Random Threads # 28

Hey it's been quite a while since the last Random Threads post - my notebook page is filled up with topics to discuss.

What have I been up to? Teaching classes at Hello Stitch Studio - each class takes a bit of thought beforehand, sewing up samples to illustrate various techniques or just to work out how to demonstrate things. This week I had a class on sewing button front shirts which I cleverly combined (ha ha) with writing a post for Craftsy on the topic: how to attach the collar. Some sewing for others, which I don't do for a lot of people, just a few that I enjoy working with. A little pattern testing for my favorite indie pattern designer (Pauline Alice patterns). Some planning for fall sewing - including making up a sample jacket for an upcoming class. Jacket weekend! I am often asked about doing a class for sewing jackets so check it out on the Hello Stitch website if you are interested.

Which brings me to my first topic - How long does it take you to cut something out? I realize that I've been sewing for ages plus I am one of those people who do things fast whether it is washing the dishes or reading a book, or walking through a store. But I am realizing that the cutting out part of making a garment takes a good chunk of time. And it doesn't need to! Mostly I try to get people to be less tentative with the scissors. Tiny half inch snips are going to take forever when cutting a long center back seam. Trust your coordination and use the whole scissors. Get sharp scissors, pin enough so the pattern piece doesn't shift but not every 3 inches. Relax, breathe. Cutting out should be less painful. Also my last tip - before the first cut, step back, look it over, review all the pieces and then proceed with confidence. Does cutting out stress you out?

Ready to Wear isn't perfect either.  A friend of mine bought a dress that needed shortening, so I had her stand still while I marked the hem all around. I usually run a thread trace around where I have put the line of pins so I can remove the pins, have a temporary but stable hem indicator, and then I can hem it whenever without concern that the pins will come out.



Granted that few of us are perfectly evenly built, most of us have a higher hip or lower shoulder that affects the hem. When I looked at the two side seams I had pinned up so much more on one side. It made me question my work and it seemed that I was drastically folding up one side seam more than the other. For some reason I thought - check the side seams and look, one side seam is about 3/4" longer than the other. On a $ 500 dress! Mystery solved and my ego stroked about my own precise sewing :)

Sewing verbiage around the world. My fellow Americans, does it sound strange to you when you read that something has an "elasticated" waist? That sounds so weird to me. I would say elastic waist. Don't get me started on the phrase "my make". I know it's popular but it makes me want to tear my hair out. I love the Great British Baking show and they say "bring your bakes" to the table. So has this verb into noun conversion taken over the UK?  Reading blogs written by people all over the world is great fun but when I stumble across one of these weird to me grammatical constructions I stop short and gnash my teeth momentarily. Probably silly I know but just one of those pet peeves. I am imagining a UK reader of sewing blogs with a pet peeve along the lines of "those annoying Yanks boasting about their 10 for $ 10 pattern sales" Or maybe we have some grammar quirk that gets under their skin. Just for curiosity I would love to know what American idioms annoy you on a sewing blog.

An interesting life: Lucy Spector, one of the founding owners of Britex Fabrics in San Francisco passed away recently and the San Francisco Chronicle had a long obituary on her. She had such an interesting life and great style. If you like to read about successful women in business when that was more of a rarity check it out.

When I make a mistake it usually is a whopper: as evidenced by this picture.



The story here is that I was making a pattern from an existing dress for a sewing client. The pattern making turned out very well especially considering it was a complicated dress with lots of pieces (actually more pieces can be easier to reproduce). So I was feeling very pleased wth myself and started sewing up a test version in this bubblegum pink cotton? linen? unidentified fabric in my stash that was a good candidate for this type of dress. And thought, I will sew it for real with serging and everything in case someone wants it. The dress has a front and back yoke where the body pieces attach. So you can see that I cleverly attached the dress front to the yoke front not even noticing that the back yoke had a lovely 360˚ twist - no that is not a design feature. aaarrrgh!! Had to detach the dress front including undoing that serging, untwist and start again. Better to discover it now rather than later I guess:)

Here are three things that I don't care about: Wardrobe planning - inspiration boards - sewing basics. These often go together and if I see articles or blog posts I am likely to pass them by. Do you find these topics interesting? The sewing or wardrobe pieces are typically so....well, basic. These often go with a new pattern release that is super simple (perhaps you know which pattern company I might be referring to) and I think "after all that navel gazing THAT is the new pattern you came up with? For $ 18???"  As I often say - I am not the target market for this type of clothing but really, semi-new stitchers - stretch yourself a little and find some patterns with an interesting details. And no, a split hem detail on a top does not indicate an interesting detail.  Is that enough from your grumpy sewing correspondent? Because...

The Mood Fabrics blog shows some truly odd stuff - I DO NOT mean the Mood Sewing Network, which showcases a lot of great home sewers who are very accomplished and choose really nice fabrics, sew up stuff I want and inspire me to shop the Mood website. But they have another blog, which you can click to on the bottom of their store website, Mood Sewciety, more of a DIY with fabrics and I find the stuff they show seriously questionable. The stuff rarely fits, the sewing is sloppy and who are they inspiring with that?   On a different note - I have ordered a few things from Mood this summer and they have all been great.

More notches! I don't know where I found this blog but she posts some interesting things and her point of view is as a trained pattern designer and dressmaker. She mostly does children's wear and tries a number of PDF patterns but her comments and critiques on those patterns also apply to anyone designing and selling patterns. Her recent post "Why are pattern notches missing in PDF patterns?" was really interesting and explains some things I have been wondering. These past few months I had been sewing a number of indie patterns and hmmmm....I'm not all that impressed. Sometimes the instructions, which are designed to handhold someone learning the new construction techniques are really wordy, more confusing than a good diagram with arrows and steps indicated. (large, please. Tiny, pale, cute, slightly cartoonish diagrams help nobody even though they may look stylish or match your brand esthetic).

Wearing something which strays from your typical style: a few people commented on my last blog post and on Instagram that my most recent sewing project, the Mirambell skirt from Pauline Alice patterns was an unusual style for me. While it is black, a color I rarely sew or wear, the silhouette seemed like something I have sewn quite a few times before. I wonder what it was that seemed different? The full skirt? Here's an example of that style which I've made although this one is a bit eye-searing. Or this one, the first Bootstrap Fashion pattern that I sewed. I've been trying to expand my sewing choices and sew different shapes or even colors with some mixed success. My preliminary finding is that if I am lukewarm on a color no matter how nicely a garment turns out I will not be excited to wear it.

That's all for today, I covered almost all my topics. I saw a couple of new things that I will save for a future post, including new Fall pattern releases from Vogue and Simplicity. (quick comment - Vogue some interesting stuff but not a thing that makes me want to buy it now in the heat of summer. Simplicity, a couple of really good coat patterns that I might recommend when it gets closer to coat time).

Sneak peek of something I just finished, I'm on an eyelet kick this summer.



We're hopefully at the tail end of another 100˚F heat wave here - although when I drive over to Hello Stitch which is about 15 min. from my house the temperature can be a good 20˚F lower. The bay area summer! a mystery to visitors and bring a sweatshirt because it is cold by the ocean (in the best possible way :).

So I am not thinking about fall sewing, we have a good 2 more months of summery weather ahead. How about you?

Happy summer sewing, and stay cool!  
Beth

I'm off to swim now and disregard my garden which must fend for itself in these lazy summer days. Fortunately the dahlias do their own thing and always surprise me with the color of the blooms. I plant them but don't label so what comes up in each spot is a very pleasant surprise.




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