Picture smocking

Thank you Alexandra, Robin, Ann and Shannon for your lovely comments about the smocked nightie, and thank you Robin for sending the blog award. I feel popular! and will post about that later as I will need to think about the criteria for acceptance.
The nightie project was very good for my smocking mojo - as was teaching my friend, she was so enthusiastic. I did no sewing this weekend, as we went camping at beautiful Bargara, but I took along a small smocking project, most of which I worked on whilst sitting on the beach.
I have a sad story about this project. I actually started it over 10 years ago. The project is a little jacket with smocked insert pockets. I bought the fabric, from my then exceedingly tight budget, and finished the lamb smocking on the left, then showed it to my husband. He took one look at the boy modeling the jacket in Australian Stitches and Embroidery, and said with a look of horror "Are you making H a BOY'S jacket????" I claimed that the lamb was very girlish, but he still thought I should make a pretty dress for our 3 year old daughter instead, so into a drawer went the lamb, and all my fabric for this project.
At the beginning of winter this year, I uncovered this lamb, with the magazine and my untouched fabric, and showed it to my son. He liked the picture of the jacket, except for the lamb. The lamb, according to him, was for girls, and besides, it was the wrong size next to the rooster. He was right. Here is the lamb, 10 years old, next to the rooster I smocked a few weeks ago.

 

Here is the rooster next to a hen of my own design that I smocked this weekend. I think my smocking has improved in the last 10 years.

 

I don't do much picture smocking, as I much prefer geometric, but I really enjoyed smocking this hen. I think it was smocking from a picture in my imagination instead of following a chart. There was a fair amount of unpicking, but I liked seeing how she turned out as I went along. I am planning to enter the jacket in the children's sewing competition at pattern review, as the only part I actually cut out or started before September 1 this year is the lamb, which I am not including in the jacket. Now that I have finally finished the smocking, the jacket should be fairly quick to make, just as well, as the contest closes at the end of the month.

Smocked nightie

Today a friend came over for a smocking lesson. It was her second lesson, so I pleated 2 garment fronts for her, as she had purchased 2 different fabrics, being unable to decide between them, something I understand completely! She had picked out the pattern "Busy beez" from Australian Smocking and Embroidery Issue 78 from the beginner - suitable patterns I had suggested, and as I had not used this pattern before I also pleated a couple of remnants that I thought would make suitable tops for me to make for my nieces. There is only a very small amount of smocking in the middle of the garment front, so they should be very quick to make as gifts.
Whilst I was searching through my fabrics I came up with this piece of psuedo gingham that I bought about 10 years ago, and my younger daughter claimed it. She felt that I should make a "Busy beez" for her. As she is 11, and the pattern is size 12months to 3 years, we discussed the issue, and came up with this nightie as a compromise. I have smocked it with a simple wave and cable design.

 

 

Vogue 2925, last version

To improve the agreeable feeling of virtue I had this morning after altering a summer dress, and a RTW work blouse, I kept going and altered a hand-me-down wrap over empire blouse for my daughter. She was not inclined to have her photos taken, but I was on a roll, so started looking at my unfinished sewing.
I don't think these pants are officially an UFO. I cut them out at the same time as I made another pair of Vogue 2925 pants a few weeks ago, when I wanted to try the elastic additions to waistbands article in Threads. I don't have the next issue yet, so surely these were a mere work in progress :).
The reasons I did not finish them a few weeks ago are multiple.
1. Again they are navy blue, from the Michael's bundle.
2. Unfortunately, I don't think the fabric is really suitable for trousers, it is very stiff, even after washing 3x, and I think it is probably a jacket fabric. It does not drape well.
3. There is also a problem with my putative TNT pants pattern from my SWAP. For both these and the olive pants I made a few weeks ago, I had to take in the side seams at least 2 inches. I must have done this with my SWAP trousers, and forgotten to transfer the change to the personal pattern I thought I had developed. I am not pleased with myself!
4. I tried to be clever :( . I decided that as the back zipper from my 3 previous versions of these pants seems to be a point of wear, no doubt due to crouching and bending so much at work, I thought I would change these to a fly front zipper fastening trouser. I did not do this in a successful manner, although the fly front itself turned out perfectly.
5. I was distracted by the Marlene pants sew a long.

