A Formal Introduction...

Today I was finally able to set up my sewing room (my brother's old room before he moved out and the current guest room) and get started on some serious work. I drafted a pattern for the jackets and coat which is princess cut and then made a "muslin" of it (I'll talk about that in a separate post). I put quotes around muslin because I actually don't have any muslin, so I use whatever fabric I happen to have around... It works well enough...

Anyways, I figured I'd give you a little introduction to all of my most important sewing tools.

This is Juliette. You've met her before, but at that time I hadn't figured out what I was going to name her. She's the newest addition to my collection of sewing stuff. She's currently sporting a black dress I made for festival chorus (black dress clothes were mandatory for concerts). Yes, those are zippers. Everyone loved it.

My other dress form is Patricia. I got her for $20 at an antique shop two years ago! One of her gears is broken, but it's not such a bad thing; she just needs to be set to my measurements. She's wearing a chandelier necklace that I made last year, a party dress made out of some strange fabric that resembles a thin tarp and is waterproof, and my great grandmother's amazing faux fur winter coat. She's just fabulous all around.

Next are my sewing machines. I have three. First is my old Singer sewing machine. This is the first sewing machine I ever had. I got it from my mom (thanks mom!). It's one of those ones that sits in a table and can be hidden inside or set up. on the inside flap of the table is carved the names Antoinette and Jerry, so I've taken to calling this machine Antoinette.

Jerry is my other old Singer. This one is also set in a table, and is currently out of order (sad face). I lost a screw somewhere inside of it, so now the bobbin doesn't connect properly. Sometime soon we'll get it fixed. I'm hoping this machine will be the one which can sew my jeans. Doesn't it look like it would be tough enough to do that? It also has various attachments that do zigzag stitches (Antoinette can only do straight stitching).

My newest machine is a Brother computerized one. This is the one I take with me when I go to school. I got it when I took the course for my Dressmaking and Design career degree with Penn Foster Career Schools; it was included in the tuition for the class! This one doesn't really have a name, although since it's a Brother, it reminds me of my fraternity (Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity). Maybe my brothers will allow it to be an honorary brother;

Theta 1217 1/8.

You've all seen my lovely sewing scissors, back from being lost (left behind) for a few weeks. It was so lovely to cut fabric with them today. They're just so good at it. I would also like to bring to your attention my pincushion. Oh holder of pins, you serve me well. Although the strawberry was lost long before I ever got it, so I've never had sharp pins... Ah, my iPod dock, giver of lovely music. Without it, I would be sewing in sad, boring silence. *shiver*

And last, but certainly not least, my stool. It's pretty nice. My butt has a certain fondness for it, even though it has virtually no padding anymore and no back to lean on. It's still pretty cool. It holds stuff (mainly the manuals for Jerry and Antoinette). I rather like it.

Well, enough blogging for me. Naptime! Or maybe I'll make this garment that's been bouncing around my brain for a week or two...

Unproductive Weekend...

Well, what can you expect? Not only have I just gotten home from school (and still haven't unpacked anything!), but it was a holiday weekend (happy birthday, America!). I mean, technically I got home on Friday night, but it was too late then to do anything--I basically just collapsed on my bed. My brother, sister-in-law, and niece arrived on Saturday to spend the night, and, come on! It's impossible to be productive in any way when you have an adorable 5 year old running around! Today my parents and I went to a family picnic with a very small portion of my mom's side of the family, and didn't get back until 10:00 pm. I would start working on something now, but riding around in a car for two hours at a time is somehow very tiring! I didn't get to see fireworks (no, mom, it does not count if you see them from the highway as you pass a town!), which really makes me sad, but it was still a really fun day.

I have done a bit of work, I suppose. I've gotten a few more rounds in on the Off White Hand Knitted Gown/Wedding Dress, so in a few days I should be ready to increase again...yay...

I started on the pattern for my Grey Modified Suiting Sheath Dress, which is done in a princess cut pattern. I'm using a pattern that I already have to get the basic shapes, but I need to alter it a lot. I have a high waist (generally, the waist hits right about where the elbow bends, but my waist is about an inch and a half above it) and a long torso, which really throws off just about every pattern I'll ever make. Great. When I was measuring myself for the pants pattern the other day, the back of the pattern said that I should be wearing a size 26 because my waist is so damn high! As if I'm going to wear pants all the way up there! Geez! So it's definitely a good thing that I ripped apart that pair of jeans so I can use it to make a proper pants pattern...Anyway, my to do list is kind of long...I've been pretty busy with other stuff for the past week:

• finish Red Jersey A-Line Dress
• make sleeves and belt for Red Hand Knitted Half Sleeve Sweater
• choose edging for Black Satin 4 Square Dress and construct
• make muslins for wideleg jeans and princess cut sheath dress
• draft pattern for princess cut jacket/coat
• plus, of course, the daily round or two on my Off White Hand Knitted Gown/Wedding Dress

Wish me luck! I just might need it...

