I have recently seen several versions of the Now top, the Zen top, and a hybrid of both. I need more tops, so I decided to make the Now on my recent sewing retreat. This fabric, a wonderfully soft Italian cotton, was from Emma One Sock. I think. It might have been Gorgeous Fabrics. If you recognize it, please let me know. It is, essentially, a plaid, though of course it prominently features the circle motif that I love.
My alterations were pretty straight-forward: a dart (more on that in a bit), and I lengthened both the front and back by 4".
The most interesting feature of the Now is the collar. The pattern piece is a rectangle, and it is sewn to form a tube. You could cut the piece on the bias or line it with a contrasting fabric, though I made it as shown.
This top has no interfacing. The front bands are formed by folding the fabric over twice. They are not supposed to be top-stitched in place, but I mitered the hem and top-stitched the hem and front bands at the same time. The front of the collar is also folded over twice, but I put in a strip of interfacing because the collar was so soft – I didn't want the collar to collapse. I also made a pleat on the hem of the sleeves and sewed a button. I did not shorten the sleeves, which is very unusual for me, so they run a bit short.
You can see that the collar is a tube. You could pull a scarf through the collar, if you wanted to. The buttons are mother of pearl, but I used the back side.
I did learn one important thing from this pattern. I have not been adding my darts properly. I mostly focus on adding enough width, without thinking as much about the length. My sewing friends pointed out, very correctly, that I need to add at least another 1.5" to the length at center front. I am very glad to learn this and will modify the pattern correctly next time. Thanks, you guys. :)
Who doesn't enjoy an intense session of sewing? But add in friends with the same passion, a beautiful coastal setting, with verdant hills, aged barns and fences, and scads of picturesque bovines, piles of delicious food, and hours of companionable sewing, sewing talk and laughter. Yup, Shams is a lucky girl.
For this retreat, I pre-cut five garments:
Pajama bottoms using Louise Cutting's One Seam pants pattern
A Sewing Workshop Now top
A Sewing Workshop Liberty top
A pair of Marcy Tilton pants
A pair of Sewing Workshop Hudson pants
I managed to get all of them finished, but, as my camera battery died, the only photo I have is of me wearing the pjs, after sleeping in them all night.
One Seam Pant PJs, a bit rumpled after sleeping in them.
Over the next few days I hope to get photos and post reviews of some of these patterns. I am particularly loving the Liberty top, the Now shirt, and the Marcy Tilton pants. With daylight savings time, I hope it will be easier to get photos in the evenings.
Most of you know that I live in San Francisco. Most of you know that one of my favorite sewing-related haunts is FabriX, a discount fabric store that can be very hit or miss. It's not a place to go for a specific fabric, or the latest pattern (though they have some really old patterns), or sewing notions (though they have some), but if you go with a spirit of adventure, you can sometimes find real gems.
But there is another place in San Francisco that gives my little sewist heart palpitations of delight. Apparel City has been around forever, primarily servicing the ever-shrinking local garment industry, but they are more than happy to cater to the home sewist.
I first discovered Apparel City back when I took fashion classes at Canada College, twenty years ago. When I returned to sewing after 17 years, I was so sad to see some of my favorite establishments for servicing sewing machines had closed, like Mr B's, the Bernina dealer extraodinaire, and The Place That Sells Sewing Machines, which had won awards for its excellent customer service. But I am glad to report that Apparel City is still around and is happy to service any brand of sewing machine or serger.
When you first enter Apparel City, you see Sapporo irons, Juki and Janome sewing machines and sergers, and boxes of huge cones of thread. (They also sell professional machines.) To the left is a wall of more thread cones, huge rolls of elastic, enormous cones of twill tape. You come to a desk and behind the desk are many more goodies. First, there is a display of scissors, including Kai and Gingher. Behind the desk is a wall of metal rulers and curves of all types. On the desk, like candies, are boxes of marking chalk, the kind you see Marcy Tilton, Louise Cutting, and Linda Lee use. They sell sewing machine oil by the gallon. They sell oak tag by the roll, or by the yard. This is where I buy rolls of 36" pattern drafting paper ($40). The only fabric they sell is muslin, by the bolt or by the yard. They sell those hooks for hanging your patterns. They sell those wonderful Clover silk pins.
