What Do You Iron With

I am beginning to get tired of constantly refilling my iron during a sewing project.  Not too long ago, I did change over to an iron that has a feature which allows it to stay heated, rather than automatically shutting off after a number of minutes which is very frustrating.  But, the water thing is getting to me.  I've been looking more and more into a boiler iron, something like the Reliable i300 or i500 but it's a lot of money, with no guarantee I'll love it.

I'm wondering what all of you are sewing with.  Have you moved to a boiler iron?  a gravity feed iron?  a special board? 

I'd love to hear from you!

Slan

No Cutting Corners

This is the first project I've started since getting back from the Worcester Expo.  At that time, I really made a commitment that, if I am going to sew, I am going to do it deliberately and treat each piece as if it would be judged.  I would like to develop a few perfect fit patterns for my daughter and new daughter in law so I can sew for them.  I've made, and then altered a muslin for DIL and am finally getting around to putting the finished skirt together.  

The first thing I did was a carefully pick apart the final muslin in order to develop a pattern.  Because the seam allowances had been adjusted a couple of times, I did not want to use them.  So, I carefully pressed my pieces without the seam allowances and laid them on top of pattern paper.  For my patterns, I usually use Swedish Tracing Paper which you can easily find on line and it comes in a good size roll.  This time, I used paper I had purchased from Cynthia Guffey at the Expo.  As you can see, it is very transparent, but it is also very sturdy, not at all like commercial patterns which tear easily.  This is my first time using it and I liked it a lot.  I believe you can purchase it from her website.  I laid down my pieces and then established my seam lines, using 5/8 inch for my lengthwise pieces and 1/2 inch for my crosswise pieces (e.g. waist).  I put in my grain lines.  As you can see in the picture, my muslin piece had become distorted and was not the full 2 3/4 inches across the whole piece as it should be and so I drafted my lines to make certain it was drawn correctly.  When making a pattern, I never rely completely on the shape of my muslin.  I make a pencil mark every couple of inches around my muslin piece and then connect those marks with either a straight ruler or a curved ruler, as appropriate.  This is a must if you are to have perfect lines.  Hand drawing just isn't accurate enough.  In the picture below, I have made sure my pattern piece is the adequate width all the way around.  I have drawn in the side seam and the bottom seam.  The top seam is yet to be drawn.  You also want to add in notches so that the pieces match appropriately.

 

Before I cut my fabric, I pulled a thread on each cross grain to make sure my fabric was perfectly on grain.  I know most of you have done this, but for those who have not, you can see in the picture below with the tiny blue arrow and line, what I mean.  You make a cut in your fabric about an inch from the edge.  Grasp a thread or two and gently pull them the width of your fabric.  In all likelihood, it will break more than once, but you will be able to follow the line that the pulled thread makes and cut along that line.  In this case, my fabric was nice and straight, but often, you will find that the thread will go way off as you pull.  Taking the time to do this step will assure that your garment hangs nicely.  If your fabric is slightly off grain, you can sometimes gently stretch it back.  If it is way off, and cannot be straightened, it is not worth using. 

After I cut out my pieces and done my stay stitching, I took the time to finish my edges before I did any seaming.  I am lining the skirt, so I was not doing any special finishes such as french seams or hong kong seams.  But my fabric was linen and I didn't want any raveling.  Using an overcast foot and a zig zag stitch that was very close together and fairly wide, I stitched the individual fabric edges prior to seaming them.The overlock foot keeps a fabric even as thin as linen very flat.  The foot has a wire in it and you snug the edge of the fabric right up to the wire and the stitch forms over the wire and then back over the fabric.  Sample below.  It is not a very good picture of the foot, but if you look it up for your particular machine, you'll get a better image.  

I just want to show you one other thing in this post.  There is a front center seam in this skirt and I wanted to top stitch it.  An edge joining foot is very helpful in creating even top stitching.  As you can see in the picture below, the foot has a flange in it.  If you position the flange over you seam, you can then adjust your needle position to the right or left of the flange.  In this case, my needle is 3.5 mm to the left.  Once that top stitch is done, do the other side by moving your needle the same distance to the right of the flange.  My machine will no go any further than 3.5 mm so if I had wanted my stitching further away from the seamline, this foot wouldn't be as helpful.  But for this skirt, it worked very well. For my top stitching, I also like to increase my stitch length to at least 3.0 as I think it looks nicer.

 

I still have the lining to do, but here's a peak.  Sheryl wanted me to incorporate some silk I had from an obi, so that is what the front yoke is done in.  I didn't have enough to do more than the front, so the back yoke is the green linen.  Hopefully today, I'll get the lining in.

 Thank you Cynthia Guffey for prompting me to slow down, enjoy the ride, and put my all into it each piece.

Slan

Presser Foot Fun

Those of you who know me know that I am not a quilter and that I don't enjoy doing most crafts other than garment sewing.  I just don't have the patience.  But I did commit to doing some squares for work in order to show people the versatility of presser feet.  I thought I'd share a few of them since they can be worked into garment sewing.  The Spanish Hemstitch foot does beautiful delicate work attaching ribbons or edges of fabric for lingerie and the flat feel foot makes easy work of flat feel seams, though they can definitely be done without a specialty foot as well.  

If nothing else, this little exercise made me learn how to use those presser feet that I've bought on impulse over the years and put away only to wonder each time I came across them, just what it was I bought them for!

