Monthly Archives: June 2009

couch cover – one down, one to go

This is what it looks like when I’m making a couch cover. There is a whole lot of fabric to maneuver.

In our living-room, there lives a couch that we didn’t buy new. Since we didn’t buy it new, we kind of didn’t choose the multi-colored, fading stripes that adorns it. So, enter my sewing skills and a little bit of seat-pants-flying: I’ll just make a couch cover to, well, cover the couch.

This project has been several months long, from start to finish. After deciding that we needed couch-covers for both of our non-new couches, we had to decide on a fabric. Unfortunately, there wasn’t nearly enough of my first choice, a nice, textured, light green-grey twill, to cover both sofas, so I had to get an additional fabric to match.

The fabric is just a tad busy. On the seat are the panels of fabric all cut out and folded. It doesn’t look like much, does it!

Also unfortunately, there was almost not enough of the green-grey twill to cover even one of the couches, so some serious mathematics and planning and visualizing had to be done to make it work. I think this was actually the biggest part of the project – just figuring out how big each panel could be, without running out of fabric. For the most part, the sewing went pretty easily. Since almost all of the panels were rectangles of different sizes, there were a lot of 90° angles to deal with, but with some planning and some patience, they stayed pretty squared off.

Aaah, much easier on the eyes!

The twill was a bit denim-like, so to finish off the couch-cover and give it a little extra something, I top-stitched the seams with a heavy-duty yellow thread. I like the fun little detail! I made some pillows to match as well: for one I used the leftovers (wrong side out) , pairing it with an orange flower-patterned linen to match the yellow top-stitching. The other is made from the fabric I bought for the second couch-cover (an armrest of that couch is visible in the picture), with a green zipper across.

Pillow & topstitching.

I invested a whopping $12 dollars in the twill (yey sales!), and even if I include a dollar for the zipper on the pillow, that’s still a pretty cheap couch-cover! Now I just need to recover a bit before I tackle that second couch…

corset

Four years ago I made a corset. It’s not something I wear particularly often, but I’m still quite proud of it. It has certainly helped me in sewing fitted bodices, such as on my grandma-dress, and it’s a special garment to have, and to have made.

photo by Brynjar Stautland

I made it while a student at Olavskulen Folkehøgskule, which had a Costume- and Fashion-design program at the time. A folkehøgskule is a one-year program (I’ve seen it described as a boarding school, which I guess is right, but the connotations seem a little off to me), not mandatory, and something you generally do at around high-school age to explore an interest in depth. There are no tests, exams, or grades, so you really focus on your subject – in my case, sewing and creating.

Towards the end of the year, we did a segment on corset-making. There are a lot of patterns available, from different historic eras and of differing accuracy. I was surprised to learn that some corsets only went from under the bust to the hips, while others covered the entire chest and down to the mid-thighs. Most of the patterns for the different styles of corsets all had a lot of pattern pieces however – I think this one had fifteen very similar looking pieces. The pattern we used was one that my teacher/costume designer Janne had used for the prostitutes’ costumes in a production of Les Miserables at Moster, Norway. The corset earned some not-so-nice nicknames!

At the very end of the year, we went out to nearby Moster Amfi, and had a photo-shoot inside the exhibition detailing Olav Tryggvason’s landing at Moster in the year 995, sailing over from England to take the throne, and christianize the Norwegians. The exhibition is very atmospheric, with viking and medieval artifacts – perfect for moody things such as corsets and fluttery chiffon skirts! I made the skirt more or less for the occasion, draping it on a form, cutting triangles and squares of chiffon, lace and soft tulle, and attaching it all to a machine embroidered length of lace as a waistband.

photo by Brynjar Stautland

And now, for the “how-to” of sorts: From the master pattern you have to make changes so the corset ends up fitting your body. You compare your own measurements to that of the pattern, and add or subtract accordingly at specific parts of the pattern. Even subtracting one millimeter at ten different places ends up making quite a difference! For the corset to have enough hold, you have to use several layers of fabric. There is an outer layer of fabric (the “self” fabric), and the inner fabrics. For this corset, I used chinese silk brocade for the self fabric, and two layers of black canvas for the inner fabrics. The pattern-pieces for the inner layers corresponds to the pattern-pieces of the outer layers, so there are many pieces of fabric to keep track of while sewing a corset! The inner fabric is also where you attach the boning, which adds more support and stiffness. Without the boning, the corset wouldn’t lie nearly as smooth against the body.

When all the layers are done, boning and all, they get sandwiched together inside out, stitched along the top and bottom edge, and then turned inside out. I remember this as one of the trickier parts of making the corset – all the layers and the rigid boning means it takes some wiggling to get it right side out! The short seams at the back gets hand-sewn down, before the grommets go in. It feels so wrong to cut into a garment you’ve spent so much time and effort on, and then go at it with a hammer, but it really does come out nice in the end. Lace it up and it’s done!

Different occasion, and a more detailed view. Photo by the boy.

http://indigorchid.wordpress.com/2008/06/22/grandma-dress/

frogged yarn

Oh dear, I think I’m quite addicted! I picked up a sweater at a thrift-store a little while back, and while I absolutely loved the color, it was a size XL. I know some people are able to pull of the whole belted-baggy-thing with leggings under, but I realized the other day that I’m just not one of them. Since I can’t part with the gorgeous color, I might as well frog the thing, right?
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Mustard? Ochre? Goldenrod? Amber? Gorgeous!

This is my second round of taking apart sweaters – the first time I tried this was before Christmas. Like last time, I used this tutorial, which is excellent and clear, and by following it step by step, the sweater came apart very cleanly and quickly. The actual frogging of the yarn (I guess it’s technically the sweater being frogged) is the really fun part! It’s so satisfying to go ritch-ritch, and to see the ball grow as the knitted piece diminishes. Here is the thing though – the yarn is super super fine. I didn’t really stop and consider this before taking it all apart, but knitting any sort of garment with this would not only take forever, but I would never be able to achieve the same gauge as the original knit.

