I am now two projects behind on my sewing blog. I need to post the projects as I go so this doesn't keep happening. I hope to get some time and get myself organized, take the pictures and get back to posting here. I'm enjoying the idea to change my teaching room into a sewing room. I can leave stuff out on the table, leave the ironing board open, or create a mess and don't feel like I have to pick it up before I quit for the day.
I've been visiting some other sewing blogs. So many of these ladies have it together! Great blogs, tutorials, pictures. All leave me wondering what I have to offer anyone with so many good blogs out there. Well, as I said, for those 38 people that might be interested, I'm trying to get my act together and get going on this blog again.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Friday, May 10, 2013
Simplicity 4632 -- Petite Pear
I have a lot of project going right now, one of which is this great little pattern from Simplicity. I accidentally bought this pattern in the wrong size and didn't realized it until I'd drug it out and couldn't return it. Lucky for me, I got someone looking for just this very thing for work. She eventually wants five pants and five 3/4 tunics. I am looking forward to this challenge as she is barely five foot four and an extreme pear shape. I have some great ideas in mind for eliminating the gobs and gobs of gathers in the elastic coming from the hips and small waist. I have also been studying some ideas for the collar to draw the eye up to the top. We've picked a dark navy paisley for the tunic and navy for the pants.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Did you Make That? Part IV -- Practicing and Preaching
Late in April it was time to put what I'd been studying and writing about to the test. It was my sister's birthday and I had promised her the beginning of a custom fitted wardrobe. This would be my first time to the fabric store since I'd started my campaign to rid myself of that urge to go cutesy.
Friday, April 26, 2013
"Did You Make That?" Part III -- Color Therapy
Some colors recede while others advance. I knew this, but never really paid enough attention to use it to my advantage.
Friday, April 19, 2013
"Did You Make That?" Part II -- Breaking Free From Cows and Toasters
In my effort to break myself of using silly fabric to sew with, I discovered something kind of cool that requires a scanner and some cropping techniques.
Pick your pattern. Choose wisely, this can make or break your whole project.
Vogue has a great feature to help choose flattering lines for different proportions like hourglass and pear.
This is the cool part. If you have the time, scan the pattern onto the computer, save the picture to a program that can be used to edit and crop. Zero in on the view you want to sew. Crop everything else out and blow it up to print on as big a piece of paper that you can. 11X17, or bigger. You should have an image at least 11" tall--if not 17".
Really, this is pretty cool.
Take the pattern to the fabric store with you and use it to drape a corner of the various fabrics over the dress. Even better, purchase a swatch, while you are in the store or take it home and roughly cut the fabric out to the shape of the outfit. Lay it on the paper and look at it. Really look at it. Picture yourself in it with your proportions. The thicker waist, the bigger arms, the skinny neck, etc. This will really help you see the item finished.
Pick your pattern. Choose wisely, this can make or break your whole project.
Vogue has a great feature to help choose flattering lines for different proportions like hourglass and pear.
This is the cool part. If you have the time, scan the pattern onto the computer, save the picture to a program that can be used to edit and crop. Zero in on the view you want to sew. Crop everything else out and blow it up to print on as big a piece of paper that you can. 11X17, or bigger. You should have an image at least 11" tall--if not 17".
Really, this is pretty cool.
Take the pattern to the fabric store with you and use it to drape a corner of the various fabrics over the dress. Even better, purchase a swatch, while you are in the store or take it home and roughly cut the fabric out to the shape of the outfit. Lay it on the paper and look at it. Really look at it. Picture yourself in it with your proportions. The thicker waist, the bigger arms, the skinny neck, etc. This will really help you see the item finished.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
M6030 Part 2 -- Choosing the Fabric
This is Part 2 of a series on McCall's pattern M6030. Choosing the fabric. As I talked about in Part 1, she had a swatch as an example of the color, not necessarily the fabric. This proved to be more difficult than I expected, but we persevered and kept walking around the store until we were just holding the swatch up hoping for anything to match.
