Loohoo Originals

Remember this dress?

2009-07-07T13:28:00.000-07:00

Well guess what, I have another wedding to go to this weekend. And I am embarrassed to say this dress has hung in my closet, dirty, since the wedding we went to last summer. With a crappy hem (the fabric, lining, and underlining were all double-folded up together, yikes!) and not quite perfect darts in the back. I meant to fix it so I could take it to the cleaners, but it just never happened.

Anyways, I pulled it out over the weekend and extended the darts in back, they stopped too high and there was a bubble right above the full part of my butt. I guess my ass hangs lower than I thought. Then I chopped a couple inches off the bottom, it was too long the first time, and hemmed it properly. I handstitched the fabric to the underlining, and used my rolled hem foot for the charmeuse lining. I slipstitched the lining down at the back vent and that was it.

It still fits! I think I've lost a few pounds from last summer but I'm happy with it.

The hem could do with a professional pressing, and you can't really see it but I hope those water spots on the skirt come out at the cleaners! Cross your fingers.

Darts are much better now. I'll need a smoother bra but overall the fit in the back is really nice.

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Thank you all for the very nice comments about my last wrap dress! Several of you mentioned taking a horizontal dart out of the lower back that would be hidden by the belt, and that's a great idea that I may do. But right now it's July and I'm afraid that wool dress will sit in my closet until I need to pull it out again. :-)

Dinner at Cindy's

2009-07-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

I've been discussing industrial machines for weeks with my friend Cindy (who I met at pattern review weekends in LA and Portland), and finally invited myself over to her house last night for dinner, machines, and sewing chat. We've been scouring craiglist for used deals, and while I decided on a Juki DDL, she wanted something that was made for heavier duty sewing. She found this Consew walking foot/needle feed combo a couple weeks ago and I think just picked it up last weekend. I got to see it in action last night through no less than 8 layers of denim, and we were both a little scared of the 'beast' after polishing off a bottle of wine.

The walking foot is what you would imagine, a 2-piece presser foot that feeds from the top as well as using the feed dogs on the bottom. But if you've never seen a needle feed before, it's pretty cool. The entire needle bar stabs through the fabric and moves front to back, taking the fabric with it, then raises after forming the stitch, and stabs the fabric again. If there was any chance at all of fabric layer slippage, this machine would eliminate it. The previous owner had made upholstry with it, and the needles it came with were HUGE. It was hard to believe the machine could punch that monster through that much fabric but it had no trouble.

Consew walking foot/needle feed

Cindy's other new toy is this Tacsew T-500 blindstitcher, which she's had for a few weeks now and has had more time to play with. I'd never used one before so she pressed a hem into some scrap woven for me to try and it worked great! But then we both tried to figure out what the problem was when using knits, and neither of us could get it to work. The knit gets sucked up into the area where the stitch forms after a few stitches, and then doesn't want to feed out the back and gets caught between the feed dogs. We couldn't find any adjustment for foot pressure or feed dog height, so we're stumped as to why the knits won't feed properly.

Tacsew T-500

Cindy preparing to enjoy crock pot pasta and some excellent Merlot her husband picked out. Isn't her top cute? It's a BWOF pattern she altered to look like a current J.Crew top.

Thank you Cindy for a fabulous evening and I hope we get to do it again soon!!!

An almost unfinished project and swayback

2009-06-23T14:12:00.001-07:00

I started this dress last October, from some DVF wool doubleknit I purchased at Stonemountain and Daughter fabrics. I had just made a rayon knit version with fabric purchased during the same trip, and was fresh off a discussion on patternreview about swayback adjustments. One of the suggestions in the thread was this, and as I was quite excited about it at the time I modified my pattern and cut out my nice DVF fabric without even testing it in muslin.

This fix did not work for me. In the back of my mind I was wondering about forming diagonal wrinkles from the shoulder with this alteration but it seemed to work for the other ladies so I forged ahead. I still got fabric pooling in the small of my back, but I ended up with those wrinkles too. And on top of that, the original pattern I used was very plain, which looks great with print fabrics but was downright boring with a solid. I threw it into a pile for at least 3 months, tried it on again and decided it wasn't too bad to wear, and embellished it with some flap pockets, shoulder tabs, longer sleeves, and french cuffs. I wore it quite a bit during the last part of winter, and got a lot of compliments on it. 2 lessons here: always test out pattern alterations before cutting into your good fabric!; and don't be too hard on your 'wadders'. They are probably still better than RTW.

I really like the dress from the front, the pockets/tabs and cuffs help to wake up an otherwise plain dress, and the buttons were from a stash Cidell sent me. (Thank you!!) I didn't have patterns for these, I just constructed them from paper until I was happy with the sizes.

Here's what I don't like. The back of the print dress was pretty good, but there was definitely fabric pooling in the small of my back. The problem is too much length in the CB, not at the side seams. But with no CB or waistline seam, your options for removing it are kind of limited. The fix I tried above attempts to pull it up from the neckline, but as you can see it created diagonal wrinkles from the bottom of my armhole, in addition to not fixing the pool of fabric. I think I will go back to my old standby of darting the CB, laying it on the fold as best as you can, and taking a little out of the side seam. (Like what Marji was talking about in that thread on PR.)

But there's nothing wrong with using that belt to tuck some of the extra fabric under and wearing the heck out of it, right? :-)

DVF surgery

2009-06-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine picked up this dress for me (thank you!!!) at the DVF sample sale last week in NYC, I've been dying to get a dress in this print but kept missing it when one would pop up on ebay, I think it's from Spring 08. I hadn't seen it made up into this style before, I think it was unique to the sample sale. I'm not crazy about bell sleeves, so I decided to turn them into a more traditional DVF style, 3/4 sleeves with a vented cuff.

I already had a pattern for the cuff from my other knockoffs, so it was just a matter of cutting off the bell, narrowing the end of the sleeve, making the cuff, and attaching it.

