If It Turns Out Right, It's Not Wrong

My mother taught me how to sew on a button when I was seven years old. Other than that I didn't really receive any sewing instructions from her. She told me that she had taught herself to sew. That was the way she learned best - on her own, without anyone looking over her shoulder. I suppose if I had asked how to do something she would have tried to show me but I never did. I always just assumed that one day I would simply start sewing and that's exactly how it happened.

Everything I knew about sewing before I started reading sewing blogs, I learned from watching my mom, from reading the instructions that come with patterns, and just experimenting. But I learned on the Internet that I've been doing some things wrong. For example, I had never heard of such a thing as "making a muslin". The closest I've ever come to that was using cheap fabric the first time I used a complicated-looking pattern but always with the intention of making something that I would wear. But generally, I don't even do that. I have always just plunged right in with the good fabric that I love. I never had a problem doing it that way but in the past decade or so I've started to be more careful because as I've gotten older some parts of me have expanded more than other parts which makes getting a good fit a little more complicated than it used to be.

On the other hand, there are some things I do that I thought were my own invention, and felt quite clever about, until I started reading sewing blogs and found out that nearly everyone else does that too. Still, I feel shy about showing how I do things. I imagine people out there thinking, "That is so wrong! That is so stupid! She doesn't know how to do it right," with superior smirks on their faces. Because we never really get over childhood peer pressure do we?

So that's why my tag line says "successfully doing it wrong since the 1970s". Because I do it "wrong" sometimes and "wrong" works for me, so it's not wrong.

My Style

I often half-joke, "I don't have a style; I just wear whatever I like." I don't really think about having a "style." Defining a style and consciously sticking to it seems too limiting. So my style, if I have one, is unplanned and I like it that way. But I saw this idea on Not Dead Yet Style and I thought it might be a fun exercise, even though it won't change anything for me. It is simply to list my "likes" and "dislikes." I am going to change that a bit and frame them as "Me" and "Not Me" instead because the things I avoid are not only the things I don't like but also, in some cases, things I do like but that just don't work for me. So anyway, here we go.

Me
Girly
A bit retro (but not always)
Cottons
Florals and novelty prints
Wide variety of colors
Fitted tops/bodices
Moderately full or A-line skirts
Lace trim and rick-rack

Not Me
Menswear look
Pencil skirts
Excessively full skirts
High-low hems
Cluttered or mixed-up look

As you can see I have more in the Me list than in the Not Me. I'm sure that if I thought about it more, and wanted to go into more detail, I could come up with more for both lists but that's enough for a general overview of my style.

I am interested in seeing your Me and Not Me or Likes and Dislikes. If you would like to join the fun, post your lists on your blog and post a link in the comments or, if you don't have a blog just post your lists in the comments. I look forward to reading about your style.

UPDATE: I see that URLs don't show up as links in the comments so I'm going to post them here for your convenience.

Living in Color

Just Site Notes

Small Blogger problem - actually small but sort of huge to me: When I upload photos to Blogger they appear on my phone. (WTF, Google? I thought you said you weren't evil.) This is a problem because when the extended family gets together and we're all passing around our phones showing off pictures of kids and pets I don't want to have to explain why I have so many pictures of myself on my phone so I'm going to use Flickr for most of the photos on this blog until I figure this out. (And yes, they all know I have a blog (though they might not know about this one yet) but most of them wouldn't read it if I bribed them with money.)

Since I started this blog I have had absolutely NO spam comments so I'm wondering if I really need to moderate comments, but at the same time I'm a little worried the spammers will suddenly come out of the woodwork by the thousands if I open up comments. But I might try it. For a little bit. Maybe.

Also, I still have a lot more links to add, not only blogs but a few of my favorite stores too. I was going to say that it might take me a long time to get around to that but it's been my experience that a blogroll or links list is never really finished.

Old Friend, New Friend

I inherited my maternal grandmother's treadle sewing machine when I was 18. I had done a little sewing but this is what really kick-started my sewing life. It never occurred to me to keep it just as an antique sitting in a corner, something to set plants on, or turn it into a desk or something. (sacrilege!) It's a sewing machine! Besides that, I always liked the idea of being different, of doing something almost no one else does.

It's not pretty. It was already old and beat-up-looking when I was a small child but it sews like a dream. I have sewn everything on it from the most delicate fabrics to some really heavyweight stuff and the things it can't do, like buttonholes, I learned to do by hand. I am, frankly, quite proud of it and what it can do. I have never felt limited by it at all.

In all these years I have never had any desire to have a modern electric machine. Until recently. A couple of things caused me to change my mind. Last fall I was doing a blanket stitch to finish the seams on a pair of jeans. It's a fun stitch; I always enjoy it, but, for the first time, I started thinking, "I could get this done faster if I had a modern sewing machine."

