The Hoover Trunk...Part 1: A Century -old Quilt top?

 

I know I said I'd get 'at least two' blog posts from the contents of this box...but I have spent almost a whole afternoon taking pictures and I'm not halfway through yet. 

Plus, Blogger is an absolute PAIN when it comes to posting pictures and trying to get them positioned just so; to save my own sanity I am going to have to limit the number of pics in each post so that means ...yeah, it's gonna be a whole series, lol.

 

The first step was, of course, obtaining some acid -free boxes and tissue to move the items to. 

 A plastic bin and newsprint wasn't the best place for them; based on the date on the newspaper I'm going to guess it's been in that box since about January.  Before that...it was in an old trunk that had been in an attic or basement or back of a big closet somewhere. My Sweet Baboo's aunt had the trunk, and her daughter (his cousin), Pat,  inherited it.  She brought it over when we were visiting, and I said, 'You know, you can get archival storage stuff,'  and she immediately said, 'No, YOU can get archival storage stuff!  This is leaving my house!' 

I think she started to make a list and gave up pretty quickly.  I'm documenting it as I'm pulling it out and it is something of a chore.

I wish I had thought to measure stuff; going forward, I will likely get some measurements before I fold it up in the tissue, but I'm not going to unbox what I've already moved.

So.  Pat said that her mother always called it 'The Hoover Trunk' as her grandmother's (that would be the great-grandmother of My Sweet Babboo and Pat) maiden name was Hoover.  Ida Hoover.  She was, apparently, a professional dressmaker/ seamstress.  I don't know if she made all the contents of the trunk or not, but I suppose it is possible that she made a good deal of it.  I don't think I've seen photos of Ida; Pat says that she was a very petite lady...who had very not-petite sisters.  I will say that the contents of the trunk are very...varied, lol. 

But we'll get to that.

 I started with the non-garments first, and the biggest thing in the trunk is apparently a quilt top. But it is cool; a really different sort of quilt with the big paisley print pieces surrounded by small pieced blocks.  I have not seen anything quite like it.This is folded in half with some supporting tissue on the fold.

 It is hand pieced, with a very...interesting...color scheme.  I will say that most of the contents of the trunk appear to be from the nineteen-teens or maybe early twenties, but some of the fabric prints in this look quite modern to me.  I didn't realize such abstract prints were a thing that long ago.

 

 

 

The moth damage is extensive and some of the fabric pieces have gotten very fragile from age.  I have no earthly idea what could be done with it...I am not sure it is at all salvageable.

What would you do with it? I'm curious.

I am probably going to ask that question a LOT in this series....

Back from the Family Road Trip...

 It had been over a year and a half...since Christmas 2019...since we had seen our Indiana family.  But, since everyone had been vaccinated, we decided to brave the wilds and head north for a few days.  Kids, spouses, girlfriends, the baby...everyone.

 

Whilst we were in the northern reaches  of the state, My Sweet  Babboo's older cousin Pat came by with an assortment of...things...she'd been cleaning out of her house, and some of those things were meant to come home with me.

Here's a teaser pic, because there's some cool stuff in there that I expect to get at LEAST two blog posts worth of content from, lol...

I know it's not good to leave it where it is, but currently there is no direct sunlight coming in so it will be ok until I can get a better storage for it.

I also came home with a number of crocheted pot holders, most of which were made by my grandmother:

 These were USED, as the scorch marks on several of them attest, lol   Not sure what I will do with them; I hate to risk further damage to them but maybe using them would be the best honor I could give them...

I have a bit of sewing from before the trip to report, and we are gearing up to do another era-hopping Christmas production; hopefully there will be a little more activity in these parts in the immediate future...

Now...what do I do with The Wonky Dress?

 

Well...here's ONE picture from the wedding...at this point, I'm starting to think that's all I'll have.  You can kinda see the 'Aunt Lena Farm Wife Frock' fit to the upper chest in this picture, but the thing that I want to call out is the little flower on my left shoulder.  I didn't think about the fragility of the fabric when the corsage was pinned on...but when I pulled the dress out of the laundry and saw all the picks and fuzzies I realized, oh, that was not a good thing.

Here's a close-up; if you click to enlarge you can see the damage done by just the abrasion from the leaf on the corsage.  Now, granted it's not so obvious ...you gotta be looking at the right spot to see it...but it is a sad mess.

And this was not cheap fabric...$15/ yard plus shipping made it about $75 in fabric alone.  I have to keep reminding myself that trying to purchase a rayon crepe ready-to-wear dress in the right colors would have been an even bigger frustration...

I am thinking about cutting it off just above the waist and making a skirt out of the bottom bit.  I still love the colors in it...and I would kinda like to remake the pattern in fabric cut on the correct grain, just to tweak it to fit...to prove I can, but also to have a nice dress to wear, lol.

Like I have nothing else to do.

I have a couple of items in the 'almost finished' queue; I'll have new sewing to talk about soon!

Wearing the Wonky Dress

 Or, How She Put a Brave Face On and Wore the Dress that Would have Auffed Her from Any Sewing Reality Show.

Unfortunately, I basically have no pictures.  I didn't carry my phone with me...we were, after all, paying a photographer to take GOOD pictures...but none of the pics snapped by friends and family really showed the dress.  The professional shots will be available in something like a month, lol.  All I have at the moment is this (snort) not so flattering shot, but it does prove I wore it...

