PR Weekend

I was very excited to get the chance to attend the 2018 Patternreview Weekend in Stratford at the beginning of last month. It was the first time I'd made it to a PR Weekend in several years. I spent part of the day before in Toronto—I could’ve gone fabric shopping, but mostly I stayed in Chinatown instead—and ended up in Stratford that evening (there are two trains a day, and it would've been impossible to connect to the morning one).

In the milling around before going to the Stratford costume warehouse Friday morning, unfortunately I missed heading over to Knox Church and seeing the demos that were happening there. But I did get to meet some people who ended up being on the other bus the next day for fabric shopping, or at other tables Friday night, so that was worthwhile. The costume warehouse was a lot of fun to look at, and then there were two talks on the Friday evening, before a catered dinner.

One talk was by Gillian Whitcombe on taking better pictures. That was very positive, fun and informative. For me to follow her suggestions as they relate to Patternreview, the next step would be to get some kind of extra hardware so I can remotely control a camera, because the whole timer-and-run thing is a drag. The main problem right now is I’ve found my camera, but I put all its chargers and extra batteries *somewhere* when unpacking after the move, so it’s dead until I find them. I’d rather buy a remote for the camera than my phone, I think, since iThings are typically overpriced. But I’ll look into it more.

The second was a demo by the owners of Jalie of some of their patterns, especially their ingenious new V-neck top called "Bobbie." It has a facing acting as a sort of under-vest to keep the V neck close to the body even if you bend over. I think they'd sold out of the ones they brought, but I may buy it later.

I’d show pictures of other attendees but that doesn’t sit well with me to put on this blog, so I’ll leave it to the official PR blog post. Instead, here’s some fabric. The wonderful lace at right I won in a giveaway for entering the most items into contests of anyone at the event… hmm, now I feel like I should finally get around to volunteering to manage one. I'm guessing this happened because I entered lots of things into a couple of stash contests over the years.

I also somehow had posted the most comments on other people’s reviews, so won another of the giveaways for that. Maybe that happened because I have been on for so many years and I used to post on many of the new reviews every day? I was surprised by that but was happy to pick out this grading DVD. I’m very curious to see what grading specs/methods Kathleen Cheetham uses; I know of the Threads article and some of the sizing standards, and I often sew single-size vintage patterns that need to be graded up or down. But I don't know what she does for her Petite Plus sizes.

In addition, I got too much lingerie fabric/lace from Bramakers’ Supply in Hamilton. They have several of the same types of stretch laces and embroideries that can be found in Europe from stores like Sewy or Kantjeboord, I think because they actually go and buy some from time to time. This is nice to have in the beige and molded-foam-cup desert North America has sometimes seemed to be until recently. As well, and very importantly, they stock fabrics and notions made to match, so that you can make bras with perfectly matching elastics, closures, and channeling in a variety of colours, around 14 or so last I checked.

The rest of the large pieces of fabric were from the shopping trip on Saturday and they’re mostly meant to be used to replace various parts of my summer wardrobe. We’ll see how fast it actually gets sewn up. I’d hoped to get some nice cotton shirtings, and was able to find a couple. I also spied out a lovely handkerchief linen and a raw silk in Ann’s Fabrics in Hamilton. And there’s also a cotton canvas print that I’ve already made up into a skirt, which I’ll review one of these days.

Here’s hoping there are more PR Weekends in Canada soon.

Those shoulder holes

You know the ones. Some variants are classic(al) in a literal sense, but many are on the faddish and contrived side IMO. Regardless, they're still being promoted by several pattern companies, both American and European. I don't think I saw the style at all in Germany as late as 2014. It didn’t seem all that popular in Vancouver either, while I was there, but I’ve seen more of it in Kingston—which has hotter summers and probably more tourists around where I'd see them—in 2017–18.

They have some potential benefits:

• less uneven tanning if you often wear short sleeves but rarely go sleeveless
• can feel warmer, if it’s your forearms and not your shoulders that get cold
• unlike with cap or no sleeves, nobody needs to know the state of your armpits, if that’s a controversial issue in your area (lol)
• likewise, you don’t have to show much of your upper (or lower) arms if you don’t want to
• might feel less sweaty and gross than sleeveless in humid weather, IMO, and if you chose to add dress shields, they’d be more effective, as they could cover both sides
• even long-sleeved versions can look summery, if you’re in a climate where this might be useful

Downsides:

• not necessarily considered appropriate for all occasions (such as in the office)
• structurally trickier than sleeves without the holes, since they aren’t supported by the shoulders
• more edges to finish
• when they do go out of fashion again, it'll be with a thud

I made a couple of dresses in this style last year, so I’ve been glad to see I’m not the only one still wearing it. One was based on a morph between the recent McCall’s 7412 and an early 70s Simplicity, cut as long as my fabric would allow, with the neckline hiked up and mock-smocking added to the sleeves and raised waist.

