This is What I Wear

I engaged a week of what Trena calls "stunt dressing". I wore the same skirt every day to see if anyone would notice. I mean, of course, I wore a skirt made from the exact same pattern every day this week. Here they are, left to right, Monday through Friday:

These were all made with the tried-and-true McCall's 2029 A line skirt, version B which is above the knee: I made each of them with a wonderful Hoffman fabric from equilter.com that is 55% cotton and 45% rayon. Monday was southwestern chili pepper day:

Tuesday was tropical drinks day:

Wednesday was surf boards day:

Thursday was vacation/holiday:

And Friday was even more surf boards:

As expected, no one noticed. Although three different folks did say during the week, "You made that skirt, right?" I think everyone knows me so well, they wouldn't be surprised by anything I wore to work. Once you have seen the Crab Dress, you have seen it all.

Parting Shot: My friend Aimee and me. I'm wearing Wednesday's surf board skirt!

This Is How I Sew

Yesterday I gave the program at my monthly sewing guild meeting - we are the Fashion Focus Group for anyone interested in the Richmond, Virginia area - and my mission to was impart how I use just a few patterns to achieve different looks for my dresses. I'd like to say I do this because I love the challenge, the creativity involved, etc., but I really sew this way because:

I. Simply. Do. Not. Have. The. Time.

That is the truth. Between work and the MS, my time and energy are in short supply.

Clearly, the most time consuming part of sewing is fitting. And a good fit is what makes a garment look good on you. So my philosophy is that once you get a good fit, work that pattern to death. You can achieve great results with minimal effort.

So yesterday I was able to show how I got 14 garments from just two dress patterns and two skirt patterns. Here are the two dress patterns, Simplicity 9559 and McCall's 4919: The Simplicity pattern was the very first dress pattern I ever used. I got lucky; for some reason the bodice of this dress just fit me perfectly. It is out of print these days, but it has several views, which includes a v-neck bodice, a sweetheart neckline, and a sundress. The McCall's pattern is simply a sheath dress pattern, with a seam at the waist and a straight skirt with a vent in the back. I believe it is still in print.

My two skirt patterns are McCall's 2029 and Butterick 4515:

The McCall's pattern is an A-line skirt with a waist band, with two darts in front and two darts in back. The Butterick pattern is a dress pattern, but I only use it for the circle skirt.

Because the Simplicity 9559 fit me so well, I have made every view many, many times. Here are three examples of the v-neck bodice, the sweetheart bodice, and the sundress, all in cotton:

You will have to trust me that these look good on - ideally I would have had photos of me wearing them, but alas, no photographer was available today. The next photo is of the McCall's 2029 skirt pattern which I have made up in various fabrics:The green plaid is a wool tartan I bought in Edinburgh at a weaver's shop right next to Edinburgh castle. I bought it off the remenant table, which is probably the only reason I was brave enough to cut in to it. I lined it in silk. The red skirt is a cotton/rayon fabric that I love to wear in the summer. And the pink sundress is a morphed hybrid: it is the sundress bodice of the Simplicity 9559 dress and the McCall's 2029 skirt. It has poodles on it:

I couldn't believe my luck when the front and back darts of the skirt matched up perfectly with the darts of the bodice. Clearly, it was Meant To Be.

Next are all my versions of the McCall's 4919 sheath dress:

On the far left is a cotton version done in a Kaffe Fassette fabric, the red is a red wool I got from fashionfabricsclub.com, and the silver on the left is a duipioni silk I made for a Christmas party (which I wear with a sash). The grey wool skirt in the middle is one I made just using the skirt portion of the pattern. I've photographed the back of it, so you can see that I just added a waistband, and I lined it in a bright silk fabric that VickiW gave me. I wear this dress constantly, especially in the winter in wool, with a sweater or jacket. I feel very Jackie-O in it.

Next are more morphed dresses. All of these dresses are made using the circular skirt pattern from the Butterick 4512:

On the far left is an Italian worsted wool version that I love. The wool is a brown check with light blue, and I usually wear it with a light blue sweater and brown mary jane pumps. I made it with the v-neck verison of the Simplicity 9559 pattern. The bright pink is a duipioni silk with the sheath dress bodice. The pale yellow dress is the same as the brown check wool, but of course, it uses two different fabrics, and I drafted a collar for the yellow version.

And of course, the latest incarnation is the silk jacquard dress I recently posted about. It was made with the circle skirt, and the sweetheart bodice of Simplicity 9559:

So this is how I roll. Some would call it lazy sewing; I just call it smart sewing. I never do muslins; I just keep making the same dress over and over in different variations on a theme. Muslins bore me, and have I mentioned that time is always of the essence?

I do, however, make other patterns. I have a particular love of vintage patterns, and I have ventured into dress patterns that actually have sleeves. But the above examples are what I make when I don't have a lot of time or energy, and I want to know that what I am making will work. These are the tried and true pattern friends.

