Insta project

When we are on the road my husband does 100% of anything related to food. Buying, cooking and cleaning up. 

The kitchen in an rv is tiny and he loves to organize it. This is a man of a million systems. Also when he was growing up his father, a man of multiple enterprises had a restaurant he sometimes worked in.

My husband also says cooking is to him what sewing is to me, something creative that relaxes him.

So our agreement when we are on wheels is that I stay out of the kitchen and do all the dog walking, the laundry, and my many projects. I also do the phoning people up and talking part. I am better at that than he is.

Every once in a while though I feel guilty. Women of my generation have somewhere a little voice that says if you aren't working all the time around the place then you are pulling some kind of scam.

OK I am pulling a scam here, but the scamee seems happy with it.

Occasionally I wonder out loud about things we could do so he would have less cooking to do. My daughter-in-law has just bought an Instant Pot and I thought maybe those are a good idea. Of course I am the princess eater here not on the production end of this operation, but it's a nice thought right? Like those 50s husbands who used to give the wife a new vacuum for Valentine's day.

Any one out there have one and think they are really really good?

I mean Valentine's Day is coming up right?

In the meantime while I wait to hear from my consultants (that would be you folks) and am engaging in some Insta projects.

When you are living in an rv Insta projects make a lot of sense, particularly the ones you cut out at home (and remembered to pack all the pieces of) if you have promised to stay out of the kitchen, since that more or less leaves just the bed and the driver's seat.

I started with my all time favourite Insta project- this neglected and quite amazing Jalie shirt, described, accurately as V neck and high back:

Now this is the cover shot of the version with a zipper.

I made mine without the zipper and also without the bike helmet and the bike shorts. Seemed like a good idea.

What is amazing about this top (you can add sleeves if you want they are included) is that it essentially can function as a great tank or under cardigan type top and can be made in about 30 minutes.

The upper part of the top, the V neck, is made by laying two front pieces on top of each other (they are sort of rectangles no neckline shape at all) sewing a short 5" line of straight stitches up the middle at centre front, and the folding the pieces, wrong sides together, to each side.

That's it. 

A beautiful V neckline with zero sewing around it, no points of the V, no binding, just a nice folded edge that lies beautifully.

At this point I should stop and say I am fully aware that the above description makes no sense at all and only marginally describes the picture I have in my head, so your main take away here is - no sewing - super easy.

As far as V necks go this one's a scam.

After you have done what I have described, properly because the directions make sense in the pattern, all there is left to do is the back, lower front, side seams and turn and stitched hems around the armholes and along the bottom.

Here is my version - a black knit with a sort of a built-in texture wave I like, modelled in a non kitchen part of the rv, meaning next to the bed and in front of the bathroom door. I am posting two more or less identical pictures because I couldn't decide which one was worse:

Full RV view in my glasses for this interested.

After my busy day yesterday the serger seemed to be too heavy to lift off the floor and put on the table so I sewed this whole unit up with a straight stitch on the Rocketeer using that stretch Eloflex thread.

I know some folks have had issues with that thread but I learned a few tricks that kept it working just fine in my old 60 year old travelling machine:

1. Wind the bobbin slowly. If you whirl that bobbin around too fast the thread will stretch on the bobbin and retract in the stitches, puckering them.

2. Sew slowly and steadily. When I sped up the thread obviously got stretched thin and tight in the tension disks and then broke. When I kept up a conservative and constant pace this did not happen.

3. I bypassed the little thread guide just above the needle and this eliminated any possible fraying. Eloflex looks to me to be a 2 ply twist and is quite stiff. The stiffness means that it dropped down to the needle without having to be further held close, so dispensing with that last thread guide was fine. It also meant that this thread guide which is quite tight didn't get a chance to saw away at the thread.

I also have an idea, untested as this machine has few fancy stitches, that the simpler the stitch the better this thread will perform. A complicated stretch or multi action stitch would probably stretch and strain it a lot and that might contribute to the issues some sewists have reported. 

