Faith Restored

My faithful, hardworking sewing machine,
a 1961 Singer Slantomatic 503, aka Judy Jetson.
1961 was a VERY good year.

Dear Mom,

Merchant and Mills has restored my faith in sewing. It all started with the Factory Dress and has continued through 3 pairs of the 101 Trouser. I have the fabric for a fourth pair in my stash. While the Factory dress went over my head and fit without need for alteration, I didn't push my luck with the trousers and made a practice pair with an old bed sheet, figuring I could use them as pajama pants. I am glad I did. The crotch was fathoms deep. I could easily pull the waist band up to my bra band. Comfy, but NOT the look I am going for.  I ended up taking 4 inches out of the crotch depth and adding 5 inches to the leg length. I made the cropped tapered style, but wanted my wool pants to have long legs. I will make a true cropped pair in linen for summer trousers. After my first pair, I've deviated from the pattern only to add belt loops and elastic to the waist, skipping the grommets and drawstring so I can wear my pants with a belt. (I will  return to the drawstring waist for summer linen pants.)

The biggest challenge is in finding quality wool fabric in the appropriate weight and desired colors. One CANNOT, whether knitting or sewing or painting or whatever, expect excellent results when using inferior materials!  We are very fortunate to have a wonderful fabric store nearby, The French Seam, and I was able to find warm camel color and rich navy wools, but no store can have everything. I took a risk and ordered an olive wool from Sultan's Fine Fabrics. My gamble paid off. The color and weight were everything I'd hoped for and I LOVE the pants.  Riding high on that success, I ordered a classic grey flannel wool from Denver Fabrics. Again, I was very happy with the fabric I ordered and that pair of pants is next in my sewing queue. 

Despite (or maybe because of) my renewed sewing vigor and faith, I am thoroughly disgusted and disappointed with most every visit to the chain big box "fabric" stores looking for notions. More craft than fabric, filled with poor quality quilting cotton and fleece, a more fitting name for JoHanncock Fabrics would be WeBeFleece. -let me digress here.... is Fleece the gateway drug? Does the No Sew Fleece blanket get people interested in sewing? Somehow I doubt it, but if that is what it takes, then shame on me. But 8537 different kinds of fleece but no navy hem tape and only 3 of every kind of button????!!!! Pleeeeze. Okay. Rant over- Thanks to your referral, I've started ordering hem lace and elastic from the WAWAK website.  I went a little crazy planned ahead and ordered 12 yards of elastic. And then yesterday, in the midst of sewing Trouser 101 v3.0TheNavyPair, I had a hankering for the wonderful tailor's ham and pressing aids we had in my high school tailoring class. (I am imagining an entire Merchant and Mills wardrobe for myself.) WAWAK to the rescue.  

 These, along with 2.5 yards of fusible interfacing (thinking ahead again), are on their way. That WAWAK site is Dan.Ger.Ous.

Up there, in that stack-of-fabrics photo, is fabric for a spring Factory dress- the green- and two Top 64s- the small check and, buried in there, a beige dotted swiss type cloth with small coral and chocolate brown flecks . The other fabrics pictured are my pants fabrics. 

Happy Sewing!!

Love,

Kim

Labels

Dear Mom,
Did you know you can do this? Because I didn't and now I do and I was so excited when I learned this I nearly had a headache from all the possibilities crowding into my brain.
There I was, quietly reading Lizzie's blog and admiring her quilt and the label she made. I left a comment admiring both and asked how she made her pretty label. Lizzie and I exchanged a couple of emails and Tah Dah! I made a little practice swatch, and even washed and dried it to make sure it was for real.
I am sharing it here, just because I think it is very exciting and I can't keep it contained. If you already know how to do this, skip to the end.
Now, in my defense, I already know about and have used those t-shirt transfers you can buy, print off your design or picture onto them, and then iron them on to ... t-shirts, or whatever. What I didn't know and what Lizzie very kindly shared with me, is that you can print RIGHT ONTO THE FABRIC!!!! Of course, here you are limited to a size and thickness that will fit through your printer, but still! This is how it is done. (Or how I did it anyway.)

Draw, sketch, print, write, whatever you want, onto a piece of paper. Hey....that makes me think of another possibility! I bet you could write on decorative paper....I'll have to try that next. Anyway. Draw your design, care instructions, etc. and set it aside. Then iron a piece of fabric onto freezer paper. I used cotton muslin for my experiment, but I think any fabric would work as long as it isn't too thick and not a stretchy knit. It should also probably be pre-washed. Put the fabric/freezer paper combo into your printer so that it will come out with the printing on the fabric side. In my printer, this means that I put the fabric side down when I load it into the tray. Put the paper with your drawing on it onto the scanner just like you would to make copies, and hit "copy". That's it! Well, except for peeling off the freezer paper afterwards. The fabric should feed through your printer and come out with your design on it. Lizzie suggests setting the ink by ironing the fabric, which I did and then, like I already said, I washed and dried the swatch just to make sure the ink would stay put.

Perfect for quilt labels like Lizzie's, but I can also imagine making care labels for my hand knits and sewing them onto a side seam or at the back of a collar. Then I thought how fun it would be to use this trick on a fabric pattern piece (here is where size would limit me) that has already been cut out for sewing and print a design onto it. And no way am I limited to black ink on a piece of muslin.....probably a good thing I didn't know about this during the bucket hat frenzy. If I get any more ideas and have time to test them out, I'll share them with you.

Love,
Kim