Craft Rage

Well, I'm a little hesitant to show pictures of this, since it's hardly a triumph of skill, but at least it's finished!

As you can see, this is the cushion for the new window seat for the cats.

It's not lumpy because my sewing skills suck, but because I made and used covered buttons to tuft it. The ties for the buttons actually extend right through to the bottom of the cushion, and are used to tie the cushion to the stainless steel wire shelf below it. So really, my tufting skills suck. Plus, in my defense, I was trying to tie it while three cats were climbing my back to get onto it.

I had a hard time getting this picture cat-free. Within ten seconds of me putting it up, Smooshy was on it, making this face;

I don't know if that's a grin, or a promise to carve out my liver while I sleep, but either way, it doesn't photograph well.

Thirty seconds later, it looked like this;

And shortly after that, it looked like this.

As you can see, it's made with the Peony Garden fabric I am so crazy about, and it still makes me happy every time I look at it. I'm not sure how I'll feel about it once it's covered with cat hair, but I guess we'll see. The fabric is essentially a washable cover - when the thing needs some attention, I just untie the ribbon ties underneath, slide off the covered buttons, and then remove the fabric like a pillowcase. Yay!

Oh yeah, and a gratuitous kitten shot;

Labels: Big Dress Avoidance, projects

I suck at making resolutions.

In fact, I don't think I've made any since 1996, the year I decided to be less of an introvert, and ended up tipsy in my buddy's back yard, cutting down his trees with his equally tipsy wife. Oh, we had a TON of fun, but my buddy wasn't exactly thrilled that we'd been at his power tools while partway through our third bottle of wine. In any case, I fulfilled my resolution, but not necessarily in the right way, so I stopped making them.

However, since more than a decade has gone by, I feel like maybe it's time to try again.

My September resolution is to keep my house clean enough that if people were to suddenly stop by, they would not sit silently in my living room and judge me. At least, not my housekeeping.

My personal theory of housekeeping is this; if it doesn't stink, and it's clean underneath, it doesn't matter what's on top. Which is to say, I love to kill germs, and I clean under my fridge and stove religiously, but hey, if dishes sit in the sink, whatever! Clothes all over the floor - whatever! General untidiness - no smell, no tell!

It drives The Hotness mad, because he's a kind of neat freak - I say "a kind of neat freak" on purpose - his idea of clean is exactly the reverse of mine - as long as it LOOKS tidy, it must be clean, which means that surface clean is all that matters. (insert shudder of horror here. O! the bacteria!).

Still, we've managed to find a more or less happy medium, in which I spend more time keeping the kitchen counters clear, and he ignores the dishes in the sink.

Honestly, though, since I started to work from home more, I've become more aware of how annoying my general clutter is. So I've decided to fulfill The Hotness' greatest wish, which is to have a house that looks as clean as it smells, at all times.

For the month of September, at least. I make no promises about October.

As part of my cleanup, I decided to work my way across the house, from my office and sewing room, all the way to our bedroom on the other side of the house. The basement belongs to The Hotness - it's the Man Zone, so if he wants it clean, he has to do it himself, other than cat litter, which makes him gag and complain loudly about how hard he works all day long, just to have to come home to clean cat litter. He's lucky he's got a nice tush.

The sewing room was almost done, but now the office is as clean as it's going to get, and I've made myself yet another cat-related project. I can't help but think I'm trying to evade doing the muslin for The Big Dress.

Anyway, half of my desk used to sit directly under the massive window in my office. The window overlooks The Hotness' bird tree, which makes all the cats salivate. Here's a shot of about half of The Hotness' bird friends, taken this past winter. The other half is a bunch of yellow and orange finches, which apparently don't like to eat at the same time as these sparrows.

In any case, as you can imagine, a window that looks directly onto such a scene ends up being quite the cat-magnet.

So, when I moved my office around, I moved my desk away from the window, and put a shelf underneath it. It's a stainless steel wire affair, and not very comfortable for kitty feet, so I'm going to make a cushion for it. As you can see, the towel isn't really doing the trick. And it's ugly.