I wonder. 

Now off to dinner. I have some Indie pattern reviews coming your way and then I think I am going to do a series on hand sewing, like I did on hemming knits.

Does that sound like a good idea?

A day of much weirdness

I am back in the rv after a trip to Winnipeg for my fabulous mother's 90th birthday. I have posted pictures of that trip on my Instagram.

After a busy time I was looking forward to walking the dogs, talking to my husband, and a little sewing.

Things didn't turn out that way today.

Instead a man I know well and like a lot, a former head of a political party at home, had to resign because of allegations of sexual impropriety with a staff.

Yes I know. Him too.

This meant instead of a nice quiet day I had to do some radio commentary and a TV interview via Skype from the rv, with my husband frantically running around to get me set up and to keep the dogs out of the shot.

If you are interested, and you are probably not, here is a link to the TV interview.

The day left me rattled, as far as I had known, this was a decent man, nice wife, lovely daughters.

I needed to sew to get myself settled again.

So I pulled out a cardigan I really wanted to make and had cut out at home before we left. 

Turns out that I also left the front pieces back in Halifax, probably in the garbage, probably long gone to the landfill.

So. 

Well some days its best not to expect too much.

Appreciating that this was not a point in time to raise my expectations I settled on making myself a head band unit I had made for my daughter, DIL, and niece for Christmas.

My hair is nothing to write home about at the best of times and camping hair is the sort of thing you want to cover up. 

It seemed a good day to make a head wrap so I did.

Here is the terrific free pattern I used from Patterns for Pirates. Super easy. PFP has some other cool free patterns too - all worth a look.

This headband can be worn as a head wrap, a slouch hat, a neck cowl, and well as, well a headband.

Here is me in some of those versions, artfully shot in the inside of the rv with my frazzled self inside. The fabric is a lovely bamboo knit from Fabric Crush:

I am pretty sure all I want to happen tomorrow is,

Nothing.

Might make more of these though.

Flypaper thoughts Comfort Inn edition

• Five days on the road now
• Currently in Georgia, tomorrow in a state park in Florida, in Panama City
• Been pretty chilly
• Tour director says if we stay in the rv it has to be without water
• Pipes freezing etc.
• Mommy doesn't do no water
• So it's been road side Comfort Inns because they take multiple dogs no problem
• Have Miss Daisy with us and Birdie, my son's dog who is on to relocation in Austin
• At night I go and walk the treadmills in the hotel "exercise rooms" to unkink

This is the team as documented by the tour director whenever I leave the room at night:

• No need to ever ask me why I have a dog
• Who says older women are invisible?
• Do you know it is possible to order a significant amount of fabric on an iPhone with a dog wrapped in a blanket on your lap
• With a pillow on that lap
• The blanket and the pillow and the head under my elbow is so someone can pretend she is not where she is
• Hang on guys
• We're parking soon and Benny is at the other end of this trip Birdie
• You just hang on
• Listen
• Whatever are the Big Four going to do?
• Four pattern companies now owned by one entity
• So many patterns that already look identical
• I am waiting for the call
• Even got my phone plugged into the front of the car just in case
• Waiting for them to call and ask me what to do
• You'd help me out
• Well, I would say, maybe you can start with the instructions
• Like stop telling new sewers to staystitch knit necklines
• Or make basting stitches and ease in sleeves in T shirts
• Try writing the word serger in
• And stop listing "faille" as a suggested fabric on the back
• You don't even remember what that fabric is
• Admit it
• And how about not having all the coats unlined so a sewist has to figure that out herself
• If Google doesn't stop changing sewist to sexist
• I may just have to stop Googling
• That would show them
• I'm going to be adding to the list all night in my head
• Of what the Big Four should do
• In case they find where they put my number
• My husband did a DIY security system
• An iPhone and thermometer pointed at the front door from the inside
• He gets an alert when someone moves and he checks it out
• Did that man duct tape this to my china cabinet
• Don't even have to ask
• Best not to picture that
• So far we can report that the relatives are coming and going
• As expected
• Some are studying in the quiet
• Some sleeping over after concerts
• Is that mail on the table?
• Decided he isn't going to respond to the alerts any more
• Turns out home security is a violation of privacy
• Do you know that instead of packing enough underwear
• I packed enough fabric to make enough underwear
• I am pretty sure I am going to get a cowboy hat in Texas
• Miss Scarlett says sure Babs just don't say my name out loud when you wear it
• She is growing up
• Kind of too bad
• Her sister and brother will think I am beyond cool
• 6 and 3 are good ages
• Gee I love these trips
• Except the no kids part
• Apart from that every minute of it
• The truck stop where they pack up six rolls with two chicken pot pies to go
• Two days' supper out of that one meal
• The fact I know every place a dog can pee between the giant plastic peach in Georgia and the Canadian border
• Seeing other's peoples homes flash by my window
• What are their stories?
• This week it was 25 years since my wonderful dad died
• On the exact anniversary the phone rang
• He won a prize from the gas company
• His name is still on the bill 
• A quarter of a century later he is still lucky
• A sign says my mother
• Of course this is dad
• Kind of comforting
• Next week going to fly back to Winnipeg for her 90th
• Having a party
• Here's a list of my friends she said
• Over a 100 people
• Turns out nearly all can come
• We are renting extra coat racks
• You've been to Winnipeg in January?
• Those policemen on Portage Avenue still wear buffalo coats?
• If they do we are going to need those coat racks
• I think we had better roll some extra sandwiches too
• We are all wearing fascinators
• Google it if you are too young
• And if you are still Googling
• Not out in protest
• Haven't worn a fascinator since we put on white gloves for church
• And felt particularly fasicinating
• About 800 years ago when I was 8
• Apparently 90 feels the same as 8
• Kind of comforting too
• And to finish, another picture
• The one I told my daughter I wouldn't show
• She's far away right
• Jalie's wonderful pyjama pattern on Christmas morning in some nice thick flannelette
• Pretty beautiful daughter for someone who was up early with three kids I thought:

•  I never looked this good when it was me

A podcast interview

Well folks for those of you who might think I just have to be better organized and more serious in person than in print well here's evidence that I am not.

A fun interview I did just before the holidays with the Clothing Mavens is now up.

Enjoy.

