Straight stitch plates etc.

I stayed up late last night and installed a collar and band with the option three method - with great success, more on that later.


What I want to share with you now is what I have learned about straight stitch plates and feet.


Here is a picture of my standard plate and foot, and of my straight stitch plate and foot. You don't need to be a genius to see that having the action part of the stitch over top of that open space (wider the zig zag your machine does the wider the hole in the plate and foot - mine does 9 mm.) the more wobbly your stitch is going to be.

The effect on switching to a straight stitch plate and foot on my stitching has been dramatic.


For example when I stitched around my collar my machine marched right along without any hesitation, not a skipped stitch, and no "hump jumper" needed. 


What a relief. The only errors made were in the chair. 

Field work

I know a sewing machine guy who used to service large machines in factories. 


He told me that many thing we see in RTW are hard to replicate at home because we don't have the equipment. High powered straight-stitch machines for example and special attachments. He told me that the machine that puts in a welt-pocket in men's pants takes up a whole room.


This got me thinking about RTW shirt making. I was intrigued by Lisa's observation when she did her great collar making tutorial that the topstitching she saw on the collar bands stopped short of the seam allowance on the curved edge of the band.


I found that too in several shirts. Doing the same would make topstitching that tricky area really a lot easier. So does a straight stitch plate and foot I discovered. The wide hole in the plate of a zig zag machine just creates an area of instability when you are doing this careful stitching. I have had better results with the smaller, single needle hole in my speciality plate. 


There are a few other things I have noticed in my RTW shirts:


1. The collar band buttonhole is not cut open. Looks neater and if you aren't going to wear the shirt buttoned to the neck why not?


2. Buttons and buttonholes are completely missing on the band and collar above the point where you would be buttoning the last button. My Lands End shirts are all like this (too bad though they don't fit and have linoleum tiles used as interfacing). This actually makes for a neater look.


OK off to work.

Choose your poison - three collar methods to choose from

Right now I am working on Hot Patterns' Boxy Blouse.

Yes, I know I announced recently that I don't look good in things without shape, but what can I do? You can see what I am up against here.


Someone asked me recently what the purpose was in sewing so many white shirts, particularly when some may not be hits, as in misses.


Well there are many reasons, prime being because I feel like it, but in a sense they can be viewed as a series of muslins. I mean if I can come out of this with a couple of excellent shirt or blouse patterns and have nailed some techniques through practice, trail and error and more error, well I am ahead.


I have lots of nice fabric that would make nice shirts if I just had a pattern ...


Now not everything I wear will be to work, in fact with my work going to go part-time as in 2 days a week come the spring (that doesn't count prep which will still be done at the dining room table) my life is going to be more home-based. So clothes I will wear everyday are going to be just as much in my mind as those I wear in the classroom.


The Boxy Blouse looked to me as a good casual blouse. It has a dart and if I keep it as short as the style I will avoid the pillow case look of Tom Jones version 1.


Also the only real detail of any effort in it is the collar and I want to concentrate on that.


As far as I can see there are three shirt collar methods out there, if you exclude the hand-sewn down method most patterns suggest. Each method has it's variations but basically each keeps to the same approach.


It seems to me that in deciding what method works for you, you need to come to terms with the kind of sewer you are and where your own personal points of tension are.


The truth is not every sewer likes, or succeeds, with the same approach.


There is no one best method for anything.


So what you have to do is zero in on which tricky area you are best dispositioned to deal with.


Here are the choices:


1. The roll-it-out-of-the-way, all the action is in the curved edge of the band seam a.k.a. Burrito method: this works best with thin shirting fabrics because you want a tiny roll not a sausage roll, and IMO good hand-eye coordination.  Gigi favours this method which speaks for itself. Here is Gigi's version. I have used this method on men's shirts in the past and it worked well.


2. The slot-it-on method, all the action is depends on that front bump where the band meets the front: Used by Pam from Off the Cuff, and beautifully described and detailed here for us by Lisa here. This is the easiest method to conceptualize and depends on real precision sewing. Good one if you have a strong  left side to your brain. I used this method on my first white shirt.


3. The drop-in-the-collar method, a la Debbie and Belinda: in some ways a relative of the Burrito method but you just push the front out of the way for the curve sewing which is just for the short seam of the band curve,rather than making a tight roll or sewing a bit on the neckline seam too as you do in method one.  What distinguishes this approach is that the last thing you do is drop the collar into the band which diverts some of the action there. Since this is a method I haven't tried I am going to try that one with the Boxy Shirt.


Results in later.

Belts for spring

For those of you who have not seen the spring RTW collections go to the NY Times and have a look.


After some discussion about the grey Vogue dress with the giant bow I was very intrigued to see the exact same belt in Caroline Herrera's spring collection- sort of an Obi with a cord tie. You can see the collection here.