Stems use 3 hole foot with 2 strands of 12 weight thread in each

Pintuck Foot

Yarn Couching Foot with free motion sewing

3 Hole Foot With vintage crochet cotton

Ribbon Foot with bias strips of sheer fabric

Gimping Foot with vintage cotton
Edge Joining Foot
Candlewick Foot

Spanish Hemstitch Foot

Flat Fell Seam Foot

Slan

Mornin'

I've been away from blogging for several weeks and my plan is to go back three weeks and catch up with what everyone has been doing!  Work has been busy, Passover came and went, and my mother was diagnosed with cancer.  She started five weeks of radiation this past Monday.  Her spirits are great, but she is exhausted.  She turned 87 last Sunday and her prognosis is very, very good.  Prayers welcome!

I did get to the Worcester Sew and Quilt Expo this week and took 3 classes with Cynthia Guffey.  What a wonderful experience.  I guess some of you have come across Cynthia over the years.  She is a gracious lady and a designer of beautiful patterns, books and DVDs.  She is all about precision and details and a believer in good old fashion touches like hand basting before sewing and tailor tacks.  We studied beautiful seam finishes that incorporated wrapped outside seams, piping, fabric insertions between seams.  I loved her techniques and I loved her approach.  Her garments are classic, yet edgy.  If you haven't looked into any of her classes or seminars, I would say treat yourself.  It will be worth it.  I came home inspired!

Slan

Three Glass Marbles

My mother-in-law passed away on April 3 last year.  Yesterday, I was in her apartment for the last time -- the place she and my father-in-law had lived for 28 years.  Ruth had been in a nursing home for five years before passing away, but the apartment had been left intact until this month.  My father-in-law is moving into an assisted living home and yesterday we took the last remaining items out of the small apartment.  I took what is, to me, the greatest treasure -- a Singer electric sewing machine, model 201-2.  The last copyright on the instruction booklet is 1947 and it's complete in it's cabinet, with four small drawers.

 I've been going through the  cabinet drawers with their myriad of threads, some of them very old and dusty and wound on spools of thick cardboard rather than the plastic spools we see today.  There were snippets of elastic in various sizes, packages of seam binding, little scissors, packets of needles, and many, many tiny plastic bags of buttons -- you know the ones that come attached to clothing and that we diligently put away in case we lose a button from that new blouse or shirt and must replace it.

By the time we married, my mother-in-law was not really doing a lot of machine sewing.  But I know that when her children were young, she made many, many costumes for them and did it with as much or more enthusiasm than the young ones they were for.

But, as I looked through her drawers with so many of the the things that we all stash away, I was struck by a couple of things.  The first was that I hope someone who loves sewing ends up going through my things when the time comes.  Only another sewer could be struck by the beauty of thread, or tailor's chalk, or the shiny black paint on an old sewing machine.  Only a sewer can know what thoughts passed through another's mind when they acquired a beautiful new pair of scissors.  Alas, I didn't raise sewers, but maybe they will understand how beautiful I think every stitch can be, or what possibilities lay in a yard of fabric. 

My other thought was how very fleeting all of this is.  We accumulate so very many things and in an instant it's gone.  We never do use the white button in that miniature plastic bag, attached with a pin to our new blouse -- such an achingly simple thing.  It's over too soon and I don't want it to be over.  I want to savor every minute of life there is.  We almost never do.  We are reminded and we vow to, but then we get busy.  Very busy.  And, we forget.

One of the last things I came across in Ruth's cabinet were three glass marbles.  I love glass marbles.  I don't think anyone knows I do -- I never knew I did until recently.  But, they are beautiful in their clarity, perfect shape, and simplicity.  Maybe we had more in common than we ever realized.  And so, thank you Ruth, for your sewing machine, your thread, and your three glass marbles.

Slan

Easy Home Dec

A little relaxing sewing to spruce up the family room.  Easiest pillow ever.  Flanged pillow, measures 22 inches when finished, but uses an 18 inch pillow insert.  Monogram and flourishes are machine embroidered and there is a 16 inch sipper in the back, that is prettily hidden by a placket.  I forgot to take a picture of the back before I brought it into work for a class I'm teaching at the end of the month. Decorative stitching separates the pillow from the flange.  

Sometimes the easiest things are can be rewarding.

Slan

Nine Lives Vest

 I have fallen so far behind in posting and in reading all of your posts!  I caught up a bit this morning and hope to stay on track now.  After the wedding, things geared up for fall and then  for the holidays both at home and at work.  But, I have vowed to get back to what I love. 

My latest is a very simple pattern called Nine Lives Vest from Shapes, by Louise Cutting and Linda Lee.  It is an unlined vest/blouse that I've seen made up as a summer shirt.  I liked the idea of it as a vest for the winter months and made it up in a black faille-like fabric.  I love the way the collar stands -- I think it's flattering and I also like the asymetrical shape with one side slightly longer than the other.   There is a slight capped sleeve and, though it is shown with multiple buttons, I chose to do one large one in the center.  The seams are bound with a black and brown brocade. 

 

It makes a great foil for the scarves I've been making -- the first in silk dupioni with odd 'shapes' attached at the bottom and the second from some vintage kimono fabric with a band of black on black silk at either end.

Easy and versatile -- has the structure I love!

Slan