Mothers Day

Today was Mothers Day: a holiday I feel is highly publicized for the main purpose of encouraging the spending of money on presents, cards or restaurant meals to honor mothers. A hug is more meaningful to me. But this day always prompts me to think about how thankful I am for the medical technology that made it possible for me to be a mother. My husband and I were very fortunate that 16 years ago, we lived in a large urban area with state of the art infertility centers, and had enough of our own money to pay for invitro-fertilization, deemed "experimental" by our health insurance companies. I wish everyone had as much success with it as we did.

My MIL came over for a visit today and I made a nice dinner of something I knew she doesn't get in the assisted living facility where she resides; crab cakes, shrimp, roasted potatoes, sauteed spinach and a decadent chocolate pie that had a crust made of crushed pretzels. The pie was a new recipe. I liked the crust, the filling was entirely too rich.

I have been in a bit of a sewing doldrum. But I am so proud of myself. During this time, I did a massive closet clean out. I can’t believe I still had suits and clothes from 16+ years ago. I know why I kept them; they were some of the most expensive RTW clothes I had ever purchased. I just couldn't bring myself to part with them until now. The fabrics and workmanship were excellent, but I haven’t worn them in years and the styles are really dated. It took this long to break the emotional ties.

For spring and summer, the trends I want to incorporate in my wardrobe are

1. A bright blue jacket worn with taupe tops and bottoms, like this.

2. A dress or jacket with safari style details like epaulets and patch pockets, maybe in taupe or khaki, but rust or black are other color options.

3. I also like the look of khaki and chartreuse green as a new, different color scheme. Like this.



4. A red sleeveless double breasted shirt dress with trench coat details like this Lauren by Ralph Lauren dress . BWOF 4/06 # 109 is almost an exact duplicate.






5. Sleeveless tops that work under jackets for the temperature fluctuations of the workplace. It is my first summer in a new office. It faces dead east, and the east facing wall is all glass. It is stunningly bright and hot in the mornings, dark and cold in the afternoon and it is only spring.

The arrival of the May Burda WOF last weekend jump started my sewing again. I am nearing completion on jacket number 101 in a bright blue silk suiting. I am trying to decide on the closure, The magazine shows a separating zipper attached with the zipper tapes on the outside of the garment. While I find this an interesting design detail, it won't be understood in the office environment where I work. And I can't find a matching blue separating zipper. Dress number 116 is next. I have a stretch twill that is denim blue on one side and a lighter blue on the other. I think I will do some color blocking using both sides of the fabric, and I probably won't make the belt.

Pattern Morph Part 2

I was attempting go from the blouse with set in sleeves in the top drawing to the T shirt in the bottom of the drawing.


Changes I made to Pattern Front

1.Discarded front yoke piece
2. Smooth out lower armhole
3. Remove facing and added 5/8 " SA (seam allowance) to center front
4. Used raglan sleeve pattern from another pattern

























Changes I made to Pattern Back

1. Added seam with 5/8" SA to center back
2. Divided back neckline in 6 equal parts
3. Redrew top of center back and side back sections to correspond with markings, This created seam lines radiating from neckline similar to front.
4. Used raglan sleeve pattern from another pattern. Required some changes to back sleeve seam for my unique body shape

After cutting out the fabric, I sewed the garment together using machine basting stitches. It was late and I was tired. I inadvertently sewed the sleeves on backward. The fit was horrible, It took several minute for panic to subside, and logical brain functions to resume. I restitched the sleeves in correctly. The fit was fine, so I resewed all seams using shorter stitch length, except the side seams, which I left open so the garment could be laid relatively flat for coverstitching. All seams were pressed open

