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Alive

2009-06-25T15:59:00.001-07:00

This is just a short note to say that I'm still alive and settling into life in San Francisco. The internship is going well and I'm hoping to get steady-ish work in the Bay Area after it's finished, and I'll have figured out how to manage my time by then. I keep thinking about all the clothes I could be wearing if I had time to sew, so I'll be making time pretty soon!

Hiatus

2009-05-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

Within a week I'll be wrapping up my year as a VISTA in Nashville, and moving to San Francisco for a summer internship. I get the feeling the hours will be a bit more than full time, so I'll be leaving my stash and machine home in southern California to wait for me until I have the time.

This means of course that this blog will not be updated with new projects until that time comes. Life is up in the air again after the internship ends in August, as it remains to be seen what part of the country I'll be living in and how I will be employed. But I look forward to getting back to sewing when I can, as I have so many projects waiting for me!

Wearing the 30s

2009-05-09T18:28:00.000-07:00

Finished up the details and wore the dress to the wedding today:

Yup. It's fuzzy. The one that didn't turn out fuzzy is of course the one where I look like a librarian. You can click through and see that one in the Burdastyle listing. I need someone around to take the pictures because it takes so long to take a picture of yourself that comes out right.

It's a really lovely, comfortable dress. I didn't wear it for very long though because I'm sick and ducked out right after the ceremony. I believe this one will get a lot of wear since it's not necessarily fancy. It's a good weekend on the town in the spring/summer dress.

Lots of pillows

2009-05-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

My roommates are tying the knot, and after deliberation decided that I could make them pillows for their wedding present (I asked them what I could make that would be useful to them). Here they are:

I made piping for the first time too. The large roll of bias strips:

It's more involved including piping trim, but the pillows come out a lot sturdier and professional looking. I stuffed them with all the extra kapok I had lying around!

Learning

2009-04-19T17:34:00.000-07:00

So my new/old machine and I had fun today polishing off the four buttonholes I need for my 30s dress. Then we were going to simply hem the lining and be done for the day. Alas, it was not to be. When I went to sew a straight stitch, the threads were completely loose on the underside. Cranked the top thread tension and high as it could go, no luck. I realized the bobbin tension was so loose as to be nonexistent, so I tinkered with the bobbin for possibly two hours and gave up hope, deciding that my bobbin case refuses to do the drop test. It would either drop freely with the bobbin falling out and rolling all over the floor, or it would be completely stuck, no matter how tiny the adjustment. Does this have to do with it being a drop-in bobbin?

So I wanted to curl in a ball and cry. I did. Then I did something else for a little while. I thought, I must not be threading it correctly. The other possibilities: stray threads, lint, old needle, damaged bobbin, all eliminated. Then I realized: the one part of threading the Singer 401 (or any old machine) I don't understand: guiding it through the tension discs. I tried different interpretations of that, finally succeeding after guiding the thread behind the first disc. I realized I had it behind the discs the whole time, essentially giving the top thread 0 tension.

What I find funny is that I sewed a zigzag stitch successfully with almost no tension on the top or bottom threads. It was more loose on the bottom than I would have liked, but there were no big issues.

So finally, I think I'm getting the hang of this machine.

New Old Machine

2009-04-18T17:40:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling like I needed an upgrade from my Singer Esteem for awhile now (a lovely machine to begin with to be sure you really like to sew, but it can't deal with heavyweight fabrics or multiple layers of much of anything), and have been biding my time to find a Singer 401 (circa 1950s) for a price I could live with. And here it is!

I settled on an old machine because machines of similar quality today are thousands of dollars, and as much as I love sewing I don't know if I'd ever want to spend that kind of money on a machine because I don't think it's necessary. I tested it out today and it sews beautifully. It nailed the tiny zigzag stitches that my Esteem was never able to do quite right.

I bought it from someone who services old machines, but I was disappointed to find there were gobs of gunk and lint inside. So I spent a few hours today cleaning it inside and out and oiling/lubricating. I didn't feel I had the talent or patience to take it completely apart, clean, and put it back together, but I was able to clear away quite a bit of debris. I did notice that some of the gears in the bottom portion may have a little rust. There isn't rust damage, but it looks like rust. Does anyone know what I can do for this?

