Sewing Progress
Jun. 12th, 2011 08:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kauricatI've added a new icon. This is the model of sewing machine that I use. I think it's kind of pretty. Not as graceful as a featherweight, but I don't want to use an icon of that since I'm not actually sewing with it. Yet.
Anyway, here's my sewing progress.
I thought I was going to have the mock-up all ready for Kiwi to try on when she arrived on Saturday, but it didn't happen. I made a total newb mistake and I am stunned (STUNNED) that I did it. I sewed the two center back pieces of the skirt section together on the wrong side. I mean, instead of sewing the center seam, I sewed them TOGETHER on the side that should have stayed open for attaching to the side back pieces. Not only that, but I did not REALIZE I had done it wrong until I had already sewn the other pieces to the back. *facepalm*
And then, to add insult to injury I could not find my seam ripper. "Kauri's Missing Sewing Accessories" has been a theme for the past week and it has kind of ticked me off. After all the times I have known exactly where all my stuff is in this house, running into a whole category of things that are not where I expect them to be (nor are they easily locate-able when I go on a search) is very frustrating.
I finally found the seam ripper and got the stuff torn apart and reassembled correctly. That whole thing took about an hour, which was SUPPOSED to be the hour during which I would sew the bodice together (nice short seams) and attach the top and bottom (which I admit might have made me run over time, but I still think it might've been doable).
So they arrived and I had no mock-up and was feeling very bad about it, but then we all went out to Famous Dave's and then gamed and it was fun. And during the game I traced some pieces for the next pattern I'm going to sew for myself and I got them all cut out and ready to go. All that while dissolving a stone golem!! Very productive!
I'm also pleased to report that after this weekend's flurry of angry box-looting and furious drawer-pawing, I have located the following:
EVERY accessory my sewing machine originally came with. Including (as of this evening) the lint brush.
My magnetic pin holder (though I did not locate it until AFTER I needed it, of course).
The second page of some instructions that I needed from an old pattern.
My bodkin.
My drawstring threader.
ALL of my tailor's chalk and pencils.
Lots (maybe all) of my sewing machine needles in different types.
My seam ripper.
My long shears plus two other sets of nice scissors.
TONS of different spools of thread (all nicely stored in my thread organizer now).
MOAR PATTERNS
My box of pins.
More fabric scraps/remnants.
Lots of different kinds of interfacing.
And tons of things that are not sewing-related, but which it's nice to have sorted anyway.
Part of the reason my sewing stuff has been so disorganized is that I never had a place completely devoted to sewing storage at the old apartment, so that stuff ended up in a variety of different areas depending on what I was doing at the time. It was never my primary craft, so it kind of suffered.
However, the desk in the spare room is totally my sewing desk now, and IT'S A GOOD THING because if I ever had to go on this kind of scavenger hunt again someone may get hurt in the process. I'm just lucky I didn't have any door-to-door salesmen or religious do-gooders ring the doorbell in the past few days (one did today, but the rage-storm had passed by then).
I will finish Kiwi's mock-up this week and we'll do her fitting next Saturday. We may end up getting the fabric this week; one likely contender is 50% off for the next few days.
I went to JoAnne's today to get more sewing pattern storage boxes. They do not carry such things; how ridiculous is that? I even asked one of the ladies who works there. She gave me the BEST look when I asked. You could tell she knew the answer was "no" and she also knew how ridiculous that was, considering they are a store that mainly sells FABRIC and PATTERNS (that's what ours here focuses on; we don't even have a frame shop section). She had to force herself to answer me, I think. Poor woman. It's not her fault that the box store she works for are idjits.
I looked at some prices for Kiwi's costume fabric so I could give her an estimate, but I neglected to write anything down. I know one fabric was going to be $2.99 a yard this week, so I think we should probably go with that one. I think I'll go back later this week (maybe tomorrow night, if I can get on the ball), take pictures of each possibility, and send them to her along with the price of each. I think she wants me to buy the fabric and have her pay me back. I think if she wants someone else to buy it she should send Koganei and then they can take it out in trade. ;)
ANYWAY, since I was there, I picked out three fabrics to make myself some summery work tops. I already have the pattern so I thought I'd just grab some fabric while I was at the FABRIC STORE. What could be simpler? Almost anything, as it turns out. Pres Man was out in the car, hoping I was just going to either find the pattern boxes and come out, or find out that there were no pattern boxes and exit even more quickly. The poor man.
