Sewing in June...

 I have done a wee bit of stitching here and there...I made a half-dozen diapers for my neighbor, who has a new baby; hemmed the remants of the waffle fabric I used for the linen towels last year to use as dish towels (they are rather oddly proportioned, but they'll dry dishes, so who cares...) and made up the first of several patterns that I made years ago, when I was about 30 pounds lighter, and recently re-traced.

This one is La Fred's Athena Blouse; I posted about the last time I made it back in 2006; I originally made it in 2003, Before Blogging, lol.  

Back then, I actually sized down from my measurements as pattern measurements showed that it had a generous amount of ease.  So I remembered that and sized down when I traced my ...bigger size...to have a go at it again. But...I didn't remeasure.  I just assumed consistent ease.  Ooopsie.

And I decided to use it on the the floral fabric I got in my recently - mentioned Fabric-store.com cash-in of my loyalty points.   It's a beautiful print on fine cotton fabric; but the size of the print was such that I didn't want to cut small pieces...like a band and collar...from it.  So I went with the Athena, because it has a cut-on collar.  But the print was so large that, when I tried to match it across the front, I had to place the front pieces such that it was then impossible to get the rest of the pieces on the fabric (and I had an extra half yard!).  So I just shrugged and cut it out as instructed, with no attempt to match.  Um, I'd've been better off going for a deliberate mismatch that was balanced, but more on that later...

The fabric is a very tight weave; it was difficult to get pins to go into it, and the pinholes didn't close up, even after I sprayed it with water and steam pressed it.  Maybe after it's washed they'll go away.  Maybe...

This pattern has 6 places where you have to sew an  inside-corner to an outside-corner; it's the caveat I would give anyone.  It does have a really cool shape.

But I learned that the larger sizes apparently don't have as much ease as the smaller sizes...my shirt is a bit snug.  I don't think it's unwearable, but I will add a bit...maybe via a full bust adjustment...if I make it again...and I probably will.  I want at least one in linen.

I'll tell you, my friends, but will not mention it elsewhere, lol.  that near match on the front made me gnash my teeth a bit.  Fortunately the print is fairly well balanced so it's not terribly noticeable, but it bummed me.  With a match that close, you'd think I could have actually matched it...but I'm telling you, I tried several different ways to get it on there and it broke up the yardage so bad I couldn't get the other pieces (back, sleeves...which are pretty big...and front facing) all on.  

A friend recently asked me if I was still working on that wardrobe from the Vivienne files...and while the specific additions for Nov. and Dec. of 2021 are still in the queue, the garments I have sewn since, by and large, all work with the pink-green-navy-white color scheme.  So, while I haven't 'finished' that series, I am still building on it.

Today, I cut down a massive t-shirt...almost too much, lol.  It was from the previous year's collection in the merch shop at last fall's women's conference; I got it for five bucks and decided I'd use it to test the Style Arc Kim's Swing Top.  I took a TNT T shirt pattern and used it to pick the size to trace (a 12) and then I did a full bust adjustment.  I had to shorten the top by 2" to get it on the boxy original shirt (which I somehow missed getting a photo of before I took it apart).

It also came out a wee bit snug.  May have been partly due to the difficulty I had putting in on the half-deconstructed t-shirt (I left the shoulders and neckline intact)...it may not have been quite right.  But I think I will trace off a larger size before I try it again.  The sleeves are especially...fitted, lol.  But for a $5 test of the pattern...it's fine.

So...one pattern from the deep stash and one from recent stash, lol.  I have a few patterns that I made back in the day that I've retraced in a larger size.  Some of those patterns were great, that I wore over and over, and deserve to come back into the wardrobe.

Is Home Sewing Collapsing? A bit of a rant...

 As if it wasn't bad enough that Hancock's fabrics collapsed in 2016, then Jo-Ann's  (who had previously gobbled up the Cloth World, World of Fabrics, and So-Fro Fabrics chains in the previous decades) failed under the ludicrous burden of the leveraged buyout back in 2010, in which the investors who purchased the company did not take on the debt themselves but pushed it onto JoAnn's -- something that, in my opinion. should be illegal; now the news comes that the conglomerate that owns ALL the major pattern companies...Vogue, Butterick, McCall's and Simplicity... has sold all assets to a liquidator. 

Oh, there are mail order options for patterns from independent companies...some of whom have quite good patterns...but the only sewing pattern tissue printer in the entire country is part of that liquidation and all of those indy folks who print patterns on tissue paper use that printing service.  Who knows what will happen to that equipment now.  And we do have online fabric vendors.  Michael's craft stores has supposedly purchased up a good bit of the Hancock's and JoAnn's IP and intends to expand their home sewing offerings but the whole situation seems ominous.  I don't know if I will ever be able to, in the midst of a project, run to a local store and pick up that thing I need to finish, be it thread, zippers or buttons.  

I have read a lot of the comments pertaining to these closures, many of which say something to the effect of 'Oh, (whatever company) just didn't keep up with the times, so the demise was inevitable.'

But that begs the question...why did (fabric stores, pattern companies) not keep up with the times?

Y'all, they were all done in by financial shenanigans.  One company bought out all (or almost all) the major competition, then itself was bought out by an investor group that cared only for profit and had no interest whatsoever in the  home sewing community.  The Big 4 were owned, and just sold by,  IG Design group, who is a leading manufacturer and distributor of stationery, crafts, party and gift products for goodness sake!  Home sewing enthusiasts got frustrated with the lack of quality and techniques offered by the blob organizations and began turning to independent pattern designers and online fabric sources.  Not to disparage those folks, some of whom have great service and products, but...had the local store resources retained their quality, the masses would not have turned to online vendors.  Home sewing is an intensely personal pursuit, and we ALL want quick access to items we can see and touch in person.  I know the main reason I buy sewing goods online is because I can't get them locally. 

Which sounds like a business opportunity...except the goods available to retailers have also been disappearing.  Almost all fabric is milled overseas now.  Remember when a visit to a local fabric store would have the choice of multiple color ways in various prints or designs?  That's been rare for a long, long time.  Home sewing offerings are now mostly manufacturing overruns, with patterned fabrics available in one choice of color scheme only.  

All of this makes it difficult for youngsters coming of age to pick up the sewing habit.  The resources just aren't there; not to mention the demise of home economics in the public schools.  Materials for theater groups/ costuming/ cosplay are also getting harder to find...and more expensive.  I used to costume entire church productions from the dollar table at the local Wal-Mart.  Now I hesitate to even call what shows up on the discount rack (just one small rack...not a piled high table) 'sewing fabric'.  It. Is. Dreck.  A biblical costume could be made for less than $15 twenty years ago; that same costume would be about $75 now.  That's hard on a shoestring budget.

I don't know what the answer is, but I do wish our financial institutions would not allow leveraged buyouts that enable investors to skim profits from a company and then dump the debt back into it. 

I think I will now go upstairs and sew something as my own personal protest, lol.