Scarf Project: Les Fabriques

I told you that I've been going monthly to Charlottesville with a group from our area to participate in their Club meetings.  April's project was stenciling on silk using PaintStiks.  Our instructor had a different way of approaching the paint and stencil that left the fabric feeling soft and natural and unpainted which I loved.  Rather than directly applying the paintstik to the fabric, you draw a line or several using the PaintStik ONTO your plastic stencil.  Then, using one of those stiff stencil brushes you brush or move the paint from the stencil onto the fabric.  I hope that makes sense...I didn't take any pictures of that process and since I don't own any PaintStiks it's not likely to be photographed.

The color didn't come through well on this.  Sorry.  Anyway, we stenciled on the narrow, lighter piece of fabric.  Mine is silk shantung.  I bought the darker piece to make the scarf.  Here, I was testing beads (stealing beads without permission) from my dear daughter's stash for her birthday present--the scarf!  teehee

The finished scarf all folded up and with its real color showing up.  Isn't it pretty??

The finished scarf all stretched out.  Isn't it pretty???

Detail of the beads on the little doodads I put on the ends.  Talk about tedious handwork--what was I thinking?  But, isn't it pretty????!

Obviously, I loved this project!  I am surprised that  more of our guild members don't go to Charlottesville to participate in Club meetings.  It's $10, plus $5 for supplies.  I spent a bit more on this project because I needed to buy the dark lavendar silk shantung to make this scarf.  However, I could've made something else, but I'm glad I didn't!  BTW, dd loved her scarf!!!

At April's ASG meeting, I won the name tag drawing and got this:

I really look forward to trying it!  New sewing gadgets are always fun :)  Don't I have the best ASG chapter???

McCall 6469 and a Cork Question

About my corking-the-wall post, Anonymous asked, "I wonder, does this improve the acoustics in the room ?? I am planning doing the same in order to have good acoustic... anyone knows that ? Thanks."

Thanks very much for the question and I hope you'll be able to find my answer to you since I didn't have an email address to reply directly.  Anyway, I don't really know if the corks on the wall have improved the acoustics in my sewing room.  For starters, I don't think we have enough area completed.  The walls we've been doing are in the basement and the ceiling there is lower so the acoustics are already pretty good (i.e. we don't get echoes like you would in a large, empty room).  I hope that helps...


SO!  I have finally sewn something and completed it!  I started this project in January and it was literally work on one very small thing a day, with many days that I didn't have time or energy to work.  It was rather depressing.  Equally depressing, I finished this in April and have not had a chance to BLOG!

McCall 6469
I made View D, the top left corner pic.

My fabric--a polyester sheer with gold metallic from Joann's.  It's NOT as bright as this pic...

I guess most people post something about construction and I intended to but these pictures just leave a lot to be desired.  The fabric was really difficult to photograph (and work with...if I'm going to invest that much time and energy in a project, that fabric had best be SILK!!!).  I'll add a bit about the neckline elastic that creates the gathers in the front upper bodice.

The top went together pretty easily, but I didn't like the instructions for the elastic on either side of the neckline.  Rather than struggle through their finnicky method, I developed my own (also finnicky) method.  This would not have been nearly so difficult if I could've marked the fabric easily and well.  Between it being a very dark and a very busy print (and polyester), nothing I tried worked well in the marking department--various types of white/gray pencils, chalks, thread basting (the fabric kept moving...)

So, what I did was to stitch the elastic where it needed to go when I stitched the neckline seam.  I made sure to put a small safety pin at the other end of the elastic so I could work it through the casing later.  I had not stitched the two rows to form the casing at that point.  Next, I turned and pressed the entire upper bodice and stitched 1 row of the casing.  A little lumpy with the safety pin.

Then, I stitched the 2nd row of the casing and eased the elastic through, securing it in the armhole seam.  Nothing too exciting and I'm not sure that the pattern directions would not have been better...

Work on the casing beside the neckline.

The upper bodice with one side of the elastic all completed and the other side pinned and in progress...  And, this is the color of the fabric in real life, busy but not as bright as the other photos.

Wiggling the elastic through.  I don't know why, but when I went to buy elastic they didn't have any black.  This would've looked much better with black!

I raised the neckline by a good 1.5" and it still wasn't enough.  I need to shop for a cami to wear underneath it.  Additionally, the shoulder seam pulls forward quite a bit (is that why the model on the pattern has her shoulder positioned oddly?).  The front of the bodice needs to be longer to adjust this--wish I had been able to catch this sooner, but despite trying on during the process it was difficult to notice that it would be a problem.

No pictures on me because it just wasn't happenin'!

The back is longer than the front--should've taken a side view, too.  It's pretty neat.
And now that it's done, the weather is too warm for it!  Ha haha!  I'm not sure that I like it because of the sleeves and the volume of fabric.  I did want something different and floaty and this meets those requirements but...I'm still not sure it's "me".  That's okay, it was an interesting and engaging project and I know that I will wear it some when the weather cools down much later this year :)

More later--I have been sewing quite a bit, just not posting at all!

Win! Sew Chic Clara Bow Apron

I was never more pleased than when I won the Clara Bow Apron drawing last month by the blog, It's Sew Chic!  Unfortunately, I am very slow about posting about it.  That doesn't diminish my excitement, gratification or enthusiasm for winning though!  It's a super cute pattern, which I look forward to trying.  Fall seems like an ideal time to sew this one up--1 for me and 1 to donate to our Sewing Guild silent auction.

Here is the link to the pattern on the website:  http://www.sewchicpatterns.com/clara_bow.html.  There are some really cute variations shown there. 

I am sorry to be so slow in blogging about this--I feel like I should've posted something as soon as I received the pattern in the mail--Laura was super fast at shipping it to me.  My apologies to her!  And many thanks for the wonderful pattern.  I can't wait to try it out!

Corks and Couching

Ever since I posted about corking my sewing room walls, my dh has been diligently working on them!  (Perhaps I should post about honey do's more often?)  It takes a lot of time, effort and energy as well as assistance from the youngsters to get the placement worked out.  Anyway, here's the progress!  Gotta love it (and him!)!!



The corks go down to the top of the lowest shelf.  My thread rack has been taken down to work on the wall.



Here it is a couple of weeks ago.  The corks weren't even to the top of the upper shelf yet.  The thread rack is covered with paper to protect it.

Before this wall was begun!   Quite a difference.

And I have finished couching my silk dupionni from my class at Les Fabriques.  What will it (eventually) become?  It really needs some coordinating fabrics so I won't know until I find those :(  But I really love this little panel a lot.  I particularly loved using the vintage pearls on it.  As a side note, this little piece of fabric is now very heavy for its size!

Even the oldest dd commented that she thought it was lovely so it must be!



Finished!  Don't know what it will be...yet.



About half done.

And I've managed to accomplish my Friday and Saturday to do list:  skipped school, sewed some, planted, hiked (and had a snake adventure...), ate fabulous grilled pizza, and watched a movie.  Today, we've already been to early church, had delicious Panera pastries, took a nap (equally delicious in the late morning) and now a little blogging while the guys work on our dinner tonight--starting and ending with green--homemade guacamole for snack, Indonesian Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce, Thai-style Cucumber Relish, kimchee, rice, Crispy Asian Broccoli with black beans, and Key Lime Pie.

What did you do to enjoy this pretty weekend?  I'm off to the sewing room to work on that dratted top some more...

Sew Biz in Radford, VA

Okay, it's another fabric store review.  It's been a very busy and stressful couple of weeks and I figured that I needed (and deserved) the break!  Apparently, I felt like I needed (?) and deserved (?) more fabric, too.  Three pieces came home with me on this trip. 

