Repairs and a possible fix

Thanks for your comments on the Cosmo Bag!

Alas, a new needle has not solved the swishy sound my machine now makes with each stitch. Best guess is the metal shank thingie that moves the needle up and down is gently brushing against something else inside there out of sight. It's not interfering with performance (yet), but it's like an ill-fitting sneaker: you can go for a run but might come home with a blister. Further investigation will be left to the repair guy.

In the meantime, since it's now the weekend and the machine is still sewing okay, I probably won't be able to resist a few more seams before I take it in on Monday. And since the next 'palooza block will go live on Monday morning, I might even do that first thing. We'll see how any further weekend sewing goes.

Marie-Christine, something in your comment on shrinking curves led me to think about (next time) using some kind of light-weight, maybe wash-out, fusible strip to hold the edges of the clipped and turned-back curves in place. Having shrunk the pattern, I was working both with a narrower seam allowance (3/8" instead of 1/2") and a tighter curve, which I clipped generously. All those little clipped seam allowance bits did not stay pressed back, and wrestling with two facing layers of that and the curve was more work that it should have been. A strip of some kind of adhesive that would not interfere with sewing would have helped a lot.

Any ideas, readers? I haven't used that kind of product before, but I know they exist. It would have to be something narrow, that would follow a curve without puckering. I could even pick some up when I take my machine in on Monday.

Meanwhile, I'm previewing February's project, the "Reversible Everyday Shopper," and already thinking about how I'm going to change/resize that one.

my best friend: the seam ripper

Still waiting for that USB camera card reader. Online tracking says it left Honolulu yesterday, so should arrive in my PO Box today, but I've got too much to do to drive over to the other side of town to pick it up. Maybe I'll have some fresh pics for you on Monday afternoon? If I'm not too frantically trying to catch up on everything I have/want to do before departure for the east coast on Tuesday am.

Lots of sewing this week. A bit too much. I do best with short sewing sessions. When I keep going and going I am prone to stupid user errors. Like sewing the yoke onto my black stretch twill pants (Jalie 2908, wide legged version #2) backwards. A fixable error, but one I wish I'd noticed before I zigzag-finished the raw edges and added two rows of top-stitching. Oh well. It's all been picked apart and pressed back into shape, and as soon as I finish up here and get a little more caffeine in me I'll go put it back together again the right way.

I also produced an epic fail of Vogue 8323, the cowl-neck version:

It sewed up easily enough. I reduced the (ginormously long) cowl by half, by cutting on the "fold here" line, and stabilized the shoulder seams. But I wanted full-length sleeves, and when I tried it on the weight of the sleeves pulled the cowl neck sideways and that mid-shoulder princess seam ended up off the edge of my shoulder. The problem is that my fabric, although "light weight" as in thin and stretchy, is too "heavy" (as in weighty, not thick) for this style, and the wide cowl makes stabilizing the neck impossible. PR reviewers who've made this version have commented that a lightweight, droopy fabric (which mine is) is necessary for this view because a too-stable knit makes the cowl impossibly high and awkward.

I am very sorry I used some of my good fabric for this one. It might be possibly to save it: I'm thinking of, first, cutting the sleeve off to a minimal cap sleeve or, if that doesn't work, removing the sleeves entirely, and maybe taking an inch off each side of the cowl. I think without the sleeves it might be okay. It might even be better than okay. But sleeveless is not what I need to go in my suitcase, so any rescue operations on this one will have to wait until I get back from my trip. Unless a miracle happens and I end up with an hour or two of free time between now and Tuesday morning.
 
The bigger disappointment is that I had the cross-front version of this top (with sleeves added) in mind for another print in this same rayon jersey, and now I don't dare attempt it. I've had this fabric for a couple of years now, and want very much to make something with it, but finding the right pattern remains elusive. I may fall back on my TNT Santa Monica T, but had hoped to find something with a little more styling detail.
 
