Another favorite sewing tool

Yea!! I was able to spend some time sewing today. I am working on a couple of simple daygowns. My plan is to finish constructing them and add some simple embroidery. Nothing fancy and over the top. I also am working on a bonnet to match the Circa 1920 French Handsewn Gown. While working on the daygowns, attaching bias binding to the neck and binding to the sleeves, I found myself reaching for another favorite.

I first posted about a pair of scissors in this post before Christmas. Those black Dovo scissors are my go to when trimming French Seams. They are great but like of what I call my husband's "special tools," not all tools are equal for all tasks.

When attaching bias binding to a gathered neck or sleeve you create a bulkier seam allowance. The method I use when applying a bias binding is to stitch the binding seam twice, 1/8" apart, trimming, then turning under the bias to whip stitch it down. I trim the remainder of my seam allowance right up next to that second stitching before turning and whipping. (Jeannie B has shown this in her Priscilla lessons here.) In order to have good control over my scissors as well as what can be a scant amount of fabric, I use serrated scissors. The black Dovos are not meant for seam allowances that may have more bulk to them. For that job, I use a 6inch serrated scissors from Gingher.

I left this picture quite large so that when you click on it, you can see the serrated blade. 
 

See those teeny teeth? They are magic when trying to trim within a thread or two of the stitching. They grab the fabric and allow me to trim smoothly without all of those wonky knicks. One clean cut does it.

I see in that close up that my scissors need sharpening. On occasion I will gather a several of my Ginghers together and send them back to Gingher to be sharpened. Oh my word, you would swear you are getting a new pair of scissors back! I highly recommend this process as opposed to Bubba who has set up a booth outside the grocery store every few weeks. (disclaimer: I know there are some great scissor guys out there, but I have had a better experience by sending them to Gingher.) Gingher has a speedy turn around and they come back clean, balanced and razor sharp.

Again I hope all of you are staying warm and have time to take a stitch or two.

A favorite sewing tool

And it is not expensive. You don't need to go to a specialty sewing store or scour the internet for a source. Available at your local grocery store. And shoot, you can buy 100 of them for under a dollar! You can't beat that for a deal. Now I know there are special "thangs" that many use, or trolley needles (I am just flat dangerous with that thing.) but these cheap skewers work wonders and at less than a penny a piece I don't seem to lose them with the frequency of those "thangs" and if I do I just grab another. If it is too long, I just break off a hunk. Now you can't get much more specialized and technical than that.

These look like extra fancy ones. The ones I buy at the grocery don't look near this smooth or polished. What do I use a bamboo skewer for? I am beginning to wonder what I don't use them for. Here you see it in action for piping a cuff or collar, I NEVER sew a French seam that I don't use one. It helps me get those 1/8" French seams. I use it to help guide gathered fabric under the presser to keep from getting those awful fold overs when stitching gathered fabric to straight fabric. You know what I mean. It is where there are folds in your gathers or worse yet, it actually peeks out from the seam on the right side. I hate that! I use it to help ease bias around a curve such as a bib or around the lower curve of this little jacket. 
 
But I knew it was my friend today when I was sewing the first step of a French seam. Imagine my puzzlement when I have stitched the first step on the left side of the gown and am ready to stitch the first step on the right side of the gown. You know you cut both fronts the same size because you cut them at the same time, but for some reason when you go to stitch the second side seam your front is an inch longer than the back. Don't you just hate that? How did that happen? I obviously must have been pulling on something to stretch it I suppose. Or gremlins did while I was eating lunch. Whatever.

I didn't want to puuuuuulllllll and stretch the back to fit because then when you go to press it, you can always tell. It looks like a seam with a bad case of drunk driving. So I decided to try and ease the front to fit the back. (I tried really hard to do this without pictures but couldn't help myself. Excuse the yellow cast to them, it is the yukky lighting in my sewing room at night.)

Above is an example of what I mean about your two pieces not being the same length. These are literally scraps I pulled out of the trash can.

First place the longer piece on top and use the skewer to "crowd the needle" with the fabric in front of the presser foot. You just gently push as you stitch. I am not tucking or pleating the fabric, just pushing it.

This is a closer view of the same action. I do this every few stitches all the way down the seam. Just picking up my skewer and pushing the next little bit of fabric toward the presser foot.

When I got the the end of the seam this was the difference in length that was left. This is negligible as far as I am concerned. Also in such a short piece I didn't have as much territory to cover to ease the longer fabric in. On the baby gown I was working on, I had almost the entire length of 17" to ease with. Here my scraps were only about 5" long.

See that tiny pucker I have circled? Dontworryaboutit!! It will be gone momentarily.

Nice and smooth once it is pressed.

So go to the grocery store and buy yourself an expensive sewing tool. They can be found in the aisle with the foil pans and overpriced measuring spoons.

A quick gift

As bloggers we all have a routine of blogs we follow and some that we check if not daily, almost so. Well Stop Staring and Start Sewing! is one of those for me. She posted a tutorial for an Apron in an Hour. Well in a flash of inspiration I decided to make one as a hostess gift.

