Paisley

Wiki on Paisley

I'm gonna start this off by saying that I DO like paisley, especially when done up in vibrant bohemian colours. But there's something else that has always kept me from wearing it. It reminds me of something. 

Let me set this up for you first. Do you remember that show from the late 70's and early 80's called "Connections"? It ran on PBS forever and you can get them on DVD from Netflix.  I got the first few episodes back when Simon was 9ish with the hope he would love the history of science and technology that went with it. But I was a few years early. In any case, there was one episode that really stuck out in my mind.  It was about the print known as paisley and where it came from. 

Now, there is a somewhat decent wiki page about paisley you can find here. It matches up with what James Burke said, that the name comes from the town of Paisley in Scotland that was the first industrial manufacturer of the print. The print itself was actually a copy of the prints found in old Middle East and Western Asia, places now called Iran, Uzbekistan, and Northern India, many of which were tribes of nomads.  Now what the wiki article doesn't say and was actually covered in Connections was that Paisley rugs were often woven for newlywed couples as a fertility charm of sorts.

Which, for me, tells me that ancient cultures were a bit more in-tune than we give them credit for because I cannot look at paisley without thinking they look like sperm. 

You're welcome.

Its a Sewcialist Revolution!

I don't know if you've noticed, but the sewing corner of the interwebs has been growing. You can find us on blogs, facebook, twitter, and instagram. One day I was poking about and thinking "Gosh, we need a name. We should give ourselves a name!"

The great thing about out loud thoughts on the internet is people have a tendency to answer them. Fairly soon after that Leila of "Three Dresses Project" came up with the name "Sewcialists!". Boy, did that stick. I mean, think about it. Not only are we a community of people that love to sew and talk about it, we're from all over the world and a little subversive in our desire to make clothing when its just as easy to go BUY clothes (Wait, you can buy clothes? Huh). We're like the 21rst Century Sewing Circle. WORLD WIDE BABY!


This is where ya'll come in! The Sewcialists are seeking emblem designs for our budding community of sewing aficionados. We need your talent. Or your friend's talent. Its cool, we don't discriminate. We're laid back like that.

Who are the Sewcialists?

Sewcialists are those who sew and chat about sewing, fabric stashes, etc on social media. Any type of communication that utilizes the internet, really.

What are we looking for?  We are looking for a design that:

• Relates to sewing and the social nature of sewcialists
• Is modern, simple, recognizable and memorable
• Is useable in black & white as well as in color
• Lets not forget fame and glory! The winner will be given credit where credit is due. 

What will the winner win?

• A 1 year subscription to Make magazine
• A $100 cash prize. The cash prize of one hundred US currency will be paid through PayPal only
• A custom ipad sleeve
• The everlasting adoration of a bunch of people that like to make things. This could be used to your advantage, I'm sure.

We are proud to have MAKE as our official competition sponsor! They're the ones giving the winner the subscription.

(Come on, how cool is that? We have official sponsorship from other subversive types!)

Deadline for submissions is April 20th. Submit to jury [at] sewcislists [dot] org

We have a sewcialists jury of 10 who will be blogging about this contest. Check out the jury list at sewcialists.org.

General Voting

April 24 until May 8: The jury members will open up general voting on the designs that made it to the final round.

• Voting will happen via comments on the jury blog posts
• Every sewcialist has one vote per jury-blog
• One person can vote multiple times (as long as it's on different jury-blogs) on different designs, or on the same design.

Any questions? Please let me know! Feel free to share this contest with your friends.In fact, PLEASE DO! Spread the word far and wide. It's open to all. The fine print can be found at sewcialists.org. I highly recommend that those looking to enter READ the fine print, there are stipulations about the file type.

Philosophical Fabric Stash Question

Source: whipstitchfabrics.com via Melanie on Pinterest

If you are an avid sewist of any sort, you probably have a stash of fabric.  I've been thinking about mine, particularly since I've been completely unable to make any resolutions about not buying fabric and sticking to them. The only thing I can say is I'm trying to buy with purpose. So far its working... kinda.

In any case, I'm working on a cataloging project here soon and some of the fabric I've had for years. How long does a piece of fabric have to be in one's stash before the monetary value doesn't even count toward "price of garment made"? Its easy when someone gives it to you, or you inherit it, like I have, from relatives. Fabric cost is zero, unless you count space.

So, that's it really, after what time period do you consider the price of the fabric originally no longer factors into the "cost" of your garment?

New Projects

First of all, thank you everyone for your lovely and kind compliments on my outfit posts. It just goes to show that we're our own worst critics, right? I love y'all, and that's a fact.