Before, DVF Greer in Spring Shadows print

After!

In taking apart the bell sleeve, I did discover the method used to attach it, so I thought I'd share that in case it's helpful. The bell is faced on the inside as well, up to where it attaches to the sleeve. The very end of the sleeve is understitched, and there is a 1" section along the vertical seam on the inside that is handstitched closed. They also used 1/4" clear elastic in both horizontal seams, the end of the sleeve and the top.

Here are the pieces:

Outer bell piece (roughly in a trapezoid shape, long edge is the bottom of the bell)
Inner bell piece (same)
clear elastic for top and bottom seams

Steps: (Sleeve is already attached to the dress and vertical seam serged)

Stitch vertical seam of outer bell piece
Stitch vertical seam of inner bell piece, leaving 1" in the middle open
Baste clear elastic to one of the pieces at the top and the bottom of the bell (I definitely saw basting stitches in addition to the serging, but I'm not sure which piece it was on, I don't think it matters)
Stitch the inner and outer pieces together at the bottom of the bell, right sides together
Understitch
Baste the outer bell piece to the sleeve, right sides together
Turn the sleeve right side out, it should look almost done except the inside bell piece hasn't been attached to the bottom of the sleeve.
Now reach through the 1" opening you left in the vertical seam of the inner piece, and pull out the sleeve/outer bell piece (basted together), and the top of the inner bell piece that is unattached.
You need to stitch the inner bell piece to the sleeve/outer bell seam, but you'll have to sew in a circle and readjust the piece as you work, you can't expose the whole seam at once. For a really good tutorial/pictures on how to line this up see Kathleen Fasanella's blog post. This is the same thing you do when bagging the lining in a jacket.
Stuff the seam back through the hole, and press.
Slipstich the 1" opening closed and you're done!

New equipment and PR Weekend Portland

2009-05-26T10:08:00.007-07:00

I have been busy collecting new equipment/gadgets in the last month, and as you can imagine playing with them is way more fun than blogging. No offense.

The first piece I need to share is this Elna Aliz e ironing press. I bought mine from sewinginusa.com, they are one of the few etailers that carries Elna presses. You can't type 'ironing press' into google without hitting a million Simplicity presses, but it took some work to find the Elna. I was looking for a dry press as well, which also made it hard. Most of the presses on the market now come with steam, which means holes in the pressing surface. Tiny holes, but holes. Since I mainly planned on using it for fusing interfacing, I wanted as smooth a surface as possible. The Elna had good reviews on patternreview.com and the price was right, so I went with that.

Features I like:

10 second timer that activates when you close the lid. My favorite interfacing needs 20 seconds, so I close the lid twice and I'm done. :-)
Pressure! Lots of it. (100lbs) I'm convinced this really helps the adhesion of fusibles.
Heat! Well duh. But it advertises 392F and it definitely gets hot on high.
Sturdy, it's got locking handles to move it around and rubber feet that don't slide on the table.
Board is made of Finnish birch, so no warping. At least not yet. (All the other presses use steel mesh). I prefer the way the steam permeates through the fabric with a wood board. The metal mesh on my ironing board isn't the same.
FUSING AN ENTIRE PIECE OF INTERFACING AT ONCE! (yes you need to get one of these)

Features I don't like:

It's 20"x9", and when you are fusing interfacing bigger is better. I can fit two collars, or two cuffs, but not both. it's not long enough for an entire waistband, but it really isn't too hard to move the fabric once part of it is fused. It's still light years better than using an iron. But to go bigger I would have had to get a steam model.
Not really a big deal, but having to use a spray bottle for steam. I mean you have to spray interfacing or a press cloth anyways when fusing, but when I use it to press shirts or something it does slow you down.
It came with a spray bottle, which leaked from day 1. I threw it away.

After I had my press for a few weeks, I was reading a blog post by Kathleen Fasanella at FashionIncubator.com about 'the annoyance factor'. She was talking about how to lower your expenses by examining seemingly low cost processes, and although it's aimed towards production sewing it rang a huge bell with me. If you can save yourself even a few minutes on a task that is done repeatedly, or streamline your process to make it require less work or more enjoyable, the benefit can be a huge bump in productivity. I used to hate fusing interfacing so much I'd put it off or contemplate skipping it. Now I'm looking for the next 'bottleneck' to fix.

After scouring Craigslist.org for a used industrial sewing machine for several months, I finally found one in San Francisco at the beginning of May for a good price. I've been picking up a lot more 'for hire' sewing projects and the allure of an industrial machine, with all it's capabilites and attachments, was too tempting. It was quite the fiasco picking it up at 6 pm on a Friday night, in the rain, lining up movers to carry it down 3 flights of stairs (one flaked, DH had to stand in. OMG), driving a full-size truck with a utility trailer through downtown SF, and unloading it into the house. Whew! But it's here. And it's awesome. :-)

It's a Juki DDL5550N-7 computerized single needle lockstitch with a servo motor. Features:

Adjustable speed servo motor, from turtle to rabbit-on-Red-Bull. (holy cow who sews that fast??)
Auto thread trimmer, activated by depressing the back part of the pedal
Auto back tacking at beginning or end of a seam (or not at all)
Reverse
Knee lifter

Control panel. Does anyone know how to use the thingie on the right, or what the 'eye' and 'fan' buttons do? No idea. LOL

I've only made a couple garments with it so far but the fabric feeding is so much better than my Janome, you can adjust everything (love that), I've decided life before auto thread-trimming sucks, and you can probably buy an attachment that does your laundry and cooks dinner for you. I bought some basic feet (left and right cording, zipper, invisible zipper) and a binder so far and am hooked.

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So the reason for the haste in picking up the machine was the next weekend was PR Weekend Portland and I didn't want to miss out on the deal. I had a fantastic time with the ladies of Pattern Review, and enjoyed meeting some new faces as well as spending quality time with Cidell and Christina. I didn't take nearly enough pictures but here's a few plus some borrowed ones, as well as the fabric stash I came home with.

