Sew Distracted

It's Back!

Stitcher's Guild is back online!! Click the link on the sidebar.

I'm buried in my own little version of renovation hell and will back as soon as I can clear the dust out of my eyes.

Any good ideas on ways to store trims?  I haven't found a solution I am happy with but that could be due to exhaustion and excessive inhalation of fine particulate matter (otherwise known as concrete dust).

Stitcher's Guild Announcement

I am experiencing severe withdrawal symptoms.....The newly founded and beloved Stitcher's Guild is experiencing a few problems.

After floundering around aimlessly I found some information at SewingWorld and a wonderful e-mail from Kathryn which I will quote here:

Artisan's Square and Stitcher's Guild has run into problems with its host. 

In a nutshell, the host has pulled the plug on the forum because the membership exceeded 100 people.

DragonLady is in negotiations with that host and is also searching for another host site to move us all to.  So sit tight and keep working on those sewing projects, so you'll have a lot to post about when the site comes back up!

Keep checking in here on this 'blog or at SewingWorld  in the SW Feedback section, SW Refuge Announcement topic for further updates.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that everythign is resolved soon.  I will keep you informed.

This is one addiction I hope not to have to live without.

Akris Spring 2006, part 2

You know, I never finished my notes on the Akris spring collection. You might not care, but this blog has become my journal of what I am thinking and working on, where I keep notes to go with the assorted odd photos I take, and although it may seem odd to keep my sewing journal here, it is better for me than the notebooks and bits of paper I have used in the past. Generally, I have never managed to keep a sewing inspiration notebook, except for the collage of pictures I keep each year. Those are useful. But if I want notes on something specific I want to do, I put it in whatever notebook I have at hand, or on my palm, or on a little scribbled up piece of paper. Then it gets thrown in a box, if I am lucky, or lost otherwise. I never managed to keep a serious journal because I never have it on hand when I want it, and then I somehow don’t manage to transcribe my scribbled notes to the journal when I get home. 

The computer is usually accessible. The internet is accessible from anywhere, hence my new set of notes to myself.

And on to Akris, or at least what I remember because six weeks after I started this I am already starting to forget.

The second jacket I wanted to discuss has basically the same shape as the one showcased on February 21 but the fabric is different:

 

This fabric is a smooth woven, fairly substantial, with some drape. The cut is much the same as the other jacket. Since February I have looked at Neue Mode patterns as well, and I think the basic shape of this jacket is closet to the original although any of the patterns mentioned would work.

This jacket has interfacing at all the seams. Narrow, approximately 1” strips are fused at the stitching line and the seams are sewn down the middle of the interfacing. The edges are serged or overcast, folded under and topstitched.

 

I am sure the hems are interfaced as well. The only other interfacing is sew-in at the shoulders. You can see it through the lining, along with the shoulder pads, in the photo below. Notice the lining, a light hymo, is simply pinked at the edge. I remain not particularly fond of the half lining.

My final photo is of the trim detail at the collars. This is simply a narrow trim that is wrapped around the edge, where a slight ridge is formed by the thickness of the seam allowances inside. The trim is functional in that it hides that detail and highly decorative. The trim is truly wrapped, it is on both sides of the collar, and sewn in place. I think this little thing is what makes the jacket. In fact it is the way the trim is used and the interfaced seams that make this jacket seem interesting.

Of course there is more:

The next jacket is made out of a beefy silk matka in a deep rich hot pink.

The photo doesn’t really do it justice. This jacket is longer, low hip length, and it is a pretty standard fitted princess seam jacket. The curve of the bottom is not something I think I am fond of, but then, that is why I like to make my own jackets. The matka is fused in front and the front of the jacket is lined. The back is unlined.

The seaming detail is interesting. It is not what I expected it to be.

It's not done how you, or I at least, might have thought:

 

Although you really can’t see the detail here, the edges are serged. One seam allowance is sewn down, giving the jacket that faux-felled seam look. Very easy.

I also really like the collar:

 

As you see, these two jackets really aren’t all that complicated. It would not be that difficult to make something similar. The seam details ARE interesting. They remind me that I often tend to try to make things far more complicated than they need to be.

A spring thread

You know spring is definitely in the air here.  The crocuses are out, the tulips are poking up their heads, and the sun is warm.  I spent the day in the garden, mostly pulling out dead things, cleaning out beds a bit, and thinking about plans. 

Why is it that when I am already inundated with projects, I start thinking up new projects?  I want to revive the vegetable garden this year, and it has been several years since it was allowed to go to seed.  Much work will be involved in clearing out the native flora and I still have flower beds to build in the front yard that did not get done last year.  Everything is piled up in the house still, I am waiting for the masons to come back and there is much work to be done. 

