My October Sewing Basket

Last month I posted the list of sewing I hoped to get done during September. I normally only keep this list on my iPhone, but it was fun sharing it.

Herein....

1) What I'm planning to sew in October

2) What I got done in September.

1) What I'm planning to sew in October

- Finish the basic much needed camisole I worked so hard on in September. See notes below.

- A new pair of pants, either light weight denim or beige twill - I've got 3 yards of each. I'll be using the same patterns I used for The Lady Wears Shorts, which I've got fitting pretty well. I'm taking a "Pants Construction" class at Cañada this month, and the project is due by the end of the month. Well, that will keep me on schedule!

- Trace, tissue fit and toile a Vogue blouse pattern. I'd like to say get it sewn too, but given time.... I'll be happy to just get going on this project.

- Start in on the next project for my main sewing class at Cañada - elastic waist linen pants

- I'd love to get at least one tee done, either one of my new Hot Patterns or another of the Stretch and Sew 333 tees I sewed for class in September, but that is a bit too much blue skying.

2) What I got done in September
I didn't get absolutely everything done, but - I'm happy!

My September goals included:

         - One pair of green shorts. Done!

          - A cloche style cap, like the one I now wear almost everyday (It needs break and a bath!) . Refer back to "Chewing a Bun with Tuppence" (an earlier posting)Done!

Please check out both shorts and cap in this earlier posting.


           - One test pair of unmentionable nether garments! Done! NO PHOTO, they aren't very cute, but I learned good basic techniques in my Sewing Lingerie  class.
          
 - A mostly sewn buttercup purse (See my "Do You Like Butter?" posting) Done!
I've really been enjoying carrying this purse for the last couple of weeks. Isn't it cute?

I also completed the first project for my sewing class at Cañada, a Kwik Sew #333 tee shirt. No photo yet, but I'll post it. Of course I spent a lot of time on it because I was working on technique - not my usual sew and go mode. I included an embellishment I'd been meaning to try. I'll post more about that shirt soon - hopefully with a photo.

          - A beige lingerie type camisole to go under a very pretty sheer, burnt-knit, dressy yellow tee shirt I finished recently. (No, I can't take a photo of me in it because it would only look appropriate in the kind of establishment I don't patronize! You probably drive by them too.) Believe me, Ineed a camisole under that tee. Still in progress....

Man alive... This camisole has been a lot more work than I expected. I was pushing hard to get it done this evening, but I made a study committment  for my independent study work (apps development) to always put a minimum chunk of work in every day, and I like to keep those promises to myself. I should have that camisole ready pretty durn soon. It's crucial for wearing under that sheer yellow tee I made a month or two back, and I plan to sew one or two more sheer tees out of a couple of pieces of stretch lace I bought from fabric.com. So I really need that girl done. I picked up a couple of techniques while taking the Lingerie class that came in handy. They included: neck edges for v-necks, the baby hem, and plaited straps out of spaghetti straps (see the Jan Bones Lingerie book). I also drafted the pattern for the camp using the Jan Bones book. It was my first experience drafting from scratch. The front worked pretty well, but I made some errors in the back. Fixing and accomodating those errors added a good chunk of time to the project.

More time was eaten up because I made the cami  out of beige 2-way stretch knit (swimwear/dancewear type stuff). The regular presser foot grabbed the fabric a lot. also I was using a ballpoint needle, which I thought meant knits, but I guess it didn't. Finally, I switched to a needle that actually said "stretch", switched my presser foot to my 'teflon foot' and things went much more smoothly. 

What the Fashion Forward Mermaids are Wearing This Year

Another Project Completed from 

My September Sewing Basket!

I adore this 95%polyester/5% Lycra ruffled, mint-colored fabric I scored at Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkley. That store has a ton of great knits and it's worth making the trip. It helps that there's a BART station nearby (The Ashby Station). I take BART from Millbrae.

I was a little concerned that I might feel like a green marshmallow once the top was done, but it turned out great and made me really happy. And how many tees go with pearls? I feel just like a fashionable mermaid when I wear this ensemble.

The pattern is a many-times altered pattern. It started out with no darts, a higher neckline and a boxier shape. I just keep changing it.

