And So I Sew...

Pastille in progress

2012-02-08T22:04:00.000-08:00

Have you seen Sew Colette, the sew-along for the Colette Sewing Handbook? I sat out for the first round (Meringue Skirt) but I spent my time drinking Gatorade and doing pushups to get ready for the Pastille dress. Well, it's time so I am off the bench and rarin' to go. I'm on muslin round 4, and it is looking preeetty good to me. Except in this picture. Actually, I'm not sure why I'm showing you this horrible picture.

I can juuust barely squeeze the shirt on without a zipper installed, so to make it easier to muslin on my own, I sewed up the back seam instead of pinning it each time I put it on. Without the ability to squish and squeeze and twist and wiggle, my dress form is sadly unable to get into it, hence a silly and useless picture of the muslin pinned to the front of it.

Ah, that's better. Wench, you're fired for not being able to dislocate your shoulders and shimmy into small things.

Oh by the way! The Pastille pattern is for a dress, but I'm making a shirt. Yes. That is why it is so short. Not because I am planning to leave my day job for an exciting night-time position on the street corner.

I recommend to everyone that you actually follow some of the many tutorials available at Colette patterns for doing adjustments. I got too hasty changing the darts on the first muslin without really thinking through the process. As a result, most of my seams ended up crooked. This created a bunch of wrinkles and pull spots on the top that baffled me until I remembered the difference between the way the seams had looked the first time I sewed them and the second. I actually didn't try to pin anything on muslin #2, I just took it apart somewhat and retraced my steps to correct my adjustment mistakes.

I do say, the muslin doesn't look very pretty in these pictures, but I don't think I'm being too optimistic in thinking that I'm almost there. I had to stand a bit crooked to get the pictures and the muslin fabric doesn't have the stiffness of my real fabric to keep it from wrinkling all over.
I'm cutting my fabric tonight to get started on on the real shirt, so we will find out soon enough!

Push to the finish line

2012-02-03T18:26:00.000-08:00

I spent January rocking the WIPs... but there was one tough guy, one hard egg, that I took a while getting up the gumption to approach... The %@#$*! Alabama Shirt. (Official name) I started this shirt early in 2011 - enthusiastically drafting sleeves, testing the pattern, picking fabric, stencil, paint, thread... cutting, basting... and then I hit the a wall when it came to the hand-applique outline stitching. Guh. (That's the sound I make when I hit a wall. Believe me, I know.)

I do not know how anybody, anywhere, finds the patience to do all that hand stitching. I could see if the stitching was of normal difficulty. It just takes a long time, you spend hours puttering along, do it while you watch TV, whatever. BUT NO. The thread is so freakin thick that pulling it through 2 layers of jersey requires a pair of pliers for every stitch. Plus, the fabric rubs on that fat thread and encourages it to unwind, making a twisted, tangled mess that has to be straightened out... every stitch. Kill me now.

This is an actual photograph of me sewing the %@#$*! Alabama Shirt. Note my red eyes of rage.

I didn't go to kindergarden, which is probably where they teach you not to scream and throw things when you are frustrated. I am just guessing about what they teach you in kindergarden. The only other thing I know for sure is that they teach you is how to get in line. The point, though, is that I have been known to scream and throw my sewing projects. Somehow I never made much progress sewing this shirt.

For my WIP-busting extravaganza this month and on the recommendation of a fellow guild member, I took another whack at this project last week, armed with beeswax for my tricksy thread. I waxed the heck out of that thread. It took care of my twisting problem in a kind of amazing way, but those pliers were still unfortunately required. I looked at the project, I looked deeply into my soul, and I decided the shirt either had to be altered or scrapped. With a joyful heart, I used embroidery scissors to clip out what little stitching was there. Now I just have to sew up the stenciled layer up and I can call it done. Hooray for progress(?)!

Resolutions and a new tool

2012-01-31T22:00:00.000-08:00

At our last local guild meeting we talked about quilting resolutions for this year, and I thought I would publish mine here for extra ~~boasting when I finish them~~ accountability.

1) Get my sewing machine serviced DONE! (Saying this was a resolution made me get off my butt and do it right after the meeting. The feed is greatly improved.)

2) Reduce my UFOs by 5 by the end of the year. (I tried to count UFOs and came up with 14. Then I counted again a few days later and came up with 8. I just made a list right now and came up with 11. So forget how many I have right now. Basically I have to finish 5 more things than I start this year.)

And additional resolutions that I didn't share at the meeting:
3) Buy less fabric than I use. I am instituting a 2 yards out, 1 yard in policy on account as of just last night finally breaking down and expanding my quilting fabric into yet another drawer. I have a tendency to gather up sets of fabric and then call them an intended quilt. Next I find someplace to hide them so that they no longer count as part of my fabric stash. Like... in a stack hidden behind another stack. In my WIP drawer. Inside of a shoe box. In a pile in the dog's closet. (These are REAL hiding places, people. I'm not kidding.) Anyway, I gathered those all back up and put them away, and the drawer-space situation is dire.

I told you it was for real. That's the dog's closet. And a shoe box. Also this is after I cleaned up.

4) Sew 6 items of clothing, or 1 every 2 months.

