Flypaper thoughts and tie dye underwear edition

Subtitle: just when you thought you had seen it all.

I have taken care of the kids most of the week, plus two drop-ins from next door. It has been a fun and funny week and one that reminded me of the realities of being a mother of young children. More on that later. My daughter says these guys are ready to go back to school and I thought this was hard hearted, childhood being short etc., by I am here to report she might be right.

By the time I sent them all off every evening I was in sore need of some therapeutic sewing to gather my forces for the next day but not up to say starting a winter tailoring project or drafting a bodice.

I needed to just fool around at my machine with small pieces of fabric and limited ambition.

So I decided to do some practical sewing and to revisit a few patterns.

One of those patterns was this one from Jalie 2568 for underwear:

The underpants have two leg openings higher cut and what Jalie calls hipster, (although in French these are called culottesde garçonne, literally a female version of boy's underwear - what you might be familiar with as boy cut).

After making all versions I have settled on the front of the higher cut, because I don't like anything tight at the top of my leg and the back from the hipster/boy cut for coverage - and the higher waist too.

With all this experimenting I grabbed a very stretchy rayon knit I had picked up at some point in a tie dye, thinking the kids might like a T shirt at some point, and the next thing you know I have four pairs of comfortable tie dye underpants. To finish both the top and the legs I just stitched on some stretch lace because it was light. Past experience with the turned and stitched elastic edges on underpants is that it can be a bit stiff and too tight around the leg.

Now that's about all anyone can say about this project, except that I had fun making these and will be making more, although maybe not tie dye.

Now onto a few flypaper thoughts that sum up the week:

• Took the bunch of them fabric shopping.
• I guess every zipper needed touching
• High point was Miss Scarlett
• Who as we were leaving she turned and announced to the store in general
• "I will be back when I am older and have my own money!"
• Other high points
• Discovering without any doubt whatsoever
• That a jar of quinoa will expand when dumped down a bathroom sink drain
• My husband says not to worry
• Probably if we take off the vanity, break the wall, and the open up the ceramic ceiling of the bathroom below
• There will be no need to get into the pipes that come into the house in the front yard
• That's good news
• Not really an enormous fan of quinoa anyway
• Not her fault
• Heidi was just in there trying to dye it blue
• Of course
• Nothing surprises a grandmother who is herself wearing tie dye underwear
• There will be no more fighting over who gets to carry the caterpillar home
• There will also be no more fighting over who lost the caterpillar
• Also made a workout bra
• Out of the cotton ponte scraps left over from my daughter's lab coat
• Good support but more along the lines of lift than separate
• Will report on that in the next day or two
• Not sure if trying to shop vac quinoa out of a bathroom drain counts as a workout
• It certainly should
• This is what comes of a no technology childhood
• Children on iPhones hardly ever try to dye the side dishes blue
• All dogs are therapy dogs
• Babsie's day off tomorrow

Small big project

Bag and me on location at the Superstore parking lot

I am trying something new these days. 

My sewing time is constricted right now because I am trying to spend as much time as I can with the kids before school starts. 

Lots of days at my house, sleepovers (when are they going to invent a kid who waits until 8:00 a.m. to leap out of bed? not that I don't want to start projects before breakfast) and tea parties where we discuss moral issues and big ideas. 

My best of those tea parties this week involved explaining the concept of communicable diseases, specifically TB that had wiped out sections of both families only two generations ago, the role of sanitariums and cold air, the invention of antibiotics, as well as why some kids are mean at recess, the role of karma in the lives of kids who are mean at recess, not to mention extra ingredients that improve the taste of egg sandwiches (this is from the 5 year old who is an excellent cook), and why books for small children are funny but books for early readers are boring and always trying to teach moral or socially responsible lessons (like karma I guess) rather than being funny and interesting instead which is why more kids don't read more at the library's summer reading club.

This means I have had a lot less time to sew, not to mention that my entire mason jar collection has now been turned over to labeled jars of potion made of grass, water, dog food pellets, dried chipotle peppers, grapes from the vine around the window, quinoa and food colouring. 

That inventory and cleaning up after the witches went home seriously cut into the sewing time.

It also meant that I have had to reassert my focus, meaning I am trying something new these days and that is doing some sewing that will fill some gaps and what at the moment is my very real life.

I started with a little bag for myself, the Butterfly Sling, from Emmaline patterns - a wonderful, interesting pattern.

Garment sewing skills are not immediately transferable to bag sewing I can tell you. 

I found this bag pretty hard to figure out, spent a full afternoon folding a rectangle of fabric trying to make credit card slots for example, because I have no prior experience points of reference.

That said here is what I have learned about bag making as a new person doing this:

1. A lot depends on lots of interfacing. Different stuff like fusible thin batting and interfaced linings and yes, interfaced credit card slot pieces.

