Monday 13 August 2012

In Sewing News Today...

I stopped into Fabricland on Friday and guess what. They just received the new fall Vogue patterns. I'm still waiting for these Vogue patterns that I order way back when they had an on-line sale. For something being ship 2,661 km away it certainly is taking its sweet time getting here. I believe it is being sent Pony Express off the beaten path.

The Vogue patterns that I picked up this weekend were ones that I complete missed weeks ago during the on-line sale.

First up is this kArtRine Tilton skirt, Vogue 8837.

This pattern has no zipper or buttons rather a self-line yoke and elastic. Sounds easy. My favourite detail is that hemline.

I also picked up this black double knit fabric that has felting. It is gorgeous, I wish you could touch it. The felted pieces are so soft. I did splurge on this 1.2 metre fabric purchase, an early birthday present for moi.

The second skirt pattern, Vogue 8835, was picked up with this 100% wool plaid in mind. I want to make the longer version. Have I mentioned how thrilled I am that the hemlines are dropping?

The fabric is something that was in my fabric stash. I love plaids, just not a huge fan of cutting and lining up the plaid.

I'm old school where I pin and baste my fabric before laying out my pattern pieces. Home Economics class circa 1979. But no one seems to do that anymore. Anyone?

For this project I'm going to use The Selfish Seamstress method of plaid matching. It seems quicker than the old school method I've been using.

I picked up a metal zipper for this skirt and plan to get out of my comfort zone and attempt an exposed zipper. My first one. Thank goodness for basting tape.


Continuing on the theme of covering up my knees for the 2012-13 winter season I added McCall's 6612 to my pattern stash.

I'm cutting it out in a colourful acrylic knit. I know that acrylic gets a bad rap with sewists and crafters but I love the colours.

I'm going to make the long  version but add long sleeves. The plan is to have this done as my Christmas dress.

Of course, all of these will have to wait. I still have to get to the second Simplicity 5540 dress that is on my sewing table. And I still have to get rid of this cough that is still hanging around and ruining my evening sewing time. On that note, that's all in sewing news today. I'm off to make a cup of tea.

Happy Sewing!    

5 comments:

  1. What do you mean, pin and baste your fabric before laying out the pattern? Do you mean so that your plaids are perfectly lined up when folded together? I've pretty much avoided plaids (other than on a pair of pj shorts, and I wasn't even considering matching anything then), so I'm not sure what the standard method of dealing with them is.

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  2. Sad, sad memories!!! I am of that era of Home Economics at school and clearly (and painfully) remember the time wastage involved when using plaids. Actually, I don't think I have again sewn with a plaid fabric...

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    Replies
    1. I'm hoping that the single layer method will be less painful [fingers crossed].

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  3. I avoid silky slippery fabrics whenever possible but I like plaids too much to ever want to avoid sewing them. I don't know if what I learned in Home Ec is considered the standard method but it was the way my Home Ec teacher tortured us for picking plaid fabric. I'm kidding, she was great instructor. She taught us to fold the fabric salvage to salvage matching the lines of the plaids. Then she had us pin the matched up salvages and baste before laying out our pattern pieces. It has stuck all these years and I've never cut out plaid fabric using the single layer method. But it seems like quite a few blogs refer to the single layer method. I'm curious to give it a whirl though.

    The pin method is mentioned as one of the methods in my copy of the Reader's Digest Complete Guide to Sewing. "With fabric folded: identical intersecting bars of the repeats should be pinned, through both fabric layers, every few inches. This technique minimizes the risk of slippage and consequent mismatching" (91). I couldn't find it in my Vogue Sewing books.

    My RDCGS book also mentions the single layer method as being more accurate than the folded method but the downside is that "it takes more time" (91). I wouldn't have thought that the single layer method would be more time consuming. I wonder if that is a typo? Maybe I'll have to pay attention and report back on that.

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  4. I love plaids- but I've never gotten up the nerve to sew with them- I really need to get over that! I like your plans.

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