Muslin beginner

I been sewing for years, but am only just cluing in to the concept of using a muslin to fit a pattern.

The term muslin (or toile) refers to both a test/trial version of a sewing pattern for fitting purposes. It also refers to the cheap un-dyed cotton fabric frequently used for this purpose. Old sheets can also be used (hooray for re-use!)

The bonuses of using a muslin include that you can fit a pattern without ruining your more expensive fashion fabric, plus you can keep the muslin fabric to be used again later as a pattern perfectly fitted to you.

Since the muslin doesn't need to be finished, just fitted, it goes together fairly quickly. Plus, if something is too small, you can just cut it and sew in a strip of fabric - the look is not what's important, just the shape.

I am looking forward to getting home to my sewing machine and putting this practice into use. while in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, I bought tons of lovely cottons in the markets there that I am dying to put to use. Many of my previous patterns I have put days and days of work into, only to be unhappy with the final fit. I am hoping that a few hours sewing a muslin will keep this from happening too much in the future...

Abu Dhabi Cottons:
So fun and colourful, and some were as cheap as ~$1.50/m!! I <3 shopping in Abu Dhabi...

I recently found this post through the ever-fabulous Gertie, and fully intend to use the resources mentioned, especially the patternreview.com website.

Cupcake Pincushion!

I made this little cupcake pincushion from scraps I had around. It's mostly felt and stuffed with fabric scraps. All the little "sprinkles" are stitched by hand (I've been watching a few movies to pass the winter blahs). The creases in the cup are made by sewing thin pleats, slightly thicker in the bottom than near the top, so that it flares out.

Best of all, it has a wrist strap to keep your pins nice and handy!

More Crafty Links

I was recently directed to the free 42 ways to recycle e-book here. It's full of projects to make out of items we throw away every day - after my own heart!

In the direction of my ever hopeful, here is an awesome tutorial for a super simple skirt. I love making pencil skirts out of jersey knit, but hadn't yet found the best way to make a waistband - this may just be it. Shirring is super simple and I have loved the look of it since I was a little girl. I want to make about 5o of these skirts...

I just discovered the knithacker website. Some of the projects posted are so amazing!

Many people I probably won't have to say anything about this, but I have also discovered Craft Leftovers. How has this site escaped my attention until now? So lovely!

Spray Painting Fabric!

I finally made myself a new shirt using the pattern I made a couple of weeks ago, and I'm really happy with the results.

I decided to add a pattern to the fabric by laying some lace over it and then spray painting the whole thing - the spray paint passes through the holes in the lace, and you're left with a negative version of the lace pattern. The picture above is one of my test swatches.

Spray-painted fabric is surprisingly durable in the wash - I just throw mine in the washer and dryer with the rest of my clothes. It will probably fade over time but, really, I can always make a new one!

The only downside I have found is that sometimes you get a lingering scent of spray-paint coming off the shirt, but I'm sure that will fade after a handful of washes. I am so happy with the way this project turned out!

I Need New Clothes - BAD!

One thing I like about working in the field is that you can stop caring what you look like. It really doesn't matter - nice clothes will just get destroyed anyhow, your hair is always a mess, and you wind up with bruises and scrapes all over your body. You even shower less for lack of water. Someone has to fill the water tanks, so it just seems cruel to shower as long and as often as you do at home - so you stay dirty.

This is a huge contrast to the work I do when I'm at home. I work in the office 5 days a week. I need to look presentable since the president of the company is two offices down, and investors can show up at any time. It makes things interesting when loads of samples come into the office and you have to do physical labour while in a pencil skirt, tights, and heels...

I tend to forget about my office clothes while in the field. I forget about my going-out clothes as well, so I come back at the end of the summer with fresh eyes on my wardrobe.

This year, upon returning home, I have realized that I pretty much need an entire new wardrobe. This has likely been partly caused by the fact that I have been watching a lot of Project Runway lately, and am realizing just how ridiculous most of my clothes are.

