Speaking at Cañada College and a Link Fest

This last Wednesday I was asked to speak to the Designer Detail's class at Cañada College's Fashion Department. (The link takes you to their blog, but they also have a very active Facebook page.)

I was slotted for 90 minutes for a show and tell of my garments and various techniques I've used.

What a lot of fun!

After the talk, several students came up and asked about some of the techniques and garments that I'd talked about. To make it easier for them to find the relevant posts, here are some linkies. (If I've missed any, leave a comment and I will add it.)

• Bias Fringe
• Lattice Smocking
• Curved Welt pocket (with a ribbing welt)
• FBAs in Knits, Advice for the Uber Busty
• Vertical Only FBA
• The Mammoth Dart
• Au Bonheur Coat with Needle Felted Circles
• Koos coat
• Au Bonheurs des Petites Mains gallery

Tonight, in fact, there is a millinery presentation at Cañada at 7pm, given by milliner Wayne Wichern. If you are local, you should check it out! It's free, though they ask that you RSVP as they are providing refreshments. Wayne makes beautiful hats!

Also, they have announced the speaker for this year's Artistry in Fashion, on Sept 28th, 2013. It will be Sandra Ericson, from the Center for Pattern Design. The spiral top I made recently is one of her patterns. It should be a fabulous show!

Finally, I am looking forward to some serious sewing this weekend! I managed to get a jacket muslined and took it to Cañada College on Wednesday. During lunch, I asked Ronda Chaney (head of the fashion department and teacher extraordinaire) to evaluate the fit. She made some tweaks and now I'm ready to get moving! If all goes well, I'd like to wear it to Pattern Review weekend at the end of the month.

Have a great weekend!

Top with Print Contrast Binding

Have you noticed this trend in Spring 2013 clothing? I am seeing it everywhere. Tops in solid fabrics (or in subtle stripes, plaids, etc) are sewn with contrast bindings/pipings/etc in print fabrics, usually florals. So I am jumping on that bandwagon.

Never let it be said that Shams doesn't pay attention to trends. (She may ignore them, but she is aware of them.)

I wanted an asymmetric neckline, similar to one I'd seen in RTW, so I started with the Renfrew top and sliced and diced the front - the back is quite plain, though the binding does wrap around the neckline.

The front after slicing and dicing. I added a 5/8" seam allowance to the bottom of the shoulder piece, shown on the left. The neckline bit was discarded. I also narrowed the shoulder, just slightly, at the back to correspond to the narrowed front shoulders.

To construct, I sewed the both shoulder seams, then applied the binding in one continuous piece all the way around the neckline. I then laid the bottom edge of the shoulder piece underneath the front by 5/8", and topstitched in place. I sewed the sleeves in flat, and then sewed up the side seams/sleeve seams. I hemmed the sleeves and bottom using Steam a Seam Lite 2 and topstitched on the sewing machine.

For the heathered "solid" fabric, I had more left over from my first Renfrew trial. For the contrast binding, I grabbed a print jersey from Fabrix and sliced off a 2" strip. I folded it in half and sewed it on with a 3/8" seam allowance.

Easy peasy.

I'm almost embarrassed to blog it. But not *that* embarrassed.

And, speaking of which, so many of my favorite bloggers are either retiring their blogs or going silent. I kind of get it, actually, since the longer one blogs, the harder it is to come up with interesting things to say or show. Life moves on, other things take precedence.

Hopefully, I haven't bored the bejeesus out of you yet.

DD1 was here last week for spring break. It was nice to see her. One afternoon, we both got haircuts. At different salons, but we met up afterwards. She went to the expensive salon (which did a beautiful job but it cost her beaucoup bucks) and I went to the beauty school, where my cut/color costs $18. I meet the nicest students who are about to graduate. It's a win win. Yeah, occasionally my bangs are crooked, but it's all survivable.

On Friday, I took both daughters to dinner. I was hoping we could grab some photos of all three of us, since I really don't have any. Alas, it was not to be.

Work has been intense lately. Most of the time, I work at home, on my sofa. Occasionally, I have a "helper". You can see how "helpful" he is.

The view from my laptop.

I have some sewing plans, but my weekends have been, and continue to be, pretty busy, so we'll see how much I accomplish. It would be nice to have a new garment or two for Pattern Review Weekend at the end of this month.

CB Spiral Top in Knit

No sooner did I finish my test of the CB Spiral Top when I knew I wanted to make it in a striped knit. This top is so easy to convert to a pullover top using a knit. Just leave off the front facing, which is cut on, and add a seam allowance.

Voilà!

The fabric is this great lightweight sweatshirting I purchased from Marcy quite a while back. An oatmeal and dark grey stripe, and there are flecks of black in the oatmeal stripes. For the neckline, I used a binding. The knit is a 2-way stretch, so I had to use the stripe in the long direction (I would have preferred the short direction, but it just wasn't stretchy enough). I cut the binding so as to favor a grey stripe at the neck.

And that's pretty much it! I just love this pattern and already have plans for another, though I'm not sure how soon I will sew that up.

If you're getting this close to check out the stripe matching, you just might get hurt!

I'm not sure that I will get much sewing done this weekend. I expect to see DD2 on Saturday. DD1 is flying in today from university on spring break and we are going to hang out on Sunday. She wants to go to the gym with me and then go shopping. I need to do some snoop shopping as I am thinking I might make a dress to wear to DD2's upcoming graduation and I don't know what suits me.

I hope you have a good weekend!

Jalie Yoga Pants - 3022

I need some new TNT pants that are more fitted, so I decided to try the new-ish Jalie Yoga pants pattern, 3022. This pattern calls for a 4-way stretch knit, but I didn't have a bottom weight 4-way stretch knit, so I used a 2-way stretch ponte.

I traced off a size S, based on my hip measurement. I made no other changes to the pattern. These fit great! I love the RTW look, fit, and styling of the Jalie patterns. The 2-way knit (instead of a 4-way) was no problem at all.

These pants were folded up in a suitcase for a few days, hence the wrinkles. I was too lazy to press them for the pics.

In the interest of full disclosure, I saved the following picture for last.

I have been feeling that many of my clothes are making me look a bit frumpy (having lost 22 lbs so far). I can take in some of my things (though not all), but I haven't yet started the altering process, which I really hate. This top, which I really like, is one I can't easily alter because of the cool pointed asymmetric pocket, which is sewn into the side seam.

So, for the photos, I used a technique used frequently in professional photo shoots. I used a hair clip to clip the back of the top to remove extra fullness. I even took a photo of the back so you can see my naughtiness. I wish it were only that easy to alter for real!

I really love these pants and need to make a few more pair!

A couple more things:

Vote for Rhonda!

Rhonda Buss, of Rhonda's Creative Life, attended Sew Expo in Puyallup as one of five semi-finalists to appear in a spot on the sewing television program, Sew It All. After that presentation, which you can view at the link below, she made it to the finals. It is now down to her and two other contestants who are competing as a sister-in-law team. I thought she had a great entry – you can see her video if you click the following image link.

Please vote!

Finally, I'm sure you have seen that the blogosphere is a-twitter with the news that Google Reader is going away on July 1st. I guess Google just isn't interested in being in the biz anymore. But all is not lost - there are other alternative readers out there. In fact, Mary, of Mary Sews, has written a nice post on replacements for Google Reader. Personally, I don't use Google Reader, I use Blogger Dashboard, but you don't have that unless you have your own blog on blogspot.

I decided to add a widget to my blog to make it easier to follow using Bloglovin. (You can see it in the upper left corner of my blog.) I experimented with Bloglovin' and it's great. It's easy to set up, easy to use, and you can choose to have your favorite blogs sent as an email if you prefer. In fact, Jillian wrote a nice post on how to set up a bloglovin' account. And it's free!

Thanks, ladies, for all of the useful info that you share!!! The internet/blog sewing community is fabulous!

Renfrew Take 2 - with Zipper

You may recall that I tested the Renfrew top in a size 12 recently - it has a very nice cowl neck. I wanted to make another in a larger size and I wanted to include a zipper at CF. (An idea I saw in RTW.) The zipper ends at the cowl, so it is functional, but not particularly useful.

The fabric is a novelty knit from Fabric Mart about a year ago. It has a black underlayer and a mottled grey-ish knit overlayer. There are circles cut out of the over layer, exposing the black under layer.

Once again, I did the Vertical Only FBA. On this version, I had to narrow the shoulders by about 5/8". Once again, I left off the bands and the hem and wrists. I otherwise made no changes.

I like this top! It is very easy to wear and the collar lays nicely. This pattern line is designed for pear shaped women. I am not pear shaped, but this top seems to work on most all body types.

Sewing Gadget - Headlamp

I recently spent a couple days sewing with a few friends. I was concerned about the available light so, in addition to my two Ott lights, I brought a Petzl head lamp. I love this thing! It focuses an amazing amount of light wherever your head is pointed. (To order your own through Amazon, click the picture above.)

What a goofball!

I also visited Loes Hinse's shop in Carmel. She is such a generous, kind person and a real character. I always enjoy seeing her. I have several friends who regularly travel to Carmel for her retreats. That is the best way to obtain her latest patterns. It's been awhile since she's released an envelope pattern, but she does have new designs available. I saw her spend a lot of time advising sewers on exactly how to alter her patterns to achieve the perfect fit, even if it didn't result in a sale.

Loes is a beauty!

I did make a few items over the weekend. Once I get some pictures, I will be blogging them!

Vertical Only FBA

I mentioned in my Renfrew Top post that I used a vertical only FBA. A couple people asked me for more details. I use this sort of FBA routinely in knits, when I am making a top with negative ease. (You can read more about negative ease in my Uber Busty post.)

When you have a pattern where there is enough width in the pattern piece to go around the bust, you may still need a full bust adjustment (FBA). This is because you still need extra length in the front to go up and over the bust. Unless, that is, you like tugging at your front hem because your top constantly hikes up in front.

In this situation, I perform a vertical only FBA:

• Mark the bust point on the pattern tissue. (I never use the bust point marked on the pattern. I pin the front and back pattern tissue together at the shoulder seam and put it on my body. I line the CF up to my CF and mark the bust point with a pin/pen. My bust point is always lower and farther from CF than the pattern company indicates. This is why, by the way, I don't like patterns with the bust darts already drafted in – for me it's easier to add a bust dart than it is to move one.)
• Slice the front pattern piece horizontally at the level of the bust point.
• Add length evenly across the pattern piece. For my bust, I usually add 1" to 1.5", but YMMV (your mileage may vary). When you wear a RTW top, how much shorter is the top in front, due to your bust? That's about how much length you will want to add.
• I also curve the side seam out slightly at bust level - I may cut this off later.

Here is the resulting Renfrew pattern piece, to give you an idea of what I mean:

How I sew this up depends on the fabric. In a stretchy knit, I ease this extra fabric at the sewing machine. (I ease it in over a couple inches at the level of the bustline - I do not ease it in over the entire side seam.) Note that I do not gather the extra fabric – I do not like the result when it's gathered. I just stretch the seam so that the back (which is shorter) meets the front (which is longer) and stitch.

In a stable/beefier knit, particularly if it's a 2-way knit and there is no stretch in the up-and-down direction, I sew it up as a dart. But I don't sew the dart until the shoulder seams are sewn, then I put it on and pin the darts right on the body. I do not like to sew darts in a stretchy knit, which is why I ease the seam in such fabrics, but do what pleases you.

After I sew the darts, (and possibly the sleeves if they are being sewn in flat), I pin the side seams, try the top on, and check the fit. I then machine stitch. I never just sew the darts or the side seams without pin fitting and I often tweak the fit at this point. It's really worth taking the time and trouble to get the fit just right – the result is much more flattering.

Spam:

By the way, with only a couple of exceptions, most of you didn't mind if I turned off anonymous commenting, so I did. It has been a blissfully quiet day on the spam front. Maybe, at some point, I can re-enable anonymous commenting, but this is a nice break.