Mental Health Day!

Today, I had a day off from work and did what I wanted to do! I didn't actually take the day off, but rather got one by default since a great majority of the high school went to an out of state basketball tournament. I had been feeling like I needed one, but as a teacher, it is hard to justify taking days off since we get a lot of holidays off and we're responsible for our student's education daily. This just sort of worked out. As a bonus, I get tomorrow off too, for the same reason!

What did I do? Well, what *I* wanted to do! After dropping my children off at the bus stop, I came home and stitched up my SWAP t-shirt. All it needs now is hems and embellishment. I then went and got a Starbucks, filled my car with gas and headed out fabric and birthday present shopping. I went to Fabric Fix, but didn't find anything there. I had better luck at Martin's, where I found dark stretch denim for the SWAP jeans for 3.99 a yard, and some more discontinued patterns, including a Claire Schaeffer trouser pattern:

I then went to A.C. Moore and bought the birthday child a whole lot of model/craft kits and then got to go out to lunch with my husband. After that I came back to Concord and went to Jo-ann's, Bead It and the grocery store. All this, without bored children! The children are eating leftovers for dinner, so I don't have to cook dinner, too. What a great day, now if I can just finish the white jacket lining tonight, my day will be complete.

Once in a while, you just need to take a break, you know?

I also got notification that Midnight Garden will be in the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, Feb. 21-24, 2008 in Hampton, VA. It is over on the "Now Showing" list. I have to get it packed up and out tomorrow! It needs to be there by Feb. 8th.

Thank you for your comments regarding our family decision for me not to teach next year. It really is about the children and I know some of you do have older children and understand. While sewing is a big part of my life and to some extent my family's (my son asked for his own thread, pins and needles for his birthday), my main focus for staying home will be my family and home.

Parting Shot: Sibling Rivalry, of a sort. Since her brother made her something for Christmas, my daughter wanted to make him something for his birthday. Here she is, working on a pair of flannel pajama pants. She's been working on them after he goes to bed at night. With any luck she will finish them tonight!

The White Jacket - Part Eight

Progress - Finally!

I finally have the jacket ready for lining!

It seems like this jacket hasn't moved along very quickly. I've been very busy with other things, and the whole process is time consuming. I do know that good results take patience and time, but now I'm ready to finish this up! I have the next two days off from work (basketball tournament in another state), so I should be able to finish the jacket this weekend.

Q/A: Many of you asked why I wasn't teaching next year. I have chosen not to teach next year for personal family reasons. My children are getting older, and contrary to popular belief, we're finding that they actually need more parental attention rather than less. This is difficult to do when both parents work and/or have long commutes. It is not that I don't like teaching, if I didn't, I would have quit after my first year, the 93-94 school year. Why have a career you don't love? It is not that I don't like my work environment, in fact, my colleagues and I get along rather well, more like a family than just coworkers.

Parting Shot: Another lost tooth. The tooth fairy had to work overtime this month - the two top front teeth are now missing. So much for eating whole apples!

SWAP 2008 - Introduction

I've Finally Committed Myself

Not to a mental institution, to making a SWAP. The deal is that my wardrobe needs will be changing over the next 6 months. I will not need as many professional work clothes as I currently do as I will not be teaching school next year. Thus, I need a wardrobe that has pieces that not only work together, but also integrate into what my wardrobe will be once I re-evaluate it at the end of the school year. This wardrobe also needs to be able to transition from spring into summer and fall.

My SWAP is entitled "June Cleaver Gets a Little Update". While I love June Cleaver's distinctive 50's TV mom wardrobe, it needs a little tweaking to work in the new millenium. Don't worry, I am keeping a few of the classic 50's styles, but replacing others with new styles and fabrics.

Here's the storyboard:
The garments are:

Bottoms:

• Jeans - essential for a casual wardrobe and can be on the dressy side depending on the fabric (dark wash) and accessories. Vogue 7608.
  
• Black pants - everyone needs at least one good pair of black dressier pants. I'm planning on making them jeans style, but in a stretch wool. Vogue 7608.
• Black shorts - versatile and can be worn both in the summer and with tights in the fall; again in a stretch wool. These will be lengthened to knee length. Vintage Simplicity 1170.
• White circle skirt - simple style that works well with everything and comfortable enough for everyday wear made in poplin. Vintage Simplicity 1170.

