Off the Clock

I know I'm supposed to be working on my Angela Wolf jeans but I had to buy some more denim and I got sidetracked with Style Arc's Barb's Stretch Pant in the meantime.  I got this pattern as a free download for signing up for their newsletter. I have mentioned that Daughter has been losing weight.  I took in a couple of pairs of her black work pants for her (rather substantially) but they are hanging on her again.  I figured it's time for new pants for the girl, and knowing that she needs something comfortable but office appropriate I've been eyeing this pattern.  The pattern is drafted for a stretch woven, and recommends Stretch Bengaline.  Fabricland had their members 50% off sale yesterday and I went looking to see what they have.  They don't carry Bengaline (not that I even know what that is), but the staff recommended either a ponte or the "Symphony" fabric I ended up chosing, a poly-lycra sturdy knit with a nice weight and drape and a beautifu...

Vogue 8669 & New Look 6735 Nothing for three weeks and then you get two posts in one day. After yesterday's success I was really excited to experiment a little more with tee necklines.  I have quite a few knit top patterns I haven't tried yet, mainly because every time I try a new one I decide I don't like it as much as my basic New Look 6735.  I guess I'm just a basic tee girl at heart.  I have Vogue 8669 in my pattern stash waiting to be test driven, but I am not in love with it.  As much as I like a nice cowl neck this one seems a little frumpy to me.  The tee is a loose fitting top with a very shallow cowl.  I've seen a number of interpretations online and haven't fallen in love with any of them - they just aren't my style.  When looking into cowl necks I found  this tutorial from Threads Magazine  but I'm a little bit leery of starting from scratch.  In the end I decided to take my TNT NL6735  and frankenpattern ...

I have a hunch I've probably used that title before. Anyway, I got back into the sewing room last night. I want to start on a pair of jeans using Angela Wolf's Angel Bootcut jean pattern , but she recommends prewashing and drying the fabric at least twice. I have some blue denim as well as some black denim in the stash that have been prewashed once, so I got them into the washing machine. I'm not sure if I am going to have enough fabric. The Wolf jeans calls for 2.75 meters. I only have 2.3 meters. I'm not sure why the difference. At first I thought this was because I bought according to the fabric requirements for Vogue 1204 but I just looked that up and that one calls for 2.6 meters. Maybe I did buy more but it just shrank that much in the first prewash? *(Oh wait, I just looked up my other jeans pattern, McCalls 6610 (which I haven't made yet), and it calls for 2.3 meters. That explains why I ran short on fabric making my first version of Vogue 1204 . I e...

I haven't been in the sewing room in over three weeks! I had to be out of town on business for a week and was madly scrambling to finish up Butterick 6049 early so that daughter could wear it for a Halloween party. After being up working on it until midnight the night before going out of town she did get it early but without the lining being sewn down at the waist. What started out as a fairly straight forward project ended up being a bit of a fitting nightmare. I don't have a full pic of the final version but this one (to the left) is close. I took in the bodice for a snugger fit after this pic was taken. You may remember I had hand stitched the neckline opening to make it a bit more modest but that just ended up giving it a funny shape once she tried it on, so that stitching came back out. As always I try to figure out what went wrong with a project. In this case I think part of my fitting problems came down to the fact that I used a regular cotton weave for the muslin but...

The saga continues on this dress, but I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel. I was up sewing until 12:30 last night and I'm down to the homestretch. Daughter tried on the bodice yesterday and the poufs at the sides of the bust are more pronounced in the fashion fabric than they were in the muslin, likely because of the multiple layers. She didn't mind but I want perfection, darn it! This dress definitely needed a full bust adjustment for her but I have no knowledge of how to do that with the style of this bodice, so once again I just flew by the seat of my pants and added darts to the sides of the bust. I also sewed the white bust sections together for an inch or so at the front to make it a little more modest. Daughter is so busty that you could see through her cleavage almost to her waste. Ok, bit of an exageration, but you get the point. She is coming over tonight for a final fitting. In the mean time I have the skirt assembled and attached to the bodice. ...

Point is starting to look pretty good I've been continuing on with Butterick 6049 for daughter. I was having difficulty getting the points to turn out nicely, so a few more trials were in order. I didn't find anything in the sewing books I already had on hand, so I researched what I could find online. I found what I think is the best advice in this video . After getting a decent point I wanted to adjust the pattern for the gaping under the arms. Daughter is quite busty and I think that is what was causing the gaping. I decided a couple of darts were in order. I darted the muslin and had her try it on. There is still a little bit of puffiness in the triangle but it's not really obvious. I had done the full two inch adjustment in one dart on one side of the muslin and divided it into two darts on the other side. She and I both preferred the double dart as it seemed to absorb the extra puffiness better. Next up was to transfer the darts to the paper pattern. I was h...

