Two in one day - possibly a new record!

I bet you're thinking I finished sewing two items today.  But you would be wrong, dear reader.  So wrong.

Tonight, after posting my 12-piece wardrobe plan for the "Express Checkout" experiment earlier in the day, I pulled together all the pieces to photograph them so I could show you the clothes. The black Slinky knit tank top (from Chico's via Goodwill many years ago) was balled up on the floor next to the laundry basket, and when I picked it up, I saw that it had holes.  Puppy-teeth-shaped holes. Sigh...

Guess I'll take that top AND the torn linen/cotton jeans:

off my list.  (Dammit.)

Let me introduce my *new* top, a black knit draped neck top with 3/4 length sleeves:

I'm hanging all the remaining pieces up nice and high in my closet.  And keeping the door closed.

"Express Checkout" Experiment

I'm going to take a shot at Duchesse's "Express Checkout" experiment beginning this Saturday.  Basically, I'm going to see if I can limit myself to 12 items of clothing for an entire month.  (There is no limit on accessories, such as scarves, shoes, jewelry, etc.)  Since I will be traveling a good chunk of the time the experiment is running, I'm starting with my travel wardrobe and adding a few items. 

My 12 items include:

Pants:
1. Black DKNY Soho jeans 
2. Indigo Slouch brand linen/cotton jeans  Michael Kors indigo jeans (The Slouch jeans split down the front four hours after I posted this!  Seriously, I just heard/felt a little rrrrrip! and looked down to see a two-inch tear a couple inches beside the button fly.  WTF? I really liked these $4.49 Goodwill jeans, too...)
3. Brown rayon/poly/lycra blend pants (I reserve the option to swap these out for another pair of pants if I finish them before Nov. 14.

Tops:
4. Long sleeve cotton t-shirt
5. Black tank top
6. Nylon mesh print long sleeve top
7. Brown/gray print 3/4 sleeve top (which is not yet finished!!!!)
8. Pucci print top


Sweaters:
9. Brown rayon cardiwrap
10. Green fleece pullover
11. Royal blue fleece jacket

Dresses:
12. Sleeveless brown & off-white Lily dress

I'm not going to count outerwear in my 12 items as Duchesse is; if I did, there would be 14 items (a plum wool car coat from LL Bean and a North Face rain jacket).  I may not even take all of it on my trip (11 days), since I will have access to a washer and dryer most of the time we are away. It will be interesting to me to see if/how the same 12 items work in the Pacific Northwest and northern New England at this time of year.


My plan is to take pictures each day (I'll probably post a bunch when I get back, so you'll have to wait until the end of this month to see them). I don't think limiting my wardrobe this way is going to be particularly difficult, since I am one of those people who wears 20% of their wardrobe 80% (or probably closer to 90%) of the time.

But wish me luck, anyway!

Somebody's trying to tell me something...

...but, of course, I'm not listening.

I started in on my New Look 6735 top today.  It's been painfully slow going for a simple knit shirt.  First off, I left my pattern pieces spread out on the dining room table, and the puppy got hold of the front and chewed it up (this was one I had previously done an FBA on).  So I ran out to Jo-Ann for a replacement.

Then, after spending almost an hour tracing my pattern pieces, re-doing the FBA, and trimming all the seam allowances to 3/8" (because the last time I made this up, I forgot that only the neckline SA was 3/8", and I serged the neck trim piece to the neckline using a 5/8" seam allowance.  WAY too low cut, even for me.)  I finally laid out the pattern on my fabric.  It's this lovely knit from Emma One Sock:

 I made sure to keep the big round medallion-looking things off my boobs, but I realized I had only ordered 1.33 yards, and I needed 1 3/8 for the 3/4 sleeve version. (And, of course, the fabric is sold out now - right after I realized how nice a matching skirt would be...)

I have enough to cut one full sleeve, but I'm short a few inches on the other piece.  It's a very busy print, so I think I can get away with piecing the sleeve, but I'm not sure how best to do that so it looks like a design element, and not a major screw-up on my part.  (Any thoughts?  Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments below.)

Also, I'm thinking of adding some ruffles to the neckline with the very tiny amount of leftover fabric I have, sort of like this Marc Jacobs top:

(Yes, the fabric has a very similar color scheme to the EOS knit print.) Anyway, I'm feeling a bit discouraged at the moment.  In theory, this should have been a 90-minutes-from-start-to-finish project.  I think I need to take a break (before I do something I'm going to regret) and pick it up again in the morning.

Wadder, wadder everywhere...

Sigh...

