Category: To Occupy my Time

Colette Patterns’ Laurel: Attaching tiny sleeve ruffles and setting up sleeves.

The good thing about making three of the same shirt is that there is time to improve on one’s task at hand.  So it went with attaching tiny ruffles to the sleeves.  I learned that I should trim all the tiny ruffles down a bit before sewing, so the millions of bits of thread don’t have to be removed later. I learned that it’s best to smoosh the ruffles so there is maximum ruffle, because that will still be enough to go around.  I learned that one should attach tiny ruffles to the sleeves and then trim a lot of the bulk from the seam line, which will make it easier to attach the bias tape.
 
Here’s some bias binding happening.  I’m noticing I still haven’t learned the trick for making sure the bias tape endings aren’t raw.  But I learned that trick too.
 
I’ve set in sleeves in my day and I like the process, if not always the result.  I like putting in three rows of gathering thread, which will be exuberantly ripped out once the sleeve is securely in place.  I went with bright orange because I’ve been ripping through the blue thread on this project, but also because contrast is easier to pull out after the fact.  Those are six sleeves, ready to be inserted and three shirts, ready to receive those sleeves.
 

Colette Patterns’ Laurel: Tiny ruffles are hard on the hands. Also, getting bias tape right.

Here they are, three sets of sleeve ruffles, nearly ready to ruffle.
 
And here I am ruffling them.  My fingers ached from all the pulling of bobbin threads.  I do a lot with my hands and they are pretty strong and don’t usually bother me, but something about the pinching and pulling really took its toll.  But there’s no crying in sewing.  (That’s a completely untrue statement.  There is often a fair amount of crying in sewing, especially when you finish a dress and decide the collar is horrid.  Just to take one random example.)
 
Attempt #3 at continuous bias tape was more successful with this tutorial.  The part that helped me the most is in the picture on the screen.  No Big Dill suggests actually numbering your lines so you can match things up and that worked wonders for me.
 
Cutting the continuous bias tape. Very satisfying.
 

Colette Patterns’ Laurel: The day of French Seams. Also, wrong orientation for bias tape.

French seams are awesome.  They neatly encase the raw edge of your fabric in a tube that is part of the fabric and would otherwise just be hanging out, needing finishing.  To make them you sew the seam with the wrong sides together (it feels so wrong, but it’s right), trim said seam, press open (and then over, if you are anal like me) and then pin the right sides together and sew the same seam again, then press again.  Here is a tutorial if you are interested.

If you followed all that, you have just realized that each seam of my three shirts needs to be stitched twice, trimmed once, and pressed twice.  There are seven seams per shirt (two neck, one back, two sides, and two sleeves) and three shirts so that makes 21 seams total which means 42 seams, 21 trims, and 42 pressing sessions.  All that is to say that all I did today was sew french seams until my eyes crossed.  Holy cow.

Here’s an example of the back.
 

The shoulder.
 
And the sleeve.  Still, they look pretty, don’t they?  And they are strong too, which is good for a work shirt.
 
To give myself a break, I started to make bias tape.  Here’s my fabric.
 
And here’s my joined triangle.
 
And here is me realizing that I have the angles wrong.  Blast!
This image comes from Colette Pattern’s book on the Laurel Variations, which is free to download and where I learned about the tiny ruffle variation of the Laurel.
 
To cheer myself, I cut out the fabric for the tiny ruffles.
 

Colette Patterns’ Laurel: Cutting out the shirts, adding neck facings.

All the fitting that is going to be done has been done.  So now it’s time to cut.  As you can see, my helper arrived right on schedule.  Unfortunately, he decided the best way to “help” would be to race around on top of the fabric.  This resulted in the helper being shut in the bedroom for a while.
 
Shirt pieces were cut.  And cut again.  And again.  It’s at this point that I think to myself, “If I was only making one of these shirts, I would be done by now.”  I’m sure that will not be the last time I have that thought.
 
Prepping the neckline for facings.
 
I used the tutorial from Gertie.
 
Shirts with neck facings.

Important note from the future:  For those of us making the tiny ruffle variation of the Laurel, I think the organza is overkill for the stay stitching.  There’s going to be a ruffle and bias tape there, no need to add the organza too.  Skip this step if you haven’t already done it.  Just do the stay stitching.  I’m guessing that’s all you need.

Hello From Future Me!

It’s me, your trusty blog author, writing from the far future of September 8, 2013.  Things are good here, but there are still no flying cars.  I’m here to tell you that the next month or so will be very busy, what with finishing up the uniform project and getting ready for school to start.  So this blog will be static for the next little while.  But that just means there will be a glut of catch-up posts in September.

Also, on September 8, you will change the format of the blog which will hopefully make it easier for people to comment.  That design you have now is sleek and everything, but I know you hate that it’s even hard for you, the blog author, to comment.  The new template will be much better, in that regard and also ORANGE!