I occasionally visit kijiji.ca looking to see what people are selling under a "sewing" search.  Usually I find sewing machines with very little detail or description.  Sometimes it's a sewing table, or a batch of thread, or sewing lessons, but usually nothing that makes me want to jump on it.  That is until I saw this collection of sewing books from the Singer Reference Library. I first saw it a few weeks ago.  When I noticed it is still there this weekend I made an offer - and got it!  There were 25 books first listed but it turned out one is missing (working with different fabrics or something like that).  So 24 books for $40.  They come very highly rated by all the reviews I could find.  There are lots of pics and detail.  I have only started reading the "Sewing with Knits" one so far but I picked up several new things after just a few pages.  And people have very good things to say about the pants fitting one.  I suspect this ...

Daughter was over tonight and together we got started on the muslin for Butterick 6049 . This is her first time following a pattern so I had her trace out the pattern pieces and cut out the muslin fabric. Then she did some initial sewing before I tried the tricky bit of joining the colour blocked bust pieces. It's a good thing we started with a muslin because the "easy" rated pattern is quite challenging in this point. This is how the points are supposed to look: And this is how mine look: And this is all the directions you get for this point: Even Gertie says  "Warning: those points are a little tricky to sew!"  Fortunately we've got some time so I can do a little research and play with some scraps before cutting into the fashion fabric. I so want her first project to be one she will be proud of!

I've been thinking about changing the name of my blog again. For some reason it just seems more appropriate to call it "the thing that I screwed up today". I bought two yards of ruffle knit at the Novi Sewing Expo the other weekend with the idea of making a tee. I did some googling and decided that a sleeveless tank would probably be the most flattering in this fabric. I (of course) used New Look 6735 . I eliminated the back seam because of the ruffles which made this a three piece top including the neckband. I was careful cutting it out to make sure that all my ruffles were laying in the same direction. then I basted a 1/4" from all edges to keep the ruffles flat while basting the top together. All in all it went together really well and I was really happy with it. Then, of course, disaster struck. I usually really like my serger, and I like all the knit tops that I have been able to make with it. Yet for some reason I STILL keep catching fabric that is not sup...

Mom and I went to the Novi Sewing Expo last weekend. Overall the show was smaller than I expected. Perhaps because previous shows I have been to there have been RV shows or snowmobiling shows that tend to be huge and completely fill the expo space, I was expecting there to be more vendors. For example there was only one thread vender that I saw but although they had a lot of product I didn't find any wooly nylon. There were some nice fabrics and some that were simply so-so in a variety of price ranges.  The "Chico Twist" Neckline I took a one hour class in the morning, "Wow Necklines for Knits" with Londa Rohlfing. Being a one hour class there isn't any hands-on and there isn't much time to cover a lot of things, and there are not detailed instructions provided so there is an assumption that you already know how to put in a knit neckband or will buy one of her patterns. I did come away with a few ideas to try such as the "Chico Twist". ...

My daughter messaged me late last night to tell me she's been invited to a birthday party with a 50's pinup theme - and of course she has nothing to wear. I told her I would sleep on it. Feeling somewhat refreshed this morning, I agreed to make her a dress. Mom turned me on to Gertie and her blog, and I knew that I would find something appriate starting there. Darling daughter and I messaged back and forth today and we have settled on Butterick 6049 . Here's Gertie's blog post about this dress. Daughter loved this dress right off the bat, which made me really happy because it is marked as "easy". As I told her, that makes the whole thing much more likely to happen lol. We have to decide if we are going to go whole hog with a crinolin and all, but that decision can wait until the dress is done. In the meantime here is a little gif that made my inner geek smile.

 I love Talk Like a Pirate Day. Every year I get into the spirit with lots of "Aaarrrr"s and "Aye Matey"s and "shiver me timbers". When I was leaving work today I reminded the guys that tomorrow is Talk Like a Pirate Day. So imagine my face when I ran across this fabric at the fabric store's 50% off sale! I mean really - what are the odds of running across this adorable pirate fabric the day before TLAPD? It's not like I was looking for it; I was there buying lining for a couple of jackets I'm thinking of making. So needless to say I knew what I had to get done tonight. I washed and dried the fabric - a cotton poly blend with no lycra. Somehow I managed to stretch out the neckline when topstitching. I'm still not sure how that happened, because I thought Phoebe's IDT system was supposed to stop that from happening. To try and fix it I tried sewing a bit of clear elastic across the back of the neckline. It's minimally ...

I've been busy sewing for my daughter for the last while. She's got a skirt, a sleeveless tee and a short sleeved tee from - what else - New Look 6735 . The problem, well actually there were a couple, is that the skirt ended up a little on the short side (in my humble opinion) for my tall daughter, so I added a yoke from McCalls 6966 . The other problem is that she didn't want the back seam on the tees. No problem, I can cut it on the fold. Except that I forgot when I laid it out and cut it for the seam. Twice. I have fabric to make her two more tees but I need her to try on what I've got done so far. I did write on the bag with her pattern tracing to "cut with a double fold!!!", so hopefully I get it right next time.  Sheesh! So my aim this week has been to do some sewing for me.  An idea I picked up from the internet was to made a 3/4 sleeve tee with a matching infinity scarf.  I saw this done in a pretty solid sage green, and it looked almost like ...

