Simplicity 4897 - Grey Corduroy Skirt


I was able to finish my daughter's newest skirt on Sunday, because I had a little more sewing time than I thought I would have! It does look better on her than the dress form, especially the pockets, because the dress form it just a little bit bigger than she is at the moment.

This skirt is based on S4897 (out of print), with some changes. This is the true beauty of a TNT pattern - the ability to not worry about fit, but to change details to create a different look from the same pattern. Carolyn knows all about this because she has done amazing things with her TNT patterns. Let's take a look at the line drawing:

The original skirt has an exposed center front zipper, patch pockets, waist facing and single darts in the back. Because of the zipper and pocket details, this skirt as drafted is casual. The skirt I made is not intended for casual wear, so I changed some details.

First, I moved the zipper to the side seam, and made it an invisible zipper. This is not a hard thing to do - the center front already has a center seam and inserting and invisible zipper into a side seam requires no major drafting changes. The only thing the needed a little extra added to it was the center front of the facing pieces to make sure that it would be long enough for the entire front.


Second, I changed the pockets from stitched on patch pockets to a regular hip pocket. This wasn't hard to do, either. The pocket piece provided gave me the facing/pocket bag for the skirt front, which was trimmed to match the pocket curve. I then used the same pocket piece, combined with the front piece to create the other portion of the pocket bag and remainder of the skirt front.

Third, not a style change, but a fit change which I've always done with this skirt. I've added a second pair of darts to the back and then made a casing with the back facing so that I can add elastic for a better fit. My daughter's waist has always been smaller in proportion to hip or length, so much of her clothing has at least a partial elastic waist.

Overall, I'm pleased with the skirt and the changes were easy to make. It really isn't hard to change small design details to create a garment that looks the way you want it to. Some changes don't even need redrafting, while others might take a little research or borrowing of instructions from other patterns to make it work.

Parting Shot: Guilty. I heard the crash and then found it. Where there's a crash, there's usually Wellie. This time he toppled my son's Lego creation.

Garden Path - Jacket - Part XXXXVIII

Another Take on the Sleeve Trim

Thank you for the responses! Overwhelmingly, everyone has voted for the sleeve trim. I've been thinking about it and I've come to another viewpoint, so stay with me here.

I totally agree that the jacket, with the wavy hem and narrow outside trim needs the sleeve trim. That does look the best with the ensemble as it is.

However, think about it this way: sleeve hem is straight, skirt hem is straight, jacket hem is wavy. Which one is not like the others?!? Hmmm . . . That might not bug some of you, but having some OCD tendencies, that's something that isn't quite right for me.

Just for the record, because a few of you asked, yes the skirt does have some trim, but only on the pockets. Here's a picture from before the skirt was finished. It's probably been a long time since you've actually seen the skirt at all.

Remember that at one time, I made a yellow quilted bottom edge for the jacket? There were some issues with the fit of it because there were issues with the fit of the bottom narrow trim, so I removed it. I don't even have pictures of it on the jacket, I checked. I have since fixed the bottom narrow trim, but can't use the current bottom section. If I wanted to use it and have a plain hem for the jacket, I need to make a new one.

I'm not sure, but I think that I'm going to make another quilted bottom section for the jacket. The trim for the sleeves is partially completed and all the components that are not assembled have been cut and set aside specifically for the sleeve trim. I think I'll make the bottom section, baste it on and then make another evaluation as to whether the sleeves need trim. If so, I'll add it. Simple.

Actually, not so simple. I really wanted this project to be done this week, with a photo shoot next week. I think it can happen, I just need to go and get to work!

Parting Shot: Water. I got to the trailhead on Saturday only to discover that my 2L water reservior/drinking system had leaked on the inside of pack and was continuing to leak. Not good, especially since the temperature was right around freezing and I knew I'd need a lot of water on the hike. I had to dump out all my water and carry our spare bottles instead. My old system was not a Camelbak, but my new one is and has a 3L capacity, plus lifetime warranty. I also bought a new water bottle (a Camelbak, too) for around the house because the old one would leak if tipped over and only held 500mL. I'll try the new system out with my pack this weekend.