I've also made five (5!) "origami bag" zip pouches from Amy Butler's new book, Style Stitches: 12 Easy Ways to 26 Wonderful Bags
 

This book is GORGEOUS, one of the most beautifully photographed and designed books I've ever oogled over, and worth spending time with for eye candy fun even if you aren't much into bag sewing. The Origami bag is the only pattern from the book I've made so far, and is a nifty little design in six different sizes. I found a few parts of the instructions less than crystal clear the first time through, but having made one the rest were quick and easy. Several of mine are not to Amy's proportions, as I was working with pieces from the "large scraps" quilting drawer and using odds and ends of whatever bag-weight interfacing I could find. They all turned out great, though, and all the little crap I'm taking with me will now be sublimely organized.
 
Pics of these cuties will follow eventually. In the meantime, someone has posted a page-shot of the Origami Bag to Flickr here.

buttonhole relevation

Oh, the joy and convenience of the one-step, push a button and watch it go, buttonhole function! My sewing projects are not buttonhole intensive, but when I've got one (or several) to do, I love that the machine does all the work for me, so almost-automatically.

My practice pair of jeans are this close to done. They still need to be hemmed. And they still need a buttonhole.

The test buttonhole was perfect (and so easy!), but when I set up to do the one on the waistband there was a snag. Literally. The back of the buttonhole foot -- which on my machine sticks out quite a way -- got hung up on the finished belt loop above the pocket, all forward motion of fabric under the needle ceased (just too much going on to fit under the b'hole foot, in spite of vigorous tugging and vocal encouragement from the machine operator) and I had to abort the mission.

Too bad I followed the Jalie assembly instructions so slavishly and slowly, making sure I'd completed each step before moving on to the next. If I'd left the beltloops unfinished (i.e., dangling from the bottom of the waistband, and not yet folded up and stitched into place), doing a keyhole buttonhole by machine woulda been a piece of cake.

Now I have to do the buttonhole by hand (snort: not hardly likely!). Or rip out a double row of tiny, narrow, zig-zag topstitching on the belt loop to make room for the machine to do its thing, and then redo it. Or make a plain buttonhole backwards -- with that pesky belt-loop in front of the presser foot during construction, instead of behind it --but I prefer a keyhole style for a shank button and am not quite ready to give up on it.

Any decision on how to proceed has been tabled until after lunch. My creative ingenuity, decision-making skills, and tolerance for fiddly little details all plummet when I'm hungry.

In the meantime, I've written a large correction to the instructions for next time: "Do the buttonhole BEFORE sewing that last belt loop into place!"

It's very possible that some helpful reviewer (or many of them) posted a comment about this somewhere on the several PR jeans threads or in the 71 Jalie 2908 reviews, but you could make several pairs of jeans in the time it would take to read through all of that info, so I've done no more than glance at it.

I've got a muslin of Butterick 5238 (knit top) ready to go, so I might take a break from the jeans and work on that this afternoon.

********
2PM update: the buttonhole is done. With 10 styles to choose from, I found one that is reinforced at the back, then sewed it in reversed position, so the reinforcement is at the zip end. Problem solved.

Kyoto Skirt (muslin) photos

Yeah, took a while to get these taken. Here it is all, in all its a-size-too-small glory. I don't normally go around in skin-tight anything, but wanted a short-ish top for the photos, and this one was handy. I figured I'm documenting how I look in a skirt that's tighter than I'd wear in public, why not continue that theme on the top half?

Not a bad looking skirt, from this angle. I might even wear it, if I can shrink down enough to eliminate the slight pulling across the hips.

This back view's okay, too, considering.

I'm liking the pockets today. All these pastel florals are a bit frou-frou for me, but I might actually wear this some day. If it weren't for this view:

I don't know if this is just too much godet for my booty, or if it's purely a size issue, or if it's just starting at the worst place on my butt.

It didn't occur to me until I saw this shot that godet placement might be a problem. Ordinarily I add at least 1" to any skirt, often 2", as I'm 2"-4" taller than patterns are designed for. But this one I left alone, because out of the envelope it's exactly the length I was going for (the front hits just at mid-knee, which is shorter than as shown in the illustrations and HotPatterns videos). On the other hand, I'm wearing this about an inch below my "natural waist" since that's where I like my skirts to sit. So you'd think those two factors would cancel each other out.

