Sewing is Art

Today was a big enough deal I made sure to secure a (borrowed) camera: I got my new sewing machine, a Juki HZL-E80. And I popped its cherry right away, whipping up the underskirt for Suse's dress (both from Ottobre's 01/1007 issue):


The underskirt took about twenty minutes.


P.S. No pictures in this series indicate how very, very much Nels wants to wear this dress. And dance /sing to Justin Timberlake's "Summer Love."


Darn flash makes dress look bright. Dress is actually rather subdued.

Labels: dresses, maquina de coser, Nels, Sophie

I sew and sew and sew and so rarely document what I sew. Here are two of my children's Halloween outfits:





Can you guess what Nels was? The letter "V", that's right (his idea - for months before the holiday). You can see their auxillary costumes in this blog post. I love, simply love corpsey bridal stuff (as evidenced by Sophie's ensemble last year). This year she chose "dragon" which was kind of a pain, but I rose to the occasion.

Labels: costume, Nels, Singer, Sophie

Today I joined the lining and underlining for Ottobre 05/06 #10. I also marked the pattern pieces and assembled the pocket. I am currently fretting over the pocket flap and hood trim, which instead of a cotton fur knit (P.S. Ottobre, *where* do you get these fabrics?) is a fleece. I don't think the fleece looks all that good as a trim although with regards to the above pocket flap I know trimming seam allowances, pressing, and topstitching will improve matters.

Shout-out to Gutterman's topstitching thread which really does look nice on this twill.

In other news, today was my brother's birthday. I made him a CD, my daughter drew him a fabulous card, and I created him a Custom Order Form for what I'm calling his Portland Coat - as he's moving soon. Here's what he got in his card (click to enlarge):


To my surprise, he actually assented to filling this out with me which included me discussing technique and measuring him at his shoulders, arms, chest, waist, and hips (tee hee!).

Although I can't afford to buy fabric right now (or rather I can... but my gas heat has been turned off for a week and perhaps I should pay that bill instead!) this project will be the next fabric purchase I make - along with that for my Vietnamese Ao Dai.

Labels: Nels, ottobre, outerwear, sewing for FOO

While I wait for the remainder of my corset hardware to arrive in the mail, I'm making my 3-year old Nels a coat. I know, odd considering this weather, eh? The thing is, with my Wardrobe Refashion commitment I have to think a bit ahead on the family's raingear - especially since I live in about the rainiest damn place, ever.

And before I get to my sewing work - speaking of my Wardrobe Refashion project, I made a little tool to track what clothes I need to sew and what I've finished.



Download a blank template here: [ pdf ] (2 pages)

So on to today's work. Last fall I fell in love with this zip-back parka:



(shoutout to Ottobre Design, my favorite Euro pattern mag. For $40 a year I get more patterns than I could ever hope to sew - in all sizes for children and women.)

I've always loved zip-back coats because they are cute as hell and, well, that's a good enough reason, eh? I also could just picture Nels' little gnome-face poking out of this hood and him using the front pocket to carry things - his favorite pastime is foraging on our many walks.


Here are the fabrics I'm using - from left to right, a yummy Malden Mills fleece (color "chili", 100 wt), a super-soft Alexander Henry bullfighter's cotton, and an awesome, supple middleweight twill that is also weatherproofed (but you wouldn't know it to feel it). The coat will be lined with the bullfighting print which is underlined by fleece.


Cutting. A rotary mat and equipment make for fast cutting. I don't pin since my tracing medium is cloth-like (and slightly "sticks") and because I'm rather experienced and find I don't need it.


It takes 27 cut pieces to make this coat! Just something to think about the next time you want to say, "Oh, you should MAKE THOSE and SELL THEM!" Because if I did *that* in any quantity, I'd find no time for anything else, let alone sewing my children's winter gear.

Labels: Nels, outerwear