Why it is so good to sew

OK.

My sister Nancy and my 14 year old niece Sophia have been staying with me for two weeks. 

They have both being losing their minds trying to find something to wear to the wedding in September so one of the things I have done over the last three days is make them both dresses.

They both chose their own fabric (OK Nancy twice because RTW and sewing patterns are not the same size ...) and I did the measurements, alterations, and sewing.

What I did in terms of alterations was very simple but it is instructive on how hard it is to get RTW to fit a normal real body.

Here we go.

Sophia brought down a chiffon in her favourite colours purple, blue and navy. 

She is 14 and petite. However she is a competitive breast stroke swimmer and has very developed swimmer's shoulders. She is also a modest kid and has no interest in looking sleazy which seems to be the trend for young teens. The wedding is fairly formal but she felt being a short person she would be swamped in something long so we decided to do high low.

The alterations were size 14 for her shoulders, shortening the torso by 2", the skirt by 4", taking in the waist 1" and curving the centre back seam to accommodate her shoulder development.

Sophia is pleased with the result and definitely we could not have been able to find anything to fit her: like this dress does:

The braces were removed two days ago. She is so happy about that.

This is the back of a competitive backstroker

Side view so you can see the high low

Sophia's mom, my sister Nancy, has a small boned frame and she buys a size six. That was the size she cut out in her original pattern when I wasn't looking.

The fact is that Nancy has a size 6 shoulder and a 14+ hip. If you sew you get the picture.

This necessitated a trip to the fabric store that no one minded at all. In the end we decided we liked the new fabric better anyway.

Here is her dress done with the additions made to the width where she needed it. Another situation where it would have been impossible to buy anything to fit and we think she looks terrific:

And finally a mother and daughter shot, with Nancy holding up Sophia's hair to show her back (actually in case you are wondering the back right does fit, figure she was standing crooked and self-conscious for the pictures - being 14 is not the best age for posing):

So that was my sewing last weekend. 

This weekend I made a silk skirt for my daughter to wear one of the pre-wedding events and if I get my school work done early enough it is off to start on the flower girl dresses.

Wish me luck.

Another shirt

I have just sent off another shirt to my son in Brooklyn.

I am preparing a how to sew faster class for Burdastyle and it really occurs to me that the main thing is to make a pattern you have sewn before.

It is like when you go somewhere first time in the car, it takes so long to get there and so much faster to come back.

These shirts are taking me so much less time than the first versions, and every time I do one I come up with another efficiency.

The fabric is from Cotton and Steele ordered from Hawthorne Threads.

Next up, and project for the weekend is a formal dress from my sister who is visiting.

She has already cut it out, according to the size she wears in RTW.

I think you have a fairly good idea how this weekend is looking.

Off I go.

What do you think about signs?

My husband, who is a very down to earth type of guy, has moments when he runs across what he feels are signs.

This all started with a bag of rags he picked up in a car place when out of town in rural Nova Scotia. 

For some reason my spouse was cleaning the car and  picked up one of those random bags they sell for those things.

Anyway the first rag he pulled out was from a T shirt with a Knoxville Tennessee logo on it. Now Knoxville is a long way from Yarmouth County Nova Scotia and was neither a place he had ever visited, or ever thought of.

Well the point of this story is that very shortly afterwards he got a call to go and work on a project based out of Knoxville that kept him travelling back and forth from there for a few years - and was one of his career highpoints. He loved Tennessee and so do I. It was just so lucky that we made that connection.

Well anyway Babs, is there a place you are going to here?

Yes.

I have been extremely busy lately with teaching, family, family visits and sewing for that family. And at the end of August I am shifting from full time to part time and trying to get my head around that and working out new priorities.

About the same time a former colleague approached me about doing some work in Fiji (I have been there before) for a UN organization and that commitment and where it might lead, really had me doing some soul searching.

I know this sounds very glamorous but if you have ever done this kind of stuff it still is work and that far away you work pretty intensely, never much down time, and a lot of prep work so when you go do it you don't waste anyone's time.

Of course I was tempted.

However the time frame was putting me pretty close to the wedding and the thought of pulling this together, the sewing I have to do, wrapping up the marking for my summer courses, was pretty intense.

To make a long story short I decided to give it a pass, and more importantly, recommend a younger women who really needs this kind of a career break. Simply I decided someone else needed this boost. To quote superstitious husband who can still exhibit common sense "For you it would be work, for her it would be an adventure." 

This one statement did it for me.

The question is how do I spend my time in this next stage? 

For me I decided that rather than moving into consulting and new opportunities I really want to sew, encourage other people, and help out who I can help out. 

That is more satisfying to me than anything that sounds impressive, if I am articulating this well.

I just guess I am getting to the end of my serious quota. 

