Not the best alteration (but it's finished!)

It's not the best hack every - it's a little more snug than i'd like but i couldn't shorten it any more - as the back isn't shaped!

photos from the ASG sewing retreat

I thought I'd best share some photos of the weekend before I completely forgot to. Here's the outside of our sewing space.

and turning 180 degrees around the view was this, that sign you can barely see warns that the edge of a high cliff is close.

Here's the room where the 30 of us were set up, I placed my overlocker & sewing machine back to back and walked around the set up to use the overlocker - easier than moving the machines and their foot pedals.

 

The 2 winter skirts that I finished - am so disappointed that my PCOS belly has swollen up like this. I feel like I look pregnant, when I'm not! The accommodation is in the wings that surround this garden - the large "sewing" room is in a corner of the square. Decades of Style #3004, a favourite skirt pattern.

And this was taken almost a week later, in another park. (again sighing over my puku ngārara). This is a favourite Burda WoF pattern from December 2004, and a completed UFO.  I'd foolishly cut it out forgetting to add the seam allowances to my traced Burda pattern. So I had to cut another panel and insert it in the right side seam.  I over compensated and ignored my inner voice telling me to take half of it out. So part of the Sunday morning was spent unpicking 75% of the waistband, unpicking 1 of the 2 panel seams, narrowing the panel by half at the top & swooping it out again in the bottom quarter to mimic the shaping on the other side. Then overlocking the raw edge (I never overlock together), reseaming, and reattaching the waistband. I should never have ignored my inner voice.

Lastly, my pirate pants (KwikSew2529 with a longer leg).

I used up my remnant of pirate cotton knit, before I even made the yoga pants that I bought the fabric for (to wear around home). Hmm, I'm guessing that they're a missing UFO.

another Decades of Style #3004 cut from stash

Last night I cut out Decades of Style #3004 in a khaki wool twill, and I was able to raid the stash for matching thread and a good enough zip.  I'm not sure that I could get a better zip in-store so why try. I even have a button that works.  It's a boring colour that's suitably useful in that it won't clash with a lot of colours I wear, though I'm using the not-twill side of the fabric as I prefer the colour.

I was also going to cut out the Butterick retro skirt, however I hadn't yet made the alterations I need to (take out 1" between waist & hip) and I really think I have enough to sew already.

I've got to get everything together for a sewing weekend and no doubt will pack too many projects.  I've got the UFO brown wool skirt, 2x cut out shirts, 1 cut out fitted T and this skirt. Oh, and another UFO blouse in a paisley that I suspect won't be the best colours but it's half made and I love the pattern that I drafted so lets get that sucker into my working wardrobe.

This would almost clear my non-costume UFO list - and boost my options to wear to work. I'm also packing the regency saque hat just in case I'm inspired to hand sew a little. Erm and I'm taking my navy-green twill to cut out a corset.

I realise that I've got more than I can realistically sew in 2 evenings and 2 full days, but I also figure that if I get stuck on something I can put it aside and sew the next thing.  With everything cut out - other than the corset - it's easier to get stuck in and feel productive.  I also don't want to be sewing the same thing over & over.

Non costume UFOs
- replacement cotton sheers for my main room - cut out
- paisley self drafted pattern - 50% sewn
- 2 work shirts cut out
- aqua knit top - cut out
- Go Petunia's T - cut out
- brown wool Burda WOF skirt, partly sewn

Historical UFOs
- pink white stripe regency saque hat, half sewn
- blue (with tiny black diamond) open robe, half sewn
- regency stays: mantua maker pattern cut out for a friend
- regency stays: Missouri Historical Society, cut out
- striped pocket hoops, 80% sewn
- 1850s ruffled petticoat, needs levelling & waistband. therefore needs cage crinoline.
- cage crinoline, bag & vertical straps sewn, needs steels & waistband
- stripe lobster tail cage bustle, sewn, needs canes/steels inserted & waistband
- red bustle dress, part cut out
- 1917 austerity corset, toile cut out

Pop Culture UFOs
- Idris - skirt cut out

planning for a sewing retreat

I've got a weekend sewing retreat later this month, and I need to make sure I have a plan for my sewing time. I'm going to take more than I can physically sew - after all I do this for each Sewing Guild day. The smart thing is to also take things already cut out, so that it's all jam on the toast.

I thought I might as well start with some UFOs that I can use now.
- brown wool Burda WOF skirt, partly sewn
- aqua knit top - cut out
- 2 cotton shirts cut out.

I'm also going to cut out the khaki twill in my fave decades of style skirt pattern #3004, and the olive green in Butterick Retro 6257. I'm thinking of cutting out another knit top, to see if the SBCC T is a good fit for me - short & plus size sounds like me!

I may also take a corset with me - Sydney Supanova approaches and I'd like to make a new costume for it, but that requires an functional undergarment version of the 1890s, page 71 one from Corsets

a viral vector loose at work; and stash busting options for winter

I've been feeling less than ideal last week, which was my excuse for not making further posts about JAFA & Ironfest. I've lacked the enthusiasm needed, which is a little sad but a sign of a busy immune system.

I have been preshrinking my stashbusting selection of wool fabrics, a length at a time hung over my shower rail. Here below is a pic of what I raided from my winter cupboard. There's a piece of black superfine wool that needs to be included.  The print is a cotton lawn I bought a couple of weeks ago at Spotlight. There's rarely a geometric lawn, let alone in colours that suit me so I had to buy a shirt length.

I'm still dithering over what patterns to use, and perhaps my forced look at my pattern collection as I  emptied the drawers (for repair) has already inspired one choice. The skirt from the Butterick 6257 a retro re-issue of a 1948 suit. I've not quite decided what fabric to use but there's a khaki twill that would be fine. Though a stripe would enhance the 3 panels on the back, there's only one stripe fabric (a navy wool-rayon).

Back to the pattern cull - as my cutting table rests on top of the pattern drawers, it's currently covered in patterns and I need to bag them up while the PVA glue cures. Otherwise the cutting table isn't available and I need to cut out 3 to 4 skirts for a weekend of binge sewing.

Erm, in the interests of honesty today I discovered that 3 fabrics bought online hadn't been added to my spreadsheets, and they total 10.2 metres. Which takes my current stash total to 835.8m - which makes my target of 750m by year end seem very unlikely. I may need to aim for 775m instead.

wardrobing the UFO skirt & on a pattern hunt

I'm having to wardrobe the finished skirt for a little while - I've gained enough weight since my gallbladder removal that it doesn't fit around my waist/hips. I'm hoping to resolve that issue over the next few months, so haven't given up hope of wearing it this year.

The purple skirt will be fine, as it was cut out in January when I knew what was dealing with (girth wise). Toted to work to day was the next stashbusting skirt, a taupe-ish linen/rayon I bought in Adelaide in 2010. I'm using a pattern that I made up a couple of times in 2005, and it too as asymetric seam lines and this time an asymetric hem, McCall 4593

(here's a link to one for sale on ebay, cos I don't think I've got a pic saved of it elsewhere).

And the pattern hunt? The vintage Anne Adams pattern I want to use for a dress is hiding from me. I had it 4-6 weeks ago, but have zero idea where I put it when I got home from the sewing guild meeting.

Silly me.

Productivity - I have it at last

I went to the sewing guild yesterday and had a busy time. I didn't need to take the 3rd skirt as I didn't get to even touch it.

I tackled the near doomed UFO skirt - it got to the point where I didn't care how well something was done, so long as it was done. Look at this zip insertion for example. Worst ever, but I just don't care!  I attached the waistband today, and topstitched it as the interfacing started to lift. I don't care if it's sewn in and not fused.  I started stitching in the ditch but halfway changed ... nobody is going to see it as I don't tuck in tops. See what I mean, what an attack of the "Just get it done" when usually I'd take the effort. But after 2 years and 7 weeks, pffft. Get it finished.  The buttonhole is done, and I got this button from the stash - it's a lavender and almost perfect match to the periwinkle blue.  This fabric just doesn't want to photograph properly.