There is a wall, behind which they do the servicing. The repair guy is right there, available and easy to talk to, and he really knows his stuff. They can order parts for you, or service for you. They also service Sapporo irons.
Apparel City is not that far from Union Square, but it's on the other side of Market St, in an industrial part of town. Best of all, they open at 8:30am, Monday to Friday, and 9am on Saturday, so you can go nice and early, when there's loads of street parking, and you can park right in front.
Can you see why I love this place? It's the "Home Depot" for sewists. The place has the same aura as your local auto mechanic. And, no, I get nothing for my unsolicited endorsement, except, hopefully, seeing them continue in business when their customers, these days, are primarily small local designers and fashion students.
(At some point I'll go back, take photos, and add them to this entry. :) )
Serger
Some of you may have noticed I have mentioned once or twice that I don't have a working serger. Note how carefully that is phrased. I do have a serger that has been in storage for the last 17 years. And by storage, I mean it's been sitting in an open box, in an unfinished basement laundry room, exposed to humidity and damp. Well, I finally got the nerve up to face the serger.
Wow, my White 534 is in bad shape. I cleaned off the cobwebs and the grime. The thing has lots of rust, and the mechanism was fairly frozen. This is the reason for my most recent trip to Apparel City. I purchased industrial cleaner (and got advice for cleaning it), some sewing machine oil (a small bottle, thank you very much, since I don't need a whole gallon), and spools of serger thread (thinking hopefully). I hope to get this puppy back in working order, but if I can't do it, I'll take it in for servicing. I may also ask them to order me a new blade – they've already confirmed they can get it.
Year ago I inherited a nice, sturdy ironing board from my mother. It used to have one of those nasty Teflon covers, sold by so many sewing supply places. I hated that cover, and then, during the years I was not using the ironing board, it was exposed to moisture and something metallic rusted all over it. It was a nasty mess and I threw the cover and padding away. I was left with a very nekkid ironing board.
For the last six months or so that I've been sewing again, I just threw a piece of wool yardage over the ironing board and ironed away. It wasn't very satisfactory, not thick enough, and was always shifting around, but I made it work.
For the last couple weeks, I have been preparing for an upcoming sewing retreat, and I decided it was high time I made a proper cover. Years ago I had a wool army blanket intended for a ironing board pad, but it was lost to the mists of time. (An old wool blanket makes a perfect pad! So, check army surplus stores, flea markets, your basement... Just toss it in the washer/dryer and it's ready to cut out.)
To create the pattern, I took my ironing board, placed it on the floor, upside down, and traced the shape onto paper. I used that shape to cut out five layers of wool – three from the green wool twill I had been using as an ad hoc cover, and two layers from a piece of wool I fulled in the washer. The resulting yardage was very thick and very pink. (Yes, the original yardage was pink, but it seemed even more pink, if that were possible.)
I layered those five pieces together and pad stitched the heck out of them. Not so tightly as to compress the loft, but very thoroughly so they won't be shifting. I then loosely whip stitched around the entire piece. Voila, an ironing board pad that will hold heat, but not get too hot.
The pad, consisting of 5 layers of wool, pad-stitched together, with the raw edges loosely whipped. Yeah, it's ugly, but who cares? No one will ever see it. ;)
I cut the cover itself out of a fairly heavyweight piece of denim that was lying around. It's a light-colored denim, so I wouldn't be using it for clothing, as I prefer the darker blues. I laid the pattern on the denim, added 3" all around, and cut it out.
Next, I found a half yard of a pretty quilting fabric, mauve with a paisley design, and I cut 4 or 5 bias strips, 1.5" wide. I joined them together to make a continuous length. This would form the casing for the elastic. I folded it, wrong sides together, and stitched it around the cover with a 1/4" seam allowance. I zigzagged over the raw edge, but you could serge it as well. At the beginning and ending of the casing, I just turned the raw edges under twice, and topstitched (before attaching to the cover).
Attaching the bias binding, folded wrong sides together, to the cover. I then zigzagged the raw edges.
I threaded a narrow elastic through the casing, placed the cover on the ironing board, and pulled tight! I tied the ends of the elastic in a big bow and tucked them out of the way.
Wow, I LOVE my new ironing board cover! It has the perfect amount of loft and it's hecka sturdy, not to mention it's a very pretty shade of blue. I'm now ready for the sewing retreat!
So many Sewing Workshop patterns yet untested! Just as I try one, they release a new one - this time it's the Verona jacket. I can't catch up. I guess I have to sew faster. :)
I know several people who like the Valencia jacket and pant, but I was surprised to see so few reviews on Pattern Review – there is currently just one review of this pattern! (I will be adding my review.)
This jacket is a very interesting design. Here are some of its features:
A generous shawl collar that folds back to expose the reverse side of the fabric. The only facing is the back neck. Well, there is a facing for the sleeve hem, but I didn't use it. :)
The jacket front is cut so that the hem is on the cross grain up until the "point", then it angles up on the bias. So the side seam on the front piece is on the bias. However, the side seam on the back is on the grain. Just make sure you sew with the on-grain edge on top, and the bias on the bottom against the feed dogs, and you won't have any problems. :)
The back is narrower than the front, and the top is rather narrow through the back between the armholes. Well, it's not narrow, exactly, but it's deceptive in that it's true to size. I made a Large, which is pretty normal for me, and it's none too generous through the upper back. If you are tempted to cut a smaller size, thinking it's yet another oversized SW pattern, you might be disappointed with the fit. If you do remove fullness, you might want to remove it from the front only.
It's a dropped sleeve design. I am really NOT a fan of the dropped sleeve. I don't know of any body type that is flattered by the drop sleeve, including my "busty apple" shape. The sleeve head has a very minimal curve.
The sleeve is a two-piece sleeve. The under sleeve ends in a triangular point, which behaves functionally like a gusset, though it's easier to insert than a standard gusset. :) (This also adds to the difficulty of measuring the pattern at the bustline.)
Because of the funky design of this top, it is very difficult to measure the pattern to determine the actual garment measurement at the bust. (I really wish SW would indicate the bust point along with the finish garment bust measurement like in the same way as Vogue patterns – I find that simple feature incredibly useful.) Therefore, it is essential to make a muslin or a sample garment from a non-cherished fabric.
I purchased a fabric at Joann's that looks like a handwoven, but is not. I liked the green/blue/black/white colors used in this fabric, it's machine washable, and has a very nice drape, but this is a tricky fabric. It ravels worse than anything I've ever seen, and one of the fibers is a synthetic that melts when the iron is too hot. (Though it is mostly natural fiber.)
I decided to take advantage of both the attractive selvedge and this fabric's natural desire to ravel. I placed the selvedge along the front edge and decided to fringe the bottom of the garment and the sleeves. This worked well except for the section on the front hem from the "point" to the side seam, which is on the bias. For those sections I applied a self trim from the fabric that is cut on grain, so it could be fringed.
I shortened the sleeves by 1". I could have shortened them 1 1/2" or even 2", and will do that next time I make he pattern. Because I fringed the sleeve, I did not use the sleeve facings. Also, because of the extreme fragility of this fabric, I neatly finished all seams. Either by flat felling, or turning under each edge and top-stitching. Other than this, I made the pattern exactly as designed.
I am still waiting for my dressform to arrive. I am soooo ready!
3) Hollow Braid with 6 blue and 2 cream strands. After approx 2", switches to Round Braid.
Maybe you've heard of Kumihimo? It's a Japanese braiding technique that is traditionally done using a wooden stand called a marudai or a takadai. Thirty years ago, I wanted to try kumihimo, but it required a fairly expensive outlay to get started, so I'd never gotten around to it.