Fabric-Tan Burberry stripe raincoating, L-R silk charmeuse, cotton shirting, silk jersey

Me, Cidell, and Christina

Cidell trying on my Burberry trench. Don't you hate it when other people look better in your stuff than you do?

Fitting/Tailoring seminar with Pati Palmer

Poofy skirt and twisted band tee

2009-05-26T10:08:00.005-07:00

What do you get when you combine lovely fabric bought with a gift certificate (thanks A.!!), a new industrial sewing machine to play with, a 4-day weekend, and plenty of sewing mojo after a trip? Finished garments. :-)

Copied from RTW top, self-drafted embroidered lawn skirt, Coclico shoes

I knew I wanted something short and poofy with this cream embroidered cotton lawn, but didn't really have an exact pattern in mind. I decided to just make it up as I went along, only deciding on the width of the waistband and the fullness of the skirt. The pieces are all rectangles so it's not hard. I wanted the embroidery pattern on the horizontal so I had to cut the fabric on the crossgrain. Then it's just gathered to the waistband and lined, add a zipper and voila! I had to adjust the side seams on the waistband to really make it hug my waist, but that was it. The skirt and lining only have one seam, in the center back. I serged the edges, then sewed the seams and pressed open. I hemmed them before attaching the waistbands, using a scroll hemmer foot. If you don't have one of these then get one!! No pressing, no marking, just feed the fabric into the foot and get a perfect 1/4" hem (or 1/8"). It worked really really well, although I did pop the fabric out of the feeder and form the hem by hand when going over the side seams. But compared to my usual method of ironing the hem first and using two passes of stiching, this was a breeze.

1/4" scroll-hemmed lawn and batiste lining

Seam finishes

I inserted the invisible zipper using my new Juki and a cording foot (the invisible zipper foot I got doesn't work very well, probably operator error).

Lining/facing all finished by machine

I saw these two fabrics laying together and liked the colors, so I made another one of these tees from a taupy gray rayon/lycra knit It was copied from my favorite RTW v-neck, and I added a twisted binding to the neckline to make a little more interesting. I haven't found a favorite method for attaching this yet, this time I serged it on, folded it over and lined up the offset, and stitched in the ditch from the right side to anchor it. I also serged the raw edges of the hems, folded up and topstitched. This jersey was very flimsy, and the edges kept wanting to roll. I knew if I even attempted my usual double needle approximation of a coverstich it would tunnel like mad.

A little note about the construction order though, I notice a lot of RTW tees/tops do this:

Sew one shoulder seam
Bind the neckline
Sew the other shoulder seam
Sew down the seam allowance at the neckline from sewing the last step
Set the sleeves in flat
Sew the sleeve/side seams
Hems

Binding the neckline while it's still flat makes it easier to handle at the machine, and you also don't have to figure out exactly how long to make the binding before attaching it. I like to stretch mine slightly as I sew to make it hug the neck. You will end up with a little seam allowance on one side of the neckline, so it doesn't look quite as nice as setting in binding traditionally, but for quickie tees and tops I think it's perfectly acceptable.

Everything you ever wanted to know about thread

2009-04-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

I ran across this brochure put out by YLI and thought I'd share. It's a clearly written booklet about thread, including how it's made, materials, sizing and size conventions. It also has a nice overview of machine needle types, how to choose the proper needle, and a good glossary. It's not specific to YLI threads either, it also lists other brands such as Gutterman and Mettler. Enjoy!

A Thread of Truth

And another version

2009-04-06T17:36:00.001-07:00

I did end up making a dress version of the J.Crew tank, and wore it to a friend's bachelorette party. I haven't worn a hemline this short in a long time, but some very nice friends of mine convinced me I could still wear this length. :-) I wore it unbelted but took some pics with a belt, I generally don't like the look on me but maybe with a skinnier belt?

I've got one other project I finished up (a UFO from October) that I still need to post, and I've been working on some pants for DH using this Kwik Sew pattern. They should be done this week. Happy sewing!

Weekend sewing update

2009-03-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a little behind on posting finished projects, my sewing space has officially moved out of the kitchen and into the spare bedroom. The ability to leave my mess untouched during the week when I'm away has improved my ability to jump right back in again on the weekend, leaving less time for blogging! I have a long table now with my sewing machine and serger, the iron/board right next to that, and my dear husband has a cutting table in the works for me. I think he really just wants exclusive use of the dining table for food-related purposes. Either way, yay for dedicated sewing infrastructure!

I bought some of this silk charmeuse a few weeks ago without a pattern in mind, but when I saw this J.Crew halter top I knew I had to knock it off. I used this kwik sew pattern as a quick jumping-off point, and one muslin later it was ready. I already want more of these, and potentially a dress length too.

It's a halter style with a pleated front and a keyhole back, long ties form the straps and knot/tie in the back. You can adjust the neckline with the ties, or place the knot to the side if you want. Used french seams for the side seams, and self-fabric narrow bias binding turned to the inside for the armholes. The neckline is just turned and stitched down to form a casing for the tie. I made this one kind of long for tucking into low rise pants and jeans, but it would work in a shorter length untucked or much longer for a dress even.

I'm thinking of making one of these in a dress length from that Milly silk I found at Hancock's! What do you think?

Trench coat DONE

2009-03-10T09:28:00.001-07:00

This project was starting to turn into the 'coat that didn't want to be finished'. I spent weeks looking for buttons, and when I finally tried to put them on 2 weeks ago my machine wouldn't make the buttonhole on the pocket flaps. It kept getting hung up on all the fabric where the flap attaches to the coat. I must have ripped out 15 tries between the two sides. Yes I did make a lot of samples, even trying to duplicate the layers, but the only time it wouldn't work was on the actual coat. I'm lucky I didn't wreck them in the process, this is some tough fabric!