Flypaper thoughts one and a half more days at home edition

• Tuesday morning we hit the frozen road
• We are like sailors waiting for a break in the weather
• Yes I know it is still frigid in the South
• But I am wearing two pairs of fleece leggings on top of each other here right now
• Plus two stops are to see my boys and my DIL
• Nothing going to stop that
• The grandchildren here assure me they won't forget me
• Feel so bad I yelled when they poured Dawn dish detergent on the fruit cake last week
• Said it was an experiment
• Their mother doesn't endorse this kind of science
• And I know their mother
• One tough customer
• When she had time outs as a child 
• She used to pass notes out under the door that said I love you Mommy
• Hard to break that spirit
• Glad I didn't
• Probably couldn't
• Now the check list of things to take
• My list is different than my husband's
• His includes things like tire pressure gauge
• Mine includes things like four different kinds of interfacing
• Going to post updates on my travels on Instagram
• We go through rural American and state parks
• Meet interesting people this way
• Last year a traveling church organist
• Formerly a music teacher from New York
• And four lost hikers on a mountain
• Boy were they glad to see us
• Don't let me forget to take my seam roll
• Going to have two dogs this time
• Miss Daisy of course who always wants to know if we are there yet
• And Birdie, my son's dog, who we are delivering to Austin
• A border collie, he's going to have trouble herding us around the rv
• His great on border patrol, doing a regular circuit of the house at night
• That should take him about 4 seconds in the rv
• Then I guess he will start again
• Mmm
• How many miles?
• Love road trips
• So much better than flying
• No security
• Unless you count being sent back into the house with the back-up serger
• You keep your shoes on
• Until you change them for slippers in the rv
• Leg room
• I use an exercise ball to put my feet up as we drive
• Food you can afford and is worth eating
• Husband has the crockpot sitting in the sink and plugged in
• He can control the temp by a switch in the driver's seat
• I am not kidding
• "Sounds like it might be bubbling" he says
• "Should turn it down"
• And he does
• Of course this is a man who once cooked pork chops in a George Forman plugged into the cigarette lighter while he was driving
• Who says we don't travel first class?
• Also no flight cancellations
• We are leaving Tuesday a.m. no matter what
• If the weather gets bad we will pull over and open that crockpot
• BTW I have a request
• For some reason my traveling partner has this brilliant idea we should play cards at night
• Thought it would be a nice couple activity
• It figured watching me sew counted as that
• Anyway I am not a game person
• Only card game I ever liked was a Greek one called kalisinta
• But can't remember all the rules and can't find them online
• Every card game my husband knows has 900 rules and is obscure to Nova Scotia
• That means really obscure
• To a province where there is lots of time to play cards
• And make up lots of rules
• He is happy to explain the rules to me between here and Texas
• You can see my dilemma
• Any suggestions for alternatives I can offer?
• In the meantime I have to find my twin needles
• Pretty sure the cover hem will mean I am going to have to pay excess baggage
• And I want that money to buy fabric
• Don't let me forget the wooly nylon either
• Better get cracking

A new year and some new techniques

I once had a very old Singer man tell me how he sat at a dealers' convention in the '50s and saw the first zig zag machine introduced.

"Well now they have thought about just about everything," he said then.

I think the point here is that no matter how much you think about sewing there is always something new to consider and, potentially, a new way to solve an old problem.

With just three days into the new year, here are some of my personal favourites:

1. Yoga band instead of an elastic waist. Obviously highly appropriate for yoga pants or leggings (make sure the band is sizeable, like say a cut width of at least 6 1/2" or a finished width of 3" for an adult). Would be perfect for maternity wear or those of us who have past maternity influenced waistlines.

I have mentioned in a previous post that I used this technique for Billy's jammies and can report that since the fabric I used is a good recovery cotton/lycra, they stay up very well and are super comfortable:

2. Sewing clips. I first saw these used in bag making to hold stiff and multiple layers together under the sewing machine needle when obviously mere pins wouldn't do the job. I really liked these little units when I tried them myself. I bought a ton of them for very little on Amazon and was surprised at how easy they were to remove as I sewed - I just pressed down on the top (coloured side) of the clip on the bed of the machine and kept a bowl beside me to toss them into.

In garment sewing I have found the clips super useful for sewing knits and holding them still with some strength. Elastic or neckbands (or yoga bands) for instance or just for seaming.

Here they are in action on the seam of a ponte skirt:

3. Finally, and I promised this a while ago, I tried and am sold on, Eloflex thread by Coats.

First here are my observations on this thread:

• It really is stretchy. I was surprised how much so. As a result I was concerned that winding the bobbin action and high speed sewing could extend the thread before it got to the fabric and that once there it would relax and consequently pucker the seam. Anticipating this I wound the bobbin really slowly and sewed with a slow but steady pace to prevent that from happening. This seemed to work.
• It is a slightly stiff thread, and a 2 ply that has a tendency to unwind. This made getting it into the eye of the needle a bit tricky - took 4 tries - and I was aware of a few loops as the thread approached the tension disks but these seemed to work themselves out before the seam. After much sewing I had the thread fray above the needle only once and this was after I did some start and stop sewing. Since it was only once after a lot of stitching I felt this did not outweigh the benefits of the thread, and that I could deal with this in future with some steady sewing. I am also wondering if this might be one of those threads that some machines might like more than others but really since I did my test sew on a 60 year old machine to fully test it I am not sure about this. Of course I used a knit needle for my sewing.

Here are some pictures to show how I used this thread:

Straight stitched knit hem from the outside. Kind of nice to have this as a hemming option as the straight stitch of course won't over work the fabric and produce wavy hems.

A seam in my laser cut ponte near the hem where it gets lacey. I didn't want to serge because I figured that would make the seam too obviously although I did stitch twice since I was trimming the seam allowance close.

The knit hem fully stretched out, not a stitch breaking or bubbling. A fully stretched knit hem done with a straight stitch on a vintage machine. I mean really. How cool is that?

So count me pretty impressed and on my way down to the fabric store to get more colours to take with me on my sewing travels in the rv. 

Would also be a good option I think in the needle when sewing active wear too. I am really happy to know that there is a practical option for me to sew those detail areas in knits, like a V neck, with a reliable straight stitch for precision.

So what's new to you so far this year?

All day shirt pattern review - Liesl and Co.

This is a long review as it involves my major Christmas sewing project.

This year I made four men's shirts. One was an overdue one for my youngest son using some custom printed poplin from Spoonflower (electrical circuits - he is in the wind energy business now in Austin Texas) and three flannel shirts for the same son, my middle guy now in San Francisco, and my son-in-law here.

They were all in town for Christmas and I thought a sort of group sew made sense, at least to me.

First the pattern.

I have made the boys a number of shirts over the years and not been totally happy with the patterns. The Big Four patterns are too boxy for current styles and some of the specialty patterns out there are either not too well drafted or dated in cut.

I wanted a real RTW draft so on a whim tried this pattern from Liesl and Co.:

This pattern turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.

Reasons I liked this pattern and will be using it again, and again and again, I expect are:

• The fit is exactly what I have been searching for - modern but enough easy to be comfortable
• Two useful views - a button down collar, casual version, and a more formal dress version with an almost spread collar, also fashionable
• Really good construction advice, using some of my favourite techniques, which also tend to be those not included in most other patterns, the method for the stand collar in particular

The best way to talk further about this pattern I think is with pictures and notes.

Here we go.

First the Spoonflower print fabric one for my son. 

If you haven't heard of Spoonflower they definitely are worth checking out. The idea is you have access to an enormous number of Indie print designers and you can select the fabric (from knit to woven- big selection) you want it printed on and make a custom order. I was very happy to see poplin as a listed fabric, it is a great fabric for shirts and I was very happy with the quality. Too many cool prints are in quilting cottons and these are simple too loosely woven to hold up for shirt wear and it was nice to have an interesting pattern in a real shirt fabric.

There are various reviews of Spoonflower, some say the blacks fade, but I can only talk about my one experience.

I have to say I was happy with my purchase. True the fabric was slightly stiff, I would expect that with a surface printed design, but I did pre-wash and line dry it before I cut and did not detect any fading.

I sometimes wonder if some of the colour fading folks talk about is because so many people wash and machine dry their clothes. For instance my son was amazed when I told him not to put this shirt in the dryer (he would probably do that and put them in at hot water with his jeans).

Service was a bit slow on my order, required a few emails to make sure it was on its way, about 3 weeks, but in the end I found the customer service, if slow, outstanding.

I will order from them again.

Here is the shirt on my youngest with some detail shots and comments:

See how nice the fit is? Slim enough but not tight. Love it and so did he. Guys in the office wondered if I could make more. My son said he was pretty sure I only do this for my own kids. He is right about that.

Here is the cuff. The slightly rounded corners make this nice and neat and the "Burrito method" cuff application is super easy and smooth.

For accuracy in marking details like the stitching box of the cuff placket I always just trace it off, and using a short stitch length do my stitching. When this is done the paper just pulls away.

Hit my picture limit in Blogger, so part two will be posted next.