A bit of Birthday Sewing....

 The saga of the Pirate Shirts continues.  See, my original plan was to make Pirate Shirts for all my kids-in-law for Christmas, but life got complicated (read: I got a nasty tummy bug) and lost all the time I had planned to sew in December.  It occurred to me, along with the fact that I could make those tea towels for Epiphany, that both my sons-in-law had birthdays early in the year; The Jokester in January and Prince Charming in February.  So I decided to make their pirate shirts for birthday presents and we did something else for them for Christmas.

I made the tea towels first, told the Jokester that 'shipping was delayed' for his birthday present as it was clear I wasn't going to have it ready to mail in time to get to him;  then started in on the shirts. It's the same pattern I used for The Dancer (Butterick 5008)  but both of them got Large shirts. I added a bit to the girth for Prince Charming but otherwise they were the same, made full length (I shorten it 4" for ladies...).  I used twill tape, stitched in half, for the ties instead of burning my fingers on ties made from the linen, just as I did for the shirts I made for Christmas.    I thought I had taken a photo of Prince Charming's shirt before I wrapped it for his birthday dinner, but if I did I inadvertently deleted it because it is nowhere to be found.  But I do have a pic of him opening it...The Little Prince was, of course, very interested.

Prince Charming noted that it would also be good to wear to the annual Renaissance Faire, and he's completely correct.  A good pirate shirt can be worn for a number of things.  However, I don't think he's put it on yet so I'm still hoping I guessed right on the alterations, lol.

I finished the Jokester's shirt a couple of days before we headed to Florida last week.  I did get a picture of that shirt...

His shirt was the same as Prince Charming's ...no ruffles.  He was quite pleased with it; tried it on after we left their apartment and reported that it 'fit perfectly!'.  He's in children's ministry so it will get used.

I think I'm going to do some sewing for me next; I need to get through some of the stash, lol.  I have acquired quite a bit of linen...and it's been so lovely to sew that I want to have something ready for spring, which surely can't be too much farther off...

RIP Claire Shaeffer

 I suppose most folks in the sewing community have heard that Claire Shaeffer, author, educator, pattern designer and source of much inspiration, passed away a couple of days ago.

That was just 5 days after she posted a you-tube video with plans for 2025.  I haven't heard cause, but it appears to have been something sudden.

I have several of Claire's patterns...haven't gotten brave enough to try any of them yet.  I have a couple of her books...she was a wealth of information.  The you-tube channel was a fairly new thing; she doesn't appear on it but does voice-over narration.  Or, at least that's been the case for the videos I have watched so far.

So we have lost another of the major influencers of home sewing enthusiasts...one who knew and taught the classic techniques.  I'm encouraged by the younger faces now appearing with instruction on social media...some have done much work and research and are well worth watching.  But we are losing some of the folks who sustained us during the years when home sewing was rather scorned.  Now the creative potential is beginning to revive, along with an interest in clothing as investment, which was a Thing of the Past for so long.  

I feel much gratitude for folks like Claire Shaeffer, Nancy Zieman, Cynthia Guffey, Clothilde, and others, who kept the education going when universal sewing instruction in home ec class slowly faded away.   I have I have learned much from these ladies over the years and my sewing is better for it.

Mayhap I should pull out one of Claire's Vogue patterns this year and challenge myself to learn from her some more....

A bit of...Epiphany? Sewing...

 I had the idea last summer to take advantage of a sale on some Christmas print tea towel kits at Fabric-Store.com.  At first, I was just going to use them for stocking stuffers, and maybe one or two others.  Then I thought of my co-workers...and decided I should make tea towels for them.

I ended up getting 10 kits...that's 20 towels...and it still really wasn't enough.  Stocking stuffers for my daughters/ daughters in law; a goodie for a sort-of secret (but not secret) sister, and the rest went to ladies that have worked with me in the data base in the past year.