My finishing activities today were:
1.In order to be able to squeeze through the waist opening, I had originally lengthened the front crotch, and so also raised the back waist to balance it, which meant today I increased the width of every back dart, and added 2 more to each side. I also took in the sides a bit more, all down the leg.
5. After all this, I had somehow forgotten that a fold over grosgrain ribbon finish would not work on a fly zipper. I added a very skinny waistband to the top, which will fasten with snaps when I buy some. I then finally was able to hem the pants.
These pants are definitely only wearable with an untucked blouse. I also think they may languish at the back of the wardrobe, so will make a real effort to wear them on the most-likely-to-contact-noxious-subtances occasions.
.

 

Jag blouse - wardrobing

Continuing to pull unworn or little worn clothes from my wardrobe, here are the clothes I bought just after Christmas in Melbourne. At the time I was prepared to spend large amounts of money, and did spend 2 whole days trying to find work clothes, and this is all I could find, even whilst shopping with my sister, who is an expert shopper, and shares some figure oddities with me (However, she has long legs, is taller than me, and curves less, so she can get away with a lot more than me, surprizingly I still like her!). You can see why I started sewing a SWAP. The colours do not suit me, and the clothes do not fit. The shirt is grey and white striped cotton, from Jag, and the pants are from Jacqui E. I have been planning to alter them for some time, but I do not like alterations. I am making another note to myself not to buy colours that do not suit me, this is getting repetitive!

 

The shirt is actually quite a good style for work, having a back pleat from a yoke, like a man's shirt. It does not quite fit across the bust, showing skin inappropriately, but is quite enourmous at the waist, increasing my apparent width in a most unfortunate manner.

 

The rotten thing was flat felled, so it took quite a while to unpick the side seams. However, due to the flat fell, the seam allowance was around 1cm, and I was able to squeeze a little more room at bust level at this seam. I increased the dart width. I did consider unpicking the dart and pointing it more towards my bust line, but the fabric is quite dense and closely woven, and the needle holes showed after unpicking the side seam, so I decided that the dart would have to stay put. I took in the side seam at the waist, and added a front waist dart on each side. The back is now longer than the front, but as the blouse is very long, and will be worn tucked in, this is not a problem.

 

Despite my bust line changes, which I feel are as much as I need, there still seemed to be a danger of flashing lingerie. To avoid this, I extended the button placket widthways.
I originally thought that I would need to reduce the sleeve length, but fortunately, the cuffs are beautifully finished with the stripes cut on the bias, and simply buttoning them folded over once looks fine to me. I will probably push them up at work for practicality.

 

I think this looks fine with the new navy Marlene pants. The wardrobe progresses, now if I could only stick to flattering colours I would be well dressed.......The dreadful grey trousers are next, but may need another month or two maturing in the mending pile before I can face them.
Edited to add: The alterations took just over 2 hours, including unpicking. I hope I remember this next time I think it will be quicker to buy than to make.

Butterick 4443 summer dress revisited.

