Not featured at Cantina Bell: Fabric Tacos

One of my fellow sewists in the Craftsy Starlet Suit class called shoulder pads "fabric tacos."  I love that!  Her comment was along the lines of "they must be easy to make, they're just fabric tacos."  So I decided to make my own.  I'm from New Mexico, so tacos come naturally...fabric tacos, hopefully do, too.

I have taken out so many shoulder pads over the years, that I definitely know exactly what they look & feel like. And I wasn't going to put any in this jacket, but Gertie's comment about making the shoulder look more structured got my attention. What's the point of making a tailored jacket & then having saggy shoulders?  At my age the less sagginess the better! 

Here are a few pics of me designing, making & tacking into the jacket my soft tacos...

First, I decided that about 6" would be the right diameter, so I went looking in my kitchen for something about that size.  And viola! a Costco hummous lid, exactly 6" across.  

There are the two 6" diameter circles, cut from a freecycle.org fabric bag.  And when I got my drop-down ironing board, those bits of felt were included.  I'm not sure why, they were sort of being used as packing material, but I was surprised as it seemed like quite old-fashioned packing material.  And they aren't big enough to re-pad the ironing board when/if it ever needs it.  So I decided they'd be my taco filling...

I cut out the 2 half circles from the felt. (It's not wool felt, BTW.)

Then just zigzagged the edge (after some pinning to reduce slippy-ness).  

Aren't they pretty?!  

And this last one shows how I marked the center so I could match it up w/ the shoulder seam, and also how it looks tacked into one of the shoulders.  

On to the lining!

Of Maharajas & Messiness

We bought our house just over a year ago.  In that time we've added on a bedroom with a bathroom + walk-in closet + screened-in porch, and now we've just redone our kitchen (it was finished when we got back from Spain). Oh, and that is the royal we--the Roommate & I do the selecting & designing, others with actual handyperson skills do the work!  

And now the Roommate is painting the living room.  So this is what my cutting table has looked like since late May.  It's a gateleg table, so the part with the cutting board on it folds down.  The stuff in the back?!  Hopefully it will get put away sometime today, as the paint dries in the living room and we get our buffet back together...


On a less messy note, we went to see the Maharaja exhibition at the VA Museum of Fine Art (in Richmond), which ends 8/19/12.  (Hurry!)  It was great; really fun.  

It's especially interesting to us because this man, Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, features heavily in the exhibit, because he was a maharaja well-known for his exquisite taste in gemstones & jewelry, & he placed the biggest order Cartier has ever received!  Oh and the second biggest, too!  And he's the grandfather of a friend of ours!  All those jewels you see in this photo (the strings of diamonds, the strings of pearls, the rubies & emeralds)...they are all real.  And his granddaughter, Joey, designs jewelry; guess where she gets her ideas? But you can afford these treasures! Manjusha Jewels

Of course I was interested in the clothing too, and managed to snap a photo before I remembered NO photography.  It's a bridal gown, embroidered with gold thread & pearls & weighs about 25 lbs.  Fortunately, back then, Indian wedding ceremonies had the bride sitting for most of the time!

I learned about some interesting techniques, too, which I'd never heard of. First, the thousand-head manner of holding various layers of fabric together with tiny gold-colored tacks.  The head of these tacks was about the size of a sewing pin.  Thousands of them were needed to keep the fabric together.  I couldn't handle the fabric, of course, and there wasn't any in the museum shop, so I'll have to do some additional research on this technique.

Another interesting technique is after embroidering paisleys in a staggered pattern all over a fine cashmere gown, thin hot irons were pressed to it to slightly melt the wool of the cashmere & make a fine grid that surrounded each paisley.  I'd never heard of that one, either.  That was a Kashmiri technique.  

Oh, and the messiness?  Not cleaned up or put away...traffic between our house & Richmond is notoriously awful and we spent a lot of our day driving.  

Me vs. the UFOs: 1 down, 4 to go

So I finally finished 7501/7051!  (Clicking on that link will get you the saga of trying to modify the pattern, then having to take a private sewing lesson to get it fitted correctly.)  And in order to finish it I had to redraft the neck facing & the collar (because the fitting involved taking a lot off the shoulder seams).  But it's done!  Totally ready to wear for this fall with tights & my brown leather boots!  Cannot wait.  

More red checkmarks coming soon!

Why the Hall of Shame Must Be Demolished

Yep, that's a yurt!  Our hotel room for 2 nites in Mongolia.

In my last post I mentioned that I have a few things I want to work on, which is my motivation for finishing up/dealing with my Hall of Shame UFOs.  


It started when I decided I needed felted wool dryer balls which I discovered on DIYDelRay.com.  Here's the how to if you think you need some, too.  Of course I didn't want to buy any wool, so I put a request on Freecycle.org for used wool sweaters or yarn.  A friendly neighbor gave me  4 sweaters & a wool blanket.  Everything has holes & is rather the worse for wear, so no qualms about re-using the items (as opposed to wearing them).  The dryer balls took very little of this freecycle wool stash, so now I have lots left.  And I want to finally try felting.  


