Style when life changes

For a while now my friend Carloyn at Diary of a Sewing Fanatic has written about her transition from dressing for a Manhattan corporate office job to one that has a dress casual approach.

I have followed her on this topic with interest.

My own life is also under transition.

For a long time now I worked in political communications, where you were always on for the media, and then as a university prof. I admit to a far amount of vanity with my sewing for work.

I admit it.

For instance a term required 24 lectures and I made sure I had 24 different outfits for every lecture. My female students sometimes commented on this, many knew I sewed for myself, and I enjoyed having an audience of sorts to sew for.

It has been almost a year now since I have taught in the classroom. Instead I am teaching my courses online and can do that from home or anywhere I am at the moment. This really suits my life right now and I enjoy not being tied to a specific location every Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday.

I also really like the online format. I have designed the courses I teach and work to keep them dynamic. I am on video cam on my laptop so the students still see me, and I can see most of them. The conversations are active, either when a student takes the mic, or by the constant flow of texting at the bottom of my screen.

However what to wear is no longer an issue. They see me from the neck up and like so many news anchors I have seen who wear a jacket on the top part of the body that shows, and jeans and runner below, the pressure to dress is not the same.

My life now is so much more home based. I prepare my classes from my dining room table and this summer will be spending two days a week taking care of kids while my daughter works, and hosting various friends and family.

Most of my former wardrobe is now irrelevant.

I thought about this when I wistfully looked at the new Vogue dresses - many are things I would have made before, but really they represent the kinds of things I have just taken and donated to Value Village.

I know there are some bloggers who are largely at home and say they still sew and wear this stuff but really I don't know how they do it. How do you walk the dog, scrub out the bath, sit and mark papers in a pencil skirt and heels?

I want to look stylish of course, like I always have, but not sure how to do that. What we have going on here is a work in progress and likely some new mistakes as I try to figure this out.

Interestingly one of my sisters told me to watch Frankie and Grace on Netflix and, although those ladies are older than I am, they are where I am going eventually, and I am intrigued by their styles, which seem to represent two different versions of non working women dress:

One one hand you have Jane Fonda in shirts and fitted pants (so think she looks frail IMO but that is off topic) and Lily Tomlin in loose layers.

I note a lot of sewers are going the Tomlin route and it certainly has its advantages - easy to fit and sew for one. The Tilton sisters look, the Louise Cutting look.

I am pretty sure I am somewhere in no man's or no woman's land between these two ladies and not sure where it is going to turn out.

In my experiments I have made a few new pants shapes lately to see how I like them. I am still wearing support hose on the leg that had the dvt and I am not sure how I feel about that in dresses. In the winter in tights it is not an issue. I am also letting my hair go grey, it is in so much better condition when I do, and those two things at one time seem a little much for me right now.

It is interesting but changing your style can actually make you feel quite vulnerable - that is both surprising and a challenge.

So on that note I am going to share some actual outfits I wore on actual days this week.

These are another pair of Stylearc Talia pants and a way too long crochet top I made (you have to remember I am the most rudimentary crocheter, just a beginner) because I was so pleased I could do the pattern that I just kept going. These are wonderfully comfortable pants and I made them shorter as per the pattern.

I know I looked a bit rumpled but this outfit was worn on a day of taking care of an almost 2 year-old, a 4 year-old, and a 6 year-old. We played school, pioneer family and topped it off with a request from Scarlett that we do a spa day in the backyard.

This is what that looked like:

That's yogurt on her face and she was thrilled. The other two ate their cucumbers and went on the trampoline.

Some time ago I made Louise Cuttings Easy, Ageless and Cool pants (took note of the comment that a reader would not let her husband see her in them ) which I shortened by three inches to see how that looked:

Better but still big. Note I have thoughtfully styled these with a $7 Vera Bradley handbag my daughter bought me at a consignment shop and a banana. Wore this driving my husband to pick up his motorcycle at the shop. I call these my house cleaning pants. The giant pockets on the sides of the legs are excellent for picking up the random stuff you unearth while cleaning like bobbins and toy wheels under the couch or clothes pins on the lawn.

Finally I also tried Stylearc's Tessa pants in black linen. Of the very many elastic waist wide pants Stylearc has right now these are actually the narrowest and despite the claim that they have just enough fullness to fit smoothly at the waist I found them fairly gathered. I also had to remove 4" in length which is unusual for me as I am 5'9" even still I am going to have to go back and chop off some more length I see here - I won't be wearing these with heels in my front yard.

I am giving myself credit for trying new things but not sure if the loose look really works on this rangy midwestern body (rangy except for the middle part). 

