Musings

So now that I've wrapped my first ever sew along, I have a few thoughts. Firstly, oh my gosh, wow, I can't believe how tedious sew alongs are!

Secondly, yay for other Pushing Daisies dresses! Shelley over at Cuckoo Chanel did an adorable Chuck dress. Here was her inspiration:

And here is her daisy sundress that I really want to make now! It's so perfect for spring and summer!

Let me know if you made one as well because I would love to see!

But, yes, this sewalong: tedious. I really had no idea. I love when other people do sew alongs because I enjoy watching other people's processes. Sometimes it's the same as mine, sometimes mine is better, and sometimes I learn A LOT from whoever posted. I don't feel like I'm an advanced enough sewer to really teach new and high quality techniques, but maybe they help someone who's less advanced than I am. And maybe someone out there can teach me something after I've posted something monstrous.

"You want me to do what now?"

Obviously sew alongs are tedious and slow because you have to stop and document every single step of the process and then blog about it. But it's more than just that, at least for me.

I have a slight confession: I don't always enjoy sewing. I get a backache when hunched over my machine after a few hours. At night, there's never enough light to see and my eyes strain. When I'm sewing something and the fabric catches causing a pucker, I get very angry. When the tension goes crazy, I see red (especially when I was newer and didn't realize machines needed to be cleaned - oops!).

RAWR

So because I don't always enjoy the process, I take short cuts. I hide mistakes rather than fixing them. I don't like to finish my seams - I say let them unravel!

This sew along has made me slow down. A lot. When I made a mistake, I would take the time to rip the seams out and start again. But as I was going through and redoing parts of my dress (and hating it), I stumbled across a blog that was discussing how clothes used to be made.

Clothes used to be higher quality, especially because they were made in the home, as opposed to being made by child slaves and then sold across the country for $5 a pop. The blog* mentioned how many vintage handmade clothing items were lined, and she mentioned how nice it would be if everything were lined in silk just because it would feel amazing against your skin. Every time you moved, it would be luxurious.

So luxurious you just want to fall asleep.

Now, as a sweater (e.g. someone who sweats excessively) and someone who lives in a ridiculously hot climate with no air conditioning in the summer, I'm not so sure I like the idea of everything being lined in silk. But it still made me think. If I want to have an entire wardrobe of mostly hand sewn things, of course I should focus on quality and not just the end result.

So my resolve for nicer things, along with the fact that I'm broadcasting my every stitch and I don't like the idea of pointing out mistakes (and how to hide them) made what should have been a simple project take weeks longer than planned.

"Weeks longer?! I'm exhausted already."

That said, I'm ready to dive into so many more projects, but I'm excited for one in particular and I may blog excessively about it at times. I'll have more info up soon, but it's going to be from another television show, and it's going to be from the 1960s. Like this one that tackled lace, I'm going to tackle another something that intrigues me, but also frightens me a bit: jackets. (And maybe it'll be ready in time for the fall!)

But first I need to finish my Mad Men dress! Thanks goodness the deadline is extended!

*Sorry, I can't find who wrote it or where! If this sounds like your posting or you know whose it is, please let me know so I can give credit.

Finished: Pushing Daisies Dress

I know you were terribly afraid I was going to update with yet another post on why you shouldn't use vintage patterns that resemble aliens, but worry not! 

With the neckline still looking vaguely Mormonish, I'm pleased to say that I'm finally finished with the Pushing Daisies dress! After fighting with it for what seemed like every step of the way, I'm generally really happy with how it turned out.

I do think I might take out the sleeves at some point just because it would make the dress a bit more versatile to wear in different seasons, but I'm not touching it any time soon. (Plus, it's much too cold to really venture out without tights, let alone sleeves!)

You can find the entire schedule here, in case you want to go back and see what I've documented to get here.

And of course it would be the Pushing Daisies dress if I didn't make some PIE!

For those unaware, the main male character, Ned, is a piemaker. He makes delicious and amazing looking pies in every episode. Chuck, the main female character, sneaks around and makes special pies for her aunts with gruyere baked into the crust.