Still I sat there in the sunshine, looking at the empty vegetable garden, contemplating the raised beds, which are by the way falling apart, and, in my normal perverse way, I started thinking that if I have to rebuild the raised beds, I might as well redesign the garden so it is more attractive and will work better.  Admittedly this has been in the back of my mind for some time but before it was Waaaay back and now it has come to the forefront.  Do I have time to do this?  No.  Can I do this and get all the spring vegetables planted?  No.  Can I plant some areas now, and gradually work toward them?  Unlikely, but possible. 

Will I actually get any of this accomplished this spring?  Who knows but probably not.

I guess I am an all or nothing kind of girl.

Because it is spring I have also been thnking of sewing.  I have been dreaming of sewing.  I am eager to resume sewing.  I have the machines back in the sewing room but I have not drilled the holes through the counter top so that I can plug them in.  There are three reasons for this:

1.  If I plug in the machines I will not work my way through the 3 foot pile of desk work which must be done, including the sorting of income tax stuff before the accountant comes on Friday.

2.  The demolition crew has been cutting and breaking up the concrete around the pool, which is attached to the foundation of the house.  I knew my house was not air-tight, but I did not anticipate the clouds of dust that fill the air and coat every surface. a dust mask is not adequate walking through the house, G's old gas mask might work but I don't think it functions anymore.  The sewing room is blocked off, doors closed, towels at door.  When I am not outside, breathing in fresh air, I am holed up in here working.  I was loathe to cut holes in the counter tops and create more dust in my only dust free zone.

3.  I put a shelf back on the wall above the desk to hold all the stuff I need right now but haven't yet figured how to store.  I saved the wall above the desk for last in my plan; its the area that accomodates all the things that didn't work or fit in the original plan and I haven't gotten to it yet.  BUT to get the hole saw on the drill I need more space than currently exists beween the desk and the shelf, so I have to take everything down.  Short sighted don't you think?  Of course I could just leave all the cords hanging off the front of the desk.

So I am playing with fabric and notions.

The thread collection is back in its cabinet.  I think the threads look so pretty lined up in their drawers:

Notice that although I can be neurotic about keeping things neatly in drawers, I do not sort the thread by color, just by type.   Those who have seen me stack the forks neatly on top of each other in the drawer might marvel at this.

I buy the Mettler serger thread once a year as no one locally carries it.  My older babylock serger runs much more smoothly with Mettler and I prefer the way it looks on the seam.  I am pretty efficient at rethreading the old machine (the new one is self threading), but even so I can only contort myself under that machine so many times before all the blood rushes to my head and I get a little crazed.  Its pretty too; notice that it is sorted by color.

And because "three's a charm" and I know your are all sick of thread by now, here is one of the little drawers in the cabinet which forms Matilda's legs.  Perfect for woolly nylon, which does not fit in my thread cabinet because the spools are too fat for the shallow drawers.

Spring

At least there are some signs of spring:

My head knows it is spring, and I am thinking more about spring sewing than I am the fall/winter projects that I never got around to making.  But I am cold, cold to the bone, and I can't get all excited about actually making the sprnig clothes about which I dream. I waver between wanting spring and wanting to sew something warm.

By the time I get everything moved, the point may be moot and there may be more than those lonely irises peeking their heads up from the ground.

SW Refuge

Hi, I've been asked by my friends at Sewing World to post the following message concerning a contingency plan should Sewing World fail.  I know that Sewing World has become a very important part of my life, and when it is not up or I cannot access it, I feel a little frazzled and paranoid, driven by a mad urge to keep checking and checking until it comes back.

So if you love Sewing World, here is a copy of a message posted on the Sharing and Inpsiration folder. 

Dear Sewing World Friend,

Kathryn (fzxdoc) and I have been among the ever-widening circle of Sewing World’s users who are worried that it seems to be teetering ever closer to the brink of disappearance. I don’t know how familiar you are with the history of SW, but we have been concerned that there is an increasing likelihood that SW will just grind to a halt. Threads can now only go 1/3 of their former length, they disappear without warning, many features, such as Search, no longer work at all, and many of us have gotten the dreaded white screen more and more often.

Since we have come to cherish SW and the Sharing, Inspiration and Project Photos (SIPP) thread especially, we put our heads together to come up with somewhere to go in case of a crash or just a continuing spiral down. As you know, we looked at the PatternReview and FabricMart boards as well as exploring some other avenues.