 

First, the fabric...I probably should have ditched the project when I realized that I was going to have to cut it cross grain due to the direction of the print.  But I was foolishly brave...or bravely foolish...and thought by extra careful one-layer cutting I could Make It Work.  Ha ha and ha.  I am pretty sure it slid off grain as I was extra carefully moving it around...but even the center front, which was the first piece I cut on a fold that had been meticulously measured to be even, hung skewed.  The whole freaking dress twisted substantially...I kinda think it may not have been a square weave to begin with.  I mean, rayon crepe is notoriously unstable in all its ways anyway, but the consistency of the twist has me thinking that at least some of it was in the weave...because all the pieces had to be cut going the same direction (again, due to the directional print).  The bottom of the zipper...which was entirely superfluous, I could pull the dress over my head without touching it...was a good 3" to the right of my spine.   And...while the colors in the print were dead perfect for the day, they were also very superficial. The least little abrasion resulted in white pull lines  I used some brand-spanking-new tailor's chalk to try to mark the hem after My Sweet Babboo had pin-marked the level, and just marking along the wrong side with the chalk caused pulls in the fabric.  Whoa.  I ended up using an ink pen...I was cutting the line off anyway...but sheesh!

Fortunately it is a very busy print, with white twiggy things all over it anyway.

Then...the fit... I did do a muslin, but just from the waist up. And, being a bouncy cotton, it didn't reflect the drag that would happen with the full weight of the rayon pulling down.  I should have done a petite adjustment in the armsceye and upper chest.  The upper bit was just simply too big.  I looked in the mirror and was immediately reminded of the farm-wife dresses that my great-great-aunt Lena wore when I was a preschooler.  Not exactly the vintage-y look I was going for.

So, between the twisty skewed fabric and the oversized upper chest, I kinda looked like a cross between Aunt Lena and Quasimodo.  Again, not the look I was going for.

A bit before the rehearsal on the day before, the Flute Player wanted to make a quick run to the mall to seek out a dress for the rehearsal/ going away outfit, so with about 45 minutes to shop, we headed out.  I just wanted to see if I could find SOMETHING that would work better than the Wonky Dress.  We had time to hit exactly one department store and I wandered through the offerings in Better Dresses with increasing dismay.  It was a SEA OF POLYESTER.  Scuba knits, even (so the scuba dress in the finals of The Great British Sewing Bee wasn't as much of a ...stretch...for formal wear as I thought).    I found exactly TWO dresses in my size that were not polyester...a seersucker gingham and a rayon/linen sheath dress with ruffles going over the shoulders.  The seersucker had, as it turned out, oddly puffed sleeves that looked ridiculous once I put it on...nope.  The sheath dress didn't fit too badly, but the neckline plunged WAY farther than I was comfortable with.  I did have a scarf at home that I thought I could possibly use to fill in the gap, though, and since I was out of time I bought that dress...just in case I decided I just couldn't brave the Wonky Dress. If I did wear the Wonky Dress...I could return it.

We were nearly  half an hour late to the rehearsal...because, well, we had to stop by the newlywed's apartment to try and find a foundation garment for the bride amongst the stuff that had already been moved...that turned out to still be at the house.

After the dinner, we sat up visiting with the kids who were in town for the wedding and I hemmed the Wonky Dress.  Put it on one last time before I went to bed to see if it was still Wonky...it was...and then laid in bed trying to figure out what to do.  The scarf was a near dead-match for the sheath dress...

Pros of the sheath dress:  it was the right blue, it matched the scarf, it was a much slimmer silhouette.

Pros of the Wonky Dress:  it was still a light, floaty rayon fabric that would be about the coolest thing I could wear.  It had pockets.  It matched the accessories I planned.

Cons of the Wonky Dress:  Aunt Lena-Quasimodo

Cons of the sheath dress:   It really wasn't very dressy; I would have to fiddle with the silk scarf to get it to look right and that silk scarf, wrapped around my neck, would be HOT.  And...NO POCKETS.

Ultimately, comfort won out.  I wanted pockets for my lip gloss and a couple of tissues, just in case.  Maybe no one would notice the wonkiness if I just kept moving.

Y'all, I got compliments on that Wonky Dress.  I laughed every time someone commented on it looking nice; I couldn't help myself.  I knew that dress was A. Hot. Mess.  Of course, I didn't point out the issues, and I thanked the very nice people for complimenting the dress, but I still laughed.  I guess I moved enough.

Who knows what it will look like when we get the Official Wedding Pictures...but I was about as cool and comfy as I could've been.  

And the Flute Player was so gorgeous that I had to keep reminding myself it really was my jeans-and-tshirt-and-pigtails wearing youngest offspring...

Photo creds to my BIL David...

 

 

 

 

It all went well; the Wonky Dress didn't hurt a thing.  The sheath dress will be going back to the department store on Friday.

Another day of finger - crossing...

 So, last night I undertook to trace off the skirt bits of the dress pattern and attach them to the bodice pieces that I'd traced for fitting purposes.

And I discovered some thing...interesting.  I've seen articles over and over about skirt gores...that, for the prettiest drape, the grainline should run down the center of the gore.  Well, on this dress the grainline ran more or less parallel to one edge on each of the pieces.  The fullness wasn't balanced.  I thought about trying to correct it by just re-drawing the grainline, but that threw the grainline on the bodice pieces off so I decided to just let it go.  I wondered if there was some purpose to the skirt gores being drafted off center of the grainline, but frankly couldn't think of one.

Then I measured my fabric and discovered that it's 6" narrower than I thought, and I lost a fuzz over a quarter yard in length when I pre-washed it.  Given that it has a pronounced directional print that meant I had to cut everything oriented the same on the cross grain, I did a little trial laying-out on my cutting table mat and discovered that I was around 20" short of having enough fabric.

Gnashing of teeth ensued; I considered making another dress altogether; a sheath dress out of some pretty dogwood-floral-print cotton sateen but, when I pulled the fabric out, realized the black background wouldn't work.  I pulled my Loes Hinse City Dress...a stick straight pattern that should fit on the fabric I have...and then had a thought.  What if I just reduced the amount of flare on the gores?  AND...that would allow me to balance the flare on the grainline.