After scouring the internet for help, I decided to bid on a vintage singer buttonholer on ebay. This one comes with 20 templates for making regular, keyhole, and bound buttonholes, plus an eyelet. It uses the zig zag stitch on your machine but moves the fabric around for you, and it had no problem with the pocket buttonhole. It doesn't look quite as nice as my Janome's keyholes, but it worked the first time. It might be an adjustment issue, but I couldn't seem to make the stitch length short enough to get a dense stitch and going around the template 3 times didn't give the same look. There's a lot of settings to play with, so I'm looking forward to seeing what other styles I can make. I used the eyelet template already on the belt buckle.

You can see my previous work on the trench coat here. I didn't make any fitting changes in the real thing, although I made a few style decisions. I added another row of buttons at the bottom, after wearing it around for a week I thought it needed them. However I must have forgotton to sew on one of the bottom buttons, I had placed it with wonder tape to get the position right and it seems to have fallen off before my photo shoot! I added some more topstitching in places, and I didn't care for the button flap that closes the collar stand. On real Burberry coats there is a metal hook, I may do that.

All buttoned up, I placed a flatter button under the chest flap on top instead of making another buttonhole through the flap. There are 2 buttons on the inside facing.

I've got the belt tied right now, I need to add eyelets and I can't decide if I want silver metal or black stitched.

The top buttons also work nicely to hold the flaps back.

I love the back vent on this one, it's not a slit so there's no drafts!

My 'flasher' pic.

I put a hanging chain in the back, sewn on with black grosgrain ribbon in the collar seam. There are raglan shoulder pads, covered by acetate lining in the sleeves only, set by hand. (Twice! I forgot to topstich the sleeves the first time.) All the seams and hems are bound with rayon seam binding. I also bar tacked the pocket bags to the facing, now they stay put instead of flopping around.

I added 1/4" topstitching to the facings, but I wasn't sure how to end it at the neckline until I looked at some photos. All the real Burberry coats turn 90 degrees where the collar joins the collar stand so that's what I did.

I wore it around for a week already, pardon the wrinkles! I added topstiching to the facing in between the armhole seams. This holds it well enough even though the facing is free in the armhole area.

I used the striped side on the underside of the pocket flaps, the collar, the chest flap, and the sleeve tabs. I didn't think of it until afterwards, but I may have preferred ivory thread in the bobbin.

This was a looooong project but I love the results. I know I will have this coat for years and I'm glad I spent the time on all the little details. This was wonderful fabric to work with and now I'm wishing I had some in tan!

The last seam ripper you'll ever buy

2009-03-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

Maybe Gingher doesn't know how many seam rippers I go through because that's a pretty tall claim. I'm not sure if this is a new product or not but I hadn't run across it before. It's 6 inches long and has a retractable blade.

From Gingher's website:

Gingher's seam ripper features a razor edged cutting blade that safely retracts when not in use. The handle is ergonomically balanced to provide the user with fine cutting control in numerous positions. This tool is beautifully finished with chrome over nickel and comes in its own storage box. With proper use and care, the blade should last a lifetime and is covered by Gingher's guarantee.

It runs about $25 from several stores online and there are a few on ebay too. I've probably spent at least that much on cheapy plastic ones, and I toss them pretty regularly because there's not much I hate more than a dull seam ripper.

Kreativ Blogger

2009-02-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

It's a good thing this award is called 'Kreativ' and not 'Frequent' or I'd never get it. Thanks to Ann Smith and Sewuptight for nominating me, sorry it took so long for me to acknowledge the honor!

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I finally finished up my sewing for hire projects a couple weeks ago and breathed a huge sigh of relief. I made 17 dresses in January, and 5 more in November/December from the same design, in 4 different sizes and 4 colors. I ended up customizing almost all of them, either different hem lengths or morphed sizes. Everyone has been thrilled with them so far, but I'm a little sewed out and my shoulder/elbow is still recovering from all the pressing! But I somehow managed to eek out one for myself after I finished all of them, this is the navy color. The fabric is organic merino interlock from Near Sea Naturals.

The dress has a stand up collar, split cuffs, and side waist ruching. Pretty simple to put together, but the effect is flattering, even if I do say so myself. :-)

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I have been searching for buttons for my Burberry trench coat for weeks, and finally lucked out at Joann's (!) yesterday. On Saturday I made a trip to Stonemountain Fabrics in Berkeley CA, and didn't like anything they had, even from an entire wall of buttons. There were some packaged Dill buttons I liked, but they didn't have enough of them. The Joann's I stopped at had just restocked, and I found these thick, shiny, glossy 4 hole La Modes in 3 sizes and bought them right away. I managed to get the collar attached, with hanging chain, and start on the hems.

I made some practice buttonholes, and decided I like the keyhole style on my machine. I'm having a hard time figuring out where the buttons go though, I thought trenches were supposed to button right over left or left over right? The BWOF instructions only call for buttonholes on the right side, not the left. And it calls for 2 'inside buttons', whatever that means. I'm going to have to take a look at a real trench to figure it out. I'm still looking for a belt buckle, but I think I found some nice leather ones here. My local cobbler can put eyelets in for me.

Trench coat in progress

2009-01-06T12:53:00.000-08:00

I've been putting off attempting a coat, just thinking about the time and effort required was too daunting. However I own exactly one 'nice' coat, a 3/4 length J. Crew wool one, and my closet has been crying out for another one. Not that it gets too chilly here, but I do prefer the longer length in the winter time. The Burberry fabric I bought from Michael's fabrics about a year ago has been calling to me from my stash ever since, and with the almost two weeks I had off around Christmas and New Years I managed to choose a trench pattern, make a muslin, adjust it for fit, and construct most of the coat.

I was looking at two Patrones patterns, and this BWOF from 1/2008. I decided to go with the BWOF due to the raglan sleeves, the fabric is a thick two-sided cotton, and I didn't think set-in sleeves would ease very well.