So keep your head up.  There is much work to do.  But September 7 will be a very relaxing day.  Just keep breathing.

Coat Research

Part of my mission at Fabric Depot was to research coat options.  I need a new coat and I have thoughts of sewing one.  Here are my criteria:  at least thigh length, has a hood, hourglass-shaped (or some such shaping around the waist), easy to sew, can do autumn and winter.  It seems that this is a difficult combo to come by.  Let’s rank the contenders and see how things come out.

Length: Yes
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: No
Easy: No information
Autumn/Winter: Yes
I’m looking at the upper right corner version.
 

Length: Yes
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: Not really
Easy: No information
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: No
Easy: Yes
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: No
Easy: No information
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: No
Easy: no information
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: Yes
Easy: No info, but one commenter rates it difficult, but great for advanced sewers.
Autumn/Winter: No
(I love this one the best, but I can tell it isn’t going to make the cut)
 
Length: Yes
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: Sort of?
Easy: I’m guessing not as it is Burda Style
Autumn/Winter: No.
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: Yes
Easy: Yes
Autumn/Winter: Yes, if I made it out of a light fabric.
(This has the advantage of being a Pattern by Gertie.  I’m a fan of Gertie.)
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: No
Easy: Yes
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
Length: Yes
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: No
Easy: Yes
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: No
Easy: Can’t tell
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
Length: No
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: No
Easy: Yes
Autumn/Winter: No
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No, wait, yes!
Hourglass: Yes
Easy: Can’t tell
Autumn/Winter: No, more of a winter.
 
 
 
Length: Yes (a bit long)
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: No
Easy: Perhaps?
Autumn/Winter: More winter.
This also looks exactly like a coat I had my senior year of high school.  I haven’t decided if this is a plus or minus.
 
 
Length: Yes
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: No, but fun princess seams in contrast color
Easy: Perhaps
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
 
 Length: Yes, though long
Hood: No
Hourglass: No
Easy: Probably not.
Autumn/Winter: More winter.
 
Length: No
Hood: No
Hourglass: No
Easy: No
Autumn/Winter: No
I only include this because Fabric Depot had a sample garment on display last winter.  It is a fabulously weird coat–it kind of has an insect vibe going on.  It’s also rated “advanced” in Vogue which means “super professionals only” in layman’s terms.  I loved the strange arm/cloak aspect of it.
 
 
 
Length: Yes
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: No
Easy: No
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
 
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: Sort of.
Easy: Yes
Autumn/Winter: Yes
I’m including this one because it is another “unique” coat from Vogue.  Its lack of closures would not hold up to the Portland rains.
 
 
Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: Yes
Easy: Maybe?
Autumn/Winter: Yes
 
Length: Yes
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: No
Easy: Probably not.
Autumn/Winter: Yes
This is a regional pattern company and I think this would be a fun coat to make in a fun fabric.  Silver Falls State Park is near Salem.
 
Length: Yes
Hood: Yes
Hourglass: No
Easy: Eh.
Autumn/Winter: Possibly, depending on fabric.
I am including this because I think there could be a belt added here that might make this more palatable.
 
 
Length: A little long.
Hood: No
Hourglass: No
Easy: Probably not.
Autumn/Winter: Yes
It’s so cute!  I will never make this, though.
 

Length: Yes
Hood: No
Hourglass: Yes
Easy: Nope
Autumn/Winter: Not really.

So let’s sum up.

24 total coats.
10 with hoods.
2 with hoods that are hourglass-shaped.
1 with hood that is marked “easy”

Which means we have a winner.  And that winner is:
Simplicity 2208.

I was interested in what kind of polar fleece type selection might be available to me.  It turns out I could make this coat in many different sports team’s logos.  But Fabric Depot did have a goodly selection of material that would make this look a bit more classy than some polar fleece suggests.
As a bonus assignment, check out View B of Simplicity 2208.  Is it incredibly cool, or incredibly not cool?
What do all y’all think?

Colette Patterns’ Laurel: More sewing adventures. Final muslin, Dritz magnetic pin cushion, pressing fabric & cutting out pattern.

Here’s the new fit with the new FBA.  There is still that line of extra fabric from the bust, but I’m done fiddling.  We will just go from here.
 
New sleeve.  Seems okay too.

I splurged and bought the Dritz magnetic pin cushion.  I did not like it.  The magnet isn’t very strong and the pins fly off.  Do not buy one.
 

Pressing 10.5 yards of fabric is a very daunting task.
 
Happily, my drying racks came in handy for storing the pressed material.
 
My apron patterns needed to be enlarged.  I took care of two of the pieces on the copy machine at work.
 
But two pieces needed to be enlarged more than 400% so I went to (what I still think of as) Kinkos.  (Now known as Fed/Ex.)  A wonderful employee Heatherann helped me and look!  For $3.75 I didn’t have to tape a million sheets of paper together.  That was so worth it!