Something for the Boys!

What could be more fun and frugal than spending less than $10 to make shirts for my three favorite boys?!  That is just what I did this week with three t-shirts from Goodwill, thread, and the Candy Castle Patterns Soda Pop Polo Shirt pattern.  I joined the Sew-Along, but missed the deadline trying to get three shirts done, during History Fair Week, while doing an unrelated pattern test.  I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew!  But in the end, I am pretty happy with the result and I certainly learned a lot.





This project was my first time:

1. Sewing with knit fabric
2. Sewing with a double needle
3. Using my new serger
4. Using this particular pattern
5. Making a collar
6. Using a stretch stitch

Since I was upcycling old t-shirts, I was limited in the amount of fabric I had available.  The boys wanted hoods, but I didn't have enough fabric for those.  I thought true collars would have looked better (and hidden errors better), but the boys nixed that idea, so we settled on the henley style.   The pattern certainly gives the option to use a contrast fabric for the hood/collars/insets/etc, including a woven instead of knit.  Several times I went to local fabric shops to see if they had anything I liked, but in the end, I decided to make the shirts completely from the original t-shirts.  This also saved on my cost, and since this was my first time sewing knits and my first time using the pattern, this was a particular plus.  I think the shirts cost a buck or two each at Goodwill in the men's t-shirt section.

My two younger boys wear about the same size, and I made size 5 for both of them with a longer length for the older one.  I made a size 9 for my oldest son.

My Star Wars guy was excited to find this shirt at Goodwill because his dad has the same T-shirt.  He asked for a chest pocket and seems really excited about his shirt.

 

For my little Spiderman, I added a web-like box at the bottom of the placket and a mini pocket on each sleeve using the smallest pocket pattern piece.  I had the worst time for some reason with the button holes on his shirt.  I think some thread got stuck in the bobbin area of my machine.  After I cleaned it out, it worked better, but the third buttonhole had already been ruined by that point, so I added a small piece of the web-print fabric to cover the error.

 

My little Superman was pretty particular and insisted I not put buttons on his shirt.  He wanted a zipper, but it was a bit late for that by the time I found out.  He said snaps might be okay, but I don't have a press, so we will see.  For now he claims he will wear another shirt under it!

Overall, the pattern went together well.  My biggest problem was with the collars.  I did end up cutting collars a size larger for the size 5 shirts (I used a size 6Y collar) and had trouble stretching it to fit without getting a tiny pucker in the main shirt fabric as I sewed it on.  In the end, I got it okay, but it took a few tries.  I was able to save the original hem for the sleeves and I did my own hem with a double needle for the three shirts.  I also had a bit of difficultly with placement of the buttonholes, as the bottom of the placket was too thick to fit under my machine, so I could not get a button any lower than the ones I did.

The boys were all excited to get their first non-costume garment made by mom and wore them the rest of the day as soon as I finished.  I am pleased enough with the results, particularly because of all the new experiences I gained, but they are not pieces I would want in a portfolio or anything.  I need to work on straighter stretch stitches around the neckline (I did learn that I need to increase me stitch length for better results).  I also confess to not taking the time toward the end to do things as well as I could have.  I was pretty eager to be done with all three shirts by the time I was getting to the end!  I am confident that the next time I use knits and the next time I use this pattern I will have much better results with the experience I gained using this pattern (for three shirts) and I am glad my three little men are so excited about their new super-shirts.

My (Imperfect) Quest for a Serger

The information I am about to share I am not proud of.  I strive to be a good-decision-maker-deal-seeker-bargain-hunter type. Often it works out great and I am excited and thankful for my purchase. This quest for a serger is not one of my shining moments.

My longing for a serger began when I decided to make a triple-layer ruffled crib skirt when I was pregnant with my daughter.  The tutorial suggested a rolled hem for the bottom of the ruffle layers. I was unfamiliar with this technique at the time, but it looked really nice.  After ending up having to hem all those layers, it did not take me long to be convinced.  My sister-in-law had purchased an old Pfaff serger for about $50 on Craigslist to use making cloth diaper inserts and baby wipes.  She kindly loaned it to me, but it did not have rolled hem capabilities.  This was the first time I had the opportunity to try out a serger and I fell in love.  The gorgeous finished seam and simplicity of it all had me hooked.  I used it to repair a broken seam on my favorite maternity pants and drooled a little.

So began the scouring of Craigslist, Amazon, garage sales, thrift stores and the like for an awesome low-priced serger.  These are not easy to come by.  I considered a few, missed a few, hemmed and hawwed about the Brother 1034d on amazon.com.  Finally, last spring I found a listing for a Singer serger for $35 in the city next to mine.  Corresponding with the owner, I learned she was a seamstress and costume maker who had bought the machine new less than a year ago in a crunch and wanted it to go to someone who would appreciate it (that would be me!).  Our family went to buy it on the way home from another trip.  My husband almost wouldn't let me go into the house when we got there.  The woman was super nice though, gave me a homemade lavender cupcake, and I took the serger home.  She made a comment that the tension needed adjusting.  "No problem, I can do that!"

Now I know that there is no good reason why I wouldn't test the machine while there.  Well, actually, there kinda is because my husband was nervously waiting outside, standing on the sidewalk halfway between the house where I was and our car of kids.  But still.  I brought it home and didn't have a project to use it for a few months.  When I did get it out to use, the tension needed more than adjusting.  After borrowing a few sergers, breaking a needle, and re-threading machines multiple times, I like to think of myself as a sort of serger whisperer.  I am sure this isn't accurate, but I do think I can handle one decently.  This machine was not working.  I took it to our local repair shop, put down the $20 to have it looked at, and found out the timing was off.  It would be about $140 to fix.  I can buy the same machine for $150-$200 brand new, and it's not that great of a machine.  So now (as of a few months ago) I am out $55, without a serger.  But it gets worse.

