mermaids

Ok, I took more than a 5 minute break…more like 30 minutes.  I reminded myself that a large chunk of sewing time is not simply going to fall from the sky into my lap.  I need to get back to sewing a few minutes every day, or at least mostly every day.  After dinner, I threw in a load of laundry to assuage my housekeeping guilt, then headed to the sewing room. 

I am working on a pair of longer shorts.  The school administration is finally cracking down on the dress code.  (Hallelujah!)  While I don’t wear super short shorts, mine wouldn’t make dress code.  They are using the standard “finger tip” rule.  Well, my really long arms put me at a distinct disadvantage.  There are a few end of the year events for which shorts would be the optimal choice.  I want to set a good example.  Besides, my legs are getting a wee bit old for prancing around in shorter shorts.  They are fine for times when I am doing something remotely active and need the freedom of movement.  However, for hanging out at a picnic, a little extra length is more age appropriate. 

This week is Spanish Spirit Week at school.  The students are encouraged to dress in the flag colors of various Spanish speaking countries.  There is a different color scheme for each day.  Yes, we had to take inventory of the wardrobes to make sure the boys were set for the week.  There is a wonderful friendly rivalry between the various world language classes.  The boys are a bit torn because they take both Spanish and Latin.  Tomorrow is the annual World Language Soccer Match.  The classes play against each other, no one really keeps score, no one really knows who won, but they have a lot of fun. 

The boys asked me to customize their shirts for tomorrow’s big game.  It was not as hard as I thought, but it was more labor intensive than I thought.  I could have just programmed it all into my embroidery machine, but the boys liked the more “artsy” feel of the appliquéd letters.  I drew the letters by hand, then traced over them with a Sharpie.  I pinned the applique fabric to the front of the shirt and pinned the paper to the inside of the shirt.  Since I traced the letters with a Sharpie, I could easily see the reverse side. I stitched the outline of the letters from the inside.  It took some time and patience to stitch around each letter, lots of lifting the pressure foot and turning.  Once it was all stitched, I trimmed the applique fabric from the front about an eighth inch from the stitching lines.  Yeah, cutting out the inside of those little e’s and o’s was lots of fun.  Pulling the paper off the inside was just as bad.  I used regular computer paper.  If I had been smart, I would have used a thin tear away stabilizer.  Nonetheless, the boys are pleased and it gave me something to do while we watched television. 

At long last, here is *the* dress.  Was it worth the wait?  It was a long journey.  Ok, it wasn’t really *that* long of a journey, but it felt like it to me.  I can usually pop out a project at a good rate.  Lately, everything I do, sewing or otherwise, seems to take forever.  Anyway, the dress is done, it fits, and I am pleased. 

Like most Ottobre, simple sewing yields great style.  Any complications I had were entirely the fault of the fabric, a beautiful silk charmeuse from Hubski’s most recent trip to China.  The incredibly soft hand was perfect for the flowing skirt, but devilish to sew.  I heavily starched the fabric before even cutting it out.  I marked each piece as I cut, using more marks than usual.  For the bodice lining, I used a very stable cotton broadcloth. 

Remember the fits the binding was giving me?  I tried severely starching the bias strips, but was still not happy with the result.  Next I tried fold over elastic, but the shade of red was not quite right and the FOE just didn’t look right with the silk.  Finally, I stumbled upon a piece of red pima cotton in my scraps.  It was the *exact* shade of red that I wanted.  After having done one armhole with the matching bias strip, I decided that contrasting fabric really was needed to show off the design details.  Besides, silk charmeuse on the bias was making me crazy. 

The pattern calls for shirring with elastic thread just below the bodice.  I did not have any elastic thread and did not have time to get any.  Once again, the dress sat on my sewing table.  On the positive side, this gave me time to think.  I feared the empire waist and shirring would give the dress a maternity look.  Now the question became “How to keep the empire waist, but not look pregnant?”  I decided to skip the elastic thread and do some sort of pleating.  Since the dress has a zipper, the elastic is strictly decorative.  Pleating or even tucks in charmeuse would have pushed me over the edge.  Not being one to fight the true nature of a fabric, random pleating was the solution.  I cut a piece of the cotton broadcloth the same measurement as the lower edge of the bodice and 3 inches wide.  Next, I ran a gathering line along the upper edge of the skirt to fit the lining strip.  A hot iron pressed the gathers into somewhat random pleats.  In keeping with the random theme, I did some free motion stitching in a random wave pattern to hold down the pleats.  To further emphasize the waist area, I added two bands of the red pima cotton at the top and bottom of the pleated band area. 

