Alphonse Elric Hoodie

 Yes, not a lot of sewing going on. I have a new position at work, and it's going okay but I am an overachiever and 'well' is not acceptable. I will get up to speed, but in the meantime I am not doing a whole lot besides laundry and sleeping. Maybe a little movie, maybe I went to a couple of things that are work related concerts or stuff I had tickets for long ago. 

Finishing a vest that has a problem this did not solve

Short lady needs shorter handles on Daiso bag

Jacket does not fit, jacket is broken, zipper is still perfect so harvesting it.

Emerald City Comic Con 2024 AND SewExpo were both missed, because I could not make that time out (until I could have...dang). But cosplaying houseguest was inspiring.

http://johannathemad.tumblr.com/post/83172920414/melissa-aggressively-playing-in-the-distance

So at this point, I am moving out of hoodie season, but I am becoming such a slow sewist, I might as well start now on it.

see previously

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2019/01/eccc-march-to-march-2019.html

I was going to buy two and use one to add to the other, but in a strange turn of events, all the grey hoodies in the world disappeared

nice collar view

good front shot

and of course

Some new sewing, broken into five minute sessions

 Is it sewing if it's altering?

It was a hot mess of fray inside and I fixed it

The Sven holiday sweater: I haven't worn it yet, but it needs to be shorter. I have folded it to where I want it to hit. I may just cut off the lower snowflakes and reattach the ribbing. I would miss those test tubes, and it makes an easier cut than adding a ridge and removing the MeTV logo.

And I seem to have bought more pants fabric

Ventana Twill is the diggity bomb of winter pants fabric. It softens right up, the colors are deep, and it doesn't seem to pill or distort (although remember, I don't put the finished stuff in the dryer after I prewash and dry the bejebus out of it.
It also comes in solid colors and I need some boring pants. Prints and prints are too busy for my boss' eyeballs, and I have other fights to fight at work these days. He actually commented yesterday that this was the first time I dressed normally for work (leggings and a big sweater is normal?). I reacted to it as  if it was a compliment although I don't think it was meant as one, and today I made sure I wore something in too many colors. Sorry, didn't have time for photos.

It was nice to have a couple of actual days off this weekend, so I focused my energy on finishing a shirt.

 I have a couple of long sleeved shirts cut out and half sewn, but it's too cold at work for shirts unless i can wear a down vest over them. Is a down vest not normal clothing? Still puzzling over that....

Which explains why instead of working on the sweater, I am handbasting  the fly on the new Ventana twill pants. Still too much work to do, so this is happening in five minute blasts. This is a skill I developed when the kids were toddlers, and while it's not as satisfying as a long bath of sewing, it scratches the itch.

Somehow most of it is blue; resizing the 2 into a 13

 I do love this color of blue

Which is good, because there's even more of it

Although the latest alteration was on the black part of the dress, not the blue

The problem is: the bodice for a size 2 is the same chest measurement as a 13, but the proportions are very different, and on a young girl, that neck line of the size 2 is too low.

This is a good place to discuss fit models; grading patterns isn't just a case of sizing up, but recognizing proportional changes in ages and sizes. Children are not small adults; their torsos are differently proportioned. Old ladies are not young ladies, their torsos have shifted again. I could math it for you, but this is a post about me trying to do too many things in too short of a time frame. Like writing this post. So let's put a pin in that for now.

Because the size 13s are lost in transit, there are a couple of available size 2s, and the concert is coming up.

Can I raise the neckline? No.

I can lower the shoulder seams.

And. well,,... yes. Stretch velvet is a little forgiving that way.

I'm saying this now: these are the best alteration tags EVER. 

KaBLAMMY!

In brief:

The minute I put the red line on the sketch, I knew this would work. The proportions look alright.

Picked off sleeves, made template of armsceye, remarked and recut lower

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ca1HMQqAPOl/ for hot video action

I swear by the lint ball. Thread sticks to my fingers and I need to get it off so I can pull the next one. I drag the thread across the ball and it catches it and I move on.

