More sewing with pets

Okay, what are my pets trying to tell me this week?! First it was Pia and the muslin, now it's Dinah and the sewing machine.

Apparently she, too, is eager to find out how the collar will work out on my muslin (see previous post). I just sat down to work on it and suddenly there she was.

You can just get a little glimpse of one of my prized possessions in the background, which I hope to photograph in detail sometime when the sun comes back (I'm thinking that'll be about April). It's a vintage hutch that we got last Fall from one of my favorite antique malls in Chicago. In the meantime it'll have to remain a bit of a mystery, but you can just make out some of my collections... jadite plates, my snappy snail Enesco teapot, salt and pepper shakers and sugar bowl, my primrose Fire King and several pieces of green depression glass that I've inherited from my step-grandmother. (Can you inherit something when someone is still alive? That sounded awkward. She gave them to me. There, that's better!)

I can't wait until it's the season when it's daylight when I get home from work again. I sure hate never being able to take any decent photos! Okay, the Artic weather isn't so great, either...

Stick-to-it-ness

Yesterday evening I sat down to actually begin work on the muslin for my vintage blouse. I figured out the front gathers on the shoulder pretty easily, sewed up the shoulders and the sides... and then spent about the next 2 or 3 hours reading two paragraphs of my pattern. Vintage sewing patterns being a little skimpy on the instructions (if not downright pithy sometimes), it probably worked out to about 45 minutes a sentence. Argh.

The issue in question was the construction of the collar. Probably not a difficult construction, but for some reason I just absolutely could not wrap my brain around the instructions as written. If I were an advanced sewist or had at least a few collars under my belt I would have been able to figure it out regardless of the instructions. As neither were the case, there I sat in the dining room. And sat and sat and sat, and wondered. And tested one thing, then the next, then stared at a sentence for the umpteenth time while muttering that boy, was I ever glad I hadn't lazed out and was actually doing this on a muslin!

I went to bed frustrated, having literally spent my entire night poring over something I wasn't able to figure out. That's usually the time when I'd curse and throw everything in a bag, perhaps never to see the light of day again. But I brought the pattern with me to bed. I looked at it while chatting with Mel for a few minutes when suddenly I shouted, "Oh my god I think I figured it out!!!" I raced out of bed, grabbed a sticky note and furiously wrote down some notes. (Because anyone who knits knows if you don't actually write detailed notes when you're working on something, instead thinking "oh surely I'll remember that..." knows this is never, ever true, no matter how many times to try and delude yourself into thinking next time will be different. This is especially true if you have to work two of something, like sleeves or socks.) There's only one more part I need to work out when I sit down to try it out tonight, but it's probably because my brain can't really sew in 3-D, despite my best intentions. Today, I ordered Clotilde's Sew Smart. I have a great vintage sewing resource book, but I happened across this book when I was Googling for collar tips. I found a few sample pages on Google Books and knew right away this was a resource I needed (and a used copy cost less than the price to ship it). My sewing library is still meager, so the more, the merrier!

In other sewing-related news, I'm going to join the Swing Dress Sew Along at Casey's Elegant Musings. Since I keep talking about wanting to sew my first dress, I figured I could use the extra encouragement of a sew-along. Plus, it sounds like fun! I do knit-alongs all the time on Ravelry and it's just fun to participate on the same thing with a bunch of others, seeing what changes people make, helping each other out (though in this case I know I will not be a helper but a helpee). I've ordered the pattern but I'm sure selecting the fabric will be the toughest part. I'd love a light cottony print, perhaps... something to remind me that Spring will indeed show up... one day.

Now, let's hope I kick some muslin butt tonight!

uniform sewing

This afternoon, I sat down to make a muslin. I admit that I'm really not a big fan of doing them anymore than I'm a fan of knitting a gauge swatch. But like in knitting, I know when I need to do one and when I don't. This weekend I finished up my blenders blouse and I'm extremely happy with it. (I hope to get some photos next weekend when there's sun.) I'd do a few things different next time, but I know I'll be making the pattern again and again. In fact, it turned out the neckline was high enough that I can wear the shirt to work, so that was a nice bonus considering yesterday's rant.

