Phew!

I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a great one!

This was a productive weekend for me. Of course it helped that I didn't have to hostess the Thanksgiving meal but, instead, enjoyed a gathering at a friend's house. For the meal, I decided to make two items. First, I made maple cheesecake, which I overcooked by at least 10 minutes until it was golden brown – it then collapsed (that has never happened to me before!) so I couldn't bring that. My second contribution was the dinner rolls, but the yeast (which I had just bought) was expired. The dough did rise, kinda sorta, but it took all day and was definitely lackluster, so the resulting rolls, while edible, were a bit disappointing. My friends graciously overlooked my cooking foibles and it was a great evening. I want to track down the Chipotle Sweet Potatoes recipe one friend brought – those were truly yummy!!

The rest of the weekend was dedicated to holiday sewing. I completed the gift for my sew group's upcoming holiday luncheon. (Phew!) Some of them read this blog occasionally so I can't post it quite yet.

DD2 has her Winter Concert performance next Friday, and she has to wear black: a long black skirt or slacks and a long-sleeve black top. How funereal. For the bottom, I made a skirt that I had drafted for myself, but scaled down to fit her. For the top, I made my first pattern from Burda magazine and experienced the joys of tracing off a pattern with zillions of lines in different colors. Getting DD2 to dress up is not unlike herding cats, so I had to make it as easy as possible for her, meaning I didn't get as many fittings in as I would have liked nor did she have a lot of input. (She prefers a line item veto sort of approach.) I hope to post photos later this week when she dons the whole outfit.

I have one more Christmas gift to sew, and the fabric is on order. So I feel like I'm doing pretty well, all in all. :)

I'm still dithering on whether to enter the 2010 SWAP (Sewing With a Plan) contest on Stitcher's Guild. I think about my own [potential] plan every day. The swap would require me to sew more bottoms than I really want to, at the moment, and it limits me a bit. For example, I would like to sew up a few jackets and I couldn't make more than one for the swap, so I don't know... On the other hand, it could push me a bit and would be satisfying to complete it (I have no illusions that I would win any prizes)... I may just sew alongside the SWAP participants without actually entering, so we'll see.

The Vogue/Butterick/McCalls pattern site is having a very good pattern sale tomorrow, Monday, only. Butterick and McCalls are $1.99 and Vogue are $3.99, before the member discount. And shipping is free for members. The sale ends tomorrow night (Monday) at midnight CENTRAL time. That has bitten me more than once, when I sat down to finish an order after 10pm Pacific, but it was too late to get the sale prices.

A Great Day!

What a great Saturday!!

First, I attended a PenWAG meeting, where Sandra Betzina spoke and showed many of her current, out of print, and a few upcoming patterns sewn up. Wow, so many of her patterns are really better in person. Vogue typically makes their own size 2 samples for the pattern cover, but I prefer the size 12s she has sewn up herself which better reflect her detailing and sense of style. She gave many tips on adapting her patterns for different looks and there were some I had ruled out for my body type that I will now reconsider. I can see I need to buy a few more patterns the next time Vogues are on sale. :)

For the event, I wore my Sandra Betzina skirt, my Teagarden T top, and my Sandra Betzina sweater jacket. I consider it a personal failing that I didn't have a coordinating Sandra Betzina top to wear and I will remedy that. :)

Before the meeting, I met Marlene H. We have some mutual sewing friends and she had seen my blog and knows I love Issey Miyake. She had a surprise for me – two OOP Issey Miyake patterns I had never even seen before! I was so touched by her generosity. Vogue 2437 is a 2pc dress and Vogue 1836 is a very interesting coat. It has a button flange that looks like a vest. Thanks again, Marlene!!

After the meeting, Susi L and I had a very enjoyable lunch where we talked Issey Miyake and fabric until the waiter informed us they were ending lunch service. :)

When I returned home, I had a package from Cordell with several Miyakes! Once again, it included several I have never seen: Vogue 2088, a jacket (cropped and regular length), Vogue 2572, a great top (similar to the SW Cascade?) and skirt, Vogue 2651, a jacket and pants, and Vogue 2485, a very interesting coat. There were also some tracings. Thanks SO much for your kindness, Cordell!!