So! New project!  I'm turning the raglan sleeve dress from Vogue 8701 into a TNT dress.  Its marked as "easy", which I guess it  is, once you get past the million and one modifications needed for proper fit. These are all common for me modifications: rounded shoulders, large arms, lengthened waist, full bust adjustment... The problems is I've never done it for this type of bodice.

I decided to go with the advice from a class I took at the Sewing Expo some times ago and make all the modifications to the back and shoulders first.  I have found this to be good advice, actually, since once that fits the FBA becomes much easier.  Here is a somewhat fuzzy photo of all those pieces:

I will be taking higher quality photos with details on how the changes worked later, probably next week.  I tried doing some searches for tutorials on how to make these changes and um... didn't find much. I had to turn to my text book on fitting, which had nothing for rounded shoulder adjustments on raglan sleeves.  I kinda made it up as I went.

This was my next big puzzle.  I needed an FBA of a total of about two inches after I made my modifications to the back and sleeves. I decided to start with the basic y-bust alteration and then use the "law of dart rotation".  I'm not sure either of these things are actual THINGS,  I know that many a book and blog have talked about them, though I think I may take my own crack at it here. In any case, I tried to make sure that the dart tips were at least 1.5 inches away from the bust point* so that I'm not sporting Madonna Bra Cones.

Next up I traced the pattern pieces for the "Roxy Royal" hoodie in the Autumn 2012 Ottobre' magazine. I'm pretty sold on this magazine so far and think I'm going to get a year's subscription. They have the best selection for boys anywhere that I've found. So.. YAY!  The hoodie is actually for a friend's daughter.  She loves pink and My Little Ponies, and I have some polar fleece of the original ponies kicking around in my stash. In fact, its been kicking there for about a decade now. Originally it was intended for Felicity but she is currently anti-pink.

But back to this magazine, its got that crazy migraine-inducing pattern sheets you trace. I've taken to highlighting the one I want with a similar colored highlighter. Makes a huge difference.  Also, those huge wax sheets save my life when it comes to this. Best haberdashery purchase ever!

In conclusion, here's Wanderer (aka Monkey Butt,  cause that's what Felicity started calling him after he got 'fixed' and came home with his butt shaved) helping me with my projects.

What are you working on?

* Another nice tip I read recently is to think of the bust as the tip of a cone in relation to the garment you are wearing.  You have to shape the fabric to mold around your bust in a pleasing manner.

DIY Fabric Labels

There are quite a few DIY how-to's around the internet on fabric labels. Most of them involve printers. And if you are like me, trying to get any sort of unconventional printing done (whether is fabric or wax paper) on your printer makes you want to go all Office Space on the bitch.

So, enter my other hobby, scrapbooking (really, paper crafting and art journals, and some actual photos). I don't have much in the way of photos because I think this one photo is fairly self explanatory  I will, however, give you a supply list.

Supplies:

1) Satin Ribbon - about 1.5 inches (38mm) wide. You probably have something like this in your stash.

2) Hero Arts "Sew Artsy" stamps  Its possibly these may be sold in a craft store near you. I got mine at Archiver's.

3) Stamp Mounts.  There are several different varieties out there, I have clear acrylic blocks. Michael's and JoAnn's sells several options as well.

4) Ink. My recommendation is Versafine Onyx Black.(not pictured) I tested it and it is color fast. Yes, its expensive, but if you make sure to close it when done and then store it upside down (this makes the ink stay on top where it does the most good) it should last you a year or more. I've had mine for two, but I don't use is a lot.

5) Fine tip permanent marker.

So, stamp along a length of ribbon, make sure to give yourself room for sewing it on after you cut them out. TADA! Clothing labels. However, if you really want to sink some money into it, I found this Etsy shop will do 300 personalized embroidered ones for about $70. They are in China and it looks like it takes 6-8 weeks, but so far the best deal I've found. I might try them when I get my year end bonus. If so, I'll give a full report on what its like to work with them.

Morals of Silk

Donna from Nid de Tissus wrote a fascinating post about visiting a silk worm farm, or rather a museum.  Go check it out! Then come back cause it posed an interesting question for me.

Now, I know people who find the process of making silk to be cruel because you have to boil the silk worms in their cocoon to get the end product. I would like to put a bit of a different spin on it though.  If these worms didn't produce such a lovely fabric would humans have bothered to keep them alive for thousands of years?  Would they have, instead, been eradicated as pests?  Maybe the very thing we kill them for is what has allowed the species to survive.  I would love to hear everyone's thought on this.