I feel I am starting from scratch here at this new stage and obviously have a long way to go to figure out my new style for a new stage.

My question for you all is, what is your at home/casual style? What works for you and what doesn't? I could use some help here. I really could.

Those Vogue dresses are looking pretty good.

Handy sewing hint of the day #20 and a sort of pattern review

It has been non stop around here but I finally found time for a photo shoot of sorts and can catch up on some blog posts.

Today I want to talk about a concept I would call matching your technique to the fabric. I can give you an example with a UFO I had the great character to finally finish this week.

By matching your technique to the fabric I mean, continuing on the theme of following pattern instruction sheets with discretion and your own bright ideas, use light techniques with light fabric and heavier with heavy.

Not at all clear is it?

Examples help.

If I am sewing a military type fabric like wool gabardine I would go for military, ship shape type treatments. Hard presses with a pressing cloth and clapper, visible in fact articulated with top-stitching thread as opposed to sewing thread top-stitching, crisp edges with the top-stitching close to the edge ( the thinner the fabric the closer to the edge the top-stitching should be, the thicker the fabric the further away). It is a compatibility and matching thing:

A corduroy jacket top-stitching - some dimension to the fabric

Edge-stitching on a gab coat- notice how much closer to the edge the top-stitching is on the thinner fabric

I thought of all of this when I made this coat, an OOP Vogue in a wool mohair.

Aren't the flip flops perfect? I apologize for lack of styling but I wanted to get blogging and it's hot outside, what can I say? This is me.

The pattern number isn't really relevant is I am not entirely impressed with this pattern. 

Like many Big Four patterns it was unlined (makes no sense to me, coat fabrics need to be lined to go on and off easily and to cover the possible roughness, not to mention you are wearing a coat because you want to be warmer) and I went ahead and made my own lining.

However when I tried it on during construction I realized the sleeves were very narrow, almost blouse narrow and a lining would constrict them even further. Good thing I have skinny arms is all I can say.

So I threw out the lining, across the room actually, and ended up Hong Kong finishing all the seams instead in some silk I had left over from when I thought a grey and black blouse would suit me. I also hand stitched a patch of that fabric to cover the darts on the inside, not exactly sure why, must have been something on Netflix and I was sitting down anyway.

Now faced with a light feeling fluffy coat, sort of an upscale polar fleece, I decided to keep it as light as I could in construction. 

This meant no top stitching, no back neck facing (written about this before) and light aluminum snaps instead of buttons and buttonholes that I felt might themselves distort the fabric hand.

I also hand stitched on the patch pockets, super easy to do if you are watching the Mindy Project - slip stitched as invisibly as you can from the right side and then backstitched firmly catching the seam the pocket edges from the wrong side. In a fabric with this much texture you can't see the stitching:

Back neck seam finished with hand stitched flexible velour braid left over from when I had Chanel jacket illusions:

Those nice, almost weightless snaps from Botani in New York:

While I am not as crazy about the grey and black as I was when I bought this fabric - now my hair is grey I don't like to look monochromatic, but really this is a nice little coat for going to the mailbox or those days when you really want to face the world in your bathrobe.

Bonus shot of Miss Daisy next to a treadle sewing machine our neighbour painted for me when I was 16. It is a Challenge X farm edition and now well over 120 years old, although I see a handle is missing.

Miss Daisy has put her long back out again and is off to the playpen while I clean up the sewing room but in this picture she doesn't know that.

Flypaper thoughts early summer edition

• When someone shouts "Do it Babsie, do it."
• Maybe you shouldn't listen
• Particularly if the shoutee is four
• And you are on a trampoline
• You should probably never crochet anything with orange in it
• Children are like transplants
• You start them in the house under wraps
• When they get bigger you might move them to bigger pots
• And eventually a few hours out on the deck to get them used to the outdoors
• Then you plant them outside and watch them from the window
• You share the harvest
• Can you believe a person can be this profound with her feet up on a beach ball?
• Surprise party for the youngest tomorrow
• He is too busy to read this blog
• Good thing
• I have been working on food all week 
• I made six quarts of pickled carrots
• Why?
• Girl friend wants to borrow my cutting out table for Beer Pong
• Not sure what that is but suspect it will be a first for that table
• I have noted that whenever any one has to go to a costume party they shop my closet
• I bet those minimalist folks who dress like French woman can't say that
• When they tell you not to grease the angel food pan because the cake won't rise
• They are right
• Big news in politics right now
• All I will say is that I watch the news these days on my laptop with earphones
• Some presumptive nominee's voice scares the dog
• Nothing and no one is allowed to scare the dog
• Do you think I can make blue jello look like water?
• How much do vegans eat?
• Do vegans eat blue jello?
• I think I have figured that one out myself
• Never be someone who says "at my age'
• Don't even think it
• Except
• On trampolines

Handy sewing hint of the day #19 and pattern review

It is interesting to me that many Indie patterns are reviving an edge finishing technique that might of being more familiar to sewers of the 1950's than those who have stitched their way through the Big Four patterns in the decades since.