Now don't be surprised if I play pretty free and loose with these resolutions. For example, free fabric doesn't count towards my incoming fabric, but if I use it it counts toward my outgoing fabric. I am grouping WIPs and UFOs together, and finishing either counts toward my goal of 5 (and as outgoing fabric!) Technically I made my resolution at the beginning of the month so I am already counting finishes and I am up by 2 already, woot!

Also at the meeting, another MQG member turned me on to the Chaco Liner from Clover. It's like a chalk pencil... but magical. It dispenses chalk-ish powder over a roller wheel (like one of those whiteout dispensers) so unlike a chalk pencil, you don't have to push hard to make a nice line. That means that on your stretchy or thin fabrics, you just zip down next to your ruler and don't have that bunching/skipping problem. When you're done with the line, flick it a few times with a fingertip and the chalk bounces right off the fabric. I used it the other week to mark the hem on my Taffy Blouse, and it worked great.

Speaking of the Taffy Blouse, I wore it last week. I used my brains to get around how light the blouse is for our winter weather... by wearing pjs under my pants. Yeah, I was double-pantsed that day and nobody knew. Except for me, since I was toasty warm. I was asked if I got the shirt from Modcloth... and by another person if I had lost weight. Success, my friends.

I leave you with a picture of our poor dog, who broke a tooth. (Who knows how, but the Dog Dentist told us not to let him chew ice anymore. Aaaaagh! That's like his favorite thing ever.) He had to be put under for a few hours to get a root canal. Afterwards he was totally out of it all evening due to lingering sedative. It turns out that dogs greatly dislike being high. He spent hours either staring into space with his tongue out, nodding off sitting up, or wandering around crying sadly (we call it crying when he whines because it sounds cooler (but maybe that's just me)). He appears to be 100% recovered from this now, so don't fret yourselves.

Charity Quilting

2012-01-30T20:07:00.000-08:00

Deborah and Jennifer, the awesome charity coordinators for our local Modern Quilt Guild, are organizing different charity quilt projects for us each quarter this year. The first quarter project is based off of Amanda Jean's postage stamp quilt-along last year. They actually created cute little block kits for us all with little pre-cut squares! Man, what a great idea. I just pick up a few at the meeting and it is super easy to whip them up.
I got so jazzed about the project that I also offered to quilt up some of the finished tops. Jennifer already had a set of blocks for me at the sew day last week so I came home and sewed 'er up! The quilt is for the Lucile Packard Neonatal unit, so it is only 36" square. The small size gave me the opportunity to be bold with the quilting pattern, so I brought back a pattern that I used two years ago for a quilted shoulder bag

Basically you just start at the edge and start quilting in any old direction, curving any old amount, and continue until you get to the opposite side. Keep on going like that until you think it has good coverage. I looked over the top at intervals looking for un-quilted areas that were too big to leave alone, and then I would aim for them from the edge. In case you were wondering... it is F.U.N. You basically can't mess it up. Plus, I'm off the hook for doing a binding - I just pass it along! How's that for awesome?

Kona Solids Challenge

2012-01-27T21:43:00.000-08:00

I started this quilt last year in a sponsored challenge from Robert Kaufman through the Modern Quilt Guild. We were supplied with Kona Solids Charm Packs to make a quilt all in solids. Our local guild ended up getting the brights pack, which was great because that would have been my pick anyway! I used every piece in my charm pack, counting a grey and a white square that both ended up on the back. Embarrassingly, this challenge was due around July or August of last year, and I just finished it this week. Woops.

I really wanted my colors to flow from one to another to take advantage of the rainbow of colors in the charm pack. I ended up going with this layout, which I liked best for the colors, but as I finished the quilt I started to like the layout less and less. I'm not sure it really makes sense to me. However, I think that the block has some awesome potential in other layouts as well. I started this design based on a whirly-gig block, and I thought it would be a bit cool and funky if I cut a freehand curve on each piece instead of a straight line. I call this quilt the "Two Margaritas Quilt," after my mental state when I came up with the block idea...

I used the method described here to do the curves. If you decide to make a block like this, make a note that you really should start with rectangles that are 1/2" longer on one side. That way, after the seam you will have a square without having to trim a bunch of fabric. Since I was using charm packs, I cheated on this by adding 1" length to my grey fabric. It's not obvious, but overall the blocks are a bit more than half grey. Neat, huh?

My favorite part about the quilt is definitely the quilting, which is done in echos from the edges between the color and the grey. Where my echos came together, I improvised little funky designs that turned out really fun. In the end, the quilting probably wouldn't have happened without the odd layout I chose, so I have made my peace with it! I will definitely be doing quilting like this again in the future, but I'll stick to small quilts for it because the constant turning is SUPER irritating... the reason it took me 8 months to finish this little guy.

A big thanks to Robert Kaufman for sponsoring this challenge and to the Modern Quilt Guild for organizing everything!

Taffy Blouse Finished!

2012-01-22T14:17:00.001-08:00

After 2 muslins and a million ripped seams, it's done! The muslins were worth it though, because I love how the fit turned out. I ended up doing an FBA, moving the darts, and re-drawing the side seams (which were almost straight) so that it tucks in a bit more at the waist.