When I first got back into sewing last winter I started stockpiling fabric. Initially I was more disciplined and bought fabric with specific patterns in mind to use them for. Then I started having some success with knits, and bought knits every time they were on sale just to build a stash. The whole fabric-buying concept has turned rather willy nilly with no game plan in place. This isn't quite as disastrous as it sounds because I mostly live in jeans and so knit tops always "go". But I've read a couple of posts lately about wardrobe planning that has made me think I need to be putting more planning into my purchases. Sometimes less is more. I found a new blog to follow, The Vivienne Files , which is all about wardrobe planning. There is an excellent post that talks about the Chanel theory where the author quotes Chanel as saying "One shouldn't spend all one's time dressing. All one needs are two or three suits, as long as they and everything to go wit...

Yes, that's a very corny title, I know. I've been intrigued by the idea of using a press iron ever since I saw one on the website from the shop where I ended up buying Phoebe. The really pretty fancy-dancy red one shown in that video is the one in the pic from my sewing machine store but they don't actually carry that model. Just as well because I believe it runs for around $1,200. The model they do carry is "marked down" to $600, although a quick internet search has it showing up from a number of U.S. retailers for $400. But once I add the Cdn conversion, shipping and duty charges there's not much of a difference in price. My mom has an old cast iron model that she lent me to see if it is something I really want to get. I did struggle with getting the "perfect" press I wanted out of her press, but I think that is party due to not being able to press hard enough on hers and partly due to a lack of experience on my part. Which still left me with th...

Thor loves a good photobomb Well, here's the first incarnation of the Style Arc "Ann" tee .  Let's see if we can count how many ways it went wrong. This was a downloadable pattern being offered for free for a limited time.  Style Arc is a popular indie pattern company out of Australia, and they have a strong following.  It's a scooped neck tee with side ruching on the front. The pattern prints out with full front and back (rather than half cut on the fold).  This was my first time with this and a bit of an adjustment for cutting out.  I used the 12 because that is what my measurements called for, compared to the 14 I use in "Big 4" patterns.  I need to fold the pattern in half to compare it to my TNT NL6735.  It didn't seem too big until I started sewing it together. To be honest I think most of the problems came from the fabric.  This is a thin mesh polyester knit.  I bought it because I loved the pattern on it.  And because t...

Some folks find it challenging to post links on Pattern Review.  Since I spend so much time there I thought I'd do a bit of a tutorial to help those who like visuals.  Hopefully this doesn't make it even more confusing! lol First you need to get the address for where you want to link to.  I had been looking at sewing videos on Youtube so I am using that in this example.  Go to that page and copy the address information from the bar at the top of the page. Next go to your Pattern Review page where you are posting your message.  Click on the http:// button. Then paste the address into the window that opens up, being sure to remove the http:// that is already in the box.  One thing that messes some people up is that they don't remove the http:// that is already in the box when they paste in their address which leaves the address with two sets of http:// at the beginning and will end up with a "broken link"; the link won't work.   There needs ...

I went to the local public library after work yesterday, something I rarely do now that I read books on my Kobo ereader. The place was really quiet - not quiet because it's a library and no one is talking, but quiet as in there were only three other people there, and one of them was a staff person. I hope that doesn't mean we are going to lose the library, and maybe it means I need to go there more often to throw them some business. I really do like reading on my ereader, but some books require big glossy pics to look at. Like sewing books. I was specifically hoping to find some more serging books but they are mostly out at other branches, but when I went online to reserve them I got the dreaded "your privileges are expired" message, meaning I needed to go there to renew my card. I was still able to find some stuff to keep me busy. Here's my haul: Style Evolution: How To Create Ageless Personal Style In Your 40s And Beyond Timesaving Sewing - Singer Se...

There have been a lot of posts on Pattern Review lately about some of the newer high-end sergers, and I have to admit it's hard not to get the bug for a "bigger better" machine. Before plunking down $1,300 - $2,400, I thought I should at least see if I'm getting the most out of the 1034D that I curently have. Although I bought it at least 8 or 9 years ago (probably more - the video tutorial was on VHS lol) I have only really been using it for less than a year. I set it up to the recommended settings in the manual and left it at that. I've never even oiled it! I spent the last weekend going through the manual and started reading The Complete Serger Handbook . I am using a more critical eye to look at my stitches and noticed that I have stitching beyond the edge of the fabric rather than the stitches hugging the fabric snugly. On the weekend, working with knit fabric, I adjusted my stitch width which improved things a bit. Then last night, working with a woven f...

NL6735 Bodice B5493 Cowl First up is this pretty blue and white number.  This is a mashup of New Look 6735  and Butterick 5493 .  I Bought 5493 because of all the different neckline options.  I didn't realize it was intended for a stretch woven fabric, and all  the PR reviews  talked about it being quite a loose fitting top.  I wanted to use these collars to add variety to tees so I decided to adapt my TNT (tried and true) 6735 to accommodate the collar from 5493.  It turned out pretty good, don't you think? I really wrestled with how to finish the edge of the cowl neck.  The pattern calls for a double folded very narrow hem.  I played with the idea of using the coverstitch to do a single fold hem but thought that might be a bit big for the application.  Then I did a sample with a serged rolled hem but I thought that would be too obvious.  I even thought about leaving it raw because it is a fine knit but the edges wan...