gimme some slack! post four: darts & pockets

gimme-slack

Good afternoon, or evening, or whatever time it may be for ye!

Our progress so far: last month I posted the supply list and timeline, and earlier this month I posted our preparations, including creating our pattern. On the sixth I posted our methods for marking, cutting, and interfacing our fabric pieces. Today we will be constructing the darts, front and back, and the pockets, front and back.

Thank you to all who’ve participated, and emailed or commented suggestions and corrections to this sew-a-long. And remember – I am available to support via email, blog comment, and Skype! I will Skype support any stitcher through the months of June and July 2014.

leiden

I ask Ralph to slow down – “or pull over,” I amend. I feel so ill I’m almost certain I will vomit.

He pulls into a boat launch; the kids make faint, empathetic noises as I exit the car. I place my daughter’s just-now-finished band concert blazer on her lap, and close the car door, walk over to the edge of the clearing. Under a grove of trees and I hear something up high – a small nest of baby birds, perhaps? Three magnificently large fungi adorn one of the birch trees, about twelve feet up. I focus on these and breathe through my nose. There isn’t enough fresh clean air to calm my aching head, to soothe that sickness that roils in my chest.

Soon we are back on the road as my illness, though still with me, is manageable. In the passenger-side window my skin looks terrible; rough, pallid, green. I focus on the words Ralph says; I ask about his day.

We’re installed on bleachers to watch the end-of-year music concert for my daughter’s school. My daughter looks so adult; she shakes her hair, black and teal, out of her face. When did she get so grown? She has the most animated, happy face of the children there. She is wearing a bit of eyeshadow and slumps slim and sophisticated in her black suit. She is so gorgeous. It’s like on one hand I understand when people say she looks like me but on the other hand I watch her from far off and I think How can she be so beautiful? Maybe when she is up close I worry about feeding her and parenting her and caring for her and getting her new socks. And when I see her in the crowd it’s like a wild thing, something precious. I used to call her Creature, and it wasn’t kind when I did. But now she’s a Creature, a sense of humor, a quick wit. She never turns away from a hug from me,  and she returns the embrace with such presence and tenderness; one of those blessings money can’t buy.

It is time for her band performance. Her slide positions on the trombone are swift and decisive. She is focused but not tense. I am glad to watch, sitting here swaying in overcrowded bleachers, despite being ill I am glad I made it here. I know I don’t have to do anything but pay attention. That, I can do.

We leave earlier than my son would like; he has found friends on the playground. He shouts at us that we have to go home. We’ve a dinner to prepare, laundry to wash, pets to feed and love up on.

I’m tired; but sleep with come eventually.

Tomorrow, the sun will come out tomorrow!

Gimme Some Slack

gimme some slack! post three: cutting, marking, and interfacing

Gimme Some Slack

Hello my awesomesauce stitching fiends! Today we get to handle our fabric in earnest. This is big fun as it turns out!

To bring you up to date: last month I posted the supply list and timeline, and earlier this month I posted our preparations, including creating our pattern.

Remember – I am available to support via email, blog comment, and Skype! I will Skype support any stitcher through the months of June and July 2014.

awwwww yeah, sew-a-long part deaux!

gimme-slack

Are you all ready for another great sew-a-long? This time we’re making pants. Fabulous, stylish, super-fly PANTS!

I received wonderful series of compliments for my last sew-a-long – a very meticulously constructed plaid flannel shirt. One “student” said she literally never looked at her pattern directions as my written instructions and photographs (there were about 250 of the latter) showed her everything she needed to know. w00t!

This go around, things are a little easier. And if you like, a lot livelier!

A New Sew-A-Long - Gimme Some Slack!

Tomorrow I will be posting the supply list for this endeavor. Our first day sewing will be June 1st 2014.

In the meantime, you can help other people find this sew-a-long in a timely fashion, by posting the badge to your own blog, or sharing via Tumblr/Twitter, Facebook (you can “Like” my page for updates), et cetera. The more people who participate, the better this sew-a-long will be, as I will be making corrections and additions as per feedback. Seamsters in the future will stumble on these posts and be glad for them!

You can also subscribe by RSS to either my sew-a-long feed (in which case you will see all future sew-a-longs when I post them) or just the feed for the Gimme Some Slacks sew-a-long! If you’d like another subscription option, email me and let me know. kelly AT hogaboom DOT org.

To post this badge on your site, copy the text below and paste it into your WordPress widget sidebar (or whatever blog software you use). You may also save these to your own computer and upload to your preferred hosting space. Feel free to link back to https://kelly.hogaboom.org/category/sew-a-long/!

 

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hot medium-brown wool action!!!

Brown Wool Blazer

Yeah that’s right, you have entered BLAZER COUNTRY. Who knows how many damn blazers I’ve sewn. All I know is, after I made this one (since Nels had grown out of Nolan, although it was still going strong!) I decided to trace one of my most-used blazer patterns in every size (that’s seventeen pieces by eight sizes, so one hundred thirty six pieces) and then color-code and cut and punch and reinforce and hang them all. And then I decided once I finished this rather ambitious project, I would reward myself by sewing a blazer. So now I’m almost done with a new blazer different than this one.

SOMEONE SEND HELP

Brown Wool Blazer

OK so here’s a cool detail – elbow patches in a wool/silk blend. I hand-embroidered the concentric ovals, then cut the patches, fused them to the sleeve, black-zig-zagged them firmly to the coat, and then hand-embroidered the very outer oval. Adorable and I think they will look even cooler as they wear!

Brown Wool Blazer

Blustery day! … and, a few more details:

Brown Wool Blazer

Bound buttonholes. Here you can barely see the chalk marking the center-front of the blazer – the buttonhole extends 1/8″ in from that mark. You can also at top-left see the pink basting stitch I used to affix the underlining fabric to the wool.

Brown Wool Blazer

More elbow patches – and along the bottom of the picture you can see the purple triple-stitched topstitching line I used for most of this coat’s edges.

Brown Wool Blazer

The bone buttons, nine in all (I bought two extra of each size) cost more than the rest of the garment (in part due to how good I am at finding good fabrics on sale). I bought the buttons from M & J Trimming and they shipped quickly! You are also seeing the back side of the bound buttons here. I used a black silk organza for my facing’s buttonhole “windows”.

Brown Wool Blazer

My preferred pocket method – a fully-lined pocket, interfaced at the top, and then applied by fell-stitch. Here you are seeing the pocket before I turn it right-side out, then stitch the opening at lining and facing closed.

Brown Wool Blazer

Here’s that hand-stitch I just referred to – inside the pocket. When it comes to a simple coat my kids are going to wear the hell out of, and I am not looking for a print or texture, I use slipper satin from Fabric.com for coat linings. It is a nice weight for a medium or heavy coat, it wears well, and feels very nice.

Brown Wool Blazer

Echo-stitching on the collar. Basically free-handed. Echo stitching  here emulates the elbow patch detail – but it also gives a stiffer hand to whatever you are echo-stitching (in this case, the collar), and gives a great, rugged look and wear.

So there’s Nels’ newest jacket.

Now listen. I’m not going to go into why a blazer really is a killer garment. I’m not going to elaborate on how long and how well my versions hold up. Or even how awesome it is you can pull one off in so many fabrics –  lightweight linen, classic raw silk, homey corduroy, handsome waxed canvas, bad-ass melton wool – GAH!! Basically you, blog readers, are in for a blazer-fest this summer and you just need to settle in and DEAL. Will I be sewing other things? Why yes, of course.

Probably.

Oh – and here is the end result of my pattern-tracing efforts for blazers – all marked, color-coded, cut, punched, reinforced, and organized. At left is the pattern, yardage, and sizing information in a clear cover sleeve.

Pattern Tracing, Marking, Color-Coding, Cutting, & Hanging

But now I *SOLEMNLY SWEAR* not to sew with wool until the fall. I promise. No, really.

So who’s got some fabulous linens they can point me to?

a tender shoot

Frost Flower Hoodie

My son *thinks* this is his birthday hoodie; however, it is a decoy hoodie. I was drafting a deep hood and a tall, slender fit. I am waiting on fabric for his actual birthday hoodie. Let’s hope it all works out before the birthday party on Saturday!

A roomy hood:

Frost Flower Hoodie

MacGuffin or no, this hoodie is fabulous in its own right. It is constructed of luxurious 100% cotton fleece – very soft on the inside. I pieced the body using the “mock-serge” on my Pfaff (tutorial here).

Two appliques: the “frost flower” on the right arm – using knit and woven scraps, matching zig-zag topstitching, and paint/thread drawing for the “eyes”:

Frost Flower Hoodie

The left arm – more subtle still. Nels’ name in a “Super Mario U” font – self-appliqued.

Frost Flower Hoodie

Frost Flower Hoodie

For the hood drawstring, I first constructed eyelets free-hand on the Pfaff, made a casing using a 2.0/2.0 zig-zag topstitch, then knit a cotton i-cord for the drawstring itself. Ralph knit about half the i-cord yesterday – after I taught him how. The yarn itself was a gift from my friend Tammy at Main Street Books.

Frost Flower Hoodie

Piecing knitwear as a home sewist is really wonderful. I am able to line up the grain perfectly which is not something you will see in ready-to-wear construction. The result is a garment that feels, fits, and wears better – while looking fabulous for a lot longer.

Cutting knit pieces so carefully would be tedious if not for the fact that knit garments are usually made with far fewer pieces than woven ones. That said, some of y’all remember that I am willing to go balls-deep in fussy-cutting. It really does make a difference even if people looking at the garment can’t tell exactly why it looks so good.

