It's Been Awfully Quiet Up There...

..so today I thought I'd go check. I'd seen the girls in and out, up and down quietly doing....something. Let's go see.

What fun laundry bags!

This idea came from Romantic Home Sewing by Christina Strutt.



Chapters include: Living Room, Bedroom and bathroom, Clothes and accessories, Gifts, Instructions, Templates, Stocklists, and Index.

In addition to the beautiful photography and clever ideas there is a full section in the back complete with instructions and templates.

Check your library- that's where we got ours.

Sew What You See- Part III Copying Design Elements

(This is the third and final post in a series called Sew What You See- part I, part II.)

What is a design element? A design element consists of those little eye grabbers that say "look at me", "I'm a little different", or dare I say "I'm not "plain Jane"". These are the little details that give what you make personality- trims, tucks, buttons, ruffles, sewing techniques, etc.

Let's say you like a certain ruffle size, tuck arrangement, fabric combination, or other interesting design element, but don't have a desire to necessarily copy the entire object. Keep a notebook to help you remember what you saw, why you liked it, and some brief notes on how it appeared to have been sewn. We love to get new fun ideas out of catalogs and books we've checked out from the library. One of my daughters tears out pages from different mail order catalogs and keeps them in a three ring binder. When she gets ready to make something or wants to add a special touch to a so so pattern she'll look through her notebook and/or closet for design elements she likes.

Just the other day we were looking at a ruffle design on a skirt and noticed as we examined it closely that while it appeared to be two ruffled pieces of fabric sewn close together it was really just one large ruffle sewn and ironed in a certain way to give the appearance of two. Wow- what a much easier way to achieve that look.

The ruffle shown on the right is 1 1/4 inches wide, is sewn 1/4 inch from the top and ironed downed to give layered look.

Seeing and sewing elements is such a fun way to personalize whatever you are making and in this instance there are no "wrong answers". The pleat formation that looks good on a skirt might make a terrific pillow top or bed skirt. The fun thing to remember about using different sewing elements is to have fun- break all the rules -borrow ideas from one project to use on another. If you like the look- go for it. This is the reason why a simple plain cotton t-shirt embellished with voile trim sells for $50.00 or more.

One final point to keep in mind as you sew what you see is to take careful note of the materials or combination of materials used in the item you are trying to copy. Sometimes garments and other decorative items have the look they do because of the type of fabric and if you don't stay in the same fabric family as the original you won't be able to achieve the same look.

Have fun and soon you'll be carrying a measuring tape, pen, and notepad wherever you go. By the way cell phone cameras come in handy too!!

Dress to Skirt

Its happened to all of us. In my case it involved a dress I ordered off of eBay. It came in and I loved the fabric but hated the way it looked on me. Since there was no returning the item there it sat in my closet. I couldn't bear to give it away because every time I looked at it I fell in love with the fabric again, but there was no way I was going to wear it as it was.

I pulled it out again this year and because the fabric is so summery I toyed with the idea of turning it into a skirt. I had thought of this before but with buttons running down the front I couldn't think how to get around having a center front seam. And.... was it wide enough, or too wide, would it be too short? So I went back to my closet and pulled out other skirts that fit and compared them to the cut of the skirt of the dress. Yes- it would be long enough, it wouldn't be too full, but it would be full enough to put an elastic casing for the waistband. I still had the pesky problem of the center front seam- wait a minute one of my skirts has a center front seam and its never bothered me. I had never really realized it before. So...off came the buttons, I measured and cut off the top of the dress allowing enough for the length of the "new skirt" plus the casing for the elastic, but not so much that I'd have to re-hem it. One center seam (to make it a little less obvious I sewed a french seam) and casing later I had a new to me creation. I'm so glad I didn't give the dress away and the best part..... I didn't spend a dime on gas:).

Sew What You See Part II- Fit and Finish

In part I of this post we discussed the concept of seeing shapes in our sewing. Now we need to take those shapes and adjust them to fit. One of the best places to look to find a garment to copy is your own closet. Look through your favorite clothing items and try to recreate those that fit you best. Get out a measuring tape and measure the width and length of those items you feel most comfortable in. Then compare the measurements of the garment you are making to those that you just measured. Make sure you make adjustments for seam allowances. Be careful to include both side seams, the hem, waistband if any, and any other seams, darts etc.

Now to take your garment from homemade to professional look at the details - the finishing items on the garment you are copying. Did they top stitch, use decorative stitching, press seams certain ways? Turn the garment inside out to see how the inside looks and sew yours to match theirs as closely as possible.

In the photo on the left you'll see how they top stitched 1/4 inch above the seam line where they attached the ruffle.

The photo on the right shows a slightly gathered elastic waistband with an invisible zipper and hook and eye closure on the left side of the skirt. You'll be amazed at what a difference these small finishing touches make. Not only will you have a garment that has the same fit it will also have the same look.

In part III- we'll talk about sewing a particular design element from what you see.

Sew What You See- Part 1- Think in Shapes

We've all been in the store and seen that perfectly fabulous article of clothing, looked at the price, then looked at the design and thought- you've got to be kidding. It seems as if the simplest designs are always my favorite and since I sew a little I hate to spend money for something I possibly could make myself. Over the years I've had some successes and some flops. Here are somethings I've learned:

Think in Shapes- when you look at lets say a skirt imagine in your mind the pieces laid out flat before they are sewed. Look at where the seam lines fall. If you have had experience in using a pattern you've become familiar with the "before" and "after" view. I was amazed to pull out a skirt pattern only to discover all the pieces were rectangles. How did that happen? The design on the pattern envelope didn't look like rectangles, but after all the gathers are removed you are left with basically rectangles. O.K. - this being the case I began to look at my favorite skirts in my closet that fit me the best and tried imaging what the pattern must have looked like. Measure the bottom of a gathered panel from seam to seam to figure out the width of the rectangle and the length is easy- just measure how long it is. Be sure to allow for your seam allowances. For simplicity's sake I use 1/2 inch seam allowances.

Here's one of my favorite skirts. I just love to wear this skirt because it's so comfortable.



Look closely - what shapes do you see?

The front is divided into three panels (rectangles) and they each have a ruffle (another rectangle) on the bottom. The ruffles have varying lengths with the center ruffle being shorter than the side ruffles and visa versa on the panels.

I measured the panels and the ruffles on my skirt and drew out a simple diagram. The panel width is measured at the seam that connects to the ruffle while the ruffle width is measured along the hem line from seam to seam. I cut six panels- three for the front and three for the back (the rotary cuter made this a breeze). Next I cut the ruffles- three for the front and three for the back all the time calculating in a 1/2 inch seam allowance. I allowed an extra inch at the top of the panels for the casing and an 1/2 inch at the bottom of each ruffle for the hem allowance.

Here's how the pieces look laid out- In the first picture they are unfolded and in the next they are pushed together and the ruffles that will be gathered are folded to match the size of the panel.





















The original-















The duplicate-






Remember:

• Analyze your garment- what do you see? rectangles, slants, triangles
  

• Draw a diagram
• Make allowances for seams, casings, hems etc.

Note -I only try this when the design is simple. For more complicated designs and fitted garments it's worth it to buy a pattern. Needless to say there are many really cute really easy things you can make errrrrrrr copy:)