At one point we'd picked a great fabric that had a beautiful sheen to it and even a slight luminescence to the fabric. We decided to lay the fabric out on the table at the store to see watch the large pieces might look like as the dress came together. We made a sad discovery. The appealing feature of tonal luminescence rolled up on the bolt looked tacky unrolled in a length the dress would have to be. It was clear with her height and size, we needed to choose a formal wear fabric that had a more matte finish. However, at this point we had decided to skip the overskirt and create the gown as a plain dress. In that deep maroon color, we agreed that the lace might look a little more like lingerie than a bridesmaid dress. Besides, we couldn't find maroon lace, so the decision was pretty much already made for us.
So were back to the drawing board of choosing fabric. Finally, we decided on a maroon that perfectly matched the swatch had a slight sheen to it. We ended up finding some organza type material for an over skirt that we didn't think looked like lingerie. Here is what we decided upon.
At one point we'd picked a great fabric that had a beautiful sheen to it and even a slight luminescence to the fabric. We decided to lay the fabric out on the table at the store to see watch the large pieces might look like as the dress came together. We made a sad discovery. The appealing feature of tonal luminescence rolled up on the bolt looked tacky unrolled in a length the dress would have to be. It was clear with her height and size, we needed to choose a formal wear fabric that had a more matte finish. However, at this point we had decided to skip the overskirt and create the gown as a plain dress. In that deep maroon color, we agreed that the lace might look a little more like lingerie than a bridesmaid dress. Besides, we couldn't find maroon lace, so the decision was pretty much already made for us.
So were back to the drawing board of choosing fabric. Finally, we decided on a maroon that perfectly matched the swatch had a slight sheen to it. We ended up finding some organza type material for an over skirt that we didn't think looked like lingerie. Here is what we decided upon.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Scary Homemade a.k.a. "Did You Make That?"
For a while I got away from sewing. I had some bad experiences. That horrible mu mu from that cute little Vogue pattern I loved. The enormous amount of time I spent on the"Walk Away Dresses" (B4790) only to lose 45 pounds before I could finish the third one and wear the first two more than once.
The other dilemma that began to face me is I found that I didn't like it when someone said, "Did you make that?" When I sewed that awesomely cute sack-type 90s dress with the farm animals on it and wore it everywhere I went. People would make a comment such as "What a cute dress." I could wait for the other shoe to drop and discovered that as proud as I was of my creation and as often as I loved to wear it, I didn't like how others would ask:
"Did you make that?"
I've decided I want to start sewing again, but I want to sew like a big girl. I want to sew with beautiful fabrics that don't include farm animals, toasters, or treble clefs. I want to fight that urge to add my "spin" on something that Vogue thought was good enough just the way it is.
For my tip of the day, for your take away:
Pay attention to the dress and what the designer was trying to accomplish. There's a reason why they are a designer and you are not. There's a reason why view A has longer sleeves and no ruffles while view B includes a ruffle and no sleeves. Why only View C is above the knee. It's about balance, proportion, and the purpose of the item. Choose appropriate fabrics. Unless you're an elementary school teacher or a TV character on Saturday morning. Those really busy cotton fabrics on the "quilting" wall are best left to quilting.
The other dilemma that began to face me is I found that I didn't like it when someone said, "Did you make that?" When I sewed that awesomely cute sack-type 90s dress with the farm animals on it and wore it everywhere I went. People would make a comment such as "What a cute dress." I could wait for the other shoe to drop and discovered that as proud as I was of my creation and as often as I loved to wear it, I didn't like how others would ask:
"Did you make that?"
I've decided I want to start sewing again, but I want to sew like a big girl. I want to sew with beautiful fabrics that don't include farm animals, toasters, or treble clefs. I want to fight that urge to add my "spin" on something that Vogue thought was good enough just the way it is.