Though the tablecloth also does a similar job. Or my sleeve. 

Spent a lot of time reworking the shoulder sleeve and the neckline facing.

One was a bigger panic than the other and I just hope that it doesn't turn out to be totally askew and awful looking on the chorister. Some alterations look awful at a distance.

(cringe face)

And then I put the sleeves back in.

The puckering is all coming from the part of the neckline I didn't touch.

Hanging up, they all look fine (well, it's stretch velvet for the bodice, ponte for the skirts, which both hide/reveal a lot of slapdashery on my part as well as the original manufacturer.

I should mention these dresses are pretty well made in general. Now and then there's a seam that could have used a little more attention, but the sizes are generally consistent.  And these dresses need new size tags, which I neglected to add.

And a related sewing link, to a tribute to a shirt and the Liberty Fabric that it is made from (and how long lived that print has been)

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2022/03/13/my-spring-shirt-o/

On a personal note, I am now done with Accounting 120, I will have a 92% grade, and I am just brainially beat. Lucky for me, work is going to be INsane.

Perfect timing.

"How Did It Hold Up?" The Green Apple Winter Raincoat

 Courtesy of a prompt by GMarieSews (https://gmariesews.blogspot.com/2022/01/is-it-possible.html?), we introduce a new feature:

    HOW DID IT HOLD UP?

You know, a thing I made and what happened to it? A  walk through the drawers and the closet to see what lasted and what happened to it.

The one on my mind right now is the big green winter raincoat. Cause I'm wearing it from October to March, from 2018 until now. Today, frankly.

Once again, we lost the war on Christmas

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2018/02/201718-winter-coat-that-is-not-black.html

The puckering wrinkles on the front placket don't annoy me while I'm wearing it

Because it needs some loving, and a small rethinking or two.

The interior pocket festival was great. The big 'holds my latte' pocket has also held a box of girl scout cookies, a handful of Covid test kits, a pair of mittens and a hat, a folded over Kangol hat, it's just too big enough for fun but not big enough to tear the lining from too much weight. I am not a shoplifter, but it could work for that.  The three piece hood (borrowed from the Green Pepper jacket) is just the right size with the short brim reinforced brim and the cut back sides (I can see with my periperal vision and if I turn my head, I can see even more and the sides don't swallow up my head).

One  side seam has popped at what would be the armpit, and I think I will tidy it up and open up the other side. This coat gets steamy on a cold day when I exert myself. Self-opened pit ventilation.

The zipper was too long, and has torn away from the front and see that wear at the bottom? Plastic just doesn't last, or at least the tape on this one doesn't last. But certainly the zip being too long has put undo wear on the far end when I zip it up with my little T-Rex arms. New shorter metal zip is in the WAWAK order. Sadly not orange, but a nice green. 

I added ring snaps to the top to make it close up better, and will add them all the way down the front to add back some closure at length. It's nice to be able to put it on and snap it on without having to commit to zippering the whole thing up to keep it on over my shoulders to run out to the garbage or the mailbox.

The reflective material is less reflective and needs work or replacing

Actual color of coat

Okay, so the appliques still reflect on a flash photo. They just look like hell up close.

The cheap lining started pilling the first month, but I can live with that and I still do. And I knew it would need replacing after a year. It's lasted longer than I thought it would. The handwarmer pockets need to be insulated from the outside. They get super cold.

The hard part is: I cannot get it clean enough. The waterproof coating stains easily, there's this big scrape on the front that won't come off, and I don't want to scrub it really hard to make that worse.

A print would have been a better choice.

But I .... can make this into a print.....

STENCIL SPRAYING TIME! (or when winter is over and I can take it outside to do a proper job)

Sewing Around It - Adaptive Sewing BEING UPDATED!

Sewing clothes is magic. It allows you to make stuff really work for people.

I'm not talking just making nursing shirts and adding a dowager hump dart.

I've had the opportunity to alter clothes so that my MIL can access her insulin pump that rides on her belly. This has made me notice and search out other patterns that fall into the rough category of adaptive clothing. Pickings have been slim from the big 4

Also making a pair of rip off pants for a burlesque show.

This is no longer in print, but there are plenty of copies out there for sale.

The sleeves  have Velcro TM  tabs, and the openings are front and back.

The dress is pretty cute I have to admit.

https://sewing.patternreview.com/review/pattern/149484

This review made it sound like all the facings and bands got pretty complicated, but I think you could eliminate most of those by using wide bias tape.

The pants are just pull on elastic waist. But you could make those rip off pants.

https://pincurlmag.com/diy/diy-tearaway-pants/

Essentially you are cutting up the sides and adding Velcro TM tape. 

I'd use premade snap tape. Easy to undo and sounds less gruesome.  As for snapping them up, you get the first two snaps started and the rest just line up so you can run your hands up them to secure. The plastic snap tape is super easy for that.

 Velcro TM is good for about a month of washes and then it gunks up with lint.

Look at that diagram. I'll wager there's a jillion similar patterns, some with hoods, that you could use right now right out of the envelope.

And finally

http://box344.blogspot.com/2017/01/es-new-pants.html

sewing around a medical device

I miss you Box 344. I hope you are well and finding comfort.

---------------------------------------------

I started writing this post in July of 2019, and am just now seeing more adaptive patterns (like TODAY Monday January 24th today)

I've seen chair bags and pads before, but not as a set

Shirts that also open in the back, front covering 'bib' patterns

More 'opens in the back' styles (fronts are sewn shut).

But this one! Heatable/freezable wearable wraps. I can rock those booties! That chest/stomach soother!

https://www.simplicity.com/simplicity-storefront-catalog/patterns/brands/simplicity-sewing-pattern-s9494-hot-and-cold-comfort-packs/

The whole line is at 

https://www.simplicity.com/simplicity-storefront-catalog/patterns/special-collections/adaptive/

Thoughtful pals adding more information:

https://usa.tommy.com/en/tommy-adaptive

Tommy Hilfiger.  I totally forgot, his adaptive clothes were in the World of Wearable Art exhibit I saw at MoPOP

https://www.worldofwearableart.com/competition-2/

my review

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-mcqueen-adorned-mopop.html

And of course, please add to this/ read the comments for more

Sewing for Everyone's Body: See It, Be It

New to sewing?

Welcome to the Pride Edition of: If You Want It, You Should Wear It.

I am very Team "See the Thing, Make The Thing Fit You". If you see yourself as Princess Aurora, you should dress as Princess Aurora. Or Glinda. This is why cosplay is so attractive, and why most of my IG feed is cosplayers.

 So Much Creativity. So Little Judgement.

See It. Be It.

Here's me:

Are we clear? Good. 

It's easier to find a pattern and make it fit you than make you fit the pattern you think you are supposed to want. This is why sewing is a superpower, because we can see how to make the thing work for us. And we all know how powerful the image we present to the world is.

Even if it's really goofy and too warm. And nobody got it.

Look in all the pages of the pattern books. You never know what will spark joy.

If you have ambitions bigger than your present set of talents, there's information galore to bridge that gap.

Some times we go back to the classics so we are reminded of what we thought we knew. I will sit down and watch 'Singing in the Rain' and read 'Better Dressmaking' and the collected works of Kenneth King to remind me what I'm doing and why I'm here.

But on the interweb of sewing, when you want that reminder,  those classics are this:

http://www.ikatbag.com/2014/03/subtelties-in-drafting-sleeves.html

original idea at http://www.dellacivetta.org/lorenzo/techniques/drafting-sleeves/

There are many tutorials on sewing and drafting on their site, but this is the beginning introduction to Ikat Bag's gifts I point people to. It's friendly and really sums up what you are going to get: a clear eyed and friendly instruction in how to make this pattern stuff work for you, with incredible common sense presentation. 