I am referring of course to bias binding.

At one stage, pre-serger, binding raw edges was a sturdy way to finish seam allowances, and for budget minded home sewers, a fabric thrifty way to make simple garments without facings.

Think of all those traditional aprons, single layer, finished with miles of seam bound edges:

On the finer side of dressmaking nicer garments have also used bias binding instead of facings, neck and armhole for instance, with the effect of finishing these edges elegantly with less bulk.

I have to detour here a bit too with my own statement of self-disclosure.

I hate many forms of facings, and never use them in my own sewing.

Too many, I feel are in the category of strange home sewing inventions that you just don't often see in well- made purchased clothing.

The top of the hit list for me are of course the notorious back neck facings that IMO plague so many home sewn garments, particularly blouses and shirts.

The thing to think about is what is the function of a back neck facing in these garments?

Basically to cover the raw edge of the back neck.

For this do you really need a kidney shaped piece of interfaced fabric that, because of turn of cloth, hardly ever fits to the shoulder seams you are told to tack it to?

Myself I never use them, either looking for shirts with yokes (the Negroni by Colette has a brilliant yoked treatment for a convertible collar shirt that totally dispenses with the need for back neck facings) or serging or binding the collar/neck edge along the back.

IMO yet again, this is a wonderful use of bias binding.

I also prefer to use binding in many necklines and armholes of sleeveless tops and dresses for the summer because eliminating all that extra fabric in facings just makes for a lighter, more comfortable garment.

And of course binding the seams around the armhole of an unlined jacket, or along the edge of a hem or the outer edge of a front facing adds a nice touch that will make you smile to yourself when you see them - a small and reoccurring pleasure that is worth the initial effort. I have just finished, almost, a mohair coat where I have done this and will post that soon.

I like binding. 

However there are a few things you should know that make applying it easier:

1. Forget the stuff you buy in those little packets. I know it is tempting to have the stuff all thin and folded and easy but my best comparison is that this stuff is to sewing what instant mashed potatoes are to cooking (apologies in advance to anyone who was going to make those up for dinner tonight). Near enough is not good enough. The fabric in purchased binding tends to be a cheaper fabric than you would use to sew a garment, and is full of sizing (starch). 
2. I always make my own bias from fabric (you can use strips of masking tape or painters tape laid on the fabric for a bias cutting guide) and use bias tape makers to help pressing the edges under.
3. Take advantage of the curvability of bias fabric. If your binding is going to be attached to a curved edge get it to your ironing board and press it into that curved shape before you apply it to the garment. It will then go in so easily and you won't have any weird pulling, puckering or diagonal wrinkles to deal with when you are done.
4. One of my rules is I never, never attach the binding, as most patterns say, by attaching the binding on the right side, wrapping it around to the back and topstitching from the right side and hopefully catching the unsewn edge of the binding on the wrong side. Instead I sew the binding, one raw edge right side of the binding to the wrong side of the fabric, then wrap it to the right side and edge stitch it in place. So much less stressful (and no turning it over and seeing you missed a spot) always nice and neat on the right side. Make sense?

A bias tape maker:

So I do use binding a lot and am interested in the number of new patterns that require it.

Patterns like this, the Lakeside pyjamas by Grainline that I made for my daughter-in-law's birthday.

I really like the shape of these for summer, and made them out of seersucker because it is the coolest fabric for hot weather because the ridges keep the fabric from sticking from to your body.

Here is my version:

The front, I had to shorten the straps about 3 inches, not sure what that was about, but I figured it should sit above and not below the boobs.

The back, overlapped for breeziness - these would be good menopausal nightwear but since DIL is about 20 years away from that I won't mention it

These seemed so tiny when I was making them, I felt I was making doll clothes, but they fit. To match the overlapped back these have sort of overlapped side seams like gym shorts.