The towels aren't difficult...you cut off the selvedge edge, then cut them apart on the  marked line, then hem them; much like the linen waffle towels I made in October.  I made, like, six back in the early fall, then got busy with other things.

I had planned to take my unused vacation/ personal leave (sick) time to work on them during December; then I ended up using my actual sick leave...being sick...and totally useless.  As we got closer and closer to Christmas and I still had the two pirate shirts and the crossback apron to do, it hit me that our first day back at work after the Christmas holiday was Epiphany.

So I was sewing during Christmas break and my co-workers got Epiphany presents, lol.

I thought I took some pics of the construction process when I did the first batch...but if I did, I have lost the photos.  You'll just have to look at the pics on the waffle towel construction...because it's the same.  I did miter ALL THE CORNERS on the tea towels.  (80 mitered corners).  That's lots of practice...but they were simple.  Both sides of the corner measured the same, and the fabric pressed beautifully and didn't fray badly.  It was just fiddly.

I had already given away five of the ones I had made earlier but the other fifteen are in this photo; multiples are stacked together:

  The only print that's not in the photo is the kitty print...I made two of those and they both went to my cat-loving daughters for Christmas.  The 12 days of Christmas print was the one I made the most from...I think I did six of those.

My only complaint is that the towels aren't perfectly square on the fabric.  Trying to get a straight edge yields something a bit crooked looking; after a few tries at that I gave up and just cut it according to the print. It didn't make the edges too off grain to press well.  The prints are lovely.

I will say that these are COTTON towels, not linen towels like I thought in the beginning.  Just so you know.

I've gotten some nice comments from the folks that got them!  Wish I'd had time to make more so I could have enough for everyone....

A bit of Christmas Sewing....

 I kept having to rethink the workload before Christmas, but I came up with something that filled the bill.  Now that we've had our family Christmas (Friday last week) I can share a bit of what was happening in the sewing room, lol.

The princess had asked me to make her an apron off of my old Simplicity 7481 Daisy Kingdom pattern (you know it's old if the design is listed as 'Daisy Kingdom,' lol)

I had intended to give it to her for her birthday on Dec. 17, along with a couple of pie plates, since she didn't have any.  But she went and bought some pie plates for herself, so that nixed that.  I found something else for her birthday, and that gave me a whole 10 more days to sew up the apron.   The fabric was Disney Cats...I ordered it online like a year ago, and I forgot who I got it from.    

I don't do the binding the way the pattern specifies....the instructions are to 1) cut bias strips 2 1/4" wide, seam them together end to end,  then 2) press 1/4" under along each long edge, then...and this is unbelievable to me...3) press the resulting strip ALMOST in half, allowing one side to be slightly wider than the other and 4) encase the raw edge with the bias, having the narrower side on the right side, and topstitch it down all the way around.

It sounds good in theory, but in reality will lead to ripples,  scorched fingers, uneven binding (who can consistently press a narrow strip slightly off center?  For about 5 yards? LOL) and high blood pressure.  What I did instead:

I cut the strips 2 3/8" wide,  seamed them together and did a quick check to make sure I'd cut enough...I didn't, needed another strip...pressed the seams open, and then pinned the binding to the wrong side of the apron, folded in half lengthwise but NOT PRESSED, all the raw edges lined up.  I turned the end I started with  towards the inside of the binding, and then overlapped the ends a couple of inches w/o turning under the other end.   Once it was flipped to the right side, the raw edge was under the folded edge.

NOT PRESSED is key,  because that lets the binding adjust for the turn of the cloth.  Took forever to pin it all around the giant mobius strip that is the seamed together apron, but once it was done I sewed around w/ a scant 1/4" seam allowance, then wrapped the  folded edge around to the right side (still not pressing that folded edge, although I did press the seamline a bit, carefully),  pinned it down and then edgestitched the fold all the way around.  Not technically difficult, but...yeah, I spent half the total construction time on the binding, lol.  

She liked it.

