Supplies running dry

I am running out of sewing supplies. Namely zippers. Especially invisible zippers. My lovely gray sheath project ground to a screeching halt yesterday after I realized I didn't have a 20" or 22" long gray invisible zipper. The only gray invisible zipper I have is 9" long - not even close to what I need. Yes, I realize they are supposed to be invisible and so the color shouldn't matter. It does to me. So tomorrow I'll have to go to Karstadt (department store) and hope they have them. I'm not interested in another "unversichtbar" experience so Karstadt it is and my husband will drive. He already promised. After that, I'm going to place a large order online for zippers of different lengths and different colors.

If it turns out that they don't have the right zipper at Karstadt, I'll just have to cut out another knit dress - the knits from Nancy's Notions are in, so I can make more dresses like the brown one. One of the knits is gray, which would work out really great as both the sewing machine and the serger are threaded with gray for the gray sheath. It all depends on what I find at Karstadt tomorrow. Either way, I'll have something to do.

Doing Fine?

I got an interesting email the other day from somebody claiming to have reviewed my blog and decided it might be a good place to put an ad for DoingFine.org, "a forum dedicated to those things that came out right and worked out fine". Well, I don't want any ads here nor is my blog likely to generate much traffic but I did click on the link in the email. It is pretty cool actually. Looks like somebody got tired of all the negativity and complaining in the blogosphere (and probably the rest of the world, too) and decided to start a forum focused on all the good stuff. Neat concept, eh?

I was reflecting on this yesterday and thought to myself, I wonder how many other bloggers who sew got this email. If the email sender did a good job of reviewing lots of blogs, probably everybody, don't you think? All sewing-related blogs I read are really upbeat and positive. I haven't seen much complaining. Even the sewing-related boards tend to be well-behaved. We're just a great group of great people :-)

Project #7 - gray sheath - part 2

What a great day today was! Lots of sunshine, temperatures in the upper 50's, the kind of weather made for walks in the park. Well, we don't have a park but we do have some wonderful walking/running trails here on base. We walked and walked until we could walk no more. It was fun.

Prep work
In the Threads article, Susan Khalje mentions that silk crepe de chine would be better suited for underlining wool crepe than silk organza because of the difference in drape. I have plenty of silk organza but no crepe de chine. So it was time for evaluation.

Here's the wool crepe draped alone.



And here's how it looks with a piece of silk organza under it, grain aligned as best as I could without pinning or basting.



I'd say it looks fine with the organza, not too stiff. The folds are soft, just not as numerous.

I'd washed the crepe on Thursday - it had a mildly weird odor so I dunked it in water with some Eucalan and hung it to dry. After it dried, I steamed and pressed it (while the organza dried). It turns out that washing wool crepe makes it rather limp. I mean, wool crepe is always pretty drapey but I compared my washed crepe with a piece of unwashed crepe and the washed one is definitely limp. I think the organza will add some body rather than impeding the natural flow of the crepe. We'll see.

I pinned the organza on top of the wrong side of the crepe. I was a pinning fool. I pinned all the way around the pieces and several rows across to keep it in place. Then I basted the two layers together. Like this:


And this:


And then I fused a 3" strip of interfacing at the hem. I also interfaced the zipper area at CB with 3/4" interfacing strips. I have huge seam allowances at the neckline (1 3/8") and armholes (1 1/4"). I staystitched the two layers together on the neckline and armhole lines, but I'm keeping the basting stitches in the seam allowances for now. Less floppy that way.
In this picture you can see I also basted through the darts to prevent the layers from shifting when I sew the darts. I avoided the very points of the darts so that the basting thread wouldn't get caught in the stitching and be difficult to remove.



And that's as far as I got today. I had to take advantage of the lovely weather, you know.

Project #7 - gray sheath - part 1

I've been busy catching up on some school-related reading. Now it's time to take a breather and get back to sewing, which is the real purpose of life, right?

Planning the dress
I'm thinking a sleeveless sheath in gray wool crepe. I have a slightly schizophrenic vision for this: on the one hand, I'm envisioning a plain, simple, business-like dress; on the other, I see black lace or embroidery around the neckline. I'm having a hard time deciding.

Either way, I'll use my TNT pattern (same as the red sleeveless sheath) but instead of using the typical industrial 1/4" seam allowance and machine-sewing in the armholes and neckline, I'll follow Susan Khalje's instructions in Eliminate separate facings for elegant edges (Threads #125) and cut 1-2" allowances and do all the hand-sewing. I've done this once before and enjoyed both the process and the finished product.

Tomorrow I'll preshrink the fabrics and get to work. That means I really need to make the embellishment decision soon.

