Sewer-Sewist

Remember!

2008-04-18T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! Just a quick reminder that we're now blogging over at Sewer-Sewist.com, our own domain. Check it out!

Movin' On

2007-12-31T21:07:00.000-08:00

We're now posting over on our own domain at www.sewer-sewist.com. Please redirect your bookmarks and RSS feeds. All of the posts and comments here are over at the archives on the new site.

Thanks for a great run here at our blogger site---we hope you enjoy the new one too! Trust us, the new one's way nicer!

~Sarah & Josh

Happy Holidays

2007-12-24T23:43:00.000-08:00

Wishing each of you very happy holidays!

Out of commission

2007-12-12T09:48:00.000-08:00

Our computer is having some issues, so until that's fixed, you won't hear much from us. We've got lots and lots to post once we've got this issue resolved, though!

Hard to give away...

2007-12-02T11:21:00.000-08:00

from sarah the sewist

As we've mentioned a time or two, we're continuing to work on holiday gifts for everyone, and we're finally starting to feel like we're making some progress. I just finished the gift for Josh's stepmother. It's the Amy Butler Downtown Purse. This pattern came in the mail yesterday---thank you Lisa Lam over at the wonderful site U-Handblog. I had won her monthly bag contest awhile back (for the Amy Butler Messanger Bag I made for my mom's birthday), and had my heart set on the Amy Butler Downtown Purse pattern as my prize... Unfortunately, this particular pattern was out of stock, so I had to wait. This pattern arrive was pretty fortuitous!

I am particularly happy that we didn't need to run out the "storm of the century that didn't actually happen" (the weather folks here in PDX had everyone on high alert this weekend, claiming snow and wind) to get supplies for this one either (sort of my MO---get started, realize I don't' have a critical piece for my project, have to run to the sewing shop, etc, etc).

A couple of weeks ago we bought a yard or so of some absolutely beautiful cotton from Windham Fabrics "American Coverlet Collection." You can read about the design concept for this line here, and visit the American Coverlet Museum's site to learn about their work preserving coverlets. What an exciting effort they're undertaking trying to preserve this unique American art form! Anyway, as you can see, this is gorgeous stuff.

Of course, me being me, I did make some changes. I'm continuing my infatuation with fusible fleece. The stuff just has so many uses... Since we didn't have a lot of Timtex, I backed the sides of this bag with two layers of fusible fleece, which created a pretty thick, very sturdy structure for Downtown Purse. I also used the fusible fleece for interfacing the strap, which I think makes it a bit more comfortable to carry---I had done this when I made my friend her Frenchy Bag, and she seemed to like that particular feature.

Also, I truly hate the removable false bottom that a lot of bags have. After making a zillion of the Amy Butler High Street Messenger Bags and never finding the stupid quilters template that you're supposed to use to make the false bottom, I now avoid that phase of bag making as much as possible. My latest creative brainstorm was to use two layers of Timtex to make up the bottom of the bag. (I know, I'm living on the edge... two layers of Timtex---the stuff is a tremendous pain in the butt to sew as a single layer, let along two.) It worked out just fine and seems to have created the needed stability at the bottom of the bag.

I really got a bit obsessive about matching the patterns on this one... Like, I think pretty much everything matches up. Which is weird, because I usually try to be kind of serene about that sort of thing. I mean, there only so much you can do to make sure your fabric pattern lines up, right?

Can you tell that I really, really don't want to give this one away? I really am proud of this one. I think I'll make a very similar one for myself sometime soon.

On The Newsstand...

2007-11-30T23:09:00.000-08:00

The first in an occasional series of posts on stuff we find interesting.

What can we say, we still love a good magazine or newspaper. In a “paperless” world, there is still nothing like getting a magazine through the mail slot. A bath isn’t complete without bubbles and some light (or not so light) reading. Here are few things that we came across this month.

Having trouble finding jeans that fit? Virginia Postrel has an article in December’s Atlantic about changing ready-to-wear sizes, technology and $900 jeans for sale in England. There is an interesting data about how different in shape we all really are and how “in a tough apparel market ‘better fit’ has become the latest competitive weapon.” Truncated version available here. Guess we sewers/sewists have an edge here in the whole effort behind "better fit."

Surprise, surprise Amy Butler lives in an incredibly cool looking house. You can see it in the November / December issue of Martha Stewart’s Blueprint. We found that this magazine is kind of uninspiring but worth looking through in the check-out line or browsing at the store (if only we could organizer our life ala the “tipometer”). The Sewer’s favorite part is the “winter themed” pics that were obviously taken in the summer heat. Big props to Amy Butler and husband for featuring their Arbor Snowboard, we are big fans of Arbor’s long boards and nice to see them in an unexpected spot.

From USA Today, always double stitch the crotch of your pants!

Rip City Raglan

2007-11-24T20:24:00.000-08:00

This post has moved to our new blog. The direct link to this post is here.

from sarah the sewist

People who know me, usually know at least this one thing about me---I am a tried and true, dyed-in-the-wool, unwavering Portland Trail Blazers basketball fan. It's a bit embarrassing, because I think that I'm a fairly interesting person with a variety of things that I do and am interested in, but I have actually had someone (my boss, which makes it even worse) introduce me to someone else like this, "I'd like to introduce you to Sarah. She's a huge Trail Blazers fan." No, this didn't make sense in the context of the conversation. So anyway, I've always been a Blazers fan, always will be.

Anyway, Blazers season started this month, and we've gone to three games so far. I have some pretty cute Blazers T-shirts, but I've noticed one tremendous problem: the terraced style of the seats combined with the seats' odd, woven upholstery has a tendency to grab onto whatever you're wearing and pull it upward, my jeans will then of course, slide downward. Not a pretty sight for those unfortunate folks who are seated behind me. Since I have a tendency to leap out of my seat (poor Josh, he's such a good sport about my Blazermania [that's what it's called here]), this is a situation that desperately needed addressing.

Josh found this fabric to the left at Fabric Depot on Friday (we desperately needed some Stitch Witchery and braved the post-Thanksgiving crowds) and snagged a couple of yards for me (fabric and the Trail Blazers---in my world that's perfection, true perfection). A few weeks ago, when we were at Portland's new IKEA store, I picked up some vibrant red cotton to use to make muslins of some Butterick dress patterns I'd purchased recently.

The two had to meet. It was fate.

I whipped up (pretty much literally, this pattern takes basically zero effort) another Built by Wendy/Simplicity 3835 dress/tunic---this time in the shorter mini-dress/tunic length to wear over jeans. But long enough to sufficiently cover my butt when I leap out of my seat. I didn't make the collar with this one, instead opting for the elasticized neckline in the alternate view (although I kept the back darts for shaping). I also eliminated the zipper, since I don't used the zips much in two other versions that I've made of this dress---the modified neckline is large enough to just pull over my head.

However, I wasn't done...

I cut out one of the Trail Blazers emblems out of the fabric, backed it with some fusible fleece, and stitched it around with a narrow zig-zag in black. This went onto the bottom left hand of the tunic, like the tags on the players' jerseys. (Yes, I know I'm a lunatic...please don't hold it against me!)

Finally, my last bit of embellishment was the addition of small number 7s in black (Blazer colors are red and black) on each arm. Why the 7s? Well, 7 is a very important number for the Trail Blazers. They won their first and only championship in 1977 (a couple of months before I was born---my mom has a complicated theory about how this influenced my becoming a Blazer fan). In 2007, they only had a 5% chance of hitting the #1 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, and they won, resulting in the drafting of Greg Oden (center from Ohio State---Josh, being an Ohioan, was thrilled, as was I). 2007 was also the year that Brandon Roy won Rookie of the Year, which was pretty exciting. Oh, and 7 is also the number that Brandon wears, and he's probably my favorite player at the moment. Plus that whole lucky number seven thing. (When I made this yesterday for that evening's game, the Blazers were on a five-game losing streak, so a little luck is probably not the worst thing.)

So, after making this yesterday, I wore it to the game against the Kings. It was an awesome game---and the Blazers broke their losing streak (although it was pretty exciting, and was really close). The length of the shirt did the trick, too.

So, I guess this shirt's record is 1-0.

(In case you don't recognize the location in this picture, that's me at the Rose Garden before the game.)

A Sewer-Sewist Holiday Gift Guide, Part 2

2007-11-20T20:33:00.000-08:00

Part 2 of our Holiday Gift Guide...

Miami Valley Pottery. This next one is a little tricky. Josh grew up with a guy named Nays (pronounced nace) who now runs a small pottery business near Dayton, Ohio. The thing is his website seems to be down and it is hard to get a look at the wonderful work that he does. Nonetheless, we strongly support his desire to bring hand made and wood fired pottery to people at production pottery prices. You can see we used one of his lovely pieces used to model the “Call of the Wild Hat” hat. You can read all about his shop here and get more information here . The pottery that the faux shearling Burda hat we made recently is photographed on is one of Nays’ originals.

St. Josef's Winery. Neither the Sewer no the Sewist are experts on wine (or oenologist if you prefer), the Josh can tell you with all certainty that Turkish wine doesn’t taste particularly great, but will lead to pretty big drunkenness and a massive hangover. Sarah has much more refined taste and loves Reisling and whatever. We can both agree that St. Josef’s wine from Canby, Oregon is pretty great. Our love for their wine is more than taste; their vineyard sits right behind the home of the Sewist-in-law and the place the Sarah grew up. She can remember going to the Fleischmann’s bakery in Canby as a kid and both of us have enjoyed walking over to the tasting room when visiting the Sewist-in-law. Besides the nostalgia and the pleasantness of their vineyard, the wine is damn fine. Sarah prefers their Reisling and Pinot Gris while Josh likes the L’Esprit (Gewurztraminer) and Syrah. We are both looking forward to tasting their late harvest Pinot Gris desert wine. If you are out Canby way or are looking for a place to visit on the weekend definitely stop by or contact them to order.

Cello by Jan Vogler. Again, we are not experts on classical music (and the things the we are “experts” on, Race and Ethnicity in George Pelecanos’ D.C. Quartet, Beatrice Grimshaw and late 19th century feminism, building public support of bond and levy issues for municipalities are not necessarily the most exciting things to read about) but we both like the music of Jan (pronounced “yawn” but that’s the only thing that’s yawn-inducing) Vogler. The Sewer in the past had a contract to do marketing work with a classical music organization in Santa Fe and worked with Jan and his agent on promoting his appearance. Jan, in addition to being a great cellist, is a hell of a nice guy. Despite his working with a great big music conglomerate, we wanted to include his music in our list; musicians, even when successful, are always working to get heard. We would recommend his album of American composers Barber - Korngold – Bürger. (Just as an aside we are also fans of Portland hip-hop group Lifesavas new album Gutterfly in the car if you want to go in a completely different direction.)

Poppi Swimwear. Just the most rockin’, retro-fabulous, gorgeous swimwear anywhere. Sorry, guys, they only make swimwear for the gals. Poppi is owned by Portlander Pam Levenson, who is a great designer and very nice person. Her swimsuits are beautiful---the way swimwear used to look, and it’s actually flattering. For our Australian readers (you know who you are) who are enjoying summer right now---yes, we’re jealous---she has reasonable shipping to Down Under. Sarah really likes the Skirted Boy Short (who knew a skirted swimsuit could be so cool) combined with any of the Retro Tankini Tops---especially the Wendy top. It’s just so refreshing to see swimwear that’s attractive, flattering and fun.

Powell’s Books. Okay, we know there’s Amazon, but before Amazon was even a twinkle in Jeff Bezos’ eye, there was Mike Powell and Powell’s Books, a regular bricks and mortar store that always seemed to have it all (before Amazon had everything you could ever want book-wise). A gift certificate to this wonderful “City of Books” can be used in person or in their vast online store. The book lover in your life can load up on used sewing books (they’ve got some good ones, too, like the old editions of Readers Digest Guide to Sewing) like they won’t believe. Give it a whirl…

Happy Birthday, Sewer!

2007-11-19T06:42:00.000-08:00

from sarah the sewist

Happy birthday to Josh! (We won't mention that your birthday present is still a work in progress.)