It took me about three seconds to find good fabric for my shirts and about one hundred years for someone to cut it for me. Damn you quilters and your bajillion pieces of fabric!!!
But finally another worker took pity on me and cut my stuff so I could get on my way. One bolt did not have enough yardage so I had to leave with only two pieces, but I think they will make good shirts. I will probably get them done sometime in December when they will be entirely inappropriate, because that is how I roll.
I finally emerged semi-victorious, having used two coupons (a 40% and a 50% off). And I'm super-pleased that I remembered to snap a photo of the end of each bolt so I have the fabric content and care instructions.
I'm excited to hear back from McCall's this week about that last page of instructions (which is still missing; I found the middle page but not the last one). They sell some of their patterns as printable patterns online now, and the PDFs for those patterns come right up (apparently for free; you only have to pay to get the pattern pieces themselves?). I am hopeful that McCall's have a PDF of this pattern's instructions already created somewhere and that they'll be willing to email it to me.
I went through all my patterns tonight and re-sorted them into one box for costumes (which is bulging) and one box for mundane clothing (which is also pretty full). I sorted the mundane clothing into things I might actually make (limited to patterns that would actually fit me) and "things Mom gave me that I do not think I will ever make but am afraid to get rid of" along with the patterns that would not fit me as I am currently sized.
I found lots of wayward pattern pieces and put them in their proper envelopes. I went through the last several patterns that I have used and searched for my missing page but no luck. I feel a bit like the lady from Bedknobs and Broomsticks. WHAT ARE THE MAGIC WORDS, DANGIT???
Of course I can remember those without even Googling. LOL
I should be studying right now, because I have a test tomorrow. Instead I have spent a lot of time messing with pattern sorting and reading auto-correct funnies (also wrong number texts, which are alternately hilarious and shocking). Oh well.
Anyway, here's my sewing progress.
I thought I was going to have the mock-up all ready for Kiwi to try on when she arrived on Saturday, but it didn't happen. I made a total newb mistake and I am stunned (STUNNED) that I did it. I sewed the two center back pieces of the skirt section together on the wrong side. I mean, instead of sewing the center seam, I sewed them TOGETHER on the side that should have stayed open for attaching to the side back pieces. Not only that, but I did not REALIZE I had done it wrong until I had already sewn the other pieces to the back. *facepalm*
And then, to add insult to injury I could not find my seam ripper. "Kauri's Missing Sewing Accessories" has been a theme for the past week and it has kind of ticked me off. After all the times I have known exactly where all my stuff is in this house, running into a whole category of things that are not where I expect them to be (nor are they easily locate-able when I go on a search) is very frustrating.
I finally found the seam ripper and got the stuff torn apart and reassembled correctly. That whole thing took about an hour, which was SUPPOSED to be the hour during which I would sew the bodice together (nice short seams) and attach the top and bottom (which I admit might have made me run over time, but I still think it might've been doable).
So they arrived and I had no mock-up and was feeling very bad about it, but then we all went out to Famous Dave's and then gamed and it was fun. And during the game I traced some pieces for the next pattern I'm going to sew for myself and I got them all cut out and ready to go. All that while dissolving a stone golem!! Very productive!
I'm also pleased to report that after this weekend's flurry of angry box-looting and furious drawer-pawing, I have located the following:
EVERY accessory my sewing machine originally came with. Including (as of this evening) the lint brush.
My magnetic pin holder (though I did not locate it until AFTER I needed it, of course).
The second page of some instructions that I needed from an old pattern.
My bodkin.
My drawstring threader.
ALL of my tailor's chalk and pencils.
Lots (maybe all) of my sewing machine needles in different types.
My seam ripper.
My long shears plus two other sets of nice scissors.