The daughters-in-law got ...pirate shirts!  LOL.  Both their hubbies have pirate costumes that they wear from time to time (you should see the getup the Artist wears to the Magic Kingdom Halloween Party...) so I thought I would make sure the ladies could match their hubbies.  I had some bleached linen from Fabric-Store.com (they have such nice linen...) that made up beautifully.

I had to use patterns in different size ranges, because The Little Red-Haired Girl (married to the Actor) is TINY.  I used Simplicity 3644, which is a kid's costume pattern, in a size 14.  I added 3" to the length, with side slits to allow for curves kids don't have, lol.  I changed up the sleeves; the pattern specified elastic  in a casing at the wrist, but I wanted something a little more...true to the era?...than elastic.  I happened to have a goodly supply of twill tape, so I put the casing on the OUTSIDE of the sleeve, stopping just short of the seams, and put the twill tape (1/2" tape, folded in have and stitched down) through the casing so it could tie. 

Or so I thought.  After I got the sleeves gathered, trimmed and serged, I realized I had put one of them on inside out.  What I get for sewing late and hurried, lol.  But instead of taking the sleeve off, I opened the sleeve seam, unpicked the hem and the casing, then turned the hem the other way and put the casing on what was now the outside of the sleeve.  The same 'no difference in right/wrong side' that led me astray was the saving grace on that one, lol.

I also added twill tape to the neckline before I added the facing, so she has the option of tying it closed if she wants. 

 I didn't alter the neckline depth, but she said it was a wee bit snug going over her head.  Aside from that small nuisance, it fit well. 

The second shirt was made for The Dancer, the wife of The Artist.  For that one, I used Butterick 5008, a pattern that I've used before for both The Actor and The Flute Player but apparently never reviewed.   I did the same twill tape trick instead of making ties from the linen; it's not an absolute match but I am pretty sure the twill tape is as correct as a machine sewn shirt would be, lol.  

It's shortened 4" from the pattern...that is a crazy long shirt.

 

She sent me a selfie of her in the shirt...but she has an iPhone and my windows / android devices can't do anything but look at the original.  But she was delighted and said it 'fits perfect!'

I finished that shirt at 11:50 on Christmas night, lol.  It was a good thing we were opening presents on the 27th.  Had a whole day to wrap things.

...and a red hat that doesn't go...or maybe it does...

 My participation in the church Christmas production this year is minimal; I'm just in the chorus of the two Big Numbers...the one right before intermission and the finale.  For the finale, we are in biblical gear so, pulling out the ol' Bible costume for that one.  For the other one, we are in contemporary garb, and were encouraged to dress as 'characters' (ie, baker, barista, etc).  One of the suggestions was 'a granny'.

Well, I AM a granny.  How about a kinda hippy granny?

I had some things in my closet that I probably wouldn't ever wear in public as a combo, but it works for this...

White trainers w/ red trim.  Red sweat pants.  A longsleeved red t shirt w/ white snowflakes.  A white puffer vest.  Red hoop earrings.

But it needed something else...

Hey, remember all those hats I made?

What about a red bakerboy cap?

I knew I had some red corduroy...and some red velveteen....either of which would work.  Found the corduroy first.

For some stupid reason I cut out twice as many gores as I needed.  I guess I was just stuck on the number six.  Either that or I was still stupid from being ill all week (nasty tummy bug followed by a sinus/ ear infection...). I didn't get started on it until late Saturday afternoon. 

Had to use one of my backup machines; that's another story.  It wasn't as happy going through lots of layers as my main Janome...but it worked.

The best thing was finding a crocheted button in my button box...if I remember right, it was a spare from a sweater I had, oh, I dunno...30 years ago?  The sweater is long gone but the extra button was still in the box.

It was a pretty close match.

As you can see from the clock, I finished it up at about 20 minutes till twelve Saturday night.  Woulda been faster but I stopped for dinner and some laundry switching and I had to do a bit of unstitching and restitching because the crown was just a pinch too small for the band.  Tried to fudge it to be a wee bit bigger and it wasn't entirely successful.  There's a tiny pleat in the back band...shhhhh.....it's not terribly noticeable....