Project #6 - brown knit dress - part 2

Picture time

Here it is - front, side, and back views.

Also notice the lovely sandals - those are the ones I ordered from Zappos a few days ago; we picked them up from the post office this morning. They are so comfy and pretty, I immediately went back to Zappos and ordered another pair - in a color called "soft silver" that looks beige on my monitor.

Brief review: As I mentioned in my previous post, this is a morph of KS 3003 and KS 2612. I used size Small in both, with FBA and some side seam modifications. It looks exactly like what I had in mind when I started this project.

I haven't really sewn knits much in the last few years so the instructions for sewing the V-neckline came in really handy. I like how it turned out, although next time I make this dress, I'll have to remember to stretch the neckband more in the shoulder seam area and less at CB so that it lies nicer on my shoulders.

I used a lovely fabric called Double Knit Stretch (in color Java) from Nancy's Notions. The fabric is 67% polyester, 30% rayon, and 3% spandex. I bought it for a T-shirt a year or so ago. The T-shirt never materialized and it's a good thing, too, because now I have a great dress. Actually, the reason the T-shirt didn't come to be is because the fabric came wrapped in plastic. I know, I know, you're thinking "so? fabrics should always come wrapped in plastic so they don't get soaked if it rains." Except that somewhere between ordering the fabric and receiving it, I decided that it's going to feel really synthetic because of the high polyester content and that it would be really icky. So I didn't even touch it! Horrible, I know. I thought I could use it for a trial run of this pattern so imagine my surprise when I opened the bag and out came this beefy, smooth, cottony-soft fabric. Oh boy! It sews like butter, so easy to handle, never gave me a stitch of a problem. I love it. And now I ordered more - in charcoal gray, black, and heather blue. My new favorite knit. Not that I had an old one.

I am totally in love with this dress. The neckline is just perfect, the shoulder point where it's supposed to be, the skirt is airy and feminine. It has to be belted though because it looks kinda funny loose. Not bad, just not my cup of tea. The belt I'm wearing in the pictures doesn't really go with the dress, at least in my mind, but it was the only one I had in the right width (1.5"). It wasn't quite right with a skinny belt, chain belt didn't work either, and I can't wear a belt wider than 1.5" because there's just not enough room for it between my hip bones and ribs.

My husband took a bunch of pictures this time - he was playing a celebrity photographer complete with orders to look this way and that way and smile and don't smile, hehe, I'm no model so the poses are dorky but we had a lot of fun.

Project #6 - brown knit dress - part 1

Pattern morphing
I made this cowl-neck shirt back in 2004. The pattern body is from KwikSew 3003. The neckline came from another KS pattern (3032, I believe). KS 3003 became a TNT pretty quickly. And then one day, I stopped sewing knits.

Last night, I decided to make a knit dress pattern. Several, actually. I'm hoping to have a good dress wardrobe - some that are more office-worthy, others that are more casual. I'm still waiting for the silk organza and charmeuse for the sheath dresses, so I had time to play with some KwikSew patterns.

I settled on KS 2612. I like the slightly flared skirt and T-shirt style. It even has a nicely shaped center back seam. From the measurements on the envelope, it seems I should use size S. On quick comparison with my adjusted KS 3003, it was obvious the dress pattern was going to fall off my shoulders.

Here's the back:
You can see that from the shoulder point down, most of the armhole lines up with size XS. At the side, the pattern swings out to about halfway between XS and S. What you don't see in this picture is that the dress pattern doesn't curve in much at the waist.


Here's the front:
Here, the pattern comes close to XS at the shoulder point, but the curve of the armhole changes because of the FBA (full bust adjustment). Also, notice how at the side, the pattern touches the line for size M.


So, with my work cut out for me, I started some serious morphing. From the waist up, adjusted KS 3003. From the waist down, KS 2612. I also curved the side seam in by 1/2" at the waist on the back pattern piece. And I lengthened the whole dress almost 3" so that it should hit right at my knees. Then I decided I wanted a V-neckline so I used the original KS 3003 for that.


And here's the finished pattern:
In case you're wondering why the front piece looks so wide, I leave usually about an inch or so extra past the CF because it's easier for me to arrange it on top of the fabric fold for cutting.

Now I just have to look through my fabric collection and find an appropriate knit. Not that I have that many choices - I haven't been collecting knits, it's all mostly wovens, namely wool wovens. But I think I can scrounge up something for a quick project.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A beautiful romantic card and a box of luscious chocolates, accompanied by hugs and kisses from the king of my heart, my husband.

