V-neck, solved!

In a previous post, I wailed and whined about how much trouble I was having with the V-neck on Vogue 1086.

I went on Fashion-Incubator's forums and asked for advice. The problem was that when I flipped the facing to the inside after sewing, the area of the V was a huge bunched-up mess, too thick to sew through and it wouldn't lay right. I just didn't know what to do with it.

Kathleen Fasanella, who runs the site, posted this tutorial today, and I tried it out. It worked like a charm! Amazing.

I had a bit of a mess to work with, since I'd already trimmed seam allowances and cut a bunch of seam allowance bulk out of the V area, but I managed to make it wearable. I don't even care that there my gathers suck. That's the least of my worries regarding this nightmare dress.

The front has a nice, flat V:



What it looked like before, though just pinned:





The back had some major problems, but I think it's wearable now:



The back was so bad that it wouldn't even turn in to be pinned:



Since taking those photos, I also sewed on the midriff pieces/facings and sewed the front of the skirt. I'm a bit worried the dress will be a little loose in the bodice, but it'll be just awful to try to take this in because the inside is really well finished. It's a garment that looks really nice from the inside, too, with French seams:




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I also redid my main squares on my animals quilt (see this post). I had accidentally done the edges in turquoise, messing up the whole look and color scheme of the quilt. I redid them in green, and I'm pretty close to finishing my quilt top.

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Continuing with my new job as a patternmaker's assistant, I had a mixed couple of days. I worked Thursday and Friday, my second and third days of work. Thursday was no less than a disaster. I could not do anything right whatsoever. I was a huge waste of her time and money, and after I left, I sat in a parking lot and cried because I was so upset. I don't know what was wrong with me. It had something to do with never having worked with a bias-cut garment before and having trouble cutting it. Then I had trouble figuring out how it went together. I then ditched my quilting class because I was in a horrible mood and didn't feel I could small talk with a bunch of people.

I was upset all night and sort of feeling sick over going back today. I knew I had to redeem myself, or if I had another horrible, incapable day, I'd probably have to just agree to quit. But I feel that I did indeed redeem myself. I had a good, productive day, and really made no mistakes. I sewed a few samples and she was pleased with my work, so I'm feeling good again and regained a bit of confidence. I've figured out that it's a fast pace and I need to move, move, move to get done what she needs me to do in four hours.

The plus side is that I have already learned a ton of stuff, just from having to work with fabrics I normally avoid and to sew things I don't normally sew. I realized that I've done a few things the hard way, basically because I taught myself to sew. For one thing, you don't have to cut each pattern piece out perfectly before putting it on the fabric. You can cut around it really quick and then cut on the lines when you are cutting the fabric. Perhaps that's how everyone else does it, but it never crossed my mind.
Also, when I do darts, I mark the dots with a marker and then use a ruler to draw the lines. But it's sure faster to use tracing paper and a wheel.

Nine pillowcase quilt

(Made with four sheets, instead.)

I love the quilts made by Oh Fransson! That's her exclamation point, but I'm feeling the enthusiasm, myself. I bought a baby quilt pattern from her, and then started checking out her blog. When I saw this quilt, I really loved the freshness and simplicity.

She uses old, retro pillowcases and lots of white. I thrifted a few old sheets from Savers for mine. I just was amazed that I found all these sheets that work well together. The top one is actually just a piece of fabric at the thrift store, but all the colors worked. I might look for one or a few more to go with these, or just repeat these four.

Tahini sesame cookies

There's a blog I like to follow called Scribbit. I have found several great recipes on there in the past. I came across these cookies that are based on a peanut butter and chocolate chip cookie recipe. Instead of peanut butter, they use tahini, which is a sesame paste that looks and smells a lot like peanut butter. I found them to be quite interesting and good, but my husband disagrees. Then again, he doesn't like peanut butter either. Who doesn't like peanut butter!? Freak. Well, I guess people with peanut allergies, but that doesn't apply to Mark.

Here's where you can find the recipe.

Oh, dear.

For the last four months, I've been working on my Soldier's Sweater from "Runway Knits." It's over there in the column to the right. It's not that it should really take four months, but I was just so incredibly tired of it. I'm now done with all the parts and sewing it together. But I fear that it might better fit a 6-year-old.

