Weinachts Kleidung - Kapitel Zwei

I mentioned in previous posts that I had corduroy enough for overalls for Brody. Ta da!!


Brody, like his father, James loves all things with wheels, so naturally I embroidered a little car on them. Of course, when I say "I embroidered" I really mean that I engaged my Elna Embroidery machine (which I got for Christmas last year) to do it.





I had some leftovers of velour that I wanted to use, but there wasn't enough for leggings like his girls cousins (which is just as well, as I doubt his father would have encouraged his dressing to match girls), or a T-shirt as I had hoped, so I went scrounging in my stash. Voila! I found remnants of a wonderfully soft, super-fuzzy white sweatshirt fleece. I have no clue what was the original garment from whence this came. I haven't bought any sweatshirt fleece since we moved to Texas 16 years ago. I brought with me a considerable collection that I had purchased in Tacoma, WA, and have been using it on the rare occaisions that I feel the need to make something that warm in this hot, humid climate. So, I've had this piece for a while. It was just enough to get the body and sleeves of a shirt for Brody, and I cut the neck and sleeve bands and pocket out of the leftover velour.




Naturally, the shirt's pocket needed a little red car, too.




What do you think??? Fergus likes it!!

Weinachts Kleidung

A month or so ago I won a raffle bag at our local quilt club meeting (you may read our monthly newsletters, and get info regarding meetings at: http://panola-co.tamu.edu -- all are welcome) that contained 1-yd cuts of 5 coordinating fabrics. {and, may I just say: "Yippeeeee!!!!!} One of the fabrics, however, didn't look as good with the other 4 as they did with each other. When I pulled it out of the stack, and scrutinized it by itself, I immediately thought: little girl's dress!

Since I hadn't yet sewn clothes for Emma Rose, I decide to make an outfit for her. The print reminded me of the one's worn on the show Little House on the Prairie, so I set about making a dress in that style. I thought that a pinafore over it would just be the thing to finish off the look, and yet, I didn't stop there. It's cold in Pennsylvania where Emma Rose lives (see: http://varinascostume.blogspot.com/ for commentary), so I made a jumper out of corduroy, and added matching velour leggings. As a bonus - the velour is so wide that I had enough fabric to get Myra leggings, too. Also: the corduroy was on sale for such a great price, I bought enough to make Brody David overalls. I cut them out this morning, and am hoping (fingers crossed!) to get them finished and wrapped by Christmas.



Here is the whole outfit together. The dress is McCall's 4641, altered only by lining the bodice of self fabric. The jumper is Butterick 4009, altered only by lining the bodice of matching Ambience leftover from a skirt of mine. The leggings are from the Ottobre magazine issue #04/2004-2.

What do you think???

It doesn't fit -- how can this be?????

Sewing has always fascinated me, from the artistic aspect -- which buttons with which fabric? --- to the mathematical -- manipulating a plane, a 2-dimensional object, to fit a body, a 3-dimensional object -- what's not to love?? Sometimes it frustrates me, but that can be fascinating, too. This is one of those times.





Whilst attaching the facing of this blouse to the front panels, I was horrified (NOT too strong a word, considering the price of the fabric, and its local unavailability) to discover that the pieces didn't fit by several inches. How can this be??? They were cut at the same time, using the same pattern pieces. They were certainly the same size when I cut them out 6 weeks ago!



Two explanations, which are both applicable: 1) the facing piece must have shrunk somewhat when I steam-fused the interfacing to it, and, 2) the front panel must have stretched somewhat when I ironed it flat, post-application. [remember my virgin post of "pressing vs. ironing"]

Okay. Now what? I see 2 options, here:
1) Cut off the longer piece to fit the shorter one. I immediately reject this one, as it requires that I cut the entire hem by 3 inches, causing the blouse to land at a very unflattering spot on my prodigious, now completely useless, child-bearing hips. This could be, however, a great option for other projects.
2) Stretch to fit. This worked for me. Since the edge had a decided curve to it (read: bias), it stretched nicely without any risk of tearing. The interfacing I used was a weft-knit, and had some stretch to it, as well. This did, however, leave me with another conundrum: puckers on the larger piece - the one that shows. S * I * G * H There really is only one solution to this:

Lie. Lie, until your pants actually burst into flames. If the puckers' location is symmetrical, and not-unflattering, you may pretend that they are a design element. (" I meant to do that.")
Said with enough bravado, this method could fool Chanel herself. Add a note of incredulity to your voice, and a look of disdain to your countenance, and the questioner will regret having raised the question. Practice with me now: "This? Why ---- it's a design element!"




Well, there is another option. One that I attempted with mixed results: press the little buggers out.
The trick here is to relax the fibers as much as possible, manipulate their shape to the one desired, and fix that shape permanently. Saturating the fabric with water will relax the fibers nicely, and your iron will seal the deal. I keep a mister bottle full of distilled water nearby for just this purpose. Why distilled water, instead of tap? I want no risk of mineral deposits marring the finish of a fine fabric.

Here are the results. Not bad, eh? I retain the option of lying, as I have that 'look of disdain' down pretty well.

Now --- on to the collar!

Emma Rose's Muppet Blankie

I confess: I am not much of a knitter. Oh, I know -- people who don't know how to knit at all think that I am wildly talented. My daughters are not in that group. [see:http://katiekadiddlehopper.blogspot.com/ and http://varinascostume.blogspot.com]

My pitiful knitting efforts are mostly confined to blankets, scarves, and flat things without fit or shape. very. basic. knitting.

Once in a while, however, I see a yarn that must be made into a baby's blankie. Such was the case with this lovely, feathery, brightly-coloured yarn. I saw it last June, when my youngest granddaughter, Emma Rose, was still a grandfetus; but I knew the blankie had to be.

Why do I call it the Muppet blankie??? There's a story: when I first spied the yarn, it was its paler, more dignified pastel cousin that I intended to use. However, my daughter, Varina was shopping with me, and she preferred the bright one, claiming that it would bring favor with Emma Rose's dad, as it represented the colors of Muppets Sesame Street characters. A spirited (read: knock-down, drag-out) conversation ensued, culminating in my calling my son for his opinion. Daniel did, in fact, prefer the Muppet colours.

Only after starting the blankie was Varina's diabolical long-term plan revealed: she intends to wait 4 - 5 years, when Emma Rose is thoroughly enthralled with all things Sesame Street, and tell her that the blankie is made of actual Muppets. The yellow is Big Bird's feathers, the red is Elmo fur, the green is Oscar the Grouch hairs . . . Poor, poor Emma Rose.

My concerns may turn out to be moot. As you can see, when I laid the blankie out to take its picture, Fergus jumped on, and immediately settled in for some serious pur-r-r-r-r-ing.















I may need to get some more yarn for Emma Rose.

It will be genteel pastels.

Black Friday deals

I must admit -- I am not generally a Black Friday shopper. There is hardly any bargain in the world worth getting up (or staying up) to stand in line in the dark, and fight crowds that will induce me to such behaviors. [I discourse in slightly greater length on this subject in my weekly column in the Panola Watchmen {http://panolawatchman.com/index121.htm}]
This year, however, I no longer live in a city that has ready access to all things retail, and I found myself visiting my daughter, and her family in Temple, TX. Hancock fabrics had a great sale on Vogue patterns that neither of us could resist (as, when have we tried?? OR: why would we????), so we braved Friday morning crowds, both of her little angels in tow to snap up some bargains. I got these:





The first two I bought because in the lines I saw many wearable art possibilities, and the others I liked pretty much as designed.


