And...I would wear that outfit in public, if I switched the sweat pants for cream cords and the trainers for my vanilla granny boots, lol.  Make it just a pinch more uptown, lol.

That's my sole contribution to the costuming this go round. The team that pulled last year's production together whilst I was busy getting the boys married off had this in hand and didn't need me.

And, given how useless I was last week...it's probably a good thing, lol.  Still haven't gotten my appetite back...that tummy bug don't play, y'all.  Word up...wash those hands....a LOT.

A different sort of towels...

 A while back Fabric-Store.com had a sale on their linen waffle fabric.  It's a very interesting thing...fairly stiff when it arrives, it shrinks variably and waffles up when washed.  They have a tutorial on their blog for cutting two bath towels one hand towel and two washcloths from three yards of the fabric; I ordered an extra yard to get a total of two hand towels and 4 washcloths...which is what I always get when I buy towel sets.

I added an extra step after cutting...I serged all the raw edges.  The fabric is sort of loosely woven and regular towels sometimes fray out so, an excess of caution prevailed.

I used templates cut from manila folders to press the hems up...slightly narrower than recommended

 (1/2" turned twice instead of 3/4")

At this stage the fabric is really nice to press.

The instructions are just to fold one side over the other and stitch them down, but I like mitered corners so the first two washcloths I mitered the corners.

Now, I don't like MAKING mitered corners, I like LOOKING AT Mitered corners, lol.  They are fiddly and tedious to do...

But after grinding through four, I suddenly realized that those threads were gonna shrink when washed and I got worried that I'd trimmed them out too much.

But I didn't want bulky corners...what to do...

Finally I decided to trim a bit out, then fold the hems over each other like the instructions.

But I box stitched the corners to make sure to hold everything down well.

 

Once everything was done, I washed the towels to waffle them up.  Here's the before the wash and after the wash...

Hand towels:

 

And the bath towels:

The towels are still really big, compared to my Lands' End towels.  I am actually standing on the hearth, lol. But...it needs the length.  When I used them, my subconscious reaction was 'Ew!  Cheap thin towels!'   And I had to remind myself that they weren't thin, they were different.   So the extra length kinda makes up for the lack of heft. They ARE really absorbent.  And the miters seemed to have held up fine...after one washing, anyway.  But the box stitched corners are way faster to do and there's no chance it will come undone.

So...it was an interesting experiment.  I've read that the towels get softer over time.  I may do a follow up report after six months or so to let you know if the opinion changes, lol.

I am going to label this as Home Dec, which is isn't, technically, but that's the best label I've got, lol.

Another one bites the dust...

 Sad face.  Very, very sad face.

I have received an email that Textile Fabrics in Nashville, THE ONLY REAL FABRIC STORE within driving distance, will be closing as the owner is retiring.

I don't often get to go, as it is a 2 hour drive, and I don't even think I've made it to their newest location (they've moved twice since I first managed to visit), but just knowing they were there was like a security blanket.  

I probably won't make it up this fall for the clearance sales; it's not like I NEED more fabric anyway,  so I'm just going to have to remember how lovely it was to walk in...smell FABRIC and not cinnamon brooms, and see gorgeous silks and woolens live and in person.

I am grateful for the internet vendors, but even the best of them will sometimes send a 'Hhhhmmmm...' piece of fabric, something that wasn't quite what I pictured from the description.  There's just something so luscious about actually touching that piece of fabric and envisioning what it might be...then putting it on the counter and watching it get unrolled and cut; finding matching thread and buttons right there...

I fear that is a thing of the past.  At least in North Alabama.  There's just nothing around...that I know of, anyway.  Textile Fabrics was the last bastion of fine home sewing.

Now all there is...is JoAnn's World of Polyester and Crafts.

I'm going to be kinda blue about this for a bit.

I should find time to sew something I bought from Textile Fabrics in honor of the dreams I have dreamed there...