This is a crinkled linen blend I got from the Gala Fabrics that used to be in Vancouver. It lettuced a bit at the neckline and hems, but that and the clinging effect seem to become less noticeable once it's worn for a while and the fabric relaxes somewhat. The mock-smocking was done with elastic thread in the bobbin, while the neckline is held in with cord elastic in a casing.

The other was a modification of an early 2000s Neue Mode, which I may go back and use in unmodified form one of these days. The waist turned out rather loose (in keeping with the drawings) but that isn't such a bad thing, in hot weather.

The sleeves are self-lined and have an overlapped, mock-buttoned effect. I used the sleeveless views' combined neck and armhole facing to sandwich the partial armscye seams. The buttons were a gift and the fabric is a (Telio?) linen blend print that came from Dressew.

Closet control by "seasons"

There's no shortage of writing about wardrobe planning, cleaning out one's closet, blah blah blah. It's a first-world problem and not exactly earth-shattering – unless we consider the literal sense and go into all the environmental problems of fashion – but this is how I currently manage my closet space.

I have four groups of clothing items ("seasons") that I switch in and out of use at certain times of year – I find the solstices and equinoxes easy to remember. Two of these groups are in use, and in the more accessible part of my closet space, at any given time. At the moment, that's spring and summer; it'll be summer and fall next. This was part of winter and spring, shuffled together a bit:

Each of these groups is allowed to contain up to a certain number of pieces. I'm a little more lax with this when the group is actually in use, but by the time it goes out of rotation it has to be no more than 24. That total fits okay in my closets. I also have a couple of small, completely unrelated sections for activewear, outerwear, and special occasions; they don't have to follow these rules and are kept out of the way of the everyday items.

I'm trying to keep the colour schemes of all four groups roughly compatible, more or less fitting into what certain colour analysts might call Soft Summer or Dark Winter, but this is very much a work in progress: I have older items that don't match and still aren't quite worn out or dispensable enough to get rid of just yet. The bright pink spring dress above was an example, although it's on its way out because I've had it with the poor quality of the fabric.

Each group has a slightly more specific colour scheme within the range. Spring has my clearer pastels and silver grey, summer is a little hazier and more faded while still having highish contrast, fall is warmest, and winter is smoky and darkest. Each group is meant to try to cooperate with the neighbouring seasons, since items from both of the groups in rotation at any given time should ideally be able to work together. On the other hand, for example, the spring plums don't have to get along with the fall browns, since they're never in rotation together.

At present I'd say I'm happiest with what I have for winter, least happy with summer (a lot of the colours I've got there aren't right at all), and spring has a fairly dire shortage of pants, which means I have to rely on the winter or summer ones. I have two or three projects in the works to remedy that.

This scheme works okay in a fairly monotonous climate. More extreme temperatures might require a silly number of layering pieces to make it work. But it gives me a fresh look at what I already have, every time I switch a new group in.

DIY hook-and-loop cable wraps

I used to use twist ties to bundle my cords, until I got a cat who has an unhealthy obsession with them. Zip ties are another option, but you'd better be pretty sure of where you want them. Strips of hook-and-loop tape are a nice alternative, and require no tools to remove if it turns out you didn't put them in the right place the first time.

You can get big packs or rolls of the ready-made ones (Velcro or Panduit brands, for example) for a price that usually isn't very beatable compared to retail hook-and-loop tape. But the color selection readily available around here, or online and selling to Canada, seems to be mostly limited to black. That's fine for some of my cords, but there are others where I'd rather have something close to ivory or beige, to match the cord and draw less attention to it.

Well, Dressew had a sale bin of packs of 1yd loop and 1/2yd hook tape for 25 cents. They had white and pastels only, because these were evidently marketed for babies, and there aren't many goth babies, I guess. For my purposes, I found I could get 8 reasonably-sized wraps from a pack. This actually is a good deal compared to the ready-mades. They do happen to be wider than necessary, but at that price it doesn't bother me.

You just cut a piece of hook, a piece of loop, overlap them a bit (let's say 3/8-1/2") with wrong sides together, sew (I settled on a three-step zigzag), and you're done. It's best to place the loop side against the feed dogs, because otherwise the thread may catch on the hook side as the needle comes up, and that makes a mess.

