Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Not sewing

Just taking a moment to post what is NOT going on here. I am NOT sewing, fitting patterns, cutting fabric, nada, zilch, nothing.

This is the time of year that we work on our budgets at work for next fiscal year. The 'at work' also means on my laptop and flash drive 'at home'. Homework. I hate what I call Budget Season. However it is truly a necessary function for any business. I feel much empathy for our accounting staff who carry the real burden, I am just one of the submitters. They have to pull it all together. This year it is even harder as we are undergoing a restructuring and thus making it even harder to pull together. What does this have to do with sewing, you may ask.

A lot really. Because of budgets and restructuring, my homework takes all of my evenings except for dinner, loading the dishwasher and setting the coffee maker for brewing the next morning. I did find time last night to go to CURVES, which helps me physically and mentally. Those endorphins are up!

While NOT sewing, I have found time to buy fabric online. Yes, I needed more for collection! Besides prices were extremely good and if you snooze, you lose.

To end this rant on a more positive note-Friday is a vaca day!!!!! I have a manicure/pedicure/hair cut appointment for late morning, SEW I will be working on my dress and jacket Friday as well as into the weekend. I am suppose to be off Monday as well, but it is budget season!!!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Another part of the journey

As many of you know the Vogue 1026 dress was to be my next project. However the pattern sizes were all wrong. I now have the correct pattern size and that dress will become part of this current sewing journey. The jacket from Simplicity will be worn with this dress also.

I had debated whether I would go ahead and pin fit this pattern making necessary adjustments before starting to sew the other two items. I want to get a start on the sewing so will put this on my pattern cutting/fitting to do during the week list. Given my current work status this will probably be more thinking than doing. We shall see.

Off to sew now, more later.

Sewing journey this weekend

As my cyber sewing friend, Carolyn-Diary of a Sewing Fanatic, has said, "sewing is a journey". Part of that journey is the planning of the project, the pattern and fabric preparations, the cutting, the sewing, the tweaking and then Viola! the completed garment.


My sewing journey since last weekend was the pattern fitting of Simplicity 2938. I pin fitted the pattern last weekend and made note of changes to be made. Some changes I did last weekend and the remainder I completed Friday evening. Saturday I cut out the dress fabric. I then pin fitted the jacket from this pattern and found I really did not need to make any changes. This jacket has a lot of ease with it so there will be fitting "opportunities" during the sewing of this. Saturday evening after a nice dinner out with DH, I cut out the jacket fabric.

I debated on a lining for the dress and the jacket. I decided to line both and used the pattern pieces to draft the lining pieces. I cut out the lining for both this AM.

I then threaded the serger as the jacket fabric is tends to ravel quite a bit. I like to serge finish edges for this type of fabric, even though it will be lined. I will thread the sewing machine and will begin the sewing part of this journey starting with the dress.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Burda skirt - the back

A few posts ago I mentioned the fit of this skirt. Here is photo of how the back fits through the waist and hip without doing a swayback adjustment.




Earlier this week I received the new issue of Threads magazine. There is a pattern review section each issue of Threads and this skirt is reviewed by one of their pattern testers. It got a positive review.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Simplicity dress fitting

Last night after dinner, I spent more time in my sewing room instead of at the computer. I pin fitted the Simplicity dress pattern. My usual fitting adjustments will be needed, those being
  1. FSA-forward shoulder adjustment
  2. Swayback
  3. FBA-full bust adjustment
  4. Front and back tuck in upper chest
  5. Shortening the dress length for a better look for my shorter height

I made adjustments 1 and 2 above last night. I am trying to determine how I want to do the FBA. This is a princess seam type dress and many times I use Sandra Betzina's princess seam FBA technique.

Of note about this pattern. The finished measurements noted on the pattern side front piece has an error. They note the waist measurements correctly as they did with the hip measurements, but the descriptive-Waist and Hip are reversed. Thus on the pattern piece,at the waist line, they give you various waist finished measurements but have labeled it Hip. For the hip they labeled it waist. It is apparent when you read the measurements.

Tonight I have to work late and attend our agency's board meeting thus no sewing related work this evening.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

When plans go awry, backup and then move on.