As for the fit, it was true to size in true Ottobre fashion.  Since I always need to take in the bust a bit, I overlapped the front piece a bit more.  This had the added benefit of making the neckline less revealing.  The pattern directs you to ease the front bodice pieces a bit which helps keep the neckline close to the body.  There is also easing in the armholes to prevent gaping.  This is a very nice touch that Ottobre adds. 

Had I made the dress with self fabric binding and the shirring, it would have been a pretty dress.  The fabric is rather spectacular so it would be challenging for it to be anything less than pretty.  All of the roadblocks that prevented me from finishing the dress in the day (which is totally possible with any normal fabric) were actually a blessing.  Inspiration struck at the most unlikely times.  I am far happier with the end result.  At first, I thought using contrasting binding would make the dress too casual.  Instead, the contrast draws attention to details that would have been lost on such a busy fabric. 

I wore the dress to school on Friday.  There were lots of compliments from students and adults.  The best part is the dress was so easy to wear.  Yes, it is a bit indulgent to wear such luscious fabric to work, but some days we all need a little indulgence.  

Most twist top patterns should come with a warning label, “Extreme plunge ahead.”  Given my build, such a daring neckline did not seem like a good choice.  Jalie patterns are sized from little bitty girls to Rubenesque women.  I felt confident that I fit somewhere in that vast range.  Though it is something I could easily draft myself, the “modesty panel” further encouraged me that this pattern had potential. 

I traced off my usual Jalie size.  The pattern is designed with a low scoop in the back.  A tie is added to hold the shoulders in place.  In the words of Tim Gunn, this is “overdesigned.”  It also seemed a bit on the saucy side for a middle school teacher.  I just raised the back neckline.  I also lengthened the sleeves to full length. 

Jalie directions are not overly detailed, but adequate to get the job done.  The illustrations are quite helpful in figuring out the twist portion.  The sewing is actually quite simple.

The neckline is a bit low, but such is the nature of twist tops.  Fortunately, the neckline really hugs the body.  There is absolutely no “peek a boo” factor when I lean over.  This is very important when working in a middle school.  There is a little ease in the waist area, providing a bit of camouflage for any tummy fluff.

Jalie 2788 is one of those “memorable” patterns.  I don’t want more than a couple of these in my wardrobe.  The ruffled trim is cute, but a bit fusy for me.  You definitely want to use a thinner knit.  Heavier fabrics would cause too much bulk at the twist.  FOE would work well for the neckline finish.  The modesty panel could be in a contrasting fabric to give the illusion of a cami underneath.  A little lace would really reinforce that concept.

Oh, the fabric….it is a crepe-y type knit from Mood Fabrics.  Due to the seam down the center front, stripes or a very obvious print would be tricky. 

Ideas come out of the blue and zap me like a bolt of lightening.  Sometimes I think I am slow because the idea seems so dreadfully obvious once I think of it.  Anyway, I finally came up with a solution for the Ottobre dress I was pondering a couple days ago.  In my defense, this week has been too busy to even remember my name, much less troubleshoot a pattern.  I think I have a remedy for the slippery silk charmeuse binding issue.  Hopefully reality will be as fabulous as the image in my head.  Stay tuned……

I am working on design #7 from the 02/08 issue of Ottobre Woman.  It is a sleeveless dress with a shirred waist…very simple, very cute, looks very comfortable.  The fabric of choice is one of the yummy silks Hubski bought in China.  The silk charmeuse will drape beautifully and be scrumptious for summer.  The armholes and neckline are bound with bias strips.  Silk charmeuse and bias strips should not be in the same sentence.  I have done one armhole and I am not pleased with the results.  Using tons of starch to give the fabric more stability has helped.  So, now I am pondering alternatives to the bias binding.  FOE is my favorite binding material, but not appropriate for this project.  I may experiment with cutting the bindings on less of a bias.  If this were a cotton or linen, this dress would go together in a snap.  The silk is beautiful but definitely has a diva complex. 

