Down Coat Finished

Well, here it is. I started with pattern pieces from two coat patterns. One was a trench coat and the other was a wool pea coat. No one makes patterns for down coats. I added the zipper, hood, and pockets and figured out how to add enough room for the down. It reminds me of the US postal service uniforms. The coat has three complete layers of fabric – the shell and lining are the same blue nylon. Then there’s an interlining of polar fleece to add warmth and prevent the feathers from coming through the shell. The hood is lined with fake fur. It was labeled monster fur, but it reminds me more of seal fur. The cuffs have thick wool knit inner cuffs that extend past my wrist. These were cut from some worn out socks. The quilting is all done by hand on the inside of the coat.

I’m incredibly happy to be finished with this coat, as it has been the most difficult garment I’ve made. I hated the entire process. I’m also happy because the coat fits and is very warm and doesn’t look terrible. The parts I really like are the cuffs because I was able to recycle the old socks, and the hood, which falls into a collar while being one piece. I designed that myself and it looks cool. The terrible part of the coat doesn’t show in the picture, but it really makes a bell shape. The bottom doesn’t fall straight, but fans out in a cone which looks ridiculous. This didn’t happen until I put the feathers in- and there was no going back at that point.

Greetings from Crooky

Happy Holidays!

Dress Form

I finally bought a dress form. We get along great. I’m wearing another new knit top in the photo. It’s kind of ugly, but I’m making lots of knit tops so I can keep experimenting with shapes, hems, and fabrics.

Wool Hat

I knitted this hat. It looks just like one my mom made 25 years ago, except hers was navy and gray. One of my brothers ended up with that hat. It was one of the family possessions we both had our eyes on, but he won that round. We always want the same things.

My strategy in collecting stuff from our parent’s house has simply been to hang around them the most. I mix drinks for my dad and rub my mom’s feet and pretend that their dog is as cute as mine. People are more likely to part with old things after a shopping trip, so I try to get my mom to the mall at least once per visit. Then when she’s finding a place for her new purchase, I might suggest the spot on the window sill where my favorite flower pot sits. If I’m after her jewelry (which is just too easy since I don’t have my brother’s competition here) I just put on a necklace she hasn’t worn much. When she sees it on me she’ll offer it to me.

My sister’s technique is a lot more direct. She’ll just sneak whatever she wants into her suitcase. She’s smart enough to pick things that are stored in the back of closets, so by the time anyone notices the absence she’s back in California.

My other brother probably has the best approach. He never asks for anything. Years pass while three of us are piling up our little trinkets and Mom suddenly realizes she hasn’t given anything to him, so she’ll give him the dining room table or something.

Interview

My friends at Ampolo interviewed me about this blog. Thanks guys!
I was also interviewed a few months ago by Chicago Magazine, but I never saw what they printed.

Watch the video here.

Approaching the Down Coat part 1

I’ve decided to ruin my winter vacation by making a down coat. This and the bathing suit are the most difficult garments I’ve tried to make. I bought the Altra Western Down Parka Kit on eBay. My plan right now is to design my own coat and use the kit’s feathers and some of the instructions. The drawing of the man sewing his own parka was on the side of the box. It's serving as inspiration. He looks so happy. He’s saving 30-50% of the retail cost by sewing the parka himself, say the instructions. The blurry picture of the candle is me searing the fabric. This stuff frays like crazy and searing it melts the edge a little to prevent this. It takes forever, so I’ll probably use my serger instead. I’ve included pages from my sketch book so you can see my thought process.

Approaching the Down Coat part 2

Plaid Turtleneck

I love turtlenecks. I had a great idea the other day while knitting. I’m working on a wool sweater, kitting from the bottom up, so I have plenty of time to think about what the neckline will be. I want it to be a turtleneck but the wool I’m using is too scratchy, so I thought I would just knit the neck with cotton yarn. It would be comfortable and warm! The idea is so practical, I wondered why this isn’t already a standard solution. Then I realized that the washing of the two fibers would be a problem. In my opinion, wool is self-cleaning. If you leave it alone long enough the smells always drop out. This is not the case with cotton. I would end up hand washing the neck, trying to keep the body of the sweater dry and that would be a pain.

