Away for a bit

The In-laws are in town. I didn't get very far prepping my smocking for their arrival so I wont be productive at all while they are in town.

June should bring some good batches of crafting, unless potty training decides to take place. I plan to work on smocking a fair amount. Need to finish up through sacques. There is some light quilting both quilting and piecing to be done. Also I need to work on my dress form, make it more me shaped... also see if I have enough notes to make it me pregnant shaped as well. I have a early regency era project up my sleeve. I'm hoping it will be as much fun to make as I'm musing it will be.

Knowing when to move on

I had been very diligent in making the heirloom sacques, however I basically hit a wall. An inspiration wall that is. When I become uninspired in something I drag my feet and nothing gets done. What's worse is when I ignore that fact that I'm uninspired and become unproductive for some time.

That's what been going on that past two weeks is fighting "being good" with "uninspired." Had I given up on being good about staying focus on one task I would have at least accomplished something. The new rule is I can only work on works in progress projects, which in this case was perfectly fine. I wanted to work on one of my side projects.

Tonight I gave into the whim. I cut out the fabric for five stillborn gowns. I think I'm awake enough to iron what I cut. If I'm lucky I'll probably even mark the armholes. Tomorrow if all goes well I hope to serge, sew, and pleat.

Saturday my in-laws are coming. We tend to do a great deal of driving when we are around them, so I want to have some small hand projects to stay busy and productive on the drives. Smocking is the perfect distraction.

Sensibility.com relaunch plus a SALE!

Sensibility has relaunched their site and its gorgeous! I've been musing over what my fall project  would be and one of the contenders is to make an ensemble based on an 1798 outfit in Nancy Bradfield's Costume in Detail.

I've been eyeing the Elegant Lady's Closet. I'll need to check in storage to see if I have the undergarment pattern. I can't remember. I either have the Regency Gown pattern or the Undergarment pattern.

And did you see they're going to soon have a Georgian pattern? Can't wait to see what the ladies version looks like. 

So as part of their relaunch they are having a 15% off sale! How lovely!

Slow goings

Wow I churn out the first sacque really quickly. I feel like I'm dragging my feet on this one! My goal is to have not only this one, but one more done by this weekend. I'm not sure how well that's going to turn out! oh no!

I took some progress pictures of this one. However i realized a few days later that SqueekMoo had gotten a hold of the camera prior and had put smudges all over the lens. I was able to clean off the lens, but all the pictures I took didn't come out.

This time I starched not only the fabric, but the embroidery thread and entredeux. I've marked the outline on the main fabric. Attached the ribbon trim. Marked my embroidery designs. And I'm only half way through the embroidery. I'm going to try to get at the embroidery done tonight, but we shall see.

Pictures of the first saque

Sorry I'm not great at taking pictures. The fact that its white fabric is not making things any easier.

detail shot of the front

 

Back view

unproductive musing

I've got a bee in my bonnet. I've slacked off on my sacque sewing. I should be done with thing two, but its sitting in its frame feeling unloved.

Instead I've been musing about my next BIG sewing project. I have a good many things lined up before I can work on it, but at the same time I haven't a clue what I'm going to do.

At first I was musing about making the maternity corset I thought about making when I was pregnant with Matthew but didn't get around to. Past Pattern's pattern number 705 is a gestational corset pattern. Fig Lead Pattern c. 1857 would be a nice match to it. However after some research the gestational corset proves to be fiddly. The pattern itself is fine however fine tuning it can be time consuming. Also making pregnancy may prove unproductive since you'd have to guess you tummy.  Since I'd want something that supported the belly, I might hope off till after I'm pregnant... that or if I ever get around to interpreting the measurements I took when i was pregnant.

The other option is to go ahead with an 18th century ensemble. I could make some key garments and tweak them so I could wear them when I'm pregnant again. I do plan on becoming pregnant again, just coping with Matthew's death may delay it. But we planed on having as big of a family as we can afford and we miss Matthew greatly, but we aren't going to have his passing prevent a nice big family.

This afternoon when I was looking through all the reference books I had, (I spent all day yesterday looking for ideas on-line), I went a little further in one of my books than I planed. I ended up at the starts of the Regency period and came across an outfit that I thought looked lovely. I'm not sure about the entire ensemble, but the jacket would be fun. It's a thigh length half robe with nice long sleeves. Has lots of potential for a big belly. The reason why I'm reluctant to make the entire ensemble is if I do make it for maternity wear I'd need to accommodate the fact that the chest gets larger. In order to make the right changes the boned bodice would be nixed. Also I'm short: a long skirt and a long jacket would make me look shorter and flumpy.