Unzipped

2007-11-18T15:49:00.000-08:00

from sarah the sewist

Sometimes things go wrong and you just want to give up. Generally, in sewing, given that it's not really a life and death sort of thing, that's the path I choose. In fact, I have been known to give my husband a pep talk or two about how it's okay to just stop a project that is just not working. He is yet to take my advice, but he hasn't been sewing that long.

When I got my August issue of Burda World of Fashion, I was excited about the nice-looking pair of jeans in this issue. Unlike a lot of BWOF stuff, there was no weirdness to these jeans (not that there's anything wrong with weirdness)---they were just a normal pair of pants. Around that same time my mom (who taught me everything I know about sewing) bought me three yards of amazing charcoal and black herringbone corduroy. (I have a long-time love of all fabrics that are textural like this---herringbone, houndstooth and plain old tweed all make me very happy.) This fabric and the Burda WOF pattern were destined to be together.

These pants came together very well, which I have come to expect out of the Burda magazine patterns. (I actually think that their World of fashion patterns have better drafting than their envelope patterns---although that could also be because I get the chance to "get to know" the pattern better in the magazine because of the tracing and seam allowance addition.) They looked great. I especially liked the way that the pockets turned out. I even recreated the waistband, since this was one of their "plus" patterns and the waistband was waaaaay larger than I needed, and made it wider and contoured. I thought I was pretty awesome. Oh, and I did all of this in the span of a single evening.

Then I got strep throat. (Yes, strep throat at 30---fun stuff.) So I didn't hem them for about two weeks after they were basically done.

Last weekend I pulled them off of their resting place on top of our Gumdrop Ottomen in our living room and hemmed them up. I tried them on and they fit great. Really great. They were slimmer fit than I had expected, but I've noticed that's a trend with BWOF, so it wasn't that surprising. But I did think that the zipper seemed a bit sticky. Not thinking anything of it, I wore the jeans around the house. Then I heard it...pop, pop, pop. Oh, yes, I had managed to install a defective zipper in my pants. The teeth, it turns out were completely warped, bent like they'd been stepped on and twisted. While only two or three coils actually popped completely out of the zipper, most of the other were not long for this world. So, I did what any sane person would do... I screamed a lot of stuff that would not be appropriate to repeat in this blog. Then I ripped the whole stupid zipper out, not thinking, of course that I had no idea how on Earth to re-install a zipper.

Anyway, I won't go into the details of my drama with trying to put the new zipper in the pants, but let's just say it took pretty much an entire week to figure out. And---the horror!---it involved me hand sewing. Which is pretty scaring. I got the stupid thing in the jeans and functional, but it's really not that pretty, to be honest.

But, the jeans do look pretty good...

Anyway, this is a great pattern, and I'll probably use it again. I'm pretty proud of myself for not being a quitter with this one, although it was my instinct. I did learn two things through this whole mess, though:

Always check your zipper coils before you use the zipper.
Through my searching for a solution to this problem, I discovered that there are professionals (tailors) who will fixed broken zippers for you. Next time (I really hope there's not a next time), I'll go that route.

A Sewer-Sewist Holiday Gift Guide, Part 1

2007-11-13T19:45:00.000-08:00

Despite the continued pressures of “buying stuff” we love the holiday season and love giving gifts (and the Sewer loves to get them---lots of childhood issues, that one). In the spirit of the season, we decided to put together a gift guide to handmade or unique gifts. Some of these are Portland-centric, but they’re certainly a great excuse to visit our fabulous city (aside from the lack of a sales tax and not pumping your own gas)---some of these may seem odd for a sewing blog, but we believe in supporting the unique and creative whenever possible. Besides, we know that (amazing as it may be) not everyone shares the sewing bug.

We’re trying to make most of our gifts, but, undoubtedly, some will come from this list once our sewing energy wears out. The following represent our favorite individuals, small companies or large companies with a unique approach to their business.

Bolt. Obviously we love Bolt here in Portland's Alberta Arts District/awesome Concordia neighborhood. You guys have heard us sing the praises of this wonderful little fabric shop a time or two, and we're lucky enough to have this shop right here within walking distance of our house. What better gift for your favorite Portland-based sewer or sewist (or even a quilter) than a gift certificate to this lovely shop? If you want something more personal than a gift certificate, how about a couple of yards of fabric from her selection of interesting wool blends or silk, or some funky sweater knits, or maybe even an interesting embroidery pattern for someone looking to learn a different type of stitching. Sadly for those of you outside of the Portland area, Bolt is a bricks and mortar operation. (While you're at it, check out some of Alberta Streets other interesting, independently-owned shops---you'll be sure to find something unique, handmade and thoughtful.)

Ebbets Field Flannels. Sometimes you just want to buy something that you could probably replicate. As you can tell the Sewer loves (loves) vintage athletic wear. Mitchell and Ness (now owned by Reebok, which is owned by Adidas) is probably the name that is most associated with the “throwback” look, but if you are looking for old baseball stuff Ebbets Field Flannels is the place to go. Located in sunny (har!) Seattle, their flannels are made in the U.S. and Canada of original fabric, construction and craftsmanship. After a brief merger with Stall and Dean, when the Sewer felt the quality was not as high, the original owners are back. The Sewer has a jacket and his eyes on a ton of flannels. Two favorites are the classic Josh Gibson (the Sewer’s namesake, by the way) Homestead Grays Flannel and this 1953 Estrellas Orientales Road Jersey. They can also custom-make a jersey of your choice. Their stuff isn't cheap, but that's sort of the idea---it's not cheap, it's made authentically, and we don't see quality like this much anymore. By the way, the Sewer’s father has always enjoyed great customer service, especially by phone.

Arbor Longboards. When the Sewer was a kid he had skateboard and rode all around the little town in Ohio in which he grew up. Josh was also terrible at: tricks, jumps and cool stuff. Now that he is feeling old and wants to skate again, he is riding a longboard, which allows him the free feeling of skateboarding without the pressure to do anything but go forward. The Sewist is starting to pick up this habit and has been riding an Arbor Longboard (the 36” Bamboo Bug to be exact, a great size for Sarah). The Sewer has been looking on in great jealously and plans to upgrade to an Arbor soon. Why do we like Arbor? Well, their longboards and snowboards are incredibly beautiful to start. They use environmentally friendly woods like sustainable Koa and maple wood, bamboo and non-toxic glue in their boards. Did we mention that they are beautiful? To order we suggest Daddies Board Shop here in Portland (in person or by their extensive website), they have always been great to deal with, can answer any questions you might have and are strong supporters of the skate community in PDX.

Uniwatch. Do you or significant other love a specific sports team or care about one at an unhealthy level (The Sewer slowly raises his eyes to the Sewist, who is dressed in red and black for her beloved Blazers as their game against Detroit is broadcast through our radio). One of the most unique gift ideas we have seen is a membership to Uniwatch. A great website to track sports uniforms and a great access to insider information on uniform design, construction and materials (believe it or not the Sewer has figured out construction techniques while reading an entry). This lively community not only features your “ra-ra” sports fan but also includes professional and college equipment managers, designers (not just sports), sporting good manufacturers, and jersey customizers. If you love Purple or Nike this is not the place for you. If you love socks you will like it here. The website is free of course, but one of the advantages of membership is a custom member card that features your name and number on the “jersey” of your choice. You can choose the back of your favorite teams jersey from your favorite year and color, even the 1977 Blazers.

The Button Emporium. Buttons, who doesn’t love ‘em and who doesn’t need them. The place we go when we need something unique or specific is the Button Emporium and Ribbonry here in Portland. They have a metric ton of buttons (we didn’t actually measure, but it is impressive). We have found them to be incredibly helpful and have picked up tips on buttons and sewage hookups. Really this place is small town America (and all of its wonderfulness) in the middle of Portland. If you need to close something, this is the place to go. The do have online ordering, but it's worth a visit if you're here in Stumptown.

Well, that's the first five. Hopefully, you'll find this useful for the oddball in your life. We'll post five more in a couple of days.

Another one down...

2007-11-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

We're plugging away with our Christmas gift making, and finished this up recently---an Amy Butler Swing Bag for Josh's mom. It's in one of Amy's fabrics, two different ones from the gray and yellow theme from the "Belle" line. A lot of people have made this bag, and we can certainly see why. It comes together quickly and looks really sharp. It could use some pockets, but then it wouldn't be as simple to make reversible---not that that's a critical feature of the bag, but it's a nice novelty. We think she'll enjoy this one.

There's been a lot written about this pattern, and people have done beautiful interpretations of it, so we'll not bore you with what a great pattern this is. But, we would definitely recommend this if you're working on handmade holiday gifts, as it doesn't take a ton of fabric (so you can splurge on something nice) and is so, so, so fast to make.

P.S. We're working on some changes to this blog, so our links to our blogger friends have disappeared for some reason... The links will be back once we finish with the upgrades, we promise.

Call of the Wild Hat

2007-11-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

We've mentioned before that we're trying to make most---if not all---of our Christmas gifts for family and friends this year. We've coined it the "Great Making Everyone's Christmas Gifts Odyssey." It's just so much less expensive and seems more thoughtful. Plus, it's a great excuse for Josh to get more practice sewing and build his skills on items that you don't have to fit.

Josh's grandfather is a pretty cool dude. He's really hip (probably a better dresser than either of us on any given day), his hair always looks perfect and he's funny as all hell. Recently, Josh's mom got his grandfather a Kawasaki Mule, which a tractor-like thing that he has been using to drive up into the his above his house in Appalachia. It's been great for him because he can't get around as well as he used to (he had a pick-up truck land on top of him once). Anyway, we decided that he really needed some appropriate accessories to go along with the Mule.

Josh picked up some tough-looking snowboarding goggles at Costco that he thought would be helpful when his grandpa is out in the hills on the Mule, because it doesn't have a windshield. But, really, you can't wear goggles like that without some head-wear to balance out the whole look.

Behold Burda 7996.

Yes, indeedy. Who knew that you could make your own hats? (Well, probably most of you knew that, but we'd sure never thought about it before. Although, in fairness, Josh does have a mild hat obsession, so it was bound to happen sooner or later.)

So, we whipped up this one last night in the same faux shearling fabric that Sarah's using to make Josh's birthday coat.

It was super easy to sew, and came together in about an hour. This was a really fun project and not hard to sew at all. The tip Burda provided about picking the hairs that are stuck down by the sticking out with a pin worked great and resulted in a fairly professional look (as professional as something like this can look). It was surprising how cooperative the faux shearling was, although we'll be pulling fluff out of part of our sewing machine for quite awhile.

Needless to say, it's the perfect gift for Josh's grandpa.

Oh, and the dog tried it on for size. (It had been awhile since she'd made an appearance here. The dorky thing is, we'd put the hat on her, even if there wasn't a camera or blog involved. That's just the way it is in our house.)

It was sure nice to do a joint project again, too. They're just so much more fun.

I surf, so you don't have to...

2007-11-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

I’ve been meaning to post some links for awhile, basically random sewing-related items that I’ve bookmarked and found interesting for whatever reason. I hope you do to.

Pantone’s recent color report. The definitive analysis of color for fashion fashion. I sure like the Chili Pepper Red and the the beautiful, elegant Dusk. The Lemon Curry should be illegal. Warning: You'll need to view it in Preview or Acrobat.

The difference between High Fashion and ready to wear from a recent Wall Street Journal "Style" report.

Wardrobe planning---not that I actually practice this, but I do like to think about it.

Color trends through 2009. This has been really helpful for me in thinking about choosing colors that will be current for awhile.

Fashion trends (Including menswear!) for the next couple of seasons. Three trends really interest me: Rockabilly for men (this probably is due to my love of the Bakersfield Sound and the like), British textures (gotta love tweeds!) and women's sporty chic becoming even more popular, with significant influences from the world of surfing/skateboarding (so you can embrace your inner poser---I sure do).

For that matter, check out theentire Fashion Trendsetter site, I keep going back to it, absolutely engrossed.

I’d never heard of this technique for creating gathers, but it’s sheer genius.

