Shower Curtain....More Rectangular Sewing

Guest bath shower curtain, April 2011

I seem to need a deadline to get things like home dec projects done.  Last year, before I was blogging, I finished guest room drapery panels just a week before we headed up north.  Today I sewed up the guest room bath shower curtain above.  It's all rectangular sewing.  Bottom hem, side hems and then 12 small buttonholes across the top header.   So yes, got 'er done just a few weeks before we once again leave here for the summer.
I got a kick out of the tropical and quirky accent fabric in the guest bath and guest room.  It's from Calico Corners and is a retro barkcloth type print with flamingos and tropical islands.  Here are the panels from last year:

Guest room drapery panels, May 2010

Tomorrow back to fashion sewing.  I'm getting together with some local wonderful ASG friends and hope they will help me with the first fitting for a summer sheath.   That kind of sewing will require a lot more measuring, plenty of tweaks around the curves and fluff but the outcome will be something that fits me.  And I'll have a lot more fun with those girlfriends than I did man handling all of the fabric for these projects.

Swimsuit Weather

I've so enjoyed reading about Couture Boot Camp with Susan Khalje in the past week.  One of these days I'll try a lace garment of mine own....but today is not that day.  Instead I used up an inexpensive lacy knit fabric in my stash for this quick swimsuit coverup.  It's warm and sunny in SW Florida and the pool in our complex is heated so I'm enjoying an hour or so at the end of the day splashing around.  This fabric is years old....from whenever Hancocks closed their local stores and everything was 70% off.  The pattern is my  Chicos knock off   blouse poncho tutorial  slightly lengthened to make it more dress like.   Finished: 43" wide by 31" inches long.    Sort of looks good as a long tunic as well.   Sometimes you just need a quick sewing easy project.  Done.

JAM #3, Vogue 8136, Finished and a PR Confession

Well, I wore my latest JAM to my ASG chapter meeting on Saturday and got Mr. Lucky to snap a picture.  I really like this pattern and think it will be my wool doubleknit and boiled wool go to pattern.  That collar has lots of potential for different shapes as well so this is sure to be a standard in my TNT collection.  I did interface all the pieces and perhaps that was the opposite overkill for this particular jacket since it does feel and look bulky on my body.  But it's still very wearable right now and will be fun to make up for cooler autumn days.  I also think I'll like it in a woven, lighter weight fabric.

Collar dart cut open, on the left

Top of collar dart, not sewn all the way to the edge

Shawl collar details

It's not easy to see the construction details for this shawl collar but it is one of the easiest and most successful ways I've ever sewn those under collar corners.  Rather than pivot at the corner and work to move all the fabric out of the way before sewing the rest of the neck seam, you merely sew the shoulder seam up to the collar dart.  Then start on the other side of that collar dart and sew the neck seam.  Perfect result every time

No dimples or pulls on that shoulder corner!

PR Confession:  OK, I'll admit it.  I love reading PR and hate, hate , hate writing reviews.  I'm rather computer challenged and the external links and picture posting on PR make me crazy.  I know that people complain about posting and editing here on Blogger but they must be trying to do "cooler" things than I am.  I'm not at that level and probably won't be going there soon.  I'm thrilled with how easy it is to put a picture on my desktop, download it to Blogger and then put it in a post.   So, yes, I will get this pattern formally reviewed for PR but not soon.  So thank you, all of you great PR reviewers.  I bow to your commitment and expertise.  Of course, this aversion might also explain why most of my PR reviews are OOP patterns :-)


And now for some little diversions.  I have been reading and enjoying Gail Godwin novels for many years now.  I especially enjoyed Father Melancholy's Daughter and Evensong.  I picked up her novel, Queen of the Underworld, and found it readable but unfulfilling.  Wonderful concept....young girl reporter gets her first job in Miami just as the first Cuban refugees are fleeing Castro.  The newsroom scenes seemed authentic and gritty but the rest of it was full of slow, unresolved stories that left me wanting more.  So disappointing.  But like a sewing project, some books are lackluster as well, even from much loved authors.

Last picture...the summer haircut.  Every summer my brother would get the "buzz cut" for the hot weather season.  Lucky the rescue dog got his summer buzz cut last week and came out looking like an entirely different dog.  I was a little horrified at first but have gotten used to this new look....and it has cut down on his heavy panting.  Gosh, two dogs with entirely different body thermostats.  Sam the basenji is like a cat, following the sun everywhere, never pants and can't get warm enough.  Lucky is the total opposite, spends time on the tile floors to cool down and pants much more quickly with exertion and heat.