Now that this is out of my system...I decided to go ahead with my plans to make this dress from the other fabric I purchased from JoAnn's. I had thought about making the jacket from this pattern as well to go with both dresses.

Here's an idea of the look. With the dress I will use the tie sash. This is the darker of the solid fabrics.
Here is the jacket. I purchased enough to have for the jacket as well as the trim on the Vogue dress.









Did you hear this sound-AAAGGGGHHHH!

Yes, this was the sound I made after my last post as I headed back to the sewing room to start on Vogue 1026, Badgley Mischka dress. That horrible sound referenced above was because I took the pattern out of the pattern envelope, started unfolding the pattern and when looking at the front piece with the finished bust measurements printed on it, saw that the bust size was way to small. I then discovered I had purchased the wrong size pattern!!!!

Now I am all for pattern adjusting to get the right fit but this would require a total remake. So hopefully I can return the pattern to JoAnn's and exchange for the correct size. Thank goodness I had not taken scissors to paper! I acquired this pattern for $3.99 during their recent Vogue sale. I cannot believe I did not catch this before purchasing the pattern!!! AAGGGHHHH!

Sewing plans today

I will be working on the Vogue dress. I was not able to do much with it during the week as I hoped. My big expectation for today is to get it cut out once pattern fitting is complete.

More later.

2nd Burda Skirt complete

I finished the second Burda skirt this AM. I inserted the zipper yesterday evening, using an invisible zipper in the side seam. This time I placed the zipper from the top edge appropriately, the first skirt I was off on that.

I love the fit of the second skirt because I finally determine the right size for the skirt. The first one was too big. I actually tried on the first skirt the other morning thinking I would wear it to work. It was still too big. It sat on my hip but that threw everything else off. I hate that I have to undo so much stitching to make another tweak. I may just "cheat" and take back tucks at waistline. I plan to wear a top over the skirt, not tucked in so only me, the dry cleaner and dear readers you will know if I do that.

I took a "booty" shot of my new skirt as I do like the way it fits my back waist and hip. I did not do my usual sway back adjustment for this skirt as the back seams seem to curve inward at that area making it unnecessary. I will post photos later.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Next up is Vogue 1026 Dress


This is Vogue 1026 by Badgley Mischka. I am going to make the dress from the aqua shantung looking fabric I recently purchased from JoAnn's and posted about a few days ago. The trim will be the tweed fabric in the far left of the photo here. I plan to make a jacket from the tweed fabric to wear with this dress and will use the jacket to go with another dress I will make from the third fabric I purchased.
I hope to cut out pattern pieces tomorrow night and begin the pattern pin fitting process. I need to finish the skirt but would like to have this cut and ready to cut if possible before the weekend.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Another skirt as planned!

After finishing my cardigan and tank top, I re-threaded the serger and sewing machine to start on the second Burda skirt. Since I just made this skirt pattern a few weeks ago, this version is going faster. Actually I could have completed it yesterday if I had not committed to cook dinner and do a few spring cleaning things. Those two things were necessary as well.

The skirt unit is complete except for inserting the zipper. The lining unit needs only the front portion to be stitched to the side back pieces. I do need to try this on to make sure I don't need to take up or let out any seams. Since the previous skirt was rather large, I adjusted the pattern pieces to reflect the changes I made with that skirt. After completing these two steps, I will attach the lining to the skirt, sew lining to zipper area and hem the skirt.

With the skirt completed, I will have finished my first planned project for my spring sewing. Sort of like a mini SWAP. I already am planning my next project which will involve my new fabric purchase. These fabrics don't get to age like some of my other fabrics.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Fabric purchase

I fell in love with some fabric while shopping at JoAnn's the other week. Since I won the gift certificate door prize for JoAnn's at our ASG meeting Thursday night, I decided to go to JoAnn's and purchase the fabric yesterday. I used my gift certificate, my ASG JoAnn's discount card, plus a 40% off discount for one item coupon and made the fabric as well as some notions/threads purchase.

The fabrics are cotton, rayon and polyester blends. Some are machine washable should I choose to go that route. Here are some photos of my haul.

