Narrow hem work: I am not sponsored by WAWAK - cool hem marking toy division

I am back on my usual jobs and hobbies. Jobbies?

While looking for matching thread colors, I stumbled on 

I could probably make something like this from the box of scraps I keep in the cave. I have kluged similar, but this makes me deeply happy in a 'put your foot there - boom! process sewing measuring weird job site way.

 https://www.wawak.com/cutting-measuring/marking-chalk-pens/marking-tools/plastic-pants-marker-15/#sku=ta1009

But let's look at the project that brought me to this page

Pal is a bridesmaid in September. Dress needs hemming. Needs to hang out to be hemmed.

Side note: this is a dress that will get worn twice at most. The poly satin isn't nasty, it's cut on grain, but this dress at this length and color isn't going to hang long enough to deform that hem. So letting it hang out is relative overkill. But the dress form can't be adjusted taller, so it needs to be made taller. And let the shirt drape.

Nothing else worked.

After letting it hang for a day, a thing started happening.

One side of the center back skirt seam started puckering (helpful finger pointing it out so you cannot unsee it)(she doesn't read this blog)(it's going to be fine). NO, I am not undoing it as I know I would be unleashing the hounds of off grain hell and you can't put that back. It's not heavy enough satin.

Took that right off the mannequin. 

It was determined that the hem was consistent, so I went with the 'stitch the hem edge' plan. Marked the stitching line from the needle on the arm with blue tape and did my level best to be consistent.

I did double check to see if the curve was consistent with the floor, used the laser* picture framing level and it was a pleasing shape so I moved forward.

Folded almost a quarter inch from the stitching.

Sewed it and trimmed right up to it.

And folded it again on the stitching line.

And it's okay. I did have some tricky hand sewing work getting the lining to match up on the open seam at the side to the other side, and I left the hem open enough to fool around with it to make it hang straight. Putting a weight in it would be overkill.

The Variator-ator

http://www.studiofaro.com/well-suited/grading-the-vintage-capri-pants

Pattern Grading with the Variator.

I can't decide if this is brilliant or insane. But go read it.

And then head over to:

https://fashion-incubator.com/grading_machines_and_rulers/

who of course has much information on this topic.

Ms Fasanella has a somewhat more practical grading tool suggestion than this, but being a tool freak, I have to dive too deep here.

                            https://fashion-incubator.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/variator.jpg

Including the instructions.

Just go over there and read this.

Of course, should you want one:

https://www.acesewing.com/D400-Dario-Grad-O-Meter-Grading-Machine-p/18610.htm

This is a warning that next year, I am going to unveil my  pattern drafting tool purchases. Because I love a system.

Who's that girl on the needle threader?

this bundle:  https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Fy8AAOSwPc9Zxmhn/s-l1600.jpg

I've been shopping for them in bulk, as I am beginning to lose the ones I have, and need them more and more. 

There's a whole lot of needle threading going on with this Haptic Lab map quilt.

Somewhere between poor lighting, old eyes, and fussy thread ends, I can't eyeball it the way I used to.

Super fun tip: put a dab of glue on the wires on the back before you use it. Of course, let it dry first. This stops the wires from slipping out after the third use. Can't help it when they break, because those wires will eventually.  

various images from the internets

There are a lot of variations on this mystery portrait, but let's go look this up at the one stop  info mall.

Pretty much all made the same way 

https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=65524

I love the Straight Dope.

The take: it has to be Minerva, Roman goddess of handcrafts.

AKA Athena, in her Grecian identity.

Her helmet evolves into a hairdo

I ALWAYS sew in a helmet

This version is definitely the outlier of the portraits; it looks more like a Gallic caricature by Toulouse-Lautrec or Daumier.

http://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/daumiers_the_orchestra.._..during_a_tragedy_1852

Daumier’s The Orchestra.. ..During A Tragedy (1852)

And to keep things handy, a little DIY needle threader for you

https://makezine.com/2012/08/06/how-to_diy_needle_threader/

and a little history cause

https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/tools/embroidery/needle-threader

"A popular, late nineteenth century form consists of a small plate (often stamped with a profile image of a woman), with a diamond shaped loop of fine steel wire attached to it. The wire loop is flexible and easily passes through the eye of a needle. The sewing thread is passed through the loop and the loop (with thread) is then pulled back through the needle eye. This form is still available in the beginning of the twenty-first century."

Well, yes!

and while we're here: it's summer. Get a stack of coasters.
https://www.zazzle.com/power_tool_round_paper_coaster-256904353820157476
or just look at stuff
https://www.zazzle.com/store/erniekdesigns/products

Mending Sweaters, Mostly

Winter is sweater mending time.
"Where did you store this? How many holes?"
Not all of the mended are shown in this post

(mostly because most of them were black, and you can't see a damn thing).

Which is good. 
Photos lightened to show embarassing results

The first one is always dodgy. My duplicate stitch is not my strong suit.

 Then I lighten up the task, and it's more fun

There are many wiser folks working this topic.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/22/how-to-mend-moth-holes

Sadly, the iron-on moth patches are in short supply.
I don't have photos of the striped 'black hole' sweater but it looks like.....black holes all over. Not my choice, but I enjoyed the process, and they loved the results.

https://visiblemending.com/
has much mending goodness. And a Russian version of the Speedweve.

