Boudicca
Seaside Queen
Measure the depth at the seam edge on the inside and then fold and pin a dart in the polythene on the front to match.
Crafty Thread - what are you working on at the moment?
- Thread starter radio_atomica
- Start date
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
By the way it appears I was wrong about FibreMood patterns - if you buy their pdfs you can now choose to print them with or without the seam allowances. This is great news as I really like their patterns, they come in my size and so far the ones I've made have been quite simple and quick to make.
I got out my Singer featherweight because it has nifty attachments such as a ruffler (not that I am planning ruffles, but gathering is tons easier). I bloody love this little machine and have shunted the Janome under the table. I almost let it go a few years ago - but I decided to hang onto it to for my grand-daughter. I failed to get daughter to so much as sew a hem but Gdd is keen (she can knit already).. I don't think I have used it for over 20 years but it still runs sweet.
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I have heard of such things as ruffling feet but have never used any of them. The most far out I've gone with feet is a buttonhole one. Basically I've only ever used whatever feet my machine came with.
Having just gathered about 6 metres of fabric I feel I may have missed a trick...
I will take a pic,RubyToogood . It took me years before attaching the ruffler because it just looked insane. I almost sold my machine (had an offer north of £300) I certainly used the hemming foot a lot.
here you go, RubyToogood , It is a lovely little machine. Am thrilled to get it going after a long hiatus. Srill waiting for my dress fabric so I have been making origami bags for daughter and daughter-in-law
Attachments
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
That is a thing of great beauty.
I regret not staking a claim to my granny's old black and gold Singer which I altered a leather jacket on once successfully. My current machine is not bad but would break down in tears at the thought.
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
I posted this elsewhere but I thought I might post it here, too.
Due to an imminent house move, I said I wasn't going to attack another knife for a while, and all of my gear is packed away in readiness for the move, but during the last week I found myself in a position where I needed to either do something or go insane. I opted for the former, and I'd recently purchased a new electric sander, which I hadn't yet used or boxed up with the remaining remnants of my life, so I ripped open some boxes and found some very nice timber for the scales, then set to work and I ended up with this.
Due to an imminent house move, I said I wasn't going to attack another knife for a while, and all of my gear is packed away in readiness for the move, but during the last week I found myself in a position where I needed to either do something or go insane. I opted for the former, and I'd recently purchased a new electric sander, which I hadn't yet used or boxed up with the remaining remnants of my life, so I ripped open some boxes and found some very nice timber for the scales, then set to work and I ended up with this.
moose
like some cat from Japan
Beautiful, Saul Goodman Where did you learn to do this type of work?
Saul Goodman
It's all good, man
Thanks, appreciated.
I've been making things for as long as I can remember, and I spent quite a few years as a fabricator and engineer. I've always liked knives, and one day I was watching Forged in Fire, a TV series/knife making competition. Some of the stuff these professional bladesmiths were turning out was was brutal, and I thought to myself ' I could surely do a better job than that?', so I had a go, and it turned out I could.
Talk to me about dress patterns. I spent all day, drafting, measuring, cutting and generally arsing about, making up a pattern, only to cut the bodice too short (and I did all that bloody undersewing and bagging out double bodices). Anyway, good job I was practising on an old duvet cover. It has been a long time since I was last in this game and I have decided to take it easy and actually buy a pattern or 2 (not least because of all the time it saves laying out pieces). Some of the patterns cost as much as the actual fabric but even so, I was very much taken with a couple of Tessuti ones. And, despite the incredibly terrifying model on the cover, a Vogue 1312. What does anyone else use. Any suggestions for a somewhat graceless, shortarsed gardener?
wayward bob
i ate all your bees
i used to look on patternreview when it came to fit or feedback on a specific pattern.
fwiw i spent about 6 months on a vintage vogue dress with pintucks on the bodice and skirt - pretty much the exact dress i'm currently wearing off the rack :/
(eta: this one not only fits, it also has an under-dress that could be a whole other thing on its own
)
fwiw i spent about 6 months on a vintage vogue dress with pintucks on the bodice and skirt - pretty much the exact dress i'm currently wearing off the rack :/
(eta: this one not only fits, it also has an under-dress that could be a whole other thing on its own
)
Boudicca
Seaside Queen
RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
Mostly I spend ages on Instagram looking at new patterns and people's makes rather than actually sewing. I used to use Sewing Pattern Review Online Sewing Community but now I just check out the hashtag for the pattern on Instagram. In this case that would be #v1312 or #vogue1312.
Thefoldline is good for independent patterns Home page - The Foldline although these can be a mixed bag. As with knitting patterns, pdf downloads and self publishing have changed the landscape and it pays to go with popular patterns and designers unless you're feeling experimental. Vogue patterns are generally reliable but can be complex.
I think I've mentioned this before but the Washi dress is a perennial that loads of people have made and can be adapted in countless ways. I have three I think, all really different.
And as I've said up thread, I like FibreMood atm www.fibremood.com.
Thefoldline is good for independent patterns Home page - The Foldline although these can be a mixed bag. As with knitting patterns, pdf downloads and self publishing have changed the landscape and it pays to go with popular patterns and designers unless you're feeling experimental. Vogue patterns are generally reliable but can be complex.
I think I've mentioned this before but the Washi dress is a perennial that loads of people have made and can be adapted in countless ways. I have three I think, all really different.
And as I've said up thread, I like FibreMood atm www.fibremood.com.
Ah, yes, I found that (hence the Tessuti. I looked at the Washi dress A LOT...but dithered over shirring. I really, really liked the little cap sleeves though but it seemed to only be available as a PDF...which, having no printer and the shittest PC in the world, I need paper patterns. Anyway, I blew my budget (and more) and risked it with 2 Tessuti patterns - one with a front placket (Lisa) because I am not really up to drafting darts and buttonholes. and one with pintucks - Milendra (I think).
O yes, Boudicca - that shape was what I was going for with my (ahem) homemade pattern (I used my garden design paper)...but the empire line is a little too high and has an awkward seam right across my (my not inconsiderable chest) which is why I thought I wouldn't chop into any more material until I was back to my former cutting pizzazz) You would think it would be hard to mess up such a simple shape...but I managed. I actually got out a roll of cellophane but I was working in my boiling sewing room with a fan, so that was disastrous(lots of pins and swearing). And I think I got a bit anal with my new rotary cutter, nipping off extra bits until everything lined up perfectly (ahem).
Mmm, I did look at Fibre Mood. I guess we might be a similar shape, RubyToogood (hovering around 14)...but I am only 5 foot tall and a lot of off the peg clothes are always too long in the waist, legs. Any sort of tie belts are hopeless (which is a shame because I loved a Liesle and Co 'Terrace' dress.) I know, in my heart, that the Vogue pattern, with over 4 metres of material, would be a terrible choice, tbh. Draping, on my odd shape, is not really a good idea..but I am even less keen on fitted clothes or (perish the thought) trousers. I have spent the last 50 years wearing A line dresses with shaped side panels instead of darts...dunno why I came over all experimental.
I absolutely love the idea of a pattern swap group and will now have a couple of spendy current ones to get going with (although I don't do FB at all), but might have something you guys would like. Swapping patterns was really frowned upon on Ravelry (cos we were depriving poor, hardpressed designers of our cash...but never any mention of even poorer knitters so swaps never got off the ground).
Clothkits! My God 8115 - had no idea they were still going. They were huge when my kids were small (not that I ever bought any of the kits). I probably made 3 dozen simple bodice and skirt dresses for daughter, in everything from cord to voile....Which is another thing - materials. I only ever wear cotton or wool...have no idea what chambray, challis, ramie, French terry, viscose or ponte roma are. I was once given yards and yards of some stiffish stuff called bombazine...but there is a whole world of modern materials which I am clueless about.
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Well yes...but.
If those models were chopped in half, that would be my proportions. I remember my despair, looking at patterns since surely nobody in the world, looks remotely like a fashion drawing. Why do they do it? Surely none of us have even the smallest hope that we are going to end up a size 2 and 7 foot tall if we buy that pattern and make that dress. The patterns I chose, did, at least, show them on normal people (apart from the frightening, black-lipped Vogue woman. I guess, once you are experienced, you can look beyond the drawings...but they are not helpful, just demoralising. Mind you, there was a whole range from a quite expensive company, (patterns over £20) where every model displayed the garments in black. Couldn't see a bloody thing!
It's worrying, after hiding away from the 'modern world' for 20 years or so, just how far and fast things have changed beyond my grasp. Honestly, Urban is my only lifeline to normal life (my offspring just scoff).
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RubyToogood
RubyTwobikes
I never do the shirring as it looks crap on me, I just add ties to the side seams.
Not very similar
I'm 5'9" and a 22+These mostly aren't modern materials or names, and I don't think most people have the faintest what they are either. Chambray is that stuff that looks like denim but is thin like shirt fabric. Challis er I'm not entirely sure but I was reading this on pattern envelopes in the 70s. Ramie is a fibre like linen. French terry is some kind of sweatshirting, that is a term I've only heard recently. Viscose = rayon, usually a general purpose lightweit drapey dressmaking fabric. Ponte roma is nasty nylony thick stretch fabric like a Star Trek uniform, I don't know why it's fashionable again.
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O thanks for this RubyToogood . Um, the shortcomings of Zoom, although I think I only saw your top 15inches or so.
I do recall some stuff called wetlook cire cos I made myself purple hotpants out of it. That and panne velvet (the 70s). Thank fuck for samples...a trick which doesn't easily translate to the yarn industry (where I became horrendously conservative although have used something called seasilk (which was not really very nice at all tbh).
Ties - yes! I have one of those enormo granny chests which looks like it should be encased in a permanent pinny. I no longer refer to breasts in the plural but bosom as some singular pillowy mass, nicely mirrored by my (large) arse so yep, shirring is a bit dubious.
I actually had a star trek uniform from when I had a SNG fixation in the 90s. Came from some crapmarket in Brighton. Unspeakable really.
I do recall some stuff called wetlook cire cos I made myself purple hotpants out of it. That and panne velvet (the 70s). Thank fuck for samples...a trick which doesn't easily translate to the yarn industry (where I became horrendously conservative although have used something called seasilk (which was not really very nice at all tbh).
Ties - yes! I have one of those enormo granny chests which looks like it should be encased in a permanent pinny. I no longer refer to breasts in the plural but bosom as some singular pillowy mass, nicely mirrored by my (large) arse so yep, shirring is a bit dubious.
I actually had a star trek uniform from when I had a SNG fixation in the 90s. Came from some crapmarket in Brighton. Unspeakable really.
Little Piranha
Small or far away?
First post on this thread, actually a bit nervous!
I'm painting a child's chair for my friend's first baby atm, due mid September. So far I've done a couple of base coats of white gesso and then started adding colour coats and detail with acrylics.
Plan for the seat is this design I did, although I'll have to change it a little to fit with the curve of the seat indent.
Any tips much appreciated, I've never decorated furniture before.
I'm painting a child's chair for my friend's first baby atm, due mid September. So far I've done a couple of base coats of white gesso and then started adding colour coats and detail with acrylics.
Plan for the seat is this design I did, although I'll have to change it a little to fit with the curve of the seat indent.
Any tips much appreciated, I've never decorated furniture before.
That's delightful, Little P. I used to do a lot of painted furniture before the advent of Annie Sloan and the chalk paint phenomenon. Anyway, durability was always one of my main criteria because I used to paint a lot of things used by children, and thankfully, my top choice, Humbrol enamels, passed British Standard toxicity tests for children. I have also used acrylics from my youngest's Games Workshop stage. I seem to remember waxing being used to fix and stabilise chalk paints - not sure how that would work with acrylics but I can't see why it wouldn't. Although not as long lasting as a topcoat seal or varnish, I think several coats of wax gives a lovely gentle finish.
Lucky friend to have such a thoughtful and delicious giftie.
Little Piranha
Small or far away?
Thanks so much, my mum has done some furniture and she also recommended waxing rather than varnish. Absolutely in love with the enamel paints after looking them up, wish I'd seen them before I started.
To mitigate my 'good friend' status, I am currently furloughed and stuck indoors from a torn achilles tendon so I've got a lot of time on my hands.
Ugh! Tear off vilene. Awful stuff...which doesn't tear off very nicely at all. Should have just stuck with stay stitching. And home made bias binding isnt fun either, Have abandoned it after a horrible struggle with the neckline and going to use facings on the armholes. I wasn't really feeling confident to start improvising so (attempted) to follow pattern instructions.. I also really, really dislike the cutaway armscyes on this dress and will be wearing a T-shirt underneath. Have been thrown back to 30year nightmares of hacking expensive cloth about and struggling with non-normal body-shapes (mine)....so will not be buying some spendy vyella for my next project. Thankfully, maroon shirting cotton is very forgiving, the darts worked well...and a severe pressing helps as well. The iron has not been used for years and years - have already burnt my arm and left it on all night. Got some fun buttonholes to deal with (sigh) but think I will have a wearable dress as long as no-one looks too closely. Certainly wouldn't pass the Patrick/Esme Sewing Bee scrutiny...but sweetheart and youngest, being blindly oblivious, have managed not to smirk. Not sure I am promising pics, what with the hairsyle(!) and everything.
8ball
Merr xmas...
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O, if you are in the market for paint buying, have a look at signwriter's enamels such as One Shot or the Craftsman range. Have used them for restoring fairground rides and my grand-daughters 'gypsy caravan'.
