StraightJacket Muse

Civilization HO!

2011-11-16T14:44:00.000-05:00

I'm baaaack! Here are some last-minute parting shots of my wild-wild-east, Central-Asian, rocket-attack-ducking adventure:

Civvies wear cadpat too!!! (but no guns....)

...at (rocket-attack-siren) times, with helmets!!!

A very fond goodbye to my dear friends (with guns)...

...each week's growing crowds of running mates...

...and sleep-deprived coffee buddies (nb, made-by-me running top)!

...and Hello, sewing machine!

Well. That was then... and this is - three months later - now. My sewing machine's on the table, with the chosen fabric - a gorgeous navy wool-silk blend - and the pattern, a classic shirt dress - nearby, all awaiting my attention. But - ever since I got back, family life's been interfering with my selfish sewing plans. I've been focusing on, ahem, intellectual matters - meh! big time unproductive! So, this week, let's see if I can get my scissors & needle in gear!

Maid in the Shade :)

2011-07-29T13:09:00.001-04:00

43 degrees tall!

In this environment, I typically prefer dressing in jacket over sleeveless shell - the combination gives good coverage against the fierce sun and dust, and, since the jacket is invariably unbuttoned, excellent ventilation. But I have only so many jackets here, so I like to vary the look every few days. Since the look of the day (always Groundhog Day, remember!) is long slacks and sleeves, my range of variations is limited. I posted the above shirt when it was just sewn, and here it's as part of an ensemble. The slacks are the Jalie jeans pattern, and I like them enormously. Not so much for the fit any more, they're very loose nowadays - but the fabric, some sort of nylon-dominated, maybe with cotton, technical stuff that doesn't stick and wears extremely well. Thank you, Fabric Mart!

Much cooler than two weeks ago!

So, I made three of these McCall's 6035 shirts, and I wear them with great pleasure. Below I'm wearing another. Its cotton is coarser than the other two's, but that only makes it even more breathable, ergo perfect for this place.

All clear - all clear - all clear!

Why the strange pose and mis-matched headgear? Well, periodically we have little episodes of excitement, called rocket attacks, and plopping down on the ground when the siren goes off (think London Blitz, I kid you not) is the standard way to minimize risk to one's stylish attire. So there you go. The grey slacks are another version of the Jalie jeans, in stretch cotton that I like but would love if they were a tad lighter weight. The camera jitter is due to..... use your imagination!

Civvies get medals too!

2011-07-11T14:19:00.000-04:00

I feel honoured to have received it from our Commander himself.

This is actually a sewing-related post! For the ceremony I picked my "almost-camo" outfit, which consists of wide leg trousers and matching bias-cut tank top (seen peeking out from beneath the jacket) in a very soft, loose weave linen (Fabricland), and the Vogue 1036 Today's Fit Betzina jacket in a cross-weave tan-peach linen (Gorgeous Fabrics). You already saw the jacket on a coat hanger here. Colour-wise, this is the closest I have to our Canadian combat fatigues, and it generally blends in beautifully with the local colour scheme, not to mention the locals:

Blending into the local scenery

On an average day (which is every day - think Groundhog Day - each day is just like the one before) I can be exuberantly colourful:

The Last BBQ at TFK HQ

Again, wide leg trousers and a tank top covered by a lightweight, unlined jacket, all in linen.

Our combat mission is now over, and I too shall be coming home. Soon. Hello, my beautiful green Ottawa!!!

Guess Who Came To Dinner?

2011-06-02T14:02:00.000-04:00

The big flag at the main entrance to Canada 9 is not usual - so that means the guest must've been someone special, right?

Indeed, 'twas so: we were honoured by our PM, Stephen Harper (speaking above), who arrived in the company of the two big guns of defence (Minister of Defence and Chief of Defence Staff, also above).

Better yet (for some), they brought with them two young ladies from the national women's hockey team (they won gold in the Vancouver winter Olympics, thus the medals), and Jarome Iginla from the men's Olympic gold-winning hockey team (teal shirt, and he modestly left his medal at home) .

And the band played on.... a wonderful, international ISAF folk band, made up (left to right) of a Brit, Canadian, and two Americans. They were all good, with great voices, and the Canadian fiddler superb - I wondered if he was of Nova Scotia's musical heritage.

What am I wearing? My blue zebra linen suit (I joke I'm the decoy - it's very non-camo!) over a printed silk crepe sleeveless top with a pleated neckline. Linen from Fabricland, silk from Fabric by the Yard, pattern, well, I'll have to look it up. All comfortably loose and cheerful. I get a surprising number of compliments on this blue zebra look, and frequently get asked for photos. People here are starved for a little normalcy - living in a world of camouflage, even international varieties of it, does get monotonous. Me, I'm sooo looking forward to a dress!!!!

A Different Kind of Embroidery

2011-05-27T14:49:00.000-04:00

The famous KAF Boardwalk is a quadrangle of sea-cans - ie, sea containers - with windows and doors cut into them, all facing inwards. The central area houses an imported from Ontario all-Canadian hockey rink, a fenced-in basketball court that doubles as a mini-soccer field, a couple of volleyball nets, and a wide expanse used by football (the American kind), baseball, and rugby afficionados. The Boardwalk is really truly a boardwalk, and it's nicely roofed against the blazing sun.

The seacans house a miscellany of shops, serving up fast (and not so fast, when available) food, cold and hot drinks (espresso over ice!), Afghan jewellery, scarves, woodwork and of course carpets, internet, banking, barbering, alterations, and, surprisingly, embroidery. Let's take a peek into the embroidery shop, shall we? Here's one of the machines:

They're serious, dedicated, computerized workhorses. You won't find any flowers and butterflies coming out of them, though - the customers just aren't the butterfly types. They need serious insignia, and that's what they get. C-IED right above my right hand, for example? That's counter-improvised-explosive-device, and the brave fellows who wear them disarm deadly home-made-mines, if you please.

I'm wearing a Vogue Montana jean jacket in grey linen from Michael's, with matching wide-leg pants, btw. Wrinkled of course, but since everyone around me parades in fatigues, I dig being a little rumpled.

The shop is a family business, and the owners (mother and daughter, I presume) are Russian-speaking Kazakhis. For the right price, they'll embroider any design on anything you please - flowers and butterflies included. The name tags hanging off the counter are luggage tags - ingenious!

How many nationalities can you spot on the wall?

It's really, really hot here now. The day after I took this pic, the little thermometer topped 50 degrees Celsius, and upon cooling, promptly gave up the ghost (the surface tension at both ends broke the bead into a bunch of discontinuous little lines).

Of boys and their toys

2011-04-07T03:46:00.002-04:00

Life without sewing? It demands something else by way of diversion to occupy the time. To wit:

1. work

2. work

3. gym aka PT

4. work

and more of the same.

Not much time for the internet, either. And the bandwidth is woefully slow.

One of our diversions is the weekly bazaar at the edge of the base. It's open for a mere 3 hours once a week, and provides a welcome high point to the week. It's staffed by local men and their sons - like the charming young man above, who sold me one of the plastic-encased spiders for my own boy who's probably the same age. We never see any Afghan women or girls - they're completely invisible, er, absent. More's the pity.

The other diversion takes a little more work than just spending money, but it does involve money as well: fundraising runs. One of the ones I participated in shortly after getting here was to support the young fellow's school. Note, my dear lady friends, one and all, that this is a boys' school. ~~Literacy~~ Illiteracy rate for women in this neck of the woods runs to 90%. Yes, that's correct: nine adult women out of ten can't read or write. A dismal number of girls get to go to school. I wish we could all get together and do a fundraiser for a local girls' school, don't you?

And now for the toy: like my ride? Just one of the big toys for the big boys (& girls) I work with here. Don't I just look like a military tourist? This is the only bit of green for miles and miles of here.

Happy sewing, everyone!

KAF Look of the day

2011-02-22T11:57:00.000-05:00

With drastic temperature changes from morning to mid-day to evening, frequent though brief showers and a nearly complete lack of any cover from fiercely bright sunlight between them, layering is the correct approach.

The long-sleeved tee is Jalie 2805, from a delicious blue-tan heathered stretch cotton from Emma One Sock; the slacks are my self-developed TNT, from a stretch cotton herringbone in very pale tan, an exact match to the local dried mud, accessorized with one of my keyhole silk chiffon scarves - wonderful for keeping the neck warm. Barbed and razor wire form a common thread in the local scenery.

The boots and coat were my big but essential purchases for this assignment. The coat (though it has absurdly long sleeves) is roomy enough for a thick under layer and did a beautiful job doubling as a very warm blanket on the two long haul flights that got me here.

I'm standing in front of the Canadian memorial to our servicewomen and men, who lost their lives in the line of duty here. The sculpture is an inukshuk.

Up, up and away!

2011-02-15T09:10:00.002-05:00

The time has come....

...to put away...
...my sewing machines...
...my serger...
...my fabrics...
...my patterns...
...my Burda magazines...
...and return all my unconventional sewing aids (chopsticks, toothpics, the rolling pin, and the like) to their rightful place in the home...

Yesterday I made three workout tops. Today I pack. And tomorrow?

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How did my self-clothed deployment project turn out? With the exception of pj's and hats, I made pretty much everything on my list. I BOUGHT only a suitably mud-coloured convertible winter/raincoat and one pair of gym shorts - but neither of these were on my list to begin with.

I leave you with the trailer for Kandahar (2001), a superb Canadian-made movie that predates the current conflict, but instead shows an expat woman's perspective of her country after the Afghan-Soviet war. Highly, highly recommended.

Buttons can be beastly

2011-01-28T14:56:00.001-05:00

Thanks to my recent push to finish the various and sundry shirts and jackets, I found myself facing 10+9+9+8+9+8 buttons to sew on. Ummm... nope. Mind-numbingly, tooth-achingly boring. In an instant I knew it wasn't going to happen.

My solution? I machine-sewed them on. All you need is a zig-zag foot and a cover plate for the teeth, and simple two-hole buttons.

This worked like a charm and saved me time and sanity. Perfectly? Well, almost. In my enthusiastic run to the finish I failed to align the second to last - I kid you not - button correctly - with the following result:

Arrrgh, right? My crystal ball predicts a completely ~~unnecessary~~ unavoidable run to Fabricland in my near future.

As for the rest, I settled on one set of hammer-in-an-eyeblink jeans buttons (yea!), and one set of shanked metal ones. I took my sweet time about it and sewed those 8 by hand. Zen and the art of patient sewing!

Three button-down shirts

2011-01-25T19:25:00.001-05:00

What I really love about my current wardrobe project is the opportunity to repeat a pattern until it's perfect.
Over the past week I applied myself to the McCall's 6035 shirt. This is an armhole princess pattern with different pieces for A-B, C, and D bust sizes, and I was really looking forward to trying this canned approach to an FBA.

From the finished garment measurements, it was a toss up of either a 10D or a 12C. They have almost identical bust measurements and only a little difference at the hip. Based on some of the previous comments I recalled from those of you that have already tackled this pattern and the climate I'm sewing for, I decided on the 12C. Even if not sewing for an overheated environment, and in this case overheated in so many different ways, I will always, always go for the looser fit - nothing says "trying too hard" than clothing that shows every lump and bump and undergarment line (yuck). I did stick to a 10 shoulder line and lowered the neckline to the 8.

You know what, I love it! Those deep princess lines I recall reading a few complaints about fit me to a T: they slide right over my BP. It's a no-brainer that a lady with a smaller bust needs a shallow princess panel, and one with some frontal depth needs a deeper one. Thank you, McCalls!

My first shirt, a wearable muslin made from a fairly coarse but wonderfully breathable navy-white-grey patterned cotton from the Fabric Flea Market, would've been perfect but for operator error. The collar is not centred on the collar stand, and it's just obvious enough that I should (and will) rip it out and re-insert (but not this month). I also widened the back princess and side seams at the hem by 1/4", adding 2" to the overall hem.

As I was getting ready to cut my second iteration I remembered that patterns fit me much better when I shorten the back 1/2" between arm and waist. And what does that little adjustment do to the lower portion? It flares the hem just so, which means I could've saved myself the trouble of widening the hem in the first iteration, because in the second shirt, it was not merely roomy enough, but plenty roomy. But I don't mind. I plan on wearing them open over a tank top nine times out of ten, and I know they'll flap around me like the wings of an albatross regardless.

In all three cases I made version C, the one with sporty rolled up sleeve and tabs to hold it up, but I lengthened the sleeve to full length (in case of being faced with a culturally-appropriate, overly modest setting) and also lengthened the tab to shoulder length, something I saw in a recent fashion show, and thought, cool - a tab that's just a tad different! Each tab has two buttonholes and two buttons, one at the shoulder and the other at the bicep. The side benefit of this is I can lower the sleeve to not-quite-full-length, and button it into place with the upper buttonhole in the lower button.

They're not white. They're very appropriate for the blue and olive and tan trousers I do have, however.

I have a little length of beautiful white linen, and another of a beautiful pale ice mint green linen that I'm just dying to transform into a couple of easy long sleeved tops, but I'm starting to suffer what I call "sewing brain freeze": what to do, what to do, oh, which pattern?

Fleece in my comfort zone: Jalie 2795

2011-01-17T22:07:00.001-05:00

Over the past couple of evenings I stretched myself, ;))), to make the Jalie 2795 fleece jacket (thanks, Kay!). Not counting the fleece interlining of my Dr. Zhivago greatcoat and some mitten-making games, this was my very first fleece garment. And the fleece was thick. Stretchy, yes, and very, very thick:

Forcing all these layers of the stuff under the needle was truly a stretch for me. Huffing and puffing all the way.

I used size T, per my full bust; lengthened the body by 1.25" and shortened the sleeve by 3/4". The nice soft thick fleece I sewed up yielded the desired cozy little topper. So far so good.

However. This is a very body-conscious pattern: the raglan armscye is very high - any higher and it would be cutting off circulation to my arms. The sleeves are narrow, and the upper chest is pretty close to the body. I think it would work much better in a thin fleece, as a lightweight garment than an outerwear type jacket. In fact, that's sort of how it's portrayed on the envelope: a thin, lightweight topper.

A comparison with my ancient and much loved fleece jacket from MEC (Mtn Equipment Coop) is instructive:

They're about the same length and width at the hip but the red oldie is much roomier in the sleeve and chest area - precisely the spots I find constricting in the Jalie.

In the Jalie, the raglan seam is a good 2" shorter...

... the chest is about 2" narrower on each side... (and, interestingly, the back is wider than the front - note the location of the side seam)

...while the lower sleeve is over an inch narrower near the wrist, and far more than that higher up. It's a little shorter too, and the length is perfect.

I took a look at the pattern pieces with a view to revising the fit a little:

This is the back - CB on fold, with one of the two side back pieces (the side hasn't been lengthened on paper, but was cut longer). Notice the princess seam does nothing to shape the back - it's strictly, um, decorative. It's the same story with the front princess panels - in fact, the same pattern piece is used for the side front and side back. And the sleeve?

The sleeve is made of four pieces: upper centre, lower centre (cut on fold), and two sides, one of which is shown because both are cut from one pattern piece. But again, no shaping is added by these pieces. Also the waistband is, unnecessarily, made so that it has side seams; it could so easily have been made out a single piece of fabric for a smoother fit over the hips.

I confess I find all this non-functional slicing and dicing objectionable. It adds considerable construction time (especially if you're going to topstitch each seam), and decreases the comfort of the garment (due to all those unnecessary seams along the body and the very narrow sleeves). I could understand if the jacket was shown attractively colour-blocked, giving the extra seaming aesthetic value. But the pattern envelope & instructions make no such suggestions. What really ups the irksomeness factor is that the seams in sleeve and body pattern pieces have no relevance to each other, as you see below:

See? the side sleeve and side princess seams don't match. To me, this looks downright ugly. Now how easy would it have been to raise that princess seam a little so it meets the sleeve seam? Unsurprisingly, it's the same story at the back. Picky, picky, picky, yes: I like it not!!!

But wait! There's nothing wrong with the jacket per se. I love raglan sleeved jackets. And the non-functionality of the pattern pieces can be of advantage: it's so very easy to combine them. My second version of this jacket has a one-piece front, one-piece back, one-piece sleeve, and of course, a one-piece waistband.

I simply lapped the bottoms of the princess seam and spread them ~1.5" at the top to create more ease in the chest, lowering the side piece to accomodate the curvature. Similarly, I spread the sleeve pieces to match, giving them a little more width at the wrist as well (not shown).

I moved the pocket to the side seam and curved it as above. This is less belly-bulking than the in-front kangaroo style of the original.

The result? A jacket that's still fairly closely fitting, yet unconstricting in the slightest, and smoothly comfortable.

I gave my first effort to an underage offspring with a 31.5" chest and a penchant for kangaroo pockets.

Are we still making white shirts?

2011-01-12T19:33:00.001-05:00

If so, click on the Never Too Many White Shirts Project button at left. It'll take you to Barbara's "sewing on the edge" post on the subject, from where you can browse her other white shirt accomplishments; the latest being the very funny and very pretty Tom Jones blouse (sex bomb, sex bomb!). Great job, Barbara!

But wait, there's more! The NY Times has a slide pictorial on white shirts! All men's shirts, but no matter, we can all happily wear guy stuff and call it "boyfriend" this'n that: boyfriend sweater, boyfriend shirt, boyfriend jeans, etcetera. My fave? #5, the Ralph Lauren, with its cutaway collar, french cuffs, and a cool $395 out of your wallet. I love the sense of smugness that price tag generated in me: yessirs, I can do that!

Parting shot: my happy-silly 4-2008-107 waistcoat, all but done; just waiting for the last round of topstitching, buttonholes, and the buttons to be attached.

I was trying it on over my long sleeved rayon tees, and can already say I'm going to love wearing it. If nothing else, it says: come on over and talk to me! all the while professionalizing (we can "verb" anything these days, right?) out of the tees their intrinsic casualness.

A (Straight) jacket a day

2011-01-08T18:42:00.000-05:00

Will keep boredom at bay. That's the plan. For my grand adventure, I'm taking along the following seven jackets:

Oh, you noticed there's only six patterns there? Indeed. Can we please pretend that my Xmas present, the Finny Solingen shears, are the missing seventh? In my mad rush to tidy up for Christmas I misplaced V1036. It's hiding somewhere, and doing it very well today. No matter! I can prove to you I did really complete it - not that you'd ever doubt it, but it feels ever so silly to show just patterns instead of products.

Don't you hate how flat and shapeless a garment looks on a coat hanger? It's actually a very cute jeans jacket. With a very interesting shaped waistband.

