(Un)Sewing Demon

2009-03-26T18:41:00.006+01:00

Hello there again. It's been a while. Well, I realized something.

I spend way too much time on the internet looking at weird art. Time to share some of it.

Well, it IS almost easter... Oh, and stupid me forgot to save the artist info. So if this is your artwork and you want credit just let me know.

2008-12-09T22:16:00.008+01:00

I've been tagged by my cousin:

The Rules

1. Post the rules on your blog.

2. Write 7 random things about yourself.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post.

My Random Things

1. I'm reading the following books right now: The Historian by somebody, Shikasta by one of my favorite authors, Doris Lessing and a history of people who believe the earth is flat entitled, appropriately enough, Flat Earth.

2. I had 20 parent conferences tonight and I'm feeling a bit loopy right now.

3. My new favorite color is turquoise.

4. My English is being affected by Dutch. I'm not sure if I like this.

5. I have tried the following hobbies: piano, violin, watercolors, Japanese ink brush painting, acoustic guitar, cross-stich, sewing, scrapbooking, beading, fimo clay, origami, yoga, meditation (is that a hobby?), fung shui, ballet, tarot reading, and pottery. I think that covers it. Are sports hobbies? Then you can add swimming, tennis and running. Some of these hobbies have stayed with me, others I dropped pretty quickly.

6. I used to sometimes skip school and do homework in my car, parked in some random parking lot far away from the hall nazis.

7. I want to write a novel.

Okay, and now for the embarrassing part. I don't know who to tag. The only people who read this and also have a blog are my cousin and my mom. Okay Mom, pressure's on! Uh oh, maybe I should change random thing 6...

PS - I'm not sure this blog is about sewing only. I like to write it but I haven't been very motivated to actually sew lately.

PPS - Is that a split infinitive in random thing 6?

Is anyone reading this?

and calls and calls and calls...

2008-11-24T18:37:00.002+01:00

Yup, I'm still alive. Still buried under a pile of tests. And we are in the midst of report cards and parent teacher conferences. Blech.

Hmm...maybe interesting. I got some pretty cool fabric at the market last week. It was only $1.20 a meter (yard) so I got 6 meters. Now...what to do with it. I was thinking about curtains.

Yes, those are fabric flower bits sewn on top of two different main fabrics. Bit hard to describe.

Here's a detail:

duty calls

2008-11-09T16:38:00.001+01:00

No more sewing for me this weekend. I had to do stuff for school. Mostly grading, which I hate. Ugh.

Skirt Lust (oh yeah baby!)

2008-11-07T14:14:00.010+01:00

I know I should start with a skirt like this:

Butterick 4710

But... that would be too easy and sensible. I want MORE! I am obsessed with finding modern skirt patterns with historical elements. The main focus of my obsession is bustles. I'm not sure exactly why, but I think it goes back to Gone With the Wind:

The bustle is the extra fabric bit at the butt.

I think the other reason I like bustles is that I like to pick clothes that work well on my curvelicious bod. I won't have to make an actual bustle undergarment - I have my own natural bustle! Butt seriously (groan, sorry) I figure I might as well accentuate one of the few things I like about my body. PS - shout out to L who told me her husband thinks I have a luscious bottom (okay, those were not her exact words but you get the gist). Not only did that make me look at myself in a whole new way, it shows what a great relationship they have, because he can tell her that and she can tell me without getting mad, knowing it will make me feel good. Thanks babe!

So here are the contenders:

Vogue 8364

I LOVE this. You can't see it here, but the back has a bit of a bustle effect. The line drawing helps:
Even I know I shouldn't start with this one. Or this one:

Burda 05-2007

Without seeing the patterns I'm pretty sure there are too many pieces and fiddly bits, which means too many places I can mess up. Ok, so what else could I try?

5523

This skirt has received many positive reviews on PR. I would make view D, the most bustle-like. The only thing challenging here are the bias ruffles, which means sewing a curved seam to a straight seam, which always confuses me.

Then there are these:

Burda 7893

Kwik Sew 3550

OMG! Can't believe I like a Kwik Sew. I usually think their stuff is so dowdy.