The "sticking" area of these may be less than it is with some of the ready-made ones, but I find it's more than enough. They also aren't quite as flat as the ready-mades, obviously, since there are the two pieces being overlapped, but I suppose they could be butted together against some kind of softer backing material if that's a concern. Personally, I didn't care enough to bother.

These will make my light-colored cords much less of an eyesore. I'll probably still buy ready-made wraps for the rest.

Tea towels, for actual tea

I've again become sidetracked with knitting; this time it's to replace my sorry old kitchen towels. In ready-mades I was looking for something really specific, so unsurprisingly, it doesn't seem to exist: medium to dark colours; busy patterns without too much white in them; and thick fabric—the last seems pretty hard to find these days, at any price. One of my main uses for these is mopping up tea or colorful ingredients, but a lot of what I could find was thin, solid-coloured pastels that would get very noticeably stained on first use. I guess you could bleach them, but then you never quite know what color might result.

Well, two balls of Bernat Handicrafter will make a decent-sized towel for less than $3, when it's on sale. I got many different colors in an attempt to tie together all the miscellaneous colors in my kitchen; if I don't make myself thoroughly sick of this I could end up with 12 towels, which should pretty well replace what I've got. Here's one in Indigo and Lime Stripes.

It's a Purl Soho pattern that I downscaled, in both senses; you're meant to use Euroflax linen, which is lovely, but will make a thinner towel at a significantly higher price. It seems to me that linen yarn is less absorbent, somehow, too—is it the smoother surface, or just the fact that it's never spun as thick? Most importantly, they'd take a lot longer to knit as intended. Maybe someday.

Cat tunnel

The idea here was to copy this ready-made cat tunnel, but in a sturdier fabric and colors that match the room better.

The original tunnel is a tube about 33" in circumference and 27 1/2" in length. I cut a rectangle of my base fabric for this size plus seam allowances, then pinned it around the existing tunnel and chalk-marked the placement of the wire casing that spirals around.

It got a little more complicated when I decided to add leaf appliques. At first I was thinking of doing catnip leaves, until I looked up what those are shaped like... nope, way too many little serrations. I decided on matatabi/silver vine instead—a simple heart-ish shape is a decent approximation, and my iridescent fabric at least hints at the silvery leaves. (Well, I gather that it really should be cross-dyed green and white, not green and purple, but when I get to tell fabric manufacturers what colors they should make, that'll be the day.)

I drew a template and cut out 20 of those, made up a placement, and satin-stitched on all the ones that could be attached with the base fabric still flat. For that I used some variegated green-and-white thread that was just sitting around being useless in my stash. Then I sewed up the tube (using a French seam, like the original) and finally added the last few leaves that needed to go over that seam. 

For the spiral wire casing I used a bias strip of the contrast fabric, and for the end casings I used strips of the base fabric on the straight grain. There are also three tubing ties made of the contrast fabric around one edge, so the tunnel can be collapsed and tied flat, and another piece of tubing on the opposite end that holds a jingly bell toy (on the original tunnel it's a piece of red braid). Those are each caught into the end wire casings.

Lastly, the tunnel needs a wire inserted into the spiral and end casings. I had a hard time getting a good springy wire; the best I was able to find was 14 gauge galvanized wire that doesn't have enough bounce to keep the tunnel straight. I'm guessing what I need might be spring steel, but given the size of the rolls I'm finding, plus the fact that I don't know for sure it is what I want, it might end up being cheaper just to buy more of these cat tunnel(s) to take their wires. (I'd thought I might have to cannibalize the original tunnel for its wire connectors anyway, but I'm hesitating to do that now that I've mended it—it doesn't have those falling-off casings and sticking-out wires anymore.)

Anyway, the new tunnel has been getting some cat approval even in its current sad-sack state, so I might leave both tunnels alone for the time being.

First FO of 2017

This had been a UFO for a couple reasons, but the main one was it got sidelined for a sewalong I was doing with a local sewing meetup, working on a different project—that Burda 7237 coat. That was last fall, and this is not a winter top.

I used a linen remnant with a lot of sheen. (Yeah, it's very wrinkled, and I could've done more about that, but... it's going right back in the closet for another few months. It didn't get much beyond the necessary construction pressing.)

The pattern was Simplicity 3860, dated 1952, in vintage juniors' and misses' sizes 11-16 and 18. The one I have is about 3 sizes too small. After some dithering, I found it easier to try to duplicate all the details onto my fitting shell than to try to grade it. So what I'll say next has to be taken with a grain of salt, because I don't know the exact grade rules they followed and how well my version would correspond.

The impression I get is that this pattern (as drafted) will fit best on a figure that's relatively shallow front to back, i.e. with a wide, flat ribcage and chest: The armhole doesn't have much depth front to back, so on a person who has more, it will probably crease against the front of the arm/shoulder area, unless it's cut very low to mitigate this. Personally, I drastically reshaped the armhole when resizing the pattern and even so, had to hollow out the front more after cutting. The blouse also has the typical postwar very fitted waist that's more concave in front than I've ever been, so I had to reshape those darts. I narrowed the upper back, at the same time coping with an ostensibly permanent wear/crease line in my fabric that I couldn't cut around, by adding a long CB dart. I would probably cut and sew that as a seam next time, if there is a next time.

Lastly, design changes: I was a bit bored with the thing, so I decided to make reversed armhole facings to go with the neckband. I used an invisible zipper since that's what I could immediately find to match. (Now that I look at the button in artificial light, I'm really rethinking whether it's an okay match. Hmm. That might get changed.)

The pattern as a whole is clearly "of its time," and there are some aspects of the fit and design that probably really would work best for a 1950s teenager. But I think the blouse at least can be made much more versatile.

Burda 7237: the end is nigh

There are several more things that need to be done before I put the lining in. That's assembled too, less an underarm seam that I left open for bagging but might decide to close.

The fabric wrinkles easily, but it's also being softened up nicely by all the (over)work. I'm told that the shiny coating is more decorative than waterproof; no big deal (she says as it pours here for the next week at least).

One small thing to note (the instructions don't make a point of it, although they're in the correct order for it to happen): you have to complete the pockets before topstitching 4.5cm from CF. That way, the pocket seam allowance will get caught into the topstitching, rather than bumping against it. It's a nice touch that'll hold the pocket bags in place.

The instructions tell you to sew the lining in by hand, but I plan to do it mostly or entirely by machine, although I haven't decided whether that applies to the CB vent as well. It may also get an inside pocket.

Neue Mode these days: print-on-demand (looks like)

Unrelated to anything I'm currently working on, I tried ordering a few printed Neue Modes¹ while Sewingpatterns.com² had a rare sale on them last month.

My guess is these come from the same digital sources as their downloads do. I don't know how the originals would have been digitized (if they didn't start out that way), but just to see, I tried ordering patterns of various ages—the site has a few that look to be from the late 70s or so, many from the 80s, and possibly the complete catalogue from the 90s–2000s. It seems the image quality for the newer ones is slightly higher, but not by a lot. They've all got at least a bit of fuzziness, just like downloads from Printsew—not that impressive, though not unusable. I haven't yet attempted to check whether they're printed at the correct scale. I should hope so.

The paper is fairly heavy, kind of like old Kwik-Sews' but maybe not as smooth and flexible. Instructions aren't included; you have to download the PDF of them yourself from the site. Since it's possible to do that without ordering, I think it's well worth checking if the instructions for a particular pattern are to your liking before you decide whether to buy. Some of their oldest patterns have only German instructions.

The patterns are placed in large white envelopes with the original envelope image printed on, usually scaled up slightly, with the sharpness suffering as a result. Since the pattern paper is not very compactly folded, nor folded to match the size of the envelope, the result is rather bulky, similar to what I've seen from some small indie outfits.

All in all, I think the quality is fair. I'd prefer it over having to print out a download, myself, but it certainly doesn't match the polished presentation of the old Neue Modes.³

Are they worth full price? Well, how much do you really need a specific pattern? The reason I've gone to the trouble to get Neue Modes in the past is the quality of the drafting, variety of styles, and good construction methods, particularly for things like coats—those have the most complete set of pieces for interfacing and lining I've seen in home sewing patterns. The pants fit is similar to Burda's, and the sleeve cap shapes are (if anything) better, with a pronounced swoopy curve in front. The instructions are also similar to Burda's, which may be a dealbreaker for some.

I've now collected more Neue Modes than I care to admit, and these may be the last I buy. If you want to try this brand but aren't set on any particular pattern, you can still get some deadstock originals from some other sources. I've had good experiences with The Sewing Place. There are also some here and there on various resale sites, with (unsurprisingly) more being available in Germany, where they originated.

¹ Backstory: Neue Mode stopped designing and printing new patterns about 2007-8. I don't know what exactly happened then, but sometime thereafter, it looks as though Sewingpatterns.com got the rights to reprint their patterns and to sell them as downloads.
² People have had, shall we say, mixed experiences with Sewingpatterns.com. I've never had problems getting print orders fulfilled, eventually, but they aren't very communicative to say the least, and I wouldn't want to order from them if I had a deadline. The site is also not too professional-looking and hasn't had its design updated in the past several years, if ever—although I sometimes find site design updates gratuitous, this one's gone long enough that I have to wonder what else about the site hasn't been updated. They take PayPal; I would strongly suggest using it, if you do order from them.
³ In the past year or so, "new" Neue Modes have come out. I don't know who drafts them, and since the original Neue Mode drafting was what I appreciated, I haven't tried any of these others. You can tell them apart by their different instructions, which lack diagrams and seem rather Lekala-like.