Tops:

• White blouse - a slightly different take on the "great white shirt". The fabric is the cotton from Timmel Fabrics with the square holes and is the required purchase from Timmel. It is a little different, and the style can be dressed up or down easily. Vintage Simplicity 1170.
  
• Black t-shirt - simple, but a wardrobe staple, with a newer neckline. Simplicity 4076 View D.
  
• White sweater - this is an update to June's little cardigan sweaters. The cross over style and open weave make it a bit more modern, plus it can be worn alone or with other tops and dresses. BWOF 4/07, #107B
  
• Red/white knit top - definitely an updated fabric and style that is casual, yet well put together and easy to move in. I'm not sure of the fabric for this top yet - I will be shopping for fabric in Manchester later this week, and if I don't find anything, I have my eye on a few things online. BWOF 1/08, #116.
  

Dresses:

• Paisley wrap dress - no updated wardrobe would be complete without a knit dress. The style and fabric make dressing easy - just add shoes and jewelry. Butterick 4788 View A.
  
• Red linen shirt dress - I couldn't get rid of the classic shirt dress! It is one of my favorite casual vintage styles and made in short sleeves with the full skirt, it will transition through all the seasons nicely. Vintage Simplicity 2149 Views 1 & 2.
  

Coat/Jacket:

• Red trench - of course! Trench style with an update of color and embellishment. This will also count as my "previously made item" made before the official start date of the 2008 SWAP.
  

Here's the wardrobe pattern, as this year's SWAP twist is that a wardrobe pattern must be used, with 3 distinct garments made from the pattern. I will be making the 3/4 sleeve blouse, the skirt and the shorts. It is vintage Simplicity 1170, but still works well today:

For some of the fabrics, I shopped my collection. I actually had a lot of fabrics that I could have used for the SWAP, but I will make those at a later date and add them to my wardrobe. I had about half of the fabrics needed: the red linen, the paisley print, the black t-shirt knit, and the stretch wool suiting.

This week, I'm starting off easy, and making the black t-shirt. It couldn't be much easier, but I'm hoping to finish the white velvet jacket this week, and the black t-shirt will be a nice easy project to get into SWAP sewing. Mondays will be SWAP day this year on the blog, so look for updates every Monday on the project. Due to technical difficulties, this is actually yesterday's post.

I do have a request regarding the jeans. I've got Vogue 7608, but am curious as to what your favorite jeans patterns are. I won't make the jeans until March, so I've got time. I realize I'll need to make alterations, but if you know of anything that will work with my body shape (small waist, slight sway back and forward muscular thighs) let me know!

Parting Shot: Learning To Knit. My daughter wanted to learn how to knit, so I found some spare yarn in a knitting worsted weight to teach her how. (Yes, I can knit and crochet, too.) She's working on practicing the knit stitch at the moment. When she gets good with that, I'll teach her how to purl.

The White Velvet Jacket - Part Seven

The Beading

At the moment, I am working on the lace and beading for the jacket. Once this is done, I think the jacket will finish quite quickly. Here's how I've dealt with the trim:

First, the lace is basted by hand into place and then hand stitched to the velvet only with tiny hand stitches. This doesn't actually take as long as you'd think. I could have stitched the lace on by machine, but after many samples, I couldn't get the tension where I wanted it. The top thread has be to black and the bobbin thread white, so that makes for weird little opposite colored dots if the tension isn't perfect. The hand stitching also gives me great control over the slippery velvet.

Once the lace was in place, I beaded only the flowered portion and not too heavily. It is very easy to go from fabulous to tacky without even stopping at tacky-fabulous when working with beads and sequins. Most of the time, less is more. Because these beads and sequins are all black, they're not as shiny as other colors, thus more subtle. Here are the beads I'm working with, along with a section of finished lace:


The fronts are complete at this point, and I hope to finish the sleeves sometime this weekend or early next week.

