Ridiculously Adorable

Dear McCall’s M5884, 

Your pattern envelope is so cute!  I was immediately attracted to that ridiculously adorable, oversized bow on the front of your shirt.  I added you eagerly to my shopping cart when McCall’s was having that out of print pattern sale, wondering why on earth you had been banished to imminent oblivion?

I was so excited to make you, that I chose one of my absolute favorite cuts of cotton to be your mate.  I carefully selected a beautiful white on white cotton remnant to use as your accent bow, dreaming of how lovely you would be to wear on the porch in the summer, sipping iced tea.

I cut out all of your bodice pieces, then got ready to cut out your bow- when I realized that I needed atleast 2 1/4 yards of contrast fabric.  To add insult to injury, you wanted me to cut it on the bias- which meant that I would have to go to the fabric store to buy something to complement you.

Speaking of that oversized bow, I truly did not anticipate that you would be quite so large, and am concerned that when I wear you, I will be mistaken for a 70′s secretary.  You were so bulbous in fact, that I had to fold you in half and tack you down all around the neck- and you know how cranky hand stitching makes me.

I am still quite fond of you, however I now understand why you are out of print, and fear I will never, ever make you a little sister or brother.

With affection  mixed feelings,

Amber

I once caught a bow this big!

Does your bow hang low? Does it wobble to and fro?

Before I made my 2012 pact of no more fabric buying I had gone a little crazy buying vintage fabric online- primarily from Etsy.  I kept on seeing all of the cool stuff other sewing bloggers were making out of their vintage finds and I wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

Sadly,  most of the fabric cuts I bought were disappointing- not as much yardage as I thought I was getting, it smelled vintage (eew), the weight of the fabric was funky…so I learned my lesson- no more online vintage fabric shopping!

They weren’t all lost causes though, and my latest top is from one of the winners.  The width was a meager 33″, and the fabric is a very lightweight cotton, so I decided to make a summer top.  The pattern I chose was Simplicity 2892, view D from my stash.  If it looks familiar, it’s because I was wearing it in my last post when I unveiled my jeans.

It turned out quite well!  Also, I think this is the first time that there were no fit adjustments needed whatsoever.  So this is definitely a do-over.

The pattern was quite straight forward, though all that gathering took awhile to sort out.  Also, I put my hand stitching skills to the test and actually slip stitched down the neck facing to the yoke- a step that I typically skip.  Here is a closeup of the yoke:

Yep this pattern is all about the yoke.

Sewing with vintage fabric was a fun adventure I look forward to repeating.  Maybe next time I’ll break out one of my vintage patterns too!

The good news is that I finally finished my jeans!  The bad news is that I killed my sewing machine in the process…

All I can say is thank goodness I took a class for these puppies- if it hadn’t been for Erica, I would have quit this adventure a long time ago.  The hardest part, hands down is the fit.  Oh my gosh.  In my case, a 2nd person was absolutely essential to get the fit even remotely close to good.

I’ve been trying to think of any gems of wisdom to impart to you about sewing jeans, and I’m not sure if these gems are diamonds or just run of the mill quartz, but here you go:

• Do not use jeans thread.  Seriously.  From my poor dearly departed Singer to the fancy schmancy Bernina I used in class, the machine just hated it.  It is too dang thick and kept jamming up the machine- even Erica couldn’t make it work.  So yeah, just stick to regular thread and save yourself the headache.
• If you use Jalie #2908, make sure your denim is stretchy.  No, I mean, like, really, really stretchy.  I can honestly say that I was the only student that needed to drastically alter the pattern to fit my shape.  So that’s good news if you have a well proportioned lower body- this is your pattern.  If my denim had had more stretch, I think the fit would have been closer to where I wanted it to be. 
• Swedish tracing paper is great- but…in my case, I really should have made the muslin out of some material with stretch.  I now see the wisdom of making a muslin out of material with the same amount of stretch as the finished garment!   Erica & I both think that this is where the difference in fit from the muslin to the finished product comes from- STP has no stretch.  I will absolutely be doing this for the next pair.
• Awls are awesome, and a must for inserting rivets and jeans buttons.
• Specialty presser feet are also awesome.  I am hopelessly in love with the edger foot I used with the Bernina in class.  Perfect, straight seams every time.  I highly recommend getting one!
• Sergers are awesome.  Not only are they awesome, but I am no longer afraid of them!  I will always use them for finishing edges from now on.
• Even beginners can make jeans.  Our class had a full spectrum of sewers from novice to experts.  Sure, we all had our moments of getting stuck, but every one of us finished our jeans, and they were all beautiful.  If you have patience, you can make jeans!