I love the idea of having a few 'uniform' sewing patterns to make wardrobe staples, and got the idea from my friend Brandy. A pattern that I really like, that fits me well, that I know how to sew and that I can whip out different versions of to make each one unique. I definitely know the pattern I used for the blender blouse will be my first uniform pattern.

So I'm working on a muslin for a second basic blouse pattern. I admit I didn't make one for the blenders blouse. But this time I'm going to, partly because I think the pattern size I bought might end up being too big for me so I may need to do some alterations, and partly because I've never done gathers at the shoulder before so I need the practice. It's a Simplicity pattern with no date, but I'm guessing from the hairdos perhaps late 50s or early 60s. Just a classic style. Even better, another work-appropriate one if it turns out well. Once the muslin is complete, if I get it to a place where I'm satisfied, I plan on ordering up a bunch of fabric to make myself 'uniform' blouses for work.

Making muslins are kind of a drag. But today, what was my biggest obstacle?

That's right. That's my muslin fabric under her butt. This photo was taken the third time I had moved her and moved the muslin. She was too cute to move again, so I just worked around her. Fortunately the ironed part that I needed was up on the table above her. It really only proved problematic when she changed position and my fabric started to scoot its way down to the floor.

Welcome to my sewing in my house!

Non sequiturs: Pasta sauce and business casual

I was initially planning to post today about the wonderful, amazing dinner that I cooked for us last night. For the first time, I made my mom's Italian pasta sauce recipe, which is probably very close to my grandma's recipe, which in turn is probably similar to my great grandmother's recipe. So if not in exact ingredients or steps, it's a sauce that's been passed down at least four generations. My great-grandmother died when I was very, very little, and I don't remember much about her except that she was an elderly woman who didn't speak English very well and who wore a lot of black. But the one distinct memory I do have is having a soft-boiled egg eating contest with her. So perhaps it's fitting that this amazing sauce has had-boiled eggs in it. (If you've never had pasta sauce with hard-boiled eggs, you don't know what you're missing. Really.)

Anyway, it took a year and two sessions watching my mom make The Sauce to have a recipe I could work with. Actually, that should read: a recipe that I didn't accidentally lose for a year. That's right. At Christmas a couple of years ago I watched my mom make the sauce, writing down meticulous notes. Which I promptly lost when I got home. Last year, I made her do it again, writing down more meticulous notes. Which I then put into Google Docs for safe keeping. Of course, as soon as I got home I found the original notes. Which is actually fantastic, because they weren't exactly the same and now I really have a good idea about the variations my mom does when she makes her sauce. In an ironic twist, today I was telling her about making the sauce and she requested a copy of the recipe I wrote down. Because I had left her a copy last year. And she lost it.

Oh wait, apparently I did just post about the dinner. But on to what I now really want to post about: a rant about work clothes.

I hate office wear. I hate business casual. I even hate the term. Yuck. I mainly wear a plain crew-neck t-shirt, a cardigan, and boring slacks. Nothing vintage, or retro, with the exception of an occasional vintage cardi. I've never really felt I could find a way to incorporate that into my work life. For four main reasons: 1) I have a lot of tattoos that need to be covered up. No dresses or skirts, no sleeves shorter than a hand-width above my wrist, no button down shirts unless they have a really high second button. 2) I've always felt it would be a little funny wearing vintage clothes in such a boring business casual environment. Probably because I've never been able to do it. 3) Being limited to pants, I must admit that I don't find high-waisted vintage or retro pants particularly comfy to sit in for 8 hours at my desk. 4) It gets really hot and muggy in Chicago in the summer, so I end up sticking with thin store-bought cotton cardigans, since all of my handknit and vintage cardis are wool or acrylic. And both those fibers make me want to pull my skin off when it's 90 degrees and humid in July.

With the new year, I thought it might be nice if I at least stepped up my wardrobe a bit. I bought a few nicer pair of slacks, a couple of new cardigans, a couple of button downs. Ordered online. I got most of it today, tried it on, and wanted to throw it all out the window. Perfectly nice, serviceable clothes, but I felt like a complete idiot in them. I hated the lower rise on the pants, the button down looked manly and weird, and every combo I tried I hated. I felt fake and weird and yuck!

So now I am completely down on work clothes, and I have no idea what to do next. I may just have to suck it up like office workers decades before my time and deal with sitting for hours in somewhat uncomfortable clothing (yes high-waisted pants, I'm looking at you). I may just have to button my shirts up all the way, even though I don't generally do that. But apparently I did on New Year's Eve at our friends' party, and that worked, right?

As for cardigans when it starts to get warmer... okay, that one I'm still stumped about.

I also think this all means I need to sew some lighter weight shirts to wear to work, since of course if I'm sewing it, I can put the buttonholes anywhere I please. But finding fabric may be a tough job for me. It would need to be light enough to work under a cardigan without being too stiff in sleeves (so it would fit smoothly under a cardi), or too stiff in general. I'm thinking some kind of cotton or cotton blend that's lighter than quilter's cotton. I have some adorable voile that I think wouldn't be too sheer enough to show tattoos with a cami underneath and paired with a cardigan, but I'm still a little scared to sew with it (mostly because I have no idea how you do facings when your fabric is sheer).

So... I think I need to stop being a lazy vintage enthusiast when it comes to the workplace. I can tell it's going to take some serious work, though!

Pin basting a sleeve in a vintage sewing pattern

Yesterday afternoon I picked back up a sewing project that I had abandoned last Fall. I didn't do a lot of sewing last year, and I know that's due in large part to being an on again, off again sewist over the years, even though last year I was really determined to make it more of a habit. I didn't. I'm usually pretty adept at reading vintage patterns but sometimes my execution leaves something to be desired, and that left me frustrated last year. I'm determined to sing a different tune this year, however.

I've recently come to realize that a lot of my issues with garment sewing is due to my own poor fabric selections. (Let me just put this out there: the world needs to stop making so much stinkin' cute quilter's cotton.) A great resource that really helped me is the guide to sewing series of posts that Casey over at Elegant Musings did, which is tailored for the vintage sewist. Reading that really set the light bulb off in my head about making better fabric selections. I swear I'm going to put all my fabric that's not so perfect for garments in the back of the closet so I'm not tempted to use it!

Back to that sewing project from last Fall. Using, you guessed it, quilter's cotton. I mean, I couldn't very well resist a pattern with retro blenders on it, could I? I know now it wasn't a great choice, but rather than leaving it crumpled up sadly in a bag in the closet, I decided to try and see it through. Even if it means it'll be slightly too stiff and it'll wrinkle if you look at it cross-eyed. It'll still be cute.

But the real reason for this post is actually to share a great tip that I read about many months ago that I filed away for future reference. It's an alternate technique to setting a sleeve into an armhole. My pattern recommended, as do many people, to baste around the sleeve cap, then pull the lower thread loosely as you're pinning the sleeve into the armhole to distribute the ease. (And if you prefer that method, there's a great tutorial post over at Sew, Mama, Sew with lots of photos.) However, I read this post at Gorgeous Things (whose new blog is now here) about pin basting to set a sleeve into an armhole, so I tried it. And I loved it!

Of course, I didn't take any photos while I was setting the sleeve into the armhole, so you'll have to make do with a simulation.

Pin basting a sleeve:

Essentially what you do is turn your body inside out and your sleeve right side out as you normally would do, and begin to pin the sleeve into the armhole. First, I pinned together the sleeve and the body at the top and the bottom. I would say I pinned at the notches next, except when I cut out my sleeves I must have laid the pattern upside down so my notches were all off, so I didn't actually do that. I then started easing in the fabric into the armhole with pins. Lots of pins. Lots and lots of pins. More pins than I even pictured above. You don't need nearly as many pins towards the bottom of the armhole where there isn't as much ease, but you'll want to go just crazy with the pins at the sleeve cap. As you pin, carefully distribute the ease as you go.