I am really touched by the generosity of the Issey Miyake community.

Today I finished my holiday jacket. I would love to show pictures, but some of my sew group friends read this blog, so I won't be posting it until after the holiday luncheon. :)

I'm still stressing over the gift I need to make/bring to the sew group holiday party. Oy, so many ideas, but none seem perfect. :)

Technique -- Creating a Tiled Picture

Wow, I just learned something new and am so psyched! I've learned how to create an image that contains other images. (I took these photos at the Chihuly exhibit a couple years ago when it was at the De Young Museum in San Francisco.)

Why do I need to do this? Well, I've wanted to know for awhile, but I am thinking of joining the 2010 Swap (Sewing with a Plan) contest on Stitcher's Guild, and I felt a sense of urgency to figure it out. There is a limit to how many photos you can submit and sometimes you need several to show closeup details, the back or side view, and so on.

I use a Mac and, so far as I can tell, my software options are GIMP (free, but complex) and Photoshop (expensive and complex). However, some time ago I bought Photoshop Elements when it was on sale at amazon.com. I paid no more than $30 but hadn't used it much. Photoshop Elements is designed for regular folks who take photos and scrapbook, and offers a subset of the features offered by its more powerful professional (and super expensive) cousin, so I wondered if it was able to perform this task, and it can!

So, here are the steps to create a tiled image using Photoshop Elements 6 for the Mac:

1. Create a blank image to hold all the images. Decide out how big you want the final image to be. It's easiest to specify the size using pixels, because that's how images are typically measured. For my Chihuly image, I used 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high. You create a new image using command-N, or File->New->Blank File.
   
2. Each image is going to live in its own "layer". Go ahead and create the layers you need, one for each image. If the Layers palette is not present on the lower right side of the screen, you can bring it up by selecting Windows->Layers. There is a tiny square icon in the Layers palette with a turned-up corner. Hover your cursor over that icon and it will show a tooltip that says: "Create a new layer." Click this once for each image you want to add. In my case, I had 6 images, so I clicked it 6 times. You will see the layers appear in the palette, initially blank and with the default names, Layer-1, Layer-2, and so on.
   
3. Open all the images you want to add to your picture using Command-O, or File->Open.
   
4. It's best to resize each image before importing it into the tiled picture. To do this, click the window that contains the image you want to import, and bring up the resizing panel using Image->Resize. Enter the size you want. For my example, I made each image 300 pixels high and I let Photoshop calculate the width that maintains the same relative proportion.
   
5. Import the image into the tiled picture. First, select it with Command-A (this step is counter-intuitive, but required), and copy it with Command-C, or Edit->Copy. Select the tiled window and make sure that you have selected one of the blank layers. (You can click on the layer in the Layer palette to select it.) Paste the image with Command-V, or Edit->Paste.
   
6. The photo is loaded into the center of the image, so you need to re-position it. Hold down the Command key (the cursor changes to the Positioning cursor, a plus sign with arrows) and select the layer containing the picture you want to move. While holding the Command key, slide it to its final location. If you need to move the image just a pixel or two, you can do this with the arrow key while holding down the Command key. So, Command-upArrow will move the image up one pixel and Command-rightArrow moves it to the right by one pixel.
   
7. Repeat this process for each image until all are imported and positioned as desired.
   
8. Save the image. I saved mine as JPEG. Bring up the Save panel using Command-S (or File->Save), and select JPEG from the Format pull-down. You must save it "As a Copy" and de-select "Embed Color Profile." Save the file. Once you save it as a JPEG, the layers are no longer available. If you think you might want to further tweak the image, also save it in the Photoshop format, which uses the .psd extension. This preserves the separate layers so you can go back and swap out any of the photos, add text, or tweak the images in any way you want.
   
9. You can now upload the JPEG to Picasa or Flickr (or whatever website you use to host your photos) just as you would any other image.
   

Thanks so much to my friend, Kansas Jeff, for walking me through this process! :D

Self Drafted -- Pajama Bottoms for Teens

Yes, Halloween is over. Hope you had a nice one. :)

I'm sure I am not the only mother who has heard, on a Friday, "Oh mom, I need to wear pajamas next Monday for spirit week and I could use a new pair!"