Sew,Mama,Sew! Handmade Holidays: 30 Days of Gifts to Sew. If you're more ambitious than I, you can make a holiday gift each day of November.

In that same vain, the Handmade Holiday Pledge.

Velvet(een) Rabbit (nope), Elvis (no), PANTS!

2007-11-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

Yes indeed, I have made some velveteen jeans. I am pretty damn excited about them (can you tell?), but will have to wait until the winter air blows through these here parts. As you can imagine they are a little bit on the warm side. A while back the Sewist and I were at Bolt buying something or other when under the main counter a shelf of 50% off pinstripe velveteen called to me. After spending a couple of days thinking about what kind of pants I wanted to make, we decided that jeans would be really cool. I choose this Kwik Sew 3504 pattern (really there aren’t a ton of choices, but I am taking a Burda break while I slog though the jacket).

Why velvet pants? When the Sewist and I were in graduate school in Ireland (yes sometimes it is important that you travel great distances to acquire knowledge that will be of little use to you in the future, oh, and I will avoid student loan whining, it is so passé) I used to walk by a shop everyday in the way to class that featured a Blue Velvet suit in the window. I was absolutely taken by these garments. There were two problems: the first was that I was a little bit broke at the time and the second was that there was nowhere that I would actually wear a velvet suit to. There were poshy bars that this suit would not have looked out of place in, but I would have. I was more of beer drinking good time guy (yes I was much thinner before I left for Dublin, still regretting too many beers).

I think I should step back and let you know more about the magnificence of the velvet suit. It rains a lot in Dublin and I know you have heard that all before. It rains in Portland, but nothing like it does on the Emerald Isle. When we were living in Dublin (1999-2000) they were in the midst of some serious economic expansion and to go hand in hand with that a housing shortage, especially for rentals. We took the first flat that we could find and afford, which was actually really nice in a brand new apartment block right near the Guinness Brewery (cool!), a really shitty part of town at the time (not cool!). Oh the things we saw, smelled and felt. Really kind of a depressing place to be. Plus, it turns out that the outside windows were installed backwards so they trapped moisture instead of letting it out; leading to a mushroom bloom under our “dresser” (cardboard, high quality). After walking along the River to get near downtown (before they banned commercial trucks) and cutting through the city building I passed Cuan Hanley’s Shop (thanks to the Sewist, for remembering this, I only recalled that he married the gal from Riverdance). This Blue Velvet suit was like some sort giant rhinestone on the gray wool that was Dublin (gotta love fabric metaphors). Seriously I loved thing, I still regret that I didn’t get it or even take a picture of it. It was just so cool to see something so incredibly bad assed and so (be prepared I am using this as word and not a prefix) ANTI to the smoggy rainyness.

As an aside, Dublin was really cool at the time featuring some great art, design, fashion and drunk soccer commentators; really we are missing something here in the US---a tumbler of whiskey should be a REQUIREMENT for all pre and post game tv shows. I am sure that some day the Sewist can put together a post how interesting the fashion was at this time. Since I am so far afield at the moment I have got to say that the Sewist was knitting some cool stuff at the time, third wave feminism and all (you weren’t alone Stitch n’ Bitch!) We have a really close friend, a photographer who at one time studied fashion in Manchester. She designed lingerie out of things like bicycle tire inner-tubes or the like (not sure exactly). She left fashion school, which is a shame because she was really far ahead of the curb; I believe that she would have dominated all of the recycled clothing fashion shows and competitions. Seriously, she too is bad-ass and a great photographer.

The idea of a velvet suit has stuck with me for quite some time; I remember that Samuel L. Jackson wore a maroon one to something or other (very impressed, but not enough to remember the occasion). Every morning, I drink out of my Elvis mug. Which features the King wearing some kick ass pinstriped pants, but also a really strange shirt and large belt, neither of which I would want to replicate. These pants are an homage to the velvet suit and my King mug. Could I see the King wearing these pants, hells yeah! Which again elevates them in my eyes, now I should mention that I believe the King would have to wear them while touring Alaska, Norway or Bemidji, Minnesota; and he would have to be alive (no conspiracy for me, anyone who mixed that much peanut butter with that many barbiturates is certainly dead).

Since this is a sewing blog and not me being boring at a party, I should talk about the pants coming together. The velveteen was really messy; I am still finding pills of it around the house, lurking in corners away from the Hoover. Sewing across the grain was really difficult and required lots of ironing to make things like the pockets lay flat. The Sewist did a blind hem for me on the legs that I really like. Still haven’t made the carriers yet, the first two attempts have featured me failing; I have got one more attempt in me to get it right.

The Pattern was great, except the waist was a little a long and the back pockets were too big and placed a little too low. I did do my first major pattern alteration (aside from length)---I lowered the rise by about an inch and a half---these are pretty high waisted as is. I did view "B" the boot cut version. The Sewist found the matching fabric in the scrap bag from which I made the pockets. The technique in making the fly was really common sense and the final product looked nicer than any fly that I have done previously. With some rivets we could probably make a more than reasonable facsimile of a ready-to-wear pair of jeans. All in all a very nice pattern and with nice results.

Pretty in Plaid

2007-10-23T19:18:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

We've been pretty lazy with our blogging lately... I guess the annoying combination of our digital camera going a bit wonky and the shift key on the laptop not functioning has taken its toll. Nevertheless, sewing has continued. In addition to the Christmas sewing we've been doing, Josh and I both finished up some clothing projects.

Awhile back I got this Built by Wendy pattern at one of the Despot's $2 Simplicity pattern sales. I thought that the top pattern would be a handy one to have, especially for cheapo summer tops and the like. However, after making a tunic (out of a hot-pink floral remnant---which kind of works, actually) out of the collared dress view, I decided this was a pretty fun, versatile dress pattern. If you remember, I had some back luck with a dress this summer, so I've been gun-shy with the dresses ever since.

Anyway, when I made my first version of this pattern, the neck was incredibly annoying---it came up very high on the neck in a tight crew neck. I hacked away at it until it was tolerable. Which was basically the entire neck band. I also didn't like the gathering around the entire neckline; it created an odd puffiness in the front of the dress that was not that flattering.

I did cut the neckline on the bias and matching bias-cut panels to trim the bottom of the dress. I wanted to trim the sleeves this way, too, but I ran out of fabric. It looks pretty snazzy, nonetheless.

I made an amazing discovery at the fabric shop in my neighborhood---Maywood Woolies flannel. This stuff is pretty amazing. It really and truly looks like wool. It also drapes like wool. But you can wash and dry it. Unlike wool. It also doesn't itch. Unlike wool. Basically it's badass stuff. I am taking a weird delight when people compliment me on the dress in telling them that it's not wool.

I think more of this will be on my shopping list... It also comes in herringbones, houndstooth and tweeds. All of my favorites. Those of you who've been reading for awhile know that it's very bizarre that I made myself a green article of clothing. I've justified it by calling this "olive."

I thought I was terribly creative using a plaid fabric for this dress. Until I sat down to write this blog post and noticed the envelope picture. Oh well.

Nice fall color huh? And the leaves aren't too bad either.

Book Review: The Collection by Gioia Diliberto

2007-10-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

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from sarah the sewist

Taking a brief break from our regular programming here at Sewer-Sewist…

If you're in need of a good read, but don’t want to break away from the sewing completely, take a look at The Collection by Gioia Diliberto. There aren’t a lot of books around that actually feature sewing as a plot device. (In fact, if you can think of any, particularly any that are actually good, let us know, and we'll compile a list.) Not only is sewing central to the plot, it’s truly the catalyst for the story, with the first line in the book being, “Instead of dying, I learned to sew.” You gotta love that.

Anyway, this book tells the story of a seamstress in post-WWI Paris, who has joined the House of Chanel (as in Coco) just as fashion is becoming relevant again. While there are several fascinating subplots involving personal relationships, the outrageousness of Coco Chanel and the energy of Paris at the time, what I was most enthralled with was the story of the creation of a very special dress for “the collection.” This dress is just one of those projects, the ones that never end, if you know what I mean. Isabelle, the main character, even names the dress---Angeline. For whatever reason, probably because I sew myself, I just was rooting for this dress to work out. I won’t say much more about it, because if the saga of the dress, too, fascinates you, I don’t want to spoil it.

I thought this book would simply be a fun read, but it was honestly absolutely captivating. It’s more than the summer beach reading that I thought it would be. Because of the book jacket and some of the overly-embellished reviews, I had a vision that it would be something like Sex in the City post-WWI Chanel style. I was very wrong. This was not a fluffy read at all. Definitely it is a curl up next to the fire on a cold winter night type of novel.

It's also worth mentioning that this book seems to be very historically accurate and well-researched. There's a pretty comprehensive bibliography, that would probably be well worth a look if you're interested in fashion history. I also think that with the holidays coming up this would be a thoughtful gift for someone who loves sewing or fashion.

Check your favorite local bookstore for The Collection, or virtually visit my favorite, Powell’s (this is my frame of reference for what a bookstore should be---we’re so spoiled here in Portland).

Shear(ling) Love

2007-10-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

Josh's birthday is coming up next month, and since he made me such a fabulous gift that I know was a real labor of love, as well as a major pain in the butt, I feel compelled to make something for him that's he's going to love as much as I love my gift. Plus, my husband's just generally awesome, and he deserves something special.

When our latest Burda World of Fashion magazine arrived, Josh was thrilled because it actually contained three men's patterns. He was immediately taken with the snazzy faux shearling fisherman's coat.

(You can check out the line drawing here if you're so inclined.)

I've never made anything out of shearling, faux or otherwise, but I thought this would be a wonderful birthday gift for my sweetie. It's certainly not something that he'd make for himself (even though I believe he'd be perfectly capable, despite his recent spate of self-doubt). And, faux shearling items are still so popular, that they're quite overpriced. I've also never seen anything in the stores, even Nordy's, that has quite these unusual lines and interesting shape. (Working just a few blocks from the downtown PDX Nordstrom can be a bit dangerous---I'm always checking that place out.)

What I didn't know is that faux shearling is really expensive---like $25-30 a yard. That seems a little insane for something that's basically fancy polyester. But I'm sure there's a good reason. Anyway, these prices forced me to do something I never do---brave Fabric Depot on one of the 40% off days. Worse yet, the Saturday of the two 40% off days. Hardier souls can handle this, but I'm just not that tough when it comes to shopping. Anyway, I grabbed my fabric and ran (after paying, of course).

This looks to be almost identical to the fabric in the pattern photo. It's your normal white fleece inside, with the outside of the fabric being a dark brown faux distressed leather. I think it's pretty masculine, unlike the pink-on-pink that was also available.

So, I haven't actually done any work on this pattern. Haven't even traced it out of the magazine. But, I'm thinking about it a lot. I hear the this stuff is a nightmare to sew with, but I'm in denial. It'll all work out just fine. And if I keep telling myself that, it just might be true.

Oh, in case you're wondering... It's (obviously) not a surprise. Kind of hard to hide a sewn gift in our house, since the trusty Kenmore's in the living room.

More Than I Can Chew?

2007-10-03T20:36:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

I think is would have been appropriate to start this post with "Dear Diary" because it is really whiny (or whingy in Ireland), many apologies.

Piles, that is where I am (or "piles and piles of demo tapes by the miles," if you want to quote an obscure lyric or two). I think I thought (sounds clumsy, but it is really the best description) I was ready for Burda Pattern 8135 and my attempt at making throwback sportswear. I am having trouble easing the fabric into the curve to make the contour (the Sewist just articulated this for me). I have a pair of velveteen jeans half done and a flannel shirt half done, and everything feels a long way off from being finished. I grew up cooking and for me after doing the "prep work" I always expect the downhill toward finishing and sewing isn't quite like that. I guess it would make much more sense to make the pockets or carriers or other accoutrement (which should always be said in French) first and finish up with the large seam sewing, but as you know, that doesn't work.