I used a dark purple synthetic shear mystery fabric for the main body. Being flimsy and slick, it was a little tough to cut out so I traced the pattern onto freezer paper and ironed it to the fabric. That stabilized half of the outline, and I folded other half over top of the paper and cut it out with a rotary cutter. It would have been easier if my starting piece of fabric had been smaller - as it was, it kept sliding off the sides of the table and pulling everything wonky. I got through it though, the sewing was surprisingly easy, not even too much fraying.

For the bias bindings, I used a lightweight greyish-blue fabric that seemed to be natural fiber. I had a hard time folding the binding because I had cut it just barely to size, and with the stretch on the bias the width tended to get smaller. Next time I will cut 10-20% over-size if I have a light fabric like this.

Both fabrics were in my stash from a craigslist score a few years ago. The blue with the purple isn't the a stellar match, but it does look better in person than in the pictures. It was the best option that I had on hand because of the drape. I think it is really important for this blouse for your bias binding to be similar in drape to your main fabric. If your binding is too stiff, it wants to stay straight instead of curling in and out on the sleeves.

This pattern is less fitted than something that I would normally pick to sew for myself, but I really like the result. I am convinced that it will get a lot of wear once summer rolls around. There are only 2 things that I will change on the next version (and there will be a next version - DH says it would look good in black). First, the neckline/shoulders ended up a little broad. I shifted my bra and tank straps out for the pictures, but normally they tend to show, so I will take some width out at the shoulders. Second, which you can't see because I pulled it straight for the pictures, is that when I move around it tends to develop a kind of sagging/smile wrinkle that goes from the sides at the waist to the front middle below my belly button. I have no clue what to do about this, although I suspect that it comes from curving the seams in at the waist. The weirdest part is that I think it was worse before I hemmed the bottom. Anybody cured this before?

All in all, I'm so glad I made this, and I really do recommend the whole book. For one thing, the instructions for the patterns are excellent. The diagrams are clear, and the techniques are all explained right there in the book. For this pattern, the main techniques were creating and using bias binding and sewing french seams. I did double-check on the Colette Forum about the finished size of 1/2" double fold bias tape (which is 1/4". Damn whoever came up with that one!) The approach that the book teaches of going slowly and focusing on the quality of your work, combined with the clear and easy instructions, helped me achieve something that I think is the best clothing item that I've sewn so far.

The Whirly-Gig Quilt

2012-01-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

This quilt is from March of last year... I made it for a friend's baby shower, using my standard surprise-color-selection method of peeking at her shower registry and trying to match the bedding colors. The pattern itself I did by educated guess and it turned out just fine. I had to cut all the pieces out and arranged them on my table and then carefully sew/layout/sew/layout the whole thing because of the way the squares contribute to the overall design. That is such a pain, right?? So, ok, maybe you always have to do that, but usually you are laying out 10-12" squares, and these were only 6". I didn't have a design wall back then and it was fairly miserable as a result. Maybe if you buy a pattern there is some magical way where you stack them up all the right way and then cut here and sew there and then unfold the finished top like a string of paper dolls.

I did varied-width "downhill straight line quilting" on this quilt. That's where you mess up your machine settings and the quilt top gets dragged down relative to the back and the whole top ends up slightly cockeyed. It's one of my favs! (Going by how many quilts I use it on...)

Also, I bought almost exactly double the amount of fabric that I actually needed, as usual. Is it so terrifying to think of being a few inches short of fabric that I actually need to double my estimates? I should start trying to think of it as a delicious challenge to make it work if I'm short on fabric. Live on the razor edge. Life would be more exciting, no?

Taffy Blouse

2012-01-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

I love Colette patterns. They're beautiful. And I expect that they would be pretty easy to fit to my body shape... if I ever got around to sewing any of them. The thing about sewing clothes, though, is that it's HARD. Depressingly hard. You have to do things like... seam finishing. Pattern grading. Sewing muslins (because I love sewing things and then throwing them away). Worst of all... unpicking. And crappy unpicking at that. The kind where the fabric falls apart just from LOOKING at a seam ripper.

Enter the Colette Sewing Handbook, which I got for Christmas. Whereas I never actually have opened any of the Colette patterns that I've collected, I actually opened the book and read it. In doing so, I noticed something lovely... the instructions are soooo simple. When I read through the pattern, I understand everything. There's never an illustration where I'm like "whaaat? Maybe I'll understand that part when I get to it" (ha!) Plus, since it's a book format, she is able to explain every technique used in the patterns, so you don't even have to look anything up online.

The end result is that I got tricked into making a shirt. The Taffy Blouse, to be exact. It turns out that easy instructions only make sewing garments about 10% easier. I've unpicked this thing about 6 times (including one where the darts were somehow on the outside of the shirt), but one of the times I actually got close enough to finished to see what it would look like. I asked my husband what he thought and he said "I like it." !!!! !!!! !
Hold on... you might not understand. "I like it" is pretty much the maximum rating that DH gives. Things of average to excellent goodness, like homemade raspberry jam, get the "it's ok" rating. The "it's ok" rating means "I will finish this jar within a week because I can't stop eating it." Things that get the "I like it" rating include: me, cars, the dog, and the internet. So for that to get applied to a mere shirt... well, that is inspiration to get me through another round of unpicking the durn thing.

