Deb's In Stitches

Simplicity 2365 View C Its Done!

Deb — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:33:03 +0000

Friday I spent some time in my craft room all but finishing Simplicity 2365. I stitched everything together, had to rip out two seams at one point because I stitched the sleeves and sleeve bands together which one backward, and sewed on buttons. I stitched buttonholes, which I will admit are a bit sloppy, and finished hems. I top-stitched around the facings, and got everything finished except for making the waist tie and threading it through. I continued with the French seams everywhere except on the sleeves, as I always find sleeves to be a pain in the ass and sewing it all twice really didn’t appeal to me. The open edge of the facings was also left raw, but its not something that will be noticeable while being worn unless you unbutton me and start opening the shirt- something I highly doubt will be happening!

Today I sewed the last bit of this shirt which was to stitch the drawstring, turn it, and thread it through the casing. The stitching took about 30 seconds. I left the drawstring un-stitched in the middle so it would be hidden once it was threaded through, and the turning took about 30 minutes- I need to get a turning tool! What did speed the turning along a bit was using the dirt-scraper bit of my nail clippers to snag and tug the fabric through about a half inch at a time. It wasn’t a perfect solution, but it did help! The threading of the drawstring through the casing took maybe 2 minutes, only having a few brief pauses when I had to go past seams and the safety pin snagged on the seam allowance.

After that I had to throw it in the wash with the rest of the laundry, because Sashi, our younger dog, likes to help me sew, and since I do my cutting and pinning on the floor, sometimes I end up with paw prints on what I’m working on. This has been the case in this particular project, and since its light-colored, it really shows the dirt. Yuck!

Anyway, this was a super easy pattern to work save for the one problem I had with stitching the sleeve bands on backwards, and I’d make it again, but maybe use a slightly heavier fabric next time. Still, this will be a great summer shirt as it is! I’m really happy with hot it turned out.

Ease of directions
Looks like picture
True to size
Ease of construction
Overall Rating

My patterns I ordered from Simplicity, which were scheduled to arrive on Monday in the post, arrived today. I also received the pattern I bought off of eBay for my Halloween costume this year. I can’t wait for it to be closer to October so I can get started on it- Its going to be fun! Mattie may do a matching costume with it; we’re not 100% decided on that yet. You have no idea how badly I want to tell you guys what I’m going to be, but nope! You gotta wait!

Simplicity 2365 & Some Mock-Ups

Deb — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:10:14 +0000

Light blue bias tape makes up the casing for the drawstring.

I did some sewing on Simplicity 2365 today (finally!) and stitched the front, sides, and back together. I also put in the casing on the inside, which I think I managed to do correctly. I’ve so far followed the directions to a T, but who knows how long that will actually last. I never seem to stick to the directions for anything for long. The casing is some old light blue bias tape I happened to have on hand, and I’m betting its actually something from the stash of stuff I raided from my mom ages ago, so I was glad to use most of it. Tomorrow I will be hemming the bottom, and adding the front facings and collar to it, plus probably whatever follows that step directly.

The fabric (since I couldn’t remember for the life of me what it was the last time I talked about this) is a cream and pale blue plaid shirting cotton. Its going to be a great light-weight shirt for the coming summer, and I can’t wait to wear it. I’m a little worried about it though because I hate having raw edges showing anywhere, so I used French seams to contain them, which makes me seam allowances just a tiny bit wider overall. I don’t think it will be a problem, but if it is, well, I’m almost down into the next size, so it won’t be a problem for long.

I also took the time to work up some mock-ups for some of the shirt patterns I have coming now from Simplicity. I love the way they look with these fabrics, which I also ordered from Fabric.com taking advantage of a sale, and a coupon. I honestly don’t know which of these I like best, but it looks like I’m going to have to stitch up some stuff in solid colors as well to go with all of these crazy prints!

I’m thinking of using the kelly green broadcloth I recently got to make another circle skirt, but maybe only a half circle. I’ll be making use of this fantastic circle skirt calculator to do it. Its super easy to use- you just plug in your waist measurement, how long you want your skirt to be in inches, and the seam allowances/hems and it does the math for you, giving you the radius for the circle you need to cut, and how far in you need to cut the waist hole circle. I initially had a different plan for the kelly green, but its so much brighter than I expected that I don’t want to use it for my first idea any more. I think a plain green skirt would be nice though. :) Someone recently posted a gorgeous vintage-styled dress in blues and greens that I loved, and now I’m wanting to try out the color combo myself.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’ll hopefully see you all tomorrow with progress on Simplicity 2365 and some more photos.

