The white shirt

I completely finished and wore my white shirt to dinner the other night. I really liked it, but I'm going to tell you there was something seriously wrong with the back facing. The front is faced with the button plackard facing that runs up to the shoulders and should attach to the back facing. The front facings fit very nicely. But the back was wrong. You were instructed to cut one on fold, but when I started to attach it to the back it was too big. By almost - but not quite - twice. I rechecked my piece both for cutting directions and size, but I did it right. So I cut it down to fit the neck edge and left enough of the curve - I thought. But when I was all done the neck wouldn't lay flat. I tried cutting wedges out and it still just wasn't a pretty fit. I finally cut the whole back facing out (no pics of this ugly fix) and called it done. A quick hem and I was finished and posing in front of the apartment. I want it noted that I AM WEARING SHOES! Sandels, maybe, but they are SHOES. It fits nicely (I had to add my usual 2" above the waist). This was a fun wear and now that I know the back facing is off - a quick sew. Easy options for different looks. Remember this was 90% off fabric. The bias tape was more expensive than the fabric. And don't get me started on the awesome buttons that will be reused when this shirt becomes history.

My New Home machine behaved beautifully during this entire operation. Beautiful stitches, forward and backward and nice buttonholes. YEA! This was, by far, the best $13.57 I ever spent.

The pants? Yuck. I hate these things. They're RTW, Ann Taylor, I think. And just fugly. Their only redeeming value is the cut embroidery on the hem.

Busy sewing day.

First, I want to say that I'm not an iron snob. Nor do I really dislike ironing. And I don't have to have a fancy steam generator and table sized surface, but this really just wasn't working for me. Nor was this the solution. In fact, this picture was taken just before that cheap-ass iron puked some kind of red stuff all over the white shirt-in-the-making on the left. Not a good start to the day. So I packed up myself, the orange purse in the upper photo, and my 40% off JoAnn's coupons and fixed the situation. Now I know this isn't a high-tech set up, but it's a vast improvement. I was able to put the new board on the edge of the table and it gave me a great height to work on. The iron is a Rowenta that gets nice and hot and steams clean, clear water. I also bought color remover and got the red stuff off the shirt.

The shirt. I'm using New Look 6967 view B - the main photo on the left. Using the white embroidered cotton from JoAnn's 90% off sale. I'm now almost done lacking only hemming, sewing on the buttons and cutting open the buttonholes. I'm afraid to cut them using a seam ripper, so I'm procrastinating. The red stuff was on the left shoulder just beside the left arm hole (on the right in the picture). All gone. But the color remover did fade the piping on the arms a little. Well, better than a big old red stain. Take a look at my bitchin' buttons. You can see the fabric well, too.

My machine, the New Home, is doing great. It makes a 4-step button hole and did fantastic. And the poor tension issues are all better. THANK YOU!!! Kristine!! You rock. I love you, man. Now that the reverse is working this machine is beautiful. it makes great stitches, nice and even. My top stitching was easy. And the "B" foot has 2 grooves that worked great for the piping and invisible zippers (I didn't realize this on the dress, but I'm on to it now). I think it's finally fulfilling it's sewing destiny. I seriously don't think this machine had ever sewn a stitch before I rescued it from the Salvation Army. Some things are just meant to be.

My next project was going to be the See & Sew pattern again.

With the floral draped on the annoying ironing situation at the top of this rambling post. But after washing, drying, ironing the fabric and laying it out on the fabric I stopped short of cutting. It just wasn't right. I left it overnight to think on it. I think the repeat is too small and it was going to look goofy no matter how careful I was with matching up the pattern. I think I'm going to use the blue floral from Fabric Warehouse. I washed it today. It's a very lightweight (probably) poly with a definite retro feel to it. It will need lining, though.

Finished

I'm done. Even hemming, which is always a sore spot with me. The only thing left is a hook/eye or maybe button/loop in the back at the neck. I really struggled with the zipper since I didn't have an invisible zipper foot and had to make due. That was the only real issue except the poor stitches. I really like this dress. The fabric, the pattern, the fit. It was all good. The only pattern adjustment was the usual two inches added to the bodice length, and I'm quite used to that. Now, let's do some math. 2 yards at $1/yard, lining at $1.50/yard, thread, pattern at $2.99, zipper. I think I have about a $10 dress all in. And I will use the pattern again. Sorry about the pictures, but my photographer isn't really into my photographs.

Now another word about my machine. **sigh** I even broke down and played with the bobbin tension. Helped a little, but still not great. **sigh**

I sewed!

I cut out the See & Sew yesterday and put it together today. Mostly, anyway. I have the zipper and some handstitching around the sleeves and a hem. I'm not getting a very good stitch on the New Home, though. Not very straight, almost a zig-zag, and the tension's off. Must keep fiddling with it, I suppose. It was doing well on my samples, but not on the dress. You can see the seam going up and down is better than the horizontal seam. But still not great.

Here's the start of the dress, hanging on an IV pole in front of an unused weight machine. Since the dress is a bit snug, perhaps I should use the weight machine.