Life just doesn't get much better.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Shopping

No sewing right now, mostly figuring out what I'm going to need for the next few projects. To that end, I have ordered a small bolt (~11 yds) of white silk organza from Dharma Trading. I had ordered from them several years ago and it was a good experience, so I thought I'd stick with them. The organza will be for underlining sleeveless sheaths. I will probably make one in each color of wool crepe I have.

When it comes to shoes, I recently realized that I haven't bought new shoes in over a year (no, house slippers don't count, and the knock-around cold-weather shoes my parents gave me for Christmas don't count either). So, I've been looking at shoes a lot. I mean, I have looked at several thousand pairs of shoes online in the last week. Pumps, sandals, wedges, heels, flats, slingbacks, ankle straps, T-straps, Mary Janes... you name 'em, I've seen 'em.
In the end, I chose two pairs. The first one is a lovely T-strap pump that will work well with all those dresses I'm going to have. It will work well for times when sandals are not appropriate, because of the situation or thanks to the uncooperative German weather. If you like them, you can find them on Endless, they're called BCBGirls Bomb Round Toe Pump. What a mouthful! (Placeholder picture from Endless.com until the shoes come in and I can take my own pictures.)











The second pair is Sofft Ria from Zappos. It has 48 reviews, all of them praising the shoes as the most comfortable sandals ever. Well, I need that because I plan to wear them all summer long. With dresses. With skirts. With pants. Everywhere. (Placeholder picture from Zappos.com until the shoes come in and I can take my own pictures.)














And I ordered the last of the white and black striped cotton knit from Julie at Timmel Fabrics. I had looked at it a few times before but it wasn't until I saw Nancy's beautiful top that I decided it was exactly what I had been looking for.

Now I just need to find some pretty silk charmeuse solids and prints for lining.

Project #5 - red sleeveless sheath

It's picture time!


And now a brief review:
Originally, this dress was going to be based on the pattern I used for the previous red dress. But after making a muslin mock-up, I decided it wasn't worth the time to make all the necessary changes. Instead, I used an old TNT that I drafted several years ago as part of my pattern making self-study. I made the neckline slightly wider and added 2" to the length. I'd say it's pretty close to the dress that inspired it.

As usual, I didn't have any instructions to follow, but having liked my construction map from last time, I made one for this dress. Only I made a boo-boo. Note to self: never sew up the neckline and the armholes at the same time, if you want to be able to turn the dress right side out :-) No problem, really, just some major unpicking of the neckline stitches, and then hand-sewing the neckline later.

If you think the fabric looks suspiciously similar to the other dress, it's because it is the same fabric. I have a bit more left, enough for jacket and maybe even another dress. The mojo wants to sew dresses - fine by me. I have wool crepe in lilac, royal blue, palest pink, gray, and black. That should be enough dresses, no? And I think I'll use the same pattern, too.

I lined this dress with the same dark red Ambiance I'd used previously, but I'm really thinking about ordering some pretty silks for the next few dresses. Marji said she also underlines hers with silk organza. I think I might do that, too. It would make the catchstitching much easier.

I don't know if it's obvious from the pictures, but this dress makes me feel really good. And I get to wear my late grandma's scarf. That's it in the pictures. It's white with an allover pattern of tiny stylized flowers.

Sewing, beading, and injuries

I have finished the sleeveless dress - will take pictures tomorrow. It's been steamed and final-pressed, and I am ready to wear it. I am so ready for warmer weather. Come on spring!

I have creative injuries - a blister and a cut. Earlier this week, as I listened to the Pharmacology lectures (awesome instructor - she has taped lectures for us online students), I did some furious bead-crocheting. It didn't hurt much while I was working, but afterwards, a big ugly blister appeared on my right index finger. Then the night before last, I snipped my left thumb as I was snipping threads from the latest creation. Why my thumb was in the way, I will never know. Suffice it to say that I'm finding out just how useful that little appendage is and how much I've always taken it for granted. Now it throbs as a constant reminder that it's there.

Temporary insanity

I am mad at myself. I just wasted four perfectly good sewing days trying to reinvent the wheel. Notice I said trying because I didn't actually end up with a usable pattern. All I have to show for my effort is a hacked up stitched and ripped muslin mock-up of a sleeveless sheath. Why do I even bother when I have a TNT pattern?

I made this dress last year. It fits really well. So why can't I just take that pattern and make more dresses? Why did I think that I could/should morph other patterns in order to arrive at this same result? Is this a character flaw or am I just deficient somehow?

The poor red crepe and Ambiance have been ready for cutting since Friday.

Now that my temporary insanity is over, I dug out the old TNT pattern (self-drafted, thank you) and copied it, lengthening it by 2" in the process. I'll cut tomorrow.