Now Jona you lied to me. You told it would take an hour. I beg to differ, it took one hour and 13 minutes!!! Now faithful reader you know I am a giver, I am here to serve; so when there is misinformation I have to let you know. (You realize I am teasing, I hope. It did take an extra 13 minutes, but come one, how many gifts can you make in 1:13?)

I timed this little endeavor. Now I didn't include the time it took to preshrink it in the dryer, but from the time I sat down and made the first snip to tieing it onto the mannequin was 1:13. That is awesome if you ask me. What a great hostess gift. And for under $10, I bought enough fabric for 2 and it was $17 with tax. I used some Amy Butler fabric from her two Midwest Modern Line. All in all, a cute, quick project.

A link to the past

Julie from Smocked Clothes commented #2 DD's birthday post that she hadn't heard of picking up gingham squares to smock the fabric. It is similar to the picking up iron on dots.

There are two ways to use iron on dots, since I think they are evil I haven't used them in 27 years. One way is as I described, you pick up the dots as I did the gingham and that creates your pleats and smocking design as you smock across the fabric. This method has been referred to as American smocking. Not many people have heard that term, like many people from England have never heard it called English smocking. English smocking can be done with iron on dots as well. This way to use the dots is the truly evil evil side of those &^%$# dots. You pick up each dot with a tiny stitch to form pleats across the fabric that you then go back and stitch the smocking on. (I am sure my oldest daughter and my friend Jan are cringing at the grammar in this paragraph. Sorry girls.) I pleated ONE dress with those dots, never finished it. I was so done in by pleating it by hand, I had long lost interest by the time it came to smock. I love the smocking part, not the prep part.

I think I found the pattern that I used to make that little blue gingham dress. I found it at "America's Garage Sale" aka ebay.

It is the same smocking design. This pattern is from the 70's the seller stated. I may have bought when my oldest was born. I thought I still had the pattern. I still have the pattern I made my sister a toaster cover with, why I have no idea, but I didn't keep this one. Anyone want a pattern for a toaster cover? In the description for this pattern it states that it has the transfer dots included, but I am sure it has the gingham directions as well. I wouldn't have used those dots twice.

I pondered re-making the same little dress out of this blue plaid, and Children's Corner Lee. I am sure the embroidery would be light year's better, I would pipe the yoke, pleat it before I smocked it on one of these handy dandy gifts from the gods, the Super Amanda Jane pleater,

and surely the construction would be immensely better. But I stopped myself. I loved that little dress, love that picture, I loved that I had made it for her and so began the legacy of taking pictures of my children in their mommy-mades. If I remade it, it just wouldn't be the same dress made by a young mom with two tiny children, little to no time on her hands, working full time to help put her husband through school; but loved her children enough to wrap them in stitches of love. Sewn while babies napped or everyone else had gone to bed. That little dress really can't be replaced. So I walked away from the project. Its better that way.

I love Linen continued..

Well I didn't get to stitch as much as I wanted today, but I did get one little section done. Have I mentioned that I love linen? I hope that my eyelets will get better as I go along, but I love these teeny bullion loop flowers.

Back home again

I am back home again. Had a wonderful 5 days on Avery Island and spent the rest of the time at my daughter's. Wendy Schoen's La Broderie Bayou was heavenly. Not only was the setting divine, but the company even better. Caught up with some old friends, met new friends all the while surrounded by beautiful garments, fabrics and threads. We won't even mention the wonderful meals prepared for us while staying at Marsh House on Avery Island. In the days ahead I hope to have my own day gowns finished. I am pretty far on the pink daygown taught by Mirella Arroyo. The blue gown with net darning is another story. I may be pulling blue linen threads for many weeks.

Bees doin' it; birds doin' it....

So I guess I might too. Create a blog that is. Not really sure what I will do with a blog besides join the masses that have one. I enjoy reading other blogs so I figured "Why not?" The down side will be that it puts my poor grammar skills out there for the world to see. OUCH!

I plan to share my projects and perhaps some knowledge along the way. Please bear with me as I learn how to post and format these pages.

I will post pictures of some of my passion.

This is one of the gowns I have done in recent years. It is smocked and hand embroidered. I love monograms on gowns with the intent that the gowns will become family heirlooms. This is a basic square yoke gown with an embroidered inset down the center. The embroidery took about 100 hours to complete. I loved every minute of it. My husband also had the privilege of baptizing the baby who wore this gown. What a blessing.

This gown was a challenge in that I had never made a gown with a rounded T-yoke. I used Sarah Howard Stone's French Hand Sewing Vol II. I ended up unstitching the center panel three different times. Doesn't sound like much until you realize that the seams were all trimmed and roll and whipped by machine. That is a lot of teeny stitches to take out. But the result was worth it.







This last gown is my most recent. I am always on the lookout for "victims." This was for the first grandchild of a friend of mine. At first I was sad that this grandmother didn't want a lot of embroidery on the gown. I was quickly won over by the lusciousness of silk organza over silk batiste. What a dream to work on! It is not snow white but it is whiter than it appears here. Its more of a natural white. The bullions are done in pale pink.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing some samples of my passion. Until the next time.