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.

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.

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.

Guitar Picks

 My surname has changed recently, so I have an obsolete medical insurance card. And also a friend of mine played my guitar with such passion that he broke my last guitar pick :-D

I cut out the shape of the pick from the card. The first one that I cut out was too small, I was cutting it without drawing the shape first. Now I draw every piece.

The red one is already finished, the blue one is just cut out.

I took my fish knife and with the blade perpendicular to the card, I scrathed both sides of the pick. Then I went on at the sharp edge to make it smooth.

Paraglide Sack

 I needed some package for my paraglider. By chance, I had an old army parachute, so I used it as a suitable material for this.

It was a circular one, so I had to find the biggest patches to cut from. As the material is very thin and rips off easily, I used french seams. That's why I'm sewing wrong sides in here at the lower corners.

I wanted the self tightening fastening, so I made a tunnel with a hole at each side.

Threading a string from each side there and back.

I added two carabinas and made knots at the ends. The strings can be used as shoulder straps and the knots offer two choices of shoulder strap side, if used with a thick jacket for example.

My small training paraglider now has its own sack and can be stored / transported easily with the least room used.