"First" project of 2017

Or rather, this is the first project I've done any (more) work on—it remains to be seen what'll be finished first. I bought the pattern probably 3 years ago and just started it last October; being a coat, it feels like it's taking forever. The pattern is OOP Burda 7237 (here it is on the German site, where it can still be downloaded; I don't know how to find it on the English/US site, if it's even there).

It's in their petite sizing; size numbers are halved from their regular misses' European ones. I'm about the right height for their petite standard, although my height proportions aren't distributed identically.

Notable and not-so-notable fit changes:

• The bust darts seem way too low, something I would not have expected of a Burda petite pattern, given the way Burda says to convert their regular patterns to petite. It looks low on the model too—not easy to see, but there if you look at the "Original-Große" photos on the German site. I wonder if they were trying to keep the bust shaping below the View A flap. In any case, it was going to be glaringly obvious on my crisp fabric, so I raised the dart point—by more than two inches! Even on a non-petite pattern, I wouldn't expect to move it up more than maybe 3/4" (at least, if I hadn't done an FBA that lowered it). That being said, I found the armhole depth about right for me as it was, in line with what I'd expect.
  
• I did a large bicep alteration of 1 1/2", and lengthened the sleeves by 1/2" below the elbow. Not too surprising.
  
• I took a generous quarter inch of width out of both the front armscye and front of the sleeve cap. I could have considered taking the same out of the back armscye, but was advised it's just as well to leave it in for reach room when the fabric is non-stretch.
  
• I'll add thin shoulder pads, since the shoulder tips seem a little bit extended.
  
• To stop the lower front edges splaying out, I was advised (by a fellow member of my sewing meetup group, as with the shoulder width) to take in, or maybe I should say lower, the shoulder-neck point on the fronts only. This effectively "rotates" the entire front to make CF hang straight.
  
• I might let out the hips at the back side seams; haven't decided yet.
  
• I may shorten the belt. As designed, it's meant to be tied in a bow of some sort, and seems to have quite a bit of extra length.
  

Dart oddity on this one aside, I appreciate that Burda still makes a few petite patterns. They seem designed to be flattering on shorter people: good proportions, and a nice but not overwhelming number of details.

Activewear

Being bored with what I currently have, I made a couple of things. The fabric was some sort of gray "technical" type I got from ELingeriA before it closed. I couldn't tell you what it was, except that it clearly resists water on one side and absorbs it on the other.

Now that I've worn the FOs, I figure it must've been meant for a warmth layer of some kind. Anyway, I got two projects out of it. Second things first, Kwik-Sew 2779, so out of print it isn't even on their website anymore. I cut it as long as I could with what was left from the first project. I'd also lowered the rise and cut the waist elastic rather long so it would sit lower than the original design intended.

The first project was Kwik-Sew 3835. As my fabric was less stretchy than what the pattern intended, I cut all the bands in much larger sizes. They still stay up quite well. I also erred on the small side for the main pieces, since I felt all the volume wasn't really needed. That all meant the main pieces could be eased, not gathered, onto the waistband.

With the wicking properties, I was concerned about the orientation of the bands. If I'd followed the intended construction, they'd have been water-resistant against the skin, not a great feeling. If I'd made them inside out, I can only imagine what stink would get trapped inside. So I cut them in two along the length and assembled them so as to put the wicking sides to the insides (er, patient inside) on both.

The gray is not an exciting color, but the gathered pair is very different from anything I have, and I like its drape. Now if only I had a cooler fabric for summer. The main parts can be made in a woven; I think they'd be nice in a crinkle gauze.

Favorite Things Pins & Needles: a Tardis knitting needle case

I got this Tardis fabric at Gala in Victoria. The pattern is pretty much a simple rectangle that folds and rolls up.

I made a zipped closure for the small pocket (at lower right), instead of a Velcro flap, because of what I had on hand. Also, I feel the zipper is unlikely to allow stuff to dump itself out.

 

To keep the needles in, the case just folds up. This isn't the neatest thing ever, since the flap ends up being a bit big and loose relative to the rest.

But it's simple and does the job.

I also made tie ends instead of using the elastic-and-button closure, figuring elastic could wear out and not really wanting to bother choosing a button.