This has just not been my week for sewing.  On Friday, I tried to finish a pair of jeans (desperately needed jeans, I might add), but ended up with a wadder due to a fisheye dart adjustment I couldn't make without re-cutting the back.  Then yesterday I started sewing McCall's 6153 for my daughter (after spending 40 minutes altering the pattern pieces first), but because I was rushing, I ended up making numerous boneheaded errors, the most egregious of which was stretching the lower fronts/backs to fit the yokes above, instead of gathering them.  The fabric didn't recover after i had finished stitching, so it was completely stretched out of shape.  It's currently in the washer in the hope that it will return to its original shape (it's a teeny, tiny hope).

Next (because I am apparently a glutton for punishment) I got out one of my Unique Patterns patterns, 9024U0, and some fairly heavy tan stretch twill fabric. I figured that I wouldn't have to line the dress since it was such a substantial fabric. Before I started laying out the pattern pieces, I took out my thoroughly-tweaked-to-fit McCall's 2818 pattern pieces and checked the Unique Pattern against it.  The bust points lined up PERFECTLY, so I was encouraged that the rest of the custom drafted pattern would fit well, too.

Turns out the stretch twill was stretchy in both the crosswise AND lengthwise grain.  As a result, the front and back pieces stretched vertically, enough that the dart placement (which had been perfect on the pattern pieces) was completely off.  I tried to salvage the dress by taking out some of the excess fabric at the shoulder seams, and that helped somewhat.  But I still had drag lines at the bust, indicating that I needed a deeper dart.  I am assuming that this is related at least in part to the stretchy fabric as well, but I won't know for sure until I cut it out again in a non-stretch fabric. (Cha-ching!)

Things I learned from all this unproductive sewing:

• I love my new tailor's chalk; it made marking my darts a breeze.

• I have several pairs of pants in my closet that I thought fit well, but I now realize need the fisheye dart adjustment as well.  (Guess I've been too preoccupied with my FBAs to pay much attention to what's going on in the back.)
• Even an "easy" pattern, like McCall's 6153, shouldn't be rushed.
• The next time I use a knit/stretch fabric, I will check the length when it's resting on the table, and again when hanging (as it will be when worn), then adjust the pattern accordingly if it seems likely to "grow" on my body.

I'm not sure what to work on next.  I still have DD's (now TNT) third and fourth skorts to finish (maybe the reason they're still unfinished is that I NEED to have a challenge?). Or perhaps a little knitting will help me get out of my slump. Tune in tomorrow, dearies, and find out.

Jeans - Part I

So, I started working on a pair of jeans awhile back.  Apparently, it was a LONG while ago, because the McCalls pattern I am using, 5142, is OOP.  I couldn't even find a review of the pattern on PR.

Since I'm trying to replace the dreaded "Mom jeans" in my wardrobe (actually, I chucked the pants a couple months ago, and now have NO jeans at all), I chose the slightly low-rise View C (altered to a boot cut leg), and cut a size 14 out of some stretch denim I had on hand. Things were going along quite nicely; I had assembled the front pockets and fly, and attached the back yoke to the pant legs and meticulously placed the pockets and topstitched them in place. But I ran into trouble with the side seams - since I was using stretch denim, the pants were very loose when I basted the 5/8" seam allowances.  I pinched out the excess, turned the pants inside out, and marked new stitching lines along the pins.

When I tried them on again, something was definitely not right.  The back seemed too wide, with the seam along the outside leg off center.  So I ripped out the stitching and proceeded to pin and baste and try on another five or six times (no, I am not kidding) until I had something I thought was pretty decent.

Then I took some pictures using my camera's self-timer:

Gah!  They were nice and smooth in front, and the outside seam appeared to be centered and perpendicular to the floor, but the butt...I was back in MomJeansville.  Sigh...

I've been reading some back issues of Threads and remembered Kenneth King's "net gain/net loss" adjustment process, so I reached around and grabbed what felt like excess fabric and started pinning it out.

You can see (even in my off-center stance) that the left side where I pinned it looks much smoother than the right side.  And it looks even better from the side:

After pinning and photographing and examining things, I knew there was fabric that needed to be removed, but I had no idea how to go about it.  After spending a few minutes searching online at PR, I had my answer:  I needed to rotate out the fisheye dart I had pinned back there.  Unfortunately, the process required that I remove the excess fabric from the back of the leg and add it back by raising the waist at the side seam and extending the back crotch point.  (Translation:  I needed to re-draft/re-cut my pants.) You can see the effect that pinning had on the center back:

The center back is clearly too short now (I had MEGA plumber's crack when I tried to sit down in these); I think the fisheye adjustment will solve that problem.  I didn't have any more of the stretch denim on hand (did I mention I cut these out a LONG time ago?), so this effectively shut down my jeans production for the weekend.

