My Sweet Babboo Sews

The Flute Player left rehearsal last night feeling a little queasy.  Her brother had had a digestive bug over the weekend, but I hoped we were past the incubation period for that and she was just over tired.

No such luck; she got hit hard by the bug about 1:30 this morning.  So she stayed home today and, as she just has chorus parts, she was not absolutely necessary for rehearsal tonight so the director told me to keep her home in hopes of not infecting other cast members.   I haven't gotten sick (so far, anyway), but I hit a wall after pushing so hard to sew and get the data entry from Easter done; I picked up my stack of data entry at work and brought it home when I went out to restock the ginger ale, but I haven't touched it all day.  I'm going to head to bed before 10 PM tonight...and I honestly don't remember the last time I managed that.

So, some photos that have been waiting their turn for posting...that are not about ME sewing at all.  My Sweet Babboo is a recent inductee into Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship, the auxiliary service organization for Royal Rangers, the national boys ministry of the Assembly of God churches.  Our church is not AG, but we do use the curriculum and participate in the gatherings and so he found himself in need of period appropriate gear.

After his first  winter campout, one of the things that moved to the top of his 'need' list was a coat that would keep him warm and also be suitable for a  character from the late 1700's.  The garment of choice is a capote, a coat made from a wool blanket.  He managed to get a suitable blanket from ebay, a pattern from one of the other guys in FCF, and set about hand sewing it together.  I actually offered very little advice; he did this on his own over several weeks...



He used two sinew-threaded needles at a time, criss crossing the stitches on each seam.  Tedious, but correct.  He found that the sleeves were too short and had to improvise a solution  that lengthened them without being visually disruptive and figured out a way to add cuffs to the sleeves.He finished in time to use on last week's campout, which was chilly but not cold, and came back quite pleased.

I think he did well and I'm curious to see how much other sewing he's actually going to do...

Twin Shirts...Delivered

Last night,  several of us made the trek (about 2 hours worth) down to the state Royal Ranger Campsite to see the Frontiersman Camping Fellowship call out for the Alabama district.  They told us this was the largest recruit class ever for the Alabama FCF; My Sweet Baboo was among those called out, as was our Senior Ranger Commander and two of the boys (twin brothers) from the Tuesday night Urban Ranger program.

Urban Rangers (and the related girls' ministry, Urban Mpact), is the outreach to kids in low-income neighborhoods.  The church sends vans and busses round to pick the kids up, brings them in and feeds them pizza or burgers/chicken sandwiches and takes them through the same curriculum that the regular classes teach during church on Wednesday. The National Royal Rangers even did a video on the program at our church:


My Sweet Baboo was one of the guys instrumental in starting that ministry (and the Senior Commander in this video is now our Men's Ministry pastor, so the Senior Commander who was called out with Bruce has stepped into that position since the video was made), so it was very cool that he and the first two Urban Rangers to earn their FCF level were in the same class (not only were they the first from our church; they are the first Urban Rangers in the state to earn their FCF).

In FCF, the guys are given nicknames and expected to dress in frontiersman/historical garb from (I think) pre 1850.  They are encouraged to do research and build a character based on someone from that time period.

Every FCF recruit must be sponsored by an active FCF member, and it is traditional for the sponsor to give the recruit appropriate gifts at the call out.  Since the Urban boys are, well, urban, the expense of the dress requirement could be an issue, so one of the gifts their sponsor wanted to give them was appropriate shirts.  I know I grumbled about the last minute developments on that, but the truth is that I'm quite honored to make the shirts for these boys and it did give me an opportunity to pray for them, specifically, as I sewed up their shirts.

Now, to be truthful, for the shirts to be authentic they should've been hand sewn.  But the authenticity is really only an issue for the guys who are into competitions about such things; basically, so long as it appears more-or-less authentic it is acceptable.  So I made small  buttonholes (neither of my machines will do eyelets!) in the shirt plackets instead of using metal eyelets, which were not used until right at the end of the designated time period, and I made sure the buttons were cut from shells instead of plastic.  The lacing is deer hide cording that MSB found.  The fabric is uber nice linen..but after seeing them on the boys, I'm wishing I could've made them a bit longer, but I was a little short on fabric for that.

They put on their shirts as soon as they got 'em; for now, anyway, they'll do just fine.

 

The tomahawks were also part of their call out gifts; their sponsoring leader has a forge and he and the boys made them.  