Yes, I could run out and buy a couple pairs (both daughters attend the same high school) but I am sewing now. And pajama bottoms are the easiest thing ever.

Not to mention I have several lengths of cute flannel, some of which are even acceptable to a teen. (OK, the Garfield fabrics and the starry fabrics received wordless stares. "Look," said I, "each leg could use a different Garfield fabric!" Silent pause. "Mom, I think I'll go with the monkeys.")

I traced off a pair of DD1's pajama bottoms to make a pattern. I have several pant patterns, and was curious, so I compared the pajamas to some of my patterns. Wow, what a difference. Women's patterns, like Loes Hinse or Vogue, even in the smallest sizes, differ quite a bit from these. The RTW garment has a very minimal crotch curve, (designed to fit negligible teen hineys), and is far less voluminous around the pelvis.

Just as I was about to cut out the first pair of pajama bottoms, DD1 asked me if I could lower the crotch a bit, so I lowered it an inch, cut it out in a retro black cat fabric, and sewed it up. When DD1 tried them on, she said, oh, did I mention the original jammies are too short? No, but it was easy to add a self fabric band at the hem to this "wearable muslin."

I then whipped up pajama pants #2, in the "real" fabric she will be wearing to school, which sports pigs and the word "Oink." These pants, she tells me are perfect. Cuter and better fitting than the originals. Yay. :)

My daughters could be called Slim and Slimmer, which I appreciate, because I can use the same pattern for both. I shortened them a bit for DD2 and cut them out in a flannel fabric sporting sock monkey faces. Love those sock monkeys.

It's interesting to pay attention to what they are doing in RTW. The original jammies, from Target's store brand, xhilaration, are an extra-small, and made from a green plaid fabric. Yes, Target uses inexpensive fabric, and very streamlined decorative details that are easy to mass produce with little effort, but they are cute and (most importantly) they do fit well, at least on my daughters' body type. They have spent the time to develop a decent pattern, though it certainly wouldn't fit a girl with bootay. The pattern is designed in such a way that there is no excess fabric to "pooch out" at the crotch or look baggy and ill fitting around the hips. Very nice.

When I look at a pants pattern from the big four (Simplicity, McCalls, Butterick, Vogue) I often think that the pattern even looks inelegant in how it is drafted – there is no subtlety of fit. Small wonder pants are the hardest thing to make and fit well when you are starting with a pattern like that. (For the record, Burda patterns are use a sloper that fits a wide variety of folks out of the envelope. For women that do have to tweak it, it's generally much easier to achieve a good fit when you start with a Burda. I've heard this is also true of Marfy patterns.)

The primary features of these Target-inspired pants:

• The crotch is shallow, and short.
  
• The front of the pajama is shorter than the back by about 1.5" at CF. The casing is formed by folding down the fabric, so that seam is sewn at a substantial angle (which I have never seen in a pattern).
  
• The back of the leg is about 5/8" wider than the front. (This is a straight legged pattern.)
  
• The original pajama pants featured a drawstring elastic, but I used what I had lying around. It's a bit soft for a waistband elastic, but DD1 felt width was more important than a stiff, non-roll waistband elastic in the 3/4" width I have on hand.
  
• The original pajama pants featured a mock fly front with 3 small decorative buttons. I didn't bother with this detail, but it would be easy to gussy up this design in a variety of ways if I was making them as a special gift or using a bland fabric.
  

Best of all, they were free! Of course, they weren't really, but since I purchased the fabrics long ago (I think from equilter.com), and they did not require a trip to a fabric store, or any additional outlay of money, they felt free. :D

Woot! Pajama pants problem solved and I have a decent pattern for future use.

Pair #1 – Wearable Muslin. This pair was too short for DD1, so I added self fabric bands at the bottom.

Pair #2 – Pigs for DD1.