Garden Path - Jacket - Part XXXXVII

Sleeve Hems

Not exciting, but progress nonetheless. The sleeve hems have to be done before adding the sleeve trim. I'm almost 100% sure I'm going to use the trim. The skirt hem does not have trim, nor does the collar of the jacket, but I'm not sure about the sleeves. It looks kind of plain without any trim, like I forgot to finish it.

Here's a peek at the outfit as it is now, with no sleeve trim:

Here's a second peak with a mock up of sleeve trim:

What do you think - to trim or not to trim? Let me know in the comments. I'm going to make the trim tomorrow. If I put it on and hate it, I can always take it off!

Parting Shots: Hike. We had a good hike on Saturday, visiting the summits of Little Haystack, Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Lafayette in the Franconia Notch. Here are a few photos from the ridge and summits.

Looking toward Lafayette from the summit of Lincoln before continuing on the ridge over there.
From the summit of Lafayette, looking across Franconia Notch to North and South Kinsman, Lonesome Lake below them, and Mt. Cannon and Cannon Cliffs.

Taking pictures of each other - the Pemi Wilderness is behind him, and the Franconia Notch is behind me (what you saw in the photo above), although you can't see it. We're on the summit of Lafayette at this point.

30 Minutes Per Day - Week of Sept. 21, 2009

I think I did pretty well this week compared to last week, when it seemed like I was struggling to get anything done! I worked on my son's shirt and a few things for my daughter.

Sunday I got a good head start on my son's shirt, to the point that all I had left was the collar, buttonholes and buttons. Here's what I got done this week:

Monday: I made and added the collar to the shirt. This took longer than 30 minutes, but I really wanted to get this task finished, so I stuck with it and finished it up.

Tuesday: All I had to do was buttonholes and buttons! My son really liked the buttons I picked out. He was able to wear the shirt to school on Wednesday.


Wednesday: I cut out two pieces for my daughter's winter church wardrobe. The first is a black turtleneck from Simplicity 9362, which is out of print, but what I consider a TNT knit top for her:

The second is a skirt of grey corduroy printed with black paisleys. This is definitely from a TNT pattern for her, Simplicity 4897. I've changed the pockets and zipper from the original. The pockets were originally just topstitched to the outside, I've changed them to a regular hip pocket. I've changed the zipper from a center front to an invisible zipper in the side seam. While these are not major changes, they are refinements that make the skirt a little less casual and a little nicer for church. You can see one of the new pockets below.


Thursday: I worked on the turtleneck and got the shoulders sewn, the collar on and the sleeves attached. I had to try it on my daughter to check for sleeve length, so that was a good place to stop for the day.

Friday: I was able to work twice today on my daughter's projects. I got the turtleneck finished, by sewing the side seams and stitching the hems on the coverstitch machine. Not exciting, but it is done:


Later in the afternoon, I was able to start construction on the skirt. I got the pockets on the front done, the darts stitched in the back, and the skirt assembled and prepped for the zipper.

I think I'll be able to finish the skirt and make another knit top next week for her.

If you've been following along and have tried just sewing a little bit every day, good for you! I hope that you can see that even with just a little bit of time you can get things done. Even tracing a pattern, cleaning and organizing your work area or changing the threads in the serger is progress and sets you up for success when you do have more time to sew.

Another little note, I have a few requests for tips and tutorials. I have not forgot about these! I will try to get them worked into the posts soon!

Parting Shot: Ready. I'm off to hike in the White Mountains today with my husband. The visiting relatives are watching the children, so we'll be hiking Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Lafayette in Franconia Notch today - about 9 miles. Each peak is over 5,000 feet and we'll walk the ridge between the two peaks. I'll have pictures next week!