Sew Many Seams: Vogue 8136 in Progress

Knit muslin of Vogue 8136

Princess seams make me feel like a queen.  Yes, it's true.  Once I realized that I had some curves on my rectangular body, then I discovered the flattering appeal of princess seams.  This will explain my ongoing fascination with jackets that have plenty of seaming opportunities.   Last summer I pulled my Vogue 8136 muslin of this jacket and lo and behold, it has all the princess seams a girl could want.

Vogue 8136 was one of the early patterns produced by Vogue under Sandra Betzina's Today's Fit brand.  Despite being exactly the market for her patterns (middle aged, thicker and fluffier than in my youth) I have had little success with these patterns.  When I had made the muslin for this pattern, I followed the short version A with the little pleats around the high hip...WTH?  It looked awful on me, little pleats fluttering at my widest spot.  So I tucked it into that "muslin closet space" and ignored it for a number of years.  Last summer I pulled it out for the final decision and guess what, I love this pattern!!  As a matter of fact, I was just about ready to order a very similar pattern from Canada's Trudy Jansen designs.  I wanted a jacket that I could make in double knit, boiled wool or stable fleece.

I was hoping that this red knit would be a wearable muslin but there are too many problems with this version.  First of all, although I love the color, the knit is a little flimsier than I would have liked.  In retrospect, I should have stabilized all of it with knit interfacing, not just the facings.  Secondly, for the very first time I had problems with my Snapsetter and these snaps are broken and just wrong.  Lastly, it still needed some size tweaking.

All those things said, why do I like it so much?  Love the shoulder and armscye front seams (although the side armscye is quite oversized and needed almost 1/2 taken in from size C)  Love the back seams with lovely gentle curves.  Wonderful collar, terrific easy method for getting a shawl collar without those finicky square corners.  Also love the collar dart underneath the collar to make it sit closer to the body at the narrow upper chest area.

Why didn't more people make this one up?  Well, I do think the pattern drawing makes this look like a ring leader's outfit.  I also think those tummy pleats were a terrible design decision.

Vogue 8136, JAM #3 in progress:

Organizing Sewing Patterns

Notebook of skirt pattern envelopes

 In addition to a huge fabric stash, I have a large pattern collection .  How do you organize your patterns?  I  came up with this system a few years ago and it seems to serve me well enough.  I separate the outside envelopes from the pattern tissue and instructions.  Those envelopes I keep in binders with labels:  Dresses,  Jackets, Lingerie, etc.  Then I put the pattern tissue and instructions in quart plastic bags and file them in a storage cabinet by pattern company and numerical order.  Generally this is how a fabric store would organize things: look at the catalog for a pattern you want then go to the drawer to locate it.  Of course, oversized patterns and Burda magazines are the exception to the rule but I have fewer of those to keep track of in the collection.

Drawer full of patterns in plastic sleeves

I used to keep a notebook of sewing projects, making notes each time I sewed the pattern.  I did find this enormously helpful as I started sewing more fashion sewing projects.  Today I don't maintain this notebook procedure as rigorously.  I'm more careful to make a fitting muslin each time and have an adjusted pattern that I can trust.  I also have a better number of TNT patterns that I know fit me and only adjust some design features (collars, sleeves, front edges)  And now that I am blogging more regularly this blog and the pattern reviews are good reminders as to what adjustments I made and lessons learned from each pattern.

Jalie 2788

  My sewing yesterday was focused on items I found in the "unfinished project pile."  I made Jalie 2788 into a navy knit sample dress back in October before making the final version in brown  Jalie twist top into a dress posting.  The navy is too dark a color for me to wear regularly as a dress so I cut it off and made it into a sleeveless top.

I should be working on the March jacket a month but found a tweed bias skirt already cut out yesterday.  So I'm going to work on this skirt and "get 'er done."  Since we've got a major bathroom remodel project going on down the hall (and discovering all sorts of surprises when the cabinets came out) I've decided to focus on simple projects this week.   Next week we should have those surprises resolved and I'll be able to focus on a more challenging sewing project.

Want to see some before pics?  We had a large master bath with huge mirrors and a very yellowed un-used arcylic jet tub.  Big changes coming.  No master bath tub (there's a bathtub down the hall) and double sinks along one wall plus no more bulheads looming overhead with ugly flourescent lighting.   Surprises, you ask?  Well, one sink had a slow leak going on and the other wall will have to be re-sheetrocked since a pipe edge is 1/2 " too wide into the room.

Notice how the old sink was crunched into that corner.

Bye bye yellowed acrylic tub (or planter box,whichever you prefer.)

Good bye bulkheads