I haven't been shopping in ages, and sort of lost my connection with my sewing machine for a while. I bought a huge office-worthy wardrobe when I started this job, but that was over two years ago. Some things have warped and don't fit me anymore, while the ones I loved are just getting too old and ragged to wear.

And my casual clothes, I have had for far too long. I realize now that they are mostly for someone about 5 years younger than I am. Most of my shirts are T-shirts with Roller Derby logos on them, and I just don't feel like I can pull that kind of look off anymore...

The fun part is that I get to reinvent myself, but I hate shopping for clothes. So, I have to do a lot of sewing in the next little while... Whee! It's going to be interesting trying to make a cohesive wardrobe - I have always made individual pieces without thinking about how they fit in with the rest of my clothes, but I'm going to try and make it all fit together somehow. Wish me luck!

Adjusting the Bust on Sewing Patterns

Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing
is a great sewing blog. Gertie tries some really fun stuff, and I have learned techniques I never even thought existed by reading it.

One of my favourite things she is doing at the moment is a sew-along for a coat. Such a fantastic idea, and a way to learn step-by-step how to not only sew a garment, but how to make it fit your body precisely. She is answering questions all the while. If I weren't so VERY far from my sewing machine at the moment, I would be sewing along. As is, I may just have to catch up when I get home :)

Learning to alter patterns appropriately is one thing I need to do. Gertie linked to a tutorial today on how to adjust the bust size of a garment to fit. Apparently it's better to size a garment according to your high bust, rather than your actual bust (measuring under your armpits, but above the full part of your chest). I'm not super gifted in the area, but I'm not flat either, and whenever I make a garment to fit my bust, the shoulders are too wide. I'm hoping to use this tutorial the next time I make a top, so that it fits me correctly! She's also recommended the book Fit for Real People as a resource on how to fit garments. I need to look into making that purchase...

On a completely separate note, a few things have shown up on the Craft blog that caught my eye:

- Neozoon's fuzzy animal art. Luxurious graffiti, who would have thought!
-These canning jars by Weck are so lovely, and look very practical. They show of their contents well, and most have large, reusable lids that I love.
-Apparently they have a nice collection of free patterns over at Living Crafts. I will have to take the time to check it out one of these days...
-The photos from Caboodle Ranch kind of creeped me out; they make the cats look like giants!

Make yourself a simple pencil skirt in under an hour!

OK, so here's a quick tutorial for how to make a simple pencil skirt out of knit cotton fabric without a pattern. It takes exactly 3 lines of stitching to complete.

Tools you will need:

-measuring tape
-sewing machine with ball point needle
-thread
-scissors (or rotary cutter and self-healing mat)
-pins
-enough knit fabric wide enough to go around your hips and twice the desired finished length of the skirt.

Step 1: Measure

You will need three measurements:
-Your hips at their fullest
-Your waist where you want the waistband of the skirt to sit
-The desired length of the skirt from where you want the waistband to sit, to where you want the skirt to end

Step 3: Make waistband

Take your waist measurement and multiply it by 0.8 (or 80%). For example, my waist measurement is 36". 0.8 x 36 = 28.8 , but we'll just say 29. Take this measurement as the width of the waistband piece.

Measure out a piece of fabric that is 8" tall along the grain of the fabric (the less stretchy direction), and as wide as the number you determined earlier. Make sure that this piece of fabric will sit snug against your waist while wrapped around you, but is still loose enough to pull on and off over your hips. Make sure to leave enough extra for seam allowance.

For those of you who don't like math, you can just cut out a strip of fabric 8" tall and as wide as your fabric roll, then wrap it around your hips almost as tight as it will go. Move it to your waist and see if it is comfortable. If it is too tight loosen it a little. Make sure to leave enough for seam allowance.

Fold your strip of fabric in half the long way, with right sides together, and sew it into a loop. You now have a waistband.

Note: When sewing knit fabric, I like to use a short stitch length and a slight zig-zag so that it stretches nicely. On my machine, the zig-zag stitch goes from 0-4, and I set it in between 0 and 1.

