Bunting

Does anyone else ever think so hard about doing something that they forget to actually sit down and do it? I constantly forget to respond to texts because I already thought about my answer, but I don't get as far as actually writing it. Sometimes I do that with this blog too. I think in such great detail abut writing a post that I forget to actually write it down.

Which is a long-winded way of saying that I meant to write this last Saturday, but I forgot. Oops.

Anyway, the wedding project of weeks past has been bunting to hang from the ceiling. I'm particularly excited about this project because all of the flag fabric has come from either my grandmothers, my mom's, my future mother in law or my own fabric stash. So it hasn't cost me any money, and it also feels like a great, subtle, way to incorporate the other crafty women in my life into my wedding.

Originally I was going to sew together two triangles to get fully finished flags, but after due consideration, I decided that was far too much extra work, and what I wanted to do instead was use the flags to make a quilt after the wedding. I really don't want wedding items that are single use only and a quilt seems like a great way to reuse the flags and to have as a nice keepsake.

I was inspired by images like the quilt below. I want to link to the original source for this picture, but unfortunately, I can't track it back and I can't find the image on the original page anymore. Y'all know how Pinterest can be sometimes. It seems to come from a shop called Shabby Fabrics.

Anyway, making bunting is delightfully easy, especially with a bias tape maker and a rotary cutter and mat. Here is my giant stack of flags. I made a cardboard template for the triangles by drawing a horizontal line 7" long, then drawing a perpendicular line from the middle of that line, also 7" long. I draw a line from each end of my horizontal line to the end of the perpendicular line nad ta-da I had a triangle. The cardboard was nice and thick so it was super easy to run my rotary cutter along it and end up with hundreds of identical flags.

Next, I made 1/2" double fold bias tape. Sure you can buy bias tape, but it works about to about a buck a yard and I need around about 50 yds worth. Not very cost effective. Alternatively, Craftsy has a pretty good tutorial on making continuous bias tape. So for $5 ish I bought cheap white cotton and made my own bias tape. 

Having a bias tape maker really helps with that process because you don't have to fold everything by hand. You just feed the fabric through the fat end, and it gets folded on its own. you iron the folds while slowly pulling the bias tape maker down the length of your bias strips, like pulling a zipper. Bias tape makers make single fold tape, so you have to go back and fold it in half yourself, but it's still pretty easy-peasy. I've got a 1" single fold bias tape maker, so I can make 1/2" double fold bias tape. Bias tape makers are pretty darn cheap, but each one only does one size. You can buy them individually or in kits. 

Man, I could talk about bias tape for days. Maybe one day I'll write a post on bias tape and why it is 1) the most wonderful stuff in the world and 2) not just for quilters. 

Once I got my bias tape made I sewed it shut, tucking a flag in between the layers every couple of inches. Bias tape is nice and flexible so it will hang in pleasing drapes from the ceiling. In the meantime, I laid it out on my bed to try and get an idea of how it was turning out. (I don't think it goes well with my current bedspread/pillows. Haha)  I've finished sewing two eighty some odd feet long strands of it so far. I don't know the exact dimensions of our venue, so I'm just going to keep sewing until I run out of flags. I will probably end up with way too much bunting, but I would rather have too much than too little, and even with extra this is a super cheap project. Yay stash fabric!

Quick Tatting Projects

Typically for every long-term project I have going on I try to have a quick and easy project too. I find the balance helps keep me interested in the long-term by having the immediate gratification of something that can be done in an afternoon. Lately, though I've just been working on long-term projects, either one of the two sweaters I have on the needles or wedding projects. I've been starting to feel frustrated and burnt out because I was working and working without getting anything finished, so this weekend I took a little break and made a few quick tatting projects.

First, I made a pair of earrings:

Did you know it is ridiculously hard to take a picture of your own ear?

This was the best I could manage to try and give you an idea of how large they are.

I got the pattern here. The instructions for how to tat are a little less than helpful I think. I would have been totally confused if it was actually my first foray into needle tatting, but I thought the pattern was cute. 

Making the earrings only took me about half an hour to do both, which just made me want to tat more so this afternoon I made a small piece of lace.

 I didn't use a pattern for this one, I basically just made it up as I went along, and I didn't write down what I did, so I probably couldn't do it the same way a second time. I like the way that it looks, though, and I think it will be really cute as part of a hair comb for the wedding. Ha. I was trying to get away from wedding projects, but I wasn't very successful. Oh well. At least I have the satisfaction of two finished tatting projects. I feel a bit better now.

Working on my Wedding Corset

I really hoped to have a finished corset to show off today, but alas, although I did finish one the fit is less than ideal. I would go so far as to say it is disappointingly too big. So instead you get a long, picture free, post mostly made up of me taking notes for myself.

Although I did make a muslin before making the corset, and I was happy with the fit of the muslin, the finished product gapped too much at the neckline and didn't give me the kind of waist reduction I was hoping for. Not that I want to be cinched so tight I can't breathe, but my natural figure is very straight from my waist to my hip and I want to alter that, just a little bit.