Some members of our local guild will be making a trip to Sew Biz next month, but since I can't and I had to be down that way anyway (sort of), I figured I'd head over and check it out.  It's probably been 12 years, more or less, since I've been here.  It's changed some in that time, adding more quilting fabrics and carrying much less dress and heirloom fabrics.  Still, it's jam packed with fabric, really interesting patterns for small projects, notions, some very interesting threads including silk thread, and other assorted paraphernalia.  I enjoyed browsing and here's what I bought:

Cotton knit.  It's teal and aqua.  While it was being cut, I looked up and saw the beads hanging on the wall behind the cutting table and thought aha!  They match!  Must have!  I'm hoping for a quick and easy top embellished with time consuming beading so I can be slow making this....

I don't know why one of my spots decided to do this when I photographed these, but she did. I've been taking fabric pictures on the living room floor lately and she's never bothered them. But, this time, she thought she needed to. Between that and lots of licking of my face, it was rather difficult to take pics!

Zuzu helping with photographs.  Standing on the fabric is always useful and helpful.



Zuzu wears a harness rather than a collar because she had to have a biopsy on her neck earlier this year.  Thankfully, it was nothing serious!  And, it turned out we liked the harness for her.  Who knew?



Well, here are better photos of the fabrics.  These are rayon batiks.  Again.  I bought one when I was at Ragtime Fabrics.  I liked the color selection at Sew Biz a lot better, so I bought two because I really, really need new summer tops!  Sewing bias tops doesn't take much time at all--it's practically instant gratification except for hemming since it has to hang to do its bias stretch thing.  The prices at Sew Biz were pretty similar to Ragtime Fabrics, a little more for one piece and the same for the other.

Blue rayon batik.  There's not a lot of pattern going on here, but I liked that.  Variety is good.

Greeny/blue rayon batik.

And weird of weird, while I was driving home I glanced down and realized the background on the greeny one matches the blue one.   It's hard to tell that in the picture.   So perhaps this will become a casual outfit rather than 2 tops?  Time will tell.

In conclusion, Sew Biz was fun to browse because it has lots of things to see even though it's mostly quilting.  It has an upstairs which is where I found the rayon batiks.  That's also where they have a small selection of heirloom and smocking supplies which was very nice to see.  They offer a lot of classes (they gave me a schedule) which looked pretty good--I think it's on their web site, too.  It reminded me a lot of Ragtime Fabrics but with more quilting and no home dec.  Really, I think the little stretch of Virginia where I live does have some very nice fabric stores!  All the ones I've been to lately and posted about have been delightful to visit!

Anyhow...

So today and tomorrow, as a sigh of relief that the last two weeks are over, I plan to skip school (one of the beauties of homeschooling!), sew, plant, hike, and eat pizza and watch a movie.  Ever tried grilled pizza?  It's good weather for it, so we might have that tonight!  We mostly always make our own and the only hard part about grilled pizzas are that you have to move fast on the grilling!  Thankfully, I don't do that part!  haha!

(If you are interested in our methods for grilling  pizza, we don't really follow the sauce or topping suggestions at Fine Cooking.  Instead, we do our own and use the dough recipe (adding some whole wheat flour to the recipe) and the technique described in Issue #66.  Another tip, less is more on a grilled pizza!  Otherwise, you might have grilling issues.  Certainly, the flavor is more delicious with less on each pizza, too.  Obviously, I cook way more than I sew!)

The plants!  Some phlox for the deer to eat...or hopefully not.  They are deer resistant, so I really hope they pass these by.  They just seem to eat everything around here, even things they aren't supposed to like :(

My current sewing project.  It's McCall's 6469 and it's slow going with the elastic just below the shoulder seams, the floppy fabric, and the dark color--really hard to mark it so I can see so I've used painter's tape and thread markings, but that doesn't take care of everything :(

There we are!  If the above shirt pattern gives me too much more grief, I think I will set it aside and work on either my rayon or knit tops.  I need those whereas the McCall's pattern is long sleeved and in this weather, it's not something I need right now.

