Happy New Year!  No, I didn’t fall off the face of the Earth, but I might as well have.  I spent April through June working on costumes for a version of Romeo and Juliet my sister-in-law did in La Grande, which is 5 hours east of me.  Then all kinds of sewing for other people.  On Dec. 1 I sprained my ankle and am still dealing with it, but I have a brace and I didn’t tear anything.  I have a lot of pix of step-by-step sewing of various things but I still have to edit them.  I have a pix of finished things, so I can show some here.  I will try to post more in 2012.  I do appreciate your looking at my blog. 

Top to bottom: New Year’s Eve costume of white satin and sheer knit and organza over a silver duppioni silk base; front and back of ’50s style linen/rayon print dress; emerald green duppioni silk Victorian style costumes for Steamcon III in Seattle, WA, October 2011; cotton print vest and duppioni silk cravat, cotton print “kimonos” and poly taffeta waist “cincher”; back view of kimono and cincher costume.

Me and my husband leaving the stage, you can see most of the dress with the long coat with train over it.

Here is the front of the dress without the veil and long coat.

The center front piece of the bodice and the center of the underskirt are duppioni silk of the same ivory but with flowers woven in.  I don’t have a good photo of that right now.

The mothers’ and bridesmaids’ dresses are simpler than mine, as you can see my mom’s in the photo below.

My nephew Devin, his mom my sister Lydia, my sister Fiona, me, my mom Paula, and my grandma Jinny (RIP 11/22/09)

I was inspired by 18th Century costumes.  The bodices are self-lined (meaning they are lined with the same silk as the dresses), but the only other thing that is lined isn’t really lined: my sleeves have a stay that is a normal sleeve shape to hold up the poof of the outer sleeve.  The long coat isn’t black; it’s really dark green.

Please let me know if you have any questions.  No, they weren’t hard to do, but I was going to school full time.

Even if you don’t sew, you wear clothes, don’t you?  Check it out.

I’ve been ok, still annoyed at not being able to edit and post photos.  I cut out 2 jackets and 2 skirts, one set is electric blue cotton/rayon velvet and the other is purple polyester crinkled taffeta.  I’ve been working on a perfect shirt pattern for my husband and just cut out prototype #2 out of muslin.  More details later, I hope. 

It doesn’t matter if you want to sew for a business or just for yourself, you should know how to sew all kinds of things.  It’s good practice.  If you can sew but can’t figure out patterns, some of it is just drawing straight lines, but you can get textbooks on pattern making.  If you still can’t get that but you can sew, it’s okay.

Some sewing methods are for inexpensive items of lower quality; some are for expensive items of higher quality; some are for everything in between.  It depends on what you want to make.

Always check out Fashion Incubator.  There are tons of entries on sewing, marketing, production, business, and other categories related to sewing anything that’s a sewn item, not just clothing.

I’m trying to post things anyway, just so you know I’m still around. 

In October, we went on a trip to Israel.

Then I was sick with a horrible mold-induced sinus thing.

I’ve been writing, reading, and sewing.  I am working on a waistcoat for my husband like the ones they wear in the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World with Russell Crowe.  Only it’s not naval buff, it’s black duppioni silk.  I’m working on another 1880′s polonaise and skirt combo, just finished the skirt.  I have to get photos of the first one, too.  I only have to make a buttonhole and sew the button on a cream cotton blazer.  And I was almost done with a blouse I designed, but the sleeves need some extra work.  And working on a prototype of a toddler smock/bib combo for someone, my least favorite project.

I hope all these issues to be resolved soon so I can put more photos up.

I made a long Victorian style women’s vest for myself.  It’s similar to the men’s vest but not as complicated.  It’s not lined and the facings are a bit different.  [Edit: I forgot to say why this is a Victorian style vest.  Many women's garments back then had darts in the front and the back was always princess seams.  This is how this vest is constructed.]

Here are a couple photos of it being laid out.  If you’re new, the best way to cut out stuff is to lay out the pattern, weight it all around, trace around it with chalk/china marker/pen, remove the pattern, then cut out the fabric, cutting off the lines.  Yes, cut off the lines because when you trace the pattern, you add a very small amount, the thickness of the line, and if you don’t cut it off, you add that much all around every piece.