Step 4: Make Skirt

For the body of the skirt you will need to cut out one long rectangle. The measurement along the width of the fabric (in the more stretchy direction) will be your hip measurement (unless you like your skirt really loose, you can take 2 or 3 inches away from the width measurement. It's knit, it will stretch). Make the length of this piece (along the grain of the fabric) twice the length you want the finished skirt to be.

Fold this piece along the width measurement (the more stretchy direction), with the right sides together, and sew up the side opposite the fold to make a tube.

Sorry for some of the washed out pictures.

Step 5: Attach the waistband to the skirt

OK, you're almost done. Fold the skirt in half along it's length with the wrong sides together, encasing the raw edges inside. Do the same with the waistband. Now place the skirt bottom inside the loop of the waistband with the raw edges facing up (and fold facing down) for both. Match the seams together and pin the waistband to the skirt, matching the raw edges, stretching the waistband to make it fit. Once you have them fitting nicely together, sew them together. Stretch the waistband as you sew to make it fit nicely onto the skirt.

Finish the raw edges any way you like, but since it's knit cotton, you shouldn't need to if you don't want to. If you have really stubborn fabric in your waistband that keeps stretching out and making the skirt not stay up, you can sew some elastic onto the raw edges to hold it in place.

And Voila! You've made yourself a brand new skirt!

* To anyone wondering about the AMAZING top I'm wearing in the first pic, it was done by my the incredible Scott at Tied up and Dyed on Gabriola Island. You can visit his website here, or catch him at all the summer farmers markets on Gabriola. I love LOVE his work for how intricate it is, and how classy he can make tie dye. I wore this shirt to the office and my co-workers were in awe of it. So am I!

Haramaki and Underwear Galore!

Today, I spent the day sewing like crazy! I made the above 3 pairs of panties from old T-shirts (the two Spiderman pairs were from a single shirt). The old Tinkerbell shirt I have had for years, and it has been a part of so many different projects... I'm not sure how long these underwear will last, but there are so many memories associated with this shirt that I just couldn't help myself. Some detail on the Tinkerbell are below:

She's just a little bit faded...

I also took the White Queen costume from last week, and made the bottom into a little slip. It was the only part of the original costume that really fit me well - I'm happy with how it turned out! I just cut the original slip, folded the fabric over some elastic and sewed the whole thing together with a zig-zag stitch. Voila! Insta-slip!


I also made an old black T-shirt into a tank top (straps yet to be added). When I make tank tops, I like to buy the adjustable bra-type straps to use (or just scavenge from old bras). It always seems to me that tank top straps always stretch, and I hate that, so this is my way of avoiding that.

And, the piece de resistance of the day is my new haramaki! What is a haramaki you ask? A haramaki is a piece of japanese fashion that has been around since the time of the samurai. It's basically a belly warmer - a tube of fabric that covers your mid-section from your hips to your ribs. I fell in love with the idea a while ago, and let me tell you why:

I'm tall. At 5'8", I'm not exceptionally large, but most of my height is in my midsection. As a result, shirts are pretty much never long enough for me. Add to that the fact that I don't like the waist of my pants to be too high, and I am pretty much constantly showing off a circle of flesh around my midsection. Not too pretty, especially from the rear...

Enter the haramaki. It can be worn under the clothes so that if ever that area between the shirt and the pants peek through, all that shows is a little pop of colour. It can be worn over the clothes as a focal point. They are wonderful for those expecting, because they will cover the part of the body left exposed by ill-fitting T-shirts.

I really love the colours of this one I made - reversible yellow and orange. Both colours come from old T-shirts, and I love the way they look together. Makes me want to eat citrus...

Wool Coat is Complete!

Yay! I finally finished my coat... now that the weather's warming up in Vancouver :)

This is the first big project I have completed in a while, and I am very happy with how it turned out. This is also the first coat I have ever made!


My favourite part about this coat has to be the buttons. They caused me some grief as the buttons I had originally bought didn't go that well with the leather - but then I found these vintage faux wood numbers at Button Button and fell in love! The only problem was that the buttonhole attachment for my sewing machine didn't make buttonholes large enough for my buttons to fit through... there are fancy buttonholes with no stitching showing (not sure what these are called any more...), but they take a lot of time and I don't think they would work with such thick fabric. So, I just put my machine on a zig-zag stitch and did them manually:


To say the truth, I think I prefer this to the machine made ones, as I have more control. My machine is probably older than I am, an I have never been fond of the buttonhole attachment.

