That Downton Dress

The Downton, or twenties dress I am making for my friend progresses along.  I finally figured out how to cut it without having odd seams everywhere.  Here is a shot of the lovely fabric.

The drape on this is incredible.  It will be like wearing a silk scarf.  Of course to cut it, I had to rip out the fitting muslin I had made.  Here are some shots of the cutting table in progress.

The first step post cutting was to apply some wash away stabilizer at some detail points on the main front piece.  I used this for the shoulder pleats, the torso pleats and the front slash points.

I can't wait to see the finished garment on my friend.  This dress will complement her striking coloring.  BUT, this will take a bit of time.  I want it to be beautifully constructed as well.  Anyone have some tips for working with lightweight, drapey fabrics?  The stabilizer is certainly one great help.  Please feel free to share!

Making the Cut

I've been delaying actually cutting satin for my wedding dress.  The thought of cutting into the satin has been daunting because I know I can't get more if I screw up.  This is because the satin comes from the skirt of my mother's wedding dress.

Today I screwed up my courage and cut the bodice and the bodice lining.  Next, I'll cut the lace for the bodice.  Then I have to make a lace overskirt for the skirt of the dress, which I am partially re-using as it is.  This is kind of confusing to explain, so I'll try to post some pictures soon.

The lace is very similar to the original lace netting from the original gown, but there was not enough of it preserved to use.

Last weekend we visited the place where our ceremony is going to be.  Here's a glimpse of the stone altar.

Box Tops

Hey!  Still working on the sewing room, but I've also been a little distracted with this box decoupage idea.  Here are some interim pictures.

Obviously very preliminary, but starting to take shape.

Also, my lavender linen is ready to cut, so I think I'll take advantage of a low humidity day and go do that!  Back to you Butterick 4228!

Lessons From the Past:2 - Shirt Shuffle

The Make and Mend for Victory book has been so much fun to read, and such an inspiration.  I have always been interested in reuse of discarded or unwanted fabrics, but this book has helped me to see things through my grandmother's eyes even a little bit more than before.  Having been a young woman during the Great Depression and WW2, she knew how to pinch a penny until there were tears in Abe's eyes!

I stopped into our local Salvation Army store the other day and picked up two old men's shirts.  Both are large sized.  One was $2.99 and the other $4.99.  And, of course, you may have a stock of worn out men's shirts at your disposal for free!

I have plans to modify these into women's blouses, but another chapter of Make and Mend for Victory had me looking at the many other potential garments hiding within these shirts.  Many of you have young children.  These shirts are ideal for making all kinds of garments for the little ones! Again, patterns of the day are used in these layouts, but modern patterns would work as well if you haven't a source (or the budget) for vintage patterns.

I hope this gives you some great ideas, as it did me!  Happy sewing!

Shared on Frugally Sustainable.

Cutting to the Chase

I needed to vacuum my bedroom today.  Not really worth mentioning except that I thought I might as well cut a few patterns first.  The logic in that is that my carpet is chocolate brown and shows every thread (and bit of goosedown from my comforter), so I thought I'd cut first and then vacuum.  Here's the color scheme in my bedroom below:

Here in the northeast we spend so much of the year in hibernation, that these colors work great for that!  However, it does mean you vacuum frequently to get rid of the fluffies on your carpet.

First I laid out a pattern I've been wanting to get to since last summer.  I bought it in a discontinued pattern bin, and even though it's not vintage, it definitely has that vintage sixties feel.  It's Burda 8995. 

I reminds me of a dress worn by Emma Stone in her role as Skeeter in The Help.

I'm doing the dress in a contemporary print somewhat like a barkcloth, and the jacket in plain black.

Then I cut a (hopefully wearable) muslin of the top of the Butterick 4228 I got yesterday in the mail.  I'm using fabric harvested from another one of those thrift store mom jumpers.  But confusion, consternation and kerflufflement ensued when I laid out my pattern pieces and found that the original owner had decided to alter the facings.  She cut each facing into two pieces!

Which I then carefully pinned together to make them whole again.  I will now trace these onto freezer paper to make replacements.

The fabric is a soft jersey, and I really like the little violets.  If it does turn out to be wearable, I have just the skirt fabric to go with it!