The good news:  I think I have a solution, and I expect the next go-round to result in ACTUAL WEARABLE PANTS.  The bad news:  I am now noticing this issue elsewhere in my wardrobe.  (I've been a little preoccupied dealing with FBAs until now to pay much attention to the rear view.)  I was getting dressed this morning and pulled on my favorite pair of pants, and I noticed the same problem with them.  Guess I need to add "sew a pair of pants that REALLY fit" to my list of sewing goals...

NL953 - Part I

So I'm most of the way through cutting out my fabric, and I'm remembering why I don't like working with silk chiffon.  And neither does Sally Cowan, who writes on her Keeping You in Stitches website:

"Silk Chiffon is not the fabric to use when working on your first project. [NB: Make that "your first 100 projects."] It has a mind of its own. Because of its weight, it is perfect for pants, loose tops and flowing dresses. When cutting this fabric, cover your table with tissue paper. Pin a double thickness of fabric to the paper. Pin the pattern through the fabric AND paper. Keep pins within the seam allowances. Use sharp scissors and cut through all the layers. And pray."

Well, now, that's encouraging, isn't it?

And I like Claire Schaeffer's comment in her book, Sew Any Fabric:

"To avoid ripping and over-handling, make a test garment before cutting the fabric to refine the fit and practice your sewing skills."

Oh.  Oops.  Too late.

Embarrassment of riches (Warning: contains yarn porn!)

It's slow going, but I'm continuing my progress in organizing my basement craft and bedroom sewing areas.

This is what my basement looked like prior to my husband emptying the storage unit:

This is the view from the top of the basement stairs - the stairway is painted a light lavender color. The wall at the bottom of the stairs is "Soothing Green Tea" green.

This is the "green" side of the basement, where I'm setting up my crafting area, yarn storage and my daughter's "work" table.  The door on the left leads to the laundry room, storage area and furnace. The door on the right leads to the closet under the stairs - some day we may turn it into a half bath, but for now it's just general storage.

This is the "nook" where my IKEA storage unit/craft table is going. That wall with the outlets is about 8 1/2' long.  I love having all the outlets at countertop height - should be able to accommodate my convection oven, food processor, Foredom buffer, Dremel, magnifying light and more (for my polymer clay art).

This is the family room area on the other side of the stairs.  The wall looks very blue in these photos, but the color is a dark amethyst (purple). That funky post on the side of the room is holding up the house (there's a load bearing wall above).  We had thought we might do some sort of built-in cabinet back behind it for the DVD player/sound system components, but we're going to see if we have any furniture that might work in that space. We're going to install our movie projector on the rear wall (to the left of the support column) which will project the image onto a pull-down screen on the opposite side of the room.

View of the green room from the purple side of the stairs.

And, a view of the stairs from the green side.

My friend Clara helped choose these colors; the photos do not do them justice.  I love the high contrast between the green and purple - it's really energizing.  The baseboard trim has been primed, but not painted yet - it will be Muslin White.  The window on the green wall will be covered by a pull-down movie screen when we're watching our Netflix's at night..

 

View from the bottom of the stairs.

As I said, these photos were taken BEFORE my husband emptied the storage unit and filled up both spaces with all our crap stuff. I've been moving things like sports and camping equipment and out-of-season clothing to the new shelving we put in the laundry room storage area, and I would have been able to finish it before this weekend except that I need to get another shelving unit (or two) to put stuff on. So I decided to tackle my yarn stash instead.

In order to figure out how I wanted to store my yarn in the new space, I gathered all of it (well, most of it, because I can tell that some skeins are missing) and sorted it into piles on the floor.  (Yikes!  I have THAT much yarn?)  This is what it looked like earlier this afternoon, before I put it all away:

...and this is what it looks like now:

Gee, that's not so bad, now, is it? I did manage to fill a very large bag with yarn that I know I will never, ever knit, which I am planning to unload at a yard sale or similar venue this spring. The boxes are just temporary (I hope!); what I really want to put my yarn in are a few of these Neu Home Honeycomb 5-Section Storage Units (about $20 each at Amazon.com, this picture shows 4 units combined):

Pretty nifty, huh?  Except they are sold out everywhere online at the moment.  Gaaaah! 

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This...

...you know, where I finally sat down to at my Viking to sew after having assembled all my mending projects, cut out the Christmas stockings (and their linings and interlinings), and taking the buckles off my daughter's new Columbia snowpants so I could shorten the straps so they would fit before we leave on our ski vacation after Christmas...

...AND PROCEEDED TO BREAK MY MACHINE'S LOW-SHANK SNAP-ON ANKLE!!!!   (For the second time this year. Gaaaaahhh!!!!)

This time I was able to find the part on eBay (I ordered two, because, well, it's only a matter of time, you know...) for only $11.99 including shipping.  With any luck, I'll be sewing by Monday afternoon.

Good thing I didn't sign up to sew costumes for the Children's Pageant at church this year, huh?