Re-Listed Patterns For Sale

Deb — Thu, 16 May 2013 03:25:25 +0000

After listing all my commercial sewing patterns for sale that I don’t want, I was able to sell 11 of the 26 I initially listed. I’ve re-listed the remaining 15 patterns this afternoon, and you can see them here. I was actually really surprised that so many of them sold the first time through, but hopefully I can sell at least another 5 of them this time. The ones I sold already have mostly paid for a few purchases I made on eBay this week, including a pattern for my Halloween costume this year. I’d love to talk about that, but it’s staying under wraps for a while- maybe until Halloween rolls around and I actually get to wear the costume.

Anyway, check out my pattern listings, and maybe I will add a few others to them in the next few days. I may have a few others I don’t really want to keep on the grounds I will never actually make them. There are several really cute patterns listed, but quite a few are in smaller sizes that I may never actually reach- I am almost down to a size 16 now, but even at my goal weight, I don’t see myself getting below a size 12, if I get there at all.

Some New Arrivals Coming Soon

Deb — Tue, 14 May 2013 20:00:21 +0000

I wanted to get some new tops patterns and after browsing the Simplicity site, I found several basic tops that I could make in different fabrics, as well as a dress pattern that had a detail I could not say no to. I ended up ordering 5 patterns while their $3.99 sale was on, and will be happily awaiting their arrival. These are the new ones I ordered.

New Look 6816 I want to make the view the model is wearing, with the mid-length gathered sleeves.

New Look 6838 I want to do the one shown in stripes (and I might even use a striped knit for it- I love stripes!) and maybe the sleeveless shell. I’m not liking the slight v-neck on the other top at all.

Simplicity 1716 I like the one modeled in purple stripes with the slight cowl neck. If I’m not careful, I am going to have ten cowl-necked tops and dresses in my closet.

Simplicity 1612 is a dress I have instantly fallen in love with. The keyhole back actually appears to be twisted, and I can see this as a nicer dress depending on the fabric in the longer length as well.

Simplicity 1613 I actually tried to win on eBay the other day, but was hugely outbid at the last second. I want to do the mid-length sleeve off the shoulder variation of it.

I also ordered a year’s membership for Club BMV, which in my cart showed as being $4.99 after a $5 coupon, but it actually charged me $9.99, so I sent an email to them asking for an explanation, and hopefully a partial refund. The cart showed my total as $4.99 and it showed $4.99 at PayPal, but my receipt says $9.99.

Tomorrow (well today when you read this) I’ll hopefully be working on my current project in my craft room after the veggie delivery comes. Maybe I’ll have soemthing to show you at the end of the day.

She’s Here! My New Dress Form

Deb — Sat, 11 May 2013 04:02:45 +0000

My old dress form with her full-figure on the left, and my new girl on the right. The old one is taken in all the way, and still a couple inches too big in the waist. The new girl is adjusted out most of the way, with a perfect fit to me except needed a little bust padding.

The dogs failed at telling me that UPS was here this morning (!?! they usually come at 7pm) and had dropped my new girl off at the side door. I checked the tracking on it on Amazon, and saw the note that she had been delivered in the morning. Sure enough, there she was there in her box, waiting for me just outside the door.

The new girl is much easier to adjust, and will work for a long time- her smallest measurements are about where I think I will be when I reach my goal weight, and right now with her let out almost all the way, she fits me fine. The bust needs to be a big bigger, but the waist and hips adjust perfectly. I also love the color of her! I should get plenty of use out of her just like I did the old girl.

I also spent a lot of time messing with Butterick 4087, and I think I found a solution. As I said in my earlier post, I tried crossing the straps, but that caused a gape in the front, which told me the straps needed to go straight down. I ended up adding a piece of fabric across the back connecting the two straps, and I think that will solve the problem. Tomorrow I will take photos in daylight so I can actually see how it really looks on a body. A dress form can help you a lot, but its not my final say in how something fits. Either way, this is not going to be a pretty apron. Its had too many issues and almost nothing has gone right. I just want the damned thing to be wearable.

