BrambleStitches

There comes a time during nearly every one of my projects when I have to make a decision: Is it good enough yet? It’s not a slack-off moment, or a time for me to shove aside a boring project, but a time for me to realistically consider what I expect to get out of a project, how I expect it to function, and most importantly, to consider what return I’ll get on investing additional time. Sometimes an idea or technique just needs to percolate in my brain for a while before I figure out what I really want or how best to accomplish my goal.

In the case of my sewing desk, I’m just not sure what finish I want to put on the table top yet. Rather than let everything lanquish in the dark spider-infested back of the garage, I decided to assemble it as-is in my sewing room, get some use out of it, and let time tell me what to do next.

Before screwing the bookcases onto the top, I added big casters to the bottom of the cases, so I’ll be able to roll the whole thing away from the wall. Look, it only took me a couple hours to start adding clutter:

Sewing

Have you seen these Zuca bags? They’re so cool! Next time I need luggage, I know what I’m getting. This week I’m making a bag for a client’s Zuca out of red sparkly Naugahyde. (Hi Kate!) She sent the frame to me for measurements, and I drafted a pattern.

I do all of my drafting and pattern alterations on Swedish Tracing Paper (STP), an interfacing-like paper which is translucent for tracing, sewn, pressed, and marked on u
ntil your pattern is perfect. I get mine through a co-op run by Debbie for about $5.50/roll, plus shipping. I now use STP for nearly every project. Instead of cutting into my
commercial patterns, I just trace off the size I need and keep the
originals intact.

Above you can see my Naugahyde pieces. I use painter’s masking tape to mark which is which. Regular masking tape works, too, but I think this stuff is a little less sticky. I find that the desert heat sometimes makes the gummy stuff transfer to the fabric, but it hasn’t been a problem so far with the painter’s tape. This pattern consists of quite a few pieces: center front, side fronts (2), top, bottom, back, flap, center front facing, and (not pictured) tie downs. The tie downs are velcro straps that will secure the bag to the frame. 

Here’s the beginning of the zipper application. Both sides of the center front will have lapped zippers, so when open, the center will flap open. Below, the zippers are finished and top-stitched.

**Since these photos were taken, I haven’t had a chance to work on the bag much. When I unpack in North Carolina I’ll take more pictures and finish it up.

Sewing

Until I married, I never carried a purse. I can’t remember if I even owned one. I had a small wallet, only a few keys on my key ring, and chapstick. They all fit into the pockets of my jeans. But then I started carrying a checkbook, and I knew that my purse free days were numbered.

I only had a few requirements, but I guess I’m a bit demanding, because I never found a purse that had it all.

A purse should be:

Secure. This should go without saying. I should be able to put my valuables into my purse, and not worry that they’re going to fall out. A zipper pocket is a bonus.

Small. I still long for those wallet-only days, but until then, I’ll take a purse that feels like a wallet. It should be small, and not get in my (or anyone else’s) way, but still have room for a wallet, check book, keys, business cards, and maybe a sippy cup.

Convenient. Because if it’s not, I won’t use it. When I’m paying for my groceries, I want to be able to get into my purse without taking it off my shoulder. That means no hard-to-manage clasps or flaps, and a long enough strap that I can actually see into it while it’s still on my shoulder. Conversely, the strap should be short enough that the purse rides next to my ribcage, and not on my hip. I hate that.

Anything after that is all gravy. Cute would be nice, and maybe something other than black.

Enter the perfect purse.

I spent a good part of the weekend designing, drafting, and sewing this purse.
The result is pretty dang close to perfect.

The body of the purse is a mid-weight cotton twill. I really like the feel of it, and it comes in such beautiful colors. I’ve been using it a lot for baby shoes lately, too. It’s really durable, and ages gracefully.

The poppies are just appliquéd motifs cut from the lining fabric. (I really love poppies. They’re so easy to grow, they re-seed themselves
like crazy, and for a few days each, they explode into the most vivid
colors imaginable in nature.) I straight stitched around the edge first, trimmed the fabric very close to my stitching line, then satin stitched around the edge again. The next time I do this I’ll use something like steam-a-seam fusible web, too, but I was too impatient to wait
for my order to arrive for this go around. I

think a fusible of some sort is important here, for durability, especially. If this purse ever rubbed up against something, it’s possible that the fabric of the appliqué could tear away.

After the appliqués were in place I ironed fusible fleece to the back of each body piece (two sides and gusset). I only discovered this stuff a couple months ago, but I really like it. It gives nice body, but it’s still flexible.

The lining uses the same pattern pieces as the body, plus a zippered pocket, which is big enough for wallet, check book, etcetera. I used a vintage zipper from my Baba’s stash. Inside is a magnetic clasp which closes the whole purse and keeps everything else secure.

