Spring's First Blush - Part XIV

Waist Finish

During the whole construction of the skirt, I'd been thinking of how I was going to finish off that waist.  The original pattern called for an attached waistband.  I knew I didn't have enough fabric to make a waistband.  Really, there isn't even enough left for that.  The next best thing is a simple and clean faced waist.  I got some inspiration from MaryBeth's post on her favorite waistline finish.

Since the fashion fabric is quilted, I decided to skip the petersham that MaryBeth uses.  That and I'd have to order it anyway, because you know I won't be buying that locally.  I decided to use a simple bias band finish.  I had to piece the bias together, but I had enough to get around the entire waistband.  I simply layered the skirt and lining together properly, then shaped and stitched the bias strip right sides together with the skirt.

I turned it to the inside and hand stitched it to the lining.  As part of the finishing, I added a small tab on the inside with a snap.  I covered up the snap stitching with a pretty little flat button from my collection:

All that's left is the hem and label and then I can work on the blouse!

Parting Shot: New Fabric.  I ordered up some fabric from Fabricmart for a suit for my brother's wedding (more on that later this week) and also picked up a few other pieces.  The denim is for my daughter, she really loved it.  It is a flocked denim, similar to flocked taffeta. It should make a cool skirt and I'm pretty sure I have fabric to match for a top!

3 Studios Art Quilt Challenge - Rhythms

Done!

My daughter and I completed the quilt today, although we spent some time yesterday afternoon doing all the stitching.  She picked out all the threads and machine decorative stitching patterns.  I did all the stitching.  It actually went rather quickly.  I told her what seam I was about to sew down and she gave me the right thread and told me which number on the machine to use. 

This morning, she added some rhinestones for fun of her own design and choosing.  Some of what she did was pretty clever, like with the frog's eyes and her brother's gardening.

Overall, this quilt is not the typical way I work.  Usually everything I make is very planned and very well thought out as to colors and embellishments.  By collaborating with my daughter, not only did we make a quilt, but we made memories and allowed me to be a bit more freer with technique.  It is a nice little quilt and will be fun to look back on in future years.

Parting Shot:  Extra Help.  Oh yeah, we had extra help making the quilt.  You know we couldn't do anything without Wellie making an appearance and check it out.  Once his curiosity was satisfied, he laid down to supervise watch.

3 Studios Art Quilt Challenge - Rhythm

Introduction

Yes, it is that time again, time for the 3 Studios Art Quilt Challenge. This time the word is rhythm.  Of course, I need to get going to finish it by the end of the month!  I've chosen an easy approach to this quilt because my title is Summer Rhythms.  During the summer around the house, we have a different schedule and by June everyone is into the summer rhythms of slightly different activities.  I've chosen to highlight three activities:  gardening, music and hiking.  Yes, I know music is a school year activity, too, but the children have pieces to practice over the summer. 

To start, I've printed pictures of the three activities on white and colored cotton - it is what I had prepared for printing, so that's what I used.  Probably not the best color choices, but this is the easy, summer approach to quilt making!  I then asked my daughter to pick out fabrics from my collection that felt like summer to her.  Once we made a final decision on which fabrics to include, I made a collage with all the fabrics and pictures. 

Publish Post

The fabric pieces are not stitched or fused down in any way yet.  I plan to use decorative stitches to secure all the edges and quilt it all in one pass.  I plan to let my daughter pick out the threads and stitches - should be interesting.  I'll rough finish the edges and be done!

That's the easy summer approach.  Maybe I'll let my daughter add embellishments if she wants.

Parting Shot:  Red Lily.  This is the first red lily I've had bloom.  This was one of those three mystery plants I had earlier this spring.  My daughter planted them and we forgot about them - in fact I don't think they came up the first spring they were in the ground. 

School Wardrobe - Simplicity 3754

Finished!

This really wasn't that hard of a skirt to make, so it was nice to finish something in just a few days.  Here is the finished skirt.  You'll note that it is a bit big - that's my little extra insurance in case she does grow! 

I've done a few things differently than the pattern, but before I get to those I thought I'd show you one thing I did like about the pattern, that I haven't seen often in commerical patterns:  twill tape to stabilize the top edge of the waistband.  The pattern instructions include 1/4" twill tape sewn into the top edge seam of the waistband and facing to help stabilize it.  It is a curved waistband, so this will prevent the top edge from stretching out.

