Sunday, May 19, 2013

The Summer Series: Five in Five, Take 2

Do you ever feel (rightly or wrongly) that you can't catch a break?

I spent today, and yesterday, making the New Look 1-hour skirt. About 8 hours, it took me. And just about everything that could have gone wrong went in that direction.

OK, I'm being dramatic. Here's what went wonky:
  • The fucking zipper insertion. I can see that my new machine doesn't like that double-sided tape I'm so attached to when it comes to putting in zips. I went through 3 needles on this task and I think the end result looks vaguely "made by drunk mice".
  • The waistband. Oh Lord. I've finally come to terms with something (which I've mentioned before but I'm going to clearly admit to it right now): I have "issues" with waistbands. The problem is, I can't figure out the difference between a waistband and a facing. I know! It's ridiculous. Of course, I know the difference. It just doesn't make any difference when I'm trying to make one. Or the other. And good luck following the directions. It's like my brain stops thinking as soon as start looking at the waist section. This waistband was supposed to have a button but, um, that didn't happen. (More on this below...)
  • The topstitched hem.  See "made by drunk mice". I should have lengthened the stitch but, in my sew-blood sugar state, I forgot. I've also got this whack need to make the hem look as consistent on the wrong side as on the right side and, really, short of a cover stitch machine or serious talent, that just doesn't happen. I've got to get a cover stitch machine.
Now, given that this is a 4-piece, 1-hour skirt, I don't even know how I managed to find so many challenges. And it's always when you have the exact amount of fabric and not an inch more, that the gremlins turn up.

On the plus side, I've discovered a little waist trick that's genius (and stupidly easy): Make every waistband 5 inches longer than it needs to be. Then you will NEVER have to worry that it doesn't ease in properly. I did this, this time, and it's the only thing that saved my ass.

Some pluses of this project:
  • I don't know where I found it, or what it's called?!?!, but I used the best fucking interfacing ever. It's fusible, white and it doesn't have a bit of stretch. I was skeptical (locating it at the bottom of my stash), but I'm a convert. If only I knew how to find it again...
  • The fabric (stash stretch denim) is awesome. I'm so sad not to have anymore. I've made a few things with it, having bought it a number of times, and it has perfect stretch and drape.
  • It's a really great skirt and it fits perfectly. It's simple but it does the trick and I can see myself making it a zillion more times. The last time I made it - that being the first time I'd ever sewn anything - it didn't look so hot on completion. OMG, when I look at that first skirt now, I'm part proud, part amused and part horrified. Just the perfect reaction, I suspect. On the nascent-sewist, first go-round, I cut the pattern tissue in the size 12 - not really understanding size when first I started sewing - and it means that this time, with my current dimensions, I need to use scant 1/2 inch seams on a fabric with little give. That's fine, since I have a serger. This skirt reminds me that I should consider making 12s with smaller seams, rather than making 14s that are just nominally too big everywhere.
The major-est plus:
  • I kept my cool when this could have failed quite a few times and, as a result, I have a wearable garment: I had some pretty serious waist issues and no extra fabric and I'd ripped out seams twice (about the limit before fabric starts to stretch and get yucky) when I figured out some things... I couldn't reinsert the zipper, which would have been best given how I'd positioned it with the metal zip top at the exact top of the back pieces (how you want it when you're inserting a facing but not a waistband!). That was just bound to end in disaster, I could tell. So I finagled the seams such that the band actually rises as you move towards the zip (it's impossible to explain this, but you'd know what I mean if I showed you) in a very gradual, which is to say unobservable, way. Then I decided that the worst part of a waistband is that it gets bulky where all of those seam allowances meet, so I opted not to press up the wrong-side seam. The fabric was serged and neat so I just stitched in the ditch from the front so that the seam caught the single-layer (vs regular-style double-layer) serged edge on the wrong side. Not only did it give me a slightly wider waistband, but it cut down on bulk considerably. This technique is like a cross between facing (slim but potentially floppy) and a waistband (secure, but bulky and hard to sew down from the right side so that the wrong side still looks neat). And I finally realized that stitching in the ditch is actually under stitching - it's simply done from the right side of the fabric.
It seems I'm gonna have to stop looking at directions when it comes to making waists of simple skirts. I'm just going do what I want to, in the way that makes sense to me.

So, I can't say that the Five in Five has been fun, so far (ask me about the pattern alterations I've spent quite a while making on V8790, the next top I'm intending to make). But it has yielded two wearable items.

I'm so hoping that I'm going to start enjoying this soon.

Today's questions: Do you ever get into a phase where all the sewing seems difficult - even the "easy" things? Do you sew some crappy hems and mediocre zippers and still wear the garments they're attached to out of the house? Do waistbands confuse you??? I don't know why they're so complicated but I always have to think 8 times when I encounter one. Kind of takes the easy out of garments that cover one's lower half :-) Make me feel better, please!

23 comments:

  1. One of the first skirts I made had a small darn near the side seam. because I had a small table and wasn't careful enough, so I damaged a cut out panel, which was under the piece I was cutting and of cause it was no extra fabric (in fact I was working with left overs). When I found the cut I wanted to start crying and I was ready to say that I was never going to sew again. But I fixed my mistake instead doing my best. The darn was small and nearly invisible on velveteen, so I proceeded with the skirt. I glad I did, because the fit was perfect and I worn it to peaces. And sewing was very useful for me the next several years.

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    1. Oh, how irritating! (I can relate.) And your point is well taken :-)

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  2. Once I made a dress to wear to my cousin's wedding, a 50's style dress in blue and white (inspired by mad man). I made it in 3-4 hours, the hours leading to the event, after my shift in the local coffee shop where I used to work. Although it's half-lined I inserted the "invisible" zipper in a much visible way, not hidden between the facing and the self fabric. the dress is too big and I wore it without stitching the hem. 5 years later, while I never fixed it properly, I still wear it and get a lot of complements (from people not realizing it's home-made).

    And don't even get me started on my black lace dress, wore proudly to my BSC graduation without a hem or without properly inserting the lining (=it was not sewn to the zipper, just floating around). Nobody notices these things anyway! 6 months later and the lining is now properly inserted, but no hem :)

    So... I LOVE very well made garments, but if I like something and it looks good overall, I just wear it anyway.

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    1. I'm always amazed by people who can throw together a wedding outfit in a few hours?! That's pretty impressive, even if it wasn't perfect.

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    2. Only once, and never again...

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  3. Absolutely! Oftentimes its the "easy" stuff that's the hardest, for some perverse reason. And, yes, waistbands are a pain! As for wearing them out of the house...the jeans I made were as wrong as wrong can be, yet I wore them to shreds. And I know what I need to do to make the next pair better. So all is not lost!

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    1. I know, the easy stuff lulls you into a false sense of security. And it's the mark of a really good garment when the crappy parts in no way undercut the overall wearability of the thing.

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  4. I've actually got one of those "easy" patterns in the works that I've made probably 4x when you consider how many times I've ripped out nearly every seam. And yes, I regularly wear imperfect garments out and about. Oddly enough, no one seems to notice.

    I'm SO glad I'm not the only one who struggles with waistbands. They get me every. single. time. Grrrrr! Anyway, can't wait to see the skirt! :-)

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    1. Ha! I know - I can't believe how often one has to rip stitches out sometimes.

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  5. I'm more likely to screw up on easy patterns than difficult ones because I don't read the directions and think I know everything. Nothing too horrible has happened - like the loss of gorgeous fabric - but projects take me longer than they should!

    Lately I've been struggling with materials more than techniques. I have a silk Tiny Pocket Tank that has been hanging on my rack for over a year now. I don't want to ruin it and I cannot figure out how to sew silk. So there it hangs...

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    1. I totally get that. I don't read the instructions carefully enough - not cuz I think I have the answers, but because I find so many instructions to be incomprehensible given the way my brain works. I mean, whether I consider them for hours or just glance, unless the pattern is written in a way I "get", I'm going to have to make it up as I go along.

      I wonder what the answer is for those projects we're unwilling to sacrifice but which haven't come together yet. I don't have the kind of patience that will let a garment sit - even though that would be the smart solution. That's where I think I know everything - it's that I assume what I don't know today, I'll never know. And that's just not true!

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  6. Feeling your pain. I have been trying to make the popular Sorbetto - another one hour piece- for the past 2 weeks!!! Oddly enough my first dress was easier than this top, and the top is a simpler pattern. (However, it is requiring fitting, whereas the dress was big and roomy.)

    Have been feeling that I am not sure sewing is for me, but then read all these comments and feel a little more normal and not so much like a thick-o!

    I have a serious dread of wearing something crappy I have made out of the house and looking like...I am wearing something I made - if you know what I mean.

    brrr. ;)

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    1. Ha! I haven't made that top. It wouldn't flatter me. But I know some people really struggle with its construction. I feel, some days, that sewing isn't for me - and then I wonder how I'd live without it, and I go back to the drawing board :-)

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    2. Well that is a positive thing to hear. I am just trying to focus on process so that I don't rush it and end up making something I won't wear after all this!

      It had better be worth it. ;-?

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    3. I wish I could say that these things always work out - especially with so much invested. Either way, don't be upset with sewing! Every experience is its own and you'll be amazed by how easily the next one goes.

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  7. A simple knit top that should have taken 3-4 hrs. max ended up taking me 8-9 days! I was having tension issues with the machine and no matter what I tried I could not fix it. I finally tracked it down to the needle thread was catching on the f--king spool cap!!!

    I seem to sew in spurts. Every thing goes perfect and I can manage to sew many garments in a short period of time. Other times it's like I'm a slug and it takes me forever to finish even one garment which is the phase I'm currently in. It sucks because I desperately need summer clothes but I also need to go out and work in the gardens!

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    1. Ok, this I can relate to! And those gardens take SO MUCH FUCKING effort. There's a point to be made you should be enjoying them rather than sewing :-)

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  8. hate when that happens! i was working on the easiest of easy skirts recently and yeah, the waistband got me. ripped out once, re-did, still hate it. i'll get back to it one of these days!

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    1. What is it about waists?? I mean, they're not rocket science but they have a tendency to flummox me.

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  9. Well, you know I'm all about fast, happy sewing and not stressing the details... so yes, I wear questionably finished garments all the time! That's not your style though, and that's ok! I put all kinds of pressure on myself last summer that, since I had learned the basics, I should then start focusing on perfecting each make. It's so not my style though, and took all the fun out of things! I wish I could make sewing more fun for you right now... but I'm sure it'll happen soon!

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    1. I love that you know your nature and you don't fight it. I'm kind of in the same boat. Only, sadly, my nature is all fussy. But I get what you're saying. There are times I find myself going against the grain (pun intended) and I just have to say no.

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  10. Know what? Your struggles give me hope... lol. I've been feeling really down on my skills lately. I gotta just plug on through and accept it's just a rough patch lol. Are we going to see modeled pics of your skirt?? :) Sounds great!

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    1. I think it's par for the course, sadly. We all come up against those challenging sewing moments. Just keep on. I'm sure it will become more enjoyable for both of us!

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