I also had a moment of panic when I tried on the coat after putting on the buttons and had a thought that I looked like a clown... No idea where it came from, but after I saw it, it wouldn't go away. I asked my boyfriend, and he unwisely agreed with me, so I had to continue to panic until his sister came over and assured me that the buttons looked great. I now love them again!


Other than that, I pretty much followed the pattern. There are lovely hidden pockets in the front seams, and I'm really happy with the cream coloured lining. I wound up adding an extra line of stitching to make the collar sit right. I have a horrible time remembering which side to sew the upper collar to, and which side to sew the under collar to, and I seem to get it wrong every time - this was no exception. Unfortunately, you can't re-sew leather without destroying its integrity, and so the collar remained upside down. This may have something to do with it sitting funny... Hopefully I won't make that mistake again, but it looks good the way it is.

I can't wait to wear it tomorrow!

White Queen and Adventures in Matching Plaid

On Friday, my friend had an Alice in Wonderland Dress Up "tea" (aka booze) party. I had just gotten back from Maui (that's right, you're jealous) and I thought I was going to have no time to throw together a costume, but felt inspired at the last minute. So, I went out and bought a white slip and a ton of lace and made the following costume:

I can't believe how well it turned out considering how last minute it was. (See the real White Queen here) The only serious downside was that the wonderful tan I picked up on vacation really didn't help the costume. In fact, I think that with the blonde wig it made me look more like a drag queen than anything. Also, white is not my colour.

I also had to throw together a costume for my boyfriend at the last minute. I was inspired by this post I found through the Craft Magazine blog while at work, and so I "Recycled" a couple of filing folders into a Dormouse mask. It took 15 minutes to make!

He looked so adorable with it on, too.

I also have had some time to work on my wool coat, and I love how it's turning out. I bought all the fabric they had left on the roll, and boy am I glad there was 0.6 meters more than I needed. Plaid that big is a BITCH to match. I double checked the match before I cut anything out. A good thing too, because I caught some mistakes. I also had to re-do so many seams because the plaid was just a little too much off.

I learned something while cutting out the fabric. I have a new rotary cutter and self-healing mat (so nice!) that I was using to cut out the pattern, and I learned the hard way that rotary cutters do not work well on pattern paper! It does not cut with a soft background like fabric, it TEARS! Cut out the pieces to fit you before placing them on the fabric!!

Sadly, I finally cut into my lovely leather coat to make the collar. I like how it matches, but I think I need to add some stitching to make it sit right. I also had to go and buy new buttons to match with the leather, since the original ones didn't quite look right.

With a little luck, the coat should be finished in the next day or two. Now, I'm thinking I will have to make a matching wool-and-leather purse with the leftover fabric.

Coat and Olympics!

Yes folks, that time we've all been dreading has arrived. The Olympics have arrived in Vancouver! The torch just happened to be passing by a block from my apartment, so I thought I'd go check it out. My friend pointed out that I went to see the torch in Canada's most densely populated neighborhood - Kitsilano. I feel very Canadian.

With all the Olympic hype, it's been difficult to get into. I thought it would just be a pain, preventing me from getting to work, making everything expensive and low quality (which it is already doing. My lunch today was an olympic-sized pain in the ass), and just plain annoying. Then I thought: Well, they're coming, and I have to pay for it for years to come, so I'm going to enjoy as much free stuff as I can.

And so I shall. I saw the torch. And I will see it again tomorrow afternoon as it passes by my work. And I will watch the opening ceremonies on the computer, then go see Bedouin Soundclash for free at Science World (It is NOT the Telus World of Science!!). I will see Blue Rodeo. And Damien Marley. I will go see Canada House. I will cheer on our hockey team at the pub. Heck, I may actually enjoy all this Olympic stuff. when's the next time I'm going to experience it? I'm actually getting excited!!