I made a template for the openings from the swim suit pattern. I laid the template on each of the five seams on the front, aligning the center of the opening with the seam line. I marked the shape with wash away pen.
I cut out the middle of the shape, leaving 3/8" of fabric beyond marked line to turn under.
I turned under the 3/8" and hand basted, being careful not to stretch.
The seam was top stitched on both sides with a narrow 3 thread cover stitch, using variegated thread (Maxilock Swirls Polyester). The cover stitch was sewn so the chain stitches were to the outside and the double line of stitching was to the inside. I had a horrible time sewing the cover stitch around the openings because they were hidden under the pressure foot and tended to wrinkle and bunch up. I tried ironing a large piece of dissolvable stabilizer to the wrong side of the front, under the openings. But any time I moved the fabric, it came unstuck. So I hand basted the openings to a large piece of wash away stabilizer. This kept the edges of the openings from stretching. My coverstitch machine has a large pressure foot that starts behind the needles and extends to an inch in front of them, effectively blocking the view of the fabric any where near the needles. After many attempts, I learned to visualize the needle location to the edge of the opening, under the pressure foot. I also learned how to remove three-thread cover stitch quickly (pull on all three threads at the same time at the same rate). I believe I did each of the seams with an opening, at least three times. The armhole and back seams caused no problems.
The neck was finished with a simple band attached to the wrong side, wrapped to the front, turned under and top stitched. Sleeve and garment hems were done with matching white thread

.
In hindsight I think I would use one of these alternate methods to stabilizing the cutout openings
1. Steam a Seam to hold the hem under and prevent stretching.
2. Face opening with silk organza or similar sheer strong fabric, It would be held in place to the wrong side with the coverstitching.

Not everyone has a cover stitch machine, and believe me when I was having all my difficulties, I was also thinking of alternate techniques for top stitching the cutouts and seams. These included decorative stitches on my regular sewing machine using the variegated thread, decorative stitching over coordinating 1/8 ribbon, or couching decorative yarns or narrow bias strips cut from coordinating printed fabric.

This is the one of the few times I have made significant design changes to a pattern. I think what gives me the greatest satisfaction is that despite a lot of frustrations, I just kept plugging away, trying different things. until the problems were resolved. I now feel more confident attempting other sewing challenges.

Pattern Morph

Pictures of all the SWAPs are up at the Timmel Fabric site. Check them out. They are all wonderful!



One of the tops in my SWAP is a knit T-shirt with raglan sleeves. The pattern I listed as using to make it is a blouse pattern with set in sleeves. I thought I would explain how the blouse morphed to the T shirt. I learned a lot from the process. I purchased white cotton lycra knit fabric from Timmel Fabrics to use for my SWAP. But I had the hardest time coming up with what to make from it. After looking through web sites at T-shirts for inspiration, I found one on XOOP,

It was a raglan sleeve T shirt, with cutouts on the seam lines of the sleeves. This triggered memories of a favorite bathing suit pattern with similar cutouts on seams radiating from the neckline,Stretch and Sew 1383.(doesn’t the model in the drawing look like Princess Diana?)

The swimsuit had smaller, more esthetically pleasing, cutout shapes. And there were three of them. Thinking about seam lines radiating from necklines, I remembered Vogue 8476, the blouse pattern I made recently. It had 5 seam lines radiating from the neck. I thought the use of small cutouts on 5 seams would be an interesting effect. Though this blouse had set in sleeves, the bottom edge of the yoke in the front seemed to be located where a raglan sleeve seam would be. The blouse had a fairly close fit so I reasoned that if I made it in the knit fabric, and took generous seams, it would fit like a T shirt. I originally tried to draft a raglan sleeve pattern using the instruction on page 128 of Dorothy Moore’s Pattern Drafting and Dressmaking Book. But since I was using a pattern with build in ease rather than a sloper made from my measurements , the resulting pattern was goofy looking.

I did learn from the formulas in Moore’s book, that the front neckline is divided into 6 equal sections, with the sleeve seam starting 1/6th of the front neckline length from the shoulder. The yoke seam on the blouse pattern was exactly where a raglan sleeve seam would be located.

Since the pattern drafting did not go well, I went looking for a existing raglan sleeve pattern I could use. I had a New Look, raglan sleeve, turtle neck pattern in my stash. The pattern for the sleeve proved to be a very close to what I needed on the blouse. I pinned the blouse pattern bodice on my dress form and also the sleeve pattern. The front fit perfectly, On the back there were gaps between the bodice and the sleeve, so I added about an inch to the back sleeve piece. Part of this was probably needed to accommodate my prominent shoulder blades and forward shoulders. My next post will describe how I created the cutouts and used a cover stitch to emphasize the seams.

2008 SWAP Completed!

Yeah! My SWAP is done. The photos have been taken and submitted to Julie. I had to leave the photo taking until Friday, the last day to submit them, because of bad weather and lack of photographers. I realized I was living dangerously. Technology can fail at the most inopportune times and I was relying on my digital camera, computers and Internet access to work. Fortunately Friday was a gorgeous day for taking pictures, and everything went well. I am looking forward to seeing all the other SWAP's at Julie's Site http://timmelfabric.com/. The colors of my SWAP were gray, white, Caribbean blue and teal,. They came from a boucle tweed fabric that I did not use in the SWAP. I called it "Blue Skies will be Gray, Un-Teal I see you again." which reminds me of some of the goofy song titles of the music from the 40's and 50's, that my father enjoys playing, and his "punny" sense of humor. The blues were very hard to photograph accurately. Below is a picture of the 10 sewn garments and the patterns used to make them. One pair of pants was purchased, because the previously sewn Sandra Betzina pants I had planned to use didn't fit. More pictures can be seen in my SWAP Flicker album. The link is on the right hand side of the page. Today I plan to clean up my sewing room. And spend time in the yard weeding the flower beds and enjoying the scent of the wallflowers and lilies of the valley, and the sight of the pink azaleas blooming underneath the pink dogwood trees, flowering cherry trees and Chinese Fringe bushes.

Last Lap

This is going to be a short post. There are five more days to sew for the 2008 SWAP. I will make the deadline. On Wed. evening I finally made a decision on the pattern for my SWAP jacket. It is Vogue 2919, an Anne Klein design. I have been sewing all weekend and right now I am pretty tired. But the jacket is complete except for some top stitching and two hook closures. And I whipped up a easy knit top using a older New Look pattern, 6779. I have one other top cut out and partially sewn. I need to think about how I am going to get the garments photographed this coming weekend. What enticing bribes I can use get assistance from my three resident photographers? For the oldest son, a promise to take him out driving. He got his learners permit this weekend. Youngest son is easy, homemade chocolate chip cookies, DH, mmm I have to think about that one.

SWAP Sidetracked

SWAP sewing got sidetracked this week for a jacket challenge. The Fashion Focus neighborhood group of the local American Sewing Guild (ASG) chapter is having a jacket challenge. The challenge was inspired by an article "One Jacket, Six Ways" in the Dec/Jan issue of Vogue Patterns magazine The article featured a Sandra Betzina’s jacket pattern, Vogue 1024, made up in 6 different combinations of fabric and style modifications. The group decided to do the same thing by having participants make the same pattern in their choice of fabrics, notions, etc. and have a show and tell at one of the meetings. We did selected two jacket patterns because the SB jacket did not suit everyone. The other pattern is a Marcy Tilton jacket, Vogue 8454. The jackets are to be shown at the meeting in early April. Since I will be on vacation next week, returning shortly before the meeting, I had to get my jacket done now. I chose the Marcy Tilton pattern because it was already in my pattern stash. I had fun using the decorative tucking technique that was one of the pattern options. I will put a small picture of the jacket details as a teaser, but I will wait until after the meeting to post the finished jacket, so as not to spoil the surprise for other group members.

I also finished a Burda World of Fashion magazine top that was an impulse project. It is a tank top style with horizontal seaming that is gathered to rings in the back.

