a stitch in time

sometimes, when you are waiting at a stoplight on your bike, the weird second pocket of your new work pants gets caught on the horn of your saddle and then the light changes and you rip your pants.

or maybe your old jeans are getting a hole where your cell phone rubs.

both of these examples are great times to use my favorite patching method- adapted from a method taught to me by sarah who learned it from a fellow who learned it from his housekeeper in south america... 

quilting, part 2

i started a quilt for a baby a while back and, just today, i finished it.

after i had sewn the sandwich of fabric and batting, i coaxed sarah into stitching the edge binding for me (using this as a guide), as hand sewing tends to make me angry. to avoid getting super angry about the hand stitching, i decided to finish the quilt with knots.

 

this is the back, with knots laid out on a 5" grid, before i trimmed all the strings. after a run through the wash and a tumble dry, the now extra fluffy quilt is done.

despite not really having a plan, i'm pleased with the results. to me the design reads as a beach sunset, and the nautical colors just work to reinforce that. the next project in this vein will probably be a duvet cover as i will get all the fun of piecing without the binding and quilting parts. and it will hide my gross comforter. (and jessa, if you read this blog, i'm sorry i totally ruined the surprise by posting pictures before you got it.)

four-in-hand

i don't often have a reason to wear a necktie, but that doesn't mean i don't like them. in fact, i think they can look pretty great. but last time i pulled out one of my few ties for a wedding, i was surprised by how raggedy it was.

so i pulled it apart,

and took some measurements,

and made myself a new tie. it is navy blue mid weight cotton canvas (with red quilting cotton lining the points) and a little embroidered embellishment that i'm not terribly satisfied with. the canvas is the perfect weight, though- soft and flexible but with enough body to lay nicely.

after finishing this one, i decided it was a prototype and went on to make a second, with a cleaner embellishment. if you are looking for a new four-in-hand, you might swing by the ol' etsy shop.

shorts

now that summer is finally upon us and the weather is warm and parties are starting to take place completely out-of-doors, it is a good time to invest in some shorts.

because y'all wanted to see my hairy white legs

i finished these up just in time for a graduation party at a pool and then tried them out for a pic-a-nic at a lake. all and all, they're pretty good. i'm still not convinced that they aren't too short, though having them likened to something james "sean connery" bond would wear makes me feel a little better about that.

more pictures and details below!

quilting

i'm making a quilt for the yet-to-be born baby of a person who i am pretty sure doesn't read this blog, so i'm not really that worried about ruining the surprise.

so far i have most of the piecing done, except for a simple border. here's what the back looks like:

i'm really enjoying this process (even to the detriment of some other projects. whoops.) because it is very precise and careful and structured and takes some consideration of angles and seam allowances and whatnot but you don't really have to plan if you don't want to. i guess what i mean is that the final result is dependent on working carefully, not planning carefully.  it's a nice change of pace from woodworking and tailoring and the way i approach art pieces and pretty much all the other things i work on.

my only thought going in to this piece was that i wanted there to be a chevron pattern as a main component. after that was done, i thought some diamond check would make a nice pairing. and then i thought it was looking pretty symmetrical and that it would be fun to see if i could piece a circle. so i did those things. no biggie.

here's a picture of all the circle pieces:

in the end, the circle needed some modification to deal with a pooch-ey center, but that was kind of a fun challenge.

i'm already trying to figure out how i can include more of this kind of work in my artistic sewing projects but i wonder if i will still enjoy this once i get to all the hand sewing...

more pictures as i move along.

slacks!

i totally made some slacks. they are wool and they are great. they are great because nice wool slacks are like pajamas that you wear all day.

anyway, the pattern is from the burda website. i chose burda because they seem to make nice patterns for somewhat fitted and stylish men's clothes. as opposed to the other three pattern companies that seem to think men only wear pajamas, boxers and vests (dang old pattern companies). i also chose this pattern because i was intrigued by the download and print it yourself set up and the $4 price tag. trouble is that printing a three foot wide, yard and a half long image at kinko's isn't cheap. in fact it is expensive enough that i am embarrassed to say anything more about it.  but i now have access to the pattern as a pdf, which is rather reassuring as paper does tend to deteriorate after you stick a bunch of pins in it.

i started out with a muslin- basically a quick, half-assed mock up, which was a great plan because, though my waist suggests the smallest size, my womanly hips desire a little more room. i added to the pattern (and referred to the pdf quite a bit to see how the pattern changed from one size to the next) and scaled up the underwhelming front pockets while i was at it. (in that first photo you can see the little taped on additions.)

and then i made them out of wool suiting:

a picture of my crotch

as i mentioned above, burda patterns are nicely drafted and, even with my modifications, all the pieces fit together perfectly. that is, when i could figure out exactly how they fit together. see, burda is a company out of germany (i think) and instead of hiring a translator to translate the instructions, they lock a monkey in a room with a german-english dictionary and an ibm selectric and see what comes out. this usually isn't too big an issue because you can mostly get by on the pictures. but then you get to a really complicated part, like the zipper. and as you struggle to comprehend, you realize that the monkey was really phoning it in for that step. or maybe drunk. the harder the task, the less sense the instructions make.








but i more or less figured it out.

a picture of my butt

i will certainly use this pattern again, though probably with heavier modifications. all the pockets, even the ones i enlarged, are still depressingly small and the back pocket buttons really cut in to the usable space. the belt loops could also use more careful placement (and maybe a couple extra loops while we're at it). i will probably also include a fifth pocket as that is where i carry my little pocket knife. oh, and i'm planning to use this pattern for a new pair of shorts. summer rapidly approaches.

messenger bag

remember those buttons i made a while back? well, they have finally been applied to this messenger bag that i made for my friend sarah. a large part of the (laughably long) delay on this project was finding a supplier for the metal strap hardware. most online suppliers require minimum orders in the hundreds as they are set up to work with producers, while most fabric stores, even nice ones like stonemountain and britex have very limited, very overpriced and somewhat sad selections. the solution was a retailer out of oregon called strapworks. still, that only got me the brass slides.

i ended up fabricating this little hook out of a scrap of sheet brass. it acts as a quick connector for the secondary strap that keeps the bag on your back when riding a bike.

more, including pictures of a cat, below!

a new shirt

hey, remember those buttons i was making a while back?  well, i made a shirt to go with them and finally got around to taking a couple of snaps of it. details below!

misadventures in dressmaking or why i hate polyeseter

my sister is in a choir.  during the holiday season, they wear victorian dress.  so i made a victorian dress.  and, with some help from her and sarah on the homestretch, i was able to finish it up for the first performance this evening. and i made it out of polyester.  which seems like a reasonable choice for a costume: cheap, available, shiny like silk.  oh, except that it is terrible.

and the making of this dress works as a perfect metaphor for the first amendment to the rule list (see this post):

4. if at all possible, avoid man made materials and plastics.

(there's a lot more after the jump)