Can you believe I've already been asked how much I would charge to make those shirts for others?  Um, right now, you can't pay me... although there are likely to be references to future costuming for My Sweet Baboo, once he decides what type of character he's going to portray.

I foresee more costuming research in my future...but I found myself looking at the guys in costume, thinking "I have that pattern...I have that pattern...oh, I'm pretty sure I have that one, too...." ;-)

Twin Shirts

...which are actually for twins, believe it or not.  They're from Butterick 4486, made from a piece of linen that I ordered from Michael for a song several years ago for some costuming and then decided it was a bit too lightweight for what I needed.  I meant to turn it into costume shirts for The Actor and The Flute Player, but, well, these shirts needed to be finished by tomorrow so I had to use what I had.

I left work early yesterday and stayed home from work today; I had to teach my class at church tonight so I actually finished 'em at 12:15 AM; thank the good Lord for a part-time job with very flexible hours 'cause I might be a bit late going in tomorrow as well...

Hopefully My Sweet Baboo will get a picture of the shirts on the boys;  I'll tell you the story when I post that...right now, I'm headed for a date with the sand man...

Next Urgent Item

I finished Pastor N.'s shirt (well, he had to sew the buttons on; all I had were plastic ones which are Not Acceptable for these garments, and the bottom edge was just serge-finished...it'll be tucked in, no one will notice, and we can turn it up when we have more time), prepped the lesson to be taught last night and still had enough time to grab a small bite to eat before running off to church. Whew.

He was utterly delighted with the whole thing (there were four of us total working on the two outfits...he now has two new pairs of knee breeches, two new vests, which he made himself and a new shirt and a new coat) and promised to take photos at the Trace this weekend (the event for which he needed the garments). It was really gratifying to see how pleased he was, but I am reminded all over again of why I don't do this sort of thing for income!

I'll post a review when I get pictures. There needs to be a warning label on that pattern, to wit: 'Pieces and notches do not match. Be warned and proceed with care.' I found a couple more drafting errors on the shirt...pitiful.

But, we must Move On.

There is a fancy awards banquet for kids who work in the children's ministry at church tomorrow night. The Actor is going to borrow a trimmed-up tuxedo he wore in the recent production of The Bald Soprano, so he's good. I thought The Flute Player could wear one of her dressy stretch velvet things, but we've discovered that all the rest of the girls we've talked to are wearing FORMALS. Aiiieee.
We tried one borrowed dress; it was hopelessly too big. I'm picking up another today from my sewing buddy Miss M, who feels pretty confident that it will fit. The Flute Player is still strictly a 'Girls' size...no curves at all...so it's hard to find something fancy on short notice.

But I do have a back-up plan. I've got about a yard and a half of black rayon/lycra matte jersey left from my BWOF dress, and I'm thinking of morphing Jalie 2682 into a Little Black Dress for her. (She did ask for a black dress). I dunno if I could manage to put some bling on it somehow...maybe. I know that it really doesn't take long to put that together and I *think* I could do it.

But mostly I think I'm hoping the dress Miss M's daughter outgrew will work. ;)

The "I'll Just Do This Real Quick" Trap....

Back in January, I made a black rayon/lycra jersey turtleneck top from Christine Jonson's Basewear 2 pattern. I'd used the pattern before, and I *thought* I'd used the turtleneck with no problem. But, for some reason, the Turtleneck on the latest top was too small; the shirt rather puckered around the neckline seam, and it was very uncomfortable to wear. Fortunately, I had some scraps of that fabric large enough to cut a new (larger) turtleneck, so I decided that, before I changed the thread in the machines from black to white to work on the linen shirt portion of the Frontier Preacher costume, I'd switch that turtleneck out. Quick cut...quick rip...quick sew...quick done and on to the linen.

Arg. Not.

I'm not going to detail all the little frustrations I had with that stupid turtleneck. I did get it replaced, and it does look and feel better, but it was after lunch before I got to the 'cut out the white shirt' stage of the program.

And, when I got to the last piece, (the shirt back), I found I was about 4" short of having enough fabric.

Make it work, make it work...the back is being pieced. It'll look like a split yoke in the back.

And the shirt Must Be Finished by 4:30 tonight....maybe I *shouldn't* have gone to the Scrabble Chicks party last night?

Off to sew....

Pictures are ordered...

I took Pastor N's coat to him yesterday; he put buttons on it last night and it really doesn't look *too* bad. He's pleased, so that's what really counts.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a photo of it actually *on* him, and a picture of a black coat on a hanger isn't really post-worthy. But I have requested photos of the finished coat on him (he will be wearing it this weekend), mostly so I can post about it over on Pattern Review and warn everyone about the pitfalls of the draft.