Q/A: A few of you commented on stitching the velvet. Yes, it can be slippery. The most slippery I've worked with was a silk/rayon that was a very high percentage silk. Beautiful, but dreadful all at once. I use pins like Dawn, too, occasionally, depending on the pile/slippage determined by sewing a sample. June wanted to know, "I can't remember where I read this (gosh, was it on this site?), but I remember seeing someone baste once and then whipstitch the fabric edges before seaming. Do you see advantages of 1 technique over the other? " Yes, June, I did do a post on the basting/whipstitching combo. I prefer double basting. Double basting is actually better as the velvet can still slip even with basting and whipstitching. (Been there, done that!) To double baste, I baste very close to, but not on the seam line. Having to pick out two different threads that have been stitched over isn't on my list of fun things to do! For me, the closer I can get to the seam line, the better, as the velvet is secure right where the stitching is going to be done.

Parting Shot: New Ribbons. My ribbons and garments arrived from the Road to California show today.

The White Jacket - Part Six

Stitching the Seams

I'm still working on the beading, and hope to get the other front done today. I can then start some of the other construction while beading the lace on the sleeves. In the meanwhile, let's take a look at a few tips for stitching velvet.

There are several ways to prepare velvet seams for stitching. For most velvets, double basting is a good idea. I learned this tip through a comment when I was working on Midnight Garden, by NancyK. [Editor's Note: Apologies to NancyK, during the drafting stage I meant to go back and give credit for the tip, got distracted and had to come back later to add your name!] Basically, you baste both layers together, and then baste a second time, filing in the spaces that didn't get basted the first time with stitches. This works well with slippery velvets. The photo below is from Midnight Garden, and you can see the two different colors of thread for each set of basting stitches.

To actually stitch the seams, a few changes to the machine set up can help. Of course, always make a test sample. A walking foot will help feed the top fabric evenly, as the feed dogs take care of the bottom fabric. Reducing the presser foot tension is also helpful, if this is an option on your machine. You can also lengthen your stitch length and some authors also recommend a very narrow zigzag stitch, as if you were stitching a knit fabric. I chose to lengthen my stitch to 3mm. I also stitch with the nap, rather than against it.



Once the seams are stitched and pressed, they will need to be trimmed and graded if there are any extra layers. In this case, I've got an underlining, so I graded the seam allowances (sorry for the dark photo, but it is hard to photograph layers of white fabric):

For this project, I am catch stitching all the seam allowances to the underlining only. It is an extra step, but will keep things from shifting around the inside.

Tomorrow I'll show you the beading!

Parting Shot: Kiwi! She's somehow found a fuchsia pom-pom to play with. She's like a child, and will play with anything that she can push around.

The White Velvet Jacket - Part Five

Pressing Matters

I'm still working the the white jacket. I'd be much further on the whole thing, but I haven't a lot of time to work on it recently and I'm working on the beading (which I'll show you tomorrow) and that just takes time. I'm not upset about it - slow sewing seems to be the catch phrase these days.

Whenever you sew anything, eventually, you're going to have to press it. Beside making stitching samples, it is a good idea to make an ironing sample. Yes, an ironing sample. I've melted and glazed too many fabrics unintentionally, not to try out various ironing techniques on a scrap of fabric. You might not have to do this with 100% wool, but with fabrics of "various" or "unknown" fiber content or fabrics you've never sewn before it is a good idea. You know what I mean by "various" fiber content: those fabrics that you've pulled out of the flat fold clearance bin and really had no clue as to what it was, but you liked it and it was a bargain, too.

Velvet cannot be pressed like other fabrics or the nap (the fuzzy surface) will be crushed. Too much heat and pressure, and you've just permanently embossed your fabric with the shape of your iron. Not pretty on the front of a bodice, or anywhere for that matter. To press velvet, you will need either a needle board, a velvaboard (shown below) or a scrap of velvet. Needle boards are really nice and are what the professionals use, but can be pricey. Velvaboards do an decent job, but they can be crushed, too! I speak from experience. A scrap of the same velvet actually works really well and is a cheap alternative. I've actually considered sewing up an ironing board cover made entirely of velvet, just for when I work with velvet. I do love velvet and use it enough to warrant such an idea.

