STM sewing

Since some of the lurkers must be feeling intimidated by all the
faster-than-light sewing that's been going on around here, I thought
I'd post an account of my slower-than-molasses sewing.

Unfortunately, I write slower than molasses too. That shouldn't be
too bad in May -- but I keep my molasses in the refrigerator.

At least it's not in the freezer.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I bought unbleached "russia drill" to make new summer jeans some time
ago, but a while back on another forum, a professional shirtmaker
posted that she always washed hemp hot and dried it hot at least three
times -- and that was shirt-weight hemp.

Eh, having consulted my diary to find out the dates, it's easier to
quote than to summarize:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 April 2008

I was going to start cutting my new hemp jeans Thursday, but
I read a complaint on Creative Machine that a hemp shirt had
kept shrinking every wash, and the guest host (It's shirt
week, and a professional shirtmaker is hosting) replied that
she always washed hot and dried hot three times before
cutting hemp. I'd washed my Russia Drill only once, so I
popped it into the washer to soak overnight -- with real
soap, since I'd used detergent last time, and because the
soap chips were piling up.

Then I forgot to finish washing it yesterday. Rinsed it in
hot water and ammonia this morning, and now it's in its
second hot rinse.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Somewhere along the line, I drew threads to straighten the ends. This
was unsettlingly easy -- it showed that the threads are strong, but it
also proved that they aren't packed very tight. I like a nice firm
weave for making jeans. After that I sorted out the pattern, which
had been hanging on a nail, and put it with the fabric.

Last Tuesday I opened my dining table to its full extent, laid out the
fabric, and cut along the drawn lines. Used my smaller rotary cutter
and smaller mat for this, but my old Case bent-handle trimmers proved
more appropriate for cutting two layers of heavy twill.

My piece of drill was three yards long -- well, it says three yards on
the invoice; I didn't measure it -- and just a tad under sixty inches
wide. Just enough to make two pairs of jeans, with the front of one
pair and the back of another pair interlocked at each end and the
small pieces in the middle. Couldn't quite figure out how to get a
strip long enough to make the back waistband, but decided to worry
about waistbands later.

Next problem: my dining table opens to only two and a half yards.
Putting the gate-leg table at the end stopped the fabric from
drooping, but didn't make it flat enough to lay out and cut.

The layout crosswise was tight -- it was "I'm going to trim that
corner off the seam allowance anyway" tight -- but the layout
lengthwise was loose enough that it was quite safe to cut a back and a
front off one end, then pull the rest of the fabric onto the table and
finish the job.

Having decided that, it was time to eat lunch and take a nap. Luckily,
DH is in the habit of taking his lunch into his room, so I could leave
all the stuff on the table.

4 May 2008

At which point in the narrative, I took another nap, or had to cook
or something.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

That afternoon, I overslept and had just two hours before time to
clear off the table and put food on it.

Drew arrows down a selvage with a wash-out marker, cut out one front
and one back, drawing more arrows on the pieces and the cutaways so
that I'd know which pieces belonged together. (I like to sew with the
nap even when there isn't any, on the off chance that some subtle
difference will show up when you've sewn it together and put it on.)

The marker was in hand, so I used it to mark all the notches -- easy,
because repeated use of a tracing wheel had turned each notch into a
slit. Then I stuck a pin into each mark and used it as a guide to
mark the other layer.

Then I stuck the marker through the tailor's-tack holes and twisted
it: voila! Hip-pocket placement marked! But how to mark the other
layer? Stick a pin so it takes a nip on each side of the mark, then
stick another one at right angles to it. Flip over, X marks the spot.
I have marked the wrong sides, and I need the marks on the right side.
I'll deal with that when it's time to sew the pockets on.

Front and back cut and marked and carried to the ironing board. Pull
fabric onto the table, check layout -- plenty of room for twelve
pockets, but I *still* don't see where I'm going to get the
waistbands. Cut and mark another front and back, carry to ironing
board, carry remaining fabric, tools, etc. to ironing board, close
table -- remaining fabric will fit on eating-size table -- start
making salad.

Wednesday I boiled a piece of muslin destined to be passport pockets.

Thursday, put fabric etc. back on the table -- now it is plenty big
just by raising the other leaf -- use template to tear out two
passport pockets. The muslin has a good tuck selvage, as if intended
for making sheets (even though it's *way* too coarse), so I use that
as the top hem of the pockets. Pin template to pockets, lay on top
of fronts and backs, put muslin back on shelf.

Study remaining piece of russia drill. There is just no way to get
the waistbands out of this without a seam in the back. Oh, well,
said the fox, this stuff is too thick and soft to make a waistband
anyway. I've got a whole roll of that coarse muslin, and it's about
the right color. (Well, it was before I boiled the dirt out of it.)

Jumping ahead of the story: as days passed, I grew more and more
unhappy with the idea of putting a cotton waistband on hemp jeans.
Linen would work better, but all my pieces of linen are either
bleach-white or bright colors. But, while typing the first
installment of this saga, I remembered buying two yards of cannabis
canvas and then deciding that I didn't want a canvas poncho shirt
after all. Most of it is still here, and (great shock!) I remembered
where I put it. Probably weighs more per square yard than the drill,
but it's thinner -- and *much* firmer. This will make excellent
waistbands.

Meanwhile, back at the narrative. I started laying out four each of
the broadfall pockets, hip pockets, and watch pockets, two with arrows
pointing this way and two with arrows pointing that way: well, duh!
Not to mention awk scrickle. Bring back the muslin and the template,
tear out two more passport pockets. There was only enough selvage
left for one more pocket, so I tore a pocket-wide strip with selvage
at one end, then tore a pocket off the selvage end and left the rest
to be hemmed down to the same length.

I cut the broadfall pockets by patterns (I'd long since made a second
copy of the patterns for these pants), cut the watch pockets by drawn
threads, cut the hip pockets half-and-half; they are rectangles with
one pointy end. I drew the pointy ends on at least three of them with
wash-out marker, to save pinning the pattern/template to the fabric.
Didn't fold in half to check symmetry, as recently discussed on
Creative Machine. I may when it's pressing time.

I wrote "Hemp May 2008" on each pattern piece that I used even though
I started this job in April.

Friday I made birthday cake. And blueberry muffins.

Saturday the Farmers' Market opened for the season -- I bought a dozen
eggs and a tomato plant -- and there was a party at Chimps Comics (I
found a Dark Horse title I hadn't seen before). Saturday may also be
the day I started writing this.

And today was Sunday. (I did plant the tomato I bought yesterday.)
Perhaps tomorrow I'll get on with hemming pockets and pressing edges,
but I've been known to take two years to finish a pair of pants.

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 Mary Fisher on May 5, 2008, 2:52 pm

> Since some of the lurkers must be feeling intimidated by all the

> faster-than-light sewing that's been going on around here, I thought

> I'd post an account of my slower-than-molasses sewing.

> Unfortunately, I write slower than molasses too. That shouldn't be

> too bad in May -- but I keep my molasses in the refrigerator.

I know it's nothing to do with sewing, but why?

:-)

> I bought unbleached "russia drill" to make new summer jeans some time

> ago, but a while back on another forum, a professional shirtmaker

> posted that she always washed hemp hot and dried it hot at least three

> times -- and that was shirt-weight hemp.

Where do you get hemp fabric?

Mary

Posted by Juno on May 5, 2008, 5:21 pm

Mary Fisher wrote:

>> Since some of the lurkers must be feeling intimidated by all the

>> faster-than-light sewing that's been going on around here, I thought

>> I'd post an account of my slower-than-molasses sewing.

>> Unfortunately, I write slower than molasses too. That shouldn't be

>> too bad in May -- but I keep my molasses in the refrigerator.

> I know it's nothing to do with sewing, but why?