Vintage inspired?

2009-04-15T15:19:00.000-07:00

Modern patterns usually strike me as shapeless and too reliant on stretchy fabrics or just generally boring and copies of ready-to-wear, so I tend not to bother. But SewDucky is doing a series on figure analysis and including pictures of modern patterns as examples, and this pair of culottes from the Marfy line caught my eye. I thought I hated culottes but maybe I was confusing them with gauchos. So I had to investigate Marfy. Really good stuff. I don't know about other years, but this year they're definitely taking cues from the 30s, 60s, and 70s.

I fell hard for this dress.

As a rule, a single pattern for $20 is hardly ever worth it to me, but this is worth it. This dress is me.

I'm dreading the reality that Marfy patterns apparently come with no instructions/diagrams but I think I've done enough sewing to figure it out. Nothing about it looks particularly crazy or difficult.

Yup.

2009-04-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

My machine refuses to sew buttonholes.

Plan B: utilize zig-zag stitch.

Plan C: by hand.

Also: I busted the bottom portion of my blinds on one window trying to pull them down after they jammed.
And said window also became jammed slightly ajar the night before a freeze warning. Thanks duct tape.

The Stash

2009-04-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

I didn't do any sewing today. Because I felt like being braindead and continuing my personal Jericho marathon. But I did manage to look through my scraps and leftover fabric to get together what I need to make a matching hat for the 30s dress. It's going to be from this pattern for a 20s wide brimmed cloche, the version with the shorter brim.

I basically pulled all my bags of fabric from the shelves, noticing that the stash has at least doubled in size since my move across the country last July. This is odd because I don't consider myself a compulsive buyer of fabric, but maybe I should. Usually what happens is I decide I need something for some reason, and since I normally buy fabric online I tend to want to stock up for the next few projects to save on shipping. I buy project-specific, hardly ever because I run across a fabric I particularly like.

So it looks like I have quite a few months of projects stored up. It was time to look through the whole pile and do some math. I have enough fabric for 24 projects, specifically:

8 Blouses
7 Dresses
3 Skirts
2 Jackets
1 Pair of Pants
1 Robe
1 Pair of Overalls
1 Jumper

At the rate I've gone over the past year and a half of on average 1.6 projects per month, I have enough work ahead of me for 15 months. In the event that I get into the line of work I'm looking for, in which I will often be working days, nights, and weekends, as opposed to my 9-5 now, we can probably extend that timeline. Madness! So I am making a public declaration that I will not be buying any more fabric until at least half of those projects are completed. Wish me luck.

Progress

2009-03-29T17:44:00.000-07:00

Looking more and more like a dress:

If you click through maybe you can notice I just laid the buttons on top. Left to do: buttonholes, hem sleeves and skirt, zipper.

Happily it is coming out oh-so-very 30s and quite nice I think. The sleeves have more body now than they will after the final wash. I used Sullivan's stabilizer to work with the slippery "china silk," which gives it a pretty stiff quality, but it washes out.

This pattern is very simple but I've had to do some extra thinking and sewing because of the two layers (I'm basically sewing up two dresses) and because it is the first time I've worked with slippery and sheer fabrics. I spent at least an hour today thinking of and trying out various methods I could use to hem the chiffon. I settled on a rolled hem, but had to purchase the foot because without the foot it's impossible (this fabric does not iron, even damp!). So it'll be a week at least before I get that and before I hem anything.

Notes

2009-03-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes just buying vintage is highly satisfying. A new vintage boutique opened in walking distance from my home, so I went to take a look today and found this:

I think of it as the 70s channeling the 30s and coming up with something that's simple and classic. This morning when I was feeling neurotic and it took me over a half hour to decide what to wear I discovered I have an aversion to looks that can be "pinned down." I would put something together and say, "No, too casual 50s housewife," or "No, too modern hipster who wears 80s vintage," etc., until I threw on my favorite sweater that continually saves me from having a defined "look." So I like this dress because it doesn't pigeonhole me.

In other news, I did a mock-up of the next dress I'm going to sew (this is just the overlay):

Perhaps with this belt?

It also will have two medium sized buttons on each shoulder.

I was sick for over a week and a cloudy brain doesn't sew terribly well, but I'm doing much better so I think I may produce something this weekend.

