Organize Your (Small!) Sewing Space

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Ann Thompson

I keep mentioning here that we’re moving soon (less than a month!) and moving means a lot of sorting and organizing. One of the very first things I wrote about on this blog was my under-the-stair sewing space. That little space, as compact as it was, really served me well for the couple of years I had it. But when we move our new basement isn’t going to be laid out the same and it’s less of a place to hang out in than it is the perfect humidity level and temperature to store wine and preserves. (I was going to say that my husband’s excited about that, but, in fact, everyone’s excited about that.) What we do have, after five years of a teeny, tiny living area, is room to really spread out.

Looking at the layout, the best place for me to sew is the new kitchen. It’s large and airy and bright with enough wall space to place our existing shelving unit, add a small table and chair under the window, and hang the pegboard and ironing board. (One day I really hope to add a sturdy kitchen island to use as a cutting table too.)

Having decided on the space I’d be moving into, the next step was to sort through every single scrap of fabric, spool of thread, and notion I owned and then find a reasonable way to store it. This shelving unit has two more rows of cubes that currently hold Ralphie’s toys and those will stay in place after the move.

The first major task was going through all of my fabric. I honestly had no idea I had this much! I folded the fabric selvedge to selvedge and then from the fold to the (doubled) selvedge edge and rolled them onto comic book boards. These are really nice for fabric as they’re both cheap (I paid $7.00 for 100 boards) and archival quality. You can ask for them in almost any comic book store. I love the way I can see all of my fabric in one place: inspiring! The amount of yardage is immediately apparent too.

Can you believe that a couple of weeks ago – prior to all of this sorting – I saw some suiting on sale and wondered if I should pick some up? I didn’t. This is all bottom-weights I had in my stash.

The off-white bins on the lower shelf hold patterns arranged in alpha-numeric order. I have a data key containing all of my pattern envelope photos by category and when I’m looking for something to make, I ‘flip’ through these images and, when I’ve decided what I want, I retrieve the pattern from these bins. The envelopes contain the pattern envelope, the instructions, the uncut pattern, and any traced and cut pieces I have. I sometimes also put in a page of notes detailing what I did in the construction and what I wish I’d done. (I should do this more consistently because those are the best things to have!)

I’m so proud of myself for clearing all of my scraps into one reasonable tin, for finally untangling all of my embroidery floss, and for sorting through dozens of packages of thrifted trims to this one tin. Editing is the key to organization and, even though it’s painful, remember that you’re keeping this stuff in circulation and getting your own collection down to the things you really love and will be excited to use.

Some of the baskets contain things that I normally hang on my pegboard. I don’t really love having my scissors in a bin like this, but it’s okay for now!

Every sewing project now starts will taking out this jar, and pincushion, and beautiful vintage bird tin. The things I use the most — pins, feet, machine and hand needles, measuring tape, sewing machine cleaning kit — are all here and ready to go.

All in all, I love having everything cleaned up and refreshed!

Sewing a Teen Dress

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ann Thompson

It’s not finished, by any stretch, but the zipper is in! My daughter has a few events coming up that require a dress and I had really wanted to try to sew her one. However, as those of you who have experienced the mercurial teen years know well, embarking on a large sewing project without the buy-in of the teen in question is a recipe for mutual resentment. For a couple of months, this conversation was in play:

“Do you want to look at this pinterest board I made of dresses?”

“Not really.”

“Do you want to look at patterns?”

“Can’t we just buy a dress?”

The answer to that question is, of course, yes. Although retail shopping makes me irritated and miserable, I was willing to go as far as the mall – the mall! – for an outfit if that’s what she really wanted. I did pick up a New Look 6824 when I was shopping for fabric about a month ago and this brand of patterns was on sale for $2.00 because, at that price, it didn’t seem like much of a risk or commitment.

I thought the mix and match aspect might appeal to Beatrice. She didn’t seem interested at first and then, one day, I showed her a photo of a dress Michelle had made for her beautiful (and same-age) daughter over at Falafel and the Bee:

Sewing for teens, especially young teens, is tricky and Michelle nails it every single time. I think there’s just the right amount of sophisticated femininity here. Clean lines, no gimmicks, and the subtlest of feminine details (look at that beautiful bit of lace peeking out of the hem, the delicate eyelet, and the runched sash!) make this so appropriate for a young teen.

Beatrice thought so too. “I had no idea you could sew something like that,” she exclaimed, and immediately wanted to look at the design-your-own pattern again. Leaving aside that I had not, ever, made something like that, the vote of confidence in sewing in general was heartening. After the craziness of competing in the Sew Off, and organizing every thread of my stash, we finally broke out the pattern this week.

I can’t wait to see how it all turns out.

Organize your DPNs

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Ann Thompson

If spring is the traditional season of renewal, cleaning, and organization, that goes double (triple? quadruple?) for those of us who are packing up to move. Though we don’t load up our truck for another month, I’m determined that only the useful, the beloved, and the beautiful are making the move.

Thanks to days and days spent digging through every single thing in my sewing area, and my husband patiently loading up the car with my discards, I can now say with confidence that I know what I have and I like what I have.

Almost.

There are still a few categories of things that I like and want to keep, but the way that I’ve been keeping them drives me insane. Take my DPNs (double-pointed needles): I don’t knit very often, but I do occasionally like to break out the needles and make a pair of socks. To those in the knitting know, socks are knit “in the round” on circular needles or DPNs. DPNs often show up in yard sales and thrift shops for a tiny fraction of the retail price. If you pick them up when you see them (which is my manner of acquisition), you might find yourself, a few years down the road, with quite the collection. If your method of organization consists of throwing all the DPNS and crochet hooks, and tapestry needles and stitch markers in a festive Elvis tin (I think it originally held candy), finding a set means sitting down with a needle gauge and putting every needle through it until you have enough for your project.

Seriously. No wonder I never knit!

I would go through phases where I tried to coral the sets with elastic bands and cardboard tags, but once you remove them, they tangle up into an elastically little knot.

When I finished sorting my sewing supplies, I had a bunch of linen scraps (from a picked apart pair of pants) that I didn’t want to part with, but that were too cut up to make children’s clothes. I thought I could get a pair of shorts out of them, but the material had some flaws from the picking apart. But then it struck me that I could use the linen to make a whole pile of little DPN bags. This might be my most OCD project ever (and that’s saying something), but I love the way these turned out.

My knitting skills may not be up to par, but my crazy-lady anal-retentive skills are unsurpassed!

If you want some too (and I know you do), read on: Continue reading →

We’re Moving!

Posted on April 16, 2013 by Ann Thompson

We’re moving! I mentioned in a recent post that our time in student housing is drawing to a close. We thought we might be able to squeeze another year out of here, but we found out just over a week ago that we really, truly, needed to get the heck out. Although this was a cause for some concern when we first got notice, we found a really beautiful house in a neighbourhood that we really like. I’m extraordinarily pleased with the house. It’s nicer than anywhere I’ve lived in my adult life.

I know people move all of the time, but we really don’t. Unusually for renters, we’ve moved twice in the last sixteen years. When we left our old apartment, I felt so nostalgic because my daughter had been born there. Now we’re leaving the place where my son was born.

This student townhouse has been good to us and we’ve forged a lot of amazing friendships. Most of our friends have moved on though and now we’re moving on too.

I don’t think of myself as much of a pack rat, but we’ve started to clear out some neglected areas of the house and there is a lot that I want to get rid of. It turns out I have a huge stash of notions and fabrics and craft-y things. How did I manage to collect so much? I have a lot of work ahead of me!

What about you? Do you find yourself stunned by how much you’ve amassed in your stash? What do you do with it all?

A Girly, Embroidered Pillow

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Ann Thompson

Have you ever had a week filled with craft failures? Because I have! My original plan for the home decor week of the sew off was brilliant (if I do say so), but thwarted due to the insane price of the fabric I needed. I almost talked myself into it, but honestly, it was far, far out of my budget and I’m glad I didn’t do it.

Then, I had another idea which failed due to . . . lack of skill. That feels like it might be a little too honest, but there you have it. The reason I can sew at all – really – is that I’m mostly okay with screwing up on a more than regular basis.

Finally, at the eleventh hour, I decided that, contest or not, I should just do a project that I wanted to do and liked to sew.

My daughter’s updated room is in need of a few pillows that look like they really belong in her space, so I knew I’d be happy making her a cover for one of her throw pillows. I had some thick upholstery fabric in this beautiful print I picked up when it was on deep discount and I thought it hit the right note of feminine and sophisticated.

I severely underestimated how very many hours it would take to pick out all of the outlining using a running stitch, but I do like sitting at a table with an embroidery hoop, watching British murder mysteries. (Pro tip: never move to a quiet little English village in the country because it’s a surefire way to get axed.)

I love the way this pillow turned out! I kept everything simple — an envelope closure at the back and simple serged edged on the inside. From a distance this pillow looks only like it features a pretty fabric, but as you get closer, the texture of the embroidery becomes apparent. I lined the back to protect the back of the work and the pressed, pieced seams and did a little straight-line quilting in the white border to keep everything from shifting and to give the pillow face a slightly puffy look. My daughter’s initial is embroidered into the bottom right corner in a pop of bright blue. The whole thing is edged with gold braid I’ve had in my stash for ten or twelve years and the pillow form is feather for extra squish-ability and luxury.

If you have a print that you love, this is an excellent way to highlight its beauty and add handwork to advantage. (My daughter is probably very lucky her initial is embroidered into the corner or this probably would have wound up in the living room.)

Sew Off Week One Results

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Ann Thompson

I’m moving on to round two! There was a lot of tough competition and a huge amount of variation in what different judges liked and what the voters liked. Interesting! You can head on over to Naptime Crafters to see a detailed breakdown of the results. Thanks so much for your votes and, especially, coming to visit if you’re new here.

And now, leaving the past behind us. . . what the heck am I going to sew up for Week Two?

That’s right: home decor. Whatever it is, it had better be portable — I just found out this weekend that the university is officially tossing us to the curb. We knew this was going to happen, but this comes sooner than expected and after having just decided we would hang out for another year for the cheap rent. Let’s see this as a cris-a-tunity, friends! Hopefully we’ll find a place without rubber baseboards (again: ???) and with leafy green trees.

Sailor Suits: A Short History

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Ann Thompson

If you came over here from the Sew Off at Naptime Crafters, welcome! I’m so delighted you came to visit. If you want a closer look at the sailor suit I made for Ralphie, the whole post is here. And, of course, if you haven’t checked out the Sew Off you should do that! There’s some really amazing talent on display. Voting is open on this week’s look until the end of the day on Sunday, April 7th, and you get to pick your top two looks. (You will find it almost impossible to choose!)

And now, let’s talk about the Sailor Suit. When I said that it was everywhere for a hundred years, I really meant it. Here are some of the wonderful vintage images I used as inspiration for Ralph’s outfit:

1. Tinted photograph, early 20th century. 2.Josef Maria Auchentaller Portrait of Peter. 1906 3. Crown Prince Olav of Norway, 1910 4. Children’s clothing advertisement, 1921

I think what I like about these images, in particular, is that they all depict boys in sailor suits who are clearly not babies. Though we see sailor suits now on the baby and toddler set especially for formal occasions, for a very long time they were most often seen on kids who were moving around, running and playing and having their own adventures. Very small children could be dressed up in something frilly and expected to make no effective objections.

This little Victorian boy, for example, still has his hair in ringlets and is still dressed in skirts. The level of fussiness depicted here – the high, tight collar, the floppy bow, the laced and buttoned cuffs, the lace-edged button placket – is in sharp contrast to the comparatively easy-breezy sailor suit. While boys in their Little Lord Fauntleroy suits often still had sausage curls, there are relatively few portraits of boys in curls and sailors. Thus, for a lot of little boys, for a lot of years, having a sailor suit made meant the end of being a baby and a relative increase in freedom and autonomy.
The suit that started it all, was, of course, the miniature sailor suit given to Victoria and Albert’s oldest son, Prince Albert Edward and immortalized in the Winterhalter portrait of the little boy in 1846. (You can see a photo of the sailor suit itself here.)

Victoria was a savvy head of state and, lacking official political power, she promoted images of herself and her family in the domestic realm as a way to influence the moral and family life of her subjects. (Victoria really took to the new medium of photography. The photo shoots of modern royals and celebrities letting us into their homes and their lives was something that Victoria started.)

The British Navy was, at this time, the most powerful naval force in the world and the uniform had recently been standardized. This gift was both an advertisement for the navy and a celebration of its power. Naval officers were well known in the popular culture of the time and their exploits were commonly reported in literature directed towards children. It would have been very cool to dress like a sailor. Similarly, in the 1950s, as America experiences a nostalgic attachment to the frontier and television and movies depict an idealized west, we see children’s clothing reproduce cowboy styling and detailing.

The sailor suit may have begun as a homage to the actual British navy, but its popularity – again, I think this is really because it hit a sweet spot between appropriately dressy for adults and comfortable for children to actually wear – remained in force for a very long time. It was vastly popular in Europe and America and was adopted as school uniforms and camp costumes. Women’s fashion picked it up as casual seaside wear and it became associated with sport, summer, and childhood itself.

Because of the sailor suits domination in children’s fashion, I’m not surprised Bergman dressed Alexander so often in sailor suits. (And he was reportedly, extremely picky about the costuming in Fanny och Alexander – okay, obviously no shock there!)

Since making Ralphie a sailor suit, I have a much larger appreciation for its place in children’s fashion. And with a little photo manipulation, I hope my portrait of him will join the ranks of the many, many wonderful images out there.

To the Sea, the Shining Sea: Sew Off Week One, Children’s Clothing

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Ann Thompson

When I found out I was going to be a contestant in the Sew Off (still a shock!), I asked my family to help me brainstorm ideas for a children’s outfit. “Make him a suit,” My daughter suggested, “everyone likes a kid in a suit.” She had a point. Little boys look hilariously adorable in suits. There’s something about the incongruity of a suit’s formality and the extreme casualness of childhood itself that tickles the fancy of adults. Certainly, when Ralphie wore his Eton suit this Easter, he drew a lot of attention. Told again and again that he was very handsome, he carried himself with extreme care. And then we got home and we took it off and got into jeans and a t-shirt to go play. Formal wear has a place in our lives and even in the lives of our children, but it’s just not something we can (or want to) wear all of the time. Suits are fun, in other words, but as Ralph isn’t a sommelier, but an average almost-three year old, he can probably get away with owning just one. What I really wanted to make for him was something sort of in-between formal and casual — a little bit dressy, but something he could really play in.

“Like in Fanny and Alexander,” I said. “where both kids and all of the cousins are in sailor suits most of the time.” Where did the sailor suit go? From the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, it pretty much reigned over childhood. Do you remember Dana’s wonderful post about her great-grandfather’s Little Lord Fauntleroy Suit? Those were everything that kids hated – fussy, formal, both impossible not to soil and sure to draw negative maternal attention as soon as one did. Even though it’s dressiness is a level beyond what we’re used to seeing on kids now, the sailor suit is sort of the vintage opposite of “velvet with a lace collar” — sporty, sturdy, and very comfortable. Kids – especially boys, but the ubiquitous sailor suit was also worn by girls paired with a pleated skirt – loved to wear the sailor suit. The fabrics were comparatively easy to clean, the over-the-head construction of the middy blouse meant that kids could dress without adult help, and it’s association with the standardized uniform of the British navy made it very cool. Sailor suits were, in short, the hoodie and jeans of now. Images of sailor suits, for that hundred year period, seem to mean childhood itself.

The Velvet Aubergine, Sew-Off, Sailor Suit

I tried to stay true to the vintage spirit here. This is a very sturdy, playful outfit. As I said over at Naptime Crafters, I wanted to emphasis comfort, movement, and hassle-free laundry days – the boy’s equivalent of a jumper dress. The white fabric is poly-cotton twill and the navy is broadcloth. The collar and cuffs are embellished with white ribbons – as the mother of a little boy, I never get to sew with ribbons! The suit is completely finished inside with a combination of bound and French seams.

Since I don’t get to embellish with ribbon very often, I was so happy to get it to line up.

You can see the pleats on the sleeves that allow for greater movement. The anchor detail is hand-embroidered and the facing is tacked down with hand-stitching. I used cotton muslin as interfacing and it really gives this a lovely hand.

There are buttonholes on the v-neck facing to attach the removable dickie. This allows the middy blouse to be pulled on over the head. When the buttons are done up, they cannot be felt by the child.

The cuffs are hand-sewn on the inside.

I tried a different technique with the waist-band, sewing the elastic down to keep the fabric more evenly distributed.

And, of course, he shorts are as finished on the inside as the middy blouse.

After our photos, we went out to the children’s museum, removed the dickie and put a t-shirt under the middy blouse. Everywhere we went, Ralph was a huge hit, but, most importantly, he ran around and played like a maniac. Ralph found his sailor suit easy to wear. I say, bring it back, kiddo!

Ha!

Go and vote!

And linked up here:

Messenger Bag. . . Coming Soon

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Ann Thompson

Do you remember that messenger bag I made for my teenage son? (It looked like this.)

Maybe because he offered up suggestions when I was designing it, Joey still really likes it and uses it every day. I consider that a major achievement — it’s not impossible to make things for teenage boys, but one is less likely to hit the sweet spot between functional and cool.

I decided to make one of these for the blog — and that’s coming as a free tutorial as soon as I can get the photos organized — but for me. Why not? I appreciate a roomy bag as much as any teenage boy does. (And I certainly seem to carry a lot of junk around with me everywhere.) But I wanted the same bag in something a little more spring-y, a little lighter, and brighter, and robin’s-egg bluer.

Thanks to Joey who posed for scale and said (unprompted!) that he thinks the blue version looks cool. I think he looks pretty cool.

And I’ll see you guys soon with the free tutorial!

Wow!

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Ann Thompson

As some of you might have seen, I entered Ralphie’s Eton suit into Naptime Crafter’s Sew Off Auditions. Yesterday, I found out that I was selected to compete!

I’m still pretty stunned. I had been enjoying looking at all of the different links and seeing what amazing things people have been sewing. I’m always humbled by the sheer talent on display in the online sewing community. To be chosen from among a group of such deserving and creative sewists is indeed an honour.

It’s also as intimidating as heck! The first project — children’s clothing — is due this Friday. As in, a few days from now in a normally busy week. Since linking up my entry on a whim, I had stopped myself from thinking about what I would make if I did get in because, I reasoned, that could lead to disappointment.

This is important: everyone should dare to dream. Sure, optimists might enjoy life more or we’re all worthy or . . . I don’t know, whatever we all tell our kids. Those are legit reasons, I’m sure. But seriously, dare to dream, people. If you don’t, there’s an off-chance you will be scrambling around trying to think of something with like three days in which to sew it. And also photograph it.

If I had spent the intervening time thinking of useful things like what I would make, rather than preventing myself from coming up with any ideas out of a weird worry that to even start to think about it was hubris*, I might have ideas right now.

Did I mention the normal two-week period I usually build into my projects for screwing up, ripping seams, and complaining about how unfair life can be while I’m drinking a beer and kicking back on the couch? Because that’s my process.

As nutty as it’s going to be around here for the next couple of days, I really am excited about this contest. It will be good to stretch my creative muscles and, of course, I’m most excited to see what other people are going to make. There are some truly amazing folks in this competition (and judging!) and I encourage you to head over to Naptime Crafters and follow the contest.

*I can’t believe I was afraid of hubris. It’s not like I’m Van Doren or Victor Frankenstein.

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