feathers in caps

THIS CALLS FOR CAPSLOCK!!

well i'll be. well i'll just be! (what does that even mean? i don't know but my grandma always says it... hi grandma!) you guys i am just all of a tizzle and fizzle and flub a dub dub dub...!! i was the featured member project on burdastyle!! this feels like a momentous occasion - who brought the champagne?!?

in addition to this major award (hehe) i've also got a couple shout outs and blog awards recently.

leah of a vintage thread and amy from cloth habit both gave me some liebster love. thanks guys!!

and liza jane of liza jane sews gave me a sunshine award!

the sunshine award comes with some questions!! oooh fun! i sure do love questions! here we go...

favorite color: pink! yes! unashamedly! next question... (i'm totally going to ace this test...)

favorite animal: octopus. or octopi... octopussy??

favorite number: erm. free? (shit! i'm bombing it...)

favorite non-alcoholic drink: ... ?? water. is it just me or do these questions kind of suck?

facebook or twitter: neither!

my passion: sunny days

getting or giving presents: lets be serious... getting!

favorite pattern: i thought this one was funny because everyone who answered it gave a sewing pattern related answer. so i'm going to say zig-zag just to be a contrarian!

favorite day of the week: snooze fest. i'm not even going to bother answering this... instead i'm going to tell you about this one time when i was driving with my husband and there was this bucket in the middle of the road and i saw it from blocks away and started screaming and swerved the car this way and that to avoid it - however when i finally i got to it i drove right over it in a panic. despite the fact that there were no other obstacles on the street and i was going like 20 mph - in the end i made a bee-line right for the damn bucket. do i sound like a terrifying driver?? i am...

favorite flower: peonies

phew! thank god thats over with!! i felt like i was on the worst first date of my life...

so i'm supposed to pass this little bit of blog love on to some other blogs! rather than making a list for each award i'm just going to give both the liebster and the sunshine to these blogs - because they deserve it!!

country girl couture

nibbles and bytes

mokosha

closet case files

inder loves folk art

stacie thinks she can

anyway, thanks for all the love internet universe!! you guys are just the bestest bunch of cyber friends a girl could ever ask for!

xx

red to the nth degree

lets just get one thing straight: i didn't, but i probably should have failed every mathematics class i ever took after the point where it wasn't just numbers anymore. you know, like when they decided to throw in letters too (because, what? numbers aren't abstract enough??!?). so the fact that i pulled that math reference out for the title of this post is testament to the surfacing of some deep seeded memory i have long been trying to repress...

good. glad i got that off my chest.

now where was i? oh yes! heeeyyyy look at these red pannntttssss!!! pretty shmancy eh?

these bad boys are the result of all my clover tutorials and my second pair of pants made using the colette clover pattern. in the tutorials i showed you some of the changes i made to the pattern to give them more of a trouser look. this included giving them a front zip fly, side pockets and back welt pockets. i may have accidentally reshaped the leg of these while i was sewing them up, too.

i may or may not have been about to fall when this picture was taken...

so i probably won't ever wear my red jacket and my red pants together in real life, but it was just too good of a photo opportunity to pass up. especially considering that, you know, valentine's day (shhhh) is creeping up on us.

i always feel a little bad for valentine's day because for the most part, once you're an adult, its like, expected for you to hate valentine's day (but i think maybe secretly we all sort of love it - ha!) i've never actually celebrated valentine's day - except with my parents (love you!) but i always think about doing something. does anyone have any suggestions for some non-cheesy but still maybe goofy and fun things to do on valentine's day?

one of the changes i made to this pair of clovers was to cut all my waistband pieces, including my interfacing and facing, on the bias. one of my readers, elle, left a comment on one of my tutorials advising me against this. i seriously considered not doing it (i take the advise of more experienced sewers veerrrryyy seriously) but it was something i have seen on many ready to wear pants and so i was pretty curious (plus i had plenty of extra fabric should something go wrong). it must work somehow. well i'm very happy to report that my bias cut waistband went in without a hitch! and i am so glad i did it! the little bit of extra stretch compensates for my muffin top quite comfortably, thankyouverymuch!

cutting and sewing things on the bias makes me quite nervous - so i'm a bit reticent to give any advise on sewing a bias waistband - but i will say that checking the direction of your bias matters. make sure all your seams are sewn with the bias going in opposite directions. i also think it helped that i was using a really sturdy sew in interfacing (hair canvas) and a really sturdy cotton for the facing - which didn't have much give, even on the bias.