Off to my sewing room!

P.S. If you can't put your finger on exactly what's different on my blog today, I changed the image of the woman on the bottom left of the page. It used to be a line drawing of a lady in a blue dress with red flowers, and it's now the envelope art from a vintage pattern in my collection, B8017. I love changin' stuff!

Labels: projects

Every three months or so, I get bored with looking at the same old blog. I've been purple, brown, pink, blue, and green, so I decided it was time to go with plain old white, but with editable elements.

I stumbled across this template at www.suckmylolly.com, which has a number of really great templates, many with a distinctly vintage feel. Yes, the name sounds vaguely dirty, but then, so was Bettie Page, and who doesn't love HER?

Anyway, this is actually a two-column template, but I added a third column so that I could house my Blogher ads without having them cut off. I couldn't see the cut off bits on my home computer, so when I was in town today, I stopped by a friend's place and checked my blog on her regular 19" monitor. Yikes!

My monitor here at home is a 22" widescreen, so I honestly had no idea what my blog looked like to someone with a regular ratio monitor; those of you whose eyes I've been hurting, please accept my sincere apologies for all the strange overlapping my old layout did. I loved the colors and the design, but it certainly wasn't made with smaller monitors in mind.

At any rate, now that I have this template, I think I'll be able to satisfy my need for change by simply changing the picture on the left, maybe by using artwork from some of my vintage patterns!

I'm going to go get dinner in the oven, and then get to work on my next quickie project; Dinger's collar is HUGE and bulky;


see? I've decided to disassemble it and use the metal bits on a new, more lightweight collar, which I've decided to make myself. I wonder if it's safe to use sequins on a cat collar? Would sequins emasculate my cat? I mean, it's not like he's going to have his boy-bits for much longer anyway, so what the hell, right?

Labels: projects

Howdy!

Well, Smooshy's surgery went well, and outside of being treated like a leper by our other cats for two days, she's just fine. Still on the outskirts of the cat family, but fine.

Yesterday at around 3:30, I decided to take a sewing break. My mind was mush, and I needed something that wouldn't require a great deal of thought. I put on my MP3 player, loaded a book to listen to, and by 7:00, I'd made this;

I have a bin full of short-cuts & remnants of 1 metre to 1.5 metres in length. This was a 1 metre cut of 60" fabric - it's brushed rayon or something, it's got a lot of body, but it's very soft to the touch, and fairly drapey.

I ripped up 6, 6" strips, and used three for the bottom ruffle, two for the middle ruffle, and one for the waistband (not shown). I used my ruffler foot to make the gathers in the bottom ruffle and middle ruffle, then sewed the two levels together. The top of the skirt is essentially the rest of the fabric, sewn in a tube up the back, with an invisible zipper at the top. I fit the waist by pinching the excess and marking it with chalk, then darting and cutting as necessary.

I'm really pleased with the results - this is definitely a skirt I'll wear in public. It's far from perfect - the centre seam on the middle ruffle is REALLY obvious, though I don't really care - that's easy enough to fix.

It would have gone much faster if I hadn't spent so much time fiddling around with my ruffler foot - that thing is just so darned much fun! I made ruffles out of every scrap of fabric laying around, just to figure out the length and depth of the ruffles for this skirt. I think this might be a 1.5 hour skirt, start to finish, and less if I just put in an elastic waistband, which I might do the next time around.

Note to self; wear more skirts.

And finally;

We put the towel down so that Smooshy would have someplace cozy to sleep - for whatever reason, she loves terry cloth. Unfortunately, Boobah (the black cat) and Bonzo (the fluffy one) also like terry cloth. And each other. Like I said, Smooshy's still on the outskirts of the cat family.

Labels: projects, smooshy

Okay, now that the blog isn't pink, surrounded by pink swirlies, I can get back to posting. I completed three projects this week (yay me!). Okay, in truth, the projects don't merit a "Yay!", because honestly, they're pretty simple projects.

First up, the Orange Skirt. Made More Important With The Inclusion Of Capital Letters!