I don't think I can say this with enough emphasis but WOW. The gruyere in the pie crust is the best decision anyone has ever made. Ever. I mean, yeah the apples and cinnamon and sugar is good and all, but I'd eat the freaking butter, flour, and gruyere all day long. 

Here's the recipe I used because I know you want to make one right away.

And now for your entertainment, I present a story in 3 parts.

Yay, I made a pie.

I am going to eat this pie right now.

Hehehe I have pie.

Fin.

(For those unawares, the bf and I don't have a weird no touching policy, it's from the show.)

Edit: Boyfriend finally tasted the pie and our conversation went something like this.

Me: What did you think?

Bf: It was awesome, of course.

Me: But what did you think of the gruyere? You could tell when you bit into it, right?

Bf: You mean the lapdance happening in my mouth? Yeah, I could tell.

Hopefully my last PD update!

I don't want to jinx myself, but I just might have this dress finished by the weekend.
I know I said that already, but then... there were problems. I mentioned briefly that the shoulders were too long, the bodice needed to come in, the arms were too tight, and I don't think I mentioned this, but something had to be done with the waist as well.

I spent a whole evening unpicking all my beautiful facing and french seams because so much of it needed to be tweaked. I spent the next few evenings with my boyfriend who has been feeling terribly neglected.

Last night he unexpectedly had to work late so I grabbed my scissors and started hacking away.

Wait, I think I'm getting ahead of myself.

So Monday or Tuesday, when I thought I was almost done, I slipped the dress on and realized it needed a lot more work. A casual glance down at myself made me feel like I had time traveled from Kansas in the 1980s. I was only missing my 10 children in matching adorable, but dirt stained clothing.

I put my petticoat on underneath, hoping that would make it somewhat more presentable, but all it did was make me look like I had gained 50 pounds.

I tried to document the mess I had made. Really, I did. I posed and everything, but when I checked the memory card somehow they turned out decent. "No, no, this won't work," I said, handing the camera back to my boyfriend. I tried again, but in much worse poses. AND MY BOYFRIEND REFUSED TO TAKE THE PICTURES!

I had to stop and explain that I knew they looked bad. That was the point. He frowned and said, "I'm not going to take bad pictures of you so you can feel bad about yourself. And anyway, what kind of photographer would I be taking bad pictures?"

I suppose it's sweet, but clearly he just doesn't understand. Anyway, I was going to load the decent pictures anyway and try to explain how awful they were because somehow they turned out decent, but the bf took the camera to work and I don't have the patience to wait to update until tonight.

So you get internet pictures instead.

I kind of thought I looked like an extra from Big Love, but it turns out the fundamentalist Mormons are much more fashionable that I am.

Look at those pin tucks! Those collars! The adorable buttons!

I don't have the skills for that.

These are much more similar:

Via

Via

Don't get me wrong. If you're going for the prairie look, these are awesome. But when you're going for something a little sleeker, a little more modern, it can be a problem. 

Remember the original? Yeah, not even close. 

Luckily it wasn't a hard fix. I grabbed my scissors and chopped and snipped and then started adding (or increasing) darts. I hacked the neckline a bit and snipped off some more bodice. Now it's looking amazing! 

I just need to add the sleeves (again) and hem it and I'll be done! Unless something else goes tragically wrong...

Ha yesterday I was looking at close up views of my red lace dress and my heart dropped for a bit when I realized her skirt was pleated and not gathered. I started panicking. Should I undo my gathers? Should I pleat??

Then I mentally slapped myself and decided I was going to only make necessary revisions to the dress so I could be finished this week because god help me if something else goes wrong.

But still thinking positively! So yes, here's my ridiculous shot of me looking oh so cool.

In the home stretch! Again!

Pushing Daisies Sew Along Update: One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

I would like to start off this post with a shout out to MrsC from Sent from my iRon. I won this ring pin cushion in her Sew Grateful giveaway contest, and I thought it was clever at the time, but now that I've been using it, it's not just clever, it's essential. It's so perfect, so easy to use, and I'd rank it second in importance after my scissors. Seriously, get one. (And I rarely use pins at all so you can trust that it must be amazing!)

On to the sewing. I pinned on the sleeves, adding some gathering to make everything fit and they seemed to fit perfect. It was nice and comfortable and looked great.

Except, wait. I don't think the shoulders are supposed to be that low on my arm. Oh, dear.

It turns out, unfortunately, that the dress form I use has wider shoulders than I do.

And when I correct the shoulders, this is what happens to the neckline. Sighhhhh.

I was considering an easy fix and just pinning it off to one side. (Right? It looks rather interesting, I think.)

But when I woke up this morning (because suddenly all my best ideas come when I wake up- so weird) I realized that the armholes are a bit too tight. So rather than being slightly uncomfortable, it's best to undo the entire neckline and add 2 extra darts, fix the shoulders so it's looser and in the right place, and redo the sleeves.

Good news: My first time ever doing sleeves has gone beautifully (minus the shoulder mishap which I don't think was entirely my fault) so fingers crossed that I won't suddenly encounter problems.

Bad news: This is officially the fifth time I've reworked the neckline. 

Good news: At least I won't have that awful boat neck (and so I won't have to wear a strapless bra!) and the arm hole will be more comfortable.

Lesson learned: I am NEVER using a pattern where the drawings look like aliens. It's just not meant to be.

I also began attaching the bodice and the skirt together. I needed to feel somewhat productive after realizing everything needed to come apart AGAIN.

At the moment it looks rather matronly, but I haven't hemmed it yet. 

I'm still hoping it'll be done this weekend, but more likely it'll be finished some time next week. You have no idea how excited I am to move on to something else!

Facing Like A Boss

Sometimes I'm pretty lazy when it comes to sewing. There's always a point where I get tired and I'm think to myself, "What steps can I skips so I can be done already?" Usually, the easiest neglect is to skip the facing, roll the hem, and top stitch right along so I can just finish. Sometimes that turns out fine, but often times it doesn't and then I have a sub-par product.

I wanted to do that for this dress. I may have even started, but I knew I wouldn't be happy with it so I ripped it out and went back to figure out the facing.

Originally I cut out the facing for this dress (albeit, somehow, incorrectly) and stitched it on there in the first step, but it just wouldn't work because of the fraying. So I unpicked my sad pieces of fraying facing and traced out new ones. Ones that, hopefully would actually fit the bodice pieces.

Once you have your facing, stitch it on there. I'm all about the french seams on this dress, so first wrong sides together, then right sides together. And you end up with something that looks kind of nice, if only the facing would stay down.

But no matter how many times you iron it into place, the facing is not going to stay down.

Pull it up and you should have the facing on top, the seam, and the bodice piece below that.

Push the seam to the top so that it's on top of the facing. Sew the facing to the seam. This should not affect your actual fabric piece in any way.

Once you've stitched around, iron it down.

Flip it over, and you should have a beautiful neckline with no sneaky facing trying to escape!

This looks a million times better than folding the hem and top stitching (and letting it fray all over the place). Why do I resist this step every time?!

Pushing Daisies Sew Along: In the Home Stretch!

I played dress up with me this time instead of torturing one of my cats. 

So I've almost fallen behind again because I've been working during the day and watching Game of Thrones in the evening. Game of Thrones required my full attention - I'm sure you understand. I went back and forth this weekend between thinking I'd get it all done and I wouldn't get anything done, but actually, I made decent progress so posts shall be coming and maybe, just maybe, I'll have the full reveal next weekend.

One of the worries I had about this dress were the sleeves. I've never done real sleeves before, at least not on my own. There was that one time where I taught my sister how to do it, but... it was actually the first time I had ever done anything with sleeves and now this is the first time I've ever actually done it myself.

I had to gather the top of the sleeves a bit because somehow they came out to large, but that works perfectly because I loved gathered sleeves. I'll be sewing them up shortly and then I just need to insert the zipper! 

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And this, my lovelies, is why you should make a muslin...

I've finally found time to sew, and as a result, I've found some problems. A blessing in disguise, I suppose. I'm using a vintage Vogue 9810 for the top part of my dress, and I just knew it would cause problems. Well, I didn't know but I assumed because the drawings on the front aren't very flattering. They sort of look like aliens.

