s.o.s. challenge ahoy

Of all the fabric in the online world that I could drop into my virtual shopping cart, what are the chances that I could end up with the exact fabric as one of my familiar sewing bloggers? Is it possible that someone else has as good taste as I do? Apparently yes. I was scrolling through my blog reader earlier this year, and saw a post by Made by Trisha in which she announced her "stashbusting pledge" for 2013. Because she is a good blogger, she also posted a photo of the bust-worthy stash -- for accounting or accountability purposes, I assume. Wait, ooh, something familiar! 

(Trisha's stash)

I spy some fabric in your stash that's also in mine, I commented. Well, besides that gray jersey with the black birds. I DO know everyone already owns that (my attempt at it found here). But that blue and white piece -- is it the blue nautical flag stripe knit from Girl Charlee? Yessiree. This made Trisha's brilliant brain wheels crank. We simply can't pass up this opportunity -- we both own this sister fabric, birthed from the same fabric yardage womb in the same little fabric shop. But if we can't reunite them in person, let's reunite them in spirit! (Let me be clear: this is my dramatized reenactment of our first e-mail exchange, not an actual transcription.)

Introducing our S.O.S (Stashbusting Our Sister fabric) Challenge. Everything collaborative you do in the blogosphere needs a catchy title or else it crumbles away in memory and search boxes. Trisha and I have committed to using our same fabric to make a secret item, then we plan to reveal it to each other and the world on April 2nd. I can't wait to see what she makes with it! We may have similar taste in fabrics, but where will our respective creative processes lead us when it comes to choosing (or drafting...?) a pattern for it? Since our fabric was separated at birth, how similar will their personalities be after all this time?!

The fabric is cute, yes, but the design lines and large scale stripes have given me pause. It's languished in my stash for this long (almost a year) because I don't know what to do with it! It's a ponte knit, so slightly heavier weight than other cotton jerseys I've bought from Girl Charlee. I love it dearly but am afraid of making a bad style choice for it. Of course I did my Pinterest research:

Consensus seems to be a figure-hugging dress with simple lines. Naturally I'm more drawn to the Ruche dress (far left) that actually has a waist seam and some ease through the hips. But my fabric may be too thick to imitate that drapier style.

What do you think? What would YOU do with this fabric? Wait, do you already own this fabric? Hop on over to Trisha's blog to see her announcement of the S.O.S. challenge, and watch our spaces in April for the final products!

fabric tale

Let me share a little tale. A little fabric fairy tale.

Two days after I moved to Philadelphia in August, I received an e-mail from a woman who was cleaning out her mother's house back in Louisville. She said she had uncovered a -- wait for it -- "treasure trove" of vintage fabric and patterns, as her mother used to be an avid seamstress. Not wanting to just throw them all away, she Google-searched "vintage fabric louisville ky" to see where she may be able to take them. That's where she found my blog -- particularly the post in which I whined about the lack of fabric resources in Louisville. 

"Are you interested in them? They're yours if you want them and can pick them up. I'm only in town for the weekend," she wrote.

Interested?! Um, what's the word that describes a trance-like state in which you can't stop yourself from muttering "ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod" repeatedly until your housemate has thundered "What?!" enough times that you finally muster up the words to explain your slack-jawed delirium?

Yes, I was interested.

But of course, I had just separated myself a good 700 miles from my hometown, which I had begrudgingly called a "sewing desert" only a few months before. Little did I know that a TREASURE TROVE of classic wools, Liberty of London lawn, and vibrant cottons waited patiently in neat little stacks in a woman's basement mere footsteps away from where I grew up. Not wanting to pass up this opportunity, I asked my mom if she could scoop up the boxes for me. Turns out my parents live right around the corner. 

This story does get a bit more amazing. The woman who reached out to me -- guess where she lives? Philadelphia. At the time of our e-mail exchange, I had just interviewed at a couple of non-profit agencies in town. Turns out that one of them -- and the one that subsequently offered me the job I have now -- was where she used to work for five years. In fund development, no less. Eerie, incredible, coincidental, fateful, interesting, weird. You name it. 

Anyway, I flew to L-ville this past week to attend a friend's wedding, celebrate my mama's birthday, and finally get my paws on these graciously gifted goodies. I took a carry-on bag of clothes home and checked a full suitcase of fabric on the way back. I still left behind a good amount, so what I show here in these photos is only a slice of the pie.

The wool is the bulk of it, and it's all free of moth holes, incredibly. This woman was so organized with her fabric, I feel a little guilty disrupting her piles and tossing them about. She labeled each box to say what was in each one, including yardage and color. Some of the original receipts are stapled to the fabric to show price, length and selvage width. 