I have hit that point where I know enough to be dangerous, but still spend way to much time (redacted) up. I am ready to be good at this stuff, damn it! I am sure the Sewist is sick of answering the same question again and again, or maybe not. She is really patient (sometimes). Let's ask her what she thinks(take it away my lovely Sewist):

You're doing great. Really. I know you don't believe me. But there's no way I would been able to make a complicated pair of pants, let along had the guts to try a tough Burda jacket, when I was only six months into learning how to sew. Seriously. It's not all sunshine and rainbows, but you're learning and that's a good thing.

If it were raining on the moon...

2007-10-01T20:45:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

And I were an astronaut stuck in that lunar rainstorm, I'd have just the thing to wear.

You may remember a few months ago that Josh and I scored a serious haul of fabric from Rose City Textiles that was rather eclectic. Basically, it was a bunch of random, slightly sporty stuff that was only a buck a yard. Among that was some lovely satin waterproof stuff of unknown fiber content---I can guarantee that there's absolutely nothing natural. Anyway, I got about eight yards each of brown and blue. The brown is super-classy; the blue, not so much.

Anyway, it's started raining like all get out here in PDX, and I only have one raincoat (living in Santa Fe for three years will do that) that I have had since college. It's pretty ugly and has no hood, which kind of defeats the purpose of a raincoat in my book, since I'm a disaster with umbrellas (they always break on me). I keep it at work for rain emergencies, when I have to run across the street for coffee and the rain is just too torrential.

I bought a few of the Built by Wendy Patterns at the Fabric Depot when they were having one of their $2 Simplicity pattern sales. I've used all of them that I bought that day (someday I'll tell y'all about my waaaaay too low rise BBW jeans debacle---use your imagination) except 3694, which is a hoodie/dress pattern. I figured this would a be a quick and easy raincoat---which it really was. Well, beyond the little incident Josh shared with the world today. How mortifying.

I just think the whole thing looks fairly ridiculous, though.

With the floppy, A-line sleeves, I could take flight (maybe that would come in handy on the moon?).

Anyway, the jacket served my purposes, a new raincoat with an actual hood for under $5.

A few "design" notes: I top stitched the fronts of the raincoat, as well as the sleeves, where they attach to the body of the coat. I finished all of the seams with navy bias tape, which does go a long way in making the jacket look more professional, and less goofy. It's a good thing, too, because this fabric ravels, ravels, ravels. I'm hoping that the finishing job helps to keep the whole thing from falling apart. I also used a parka-style separating zipper, which looks fairly snazzy, although it does add to the overall moon rainstorm effect.

(Random weirdness: in this last picture you can see peeking out from under my new lunar raincoat, I'm wearing my Brandon Roy rookie t-shirt. Woo-hoo! Trail Blazer training camp starts this week!)

Oops!

2007-10-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

The dog and I got a kick out of this. The Sewist accidentally mixed up the back piece and one of the arms on her current rain coat project. She did fix it quickly, though I thought it would be much cooler to leave it with the trunk opening. I am sure she will have more to add shortly.

We sewed quite a bit during this rainy and cold weekend. I am working on another pair of pants (this a pair of jeans made out of velveteen, I love Bolt, because I always find the neatest fabric) and a flannel shirt. The Sewist is keeping my head spinning with her multiple projects, which are all coming together at once.

Out of the Trenches

2007-09-26T20:12:00.001-07:00

from sarah the sewist

My Indygo Junction Trench Topper that I was sewing as part of the Great Trench Coat Sew-a-long on Pattern Review is finished and I broke it in by wearing it to work today. I was a little uncomfortable with it just because it's a lot louder than most of my wardrobe, but it worked with dark jeans, a white collared blouse and my black cowboy boots. Someone even told me that it gave off a "vintage cool vibe," which sounds good to me. Not to mention, Josh and I went out to The Screen Door (yum!) for dinner this evening, and he claims that two diners noticed on my jacket. My style is generally not that noticeable, more cute than anything, so it's kind of nice to have something distinct and eye-catching.

I wrote about my progress here and here and it was really fun knowing that there were quite a few other folks working on a trench at the same time---although mine is more of an indoors jacket, rather than the outwear most of the others on Pattern Review are planning and sewing. It's funny, I was planning on sewing this jacket, but it jumped to the top of the queue when the sew-a-long was announced. The super-cool Amy Butler print from Bolt in an unusual cinnamon color and the lovely pink Moda fabric from Fabric Depot for the contrasting bands were a fun combination.

I covered the issues that I had with this pattern in my last blog entry, but I do want to re-iterate that while I had some problems, they were completely fixable and Indygo Junction seemed very happy to get the feedback about the errors in the pattern drafting. The other thing I noticed with this pattern is that it's already rather petite-ified. By that I mean that I didn't shorten the sleeves, and only took in the shoulders a smidge---which was great for me. My fix to the belt issue worked, and I think it looks like it was supposed to be this way.

Anyway, since this jacket is unlined, and since the Sewer and I don't have a serger (waaaah!), there was a lot of seam finishing on this jacket. Which was a colossal pain in the butt. Well worth it, but a pain, nonetheless.

I also faced the pink bands at the sleeves and bottom so that they'd have more of a structured look and flare out a bit more. Which I think turned out pretty nice, since the two fabrics were different weights. The contrasting bands actually, oddly, toned down the busy look of the main fabric, which is sort of interesting.

I must have placed the three stupid button on this jacket at least three times. Each. It was really difficult to figure out the right spot for the buttons, and I still not completely satisfied with the way the buttons look on the jacket. I am really crappy at hand sewing and avoid doing so at all costs. Our sewing machine does a lot for us---including auto buttonholes and it's really easy to use the machine to attach buttons. However, like I mentioned in a previous entry, the buttons I chose for this jacket were too big for the auto buttonholer, and it turns out, also are too big to sew on with the sewing machine. Which sucked. So I spent all of last evening sewing and re-sewing the buttons.

Basically, the buttons won.

I'm planning to make this trench again, especially since I've worked out all of the weirdness with the pattern, and since I have a decent stash of raincoat fabric on hand.

In the Trenches, Part 2

2007-09-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

I'm making good progress on the Indygo Junction Trench Topper that I'm sewing as part of the Trench Coat Sew Along on Pattern Review. It's been fun being motivated by knowing that others are working on similar projects at the same time (and I feel a bit of extra pressure for it to look extra-fabulous); however, this project has had some silly problems.

First, the ones that are beyond my control: the sleeve markings are screwy on this trench coat---basically, there's no way to tell which side of the sleeve is the front and which is the back; the neck facing is way wide than the shoulder facing that it's supposed to be joined with, so I had to fix that issue; and the belt for the trench is waaaaaay to short. Like seven inches too short. Anyway, I worked through those issues, and am on the home stretch at this point. As an aside, I emailed the lovely folks at Indygo Junction and let them know about the problems I'd had with the drafting of the pattern, and they were fabulous, and seemed very appreciative of the feedback. I was very impressed---I've sent my observations of errors/issues in patterns to other companies (I figure everyone has an interest in having high quality patterns) and they're not always so receptive. Thanks, Indygo Junction!

Now, the issue that was basically my stubbornness getting the best of me. I'm using some really big buttons for this project. Like 1 5/8" in diameter. I needed to make one buttonhole. Well, since Josh and I got our fancy schmancy new Janome-made Kenmore 19233 sewing machine that has one-step automatic buttonholes, making buttonholes has been a dream. Seriously, this is probably my second-favorite feature on the machine (this first being the speed control). However, apparently, the auto feature doesn't allow for buttons over one inch. So I searched the owners manual, then the internet, then all of the Pattern Review message boards that had any reference to buttonholes, and Kenmore sewing machines. Then I just cried. Because I just couldn't make a stupid buttonhole. (Someone on Pattern Review posted the directions for overriding the auto function for the Janome equivalent machine, but it just wouldn't work for me.)

Anyway, I experimented.

A lot.

Finally, I just fudged it, and it looks okay. I don't care that it's not perfect. At least I can get the damn button in the damn buttonhole and close the stupid thing. And that's all I really wanted.

On the home stretch...

Whale of a Jacket

2007-09-22T17:52:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

I have working on another big fall project. Earlier in the summer (and summer lasts for about 4 more hours as I write this), I found this St. Louis Americans jacket that I really wanted to replicate. The Sewist and I decided to use Burda Pattern 8135 and gray corduroy. For the trim I found braided, folded-over cording in navy blue. This project is not going to be solo, it is by far the hardest sewing project I have undertaken. The pattern has twenty some pattern pieces!

Instead of doing a straight replica of the St. Louis Americans logo, I decided to do make the whale part of the Chicago Whales (of the short lived Federal League) logo. I went back and forth on making an "authentic" piece of sports wear, but I didn't want to make a Cincinnati Reds jacket (my favorite baseball team---insert loser reference here) or a minor league team from Dayton, (the original hometown) or Portland (the permanent hometown and birthplace of the Sewist). Instead I decided to create a fictitious team the Portland Whales, I should also have a nice fake back-story written in my mind on completion of the project.

Anyway, so far I have sewn the back panel together and decided to eliminate the vents (I hate vents, and my digestive system has matured enough where they aren't an occupational necessity). At this rate I should have this project ready in time for Summer '09.

In the Trenches

2007-09-18T20:40:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

The Pattern Review Great Trench Coat Sew Along has proved just the motivator for me to start planning and working on some fall jacket projects. I'm working on the Indygo Junction Trench Topper in view 1, which is a lovely, princess-seamed (woo-hoo! my fave--I love princess seams!) trench coat. I'm creating a light weight cotton jacket that should serve me well this fall---particularly in my insanely cold office building (my fingers literally turned blue one day and I thought I was having some sort of circulation episode, but it was actually the a/c---I wish I was joking).

The Sewer, with his amazingly sharp eye for fabric and design, found this Amy Butler Fabric for the body of the jacket, and I'm using a complementary plain pink cotton from Moda for the bottom panels and bell sleeves. (In case you haven't noticed by now, 50% of the fabric I by is pink, which is weird, since almost all the clothes I bought in my 30 years are some sort of shade of blue.) Anyway, it's a gorgeous cinnamon color that's not at all orange---I don't share Josh's fascination with caution orange.

I have been completely spacey with this project, though having already forgotten to cut out THREE pieces. Yes, I, with all of my sewing experience and my somewhat advanced skills, didn't both to check to see what pieces I needed to cut out. I just cut out what I had, and didn't do any accounting of the pieces. Low and behold, I had dropped the piece for the front side panel, and neglected to trace the back facing at all. Absolutely brilliant.

As you can see, the omitted piece was a fairly critical component of the jacket. Oh, yeah, and did I mention that I griped about how the pattern called for way too much fabric, and so I wasn't at all careful with how I cut out my pieces? So, of course, we had to go by another yard of fabric. Of course.

So, I've sewn a grand total of one seam on this thing. So, far, so good.

It doesn't look like I've sewn anything backward, upside-down or wrong-side out, does it?

(By the way, Josh is making some slow and steady progress on a jacket of his own, but I'll leave it to him to update you.)

Pants-Pants Revolution!

2007-09-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

I have this friend who a couple of years ago was obsessed with Dance-Dance Revolution. He and his wife used to have dance offs and he was always getting off the phone to play the game. I have never played it before in my life, but I dedicate the title to him (and puns make good titles for blogs).

Anyway the pants I made were the second go 'round of the Simplicity 3891 cargo pants. Like the first time I left off most of the pockets and decided to pass on using the zipper on the leg, but instead of cutting the legs out at the pants line I cut them at the zipper line to make the legs narrower than before. This resulted in a much more reasonably-sized leg circumference.

The pants are made with Robert Kauffman Kona Cotton in chocolate brown and the facing is made with the same fabric in caution orange; both were from Bolt. While at Nordstrom not too long ago I noticed a great pair of chino pants that were this color brown with orange top-stitching and details, the problem is I don't pay $150 for chinos; while there is nothing wrong with this, I just can't do it. In that same vein, to give the pants a more finished look I decided to take inspiration from Nordy's and the Sewist's latest skirt and use the twin needle to add some detail. I used brown thread to twin needle the pockets and the inseam. To do the hemming on the pants legs and to sew the facing down, I used the orange thread with the twin needle. I had some orange thread left over from a long ago project and when I bought the second spool I got the same color except it was made from cotton instead of silk, I like the effect of the subtle differences in shade.