Topstitching, oh yes. I must've topstitched a marathon these past few weeks. Are we having fun yet? Luckily, the fabric (a beautiful linen, btw) was way too thick/coarse to flat fell. All seams are serged with thread that is such a good match, you can't even tell it's there - lucky me! and then double-topstitched. The joys of a topstitching/edging foot cannot be overstated!

So, progress is being made here in the Straightjacket asylum. I will actually have eight jackets, because I decided to take along my M5396 green linen jacket. I made another version of it - different fabric/colour/lapels - no one but you will know that it's in its 3rd iteration (the 2nd was inadvertently, sadly destroyed).

I have just over a month before I hop on that CF Hercules. My to-do list intimidates even me:

1. fleece jacket: a must! it's going to be c-c-c-cold when I get there.
2. wool sweater hoodie a la my daughter's Friar Tuck sweater
3. two (maybe three) long sleeved lightweight cotton shirts (at least two). I'd make more, but there's just NO time!
4. a bunch of long sleeved tees: have the fabrics, have the Jalie patterns, BUT: do I have the time?
5. two pj's using TNT tanktop and TNT pants, capri length, in cotton batik. In a pinch, could skip.
6. gym stuff. Have the fabric but.... see #5.
7. sun hats to match my snazzy jackets. Am I crazy?!!!

What I really need is the sewing version of a scullery maid. I'm waiting, with bated breath, for a volunteer.

In the meantime, I'm about to be foolish. Instead of focusing on what I NEED, I'm officially thumbing my nose at the above list and ~~wasting~~ investing the next couple of days on BWOF 4-2008-107. Oh yes. If I can't wear silly clothes in a war zone, where on earth can I?!!! Plus, in a neutral tan linen, it'll be the perfectly, uberly, cool look over any of my multi-coloured long-sleeved tees.

Pencil? Check! Parchment paper? Check! Miles and miles of topstitching thread? (sigh) Check!

Merry Christmas to all!

2010-12-24T11:10:00.000-05:00

At last, we've turned the corner on the season: the winter solstice, our longest night, and its fabulous lunar eclipse, have come and gone, and, in a very few days so will 2010. I photographed and photomontaged this lunar eclipse with my baby boy about seven years ago, and had hoped to repeat the exercise this week, but was flummoxed by the weather. I love this moment of the year - the world takes a breather and each day is a few minutes brighter than the last.

My sea and sand jacket is finished, and so is the Sandra Betzina Today's Fit V1036. I'm now working on yet another jacket: V7610. I'll blog them, and review them.... sometime. My sewing window is narrowing, and since next year I'll have six sewing-free months, it makes sense right now to focus more on my irrevocable deadline than on up-to-the-minute sharing.

In the spirit of the season, I'm sharing with you my collection of kolędy, Polish carols, which are the most beautiful traditional Christmas tunes in the world. Us Canadians are lucky to hear them on our national radio station CBC every year.

My own collection is here: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwJND8H7q_E_ZTFjMGEzOWEtMWUyMC00Nzc0LTk4NzUtNWU5NDJjZGQyMGVj&hl=en

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you!

Do you see what I see? My take on V8547

2010-12-10T15:02:00.000-05:00

Yes! My "sky and sand" jacket is in progress! And much thanks (you know who you are) for your suggestions, which all came together in this interpretation. Here's the pattern:

The combination of bias sleeves and straight front intrigued me. I became even more intrigued when I saw the pattern pieces; especially this, the upper back-sleeve-side front:

There is no shoulder seam - instead, the jacket has a shoulder dart. The two piece sleeve includes a gusset: the scissors point to the gusset. As per usual, I basted it in, and then, after sewing, topstitched its edges onto the body pieces, to make it nice and smooth in wear.

The lower back+ sleeve looks fairly conventional - except, again, for the cute little underarm gusset. But of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, and added a pleated centrepiece. I wanted a jacket that looked as unique in the back as it does in the front.

So here we are. The sleeves are in and the pockets were about to go into the fronts which were interfaced a couple of days ago. Then - horror! both interfaced fronts showed bubbling right where it would show the most: front row centre. And this is a quality interfacing from a very popular supplier. My solution? Below:

I sprayed the pieces with water, steamed without pressing, and peeled the interfacings off. Interestingly, the facings and other bits which were fused in an identical manner but using a different type of interfacing (from the same supplier) have absolutely no problems.

I shall re-fuse and continue as soon as the fabric pieces have dried. Pockets, collar (it's only draped on the chair right now), and then the lining. Easy-peasy!

Simplify, simplify, simplify! A simpler neckline.

2010-12-09T08:30:00.000-05:00

Several of the tops I've made lately are very simply constructed, with no shoulder seam. The neckline treatment evolved as I was making them. I bound the first two, but continued to look for a simpler approach. Finally, I came up with this:

1. An asymmetrically flattened oval template for the neck opening. It's flatter at the back than at the front, and placed so its long axis is not aligned with the shoulder seam (in the absence of a seam, the shoulder fall line) but shifted towards the front. The overall circumference should be approximately the same as one's head; it'll enlarge slightly in the finishing step.

2. No binding. Instead, a line of fine stitching circumscribes the neckline about 1 cm from the cut edge. The edge is then folded over - some clipping is necessary to get the edge to fold over at the tight curves - and stitched down with two lines of very-very short stitches.

The second line is created continuously with the first, with a two stitch jog at the end of the first "circumnavigation". I'm slightly compulsive about tying off thread ends with a tailor's knot and then hiding them into seams, so even this tiny little step is a time-saver for me.

Once the neckline is finished, the flat fabric is folded again and the side seam chalked in and pinned (marked by orange pinheads) - from the right side, since it'll be a French seam.

Why buy poly? Thanks, Mom!

2010-12-04T11:42:00.012-05:00

Despite it being December, my declared month of jackets, I'm still working on sleeveless and almost-sleeveless tops. Apart from that one white shirt, I've done exactly zero long-sleeved tops as yet. My fiddling with pattern design is slowing me down, yet I can't resist. But I do now have a nice collection of linen, cotton, and silk tops, and a few lightweight poly ones too. What?! Poly?! Yes, poly! the fabric that many of us love to be so snobbish about.

Ummmm... why on earth would I want to wear polyester in +44°C?! Well, for starters, it'll be +44 only some of the time. Better reasons, though, are that:

Poly georgette - the lightweight stuff - breathes. I always check my fabrics for breathability - I call it the Lauren Bacall method:

Bogie and Bacall, what a great couple. But yeah, I simply put the fabric up to my lips and blow. If it doesn't offer any resistance - and these polys of mine certainly don't - I know I'll have a cover-up that'll let the breezes blow in and out and cool me down.

It's indestructible no matter how hot the wash water, or how often you wash it. I've heard people complain that poly stinks. But not in my experience: not if you toss it in the wash after each wearing? Nor if it's loose enough not to cling?

It's colourfast. I admit I'm a teeny bit concerned that my linen and cotton tops will turn dingy and drab after a few cycles in the wash, and I'll be left with - gasp! - a suitcase full of nothing to wear!!! Heheh, here's where the polys will hold their own!

It never wrinkles. So the gal who lives out of a box can occasionally aspire to look like a lovely Rapunzel rather than hideous Rumpled-Stiltskin.

When I was expecting my youngest, my Mom Who Sews made me a three piece outfit out of a poly like that. It consisted of a tank top, a button-down collared shirt, and a wrap skirt that, with velcro and side ties, was able to grow and then shrink right along with me. That was over a decade ago, and I have literally worn that outfit - usually as separates - to death every summer since. To death, yes, except it refuses to die. In fact, it looks as brand new today as it did the day I received it. And, because of its very simple design, it remains chic and timeless. The way it resists all wear and tear, it'll take a nuclear blast to destroy it.

That's why my money's on a few poly tops as backups if nothing else - just in case.

This latest top is a little different than the last: the side seams are curved, and there's no bottom band. Instead, I used two remnants from this and a slightly different pattern in the same colourway to make a two-sided ascot.

I'm not usually a florals type of gal, but I thought a few blue and gold blossoms will do wonders to relieve the unremitting drabness of barren desert and cheer everyone up.

Oh, and am I taking Mom's gift with me on my upcoming junket? You bet I am.

With dimensions: a trapezoid tanktop design

2010-11-29T07:36:00.001-05:00

Continuing with my variations on the pleating theme, I thought to simplify the overlapping fronts plus shoulder pleats with this design:

It doesn't get much simpler, does it? Originally I wanted to have the shoulder "seam" shirred to about 10 cm/4", and to minimize the bulk in that area, made the top of the garment on a fold. There's actually no shoulder seam at all.

This fabric (an uber-lightweight silk crepe from Fashion Fabrics Club) does very well to show the construction, with its horizontal pattern theme (in flat fabric, the rivers really are perfectly horizontal). Once I saw it in the mirror like this, it became clear that shirring these lovely waves was going to be just too much. No, it would downright ruin what's already a great feature. So I left it as is.

The neckline is bound with not-quite-45-degrees bias, armholes are folded over twice, side seams frenched, and the bottom band is doubled and stitched in the ditch. Not a single raw or serged edge to be seen anywhere! The top uses practically every scrap of exactly one yard of 42" width fabric.

Edit: by request, actual measurements.

These are the finished dimensions. The raw fabric pieces were:

Main body: 79 cm/31" wide x 112cm/44" long, folded in half along the top. Because the fabric is very light and hard to cut perfectly straight, I allowed 2cm/0.75" for each double fold on the sleeves. The bottom is tapered to 56cm/22" wide. The diagonals start 21.5cm/8.5" below the fold, and that's also where diagonal seam ends. The front neckline is cut in a curve that drops it about 3.5cm/1.5" lower than the back, which is straight across.

Bottom band: a single piece of fabric, 109cm/43" x 20.5cm/8". I attached it after only one vertical/diagonal seam was sewn, and then sewed it closed in one go with the other vertical/diagonal seam.

The pants, a teeny beige-white pinstripe, are a silk-linen blend from Michael's.

The coin toss gets it: 3 out of 5!

2010-11-27T17:37:00.001-05:00

We had to wait till a daytime moment while both I and my lucky charm child were home - aaaaand .... just completed the winning coin toss: ta-daaaah!

Winner (I'm not telling - you'll have to watch the video!)*, please email me (hostahead at gmail dot com) your addy, and I'll post you the pattern. Of course, you WILL make something within the week, and post it for all of us to admire, right? ;) I'm keeeeding!

Thanks to you both, Ann and Deborah, for giving me the opportunity to have this little bit of fun!
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*(oh, OK - I'll tell in a week or so).

An experiment in draping

2010-11-23T22:00:00.003-05:00

Having first explored the slicing and dicing approach to tee variability, I turned to draping.

The one-shoulder wonders from Burda's Nov. 2010 issue, though a tad impractical for everyday wear (understatement!) or even a daytime Christmas party (lots of those creeping up on many of us!), do have potential.

It occurred to me that they could easily be adapted to something a little more wearable. Especially so when you look at the pattern pieces; top 105 and dress 106:

What are they, exactly? An adaptation of a tee: one shoulder is removed above the armhole, and the other side widened sufficiently to make the shoulder seam twice as wide as normal.

It's easy enough to reproduce if you happen to have a "cut one on fold" sleeveless tee pattern piece.

I first redrew the complete front (the right half with a dashed line), then matched the lower right corner of the original half-pattern piece to the drawing and rotated it to the right so the shoulder seam was widened to twice its original width. Free-handed the neckline curve to the opposite armscye, and cut away the no-longer-needed shoulder piece (marked with X).

As a last step, after verifying that the overall width was more than sufficient, I pleated out the bust dart.

To make my tee, I cut two fronts and gathered their shoulders to the shoulder seams of my regular tee back.

I bound the entire neck seam before sewing up the sides; because the two fronts' overlap is quite high, there's absolutely no need to attach them to each other.

I made this up in a very lightweight and sheer polyester crinkle crepe, too light to be a single layered front, but perfect if doubled. The back, in "coffin clothes" fashion, is a plain single layer, but I plan to cover it with a lightweight white blouse ;) at the very least.

Overall, the effect is oh so modest. But - if you wanted to have something a little less daytime, you could duplicate a similarly double layered back, gather the shoulders some more and curve the diagonal seam a little lower. Why not even run that neckline curve below rather than above the bust?

White blouse #1 finished, and planning the second

2010-11-21T16:27:00.004-05:00

Without much ado, blouse #1:

And here, with the belt - which I made loooooong enough for sure - wrapped twice around. No doubt it'll also look better without the second belt holding up my jeans under it: you can see how it thickens up the hipline (yuk!).

You can also see just how very light is this fabric - doing a turned edge really wouldn't have worked, I fear.

Completely see through - it'll never be worn IRL without a tank or cami under it.

Evaluating it for the design, I had deliberately made the shoulder line a little dropped, but now that I see it in action, I do believe that I'd prefer those seams to sit on, not fall off, my shoulder point. Easy enough, and I already shifted them upwards by 1.5" before I put the pattern pieces away. The waist darts in the back look like they could be brought in towards centre a little as well.

I'm thinking that my second blouse will share a few similarities with this one: a cut-on collar and a waist tie. I plan to base it on Burda 105-6-2009, a pattern which I already used some time ago to make this reversible silk dupioni jacket:

This one has an absurdly dropped shoulder. You might think that this was my poor quality fitting, but not so! I cut my usual 38 and stay-stitched the necklines to ensure they don't stretch, and, if you look at the model jacket on a dummy, the dropped shoulder is quite evident. Maybe someone in the drafting department forgot to shorten the shoulder of a jacket sloper originally intended to have linebacker shoulder pads (hello, eighties)?! which of course are impossible to put into a reversible garment. Whatevah - I'll just shorten the shoulder seams so the sleeves actually reach my shoulder.

Here's what I like about this jacket: the armhole princess seams, which shift the waist tie closer to centre, from way off on the side seam. I'll change the collar-less lapels to a cut-on collar, and, instead of making it reversible, I'll -probably - add a facing as I did to the lightweight shirt above. Or, if I choose a heavier fabric, just do a facings-less hem and front edge, though I'll probably do at least an interfaced undercollar.

Vogue pattern giveaway

2010-11-18T08:24:00.000-05:00

As before, I'm inviting you again to help me divest my sewing space of my duplicate patterns. Vogue's error, they once sent me two boxes of one order. This one is Very Easy Vogue V8436, now out of print, size 6 to 12.

I love a raglan sleeve, and, with front chest darts, this pattern has good bones. It would be ever so easy to add front &/or back waist darts to add some shaping, change the shape of the sleeve, straighten the front, add a fold-down collar.... or not. Now that I think of it, I just might use my copy for my next white blouse.

To be included in the draw (7 days from today), be a follower, and leave a comment here. That's all! Shipping's on my dime, of course.

Slicing and dicing a simple TNT

2010-11-14T14:22:00.002-05:00

The problem with having to make quantities of anything is that the process very quickly goes stale unless you the hobby seamst/ress/er do something to ramp up the amusement factor.

I'm still working on tees (and will be till the end of Nov), but have just about exhausted the amusement factor out of cutting them on the bias. So I translated this:

to this:

Cutting through the side dart, I separated the front into a yoke and a two-piece overlapping bodice.You can see that the new pattern includes the dart shaping in the horizontal seam. The back is treated the same way, except the horizontal seam is just that: a seam; it adds no shaping.

I originally cut the bodice diagonal with a bit of a curve, but my first result ended up a bit ripply, so the next ones are cut with the diagonal straight and on-grain. The overlapping pieces aren't attached together except at the horizontal seam.

This pattern just LOOOOVES stripes! This blue cotton knit is lightweight but has no lycra and very little give, so I treated it just like a woven. I staved off the boredom factor by making it a boatneck and adding sleeves. I decided on the sleeves after the yokes were already cut, then realized that I have to widen and deepen the sleeve cap to compensate for the fact that the tanktop armscye is cut differently than a sleeved tee's.

Remembering my near-fiascos with other fabrics with less stretch than the Jalie pattern - far less, in one case - I cut the sleeves waaaay wider, then ended up taking them in, and in, and in.... it felt a little like "guerilla sewing".

I then shifted gears to the first of my light-as-air silk crepes:

In this case, I changed the bodice to a one piece, with a box pleat in the front. Sides and shoulders are french-seamed, while the bottom is selvedge - no hemming! The armscyes and neck are serged, turned in & topstitched, and that resulted in my only error: they're a little too big, so I'm hoping a little clear elastic will snug'em up. I should've added 1 cm to them to compensate for the serge+fold!

Make a Keyhole Scarf for someone you love!

2010-11-12T07:21:00.000-05:00

Like your sister, your mother, your daughter, ...., yourself!

Kay and I let ourselves loose on the silk chiffons on sale at our local Fabricland yesterday, and I thought: what a perfect opportunity to try something I've been meaning to do ever since I saw the concept demonstrated.

The Keyhole Scarf!

This one is made out of a 60cm cut of silk chiffon, 140 cm selvedge to selvedge. The length offers multiple wearing possibilities:

Ankh: looped once around and through the keyhole...

Artless: long end looped back around the neck

Ascot: looped back around the neck and tucked into the loop

This is definitely on my "make for the women in my life" Christmas list. And that says a lot, because I'm not the "make stuff for people" type of crafty person AT ALL.

You already saw my little tutorial on the Möbius scarf - now pop on over to Kay's and Threads' tutorials for the Keyhole scarf.

Redesigning Very Easy

2010-11-09T01:02:00.002-05:00

For my first white blouse I decided to go with a Very Easy Vogue 7998 wrap design. It's now out of print. I believe I originally bought it because of its "very easy" label. I do like the lay of the collar and the big tie.

I still like the cut-on collar - it gives a lot of bang for the buck - and the casual yet dressy feel. But once I took a look at the pattern pieces and the instructions, I decided I don't like it quite so much for my fabric: a very lightweight cotton voile. I was afraid all the pulling and tugging would do short work of the fabric, and I was a bit put off by all the hemming it requires. Sooo - I redesigned the pattern a tiny bit.

I always wanted to have a shirt with square armholes, and this pattern seemed to be the perfect integrated basic shape that could be easily converted.

There's a cleverly concealed bust dart in the not-very-right angle of the front piece. I also wanted the collar and the front curved edge to have a little more body and stability, so I created a front facing. The ties will be long and skinny, and they'll attach to the logical place, the bottom of the front curve/top of straight edge, with a slit in the left side seam, to wrap all the way around the back. Hum, it's no longer a very easy pattern - just a regular one!

The nice thing is, if I decide to use the original pattern on a fabric with more body, the original lines are still perfectly visible so potentially I can return to it.