Changes and Notes

Hello Everyone!  You might have noticed I changed a few things.  I'm trying to update the graphics to look slightly better than a trained monkey apprentice's work.  Let me know if anything is really wonky on your system.

Ok, first big note of interest, the FIFTH give-away.  I can't for the life of me remember what it was suppose to be. I'm not kidding, really.  I shouldn't be surprised though cause, for some reason, I always stress out at mid-year review time. Self reviews, does anyone else hate them?  Anyway, I'm gonna rummage around and find something awesome and I'll have it up by noon today.

Next up, my current sewing projects. Vintage beach outfits for the kids! If any of you have been following me on Pinterest you may have noticed a couple of cute summer kids patterns in there.  Check out the patterns and fabric...

Aren't these great?  Felicity's fabric is a print from a fabric my Mom bought what I was her age, so its from the 80's. I'm reclaiming some purple linen blend that was going to be a paper bag skirt for me until I realized that would be a disaster.  The blue Hawaiian fabric for Simon is a Japanese cotton I found on Etsy.  The pattern is a size 8 but I'm hoping, based on past experience with vintage children's patterns, there will be HUGE amounts of ease.

Now, in case you are wondering why I might be making beach outfits, there's two reasons. I live near a lake and its less than three weeks until ISLAND VACATION!  We're heading out to stay at a friend's beach house on Jekyll Island, just off the coast of Georgia.  A little neat bit a trivia, the very first International Telephone Call was placed from Jekyll Island.  Not remember the date at the moment, but it was early 20th century. As someone that works in Telecommunications, I think its very interesting.

Anywho.  I'm starting on these this week and I'm going to do my very best to document working with these patterns.  Its going to be my first attempt at shorts with pockets and cuffs. I'm trying not to be intimidated. Weird, huh?

So, those of you in the Northern Hemisphere*, what do ya'll have planned for summer?

*Ya know, the international nature of the internet is just kinda awesome.

And I was doing so well!

So, I had put myself on a voluntary fabric (and shoe) moratorium, telling myself that I NEEDED to use up much more of my stash before purchasing more fabric. And I was, until I realized that I didn't have any basic black in bottom weight fabric, which I need for my Business Wardrobe (more on that later). So, utilitarian purchase. But THEN... THEN... This happened:

Liberty of London

That's right. Liberty of London Tana Lawn with HELLO KITTY. OMG SQUEE!  I love it. I have at least four different things I can pair it with and at first glance it looks way more mature. I can totally see myself rocking this in a blouse at work with a smirk on my face. So I just dug into my "mad money" for two yards. Plenty for a blouse.

So where do you get this fabric? Well, its on pre-order at Fabric.com.  So run over and put your order in now cause who knows if it will be in stock after the pre-sale.

Don't say I never did you any favors.

But I still have to buy the fabric!

A while back I was perusing online videos and came across this one called "The Corporation". I started to watch it and then stopped about halfway through due to its rather depressing nature. Essentially they compare corporations to sociopaths. Unless you've been living under a rock, you might have noticed this goes along with the zeitgeist of our times.  But, I'm not going to get into all that. I'm gonna focus on one element. Cheap manufacturing of clothing brought to you by cheap labor. But here's the link if you feel like getting into it yourself.

So, fast forward a couple months and I get into a conversation with some friends that are definitely activists. They mentioned how they thought it was so cool I make my own clothes and not supporting an evil empire. Which yes, that is certainly a great side benefit but I came back with "Yeah, but I still have to buy the fabric".   This caused them to pause a moment and consider the implications of that. The manufacturing of fabric is just as problematic in the social justice and environmental arena as any other massively consumed goods. This caused me to ruminate a good bit on the topic.

I don't have a loom in my living room. Or my own sheep, or silk worms, or cotton fields. And speaking of cotton fields, that's a fairly touchy subject in the south. The above photo was used for promoting cotton clothing (Jezebel did an article on it). Beautiful photo, right? Yeah, it was rather upsetting to a certain demographic of people here.  Have you ever walked through a cotton field before it was picked? Those things are thorny nasty little bugger. If they didn't produce such an amazing textile we would have killed it as a weed.  And recently a friend sent me this article about Victoria's Secret cotton coming from Africa picked by underage girls.

Then there's that wonderful thing called Lycra whose patent is owned by The Koch Brothers (They're no Bill and Melinda Gates, but any stretch of the imagination).  Going further back, there was the Threads #149 article "No Waste Allowed" that had a fairly harrowing pictures of what the back side of a textile manufacturing plant looks like. Found a photo here if you want to look. And then going back to the above movie, the fact that the workers (usually young girls) get paid about $.06 per t-shirt made from those textiles. No idea what the actual textile workers are paid. I'm sure its not so awesome either. Though there are many arguments that employing people in developing nations is actually helping to raise their standard of living.  I'm certain that can be true, but many of the nations we're talking about do not have governments willing or capable of enforcing environmentalism and human rights.