I also went with the caution orange zipper, just to pull the whole look together. Creating the fly was much, much easier this time and required far less intervention from the Sewist.

I love the way these pants fit and look. This was my first attempt at making something fancier than the pattern called for, which was a nice way to be creative and not go too far above my skill level. It was also the first time I actually changed any major component of a pattern (I've left stuff off, but never really altered anything intentionally.) Oh yeah, I should add that I used a button to close the pants instead of Velcro as called for (actually, I did this in the first pair as well)---I am committed to keeping my pants from falling down in public.

This also marks a major milestone in my sewing---this is my first completely seam ripper-free completed project.

Another Burda WoF Skirt

2007-09-13T19:10:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

Between my Burda World of Fashion magazine subscription and my Sew What! Skirts book, I will never, ever have to purchase a skirt pattern again. This is a good thing, 'cause I'm cheap and skirt patterns always seem like a waste of money, since I'm probably not going to make a bunch of the same skirt. Pants, yes. Skirts, no.

This is the most recent skirt I've made thanks to Burda WoF. This is from their current "Plus" Fashion magazine (see minor rant on their "plus"designation here). It's sort of view "A" and sort of view "B" of style #406. I used the technical drawing for 406A as my inspiration, but the shorter length of 406B.

Wonderfully, Burda has enough sense to include---in all their magazines---a variety of styles for different body types, and I'm loving the fact that this skirt was already sized for those of us who are not exactly tall. (I'm 5'4", but the fashion/sewing pattern industry has decided that I'm some sort of super-short freak, even though that's just a smidge shorter than the national average of 5'5". I often try on pants and they're probably 7 inches too long.) Anyone, wonderfully, there was no petitizing of this pattern for me, which fabulous.

I made this in the lovely brown stretch cotton sateen I got a Bolt awhile back, the same stuff I used for my super-awesome pink Hot Patterns shirt. I probably could have made better use out of this fabric by making the Hot Patterns Razor Sharp Classix Nouveau pants that I had been planning, but it's fantastically comfortable for a skirt, just doesn't drape and flip like Burda intended for this style. Which is fine with me.

I added a little pizazz to this one by taking a cue from the technical drawing above and adding a lot of topstitching.

I topstitched on either side of the panel seams with the twin needle, switching to a single needle when the panels split and the gores are inserted. (Does that make sense?) I also twin needled the seam when the yoke meets that panels and the hem. All together, it really creates a tailored, professional look. (The rich brown doesn't hurt either.) Oh, and you'll be relieved to know that after four and a half attempts (!!!) I finally conquered the invisible zipper that just wouldn't cooperate.

(I'm still not sure about the Built by Wendy blouse I'm wearing in this picture. I've made it twice, but it's not been quite right either time.)

Cat-tastic!!!

2007-09-08T22:18:00.000-07:00

We don't have a cat. In fact, both of us are horribly allergic, and our dog thinks that cats are extremely suspect. So, no cats for us. However, we've got a lot of kitties in our extended family. Since we're beginning to embark on our Great Making Everyone's Christmas Gifts Odyssey, we decided that Josh's dad's cat, Lieutenant, really really needs a Kitty Tunnel from Amy Butler's In Stitches book. (We'll review the entire book soon---promise.) Not only that, Lieutenant needs, really needs, a funky-fresh, Miami Vice-style lime green flamingo print Kitty Tunnel lined with hot pink fluffy fur.

This is a super-basic "pattern" in the book. There actually aren't any pieces included, you simply go off of some measurements Amy provides to draft a tunnel and drawstring that's lined with faux fur. Basically, it's like a tube that closes on the end---apparently cats like to have options in their Kitty Tunnels, sometimes they want to go all the way through the tunnel, other times, they want to snuggle up in a cave.

The picture from the book really shows a nice Kitty Tunnel that seems to fit in with the decor in a tasteful way. Our finished product is not exactly what normal people would call "tasteful." Josh's dad will love it. Love it. Seriously, it sort of sucks that we have to wait a few months to send it, because the result is so bizarrely awesome, that we know it'll be a hit. Even if you don't go a little over the edge like we did, this is a quick-to-sew, simple, inexpensive project that will probably thrill the cat or cat-lover in your life.

Our dog's stuffed raccoon toy had to stand in for the cat in this photo shoot. Needless, to say, the dog was not impressed.

(We swear, we don't encourage our dog to get in the pictures. She's camera ham. If we get out the camera, she's there. It's been that way since she was a puppy.)

The Vinyl Countdown

2007-09-06T16:43:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

Pictured here is the Sewist's birthday gift. My Dad likes to say "Vinyl is Final" when explaining his choice of house siding; this phrase stuck with me as making this. Being somewhat limited in my sewing skills, my choice of projects are small. The Sewist loves bags so I decided to bust out the Amy Butler Messenger Bag pattern again. Instead of doing something that I could get through easily and quickly, I decided that she NEEDED a pink sparkly vinyl bag, to deal with the wet winters here in Oregonia. For the interior I went with the Echino Beehive in eggplant that I picked up from Bolt. The appliqué is reflective fabric, that kind you see on coats for high visibility. At the Mill End store they sell it in 12 x 18 sheets for $4. This is actually cool, at $25 a yard on the bolt it is much cheaper to buy the sheets to make tall and wide things.

The first part of the project was making the appliqué. I found a crow picture on the internet and blew it up in Photoshop. I printed it, cut it out of of paper, traced it onto the back of the reflective fabric and cut very carefully. I stitched the crow to the outside flap with silk and metallic thread that astonishingly matched perfectly. This part went really really well. I was feeling really good about the project at this point. Next was the vinyl (here the sound effect should sound like DUM, dum, dah; ominous like).

Wow, the sparkly vinyl is really cool and pretty, but my god it is hard to work with, especially if you have no idea what you are doing (see: me). I decided to make the strap first, though it is a middle step in the instructions. I like to get the little things out of the way first (and I am actually working on a separate post about this, because it is interesting how differently the Sewist and I look at directions). Following the pattern's directions, I folded the two sides toward the middle, to deal with fabrics stubbornness, I glued like crazy and stacked books on top to hold it down. After a couple of hours, I folded, glued and stacked again. Now it was time for the sewing. I actually was able to get it stitched, terribly. The vinyl was incredibly sticky and it took me PULLING it though. I figured this was bad for the machine, so I called the Sewist at work and spoiled the surprise. I was drenched in sweat, the strap was really terribly screwed up and the sewing machine looked tired. The Sewist was not impressed with what I was doing to her machine so I called it day.

The next time out I sewed the exterior together, which was going great when the right sides were together. So the problems were back again as soon as the exterior of the vinyl touched any part of the machine. I was really close to quiting and going to Nordstrom's and buying something, when it hit me that there has to be a way to do this (the Sewist mentioned a Teflon foot). I googled "sewing vinyl" and on this site someone mentioned wax paper. Melting wax paper onto the exterior worked swimmingly. The other bit about working with the fabric is that is is impossible to iron the seems open, so I trimmed them short (but not too short). The last bit about the vinyl is it is really difficult to turn inside out.

The interior actually came together as expected.

For the strap I went with a different tactic, I cut a 3.25 inch wide slice of the exterior and 3.25 inch wide slice of the Enchino Beehive which I backed with fleece interfacing, like the straps from the Very Green Bag. I sewed everything right side together and turned inside out. I think with the strength of the vinyl one layer will be sufficient and the fleeced fabric should be pretty comfortable. Turning the strap right side out took some time and an incredibly sore finger, but the results are pretty nice, though a little puffy. I again stacked books on top of the strap to get it to lay flatter, which is working, though in need of another night at this point.

The changes to the original pattern include:

no tab, actually no clasp also, the flap is heavy enough to stay shut;
no flap pocket, neither the Sewist or I every use it on the bags that we have;
no top-stitching on the outside, not necessary, no desire to wax paper again;
strap, as I mentioned;
tool pocket has more usable slots, for things like cellphones or iPods
and no canvas backing, this things weighs a ton already and is plenty stable.

Lessons learned:

probably the last time for sticky vinyl, too too too hard to deal with for any length of time
and anytime I am dead tired after making a seam, I probably am doing something wrong.

The next bag I make (one that I might actually use myself), will probably be our first adventure in designing a pattern. The Amy Butler Pattern is really great, but I am finding more not to like every time and there are things like shape and size that I would do very differently.

The crow is in honor of our dog, who hates them. We have always joked that if she had her own company it would be called "30 or So Crows" for the number she would like to catch every day. Another sign of our complete dog dorkdom!

Happy Birthday Honey, enjoy!

Intern's Ottoman

2007-09-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

The ottoman for the Best Intern Ever (we wrote about this project on Labor Day) is done. She said she wanted something black, gray and brown, and this Nigella slate imperial fans fit the bill perfectly. This is the fourth Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillow that we've made, so it came together in no time, and was truly a joint effort. We both cut and sewed this one, worked together in the stuffing.

Just like the others that we wrote about here and here, this looks great and took a lot of stuffing. Unlike the others, we used some smarts (thanks to commenter Christina). What Christina suggested was inspired by punching bag guts---take fabric scraps and stuff them in the center with the soft filling all around. Not only was it cheaper to stuff, it actually resulted in a way better loft than the two large ottomans we made for ourselves. It is much firmer and much more "sittable." If that's a word.

The stuffing technique:
By the way, the Best Intern Ever loved her ottoman.

It's Labor (of love) Day Weekend

2007-09-03T09:24:00.000-07:00

Here at Casa de Sewer-Sewist we're celebrating the long Labor Day weekend by juggling a bunch of different works in progress. There's nothing like a three day weekend to encourage you to start more projects than you can finish. There's something about that extra day to make you overly-ambitious.

Anyway, Josh is slogging along on another pair of Simplicity 3891 pants. (The photo at the top of this post is Josh working on these pants, by the way.) This time, he's tapered in the leg so it's shaped more like a boot cut pant rather than the exaggerated, ultra-wide cargo leg that is intended in this pattern. Again, he removed the numerous pockets and is just sticking with the patch pockets on the butt and hips. Oh yeah, and, because Josh is not a 12-year-old, he's not putting zippers on the sides this time either. Josh is, of course, infusing his own unique personal style into this project. We've mentioned before that we're big fans of Nordstrom, but too cheap to shop there (except the shoe department, the anniversary sale, the Rack and Sarah's beloved Jag Jeans). Well, a month or so ago Josh spotted some really snazzy cotton Faconnable brand pants that were brown with orange facings and orange top-stitching. Well, these snazzy pants were something like $150! Josh knew that he could create an even more awesome pair of his own "Faconnable" pants for around fifteen bucks. He's also adding a bright orange zipper in the fly.

The fabric (a nice medium-weight Robert Kaufman 100& cotton for both the orange and brown; this stuff is great value and nice to work with):

The orange zipper (note that the partially-constructed pants are laying on the Alice Starmore shawl that it took the Sewist eight years to knit---sewing is definitely more of an instant gratification hobby):

Sarah's got a couple of projects going on as well, including a Burda WoF skirt from the latest Burda Plus Fashion mag. (Sidebar for a minor rant: On what planet is a Euro 22---which is a petite Euro 44 or a US 44 or a US RTW 12---a plus-sized pattern? It's fine, but just slightly annoying, but the upside is that it opens up a whole other set of available fabulousness that is Burda WoF. It's nice that this is sized for petite, though.) This is in the brown Robert Kaufman stretch Vera sateen that I wrote about awhile back. Apparently, as you can see from the photo to the right, Sarah has completely forgotten how to insert an invisible zipper. This is a nice, classy gored skirt that, once the zipper situation is addressed, will be a good work staple.

Finally, we're working on a project as a gift for Sarah's intern at work, AKA the Best Intern Ever. It's another one of the Amy Butler Gumdrop Pillows, in the ottoman size. (We wrote about this pattern here and here.) Because the Best Intern Ever really doesn't have a lot of furniture, just like all college students, the ottoman seems like a good choice. This one will be in the lovely Imperial Fans fabric from Amy Butler's new Nigella line, in the slate color. It's cut up and ready to be sewn up and stuffed.