2. The pattern may tell you to trim away half of the interfacing from the seam allowances but you really need to trim the whole thing away from the seam IMO. Also cut out the corners and cut out the slot where the zipper will be sewn in. Trimming away a fusible fleece is not really possible to do after stitching well, I think - that interfacing needs not to be there in seam allowances if you want neat turns to the right side.

3. Hardware is the real secret, even if it is nerve wracking to install and involves things like glue and tiny screw drivers. A so so product like my first bag looks an awful lot better with real looking latches and bag type fasteners. Also learning how to use these new notions sort of makes a person feel as if she has expanded her world.

4. Find some good zippers. Right now I would kill to be living in the garment district and getting my hands on some Riri zippers. This pattern called for dress zippers and really since they are visible they are IMO design features and need to look sharper than this. Got to find myself a good online source.

5. The first one can be really rough while a person works it out. I learned enough here to know I want to do this pattern again and do it right.

OK enough talk here is the bag. Made in some scrap yellow denim and very much a rough and trial run version - now I have this figured out there will be more of these. My daughter who has good taste and as a result rarely asks me to make her one just like mom's has already ordered one.

This is a brilliant design and I have to say the pattern is beautifully written.

It has two zippered pockets with card slots inside (6 in each pocket) and a change zipper pocket a bill pocket, and a little ID window.

This whole unit folds in half (did I mention it is fleece interlined so is firm and soft) and is held in that way by two magnetic snaps and closed again with a strap with a turn latch.

the interior part of the bag opened

Oh and this is a cross body bag with a long, adjustable strap.

back view of the bag

I have to say this is fantastic, useful bag. It holds my phone safely ( have dropped this bag and due to the fleece nothing broke which is new for me, I can't remember the last time I owned an iPhone without a cracked screen), it has two great compartments for cards and stuff ( I am even thinking on my travels of having a US and Canadian side for my money) and is comfortable to wear.

I am feeling something just beginning here. 

Fall sewing and ponte inspiration

I am trying to reduce the winter footprint as much as I can in my life.

Going down south and working remotely for three months a year sure has been a help in that campaign.

The fact is though that fall and winter still happen and happen even to me.

So the thought of fall/winter sewing is crossing my mind a bit these days.

Ponte is a fabric for that season.

I am sure you think those thoughts too.

For those of you in a planning mode here are some inspiration ideas from Simply Bella boutique in San Francisco.

I might try to do something similar myself:

Detour week continued, wallet edition

I am spending this week in Cape Breton with my husband who has a project out of Cheticamp . He has been doing this project for two summers now, although he is home and on the weekends, is getting a little road weary.

So I decided to come up and stay in the RV to keep him company in the evenings, and of course to walk my some cute petit chien and sew.

Since this was a last minute decision I packed only basic supplies, odd fabric, my Bernina Minamatic 807, which sews through everything, and a few bag patterns that I had bought and never used.

I felt isolation would force me to do something new. I am a garment sewer, or sewist as I am supposed to say.

Whenever I attempt something out of garments it does not go well. 

There was the time I was a smocking school drop-out and the time my expert quilter sister and I attempted to jointly make a quilt for our parents - and she sent my half of the squares back.

I am pretty used to fronts and backs, and facings, sleeves and darts. I recognize these things and have been working with them since I was eight.

However there are such as thing as ruts and even when they are comfortable they can still be ruts and that's not something you want to self-identify as is it? Yourself as a rut stuck person?

So I got this idea in my head that I should try making bags since I am noticing some amazingly professional bags out there being made by home sewers - a far cry from the tote bag patterns that were all that was around for say the last 60 years.

I started with a wallet.

My husband lost his over the weekend despite both he and I supposed to be paying attention. He needed a new one. I volunteered on the spur of the moment to make one, and here is how that went.

First I used this pattern from Mrs. H in the UK. I downloaded the pattern a while ago and have noticed that there is also now a free add-on for a zipper pocket addition that I think would be very much worth doing.

I dug around in my scrap box and cut apart some packaging I found in the RV for an identity card window (not ideal but all I could figure out) and used some random heavy duty interfacing that I picked up in a bargain bin in Winnipeg.

What I am getting at here is that this was prototype more than a perfect product.

I learned a few things making this wallet as a garment maker:

• this was a lot of fun. I am so used to garment patterns I always know what is coming next and why. I had no sense of that here and as such was pretty pleased with myself when something actually turned into something it was supposed to. Quite a satisfying project and did jiggle around the brain cells which has to do you some good.
• this is more complicated than it looks, this bag business. I think I remember 40+ steps in the instructions and this unit is only palm sized.
• Some stuff is weird. I added some seam finishing and I struggled a bit with bulk. The instructions call for heavy weight interfacing for the outer piece and I get that but you then have to do some topstitching through it all, many layers. I used a denim needle and the old Bernina is more or less the sewing equivalent of a snow plow, but I am not sure most machines could do it. Particularily for the final part at least when you have essentially two turned wallets that you stitch together at the bottom through all layers.
• there is a good reason why so many bags seem to start from quilting cottons- bulk is such an issue that too heavy a fabric, I used a light weight denim,  after all the interfacing would be too hard to stitch. I would go into the next project thinking ahead more about reducing fabric layers.