ETA: Angela asks about show-through. Indeed it's quite light, but this is intended as an over-blouse whose main purpose is to protect my skin from scorching sun and ubiquitous dust, so there'll always be a tanktop under it. If it makes it back to Canada in any shape, I'm immodest enough to dare a casual outing with a skin-tone undergarment. Ahem. Maybe. In the garden, as the proverbial rose amongst the thorns.

Soliciting YOUR advice

2010-11-07T10:51:00.002-05:00

While I'm dithering on the white blouse, my mind is already racing ahead to next month's projects. I recently bought a few yummy yummy fabrics from Emma One Sock. Today I'll discuss only one of them:

Click to see it really up close!

Gorgeous, eh? Turquoise, dark teal, purple, and sand, with gold edging to the triangles, and all woven together in quite a striking jacquard. Cotton, I think. Washed well, and irons very well.

It has no crosswise stretch whatsoever, but it does have a (very) little lengthwise, so that's why it's hanging (on an ironing board, with a meter stick for scale) with the selvedge running horizontally. That said, the stretch is so small that it probably makes no difference - the fabric would probably work just as well with the diamonds oriented the other way.

Next month I'll want to make a jacket out of it. It'll be one of my wardrobe's anchor pieces next year, and it'll see lots of wear. How about YOU point me to a pattern you'd find suitable for this cloth, and tell me what technical challenges I'd have to overcome. Yeah, help me out. Please. I have a terrifically tough time making decisions. And the blogosphere is so full of wonderfully creative fabric artists - yes, you! So have a little fun: you get play with outré ideas, I get to do all the work :)

Here's another shot to help you visualize it in the "correct" direction.

Go for it!

ETA: After laundering, I have exactly 2 yards of this fabric, and it's 59" across.

(and thank you for your intriguing suggestions so far!)

How sewing fights boredom

2010-11-06T21:17:00.002-04:00

Simple: play with your TNT pattern!

My last of this week's five tanktops is this ultra-lightweight cotton woven, finished just in time for dinner. I got so deathly bored with four consecutive iterations of vented sides that I decided it needed a great big floppy bow to offset the, um, masculine to me, except for the colour of course, thread-woven plaid pattern.

The plaid is another of my Fabric Flea Market finds, picked expressly to go with the periwinkle, aka scrubs-coloured, linen (the UFO to my left, courtesy of hubby-photographer :))). As you see above, I have a little of the periwinkle linen left over - but the fabric is narrow, and it has some discolouration at one end - I may not be able to make an overblouse of it after all.

The hem band's execution is far from perfect, I'm afraid, but let's gloss over that: no one but me will ever notice. Better to focus on the wide-leg, but perfectly well-fitted linen trousers:

These are one of my elastic waistband super-fast jobs. To make them work-worthy, I sewed front & back creases onto the legs. Yes, they're loose fitting, but still a darn good fit in the butt, no?

I do believe it's now time to turn to white blouse #1......

Tanks two to four

2010-11-06T11:52:00.001-04:00

To finish the week, two tops in a very lightweight olive handkerchief linen, and one in a coarser, but very soft, zebra print linen, shown above. There are minor variations on a theme here: #2 is on the straight grain, #3 has a bias front, #4 is bias front & back with CF & CB seams, and a subtle v-neck both front & back. I also lifted the bust darts and carved out a little bit at the waistline on #4, which gives it a very nice fitted tunic-y look & feel.

Here you can see them with potential matching overblouse fabrics: a very lightweight cotton voile with a cool combination of colours that include olive, grey, cream and pink/peach, and a solid sand-coloured lightweight linen (already laundered and clearly not yet re-pressed). The linen was originally intended for another pair of slacks, but honestly - I do believe I already have enough of those!

I thought I could finish all five by week's end, but the last one didn't make it under the needle. Yet. I might finish it today.

Carrying on!

Week One of tanks

2010-11-02T23:38:00.004-04:00

No, silly, not the big ones with stuff that goes bang on top! Little sleeveless ones!!!
Using my self-developed pattern, I cut out five from remnants of the pants linens and one very cheerful lightweight cotton plaid (!), and have been plonking along on them since the weekend. Ten minutes one morning here, an hour of an evening there.... just pecking away at the task, slowly but surely. Here's the first I actually finished, in a very fine black/white stripe. The fabric is a $5 find from the Fabric Flea Market that sufficed for both trousers and top. By the feel of it, it's a cotton-linen blend.

Of the five of them, three have bias-cut fronts, two of them with CF seam; a couple have a CB seam as well. At this point, I think all, like the one here, will have flat felled seams, bound neck & armscyes (sp?), plus vented sides. There's a reason for all the compulsive over-finishing, and it's that (so I hear) the laundry service over there is very harsh on clothes. I'd rather put in a little effort up front than find my work falling apart in week 3 of the adventure. Right? of course right.

I did make an effort to make the bindings as narrow as possible, and this one isn't bad (I've done worse). The trick is to use a very short stitch and then trim the excess to a scant 1/8 inch (2.5 mm?). The side darts could come up 1 cm higher or so, I think, and the neckline might drop a smidgen in some of the others. But overall - especially with a blouse or jacket on top - eminently wearable!

ETA: all my tops are simple pull-ons. The back neckline is scooped out about 2 cm (~1") below the neck bump, so there's plenty of room for my head. There's a little shaping to the side seam as well, but I've kept the CF & CB seams - when they're present - straight.

I do all of these in the flat: sew both bust darts, flat fell one shoulder seam, attach neckline binding, flat fell other shoulder seam (catching the open binding in the seam - there's a bit of tricky little trimming that always has to happen here), turn over & stitch-in-the-ditch the neck binding, attach both armscye bindings, flat fell both side seams (pressing the vent SA's at the same time), finish armscye bindings, press hems, sew all around hems and vents in one go, hide all thread ends, press it all one last time, toss on the done pile, repeat. ;)

Are five white shirts too many? Never!

2010-10-26T20:46:00.012-04:00

As I said in the last post - for me, this is a most timely initiative, and the little white shirt button at left will take you to Barbara's "sewing on the edge" blog, where you'll have the opportunity to admire other sewists' pristine creations.

I have the following : midweight textured linen, lightweight textured linen, lightweight smooth linen in cream (not white), a midweight crinkle cotton, and a floaty striped cotton voile. Three of them will definitely become shirts, but the two midweight fabrics might turn into something a little more jackety - we'll see.

As to patterns:

One will definitely be the Vogue 1054 Chado Ralph Rucci overshirt. I wrote the review for it a year ago, and it's still languishing in private mode, because I haven't yet photographed the shirt nor the shirtdress that I based on the same pattern. Interestingly, though the shirt is a bit too casual, I wear the dress all the time - it's a classic, a dark grey self-patterned silk wool, perfect for work, perfect for accessorizing in any colour of the rainbow, and it garners lots of positive attention. So, when I tear myself away from my sewing machine, finishing that review will move from my to-do to the done list. That's the plan.

The second pattern I'm interested in is the blouse made by Terri, a very talented theatrical costume tailor who writes A Tailor Made It. Her creations are fascinating, and they're usually for men, so a simple white lady's blouse coming from her is a unique treat. I'd have to adapt a simple darted bodice pattern to one with curves, but it should be doable, as she posted both the original German draft and her own pattern pieces. New Look 6598 has similar bones: a cut-on collar and vertical front & back darts, so I'll start with that.

Thirdly, a crisp white blouse made its debut within the last few days at Handmade by Carolyn. It's a Burda pattern, with a charming curve to the fronts, and sashes for tying. Beautifully feminine.

Fourthly, Irene, who started her Irene's Studio blog only this month, posted a perfect classic white blouse: bust plus vertical front & back darts - just last week. Not only that, but she gave a few tips on how to slash-and-shrink as opposed to slash-and-spread; nice & useful for the skinny minnies among us. Go over and visit her - up for barely three weeks and she's posted some luverly stuff already.

I'm sure there are plenty more white blouses out there in blogland - why not make your own linked list?

In fact, let me just add a link to Les Merveilleuses - a for-ladies section of the Cutter and Tailor forum. Not just about shirts, but some of the retro topics do include scans of various 20th C pattern magazines, if nothing else, to inspire us to maybe think of a different white blouse. Later! right now I have to return to those four waistbands. The clock's aticking!

Trolling for trousers

2010-10-25T19:42:00.004-04:00

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I've been madly rushing my olde Kenmore to Produce, Produce... and Produce even more.

The biggest hurdle of my upcoming high hot desert wardrobe was the fact that I have NO summer slacks. None. In summer I wear dresses. I admit to having made two pairs in lightweight black silk a couple of years ago - one dupioni, one jacquard - and have already worn one of them literally to death. But traipsing around China's sights during a very hot couple of weeks one September not long ago convinced me that no no matter how light, black will cook you. They did. Black at 44C would be hazardous to my health (and, given the wardrobe directive I'm subscribing to, I'd be correctly suspected of being mentally defective).

When pressed to the wall, I'll concede to wearing RTW tops, blouses, etc, especially in a not too sartorially demanding working environment. But finding lightweight heat-tolerant slacks in the Great White North in December? Methinks not. So my most critical need was for pants, trousers, slacks. Remember, they'll have to ride me through both winter & summer seasons, in a dirty, dusty adventure. And I'll be sharing laundry facilities (no, I won't be doing it myself, heavens!) with 4000 likewise dirty & dusty companions.

I gave myself October to produce as many as I could. With 6 days to go, the count stands at (HOW many?!!!) seventeen. Count'em. Please. Dirty. Dusty. Wear once, then throw in the wash.

I made the first two (that's the olive linen and brown crinkle rayon in the left column) using standard trouser technique: darts, zipper, zipper guard, waistband. Of course, this took some time, and I literally freaked. At that rate, I'd still be producing trousers in January! And have no time to build a proper wardrobe! EEEEK!

Now, speaking of proper wardrobe, I decided it'll have to consist of:
1. trousers: see above ;)
2a. in winter, rayon knit and merino wool tees per Jalie patterns
2b. in summer, linen, cotton, and silk crepe (yep! I love it!) sleeveless tops
3a. jackets & 3b. lightweight shirting overblouses over 2a & 2b as the obligatory long-sleeved cover-ups.
4. a few sunhats

I'll make one warm fleece jacket, and likely purchase a 3 in 1 parka (breathable rainproof & windproof shell with zip-out fleece lining jacket inside, for you out there unfamiliar with the term), if out of time to make.

Back to my eeek moment, I switched technique to elasticated pull-ons. Boy that really helped me put on some speed!

As things stand, two are crinkle rayon; two crinkle cotton; four stretch cotton; one a techno stretch cotton-nylon; one a linen-rayon; one an amazing lightweight linen-silk; and the rest are plain linen, in various weights.

I varied them with different degrees of relaxed fit; different pocket shapes and placements; and even added faux front zippers, cuffs, and sewn-in front & back creases to a few. You'll have to forgive me for not boring you to tears with a pictorial of each pair on my behind, but 1. there's no time, and 2. you might just start getting the "look of the dusty day" in four months or so. Stay tuned!

By Saturday, I felt I could afford to return to tailored shapes, and cut out four jeans-style pairs, using the jeans construction but Jalie's more relaxed trouser rather than skintight jeans overall fit, so as not to feel like a steamed sausage. Lucky me, I already made each of these in the recent past, so I could cut, sew, and not worry about fit in the slightest. I added large patch style cargo pockets, and pretty much finished the four over the weekend, excepting the waistbands and hems. Exhausting, much? Yep, it was a sweatshop here. Especially with two of them being in a check that needed to be matchy-matched. Painful, 'twas.

Oh, and some four others still need hemming. If worse comes to worst, and I run out of time, I can always hem them "over there". That's the plan.

Next up: blouses and tanktops. I joined Sewing on the Edge's "never too many white shirts" for that - timely, oh yea. Impeccably timed: thank you, Barbara.

Courtesy of the internet.

Roll on Tanktop (or is that, top of the tank?) November.

Planning the Plan

2010-10-06T19:57:00.004-04:00

The time has come, the walrus said, to speak of many things. Thank you Lewis Carroll, that's one of your best lines ever.

Many things? Many garments! Many, very many garments, actually; and to plan making them. Plan carefully, judiciously, parsimoniously - and, probably the hardest for me, to stick to the plan. The fabrics, the garments, the patterns - all the specifics, including a schedule, which is limited to the four coming months. No more. In four months the clock will strike midnight, my sewing machines will all turn into rotten pumpkins, and my needle steeds into rusty little mice.

I have to create a "field" wardrobe for an extended away from home professional engagement. The time span includes both winter and summer months - so, in effect, I'll need a full year's wardrobe in a suitcase. Actually, "winter" won't really be all that bad for this snow-loving, wool-embracing Canuck, but "summer" is guaranteed to be "fry your egg on the pavement" style of Hades for increasingly heat-intolerant moi.

In addition to the climatic considerations, my wardrobe will have to fulfill a draconian dress code: ultra-modest!!!!! No dresses, skirts, shorts, or capris/cutoffs. All limbs must be - or, at least able to be, on demand, covered to ankle/wrist. And no decently feminine shoes, either: practical boots, I'm devastated to report. Ugh, and sigh.

90% of my workmates will look like this:

and the other 10% will, I guess, sort of, look like me. I'm hoping to produce a practical wardrobe that'll also ensure they won't look ~~TOO MUCH~~ like me.

What would you, dear reader, come up with for, say, a week in a ~~horrid~~ hot and arid working environment?

Le Sac!

2010-10-05T20:03:00.000-04:00

... aka More Sewing But Not For Me.

Secure in her knowledge that Things Can Be Dyed, Kimono Girl arrived on my doorstep with a large 100% cotton - according to the label - carpetbagger style bag and a packet of fiber reactive black dye. We both agreed the purple bag could do with a makeover. After a lazy afternoon in a hot and salty dye bath, a rinse, and a dry, the bag was still purple (!) but, if possible, even uglier. The dye didn't take! Could it have had some sort of surface treatment? Any ideas?

Being a cheerful and creative sort of Girl, KG proceeded to diss the purple object as too small, too ugly, too wrong a colour, too poorly proportioned, lacking in this'n that...altogether too objectionable. Then suggested that we (cough, cough) should make a replacement that'll cure all of the aforementioned pitiful purple's ailments.

Out of my ginormous stash, we picked out suitable fabrics: a dark olive micro-suede for the outside, and a tight-weave light grey cotton poly for the lining (her pick, not mine - I'd have used a gorgeous green-grey-black poly tie silk that matched the outer fabric beautifully, but alas, it was much too grown up for the young milady).

Then, leaving me the photo above, along with a 24" brass-coloured zipper and instructions to "Make it BEEEEG!", KG left town and "we" (cough, cough) proceeded to design and sew Le Sac.

Interestingly, the inspiration bag's upper width is in a golden ratio (1.6) to its vertical height (not counting the handles) and bottom width. I first modeled it using two 24 cm paper napkins, sewed together along three sides, and then mitered on the two bottom corners to make a rectangular base 8 x 16 cm. That convinced me that this simple approach created a trapezoid just like the inspiration bag. A separate bottom piece simply wasn't needed

In reality, to create the illusion of a 24" width at the top, the bag had to be wider along its upper edge by at least 3", to allow for the width of the zipper and its attachment to the bag's body.

The pic above shows the apparent trapezoidal body shape of the bag at left, a side view with the side seam and the mitered bottom seam at centre, and the actual pattern piece at right. I cut both sides as one - the "join" is indicated by the red line - and each "half" is 24" high, 24" wide across the red line, and 28" wide at the top. The grey rectangle, 8 x 16", indicates extra interfacing (2 layers fusible + 1 layer hair canvas) which was also stitched down to the fashion fabric.The entire bag is interfaced.

In addition to two short handles, Le Sac has a long, adjustable shoulder strap for secure cross-body wear while biking..

and two external zipped pockets for the miscellaneous flotsam and jetsam that students routinely accumulate....

The lining holds another zipped pocket, and two open pockets - for the cell phone and house keys, readily accessible.

As ~~ordered~~ requested, Le Sac is big! It'll do a good job as KG's weekender bag for intercity commuting.

(le sac is also truly olive green, not grey: blame the evils of this camera chip's photoresponse properties).

A tale of two kimonos

2010-10-03T20:49:00.000-04:00

My pants-sewing and general me-sewing have been gently shoved to the side this week, partly because my lovely college kid who is sharing living quarters with roomies, requested a cover up. Call it what you wish: housecoat, bathrobe, dressing gown - everyone needs one. Luckily, I have one of my own - made ever so many years ago by my own mom - and it did a perfect job as a model. Thanks to it, I was able to make my girl's kimono robe without a pattern.

This robe is very similar to a traditional Japanese cotton kimono, aka yukata.

In the pic above, the traditional yukata is on the left, my version is at right. Since I once owned a genuine yukata, I knew how to change the pattern to suit modern living. The overly long, overhanging sleeves had to go; so did the excess body length, which requires double belting. Logistically, the fabric I used was only 115 cm (45") so the sleeves had to be sewn on - not cut on, as they could've been with a 60" width. Another difference, not shown here, is the front/neckline band: the traditional yukata's band ends in a blunt chop at the bottom of the V, while mine continues smoothly to the bottom hem. Notice too that I scooped out the back neckline, while the traditional neck is straight across. I also added belt loops (shown), and, just below them but not shown, side seam pockets.

Except for the side pockets and belt loops, the garment is made out of five lengths of fabric, all of them rectangular, which made preparation all the easier: each piece was ripped, not cut.

The pieces are as follows: (each includes a 1 cm seam allowance)
Body front + back: 262 cm x 75 cm. This includes a 5 cm hem plus a 1 cm SA fold-over, for a finished length of 125 cm. The entire piece is folded in half so that there is no seam along the shoulder.
Each sleeve: 45 x 60 cm. Folded in half and hemmed, the sleeve is 35 cm wide x 28 cm high. The sleeve hem is 8 cm deep (plus a 1 cm SA fold-over).
Front band: I prepared 280 x 12 cm, and cut off the excess 5 cm or so at the bottom hem after attaching it all the way around the fronts and neckline. It's not interfaced.
Belt: 220 x 12 cm. I interfaced it.

I found it very helpful to press all the important folds, hems and important seams into the fabric in the flat, even using a little starch to keep the creases, before I started to put everything together. In the expectation that the garment would see a lot of laundering, I french-seamed and flat-felled it: even the side seam pockets. If not for that, it would've taken just a morning to put together. As it was, it took the day.

That's the first version. She had her heart set on blue cotton batik. What's more fun than snowflakes in mid-summer? Oh, and have I mentioned that I love winter?