We are very pleased that a SW poster called DragonLady has come to our rescue! Perhaps you remember her from SW; she did not post on SIPP. During one of the flurries of posts on the Feedback topic (which is supposed to get action by Scott and Krista) people were lamenting the many problems besetting SW. She has run and runs several boards, and explained a little about why SW was unstable, etc. and offered to do or help do an upgrade on the SW board. No response from those in charge and nothing happened.

DragonLady has now put up a board we can use if needed and anytime, actually. For the time being, SWRefuge. (The name will probably change eventually, and suggestions are being solicited on the site.) Kathryn and I have been helping to test it, and we like what we see. It has wonderful, modern features, and we hope you will like it.

We hope you will bookmark this site’s address, and check it out at your leisure. There will also be links to the SWRefuge site on the sidebars of Liana, Mardel, and Carolyn’s blogs, in case you need the address later, and so that everyone can move seamlessly to the new site should it become necessary.

We hope you will not think that we have been precipitate, or that we or DragonLady are trying to usurp SW. It is simply our wish not to lose all of our wonderful friends and relationships that have been forged on SIPP that has galvanized us to take action.

I hope you will register at the new board.

Here is the link:  http://wickenburgarea.com/sw/index.php

A link has also been placed on my sidebar, where it will remain in case of emergency.

 

Interfacing Part 2

A couple of days ago I discussed the fusible interfacings I have been using along with some ideas as to how things might be changing in the future. The second drawer of my file-cabinet contains the sew-in interfacings, my subject for today’s post.

I know that I have probably more interfacing than a lot of people. This really doesn’t bother me, but the amount of fusibles will be reduced as I work through the various samples purchased. Still, I really don’t mind using sew-in interfacing and there is quite a bit in the second file drawer, more than I had initially realized.

Silk Organza: I usually keep a variety on hand, especially in peach, which seems to work well under most things, and off-white or white. I usually get these from Thai Silks. I also keep silk organza in other colors, when I find those I like or think I might use. Sometimes a color is necessary if I think there may be show through and besides silk organza can make lovely blouses and nice accents on other garments. Right now I have deep green and a couple of shades of purple, besides the basics.

Cotton Batiste: Also makes a nice soft underlining for certain garments and can add a little gentle support where fusibles will not work. I can’t find 100% cotton batiste around me so I buy it when I see it; I might have a couple of different weights on hand. Since this fabric also makes lovely lightweight summer tops and blouses, I keep colors in stock as well, especially when I can find the deeper colors I prefer to wear.

Hair Canvas or Hymo: Stocked in various weights and almost always used in jackets and tailored garments, at least a little piece somewhere. I can’t seem to wean myself away from hair canvas and move to completely fused garment. Hair canvas has changed a great deal over the years. The stuff of old was stiff and often contained horse hair. G remembers stiff jackets from his childhood with horsehair interfacings that would occasionally poke him through the wool of the jacket.  Today, the ones called Hair Canvas today are stiffer and often a large part polyester instead of horse hair. I tend to use the Hymo or Hymo Hair Canvas products. Now most of them are at least partly rayon. I try to find blends with a high degree of goat hair or wool mixed with the rayon and I have several types from several sources, some is fairly stiff, some fairly soft. I adore the premium hymo from Greenberg and Hammer called EURO, which is 42% wool,  because it is firm yet soft with good drape but I also tend to keep a few pieces of their other products, such as LT-030 which is 30% cotton, 34% hair and is quite firm for those times I need serious support in a garment. I also use MD-021 and the hymo called BLACK, which is black. The hymo I recently purchased from THE SEWING PLACE   is a middle weight, between the Euro and the LT-030. I haven’t used it yet, but I think it may prove useful. 

Years ago I also used a good bit of Cotton Organdy. It was great for plackets and collars in lightweight cotton and handkerchief linen blouses as well as other lightweight garments. I would also use it to interface button or buttonhole bands in crisp tops.  I would get it at a store in the garment district that sold only imported Swiss cottons, long since closed. It was available in several colors. Now I can only find white and usually have to purchase it from an heirloom sewing store. I like organdy because it is firmer than organza or batiste yet still light and semi-sheer. As I fashions have gotten softer, I tend to use organza more than organdy, but I still keep a small bit around.

Baby Flannel: I started using this many years ago, when I first read Sandra Betzina’s POWER SEWING, the original version. She used it to underline jackets, especially jackets made from lightweight silk fabrics. Remember those silk crepe-de-chine and sueded silk jackets of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s? I loved those. I used the flannel to underline some of them but eventually, as I noticed that in designer jackets the entire body of the silk might be fused, I moved on to using fusing my silks to permanently underline them and “beef up” the fabric. Sometimes the baby flannel is the perfect thing though and I still use it, it can also be great for underlining a jacket or coat where the fabric is not quite heavy enough. 