Pattern piece weighted and traced

Detail of laying out and tracing

After you cut out the interfacing, attach it to the facing pieces.  If you want to use sew-in interfacing, you would baste the interfacing and fabric together around the edges, 1/8 to 1/4″ from the edges.  I prefer to use that fusible tricot (knit) kind.  I never have problems with it like I’ve had with the other fusible kind.  If it ends up that the fabric and interfacing don’t exactly match when you’re basting or fusing them together, which sometimes happens when you cut them out, do the best you can in regards to the edge that will be sewn to the neckline/CF/armscye/whatever.  Trim the interfacing if it hangs over the edge but don’t trim the fabric.

The interfacing has been fused to the facings

Since I made this particular vest in Victorian style, I made the fronts with darts (1 piece) and the back princess seams (multiple pieces).  I draft the pattern and pressed the darts so the vertical ones go toward the CF and the horizontal bust dart goes downward.

The darts have been sewn and pressed

Sew the center back, center side back, and side back pieces together with a 3/8″ seam allowance (standard for most seams, use this with the shoulders and side seams).  You will see that I sewed them with the sewing machine then neatened the edges with the overlock.

Back seams from the wrong side

Back seams from the right side

After you have pressed the darts and back seams, join the fronts and back at the shoulders.

Shoulder seams

Press them, sew the side seams, and press them, too.

Side seam sewn

Next, with right sides together, sew the facings to the neckline/CF and the armsyces (armholes).  Use a 1/4″ seam allowance.  Clip all the curves by snipping into the seam allowance to but not through the seam.  Pull the seam allowance toward the facings and understitch the facings 1/16 to 1/8″ away from the seam.  Turn the facings to the inside of the vest and press them.  If necessary, take the edges of the facings to a seam allowance to keep them from working their way to the outside.  The buttons and buttonholes will keep the CF from turning the wrong way.

At the bottom of the CF facings, stop at the point matching the whole width of the hem allowance.  Pivot and sew to the outer edge of the facing.  Clip, turn, and press.

All of this is in the photos below.

The facings have been attached to the vest

One of the armscye facings has been clipped and understitched

Facings understitched and turned to the inside of the vest

Clip that corner

Turn to the inside and press it and the hem up the amount of the allowance

Press the vest hem under another time and stitch it just to the edge of the facing

The last things to do are to put in the buttonholes, sew on the buttons, and give the vest a final pressing.  Make sure you do a sample buttonhole first to make sure the button will fit through it.  Most of the time, mine turn out fine, but sometimes if the button is thicker or rounded, you need extra length.  If it’s very thin, you don’t need as much.

If you can find one of these tools (I have no idea what the name is), use it to mark buttons, buttonholes, and other things that need to be evenly spaced. The top section has stuff for buttons and buttonholes.

The buttonholes are spaced and marked with pins

Buttonholes and markings for the buttons

After you put in the buttonholes, slit them open (we always use a seam ripper), then press them.  Matching up the center fronts, lay the buttonholes over the other side.  Using a pen, pencil, chalk pencil, whatever, mark the button spacing through the buttonholes so they will match.  Sew on the buttons.  Press, especially if you’ve gotten it really wrinkled during the sewing process.

The completed garment:

Vest front

Vest back

[Edit: I want you to see in the photo of the front that the back facing isn't shaped right.  Not at the neckline, but below it.  Do you see how you can see the wrong side of the fabric under the back facing?  The facing should be shaped so it falls below the front neckline so you can't see the wrong side of the back.]  As soon as I get someone to take some photos of me, I’ll show what it looks like on a body.  (That’s one of my cats, Yaffah, on the chair in the background.)

I designed and made 3 A-line skirts with wide waistbands.  In summer I wear T shirts over skirts and capri pants.  The T shirts are long enough that they sometimes squish the top of the skirt.  So I made the waist fitted and wider so the rest of the skirt wouldn’t be squished.  I traced my skirt sloper and marked where I wanted the fitted part to stop.  I cut that then closed the darts.  Then I made the bottom of the skirt wider so that it flared out in A-line style.  I don’t have any photos of how I made the pattern, but below are how I sewed it together.

First fuse the interfacing to the upper skirt pieces (you’ll see in later photos).

Sew the CB seam.

I made a CB (center back) seam because I think it’s so MUCH easier to sew a zipper on a straight line than it is to do so on a curved one, which the side seam sometimes is.

Start from the hem and go up to just a bit past where the seam allowance width changes.

Normal seam allowance is 3/8″ but I like to use 5/8″ by the zipper.

Next, sew the upper skirt pieces to the lower skirt pieces.  Leave the facing pieces for a little later.

The upper skirt back from the wrong side.

The upper skirt backs from the right side

Upper skirt front from the wrong side

Upper skirt front from the right side

Next, sew the side seams of the facing pieces.