Butterick 4087

Deb — Fri, 10 May 2013 23:35:35 +0000

The day before yesterday I spent my time in front of the TV with a seam ripper, tearing apart the abomination that was Butterick 4087. Yesterday I pulled out the pattern envelope, read the directions, and quickly saw why I made such a mess of it the first time. I could not make heads or tails out of half of the instructions. There seemed to be a lot of exposed raw edges, so I started with first added bias binding to the raw edges that would be exposed once it was stitched back together. After I stitched everything back up, referencing the pattern envelope frequently, I tried it on. I still need to top-stitch the bodice part to make it lay flat, but I honestly don’t think this will help solve the issue I was having with it before, besides it just looking ugly. The straps still refuse to stay up on my shoulders when I move about It looks great on my dress form, and probably looks good on me too, but I cannot get the straps to stay up. My next thing to try is to criss-cross the straps in the back if they are long enough. *sigh* I don’t know what else to do with this thing.

Okay, I’m coming back to add more to this. I crossed the straps, which seems to work, but still need to do the top stitching because right now its just ugly. Here it is as it stands right now. I’m honestly thinking this was just not meant to be.

Tonight after dinner I will do the top-stitching and maybe iron it too. This thing is driving me batty!

Some Changes to My Sewing Blog

Deb — Thu, 09 May 2013 20:28:56 +0000

First, if you are visiting me via a bookmark, I finally got the WP MU Domain Mapping plug-in to work, so the site can now be viewed at http://debsinstitches.com. I purchased this domain a while back, but was unable to sort out the domain mapping plug-in to make the site appear to be under its own domain. Now I’ve got it, so no more http://debs….com/stitches/ any more. Of course when I tried to set it up this time, I screwed up and I put the wrong domain name in so it redirected into space. Oops!

You will also probably notice I changed up the theme a bit. I didn’t make a lot of changes, but they are very noticeable ones!

You also might notice I moved things around a bit- you no longer have to click “Blog” in the top menu to see the current posts. The posts are right on the front page, big as life. The previous front page has been renamed to “About Me & This Blog” but it still has the same information as before- my little bio with what sewing experience (or lack of!) I have.

I’ve also added a few new links to the links page. I added the circle skirt calculator page, and links to the “Big 3″ site and to Simplicity. I know there are other great pattern sites out there, and I will add them as I’ve sewn things from them. I do have a pattern from Hot Patterns that I hope to sew soon, and one day I would like to try something from Burda- they have so many cute designs, but I find myself intimidated still. I also added some new sewing blog links to it.

I’d also like to bring attention to my current eBay listings. I have all my unwanted patterns listing starting at $0.99, with buy it now prices of either $1.75 or $2.50 depending on if the pattern is cut or not, or if it is a craft pattern Check out my auctions here. I’ve sold 3 of 26 already, but I’d like to see at least 5 go this run. All of them would be even better, but not going to get too excited over the idea. A few of the patterns are used, but most are new and uncut.

Tearing Down Butterick 4087

Deb — Thu, 09 May 2013 04:12:37 +0000

I’m a little sad today because my ironing board did not come in the mail today. An ironing board did come, but not the one I ordered, nor was it one I can actually use. The board I received is one of those specialized ironing boards for dress shirt sleeves. Tomorrow I’ll be mailing it back to Amazon, and I am undecided if I want to wait for a replacement or not as the item I was supposed to get is out of stock for a few weeks. They did upgrade the shipping to one day, but I’m not sure I want to wait that long for it.

Years ago, I attempted to sew Butterick 4087, which is a super cute apron pattern. I did the view with the shoulder ruffles, and it should have been pretty awesome. Instead what I had was an apron that I did a horrendous job of sewing, and that the straps would not stay up no matter what I did with them. The only solution I could find that would work was to tie it like a halter, but the straps are way too long for that and its bulky.

Today while watching TV, I grabbed it, which has been stuffed in a trash bag with other things since I made it, and my seam ripper, and ripped out all the seams connecting the bodice to the waistband, and the waistband to the skirt. I also completely ripped apart the waist ties. The inner and outer pieces of the bodice and the ruffles on the straps stayed intact as I actually did a good job stitching them, and I left the pockets on the skirt. I’m undecided in how I want to tear apart the upper straps yet, but sometime this week I’ll be working on piecing it all back together again.