I have been interested in felting ever since we spent a couple of nights in a yurt in Mongolia.  Those people know how to felt!  The felt is 5-6" thick, too, on these easy-to-move water- & wind-resistant portable houses.  


And I've thought about it & even bought patterns, but never actually tried it.  And since my winter slippers are worn out and I haven't seen any new ones I want, I believe this may be the time.  


I found this amazing mitten pattern (from Heritage Fibre Publications) on Ravelry.  Don't they look warm!?  And these cute little elf shoes, recommended by a friend (a co-worker is having a baby boy next month).  Oh, and these slippers, with amazing color work.  


Part of the UFO completion process will be to demolish a few patterns I should never have tried (I know what fits well & looks good--but did that stop me?!).  You can try to guess which 2 of last week's posts will be unsewn...I'll let you know next post!  

UFOs sighted! Or, a Hall of Shame

Okay, we are back from Catalonia.  It was amazing...got to see all our friends (and their families & children), so that was wonderful.  We were fortunate that 3 different sets of friends were in the same part of the world at the same time. And it meant we traipsed from one end of Catalonia to another, from mountains (hiking/birdwatching) to the seashore (the Roommate worked on his tan while I stayed inside & read--I'm a white girl!) to river deltas (more birding), and managed to bask in the amazing Modernisme architecture that is all over Barcelona. Our next project will be to rent some movies filmed in Parc Guell!


And while I was gone, of course I missed Bella, who is as sweet and adorable as ever. And I missed my machine & thought of about 50 more projects I want to do...but made a vow that I would finish up some UFOs before I move on.
Most of them are almost done, so really, it would be a little work to get a BIG feeling of accomplishment before I move on.
And what are those UFOs, you dare to ask?  Well, let's get started...from oldest to newest the UFOs are:

1. Simplicity 1011A, which you probably recognize from Tilly's logo.  This is a very good lesson in why muslins/toiles are so important.  It is a little too small (wouldn't be if I'd lose that stone I gained since we moved to DC!), but could be let out.  But the real problem is that the bodice is really too short in the front--and I refuse to take out & re-do the zipper--this was back when I wasn't so good at them and I remember it being he** to get it in).  I need to do some playing (maybe not have it overlap so much at the double-breast in front?) and get it into shape.  I love the pattern & the fabric, so really want this to work out.

2. 7051/7501 - This has been going on way too long.  I have fixed the weird fitting issue, thanks to Allison, but have to remake the collar & facing as that required cutting off quite a bit at the neck-side shoulder seam.  I really can't wait to have it done, and winter is sort-of coming, so it must keep its place in the UFO order.  

3. Copy Your Clothes: Pants - I took this class with Allison at Bits of Thread, DC in April.  Here we are 4 months later & though I made a toile (with extremely ugly sheet fabric as you see in the photo), and bought some super cheap $.99/yard fabric, I haven't finished them.  They didn't quite fit right & I really have trouble adjusting & playing with fit as I mostly hate my body (Candy Says...) & therefore inspecting it closely for fitting is icky.  And I'm not sure I want to tackle the lining that will be required.  But I do want a few colors of these pants...it will be great.  And, I want to make my Starlet Suit a pantsuit!  Must achieve!  


4. Starlet Suit Jacket! - It is actually about done.  That is, if you consider w/out a lining about done!  I've really enjoyed all that Gretchen has taught in this class.  I've learned lots of stuff I'll use again, a few things that were interesting but probably won't use much, and had lots of questions & terms I had about tailoring answered/explained.  


5. Probably not the best idea I've ever had.  I really wanted this dress, but I'm not sure it's really for my body type (even if I did lose that stone!).  This is Simplicity 6081, which my mom recently found & sent.  (1966!).  It is so cute & I love the fabric I've got, but goshee gollee, I am not having much luck w/ fitting it.  Did anyone say toiles/muslins are important?  This may get made into something else--like a book bag or cover for my tablet computer...


Next post I'll tell you why I'm so anxious to get all these crossed off my list...

Summer Fun with the Roommate's Fun Summer Shirts

I was down in the basement looking for hiking socks (which I didn't find!) for our trip to the Pyrenees, but I came across a box of the Roommate's fun shirts...he has so many that we don't have them all in the closet!  He's supposed to rotate them every summer or so, but with all the upheaval of the kitchen re-do, that didn't happen. Anyway, I brought up & ironed three so that his wardrobe is updated for Spain.

I didn't make any of these. His tailor Mohammed is responsible for most of them. But the wonderful Brunswick repairman bowling shirt we got in an antique store in SFO years ago.  And one is from Ouagadougou--there's a sort of high-end tourist fabric shop there called Woodin and he got a few things there...

One Dress 10 Ways; or, Amy Winehouse's Stylist Shares

The New York Times Magazine had a short article about Naomi Parry, who did the styling for Amy Winehouse's last tour (cancelled after only one night).  What I loved was the cute dress she made 10 different ways.  Here are a few favorites...check out the article for more.