Hmm. Now I'm thinking something needs to be made in a rayon batik. I'll have to think about that some more and get back to you . . .

Parting Shot: I got a pedicure this weekend! Which always feels decadent:

An Etsy Purchase

I've bought patterns off Etsy before - that is where the Crab Dress pattern came from - but I have never purchased anything handmade. This week I decided to splurge and get a summer purse, especially after I realized that the one I was carrying around was given to me by a friend in 2003. I'm just not a purse person. A purse is something to carry your stuff in, not a fashion statement. As a result, a purse is one of those things I welcome as a gift since my picks are never all that inspired. But I saw this one on Etsy: I believe the fabrics are "Swanky" from Chez Moi of Moda, and the handbag was made by Lisa from simplestitches101. Here is a shot of the inside which is yellow (yum!) and has pockets around the sides:

She also included a checkbook cover, a credit card wallet, and a wristlet key chain:

Lisa also had for sale some "reader" glasses (also known as "cheater" glasses) that she had funkied-up by painting pink and white dots on them. Sold!

My glasses in my new purse:

I'm really pleased with this; it only took 3 days to get my new glasses and purse, and they will both be put to use tomorrow!

No sewing done today; I did attend my monthly sewing guild meeting where I gave the program on using just a few patterns to create many different looks. I'll post about that soon.

God is Good

Lately, life has seemed somewhat dry and barren - frustration has set in, between the economy, the unrelenting Michael Jackson non-news coverage, and the endless strife in the Middle East. Plus, work has pretty much sucked, too, and that is where I spend most of my time. So, I have spent the last few days saying to friends, "Tell me some good news."

No one seems to have any.

And then tonight I saw a friend. Two months ago he was suffering - physically, emotionally, and spiritually as a result of his addiction to alcohol. I wasn't just worried about him, I was praying for his life.

Tonight he came by and gave me the good news I've been asking everyone else for. He is better. Immensely better. Better than he has been in years. All of a sudden, the work problems didn't matter any more, and the price of gas just wasn't important. He was lost, and now has been found. I am profoundly grateful. God is good.

Parting Shot: I took this in Puerto Rico on the cruise - a girl in the street with her bird. She clearly adored this animal.

Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

Happy Fourth of July weekend, everyone! I got off work on Thursday and had a craving for lemonade, real lemonade. None was to be had, so I was going to have to learn to make it myself. Fortunately, the internet is a beautiful thing - goggle "how to make lemonade" - and voila! Real lemonade. It was delicious and there is a still a quart of it in the frig for the weekend. What worked for me:

Mix 1 cup of water with 1 scant cup of sugar. Bring to a boil. Set aside.
Squeeze the juice of 6 lemons, and pour the lemon juice into the water/sugar mixture. Pour a little over 3 cups of cold water into a pitcher and add the water/sugar/lemon mixture. Pour over ice into glass. Yum!

I also did a quick project: I made a runner for a chest of drawers in my bedroom to match my new bed quilt. I used some of the leftover fabrics, piecing them with no particular plan, but I ended up with this:

I rounded the front two corners because that is how the chest of drawers is shaped. Also, I never miss an opportunity to have curved corners because I hate mitering corners. I auditioned several bowls for the proper circumference, but this is the size I went with: I also sewed the binding on completely by machine, front and back. Here is a shot of my pinning prior to the final sew down - it gives you an idea how far apart I put my pins:

(See? That extra binding I made when doing the bed quilt came in handy!) This runner ended up about 29 inches by 16 inches, so I used fusible batting, and I did straight line quilting along the length. I used the edge of the walking foot as my guide and I simply varied the width by moving the needle to different needle positions on my machine:

Another shot:

I pieced the back as well:

Here you can see the runner on the chest of drawers. Pretty good fit!

It was fun to do something that only took a day or two. I also have a bedside table I was thinking about making a runner for, but I'm afraid to overload my bedroom with these fabrics. I love them, but I'm trying not to go nuts.

Parting Shot: New quilting book. Between this book and the internet, I don't really see any reason to buy a new quilting magazine, ever.

Working on Posting What I'm Sewing

I finished my bed quilt - look, Siobhan, no borders!

As usual, Susan Caldwell at Quilting Around the Block did an awesome job with the pantograph. I can't remember what it is called, but here is a shot of the muslim backing show the pantograph: I love it! Here is a shot of the front:

This quilt ended up finishing at 88 inches x 88 inches and I thought this was a perfect time to try Judy's binding video tutorial and sew the binding on completely by machine. The whole purpose of this quilt was to make it simply and get it on the bed because I loved the fabrics so much and they matched perfectly with my bedroom decor (which I can't take credit for - the woman who owned the house before me picked the wall paper, the drapes, and the carpeting and she did a masterful job!).