Sew the facing seams

Remember that the iron is your friend.  Press all seams flat (how they look when you sew them, like the facing side seam above on the right), then open the pieces and either press them open/butterflied or to one side (usually to one side is for the seam that joins the sleeve cap to the armscye [armhole]).

Press the CB seam open, including the top part where there's no stitching, where the zipper goes.

Same seam from the right side.

Now  insert the zipper.  It’s actually not hard, ends up looking really nice, and if you’ve always had problems with them, I’m walking you through it.  Also, check out the centered zipper template and construction tutorials on www.fashion-incubator.com/tutorials/ and you might need to look at the lapped ones as well for more info.

First, sew one side of the zipper tape to one of the seam allowances.

If you’re not sure which side, hold the zipper and the skirt together how they will look when finished then turn them how they’re sewn.

Sew the other side of the zipper tape to the other seam allowance.

You might have to open and close the zipper as you do so to prevent crooked sewing.

The zipper from the right side.

Now sew the side seams of the skirt then the facing around the zipper.

Side seam from the wrong side

Side seam from the right side.

Sew the CB of the facing to the CB of the skirt, right next to the zipper.

Don’t go all the way to the bottom of the facing, just to where the upper/lower skirt seam is.  You need that little bit of facing to fold under later.

How it looks when you fold it back.

Now fold it the other way and sew the facing to the skirt at the waistline.

The facing clipped, folded to the inside and pressed.

Another view. See how the facing doesn't cover the zipper but the skirt does? You want it this way.

Press under the bottom of the facing a little.  You might have to experiment with how much.  You want the bottom to be caught when you topstitch from the right side, but you don’t want it too much or too little.  You can also hand sew the facing with a whip stitch or whichever stitch will work.

Bottom of facing turned under and ready to sew.

Here’s the topstitching along the upper skirt.

Upper skirt topstitching

Topstitching along the zipper

I’m sure you noticed I didn’t quite get it even.  But the topstitching is why I didn’t have you understitch the facing at the waistline.

Finally, press and stitch the hem.

Press the hem up the full width (about 1 1/2" in this case).

Then press the 2nd fold (never press a hem under just once--you don't want any raw edge).

The hem stitched from the wrong side.

Hem stitched, shown from the right side.

Press the hem and any other wrinkles.

Here is the finished skirt, from the front. The back is nearly the same.

And there you go!

Anyway, recently I had to add a pocket to a friend’s tuxedo shirt so he could put his cigarette case that he uses as a wallet in the shirt pocket so it wouldn’t be in his pants pocket, accessible to pickpockets.  If you have to add a pocket to a shirt or need to make a bigger one (the case is wider than some pockets), here’s what to do.

First measure the pocket of another shirt and make a pattern.  A shirt pocket is a square with a triangle added to the bottom.  The hem is sometimes a straight extension at the top but usually another triangle.  Draw this to the dimensions you got from the shirt, adding anything extra to compensate for what might be going into the pocket and add a 1/4″ seam allowance all around.  I notched it where the fold line for the hem is.  Here’s the pattern.

Shirt pocket pattern laid on the fabric

Now weight the pattern down and trace around it with chalk, china marker, ball point pen, or whatever either doesn’t bleed or will disappear.  Here the pocket is marked on the fabric.

Pocket pattern marked on shirting fabric

Sorry it’s blurry.

Next, cut out the pocket, cutting off the line and snip where the notches are less than the 1/4″ seam allowance.  Make sure you cut off the line, as you don’t want it on the pocket and you certainly don’t want it to show.

Press and sew the hem.  Yes, the iron is your friend.  Press along the line indicated by the notches, then press under the 1/4″ on the triangle part.  Stitch along the triangle.

Hem is pressed on the pocket

How the pocket should look when the hem is sewn

Then press the stitching and press under the sides and bottom of the pocket by that 1/4″ seam allowance.  Pin it to the shirt in the right spot.  Either compare to another shirt or have the person try on the shirt and mark where it should go.

Pocket pinned to shirt (really it is flatter than it looks)

Starting at the top of one side, stitch the pocket to the shirt.  Press.  (Pressing seams and hems helps the thread meld with the fabric.)

Pocket sewn to shirt

Now you’re done.  See how easy that was?  I mean, I hope it was easy for you.

I’m sure this wasn’t the most exciting thing about sewing for some, but there are some who don’t know as much.  It’s ok.  I should probably do one about facings, since some don’t know anything about them or know that they make a garment look and hang right.

Until next time!