I haven't inspected these patterns very closely, so if anyone wants to take a guess as to what era they're from just from cover art alone, I'll commend you. I love owning these envelopes, though I most likely won't make any of these up. They're just so beautiful and charming.

Oh yea, there are also notions.

Was that not clear? NOTIONS! Seam binding, bias tape, rick rack, hook & eyes, buttonhole makers, snaps, zippers, elastic, piping, lace, ballpoint needles, helloooooooo seamster heaven. My existing notion stash was dismal because I hate spending money on the little extras, so I'm thrilled to suddenly have these at my fingertips. I keep dumping them onto the floor so I can admire the molehill of plastic packages; it's just like dumping out your Halloween candy after trick-or-treating to see how successful you were at acquiring as much free candy as possible.

These gadgets are my favorite. Pleat maker? Hallelujah. Top stitch zipper guide? It looks confusing but if it makes me "topstitch like a pro" then try to stop me from being a pro topstitcher. And a bound buttonhole maker? Oh go on! If you've tried any of these tools before, please give me your insight!

I know I was graced with a wonderful and generous gift here, and I'm so so grateful. Before you curse my good fortune, though, please know that I've already been bitten in the ass by karma. My hands were so full toting all my luggage home from the train station, somewhere along the way I dropped and lost my Minoru jacket. I had just exclaimed in my last post how it was my most-worn item, but now I have to declare it dead and gone, probably sucked under the tire of a garbage truck or swiped off the train platform. Let's just hope the new owner, if there is one, appreciates the hand-crafted pear-shapededness of that well-loved jacket. Oh well. 

What's your favorite fabric acquisition or fabric find story? Have you ever been gifted something unexpected, just because you're one of the few out there who still pursue this sewing hobby? 

diy spray starch: eliminate curled edges on jersey

Look familiar?:

Knit jersey is GREAT (yea? nay?), but, you know, it has some characteristics that can bug the hell out of us seamsters. The raw edges don't fray, but they do curl. This can work in your favor if you want it to be a design element, like on the cardigan Lizz made from Dixie's pattern. Or it can mean difficulty matching edges and trimming seams accurately. And careful -- watch that overlocker knife when you use your finger to unroll the edge as you serge.

I don't know what you people do/don't know, but I thought I'd go ahead and share a new-to-me discovery of a way to keep those roley-poley edges in check. Quite obvious, really: fabric starch!

Certainly you can buy some fabric starch spray at your local grocery store or whatever, but I decided to go au naturel and make my own. Save money, avoid the chemicals, love your jersey.

THE INGREDIENTS:

• Distilled water (in case you have hard tap water with high mineral content that can damage your iron or possibly your fabric)
• Corn starch
• Empty plastic spray bottle. They sell these at stores, too, but luckily I had saved this spray bottle from a questionably effective hair product so I'm totally eco-friendly here. OK that's questionable, too. Please forgive that I bought water in a huge plastic tub.

I used 1 cup (240 mL) of distilled water: 

and 4 level teaspoons (20 mL) of corn starch:

You may want to use less corn starch to test first, and I think it also depends on the fabric content and weight. Cotton jersey stiffened up more easily, so three teaspoons would probably be fine, but rayon jersey seemed to need the help of an extra teaspoon. I wanted to get rid of the curl but also wanted to use it as a stabilizer for stitching, so I was happy with my lightweight cotton jersey turning pretty crisp.

Mix these ingredients in a bowl or something that will be easy to pour from. I used my measuring cup. The liquid will turn milky white, and the lumps should dissolve once stirred.

Pour into your spray bottle, reattach the nozzle and give it a good shake. Don't spill like I did. Or photograph the process in the light of an epic sunset, like I did.

Here's what normally happens when you don't starch but simply press the edge out and then lift or move the fabric at all:

Instant re-curl! Instead, press the curl out, then spray the edge liberally with your starch. I spray until it's pretty damp, but don't go overboard.

Run your iron over it until dry. I did not use steam.

And your edges will be nice and crisp. Go ahead, wave the fabric around. No re-curl!

Here's the fabric, where the left edge has been starched and the right edge has not. Much more sewable, eh:

The starch will come out when you wash your finished garment. No worries. In the end you'll still have a nice drapey garment to frolic around in.

And here's a part I test-hemmed along the crossgrain. It seems more successful (less wavy) than my jersey hems usually are, and faster than using Steam-a-Seam:

Unfortunately I don't know how long this starch will keep before you need to make a new batch. The Internet has mixed verdicts on DIY starch, so maybe just make a small amount as you need it. Be sure to shake the mixture each time before you use it, and as always, test on scrap fabric first to make sure it doesn't leave any residue or stains.