To be honest this excitement has sort of come in the wake of some crafting excitement... I ordered my first pattern online, and I have been bouncing off the walls for a week and a half waiting for it to arrive. The first line out of my mouth when I call my boyfriend from work, or walk through the door has been "Did my pattern arrive??"

I felt like giving up hope when, yesterday, he calls me at work, so I ask the customary question, not expecting a positive response when, lo and behold, he said yes!!!

Boy, then I was really bouncing off the walls...

And so today I went to Dressew and picked out a nice wool blend plaid - brown and pink, with some cream lining. The fabric just jumped off the shelf at me, and there was JUST enough left on the roll for me. I tell you, it was fate...
The only negative to this fabric is that it is slightly scratchy. I had planned to make the coat all out of the fabric, and skip the accent collar and bow. However, after some poking and prodding from a friend more fashionable than I, it occurred to me that I should replace the collar to make it less itchy. And the leather from the coat I am replacing could be a good candidate. Here's the old, cheap leather coat that's starting to fall apart:
Now that I know I can sew leather with my machine, I was going to turn it into a purse, but I'm sure I could keep enough to make a collar, and maybe an accent belt out of it (no bow!). It's really nice, soft leather, and I bet it will be a dream to work with. I really hate having to say goodbye to this jacket, but I really shouldn't be wearing it, what with all the holes... You don't see them in the photo, but they're in the side, and back, and sleeve, and inside...

Adventures with sewing leather!

Today I had my first experiences sewing with leather!

I have an aging leather jacket that I bought at a vintage store that was closing down - for about $3, and I love it to pieces. It is a lovely golden shade of brown, and the leather is the softest I have ever touched. It is my go-to jacket for just about everything, but sadly it has started to collect rips. It was old when I got it, but it's getting to the point that I can't ignore it anymore.

And then the other day, a button fell off. Now, I could easily sew that button back on, but I have chosen to take this as a sign that it is time for that leather jacket to be put out of its misery. But, at the same time, I can't bear to let it go. I love that jacket so much, and so many parts of the leather are still good. So, I have decided to cut it up and make it into something new.

But, before I cut into my favorite jacket, I needed to find out if I could sew leather with my 30ish year old sewing machine. And so it was that I made my way down to Dressew to purchase a handful of small leather scraps for practice. Here are a few things I learned along the way:

-Dusting the plate, presser foot, and your work with baby powder makes things much easier. Seriously, it made a huge difference to how the leather slipped under the needle.

-Keep the stitch-length long. I was practically using a baste stitch. If the stitch is too short, the leather falls apart along the sewing line. Think perforated paper.

-I had to keep my speed up for the machine to have enough power to penetrate the leather. It needed the extra momentum I guess. This meant that any detailed areas or corners took a little extra effort, especially since the long stitch length meant the needle was moving extra fast. I have heard that you can lubricate the needle, either with commercial needle lubricant or, barring that, with whatever lotion you have lying around. I will try that next time.

-Buy a leather needle!!!

Other than that, my little project was fun, and done in a flash! I made a black and white leather cuff, attached with velcro and lined with fleece for comfort. It's very warm on my wrist... I'm thinking my jacket will probably become a nice new purse in the near future.

Companion Cube Footstool!

A little while back I posted saying that I was going to try to finish my WIPs before the end of the year. Well, here is one of the projects I have had sitting on my shelf for a while - a fun fur Companion Cube footstool! It's made of an old milk crate with a cushion on the top I made by cutting up some leftover bits of fleece.

Here's Mike with an action shot: I love this thing!

T-Shirt Underwear and Amy Karol

Relating to this previous post, today I learned that one of my inspirations Amy Karol also makes her own underwear from old T-shirts. Amy has a new book out for anyone interested in altering the surface of patterns withe stencils, stamps, or printable designs:

The making of fuzzy D-20's

So, I am having a few issues uploading photos from the wedding from my camera, and my living room is so full of furniture I haven't been able to do much in the way of sewing (since there's a futon in the way of my sewing machine...). However, I do have some awesome images of a pair of fuzzy D-20's I made for my brother's birthday! Unfortunately, his car is not working right now...

