How hard can it be?

The title of this post is the motto of my life.

For those of you who are wondering what my life motto is.

Well there you have it.

I am the sort of person who expects things to turn out, it's just my nature. When things don't I immediately figure it's only a matter of time.

This approach isn't probably as wonderful as it sounds. There are some pitfalls. For instance I have an appalling sense of direction and should be more organized in figuring out how to get places. Instead I mostly head out and assume I will find my destination eventually. Sometimes it takes hours. I probably married someone who was clearly unsuitable first time out with too for example. Oh well on that one.

Mostly I always expect that somehow I will figure things out. When faced with a new project or an opportunity, back to the motto, my first thought is - well how hard can it be?

I inherit this trait from my father.

My dad was a dedicated DYI-er. I remember once as a teenager watching him get ready to go off and teach cross-country skiing lessons. He had cut off a pair of navy serge dress pants and gathered them at the knees himself to sort of look like knickerbockers and was headed out the door.

"Dad do you know how to cross-country ski?" I asked him.

"Well I got a book from the library," he said.

"How hard can it be?"

This same attitude occasionally sends me off into uncharted sewing territory.

For instance I have recently decided to make bags.

My reason for doing this is that I haven't done this before.

I joined some FB groups of bag makers where I quickly discovered that making bags is a lot of hard work and requires some elaborate gear, tons of pattern pieces, and even more patience and perseverance.

I streamlined my expectations right away.

The keys I discovered are two things:

1. Getting in structure. Best are fusible fleece or foam interfacing (apparently this is also called headliner foam and you can get it at an auto body shop except I don't go to auto body shops so I got mine at Joann's in the US and I believe it is easy to get online.) With the foam I just zig zagged it on to the main fabric. This stuff saves the project from looking exactly like a home-made tote bag.

2. Hardware. The metal parts really are an easy way to make a simple sewing job look more professional. I got mine from the fabulous Emmaline Bags, which BTW also has great tutorials as well as the free Miss Maggie pattern I used for the bags below. Using some hardware, like rivets, is also an excellent way of getting around the bulk issue with things like sewing on straps. Purse feet are another nice touch and I think add to the durability of the bags.

The other big thing I discovered was cork fabric. This is really just cork laminated onto a poly backing (no it doesn't swell up in the rain) and sews like a double knit. I did find that a teflon foot was important to keep the cork moving smoothly under the needle but that was the only technical adjustment I made.

The natural bag pictured here was made with some packaged cork I got in a machine dealer's store in Texas but the black cork from MM Cork is a much more superior quality. MM also sells remade straps too which might be handy, although I sewed my own.

The concealed zipper application in both bags is from an Emmaline add-on tutorial.

I also made my husband a new wallet from some scraps using this pattern from Mrs. H.

So really in the universe of bag making both of these bags are very, very simple but I have developed a work around by deciding that simple is more classic and looks more expensive.

Justifying laziness is near the top of my list of challenges I line up under how hard can it be.

Actually in the case of bag making, really not all that hard.

Sewing underwear on a picnic table: Bunzies review

Part of the resumption of my normal life are a few posts of catch up on some of the sewing I did on the road.

I used the opportunity of limited resources (my husband would dispute that the range of sewing supplies I took with me was limited) to do some experimenting while I travelled.

One of those projects was making myself underwear out of some knit scraps. Note the thread doesn't match but the line was drawn at packing 48 cones of serger thread ...

So here they are, my first pair of Bunzies:

This pattern is from Stitch Upon a Time, the same outfit that produced the popular and better known Scrundlewear pattern. I had originally intended to make the Scrundlewear but was advised by the pattern designer that the full back version of the Bunzies had the most coverage, so I made these instead.

The Bunzies pattern is distinguished by various booty coverage options - you have the option to expose various quantities of your backside, something that I have personally been trying to coverup my whole life, as reflected in a lifetime of discernible panty lines and the bottoms of swimsuits that ride up. But this pattern has views that allow you to cover up completely, which I did, or expose various degrees of cheek which I am sure makes someone happy somewhere.

Seeing younger women in really, really short shorts I can see how higher cut underwear, as an alternative to thong underwear (anyone who says those are comfortable IMO is doing some major tuning out of messages from body to brain) might be useful.

Back to the it's not me part.

The base fabric is a beautiful rayon knit and the bands are cotton lycra.

For some time now I have been seeing underwear with knit bands as opposed to elastic edgings sewn up. I have been intrigued by the possibility that using knit edgings would be a good and efficient alternative to having to coordinate hard to find elastic colours. Plus I figured it might be more comfortable and of course cheaper if, like me, you have enough knit scraps to load up the cargo hold of a 747.

I hate the feeling of too tight leg openings, or too stiff leg openings in my underwear and I am sure I am not the only one who feels this.

