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Posted by Joy Beeson on April 5, 2009, 1:39 am
Every time I go to tell DH a joke I've just read on Usenet, it turns
out that you have to have read the last ten weeks of postings to get
it -- and this anecdote turned out even worse. But most of the
blather is about sewing, so I'm posting it anyway.
Don't expect a payoff in proportion to the verbiage.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I got my new bra assembled yesterday, but with some delay over
forgetting to leave one flat-felled seam open to put in the
elastic[1], so I still have turning up the casing and bias-facing the
armholes to do. Not to mention inserting three rows of elastic; I
may have to go buy bodkins, as I wasn't happy with the collar stay I
used the last time.
In sharp contrast to the extremely-complicated bras I used to make,
until making them got to be so much trouble[2] that the ill fit and
irritating fabrics of RTW bras became acceptable, this is a very
simple pullover adapted from a T-shirt pattern, with only a front, a
back, two darts, one three-channel elastic casing, a very narrow hem
around the neck, and bias-tape facings around the armholes.
(Experiment showed that when I hem the armholes instead of facing
them, they mysteriously shift forward a couple of inches.)
I'm cutting the current bra from a scrap of thin black linen so that
it can double as a swimsuit top.[3]
I'm limited to commercially-available colors of machine-sewing threads
-- I did dye a spool of silk machine twist brown once, but dyeing true
black on cotton is right out.
My options for assembling the bra were a startling color contrast, a
fiber known to irritate my skin, and feeble three-ply cotton.
Polyester thread is out if it's underwear, white thread is out if it's
a swimsuit, that leaves feeble.
There isn't much stress on hems and casings, and the side seams are
flat felled -- three rows of feeble ought to hold. But the thread in
one of the darts in my oldest bra has broken even though it is 100/6
cotton.
Well, maybe I can mock-fell the darts. Immediately after sewing the
darts, I turned to the right side and finger-pressed the dart to one
side while sewing close to the fold, as one does when flat-felling,
and extended the stitching well into the single fabric. Then I
iron-pressed the dart flat to the fabric, a necessary step -- even
though the dart is drawn as a straight line, I sew it as an S curve;
it is not going to lie flat by itself. Then I turned to the wrong side
and stitched near the other fold. All the edges are finished, maybe
this is flat-felled, rather than mock-felled. Or just call it "sewing
the dart flat".
Then to sew the shoulder seams. I use pre-graded flat-fell seams for
my bras: press a quarter inch to the right side[4], match the raw
edges, sew at original seam allowance from the fold: original seam
line runs halfway between the rows of stitching.
Now for the side sea . . . AARRRRGH! the finished-looking side of the
front is sewn to the finished-looking side of the back! Do I pick out
those tediously-sewn shoulder seams even though I've already trimmed
the ends? At least the fabric is reversible, I could somehow press
out a crease that was pressed four times, once sopping wet, and turn
it the other way. Or just put the side seams in backward . . .
Closer inspection showed that I hadn't sewn the wrong side to the
right side -- I'd done one really swell job of finishing the wrong
side of the darts!
Might could be that that was what distracted me enough that I forgot
to hem the gap in the seam before sewing it. But in truth, I'd
forgotten it before then.
------
Didn't go out to buy bodkins; I stayed home and finished the bra.
Well, all but putting the three pieces of quarter-inch elastic into
the casing, but I've got them and the collar stay on the ironing board
and will probably find time to finish it tomorrow even though I'm
usually pretty busy on Sunday.
[1] It's *much* easier to hem an edge *before* you sew it into a
flat-felled seam! I thought for a minute there I'd have to hem it by
hand the way I did before I got it figured out.
[2] Not to mention that back then I couldn't buy half-way decent
linen that would last more than a few weeks.
[3] This will be the ninth summer we've lived on the lake, and
I've never been into the water, if you don't count wading out for
maintenance chores. I won't actually go swimming, because I get a
sinus infection every time I put my face under, but I ought to be
prepared to at least fake it.
