There are places in sewing an article of clothing that I like to call “drop dead points”. These are places where if you make a mistake, you might as well pitch the entire deal as trying to fix the item becomes truly onerous. The first one is at the cutting out stage; if you don’t measure your important bits on the paper pattern, you could end up cutting out the wrong size. Even if it’s too large, it’s a pain in the neck to fix. One of my favs is putting on a waistband. There have been a number of times when I’ve made slacks or a skirt which ‘seemed’ to fit me perfectly and then after I put on the waistband, the item looked hideous. (more…)
Making It
What a Waist! (waistband, that is)
Vintage Sewing Patterns – Thoughts
There are a lot of sewers out there who buy, collect and use vintage patterns (and no matter what the online retailers call them, I’m not sure you can consider Nolan Miller “Dynasty” sewing patterns from the 1980s to be exactly ‘vintage’ but that’s a discussion for another time). Everyone looks for something different. Some people are just looking for a particular style of dress from the 1950s or 1960s. Other people are more focused on sizing and pattern measurements (for the reason that people are just bigger and taller than they were 50-60 years ago, though for some people, it’s exactly the opposite problem). Other people have armed themselves with ‘how to redraft patterns’ skills so that they don’t care what size it is since they are going to redraft the pattern in their size in any case. (more…)
Twill, Baby, Twill
Recently, I read on another blog that I frequent the author’s question about what sort of fabric he’d gone and bought to make himself a pair of pants. Male Pattern Boldness
He thought it might be ‘some sort of twill’. Several of us recognized immediately that what he had was not twill but I thought that perhaps a little bit of information on what twill is…and ain’t..might be useful.
The picture at the top is a twill (more…)
Red Dress Redux
For those folks who requested an actual shot of the dress from this post because it disappeared into the laundry before I could do it, here you go. Apologies for the armpit shot, though it does give you an idea of what a honkin’ broad back I have (courtesy of genetics, weight lifting et al.).
Again – to recap:
Pattern: Vogue 8241
Fabric: Bamboo and lycra jersey for the dress, nylon mesh for the lining in the bodice
No zip – one button at the back of the neck with a thread loop
(oh, yeah..the shoes are Chinese Laundry from a couple of years ago, for those folks who want to know, and the belt is Chico’s)
Best Summer Party Dress: Vogue 8241
Aunt Toby doesn’t do a lot of pattern reviews, but when I find something that works on me (5’2″, shorter-than-normal arms, a bit thick in the waist), then I’ve got to promote it. Seriously. This is a great dress for anyone.
Very Easy/Tres Facile. Misses/Misses Petite Dress and Belt: Semi-fitted, pullover, lined dress with waistline casing in seam and blousing in the bodice, back neckline opening with button and loop closing. Knee and floor length. I made the floor length for a ‘black tie’ affair we had at the local university last night. Also comes with pattern for tie or covered buckle belt.
Fabrics: Crepe back satin and soft faille. Also for A: Lame and Sequin. (more…)
Double Clutch
Never let it be said that Aunt Toby is easily discouraged. I think it can be said that I made just about every error in the clutch trial run and ended up with something that was not what I’d hoped. Not that I won’t use it – I’ve never had a purse yet that I couldn’t find a use for. But the whole basis of this was to check off an item on my ‘Want to do in 2010’ list, which is to sew with leather. For all the sewing I’ve done over the years (and I’ve made everything from snow suits with double zippers, softsided luggage, hunting and photographer’s vests with a zillion pockets et al., I’ve always been pretty afraid of sewing with leather. Somehow I had this vision that I’d burn out the motor of my sewing machine. It’s just a Kenmore, after all. (more…)
Clutch Trial Run
One of my goals this year is to work with fabrics and materials that I don’t have any experience with. There are certain materials that give me the willies and over the years I have dipped my experiential toe into working with them. This year is to basically work with leather enough that it doesn’t scare me anymore. It’s not that Aunt Toby lusts after a leather skirt or something like that (I am, ahem, post-leather skirt, if you must know). But it’s an intriguing material. (more…)
Not a Chanel
For readers who are not hip-deep in the ‘sewing blogisphere’, you may not be familiar with the absolutely explosive growth in people’s sewing what could probably be called ‘Chanel-type’ jackets or ‘Chanel Tribute’ jackets. Go Chanel or Go Home
There are all sorts of patterns around – every one of the socalled ‘Big Four’ has at least one. One of the most popular is the one at the top of the post, Vogue 7975, which has been in their catalog for at least 3 years and is still in their collection and available for purchase. (more…)
Tailors Hams, Rolls and Other Things I Don’t Have
Aunt Toby has been a sewer for a long time. Looking back, since I was first set in front of an old reconditioned and electrified Singer treadle machine when I was 11 years old, it’s been 40-odd years. And sewing is one of those things where there are always new things to learn and there are all sorts of tips and tricks that I don’t know.