Poor Blog and an Emmeline Apron

2012-01-11T19:37:00.000-08:00

My sister called me up the other day to tell me, haughtily, that she was DELETING my blog from her shortcuts bar. Reason: no posts for an entire year. Blog, I treated you bad and I'm sorry. No particular reason, except maybe a crafting enthusiasm that precluded spending time on things like taking pictures for the ole' blog.

So, just for her, here's one from the last year. I used the Emmeline Apron pattern from Sew Liberated to sew up birthday presents for each of my sisters. My youngest sister sent pictures of hers... modeled myspace-style for the mirror (including kitchen utensils in the pocket!)

I put the little pocket on one side of the apron - and on this apron I stupidly did it AFTER I had assembled the whole apron and creating a lot more work for myself. I ended up ripping the topstitching on the bottom hem and then arranging things so that the opening was under my presser foot and all the fabric was bunched around. If that didn't make sense it's because it was a stupid plan (I shouldn't even use the word plan as this implies that I was actually thinking...). For all the following aprons I had the good sense to put the pocket on before assembling the front to the back. The embroidery design (it's a shark, not a pissed off walrus) is compliments of my niece, who made a special drawing for each of her aunts.

I have a few suggestions for anyone who is considering the Emmeline Apron:

Bust Adjustment: Although the style of the bust is looks very forgiving, on larger busts the under-bust accent can disappear, making the apron look a bit blah. On smaller busts the gathers give you a bunch of extra fabric hanging about and make you look smaller. Since it's really easy to do, it's a good idea to go ahead and adjust the bust - measure yourself from just below your bust (where your bra band sits) to the top of the bust or where you would like the neckline of the apron to lie. Increase the height of the bust piece so that it is the same as your measurement. If you make a pretty big change, measure horizontally as well to make sure that will work out. You may want to increase the length of the bias strips to match your new height, but they were plenty long for me without adjustment.

Waist ties: The instructions for this are completely guess and check. It's ridiculous and took me 15 minutes to do the first one. For the second one I just copied the first one and it was perfect from the get-go. So - start by measuring 1" from the end of the apron tie, along the bottom (shorter) edge. Mark a diagonal line from that point to the corner of the tie. Align your mark with the edge of the apron, pin and check. This should give you a fairly good result, although you may want to adjust it slightly.


Apron reverse side, using angled darts

Bias binding/Neck tie: Looks cute but the knot at the back of my neck was annoying. You can replace the tie with a single strip that slides over you neck. Drape a measuring tape over your neck and measure to just below your bust at the sides, near but not quite under your arms. Add 1" to this measurement to get the total length that you need for your bias strip, then just follow the directions in the pattern, using the ends of your single bias strip instead of one end each of two strips.

Apron Front Tucks: I didn't like the straight tucks in the pattern because I think they looked unfinished, so I changed them to angled darts. Basically, I just added an angled line from the end of the pattern dart off the side of the pattern, making it about 3" longer. Look how much sleeker this is! I for one don't need any lumps added in around my waist...

Example with straight tucks

So there it is! And I'm officially back on the horse, folks.

Busy little bee

2010-10-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

I've not had much free time recently... between this little guy:

10 wk old Shiba Inu (long coat) named Koni

And these little guys:

Tethered Threads 2 September (any block we wanted)

Modern Quilt Bee October - hst blocks from our scraps and hers

1 Year 12 Quilts September - from tutorial here

Modern Quilt Bee August - neighborhood blocks

Nittany Quilt Bee August - using this tutorial

Nittany Quilt Bee June - from our scraps and hers

Modern Quilt Bee June - instructions here

Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild charity quilt - paper pieced block from this book

1 year 12 quilts May (8 point star requested)

1 year 12 quilts April (nautical theme requested)

Modern Quilt Bee March (my month)

Tethered Threads 2 February - from Oh, Fransson!'s tutorial

Believe it or not, that's actually less than 1/4 of the blocks that I've done since the last block post. No wonder I don't have time to update my blog...

Pattern Challenge - Green crossover top finished

2010-08-05T12:30:00.000-07:00

I did it! I actually finished one of my planned out shirts - McCalls 5809. Here's the plan I started with:

And here's the result:

Pattern: McCalls 5809
View: B
Size: I took body measurements and compared them to the pattern pieces and cut different pieces different sizes, anywhere from 12 to 18, plus I did an FBA.
Fabric: Free solid color stretch knit

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? I'm not sure it really did, but what shirt does look the same on a size 4 model as on a size 14?

