A routine thing that happens when you accept fabric, rather than buying as much as you need, is it comes in odd sizes. This is just as true of new, never-sewn yard-goods as Dumpster-dived tablecloths. What do you do when you don’t have enough scrap fabric, and you can’t get more? You sew it up […]
I’ve written about sewing before, both a very lengthy post about why I sew and a few posts about specific outfits that I have sewn, such as the Ivory Coat (part one, part two, part three, part four), the Swing Coat (part one, part two), and the Flannel-Back Satin Nightgowns (part one, part two). One […]
I made up the purple nightie first. Let me say now that flannel-back satin is awful to work with. It is slippery and without a walking foot, you’ll have to thread baste every single seam. Even with the walking foot, I had to go very slowly and pin thoroughly or the fabric would creep on […]
As garments go, nightwear has some specific problems. Good quality nightwear, for most of the family, is expensive. It is also, unlike almost every other kind of garment, very difficult to find in good condition in the second-hand market. I try very hard to never buy new clothing. The second-hand market is so huge, so […]
(This is the second and final part of “Making the Swing Coat” Part 1 can be read here.) This brought up the problem with the pattern. It is unlined. I dislike unlined jackets as they don’t hang as well, wear as well, or go on and off as well. So how do we line a […]
Now, onto the “swing coat.” This is a coat for the spring and fall; warm but not very warm, particularly as it has an open front due to the hooks and eyes. When I make this pattern again — and I will! — I’ll use a zipper to close it. I love my ivory coat […]
(This is the fourth and final part of Teresa’s posts about the ivory coat. Here’s part one, part two, and part three.) So back to the lining. Once I sewed in the lining at the sleeve heads and the neckline, I was able to determine exactly how much I had to trim off the bottom […]
This is the third post in the “A Tale of Two Coats” story. Here’s part one and part two. I laid out all my pattern pieces, front, front, back and back, on the fabric; I lined them precisely, using the grainlines and the waist and lengthen/shorten lines to match them to the design of the […]
In last week’s post, I learned while laying out the pattern for my beautiful ivory coat on my salvaged cloth shower curtain that I was shy about four inches in the width of the fabric. Piecing the fabric together would be time-consuming and I wouldn’t be able to match the pattern. What to do? Since […]
We’ll be talking for the next several weeks about sewing coats. Much of the “Suburban Stockade” project is focused on making do with what you have, with not going into debt, and with finding ways to protect yourself against unexpected downturns, whether it be losing your job, the bursting of the housing bubble, or worldwide […]