I was looking through my BWOF’s for SWAP inspiration. I have over 15 years worth, including some from the 1970’s. I came across a top I had marked several years ago but never made. And on the table in front of me were some black and white knits from Timmel Fabrics. I wondered what if I used the fabrics for color blocking, and just decided to do it. Within an hour I had the pattern traced and cut out. The top was easy to sew, but what took me the longest was relearning how to set up and adjust my Huskylock 936 serger, which I use only as a coverstitch machine. I am determined to conquer this machine. Or admit defeat and trade it in for one that is more user friendly . Grr. My main pet peeves 1. When coverstitching along the edge of a garment such as sewing down the turned under hem of a neckline or armhole, the edge of the fabric is underneath the humongeous pressure foot and there is no good way to guide the fabric to ensure the stitches are an even distance from the edge. The little tick mark on the front of the pressure foot is inadequate. 2. And this machine skips stitches at the slightest change in fabric thickness, in other words at every seam intersection. So if you have a wonderful coverstitch machine I would love to hear about it.
Do you ever get obsessed with a trend or fashion detail. For some reason making this top triggered heightened sensitivity to items featuring rings. They are everywhere, swimsuits, tops, purses, and shoes. I decided to see how easy it would be to find the rings to duplicate some of the looks. The fabric stores carry limited sizes in different metal finishes, and they are relatively expensive (2 for $6.00). They are called "O" rings. I swear I saw them labeled "vanity rings" when I bought some at G Street Fabrics several years ago, but an internet search of that term did not turn up any. So on a recent shopping trip I deliberately looked for other sources of rings. I actually found quite a lot. The thrift store had two purses with 5 " ring handles Each purse was $4, so each ring was $2.00. K-Mart had belts with interlocking rings. The idea was to get the belt cheap and cut it up for the rings. One white plastic belt with metal rings was on sale for $ .50, so each of the 10 rings cost 5 cent. The other, with plastic tortoise shell rings was $8, so each of the thirteen rings cost less than a dollar. Walmart actually had tubes of colored (turquoise, cobalt, white or pink, orange, white) plastic rings with instructions for making the very same belt K Mart had. The tubes had 12 rings and cost $2.00. I was surprised how many types and sizes of rings I found. Then to show just how bad my obsession was, today bought a black one piece Michael Kors bathing suit (on sale) that has twenty four 1 " gold metal rings. 10 down each side seam, and five on the center front below the bust. It is a compromise for me between accepting that dark colored one piece bathing suits are probably best for my 50 year old figure, but still wearing a suit that has a little "look at me factor". It might be a little much for the neighborhood swimming pool this summer, but for vacation next week it will be just fine.

Go sew fellow swappers! I will have to catch up.

SWAP Pattern Switch

I switched to Vogue 8262 as my SWAP wardrobe pattern. It includes an unlined 'Jacket", an A-line skirt and pants. All very easy to sew. I have made the jacket before and I wear it as a blouse, both tucked in or worn out. The reason for switching wardrobe patterns so late in the game; the neckline/collar of the jacket from the original wardrobe pattern doesn't work well with any collared tops. I didn't like being limited to scoop neck tops for my SWAP. I plan to make a different jacket that is not part of a wardrobe pattern. So my wardrobe pattern had to include 3 pieces that fit into my SWAP, and that were quick to sew. There are a couple more weeks to finish all the SWAP garments. One of which I will be spending in the Cayman Islands without a sewing machine. I would really prefer to be sewing summer clothes for the vacation. In particular, I have been studying a picture of a Gottex bathing suit and seriously thinking about trying to duplicate it. It would be nice if I could make my body duplicate the model's, sigh! I am trying to use up leftover 2007 vacation days, so I took Friday off and had a long weekend. I made the skirt and jacket from the new wardrobe pattern. The jacket is from a polyester print. I liked the print so much; it overrode my aversion to the fabric content. The skirt is made from a remnant of wool I purchased last weekend in St Michaels, MD. (See Mom, sometimes I do sew up fabric without aging it in my stash.)