I’ve come across some projects on ravelry that might work (see here and here), and one option is to knit with the yarn double, as I’ve seen some people suggest. I’m also wondering if it won’t work with a machine knitting class I am taking this fall… Hm. At any rate, the frogging has been fun, and it’s yummy to just look at in the meantime!

underwear, v2.0

I’m back with the underwear! This was my first attempt, and I’m happy to report that they are all still in commission. This batch is the new and improved version, and this is what I got out of a nice, soft, size M, cotton t-shirt:

So, to sum up, I learned a couple of things from sewing up the first round of underwear (hence these new ones being improved).

Pick t-shirts with care. Stiff is not so good because of the lack of give, soft is good, but supersoft is not better. Supersoft often means superthin too, which tends to make for a weaker fabric.
Avoid a lot of stress on the seams. Which sounds silly because it’s underwear, and should be able to put up with a lot of wear and tear. For the first batch of underwear I attached the binding by sewing right sides together, flipping over and around, and stitching in the ditch to secure the backside of the binding. This however, meant that there was a lot of tension where the binding and main fabric were joined, especially since I used a straight and non-giving seam.
Lay pattern-pieces on the grain. My thrifty self wants to get every use out of that t-shirt, but you will end up with a stretchier piece of underwear that doesn’t twist if you actually go with the grain, rather than randomly squeezing things in.
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Ops, I got the inside and outside mixed up on this one. See the zigzag-stitch on the binding?

Let’s get technical (skip this if you’re not too much into underwear construction!):

I used the same patterns as for the first pairs I made. The one for me has four pattern-pieces, and the one for the boy has six. For mine, there is the front and the back piece, and two identical gusset lining pieces. I sandwich the front piece between these two smaller pieces first, and sew them down. Then there is a little moebius-like magic, as I twist the smaller pieced layers before matching them up with the edge of the back piece. Doing it this way makes all the seams completely on the inside, nice and tidy. I use the neckband of the t-shirt as a waistband when I can, and since they usually are ribbed, they stretch and fit quite nicely. Similarly, I use the hem from the sleeves or the body for the binding as well. They all have a crease running down the middle already, which is convenient for matching up the fold with the top of the main underwear piece. For these pairs I sewed down the edges right sides together with a zigzag, before doing the matching up and tucking under (on the wrong side), and using a twin needle to secure the overlapping parts. This might all be a lot clearer with an image-heavy tutorial, I think! Perhaps I will do one if there is desire and interest for it?

The boy version is in many ways much easier to sew. First the two smaller front pieces go together (four pieces cut out, so two identical sets when this step is done), and then that is attached to the large front pieces on either side. The back seam is next, and at this point, I do a double top stitched seam on all seams, meaning that I sew a straight seam to either side of the pressed open seam. It’s not terribly functional, but it looks very nice. Now I add the second layer of the front piece, but seam allowances of these front panels facing each other, so it’s as nice and tidy as can be. I couldn’t find a way to tuck the edges of this piece under without making it bulky, so I left them raw and uncovered. They seem to be doing just fine – t-shirt material doesn’t really unravel. Almost done! After sewing the inseam, the hem is turned up and zigzag’ed (a twin needle would also work), and then the elastic waistband is secured with a zigzag-seam as well.
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Waistband made from the t-shirt neckband, and a nice double seam on the binding, courtesy of the twin needle.

There we go, new underwear! And what have I learned?

Twin needles are my friends. They make a very nice, evenly spaced double seam on the right side, and a zigzag (and thus stretchy) seam on the wrong side.
The patterns should be symmetrical. I haven’t done anything to the pattern since I traced it from an old piece of underwear, and it’s not completely even. I think the pieces will sew together more accurately once I’ve retraced and fixed the pattern.

This is becoming a ongoing project I look forward to doing – it’s pretty quick and easy to do, so it earns instant gratification points. It’s also re-purposing, and I especially like how useful the end product is! With several t-shirts in my pile, it only becomes a matter of picking which color to do next!

sweater refashioned

Always a sucker for a good thriftstore find, I picked up a grey, slightly boxy sweater a while back. The label read 75 % silk and 15 % cashmere, so I just couldn’t leave it behind!

Buttoning isn’t always easy.

First up, I sewed two parallel seams down the front, and cut in the middle of them. I wanted to prevent any potential fraying, but the sweater-fabric was very well behaved. I positioned the seams slightly to the left of the center, so that the opening would remain centered after overlapping the two edges. I also took in the sides a couple of centimetres at the waist, to get a better fit.

Next I sewed on some dark blue linen lace at the edge of the side that would be covered when the cardigan is buttoned. I thought it would look sweet with a bit of lace peeking out, but it was more drab than anything. The dark color didn’t help, and neither did the fact that there was no embellishment really visible when it was all buttoned up. It needed something more bold!

I thought about some sunny, yellow, machine embroidered swirls, but I was worried it might turn out a little too bright and almost pastel-like for my taste. Fortunately, I found a scrap of lovely, moodier yellow fabric in my stash, which worked perfectly with the grey. I love freehand machine embroidery, so I found a thread to match the color of the sweater, and set to it.

Terrible mixed incandescent and natural lighting.

On my trusty Bernina, all I have to do is switch to the embroidery foot (It’s more or less just a circle, like a tiny embroidery hoop), set the stitch length and width to zero, and lower the transporter. This allows the needle to just go up and down, while I’m creating the pattern by moving the fabric. Lots of fun!

We’re still getting some half-chilly days here, so while I’m waiting for the summer heat, I have something to cover up with!