Finally I enjoyed making something right outside my comfort zone. In fact have cut out a little bag for myself today, took most of the day to cut and fuse, but I am excited to see how it goes tomorrow. This one even has a turn lock.

Long way from facings.

Now tell me what new things have you tried and how did you find that experience?

Another detour (updated so I believe it is possible to see the videos)

A while ago I bought a Singer Rocketeer because I wanted to dedicated machine for a Singer buttonhole attachment which, in my opinion, make the most beautiful buttonholes.

I found the machine listed on Kijii (Canadian Craigslist) and found it set up on a table in a random backyard. Not sure what the story was but this machine was about as dirty as a machine could be. Like it had been buried alive years ago down a mineshaft of lint and black oil.

Folks who don't know any better often use any old oil on machines, not the fine clear proper sewing machine oil, and it gums up and thickens up and gathers fabric lint and turns it to concrete.

However I figured, well why not, I paid $50 for it and the light did turn on.

Since then the little girls have been attacking it with Q tips for me and I have been working with a degreaser (if you are in the US and can order it the best stuff is called Bluecreeper).

Yesterday with my first day off from family obligations in a while I had a to-do list as long as your arm and a pile of UFO's about that high too.

So of course I took the Rocketeer out to the picnic table in my own backyard and finished cleaning her off instead.

This machine was made in St. Jean Quebec (that makes it a 500J) in a time that the factory was a real going concern:

Hard to believe now that the manufacture of sewing machines was once a huge industrial endeavour.

The Rocketeer was of the last generation of sewing machines Singer produced before it started to introduce cheaper plastic parts. It is all metal and gear driven (no belts) and meant to look new age and spacey like a rocket.

The decorative and utility stitches are made by bumpy cams that are read by little arms called followers that trace the cam shape to move the needle.

An old sewing machine guy once told me that cam stitches are the most regular and beautiful of all speciality stitches.

I find the way this works fascinating.

We all spend all our lives now using devices about which we have no knowledge of operations. We have passed all that over to mysterious strangers. 

We depend on things we can never understand.

That's a new gap or gulf in our lives we never think about.

Some folks had trouble with that divide.

I remember my late father-in-law used to call my husband with software problems with this computer (like he couldn't get email to work).

"I have my screw driver right here," he would say. "Now what do I do?"

It seemed to me as I happily worked cleaning and oiling the Rocketeer, and applying grease to the gears, that sewing people still occupy that divided place in modern society and that we thrive there.

Think of all the people who dress everyday in clothes made by people they will never meet with methods they have no knowledge of.

The Rocketeer it seems to me is a point of connection to some part of me that really is and to some part of sewing that really matters.

So here are is a video of the Rocketeer rocketing along and with the cams in operation:

Taking detours

My week flew by. 

Someone said to me I should blog more and unfortunately I can't figure out a way to let you all have access to my head as I tear around so you can read the posts that are written there but not published in the real world.

Second thought maybe access to my head might not be a good idea. Pretty confused in there with the day-to-day intermingled with grandiose sewing intentions.

OK so back to the week.

This one I took care of the three grandchildren for two days and spent two days cleaning my about-to-move-to-Austin son's place at the beach. He lives upstairs in a spectacular apartment and rents out two units on the main floor. Those are what I cleaned.

Here is one unit and here is the other.

This kid is really enterprising, like all my kids actually. He is my real money saver and bought this place for not much - I had my doubts-  it was run down and decorated in dusty rose with pictures of cats '80s style, and he completely re did it himself.

My best part of that story was my husband and I were out one weekend staying in the RV helping him paint and I woke up to see a strange light moving around the yard.

I looked out the window and there was youngest son with a miner's helmet on dipping each board for the siding one at a time in natural stain and setting them out to dry in the dark.

Lately I have been thinking of my family.

I have friends and neighbours who have kids who all live close by. In a month both of my sons will be in the US, working at good jobs they got from very hard work. I still have my daughter here with the kids, a few minutes away and am extremely blessed about that. My daughter too is a hard worker. She is a children's cancer care coordinator and is about to go back to school to become a nurse practitioner - while working with three kids.

Sometimes I wonder why we all try so hard. I wonder about folks who have all children close, but I know this is how we are and were meant to be.