***For those of you curious about my birthday shoes shown earlier this week, the brand is Clark's. I'm not sure if you can still get that style as they were bought at an outlet store and were the only pair like them in the store.***

Garden Path - Jacket - Part XXXXVI

One Label, One Insect, One Sleeve

That's been my mantra for the past two days. We have relatives visiting from out of town this week, so my time has been limited in the evenings and will be this weekend, too. I figure if I can set small, achievable goals, I will still see progress.

I have made up the labels (you know the end is near when you see the labels!!), They are printed on white silk dupioni using Bubble Jet Set and an inkjet printer. This is the one for the jacket:

I had to make smaller ones for the blouse and skirt mainly because the blouse is not lined so I can't stitch the label to the lining like I usually do. Only the neckband has a facing, so that's where the label has to go. I decided to do the same for the skirt. If I were more clever, and thought about it sooner, I could have designed a printed label to be sewn into a seam somewhere, but I'll save that idea for another garment. As it is, here is the little label for the blouse, it is clear in real life, not fuzzy!

I've also been stitching on the beaded insects, one per day. I've got them all pinned on and now have to attach them. I've also found out I need to make three more bees, but that's not a big deal, I can make those next week along with anything else I feel the garden will need. Just for a little eye candy, here's the butterfly stitched in place on the front:

Then there are the sleeves. Bascially, I've ripped out the lining sleeves, pulled the lining a little closer around the armscye, basted and trimmed off the excess. Then I stitched the lining sleeves back in place by hand. I'm happier with the result, but it was a bit time consuming to do.

Next week all I have to do is the sleeve hems and finish the embellishing! It is almost done!

Parting Shot: Bear. For my birthday my parents sent me a custom teddy bear from Vermont Teddy Bears. Notice that she has her own pin cushion, measuring tape headband and scissor embroidery on her collar. She has a place of honor in the sewing room, safe from children and cats (well, except probably Wellie!).

Garden Path - Jacket - Part XXXXV

Back to Work . . .

After taking this weekend off for a little fun, I've been back to work on Garden Path. I think I will be have it truly complete by the end of next week. This week, I'm working on final construction details, and next week I will be completing all the final embellishment details.

For the past couple of days, I've been working on finishing the front and neck edges. The actual stitching doesn't take long at all. What takes so much time is the accurate marking, trimming and rechecking to make sure everything is straight, even and the same size.

I have no set formula for finishing the edges, but work out solutions depending the other elements that make up the garments. Sometimes it is easy and the garment has a facing or is lined to the edge and can be bagged and turned. This time, because of the two narrow trims on either side of the border, I decided to bind the front edge as you can see below.


For the seam where the collar joins the jacket, I've just turned the collar facing under and hand stitched it down. I chose not to extend the binding all the way across the neck because I'd have to turn the the small trim sections downward toward the jacket, and they are already very thick. This would create thick lumps where each trim section meets the collar binding. I didn't want that, so I went with a more traditional collar finish with the seam allowances pressed toward the collar. You can see that the front binding extends all the way to the small trim and is right up against the collar facing. I think it is a pretty clean finish and keeps the inside looking nice.

Right now, the interior fronts are completely finished:

Over the next few days, I'll be back to ripping and redoing. I'm not happy with the way the body and sleeve linings are looking at the moment, so I'm going to remove the lining sleeves, smooth everything out and put the lining sleeves back in by hand. Not fun, but I know it will look better. That only leaves the sleeve/sleeve linings hems and the rest of the embellishing!

Parting Shot: New Book. I got my own copy of David Coffin's shirt making book from my husband. I have one on loan from a friend (yes, it will be mailed back to you later this week!), but now I have my own copy. I've tried out several of the techniques and really like the results, so this book went to the top of my wishlist.

Red Vest Finished!

BWOF 2/08 #116

Thank you all for the birthday wishes!