Other things to note about this pattern:

• Directionally patterned fabric (a.k.a. "with nap") can be an issue because the main piece is just folded up to form the pockets and the flap.
• The pattern has you stitch twice through the different pockets. I think it would be difficult to get both stitching lines in the same place, plus it's more work. I only stitched through all layers once, after positioning all the pockets.
• It's probably best for straight needles and maybe DPNs, rather than circulars. Personally, it holds all my straights, and I don't plan on acquiring more. It won't also hold all my DPNs; as there's a chance I may buy more and/or find ones I've misplaced, I've punted on any sort of elegant storage for those, for the time being. But I think the stitching line spacing and/or pocket size might need some reworking if you want this to be mainly a DPN case.

This should be my last quilting-cotton accessory project for a while.

The finished patchwork bag

I've declared victory on this. It will most likely be used for small project storage: patterns, knitting stuff, that sort of thing.

Because of the buckram retrofit, the lining had to be put in by hand, not a fun thing to do, but it didn't take long. I tacked the corners together too, hiding the knots in the seams.

The lining fabric itself is a leftover piece of something from Dressew. It's much more suited to garments and looks rather sad in a bag; if I had been less cheap or lazy, I'd have either used a heavier satin or cotton, or interfaced it.

 
The bag is meant to have little tabs with grommets instead of these D-rings. But I wanted antique brass, and this was the only thing available that really matched the clips I could find. No great loss since they're easier to do a good job with anyway (although getting them in on top of the stiff ends of the zipper tape was a little tricky, as I recall).

Buckram: putting the 'construction' in 'construction techniques'

So here's that bag again, in the process of being retrofitted with two-ply a.k.a. crown buckram:

What I did was cut the buckram to slightly smaller than the size of each piece without seam allowance,

then tuck it in beneath the seam allowances, open each pair of seam allowances flat, and glue them down to the buckram on each side. The layers of batting and interfacing, not to mention the buckram itself, kept the glue from bleeding through to the outside.

The glue I used is some unidentified fabric glue I got from Kaufland back in Germany. Whatever it is, it's definitely neither Elmer's nor cyanoacrylate, but that's all I can say.

Binder clips make good clamps.

That loop off to the side will become the handle.

Why not sew the buckram in, you might ask? Well, this is very heavy stuff—even if you do trust your machine with it, and have a free arm, it's a real pain to get the right parts of a small project under the needle. Kind of like sewing doll clothes if they were made out of oaktag. And I didn't want any topstitching on this project, either.

I used this stuff because I happened to have lots of it left over from several years ago, back when I was trying my hand at making a few hats. It isn't the easiest thing to deal with and can't be washed, but if you're looking for something 'sculptural', it does the trick.

Many stores don't carry this weight; you can get it online from places like Judith M or Farthingales, to name a couple. The two-ply is two fairly heavy weights of buckram fused together, while others are single-ply and quite a bit softer. It will generally come rolled up in a long box or tube, since there's no non-destructive way to fold it. (Keep that in mind if you're in Canada; a US supplier may try to ship UPS.) I'd have to see how it would compare to something like Timtex, but I have a feeling it's a great deal stiffer than that.

Pieced bag from a German magazine

Here's an issue of (German) CUT magazine I got a couple of years ago...

... the main reason I bought it being this bag pattern.

I got started on it and was quickly reminded that I don't especially enjoy piecing. It's doable—not that I'm perfect at it—but fiddly, too much work for a result that's in most cases ultimately two-dimensional. This bag, at least, obviously isn't in overall structure, although the sides certainly are meant to be flat. (The fabrics were, I believe, discharge-patterned by my aunt-in-law.)

While I did back all the pieces with fusible fleece and then a woven interfacing, that clearly wasn't going to be enough. If I did this over, I think the ideal sort of backing for a lightweight cotton like this would have been fusible fleece backed in turn with the heaviest fusible available, with a generous amount of seam allowance cut away from the latter.

An issue with this style is that the zipper naturally wants to form a nice smooth curve, while the pointed shape of the sides wants to induce a sharper bend right at the center top of the bag. It would probably be a bit less obvious with a much stiffer fabric, which is almost certainly what the pattern intends, at least for the lining—since it's meant to be a toiletry bag, the pattern calls for a coated fabric to be used there, which would add a fair amount of structure.

Being as it may, I retrofitted the whole thing with two-ply crown buckram, which I'll post about next.

Happy 2016

While I don't necessarily understand why we celebrate what seems to be an arbitrary time of year, I have to admit it did prompt me to post something here for once. :D

If this trend continues, here are few topics that might turn up in the near future.