So many ideas running rampant in my mind. I need to work on the sacque tomorrow and keep myself out of trouble. Or perhaps clean the house some that would be useful. Spending the afternoon on-line, not a good idea.

Picture Time

As of Saturday afternoon. The front edge embroidery is done

Same time frame, but a look at the entire garment

Back side hooped and ready to go

Back side done.

Adventures in starch

The iPad holder got mailed out yesterday. Dad should get it within a week.

I started work on my May Project yesterday. Three renditions of basically the same thing. What's changing is the fabric used. In theory they should be the same thing, but three different shops going by three different names does actually give for fabric with three different feels. I'll see which I think sews best and subject MacMac's colleagues to a feel test? not sure on that part yet.

I finally got all three fabrics in. The last one came yesterday. Last week I washed the first two fabrics to get the starch/stabilizers out. I also washed the trim. Yesterday I went out in search to liquid starch. yes yes I know I just washed it out of the fabric, and now U'm adding it back it. It's so I know what kind of starch is in my fabric. Also because I wanted to pre-wash the fabric in hopes it would shrink all that it will shrink.

My adventures in finding liquid starch was not sucessful. I was hoping to find Sta-Flo but couldn't find it at Target, Alberstons or Save Right. Having gone to all three SqueekMoo was not in the mood to be out and about so home we went.

I ended up making a corn starch mixture instead. 1/2 cup corn starch and 1 cup cold water. Then add hot/boiling water. 2 quarts for a heavy mix, 6 for a light mix.

I did put it into a spray bottle, but quickly decided that dunking was the way to go. I took my first test fabric and cut it to slightly bigger than the pattern piece and into the start it went. I then wrung out the excess and hung it to dry for an hour or so.

I then ironed it. At first I couldn't tell a difference, but once I finished ironing and it was completely dry I could really tell a difference. Good think I did a very diluted light mix because it was rather stiff.

I then worked on the Swiss beading. No starch on this trim. I cut away the excess fabric on either side of the trim. Pined the trim in place and sewed it down. I then marked where I wanted my embroidery to go.

I had a little left over starch mixture and I decided that I'm going to experiment with my embroidery floss. Its just plain old white DMC floss, but pencil marks and it don't really get along too well. So I cut twenty inch lengths of floss and dunked it into the starch and ironed it. You can tell a difference in the feel. I'm hoping that by doing this the dowdy gray the floss picks up from the pencil will wash out.

I'm hoping to start the hand embroidery today. however the hoops/frames I have aren't long enough. I can probably go ahead and use the ones I have for now and stitch what I can, but I'll have to wait for a bigger hoop since placing a hoop on beading doesn't work.

One step back and two steps forward

I'm not sure how it happened but the top piece of my iPad pocket and the bottom piece ended up not being the same width. I decided to re-cut the bottom piece since its far less complicated than than the top piece.

Trial and error kicked in when I was sewing in the label. I tried making a label using some transfer paper I had on hand. Took me a while to figure out how to mirror the text only to find out when I set the printer to transfer paper it automatically flips the text. Oh the time I could have saved it I had known that. Luckily I only printed a small test so the sheet wasn't wasted.

I highly recommend if you do go the transfer sheet method and are first starting out do print in small sections so that you don't waste an entire sheet. Its economical if done right, however its mistakes care rather costly.

Second thing I encounter was I do not like the texture the transfer paper leaves. I had lovely double satin ribbon and the laminated feeling is not a happy one.

Third issue was when i went to put in my label I realized not only did it need to be printed mirrored but also needed to be upside down. It's a small cosmetic glitch not big enough for me to go and print another label. the label points in what I'd consider the wrong direction. Being that you can still see and read it when the pocket is face up its close enough for me.

Cutting the iron on adhesive went smoothly. I used heat and bond ultra. Took a little bit to figure out how much to cut out of the middle, but I think I guesstimated right. I took apart a diaper box to make myself a iPad text dummy to make sure the fit would be snug but not tedious. Ironing went well. I highly recommend using a pressing sheet. Don't think the vinyl likes heat too much.