And the other thing, a set of well considered generic patterns so you don't experience unwanted nudity, is located at:

https://freesewing.org/

Come for the patterns, stay for the community. They aren't kidding. Join the fam!

Key to this site: there's an instruction set for how to take your measurements. Please follow this, take your time, do it right, and it will all be sugar and happiness. Or jalapenos and happiness. Whichever.

Don't let anyone shame you into thinking you aren't good enough; how will you get better if you don't screw it up?

Faux French Jacket: Chasing fit around the body

You know: you get the arms right, the shoulders need work. You adjust the shoulder seam line and you get drag in the upper bust. you adjust the upper bust and the armscye is too short. The hip bone is connected to the thigh bone and how did that song go?

I have been working on a fitted jacket for years. I spent last summer continuing that journey from this 2016 post.

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2016/09/revisiting-landmarks-and-house-of-dud.html

and continued rereading of

https://jetsetsewing.com/2013/11/18/claire-schaeffer-godmother-of-haute-couture-sewing-2/

I also was baking Ina Garten's Beatty Buttermilk Chocolate Cake. DAMN.

This illustration  is my compilation of several "French jacket patterns" [mostly Claire Schaeffer, from unknown Threads articles (damn you Pinterest for stripping original acknowledgments)]. Six pieces seems like overkill, but if you're not finishing interior seams, you'd get more precise fit this way.

The pattern in this is Butterick 5066

https://i.etsystatic.com/24309950/r/il/2119a7/2549755289/il_794xN.2549755289_si43.jpg cause I lost the envelope for mine

It's a four piece jacket (front, back, sides, sleeves)  and is pretty streamlined. Shoulder pads are not as heavy as you'd think. Comes with pencil skirt;three yards and you have a suit. Nice package deal.

I am of two minds here:

I should use the four piece with the insets on the sides that provide a slight couture seam front and back. I will get a better fit in the heavier fabrics I want to use for this (vs darts). Then I have to insert the sleeve in one piece, which wouldn't be the end of the world but it makes altering to fit even more complicated as I'm adding more seams to adjust

What I went back to was a three piece (front, back. sleeve) and working on getting the upper chest and back to fit, and letting the rest just fall free. Even with the extra cake pounds, I am still relatively flat chested (cup to circumference, I'm a 40A. A size that does not exist).

Not hemmed yet

So I do have a thing I can wear right now. It has been years of tears, and twenty pounds to alter for.

And it's made of knit, so it flexes a little.
Sadly it's too cold in my office to wear this.

The thing about weight gain that is relevant to this blog  is outgrowing clothes I love (and running out of seam allowances to adjust for that) and spending time altering the TNTs to suit. I would like to think that if I had more solid gold patterns, I would put more time and money into them because I would be able to focus on the finishing work rather than leaving things open for alterations.

It is once thing I have come to admire about men's suits. Most of them are built to be taken apart.

Clearly there are alterations that are impossible - cutting down a jacket front is ludicrous; those shoulders aren't going to change. You move that shoulder seam back and the sleeve is going to pucker. All that padding and shaping and stay-stitching would be lost. It occurred to me that it would be easier to slice one up the back seam and go at it that way. And - you can. The lapels are the least built part of the jacket; you can slice them off and graft them over. Flip the way the jacket is overlapped/buttoned to avoid the buttonhole line. Sure it's a pile of work, but it's not blowing up the Parthenon to get gravel for a driveway. Just don't touch the sleeve/armscye/shoulder area. 

And as always; if you're thrift shopping for a jacket to slice up for practice, consider that perhaps someone else needs it just the way it is. The right jacket gets the job that saves the family. Tuck that in the back of your mind.

But back to alterations. Men's trouser pants have that nifty back seam that is just one seam from crotch through waistband. Since men traditionally  have flatter butts, it's an easier move, and it's a finish I've started putting in my pants. Because I like cake.

So I am a slapdash seamstress (not that one sadly) who likes cake more than handstitching a Hong Kong finish into my jacket.  That's just how it is. I am doomed to perpetually alter.