So, after another round of pattern alterations I did another layout and, if the math works...I have 3" to spare.  And then it was time to take a break and do the hand work on the altered bridesmaid's dress, so I can tackle cutting out my dress after I've had a bit of a sit-down.

I will be cutting that  puppy out single layer, to move every piece as close as possible together, and crossing my fingers, because. there's no going back if it's wrong...although I may end up piecing a bit if I have to.

I think I can...I think I can... I think I can...

Such a mess...

We have a dress...

 Finally met up with the bridesmaid today and got the cobbled up dress on her...it's not a beautiful fit, but the zipper zips  without threat of malfunctioning so we're calling it good, lol.  All I have to do now is whip down the lining to the waistband and we are DONE....with that one.  That will likely be my busy hands task whilst I watch my kid the video streamer (yeah, that's what the Actor is up to these days) on Saturday.

Meantime, I'm working on my dress.  I finally decided to go with Butterick 6660 , a Connie Crawford pattern, as it looked floaty and swishy and wouldn't need much in the way of alterations.  The listed finished pattern measurements (you have to look on the actual pattern for those) put me in a Large, but I didn't want to charge into uncharted waters with my good fabric. So I pulled the last dress muslin I made out of a box and recut it into a muslin of the waist-up portion of the B 6660.  I knew from my measurements that I needed to drop the bust point a generous inch, so I did that on the tracing.  I wasn't fond of the sleeve on the picture;  it looked more fitted and kinda casual, so I found a sleeve with some funky pleating to try from a different Butterick pattern and traced the armsceye from that pattern onto this one.  I also rounded off the point of the V neck, raising that nearly 2".  But, in terms of alterations, that was it.

Made up the muslin to the sleeves...with a trick; I sewed up the back seam, where the zipper will go, and added a seam allowance to the front fold line and cut the front as two pieces so I could pin that up...which is a heckin' lot easier if you don't have a sewing buddy to close up the back for you.  Anyway,  I made up the sleeves first and decided I didn't like them much but thought I'd go ahead and see what they looked like. However, sewing up the sideseams showed that the front armsceye was a good half to three-quarters inch higher than the back armsceye at the side seam.  Plus the shoulders were way wider than my narrow frame.  I stopped there, went upstairs and unpicked everything, decided to go with a different sleeve...one I thought would be a looser sleeve than the one that came on 6660, and had an extremely frustrating time trying to figure out why, when everything lined up, the moment I pivoted the front and back armsceye to remove that excess in the shoulder the front ended up hiked up above the back again.  I finally decided to kind of average the top of that seam and take the change out of the sleeve ease.  I cut the new sleeves out of the old sleeves and sewed everything back up.

The shoulder was still too wide.  And the sleeves were not as generous and ease-y as I thought they were.  I pulled out the original B6660 sleeves and found that, despite the snug look on the envelope, they were actually going to be a looser fit than the ones I had substituted.  So I put all the other-pattern-sleeves up, whacked back the shoulder seam at the armsceye with the help of a french curve, then checked to make sure I still had some ease in the sleeve cap and called it good.

Tomorrow I'll trace the rest of the pattern and maybe even get my dress cut out.

Whilst I do laundry.

I may have one other dress to hem...if it comes in time.  We have a backup if it doesn't, but of course we want the actual dress that was ordered.

Dunno if I will get any housecleaning done before the out of town folks arrive, but hopefully we will all be dressed for the wedding...

Crossing my fingers...

 So.  Here is one of the panels I  added to the side of the dress.  I only had to increase the bodice; the knit lining is stretchy enough that once I released the dart in the back it worked.  I clipped some of the gathering stitches in the chiffony overskirt to release some of the gathers and that worked.

That side panel is pieced up from the 3 1/2" I cut off the bottom, lol.  I did my best to cut it into on-grain rectangles, from both the lining/underskirt and the chiffony overskirt remnants, and then I pieced the rectangles to get the length I needed.  I used the satin from JoAnn's as the lining for it.  My pillowcase is still intact, lol.

At first, I just gathered the overlayer on the side panels and thought I was good, but when I compared it to the dress I realized it needed to be pleated.  So, off it came...and I had to cut a couple more pieces from the hem remnant because it needed more fabric.  I think I ended up with about  8 rectangles of the chiffon.  You *can* see the seams in it...if you look really close...but from any distance it looks like part of the pleating.

I haven't tacked the lining back down to the waist yet; I'm going to do one more try-on to make sure it fits.  I did add a pinch more width than the pinned-up ribbon indicated, because that would have been really tight and I don't want to strain the zipper.  If it looks too baggy it will be easy to take up a bit in the seams.

I will say it again...I am so glad this is not what I do for a living, lol.

Now...on to my dress....

The hem is done...

 On the Bridesmaid's dress.  I had to pull out the backup machines because 1) my serger still is not cutting well and it was straight up chewing the poly knit lining.  The backup machine sliced through it like butter.  And, I discovered the back up machine makes a nicer rolled hem...I think that's just 20 years of improvement since I bought the first serger.  It actually rolls the edge of the fabric under and puts the stitching on a fold, instead of putting the stitching right on the edge of the fabric.  2) My 2014-purchased main machine does NOT have an adjustable-pressure for the foot, which meant the hem would get stretched and distorted.    The 28 year old machine allowed me to soften up the pressure foot, so the drag was greatly reduced.  

I'm still a klutz with a rolled edge foot, though.  The end product is ...passable.  But I think I probably sewed all of it at least twice and I have a pile of pulled-out thread from unstitching it when the rolled edged got wonky.