I was able to finish the red vest this weekend, although not in the manner that I had hoped. The plan was to get the buttons and have the buttonholes made in NYC. That didn't happen for a variety of reasons - some of the button shops I wanted to go to were closed on the weekend (one downside of visiting the garment district on the weekend is that not everything is open). Because the trip was partly for my daughter's enjoyment, I decided to spend a little more time doing what she wanted and figured that I could make the buttonholes at home.

Which is exactly what I did, early Sunday morning. I had already marked the position of the buttonholes, so that was easy. I ended up using some vintage buttons that I already had - they were plan B in case I didn't find any in NYC anyway. I can always change them later if I find some I like better.

I wore the outfit to church on Sunday, so you'll have to excuse the wrinkles in the photo. This was taken late Sunday night after choir practice and evening service.

I am really happy with the vest and now I have a three piece suit if I want to wear it that way!

Parting Shot: Shoes. I got these shoes as a birthday gift from my husband. We were out shopping the other day and I didn't buy them, so he went right back the next week and got them because they were the only pair like them in the store and the only ones I liked. They are great for wearing around the house all day and of course they're trimmed in red!

Saturday Trip to NYC

Saturday I took my daughter to NYC for the day. It was a beautiful day, and we had a good time shopping and sightseeing.

We first went to Mood where my daughter fell in love with a blue/cream/grey wool plaid. We decided to wait to see what the other stores had before purchasing it, so we went on to a few other places before heading over to visit the library. Here she is with one of lions:

We went inside, too, and she was really impressed. She said she wanted to work at a library like that. I offered to buy her a t-shirt, but she wanted a lion magnet for her locker at school instead. That was fine with me!

We then walked past Bryant Park, and as you can see the frames for the tents from Fashion Week were still up. They were in the process of dismantling them.

We then headed up to Times Square:

Then we headed back down to the Garment District, for more shopping and a stop at the giant button and garment worker:

We ended up at Parron's/Parron's Annex looking for more fabric for her winter church wardrobe. She already knew what colors she wanted, so it was actually easier to shop since we could eliminate a lot of fabrics that weren't going to work. She also lost a tooth in the Annex, but I made sure she stayed away from the fabric and gave her an extra napkin I had in my bag. After another trip to Mood, we ended up with the two fabrics below. The cream knit is from Parron's and has a beautiful flower texture knit in. She didn't like it at first, so I unrolled a lot of it so she could see how pretty it was. After she draped it on me, decided she liked it. The plaid is the wool she loved from Mood.

We also stopped at Daytona Trims, Pacific Trims, Spandex House and a few other shops. At Daytona, we bought silver trim and a flower for her Christmas dress (we already have all the fabric in my collection).

She played with Ric (or Rac - not sure which cat this is) in Daytona Trims while I shopped. Purrrfect.

Side Note: When my son first saw this picture, he said, "Wellie!". Nope, not Wellie, but Ric or Rac.

Here she is waiting on the sidewalk for the bus to arrive to take us back to Boston:

Overall, we had a really nice day, got to see a lot of things and got fabrics she really liked. She loved NYC - which I was pretty sure she would, as she likes Boston, too. In fact, when we got home and she was telling her father about her day I left the room and he told me later that one of the first things out of her mouth was, "Why can't we live in New York?" LOL. Maybe when she grows up and gets that job at the library.

Parting Shot: Chocolate Fudge Tart. When we got home, there was the smell of chocolate in the air. My husband and son made me a tart for my birthday!

Garden Path - Jacket - Part XXXXIV

Not Quite Right.

I try to stay one planning step ahead of what I'm actually doing when working on these projects so that I can keep the momentum going. Today I started thinking about sleeve finishes. Plain, was well, plain and boring. After trying out some narrow trim, I liked that option as it also matched the trim on the skirt pockets. Great, problem solved.

Meanwhile, I was going to start finishing the front edges today. *Was* going to finish them. Until I decided I needed to do something with the back bottom edge. It wasn't hanging quite right and I wasn't happy with the look. If I'm going to make something this complicated, it has to hang right and look good or else it's just a mess. I don't even have a picture of it.

