Muslin FAIL – PEBCMAS

I put together a muslin yesterday for a really cute top that I hope will be flattering and comfortable while being very versatile.  I used Vogue 8815 and attempted view C.  This is a Very Easy Vogue pattern and it is very easy.  Just a few simple pieces and it sews up quickly.

The issue is not with Vogue.  If you know the acronym PEBKAC, you know what happened here.

Problem Exists Between Cutting Mat and Scissors

• I did not do any re-measuring of myself.
• I did not do any measuring of the pattern pieces to compare to similar finished garments I might own.
• I did not put the pieces on Beulah Lou (my dressmaker’s form).

So, there you go.  I basted everything together in just a few minutes and attempted to put it on.

Muslin FAIL.  The arms are way too tight.  The front piece is so tight it looks like I’m trying to bind my chest.  The waist is a good 3 inches or more too high in the front.

I almost had to Hulk-out to get the thing off!

The postives:

• I will remember that I am not a standard pattern size, therefore I must measure and make adjustments.
• I will be happy that I created a muslin out of pattern paper that I can now adjust.
• I will use my dressmaker’s form.
• I will learn from my mistakes!

Cutting corners, being lazy or undisciplined, or just slacking doesn’t yield good results when sewing.

Preparation is Key

Today I cut out 3 patterns. One I cut out on my Swedish pattern paper because I expect to need to make some changes. The other two are both stretch fabrics – my first stretch fabric attempts. I will say that the serrated Gingher scissors I bought upon the advice of Susan Khalje were a great investment. They grip slippery fabrics so you can cut two layers easier.

I must decide how to get an appropriate cutting table. Bending over the dining room table does not make my arthritic back happy. I think I could put bed risers under the table legs which would make it pretty much perfect until we tried to sit down to dinner. I’ll have to think of a more practical solution.

It took several hours to prep, layout, pin, then cut out. I believe that prepping before sewing is the bulk of the “heavy lifting” in sewing. For me, it is the most physically uncomfortable part. However, once it is done, the rest of the process is cake!

So, next step is to sew up the pieces!

Sewing for the Modern Teen, pt 2

For a quick win and because we had enough fleece left-over, Skippy made a small envelope back pillow cover for a 12″ x 12″ pillow insert. This lesson involved more about placement of fabrics with defined patterns and also matching patterns or lines in a pattern to keep the finished product looking nice and neat.

Take a look!

He used the Baby Lock Elizabeth for the envelope back seams and the Baby Lock Audrey serger to finish out the pillow cover. He says the serger is not his friend but since it was the better tool for the project, he bravely used it anyway. Since the pillow cover may be used quite a bit and spend plenty of time being washed and dried, he wanted the most stable seams possible.

Another excellent sewing project from Skippy!

Sewing for the Modern Teen

My 14 year old stepson asked if “we” could make his new (and first) niece a baby blanket. I said, “Sure, you can do that!” I showed him my stash of pink flannel and other girly fabrics. He was not inspired. We went to the local fabric store and he picked out University of Alabama fleece for the backing then a black/red/white flannel plaid, and a solid red flannel for the quilt top. This tiny little girl will have her first and very own ‘Bama Blanket – Roll Tide! (Apparently, his mom and her entire family are rabid ‘Bama fans.)

As you may know, determining how many squares and of what size requires – wait for it – MATH! Gasp! The horror! Now, Skippy is not a huge fan of the math. I feel his pain since it wasn’t my best subject, either. But we sat down and drew some pictures and used some graph paper and a calculator to come up with the correct numbers. He decided on a 24″ x 24″ quilt so he needed 9 squares that were 8″ x 8″. Of course, we had to discuss seam allowance, so he ended up cutting out 9 squares that were 9″ x 9″. I thought a generous seam allowance would be a safe decision for this first project.

We pinned the squares together and he sewed the first 3 strips. Then we pinned the strips together and he sewed those together to get the quilt top.

Although he had a general idea of how the top would look, the concept of how it would actually come together wasn’t there until he finished the last stitch and held up the finished top. I must say that he was pretty danged impressed with himself and for good reason! Take a look at this -

He put the fleece on the back and we talked about placement of fabric with a design so it doesn’t look wonky. After pinning the front to the back, he learned how to “stitch in the ditch” and sewed two seams across his rows to add stability to the blanket when it is washed and used. I am going to finish the binding for him with a pretty black satin blanket binding ‘cuz I’m a nice Evil Stepmom like that.

The embroidery you see is the little girl’s name with her first inital “A” in a style that is similar to the University of Alabama “A”.

I think Skippy did a great job and his niece is a lucky little girl!

Stitch & Slash – Final Project

A pillow made in my Stitch & Slash online class at Craftsy.com. Four layers of fabric are sewn together. The layers are then removed, one at a time, to reveal the bottom layer. Additonal decorative sewing elements are added. I stuffed each “pouch” to create additional interest before adding a red twill back and a final loose stuffing.

The 4th of July! Using My GoBar at a Cookout

Reblogged from Bucket List Publications:

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The 4th of July! The biggest party day in the USA is just around the corner. As new Charlotteans, we want to ring in the celebration with recently made friends and community members, but living in a small apartment while we search for a house makes it difficult to invite people into our "home". One benefit of living on the first floor, though, is that we have access to the grounds behind our apartment.

Read more… 480 more words

Super cute and creative idea!