Burda 8327

I seem to have a flounce fetish. I haven't got anything skirt suitable in my stash so I can pick the pattern and then the fabric. Is anybody reading this? Which should I chose?

Black Sweater Day 2

2008-11-07T12:16:00.007+01:00

My sewing area (dining table). I think I need a bigger table. Actually, that can be easily arranged. I can attach the legs to a larger top which I have stored in my shed. But that means giving up some of my precious m3.

notice the Helper!Kitty

Hmm. Well.

I cut my sweater out today. I added the seam allowance (2 cm) with the help of this handy tool:

I added about 3 cm to the ends of the sleeves, just in case. I didn't mark the seam allowance first, I just cut. This means that the seam allowance is a bit wonky in places. That's why it's important to mark the seam line clearly on both sides. I started off with a long basting stitch, leaving every second one very loose. This seemed to take forever, and didn't work well at the rounded armpit area. So I switched to white chalk, which I didn't think would show up but did with vigorous marking.

Here are both methods:

The disadvantage to chalk is that you have to repin the pattern to the other side (this fabric wouldn't work with a tracing wheel and paper because the good side is very nubby). However, it seemed repinning took less time than basting all the seam lines.

Then I excitedly pinned the sweater together and tried it on. Speaking of pinning, here's what I meant with matching seam lines and not seam allowances:

Because I eyeballed the seam allowance they are not perfectly the same all the way around. To make sure I pinned the seam lines together I stuck a pin threw and looked at the other side to make sure it hit the seam line on the other side. If I matched the very edges of the fabric the fit would be off. Wouldn't it?

Anyhoo, the sleeves are way too long:

And it tends to fall off my shoulders but I think that is because of the design, which has a minimum of shaping (thus a minimum of disaster areas waiting to happen). In the picture it looks like it falls off the model's shoulders as well. I don't know if I'm bummed about this. I did have flashbacks to my high school home ec bag gown. But the fabric hangs nicely and I think I will wear it. Tomorrow I will sew it. This was enough excitement for one day.

Black Sweater Day 1

2008-11-06T18:26:00.006+01:00

Ok, so I started the sweater. I traced the pattern. This time instead of adding a seam allowance to the pattern I'm going to just cut the fabric wide where I need seam allowance. I think this is how profis do it? Anyway, I've read that you shouldn't match seam allowances but seam lines. And although it probably wouldn't matter with this simple pattern, I want to try it out to see how I like it. For tracing I used a highlighter and some interface-type soft material with a grid pattern. I think it is made for pattern tracing. I have no idea where I got it.

And then I tried on the pattern. I know it's not the same as a muslin and I promised I wouldn't skip the important stuff but for this sweater a muslin seems a little over the top. Plus my fabric only cost 6 euros a meter. Anyway, the sleeves seem tight but the fabric stretches. And they are indeed on the short side, between 3/4 and full length. So... I got out a Burda pattern with awesome bell sleeves:

(view A)

I traced the sleeve in size 44. One potential problem here is that a Burda 44 is not the same as a Knip 44. But they are within centimeters. Then I taped the sleeve to the pattern. It seems to line up pretty well:
And then I tried it on and it seems to be a good length now, about mid hand length. Since I have yet to see a pic of the Burda pattern view A on a person I have no idea if this is right. I figure I can always trim later, although that would mean losing some of the bell shape.

And then I stopped, although I was so tempted to go on. This is a good start. I don't want to rush. This is the zen of sewing.

Nynke says: "Good job Mom! Now you can play with me!"

More sewing strategy

2008-11-06T17:18:00.007+01:00

These are the obstacles I face trying to sew:

1) I am impatient (see previous post)
2) I am unskilled
3) I am spatially challenged
4) I suck at math (no, really, to am embarrassing degree)
5) I have two cats and a pug puppy who like to 'help' me
6) I have a small apartment
7) I am easily frustrated

Here are my strategies for dealing with said obstacles.