But I do know a couple.
One is that with wool (and probably all animal fiber based) fabric, there is almost nothing you can’t do if you have a steam iron and a wet cloth. It helps if you have some of the niftier tailoring equipment such as:
A ham: Tailor’s Ham
A Seam Roll: Sleeve Roll
A Sleeve Board: Sleeve Board
I happen to have my great-grandfather’s sleeve board ( he worked as men’s suit presser), but I don’t have any of the other equipment. If you look at the photograph, you’ll see my ‘jack of all tools’ – it’s yellow and it’s a bath towel.
In this case, after I had sewn in the sleeves on this jacket I am working on now, the seam just did not look really nice, so the first thing I did was that I took another towel (a guest size towel), dampened it, rolled it up and doubled that – that became my ‘ham’ and I shoved that into the top of the sleeve and then with another damp pressing cloth on top, I shrank the top in a little bit so that it was smoother. Then, I removed that towel and took a different towel – the bath size – and I rolled THAT up into ‘arms’ and shoved those into the sleeves. As you can see, they literally go from almost the bottom of one sleeve, all the way across the form ‘shoulders’ and then down into the other sleeve. I then pulled the roll slightly up at the top of the sleeve so that the roll is a little bit ‘fatter’ there so that it would firm out the top of the sleeve a little bit and I set that on a drying rack over our hot air registers to dry and set the top of the sleeve.
Not that I don’t want people to buy tailoring equipment – but many times you can use what you’ve already got at home.
Resolved Not To Have Resolutions
Aunt Toby, as readers know, is definitely big on being organized, planned to the hilt, forward thinking and full of ‘the vision thing’. I am also absolutely not fond of doing things like making New Year’s resolutions, long lists of ‘to do’, or keeping score.
There’s a whole lot of keeping score going on out there in Blogistan because it IS the end of 2009 and as creatures of habit, we seem duty bound to look behind us and try to get a grasp on ‘oh, what a good boy am I”. If Aunt Toby turns around like that, she gets a major spasm in her neck that no amount of hot showering, massage and drink will assuage. I’m reading great reams of lists of accomplishments – I am amazed that people had time for regular bathing and going to the toilet. Honestly.
Life ain’t a contest.
In my case, though, I will admit to a little bit of ‘what worked and what did not.”
Gardening:
Worked: Anything from the cabbage and beet families and potatoes
Disaster: Tomatoes and peppers (from the same family as potatoes but the blight carried everything off
Chickens:
Worked: Light Brahmas are still chugging along, though they do seem pretty sensitive to temperatures under 30 degrees in terms of laying eggs.
Disaster: Zip ties on the moveable pens. I think the plastic degrades in the sun.
Sewing:
Worked: Doing one thing at a time and finishing that.
Disaster: Can’t think of a thing at the moment.
So far, so good. Looking forward to 2010:
Chickens: We’re going to get more chicks in the spring, probably earlier than we did this year. The basement thing worked well until it got nice enough to put them out under the lights in the barn. I don’t know if we will get more Light Brahmas or go with something else like Delawares.
Gardening: I’m going to pay a LOT more attention to ‘blight resistent’ in the descriptions for seeds this time. It was very upsetting to not be able to get any tomatoes this summer when I wanted to can. We had no sources for local tomatoes at all, even up in the Syracuse area. Total washout.
Sewing: Well, the DH has already put in a request for several short sleeved dress shirts, so that is ‘on the spike’ as they would say, along with a gor-gee-ous piece of light weight tan wool shirting (with black reindeer!!), which I’m going to make a long sleeved shirt for him out of. I might even try making him a pair of dressy slacks that would go with the shirt so that he has a pair of slacks that he can wear that are not part of a suit. For me, I’ve got forest green wool jersey knit to make a dress and brown and forest green plaid flannel to make a jacket and a skirt for myself. Those three things will keep me going through to the spring.
But see..no resolutions…