Spring is here, spring is wet, and my Little Guy looks all set!

Frost Flower Hoodie

spring / flame, part deux

spring / flame jacket, 2014

Just chillin’.

Nels loved last year’s version of this jacket, so I made him one this year. I can’t remember what happened to last year’s; I likely donated it to the thrift shop.

Here’s 2013:

Long Sleeved

This year – stretch satin for lining/underlining, coupled with a Hong Kong seam finish (I am always looking for the perfect lining fabric that is not boring, and can stand up to the punishment of an active child’s lifestyle):

spring / flame jacket, 2014

I added a striped cotton hood, and cotton cuffs:

spring / flame jacket, 2014

spring / flame jacket, 2014

I love working in two separate colorways for this garment: the “flame” colorway was used on the overcollar, lapel facings, pockets, and elbow patches. The effect is subtle but very pretty – especially from a distance. Pockets? Fully-lined, of course, and attached by fell-stitch.

The cotton cuffs, attached the floating underlining/lining, is a little idea I had a year ago for Nels’ double-hooded red linen coat. These cuffs are very cozy, could easily be replaced if they were to get too stained, and deliver a pleasing layered effect.

I am not going to lie. Somehow this year, I ran into trouble. I made a few errors during pattern drafting and the fit of the coat is not as attractive as it was last year. I will be making up a new version entirely. It is just THAT irritating to have something not come off right.

So: this version is up for grabs.  I’m thinking the size is good for a 150 cm (a little under 5′) child. Text me if it’s yours! 360.500.3287

OH SNAP! THIS YETI BUNTING WINS

Itty-Bitty Yeti

Have I  not been threatening for some time, to make a tiny yeti bunting for a baby? Shown here: exhibit Audra, 15 lbs. 5 oz. of adorable. Audra was a champ. Word on the street is she doesn’t like cameras, but she kept her cool today.

Itty-Bitty Yeti

Audra plays innocent here but you know she’s the type of abominable snowman that could straight-up rip your arm from your socket. If by “arm” I meant, “tea scone”, and by “your socket” I meant, “a table of modest height that she was clinging to earlier today”.

Itty-Bitty Yeti

A horn! Done up in melton wool with yarn applique. Pattern designed by Ralph AwesomePants Hogaboom.

Itty-Bitty Yeti

Feet. Designed by MOI. Watch out for those claws!

Itty-Bitty Yeti

What’s the happs? Pearl snaps. BOOM

Itty-Bitty Yeti

So who doesn’t like daddies-holding-babies pictures? If you don’t, you have a lot of growing up to do.

Anyway I wrote a bit about construction in the captions of the Flickr tagset. This bunting is listed in my wee Etsy shop and is scheduled for display at a local business – along with two other “monstrous” offerings I’m currently cooking up.

#babycreeps

Parseltongue!

Slytherin Coat

As some of you may have guessed, I sewed and knit and cooked and crafted an awful lot for Christmas. Most of these items I sent off and wrapped up and gifted without taking photographs because I have been one busy – and often overwhelmed – Little Mama since October. However today on our errands I grabbed a few pictures of a couple of the little ones’ gifts.

As per usual, if you click on the photos my Flickr page will give a little construction background, for those interested.

Slytherin Coat

Phee is actually a Hufflepuff but I had a deep green hi-lo 100% cotton corduroy I was dying to work with. I underlined the coat in wool so it is very warm. It is fully-lined and fixed up with a shiny, “scale”-like snakey vintage button!

Slytherin Coat

Slytherin Coat

AND the Slytherin breast pocket patch. Because it is too cool. No, I did not make it but had it made by SewMagicStitches on Etsy.

Slytherin Coat

I also did not knit Phee’s scarf and mittens (not this time anyway!) but ordered them from nuclearkitten, another Etsy shop. I enjoy supporting other crafters and I try to always link back to them to give them credit.

And then there’s Nels. Nels who I am always wanting to grab up. So I had to make him shark mittens. Because I want to bite him.

"Grabbers"

By the way, I can’t help but notice Nels’ hat is handknit (I bought it from an alpaca farm in Oregon, a while back), and I sewed him his jacket and his pants. AND on the other side of the crafting gives-a-shit spectrum, Nels’ father “fixed” the cuff-latch button with a safety pin, instead of needle & thread. #boo

"Grabbers"

"Grabbers"

"Grabbers"

"Grabbers"

The mittens were based off Ravelry’s “Deep Blue Sea” pattern (you have to be a member to see the pattern, I think) and were constructed of 100% wool – except for the yarn used for “teeth” – that was cotton. I really enjoyed these mittens and I think I should make a super-tiny pair for someone. AMIRITE or what