Then, about 11 years ago, my 6 year old brought home from school an economical, portable form of kumihimo that uses a foam disk with cut slots to hold the yarn. What a brilliant invention – no need for the heavy weights required for traditional kumihimo and, did I mention, it's portable? I quickly ordered myself up a couple of these disks from Braiders Hand. (I see they now offer a square "plate" for making flat braids. They didn't have that years ago when I ordered mine.)
Even before the disks arrived, my kids' interest waned (in fact, DD2 now swears she's never even seen one of these things before) but I played with it a bit. Since I had no real use for the braids I was creating, I laid the disks aside and, eventually, they were stored in the garage.
I recently decided I would like to experiment with using these braids in clothing, and I dug my disk out of the garage. I could no longer remember the correct technique, but Youtube came to the rescue.
I first started with the standard round braid, which is what my kids had learned. My first sample used 8 strands of a fine crochet thread and the resulting braid was far too thin. I found some yarn left over from previous projects – it is roughly a DK weight. I tried the 8-thread round braid using the yarn, and I liked the result much better. This braid is more supple and definitely has potential.
Next, I decided to try a square braid. I have seen many obi cords that use a square braid, but my 8-thread braid was far too compact and stiff. Of the three patterns, I found this one the hardest to keep straight in my head and I made a couple errors in my sample. (It seems like every time I thought, "I have it now!" I would make a mistake.)
I then tried a hollow braid. The bottom sample starts with about 2" of the hollow braid and then I switched back to the round braid, which is my favorite of the three. (In the photo you can see where it changes pattern, just a bit over the hole.) This time the pattern is slightly different because it uses 2 white yarns and 6 blue yarns (positioned as shown in the Hollow Braid video), where the other samples use 4 and 4 (positioned as shown in the Basic Round Braid video). I love how changing the yarn colors yields such a different effect.
Below are the Youtube videos that I found useful. If you go to Youtube and search on kumihimo, you will find other videos, including those that use the traditional wooden stands. There is also a video showing how to create a beaded braid using the disk. The resulting braid reminds me of bracelets I saw for sale in Egypt.
Basic Round Braid
Square Braid
Hollow Braid
Eventually you will see a kumihumo braid emerge in at least one of my pieces. It won't be immediately, though, as I have a lot of other things going on too.
2006 Winter Olympics
I have been watching the Olympics the last couple of weeks and it has been making me think back to the 2006 Winter Olympics. At the time, I was "into" knitting (one of my friends calls me a serial hobbyist) and I decided to participate in the Yarn Harlot's 2006 Knitting Olympics.
The point of the Knitting Olympics is to cast on during Opening Ceremonies and cast off on or before the closing ceremonies. You are encouraged to challenge yourself in some way. I think this was the first sweater I had made, except for one I made as a teenager for my mother. And that one wouldn't go over her head. :) For me, making a sweater in that time frame was challenge enough, and this one used intarsia, a technique I am not adept at.
DD2 really wanted a Weasley sweater from the first Harry Potter movie and I managed to locate one of the original patterns released by Rowan when the first movie came out. I found an online chart to use for the letter A – the pattern supplied only the letters H (for Harry) and R (for Ron), if I recall. I used the Rowan tweed yarn that was used for the original movie sweaters.
I read somewhere that the expert knitter they hired to create the original movie sweaters worked hard to achieve the "loving hands at home" look. Not unlike an adult working hard to replicate a child's scrawl-like text. For me, I had no trouble at all achieving that look. LOL. I'm sure DD2 could still fit into the oversized sweater, but it's been sent off to storage – its services are "no longer required."
I also made her the hat that Hermione wore in the Prisoner of Azkhaban. The site that sold this pattern is no longer around, though I did find at least one free pattern when I googled. I believe I used Manos yarn for this.
And of course, she needed a Gryffindor scarf. For this I used an inexpensive Plymouth acrylic and one of the many free internet patterns.
