Slow progress on the Nougat

I'm proceeding with all the pace of a turtle stampeding through peanut butter at the moment. I'm posting this mostly because I really really want to get that "Why yes, I have had five children, how can you tell?" midriff shot off the top of the page!

My Nougat currently looks like this. Front bodice panels all joined apart from the centre, nothing pressed. sorry for the wonky angle, I clearly can't hold a camera straight.

You can see that I've done away with the waist seam.  I'm not keen on waist seams, and figured that I could probably align the bodice and yoke pieces and eliminate it.  They look like this.

One minor problem I've found with this pattern is that some of them didn't match.  The side seam on bodice and yoke didn't match.  This was very easy to fix, and no big deal.  (I just added to the bodice seam line to compensate.) Over the length of an entire waistline you'd just ease in the tiny bit extra, but in such a short panel length it would be less straightforward.

I mentioned in my last post that I'd lower the waistline.  I did it like this. I drew a line perpendicular to the centre front, starting at the waistline (because that was where the lines I'd be crossing seemed easiest to alter) traced the bodice to that line, then slid the paper up 1.5cm and traced the bottom.  Then I had to true the lines and make sure that panels would meet at the seam lines. With all the panel seam lines this required a bit of care and attention, but worked just fine. I did one more toile to check, but didn't take a pic of it on me.  It was perfect.

There is one other problem with the pattern that I have found.  The yoke pieces for the back are labelled E1-4, and they should be E4-1, if that makes sense. As far as I can tell the pattern instructions have them correctly labelled, but the pattern sheet has them mislabelled. They work perfectly, and the only problem is that if you are using two different fabrics the "Fabric A" and "Fabric B" labels are transposed.  I really don't want to be negative about this pattern.  It is a gorgeous, complex,  pattern, and these are incredibly minor issues.  I'm mentioning them only as feedback to AnaJan and just in case anyone reading this finds them helpful.


Here are two of the many, many, many things causing me delays. Keely's daughter bought a formal dress online, which arrived on Tuesday for a Saturday formal.  It needed altering, and they had me on standby!  Keely is on a very very short list of people who'd get 10+ hours of my time and expertise with that tight a deadline! they came over with the dress on Wednesday so I could start, then Thursday with shoes to mark the hem, then Friday to collect. PHEW!

The bodice was too long, and needed a simple reduction in length at the shoulder. Easy. Apart from this.

I needed to take off the beads, take up the shoulder, and resew them.  In one of my prouder moments I thought of pressing press'n'seal onto the beads and marking where they were.

Then after the shoulder alteration I just sewed them back on through the press'n'seal, which pulls out leaving no residue. Easy!

And this is why I didn't get much done in the last couple of days.  Georgia is making herself a quilt, and needs technical assistance from Mum.  My daughter is sewing. My dress can wait :-)

Oh, and it's school holidays so I get interrupted approximately every five minutes with requests for snacks, meals, clean clothes, missing item location services, bathroom assistance, permission/money for outings,  mediation, entertainment....

Cutting multisized patterns

That is a seriously dull post title isn't it? I wish I could come up with better ones, but sadly that is not where my creativity lies.

Anyway, getting to the point, I got my dress cut out yesterday (took almost a whole nap time!) and I thought I'd share a couple of things which make cutting a complicated or multisized pattern easier.

When I cut a tissue pattern I always cut it so that all the sizes are retained because you never know when you might need another size or to grade (which is a whole lot easier if you have three sizes intact), but it makes cutting to the smallest size a bit tricky, especially around curves. Also this pattern has long thin bits which are very prone to distorting when pinned to fabric (as all tissue does) To minimize distortion as much as possible I left the prong things joined together and used a BRILLIANT tip I found in Threads magazine (Issue 148, p22). I traced the cutting line with a sharpie marker - the ink bleeds through the tissue and leaves a mark on the fabric. Since it's the cutting line it's not going to show on the garment (it will usually be cut off by the overlocker anyway), and it doesn't damage the tissue - genius!