The line drawing is accurate in my opinion, it is very a-line without the belt and was too voluminous for my liking. With the belt it bunched up too much around my waist even in muslin, so I decided some of the width had to go. However everything else seemed to fit perfectly, the shoulders, bust, collar, and lengths. I thought the arms were a bit wide so I decreased there as well, but overall this was not much tweaking by my usual standards. And there was no gaping or seams not matching up like I usually deal with when using the Big 4. Very refreshing. I traced a 38, without adding seam allowances. I marked the seams on my fabric with chalk and added allowances before cutting. This made it easy to mark the seams at corners and other areas that tend to get mixed up.

About 1/4" removed from the bottom seam of both sleeve pieces. (1/2" total removed) This also decreases the armhole seam length, so I took the same amount from the body armhole seams too.

Almost an inch taken out from the side front seam, most of it at the waist and tapering elsewhere. (2" total taken from the front)

Similar adjustment done to the back pieces, most of the width coming from the waist to give it some shaping there.

For my first coat, I'm thrilled with how it looks so far. I chose to line only the sleeves, and I'm really pleased with the overall weight. The fabric was a dream to sew, it didn't slip hardly at all, even on the long seams, and the seams pressed nicely. It shines from the iron, so be sure to use a press cloth. It looks fabulous with topstiching, and even the single welt pockets under the flaps came out nicely.

I used the stripe side for the undercollar, underside of the front flap, underside of the sleeve tabs, and underside of the pocket flaps. It still needs buttons, hems, a buckle, attach the collar, belt loops, and some more topstiching. I got as far as handsewing the sleeve linings to the armholes, then realized I forgot to topstitch the armhole seams. Grrrrrr!! I couldn't face ripping out the linings, so I set it aside for now. This fabric is way too dense for hand topstiching, my fingers would be bleeding by the time I was done. I used a microtex 90/14 needle for all the construction, I got skipped stiches with a microtex 70/10. An 80/12 probably would have worked too but I didn't have any in my stash. As it was I'm already on my 2nd needle, it needs to be sharp to get through this fabric.

Front, with the belt tied around my waist. Where to find a nice shiny black buckle and buttons?? LindsayT?

Back, what a difference raglan shoulder pads make! When trying it on before putting those in the shoulders had a lot more wrinkles.

Inside, CB seam, side seams, facing edges, and pocket bags are bound with rayon seam binding.

Since I haven't made a coat before, I'm not sure if the pattern would be considered a good one or not. The lining pieces are exactly the same as the body pieces, only with lines marked to stop at the neckline facing. If I hadn't read about adjusting the lining at the armholes (less height needed when not going over the shoulder pad, and adding fabric at the underarm), it wouldn't lay as nicely as it does. There is no separate undercollar piece. If I hadn't had experience with shirtmaking my collar would look terrible. I cut the undercollar smaller, and used the shaping techniques I've used before on the collar and collar band. I also made adjustments to the facings, to account for the turn-of-the-cloth when understiching. None of these things were mentioned in the BWOF instructions, but then again they are pretty brief anyways.

I have some sewing for hire to finish before I can pick up this coat again, but I hope it won't be too long before I can post the finished product!

Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-25T13:37:00.000-08:00

Here's wishing everyone in blogland a happy holiday, whatever or whenever that may be. :-) Here at Loohoo Manor we celebrated Christmas this morning with a few gifts, having spent too much money recently (ahem serger) to justify any more extravagance.

I bought this fabric at Stonemountain and Daughter during my Thanksgiving trip with Christina to make DH a shirt, and have been stealthily working on it ever since. Discreet sewing takes a different skill than speed sewing, but they both have their difficulties. I am terrible about cleaning up my floor when sewing, and will often leave fabric scraps on the ground for weeks. Ask my husband how much he likes that. Anyways, I didn't want to leave scraps from the shirt on the floor for him to see, but I also didn't want to clean up everything or he'd be suspicious of that too. So I painstakingly picked out the shirt bits from the rest and mostly left the mess. I think I should just start cleaning up after myself.

Thanks to Cidell, I was able to finish the shirt yesterday afternoon and have it under the tree before DH got home from work. He wasn't expecting anything so it was a nice surprise. He agreed to model it for you all only if he could pose with his newish gun. *sigh*

The fabric is a 100% cotton, but it's got a unique feel to it, not quite a seersucker but it doesn't hold a sharp press. DH gave the thumbs up.

This was a TNT pattern I had made back in June for his birthday, by copying his favorite short sleeve shirt. All the construction methods are straight from David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking book, which sadly was checked out of the library the other day when I went to get it. I had remembered how to do everything except for the collar band and attaching the collar, but a quick email to Cidell fixed that. I owe that woman a gift basket.

We had plans to go to Idaho to visit DH's family for Christmas, but the storms have dumped so much snow the roads are practically impassible. So we decided to stay home and just relax. I hope to finish up some UFOs and mending, and catch up on a few blog posts. Hope everyone is able to find some time to relax as well!

Hugs and Stitches,
Leslie

Vogue 2981 Pants

2008-12-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to finishing my first pair of pants, this Vogue pattern that Adriana nailed recently. If mine look half as good as hers then I owe partial credit to her for all the help she gave me. Thank you Adriana! The other half of the credit goes to luckylibbet, who kindly invited me over to her home to help fit the muslin and take measurements. It was like talking to a library's worth of fitting books! Thank you H. I guess I'm out of halves, but I also got help from other bloggers and patternreview, you know who you are and thank you!!

