Copying Fashion #2

A classic look, slightly on the Oriental side, and so flattering on the body. I want one or more of these in my wardrobe. 

I had this pattern which I found at a garage sale years ago, but never made it because the smallest size was a 16. But since it is vintage, I examined the sizing chart again and decided this could work with a little adjusting. I wanted sleeves so those had to be drafted. What fabric? Hmm...I didn't want to experiment with any of my 'good' fabric so I dug out this really ancient cotton and used that.

It turned out just as I had hoped! Fits like a dream and the sleeves are a great addition. It is light enough to wear in this hot weather, over a short skirt, and in the fall, with a tee underneath, over slacks.
The inside has skinny ties, to hold the crossover in place and outside a nice long sash to tie in a bow.
The pattern has two longer versions and I think the knee length would be great in linen, which I have already. I can also see this in a lightweight knit, which would make it drape nicely. It was a really quick pattern to make, and most of it was done on the serger.

Copying Fashion

 

This topper or duster coat is just so elegant and something I think I will wear a lot whenever it gets cool enough. I want to make it, but what pattern will I use? Back to my fave family pajama pattern, which offers simple shapes that can be adapted to fashion statements. Just leave off the collar and breast pocket, and add side vents and patch pockets. I used view C

 I used a plus printed black cotton, which has more body than most quilting cotton, and was careful to sew the patch pockets so they blended in with the print, making them barely visible.

I just need to find buttons that will work with this busy fabric. I don't like the ribbon tie in the inspiration model.

Other pieces included in this pattern that I will use are the pullover and short sleeved shirt.

 

and I threaten to make this doggy suit, but of course my pugs wouldn't dare be seen wearing it.

 
Speaking of buttons, the lovely and talented Lynn Teichman of Hands That Dream sent me these fabulous polymer clay buttons. Just my style. Thank you Lynn.

The New Serger

 There was nothing really wrong with my old serger until I killed it. It made a perfectly lovely stitch on most fabrics, with some adjustments needed on thicker or stretchier fabrics. Nothing that an hour or two of dinkin' around couldn't fix. 

 Sorry for the fuzzy pix, but you can see that the new serger stitch is equally lovely. However it remains fine no matter what I feed through it, including fleece, stretchy fabrics, elastic ribbing, and fine chiffon.

The Babylock Eclipse sx.

 So when I brought it in for repairs I was unconvinced that I really needed a new serger, if they could fix my old one. But I was WRONG. What if serging any fabric perfectly was simpler? What if threading a serger was EASY? Wouldn't I want to upgrade? uh, Yeah! I think now that I have come over to the 21st century I will more likely sew clothes and decor items without a hitch. 

You will note in this photo that there are no extra guides to thread through, just a blank wall where those guides once were. And the threading has FINALLY gotten smart. The thread goes in TUBES, with the aid of a tool that is a springy wire which is first fed into the tube, and then the thread gets pulled through that tube by pulling the other end of the wire. The wire has a loop at one end, like a needle threader. It threads in one pass, just like that> SNAP! There is even a place to store the threading tool so it never gets lost. Yay!

 I believe that the new improvements warrant a trip to your local dealer to see what it is like to serge without headaches. I know this has already heightened my enthusiasm for sewing again.

Trouble in the Sewing Room

I wanted to make a pullover dress like this one from  GUDRUN SJÖDÉN  ($108) and I had the knit fabric, and a similar pattern.

Halfway through sewing it, my serger got stuck, really good, and when I opened it to fix it, I saw that the upper looper finger was painfully bent forward and the lower looper finger was jammed behind it. Disaster!

 My sister came to pick me up for church and after she looked at it, we decided it was a goner. Luckily she is the manager of Ready Set Sew, Janome dealer and repair place,  and assured me that we could bring it in for a repair, trade-in or even better, a trade-up. Yay! So much for saving money by home sewing.

After church I finished sewing the dress with my regular machine and then tried it on. HORRIBLE. Way too baggy and awful looking. Undaunted, I cut away every seam and trimmed it down by 3/8" inch and sewed it again with a new seam allowance of 3/8" too. Now it fits perfectly and I only have to add the pockets to make it completely mine.

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Today we expect an exciting visit of Dave's sister and husband, Carol and Dan, from Chicago, and their Labrador dog, Chessie. It will be a short visit, two days, as they are on their way to Atlanta for another visit. We are soooo excited and expect our pups to have a wonderful barking time!

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Update!!

I fell in love HARD for this serger. This Babylock Eclipse sx, was a floor model at Ready Set Sew and my sister let me thread it myself, the most important thing to know about sergers and it was a dream. There are self threading machines, but they are much more expensive and I was able to thread this one very very easily with the threading tool that comes with it. 

