Flashback: 1983 Wool Suit

Thirty years ago this week I waying to finish my annual 4-H project.  l finished this suit on the morning of August 15, 1983, just in time to model it for the judges later that day.  Sadly, I don't have any pictures of my 15-year-old self in the outfit, but believe it or not I still have the suit in my closet.  It's been badly moth eaten over the years and is way past salvaging, but I can't bring myself to throw it away because of all the good memories attached to it. That suit earned me trips to the State Fair and the State Make-it-with-Wool contest.  I wore it quite a bit and I got a lot of compliments. I should point out that a lot of credit goes to my Mom who spent many summers patiently helping my sister and me with 4-H projects.  She was my source of all sewing information and I learned far more from her than I ever have from magazines, college classes and online tutorials.

Here's a picture of the original pattern.  My pattern might possibly be buried in a drawer somewhere in my parents' house but most likely it was thrown away years ago.

 We found the fabric at our usual source, the Pendleton Woolen Mills outlet in Pendleton, Oregon.  Back then they gave customers Pendleton labels to sew in their garments.  I bought some wool there last summer as we were traveling in the area and I don't think they do that anymore.  Too bad.

Look at all those bound buttonholes.  They are pretty dang good for a 15-year-old!

The pockets are real, not just "fake pocket" flaps.

I'm a lot bigger now than I was at 15 but surprisingly I can still almost get into the jacket.  Sure I can't button it, but the front edges almost meet if I tug a little.  The skirt has a 24" waist.  There's no way it will ever fit me again.

It doesn't fit me perfectly in the back, but better than anything else I've sewn for myself in the past 30 years so I may use it in my quest for a fitting shell.  Or maybe it just looks like it fits because it's so tight? And yeah I know the skirt CB seam is in the wrong place and it hangs weird, but that's because it's waaay too small and only held in place by a pin at the hip.

It's kind of sad that I haven't made myself anything that ambitious in the 30 years since, but I guess I know I could if I really wanted to, right?  Maybe this suit will inspire me over the coming months and I'll see what I can do now.

Learning About Leather

2013 was supposed to be the year I finally bought myself a "grown-up" purse. I don't know if that means I'm finally admitting I'm an adult or if I'm just becoming self-conscious about the ratty-looking bags I've been carrying around.  Either way, my under $20 pleather purses are long past their life expectancies and I can't bring myself to buy another one.  The thing is though, I'm not ready to be in a long-term committed relationship with a purse and I can't bring myself to plop down hundreds of dollars for something that will be a fleeting infatuation.

Of course, the next logical step in my thought process is "I can make one!"  I really should stop right there, but once my mind becomes attached to an idea I may as well follow through or I will never be free of it.  I knew I was doomed when I first saw the Craftsy class "Making Leather Bags".  Craftsy has become my enabler. Yes, I enrolled in the class.

It just so happens that I had another leather project in mind anyway and the information in the class, even though it's about making a tote bag, has been very helpful. I started a motorcycle-type jacket for my daughter and she thought it would look better with leather sleeves. My husband had an old leather jacket that he donated to the cause.

When I separated the leather from the lining it suddenly transformed from a plain old leather jacket to the most luxurious material I had ever held in my hand! I wanted to wrap myself in it. Can I make a leather blanket?  As much as I hate taking things apart (because usually that means I'm ripping out my mistakes) I actually loved disassembling this jacket.  I felt like I was freeing the leather.  Finally I had some large flat pieces of leather that I could use to cut out the sleeves.

Problem #1: You would think it would be easy to cut size small women's sleeves out of a size large men's jacket, right? Wrong.  I had to do some strategic piecing and add some seams that I wasn't planning on.  In the end it worked out pretty well.  I matched up the seams I added with the existing seams in the leather so it pretty much looks like that's the way I planned it all along.  

Leather is really pretty easy to sew, at least in my limited experience.  My sewing machine has a walking foot so I didn't have problems with the leather dragging under the presser foot.  I ordered some leather tape to stick all the seam allowances in place after they were sewn.  That was a lot more fun than pressing everything into place, but wow is that stuff sticky!  I'm actually a little bit surprised that I'm not permanently adhered to the jacket.  If anyone ever needs some of my DNA they should look on that roll of tape.  The trickiest step with the leather was probably setting in the sleeves with no pins and no second chances.  It wasn't really hard, just nerve-wracking.