i know it seems slightly crazy that i'm wearing a sleeveless shirt at the beginning of february - even i thought it was too cold to take off my jacket when i set off to take these pictures today. but then i heard on the radio that it was 65 degrees (F)! and i felt silly for being cold and wondered where my northeast blood went to!

i really wanted to pair this coral shirt with my red pants. its the sort of color combination that seems like it shouldn't work - but when you actually put them together its quite lovely. the pairing makes me feel very modern yet feminine - and maybe a touch springy?

i finally feel like i might be at the end of my rope with my "fall/winter" sewing. i'll be spending the next few days gathering some inspiration for future projects, and though i can't quite believe it, gearing my thoughts towards warm hot weather dressing.

if you'd like to check out my clover tutorials - you can find them all on my tutorial page.

xx

tutorial: fun with clovers - part four

well hey there! my sincerest apologies on the delay in getting this last leg of the clover tutorials up - but i assure you i have perfectly good reasons. this past weekend was a rather momentous one at work and i spent the early part of this week just recovering. then once i finally got my sewing pants back on - wouldn't you know - i ran out of thread!! now this may not seem like a crisis to anyone else but, i live on an island people. the closest joanne's is 30 minutes away and my husband and i are a one car household. picking up sewing supplies isn't just something you do on your way home from work. it requires planning and strategizing...

okay, now i got my excuses out of the way... lets get back into our clover adaptation. as promised, i have the final installment of the clover metamorphosis ready for you. today i will cover how to sew your pockets and finish your waistband to complete your stylish and svelte trouser look.

enough with the dilly-dallying! lets begin with the pockets!

you should have four pocket pieces - two that follow the line of your pocket opening and two that follow the curve of the hip. for this tutorial's sake, we are going to call these two pocket pieces the "top pocket" and the "bottom pocket" . i'm sure they have some official term - like "pocket bag" and "pocket facing" or something but since i'm not totally sure what those terms are i just made up my own - you hip to my jive? picking up what i'm putting down? smelling what this rock is cooking? good. let's move on.

1. isolate your bottom pocket pieces. if your pockets are made from a different fabric than the body of your pants you may want to create patches for the bottom pocket pieces so the contrasting fabric doesn't show. or you can make the contrasting fabric part of your design - in which case skip this step. but if you don't want your pocket fabric to show - make a patch out of your fashion fabric that is longer and wider than your marks for where your pants will line up with the pockets. finish the edges of the patches by zig zagging, pinking, or overlocking. all my seam finishes will be done with my overlocker (serger). sew the patches onto the bottom pockets, lining up the outer edges and top corner.

2. lay your top pocket pieces, right sides together, on top of your pants. align the pocket opening and match up the dots. pin in place and stitch.

3. clip the curve of your seam allowance (if applicable) turn the top pocket to the inside of your pants and press. when you turn the top pocket, pull it so about 1/8 of an inch of the pants fabric pulls to the inside, this will make the pocket fabric less obvious when/if your pockets pull when you sit/walk etc.

4. topstitch your pocket opening about 1/8 of an inch away from the edge. for a more "jeans" look, topstitch again 1/4 inch away from your first row of stitching.

5. with your pants facedown, pin your bottom pocket to your top pocket, aligning all edges and marks. its super important that you accurately line up your marks along the hip and waist because this will affect the fit of your pants. stitch the pockets together along the inner edges and finish the edge. there's no need to finish the top or side edges since those will get encased in the seams. baste along the top and side to hold your pockets in place during the rest of construction.

note: if you don't have a serger and are looking for a more professional looking way to finish your pockets, tasia did a great tutorial a while back on finishing your pockets with a french seam. this tutorial also gives some great thoughts on other pocket related matters - like reinforcing your pocket opening.

and there you go! you totally have pockets on your pants! from here you will want to continue constructing your pants, sewing your pants backs together and sewing your inseam and outerseam. something to note at this point - because we sewed the front pieces together when we constructed our fly, you may want to construct your pants a little differently than the instructions in the clover pattern. i think its easiest to proceed as follows:

• sew your pants backs together at the center crotch seam
• if you're putting in welt pockets or any sort of back pocket, do it now
• sew your pants fronts to the backs at the inseam - starting at the center of the crotch and working down each leg separately. for a more casual look - topstitch this seam.
• if you are going for the jeans look you may want to topstitch your crotch seam
• sew your pants fronts to the back at the outerseam.

lets pickup at the waistband.

materials you will need:

• your almost completed clover trousers
• all your waistband pieces - one back piece and two front pieces plus facing pieces that should be interfaced (i'm using hair canvas that was left over from my red jacket)
• a hook and bar closure
• a button (optional)
• scissors, thread, etc.
• your belt loops (optional).

i made my belt loops by folding a piece of bias cut fabric in half and sewing about 1/4 inch from the folded edge. then i trimmed the seam allowance and turned it and cut it into six 3 inch long pieces. there are so many different ways to make belt loops - this is just how i did it this time - i did it differently on my denim trousers - but this worked pretty well for me.

1. lay your waistband pieces right sides together. pin together at the side seams and stitch. press seams open.

2. lay your waistband facing pieces (with interfacing) right sides together. pin at the side seams and stitch. press the seams open.

3. lay your waistband facing pieces right side up. lay your belt loop pieces on top of the facing pieces at even intervals, measuring the spaces in between to make sure they are evenly spaced. lay your waistband right side down on top of the facing, sandwiching the belt loops in between. pin in place along the top edge and stitch.

4. trim down and grade the bulk in the seam allowances. turn right side out and press. either understitch the facing or topstitch the waistband 1/4 inch from the edge. i decided to topstitch my waistband - i don't really have real a reason for this, i just liked the way it looked! i also felt that it stabilized my bias cut waistband (more on that later).

5. hold your waistband facing and belt loops out of the way and pin just your waistband to your pants, right sides together. match up all points - but especially the side seams. stitch.

6. trim down and grade the seam allowances in the waistband. trim down your extra zipper tape at this time. you can just cut through the zipper teeth. press your seam allowance towards the waistband.

7. okay. this is where my instructions get a bit vague. i ended up doing things very differently this time than i did the first time so i was sort of figuring it out as i went along. sorry!

anyway. find your hook and bar pieces. i'm using the kind that you push through your fabric rather than the sew on kind just because i think they are sturdier. i decided not to do an extended tab closure on these pants just because i wanted a cleaner front - but you can make an extended tab closure by simply... well... extending your waistband! wherever you want your tab to stop - measure in 1/2 inch from there and that will be where you will put your hook. the hook will go on the overlap of the waistband. the bar will go on the underlap. follow the instructions on your hook and bar packaging to insert them correctly.

8. finish each edge of your waistband by trimming your waistband facing down (either even with your fly edge, or where you've extended your waistband tab to). fold the extra waistband fabric around the cut edge of the facing. pin in place. you can either topstitch this fabric down - or i prefer to finish this bit by hand, using a draw stitch or fell stitch for a nice clean edge.

note: if you've topstitched your waistband - like i did - you may find yourself ripping out a few of your stitches. its no biggee, just re-topstitch once you get everything into place. or do as i say and not as i do and leave about an inch unstitched at either end of your waistband and just finish the topstitching after this step.

9. finish the inside of your waistband facing. there are a lot of great ways to do this. you can turn the edge under and topstitch it down, or "stitch in the ditch". one finish i've always admired was a bias trimmed edge. it always looks fantastic - though i've never quite got the knack down. my preferred method - because i might be a crazy person - is to finish the waistband by hand. i turn the edge under and fellstitch it in place. i did this on my denim pair as well, which have got a lot of washing, drying, and wearing, and the handstitching has held in place beautifully.

here is a tutorial on the colette website where sarai shows you how to finish the clover waistband with bias binding. you will have to adapt it a bit since we're dealing with a front fly, not a side invisible zip.