I have been reading Kristy's blog, Lower your presser foot, with great interest and admiration. Now I cannot sew with the speed of Kristi - I think her last post was about whipping up 2 pairs of shorts in an afternoon (with welt pockets, no less) then a jacket in about 3 hours!!, but I have been inspired by her remodeling of past projects and UFOs into currently wearable items, to attempt something similar myself.
I have been going through my wardrobe, pulling out things that I don't wear, and trying to work out why. My post is intended to help me avoid similar mistakes, so will probably not be very interesting for anyone else. The first candidate is a dress, Butterick 4443. I made this dress 2 summers ago, first a wearable toile, then this version. I have nearly worn out the toile, which is a knee length cotton print dress that I wear about the house, but I also made a longer version, with more alterations, that has languished in the wardrobe for 2 summers unless I am behind with the laundry.
I think the first reason for the languishing was the choice of print. I bought this cotton quilting print thinking I would make something for my daughters. It has a white background, white and cream daisies with yellow centres and sage green leaves. I quite like it, but it reads as white, rather than cream and sage, so the colours are not my best. I can't change this, but I will try not to make the same mistake. It was a "what was I thinking" moment! (However, I have just made navy blue trousers, again not my best colour, just because I had the fabric, I think this is a recurring problem)
The second problem was the length. I made the original dress nearly ankle length, in an attempt to look less juvenile, I think. This was a mistake, as it ruined the line of the dress and looked dowdy and mumsy.
The third problem was my inadequate fitting alterations. If I recall correctly, I was in dire need of clothes when I made this dress, and took some shortcuts (There are notes on the envelope, as I had not yet discovered pattern review). I started with a size 12, did a FBA, then needed to drastically reduce the gaping neckline and armholes (should have started with a smaller size). I shortened the bodice about 1cm. I took the skirt in at the waist side seams only - giving an unexpected severe bias droop to the hem, which I did not allow to hang before completing.
The dress still does not fit well - it needs more neck and armhole adjustment, increased FBA, and I should have taken several darts in the skirt, all a lot of work! However, the hem I could fix. This took me 1 and 1/2 hours this morning,as my hemming assistant was a little distractable, so we pinned twice, and now I might wear this dress around the house :).Perhaps I should learn to throw things out and be wasteful.

 

Marlene pants completed

I have finished the first wearable version of the Marlene pants from BWOF August 2008 - pants 105b. My review of this pattern is here

 

 

 

I think the remaining fitting issues are 1. Too much front thigh width addition. 2. Need for a further "sway back" adjustment below the waistband and 3. Possibly make slightly skinnier legs, although this may just be because I am not used to such wide pants. I think the wrinkling you can see at the front here is mostly the fabric. If I stand perfectly straight, the front is perfectly flat, and seems to fit very well.
I am sure these would look better with high heels, but these are destined to be work pants, so flats it is, and I have just changed the orphan status of this work blouse (blue grid on cream). This is a victory for my wardrobing project, although once again it shows me that I need more accesories, this time shoes and a belt.

 

Castle Birthday Cake

Just to depart from sewing, this is what I have been doing instead. Here is my son's cake for the birthday party we hosted today. There were 23 five and six year olds, and 2 three year olds at the party, and I am a bit tired!

 

The cake is based on "Palace of dreams" from the Australian Womens'Weekly Kids Birthday Cakes book. I have used a round base, as I have lots of round cake tins and no square ones, and entirely different colours in order to make this a boy's cake. It took me 4 and 1/2 hours to prepare the chocolate drizzle ironmongery, tiles, and vines, and to ice the cake.(Longer than I expected, so the early morning timing was a bit tight). It was a huge success at the party, so it was worth it, I think.

 

The only problem I had was that the candles started melting the gates, and I had to run up the hall with the cake, desperately hoping that the cake would not fall off the plate, before the "ironwork" melted entirely!

There was some sewing associated with the party, and knitting. I made a knitted chain mail vest, and a sewn helmet, armour pants and gauntlets for my son's costume, but the photos I have so far all have lots of friends in them, and I don't think I should post photos of other people's children on my blog without checking first, so will write about the costume once I have individual shots.

Welt pocket - my first attempt

I am so grateful to Ann Rowley for posting a detailed photograph tutorial on welt pocket construction at the Marlene pants sew along . Today I made my first welt pocket, relying heavily on this tutorial, and I am pleased with it as a first attempt.