It sews like a dream, way better than my old machine, so it was meant to be mine. It does everything that I may want to do, and has differential feed for fussy fabrics. But the fussy sample fabrics I serged at the store were just perfect without any adjusting. Sigh. I gladly traded in my old machine and will be using this baby for all my clothes sewing adventures. Hurray!

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WE just accepted an offer on the sale of our old house!!! Double Hurray!! We close on Aug. 31 and that will be over at last. Woowoo!

Sewing for Fall

 

A flared hem pullover tunic in raspberry cotton/poly is topped with a knit scarf that I knit from this weird fiber. The wiggly pieces are strips of a papery something and the base yarn is cotton/viscose. I've had this scarf for years with nothing to wear it with, until now. 

Then after seeing this great vest on Pinterest, I had to make one for myself. Not appliqued or embroidered, at least until I designed a fitting pattern, but instead I used a stitch resist indigo dyed Noren that I got years ago in Kyoto when I was teaching there. A Noren is a set of entryway curtains

The fabric is a heavy cotton and the stitches were also a heavy cotton thread, holding the creases tight while the fabric was dyed. The wrinkles remain in the designs.

Here are some examples of Noren curtains. I have another one like this crane version.

Class Begins

Today is the day, the first day of Focus on Fusing, so if you are signed up or not you can see what we'll be doing over there.

For more mundane things, the diet is going along great and I have found some really great stuff to eat that satisfies and doesn't spend too much of my calorie budget. I've lost 11.5 pounds and am not suffering a bit, except at cocktail time. I can go back to imbibing when I've lost 25. However we will have house guests for a couple of days next week and I doubt I will be all that saintly.

After spending a few days in the fusing mindset, I put it all away and got out my new knit fabrics. It's been a while since I made anything with knits and for a few hours I had to convince my serger to behave. Made the first top and today I will cut it down to fit me better.

 That first color doesn't photograph well, but it is a deep forest green. Everything was on sale and I had a coupon. Heard that one before? I couldn't resist that black with white crosses. I already have some of that and thought I might need more. ha!

I'll use this pattern for the knits. Fall tops. ++Update, turns out that this pattern is for two way stretch knits not what I have so nevermind, I didn't use it.

My sewing table is tucked in a corner, but the feng shui works perfectly for me there. While I think feng shui is sorta hooey, I still practice the idea of keeping my sight lines toward the door. And I have the help of the boys on the couch, when they are not snorting/snoring away.

Antony's Fabrics Arrive!

After an exhaustive online search (45 seconds) I found this great dyer, Antony Jakubowski on Etsy. I have linked him already and you have written him a note (thank you) and he is going to be dyeing 13 colors for us in three values, as soon as he receives the fabrics I requested. Not suprisingly, I couldn't wait and ordered this set of gradations and just got them yesterday. Eeeeeooow! So wonderful! And such a great price, $25 for 8 really fat quarters of Kona. We will NOT be using Kona, as it is a looser weave, but I have my ways of dealing with that issue.  For our purposes, I want to prevent fraying and so have requested a tighter weave and know you will like it better.

I opened the blue first because I need to fuse up a bunch of it to augment my pitifully low blue stack. The pieces seemed rather large for fat quarters, which are usually 18x20". So I measured and yes, they are bigger, 19.25x 21.75".  which reflects the size of Kona, which has a big selvedge. 

I have been asked about storing fused fabrics and luckily I have a good answer.

I keep mine in a drawer, without the paper backing, since I have the room, and roll them up by category. Some are by color, so when I need a red for example, I pull out the roll of red/pink/orange. Others are by dyelot, like the roll with black mixed into the dyes, or pastels, or dye-painted fabrics. I have a drawer for cottons, one for fused silks and one for fused stamped and painted and misc. commercial printed fabrics.

And I invested in a wiggly drawer set from Michael's which holds scraps. I keep my scraps because nothing is too small to use, if it's fused.  As we work, I recommend having a container nearby to control the debris.
Another question was about fusing the fabric and I have that ready for you in this post from my old blog. I have posted a link for future reference on the sidebar of the class site, Focus on Fusing.
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While we wait for the new fabrics, I hope you are fusing the dyed fabrics you already have on hand and will be set for the first class online tomorrow. I am so excited to say that we now have 152 participating in the US, Canada, Great Britain, Switzerland, The Netherlands, France, and Germany. Spain too, but she's a Brit. Woowoo!
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And if that's not all, one of my favorite fused quilts has sold, Bradford Copse #2;


 Could I be any happier?