As you can see below, the scrap works very well when pressing seams from either side. It can be moved and placed where needed. Press only the seam line with the tip of the iron. Do not rest the iron on the fabric. An ironing sample may show that you can use light pressure, but do be cautious.

To remove small, light temporary marks and restore the nap, consider the following tool:

Yes, it is a toothbrush. A new, soft bristled one. All you need to do is steam the surface of the velvet - do not touch it with the iron - and gently use the toothbrush to fluff up the nap. This method won't remove permanently crushed nap, but can do a lot to restore minor temporary mars such as pin marks and sewing machine foot tracks to the surface.

Tomorrow: stitching tips for velvet.

Q/A: Dilly wanted to know if the sweater I was wearing while picking the names from hat box was the one I dyed a while back. Yes, it is! I usually wear it with chocolate brown and white.

Parting Shot: Ski Slopes! We're right in the middle of ski season. The students (my children included) have six weeks of ski lessons, and I'm a chaperone. Basically, that means I get to ski for free all day, every Tuesday for six weeks each winter. This is the view of a few of the lower slopes at Waterville Valley, as you go up the stairs to the lodge.

Midnight Garden Postcard Winners!

Here I am picking the winners this morning:

The two winners are :

Kathleen C. and Vivian Love!

Congratulations! Thank you all for participating - I really wish I had a postcard for everyone, but that's just not possible right now! Kathleen and Vivian, please email me at: sbanks "at" metrocast "dot" net with your mailing address and I will get the postcards into the mail this week!

Q/A: Lisa wanted to know how the postcards are made. They are very easy to make and are the perfect size for trying out new techniques.

First, you'll need two rectangles of fabric, one for the front and one for the back and a rectangle of Timtex, Fast 2 Fuse or other stiff stabilizer. The postcard finished size is 4" x 6". If I am going to serge the edges, I cut the pieces 1/4" larger on all four sides (4 1/2" x 6 1/2"). If I am going to satin stitch around the edges, I cut the pieces the exact size.

Embellish the front anyway you'd like, remembering that embellishments too close to the edge may not be easy to manipulate through the sewing machine.

Bond the front and back to the stabilizer. Some stabilizers are fusible already, but you can also use any sort of bonding product to keep the layers together.

Finish the edges, either with a serger or with a satin stitch on the regular sewing machine. For these cards, I finished the edges with the serger because of the two different types of fabric and because I wanted to try it out. (You'll notice that the crickets aren't on the cards yet - they would have been in the way of the serger, so I stitched them on last.)

Lastly, sign or address the card. A purchased postcard back stamp can be used for the backs or you can print mailing labels for the cards. As long as the embellishments are not too delicate or too dimensional, the cards can be mailed right through the postal system as is, with proper postage, of course. These I will actually mail in envelopes to protect the fabrics, beads and crickets, so I only signed the backs.

Parting Shot: Hat Box. Here's a close-up of the hat box. It's not extremely old, but I like it. It was part of a gift from my husband's aunt.

The White Jacket - Part Four

Planning and Preparation

Before even beginning to cut fabric, many decisions regarding the final look of the garment must be made. Among these are decisions are those regarding the underlining, lining, interfacings and facings. Because of white velvet, I not only have to think about the drape and support of such a fabric, but also the thickness as well.

All of the fabrics have been washed and iron and ready to go. I already told you that I'm using a white cotton for the underlining in a previous post. To interface the jacket fronts and collar, I am using a thin knit type fusible. The interfacing is fused to the underlining as fusing interfacing to velvet is potential for crushing the nap and ruining the velvet.

Once all the interfacing was fused to the proper pieces, I used a tip from an article on interlining (underlining) by Kenneth D. King the current issue of Threads (which is one of the better recent issues - there are quite a few good articles in it!). He suggests cutting out the underlining using the pattern pieces and basting the underlining pieces to the wrong side of the fashion fabric *before* cutting out the fashion fabric. This is a wonderful tip!

Above you can see one of the major advantages to this method - it allows you to use a single layer layout. The single layer layout is very useful, especially for unusual garment pieces or when you're short on fabric.

Once the pieces were basted in place, they were cut out:

The piece shown above is the back, but there are a few pattern changes to note. Notice that the underlining does not extend to the hem. I did not want a double thickness of underlining there since I'm going to use a heavier interfacing in the hem area. I will most likely fuse it to the velvet, since the hem area is much smaller than most of the pieces and therefore easier to fuse without crushing. I also eliminated the front facings and line the fronts to the edge of the garment. The pattern is drafted so that the facing and front is cut as one piece. This wouldn't be a problem in lighter weight fabric, but like the hems, a double layer of velvet, underlining and interfacing is going to be too thick.

That might seem like a lot of work and planning and no construction, but the time is well spent. This is one of the great things about sewing: you get to make the decisions that produce the results you want in a garment rather than taking whatever is on the rack.

Once I get the fronts and side fronts together (hopefully this afternoon!) I get to start on my favorite part: the beading!

Q/A: [Note to Katana: I did not forget about your question. I wanted to wait until I could put it with an appropriate post!] Katana wanted to know, "When you mark the difference between the original pattern piece and the changes made, how do you ensure the angles and curves stay the same?" One thing to realize about fitting a garment to your body and then transferring changes to the pattern itself is that there may be some lines that aren't exactly like the pattern. This is not a problem as you are custom making this garment to fit your body. For example, my waist curves in quite a bit where many patterns don't. I will sometimes change the pattern to reflect my own body curves. My shoulders also slope more than most patterns; my shoulder line is going to be angled downward more toward the sleeves compared to how the pattern was originally drafted. Of course, you don't want to change the lines so much that style of the pattern is changed, or else you'll end up with a garment that isn't what the pattern promised. Physically, to keep the lines straight or curved, I use drafting tools, mainly rulers, and carefully compare the new lines to the old ones. You can purchase drafting curves specifically for pattern making, for curved areas such as armholes or just use french curves. Els did a great post a while back on the Sewing Divas blog about some her drafting tools.

Parting Shot: It's that time again. It's time to calculate semester grades! Half the school year is over. What a great way to spend a Saturday morning.

Midnight Garden - Special Post

A Blog Give Away!

I mentioned earlier in the week that I'd have a special announcement regarding Midnight Garden at the end of the week. This is also where some of the original crickets went. Here it is:

There are two limited edition Midnight Garden postcards up for a give away!

I will be doing a drawing on Monday by picking two lucky winner's names out of a vintage hat box. If you want to be included in the drawing, please let me know in the comments. I realize that some of you post anonymously, so initials or aliases are fine. I'll post the winner's names Monday, along with my e-mail address and you can contact me with your addresses for shipping.

Parting Shot: Vintage Purse! The navy purse with silver hardware came today!

Show Report: Road to California 2008

As you may or may not know, many of my art garment pieces are entered into quilt shows/competitions. The Road to California Show opened today and will continue through Jan. 20.

Waiting For Spring won the Best Surface Embellishment Award in the garment division.

American Beauty won First Place in the garment division.

A list of all the winners should be available on the Road to California website sometime on Friday. There's a "Winners" tab on the banner at the top. Check out all the winners tomorrow! The men and women who create these works of art are amazing - I know some of them from shows and they are really wonderful people.

Marji had a good suggestion that I've already implemented, regarding a list of show dates for all garments currently in shows. If you scroll down on the sidebar, you'll see a new section entitled "Now Showing:". It is a list that contains all of the current or upcoming shows for each garment, a link to the show's website, the city and date. If you're in the show area, and have the time, I'd love for you to stop by and see not only my work, but the work of all the other talented artists who have the same passion I do.

Parting Shot: Lost Tooth! My son lost his first upper tooth today - he's definitely got that school-age child look!

The White Velvet Jacket - Part 3

Muslin 2.0

Thank you all for your help with fitting this jacket! I'd especially like to thank Paco (and Tany who corrected the translation!), who graciously offered to help me with some diagrams and explanations of pattern changes. Because of all the changes I needed to make, I thought a second muslin would be better. You see, I got to thinking about all the changes I was making and concluded:

• the upper front was too big
• the upper back was too big
• the shoulder area was too big
• the sleeves were too big

Hmmm. *Maybe* the whole thing is a size too big in those areas? This makes complete sense to me, because if I were to cut the same jacket from Vogue, I'd cut a 6 through the neck and shoulders and cut an 8 through the bust. As soon as I saw Paco's drawings and proposed changes, it was clear that some of the things I had thought about the fit were correct. Paco's instructions confirmed that I need to grade down a little bit in the shoulder and sleeve area, but leave everything below the armhole the original size, a 36.