Brown and Gray

When I made this top I was inspired by the stairs that I spend most of my time walking up and down. Every staircase at the back of an apartment building or condo in Chicago and Evanston look exactly like this. Same tan bricks, with gray painted stairs. There is only one gray for all the stairs, everywhere. I wonder if the bucket it comes in has a little picture of apartment stairs on it.

Reasonable Pajamas

I noticed that Banana Republic calls their pajama pants sleep pants. I guess it does sound more appealing. I finally made a decent pair of sleep pants and a suitable sleep top, although I screwed up the neckline. I thought I had knits figured out – but it’s never a sure bet when you’re dealing with stretch fabric. The stripes are once again created by the blinds and are not actually present on the clothes.

Accessories by Sharon

My friend Sharon knitted this beautiful scarf and hat for me. Sharon has written many of the comments on this blog and she sometimes posts them anonymously, which I think is really funny because it’s always obvious when she writes. She said this is a Hanukah present – I think because she didn’t want to make me feel obligated to match it, which one would naturally try to do if it were a Christmas present.

I absolutely love to give and receive presents, but the Christmastime pressure can take the fun out of it because everyone is expecting to get gifts. That immediately makes it stressful. It’s so much easier to delight someone with a gift when it comes as a complete surprise. Then there’s no awkwardness about reciprocation. If someone gives me a present out of the blue I can just enjoy it, knowing they weren’t expecting anything. I can take all the time I want deciding what to give them some other time.

My family started holding an auction last year to resolve the gift problem. Everyone brings several wrapped presents. There are no rules about what these presents are, how much they cost, how many there are, or whether they are new. Each family member gets $10,000 of play money for bidding. It makes everyone feel better when the present they brought goes for thousands of dollars when it might have only cost $7 at Walgreens. The auctioneer opens one present and starts the bidding. They can bid too. Whoever wins the item draws a card that gives them an additional instruction, like, collect an extra $500, or give this gift to the second highest bidder. That person is the auctioneer for the next round.

The auction is great because no one ends up with gifts they don’t want. And it’s much more fun to shop for presents generally rather than with specific people in mind. If someone brings a gift that no one bids on they are fined. There was much debate about how much the fine would be, and I can’t remember what it was. It had to be an amount that’s higher than the opening bid, or else you would just bid on the bad present yourself to avoid a fine. Obviously, this whole rule is designed to discourage people from bringing terrible gifts, which isn’t generally a problem in my family (unless I’m the one who keeps bringing them and I still haven’t figured it out).

A Scarf from Mom

My mom knitted this gorgeous scarf for me. She used to knit when we were little. I’m the youngest of four kids and I clearly remember the Christmas when she made us each a pair of gloves or mittens with extra long cuffs to keep our wrists warm. That was some time before I turned seven. I keep track of my childhood memories based on where we were living. I think kids who never moved must have an impossible time sorting out when things happened. Anyway – this is the period of my life when we lived in a house with an in-ground pool. I learned to swim when I was three by watching our golden retriever paddle around. I used to swim after the dog, each of us with a tennis ball in our mouth.

So, mom’s knitting again, which is great. I can’t believe anyone would want to spend their time knitting for someone else. I feel lucky.

Call Me Lamby

I finished my first knitted item. I feel like a stuffed animal when I wear it, which is kind of embarrassing when I’m out and about, but kind of comforting when I’m at home, looking for cuddle mates. The sweater attracts dog and husband equally.

Successful Jeans # 2 and Some Sewing Tips

I have used this pattern eight times now. I’ve made two great pairs of jeans, two good pairs of shorts, and four pairs of terrible pants. This pattern does not work with overly soft fabric or vertical stripes. This pair is almost identical to the initial pair of jeans, except the denim is dark gray instead of blue. I used the same pockets because they are exactly what I like. Front patch pockets are great because they are more feminine than regular pockets and the topstitching adds a few lines to break up the thigh/hip area. I’m also sticking with a slight boot-cut shape forever because it’s the most flattering on me. I’m not falling for the skinny jean trend, as it only works on skinny legs, and makes anyone with thighs & a butt look twice as big. I’ve had so many doubts about this whole project, but the freedom from ever having to shop for jeans for the rest of my life balances the frustrations.