Finally, I made her a nose warmer, which has nothing to do with Harry Potter but DD2 requested one because she hated getting a cold nose in the snow. I got this pattern from Knitty. Of course, she wore all of her knitted booty up to the Tahoe and promptly lost the nose warmer. :) Come to think of it, it's been years since I've seen the hat, too.
Oh, did I mention that DD2's favorite color, for years and years, was red?
So, that's what I was doing four years ago during the Winter Olympics. This year, it was all sewing, stenciling, and kumihimo. :)
Well, it was only a matter of time. Since returning to sewing for myself last August, I had avoided making pants. I had a few pair of purchased pants that fit me pretty well and I was none to eager to join the quest for the Well-Fitting-Pants-Pattern Grail.
Nevertheless, I told myself I would make a pair of pants for the 2010 Swap on Stitcher's Guild and... It. Was. Time.
This Au Bonheurs pattern comes in sizes 36 - 46 and 48 - 60. I purchased the smaller size and traced off a size 46, removing the zipper and replacing it with an elastic waist. I made a muslin out of green bathrobe velour and tried it on. Yowza. The pant technically "fit" me. By that I mean it went around me with no problem, but it was very low waisted (yuck) and it gave me such a wedgie!!! Hello!
I decided that, before proceeding, I needed to perfect the fit on another pattern. I chose the very popular One Seam pants pattern by Louise Cutting. I chose this pattern because I have seen many sewists have success with it (and rave about it) and because it has no side seam. The Au Bonheurs pattern also has no side seam.
I traced off the One Seam tapered pants pattern in a Medium – the pattern includes both a tapered leg and a straight leg design. Once again, I made up a muslin using the green bathrobe velour I had picked up at a recent BABES meeting. I am not a pants fitting expert, but I could see there was too much fabric at the crotch, so I slashed the pattern 9" down from the waist, beginning at CF and going across to the CB, leaving a hinge. (The hinge was 5/8" from the CB, so I made a tiny slash from the CB edge.) I overlapped the pieces by 3/4", removing 1 1/2" vertically from the pattern.
Feeling rather brave (and without another muslin), I laid the One Seam pattern over the Au Bonheurs pattern and transferred the differences to the Au Bonheurs. The primary change was additional crotch length to the back crotch curve. (Good bye, extreme wedgie!) I also lengthened the Au Bonheurs pant by 2 inches. The original capri length was a bit too short for me.
I then cut directly into the fashion fabric, which is a substantial black knit with a slight rib. I am not sure where I got this fabric, because I tend to buy black fabrics in quantity and I don't recall the lineage of each one. :)
This is a quick pattern to sew up, especially if (like me) you don't have to bother with a zipper. The leg is fairly full, and there are two horizontal tucks in each leg, so a drapey fabric is a must. There is a pocket on one leg, and I put it on the left leg. The bottom of each leg is slightly gathered into a band, so no hemming is required. That was nice because this fabric would have been a pain to hem. Once I had the pants completed, except for the waistband, I tried them on with elastic tied around my waist. I ended up shortening approximately 2.5" - 3" from the top edge. I marked the new waist seam with pins while it was on my body. I removed the pants, cut the excess fabric off, and sewed on the waistband.
I was thinking of using the "Elephant Ear" pocket pattern from the One Seams pants on these, but I decided against it since I was still perfecting the fit. But if I make these pants again, I do plan to add a pocket.
Yes, these photos were taken in the rain. :)
These are a fun and funky design. The fit is not bad, but I think I could do even better. In fact, in the middle of this project, I signed up for a fit clinic next month at the Sewing Workshop. I think some additional help is in order. Before then, I plan to sew up muslins from several other pants patterns, like Loes Hinse Cruise and Oxford pants. Maybe I should try one of the Sewing Workshop pants as well. I'm open to suggestions. :)
Oh, and I now have a new pair of pajama bottoms using the One Seam pattern. The fit isn't great, because they were made from the original One Seams pattern, before I made any alterations, but they are certainly good enough for pajamas. :)