And here's the finished product!

I used Simplicity 2056, and while the reviews of this pattern are generally good I have to say I wouldn't make it again.  Maybe that's because I expect too much of patterns though.  For a jacket that you're only going to wear for a short time I guess it's fine, but if you're going to put the time into making a jacket, shouldn't it have a lining?  Also, while I like exposed zippers, I'm not a fan of having the edges of the zipper tape on the outside.  It reminds me of the t-shirts with the seam allowances on the outside, or anything with raw edges showing.  It just doesn't look finished to me.  But since I only paid 99 cents for the pattern I guess it's fair that I had to redraft some of the pieces and make my own lining pattern.  You get what you pay for, right?

I'm not sure a leather bag is next on my list of projects but it's certainly in the top ten.  I'm really looking forward to learning more about buying and using leather.

Making Labels

For years, decades actually, I've been trying to come up with an idea for personalized clothing labels. After all, I put a lot of effort into making and sometimes designing clothing for myself or my family and I should give myself some sort of credit, right? I was once given a gift of some of those pre-woven labels that had my name printed on them. That was at least 15 years ago and I used them in some of the things I made for my kids but they weren't really my style. I have always been drawn to the idea of using my initials (KC) but every time I played around with the letters I ended up with something too close to Calvin Klein's CK logo.

I kept seeing ads for label companies and I just couldn't bring myself to commit to a logo for 100 or more custom labels. What if I hated them? What if I changed my mind before I could use them all?  I couldn't make up my mind but I never stopped playing around with my initials in my head wondering how I could make a logo out of them.

One day I was looking in my closet, wondering just how many years a certain shirt had been hanging there without being worn, and I had a eureka moment. My initials plus the year, and I would have a label that both identifies and dates my work. Form and function, that's my style!

Fortunately there are either more DIY label options now, or at least I'm more aware of them. I briefly toyed around with inkjet printing on fabric, iron-on transfers and even screen printing, but I finally settled (for now) on rubber stamps. There are lots of tutorials online for making these labels so this is far from an original idea, but here's how I do it:

1. Decide on the label material. I think it should be all-cotton but I haven't tested that myself.  It could be fabric cut into rectangles with all edges turned under, but I decided on cotton tape.  I ordered a 36-yard roll of 5/8 inch "fine cotton edge tape" from Wawak and that's what works for me.  I'm also trying some cotton twill tape that's a little wider.

2.  Prewash and dry the fabric or tape.  Get all the sizing and shrinkage out.  I cut sections of the tape a couple feet long and washed them in a lingerie bag so they wouldn't strangle the rest of my laundry.  Here's what it looked like after washing: 

I guess I should add "iron the tape" as part of this step, but I think it's pretty obvious.

3.  You'll need a stamp or stamps.  I found a set of lower-case alphabet stamps, picked out the letters I needed, and stuck them together on the block from a rubber stamp I already had.  I had to cut around the letters so they fit close together.  For the year I used a date stamp from the office supply store.  The numbers were spread a little too far apart so I just nudged them closer together.

4.  I tried a lot of ink and most of it washed out.  Finally I found Tsukineko brand Versa Magic multi-surface chalk ink at Joann's, and it was perfect.  I got a variety pack so I can change colors when I'm bored with one.  

5.  Now stamp whatever you want on the cotton tape or fabric.  Every time I do it I need a lot of practice to get it right so plan on doing a lot of stamping at once.  Or maybe I'm just lacking stamping talent.  I put paper on my work surface so I don't get ink all over everything.  Only about half of my stamped letters look really good, then only about half of those look good after I add the date. Maybe someday I'll get the hang of it.

6.  Now WAIT!! Set your labels aside for at least 24 hours to let the ink set.  Ok, I haven't actually tested it but I'm going to follow that rule anyway.  I wouldn't want to mess up my good labels.  After 24 hours you need to heat-set the ink with an iron.  I always use a press cloth and press from both the front and back.  The ink has never transferred to the press cloth but I always use it anyway.  

7.  Now wait again.  Nope, I haven't tested this either, but I always wait at least 24 hours between pressing and washing.  I don't think it's necessary to wash the heat-set labels before using them but it's my way to make sure they still look good after washing and before I sew them in my clothes. 

Now I have some cute, simple labels in all the clothes I make.  I can't believe it took me this long to decide on labels but now that I've done it I'm more excited to make things to put them on!