Habit Patterns from 1954

As you have noticed, the internet is full of things.

https://archive.org/details/HabitPat1954

Helen is a trained monkey. Barbara doesn't need your pity, she needs a friend.

The narrator is a scold.
Discuss

That's what I found before I found what I was looking for.

Ithaca Maven on IG posted this

And having found a few similar pamphlets, found this one.

https://archive.org/details/CAT87204360/page/n1/mode/2up

Same author, same work, previous publication year in 1945

If you're looking for these booklets, a source like the Internet Archive will probably have them. I could not locate this one just by searching on the author or the title, I gave in and went to archive.org and found two copies, scanned and ready to read.

The internet is full of things, but you have to be prepared to look in a couple different places. I also search on eBay and Abebooks and Amazon, on a couple of different variations on the author or the title. Ephemera has golden contents. Particularily pages 18 - 21, if your sleeves are misbehaving.

https://ia800407.us.archive.org/25/items/CAT87204360/farmbul1964.pdf

She said gusset. Hee hee hee

Mittens 2019

Winter sucks.

I know, Canadians, laugh at me. This is Seattle. We have hills all over and this happens once every five years. We forget. We lose our shovels and tire chains.

 But a week of no melt, of more snow, of ice all over everywhere, we grind to a halt. 

So please, stop it.

Eventually there were ten inches of snow. Right now there's eight inches of slush.

My neighbors took pity on me one day and shoveled my stairs.

I am very tired of snow.

The only way I know to make the weather change is to make winter clothes.

Mittens. 

That'll make it warm up.

As usual, Ikat Bag has made them and done a far better job than I could ever. That said, I have different materials and different results.

http://www.ikatbag.com/2010/10/mittens-and-theyre-theoretically.html

Here is my version. 

This is the basic idea.

A u shape, with a plain back and a thumb cut out front.

Plus a thumb gusset (I can put one in everywhere)

You sew the thumb gusset on  and sew the one piece back on.

This is the pattern (see that grid? This is with a 1/4" inch seam allowance)

That's the basic idea.

Cut four. Cut thumb cut out on two of them.

It took me a few variations on this mitten idea to get a pair that worked.

This is the classic quick and dirty spare sock version. You cut out the heel for the thumb opening, you slice off the toe to make the thumb. Stitch it together and boom.

But I have a lot of scrap outerwear fabric and I wanted something more long term and functional.

So I have an outer layer in waterproof backed fleece. It was too heavy for a coat, but perfect for this.

The outside thumb assembly in the orange, partly sewn.

And what it looks on the inside (thumb sewn)

You add the yellow fleecy inside layer. I cut mine two inches longer than the outside to make a cuff.

with a thumb opening slit. Just a slit. 

Lining the thumb with the yellow fleece was too much with the orange layer being as thick as it was.

What do we say, your results will vary? They will. Play around with it. Make a model thumb. I did.

And you stick those slit edges down with double-sided fabric tape. ResQ tape works very well, for one example.

You could stitch it. I did not.

It's all stuck down. Remember, this is the inside of the mitten. The thumb is going through that slit into the sewn thumb of the outside orange fabric.

And then I sandwiched all the layers together. I'll be turning it inside out once I've stitched around.

You have to make sure not to sew the thumb into the side seam.

I pinked it on the top edge to make it less lumpy when I turned it.

That's what they look like. 

I handstitched the cuffs. It was faster than wrestling them under the presser foot. I could have added elastic inside the cuff, but they work for me without that. 

I have a seam ripper. I can always change my mind.

And yes, I should have flipped the  cuff seam that last inch, so it doesn't' show.

But you know me. When I see the finish line, I speed up.

Look. Mitten. Two mitten.

This is where I remind you to mirror the outside pieces if they are a coated fabric. Otherwise, you'd have two left or two right hand mittens.

You could make a friend and shake hands.

Uh huh.

I'll be honest. I didn't ask Mr Mitten for permission to post his face here. 

But he was wearing the sweater and scarf, I HADDA. 

I mean, Matchy! I finished the mittens and he came home from a trip, wearing this ensemble.