10. final step! press everything in place and fold your belt loops over your waistband. pin them firmly in place and bar tack them in place. this is easiest if you extend your belt loop just past your waistband, so you're actually sewing your belt loop onto the body of your pants. you can trim down the extra bit on the inside if you want.

on my denim clovers i actually sewed the belt loops into the waistband when i attached the waistband to the pants - but honestly, while this seems like it would work well - they kind of pulled weird at my waistband and i wasn't totally happy with the result. so i did it this way this time and i like the results much better.

and there you have it! fully refashioned clovers! phew! is anyone else exhausted?

i want to point out a few things before we're done - just some lessons learned that i'd like to pass on:

first, i didn't do a button and buttonhole on these pants because i didn't have enough room - but typically if you are doing an extended tab closure you'll want to do a button on the opposite side to hold everything nice and neat.

second, i only did the one hook and bar on my closure - this works quite well, but i wish i had put two hook and bars, one on top of the other.

now all you have to do is hem your pants - and of course model them! it might just be me, but i kind of think the clover pattern gives good butt....

if you missed the earlier clover tutorials you can find them here:

tutorial: fun with clovers - part one

tutorial: fun with clovers - part two

tutorial: fun with clovers - part three

xx

and now...

time for some gratuitous construction shots!

views of the single welt pockets, (invisible) draw stitched collars with pick stitching along the edge, and fell stitched neckline.

so. much. fell stitching! plus little thread bars to hold the back pleat in the lining in place.

i would be a liar if i said this jacket is perfect. its not. not even close. but that doesn't stop me from being pleased as punch with the final outcome! it has plenty of little kinks to it - places where i may have been a bit overzealous with the steam, areas where i fudged my way through the finer details of tailoring, or got so caught up in the details i wasn't seeing their effect on the garment as a whole. does this ever happen to you?

i tell you this now, because it is with some trepidation that i show you these rather intimate images of my jacket, an object that few of you will ever examine in real life. i feel as if i'm laying it bare. exposing all my wonky little stitches - my fumbling with the fabric.

and i remind myself that it's all a process of learning - something i hate! why can't i skip over the learning part and just be an expert already?!? but it doesn't work like that, does it?

i had to laugh a bit when i was reading claire's instructions on how to attach the sleeve lining to the coat lining by hand. She says that because of the excess fullness - the lining should be smooth, but it won't be as neat as a machine stitched lining. She calls this "a true sign of a hand-made garment".

it reminds me of what my husband says when i'm freaking out over some detail thats just not quite right. He says, "honey, thats how you know its handmade"...

xx

let's hear it for the boy

friends... meet the red jacket.

and prepare for photo overload.

that self-satisfied smirk is totally justified. i finally finished it! to be perfectly frank, i sort of feel like i just gave birth! (i totally reserve the right, should my future self ever actually give birth, to come back and give my present self a good slap for that comment) but really - there were times there when i thought this lovely lady would never be finished!

and she is a beauty, isn't she? this red jacket was just the thing to perk up a chilly, dreary winter day (by texas standards, ya'll).

i spent the past evenings and weekend hand stitching all the finishing touches. the upper collar was fell stitched along the neckline and draw stitched at the gorge line. the lining was fell stitched in place at the shoulders, neckline, armholes and along the front edge - all, of course, as per claire's instructions. sometimes i have serious doubts about wearing a garment hard that has predominate hand stitching, but have you ever tried to rip out fell stitches or back stitches? they are far more resilient than machine stitching! i will be posting some construction shots shortly - it was just far too dark to get decent pictures once we got home from our photo session this afternoon.

and, of course, there is that leopard print lining! the print is a bit louder than what i originally had in mind, but it was also $8 a yard, rather than the (far more tasteful) $36 a yard silks. and truthfully, its kind of grown on me. in fact, i bought extra yardage - so you'll be seeing this print pop up in a, how shall we say, less subtle way in the near future.

i used burda's 07/2011 sweatshirt sports coat for the pattern, however i redrafted the upper collar to get rid of the collar stand. the actual coat is made from wool gabardine. its underlined in white cotton batiste and then interfaced with goat hair canvas along the upper part, lower edge, lapels, collar, and sleeve caps. the lining is rayon challis - not a very typical lining fabric, but it was soo soft, and, as i mentioned - cheap(er)!

i made the executive decision at the last minute to leave out my self-made shoulder pads. while they looked nice, they gave the jacket more of a structured, formal look, and i sort of had a slightly slouchier look in mind. the difference is almost insignificant, but i feel it was the right decision. i did, however, leave the sleeve heads in, to support my dimpled sleeve caps!

here i am testing the fit of the back and shoulders. the ironclad test? weird lunge-y moves on the pier (what? thats not what you do?) there were no popped stitches, so i gave it a gold star, and moved on before i start getting real nit-picky, because, lordy, i could pick and tweak until i'm blue in the face!