Judy's tutorial is great, and she makes it look easy. She does stress that the success of this method lies in using really sharp pins. I used the sharpest I had which were silk pins. They were key to making sure the binding did not move while sewing it down from the front. I didn't quite get the nice corners Judy did:

Although my corners look fine from the front:

I sewed one side and one corner at a time, so I had four chances to improve. At first, I folded the binding over a little too much and this resulted in a little "lip" on the back:

But then I improved:

And I admit that her method looks awesome from the front! In most places you would never know from the front that the binding was sewn by machine and not by hand:

Now my stitching isn't perfect, but this is my quilt to go on my bed, so there will be no quilt police entering my house to inspect the quality of my work. I'm so pleased with this because doing it this way probably only took me one-third of the time if I had done it by hand. I'm not a big fan of handwork, and sewing bindings down by hand was really the only handwork I ever did - but all that has changed now. I will probably use this method from now on, unless the quilt is an extra-special one.

Then I did something I have never done to a quilt that I have made (except for my first one) - I washed it. I decided that it would have to be washed at some time in the future, and there was no time like the present. VickiW assured me that she simply puts it in the washer and then in the dryer, no problem. And she was right; it came out soft and crinkly. I immediately put it on the bed and I'm laying under it now as I type!

One thing I did want to mention: when I was initially sewing the binding onto the front of the quilt, I tried Judy's method of moving the needle all the way to the right needle position and using the edge of the walking foot as my guide. The advantage to this was that way more of the quilt was under the walking foot and thus, the quilt was pulled along under the foot with a lot more force, making the whole process much easier. Wish I had been doing this all along.

Parting Shot: Two more blocks of the Double Wedding Ring Quilt got done this weekend. Fourteen done, six more to go!

How To Make Quilt Binding

I am certain that 95% of all readers of this blog know how to make quilt binding, but this post is for those who don't - like my friend Chris B who is making her very first quilt. She has warned me that quilt binding is in her future, so this is particularly for her.

The first, and most difficult, step to making quilt binding is figuring out how much fabric you need. I am spectacularly bad at this. I search the internet for formulas, I read books, and in the end my method consists of "make way more than you need". I figure that it is better to have too much than too little, and any leftovers can be use to bind placemats.

So to make bias double-fold binding, I usually start with one yard of fabric for a queen size quilt, three-quarters of a yard for a double size quilt, and a half a yard for a twin size quilt. This will give you plenty of binding, and then some. Start by squaring off the edges - this will make every step afterwards a lot easier: Then take the lower right hand corner and fold it towards the opposite selvage edge:

Fold it all the way over to the opposite selvage edge, so that the resulting fold is a 45 degree angle, and, hence, the bias:

Use a pair of sissors to cut along the bias fold:

Don't worry about being perfect; you can clean up this edge later on in the process with a rotary cutter. Next, lay out your resulting two pieces of fabric so that you get a parallelogram. (You remember geometry, right?) The two selvage edges will abut each other:

Pin the two selvage edges together:

And then sew them together. Press your resulting seam open:

Next, fold your fabric in half, so the bias edge is vertical on your cutting mat. Your parallelogram will look like this:

(Further clarification on how to fold your binding parallelogram can be found here.)

Clean up the bias edge by using your rotary cutter:

Now start cutting 2 1/2 wide strips:

Repeat until your fabric is all cut into strips. Shot of parallelogram getting smaller as strips are cut:

From a yard of fabric, you will be able to cut 12 strips. This is plenty for a queen size quilt.

Next, join your strips together to make one long piece of binding. I start by laying one strip out on my cutting mat, right side up like this:

Then take a second strip and lay it right side down at a right angle to the first strip like this:

I use the grid on my cutting mat to make sure the strips are at a 90 degree angle. Don't just eyeball it. What your eye thinks is a 90 degree angle just isn't. Measure. Then put a pin in it like this:

Next, draw a sewing line parallel to your pin from corner to corner like this:

It's important to draw the sewing line. Don't just eyeball it, because what your eye thinks is a straight line, ain't. Next, put a second pin parallel to the sewing line like this:

Now sew your two strips together. Sewing your strips this way allows you to sew your seam on the straight grain which is more stable. After sewing, trim the excess so that your seam allowance from your sewing line is a quarter of an inch:

Press your seam allowance open:

Join all your bias strips together the exact same way until they are all joined. I use an assembly line process and it goes faster when you have done it a few times. After you have all your strips sewn together and the seams pressed, fold your binding horizontally wrong sides together and press:

You'll have to cut off the "dog ears":

That's it! There is nothing new or unique about how I make binding; I learned how by reading books and coming up with a method that I use every single time so I can reduce the likehood of mistakes and reduce the frustration factor. (Really important when you are impatient to get a quilt done.) Chris, let me know if something isn't clear or you need help. Miss Eileen, are you reading this???