This is what the marked cutting line looks like when you take the tissue away - perfectly visible. I drew the notches onto the outside of the cutting line so I could mark them with snips into the seam allowance as I usually do when I cut.
The one above was done with a teal sharpie, the one below with a fine line black one.

Isn't that great? I used to do the same thing with dressmakers carbon and a tracing wheel, but of course the wheel damages the already flimsy tissue which is far from ideal. This way the pattern is undamaged, the marks are very accurate and best of all it's super quick and easy peasy.

Now I wonder if I could transfer the darts, tucks and other markings using a washaway fabric marker the same way - imagine the time that would save! (Although I do find threadmarking restful and therapeutic to do - time out in my somewhat hectic life!) Time to experiment I think. Right after I cut the stencils I want to use on this dress. That should take care of the rest of today's nap time. At least it'll distract me from the fact that there's no mail delivery today because it's Queen's Birthday. Hopefully my squealy exciting (well, for me anyway!) trademe purchase will arrive tomorrow. And, um, so will another identical item later in the week. You can never have too many G.......

When you don't have a printer

Cough cough, hack hack, blech - I have a cold. Courtesy of the twins who are nothing if not generous when it comes to sharing their snot. I tell you, nothing makes me feel more like I have a tribe of kids than calling the doctor's office and asking for appointments for "a couple of my children". When I actually meant three of them. Fortunately it was a nice quick visit - one case of conjunctivitis , one possible blocked tear duct and confirmation that the warty rash on Isabella is that contagious one which will go away on it's own in 3-4 months.

Anyway, it seems to have been sick central around here lately - so far only David and Cayden have not come down with anything. This is the first cold I've had since I had pneumonia in January, and I'm really nervous - I've been told that I may be more susceptible to chest infections and related problems because of it.

Which is all a very long winded way of saying that production around here has been patchy at best. I have a couple of patterns half drafted, three dresses cut and ready to stencil and sew, and little inclination to do any of it. So I procrastinated by tracing some images I've had stored in the computer forever. When our computer died my clever SIL put our old hard drive into this computer, which I only realised a few days ago!


I'm still waffling aren't I? The point of this post was supposed to be to show how I traced an image from my computer rather than just print it out. We used to have a printer. Then it ran out of ink and we balked at spending the cost of a new printer on replacing it, so the printer just got used as a scanner for a while. Then Nicholas got at it, and now it doesn't work at all. In any case, I couldn't print the images. So I traced them. Last time I did this I learned that computer screens are the one thing from which Glad Press'n'Seal will not pull away cleanly. Oops. The teenager (who owns the screen) was not impressed! So this time I taped a piece of gladwrap (clingfilm) over the screen and placed the press'n'seal on that, and traced away.



Very very low tech, but it worked just fine!

My creative space - making a sleeve more complicated than it needs to be

I've enjoyed popping into other people's creative spaces via Kootoyoo's "My creative space" every Thursday, so I thought I'd share mine this week.

By now anyone who looks at this blog regularly knows that I like detail. I LOVE fiddly stuff to make. So for my latest design, which has a totally plain A-line front (don't worry, there's going to be some interest at the back) I decided on quite an elaborate applique. This design is from a brilliant book of William Morris inspired quilting/applique designs. (Details to be checked when I dig out the book before returning it to the library!)



Cutting away the excess fabric is fiddly and exacting.

But the layer of colour combined with the contrasting thread stitching really make the design pop.


Then it was on to the sleeve. I'd drafted a tulip sleeve (from Aldrich of course!) and wanted to do something to show off the edge.

I started by cutting bias strips of the same satin that I used under the applique. This two ruler trick is a great way to get a long line. The upper ruler is a BRILLIANT scrapbooking one a lovely friend picked up for me. It has 0 in the centre and goes out to 15cm (or 6 inches depending on which side you use) at each end. It also has lines printed on it which enable you to draw a line at 1.5, 2 or 2.5cm from something. I love this ruler sooooo much.

The wide bias strips were paired with narrow piping cord....