Here is a close-up of the belts, part of this spring's obi revival and very make-it-yourself friendly.

New Vogues and frank talk

Since I am on the DL this seems like a good time to add my own comments to the discourse on the new Vogues. 

I have been reading sewers I respect about the virtues of the new VP magazine. So I went out and bought it for myself since I sprained my ankle (if that makes sense) rather than waiting for the new patterns to go up on the Vogue website, which they did about three hours after I brought the magazine home. Not to worry, the articles are very good, thanks for putting me onto that ladies.


Anyway more elegant people than me have made their picks and have selected the most beautiful dresses - most of which I would like to make, but won't unless my life venues get an upgrade. 


There was a time not too long ago when snappy dresses were part of the work uniform but teaching at a university requires more comfort - all that walking around desks and standing in the halls talking to anyone who comes by for hours and hours - you want to look neat and sharp but it's not exactly life on the runway.


Back to the patterns.


Forced to humility by the Tom Jones shirt I have decided to select for my own personal list not what I most admire, but what I actually think I will wear. I think this is the first time I have ever looked at new patterns and purchases this way. And I am 57.


This approach has eliminated my actual favourite, which wouldn't look at all the same on this long waisted, actually non-waisted, body, although this might change if I start doing more with my online WW points tracking system than just click on the number of glasses of water I drink. We will see. I am still stuck on the "nothing tastes as good as thin feels part". I am just not so sure about that.

It is an incredible dress - on someone else.


What I am really considering are things that I know will be very comfortable and therefore most worn.


Hands up all of you who wore the same knit dress about 400 times more often than anything else they made last season.


So I have decided that this dress, which I love, love, love in this sort of shiny poplin with these cute as anything sleeves, would work for me. Although I would ditch the giant, flower bouquet belt, and go for something slimmer and probably purchased. I mean even if you had a tiny waist, do you really think you as a person could tie a perfect bow out of essentially a rectangle of cotton poplin every time you put this dress on?

I also am seriously considering this Vena Cava (get it) dress, because of course it would be comfortable, it has neat sleeves and I have some African cotton I really like that I have been waiting to use in the right pattern. This may be the one:

Also since my recent traumatization with a top that swamped my lower body, and the rescue effect of a raised waist, I am thinking of these pants in some of that black linen I bought for a rainy day about three rainy seasons ago. 

What do you think?

Tom Jones with facelift

 O.K. It's a white shirt right?


Actually in my research to find this riveting image I found out that Mr. Jones has insured his chest hair for $7 million. 


To which there are only two questions.


Why not $6 million, why not $8 million? 


Obviously my DH is a bargain.


Which brings me to how crazy sewing makes you, if that isn't already apparent.


Monday night I was walking the dogs on the local snow covered golf course and took a header on about the 14th green. Seems it is covered in plastic, which is not obvious from the top side of the snow.


I spent the evening in the ER, and have a badly sprained ankle, a sideways knee, and, as I blog, I am on a heating pad because today "my back gave out." Something I have heard about since I was a child as in "well there he was and his back just gave right out". I always wondered what exactly that meant and where did the back go when it went.


Anyway, none of this prevented me from staying up late last night trying to get the Tom Jones shirt into something I was comfortable with and in consideration of your comments.


The picture previously posted reminded me of a sheet with a nice neckline, and I know already from 40 years of sewing that shapeless tunics don't do a thing for me. Now why don't I remember what I know when I look at new patterns?


OK.


Well, I cut off 3" making it actually 1" shorter than the original which was designed for someone at least 3" shorter than me anyway, and I took in 4" at the hem and up the sides tapering to the armhole, despite the fact that my actual hips are 2" larger than the pattern I used.


Much, much better.


I then remembered I am sort of very long waisted (which is why the super long tunics don't do I thing for me, and I couldn't wear heels in the first pictures owing to the swollen ankle thing) and that I look better with a shorter top.


I also remembered that my all time favourite skirts of this decade were the ones that I made in the fall from this Vogue pattern because of the nice normal slightly raised real waist ( I sincerely hope that lower waist, belly hanging waistlines do not come back into style in my lifetime).


So I hopped/crawled to the closet and put the Tom Jones shirt on again tucked into one of those skirts and did the bathroom mirror shot-at-midnight.

I couldn't go back to bed until I had resolved this, but I went to sleep happy. This works for me.


I know this behaviour makes perfect sense to you.


A correction: for those of you who may have looked at this last night I, mistakenly, posted a picture of a Tom Jones impersonator at the top of this post. Merci to Nathalie for catching this and sending me this much nicer, and much more accurate TJ photo.

NY Times and white shirts

Thanks to Lisa for putting me in touch with this article on White shirts.


The slide show is here too.


I am all revved up. I mean even more than usual. Since I decided to let my sewing take over my life officially again, that is pretty much what's been happening around here. I feel great.