There is kind of a cult around the SpeedWeve.

https://tomofholland.com/category/darning/page/1/

https://tomofholland.com/2011/06/23/the-speedweve-lancashires-smallest-loom-directions-for-use/

They are not inexpensive. 

Yoinks.

I almost bought one of these at Value Village, and left it there because I was unclear on what it was. And someone else bought it with screaming glee, I am sure.

That's cool. 

I left a Rocketeer Singer there too.

I cannot own everything.

photo lightened to show actual lace tatting bit sewn onto hole.

The holes are one thing. The snags are another.

I have yet to use the Snag Nab It. It's like a really tiny drill bit that catches the snag so you can pull it through to the wrong side (no hook). 

We're going to use the tiny knit hook tool.

"A Spendid Tool For The True Craftsman"

(spelling error retained) 

I wonder how many things I've bought that hooked me with a similar line.

Snag isolated.

Poke in from wrong side. Grab snag loop.

Pull loop to wrong side. 

I know, you can't really see it. I had a lot of these to fix, so this is a compilation of Snag Greatest Hits In Green.

I've got them in red and brown as well.

Pick up some back of the stitch loops with a sharpish needle that has a largish eye. Whichever one you have, it won't be perfect but it will be good enough.

Pull snag through needle eye with threader.

Work snag into back side of knit stitches with needle

Work it back and forth to make it not stick up.

Resist the urge to cut it. That won't end well.

Repeat on the gazillion other snags on his sweaters.

Last but not least, there's just putting a rivet into a bag to repair a broken strap.

Oh no, make me go into Tandy's and buy stuff!

I figured out that I could buy two sizes of rivets, in two finishes
and one set of rivet caps in a third finish.
Which gives me three options on the finished side.

We swapped the mend for a Tiny Mars in a jar

I am leaving off the unders mending for another post as part of the 

#remakenine2019 both here and on Instagram.

The Green Violet started it! Go check it out!

https://thegreenviolet.com/ 

Hemming 2017 choir dresses I misuse a new tool

They're back. As much as I think I know them cold, I learn something new every year.

Note how the side seams flare out. They are double layered (taffeta with a chiffon overlayer) and the skirts are slightly flared on the side seams. Some more than others.

The tiniest hem on one of them. Literally just turning the serged edge over and sewing.

Not nearly enough. I take thread out. I put thread in.

Their nasty disposition has not changed. God, was I drunk when I did this last year?

No. It hung out for another year on the bias seam (to the right of the safety pin).

They keep sagging and growing. Seven, eight years of sagging.

I do alter those side seams as they come in. I straighten and even them out (the skirts were cut from different sized flats and mismatched when sewn together. There were 80 of them, so I can understand the mayhem potential).

Bias seams grow.

I'd like to thank the Understanding the  Bias/tAming the Bias class I took on Pattern Review years ago for helping me understand how to deal with this.

The seams on the sides that are on the bias will stretch out with time because there's no strong warp thread holding them up (the grey rectangle area will remain the same length.

You can hang them out until they reach maximum growth, and then hem.

Ideally, you match the angle of bias (an incorrect term, but I'm kinda skimming the topic for the moment) to itself so it grows out evenly. 

But let's say you're making a lot of dresses and you're doing it all on the flat. And let's say you miscounted the sizes you were cutting, so at the end, you're sewing different sizes together to get your quota.

A fair number of these dresses have skirt A and B sewn together, and are trimmed to the shorter hem.

The two different skirt sizes sewn together (and hemmed the same) will not have the same bias angle cut on the seams and will twist. The blue line on the right will twist more because it has a greater angle difference. And will never ever ever hang straight and make me curse and rue the day I took this job until I cut that seam open, recut the angle to attempt a match and try to true them up to each other. As big a pain as that can be, it has paid off over the years I've spent with them. 

After I've cut and resewn, the inch in seam length difference isn't unusual. That's been fighting to drop, stuck against the other seam. It had to go somewhere. So yes, one side will grow more than the other, but it will happen anyway and when it's done, it will stay done.

I've been hanging these to get the chiffon layer even. Not effective on an adult flat hanger.

Using this child display half-front torso hanger has helped. As creepy as it is, it's effective. These are dresses for ten year old girls, who range in height but mostly are 24/25" around with narrow shoulders.

As for chiffon, the poly is easy to burn while I'm taking out last year's creases and putting in new ones.

Steam it up, and weigh it down to set it with the tailor board. Man, it took me a couple years to use this technique, and I cannot recommend it enough.

I hem them up, I let them down. Like the tide. An 5 or 8" hem is not unusual.

And then there's the new toy.

The line is actually red, but shows up pink in all these photos. 

So we have a new tool to add

A new alteration is to bring that right (wearer's left) shoulder and sleeve forward (this is the after photo)

I reduce the seam allowance on the back of the armsceye

And I widen it at the front

Which does turn that sleeve to the front

It's not enough to match her shoulder's inward curve, but it is as much as I can carve out of the present seam allowances to allow it to be altered BACK at the end of the season.

Because we'll be reusing these dresses again next year I'm sure.

Unless we really aren't. No promises.

I'm 34 in, 13 to go. A little behind my own deadline, but well in front of the official one. This does not even touch the new iron (wore out the steam button on the old one) or the usual back to school hubbub. Someone may be an Eagle Scout this time next week. But why not run that down to the wire? 

Isn't that what we do here?

And pardon me, but HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!

The first autumn not sewing costumes for anyone.

(cue the sad trombone).