Any other fabric starching or jersey stabilization tips out there?

copper penny tablecloth skirt

Before

After

Who uses tablecloths? Not me. Who wears skirts? Yeah, me.

This is Simplicity 2512, a Cynthia Rowley design, view B. For the material I used a large copper-colored tablecloth with herringbone weaving. Thrifted for $4. It's actually pure coincidence that the Sew Weekly theme this week is garments made from household fabrics (curtains, tablecloths, sheets). That's just how I roll almost every week.

The pattern's curvy sweetheart-like waistband reminded me of the Ginger skirt from Colette Patterns but I liked the gathers and shape of this skirt more (from the front, anyway).

I wish I had made the belt tie longer, as some other reviews of this pattern suggested, so it could be tied in a bow. I followed the pattern exactly but my ties look thinner than the envelope model's.

I made the pockets with thin beige lining from a deconstructed skirt in my scrap basket. I didn't want to use the tablecloth material for the pockets because of the bulk.

I wonder why pockets are so coveted in modern skirt/dress patterns. Does anyone actually carry stuff in there? I stopped carrying anything in my pockets after an unfortunate melting chapstick incident. Ain't stopping me from making them, though. They still look cute and have a cute name. Pocket.

But let's be real. This skirt's fine from the front but it's awfully bubbly in the back because of the way it's gathered and then curves in towards the hem. This is an exaggerated pose but you definitely get the point:

 

 Right??:

Yet another skirt for the "Wear only with long sweaters to avoid Teletubbiness" category. Yea, I have a couple of those now. Bummer.

Another reason this sewing story doesn't have a happy ending: while removing the skirt after I modeled it, the zipper pull decided to pop off one of its tracks. (Yes, zipper pulls make decisions, as ways to spite me). I fixed it, which was a painstaking process, but then it just did it again the next time I unzipped the skirt. I believe it's because this material is fairly thick, and the waistband, facing, ties and binding all layered upon each other at the top is too much for the invisible zipper to handle. Maybe I'll replace it with a regular zipper, or I don't know. Any suggestions??

:(

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linked to...

sew country chick

warning: baby stuff ahead

I normally skim over (or avoid altogether) any crafts/DIY/products on the blogosphere related to babies or small children. I've only been to three or four baby showers in my life, two of which were for my baby niece (photo here). She's the only babe in my life at the moment, though, and I haven't ventured into these kind of projects for her yet. So I was sorta out of my element when I decided to make something by hand for my colleague's baby shower next week. Definitely the first time "baby shower DIY" has graced my Google search history. But hey, it wasn't too bad.

Swaddling wrap/tie blanket and matching burp cloths

My co-worker and her husband have chosen not to learn the gender of the baby before he/she is born. I'm all for this idea, because I'm not a fan of most of the gender-specific items sold in stores. Some of it can be pretty awful. Anyway, for my projects I chose flannel with a blue palette, but only because I like blue, not because I hope the baby is a boy. At least it's birds and trees, not cars and trucks or something.

I have plenty more photos of these items after the jump:

let it snow?

I sewed this skirt today. It's my own (very basic) pattern. Invisible zipper in the side seam with tiny button & loop closure. Slightly gathered in front and back, with a top-stitched waistband.

This was "global"-themed designer fabric I bought at Joann's, something that says "Jester Red Diamond M..." on my receipt. I guess when they label something "global" they just mean... non-Western. They didn't specify what part of the globe inspired this design. I kept leaving and coming back to it and decided it could make a pretty sundress or skirt. Red and white is a palette I'm always attracted to. (Go Cards).

When I took the bolt to be cut, the chatty scissors-wielding employee said, "Oh cute! Snowflakes! Are you making a Christmas dress?" Oh no... I didn't realize global could mean North Pole.

After she cut, she told me the price per yard and the total I was going to have to pay. I guess I had misread the sign, or just assumed everything is always on some sort of sale at Joann's. Nope, apparently not the global fabric. It traveled a long way to get here, maybe via Rudolph's sleigh, and that costs a pretty penny.

I bought it anyway -- smh -- and spent a few weeks just kind of eyeing it in my fabric stash, occasionally wrapping the yardage around my body to see how much it actually looked like snowflakes and whether I could force non-Christmas apparel out of it. I finally made the skirt today, still unsure, and now keep staring at these pictures to determine if I look like Mrs. Claus' kitchen assistant. I like the weight and drape of the fabric but this snowflakes thing is killing me. HELP ME.


I hate making things that I'm not confident to wear. I'd probably never question it if that woman hadn't said anything about snowflakes, but now I'm just in a blizzard of confusion. Pun intended (forced)-- you're welcome.