Pillowcases with a side of pyjamas, and a dash of rolled hem

I have sunk. I am sewing pillowcases - almost home dec, which I usually loathe sewing. What is worse, is that I am writing a blog post about it. How uninteresting can you become? I will have to change my blog header, this is definitely not aspirational sewing. My excuse is that the fabric is quite appealing, and that I could never wear it. This is a requested purchase from Japan, a cotton with a beautiful soft hand. I love the colours, but the very wide stripes are not my cup of tea for a garment. I have made 3 pillowcases from my 2m or so of fabric, and it did not even hit the stash. I feel virtuous (that is the same deep purple piping from my Japanese print dress)

Materials cost $AUS 34.60 (the piping has been included elsewhere) with free shipping from Sharon.

This little project, and this post from Angie. a that must have been lurking in my brain since nearly last Christmas, gave me this year's Christmas-present-for-nieces (and nephew) idea. Pillowcases and pyjamas or nighties to match. Now that there are 8 of these little people, and my own 3, who always want a version for themselves just like their cousins, I just cannot fit in a smocked or knitted item for everyone at Christmas. I am mostly using fabrics that have been just sitting around being remnants, or large left overs that are too distinctive to be used for a second garment whilst the first one is still in general circulation. All the fabrics are cotton.



These two nighties are made from BurdaStyle 9- 2009-141 (the girl's dress). The square inset yoke appealed to me. Shown is one nightie from the front, and the other from the back (with buttons). I have left off the sleeves, and bound the armholes with bias binding. The larger of the two nighties is the smallest size (about size 3) and I scaled down the other one to about a size 2. These are for niece the 5th, and niece the 6th. They belong to different sides of the family, and will probably never meet whilst wearing their nighties, but I made the nighties a little different from each other anyway. I have embroidered their names on the more solid coloured part of the pillowcase. I have used a machine embroidery stitch over the bias trim on the smaller nightie.

Materials cost
Floral cotton print - Spotlight, last year (before my self imposed ban) about $ 8 per metre. Previously used for skirts for other cousins, and my daughters. Why did we buy so much of this? - $12
Red shaded quilting cotton - free with Australian Stitches subscription (I wish the freebie had been garment fabric)
Piping - from a previous project, free
Pink batiste - hard to quantify - at least 12 years old, bought in USA for about $5 per yard, large pen stain to cut around, call it $3
Pattern- first pattern from this Burda magazine, so cost of magazine - $10.20
Buttons- recycled
Thread - $3

Total $28.20

I felt like a wuss ( feeble, timid and non-adventurous person)( translation as I am using slang again) after Elizabeth poo-poohed my overlocker rolled hem (in the nicest possible way of course) so I thought I would practice rolled hems on these little nighties, remembering that I put aspirational sewing in my blog header of my own volition. Here is my original rolled hem attempt


Pitiful, don't you think? I trimmed the next one with vigour and attention, starched it firmly, and still ended up with those threads sticking out. I gave up at this point, and rolled the already rolled hem, so the hems are doubled. In fact on the size 3, the hem is tripled, as I kept going in a spiral and was not sure how to stop. I am not showing you the slightly dodgy stopping point at the centre back seam. My sister in law will never notice it, as she does not even know how to sew on a button (I am not joking, my brother does it for her, I am an eye-witness! I restrained myself from offering to help, as it was rather amusing - Remember, readers, I did not say at any point that I was a kind person).
Fortunately for me, the thicker hem, combined with the bias binding trim above the hem, has given a slight fluting effect that rather appeals to me. For a minute there these little girls were getting pyjama tops and matching bloomers as I considered chopping off the hem on multiple occasions due to consecutive failures sewing samples.



These sets are for niece the first (pyjama shorts, size 10 - Top Kids shorts pattern) and niece the 3rd (nightie, size 4, self drafted), differing sides of the family again. The singlet is purchased RTW. The floral fabric at the bottom of the nightie is curved to match the curved hem. It looks a little peculiar in the photo, but seems even to me in real life.
There are two more pillowcases from these fabrics, for my daughters.