For my tip of the day, for your take away:
Pay attention to the dress and what the designer was trying to accomplish. There's a reason why they are a designer and you are not. There's a reason why view A has longer sleeves and no ruffles while view B includes a ruffle and no sleeves. Why only View C is above the knee. It's about balance, proportion, and the purpose of the item. Choose appropriate fabrics. Unless you're an elementary school teacher or a TV character on Saturday morning. Those really busy cotton fabrics on the "quilting" wall are best left to quilting.
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
M6030 Part 1 -- Picking the Dress
With the start of May, I'm going to begin a series on sewing the M6030 wedding gown as a bridesmaid dress. It took some looking for a dress with as few pieces as possible because this dress was going to need to be size up quite a ways. The skirt was not going to be a big deal, but fitting the bodice to fit a girl with measurements beyond any plus size measurements available, this wasn't going to be an easy feat, but it was surely going to be as fun as usual! So we did a lot of looking at patterns.
The first consideration was the bride's dress. It would be easy to pick a beautiful dress and put it together for a special occasion, but we had a bride to consider. It was important not to over shadow her choice with our choice. The bride had specified a color: a maroon more on the blue side than red and given all the bridesmaids a swatch of the fabric. The bridesmaids could wear whatever they wanted. To complicate things, the bride is extremely petite in height, but not so much in width. *wink* Her dress looked very much like this M5321 example.
After much deliberation, we chose M6030. The gathered sleeves, and and straight skirt would be easy to alter. The tough part proved to be the bodice as it had something like five pieces and connected to the sleeves in a unique way. We did a lot of fittings for the bodice and I took a lot of measurements which I will talk about in Part 3.
The biggest thing I have discovered in a lot of looking at reviews and reading about other projects that have succeeded and failed, is the compulsion to go their own way. I think I've stated this in other posts, but there's a reason why I'm not a pattern designer. I really don't know what's best for the pattern. I haven't always wanted to do what they ask for, but I try to stick to the instructions and learn something along the way.
This was a very fun dress to sew. I was please with the finished product and so was the bridesmaid. I sewed the dress without expecting to get paid, but received two restaurant gift cards in the mail from her parents, so I imagine the dress was well received.
Next week: choosing fabric and starting to study the instructions.
The first consideration was the bride's dress. It would be easy to pick a beautiful dress and put it together for a special occasion, but we had a bride to consider. It was important not to over shadow her choice with our choice. The bride had specified a color: a maroon more on the blue side than red and given all the bridesmaids a swatch of the fabric. The bridesmaids could wear whatever they wanted. To complicate things, the bride is extremely petite in height, but not so much in width. *wink* Her dress looked very much like this M5321 example.
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| M5321 -- McCall's Stock Photo |
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| M6030 Stock Photo |
The biggest thing I have discovered in a lot of looking at reviews and reading about other projects that have succeeded and failed, is the compulsion to go their own way. I think I've stated this in other posts, but there's a reason why I'm not a pattern designer. I really don't know what's best for the pattern. I haven't always wanted to do what they ask for, but I try to stick to the instructions and learn something along the way.
This was a very fun dress to sew. I was please with the finished product and so was the bridesmaid. I sewed the dress without expecting to get paid, but received two restaurant gift cards in the mail from her parents, so I imagine the dress was well received.
Next week: choosing fabric and starting to study the instructions.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Bags of Scraps
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| Finished Product! |
Each time I sew something, for some reason, I keep every tiny little scrap, put them in a plastic grocery bag and they ended up on a shelf in my sewing room. The volume of scraps was overwhelming. I didn't know what I had because on top of that, I'd done the same thing with little projects. I picked fabric and notions and put the whole thing in--you guessed it--a plastic grocery bag. Consequently, I had way too many bags on my shelves,, didn't know what I had and what to do with it, so I started emptying out those bags and going through them. I separated everything back where it belonged and measured fabric out by yards.