For myself, I made the body 5 cm narrower and 5 cm taller. I also omitted the side seam pockets - you know how much I abhore those, right? Instead, I added a secret pocket on the inside of the right front, below the belt-line. One edge of the pocket is caught into the front band, while the other, except for being tacked to the body front at its upper corner, hangs loose. It's completely invisible from the outside.

I realized while making robe #2 that the sleeves are wide enough that they can be flat-felled in the round. I also took advantage of the relatively narrow fabric and the fact that the print is perfect selvedge-to-selvedge, to use the selvedges productively: the entire one side of the kimono and its sleeve SA are selvedge, as is the top of the secret pocket, and the inside of the front band.

I have two more of those to put together: big his and little his.... with dinosaurs. Rawr! goes t-rex!

Thoughts on Trousers

2010-09-23T20:43:00.002-04:00

It's a seasonal thing, isn't it? In spring many of us are eager to make dresses, but as soon as Labour Day is behind us and the temps begin to drop - perchance precipitously - we like to reach for something to protect our gams from the elements.

Let's face it, making trousers - pants for us North Americans - can be intimidating. You're forced to put together something that smoothly covers a short wide cylinder set atop two long and narrow ones. As if that wasn't bad enough, the wide cylinder is ridiculously misshapen: narrow at top but wide at bottom (your butt) in the back, and, relatively speaking, fairly narrow at bottom but wider at the top (your belly) in the front.

When I jumped on the "sewing for me" bandwagon, it was in a very large measure to increase my work wardrobe (jackets, yea!). In my previous endeavours as a lab scientist and then a prof, jeans were all very well as the daily uniform for all, but became unacceptable when I swapped hats to be a senior egghead at a large non-academic institution, where jeans are outright verboten except for Fridays (more on that later). A pair of work-worthy trousers was high up on my initial sewing agenda. My mother, who has sewed (extremely well) all her life, advised me to stay away from Vogue, and try Burda : thanks, Mom! So my trouser-making odyssey started with Burda 8283: a classic semi-fitted trouser with diagonal pockets, bottom cuffs, and front pleats.

Why did I pick this pattern? probably because it was a fairly relaxed style, and that seemed a good thing for a job demanding a protractedly seated position. But, in retrospect, the pockets, cuffs, etcetera, were too much of a challenge for me the trouser newbie. I've been tweaking this pattern ever since - shifting the pleats, changing them to darts, changing the shape of the crotch curve (to a flatter one), lowering the waistline, ditching the cuffs.... I even use it to make one-seam casual at-home pull-on slacks, by overlapping the side seam and adding an inch to the top for the elastic. That's the easy part.

Over time, the pattern has evolved to a straight-leg front-dart trouser with no cuff and no pockets, a straight, narrow (3/4") waistband that hangs lightly a little below my waist, a concealed inner button plus hook & eye, and a zipper shield. I've made 3 versions of it in the last month: at-home one-seams out of a black ponte-de-roma from Fabricland; a flowy wide-leg trouser from some greyish-black RPL freebie in my stash; and a somewhat narrower, straight-leg pair out of a tropical plain-weave stretch wool, also black. I have this pattern pretty much under control, but I still err occasionally in the order of construction & serging of the zipper area: you want to do things in the correct order so as not to end up serging & re-serging the same area, or fighting with tight spots that were accessible at some earlier stage.

This year, I've become a little bolder. In the spring, I made 3 pairs of the Jalie stretch jean (the first, knee-length). I'm all psyched to produce another, maybe even this weekend, in a heavyish black denim with red topstitching, as part of my casual - and not so casual, since it includes my red boucle Chanel suit ;) - "wear red on Fridays" wardrobe.

This week I upped my derring-do ;) another notch, and began this month's fourth slacks pair, then cut it out from a very nice microfibre fine wale black corduroy from Candlelight Valley Fabrics - also for my casual Fridays wardrobe. It's Jalie 2909, a flat-front no-pockets pattern with a slight flare in the lower leg, size U (39" hip). The pattern calls for 4% lycra, but since the corduroy is non-stretchy, I added 1/2" to each side seam, and 1/4" to each inseam. I also chalked the pattern onto each piece, to be able to follow, at least in the basting stages, the original 3/8" (1 cm) seam allowance. After sewing "per design" and trying them on (they fit!) I decided to widen the upper legs a smidgeon: a teeny 1/8", just because the fabric's not stretchy, and I'm no longer 21, and don't want to be thought forgetful of that fact. At the moment, though the waistband pieces are still cooling their interfacing on the ironing board, yes I'm already wearing them.... and hubby, not even realizing the pants I'm currently wearing aren't even finished, and supportive as always, says they fit better than any other I've ever made. How can a gal NOT sew when she has this much of a fan club?

I'm not going to show you all these black slacks - whatever for?! you'd never see past the two-legged black hole in the photo anyway. Suffice to say, there's a reason for this pants-making push, and it's that I have a bunch of beautiful, super-120 and better wools on hand, and am really really truly ready to start wearing them*. And practice makes perfect, and making four, or five, or more, sets of slacks in a (very!) short time, really but really gives you a sense of the all important "I really DO know what I'm doing here". Hah!

* (last year hubby took some of these lovely wools overseas on a business trip, and had a bunch of slacks made to measure! I'm just plain jealous of my guy's too-well-clad nether regions! )

Psst! Spring 2011 fashion shows are here!

2010-09-22T20:18:00.000-04:00

Ok, you know perfectly well that they've been on for a while - among other places, you can see them on Style.com. But have you seen Duro Olowu? Go on, do; it'll make you smile.

Postponed: Another roll of the dice: Vogue 2900

2010-09-13T14:14:00.001-04:00

I've had V 2900 for a while: long enough to have cut out all the pieces, lose the two skirt pieces, and completely forget how I managed to do that.

Now, thanks to the great generosity of BeeBee, another sewista from Stitcher's Guild, the forum to which I turned for help with re-creating the two AWOL pieces, I find myself in the posession of two copies of V2900 - one of which, of course, is the pristine uncut pattern BeeBee had sent me, which I unfolded, ironed to smooth out the wrinkles, and used to re-create my two missing pieces. It's clean, unmarked, uncut - and looking for a new home. Size 12-14-16, and you could certainly grade it down or up one size without much trouble.

The pattern gives you the option of straight-grain or bias dress (think of the challenge!),the bodice has some lovely interesting seaming, and the pattern's been reviewed 12 times already, with some really charming results.

Come on, you know you want this frock. Post a comment here, and you might score a gift from Lady Luck herself. Just in time for summer sewing, too ;)

ETA: clearly, my sense of humour kinda fell flat on this one; I'll therefore re-offer it when summer sewing really IS on everyone's minds...

Self-drafted, with stripes

2010-09-04T19:18:00.002-04:00

One centimetre stripes are like a new puppy: they yank at you, distract you, make you sit up, they beg for your attention. And, let's face it, who isn't kindly biased towards a puppy? The key word here is bias, of course.

Late last spring I sprang for a few of the fine merino knits on offer by Fabric Mart - two of them in 1 cm stripes. And, of course, they were begging me to to make something on the bias. Ergo, the self-designed dress.


Bias fold, 155 cm tape and 100 cm stick. Fabric is 150 cm wide.

I started with the above bias fold, then moved the fabric so the near apex of the right triangle hung over the table at the 18" mark (the width of my shoulders). I rotated the fabric so the folded side (the centre front) was nearly vertical, and, 28" further down, marked 23" width from CF (for hips plus lots of ease: skim but not cling!), and then cut from that point to the fold at the near end of the table. So, my starting dress block (not counting the folded triangle overhang) was a folded trapezoid, 28" high, 18" at the top and 23" at the bottom. I sewed (& serged) the vertical edge together, and this became my centre back. Because of the very different angles of the two sides, there's no way the stripes could be made to match up.

Centre back seam, with armscyes and shoulder seams drawn in.

You can see my original 18" horizontal "shoulder width" high water mark in the pic above. I used my Jalie 2805 tee for the shape of back neck, shoulders, and armscyes. The little chalked notches on the shoulder seams mark the theoretical maximum width of the neckline that would ensure full undergarment coverage.


Front, with cowl excess folded out, and armscyes marked.

The centre front is on a perfect bias, you'll note. At this point, I cut vertical lines in the armscyes, slipped the block on, and marked the chest-arm hinge with pins. I then referred to the Jalie pattern for front armscyes. I raised the armscyes (front & back) about 1.5 cm.

Side view: CF at left, CB at right

I then drew the sleeves onto the rest of the fabric:

Since neither sleeve was oriented across the preferred stretch direction (should've been with horizontal stripe, selvedge-to-selvedge) I added a subtle design detail: an under-sleeve 1.5" strip of cross-stripe:

....did you buy that? really?! GREAT! to tell the truth, when I sewed the sleeves as drawn, they were too tight; I could put them on, but just barely. I have skinny upper arms but normal elbows and forearms... so I could barely bend my arms. The "subtle design detail" added much-appreciated freedom of movement.

Ultimately, the shoulder seams were omitted: the front bias-fold triangle tucks in and forms a cowl, and the rest of the fabric free-falls on the shoulders.

I used the rest of the fabric to make a long and wide bottom ruffle:

If I get tired of the long dress look, I'll remove the ruffle, turn the dress into a tunic, and wear the ruffle as a scarf :)))

So, this is how I wore it today. The heat wave is finally over, and I'm loving the feel of wool on my skin.

Can you tell I'm enjoying each and every nanosecond left in our "true north strong and free" summer?

Green Linen Jacket

2010-09-03T12:30:00.000-04:00

It's linen, and though I pressed it oh so carefully during construction, it wrinkles like all linen is wont to do. So I'm embracing the wrinkles, and hoping like anything that it'll do its job in the heat.

It's the McCall's Palmer/Pletsch Classic Fit "The Perfect Suit" M5396 jacket. I made a straight size 12, with size 10 sleeves (shortened by 9 cm/3.5") , and slightly flattened by 1/4" sleeve caps.

Beautiful little pattern - and the daughter opined, "it looks effortless". I really like the small lapels, the princess bust seam, and the shoulder to hip dart. But I have a sneaking suspicion that I'd have done as well if not better to have made a size 10 back and sleeves, and then added 3/8" to each side front at the side seam to allow for my upper front. I intend to shanghai a certain person...shhhhh! to help me really fit it, so I can use it again and again.

This is my first unlined jacket. I've always made lined ones before. So, being that this is really a shirt-jacket, I used shirting technique to put it together. All the seams are flat-felled, except the under-sleeve seam, which is a french seam, because I want to be able to roll 'em up without embarrassment (they're rolled up in the pics). Even yoke and dart seams are top-stitched. Despite that, you'll see no raw edges anywhere. Better yet, this jacket has seen NO serging, none, nada!

Flat felling & top stitching close-up

Flat-felling isn't as laborious as one might suspect (and much faster than bias binding) , once you get into the press-press-trim-press-press-sew groove). Still, it would've been nice if the pattern had matched the under-sleeve seam with the side seam, and instructed them to be inserted in the flat, as with a man's shirt.

The pattern instructions tell you to bias bind the sleeve inset, but frankly I just gave up at that point, and simply used the triple zig zag on it. I omitted the shoulder pads as well, and took in 3/8" of the outer front-shoulder yoke seam to allow for that. I could probably have reduced the shoulder space some more by re-drawing the shoulder curve - next time!

I gave the jacket 3 buttons instead of four, and used my snazzy Singer buttonholer with 1+ 1/16" keyhole buttonhole template to make eye-popping buttonholes that match three big look-at-me-look-at-me-now 1" white buttons.

Big question now is, what to do with the rest of all this lovely green+white cross-dyed linen?

Oscar's roll of the dice

2010-09-02T21:40:00.000-04:00

Since the popularity of this pattern ran to a shockingly high FOUR, Lady Luck was able to use dice...well, actually just one big blue die.

Lady Luck's underage assistant rolled it...

....and the first item that fitted in the numerical set of {1,2,3,4} was....drum roll please.....THREE!!!

(an awful lot of fives and sixes also came up... leading to Lady Luck's overage assistant to comment: loaded dice, much?)

Underage assistant quickly got bored ... leading to single-finger-nudge replacing whole-palm-toss.... followed by the plain-whole-fisted-plonk! and very nearly, a whole lot of broken glass.

To make a long-to-load & very silly video short, contestant #3, aka BeccaA, please PM me with your address, and I'll make sure Lady Luck follows through on the toss.

[Aside: did you notice the mauve-cream-striped crap-table substrate? laid out for tonight's cutting, a little length of merino wool for a long sleeved boatneck tee, with the excess (if any.... you think?), to go to the sacque-seamstress for a lightweight autumnal shawl. Mayyyybe.]

She came, she sewed, she conquered!

2010-09-02T18:13:00.000-04:00

Her self-designed, self-directed sweet little project, which was a silk-lined sacque ;) for the boyfriend's smoking (licit!) paraphenelia. Mother provided a little direction, the standby sewing machine, some of the corduroy that was meant to be little bro's fall slacks, and a bit of mom-dyed silk twill that matched the brass clip perfectly IRL (in real life, Katie dearest!) though not apparently so in the photo due to the sun's reflections.

"I never thought sewing was so mathematical!" exclaimed the young lady, while calculating the circumference of the circular base so that the sac's vertical walls - a perfect cylinder - would match it. After that, adding all the seam allowances was a breeze.

But then came the question of how to make the base as stiff as a baseball cap's peak (love the readily-relatable reference!). Solution: fusing to it two layers of horsehair interfacing, at right angles to each other.

We know the BF will be thrilled - how can he not be, with the sacque matching his rosebriar pipe so perfectly?!

And what did mother do all the while? Enjoyed the banter and blather, and finished her 3-day (that she thought would be a 1-day, but got severely distracted) green linen jacket. Yes, the green linen that on Monday was meant to be a dress. It still might become one, as there's green linen here aplenty.

Tomorrow, we sew dresses. Stay tuned.

PS. Draw for the O de la R coming right up!

Oscar de la Renta pattern giveaway

2010-08-30T17:59:00.000-04:00

Have you ever returned to a pattern that you once came so, so close to starting, but then allowed your attention to be distracted by some other snazzy sewing project? Of course you have. But, have you ever returned to said pattern only to discover, horrors, that a couple of the pattern pieces have gone inexplicably missing?! Arrrgh. That bias green linen dress just isn't going to get made before the snows fly, I fear, as the two skirt pieces are nowhere to be found. I am majorly distressed.

So, to make myself feel better, I'm offering to send off to one of you a pattern I happen to have, and happen to have sewed, and even happen to have in duplicate, with a fresh unopened copy. It's this sporty Oscar de la Renta/Vogue American Designer/Vogue 2854, now out of print (for Katie, OOP), size D (12-14-16). I made the jacket a couple of years back, in a white linen poly blend, with silk organza underlining, and I wear it all the time in the summer. The skirt's kind of snazzy too, straight but made of eight gores - lots of fitting opportunities here.

Just send me a "yes I wannit, and I wannit now!", or a reasonable facsimile thereof, in the comments section, and I'll have Lady Luck, or her unsuspecting underage underling, pick the lucky name.

Lovely linen knit

2010-08-29T09:05:00.001-04:00

Nothing says summer like a linen top, does it? And nothing says casual like a knit. I got this lovely blue & silver heathered linen knit during my mini-shopping spree in NY at the beginning of the year. Realizing yesterday that the linen dress I wanted to make wouldn't be ready for a fancy-casual brunch this am because it would have to hang for at least 24 hrs to let the bias relax, this became my fallback option.

I started with the Jalie 2805 tee, cut for a high neck and high armscyes (raised the armscyes by 2 cm), with the sides lengthened by about 12 cm and gradually widening, to about 3 cm on each side at the very bottom. That makes the shape slightly trapezoidal, and enourages the slight curve in the bottom band. The bottom band is 23 x 85 cm, sewed in a circle and folded in half. I gathered the excess of the skirt bottom into the band, keeping the sides ungathered and smooth, and concentrating the gathering only at centre front and back.

Armscyes and neckband have the Jalie finish. However, not wishing to stiffen the fabric with serging nor to have a double needle track around them, I hand-secured the raw edges on the inside using a standard blind hemming stitch.

All ready now for strawberries and champagne!

Blissfully blue dress, a sucess!

2010-08-28T12:00:00.002-04:00

Funny how a silly garden gnome can lead you to a redo. After the last post, I literally raced to Fabricland to get some new fabric that ~~wanted~~ needed to become new&improved casual garden trousers. No more kevlar-tough microsuede this time, but mid-weight - black, of course - ponte de roma, a poly/rayon/lycra blend knit for you out there not yet familiar with the term. And, yes, using the same overlapping technique of front&back of a semifitted trouser pattern, I made another pair of one-seam casual home&garden lower limb cover-ups. I'll spare you the photo -they look just like the gnome's pants. And feel great. Honestly, I sometimes wonder why ~~people~~ I even wear jeans - all these seams, all that effort for zippers and topstitching and stuff?! Why? WHY?!!! My plants don't care! My husband doesn't care! errr, he does, he does: and prefers the sleek-as-a-seal no-seam look, if you must know.

My stingy-sewist nature got its bit of self-gratification when making them up, as I got a mere 1.5 meters of this stuff, and after making a pair of full length pants, still had enough left over for a pair of basic black bike shorts that come nearly down to my knees. Looking at the bright side, 't makes me a wonderfully cheap sew and sew :))).

In other news, today I accomplished a little sewing revision that I've been meaning to tackle since last summer. Way back when, I had acquired a very pretty blue-dominated super-light cotton (lawn?), from which I manufactured a (self-drafted) sleeveless top and this BurdaStyle Magazine 06-2008-121 Skirt. And then made a jacket to go over the two, to make them work-worthy. I like the skirt's double pleats - yet, somehow, every time I donned the outfit, the top+skirt screamed at me, "we want to be a dress"!!!

Today, I married them, and it's oh so good. I chopped 4" off the top of the skirt, lifted the shoulders of the top by 5/8", and united them at the hipbone. That's one happy summer shift dress, and I'm one happy wearer. I detest: Yes DETEST - waist-constricting stuff in summer. The united puppy is loose, cool, just delightful, and fun&funky with the doubled pleat which, please notice, no longer rotates to all sorts of weird latitudes the minute I try to walk anywhere ( like, to the elevator?! am I the only person on earth to suffer from skirt rotation syndrome?!). And the dress still goes with the jacket.

The jacket, btw, is Burda's #107 from the June 2007 issue. It's a petite pattern, but that's a story for another day.

It's a win!!!!