Wool Felt, Lambswool, and Mohair: I keep small bits of these for use in sleeve heads or occasionally other places. Pure versions of these are increasingly hard to find but the blends aren’t nearly as versatile for use in garment construction. Sometimes they are purchased. Some of my mohair consists of scraps from garments or sweaters which I have felted. I don’t usually need large pieces so scraps suffice.

I have a couple of pieces of Coutil which I purchased as an understructure for corset or bustier-like bodices when I was sewing more evening gowns. It was also useful in those wide, waist cinching belts that were popular for a few years, as well as the boned, corset based blouses, when I wanted something more structured. I considered using it to actually try to make a corset last year when I was having increasing problems standing up straight due to pain or just plain old crookedness in my back. I might still consider this but at the moment regular Pilates seems to be helping and the crooked days are fewer.

I also have pieces of several products that are sold as sew-in interfacings, such as VeriShape which is used to stiffen collar stands, flex weave, and a few others. I am not particularly consistent in my use of them, but there have been times I have been very happy to have them on hand.

Oddly enough I may be coming full circle. Originally, when I started sewing, I exclusively used sew in interfacings and had trouble with fusibles. Then I moved away from sew-in interfacing and fused almost everything. Now I use both and have found myself appreciating their different qualities.

Interfacing

As I moved the interfacing supply back into my sewing room I started to think about interfacing, what I use, what I don’t, and what might need to be changed.

For a long time I always used the same interfacings. Because I had come to like the performance of certain interfacings, and because I could not usually get them locally, I began buying bolts or large pieces to insure that I always had some on hand.  To make life simpler I settled on a couple of interfacings that I consistently liked and stuck to them.

The first two interfacings that I used consistently were Armo Weft and Fusi Knit. Armo Weft is used for support in tailored garments, kind of like a fusible hair canvas I guess. I used Fusi Knit for everything else. Probably not very sophisticated but it worked for me.

Gradually I noticed that designers made jackets out of lightweight fabrics like cottons and silks and fused the entire body pieces to give the fabric enough weight to function in the more tailored application of a jacket. Fusi Knit was too firm for this and I eventually found So-Sheer. For years I used So Sheer and eventually, Textured Weft, which came out later. Sometimes people had trouble fusing Textured Weft and I haven’t found that it works well with all fabrics. It certainly maintains the loft of textured fabrics better than So Sheer and it changes the hand of the fabric far less. In time Textured Weft became my primary fusible for underlining, but I still use So Sheer for some things.

As I mentioned above, I can’t get these interfacings locally. Most of them are, or were, sold on 25 yard bolts so I just bought bolts of each so that I would have them on hand. When I get started on a project, nothing kills it faster than having to put it aside waiting for interfacing to arrive. By the time the interfacing would arrive other things would have happened and the sewing project would be abandoned. It seemed excessive in the beginning, but I have had to replace every bolt of my original purchases, some more than once.

These interfacings now live in one of the top drawers of the file cabinets that make up my cutting table.

But my needs or ideas about sewing are in the process of change.

I have two full or almost full bolts of Armo Weft in two colors, probably a lifetime supply at this point. I find that Armo Weft is sometimes too firm for the kind of very light soft shaping that is fashionable in women’s jackets now and I might want to find something different.

Fusi Knit is still useful, but again is too firm for some knits and light fabrics, although so-sheer works well for support in very light knits, and I have been increasingly using it for structural support in knit garments. I might need something in between. Both Fusi Knit and So Sheer change the hand of some fabrics too much, although on others there seems to be little difference. I still adore Textured Weft and am almost out, so you know that will be replaced soon.

BUT

What do I do about new styles in interfacings and tailoring of women’s garments? I don’t really want to stock a dozen different interfacings. Life needs to be simple. But I also want to accomplish a particular look.

My discontent started about a year and a half ago, in September 2004. I was making a jacket out of a very nice menswear suiting fabric from Dormeuil. I did need to fuse parts of the front of the jacket, but the fabric had a good bit of body and I was having trouble getting the look I wanted. So Sheer was too stiff. Textured Weft maintained much more of the drape of the fabric but still made it too “thick” and affected the drape just enough that I was not satisfied. I did not know how to proceed, so I put the jacket aside.

