It's a weekend and I'm back on my sewing nonsense.
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It's a weekend and I'm back on my sewing nonsense. I've been at it since the break of dawn¹ but because my back has been absolutely goddamn awful all week I've been making infuriatingly slow progress.
I made a little bit of progress on my Seamwork Callahans (pants!), and printed and trimmed two patterns (more pants!)
Callahans were supposed to be quick, with fabric from stash. It's a lovely gray cotton with a tweed-like slub and bit of a pink stripe running through it.
#sewing
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¹ 10amBut the slub and the weave make the fabric scratchy. I wasn't going to line it originally, thinking "it's fine, it's winter pants, I shall be wearing tights" but honestly the fabric isn't really that thick, so they will be good pants on non-winter days, provided they don't feel like I'm wearing a hive of bees.
So I decided to inter-line them, which means cutting and marking another set of legs in a light gray cotton voile. While my back is Protesting The Working Conditions.
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But the slub and the weave make the fabric scratchy. I wasn't going to line it originally, thinking "it's fine, it's winter pants, I shall be wearing tights" but honestly the fabric isn't really that thick, so they will be good pants on non-winter days, provided they don't feel like I'm wearing a hive of bees.
So I decided to inter-line them, which means cutting and marking another set of legs in a light gray cotton voile. While my back is Protesting The Working Conditions.
Now onto "I wouldn't be like this if I knew how not to be like this"; if you interline pants it means you can do invisible stitches on the inside that will never show on the right side, because they're anchored to the interlining not the main fabric.
And the pattern has a 5/8" seam allowance and what is that perfect for? Flat felling.
So I'm gonna be flat felling the entire thing by hand, because I can't help myself.
Oh and I have some bias tape in just the right shade of pink...
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Now onto "I wouldn't be like this if I knew how not to be like this"; if you interline pants it means you can do invisible stitches on the inside that will never show on the right side, because they're anchored to the interlining not the main fabric.
And the pattern has a 5/8" seam allowance and what is that perfect for? Flat felling.
So I'm gonna be flat felling the entire thing by hand, because I can't help myself.
Oh and I have some bias tape in just the right shade of pink...
Thus my "oh I will just knock these out" pants are becoming a Major Project.
Thankfully I discovered I can have Deep Heat delivered from my local shop, so I got that going for me I guess.
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Thus my "oh I will just knock these out" pants are becoming a Major Project.
Thankfully I discovered I can have Deep Heat delivered from my local shop, so I got that going for me I guess.
I'm sure you know it's important to intersperse challenging projects with nice and easy ones, so that you get a little bit of satisfaction and a mental break.
The Callahans are cut out and marked, waistband and fly fused, all notions assembled into a box. Before I dive into another Major Project I'm making an asymmetric Cashmerette Grafton skirt. Simple, but a lot of impact.
I got this lovely polyviscose ponte with my last fabric haul. Check out that print!
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I'm sure you know it's important to intersperse challenging projects with nice and easy ones, so that you get a little bit of satisfaction and a mental break.
The Callahans are cut out and marked, waistband and fly fused, all notions assembled into a box. Before I dive into another Major Project I'm making an asymmetric Cashmerette Grafton skirt. Simple, but a lot of impact.
I got this lovely polyviscose ponte with my last fabric haul. Check out that print!
What I didn't expect is exactly how beautiful it is in person. Turned out it's not a print, but a jacquard, and the sheen is even nicer, and the fabric soft as butter.
So of course I decided I must do it justice¹.
You know where it's going.
I'm binding the pockets, the waistband, and hem. There may or may not be hand stitching in my future
I can't help myself.
#sewing
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¹ it's unclear if polyviscose has developed an ability to sense injustice but I'm not taking any chances -
What I didn't expect is exactly how beautiful it is in person. Turned out it's not a print, but a jacquard, and the sheen is even nicer, and the fabric soft as butter.
So of course I decided I must do it justice¹.
You know where it's going.
I'm binding the pockets, the waistband, and hem. There may or may not be hand stitching in my future
I can't help myself.
#sewing
—
¹ it's unclear if polyviscose has developed an ability to sense injustice but I'm not taking any chancesP.S. It's shockingly still available:
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@crowbriarhexe it really is! My previous version of the skirt was also in gray ponte, but plain, and I lamented that there were no more interesting fabrics available. No more than a day later this beauty dropped in the shop and I bought it in seconds, terrified it would sell out before I went through the checkout process
It's even lovelier in person
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P.S. It's shockingly still available:
At long last I have finished this skirt. The hem is bound in mesh, and hand-hemmed. The waistband is also bound, but stitched in the ditch - I was not confident my hand stitches would hold there, but I got a good thread match, so I'm happy enough.
And that's just me faffing with the finishes. The skirt itself is just downright wonderful
It has pockets! Good, deep, pockets!When the weather improves I'll take some photos wearing it. The way the pattern drapes is difficult to explain.
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At long last I have finished this skirt. The hem is bound in mesh, and hand-hemmed. The waistband is also bound, but stitched in the ditch - I was not confident my hand stitches would hold there, but I got a good thread match, so I'm happy enough.