When I started the first piece, I was sort of worried that it was too tight of a gauge. I went in to Village Wools and asked what they thought. They pointed out that it's a) wool, and therefore can be wet blocked to any shape, and b) ribbed, so it's stretchy. They concluded that I'd be fine.

So, months later, I am nearly finished. I just have to sew the sleeves in and sew up the side seams. Then I pick up stitches along the front and neckline and knit a 2 inch border. But as I took all my pieces out, which had been previously blocked, I have found that they all shrunk back to their smaller size. Even the sleeve I just blocked a few days ago is small again.

I'm not sure if it will fit when all is said and done. I'm not sure if I'll have to give my precious sweater to somebody's kid. Four months of work, possibly thrown in a washing machine to felt by a busy mom who doesn't know anything about knitting.

Pray for me.

First day

My first day on the job as a patternmaker's assistant was awesome. She was really busy trying to make a deadline, so I tried not to require too much direction once she gave me something to work on. There was one part I sort of struggled with, but it involved ruching and a sort of bra top underneath and creating new notches and taking out excess bulk on the patterns, and it was confusing for me.

It was the ruching that threw it off, because that means the pattern is nowhere near the same size as the final piece, so lining it up for changes is not easy. I don't feel too bad about myself for getting confused, but I was upset that I made potential trouble for the patternmaker. I was really glad that she figured it out very quickly and thus did not lose time. She is extraordinarily nice.

When I left, I just thought, "Wow. I just got paid to sew and pin on a dressform and manipulate patterns, and it doesn't get better than that." Oh, and there's a big ol' dog that is just wonderful.

How to hem a pair of pants -- blind hem tutorial

Click here for a pdf version of this tutorial

Apparently all those super-tall supermodels have the fashion industry convinced that the average height of women is 6 feet tall. I am 5'4", and a few inches taller with heels. So why do pants look like this when I buy them? Seriously. Just answer me that. I know, the answer is that some women are 6 feet tall. But not that many, right? So is the fashion industry in cahoots with some seamstress union or something?



Never fear, you can hem them yourself. It's quite easy. Here is how you hem a pair of slacks with a blind hem, which is a hem that is invisible from the outside.

First, turn your pants inside out and examine the hem they came with. Write down the distance from hem to edge inside. You may or may not use this later, depending on a few things, but it's best to get in the habit.



Next, try on your pants and make a rough pinning for length. It's hard to do on yourself, so do the best you can. I just put a few pins.



Take off the pants and turn them inside out (watch out for the pins). Measure the length that you turned up and get it even all the way around. NOTE: According to my alterations book, it's best to have the hem a quarter-inch longer in the back, so you may want to do this. That's what I did here. DAMN! Five inches!



Pin all the way around to really hold them in place. If you turned up a huge cuff, you may want to put extra pins so it doesn't flop down. Do the other leg, too. DO NOT PRESS AT THIS POINT. YOU MAY WANT TO ADJUST THE HEM.



Try the pants on (careful of the pins) and make sure you like the length with whatever shoes you are planning to wear them with. I wanted these pants to be a little shorter so I could wear them with lower heels or flats. I tried them on with both.






I also hate when you try to wear pants with backless shoes and the bottom catches between your shoe and heel, so I made sure they wouldn't do that.



I wish I could also wear my boots with these, but I think hems need to be longer with boots, so it won't look good. They look bad from the front.



If you're satisfied with the length, go ahead and take them off again. Press the hem to crease it.



Next, you'll want to make a line to mark where you will cut off the excess fabric. My alterations book says that most commercial hems are about 1.5", to save fabric. A better length is 2.25-2.5 inches. My ruler is 2 inches wide, so I marked with chalk around. Then I added another quarter-inch. Really, I could have been lazy and stuck with the 2 inches and saved my self the trouble.



Next I cut along the line. I don't cut straight across both thicknesses. I cut in from the edge and cut around one layer at a time.



Now I need to finish the raw edge. I have a serger, and lucky me! it has black thread on it now. If you don't have a serger, never fear. You can use your sewing machine's overedge function or just a simple zigzag stitch to keep it from unraveling.




Now you've not a nice finished edge. You just need to secure it to the leg of the pants. This is where the blind stitch comes in. You want to use your blind stitch foot and stitch function.
First, you need to fold and pin. This part is a little weird at first, but it's not hard once you see what it is you're trying to do. You want to fold the cuff like so, turning the bottom of the pant underneath. DO NOT PRESS -- YOU DON'T WANT THIS TO BE A CREASE.

Keep in mind that you should line up the side seams and creases, so the leg doesn't sit funny.







Choose a color of thread that matches the pants as closely as possible. I have gray and black here, but the black matches the gray pants a little better. Plus, the gray thread is quilting thread, which I bought accidentally. It's too thick.



What the blind stitch is all about is barely tacking the bottom edge of the pant to the pant leg. You are going to be doing a zigzag stitch on the little edge where the serger stitches are, then every so many stitches, the needle will hop out and tack the pant leg fold. Your stitch function does all this for you; you just need to adjust the width and length of the stitches. Test it a bit by turning the crank with your hand and seeing if the needle enters where you want it to. You should do a practice run on scrap material.


I am pointing with the needle tip to where you want your small zigzag to be (turns out to be a bit hard to see, sorry).


Here I am pointing to where you want it to hop over and tack the leg.



Go very slowly. Keep in mind that when I say "tack," I mean that you want it to barely hit the edge of this fold. If it goes in too far, it will show on the other side. For me, this is inevitable, so I don't fret too much.



As you can see, some of my stitches are visible from the other side. Even on professionally done blind hems, a wee, tiny tack is visible. Mine are much worse, but oh well. A pin is pointing to one of the visible stitches. Again, you can't see it very well. If I were nice, I'd have used a different thread color, but I was in a hurry.



Now I'll do the real thing. GO VERY SLOWLY. You may want to remove the under part of your machine so the leg can fit around easily.



There! All done. Press your hem. Some of my stitches are visible, but unless you're my cat rubbing on my ankles, you probably would never notice, so if you can't get it perfect, who cares? At least your pants are the right length.

Got the job!

An exciting opportunity has come my way. I get to be an assistant to a patternmaker. To tell you about it, I have to start here:

There's a Web site called Fashion-Incubator.com that is an amazing resource for sewers, but which is geared toward "design entrepreneurs" of various types. The woman who runs it is Kathleen Fasanella, also author of "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing." (I'm pitching her book because it's amazing. It's an insider's guide to the entire fashion design industry, and all the stuff you really need to know before you march in and make an ass of yourself.) I own and have read the book, and I highly recommend it. You can buy it through the site above.



Kathleen is also a fellow New Mexican, coincidentally. I'm not sure if she's exceedingly nice and helpful to everybody, or if she's so helpful to me because I'm just a couple billion hops, skips and jumps away up I-25 through the God-awful and never-ending desert.

So, I was on Fashion-Incubator asking a question about something I was having trouble with. (Oh, you know all about that stupid yellow and black dress with the V-neck I've been griping about.) Well, Kathleen (I really have never met her in person, so I don't know why I think I'm on a first-name basis with her) mentions to me that an Albuquerque patternmaker needs an assistant. And so I contact her, and three days later, I'm hired.

It's very flexible, part-time hours, so I can keep my full-time job. I will help with simple stuff, like labeling and checking patterns, but from what she has told me, there's immense room for learning, so I hope for it to be sort of an apprenticeship, in a way. I'll do what she needs me to do, but just through observation of how it all works, I think I'll learn so much.

It's a weird feeling when you trudge through the daily grind doing something you like and being darn glad you have a job in this horrible economy. But all the while, you think, "if I could get paid to do what I truly love, would this be it?" And here, somebody is going to pay me to work in a field that I really, really want to explore.

And, so, wish me luck!

Oopsie Poopsie Corn Chip Pie!

Did I ever mention my brother once wrote a wonderful short story called "Oopsie Poopsie Corn Chip Pie"? You probably don't want to know the story; I'm sure the title is enough to gross you out.