For $1/yard, I really do like this fabric. Even at 100% polyester, it feels nice and has a good weight and drape. I was thinking of black piping at the neck and arms, but I don't think my machine will do it very well. I'll make do with a belt, I suppose.

Kudos to Janome

I spent a bit of time scouring the internet for information on my New Home 2105 to very little avail. I did find a threading guide, but that was all. No reviews, none for sale on Ebay. Just nuttin' honey. On Saturday afernoon I emailed Janome and told them I had recently acquired the machine and needed a manual for it. It arrived in my in-box by 9am Monday morning. PDF'd and no cost. Kudos for excellent customer service and THANK YOU, JANOME. It was clear that I hadn't purchased it from them and lost the book, nor was it a recently retired model. I am so impressed and grateful.
Speaking of manuals, it was necessary for me on this machine. I even had a couple of the knobs "labeled" wrong. Tsk, tsk. Now, I need time to sew. And it won't sew in reverse. I need to poke around itside it a bit and see if I can repair that. The button doesn't feel quite right.
I also went back to JoAnn's yesterday to see what else I could find at 90% off. Apparently I wasn't the only shopper on Sunday. There wasn't much left, though I did find a few more items, including some bleached muslin to line my dress. In all, 11 yards for $15. Not too bad, eh?
And this morning I met up with a sewing friend Kristine of Just Keep Sewing brought her two cute kids and we met at a local donut shop for coffee, sewing talk and car watching (ok, that mostly just the kids). It was nice talking sewing to someone. We're plotting a trip to Haberman's where I expect I'll spend much more than $1.19/yard.

Gotta sew something.

Since I got the New Home purring yesterday, I really needed to have something to do with it. And since I'm at my son's, I have no patterns, stash, notions or well anything. So it was off to JoAnn's this morning, by the way, Sunday morning is the ideal time to shop JoAnn's. I was first in line at the cutting table and there were no crying children. I didn't have a specific project in mind, I was just going to shop until I found what I was looking for.

In the front of the store there were 2 islands with summer fabrics at 90% off. Yes, I said 90%, that is not a typo. So I came home with these: The grey is a linen/cotton blend, the floral is a very soft and silky all poly - not usually a favorite of mine but I liked this, and the white is 100% cotton with rayon embroidery. I spent a whopping $10 on the whole lot of around 10 yards. I may go back again tomorrow and clean out the rest of the stuff I liked. All very summery and pretty. The zipper and thread cost more than the fabric.

For patterns I picked out a Butterick See & Sew for the floral planning on view B on the right - I'm getting tired of V-neck everything. The bodice lining will cost more than the fashion fabric, unless I ditch the lining which I've been known to do....

And I found New Look 6957 Thinking the short sleeved version for the while cotton.

These are the first paper patterns I've bought in ages - I've done mostly Burda when I've had time to sew at all with a few Jalie thrown in for spice.

I got the pattern ready to cut the dress, including adding the extra bodice length. Will cut tomorrow while working from "home".

Not shown is the brown flannel pillowcase I made for my son's foot rest. It's quite the snoozer project, but was a good first machine project.

Good things come to those who wait

It was just meant to be. I took back the Merritt machine on Monday with a load of clothes and kitchen stuff and took a quick spin through the sales floor of the Salvation Army. And let me say that if you were looking for anyone on Monday morning and couldn't find them, it was because they were in line at the Sal (as my son calls it). Seriously, the line was to back of the store and around the edge, and it's a large store - think Super Kroger or other big grocery store building. Anyway there was a Montgomery Ward machine with a vertical bobbin, but I wasn't really interested, especially considering the loooonnnngggg line. But I went back to today and, well, scored. Big. This little baby was just sitting there, in the back, nestled against a facial steamer and an answering machine, looking lost in the midst of old alarm clocks. It is a New Home SS-2105, which I believe is actually a Janome. It's all manual - no computer to mess with - there is a series of discs inside that create the stitches. It came with everything it started with, including extra bobbins and a package of needles. The "missing" foot from the top storage bin is actually on the machine. There's a quilting guide, zipper and overcast foot, additional spool pins, even the screw drivers, extra light bulb and hard cover. I'm not sure this machine had ever sewn a stitch. The only thing missing is the manual.

I had a little trouble getting it going at first, but it was all operator error. I first had to figure out how to make it straight stitch (duh, set the needle swing to 0) and then I had a time with the tension - I thought. You can see my nasty loopies on the left side. And you can see where it's much better on the right after I rethreaded again (thanks, Karen Roth ), don't know why that didn't occur to me to start with? I found a threading guide for a similar machine on line (it's also printed inside the swing-away cover on the left). I'm guessing this is a 1980's vintage? Not sure - I can't find much about it so far.

Anyway, I'm quite happy. And I got the whole scheebang for - are you ready for this? - $15. That's only $5 more than the Merritt that didn't stitch. SCCOOOOOOOORE.

I also found this book for $2 It's an amazing encyclopedia of stitches for knitting, crewel, embroidery, quilting, crochet, etc. Some nice photos, good directions. And, what snagged me, the author (or more likely compiler or just lent her name): Rose Wilder Lane, the daughter of "Little House on the Prairie" fame, Laura Ingalls Wilder.