The adhesive should be strong enough to last awhile without fear of it coming off. However he's planing on a road trip up here this summer so I'll sew it down at that point. But I honestly think it should adhere just fine.

iPad Backseat Entertainment Pocket

My dad has asked me to make him a pocket for his Airstream West to be able to use the iPad as backseat entertainment. He is so helpful with the process that he even included a pattern for what he wanted.

The pattern he provided is the Sprocket Pocket by Maya Designs. There is even a how-to video on youtube how easy is that!?

Being that all the information was provided it was rather simple. Okay minus the whole not having 14x17 paper to print the paper. I ended up having to look up the dimensions of an iPad and recreating the whole pattern from "scratch" my numbers and their numbers are exactly the same. I think it's a difference in seam allowance and borders. But overall its the same thing.

I forgot to pick up the iron on adhesive so the project is on stand by. Also the sewing machine is in the master bedroom. MacMac doesn't mind sleeping with lights on sewing machine humming (he can sleep through anything). However SqueekMoo has been sleeping with us in the master bedroom since MacMac has an awful work schedule for the next month. So not much late night crafting has been happening.

Pretties we saw on May 1st

I saw a banner advertising that the local park was having a Civil War reenactment, so I took SqueekMoo. Unknown to me was that they were charging $10 a head to see it. So we did not go. Instead we went across the street to the historic fort and had a lovely time seeing things there.

We were drawn first to the cabin in the middle, because these lovely ladies were playing their instruments.

 

Inside the cabin they were doing a lecture on Civil War quilts. I wish I could have gotten to listen to all of it and gotten more pictures to share. Alas SqueekMoo does not share my interest in quilts. I did get two pictures before SqueekMoo decided it was time to leave the cabin. The first is of a quilt using the Ocean Waves pattern.

The next quilt is a crazy quilt. I didn't catch the date, but the presenter thinks it might possibly be on of the first crazy quilt to be made stateside.

 

Outside there were tents set up. The farthest one had the Revolutionary War re-enactors. I chatted with them the most. This is Phil: he is a delightful character, a kindred spirit, an all round really cool guy that we hope to see more of.

I know this gentleman told me his name, but I can't recall it. I'll shall dub him "man in the lovely jacket." He made the entire ensemble by himself, something I think is truly remarkable. I've been wanting to sew colonial period garments for quite some time, however either my skill level wasn't high enough or my waistline wasn't constant. But really I have not mastered button holes and do you see how many buttonholes are on that jacket!?

Now the Man in the Lovely Jacket is talented beyond just sewing. He got a hold of a firearm (sorry weapon terminology is wasted on me, they told me, but I forgot) but the stock was broken. He took it apart and made a new stock for it. The result is just stunning.

At some point, probably quarter till three two ladies in their Civil War dress stopped by. They were on their way to the paid event at the park. It does not help that the park and fort have the same name. I think a small handful made the mistake of going to the fort instead of the park. The two ladies chatted with Phil. Terry and the Man in the Lovely Jacket are standing off to the side. The drum the Man in the Lovely Jacket is also something he made. Okay so once again he didn't start from scratch, but rather a drum with a broken head.

And the last pictures is SqueekMoo have a ball filling up their wood box.

Completed Jacket and Kilt

Yesterday I worked diligently on the jacket and coat. I finished sewing in the pleats of the kilt.

I then sewed the waistband on. The edge furthest from the interfacing was sewn right-side together to the kilt.

I then marked where I wanted the button holes. And went to work on the jacket.

The jacket did not like me at all yesterday. I accidently cut the backside a little to wide of the main fabric, and fought it all day. In the end after Squeekmoo had gone to bed, I re-cut the plaid.

Everything then went smoothly from there. Especially once you remember the order to sew one's seams:

I sewed the sleeve cuffs, bottom edge and front edge/collar of the lining to its matching plaid (If you want a ribbon tie, don't forget to pin in place before you sew the front edge/collar). I then flipped the jacket inside out and top stitched the edges I just sewed. I then lining sides together sewed underarm seam, clip the curve, flipped inside out again. Now with right sides together I sewed the underarm seam again. And Voila the jacket is complete with lovely French seams.

We hit a time crunch. I went ahead and sewed the Velcro into place. Fuzzy side went on the front skirt apron, and hooks on the inner skirt apron. I didn't have time to put in the elastic, but since I plan to I did a very quick basting of the waistband so that I could undo it when I had more time and set the elastic. SqueekMoo liked his jacket, but was so unhappy when I put the kilt on him.

 Instead I let him wear his jeans with the coat and the kilt stayed at home.