One thing I think was a little missing from the pattern instructions was how to stitched that pointed back yoke onto the skirt.  It is very much like sewing a "y" seam in quilting, and can be tricky to do all in one seam.  The pattern has the center back seam stitched up to a dot, 5/8" away from the top, but not all the way to the top - this is what you need to do.  What the instructions don't tell you is to stitch one side at a time, up to the center back seam, breaking the stitching at the seam.  This produces a better point than trying to stitched the waistband on in one long seam.

Now for my changes.  As far as fitting changes, well, I had to take the side seams in at the waist quite a bit - no surprise there, as I think I've seen this alteration somewhere before.  Genetics really aren't kind, are they?  This change was easily accomplished by stitching the waistbands to the front and back pieces before stitching the side seams - a little different from the pattern instructions. 

Next, when constructing the back vent, I stabilized each side with a small piece of twill tape when sewing the center back seam.  This hopefully will prevent the skirt from ripping out at the vent, should my daughter decided that she's going to do something that's probably not a good idea in this skirt.

This picture shows all the rest of my changes.  I left off the belt loops.  I added a fly shield - the pattern did not have one.  This is pretty easy to do and it is included in all the Burda and Patrones patterns that I make.  I've also added a button of her choosing and buttonhole rather than a large hook and eye.  Lastly, I top stitched around all the edges of the waistband to give it a more complete look since it does not have the belt loops. 

She's very happy with the skirt and I'm pretty sure it will get worn weekly as it goes with a lot of things in her wardrobe. 

Parting Shot:  More Lilies.  I thought I'd miss all the lilies blooming while on vacation.  When we got home, I found white ones still in bloom with more to come and the orange daylilies blooming, too.

Starting Really Early - School Wardrobe

I know, it sounds insane, doesn't it?  I'm pretty sure most student just got out of school and here I am starting my daughter's fall wardrobe already.  Here's the deal.  In July, both of my kids go to camp and I am going to Salt Lake City for my brother's wedding.  We have another week of vacation in August close to the start of school.  Between all that and the suit I need to make to wear to my brother's wedding, the wedding gown I'm working on for a friend and maybe a couple of things for myself, I need to get started now if I expect to have things for my daughter to wear to school! 

We went through her closet and got rid of all the stuff that didn't fit - which wasn't quite as bad as I thought, but still took out a lot of her basics.  She's grown a lot over the last year, so even all the clothes I made last year don't fit.  Things from two years ago are definitely too small.  For the moment, we've decided to make 2 skirts, 2 dresses and 3 tops.  Most of these things are knits and will be easy, so the plan is to try to get one piece done per week and hopefully around all the summer activities, her wardrobe will be in better shape by the end of August.  We have a lot of fabric, so I've only had to purchase a couple of pieces, which is a bonus, too!

So.  I'm starting with Simplicity 3754, which is out of print, but both styles will work for her.  She likes neutral bottoms and print tops, so we're making a straight skirt in khaki and the fuller one in black.

I should have this finished tomorrow and I'll give you all the details and what I think about the pattern.  So far, the skirt front and back are done, I just need to baste the side seams for a test fit, adjust and finish off the waistband and hem. 

Parting Shot:  Summit.  Today's hike was Mt. Eisenhower and here I am at the summit.  Today was a beautiful day and with views in all directions, it was a great hike.  [BConky - thanks for the link!  My husband already subscribes;  I will keep it for renewal time!]

Spring's First Blush - Part XIII

Skirt Lining

The skirt so far is together and has had an invisible zipper installed into the left side seam.  So far, so good.  Yesterday, I thought all I had to do was the hem and waistline finish.  I forgot the lining!  Duh.  Not like I didn't have the fabric, but actually making it would be a good idea!

For the lining, I ordered some ivory rayon bemberg lining, which I thought I could buy locally but could not.  That's another story.  The lining was easy to make - the original pattern for the lining is different from the skirt pattern.  It does not have all the panel seams, just darts and side seams.  The front and back are each cut on a fold, and a dart shapes the waist area of the lining.  To get the pattern pieces, the side pieces are overlapped with the center pieces on the seam lines and taped together:

This creates one piece for cutting and it is easy to see how a dart can be formed. 

After cutting, construction was easy - sew the darts and side seams.

Now I can get the waist and hem done!

Q/A:  I got this one before my vacation, but I think it is a really good question and needs to be answered.  From Sandy, Just wondering... about how much difference do you find that the quilting changes the pattern. Does it generally happen width or lengthwise or rather randomly?