This skirt was made without a pattern, which isn't surprising, since it's a simple straight skirt with an elastic waist. It's very...orange. Orange and I play well together, far better than pink and I do - I'm a "fall", or so I learned from Chatelaine, circa 1989. Even so, this is probably one of those skirts I'll only wear if all my pants are dirty.

Of everything I've made so far, this is the one I paid most attention to. I made flat-felled seams on both the lining and the fashion fabric. I found the process to be absurdly simple, and quite gratifiying, since it results in a really nice finish. See? Lookit me, talkin' about nice finishes and such!

Here's a shot of the inside. Again, I didn't use a pattern, so if my lining is way too short, that's 'cause I got overenthusiastic with my rotary cutter. Seriously, I have a love affair going on with my rotary cutter. It would love to cut off my fingertips, and I would love to throw it away. It's just that I have a sense that it would come back, like that movie with the doll - that woman kept throwing it away, and giving it away, but every time she came home from work, it was sitting in her living room, looking at her.

Funny story. Okay, not really funny. Strange. I got the lining fabric from the Salvation Army. It was new, unwashed, and folded, and by the fade on one of the folded sides, was in someone's stash for a good long time.

I bought it because it was shiny (I'm a crow - shiny things attract my attention). When I was at the checkout, there were two ladies at the till - one ringing things in, and the other folding and bagging. They finished with the woman in front of me, and as she walked away, I set this 2m length of fabric on the counter. The bagger actually CRINGED away from it, and said "Oh, my!" as though it were printed all over with naked female parts.

The lady at the till stood there and stared at the fabric for a few seconds, then gingerly reached out a hand to flip the tag over, careful not to actually touch the fabric, and murmured "How interesting." Both ladies tried to rally gamely - the bagger asked me what I might make out of something so...orange..., and the lady at the till smiled uncomfortably and said that it looked as though it would take an iron well, obviously straining for something kind to say.

So anyway, apparently the lining fabric is cursed. Or so horrifically ugly that it shocked these women out of their shoes. I'm betting on cursed, because then I get to call this the Orange Skirt Of Evil. I really like to Capitalize Things To Make Them Important.

Anyway, on the elastic casing, I think I cheated a bit - I sewed bias binding around the unfinished top edge of the skirt, then folded it over and eyeballed it to one inch all the way around, then sewed it. I think I was probably supposed to do something fancy that wouldn't include bias binding at all, but by the time the elastic was going in, I was getting a bit bored.

Second project - vintage top, made with a real vintage pattern! Well, if the '70's or early '80's is vintage, at least. Not really sure where the line gets drawn.

So, I have more vintage patterns than I should have, and only about four of them are in a size that I could sew and wear today. This is not one of them. As you can see from the package, it's a size 12, 34' bust. My actual bust is 50", so a small adjustment was necessary.

Since this pattern was comprised of two pieces cut on the bias, and some bias binding, it was an easy one to edit, although I'm not sure if I did it the "right" way. All I did was measure the distance across the top of the pattern, where the top seam is supposed to sit, then measured the same spot on my actual chest. The difference was six inches. I was supposed to cut the piece flat, not on the fold, but figured I'd take a shortcut - I carefully folded the fabric on the bias, folded the pattern piece down the middle, and slapped it down. Instead of lining the edge of the pattern up with the fold, I shifted it back three inches from the fold, which gave me six inches of extra fabric, right down the middle, but didn't change any of the other dimensions.

I actually like this little top - I got the size just right, so it fits well and is quite comfortable. However, if I make it again, I'll likely change it so that I can have straps over the shoulders, to hide a brastrap. Because honestly, a 50" bust isn't perky enough to carry this top off without some serious support. We won't discuss the fact that it's pink. It was a remnant, so it was cheap. I'm not down with pink, but I'm down with $1.20 for 1.6 metres!

And finally, the blue skirt I talked about in this post.

