Alterations- Introduction

Welcome to the first (of a very small number of) parts of the Alterations Miniseries!

Before I show you the Ugly Clothes, we must first plough through the mandatory rambling introduction, so bear with me. To begin, I feel obliged to do a bit of marketing - why do we want to learn about altering clothes at all? Here are some reasons:

• You don't sew your own clothes; you buy them, and you still haven't found a store that sells clothes cut to fit your body shape or type.
• You're cursed to forever be between sizes, or you're one size in the waist and another size in the bust. That would put you in about 99% of the general female population - the other 1% are the plaster mannequins.
• You have an unusual body shape - it could be the result of a disability, or extraordinary posture or natural asymmetry of the body, or any cause, really.
• You live in a country whose prevailing sizing charts do not include your dimensions. I'm serious - I have so many adult friends from Singapore who shop in the children's department in the US when they visit because the smallest adult clothes here don't fit them. Before I had kids, I used to wear size 14 in kids' clothes, but now, three children later, I happily shop in the grown-up aisles. Which is lovely, because I was beginning to feel very self-conscious wearing giant children's overalls from Old Navy.
• You own some garments to which you attach sentimental value, or monetary value, that no longer fit, but you still want them to. Or which belonged to someone else that you want to wear. Like your mother's wedding gown, or a prom dress that has a great price tag on it but needs a few tucks in the waist.

and on it goes. 

And now that we've armed ourselves with our seam rippers and dressmaker's shears and are ready to charge through our closets of forgotten clothes, with the battle cry, "Bring Them On!" gurgling in our throats, I'd like to say what this little series is NOT about:

• I will NOT be trying to take the place of real, practiced, experienced alterations tailors. These folks see hundreds of body shapes and thousands of garments, in all sorts of combinations, on a regular basis. Everything I know about altering clothes I've only learned from sewing clothes myself (the duds as well as the hits).
• I will NOT be discussing repairs and mending. This means I will not be covering things like replacing buttons, removing and reinstalling zippers that broke, darning holes in fabric, repairing seams that split etc.
• I will also NOT be discussing how to sew clothes that fit better. The aim of altering a garment to fit is, ostensibly to er... get it to fit better, and in the course of post-morteming some of my more hideous outfits, we will talk about fit. But the main point won't be the sewing. So please don't be disappointed if, while discussing hemming a skirt or trouser leg, I DON'T show you photos of actual hemming processes. There are already many, many tutorials on the internet on how to do this, and we'd like their authors to have the credit for the work they've done there.
• I will NOT attempt to impress you with the nomenclature of Adjustments - you know, terms like FBA and other 'official' deviations from the industry standards for commercial patterns (all illusions, anyway). I don't know what they are because I read all the wrong books and, if I did recognize them by sight, I probably have different names for them in my strange and old-fashioned sewing world. Again, we are doing alterations, not adjustments. There are clearly similarities, but we're working with completed garments and we're just using the common-sense (and common-sight) approach. 
• I will NOT be upcycling, refashioning or recycling. The Ugly Clothes we're altering will stay exactly the same garments they were, except hopefully better-fitting and less ugly. 
• I will NOT be trying to sell you the idea that any garment can have a second life as a better-fitting one. Some of them truly are easy to alter and some of them are really not worth the time or the money you paid for those garments in the first place. I love saving money as much as the next person, but alteration is not about being frugal, or salvaging every piece of clothing in one's closet.

All the nays aside, what IS this miniseries about, then? It is about

• some of the different kinds of alterations that can be made on different parts of a garment.
• what makes some of these alterations "simple" while others, not.
• where on these garments to make the alteration(s).

Now, at the end of this miniseries, you might discover that

1. it is entirely possible to make any alteration on any garment, depending on how willing you are to do the work. I say that any alteration is possible because that garment was sewn by someone from scratch, and therefore can be, if necessary, taken apart in reverse sequence, down to its individual elements again and reconstructed. This includes letting out a too-small garment that has NO extra seam allowance and has to have more fabric grafted in somewhere to make it bigger. If a person is willing to do this, and to live with the possibly unmatching, patchwork-esque, imperfect look of the new old garment, it can be done.
2. however, in most, if not all, cases of alterations, the job is more involved, more time-consuming, and more fiddly than it initially appears to be. Something that you estimate should take you no longer than half an hour usually sets you back a day or two after more careful analysis. If you are lucky, you will realize this before actually having decimated the seams with your seam ripper and thus still possess the option to donate the garment, whole, to Goodwill. Many of us, though, will cut open the blind hem, separate the facing from the waistband or peel back the flat fell seam, only to discover more layers (literally and figuratively) of intricate and bloodletting work beneath. It's like opening a can of worms! I've been there, and kicked myself in the backside, and felt the blood drain from my face in those moments, so you're in good company.

