Embroidered Labels

Many years ago I asked a friend to digitize a little piece of clip art that I used on my business cards at the time so that I could stitch out labels for my handmade clothing.  My logo was a simple hanger embellished with a flower.  Back when I was doing some dressmaking for hire I used the business name Juliet, Couture and Bridal (JCB being my initials).  The first label I created looked something like this:

This was stitched on ribbon.  I went on to stitch the design out on various fabrics.  This was my favorite,

stitched on a pale grey and white checked linen.  I particularly liked using a patterned background.

Last week I realized I was out of pre-stitched labels and sat down at my machine to make some more.  For some reason, my old design was not speaking to me, and I decided it was time for a makeover of my label.  I still wanted to use a hanger design and found an appropriate one on the internet.  I'm currently loving the floss stitch designs I got from Jolson's Designs so I used one of those.  Once I got the design looking the way I wanted, I started concentrating on color and fabric choices.  I looked at my local fabric store for some light colored checked fabric like the one I used above, but didn't find anything in the color I was looking for.  They did have, however, a subtle paisley print cotton duck which I thought would work well.

I used colors similar to the designs here on my blog.  Here are the labels all stitched out and waiting to be cut.

and here is a completed label.

I particularly like how much depth and interest the print background adds.  I backed the fabric with a fusible tricot interfacing, cut the edges with pinking shears and then applied a thin line of Fray Block around the perimeter. 

While hunting through my closet for examples of my former labels, I was dismayed to discover how few of my garments actually have labels in them.  So, I'm hoping to do better this year and remember to sew labels into my creations.  I am also going to go back and "retro-fit" some of my older clothes with some of my new labels where possible.  After all, what's a designer original without its label?

Mindful Choices

Recently I have been thinking a lot about the choices I make in my life.  One of my long term goals is to try to incorporate as many sustainable choices as I can, be it decisions regarding food, cleaning products or clothing.  I realize this process is slow and made up of lots of little changes rather than one big lifestyle change.  Along those lines, my closet really needs a major overhaul.  It is full to capacity though I probably only wear about 20% of what’s in there.  I’ve just started the process of discarding items I will no longer wear.  More importantly, I am determined to only add items back in that really match my lifestyle and that will get worn.  To that end I’ve taken stock of the type of clothes I like to wear and have made a plan to add to my wardrobe in a mindful way.

First, I’ve made a vow for 2012 to buy no clothing from a chain store.  I’m planning to limit my purchases to the excellent local thrift stores in my area.  Anything else will have to come from my sewing room.

My lifestyle as a stay-at-home-mom doesn’t require a lot in the way of wardrobe choices.  In the winter, my “uniform” usually consists of jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt topped with another layer.  As anyone who reads my blog knows I am really in love with the hand-stitched clothing of Alabama Chanin, and I think t-shirts would be the perfect place to start my clothing plan – something that can be completed quickly and will be useful additions to my wardrobe.  I envision using appliqués, stencils and embroidery to create unique designs.  Remember all of those t-shirts I bought recently at my thrift store?  Those are my raw materials.

This past week I finished my first shirt.  It was a fantastic experience (though my finger is still a bit sore from all of the hand stitching).  It did not take nearly as long as I thought it would, and the process was so enjoyable.  I began by deconstructing two t-shirts, one long-sleeved, the other short.  Let me tell you:  if you have never cut apart a t-shirt you have been missing out on life.  There is something really gratifying about slicing into heavyweight cotton.  Once I had the shirts in pieces I cut out the "new" t-shirt from a Burda pattern I fitted a number of years ago.  I cut a double layer for the front and back but only a single layer for the sleeves.

I traced the stencil design that I chose (the Bloomers stencil from Alabama Stitch book) onto what would be the top layer of the shirt.  I layered that with the corresponding underlayer and began stitching.  I first stitched the bust darts through both layers.  I slit the dart and felled the dart legs open.  Next I used a running stitch around the larger leaves, then completed the reverse appliqué by trimming away the top layer.  For the smaller designs I cut the shapes from scraps of the green fabric and appliquéd them on with a parallel whipstitch.

The construction was all done by hand.  It went together pretty quickly, maybe 1.5 hours which included felling the shoulder and side seams.  The most time-consuming part was putting on the neck binding.  The chained feather stitch was new to me, and it took some practice before I got into the rhythm of the stitching.

All in all I spent about three days working on this shirt, not the 3 hours needed to whip one up on the serger but not a large investment of time for a really unique garment.  I know I will get a lot of wear from this shirt, and I can’t wait to start my next one.  I’m hoping to complete 3 or 4 more before the spring when I’ll start on my short-sleeved versions for the summer.  Watch for more coming soon.

A Dress Form for a Fabulous Fit

Last evening and earlier today I spent my sewing-room-time working on a different kind of project.  Many pounds, inches and two children ago I had a dress form that suited my needs well enough.  It didn’t really mimic my silhouette, but I could dial up the right circumference measurements anyway.  I never used it for fine fitting but did find it useful for pinning in hems, displaying garments, etc.  Recently while working on my blue wool crepe dress I realized that the form was really very far from my size and decided to try and do something about that.  That “something” came in the form of a Fabulous Fit kit which provides a form-fitting cover and lots of pads to custom create a dress form in my image.

