I haven't blogged for a long long time.  We are in the process of purchasing a house in the Palm Springs area.  We have built up 25 years of cr*p in this house and I've spent the last mumble mumble months sorting, tossing, boxing up and donating stuff.  Needless to say the sewing room is packed up and clean.  The fabric is in boxes.  I can't believe I have as many boxes of magazines and books as I do. 

Vintage apron

Vintage Aprons

I inherited a couple of old vintage style aprons from my mom. She was much shorter and smaller than I am, so her aprons do not fit me. However, I wanted to knock them off and recreate a pattern for them. I finished the first prototype and will publish photos this afternoon. The fabric is quilting cotton from Jenny's Fabrics discount aisle. It turned out very will. The next edition will be sewn up a little differently because when the apron gets tossed into the wash, I'm afraid the hem will fray at the places where the panel seams join up.

Widgets

Trying to get the Pattern Review widget on my blog and completely failing. Grrr.

Widgets

I'm trying to add a widget to this blog, but not having much success here.

Widget

Vogue and Butterick

Seriously fell of the pattern wagon. Vogue and Butterick are having a sale on their website, so I had to get some. I hadn't bought a bunch of patterns for probably a year or so. I guess it was time. Got mostly blouse and top patterns with a couple of wardrobe patterns. Designs are starting to look good again. For quite a while everything has looked like big squares sewn together. Not much shape or design in them. Not a good look on anyone.

Stash

I haven't posted for a year. Argh. My sewing has been sadly lacking lately. The projects that I have worked on have not turned very well. The problem here is working with cheap fabric. I experimented with a raglan sleeve tshirt and the knit was too flabby. It looked like a first project gone awry. This was using a sweater knit remnant purchased from a well known (in the sewing world) estore that supposedly sells fairly nice product. Well, not this one. The knit pilled and pulled and was generally a mess. So into the round bin it went.

My next knit top was better because it was a much more stable knit. I'm not sure it's really a knit because it ravels badly. The top will get worn as long as it lasts.

Back to raglans. I'm trying to draft a raglan top from my PMB top because their raglan is atrocious IMHO. It's definitely a learning curve. I also have a couple pieces of knit that need to leave the stash because I will never use them.
They're too flabby and have no recovery or body to them.

URL for tops

http://picasaweb.google.com/mastdenman/February2010#

Wild Ginger knit tops

I uploaded pictures of a couple of knit tops drafted with PMB. The first is a cotton poly knit three quarter length sleeve top, tunic length. The bust dart is rotated into the shoulder. If I make another one of these I will move the shoulder seam towards the front because the gathered dart has a tendency to slide off the shoulder. If you cut off an inch or two and tape it to the back shoulder, that problem is eliminated.

The second top is a design from PMB too. I was in Mitsua Marketplace looking at Japanese patternbooks. This one was in either Mrs. Stylebook or Lady Boutique. Since this was the only style that appealed, I made some notes into my cell phone and took them home. This is a tunic length top with a flared side seam, cap sleeves, bust dart rotated into the neck line. Then you get rid of the bumps in the neckline caused by the dart fold and add an inch onto the center front and center back. The center back is gathered in and sewn in place under the self fabric edging. The front bust darts and extra fabric is gathered by sewing beads into the neckline with the fullness pulled around the beads. It looks quite a bit like the magazine, except for the side seam bottom. It is supposed to have the pointed ends hanging down on the side, but I didn't get them long enough and probably should have curved them down.

General stuff

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything. The gray tropical wool pants are finished and in the closet. I haven't taken photos yet, but will try to. Took a one hour photography class yesterday. It was definitely worthwhile. I learned about some of the little icons on my digital camera and how to use them. It will definitely help me take better photos in the darkness of my sewing room. Insufficient lighting always seems to be an issue.

Claire Schaffer pants

I've been lazy again. The black test pants are completed, but I haven't reviewed them yet. They have passed the worn at work test and a gray tropical wool pair is cut out. After that, maybe a black tropical wool pair and then a couple of pair of pull on pants. My winter work pants will be complete then. I've created a work mini wardrobe plan. Maybe tonight I will publish it.

Vogue 7468 continued

The first wearable muslin of the Claire Schaffer pants is almost complete. I ended up putting a 1/2 inch dart in the center back to take out excess in the waist. The back pantleg is not balanced on the bottom. Not sure if that's the patterns fault or my fault because I traced it while fitting it. The closure and the hem needs to be put in. They are very comfortable to wear around and look nice (except for the twisted leg). The balancing of the twisted leg should fix it.

ASG had their annual yard sale last weekend. I went to work late and did some serious damage there. A piece of silk jacket weight fabric, wool poly blend (turquoise), black/brown, wool/rayon blend and some linen came home with me as well as the Judy Barlap Japanese Tailoring tapes and a couple of miscellanous pieces of fabric. All for about $32.

I have to figure out how I want to pretreat the gray tropical wool. I may put it into the washing machine on the hand wash cycle.

New work slacks

I'm currently beginning work on Claire Schaffer's pleated pant. My changes to the pattern so far include: grading the pattern up to a size 24, lengthening the leg at the knee by 1 1/2 inches, lengthening the back torso at the waist by 1/2 inch, changing the "j" crotch to an "l" crotch, extending the back crotch point by 1 inch and adding 1 1/2 inches to the front side waist tapering nothing to the hip point. Also I moved the darts out from the middle of the front so that they started at 4 1/2 inches from the center front and reversed them. It made the front hang much better.