I do still want to make this from a solid, lightweight twill, with all the bias trim and top-stitching. But I think I'll put this pattern on back burner for a bit. Going up a size is easy enough, but I don't like all of those folds of fabric bursting out of my butt, and will need to mull over what to do about that.

Japanese dress #1

I knew it would be a bear, going in: I'm tall, barrel-chested, and increasingly chunky as I move into middle age. In other words, shaped not even remotely like the typical figure for which these Japanese patterns are drafted (ISBN 978-4579111497):


Given all that, I did reasonably well adapting (with much measuring, head-scratching, and hoping for the best) a sleeveless version of dress #23 to my shape and size. Here's the cheap cotton "wearable muslin" for what I'd hoped would be a repeatable "ATR" (around the house) dress:



The skirt, back and midriff came out fine, but I flubbed the bodice front. I sized it up and made it longer (even American patterns are 1-2" too short in the front torso for me) which turned out to be too big. Then I butchered trimming it down again, which is totally because I was tired and impatient and I should have known better than to keep going at that point. The funny pleats at the shoulder are because at try-on stage I discovered the shoulders were much wider than I wanted and I was too lazy/slapdashy to recut them, and just took a quickie pleat in the middle of each instead.

Even with such a flawed, ill-fitting bodice it's a serviceable garment, which is what I was aiming for. I'm wearing it right now and it's comfy enough that I probably will attempt it again someday. The challenge of getting the bodice to fit is far from solved, though, and some time needs to go by before I'll feel up for round two of redrafting.

I am pleased that I (deliberately) cut the midriff a bit loose, because, combined with the deep V neck, it means this can be a pull-on: no zipper required! The loose cut was planned with steamy weather in mind, the zipper-omission a happy coincidence. Of course, I discovered that after I'd done an astonishly good job installing the invisible zip. But if I don't need the zip, why waste it, so I ripped that all out and stitched up the center back seam.

You may be thinking, as I am, that for all that work it's a remarkably unflattering garment (I may not be slim, but I'm really not as chunky as I look in this dress). The thing is, I desperately need more lightweight, "breathable" (in both fabric and cut) dresses to wear around the house all summer. So I'm aiming for steamy-day comfort here, with no intention of ever appearing in public in it. That's what ATR dresses are for. I've got some more in the works, as I slog ever-onward in my quest for a truly great "TNT" (tried and true) ATR dress pattern. This isn't it, but at least I've got one more thing to wear on a warm day.

New Look 6682

The thing about this pattern is I didn't pick it out. I ordered New Look 6688 (a blouse) online, and received this one in the mail instead. Gee, all that lacing and ruffles: so not my thing.

I offered to return it, but the nice folks at Simplicity said no worries, they'd send me the correct one (which they did, very promptly) and to keep this with their apologies.

So, in a moment of metaphysical pondering ("everything happens for a reason") I thought maybe some great seamstress in the sky was hinting I ought to give this a go. And, once I rummaged around in the stash, I thought it might be just the thing for one of the many Amy Butler prints I've indulged in the past year or so, but haven't made anything from yet.

I made View C, that's the one on the right in the middle row, above. It's got a tad more shaping at the bottom than the plain-jane version, without the frills.

The waist is unfinished here. I'm showing this pic to illustrate how RIDICULOUS!!! the ease on this pattern is. The waist size on this skirt (at this point in construction) is 6.5" -- that's six and a half inches -- wider than the waist measurement for the pattern size. Yes, it's supposed to sit "1" below the natural waist," but sheesh. I don't know about your shape, but I have plenty of curves and even I don't spread out that much that fast.

Check out that photo again: where's the waist??? Had to admit I saw this coming. It's a six-panel skirt, so no darts, and gee, that waist taper on each panel piece just didn't look like it was gonna add up to much. And it didn't.