Garden gnome

2010-08-26T11:28:00.001-04:00

My everyday "garden casual" look has taken a turn for the better since I started sewing the Jalie tees. This one is their 2910 faux-wrap pattern, generously shared by fellow Ottawan KayY, the Sewing Lawyer - and the pic does double duty as a gentle nudge about our upcoming hosta date, when, Kay?

I do like this top, though it uses a little more fabric than the other ones, due to the fact that the fronts are duplicated, and the edging seemingly went on forever to pin down and sew; me lazy, much? Actually Jalie would make you cut a shorter version of the "underneath" side and leave it hanging loose, but that really makes for an ugly finish and runs the risk of the loose edge showing through in the most unattractive place, right across waist/belly, so I cut it just 1 cm shorter than the overlapped side, and caught them together in the hem.

The garden slacks are probably my first effort from when I decided to start sewing again. They're pre-serger, generic poly microsuede, which was hell to sew (a very thin, sharp needle does help, but I still had skipped stitches galore), but, hooray, no edge finishing is needed. They're about as easy and simple a pair of casual wear one can imagine: I took a Burda envelope pattern for semi-fitted trousers, lapped the side seams and cut front+back in one (ie, making these "one-seam" pants), and added an elasticated waistband. They make terrific casual wear, and are warm too, nice for someone who likes to be outside at the crack of dawn no matter what the temps.

Speaking of which - last night I pre-washed my new hankie linen twice in hot water, along with some lovely white crinkle cotton. Today, I have NO interest in the slightest in sewing these. Our morning dawned heavenly damp and a lovely 15C - cool enough to throw a fleece vest over the top for at least the first 2 hours of the day - and I'm yearningly eyeing my wools again. I'm keen to get started on the Vogue 1155, the fabric has been pre-washed (cold water + 1 tbsp shampoo + 1 hr soak, delicate spin, now drying on the hammock), so it's entirely possible some cutting may take place later today.

However. My darling #2 child and only daughter, aka the beloved and beautiful green-eyed little witch, has made an executive decision to engage in a sewing vacation with The Not Totally Evil Mother! Hah, I'm thinking, is she serious that I'm going to sew stuff for her (or worse, repair her torn jeans? ick!) while she sips wine on the deck? What say ye, audience? Wouldn't it be ever so much more fun to, 1. give her the run of my stash and patterns; 2. take her to Fabricland for more options; 3. set up my Husqvarna &/or my precious new/old Singer 201K for her; and 4. together but separate, lead by example?! Yeah. I thought you'd agree with me.

California dreamin' in sleepy Santa Bee....

2010-08-21T21:34:00.000-04:00

.
Spectacularly bright yet breezy and cool coastlines...

and even brighter, much hotter valleys...

add up to a hankering for the lightest, coolest fabric ever: hankie linen!

I found this 3.5 oz gem at Your Remnant fabric store: mostly (aka a very large selection of) upholstery and drapery stuff, but also a nice little selection of apparel weight linens, hemp-linens, and linen-rayons in various weights and colours, not to mention some cottons & blends. Except for the little gem above, I resisted, though 'twas mighty hard.

I then moseyed on to Fine Fabrics - owned by Susanne of Ms. Fine Fabrics for Fashion and Fun! blog, known to many of you. Like many of us, Susanne has been offline a bit lately, but hinted she's aiming to return to the internet fold very soon. She and her delightful niece were in the throes of setting up for another Solstiss lace show, some of which you see behind her.

They were also divesting themselves of several basketfuls, helpfully sorted by size, of out of print patterns, for the price of a California smile. True to my blog moniker (xxxxxxxx-jacket-xxxx), I grabbed six of them. One can never have too many cool jackets! Along with said cool jackets, which come with tons of seaming for fitting perfection, I scored wardrobe "accessories" such as skinny Montana pants, tulip skirts, gored skirts, generic skirts and trousers, etc, etc.

Hmmmm, I thought to myself.... if only there was a wedding in my immediate future.... I could easily tempt myself to make a charming jacket out of one of these (verrrry pricey!) Solstiss lace numbers.... but - thankfully - for the moment - there is NOT...

... saved by realism: whew!!! Perhaps when I'm again in Santa Barbara....

Aren't these fantastic trees something? Textural heaven!

I shall be home in a very few days, back to my own cool green garden and sunny sewing table. Till then, sweet dreams from Santa Bee!

V1155 part 2: the fabric and the instructions

2010-08-12T23:12:00.000-04:00

So here's the fabric - nice and lightweight, with lovely drape and natural sheen. It's ravelly, but other than that, and knowing I'll have to handle it carefully, I've no bone to pick with it whatsoever.

The pattern is not actually difficult. It's made up of 29 separate pattern pieces, some of which are facings, linings, and pockets, meaning that one will have to pay attention to matching all the various and sundry seam and dart lines during construction.

Apart from that, it's no different than putting together a very limited jigsaw puzzle. Which we've all done at one time or another, with 500 or 1000 pieces, no less, making this akin to a cakewalk, in comparison.

The bizzare aspect of this pattern - bearing in mind that it is just a dress - is, get this, every piece is supposed to be interfaced. That would be 8.5 yds of 20" wide fusible interfacing. I can understand the designer's motivation to give it a bit of that otherworldly body and reduce drape, but to wholly interface it? Big yuck factor here. Nope, I don't think so. Instead, I'm seeing this as another application of my copious supply of silk organza as underlining. Bodice and skirt, at least; I'll probably face the midriff and peplums with canvas, interface the lapels and collar, and just line the sleeves. Oh, and the midriff facings? Except for the outermost piece, I'm inclined to make them out of the lining material.

Enough musings for the night.

Burda dress 104-5-2008, but not a knit

2010-08-12T08:02:00.003-04:00

I made this dress from the May 2008 issue - if you follow the link, you'll note that all the pattern links are now gone. Along with all the other changes, I'm seeing this as the writing on the wall for B. Burda, Burda, you're broken what didn't need fixing, and are destroying your loyal readership, link by precious link. And I was so unimpressed by your May and June issues, I didn't even buy them.

I can only thank Pattern Review for continuing to exist. Here are all the 17 versions so far of the dress. If you want to see the dress design, go to my Burda Archive, at left.

My version's not made out of a knit, but a woven. When I first modeled it for my husband - last summer - he delicately suggested it's not the most flattering look. I think frumpy was the word, actually. I think I can see why - that bow thing at the waist eclipses my normal womanly violin shape (Christian Dior exploits it so well in his exaggerated X-shaped garments), and the pull of the fabric gives what's above a vaguely droopy mien. It all makes me kind of blah shaped.

Could this fix the problem?

Still I continue to wear the dress, with a white jacket over it to mask its blahness, because the fabric - a cotton-silk from Fabric Mart - is to die for: soft, cool, practically wrinkle-free, I love its feel against my skin so much that I ordered more - in a different print, of course - for another summer frock.

As a final thought, I have a very nice rayon knit in a black&white print, just enough for another version of this little item. Maybe I should just try it, just to see whether it'll mitigate the blah factor.

Nah. Another day, another pattern. Moving on....

V 1155 muslin

2010-08-11T10:45:00.000-04:00

I love the futuristic, Star Trekky techno vibe of this Guy Laroche Vogue pattern, and the fact that it could be constructed as a two piece - jacket & skirt - as easily as a dress.

So, here's the muslin. Not bad. I cut a 12, tapering to 10 at the waist, and doing a bit of an FBA to the side bodice. I also lengthened the front bodice a little, and will lengthen it all around by probably 1 cm more, taking it out of the waistband, so the upper waistband seam will sit below rather than across the bust, and will be 1 cm narrower. As designed, I find it a little clunky.

I lengthened the sleeve to 3/4 length, and added a bit of a cuff mimicking the front peplums - with a bit of paper just for now. Given our climate, not to mention climate-controlled interiors, a longer sleeve is more practical for fall than a short one.

I also lengthened the skirt by 6 cm - now it's as short as I'm willing to go for work wear. I'll also widen the underlap of the skirt, for modesty.

Back view: looks a little rumpled, but that's because it needs shoulder pads.

This is going to be made out of a beautiful lightweight wool-poly blend in a fine textured weave with tan, baby blue, and black, sold as menswear suiting, which I found at Fabricland recently.

Lacy top = instant gratification

2010-08-09T13:04:00.001-04:00

For this super-quick project I turned back to Jalie 2805. Considering that I made it a few times already, this morning's project was all the quicker for not having to start by tracing a pattern. Since the rayon tees I'd made before seem to have grown over the few washes and wears, I took a 5/8" bite out of the SA while serging, and this improved the fit nicely, though it's still very loose in the waist. Just to be a little different, I shortened the sleeves to bracelet length and the hem by 2 cm.

The fabric's some sort of poly-lycra stretch "lace" with rayon embroidery, another freebie from Fabric Mart.

I intended this top as casual wear, but the pics suggest it has enough coverage to be suitable - with a jacket - for work wear.

Knit-wit!

2010-08-08T13:15:00.000-04:00

Just three more weeks, just one more little excursion, and my traipsing round the world will be over for the season (any tips on good fabric stores around Los Angeles?). In the meantime, I've a hankering for a quick and easy one-day project. Like a merino wool knit top.

Say hello to my little Christchurch collection. I sort of overdid it, rationalizing that this sort of stuff isn't readily available at home, and I certainly don't have to use it up all at once (perish the thought!), and the other skiers in my family might also appreciate a cosy layer when the temps hit -20C or less. And and and. Having had the opportunity to, ahem, "enjoy" the balmy and humid weather of Virginia - can you believe 106F (42C!) - during the past weeks, I can't wait for our beautiful and bright, crisp, white winter. Soon enough, I know.

Where did I get these? Four came from Fabric Bonanza on Bedford Row, and the rest from Global Fabrics on 223 Tuam Street.

Both are good stores. FB is attached to a couture shop, and their fabrics reflect what is being sewn there. GF is much larger, and boy, do they have merino knits! Every weight, every colour of the rainbow - two giant double-tier tables of it, can you blame me for having had a very hard time controlling myself?!

The dark grey at left, the bright tomato red, and the silvery grey at extreme right are rib knits of different weights, and the bright blue plain knit is quite beefy. My favourite is probably the heathered black-brown next to the red. The collection has been through the wash now, and is back on the hammock playing chicken with the thunderclouds. And if it starts to rain and I can't play with my hostas or go for a bike ride, I may just have to sew something!

I leave you with this charming little couple of bronze sheepdogs.
I heart New Zealand! :)

Global geometry aka Visiting The Antipodes

2010-06-16T23:40:00.000-04:00

Did you know that you can Go to the Antipodes, but you can never Get there? By definition, your Antipode is the opposite side of the globe from where you stand - you can aim yourself at it, but never, no matter how fast or far you travel, actually attain it. Your own personal Antipode will always elude you by 180 degrees longitude, and as many degrees to the south as your current point of existence is to the north, of the equator. Your Antipode reaches you via the centre of the globe you happen to be standing on - be it Earth, Moon, or Mars, for all you past and future explorers of our Solar System and, ahem, hopefully beyond.

I'm heading for my very own, Ottawan antipode. Strictly speaking, it's located in the drink: somewhere in the southern Indian Ocean, between South Africa's optimistically misnamed Cape of Good Hope and Australia's southwestern tip. Amazingly, to a very good first order approximation, it all but falls on a145-km pimple of land: the French Southern And Antarctic Lands, barely jutting out of said drink, 4000 km from either of the above continental corners and 2000 km N of the nearest coastline of Antarctica. Napoleon's Elba was a bustling metropolis in comparison. The capital of this fine French territory, Port-aux-Français, is a collection of Wylie Coyote-worthy Acme-like prefab structures, although with no beep-beep Roadrunners to be seen.

Thankfully, my actual destination is some 7300 km to the east of PaF. Had I actually started at its Antipode, it would've been Playa de San Bartolo, España: yes, the beautifully balmy NW coast of Spain. Alas, instead of lounging on a gorgeous white beach in the middle of a balmy summer day, I'm reluctantly heading to a cold & drizzly winter.

Any guesses as to what sort of fabrics I'll be aiming to find?

Regretfully remiss

2010-06-08T21:57:00.000-04:00

Aka caught up in my so-called life.

Let's face it - there are times for hobbies and there are times for life. This summer's one for the latter. My black (yes finished and yet to be photographed) Burplicity jacket hasn't even been worn (thank you, Madame Early Summer, for that!), but my sewing schedule's been swamped by a deluge of other obligs. You know how I asserted sewing is soft materials engineering? well, this summer's being consumed by rather larger scale hard materials engineering, for which I'm also the main mover & shaker around here. This isn't a complaint, and neither is it a brag. Just a fact of life - sometimes shelving and fencing (not of the rapier wit kind) along with splashes and dashes of paint, not to mention a good dose of sandpaper all round (breathe deep, but do it through a face mask!) can be almost as satisfying as that trench coat I WANT and NEED and am NOT going to make this weekend. Have a great stitchin' summer, ladies! Come September (or October?) I shall return.

Digs.

Burda+Simplicity: a Happy Marriage

2010-05-05T07:58:00.001-04:00

Some time ago - maybe last year, maybe even before that, it's now lost in time - I made Burda top 2008-10-116. I used a very fine checked wool that I found at Fabric Fix in Manchester, New Hampshire (!), thanks to one of the dreariest August vacations in living memory - steady rain is not conducive to canoeing, swimming, hiking or biking, so I dragged the family around the state for a day of fabric shopping. Great fun was had by all! (heh, and I've a bridge to sell you, too).

So, the top: I made my usual 38. I didn't want a zipper, so I added 1.5" to each CF, ditto to the neckline yoke, and instead, made a passel of tiny buttons & buttonholes, and overlapped the two CFs. As it turned out (it often does, with Burda sleeves - Burda seems to think real women sport matchstick arms) the sleeve hems were too narrow, so mine have only two pleats instead of three; if I ever make this top again, which is not out of the realm of possibility as I like it very much, I'll widen the bottom of the sleeve by 1", to allow for the 3rd pleat. But, let's hear it for husbands with reasonable heads on their shoulders: he soothed my aggravation, and made me see that no one except myself (and now you!) will ever know that these sleeves are supposed to have three pleats instead of two. Yep, they have just two, but no one's called me on them yet.

The last little tweak I added to the top came after I test-wore it, and it consisted of hand-sewing two small vertical pleats into the back, just next to and inside the back belt loops. Why? because it controlled the blouson factor for a much nicer cinch. I'm short-waisted, with substantial differences between bust-waist-butt, so controlling the fabric around the waistline enhances it in a nicer way than just cinch-as-cinch-can.

The top is lined, btw (with beige bemberg), so that makes it a jacket, right?

Here comes the marriage bit.. Confetti, please:

I've had my eye on Simplicity 3631 for a long time - SewStylish indeed! Jacket B, to be precise, with its six exposed pleats and wide bell sleeves. I really NEED this jacket NOW, I thought a couple of weeks ago. Then I thought (you know what's coming, don't you?) - why should I fight with a brand new pattern when all I really have to do is add the exposed pleats and bell sleeve to top 116 I have and love so much already?

No, the two patterns aren't identical, because the Burda top has a front plus side front (and ditto back and side back, all for better shaping), but the raglan sleeves, waist belt and neck yoke are dead ringers. So all I had to do was convert Burda's centre front pattern piece to one with three darts, and Burda's too-narrow sleeve to a gloriously, scrumptiously wide Simplicity bell sleeve.

So that's what I did.

Here is the Simplicity sleeve, its upper part re-cut to match the Burda jacket armscye. Notice how much lower is the Simplicity armscye!

And here are the two Burda fronts, the original underneath, the top with darts and cut-on facing added. Should I make it again, and I well might, I'll move the darts a little closer to CF. As with my original 116, I pleated out the excess back yardage under the belt.

The Simplicity jacket, if you notice from the envelope photo, has all-too-obvious shoulder pads - massive ones. RRrrrrridiculous!!! I omitted them.

My new Burplicity jacket is basic black - a nice wool crepe, Bemberg lining, just about all finished except for a good pressing, a tad of hand-finishing, and the buttons. Once all that's done, I'll show you both - soon.

Corduroy capers

2010-04-26T22:28:00.005-04:00

Being in the throes of an utterly fabulous spring, I persuaded my child to part with his fave (mom-made) wool slacks. Kids being the perfidious creatures that they are, the only way I succeeded in prying the wool off his legs was, a la matador, by waving some new mom-made slacks in his general direction.

One of the really great things about accumulating fabric for oneself is that useful freebies do periodically accrue. Here, two lengths of fine-wale cotton corduroy. Nice enough, but not necessarily what I see myself wearing to work. Freshly armed with the confidence in trouser-making that the Jalie jeans and, not least, Jalie instructions, recently gave me, I knocked out two pairs (one olive, one blue) from the Burda 9699 slacks pattern above. Loose fitting indeed! Why is it that pattern companies assume that you're going to squeeze your child's belly like Mammy did Scarlett's (You done had a baby, Miss Scarlett, an' you ain' never goin' to be no eighteen an' a half inches again - never.) Really, if not for the fact that I added elastic to the back waistband, he'd probably have had to wait till next spring to wear them. I confess I omitted the back pockets - as a matter of fact, I had to fight hard my urge to sew the front pockets shut too - kids slouching about with their fists stuffed in pockets - precisely like in the pattern pics above - are one of my pet peeves. These are the first pants with pockets I made for him, actually.

Moving on. I realized I had just enough remnants left over to make a very nice unlined spring jacket to match the two pants pairs. Yes, using the Burda 9700 pattern above.

I managed to squeeze out two pockets, upper collar, upper cuffs, and cuff openings with the blue. And was lucky indeed to find buttons of the exact shade of brilliant blue. Dad gets the credit for the matching blue headphones :)

As things go, this was a relatively painless set of projects. The Singer buttonholer is a veritable godsend! No pain buttonholes henceforth, oh thank you Mr. Singer! Lovely, quick, easy, beautifully reproducible. Not only that, but since I already had the cover over the feed teeth, for the first time in my sewing career I tried to sew the buttons on by machine (using the zig-zag stitch). Whaddya know, it worked! Six buttonholes and six buttons all done before morning coffee got cold - a winning morning!

I also learned something very useful with this project: sewing corduroy is delightful - the stuff sticks together like glue, seams stay straight, fabric doesn't overstretch, and as long as one remembers not to overpress, especially from the right side, the results are very consistent and pretty. Shhhhh! don't tell the boy child - he's of an age when pretty no longer applies.

Did you notice????!!!

2010-04-09T20:32:00.003-04:00

.
Pattern Review has added a nifty little tweak to its Comments feature: the commenter's icon now appears along with her (or, albeit rarely, his) comment.

