Sewing by Hand

I have always loved sewing by hand.  When I was younger, I learned to embroider, and I embroidered tea towels, shirts, table runners, and lots of other things.  There's just something nice about making stitches by hand.  As I became more confident with garment construction, I incorporated more and more hand stitching.  I enjoy putting in a hand picked zipper.  Of course, when I was first learning to sew, there weren't all of the tapes and fusibles available today.  Facings were sewn down by hand as were linings, hems, and basting.  My mother hated hand sewing, but I kind of liked it.  She loved to knit but hated sewing the pieces together.  I didn't like to knit (I do now although I'm painfully slow) but I like hand piecing.

A few weeks ago, I ordered a copy of Alabama Chanin's Studio Style + design.

 I had seen several reviews from garments made on Pattern Review, and I thought I'd check it out.  I had known about the Alabama Chanin books for years, but I guess I didn't really understand what they were all about.  Well, now I'm hooked!
I was first inspired by the fitted top, but I'll write more about that later.





I was surfing the internet looking to see what people had done with either the AC patterns or from inspiration from her techniques.  I ran across this post by Rice, and was inspired.  I HAD to make that skirt!  The next day after work, I ran over to the Bargain Basement (or whatever that place is called in Exeter) and bought three size 3XL T shirts for $6.99 each.  I would have gotten 4XL if they would have had it.  The only fabric store around here is JoAnns, and we also have a Hobby Lobby.  Neither one of them carry cotton jersey.  I took those shirts home and threw them in the wash.  Then I traced the skirt pattern out of the book and cut up the black Tshirt.  The pattern just fit on that shirt (I cut a size large according to my measurements.)
These are the materials that I used:

• 3XL cotton T shirt from bargain store
• Alabama Chanin short skirt pattern from Alabama Chanin Studio + Design book
• button hole thread from Wawak.  (I love this thread, but it is very thick and may be slightly waxed.  I had a hard time finding an appropriate needle)
• large eyed embroidery needle (I'm still looking for a better needle choice.  This was the only thing I could get the thread through, but it was also like pushing a nail through the fabric)
• 1" wide fold over elastic in black from JoAnns.
• cotton all purpose thread for basting also from Wawak
• DMC embroidery floss for hem trim (I think I got it at Hobby Lobby or Michaels)
• Pins
• Tailors chalk

After tracing the short skirt pattern from the book, I chalked around it on the fabric and cut it out.  I basted it together and saw that the fit was pretty good, but that I needed to take it in at the waist, which I did.  I probably should have taken it in a little more, but now it sits about an inch below my belly button, which is actually pretty comfortable.  

The skirt is a 4 gore and I stitched them together with a running stitch using buttonhole twist thread.  The stitches are longer than you would use with regular thread.  I pressed them down and then topstitched them using the same type of running stitch.  The AC book calls this an inside felled seam, but this is not what we typically call a felled seam.  Mock-felled is more like it.  BTW, the seams on these patterns are 1/4", so that makes it pretty easy with the hand stitching.

After stitching the skirt together, I realized that I had the wrong side as the right side.  Jersey rolls to the right side.  Oh, well, I was not going to undo all that stitching and do it over.  I decided to make it work.

I sewed fold over elastic at the waist edge.  I had it 1:1 at first, but that was too loose, so I shortened the overall length about 2 inches.  I probably could have gone more than that.  First I basted the elastic on because the pinning left too many gaps.  I used a stretch basting stitch that I made up!

I sewed the elastic on with buttonhole thread using a herringbone stitch (also a stretch stitch)

I tried pinning a couple of different trim styles at the hem but was not happy with them.  I finally decided on just using a flat piece of the fabric (right side facing up!) and using a cretan stitch.  I used embroidery floss (2 strands doubled) for this.  I wanted something right at the edge that would keep the hemline from rolling under.  I also wanted something to give it a little extra weight to hang better.  I thought about beading, but decided to save that for another project.  I wanted to wear the skirt!

I really like the effect of this, especially since I washed it, and it was able to roll and deconstruct a bit.

All in all, I'm really happy with this skirt.  It is super comfortable and cool.  (It's already been in the 90s here!)  The only bad thing about black cotton knit is that it attracts animal hair like a magnet!  I know there will be a lot more of these in my future!

Paisley skirt

I finished the skirt. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to line the vent. I did something that worked, but it's not exactly right. I tried to follow the directions in the Easy Guide to Linings by Connie Long, and although it was very helpful, I just couldn't figure out exactly what to do at the end, so I just did my own thing. I'm not that pleased with it, but it's functional and will work well enough.

I hand stitched the lining to the vent and also to the zipper tape. The skirt is a little tight, so hopefully I'll lose a few pounds this summer and it will fit the way it is supposed to! It's not unwearable, just a little uncomfortable. Of course, my x-sister-in-law used to always tell me that she would wear too-tight clothes to remind her not to over eat!

Anyway, back to the skirt. And speaking of "back" I must say that I am pleased at the overall look of the matching of the design for the CB seam. It took me awhile to figure out how to do this, but it does look pretty good. You can see a better picture of it if you click on the composite at the top of the page and scroll over to the back view. If you match the pattern at CB, there is no way you are going to be able to match them at both side seams. In fact, you really can't match a design like this on curved seams because the curves distort the line up of the print. So, I didn't bother to even try to match it at the sides, and it looks OK.

Next up? Hopefully a white blouse to go with the skirt!
More Pix here.

The Vest of a Million Errors

OK, maybe "million" is a bit of an exaggeration, but it took me forever to make this vest because of all the mistakes I made, and now it is too big! Of course, none of these errors are the fault of the pattern. It is all because of the FBA!!! First of all, I made the FBA on the princess the way I always do (or so I thought) You have to change the side front the most, and the center front a little. THis seemed fine, and according to the pattern measurements, I was really hoping it would be big enough. It seemed OK when I checked the tissue. I figured, with it being a vest, if it was a little small, it would be OK, since I wasn't putting buttons on anyway. Then I went ahead and did all the pockets according to the directions.

When I got to the pockets on side 2, I realized that nothing was lining up. The pockets on side two have to match up with the side front of side 2. I hadn't made the same alterations on the pockets that I did on the side front! So, I had to take out the zippers and recut the pocket pieces and do that whole deal over. But, I liked the way it turned out, so I figured all was well.






Now, when you make a lined or reversible vest, the side seams are the very last thing you do. So I have all of these pockets made on the two sides and everything sewn together and turned right side out and am ready to sew the side seams. Hmmm.... my fronts are about an inch longer than the backs. What happened??? I go back and look at my pattern pieces and realize that when I did the FBA on the side fronts, I added 1" all the way across instead of cutting in a wedge. I can't believe it. I have done this alteration many times, and of all times to screw it up, I did it this time. Now what to do? Everything is sewn together except the side seams. Well, guess what, I now have gathers at my side fronts! Oh, well. So it goes. Not only that, but the whole thing is really too big. I will still wear it, but I have already made the adjustments on the pattern pieces so I don't make the same mistakes next time. I really like the idea of this vest and a lot of the pocket creations are pretty clever.

I have never made a Saf T Pockets pattern before, but I thought it was pretty cool the way the whole thing went together and I really enjoyed making it.
The skirt is done too, but I still need to sew on the darn hook and eye. I bought some, but now I can't find them!

The cool thing about this vest is all the pockets
Side one has a credit card pocket that is hidden under the lapel. There also are 2 inseam pockets on this side. Side two has pockets with invisible zippers. You can see all of the pictures on my Picasa album.

Well, at least I finally have something finished for my trip. I have so many things I want to make before I go, and I had a migraine all day today and did not get any sewing done! I still hope I can make a tan colored skirt and a white blouse before I go.