Friday 22 December 2023

Fox T-Shirt

I found out that knitted fabrics roll as hell after washing, and I didn't want to lose the edge of these beautiful fabrics. So I washed them folded in half, basted edges. This is one of ways to eliminated the rolling.

 

I drew a pattern and decided where will be the cuts for fabric alternation.

I joined the fabrics with serger and hemmed with coverlock (including sleeves).

I attached the seam with a straight stitch. To keep the stitch line flexible, I pulled it during sewing. Iron then helped to get back to shape what was pulled out.

For a neckline, I used 3 cm band cut from the main fabric. I ironed it in half, pinned the middle points and pinned evenly. Serged on, facing the band upwards.


The seam was attached again with a regular sewing machine, pulling along the way. I altered the thread colors to match the fabric.


Finished sleeve.
This is my dream come true. I love the fox painting!

Friday 8 December 2023

Fox Bodysuit

I had bought beautiful knitted fabrics for my fox T-Shirt. And now there is a newborn celebration in our family...
I have some russian pattern from the internet, I printed it and taped together.
I embroidered his name on a piece of the fabric. First I wanted to do it with freeform machine quilting, but it was never perfect.. So hand embroider in the end. Disappearing marker is the best!
I had ironed a fusible web before embroidery. After sewing the label on, I cut the web right at the seam.
My first experiments with ribbed fabric showed that it's too rough for a baby's garment. I'll use the base fabric.
3cm strip - folded in thirds and ironed.
I sewed it on with a coverlock. I didn't measure or pin anything - the strip is pulled at the neck and the base fabric is pulled at the other part of the curve. Pulling is done during sewing, nothing is prepared or exact. Surprisingly good results.
I basted the pieces together at the armholes - both the front and back panel and each sleeve.
I sewed one side + sleeve together with a serger and finished the bottom with the strip of fabric. Then I sewed the other side + sleeve.
I tried my new tool for setting press buttons. Again, I considered them to be too rough for baby's dress. I ended up sewing on three little press buttons in hand, total distance is 6 cm.
Ready for the baby!

Friday 22 September 2023

Cajon Case

I cut a strap from stroller fabric and sewed it with a thick strap inside. Three lines of stitches secure it in place.
I quilted the upper panel, following the design.
Quilting is lined with some rag fabric.
The side pieces are already thick, so no need for quilting.
I prepared the body and fitted on the drum.
I folded the edges and sewed them. I measured the zipper to match the corners and sewed each half to the lid and body of the case.
Finished zipper matches! Yes!
I made a little strap and cut it to four pieces.
These would be handles for the carrying strap.
Five ways to carry :-) Backpack is the best of course!

Wednesday 30 August 2023

Battery Pouches

It's been several years since I've known I need to have my batteries sorted, like visibly sorted. I've had pouches, but without writing and I never knew which one contained what.

I cut out rectangles and serged the edges. I made some tests and finally I used two layers of stiff cotton canvas under the embroidery. I made a sample of each writing and measured its length to know where to place it.
I sewed the edges, one of them not up to the very top, leaving a gap for cord fastening. I sewed the tunnel and that's it.
I was annoyed how it keeps opening, so I made a knot which slides on the cord and keeps the pouch closed.

Monday 28 August 2023

Pleated Skirt

After sewing for other people, I finally have time to sew something for myself. Also I want to investigate how to draw patterns, so this is an easy start project. And I desperately need some easy work with some easy material to find out again that sewing is fun :-)
 
I made the pattern - length according to my preferences, width of the fabric minus my waist measurement divided by number of folds gives me size of one fold. Rounded hips, the width at side curve is hips minus waist.
And hips will be 3cm higher than the center. I attached the folds in the seam allowance.
The belt - stiffened with fusible web, folded 1 cm at each side and then pressed a few milimeters from the middle so that the wrong side would be a bit longer.
I sewed the belt's right side with the skirt. I folded the belt right sides in and sewed the ends.
This is a little tailors' trick to make neat corners - you fold it before turning over.
I made another line of stitches right in the seam between belt and the skirt panel, attaching the wrong side of the belt. I added a simple zipper and didn't bother with folding the upper edge, which was done by hand, I covered the teeth ends so that they don't scrath.
Results? At pleated skirt, the curved hips don't work. The side seam may be slanted, but it must be straight. Also the hips are raised by 1.5 cm at most.