Were the instructions easy to follow? I thought the pattern instructions were fairly easy to follow. I made some modifications because I was sewing with a knit fabric, but I was never sitting there scratching my head over the directions on the sheet.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I think (and saw the same thing mentioned on PatternReview.com) that the upper back piece is very oddly sized. I cut the upper back piece smallest of all the pieces, and the shoulder width at the back is still easily 2" too much for me. You can see in the pictures how this made the neck back sag (that and I should have stretched the binding a little bit 'cause it's a knit - I don't think it's worth fixing now, though). The side seam between the top front and top back is displaced toward the front by about 1" on each side, but the side seams for the band and bottom are in the correct place. It could be partially insufficient FBA but I think the pattern was also a bit whack to begin with.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: The only style change that I made was to shorten the height of the middle band because the bottom edge of it fell at an uncomfortable position initially. Well, the only intentional change. Looking at it now I see that I reversed the wrap orientation also.
The instructions indicate to gather the bottom of the bodice and then sew the sides together, but after trying that three times I decided to sew the pieces together first and then gather them.
I also disregarded the pattern instruction to topstitch the hems and did them by hand. I need to level up my hemming a bit more, but I think it looks ok.
As far as altering the pattern, as I mentioned I cut different sizes of each piece and had some fiddling getting them together. I didn't think through the FBA completely and I cut the side of the front piece about 2" longer than it was supposed to be, so I added gathers at the side front to take up the extra inches.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? I probably will make this pattern again, or at least a variation on this pattern. I decided from wearing this that the crossover bodice is not a good style for me because it moves around too much. Every time I turn around, it's gone from prim and proper (or at least somewhere near that) to... not. But I've also been pondering fit issues, and I'm wondering whether it's easier to buy a new pattern for every style and then make all of the required modifications to make it fit, or if it's better to have just a few patterns that I've fitted and then modify them to change the style. I certainly know what would be cheaper...

Would you recommend it to others? I don't think I would recommend this pattern to someone else because there are a lot of similarly styled tops that hopefully would not have the same issue with the top back pattern piece.

Conclusion: I feel it's a little sad that I consider the construction of this shirt to have been one of the smoothest in my career. Counting seams that I ripped apart and resewed and pattern pieces that I recut, I estimate that overall I sewed at least twice as many seams as there are in the garment. Overall I'd say that it's a wearable muslin - the fit is not perfect and the fabric is pretty boring. I very much welcome any suggestions to remedy the following, because I am likely to see them again:

- Pulls under the bust (more FBA?)
- Wrinkles across the back
- Sagging neck in the back (I do know how to fix this one)
- Extra material in the lower front that swings out
- Sleeve pulls at the front and wrinkles in the back (that might just be how I was standing for the picture)

Do you see anything else? I seriously DO want you to point out more flaws...

Let the people decide...

2010-08-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Not really, ha! Like I would let you guys decide what I'm going to do with my precious sewing time. But I'll at least consider your advice.

This fabric... do we think it's right for this jacket?

'Cause someone will ask, fabric is from Fashion Fabrics Club and pattern is McCalls 5759.

Ok new plan

2010-07-08T16:00:00.000-07:00

aka pattern review update

I said that I was going to make a jacket, a ceylon dress, and the liverpool tunic, but then I started pondering issues of fit and usefulness and I've decided to put those off for a while. Instead I'll be focusing on things that I actually, you know, need. Namely, some new shirts for work. (Pants would probably be more helpful but also harder to sew.)

Here's what I'm thinking of:

I just know that all of you are looking at this and thinking "OH HAI WRAP SHIRTS R US." No? Those weren't the exact words in your mind? Well, to answer the accusation that you aren't making, then, the reason is that I was looking for one wrap shirt but in picking through all of the wrap shirt patterns in existence, I found that I actually consider three of them to be suitable, along with a tank top thingy that will maybe hopefully be work-wearable.

Now as for fabric, a recent afternoon of errand-running yielded several bags of free knits from a self-confessed fabric hoarder. I wish that my coloring was a bit more compatible with hers, because she had soooo many nice knits that she was giving away but most of them were pastels, which make me look ill.

I'm thinking this fabric for the vogue tank top. It looks brown but is actually gold and black woven together:

This green is (probably) destined for the McCall's top (if the line drawing looks a little funny to you, don't worry! I swear that I tried on a top of identical design at the mall and it looked brilliant on me)

I'm thinking I'll use this light brownish fabric for the ruched top from Simplicity:

I don't have fabric on hand for the drapey/flowy Simplicity top, (that I know of) so that is likely to be a new purchase.

I'm also planning to freshen up some old shirts by painting them using freezer paper stencils. I picked up some fabric paints this afternoon so now there are no obstacles remaining!

How to pwn at Craigslist

2010-06-07T10:19:00.000-07:00

A couple of people have asked about Craigslist, so I thought I would share how to set things up so that you are automatically alerted of new craigslist listings in areas you are interested in.

Is this even possible, you say?? Yes, if you use some kind of reader (Google Reader, Bloglines, My Yahoo, etc) to view blogs, you can send craigslist searches to go to your reader. That's really helpful if you are looking for something specific. For example, I'm interested in finding a dressform. I go search on craigslist and don't see anything suitable, but I know I'd like to keep an eye out in case a new one shows up. The feed will bring any new listing that meets your criteria to your attention, instead of you having to repeatedly do searches.

So here's how you do it: Go to craigslist and do your search, making it as specific as possible. You don't want more than 2-3 results to come up because otherwise you will be overrun with them in your reader. You can add "-" terms to your search to help narrow things. In the case of the dress form, you might get a lot of results for dresses. You can change your search from "dress form" to "dress form -gown -evening -wedding" to eliminate any posts that also contain the words gown, evening, or wedding. The check boxes on the right side can be useful as well - when I was searching for a dining room table, I checked the "has image" box because I knew that I wouldn't even bother responding to an ad that didn't having a picture.

Once you have your search dialed in, at the bottom of the results screen you click on the RSS button (orange with text "RSS" in white).

That'll take you to a page where you can choose what kind of reader you use. Select your feed reader from the dropdown menu and click "Subscribe Now." You'll be taken to a login page so that it knows who to send the feed to. Once you're finished with that, you can sit back and relax.