Techniques: Had to take the darts out because the ruffles got caught up and flipped funny. Decided it was much quicker to pin the ruffles in place, when redoing the darts, and sew them by hand. It doesn't take that all long to sew a dart by hand, and is much less frustrating.

I was unsure how to finish the neckband, hems and sleeves until I realized this was the perfect no-edge-sew garment. I stabilized the neckline slightly with tiny hand stitches in silk thread which just happened to match - a spool someone had given me probably twenty years ago! It looks just fine and not at all unfinished.

I put off doing this posting because the photo isn't really very good. Honestly, the shirt looks a lot better than this! 

The Lady Wears Shorts Part 2

Knocking another project off my September Sewing Plan!

I focused a lot on the importance of shorts in my life this summer. Summer might be over, but the warm weather in the San Francisco Bay Area is still with us. With luck, I'll be wearing shorts off and on for another couple of months. We're expecting a few hot days and getting these shorts done seemed like a great idea. Otherwise, I was a little suspicious I might just have them cut out and then not get them sewn until next year. Old cutouts never look as appealing as the freshly prepped piles of fabric, pins and tissue. Sometimes they end up getting recut as tote bags and purses - four or five years later!

I'm pretty darn happy with this sage green shorts and cap set. Yup, another home dec fabric. And why not? It seems to wash OK, especially since I don't machine dry stuff I've sewn. And I like the weight of the material. I'm going to track these and see if they fade any faster than the blue denim I made earlier in the summer. Those are actually starting to fade a little and they are just regular denim. Shorts are a hard wearing garment, and I probably can't expect them to last more than one or two seasons, given the number of times I'll probably wear them, and the fact they'll get relatively sturdy-demanding use hiking, biking and walking.

Once more I used McCalls 6403. That's the third time this summer for that pattern. I still have to fool around getting the fitting just right, because each different type of fabric seems to react differently around the waist and hip area, but I'm starting to get a feel for the pattern. I need to retissue/trace the pattern and file a full set of tracings away. I'm still relying on the altered tissue pieces combined with a few original pattern pieces and that's asking for trouble when it comes to losing a piece. Better to keep one master set of pieces and a complete altered set. 

 I'm looking forward to wearing my new outfit to my Sunday afternoon sewing class and then for a hike on Monday after class.

Times have changed since I was a little girl when it comes to shorts wearing. I've lived through some cultural changes when it comes to the social acceptance of pants wearing. Those pensamientos are in an article I wrote a few weeks back, The Lady Wears Shorts: Part 1.

Techniques: 

Fitting:

* I made a lot of trips back and forth to the mirror, pinching, pinning and marking. A machine basting stitch and several safety pins sped the process up. I never had to resort to the seam ripper, because I basted nearly everything and quick checked. A nice fit at the waist and hips is crucial and no pattern piece really does it for me when it comes to getting the garment smoothed over right. Probably the variety of materials I've used for the three different pairs of shorts I've sewn using the same altered pattern tissue affects the need to work slowly through the hips and waist fit.

I even basted the cuff seams before doing the official seams. And I was glad I had.

Waistband: 

* I meant to interface with regular fusible interfacing, but by mistake I used two sided fusible. Well, why not? I'm giving it a try. Note to self - start labeling the interfacing! The plastic wrap directions sheet doesn't always indicate what I bought.

* I sewed Petersham ribbon over the inside of the waistband. I did the same thing on my last pair of shorts I sewed with this pattern. I've been pretty happy with that pair, though the waistband still loosens up between washings.

*I'll probably add belt loops, but they are absolutely wearable now. I tried to fit them a little tighter at the waist to avoid the loosening up over time challenge, belt loops or no.

Fly Front Zipper

* I'm still fighting the fly front zipper. Next month I'm taking a pants construction 4 session class, hoping to get more comfortable with the techniques, particularly the area right around the top and the transition between the front and the waistband. Trudy's fly front zipper Hot Patterns tutorial gave me the confidence to take on fly fronts, but I"m not really there yet.

When Zippers Fly - September Sewing Basket

My September Sewing Basket is Singing Out To Me
Haloooooo, we're still full over here!

I'm still working away on completing the items in my September sewing basket.

Finally getting on with those sage-y green shorts. Yes, we can still hope to wear shorts here in the San Francisco Bay Area for another month or more. What is it about getting those fly front zipper techniques down? I'm going to review Trudy's fly-front zipper tutorial on youtube. Thanks again to Hot Patterns.

