Second garment: Skirt pattern and pattern comparisons

Now I've finished my first, fairly easy garment.  What next?

My experience using the See and Sew pattern was so positive that I went back to that rack at JoAnn Fabrics and found a New Look skirt pattern for my daughter who is leaving on a church mission in two weeks.  Not quite as simple because it has a separate waistband and zipper.  Having sewn a number of zipper projects in the past year, I shrugged off the challenge with a fairly laissez faire attitude.

Oops.

Umm, zippers.  And sizes.  And directions.

The zipper directions.  Not clear and the pictures didn't help.  That on top of me misunderstanding the directions for facing the waistband cost me HOURS!  Since it has been a few years since I last added a waistband, I muffed it. (A different picture accompanying the directions for the waistband and zipper would have greatly helped my understanding too.) I finally unpicked the whole thing from the skirt and will cut out another waistband and start over.  Now I see why it said to study the directions before beginning.  If unclear, read it again.  Work with scrap fabric, but definitely don't use $17 a yard fabric (thankfully I got it on 50% discount.)  At least I had extra since I laid out the pattern as economically as I could while keeping it on straight of grain.

As for the zippers, I finally went to YouTube.  The first video confused me but the second one was excellently done by Craftsy.  I've put the link on my sidebar under Sewing Tutorials and here.  I will be playing it as I complete each step.  In fairness, this is a difficult process to describe using just words without a video so I'll cut the writers slack. 

Size measurements.  I used a bigger size than expected because of the listed waist size.  It almost fell off my daughter when I tried it on her.  I might make a sewing moulage of her so I can sew her clothing while she is serving her mission.  So I knocked it down about 4 sizes, smaller than I had initially expected to cut.  I should note that the See and Sew sizing wasn't terrific either.  I guessed at the size a little but it was a logical guess since I don't totally match their sizes.

I just looked up the makers of each of the patterns I have used this year.  Simplicity makes New Look, and Butterick makes New Look and McCall's owns both as well as all the others as of November 2017.  My mother used to say that Vogue and Butterick made the best patterns and directions, and she basically threw away the Simplicity directions and muddled through on her own knowledge of sewing to make those designs.  Likewise, I've always struggled more with Simplicity patterns.  I wonder what will happen now that all the pattern companies are under one head.

Hopefully I'll be able to make a new waistband and add a zipper more successfully now.

Dressmaker techniques

I have around 4 quilt tops ready to be quilted and free motion quilting abilities that are faltering due to aching thumbs and wrists (probably arthritis) SO I am shifting focus.  I have long been intimidated by garment sewing so that's what I'm conquering next!

My first project?  A See and Sew pair of pajama pants.  

Very basic, very easy.  Elasticized waist without pockets.  Next time, I'll add pockets. 

First, the finished product:

I'm going to show some techniques that run contrary to what many bloggers and YouTubers demonstrate so let me share my credentials (or rather, the credentials of those who taught me.)  My mother, who taught me, paid for a long series of sewing lessons from a professionally trained, high-end clothier.  She passed many of those dressmaker tips on to me while she taught me to sew.  Her hopes of giving me a practical and creative outlet failed for decades because I was too fixated on perfection.  (Thank you Jenny Doan and other quilters for helping shift that paradigm!)  However, I never forgot those tips because I used them to discern high quality clothing vs. stuff that would make it through the summer on my kids but no further.  And now finally I'm trying my hand at sewing again.

First, the cutting.  A cutting blade or scissors?  I initially thought a blade would be easier.

That lasted for a short time.  It has advantages, but this was thick flannel and my blade was apparently not new.  (I think it was Easy Spirit.) 

So after cutting and recutting multiple times, I tossed that away and went back to my Gingher shears.  Tip:  To eliminate the problem of the bottom layer being slighter wider than the top layer, hold the paper down with your other hand while cutting.  I'm right handed so I held down the left side where the bulk of the pattern was.  I pity left handers trying to sew and highly recommend another needle art.  The odds are stacked against you!  I think that's why Jenny Doan is ambidextrous.  She sewed enough that she had to adapt to a right-hander's world.

My main beef is next.  I know a lot of YouTubers and bloggers pin patterns and fabrics running parallel to cut lines, but I was taught to pin the pattern onto the fabric by poking the pins in a perpendicular fashion to the cut line.  That keeps the pattern from sliding.  The same thing goes for the straight-of-grain lines.

