NPRINS

I hemmed this dress today right before DH and I went out for sushi, so naturally I wore it fresh off the ironing board. It is over 100 degrees here today so a sleeveless silk jersey frock was just the ticket. Kwik Sew 3575 I tried tying the belt in front this time, I think the back looks cleaner that way. This is my 'preferred' method of hemming silk jersey, I like the coverstitch look but lacking a serger I've had to come up with my own method. DVF often uses a blind hem, which also looks nice, but I find hard to replicate on a home machine. With contrasty prints it can be hard to hide the stiches with only 1 color of thread. Either way, I find fusing a band of tricot interfacing to the hem makes it look and hang so much neater. For this method you need a 1" hem allowance, to do a narrower finish adjust the interfacing strip and allowance accordingly. Once I pin up the hem to where I want it, I press it so I get a nice crease to mark the hemline. Then I...

I have been busy collecting new equipment/gadgets in the last month, and as you can imagine playing with them is way more fun than blogging. No offense. The first piece I need to share is this Elna Aliz e ironing press. I bought mine from sewinginusa.com, they are one of the few etailers that carries Elna presses. You can't type 'ironing press' into google without hitting a million Simplicity presses, but it took some work to find the Elna. I was looking for a dry press as well, which also made it hard. Most of the presses on the market now come with steam, which means holes in the pressing surface. Tiny holes, but holes. Since I mainly planned on using it for fusing interfacing, I wanted as smooth a surface as possible. The Elna had good reviews on patternreview.com and the price was right, so I went with that. Features I like: 10 second timer that activates when you close the lid. My favorite interfacing needs 20 seconds, so I close the lid twice and ...

I started this dress last October, from some DVF wool doubleknit I purchased at Stonemountain and Daughter fabrics. I had just made a rayon knit version with fabric purchased during the same trip, and was fresh off a discussion on patternreview about swayback adjustments . One of the suggestions in the thread was this , and as I was quite excited about it at the time I modified my pattern and cut out my nice DVF fabric without even testing it in muslin. This fix did not work for me. In the back of my mind I was wondering about forming diagonal wrinkles from the shoulder with this alteration but it seemed to work for the other ladies so I forged ahead. I still got fabric pooling in the small of my back, but I ended up with those wrinkles too. And on top of that, the original pattern I used was very plain, which looks great with print fabrics but was downright boring with a solid. I threw it into a pile for at least 3 months, tried it on again and decided it wasn't too bad to...

Dear Readers, Thanks to Erica B! ,  I realized there was a series of fashion shows on the Sundance Channel. I feel in love with a series called Signe Chanel. . .it's a french documentary that is a reality show featuring the wonderful seamstresses and teams of french seamstresses that turn eclectic Karl Lagerfeld's sketches into clothes.  It feature the making of the collection in 2004/2005 30 days prior to the runway show (from sketches to runway).  Episode One below.   Episode One above - in slightly diminished format.  It's fantastic.  The series features Madame Martine, Madame Cecile and Madame Laurence - who amazingly from their own talent turn these sketches from Karl into Chanel one of a kind pieces in record time!   Their skill is astounding.  Nearly everything in the line is handstitched.  And they are so quick. You will meet 75 year old Madame Pouzieux who is the sole person that makes 100% of...

Dear readers, You may or may not remember me mentioning this - but I'm a retired Commander in the Navy.   A bit shocking, I know.  As such, I'm a bit obsessed with the uniforms and the changes that occurred specifically to women's uniforms.  And, I am surprised at the decrease in quality between the current uniforms (both design, fit and sometimes, construction) as compared to the uniforms women wore in the WWII era.  These are two examples of women's uniforms in seersucker from that era.  Beautifully tailored. According to the U.S. Navy historical website: Women officer uniforms were upgraded during the war years. There had been little precedent for women’s wear in the Navy since World War I; therefore a panel of civilian experts in the design and fashion field was called upon to create a set of uniforms which when devoid of buttons and braid would correspond to a smart businesswoman’s suit. Their efforts resulted in the present single breasted blues an...

Dear readers, Today is the first day of Fall. I am busy knitting away on two pair of new socks (my first and I love them!!).  BTW, I absolutely love my knitted Funky Grandpa Sweater.  It's been hot but I've been wearing it as much as possible!  Who knew -- that I would knit sweaters I actually wear. Above, Funky Grandpa sweater, blogged here, my painstaking sewn princess seam blouse, Butterick 5678 blogged here, and pencil skirt fom my sloper, blogged here. In the meantime, I'm thinking about some Fall sewing.  I see the trends as plaids, dark florals, and bomber jackets, to mention a few -- here are some pictures of Fall inspiration (yes, I guess I need to link this blog to Pinterest): Beautiful, but pricey bomber style jacket form Anthropologie, link here,   I love it!  But at 440.00US I think I can make just as good a version (plus, bombers present problems for my figure - reverse triangle/apple). Below, from the blog...

Dear Readers, I've finished my first project of the year - unfortunately, it is a bit of a mess. For your consideration, Green Pepper F875, the Oregon Trail Messenger Bag (now numbered #545). I made the small satchel, for the purposes of checking out this pattern.  I like it  - I don't love it. The pattern was coming together rather well; however, once I "bagged" the lining - I fell apart.  The lining is bagged right side up to the inside-out outer bag - this makes it fairly impossible to get it straight.  I think next time - I am merely going to bind the edges - much easier and I can ensure it is straight.  Here, the top cover is simply too narrow. I also made a mistake with the material:  this pattern calls for heavy canvas or the like - I made it with a thick linen and minky lining:)  So, it's a bit too squishy.  I could and probably would have recommended facing it with a heavy-weight pellon interfacing - but believe me the construc...

I'm super excited about my latest craiglist acquisition, a Dress Rite professional dress form. I just picked her up last Thursday, for a great price and in almost new condition. She has collapsible shoulders, linen covering, thick padding, and is on a sturdy wheeled frame with fully adjustable height. I've had so much fun playing with her this weekend, draping fabric is a breeze on a form, and combining outfits is so much easier. It gives you a very objective look at whatever you are working on. She's a little smaller than me in the waist and hip, so I'll probably try a bit of padding if I want to use it strictly for my own garments. The shoulders and bust are actually really close, it was weird to see my own clothes on her! No name yet, but I am up for suggestions from the blog world. :-) I've been trying to replace worn items in my closet, and of the 5 favorite tanks I have 3 of them have holes. I made a copy of the pattern (from RTW), which was supe...

I made another DVF Julian a few weeks ago and already wore it to work, I was making this pattern for a friend of mine and while I had it out decided to cut one for myself. This fabric is a rayon/lycra print from Emma One Sock, my favorite fabric dealer, er, I mean supplier. :-) Rayon/lycra 'leafy stalks' print in blue, black, and brown on cream For this fabric I chose to finish the edges by serging 1/4" clear elastic to the neckline and front edges in one pass, then turning to the inside and topstitching. I use a special elasticator foot for my serger, which helps guide the elastic exactly on the seamline and has a tension screw to set how much I want the elastic stretched while it's being serged. Around the neckline I want enough stretch so the fabric puckers a bit when laying flat, when worn wrapped and tied it flattens out and prevents any gaping. When I get to the front edges of the skirt, I undo the tension on the elastic so it doesn't pucker. ...