Happy New Year--With an Ugly Doll Chalk Bag and Delicious Pork Roast!

Belated Happy Holidays and Happy Happy New Year!  ....There are two hourish to go til the end of 2009 and I wanted to wish you all a most wonderful holiday and ALL THE BEST for 2010!   Sorry I've been a little absent from my blog...I've had some challenging family stuff--including the passing of one of my husband's uncles--Uncle John, who visited Gail and I in Chantilly, VA at the expo this past fall.  I feel so honored and blessed that I had the opportunity to spend that wonderful evening with him on a whirlwind tour of DC (You can check out some photos from that visit in a post that I published in October.)      

...So, this New Years Eve while we enjoy a quiet celebration with movies and yummy port roast,  I thought I would do a quick post of a recent Christmas gift to keep me perky until midnight!  The BIG thing that we got our kid for Christmas was a years membership to a local rock climbing gym. ... By the time we got the membership, shoes, harnesses and other associated items I ran out of money to get the chalk bags everyone would need to keep their hands from getting sweaty while climbing. I decided that instead of spending $25.00 a pop, I would make them.  The owner of the gym mentioned to me that he was thinking of using stuffed animals to make chalk bags.  ....Here's the bag I came up with for Abby.  (I know it's not fashion sewing, but it was fun!)

Luckily, Abby had an Ugly Doll that she was willing to offer up to me to try to create a chalk bag out of.  I think it came out adorable and I can't wait to see it hanging from her waist as she works at scaling the walls of the gym!

To make the body of the bag, I cut off the top of the head and saved the ears--to be reattached later!

I used a triple zigzag to attach some 1/2" polyester horsehair around the opening to hold the bag open.  

 

Then I attached to twill loops to the back of the bag--that way it could hang from the elastic belt I'll add later.

 

After cutting out and sewing together a lining made of fleece, I positioned it right sides together with the bag.  After pinning the raw edges of the lining and bag together, I sewed all the way around. 

Then I turned the bag right side out through the hole I left in the lining.   Then I sewed up the hole.

To keep the chalk from falling out, I made a little cuff with a drawstring. 

I made a narrow casing along the folded edge of the knit cuff by sewing a seam 1/2" away from the fold.  After measuring the length I needed, I trimmed the cuff to size and sewed it together into a circle by joining the ends using a triple zigzag. 

Finally, I sewed the cuff 1/2" from the top edge of the bag (right through the horse hair).  Now the chalk will stay safely inside the bag when the draw string is pulled tight.  To access the chalk, all Abby needs to do is loosen the drawstring and tuck the cuff down into the bag.  --I think she's going to love it! 

(I have to hurry up and make bags for the rest of us so we can keep up with her!)  

Happy New Year Everyone--And I'm happy to report that there will be LOTS of Fashion Sewing in 2010 at jsterndesigns...and maybe a little rock climbing adventure too!

How to Point and Shoot like a Fashion Photographer!

Hey all, I'm busy working on a class that I will be teaching on Pattern Review... So, I don't have any interesting tidbit of my own to post about.   However, I came across an excellent article by Jennifer Sauer that explains how to take fab pics of your finished garments and accessories. click to read:  http://sewing.patternreview.com/article/121509  (Yup, I found it as I was poking around looking for something else!)

I wish I had checked this article out before taking some of the photos that I torture you guys with!  Well, it's a learning process...   (For example take a look at the pic above...cool skirt, creepy picture!  I mean really, this skirt looks like I pinned it on to my wood paneled wall so I could achieve a flat-as-a-pancake look!)

Ultimate Sweatshirt Makeover...using The Tee Pattern.

Boy did the weather get cold all of the sudden... I noticed that my hands were having trouble typing because it was nippy inside the house too...I turned up the heat a little and decided that it was time to do a sweatshirt makeover.  ...I also finished the jeans (I LOVE THEM)...but my photographer is on a wedding shoot today--I'll post pics of them later.  As you can see, I played with taking my own photo in the mirror (wearing my new (nice fitting) sweatshirt)....(I think I need more practice).

I don't know about you, but I have at least one sweatshirt that's getting a little too messy to wear in public.  This Gap sweatshirt is one of my all-time favs but it has definitely seen better days.  I'm going to show you have to give it a second life using my Tee pattern. 

Here's what you need to know before you start:

• Sweatshirt fleece doesn't stretch, so enlarge the pattern a couple of sizes.  (I wear a size lg, so I'm using the xxl size.)
• Before you cut the pieces out, consider the best way use the fabric and any details that are embroidered or printed on it.  (For example, I'm cutting out the back pieces from the front of the sweatshirt so I can fit the embroidered logo across the upper back piece.)
• Notice spots or stains--you can flip the fabric and use the wrong side of the fleece as the right side to "hide" these stains.
• Because The Tee pattern has set-in sleeves, they won't be too big or overwhelming like the sleeves on most sweatshirts--but remember that the sleeve pattern piece is only 3/4 length. If you want long sleeves, remember to add some to the bottom of the pattern!
  