The middle photo is Gutermann thread in a variety of colors. The sewing box is reusable as the thread spools sit on a cylinder so as you use thread up you can put another thread spool of this size in its place. I also was able to purchase invisible zippers in matching or similar colors to use in the dresses I plan to make from the solid fabrics. I was tickled as I have only been able to find white, beige or black invisible zippers locally.

Photos KS tank top


This is the book I used and one that I will continue to refer to and use with other lining projects. This is a composite photo as I wanted to make sure the author's name was included.

Here are photos of the top, the lining and hung with the cardigan.


Saturday, April 12, 2008

Lined tank top complete

The top is complete and for a simple item this took additional time due to the lining.

I truly learned alot from tackling this project. I think when deciding to line a knit top you have to test to be sure of how each knit will stretch. If similar then I think you do well to treat the lining as interlining. This will allow the project to got much faster. Fortunately I had sufficient fabric to truly test this.

In seeking help from others, I also searched some books from my sewing library and found I had Connie Long's book on "Easy Linings...". Though she did not address knits specifically, her writing on working with lace and lining helped. She also had a chapter on lining dresses and tops with no center back opening. Her technique I found to be superb. I have to admit that I read, read, and reread her directions about how to do this and could not absorb what I was reading. I was having some problems relating the written word to some of the photos. I was doing this last night, very late and was very tired as well.

At 3 AM, I woke up and could not go back to sleep immediately. When this occurs it is usually some issue from work causing me sleeplessness. I usually try to think about sewing-make lists of items I want to make, or items I need, or actually how I would sew something. The cause for sleeplessness last night was truly that I could not grasp what I had been reading, so of course I kept mulling over the part that was bothering me.

Upon returning from CURVES this AM, I went to my sewing room, turned to the page I marked, reread the directions and looked closer at the photos. I then took my top with the lining attached at the neckline per her instructions, turned it so that it lay like her top in the book and EUREKA! it clicked. Actually it is somewhat like attaching the sleeve lining to the jacket sleeve at the hemline striving to achieve the "hands shaking" concept. (Or for me it was.)

I took some photos of the process. I will try to put together some sort of tutorial to show how this works. I love the results and the finished look is appealing. I need to take photos of the finished tank top alone and with the cardigan.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Lining a knit top

I want to thank Carolyn and Marji for responding to my email SOS on lining knits. I love the blog world cause I now have so many sewing buddies to answer questions, give advice, etc. I also got some helpful feedback at Artisans Square also.


Here is what I decided to do after testing and digesting the feedback from sources mentioned above. To line or underline was the question.

  1. Underlining would allow for all seams to be sewn as one and thus you would not see the seam allowance through the lace part of the knit fabric.
  2. Underlining with both knit fabric and knit lining having variance of stretch between the two may or may not be an issue. Some say yes, some say no.
  3. Testing the stretch of both by pinning together at neck and side seams revealed that the knit lining would pull the knit fabric in at side or at bottom creating an unattractive look.
  4. I tried the other knit lining I purchased and that worked better. Yet it did not prevent the see through that I wanted.
  5. I decided after this that I would not use the lining knit as underlining but will attach it as a lining piece. I will however attach it so that when turned right side out, the lining "raw" edges will be against skin not against the fabric seams thus eliminating show through of unsightly seams from the right side.
  6. Doing it this way will allow both pieces to hang separately from neck/arms.

I will have photos to show later as I continue this sewing journey.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Purchase from JoAnn's

So, I did not get enough patterns on sale through BMV! I went to JoAnn's on Friday to get some thread and a few other notions. Vogue patterns-$3.99 better than the BMV offering. So here are two other patterns I purchased.

Of course, I knew I was also going to look for this pattern. I fell in love with Erica B's yellow top that she was wearing with her new Nubuck jacket that she made. You can see her top and review here.

While at JoAnn's I actually found and fell in love with some fabulous fabric. For me to find fabulous fabric at our local JoAnn's is a great phenomenon. Maybe since they combined two into one, we may see better fabric. Not all JoAnn's are created equal. I have found great fabrics at some and not much in others. I plan to make a run tomorrow to acquire at least three of the six fabrics I liked. One will be the Badgley Mischka above and the others may become the Simplicity top and jacket.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Look what arrived yesterday

Earlier in the week I got an email from BMV Club offering patterns at $4.99. I could not resist. This is what I ordered of McCall's patterns:













Here are the Vogue patterns:












And this one from Butterick:










As promised, photos of KS project

The cardigan is complete. Lining for the tank top has been cut out. How I will attach it, to be determined.

