New equipment and PR Weekend Portland

I have been busy collecting new equipment/gadgets in the last month, and as you can imagine playing with them is way more fun than blogging. No offense.



The first piece I need to share is this Elna Alize ironing press. I bought mine from sewinginusa.com, they are one of the few etailers that carries Elna presses. You can't type 'ironing press' into google without hitting a million Simplicity presses, but it took some work to find the Elna. I was looking for a dry press as well, which also made it hard. Most of the presses on the market now come with steam, which means holes in the pressing surface. Tiny holes, but holes. Since I mainly planned on using it for fusing interfacing, I wanted as smooth a surface as possible. The Elna had good reviews on patternreview.com and the price was right, so I went with that.

Features I like:

• 10 second timer that activates when you close the lid. My favorite interfacing needs 20 seconds, so I close the lid twice and I'm done. :-)
• Pressure! Lots of it. (100lbs) I'm convinced this really helps the adhesion of fusibles.
• Heat! Well duh. But it advertises 392F and it definitely gets hot on high.
• Sturdy, it's got locking handles to move it around and rubber feet that don't slide on the table.
• Board is made of Finnish birch, so no warping. At least not yet. (All the other presses use steel mesh). I prefer the way the steam permeates through the fabric with a wood board. The metal mesh on my ironing board isn't the same.
• FUSING AN ENTIRE PIECE OF INTERFACING AT ONCE! (yes you need to get one of these)
  

Features I don't like:

• It's 20"x9", and when you are fusing interfacing bigger is better. I can fit two collars, or two cuffs, but not both. it's not long enough for an entire waistband, but it really isn't too hard to move the fabric once part of it is fused. It's still light years better than using an iron. But to go bigger I would have had to get a steam model.
• Not really a big deal, but having to use a spray bottle for steam. I mean you have to spray interfacing or a press cloth anyways when fusing, but when I use it to press shirts or something it does slow you down.
• It came with a spray bottle, which leaked from day 1. I threw it away.

After I had my press for a few weeks, I was reading a blog post by Kathleen Fasanella at FashionIncubator.com about 'the annoyance factor'. She was talking about how to lower your expenses by examining seemingly low cost processes, and although it's aimed towards production sewing it rang a huge bell with me. If you can save yourself even a few minutes on a task that is done repeatedly, or streamline your process to make it require less work or more enjoyable, the benefit can be a huge bump in productivity. I used to hate fusing interfacing so much I'd put it off or contemplate skipping it. Now I'm looking for the next 'bottleneck' to fix.




After scouring Craigslist.org for a used industrial sewing machine for several months, I finally found one in San Francisco at the beginning of May for a good price. I've been picking up a lot more 'for hire' sewing projects and the allure of an industrial machine, with all it's capabilites and attachments, was too tempting. It was quite the fiasco picking it up at 6 pm on a Friday night, in the rain, lining up movers to carry it down 3 flights of stairs (one flaked, DH had to stand in. OMG), driving a full-size truck with a utility trailer through downtown SF, and unloading it into the house. Whew! But it's here. And it's awesome. :-)

It's a Juki DDL5550N-7 computerized single needle lockstitch with a servo motor. Features:

• Adjustable speed servo motor, from turtle to rabbit-on-Red-Bull. (holy cow who sews that fast??)
  
• Auto thread trimmer, activated by depressing the back part of the pedal
• Auto back tacking at beginning or end of a seam (or not at all)
• Reverse
• Knee lifter

Control panel. Does anyone know how to use the thingie on the right, or what the 'eye' and 'fan' buttons do? No idea. LOL

I've only made a couple garments with it so far but the fabric feeding is so much better than my Janome, you can adjust everything (love that), I've decided life before auto thread-trimming sucks, and you can probably buy an attachment that does your laundry and cooks dinner for you. I bought some basic feet (left and right cording, zipper, invisible zipper) and a binder so far and am hooked.

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So the reason for the haste in picking up the machine was the next weekend was PR Weekend Portland and I didn't want to miss out on the deal. I had a fantastic time with the ladies of Pattern Review, and enjoyed meeting some new faces as well as spending quality time with Cidell and Christina. I didn't take nearly enough pictures but here's a few plus some borrowed ones, as well as the fabric stash I came home with.

Fabric-Tan Burberry stripe raincoating, L-R silk charmeuse, cotton shirting, silk jersey

Me, Cidell, and Christina

Cidell trying on my Burberry trench. Don't you hate it when other people look better in your stuff than you do?

Fitting/Tailoring seminar with Pati Palmer

Poofy skirt and twisted band tee

What do you get when you combine lovely fabric bought with a gift certificate (thanks A.!!), a new industrial sewing machine to play with, a 4-day weekend, and plenty of sewing mojo after a trip? Finished garments. :-)

Copied from RTW top, self-drafted embroidered lawn skirt, Coclico shoes

I knew I wanted something short and poofy with this cream embroidered cotton lawn, but didn't really have an exact pattern in mind. I decided to just make it up as I went along, only deciding on the width of the waistband and the fullness of the skirt. The pieces are all rectangles so it's not hard. I wanted the embroidery pattern on the horizontal so I had to cut the fabric on the crossgrain. Then it's just gathered to the waistband and lined, add a zipper and voila! I had to adjust the side seams on the waistband to really make it hug my waist, but that was it. The skirt and lining only have one seam, in the center back. I serged the edges, then sewed the seams and pressed open. I hemmed them before attaching the waistbands, using a scroll hemmer foot. If you don't have one of these then get one!! No pressing, no marking, just feed the fabric into the foot and get a perfect 1/4" hem (or 1/8"). It worked really really well, although I did pop the fabric out of the feeder and form the hem by hand when going over the side seams. But compared to my usual method of ironing the hem first and using two passes of stiching, this was a breeze.

1/4" scroll-hemmed lawn and batiste lining

Seam finishes

I inserted the invisible zipper using my new Juki and a cording foot (the invisible zipper foot I got doesn't work very well, probably operator error).

Lining/facing all finished by machine

I saw these two fabrics laying together and liked the colors, so I made another one of these tees from a taupy gray rayon/lycra knit It was copied from my favorite RTW v-neck, and I added a twisted binding to the neckline to make a little more interesting. I haven't found a favorite method for attaching this yet, this time I serged it on, folded it over and lined up the offset, and stitched in the ditch from the right side to anchor it. I also serged the raw edges of the hems, folded up and topstitched. This jersey was very flimsy, and the edges kept wanting to roll. I knew if I even attempted my usual double needle approximation of a coverstich it would tunnel like mad.




A little note about the construction order though, I notice a lot of RTW tees/tops do this:

• Sew one shoulder seam
• Bind the neckline
• Sew the other shoulder seam
• Sew down the seam allowance at the neckline from sewing the last step
• Set the sleeves in flat
• Sew the sleeve/side seams
• Hems

Binding the neckline while it's still flat makes it easier to handle at the machine, and you also don't have to figure out exactly how long to make the binding before attaching it. I like to stretch mine slightly as I sew to make it hug the neck. You will end up with a little seam allowance on one side of the neckline, so it doesn't look quite as nice as setting in binding traditionally, but for quickie tees and tops I think it's perfectly acceptable.

Everything you ever wanted to know about thread

I ran across this brochure put out by YLI and thought I'd share. It's a clearly written booklet about thread, including how it's made, materials, sizing and size conventions. It also has a nice overview of machine needle types, how to choose the proper needle, and a good glossary. It's not specific to YLI threads either, it also lists other brands such as Gutterman and Mettler. Enjoy!

A Thread of Truth

And another version

I did end up making a dress version of the J.Crew tank, and wore it to a friend's bachelorette party. I haven't worn a hemline this short in a long time, but some very nice friends of mine convinced me I could still wear this length. :-) I wore it unbelted but took some pics with a belt, I generally don't like the look on me but maybe with a skinnier belt?

I've got one other project I finished up (a UFO from October) that I still need to post, and I've been working on some pants for DH using this Kwik Sew pattern. They should be done this week. Happy sewing!

Weekend sewing update

I'm getting a little behind on posting finished projects, my sewing space has officially moved out of the kitchen and into the spare bedroom. The ability to leave my mess untouched during the week when I'm away has improved my ability to jump right back in again on the weekend, leaving less time for blogging! I have a long table now with my sewing machine and serger, the iron/board right next to that, and my dear husband has a cutting table in the works for me. I think he really just wants exclusive use of the dining table for food-related purposes. Either way, yay for dedicated sewing infrastructure!

I bought some of this silk charmeuse a few weeks ago without a pattern in mind, but when I saw this J.Crew halter top I knew I had to knock it off. I used this kwik sew pattern as a quick jumping-off point, and one muslin later it was ready. I already want more of these, and potentially a dress length too.






It's a halter style with a pleated front and a keyhole back, long ties form the straps and knot/tie in the back. You can adjust the neckline with the ties, or place the knot to the side if you want. Used french seams for the side seams, and self-fabric narrow bias binding turned to the inside for the armholes. The neckline is just turned and stitched down to form a casing for the tie. I made this one kind of long for tucking into low rise pants and jeans, but it would work in a shorter length untucked or much longer for a dress even.















I'm thinking of making one of these in a dress length from that Milly silk I found at Hancock's! What do you think?

Trench coat DONE

This project was starting to turn into the 'coat that didn't want to be finished'. I spent weeks looking for buttons, and when I finally tried to put them on 2 weeks ago my machine wouldn't make the buttonhole on the pocket flaps. It kept getting hung up on all the fabric where the flap attaches to the coat. I must have ripped out 15 tries between the two sides. Yes I did make a lot of samples, even trying to duplicate the layers, but the only time it wouldn't work was on the actual coat. I'm lucky I didn't wreck them in the process, this is some tough fabric!

After scouring the internet for help, I decided to bid on a vintage singer buttonholer on ebay. This one comes with 20 templates for making regular, keyhole, and bound buttonholes, plus an eyelet. It uses the zig zag stitch on your machine but moves the fabric around for you, and it had no problem with the pocket buttonhole. It doesn't look quite as nice as my Janome's keyholes, but it worked the first time. It might be an adjustment issue, but I couldn't seem to make the stitch length short enough to get a dense stitch and going around the template 3 times didn't give the same look. There's a lot of settings to play with, so I'm looking forward to seeing what other styles I can make. I used the eyelet template already on the belt buckle.

You can see my previous work on the trench coat here. I didn't make any fitting changes in the real thing, although I made a few style decisions. I added another row of buttons at the bottom, after wearing it around for a week I thought it needed them. However I must have forgotton to sew on one of the bottom buttons, I had placed it with wonder tape to get the position right and it seems to have fallen off before my photo shoot! I added some more topstitching in places, and I didn't care for the button flap that closes the collar stand. On real Burberry coats there is a metal hook, I may do that.

All buttoned up, I placed a flatter button under the chest flap on top instead of making another buttonhole through the flap. There are 2 buttons on the inside facing.

I've got the belt tied right now, I need to add eyelets and I can't decide if I want silver metal or black stitched.

The top buttons also work nicely to hold the flaps back.

I love the back vent on this one, it's not a slit so there's no drafts!

My 'flasher' pic.

I put a hanging chain in the back, sewn on with black grosgrain ribbon in the collar seam. There are raglan shoulder pads, covered by acetate lining in the sleeves only, set by hand. (Twice! I forgot to topstich the sleeves the first time.) All the seams and hems are bound with rayon seam binding. I also bar tacked the pocket bags to the facing, now they stay put instead of flopping around.

I added 1/4" topstitching to the facings, but I wasn't sure how to end it at the neckline until I looked at some photos. All the real Burberry coats turn 90 degrees where the collar joins the collar stand so that's what I did.

I wore it around for a week already, pardon the wrinkles! I added topstiching to the facing in between the armhole seams. This holds it well enough even though the facing is free in the armhole area.

I used the striped side on the underside of the pocket flaps, the collar, the chest flap, and the sleeve tabs. I didn't think of it until afterwards, but I may have preferred ivory thread in the bobbin.

This was a looooong project but I love the results. I know I will have this coat for years and I'm glad I spent the time on all the little details. This was wonderful fabric to work with and now I'm wishing I had some in tan!

The last seam ripper you'll ever buy

Maybe Gingher doesn't know how many seam rippers I go through because that's a pretty tall claim. I'm not sure if this is a new product or not but I hadn't run across it before. It's 6 inches long and has a retractable blade.

From Gingher's website:

Gingher's seam ripper features a razor edged cutting blade that safely retracts when not in use. The handle is ergonomically balanced to provide the user with fine cutting control in numerous positions. This tool is beautifully finished with chrome over nickel and comes in its own storage box. With proper use and care, the blade should last a lifetime and is covered by Gingher's guarantee.


It runs about $25 from several stores online and there are a few on ebay too. I've probably spent at least that much on cheapy plastic ones, and I toss them pretty regularly because there's not much I hate more than a dull seam ripper.