Southwestern Shell: simple summer sewing

This is the post script to the sewing binge I went on a couple weeks ago – a sleeveless shell made from the aqua southwestern print from L.A.

I traced the pattern from a turquoise Banana Republic shirt…it’s one flat back piece, and one front piece with bust darts.

I was stumped as to how to finish the edges, especially the neckline. I love the loose tie on the turquoise shell, but my machine was having trouble finishing the raw edges of this fabric…all my attempts looked shoddy. Then I remembered that a coworker had recently handed me a package of black bias tape in the office kitchen: I meant to buy iron-on hem tape, but instead I got whatever this is. Someone said you sewed so can you use it? 

Yes! It was just what I needed to tidy up the armholes and neckline…

While I had the machine out I started going through my scrap pile and playing around with the beginnings of a quilt. I haven’t pieced a quilt in a while, but so far I like where this one’s going…

Sewing in my underwear

I had a “oh shit, it’s already late June” moment this week. My dad always announced on July 4th that summer was half over and didn’t we feel sad about that? Although we’d argue that there was still plenty left, I somehow grew up to internalize his means of measuring a summer.

So this weekend I decided to ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING. Yes.

I started with all that warm-weather sewing I meant to do with the fabric from Los Angeles. The first step was kicking someone out of the sewing nook.

Okay fine. You can stay. But only because you’re cute.

It’s so hot in our apartment that I turned on a fan, lowered the shades, and sewed in my underwear. I don’t have a dressmaker’s form so I’m always having to try the garment on. Might as well skip a step in the undress/dress/undress game.

I was in the zone. Twelve hours went by like nothin’…one project turned into another. It was a complete time warp where the only sign that hours were passing was the number of times  the radio played “Girlfriend” by Justin Bieber (I have been banned from singing it around the house anymore). I made myself go to bed at 1am, then got up today and sewed a long while longer.

Okay…so here’s what I have to show for my sewing bonanza…are you ready?? 

For a warm-up I re-assembled the blue vintage dress that I’d previously disassembled to turn into a pattern. Easy peasy.

It needed some buttons. I’ve had these old Parisian rhinestone buttons forever – it’s time they were put to use. Some stones are missing but they’re still cute.

Then I cut into the nice white stretch cotton with watercolored flowers to make a summer day dress.

This turned into an epic misadventure. I tried mixing and matching patterns (the bodice from this with the skirt from this) and I inadvertently created a Laura Ashley dress from the 1990s and not in a cool ironic way. I had to re-cut the bodice, re-sew the skirt, re-do the zipper a million times. Justin Bieber could not lighten the mood. In the end I just used the 1940s Butterick pattern from last summer with the same edits as last time.

It’s very good for flowery twirling!

Then I took a gamble and sewed with jersey knit for the first time. It wasn’t bad! This tips roundup from Luvinthemommyhood was helpful. What I took away from it was to: use a ballpoint sewing needle, use the “lightning stitch”, and pull the fabric just a teensy bit as it feeds through the machine.

I followed this tutorial from Elle Apparel and made a maxi skirt with a folded yoga pant waist. It was so easy and the skirt is super comfy!

There was a half yard of jersey left, so for my encore project I made a dolman-sleeved jersey top. I traced a knit shirt I got from Forever 21:

It was just a front piece, a back piece, double-sided cuffs, and a rolled neckline. This tutorial from ikat on how to do a rolled jersey knit binding was incredibly helpful. I left the bottom hem unfinished. It’s not perfect, but for sewing jersey knit without a serger I was pleased.

That concludes my sewing binge. After cleaning up this mess….

….I’m enjoying a glass of wine and some decompression on the couch. Read and I are watching Cheers on Neflix from the beginning this summer. I like that it’ll last us a while! After this, there’s always Mash. 

Remake of a vintage dress

After deconstructing my white vintage dress to make a pattern from it, I planned to put it back together before starting anything else.  But I’ve been feeling sad – my best buddy at work took another job – and cutting into this funky green/blue fabric offered some consolation. I sat at my new little sewing nook late into the evening, pinning and seaming. And here it is!

While deconstructing the dress, I made a mental note of how certain details (i.e. neckline) were put together and I made sure to mark the placement of darts and the zipper. Since the pieces were traced from a dress that fit well, I didn’t have to pause while sewing to try things on and make pattern adjustments, AND I knew I’d like the final fit. So even though ripping every seam out of a piece of clothing seems scary, I’m a believer!

A New Sewing Nook

After bringing all that fabric back from Los Angeles I’ve been hell bent on creating a sewing station. Wall space is at a premium here, but there’s a connecting door between our bedroom and the spare bedroom and I figured that by permanently shutting it I could carve out a few feet. To the left of that, where Read has his keyboard set up, I wanted to make a cutting table out of two used kitchen base cabinets and a big board covered in cork… like this.

I drove the streets of Boston for miles yesterday, stopping at Habitat for Humanity’s Restore in West Roxbury, a ginormous Goodwill, and the Reuse Center at Boston Building Resources. Turns out everyone sells used cabinets as a set…you have to want a whole kitchen’s worth.  So sad. The only things I found were random bits of architectural beauty that have no place in our apartment, like this intricate metal gas fireplace for $200:

The trip was a total bust. At home, mopey and disheartened, I searched furniture on craigslist. And there it was.  Two blocks from our house. A kitchen island, solid wood, for $30. YEs! I could feel my project adrenaline returning!

The island had these castor wheels on the bottom so my big plan was to wheel it all the way home. Only the wheels weren’t attached, so every time it hit uneven ground one or more fell out of their sockets. I was putting wheels back in every few feet. The woman who sold it to me looked very confused when I declined her offer to have her husband drop it off on Monday when he got back from his work trip. “He has a truck,” she said. I thanked her politely, but inside I was like, MONDAY?! MONDAY?!!! HAHAHAHA ARE YOU CRAZY? I HAVE TO BUILD THIS THING TONIGHT LADY! I have zero patience when it comes to projects.

Read helped me carry it home. He even stopped watching March Madness to help me carry it home. I know, he’s too nice sometimes.

Here’s what I made with it…

I extended the table workspace with a 1/2″ board from Home Depot, and I painted the bottom shelf and the top board a deep navy. Three rattan baskets from Target hold all my fabric underneath and notions fit in the drawer. I put a little cloth on top and hung an IKEA paper light overhead. It needs some artwork on either side of the door, and I may hang a long curtain in front to hide the mess.

Project Budget
$30 – kitchen island
$13 – 2′x4′ board
$39 – three rattan baskets, 17″x10″
$0.50 – a pint of navy paint from the “mess-up” shelf at Home Depot

If I can find a curtain for less than $16, then the whole thing will still come in at less than $100. As for the cutting station, I might just get a big roll-up Xacto mat to lay out on the kitchen table.

I leave you with a portrait of a gentleman:

Week of Projects from L.A. Fashion District – Tue

Today’s installment of sewing projects inspired by my trip to L.A.’s Fashion District: some kind of simple breezy shell made from this southwestern print.

The southwestern prints were huge last spring, and while I still see them in stores, they may be on their way out (??). But if I stick to a classic tunic/tee shape the shirt could have some staying power. Untucked with black pencil pants, or tucked into a stretch black pencil skirt…flats or sandals…could be perfect for summer.

More inspiration….

Week of Projects from L.A. Fashion District – Mon

Yesterday I posted about my afternoon in L.A.’s Fashion District and the 8 pounds of fabric I smushed into my carry-on suitcase. Putting all the projects into one post would be too much, so I’m making a week of it.

Today – this nice big piece of striped cotton. It’s nice and crisp, perfect for a spring dress like this vintage pattern from 1947. I’m picturing horizontal striping for the gathered skirt, with green at the bottom. Then the bodice will be the light aqua, maybe horizontal or maybe tilted on the diagonal.

As inspiration…

Spoils from L.A.’s Fashion District

The Fashion District in Los Angeles (formerly called the Garment District) is 100 city blocks chock full of flowers, handbags, shoes, apparel, wholesalers, and best of all – fabric.

I walked the Fashion District one afternoon while Read attended his conference. It was like a reality-television shopping challenge: a bazillion stores, four hours, one credit card, no bathrooms, and whatever I bought I had to be able to carry on foot to the Staples Center about a mile away.

Some posts I’d read that morning over coffee (like this one from Sew Country Chick) recommended starting at Michael Levine, which is an actual store and not a stall. Credit cards are accepted, but not haggling.

All the apparel fabric at Joann’s and Michael’s has been pushed out by printed fleece and cheap craft project stuff, which makes shopping there for clothes-sewing very depressing. In comparison, Michael Levine is like Christmas. It’s  just magical. Wool, silk, suiting, eyelet, jersey knit, buttons, chintz, satin….bolts and bolts of it.

Across the street is Michael Levine Loft, where all fabric is $2.50 per pound. The bins (i.e. huge cardboard boxes on pallets) have obviously been pawed through by many a bargain shopper and it’s hard to excavate past the top few layers. I’m sad to admit that my arms got tired.