Materials cost
Floral print - more from the same Spotlight purchase, $9 per metre, originally for 5 m dress for my daughter, but she changed her mind and made a sheath requiring about 2m. - $18
Green mottled print - a USA purchased quilting cotton, baby clothes for daughter the first, would not have been more than $3 per metre - $1.5 ( I am counting this as if it were $AUS, as I was earning my income as $USA at the time, and do not fancy the maths for exchange rates 10+ years ago)
Pink cotton voile - quite small odd shaped remnant from last year's Christmas dress for daughter the first - free
Patterns- self drafted and multiple use - free
Thread - $3

Total $22.50

I have boy sewing next, for which my fabric selection is rather dull. My son has forbidden trim or embroidery of any kind on his pyjamas. He is only 7. Fortunately my nephew will not see his pyjamas before completion, so cannot complain about unmanly decoration, so I may be able to slip some in.

Laura Ashley McCall's 5039 frock #3

Thank you for the interesting replies on what makes you love a fabric. I am thinking more about this myself, and am preparing to re-order my stash and disperse some fabrics that were crushes :), or maybe other people's crushes...

Daughter the first and I are attending a mocktail party on Sunday evening for her dance awards. The dress requirement is semi-formal (awful term, what does it mean?) or cocktail.
I feel this dress requirement is a tricky request for a 14 year old girl. Last year she wore a cotton voile smocked and beaded dress that she loved, but she was a little underdressed compared to the other very young ladies. However, I do not want her to dress like a 19 year old just yet.
We hunted through the stash, and she came up with some embroidered poly chiffon that she had picked, aged 6, for a flowergirl dress to wear to my brother's wedding. (My SIL vetoed it, so it has been lurking for a while, poly chiffon not being our usual style). Daughter the first obviously still likes this fabric. I asked her what appealed, still thinking about why we love fabric, and she thinks it is the sheerness and the embroidery. I thought it might be a bit twee, and reminiscent of 6 year olds for a mocktail dress. However, as it still appealed, I made it up in the Laura Ashley McCalls 5039 with an imperial batiste underlining/underlay. We added a cotton voile green sash at the empire waist for some jazzing up.I know I said this pattern was boring to sew, but it is also quick and easy. I am liking it more and more!
I thought it looked a bit like a garden wedding dress when she came out wearing it with a pink organza hat!

However, without the hat, it looked less garden wedding. I did wonder to myself how often she would wear it until she started talking about wearing it to the ballet in a few weeks (lets me off the hook for another dress), and to Christmas lunch. It seems to be a winner. I think she should wear her hair up to the party, for a more grown-up look.

The making of this dress has confirmed my aversion to poly chiffon. Originally I planned to made a full dress in the outer, and the lining fabrics, attached only at the neckline and sleeve cuffs. After sewing french seams in the poly chiffon for the skirt, I felt that curved raglan seams in a fraying, sheer, slippery fabric were not something I fancied, so I treated the batiste and poly chiffon as one layer for the bodice. I made sash keepers at the side and front from DMC stranded cotton in a silvery grey, using buttonhole stitch.

I tried a tip by Marji that I read at Stitcher's Guild for poly chiffon - to couch a perle thread rather than gather with a long straight stitch, but after attempting this realised that I should have zig-zagged seperately over two strands of perle cotton, then used a small straight stitch just inside the seam line to set the gathers. My misinterpretation, pulling up one strand of perle cotton, gave me lumpy gathers, and as I failed to remove the perle cotton before stitching the gathers to the straight pieces, I did manage to catch the perle cotton in the seam in several places, necessitating some unpicking.
If I ever get around to sewing the rest of the poly chiffon, or its relations in the dress-up-fabric box, I will try Marji's tip properly, as it has definite possibilites. I wish I had known it when sewing dozens of tu-tus and fairy dresses!
I would like to point out to Elizabeth that the rolled hem on that poly chiffon was achieved in about 30 seconds on my overlocker. I am not sure if I can face the rolled hem foot on my conventional machine - My previous experience suggests that developing any skill at this will take me a very long time.

Materials cost
Pattern - 3rd use, free
Embroidered poly chiffon (Pizzazz Fabrics) - about $12 per metre = $16.20 (the fabric is wide,and I used 1.35 metres, rather than the 2.2 metres called for in the pattern)
Imperial cotton batiste (Stitch Bliss) $17.60 per metre - $33 (imperial batiste is pretty skinny, but I still did not require the full yardage , 1.85m only.
Cotton voile (Oh Sew, Noosaville)- remnant from earlier projects, free
Thread $3
Elastic $1

Total $50.20

Absolute bargain silver sandals, $13 (I had to put those in, they were a great find)

I love this fabric

Elizabeth has pointed out to me that of my most recent projects, the materials for my trial version cost me more than the materials for my ultimate version.
This shows me straight away that I do not find the cost of my fabrics much of a factor in whether or not I love them. That should be good for the sewing budget. (It isn’t!). I like the more costly embroidered linen, but I don't love it.

