Saturday, October 19, 2013

Why you should not sew when you are tired

Simon bought me this great velour stretch fabric, in a hunter green with flowers and metallic tracings from Stretch text fabrics this past Summer. We originally were going to make a swimsuit out of it, but that never happened. We were saving the material for the perfect occasion. I sewed the Chanel neckline very well and I had a good pattern for a dress. We were ready to go. We would be TIGHT for material, but with proper planning we could make it work with the short sleeves. Simon wanted to be fancy, I was like "no, no no!" but he did as he planned... We were both tired and we were not paying attention 100%.

So what happened, you ask? Simon placed the fold on the cut line, and the front was all off. The scoop is no longer a scoop, the sides won't meet properly under the arms and on and on. As I was placing the front and back together, the pieces were not making any sense. Needless to say we were angry and disappointed. I wasted 2 evenings on this, and not to mention my expensive fabric! I so wanted to wear this dress this week to work. Oh well. We have a V neck and a skirt to practice this week. With 2 young kids and full time jobs, it does not leave much time to sew. When the kids are up we can't concentrate, and make mistakes. So we stay up late after they are in bed. It takes us 2 nights to make a simple shirt.

So I decided to continue with the installation of the Chanel Collar. Might as well practice on something that was already ruined. What's the worse that could happen?

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Jalie 2566




Jalie 2566 was the first shirt we made during my sewing class at Club Tissus. I must say that the difference between Fabricville classes and Club Tissus are VAST and well worth the drive to the South Shore.

Simon and I worked on this patter together. We did 2 shirts. One in a animal print stretch and the 2nd one in the Blue "unknown" fibers, both we got at Fabricville awhile ago. I love the animal print, but the blue feels cheap to me. It was great practice material.

We used size "s". The lines were hard for me to follow, making my eyes go buggy. In comes Simon. He is used to plans and small details. He was a huge help in measuring and and adjusting, as his attention to detail is very good.

We used this pattern as out base. But we did not even read the instructions!
1) We sewed the shoulders together
2) We then do the neck
3) We check the neck if it fits on us
4) We sew the neck on
5) We topstitch and serge
6) We then sew on the the arms
7) We then sew the sides
8) Finish the hem

We now know how to cut out the neck material for a turtle neck, for a mock turtleneck or for a simple t-shirt neck.

For the first 2 practice shirts we did a mock turtleneck. I really like the height of it. It feels good, does not bother me like turtlenecks do, and it was really simple to install. Now, on the 2nd one - the ugly blue one which I probably won't wear often, I installed the neck perfectly.















However, on my animal print I installed the back in front. Simon did the same error with his turtleneck. I was so concentrated on lining up the pins that I did not look at what was front and what was back. A mistake I never will make again. LESSON LEARNED. This is why we practice, n'est pas?





From this pattern we will also learn V-Neck, scoop neck (more sexy look, Chanel collar, some other necks which is next week, and a dress. I am making a scoop neck in a dress right now.

 It was easy to determine how low I wanted it and how to configure that to my pattern. Easy enough.
The chanel was super easy to install, easier that I feared. We cut the 5cm by 69cm. Seewing it on was so easy, but I have to admit I made a small boo boo, so I decided to pin it. Much easier.

 The side seam we make straight. After we sewed it, I tried it on inside out. We marked with pins where we wanted to take it in.
 We used the curved ruler and it was a perfect match.
 We traced the line and made sure the measurements were the same on both sides. This is where Simon comes in with his attention to detail!
 We cut with the same seam allowance as the other areas so that when we serged it will be a perfect match

Now to sew the hem. I have not figured out the coverstitch machine yet and wanted to wear this tomorrow, so double needle it is! The bottom was long, as we used the strecth stitch.
On the sleeve cuffs, we broke 2 double needles. We learned the importance of checking to see if the foot is on solid.
Another lesson learned! Simon finished the sleeves with a single long stitch, we will redo it later. 

Sunday, October 6, 2013

Return to sewing

So after a summer Hiatus, I have returned to summer! My bathing suit sits unfinished, taunting me from the unfinished basket. And I have started my sewing class at Club Tissue on Tissus Extensible (stretchy fabrics). Simon is taking the course with me and we have had 2 classes so far.

We are making the following 3 Jalie Patterns:

Jalie 2566 Women's twinset, I am making the mock turtleneck shirt

We are learning about stretchy fabrics and how to choose the proper size according to the fabric's stretch.

We also learned how to measure the neck opening, how to measure it, how to create a T-shirt collar, mock turtleneck and a turtle neck. We made out own collars without a pattern! AWESOME! She also showed us how to install and sew the collar, and for the first time I did a collar perfectly the first time, without swearing! I thought it would be the hardest, but no, it was super easy.

She also showed us how to sew on the sleeves with no fuss. We sewed the sleeves in before the sides. Again, super easy and amazingly simple. 

Simon did a turlteneck from the Men's pattern Jalie 2918 Mens T-Shirts. The first one he did he did too small (he measured himslef tsk tsk). He did a great job, but it was too toght and too short. So he went back to Tonitext and bought more material. He loves to shop! Now he is making his second shirt. His material has snowflake design on it, so we are learing about pattern placement.
For the class this week Simon will bring in his striped material and she will show us how to place on a pattern. We will aslo do the V neck collar.





We also have a skirt to make and Yoga pants:

Jalie 3022 Yoga pants and shorts