[4] A business card pushed into the fold proved quite handy for
keeping a bias crease straight.
Joy Beeson
--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ -- sewing
http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.
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Posted by Juno B on April 5, 2009, 10:43 am
Joy Beeson wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> Every time I go to tell DH a joke I've just read on Usenet, it turns
> out that you have to have read the last ten weeks of postings to get
> it -- and this anecdote turned out even worse. But most of the
> blather is about sewing, so I'm posting it anyway.
>
> Don't expect a payoff in proportion to the verbiage.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I got my new bra assembled yesterday, but with some delay over
> forgetting to leave one flat-felled seam open to put in the
> elastic[1], so I still have turning up the casing and bias-facing the
> armholes to do. Not to mention inserting three rows of elastic; I
> may have to go buy bodkins, as I wasn't happy with the collar stay I
> used the last time.
>
> In sharp contrast to the extremely-complicated bras I used to make,
> until making them got to be so much trouble[2] that the ill fit and
> irritating fabrics of RTW bras became acceptable, this is a very
> simple pullover adapted from a T-shirt pattern, with only a front, a
> back, two darts, one three-channel elastic casing, a very narrow hem
> around the neck, and bias-tape facings around the armholes.
> (Experiment showed that when I hem the armholes instead of facing
> them, they mysteriously shift forward a couple of inches.)
>
> I'm cutting the current bra from a scrap of thin black linen so that
> it can double as a swimsuit top.[3]
>
> I'm limited to commercially-available colors of machine-sewing threads
> -- I did dye a spool of silk machine twist brown once, but dyeing true
> black on cotton is right out.
>
> My options for assembling the bra were a startling color contrast, a
> fiber known to irritate my skin, and feeble three-ply cotton.
> Polyester thread is out if it's underwear, white thread is out if it's
> a swimsuit, that leaves feeble.
>
> There isn't much stress on hems and casings, and the side seams are
> flat felled -- three rows of feeble ought to hold. But the thread in
> one of the darts in my oldest bra has broken even though it is 100/6
> cotton.
>
> Well, maybe I can mock-fell the darts. Immediately after sewing the
> darts, I turned to the right side and finger-pressed the dart to one
> side while sewing close to the fold, as one does when flat-felling,
> and extended the stitching well into the single fabric. Then I
> iron-pressed the dart flat to the fabric, a necessary step -- even
> though the dart is drawn as a straight line, I sew it as an S curve;
> it is not going to lie flat by itself. Then I turned to the wrong side
> and stitched near the other fold. All the edges are finished, maybe
> this is flat-felled, rather than mock-felled. Or just call it "sewing
> the dart flat".
>
> Then to sew the shoulder seams. I use pre-graded flat-fell seams for
> my bras: press a quarter inch to the right side[4], match the raw
> edges, sew at original seam allowance from the fold: original seam
> line runs halfway between the rows of stitching.
>
> Now for the side sea . . . AARRRRGH! the finished-looking side of the
> front is sewn to the finished-looking side of the back! Do I pick out
> those tediously-sewn shoulder seams even though I've already trimmed
> the ends? At least the fabric is reversible, I could somehow press
> out a crease that was pressed four times, once sopping wet, and turn
> it the other way. Or just put the side seams in backward . . .
>
> Closer inspection showed that I hadn't sewn the wrong side to the
> right side -- I'd done one really swell job of finishing the wrong
> side of the darts!
>
> Might could be that that was what distracted me enough that I forgot
> to hem the gap in the seam before sewing it. But in truth, I'd
> forgotten it before then.
>
> ------
>
> Didn't go out to buy bodkins; I stayed home and finished the bra.
> Well, all but putting the three pieces of quarter-inch elastic into
> the casing, but I've got them and the collar stay on the ironing board
> and will probably find time to finish it tomorrow even though I'm
> usually pretty busy on Sunday.