Despite all these projects, we've actually been leaving the house, enjoying the last bit of summer here in Oregon.

Very Green Bag

2007-09-02T23:44:00.001-07:00

from sarah the sewist

(This is one of those projects that is so not my style. But I know the recipient will love it. The shape of this bag is fabulous, but the fabric... It's just so green. I hate green. And the frogs. For some reason, I have not problem with banana seat bikes, garden gnomes or goldfish on my clothes and accessories, but frogs? Not my thing)

I saw this froggy fabric from Heather Ross' new collection for Free Spirit and I new that I just had to make something for my friend (also) Sarah who loves all things green, and especially all things froggy. Enter the Amy Butler Frenchy Bag pattern. This is a very simple pattern really great for showing off interesting fabric combinations. I combined this with a green that appeared in both of the main fabrics. (In fact, I think this bag may encompass 90% of the naturally-occurring shades of green.)

The result? Well, pretty green.

The Frenchy Bags (I made the larger, shoulder bag version) come together really quickly and easier, just like the other Amy Butler patterns I've used lately. However, like everything I sew, I had to tinker a bit.

First, I think this bag is supposed to have four pockets, not two. If it isn't, then dividing the two large pockets into four is definitely an improvement---they sagged inside the liner until I sewed them in half. Now the pockets are perfect for a cell phone (my pal has, of course, a green phone that'll look awfully snazzy with the bag), smaller wallet, compact, that sort of thing.

I also omitted that magnetic snap for a few reasons: it isn't really necessary, because this is a shoulder bag, so hopefully your arm will keep the bag closed as intended; the opening for this bag is actually on the small side, as it tapers where the two fabrics are joined; and, I didn't have a magnetic snap, and really didn't feel like searching one out.

The biggest modification that I made was that this bag calls for sew-in interfacing, like Pellon 40. Anyway, I really hate sew-in interfacing. It's a pain, wastes thread and just annoys me for some reason. (I accidentally bought three yards of it a month or so ago and have been trying to use the stupid stuff up.) Anyway, knowing that my friend is a very busy teacher/dog walker/pet sitter, and that she's always running from place to place and, therefore, this bag will probably really take a beating, I decided I wanted to make this thing a bit more durable that it was originally designed.

Searching through piles of fusible interfacing at Fabric Depot, I found something that looked promising: "Fusible Fleece." Now, I have no idea what fusible fleece is, but the lady who cut it for me thought that it was probably something you use for quilting and other related crafts. Anyway, it felt squishy, not like stiff Timtex, and seemed like it would do a bit more to protect the contents of the bag from abuse. Needless to say, I think this decision was a good one. Excepting the pockets, I used the fusible fleece everywhere the sew-in interfacing was called for. The result was bag that had a lot of body. Which isn't a very good description, but better than "slightly puffy."

Basically, by using the fusible fleece, I created a bag that has a really defined shape, but still is relaxed looking. What I'm most excited about, though, is the way the handles turned out. You can see in the picture that they have a padded look, and, as a result, feel extremely comfortable on the shoulder. Since this is a shoulder bag, that's pretty important. I think that I'll do this to bag handles from now on.

We agreed that quite a few people will likely be getting these bags for Christmas this year---it's that simple to put together.

As always, the dog got in on the action:

Shoe contract?

2007-08-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

So can you get a shoe contract for sewing?

Josh saw me sewing with my brand-spankin' new shoes on (oddly, Vans seem to be the only shoes that I can wear while sewing and get enough traction for optimal foot pedal control) and stuck the sticker that was in the shoe box on the foot pedal. We have a lot of vintage skateboarding magazines around the house at the moment (believe it or not, these are related to my job---I have a very cool job) and Josh was inspired by the ads in them. They always show some cool dude doing a really cool trick in the shoes. Well, I guess I'm a cool gal doing a really cool trick with the sewing machine.

Stop, Drop & Stuff

2007-08-26T17:36:00.001-07:00

We're both sick---nothing like a late summer cold to make you feel stupid. In order to alleviate the boredom, we decided to work together and make the GIANT, Amy Butler Gum Drop Pillows. The fabric is Joel Dewberry's Manzanita Basket - Red Mix. Originally Josh wanted to use this fabric to make a shirt and then the Sewist thought of making a dress out of it (something like the Charmed Dress, but actually a dress and not half of one). Thankfully we didn't because this fabric is a little, well, busy. This looks cool as pillow, and maybe could work as some Dr. Jack Ramsay 70s style pants (if you know who Dr. Jack is, you know what we mean), but not a shirt and certainly not a dress.

The pattern was simple and easy, like the regular gum drop pillow that the Sewist made a couple of weeks ago. These, too bad we can't curse to describe them, are BIG. The dog has decided that they are great to crash into and they are going to be great as ottomans (or perhaps a Weapon of Mass Destruction in a pillow fight).

Being sick, we looking for something uncomplicated and the sewing and construction was definitely that (well the Sewer did run out of bobbin thread, with 4 inches remaining to sew and screwed up rewinding it, which lead him to call the bobbin a favorite term from Deadwood, which almost killed---because of the coughing---the Sewist she laughed so hard).

However, finding enough stuffing was an adventure. As you well may know, the Fabric Despot is not the Sewer's favorite place. After making sure that he was dehydrated and unlikely to have to urinate, and therefore use the porta-potty/men's restroom, we headed out. We found a five pound box of Fiberfill and asked for more. After being told to go to customer service and then told to go to the wholesale desk, I exclaimed "(redacted) this" and we left. The Sewist was in need of new pillows so we went to Ikea and bought 4 for her plus two cheapos in case we needed extra. We took all of the old pillows and the two extras and cut them open and stuffed the drops. Still very short. That was Saturday night. Sunday we head downtown to Nordy's Rack and bought two Calvin Klein King Sized pillows (only 12 dollars a piece, because if you tried to sleep on them your head would fall off, trust us---they're insanely large for pillows). With the addition of these pillows and a little hand sewing they were done.

They turned out to be pretty pricey in the end (with fabric and stuffing probably 40-50 bucks a piece). No more big pillows until we can find a cheap source for lots of stuffing (my friend in the furniture biz will be hearing from me shortly). The absurd thing is, that however we crunch the numbers, it's still (we think, our number crunching is not that reliable) cheaper to buy pillows from Ikea or some other cheap place than buying Fiberfill from the Despot or anywhere else we can think of.

Ubiquitous dog being cute with the sewing project picture.

PS---If you know of a cheap, or even reasonably-priced, source for Fiberfill, please let us know! We need more pillows around here!

Love it

2007-08-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

I finished the Hot Patterns Plain & Simple Princess Shirt this evening. I can honestly say, I have never, ever been so happy with a blouse pattern. I can really see myself making this one over and over again. I had some issues that I talked about here. But, they were really my own screwy assumptions getting in my way, and once I sorted stuff out, it really made sense and came together. Other boo-boos that were really my own fault---in the battle with the collar, I spaced turning the raw edges of the collar under and into itself; I neglected to turn the shoulder facing under; and I made it a size too big. I've had a few mishaps lately with things being too small in the, er, boob area, and so I was a little neurotic with the sizing and went up instead of down, as I was in between sizes.

Anyway, this is the three-quarter length sleeve version, and it's in an absolutely beautiful stretch cotton sateen from Robert Kaufman's "Vera" line that I got at Bolt here in Stumptown with this pattern in mind. I had second-guessed myself shortly afterward, thinking that maybe this pattern wasn't special enough for such a wonderfully smooth, elegant, and uniquely sturdy fabric. I'm glad I didn't just make another skirt or something, because the pattern and the fabric do pair very well together, creating a sort of fifties vibe.

I like the shape of the neckline created by the lapel-like collar---even though I sort of screwed it up. I know I said it in my earlier post about this project, but really, if you're planning on making this shirt, please read the instructions thoroughly, check out something like Complete Guide to Sewing's (great book---I must review soon!) instructions for creating a lapel and read through and study the pictures on Off the Cuff. I've been sewing for a really long time, considering my age, and this part of the construction really proved to be challenging. It was really rewarding, though, and I felt like I learned something and added some skills to my sewing repertoire.

This shirt also made me realize that if I want to create a really nice shirt, that's more of a dressy, wear-to-work style, princess seams are the way to go. It's much easier for me to tweak for my fitting needs---which I haven't done with this shirt, but I really need to take in the waist on literally everything I make---blouses, pants, skirts. It's much easier to do with princess seams. And, while I didn't need to do this with this blouse (because I purchased "Glamour Girl" range), it's much easier to make an adjustment for my above-mentioned issues with fitting blouses. I also think, looking at these pictures, it's just a better look for me, it's more structured, and I think that looks nicer on my short self. I'm not a tall person, and I often think that a lot of professional looking clothes look funny on me, and I think the waists aren't in the right spot, etc, and it's much easier to precisely locate those critical points that make a difference in the overall structured appearance.

It's funny, I was kind of stressed out that this pattern would be a disaster, since I'd had a recent fitting?/drafting?/design?/printing? issue with an independent company's pattern (not that that there aren't major problems with patterns from the Big 4), and I really didn't want to have another frustrating end.

I plan to make more of these---who knows when, since one of the things I really love about sewing is trying new styles, techniques and fabrics, and Josh and I have quite a few projects queued up. (We need to write about that, too.)

One more picture just 'cause our dog's looking so darn cute in this shot...

Oh Shirt!

2007-08-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

Last week was my week of shirts. My first project was this pictured short sleeve “chillin’ shirt” that I made using the Kwik Sew 3422, my first attempt at making a men’s shirt using a pattern, as opposed to an old cut-up shirt (which worked well enough). For the fabric I choose this Joel Dewberry “Sunburst Pattern.” I picked this up at Fabric Depot, while I was getting the sewist-in-law her cutting mat (which was deeply discounted). As an aside (which I think you can probably tell I use a lot of) this was the trip that deeply influenced my ongoing annoyance with the place. See, I drank a lot of ice tea that day and had to use the toilet very badly and to my dismay the men’s toilets were still the porta-potties out front. Now it is a fair point that there are more women there than men; and while the toilets are being renovated it is only fair that they get indoor accommodations. However, this little project has been going on for a long time and I am at a point in my life where porta-potties just don’t cut it. It was basically an uncomfortable and quick trip to the Depot.

Back to the shirt, I went with view B---the short sleeves and the collar and “stand in one.” The pattern was really well laid out and I could make sense of it myself until the collar. It came together really nicely and fits well. The seam allowances were only ¼ inch and everything else I have had made was 5/8 or ½ inch, it seemed somewhat tight---since I kept forgetting what the seam allowances were. When I do this shirt again, which I will, I am going to use the collar and stand from view A, I just think it will look better. Probably will add a bit for seam allowances, just to make for a more pleasant sewing experience. Also, I really liked that the shirt has a traditional shirt-tail in the back, and the way the placket is made. It gives the shirt a traditional, maybe even retro look.

My major boo-boo was I took a chunk out of the front of the collar stand area while trying to trim some threads, I tried to cover it up with the buttonhole. Oh, yeah, and then I did the same thing somehow and had to "cover" that one up with a button. Not really sure how I managed to pull that off---twice.

More shirts.

The other project was this week was that I took two of my ugly old dress shirts and made them into short sleeve shirts. This was easy, snip-snip, sew-sew. The first shirt was a cheap paisley number from Target. It never worked as long sleeve shirt and being out of clean shirts and not wanting to roll the sleeves, I did the surgery and the sewist hemmed it real quick like (she was working on the Princess Shirt and was sitting in front of the machine).

The second shirt is this incredibly ugly red washed silk shirt by Claiborne, for which I paid 4 dollars at Dillard’s in New Mexico. While living there, I went on this spree of buying close out clothing, trying not to spend more than 8 dollars for an article of clothing. Hell, the fact is that these shirts had buttons gave me a professional look in the City Different. It makes a great ugly beer-drinking shirt now.

Perfect Princess?

2007-08-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

I'm nearing the home stretch on a shirt that may very well be an almost perfect dress shirt (for me).