When turning under fabric 1/4" for a hem or something, I sew along the line and then press the edge over.  It's a lot smoother, gives a sharper fold, and helps me NOT stretch the fabric as I'm fighting to stitch it down.  It also gives extra protection against fraying fabric through multiple laundry sessions. (Not nearly as big of a concern for quilters!) 

I also pink the seams to retard fraying.  Always. I use Fiskars pinking shears because Ginghers are terribly expensive, and they aren't the spring loaded ones.  I wish they were.  Then I press the seams open.  The seams are 5/8" so burned fingers aren't an issue like they are when I occasionally pressed seams open on quilt blocks.

Next, I slash the notches.  I know, I know, there are times and fabrics when you would use other techniques, but PJs are not one of those times!

Again, I pin the fabrics together to join them with the pins running perpendicular to the cut line.  I'm right handed, my sewing machine is right handed, and I keep my pincushion to the right side of my sewing so the fabric doesn't sweep it off the table.  It goes for a far smoother and efficient motion to easily remove the pins without stopping your machine, AND if you occasionally sew over pins, it isn't as deadly to your machine.  Your chance of the needle sliding over one pin is reasonably good, but if it has the entire pin in front of the needle, you have a better chance of breaking your needle and/or jamming your machine. Don't even start me on pointing the head of the pin toward the needle.  I watched a YouTube video yesterday where the sewist did exactly that, and it looked painfully awkward!

I admit that, as a beginning sewist, I often stop when removing pins because frankly I'm readjusting something at the same time, but I don't have to and often don't.  My mother almost never stops her machine but flies through every seam.  I hope to get that fast!

My husband took this shot where I didn't stop my machine to snap the picture:

So here are some of the most common dressmaker techniques as taught by some of the best dressmaker schools.  I hope they help someone else too.

Framed

I wrote my last post when I finished the cross stitch and forgot to add a picture of it framed.

TA-DAAA!

Finished in September, gifting in December

You've seen me post progress of my cross stitch piece on Instagram.  

I FINISHED IT!

I'll get it pressed and framed to give to my husband for either his birthday or Christmas present.  That's his signature phrase.  I bought the pattern in July 2010; it only took 8 years to finish it!

🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈❤🧡💛💙💚💜😁😁😁😀😀😀😀😀

Some time has passed! From the first of November to now!!!

So like most of you, much has happened within the past month.  My eldest twin son saved and bought his first car:  The really odd part is actually having my car anytime I want it for at least the next week until my daughter gets home from Snow College!

He also raked up the forest worth of leaves in our back yard.  That pile doesn't look very tall but you need to understand that I'm looking down at them.  Our house (and patio) stands on a hill above the level of that playset.  Both of my sons bagged those leaves which filled 8 or 9 of those big contractor-sized leaf and debris bags!

Biscuits and chicken.  Definitely not a diet food but tasty!

Now my latest quilting finish:

I finished the quilt top and have purchased the backing and batting.  Now it sits on a chair.  Waiting.

My other twin son treated me to dinner at Taqueria Tres Hermanos Thursday night.  It was a lovely night out with him!

Finally starting to break out Christmas decorations starting with stockings my sister-in-law made us years ago.  She is in our hearts, prayers, and minds this Christmas.

Some bookmarks I made for my quilting friends. This was my inspiration post.

Now what else can I do to avoid quilting that Christmas quilt above?!  I think that starting is the hardest part!

Christmas is coming!

I made a mini-button quilt of the Nativity!  

I sewed on the buttons representing the principle figures but cut the shanks off the back of the animal buttons so they could be glued.  Any suggestions of a good, long-lasting glue?  The glue stick from Missouri Star that I'm using is working for now, but I'm not sure it will last through the years.  Maybe a craft glue like Aleene's Tacky Glue?  

I didn't do a whole lot of quilting on this because I used my walking foot and found I missed the flexibility of the FMQ open toe presser foot.  I might go back to add quilting in the black frame.

Lots of FMQ designs on this periodic table of elements!

Here's my latest quilt, created to practice free motion quilting.  I think I used a little bit of everything I've learned so far because some of the spaces are irregular and some because I got bored with what I had already done.  I tried to do each type of element differently from each other too.

Some examples (if you look really close!)

The back side:

Any chemistry teachers out there?  Homeschoolers?