PR Day in NYC

Johanna, me, and Cindy at Metro Textile. Thank you Peter for the pictures. I copied this from his posting, here of pictures of the day. Cindy and Tom organized the day and they did a great job, so a big thanks.
What a great day I had. It was so much fun to meet other sewers and people who read my blog! That was really a wonderful addition to the day. By the time I got to Metro Textiles at 10:30 it was jammed with people, but fun. Too much distraction for me to buy fabric there, but I can get in anytime so I was more interested in meeting everyone. After Metro we went down the street to Mood as Greenberg and Hammer was already committed to hosting the ASG group from Baltimore so we were scheduled for 12:15. They are the loveliest people and had drinks and cookies and goodie bags for all of us. Back to Mood, Eric, one of the owners, gave us a 10% discount because Rosie asked. I did buy a piece of fabric here, a gorgeous wool knit, I think that there is maybe some silk in it too because it has a really gorgeous shimmer on one side, in a deep green. It's better to hit Mood in the morning on a Saturday. Have you been there on a Saturday afternoon! The crowds are unbelievable. I do think that they've raised their prices. Emmaonesock buys some things here and in the past I've recognized distinctive pieces and the prices were always a few dollars cheaper. Saturday they were more money by a few dollars than Linda is charging. I don't need fabric, but I am always on the lookout for something that 'speaks' to me. Everyone was on the lookout for animal prints for me. There weren't many; either heinous, and suitable jokes were made about these, or polyester and I've sworn off polyester knits. They feel clammy to me in the winter and rip them off hot in the summer. I'll wear it in a blend, but not straight.
Next we headed off to Greenberg and Hammer and then lunch at a deli up the street that had tables upstairs. We put together about 6 tables for all of us. It was great. I sat near Terry and Liz and Peter, as well as several lovely people whose names I can't remember! I met a a lot of people whose names I can't remember! Maybe name tags wouldn't be a bad idea. It is really fun to talk to people about sewing and not have their eyes glaze over.
We went on to Paron, where I bought a piece of shirting and Lucy, who I have known for years, gave me a nice discount. I think that next time we should contact our favorite places and ask them if they will give a discount to PR that day. After that we went over to Rosen and Chaddick but nothing spoke to me there. We also went over to Pacific Trimming so that I could get another Riri zipper for my leather skirt. It was late by this time and Terry wanted to got to the Japanese bookstore opposite Bryant park. I had never been so I went along. They carry all those amazing Japanese pattern books. I am being good, so I didn't buy any, but I was tempted. Even in Japanese the illustrations are amazing. Twisted tops with the best pictures illustrating how to do it so that no words are necessary, even for twist challenge people like me. They do use the western alphabet for matching letters which makes it a little easier to navigate. They have those Bunka College design books that Cidell showed on her blog. Attention men who sew or women who sew for them! They have mens pattern books with very cool and stylish stuff. A whole book on coats and jackets with great illustrations. Of course you kind of have to be a small man or you'll have to grade them up a lot. Asian men tend to be smaller, not just in height but bone structure.
All in all, it was a great day and even the weather co-operated.
After that I was pooped and walked down to Penn to get the train home.

Wadder, ah well

I am glad I didn't cut my Three Graces crossover t in my good fabric. Mind you, it wasn't cheap fabric, but it was a bit thin for my taste. The crossover, which I finally got right, was lovely. I finally got it when I watched the direction that Trudy twisted seam D. After I sewed in the sleeves, I pinned the sides together and tried it on. The twist looked great, but I should have cut the shoulders and armscyes 2 sizes smaller at least, it was that big. It looked terrible. The fabric didn't like being ripped and so it's a wadder, my first in quite a while. I'll go back to this after the PR wardrobe contest is over, but not now. I made some drawings of my tops with my skirt pattern, and I went back to my BWOF 113 from 12/08 top that was in my plan, with the pleated front, but not in the silver rayon. It made me cold looking at it. I chose a gorgeous darker gray wool and lycra light weight jersey from Emmaonesock that had been in contention, and in my stash, from the beginning. Maybe I'll bind the neck in black velvet. Hmm.

ZIPPER ADVICE
I need some advice. I cut out my leather skirt and decided that I didn't want to use an invisible zipper. Why not an exposed zipper so I looked in my stash, and realized, fortunately sooner than later, that I need a longer zipper because the skirt has a raised waistband. Since I was going to have to order a zipper, why not a matching gold tone Riri zipper. I ordered a 9 inch one from Pacific Trimming. The question I have is how to install it. I looked in my Sewing With Leather and Suede book by Sandy Scrivano and she has a lovely method for facing a light weight leather, mine, in a spot without a seam. But I want to put mine in the side seam. I've been thinking about this, and I could just fold back the seam allowances to expose the zipper, but how do I handle the bottom of the zipper at the top of the sewn side seam? If I face it, do I cut off the sas and, but them and hold then in place with tape from the wrong side and then just sew a facing on on and follow the directions for a faced opening? Suggestions please.

Pattern Review Day in NYC

On November 7 Pattern Review is having a sewers get together in NYC. I'll be there and I hope that any of you who can make it in for the day will join us. I had so much fun last year meeting people I've only met online. Karen from Sewing by the Seat of My Pants was there and we both showed off our leather jackets. She also enabled me to buy some white stretch cotton poplin. Check the details over on Pattern Review. Deepika is asking everyone who is planning on coming to fill out the poll so that she has accurate numbers.