I am sure there is some sort of cut off here. I find it difficult to imagine falling in love with a polyester fabric, for example, and I have vowed to never enter Spotlight again because of my many disappointments with fabric quality.
It did make me wonder what draws me to particular textiles, because I do enjoy fabric in general, but some have much more appeal than others.
Texture, has to be high on the list, and colour, although I know I am generally tame here, but there is definitely a personal association factor. Gifts are particularly emotive.
My favourite fabric of all time is the fabric my Dad bought me in Hong Kong, ivory silk charmeuse that he thought I might use for my wedding dress. It looks lovely, feels gorgeous, and reminds me of my Dad’s generosity, and that he knew absolutely nothing about sewing, but thought I could achieve anything. I actually used some of this last year, but had to wait for 17 years or so before I felt up to it. It may be another 17 years before I feel able to use the rest of it.
I have other sentimental fabric – a lace section that belonged to my great grandmother. She died (aged 99) when I was 3 years old, but when I was 10, my mother gave me her sewing box, and inside was her tape measure, some rusty pins, and a little piece of lace that she had been mending. I will never use this, and never throw it out. No one else in my family sews garments from choice, but apparently my great grandmother was a terrific seamstress.

There are some quilting cottons from my last 6 weeks in the United States. I don’t love all of these, but using them always reminds me of our time there. I will miss them when they are all gone.

I have a piece of Liberty lawn, just over a metre long, that I found in a tiny general store in central Queensland – next to old fashioned moleskin and a roll of burlap. It cost me $15. It will be hard to cut that. There is a certain aura of successful gatherer about it that seems to be resisting the scissors.

 

Buying fabric over the internet has been wonderful for me. I have access to beautiful fabrics that I would never see or hear of otherwise, but there is not nearly so much emotion involved in my purchases. There are no associations. It is more difficult to fall in love with fabric over the internet. This does not seem to stop me buying it, but I am much more likely to buy sensible, practical fabrics from on-line shops than I am when I enter a fabric shop.

My less expensive materials still needed more care than my more expensive trial materials– I wanted to show Sharon that I appreciated her gift, so associations made it high on my list. I couldn’t get any more, scarcity made it high on my list. It also gave me more of a challenge, mojo enhancing qualities made it high on my list. I sewed it within a week of receiving the fabric. Other fabrics lurk in my stash for years.

It is amusing that I had not even thought about the difference in cost when I described the garments, there is not much accountant in me when it comes to fabric.
Why do you love one particular fabric over another?

Delayed view of New Look test dress

First the fun part, the details

Brown piping, same button tab instead of hook and eye, cream batiste lining.

Scallop hem on the lining. I used to hate doing these on the girl's dresses, when I was making them fancy toddler clothes, but thought it might be easier on my Janome, now that I have a flash machine. No. I still loathe trimming away all those little concave bits after sewing the scallops. If you see another scallop hem here, it will be done by hand.
I made several dresses from this pattern about 8 years ago, before my son was thought of. I still have one dress from this time, but it does not fit wonderfully across the bust, so I needed a test run. I did not make a full on toile, as my figure has not changed a great deal since my previous use of the pattern.
My fitting changes to the basic pattern already included decreased waist, increased backside and lower armscye. I had also taken in the upper back. However, I vaguely remembered taking a lot of fabric away from the outer shoulder width, and ending up with narrow straps, which I had fixed on the only version remaining, by some convoluted method involving a lot of muttering (Why didn't I write these things down 8 years ago? Blogging has improved my memory). Instead of repeating the muttering, I started with a smaller size at the bodice (10 instead of 12) and made a bigger full bust adjustment.

The pattern is not really ideal for a person of extreme curve, as there are only 2 front and 2 back fitting darts for the waist and hip. However, I chose to put up with this limitation, as I did not want to break up my Japanese print too much with the multiple smaller fitting darts I would normally use. There is a lot of curve going on in the back centre seam due to the lack of fitting darts, so I was patting myself on the back a lot about my pattern matching. It involved basting and chalk. I am hoping the chalk marks come out in the wash, as they are orange and I think may be visible in the photo.