Finished Zafu

2009-03-14T11:27:00.000-07:00

Of course, things are always more complicated than you imagine they will be. Due to not reading the instructions closely enough and its fuzzy math, it took a bit longer than I expected. I also had a visitor who was able to take some action shots:

Hammering the snaps onto the closure:

Covering my face with a thin scarf after inhaling too much Kapok:

The finished product:

I sat on it yesterday and it is working out very well. I might have to fill it with more kapok after I squash it down a bit. This is easier than trying to stuff it to the brink on the first stuffing. I'm really happy with the snap closure. No stuffing is coming out so far and it makes it easier to refill or empty and then wash it.

Zafu

2009-03-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

Five pounds of kapok stuffing will be arriving at my door today.

The impromptu Zafu (meditation pillow) I made many months ago out of scrap black cotton fleece and stuffed with cotton batting is not cutting it anymore. The batting has now been squashed down and it's only a slight improvement from sitting on the floor. I could refill it with new batting, but I think it's time to get serious and make a durable Zafu filled with kapok and made from cotton duck. They are really easy to make so there's practically no good reason not to save $30 and make it yourself. Mine is going to be solid maroon. Slightly boring, yes, but I wanted something I wouldn't get tired of.

These are easy so there should be photos of the finished product soon.

Time for cutting

2009-02-28T15:34:00.000-08:00

So in going all out of order from my previous plans, I was left without matching thread for the dress I wanted to sew this weekend. Usually what I do is go to Joann's and buy the notions for the next few projects, and when I decided to sew this next I didn't realize I hadn't bought any notions for it.

(weird that this pattern has no brand... that I can tell)

So, most importantly, no matching thread. Well I have thread that will do fine for the overlay, but not the first layer. And since this is something that is going to be nice enough that I might wear it to a wedding, I'd rather have everything looking well-done inside and out. Joann's is quite a few miles away and since I'm going to have to go some time soon after this coming Wednesday, I can't justify not waiting. There's always something else to do.

I didn't manage to get any of it cut out during the week anyway, so I might just make Sunday a day for cutting. I may cut out this and the Clair McCardell dress at the least, and perhaps one piece of the suit. I can't decide which piece: skirt, pants, jacket, or blouse.

This basically happened because I started to have doubts that the McCardell in navy blue would be appropriate for a May wedding. I was thinking I'd at least do it in short sleeves, and I was also curious whether it would look nice to lay the neckline facing on the outside and use some contrasting cream eyelet fabric. I think I may try it, and it'd be easy enough to change it back to the way it's supposed to be if I create a Frankenstein. Hopefully I have time to make up both and decide; luckily both patterns are very simple.

1940s Housecoat

2009-02-22T20:30:00.000-08:00

I'm preparing for warmer mornings with a lightweight robe, a.k.a housecoat:

My version:

You'll notice that everything I make from the 1940s, even if the pattern is one size down from my measurements, will end up drop-shouldered unless I make that adjustment. I need to keep that in mind, but I'm not too sad about that for something I'll wear around the house.

I had been meaning to make a warm robe for the cold that is happening now, but the pattern I had settled on for it had turned out to be incomplete. I'm still mustering the confidence to try to reproduce a collar and a few of the other small pieces, so that project may wait until the end of summer. I don't want to find another pattern; I think I can do it; but with that and that it may be warm soon here I don't feel like doing it just yet.

I'd like my next project to be a light summer dress. I'm thinking of a classically 1930s pattern I have with draped sleeves and making it with a crinkled chiffon overlay. I have some in an unusual floral. A deal I found at a rummage fabric shop from home. I'm weary of head-to-toe floral but there is a possibility it would turn out beautifully.

For this last project I was able to prepare the pattern, do the cutting and sew all the darts and tucks and such during the week after work, then I finished the fun part on the weekend. I might turn this into a routine since it worked out so well and get to cutting the dress out this some time this week.

Tea Caddy

2009-02-11T21:15:00.000-08:00

I plan to start on a dress this weekend, I really do. But it was really getting to me, not having a good place to store all my tea.