I don't recommend using this method if you are searching for extremely hot items - like free furniture on the curb. The feed only updates a few times a day (I'm given to understand that updating more frequently would cause problems - feed readers would decide that the feed is spam and block it.) If you are looking for things that might be gone in 20 minutes or an hour, you aren't likely to get the news in time. In most cases, though, it takes a couple of days to make a transaction on Craiglist, so the feed reader works great.

The Wench

2010-05-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I secured this little baby - we named her "The Wench."

She's the one on the left. With the red skin. Me on the right.

The Wench is an adjustable dress form (brand name "My Double") that retails for about 5 times what I paid for it. Sweet! I also picked up a partial bolt of Warm & Natural for $20. Double score! <3 you, Craigslist.

The day that I got her, I spent the evening measuring and adjusting her and fitting her with a padded bra (which you can see in the picture has shifted around a bit to the side). I'd say I've got her looking pretty good - I tweaked the waist a bit after taking this picture.

Since then she's been lurking in the living room and waiting to freak people out with her scary similarity to my body. And her headlessness, of course.

Giveaway winner!

2010-05-24T18:07:00.000-07:00

The winner of my Sew Mama Sew! Giveaway is comment # 189. Because of the way I made my list, this was actually one of the first comments:

Jackie suggested: "How about using some of it to make softees:-)"

Jackie chose the linen and linen/cotton blend fabrics and those will be winging their way to her shortly.

Jackie's was not the only awesome idea - all of the following have been added to my list for these upholstery scraps:

Fabric bowls
Small pillows/patchwork pillows
Place mats/pot holders/napkins
Christmas ornaments (from velvet pieces)
iPod/cell phone cozies
Covering bench/stool/small furniture with fabric using mod podge.
I might even do something like Vic's amazing patchwork upholstered chair - although probably on a smaller scale. My office chair might become really exciting pretty soon. :)
crayon rolls/art books
Slippers (awesome idea! I would never have come up with this one, but I love it)
Small framed patchwork art
Pin cushions
Fabric covered buttons
Fabric baskets
Scent pouches for drawers/shoes/etc

Perhaps Jackie will get inspiration from some of these ideas as well. :)

Giveaway Day!

2010-05-16T19:23:00.000-07:00

I got this huge stash of upholstery fabrics and it was an awesome find, but there is too much. (I know, too much fabric, who would have thought??). At the rate I'm going, I'll have to beat out Methuselah in order to use it all. And soooo when Sew Mama Sew announced another giveaway, I knew just the thing.

The giveaway winner will receive a USPS flat rate box filled with their choice from the fabric sample pieces below. Don't tell me your preferences in the comments - I want to hear something interesting. ;) I'll ask the winner for their choices via email. To enter, please give me ideas for projects to do with the rest of the samples. (I really need ideas!) You can earn an additional entry by leaving a (relevant) comment on any other post in my blog history.

Giveaway will close on May 20th at midnight. The winner will be chosen at random, and I will ship internationally.

And without further ado, on to the fabrics:

These pieces are microsuade and approximately 10" x 15".

These are silk and each approximately one foot square.

These two are linen or linen/cotton blend fabrics, all of which are washable (and have been prewashed). I do not know if any of the other fabrics can be washed. Three pieces are slightly larger, but most are 12" square.

These fabrics are a synthetic blend, and the weight is like a medium wool. The pieces vary in size from about 5" x 15" to 12" x 15". They seem like they would be nice for coin purses or other small bags.

These pieces are all velvet and they are smaller than the rest, about 6" square.

The best clothes sewing advice ever

2010-05-12T11:27:00.000-07:00

I've been rumminating lately on the matter of sewing clothing for oneself, and I've come to the conclusion that the most important part, by far, is the pattern and fabric selection. Now, you are probably reading this and thinking... "um, duh? What were you smoking before? What did you think was the most important part?" You are thinking this because I should have said under-emphasized instead of important. I could just go back and edit it but now I've written all of this stuff and I can't be bothered.

Anyway, I got to thinking on this because I've been reading "The Pocket Stylist" by Kendall Farr, which is a guide to improving your look, mostly by selecting clothing that suits your body. Bear with me as I digress for a moment, because I can't bear to bring up this book without telling you that I recommend it, with the caveat that you need to be prepared for the number of times you will be told to throw out your sneakers and switch to a minimum two inch heel at all times. Also be ready for an entire chapter on tailoring, without even the slightest hint of a notion that you could do something like taking up a trouser leg yourself. Furthermore, anticipate that you will be very frightened by the German bodybuilder necks drawn on all of the sample silhouettes (apologies to German bodybuilders). Don't cheat and read the body shape tips for other people, because you will be disappointed to learn that many of them are the same. It's not just your body shape, she thinks dark bootleg jeans worn at the natural waist with small or no waistband is best for anybody. Er... I think that might be it. Wait, no... you also must steel yourself against an onslaught of the phrase "almighty unbroken line." Ok, now I'm good.