As you can see, v. 2.0 is better than v. 1.0:

This version has the neck to waist length and the sleeves already shortened. I will still need to fix the upper back a little bit. I'm not sure about the lower back yet. Sometimes it hangs straight and sometimes it sags, like above. I'm not sure if that is caused by the muslin fabric or if I need to take out some more of the lower back. I will probably experiment a little with it tonight, and if I can't get it to look any better then I will be done with the fitting.

I can then move on to the cutting and basting and (my favorite part) the beading!

Q/A: I actually had two people asked the same question regarding my muslins. Both Carolyn and Carole wanted to know if I took them apart and used them as pattern pieces. Occasionally I do that, but most often, I mark the original seam line with a marker, and then the new seam line with a marker. When the pieces are taken apart, I can then measure the distance between the changes and transfer it to the pattern. My pattern is then correct and easier to store if I want to use it again. The muslin fabric is then recycled if the pieces are large enough to use for another project.

Parting Shot: More Fabric Bargains. All of these were less than $2.50 per yard. The top two corduroy fabrics will be made into another BWOF 9/07 #132B jacket for my daughter. I've already made one, so it won't be a problem. I'm not sure what I'll make out of the houndstooth corduroy, but I really liked it. The black with silver stripes will probably end up being a shirt dress.

Midnight Garden - Photo Shoot and Final Thoughts

Here it is, front and back:

Does this make my butt look big?

Just kidding! I suppose it does, but it does make the waist look smaller! Hindsight, (no pun intended!) the inset could have been a *bit* smaller.

Here's the front close-up, and the cricket, too:

Blouse button detail:

I do feel a bit sorry for anyone else who models this and has to do all those buttons! I do like the way they look, though.

Here's the jewelry make of blue glass pearls and crystal silver-lined beads:

My first thought when putting on the necklace was, "Hmm. Looks like I'm wearing a string of blueberries. I hope I don't get hungry at a show." I might redo the necklace at some point, but I do want to keep it simple. The jewelry needs to compliment the ensemble, not steal the show.

Last, but not least, a few random shots from the photo shoot. These are my favorites of the day, and I did put a few in black and white for fun. My daughter took these, while most of the ones above were taken by my son.

You know, most of the time, I am *so glad* to finish an ensemble. It really can be a consuming, grueling process and there are times I'd just like to be rid of certain projects. I don't feel that way somehow with MG. I'm actually a bit sad to see it end. I can't figure out why, though. I am looking forward to Forget Me Knot!

What did I learn with this ensemble?

• Keep working and reworking ideas until they become what you've envisioned.
• Something is just right when it makes me smile.
• Things that go wrong or get ruined are opportunities to make something better
• Always pay attention to even the smallest of comments from friends. I never would have gone back and done the extra quilting had it not been for a comment from VickiW (bet you didn't know that, Vicki!) nor would the crickets have become what they are if not for Anne Stevens.
  

By the way, I do have one more special announcement regarding Midnight Garden, later in the week!

Q/A: Carolyn wanted to know, "How do you store your finished "show" pieces? Do you store the accessories with the piece? And how many of these have you made?" Well, I have a "few" of these, just like you have a "few" pieces of fabric (well, maybe not as many as your pieces of fabric, Carolyn!). I store them in one end of my closet at the end of my studio, usually in garment bags. Not all the garments are in all the time - there's almost always something out at a show. (In fact, American Beauty and Waiting for Spring will be showing in the Road to California Show next week, Jan. 17-20 If you're in the Ontario, CA area, go check out the show.) All the accessories are stored on the shelf above, with the proper jewelry and gloves stored in the corresponding shoe box with the shoes. I do have extra vintage hats and gloves stored up there, too in the hat box and large black box.

Parting Shot: Back to the Winter Wonderland. There's my son, helping to shovel out the driveway ridge after the 6 to 8" of snow we got today.