elizabeth_mn

The wedding dress is coming along. Today I worked on the veil and the dress lining. Next up is hems. Then just the sash left.

The veil is the only finished thing though, so here's a peek!



Ignore the pin.



I sewed some hair clips to the underside to attach it.



The length is to the inside elbow, with wide rounded corners. It's the full width of the tulle (108" I think?) by about 23" length.

To make this I first made the lace assembly. I took three of my lace pieces and arranged them on a piece of buckram, then stitched them down (reattaching any loose beads as I went). Then I cut, shaped, and gathered the tulle and machined it to a piece of Peltex interfacing. I laid my lace piece over the tulle and hand stitched it down, then cut away any excess interfacing. Finally I added the clips.

If I were doing this again, I might skip the buckram step. I'm glad I did it because it gave me more time to play with the lace design before making it permanent, but the finished product doesn't really need it. And I might cover the underside with white felt before adding the clips, just to hide the stitches and make it prettier.

Here is the jacket I made for work last week. The pattern is Butterick 6140.



The fabric is lana bolito, a boiled/felted wool and rayon blend. The pattern was designed for this fabric, or one very like it, and has raw edges everywhere since it doesn't fray.

I liked sewing this. The fabric is spongy and forgiving. The pattern is roomy so I sized way down, and I may still take it in a bit in back when I take it home. I cut a small in the bust and hip and an XS in the waist, whereas the chart would have put me on the high end of medium. But that's pretty much par for the course with big 4 patterns.

I can see wearing it in spring with bright turquoise and fuchsia, with a short pencil skirt and leggings and a big scarf.

I have another work project this week, a blouse in a Japanese cotton double gauze floral. This fabric is wonderful and amazing. So soft and pretty! The pattern is a pretty basic princess-seamed, button down shirt with a collar band and no collar. My vision here is something to wear under cardigans instead of a long-sleeved tee shirt. If it works I will make more, in soft light flannel and lawn.

Sewing for work can be a little stressful with the deadlines and the pressure to make things perfect, but it is a nice perk since everything for the project is free. And sometimes it lets me try styles or fabrics I normally wouldn't.

It's been a busy work week for me, but on Sunday before work I made some new pajama pants for myself. Elephants and teapots!



Yes, I do actually sleep in them. ;)

We were going through a serious dresses-only phase for several months. Now we are back to pants. I made her a few pairs from stash fabrics this week.



The pattern is just a really basic elastic-waist pant. It's a little baggy for her but I am not going to get too finicky about fitting. As usual for her, and following the measurement chart, I have cut one size smaller than her age, with a little added length, and just drew in the waist to fit by ignoring the 'elastic guide' and cutting the elastic to fit her.

She always wants pockets. Sigh. I object to pockets on kid clothes for two reasons:

1.) Pockets are annoying to make. On a simple pant like this, the addition of pockets more than doubles the sewing time.

2.) When kids have pockets, they put things in them. Usually things that shouldn't go in pockets (crayons, chocolate, worms) and will wreck the washing machine. Then you have to check all the pockets on laundry day. Ugh.

But The Girl wanted pockets, so I compromised, and put pockets on a couple of the pairs.



The fabric of this blue print pair is from Ikea and I had originally planned to cover a bench with it. Here are the rest of the pants. They are all heavier-wieght cottons.



The dark purple pair is made of leftovers from this dress, the yellow pair with the weird onion-y print was from work and I forgot what I bought it for, maybe a bag? The dark indigo blue floral print is a remnant I got at a yard sale or something about 100 years ago. Seriously, this is OLD stash. I have had it for as long as I can remember. I thought it had a vaguely 18th century block print look to it, but there wasn't enough to do much. I thought maybe a small jacket or stays? But now it's pants. Probably for the best.

The thing that is toughest about stashbusting for me is letting go of the dreams. I buy fabric with plans and good intentions, but sometimes either my ideas don't work, or I change my mind, or I get distracted, and when another idea comes up I have to let go of the earlier one. Most of these pieces were so small - less than a yard - that it made sense to make them into kid pants. What else could I use these pieces for? But the letting go is still hard.

Related: It is only one more week until kindergarten starts! Aaahhhhhh!!!! I am totally freaking out!

Last week I fitted a mockup for new modern everyday skirts. I let it languish a bit, then today made the changes and cut out four new skirts, all from the stash! It's pretty recent stash; I have only had these pieces for a couple years at most, but it still counts, right?

Then I asked The Girl to come in the sewing room and help me sort and choose fabrics for her school clothes. I don't make ALL her clothes - that would be crazy-making - but I like to make what I can. So I now have fabrics and patterns set aside for a couple dresses, four pairs of pants, a lightweight jacket, and a bunch more mixy-uppy T-shirts. I don't have a many old shirts to upcycle this time, but I do have lots of random odds and ends and leftovers in my knits bin!

I still have a lot of Stash to go, but I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have completely stopped buying fabric just to hoard, and I am working toward a point where I can fit it all in a single bin.

Makes me slightly anxious to think of a day when there might not be any Stash at all, and I just buy project fabric as I sew it. But I have to remind myself that even though stash fabric feels like it's free, I did pay good money for it. And anyway, there will always be changes of plans. And leftovers.