Bad News, Good News, And Then Some More Bad News...

Well, I'm back from college! My classes are done, and I should be getting results by Monday. I have this feeling I'm going to get an A. I'm pretty excited about it.

Anyways, I got home and checked my email, and came across my first bit of bad news: JoAnn Fabrics (the store I've shopped at for the supplies for my entire project) has yet again cancelled an order because they didn't have the item in stock. Seriously? I would think that if they didn't have the item in stock they wouldn't have allowed me to place the order. This is the second time this has happened since I began buying the fabric for my line, and one time they only sent me half of the amount. They refunded me, but I still can't stand the lack of efficiency or the fact that they have clearly done nothing to improve. I wrote them a rather disdainful email and told them that after I purchase the few things left in my wishlist (I can't very well change stores in the middle; the colors might turn out all wrong...), they are losing my business for good. I'm quite upset about it and I would never recommend their company to anyone else.

The good news of the day is that I found my sewing scissors! Turns out that I had left them at home...can you believe it? I don't know what I thought I would get done without my fabric scissors... Anyways, I'm really glad I found them. I really did think I lost them at school somewhere...

And then...back to bad news...again involving JoAnn Fabrics. I've been periodically purchasing fabrics for my line as I could afford them and had them shipped to my house (I really didn't need any more fabric in my dorm room). Anyways, so I bought a knit that was meant to be a mustardy gold to fit with the cardigan yarn. The image on JoAnn.com was very close so I ordered it.

This is what I got. I'm pretty sure that whoever named this yarn is colorblind. This is a yellow orange (in real life it's very orange and ugly. I have no idea why my phone keeps muting the colors of things...), but they called it gold! This fabric literally glows. I'm kind of afraid to turn off the light, because it just might glow in the dark. Maybe big fans of neon will like it, but I find this color hideous. Especially when you look at my color inspiration and the general feel of my line, this fabric would just make the wearer look like they're on crack. Needless to say, I'm sending it back.

So now, the only thing that's making me feel better (other than my scissors) are a few books I received from Borders (at least Borders understands how to process an order properly, and even though their customer service people are in India, they've been quite nice and helpful the few times I've had to call): Dune by Frank Herbert, Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and The Complete Illustrated Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Yes, believe it or not, folks, I'm a science fiction nerd. Blame my father. I'm excited to read these, but I admit I'm a little behind on reading (I have the entire Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, The Black Dagger Brotherhood series, and three more works by Ayn Rand to finish before I start these). Most likely these will just sit on my shelf watching me longingly from across the room while I sew/knit for the next 9 months. How sad.

And now for a last bit of information no one needs to know, I came home to blue toilet water. It's weird. I'm still not sure how I feel about it... Anyway, back to work tomorrow! Lots of sewing to do!

A Question of Edging...

Surprisingly, I've been more productive in regards to this project in the past few days than I expected. Using my ripped jeans, I drafted a basic wideleg jeans pattern (which I will test when I get home), cut out the pieces for the Black Satin 4 Square Dress, and tested some edging options for the same dress. True, the Black Satin 4 Square Dress was not hard to cut out (since it's literally only 4 squares), but progress is progress.

I now have another question to ask you all about options for the edging of the 4 square dress. I really loved the scallop edging on the Teal Satin Tank, and really want to use it again, but in reverse this time. I love that the little bites (I'm calling them bites) have a Gothic feel without making it look creepy. The fabric seems a little too thin for single layer stitching, though, so I'm probably going to have to get some embroidery stabilizer so they don't bunch up like this...

The question now is what color of thread I should use...Teal or Black (yes, it's black; my phone distorted the colors again)? Feedback would be lovely. [Reminder: the belt will be in the teal satin; that's why I chose to do a teal edging test]

Question...

