Followers

Thursday, August 30, 2012

 I really liked these pants and totally destroyed them.  I put the zipper in perfectly, without a flaw.  My problem after I put the pants on:  they was too much slack on the sides, and I wanted to take some of the slack out, and took the excess fabric out of the inseams.  That was the worst mistake I could have made.  I took what I thought was a shortcut, and messed up the pants. I should have referred to a book, but hindsight is 20/20.  The sides seams now were crooked, and the side seam almost was in the middle of my thigh lol! on the left pant leg.  I was so disappointed.  So I thought of a way to save the pants, and decided to make them into shorts.   It still was not working.  So now the pants are trashed.  I should have done this the right way, but you live and learn.  Other than that I finally got the hang of putting in the fly on a pair of pants, thanks to Kenneth D. King.  Had to watch the video again, freeze and then copy what he was doing.
 I used a decorative stitch for the pockets, so I will keep this in mind, however I don't think I will use the stabilizer I used on these pants.  I really need something that is going to tear away without ruining the stitch.  This was a good idea, and I also made the stitch on the pockets at 3.0 which really looked nice, instead of the 2.5.   I did the same thing on the sides of the pants and the inseam.  It really looked nice.   I could have done better on the waist band, but again this is all a learning process.  So I will do much better next time.

 I really liked the way the pockets came out on this as well.  I really don't have the patience to take out the zipper, so I'm a little side tracked at the moment.  Found some fabric at a auction for a church in the neighborhood, and brought some fabric for 2 dollars.  Each roll was two dollars, and there was more than 2yrds. to each roll.  So I decided since I screwed up the pants to make some night gowns, and I really needed those.  I wear stuff until it screams: "I'm tired, can you do something else?   This is jersey light knit, and this drapes and came out very well.  Of course I didn't use a pattern.   This came out perfect.  No flaws.  I just zipped right through it................Why?  because this is not what I wanted to turn out perfect, but it did, I wished it could have been the pants.    I also got some upholstery fabric, and will make a bag out of that, it's really good and sturdy, will use the rest of my batting, and then find some straps to go with the bag.

 Don't know if I will use snaps or a zipper.   I don't have a pattern for the bags that I make, I just cut them out on a whim.  I'll just go with the flow on this one, but I thought I would take a picture of before and after.  Now I'm through with the gowns.  I might make a tee shirt to go along with my jeans.  Next week I am going to get some pant material, and try again for my structured pants.  I will also remember to cut out more than one pair of pants, that will save me a lot of time.  The process will still be fresh in my mind from the first pair I make, and then I can zip right through the second pair.  The thing I really forgot to do, was make a mock pair of pants from the first two pairs of jeans which came out fine.  I forgot to do that, and of course suffered the consequences.   So I will remember to get either a some muslin, or I just might stop at value village, and get some old sheets, which just might be better.  

 If I can find some pieces of pleather or some remnants of leather, that might go with this bag.  I'm looking at the colors in the fabric.  Of course black is always the best choice. There is also a dark kelly green in this fabric, and some tan.  There are handles to buy, but I've always made my own.  I may more than likely used the fabric it's self for the handles.   Using upholstery before, I know that I am going to have to serge some of it, because it ravels very quickly.  I will opt for using the invisible thread so that the stitches don't show on the outside of the hand bang.  The lining should be free motion quilted, giving the bag a little more stability, and durability.  We'll see how this works out.  In the mean time I am going to keep on going.

Saturday, August 18, 2012




The blouse at the top is silk, and it is the kind that wrinkles.  It's rather stiff.   However I like the way the blouse turned out, should have made it longer.  The buttons are shell, although you can't see them in detail. I brought plenty of this fabric, while in Chicago and that was almost six years ago.   I will probably wear this with some slacks. I like my shirts to have more give to them. Even though this fabric is light, I had it on for a good 5 minutes fitting, and was sweating my behind off.   It was a tad to small around the waste area, could have been squared for the bottom instead of rounded, and using Peggy Sagers style for the lapel facing and front part of the shirt takes up some fabric, so I didn't really allow for that amount.   However I can see why she uses this style, as you don't need stabilizer for the front of the shirt, because the fabric becomes the stabilizer.   The second blouse turned out well to, just a little snug around the waist.   I will have to get some new buttons for this shirt.  It was also my first time working with this type of fabric.  It should not be used to make a shirt.   It is deceptive in weight and in texture. 

 I thought that this would make a good shirt; however it would make a nice jacket, as it is pleather mix fabric.  Not easy to sew, and wasn't easy for turning the collar in either, I had hope to make a more crisp point.  For the time being I am going to wait until I can find the right buttons for this, also I could have tapered the sleeves a little more toward the end.   I can tell that this fabric would make me sweat my behind off.  I was sweating just trying it on.   It is a nice color.  Now I am off to cut the next pair of pants out and a blouse.   My stash is really being used at this point.  I think after watching Peggys tapes I will have a little more confidence.  However if it doesn't look perfect I'm not a happy camper, and especially if I see a flaw in the outcome.  I want things to look more smoother.   Of course only I can detect this, but so could any person that sews.  So this was a constructive Saturday morning.