Here are the adjustments I made to the stock pattern after all my tweaking:

-Straightened hip curve to a straight line from waist to hip
-Redrafted my own waistband from a piece of 2 1/2" bias canvas
-Added 1/2" darts over the back pockets
-Took in 3/4" from each side seam in the back
-Narrowed legs by 1/8" on inseam and outseam
-Changed slant pockets to double welt pockets

Fabrics and notions:

-An amazing black/white/green plaid stretch wool from Michael's fabrics. It was a dream to press, sew, and wear.
-Black silk underlining
-Cotton/poly pocketing from Charles Zarit Sewing Supply, which I really like since it doesn't tend to wrinkle.
-Black 7" YKK zipper, also from Charles Zarit
-Black rayon seam binding for the inside waistband and hem raw edges

I LOVE these pants. The underlining is far superior to lining, especially for pants. It moves as one unit instead of pants-within-pants. And the hem is handstitched to the underlining, so it's completely invisible. The fit is better than anything I've ever bought, it was worth all the tweaking to get here. And amazingly, I made no adjustments to the CB, CF, or crotch curve. I think I found a pattern that works for me.

This was my first project completed with the help of my new serger, and it was tempting to use it on everything I could! I restrained myself and used it only to serge the underlining to the fashion fabric, finish the fly and fly facing edges, and finish the pocket edges. All places I didn't want extra bulk, and I'm very happy with the look from the outside (no pressing cloth or padding required!), but my inner couture seamstress still prefers the look of a hong-kong or bound finish.

This was also my first attempt at double welt pockets, so naturally I decided to put in FOUR of them. Now to be fair, I did spend several hours just practicing different methods, so I felt pretty good about my technique before I tried them on my real pants. Out of the Vogue instructions, Debbie Cook's tutorial, and Kathleen's, I decided I like Kathleen's the best. It is slightly less bulky and quicker, however it is absolutely essential to make the pressing jig, and to sew incredibly accurate seam allowances. After trying the Vogue instructions, which involved seperate welt pieces, I decided I didn't like any of the methods that have you deal with welt pieces. Both Debbie's and Kathleen's are what I'll call 'integrated' methods, the welts are formed through the sewing and folding steps. It's hard to visualize, even with their great pictures, so I recommend trying them out for yourself.

Yes I matched up the plaid on the waistband and fly too. I didn't know you didn't have to so I was very very careful with the cutting.

I accidentally sewed the waistband facing in the wrong way, however in this case the only thing that happened is the CB seam is now offset, but it does reduce the bulk a little there. I forgot about this when sewing on my label. Oops!

Speed Sewing

2008-12-10T15:03:00.000-08:00

What to do when you've got a Christmas party to go to and nothing to wear? If you didn't sew the answer would be shop. :-) Now the only thing that pops into my head is, "What do I have in my stash?!". I remembered this BWOF pattern I had copied from Cidell's issue, and how she was able to make it on short notice too. I had some stretch wool leftover from another project, and a few colors of silk charmeuse available, so I whipped this up in about 12 hrs total, from the time I started adding seam allowances to the traced pattern. Not bad.

I did do flat pattern adjustments before starting, and I have to say they got me really really close. I straightened the hip curve, adjusted for swayback, and added booty room in the back. I checked the armholes against my favorite TNT silk tank pattern and added a little where it would have gaped, and that was it. The back darts still needed tweaking but it was surprisingly close.

Since this was speed sewing, I committed some sins against fine fabric that I would normally never do. Nothing is lined, although it really doesn't need it with the fabrics I chose. I serged (separately) all the seam allowances, including on the silk (yes, 30 lashes, I know), but did press everything open. I chose to bind the armhole and neck edges instead of creating the ruffles, and I didn't hand baste them down either. I got really lucky my ditch stitching caught almost everything with just pinning, and I was able to redo some areas discreetly. I can't say enough good things about a 70 microtex needle and Coats XP fine poly thread on silk charmeuse. So forgiving.

I asked Cidell for help on this one, and she in turn called up the omniscient Marji, for additional help. Thank you both very much for your quick emails, they were much appreciated. Following their advice I put in a lapped zipper on the side seam, instead of an invisible in the back. It was my first time with a lapped, and it wasn't perfect but I was pleased with it. I can see how it will be much less hard on the fabric. And I do like the side seam location, my CB seam is very curvy and I'm not thrilled with the way zippers lay back there. However, the lap itself, even done well, adds some bulk to the side seam and sticks up more than an invisible. So I'm not crazy with the look, but if I hadn't tried that location I never would have discovered the advantage of the side seam zipper. One caveat though, all the instructions I found for doing a lapped zipper involve basting the seam closed, and when you are all done the area that was basted is visible. My charmeuse still shows the needle holes from that basting. FYI. It was fine on the wool.

This was right before we ran out the door, I had an hour to spare after finishing.

You can't really tell from the pic, but that is a burgundy shanked button. The only one in my stash. I bound the keyhole placket following Claire Shaeffer's High Fashion Sewing Secrets.

Top of the lapped zipper caught in the armhole binding. This held the lap down very nicely over the zipper stop.

Yes that's a brown zipper. It was all I had.

Fabric shopping and another DVF knockoff

2008-12-03T16:57:00.000-08:00

Thank you everyone for the kind wishes, it's amazing to me how many people are all too familiar with that feeling of violation you get after a home burglary.

**************

I have been sewing a lot lately, but using my limited minutes at the machine and not the computer! So again, I apologize for the lack of updates. I had a fabulous Thanksgiving week, I took the entire time off work and sewed, cooked, played with the dog, and slept. I stayed away from the malls completely, and only stopped into one store on Black Friday, Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics in Berkeley, CA. Christina was visiting from Seattle, so I enticed her with a 20% off coupon they sent me. It wasn't hard.

I snapped up some DVF wool knits for, guess what, more DVF knockoffs. As well as some shirting for DH, silk charmeuse for the top of a dress, and a gorgeous DVF woven that Christina said I just had to have. I will take pics of all of it and post so you can drool too. :-)

Christina and I in front of a wall of silks, that's my Patrones skirt, and she's in a BWOF dress, but you can't really see her fabulous tights or grey suede boots.