The strap is just sewn into the gusset, but I think next time I’ll
add some hardware. I think that would add a really nice finishing
touch.

I did both appliqués and all of the top stitching with taupe thread, and I think it looks very chic. At least I think it does. I’m not very good at the whole style thing. But I like it, and that’s what counts right?

This purse is actually already packaged up and in the mail to my mom. Today is her birthday.

To be honest, it took quite a lot of self restraint to keep from ripping it out of the box to keep for myself. I guess that means I’ll be sewing another one.

Sewing

Recently the Man remarked that his lunch cooler was too small. He wanted a single bag that would keep his lunch cold and have enough room to haul a couple other things he needs daily: a dry pair of socks, sunscreen, and a few other small necessities. I seized upon this as an opportunity to put my skills to the test.

We poked around in my fabric, but he decided nothing I had was worthy of a Marine in the field, so he gave me a decommissioned pair of cammie trousers to use.

I’ve built an exhaustive photo tutorial, so you can see just how I did it. Enjoy!

There are two hidden layers of Insul-Brite poly/mylar fabric for insulation, and the lining is water-proof PUL (polyurethane laminate) fabric. There is a layer of Timtex interfacing in the bottom only, since this will be carrying quite a bit of weight. There are no inside pockets, but there are two outside pockets. They’re the original cargo pockets from the pants which have been repositioned. Enjoy the tutorial, and if you make one, please send me a picture!

***

Edited 21 June to add:

The Man has been using his new bag for a while now, and initial results are in: The bag works as well as his old (too small) cooler. He has to use two ice packs, but it does keep his food cold enough to eat at 2 pm, even when outdoors or in the car all day in 100-plus degree weather. I call that success!

Life in the Corps, Sewing

My seven 1000 meter spools arrived today. Happy! And look, there’s the yellow I need to fix McScreamy’s new pants. (And Kate, the thread I need to finish your silver bag is here, too. Yay!)

Sewing

The Man’s cammies take a serious beating at work. I don’t know what he does while he’s wearing them, but whatever it is, I think it must involve sandpaper and scissors, because that’s certainly the only way I could get my clothes to look that way.

Today’s damage report wasn’t so bad; just two missing buttons, and some worn through spots on the inseams near the ankles. When Erik reenlisted last year, I bought myself a big ol’ honkin’ spool of thread, because I knew I’d need it (and not just for cammies, either–khaki is the best neutral ever! I use it on everything, especially quilting). Yep, this baby is bigger than your average cone of serger thread, even. Stats: Gutermann (only the best, for me) 5500 yard cone, $16 at SewTrue. While I love my huge cone of thread, it doesn’t actually fit on my
thread post (not even my "large spool" auxiliary post), so I wind two bobbins from it, then use one as my top
thread.

This is what the inseams look like. If you look closely you can see that I’ve already repaired these once before with a zig zag stitch.

Here’s the stitch function I use to mend spots like this. My manual calls it a "darning stitch" but I’ve seen it called "mending stitch" also. There is absolutely nothing special about this stitch, it is just a glorified straight stitch. It stitches forward and backward, only moving the needle position slightly at each reversal to cover a wider area. You could do exactly the same thing with a straight stitch, just stitch forward and reverse, and shift the fabric slightly with each pass.

Here are the repairs.

And lastly, new buttons. I have a bunch of military surplus buttons, but they’re all forest cammy colors. Luckily, it doesn’t matter, because these are totally hidden, and anyway, I’m pretty sure the regs don’t mention anything about what color your buttons are. Besides, if someone is inspecting your fly, they’re way to close, even if it is your superior officer.

Life in the Corps, Mending, Sewing

Little G, who will henceforth be known as "McScreamy" (at least until this phase of his passes) is growing too dang fast. Sewing is, of course, a byproduct of growing, so I made him some summer pants/shorts. The pattern description calls them "three-quarter length pants." Okay, fine. I used last summer’s Ottobre 3/2006, design #12, in size 80. That’s supposed to fit about a 30" tall baby.

*Quick note: Even though McScreamy is getting big enough for toddler sizes, I always use baby sizes because they have more diaper ease. Since he’s in cloth, that extra space is really important. When drafting my own patterns, I make sure to add plenty of extra ease in both the waist/hip and the crotch depth.*

I started these last night, and here’s how I left them at around 12:45 am (yes, I’ve fallen into a terrible habit of staying up very late to sew… where’s my 12 step program?)

The fabric is 100% cotton mid-weight canvas, which I picked up for
$2/yard in February. I washed it with another more blue piece which I
got at the same time, and the other piece bled all over everything, and
stained this one up pretty good. Even so, it just came out looking a
bit distressed.

