Maxi Skirt for the Fun of it!

A while back I had a friend ask me if I knew of any good patterns out there for a maxi skirt. I started looking and found several tutorials and a few online classes that featured a unique variety of maxi skirts, but none of them quite got my attention. Instead I kept looking and working on other sewing projects. Until I was working on making a t-shirt dress out of a lightweight knit I had bought using McCall’s 6654, but that’s for another post. Using the pattern made me realize it had an A-line maxi and a pencil skirt version. Silly me I had the pattern all along.

All I had to do then was decided on the fabric and see if I had enough of it. My first choice was a light blue with a short line of tiny teeny weenie polka dots spread out in a pattern on the fabric. Rolled it out, measured it, and there isn’t enough. So on to my second choice a plum colored fabric with white polka dots! I was excited about the polka dots but not so much about the color. I’m never very excited about purple, but plum I will wear on occasion. The color seems to be growing on me more and more though, or maybe it’s just the skirt itself.

I wore this Saturday evening and most of Sunday as my second wear for Me Made May ’13. I have a habit of finishing something and wearing it as soon as I’m done with it. It is super comfy and has plenty of room to move since I chose the A-line. I worry that it may be a bit hot in the later summer months since it is a spandex/lycra mix.

I used my serger almost exclusively for this pattern and it turned out great. I made a few changes to it. I didn’t hem the bottom, however I did serge it with matching thread. I almost ran out! Thankfully bobbins will work for sewing on the serger! I also had to do my normal and take about an inch off at the waist and taper back into the existing seam about three inches down. I don’t have a set length for this. I just check to see how much I need to take it in at top and angle the fabric so my seam will run into my original seam. I hope that makes sense for those that sew and maybe even those who don’t! The last change was the elastic and the waistband. I decided I didn’t want to make a casing for the elastic and that I did not want it to fold to the inside. So I stitched up the elastic and sewed it to the right side of the skirt. I know have a three-inch wide elastic waistband.

Sorry I’m not looking at the camera much. I’m super sensitive to the sunlight and it’s impossible for me to have my eyes open without my sunglasses.

I ordered a Janome Coverpro 1000 CPX this weekend and it should be coming in by the end of this next week! I’m so excited!!!! It means professionally finished hems! I want to be able to hem this skirt up as one of its first projects. The reason for that is I would like to be able to wear this skirt a bit lower on my hips. I’m mostly stuck to flats, so the length has to change a bit for that.

 

I created a Facebook page for the blog if you want to hop on over and follow me there. You’ll get to see my projects as I work on them and other little tidbits that pop in my head throughout my days! One last picture and then a few questions for you!

Do you have a coverstitch machine? Do you love it or hate it? And what brand is it? And now for the most important question: Does that waistband need some plum colored polka dots? Let me know what you think!

 

An Adventure in the Making of Undies

I’ve been meaning to post about this for quite some time. I was super excited when Mrs. Depew Of A Few Threads Loose announced that she was going to do a sew along and it was for her Ma Cherie French Knickers! Not only was she doing the sew along, but she discounted the pattern and produced a paper pattern for those interested in participating. I of course jumped for the opportunity since I have been intrigued by the idea of making my own underwear for quite some time. I just hadn’t convinced myself that the Kwik Sew patterns I had would do.

I bought the pattern and immediately started thinking about what fabric I had that I would consider using. I didn’t want to start out with any silk or even satin since they are both shifty, squirelly fabric. Grrr! I decided on a deep purple rayon fabric that I had been given from someone else’s fabric stash. Great fabric to cut out and none of the problems that come with satin. After cutting them out and sewing up the major seams I realized that my 44 inch hips were, well not 44 inches anymore. I had lost around two inches of my hips and thighs. Yeah! So I had to take the sides of those puppies in. I was pretty excited about it!

The issue with taking them in was I had cut the length for the larger size, so as I took them in the sides no longer matched up. To solve that issue I used my rotary cutter to trim the excess off on the edges of the back. I made sure to take off an even amount and to try to keep the pattern true to the original lines. Even with that they look more like very short running shorts. But they are so comfy!

Do you see the shiny trim on the bottom edge of them? I was given some metallic yarn that is basically embroidery floss. I decided that I would use some of it with my serger to finish all the edges off with. It looks great and is a very soft finish. The only issue with it was spinning it up so it was useable. That stuff is slippery! It’s the equivalent to satin or silk in fabric.  Let me know if you Twirlers would like to see close up pictures of the trim or even a short step by step of how I used it.

See? Short, shorts!

I’ve been meaning to make another pair, but this time a bit closer to my true size! I have some pink scalloped lace that I want to use and I’d love to have some out of stretchy fabric.  There will be other versions of these in the future. You just may not see them on me! I’m also planning on making another pair out of this same purple material because I have a pair of shorts in the works that I would wear them with. I am going to be making myself a pair of Flapper Shorts made by The Makers Journal out of the same fabric. So if my underwear show for some reason they will match!

Right now I’m working with my first vintage pattern. Here’s a sneak peek at which one it is:

If it goes well, I may end up cutting this out of swimsuit material and shortening the skirt. Maybe I’ll have a neat swimsuit for this summer? What do you think?

Me Made May 2013

So you may have guessed that I am taking part in Me Made ’13. I have been wanting to take part since I discovered its existence last year. So here I am! Full steam ahead!  So without further ado: Drum roll, please?

‘I, Erin Twirls of http://twirldesigns.wordpress.com/, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavor to wear one self-made garment on at least one day each weekend for the duration of May 2013′

So there’s my pledge and I’m sticking to it. I will try to at minimum wear one item on one weekend, but watch out for more than that! Yesterday was a photo shoot day up in San Marcos, Texas with a friend of mine that runs Medrano Photoraphy out of San Antonio, Texas. Go check her out! She was up there to take photos for the Central Texas Toy & Comic Expo. I was just along for the ride and quite enjoyed being able to take photos quite so freely. Because of the photo shoot I didn’t get to wear any Me Made items. I wore a Medrano Photography t-shirt almost all day long. So today is my Me Made May day!

I started the day out by wearing a pair of wide leg knit pants that I absolutely love! But after a day of tracing and cutting out patterns, I completed a top to wear for the remainder of the day.

That’s my first Me Made May ’13 outfit. Yes, I said outfit! Not only did I wear one item, but I made another and proceeded to wear it. Perfection in my mind! The pants I’ve already talked about in an earlier post, but the top was made today. It’s made out of a blue almost sheer knit fabric I had in my stash. The pattern is New Look 6814, but with a few changes. The top and bottom were raised around two inches so there would be a deep enough channel for a thick ribbon if desired. I ended up using a thinner ribbon I had in my stash, but I’ll be changing that in the coming weeks.  the top is designed for a ribbon that is at least an inch wide and has a nice soft drape to it. I’ll be keeping my eyes out for the perfect ribbon for it.

I have multiple posts in mind for the coming weeks and hopefully I will be able to keep up with it. Sorry for the long absence from the blog. I’ve been dealing with a hip injury that  has turned into chronic pain. It took a while but it is diagnosed and I’m even close to pain-free today because of some new medicine. Woot! That means I can sew! I do almost all of my sewing standing up since my machines are on a shelf that is a bit above my waist. I love it except for when my hip acts up, which means I’m not truly comfortable standing or sitting at a ninety degree angle. Only laying down or reclining seems to help. But today, I’m practically pain-free! I’ll take it and each day like it that I can get!

But for now, more pics:

 

I love posing in front of the rose garden me and my husband planted

Ooooh, look! A rose! I must smell!

Murphy’s Sister and a Skirt

A while back I posted about a skirt that I was in the process of sewing. It’s finally finished, but let me tell you about it! Pretty much anything that could go wrong did. The first thing was the bottom layer that was supposed to be a merlot colored china silk didn’t cut correctly and there was not enough to cut again. Silk is slippery stuff and I have learned my lesson. Cut carefully, precisely, and have extra! Extra makes perfect sense until I get used to using the stuff and get used to it I will! So the  merlot colored silk was replaced with a navy blue sheer gauze. Thankfully I had a fabric that matched the upper layers of fabric. Otherwise the hunt for more silk would have been on!

The next thing is the waistband. First I run out of the elastic thread for smocking and have to run to two different Wal-Mart’s on Easter Sunday night to get some so I can hopefully finish it to wear the next day. I finish the smocking and attach the waistband and it turns out that I need to take the waistband in. I had to take about four inches off it before it was snug enough. So it’s easy enough to say that I didn’t get to wear it the next day. I was able to take the waistband off the skirt that night but not take it in. The next morning I was able to take it in enough to attach it to the waistband and then….! The silk lining is now having fits at me. The serger stitches were too close together so it was actually cutting the fabric in places. I ended up sewing a wide and large zigzag stitch below the serger seam so I could actually have a skirt.  And finally Success:

Sorry about the squinting here. There was just enough glare to make pictures hard for me to take.

I had planned on lining the china silk since it was slightly sheer. It ended up being a good thing since the blue I ended up using is completely sheer. If I had planned on using the blue I would have used another blue, gray or even a black to line it, but the white does work. Next I wanted the waistband to be smocked, so that I didn’t have to use solid elastic. So much more comfortable! I also wanted the waistband to be taller than the pattern called for and I didn’t want the elastic threads against my skin. Easy fix! Cut out four of the waistband instead of two and stitch them together prior to sewing the smocking and sandwich the elastic thread against each other and away from my skin. Success! I also used the rolled hem feature on my serger for the first time ever. Or at least the first time I was successful.

See? Fantastic! And I hemmed the upper layers before attaching to the waist to avoid bulk while hemming.

So does Murphy have a sister that causes every sewing mishap? or is it covered by Murphy? Hopefully she/he has played with me enough to leave me alone for a while!

 

A New to me Machine

I’ve developed a love for vintage items. Realistically I’ve always loved them, I was just more drawn to antiques versus the newer vintage items. As far as sewing goes I decided I wanted an older machine to sew leather and pretty much anything else. I went looking and came across a Singer 99-13 and snatched it up. It’s a beautiful straight stitch machine without reverse and it stitches with the tiniest stitches that you would have to see to believe! The largest stitch is no larger than what my modern machine could do, so for leather it would probably work. I’ve only used the machine a handful of times and the last time I used it the tension was all out of whack. Because it is a drop in bobbin, it seemed impossible to adjust. Being that it was a year since it got maintenance I took it in to Gromes for them to oil, clean and adjust the witch machine so that I could use it if I so desired. They do an amazing job with sewing machines, vintage or new.

Which made me start to think about whether or not the machine suited my style of sewing. It only does a straight stitch, no reverse, and a drop in bobbin means almost no chance of creating shirring. I mostly sew knits, so no zig zag stitch was a a big con for the machine. Yes, I have a serger, but I don’t always want to use it for everything and since it doesn’t have a coverstitch I can’t hem most items on it. I can live without the reverse, but it sure does make my life easier! And last, but not least, I like to add shirring to items that don’t have stretch. I like to take a pattern that calls for a zipper and add shirring to the back. Voila! Stretch!  I think she’ll be for sale shortly.

Seeing as the cons seemed to call for research and possibly a newer older machine… I went looking! And look and see what followed me home!

Followed me by way of Fedex!

It’s a Morse Button Hole Zig Zag machine and this baby weighs right around 40 pounds! She’s not going anywhere and solid as a rock! Four different zig zag widths and as many as 30 stitched per inch with the least being six per inch. The feed dogs have three different settings: silk, normal and tack. Button holes! It can make up to an inch long button hole, but I suspect that there is an issue with this feature. I can move it over into the setting, but not out of it unless I take the top off the machine.The manual says it can be easy to mess this setting up if you don’t follow instructions and those are pretty vague….

Morse machine are made in Japan and most models were duplicates/copies of models in production by other companies. The Morse 200 deluxe is basically a Singer 99-13. Not sure if mine is an original to the company or another copy, but either way mine is the first I’ve seen of it’s model on the interwebz. Luckily enough the seller had researched the manual and had the link on where to buy it.  It can accomplish some beautiful stitches with time and practice.

Look at what can be done with this machine!

This is straight out of the manual for the machine. Want to see more? I have just a few to bore you with!

I’m currently sewing a skirt with this machine and can’t wait to start on the next project! I can’t help, but glance at my vintage patterns when I’m working on projects with this machine. Here’s a sneak peek at some of them.

They’ll have to wait a bit as I have several other projects waiting in the curtains. Come on back by to see what’s next!

Box Pouch Experiment

I’ve been strolling around the Internet this past week and more and happened to come across several tutorials to make a box pouch. I loved the idea of something so simple to construct, yet in a shape that fabric generally doesn’t acquire on it’s own. I was tempted to try it since I was bogging down on the jacket I was sewing. The length in the body was too long and then I cut it just a tad too short. Grrrr! So, while I decided on the course of action to correct it, I decided to attempt one of these pouches myself. Here’s the finished product:

I used the tutorial from this site to construct this pouch: http://modernquiltlove.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/perfect-box-pouch-tutorial/ The only changes I made were to interface both layers of fabric, a 9 inch zipper instead of a 12 inch zipper. I found the dimensions for the smaller zipper here: http://www.theplaidscottie.com/2010/11/box-pouch-tutorial.html.  In addition to the other changes I added a binding to the bottom seam so the inside didn’t look nearly as unfinished as it would have otherwise.  The second link shows you how to sew it up so that the lining is completely finished. I look forward to following her tutorial in the future! I’m also going to try this out of leather. I have an idea of how to line it, but I’ll let you know when and if it works out. Here’s the inside with the binding.

As long as you don’t look at the zipper too closely you don’t see any of the unfinished edges. Here’s some ideas to finish those edges: use a pinking shears or run all the edges through the serger before sewing. Just keep in mind your seam allowance. When I made this I didn’t expect it to come out so well, so I had nothing in mind for it. After a bit of looking I decided that my serger tools and accessories would be perfect for it.

See? Perfect! Now I need to see if I can make one of these babies out of leather! And the best part? I made this one on a new machine. A new vintage machine! I’ll tell you all about it in the next post.

 

 

 

Some Musing and Coffee

I’m starting the day with my coffee. Ahem. Coffee and Baileys. I guess it should be clarified that I’m starting the day with absolute deliciousness! I know, I know, but I’m not going anywhere for quite a while! So, perfectly safe to drink my deliciousness. As I’m drinking it, I’ve been trying to decide what project I’m going to tackle, if I’m going to, and when! Yes it has been one of those weekends where I’m quite all right doing absolutely nothing!

I have several ideas simmering in the back of my head and one of them has already started it’s journey. I started working with M6372 view A and cut out most of the fabric I would need to construct this darling. The bottom layer is a merlot colored china silk and the upper layers is a white fabric with flowers that are the same merlot color.

Unfortunately it needed to be lined! The upper layers aren’t long enough to quite hide how sheer the china silk can be. And I wanted this skirt to be truly lightweight so I could smock the waistband instead of inserting an elastic waistband, so my lining needs to be just as lightweight. Luckily my mother has all sorts of odds and ends of fabric! Lo and behold she has a lightweight white silk! Perfect! Now I just need to cut it out and sew!!!!!

I’ve fallen in love with this pattern. So many options and all so cute. It calls for wovens and really recommends cotton, which is perfect if you want the elastic waistband. Lighter cottons may work for the smocking, but I haven’t tried it yet. Maybe later! I also think this would look adorable made out of a knit. Maybe the perfect pattern for stash busting those knit remnants that hang around? The combinations that can be made in colors and prints would be endless! This would be perfect for those of you who love bold and daring prints! Making this out of a knit may well be my next project, but I also have made a commitment to start using more of the lovely patterns I own before I can buy new ones.

And there are several I am yearning to buy!

Long sleeves! Thumb holes! And it’s a hoodie, go me!

I love the details and it looks so vintagey. The pics of the completed ones are just darling. Go check it out!

So vintage and that bust shelf is hot! Thanks so much Gertie for making such awesome patterns!

So many patterns could be put here, but I’ll stop for now….

Tell me what’s next for your projects? Sewing or not, just tell me! I’m curious?

Winter Tulip Skirt

I’ve had a stretch black velvet with silver flowers hanging around my craft room for about a year now. Four beautiful yards of lovely, smooth to the touch stretch velvet… just waiting to be turned into something. I had originally bought it to make a upscaled version of an infinity dress. I’ve been wanting an infinity dress for quite some time, but since I’ve had it for a year and haven’t used it…. It was time to do something with it! So this is where New Look pattern 6735 comes in.

I decided that a cadigan/jacket (is cardigan even the right word? It doesn’t have buttons…) would be perfect. So I went ahead and cut it out and…. it’s been sitting in my sewing room. Well, no worries I also happened to cut out the skirt in the same fabric. I figured that if it would be overwhelming I would not have to wear them together. Separates are great to have and I need some!

It sewed up on my serger like butter! I had to take an inch out of the seams overall to make it fit. Instead of sewing a casing for the elastic I serged the elastic to the inside of the skirt waistband. I wanted to avoid unnecessary bulk and it worked great! I will probably never wear the skirt with a shirt tucked in, so it works fantastically.

This skirt turned out great and I absolutely love it. In fact I wore it out with my amazing husband on Valentine’s Day. We went up to Fredericksburg, TX and we went to a vintner’s dinner at the Herb Garden. A four course meal, so absolutely delicious, and I was very stuffed and quite drunk by the end of it. hehehe Not exactly planned, but I’m a light weight and the beginning courses were small.  We had an excellent time and will hopefully be repeating it in the future. Do check them out!

I’ll leave you with a few more pictures before I go!

Knits, knits, knits! Oh how I love thee!

I really do. Love knits that is. I love how the stretchiness of the fabric is so forgiving and comfortable to wear.

I’m always on the look out for good patterns that are designed for knits and not always finding the ones I want. I am however always finding patterns that look like they would work just fine for knits and often better than any other fabric. I’ve been finding more and more patterns like this lately. I wonder if these patterns are being designed for wovens or as I like to say, “non stretchy fabrics” because people are uncomfortable attempting to deal with knits?

Two patterns that would transfer well to knit fabrics

I do admit that I have had my fair share of trouble sewing knits and I have had many wadders that have ended up going the way of the dodo. If it isn’t the fabric it’s the sewing machine or more likely the serger acting up. Oh, the fun, but with practice it does get easier. Don’t give up!

New Look 6814

These pants were designed for a woven and to be a loose pull on pant. I turned them into a fitted pant by taking in the hips, waist and inserted exposed zippers on both hips. I loved the contrasting pop of color! Unfortunately in taking these in I didn’t leave enough seam in the rear and they failed on me after my third wear. I didn’t think I would do them again just yet with another satin, so I turned to a lovely grey knit!

New Look 6814 in a knit

Ta Da!!!!! I have a hard time not wearing these every day! They are the ultimate in comfort and they don’t look like yoga or lounge pants unless I’m dressing them down. These pants dress up easily with a button up shirt and some fancy shoes. I will at some point be making this pattern again and I will be doing it in a knit again and I think I hear a colorful sating calling my name… I’ll just have to remember that seam allowance!

And this is what the cat does while I edit pictures!

First of Many

I’ve been looking at several WordPress blogs and admiring the layouts. So I thought I’d give it a shot and dedicate it solely for my sewing and sewing related posts. I’ll still have my other blog for my other crafts and the occasional strange recipe I cook up. So don’t be afraid to check me out over there!

http://twirldesigns.blogspot.com/

I look forward to sharing my sewing challenges with you down the road.

- Erin