Pair #3 – Sock monkeys for DD2. Yes, I matched the "plaid." Sheesh, what we do for our kids. :)

Sock Monkey Closeup. I wonder if DD2 and friends will be listening in organic chemistry tomorrow or choosing which monkey represents which classmate. :)

By the way, I was musing about the technique of copying RTW patterns by tracing, and I remembered this ThreadBanger video featuring Kenneth King. He shows how to trace a pattern using organza. (I've only used paper, but his method looks good.) In this video, he uses the technique to copy a cape with a collar, which he then makes up in velvet and satin. I took embellishment classes from Kenneth King years ago when he lived in San Francisco and taught regularly at Sewing Workshop. He's a great teacher and an amazing artist.

La Fred - Olympia Coat

This is the second of two LaFred patterns I purchased at Artistry in Fashion last month. I had some striped novelty corduroy fabric that, once washed, "puckered" up along those stripes. Yep, a novelty corduroy seersucker. Fabrics are so interesting these days.

The corduroy sat around while I contemplated what to do with it. I am not a huge corduroy fan in general, but this one was so interesting. I knew I wanted a jacket with it, but nothing was grabbing me. I finally decided to use it to sew up the car length coat from this LaFred pattern. Because I was matching stripes and observing the nap, and this has some pretty large pattern pieces, I was grateful to have enough fabric. While this pattern may look pretty traditional, it has some interesting features:

• The body of the jacket and the sleeve are cut in one piece. This means that the sleeves are on the bias. Because I was using a stripe, this caused the chevron pattern along the top of the sleeve.
  
• There is another under sleeve piece cut on the straight of grain. This is attached to a triangular gusset. I found this to be a pretty easy gusset experience and is designed to give a wider range of movement to the shoulders/arms.
  
• The pattern features two pocket styles. I opted for the interesting "window pane" pocket which is very easy to make, but looks very "high end." To reduce bulk, I lined the pocket with the lining fabric, but you could also use the fashion fabric.
  
• There are two neck styles available - a round neckline and a petal collar. I opted for the round neckline which I wear folded back.
  

This straight jacket doesn't have a lot of shaping. Based on my high bust measurement, I cut an XL, which had enough ease so I didn't need an FBA. Once I had the outer shell constructed, I decided to remove about 3" from the CB at the hem, tapered to nothing – if I hadn't already constructed the pockets, I would have probably removed it from the side seams. I also shortened the sleeves about 1.5" and I inserted some smallish petal shoulder pads.

(The chevron design is caused by the stripes and bias cut sleeves.)

(I love these chunky black buttons, which I bought at Artistry in Fashion and intended them for another project. The lining is optional, but I lined it with a dark brown crinkled polka dot polyester.)

DD1 feels that this coat is a little oversized and underfitted. It might seem so, given the current more fitted styles, but it's a good use of this interesting fabric and I expect to get a lot of wear from this coat in my chilly, foggy climate.

I think I have now used everything I bought at Artistry in Fashion -- two LaFred patterns and 6 chunky black buttons. This might be a first! :)

Halloween 2002

It's hard to believe that it is only 10 days to Halloween. You see, Halloween was always a huge holiday for my family, at least when my kids were little. My Halloween fever would begin in August when I started pestering my kids about what they wanted to be, costume-wise. Usually DD1 would have decided long before, but DD2 would keep me guessing until the last possible second.

I don't know where all my photos are, but I found these low-resolution photos from Halloween 2002. That was the year that DD1 (then almost 10), and her best friend wanted to be "The Girls That Didn't Want to Go to Sleep." And of course they needed matching costumes and they wanted matching teddy bears. So I laid in a supply of flannel from eQuilter.com.

Since DD1 loved to dance, and wanted her costume to twirl, I drafted a nightgown with a circle skirt. Also, since their teddy bears were different sizes, I had to draft a different pattern for each. They also wanted sleeping caps, so I got out my knitting needles and some Encore yarn (an inexpensive acrylic) and knitted each of them (and each of their bears) a sleeping cap.

They wore sheepskin slippers and their bears had matching slippers purchased by H's mom. These were little booties intended for infants and they worked perfectly on the bears.

(They were about to attend a Halloween event at the Academy of Sciences, a week or so before October 31st. DD2's costume wasn't finished, so she went as a cat.)

(Twirling, with H, in the courtyard at the Academy of Sciences.)

(H's bear on the left and DD1's bear on the right.)