Les Fabriques in Charlottesville, VA

Okay, so even though it doesn't seem like I'm sewing at least I'm visiting fabric stores.  I think you can find everything in the world on the internet, but I truly think it's really, really hard to find fabric stores????  I don't know why?  Lately, when we travel, I've tried to find fabric stores to shop and it's hard to find them.  Hence the reviews here.  Maybe they will help someone.  Anyway, our local ASG chapter makes a monthly trip to Les Fabriques in Charlottesville, VA.  If you're in the area, I encourage you to check out their store and their class offerings.  Wonderful for all of it!  So, here's what we did and what I bought while there!

Les Fabriques offers a monthly hands-on class for us, which anyone can attend.  They cost $10 and are worth every penny!  Plus, you get 10% off any purchases while you're there (except clearance stuff which is fair).  This month, we couched silk ribbon onto silk dupioni fabric.  We had small rectangles of pre-embroidered silk dupioni--I have to say that I would never have thought about using pre-embroidered fabric to put yet more embroidery on, but it totally rocks!  Our supplies included rayon thread for the couching, needles, and pearls--some were vintage and cut from necklaces!--and small gold beads.  Our instructor had taken her finished panel and created the most lovely, unique purse with it.  I wish I had taken a picture of it....!  Boo that I didn't because it was stunning.  I would love to try and recreate it with my panel when it's done and I've found some coordinating silk dupioni for the bag.

Not done yet, but I think it will be pretty!

After our class, we browsed the store.  I found 2 pieces of fabric, which doesn't really satisfy my mantra:  Do not add to stash!  However, it is really hard to hold to that when you are with sewing buddies and your creative juices are flowing! 

Blue cotton/lycra for a quick summer top for me!

Light blue silk because it was in the bargain bin at $4.99 per yard.  Nearly 2 yards here, so it was hard to resist this! 

I love going to Les Fabriques.  They carry upscale fabrics and notions, have beautiful displays, lots of good lighting, and a big, open store.  They even have some vintage items interspersed with the fabrics, which are fun to browse.  Who can resist thumbing through vintage sewing patterns?!

While I haven't posted about my sewing recently, I have made an effort to sew almost daily.  Some days I just get a seam pinned and some days I get 2 whole seams sewn!  Slow, like a turtle, but steady.  Eventually, I will have something to show you!!

Ragtime Fabrics in Harrisonburg, VA

A Review of Ragtime Fabrics:

I think you have to be a certain personality to enjoy shopping here.  Don't get me wrong; there's a great assortment of fabric and trims, but this store is seriously cluttered.  I wish I'd taken a picture of it--lots of fabric in a space not quite big enough to comfortably hold it all! 

Now, the flip side to the large quantity of fabric is that there's plenty to see and choose!  They have everything:  home dec, quilting cottons, silks, denim, wools, and rayon batiks! 

Rayon batiks are hard to find around here, so despite trying not to add to my stash I really wanted at least one of these to make another Bias Top. Quick, easy, and great to wear for summer so it's hard to go wrong with it!

Plus they have lots of the usual polyester stuff you might find at a chain store. As I was leaving, I noticed some fabulous looking trims, but just didn't have the mental energy to look more at them--it's just hard to notice everything here. 

Another downside to Ragtime Fabrics--some of the fabrics don't have their content listed so sometimes it's a guess.  On the other hand, their prices are pretty good.  My batik was about 20% to 30% less than I can find other places.  I also considered an interesting reversible denim piece but couldn't think of what I'd make so you'd see both sides.  They had several wools that I thought about  for my Couture Dress, but in the interest of stash control I didn't buy them since I already have a silk in stash for it. 

So, is it worth the trip?  Most definitely!  Just allow plenty of time to browse with maybe a break so you can absorb everything.  It looks like this month they have an anniversary sale so it's a good time to visit!

Mini Bow Tucks Bags

In my efforts to make my sewing room neater and more efficient, I felt compelled to deal with my piles.  It's amazing what does pile up in my sewing room:  mending, fabric acquisitions, UFO's, patterns, odds and ends....

Here's one pile:

It's sitting on a sunny window seat hence the bright spot.  One pair of slacks which needs a zipper repair and 2 mini-bow tucks bags, cut out and ready to assemble.

So, rather than sew up the top that I started cutting out in January, I opted to deal with my pile.  Most of the other piles are gone or shoved into a closet so at least I have the appearance of orderliness.  These Mini Bow Tucks bags were originally intended as Christmas gifts, but due to lack of recipient enthusiasm I lost sewing enthusiasm and decided I didn't feel like making anything for anybody any more.  haha  I've made a couple of these bags before (here and here) and they are relatively quick and very easy to put together (except for the quilting part--just my opinion, but I hate that part!).

I used a double button, layering a smaller red button on top of the large navy blue button since it matched better than anything else I had....

The above version is sewn per the pattern instructions for the handle length which is really short.  The next one, I made longer handles which does distort the proportions but fits better over the shoulder.

And, finally one tip about these bags.  Instead of using the tag board or cardboard stuff they suggest for inserting into the bottom to keep the structure, I use plastic needlepoint canvas and cut it to size.  It's washable by hand and easy to cut and insert.  A fellow ASG member told me about that and it was a great suggestion!

Now, while I don't feel like giving these bags away as gifts, I will probably donate them to our ASG fundraiser in November.  We're having a silent auction of handmade items.  Seems like a great opportunity to do some Christmas shopping!

The Craftsy Class

I signed up for my first www.craftsy.com class after hearing about them from a friend.  I hadn't heard much at all about Craftsy, but I have to say that I'm really lovin' it!  I am taking Susan Khalje's class, The Couture Dress.  At the national ASG conference in Atlanta in 2012, I took Susan's Little Black Dress class.  I thoroughly enjoyed that and learned quite a bit.  This is similar, but has lots more detail.  Plus, one huge advantage is being able to view the videos as often as you want and take notes online while you're watching it.  It's the greatest, neatest thing!  You can also ask questions and Susan responds quickly (a day or less).  It's interactive so that others can chime in with questions and answers of their own.  For an online class format, it is wonderful.  So much better in terms of format than any other online format that I've taken.

Optimally, I should be sewing along with the videos, but one of the super nice things about these classes is that I can work at my own pace and the videos and q&a are always available to me!  If I need to stop working on this and want to pick back up in five years or so, I can do that and it's all still available to me!  How great is that?  Anyway, there is one pattern that you get with the class fee which I will use for my dress.  Susan also makes four other suggestions for patterns.  I have a fellow ASG member who has opted to use one of the other four. 

Here's the pattern that you get with your fee, mailed to you from Vogue.  Mine came really fast!

Class pattern

An alternative class pattern suggestion

Altogether, there are 3 of us locally who are taking this class and we hope to work together to keep us motivated and help each other with fitting!  There's also the fun factor of getting together with sewing friends! 

After signing up for this class and watching a video segment or two, Kenneth King had a class appear, Jean-ius!, so I bought that one, too.  Besides, Craftsy sent me a half off offer for signing up for my first class.  How could I resist?  It's a great deal, plus I can start this one later...after I make my couture dress! 


I still have another project that I'm working on and haven't really delved into this one yet, so more later!

Another Intermission

As we did last year, we made another batch of tie dyed t-shirts for our family's annual trip to Walt Disney World.  This year, we tied our own shirts except for the hidden Mickeys on these (last year, dh did it all).    My dh is good at them, so he put one or more on each shirt.  Oldest dd got one mailed to her while we were gone as a surprise. 

After last year's faded dye look, I emailed Dharma Trading and asked about handling tie dye in a front loading washing machine.  They answered that the only thing to do differently would be to do a brief soak in very hot water in the sink using Synthrapol, then washing in the machine per the directions on a very long cycle.  Well, I guess I really wanted to NOT have the faded look again so I must've used a lot more dye in the dye soak.  These are really dark and unless the tied places were super tight, the dye bled through.  Needless to say, dh wins the prize in tying tightly...and irritatingly.  He had his wrapped around 2 PVC pipes which I don't even want to think about because let's just say that I had dye all over the kitchen with that set up!