There are a few errors that I think I made with the first corset.

1) I did not lace up the muslin, I just had a friend hold the back shut for me and tell me what kind of gap I had. As a result, I didn't really realize how much tighter it actually needed to be in order to fit. Corsets should fit very tight to the body if only to eliminate shifting (and therefore potentially rubbing). There were rubby spots on my corset because the fit was too loose.

2) The fit of the bust area was perfect without bones, but when I added bones the fabric stood up to much. For some reason, I foolishly thought that would magically go away; in reality, the bust was too loose and nothing was going to magically fix that.

So, now I'm making a new corset, having learned a great deal from the first one and being able to move forward with greater confidence.

I redrafted my pattern today to include a much greater waist reduction. My original pattern I only aimed for a two-inch reduction because I thought more than that would be uncomfortable or look too exaggerated. This time, I aimed for an additional 4 inches (so 6 total). I also took in the bust and eliminated the sweetheart neckline in favor of a lower straight neckline.

I already made a new muslin. This time, I pounded in some cheap eyelets and laced it up. I used masking tape to hold the bones in place rather than sew on ribbon for bone channels. It's easier, cheaper, and still gives a good approximation of what the corset will be like with bones.

Already I can tell the fit is better. I now have a cute, little, defined waist, but it doesn't have that waspy look vintage corset patterns impart, I just look skinnier than I am in reality. Making the top shorter also helped with the fit in the bust, there was just less material for the bones to hold stiffly away from my body. Now I do have to keep reminding myself that the corset will be underneath my gown, and there will be more coverage because the girls are way on display, which I don't typically feel comfortable with. Now I'm noticing that they are squishing a bit more to the side than I want them too, so that is the next fit challenge to overcome.

I will have a tutorial for the handbound eyelets that I did on the first corset coming up this week. And hopefully soon I will have a finished corset that fits to show off.

Still Plugging Away

It's been nearly a month since I posted and in that time I have not finished a single project; a state that I find very frustrating.

I've been steadily chipping away at wedding projects. I made more paper flowers but y'all have seen those already so I didn't feel like posting them again.

I've almost finished my petticoat. It just needs some sort of ribbon of something on the lower edges because even though the nylon tulle won't unravel it looks really unfinished with nothing on the hem.

I have nearly finished a corset, I'm just hand sewing the eyelets now, I hope to have it done by the end of the week.

When the corset is finished I can then start drafting a pattern for my actual wedding dress. I didn't want to start working on it before the foundational garments are done because that seems like a recipe for disaster.

All in all, I know progress is being made, but it isn't happening very quickly and I'm starting to get anxious. I've been having nightmares where I wake up, it's my wedding day, and I haven't done anything more than what is currently done (picture a room with only half the tables sparsely decorated, no food, and me in my (admittedly elaborate full coverage) undies.

I know I will get it all done, I just need to spend more time working on it. Oh if only I didn't have to go to work all week :)

Wedding Dress Frustration

Lest you run away with the idea that I actually know what I am doing, let me tell you about my week.

I used to have a beautiful silk organza petticoat. I put it in the back of my closet to save for my wedding day. Unbeknownst to me the back wall of my closet was growing mold and now so was my petticoat. After a great deal of frustrated cursing and even a few tears I decided to make a new petticoat. A fluffier petticoat. A nylon petticoat. A much, much cheaper petticoat.

Well, now I have learned why people buy petticoats because gathering all of that tulle is a pain in the rear. First, I miscalculated how much tulle I needed and had to go get more. Then I bought the wrong shade of blue because it looked like the color matched in the store but in sunlight it so totally doesn't match. Cutting it into strips wasn't as bad as it could have been thanks to my rotary cutter and mat. But silly me, I thought I could just use my ruffler foot to gather the 213 yds of tulle. Yeah, ruffler feet and tulle do not like each other. So then I thought, fine, I can gather it by hand. I got 1/8 of the way through a 16 yd strip and realized that was not a great plan either.

So, tomorrow I will work on the petticoat some more. I think I'm going to try and work in smaller, more manageable chunks, then put it all together, instead of trying to gather the horribly long strips. If I get it to work I will be sure to share with y'all how I do it.

I feel like I have nothing to show for this weekend, and I'm having to repeatedly remind myself that that isn't true. I made more paper flowers, I addressed all of my invitations (I forgot to buy stamps though) and I got half way through a new wedding garter because upon further consideration the shade of blue for the first one just wasn't right. But it took me three tries to get it joined in the round without twisting.

Yeah. I'm a bit frustrated right now. But tomorrow is a new day, I have a new game plan, things will get better.

Sweater Seams

I didn't post on Saturday because I thought I had nothing to say. I have actually caught the blog up with all of my finished objects. Last night a friend and fellow blogger came over for dinner and I was lamenting my lack of post ideas. She astutely observed that I can talk about projects before they are finished. She even pointed out that people might be more interested in how I make things rather than just seeing what I've made.

And so, without further ado, I present a sweater in progress.

My sweater only needs one more sleeve. Tragically that half a ball of yarn where the other sleeve should be is all that I have left, and it's not going to be enough to finish the sleeve, so now I am sort of on hold until I can get another ball. 

But in the mean time I thought I could talk about seaming a sweater. I firmly believe that the finishing work on a sweater is what makes the difference between being hand-made versus home-made.

I like to do the finishing work as I go for a variety of reasons. 1) weaving in the ends of one sleeve isn't nearly as arduous and weaving in the ends on an entire sweater. (Let's be real, we all know at least one knitter who could have a beautiful finished object who just never bothered to weave in the ends.) 2) Sewing together the peices of the sweater as I go allows me to check fit before everything is done. Before I knit this sleeve I knew my sweater would fit because I had already sewed together the front and back and tried it on. 3) If it doesn't fit it allows me to make changes without having to frog the whole thing.

So, after I weave in the ends of my sleeve I start sewing up the long straight seam. Most tutorials on seaming recommend sewing the shoulder seams of a sweater, then sewing the sleeve cap, and finally treating the side seam and sleeve as one long seam. I don't like doing that because it means I have to have everything done before I can do any seaming. 

When I sew my seams I work with the right side visible, that way I can see what my finished seam will look like and fix any icky spots. 

Use your needle to pick up two of the bars between stitches on one side of the fabric. 

Then pick up two bars on the other side of the fabric. This is easier to do if you use both hands, instead of taking a picture with one hand. 

Pull your thread tight between stitches.This is where working from the right side really helps because you can control the tension of your seam more easily when you can see it. You really don't want to pull the seam too tight or leave it too loose; just like when you are trying to get a good, even, tension while knitting.

Because I'm sewing the side seam before doing the sleeve cap I don't want to sew it up all the way, instead I stop a couple inches before the sleeve cap shaping, then I jump to my sleeve cap. When working the cap always start in the middle of the cap and work your way down to the armpit, then go back up and do the other side. This helps keep everything nice and even. 

Sewing the sleeve cap is a little trickier than the side seams because you don't have the same directionality on all your stitches. Instead of picking up the bars between stitches on your sleeve you will be inserting your needle underneath a stitch.

On the body of the sweater you are still picking up the bars.

And once again, just keep sewing. This is really the place that you want to be patient. Don't work on seaming if you are in a hurry.

Sew all the way down to the armpit join.

Then go back to the top and work your way down the other side. When it's all done you won't be able to tell that your seam was done in pieces. In the picture below my needle is pointing to my starting spot.

Once your sleeve cap is done, go back and finish your side seam. Everything should line up nice and neatly, but sometimes you end up having to ease in a couple of stitches. If you are off by a stitch or two, I wouldn't worry, but if you end up off by inches I would take the seam apart and start again.

And this is what your seams should look like on the inside. Aren't they nice and neat?

Some sweater patterns will use a two stitch selvedge, the pattern I'm working with here only used one. Some don't include one at all and you will need to add it yourself. Make sure that you check your pattern before your begin, especially if your pattern includes ribbing because you want your ribbing to line up correctly like mine does on the sleeve.

I love nice neat seams. I think learning to seam my sweaters correctly made the single biggest difference in my knitting. If finishing is something that you struggle with I would highly recommend Deborah Newton's book Finishing School: A Masterclass for Knitters. 

Sometimes the Fabric Speaks

On Saturday I made an a-line skirt. I ended up having to draft the pattern for it myself because when I looked through my stash of patterns every skirt that I had was very full, but the flower pattern on my fabric had really clear verticle directionality that just wouldn't work with a circle skirt, at some point somewhere on the skirt I would have ended up with sideways flowers. It's hard to see in the picture, but the flowers all have stems.

I'm glad that I realized that before I started cutting out skirt pieces.

I was going to write something up about how I drafted the pattern, but I forgot to take pictures of that part of the process. The skirt was pretty simple, basically just the front and two back pieces. I made a facing, rather than do a waistband. I used french seams on the side seams and a clean seam for the back seam with the zipper. Because I drafted it myself I gave myself very generous seam allowances, The back I used a 1" SA so I could turn over the edge of the fabric and still have plenty to work with while sewing in the zipper.

I did end up having to finagle the fit a little at the end, it was good through the hips, but a little loose at the waist. Either my math was bad, or my measurement. I'm not sure which.

All in all, I am really pleased with my finished skirt. 

I had a heck of a time taking pictures though because it was super windy. 

Also, I love this outfit, everything I am wearing here I made myself, and that is a really incredible feeling. I talked about the sweater here, the collared shirt here, and the cami under that shirt here. I'm also wearing a rayon slip that I know I made within the last year, but that I apparently never bothered to write about, so it looks like I've got another post about my underwear coming up.