1) Work on one project at a time. Start easy (easy patterns, easy fabrics). Don't skip the important stuff (ironing, marking, cutting neatly, reading directions, following said directions, asking for help). Don't do too much in 1 day.
2) See above
3) See above
4) Double and triple check everything
5) Distraction is key. Belly can hang outside and Kitty can chill in the bedroom (hey - she doesn't mind, all she does is sleep anyway). Nynke can have a chewy.
6) Keep apartment clean and organized. Don't start stockpiling fabric again.
7) See 1

Sewing strategy

2008-11-06T15:51:00.013+01:00

You know, there just aren't enough blogs out there, so I've decided to start my own. And the main focus of this blog will be about sewing, or more specifically, sewing clothes. Have you been in the stores lately? Yikes! Terrible! The 80s were horrible enough the first time around. Puke. Plus, it looks terrible on my rounded pear shape body. So anyway, I want to sew some clothes for myself. This is also kinda a necessity since I gained around 5 kilos (10 pounds for y'all still stuck with the American system, which sucks. Go metric! Doesn't gaining 5 kilos sound better than gaining 10 pounds?) and I'm running out of things to wear (not really, still have plenty of clothes but a girl's got to have choices).

Oh, but that brings me to one thing I wanted to say: gaining weight isn't all bad. I've got a lot of clothes I couldn't wear the past few years because they were too big for me. No problem now. And going through my stash today I discovered an almost finished pair of paints that fit me perfectly now. I just have to finish the waistband and add a zipper. (JUST!)

I have a love hate relationship with sewing. First of all, you have to know that one of my worst personality flaws is a total lack of patience. This is not good if you want to sew your own clothes (wonder why my friends nicknamed me the Master of the Obvious).

But wait, let me tell you how it all began and you will understand. I was around 12. My cousin and aunt decided I should be indoctrinated into the movie "Gone with the Wind". I was instantly sold, not so much on Scarlet, but on her clothes. Gorgeous! Tons of fabric, corsets, hoopskirts. Drool. I don't know why. But that was when it started. Unable to find and Scarlet type clothes at the mall (go figure) I decided to take matters into my own hands. I already understood at that young age that one needed to proper undergarments for a correct period silhouette. So I started with a hoop skirt. I guess that was better than starting with a corset.

At that point I think I had played around on my mom's machine and sewn something simple like a stuffed animal. Mom - any stories to share? Anyhoo, I stole one of my mom's old sheets (I was a terrible child sometimes) and a spool of wire from my Dad's shop. I made a channel for the waistband and added channels for the hoop wire. This I sewed by hand with big childish stitches. Then I inserted the wire, which was about 2 mm in diameter and heavy. Then I excitedly put on the hoop skirt and cursed as the wire ripped through the channels.

Naturally I moved on, without trying to learn from my mistakes, to a corset (because I was having so much success?) Upon putting it on and trying to lace it up I realized it wasn't going to work without boning. And this was the 80s in rural Ohio, so I had no idea there were other maniacs like me out there, and supplies and patterns just for us.

At that point I started looking for historical type garments in ready to wear clothes. In high school I took home ec and learned how to make a hideously ugly bag dress. Fast forward about 5 years to college, independence and the internet. Joy! I made a slap dash costume for the renaissance faire. And one of my early projects was naturally an 18th century corset with a bazillion steel bones. That sucker is heavy! And it looks like crap on the inside but it works, mostly.
But I digress. My main point is that I've always picked sewing projects way too difficult for me, rushed through them and ended up with less than satisfactory results. My last sewing extravaganza happened when I moved to Holland and was very poor. I decided to sew some clothes from the Burda World of Fashion mags, which I could borrow from the library. These were naturally in Dutch and my Dutch wasn't very good. And the instructions were sparse anyway. And what did I start with? A three star jacket in black velvet. Sigh. When will I learn? The pants I found today come from that period. At some point I decided to give up. I think I got a job and had more money for store bought clothes. Also the fashions at the time were right up my alley with historical accents.

Well, I'm poor again and the fashions suck but this time I'm going to do it right! I've got a Knip Mode (Dutch mag like Burda) with a special easy section. I've selected a pattern and fabric. One pattern piece, non-fray wool blend, 1 seam and no hemming. Yesh! This has to work!!!

But wait. Those sleeves look a little short. And wouldn't they be cuter if they were bell-shaped? Maybe I could adjust the sleeves a little. Surely that can't be too hard...