Other sewists have commented on this problem at Pattern Review. Which is severe. It's not like there's a waistband to hold this up. How hard is it to figure out that if you have a "no waistband" design, it should be a snug fit at the waist so it doesn't fall down around your knees? If this had been, oh, 2" bigger I could have skipped the zip, stuck some elastic at the top, and called it a pull-on.

The fabric looks good in this pattern though, so that turned out okay. And, after I went back and tapered in the top 10" of every panel seam except the one with the zip, it fits... better. The tapers I made to get the darned thing to stay up don't match my natural tapers very well, but I'm not going to redo them.

Another issue I have with this is that I added 2" to the length, and it's still not as long as the design should be to really look good. Simplicity/New Look, in my opinion, often miss good proportions by just enough to be clunky rather than as graceful and stylish as they could be. The model in the envelope photo doesn't look thrilled with it, either, like she's thinking "Gee, guys, this isn't your best effort."

Another peeve: the flounce in the back is not as well proportioned to the skirt length as it looks like it is in the line drawing:

Anyway, this one is now done. I finished the waist with a quilt-type double-fold binding, which worked fine. And I'll wear it, now and then. But I don't love it, and doubt I'll ever make it again.

Taxi Tote: Plan B

I couldn't leave it alone. I really wanted to get to work on this bag (and yes, that's partly due to the urge to procrastinate on some other stuff on my to do list), and didn't want to wait until I have a new sewing machine (could be months, or longer) to do it.

So, Plan B:

First, I cut the pocket from the curved between-the-strap pieces left over from cutting the body because they are a nice shape and why not use up those scraps. I used two pocket pieces and stitched around sides/bottom RST, turned and pressed, then added a teeny pleat in the center top, and trimmed the top edge with a bias strip to match bag lining:

Then I assembled the outside (underlined with flannel) and lining bags. Here they are, ready to go, including a button loop on the lining:

At this point I left and did some grocery shopping, thinking I was done with this for the day.

Still couldn't leave it alone, so got back to work on it after errands. Next up was the tricky bit. I needed to make a third "body" from the too-stiff-too-heavy interfacing I planned to use. I'd cut it to size, but decided to trim the seam allowance off to minimize bulk.

I cut another piece of even stiffer interfacing to fit the bottom of the bag, and slip-stitched it in place to the SA on the ends. (Here it is, before stitching down. Above it is one side of the bag body interfacing; the bottom, instead of being seamed, will slip below the heavy interfacing piece. Had another pic that showed that better, but it was unusably out of focus).

I used the triple-zig-zag stitch to sew the sides of the interfacing together, just abutting, so no overlap or seam allowance. That photo didn't come out either; I seem to be an even worse photographer than usual today, sorry about that.

At this point I've got: exterior bag, lining bag, interfacing bag. After a tremendous amount of fiddling (the flannel-interfacing combo was ultra non-stick, didn't make it easy), pinning, and a few curses, I got the lining bag inserted into the exterior and pinned in place.

So far so good, and hey, it's got "standup-ability":

Then, more fiddling, adjusting, fussing, and pinning, and the lining is in there, too:

Now I just need to trim all those layers around the body-strap edges so they're even, and sew bias trim around the openings to finish it off (and hold it all together).

I suspect the bias trim might be a bit tricky, too (am still having doubts about my machine's willingness to handle all those layers) plus I haven't cut the bias strips yet. This time I really am done for the day.

Wish me luck with the finishing bit.

Hope to get to that tomorrow.

Procrastination = Progress (?!)

All my free time this week has gone into two monster UFOs:

1) The first draft of what I am starting to think of as "the never-ending novel," blogged here.

2) Completing the ZigZag quilt before house guests arrive next weekend because it's cool at night and the house is one blanket short for the number of beds that will be slept in. I'm using a flannel sheet as batting, machine quilting in a random meander that roughly follows the implied grid of the zigzag. That description will make sense when I post photos, which I will do when it's done.