TONS of different spools of thread (all nicely stored in my thread organizer now).
MOAR PATTERNS
My box of pins.
More fabric scraps/remnants.
Lots of different kinds of interfacing.
And tons of things that are not sewing-related, but which it's nice to have sorted anyway.
Part of the reason my sewing stuff has been so disorganized is that I never had a place completely devoted to sewing storage at the old apartment, so that stuff ended up in a variety of different areas depending on what I was doing at the time. It was never my primary craft, so it kind of suffered.
However, the desk in the spare room is totally my sewing desk now, and IT'S A GOOD THING because if I ever had to go on this kind of scavenger hunt again someone may get hurt in the process. I'm just lucky I didn't have any door-to-door salesmen or religious do-gooders ring the doorbell in the past few days (one did today, but the rage-storm had passed by then).
I will finish Kiwi's mock-up this week and we'll do her fitting next Saturday. We may end up getting the fabric this week; one likely contender is 50% off for the next few days.
I went to JoAnne's today to get more sewing pattern storage boxes. They do not carry such things; how ridiculous is that? I even asked one of the ladies who works there. She gave me the BEST look when I asked. You could tell she knew the answer was "no" and she also knew how ridiculous that was, considering they are a store that mainly sells FABRIC and PATTERNS (that's what ours here focuses on; we don't even have a frame shop section). She had to force herself to answer me, I think. Poor woman. It's not her fault that the box store she works for are idjits.
I looked at some prices for Kiwi's costume fabric so I could give her an estimate, but I neglected to write anything down. I know one fabric was going to be $2.99 a yard this week, so I think we should probably go with that one. I think I'll go back later this week (maybe tomorrow night, if I can get on the ball), take pictures of each possibility, and send them to her along with the price of each. I think she wants me to buy the fabric and have her pay me back. I think if she wants someone else to buy it she should send Koganei and then they can take it out in trade. ;)
ANYWAY, since I was there, I picked out three fabrics to make myself some summery work tops. I already have the pattern so I thought I'd just grab some fabric while I was at the FABRIC STORE. What could be simpler? Almost anything, as it turns out. Pres Man was out in the car, hoping I was just going to either find the pattern boxes and come out, or find out that there were no pattern boxes and exit even more quickly. The poor man.
It took me about three seconds to find good fabric for my shirts and about one hundred years for someone to cut it for me. Damn you quilters and your bajillion pieces of fabric!!!
But finally another worker took pity on me and cut my stuff so I could get on my way. One bolt did not have enough yardage so I had to leave with only two pieces, but I think they will make good shirts. I will probably get them done sometime in December when they will be entirely inappropriate, because that is how I roll.
I finally emerged semi-victorious, having used two coupons (a 40% and a 50% off). And I'm super-pleased that I remembered to snap a photo of the end of each bolt so I have the fabric content and care instructions.
I'm excited to hear back from McCall's this week about that last page of instructions (which is still missing; I found the middle page but not the last one). They sell some of their patterns as printable patterns online now, and the PDFs for those patterns come right up (apparently for free; you only have to pay to get the pattern pieces themselves?). I am hopeful that McCall's have a PDF of this pattern's instructions already created somewhere and that they'll be willing to email it to me.
I went through all my patterns tonight and re-sorted them into one box for costumes (which is bulging) and one box for mundane clothing (which is also pretty full). I sorted the mundane clothing into things I might actually make (limited to patterns that would actually fit me) and "things Mom gave me that I do not think I will ever make but am afraid to get rid of" along with the patterns that would not fit me as I am currently sized.
I found lots of wayward pattern pieces and put them in their proper envelopes. I went through the last several patterns that I have used and searched for my missing page but no luck. I feel a bit like the lady from Bedknobs and Broomsticks. WHAT ARE THE MAGIC WORDS, DANGIT???
Of course I can remember those without even Googling. LOL
I should be studying right now, because I have a test tomorrow. Instead I have spent a lot of time messing with pattern sorting and reading auto-correct funnies (also wrong number texts, which are alternately hilarious and shocking). Oh well.