Since figuring this out these things have happened:

• I reconnected with Burdastyle and am running a week long "power session" with them with another one to run in a few weeks.
• I made my 14 year old niece a formal dress to wear to my son's wedding that, at that most awkward stage in life, makes her feel happy and glamorous (pictures to follow).
• I am signed up to teach two courses at the hip sewing lounge/shop place around here this fall
• I walked into the sewing machine dealer when taking my serger in for a service and was asked if I would run a shirt class in October
• I have worked out a teaching schedule for a limited number of classes I will do at the university on a part-time basis only

And this morning, and this is the sign part, I got up early to finish some hand sewing on my niece's dress and there was an unexpected posting on my Facebook (I am completely inactive on FB).

It was from a student I taught a while ago, a mother of four who went back to school at 40, was diagnosed with breast cancer on the last day of her last class - and who has recovered and thrived. Out of the blue she wrote that my mentorship has meant a lot to her and that everyday she asks herself on the job what would Barb do. (I actually find this a bit unnerving as every day Barb made it up as she went along). After my student's post there was a comment left by someone who worked with me years and years ago who wrote "I wonder how many of us would say that".

Timing is of course everything and a wink that this was the right time for this reorientation is pretty nice. 

T shirt mark one

Deeply involved in my own little world of things that make sense probably only to me I decided to expand my men's sewing repetoire to include T-shirts. (To see how menswear is really done check out Mainely dad.)

Since my birthday boy left to work setting up a wind farm in Texas, Friday I decided I needed to make him a shirt in this knit . It is supposed to represent something to do with the electricity of the NYC subway and I wanted to say, this is the next thing you have to take off the grid.

Art Gallery knits are first class and really cool fabric patterns.

 Nothing really exciting about this project except that I used a Jalie in a larger size than recommended and cut down the neckline, and that I wasn't happy with my cover hem tunnelling so cut off about 1 inch and then sewed the hem on my regular machine with a zig zag (time was running out).

My son liked it except he would have liked this shirt an inch longer.

Wouldn't we all.

At any rate I am going to scope out more of these knits for myself. You can try Fabric.com or my personal favourite source because of the breathtakingly good service Hawthorne Threads.

What happens when you give your camera to a three and a half year old to record a family party

Mermaid shirt

My youngest son is off to Texas next week. 

He works in wind technology and there is a big project there that will last at least six months.

His birthday is July 4th and he will be on the coast. He wanted a new shirt to wear that night and here is the fabric he picked:

I am developing quite a little sideline in weird made-to-order shirts for my boys.

Every one I make I refine the pattern a little more. To date that means:

• No interfacing in the front bands, despite the pattern instructions. The ready-to-wear I have examined doesn't have it and this would make for too much stiffness in a casual shirt IMO. Instead I do not trim the seam allowances inside the sewn-on attached front bands. So far I am happy with this.
• I have reverted to hand-stitching the collar bands down in the inside neck and then top-stitching like Pam Howard does in her Craftsy class. Yes I know this is old school but I get good results and it is more relaxing. I like to sew relaxed. If you make your stitches invisible as you can and don't pull the threads too tight so there will be puckers no one would know.
• I have shaved about 1/2" off the top sleeve cap so I am not fighting with any sleeve top puckers. This is what a shirt sleeve top should look like anyway. Also see above sew relaxed.
• After flat felling and french seaming and top-stitching seam that sets the sleeve into the shirt I am now double-stitching and serging the seam allowances and then top-stitching instead. It works well and again is stress free, see above. I French seam all other seams.

The boys are big on collars that button down, since they obviously have a poor understanding of sew relaxed. I find locating the exact place to sew that button  in the shirt body to attach the collar the only hard part of this whole exercise.

The pattern instructions McCalls 6613 are hopeless on this. 

First they tell you to use a normal shirt size button, way to big you need a tinier button for the collar, and have you do the button hole way up into the collar. 

Every shirt I have inspected in the laundry has the button hole right into the point of the collar, some nice shirts even have it cutting into the collar top-stitching.

I have found the only way too to know where to put that button in is to try it on and see where the collar wants to lie.

Also when I sew on the button on I put a tiny circle of needle punch in the back (I have also used felt left over from craft projects with the kids) as sort of interfacing. I think something softer is easier on the skin (I am sewing for my baby boys after all, over six feet that they are now) and besides I have tons of needle punch and I can't be bothered to go out and find something else.

Here is the collar buttonhole with some wobbly top-stitching I realized. Excuse - I am under the gun want to get something else made too for his birthday and for his brother too:

More later. 

Right now though I have to go wash some baseboards because one of my other sisters is coming to town and I would like her to think I do more housekeeping and less sewing than I actually do. Although I after all those years including some where she shared a room with me she probably has already put two and two together. 

(I just remember she once made a line in the middle of the room with masking tape so I would keep my messy (I preferred the term creative) self in my own territory - problem was the door was in her zone and I had to climb up on a chair and jump onto my bed to get in).

Wonder if the husband has knee pads?

Relationships

Busy day today, hopefully the last of this term's marking and the buttons on one shirt.

But before I do that I have to share with you a picture my sister Nancy sent of herself and her dog Molly. They are fairly sure Molly was abused as a pup but here she is here.

I feel there is a special bond women have with dogs and to my mind this is what it looks like:

Now back to human responsibilities.