*Another quick note: If anyone has any tips on how to wash cotton
canvas and twill without getting permanent creases in it, please let me
know! There are some spots that I just can’t press flat.*

Okay, so on to the pants. Is this not the cutest little cargo pocket you’ve ever seen? It’s certainly the cutest one I’ve ever made. It’s 4 inches wide and 4.5 inches tall. Just right for pebbles, farm animals, and gold fish crackers. I haven’t put any buttons or velcro on yet, and I’m not sure I will. I’ll let him wear them a while before I decide. If the flaps flap about too much, then I’ll do something.

Look, the pocket lining matches Miss O’s outfit! This is as "matching" as my kids get.

The pattern says to stitch the pleats at the top of the pocket, but I thought it would make it too hard for me to get MY hands in there to empty out "treasures" before I did laundry. I just pressed the pleats instead. I looked at the Man’s cammies, and some of his cargo pockets have stitched pleats, some don’t, and some have them stitched on one side only. Like all other aspects of the military, I was left rather befuddled… but anyway, back to these cute pockets.

You can see here the evidence of a very important lesson I’ve learned over and over again. If you’re going to topstitch something, make sure you have enough of the same color of thread. I started off with a BRAND NEW small spool of bright yellow thread, wound my bobbin, and happily started stitching away. About half way thru construction I realized my spool was starting to look sparse, so I started switching back and forth between khaki for seams and yellow for topstitching. Then the spool ran out, so I put the bobbin, which still had some yellow, on the spool post and used khaki in the bobbin. Then the rest of the yellow ran out, so I used khaki and finally off white to finish topstitching the waist elastic and hem. Moral: always buy the biggest spool of the color you need. In fact, buy three of them.

Another view of those adorable pockets. You can see the gusset here, and how I pressed them flat, sort of like a paper grocery bag.

Front view! I used 5/8" elastic, but I really think I should have gone with 1" elastic, since this fabric is pretty stiff. It doesn’t really look like it gathered up properly, all though it is the right size in the waist. It’s a little stretched on the hanger, too.

Back view! Look, (mostly) matched stripes! There’s a back yoke, too, and plenty of topstitching.   

Verdict: Hot damn, I’m good.

*A few hours later…

McScreamy woke up from his nap, so we tried these on. Obviously, the fit in the seat area is terrible, but it looks great everywhere else. I probably sliced off too much of the top edge when I serged on the elastic. No big deal. I’ll just pick out the elastic, then attach a waistband with elastic in it instead. That should give me at least another inch and a half, which should be just about right.  I’ll call it a design detail, and nobody will ever know, unless they read it here. I may even try to hit up the quilt shop for the right color thread, which will undo the "design detail" described a few photos above.

But just so we’re clear, those pockets are still totally cute, no matter how much diaper is sticking out.

Sewing

Since the weather is heating up like crazy, it’s time to do some summer sewing for the kids. Thanks to tiny happy I found this excellent tutorial for a girl’s twirly skirt, and I tried it out. Erik’s step-mom brought me some wonderful retro-reproduction fabric the last time she was here, and Olga picked the blue piece with "Hey Diddle Diddle" on it.

I don’t really like how the gathered waist band feels, but it is very cute. The waist band is the full width of the skirt, so all the bulk is gathered up by the elastic, rather than some of the fullness being gathered into the waist band and the remainder taken up by the elastic. I doubt it’s the most comfortable on a little girl’s tummy, but she’s not complaining, so we’ll go with it for now. I need to shorten the drawstring considerably, since it’s long enough that she can wrap it around her neck (my fault, not a fault of the pattern).

The cute top is an interpretation of New Look 6476. The pattern calls for a facing along the top edge, which finishes the edges and makes a pretty contrast when the shoulders are tied, but I didn’t have any matching fabric in large enough quantities to pull it off. (Why is this always a problem–I have a ton of fabric, but never the piece I need!) So I bound the top edge with 1/4" double fold bias tape instead. I don’t really like the fit of the shirt, but it seems comfortable, and Miss O likes it. 

Construction wise, the outfit came out perfectly, but there are a couple things you might notice in person that aren’t quite right. First, the bias tape is "berry" not red, so it’s a bit darker than the red of the skirt. Not that big of a deal. The other thing is that when cutting out the red fabric for the skirt, I mis-read the instructions, and only cut one waist band piece, then cut out the drawstring. When I realized my mistake, there wasn’t enough red left to cut out another waistband piece, so I cut it out of something else, and it doesn’t match nearly as well (it’s this fabric, actually).

Sewing