For example: this one! Now, when checking out all the pats & brickbats your sewing mates choose to give you for your effort, you can attach a face - or not, as in (ahem) yours truly's instance - to the kudos and guffaws. And, we never forget a face, do we? So this will aid in keeping things civil. Won't it? Yes. Indeed. Emphatically.

Love it! A wonderful touch! Thank you, Deepika!

Oh, and BTW: Did You Know?

Scribble jeans!

2010-04-04T20:10:00.020-04:00

~~Today~~ Yesterday I decided to try production line sewing. A few stretch cottons from an internet vendor were ordered. After ordering them, I noticed that our Fabricland was selling stretch denim for a song. So I grabbed a couple - er, few - of those too. Moral: if one needs fabric, it's advisable to check locally before paying for international shipping.

So I thought, OK, can do - two at once? Why not? I laid the two (pre-washed, ironed flat, folded lengthways) fabrics one on top of the other, and then placed my Jalie jeans pattern pieces on top. I'm a scissors cutter, and my scissors are getting dull - so I cut two fabric thicknesses at a time.

I had transferred my pattern changes from my muslin clamdiggers onto the pattern pieces, feeling fortunate the changes were few and straightforward: a small downward scoop of the back crotch, and a big tuck of the back waist. To that, I added a reduction of upper front, by tipping the zipper to decrease front waist by 1 cm (each side). Roll your eyes if you will, but I grew up in paint-me-on jeans, and that's the way I like'em. Not that I intend to dress like that at work.... well, maybe for casual Friday. We'll see.

Today then I made two pairs of jeans. I set up my trusty old 20+ year old Kenmore and my lovely nearly-new serger on the dining table, and a crotchety old lady in my study upstairs. The old lady did the hardest work of them all: topstitching.

Just look at her: up at the crack of dawn, working hard on the back yoke of my scribble jeans. This gal belonged to my husband's grandmother, and was passed down the generations... yes, a real family treasure, very well worn around the edges, crotchety to the nines, noisy, smelly, slow....temperamental to a T... took a lot persuasion to get the job done, but still. She doesn't just pre-date me: she pre-dates my grandmother!!! Really. Can you just imagine? Four generations of homo sapiens have been born, and three are still living, since this old biddy's first year on Earth.

My husband tells me he remembers this old lady in use by various and sundry adults in his home when she was still a treadle. While he was only a young child, she was modernized to a motor drive with knee-actuator. Have you ever tried to sew with your thighs? It gives the adductors a good workout, and far more productive than anything they'd be working in a gym! Funny thing is, I'm so accustomed to sewing with a foot pedal (which takes ever so little muscle energy) that I'd automatically slip off my right shoe, only to realize I'd be a hapless, prince-less Cinderella at thee olde machine.

Another interesting tidbit: the bobbin was modernized at the same time as the old gal was electrified; incredibly, the bobbin and bobbin holder are identical to those in my trusty old Kenmore. Interested in more Singer machine history? Take a fascinating long look through Alex Askaroff's Singer Through The Ages.

There's something charming, nay magical, about getting a pair of I'm-so-modern jeans sewn up by a piece of equipment already owned by a family member over a hundred years ago!

Ahem, don't look too closely. Yes the hems are sagging, because I was running out of daylight. And the (lovely linen self-drafted pattern) top (made last year) is covering the waistline because (cough-cough) the belt-loops are just tucked in, and the waistband just held together with a pin -that's what evenings are for, people!

In other news, El Nino decided to give us the most incredible Easter weekend in living memory. We clocked 29C at the airport yesterday: that's 11C warmer than the previous maximum recorded in over 70 years. July weather. So I was not only 1. playing Easter Bunny; 2. playing with my sewing machine(s), 3. making two pairs of jeans; I had to 4. take my silly old lawnmower out for a spin (in the second pair of barely-finished-today brand new Jalie jeans).

So, that's my Easter Sunday. Loved every second of it.

Scribble, scribble...

Let me call you Sweethearts - updated with pics

2010-04-01T16:00:00.003-04:00

Isn't it the most charming song? I love music, and couldn't resist.

Can you sewing power gals guess what I'm on about? I'm sure Kay (TSL) can - (can't you, Kay?) - as she's partly responsible for it!

I'm in the process of perfecting my personal fit of the Jalie Sweetheart top 2794.

Just finished my 2nd iteration, and I'll update this post with photos tomorrow morning (now updated, see below), after the sun smiles on the day. And a glorious day (superglorious Easter weekend!) it's going to be over here. So, on to the photos!

Above, iteration #1 in blue argyle. It was fine, except for the lengths of the bindings. The pattern said, 23 cm for the front, and 37.5 for the neckline+yokes. 37.5?!!!!!!!!!!!!! That has GOT to be an error, I thought. Throwing a tape measure around my neck and to my armpits, I measure an unstretched minimum of 65 cm, and that's without accounting for the much larger than minimum curves of neckline and yokes. I was (and still am) convinced that 37 cm would strangle me! But, you wouldn't believe it, the pattern does NOT say 37.5 times two: just 37.5, not a single millimeter more. I doubled it anyway, to 75 cm. (ETA: yes, it was supposed to be doubled; their location for the fold marking was in an unusual place is all - very confusing, but all's well that ends well. I'm just glad I'm a compulsive measurer, otherwise, I might not be alive to write this ;) - just imagine, strangled by my own sewing machine!)

Once completed, the top felt.... loose.... floppy....and I spent two additional evenings shortening both bindings: front to 19 cm, and neckline too, by cutting off 5 cm. Considering I had to unpick a whole bunch of 4-thread serging and this was a measly $5 of fabric, do you think I could've just tossed the thing and started over? Oh yeah, surely I could've and probably should've, but not stubborn old me: I persevered, all the while quietly bitching about the time 'twas awastin'. Unpicking a serged seam has got to rank right up there as one of the most thankless tasks in sewing. Believe it!

But shorten them I did and wear it I shall, mostly because this happens to be a fabric that hubby picked out, and he truly loves it. It's a very guy sort of print, blue argyle is, and definitely out of my usual space, but isn't it nice to wear something that gives your fan club a little pleasure?

On to iteration #2, out of same thin rayon knit (different colourway of COURSE). I cut the front binding to 19 cm, and the yokes/neckline binding to 65 cm. Whaddya know, it worked out pretty beautifully. I wouldn't want it any smaller - it could do with being up to 5 cm longer, too, if I felt like exposing a tad more of my bony upper real estate. Clavicles, anyone?

I changed the order of construction a little: it's wonderful how just a little experience can make a simple top come together more easily. After putting on the front binding, I sewed on the yoke/neck binding to both front sides, (leaving the neck part loose - you have to be careful not to put in an extraneous twist there!) and stitched the front edges of these sections of binding down onto the front, so they don't curl backwards. It's much easier to do that on flat fabric without sleeves and back panel getting in the way than after the entire top is completed. I then put the yokes to the back along the shoulder seams, and THEN sewed the yokes and back neckline onto the entire yoke/neck binding.

I made the bindings a little wider, and I prefer this look; it's also easier to sew, as it has a little extra SA, and these knits are light, loose, and liquid. This time, I was also a little more cavalier about serging off the seam allowances on armscyes, sleeves and sides, and the overall fit is better. Better than any of the previous ones, I think. As it is, this is a size smaller than the 2805's I've been playing with last week.

Since I was tracing three Jalie tops almost simultaneously, I compared the shapes of 2794, the 2805 tee, and the faux wrap top 2449. You may be surprised to hear that they're NOT all identical. For example, sleeve shapes differ. More to the point, the hem of 2794 size U is at least 2 sizes narrower than the 2805's size U. Is Jalie making allowances for the fattening of North America, ie, its clientele? Tsk! I'd prefer to know that size U follows the same dimensions no matter which pattern I pull out of the envelope. Wouldn't you?

All this is in advance of making a wool jersey sweetheart top. Already pre-washed, pre-dried, ready for my evil scissors. RRRRAAAAHHHH!!!!!

Meet Jalie clam diggers: the well dressed, hopeful, gardener?

2010-03-28T14:29:00.004-04:00

...and another long-sleeved Jalie tee (this gardener colour-coordinates to her implement!) But, brrrr, it's hopeful gardening only today: it's cold here this afternoon!

This is my first, test jean. Normally I can easily get a pair of slacks out of 1.5 meters, but this fabric was narrower than the normal 150 cm, so the legs had to overlap - thus the clam-digger length. No matter, it was the body fit I was checking, not the length, and I really did want (& need) a pair of short ones.

I made size U, but I'm wondering if I should've gone a size smaller. Jeans aren't trousers - they should hug! They FEEL loose. And there seems a bit too much fabric over the front.

It's a bit of a toss-up as to which length I'll go with - I think short, hubby suggests long. What say you?

Backside, you ask?

I knew I'd have to make some back adjustments: I scooped the crotch into an L and downwards about 1.5 cm, and took in the waist 3 cm on each side of CB. So I changed the order of construction a bit: the two waistband halves were added first, and then the back was fitted (like with men's trousers). Only after I was happy with the fit, I sewed on the pockets and inserted the loops into the waistband; I had to open little sections for the loops, but as the waistband was being topstitched afterwards, that was fine. Finally, after the waistband was topstitched all around twice, I bar-tacked the loops to the top.

Actually everything else is topstitched too, though you wouldn't know it, as I used matching thread this time - I didn't want to fiddle with contrast hassles while fitting etc. All the topstitching is done using the triple stretch stitch, so the pants won't be likely to pop when I bend down to pet a plant ;) gardening is a serious sport around here!

I'd welcome constructive criticism on this pair before I cut into my next iteration - yes really, please!!! I've never made jeans before so I'm totally tickled how these came together - and all the credit goes to Jalie's drafting, of course!

In the Trenches

2010-03-24T19:01:00.003-04:00

Even up here in the Great White North we're rapidly running out of winter. My beloved shade garden has been snow-free for a week, the front is abloom with snowdrops, and irises, daffodils, tulips and daylilies are in a mad upward race. I'm loving it.

During our mini-heatwave last week, many of my co-commuters traded their parkas for trench coats. Some are hanging on to them still, despite the fact that the weather's cooled down again. I HAVE a trench coat - though it's pretty old it's still a very nice one, in a dark teal jewel tone techno fabric, fully lined, long against the rains, double breasted, and nice and loose - just how I like it. So I don't really NEED a new one - but I'd dearly love to HAVE one. A classic taupe. Shorter, more fitted, neutral-coloured . Yes yes yes, I have the fabric(s), the lining, the pattern(s). I'm like the donkey who dies of starvation because he can't decide which carrot will be tastier.

While I decide if/when to make one, I browse Burberry's Art of the Trench. Go see it - every size, colour, and shape. Fun!

Möbius Made Marvellously Easy

2010-03-22T19:51:00.007-04:00

A Möbius band is a topological wonder: a two-dimensional entity happily residing in a three dimensional world. It has only one edge and one flat side.

What is it about a Möbius scarf that makes it look so attractive? It's the half-twist. Without it, the plain loop looks like what it is: a simple short & wide cylinder hanging on a vertical cylinder (your neck). But that half-twist is a trompe l'oeil effect that turns the flat cylinder into a graceful bias; or, at least, makes it look that way. It gives you the lovely, fabric-greedy, expensive bias drape appearance on straight-grain cheap. Best of all, it can be dead easy to make. But, as I'll show below, if you try a slightly different approach, the results can be hilarious!

Start with a rectangle of fabric twice as high and as long as you'd like it to be (plus two seam allowances in each direction; wine is optional). If you want to wear a single loop, 30" (75cm) will suffice; if you want to double or even triple it around your neck, increase the long dimension appropriately.

Fold this in half along the long axis with right sides together, and sew the long seam, leaving a gap large enough for your hand near one end. I like to backstitch and clip off only one thread, leaving the other one long enough to sew up the gap once the scarf's finished.

Turn the scarf right side out, and fold it so that both raw edges are at left. Give it one twist as you do that - now the seam crosses under from the top to the bottom of the piece.

Lay the two ends one on the other and pin the right sides together; notice the seams are on opposite sides of the two openings.

Now reach into the little gap in the long seam and pull the pinned sections completely out through it. It's just like bagging the lining on a sleeve hem through a gap in the side seam of a jacket's lining. Match up the rest of the two ends (they're one inside the other now - AHA!), and sew them completely together. Once that's done, pull the scarf right side out again.

Now use that long thread and sew up the little gap. Your Möbius scarf is done!

Ready now for the "don't do this at home" trick? You might wish to be "clever" (ahem) and simplify matters. You might want to sew the short edges together from the wrong side - thinking that it's easier to do that, and just turn the completed loop inside out once finished. Heck, why on earth not?!

So you do your half twist, place and then pin the raw ends right sides together....

Sew up that short edge, and - you might think - you're all done, except for turning the lovely little scarf right side out. Right......?

Right!!! But your results aren't quite what you expected, are they? Instead of a low but wide loop, you made a tall and skinny one. Surprised?! I sure was.

Perfect if you happen to be one of the lovely Karen ladies, who are famous for having the longest necks in the world.

That's topology for you, kids! Live and learn.

Joli Jalie weekend - part 2, aka: thinking out of the envelope

2010-03-21T21:14:00.010-04:00

My 3rd Jalie tee was this fine little leopard (meow!). I had only 80 cm of it. Because it had a repeating vertical pattern, something had to be done to ensure the fabric wasn't all nilly-willy, so this is all I could do: barely below-elbows sleeves, and NO neck-warmer. Boo hoo. I did consider placing the sleeves so that they'd be dark along the outside (matching the body) but that would've placed bright spots in my armpits - nyeh. I chose "look-at-me" biceps instead. Notice I rounded the Vee neck for a low-crew neck look. And notice the matching front&back skunk-leopard stripes down the centre. And how nicely the neck binding is matched to what's below it.

With all of the above well under control, I decided I have just the ticket to verify how the true crew actually plays, all the while ALSO trying out a child's version.

This one is size P (31" chest) - in a nice beefy cotton knit, my FM freebie (thank you, FM! yes some of you will recognize the shade for my rusty coral cashmere coat's interlining). The kid's actually a size smaller, but he's a Real Boy - trust me, he'll never want to wear skintight clothing. The tee fits (though the sleeves are a tad too long) and the kid's cute, trust me.

[Mom-brag-alert: I made the pants too - a washable wool-poly herringbone, yes they're dreadfully saggy now because the elastic's died & gone to heaven after too many cycles in the dryer, but he swears they're the warmest, comfiest pants he has. He wore them round the clock in winter - two winters, as a matter of fact, as he's already outgrown last year's version from the same fabric (that's why sewing for kids is such a THANKLESS chore) - END of Mom-brag]

My thinking out of the envelope moment came when I foolishly visited Fabricland to replace a double needle I broke (grrrr) on a pin yesterday afternoon, and came home with, um, a couple (three, actually) more knits for tees, plus.....

..... this crinkle rayon. I love its colour scheme - it's VERY ME, red and black, with a touch of gold, white, and brown thrown in. Not a knit, but I applied it to the Jalie tee pattern nevertheless. Because it's a woven, I widened all vertical seams (including the sleeves) about 0.5 cm. I needn't have bothered: the sleeves are very loose, as is the hem. I rounded the neck again, but it gapped a bit, so I took two little tucks to make it rectangular instead - you can see it quite well on the right. The left-over scrap became a cowl:

It's a Moebius band, ie, a single loop with a half-twist: I like it!

(((Gratuitous sexy hubby shot (I'm feeling first-day-of-spring-silly): just look at those giant come-hither paws! Swoon!!! Disclaimer: I made NOTHING that's he's wearing - not even his tee!)))

I have some more knits. The left one is a poly, in a deliberate experiment to see how poly knits actually wear. For example, do they breathe?

...but really, all of the above are but an exercise in advance of turning these two silk jerseys into something wearable:

I promise not to burden you with any more tees. Unless they're silk, or make me look like a stick of dynamite in mid-kaboom, or something at least as interesting.

A trio of tees: les Jalies sont jolis!

2010-03-20T16:46:00.026-04:00

Les très jolis patrons Jalies arrived last night, and I practically leapt on them. Was I surprised? you bet. LARGE format, printed on HEAVY white stock. Realizing I could easily use this pattern for tees for my very own pre-teen très joli garçon, I didn't cut, but instead TRACED my size (V, per my bounteous charms, though my waistline is 3 sizes smaller). The pattern offers four neckline versions: crew, turtleneck, vee, and "Klondike Gold Rush Underwear", ie. a curved Vee with a placket & buttons. Whatever.

After cutting out all the parts for the first version - intended to be the basic long-sleeve crew, by way of a muslin test of the to-spec draft - I nearly had a conniption. Dammit! Whoever arranges the icons on these patterns at Jalie should be summarily FIRED!!!! I mean, honestly - if you saw this:

and this:

and THIS:

you would, wouldn't you, expect that the garment icon refers to the pattern piece that surrounds it, right? Well, nyah-nyah, it does NOT. Idjits!!!

ETA. Example: the two icons on this pattern piece made me believe I was drafting a crew neck. But this piece is for the Vee neckline; the crew pattern piece (views A and B) has the Klondike neckline icon on it. This confusion makes it very easy to err, and err I did. As a consequence, my tees are all V-neck. No biggie. I like v-necks, but I HATE being made a fool of by some flunkie who seems to think it's too much effort to make sewing a seamless ;) pleasure for the employer's customers. If you want to get it right the first & every time, just follow the text designations (highlighted in green) and refer to the envelope for what views A, B, C, and D actually look like.

Moving right along. After laundering and drying on HOT, I have three sub-meter lengths of rayon knit from Fabricland, acquired last fall with the idea of eventual tank tops in mind. But you know me, I'm the stingy cutter, right?

First iteration:
I folded both selvedges towards centre, and PIECED (yes I was DETERMINED to make that full muslin out of what I had) one of the sleeves. The left sleeve is vertically bisected by a full length seam - not that you'd ever notice it, with that design!

That scrap of fabric in my hand, you ask? that's my Moebius scarf, out of the scraps. It plays two ways.

Cowl neck:

and, doubled up, "free turtleneck":

I have a long neck that gets easily c-c-c-c-c-cold, so I LOVE to wrap it. That's why I always try to arrange my pattern pieces so that the scraps can be folded into a scarf.

Second iteration:
I placed the vertical seam on centre back. Both sleeves are seamless this time. There's some misprinting weirdness going on near one of the selvedges which I obviously didn't notice 'till after the item was seamed and cut, but this is my spring gardening tee and my hostas won't care.

Front:

And the warm-up-me-neckie look again:

Hmmm, I did say three tees, didn't I? Buh-but, the two above give five looks! Oh OK, I have five, yes FIVE more lengths of knit, seven total, one for every day of the week, and two are already pre-washed & will be turned into some sort of tee by the end of the day but it'll be no-outdoor-photos-pitch-black by then and you're already bored, aren't you, and anyway, it's dinner time over here.