Another thing that happened is that I got older. (Wait! Really?) When you're in your 20s and you use a treadle sewing machine, exclusively, you might be cool and a bit of a rebel, but when you're 50+ (No! That can't be right! I demand a re-count!) and you use a treadle machine, exclusively, you're just an old woman who can't handle modern technology. So I hinted that I might like a new sewing machine for Christmas and I got this one:

I like it. It has lots of nice specialty stitches, most of which I will probably never use, and it's almost as easy to use as the treadle machine. My original intention was to just use it for things like finishing seams and buttonholes but I have made one "outfit" (a set of knit pajamas) on it and I think I might always make knit garments entirely on this machine. The old machine sews knits just fine but it's nice to be able to finish the seams neatly. I tried using it once to make buttonholes. I think I will probably continue to make buttonholes by hand.

I will continue to use the old machine most of the time. I'm in the middle of making a shirt on it now. But it's nice to have the new one for certain things.

Summer in January, Jungle January That Is

UPDATE: OMG! How rude of me. I forgot to include a link to Anne, lovely and witty hostess of Jungle January. Sorry, call it a senior moment.

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Whew! I made it. I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't get this simple blouse finished and photographed by the end of January.

The fabric is from eQuilter. (sold out, apparently) This print is a perfect copy of the pelt of the famed, elusive peacock leopard of the jungles of the planet Kepler-442b. Go ahead and laugh. You'll feel silly for doubting me when NASA finally gets around to sending a probe and it sends back pictures of the beast. [ahem] Anyway...

Seriously, even though it was listed as a leopard print, to me it looks more like butterfly wings. Either way - fantasy cat or exotic butterfly - it belongs in the jungle.

(You can click the pictures to make them bigger. I'm still getting used to the new Blogger and I didn't know "medium" was so small.)

This is a "frankenpattern". Mostly it's New Look 6078 because I love the fit but I used New Look 6598 as a guide for changing the neckline and the front facing. The fit in the armhole and shoulder area is not quite right. This is the first time I've made this as a sleeveless top. Overall though, I love it and I'm going to wear it a lot when the weather warms up for more than just a couple of days.

I took this picture (tripod and self-timer) about an hour ago. It was nearly 70 degrees and it's getting warmer. This is typical January weather here in Oklahoma. Two days from now we're expecting freezing temps and snow which is also typical January weather in Oklahoma.

Welcome to my sewing blog

I have had a non-specific, whatever-happens-to-be-on-my-mind-today blog for over 12 years. I never saw any reason to start another but single topic blogs seem to be more popular these days and while I have no illusions that I will ever be popular I would love to attract the attention of other sewing bloggers. The sewing blogger community is by far the nicest of any online community, made up of the friendliest, kindest and most fun people all over the world and I would love to be part of it even if only in a very small way.

And why Blogger? Well, it has its limitations but it's free and you really can't complain about free. Mostly though, it's because it's as near to being permanent as anything on the Internet.

I'm going to start by copying some of the sewing posts from my other blog.* Hopefully I can make them appear below this post. Then, soon, I will start posting new stuff, though probably not every day. Maybe not even every week but I hope at least once every week or two. I have turned on comment moderation, even though I hate it, because Blogger doesn't provide any better way to deal with spammers. I can't promise I will check for comments every day but please comment and I will get around to approving your comment eventually.

And I will add a blogroll as soon as I can. I've been trying but Blogger keeps telling me "Please correct the errors in this form," but there ARE NO ERRORS.

*UPDATE: I started copying sewing posts from other blog starting with the oldest first, then I decided I wanted to copy the most recent first. Then I decided this is taking too darn long. But I will do it, and more importantly, new posts soon, I promise.

The Sentimental Brown Gingham Western Shirt

Oops. I was certain I was standing completely in the shade when I took these pictures. Oh well, this one isn't too bad. (Stop explaining and apologizing for bad photos, Lynn)

This might seem a bit strange and contradictory, given that I am highly attracted to bright colors and I often lament the fact that so many people are "afraid of color," but I actually do like brown. It might be at least partly because my mother said I look good in brown. It's not like she always dressed me in brown when I was little though. I have been picking out my own fabric since I was old enough to point. But anyway, I don't want to be always surrounded by it like in my dull brown living room but for clothes I like brown as well as all those crazy bright colors and sweet girly colors that I wear so much of the time.

I was in the little quilt shop in a nearby town and saw that they had some really nice quilting weight gingham in about a dozen or so colors, including this brown and I got an Idea! I don't usually wear anything western styled, not because I dislike it exactly, but more because I don't want to be mistaken for someone who is into the whole country and western sub-culture. Not that there's anything wrong with it; it's just not me. However, in developing one's own personal style it's useful to dip into various different cultures and styles... Oh screw it. I don't have a "personal style". I just get lots of different ideas and I make them and wear them.

To make this shirt I used the body of New Look 6078 because it fits really nicely (except for one part which I'll get to in a minute) and I like the curve of the hem - not too much, just right - and I used the sleeves, front band and collar from McCall's 4922 and I drafted the front and back yoke from scratch. (very simple, actually) I was a little worried that I would have a lot of trouble making the collar fit because it's a very different kind of collar from the one in the New Look pattern but it went together perfectly. In fact everything about it worked out beautifully. I'm really, extremely happy with the way it turned out. The only thing that is not quite perfect is that it's a wee bit snug around the hips. I could probably get an extra half inch if I picked apart the side seams and darts and re-sewed them but I'm not sure it's worth the trouble. It's not like the buttons are about to pop off or anything like that.

