What not to wear ...

... when sewing eyelash sparkle knit? 

.... duh ... black pants .... ask me how I know?

It's fun sewing a cardiwrap for a little girl -- especially if it can be cut from only a half yard of fabric (she's 4).

Here is the little cardiwrap that I stabilized the shoulders and back neckline with fusible bias stay tape (I used Design Plus) and then the shell stitch to finish the edges and hemlines.  The edging really gets lost with the eyelash so it was more a matter of just having a stable finish.

I don't know which is more challenging -- sewing the small garments or trying to figure out how to photograph them.  They don't fit on the dress form so we'll just have to be content with hanger and use our imaginations to put them on a little cutie pie.

Now, where is my lint brush?

Oooh la la

Yesterday was a double-edged sword ... working on an editing project that took all day and then some ... 11.5 hours at the computer but that will help this month's invoicing.  So today it felt so good to be able to stitch up a couple of quick garments for the TCC style show at Novi .  Two more off my To Do list as Done!

I worked on the little girl's sleeveless shell and her wool skirt.  Doesn't everyone else work with wool on a 90-degree August day?  Makes you have empathy for the sheep.

The skirt design wasn't my idea and I was given the task of putting a 2:1 ruffle on the bottom.  No big deal but I wasn't so sure how that would work with the wool--it came out just fine. First I serge finished the top of the ruffle that would be sewn to the skirt and then I did a serger rolled hem (3 thread) with just plain old serger thread on the bottom of the ruffle.  Next I went back to the sewing machine to play with my new ruffler and used the pleating setting.

Lucky for me that the width of the fabric worked out to be "almost" perfect for the size of the skirt to do the ruffle with no seaming.  Fortunately I left enough thread at both ends of the ruffle so I could work it out just a little bit (about 2") so that it matched the skirt perfectly.

Now I don't know about you, but I can't wear wool.  Even blends.  So I decided this skirt should have a lining (I actually put in an underlining which I thought was quicker).  Every girl needs a few secrets that make her smile -- and the lining of this skirt is one of those.  I hope the little girl who is getting this skirt will smile whenever she gets dressed.  I just hope her mom doesn't have to convince her she can't wear it inside out!

I serged the underlining to the wool at the bottom seamline and then added the pleated ruffle.  It was just too much for me to try to do all that in only one step.

The outfit has one more piece coming -- a fun little cardiwrap -- so something to look forward to!

Definitely making progress

The skirt is finished .... and it looks deceptively easy ...  with the help of the serger (rolled hem on a 146" ruffle), ruffler (a 2:1 ratio of ruffle to skirt circumference, invisible zipper foot, stitch in the ditch foot  (topstitching/edgestitching on the waistband), and the sensor buttonhole foot.

Loving my Janome today!

Here are the three pieces put together

zippity do dah!

I used to be terrified of invisible zippers ... that was when I tried to use the plastic foot sold next to the zippers at the fabric store.  Then I invested in one of the metal feet that snaps onto the sewing machine (mine is Janome).

The current problem project is a skirt that will have its waistline gathered into a fitted waistband with a 3" ruffle at the hemline.   The challenge is not the pattern but the fabric.  It is a beautiful knit -- not slinky -- but more of a jersey with some lycra in it.  I was afraid that if I put in a lapped zipper that the topstitching would ripple.  I was also afraid that even using an invisible zipper would cause ripples.

I am so happy with the way the zipper installed that I just have to show you!  I cut some strips of fusible knit interfacing, one inch wide even though I am using a 5/8" seam allowance.  The zipper sewed in so nicely with no hint of a ripple. 

If you didn't see the zipper pull as a clue, could you find the zipper?

Now the next challenge is stabilizing the waistband and finishing up another garment for the style show.

Making progress ...

Which do you want to see first?  The last test garment or some finished final garments?

Here is a test armhole princess dress with an envelope collar.  I just pinned the bead trim along the bottom of the collar to get an idea of the final effect, but it will be sewn into the real collar.  My dress form is not the same size as the model who will be wearing this so please don't judge the fit ... and this is a quick 'n dirty test so I didn't spend a lot of time on technique --

Now for three of the finished garments. The model who will be wearing these is slightly larger than my dress form, so the shoulder length and bust depth are throwing off the draping a bit.   First the cardiwrap -- once I got the matching thread, I was very happy with the shell stitch I used as the edging. 

This next top was one where I got to do some creative problem solving.  Problem -- not enough fabric!  Solution -- using strips of fabric from the skirt (that you haven't seen yet) to bind the neckline and armscyes.  Hopefully that won't come off as "matchy matchy" but "nicely coordinated."


Now for the last blouse -- it has something we call a "picket" sleeve ... like a picket fence.  This one happens to have a ruched picket that will coordinate with a picket skirt.  For this picture I did pad out the dress form's shoulders so the blouse would hang a little nicer.

The print of this batik was playing tricks on my eyes -- as I was pressing I would think I saw wrinkles that weren't really there.  At least it didn't require any matching!

 Now I think I'll have some coffee and a crisp made with peaches from last Saturday's farmer's market.  Wish I had more of a tomato-cucumber-onion-parsley salad that I had at lunch.  Oh well, dessert will have to do!

Hanging by a thread

You would think that with all these different spools of thread, I'd have the right color for doing a shell stitch on the cardiwrap.


Nope!  Seems I have never sewn on anything that is burnt orange.  I have reds, I have corals, but not what I need.


Because the inside of the fabric is brown, that is what I used for all the construction sewing.  Then when I did some test swatches of the shell stitch using brown or ecru it just doesn't hit me right after I trim away the excess fabric.  I think it will look better if the thread blends into the edging and lets the "puckers" be the stars.  With a contrasting thread, the shell stitch just looks like a humdrum old zigzag.  Although I remember when my mom got her first zigzag machine (early 1960s), that was just about the fanciest thing we could imagine!

So while the cardiwrap waits until I can make a trip to the store for matching thread, I thought I'd show you how I organize my threads.  I'm sure someone will tell me that the plastic will cause the thread to deteriorate, but I like that they don't get dusty and that I can pull a little ziploc bag of a color "family" instead of searching through all the threads.

I use sandwich or quart bags for the colors and don't bother labeling them since the bags are clear.  The exception to that rule is Navy and Black -- if I am sewing at night (and I don't have an Ott lite~gasp!) I know I am grabbing the right color.  I also have little bags (sandwich or quart) for all my special threads left over from other projects and then those all go into one big 2-gal zip loc bag.  BTW -- the best source I've found for those are Aldi (grocery chain), I get 10 for about $1.29.

I do the same for serger threads (using gallon bags) and then put them all into one large plastic tub.  A smaller tub holds the sewing machine threads and the serger threads fit in the extra space.  I don't do machine embroidery -- I know I would want to have a spool of every color on hand.

Then I can put on the lid and everything is out of the way until the next scavenger hunt for just the "right" color!  BTW  gray and taupe blend with an amazing number of colors if you're not worried about having a match for topstitching.

On the straight and narrow

Yesterday I decided to cut out several of the final garments for the style show.  With the garment I'm going to talk about here I was definitely transported back in time to when my mom first taught me to lay out patterns and to use fabric to its best advantage.  Although then we called it "material" and not "fabric."  In those days we often bought remnants that might be a quarter yard short from what the pattern envelope told us we would need ... so we always, always, always laid out the pattern to make sure there would be fabric for everything before a single piece was cut.

When this fabric was pulled from Kat's stash,  it looked like there was puh-lenty of yardage.  Then when I got it out yesterday,  I discovered a couple things -- first, it wasn't as wide as I had thought.  I sure am used to everything being 60" wide these days.  Remember 45"?  36"?  This was about 40" wide -- so no possibility of staggering pieces in the layout.

We all know that there is a right side and a wrong side to fabric. Or, there can be "one" side and the "other" side.  In this case we coordinated colors with a print for the skirt and this fabric now has a "outside/fashion" side and an "inside."  The orange has an interesting weave and the brown feels like it may be a wool jersey (or blend).  That meant to keep the herringbone weave on the outside going straight I needed to pin along the stripe ... wow did we lose yardage at both ends when the fabric was trued up with the line and the selvages.  NEVER trust a crossgrain edge that has been cut.

I always learn a lesson from every project, even if I don't learn it in time to apply it to that project.  In hindsight, what I would do next time is that after I pin the straight line along the fold, I would slip some tissue paper in between the layers to keep the two sides from clinging.  However, my fold was now straight and my selvages were lined up (and the stripe did follow straight along the selvage -- I did think to check that) so I think the garment will be ok.

It was a little like a jigsaw puzzle deciding which order to place the pieces.  If I had started at either end with the back, I wouldn't have had enough fabric.  By starting with the front on one end, I was able to take advantage of more yardage at the fold and didn't worry about where it ran short at the selvage.

Then I cut the the back from the middle -- without any extra breathing room between the back and the front.  You can see that the hem is right at the top of the shoulder line.

And finally came the sleeve -- thanks to the shape of a sleeve, I was able to just get the cap.  Although I took the picture from the other end of the table, I did lay out the garment "with nap" even though I don't think that will be an issue with this fabric.  Meaning, the pattern pieces were all put on the fabric in the same direction, top to bottom.

Since that layout worked, I cut the pieces.  If it hadn't worked, I might have tried starting with the back at one end and flipping over the front pattern piece to take advantage of some waste area.  Nothing says the pieces have to be cut so you can read the printing -- when you are cutting two, you have the same end result.  I would rather flip pieces than to change direction of the layout.

This cardiwrap already had no hem allowance since I will be doing another shell stitch application for finishing the edges.  So my other options would have been only to shorten the cardiwrap or to find other fabric.  Thanks to patience and determination I didn't have to do either. 
 
Of course, I could have tried cutting the pieces out of a single layer and aligning the straight of grain line with the stripe. But this way I didn't risk ending up with two left sleeves  ....