Forever in blue jeans?

2010-03-17T14:00:00.012-04:00

In my previous life, I worked at a university so determinedly egalitarian that us profs had to duke it out with the madding hordes of students for a parking space, my male colleagues lectured in soccer jerseys (on a good day - or worse), and we all lived in jeans. In my case, black ones.

Am I feeling a tad nostalgic for those old days? Nah, I'm just getting a jump on spring, and using the excuse of brilliant weather to model one of my very few jersey outputs from last fall: BWOF 2-2008-123 (note how much lower the neckline is on me than on the model? hmph). I'll be making a bunch more soon, as I've inadvertently stashed a few other rayon knits, and, with the coming of warm weather, will want to use'em up.

To help me with sizing, I bought this cute blue zebra tee while in FL last week. I have a set of Jalie patterns winging their way to me for my casual spring campaign. YES, those FAMOUS jeans, and the updated tee pattern.

Those scruffy old black jeans? Hah, talk about vanity sizing! Gap tall bootcut size 4, and that's in a non-stretch heavy denim. I'll use these jeans' dimensions to make my first Jalie effort.

For the first pair, I'll use this charming scribble stretch cotton, a Vera Wang from Fabric Mart. When ordering, I'd hoped it would be light enough for a dress, but no (the same old story with internet purchases)- so jeans & jackets it is. I'm thinking they'd look perfect with a few strategic splashes of fabric paint on them.

This pinwheel & stripe stretch cotton IS light enough for a blouse or a dress. A shirtdress or a sun dress. Or both.

Would YOU take a leopard to work?

2010-03-16T11:04:00.011-04:00

The leopard dress, done. No pattern used. Actually, I turned to my La Mia Boutique simple dropped-sleeve sweater dress for the top (shortened to high hip level), and a simple pegged skirt pattern for the bottom section (widened for four 1" pleats front & back, and the top folded down to hip level).

Although the overall look is a bit loose and floppy, I did this on purpose, as this challis is very lightweight (a black cami will take care of the bit of show-through on top) and I didn't want to run the risk of damaging it with pulling and whatnot that's always a risk if a garment's too closely fitted. The skirt is lined with black bemberg to 3 cm above the knee.

The top seems to me a tad too long - viz. the puddling around the waist - and, if I decide it is after some wear, I'll make a horizontal tuck just at the belt attachment, and sew it off invisibly. No biggie. The fabric's very light, and doesn't take kindly to unpicked seams (ahem).

The hip band is long enough to tie into a bow, though I'm not a bow person, and will likely tie a half-bow at most. It's fully interfaced with pro-weft fusible (from Pam Erny, Off the Cuff), and attached only along the horizontal hip seam, leaving about 10 cm space for the knot - that way, I can really tighten it on my hip.

I have another length - 2.5 yds of wool challis, in a cheerful brown-tan-blue-grey pattern, a little heavier than the leopard, that I'd also like to turn into a spring dress, with sleeves. Any suggestions for a must-go-to great pattern?

Leopard spots: let's throw down the gauntlet!

2010-03-11T20:17:00.022-05:00

In its March 2010 issue, Burda declared itself for the animals in all of us: leopard spots and zebra stripes. Though I'm in the nation's capital, I only get access to any month's BWOF issue in the second - at best - week, long after many other sewists elsewhere have already picked'n'chosen their faves to make, and, lucky them, actually made'em. [I ask you, how fair is that?!]

Back to March '10 Burda: hooray! the natural touch will never go out of style. Leopard spots will find their way to fashion's foremost, no matter what.

I have in mind a lightweight wool challis - a beautiful pure wool, with a dark animal leopard-spot print. I have two luscious yards of the stuff for a dress...from (ETA: sorry, not Gorgeous Fabrics but) Emma One Sock, if you need to know.

I'm thinking of a simple long sleeved dress with some pleating near the neck, and gathering below the waist, perhaps a dropped-waist tie band - and a simple pleated skirt - for a simple, hopefully timeless, garment.

Nature as inspiration

2010-03-08T14:16:00.008-05:00

That's a ring-billed gull at upper left; three elegant terns, very stylish with their black mohawk hairdos and bright orange bills; a black skimmer in lovely dark brown plumage in the centre; and, rocking dark red stockings and bills, four laughing gulls.

What unifies these is the idea of various shades of black, brown, grey, and white, with yellow, orange, and red as accents. I totally could see dressing like a gull, skimmer, or tern: grey or brown jacket, a coordinating darker shade of grey, black or brown skirt/pants, black or dark red shoes/boots, a white blouse or dress with a bright flame-coloured accessory (scarf, hat, belt, gloves, purse, etc), or alternatively, a bright coloured blouse with a long brilliant white scarf and hat....

The range of possibilities these birds suggest is wonderful. And life - aka our fave fabric providers - offers us so many wonderful options for shades and textures of grey with which to begin the fun....

Stella McCartney and Givenchy must've been strolling the same beach when designing their collections - pairing exactly that concept of neutral and grey/black/white, with brilliant yellow-orange-red accents. Timeless.

Paris RTW Fall 2010

2010-03-07T09:22:00.005-05:00

For something a little different, check out Pedro Lourenço - one doesn't see the leather ladder+beads and overlays on organza too often. I'm a fan of leather+fabric combinations anyway, and they've been appearing more frequently in recent years.

But it doesn't have to be organza - the concept lends itself to any other fabric combination, a jersey or even doubleknit, for example, so the garment has some give around all that leather.

Good colour-blocking shapes there. Check him out.

Lanvin did a great daywear collection this time. The one long/one short sleeve concept with diagonal draping is superb, and the collection shows several examples of it.

Loved Azzaro... and the unique leather shapes of Haider Ackermann....

Comic relief? Well, Junya Watanabe's hair-as-hat conceit is distracting as all heck, but despite that, his well seamed coats and jackets are beautiful and flattering. And Undercover did a great Farmer-In-The-Dell-Goes-Urban collection. My mind kept wandering to Colin Firth in Pride & Prejudice the whole time I was browsing this one; that's as pleasant a thought as any to end on.

My NY fabric haul

2010-03-05T12:18:00.012-05:00

Sharing one's fabric ~~addiction~~ acquisitions is just the ticket when one is away from the sewing machine on ~~an impromptu vacation~~ business in Florida.

The V7975 jacket was so-so close to being finished before I had to fly off, what with bagging etc all done... so close and yet so far. Yeah, I'm an Olympics groupie. Especially the winter O's - I love winter, hey sue me. Above is a shot of the dark brown silk jacquard I chose for the outfit's lining. I also had a very nice dark blue jacquard, but it was just a bit too in-your-face contrasty with the FF - so low key brown it is, in keeping with the overall "low key classic" idea I've been holding onto in making this outfit. The already-completed top is lined with the same stuff, as is the skirt.

My silk jacquards are not from NY - I got them last year during FFC's silk blowout. I adore silk jacquard - the weaves that create the pattern also add body and make the fabrics totally wrinkle-resistant. And to think they cost less than bemberg lining!

On to NY Fashion District:

I found this very soft pinkish-red gabardine in the same menswear store where I got the brown/blue cashmere currently in progress.

My favourite store in NY Fashion district? It has to be NY Elegant Fabrics.

What I did NOT get at NY E ?

1: wool sateen. I fell in love with their selection of this amazing fabric, but couldn't figure out how I could use it - so decided to wait "till next time". Gentle Reader, advise me on how to use wool sateen, please!

Other stuff I did NOT get at NY Elegant?

2: linen knit - why? it was black, coarse, and felt scratchy. I was tempted but my experience is that black will cook you in summer no matter how nice the fabric. Even though I expect the fabric would've softened in the wash.

3: Missoni knit - why? the colourway was "everything but the kitchen sink", and it was strictly viscose. I'd rather work with a limited palette, and wool.

Moving on to other stores:

Kashi persuaded me to adopt a few lengths of silk, including a couple of new arrivals. He laughs that the stuff sells itself, and he's right. The solid brown is a silk jersey, and the rest "just" twills. Beautiful, dreamy twills.

At Mood Fabrics, I sought out this amazing heathered silver&blue linen jersey:

It was fine, it was soft, it'll make the greatest top for summer wear.

Last (BNL), I got this beautiful cream-brown-black wool tweed at Mood - it's my next-to-do spring outfit.

We ARE Number ONE!!!!!!!!

2010-02-28T18:09:00.003-05:00

Congratulations Canada's Gold Hockey Team!!!!
(obviously, no sewing being done in this house today)

More magnetic fun!

2010-02-27T16:54:00.008-05:00

The EYES have it:

Oopsy-daisy! Can't pin it on me!!

Curious?? Intrigued?! that's two 3/4" rare earth magnets in their cups (hic!). The cups increase the magnets' strength by a factor of four - and keep all my pins from flying about. I can't even pry the magnets out of these cups any more - no way, nohow. Yep, they're strong! What is keeping the magnets to the box? the pins in the box! and vice versa! At last, no more Me the Clumsy Carp, always picking the Shower-Of-Pins off the floor....

Still working on my suit, and the jacket's so-so close to the finish!

Disclaimer: I probably could've had the suit finished last weekend, but I'm such a great fan of winter sports that the Olympics took precedence over Everything Else these past many days. Rah, rah, Canada!

As of this morning, the sleeves and hem are faced, and I am glad & relieved they are. It all felt a tad skimpy even before anything was turned up, and I feared the final product would look like it was made for a midget if I don't face the hems & sleeves. I bagged the lining/facings, pressed it all into submission, and now it's only a matter of adding some shoulder/upper back padding (shoulder pads, yes, the cashmere is so soft it needs to be supported), and closures. Closures, you ask?

I made my Decision: I'll use five 3/8" rare earth magnets and the washers that come with them. But I'll skip the cups.

Above you see, at left, a washer and magnet. They're the same thickness, 1/10".

And at right, a cup and two magnets. The cup's more than twice as thick as the magnet. So, for the sake of a smooth, slender, and sleek jacket front, I'm skipping the "magnet on steroids" uber-thick look. Just five little magnets sewn to the facing on one side, and five matching washers on the other. There will be pockets near the hip but no credit cards anywhere near this jacket.

And then there's the matching skirt to finish. Yawn. I'm SO ready for another (a spring!) project.

A tiny tale of tiny magnets - update with answers

2010-02-24T00:29:00.005-05:00

The Slapdash Sewist asked how I know not to iron a magnet. Gold medal to those of you who guessed, correctly, that I learned not to precisely by doing it. It's a cute, or maybe merely salutory, story of the huge disconnect we sometimes experience between theory and real life. Way back when, I taught 2nd year electricity & magnetism while postdoc'ing, so I do know some theory, and later, in a grownup job, lectured on paleomagnetism and archaeomagnetism, including all the stuff on how rocks, ceramics, and sediments become magnetized, and all the lab tricks of measuring remanent magnetization, Curie temperatures, and so on. You'd think this large chunk of highfalutin' knowledge buried inside my head would give me pause when playing with magnets and heat. Alas: not so.

A couple of years ago I attended a workplace gala - a great and very formal black tie event, so of course made myself a silk gown for the do, and, equally of course, had a great time. Since a regular purse would've clashed, I made myself the simplest possible envelope clutch out of the dress fabric - for the bare essentials: a handkerchief, driver's licence, you know the drill. Nothing could be simpler. (click on the pic below to get an enlargement)

As it was to be a one-time item destined for a subdued-light environment, I didn't worry too much about making it fancy or any fancy closures, but ran over to Lee Valley, bought a 3/8" rare earth magnet (page 130 of their online hardware catalogue), sewed it and a flat iron washer onto opposing sides of the inside flap, and the job was done. Till I gave the finished item that "one last pressing". The magnet went dead on me, the theory-powered lightbulb snapped on in my head, and I had to run back for another 38 cent (sheesh! the high cost of sewing!) replacement.

The opened pic shows the large flat iron disk sewed onto the inside of the flap, and the small magnet sewed onto the envelope. The little magnet sitting on the clutch is 1/4", one of four I use to hold sheet music down onto a standard nickel-plated iron music stand, when the inclination to play outside in the wind strikes me. Yes, placed directly metal on metal these tiny babies are fiercely strong; but when separated by a couple of layers of cloth, their hold is surprisingly soft.

In the case of a jacket - daytime, possibly frequent wear - I'll mount the magnets differently, so they don't show on the outside or the facing. And I know better now than to - ever - iron them.

************************ ETA 27/2:

To answer your questions, Gwen and Kathi: magnets are affected by heat. Without getting unduly technical, the Curie temperature is like a magnet's melting point. Just like water molecules above water's melting point are free to move at will (turning ice into water), so above the Curie temperature magnetic spins are free to rotate at random.

This property is used to magnetize rare earth magnets in manufacturing. They're made by sintering rare earth alloy powders, sometimes in a plastic (non-magnetic) binder, in a strong artificial magnetic field. Then they're cooled from above their Curie temperature while they're still being held in this strong magnetic field. This aligns all the spins to one desired direction and freezes them that way permanently: turning the material into a permanent, very strong magnet.

But when we place a hot iron on a magnet we "melt" the magnetization again, the spins become free to move willy nilly, and, since the Earth's magnetic field is extremely weak, when the magnet cools back to RT, its spins "freeze" in random directions - no more magnet, just a chunk of rare earth material!

Cold water washing and dry cleaning won't affect a magnet. They're usually nickel plated for corrosion resistance, but can be physically brittle, so might get chipped if bounced around in a clothes dryer. So that's two good reasons not to machine dry them: the heat is likely to demagnetize them, while the bouncing may crack or break them.

Bottom line? cold water wash, but air dry. It should be OK to iron the item, but not too close to magnetic closures, and never directly on them.

HTH!

Credit where 'tis due

2010-02-21T15:46:00.003-05:00

Why? I occasionally employ two photogs, both wedded to their art. Ahem, in one instance, also to me. These here were taken by the SENIOR snapper. I complain so bitterly about the doggone awful results of his shutterbugging (ironically, at MY request), never permitting that it may be the subject of his attention, not his skill with the camera, that may be the cause... Today, the gentle soul demanded credit for his unstinting love and moral/logistical support. Of many years.

QED. But boy, he takes awful photos (of me).

This is part 1 of 3 of my cash skirt suit. The top is based on the Go 4001 dress, lined to the edge with dark brown silk jacquard, with a CB invisible zipper. I don't believe how long it took me to get this wee little thing done.

The last photo shows the long skirt - it's still unfitted, unfinished, unhemmed - but it gives the idea of a two-piece dress that'll go under the jacket. I'm lucky to have been able to eke out three pieces out of the length of fabric, and ditto for the silk jacquard I'm using for lining. Just barely enough, but enough. Basta!

Almost-black garments don't photograph well on freshly fallen snow. I had to do major exposure adjustments to show these. I do love the princess seaming of the top, though.

I'm just about done attaching the lining to the jacket. Problem is, I can't decide on closure. Buttons? Snaps? Nothing? I don't want buttonholes, ordinary or welt. I'm tending towards concealed six rare earth magnets from Lee Valley Tools just down the road, invisible and indestructible (except if ironed: you never ever iron a magnet).

Maricou m'a taggée: I've been tagged!

2010-02-14T21:01:00.010-05:00

Maricou, c'est Marie-Noëlle de Rouen, France, qui dirige son blog La Machine à Coudre. Pour mieux la remercier, ma reponse, comme vous voyez, est en français - pourquoi pas? Pour jouer, la personne taggée est obligée de montre une "dixième photo", et de continuer le jeu, en "taggant" 5 bloggeuses en retour.

Pour ma photo, j'ai choisi ma dixième photo du jour de ma visite au mausolée de Xi'an, ou on peut admirer l'armée de terre cuite de l'empereur Qin. Chaque de ces soldats est different de tous les autres.

Translation: Thank you, Marie-Noelle, for thinking of me for this little game. The tagged person is to post a 10th photograph, and then tag five other bloggers in turn. As you see, I chose to post the 10th photo of my visit to Emperor Qin's mausoleum and his enormous terracotta army, in Xian. No two soldiers are the same.

Je passe la baton à: / I nominate:
Verobirdie, Au Fil du Jardin
Shams, Communing with Fabric
Robin, A little sewing on the side
Omega, Sewhooked
Lena, Kisakim's Sewing Blog

Alors: you're IT!!!!

Burda At A Glance PDF Archive update

2010-02-14T12:30:00.002-05:00

Look left. The Burda At A Glance Archive is a clickable link to a couple of files containing the At A Glance pages from my (admittedly recent) issues, in a Google Group I set up for this purpose. After I did that, I discovered that Google Group has a 10 Mb file size limit.

The good news is that Kay The Sewing Lawyer has very kindly given me access to her scans - 86 pages of them, including covers, which are nice eye candy. Thank you, Kay! I cheerfully compiled all of them into a single pdf file: 137 Mb! Obviously, this file can't go into the Google Group I set up.

I can shrink it some by: 1. omitting the covers (1/3rd size reduction); 2. converting the colour jpgs to greyscale gifs in Photoshop before compiling the pdf. I've been playing with that, with some success, but Photoshop has a bit of a learning curve, I'm still looking for a way to batch do it to all the tech drawings at once, not one by one. In any event, the file will still be bigger than 10 Mb unless I start splitting it into teeny bites, and that wasn't quite what I intended.

What I'm heading towards now is finding a better, more transparent free file hosting site than the one I tried originally, post my pdf or pdfs there, and re-jig the link at left.

If any of you know of a really good file hosting site with large file size limits, let me know. Like I said originally - a work in progress, and work, life, sewing etc all get a bit in the way of getting it finished.

Let's all take note of NY Fashion Week

2010-02-13T14:43:00.006-05:00

For a start, a nice summary in the NY Times.

The UK's Telegraph has a somewhat different take on it, worth a good browse if only for the link to other shows (Milano, London, Paris).

I only had time to glance at the Chado Ralph Rucci show on Style.com, one of my go-to ideas places.

First I love the predominantly black & yellow colour scheme in the introduction:

Unlike some designers' whimsies, many of these outfits are eminently doable and easily wearable:

Early fall? How about a warm day in November, with a natural black and grey backdrop to this uber-soft yellow coat:

Two variations on a theme, with highlight slashes; love the shape of the black& purple jacket's sleeve:

A little peekaboo skirt for an evening out: yes, I'd dare, but it's not workwear:

Be still my heart! I love the shape and simplicity of this outfit, and the barely-there sandals:

And in the finale, this, IMO, is his best evening gown in this show. I ask you, how adorable is that pink silk slip peeking out from beneath a very grown-up BW column number? Note to self: real grown-ups would make that silk scarlet. Easily done.

