Thai Silks

I must report about the fun event I went to Wednesday. My friend Dorothy lives near Thai Silks and received a card from them about their open house last week. I haven't been to visit her for a while so we decided I should come then and we would go together to the open house. Thai Silks, which has the most incredible selection of silks, is in Los Altos, California, about 90 miles from me. I have been there several times but not for a year. The announcement for the open house event suggested that we wear or bring garments we have made from their fabric, and as an incentive 25% discount would apply to anything purchased plus goodie bags would be passed out (and refreshments).

I wore this Sewing Workshop Won Ton blouse pattern (http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=3439) which I made about 5 years ago. I also rushed to sew up the skirt that I had purchased fabric for last time I was there a year ago. It has three layers of silk; chiffon, duppioni, and organza. I'm pleased with how it turned out, it spite of my rushing. I will review it soon. Dorothy brought her beautiful duppioni Issey Miyake dress (http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=30947)

One lady wore a lovely outfit, very Escandar inspired, using a silk/linen fabric I had not seen before. That led to great excitement on my part and an expensive purchase, even at 25% off! I'm really looking forward to sewing that up. This lady and I were both wearing the same Marcy Tilton pant pattern (http://sewing.patternreview.com/cgi-bin/readreview.pl?readreview=1&reviewnum=22078).

When we finally left after about 2 hours there we were each handed a goodie bag. The contents were different in each one. Dorothy's had a piece of china silk, thread, seam ripper, measuring tapes, and a few other small things. Mine had a 3 yard piece of silk charmeuse, a silk scarf, seam ripper and thread. Quite a nice surprise.

Kwik Sew 3099 Halloween Costumes

I chose the dinosaur costume for Owen's second Halloween. He will be 18 months old then. Since last year's pea pod costume was green I decided not to use green for the main body but to go with purple for the dinosaur with green trim. I'm quite pleased with the color combo. This pattern sizing skips from 12 months to 2 years so I attempted to size it in between the sizes. It still looks quite big for Owen. And since baby Oliver arrived on Sept. 9th, I felt he needed a matching costume. The Kwik Sew pattern has 6 months as the smallest size so I got out Simplicity 3937 which is a similar shaped bunting and adapted the XS size which says it is for 7 to 13 pounds. It looks really huge for Ollie who is 7 lbs. 9 oz. right now. Maybe he will grow tremendously in one month. Perhaps the costumes should be stuffed with bulky clothing underneath to make a nice, fat dinosaur.

Vogue 8417

I'm calling this my Rain Dress as I made it from ripshot nylon originally purchased (15 years ago?) to make a rain coat. This pattern intrigued me with all the unusual tucks, diagonal seams, twisted back straps, and tucked up skirt hem. The pattern envelope suggests using taffeta, duppioni, , shantung, poplin and broadcloth. I figured my ripshot had a similar crispness to it, was already in my stash and would make the dress less "dressy". I have no where to wear a ball gown so my idea was to make it casual enough for occasional wear. I found a crazy lining to use in my fabric box on the way to being discarded, an invisible zip in my stash (miraculously the right color) and even the appropriate thread. It was meant to be. Or so I thought.

Alterations. Egad. This dress has a lining that is a fully constructed dress with entirely different lines.... princess seams. So alterations for full bust and extra at the waist needed to be done very differently for the outer dress and inner dress. I spent around 4 hours figuring that out. Not quite correctly as it turned out later. Next cutting out: although I had the 4 yards called for, it was only 54 wide, not 60. Maybe 3 hours spent fiddling with the layout to get all the pieces on. This required shortening 8 pieces and turning one around on end. I prayed that the sheen wouldn't be noticeably different.

Next day constructed the underdress. Then started the outer dress. I've never seen such odd shaped pattern pieces. That all went together okay until I got to a point where I could try each dress on. Except for the bust area all the rest was too big. How did this happen? I'm guessing that it just runs big through the waist. It needs to be very fitted to look good. So I embarked on lots more alterations taking in the princess seams above and below the bust, side seams, etc. Finally arriving at the point to put the two dresses together I find they don't fit together at all. This was caused by all my alterations not that the original pattern was wrong. The armscyces didn't work together at all. More fiddling around and I got that worked out. 

Now I can put on the dress and decide it looks bad. Some of the tucks puff out, a tuck in front pulls too much toward the middle because of taking in the side seam and so on. I called my friend Barbara for help since I couldn't really see what was happening, especially in the back. Together we fixed things by tacking down the tucks, taking in one diagonal seam, making a few extra tucks where the fabric wanted to fold anyway. I considered removing the underdress altogether since it was partly at fault in making it hard to fit and look right. If I were to do this pattern again I would eliminate the lining and bind the edges. Finally we were happy with the look and I took it home to finish up.

My friend Dorothy happened to ask if ever used fusible thread which I haven't done but do have some in my stash. Since she reminded me about its existence I got it out and used it for the hem. This was a great idea. It made that long, long curved hem a snap. I put the fusible thread in the lower looper of my serger, whipped around that hem edge, trimming off another 2 inches in length. Then pressed the overlocked edge up and topstitched. So fast and easy.

Now that it is done I must find a place to wear it!!

Oz's quilt

I'm back home and looking forward to sewing something or other in the next 2 weeks before I go to Jackson Hole again for the arrival of baby #2. Meanwhile, while in Wyoming I did some sewing on my ancient (42 years old) machine which resides there. My DIL had some projects I helped her with but more momentously for me (the non-quilter) I made a quilt. A small, cuddly quilt for Oz. I wanted to make one for him that had local animals (Moose, bear, elk, buffalo) and thought of doing a regular appliqued or embroidered version. But I also really wanted it to be a blankey he could carry around and snuggle with. The local quilt shop was extremely well stocked with every western, animal, cowboy, etc. print known to man as that seems to be what everyone wants there. I picked out 12 prints in flannel to make a rag quilt. They were very nice at the shop and allowed me to cut out my pieces there using their cutting mat, rotary cutter and straight edge. Thank heavens for that. I didn't have any of that equipment with me and it would have cost a bundle to add that to the purchase. Also their table was just the right height unlike the dining table at the town house. I enjoyed this project very much. I may go on to make a wall-hanging with the moose, bear, elk, etc. 

The photos show the quilt before and after washing which fluffs up the raw edges, and the back side which is flat. And, of course, Owen with his new cuddly quilt.

travel

I'm leaving this morning for almost a month, driving to Jackson Hole to visit Oz and his parents. Then on to a reunion gathering in Oregon and family visits before returning home. So no sewing for me for a while. See you later.

Shapes Three Fold Vest and Two's Company Tunic

I love the new Shapes pattern line. The designs are simple but with pizazz. They each have something special to set them apart. The Three Fold Vest is just 2 long rectangles overlapped at an angle front and back. The cool part is the Vee shaped piece holding it together in the back. Instead of attempting a button hole in my loose sweater knit, I plan to hold the front together with a hair pick or chopstick.

The Two's Company Tunic is almost 4 yards of fabric in two complete  rectangle layers. The over layer is open down the front but the under layer is not, so the garment must go on over your head. The two rectangles are offset so the back of the under layer is longer and the front is shorter than the outer layer. The effect is as if you are wearing two garments. I changed the stripe direction on the under layer to highlight that affect.

Vogue 2555 Donna Karan top and skirt

Here is another outfit I made at the sewing retreat at Tahoe in June. I worked on this on the last day and I think I was about brain dead. It is a simple pattern which I have made once before. And yet it took me a very long time. Cutting out was slow because I had barely 2 yards and wanted to make both a top and a skirt from this fabric I bought at the Pattern Review weekend in LA last spring. It seemed to fitting to buy this then and now to sew it up from a Vogue pattern. Anyway I was brain dead or at least brain weary and every step was slow. I marked for the gathers where the top attaches to the peplum. They just wouldn't match up somehow so I just did whatever. It worked out okay but now that I have tried it on a few weeks later it seems a bit big.  A simple fix to take in the side seams at the underarm. I might like the top better with a black skirt or pant as it seems like too much "Vogue" with the skirt and top together.

Sewing with Rachel

My DIL's parents gave her a sewing machine when she graduate

d from college quite a few years ago. It has never been taken out of the box, until this week. She has been so busy with graduate school and her career that she hasn't had time for anything extra, especially sewing. Now she has arranged for a day or two off each week so that she can "get a life" and one of the things she wants to do is learn to sew. She sewed with her grandmother when she was a young girl but really doesn't remember anything. So this week was the first time she had a day available and I eagerly drove the 90 miles to provide the necessary sewing information and enthusiasm.

We spent a few hours figuring out the ins and outs of her machine. Then, after a lovely lunch she made for us, we headed to Joann's which, unfortunately, is the sewing store near her. For a while it looked dismal for finding a suitable fabric but finally we found a delightful rayon appropriate for the skirt pattern she had chosen (Loes Hinse Swing skirt from my stash). I wish I could have stayed a few hours longer so that we could have finished the skirt. Maybe she will be able to add the elastic to the waist and hem the bottom on her own.

You can see that my son is dubious about this activity.

Vogue 2980 Marcy Tilton pants and Sewing Workshop Mimosa top

I have made the Marcy Tilton pants again, this time in a light weight linen. I'm much happier with the result. I made size small with no alterations. No removing 3 inches from each pant leg as before. My measurements are well into the Medium range so you can see that this runs large. By making a smaller size and not removing the excess in the legs kept the design lines intact. The fit is closer around the upper hip and waist and the legs bell and drape as they should. So if you are using a denim as suggested on the pattern envelope, be sure it is very light weight and drapey like this linen. I also made it in the shorter length which really works better with the shape of this pant.

The top is Sewing Workshop Mimosa top which I have made 3 times. Both the top and pants are linen from Joann's. Yes, that surprised me too, when I saw a selection of 100% linen at Joann's this spring.

Shapes Plus One Tunic

I am excited to try out the new patterns from Linda Lee and Louise Cutting. The simple but interesting shapes are right up my alley. Just the thing to use some beautiful stash fabric. First I used a lightweight linen. As I anticipated it made me look very wide with the horizontal collar and straight across hem at tunic length. I experimented a bit and discovered I liked the affect of the diagonal hem. I trimmed it that way and stitched it up. I left the flange at the side the full length. This is a quick, easy garment.

Then, thinking how it would look very different in a knit, I plunged into my stash once again and found a nice, drapey jersey. Both wovens and knits are suggested fabric choices in linen, cotton, and rayon/viscose. You can see how very different it looks in the knit. I chose to keep it long but belted to give me some shape. This time it was even easier and quicker as I liked the look with no edge finish. A couple of short seams and it was done. 

Vogue Patterns

Checking out the latest Vogue patterns there are only a few I have to get. The Sandra Betzina hoodie attracts me for the back but I think I would have to change the front, probably making it shorter, to flatter me. Of course I have to get the Miyake coat. Love that. The 8513 dress interests me although it looks really low in the front. 

Vogue 8486

This is great, simple dress with a current trendy look. Vogue describes it as slim fitting with or without sleeves, front stitched pleats, back neck opening and back slit. I decided it looked better on me with a sash which I had just enough fabric to make.

It is super easy to make. Mark the pleats carefully and there should be no problem. The top is faced which some sewers don't like in a knit but it works out well here and, with the interfacing on the facing, it supports the weight of the garment.

I cut the 12 and added some extra at the side seams to be sure it would go around me, instead of the usual FBA. I serged all the seams instead of the stupid double stitched seams suggested in the pattern. Why do they keep suggesting that?