I was pleased that I had made a trial version, as this dress is shorter than I like. My previous dresses were all the ankle length version. Instead of adding a bias binding, I believed my daughters, who felt that it was not a bad length. I can always let it down a smidgeon and put the bias trim on later. Apparently my clothes are too "Old lady" for my teenager. I made the Japanese dress a little longer, as one departure at a time from my conservative style (print) is all I can cope with per outfit. This one is length.

I nearly forgot my cost of materials.
Pattern $0 - multiple use
Thread $6
Lining - cotton batiste from deep stash. I think this is the last of a half roll I bought for $5m at the unfortunate closing of a local fabric shop. -$7.50
Piping - purchased bias binding 50c (bargain 10 lots for $5 sale purchase)DMC perle thread that I included in the cost for the Japanese print dress.
Zip - recycled, $0
Button - recycled - $0
Embroidered linen from Gorgeous Fabrics - I tried to look this up, but the order is older than 18 months, so has fallen off my email history. Looking at similar fabrics on her site, and averaging out the exchange rate and shipping, I think about $AUD 40 for the approximately 1.5m used.

Total material cost $54


Next up is an outfit for each of my daughters to wear to the ballet. We have tickets to see Sleeping Beauty in Brisbane. I will try not to dress like an old lady, if they try not to dress as if they are rollerblading.

Japanese print dress

Attempt #2 at this post. I apologize to the earlier readers who could not see the photographs. No, I did not take them down, they were just invisible to everyone except me for some mysterious reason of Picasa or Blogger. I do not think I did anything differently from previous posts, but hope these photos via an alternative route are showing up now.



I finally finished this dress, but not the earlier test version. I don't think it has ever taken me so long to put in 2 zips and do a couple of hems. I am blaming the end of year school events (I finished off a sock at senior speech night last night).

Although I love the print, it is a real departure for me. I tend to wear very plain neutrals, with occasional florals and small inconspicuous prints (ie rather dowdy when I miss classic). I wore this dress to work in the shop today and have already received compliments, very nice, but I think the dress might be wearing me. I will see if I get used to it. I keep reminding myself that I live in Queensland, and this is rather a tame print for the local dress style.

Vicki suggested dark piping. You can see here that I have used a deep purple for the trim. It is a silk cotton from Gorgeous Fabrics, and really too nice for mere piping, but I only stole a little bit (on the bias) from my yardage. It is the perfect colour IMO, and has a little sheen that I like. I hope I am not cursing myself in a few months when I go to make up something from the purple.

I used a tab for the button, inspired by this smart finish on QuiltSewSue's skirt. I do not have much success with wearing hooks and eyes, they dig in, so I usually use a small button and a thread loop to finish the tops of invisible zips, but I think this tab looks better from the outside.

I can now show you the machine embroidered hem on my lovely olive green cotton voile lining (Oh Sew Fabrics, Noosaville). I have used a blind hem for the outer fabric, and you can see this here too, but only if you look closely. I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

Inspired by Mary Nanna, I will attempt a cost analysis of my Japanese print dress
1. Japanese Fabric - around 11 hours of knitting horrible scratchy icky green scarves - $11,000 :))) and cheap at the price. More realistically, $0. A gift.
2. 1.5m of cotton voile lining, $12 per metre, about $18, but I have large scraps
3. Piping from silk cotton fabric at ? -I can't remember the exchange rate at the time, nor am I exactly sure how much fabric I used, + DMC perle cotton for the insides - maybe $5 all up, but I have a lot of piping left over
4. Very old pattern used frequently before, so must be free by now $0
5. Button from my button tin of left over/retrieved from worn out garments fastenings - $0
6. 2 reels of 100m gutermann poly thread, around $6. This bit always surprises me, but I don't like cheap thread.
7. Invisible zip, $3

$32 to make up my beautiful present into a lined dress.

I am pleased that this is less expensive than a dress from the shops (probably still less expensive even if I included the retail cost of 1.5m or so of Japanese print) - unless I count labour. I am never sure if sewing really does save me money, I think you have to like doing it, or the labour would make it really, really expensive. Minimum adult casual wage is around $18 per hour in Australia. (I just looked it up,$14.31 x 1.25 for casual workers, $17.89 per hour) I am sure I enjoyed making this dress at a higher rate than that, so I am in credit. It makes up for the horrible knitting :). Next time I will just count cost of materials, all the other costs are too tricky for me.

