July 29, 2009

So last night I got home from work all ready to cut out Emily's wedding gown (well, at least the shantung and the organza for the underlining) only to discover that my dad was taking me and my sister to Wendy's. Not being one to turn down a grilled chicken sandwich, I agreed to go knowing that it was taking about an hour away from my cutting time. I could have used that extra hour, as it turns out.

When we got home, I kept forgetting that I had other things to do, like laundry, practicing for the voice lesson I thought I had today but didn't actually have (my vocal coach is out of town and I forgot), opening and installing the mouse for my netbook...but I finally got down to business. After washing my hands twice and forcibly reminding myself NOT TO TOUCH MY FACE EVEN IF IT ITCHED because I didn't want oils from my hands and face transferring onto the silk. As it is, I barely touched the fabric anyway.

We'd had to guess on the amount of fabric, because the silk shantung only came 54" wide at the store but the pattern only had yardage amounts for 45" and 60" fabric, and while I know there's a formula for converting fabric widths, I couldn't remember it. Using all my spatial orientation skills (and they are sort of mighty when it comes to sewing, I think) and those of the owner (who is mightier than I), we were able to get a pretty good estimate of the amount we needed but I was very nervous when it came to laying out the muslin on the shantung and beginning to cut. Especially after buying this book and being reminded that I should have cut the muslin with much wider seam allowances than I had. I had to do some altering in my head, which was interesting, and I could only mark the fabric with a soapstone marker because anything else would have either not come out or would have left a mark. (Soapstone markers are great because any marks disappear completely when you rub them off, but let me tell you, it's hard to see a white mark on ivory fabric and I may end up thread-tracing the long darts in the front.)

I laid out the fabric in my usual way, folded selvedge (selvage? whatever; they're both right) to selvedge, knowing that I'd definitely have enough if I could cut it that way. I soon discovered, though, that the usual way wouldn't work and I'd have to open it up and fold it raw edge to raw edge. While I have a pretty big cutting table (thanks to my dad who built a wheeled platform for a big office desk/conference table) and a pretty big cutting mat (30X60), I needed more space for the fabric to stay off the floor. Just to the right of our cutting table are the bifold doors to the sewing room and there was just enough room to set up my ironing board at the end of the cutting table so the fabric had something to sit on. I had to warn my dad and sister not to attempt to come into the sewing room for a while, as this arrangement would mean the doors were blocked. After I got the fabric laid out and the grain lined up, I began figuring out how to lay out the pattern.

I admit I had a couple of moments of near-panic when I was positive I was short by 9", but after some clever arranging and a LOT of prayer, I figured out the best way to get everything on there with room left over. It took quite a bit of laying it out, standing back, minute adjusting, standing back, skootching, standing back, completely changing my mind, standing back, squinting, praying, more praying, and standing back before the lightbulb clicked on and I knew exactly how to lay everything out.

Then I prayed AGAIN before cutting it out. I was grateful during that hour or so to have two sizes of rotary cutters, some good scissors, very long arms and fingers, and a good eye, not to mention the "Firefly" DVDs kindly lent to me by my friend Damon. Silk shantung, once you lay it out and get the grain all right, is wonderful to cut. It doesn't shift, it's not hard on your cutters like some polyesters are, and the handy ribs help you keep your pattern exactly on grain. It was a lovely experience. Some time around 10 my mom got home from Girls Camp and I had to show her what I'd done and how beautiful the fabric was. She was impressed with both (my mom loves me!) and said that it would be a beautiful wedding dress when I was done.

I (probably stupidly) started cutting out the satin-faced silk organza at about 10:30 PM, but since I already knew the ideal layout for the pattern, it wasn't too hard....except that because silk organza (especially the satin weave) is so crisp and lofty it was a BEAST to keep straight on the table! As I was cutting out the front of the dress I had to hold the rest of the fabric in place with my hip, which was a little tricky and another time I was grateful for long arms and a good eye. If a fabric like this is a little off-grain, it can make the finished dress hang weird, and I didn't want that, so I was very careful. In retrospect, I should have not tried to cut two pieces at once and instead, just done one piece at a time. It would have taken longer but probably would have been a little easier considering how late it was getting. However, I persevered and tried really hard not to swear at it, and it all came out just fine.

After everything was cut, I thought about sewing the underlining and dress fabric pieces together (you layer the organza over the shantung and baste all the way around the edge, so instead of two fabric pieces, you essentially have one) and getting a head start on the main sewing that I'll be doing next week, but it was after 11 and I decided to err on the side of caution: needle marks don't always come out of silk and I didn't want to risk having to unpick anything. So I worked on that shirt dress (made out of men's striped brown shirting! ha ha!) for myself and got the bodice seams serged, that weird alteration done (faked), the skirt, facings, and collar sewn together, and everything pressed. I still need to trim and clip the collar and I probably need more buttons (I lengthened the skirt and I prefer it if the buttons don't end above my knees) and I have to sew the facings and buttonholes and sleeves and possibly put pockets in the skirt, but it won't take long for it to be done. I quit just before midnight and cleaned everything up before heading to bed...where three of the four family cats had already made themselves very comfy. I slept with the door open so they could leave when they wanted to. :)

Tonight I plan on getting as much sewing done for myself as possible, do another load of laundry, watch the rest of "Firefly", and return the DVDs to Damon before the busy-ness of the weekend.

This weekend

This weekend, I've done the following:

• Finished a skirt, which involved sewing the yoke facing by hand because I tried to sew it twice by machine and it just kept shifting. Mental note: don't use linen for that pattern again. And then, when I put it on for church this afternoon, I discovered that it was at least a size too big. This is a Vogue pattern, which fit me really well, and it was too big. This either means I'm losing weight, or the pattern is nuts. It's Vogue, though, so I'm betting on the weight loss. Unfortunately, altering the thing will essentially involve re-sewing it. I'm not ready to that, although I had time today.
• Got Emily's muslin all marked and then I unpicked it and pressed it and marked it again so I can cut out the shantung in the next couple of days. I'm a LITTLE nervous, but it will be just FINE.
• I looked at the unfinished dreaded brown butterfly-print dress that I added sleeves to, and then decided not to deal with it. I have to take the neckline in (there's no easy way to do that!) and I should have put a back zipper in to begin with because the side zipper is stupid. Mental note: if you're adding sleeves to a sleeveless dress with a side zipper, it's probably best to assume that you should just do a back zipper and save yourself the annoyance.
• I stashed some fabric for fall. I'm not in the mood to cut it out yet.
• I cut out my brown striped shirt-dress and I'm really excited to finish it. So excited that I forgot to serge the raw edges (which I do on just about anything that isn't lined) on the bodice before sewing it together, but that turned out to be a good thing because in my slapdash fitting (putting it on over my shirt because my baby niece kept opening the sewing room door) I realized that I'm in for a tricky alteration that seems to be more or less universal: While I've gained about a size over the last few years, I haven't gained weight in my shoulders or chest. My bustline, yes, but not my chest. I'm just as thin there as ever, but if I cut out a dress or shirt in the bigger size, it means the neckline, shoulders, and upper chest are too big. Ugh. Maybe I'll have to do the tricky and obnoxious size-grading maneuver where I keep the chest and shoulders the smaller size and grade up to the larger size from my bust down. Hate it. I am annoyed that I gained enough weight to have to do extensive alterations. So the dress isn't done, but I hope to have it done by the end of the week when I go to a family reunion.
• I hemmed a pair of capris that came unhemmed in the wash. No big deal.

I think I'm actually making a huge dent in my projects, but, quite frankly, I'm so annoyed that I have to do the above-mentioned chest alterations (remember that chest is different from bust), and that the skirt I thought I cut out in my current size is too big, that I am easily frustrated and discouraged and I have days at a time when I don't want to sew ever again. However, the creative spark will burn and I keep finding things I want to make.

PANTS!

Not only is that a line from "The Hudsucker Proxy" (one of my all-time favorite films), but it is the title of my current dilemma.

After a few years of working part-time for very little money while finishing school and not being able to afford more than the very basics of a wardrobe, not to mention digging out of a period of depression following the break-up of my engagement, I finally got a decent full-time job. As a result of better pay, I spent probably a little too much money on clothes, including LOTS of pants. I have a 34 inch inseam, and when you don't make much money it's hard to justify spending $60 + on anything, let alone pants. When I started making more money, I ventured into Gap because I knew they had long pants in stock nearly all the time. I spent over $300 on Gap pants last year. It may not seem like much to some people, but it was a lot to me! And I was so happy to find pants that were long enough that fit well that I went a little crazy...

Now I have a dilemma. I have all these pants that I bought a size bigger (because I was a size bigger) that now are too big. I have the skills to alter them (much as I dislike altering anything) but I wonder if it would just be cheaper to buy new pants in my regular size. When I consider what my time is worth and the time it will take to alter all those pants (something like 6 pairs), it might actually be cheaper in the long run to just buy new ones and give my old pants away. Quite a dilemma, eh? What a pain.