So this brings us to last night when I brought all the scraps out to the TV. I started going through the bags and reluctantly throwing out any piece that was less than 12". I know. That sounds like it's not a big deal, but I look at the beautiful fabric and I think about making crazy quilts, or hot pads, or, or, or . . .
The truth is, I could have made all those things and used up the fabric once and for all, and today I'm regretting my cut throat mentality last night, but ultimately, at best, it would have been an ugly quilt that I would have spent way too much time on trying to save fabric scraps I hadn't looked at in years.
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| What a mess! |
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| Look at the shelves full of bags! |
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Scanning Patterns
Well, as much as I hate this kind of thing, tomorrow I will be spending the day working in my sewing room. I brought home a bunch of Corona boxes this weekend to start putting stuff in. My aunt and uncle will be staying in the room this weekend for my son's going away party, so I have to get everything put away for them to sleep in there. So, it's time to get organized and tomorrow is the day. I will be scanning pattern packages and saving them on my computer.
I started scanning patterns as I bought them, but now I think it is time to start doing all of them and tomorrow is as good as day as any. I will scan the pattern on the front and the back, save under the pattern number and then save to a file in categories such as dresses, pants, skirts, etc. Looking forward to the finished product. I will try to take a before, during and after photo to post with this.
I started scanning patterns as I bought them, but now I think it is time to start doing all of them and tomorrow is as good as day as any. I will scan the pattern on the front and the back, save under the pattern number and then save to a file in categories such as dresses, pants, skirts, etc. Looking forward to the finished product. I will try to take a before, during and after photo to post with this.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Corona 18 Pack -- Free Pattern Storage
Well, I have some pretty good news. I found the perfect shaped boxes for storing patterns. The Corona Longneck 18 pack. I was using business file boxes. What a mess! The patterns slid all over the place, not to mention being a waste of space. What I've decided to do with patterns that don't back into the pattern envelope, a file folder can be trimmed down to the width of the box. There isn't any room for the patterns to slide around and mix with each other. This has proven to be an awesome idea. I am excited to transfer the patterns into the new boxes. I will post pictures.
Monday, March 4, 2013
1960s Dresses - I Want to Be That Girl!
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| Butterick 4702 |
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| Butterick 4872 I like View A |
It's true I went through a phase of loving the 50s dresses and even sewing a few. Well, funny thing is, when I lost the 40+ pounds I did this year, my tastes are changing--again. I really like those "mod" That Girl styles! I was watching on Friday, she had the cutest little A-line dress on. Bold geometrics, and solids. Then when she put on a matching sleeveless dress coat, it was perfect! So I spent some time this weekend looking at patterns and ideas from the early to mid sixties. I found some patterns in my own stash that were obviously either my mother's or grandmothers. Here are a few I found online that I will just have to find and put together. The pieces look so easy to put together in a day. I think when regular women sewed regular clothes, there were more patterns that could be put together in a weekend or even a day.
What It Costs To Be That Girl in 2013
One thing I am discovering, however, is some of these patterns--for some reason--are going to $15 and higher. The Butterick 4702 pattern is going for $16.99 on eBay. The Butterick 4872 is going for $10.00 on Etsy. I haven't taken the time to see if they are actually getting $16.99 and $10.00 for their dried up 50 year-old patterns, but I will say this, some of these are rare in uncut condition. The other thing is the ones that are there are relatively small. Like 30 and 32 bust. That's just a little more than my waist, so these are tiny patterns. I supposed the right seamstress could alter the pattern to fit the size 16 and 18 customer, but having done that many times for other folks of unusual proportions, it is not fun and definitely became a labor of love that I knew I would never be compensated for.