• A pieced bag from a German sewing magazine, and why it's taking me so long.
• A few useful and unusual notions.
• Some knitting, mostly socks.
• A bit of wardrobe organization (mostly because I said I'd do it).
• Some patterns and fitting, vintage and not.
• A new machine, my first computerized one. And maybe a bit of mechanical-machine adjustment stuff.

At any rate, best wishes for 2016!

Flat/protruding abdomen alteration: theories on what it is and isn't

I have more than my share of fitting books, and I've seen several variants of flat/protruding abdomen alterations. In general, the protruding/large abdomen alterations add width and usually length over the abdomen, increasing the waist dart intake as well. The flat abdomen alterations do the reverse.

Now, I certainly don't have a flat stomach, so it had been in the back of my mind that I might benefit from the large abdomen alteration—that is, if I ever got around to bothering to do it. But on the other hand, I've often felt that skirt and pants patterns (and to a slightly lesser extent, RTW) feel too high in the waist in front, especially compared to the back. Besides, I often need more waist shaping in the back, not the front. So I couldn't quite square the two.

Since I've looked into it further, here's what I think: the usual large abdomen alterations work best when the front waist is small and indented in comparison. So the largeness has to be over and done with somewhere below the waist. As somewhat exaggerated examples, look at this Toulmouche painting or this Annie Oakley poster. In both cases the waist is quite small (due to the shape of corset worn at the time), and there would need to be quite a bit of front waist shaping to mold the skirt from the roundness at abdomen/hip level up into the narrowness of the waist. The same goes for Christian Dior's Bar suit, with its fitted waist and padded hips. Generally, the large abdomen alteration methods presuppose your pattern has the correct waist measurement already, and you just need more length and width further down—wider darts then take up all the excess at the waist.

But what happens if you have a large front waist too, or you have a posture that shifts your upper torso a bit more forward relative to your hips? Counter-intuitively, that might actually need a flat abdomen alteration, as it will result in less dart shaping at the waist. The problem is, most of the methods for those will decrease the front hip circumference as well, something you might not need unless you've started with a larger size than your hip measurement would call for. What some people do is simply leave any front darts unsewn, or sew them narrower (and maybe sew the back darts wider to compensate, if more shaping is needed there instead). The front waist may well need to be dropped too: if there's less of a curve then there's less need for length—though extra length may be needed for apple shapes.

Anyway, I'm currently applying this theory to a jeans pattern I'm working on. I've erred on the small side when choosing a size, shortened the rise length to get it shorter in front, and done a large derriere alteration to make the pattern proportionally bigger in back. I did add a dart in back, which isn't usual for jeans (normally that shaping's moved entirely into the back yoke) but I think it might look interesting; the tips will be hidden under the pockets. And I realized after all this that my fabric had stretch, something I'd forgotten about. We'll see how that goes.

Lazy wardrobe evaluation

For various reasons, work among them, I haven't been getting all that much sewing done. But the weather has recently changed, leading me to think about wardrobe planning. Now, there's no shortage of resources about this. Many of them take the "haul everything out and have a big think" approach. Nothing wrong with that, I do it sometimes, and probably anyone who's set out to find articles or books on the topic is contemplating doing something drastic anyway. But of course, it can't be done every day.

Day-to-day, the way I usually organize my closets is a rotational system. I doubt I'm the first one to think of it: Whenever something has been worn/comes out of the wash, I put it back at one end of the closet. I try to make my next choice of what to wear from the opposite end, or close to it. If anything really backs up there, that means it's being passed over repeatedly, and maybe I need to do something about that.

Other places, you'll commonly see questions about whether the item fits, needs some sort of repair/is beyond repair, is too outdated, etc. I'll skip over those and go to a few other, perhaps subtler problems I've seen with my own stuff.

• It's the wrong level of formality for what I usually wear. In that case, I might move it to either my "formalwear" or "lounge/workout wear" section, if it fits in there and I intend to keep it. (I use the same rotational system for those sub-areas, but I'm a little less ruthless with the formalwear because I'm not a socialite… though in view of that, I probably do need to stop sewing so much formalwear and costumes. Moving right along….)
• I don't mix patterns fearlessly, so printed and even some tone-on-tone separates can be hard to pair up. That usually means I need a higher ratio of solids to prints for that season.
• Some tops need a skin-tone bra, which I think are kinda ugly/boring, so I often don't have a lot of them. When that issue comes up, it means I need to bite the bullet and either buy more of those bras, or get rid of some of those tops.
• Short tops and low-waisted bottoms don't play nicely. This can mean getting stricter about the lengths/waist positions of things I buy/make/keep, or making sure I have quite a few longer tops and/or higher-waisted bottoms. (I think really high-waisted pants are problematic—harder to fit, and since I've got a long rise, they can be unflattering unless they're quite loose—so I tend to prefer skirts for the latter case.)
• The color doesn't match the palette I'm trying to work toward, and therefore most of my other clothes and accessories. There isn't a lot I can do about this, since I'm not willing to dye things, so I'm gradually phasing those things out. It does mean I rarely buy fabric online anymore, unless it's a site that gives out Pantone numbers, thread color numbers, or swatches. (I could write a lot more on that whole topic, but at the moment I'm working toward something of a Soft Summer/Carol Tuttle Type 2 palette.)