The pattern was very straightforward and I made these up without any changes. I did note as I often do that the instructions called for some construction details that are not always needed in knits - pressing and finishing the raw edge of the crotch for example. Like the Jalie panties these do not have an enclosed crotch piece in all seams - only one seam is enclosed and the other edge left raw.

In terms of drafting the only thing I noticed was that the crotch piece itself was a bit narrow. I figured out this is because the leg bands are fairly wide and those sort of supplement the crotch by the time they get under there.

Now to the really important question.

How do these feel?

First, a little different. The first time I wore these I felt they were a bit bulky under the crotch, because of the bands etc. but I quickly got used to it. The waist and leg openings are super comfortable and stay put without cutting in any where, which meets my over riding criterion.

They are definitely a pair I reach for in preference in the morning too, which says something. 

I might make the leg bands a bit narrower next time, and I might try this treatment on my standard Jalie underwear pattern too.

Or I may not.

This is definitely a completely easy, lazy person's way to whip up some underwear that will actually get worn so I can see next time I am delusionally convinced I am efficient and decide to cut up some of those scraps, this is the pattern I will reach for.

I actually think making underwear makes sense. The stuff you buy is either a) cheap but wears out/sags real fast or b) crazy expensive given what it is and where it will be worn. 

On other news, because I think sometimes my sewing life needs context, Daisy is back on 6 weeks bed/crate rest for her disk issue in her back. 

She is a hoppy, bouncy, happy walker and ran rings around the back yard when we got back. However I am feeling sorry for not catching her when she jumped on and off the curb when we went for a walk or for, this is horrifying, the time a few days ago when she jumped off a chair she was cuddling in because there was a loud noise in the kitchen.

We never let her go up and down stairs or jump on and off anything so I am feeling very guilty for not catching her in time. The truth is Daisy is going to have this issue on and off for life and we have to be so careful with her. This might be a result of bad treatment in her past (she has some slight issues in one eye probably as the result of trauma) or it might be genetic in a dog with a long back and short legs. At any rate if it gets really bad she might end up with surgery if these bouts of bed rest don't work. It is too early for that option (which costs about the same as a small car, second hand that needs new tires) the vet said, and there are risks too with surgery, so we have to do this first.

So Daisy is set up in a child's Pack and Play until June and the dog stroller is how we are breaking up her boredom.

Even other news is the mouse folks were back and have fixed up some holes that a former and apparently no good employee left when they supposedly mouse proofed the house last time.  As opposed to poisoning for the current residents we have opted for one way mouse doors that let them out and not back in. Apparently it will take about 3 months to move them all out this way, but it is safer.

In the meantime the mice are sort of still running around (thanks for the heads up on the dog food- I hid it in the dishwasher last night - remind me to take it out before I turn it on this morning). 

Last night in fact one ran over my husband's foot in the middle of the night in the bathroom. He eventually killed it with the toilet plunger but after all of this I had trouble getting back to sleep.

I kept thinking of the mouse family that is certainly one of many in my walls.

"Where's Ed? He should be back by now. He said he was only going to nip out for a quick run around the bathroom and he's still not back."

"I told him he should just use the mouse door to the outside. But you know Ed. Can't tell that mouse anything."

Yes I actually thought this lying in my bed in the middle of the night.

Apparently the mice have made me lose my mind.

But at least the underwear fits.

And here I am: flypaper thoughts

• Home a week now 
• Three months away require some catching up
• Time to reconcile the fact your body is in the cold and grey and your head is still in the desert
• Takes time to unload an rv
• And remember where you are
• Daisy has her spring back in her step
• Been over to see Moose
• Her Bernese Mountain dog boyfriend
• He has been waiting in his front yard for her
• She ran around him in circles and then pranced home
• Leaving him whimpering
• He might want to rethink
• Have taught the kids to play monopoly and noted that they are all taller
• They are all coming over for a sleep-over next weekend
• Up for discussion who will sleep where
• Trying to get dibs on sleeping with Babsie
• Alternate arrangements are being made
• Wondering how old a child needs to be before it's safe to let them make the coffee
• Talked to my niece who is now living with my son-in-law's lovely nephew
• Yes you read that right
• About reclaiming my entire lower level of my house as one giant sewing room
• The space she has been living in before she found true love
• Moved her remaining stuff into the bedroom to do it
• Pictures of one corner at the bottom of the post
• Now tell me
• Why was most of my inner life only in one room?
• Time to move it all over
• All over
• Think I will have some of the kids friends' over for impromptu sewing lessons this summer
• Good friend of mine set up her large house with one project in each room after she became a widow
• Walked around depending on her mood and did a little work here and there
• Most interesting house to visit ever
• Been working on several things
• DIL is pregnant and doing an early maternity pencil skirt with knit band
• And a nice dress for myself I will show soon
• BTW
• The mice moved back in when I was gone
• Damn idiots
• Ate my dad's baby quilt that I had in a drawer
• This means war
• Refilled that drawer with zippers
• Take that
• And the drawer below with buttons
• Try nesting in that
• Keep it up and I am going to pull out the interfacing
• The mouse catching preventing service I pay for let me down
• Hell has no fury
• Like a woman who has had to clean up 90 year old batting
• Meet me at my house for the big Confront tomorrow a.m.
• Bring your seam ripper
• Found the minutes of my grandmother's sewing group
• They met for 60 years and kept minutes
• Might share some with you
• They are hilarious
• Warning to send out
• Going to sew my brains out all week
• Need to get myself resituated
• Only way to do it
• Now I am going downstairs
• To this
• Note took these shots last night
• Big windows on the other side don't show
• Thought you should know that
• Take what you see here and times it by three
• Not your designer sewing space
• But mine

Oh my and home

Well we are home.

It was one epic trip to California and back over three months with considerable time in Texas and the wilds of the South West.

I have things to blog about and much catching up to do (will do a flypaper thoughts soon) but on the trip home I just needed to get some thinking done and look out the window so I didn't miss anything.

Also en route I taught two courses online - it was a busy term, I just posted the final marks.

Honestly I am dying to get back blogging now I am settled in in a reliable internet situation - I have so many things going on in my sewing life right now and have to get you caught up on some of my random projects.

One of those projects wis some more podcasting with the clothesmakingmavens.com The latest one I contributed to is up now, called Going with the Flow, and talks about sewing for your period, a subject on which I have a opinions, and of course sewing for menopause which is another and very large topic I have had time to consider.

These little podcast segments are fun to do, although I keep waiting for someone to say, Babs this is really too nutty.

If you would like to contribute Lori and Helena have asked you to consider these questions and send your responses in to them here which also will tell you how to submit:

The questions are:

1. What’s your name and where we can find you online (blog, instagram, etc.)? If you don’t have an online presence, that’s OK.

2. What’s the most embarrassing thing you sewed and wore out in public?

3. What is that special garment you sewed that you’re most proud of?

4. What’s on your cutting/sewing table right now, or a project you’re planning that you’re excited about?

Stay tuned folks, I am back in business.

Flypaper thoughts, well it's tonight edition

• Last week in the Bay area then wind our way home
• So beautiful here, so green, so almost excessively gorgeous
• Makes me wonder if folks here know this 
• I can think of a few places that could use some of this beauty 
• Seems as if California has some to spare
• Kids bought a house in Berkley
• First house and they are so happy
• Across the street is a house with a sewing machine in the front window
• Looked across at that and it brought tears to my eyes
• My son will be far away but not so far
• When I go home I am leaving happy kids here and in Austin
• And going back to my grandchildren and daughter
• Miss Scarlett wrote me an email
• "It's kind of boring around here without you"
• Going to drive that rv steady in that direction
• Well actually I don't drive
• I knit
• Well
• I wish Daisy was that right now
• Seems to have put her back out again
• She's too tough and the idea she is in pain is too much for me
• Off to the vet in the morning
• She is always an episode away from surgery and it's a long way home
• My baby girl
• Patience and rest healed it last time
• Not much else to do those thousands of miles
• It has been a great trip
• I found out that a landscape without anything in it is just as beautiful
• Rocks in the desert express silence
• I found out that Stonemountain and daughter is the best fabric store in the world
• And 43 minutes on foot from the kids' new house
• Do you know there is a converted garage in their back yard?
• A granny flat
• Wonder what that woman across the street sews
• Think she is serious, serger thread on a spool holder feeding into that Janome
• I found out my husband is talented
• He has designed a fabric print pattern of windmills to have made up for ties for one son
• Needs seven for a convention and I will sew them
• I found out that I can sew cork handbags
• Will post pictures soon
• Not hard to sew 
• But interesting to do something that didn't have armholes
• Found out that the world is smaller than you think
• And that this is a relief
• Found out that one thing I have to do when I get home is teach little girls to sew
• Miss Scarlett has friends
• Found out that every window in Berkley has a bumper sticker in it
• Found out that when you get older your kids can give you happy tears as much as they used to give you sad ones
• Remember teenagers
• Still catching up on my sleep
• Found out that the nicest things some people say to you are not in words
• Like my daughter-in-law letting me destroy her kitchen making kumquat chutney
• And load her dishwasher
• Found out that the more you travel the more you are comfortable outside of your zone
• Either that or your zone gets bigger
• And now includes more rocks
• And cacti twice as tall as me
• And campground neighbours who are underwater medics

Pre-fitting thoughts: a radical view

It was not my intention when I said we needed to talk about fit to go into a complete discussion of all the how-tos of fitting and pattern adjustment strategies.

There are lots of brilliant resources out there, and there are a few of my favourite techniques in my book, but before we get out the paper and scotch tape I think it is worth zooming out.

Zooming out to why we fit our patterns, and subsequently our clothes at all, what our expectations are, and what the general principles might be.

Here are my own thoughts on these issues. I need to hear what you think too about fit. I'm already looking forward to the discussion.

So here are a few core concepts with comments sort of mixed in too.

Idea #1: Fitting and adjusting a pattern, either before or after you try on a garment or a trial garment, and in reality probably a combination of the two, is primarily about comfort and then about appearance. 

It has to be big enough to move in and yet small enough to look smooth with lines that somehow flow over your own personal shape.

So to my mind any fitting project needs to flow with the construction lines of the garment and not fight against them.

Translated this means if you know your pattern needs some fitting work over the bust, choose a pattern with seam lines over that bust as in a princess seam, or, second choice a dart. Note seams are longer than darts and therefore have room for more fitting. 

If you have bust fitting to do avoid plain patterns like your regular old T shirt shape. 

They don't have the required construction spots you are going to need to stand on to do your work.

So look for seams where you need adjustments and you will reduce your fitting angst by about 90%.

Idea #2: Look for pattern shapes that mimic your body shape. If you have square shoulders look for set-in sleeves. If you have sloped shoulders look for raglan sleeves. Go with the flow not against the current. Another 90% reduction in fitter's meltdown potential. 

Forcing something to go in a direction it doesn't want to is always going to hurt and look it too.

A good example of this is a woman with sloped shoulders, a short neck, and a big bust struggling with fit  in a "classic" shirt style (classic often being designer speak for menswear garments put on women) and consequently opening herself up to a huge amount of work trying to bend those straight lines to her not straight body. 

So much easier if she begins from a starting place of a more feminine blouse with convertible collar and a princess seam bodice.

Idea #3: Fitting won't change your body, it will only help your clothes reflect your body. In fact a really good fit may not produce the look you want.

Examples are helpful here again.

I have a mini pot belly although I prefer to regard it as a badge of honour for three big babies and a C-section. When I make a straight skirt, an item that works over my straight hips, the front of that skirt can hang right down from the little cantilever of my stomach, creating "extra fabric" under it.

Now I can "fit" the skirt more closely with front darts and by taking in the front side seams but this will articulate that belly more closely. 

Understanding that fit reshapes clothes, and not me, leads to what I would call intelligent compromises in fit- in this case living with the loss of some body con shape in the fabric under the belly.

The same can also be said of a woman with say a 42" waist and slim legs who sees the extra fabric under her rear in tailored slacks as a "fitting" issue. 

Do we really want to fit it entirely to the point of egg cup shape or is there a compromise here too? 

Maybe leggings or slim pants with a tunic top or the selection of a wider style of pant leg that would blend in the discrepancy within its own flow?

Idea #4: Some pattern companies are better at naturally reflecting your shape than others. 

To my mind, and after working with many, many women on fit I have decided that rather than starting from a position that great fitting skills will eventually enable you to fit any pattern, you might be better to work your way through a few companies before you work your way through too many muslins.

Another example. 

Stylearc patterns fit me like a glove, with a little added in the waist. It has taken me a while to find them (had to wait about 30 years before those patterns went into production) but as long as I stick to Stylearc pants I am fine - to get the same end result in say a Vogue pattern would take me about five muslins.

However that said as much as I would like to love Stylearc tops they are just too generous in the shoulders for me. I am just too bony up top. 

Now I could use a smaller than my measurements Stylearc pattern to start, and make adjustments to add to the bust and waist so they might fit me, but I find it just so much easier to make tops in Jalies instead. The Jalie draft starts from a point much more like my own shoulder/upper chest shape and I have to make minimal fitting adjustments when I use those patterns.

Idea #5: Do one adjustment at a time. 

It is amazing that extent to which a change on one place can affect the behaviour of another part of a garment. Be wary about fooling around trying to fit too many places all at the same time - if it doesn't give you the result you want right away you will never know why or how to find your way back.

So those are my initial fitting thoughts.

Now what are yours?

Tech glich, OK operator glich, and apologies to commentors

I have been having a few issues with my iPhone recently. A sticky screen owing to being dropped out of a pocket and onto the pavement one too many times.

As a result I sometimes tap it a bit too vigorously.

I did that this morning and by mistake deleted rather than published three fabulous comments. I felt terrible about that.

If those folks have the energy to re-comment, much appreciated. If not, my apologies. I did read your great comments but my readers didn't have the chance.

Quick reply to textile grandma. Of course you or any one can repost this post. I think it's an important subject and one that has generated, here at least, an terrific discussion.