Sewing distractions

I was all set to sew with my Japanese fabric this weekend. In fact, I sewed a practice dress to almost completion during the week. On Saturday, I actually cleared off the entire dining table in order to cut out my fabric somewhere other than the floor. This is a very unusual occurence. I not only cut out the dress, and lining (cotton voile), but marked all the darts with tailor tacks. Then I made gorgeous purple piping from a luscious silk/cotton. I was about to clear the rather large remnants from the table when I thought the remaining fabric pieces were ideally suited to the making of a pursible or two.
I have not made a pursible before, nor do I have a pattern, but I have admired a lot on blogs too numerous to list.
I thought I would make a practice pursible for my niece, who is turning 5 next week.

I was quite happy with it, and put a little something inside for the birthday girl to find when she opens the present. However, then it occurred to me that the fabrics I had used for the pursible had possibilities as a birthday outfit.

That is what happened next. It may be a slightly garish colour combination, even for a 5 year old, but I think she can wear it as separates - I can see that little bishop top with jeans. I added the empire waist sash and keepers as the top looked rather art-smock without it. I have bonus points for using up the very last skerrick of the cherry print (last years pick by the daughters for summer pyjamas)
Finally I returned to the Japanese fabric dress.

I am quite pleased with it so far. However, not finishing either of these dresses has made me realize how much I rely on daughter the first for my sewing. She was out all Sunday, and I felt unable to mark the back zip placement or attempt hems without her. This does not bode well for the future. Maybe I need a duct tape dummy.

Big Plans

My sewing lately has been deadly dull. This is very bad for my mojo. I have made several knit tops, but can hardly be bothered taking photos. My children are requesting summer clothing. They want pyjamas, t shirts and shorts. Dull, dull, dull.
However, my wonderful friend Sharon has come to the rescue.

She has just returned from a trip to Japan and bought me this gorgeous fabric. Do you remember the horrible scratchy green scarves I knit for the dance concert? Probably not, they are better forgotten, but the darstardly non-knitting mothers had to pay costume co-ordinator Sharon a small fee for the knitting. I got this instead of a small fee (Chinese factory workers earn more per hour than slow knitting-for-other- people's- daughters- for- dance-concert mothers). The fabric is much better than a small fee don't you think? Sharon knows me well :). Sharon also bought me some other fabric at my request but this is the best (and a present, so does not count as stash according to my internal accounting system).
I plan to make a simple sheath dress, darts, not princess line to avoid interrupting the pattern. The fabric is beautifully textured cotton. I am currently debating with myself whether or not it should be lined, or left unlined and saved for the hottest days of summer. I admit, the actual sewing and shape of the dress will be dull and undetailed, but the fabric is so fabulous there will not actually be a hint of dullness about the process.
The children will just remain pyjama - less for a few more weeks. There is nothing wrong with wearing their Dad's old t-shirt to bed IMO. No sleepovers until I have finished my dress.

In other non-sewing news, I just recieved this parcel from Michael's. That is real Burberry raincoat fabric, black on the rainproof side, stripey inside. I have a rare attack of brand name smugness. It was $7 US per yard, if I don't factor in the horrible postage (Um that would be another $US5 per yard, still a bargain)(Michael's only charges the actual postage, I love this fabric shop). One day in the far future, it will turn into an almost Burberry trench coat for my husband. The other is a small piece of orange and brown wool tweed that leapt into the box thinking it was for a straight skirt for me next winter. We will see what happens.

Vogue 8096 men's shirt #2

I made this shirt in July. My husband promised (before I handed it over) that he would model it for me, and here he is, half way through a work day. I did point out that the shirt looked much smarter before it had been worn once a week over several months, but he did not seem to care. He also allowed me only two photographs and stipulated that he should be posted headless. This is a long winded apology for my not very good photos - but at least you can see that it sort of fits.

I am not entirely happy with the neck, and may make the next one bigger here, but as he never wears a tie, I will not fuss too much. All the modifications to the current pattern are the same ones I made to his first shirt which I posted about in November 2008. I just looked back at this post, and I said nothing at all useful in it, so here is my review at pattern review.

The fabric is beautiful shirting cotton from Ewan Gardam's. I bought it in January, when they still had a shop in Adelaide St Brisbane. The inside collar stand is a quilting cotton print.