Yes…I made it!

Posted on Mar 5, 2013 | 2 comments

Wahoo!!!  You can’t see me but if you were a fly on the wall right now, you would be watching me skip my way to the wine rack looking for the appropriate bottle of wine to celebrate my triumphant moment!  You do get to see this though…

The wine…

and the moment…

Yeah, I am drinking wine, I am suppose to be, I am celebrating my latest project!  The Silhouette  675 Top.

So what’s so exciting about the fact that I made this top?  Well…the fabric is knit and this is the first knit anything I have ever attempted.  So………….Yes, I made it and it actually turned out!

Admittedly I was a bit nervous before I dove into this project.  I spent a good deal of time on the “internets”, surfing anything and everything that had to do with sewing knits.  Finally, after feeling like I killed a bazillion brain cells fretting about how to tackle sewing them, I decided to go with the advice of the lady who designed the pattern, Peggy Sagers.

She said “use a ballpoint needle” and sew it like you do anything else.  Also, I had heard her say in one of her pod casts that she uses a teflon foot for most everything so I opted to do the same.   It did make sense to me since I have used this foot when sewing silk because it holds the slippery wonderful stuff quite nicely!  I set my machine to a 3.0 stitch for all the major sewing like she suggests in the pattern instructions and used the recommended 3.5 setting when top stitching and both worked like a charm.

The needles and the teflon foot that fits my Husqvarna sewing machine.

Silhouette patterns have 3/8″ seam allowances and when I first started sewing the fabric, I wondered if this seam would allow for enough width, especially when sewing three layers of the knit where there was facing.  I experienced the WOW factor.  I was impressed.  It was so cool to not have to spend time trimming the edges of seams.  It also meant needing less fabric and of course less waste.  I’m kind of diggin the idea!

There was a small speed bump that I hit…the buttonholes.  I have done lots of buttonholes but never on knit since I’ve never sewn it, right!  It was BACK to the “internets”!  Once I found the magic info I needed, I headed for my interfacing stash basket and pulled out my handy dandy Tear-Away interfacing and started cutting out strips which I then cut into large enough sections to place underneath each area where I needed to sew a buttonhole.  The interfacing tore away easily leaving the underside of the first buttonhole I made look exactly like it was suppose to.   It really did work like a charm.  I was so thrilled with my success that I went a little crazy and ended up with 7 buttonholes instead of 6 but hey, who’s counting and besides, 7 is one of my lucky numbers so – “all is right in the world!”  Now –  it’s back to my wine.

Salut!  Jessica

What’s Wrong with Home-Made

Posted on Mar 1, 2013 | 0 comments

Today is going to be a rant day.   The rant of course is me saying exactly what I feel in no uncertain terms and which my children lovingly refer to as me getting up on my soap box!

The subject of my rant…the bad rap that the term “home-made” is getting.

It seems like “home-made” is okay sometimes but other times not.  For instance, it is generally accepted that home-made  food is better than fast food (and better for you!).  Then there are home-made  gifts that for many people are more personal and meaningful than store bought gifts. But with clothes…well that’s another story.  It appears  that home-made  is taking a bad rap where clothes are concerned.  Apparently clothes should look store bought, not home-made.   Oh Snap!…I think we have been duped big time on this one and didn’t see it coming!

I have recently realized just how much of a victim I am in this evil marketing plot and how deeply I fell into it.  I will spend countless hours meticulously making a garment so that it doesn’t look homemade.  I have even actually been told that what I have sewn “doesn’t look home-made” and experienced a sense of relief.  I can’t believe that I missed it!  That I tossed “home-made” out the window without a second thought, to instead basque in the knowing that I sewed something that looked “store-bought!”  I am a horrible person!

(I have now stepped up onto my soap box)

Ahem…

I know there are others who have fallen into this same trap; very experienced sewers with good intentions who generously share their ideas, tips, etc. on how to sew something so that it doesn’t look home-made.  Unfortunately  I think they have been duped too and they haven’t realized it!  It’s like we are all receiving a subliminal message…the words being spoken by a mesmerizing voice that says “you should be buying your clothes – they are better than what you make”.

(ooh – starting to warm up now on this cozy little soap box)

So then… can we deduce that if something doesn’t look good enough to the eye of the beholder, then it looks  “home-made“? Awwh…see what I am saying.

And think about this… “distressed jeans”.  I absolutely hate ripped up and holy jeans and will not apologize for saying it!  They were probably beautiful jeans before they were violated with distress!  Would you say they look home-made or would you say they look ruined?  Definitely ruined of course!

(Okay…now we are getting somewhere.  I am on my tippy toes right now, standing tall on my soap box and going for the finish line!)

After a brief examination of this poor defenseless adjective, I think “home-made”  is being used out of context and so is not guilty of its charges.  If  something looks like crap or doesn’t meet one’s expectations, it has nothing to do with “home-made”.  It has to do with skill level, but the skill will grow if  the creative mind is not ruined by unkind words.   “Home-made” is a wonderful way of doing anything and we need to remind ourselves of this.  And remember that before there were factories, there were people like you and I  who learned to sew because… it was a very important and useful thing to be able to do.

There is nothing more gratifying and rewarding than lovingly cutting out pattern pieces from beautiful fabric and transposing them into something that we can wear.  It gives one a wonderful sense of accomplishment.   As to the quality…well we know that it has nothing to do with  “home-made“.   The quality is only the level of ability of the sewer who can only get better and better.  🙂

So my friends…lets take back what is rightfully ours!  Sew to your heart’s content, and realize that you are a clothing designer, an artist, a dress-maker, a tailor, a seamstress, a sewer who is creating what was once created in the home, performing an art that has always belonged to us, the at-home sewers who are fabulous people who create and design “home-made “ clothes.  Salut!