Pageant

Did you ever have to wear an angel or shepherd costume in a Nativity pageant during the 70s or 80s?

Progress Report

I’m going to offer an excuse (one of many to come, I’m sure) for why I’m not having more success with the sewing. Right now I’m mainly limiting myself to $1 per yard fabrics while I test out patterns and hone my skills. I’m not enough of a purist to make muslin mock-ups. It’s mainly because muslin is more than $1/yd. I really don’t like all of the fabric choices I’ve made. I thought they would be more transformed when they were shaped into a piece of clothing. It turns out, ugly fabric makes ugly clothes. Lesson learned. Still – these ugly things have an important role to play in my growing wardrobe. Doesn’t everyone need crummy clothes for messy projects, like changing the oil or expressing your dog’s anal glands? Assuming I fulfill my goal in this project, after a year passes I won’t have any old clothes. If I were making one fantastic thing after another I would have to whip up some aprons, smocks, and coveralls. I might do it anyway, simply because those things are fun to make, but think about that. Can you image a wardrobe without grubbies?

Lavender Tank Top

Again – I have met with success simply by making something fairly generic. There are no problems with this top other than the extreme visibility of sweat spots that develop under the arms. I will not wear this to work again. I used elastic lace to hem the bottom. I bought a ton of the stuff on eBay and will certainly use it. It takes away the most difficult part of dealing with knits – finishing hems without stretching out the shape of the fabric.

Summer Dress

This dress is OK! First - some comments on the photos. I have several scars on my back that I felt free to Photoshop out. I just don't want anyone to be disappointed when you meet me or see me wearing this around. Second, I realize now that I might want to wear a bra with this. I feel totally alright with the dress though. I used some quilter's cotton that I got for $3 at a rummage sale. You simply can't use this kind of fabric without the home-sewer-y look. I don't mind that in this case. The fit is perfect, if I do say so myself. I had to change the pattern in two places and I'm beginning to get a little faster at that part of the process.

Suit Yourself

I like to have many projects going at once to help deflect the frustration accumulating around any one. I mentioned in the first post that I have been working on a jacket. It’s still in my “unresolved” pile. The question about underwear arose in the early posts as well. Here’s my strategy. I bought a bikini pattern thinking this would double as underwear if I change the fabric. Right now I am trying to make the swim suit as shown (top C with bottom H) so I can get some use out of my Evanston beach pass. So far the process has been every bit as futile as I expected. If you are carefully analyzing the pattern picture you might have been curious about the size. DD does not refer to the cup size – I actually have no idea what significance it has. I’m more of an AA, or A+ as I like to think. The pattern companies have stayed true to the numerical sizes of my grandmother’s generation, so even though I waited long enough for my clothing size to drop to a single digit as retailers succumbed to the brilliant marketing ploy of size reduction, now that I’m sewing I’m up to a 14. I guarantee that this is enough to prevent a lot of women from making their own clothes. Luckily I found a basket of embroidered size tags as Vogue Fabric labeled XS. Problem solved. Also, I did not pay $16.95 for the pattern. It was on sale for $6.50.

I happened to try on a few swim suits recently (for research of course - because I won’t be buying clothes anymore) and was very happy to see that so many include skirts and ruffles. I wonder how far I can take this – a cap sleeve? Mini pockets? A small hood? Teeny-weeny is on its way out.

Emergency Pants

In order to make this project easier I am trying very hard to maintain the same weight. Well – within a two pound range, anyway. After putting so much energy into getting things to fit right, I really can’t cope with size fluctuation. Bloating happens, though, so yesterday morning I whipped up this pair of elastic waistband seersuckers. Yikes, I look like a guy in this picture.

Buttonholes

I still haven’t figured out how to make a nice buttonhole with my fantastic sewing machine. They end up really thick like little earthworms. I’m also concerned about how much thread must go into each one. I read in a fashion magazine (W I think) about a growing interest in craftsmanship. One jacket in particular was mentioned favorably for its hand-bound button holes. Now there’s luxury! I spent the afternoon (yes, multiple hours) hand-binding three of the five buttonholes on this blouse. My thread supply offered these options – thick buttonhole thread in the wrong color and regular thin thread in a matching color. I used the thick brown thread on the first button hole, starting nearest the neck, making two errors in one decision. The second two are lovely, though I can’t picture myself shopping for designer clothes and exclaiming, “Well that Versace dress was pretty cool, but this one has hand-bound buttonholes!”