Next up, the purple skirt from the Burda WOF pattern. I think it might be a smidge too long, but I'm not going back unless I get laughed at when I wear it. I topstitched the panel seams, and put the zip on the RHS as I don't need to wrestle with a zip over the seamlines. The original pattern had an elastic waist so there wasn't this to think about (had I done that). However, with my waist & hip difference, I get too much fabric bunched in the shortness that is my body. blech.

babystepping back to daily sewing

It's not a lot, but I overlocked the hem on my 2-year-old UFO skirt. It's my MAFAM January item, and I want to wear it to work. Thanks to working out what was wrong with the silly overlocker it was easy to do.

Tonight I'd like to insert the zip and cut out/interface the waistband, so that tomorrow I can take it to the Australian Sewing Guild group for finishing. I'll also take my purple skirt that's cut out, and the sandy taupe linen/rayon to cut out a 3rd new skirt.

These are all achievable if I don't talk more than I sew. or I may take my UFO regency dress to work out what construction stage I'm up to.

A sneak peek at the next stash fbaric I'm cutting out, a 2 piece morning dress for JAFA.

A solution was found for the misbehaving overlocker

It was the pressure of the foot that was severely out of wack. It took 2 days, 1 bottle of wine and multiple readings of the manual to even find this would make the fabric gather while the tension was otherwise correct.

According to the manual the front edge of the screw thingy should be 1mm below the surface of the overlocker cover. On mine it was 1mm above and as I have no memory of doing that I'm a little baffled. Technically it's possible I did it while sleepwalking, but it's unlikely.

Anyway, after switching thread types; cleaning out any lint; rethreading from scratch many times; adjusting the differential feed; and much bad language and glasses of wine I had success.

I got the UFO skirt overlocked but the zip isn't in it yet - lets not rush these things ;) I also cut out the next purply skirt in the same fabric. (one on the right, it used to be pastel pink.


For the purple I'm using a Burda World of Fashion pattern - from the December 2004 issue. It's #148, and though it was drafted as an elastic waisted skirt, I definitely changed it to darted with a side zip.

4 days left to finish the skirt

Despite it being a long weekend, I did the tiniest bit of sewing. Saturday was domestic chores and schlepping across town to get a Hello Kitty mug and black glass bead long necklace. (This is the short version).

Sunday I slept til noon (like a teenager) and then did electronic housekeeping - backing up files, tidying up data folders before that.

Monday I slept til noon (so really must have needed it) and then I put my Big Girl Pants on and folded and [more unlikely] put away all the laundry I washed on Saturday. I put away all the costume books I'd pulled off the shelves, and stacked some library books to return on the way to the bus stop today.

Then I put all the copier-enlarged scale patterns and regency fashion plate printouts that I'd calculated design proportions on, into a bigger bundle than I expected.

And only then did I venture to the storeroom and collect bothy my ufo skirts & pattern pieces. The brown wool I put aside for later on, but the blue one got opened out for evaluation.

1) The 2 cut pieces (L & R fronts) are crumpled and need pressing.

2) The rest of the fabric is neatly folded

3) The back pattern piece needed altering to match the fronts (raising hip 2" cos I'm short with high hip padding).

I got #3 done but decided not to bring it to work to cut out. I've got til Friday night to finish it, and it's 3 seams, hem & waistband. I can do it

MAGAM: January gets a skirt from the UFO pile

I've been a little slack since I came back to work. Early in the year I challenged my gluten tolerance, and had what can only be described as a 4-day gluten hangover. Silly me. It seems a tiny bit is ok, and a smallish amount isn't. Good to know, and that's much better than before when I could have zero amount.

Enough about silly innards, what was/is my plan for Make a Garment a Month??

I'm going to finish my UFO skirt this weekend. It's the Decades of Style 3004 shaped seam skirt. I've made it before, but the 'new beginning' is that it's just below knee length. This is shorter than I usually wear and the concept is that it's cooler on a hot day. Except of course that it's [yet again] cool, cloudy & showers with nary a patch of blue sky to be seen. NOT what I moved & stayed in Sydney for!