I also did the cutting today for Simplicity 2365. I am using a cream and blue plaid shirting material that I picked up a few years ago for $2.99 a yard at Fabric.com. That makes this a $10 shirt more or less, counting the little bit I spent on the pattern. I may have to go buy buttons, not sure yet.

Anyway, tomorrow I will do some sewing, whether its on the shirt or on the poor apron. And Friday I will have my new dress form! Yay!

Simplicity 2365 View C

Deb — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:09:29 +0000

This is my next project. I’m doing view C, which is the long length with the short sleeves. My fabric is a lightweight blue shirting material, though I’m suddenly drawing a blank as to the pattern even though I was just looking at it… lol. I think its a small plaid design. Anyway, I am hoping to get it at the least cut tomorrow and maybe start the sewing.

I also spent some time shifting money around and trying to make money appear from nowhere because as I may have mentioned before, my dress form which has served me faithfully for years is suddenly too fat. All my newly made clothes will not fit on her. Some things can be squeezed on but they can’t be zipped or fastened. Enter this. Dritz Sew You Dress Form, Small. The one I really wanted has an offset leg so you can do pants and whatnot, but honestly, I’ve never made pants besides loose-fitting PJ pants and I didn’t want to wait any longer on this, and considering I don’t make pants (yet?) I really couldn’t justify spending about $100 more. I’m hoping the naysayers are wrong in the reviews- the reviews are vastly positive overall for this model and it was a toss-up between this and one other, but this one I am at the top edge of the measurements, so I can work with it for a long time. I may have to pad the bust a little, but its easier to add padding than make it smaller. :cool: I’ll be making only slightly more than minimum payments on my credit card this month, but it won’t kill me to do that once in a while. I usually pay a lot more than the minimum.

Anyway, tomorrow I also get my new ironing board, so will be ironing out my new duds as well as cutting fabric!

McCall’s 6149 View B

Deb — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:12:40 +0000

After making four new dresses in four days, I decided to try something different today. I opted to give this pattern a try, and my opinions of it are mixed. I chose to do McCall’s 6149 View B, which is the one in the middle there on the right-hand side. What I didn’t realize when I started on this was how cropped this vest is- when I put it on, the bottom edge is just below my rib cage. If I had been paying more attention to the pattern pieces I would have known this sooner and I might not have sewn it, choosing something else to make instead.

I had a feeling from the beginning I was going to have issues with this pattern, so I chose fabrics I had a lot of and no idea what to do with them. The outer fabric is a very pale pink cotton with a darker pink floral design on it- the pattern is very delicate. The lining fabric I chose (and this was where the problems started for me) was a gold colored satin- not yellow gold, but more brownish gold. I need to find a better method for cutting slippery fabrics because my lining pieces were not cut as exact as they should have been, which posed problems getting things to line up properly later on.

After cutting all of the pieces (outer, lining, and interfacing) which took forever, I started piecing things together. The first two panels to be joined were super easy. But when I went to join those to the next panel, the problems started. When a pattern tells you to “clip edges as needed” do not skip this step! I had to sew these pieces together a total of 4 times (left, right, inner, outer) and by the time I got the fourth one I had it down. Unfortunately by the time I got there I was so frustrated with it I said the hell with ripping out the other three and starting over, so there’s some corners that don’t sit as smoothly as they should.

I think I might swap out that button for a black one now that I really see it…

After that, the construction was pretty straight-forward and simple. I pieced everything together as much a possible before turning it right side out, fought to stitch as much of the remaining openings closed by machine as I could, and hand stitched the side seams of the lining on both sides to finish it off. Then I top stitched the edges all the way around to encourage the fabric to stay flat.

From a distance this vest looks fine. You can’t see the places where seams don’t match up inside and outside like they should, or the places where there’s a tiny crease or fold that shouldn’t be there if we’re standing there having a conversation. But I know they’re there, and it drives me batty to know about them. I don’t think I will work this pattern again unless maybe I did view C because its just not suited to my style.

I’m still giving this pattern a good rating because almost all of the problems I ran into were due to user error.

Ease of directions
Looks like picture
True to size
Ease of construction
Overall Rating