Another relatively quick project, this time with no pattern or guidance whatsoever:

Here's a closer shot:

A couple things I learned: When applying pockets like this it helps to give the pocket fabric more width than the finished item is supposed to have (room for stuff without pulling in the sides!). Also, that polyester doesn't hang attractively on walls. This I could have guessed, but I had picked up several yards of yellow polyester at the Goodwill a few months ago and since resigning myself to the fact that I'd never wear it, had to find something to do with it.

At least it's functional! Holds the boxes of tea well enough and has yet to fall off the wall (which I feel it won't). Were I to do it again I would use a stiffer fabric and do something more interesting with contrasting fabric.

50s Apron

2009-02-02T22:11:00.000-08:00

I've had this apron pattern for awhile, but since I saw no immediate need for an apron, I hadn't sewn it yet. But since I've recently took up baking and getting flour all over myself I thought it might be time for an apron. I will not be wearing heels with it.

Here's the finished product:

I made it with fabric from my grandmother's stash, two yards of what I take to be very stiff and loosely woven cotton. It sews up easy, just like the pattern states. I believe it only took me a few hours cutting and sewing combined, and including a freak-out when I threw my machine's tension out. First time that's ever happened in a year of sewing, lucky me!

I have an aversion to sleeves that stick out at the sides like these do. I tried pinning tucks at the shoulders and it doesn't improve it much. At some point I could just cut off the extra and make it sleeveless, but I think it may be fine for something I just wear around the house.

Bodyform!

2009-02-02T15:06:00.000-08:00

Thanks to my friend Tandra I now have a custom bodyform to work with to help with fitting and altering garments! About five hours and $30 later (for turtleneck leotard, paper kraft tape, and insulation foam) here it is:

Here's a shot after I had lined the inside with insulation foam:

Note: Possibly not a cold-weather exercise. One has to stand still for 2 hours getting wet paper gum tape applied to one's body. Due to it being about 65 degrees in the house and possibly 62 in my room, my hands and feet were frozen by the end of it. But I just HAD to do it right now!

I will probably just mount a large hook to the wall and hang it, since I'd like the bottom to be free to work with pants. If I find it's swinging to the point of annoyance I'll try to find a pole to stick it on then.

It will help immensely for my next projects, the Clair McCardell dress and the 1940s suit, neither of which pattern proportions correspond to my own proportions. I'm also looking forward to reducing the waist on quite a few of my pants, which I have delt with for awhile via belt; there is no reason why I should put up with this if I don't have to.

Pattern finds

2009-01-24T16:57:00.001-08:00

Could you see me wearing this dress? I would buy the pattern in a heartbeat if it were multi-sized. alas! We shall wait and see if we are so lucky.

Recently I have been happy to find two 1940s coatdress patterns. This is probably the first style of dress I fell in love with and the one I wanted to sew most when I began. It was just a matter of finding a pattern.

The Vogue pattern to the right is a bit more elegant, which I might like to sew up with 3/4 sleeves in a green rayon. The DuBarry pattern however, I think would be fantastic in a bright cotton lawn. I look forward to making it this summer or next.

My second find for the week was an e-book pattern for 7 1920s cloche hats. Yes seven! You can buy the patterns here for yourself, if you'd like. Hat patterns are few and far between on the internet and I've been looking for this for awhile.

I may sew up a test hat tomorrow. These are the only types of hats I really like and can see myself wearing. They're much less fussy and formal than other hats. And these days wearing a hat at all is unusual.

Altered skirts / jumper

2009-01-19T13:35:00.000-08:00

The weekend of alterations was successful:

The last two were easy button-moving projects, but since they sat in my closet unworn for months because they needed buttons moved, that makes them post-worthy. The tartan skirt only required minimal waist/hip reduction. I debated ripping out the whole waistband and making a few pleats but decided that would push it further to school-uniform look. The first skirt I did the most reconstruction on and am most proud of. It looked terribly frumpy before I redid the waist and sewed the long tucks down the front. I think it ended up being kind of 30s-ish, or that's wishful thinking. None of these are stellar, but they're good wardrobe staples. It's 20 degrees outside, so I'm excited to have a few wool skirts at all, and now I have three in my rotation.