But, for your amusement, My Sweet Baboo did snap this photo yesterday:
The photographer assured me that you could indeed see the point of the whole thing in that photo...that The Actor is now about 1/2 inch taller than his mother...but I really can't say that I can tell it from that camera angle. I guess we'll just have to take his word for it.

Hand Sewing Friday....

Well, for a photograph of a black garment, that's not too bad...

I'm not terribly happy with the way the lining is going in. I probably should've thought it all through better before hand, but since I was literally making it up as I went I guess a little rough edges are inevitable. I will finish off...probably with a machine zig-zag...the top edges of the vents; I'm thinking I'll sew them all together. I don' t know why I didn't finish those edges earlier; I think I was expecting them to be under the lining. As I said, I didn't think all the little particulars out ahead of time. Anyway, after everything's all closed up the vents will be topstitched across the top to hold them in place.

And I've got a bit of hand stitching to do on the lining seams above the vents; I had to release them a bit so that there was room for the coat to overlap.

But, mostly I'm going to be blind hemming a section of the coat, then going back and stitching the lining to it. I expect it will take all day.

But all that will be left for me after that is to pull out the Kenmore and make some faux buttonholes; Pastor N. is covering his buttons w/scraps and will sew those on himself. So I'm getting close....

The Pitfalls of Making it Up as I Go

Did I mention that I'm adding a lining to the preacher costume coat? (Butterick 3072, for those who've lost track of what I'm working on). It's an unlined pattern...which bugs the stew outta me, there's no way that coat will move properly without a lining. So I drafted the lining pattern, made it up first and fitted it so I could use it to tweak the original pattern. But the jacket has three vents...one in center back, and one on either side of the back, in the wrapped-to-the-back side seam.

I'm trying to figure out how to finish off the lining at those vents. I'm probably going to have to just hand sew it all down, but I did think I would wrap the self-facing on the upper side of the vent over the lining.

Which means I can't stitch the vents down until after the lining is inserted.

Wish I'd realized that before I stitched 'em down. That was the 'I'm done for tonight!' moment last night....so I get to start with my seam ripper today....

Facing the Giant (Er, the Coat)

I finally got the costume coat pattern fixed so that the sleeve and the armsceye appear to be in a harmonious relationship again....the fabric is spread on the table and I MUST cut it out today. The whole thing needs to be finished this week (at least the lining is already done!)

So, I'm (mostly) home today, since it's a holiday and the kids are out. 'Course, someone has to have an appointment of some kind on a school holiday, and today The Flute Player must visit the orthodontist for a retainer check. It's very likely that she'll need a second round of braces to get everything lined up right, but I'm hoping we can put that off a bit longer; the budget simply could NOT handle it right now. And I've an errand or two to run while we're out.

But mostly I'm going to be working on that coat....

Taking 10 (or 20 or 30...)

I have been fiddling with the coat armsceye/sleeve pattern and I just had to walk away from it for a little while before I rip some tissue into little pieces and fling it into the air.

I mentioned that I found a drafting error when I was tracing the pattern...the side seam (which is shifted around to the back somewhat) doesn't match front-to-back.

And that seam dumps into the armsceye right where my problem is.

I even pulled out the original pattern to see if the boo-boo was there, or if I introduced it when I graded up/attempted to fix the original.

Nope. There is 1 3/4" too much sleeve between the shoulder dot (which is in front of the shoulder seam) and the underarm dot. And the double notches don't match.

I also checked the pattern guide and there is NO mention of easing this sleeve into place, so there is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ANY EXTRA FABRIC THERE.

Grumble, grumble.

I looked again at the one review for this pattern on Pattern Review, and that reviewer made no mention of any problems with the sleeve. However, she used the middle size range for her project, so I suppose it's possible that the error is only in the larger sizes.


Grumble, grumble again.

It is made more difficult due to the fact that the seams in the jacket are offset from the seams in the sleeve, so it's a real trick to walk the seamlines.

I've shaved a bit off of the curve of the sleeve cap on the back, and I've shaved a bit out of the back armsceye, but I think I'm just going to have to rotate some fabric out of the sleeve back seam. And I'll probably run an ease line in it, although I'm not crazy about that. I just don't know if I have enough patience (or time) to keep tweaking it down to perfect.

Deep breaths here.

