Summer’s gone

Darn, it seems like either blogging or sewing should get easier, but neither does. I have chronic life long depression I stopped treating more than a decade ago, perhaps that has something to do with it. Maybe it’s situational, as I’ve had keyboard issues seem to pop up too quickly with my electronics the last three years (letter a always being an issue!). We won’t even go into my issues with photography. As for sewing, there is my steadily growing obesity (fitting issues, design choices) AND shrinking free time. I’ve been taking on more responsibility with my grandson. He’s developmentally between 12 and 24 months but in a four year old’s body, able to see and reach anything on a counter. No dedicated sewing time with simultaneous Jed time. I still manage some sewing, and I like to think I’m improving at what the late, great Nancy Zieman called “sewing in 10, 20, 30 minutes”. While I love to go full steam on a project and finish in one or two sittings, I’m finally appreciating that you CAN get a project done before you are sick to death of it if you just work on it a few minutes over several days. You have to keep it organized and only pull out a limited number of supplies for the part of the project you are working on. I might skip clearing the cutting table and ironing board and only stitch (at my house surfaces call stray items like a cat lady calls cats). I might only iron/press, because 6 minutes is all I have to spare unless I’m giving up sleep, which I am not. Anyway, onward to sewing.

  I did not get as much done as I wanted, but I did complete the vogue trousers. Strange, they look much less like the pattern envelope and much more like my nursing uniform pants. That said, they are pretty comfy. I did my standard adding 1” to the front and back rise, after measuring the pattern, and still it came out to too much and I had to eliminate some at the waistband seam. I also gave myself extra girth and it turned out to be too much (in my opinion) to use a zipper with. This was after I inserted the zip TWICE to get a perfect invisible zip. I tried them on, they are supposed to have a partial elasticized waist so I expected some ease. There was enough ease that going to the trouble of finishing the waistband seemed silly, I pulled out the zip again and sewed up the seam, sewed in elastic to hold all that heavy linen up and called it a day. I like them all right, but I believe this is home dec linen. It’s a little scratchy and as mentioned rather heavy. They drape and swing, the pattern matching was fair. I would love to sew these up again in a lightweight woolen suiting with the contrast insert. God knows where I would wear such fancy pants to. A nice restaurant maybe?

Standing, its kind of obvious the pants are pretty big. I was fighting too tight and too short and I believe I fought too hard!

The designer is one of the best fit instructors in todays sewing industry, so I was expecting better. I think if I make them again I’ll have better success. I really do want that contrast pleat in the side.

I also tried out LoveNotions classic t shirt pattern. The pattern was free after following on facebook. It comes with a second front piece with a full bust adjustment already done. My fabric was a gorgeous but very thin and stretchy Japanese print I bought sometime back, perhaps from Girl Charlie? It has poor recovery and is just more limp than I like. The top is probably a good 4 to 6 inches shorter than I like as well. I am 5’11” and it’s probably drafted for someone at least 5” shorter than I am. I was grateful for the free pattern, which I’ll use again, so I bought some patterns during a sale. Another good sale came along and I bought more. Now I have about 8 of their patterns (some for kids) and I’m happy about that. They are the easiest pdf patterns I’ve ever put together. Even needing alterations, they seem to be a good choice for my body type. I made a rough muslin of their cigarette pants (no photos, you are spared!) the Sabrina Slims, and like those. The instructions are simple and clear, and the facebook group gives really fast feedback and advise to anyone with a question while sewing. I’m writing tonight on an I pad using Blogpad Pro app. I think I finally figured it out, hurrah! Ive been working on some other projects  I probably would have already blogged about except I was having fits using the i pad and didn't want to pack the laptop just to blog. I’m hoping to be more productive soon.  

Summer vacation and sewing and machine nostalgia

For my first real vacation in probably 4 years, I visited my son and his little family in Portland, Maine.  It's a coastal town and their beaches look like this.

Incredibly clear ocean water, of  course, COLD!!  I waded some, but couldn't talk myself into a swim.  I was very willing to eat fresh caught lobster and oysters from here though.

I took a ferry ride and darn near froze to death.  I am so grateful I decided to put on pants and carry this light hoodie. I had been thinking shorts and tank as I'm pretty much always warm. But the wind off the North Atlantic is no joke.

I brought a fully serviced and completely accessorized Singer Rocketeer with me, along with a couple sewing projects in hopes that maybe I could get some sewing done.  I did not make it very far.  We kept too busy playing tourist.  However, I left the machine, a travel ironing board and an iron, and thread, scissors, seam ripper, needles, oil, etc. for my son.  He has expressed an interest from time to time and I bet winters there would be a great time to hunker down with a Singer and an iron.

What happens when a vintage machine addict gives away a machine?  Two more come, that's what.  I aquired another 201-2 in need of some TLC and a few parts, annnnnnnnnnnnnd! Not what is generally thought of as vintage, but more than 20 years old. A replacement model for the Kenmore that took me all the way through my child raising days! I burned it up doing unauthorized maintenance on it years ago.  They put in trip wires to fry the mother board if you take out certain screws, the bastards.  Replacing the board was cost prohibitive, and buying a comparable new machine was also cost prohibitive.  That's when I started on my vintage machine journey, and I still love my older machines.  But I'm so thrilled to have this one back as well.  Turning it on it gives a quirky little sound that just warms my heart.  The stitches are gorgeous, and it is even quieter than my 201.

Crazy though, the first project I decided to start after bringing this home was certainly able to be done on the Kenmore, but was definitely stressing it a little bit.  I immediately switched back to the singer 401A (the rocketeer's older sibling).  This machine has a presser foot that you can fit SIX US quarters underneath.  I'm not sure exactly how high that is (update: a websearch says it's about 1/2 inch. Less than I thought). The old saying about those all metal beasts is that if you can fit it under the foot you can sew it.  So, this is cotton clothesline rope wrapped in quilting cotton being sewed into a coil to make a throw rug. You can make it as big as you desire, just keep the rope coming up on the right side and it only grows to the left of your machine head.

As for garments, I've made some progress.  Photos are so darn hard for me.  I think the biggest issue for me is seeing my weight and age in a photo.  I'm always a little shocked.  The weight has hit a point where I'm getting ready to seriously battle with it.  I've gained and lost before, but never have I been this heavy, or old and joint and pulmonary function compromised.  Still, I have improved my fitness before, and I have been a non smoker since last Oct 1 after 43 years of smoking.  I believe if I commit, I can lose quite a bit of my extra poundage. It would feel so much better to not carry it.  I would like my photos better.  Asking adult children to take the photos hasn't worked very well, so I'm now trying to take selfies, with a tripod and using the timer since my camera does not use a remote.  This will take some work to get better framed and focused shots.  I downloaded a new trial version of photoshop elements, but it is very clunky on the one computer that has a big enough screen to warrant using an editor.  Not worth buying for the performance I'll get out of it.  So, room for improvement in the photo department as well as the sewing/fitting.  I do prefer to spend time doing things I'm still learning fairly frequently.  Here goes:

 Style Arc Rowes Tunic. I sewed my size without any changes to the pattern and I'm pretty satisfied with the fit.  I cut it dress length, thinking I'd probably sleep in it more than wear it in public. It's a little too short to be a dress, yet a little long as a shirt.  But, OK.  I've actually worn it in public a few times, which makes me happy.

 I debated an FBA, but think it did pretty well without.  Now I have a pattern that I can use as a gauge for knit tops.

I am not in love with the contrast yoke, but it is an improvement on the self fabric that I cut without respecting the fabric pattern. If I made this again, I think I would choose solids with some color variation at the yoke, neck, and arm trims.  I'd hem it somewhere between the shirt and dress choice.

This is 100% linen from Fabricmart I believe, at an obscenely low price last year or the year before.  Maybe other people don't like huge blue flowers, but it really appeals to me.  There's some scraps of it in that rug I'm making above.  The pattern is a little variation of the Purl Soho Anywhere Tunic, a very nice free pattern available at the link.  Of course I had to supersize it, and then I lengthened the hell out of it.  The head and arm openings are folded over twice and then stitched down.  The seams that start where the openings end are stitched and then the allowances continue the twice folded and top stitched down treatment.  I added BIG patch pockets. The side seams were serged wrong sides together, then french seamed for additional protection from fraying.  Simple double fold hem.  I used elastic with my drawstring ties that meet on the sides and don't have to bother with tying.  This dress was made for my summer days of too hot for sleeping in anything, and then I need to pop on something fast to get my grandson off the bus, answer the door, direct traffic for the odd carwreck outside my house (it's happened twice, not yet with the dress). This covers everything but doesn't cling, it's linen with pockets.  I could tolerate it for quite some time in the hot, hot, humid, humid heat. It's also good for sleeping in.

I took apart the project I took up to Maine, more linen.  They were coming together too large, so I wanted to take in seam allowances all the way back to the beginning, also allowing for all of them to be serged.  I have learned, as you can see, to pay attention to the freakin fabric pattern! I'm sure a better job could have been done on that side seam, but I can tolerate this and I'm fairly proud of that pocket placement.  These are taking longer in part because of the careful pressing I like to do with them.  When I have my window ac unit going, I put my ironing board in the hallway.  Generally, after I've finished sewing until I press, or finish pressing until I sew, I think of something else that needs to be done and put the project down.  These pants are more fitted with an invisible back zipper, a style I'm not at all familiar with wearing. I'm not sure if I would trust them in public with sitting and rising. If I try it, I'll bring safety pins.

I've sewn some shorts as well, just too boring to photograph.  Soon on my table I have a classic T from Love Notions I want to try.  Knits used to knock me down in my family sewing days.  I have a serger and a lot of places on the internet to get good sewing advise, so I'm hoping I'll be much more successful.