Then I took the rolled hem out of the chiffon bit that I cut off and unstitched the seams so that's available now for the filler panels.  The lining knit was not so cooperative.  I can NOT get the rolled edge on that unpicked.  I don't have much; the lining is not very flared, and I hate to cut off the rolled edge but I don't have a week to unpick it one stitch at a time.  If I can squeak the inserts out of that bit of excess, maybe I won't have to cut up a pillowcase, lol.

I drew a little schematic of the pieces I'll need to used on the sides; I will use those measurements to cut actual pattern pieces.  But I still have to unpick about 50% of the (lined) bodice from the skirt and open the side seams  so I can attach the insert panels, once I make them.  There are darts in the lining and gathering on the overskirt.  I can release/ redistribute the gathering so the overskirt will be fine, but  I don't think I can release the darts enough; I may have to put a godet in the top sideseam of the skirt lining to get it to match the expanded bodice.  We'll see.

Tomorrow's a full day so it'll be Monday before I can hit it again.  

I will be super relieved once this is finished.  I can't imagine doing formalwear alterations on a regular basis...

In which she may actually have bitten off more than she can chew in the time allotted...

FINALLY...something in the 'Done' column.  This is the LONGEST I have gone without sewing a garment in years and years and years, I do believe, but it's done.  This is a replacement for a gray cardigan that I think I left hanging in the closet of the bed and breakfast where we celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary last August.  I didn't realize it really and truly was missing for about a month;  I just assumed it was in the laundry or something but...nope.  Its funny; the sleeves feel looser and longer than I remember them being on the top that went missing, and it's definitely a wee bit lighter in color (I had a scrap to compare it to).  But I really, really missed having that gray top layer in the wardrobe, so I actually bumped it up in priority above stuff that actually was probably more pressing.  But, then, I didn't realize I was going to have to hand baste all the hems down to keep them from shifting under my no-pressure-adjustment-available presser foot.  So, yeah, it took a minute or two longer than I had anticipated.

The next most urgent item is this dress:

 It is a bridesmaids' dress from Brides R Us  (did I mention that the wedding is three weeks from today?).  I am not sure what happened and honestly, at this point it doesn't matter.  The dress the maid was to have ordered somehow didn't get ordered and then was unavailable.  Some shuffling of dresses occurred and now she has a dress but as the pinned -in red ribbon attests, this one doesn't zip.  I thought of doing a corset back, but as the neckline is high the lacing would end up diamond shaped, which I didn't think would look good.  Next thought was side panels, but with the dress lined and all fabric cheap poly knit, I wasn't sure I could do it.  Then I thought about detaching the shoulder straps, shortening the back to the bottom-of-the-armsceye level and using some of the 3" of fabric I have to take from the hem to make longer straps.  But even that wouldn't get the corset back to not be slightly wider below the top and I don't think a diamond shaped corset will look at all good.  So now we are back to side panels.

I bought some light blue satin (to use matte side out) from JA's today (oh, how I wish we had a legit fabric shop in town) that looks aqua next to the dress but it won't show much on the sides and I will take excess hem to make the drapey side panels to cover some so, we make do, right?  I took it upstairs to put with the laundry to give it a wash to get the wrinkles out of it and laid it down on my light blue satin pillowcase, purchased because satin pillowcases are supposed to be good for curly hair.  I looked at the colors and ran back downstairs with  the pillow and...the pillowcase is almost a dead on match.  

So I will be sacrificing one of my pillowcases for the cause.

But first I've got to hem it.  That gives me a little more time to puzzle over the addition to make sure I have a good plan.

Because I still want to make my dress in the three weeks left...

Still no garments made this year...

 Ok, I still have no real sewing to report.  I have been mending all the facemasks....where the bendy bit has worn through or broken, and a tedious business THAT is...and I have worked hard, if not too successfully, at reviving a lost art:  Darning socks.

I remember in the last year of my grandmother's life she moved around between my mom & dad's house and that of my dad's siblings, as she was dealing with cancer treatments that left her really not able to care for herself.   But one thing she did while she was at my parents' house, at least, was darn socks.  I remember going to visit when The Princess was about 5 months old and being astonished at the incredible work done on the toes of relatively cheap socks.  But my grandmother was of the 'make it do or do without' generation, so she darned the socks.  I, however, bought socks that were so cheap it made more sense to throw them out when they got holes in the toes...which they did at a truly ridiculous rate.  But, fast forward mumbledy mumbledy years and I have become enamored of cushy and supportive and ...expensive... socks.  Socks that don't wear through the 2nd or 3rd time you wear them.  But...even these wear through at some point, and they are definitely worth the effort to darn.

Even if I am terrible at it.

Case in point:

 Sigh.  At least no one will see the toes.  It might help if I had an actual darning knob; I put them over a laundry detergent measuring cup cap.  It worked...sort of.  

 I have also washed my 'MOB Dress' rayon crepe, and I discovered something when I pulled it out of the dryer...

(hanging lengthwise)

 

(Hanging crosswise)

That print is actually horizontally oriented!  The more I look at it the more I think I'm going to have to cut the dress out on the cross grain, just so those twiggy things look...right.

And I am going out on a bit of a limb for the pattern.  I wanted something with a bit of a vintage vibe but a trip to JoAnn's didn't really turn up exactly what I was looking for.  So I dug through the pattern stash and found a dress pattern that I made up sometime in the 1998 - 2000 time frame (the copyright date is 1997).  I loved that dress and wore it and wore it until some weird something happened and it got a hard, melty place in it (it was rayon crepe...so go figure).  I don't know what it was but it was truly tragic.  HOWEVER, it is the size I wore 20 years ago...

I'ma gonna hafta size that puppy up a little bit, ahem.  But this is the closest I could find to the  dress I want, so we'll see if my fitting skills are up to the task.

And we'll also have to see if I can find appropriate buttons.  I may be scouring the internet.  I really have not had much luck looking for buttons; all the sites seem to be so hard to navigate.  I just want to search for, say, 3/4" blue buttons, but...for some reason that isn't very searchable.  