>
>
> [1] It's *much* easier to hem an edge *before* you sew it into a
> flat-felled seam! I thought for a minute there I'd have to hem it by
> hand the way I did before I got it figured out.
>
> [2] Not to mention that back then I couldn't buy half-way decent
> linen that would last more than a few weeks.
>
> [3] This will be the ninth summer we've lived on the lake, and
> I've never been into the water, if you don't count wading out for
> maintenance chores. I won't actually go swimming, because I get a
> sinus infection every time I put my face under, but I ought to be
> prepared to at least fake it.
>
> [4] A business card pushed into the fold proved quite handy for
> keeping a bias crease straight.
>
> Joy Beeson
Wow, That sounds like a major production.I hope it wears very well for you.
Juno
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Posted by Joy Beeson on April 7, 2009, 1:27 am
wrote:
show/hide quoted text
> Wow, That sounds like a major production.I hope it wears very well for you.
Fitting the pattern was a major production, but now that I have it,
making a bra is fairly easy: just two pieces, two darts, four seams,
four edges, three 30" pieces of quarter-inch elastic.
But you reminded me that I'd planned to cut out another before I
forgot about leaving a gap in the seam to put the elastic in. Cutting
out would be a major production, I thought: the black linen has been
hacked at until there isn't one single straight edge to tell me where
the true bias is, but when I took the box down and unfolded the scrap,
I discovered that it's big enough to cut a front or a back, but not
both. So I can relegate that linen to making pockets, patches, and
bias tape, and start with a fresh piece. So I expanded the table, but
the white linen is nearly twice as wide as the table, so I put off
marking bias lines on it until morning.
A fellow at a banner-making meeting said that he had paid only six
dollars for the laser chalk line he'd lent us; I should look into
getting one for myself. Drawing along a streak of light sounds a lot
show/hide quoted text
easier than what I've been doing. <checks forecast> Probability of
snow is dropping; perhaps I should close up the table and take a bike
ride to the library and the hardware store. (But I've already put my
long johns away for the summer.)
Joy Beeson
--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ -- sewing
http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.
|
|
Posted by Joy Beeson on April 23, 2009, 2:09 am
On Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:27:56 -0400, Joy Beeson
show/hide quoted text
> So I expanded the table, but
> the white linen is nearly twice as wide as the table, so I put off
> marking bias lines on it until morning.
And in the morning, I fiddled with the fabric for a while, then folded
it up, put it back on the hanger, and persuaded DH that he needs a
laser level. He shopped online and in various places, then forgot
about it until today, when he asked me whether he could pick up
anything for me at Lowes. When he came back, he handed me the cutest
little thing! The packaging says that it works as a level *only* when
attached to a vertical panel of drywall, but as a chalk line, it's
first rate. I took it to Banner Making tonight and lined up a line of
letters despite stepping on an adolescent child every time I moved
from one side of the table to the other. (I should have asked him
why, in a room that size, he had to lounge just *there*, but was
concentrating too hard to think of it. Then we ran out of time (we'd
spent most of the hour cutting out the letters) and put things away
until next Wednesday.
So it's bra-making time! This should make it really easy to draw
seven-foot bias lines all over four yards of white linen.
Except that I rather suspect that my wash-out marker is nearing the
end of its useful life. And there's an almost-finished pillow tick on
the sewing machine; I'd really like to get that project out of the
house. And I desperately need the four pairs of pants in the mending
pile. And I'm still half-way through putting elastic in the wrists
of my silk dress -- I'd like to get it finished before it's time to
start wearing the linen one. And . . .
Joy Beeson
--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ -- sewing
http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.
|
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> out that you have to have read the last ten weeks of postings to get
> it -- and this anecdote turned out even worse. But most of the
> blather is about sewing, so I'm posting it anyway.
>
> Don't expect a payoff in proportion to the verbiage.
