Sneak Peaks!

I've been working away for quite a while on both the Red Trench and Midnight Garden, and for as much as I seem to blog about them, you haven't seen much of either project as a whole. Today, I'll give you a few pictures and let you know where I'm at with these projects.

First, the Red Trench:

I think this is one of the best shots that I have of the color of the fabric; it isn't quite a shiny, though. It *looks* fairly finished, although it is not. I still need to hand stitch the facings around the bound buttonholes, attach the buttons and finish one hem/facing area. I am planning on getting that done tonight.

Next, the Midnight Garden jacket front and back:

The applique is still not quite complete, as you can see a leaf missing on the front panel that is showing and I still need to do 3 flowers and 8 leaves on the other front. I also haven't appliqued the lilies yet, either. If you look closely, there are some dark spots about halfway through each swag of flowers, that's where the lilies will go. Once the applique is done (hopefully next week!) I need to go back and finish the quilting, then add all the embroidery and bead work, and then finally get it to the construction! The MG skirt isn't pictured because it is inside out at the moment waiting for me to finish the hem.

Q/A: Vicki wanted to know: "How do you decide which project to work on?" Vicki has noticed that I tend to work on more than one project at a time. Usually I have about 3 to 4 projects going at once, with two or three in the mental planning stages. One is usually an involved art garment, one is a garment for myself or one of the children, and the other ones are usually for a client. I tend to try to do a little bit on each project everyday and set small but attainable goals for each project. I make a list every week of what I'd like to accomplish. Once in a while I will devote an entire day or evening to a specific project. As I reach the point where I have deadline coming up for a project, then more time will be devoted to that project.

Parting Shot: This Year's Christmas Tree. Every year the tree is just a little bit different and we try to add some new ornaments every year to continue to build the blue/silver/white/snowflakes/icicle theme. It is actually quite pretty at night with all the white lights on as I use about 600 lights on the tree. We also hang ornaments inside the tree, closer to the trunk that are easier to see with the lights on.

The Red Trench - Part Seven

The Buttonholes

I am making progress on the trench, really, I am! I just have to attach the bottom ruffle, finish the hem and then finish the buttons/buttonholes. If everything goes according to plan (how rare is that?) then the trench should be finished tomorrow night and I'll show it to you on Saturday.

Today I'd like to show you how I made the bound buttonholes. Tany made some fabulous triangular bound buttonholes on her red trench, but I decided to make the regular rectangular version. I also decided to try out a new technique for forming the lips of the buttonhole. I really think that the getting the lips just right and perfectly even is the hardest and most frustrating part of bound buttonholes. I was doing a little research on bound buttonholes and came upon a method in the good old Reader's Digest Guide to Sewing that I thought would be good to try. They described it as a good method for beginners, but let me tell you, any method that will give me good and accurate results, I'll use!

I followed their directions, with a few modifications to make it even easier. Here's how:

Step 1: Prepare the garment and the patch. Mark both the fabric and the patch for the length, width and center of the buttonhole. Mark both sides of the fashion fabric - this is an additional step, but will be useful.

Step 2: Place the patch on the right side of the fashion fabric and line up the markings. Baste on the center line of stitching and then 1/4" on either side of the center line. You can see from the photo below that I've marked the patch exactly where I need to baste.

Step 3: This is the step where you start to form the lips, so accurate stitching is important. On the right side, fold down the top edge of the patch, along the basted line and press. Now, flip the entire piece over to the wrong side keeping that patch edge folded down. Using a small stitch length, stitch a line between the center line and line you just folded the edge of the patch over. (Stitching from the wrong side is different from the book.) I found it helpful to mark a line exactly where I needed to stitch on the wrong side of the fabric, and you can see that in the third picture below. When finished with one side, fold the patch up and out of the way, fold up the bottom portion of the patch along the basting line (second photo below), flip over and stitch another line the same as the first. In the third picture you can see what it looks like from the wrong side, with the three basting lines and two lines of stitching in between them. The last picture shows what the buttonhole looks like from the right side at this point.


Step Four: Remove all basting stitches. From the wrong side, cut down the center of all layers and diagonally to the corners of two rows of remaining stitches. Turn work over and from the right side, clip only through the ends of the patch to the points of the triangles, see the second photo below. If you don't do this, you won't be able to pull the lips through!

Step Five: Pull each half of the patch through the opening to the wrong side of the fabric making sure the triangles get turned to the wrong side as well. Notice that the lips are already formed! There will be no folding on the wrong side or fiddling around try to get the lips symmetrical and even. On the wrong side, baste the edges of the lips together in the buttonhole area and slip stitch the edges together on either side of the hole.

Step Six: From the right side, fold back the fashion fabric to reveal the triangle and lips of the buttonhole. Using a small stitch and stitching close to (but not on) the fold, stitch several times from the top edge of the lips, through the base of the triangle and down to the bottom. This will secure the ends. Repeat on the other side.

Step Seven: Enjoy - from the front and from the back:

I am extremely pleased with the results! I've always liked the look of bound buttonholes and now that I've found what works for me, I will probably do all my bound buttonholes this way from now on. If you haven't tried a bound buttonhole, grab some scrap fabric and try one. The results are worth any investment of your time.

Speaking of investing time into your sewing, what techniques do you use that might be a little time consuming, but are worth it in the end? You know, those things that make sewing easier or add that perfect finishing touch.

Parting Shot: The Old Man and I. My husband was taking pictures on Thanksgiving Day and took this one of Max and me. Max is now officially 17 years old, and his health isn't the greatest, but he still is such a sweetheart.

Midnight Garden - Skirt - Part IV

Not Right For This Project

Recently, I've been working on finishing the skirt, and this includes a full lining. I prefer my art garments to be reversible or to have a surprise lining inside and so I have been thinking of ways to embellish the linings to compliment the outside. Since this is a lining, beads, sequins, rhinestones or anything 3D is out - those things would be scratchy and distracting to the wearer. What does that leave me? Quite a few things, actually: painting, stamping, rubbings made with Shiva paint sticks, appliqué, and embroidery to name a few.

One of my ideas was to use fabric paint pens and to trace from my original artwork the flowers and vines to make up the appliqué on the outside. To that end, I traced my artwork with a Sharpie marker so that I could see the lines, taped it to a window and started tracing onto the fabric:


This is what I ended up with:

While it's not bad, and certainly pretty in it's own right and easy to do, it's not right for this project. For some reason the classic appliqué on the outside doesn't work with the paint pen on the inside for me. I really had hoped that it would be.

Now what? Well, I have to come up with something else, that's all, and I have. The linings will be appliquéd, too, but there will be fewer (a lot fewer!) flowers. I'm only going to do a few clusters in the corners, plus one lily each for the skirt and jacket and a few crickets. For the moment, I'm going to finish the skirt and then add the applique to the lining once I'm finished with the jacket appliqué.

While I'm not happy about this recent development, I'm ok with it. I've come to the point as an artist where I know what works for me when I see it, and I know not to proceed with something that's not quite right or doesn't make me smile. Is this always an easy point to come to? No, of course not. It does help to remember though, that what doesn't work for one project, may work for another.

Parting Shot: Sort of new patterns. These are my latest treasures from eBay and are in mint condition! The jumper on the left has a great tab detail on the shoulder straps. The one on the right is by Anne Klein and both the center and right patterns contain 3 garments per pattern. Maybe one those will work for this year's SWAP?

Pillow Talk

How to Make the Buttoned Back

I always make pillow covers with backs that button for a variety of reasons. I mainly make them this way to make it easier to launder the pillow cover and to be able to quickly change the look of the pillow if I get tired of the decor and just want a change. This is great for spills and just to change the look of a room quickly. Here's how I make the backs:

Step 1: There's a little math involved. Nothing terribly difficult. Take the finished dimension of the pillow and divide by 2. We used an 18" pillow, so we started with 9". Add to that 1" for the overlap in the center; that's now 10". Add to that 2" for the placket; that's now 12". Lastly, add 1/2" for seam allowance; finally that's 12 1/2". You will need to cut two rectangles; the width should be the number you just calculated, and the length should be the finished dimension of the pillow plus 1" for the two 1/2" seam allowances on either side. I cut two rectangles 12 1/2" by 19".

Step 2: Finish one long edge of each rectangle by folding under 1" twice and top stitching close
to the turned up edge and the outer edge as shown in the second photo.


Step 3. Make buttonholes evenly spaced along the placket. The size of the pillow will determine how many buttons will be needed; I usually put 2 buttons on pillows that are smaller than 16" square and 3 or more on larger ones. I only used two here, but probably could have used a third one.

Step 4. Lay one finished rectangle horizontally on work surface and place the second rectangle on top, overlapping the plackets exactly. Mark position of buttons and attach buttons. Once the buttons are attached, button the two pieces together. You will now have an entire pillow back.

Step 5. Place the pillow back and pillow front right sides together, making sure the placket is in the center and pin. If the pillow back is too large, trim it to equal the size of the front. (There's a little extra built into the width to make sure it isn't too short!) Stitch all the way around the square with a 1/2" seam allowance. When stitching is complete, trim seams and corners, reach into pillow cover, unbutton the buttons and turn it right side out. The pillow cover is now ready to have the pillow insert put in.

It really isn't that hard, and with decorative buttons, both the front and back of the pillow looks good!

Thank you all for the compliments on my son's work! He says, "Thank you!", too. I really enjoy working with him, and am trying to teach him a few things so that when he's on his own he won't be helpless. Besides, some girl will think she's hit the jackpot when they find out he can do laundry, clean, cook and sew! (Some of those lessons are still forthcoming for him.)

Parting Shot: Play Time! Although Kiwi is definitely part of the group now and enjoys playing with the other cats, she needs to be careful where she's playing!

Passing It On, Part 2

A Finished Pillow!

I had a very nice Thanksgiving, and I hope all of you did, too. It's now back to business in the studio!

Here's the little designer with his pillow, front and back:

I made a trip to Manchester to get some bridal lace for a client and had him pick out some buttons for the pillow back. I prefer to make pillow covers that removable, hence the need for a button closure. With two children and three cats, *things* happen to pillows and being able to wash the covers is extremely important. I'll show you tomorrow how we made the pillow back. In the end, these buttons were the only thing we bought! We even made the pillow insert from things I had in the studio.

Although I did a fair amount of work preparing the back for him, he still got to use the machine to make one of the buttonholes, and sewed on the buttons by himself. All I did was to show him that the thread need to make a path through the fabric and holes on the button.

He did a good job, too! You can see the stitching on the reverse side for his first button on the left and for the second one on the right.

Now that he's done with the pillow, he's moved on to working on the doll quilt. He's got the quilt top about halfway done, so in a few weeks, I'll show you that, too.

As far as other news, the red trench is to the point of hemming the sleeves, making the bottom ruffles, hemming the bottom, attaching the buttons and doing a little hand stitching on the bound buttonholes. I should have it done by the end of week!

Midnight Garden is moving along, albeit more slowly than I'd like. By the end of today, I will have 62 of the 72 flowers on the jacket done. I have discovered that I will need to make 2 more lilies and about 12 more flowers and a couple more crickets for the lining, but after the first 72, what's a few more? The skirt will be finished by the end of the week, so you'll be seeing some updates soon.

Parting Shot: Pix, the creature of comfort. While working on my son's pillow, we left the pillow insert on the floor of the studio. In less than 5 minutes, Pix had found the best seat in the studio and decided to take a nap.

So Much to Be Thankful For!

Tomorrow in the United States we will be celebrating Thanksgiving. So much of the day is centered around a large meal, family, friends and holiday sports games. There is nothing wrong with those things, and I'm thankful for all of them (especially all of you who read and comment - you never know how much your encouragement helps me out!). I'm not only thankful for those things, but the things we take for granted and think little about, as well.

When I think back over the people I've known in my life related to sewing, I have to think of Anna. Anna and her family (her husband and 3 children) moved to America from the Ukraine around 1997. They had enough money to buy plane tickets and came with literally what they could bring on the plane. I was her supervisor at the time, and she spoke no English. We had many people that had varying degrees of grasp on the English language - somehow we all understood each other and got the work done. People at work pooled their resources to help this family furnish a home. As she learned English, I found out that she had been trained at the university to sew. She was very excited one day when she told me that she had bought a brand new sewing machine. I could tell that she had mixed feelings of pride and embarrassment when she told me she and her husband had spent their entire month's paychecks on it. Maybe she thought that I would think it silly to have spent that much on a sewing machine. I understood of course, but that really stopped me in my tracks. I took my machine for granted - there it sat, ready for me to use whenever I wanted to! Of course, I had to come up with the money to pay for it, but I never really thought much about the fact that I was fortunate enough to have a job and the funds for the machine and everything to go with it such as patterns, fabric, threads, notions, etc.

So, what is it that you take for granted that you truly should be thankful for?

I'll be taking off Thursday through Sunday to be with my family for the holiday. I'll be posting again on Monday! Have a lovely Thanksgiving or late fall weekend if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving.

Parting Shot: Her Favorite Dress. In the archives, we found her pink dress. She still likes it, although it is too small! This is the one that I wrote about in a Q/A sometime ago. It is RTW, but I added some length with a contrast band (because she's tall) and trimmed the sleeves with bands to match. I'm not sure why she liked it so much, but at the time, I was thrilled to have come up with something she was happy with for so little money.

Passing It On

My son came to me the other day wanting to make his sister something for Christmas. He does get an allowance, but he's smart enough to realize that he doesn't have enough money for everyone's gifts. The next best thing in his mind was a gift he made himself. You know, that's actually not a bad concept! I'm glad he's figured that out at his age.

Of course, I wanted to know what he had in mind to make. At first he wanted to make a quilt, but after we started talking about how big it would be, he changed his mind and settled on a pillow for her bed and a quilt for her American Girl dolls. That was more reasonable. So we pulled out the bin that contains my collection (you can thank Carolyn for this term referring to the fabric that a person owns) of quilting cottons and he picked out some really nice purples to match her room. He actually liked the Bali hand dyes the best. Besides selecting fabric, I had him draw a picture of what he thought the pillow and quilt should look like:

You can see from the photo above that mom did a little cleaning up of the design. I also allowed for a 1/2" seam allowance instead of the 1/4" traditionally allowed in quilting. It is easier for him to work with a bigger seam allowance. After some cutting help from mom, he was ready to arrange the fabrics in his final design. He even took a picture of it so that he could remember what colors went in what place.

He's been coming down to the studio early every morning before his sister gets up and working on his project. Today was the first day he sewed. I let him use my machine and he loved it! My machine has a speed control, and set on the slowest setting he did a great job. He was so excited to see the pieces coming together. Here he is, getting a little help from Max:

He's got the center section constructed and we're hoping to finish the pillow cover tomorrow! He's so excited and it is fun to see him really enjoy designing and putting something together. Stay tuned, I'll show you the final results when he's all done.

Parting Shot: I'm Dreaming of a White Thanksgiving? No, this is not a picture from last year. This is from today! We got a couple inches of snow and the children went out to enjoy it, as it will probably be gone tomorrow due to the incoming rain.

Red Trench Coat - Part Six

A Little Progress, I Think.

I got to work a little on the trench coat today and here's what I have so far:

I also added inseam pockets to the coat, as the original pattern did not have any pockets. I stole the pocket piece from the BWOF bubble dress from 08/07 to make the pockets. I constructed the pockets the same way as the bubble dress, adding a stay to the pocket to help stabilize the front edge.

I *think* I've made progress, but am not sure. The brocade has a black wrong side with red disks. This of course means that the right side is red with black disks. The problem is that through the red trench fabric you can see faint red spots on the black, sort of like faint polka dots. So far I've only lined the cape, but I'm thinking the whole thing will need underlining or a different lining. Next time, I'm definitely checking the compatibility of fashion fabric and lining. I'll think about it and look at it again tomorrow before I do anymore stitching. I don't want to get too far and then have to take it completely apart to fix it. I wanted to get this done this week, but now I'm not so sure.

