Back at the sewing machine: Knitting Project Bag.

Fabric from my stash, pattern: Grab Bags by allpeoplequilt..

DuBarry 21238

Someday I will sew again.

There is life after moving, right?

Drafting Sleeves.

Ugh.

I knew there was a reason I'd been avoiding drafting sleeves. What a pain in the ass. But since my bodice sloper is close to being completed, it was time to deal with the sleeves.

I did everything you're supposed to do with measurements, ease calculations, squaring lines, using the french curve, etc. and I produced a very nice looking self-drafted custom sleeve pattern:



that produced a sad, sad, ill-fitting sleeve. And that's putting it mildly. Even the wrist didn't fit.





If I ever manage to recover from my disgust, I think what I'll do next is find a manufactured sleeve pattern that fits reasonably well and then try to alter it.

The only encouraging thing about this project is that I decided to try hand basting the sleeves into the bodice and I think it was a lot easier doing it that way because you have more control.

So there's that.

Bodice fitting progress: Advance 4328

I re-drafted the pattern pieces again, using what I learned from the previous version of this blouse. I decided to get rid of the double tucks on the lower edges of the front and back and replace them with diamond darts from my bodice sloper pattern.

The bust might be a little too big but I'm not going to alter it right now because I'm pretty happy with the results so far. I'll be sewing yet another one of these so that I can fine tune and make it more close-fitting.

I reversed a couple of the pattern instructions for sewing the notched collar, so it was a lot easier to deal with this time. I also decided to put the gathers back into the back yoke. Just a few to make it more feminine.

Self-Drafted Skirt.

I've been getting a lot of wear out of the self-drafted skirt. The wool suiting and Bemberg lining are luxurious and make a world of difference in comfort. I love wearing this skirt. Now I need to sew a more appropriate blouse to go with it because the one I'm wearing in the pictures isn't tailored enough to cut it.


I went to Britex on my lunch break today to look at their fabric remnants.  Afterwards, I went downstairs to the suiting fabrics to get some lining. The gentleman cutting in suiting looked down at my skirt.

Did you get that fabric here?

I told him that I did.

I thought it looked familiar!

Then he picked up a bit of my hem to check out the ribbon trim and said   Is this--? It is! Hand sewn. Great job.

 
Made. my. day.

If you can't fix Advance 4328...

alter it beyond recognition...



I'd forgotten that awhile back I modified a bodice pattern piece into a bodice sloper. So I dug it out and laid it on top of the Advance pattern and went to work. It was a lot of work and the blouse doesn't look a whole lot like the original pattern, but it fits damnit. It still needs sleeves but I don't know if I'll bother. This blouse won't ever see the light of day in public because the fabric is ruined from all the stitching and restitching.





Before and After

OH COME ON.

Here it is basted together for the first fitting



WTH? There are so many issues I don't even know where to start. And the pattern is my size!

For the hell of it, I ripped out the basting on the right side and made these quickie pin-fit alterations:

Advance 4328.

Transferred the pattern to white paper and got everything cut out and marked.

Vintage meets modern.

As it happens, the new Juki is a low shank machine which means that all those old Greist attachments work on Juki.

I need to do a narrow hem on the black circle skirt. Although I was able to get several of the Greist attachments to work on my other machines, I could never get the narrow hemmer to work. But it works perfectly on the Juki!



Because the narrow hemmer is so small, the hem needs to be prepped a little so that the fabric rolls smoothly over the cone that rolls the hem over before it gets stitched. The seams pose a bit of a problem because they tend to get caught up in the cone.

And unrelated to this- I finished the self-drafted skirt, but no pictures just yet.

Vintage Hem Marker Part II.

I'm using my hem marker differently these days. It's far more accurate to mark the hem while the garment is on the dressform instead of me. Also, I've been grinding up regular chalk to put in the cup, but I can't seem to get it ground fine enough. The granules keep getting caught in the blade spout and then I'm digging them out. The best thing would be to buy some superfine powder chalk, but I have a ton of regular chalk lying around and I'm determined not to spend any more money on chalk until I use up what I have.



This is another H&M skirt that's been sitting in the back of my closet for awhile because it needed to be shortened.



Drag the chalk across the blade opening on the marker, move the marker close to the skirt so it's touching and spin the dressform. The blade is really sharp, so the chalk makes a nice line when the garment brushes up against it.

It's a lather, rinse, repeat process, but worth it.

The true 'true waistline'.

I bought my dressform almost 2 years ago. Since then, I've been trying to learn how to get the proper fit on my garments and the process has been slow and more than a little frustrating. The self-drafted skirt is the first time I've fit something totally to my measurements and it fits me like a glove.

But when I put the skirt onto the dressform, I kept having to adjust it to hit what I thought was the true waistline on my form. Since the skirt fits me perfectly, I figured it was time to reconsider the location of the form's true waistline.

alterations couldn't save the red corduroy skirt.

RIP 2/28/11.

Weekend Projects.