Anyway, I was going for view C which had a high neck and a high back. Instead of a zip, they suggest hook and eyes down the back, which is not practical in anyone's life. I was going to put a zip in the side just because I like side zips better, but therein caused all the problems: the neckline was so high, I couldn't get it over my head.

Way too high of a neckline!

I suppose I should back up and say that I had other problems as well. As I was putting in the interfacing, I found that it wasn't the right length. For once I cut it exactly so I'm not sure where the problem came in, but I didn't think anything about it. I just added another strip and sewed it up... which didn't work simply because the lining I'm using likes to fray. So the neckline had little bits of frayed thread where I added the strip. Not one to be deterred, I added some fray check glue and thought that would be that.

(I also tried adding text because I couldn't find an arrow to stick on there to point out my mistakes. Not sure I like the text though...)

Gaping hole in the middle!

Additional strap I laid on top.

...that causes fraying on the neckline.

But then after trying to fix the fraying, I realized the neckline was so high I couldn't fit it over my head. While trying to figure out how to adjust it, I realized that view A had a nice dip in the back (which they don't like to picture for some reason), and wouldn't that scoop look lovely on the front? Maybe?

Potentially the front?

Actually the new front. Maybe.

So I laid my new pattern pieces over my old pattern pieces and adjust the neck and shoulders and hacked into my old pattern pieces, which I actually find rather funny because cutting lace was so daunting before, but now I'm all, "WHERE ARE THE SCISSORS?"

So I adjusted it and now I can't decide which should be the front and which the back. Perhaps it will be reversible when I finally finish?

To make matters worse, I attempted to skip the interfacing step and just fold over the neck line half an inch. Big mistake. To be honest, it didn't look awful. Or rather, it could have been a look, a styling decision for the bold, whatever. Not really my style so I then unpicked the entire collar. Again.

So exhausted.

On the plus side, now I know not to skip steps or be lazy and I have a wearable garment since I can now get it over my head. I was also worried about putting in an invisible zipper because I was worried about having to unpick the zip through the lace (you know, in case I make a mistake), but I learned today that it's really not a big deal at all. I was hoping to make more progress on the dress today, but I feel like I'm exactly where I started. I'm packing it up for the day and will try again tomorrow!

Pushing Daisies Sew Along: Basting the Bodice and Gathering the Skirt

I'm finally back to sewing! This dress has been so sad sitting in all of its pieces and I'm so happy I was able to work on it today! My cats were also excited. Every time I held up a piece, one would come out of nowhere and attack it, almost giving me a heart attack. Luckily no lace was ripped. :-)

I mentioned on the last post that I was going to baste together the lace and the lining to create one piece to work with, but I didn't enjoy the way it was turning out.

Basting is simple. You turn your stitch length up high to create longer stitches. Usually on machines it's a 4, though mine goes higher. I started basting together the bodice, but I decided that I wanted it to be more secure so I went back and stitched the bodice pieces together normally.

You can see the difference here (and my inability to sew in a straight line):

So after that, I just stitched up all the sides to make sure everything was right.

Then I cut off the excess lace:

After sewing around all the edges, I went ahead and sewed my darts. Because I marked them on the lining and because my two pieces of fabric were one, it was now incredibly easy to stitch the darts up.

 Then I turned my attention to the skirt. I did not trace around the entirety of the skirt as I did the bodice. Because I am working with such large chunks of fabric, it didn't seem as important to me that they be perfectly connected.

Because the skirt is a bit full, I started to gather the top seam. I turned up my stitch length to 3.5 and then I sewed 2 lines, one right after the other.Leave plenty of thread tail at the beginning and end of your stitching. You can see it below, and you can see how it's already starting to pucker because of the longer stitch length.

Finally, after sewing the two lines, I took the back two threads and held them while I began to pull the fabric. It creates a ruffle and you can make it as big or as small of a ruffle as you'd like.

Whew! Took me long enough to get to this point! How is everyone else faring?

Also apologies for the awful pictures. My regular camera died, my replacement camera is awful (and I lost the battery charger), and my phone, despite its boasting of HD 10MP, etc, etc, takes terrible pictures as you can see. I should have another, better one coming in a few days!