....and stitched to the edge of the sleeve. I had to pin from the back to line up the wide bias with the narrow hem allowance.......

....then move the pins to the front to make it easier to sew along the edge of the piping cord.

Then I trimmed the inner layer of the bias strip to line up with the cut edge of the sleeve.

After that I said a few rude words as I steamed my fingers pressing the remaining seam allowance over the trimmed one and hem allowance before pressing everything into it's final position.

I topstitched from the right side to hold everything nice and securely.

Here's what it looks like from the inside - nice clean tidy bound edge.

And from the outside, a nice piped edge.

Steamed fingers aside, this was easy enough to do and looks just how I wanted it to. I love it when I have what I'm sure will be a good idea and it works even better than I'd hoped! Now to finish the dress so I can set in the sleeves....

Baby trench part 3: Assembling the sleeve.

For some reason I've been avoiding the baby trench. Probably because I know I want to add something to one of the front flaps, but I'm not yet sure what I want that to be. Since flap assembly is pretty close to the top of the construction order, that leaves me a bit stuck. So I decided to make the sleeves and post a Lesson-I-Learnt-The-Hard-Way-Many-Years-Ago for the benefit of anyone else who might need it! (Being almost entirely self-taught, most of what I now know was learnt the hard way.)

So, sleeves. I'd added a purely decorative back seam at the drafting stage, so step one was to sew front and back sleeve together and topstitch the seam. Then I added carriers for the sleeve belts. This very crappy photo (sorry, I didn't realise how fuzzy it was till I'd moved on about four steps) shows the carriers sewn on, and you can still just see the chalk lines I'd drawn on to position them. The hem is folded up to give an idea of the proportions of the finished sleeve.

Now for the lesson bit. If you insert the sleeve belt and anchor it at the raw edges of the seams while flat, when you sew the seam and turn the sleeve right side out, it will look like this:

Not the end of the world, and if you want a bit of pulling in there to slightly bring the sleeve in, then that's fine. I, however, being way too particular about these things, want it to sit flat when the sleeve is finished.

To do that is very simple. I anchored it at one end and folded over the seam allowance as though the seam had been sewn, and held it with a bulldog clip (I don't want to do any unnecessary pinning of this coated fabric). Then I folded the sleeve and wriggled the belt so that it sat flat, and did the same thing for the other seam allowance. As shown in this photo the belt is now sitting flat, as it will be on the finished sleeve.

(Please also note how I shaped the seam so that it will line up with itself when the sleeve is sewn. After I'd drafted the pattern and cut the pieces I realised that that was totally unnecessary - the seam has no shaping and doesn't have to line up with itself, so it could have been straight all the way to the edge. DOH! I do make work for myself sometimes. Lets just pretend that it is actually a Very Important Mark Of Quality that this seam does this shall we? Thanks for your cooperation.)

When you open the sleeve out flat you can just see the required excess length in the belt as a bump in the middle. Because I like to be sure about things, I anchor the other end as well before sewing the sleeve seam.

And when the sleeve seam is sewn and the sleeve is turned right side out and the hem is folded up, it looks like this:

Not a big deal, but it satisfies my "Everything Just Sew" anal nature!


Now I have a feeling I wll be unable to focus on anything else till the book I just bought from Trademe arrives - I got a copy the the third edition of Winifred Aldrich's Metric Patterncutting for Womenswear for $20! I already have the latest edition of her childrenswear book and the 2nd edition of her menswear book, but no womenswear ones. I know she's up to the 5th ed of this book but they're all worth having, so I am Very Happy Indeed, and now will have to wait probably till late week for my internet payment to show up the the seller to post the book to me. Naturally this means I will be unable to concentrate on anything else in the meantime!

I hate dial up

Once again the teenager (with probably some help from the rest of us) has exceeded our monthly broadband allowance, dropping us to dial up speed for a few days. How did we ever survive on dial up speed all the time?!

Anyway, that combined with not managing to get a pic of Georgia in her new skinny jeans meant I've been putting off posting. Oh, and the tummy bug working it's way through our family making various members throw up or have diarrhoea. Or both. With five kids it can take a while to work it's way out of the house, making me very grateful for the nice weather making washing easy to dry.