This H&M courdoroy skirt has been the bane of my existence. I've been meaning to take the waistline in (for about a year) to stop the skirt from doing a 360 spin every time I walk from point A to point B but never got around to it and now I hate the skirt. Before throwing it in the scrap bag, I took the super-EZ alteration route of measuring in 1/2" at the top L and R side seams and then using my hip curve to draw a nice line that blended in with the existing side seam about 6" down. Then I sewed along the new seam line. A proper alteration probably would've involved removing the waist band, then redrawing the side seams & sewing them, then redoing the waistband & sewing it back on the skirt but I didn't want to make that kind of time investment. Anyway, the skirt fits fine now.

Waistband-less skirts.

Tonight when I got home from work & before I did anything else, I picked up the self-drafted skirt to take an inventory on what needed to be done. I'd already started with the hand sewing, but there was spot that needed to be resewn by machine, so I fired up the Juki for a little night sewing under stadium lighting.

Backing up a bit- I've made a total of 4 skirts.  Two of them had waistbands and fit kind of funky and the other two did not and fit great (one of them is in the photo above).  The waistband-less skirts were made from a basic Built By Wendy skirt pattern and without waistline facings.  I first read about these facings in Couture Sewing Techniques.  This is the same book that showed me how to apply ribbon trim without puckering.  As with the ribbon trim, the book refers again to Chanel-

Usually finished with a grosgrain or lining-fabric facing, the faced waistline was favored by Chanel for many of her designs.  Because it doesn't include a waistband, this finish is used on skirts that accompany overblouses and is flattering for short-waisted figures.

Wait.  Short-waisted?  I thought I was long-waisted. Maybe I should do some investigating?

Anyway, I wanted to add a waistline facing to my self-drafted skirt because it's made of good suiting fabric & I wanted to add a little heft to the waistline edge.  Here's how I did it and I used a combo of what I read in the book and this Threads article which I used to line this dress:

Juki F600!

she's here.



I had no problems getting her set up. The instruction manual was great and the design is super-intuitive. Even winding the bobbin was no problem



bobbin just drops right in



The only thing that gave me pause was the automatic needle threader thingy--



But it was only a minor pause. An automatic needle threader is pretty damn cool. Almost as cool as the stadium lighting--



Lastly, here's the stitch selection panel.



I didn't photograph it, but when you flip up the lid that closes over the bobbin winder & spool holder, you can see all the different stitch patterns available to you. I think it's 125 stitches or something, each one has a code and you just use the keypad to punch in the code. This panel is showing a straight stitch with needle in center position (you could also select needle right or left). You can use the straight stitch or zipper presser foot. It's also showing stitch width (3.5) and stitch length (2.4) and those are easily adjusted by knobs by way of the 2 knobs below the screen panel.

I *love* this machine!

Of course wouldn't you know... I get my spiffy new machine all set up and then, after 18 years of faithful service--



-- my iron died.

poor iron.

I can't believe how many different kinds of irons there are out there, but I opted for a classic old steam/dry iron by Black & Decker

It ain't fancy, but my 18 year-old iron was a Black & Decker so here's hoping I have the same luck with this one.

1 day & counting.

On Monday, the store called to tell me my new sewing machine had arrived. It's been a long week of waiting, but come Saturday morning I'll be driving out to Walnut Creek to pick it up. I'm so excited I can barely stand it!

You'd think I would've kept away from my old machines, but I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. I attempted to fix some of the issues they'd caused with my waistline facing. Matching seams is very difficult due to the creep problem, but I finally got them mostly matched up. This one is just a hair off the mark which is annoying but not as annoying as 1/2" off the mark:

Enough is enough.

I've spent a solid 2 weeks scouring ebay and losing bidding wars on mechanical Berninas. I saw an 830 Record (that's a 30 year old machine) go for $1786. I'm out.

I took a vacation day today and drove out of the city, across the toll bridge and waaaaay out to suburbia. The fact that I would pay a toll to schlep to suburbia for a sewing machine should demonstrate how desperate I was. I haven't been out to Walnut Creek in probably 8 years. Maybe it's because the last time I went out there I got *the speeding ticket* that landed me in traffic school.

I was dead set on buying a mechanical Bernina. It's a damn good machine with a great quality stitch and it doesn't have a lot of bells & whistles. There were 5 key things I was looking for in a machine and fancy embroidery stitches was not one of them. I'm not a quilter. I sew clothes. I wanted the machine to sew a great straight stitch. The End. Also, the idea of a computerized machine did not sit well with me on a number of levels.

I went into the store, ready to test drive, with my bag 'o scrap fabric. I'd like to point out here that this was no ordinary bag 'o scrap fabric. This was a whole bag filled with 3 years of bad memories struggling with my 2 sewing machines and I was ready to see how other machines would handle it.

misc #34.

I made Butter Chicken from scratch



and buttermilk cupcakes



because the waist facing I'm adding to the self-drafted skirt is giving me fits. Here it is interfaced with a light denim fabric scrap.

pucker-free ribbon trim.

it worked! Here's the before and after (L: machine-stitched; R: hand-sewn with a running stitch)

Sashiko: "little stabs".

Cool application of the running stitch:

source: wiki

Sashiko (刺し子?, literally "little stabs") is a form of decorative reinforcement stitching (or functional embroidery) from Japan. Traditionally used to reinforce points of wear, or to repair worn places or tears with patches, this running stitch technique is often used for purely decorative purposes in quilting and embroidery. The white cotton thread on the traditional indigo blue cloth gives sashiko its distinctive appearance, though decorative items sometimes use red thread.