Been sewing for the babies

and littles and have NO pictures.  I did a rush job on a ruffled romper and shoes and two bonnets that had to travel up to NYC and didn't take any photos.  I just finished a circle skirt for the dance school -attending 4 year old.  Matter of fact, I also made a maxi skirt and matching halter top for the 11 year old and didn't photograph that either.  They all turned out fairly well, I just wasn't in the mood to get out the camera.  I was seriously tempted with the hem of the circle skirt done with the narrow hem foot.  Maybe because it's almost all bias hem on a circle skirt, but it looked better than any other hem I've ever done with that foot.

Which got me wondering:

 

WHY does a foot as intricate as the flat-felled or narrow hemmer cost $5 or $10 dollars online for a generic foot, but all these ruler toe  manufacturers feel ok charging $80 for a circular foot.  Ok, maybe they can call it a niche and claim they want to ensure they get paid for development and casting some kind of mold, whatever they have to do to make them.  But STILL.  Especially when I can get a good quality free motion foot for $15 or so.  I just would like one that put me 1/4 inch away from a ruler edge no matter what part of the foot I was banking on the ruler.  It could be an acrylic toe, I'd have no complaints.  I feel it's dishonest to charge that much.  My opinion.

What I did on summer vacation

I know, I know, it's kinda sad.  Not only did I "stay-cation" during one of the coldest and most wet early Junes that I can remember, but I also spent at least 50 percent of it washing, ironing, and folding fabric.  My eldest daughter coincidentally took her vacation at the same time, so while she went to an island beach I took care of her 11 year old and did my laundry at her house.  Had to bring my own ironing board and iron.  It worked out well because I haven't really got into corners and decluttered my room in at least 4 years.  I was able to tear it all apart and not have to live in it while I took my time putting it back together.

Afore mentioned daughter would have had heart failure at the river of musty fabrics that I had going on at her house.  It was ok since she didn't have to SEE it.  I also put food in her fridge and cooked it too.  Something she insists she does but I don't think so.

Some of these fabrics came from a yard sale. I thought that several yardages I found with the center chunk gone were those, and wondered why????????? Eventually I came to a piece I knew I had purchased at a store and was faced with the reality.....a crafty grandchild has been into them while I was comatose after night shift.  I have a promise that no more fabric butchering will be done.  Luckily, none of the best fabrics were harmed, most of them were cheaper and older cottons of the walmart variety.  Only a little pain.  There were all destined for being cut up for a quilt, or some dolly dresses or craft someday anyway.  Not a $20/yd fabric for trousers or a coat.

I got it back home and on the shelves.  I've managed to get under and behind and on top of everything and eliminated bags and boxes of stuff.  I really want to keep my sewing room in my bedroom but it was getting to be too much.  I like to wake up bleary eyed after 4 hours of interupted sleep and then think about what I could do before turning over and trying a little longer for a little more sleep!

I had to hide the fat quarter pieces in a rolly-bin under the bed, but I can see them all when I pull them out.

It's been done for a week, and the tidal wash of debris that I used to try and fight daily hasn't reappeared!  I love opening that door and seeing floor and even patches of baseboards.  I even found another window I had totally blocked off (not that I really wanted it with my daylight-shirking self)!

All in all, not a bad way to spend vacation.  I still snuck in a couple restaurants and swimming pools.

Busy knitting

Knitting knitting knitting!  No sewing, though I think about it.  I've been ordering fabric online so hopefully some sewing will happen soon.  For the past month it has been compulsively, loosing sleep, making muscles sore knitting.  I'd say, that's some knitting.  I stopped short of giving myself pressure ulcers on the fingers and I have NOT invested big bucks in new supplies, so that's good.  Especially since I gave away 2 full trash bags of yarn last winter because I never knit.

I've been wanting to repair a much beloved afghan my Mom made, I've blogged about it before.  I was able to sew up some of the holes, but there are places that just needed to be filled in with stitches.  I googled a description of the afghan and searched through the "images" gallery on the results and there it came: the original pattern for the very same afghan that my Mom knitted up in the early 1950's.  Three dollars and instant PDF, I LOVE this internet age for sewing and crafting!!!!

I've been working on my stitches, trying to nail "flicking" as well as continental style.  I've gotten pretty good at unraveling back to a point and restarting.  Still working on consistent tension.  There is a pile of blocks accumulating, some of different size and many of slightly different appearance but this is the test/learning one.  Then I'll make one or two for gifts, and then I'll go in and fill every missing part of the original.

I don't know why I was never in love with knitting before.  It is so darn soooooooooooothing!

sewing lots

Mostly quilting.  I started out with the idea of doing a video of quilting with rulers on a vintage machine.  I got lots of stuff to put a video together, but this new tablet/laptop with windows 8 has been very difficult to put together with learning a new editing program and I haven't yet got it put together.  I also made video of machine darning, the one mending chore I actually enjoy (because it's so like free motion embroidery or quilting).