Here's the thing. I finished this skirt. I stitched all the rips closed, put a side zipper in, bias-bound the hem, and tried it on. I liked it. Now, however, I can't find it. I've looked all over the house, in all the spots that these things usually end up, including the laundry and the closet in my office, but I can't locate it at all. So either the universe is trying to save me from wearing the saddest little ripped skirt in the world, or Smooshy has stolen it and hidden it with her trove of black socks and spools of thread. Either way, no pics today!

Labels: projects, vintage patterns

I had a real "DOH!" moment yesterday. I cut and assembled the simplest circle skirt ever;
I LURVE this skirt, 'cause it's simple and pretty, and can be made out of anything, and also because from cutting to wearing is an hour, tops, if you're paying attention. I know this because I've gotten into the final ten minutes TWICE, then made the most ridiculous mistake ever, and ended up with a whole lot of circle-skirt-shaped scrap fabric.

For me, the final ten minutes would have been wrapping the hem with a fun contrasting bias binding, but I decided to make a slight change to take in a few inches at the waist - I didn't NEED to, but I decided I wanted to. So I started to unpick the narrow waistband with my seam ripper.

I don't enjoy listening to music while I sew - I find it very distracting, because I tend to sing along, loudly. It's difficult to sew when you've got your head thrown back, belting out the words to Kathy Mattea's 455 Rocket - "Did you boys come here to race, or just kiss?". Also, I can't sew to Metallica, because I am always driven to do the white-girl head-bang - sort of a really enthusiastic nod. And forget Top 40 - there's no need to be dancing around my sewing room, trying to perfect my booty pop.

Instead of listening to music, I listen to books on CD, or audiobooks I've downloaded from various sellers online. Normally, it just sort of plays in the background, and I don't pay a lot of attention, just absorbing it by osmosis, but for some reason, I was listening more than sewing. Mistake.

Not even thinking about it, I picked stitches on the waistband I intended to remove, freeing up about 5" of the band. Then, for some reason I cannot explain, I decided to rip the rest of the stitches by giving the waistband a good yank. Uh, yeah, note to self - don't do that. About four inches into the rip, the waistband stitches held, and the fabric itself ripped, down about six inches into the skirt. Oy vey!

So there I was, shocked and dismayed, but figured, what the heck, in for a penny, right? I shifted the fabric and gave it another tug. Another length of waistband stitches came free, then held again - a second rip, about 8" into the skirt. Well, what the heck - one more tug can't hurt, right? The third and final rip extends about 6" down, and I still have to unpick the stitches on the last few inches of waistband.

I'm not too worried - the print is such that I can easily stitch the fabric back together with no great loss in the volume of the skirt, though the rips will likely sit funny. Still, I'll have a cool and comfortable skirt for bopping around town, so whatever. But really - I think maybe this pattern is cursed, and I shouldn't make another attempt until I'm willing to think about nothing BUT the skirt I'm sewing.

Off topic - in an earlier post, I mentioned that I had bought a fabric called Peony Garden almost compulsively, in two of three available colors, red/green and purple/green. Well, I finally broke down and bought the last of the three, yellow/gold, and I've already decided to go back for more. What's wrong with me?? Sheesh!

Honestly, I don't know why this particular fabric speaks to me - I'm not a floral person at all. But it's so crisp and weighty, and the colors just...pop. Well, except for the yellow/gold - it's much livelier in real life than it is in the picture. Still, what an odd choice for me!

Labels: projects, stash, stupid mistakes

Well, for the last few months, I've been hemming and hawing over the fact that once more, swimsuit season is coming, and once more, I hate all the suits I currently have.

I'm a plus-sized gal, but I carry my weight pretty evenly all over my body. Unfortunately, most suits in my size are either styled and built to hide a large tuchus, or prop up a sagging bosom, which means I'm usually swaddled in yards of excess fabric at the bottom, and busting out of the top.

Jenny, over at Chronically Uncool, is creating a retro swimsuit for herself, so I've been stalking her blog for updates on her progress. I'd already decided to do something retro, in this basic shape:

but with ruching at the sides, and wider straps. And, uh, more chest coverage.