I'm going to start writing the pattern for my Gold Hand Knitted Fluted Collar Cardigan, and I can't decide on what stitch to use for it. I used stocking stitch for the Red Hand Knitted Half Sleeve Sweater, but it seems too plain to use for a whole cardigan, especially since I won't be using any rib knitting anywhere.

From right to left, the stitches are: Rice, Bamboo, Seed, and Stocking (the needles/pen mark the stitch changes). The image is flipped on its side, so tilt your head to the right when you're looking at it. The colors are also completely wrong; the yarn is actually a bright, mustardy yellow. I have no idea why my phone came up with this color...

I quite like the Bamboo stitch, especially because I could combine it with Stocking stitch easily and spread it out, although I think the Rice stitch is cute too (although, maybe too bumpy?)

What do you think?

Since I Haven't Talked About It In A While...

I figured I'd give an update of the Red Jersey Dress.

It's still not quite done (the machine I have here at school with me is too tight, so the jersey stretches too much for the finishing to look right), but it's very close.

My first attempt, done in the teal cotton rib knit was quite honestly a disaster. I mean, seriously, just look at it (again, apologies for the terrible camera).

I made myself a hospital gown. This might be a good thing in the future, since I tend to have a knack for randomly landing myself in the hospital, but still, this was far from my intention.

I like the way the front and back Vs look, although the sleeves are dangerously close to falling off my shoulders, which I didn't like so much. Some of this probably had to do with the surprising weight of the fabric. Although I hate this horrible thing that I've made, I fully intend to try to make something wearable out of it. I'm thinking a bustier line t-shirt dress. I have some more knits at home to work with.

The dress was about 4 inches too big around the waist, so I fixed that on the pattern, and the waistline was about half an inch below mine (it's such a hard life; I have a high waist but a long torso. Tragic.), so I had to shorten it in the middle.

In the end, my pattern looked like this;

You can see the tape marks where I've lifted the waist, and on the top of the sleeve where I've added some to the top. The sleeve can be long, half length, or a cap sleeve; I didn't want to have to cut it out three times. I also cut a 1 1/2 inch (approximately) strip for the edging at the neck.

At the moment, the dress is sewn together and just needs to be hemmed and for the neckline edging to be put on. The pattern adjustments worked out great, and it looks much more like my sketch. The only problem is that, since it's a synthetic jersey, it does that annoying thing where it shows every bump underneath it. Since I don't need random passerby to know what type of underwear I'm wearing, I will be making a slip. I'll post pictures when it's finished (which probably won't be until I'm back at home next week).

This week is finals week for the first half of the summer semester (there are two parts, I'm only taking classes during the first part), so I probably won't be able to do much for my project. I might have time to finish up my Red Hand Knitted Half Sleeve Sweater, since all that's left are the sleeves and a tie belt. I'll also work on my Off White Hand Knitted Gown/Wedding Dress, as usual. I finally started on the third skein of yarn for it today! Yay!

Piece #2 Finished!

I know you've all been anxiously waiting to see how my annoying elastic turned out... Well, after four and a half hours of milimetering that stupid elastic through, I finally saw it at the other side of the shirt! Yay! If I remember correctly, this was at some point between 4:30 and 5:00 am, so I wasn't able to immediately finish it up.

When it came time to do the hem, I decided to do something different. The fabric is much stiffer than I expected it to be, so I wanted to try to add a softer feel to the hemline than it was already showing. Luckily, my sewing machine has the perfect stitch for that: the scallop stitch.

It was pleasantly simple; I just pushed the buttons on the sewing machine and let it do its thing. All I had to do was make sure it sewed in a straight line, and it came out perfect! Once it was done, I just had to cut out around the stitches, and BAM! Perfect delicate hem. I would also like to comment on the fact that the scallops remind me of Notre Dame's architecture (another reason I chose them). I might use this stitch elsewhere except upside down so I get that nice pointy edge effect. (Not sure why the coloring is so different, it's in the exact same place I photographed it before...)

Anyways, I've kept you waiting long enough! Here's the finished product!

The top is tighter than I expected, and I thought it would be more flowy and drapey than it is, but the fabric is stiffer than I realized, too. Eventually I'd love to do some beadwork/embellishment to the top to make it less plain. Still a work in progress, but it's made!

Total Hours Logged: approximately 6 (would have been 2 if the elastic would have just WORKED WITH ME!)

Fabric: Teal Jewel Satin less than 1 yd

Notions: 1/8" Elastic

Cost (not including time): under $5