my inspiration for this outfit came from one of my favorite style blogs, calivintage, who first introduced me to the term "teddy girls". i was going for a sort of mid-century, boy-meets-girl look (thus the title of this post - and also this song - a favorite from yesterday my youth). my red jacket inspires such things in me.

i would be seriously remiss if i didn't thank my husband for these photos today. and for putting up with my farting about deciding where to take them. and for making the executive decision for me to not reset the sleeves on this jacket for the 10th time, and just let them be. husband, thank you. you are the wisest of them all, and i don't know where i'd be without you.

outfit details:

jacket - self made

shirt - american apparel

jeans - j brand

shoes - urban outfitters from a long long time ago

scarf - not sure. a thrift store perhaps?

xx

on sleeves

and the saga of the red jacket continues.

actually - there really isn't much saga to it. i just tend toward the overly dramatic. this weekend i got my butt in gear and tackled those erroneous sleeves like someone was paying me to do it.

when i first realized that the sleeve cap was too large for my armhole i felt like my world just caved in (ahem. overly dramatic). fixing this seemed like the most difficult thing in the world and at the time i just couldn't wrap my head around it. before you judge me, let me just restate that i was running on very little fuel and pushing myself towards a deadline which, in all honesty, it was clear a good week ahead of time, i was not going to make. so i consider it a blessing for this little jacket that the holidays came when they did and i was forced to take a break - before someone (or something) got hurt.

i mentioned in my previous post that i received some sewing related gifts this christmas. chief among them was this book. i have been wanting a big ol' fat patternmaking book for some time - but just couldn't cough up the dough for one. thus - a perfect gift! i truly believe that this book will pay for itself in no time, since after barely flipping through the first few chapters i already gleaned the solution to my sleeve cap problem.

now - adjusting a sleeve cap isn't a hard pattern adjustment to make. in fact, its stupidly easy and if i had given it any normal amount of thought i probably could have figured it out on my own. however i was having some sort of massive (trauma induced, i'm sure) blockage on this issue, so seeing it illustrated was a wonderful, cartoonish, lightbulb-y, a-hah!!! moment for me.

fast forward to this weekend. as i set about to slice and dice my sleeve pattern my mind wandered to this blog and thought that perhaps i'm not the only one whose brain farts out on them over the simplest of alterations. which is why i decided to bring you my illustrated instructions on how to simply and easily reduce your sleeve cap size.

do not be fooled by these wibbly wobbly illustrations - i have an mfa in painting peeps (thats right i said painting - which explains my utter ineptitude with technology designed to make these things easier, like, say, adobe illustrator)

so this is something along the lines of what a standard sleeve pattern looks like:
it has actually been my experience that many commercial patterns have too much sleeve cap height for my taste. generally speaking, you want your sleeve cap to be about 1 1/4" to 1 3/4" larger than your bodice armhole. its best to check this on the paper pattern so you can easily make adjustments early in the game. if you find that your pattern calls for more ease (and a puffed/gathered sleeve is not part of the design) you may want to make your sleeve cap smaller by reducing both height and width. this is how you do it:

step one - slice your pattern at the cap line (about an inch below the top two corners) do not cut through the seam allowance! and cut a vertical line from the cap line, all the way up through the sleeve cap and its seam allowance.

bonus points if your scissors look like evil, maniacal birds!!!

step 2 - you should now have two wing-y pieces. rotate these in towards the center of the sleeve, overlapping in the middle and at the bottom.

step 3 - weigh down your wing-y pieces with some pattern weights. re-measure your sleeve cap and adjust as needed. when you get it to the right measurement, tape down your wing-y pieces and retrace your pattern (or just trim off the excess and redraw your seam allowance lines, smoothing out as you go - a french curve helps if you're not comfortable eye-balling)

and voila! a smaller sleeve cap!

easy. peasy. lemon. squeezy.

xx

edit: lizz, of agoodwardrobe, left an excellent question in the comments - and i thought it would be good to add a clarifying little illustration (and because making little drawings of patterns is really fun!). she wondered where exactly you measure your pattern to determine the amount of ease. you just measure over the curved part of the pattern:

in addition - to measure your armhole, lay your bodice front and backs together, matching up the sewing line at the armhole (you want to exclude the seam allowance in your measurement) and measure around the curve:

those seam allowances should be overlapped - but you get the idea!!

hope that helps clear things up!

over and out.