Parting Shot: From the archives, another Easter dress. I think I made this one when she was two. This was one of those "Daisy Kingdom" dresses, a line of patterns put out by Simplicity. My husband liked this style of dresses, so I made them for my daughter. This one has piping at the waist and on the sleeves, a tucked bodice inset and an attached petticoat.

The Red Trench - Part Five

I Love A Puzzle!

I do, I really like puzzles. Cutting layouts are like puzzles to me, especially when I have a limited amount of fabric. I like the challenge of being able to get all the pieces cut out. Here's today's puzzle:

What's so puzzling about that? You have all that extra fabric at the bottom.

Not exactly. That fabric is for the ruffles at the bottom, the belt, the sleeve ties and all the carriers. I will use a rotary cutter to cut all of those pieces since they are rectangles. Notice the cape back at the top left of the piece along with the collar and collar stand pieces. I will cut the cape back on a fold out of one layer of fabric and the other two pieces on a fold out of the other layer. They're grouped together so that I remember that! I'm glad that I'm not tall or else I know I wouldn't have had enough fabric!

I got the lining today, too. I originally wanted a flannel backed satin in leopard print, but when I went back to purchase it, it had sold out. I ended up with this silky brocade instead:

I also got some nice bargains on almost 7 yards of red 100% linen, a really neat cotton polka dot border print and some red voile that has silver stripes in it.

Q/A: Regarding the changes made to the trench pattern, Designdreamer wanted to know, "First of all is it only drawn from the SA for now, and you'll add the SA latter? Also, that perpendicular line now looks slanted. Is it just a photo distortion?" The photo in question in shown first, below. Yes the pattern is only drawn to the SA at this point, I add the SA during the cutting process. This is a pattern from Patrones, and like BWOF, the patterns do not include SAs. The blue line is my new stitching line without the SA. Second, yes, it is a photo issue, I took it at an angle. The piece shown in the first photo below is the exact same piece shown in the photo below it. Notice in the second photo that the line I drew down from the shoulder is parallel to the center front line and facing line.


Parting Shot: Back at it! So, I'm cutting out my trench coat (you can see some of the pieces in the upper portion of the photo) and my daughter brings in a skirt to be fixed. I set it aside to finish cutting and I turned around to find that Kiwi had already claimed it as her own!

Midnight Garden - Skirt - Part III

Quilting: Round 2

The last time I mentioned the quilting, I had decided to go back and quilt in additional single lines to make a plaid-like pattern in combination with the twin needle diamond quilting. I got the sleeves done with the silver thread and they look great. I started on the skirt, held it up to the mirror to check the progress and, well, guess what? The sky clouded over and the birds stopped their singing. The silver thread was just too much! All I could see the was silver threads! I couldn't see all the rest of the quilting. I can't imagine what it would look like on the jacket body - what a fight between that and the flowers. Below you can see a sample of the waistband that has the silver single line quilting:

This photo was taken with the flash on, so it's not as obvious the difference in color. I think this might have worked had there been less contrast between the two thread colors. If this would have been a medium blue contrasted with the navy, the effect would have been nice. As is, it is over bearing.

So, you already know what I did. Yep, that's right, all that silver stitching had to come out. I'm working primarily on the skirt at the moment and will redo the sleeves in a few weeks, as I'm trying to finish the skirt completely next week! After some replacing of thread, this is what I've got:

This version is much more subtle and will enhance the flowers, but not compete for attention with them. I have one back completely done and all the lines going one way done on the other back and on the front, and am hoping to complete the entire skirt tonight.

Q/A: Sigrid said, "Those Easter dresses are so lovely. Did you keep all you children's clothes you made yourself?" Thank you! Actually, no I haven't kept them all - there'd be no way I could. That would be a lot of clothes! I've only kept the important outfits - the Christmas, Easter, Birthday dresses and a few other things of importance like the first day of school.

Parting Shot: She's got fabric instincts! I placed my red fabric for the trench coat on the floor last night to try some cutting layouts. There are quite a few pieces and I wanted to make sure I could cut them out of the fabric I have. I turned around to get the pieces and guess who came in and made herself at home?