So, what does that all add up to? For me it adds up to the fact I feel guilty every time I purchase fabric, or clothes at the store. I know that many other sewing bloggers have talked about, or at least mentioned, this issue. People have suggested buying thrifted items, or upcycling old tablecloths/curtains/whathaveyou and all the rest. I think these are all fantastic ideas. Heck, I made my son's costume out of an old bed sheet that had all manner of holes through it. Some of my favorite pieces of clothing have been thrifted. But for the most part I have trouble imagining a table cloth into work appropriate clothing.

Which brings us back to the title.  "But I still have to buy the fabric."  How do you, dear reader, feel about these issues? How do you reconcile the cognitive dissonance that comes from knowing these things intellectually?  I feel that every little bit helps, buying natural fibers, buy local, or buy 'made in my country'.  I feel its somewhat inevitable that we are going to run up against these issues in a globalized community, but it means making smarter choices whenever we are able.

Finding Inspiration

So after my last failure I've felt a bit melancholy. Then I got my shiny new Colette Sewing Handbook in the mail.  I confess I ordered it so I could get my hands on the patterns, in particular the Truffle.  I think my favorite chapter of the book is "A Thoughtful Plan".  It ties into Colette's wardrobe challenges in really think about how to make things that work together. And knowing what works for your lifestyle and your body type. Which brought me back to what I was thinking about last post. Don't try to stick my square peg self in a round hole (or round peg in square hole? eh, whatever, you get what I mean).

And honestly, that got me to day dreaming. And poking around on Pinterest, which I'm sure everyone here has heard about right now. I stumbled up on this dress.

dress found here

Which, honestly, I was like OOO!  I love the black and white houndstooth with a pop of red.  Originally I had planned to use the below August 2011 Burda Style dress, but the sizing and instructions made reticent. Not to mention I wanted more sleeve and less... neck thing.

Please excuse blurry photo. 

wool/rayon houndstooth

 So I went looking for an alternative and found the following Vogue V8413 and the perfect rayon/wool blend houdstooth.  Match made in heaven!

Vogue 8413 View C

Now I have one thing to think about.  The other place inspiration has struck is in the form of impulsive fabric purchase.  But I don't feel one iota of guilt. This fabric screams NERD, but is posh at the same time. Pixalated charmeuse print  with random beading anyone?

I made the photo big because it totally deserves it. I've got a Laura Ashley pattern in my stash already that will be perfect for this. Its basically a lined princess seam sheath dress. 

Both of these will take a little time and a few muslins to get the fit right.  So to start I'm going to do a few knit-wear pieces that i know fit, just to feel some satisfaction. First will be this Vogue top:

Vogue 8649

In a slate blue bamboo knit.  And the second will be a pair of yoga pants out of some black sweatshirt knit my Mom left me that has tiny white high heals all over them. 

So... that's what I've been musing over when not contemplating all the crazy news going on here and abroad. Tell me, what has inspired you recently?

Occupational Hazards of Being a Viking

So in case you're wondering where I've been, well lets just say I've been buried under piles of fabric and trying to get my body adjusted to my new work schedule. I'll be working 10pm to 10am three or four days a week. OH BOY. Oh, and I'm organizing a camping trip with horseback riding through the Appalachian mountains with a girlfriend of mine and our combined kids*. The horseback ride is what my son wants for his birthday.

But enough about that. I've been reorganizing my fabrics and planning projects. Thanks to Charlotte over at Sew Weekly, I've been inspired to built a basic wardrobe based on fabrics on hand and things we need in our daily rotation. More thoughtful planning as it were, but that's a whole blog post on its own.

See, the REAL reason I'm posting this is because of my futile search for a dress form that LOOKS LIKE ME. I made a duct tape form once but then used it for a corset project and once it gets bent out of shape, it doesn't go back to its original size. And duct tape gets sticky. We tried last night with packing tape, but it wasn't the kind that you wet and stick. SO that was no good.

We (me and hubby) have looked into getting me a custom form. Which is expensive, to say the least. I had emailed PGM Dressforms about help finding one that fits. They asked that I send my measurements and they can help me pick out a pre-made one. So I took my measurements and wrote them down and compared them to the chart. And what i saw crazy to me. So much so I made a visual representation for everyone else.