This post is long overdue.  Sometimes, I have the attention span of a gnat.  I think about things I want write about, but when it is time to write, those thoughts fly right out of my head.  I am trying to get better about jotting things down when the thought strikes.  There is just too much bouncing around in my head at any given moment.  Geesh….there I go again…distracted from my original thought…

If you are looking for some great sewing podcasts, check out Lori’s at Sew Forth Now.  She covers a wide variety of sewing topics.  She has snagged interviews with some “sewing celebrities.”  Lori has a delightfully easy manner and conducts a great interview. 

Way back in the early days of Lori’s podcasts, she asked me to do an interview.  I am not a sewing celeb or expert on anything, but I did give Lori’s editing skills a workout.  :)  It was a little weird being interviewed over the phone.  The interviews I have done in the past have been in person where I can talk with my hands.  Not being able to use my hands or draw pictures is like asking me to lose fifty percent of my vocabulary.  Nonetheless, it was fun.  I think it gave Lori a chance to figure out the whole podcast thing.  We talked about organizing sewing stuff, one of my favorite topics.  Click here if you want to hear it. 

I generally play podcasts on my computer while I am tracing pr cutting out.  I can’t listen to them while I am sewing because the sewing machine drowns out some of the interview.  I definitely cannot listen to them while I driving because I get so caught in listening to the interview that I forget to pay attention to the road.  (The same is true of books on tape/CD.)  Fortunately, my commute to school is less than 3 miles, so I barely have time to listen to whole song much less a long narrative. 

If you pop over to Sew Forth Now, tell Lori “Hi” for me. 

Here are photos of the silk Hubski bought in China last month.  I might cut into one of them this week.  Squeee!  It is my goal to *not* save these for a special occasion.  Why can’t a girl wear silk on a weekday?  Now, it is just a matter of deciding which Ottobre pattern to use.

It is day three of the soft sculpture project with the 8th graders.  They are doing a fabulous job.  Ms V worked with them on sketches and designs for a few days.  On Tuesday, I came in to start sewing lessons.  46 minutes of hand stitching on a practice piece is rather dull when one has a design that is itching to become reality.  Nonetheless, they were troupers, patiently practiced their stitches and listened to lots of directions.   Some last minutes adjustments had to be made to some designs.  It is far easier to draw details on paper than it is to recreate them in fleece.  It was hard to tell them, “That just isn’t going to work in fleece.  Let’s figure out another way.”  Eventually everyone came up a with design they liked which could actually be produced with the materials at hand.

Yesterday, the students selected their fabrics and began cutting.  They were so focused.  There were some more design consultations.  I worried about a few because they seemed less than enthused by the whole process.  A couple were clinging desperately to entirely too completed designs.  However, when the bell rang, no one wanted to leave.

Today, it was exciting to see their creations taking shape.  I was impressed with how quickly some of took to sewing.  Ms V and I are so pleased with the work they are producing.  Some of the boys seemed a little put off because I used the word “cute” a few times too many.  Tomorrow, I might borrow a phrase from Project Runway’s Christian and the students their projects are “Fierce!”

Mending is not one of my favorite jobs, but this sweatshirt was too cute to be tossed just because it was wildly attacked by scissors.  In defense of the scissor wielding fiend friend, the neck of the sweatshirt was too tight.  She thought is she just cut a little slit it would have that deconstructed look and not strangle her every time she wore the sweatshirt.  It is unclear how the little slit suddenly went off at 60 degree angle. 

So I had two goals to achieve.  The askew slit needed to be repaired or covered up or made to look intentional and the neckline needed to be enlarged.  Needing time to come up with a solution, I tossed it under my sewing table for a few days.  (Besides, I was busy cutting the fleece for the soft sculpture class.) The sweatshirt happen to fall near a piece of brown knit I had pulled for a project in the near future.  Hmmm…the brown knit was very close to the brown in the design. 

I unstitched the hood to the shoulder seams.  Then, I added the brown vee shape to the front.  The hood was now too wide for the more open neckline, so I trimmed away the front edge of the hood.  The edges of the hood were then bound with the brown knit, which I think helped to make it all look more intentional.  C said if I really wanted to make it look intentional, I should also trim the kangaroo pocket and/or the cuffs with brown.  I politely declined the suggestion to do anymore unstitching.  Thankyouverymuch. 

Ms V was very happy with the outcome.  She is a huge Wallace & Gromit fan, so I was happy to save her beloved sweatshirt.  I asked her to please consult with me before taking the scissors to any other articles of clothing.