Sewing my Stitch Library

I have a very nice Baby Lock sewing machine – the Elizabeth model. The machine comes loaded with all types of utility, quilting, and decorative stitches. I have only used about 5 of the 100+ options.

Craftsy.com offers many online, take-at-your-leisure crafting, sewing, knitting, etc classes. I have purchased four and gotten two at no charge. If you are interested in learning a new skill or technique, I highly recommend the Craftsy platform!

One of the classes I am currently working on is called Stupendous Stitching. This class teaches sewing, couching, and related techniques for creating fabric art. As part of the learning process, the students are asked to create a “Stitch Bible” of all the stitches on their personal sewing machines. By actually stitching out every option and assembling the “pages” in a “book” we will have the opportunity to learn more about our machines.

Our instructor, Carol Ann Waugh, advises to alter the stitch properties on each stitch to discover even more options than you see in the manual. A machine with 10 stitch options can have so many more options than just 10. By changing the stitch properties to make the stitch sorted, smaller, longer, taller the possibilities are amazing!  Ten stitches quickly becomes 20 and then 30 and so on.

My machine has 4 groups of stitches. The image above shows the first four “pages” of my stitch library. I have completed the first group, which is mostly utility stitches, and am little over half way through the second group of stitches. I have already learned a few things about my machine and discovered a few stitches that I will definitely want to use in the future! It feels really good to take the time to do this exercise because I paid a nice chunk of change for a good machine, so I really should learn all I can about what it will and won’t do, what it can and can’t do. Also, the more I use my machine, the better I become at using it.

Practice, practice, practice!

Boldly sewing,

MiMi

p.s. You can check out some of Carol Ann Waugh’s work on her Pinterest page!

Commission Project – Backgammon Pieces Bag

My friend Andy bought an incredibly beautiful Backgammon board from somewhere in the Middle East. Damascus, I think. He asked if I could make a bag for the game pieces. I was a little surprised that the game didn’t come with something for the game pieces, honestly. But, it didn’t, so I said I would make a bag. I bought a quarter yard of black velvet and found a remnant of red taffeta. I bought the main embroidery design from Urban Threads!, my most favorite-est embroidery design site evah! I arranged the monogram using Sew What Pro. I chose red for the lining and thread colors because the Backgammon board is made with inlaid red and white colors on the brown. I chose the embroidery design and monogram font because they have an ancient feel to them and the game board has a very antique feel to me. After stitching out the embroidery designs, I stitched up the drawstring bags – velvet outer bag and taffeta lining bag. I sewed gussets in the bag bottoms, so the bag will “sit” prettier. My husband said, “Nice! A custom-made Crown Royal bag!” as memories of Dungeons and Dragons danced in his head. I rolled my eyes. I’m pretty pleased with the results! I hope Andy will like it, too.

And here is the bag with the Backgammon board for which it was made.

Matryoska Doll Card

Sooo, we have a co-worker from Russia named Vladimir. His birthday is Saturday, so I thought I’d try to find something cool to make for him. (I make stuff for my co-workers from time to time and I always try to remember their birthdays.) I made a sign with a pic of Red Square and fireworks but that seemed so blah.

I usually make some kind of papercraft from Toy-of-the-Day or things I find on DeviantART. (I work in IT so I’ve put together plenty of daleks and the like.) For Vlad I thought maybe I could find papercraft Russian Nesting Dolls.

What I found was a Folding Matryoshka Doll Card where the smaller dolls fold up behind the larger dolls on the Zakka Life blog.

I printed the template on red and cream cardstock and cut everything out. I found some colorful fabric and used some craft glue to adhere the fabric to the doll card. While that dried, I made the little faces.

I used quilting adhesive to attach the face circles to a piece of ivory craft felt. I used a disappearing fabric pen to draw the hair outlines then used a tight zig-zag stitch on my BabyLock Elizabeth machine to fill in the hair.

Next I sewed green and pink beads on each face, using clear nylon thread and a super thin beading needle. After attaching the eyes and mouths, I made a little kerchief for each face from a scrap of baby blue felt left over from the Poodle Skirt project.

Finally, I glued each face to its body. Taaa-dah! There you have it – a handcrafted Folding Matryoshka Doll Card. The question now is whether or not I can bear to part with it!

Finally! A Diagnosis!

My chronic and seemingly never-ending back pain is Facet Joint Syndrome.  Basically, I have premature arthritis of the facet joints of my lumbar spine.  The facet joints are the little nobbly things you see on the vertebrae in pictures of a spine or on a skeleton.  Those little joints help keep the vertebrae from falling onto each other and make sure all stays separated appropriately.  My little joints have arthritis, so they are more easily inflamed by certain activities, such as walking and sitting for long periods of time.  (I guess all that time on the treadmill wasn’t doing as much good as it was doing harm. Ooops.  Who knew?)

So, a round of steroids and some physical therapy (in the pool – sweet!) and I should be right as rain!  I should be able to prevent future “episodes” of this magnitude by NOT walking too much, getting the right kind of exercise, and using over-the-counter medicines for the mild aches and pains.  The recommended exercises are yoga (with a knowledgeable teacher) and swimming. I’m all for that!

How does this affect my sewing?  It just means I have to make sure I have a good chair and I don’t overdo it.  I can handle that.  I’ll be back to my usual self in no time.  I’m sure of it!

Will be boldly sewing again before you know it!

MiMi