Did I ever mention I once wrote/starred in/directed/produced a short film called "The Poopy Murder"? I was 13. Are you seeing an interesting trend in our family?

Anyway, on to my Oopsie. It has to do with my first quilt. I was really confused about selecting fabrics, and I loved the original quilt in the pattern, so I basically tried to copy her color scheme to the best of my ability. Which is apparently not good at all. I seem to have not gotten any green borders, and I've ended up with way too many turquoise-y borders, some of which end up right next to each other. The green would go around the main animal print, and luckily I've only sewn 4 out of 12 of those squares (the rest are just laid out in this photo), so I think I'll try to redo it. I'm just amazed that I didn't notice it until this point in the project.

MINE:




PATTERN:

Rooby-Rooby-Roux!

I've been cooking up a storm, and last night I decided to make Greek lemon chicken soup. The soup was simple enough, but I decided to use roux to thicken it up. I had never made roux, so it was an exciting challenge. Roux prefers clarified butter, which was also new to me. I had instructions for both, but found the clarified butter part a bit confusing. My butter didn't have obvious separation, so I skimmed off the foam and just used the rest to make the roux, which seems to have come out just fine, though I guess I wouldn't really know the difference.

The nice thing about roux is that you can store it indefinitely in the fridge. It cooks best in a bigger batch, so I just made a whole batch and then put 4T amounts into a muffin tin and refrigerated overnight. Then I popped them out and put them, separated by wax paper, into a Ziploc bag.



Now, whenever I want to make soup, I can grab one circle of roux! Plus they look like a Rooby-Rooby-Roux Scooby snack!

As for my soup, it was perfect last night, but it really thickened up overnight. I had to add water at lunch today, but it still tasted great.

I got all the information for the butter, roux and soup from allrecipes.com.

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I may have stumbled across an exciting opportunity in the fashion design business. I studied some fashion design in Santa Fe a few years ago and took an interest in flat pattern design, but really, I had no idea what to do with that professionally in Albuquerque, since I was far from having the experience and knowledge I would need. And, well, Albuquerque is not exactly a mecca for the fashion design industry. Well, there is a chance I could be an assistant to a local patternmaker who has lots of experience and has worked for and with some big companies. I meet with her on Thursday. It would be just part time, a few hours a week, on top of my regular newspaper job, but I think the experience would be just amazing. If it pans out, I'll describe it in better detail. Wish me luck!

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I had to work a day shift today, and it was no fun getting up at 8 a.m. I know some of you are rolling your eyes because you get up at 5 or 6 in the morning, but, sorry, you are insane. Even 8 is way too early for life to start, though I must admit that the light is pretty in the morning. The world just feels different.

I am proud that I came home and got on the treadmill for a half-hour at 8 p.m.

I just finished cutting the fabric for the baby quilt I'm making, then I sewed most of the squares.



I bought the pattern from OhFransson on etsy.com. And I borrowed that photo from her until I can make my own. I just fell in love with the colors. My fabrics are slightly different, except the animal fabric. Click the photo to buy the pattern.

Here are my squares.



With the two photos next to each other, I realize now that I am missing all of that lovely green. That was what I was attracted to in the first place. How did I do this? It was so stressful trying to pick the fabrics and I really was trying to get it similar to the original. Huh. There's a small chance I'll look for a green for the animal print squares. I've only sewn four of the 12, so I could still change it without too much work.

Quilting class, and messy dresses

I have finished my first pieced quilt item. It's going to be a place mat. It's made with silly kitty fabrics, and I now understand I didn't choose my fabrics well. If you look closely, you'll see it's got a rail fence pattern, but ideally you want to choose a light, a dark and a medium fabric to play this up. I ended up with a dark and two very similar fabrics, so it doesn't pop as much. It will eventually be a mat for my cats to eat off of. Still needs backing, quilting, binding, etc.



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As for the messed up dress I was whining about in an earlier post, here are my V-necks, front and back:





The V-neck facings are a mess. I can't get them to lay flat for anything and I'm trying to find some sort of solution to save this garment.

I'll be his Valentine anytime if he takes me to the spa

Today is the day before Valentine's Day, but we both work tomorrow. We're going to Sandia Casino and Resort to have a day at the spa, followed by a nice dinner and probably spending the night there.