What are the odds?

So now I am expecting it to never snow again this season.

I've done my part.

Oh man. Bpffffffff.

Hey, 2021 Me wants you to know that Ikat Bag has a superlative mitten pattern

right on her blog

http://www.ikatbag.com/2021/01/mittens-for-grownups.html

The download link works and everything!

Another story from the House Of Dud

Sometimes whatever I do just turns into a fail. They tend to run in packs, these failures, and it gets pretty demoralizing. "Who the hell am I, what do I think I'm doing writing about sewing when I can't even: blah blah blah.

And then there's the actual item itself. Do I consider making it into something else, and consign it to the UFO tub or do I just recycle it? And is this a scrap pile recycle, or a hard 'send it in the bag to the thrift' expulsion?

No, I didn't forget the seam allowances. I graded up 7 friggin inches for my spacious behind. And no, just no.

Or could I burn it in some ritual sacrifice? Sigh. No. I'd have to pull the nylon zipper out so I wouldn't be making some toxic stuff to accidentally breathe in; because when you burn a failure, you are always downwind. Always.

This is when I turn to mending. Generally, if it's in the mending pile, it's not carrying a heavy weight of expectations. And I am better at mending that most things. 

Edgar Martinez Day is coming up. I bought this back in the days before children, when I weighed as much as a sack of dog food.

I also smoked like a chimney; it was not all good times.

Going to have to open the whole seam out to widen it for my adult frame. That's what I said and that's what I'm calling it now. The sleeve gusset is just not enough.

Making another shirt for the blond one.  This is the same pattern I made the purple plaid jacket from. Apparently I did not write about the plaid shirt jacket, cause I can't find it on here. How can this be? It was EPIC.

He's just taller, not wider, and it's short sleeved. This is an easy peasy make, from some hoarded linen (two years? It was foisted on me at Pacific Fabrics and I could not stop myself from buying it because POLKA DOTS).

He makes the next one.

Pattern Drafting and thinking about sleeves

The goal is to make a one piece pattern similiar to the Tea Garden Tee/Miyake blouse. This is where I've left off the attached collar because I can only move one thing at a time.

I've taken my bodice block and a sleeve that almost works and laid them out to trace over them to make one big pattern piece. The pennies are there to hold the sheets down (they were just working with outlining a japanese sewing book pattern, so they were available)

So you see that overlap at the armceye? That rhomboidal one?

Oh come on. you know where this is going by now.

The overlap should be the shape for the gusset piece (minus seam allowances)

(this is why you draft without seam allowances. And why I need a big sign over the table that says : HAVE YOU ADDED THE SEAM ALLOWANCES TO THE FINAL PATTERN PIECES??? because I do, yes i do forget to do that)

So there it is. I did add the front facing overlap pieces.

And here it is in the $35 a yard embossed velvet

So this is all cute, but if you recall, this was a wadder.

Because I forgot to put in the gusset and add the seam allowances back in.

There are no photos, but let me paint you a picture: I raise an arm and there's a breeze on my stomach.

Oh.

Love those pins. Now they need a new jacket.

I have some more velvet from District Fabric ...

Gussets, Puppets, Chicken, Flannel: this week in work

Starting in June, I have a stretch of full to bursting employment in the office and  in the sewing cave (and we do know it's really a cave, right?)

A bodice was taken in

Sleeve gussets were added to a too small dress

Ant puppets were made. This is version one, an actual sock puppet made of socks. Sorry it's such a dark and blurry picture, it's from a quick demo video I did and it's gone now. Deemed "too sweaty" sadly. Version three is under review. There's still four more tech rehearsals and I know that means three more versions until we're cranking out an army at the last minute.

I love it.

Chicken stock was made and frozen.

(this is so slack: we buy rotisserie chicken, strip it and eat it. I stuff the carcasses into a plastic bag in the freezer. When the need/space/time arises, I shove those into a crock pot slow cooker, chop an onion, add water to fill and a bay leaf and let it go until rendered. eight hours? Take that, strain out the stuff, chill it and skim off the solid fat. Put that in a wide pan and simmer it to reduce. This time I didn't burn it. It takes time but it doesn't take effort, and it makes other stuff taste amazing)

A JoAnn's coupon was used to buy Xmas jamas flannel

.