This isn't a project I'm starting right away; it's sort of something I'm doing in between other projects, because I'm really set on making my own pattern. At least I've finally chosen some test fabric, which was on sale on Friday. If all goes well, my swimsuit will be made of this material, and if all doesn't go well, at least I didn't spend too much on the "muslin".

Plus, of course, I intend to blogstalk Jenny ruthlessly - not really so I can copy her swimsuit, but 'cause her blog is a good read!

Labels: projects

I couldn't wait to start sewing up some of my new fabric, but I wanted to start small. Here's my first effort at an accessory;

This is the Retro Tie Bag, which is a free pattern available from Butterick.

I didn't follow the directions, mostly because I couldn't really understand them, which is probably my fault rather than the fault of whoever wrote the instructions. It was simple enough to figure out my own way, though it probably would have been better if I'd actually followed the directions.

I made this to go along with my walkaway dress - now all I need is a pair of vintage sunglasses and cute shoes, and I've got an outfit!

Labels: projects

Okay, this is the least exciting sneak peek ever. EVER!

Remember the Walkaway dress that I was afraid of back in December? Well, fear no longer rules me. Plus, seriously, I'm ashamed that I was ever afraid. This was WAY easier than the Pink Abomination, and that was pretty easy.

It's not done, and my dress dummy is wider than I am through the waist and hips (yay!), so it doesn't close properly, plus I want to make some edits, AND I need to redo the bias binding around the neckline, but it's a start!

I edited the neckline to drop down a bit lower, basically about 2", because according to everything I've read, the weight of the dress pulls the back down a bit. I finished the poppy fabric with bias binding in the green, and am planning to finish the green with binding in the poppy.

Also, I need to edit the darts that run horizontally at the sides - there's some serious gappage going on. And, I think I'm going to add a strip of fabric about 2" wide along that top inside edge of the poppy fabric, because right now, my bra shows in the area under the arms. I think I probably should have lengthened the bodice, back and front. Next time! And oh, yes, there WILL be a next time.

You know, I'm not really a dress person. Or at least, I wasn't. The only times I've ever worn dresses or skirts in the past, quite literally, were when I was a bridesmaid, and when I was in the military and had to be in full dress uniform, which included a skirt.

At the end of February, my fiance and I both had a block of time empty, and we had $2000.00 set aside for fun stuff that we never got around to spending over the last year (we have no kids, which is why we have disposable income, not 'cause we're rich), so we decided to go on a last-minute trip to Mexico.

We had about a week from the time we made our decision to the time we boarded the plane, and on the second day, I stopped at my favorite fat-girl store to pick up a couple of pairs of shorts. It's an outlet location, so every couple of seasons, they have a huge, Take 70% Off The Lowest Marked Price! sale, which means that items that have already been marked down are basically free.

I picked up an entire wardrobe of dresses, skirts, and tops, for $50.00. That's four pretty, floaty, summery dresses, three skirts, two denim short-sleeved jackets, and four tops. I figured I'd surprise him with an all-girly vacation. In typical male fashion, he was mostly oblivious to the difference, until the first night I dressed up for dinner. Well, really, I did everything I normally do, but instead of putting on jeans and a t-shirt, I put on a dress. He was poleaxed. Best fifty bucks I ever spent.

Back to my sewing room!

Labels: projects, vintage patterns

EDIT: Yes, I know the picture is creepy - now I know that photoshopping out my arms and legs makes me look like Boxing Helena, so I won't do it anymore, I promise!

Finally, back to sewing!

I've been working on a number of projects lately; a corset, a sundress, and a skirt with strange box pleats that aren't making a bunch of sense to me.

I'm finding as I'm going along that I'm REALLY bad at following patterns. I need to work on that, because as the complexity of the garments I make increases, I'm going to need some experience with actually following the rules. Sometimes, though, not following the rules works out all right.

I made this corset and matching skirt without a pattern. I'm pleased that I was able to construct this garment at all, though I'm not totally pleased with the details.