Sewing. I decided not to hem the twist top I am making(including the front neckline), but I'd already attached the back neck facing. It looks kind of dumb next to the unfinished front neck. I kept thinking about this especially this morning before I got out of bed. Duh, take of the back neck facing and trim off the sas.

Twist challenged

My next piece up is the Hot Patterns Three Graces twist t shirt. If Trudy had not posted videos on You Tube I'd still be twisting. I really have a hard time with tops where things twist over and back onto themselves. I guess I'm spatially challenged. I marked it very carefully with painters tape and labeled every seam. I watched the video at least 10 times and ripped the first seam at least 3 times before I got this right. I pulled over my dressform next to my computer so that I could do it step by step as Trudy was doing it. It didn't help that she uses letters to mark the seams and talks about seams 1, 2 and 3. The worst, frustrating mess. Then I decided to pin the front neck edge to my ironing table and connect the seams. It worked! I cut this out of a thin bluish gray rayon lycra knit from Gorgeous Fabrics. It's a pretty knit, but I don't love working in such thin stuff. It was described as medium weight and I wouldn't call it that. It also curls which I hate! Anyway, it was intended as a muslin for my expensive silk and rayon ombre knit but I think that I would like the ombre in the loop front top instead. It's kind of striped and I like how the stripe Trudy used looks on the loop front top. It also looks easier to arrange and sew than the twist front!
Here's the ombre fabric, which I haven't shown before. I'm using it instead of the silver jersey top on my storyboard. I think that the jacket is sparkly enough without adding any more bling to the mix. I also traced and altered all three of the Three Graces and I haven't traced that Burda top. I am running out of time to alter any more patterns if I want to finish this contest.

A recent purchase from Emmaonesock

Burda 128 10/08 Jacket

I finished my jacket yesterday and enlisted my dd to take pictures. She's better than my husband and we had a nice photo session outside on this gorgeous fall day. If you'll remember I was knocking off this Oscar de la Renta jacket that retails for $1990.00 over on Net a Porter. My copy is more inspired by his than an actual copy. I didn't want to add a band at my hips, so I left that off. I also didn't add the bands on the sleeves, opting to keep it like the bottom of my jacket.

I used this BWOF pattern for the base, mainly because it had a very similar collar and front princess seams. You can see that I made a lot of changes! Even with those changes the great draft of this jacket comes through. I always love the way Burda set in sleeves ease in so beautifully and this pattern was no exception.

Now the jacket:


The under pocket is faced with the fashion fabric so that the lining doesn't show.

This jacket cost me considerably less than the original and at $200 it wasn't exactly cheap, but it is a whole lot more jacket than I could buy for $200 in RTW. It also fits, which is something I could never find off the rack. I love it. I love that it makes me feel good to put it on and yes, the fabric was worth the cost.
You can read a detailed review over on Pattern Review.

BURDA STYLE, REALLY BAD INSTRUCTIONS

Burda Style sends out regular emails on new styles and the Karen Cardigan really appealed to me. Until I got to the instructions. Now, I don't really need the directions, but I do like to see the pattern pieces. It gives me a much better idea of how this is supposed to go together. I was trying to figure out how they expect you to finish the front edges. Finally I went back to the list of pattern pieces and apparently there are facings. Do you interface these facings, how big are they? Who knows because they don't show them nor do they mention them in the very abbreviated instructions. I really like the design of this cardigan, minus the strange belt, which is easy to leave out. Those of us who sew BWOF patterns from the magazine very often complain about the poor directions. Unless they give you more in the printout, these are about the worst I've seen. I will probably buy this, it's $4, but the question is do I print it out myself or take it to the copy shop? It seems to be more of a pain to put this together than tracing from the magazine. Have you had any experience in downloading these patterns? Sewing them?

SEWING ACTUALLY GOING ON!

I do seem to have screwed up the matching across the zipper. It's not so obvious in person fortunately. I do love the fit of this jacket and I am going to not see the matching issue since I can't do anything about it. I sewed up the sleeve muslin today and scooped out the front armscyes where it was uncomfortable.
I block fused my yardage with Pro-Sheer Elegance low temp interfacing from Sew Exciting which you can see in the zipper pictures. I only added some Pro-weft fusible to the collar stand. I wanted the jacket to have a little more body but not to be tailored. The low temperature of the Pro-sheer is perfect for my fabric because while the wool will take a higher heat, the lurex won't.
I solved my shoulder fit and am really happy about that. I have lots of fit issues as I've said before, but my forward shoulder is accompanied by a rounded shoulder too. Instead of sewing the back shoulder dart I eased and shrank it to fit the front shoulder. This eliminated the wrinkle I was getting running from the shoulder to above the hip.
I am really pleased with the zippered pockets. I used the faced or what Claire Schaeffer calls the Magic Window method. Marking the pocket on the outside you use an upper pocket of silk organza so that you can see the pocket mouth.
After sewing a box in small stitches it's cut open and the opening trimmed to 1/8". Each side is understitched, long sides first and then the ends.



Paper covered fusible tape is perfect for holding the zipper in place while stitching it to the upper pocket. The zipper is attached to the front by folding back the garment and stitching over the previous stitching for the window opening.

Next up is cutting out the sleeves and lining.