I got home from purchasing the fabric at about 2 in the afternoon on Friday, by Saturday at 2 I had a DVF knockoff made for my sister's birthday that night. I was going to get her a gift certificate but I think this went over much better.

It has a funnel neck, gathered front at the side seam, and a plain back. The fabric is a DVF wool double knit with a faint diagonal pattern to it, very soft and stable. When my sister came over for Thanksgiving dinner I had her try on the muslin I had made for this dress, she loved it so I told her I'd make her one for Christmas. She sure was surprised when she opened the box on her birthday!

I was also able to almost finish up my first pair of pants, and I sewed a '15-minute top' pattern I got from another sewing friend out of some more wool knit. I can't wait to show you the pants, stay tuned.

I'm back

2008-11-24T08:15:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like a home burglary to steal your sewing mojo. That's right, just a few months after Christina's home was broken into, I came home one night about a month ago to find our house had been robbed. I can't even explain how terrifying it was to have walked into my house, set down my purse, and gotten all the way over to the bedrooms before I saw all the drawers pulled out and realized what happened.

Apparently we had a considerate burglar, because he shut the door on the way out and didn't disturb anything in the house besides taking several guns, my husband's laptop, and one of my jewelry boxes. A bunch of other random small things on the desk were taken too, but overall we were lucky.

I'm going to take a second to encourage everyone to prepare for something like this, no one is immune, and if the police and insurance companies are right this sort of thing may be happening more often. First of all, the second you realize your home has been broken into, GET OUT. Do NOT walk into the house, and if you are already in LEAVE. Call 911 and wait for an officer to come and make sure it's safe to go in. You have no idea if the burglar is still in your home. Second, after you do that you will likely have your cell phone with you, but if you don't have the numbers to your credit cards, bank, etc. it doesn't help in that moment. If you do nothing else, put one of these numbers in your phone. The 3 credit reporting agencies have a 'fraud alert' service, if you call one of them and report a potential identity theft, they will notify the other two. This puts a 90-day fraud alert on your account, so if someone tries to open up new credit in your name they will have to call and speak to you first. And if your credit card is used fraudulently, this shows the card companies you were on top of it.

Here are the numbers for the credit-reporting agencies, all you need is one.

Equifax 1-800-525-6285

Experian 1-888-397-3742

TransUnion 1-800-680-7289

Go here for more information about a fraud alert. (Thanks Christina!)

If you keep bank statements, credit card statements, or anything else with sensitive information in your home, it's a good idea to at least do this much to protect yourself. If you really want to be prepared, then store all the numbers to your bank and credit cards in your phone as well. Having the number to your insurance agent isn't a bad idea either. And finally, what really would have helped is having a good inventory of the house. I wish we had taken an afternoon to photograph the valuables, it would have simplified figuring out what was gone,

and provided evidence to the insurance company. We were able to piece together this information anyways, and our insurance covered everything that was taken, but it was definitely stressful. Just go take a picture of your jewelry box (and sewing machines!), you might really need it one day.

So things are pretty much back to normal now, except for the new alarm system and gun safe (Which my husband had purchased on a trip before the break-in and came home to find the guns robbed!). I had some irreplaceable family jewelry stolen, so since I got a decent amount of money for the gold content from the insurance company, what did I do with it? Bought a serger of course.

Say hello to my new baby, a Babylock Imagine Wave.

I kid you not, I brought the box home, took her out, and was serging within 10 minutes. The jet-air threading and the auto thread-delivery system WORK. You can spend your time fiddling with different stitches and thread configurations instead of trying to balance tensions and thread your loopers. I plan to use it mainly for edge finishing, as I much prefer the look of a pressed-open seam to a serged one, but I do have some knit tops and tanks to make that will do just fine on the serger. I scooped up a bunch of spools of Maxi-lock at a Hancock's sale last week, so I'm set for awhile.

I have been sewing, but it took awhile for my energy to return. I made another DVF style wrap dress in wool jersey that I'm fiddling with, and this morning I should finish up a sweater knit top from a pattern I got from friend called the '15 minute top'. I apologize for my lack of posting, and hope at least one person benefits from what I learned!

La Mode button ad

2008-10-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Lolo for finding this, an ad for La Mode buttons from 1943. First off, I had no idea they had been around so long! Second, the message could easily be applicable today.

Vogue skirt and sewing labels

2008-10-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to meet up with my friend to finish the Vogue skirt, as it turns out a few of us were able to get together Friday night to take her out for her birthday! This is what I was doing until about 15 minutes before our dinner reservation:

Hand-hemming the skirt to the underlining

But it turned out fabulously, she wore it that night and raved about the fit and the comfort. She liked it so much she kindly agreed to pics for the blog, so thanks R!!!!

With a red Elizabeth halter from J. Crew, and her adorable dog Marlo.

And in Summerset's style, here's a parting shot. I received my 'loohoo originals' labels from namemaker.com, and proudly sewed the very first one into my friend's skirt. I am ridiculously happy about these. Maybe it's because I'm such a label slave.

My first attempt at pants

2008-10-06T17:33:00.000-07:00

I had a fairly productive sewing weekend! The seam ripper actually spent a good bit of time in my notions box instead of glued to my hand. Sewing is so much more enjoyable when you don't screw up. I'll just do that from now on. :-)

I finished up my friend's Vogue skirt except for the hem, which I need to pin on her. I'll see if I can talk her into modeling it for us. I also sewed up a copy of a workhorse tank top in my wardrobe, from some rayon/lycra jersey. The RTW ones I have are getting holes in them from the weekly wear.

So my main hurdle this weekend was a muslin of Vogue 2981 Alice and Olivia pants, that Adriana nailed recently. This was my first shot at pants, and frankly I'm confused. I don't know where to start with the fitting. Adjusting the crotchal (is that a word?) area is all sorts of counter-intuitiveness. The actual sewing was fairly straightforward, I followed the Vogue directions exactly for the construction and fly zipper, leaving off the pockets and belt loops. I'm hoping you fitting mavens out there can help me with this. Pardon the crappy Joann dollar table cotton and the occasional panty line.