This was a pretty huge hole that will never rip again.  No patch to peel off.  The heavy build up of thread is stiffer than the surrounding area but the recipient was willing to trade that for keeping her favorite jeans.  I've seen a business online that repairs holes on jeans with thread build up matching the warp/weft of the original fabric.  It would be fun to be that good at it. 

Playing with the quilting and darning reminded me that the 201's foot pedal sticks after extended use.  I intend to buy a new pedal one day but decided to just switch out the feet with a machine I'll probably never use.  It's an old vibrating shuttle that works ok but isn't much joy to use- it is a pretty cute 3/4  size to look at with it's old godzilla finish.  6 minutes of work and the pedals were switched.  No further issues with the 201 if I want to zone and free motion for hours.  It would race and have to be pumped to stop.  The 201 is one fast machine anyway and racing is a pretty furious pace.  I have been enjoying having speed control again.

A warning to anyone who uses vintage machines and free motion quilts:  you may not want to use a supreme slider on an antique finish.  The gold crackling above was the result of having the slider on for about 1/2 hour of quilting on a little orphan block.  I noticed the paint flecks on the back of the slider before I saw the deck and was very shocked.  This machine isn't  most prized for it's paint and so I wasn't devastated but I won't be using the slider again on it.  I have not had any problem using the slider with newer machines.  Truthfully, I have never felt that it made that great a difference in ease.  When I have quilt dragging I stop and redistribute the weight and I'm happy. Likewise I have found the quilting gloves unnecessary.  Sometimes if my hands are dry and the fingertips don't seem to have enough grip I use a little of that stuff office people use to moisten fingertips for handling paper- works great and doesn't affect the fabric.  God knows this technique might not be great for a quilt that will never be washed and is being entered into some world class shows and then museum bound.  But for my purposes, it works great.



 

The last thing I have to say is goodbye to one slightly brutal winter.  I've lived on the shore of Delaware for 25 years now and never seen ice on the beach before.  It was cool for the experience, now I'm more than ready to move on to blossoms and the beginnings of fresh local produce. Yay, spring!

Finished the blasted xmas jammies

 

I keep thinking I won't do Christmas pajamas anymore, but somehow they became desired.  I don't get it.  But they do ask for them, and some of them get all excited about trying to guess which fabric is theirs ahead of time.  I just need to start sooner if I'm going to continue.  Those darn black Friday sales for $3.00/yd flannel mess me up.  When you are buying approx. 3 yards per person for 12 people, $3.00 vs. an average of say $9 figuring you'd find a few other good sales....still makes the $3.00 look like worth putting the pressure on.  Then the store sends notice that they were unfortunately out of stock (why'd it take the order then?) and you get the flu, and those scant 4 weeks get shorter and shorter.  I'm kind of proud I actually finished in January and won't have to feel guilt when the tulips come up.

 

The due date on my next grandbaby has been moved up, making baby sewing next on the post haste list.  I've still got a long sleeve jersey knit top cut, the sampler quilt has been on hold since black Friday, and I never did find the perfect denim but I'd love to sew some more jeans.  I bought another vintage singer, this one from the mid to late 60's.  Very entry level and even some plastic gears on her but I did like it.  I gave it away, totally functional and hopefully many years of usefulness.

 

I did a couple videos this week.  One to show the old time and fairly lost art of darning as a repair, machine darning a tear such as for blue jeans or a sheet.  Another to show free motion ruler work on a vintage machine.  As soon as I completed the clip the foot started sticking on the 201.  This is the second or third time I've had to fiddle with it, I will have to go ahead and order another.  It takes off at top speed and doesn't stop till you tap/stomp up and down on it a few times.

 

I've got a lovely new "2 in 1", a cross between a tablet and a laptop.  Much nicer for taking with me on night shift.  Crazy windows 8, which I do NOT like much, and I'm missing all my favorite software.  I'm getting the new windows over time. After trying several photo editing  apps/programs I've found one called Photo Pos Pro that is very similar to the Photoshop family. Free to try and $10. to keep.  I've given enough money to Adobe for a while yet.  I downloaded VSDC video editor, which I'm pretty clueless with but will need to figure out at least the basics before I can upload to Youtube.  Maybe on tonight's shift if it stays quiet.

 

Update 2/6/15 I went back to using windows editor- but the blasted videos are too awful.  I love how the machine sounds, but hate my meandering backwoods Florida dialog.  There were filming/focusing/ card full issues as well that can't be fixed with my editing skills! I'll have to film again.  Good excuse to get in a little more ruler practice, which is probably only at a cumulative hour in the past year.  Not very expert.

 

 

 



Christmas jammies in January

I got 6 pair done in time.  6 more to go.  I seem to remember sewing jammies still in March 2 years ago.  I'm pretty sure I'll be done this week.