And, for anyone who has noticed the sudden jump in my 'fabric in' -- no, I have not succumbed to the siren call of the printed knits. I will be making Mantles for the HMC graduates again this year, and I've been stalking on line vendors watching for a sale I could apply to some black and white crepe-back satin for that purpose. Fabricdotcom had a suitable sale last week, so I got enough to make mantles for this year and hopefully next year as well.

So don't panic, Carolyn, I haven't let you down...yet ;)

Fixing the pattern....

I finished Pastor N.'s coat lining yesterday morning and had him try it on whilst I was at church for a meeting in the afternoon. All in all, it looks pretty good, but I'm going to have to do a bit of work on the armsceye.

I was quite chagrined to find what is apparently a drafting error in the armsceye/sleeve. There was a good inch too much ease in the back of the sleeve, and the notches for the backside of the sleeve/ jacket didn't match up at all. So something was amiss, but I didn't know if the error was in the sleeve or in the armsceye. I removed about 5/8" from the sleeve at the sleeve back seam, trimmed some of the curve off the back sleeve cap and made a teeny pleat (it's the lining...it'll be ok) in the sleeve to get the rest out.

I still don't know whether the error is in the sleeve or the jacket, but after trying the lining on Pastor N., I'm going to enlarge the armsceye a bit. He can use all the sleeve ease I can give him. ;)

The back of the shoulders look a bit funny to me; almost like the shoulders are too wide. But he needs all the ease when he moves, so I guess we'll just have to live with the drapey lines when his arms are down. He will be quite active in the costume (this is close to a re-enactment type deal) so he needs to be able to have full range of motion.

So, I need to pull out the pattern and work some on the armsceye to get it to be a little better fit to the sleeve.

At least it's a pretty day and it will be nice working in the sunroom...where the cutting table is still staking a claim... ;)

Doin' the Lining First

We have an Event at church tonight...a Girl's Glam Night...so I have some work to do, both on my contribution to the munchie table and my non-glam self, which is going to cut into my sewing time today.

But I *must* get the lining put together for the Frontier Preacher's coat; I have a meeting at church tomorrow and it will be a good time to try the lining on the recipient, just to make sure there's enough length (he's 6'3") and girth (I had to grade up 2 sizes) before I cut into the good linen shell fabric.

But I may end up with only about four hours of sewing time...it's going to be interesting to see if I can get it done or not.

And a non-related update: those knits are still there....

Tracing/grading/drafting/oh my aching back....

I'll say one thing...tracing/grading patterns is a great way to find out that the original pattern is off. I thought I'd made a mistake when the side seams and notches on the adjusted Butterick 3072 coat didn't match until I laid the original pattern pieces together and found that the boo-boo wasn't mine.

Maybe some day I'll remember to check things out before I trace stuff.

I remarked the notches; I think I can fudge the seam lengths (the front seam is shorter than the back seam a bit) as long as I know they're not going to match. But it is frustrating.

That had me check some other things, too, and I found that the shirt collar piece is uneven; if it's folded on the center back, the buttonholes don't match the center front on the other side. That's an easy fix; I'll just cut it twice w/the center back on the fold so the longer side is duplicated. But still.

And I haven't traced the vest yet.

So my plan has changed just a bit. I'm going to cut the lining only for the coat (following Ann's sage advice to make the lining first), and try that on Pastor N. just so I know it will work. Then we can cheerfully cut into the good fabric, once I know the alterations are ok.

It has been a real trick; I drafted facings, linings and pockets for this coat. Sure wish someone made patterns for real garments instead of just stage mock-ups...

More Period Costumes: The Frontier Pastor

One of our pastors at church is reactivating in The Frontiersmen Camping Fellowship (I'm not even going to try to explain it; click on the link if you're curious!). He's decided that he wants his character to be a pastor from that time period. He's procured a goodly amount of black linen (he'll be wearing it at the same annual camp out for which I made the pirate costumes, so comfort is still a concern), and I've gone to my accumulation of period costumes and found that Butterick 3072 is pretty close to what he has in mind (we watched chapter 11 from The Patriot several times to see the details on the pastor's attire...). However, he wants 2 outfits by the end of February, so I'm making the fancy one and he's making the regular one. So, I schlepped my cutting and tracing stuff to church so we could work on cutting it and discovered that Dear Pastor Person is a size 52, while the Butterick pattern only goes up to a 48. So instead of a quick trace off, I'm actually grading up a couple of sizes.

Um, I didn't make it to cutting today....maybe tomorrow... ;)