Most of the dresses take about half the material as the 50s dresses I was so obsessed with last year. I see most dresses taking 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 yard while the full skirted dresses from the 1950s sometimes called for over seven yards. If I was lucky enough to find material for $5 to $7 dollars at WalMart or online, the dress was still going to get expensive for a novelty dress like a 1950s evening gown. I'm looking this week for a dress to wear to my son's going away party the end of this month, so I will post some selections as the weeks go by--if I decide I even have time to sew a dress.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Getting Started: Again
It's been a year since I posted in any of my blogs, so I am getting a schedule made up and hope to begin posting regularly again beginning next week. Sewing Retro has already been a Monday, staple, so I will more than likely keep that date. There are a lot of projects I have sewed this year and hope to include. Some Vogue, some Simplicity, I sewed a whole week of scrubs for an EMT and a bridesmaid's dress for a quaint little wedding for a girl that was over six feet tall!
Bridesmaid's dress McCall's 6030
I've had a lot of successes (M6030 above) and almost as many failures (that horrible purse debacle). Definitely not a quickie project to try to throw together to impress a niece.
I'll be doing some follow-up posts from previous projects as well as posting some new ones and some product reviews and comparisons. I am also returning to old projects such working on the quilt I started many years ago for my son, so it should be a great year for sewing and blogging and sewing and blogging . . . See you Monday, March 3!
Bridesmaid's dress McCall's 6030
I've had a lot of successes (M6030 above) and almost as many failures (that horrible purse debacle). Definitely not a quickie project to try to throw together to impress a niece.
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| Discontinued? Vogue V7354 |
Monday, February 4, 2013
Sewing Room Disaster Recovery
One of my goals this time around posting blogs is never to post anything that isn't worth reading. Like posting to just be posting. Until I get going, there may be a few posts--like this one--that are more musings and thoughts, but I hope to make each Monday a worthwhile visit for you.
I think the last time I wrote about my sewing room, I was moving things out and around. I didn't get very far. It's still a disaster and not much has been done. I am trying to get rid of a lot of music from a private teaching business I ran for almost 20 years. This has not been as easy as "putting it on eBay" as I had hoped. I can't seem to give the music away. However, I will keep trying and hope to post some on eBay just to be able to get rid of it now.
I have this horrible cubby hole thing my husband brought home from work. My husband kinda-sorta put it together wrong. When I pointed it out to him, the glue was dry. Ugh. I want to get rid of it without him know I was getting rid of it because I'm afraid of hurting his feelings. I had this great box that was the perfect size for patterns. Can't find any more of them, so I got some file boxes. These are too big, but what I did decide that once I sew something, instead of putting the whole pattern back in that envelope, I can label a file and put the file in the file box. It's kind of a hodge podge idea at the moment, but as I work with it, I think it will improve. It may turn out to use way too many file folders. I'll see as I progress. I also have gobs and gobs of magazines to get rid of and when I finish school, I will have a big box of homework and supplies I can be rid of, so this is going to be an ongoing project as it was last year.
I think the last time I wrote about my sewing room, I was moving things out and around. I didn't get very far. It's still a disaster and not much has been done. I am trying to get rid of a lot of music from a private teaching business I ran for almost 20 years. This has not been as easy as "putting it on eBay" as I had hoped. I can't seem to give the music away. However, I will keep trying and hope to post some on eBay just to be able to get rid of it now.
I have this horrible cubby hole thing my husband brought home from work. My husband kinda-sorta put it together wrong. When I pointed it out to him, the glue was dry. Ugh. I want to get rid of it without him know I was getting rid of it because I'm afraid of hurting his feelings. I had this great box that was the perfect size for patterns. Can't find any more of them, so I got some file boxes. These are too big, but what I did decide that once I sew something, instead of putting the whole pattern back in that envelope, I can label a file and put the file in the file box. It's kind of a hodge podge idea at the moment, but as I work with it, I think it will improve. It may turn out to use way too many file folders. I'll see as I progress. I also have gobs and gobs of magazines to get rid of and when I finish school, I will have a big box of homework and supplies I can be rid of, so this is going to be an ongoing project as it was last year.
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