I’ve spent a lot of my sewing time working on systems that will streamline productivity later. I traced all of the small jeans pattern pieces onto cardstock, so I can just lay them on the denim and trace around with a sliver of white soap (a fantastic tip I read somewhere) and cut without pinning.
If you make your own jeans or pants, this is one piece of information that always confuses me, and you have to get this right, even though it seems like it won’t make a difference. Apply the interfacing in the waistband to the outer piece of fabric, not to the facing. If you interface the facing, the outer side of the waistband stretches a little and you won’t be able to topstitch the waistband. Or at least, I wasn’t able to. What this means is that when you cut out the interfacing, make sure your pattern pieces (or template) are upside down. That way the fusible side will line up correctly with the waistband.

If you want to take flattering pictures of your rear, make sure you stand in an asymmetric pose (see example). Don’t keep your feet together, because you want to create a nice big shape between your legs which separates the mass of your body into two smaller shapes. More importantly, it creates a horizontal width greater than the one created by your butt. This works with all body parts, actually. Always shoot for the three quarter view to look slimmer and probably prettier. The other benefit in this case, is that you get to see the profile of a foot.

Fatal Wound for Self-Healing Mat

A self-healing mat is designed to recover from endless cutting on its surface, but it does not recover from improper storage I learned. I was keeping it under my bed on top of some sweater boxes which were not completely flat on top. I hadn't used the mat for a few months. When I pulled it out I found that it was no longer flat. The bumpiness makes cutting on it difficult and its ruler grids have become worthless. I keep it out on the floor now. I left it covered with heavy books for a week and that did nothing. Maybe I'll try a warm iron.

Crooky loves to sit on it. Dogs are so predictable this way. Anything at all that differentiates one section of floor from the rest of it becomes a target for them. They simply cannot resist sitting on it, whether it's a piece of cardboard, a towel, a sweater, or an oil painting.

Simplicity #4109

I heartily recommend this pattern. This is the reason I keep returning to Built by Wendy (Wendy Mullin for Simplicity) patterns. Some of them work really well. The sleeves are supposed to be set-in sleeves, but there was too much fabric for me to ease, so I just accepted that my version would have slightly gathered sleeve caps, and actually I needed this detail to balance the more masculine fabric and buttons. In my second version I will shorten the coat two inches so it doesn’t hit me at the widest part of my butt. This is unflattering, and the nice diagonal stripes of light won’t usually be there to break up that horizontal line. It took quite a while to get all those buttons & button holes (12) made, but the lack of a lining made the rest of the sewing pretty quick.

V-neck T-shirt

I finished one more wearable t-shirt. I’m still struggling with the v-neck. It’s hard to make the "V" because it gets stretched out or off center easily. I may give up and stick to boat neck. I tried a new approach with the hem this time. I used stitch-witchery which is an iron-on tape that holds the hem up. I think it’s meant to be left alone at that point, but I sewed over it anyway to make it last longer. The hem looks pretty good, but it doesn’t stretch at all. That’s one of the big problems with hemming knits – you want the hem to be stretchable, but not to stretch at all during the sewing.

Conquering the T-shirt

If you’ve been reading along from the beginning, you know I have a bad history with knit tops. I’ll admit now that there were additional terrible tops made that I didn’t even post. This long-sleeved lavender top has a terrible shape. It’s Butterick pattern #3344. If a neckline is that low, the shirt should be tight. I’m not a good candidate for low cut things in general, but I do love the way a very low v-neck looks with a layer underneath. That was the idea with the gray tank. This really should have had sleeves, but after making two pairs that I didn’t like, I decided to bind the armholes instead.

I love these T-shirts. I made both patterns myself, combining features I liked from my favorite old shirts. I also started finishing the neck hole and sleeves with separate strips of fabric, just like bias tape, only they’re cut perpendicular to the grain rather than at a 45 degree angle. It looks good and gives me the option of adding contrasting color or textural detail. I got these shirts done just before the last two days of warm weather, so I got to wear them each once.

French Denim

This is the second pair of jeans I was working on when I made the error in seam allowance. I only messed up the center front and back seams here, but it was enough to cause a major problem. The crotch is too tight. (There’s no need for you to comment on this one, Ann.) I think I’ll make a tunic to cover that area. I’ve never worn one, but these jeans should layer well under a tunic because there are no belt loops or other lumpy details.

Country Blouse

Another blouse joins my short list of public wearables. I really like the sleeves, as indicated by the detail image. The front is rather flat and plain, so it would work better under a jumper if I can make a decent one. A vest might also work, or a large necklace, or a thick belt. Something must be done to visually break up my torso since there’s nothing volumetric happening.