All of this lets me collect data over time, which puts me in a better position when I'm ready to do the "big think". I tend to make final decisions on what to get rid of a few times a year, when I switch things around to put the seasonally-appropriate ones in the most convenient closet. I'm trying to get a bit more systematic about that too; more on that later.

Burda 8409

This is an out-of-print pattern I got discontinued (thus the X) several years ago. My notes say it's from 2005 or earlier. It's probably not going to be as easy to find in North America as an OOP Big4 would be, although I do see one on eBay at time of writing.

The reason I decided to make this up is that I had these old H&M cargo pants, on the left, that I'd got a lot of use out of, but that finally bit the dust—first the drawstring kept breaking (they never fit all that well in the first place; the rise was too short and the waist too big, so the drawstring must have taken a lot of strain to hold them up), then the zipper got somewhat unreliable, and lastly they got a nice big hole on the butt. The longer view of the Burda pattern is similar in design, if you don't look too closely. I added view B's back pockets onto view A, but otherwise didn't do anything to up the similarity. The H&M pants have bellows pockets with (rather wrinkly) flaps, more rounded bound hip pocket openings, and back knee seams and front knee darts. The latter especially is an interesting detail, but as I was making these looser, I thought it wouldn't serve as much purpose.

My version is in sage green Tencel twill. The color is less versatile and the fabric may not be as durable; it's a little heavier weight but much drapier than the original's cotton. But it's extremely comfortable and feels cooler to wear. I was waffling between two sizes, but decided on the larger one in case of durability issues and because the fabric has significant drape. The larger size sits lower on the hips; if I'd gone smaller I might have had to lengthen the rise substantially. On the other hand, the waist does grow with wear, so I'm not convinced I made the right decision—and I regret not having added belt loops.

I shifted the lower parts of the legs inward as recommended by Jan Minott for knock-knees. In hindsight I probably didn't need quite as big a shift, especially on the front, but this does make the fit much more graceful in back, as otherwise I get diagonal wrinkles there. I didn't alter the length at all, with the result that these are probably a little puffier at the hem than they're meant to be, but I actually like that. At least some extra length should be kept in any case, because of the drawstring hem.

As for other design changes, I left the zippers off the lower legs, since they aren't really needed and would interfere with the drape. I also made sure to get zippers with dangling pulls for the side pockets, so those hang down even though those zippers are sideways. (Maybe that's going a little overboard, but why not take advantage of Dressew's zipper selection?) Instead of having the drawstrings come out by leaving the bottom of the seam open, I put in grommets. The drawstrings are meant to be made of self fabric, and let me tell you, turning them is a real pain even with a Fasturn. Afterward I also found I could easily whack off several inches (didn't want the bows dragging on the floor) so could have saved myself some of the turning hassle. I'd recommend folding and topstitching them instead, or better yet, if you have an easily matched color, buy twill tape. 1/2" is about the right width. Lastly, I used a hook and bar instead of a button on the fly—no buttonhole and no color match required.

In conclusion, I'm pretty happy with these. They may not be quite as versatile as the originals, but the fit is certainly better and I'm happy to have a working zipper. (Actually, I suppose I could've just sewn the fly shut on the old ones, since I certainly didn't need it to get into or out of them. But they're beyond repair at this point.) If Burda fits you well, I would recommend this pattern if you have or come across it.

Machine covers

I've made two quilted machine covers out of a couple packs of 5x5 squares I got at the fabric shop on Granville Island a while back. (The other one is just a standard-issue plastic Janome cover.) I did need a few extra squares, which I cut out of plain muslin.

They're a bit oversized, part of the idea being that maybe they'd fit other machines if these ever need replacing. The layers (basic poly batting and cotton muslin being the others) are tied together with bits of embroidery floss, besides which the squares have been sewn to the batting along the seams.

I'm satisfied with them, but also happy to be done—I don't ever expect to become much of a quilter, since I enjoy garment sewing a lot more.