I think the problem began because I thought I was a bit short on narrow trim, which means that I stretched and pressed it a little tighter than it should have been. That resulted in the hem cupping under in a weird way. Adding that last bottom section didn't help. I've been agonizing over this for the past couple of days and this afternoon I finally took the scissors to it all.


I removed the bottom section and half of the trim, placed the trim properly, reshaped it and basted it back in place. I should be able to put all the beads back in tomorrow.

So what does this have to do with the sleeve trim? Well, I decided that leaving the bottom section off was actually a good thing, because there won't be an extra section at the bottom of the sleeve, neither is there a section above the pocket trim on the skirt. I am much happier with how everything looks although I've lost a couple day's work in the process.

In other news, I did finish the spider this morning:

Once I get done basting and fiddling with the narrow trim on the jacket, I think I'll sit down and figure out how to make ants and cut out the rest of the insects.

Parting Shot: Out. Wellie is in a deep sleep. He didn't even react when I tickled his toes!

Garden Path - Jacket - Part XXXXIII

Not Much Progress

Today was one of those days where it seemed like I did not make much progress on this project! I did get the collar facing on, after taking off various sections of the collar to make sure that everything was even and looked balanced. I think that's what takes the most time - not the sewing, but the careful measuring and double checking before trimming or cutting anything.

The spider wasn't dry last evening so I couldn't work on that, either. I got the body on today, and I think I have a leg in place. I wasn't happy with the first leg placements, so we'll see if these are any better. Thankfully, I only have to do one of these.

Finishing the spider is the first order of business tomorrow, and then I'll start finishing the front edges. Tomorrow is another day, so maybe I'll make some progress then.

Parting Shot: Woodpecker. My daughter came in today and said she had seen a woodpecker. We know we have them around here, and I was able to get a picture of him after dinner.

Garden Path - Jacket - Part XXXXII

Butterfly!

I was able to finish the butterfly last night, so here it is with the car key for scale:

My son and I both agreed that the butterfly should be a monarch. He pointed out that the only orange in the piece was the lilies and an orange butterfly would be a good way to get a little more orange into the piece. I agreed, so that's what I made.

Tonight's little project is to get the spider attached and finished. I've rinsed away the stabilizer and have applied plain white glue around all the edges of the beading.

When dry, I will trim away the excess organza and stitch the piece in place. For most insects, that's all I'll need to do; with the spider, I'll also be adding the legs!

As far as other progress, I was able to get the collar on today. That doesn't sound like much, but when you need to mark the fronts, try everything on and make sure it all goes together smoothly, it is a lot more work than you'd think. Tomorrow I hope to get the fronts trimmed, the collar facing in place and then finish the neck and front edges before the weekend. I also discovered that due to the way the fronts will overlap that I don't need to make another butterfly. I can't decide whether I'm thrilled or disappointed about that.

Parting Shot: Tomatoes, too. We're actually going to get some larger tomatoes this year. We've had quite a good crop from the cherry tomato plant, but these large plants didn't do so well with all the rain we had early in the growing season. We were pretty sure these plants would die or not produce anything.

Garden Path - Jacket - Part XXXXI

Back on the Path

It's Monday and I'm back on the path, working on GP. Between Friday and Saturday, I somehow managed to get the bottom section lined and finished so that it could be attached to the jacket body. It is a rather long and narrow section, as you can see in the photo below. The lining and quilted fabric were stitched right sides together and in the photo it is being trimmed so that it can be turned and pressed.

Today, I've been able to attach the section. I've got about ten more beads to go and I'll be through. It can be a bit tedious, so I take breaks often. This break I figured would be a good time to get my blog post done.

Just for fun, here's a sneak peek of the interior, with the various linings I've used to create some interest on the inside:

Parting Shot: Almost Ready. My son's pumpkins are just starting to turn orange. They'll probably be ready to pick in the next few weeks.