Despite the weird bits, I did take a lot away from the book, including a list of specific style shirts to look out for and some good guidelines on pants. Everything that she said about clothes for my body type had me nodding my head and thinking "yeah, like that one shirt that I have" or "yeah, I've noticed that those look pretty good." It had never really cemented in my mind, though, and now I have a very clear list of styles to look for on the rack. Better than that, I have a good idea of how to evaluate items that don't fall in those specific categories. The last really valuable piece of advice from the book is to judge each item as you consider purchasing it and know EXACTLY how it will fit into your wardrobe. (Also to take a measuring tape with you when you shop for jeans so that you can measure the inseam and thigh width, etc, and sort through the vanity sizing so you don't waste your time in the fitting room.)

At the same time that I've been reading the Pocket Stylist, I've also seen some things in blogland that have made me consider how this advice relates to sewing your own clothes. Amy a la Mode (fellow Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild member) wrote about a shirt that she made using Simplicity 3825:

Now, when I looked at this pattern I thought, “That doesn’t look like something I would wear.” But I kept reminding myself that everyone loves this pattern, and it was only $1.99 on sale, so I bought it... I think I should remind myself of my own rules, about not sewing something that you wouldn’t buy off the rack. I knew I would never pick this up in a store, and yet I tried to make it anyhow.

And from my new blog crush Selfish Seamstress (regarding a super cute cream dress that she has never worn):

That cream dress is just wrong for everything. Too fancy for work, too white for wedding guest garb, and for any occasion in between I’d just sooner go for something in my closet that is more chic and less garden party.

Sometimes I've been known to get the hint when it's smashed in my face enough times - and I'm happy to say that I've put this one together. If the pattern doesn't flatter my body shape, it's never going to look good. If the fabric and pattern don't work together to make something that I will actually wear, it's not good. The four handmade skirts hanging in my closet are failures because I never wear them, and I'm not going to start. They don't fit my lifestyle. So here's my new rule: Before I commit my hours of labor to sewing something, I will envision the completed garment with my fabric and pattern and figure out where I'm going to wear it. I will not assume that once I have sewn myself a new party dress, I will start going to parties. I will consider that the sleeveless top I am making is only going to be wearable 2/7 days because it's not appropriate for work. I will do this because I enjoy making things, not wasting my time.

Ok, if you've made it with me this far, you probably have got the picture, but this is really important, so let's do a little quiz to check your understanding. Which of these is an acceptable reason to sew a new garment?

a) Omg, that dress is so gorgeous, I must have it!
b) That model looks so elegant when she wears that. I should make one for myself.
c) That dress looks like it would really flatter my waist. I think I can shorten it to a shirt that would be appropriate for work.
d) That sun dress would be so perfect! I can see myself walking to the farmer's market in that next week.

(hint: The farmer's market is a mile from my house and there is no way that I'm walking there in anything but sneakers.)

If you selected option c, congratulations! You have graduated to a new level of sewing expertise where you will not make any sewing mistakes because you know exactly what you are doing. If you did not select option c, you probably cannot be helped.

Sewing crush...

2010-05-11T15:56:00.000-07:00

Today I came across a new-to-me blog The Selfish Seamstress. Entranced after seeing a few of her creations, I proceeded to read her entire blog history. She makes gorgeous home-sewn garments, mostly dresses and shirts, and I find her both highly inspirational and hilarious - I particularly enjoyed her nemesis posts. I'm in deep envy of her clearly articulated bloggy voice - I feel like my own blog tends toward overly formal (and boring) descriptions of projects. Oh, and also has about one post for each 6 of hers...

Thanks to her impecible taste:

Excellent eye for drafting and improving patterns:

And the attractive and interesting photos that actually show you what the finished product looks like:

I now have a new blog to follow and a huuuuge list of clothes to sew. Not that I'm going to make all of those dresses - I hardly ever wear dresses - but my crazed brain thinks that they can all be transformed into magnificent tops. Using my nearly non-existent experience sewing clothing. And no patterns. It's gonna be awesome.

This post isn't about sewing and doesn't have any pictures.

2010-04-28T11:32:00.000-07:00

Are you ok? I mean... you can stop reading if you need to. Just wanted to warn everybody... I think the post is still worthwhile.

What the post IS about is the amazing game that I invented. The Game. Seriously, it's awesome. And I'm going to share it with ya'll for free.

So here's how it goes:
You take turns saying extremely boring things to each other.
You lose the round if you repeat something you previously said, if you accidentally say something interesting, or if you laugh at what the other person said. The loser gets to start the next round. You feeling this? For example, a typical round might run something like:

Player 1: Yesterday morning I made my bed, but this morning I didn't.

Player 2: I have a pen at my desk and it has a lid on it

Player 1: Every day when I get to work, I pick up my badge and clip it onto the front of my jacket. The badge has my face on it."

Player 1: I just lost.
Player 2: Awesome. I rock at this game. Your turn.

A couple of other zingers that I've dished out (or been dished) include:

"Today I brought lunch to work in a small tupperware. Around noon I took the tupperware down to the kitchen and put it in the microwave. When I first took it out, it wasn't hot, so I stirred it and microwaved it some more.

"This morning I made myself tea by taking a bag out of its package and putting it in a cup, and adding hot water"

"I walked back to work after lunch, but upon arriving at the building, I found that the door was locked. I took out my key, put it in the lock and turned, and then opened the door and went in."