Cut the sweatshirt apart.  Start at the hem and cut along the side seam straight through the armhole and down the underarm seam. 

After cutting both sides, lay the sweatshirt flat.  You can easily see how to take the best advantage of all the fabric you have to cut out the Tee pattern pieces now.

Because I want to keep the "Gap Original" logo intact, I'm going to cut out the back pieces from the front of the sweatshirt.  And, I wanted to take advantage of the wide ribbing at the bottom...so instead of cutting out the shirt tail hem, I used a ruler to extend the side seam all the way to the bottom of the ribbing. 

...The angle of the side seam pointed out a little too far (It's not attractive to have a hem that peaks away from your body at the hem.)  So, use a curved ruler to soften the point.

...Notice how the sides seam edges kinda curve with the shape of a body...instead of poking away.   To cut out the upper back piece, I marked the center of the logo with chalk.  Then I positioned the pattern piece, centered, over the logo.    Here's how the back pieces look sewn together...I like the relaxed fitted shape--If you want a more boxy fit, simply straight out the side seams where they dip into at the waist.

I cut the front pieces out of the back of the sweatshirt.  If I had cut the sleeves off the front and back when I was taking the sweatshirt apart, I wouldn't have had enough room to cut out the center front piece. 

Bonus, I think the seam detail that ended up near the shoulders is interesting.

Feeling a little chilly, I decided the 3/4" length sleeves were not long enough!  Happily this sweatshirt was large enough to add length to the bottom of the sleeve pattern piece so I can have really long sleeves!   No matter how long you like your sleeves, make sure position the bottom of the sleeve pattern piece even with the rib knit...Then you don't have to "finish" the bottom edges of the sleeves on your new sweatshirt because the original ribbing will be there!

The side front pieces fit on the scraps leftover from cutting out the sleeves.  Remember to flip the pattern piece if your cutting out one at a time.

After you serge the side front pieces to the center front, press the seam allowances toward the armhole.  After serging the upper front to the lower front, press the seam allowance down.  Pressing the bulky seam allowances this way makes the right side of the sweatshirt look neat, especially on either side of the seam between the side and center front pieces.

As you serge the sweatshirt together, make sure you're matching seams and where the rib hem starts.

Here's a close-up of the front--This sweatshirt was a mess, so I used the wrong side of the fabric everywhere except the center front and upper back. 

Finally, sew a bar tack at the end of the side seams, underarm seams and shoulder seams to keep them together and looking neat.

I normally don't plug my patterns when I post how-tos...but I can't help myself here... The Tee pattern makes a really cool sweatshirt that has a LOT of style!  Enjoy (...and if you have any questions, please shoot me an email at info@jsterndesigns.com)

Bias Jeans Part II--Some Juicy Details!

Working on the jeans today...I want to show you some detail shots of stuff you can take advantage of whe you're working with a pair of deconstructed jeans (bias or not!)...

First of all, you don't have to sew the coin pocket onto the denim facing, because it's already attached! I decided to take off the little "T" logo that was stitched onto the coin pocket. 

Instead of taking time to use a seam ripper to take the old pocket bag off the denim facing, I just trimmed around the edges with a rotary cutter.

Remember those rivets I had to cut around to get the jeans apart?  I trimmed off the edges that I had to cut into to get around the rivets.  Because I'm working with a larger size men's jean, the pockets were really deep compared to the front pockets on my jeans--so there is room on the top edge and side seam edge to trim off denim that's been sliced to work around rivets. 

After trimming off the top edge, I lined the denim facing on the right side of the pocket bag and pin in place.  Then I flipped the pocket bag so that the wrong side of the pocket bag is face up.  That way I could see how much of the denim facing I had to trim along the side.

After trimming the denim facing to fit the pocket bag, I topstitched along the edge of the denim to hold it in place on the pocket bag.

...Be careful not the make two left pockets.... Because I used blue chambray fabric that doesn't really have an obvious right or wrong side I made two lefts.  (I took the denim facing apart that didn't have the coin pocket on it and made a right pocket!)

Moving onto the front fly zipper.  I am going to use the fly zipper pieces from the original jeans (no pattern pieces required!)  The left fly piece that ends up being sewn behind the zipper already has a finished end and the right fly piece has a neat curved end.  So, I'll just shorten both pieces at the top.

I measured my zipper seam allowance (which was 4 1/2") --I'm going to cut my fly pieces an extra 1/2" longer (5"). 

Here is the right fly piece sewn to the right leg. (Notice the cool curved edge already finished and ready to go!)  The zipper is sewn to the the seam allowance on the left leg. Keep the left fly piece handy to attach after the topstitching is complete.