Then, when Mitchell finished rounds and came home to watch the kids for us, we headed to Austin, because neither of us had yet visited The Domain; and we rightly assumed that most of the ultra-high-end stores there would not have Black Friday deals that would attract huge crowds. We were half right: no deals, huge crowds anyway.
En Route to The Domain we spotted a Jo-Ann's, and, as I was looking for corduroy to make a jumper for Emma Rose to match a particular calico, we braved the crowds.
I found the fabric I wanted, and some velour for leggings to match. The velour is so wide that Myra will also get leggings out of the cut, and the corduroy was such a steal that I bought what remained on the bolt, giving me enough fabric for overalls for Brody out of them.





Wasn't this supposed to be the year that Sarahbelle sewed for Sarah?????

s * i * g * h

Work in Progress

I've been outside of the sewing loop lately. Other aspects of my life have commanded my attention.
For the skirt I recently made (post of 17 Sept 2010), I sewed a casual bamboo knit top to go with it for casual/business casual events (post of 19 Sept 2010), but I wanted something more dressy also. A beautiful coral silk habutai that I bought from Thai Silks (http://thaisilks.com) at Expo this past March (post of 9 March 2010) is just the thing. It's not finished yet, but there is some progress:






It is all cut out of Vogue 8322, and interfacing - a medium-weight knit - is fused.










Buttons have been purchased that are so attractive as to serve for jewelry. [What was the thinking, here? I love getting new jewelry! Maybe it was that the coral-coloured stones on the buttons are fake. I should never wear real coral, as its production necessitates the destruction of a delicate biome, and I never wear fake jewelry, as -- why should I? -- my husband buys me the real stuff.]




Both machines are cleaned, oiled, have new needles and are threaded. Wait a minute -- both machines???? Since I am sewing a fine, drapey silk, oughtn't I construct with French seams instead of the serger???
















Review post of 27 Sept 2009 for the answer.

A Binding Proposition

I (with help from Pfaffie) am done quilting Emma Rose's blankie, so it is now time to bind the edges.
First, it is essential that you have the right equipment. Here is one of the most important pieces of equipment in my arsenal -- a kitty. Fergus likes to hang out nearby when I am working around the house. Here, he is napping atop my Embroidery machine. [Dust covers are another essential piece of equipment.] How does my kitty help the sewing/quilting process? He makes me smile. Smiling makes any endeavor seem to go faster.







Quilting done, the next step is to determine exactly the amount of overage needed to fold over the top, tuck under and bind.









There are 2 methods for doing this that I use: the first is to lay the quilt on a flat surface and fold and pin, re-fold and re-pin, basically play with it until you are happy and repeat all around. I call this the SWAG method. (Scientific Wild-Ass Guess). The second is the one I actually used on this quilt. Whilst folding and pinning, I discovered that there was a 4-ft stretch along one edge that only had 2 inches of overage. Ergo, the overage could only be 2 inches. I (along with roughly 40 Million French sewers and quilters) call this fait accompli.
Mark your overage all around, then trim to markings. As you see, I mark with pins. Marking with a water-soluble or erasable marking pen is an excellent idea -- I just can never seem to remember to buy one of those things!








Now, fold and press. The corners are tricky, but don't worry about them - we're getting to that - press each side independent of the next, not worrying about the corner. Pin sporadically to hold in place.












Corners can be managed 2 ways -- mitered, or lapped. In my opinion, there is no aesthetic advantage to lapping, and it is generally done only by quilters who don't know how to miter a corner. I'm not going to let that happen to you, Dear reader! Here's how to miter:
On your ironing board, post-pressing edges, lay your item face down. Fold back the 2 sides comprising the corner to be mitered. Pin the edges together, placing the pin flat against the backing/wrong side of garment. This is your stitching line.






At your machine, stitch from outer point to folded edge. You may back-stitch, to lock the stitches, but you will get a sharper point if you start with a tiny stitch (pulling thread tails taut behind the pressure foot), and increase gradually. This is easily done on your computerized machine, it can be done on most mechanical machines, if you stitch slowly.
Trim the excess fabric to 1/4 in. and turn.






Here is the finished corner, and quilt.
Done!!!!!
Viola! Neat and pretty, non?