Gorilla Arms

This is definitely the last time I’m using a Built by Wendy (Wendy Mullin) pattern. There are two major problems with this design. I simply can’t tie a decent looking bow at the neck. I might have made the tie too wide, but I’m almost positive I followed the directions for the seam allowance. Even if it were a narrower band, I don’t think the neck is tight enough for the bow to sit at the right place. The second problem is the Popeye sleeves. I’ve always been pretty happy with my forearms – particularly because they’re smaller than my biceps. Although creative, I don’t think the gathered elbow puff is really helping anyone.

One more problem exists, and this one is totally my fault. I managed to make two left sleeves. I did this by sewing one correctly and the other with the wrong sides together. In some circumstances this wouldn’t matter, but these sleeves have a placket at the back of the wrist (or in my case the back of the left and the front of the right). That’s just the kind of thing that tells me I’m done sewing for the day.

I was recently browsing at the library and came across one of the new, trendy sewing books that offers a lot of T-shirt based projects and other things that are easy to make and hard to find use for. Instead of referring to the right side and the wrong side it used the terms business side and party side. If I had known how much this would irritate me later I would have hung around long enough to see which of those sides are to be sewn together. Relating sewing instructions offers no time for cutesy distractions that will lead to even more failures than the act of sewing does already. So, back to the question. Which side is which? Initially I thought the business side must be the outside and the party side the inside because you have to present a business-like appearance to the world while the party side rubs against your naked body all day. My friend Sharon thought the opposite, and I think she’s got the more logical solution to this. She said the business side would be the inside because that’s where all the work is –the seams and construction. The party side is the decorative outside. Her opinion makes so much sense, in fact, that I might have better luck putting the pieces together next time.





This is the Built by Wendy pattern. You can see that she shows the bow untied because she must have also realized that it looks really dorky when tied. I don't think this is a satisfactory solution though. The blouse on the right may also look familiar to my consistent readers. It is the the pattern I used for the gray blouse under Evening Wear.

Come to Bed, Honey

You may recognize this fabric from the disastrous T-shirt. I now have a coordinating and even stranger nightgown. I’m not going to take all the blame for this one. I’ve been using patterns by Wendy Mullin. Sewers know that she wrote a really helpful and fun to read book called Sew U. It includes three patterns (skirt, shirt, and pants) and encourages readers to make a whole wardrobe out of those basic components. Additionally, she designed several patterns published by Simplicity. With a slight change in fabric weight and color I’ve transformed her hip little tunic into a Sci-Fi costume. As they say on American Idol – at least I’ve “made it my own.”

Notions

I'm pretty sure everyone who sews has a fetish for the materials. Finding a justification for the hoarding of fabric and notions is more motivating than the promise of custom garments. Pictured above are my button & trim stash. Most of these came my way from my close friend and frequent blog commenter, Rowsoprose.

We Wear Mid-length Shorts

Here I used the only pattern that has yielded good results (the one for jeans). My plan was to make something that would look like cut-off pants. I had a very nice plan for the pockets but while I was working away I decided to follow an inclination to improvise and I ended up with these asymmetrical shorts. This wasn’t the best idea, but I would place these in my “wearable for walks, at home, and among the very closest friends & family” category. So, if you happen to see me wearing these lovelies – feel flattered!

The Trouble with Knits

When I tell people that I’ve been sewing a lot lately one common response is, “That’s great. You can make things you really like.” I wish this were the case. I spent my entire Saturday working on this awful T-shirt. This is possibly the most un-wearable item I’ve created so far. T-shirt fabric is really difficult to work with. Knits have a tendency to stretch as you sew, resulting in a wavy edge that will never return to its original shape. This is most apparent at the hem. This T-shirt doesn’t fit me vertically or horizontally. I had to cut the shoulder seam off three times because I kept ruining it in new and different ways. The shirt got shorter as the neck got wider. I have no good explanation for the general width of the shirt. I obviously need to alter the pattern.

Response to Comment Regarding Tote Bags

Lee said...

Those bags are brilliant. But I would just use them for my long arm/short arm.

Excellent.

Dear Lee,

I thought of an outfit that you may find just as useful as the tote bags with long and short handles.

- Keiler