And it'll take awhile. You'll find you often have to move pins around, getting the ease just right. And in some sections it'll be easier than others. I did one half of a sleeve in about 5 minutes, but I swear the second half took twice as long or more. If you attempt this method don't get frustrated, because the end result is worth it. (And honestly, it's probably not much more work than the method where you baste the sleeve cap first, anyway.)

When it was time to sew, I started at the bottom of the armhole and worked my way around, going very slowly on the sewing machine and removing pins as I went. As I got to the sleeve cap area I started really distributing the ease with my hands as I went, stretching the fabric from both directions, making sure I didn't sew in any creases. I admit I sewed over many of the pins because there were just so many. It's hard not to when you've got pins every 1/4" or so.

In the end, I had a perfectly smooth set-in sleeve! And in the photo below, I hadn't even trimmed the seam or pressed it yet.

And that's all there is to it! I felt it was worth the effort for the nice result, and I'll definitely do use this method again. Yay for new techniques!

Resources from this post:

• Casey's Elegant Musings Guide to Sewing
• Gorgeous Fabrics Setting a Sleeve into an Armhole
• Sew, Mama, Sew! Learn How to Attach a Set-in Sleeve

Happy New Year

I guess you could say it's been awhile since I've felt like blogging. Nothing happened, I just kept putting off posting photos from our Fall trip to Ireland and I turned around and bim, bam, boom! Suddenly it's 2011. Happy New Year!

While the holiday season has only just finished up, I feel I can still be justified in posting the Christmas sweater I knit in December. Last year (oops, now the year before last-- look how that pesky new year confuses you) I ordered the lovely little knitting book Vintage Gifts to Knit by Susan Crawford. You might recognize the name as one of the authors of A Stitch in Time, Volume 1 (and incidentally, Volume 2 is now available to pre-order). I naturally fell in love with most things in the book, and really wanted to knit her Perfect Christmas Jumper pattern in particular.

Much as I love fingering weight sweaters, I never got to it in 2009 and felt certain that I'd never get to it in 2010 either if I didn't toy with the pattern a bit. So I upsized it for worsted weight, a much more appropriate weight for my own particular Midwestern climate around Christmas.

All things considered, I made very few changes other than the dramatic change in gauge. I tried to keep my charts and pattern as faithful to the original as possible. The sleeve caps have a box pleat. Because I felt the similar type of cap on my Mildred Pierce cardigan featured in my last blog post came off my shoulders a bit too much, I made sure to decrease the shoulders in this pullover so that the cap would sit closer to my shoulder, and that worked out brilliantly. The cap is really ingenious-- you work decreases that (mostly) mirror the armhole decreases on your body once you hit the desired sleeve length, work to a couple of inches short of the height of your armhole on the body, then decrease until you have about 2" of stitches remaining in the middle, then knit a little flap for about 2 more inches. Then you seam the sides of the flap to the cast off edges just before the flap. Don't let my simple explanation fool you though, because I literally spent hours deconstructing the sizing on Susan's original pattern in order to reach that conclusion. I love the result and I'll definitely use it on future projects.

The other thing I love about this pullover is the back. There's a little button band at the top, which is a cute added touch. I used 4 round vintage buttons from my stash.

In this photo you can see that my short style is an illusion; my hair has grown quite long and I have it tucked up and pinned. It's actually several inches longer than I've had it in any kind of recent memory. I'm probably going to get it cut soon, to perhaps a modified long middy that's a few inches shorter than what I have now and layered so I can try out more vintage styles. But the length has been fun, and I proved to myself that yes, I can grow my hair long!

And just to get me back on the topic of knitting, my current sweater is coming along. Rather slowly, admittedly, as it is indeed in fingering weight--the short-sleeved Fair Isle Yoke from A Stitch in Time. Except, because I appear to be incapable of knitting something exactly as written, I'm slightly modifying the fit and I'll be using a completely different colorwork chart featuring hearts and clovers. I'm hoping to finish up a couple of short-sleeved sweaters for Viva Las Vegas in April, but knowing how I love to jump to other projects (and that I have some sewing I'd like to do between now and then, too), I'll be happy if I get Fair Isle Yoke completed by then.

Here's to a craft-filled 2011!