Fits and starts

2009-01-17T14:20:00.000-08:00

A couple months ago I bought a pair of very large wool pants from the Goodwill in hopes that I could take them apart and use the fabric to make a pair of pants to fit me. Unfortunately it looks like the legs are too wide in the patterns I do have for pants, so I've put this one off until either a) I make a DIY bodyform or b) I get a pants pattern that is more fitted at the hip.

So since my mind was set on that I spent the day futzing and switching gears and waiting to watch Battlestar Galactica. My next projects were to be either this suit (is it just me or does it look like the jacket doesn't fit her?):

I have the fabric and notions to make every piece for this, even some golden crepe-backed satin for the shell. I thought I'd never be caught dead wearing something goldish but it was either that or something greenish which matched the suit fabric and I thought it might be better not to look sickly.

Or the Clair McCardell dress, which I don't need to finish until the beginning of May, when I will wear it to a wedding. I bought some hopefully appropriate navy cotton shantung for it; cotton since I'm on a budget.

So one task was daunting and the other felt a little early so I decided to do some fitting! Yes, to try my hand to reduce the waist and hips on a few wool skirts I picked up at the Goodwill awhile back. I bought them for the fabric and they don't require major alteration. I hope to finish those this weekend.

Complete!

2009-01-08T08:01:00.000-08:00

Finished! More pictures here. I made a matching belt for the first time too and it was great fun hammering in the eyelets. For the first time I hand-sewed the hems on the sleeves and bottom because of the slight puffiness of the fabric. I wanted it to be as invisible as possible and I just haven't yet perfected the blind hem on my machine.

Now I need to put some distance between me and the dress before I can wear it. Knowing all the little things I fudged along the way makes it a little hard to enjoy wearing it just yet, even thought I think it came out pretty great overall.

Sleeve lessons

2009-01-04T17:54:00.000-08:00

A weekend workshop in early December and going home for the holidays are the reasons for a near month-long break in sewing.

A got a lot of work done on the dress over the long weekend, attaching the skirt and sleeves. I changed my mind from the bishop sleeves to the fitted ones that came with the pattern. After attaching the bishop sleeves I realized a couple things: 1) this flannel is too thick for bishop sleeves to look right 2) large sleeves might not even be a good look on me because of my small frame. Just look at the picture below. It's absolutely terrible and kind of Edwardian looking (even more terrible because I hadn't altered the shoulders to fit yet). I managed to fix the sleeves and sew them on today, though one of them I was too impatient with and will need to do over because the ease isn't more near the back like it's supposed to be.

With bishop sleeves:

With fitted sleeves:

I still need to hem the skirt and sleeves and sew in the side zipper. It should look even better with a few inches taken off the bottom. It feels good to get to the point where it looks like a dress!

Done with Drapes

2008-11-30T10:07:00.000-08:00

Work on the dress this weekend was delayed due to the arrival of a roll of sage-colored burlap seven yards long on Tuesday.

I've been needing heavy curtains since the weather turned cold. Since my room has two outer walls and two large windows, it's usually a few degrees cooler in here than the rest of the house. I'm on something of a fixed income for the year, so I needed to find a decent weight fabric for cheap. I turned to burlap. I washed and dried it, which shrunk the weave a bit, and I also lined it with white muslin.

Even though I lined it, it still retains a prettyish see-through quality. Odd perhaps for drapes intended to hold in warmth, but it's the best I could do.

You might notice a line in the middle of the two panels for the larger window. That was a cutting mistake which ended up adding a nice bit of interest. I cut two pieces twenty inches too short and tacked on the needed twenty inches with a french seam.

The yellow cotton duck I used at the top of the drapes was leftover from use as borders for my throw pillows. I thought it might tie things together nicely. I think it will do. At some point I need to make better ties to hold the drapes, but at this point I feel done with it. Sewing drapes, especially as simply as I did, is really easy, but you get tired just handling all that fabric. Especially burlap, the remnants of which are currently all over my clothes!

2008-11-23T16:20:00.000-08:00

Today I discovered something fabulous. Covered buttons!