> :-)

>> I bought unbleached "russia drill" to make new summer jeans some time

>> ago, but a while back on another forum, a professional shirtmaker

>> posted that she always washed hemp hot and dried it hot at least three

>> times -- and that was shirt-weight hemp.

> Where do you get hemp fabric?

> Mary

Maybe for the same reason I keep honey, molasses and maple syrup in the
refrigerator. If I don't, I get ants all over my house. It doesn't
matter if I wash the jar after using it or if I put it in a plastic bag
after washing it, those little critters find the stuff. I may not have
an ant in the house, that I know of, but an open jar of anything sweet
draws them in.
Juno

Posted by Pogonip on May 5, 2008, 5:45 pm

Juno wrote:

> Mary Fisher wrote:

>>> Since some of the lurkers must be feeling intimidated by all the

>>> faster-than-light sewing that's been going on around here, I thought

>>> I'd post an account of my slower-than-molasses sewing.

>>>

>>> Unfortunately, I write slower than molasses too. That shouldn't be

>>> too bad in May -- but I keep my molasses in the refrigerator.

>> I know it's nothing to do with sewing, but why?

>> :-)

>>> I bought unbleached "russia drill" to make new summer jeans some time

>>> ago, but a while back on another forum, a professional shirtmaker

>>> posted that she always washed hemp hot and dried it hot at least three

>>> times -- and that was shirt-weight hemp.

>>>

>> Where do you get hemp fabric?

>> Mary

> Maybe for the same reason I keep honey, molasses and maple syrup in the

> refrigerator. If I don't, I get ants all over my house. It doesn't

> matter if I wash the jar after using it or if I put it in a plastic bag

> after washing it, those little critters find the stuff. I may not have

> an ant in the house, that I know of, but an open jar of anything sweet

> draws them in.

> Juno

In the "olde dayes" in South Florida, we kept the sugar bowl sitting in
a saucer of water for just that reason. Restaurants did it in the times
before those individual packs of sugar that are ubiquitous now. We had
no a/c -- Walgreen's did, and I think it boosted their business. The
county office I worked in, the school I attended before that, certainly
had no a/c, nor did homes or cars.

Now, I put the cat food dishes for the feral cats in piepans with water
in them. Someone made a suggestion of an alternative, but darned if I
can remember now what it was.
--
Joanne
stitches @ singerlady.reno.nv.us.earth.milky-way.com
http://members.tripod.com/~bernardschopen/

Posted by Mary Fisher on May 6, 2008, 5:12 am

> Mary Fisher wrote:

>>> Since some of the lurkers must be feeling intimidated by all the

>>> faster-than-light sewing that's been going on around here, I thought

>>> I'd post an account of my slower-than-molasses sewing.

>>>

>>> Unfortunately, I write slower than molasses too. That shouldn't be

>>> too bad in May -- but I keep my molasses in the refrigerator.

>> I know it's nothing to do with sewing, but why?

>> :-)

>>> I bought unbleached "russia drill" to make new summer jeans some time

>>> ago, but a while back on another forum, a professional shirtmaker

>>> posted that she always washed hemp hot and dried it hot at least three

>>> times -- and that was shirt-weight hemp.

>>>

>> Where do you get hemp fabric?

>> Mary

> Maybe for the same reason I keep honey, molasses and maple syrup in the

> refrigerator. If I don't, I get ants all over my house. It doesn't matter

> if I wash the jar after using it or if I put it in a plastic bag after

> washing it, those little critters find the stuff. I may not have an ant in

> the house, that I know of, but an open jar of anything sweet draws them

> in.

> Juno

I can understand that!

Thanks goodness we don't have an ant problem, yes, they're around but not to
that degree. It would be difficult for me, having (sealed) buckets of honey
as well as jars and containers of comb honey - to say nothing of jams.
Horror!

We were once camping in our Viking tent at a Dark Age village and found ants
crawling over our loaves and vegetables. To avoid this we had to put them in
a net and haul them over the ridge pole. No doubt ants would have found the
stuff had we been there longer but it was sufficient prevention for a few
days.

Mary

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