I picked that jacket up again a few months later when some of the sewists at Sewing World  were involved in a “January Jacket Journey”. I ordered a bunch of samples of interfacings from several places, intending to make samples and compare them and reconsider the entire interfacing question. In the meantime, while I waited for UPS, I looked at the various other odd bits of interfacing I had on hand. There was some red interfacing I got from Sandra Betzina called “Armani Interfacing”, no longer available, which had good drape, but was not as nice as the Textured Weft in this fabric. And I had some interfacing called DEEP FLESH COLORED FUSIBLE INTERFACING from Fabric Collections which I had used for a silk jacket the previous year, finding it to be much softer and with better drape than So Sheer. I had also used this interfacing on a light topper made from a hand-woven wool which was something like a cross between gauze and burlap with a very loose open weave. I ended up using this interfacing on the blue menswear wool as it had drape and suppleness I wanted. The fabric was just like a slightly spongier version of itself with more support. The hand was much more like the original fabric than with the Textured Weft. The jacket turned out to be wonderful. Fabric Collections no longer imports this interfacing however and the little bit I have left cannot be replaced.

When I started moving interfacing into its home in the new sewing room, I began to readdress these questions. I still have those samples, about a yard of each, waiting in a box. I wondered what to do with all of them. I also still had some of that wonderful blue menswear suiting left, the one that gave me interfacing difficulties.

The solution seemed to be that I should make an interfacing catalog. I decided, for consistency, all interfacings should be fused to the same fabric no matter what they were intended for. That way I would have a basis for comparison. Each sample should also be adequately large that I could get some sense of the hand and/or potential drape of the fused fabric. I decided to cut 8” by 10” pieces of the navy wool and fuse them, with each interfacing getting a page in a standard three ring binder. A sample of the same wool, unfused, would be saved for control purposes.

Here are some of the pages with the fabric samples, and me squinching one piece to see how it feels. I am learning there are some interesting interfacings out there and I see several that might be good for light flexible underlinings. I am not sure where I will go with this yet, but there are certainly possibilities and there are a couple of potential new favorites. I certainly think that one of the new ultra-light fusibles will replace so-sheer as my other standard underlining in the near future. Luckily I have pieces of several nice things. I will keep you informed of the changes.

I am also impressed so far with the sample Whisper Weft that I have fused. It seems something like Armo Weft but much lighter, with a much softer hand. This may be what I am looking for to achieve that softer tailoring look.  I will definitely be trying this in upcoming projects.

It seems there have been many changes in the world of interfacings and I am looking forward to trying some of these new, at least to me, products. I also think that my new interfacing catalog will prove invaluable when I am looking for something to achieve a desired look. Although interfacing will react differently with each fabric, having the samples gives me a big leg up on the process of narrowing down my choices. I am sure that eventually my catalog will be expanded to have samples on other base fabrics as well. In the end, I think the time spent compiling this book will prove to be time very well spent.

An Island Cutting Table

Very little progress has actually been made on the new sewing room, but there is one little island of progress and promise.  You see the only section of wall which has been painted, just barely finished and dry before the file cabinets arrived, and the new cutting table sitting on top of filing cabinets.  Notice the chair in the front left, that is the top of my desk chair, which hits just below my shoulder blades when sitting.  The blue trim will remain, although some deep green-turquoise will be added.   The little corner of white in the upper right is the old wall color, soon to be vanquished.

The new cutting table is in, less its cutting mat, which is being custom made to fit the top and has not yet arrived.   I love seeing the wood of the table top now, and it will look much more industrial once the mat has arrived, but I see no point in ruining this beautiful cherry and walnut table with a rotary cutter.  I had originally planned on just having a plywood top made, but we had this, our old dining table top, and it was easy enough to remove the legs and use it.

The table dominates the room, which I expected in an abstrat intellectual sort of way, but the reality of it takes getting used to.  Having a large, 3 1/2 by 6 1/2 foot table in the middle of a 10 1/2 by 13 1/2 foot room makes a definite statement.  The table is also TALL.  I put our old dining table top on top of four file cabinets, each three drawers high, so the finished table is approximately 42 1/2 to 43 inches high, just a couple of inches below my elbow.  This is perfect cutting table height, and it was the impetus for the entire sewing room redo.

Of course having such a massive centerpoint to the room means that this sewing room will be much more of a workroom than a cozy sitting/sewing room. 

For now I love seeing the wood and the cabinets and the little bit of wall color which glows nicely when the sun hits it later in the morning.  The green is lighter than I originally wanted, but a deeper green will be too dark and now that I see it on the walls, I am sure I made a happy choice.  This small  island in the middle of the room already makes me smile and inspires me to get on with the rest of the work.