The first thing I did was make an equilateral triangle (all 3 sides are the same length) out of paper. It was 2" to a side. I then started tracing and cutting out pink fleece triangles all the same size - 40 of them.
Then I used a plastic stencil and dabbed on black acrylic paint. Numbers that had more than one digit, I let the first digit dry before adding the second so that the paint didn't smudge.
Here are some of the finished triangles:
I then started sewing the numbers together. I didn't have an actual 20-sided die to use as a model, so I just mixed up the numbers and their orientations, making sure not to duplicate any numbers since there are two dice. I sewed 5 of them together in a circle using a 1/4" seam allowance, then did the same with another five. The last 10 I sewed into a loop by alternating the orientation of the triangles.
Then each pentagon (5 sides) is sewed onto the loop, matching the corners.
Before attaching the second pentagon, I inserted a bit of cord and sewed across it on one edge. I also left one edge open for the string to come out, and to be able to turn it right-side out.
I stuffed it with leftover fleece and slip-stiched the opening shut, then did the same with the other die.

Voila! Fuzzy D-20's! Always makes me think of the Cake line: "Where large fuzzy dice still hang proudly like testicles from rear-view mirrors"

Green dress is complete!

I finally finished the dress for the wedding! I used an old pattern from 1975 that I hadn't ever touched before... it either used to belong to my mom or I picked it up second-hand somewhere, I'm not sure which. I had to alter the pattern since it was in a size 12 and I'm more like a size 16, but it turns out this pattern is very forgiving, and it turned out great! I just added 1/2" to each seam allowance and eye-balled the curves.

The pattern is supposed to attach the halter-strap behind the neck with buttons, but I never liked that kind of attachment. I find that anything behind the neck, depending on your position, will get too tight or too loose. Here's what I did instead:

First, I measured the overlap when the straps were sitting comfortably behind my neck.

Then, I sewed a tube of fabric about 1.5" longer than that length and the width of the strap. I then cut out 2 strips of elastic (I didn't have any wide elastic) a little longer than the length of the overlap.

I placed the strips of fabric side by side in the fabric tube. I then cut the straps down to eliminate the overlapping ends entirely, but keeping 1/4" seam allowance, which I then folded into the strap. After that, just slip the tube and elastics into the strap, and sew the whole thing!

I pushed the fabric of the tube down until it is level with the end of the elastics (I exaggerated a bit here to show the elastic), then sewed the other side in a similar way.

Voila! A comfortable halter strap! And if you're wondering about the tape on my back, I have had to have that lately to keep my muscles in the correct place. It's all to help get rid of some neck/shoulder problems that I can thank working in front of a computer for...

I made a bra-extender from an old bra!

OK, so the end result is none too pretty, but it was a really quick project and works extremely well. I just cut the attachment part off an old bra, and sewed it onto a double-layer of material from an old T-shirt. Everything is sewn with a zig-zag to finish the edges.

I made sure that the piece of material I was using as a base was as wide as the bra-strap I wanted it to fit, and as long as the two ends I cut off the old bra, then just fit each piece into its respective corner, and voila!

The whole reason I made this was for a lovely halter dress I am making to wear to a wedding. Unfortunately, my only strapless bra (trust me, I can't go without) is just a little too tight, making the dress way too loose in the top. It's much better now that the bra is fitting right.

Funny thing, after I finished this, I was in a really good mood and wanted to finish the dress (all I have left is the hem), but I couldn't for the life of me find the thread to match it. My boyfriend and I tore the entire apartment apart looking for it. Eventually I just gave up, not wanting to sew anymore. I went to put the cover on the sewing machine, and noticed a trail of green thread coming out of it. It turns out the spool of thread was stuck in the sewing machine cover!! I couldn't stop laughing for a while after that one...

Zippered Tote-bag How-to

Heart of Mary posted a tutorial for this awesome tote bag that zips up into a little pocket. So handy! Update: The new and improved tutorial for this tote is now available for a small fee at her Etsy shop Simple Things!