And that's just me faffing with the finishes. The skirt itself is just downright wonderful
It has pockets! Good, deep, pockets!When the weather improves I'll take some photos wearing it. The way the pattern drapes is difficult to explain.
And so I've started to make slow progress on my overcomplicated approach to Callahan pants. I have been debating for the last three weeks what to do about the pintucks.
My fabric has subtle pink and white lengthwise stripe every 2mm. Despite my absolute best effort I didn't cut them precisely on grain, so the bottom pintuck marking is about 1 cm off grain from the top pintuck marking.
It was driving me insane. What do? Follow the pattern marking, or follow the stripe?
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And so I've started to make slow progress on my overcomplicated approach to Callahan pants. I have been debating for the last three weeks what to do about the pintucks.
My fabric has subtle pink and white lengthwise stripe every 2mm. Despite my absolute best effort I didn't cut them precisely on grain, so the bottom pintuck marking is about 1 cm off grain from the top pintuck marking.
It was driving me insane. What do? Follow the pattern marking, or follow the stripe?
If I were to follow the pattern marking, I'd be crossing several stripes at an angle on the way down. From experience, this creates a bit of a weird moire effect.
Following the stripe on the other hand could result with the faux crease looking weirdly off altogether.
At the end of the day I decided to follow the stripe - one centimetre over the whole length of the leg is probably not big a deal when it comes to the faux crease, but I figured crossing stripes would drive me nuts.
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If I were to follow the pattern marking, I'd be crossing several stripes at an angle on the way down. From experience, this creates a bit of a weird moire effect.
Following the stripe on the other hand could result with the faux crease looking weirdly off altogether.
At the end of the day I decided to follow the stripe - one centimetre over the whole length of the leg is probably not big a deal when it comes to the faux crease, but I figured crossing stripes would drive me nuts.
So far I'm glad I did! I did the front legs, and it looks great! Himself looked at the pintuck and went "did you, like, starch these?" which is precisely the effect we're going with here
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So far I'm glad I did! I did the front legs, and it looks great! Himself looked at the pintuck and went "did you, like, starch these?" which is precisely the effect we're going with here
@jjcelery oooh excellent!
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@jjcelery oooh excellent!
@artcollisions thank you! I'm dreading them a little less now
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@artcollisions thank you! I'm dreading them a little less now
@jjcelery Excellent! I need to throw all my caution to the wind and just get sewing. It's about to be a desperate situation as it's just gotten hot and I have no real wearable shorts.
And btw, thanks so much for sharing your fears! It helps so much to hear other people talking about sewing process.
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@jjcelery Excellent! I need to throw all my caution to the wind and just get sewing. It's about to be a desperate situation as it's just gotten hot and I have no real wearable shorts.
And btw, thanks so much for sharing your fears! It helps so much to hear other people talking about sewing process.
@artcollisions I have shorts on my list too, but it's still cold here... so still on winter / transitional wardrobe and trying to get that done before it's too late
I personally love reading about other people's process, especially the difficulties, and I was lamenting few years back there aren't "more people like that".
Then I realised, wait, I'm people like that
I don't love documenting the process, but I like going back over it later, so I decided I just needed to suck it up
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@artcollisions I have shorts on my list too, but it's still cold here... so still on winter / transitional wardrobe and trying to get that done before it's too late
I personally love reading about other people's process, especially the difficulties, and I was lamenting few years back there aren't "more people like that".
Then I realised, wait, I'm people like that
I don't love documenting the process, but I like going back over it later, so I decided I just needed to suck it up
@jjcelery Does it also help to get out there so you can look at it and go, oh yeah, now that I see those words in front of, that's ridiculous.
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@jjcelery Does it also help to get out there so you can look at it and go, oh yeah, now that I see those words in front of, that's ridiculous.
@artcollisions haha yes! I often use my husband as a sounding board when I get trapped in a decision paralysis, and sure enough, sometimes just hearing myself is enough to get unstuck
But even then, I like to share it, part as an ego correction, part to help others
sewing and overthinking seems to go hand in hand! -
@artcollisions haha yes! I often use my husband as a sounding board when I get trapped in a decision paralysis, and sure enough, sometimes just hearing myself is enough to get unstuck
But even then, I like to share it, part as an ego correction, part to help others
sewing and overthinking seems to go hand in hand!@jjcelery I learn by hearing myself talk, so it's very helpful for me to just talk *at* someone sometimes.
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And so I've started to make slow progress on my overcomplicated approach to Callahan pants. I have been debating for the last three weeks what to do about the pintucks.
My fabric has subtle pink and white lengthwise stripe every 2mm. Despite my absolute best effort I didn't cut them precisely on grain, so the bottom pintuck marking is about 1 cm off grain from the top pintuck marking.
It was driving me insane. What do? Follow the pattern marking, or follow the stripe?
@jjcelery We can see the stripe. We can't see the pattern.
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@jjcelery We can see the stripe. We can't see the pattern.
@markdennehy well sure, but the pattern markings are there to ensure that the faux crease goes down in a straight line.
Now it won't do that precisely - it's gonna be about a centimetre off. But I'm hoping I can get away with it
