New Look 6843 view E-ish, my HNL-NYC skirt.

So, since she outed herself in the comments of my last post, I will confirm that it was Mary who told me to get my sewing pix out of the bathroom....here's the big 3-session photo shoot for the skirt I made this week.

So, the another comment I got at PR weekend from another attendee is that I should wear more light colors, especially blue or turquoise....here you go!

The fabric:
The exterior fabric is aqua eyelet from Kaimuki Dry Goods in Honolulu, purchased during my day with Shannon.  I think it is mostly cotton, but has some poly to it, based on the fact that it does wrinkle but after hanging the skirt up after wearing it all day, the wrinkles all magically came out on their own (unless The Fairy Ironing Godess showed up while I was sleeping Monday night).

This piece escaped the pineapple juice treatment, and looked like this after laundering.


The interior lining fabric is a super soft Italian cotton voile purchased at Parone in NYC during my day with Maria, that I bought to match the aqua eyelet.  That was the last stop of the day and I carried it home with me and washed it with all my light clothes the next day.

It bled into all my light stuff, including white pants and my favorite white shirt.

Cue frantic laundering of light stuff all over again, minus the lining fabric, several times, then washing my lining fabric again with my aqua towels.

Anyhoo, this is why it's my HNL-NYC skirt!


Ironically I wound up using thread I already had in stash, but I did use the SIL Thread zipper.   The thread is not exactly serger cone sized, it's smaller than that, but it's like it needs the serger cone insert to keep it from moving all over.

The pattern
The pattern is NL 6843, pretty much view E except:

• I lined it
• I did not grade any seam allowance with the waist band
• Instead of a center back seam, I cut the CB on the fold, by folding the pattern in at 5/8"
• I used an invisible zipper

I have made this skirt before, blogged here.

The Sunday photoshoot

So the pix taken with brown purchased tank top were taken Sunday night in the 8pm hour after a rainstorm.  Taken two days after the longest day of the year, it was so incredibly light out!  At this point the skirt was mostly finished, though I had not sewn the lining to the zipper.



I like this photo a lot---the walking away shot--and I'm holding my laminated zipper pouch.

I also like this side walking shot too...
And this shot that highlights my swayback:


The Monday morning photoshoot

I awoke in the 5am hour and immediately set about doing a few maintenance items:
I sewed one side of the lining to the zipper (here it is, fully done).
For this I did a slip stitch as Diana Rupp instructed in her Craftsy class "Sewing Studio", which also highlights the way to make perfect knots (also in her book, Sew Everything Workshop, which I bought from her at PR weekend 2012).

I'll admit, I have NEVER sewn a slipstitch before, even though I thought what I had been doing all these years was slipstitch. It wasn't.  And her knotting technique is pretty amazing.

Then I did a little 45 degree fold and tacking of the side SA down at the side seams, to keep it from poking out at the scalloped edges.

Can I just say, my serger *hated* the eyelet with a passion and the right needle thread kept breaking, I think from hitting the eyelet in a thick place.

While we're checking out the inside of my skirt, let me show you the rolled hem on the lining. I love the rolled hem foot. LOVE. I used the larger size rolled hem foot.

Here is the interior of the skirt, back view:

and the front of the skirt, interior

Ok, so back to the outdoor photos:

side view:

Or whatever view...


The Monday night photo shoot
These are the "after work" pix. Those of you who know me well know that I hate working with 100% natural fibers because of wrinkling! I don't think it's 100% natural like I said, but here you can see the wrinkling from sitting in it most of the day.  and after hanging it on the hanger overnight, most of the wrinkles disappeared!

I don't know what I'm doing with my hands here:

or here

Monday night I finished slipstitching the lining to the other side of the zip. and took more pix on my Izzy:

Can you see here how I got the eyelet scallops to line up at the side seam?


I think the only disappointing thing was one of the scallops is unravelling, and it happens to be in the front. I hadn't noticed that when I cut it out. I tried a little bit of Fray Check on a sample and am so glad I tested it first as it actually stains the fabric. So I will probably mend this section sometime later if/when it unravels more.



In Summary:

• I felt that I really enjoyed this process and took my time with it, from selecting the right fabric lining and zipper to actually taking the time to make sure the eyelet scallops would hit at the right place on my knee, so I could use the scallops as the hem. Having made this skirt twice before (once a little short, once a little long) I split the difference.
• I love this pattern as it sits at my waist, which I find more flattering to my body shape than the 95% of skirt patterns out there today that sit 1" or lower below waist
• I found the pattern on the eyelet actually started to veer off grain on one side of the fabric!  Interesting find!  So I cut it on the side that was "on grain"
• I had lined the waistband too (no interfacing, used the lining fabric in place of interfacing) but did not need to do that....once that waistband is folded over and attached there are 4 layers of waistband and two of skirt plus lining.  I didn't want to grade seams so I used my hammer to flatten it down.
• Used my Stitch Nerd ham to press darts, and Stitch Nerd seam roll to press the seam allowances
• Used my Angela Wolf clapper to set seams.
• Used my serger to serge raw edges, using turquoise serger thread Antoinette and I bought in NYC way back in, gosh 2011..
• Used my old Baby Lock because I have the rolled hem for it (I don't have the rolled hem foot for my new machine)
• Clipped every thread as I sewed.
• Ironed every seam as I sewed.
• Used wax tracing paper to trace the darts.
• Learning the slipstitch technique  
• I found that I am super-inspired by the fabric I bought at Kaimuki and want to sew ALL of it up before the end of September!

Taking the time to do all of that resulted in a skirt I am fully proud of!   YAY!

Sunday night rainbow (faint, but it's there...)