And now I'm done cutting, and my room is vacuumed.  What other trouble can I get into today?

The Diva of Overdye?

Ok, maybe not so much.  There were mixed results for the overdye fabric rescue.  The primary fabric I was trying to save out came out nice.

The flowers are still visible, but the background is now a soft grey.  The dye camouflages the fade damage (which was the reason for this fabric rescue experiment), but it is still visible in spots.  I'm hoping that the camouflage is enough that the damage will not be apparent in the finished blouse.  So, I went ahead and cut it out (on the plywood protected table this time - I wasn't up for the more aerobic, crawl around the floor method).

However, the other two pieces finished with less satisfactory results.  The T shirt remnant came out light grey, alright, but to my eye it just looks like a really dingy, ready for the ragbag, T.  So, more intervention will be required here.  Likewise, the synthetic material of the curtain panel absorbed very little dye, so it just came out looking a little worse for the wear.  However, I still plan to use both of these items in upcoming projects, so stay tuned!

Adventures in Over Dyeing

If you've been following along you know that my intention earlier this week was to cut out the Armistice Blouse from Folkwear Patterns.  However, as I laid out my fabric, I discovered that it had a regular pattern of fade marks along the lines on which it had been folded.  This stopped me in my tracks for that day and left me pondering what to do to save the fabric.  I decided to try overdying.

You might be curious as to why I refer to the process as "overdyeing" and not just "dyeing".  When dyeing a fabric or garment one usually starts out with unpigmented cloth, or removes the dyes already present through a chemical process.  With overdyeing, you just dye over whatever is already there.  This process can be somewhat random in its results - you never know quite what you're going to get.  Now, my fabric was pretty much ruined, so what harm could be done?  Right?

And, what about environmental harm, or human hazard from using the product?  Well, I consulted the Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) for the product to be sure.  According to the MSDS, the main hazards would be by inhalation or ingestion of the product, or to those with skin sensitivity to any of the ingredients if the chemicals were not properly washed out of the fabric.  The product contains no known carcinogens.  It does contain surfactants, which are a known environmental hazard, hence extra dilution should take place prior to discarding the solution.  While using the product, I never handled it directly in any way, and I took care not to inhale the powder.  All of that said, dyeing is not something I do frequently, due to potential for unreported hazards. 

When I do dye, I try to do multiple items to minimize waste.  This time I had my faded stash fabric (the fading is slightly visible in this photo),

The top from the T shirt I used in the T Shirt Upcycle (I promised at the time that I'd do something with the remaining portion of the shirt),

and the other panel from the curtain I used in the T Shirt Upcycle project, thinking that perhaps I could use it in the next project as well. 

The curtain panel is made of a synthetic material, so it's uncertain how much, if any, dye it will absorb.  I'm in an experimental mood, how about you?

As you can see above, I'm using Pearl Grey dye.  This happens to be a box I had on hand, but I think the color might look nice with the flowers on my ruined fabric, and, it may end up appearing more period (Edwardian) correct than the original fabric.

Next, I assembled my supplies:

• Dye Packet and Instructions
• Bucket and measuring utensils not used for food prep
• Detergent (1 Tablespoon)
• Salt (1 cup)
• Vinegar (2 Tablespoons)
• HOT water (2 cups plus 3 gallons)

I dissolved the dye powder in two cups of very hot water.

In the 3 gallon plastic bucket of very hot water I dissolved 1 cup salt,

1 Tablespoon of generic laundry detergent,

and 2 Tablespoons of white vinegar.  The vinegar was not called for in the package instructions, but vinegar is great at setting colors - the Ostara (Easter) Bunny uses it, and I can't think of any more glowing testimonial!  Next, I added the dissolved dye to the larger bucket with the salt, detergent and vinegar.

The next step was to add my fabrics.  These were wetted in plain warm water prior to being added to the dye bath.

Once all the fabrics were added, the stirring began.  I stirred the fabrics in the dye bath for about 20 minutes.  The instructions on the box indicate that the longer the materials remain in the dye bath, the darker the color result would be.  The instructions recommended keeping the materials in contact with the dye for up to 30 minutes.