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I got my new bra assembled yesterday, but with some delay over
> forgetting to leave one flat-felled seam open to put in the
> elastic[1], so I still have turning up the casing and bias-facing the
> armholes to do. Not to mention inserting three rows of elastic; I
> may have to go buy bodkins, as I wasn't happy with the collar stay I
> used the last time.
>
> In sharp contrast to the extremely-complicated bras I used to make,
> until making them got to be so much trouble[2] that the ill fit and
> irritating fabrics of RTW bras became acceptable, this is a very
> simple pullover adapted from a T-shirt pattern, with only a front, a
> back, two darts, one three-channel elastic casing, a very narrow hem
> around the neck, and bias-tape facings around the armholes.
> (Experiment showed that when I hem the armholes instead of facing
> them, they mysteriously shift forward a couple of inches.)
>
> I'm cutting the current bra from a scrap of thin black linen so that
> it can double as a swimsuit top.[3]
>
> I'm limited to commercially-available colors of machine-sewing threads
> -- I did dye a spool of silk machine twist brown once, but dyeing true
> black on cotton is right out.
>
> My options for assembling the bra were a startling color contrast, a
> fiber known to irritate my skin, and feeble three-ply cotton.
> Polyester thread is out if it's underwear, white thread is out if it's
> a swimsuit, that leaves feeble.
>
> There isn't much stress on hems and casings, and the side seams are
> flat felled -- three rows of feeble ought to hold. But the thread in
> one of the darts in my oldest bra has broken even though it is 100/6
> cotton.
>
> Well, maybe I can mock-fell the darts. Immediately after sewing the
> darts, I turned to the right side and finger-pressed the dart to one
> side while sewing close to the fold, as one does when flat-felling,
> and extended the stitching well into the single fabric. Then I
> iron-pressed the dart flat to the fabric, a necessary step -- even
> though the dart is drawn as a straight line, I sew it as an S curve;
> it is not going to lie flat by itself. Then I turned to the wrong side
> and stitched near the other fold. All the edges are finished, maybe
> this is flat-felled, rather than mock-felled. Or just call it "sewing
> the dart flat".
>
> Then to sew the shoulder seams. I use pre-graded flat-fell seams for
> my bras: press a quarter inch to the right side[4], match the raw
> edges, sew at original seam allowance from the fold: original seam
> line runs halfway between the rows of stitching.
>
> Now for the side sea . . . AARRRRGH! the finished-looking side of the
> front is sewn to the finished-looking side of the back! Do I pick out
> those tediously-sewn shoulder seams even though I've already trimmed
> the ends? At least the fabric is reversible, I could somehow press
> out a crease that was pressed four times, once sopping wet, and turn
> it the other way. Or just put the side seams in backward . . .
>
> Closer inspection showed that I hadn't sewn the wrong side to the
> right side -- I'd done one really swell job of finishing the wrong
> side of the darts!
>
> Might could be that that was what distracted me enough that I forgot
> to hem the gap in the seam before sewing it. But in truth, I'd
> forgotten it before then.
>
> ------
>
> Didn't go out to buy bodkins; I stayed home and finished the bra.
> Well, all but putting the three pieces of quarter-inch elastic into
> the casing, but I've got them and the collar stay on the ironing board
> and will probably find time to finish it tomorrow even though I'm
> usually pretty busy on Sunday.
>
>
> [1] It's *much* easier to hem an edge *before* you sew it into a
> flat-felled seam! I thought for a minute there I'd have to hem it by
> hand the way I did before I got it figured out.
>
> [2] Not to mention that back then I couldn't buy half-way decent
> linen that would last more than a few weeks.
>
> [3] This will be the ninth summer we've lived on the lake, and
> I've never been into the water, if you don't count wading out for
> maintenance chores. I won't actually go swimming, because I get a
> sinus infection every time I put my face under, but I ought to be
> prepared to at least fake it.
>
> [4] A business card pushed into the fold proved quite handy for
> keeping a bias crease straight.
>
> Joy Beeson