Today I figured I'd grit my teeth and brave slow internet to post.

First up is this skirt which I made for Georgia when she had her 10th birthday recently. Her grandmother took her to the Royal New Zealand Ballet performing Peter Pan, which she loved. About five minutes after Mum called to ask me if she'd like to go I realised that Georgia's wardrobe is very appropriate for climbing trees and rollerblading, but she had nothing suitable to wear to the ballet. So I made her this skirt. It's #16 from Ottobre 06/08. It only goes up to a size 128, but since Georgia is pretty slender I just added a little more to the length and it was perfect. Fabric from stash + pattern from a magazine I already owned = free skirt.

While I was getting the fabric for the skirt I found a piece of red stretch suiting perfect for skinny jeans for her (her favourite colour) and she found a left over piece of red and white knit perfect for a T shirt. She figured that since she was turning double digits, that meant double new outfits! Since I had time, I was happy to oblige so that she could have the jeans and t for her gingerbread man decorating morning tea with the neighbours (instant party) and a good outfit for the ballet in the afternoon. Left over fabrics + patterns I already owned = also free outfit! I also made her a tankini because I got the fabric very cheap at Spotlight. I don't like making swimwear, but I do like getting her a pair for less than $10. I did swear quite a lot (as Keely will attest, since I was on the phone to her at the time) at various times as my thread kept breaking and the hem just didn't want to get sewn. However, I realise that Georgia will neither notice nor care, so I just left the stops and starts where they occurred.

She still needs clothes for the summer, so I guess I'm not done with her yet. She is also very keen to have proper sewing lessons, like I give to my student. (She comes to my house for an hour every Saturday and we work through her project.) I figure I'll just do the same for Georgia. If she stays keen and gets good I could make her make her own togs!

I've also made a prototype of my own design for Isabella. Very much inspired by some beautiful tops I've seen on the net, starting with this one from the very lovely MADE blog. It and various other tutorials I've read include instructions that say things like: "I don't use patterns, just lay down a shirt that fits your child well and draw around it, leaving seam allowances". I am in awe of anyone who can work this way! I'm very much a pattern user. I play fast and loose with them and alter them and generally make them unrecognizable, but I Don't Cut Patternless. I like the precision of a pattern which I have calculated will produce the design in my head, and I have just enough scientific geekiness to like the concept of repeatability - if it works I can make it again, exactly as I did before. Having said that, I know the principles of draping, and have done it. (One side-ruched wedding dress for a friend of my sister comes to mind. Must find a photo of that)

Getting back to the point, I was tickled pink when Jess used my comment on Samster Mommy's pant refashion tute regarding my method for drawstrings. So I thought I'd take a couple of pics of how it works.

I like the idea of a ribbon tie on Isabella's top, but I wanted elastic in it so I could pull it on and off without undoing it. So I cut a piece of elastic roughly half the size of the finished neck measurement and sewed ribbon to the ends of it, like this:

When that's threaded through the neckline casing I stitch through all layers at centre front to hold it in place. That way the ends are always even and the drawstring never falls out. If the stitching is obvious you can sew a button or flower or anything you fancy over it, but when the neckline gathers up I couldn't even see it, so I didn't bother. Yet.

Have I ever mentioned how hard it is to get a modelled shot of anything on either of the twins? Yes? Well every time I try I'm reminded of that! I ended up getting her big brother to hold her while I snapped.

I'm very pleased with the basic workings of this top, but I think the armhole ends up too low. I used the raglan draft from my Aldrich book, and I think for this design the proportions are a bit off. No fault with her draft, just my use of it. I'll rework it so the armhole is higher, then slash and spread to add the gathering. The joy of patternmaking - I know exactly what I did last time, so I can use that as a starting point for the next one. This one was always intended to be a prototype for my own design, but wearable for Isabella because I hate making prototypes - really feels like a waste of my sewing time to produce something that won't get worn.