The muslin was made up from an old bedsheet. Adding the 1 1/2 inches to the front side waist got rid of many of the fitting problems in the back. The next version is in the works. My first wearable muslin will be out of a black poly rayon twill from Fashion Fabrics Club that I'm not particularly fond of. It just doesn't have much body to it and it seems to fade and look old quite rapidly. If this works out, I have a couple of pieces of tropical wool waiting in the wings.

The silk campshirts are done

I have two new washable silk shirts to wear to work. I'd like to get some more silk shirting from Michael Levine's in L.A. and make some long sleeved shirts. They are really comfortable to wear. The ironing is a PITA.

I'm starting to work on a Claire Schaffer pleated pant pattern. he first draft is done. I graded the pattern up one size to a 24. The legs seem to run short. I added 1 1/2 inches in length at the knee, and 1/2 inch at the center back of the pant. Also added about 1/2 inch to the back crotch extension, a 1 1/2 inch sliver at the front waist grading down to nothing by the hip. Moved the pleats over to 4.5 inches from the center front. The bedsheet version seemed to hang fairly straight after these changes. Now for a poly rayon version.

I confess. I'm a terrible blogger. The posts are far and few between and the results are very disjointed.

Silk campshirts have been on the worktable for the past month. I started out by purchasing a few pieces of quilting cottons from Jenny's $3 table. The first piece was a yard dyed cotton and the second was a Hawaiian print. The third is a white lacy shirting, but that's going to be used for a different project.

The shirts were drafted using PMB. The first shirt was drafted using a convertible collar, back yoke of 4 inches deep and set in sleeves that were 3 1/2 inches long, and the bodice was 28 inches long, 3 inches of ease all over. I took the shirt into P.E. and cut off the part that would be replaced by the back yoke and deleted the front yoke piece. Then I added an inch onto the center back of the back bottom bodice (for the two pleats that go onto the back of the shirt. The collar was drafted per the defaults.

The yarn dyed cotton was sewn first. The front shoulder was a little too high, so I shaved a half inch off the outside, tapering in using my sissors. Youngest DD absolutely hated the yard dyed plaid. Everyone else thought it was nice. Youngest DD said the collar was too mannish, too wide.

So, for the second shirt I redrafted the collar using a setting of 3 inches center back and point settings of 1 and 1 and printed out a new pattern. The next one was made using the pattern with the piece shaved off the shoulder and the slightly narrower collar. Everyone liked it better, but there were still pulls in the back. The sleeve didn't set in smoothly and looked wonky. Both are wearable casual camp shirt type blouses.

The third shirt was made from a peach colored silk herringbone that I had tossed into the washer a couple of times. I hand drafted a sleeve cap using instructions from Peggy Sagers and Ms. Stylebook combined. Also the back yoke was modified to add an eighth of an inch to the center back (along with a seam) and an extra seam allowance on the bottom center, tapering to nothing at the side. This was to accomodate my baby dowager's hump. >:(

The final blouse is just what I wanted. It's a great washable work blouse for summer. I'm working on a second one in a pale lime green. The lime green one is not being as cooperative. Stupid silk is puckering and sliding around and doing weird things. It will be finished today though.

Purchased a couple more embroidery lessons yesterday. They are really good for the $10 and I'm learning lots from them. This has been a long time goal of mine. So two New Years resolutions are being worked on, sewing good fabrics and learning my embroidery software.

The trenchcoat

I've been slacking off lately. DGD went to spend Spring Break with her other grandmother and the other grandmother passed away the day after DGD arrived. I've had the flu for two weeks.

The lining has been stamped and ironed and rewashed. Belt buckles have been ordered and received. Everything is ready to go but me.

The trench is no. 129A from the January 2009 Burda. The pictures aren't coming up on the website, so I can't show it.

Burda trench coat

I'm working on view B/C of the Burda plus size trench in the January 2009 magazine. The "bedsheet" version is a work in process. I traced a 48 in the shoulders, 50 in the bust and 52 in the hips. The fit is wonderful except for the length of the sleeves. They are about 1 1/2 inches too short. The fabric is a microfiber from fabricmart.com. The lining is ambiance from the Denver Fabrics clearance. Buttons are in the stash and buckles are on order. I'm also going to put an inner lining in it for warmth. My coats are getting old and ugly and need to be replaced. This trench version looks a lot like the ones I see in the store. Pictures are in my picasa album.

picassa album

The lining will be stenciled. In fact it has already been stenciled with lumiere paint and is hanging in the bathroom for the required 24 hours. Then it will be pressed and heat set.

More on the jacket

The body portion of the jacket is mostly done. The collar is ready to attach, but it seems to be too short by about a half inch. I'm not sure whether this is because I stretched the collar out or it is just too short. Anyway there is enough fabric left to cut out a new collar.

Burda July 2008 no. 130

I've traced out the pattern and made my adjustments. The test garment has been done and a couple more tweaks have been added in. The Burda photo looks like a jean jacket type garment, but my test garment looks more like a regular jacket, a nice one. It will be a flip and stitch jacket out of a black linen blend. It will be lined with rayon bemberg lining. Then maybe a second one from some EOS fabric in the stash.