Obsessive? Did I hear you call me obsessive? Well, maybe a bit. lol

Then, there was DD2 (age 7 at the time). She always made me crazy when it came to costumes. She was quick with the concept costume that would be impossible to execute well. When she was 3 years old, and I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, she immediately responded, "an eyeball." When I asked her again, she just as quickly answered, "a dirty sock." Even at 3 she was a jolly joker.

This particular year she wanted to be (in her words): "An Alien Robot from the Moon." She soundly rejected any robot suggestions that involved boxes and dryer hose. She wanted to have a round head and a silver body suit, cause she wasn't just a robot, but an "alien robot from the Moon, mooom."

One day I was in ToysRUs and noticed the playground balls. I realized that a Scooby Doo playground ball could be perfect for her helmet. I cut it into the right shape to fit over her head and neck and spray painted it silver.

She also wanted a control panel with "working" buttons on her costume. (Well, who wouldn't?) I spent ages in hardware and craft stores looking for suitable buttons and couldn't find any, so I concocted ten of them by gluing plastic curtain rings together, wrapping them with metallic silver thread, and gluing clear circles of plastic on top. My daughter labeled them using a Sharpie. I attached these to her silver lame "control panel". I had a string of clear lights intended for a wreath, so I inserted one of the lights into each button, from behind, through a small slit. I then created a little silver box to hold the battery pack for the lights. When she wanted to, she could turn on the battery pack and her buttons would flash. That was about as operational as it would get.

Besides her silver pants and shirt, which were very easy to sew up, I also made some spats because she didn't want anything to show that wasn't silver. Finally, I made her a silver trick or treat bag (which you see hanging from her waist in the first photo below). The costume was a hit. When she returned home from school, I had to re-glue some buttons and bolts because she was over-fondled by the other children. (Yes, because she was a robot, she had bolts glued to her knees and elbows.) She turned heads as she was trick or treating, buttons flashing in the dark.

(The requisite silly shot just before heading out for trick or treating.)

(You can just make out the 3D pocket for the battery pack under her control panel.)

(Even Alien Moon Robots have to take piano lessons when they occur on Halloween.)

I'll never forget how she told me right after Halloween that next year she wanted to be a keyboard, with keys that actually played notes when you touched them. Nope, that one never happened – I told her when she was older she could design and engineer that herself.

Should I admit that these costumes were long ago given to Goodwill? Yup. We don't generally keep these things forever and I like to think other little girls are enjoying them.

These days, I have nothing to do with costumes. My Halloween duties pretty much begin and end with hosting a sleepover and buying lots of candy. :)

(And sorry my pictures aren't better, but this was before I had gone digital and I came across these old scans. I don't know where the original photos are. Hopefully safely tucked away in some box.)

Sewing Workshop - Salsa Blouse #2

I liked the Salsa pattern so much, I immediately cut into my special Kasuri-inspired stretch woven to make another!

I've already blogged about my authentic kasuri fabric and how this black stretch woven is reminiscent of a kasuri. I wanted something special for this fabric and decided this pattern would be "it." This fabric is, essentially, a stripe. If it had been possible, I would have "fussy" cut it to place the stripes more strategically, but it was just not possible. I barely was able to get the top out of the fabric I had (some of the seam allowances were smaller than they should have been), so I had to let the stripes fall where they may. I think it worked out ok (not perfect, but ok), but I did think about it. :D

Because this is a stretch woven and my last Salsa was made from a knit, you can see this one drapes differently. DD#2 (my photographer) felt that this one is "a bit less flattering" – she commented that this black version makes me look a bit "wider" than the navy. I am not sure I agree, but in the interest of full disclosure, after she said this I popped in some petal shoulder pads for the photos. Unused to shoulder pads, she wasn't sure she liked that effect either, but I do think it improves the line a bit. Not sure if I will wear it this way, but it's an option.

Forgive the silly pictures. Sometimes one tires of trying to make oneself look less hideous in a photo and one is egged on by a certain 14-year-old and one becomes... well maybe a bit silly. :)

At least you can clearly see the lovely texture of this black fabric. The only thing different for this version is that I shortened the sleeves a bit less -- maybe 5" or 6" instead of 8". Still, a lot of shortening. :)