To summarise what I've been up to:
Mostly finished, as best I can, Dez's cloak. I do need to fold over the neck and stitch it down so it's not just a raw zig zagged edge.
Had many major screaming fits at the sewing machine. Only after days of frustration, late nights and giving up (repeatedly) did I notice the thread had jumped of the uppy downy bit of the sewing machine. Also I had loosened the tension on the bobbin when I should have tightened it. But hell, I can't even comprehend getting the tension right on my $10 sewing machine so why should I care
Whipped up 2 very basic under dresses/ shift type things out of some white fabric I had.
Big chat to Art about the disaster that is my sleeves on the blue dress of disasters. She suggested I hadn't rotated them enough when attaching them. So I unpicked the hours of hand stitching I had used to attach them :( and tacked them on rotated. They sit better now but I still have minimal movement. I tried moving them up so there's less curve in the top of the shoulder (another of Art's fab suggestions) and tried letting the back of the dress out a bit. I can't let it out too much in some parts as I've already cut away some of the seam allowance (as I'd stitched it all down nicely believing that was a smart plan). Plus if I let it out too much it won't hold my boobs up.
So tonight, after some fiddling, I gave up and took the damn things off. I can't do sleeves. Well, I can't do fitted sleeves. So I will make some over sleeves (essentially big trapazoids) and pin them on instead of having sewn on sleeves. It'll do plus this picture seems to suggest I'm allowed to.
I have also been making Baldrics for Cairnfell which are mostly finished. I learned how to have a crisp ironed fold in fabric (so as not to lose width when a tube is turned inside out and ironed flat) which was good. cheated somewhat on the badges. I printed up some transparencies of the Canton's device and Rich cut them out quite well. Rosie and I stenciled the design on to the badges, Rosie was far more patient and attentive to this than I was and some of mine had blotchy roots (well when you're painting trees with fiddly roots who really cares if their perfect right? Plus I used Vleisofex (?) to iron them on instead of stitching them. If people want them stitched, they can do it themselves. I have vague plans of couching the edges of my one... may while at Festival...
But sadly tonight I have come to remember how much I dislike sewing. How impatient I am with my lack of skill and how difficult this whole sewing thing is. I think I need to not sew impressive things when I can't go over to someone's house and say "Oh god what have I done, why am I so stupid?'
And don't say I'm not stupid. Tonight (on a fabric pattern thankfully) I started cutting out the over sleeve without any seam allowance.
I have also had the stupid idea (oh yea, it is stupid) to make myself an outfit to match Dez on the field for his Combat of the Thirty entry. I'm only planning to make a red surcoat and pop on a white badge with his black eagle on it, but I plan to do this in time for Festival? MAD!
Oh and the other things I was planning to do before Festival? Paint him a banner, bought the silk paint at spotlight yesterday... already have the silk... yeah, we'll see how that goes...
Also, I forgot to mention in my last post some other plans/ goals. I'm going to give Oil Painting a go. I think I would be more adept at painting as I have done much painting in the past. Plus Mum's an oil painter so I plan to visit and go through all the 'what I need to know's' of it all. And if I get my shit together I'll have a drawing or at least a sketch of my planned painting to go over with her. I want to make it a Flemish painting (as they're mainly in oil and is very appropriate) so I've told Miss D that she will be my subject, I just have to get a good pic of her in her Hollandish outfits to work off. I'm quite excited about that project, I just have to start it. It will be a long project I'm sure.
Oh well, time for bed... perhaps sewing should be put off to days and nights when I'm not working in the morning. Or maybe I just shouldn't sew at night after working all day... yeah, I might be on to something there.
6 comments:
I think that we need to mark up all your patterns in cardboard with seam allowance set down and blame myself for not doing so before you were taken down the horrid path that led to monoboobdom. I keep forgetting the mistakes I used to make all the time (now I have a whole new set), but they're the same ones you're doing now, so you're definitely not an idiot, you're a reasonable person making reasonable mistakes.
On the upside, frock looks great! And yes, there are no-sleeve pinned on versions seen in paintings not depitcing just Mary Magdalene. Bring some patterning fabric to Festival and we'll fit those buggers there. I suspect it's a sleeve head kerfuffle and blame myself for mot being more available/help.
Eep, portrait, must go gym and have facial a lot ...
Miss you, see you very soon@
Oh dear, not a good evening by the sounds of it. I think limiting sewing to times when you are fresh is a good idea (she says, carefully hiding the pouch onto which she plans to sew event tokens during her lunch break). I think the over sleeve plan is a good one. My other thought was to insert a wedge of fabric at the top of the curve of the sleeve to give a bit of extra room. I'll email you a sketch. Don't know if it will work, but might be worth a go if it's relegated to scraps anyway. Hang in there, when Festival starts this will all be a distant memory ;)
I feel your sleeve pain. I think everyone goes through a period of being unable to get sleeves to work.
Mine was the great cotehardie sleeve drama of 2002. Inside out, back to front, upside down, I think I managed to do every single permutation before getting them right. There were tears (both the saline dripping from eyes kind and the rips in fabric from being unpicked and re-sewn too many times).
If it is any consolation, Eadie came over on Sunday to do her watch coat sleeves and had every kind of drama with them. The lining didn't match the outer, so we had to get the pattern piece out to figure out what was wrong.
Then she had two left sleeves. Unpicked the outer of one of them, then forgot to do the lining, so unpick the lining. Somehow in sewing it all up again, she sewed them the same way as before so we still had two left sleeves. Much pouting, stomping and "why won't these work? I don't understand!". Brought in Blayney at that point to unpick and reassemble sleeve. Finally got both a left and a right sleeve. Pinned sleeves to coat, all good, though only narrowly avoided a full tanty.
If all else fails, Roman has no sleeves.
I do try to pin things together, put them on with pins on inside, *then* sew them together, just to be sure. Sometimes they are too tight and I can't move my arm to unpin myself and have to ask Sam to extract me! Usually he is in the middle of cooking dinner, so you can imagine how happy he is to oblige... But even then I still stuff things up. It's nice to know everyone has similar issues.
The most frustrating thing is I made patterns, pinned them on (one was different to the other, wierd shoulders me thinx) and they were fine pinned on. I don't know what I did to them between pattern (with included seam allowance) and dress fabric to stuff them up so bad!
I may add panels for more space and stuff but I think I'll fiddle with them after Festival.
I know I'm a bit further than just round the corner, but you CAN bring these problems to me for help. I think I had most of this stuff sorted by the time you were born:) Yes I have been sewing that long :(
eleanora.
Post a Comment