Blue Mistake

I’m looking for knit top patterns that are more interesting than t-shirts. This is definitely not what I’m after. Most of my clothes have one glaring problem that warrants them un-wearable, but this time I combined ugly color, bad style, and poor execution. And it has those same stupid star-trek “sleeves” that my first nightgown had. They looked so normal the pattern illustration.

Technical comments for sewers –
Another problem with the pattern is the neckline. It has a facing, which will never look good or stay in place on a knit. I suspect this is done because home sewers can actually accomplish it easily. This is a Simplicity pattern, after all. The whole shirt should be lined if the goal is to have a neckline without any band or collar. It also has pleats on the shoulders which fall into a messy series of wrinkles. Gathers would look a lot better in a knit.

Motivational Jeans

I was sewing away last night, working on two pairs of jeans at the same time. When I make pants I finish all of the details like the fly and the pockets before the major seams, like those that run down the leg. I had just put in these seams on one pair of the jeans, in my final moments of productivity before I caved in to exhaustion and the final episode of Deadwood. I held up the pants but did not try them on because I’ve used this pattern four times and I knew they would fit. They looked surprisingly small. I happily thought, wow, I’m thin! It would not be embarrassing at all to have these little jeans hanging out to dry if I had a yard and a clothes line.

This morning I spent another hour attaching the waistband and finally tried on the jeans. They’re obscenely tight. I then remembered that my jeans pattern has a ½” seam allowance instead of the typical 5/8” that every other pattern in the world uses. (Thanks again Wendy Mullin. Why did you do this!) You might not think that 1/8” would matter that much, but that adds up to ½” per leg circumference. I guess no woman’s wardrobe is complete without a too-small pair of jeans serving as diet motivation.

August Contest

Notice the picture of the hand-sewn felt kangaroo above. She is the prize for the August contest. Now, for the rules. The best guess for what the kangaroo is stuffed with wins.

additional rule: Once I have selected a winner you must email me an address for the shipment of your prize - unless I already know where you live. Artaroundo, I'm still wondering who you are and how I can get your tote bag to you.

Miss Coach

One of the things that made shopping difficult for me was the awareness I have of company branding. I guess I take advertising too seriously, but I feel like I know what woman each designer is targeting, and none of them are me. Shopping in a department store offers some nicely generic possibilities because each store has its own brands and they seem to be based on larger parameters, like “urban 25-35 year-olds.” But Marshall Field’s shut down and I never found a suitable replacement.

When I try on clothes I picture the models in the ads and the people I’ve seen wearing those things and know it’s not for me. I happened to have a pair of coach tennis shoes that I wore to my fancy dentist. He actually lit scented candles in the examination room and had a camera that could project your cavities on a large flat screen monitor. When I sat in his chair and put my feet up he said, “Hey Miss Coach,” and smiled. If I had been a person in the habit of wearing designer stuff, he wouldn’t have commented. It was really embarrassing- like he was saying to a toddler, “Wow, you’re walking!”

I thought that by making my own clothes, I would have things that I felt right about wearing. I would never come to class matching one of my students. I wouldn’t be misusing someone’s brand. I also fantasized about opening my closet doors to a perfect wardrobe. I could really enjoy wearing my favorite clothes, knowing I could always make them again if I happened to ruin them. I also had been feeling a little pang of yearning every time I saw this classroom of dress forms through the train window as I passed one of the design schools downtown. I just wanted to sew. I wanted to learn everything about fashion and making clothes. I was seduced equally by the fantasy of the result and of the process.

If I have any talent, it’s for ignoring the mounting evidence that I’m not good at something. I had hoped that I could be wearing homemade every day when I teach this year. I’m afraid that isn’t going to happen because I don’t want this project to be any more about embarrassment than it already is. The bright side is that it gives me time to wear out my initial wardrobe and to say a slow goodbye to the few things I really liked.