 

 

 

 

I can see a few issues for future attempts. First I have continued with my usual poor fabric choice problem. I borrowed Sandra Betzina's fabric book from the library again, and I think this mystery Michael's bundle fabric is cotton gabardine. Apparently it is difficult to ease, and does not hold pressing well. That describes this this fabric perfectly, so I will use this as an excuse for the dodgy left upper corner. I also think I need some new sewing scissors, as the points of mine no longer cut, due to being dropped on the floor by some unnamed children on too many occasions. This made the cutting out of the ending triangles a risky, and not entirely successful business. Despite this, I am now patting myself on the back for gaining a new sewing skill. Thanks Ann!

Marlene pants #3

I was quite pleased with the toile for the BWOF August 2008 pants #105. The photographs are of the toile after I added a dart to the central back waistband, both sides of the front waistband, and took in the side seams around 1cm all the way down. There is pulling at the front pleats, but I plan to deal with this by not stitching them down quite as far in the fashion fabric. There is a lot of fabric at the back thigh, but I think I need this for crouching down, and sitting on my heels. My work does not really allow for sartorial elegance or tight trousers. I am also inclined to think that I did not need both the sewing diva front thigh adjustment and the increased crotch depth at the front, as there seems to be excess fabric at the inner front thigh. I think I can live with this, especially as removing the front thigh sewing diva adjustment will require sewing another toile, and I just cannot be bothered at this stage. My next pants can be a wearable muslin. The fabric seems to be quite good quality, but is navy blue cotton twill from a Michael's Fabric bundle, and I do not really fancy navy blue. Fortunately I have several work blouses that will co-ordinate, but I am happy for the next attempt to be functional rather than gorgeous.

 

 

Here is a photograph comparing the size 40 original waistband pattern pieces (no seam allowances) to my new improved version (includes 1.5cm seam allowances). Tape measures do not tell the whole story!

 

I had hoped to sew up the pants today, but due to visitors, was only able to cut out the main fabric. (Fortunately, they were welcome visitors, or I would be feeling a bit cross about this :). My new goal is to have this pair made tomorrow, provided that I do not need to go to work.

Marlene pants continued

I worked more on the Marlene pants from the August BWOF today. My mission today was to look at the crotch curve, as this seemed to be a problem with the Jalie jeans.
First I measured the front and back curves on me with a flexible ruler - my new toy from Spotlight.
Unfortunately, I found the measuring rather tricky, particularly the back curve, so took the average of 3 attempts.
I also measured the curves in sitting and standing, but as the sitting measurement was overall less than the standing, decided to stick with the standing measurement for the moment. I was unable to find out how much ease I should allow, despite having a lovely hour or two looking through my Stitches and Threads magazines (I kept being distracted, so I have just guessed.
Here is my front curve, compared to the pattern. I am decidedly odd in shape, and when I straightened out the ruler to approximate the pattern, it was exactly the same length as the standing (greater) measurement.

 

I added 2.5 cm to the pattern for ease. I chose to add this to the inner leg seam in order to give myself extra insurance for the front thighs.

 

The back curve was different to my measured shape also.

 

However, this time, the measurement was already 3.75 cm greater than the sitting (larger) back curve measurement, so I left the pattern as is.

 

BWOF 8-2008 Pants 105

A few weeks ago,Elizabeth at Stitchers' Guild started a sew along for these "Marlene" trousers from the August BWOF
Naturally, I did not have my August BWOF when the discussion started, but as I really need more trousers, and can use all the help I can get in making them, I thought I would join in late, once I received my magazine. These trousers have been a slow process so far. I have traced out the pattern, and tried tissue fitting per "Pants for real People". Unfortunately, not only do I always manage to tear the paper, but I really have no idea whether paper pinned together actually fits or not, other than the obvious - does it go around me? I decided that yes, the paper goes around me, but that the pattern is a bit tight across the backside and in the front thighs (no suprises here), and that following all the excellent advice from my Jalie jeans attempt, it would be worth trying out the new adjustment methods on these hopefully more forgiving pants.

First I reversed Ann Rowley's flat seat adjustment for my opposite problem.

