Will Hem For Food 2019 Edition

Finally have a new thread that works with the blue hems

For a human that wasn't going to get any more sewing gigs, I have a stack right now.

The only one that doesn't pay is the bag.

So here's what I'm doing and then I gotta go back to it.

First due are the first set of custom pants that have been in the works forEVer.

Finally nailed down the pattern for Helene and have cut out the pants. Sewing them up Monday night, she comes to try them on Thursday.

Some blue hems for the choir. Actually blue and black and 52 altogether.

Small iPad bag for Blondini, who selected the fabrics from the stash. It's going to be gorgeous!

The Thomas patio chair family have failed seats. I'm making covers for them out of that outdoor fabric. They are going to be a cool new method. Probably next weekend. Yes, it's fall and rainy. The actual family can sit inside.

I almost forgot to post anything this week. I hope you've all had a good month, have been enjoying Second Hand September with the IG fam.

http://spygirl-amb.blogspot.com/2019/09/secondhandseptember-this-weeks-thrifty_21.html

I've got to get back on the blue hem train, so I can work on the pants tomorrow.

Oh, and I mended our basement door. Well, another 24 hours of dry time.

Flash! My sis sent me this link: Chanel atelier working on ballet costumes. The tulle petal colorwork technique is worth your time here
https://youtu.be/zq3c8UY-ec8

Padded winter vest from the stash

Yes, this all came out of the stash.

I already had enough of the Seattle Fabrics quilted nylon puff.

I had traced a pattern from a vest I wear all the time, and made an allowance for the thickness.

And now I'm just auditioning fabrics.

I love this cowboy print

 I love this handpainted muslin more.

I had yards and yards for years; this is all I have left.

https://erniekdesigns.blogspot.com/2013/04/miyake-dress-1309.html

There was lots of trimming the fluff out of the seams, not the facing for it. Keeps it from pulling away from the seams as much as it will want to.

The collar is a elongated ellipse

And a super easy draft.

Cut out one piece on the bias (green is the grainline, red is the fold). One outside edge is the measure of the collar opening. plus overlaps for the snaps.

Fold it over on the red line.

You can draft that front curve from the curve of the neckline. Don't fuss over the back neck line, it will resolve itself.

It doesn't have to be precise (too long is better, you can trim it down to fit at the end).

And it flexes and snugs up to your neck; without a seam there, it doesn't chafe.

My neck is chafe free. It's my holiday wish for yours as well.

I add the pockets after the body, because I want the pocket to go where my hand wants to find it.

So I need to put the vest on to use my hand to determine that.

Here's where my pocket should be: where my hand hits the front expecting there to be a pocket.

Note that I marked where my lower wrist hits on the front with a safety pin.

And here's my diagram of how this pattern should work.

Those extra rectangles are the fat upper self-welt, that folds over to fill the gaping hole my hand goes into.

You can use the fashion fabric to cover that part, so it all matches, but I wanted the black slashy contrast, to work with the collar.

I have noticed I tend to forget what the pattern piece is supposed to do after I draft it. So I've taken to writing the instructions on the piece.

I can read it, that's good enough.

Tracing and correcting

Marking where the hole is going to be.

This piece of lining was scavenged from a miniskirt I thrifted for it's fabric. That fabric made into a hat, the zipper went in a purse, the hook into the stash, but the lining filtered down into the box.

And today, that skirt is all used up.

One pocket done before I thought to take photos.

Trust me, there's a pocket sewn on there. Not my best finish job, but my handsewing game needs work.

The red computer-drawn lines are where the stitching lines go. I don't stitch the ends of the rectangle shut,  I don't need to.

Top stitch the hole before I flip the pocket in and sew that.

I blew through this, no time for photos.

It's really chilly in this house, and I needed this vest pronto.

I blew through the snap insertion part, too.

The best punch is still the one on the left, from Closet Case Patterns' Kelly anorak snap set kit.

The one on the far right is from Tandy, and it doesn't like fabric. The shorty in the middle is from the Dritz set I used, and it doesn't like anything.

2019 will improve my hand sewing and my photography. 

There will be a bit more posted before we close this year out.

Unless I eat too much chocolate.

Or drink too many lattes.

Storage Or Where To Put It

Expanding on today's topic on the Instagram #sewphotohop of storage tips,

I try to do right by the patterns, first of all.

I put all the patterns in acid-free magazine and comic book bags

The envelopes don't get caught on each other this way, and since I already buy them for my comix, I get them in bulk dirt cheap.

It's also easier to fold patterns to that size and put them in with the cover, rather than try to stuff them all back in together again.

Also helps hold the traced pieces.

and I store the best ones waaaay up off the floor

They come in different sizes

Golden age size comics are the biggest  7 1/2 X 10 1/2

Silver Age  7 x 10 

Current Size  6.75 X 10.5

Or you can get magazine sized bags.

They don't have a zipper edge that might rub on the envelope when you pull them out and put them back in, they are cheaper in bulk and the current sized bags fit most patterns (the larger Vogues fit in the Golden age bags).

You can also get appropriately sized storage boxes at the same place.

Don't get the long boxes- they bend and buckle and when full, weigh too much. 

They do fit under a Twin sized bed.....right next to the Captain America collection.

(and don't buy this stuff online. You live near a comic book shop whether you know it or not. The shipping on the boxes will kill you, and that local shop would love your local love).  It also amuses them to talk to folks who are not... their usual clientele. Go ruin their expectations!

Fabric gets folded to the size of the cupboard space. You know how to do that.

I do try to break it up with cardboard 'boxes'

trays (only Costco calls these boxes, thank you) between groups.

There is an organizational theory here, a new one every month, right after the avalanche...

However, where I think I have forged ahead in storage tech is in storing the unfoldables.

The vinyl. 

The pleather.

The nylon.

AKA: the unironables.

Tucked away in the back of the basement, across from the  deep storage for books, they hang on the wall.

They are draped over a long heavy cardboard tube that I ran a cord through, and screwed to the wall on both ends. I can unhook the loop and take it down if I need to. The tube is from Pacific Fabrics upholstery section. Thanks Leah!

Far enough off the floor to be single layers and out of the way.

Yes, they'll need dusting.

I can do that.

Self Shaming Into Cleanup 2015

Sick at home and shaming myself into finishing or giving up on the giant piles of UFOs.

For your amusement, and sheer terror, may I present:

the 2015 "I'm gonna's"

mendables, remodelables, rendered into useful scraps

I could describe it all, but it does fall into some tropes: things I love that I just can't give up on (sweaters with holes), projects that were interrupted for jobs, and worst of all: fabric I love made into wadders that I think I should be able to rescue.

what I had, what I scrapped, what I'll work on this year

The worst of these is that blue green scrap in the center. It's a failed Spoonflower kona print that we will talk about some other time. I picked out what I knew I wanted to have, and dumped the rest.

yarn, yarn, ribbon: peewee? Saving the ribbon and the PeeWee trading sets. Selling off or donating the yarn. I can't knit for any length of time anymore; it's pretty, but it shames me.

Raincoat pattern under way ; where?

Granted, I've been sick (this year's flu is a nasty customer), I've been working on two or three projects at the same time, and there's that rick rack thing. So I haven't done the big clean between projects, at least I kept the space around the machine tidy. 

But this is maximum chaos, even for clutter lovin' me.

next blouse pattern for Craftsy in the stripes

how does she work in here?

It's an utter mystery.