I find that the denser the quilting, the more the piece shrinks.  With this skirt, it shrank more in length than width.

Do you find it works out somewhat similar to all the pieces or are there more differences on small pieces than large ones, etc?


The shrinkage factor seems to be the same rate for all the pieces - if it is large, there is a proportionately larger amount of shrinkage. 

To prepare for the shrink factor, I generally cut the piece 2" larger than the actual pattern piece all around.  This isn't always possible, if one is short on fabric, but it is a good idea.  This also is good if the fabric tends to shred.  I mark the outline of the of the pattern piece on the fabric and then quilt, quilting a good 1" (2cm) beyond the lines.  After pressing and quilting, I place the pattern piece back on the quilted piece to check for shrinkage, quilting placement (this is where quilting beyond the lines is helpful), etc.  I then remark, stay stitch and trim the piece.  Time consuming, but to get an accurate it does work.

Parting Shot:  Garden.  Here is this year's garden that my son and I are working on.  This year we've got cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash, pumpkins and sunflowers.  Nothing is really big yet, but the weather is better than last year, so I'm hoping for a better crop.

Spring's First Blush - Part XII

Needs Embellishment

Thank you all for the well wishes for vacation - we had a nice time and now are ready to resume our regular schedules!

Now that the quilting is complete and the skirt construction is mostly underway, I can now get a better idea of how the skirt will look once completed.  After giving it a good look on the dress form, I noticed that from a distance, the quilted flowers and leaves seemed to disappear.  If you're close up, you can see them, but from anywhere over 5 feet away, they just fade away. 

This wasn't a problem with the necklace, due to the wood burning tool cut flowers.  Now that they've been removed, I have the same problem with what is now the yoke of the top. 

What to do?  Add color, of course.  The only question now is how to do that effectively.  Applique is out - it would be difficult and time consuming to applique in such a way to fit what I've already free motion quilted.  I cut out and add more flowers, but I'm not sure I want to do that as that still won't allow me to add color on the stems. 

After a little more thinking, I decided that colored pencils are the way to go.  I've got a small set of Prismacolor colored pencils and a group of individuals that I bought from the art supply store in Concord.  A quick survey of the pink colors I already owned (bought for some previous project, can't remember which - Bluebird of Happiness, maybe?) turned up a potential three or four colors.  A quick experiment on a sample piece showed exactly what colors I wanted:

The technique is quick and simple:  color and shade flowers, stems and leaves, then heat set carefully with the iron.  I did use a paper towel between the fabric and iron - I didn't want colored residue from the pencils to melt onto the iron soleplate.  I gradually built up the color in layers and shaded with a bit of white pencil, so as not to make the color too dark or too bright.  I'm really happy with the result:

Yes, I did add some beaded flower centers.  After trying a couple different color combos of sequins, I settled on the ones shown below. 

The last time I had to order sequins, I bought a bunch of extra colors because Cartwright's (see link at the right) has a minimum order amount.  Usually I don't need that many sequins, so I buy colors to fill in the color gaps in my collection and to get the minimum dollar amount for the order.  I had quite a few pink colors from my Garden Path order, which worked perfectly with this project. 

Much better and very easy to do!  Now I just need to finish the skirt; just a waist finish and hem.

Parting Shot:  June's Vintage Shirt.  I finally got a photo of June's vintage shirt.  I really like this one - I think the pockets turned out just fine even with a bit of show through.

The Great Vintage Shirt Project - McCall's 9389

Finished!

I've finished the shirt and not a moment too soon since we're leaving for vacation this afternoon.  I'm pretty happy with this one, even with the white pocket show-through.  It doesn't look as bad, now that the blouse is all together.

Beside the pockets on the front, there is a deep pleat at center back which is top stitched:

The rounded collar does not have a stand, so to finish the inside, the neckline and collar seam allowances are finished with a piece of bias.  I used pre-made single fold bias tape, as I had plenty on hand.  I really like the neat and clean finish:

I found enough vintage buttons in my collection for this blouse.  Often, I find that  I only have two or three of many styles, not enough for a blouse.  Fortunately, I had six of this style. 

Parting Shot:  Packing.  We're leaving for vacation this afternoon.  We'll be back next week and I'll start posting again on Wednesday.  See you then!