I'm sewing assembly line again.  The first six were sewn with white thread, the second with red.  I follow Nancy Zieman's philosophy of getting it done when you only have 5, 10, or 15 minutes at a time to get it done.  So I sew one seam on 6 pair, walk away, and next day, trim and zig zag...

I finally got the presser foot height right on the 401.  I worry a little about her plastic gears, the motor changes sounds sometimes.  I'm going back in to do a thorough cleaning again, to get out gunk and dirt that may have worked out after getting it all unfrozen initially. Hopefully I will have some triflow grease by then. I used Vaseline to grease them. I didn't see any wear on the gears.  It sure is sewing pretty and I want it to last another 50 years now that I've got it back in order.  It wouldn't sew a stitch and the needle bar couldn't swing for zig zag when I brought it home. The cam selectors were stuck too, no specialty stitches.  All easy fixes with cleaning and oil.

When I get done with the jammies, I've got a jersey knit shirt cut out and waiting.  I've made some promises for tablet cases and bibs.  There's a new grandbaby due in March.  I'm still thinking about a pair of tailored to me jeans, though I might be wearing the test shorts before jeans get made.  I've got the sampler quilt stalled on block 10, though the hexi's are still growing....hand pieced at work.

There's a few shy of my goal of 80 of them. I intend to machine sew them to a sheet with some green bias tubing and leaves, to be assembled into a duvet cover.  Not a quilt.

I wish I pieced quicker, and sewed more, and cleaned up my background and then took photos in natural light.  I'm a night shift nurse with toddlers and adult children living with me and I'm grateful I get anything done!  Thank you Nancy Zieman.  I always loved sitting down and working intensely on a sewing (or any creative) project for hours, but if I waited for hours I'd never do anything.

Sewing plenty

At least, much more than my norm.  I got my pants sloper done.  That's it below the envelope, with painter's tape to white paper, spreading it out.  It actually needed much less adjustment than I thought.  After I had a significant crotch depth increase done, the rest of the proportions fit better than my measuring tape led me to believe,  I went ahead and used the sloper to modify my butterick jeans pattern and I wish I would have made a sloper back in 8th grade home ec.  That teacher just did not have aspirations for any of us that high.  We were an ill mannered rotten bunch, as I recall.

ANYWAY, other progress as promised are the machines I had sitting and waiting for rebirth.  Complete success with the 401a, so I rewarded myself by buying some new feet and thread spindles for her.  This is a slant shank machine, I can't use my low shanks that have worked well for all of my other Kenmore and Singer models.  I believe the presser foot height is still not correct.  I had to switch back to my Kenmore for sewing over thick seams on my jean shorts.  The older 306k though.....I had gone ahead and purchased a new bobbin case and the special needles it takes, all excited because I knew I was going to love this machine.  BUT, when I oiled her up and started wiggling her stuck stuff, snap!  The darn stitch regulator lever that controls stitch length and direction just snapped off.  Everything else is pretty groovy, I can see very beautiful fine stitches, I just can't have any other size or go backwards unless I get a new regulator, and get it correctly inserted up in there.

As far as quilting goes, the sampler is on a serious stall.  I hope I live long enough to see it done.  I totally gave up the mini quilt idea after sewing one eighth of the first mini block.  I have discovered the therapeutic claims of paper pieced hand sewn hexi blocks are true and I am amassing quite a pile.  I plan on using them to applique onto a duvet cover.  One scrap per flower, none used twice.  I may use up all those singles as the centers, or in another project entirely.

 

I did a quick muslin of the jean pattern just to check out the yoke and waistband part of the jean.  Satisfied, I pulled out my denim to find the stash I've had more than a decade was only a yard or so.  I decided making shorts would be good practice sewing with heavy fabrics and topstitching thread.  Turns out I needed the practice.  I also learned I need more than a 5/8 seam to do a better flat-fell seam too.  It just doesn't look right that narrow.  I've picked more seams out from these "practice shorts" than I probably ever have on any other project.  I guess I'd throw out anything that required that much work for real.  Also frustrating is trying to find the right denim.  I've purchased unsatisfactory stuff from Joann's and Mode.  I'm aware of Taylor's selvedge denim and I bought hardware and thread from him, but I don't want high priced narrow-width denim- it just feels a little pretentious and wasteful for where my jean sewing level is.  I do want old fashioned, stiff, heavy, thick, non stretchy dungaree style denim.  I think I've found a source in NYC after calling a manufacturer in TX and begging the lady who answered the phone for a lead on one of their customers that might sell yardage.  60" wide, 14 oz good stuff.  If it goes through, I'll post it when ever I can.  I'm seriously thinking of buying a damn roll and selling it myself!!!

 

 

It's almost jammie sewing time again.  I've been accumulating flannel.  I really hope I find some denim and sew my jeans before Christmas!