I become a single mother in my early 40s unexpectedly. I remember my daughter saying "we are watching you and if you are OK we will be OK." 

Well that was that.

I also remember an angry father coming up to me in the line up at parent teacher's (both my boys were school presidents) saying "I don't understand why your children are doing well - they come from a broken home, and my son doesn't."

Things people say.

This week was my 15th anniversary. My husband Leo is, to quote my mother, a gift from God. When he met me, my kids knew his kids, he told me that I, a middle aged mother with three kids, a dog, and a house that needed a lot of work, was someone he knew he had to "snap up before someone else got there first."

You see where my mother is coming from.

I don't usually share much that is personal on this blog but every once in a while I think it doesn't hurt. Part of blog culture for sewers is everyone posts great pictures of their garments and lives look smooth. 

I think the sewing is real and the lives behind the sewers are too. 

We are all just trying to make something.

On a TNT mission

Every once in a while there comes a time when you really need a few patterns that can be made up mindlessly in multiples.

I have decided golf outfits fall into that category.

The golf clothes you buy, at great expense considering what they are made of, are not grabbing me. I have some "breathable" polyester athletic fabric I picked up at the amazing Northwest Fabrics when I was last in Winnipeg, but I seriously doubt if it is as breathable as natural fibres. However once I have the pattern side nailed down I am going to try it out. We will see. I have been around the fibre content block a few times in my sewing career and I am a polyester skeptic when it comes to hot weather comfort.

However since golf fashions appear to be updated only about every 80 years (although I note that Augusta will allow some women only if they have skirts that cover their knees - not that this matters to me as I believe I remember I am boycotting them for political reasons anyway-they don't have a good attitude to my people- and they are boycotting me for the reason I can't really play golf) it seems like a good investment to figure out some basic golf patterns that I can trust and churn out - since I am married to Arnold Palmer.

So I decided to start somewhere.

To begin with I used Jalie's older pattern for a polo shirt. Jalie has a nice fit on me always and this is a traditional tab front without buttons, a stand collar (to get around the taped neckline you usually see in facingless tab fronts), and a fairly pointy collar. 

Since this was a purely wearable muslin for me, and since it has been atypically hot here this summer, I used a a thin rayon knit I had that obviously would have been better served in a less structured design. Even though I interfaced both the collar and tabs the neckline is too floppy for me and I think the stand and collar are a bit dated and not quite the golfy look I was going for. 

Also this neckline is too low on me. As you can see my genetics are showing through in my chicken neck and boney chest - this is the neckline of my Prairie farm ancestry - this is the neck of generations of women who cut the lawn at 90 and canned vegetables when they were using walkers. But all good sewers.

You know exactly what I mean:

The patch is a terrible fail but at this point I just wanted to finish the pattern and wear it to test the fit. 

I have to say however that this shirt was super comfortable in the heat yesterday, and as long as I kept moving and didn't run into anyone who sewed I figured I was OK wearing it on the course. But of course am on the hunt for a better pattern to use for my purposes. I have downloaded another version from Burdastyle and will try that next. I might even have to go vintage pattern hunting to find what I need.

For the golf skirt I used Jalie's new Loulouex skort. I made it up once with just adding 1 1/2 " but really it was way too short - you have to remember that there is a lot of bending over in golf - so this version is lengthened by a full 4 1/2". 

The thing is of course that there is a panel in the front that is straight and the sides and back are essentially a circle. In a short skirt this is cute, but I think when lengthened this is maybe a bit much. However since this is a knit garment and so fast and easy to sew it is worth some pattern adaption.

I am thinking of maybe slashing and overlapping that back piece to reduce the circle to something more A line. I am also not sure if it needs to be a little shorter too.

The pattern also has an attached set of boxer short things with a band around the legs and an interesting and very comfortable square crotch insert.

63 year old legs I know, purely shared for educational content

The pattern also suggests the whole unit be made out of a stretchy bathing suit knit but I figured right away if I did that I would expire in the heat. So as a compromise I made the shirt in a nylon knit, sort of a leggings, heavy swimwear with a matte finish, and the shorts in the same rayon knit as the top. Test wearing this was very cool and comfortable.

BTW since I was deep into just testing in this outfit I used the opportunity to play around with my new Juki cover hem machine. There are double and triple needle cover hems all over both pieces with both the needle side right side up and the looper side up in various places. Bit random but good practice.

So where this golf outfit quest stands is at the beginning.

I need to try new patterns and find some decent sources for the right fabrics.

I also am in desperate need for a good hat pattern. Sort of a visor but one what covers the crown of my head.

I have a large collection of hats but none of them are right. I have a big head, probably stuffed with too many project intentions, and I need a hat that doesn't hurt and shades my face well too.

Any suggestions of a hat, or golf outfit patterns, that I can make for myself would be most appreciated.