 A few more notes on the pattern- the instructions are pictures only, no words.  Erica put together some written instructions that I am willing to share.  If you purchase this pattern and would like them, let me know.

For my first pair of jeans, I am completely satisfied. They are very well constructed, have tons of details and I love the denim. But I still think that there is work to be done on the fit (see under booty wrinkles). 

My favorite feature is probably those back pockets- they are pretty darn awesome, and a great way to make your jeans look designer made, rather than home made.

Another way that you can make your jeans stand out is by other finishing touches, such as decorative rivets and buttons as well as using a playful contrast fabric for the pocket lining.

So there you have it.  If you have any specific questions about the sewing that I didn’t touch on, let me know, and I’ll do my best to answer!

Oh, and as for my sewing future?  I bought a new machine.  I was so impressed with the Bernina that I used in class that I decided it was time to upgrade and bought the model we used in class, a B330.  I am making payments, but I love it!  And yes, I did buy that edger foot

PS- If you are in the Portland area, there is another jeans class happening soon!  See class info here.

Once upon a time, there lived a nice, though slightly unbalanced young woman who thought it’d be a swell idea to take a  jeans sewing class, break her sewing machine, buy a new sewing machine, do 30 hours of volunteer work, and try to buy a fixer upper house, all in the same month! 

Needless to say, the young lady got herself into a bit of a pickle and started to neglect things she normally made time for, such as laundry, sleep, grocery shopping and blogging, just to name a few.  She was so stressed out, no wonder she got a chest cold.

The moral of the story is that this girl is a glutton for punishment.

The End.

Yes, that has been my March & April…just wanted to let you guys know that I am alive and sewing and will try to get back to a blogging routine soon!

So I went online to find some back pocket stitching templates for my jeans. Either I did not Google the right phrase, or there just aren’t many out there. What I kept getting were pictures of butts with tight fitting jeans, which I’m sure my co-workers appreciated.

I decided to go with it, and picked out some of my more favorite “butts” and set about making my own templates! I apologize in advance that for some of these, I did not save the sources that served as my inspiration.

Since this is my first pair, I decided to stick to designs that were primarily straight lines. There are tons of cute designs with swirls & twists & turns, but it just seemed like a nightmare to stitch not only once- but twice…remember, you more than likely will want your pockets to be symmetrical.

To get your template started, trace a copy of the back pocket pattern piece using Swedish Tracing paper. A thin, opaque non-fusible interfacing will also work. Next, determine the center of the pocket by drawnig dissecting lines with a ruler. You might want to make copies so you can test out more than one design:

Now you are ready to design! Here is the first inspiration picture, from a pair of  7even jeans:

A for Amber??

…And here is the design template:

To replicate the inspiration, the first thing I did was to determine the spacing on the outer edges of the pocket, designating where the 4 stitches would begin.

The first (orange) line is 1.5″ down from the top edge, and the other 3 lines are each spaced .5″ inches down (green= 2″ blue= 2.5″ pink= 3″).

Aaaaannnnd that is about as scientific as I got. From there, I eyeballed the design. I lined up a ruler with the notches on the side and just kept moving it up and down the center line until it looked- right. When I decided the spacing was correct, I drew the line to the center line only.

I then folded the template on the center fold, and used the line I had just drawn as a guide for the opposite side.

I continued doing this until the design was complete.  Here are some of the alternate designs I sketched out:

Chevrons! And I kind of like the tone on tone stitching.

This one has a couple of loops, but would be fairly easy to replicate.

Then there was this one, which is gorgeous, but would be crazy hard to stitch, by hand- but totally rad if you could get an embroidery machine to do it:

Sigh, so pretty.  Maybe for my 50th pair?

One last treat for those of you not ready to make your own jeans.  I came across this tutorial from I am Momma Hear me Roar on embellishing a pair of your existing jeans.  Enjoy!

Getting the fit right for these jeans is a pain in the- er, well, you know.

First off, I have to thank RK for all her help!  It is a 2 woman job, fitting pants, and I couldn’t have done it on my own.   Considering that we didn’t know what the heck we were doing, I’d say we did a pretty good job!  But…I was aftaid that we took so much out of the back, that the top edge & fly no longer resembled the pattern, so I was hesitant to cut out the denim.