I have a wee bit of unselfish sewing to do, and I have at least ONE thing my wardrobe needs desperately, but maybe by the weekend I can see about altering up this pattern to fit the current bod.  I do seem to remember that it was generously...maybe even excessively...blessed with ease, so perhaps I won't have to add as much as I expect.  We shall see.

A wee bit of fabric in...

 The Flute Player is getting married in June.  At the local Botanical Garden...ie, outside.  In the early afternoon.

In other words, it's gonna likely be HOT.

So...for the MOB dress, I want something cool and airy and floaty.  Definitely NOT POLYESTER.

The bridesmaids are in a pretty shade of light blue; the guys are wearing white shirts, khaki pants, and kind of a golden yellow suspenders and bow ties.  There are flowers in white, blue, yellow, and pink.

I wanted a kind of a floral print, in something rayon and floaty...poked around on an internet somewhat.  Found something I really like, but it was backordered.  But it was so perfect I crossed my fingers and ordered it anyway.  Last week.

It came today...

The colors are dead perfect,although my monitor shows the colors slightly greyed.  It is rayon crepe; light and floaty.  I have 4 1/2 yards.  Should be enough for whatever I pick.

Time to dig through the patterns now.

Woot Woot

Hit a sale...

 Caught a discount for Stylearc patterns on Amazon and found a few that intrigued me.  My pattern purchasing has dropped somewhat, but each of these had something about it that was unique enough that I decided to splurge...

I don't actually know when I will get to sit down at the sewing machine and actually MAKE A GARMENT.  The truth is, my sewing stashes have amoebaed themselves right out of their original space and taken up way more house space than I can afford for them to occupy.  Most of it is from chronic disorganization, pure and simple, so I am telling myself I am going to clean and organize and maybe even MOVE the whole lot of it during the months of April and May.  I've got two weekends this month that My Sweet Babboo will be off camping with the boys' mnistry; so I aim to get a good start on the process while he's gone.  I will be finishing the classes I'm taking in our ministry program at church this month also (I have a zoom meeting for that in 25 minutes so I'm typing fast, lol)...once that is done, I'll have a bit more time available so I can work on it and not fret about finishing homework.

And, you know, there is a wedding coming up.  It looks like I will be doing something with the bridesmaid's dresses...at least hemming them, and discussions are already underway to solve a problem with the décolletage being a little more revealing than was anticipated....the theater costumer may surface again, lol. But this will have to look good at a close range, unlike costumes for a stage production.  And, of course, I'll be making my dress.  But I'mma gonna do that in June.

So there is sewing on the docket.  But first...clean and organize.  My sewing room hasn't looked like the tiled photos since...well, pretty much since those pics were taken.  Pippin costuming hit right after that and the space hasn't been clean since.  I will take photos...but I'm not sure I'll be brave enough to share them, lol.  It really is bad.

So...wish me luck and tenacity so I don't just pull stuff out and then get bored/ frustrated/ antsy and not really finish.  I'm really, really tired of trying to sew in a mess.

I'm still here...

 It's been a minute, lol.

I'm supposed to have done a summary of last year's sewing and purchases and whatnot and, nope, hasn't happened.  

Because I think I only made, like, two tops last year.  And a bazillion (well, maybe 90? ish?) masks.

I probably should do a little follow up to the mask posts; I've discovered something as they have been washed and worn and washed and worn and washed and worn...

Anything put in for a bendy bit either eventually a) breaks or b) pokes through the binding or c) both.

Most people that I made masks for have left those in the drawers and opted to wear the disposable ones. The ties are not very popular.

But it is interesting that the CDC mask recommendations that are coming out in light of more contagious strands of the 'rona are to wear a mask that is 2 - 3 layers thick (yup, mine are 3 layers) and ties rather than loops over the ears.  So, there's that, lol. I have made a version of the facemask that has elastic ear loops and is somewhat box shaped, so as not to need the bendy bit, but I'm finding that, for whatever reason, it's difficult to be consistent in the sizing.  You'd think if they are all constructed the same they should end up the same but so far that has not been the case.  But I haven't made nearly as many of those so perhaps I just need more practice. They are a bit trickier.

But I have placed the first fabric order of 2021...for some pink knit tops.  I finally came round to acknowledging that blue-based pinks are colors that I wear well so I am looking to make a little capsule wardrobe with some pink mixed with gray.  Nice and soft.  After I replace my favorite gray cardigan that I apparently left hanging in the closet of the Bed and Breakfast we stayed at for our 40th anniversary last August.

The last time I wore the cardi...

Not to worry; I have some suitable knit in the stash; I just need to clean off my cutting table and get on it.

I am really feeling the creative itch to sew a bit so hopefully I can unearth myself from the mask making materials that I kind of went overboard collecting and digging out of nicely packed away goods.  And I do have a small Christmas project to blog about so maybe I won't be such a stranger in the coming weeks.

Meantime, if any of you have not stumbled onto this youtube channel before, I'm going to share my latest binge-watch...there may be historical garments in my future, lol.

Bernadette Banner

 

I have leaned something from the historical costuming rabbit hole I went down...scraps/ remnant yardage is termed 'cabbage'.  I'd never heard that term for it and I think it's hysterical.  

 

I have way too much cabbage about, lol.

A December Stroll...

 It's been too long since I managed to get a post up over here; fortunately, the 'Random' in the name means I don't have to stick strictly to sewing...

Which is a good thing. The only thing I've made since the last post are more face masks.  I even took down the 'year to date' stats because I'd so lost track of what I bought and what I sewed for the masks that it wasn't even funny.  I'm just going to start clean next year.

But...well... randomness...

When we first moved to The Rocket City back in 1980, I was shocked at how few houses had Christmas lights up.  Christmas lights were a THING in central Indiana, where I grew up, and  it just seemed so bleak to be in a city that had so few.  I remember getting excited driving through Indianapolis on our way to the farm at Christmas in the early 80's and seeing so many houses with lights.  There was even a farmer near my folks who put a Christmas star on his grain auger system every year.

Fortunately, over the years, lights have become more common in our corner of the South.

Ten years or so after we moved down, we began a semi-regular tradition and sometime in December, we would load the kids into the minivan, put a cassette tape (remember those?) of Christmas music in and go driving around town, looking for Christmas lights.  We would usually find some, but it still was not the level I remembered as a kid back in the Hoosier state.  

We're finally just about there, lol.

Tonight was a warm night, so My Sweet Babboo, the Flute Player and I went for an evening stroll in the neighborhood.  We walked about three and a half miles and saw lights on pretty much every block.

We commented on the different styles and kinds of lights and how different folks used them.

I have 15,000 steps on my Fitbit, lol.

But, all in all, it only took about an hour and a half.

About what we used to spend driving around town when the kids were small.

We did observe several cars that appeared to be...driving around looking at lights.

At one point, some folks in a golf cart all lit up with Christmas lights went by us a couple of times.

I took a picture, but the light was bad and it didn't turn out. 

There were about four folks in the golf cart, just buzzing around the neighborhood.  What a hoot!

I confess, it would make going up the hills a lot easier...

But all in all, I think I prefer walking around for 90 minutes to driving.

I didn't take a picture of our house tonight, but here's one from a pre-dawn walk a couple of weeks ago.  Not as fancy as some we saw tonight, but it works for us.

 

Walking the neighborhood was a quite safe, socially distant activity and it was a perfect night to do it.

I hope you can find safe, socially distant ways to celebrate the season! It's going to be different, but, you know, every Christmas I wonder how we could back off from the crazy a bit and just have a simple, heartfelt celebration.  Looks like we will be able to do that this year....and, maybe next year we will have turned the corner on this thing and we will be able to enjoy all the usual traditions.  Or maybe we will have learned which ones are truly important and which ones are just...busyness.

A little practical sewing...maybe

 Back in the day, when my kids were babies, I had a stack of Curity gauze diapers.  They were great, useful for everything from spit up rags to mopping up various fluids ejected from baby to actually being pinned on as diapers, with plastic covers, to increase the discomfort of soiled diapers and encourage the move to the potty and big kid undies.  And, because they were so soft, 3 of my 4 kids actually used them as security blankets for the first couple of years  (One of my kids, who shall be nameless, was HORRIFIED to learn recently that the well-remembered security blanket was actually a diaper that had been...USED...no matter how much I assured said child that it had been completely washed and sterilized and was no worse for the wear).

I still have about 5 or six old, fraying Curity diapers that I use as pressing cloths.  They work great.

So, my standard gift for new moms was a package of cloth, preferably gauze, diapers.  When I could no longer find Curity diapers at the local retail outlets, I went with the Gerber diapers that were shaped a little differently and were the birds-eye weave.

Then, a few months back, with Covid restrictions and all, I decided to just order several packages of cloth diapers, as I had several near and dear who were having babies. I went looking for the Curity diapers, thinking I could find them online.

Yeah...at ebay, for about $250/dozen.  Apparently they are no longer being manufactured.

So sad.

So I looked for the Gerber diapers and found them and all was well...until I read the reviews.  I was shocked to see that the cloth diapers I had been cheerfully buying in sealed packages and giving to friends were little better than cheesecloth. Bad review after bad review mentioned that these were nothing like the old Curity diapers.

So...what was one to do? 

I ended up buying a 15 yard bolt of 36" wide 'diaper fabric'...a cotton birdseye weave that is supposed to be good for diapers.

I measured my Curity diapers and found that they were 20" x 40"...so I cut  5 40" pieces and split them in half lengthwise so I had 10 18" x 40" rectangles and ran them through the serger.  I wove the serger tails in and added a drop of Fray Check to the corners to hopefully keep them from unravelling.

Then I washed them twice.

The gold standard...and the slightly smaller reproduction.  They did shrink a bit, the next batch will have to be cut a little longer, if it turns out to be a problem.

                                                  

One of them had a spot that apparently had a flaw in it, because there was a 3/8" diameter hole frayed out in it.  I darned the hole, but it was rough and scratchy and not suitable for a diaper and I threw it into my rag bag.  But I now have 9 roughly-Curity-sized-and-shaped birdseye weave diapers for product testing.

Folded and stacked for use.

                                                     

 

And I just so happen to have a handy product tester recently added to the family...

Number 1 Grandson, born to the Princess and Prince Charming on 11/10/20.  He lives just a fuzz under 2 miles away, but in Covid season it might as well be out of state.  So far all we've had are porch peeks and photos.

But, this too shall pass.  And we'll see how the home crafted diapers hold up. If they prove as useful and versatile as the the good ol' Curity diapers...well, I've got about 9 1/2 yards left and I can make a stack of diapers for gifting.  If not...well, it will be kitchen towels, lol.

Fifteen Years Ago Today...

 ...Sew Random made its debut into the blogsphere, and I became a sewing blogger, posting about sewing costumes for a production of 'The Gospel According to Scrooge'....something we were going to do regularly but, life happened, and we have not performed that since. Maybe in the next few years, when we finish the updates to the theater that is in the old high school we've turned into our church.

I blogged just about every day for two and a half years (wow...it seems like it should have been longer than that), then started a second blog to discuss aspects of life that didn't really fit on a sewing blog.  So I kinda quit the daily posts.  I blogged about different projects, school productions, church productions, and the choir wardrobe.