So just because it can be done doesn't mean it should be done, see? And part of being a good seamstress/alter-er, is knowing how to tell the difference and perhaps not wasting your time and effort on the duds. Remember, there are other paths to a new life available to your sad garment:

• It can be donated to a thrift store and be worn by another person whom it might fit like a glove.
• It can be recycled - cut up and the fabric used for another garment, sewn from scratch.
• It can be refashioned - turned into another garment that naturally fits and looks better.
• It can be thrown away. OK, that's not a new life, but maybe - hey! put that seam ripper down now... gently, gently.... we don't one anyone to get hurt - that's what it takes to get you yours back.

And on that ominous note, let's begin! See you here tomorrow for the first chapter- Tucks and Folds (or something like that)!

How Much Would You Pay?

Hello hello hello!

I am altering clothes. Everybody's clothes - the kids', the husband's, even mine. This week has been declared "Not Allowed To Sew Anything New Until Those Unfitting Clothes Are Altered" Week. Someday in the future, when I finally host a sewalong, it will be all about exhuming those poorly-fitting garments and giving them some serious self-esteem.

Which clothes, you ask? Are these the clothes from my pre-baby years that I foolishly want to wear today that I'm letting out? Heavens, no. Those are actually the fashionable, expensive clothes that I wouldn't dream of taking my seam ripper to. No, I'd much rather save them for Emily/Jenna/Kate or someone who would wear them, unviolated, sometime in the future.

I'm talking about clothes I bought recently (as in the last year) that fit poorly, just because. Like

• All of Emily's store bought pants - good length, very roomy waist
• Some of my long-sleeved Tshirts - comfortable around the chest, hideous in the shoulder and armscye
• Husband's shirts that are the right "size" but were actually cut too big (actual words of confession by the Land's End staff when I gently confronted them)
• Jeans that were sweeping the floor etc.

So I thought, since I'm going to do the dirty work anyway, I might as well turn it into a mini-series of sorts, and show you how I alter clothes. Also because I remembered that some months ago, some of you asked if I would do this. Well, so I am. Look out for it:

I'm not promising, but I have on my sewing table, alteration tasks from simple trouser hem jobs to the nastier armscye shaping sort that my nightmares are made of. I will share them all with you, weather permitting (we blame the weather a lot in Minnesota).

What's with the title, then?

Well, I know so many people who bring their entire wardrobes in to shops that do alterations and they all, in one accord, bemoan the prices they had to pay for the jobs done on their clothes. Have you heard the same? Or said the same? Want to know what I think? I think those alteration tailors might actually be undercharging their clients. Yes, I do. Don't agree? Follow along with me and decide for yourself. 

Spread the word and hold me accountable, friends: I have a table full of unwearable clothes that need a new lease on life. 

Experimenting with Fall Colors

I am going to make a new bag soon. Not for me or anyone in particular, but just because I like making new bags. Doubtless, this will eventually become a problem when I have so many new bags and nowhere to store them and no one to give them to. I could sell them, I suppose. It's like a curse to love making bags but not actually enjoy using them yourself. 

I bought this striped fabric from Ikea last month and love its texture. I also like those fall-ish colors together - rose, tangerine and ochre with that sable-ish beige. I put in a pink lining because it sort of coordinated, but I have my doubts that pink counts as fall-ish.

Love the piping, though.

This little pouch is off in the post to someone, but it was also an experiment with this striped fabric to see how I could coordinate some other solids and checks with it. The actual bag I make will be lined, but unlike this one, I want a solid lining. Also the bag will have piping but it won't be chunky like this pouch's so I can't use the gingham for it. Two questions: if you had to pick a solid color (each) for

1. the piping 
2. the lining

what color(s) should they be?




P.S. Haven't forgotten about the birthday party I'm supposed to share. I blame my right hand - it staunchly refuses to click the mouse on the photo-editing software widget thingy. Disobedient twit. By end of the month - promise!

Ummm.

Two months after mum and I drafted my raglan sleeve block, I finally turned it into fabric. Specifically, random fabric lying around in the sewing cupboard that I didn't mind "using up" as a muslin. And what a professional-looking muslin it is!

So what is wrong with this picture?

Answer:

1. It's pink.
2. It's sort of translucent, which is why it's folded a la men's shirts, not modeled by a real human being.
3. The "white" neckline ribbing does not match the other white bits
4. All of the above.

Fits great, better than anything I've bought in a store. And so, so soft and comfortable. And even I am satisfied with the workmanship on this one. But will I ever wear it out? Maybe under several opaque layers of winter outerwear. Or as PJs. Or -hey! - I'll palm it off on Fleur!

Ah well. At least I've finished it. On to new unfinished projects now!

Hoodie

Finished Emily's hoodie late Monday night/early Tuesday morning. I didn't really mean to stay up till 2 am, but the momentum plus the post-bedtime peace were like heady wine that dulled my better judgement. I told myself, "I'll just sew the sleeves to the lining and then go to bed." Then, "Well, now that I've got the sleeves on, what's another five (snort!) minutes to sew up the side seams?" And before I knew it, it was "What - only the sleeve cuffs left? I should just put those out of their misery right now!"

It only took me about 5 CDs - time is measured in different units in my  sewing room - to make it: one CD to make the pattern and cut out the fabric, half a CD to do the pockets, and three and a half CDs to sew it up.

Let me tell you about the pattern, though - because, for once, I didn't make it from Emily's sloper (now slightly out of date). Emily has one store-bought hoodie that she's dangerously close to outgrowing by the end of this fall and I decided that, since it fits her now, it would be a great shortcut pattern to adapt. The sloper method was going to give her a better fit, of course, but I rationalized that we were making a baggy sweatshirty thing. And Emily was going to be wearing it over another layer of inner clothes, and have an inside lining layer besides, meaning that either I re-measure her in her inner clothes or just work with her old hoodie and alter that to accommodate growth and inner bulk. So I had Emily put on her old hoodie, and I scrutinized it, making mental notes like

• Hood and neckline-good - keep as is
• Lose the ribbed sleeve cuffs and hip band
• Hip- 1" lower and 1/4" wider at each side seam
• Armscyes and sleeves - oh dear. Oh dear.

How are commercial armscyes and sleeves drafted, honestly? I mean, which particular sub-culture of the human race are they designed to fit? I understand the difficulty in getting a nicely-fitting woman's armscye in a commercial pattern, given the wide variation in adult women's bodies, but children? From what I've seen of the armscyes and sleeves of so many store-bought kids' clothes, I can't help but envision a strange race of small people with sagging armpits, conical biceps and almost-horizontal shoulders. Sad.

Anyway, I traced around Emily's old hoodie and made my alterations, checking it against the vital points of her sloper - the neckline, the shoulder slope, the armscye etc. Then I cut out the outer fabric and made a muslin. 

I used the longest stitch length my machine had to offer, so I could pull everything apart after the fitting and re-sew the pieces properly.

I used regular fleece from JoAnn for the outer later. This was the fleece that was supposed to be a fall coat in 2010 but got rejected in favor of superior polartec fleece bought in 2011. As a fall coat it would've been floppy and useless, but as a hoodie, it was perfect. I lined the hoodie with knit. The overall result: very soft, slightly stretchy and more robust (and warm) than regular sweatshirt fabric.

Making hoodies is very easy, if the speed at which the muslin came together is any indication. Adding a lining and hiding all the seam allowances between the layers made it quite a bit more interesting. I didn't need to serge or bias-tape anything; I just left an opening in the lining of the hood and turned everything right side out through it, then stitched that opening shut. So, in theory, had I used a reversible zipper, this would have been a reversible hoodie. 

If you can find a commercial pattern for a fully-lined hoodie, it should offer this method for putting it together, so I'm not going to do a tutorial. I will, instead, just give you the construction sequence, sans photos:

Step 1

Separate the zipper and sew it to both the lining and the outer fabric (front bodice pieces) simultaneously, so that the two layers of the hoodie are attached at the zipper. Do this for both sides of the front bodice pieces.

Step 2

Working separately with the lining and outer fabric layers, add the back bodice pieces i.e. attach them to their respective front bodice pieces at the shoulder seams. So you'll now have two separate sort-of-flapping vests, joined to each other at the zipper.

Step 3

Again working separately with the lining and outer fabric layers, sew the side seams together to form a complete vest, and attach the sleeves. Or attach the sleeves first, and then sew the side seams together all the way from the wrist, through the armpit and to the hip. Either way, you will now have two complete sleeved bodices, separate but joined to each other at the zipper. They will have open wrists, open necklines and open bottom hems.

Step 4

With the entire garment inside out, sew the bottom edge shut from one side of the zipper to the other, going around the back, attaching the lining to the outer fabric layer. Now only the wrists and necklines are open.

Step 5

Sew the center back seam of the outer fabric hood pieces together to make a complete hood. Repeat separately for the hood lining, but leave an opening in this seam big enough to turn the entire garment out through it later. 

Step 6

Turn the entire garment right side out and baste the two layers of necklines together. Turn the hood pieces upside down so that their lower edges (not the edge that frames the face) is lined up with the neckline of the garment and

• The right side of the outer fabric hood is touching the right side of the garment (but the hood is upside down)
• The right side of the hood lining is touching the right side of the garment lining (but the hood lining is upsides down too)

You will now have a hood sandwich - with the two-layered neckline between the lower edges of the hood layers. If you are familiar with attaching collars to shirts, this is exactly the same thing, except the hood is much bigger.

Step 7

Sew along the neckline to attach the hood layers to the neckline layers between them. When you get to the point where the top of the zipper joins the hood, turn the corner and sew along the edges of the hood that frame the face (let's call this the hood opening). You will have to ball up the rest of the garment and shove it in between the hood layers, so the entire garment is now stuffed into the hood, turning it into a fat bundle. Sew all around the hood opening, attaching both layers of the hood to each other.

Step 8

Turn the entire garment out through the opening in the hood lining. Sew up the opening and top-stitch wherever you'd like the layers to lie flat together, like around the base of the hood, the opening of the hood, the bottom hem of the garment, and along the sides of the zipper.

With the natural bulk of the fleece, the stretchy knit and the multiple layers, expect the seams to be thick, the result of which is that your top-stitching might be imperfect, especially in the zipper area where the pockets are. It's not the end of the world.


Step 9 

Tuck in the seam allowances of the wrists and sew around the wrist opening, attaching (for each sleeve) the outer fabric layer to the lining.

I wanted the sleeves to have the option of a turn-up cuff so I left the wrists simple. 

I've left out the pocket bits, because they are not essential to the construction of a basic hoodie. You can find a tutorial for the kangaroo pockets here. I edged the pocket (also lined completely with that knit fabric) using the method from here.

So, in theory, it is possible to make almost any garment reversible. And, therefore, it is also completely possible to sew clothes without a serger!

Monday Morning Mumblings

Party over!

I would blog about it except 

• I can't be bothered to edit the photos
• I've just been to the Home Depot to pester the staff for my next project
• We have another little girl's birthday party to attend this weekend, who has asked for a homemade Rapunzel wig.
• The children all have to be chauffeured to and from school today
• The temperature will go from 90 the past week to 50's this week, and I think Emily might need a hoodie
• Which I sewed the first layer of last night so I could force her to do a fitting before school this morning
• So that I can finish lining it while she's in school
• So that she can wear it when the freeze comes.

And the husband just reminded me that Jenna's birthday is in six weeks. Really? November is in the same year as September?

Since we are on the topic of celebrating, I think I may only have one (none, if I play my cards right) Halloween costume this year to make. Emily announced she wants to be "a vet" and only needs a lab coat. Jenna is going to be Rapunzel. Now if can convince Kate that she should wear one of our million fleece princess dresses, I might actually be able to sew the girls fall/winter coats! I've just inherited a stack of beautiful wool! Given! Free! Printless! 

Brown Paper Packages

It's birthday party time!

This Saturday. 

Outdoors. 

Thirteen children. 

It's a paper and cardboard event (is there any other kind?).

Come join us behind the scenes soon!