Monday 21 August 2023

Wedding Coat

My schoolmate from tailors' training centre is getting married. This is the image she showed me as a template.
I first made the garment from a loose coat, tried it on her and made it slimmer. Then, when I had the complete pattern, I cut it out from the real material.
I cut out all the pieces and started with sleeves at they are the easiest part to prepare. I sewed both the lining and the knit sleeves at the bottom edge together. I ironed the seam, leaving one centimer hanging down to get more loosenes of the lining. Then I sewed the sleeves side seam in one long line of stitches.
I pinned the sleeves together and marked the upper edge of the lining - it will be one cm bigger than the upper sleeve.
The breast tucks are not sewn with a direct line, it has to start and end almost invisibly for perfect outcome.
I made the rear and front tucks on the outer pieces, then on the lining. Just for the breast "tucks", they are only folded on lining.
After some horrible result at the neck lining, I decided to sew the pieces together in hand. The lining fabric is really stiff and thick (which you don't want for any lining...)

I ironed the satin fabric at the basting, making cuts to the seam allowance a few milimeters from the edge.
Hand sewing, taking always just a milimeter from the lining. In fact, there was more hand sewing than I had expected at this coat. I pinned the paper template to the panel and once more traced the neckline to fit perfectly.
I prepared the invisible zipper fastening. The center seam was sewn up to the point where the zipper would start. I aligned the teeth with the basting and sewed one side with the zipper open.
Then I closed it and pinned the other side to the zipper. Opened it, moved the pins to go just to the seam allowance and sewed on the other side. This is my special footer.
Front facing has fusible web pressed on. I sewed it on the front pieces.
I sewed the coat lining to the upper fabric on front facing. Then I had tough time assembling the shoulders, because there are two upper front pieces and two lining front pieces at each shoulder.
I sewed together just one layer of lining that is the closest to the body. That's one shoulder seam. Then all the upper layers together in correct order. That's the second shoulder seam.
Zipper lining was sewn on by hand.
When all this was done, I could baste (by machine) the front panels together at the armhole.
Leaving the coat without sleeves for a while, I got down to the lower hemming. The edge is not ironed right in the seam, but two milimeters to the upper piece, so that the seam is hidden. This is a tailor's stuff whose english word I have no idea about :-D
So I also had to sew the corner a few milimeters aside.
I sewed the lining at the lower edge by machine and pinned the facing. Then I dived into the coat from the inner side and attached the facing with herringbone stitch. Very light and loose, catching only one or half a thread.
I made all the lower hem - machine sewing + herringbone stitch.
Side slits lining done all by haaaand....
Finally the sleeves. I basted the upper sleeve the standard way. Laying flat at the armpit, adding more of the sleeves as I go up and finally two centimeters from the shoulder seam going flat again.
The sleeve was sewn by machine, while the armpit was sewn twice at the same place. As you can see, there were waves at the shoulder at that point.
I turned the seam allowance towards the neckline and pressed the little waves and the allowance. Then I turned it towards the sleeve and pressed the seam to stay there.
Now it looks much better - fabric lays flat.
I cut the edges of lining sleeve (I did that as late as possible, as it frays as hell) to be one centimeter longer than the real sleeve and hand sewed it to the lining body. Increasing the size has a pleasant side effect - it can be sewn flat as the seamlines have similar length now (usually the sleeve seamline is like 5 cm longer than the armhole).
And this is the main reason why here also in hand. There is one of the front pieces attached to the lining. It's like a brain-teaser to assemble all this together.
I hung the coand and I pinned the bottom of the lining. Then I pressed it to get clean sharp edge.
Done.
I'm done :-D
Pants will follow.