Once the time had elapsed, I poured the entire bucket, water and all into the washer, and washed the materials to remove any excess dye. 

I'll be sure to let you know how this all turned out in an upcoming post after everything is dry!  Please stop back to find out what color the Armistice Blouse is going to be!  And, as always, your questions and comments on this process are always welcome!

Sewing Aerobics

I was raised Catholic in the sixties.  For me, this meant a lot of standing, kneeling and genuflecting - something my sister and I came to later refer to as Holy Aerobics.*  For some reason I am reminded of this every time I cut sewing patterns.  HUH?

I am fortunate enough to have a small sewing room.  Somehow, even though I have a room of my own, there's just no room in there to cut.  So, I have two options.  The first is to spread my fabric and pattern out on the dining room table, and use it as a cutting table.  This works ok quite a bit of the time, but it does mean removing the table cloth (so as not to cut through) and shoo-ing cats from the work surface about every thirty seconds.  My second choice is to lay out the fabric on my bedroom floor.  This option requires crawling around the floor and assuming positions a nice lady of my age has no business getting into (and has a really hard time getting out of).  Today, I used option two.  Ow.  I'm really coveting a cutting table at this moment.  Like this one:

I set out to cut three patterns. Generally, if I'm going to cut, I try to cut two or three patterns, because of the effort involved.  The first, the commissioned clergy robe I mentioned; the second, a Colette Meringue; and the third, the Armistice blouse from folkwear patterns (as you'll recall I wanted to do some Edwardian sewing).  One and two went fine, though I worked up quite a sweat.  It is very unseasonably warm here on the edge of the Adirondacks right now, but I am NOT complaining about an early spring!  When I got to the third pattern, I had an unfortunate discovery.  The pretty calico print was now sun damaged!  I'm not sure how that happened because it was folded in a box until I pre-washed it yesterday.  So, now I have to consider how to save the project.  Have any of you ever tried overdying?  I was thinking I could still use the fabric if I tried it.  Any suggestions?

* No disrespect intended to my Catholic readers.

Sorbetto Progress

This blouse has been a dream to construct.  Above, I used a piece of tape (cute duct tape, huh?) as a seam guide for sewing in the center box pleat.  Inside I used french seams to keep those seams neat, this time without the added bulk of a binding.  Here's where my dart meets the side seam.

The most time consuming part of this blouse so far has been making the self fabric bias tape.  These's a tutorial for this right on the Collette Blog.  Because this was harvested fabric, I used my own method of finding the bias and cutting.

One thing that's apparent in these pictures is how dry and cracked my fingers are by this time in the winter!  Wow, it's a good thing spring is around the corner.  Well, hopefully I'll get this blouse finished in the next couple of days.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

To Pin or Not To Pin

I'm not referring to Pinterest. I mean, do you use pins? When and for what purposes?

According to many, many of the sewing goddesses I read and follow, one should use pattern weights and a rotary cutter when cutting fashion fabric. Pins can pull your fabric off grain and cause inaccuracies. That said, my personal preference is for pins over pattern weights. I find that I do a better job if my fabric is well pinned to the pattern. This is the way I learned way back in the day, so it's still the way I roll today!

And how about during construction? Do you baste, or pin? Again, back at South Junior High, I learned to pin my pieces together, carefully removing each pin as I went along so as not to sew over the pins. Sewing over pins is like sewing Russian roulette. You never know when you'll hit a pin and bend it, break your needle, or screw up the alignment of your needle housing. For very slippery fabrics I do baste and for some sturdier fabrics I can go pinless to speed up the sewing process.

Occasionally I come across cut patterns in my UFO pile with pins still intact where the pattern was pinned to the fabric. Sometimes moisture in the air has caused these pins to rust. Thankfully, I've not had to discard anything due to damage, but I try to recall these pieces when I'm tempted to put aside something I've cut in favor of another project.

To be optimally useful pins should be straight and free from surface problems like rust spots. Periodically, I go through my pins and repurpose or discard those that should no longer be used on good fabric. Also, I sort out bad ones as I sew.

"See a pin and pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck"! I guess that makes we sewists very, very lucky!