About a month or so ago I sucked it up and bought three Hot Patterns patterns that I'd had my eye on---this was during their buy 2, get 1 free deal. I chose three that I thought would be very good basic wardrobe pieces: Plain & Simple Princess Shirt, Classix Nouveaux Raxor Sharp Pants and the Deco Vibe Cocoon Coat. They're each from a different one of Hot Patterns' (very cleverly-named) lines---so I could get a feeling of what their fit and design was like across a range of styles, and they're honestly quite pricey ($15-18 a pop). I'd been intrigued by their contemporary, Nordstrom-esque (Josh and I both love Nordy's waaaaay too much) designs, so I took the plunge and purchased them.

The first up was the Plain & Simple Princess Shirt. I cut into the gorgeous pink Robert Kaufman that I wrote about here. I love this fabric and it's been amazing to work with. This shirt has come together wonderfully, with the exception of a bit of a hiccup (okay, a day-long hiccup) with the collar. It's constructed like a tailored jacket lapel, rather than a regular shirt collar. I wished I'd snapped to that before I started, because that would have saved me a lot of ripping. I was saved by this post on the Off the Cuff sewing blog. If you're planning on trying this shirt, please read that oh-so-helpful post first. Trust me.

I've only got to hem the shirt and figure out the button placement. I also want to take in the waist seams a bit as well, to create a more fitted silhouette. So, hopefully, I'll be able to post the finished product in the next day or so.

Oh, and when I do post the finished product, I won't be wearing like the sketch model in the long-sleeved blouse (sorry, Josh!). Just in case you were worried.

1908 Americans Fabric

2007-08-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we found the right color and drape of fabric for Josh's 1908 St. Louis Americans jacket. We considered going more authentic, but the right color, weight and drape of wool flannel is just too expensive for such an experimental project (have we mentioned that we're kind of cheap?). Instead, we found a stretch corduroy that's very fuzzy and really has the look that we want, even though it's not straight up authentic.

This is as far as we've gotten in the project.

We'll keep you posted.

A big "thank you" to Nancy of Sew West for her input on the fabric. Hopefully, this one will work out fabulously so we can do an awesome flannel one next.

Bag: (fake) Pig (skin) in the City

2007-08-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

I did it. I made a bag and it isn't too girly. When the Sewist and I started (well, mostly the Sewist) making her mother’s bag, I also cut out the pieces for my own bag attempt and sat it I aside until I had some time to put toward it.

Earlier this summer when we were looking around the Mill End Store, I noticed a bolt of pleather football upholstery and thought it would look kind of cool (almost made pants, but that would not work too well and, really, I ain’t the type for those kind of duds).

A month later I found the Moda “Varsity” fabric in the 50 percent off rack at Fabric Depot. (Already this bag is off to a weird start, I really don’t like either place that well, and don’t get me started on the Porta-Potty situation at Fabric Depot, errrrrrr. Oh, and I don’t like football that well either).

Since the football stuff is really thick, I did not use the canvas in any part of the construction except for the side panels. Like the Sewist’s bags, I left off the tab. I used white thread to contrast with the pleather and only topstitched the strap, which I also sewed a couple times to the main bag for reinforcement. I always end up carrying heavy stuff when I bother actually carrying stuff at all, so it makes sense to make it extra durable. The other change I made was to the tool pocket were I cut down on the pencil and pen holders and went with a spot to put a cell phone and a place for the iPod Nano I don’t have.

I also learned that, like everything else I sew, the seam ripper is my best friend. Which sucks. I would really like to sew something without picking something out over and over again. The strap, in particular, became intimately acquainted with my seam ripper. A word to anyone thinking about making this out of pleather: it's a tremendous pain to make the strap. If you try to iron it, it'll melt. So, first I tried basting it down, which didn't work. Then I tried gluing it, which didn't work. Finally, I glued it, then stacked books on top of the strap to hold the glued sides together, holding it in place for 24 hours. Which worked really well, until I forgot to check how much thread was left in the machine's bobbin. So, I "sewed" most of the strap without a bobbin. Back to the seam ripper (because even though there was no bobbin thread, the top stitches stuck). Finally, after try number 172, I sewed the damn thing together. And it looked pretty good.

Despite all of the excitement in constructing the strap, I enjoyed putting the thing together. The pleather wasn’t that bad to work with, it rolled a little, but was manageable. Now that I am done, I am not sure I like it enough to carry around, partly because the pleather is eerily soft and I don’t actually go to that many places that I actually need to haul enough stuff to warrant carrying a bag…

No So Charming

2007-08-09T17:51:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

I should have quit while I was ahead.

Last weekend I picked up the Betsy Ross Patterns' "Charmed Dress" pattern. It's not really anything that unusual or special, but it seemed like a nice, classic style dress produced by an independent pattern company. I regularly read the designer/owner's blog and really like supporting the independent companies, so I'd wanted to try one of her patterns.

This should have been my first clue that this simple, straightforward dress wasn't meant to be.

If you could see my face in the photo, you would notice that I'm absolutely perplexed. The pattern pieces simply don't fit on the two yards of fabric called for in the pattern. I ended up contorting the pattern pieces, and myself, trying to make it fit (I can be a bit stubborn---just ask Josh). Finally, as the picture shows, I got the pieces to fit, but they were touching, so I was cutting it (har, har) very close. Measuring the pattern pieces and the fabric, the math simply doesn't work.

But I pushed on. Using a Michael Miller pink and brown polka dot fabric my mom picked up for me, I cut the thing out. Following the (really excellent, way better than most you see) directions, I proceeded to sew the skirt together---which went fine---and then the bodice. It was at this point something went very, very wrong. The bodice and the skirt literally couldn't physically connect to one another. The bodice stopped well above my belly-button, while the skirt ended where it's supposed to---at the natural waist. It simply wasn't going to happen. Now, I am not a tall person, so this cannot be explained away by an oddly long torso or something. I would post a picture, but that would be scary for the readers and mortifying for me. There were several other issues (that were resolvable), such as the dart needing to be moved somewhat, but I just can't get over this one. It's definitely a first---usually I'm able to at least get to the point where I can sew two major parts of a garment together.

Anyway... What to do? What to do? It seems like this is an entirely fixable problem. I really just need to make a new bodice that's much, much longer. I could just make a skirt out of the bottom half and call it a day.

Either way, I am very disappointed, as I really like the classic styles offered by the company, and like that there's a real person behind the business. I almost wonder if I got a defective pattern. I noticed on the web site that the size range I bought isn't even offered anymore, so I do wonder if there have been others with the same problem, and it's a design flaw? I'm also really annoyed with myself, because there were many, many points at which I knew that there was something wrong with this pattern, that it wasn't going to work, but I continued working on it. I really should have listened to my instincts. I have enough "sewing sense" that I'm usually right about these things.

All, in all, here's what I think of the Betsy Ross "Charmed Dress"
The Good: The directions are formatted in a little booklet, which is much easier to deal with than an big ol' sheet that I can't ever fold back correctly; the tone is very friendly, but not annoyingly so; I also like the black pattern envelope (weird, I know); the style is classic.
The Bad: The pattern doesn't adjust fabric quantities for various sizes, which is annoying and just plain inaccurate. The dart placement is a bit low, and a little more straight on, if that makes sense. I prefer a more diagonal style. There aren't finished garment measurements or ease amounts included, which I find annoying, but that's a common gripe I have with any number of patterns.
The Ugly: Uh, the fact that the pieces simply don't connect? That's really ugly.

I'll keep you posted if I decide to re-draft the bodice.

A First

2007-08-07T18:00:00.000-07:00

This post has moved to our new blog. The direct link is located here.

from sarah the sewist

Since Josh is working on a pretty complicated, involved project at the moment (more on that when he's done), I decided to start (and finish) a simple project... You know, to create some balance in the sewer-sewist sewing world. During the Fabric Depot 30% off sale (which seems to have been running perpetually lately), I picked up the Amy Butler pattern for the Gum Drop Pillows. These things are basically HUGE octagonal puffs.

Oddly, this is the first home decorator item I've made in twenty-odd years of sewing. I've racked my brain and I don't think that I've ever made a curtain, pillowcase, pot holder and certainly not a quilt. It just never occurred to me. I learned to sew clothes years ago, and that's what I've stuck with. But, Josh and I have been complaining about our profound lack of "stuff" in our house, and I saw this pattern, and figured it'd be pretty simple and low commitment.

I used some lovely, typically fun Free Spirit 100% cotton poplin from Heather Ross' "Lightning Bugs" collection. I sewed the smaller puff, with alternating yellow and brown panels, with white in the same fabric as the top panel. The instructions have you cut out what is half the pattern pieces, trace them and then flip the piece over and trace the other side. That was way too fussy for me, so I just cut out each side with my rotary cutter, flipping the piece over to make the whole panel.

Then I just sewed the entire thing together. It was that easy. That part took literally less than an hour.

Then the real fun began...

Since I'm sort of cheap (both of us are, actually), I really didn't want to spent $20+ on stuffing. We have quite a few old pillows laying around the house, so I simply de-stuffed a couple and used that filling to stuff the new puff. Our dog took quite the interest in this part of the process (maybe sewing can really be a family affair?) and decided to "help" by sitting right next to me, staring as I de-stuffed and re-stuffed. I think it blew her mind---it was just too much like her de-stuffing her toys. (She may have been thinking, "Mom's really a DOG?!") All-in-all, it took one and a half old king-sized pillows to stuff the puff. I'm not sure if that's equivalent to the recommended 10-twelve ounce bags of filling called for in the pattern.

Finally, because I really couldn't think of a way to strong-arm the puff (it's really BIG) into the sewing machine to close the hole left for stuff, I was forced to hand sew. I hate hand sewing, and truly cannot remember the last time I hand sewed anything. Despite that it took me forever, the finished product turned out pretty great...

Except one little thing... Can you spot it?

Yeah, I forgot this was a directional fabric. For about five seconds I considered re-doing the entire thing. Then I realized that would be insane. So it is, how it is.

I actually really like this puff, and I think I'll make the larger version soon, so we can have an ottomans. They're that big.

Oh, and the dog loves it.

New Fabric

2007-08-06T22:58:00.001-07:00

from sarah the sewist

One pink, one brown. Both Robert Kaufman stretch "Vera" sateen. Had a plan for these, but reconsidering said plan. For some reason pants and a shirt just don't seem interesting enough. Lots of projects to go before I have to commit either of these to a pattern.

Both were procured this weekend at Bolt. They also had red. The red was pretty awesome.

Dude, Here's My Pants

2007-08-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

My first attempt at making pants is Simplicity 3891. As you can see, I decided that all of the accouterments were kind of goofy, plus I already own a pair of Costco cargo pants and I really need pants with fewer pockets. I went with a blue canvas from Bolt and blue thread; if I had the skills it woulda been orange thread….

Anyway the fit is great, except I hemmed them a little higher than I like, which is completely my fault. I really need to accept the fact that I like ground draggers when it comes to these sorts of things. I also ripped off the back pocket flaps, which I deemed stupid after putting them on. With the thick canvas and interfacing I think it would have felt like sitting on two coasters. It’s sort of too bad because the top stitching looked good---top stitching around corners is a huge pain. Next time I plan to make some sweet top-stitching with the twin needle to add some flair.

The directions were fairly basic; the better (sewing) half walked me through it, until we got to the bit about putting one leg through the other to do the crotch—still baffled how we pulled that one off, to be honest.

Below you can see where I really screwed up. I trimmed the seams too damn close, which meant after a week of wearing, sunlight was getting through. This is an ongoing problem of mine (trimming seams too close, not holes in the backside of my pants), which necessitated re-sewing a knit shirt twice recently. I have never been great with scissors anyway and somehow I have become obsessive with making sure everything is tidy, even if it means trimming the seams closer and closer until they’re completely even. I am not a tidy person, which means I find a way to make tidy messy (follow the logic… I am losing myself).