Bravo, CRR! A great selection of fun stuff (I omitted the peekaboo jackets & dresses, but I like them too).

Chanel jacket solution: zip me up and zip me down

2010-02-12T07:57:00.002-05:00

The jacket's front closure hooks were destroying the boucle - snagging and pulling on the loops, intolerable in moment-to moment wear. Upon returning home from work, I had to pull them back into the fabric body with a crochet hook. What's a girl to do? use her noggin to come up with another solution. Here, an exposed gold zipper to match the one at the back of the skirt. It adds a nice symmetry to the two pieces. One zips up above, the other down below. And adds a tiny bit of gold bling that I always felt the jacket needed.

Of course, since the jacket front's finished - sewed, understitched, prickstitched, and trimmed - I could only sew the zipper tape onto the lining. It's not how I'd have done it if the zipper was in the original plan, but I can live with it. The zipper adds nice heft to the jacket front - weighs it down, straightens and smooths it, the effect is a vast improvement to the fall of the garment. So, that's a battle I feel I've won.

Working on the dark brown-blue cash suit too - but slooooowly. I took a look at the V2218 top, compared it with my Go dress bodice, and decided I like the Go dress shape better: smaller, flatter side back panels, and larger, curvier side front panels (for a curvier me, natch!). I went with the Go pattern, created a top based on that bodice, muslined it - and it's a Go!

That gorgeous Ralph Lauren paisley dress

2010-02-06T23:43:00.005-05:00

Wants to be put to bed... er, closet. I reviewed it on PR, so take a look, or just go straight to the photo shoot - my photographer loves to go to town.

How it differs from the first version is that it has full length sleeves (with self-drafted cuffs, snaps, and non-functional buttons on top) and it's buttoned down all the way down the front instead of having concealed snaps.

I might also say, I followed Burda's collar+lapel instructions to a T, and they turned out flawless - the best I ever managed. Rah rah, B!

Burda At A Glance via PDF straight to you

2010-02-05T21:48:00.005-05:00

Have scanner will share. The copyright disclaimer says "copying for commercial purposes is prohibited". But simple sharing is not. Yea.

The Burda At A Glance Archive is a pdf file, so you need Acrobat Reader to see it. Each month in it is bookmarked; the bookmarks are in chronological order but the pages are not (at least, not now), so use the bookmarks if you're of an orderly bent.

I have all the post 04-2008 issues so I'll add those in due course. I'll add this to the sidebar if/when I figure out how to do that. If not, I'll just update this entry when the pdf's updated. I'll shrink this file too, once I figure out how to do THAT. And when I've figured out how to get the pdf to simply open when it's clicked on, well, I'll do THAT. This is a work in progress.

Here's the kicker: do you want this experiment to grow beyond the issues I have? do you have any older BWOFs? If so, find a scanner, and send me (to artsanon at gmail dot com) a scan or a photo or photos of the pages or even parts of the pages, and I'll add them. I think any run of the mill image format will do.

Take that, B!

6/2/10 ETA: moved BAAGA to Google Groups. Seems more transparent.

The unstingiest cut of all

2010-02-03T22:01:00.006-05:00

One of the fabrics I sprang for while in NY last month was a length of lightweight suiting in cashmere. Very soft, quite an open weave, and it comes from a menswear store in the famous Fashion District - wish I could remember the name of the store, it was up to the ceiling with all the fancy suiting wools and shirting cottons you could imagine. I had my heart set on finding a pinstripe wool in red and grey, but when I touched this stuff, my wallet was history, along with my preconceived idea.

The image is pretty close to real life - a fine tweed, very dark overall, with highlight threads in golden brown and blue. Thinking "jacket", I asked for 2 yds. When I got home, I discovered I got 2.2 meters. Hmmm. After pre-washing it's still 2.2 meters. It started to look like a jacket and skirt could be doable.

Here's my layout:

What you see is a long pencil skirt - the spaces below the hems allow for extra length - with a back vent - that's the space beside lower CB; and Vogue 7975 jacket, with its two-piece full length sleeve, back facing, and pocket. Even I, the stingy cutter, was amazed at how neatly all these pieces jigsawed themselves together.

I could only get away with this because: 1. I already made these two up, so know they'll fit; 2. the jacket's only a size 10, even a 12 wouldn't have fit this way - hah, sometimes being average is not such a bad thing; 3. this fabric is wider than normal by nearly 10 cm, 158 cm instead of the usual 150; 4. it has no nap; 5. it didn't shrink. Oh my lucky stars!

The 66 cm near the bottom staring blankly at me is obviously enough for the front facing and a cropped sleeveless top. Sort of like this two piece dress: V2218

Specifically, the centre reddish pair, with long skirt and sleeveless top.

I seriously considered repeating my Go dress in this fabric, but a skirt makes the whole thing so much more versatile - and a passel of tops is easily washable, while a cashmere frock is not.

A slightly lighter image, showing the highlights. This outfit, although I confess I got brown trim at M&J, will probably remain completely unadorned. Beautiful good quality cashmere = timeless. How much more timeless can one get than, well, timeless? or more infinite than infinity? Infinitely timeless? Asymptotically timeless? I have some bronze-coloured leather and I'm toying with the idea of trimming the sleeve hems and pockets - maybe. But plain and timeless really appeals to me here.

Burda archives

2010-02-01T16:43:00.010-05:00

Those proverbially ultra-efficient German engineers at Burda must never have heard the ditty "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The recent changes are, IMO, not just change for the sake of change alone. The result is a big loss of transparency and navigational headaches. The German pages are now completely unlike all the other-language ones (English, French, Italian, and Russian). As members of multilingual EU, surely the Germans realize that individuals can, and some of us even do, speak more than one language, and have reason on occasion to visit the other-language pages? heck, we like to visit them just for no reason! Oui, ici on parle franglais, c'est peut-etre vrai, mais - avec des tres grands efforts, naturalement - on se debrouille en francais aussi, de temps en temps.

To me, the biggest loss thanks to the German page changes is the disappearance of the early issues from the archives. Used to be, you could peruse them quite far back; now all you get is the cover photo for all pre-April 2009 issues. The clickable links for most of 2009 are very limited as well.

Other archives vary.

Russian: 8/2006 to 1/2010, and one might assume that this will continue to be updated with more recent issues. Also, the unavailable 1/2006 to 7/2006 are usefully grayed out.

English: 1/2006 and then 9/2006 to 12/2009. 2/2006 to 8/2006 are unavailable, but you have to click on them to discover that. Unlike the Russian archive, the unavailable issues are not grayed out.

French: 9/2006 to 1/2010. Unavailable issues in 2006 are not grayed out.

Italian: 1/2007 to 11/2009. Go figure. Italianas are evidently so fashion forward they wouldn't dream of sewing up a design that's more than 3 years old. Bravissimas! Vintage-shmintage.

So there you go. I wanted to find a particular issue from 2005, or it might even have been 2004, with a side-panel kimono sleeve jacket, and now I can't any more. And since I can't, I can't look for a second hand issue, since I don't know which issue had it. Kimono sleeved jackets with no side seam don't show up all that frequently. Might be time for Burda to republish that one.

I can find full-text science journal articles going back to the early 20th century sometimes, and JSTOR has pdf images of scholarly articles from the century before! So why is it that Burda's IT engineers can't go back a measly decade?

OK, I'm off the soapbox for the moment.

ETA: I wanted to see what sort of a resource cost having a decade's worth of patterns archive might reasonably require, so I did a quickie calculation. The fashion photos & tech drawings are approximately 20 kb each, so it's 60 kb per pattern. I grabbed one of my issues at random, counted 45 patterns in it - counting each variation as an individual one. That's 2.7 Mb storage space per issue. Times 12 per year times 10 years: 324 Mb. Laughable. Even rounding it up to 400 Mb for all the different language texts, hyperlinks etc, that's a mere 10% of what my camera chip holds.

So, what are blogger's rules on making (and posting to one's public blog) pdf copyrighted material?

That Akris sleeve

2010-01-31T11:03:00.008-05:00

Turning back to the jackets and blouses from a little back, I muslined the sleeve over the course of a couple of mornings.

I started with a raglan sleeve from BWOF dress 2-2009-101. It's already a 3/4 sleeve, so I knew I wouldn't need to shorten it a lot.

I then grabbed whatever was to hand (foam wrapping, because I was too lazy to dig out some fabric, unbelievable I know), and re-drew the outer shape of the sleeve in an arc. I sewed them together - with great difficulty, the machine teeth slip on this stuff like teflon, so I won't be trying it as a sewing aid in future) , tried on, and shortened the hem to the elbow. I used pins to change the inner raglan curve from standard diagonal raglan to the scooped-out Akris shape; the moon-shaped cutouts will have to be added to the body sections, of course, and that's why I kept them. I made an executive decision that the back is similarly scooped out; it wouldn't make much design sense to have it a standard raglan sleeve. If any of you have actually seen the back of one of these jackets, do point it out, please.

The foam pieces you see above are after they've been cut up, and SA's removed.
So, the foam experiment being rather an abject failure (it was a great recycling idea ;) though), I went to my freebie hideous eyelet (why do they even make such stuff?) for the next stage, below. The foam pieces got duplicated with SA's, cut up and spread for four large pleats, attached to some sew-in interfacing, and the curves trued up.

Below, see how the front is still smaller than the back, and its outer curve parallels the back's? the inner curves are on top of each other.

BTW, straight grain is at right angles to the lower hems. It only makes sense.

Then it was just a matter of finding something a little more suitable for sewing up, adding a small cuff, and pinning the pleats up to the desired length.

I added three small pleats to the inside (aha!) - yes, if you look at the model photos, you see the inner curve also softly rumples.

The overall effect seems close to the model, although my muslin fabric is some sort of rayon woven (it's actually nice, very soft, probably bamboo, but it rumples something awful). One might wish to widen the sleeve a little. I think it would look great in a smooth wool crepe, interfaced of course to get those soft non-rumpling folds. Or a nice breathable poly crepe for a blouse, since poly will also resist crumpling.

Who gets to make the first version, ladies?

Skating season!

2010-01-30T13:32:00.003-05:00

The little hobble skirt will be perfect for a death spiral.

But not for triple axels or pirouettes.

More later!

Zoot Suit: Baby It's Cold Out There!

2010-01-28T21:43:00.007-05:00

My laptop's still in the hospital, but the patient's expected to live. Or so I'm told.

In the meantime, I've managed to put my "what to do next" pondering time to good use. When I say I'm a stingy cutter, I mean it! I bought 2.25 yds of this here red boucle, and I managed to turn the scrap left over from the jacket into a matching skirt. Tadah! Here's my fuzzy little butt-warming outfit, and not a second too soon, considering the howling you-don't-want-to-know-the-windchill gale out there tonight. A lovely Arctic blast.

We're entering prime Rideau Canal (=longest skating rink in the world, it's in the Guinness Book of World Records) skating season. We need it to be cold. We LOVE the cold!

We know how to dress for the cold. So, the front:

Both top and bottom are underlined with organza, painstakingly stitched to the ff, and all four pockets have double silk lining, so you can slip your fingers into them without catching on the fuzzy boucle. The jacket's weighed down with a hem chain. And that's not all: altogether too much hand sewing, I tell ya. But it had to be done.

I'll post a "live" photo on the GCGH blog, and probably - I hope - review it on PR. Or maybe not. I'd rather be sewing than computing whilst on my own time, seeing as I spend pretty much all my time in front of an ugly square screen at work, and not watching sitcoms either. Bear with me.

I had JUST enough trim to do all that you see - with a 1 cm scrap left, I kid you not. As I didn't want the skirt to turn into just a great big boring red bottom, I did this:

A nice exposed heavy gold zipper all the way down. Maybe it'll tweak someone's imagination. I hope.

Is this all? No indeed. One of the sites I love to stalk is Style.com. Today I found Thimister - I know, I've never heard of him before either. But take a look. Did you? So, never mind the shoot'em up bloodstained clothing theme, what I did like about the collection is the fab-fabulous colour combination of drab olive with red and white. Eminently doable! Here's the jacket with the very first thing I ever reviewed on PR - a New Look skirt, and being a total newb back then, I never bothered to post the skirt I made (in olive microfibre):

I like the skirt enough to wear it regularly, and now I can feel fashion forward in it. A hooray moment?

Variations on a theme

2010-01-20T14:20:00.004-05:00

The uber-simplicity of Akris twangs my heart strings. Amazingly, even when not totally austere, Akris continues to worm its way into my consciousness. What's there not to adore about this jacket, for example:

I'm melting over those sculptural sleeves. They seem to be THE signature pointe of Akris' 2010 Resort collection. Repeated several times, in case you failed to spot it first time:

and not only in jackets, but in softer, blouse-like fabrics too:

I can just see myself waltzing into a meeting wearing a dusty-rusty suit like that top one. With a back peplum and skirt princess seams to match.

Thinking out of the envelope

2010-01-18T10:21:00.010-05:00

Setting aside my not-totally-evil-mother / have-ripstop(and-polartec)-will-outfit-guys-with-ski-mitts persona {with warm-mitted applause to Kay and Dawn for their how-to's on the subject}; and ignoring my ghosts-of-sewing-past finally tackled alterations that no one wants to hear about (yawn!) - or the super-duper-practical heavy wool flannel one-day slacks that are going to take two days, but are nearly finished (and underlined with another ugly fabric freebie, a yellow cotton seersucker, tee hee!) - I'm cogitating on my next piece of show-offishness.

I have a hankering for a portrait-collar jacket. There's a tonne - that's a metric tonne to you southerners, an even 1000 kilograms, which is 10% heavier than the 2000-lb American ton (which, I might add, no one else in the world uses, so the numerical difference in practically identical nomenclature leads to no end of confusion - kindly go metric, already!) - of gorgeous silks making the studio floors sag, awaiting conversion into show-offy tops with matching scarves etcetera. I must be responsible (she whispers), I must prevent the house from collapsing. I find the closed-up necklines of most jackets are not very conducive to showing off silk chemises.

So I'm considering making a jacket based on this:

It's 2008-12-110 from the Bambi issue. Huh?! I can just see you scratching your heads. BUT - here's the tech drawing:

It wouldn't be all that hard to convert this to a cute little double-breasted jacket. I could even leave the empire waistband and put the two buttons right on it. Or I could get rid of the waistband and just make the under-bust dart go all the way down to the bottom. Or leave as is. Maybe add a couple of welt pockets. Maybe have a half-belt in the back (the back also has waist darts and the empire waist).

Grey. Nice, neutral grey. A Super 180 birdseye is one option; two different thread-dyed silk-wool and silk-cotton blends are the others.

Decisions, decisions.... Do you, gentle reader, have a favourite portrait-collar jacket?

Ouch!

2010-01-16T13:54:00.006-05:00

I fried my wonderful little laptop this morning (please don't ask - please!). That really hurts. I hope it can be repaired, because there are some very-very-very-close-to-my-heart photos in it, and not of sewing, either. I'm not the weepy kind, but just thinking of them going poof forever makes me tear up - that's how important they are. Yeah, only to me. Only, only to me. Stupid me. Sob.

On to sewing - no photos, I'd have to borrow hubby's icky laptop to read the camera's memory, this old clunker I'm on doesn't have a chip reader... but the paisley dress & red jacket are done and Have Been Worn! The jacket needs to be jazzed up with some gold baubles a la watch-chains. Like this one:

Or maybe these:

Life goes on. After little disasters as well as the big ones.

Psssst! The February Burda preview is up!

2010-01-13T12:40:00.004-05:00

In German, here.

My likes? Just at a first quickie glance, skirt 124 in Let's Rock and the classic fitted blazer 115 in Country Star. The blazer's very similar to one in the January 2010 issue, but with larger collar/lapels. I like the January version too (um, probably better).

I see lots of other things I like, nice raglan-sleeve tees, a gorgeous sheath dress with tons of skin in the back, etc etc, but right now, gotta run!

Trim me up, Scotty!

2010-01-09T11:28:00.003-05:00

Cap'n, I'm givin' ya all she's got:

For the rest, Scotty will transport you at warp speed to GoChanelOrGoHome. Make it so!

How to ridicule Burda....

2010-01-07T21:14:00.009-05:00

in one easy lesson. Cross stitch for the career woman is bad enough, but: cross stitch with a drill??!! Could this be, I fear, BWOF's take on cracking the glass ceiling?

And another "get in touch with your inner guy" concept: a rough plank here, a rough plank there... you too can jigsaw this idea in no time flat. But - sit on it once, and you'll be begging your other (perhaps even better) half to get very close & personal with the splinters in your tender nethers....

This one, actually, is cute, I admire its unintentional pun: rock=skirt. How Ferry Cherrman!!! Until you, wearing your perfect new pencil-rock #114, sit on it, and snag your hose on the gazillions of brass nails just waiting to grab your thighs! Who'll be spitting nails then? Who, I ask, dreamt this up?!

Next! who amongst you has the ... (time? inclination?) to sew together dozens of ugly critters (what are they, mice? EEEK!! or rats...??? EWWWW!!!!), just for the dubious pleasure of sitting on a lumpy mound of self-sharpening teeth. Tiptoeing through a minefield of mousetraps each time you wish to try the seating arrangement?!

Doilies on chairs?! with red pompoms? and, judging by the background, cross-stitched white chairs to match?!!! Puh-leeze. A little static electricity, and that doily will stand up right with you, and make you, not the chair, the butt of everyone's amusement.

The piece de resistance: silk brocade book covers. How the Dickens will I ever find my ratty old David Copperfield?! He was right there in front of me, before his spine got all spiffied up!

An appeal to BWOF: there are so many craft-oriented mags out there, honestly you don't need to tip your hat to them. Us BWOF fans really love you - yeah, we really do - I really DO - for your garment patterns. So ease up, and save 6 pages of paper, ink, and person-time, per issue, and - PLEASE!!!! - release the crafty folk to the crafty mags.

Almost, almost there

2010-01-04T08:29:00.004-05:00

I coulda, shoulda had it finished already, but after spending 7.5 hrs driving home from NYC on Friday in slightly abysmal conditions (saw two cars spun off the road, but hey, have 4x4 will stick to road), a weekend of mostly goofing off was too delicious.

Did I line it? No! I'm one of the rare dinosaurs who wear full slips.

So, yet to come, stretch lace seam binding on the facing, and buttonholes. I tried to make my Kenmore buttonholer gadget (came with my Ultra Stitch 12) work yesterday and totally failed. Cri de coeur: would anyone out there have instructions for the beast?