Here's a close-up of the front fly topstitching...

See how the topstitching catches the bottom of the zipper twill tape...This is a good way to anchor the bottom of the zipper.  The fly topstitching holds the right fly piece in place.    The only thing left to do is to attach the left fly piece.

Basted Bias Jeans--Definitely Worth Finishing

Breaking news!!!  I was selected to teach at the 2010 National ASG conference in Atlanta this August--Jeans and Tee Shirt...I'm very excited! (Stay tuned for more class information.)


Now, onto the business at hand...I was going to just do the front fly and pockets before I sewing the legs together to see if this bias thing was going to work...but then I chickened out and basted them together without a fly or pockets. (I didn't want to waste the time if they were going to be hopeless.

Happy Day, I think they are going to fit great (with a little tweaking)!  Here's what they look like so far (don't look too closely, some skin shows) 

I think I'm going to play with the front side seams a little--

Pretty happy with the back--I'm going to cut down the original pockets and sew them back in place...I'm not sure exactly where they are going to go, so I might have to deal with the black to instant fade lines where the bottom of the pockets were....we'll see.

Hopefully I can finish these this weekend.  I do want to tell you, they are comfortable, I like the way the bias feels.  On a completely separate note, I have a quick tip for you...

One of my sewing students came with a collection of patterns that she wanted to fit.  I was very impressed with the way she had them organized.  Each was in it's own manilla folder.

Putting patterns in these larger folders makes it really easy to keep all the pieces together (we all know how hard it is to get all that tissue back into its tiny envelope).

Cut the pattern envelope apart and tape it to the front of the folder...

It doesn't show in this picture, but we recorded her body measurements in

the space under the pattern measurement and yardage charts--

That way we have all the information we needed

to work on fitting this blouse

right at our fingertips! 

Happy Sewing!!!!

Bias Jeans Make Over Part 1--Adjusting and Cutting Out the Legs

Ok...I have to admit up front that I'm guessing about how to adjust the pattern pieces to accommodate bias denim.  I've been fantasizing about bias jeans for a while now, and this will be my first attempt. (Which is why I was so happy to find a pair of men's jeans cut on the bias at the thrift shop.   It will only be a $2.50 mistake if they go terribly wrong....I'm keeping my fingers crossed.)

After I took apart the jeans, I treated them to a fair amount of steam to block them back into shape.  I wasn't sure how much room I would need to fit my pattern pieces on the the deconstructed jeans, so I picked apart EVERYTHING--including the front pocket facings and zipper.  I pressed all the seam allowances flat which gave me an extra inch across the width of the legs.

Because we're working in bias, I'm going to cut out the leg one at a time.  Let's start with the back legs.

Here's a view of the back leg with the back leg pattern piece positioned over it (centered).  (These jeans are a men's size 36" waist--not a lot of wiggle room at the hip!)  I think I want to fill in some of the hollows between the hip and the hem to make these jeans loose fitting.  Since this is my first stab at it, I'm really not ready to tackle second skin bias! (lol).   

What I'm going to do is add some fabric between the hip and the hem along the side and inseams to loosen the fit of these jeans. 

Using a french curve, I'm going to use chalk to draw the cutting line directly on the denim in the areas I'm filling in.  Then, remember the septic paper that I mentioned in yesterday's post?  It has another great use.  Because it's so see-thru, it's perfect for adjusting the paper pattern pieces.

I taped strips of septic paper along the edges of the leg where I needed to add fabric.  Then I used a red pencil to trace the chalk line so it would be easy to see.  After I cut out one leg, I can flip the pattern piece and cut out the second with no fuss or muss!

In addition to adding along the side and inseam between the hip and hem, I also decided to add to the back rise at the top of the leg.  3/4" at the back crotch seam -- 0" at the side seam.  I'm guessing that I might need a little more vertical room (I can always take it back out if I don't need it.)

Here's how the pattern piece looks after I cut on the line--I love this septic paper, it acts like paper, but it's see-thru!

If you're working with deconstructed jeans, you don't have to remember to flip the pattern piece to cut out the second leg (It won't fit if you don't.)  With the pattern piece flipped, you can easily see where I added to the original pattern piece to loosen the fit.

The next step is to make similar adjustments to the front leg.  Because the Misses' Jeans pattern has a forward side seam, I'm going to be generous with the amount of fabric I add along the sides (to balance the width of the front leg to the back a little bit.)

I just want to mention that as I picked these jeans apart, I had to work around some rivets.  (Of course I love rivets...but they are a pain if you're taking jeans apart.  The best course of action is to cut around them as closely as you can and hope that you didn't need that 1/2" of fabric that's missing now! (...If anyone has a good way to remove them without cutting the fabric, I would love to hear it!)

OK, I'm going to do a quick front fly zipper and pockets and then I'm going to baste these jeans together...stay posted for the results!