The bustline is messed up, and the whole corset is just a teeny bit twisted, likely from lack of care while cutting. I didn't straighten it before I took the picture, so it looks a bit worse than it actually is. Still, once I fix the strange humps at the bustline, and get the correct boning in place, this outfit should end up about as good as any RTW piece. See, that's a measure of my sewing skill (or lack thereof) - all you experienced folk out there are sewing because RTW quality is sub-par, and I'm just pleased that I managed to make something of RTW quality!

As I said, I made this outfit entirely without a pattern. Both pieces are lacking finishing, but already, I have to admit to being pretty pleased with myself. The fabric I used was a moderate weight denim - it would have made great capris for spring, which is what I originally envisioned when I bought it. I still have enough to make a matching bolero jacket, although, while I LOVE the fabric and am pleased with the outfit, I do wonder if adding a bolero in the same fabric would be a bit of pattern overload?

The corset is fairly basic; three layers plus a waist tape, it just needs to have the proper bones inserted in the boning channels; I'm waiting on my order from Farthingales, but when it gets here, I'll be adding black exterior boning casings, and adding black along the seams to the skirt; they're just tacked together right now, so I'll probably remove them and add some black piping or something.

Even if I never wear this piece, I'm still glad I gave it a try. Now I know that I can make reality match my vision, if I go slowly and talk to myself a lot.

Labels: corsetry, projects

Well, the walkaway dress never materialized, which I'm sure you already assumed. I pulled it out of the envelope, ironed the entire pattern sheets (too scared to cut the pattern), laid out my test fabric on my cutting table, laid the (whole!) pattern sheets on top, and stopped, scared to death. Scared to cut the fabric, more scared to cut the pattern. I don't know why I'm worried abou the fabric - it's just cheap stuff that I bought at Fabricland during a "half-off-the-lowest-price" sale, so I only paid $1.00 per metre - I can afford to screw up less than $5.00 worth of fabric - what's wrong with me??

So anyway, I hyperventilated for a few minutes, then went and made a pot of coffee, just so I could have coffee and Baileys - I'm actually not much of a drinker, but when I want some good soothin', a cup of lightly doctored coffee goes a long way.

I came back, stared at my cutting table for awhile, and then carefully folded the pattern back up, folded up the fabric, and went to my computer, as always, so I could read the blogs of the truly talented, in hopes that I would absorb some of their talent by osmosis.

In the end, I ended up back in the sewing room, plowing through my pattern bins, until I came across a pattern I got from...I'm not sure where - I've been collecting patterns for awhile, and they normally come in little lots. Anyway, it has a notation in black sharpie that says "+ size cowl neck, loose sleeve", and it's made out of plain old waxed paper.

I pulled out some stretchy blue knit fabric that is so disagreeable feeling that I was tempted to wear rubber gloves in order to cut out the pattern. The pattern pieces are small enough that they fit on my biggest rotary mat, so I laid them out there, pinned a little, used cans of soup to weight everything down, then cut the pieces out, sewed them together, and voila - this is the result. Painful!

Rest assured, it actually looks worse on me than on my dummy, who currently has no name. Actually, I rather like the cowl, but the "loose" sleeves make me look like I've been doing battle with a weed wacker.

On a happier note, I FINISHED something. It was horrible, and will be unwearable until I hack off the sleeves - it actually looks okay under a light cardigan, but again, the disagreeable feeling fabric will probably discourage me from actually wearing it.

To reward myself for my quasi-success, I took myself shopping at my favorite source for vintage patterns, which is the local Value Village. While there, not only did I find some more cute 50's and 60's patterns (not in my size, of course), but I also found this:

What excited me most, of course, was that it still has the original manual, and everything looks just like new. The whole kit and kaboodle was in a plastic bag, laid out much as it is in the photo, except that the extra bits were sort of rolling around in the bottom of the bag.

I brought it home and popped the bag open, and was moderately horrified at the smell rolling out of the bag - it smells like mothballs and despair. Oh well, a good airing-out should fix that. It's currently stinking up my sewing room, but since the sewing room already smelled faintly of despair anyway, it's really not so bad.

Labels: gadgets, projects