I haven't sewn much this year.  We haven't had choir since March 15. 
I've bought fabric for costumes...future costumes...because I found last year that the fabric may not be readily available when it's needed.  I bought fabric for masks and just got so drug down making them that I've only managed to sew about half of it up so far.  And anytime I start to undertake a garment project I feel guilty because...masks...

I have typed and erased a whole bunch of stuff here.  In a world where content is everything, I've had almost none this year.

And yet...you are here, reading my little non-sewing lament.  In a little safe place where politics isn't some kind of litmus test for friendship.  

I am unspeakably grateful for everyone who has stopped by, who has left a comment, who has encouraged me with their own blog posts...

Thank you.

Gratuitous picture of the aging sewing assistant, making sure I don't move from the desk.  She's been around for 11 of the 15 years...

The Refashion Challenge: Results

 I think I'm happy.

Tuesday's post has all the pics of the original top and where it came from, but if you don't want to click through, here's what I started with (not sure if I mentioned it, but the tag said it was a 3XL):  

And, if you want the reveal before the 'what I did'...here's the shirt, remade:

You have to look to see the godets I added to the side from a gray-and-black stripe remnant that I 'd kept in the scrap box, but you can sure see the difference it makes in the drape of the shirt.  That stripe knit was a pricey one, actually, that I bought at one of the Sewing Expos I went to...I want to say it was Indianapolis in 2014, but that might not be right.  I'd made a t-shirt out of it, that has disappeared (no idea how a t shirt could disappear, but I haven't seen it in at least a couple of years).  I had a good bit left over, so I paired it up with an abstract print and used the stripe on the sleeves and neckband.  The print was royal blue, black white and gray and I loved the way the stripes played with the print.  But, over the years, the gray in the print changed from gray to a pinky-mauve color (I have another, entirely different print that did the same thing; now instead of grayscale it looks sepia).  The pink kinda clashed w/ the royal blue in the print and it definitely looked odd with the stripe in the sleeves and neckband; it was still in the closet but I just didn't wear it.

So, with that backstory in mind, we return to the weird oversized shirt.  I used my Vogue 9057 pattern for the base of the alterations.  After unstitching the sideseams and removing the sleeves,  I folded the shirt in half lengthwise.  I could only cut one side at a time because the hem-to-hem length was longer than my table, so I cut the front first, laying the pattern with the center front along the fold and the intersection between the neckline and the shoulder seam at the shoulder seam/ neckline of the shirt.   Where the waist shaping on the sideseam began to increase just below the waist, I laid my long ruler there to connect that line with the bottom edge of the shirt.  Whacked it down, then carefully moved the shirt so that I could cut the back the same way.  I cut something like 13" off of the shoulder seam, so it was enough to cut some cap sleeves from the scraps at the shoulder area...if I put the former shoulder seam down the center of the sleeves.

Then I carefully folded my little remnant of stripe and managed to get two godets that were 11" wide at the bottom and 15" tall.  I didn't do any scientific calculations...that was just the size I could get from the piece I had.

I did that after writing Tuesday's post, and then I pondered what to do. I thought it would just look like I stuck extra fabric in it if I didn't do something besides just the godets...and I remembered the 'rule of three' from my days costuming school shows. Basically, the rule of three is that if you use an element in an outfit/ garment, you should use it in three places so that it looks like a part of the garment.  But I was down to mere scraps of the knit...what could I do?

Then I remembered the top with the striped sleeves and neckband that didn't work anymore.  I hustled up to the closet and took the sleeves and the neckband off before I went to bed (really late, lol).  The faded remnants of the top went into the trash bin.  RIP.

I thought I'd just put the sleeves on the new top...they were from the same Vogue pattern.  But as I thought about what I could do while at work yesterday I realized that the long sleeves and the long godets would kind of compete.  Maybe it would be better to use the cap sleeves.  Maybe  there was enough scraps left to get a couple of strips to use as a band on the bottom of the sleeves...bonus, then I wouldn't have to hem the sleeves.  Hm.  And what about the neckband?   I didn't even know if the neckband that I pulled off of the faded shirt would fit or if I would need to add some length to it.

I came home, ate dinner, walked with my hubby, and then pondered what I could do and how I could do it.   I finally measured the bottom of the cap sleeves I'd cut, then measured the scraps and found that I could get two strips 1 1/2" wide long enough to go around the bottom of the sleeves, and I matched up the neckband to the neckline of the shirt and saw that I would only have to stretch the recycled neckband a little bit to make it work. And...bonus...it would pull that really wide neckline into a better size for me. The only caveat was that I realized I would have to hand sew the neckband on; I just layered it behind the original finished neckline of the top (it had a wrap-around binding).  Took a bit to sew it on, but now I have a double neckline that suits my narrow shoulders better than the original; not only did the stretched neckband pull it in slightly, but it extends about 3/8" beyond the original finished edge so it fills it in a bit.

From that point, it was just a matter of sewing it together and hemming the godets.  I actually finished last night and wore it today.

I am sad that I wasn't able to keep the pockets but they would have looked odd in the godet seam.  It's comfy and swishy and fun to wear.  And the button back is cool.

But...my serger is still not cutting as nicely as I would like. It's not horrible...but it's not clean as it should be, either.  We may have to make another trip west in the next couple of weeks.  Sigh.

A Refashion Challenge...

 At the end of last week, a large bag was circulated around the admin office at church.  Someone had unearthed a bag w/ some past conference merch T-shirts...all in 2 & 3 XL sizes.  There weren't many, and we were told we could have whatever struck our fancy.

I dug through the bag, whilst one of my co-workers shook her head, 'I don't think you're going to find anything in there...they're all Plus sizes'

'Oh, I'm not looking for a top that fits, ' I commented.  'I'm looking for raw material.'

She was shocked.  'You mean you're going to cut it up?'

HECK YEAH.

