And This Skirt Was Sewn The Usual Way

Skirt #2 was made in the more traditional sequence than Skirt #1.

Again, pinterest was the inspiration:

Ruffles are not something I can carry off, 

so I swopped in a flat Aline in soft batik

for a modern sarong-party-girl look.

I wanted very badly to do a curved hem in the batik, but that would have meant mini-darts in the pretty border. And also I wondered if it might look slightly Tinkerbelle-esque, which, again, is a look I can't carry off. So I left the hem straight.

The softness of the batik gives the inner skirt some nice movement, so that it falls in waves, which is a nice contrast to the crisper corduroy shell.

The outer skirt layer is black medium-wale corduroy, lined. The inner layer is black cotton batik, with an unattached lining of its own. So four layers, two of which are lining. 

Here's the back - and if I'd thought this design through properly, I would've had the corduroy layer come all the way down to the actual hemline, tuxedo-style. Or lowered its hem so that only the border of the batik peeked out. What it looks like now is, as my mother would say, "neither here nor there." Note to self: do not attempt to design and sew clothes in a matter of days. 

The front panel is not a real wrap thing - it just has buttons sewn on

and it zips up along the side seam.

I'm done sewing, by the way. I made the deadline - and crossed the finish line at 10:34 pm, Sunday night. The tally was 17 garments and 1 felt toy. It sounds manic, but it was very relaxed compared to Halloween sewing, because everything  was knit and functional and detail-less. Coincidentally, yesterday was the first day of the Chinese New Year, one tradition of which is all the kids get new clothes. At least they do in other families in Singapore. Our family always wore old shorts and Tshirts, preferably black because we couldn't stand to look particularly auspicious all decked out in red. I rolled my eyes when I realized that, inadvertently, I had made the girls new clothes in time for the New Year. Unbelievable. I swear - it was an honest mistake. If I pointed this slip to Mum, she'd say, "Crazy. What do you want to go and do that for?" Hee!

Photos later!

Scenes From Ground Zero

Nothing to share (yet) but wanted to pop in and say I have set myself one of those Ridiculous Deadlines*. On Friday night, I cut out 3 skirts, 3 pairs of shorts, 1 Tshirt and one dress for the kids. I've decided that by Sunday night (tonight) these have to be finished because I'm not sewing next week. Or ever again. No, not really, but it sure feels like I want to put away the sewing machine forever. It also feels like Christmas-making. The hardest thing about sewing on a deadline is not really the deadline. It's the awful mess in the sewing room because I don't want to take the time to clean up as I go. And the kids come in and play there because that's where Mom is. And I'm saying constantly, "Pins! Sharp! Scissors! Keep away!" and everywhere there is the crunch-crackle-crunch of paper patterns as people -including me - walk all over them to get to other things. It always looks like a bomb went off in there, with the fabric and scraps and small plastic toy food on little pastel-colored plates where someone has set up cake shop amidst the measuring tapes and ribbing. 

Yesterday, I made some modest progress, interrupted by meals which had to be cooked, helping children in the bathroom, mediating arguments, running out to Land's End to return a cashmere blouse (sigh), several games of Snap and two rounds of Payday. Incidentally, this is not the old version of Payday, which had the hideous prom dress for which one had to fork out $40. When I was a teenager, I used to play this with a couple of friends on a regular basis and how we howled when we had to buy that dress! Two of us sewed, so we were especially insulted by having to pay anything for something so bad.  

Today will be the home stretch. I think after this I will take my machines in to the spa (what I tell them the dealer is) for some TLC. Nothing wrong with them; just that I'd worked them so hard recently that they need a break too.

* These really work! And they aren't as crazy as they sound! 

This Skirt Was Sewn Almost Entirely With The Zipper Foot

'Tis true.

I think I used the regular presser foot to sew about 2% of the seams in the beginning, and then left the zipper foot in for the rest of the time. 

I also sewed this skirt in backwards sequence. Not by accident - but because it was actually necessary.

Sewing for the kids became a little old this week, so I thought I'd take a break and make something for me. I tend to do this whenever I'm about to go to Singapore. I suspect it's because I will be, once again, in the company of real seamstresses like Mum/Auntie Laura/Jen and I need something that doesn't look like it came from the 49 cent clearance rack of Old Navy (yes, I actually own 49 cent Old Navy skirts. Two, in fact.). 

So I consulted my pinterest boards and saw this:

And decided I'd copy it. Not exactly, since I didn't have black or grey fabric that was nice to wear. Found a sad bit of denim in my stash and thought I'd just put piping everywhere because I have no self-restraint whatsoever with piping.

I also thought it would be a fast project. I'm such a fool.

You see the pocket?

I decided to add that in halfway. And by "halfway", I mean "after the side seams were already sewn up".

And (see earlier note on lack of self-restraint) I also decided it should have piping on both edges, to be coherent with the rest of the piping everywhere. And by "decided" I mean "after I'd already cut open the welt".

If you've never heard what bad planning sounds like, you do now.

The um.... faux flap button placket thing

is just a faced hem, right?

Pretty, very neat, no raw edges etc. 

But it had to be sewn first, not last. Who hems their skirts first before sewing the zippers? Only crazy people, that's who.

So yes, that invisible zipper has to be sewn last. And by "last", I mean "only the buttons and waist facing were more last than it".

Too cold today to actually model this outdoors for you, so I made Fleur do it. She's not a coward like I am. 

I'm working on one more skirt for me. 

It has batik in it. But no piping. 

Happy Families

While sewing emergency summer clothes for the kids, I am also collecting games and other playthings for the long plane ride to Singapore and the lulls in activity at Grandma's and Grandpa's. We've amassed a sizable collection of card games over Christmas, which are great because they are portable and all three girls love them. While looking on amazon to buy a few more, I was surprised to find that there are no modern versions of that old classic, Happy Families. I wonder if it's because modern society considers it un-PC - only the man seems to have an occupation, his wife's only identity is Mrs-whatever-her-husband's-name-is, and quite a few of the occupations are outdated. Maybe people thought it would be ruinous to the self-worth or career ambitions of young girls. Well, phooey. It's a classic, and if it reflected the societal norms way back when, then so be it. Will it have ill-effects on my daughters' decisions to (or not) become Senator or President or whomever? I'll take my chances.

But that's beside the point - PC or not, I still couldn't find Happy Families (except in vintage version on ebay at some exorbitant price). So I made our own set!

First, I bought blank cards. About 500 - enough for mistakes, I thought.

These are plain white on both sides, so I stamped the backs to make them less boring.

Then I cast about for a way to draw 44 distinct characters without losing my mind. I wanted them easy enough so that I could just freehand them with a marker without needing 44 pencil sketches first, which would then have to be erased after the ink lines were drawn over. Suddenly saw, on the living room floor, our motley crew of peg dolls where the kids had left them for me to trip over. And therein found my answer.

Peg dolls are squat, uniformly-shaped, have flat features and look cartoony. I can do cartoony. Plus, they are easy to color. I will let the kids color them on the plane (must remember to pack Sharpies) before we play. It should buy us an hour or two, during which I might be able to walk to the back of the plane and swing my arms about and pretend to do calisthenics. 

My sketches were now just on paper, like a master plan.

I included some of the usual traditional occupations, with a slight twist. The people I know and love were the inspiration for some of the ah... more interpretative versions - this family, for instance, was all about Jenna and her love of cookies and baking:

This little girl is Emily with a pseudonym:

This is Kate, circa 2010:

This is all my girls, playing post office:

And these are every tailor in Singapore and Malaysia, including Grandma/Mum/Auntie Laura:

These next two are both Dad, although I drew the first one after Bob the Builder:

There are also a few occupations that probably weren't around when the game was invented:

We have to change with the times, right? 

I drew Mr Bit after my husband.

I thought I'd scan the cards, in case you wanted to make your own set - and in case my girls want to use them as coloring sheets.

Be warned, all ye politically-correct folks: these little guys are heavy on the stereotypes. At some point, I expect the girls will ask me, "Why don't the moms work?" To which I plan to reply: "They do - it's a family business, see - but the daddies pay the taxes so they get to name the companies after themselves."

You couldn't print them directly onto blank playing cards, but I imagine you could use card stock and cut them out all the same size. I only ask that, as with all the other freebies on this blog, they be for personal use and for gifts. I'd appreciate an email first if you'd like to mass-print multiple sets for use in schools or daycares or libraries or clubs or camps and other such settings. 

Download the cards here.

If you've never played Happy Families before, you can read about it here and the rules here.

I have to say that these blank playing cards are fast becoming my new favorite craft supply item. They are incredibly versatile! Think of the possibilities - DIY memory games, card games, flash cards, coupons, trading cards, pretend credit cards and ID cards, and even dominoes:

If your kids are anything like mine, they're going to love coloring on them and making their own collections and sets of stuff. 

Odd idea: would anyone be interested in reading about how I draw what I draw? It suddenly occurred to me last week after some comments to a post in which I drew some cartoony thing - the board game, I think it was. Don't be expecting art school or anything authentic like that, I mean. It'll just be about me drawing shapes and things with my black markers. But since it'll be neither sewing nor cardboarding, it might be a fun new tutorial to share!

Disoriented

We were out tobogganing (OK, sledding) last Saturday. Then we came back in and had hot chocolate. That's normal, right? I mean, for a - what - 14 degree day in Minnesota in January? Then I went downstairs and sewed a swimsuit. I'm so discombobulated, you guys. My brain is full of winter clothes - fleece hats for the kids, Kate's polar fleece pea coat, long-sleeved knit winter dresses..... and what am I actually making? Racer-back sundresses, jersey shorts, little tiered tropical skirts, denim mini A-lines, swimsuits. 

I won't bore you with the details, since you're probably making mittens and sweaters and other things winter-appropriate. The short story is I went shopping at Land's End, bought Emily a swimsuit in her size (ostensibly) and she loved it but it was too short (i.e. the shoulder-to-crotch distance was too small). Had to be returned, of course, but she'd fallen in love with it, especially with the little skirt. So I had to sew her one that actually fit her. Grumbling slightly, I will confess. My job on planet Earth, I kept thinking, was surely not to sew things I could buy in stores. It's just ridiculous. 

Even more ridiculous was that I thought this was a fast project (i.e. 2-3 hours). That skirt! It was not a rectangle, origami-folded into a flouncy little tutu. It was a pleated bias-cut arc, meaning it had to be drafted, with all its funny pointy and curved seam allowances drawn into the pleats.

That was not the difficult part, though. What made me mutter was that I was working with a silly little piece of scrap lycra 15" wide. We bought it for $2 from the bargain bin, to make swim shorts last summer and I figured I could make it work. Pschfft. Anyway, that innocuous little skirt was constructed from four pieces of fabric joined in the valley of the pleats so you can't see the seams. And the print doesn't meet at the sides, because there was no fabric to play with. That drives me crazy, but it was my punishment for being a cheapskate. 

Anyway, to make this swimsuit, I didn't use a pattern or anybody's tutorial I could link you to. Instead, I studied all the swimsuits in the house to figure out if there were standard ways to line a swimsuit and do the binding on the various edges. Yes- the armscyes and necklines were wrapped, with swimwear elastic sewn in, and the leg openings were self-bound. I don't own a coverstitch machine, so I used my twin needle (regular, not stretch), but I'd sooner have used a regular needle and done two rows of straight stitching. I really don't like the finish of twin needles, especially where a coverstitch is needed. It's crude. I should've just folded in the hem and done it the usual, proper, non-cheating way.  

For the straps, though, the twin needle did a nice job.

Speaking of straps, I threw my brain out the window and stretched them wrong while I sewed. So one of the straps is great, and the other one is curly like a pig's tail. You can see them in the photo of the swimsuit on the ground. When Emily wears it, it's all stretched out and smooth and perfect, but it sure looks funny on the hanger. 

She doesn't care, though. It was one of the few things I've made for her that she didn't want to take off after a fitting. 

Jenna came and asked for her own custom-order swimsuit when she saw me making Emily's. Poor kid - I had to turn her down on grounds that she already has two swimsuits that are gorgeous and fit her. To make up for it, we baked cupcakes today. Actually, my ulterior motive was to avoid sewing. Hee!

Well, back to the sewing machine, folks. More strange, seasonally-wrong clothes coming up as I finish them and photograph them. I am also making a bizarre packing list that includes sunblock, flip-flops and sunglasses, while dressed in cardigans and looking out the window at this white stuff falling from the sky. Spaghetti straps and snow - oh, my head hurts.

The Surplus Sticker Upcycling Project

Welcome, everyone, to another fabric-less, unsewing project! Want to know what's keeping the kids occupied while I'm sewing? Read on!

This post is actually about old coloring books. I'm curious - do you have coloring books in your house? We have about a hundred. The girls get them for gifts and they will color in them for a short while and then give up in favor of those bookmark coloring sheets I draw for them. Since that first set, I've done three other, entirely new sets for them, and they still want more. I'm thinking I need to draw up Set #5 for the 22-hour airplane ride to Singapore.

Now, some of these coloring books came with pages and pages of rather nice stickers, which were hardly used. So whenever I cull our coloring book collection, I rip the sticker pages out of the filled books before tossing them. But what to do with hundreds of these character stickers? 

Turn them into something useful, that's what.

I ordered some plain envelopes

and bought some cardstock (both Michaels and JoAnn were having a 50% off sale this past week). This whole stack was $10.

This got cut and folded into cards.

Then I invited the girls to make sets of greeting cards (or, more precisely, they descended upon me while I was still cutting out the cards and started grabbing). The only rule was that they had to be in sets.

Here are some sets the girls made:

Busytown for the less pink-and-princess-inclined:

And here are some sets with peekaboo windows. Kate, especially, loved the windows, and collecting the circles that fell out. 

This is a set I made - how fortuitous that not ALL the stickers were blatant character ones.

Then we stacked them with envelopes and tied them with pretty ribbon.

The plan is to give them away to friends - possibly for Valentine's Day. We might tuck a pretty pen into each package if we can find some. 

The kids absolutely loved this activity and I was actually surprised at its staying power - they made cards for four days straight. I left out the supplies and they helped themselves whenever they felt like working on a new set of cards. Jenna, our five-year-old who adores organizing and sorting, spent hours choosing stickers and cards colors and creating her different groups. In fact, she loved one particular set so much that she extracted it from the gift pile, deciding instead to write in the cards herself to give to friends. Who would've thought something so simple could keep them occupied long enough for me to sew clothes?


When we get tired of making our card sets, we might make some card kits to give away - blank cards plus stickers - so other kids can enjoy the DIY aspect of this, too.

When the picture below was taken, we'd only made our first batch. As of today, there are 25 sets (and counting). The girls are planning to make more sets again today after tea!