But…the fit was perfection, so yesterday I headed  over to Modern Domestic to confer with Erica.  Here is a pic of the franken-muslin:

She agreed that the fit was great, but didn’t quite understand why I put the darts where I did.  Yep, apparently I didn’t actually read the tips she gave me, I just pig-headedly went ahead and did it how I thought it should be.  Oops.

The good news was that she didn’t share my concern about the fly and gave me the green light to cut out my denim.  As I was laying out the pattern pieces, I discovered that the back leg was not laying flat.  Curse you 3D alterations!!

So she had me re-trace the original back pattern piece, and she re-fit me, as I like to refer to it as the “right way”   And this is how it looks:

Yep, you’re basically putting a cross on your booty.  So note to self readers, listen to your teachers!

So now I can really steam ahead on my homework: serge all pattern edges and sew on the back pocket, which means you have a decision to make- embellish, or no embellish? Hmmmmm…let me think…Embellish!

So yesterday was the first session of my jeans class.  The teacher and my class mates are all super nice, and are from all walks of life & sewing skills.  We all also watch Project Runway and had a blast talking about current & past seasons.  I found out that Anya used to live in Portland when she was modeling, and one of the girls in the class was a friend of hers!  Talk about a small world…

A quick note on Modern Domestic- they are part sewing studio and part Bernina dealer.  The front space is basically a Bernina show room with a few items for sale, books, tools and thread mostly.  To the left is an open sewing space, and above the show room is a loft, which is where my class was held.

It is a light, bright, and airy space with homey touches, such as embroidery hoops with hand stitched “MD” monograms.  Because of the show room, the studio feels much more grown up and professional than PDX Seamsters.   But the empolyees and teachers are just as warm and friendly.  In fact, the teacher (Erica) was wearing a pair of the jeans that we would be making, and they looked great.

Ok, back to the class!  We are all using the same pattern, Jalie 2908:

I had never heard of this pattern company before, probably because the majority of their patterns are activewear… a category I don’t have too much interest in.

The jeans have 2 views, a low rise and a high rise and fit sizes 4-22.  They have a flared leg, but Erica said that she would help us make a straight or skinny leg if we preferred.

After we introduced ourselves, we took our waist, hip & inseam measurements then determined our pattern size.  There were a few items on our class supplies list that I had never heard of, such as Swedish Tracing Paper.  It is a lightweight, sewable sort of webbing that looks like interfacing.  You can see through it though, and we used this to trace out our pattern pieces.  Which took forever!!  We cut them out, and these are our pattern pieces.

Next we sewed together the fron & back leg, pocket facing & back yoke and tried it on!  I’ve always heard that you should do this first to check the fit, but this was the first time I’ve actually done it.  I’m not sure I’m a convert for every project- but for some staple pieces, such as the perfect jeans or the perfect fitted jacket, I can definitely see the wisdom.

When I tried on the leg, I immediately saw my common fit issue, the under booty wrinkles.  This, ladies is the fit issue that stopped me from progressing on my Clover pants.

I asked the teacher for help, and she said that the fit was good overall and that I should cut out this size, and we’d make it work.  I agreed, but I was a bit skeptical that it would work.  And that was the end of class! 

When I got home, I took apart the pattern pieces and got ready to cut out the denim.  But I couldn’t stop thinking about the wrinkles and wondering how it would get fixed.  I decided to sleep on it, and it was a good thing, because when I checked my email this morning, I had an email waiting for me from my teacher.

She had done some research on the fit adjustment needed to correct my problem and found out that there was a way to fix it! Here is what she sent me:

Basically, you create a dart or tuck under the booty on the pattern (or muslin) in order to eliminate the excess fabric, which makes total sense.

I know some of you have encountered this issue as well, and the common answer I have heard is to lower the crotch.  This helps, but when you have an inch (or more) of excess fabric, like I did- this seems like the correct answer.  So I will be re-stitching together my muslin and making this adjustment tonight.

Before we meet again next week, my homework is to:

•  Cut out the denim
•  Use decorative stitching / rhinestoness on the back pockets     (optional)
•  Sew on back pockets
•  Serge pant legs

So yeah, I have a lot of homework to do! 

I look forward to filling you in on what happens next