This post is going to “expose” a lot more of me to the internet community than I’m strictly comfortable with, so I may as well start now.  One of my fitting challenges is a very low bust point.  I need to move my bust apex down quite a lot on commercial patterns.  My “dial-up dolly” had perky breasts that bore no relation to where the actual anatomical parts reside.  I was able to use the pads provided in the kit, along with some hefty shoulder pads and lightweight quilt batting, to get a pretty good replica of my figure, low bust and all.  It’s not perfect but it’s a lot better than what I started with.

The process starts with a very stretchy and form-fitting cover that you wrestle onto the dress form to about the shoulder line.  Then, following the instructions provided, you take a series of measurements and start adding padding.  The provided shoulder pads were too square for my shape so I used some shoulder pads I had in my stash.  I was lucky also to have a very detailed set of measurements that I use for drafting patterns with my Wild Ginger pattern drafting software.  I used some quilt batting to “flesh” out some areas, and also adjusted the underlying dress form’s circumferences as I added padding.  As you work your way down the torso you roll the cover down to hold everything in place.  Once you’re finished there is an additional princess-line cover you can use over top of the whole thing which aids in designing.  You can also mark various landmarks on the form as I did with the waist.

Here I am with my double (I drew the line at posing in a white mini skirt – the dark exercise tights will have to suffice).   I still think the hip area needs some work – I need to reduce the front-to-back distance and add more padding on the sides.

Here’s my blue wool crepe dress modeled on the form.  I can tell you it looks a whole lot better than it did a few weeks ago when I was working on it.

I found the pads and covers provided with the Fabulous Fit kit easy to use, though I think you could accomplish something similar with lots of batting and homemade pads and covers.  I found the best price for this product on Amazon.  I’m happy with how this project turned out, and am looking forward to my new best friend’s help in the sewing room and for showcasing some of my garments here on this blog.  Happy weekend everyone!

Princess Lines and Wool Crepe

A match made in heaven.  Wool crepe may be the most gratifying fabric to sew on, period.  In fact, it if weren't for its ravelly nature I would say it is the perfect fabric.  It is easy to work with, presses well, eases like a dream.  I particularly love the more spongey textured ones, which this blue piece is.  Over the years I have "inherited" a lot of fabric, and this piece came from a little old lady who did beautiful work in her day.  I know she bought this piece from G Street Fabrics because it still had the tag stapled to it.

I have several princess-line sheaths in my closet, and it is the most flattering style I can wear.  I spent quite a bit of time a few weeks ago perfecting the fit of this pattern (an out-of-print McCall's pattern similar to McCall's 3129).  Even though I have a sleeveless version of this dress, I had not fitted a set-in sleeve previously.  I worked with the short sleeve that came with the pattern and morphed that sleeve cap with another, longer sleeve with a shaped hem.  I feel that I really nailed the fit on this dress but the sleeve still needs some work.  There was so much ease in the sleeve cap that I had a lot of trouble when making my muslin.  I removed as much ease as I dared but was still left with almost 2 inches of extra ease.  I hoped that the lovely easing properties of the wool crepe would save me, and it certainly helped, but the sleeve cap is not as smooth as I would like it.  Luck would have it that a few days later I read about removing sleeve cap ease in Sarah Veblen's great new fitting book The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting.  I'm going to make another version of this dress and try some of the suggestions Sarah makes to see if I can get a better sleeve.

Some more details about this dress:  I piped the neckline and used an invisible zipper for the closure, though I swear it is my last one.  I am determined to perfect a beautiful lapped zipper application.  The invisible zipper always disappoints me when it comes time to sew the seam below the zipper.  I just can't do it without a little "glitch" where the zipper ends.  The dress is lined with Bemberg rayon which I starched prior to cutting out to tame the slippery, shape-shifting qualities of that fabric.  I made a number of alterations to the pattern including curving the upper back seam which gave me a really nice fit in that area.

I've already pulled out another piece of crepe and plan to make another dress in a shorter version.  In fact, I am busy finding ways that I can make changes to this basic shape to wring out as much wear as I can from one fitted pattern -- given how long it takes to fit one this only makes sense.  It may take a lot of time but the end result is worth it.

More Stitching

I just finished stitching the third (of six) panels for my Alabama Chanin tank dress.  So far I've been able to keep up with my goal of one panel per month (in fact, I'm a little ahead of that goal).  I know that someone is going to ask me how many hours I've invested in this project so while stitching the latest panel I decided to keep track.  I spent 960 minutes (16.3 hours) doing just the stitching on this one panel.  Assuming that's average, it will take about 96 hours to stitch all six panels.  That doesn't include time to cut the reverse applique, bead, construct and finish the garment.  I'm guessing the total will be somewhere around 150-200 hours.  I'm planning to keep track and see.

When I'm not hand stitching I am working on a wool crepe dress that is turning out really great.  I still need to set in the sleeves and do all of the finishing work.   I'm hoping to have it finished this week so I can share it with you.