I've only done this with two players at a time, but it could be extended to multiple players. It's mostly an internet/chat/text type of game - I don't know what happens if you try to play it in person. Probably you lose more often. But I mean that's the best part, right? If you win, man, you WON! And that's awesome. If you lose, it's because you accidentally had fun. Who can be sad about that?

If you don't "get" the game... well, I can't explain why it's funny. Not everybody's kind of humor, I guess. But it sure makes me happy.

Kona Color Cards

2010-04-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

are back in stock today at Pink Chalk Fabrics! I've been waiting to order the color card and the Emmeline Apron at the same time and the day has finally arrived!

Patience, my pretties. I will see you soon.

Upholstery Quilt

2010-04-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

This quilt was almost a disaster. I arranged the upholstery pieces over and over again, taking out pieces and putting pieces in and trying to make it into something that I liked. I mean... I love the fabrics, but when I put them all together, I would look at it and think "Mess. Mess, mess, mess."

I tried taking out the brighter colors:

I tried putting in more colors:

I even took everything to the Modern Quilt Guild meeting in the Bay Area and asked for advice. The lovely ladies there suggested that I sash the blocks in a darkish color, maybe matching the blue solid. I ended up finding a lovely dark green to use, but... it just didn't solve the problem. It was still just a big mass of activity to my eyes.

I spent the afternoon last Saturday rearranging pieces again, repeatedly calling my s.o. in from the other room to find out "Do you like it? Do you like it more or less than the previous version?" He was very patient with me (although not particularly helpful... after the third arrangement with different pieces removed each time, it turned out that his judgments were based on how evenly spaced the pieces were, not on the colors that were present).

Finally came the moment when my brain snapped into action - the problem wasn't which pieces I added or removed. The problem was that I just assumed that because I hadn't picked out and cut the fabrics myself, because they were random patterns, random sizes, and random shapes, I had no choice but do to a ~random~ layout. I just assumed that I couldn't impose a speck of order. I did one more adjusted layout and it was finished. Perfect. Bye-bye fabric vomit splatter, hello beautiful quilt. I sewed up most of the top that afternoon and added in the sashing last night:

I made a pattern!

2010-04-06T11:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, I am amazing. I wanted to make something that looked like this piece of beauty from Alabama Chanin's Denim Look Book:

(Can you tell I'm really obsessed with Alabama Chanin lately? I've spent hours pouring over her website and books.) I wanted to make a shirt like that, with the many vertical seams, but she hasn't released a pattern for that dress. Soooo... I decided to draft my own (shirt version, that is...)

I started by putting on the corset top that I made earlier, then using tape to mark where I wanted the lines to be on my new shirt. Then I took off the shirt and cut paper pieces using the marked shirt as a guide. I sewed a muslin from that and used that as a starting point to draft changes. 5 muslins later, I was ready to make the shirt. FYI - while the line-marking part of this worked really well, I should have used a NON-stretch shirt that fit perfectly. I had to do quite a few extra iterations because the starting point was a stretchy shirt, which hid imperfections with the fit (and also resulted in my first muslin being ENORMOUSLY over-tight).

The material for the shirt is from a thrifted pair of men's jeans (which looked a lot like a new pair that my s.o. just bought... he saw me on the couch with the pants and the scissors and started to fuss.) I hemmed most of the shirt by just folding the edge under and topstitching, and then put a bit of maroon bias tape to cover the raw edge at the neckline.

I love the shirt, and I'll definitely make it again. (Doesn't the back look great?) Next time, I'll try a stretch material and tighten things up to get rid of some of the funny spots and make it really come in under the bust. Plus, I really need to figure out how to emphasize the seams more. I want them to really be a strong feature and you can barely see them in the pictures.

(Oh and P.S. that is the WIP skirt that I finished up with a bit of hand sewing. The other WIP skirt - I took out the gores and replaced them with green, found that it was not significantly improved, and took no small amount of satisfaction in placing it neatly in the kitchen trash can.)

Pattern Challenge update

2010-04-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

Soooo an update on the pattern challenge -

I looked into the WIP skirts that mentioned and oh man oh man:

This one was supposed to be a swirly style skirt with gores - I decided to make the skirt green and the gores yellow and the effect is very "circus tent." Plus the way it falls is totally wrong. Honestly I should have just tossed it a long time ago, but I had this idea that I was going to take out the gores and replace them with green. Or take out the skirt and replace it with yellow. I'm so crazy sometimes. It's a shame that it looks so bad... I did a beautiful job putting in the zip.

The other one I had one that was a pencilish fitted wrap skirt; I put that aside because it turned out a little bit big for me and it was all lined and everything, so I didn't want to take it apart. Well, lucky lucky me, a year of sitting in the sewing drawer took care of that little problem (and no, the shirt didn't shrink, sadly) so it fits fine and just needed finishing touches. I hand sewed on some frogs and a snap and it was all done... picture to follow when we get some sunshine.

I also remembered some shirts that need fixing, so I've added that to the list. Pluuuuus I saw this:

Ceylon dress from Colette Patterns, sewn by Tessuti

I couldn't resist it. It's been added to the list even though it looks like it will be pretty hard. It's just so lovely.

Blue and White

2010-03-22T21:53:00.000-07:00

I've been piecing...

And quilting...

And generally enjoying myself on a quick little project.