It's a long weekend here, so I've plenty of time to get a skirt done. It would take less time if I didn't have to press my now crumpled fabric. ooopsie!

next up: completing a 2 year old UFO skirt

Now that my urgent costume fix has been made & had an outing, it's time to focus on Real Life clothing.  First I think I'll finish my half cut out skirt ... I started cutting this out almost 2 years ago. It was the first Saturday in January 2012, and after cutting the front 2 pieces I realised the back piece wasn't in the envelope. 

So I thought I'd finish cutting it when I found the missing piece, and that it couldn't be far away.  After feeling poorly and packing it away by June as I'd not found the missing piece I then thought I'd re-purchase the pattern from Decades of Style's sale around the following Xmas/NY.  That would prompt the missing piece to appear, surely. 

No, and by then my gall bladder had a murderous intent, so I was incapable of sewing for the first 4 months of this year.  Costumes have obsessed me since then, so I need to take a break from that genre and start working on my everyday clothing.

The colour isn't accurate, it's more of a softer, muted periwinkle than this clear blue but that's it in a ziplock bag (so that at least the uncut fabric and cut pieces don't get separated).

next choice -- skirt pattern

Part of me wants to use a TNT pattern (ie tried n true) but part of me wants something new for the blueberry skirt.  I'd like a 30s vibe, so probably not this Lekala skirt 5861 and though I prefer longer length, shorter would be cooler in our hot & humid summers. Plus I'd like to try using Lekala but perhaps not with so many pieces as 5687,

So part of me is tempted to again use Mccall 4161 which I've only used once, in wool crepe

or McCall 4593

 or even vogue 7640 which I haven't worn in ages, but for some reason I think of it as a winter pattern.

Also, I'm tempted to finally order the Onion pattern 3019

 

Regardless of which pattern I pick, I need to accept that nothing is going to make me look slender.  A sleek seal is what I'm aiming for, not a pudding.

switch my focus to work clothing

I found out yesterday that my job will finish on the 23rd of this month, 2.5 weeks from now. It's not even 4 months into my 12 month contract so I'm definitely disappointed that I couldn't get another role in the organisation once my boss has left. As I'm likely to be interviewing (and probably temping again) my working wardrobe needs sprucing up, so I'm going to have to focus mainly on Real Life (TM) clothing. First I'll finish my UFO Decades of Style skirt, as half cut out is closer to finished than not cut out projects. Also the UFO DoS matinee blouse. The 2 cut out shirts that I was going to pay a friend to finish will need to be done by me as she's moving cities and probably won't have time to do them. so although they're mojo-less they're at least cut out.

Baby steps back to new clothing

I got the two front seams done tonight, and I'm trying to decide if I overlock them together, press to one side and then topstitch, or if I overlock them individually and then press open.

I wish I knew why this is photographing lighter than it is, but it's not important really. Getting it sewn & in rotation is.

Edited to add: no wonder I'm dithering on that decision. I just looked at my stash/usage spreadsheets and the last time I made a skirt that WASN'T a costume was in the first half of 2007.  Cos the skirt I half cut out January 2012 didn't actually get finished. Though now I've replaced the pattern I can get onto that.  Sheesh, no wonder my clothing is wearing out and I need a new real life clothing sewing habit.

I'm not going to throw myself into a frenzy of sewing, but get back to sewing 15-30 minutes a day. Getting something done every day is a habit I want to have again.

Start with pre-shrinking

I'm actually making incremental progress towards stitching.

Winter is coming. For realz ... it's the last couple of weeks of autumn this side of the world and I need more work clothes that fit & look good.  I've selected some deliciously dark chocolate brown wool in a sort of crepe weave to make a skirt.  I've selected a skirt pattern I used back in January 2007, from a 2004 Burda magazine.
I'll start stitching the hobbit skirt tonight ... I would have last night but I had a crampy tummy {rolls eyes} ... crampy for none of the obvious reasons.  At least all the threads etc are together.

Here's the choc brown wool - this photo is really bleached out ... that's a navy top I'm holding it up to. Yep, navy not blue. n The Burda pattern is style 148 from the December 2004 magazine.