I used a covered button kit for the first time and it was a fun experience. The small ones were less fun so now I realize why large buttons are what you commonly see. I'm using the small ones at the cuffs. The large ones are both in place, as I finished the bodice today:

(I don't know why the fabric looks purple when I take a photo in anything other than natural light, but you get the idea)

Smart, isn't it? You may think, "Nice vest!" and I think so too. It would be a good pattern to use if I ever wanted one. I tried it on myself and pinned the sides and it looks like it's going to fit, horray! I have had tremendous luck with vintage patterns, and it helps that all my measurements correspond to size 14 (32 bust) for the 20s-40s. For 50s and 60s patterns I am a little less lucky, as patternmakers at the time believed women my size had lost an inch and a half at the waist (and I probably could too, if I wanted to wear an instrument of torture). Though that isn't a terribly hard alteration to do, it's annoying enough.

I'm guessing I will probably finish the dress Thanksgiving weekend. The hardest parts (bound buttons, shoulder & neck seam) are finished with. Should I do topstitching on the collar like the pattern recommends? I still can't decide.

New Project

2008-11-22T14:06:00.000-08:00

My endevour to sew a long, 1940s robe was delayed when first I found all the small pattern pieces to be missing, and second I found that the flannel I bought was 1.5 yards too short and not wide enough. So I decided to use the flannel to make a dress, odd as that may sound to some. I think the flannel is nice enough for this, so last weekend I cut out the pattern and this Saturday I finished part I: bound buttonholes.

It's the first time I've made bound buttonholes, though I did a bound pocket once before. The tutorial on Burdastyle and pattern "details" got me through it. They're not difficult to do, just difficult to do nicely. My only mistake was not positioning them properly, and not realizing this until after the fabric was cut! But with a little fudging it worked out okay.

This is the pattern:

Except instead of the fitted long sleeves I'm replacing them with the long sleeves from this pattern:

It won't look quite so flowy since I'm using flannel but since it's a thin flannel I'm crossing my fingers that it will still look good. I just thought more relaxed sleeves would go better with a relaxed shawl collar... hopefully it all isn't too relaxed and ends up looking like a robe!

This dress pattern is one of the more interesting ones I've bought. I think it's from the very early forties because the skirt "trimming" seems like a holdover deco thing and the pattern pieces themselves are a hybrid between a printed and non-printed pattern. It still has the hole punches for darts and buttonholes and some other things, but numbers and directions are printed on it. I think this is neat because I like not weakening the pattern with a tracing wheel. I also enjoyed these couple paragraphs on the instructions:

I'm so glad I'll be correct in this dress, though now I'm not so sure I will because I'm using different sleeves. And I'm not doing the skirt trimming! And the shawl collar will not be contrasting and probably won't even have topstitching! I'm debating that because it might actually have a neat slight puffing effect? Stay posted.

About Me & Sewing

2008-11-22T11:12:00.000-08:00

I've been sewing and learning to sew since December 2007. Born in the mid-80s, part of a generation that didn't have to sew in Home-Ec class (though it is a useful thing, for boys and girls, unfortunate they don't make everyone at least learn how to sew on a button), and raised by a mother that didn't care much for sewing. So it is happily a very independent choice for me, though it is perhaps 50% choice that I envision myself wearing practical, beautiful, and well-made dresses.

I became interested in sewing primarily to sew old things. That is, really, new things, but using vintage patterns because I wanted to replicate vintage styles. Not for any hobbyist historical interest, but because these were the clothes that were appealing to me. Certain things are hard to find in clothes today. Nice skirts that go slightly past the knee. Skirts or dresses made of warm, durable material. Skirts or dresses with pockets. Dresses and skirts for young women are often ugly and impractical, and I've yet to graduate to "real" women's sizes (and even so I usually don't like the style). I am particularly interested in styles from the 20s-40s. This is mainly because they suit me best, as voluminous dresses from the 50s would overwhelm my figure and most stuff from the 60s and later on seem a bit silly.

So I intended to make the clothes I wanted, and I started immediately on a jumper after I was given a sewing machine Christmas 2007. It was possibly the most difficult, frustrating thing I have ever done, but I learned a lot. I like a good challenge and sewing rarely fails me.

So that's about it. Other than referencing the internet, I've pretty much been teaching myself from pattern instructions and my mistakes. In the sidebar you'll find the resources I use, other than my mother and grandmother, who can quickly answer my novice questions like, "Does flannel have a nap?"

Thanks for reading.