Pleated Skirt

One new strategy I’ve recently employed is to try on clothes in a store to help me figure out what to make. This black skirt is very similar to one I found at the Boston Store when I was shopping with my mom. I used the same black fabric for this skirt, the Back to School dress, and the Black Pants with Colorful Top. It’s a woven cotton with a slight stretch. I now appreciate how complicated fabric selection is. The subtle qualities of each material greatly influence its most appropriate use. The fabric worked really well for this skirt, but it didn’t work at all for the pants. It’s a very soft fabric, which helps the pleats move a lot when I walk, and that looks cool. The problem it created with the pants was that it sagged on the back of my legs, on my thighs. I don’t know all of the official fabric terms yet, but I think maybe crispness is the quality fabric must have for pants, and fluid is good for skirts.

Black and Blue Skirt

My friend Marci gave me the fabric for this skirt. It’s a retro-looking grid of garden tools. The print was white on black, but I thought it was too much contrast, so I dyed it “denim blue.” This was the first time I’ve dyed something. I had to use a plastic bucket in the tub because we don’t have our own washing machine and I suspect the condo has rules about dyeing in the laundry room. The directions said to agitate the dye the entire time. I sat at the edge of the tub stirring away with one hand and blocking the dog with the other. After half an hour I was supposed to rinse the skirt until the water ran clear, which it never did. Then I washed it by hand and rinsed some more. The whole process was tiring, but worth it. I love black and blue together.

Back to School

My new strategy for decision making is to think about where I’m going to go, and what I’d like wear there. At the beginning of the summer I was just thinking about what might be interesting to make. I ended up making a lots of things I never want to wear.

School starts next week. I teach college students. My goal is to look good without looking like one of them. I’ve always struggled the most dressing for hot days when I need to look somewhat professional. I have to walk several blocks from the train, so I don’t want to wear pants because I’ll sweat too much. Besides that, I’m determined to figure out how to make dresses and skirts that I like.

I expected this dress to be more flattering than it is. I should’ve taken in the waist more because it makes me look wide and shapeless. The belt helped, but it would look better with a wider one. I embroidered the neckline to make the dress more interesting, and also more casual. I used thick variegated matte thread. I was surprised at the results. From a distance it looks like it’s beaded. The white threads appear to be shiny glass beads reflecting light. This is similar to what Ann picked up on with the embroidered blazer. It reminds me of faux-finishing.

Recycled T-Shirt

When I bought my serger it came with unlimited free lessons on its use. During one session my teacher said, “I tell all of my students that if you learned how to drive a stick-shift, you can certainly learn how to use a serger.”

I had to learn to drive on a stick-shift because it was all my family had. My brother took me to an empty parking lot for my first lesson. I managed to get the car stuck in a mud puddle on the periphery of the lot. My brother was too astonished at my complete lack of control to get mad at me. During one of my tearful practice drives my mom said to me, “Keiler, you know how to use a serger. You can learn to drive a stick-shift.” I did eventually learn how to drive, but I prefer to travel by train or foot.

I have finished my serger lessons, with the last one focusing on the cover stitch. This is the one I told you about, seen primarily on t-shirt hems. The machine makes two rows of straight topstitching on the front and a ladder on the back that encloses the raw edge. I made this t-shirt out of one that Scott got at a computer game conference. I didn’t use any of the existing seams, so I don’t think I’m cheating by using clothes to make clothes. I’m happy with this. If anyone out there has large t-shirts with weird graphics that you don’t want to be seen wearing, please send them to me.


This is my serger - Viking Huskylock 936
It isn't my actual serger - this picture is from the Husqvarna website.

Oldenburg Jacket

I like to wear blazers to work. This is one item that has been particularly hard to shop for because I like fitted jackets and manufactured ones are almost always too busty and short-sleeved for me. They also tend to be too expensive. I had several ill feelings while making this. The pattern has eleven pieces. Once you cut them out, you have 37 pieces of fabric, lining, and interfacing. The instructions go on for five pages, giving 90 steps with diagrams. It’s approximately as thick as a newspaper. I made this from clearance and free fabric because I wasn’t sure if it would fit. I don’t like it. Scott said it looks like an Oldenburg sculpture. It has a soft, rumpled look that is unusual for something that should look structured. Additionally, I hate the combination of yellow and blue. I didn’t think the lining would show, but you definitely catch glimpses of it up the sleeve as I move about.

Scott suggested that I embroider something on the collar to bring the eye up. I made tiny stitches in a scattered pattern in several shades of blue similar to that of the fabric. I did this because I wanted to add texture to the fabric without doing something too decorative, like distinct shapes. It gives the illusion of sweater pills.

Claes Oldenburg, Floor Cone, 1962