Now a few of my own technical notes:

1. Lovely pattern style wise and easy to sew, with one exception.
2. Personally I would throw the binding instructions out the window (there is over seven yards of bound edges here). I was annoyed to no end to see this pattern described as for beginners with complicated instructions for applying narrow 1/4" seam binding. Listen by the time you wrap a 1/4" around to the wrong side there is not going to be much left and you certainly will have a tough time catching the wrong side from the right side. I suggest you use the technique described above and make your own 1 1/2 " binding so there is actually something to work with. All those poor beginners working quickly during nap time in tears.
3. The instructions for putting the shorts together with a series of complicated start and stops of the binding at various stages should be thrown out the window and way past the driveway, IMO of course. Best bet is to just bind all the pieces and then overlap the side seam sections where they should go and top stitch them down. Easy and you will have all your nerves left at the end of the process.

Final verdict, great pattern but there are much easier ways to put them together than the instructions suggest.

Taking orders

Scarlett did her sewing presentation for her grade one class. It went well and afterwards kids approached her with orders.

She has yet to learn how sewing for other people can get annoying. But then again she is only six, still time. In the meantime she is pretty pleased with herself:

 

Scarlett sewing

My granddaughter Scarlett was given an assignment to do a presentation to the class of something she is really good at.

She chose sewing, and made this video at home tonight.

My own little Nancy Zeiman:

Handy sewing hint #18: buttonholes

I must confess that life/family and actual sewing has interfered with my blogging lately. The good news, if you think this way, is that I am full of new ideas on handy sewing hints.

Here goes, and as usual please add your own insights into the comments.

Buttonholes.

This week a notice of a new Indie pattern arrived in my in box. This detail caught my eye:

A couple of things I noticed. 

First of course was that the buttonholes were way too big for the buttons and that shirtdress was sure to come undone at some point, which is not really a great outcome for a shirt dress or the person in it.

The second thing I noticed was that the buttonhole at the top was dangerously close to the end of the placket likely to fray through. It needed to be moved down so the end of the buttonhole was at least 5/8" below the neck edge of the placket. Of course the sewer might have wanted to keep the placket ends right on top of each other at the neckline but buttons aren't staples. If you want that to happen what you really need is to end the top of the buttonhole that 5/8" or so below the neckline and sew in a small snap to keep it all neat.

All that is showing here of course is inexperience and there isn't a lot of information around on buttonhole fine points, and so I will try to make a bit of a contribution here.

First of all buttonholes freak sewers out. 

I was once followed around a fabric store by a woman with a blouse in a bag. She had heard I sewed and wanted me to put the buttonholes in her finished blouse for her. For 20 years she had sewn snaps onto her blouses with buttons on top because she had such terrible luck making buttonholes.

How nuts and how identifiable is that?

The thing with buttonholes is they are the last thing. It is entirely possible to ruin a perfectly wonderful garment in the last 5 minutes with a buttonhole disaster or buttonhole cutting disaster. I know. I once made a suit for a friend and sliced through the entire front cutting open the very last buttonhole.

I have tons of stories like that.

Truth is that some machine do a better job with making buttonholes than others. This is often a case where it is not you it's them.

My personal view is that many of the super duper computerized gadgety buttonhole systems are not as reliable as the sales person will lead you to believe. When they tell you "You will be able to make buttonhole after identical buttonhole, after the first one because the machine will memorize it" what they should add is that the "sensor" most often is just counting the number of zig zag stitches on the first side and of course if fabric layers change, as they can do in a garment, this may not be the right number of stitches to match the sides, and despite the miracles of New Machines your buttonholes can unexpectedly still turn out uneven even in your $5,000 machine.  (Does that make sense or only to me?) 

I have a former top-of-the-line for example that does this and, even worse, has a default where the sides of the buttonholes are so close together there is a 105% of cutting some of the stitches when the buttonhole is cut open.

So back to the machines.

I personally prefer old school four step buttonholes where you turn the dial - down one side, bar tack at the button, up the other side, bar tack. I have a couple of vintage Berninas and an expensive Janome that make buttonholes this way and I trust them.

This system allows you to control what is happening and that is a good thing.

Of course the nicest and completely most foolproof buttonholes in the world are make with the old template attachments, that you can buy anywhere, eBay, or at consignment shops sometimes (I got a spare at Value Village for $3.50).

Here is what those look like:

These units require you to cover, or drop your feed dogs and remove the presser foot and screw them onto the needle bar.

The buttonholes are made by inserting cams or templates of the buttonhole (including keyhole) of various sizes into a trap door in the bottom of the unit.

To operate you line up the foot, lower the presser bar and give it gas. These devices make a real racket, sort of like a tin truck on a tin road and you really wonder if this is a good idea.

The thing is that totally without any skill at all they make gorgeous round ended buttonholes with zero skill or involvement from yourself, which is kind of nice.

This week I made a short sleeved Negroni shirt for my youngest son's surprise birthday (music festival theme, hence the tie dye) and I made the buttonholes this way.

Here is the shirt: