Astrogirl

I do have some sewing going on. I knocked off this American Apparel skirt:

My AA skirt is black, not blue, but this one is a bit easier to make out in the photo. I made the new version out of a dark chocolate leather that’s about 1.5-2oz. weight (this translates just less than 1mm in thickness). This brown is very dark and looks black until you put it next to something black. This leather pretty easy to sew on my machine, provided I use teflon covered feet. Without teflon, it’s just hellish as the material won’t feed correctly through the machine. I have worked with leather enough that I also have a teflon covered zipper foot, something that’s very useful. If you’re thinking of combining leather + zipper, get one.

People claim you can sew up to a 3oz. leather on a home sewing machine, but I find this nearly impossible as it’s *much* too thick to top stitch seams, and curves become a real challenge. Also, you can’t cross over another seam, like you would for the crotch seam in pants or the underarm seam on a top with set sleeves.

The right needle is also important, of course. I used a Schmetz leather needle, size 90/14. I always use that brand and always have, and they work well for me. I have a range from 90-110, but the 90 is generally best for my projects. Leather needles wear out faster as they are actually punching through every stitch, so if stitches are skipping, toss it and use a new one.

I’ll get a photo of my version up soon, but it’s really dark in here today due to the rain, and the flash will look yuck, so…we wait for sunlight.

The original skirt was only three pieces (and a perfect fit), so it was very easy to copy from the AA Denim version. This is not the first commercial garment I’ve used to make a pattern. I think it’s easy, but I’ve been sewing for nearly 30 years, so maybe I’m glossing over things, I don’t know. I have picked very simple garments to copy — generally because the fit is absolutely perfect. The commercial copy of a pattern that I use all the time is from a pair of Gap capri pants. They are stretch, though I have made them out of non-stretch as well by adding seam allowance. No darts, so this is quite easy. Really, the pattern is all about how it exactly copies the curve of my hip and my ginormous thighs.

Anyway, for the skirt. I laid it out very flat with the front and back seams to the sides. Since this has no side seams, the two pieces to the skirt are exactly the same size — another thing that made this eas. I then used tailor’s chalk (you need something like charcoal or conte — something soft) on slightly transparent paper (in my case, wax paper) to mark the outlines and the waistband height and seam. I then removed the skirt and trued up all the lines and corners with a pencil and ruler. I then added 5/8″ to the top, front and back seams. I added 3/4″ for the hem (the original had a rolled hem of 3/8″ inch, I wound up with a straight hem since leather never frays).

For the waistband, I did the same, but this did not work out quite right. As a result, I wound up cutting a third waistband piece and having seams where darts or princess seams would go in the front. The top stitching makes this kind of a design element. The waistband was now too long, of course, but after I attached it, I cut it down. It’s much much easier to have too long a waistband than too short!

I used a standard polyester/plastic zipper — the original was metal. I wound up with two snaps, one on either side of the zipper. The original had one, straight above the zipper.

The final product came out quite well. The original in denim is stiff and sticks out at the sides, and the leather hangs more or less exactly the same way. It’s currently on my dress form so that the glue in the waistband can dry. Yes, there’s Fabri-Tac involved. I top stitched all the seams in this garment, except that I could not stitch-in-the-ditch to finish the waistband as it was too much thickness, so it’s sewed at the top to make the fold-over, and then glued on top of the seam allowance to keep it permanently in place. I have also glued seams flat/open with this stuff when I did not want to top stitch or when it wasn’t practical, say for inside the seam on pant legs. It’s essential to working with leather, I think.

I have another project going on as well. I have made a muslin of Simplicity 3165 from 1959(ish):

I’m using View 4 with the long sleeves from View 2, and I have made the turtleneck part a *lot* shorter in height. I brought the neckline down a teeny bit, maybe 3/8″ at the center and not at the back at all. I made the front darts bigger and moved them outward because the bust points didn’t match mine. I also re-curved the waist and made it smaller. All told, I probably took 4″ out of the waist. I’ve already disassembled the muslin, so I can’t take a picture of that.

I will be making that awesome hood, probably out of wool, but not necessarily for wearing with View 4.

So, I made these leggings:

from Kwik-Sew 3455.

These were a snap to make, and I think I will do another pair. These are a tiny bit too big, and I think I’ll increase the seam allowance and trim when I am done.

These are swimsuit fabric, and I have some swimsuit fabric that looks like the American Apparel “small dots”, but black instead of silver. The fabric cost $10 and they want $42 for them, so I figure I’m ahead there.

I totally blew off a pattern review contest for August. I really *meant* to do it, but I got very busy with work, we did a bunch of house maintenance and I kind of lost the muse. When I’m in the mood, I’m very productive with sewing, but if I’m not, I get nothing done.

I’m going on a backpacking trip next week so I’m mostly preparing for that. I’m not sure when I’ll get back to producing clothes, but it will almost certainly be a couple of weeks.

So, I made a skirt. The fabric is something I picked up for very little at a church bazaar while visiting St. Louis. As it turns out, I also picked up a red invisible zipper at an estate sale later the same day. I bought a cigar box of zippers, and I got lucky on that one. I cannot find invisible zips in anything but neutrals without driving 50 miles each way, and I don’t plan projects much, so I’m often kind of screwed by the lack of a missing zipper. The fabric is at the bottom of the textile heap.

And my invisible zipper foot? Best sewing machine thing I’ve bought in years. If you don’t have one, you need one. Seriously.

The pattern:

I made View 2, but without a waistband. I don’t like them because I am not the same size all the time, and they make the fit really unforgiving. It does fit very well and sits right on my waist. If I lose weight (crossing fingers), it will sit a little lower but still be wearable. I love the pockets!

It’s not red because the illustration is red, honest. It’s red because I have a lot of stuff that will go with it, and it’s not black. I have way too much black. Here’s a close up of one of the pockets. They are BIG! Yay!

My sewing machine part came, and it’s far higher quality than what it replaced. The old shuttle hook had plastic parts, and this one is all metal.

Instead of talking extensively about the projects, I’m going to link to my Flickr stream. I’d probably say the same stuff here anyway. Click on the picture to go to Flickr and read my comments.

This is a Woman’s Day pattern from 1951. I recently acquired another one that I will put up on flickr later. They have the most gorgeous pictures, and I think this is rare for photos on pattern envelopes. Most are not as nice as the drawings, but the Woman’s Day patterns are the exception.

Yes, it’s another halter top, but I think this is the last one for the season. The thing is that it only takes me a few hours to make one, requires little fabric and it’s still incredibly hot here, so it’s hard to think about stuff for cooler weather.

Here’s the pattern:

I also whipped up this skirt. The inside has not a single raw edge, but I don’t have pictures of it. Not yet anyway.

I may still make that wrap around top. Inside the pattern I found pages from the May, 1951 Woman’s Day. Those are also on Flickr.

View A, the playsuit, is really high-waisted, so there’d be a lot of midriff showing if I just used the bodice. Since that is not what I’m going for, I took the pieces for the bodice, copied and extended it down. The fit is good, but I’m a little disappointed with the crappiness of the fabric, in hindsight. I bought the end of the bolt because I love black gingham and I didn’t pay much attention to how, um, lightweight the fabric was.

My top:

Side view, which is where the interesting stuff is anyway:

My sewing machine was misbehaving, but I already blogged about that. At the moment, I’m not making anything and I’ve been buried in work. Hopefully, the part will come today.

I have been sewing, but I’ve been too busy to deal with the pictures. Since the projects aren’t on flickr, they aren’t appearing here yet. I’ve decided to forge ahead, because I might not photograph the finished item for weeks.

I used this pattern to make a halter top from a striped knit using View D, and I already posted that.

I then made a pair of pajama pants, and I did not post about that here, but I did at pattern review.

This time I uh, made another halter top, but View B. I made it in a black stretch poplin, and looks exactly like the illustration. It’s pretty awesome, but it has a Bra Problem. My normal halter bra shows bits of bra strap up near the collar, and the balcony bra is very uncomfortable, but looks awesome.

The instructions for the collar are weird. As this was helpfully mentioned at pattern review by at least one person, I read them about four times, and got it right without ripping any seams. I’ve gotten excellent results from all the Kwik-Sew patterns I’ve used, really.

After that, I made a green suede purse out of a pretty stiff pig suede. You’ve seen plenty of pig suede at the mall if you were shopping in the 80s. It can be very nice, or it can be stiff. This is too stiff, but the return shipping was expensive, so I kept the two hides. I used the tinyhappy tutorial again. I posted all about that here.

Top stitching the purse, things began to go wrong. I went through a section with 3 layers of suede instead of just two, and there was a bad, bad noise. The needle was not broken or bent. Usually, that’s what has happened when a noise like that comes out of the machine. After that, it would do nothing but loops on the bottom side — like if there was no upper tension.

So…I took all the case pieces off and had a look. I saw nothing that looked obviously wrong, and certainly nothing wrong above the feed dogs. Tino found a movie of how a sewing machine works, watched that, came in and messed with my machine. He showed me where the problem pretty much had to be. The part is the shuttle hook.

Not only did it need oiling and cleaning (now easy to do with everything apart), the plastic parts of the shuttle hook that need to be baby-butt smooth were ridged, marked and a general mess. This meant that when the thread top was supposed to be released, now holding the lower thread in place…it wasn’t released.

As getting a replacement part looked like a long-term thing — just trying to figure out who had the right hook for my Bernina was darn tricky, and the only one I was sure of was in the UK and 50 pounds — I decided to have a go at the hook. I used a cardboard emery board because none of the nice files would fit where I needed them to go. I used a nail ridge polisher in places…and it worked, sort of.

The new hook is still on order, and I could complete one project, but I had to remove the whole mess (which does not actually require disassembly of the machine — that turned out to be necessary), file and oil twice while I was sewing a little summer top…so now I’m waiting for the part. I eventually found it on eBay for 50 American Dollars instead of 50 British Pounds. It should be along any day now.

This came in the mail on Friday or Saturday.

Wow.

Today I completed my plan of scanning and re-organizing all my sewing patterns. I still have many to actually date (the vintage ones), but I have dated all the Simplicity patterns, and that seems like half the group.

patterns

more patterns

Also, we pulled out an old wood pile and re-arranged all the cars to point the otherway (east instead of at the house). Now they are all parallel parked quite neatly. The wood pile removal rousted a mouse and a big fat toad as well as a whole log of termite larvae. All have been moved far away from the house. OK, I didn’t move the mouse and the toad — I mean the wood and leaves that used to be there, along with the attendant larvae.

cars

I’ve added a new critter to the menagerie on the guest bed. He’s not as interesting as I hoped. I mean, I still like him and all, but I thought he would turn out differently.

Front View

Back View

I think I’ll make a critter this weekend. It doesn’t use up much of my stash, but I’m tired of dealing with patterns and clothes. I have patterns for critters, but they are small pieces.

So, it’s Kwik-Sew 2947:

This was total cake to make. It would have been faster if I weren’t dealing with very little fabric that also had a flaw. I got it for $1 at a thrift store, so it was certainly worth *that* anyway.

I’ve never dealt with Kwik-Sew patterns before, and WOW are they nice. They are on actual paper and are printed in color. The directions are both clear *and* concise. I will be buying more of these, but I don’t really sew a lot of knits, so probably not buckets of them.