I would also like to point out that my x-shoulder measurements were 17 inches at the age of thirteen. So can you see why I have problems with finding a good dress form? Or find anything off the wrack that is non-knit that fits (or if it does, it looks like a tent). I am totally made for swinging battle axes from the back of a horse. This would explain why, even at under 150 pounds, I still had to wear large sizes and take them in at the waist. Long story short (TOO LATE!), if I want a dress form that is anywhere close to me-shape it will have to be custom made. Either by yours truly or for an absurd amount of money.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some fishing villages to terrorize.

*My friend has one boy age 5, I have an eight year old girl and an almost 10 year old boy. Its just going to be us two adults. No grown men coming with us. So two adults and three kids. Hopefully I won't go insane.

Testing the Waters

Hello Sewing Blogger World! I think things have settled enough in my life I might get a stitch or two in soon. But first, an update.

First off, my Mother is still alive. As a bit of background she contracted polio at 23 months and has had many accidents that required back surgery during the barbaric years of the 50's and 60's. Her entire spine is fused in the shape of an upside down question mark. And then a car accident broke her neck August 1rst, 1994. She relearned to walk after all that but now she is fighting post polio syndrome. A very severe case of it. Her last attack has left her unable to even move herself from bed to wheelchair and back. We have had to put her in a skilled nursing facility as the amount of care goes well beyond what our family can give her. And she is still considered a hospice patient. In amongst all this we have had to move my father and 20 years of their lives into the ground floor apartment of my mother-in-law's house.

I've spent a total of 42 hours in emergency rooms over two separate visits (One was 36 hours total). I know more about the medicaid system than I EVER thought I would and I will tell you I despise our bureaucracy with every fiber of my being. And before anyone tries to pin this on "Obamacare" let me point out that that bill has made it EASIER, not harder, according to the social workers I have been dealing with.

Mom is unhappy about being in an institution but we haven't been able to come up with any alternative that works. Particularly since we can't legally administer the amount of pain medication she needs at home. NONE of this has been easy to deal with, its been very hard and long and lots of tears have been shed. Lots of angry ranting. I have no idea what I would do without my amazing friends and family.

Mom told me to take most of her sewing stuff and now I have no idea where to put it. In amongst all this was two yards of a honeysuckle color silk dupioni and 6 yards of peach colored crepe-de-china. These have made their way into my spring/summer sewing plans.

The nursing home does not have phones in the rooms so I put her on my family plan and gave her a cell phone. This way she can contact us whenever she wants and that bit of connection helps a lot on both sides. She has told me she's proud of my sewing and wants me to keep at it. And of course still be a mother and wife and all those hats that I wear in my life.

Its Full of Stars!

This picture has the most accurate color.

Howdy folks! This post is up way later than I had hoped because of my kids' having their yellow belt test and then some snafu with the internet company. Kids did great, my ISP is gonna get buggered and then I'm gonna switch services. ANYWHO! On to sewing!

PAJAMAS! That's right, I made some pajamas for my little girl. I used McCall's 4646 view D for the pattern. This view is a top and bottoms and it calls for 2 1/4 yards of 60" wide fabric. I only had 1 3/4 yards of a flannel back satin I bought about two years ago. So I had to use what I call "creative fabric acrobatics" in which I try to get the most of for my money. What helps here is that the pattern is not one-way and wouldn't look weird unless I used a bias cut. But why would I do that for this project anyway? The other thing I did was make the top short sleeved and she had to have the pants shortened by almost 4 inches as well. So by golly, I managed to get the whole thing cut out!

And since I had to use such short sleeves, I couldn't put in elastic and really didn't have enough room to hem. So instead I used this very narrow cotton insert lace and zigzagged the edges together. I then turned it under, pressed, and sewed it in a narrow hem. Not really the neatest, but hey, these are pajamas for a little girl. On the inside seams I just did an overcast stitch to stop fraying, with the exception of the front bodice top, which I pinked. I'm not sure why I decided to do it this way. Probably just laziness.

I had made view B about a year ago, but I did it out of a polyester charmeuse which is exactly the WRONG fabric to do it with, very difficult. So this felt fairly simple. We currently have view A cut out for the robe. Its a very bright printed flannel and Felicity (that's my daughter) wants to help sew it herself. Since she has her own little Singer Featherweight and sewing table from last Christmas, this should be fun for her. I'm sure it will give me a grey hair or two trying not to have an anxiety attack over it. Isn't being a mom fun? The robe project will have its own posts, to be sure. And without any further ado, here is Felicity modeling for us. The one above is her showing off one of her many baby dolls. Below are the rest. Keep sewing and stay beautiful!