Front, which is too loose at the top and was falling down. I'm holding onto the zipper to kind of keep it up. I feel like there's too much fabric in the inside leg seams in the crotch area? It's also poking out at the hip where the side pockets would be,I think my hip curve is straighter there.

Here it is pulled up and cinched in a bit at the waist, I feel like this pulls some of the fabric out of my crotch, but I'm holding it too tight at the very top and I'm getting the dreaded 'muffin top'.

Side, again it is falling down and tilting to the back, but there is a breeze blowing from the left side of the photo so the fabric really doesn't fall that far.

Front pulled up, I think the side seams are pretty straight here.

Back, hanging too low and the crotch is too far down. Again feels like too much fabric at the inner leg.

Cinched in at the side seams, this also seems to pull some of that fabric from out of the inner leg/crotch area, but I'm not sure if this makes other things worse?

I'd appreciate any advice you have for me! I cut a straight size 12 on these, no adjustments, and by the chart I should have been a 14, so they seem to run standard big-4 sizing big. On dresses I typically make a swayback adjustment but not much else below the belt. Thank you!

DVF Julian knockoff

2008-10-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

This turned out to be easily one of my favorite dresses. I can see myself making this up in a bunch of different fabrics. I borrowed a DVF Julian wrap dress from a friend of mine (thanks again Lauren!!), and made a copy using the techniques I've written about before, see here. This one is so simple it's almost unfair. Most of the dress is only 3 pieces, a back and 2 fronts. Add a couple sleeves, a belt, some cuffs, and voila! Super cute dress that could go to work with a cami or out and about without. I already knew what the fit was like on the original, and I felt good about my pattern copy, so I completely skipped my usual muslin. I almost always make one with a new copied pattern, you never know how close you got to the original. I made this up in an afternoon, from some rayon/lycra I purchased at Stonemountain in Berkeley. I also found some green wool jersey while I was there, which will be my next reincarnation of this pattern.

Front

Back

I'm starting to think copying RTW requires less time than sewing from patterns! There's a whole lot less fit-tweaking to do, and you can make small adjustments after copying the pattern in places where you want to improve. I have one more dress style I copied as well, with a fuller skirt and long sleeves. Just need to find some more fabric...

Skirt progress

2008-09-29T16:34:00.000-07:00

I managed to make a pretty good start on my friend's Vogue skirt before my husband and I took off for camping last week. It's made of a black stretch wool from Michael's fabrics, and lined/underlined with charcoal grey stretch silk charmeuse. Here are a few pics of the progress:

Front, belt loops were attached to the outer waistband only

Inside waistband, the rigeline boning was stitched through along the seam allowances

Inside of waistband, I only interfaced the front panel as I want to take advantage of the stretchy fabric.

Closeup

Inside out, still needs the bottom edge of the waistband finishing, zipper, and hem.

Back

I am still sort of dreading attaching the lining to the hem vent and back seam, I think it will all have to be done by hand due to the underlining method of attaching the lining. Does anyone have a good method for doing this? My RTW clothing all looks so neat on the inside, there must be a way to do it.

DVF cuffs--a tutorial

2008-09-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

I've made vented cuffs on knits a few times now, following the directions for the infamous Vogue 8379 wrap dress. They work fine, but leave an unfinished seam allowance on the inside that always seems to fold the wrong way when I put my garments on. I recently made a copy of a Diane von Furstenberg dress that a friend lent me, and spent some time studying the cuff. I think I figured out the method used there, and took lots of pictures when making mine so I could put together this tutorial. I hope someone finds this helpful!! I know I was really confused by the Vogue instructions at first but it does work.

DVF Cuff Tutorial

Catching up

2008-09-22T07:44:00.000-07:00

Well a new hard drive later and I'm still having computer problems at home, so sorry for the lack of updates. I have been sewing, shopping, and brainstorming so I have lots to tell you about but my laptop decided it hates blogger and ditches my internet connection every time I tried to get in.

First of all, thank you to Lindsay T and Sigrid for nominating me for a blog award, thank you so much! Lindsay I am so flattered that you want me to blog more, and Sigrid I am amazed that I actually inspire YOU. The debt is certainly on my end.

In other news, I have again accepted a 'sewing for hire' project, if all goes well I may actually let my friend take me out to dinner upon completion. However this time said friend is somewhat local, and she happens to live within 10 minutes of Stonemountain fabric store in Berkeley. No of course that didn't influence my decision. :-) Last weekend I went over her house to fit the muslin for this Vogue skirt, she has a dress by black halo that she adores and wanted a skirt just like it.

Knowing LauraLo and Erica B already made this one up, I figured it was a shoe in. The muslin fit like a dream the first time, even though I had to blend two sizes and take out 3 inches of length between the waist and hip. Girlfriend was obviously talented with the measuring tape, since I didn't measure her! I also found some goodies at Stonemountain, a rayon/lycra print that I already made up into a DVF knockoff last weekend (pics to follow), a DVF wool jersey, some silk organza to play with, and a couple rayon/lycra solids for some knit tees.

I had just recieved a packet of swatches from Michael's Fabrics, with a bunch of gorgeous wools and silks, so I brought that with me for my friend to paruse. She ended up finding a lovely black wool/elastic blend, and I couldn't resist getting some of this great plaid for wool pants. I picked up a couple Vogue Alice & Olivia patterns a few weeks ago, I figure it's probably time for me to attempt some pants. I think this one is the front runner right now.

And finally, I managed to snag a copy of Patrones Extra # 272 from the lovely Christina, who has just posted some pics from the magazine and is kindly having a contest to give one away on her blog! I've got several things earmarked already, stay tuned...