Here are photos of the completed cardigan. I added a piece of the fabric underneath to get an idea of how the tank top will look under the cardigan.










This is a close up of the sleeve with FOE attached.









Another close up of the sleeve with comments.








The next photos were taken as I worked on the cardigan yesterday. This is to give an idea of how the elastic was used as a trim.

Close up of the front opening.
I already have another plan to make this cardigan pattern using a knit fabric I purchased about a year ago from Fabric Mart.

Saturday, April 05, 2008

Reply to comments on cardigan and update

Lindsay, lucky you to have something close by to browse. Fold over elastic or what I called lingerie elastic is what I have. Getting it to fold over the edge of this raised design on the edge was very difficult and I did not want to chance my not stitching it well. To remove stitches from this knit is extremely difficult. Yet I did use the fold over elastic only, I did not fold it over. I will post photos of what I did later.

Mary, thanks for the feedback about Lastin. I actually have a package of this clear elastic that I purchased about two years ago. Mine is very narrow and too narrow for this cardigan.

I took some photos of the finished edge of the front and back neckline using fold over elastic as noted above. I attached the narrower side of the fold over elastic (FOE) to the front and back areas of the cardigan using my serger. When completed I turned the seamed edge to the inside and the wider side of the FOE is now the edge trim for the cardigan. One side of this elastic is matte and the other more satiny. So the satin edge is showing up on the right side which was my plan. I am pleased with how this turned out.

I also did this to the hem edge of the cardigan's short sleeves as well. I will then edge stitch the turned under seam to help this lay flat. I am truly pleased at how well this worked and looks.

I need to cut out the stretch lining for the tank top. I ordered the lining from EOS and purchased two types. Both look well under the knit but still have not decided which one to use yet.

I have never lined any type of knit fabric before so I have it worked out in my mind as to how I want to do this. Will test drive a sample before actually doing. Later.

Work week from ________!

My work week was most stressful this week. It was one of those weeks where I felt I was on the treadmill and could not get off of it. But thank God it is the weekend!

I did get a little sewing done last night on my cardigan pattern. I serged the shoulder seams and interface them to help stabilize the stretch of the knit fabric. I decided to stabilize using bias fusible binding around the entire neckline. This knit does stretch. Before stabilizing the shoulder seams, I tried the cardigan on and found I needed to take 1/2 inch seam instead of the called for 1/4. Perhaps due to the stretchy knit. I adjusted the sleeve for this by trimming and additional 1/4 inch off the sleeve cap. The rest of the fit will be okay.

I have to make a decision on how I am going to bind the neckline. I am playing around with some ideas. The pattern calls for stretch lace or lingerie elastic. I have a perfect lingerie elastic in ivory but to bind the edge with this is by folding over and encasing it will be a bear! A real bear due to the stretching and non firmness of this knit fabric. I can cut a binding of the fabric and attach that which looks good also. I even serged the lingerie elastic to the edge of a knit sample with out turning it to encase and that looks good also. I am just concerned about the edge of the elastic. It should not fray but it was an underlying thought.

I would appreciate your suggestions or feedback about this. I have not sewn a lacy knit fabric in a long, long time and just unsure what will work the best. You guys have given me great tips before so please comment.

Off to CURVES. Sewing later.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Fabiani 2451


Fabiani 2451
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl
One more for the Vintage Collection. I have been trying to win the bid on this particular pattern for some time now. Several have offered it up for bid on eBay, but this was my lucky day for this one. The size is even closer to my needs than some of the others.

Butterick2146


Butterick2146
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl
Recent vintage pattern acquisition. Thanks to Erin at Dress A Day for posting this on her blog. I really like the dress, though the model with her arm up without it resting on something, did cause some comments. I am glad I was able to acquire it from So Vintage Patterns.com

August Sewing Simplicity 7295

 I am not doing well as a blogger. I have been working on this project since July 30. Today, I finally finished it. It has been a stop-and-g...