Why do they call it a "fly" on the front of the zipper?

From past experience, I don't think this zip will be flying off my machine that all quickly.

Buena suerte para mí!

Pensamientos: The ubiquitos tee shirt, today's calico dress

The ubiquitos tee shirt plays much the same role in my closet, as the  calico dress did in my great-great grandmother's wardrobe.

Can't you just see those pioneer gals, my anglo-saxon foremothers,  donning their fresh new frocks and hopping into the buckboard with their husbands? They were headed off to the recently opened lands across the Alleghanies, to drive out my native-american foremothers and their husbands from the western territories. When the cultural clash was over, they settled into planting, sowing and reaping, clad in the latest fabrics. Those calico yard goods, so recently imported from India, were much more affordable and comfortable than the heavy-weight serges, woolens and linsey woolsey fabrics their mothers had worn. Why at this price, a girl could maybe have two or three dresses whereas Mama had needed to be content with one. The soft fabric was practical, but also moved in graceful, fluid folds that made it a pleasure to wear. They were so charming too! The bright colors and pretty designs of the frontier woman's favored dress, beat the old plain, severely colored fabrics all hollow.

I have a vision of my great-great-grandmother Lily with her brightly colored, patterned calico-er skirts tucked up in the waistband of her apron. She's out digging up the sod to plant 200 rows of vegetables she hopes to grow for winter canning, after which little task, she maybe has time to start in on the ironing, see to making dinner, and whitewash the hen coop. That's all before midday, of course. Her calico dresses are getting quite a workout.

Nowadays I don a tee shirt before I head out for my own work writing code and studying in class. My tees are practical too. They take me from school to a hike at Edgewood Nature Preserve, or on a bike ride to the grocery store. And I love to sew them up in pretty colors and fabric, and embellish them with unique designs, so that they're more than just a plain workday garment. Tees are affordable to sew too. For the cost + sewing labor of one buttoned shirt, I can create three tees.

All this thought about my favorite garment is setting my heart yearning to sew. Shore do hope I 'git to that sewing machine o'mine afore nightfall.

Pensamientos: Sewing vs. Soccer

Last weekend, as I headed off to my weekend lingerie sewing class at Cañada, I suddenly noticed the dummy light, indicating I hadn't shut the back of the car properly, was on. I pulled over a few doors down from my own house. When I  hopped out to slam down the errant hatch, I saw that my young neighbor Gregoire was playing in his front yard.

"Hi Laurel. " he greeted me. "I've got a soccer game!"

I acknowledged the importance of this event in his young life properly.

"Where are you going?"

Gregoire has recently turned seven. Erasmus wasn't kidding with that age-of-awareness stuff. Greg has suddenly become conscious that the world doesn't actually revolve around his doings, and he's curious about it.

"I've driving to a sewing class."

Gregoire was silent for a long moment. I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head, at the thought that I was heading cheerily, perhaps voluntarily, off to a class on a Sunday afternoon.

"Do you like that?", he finally asked.

"Greg," I answered, "I feel about sewing classes like you feel about playing soccer."

There was another lengthy pause.

"Have fun at your class," he responded in a decided manner.

I drove off down the road, feeling sure that Gregoire had greatly enlarged his view of the social complexities of the world.

Tee Time Technique: Stayin’ Stable at the Shoulder

Having made a few tee shirts out of wiggly-jiggly-creeping-down-the-arm-over-time jersey-type knits, I was suspicious that I needed to learn more about stabilizing the shoulder seams. Here’s what I learned about that in class today.

Thanks Rhonda!

Technique

1)  Sew shoulder seams – front to back (maybe you like to sew them back to front, it’s your call :-)

2)  Cut a ¼ inch wide piece of fabric the length of the seam. IMPORTANT cut it the opposite direction from the stretch. If, say, the tee knit fabric stretches left to right (from selvedge to selvedge) then cut this piece top to bottom. As a matter of fact, the selvedge might be a great place, from which, to cut the strip.

3)  Sew this stabilizing strip right on top of the shoulder seam.

4)  Another good, supportive, idea is to topstitch on either side of the shoulder seam, either as the stole method of stabilizing or in addition to the stabilizing strip. 

Since knits don't ravel there's no need to finish the seam edges