Once I had done this, I thought the single dart was too big, so changed it to 2 darts. I hope this does not mess up the welt pocket marking, as I have not attempted a welt pocket before and would hate to make it crooked.

Next I added width to the front thigh. I did consider just making the pleat deeper and the whole leg wider all the way down, but decided that this was cheating and that I should try the sewing diva method.

I found the tissue changes rather difficult to manage in my follow up fitting, as the tape is not very effective (Note to self, buy a new glue stick). Next I will make up a pair in calico and see if these changes give me a wearable pair of pants.

Topkids Issue 56 , Design 1, baby dress set

Whilst I felt quite happy to abandon all my ongoing projects in order to make another baby dress for my very new niece, I managed to restrain myself from starting an elaborate smocking project (that is next :)) ) and decided to make a little pinafore dress. The current delightful Spring weather in Queensland is not nearly so warm in Sydney,so I thought this sort of dress would allow layering, so more wear over the next month or so.
I looked through my extensive collection of TopKids magazines, and found this outfit in issue 56.

 

The garment shown in the magazine is made from terry toweling. I wanted to use denim or corduroy for a very casual wear look, but felt that this silhouette would be fine in a woven, particularly as I would like the baby to be able to wear this now, so any lack of ease due to using woven instead of knit in the smallest size ("newborn" 62cm length)would not be an issue for an average size newborn. After some fabric fondling, I decided to use a very soft fine wale corduroy, which fortuitously co-ordinates with some newborn size striped knit pants from my possible baby present stash.

 

You can see that I have made a few changes to the pattern. The magazine uses a bias binding to finish the neck and arm holes, but turns this in fully, then topstitches. I chose to use the bias binding as a contrast trim, so trimmed 5mm from these seam allowances, and folded over the bias, after sewing it to the right side, then stitched in the ditch on the right side for the neck, armholes and hem. In a more dressy garment, I would have handstitched this seam, but I wanted this pinafore to be both quick to construct, and extra sturdy - this SIL now has 3 children under 4 years of age and so no time to fuss with delicate washing techniques.
I also used my own adaption of the embroidery design both in shape and in the stitches used. My flower is very naive and simple (ie, quick, I want this in the post today)using 6 threads of stranded DMC cotton for running stitch petals and leaf, 5 threads in stem stitch for the stem and 5 threads in french knots for the flower center. I have added a few 2 and 3 strand straight stitches to the petals and leaf.

 

I changed the fastening from a placket style at the back to a shoulder fastening. In my opinion, this is easier for dressing the baby, and also means I could use novelty heart buttons instead of sensible flat, non baby poking buttons. Being careless, I failed to cut a longer shoulder to allow for this change, so used bias binding to extend the front shoulder, and to finish the edge on the back shoulder. I used buttonhole stitch loops to cope with the novelty buttons.

 

At the back I embroidered a lazy daisy, just for fun.

Baby gifts

My new niece arrived today, so all non baby sewing projects took a back burner. This morning I embroidered this bonds suit.

 

This afternoon I made a fine wale corduroy pinafore dress with an embroidered flower on the front to match the blue and white pants I made a few weeks ago. I already had a baby gift made, but felt really inspired to make more baby clothes, especially as my other options include jeans, pants and alterations - baby clothes are much more fun. I will take some photos in the daylight, but not until I have traced out a pants pattern.

AS&E Issue 40 Boy's Jacket

I have been thinking about making this jacket from Issue 40 of Australian Smocking and Embroidery for quite a while.

 

I may have left my run a bit late. My son just turned 6, it is now Spring, and the weather will not be cool for much longer. I think this jacket will be a bit young for him next winter. However, I have finished the rooster insert, which is what he likes about the jacket. He has 6 pet chooks, and has requested that the opposite front pocket have a picture of a hen, rather than a lamb. He pointed out that the lamb is too small in comparison to the rooster anyway - and he is right.

 

I am off to draw up a smocking plate of a chook. This is much more fun than fitting jeans :).