Repeatability folks, gotta love it. (Well, I'm pretty anal, so I love it!)

Clipping collar corners

This is probably something that many people know, but I wish someone had told me when I started! So for anyone who might find it useful, here's my quick technique for clipping collar points on non-right angled corners.


Firstly I fold in the seam allowances on one side like this:

I fold them in tightly and crease them so the excess sticks up straight. Then I lay my scissors flat on the table and cut across the sticking-up bit:

That leaves you with a nicely mitred corner:

(It usually leaves a a little too much fabric at the point, which you then trim off in the next step.)

Then you just trim the second side to match, shaving a tiny bit extra at the point, and you're done. When the collar is pressed (which is a million times easier if you have a point presser) and turned through it should sit perfectly smooth and flat. Easy to do and never fails!

This collar is on this shirt. I cut this one out ages ago, but never sewed it up because I was a bit iffy about the proper two piece collar. And of course once I made it up I really liked it. The collar IS pretty snug. It does go around Nicholas' neck, but there's not a lot of room! I suspect it'll be worn open anyway, but I really like the look of the two piece collar so I think I'll enlarge the neck opening and draft a bigger collar.

I had to go into Miracle today (I get my flushable nappy liners there, so I'm in there fairly often!) so I dropped off my latest creations and asked Harriet (one of the lovely ladies who works there - owns the shop I think) what she thought of the pink top I made to go under the pale tunic and whether she thought my other idea of the white top would have been better. She liked the pink, so there you go. Judging by the choice of stock in the store I trust their judgement. She said that there had been comments on my stuff, but no sales yet. (Which doesn't surprise me - I'd have been stunned if anything had sold this fast!) My stuff is in it's own little alcove on white wooden hangers and it gave me a real kick to see it hanging there all cute and nicely displayed.

Easy self facing

I thought this time I'd show my fool proof method for self facings. I assume other people know how to do this, but it was a revelation to me when I figured it out, so I thought I'd share.

This is on a baby jean style jacket. Firstly, to cut the lining I just place all the pieces onto the fabric with seam allowances overlapped. The only shaped seam is the back yoke, so there I just have to fudge a little. (With lots of shaping, this obviously won't work!).
My centre front section has a double folded self facing. You can see in this photo that I've pinned all of that back so the lining is cut to the front edge only.


Next I line up the cut edges of jacket and lining, right sides together. You can see how much difference there is in necklines for the two pieces. I've chalked in my stitching line, which is precisely on the facing fold line. Then I sew this seam, and turn the jacket and lining right way round.
When the facing is pressed it looks like this. Necklines match up, and you have a layer of lining and two layers of self fabric to face/interface the centre front. Easy!

After this (usually I've sewn the lining together before I do this, but it was easier to photograph before I sewed it up) I can easily sew the collar between jacket and lining, and the waistband over the bottom edge.

This is the one drawback to being self-taught. It can take years before you figure out something as simple as this.

The wonder that is Glad Press'n'Seal

Firstly, here is a close up of the label I made yesterday. As you can clearly see, I need to practice keeping it straight!

I've been asked a few times about Glad Press'n'Seal. It has to be my all time favourite stabilizer! The "proper" ones are neither readily available, nor inexpensive in my neck of the woods. I can pick this up in the supermarket for a few bucks, and use it whenever I need a removable stabilizer.

My favourite use is for marking designs to embroider. Here I've traced the stencil image onto paper because the sharpie marker bleeds if I use it with the stencil. The press'n'seal sticks to the paper, but doesn't leave any residue when you take it off.

Here's the design, traced with a fine tipped sharpie marker. The sharpie works just fine if I don't use it directly with the stencil. Once the ink is dry it's permanent, and doesn't rub off onto my sewing thread. The press'n'seal sticks to the fabric nicely, but again leaves no residue when removed.

After stitching around the design, you have to pull out the press'n'seal. In small areas that can be a pain, but good tweezers help. You can see it peeled back on the right petal, leaving no sign it was ever there.

I really love this stuff. I have yet to use it for food.