Just as I’d resolved to leave, someone called out “New fabric ladies!” and wheeled a huge bin in from the back room. It was full of beautiful prints, all perfectly folded. A fellow shopper and I went to town. She commented on every piece of fabric passing through her hands, which isn’t really that weird. It was external processing stuff like, “I could make a flowy dress thing out of this!” Pretty soon though I realized she not only wanted to comment, she wanted me to respond. If I didn’t, she’d persist: “Don’t you think? Huh? Can’t you picture a flowy dress?” So I spent the next 45 minutes stacking my favorite fabrics in a little pile and emitting a steady stream of “Yeah” and “Definitely” and “For sure”.

I left with just under 8 lbs. of fabric, the projects for which should keep me busy all spring and summer. This week I thought I’d post one project plan per day. First up is this lightweight jersey knit in gray, black, and yellow:

The print is somewhere between feathers and a geological cross-cut. It’s really pretty. My plan is to make a long maxi skirt with a fold-over waist:

The pattern will be simple to improvise, but I haven’t sewn much with jersey…do you have any tips? This is when it would be great to have a serger, but hopefully I can make do.

Modern updates for a vintage 1940s dress pattern

Butterick 4838 - 1940s

The camera arrived! I haven’t figured out all the bells and whistles, but managed to shoot some photos of the dress I finished on Monday. I started with Butterick 4838 from the 1940s and made some modern edits: shorter hem, lower neckline, and no collar. Plus, because I dislike sewing buttonholes, a back zipper instead of front buttons.

Like a lot of midwesterners I belonged to a 4-H club as a tween. My first 4-H project was called “Joyful Jumper”. It was the early 90′s okay? I promise jumpers were sorta cool. Anyway, I don’t recall it being an entirely joy-filled experience (temperamental sewing machine, stuffy upstairs bedroom, confusing pattern directions) but the one good thing I took away from it was learning how to sew a blind hem. That jumper had crooked seams and wonky armholes, but the hem was beauuuutiful.

I busted out my old 4-H skills and blind hemmed this dress while watching a movie.

If my hemming is reliable, my zipper installation is not. Sometimes they’re great and sometimes they’re awful. Pardon my boasting, but this was one of my Top 3 Zipper Installations EVer. Here’s my new and improved set of steps:

1. Using the largest machine stitch size, sew garment together as if there’s no zipper. Press seam open.

2. With a seam ripper to (carefully!) open the seam where the zipper will go.

3. Place the zipper behind the seam. Don’t spread the seam open- keep it lying flat. Using a contrasting color of thread, hand-baste both sides in place (this worked better than pinning it, so it’s worth the extra time).

4. Using a zipper foot on your machine, stitch the zipper in place.

My new shoes came too! They’re keepers.

Kickoff to the Summer Schedule

Yesterday kicked off the start of my summer work schedule – longer hours but only 4 days a week. I’ve never had this setup before, and I want to make the most of a summer full of Mondays.

I think they’ll be perfect for tackling that elusive middle range of the to-do list continuum (see below). This portion of the continuum, located somewhere between “feed pets” and “take a ride on a hot air balloon,” is made of adventures and projects that have been waiting on the back burner. What’s hanging out there on your continuum?

First I took Sam on a rainy walk through Middlesex Fells, a huge swath of previously unexplored green on our Boston city map. It was beautiful and peaceful. Now that Sam’s getting on in years he doesn’t run off long animal-tracking detours anymore; just trots behind me on the path, sniffing.

We met an older gentleman and his golden retriever Cider, and they escorted us down their favorite path to the prettiest pond. The man – I never did get his name – wanted to talk about 3 things: Cider; hiking; and his very favorite movie, Anne of Green Gables. That VHS tape got a lot of play in our house growing up, so I quoted him my favorite lines which went over really well. Haha.

Middlesex Falls (c) MaryMactavish

After lunch I started pinning and cutting out pieces for a vintage dress pattern. I can’t remember if this one came from Gramma or an antique store, but according to this pattern cheat sheet it’s from the 1940s. It illustrates how far vanity sizing has come…Size 12 for a 30 inch bust?? I had to beef up the size of the pieces.

Once my camera gets here I’ll take photos of the finished dress. I shortened the hem, lowered the neckline, made the front one solid piece (I hate sewing buttonholes), and added a zipper to the back.

Butterick 4838 - 1940s

And finally, I pledged a small monthly donation to our local public radio station, WGBH…something I’ve wanted to do for a long while. I mean, how great is public radio? Every week when they play the latest StoryCorps on my drive to work I’m guaranteed to cry (try listening to this one…but watch out, I warned you).

It was just the right timing, because among the many gifts new donors could select, I saw Markets of New England! I’ve been coveting this book since it came by Whipup on its blog tour. Now it looks like I’ll be visiting some markets on my Mondays.

The Osoberry made it onto Whipup.net!

The full Osoberry tutorial was  on whipup.net today! (click the photo to be taken to the site). I love whipup and am so happy and honored to be featured on it. Happy sewing!