Here's the back view.

And a close-up of the buttons. I suppose an "authentic" western shirt would have snaps but I love these buttons and I wasn't trying to be authentic. I just now noticed, looking at the picture, that they are a little off center on the band. Dammit! I guess I should have made vertical buttonholes but horizontal ones are less likely to come unbuttoned if you accidentally make them slightly too big.

Plaid!

(I had a much more clever title for this post when I was thinking about it yesterday but I forgot what it was.)

I like plaid but I am a little bit afraid of it. I wasn't always but then I started reading sewing blogs and discovered that one is expected to match the plaid not only across the front but also the sleeves, at the side seems, and pretty much everywhere. It all seems so overwhelming now. This time I tried, I really did but I didn't account for the bust darts which make it pretty much impossible to match the sides and the sleeves. Oh well. My experience has been that nobody notices those details unless you point them out, and the sewing bloggers never read my blog anyway so why stress over it.

I have just one comfortable, casual long sleeved shirt made of lightweight cotton that is perfect for days when it's cool enough for long sleeves but still too warm for really warm clothes. I wear it a lot when the weather is like that so when Denver Fabrics had a sale on shirting I bought three pieces. This is the first one of those. I love this fabric, the colors and the texture. It has heavier threads running through it, sort of like in a "ripstop" fabric but at irregular intervals.

Just for fun I thought I would try a more animated pose than my usual and (unfortunately, perhaps) it turned out to be the best picture.

And here's a view of the back yoke.

This is another New Look 6963. My third and I still haven't used any of the sleeves that came in the pattern. (but I will) I love this pattern but there is one thing about it that I don't like: it has a back neck facing instead of a yoke lining. I made the first two with the facing but I made this one with a proper lined yoke. You can see the first one here. I haven't photographed the second one. This pattern has two different backs. The bug shirt has a pleated back. This one has darts that you can just barely see in the second photo.

She Who Hesitates Doesn't Get the Fabric

I have been looking for some stretch denim that is actually noticeably stretchy for ages. I found some black denim and made an amazingly comfortable (if not exactly fashionable) pair of jeans but no one ever has any faded blue stretch denim. But finally I found it! [rays of heavenly light, angels singing] Girl Charlee, which very helpfully gives the percent of stretch, had two nice stretch denims: one, a "light indigo blue" and the other one "antique indigo". I really wanted the antique indigo but I waited several hours trying to decide whether I wanted to get some of the light blue also or only the antique indigo. I decided to get only the antique indigo but when I went to order it they only had one yard left! (Oh the humanity!)

Naturally, I was devastated but I ordered some of the light indigo denim. I will keep checking. Maybe someday they will get some more? I have one big complaint against Girl Charlee. They are one of those online fabric retailers that only sell in whole yard increments. I am sure that this contributed to my not getting the fabric I wanted. How many of the people who ordered the antique denim had to order more than they actually wanted? 3 yards instead of 2 1/2 yards, for example. Perhaps there would have been enough left for me if other people hadn't been forced to buy more than they needed. I have learned my lesson though. Never hesitate to buy fabric.

Showing Off the Sewing, Worthy or Not

For a couple of weeks I was feeling uninspired and didn't know what I wanted to sew so I decided it would be a good time to sew something boring and practical: a denim skirt. I know you can't see the whole skirt - not a very good way to show it off - but in the pictures it looked a lot longer than it actually is so I cropped off the bottom of the picture. It's actually about mid-calf length. (I would rather have taken these outside because the flash does me no favors but the neighbors are putting a new roof on their house and I could just imagine them saying, "What's that crazy lady doing over there taking pictures of herself?") Anyway, here it is:

I made the blouse about three or four years ago. It's a Kwik Sew 3511. I never go tucked in because that emphasizes the granny gut. (which I've had all my life and I hate it now as much as ever but somehow it is a bit of a relief to be old enough to refer to it as a "granny gut") I really like the way the whole outfit looks.

Here's a detail pic. (The color of the denim is more accurate in the first picture.) I'm not happy with the buttons but I wanted to get it done and not go on a long frustrating search for "exactly the right buttons" so I just used a couple of leftover 5/8 inch shirt buttons I had, thinking, "I can always replace them with some nice ones later," but I probably won't bother.

And the pocket with the hidden opening. I'm always very afraid to show the insides of anything I sew. This is really a leap for me so be kind. (Yes, those are hand stitched buttonholes. Because I can. And it's fun.) (I did not make the quilt.)

And finally, a less "dressed up" look with the skirt and a top I made a couple of months ago. I didn't show off the top when I first made it because I felt like it was a FAIL. The fabric, a cotton/rayon blend knit, is sort of twisty and it made the hem uneven, but I sort of like it anyway.

I am now back in a sewing mood and want to make 10 things at once. I just finished a blouse this morning. It has long sleeves so I'm going to wait until the temperature drops a little before wearing/showing off that one. I am getting ready to start a rain poncho, which I will need soon. After that more long sleeved shirts, I think. I have some plaids that I am eager to get into.