I found a shirt from 2016 that I had thought was kinda cute...but it was only in plus sizes back then, and it was kinda odd shaped.

I brought it home and took some pics...

 First, I tried it on, just to see what I had to work with.  And I will say, when I pulled it over my head, I thought, 'This shirt has been worn before'...slight remnants of a fragrance, and a bit of perspiration.  Then I realized what the shirts in the bag likely were...shirts that had been modeled in a photo shoot and then couldn't be sold.

 No matter.  I just ran it through the laundry after the pics, lol.

It's tunic length... just a hair longer than my shorts...and very wide in the shoulders and upper body, but almost snug through the thighs.  I suppose I could just roll with the oversized vibe but it would annoy the stew outta me.

You can see the shape laid out on the bed; it looks like it's straight, which is odd, considering how it fits like an inverted triangle.

The back is the part I liked the best.  It's a pleat, with buttons, so it looks like it buttons up the back.  

All the kids who are in town came by the house last night and we all sat around the front porch, socially distanced, and visited.  I put the time to good use and opened the side seams, removed the pockets and took off the sleeeves.  I have a couple of ideas of what I can do...we'll see what develops.

I am definitely keeping the back button detail, lol.

She's Back...

 And we are very glad.  

It was $1 for parts ((a new upper knife) and $110  for labor, but she's all cleaned, tuned, tweaked and sharp and ready to go.  She's running a little more growly than in the old days, but, hey, she's 30 years old and she's still quieter than the new backup.  And I'm glad I now have a backup sewing machine and a back up serger that I can take to church for sewing days and still have my sewing set up at home.

On another note, I've had to turn off comments on some posts; that really shouldn't matter much because a) I only get about  3 actual comments a month and b) the posts are from the first of the year so they're not likely to get actual comments anyway.  But I've begun to be afflicted with really offensive R-rated comments.  I've got comment moderation turned on, so they're not getting any actual air play, but I have to look at them to moderate and I am not happy.  I finally noticed last week that they seemed to be recurring on the same two or three  12 Month wardrobe posts, so I turned off the comments for those posts.  We'll see if that stops the influx.  I have the comment moderation on, plus the capcha, so someone is working hard to leave yuckky stuff for no good purpose; it's not going to make it to public eyes. But maybe if I throw a leaf on the path the way will be blocked, lol.  We'll see.

...and a milestone that I *didn't* miss...a non-sewing post...

 On August 16, 1980, My Sweet Babboo and I pledged our lives and love to each other in front of a church full of friends and family.

It was a cold, rainy day in central Indiana, but it was the beginning of an adventure.

Back in January, we were looking at Adventures...did we want to do a train ride across Canada?  An Alaskan cruise?  What would be a big enough commemoration?

Then...pandemic.

About two weeks ago we looked at each other and said, 'We have to do SOMETHING.'

So we decided to go to our favorite getaway spot about an hour and a half away.  We were first there for our 30th anniversary, so it was a 10 year celebration for that, too.  It's a perfect place to just enjoy the quiet.  And it's remote enough that we weren't worried about...catching anything.  We probably saw about ten people all weekend.

 It's right on the edge of a bluff on Sand Mountain, overlooking the Tennessee River.   

 

 The weather was perfect; relatively low humidity, but still warm enough that we could enjoy the swimming pool, nearly exclusively, but there were enough clouds for a  pretty sunset.

We waited until about 9:30 Monday night and then went out to look at the night sky, well coated with bug repellent.  If I had had a tripod, the sky pictures would have been much better.  There were no moon and no clouds; the stars were breathtaking.  There aren't a lot of  places dark enough to see the Milky Way any more...but it was on full display for us.  But the best I could do w/ my camera was the Big Dipper...or Ursa Major, depending on your school of thought.  I was amazed that I got anything at all.  I don't know if it will show up on everyone's device, but I can see it...

 

 

 The Lodge where we stayed has a reputation for fine dining.  We had a 3 course dinner on Sunday, in honor of our anniversary.  It was fabulous...but my hubby's camera seems to have eaten our photos; he couldn't pull them off.  Fortunately, we took a selfie with mine after we ate.  Don't we look well fed? LOL.

 

It was just two days away, but it was enough to kinda relax a little bit.  We have plans for another getaway...a conference that was supposed to have happened the weekend after Easter and was rescheduled for Mid-September...but who knows if we will actually get to go.  Hoping...

Oh, I guess there is a little sewing news to report.  On the way back, I jokingly said something about dropping our luggage off, picking up my serger and driving it an hour and a half in the other direction for repair.  My Sweet Babboo was in the mood for a drive, so we did.  Now I'm waiting on the service department to give me a call with an estimate for repair.  I will be glad to get it back.  The new backup is...ok...but I miss my old friend.

I missed a milestone...

I just happened to notice that, according to Blogger's count, this is post number 2030 on Sew Random.

I totally missed that 2000 milestone...(counts back).. it looks like it was the first post-vacation trip post back in September.   Wow, I really hadn't been paying attention to that counter.

But I did finish another item for the closet...back in, oh, February of last year, I cut out a red shell top, thinking I might use it for either SWAP or the 12 months/12 outfits wardrobe.  But it didn't end up being needed and, to tell the truth, I forgot about it.  Found it Friday and sewed it up. Only a hanger shot at the moment...and it looks like a sack on the hanger.  But it's viscose challis and it's as light as air.

I had about 2 yards;  I folded one selvedge in just wide enough to cut the front and back on the same fold so the uncut remnant ran the length of the yardage.  I squared it up, fringed the ends and narrow hemmed the long edges and now I have a lightweight red scarf.  I liked the fabric so much I bought another fairly good sized chunk for a floaty dress...someday...

But I think I need to make another batch of masks before I work on another closet item.The mandates mean everyone needs one...