This means I've done nothing toward troubleshooting Butterick 5210. It's been hanging in my dressing room (where I will see it daily and therefore, one hopes, not forget about it for months), and whaddayaknow... the fabric has relaxed a bit and now the pooching isn't so bad. Still there, but now the side silhouette is only slightly distressing, not downright horrifying.

It appears I should be blaming my fabric afterall (I checked the envelope and it says "lightweight broadcloth" which I misinterpretted as "lightweight cottons" in general). I suspect that there's just enough traces of wax in the batik fibers to keep the weave from relaxing sufficiently to resolve the pooching problem. Oh well. I'm going to go ahead and finish it. When I have time. That may not be for a while.

But this gives me hope for trying again with a looser fabric. Like all that leftover home dec I've been highlighting recently. Not as "lightweight" as the batik, but a loose weave that should relax very nicely.

Oh, wait. If I use that fabric, I'll want to underline it. I wonder if that will cause problems, too?

Only one way to find out.

Problems with Butterick 5210

I’ve started on this dress (view B), using the combo of brown and blue batiks that I test-drove in my fave housedress recreation.

Want to make sure it's a keeper before cutting into my good fabric.

I’m this far into construction:

Side seams are basted for initial try-on, and the yoke and shoulders are done (including hand-sewing facing inside, done while watching a Netflix movie last night) arms not hemmed yet. It will have a blue band at the hem, too, eventually, but I’m going to make sure the rest of it is okay before adding that.

I’m thrilled with the boat neck yoke. It was easy to do, looks even better than I’d hoped, and sits perfectly on my shoulders. Yay. THIS part of the dress so far is a great success:


It’s THIS part that’s the problem:

You can’t see it well, ‘cause the batik print is camouflaging the folds, but the pleats at the front yoke are causing a poochy bubble of fabric over the ribs and belly. I’m poochy enough in that area on my own, thank you, don’t need any additional pooching from my clothes!

Here it is from the side. Sorry for the crappy shot, but you can see the problem:

My fabric is partly to blame, I think. I love the look of batiks, but they’re on the stiff side. Probably a nice drapy rayon or wool challis wouldn’t hang so horribly, but I live in Hawaii and challis of any kind is just too hot.

I wonder what kind of fabric the dress in the envelope photo is made from? (I notice neither the photo nor the fashion sketches show an alarmingly unflattering fabric bubble in the belly area; thanks for leaving that detail out, Butterick.) Does it look ghastly from the side on their skinny model, too, or is it just me?

I concede that the bubble might also be due in part to the fact I’ve got a few more curves than the typical model. But hey, my measurements exactly match the size I’m making (not telling you what size that is, but according to the chart I’m a perfect size [XX]). So shouldn’t this dress fit a little bit better?

If I didn’t like the dress from the front so much I might just give up at this point, rip out the side seams and reuse the fabric for something else (placemats?). But from the front it’s so nice, simple yet sophisticated. Comfy, too. I really want to love this dress.

So, I’m gonna try to fix it. As a barely-above-beginner seamstress this threatens to be beyond my capabilities. I hardly know where to begin.

Add a bust dart to the side seam?

Taper the side seams more?

I’m realizing how much easier redoing this would be if I had a dress form.

But I don’t. I’ll have to wing it.

I can already see two issues I’m going to wrestle with:

1) Although this is essentially a loose and roomy dress, it’s not voluminous. There’s some wiggle room in the side seams, but not enough for major reconstruction, especially if the solution is to let a seam out more.

2) I skipped the center back seam and zipper, and just cut the back on the fold. (Lost a teeny bit of shaping there, but not much, and the back looks fine. It's the front that's the problem.) I checked with a measuring tape before cutting: unless you have a ginormous head or Dallas-sized hair this can be a pull-on. But now I’m limited in how much I can take in anything at the sides if I’m gonna be able to get in and out of it. I could, if I have to, split the back and put a zipper in, but that would be a pain in the tush and I don’t want to.

I’ll keep you posted. Hate to put this dress in the UFO pile – had thought I’d just whip it up over the weekend – but other things demand my attention. I’ll get back to it, but not today.