed:

Not bad for first timers, huh? In fact, we worked for a little over 4 hours, and we were able to finish everything except the hems! They'll finish up the shirts this week easily, and (hopefully) I'll have pictures for you next week of the boyfriends IN the shirts. ;)

One nice thing about the pattern - the sleeves went in perfectly! No need to adjust with basting stitches. That was a pleasant surprise! Speaking of the sleeves, they are double thickness. The inner layer is the alternating fabric, so if David rolls up his sleeves, the light green ("woof") fabric will become his cuffs. (Sadly, I did not think this part through carefully, and the lettering on the cuffs will be upside-down...)

I introduced a new concept to them today - the "you are the only person who will ever notice that tiny imperfection" concept. I don't know about you, but this is certainly the credo that allows me to keep sewing!

So, that's another project ticked off our list of sewing lessons! We may only do one (or at most two) more projects together. The time has really flown and I am already feeling a bit sad to think that the end is in sight...

Colorado 2008: Wild and Crazy Guys

This week I will be posting pictures from our summer vacation in Colorado. Sewing-related posts will begin again next week.

You may be thinking, "Wild and crazy guys? In Colorado? What wild and crazy guys is Colorado known for having?"

Well, those wild and crazy guys were us! My husband and I lugged our gear all the way out to Colorado and went rock climbing!

Here is my husband approaching, and then "summiting" the Bullet Hole Boulder, just outside of Colorado National Monument:

And here are two pictures of me at the Rink Wall in Ouray, Colorado.

Finally, some shots from our favorite climbing day at Hartman Rocks, near Gunnison, Colorado. Scott approaching the formation we climbed:

I hate to admit it, because it doesn't sound all that impressive, but the name of that formation is Beginner's Slab.

Here is Scott rigging the rope...

...and at the top of a challengingly smooth friction climb that we both did that day:

Thanks to everyone for indulging me while I posted these vacation pictures! As you can tell, we had a wonderful, wonderful time! This is the last such post, and now I'll turn my attention back to sewing. I have an update on Ana and Juana and their shirts that I'll post this weekend and some sewing of my own to report on, if I can ever find the time! ;)

Colorado 2008: Wild Life

This week I will be posting pictures from our summer vacation in Colorado. Sewing-related posts will begin again next week.

While we never saw anything "dramatic" like a bear or moose, we did enjoy watching these birds and animals:

Colorado 2008: Wild Ride

This week I will be posting pictures from our summer vacation in Colorado. Sewing-related posts will begin again next week.

By mid-week, we had traveled south as far as Ouray, Colorado, where we rented Jeep Wranglers and spent a day driving "off-road" in the mountains.

A view within Yankee Boy Basin

Wildflowers and Twin Falls, in Yankee Boy Basin, along the way to Mt. Sneffles (one of Colorado's 14,000+ peaks)

Finally, a scene from Animas Forks, Colorado, a former mining town (in the late 1800s) and current ghost town. It is located close to Silverton, Colorado, at a little over 11,000 feet above sea level.

Colorado 2008: Wild Flowers

This week I will be posting pictures from our summer vacation in Colorado. Sewing-related posts will begin again next week.

I was happily surprised to find a number of wildflowers still blooming (in August) at higher altitudes. Here are just some of the flowers we saw. I have tried to identify them as best as possible with the help of the internet, however I would appreciate any corrections! :)

Colorado's state flower: Columbine

Paintbrush (?)

Mountain Bluebells

Coneflower? or Golden Aster? or Golden Ragwort?

Colorado 2008: Wild Canyons

This week I will be posting pictures from our summer vacation in Colorado. Sewing-related posts will begin again next week.

We spent the first few days of our vacation exploring the landscapes around Grand Junction and Gunnison, Colorado.

Our first hike was the six-mile "Monument Trail" across the canyon floor in Colorado National Monument. Here is an overview shot and a shot from the trail of "Independence Monument":

John Otto, the "father" of the Colorado National Monument, installed a series of lead pipes into this particular monument to serve as a ladder. Each year on the Fourth of July, he would climb to the top of the monument and fly an American flag.

We also hiked into the neighboring Black Ridge Canyons Wilderness along the 5.5 mile Rattlesnake Arches Trail to see seven naturally formed arches. Here are two of them:

Finally, we drove the South Rim road in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. My husband is in both pictures - can you find him in the first one?

According to the park literature, geologist Wallace Hansen said, "Some are longer, some are deeper, some are narrower, and a few have walls as steep. But no other canyon in North America combines the depth, narrowness, sheerness and somber countenance of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison."

I was interested to learn that the color variation in the rocks is explained by molten rock being pushed up into cracks from the earth's core - not simply layers of different types of sediment accumulating over thousands of years, as often appears to be the case.

Summer Break

I won't be posting for the next week or so, as we are off on our annual summer vacation. Here are some pictures from last summer - a special trip to Hawaii to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary! - to tide you over until we get back. Enjoy!

Diamond Head Lighthouse

U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor

An unknown surfer catches a wave off Maui

Hiking in a volcano crater on the Big Island

Native Petroglyphs in the volcanic rock

Orchids

One of many roadside waterfalls

Friday Confession

Sewing Books

I don't always read the sewing books that I buy.

Don't get me wrong - I use the "complete guides" (all 3 of them!) and the "More Fabric Savvy" book as reference material when I have a question or am stuck on something. And I've made projects out of the "Sew What! Skirts" and "Stupid Sock Creatures" books. I've even picked up some tips from the Palmer & Pletsch book, the "Serger Secrets" book and the fit books.

But the truth is, I haven't gotten as much out of my mini-library as I should. How about you - do you buy sewing and fit books? Do you read them through from cover to cover?