This shrank a little, but fluffed up beyond my expectations and six yards only lost about a 1/3 cup of lint. Dang! It's so fluffy now! Mine, all mine!

 (oh, the Armani bag! Like a postcard from a different decade of my life, it appears and disappears from time to time).

But there are more dresses waiting.

As of this moment, I've got 32 done, 18 to go, with 18 days left. 

And patterns to finish testing. A second set of puppets on the bubble. The usual mom stuff. 

and

Halloween!

We're going with the Dr Who stuff. It's faster to rehab and wear.

And I have a ray gun to repair.

Make good stuff. Not too much candy. See you later.

More Gussets

I do get into a weird tunnel vision now and then. 

I want to come up with a simple, flat, one or two piece woven shirt pattern that has cut on sleeves. And it would be helpful to add a gusset to deal with the usual pinchy gathering at the armpit.

It makes a weird level of sense.

I mean, it adds back in the curves you lose when you take out the separate sleeve.

Now all I need to do is actually finish this pattern draft up. But all I do is spend more time researching it.

Live in fear of an obssession.....

http://fabrickated.com/2015/10/05/embroidered-blouse-making-it-up/
gusset trouble

http://i2.wp.com/fabrickated.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/IMG_9156.jpg

Sewing Bee gusset

Jeanius Continued, Sort Of. Not Really.

I make my own pants. Mostly because RTW aren't Ready for My Enormous Booty. I can get the fit in the hips and legs, and I can put an entire loaf of sandwich bread in the space between my back and the waistband. Even the Torrid jeans don't accomodate me.

Obviously Kim Kardashian has a custom pair of pants for her pumpkin.

I had a fail in pants making that made me so sad, I needed a quick shot of redemption. And my TNT is the 'yoke up' self drafted jeans pattern from last year.  I just made a version of this pants pattern this past January.

See? I didn't even bother to take more photos. I just cut them and sewed them and boom.

This time I wanted to luxe out in upholstery tapestry cotton. I have an expensive piece waiting for me to commit to the style, so I got a slightly less expensive yard.three at JoAnn's. Shiny on one side, matte on the other, I reversed it for the yoke and the pocket facing.

But instant gratification is not possible it seems.

Before we get there, let me show you a positive thing I did here.

I have trouble with the bulk of fabric at the point in the waist band where I'm trying to put in a buttonhole. I wanted to reduce bulk.

Thus this foldover at the waistband.

Pin on extended waistband to front 

Stitch and iron up

Fold over at fly edge (excess interfacing removed from folded section)

Add rest of waistband facing, stitch across all

Trim excess bulk from this top seam

This is the same process on the other side of the front

Turned out 

The other side. Not finished yet, but you can see the overlap of the folded part over the facing part

The exterior is going to be prettier than the interior because I am going to run out of gas when I get to the .....camel toe...(runs off weeping)

I had a huge extra flap of fabric in the front at the crotch point (an inch extra, providing a stunning camel toe effect I do NOT have photos of - look into my eyes, for it is burned into them). 

I was careful about cutting and handling, but I must have stretched out what is, frankly, a very unstable fabric. Very prone to snags, so ripping out three or four lines of stitching and topstitching was a slow process.

Scooped that offending flap/chunk, and added a side to side gusset to relieve the shrinkage from front to back (when something stretches one way, it usually shrinks the other) in the upper thigh. And now they are the pants I was hoping for. 

Except for the final photo, which I take a good look at as I am loading it up into Pattern Review, there is an enormous ripple on the left upper bum.

I give up. It's probably stretching out the back seam. I could trim it down, I probably will (nothing is ever done, just not being altered right now).

Le Sigh. Call the Waaaaahmbulance.

Features a small welted 'watch' pocket in the facing of the left pocket. No back pockets because I don't use back pockets. No belt loops because no belts here.