There is, of course, nothing better than the spa! And my mani/pedi comes with champagne and chocolates.

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I think I'll announce something rather personal: I'm trying to get pregnant. If T-Shirt Face is reading this, it's the first he's heard of it. Sorry, dad. It's a relatively new goal that we just decided on a few weeks ago. So now I realize that unless it happens quickly, there will be a time each month where I have to wonder if I am or am not pregnant. I am in that phase right now, and that means I should probably not be drinking any alcohol. As in the champagne above or wine with Valentine's dinner. But I figure that half of pregnancies are unplanned in this country, and people drink without realizing they're pregnant. So a little champagne or wine today won't be the end of the world.

I'm also feeling worried about all the things I should be avoiding that I don't know about. Like I happened -- just HAPPENED by PURE LUCK -- to come across something yesterday that said that green tea should be avoided at all costs by women trying to conceive or pregnant. It supposedly increases birth defects because the antioxidants, normally so good for you, interfere with the absorption of folic acid, which is crucial for the baby. Yikes! I love green tea! Why hasn't this been made clearer, if it's true?

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I am completely frustrated with the Vogue dress I'm making (see posts below). I have reached a point I can't seem to pass with the neck facing. It comes to a point in the front and the back (like a V) and try as I might, I can't fold the facing in without a huge wadded up bulge and a complete lack of a V-shape. I have trimmed away as much of the seam allowance as I can and still can't get it. Now I feel stuck because I hesitate to take it off and start over since I no longer have proper seam allowances on the garment edge. I am so frustrated and at a loss! I have to just come back to it another time. Any suggestions? I know I didn't offer pictures, so people may have no idea what I'm talking about.

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As for my Soldier's Sweater, all motivation has more or less petered out. I'm on the second sleeve, and not far from finishing that. Then I just have to sew on the sleeves and pick up stitches around the front and neck for the band, which shouldn't talk long. I just don't want to work on it at all.

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Quilting class is coming along. I am really enjoying it! I'm excited to start on the baby quilt I'm making for a friend.

Long time, no writey writey

I have not had much to say, it seems, and little motivation to write. I've also been really busy. But I'll do a quick update.

Last Saturday was my birthday. I turned 35. No arthritis or wrinkles yet, so I'm good. As usual, I had a multi-day birthday extravaganza. Friday night, my husband and in-laws took me to Outback. I heard "Happy Birthday" sung at least seven times. Then we went home to eat pie, since I hate cake. Mark decorated the table in Disney princesses, so I'd feel young.



He also blew up a zillion balloons, which have actually provided me with endless entertainment kicking and hitting them about.



I got the bread machine I wanted (I have made a delicious loaf of white bread and pretzels so far). But while at Target, Mark saw the clearance racks and bought me a huge pile of random things that were practically free. Here I am trying to match to odd, matchless items together.



By the way, those ruffled panties wouldn't even fit halfway up my thighs, so I will be hitting the treadmill in a few minutes.

The next day, I had dinner with my mom and grandma. We had the to-die-for parmesan crusted sole at Yanni's, a Greek restaurant. Of course, I had rice pudding for dessert. My favorite.

Finally, on Sunday, my dad and stepmom took us to lunch at St. Claire's. Guess what I got? My butter crock! So far, I've filled it with butter but haven't used butter once.



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I'm working very slowly on my black and yellow dress. Usually, I try to whip through a project in one weekend and end up with sloppy results. I'm taking it slow, and also working on cutting out the baby quilt. Quilting class continues, too.

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I would like to leave you with a photo my husband made me promise never to post on the Internet. But I'm the kind of person who makes bets and then refuses to pay up. So here goes:

What I'm working on

I'm taking a quilting class, and the first thing we are making are pot holders. They're simple, no piece work at all. Just two squares and some heat resistant batting in between. I've quilted the tops in a simple diamond shape, but we won't learn to bind the edges for a while yet.



I'm also working on my Vogue 1086 dress.


It's my first time doing French seams, which are nice because they look as finished from the inside as the outside.
Here's the outside:



And the inside: