Interfacing Comparisons

That's the latest trend Fuse on the left (below) with my medium-light, medium and medium-heavy interfacings on the right.
latest trend Fuse fuses easily, and whereas it looks as opaque as somewhere between the Vilene intermediate and intermediate-heavy weights, it donates a glossy but slightly suppler structure (equivalent to somewhere between the medium-light and intermediate heaviness Vilene interfacings). anything, it would be a perfectly fine substitute for medium-light or medium-weight woven interfacing, and would be a good interfacing for hats and sacks and purses.

There's also a merchandise called Craf-tex, which is similar to Timtex or Peltex. It would work as an internal textile bag base, fused with interfacing. 

If I was looking for certain thing along these lines to use in the body of a bag, I'd likely still go for Fast2Fuse by C&T announcing. overhead, you can glimpse Fast2Fuse peak right and Peltex base right, and see the how much finer and more compressed the Fast2Fuse is. It's much smoother when it's on a bend, and it is fusible on both edges.

I had a look at a couple of fusible battings as an alternate to the H640 fusible wadding that I love so much. This is Bosal's fusible batting on the peak, The moderately hot Company's "moderately hot Fleece" in the middle and Victorian Textiles' fusible fleece on the bottom level.

The moderately hot Fleece is very alike to Pellon's fusible batting. It's a bit like sensed, in a width that falls between H630 and H640, but it's a bit weightier than H640 and donates fairly solid structure.

The Bosal fleece feels a bit smoother and denser than the moderately hot Fleece and creates a somewhat (ever-so-very-somewhat..) thicker effect. Any of these would work as an alternate to H640

I discovered the Victorian Textiles batting to be a little loose and lightweight, and is likely best suited to tasks where it's pressed only once or with less heat that you'd use on a bag made with cotton fabric fabric fabric fabric. I discovered it shrank more easily than the others.

There's furthermore a lightweightweight Fusible batting from Bosal, which doesn't emerge to be the case with the other businesses. This lighter weight batting is a good substitute for Vilene H630 light fusible wadding, whereas it's a denser structure and you'd need to be more very cautious about removing it from seam allowances where bulk might construct up. I actually like it.

At Quilt Market in May, I discovered Soft and steady by Annie. It isn't fusible, but it has the effect of interfacing and wadding/fleece - the smoothness and the loft - that is so helpful in bag-making. I had every intention of putting it to the test as shortly as I got back, but the last 4 months have seen me doing everything but checking it.

In the photograph underneath, the Bosal merchandise is to the top and supple and steady is underneath it. The fusible version fuses in a nice way and retains a smooth form. utilising it, you'd have to be certain to eliminate it from seam allowances and topstitching, edge-stitching and under-stitching would be absolutely vital to hold it in location and conceive pointed, glossy seams and edges.

Another week, another bazillion

In the last week, there have been good things, large conversations, random actions of consideration, delight, optimism, new opportunities ....and exactly the opposite of each of these things. Life's a funny old thing, isn't it? It's drought and inundate. and sometimes it's just like Melbourne weather. 

On the weekend, I went to Canberra to educate at obsessed to Fabric (and took a rather cooling pic from the boarding gate) .... and then I only considered to take photos in the direction of the end of the class on Sunday, just before I was due to fly home afresh. 
underneath, we have another beautifully-made hat by another newbie sewing gal. no one would have estimated that she's only stitched a couple of square things before... gaze at those beautifully-sewn bends! 

I loved glimpsing hats being worn while equipment was packed up at the end of the day.

This "I'm just going to make a head covering for gardening" head covering (above) looked way too stylish not to be damaged for something more communal.

This hat (below) was made with joy socialising in brain. stitched, finished and trimmed inside class-time, it was worn out of the store with sartorial flair!

(If you're a little bit inspired by the latest spate of hatty blog mails here, and available to do a class on a week day, you should come along to the Perfect Summer Hats class that I'll be educating at GJ's. discover to make hats in time to whip up a couple of for summer!)

As always - there has been fondling and fiddling with yarn. In the last week I've completed certain thing that I begun in May and almost completed something I begun last week.

Having started this Cardigan increased about four times before I got it past the armholes - and all the while playing yarn-chicken and being diverted by the girleen's swimming courses (or anything fleeting, glossy thing) - I pretty-much provided up on following the pattern and just made things up after that point. After a couple of months, I exhausted of the project (and too numerous persons commenting on the fact that the yarn matched my hair) and just wanted to complete it...so just kept knitting... disregarding all the mistakes and distracted-while-knitting roughness. 
My intertwining is so uneven in this particular garment, it's almost a waste of this gorgeous yarn.... but it's very soft and snuggly and is full of handmade love. It's for a gorgeous 1-year old, who won't be criticising my stitch stress.

In need of instant gratification and a bit of a cellulosic yarn rectify, I dragged out the crochet hook and some Prudence Mapstone tencel loveliness. I'm making another Summer Lace container peak. I love how rapidly this comes simultaneously.

In other news, I eventually have an answer to the inquiry of have I discovered somewhere to move to when the lease sprints out here, which every person and their dog has been inquiring me for the last month or two. Last week, I did, and we'll be moving in a few weeks time. The lease sprints out here in mid-November.

Re design

I discovered this photographgraphgraph in my mother's vintage photographgraphgraph box. no one appears to understand who it is. My mother probably knew, but she can't tell us now. 

It's a painfully evocative likeness: a apprehended instant from the first decade of the 20th years (a latest trend degree wasn't completely wasted on me). The burnt-out trunks of tall, directly gum trees (and the detail that it was in a family photo carton) suggest that it's most likely in the Otway Ranges in Victoria, immediately after a bushfire.

Are this twosome looking back at what was one time their home...? Have they lost everything? 
What are they conceiving?  
What did they do next...?  
What was their next stage of life like?  

I hold approaching back to that thought. 
I haven't lost everything, but I'm cramming up and moving to the next stage. 

Since the first hint that life was about to get tricky, the last 18 months or so have been ... transformative... in the slowest and most sore of ways. I've worked on through. I've changed the way that this little enterprise of mine sprints. The little engine kept on chugging.... I wrote another publication, I did an worldwide trade show, I... kept... on... employed.

People who don't understand me notify me that I'm "a superwoman", or that I'm "an inspiration", or even that I'm their champion (?!). persons who understand me tell me to slow down or take a break. And now my own gut feelings are telling me that I have to halt for a bit.... breathe ...be the type of parent that I desire to be.... discover to rest again... I have to change the way that I do things ... afresh. I despise to let down the people who don't know me, but I am in no way 'super'.

I'm cramming up my beautiful studio and agency and going house and enterprise to certain thing more home-based.... with time and space to be a small, mother-and-daughter family, first and foremost.

I've already begun using the fantastic space overhead GJ's in East Brunswick as a educating space (and there are still locations on the zipper class in a couple of weeks time...), and will be educating at cut-rate carton in Mornington and Kimono House in the city in the approaching weeks.

I'll furthermore extend to supply my patterns to fabulous online and bricks-and-mortar stores, but I won't be operating a retail space or my own educating space. 

I'll extend to design patterns in both paper and digital format (although I'm taking a short shatter from both, until I feel relaxed and resolved in my new workspace).

I'm looking ahead to my publication being released early next year, and I have other plans for new tasks. But first, I should rest and resolve in to a new way of being. 

Palmer/Pletsch FFRP

As a buyer, I have revised numerous advances to fitting. I learned where my body measurements deviate from the standard measurements of RTW clothing. If it were likely to adjust RTW to fit me, I may have halted there. I might now be a shopaholic who adjusts my own apparel. I love apparel, I love getting dressed well and I love keeping cash. Alas, one cannot add fabric where none lives. If the peak of a dress aligns, the hips are too tight. Because there is insufficient size in the top back, tops feel like they are choking me. And then there are the shoulders. A store-bought tailored coat can't be altered for a forward shoulder. 

One of my very popular assets is Palmer /Pletsch Fit For Real persons (FFRP). The publication comprises a riches of information and I could read it once a year and learn certain thing new every time. (I read fitting books the way one might read every Jane Austen innovative one time a year). The DVD illustrates the procedures in a clear manner. I highly suggest both.

Before plunking down any money for the book or the DVD, you can get a flavour of the Palmer /Pletsch approach by utilising a McCall's pattern from the Palmer /Pletsch sequence. These patterns encompass extra directions on widespread fitting changes. Even better, you can effortlessly make the fitting adjustments, because crucial information is published on the pattern.

There are furthermore tips on employed with intertwine fabrics.
Even just having the position of the waist assessed on the pattern is a large-scale help. That type of breakthrough helps with alterations that may not be amidst those encompassed. This scheme, like all others, addresses the most widespread alterations.

seem very lucky if your alterations are common! 
The information is right here for you!
 
I have a twosome warnings about FFRP:
Tissue fitting- you don't have to buy into the entire tissue-fitting-thing in order to advantage from this publication. You may prefer to sew muslins while you are learning how to make pattern alterations.
A image is worth a thousand phrases.
Just looking at the pre-altered pattern on a body "before" and the changed pattern on the body "after" displays the notion. For demonstration the grainlines should suspend straight.
Seeing a cut pattern with additional tissue inserted into the enlarged locality assists to strengthen that concept that, yes I should change the pattern to fit me. I don't need to to fit into my apparel, my clothes need to change to fit me.
Aesthetics- using this book will not hurl you back to 1990. neither will it impact your aesthetic. large fit + your method = chic. 
That image might be telling a thousand phrases worth of scary-story. disregard, disregard, ignore.
You can use a 2011 method pattern, make it present and trendy, utilising the concepts in FFRP.
Age, shape, dimensions & one-by-one trials are easily where you are. Embrace it.

There is more in the book - much more. For demonstration, there is entire section devoted to body proportions (Chapter 9 Make a Body chart) and a entire section devoted to ease (Chapter 7).

I will extend to discover more about fitting for as long as I stitch. I know now that there is not just one method of fitting that encounters every need. There are many ways to approach the creation of a garment, and I need them all! It took me longer than I anticipated to learn about fitting and that's why I write about it here. 

If fitting is easy for you, beautiful! stitch on! 
If fitting is tough for you, you are not alone.

eventually, now my wardrobe is loading up with apparel that delights me. I love wearing my apparel and I love saying "I made it!". persons are more interested in it than I would have anticipated. I hold telling them, sewing is not like a foreign dialect - you don't have to be juvenile to discover. You can start any time.

intertwine tops

When I sewed the Pleated Pia knit peak, I liked to lift the neckline. Here is how I did it:

Want more? I've had a couple of demands to post more fitting minutia, so here is how I approach fitting the front of the bodice. I narrowed the width of the upper bodice, let down the bust point, and did a slight full bust change (FBA).

By the way, before tackling the front alterations, I fitted the back (here) on the cardigan. I don't reinvent the wheel every time I sew a new pattern. I mention to my endeavoured and factual (TNT) patterns and leverage preceding work whenever I can. 

changing the front
Evaluate: take measurements of the pattern and take measurements of my body. 
concluding what to assess is propelled by the design. When faced with a poor fit, it's good to believe in periods of all these distinct measurements to find the variances and get into some exact problem-solving.

The pattern measurements that matter to me (size Aussie 12) are:
groundwork of armscye, from one edge seam to the other is 21"(53cm)
Middle of armscye, from brim of sleeve, is 15"(38cm)
Across bears, from sleeve cap to sleeve hat, is 15.5" (39cm)
My body measurements are distinct, as pursues:
groundwork of armscye is narrower by 2.5" (6.4cm)
Middle of armscye is narrower by 2.5" (6.4cm)
over bears is about the identical.

This investigation discloses that my bears are not too slender. It is the chest (measurements 1. and 2.) that are narrower than the pattern. In addition, the bust point on the pattern desires to be lowered.
 
Step 2. slender the chest. Cut along the level line and slash the center front line above that.
Overlap the center front to decrease breadth by 2.5" or 6.4cm.
This furthermore has the effect of constricting the neckline and raising the neckline.
Furthermore, the armscye is enlarged by performing this adjustment, 
and that initiates the need for an adjustment to the sleeve.
Note that the lengths of the shoulder seams remain the identical.

Step 3. Add length underneath the groundwork of the armscye.
This decreases the bust issue. Normally, I'll furthermore make a full bust change, but
supplementing to the edge seams is good sufficient in this conceive.

I get a little much quicker each time. I believe I realise the characteristics of my body now. I am super joyous to wear apparel that fit. Overall, yes, it is worth the trouble. In my world, comfort and vanity proceed hand in hand. 

The proceedod news is that stitching the peak is much quicker than making the pattern alterations, and now I have a couple new TNT intertwine peak patterns. 
What am I doing on the computer? I need to proceed and stitch more of these tops! I have a SWAP to finish!

out and about

It's just a regular Sunday for me, how about you? I am out and about with my dressforms. We just randomly decided to take Wolfie (yes that is what I call my Wolf dress form) out for some fresh air.
 

overlook Fabulous Fit is looking for a new home. Are you involved?
 
I'm wearing my most favorite t-shirt - the Riva Raglan Tee by method Arc
 
I am certain you have figured out by now that I am not just taking my dress types out for strolls. Nope, we are going and I am cramming and we took a entire lot of stuff to a leased storage unit this weekend.


After years of waiting for the genuine estate market to straighten out, we are going. You know how it proceeds, you make a loose design and adapt along the way. When I wed Howie, his least old was in high school, so we bought a house in that school locality.

It was 2004 and we figured we'd move closer to my job in 5 years or so. That was a loose plan. I furthermore thought I might look for a job in Rockville and stay here forever. The lodgings market bubble and economic disintegrate surprised us just as much as it did everyone additional.

By 2009, my job in Baltimore was too good to depart, and our dwelling was worth less than we paid for it. And even if we liked to sell, it was taking 6 months or more to find a purchaser. So, we attached it out. In 2011, we got a little more grave about selling, but the dwelling required to be updated. I despised pouring more cash into it, but I really admired the results.

Then in August 2013, the long commute eventually got to me. going by car 80 miles a day is kinda strong. This time, although, things dropped into place. The genuine land parcel market has rebounded and our agent expects the dwelling to deal rapidly. We will not get back what we paid, but that's just life.

 We will move closer to my job into a lesser dwelling. The more I believe about it, the more reassured I am. We discovered the flawless neighborhood for us, and the homes for sale are exactly what we both desire. So- things are good, right? Well, yes but there is one thing little Archie died.

I desire I could compose a attractive mail to describe how exceptional she was but 
I don't have the phrases. I believe it is safe to state she loved being our feline as much as we loved her. So, that's just life, too, isn't it?
 
Here I am composing a blog mail when I actually sat down to register my Fabulous Fit dress pattern on Craigsregister! Anything to bypass cramming! Ha!

If you are looking for a dress pattern, I am asking $50 for this one. It is pinnable and the measurements are 34.75 bust, 26 waist, 35 hip. fire me an internet message if you are local. I don't desire to boat it.

chalk stripe dress

I'm currently reading A to Biba - The Autobiography of Barbara Hulanicki 
In the book she describes 2 dresses which essentially kicked off the Biba Boutique Postal Service

The Sugar Pink Gingham shift dress and the Brown Pinstripe smock
There are limited images of the Pink gingham dress but even less so of the Brown chalk stripe dress. 


Google has so far been unhelpful. Granted it is an early item and therefore is as elusive as the gingham dress. But I thought perhaps someone may have found the original article and scanned it to their blog or Flickr?

The description in the book reads;

"Our next editorial write up was with Woman's Mirror. It was a drawing of a brown pinstripe smock with the eternal matching kerchief"

"... We had received two thousand orders by post for the chalkstripe brown smock with fluted sleeves and kerchief"

By the sound of the description all you have to do is turn the book over to see the little illustration on the back.

The illustration has a small fluted sleeve and of course stripes - but what do you think? Is this the image of the Brown chalk stripe dress?

So why am I so keen to see this image? Well it may have something to do with a sewing machine and a modification of this pattern 

I'd probably start by changing the sleeves to a subdued bell style, removing the gathers in the bust, and also widening the neck slightly and changing the sleeves to gathered instead of set in. 

What do you think? Is this a similar image that you see in your mind when reading the description or perhaps something different?

Hopefully I can make a faithful and honorable reproduction - especially as brown chalkstripe is the same fabric that her fathers suit was made from the last time she saw him.