Here they are:

From top left:  oldest dd, dh, youngest dd
Bottom: ds, mine--it had some embroidery on it which didn't dye but looks kinda neat that way.

For those who don't know and are interested, you can read more about hidden Mickeys here.

Girls' Pj's

I know, it's all I seem to sew!  I made these before oldest dd went back to college so I didn't get any pictures of her pj bottoms.  (Oldest dd made the Dean's List in her first semester at college!  Always exciting, but especially so when you have homeschooled--it's really nice to know that you actually taught something and the student actually learned something!) 

There was enough for a cropped pair for youngest dd to have some to match so here are hers:

Shiny satin pj fabric with cotton backing.  Yes, it's the Little Mermaid!

Youngest dd's pj bottoms with purchased t-shirt.

Jeans

I finally made my first pair of jeans!  I started them earlier in the fall, made great progress--only the waistband, belt loops, and hemming were left--then the holidays hit.  They finally got finished last month and I finally got pictures taken this month...!

I used J. Sterns Designs jeans pattern because I had taken her jeans muslin class at the ASG conference in Atlanta 2010.

Who knew that the Compensation Plate for sewing buttonholes on the Bernina machines actually worked?  If I remember correctly, even my dealer had her doubts and told me to return it if I didn't like it when I bought it.  I had gotten it orginally to help sew buttonholes on lightweight smocked dresses--those buttonholes at the top and bottom can be very difficult if you have lots of intersecting layers (collar, piping, gathering, etc) so I hoped it would help keep the buttonhole even.  It didn't.  At all.  So I learned to do buttonholes manually on my machine. 

Oddly, making a manual buttonhole on jeans wasn't working (and believe me, I first tried a regular buttonhole and I was NOT enjoying being friends with my seam ripper....!).  So, in a last ditch effort, I thought of this gadget.  Would you believe it worked beautifully????  It helped feed the bulky fabric evenly and gave a very nice buttonhole!

See?  It really is a nice buttonhole despite being redone (and ripped out) multiple times!

I think designing the back pocket stitching is the most fun thing to do when sewing jeans!  I decided to make a cypher (a weird way to do your monogram) using my initials.  At first, I planned to make the pocket flap, but as the project neared completion I opted to not include that.  Impatience factor!

Mrs. Green Jeans.  Okay, joking aside, I didn't want to use my nice, regular denim for my first pair so I bought this teal colored cheapy denim from Joann's.  Sadly, cheapy is the right word for it as I don't think it will hold up well.  It definitely seems to stretch out of shape quickly despite having no lycra.

Pockets!  It's also fun to choose the fabric for that!  Really, the topstitching doesn't show up at all on my real jeans, this is bright and shiny due to the flash.

Well, since it's my first pair, I'm not unhappy with them but I'm also not thrilled.  First, I made the waist way too tall--I didn't want those stupid low-rise jeans things which just look horrible on nearly everyone except young girls with really flat tummies!  Just sayin'.  Unfortunately, I misjudged how tall even though it seemed just right when I basted and tried them on.  Oh well, that's an easy fix for the next pair.

They are also a bit large throughout, which Jennifer had mentioned I might want to take in the seams by a bit and on the next pair I will.  The only other thing is the crotch sits low.  It starts fine but slips down moments after putting them on.  I think this is due to the waist being super loose (I need a belt) and just being a bit big in general throughout the hips.  You would think that basting and trying them on would help pinpoint these issues so they could be corrected before you get them all sewn, but either basting didn't help me or I was just too excited to finally be sewing on these to notice :)   haha!

This color doesn't go with *anything* in my wardrobe except plain white.  Boring.  So I bought a print at Joann's to make a top, which I have not gotten much of a chance to work on yet.  Besides, I still owe you pictures of the girls' pj's and my other project:  The Annual Tie Dye!