Spring's First Blush - Part XI

Free Motion Quilting Detail

The last panel seems like it takes the longest to quilt!  I did mention that I'd show you more detail of the free motion panels in separate post, so here it is.

Before quilting, I had to redesign the flowers and leaves a bit for the artwork to properly fill the space.  The original flowers were a bit too small, so I used the photocopier to make several enlargements and then decided which one was the best scale to fit the space.  After that, I reworked the stems and leaves to fit the space.  I then was able to make some rough copies, cut them out and then try them out in the space I had to work with on the panel. 

Having pieces to move around makes the design process a bit easier as you can see immediately if something is going to work or not.  If not, you can move on to another idea without tedious erasing and redrawing.  I then was able to finalize the artwork:

Once I was happy with the layout, I traced the motifs onto the silk, and pinned it.  Here you can get an idea of how it fits into the overall design of the skirt:

Now, the quilting begins.  First, the stems, leaves and flowers and then all the filler quilting.  As you can see, it is done in stages and can not be all done in one sitting.

Once that's done I can press the piece, double check it with the original pattern piece and redraw the outer lines.  Then I'll trim and finish it and it will be ready for construction with the other panels.

Up next:  Finishing the vintage shirt project for this month!

Parting Shot:  Get Him!  Wellie loves his boy and will play quite a bit with him.  He loves to chase his red fabric strips - something my son made from scraps of mine.  If he's in the mood, he'll also grab my son's head and kick.  Wellie never hurts with his back claws and doesn't have his front claws anyway - he's only playing, but the two of them have a lot of fun.

The Great Vintage Shirt Project -McCall's 9389

Part Two - So Far, So Good

I've been working on the fronts and they're turning out pretty good.  Here's the first one, although I didn't think about the pocket showing through, although you'd think I'd remember that from the previous project!  The more I look at it, I'm not sure this was the right fabric for this pattern.  Something with less show through would probably have been better, but then the pockets might be lost with a print.  Sigh. 

The pieces went together well, so that's good, and so far as the sewing it isn't very hard.  The top seam allowance and pocket bag of the lower front are pressed to the wrong side and double top stitched just at the pocket opening. 

The pocket bags of both pieces are matched and then stitched together. 

Lastly, the remainder of the double top stitching on the yoke is completed to the left and right of the pocket opening, connecting the two lines of stitching to make it look continuous.  Seen below, before top stitching is completed to the left of the pocket:

Tomorrow I'm hoping to get a lot more done - we'll see!

Parting Shot: Waterfall.  This is a waterfall in Gibbs Brook along the Crawford Path on the way up to Mt. Pierce, today's hike.  The weather was better today than predicted for tomorrow, so we went hiking today.  Although a little higher than Jackson, the trail was a bit easier, so we had a good day.

Spring's First Blush - Part X

Quilting and Constructing

Thank you for all the compliments on my new jeans and my daughter's new glasses!  I know the jeans aren't 100% perfect, but this is a good starting point and much better than when I started.  My daughter really is growing up fast, and she's a great girl.
 
I've enough panels quilted and prepared, so now I can start joining them together.  This is good because I can alternate between quilting the last of the two heavily quilted panels (details in another post) and the construction.  I just can't sit at the machine and quilt for hours on end, so this is a good break, as is everything else I need to do in life.

I've decided to use beaded strap seams for the side front and side back seams, and to use regular seams for the side seams.  I've also moved the zipper from center back (the original had a seam up the center back, I eliminated that), so the zipper will be in a side seam, another reason for the side seams to be stitched in the regular manner.

To start, I've basted the adjoining panels together and then marked out with pins the location of the beads.  There is 1/2" between beads.  As I stitch each bead in place, the pin is removed.  It is much easier to use the pins, as I do not have to mark the fabric and then remove the marks later. 

Once all the beads are in place and the basting is removed, a bias strip is centered over the seam and stitched in place using a running stitch.  This is the finished seam from the back:

This is the same seam from the front:

As you can see, the skirt is starting to take shape. 

There's plenty more work to do, but I don't mind the hand stitching.  Besides this initial design and artwork it is the part I enjoy the most.

Parting Shot:  Lily.  This is the first of these type of lilies to bloom this year.  The plants in general have done much better than in previous years.  I think it's because I got out the insecticide right away when I saw the little beetles that devastate these plants.  Once the rains stops today, I think I'll give them another spray, it has been a couple of rainstorms since I sprayed them.  I'd like to have more flowers!