I started this dress before christmas happened and only got around to finishing it yesterday. It's a project I was assigned at Treadle. Okay, "assigned" is not quite accurate, more like suggested. We got several free copies of the new Decades Of Style pattern, the Decades Everyday E.S.P. Dress, and I was asked to make a display along with another of my coworkers. She chose a bold Mondrian-esque cotton print and I of course gravitated to this hot pink silk dupioni.



Now that I have gotten over slubby silks for costume purposes (at first I used them because I didn't know better, then I knew better but used them anyway because they were cheap, now I just avoid, generally) I am all about dupioni for modern stuff. It's cute and fun and keeps it a little more casual. I am aware that a shiny bright silk might not have been the ideal choice for an "everyday" style pattern, but whatever, I went with it. I wanted a bright pink dress, dammit!

Here's a photo of me wearing it - I took this before I left for work so it was a little rushed.



The pattern was interesting. I like the idea that Decades of Style is making a more casual line but keeping that vintage feel. The raglan sleeves are easy and comfy. The gathered skirt is a nice width. The square neck is not what I would typically choose for myself; it's a little high and not the most flattering shape for me.

I found the neck facings a bit fiddly, but not really any more so than your average sewing pattern. Facings are so ubiquitous in modern sewing patterns, but they are a feature that's almost never seen on readymade clothing. I always find them tedious and untidy. The suggestion of under-stitching to keep them from rolling out never actually works. I always, always either tack them at the shoulder seams, topstitch, or use invisible hemming stitches (hand or machine) to nail the thing down.

Still, altogether a solid pattern, with a nice fit and cute shape.

After insisting that modern sewing take a back seat in my 2015 goal list, I came up with a small list of projects (from the stash) that just had to get sewn this weekend so I could get them out of my system before the next costume project.

I am very hard on my aprons. I wear them a lot of the day; whenever I cook, craft, paint, or do anything messy. And of course they get washed a lot. I knew it was time to retire my lemon apron; it had a big rip in front and a big splatter stain from a pomegranate. So I made this:



I love this radish fabric! This apron has my usual cross-over back, because I hate the feel of neck straps and this is comfy and secure. It closes with snaps and has decorative buttons.

( The back, and another one )

Something for work!



Ok, that's not entirely accurate. It IS for Treadle, but I get to keep my displays when they are no longer needed, usually a couple months.

When I saw the printed corduroy with the foxes I just knew that F had to have pants made of it. I decided to do them as a display and the pattern I chose (New Look 6257) had a jacket too, so I thought why not? The jacket is made of lightweight wool flannel and lined in a cotton print. The collar in the pattern is stupid so I drafted a Peter Pan collar, using the tutorial here as a guide. I made covered buttons from the apple print.

The pants took an hour. The jacket I spent a few days on. It was pretty simple but I made a few silly mistakes and had to do a couple do-overs. Plus when I say "a few days," I really mean "an hour a day for three days," because I just can't seem to scrape together a nice long sewing session lately. It's all bits and pieces for me.

It is suddenly chilly here. 60s in the day and 40s-50s at night. So probably more autumn sewing like this will be on my agenda. I kind of want to make the same coat over again in a cotton twill or maybe a wide-wale corduory. And she definitely needs more pants!

I don't normally post about my jammies, but this is what I am sewing right now, so here they are.



I make pajama pants all the time. Seriously. All. The. Time. It's like doing dishes; it's one of those endeavors that never ends because you always need to do more. Of course you need your flannels for winter, you need your thin cotton broadcloth for summer, and you need your shorts for when it's really hot. I really prefer a clean pair every night, so that means enough for one week plus an extra just in case I'm not on top of laundry day. Oh, plus my HB's.

Flannel wears out pretty quickly. Usually I can get 3 good seasons out of my flannel pants before they start to go a little thin and threadbare, then another couple where they limp along and then get holes and die.

I spend a lot of time in my jammies, too. My routine for The Girl and I is to eat breakfast first thing and get dressed later, so there's probably a good couple hours each morning I get to loaf around in my jammies, cooking breakfast, eating, drinking tea, doing yoga, reading, and so on, before we finally cave in and get dressed. Can I just say how much I love this? It's probably the #1 perk of stay-at-home-mom-ing.

I always prefer to choose fun, cheery, whimsical prints. If I wanted boring jammies I would buy them. I noticed I do tend toward blue because it's a calm color. Here's this week's crop:



My coworker Michele gave me this tip: cut your drawstring in two and stitch each end to an 8" long piece of elastic, then thread it through the casing and use it like a normal drawstring. I always prefer drawstrings over full elastic, for both comfort and adjustability, but the little bit of stretch in back adds some extra comfort. And cotton twill tape makes a perfect drawstring.

Last week I spent some time making dresses for The Girl. I used the same pattern for all of them, Simplicity 2828 (I am sure I got this for free at some point) and fabrics entirely from the stash.

First one. She chose this fabric from the stash before I even opened the bin. I was hoarding it for myself, but oh well. She has good taste anyway. Invisible zip in back. Stripe matching looks pretty good if I do say so myself.



( More!! )
It feels good to finally make her something new! And it's always easier for me to crank stuff out in groups like this. Now I am in the middle of a group of T-shirts for her. After that, maybe some pants and then I will take a break from kid clothes for a while.