So what do you think of my backyard pix???  Better than the bathroom pix, right??

Be well!!

McCall's 6256 small zipper pouch, now 3.5 hours & laminated

(Ok, here is my attempt to take some pix outside, as it was expressed at PR weekend that I need to get my pix out of the bathroom....here you go!)

So I made the 7 hour zipper pouch for myself, only this time in the "small" size.  It took ~3.5 hours.   I think I can get it down to 3.

There is nothing in the bag...so it's a little saggy.

This is the laminated version of the subway fabric from the City Quilter.  Maria and I each bought some on our big shopping day.

This is how I used to go to the city (via train, exiting at 34th St Penn Station):

And this is how I go to the city now (via bus, exiting at Port Authority bus terminal):

I used the same dimensions as the last zipper tags, but minus a half inch length-wise.

Yes, it had just rained (and was drizzling a little while taking these pix).  But the fabric is laminated, woot!  I lined it in green denim from deep stash, same as Maria's.

The zipper is from SIL Thread, purchased on the same trip with Maria.   I think this zipper was under $2.  What a deal compared to Joann's.

I like having Manhattan centered on the "front" of the bag....but I somehow put the zipper pull to the right instead of the left. I never realized that zipper pouches always have the zipper pull on the left.  So I guess the back of the bag is now the front.


It is a really cute little bag.  I plan on making the larger version again soon, also out of the laminated fabric, and then comparing in one photo.

Oh, and I made a skirt with a piece of my Kaimuku fabric today.  Here is a sneak peek from an outtake photo!

Here are your Princeton Farmers Market flowers for the week.  The ones from last week were Nigella--there are a few of them left...

Be well!

I met velosewer!

I took last Friday off from work because a very special Aussie was coming to the Big City...


It's Velosewer Maria, from the blog How Good is That!

We hit 7 fabric or notions stores in 8 hours, plus lunch and doughnuts....quite a whirlwind!!  and we both wore outfits made by our own hands...my McCall's 6078 shirt and J Stern Design Jeans and her peplum Vogue 8815 top and purple Vogue 1204 jeans (I remembered the purple jeans from her blog!)  The topstitching on her jeans is superb!

We made Metro Textiles our first stop, as you know it is a sewing blogger rite of passage to have one's pic taken with Kashi.  Plus I haven't seen Kashi since May 2012.  Definitely time to revisit.

And while we were there, we met another Kashi customer, Barbara, who asked us how we know Kashi....that led to the discovery that we are all on PR!  We had such a nice time time shopping and chatting with Barbara, who makes jackets to sell.

The shirt I was wearing was made from the fabric that was on Kashi's mannequin on the Friday of PR weekend.  That was the fabric that was less than a yard!!!!

I really enjoyed listening to Maria banter with Kashi and teasing him...


Of course he wants you all to know that he has new fabrics and wants you to come visit him.  And if you've never been to Metro, the background of these pix really give you a sense of the store!

We did really well there.  Keep in mind, Maria has to haul all this fabric back to Australia!

The haul from Kashi

Honestly, every day is a sale day at Metro!
Here is my haul from Kashi's (I had it shipped; it was on my doorstep on Tuesday):

Then it was time for MOOD.

Sadly, Swatch took the day off due to threat of rain and wouldn't be back til Monday.


Antoinette, this is the remnant bin at Mood, under the staircase, but it was mostly Home Dec:

We were able to meet up with Meg who works in marketing for Mood, and she took this picture of our Mood hauls.  Meg is the original author of the Shop the Garment District blog, which Mimi took over when Meg started working at Mood.  The map and info on that blog is excellent--the map gives store addresses, phone numbers, and even indicates which stores have bathrooms!

In the mood foyer:

ha

Here is what I bought at Mood (I had it shipped; it was on my doorstep on Monday).  That bottom piece is the most luxurious piece of stretch corduroy ever, from Alice + Olivia.

Then it was time for the big reveal at lunch! The 7 hour zipper pouch!!

It turns out that the interior fabric is her favorite color, a bright green! Woot! That just happened to be what I chose from my stash.

Maria had gifted me with Tim Tams from Australia ( a quite delicious chocolate cookie covered in chocolate with a layer of chocolate between the chocolate cookies, yes, chocolate chocolate chocolate!) and she asked me to hold up my bag:

Maria had her first ever mac and cheese at one of my favorite Chelsea restaurants, named Cafeteria. Then we went to my favorite doughnut place in the whole world, Doughnut Plant.

Then it was kind of a rapid succession of stores: City Quilter, Pacific Trimming, SIL Thread, then Maria went to Spandex House while I went to Daytona, then we reconvened at Parone.

Pacific Trimming zippers

One of my main goals was to get cotton lining, zipper and thread to match these fabrics from Joanns and Kaimuki:

zippers and thread: SIL Thread
Lining: Parone

Here was much of my haul:



I have already made something from the items above, but that will be my next post.

I bought more of that cat fabric that I originally got at Kaimuki, online from a local (NJ) seller....and happened to find webbing to match for bag making (I didn't even know I wanted webbing to match, but I did when I saw it!):

webbing: Pacific Trimming

This is the fabric from Parone:

I had brought swatches of various with me, so I could find linings and thread to match.

I had a fantastically fun time with Maria. She is warm and witty and caring and kind. I'm so happy I was able to meet her!!  Like I said, for the past 18 months or so she has commented on almost every blog post of mine--that is dedication!

And I am planning on doing a post devoted to my favorite NYC places...in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.

Here are your Princeton Farmer's Market flowers for this week:

Maria, I wish we were going to the Garment District again this Friday!
Be well!