Next pair I am hoping to construct in tan rip-stop and orange top-stitching, and I think I am going to take the legs in a little under the knee, so they’re more straight, less of an A-line. This pair runs a little too close to Estonian Navy for my taste (of course I wear them all of the time, who cares—they are comfortable as hell). The girl thinks the look great though. I think she is just happy they don’t have so many unusable pockets. She’s also happy that they fit appropriately rather than being two sizes too large, like most of my other pants. I should also mention that I carry very little with me at all times, which makes cargo pants even stupider for me.

By the way, I never go barefoot. It's weird I'm not wearing shoes in these photos.

Two Buck Skirt

2007-08-04T23:46:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

Saturday morning I finished (after having started Friday night) what I call my "Organic Yoga Skirt," but what Josh calls "Two-Buck (Not Chuck) Skirt." Which is, of course, way funnier than anything I could name an article of clothing.

The fabric is from our Sport Fabric Haul at Rose City Textiles, the smoky blue organic cotton knit that's identical to my favorite JJill sweatshirt. It only took about a yard and a quarter to make this skirt---so I'm thinking I'm going to have a lot of smoky blue in my wardrobe. We have a lot of this stuff. I whipped up #126 from the July 2007 issue of Burda World of Fashion. Apparently, the German gal in the magazine was having the same problem with her skirt that I was, as her skirt is bunching in the same weird manner as mine. It looks great, though, and I think that the bunching has more to do with the way she and I are both standing than any design or sewing flaw. The wrinkles are not a design element.

This being Burda World of Fashion, I had to trace the pattern off of the magazine insert. I read somewhere a great tip for doing tis using wax paper, and it really worked great. All of the intersecting lines and jumbled up pattern markings were much clearer when I taped normal kitchen wax paper to the pattern sheet and taped the whole thing to our living room window. If you need more width, you can fuse the paper together with an iron. In a weird way, tracing the pattern was kind of the most fun part of the whole project. That and using the twin needle. That was awesome.

Edited to add: I've had a couple questions about what the process is in tracing the pattern. Here are the steps:

Supplies needed: Roll of wax paper, blue painter's tape, sharpie.
Take your Burda sheet and iron it like a normal pattern.
Tape it to your window, so to create a natural light box for tracing. I have a really big living room window, so that makes it pretty easy.
Fuse together enough lengths of wax paper to cover each of the pattern pieces you're using from the magazine. (You can fuse the wax paper by putting your iron on the low setting and gently tapping it on the wax paper. A smart person would place a dish towel or something between the iron and the wax paper. I like to live on the edge, so I don't.)
Tape the wax paper to the Burda pattern sheet.
Trace the lines of the pattern onto the wax paper using the sharpie. It would probably make your life easier if you used a sharpie in the same color as the pattern lines. I think I'll do that next time.
Don't forget to trace dart lines, and other markings, too.
Don't forget to add your seam and hem allowances. Burda gives suggestions for both in their pattern "instructions.
Untape everything from the wall and cut your pattern out.

This is a pretty simple, easy and cheap way to get your Burda patterns traced; I'm trying to be a disciplined sewist and do this for all my patterns. We'll see how that goes.

Inspiration

2007-08-02T20:02:00.000-07:00

What you have here is a 1908 St. Louis Americans Warm Up Jacket. That's baseball. We're looking at trying to replicate this as our big fall project. We're perplexed about the fabric choice, though. What do you think? Corduroy? Flannel? Boiled wool? Nothing seems just right, and all we've got to go on is a photo in an auction catalog Josh picked up at Powell's. The plan we're thinking about right now is to go for a gray corduroy (because it's relatively cheap) for the first one, pretty much copying the styling as much as we can---with the exception of the wacky button placement. Then, if that works out, maybe Josh will go for a Cincinnati Reds-inspired version in red wool.

It'll also give Josh a chance to mess around with his favorite sewing technique---appliqué. No, we're not kidding. Josh loves appliqués.

BOOK REVIEW: Sew What! Skirts

2007-07-30T20:39:00.000-07:00

from sarah the sewist

A few months back, I had tendonitis in my right index finger and basically couldn’t do a whole lot involving my hands---including sewing, knitting, opening doors, that sort of thing. Around that time, to compensate for the fact
that I was totally and completely bored, I went on a book-buying binge. One of those books has been some fun inspiration and helped me indulge my love of oh-too-cute cotton prints.

That book is Sew What! Skirts, which is, as the title indicates, a book of skirt styles that you can create using different techniques that result in a unique set of 16 skirt “patterns.” The authors utilize two basic formulas---one for a straight skirt, one for an A-line---and offer lots of different combinations for fastenings, waistlines and embellishments to make the styles even more unique. In the book, they’ve used really unusual fabric combinations, such as a satiny quilted fabric combine with a super-short Asian-print overlay. Or Barbie-pink silk with a reverse apron that’s in even pinker organza. Or maybe boucle is more your style? They’ve created a unique wrap skirt closed using snap tape, with the hem left raw.

I have made three skirts utilizing the book so far.

First, inspired by the "Asian Dream" skirt:

This skirt utilized an aqua and brown fabric from Michael Miller called "Cute Diamonds." To create this skirt, I used the top of a straight skirt to create a yoke. I inserted a back zipper and utilized a brown bias tape waistband. The rest of the skirt was created by making a large single pleat in both the front and back of the skirt and two small pleats on the sides. I thought the skirt was complete, and tried it on for Josh. He commented on how nice the bias tape waistband looks, and then said, "What don't you trim the hem in the same stuff?" Josh was, of course, correct. The brown bias tape hem really takes the skirt from being pretty cute, to one that get complements each time I wear it.

The next was the one that actually fits me better than just about anything I own. (The Cute Diamonds skirt's a little too big.)This fabric is one that I picked up from Bolt's remnant basket (seriously, the best two square feet of fabric deals anywhere), and I'm not sure of the manufacturer.

This is the most basic A-line with a bias tape waistband and a side zip. I used a blind hem to finish it off.

And, finally, my banana bike skirt:

This was inspired by "Country Charm" with a little "Chinese Takeout" thrown in for good measure. This skirt, of course, has a story. We went to Fabric Depot during one of their many 30% off sales. Saw the Free Spirit/Heather Ross fabric from the "Lightning Bugs" collection that is not only pink, not only the softest cotton poplin ever, but has bikes on it that look just like the super-awesome banana seat bike I had as a kid (yes, it was pink). It had to be a skirt. Unfortunately, it's also very see-through. So, I located some snazzy eyelet for an underlayer. Unfortunately, the eyelet was very ill-behaved, and caused me all kinds of problems when sewing. So, I ended up calling in reinforcements in the form of lace trim to disguise my funky-looking hemming and called it a day. I think my banana bike skirt's awesome. I get a lot of comments on it, but it's very pink, which seems to be a little off-putting to people who aren't into color. Just an observation.

After sewing three skirts from Sew What! Skirts, I really do think it's a fantastic book. It's not going to challenge your sewing skills, unless you're a fairly novice sewer-sewist, but the authors have done two things very, very well. First, they've really provided anyone, regardless of experience and skill level, with the basics to make a fun, useful skirt wardrobe. The possibilities really are endless with just the two basic styles. Second, and the thing I appreciate the most, is that the book encourages you to experience with fabric combinations, layering, embellishments and various closures and finishes. Sometimes, all you need is a little inspiration. Those two things alone make it worth the $16.95 price tag.

The SewER

2007-07-28T08:45:00.000-07:00

from josh the sewer

Here is a little bit about me and my sewing (I don't have, at the moment, any great projects to share):

1. I can use the sewing machine well and even sew straight
2. I suck at pinning
3. Patterns still don't make much sense to me, I can make a garment but I need my co-host to help me figure out "what's next?"
4. I have a problem cutting the seams to close, this has resulted in having to re-sew the seams on the raglan shirt I am working on and a hole in my pants (errrrrrr)
5. I like cotton "chillin' shirts"
6. I once (not too long ago) "incredible hulked" a shirt I was working on; I thought the sewing was wrong, but turns out the cutting was bad. It was a muslin, so not a huge loss
7. I am not very good with scissors
8. I have 8 yards of double knit polyester in the garage, but I hate it
9. My goal is to make a really nice "throwback" baseball jersey and to use scissors well; one is possible, the other, maybe not
10. I really like texture
11. I am obsessed with piping (but I like to call it pipping (soft "i").

Back to the Rose City Textiles Sale

2007-07-27T22:59:00.000-07:00

Columbus Crew Major League Soccer team jersey fabric. White on white.

Need we said more?

Bag Lady

2007-07-27T21:53:00.001-07:00

from sarah the sewist

I've been on a mild bag-making spree, and Josh is proving to be a very valuable adviser in creating extremely cool messenger bags, one for me and one for my mom for her birthday.

First, my Will the Wolf Survive? messenger bag:

Now maybe the fabric designer wasn't inspired by the Los Lobos song, but it's been on Josh's playlist (you know, the one in his head that he sings out loud since we're the last Gen-Xers in America that don't have an iPod) ever since I bought this fabric.This is one of the the most wonderful fabrics ever, designed by Japanese artist Etsuku Furuya, made by Enchino.

I have been carrying this bag every day since it was completed and got the ultimate compliment when Josh and I were grocery shopping the other night. Our cashier first asked me where I got my bag, and after I told her that I made it myself, she asked me if I'd considering making one for her. This was a wild experience, and I can't get over it. I really don't like the idea of someone else having "my bag," though, so for now, it's just something to inflate my ego about to sewing skills and funky aesthetic sensibilities.

The second, the This Thing is So Wildly Over-the-Top that My Mom's Bound to Love It Bag:

The fabric is from the new Amy Butler "Nigella" line, and it's really my mom's style... And really not mine.

There's a special message for my mom hidden on the inside of the strap:

It's not any fancy-schmancy machine embroidery (and you know I didn't do it by hand, due to my strict no hand-sewing policy), our little Kenmore's monogramming feature didn't do half bad.

Josh has a theory that pretty much everything can be improved if you add piping, and I think that my mom's bag kind of proves his point. The piping really does put the bag in the realm of over-the-top that's just right for our purposes.

Sporty Fabric Haul

2007-07-26T22:12:00.000-07:00

In our ongoing quest to identify and procure the perfect vintage-style baseball flannel (more on that later), we visited Rose City Textiles deep in the heart of Portland's Northwest Industrial District this weekend. We'd read that they sold fabrics mostly for active wear, and thought they may sell the perfect stretchy wool flannel. They didn't. But it was an experience nonetheless.

We walked in, and were greeted with, "Are you here for the sale?"

Looking at each other, "Uhhh, okay."

We were led through the store (Sarah was momentarily distracted en route but some interesting-looking bamboo knit) to the back, which was an enormous warehouse with rolls of fabric of all colors, textures and types piled on shelves. Our friendly guide to the store then said, gesturing at the piles,

"All this back here is a buck a yard."

We stood there and watched him walked away. It was a heady, overwhelming experience, because this place sells fabric that's from all of the big active wear retailers: Nike, Adidas, Columbia and lots of the designers and boutiques. Literally, there were piles of stuff that we civilians can't normally buy.

Sifting through the piles and piles of huge bolts of fabrics, we found some gems. Josh discovered what's probably the coolest fabric in the haul---a strechy fabric for basketball uniforms from Nike that was the fabric worn by the USA Men's Basketball Team. Does it get any better than fabric AND basketball? Josh also found some interesting red and white soccer jersey fabric and felt the need to purchase quite a bit of red ribbing---and they through in the trimmings from the ribbing as well, so we now have a big pile of red ribbing sitting on the sewing room floor. Sarah found great high-end raincoat material in both brown and blue (the cool satiny stuff) and then went a little crazy and bought who-knows-how-much smoky-purple organic cotton knit that was the EXACT same as her favorite hoodie from JJill. Because you really need lots and lots of purple hoodies. Oh, yeah, and we won't even talk about the hottest of hot pink knit that made its way home with us as well.

All and all, it was pretty awesome. Thirty-eight dollars (and at least 50 yards of fabric---they threw in extras), we loaded the loot into the MINI Cooper---which was a story in and of itself---and headed home, high on the excitement of scoring the weirdest lot of random fabric ever...