I continued my search somewhat, but focused more on my new sewing machine which I bought new at my local dealer (it wasn't a simple search process, but in the end I'm glad that's the route I went)  Then continued my hunt for a serger.  I recently found a great Baby Lock Pro with a ton of thread listed on Craigslist.  After reading about it online, so many people raved about their older BLPro, and I liked the features and price.  I corresponded a lot with the owner.  The wintery weather kept me from being able to go take a look for a couple weeks.  I think this intensified my desire to have it.  Finally, I had a small window between snow storms and other responsibilities to make the trip to check out the machine.  I won't say how far it was.  It wasn't ridiculous, but it was just on the edge of saneness for travel distance.

To shorten the story, I got there and it didn't work right.  She had set it out and set it up and had fabric ready for me to try it.  She had caged her dogs before I arrived.  She was super nice.  The machine had sat for years since her last project unused and under the table.  But I stitched about 1" and the needle broke.  I replaced the needle, rethreaded the machine (things I had done before with success) and it wouldn't chain.  I kept trying and trying.  (Her husband had always threaded it for her and he wasn't around).  It.would.not.work.  Except another needle did break.  The owner apologized and apologized for not being more help and that I drove all the way out for nothing.  I really don't think it was her fault, but I began to wonder if she had tried it at all in the last decade before listing it.  That would have been a good question to ask.  She did say she would see if her husband could figure it out or take it to her local dealer repair and let me know what she found out.

Ugh.  I wasted an afternoon checking out the machine and am still empty handed.  It is better than buying the machine and then having it not work.  But driving home (Did I mention it was in a rural area of my state and there is snow everywhere?  It made the drive home seem lonely and sad) I am chastising myself for this whole serger process.  Everyone likes the Brother 1034d.  Why did I not just buy that in the first place?  Now I am out so much time and some money and still have no serger.  I know part of me wants to find a nicer serger for a lower price.  But instead I end up with no serger.

So back at square one, the question remains.  Maybe I should just give up?  Maybe I should sock away my pennies and just buy the Brother 1030d (which has gone up in price over all this time).  Maybe I could find some way to save lots of money to buy the serger at my dealer?  I think I've quit Craigslist.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

In my mind, purchases in general can be neat and tidy.  If I research it enough, I will find the BEST deal on the BEST item and I will buy it and love it and never regret it.  Perfect.  But this is not always (often?) the case.  How does it work for you?  Do you just go out and buy new whatever you want?  Does anyone else waste time, effort, and money like me?  Do you need parts for a Singer Serger?  I'll sell you some for $50.

Princess Dress from Candy Castle Patterns

I am so very pleased with this dress.  I wanted to make an Easter and Spring dress for my daughter and this pattern hit the mark!

I know, I know.  I posted nearly the same collage twice.  One looks better on my iPad, one looks better on the desktop.  Hoping to improve my photography skills so that they all look good.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I joined a two-week sew-along in the Candy Castle Patterns Group on Facebook, using her Princess Dress pattern.  This was my first sew-along and first pattern from Candy Castle Patterns.  I loved how easy-to-follow the pattern guide is.  I was able to try my hand at a few techniques I had not done before, and completed my second ever dress for my daughter.  And did I mention I love it?  The pattern is very versatile and customizable.  You choose slim or regular size, sleeve length (additional pattern available, Swizzle Sticks Sleeves for even more sleeve options), and whether you want a paneled or single fabric skirt, hemmed/ruffled/lace skirts, and the pattern also includes optional bows and yo-yo fabric flower embellishments.  I printed the pages I needed for my size pattern dimension, then followed the directions in my kindle app rather than printing the directions.  This worked very well for me.

I fell in love with the London Calling line of fabric from Robert Kauffman when I was shopping at The French Seam in Indianapolis (awesome fabric shop, the ladies there are lovely, and the store is delightful) and I knew I wanted to use the purple floral for the main fabric of my dress (it is so soft I even used it for the lining - I thought it was worth it to have that nice fabric next to her skin).  I had some green lattice print fabric left over from another project, and I liked the way it coordinated with the floral, so I chose that for my underskirt, even though I had originally selected a different fabric.  The lavender fabric was a remnant I picked up at The French Seam, and I loved the way it complemented my color scheme.   I used the one-fabric design for my skirt, and created ruffles for the bottom of both skirts.  I used the puff sleeve option, and then scaled back the puff a bit, for personal preference with this particular dress (look at the online photos to see how amazing the puff sleeves are for the Disney Character Princess dresses several women have made).

THOUGHTS
I've already said I really enjoyed the pattern.  I admit I was a little worried that the ruffles and scallops would be too much for me.  I also wasn't sure I'd like the longer length of the dress.  These are all options you can easily change - and many have.  A simplified Princess Dress uses only a single underskirt, and the length is very easy to customize.  I just went for it with those parts of the pattern and in the end I am very happy with it.  It is very well done.  For a more everyday dress, I will certainly use this pattern again in the simplified version as well.  The sew-along with the group was also delightful.  Any time anyone had a question or ran in to a problem, help was minutes away when posting to the group.  Also, everyone participated with lots of encouragement and congratulations on everything from fabric choices to finished dresses.  The schedule was very forgiving and manageable even for someone like me with limited sewing time.  Another aspect I found helpful was the encouragement to make a muslin.  I ended up making three muslins to adjust sizing and the sleeves.  I know this was key to having a dress I am so happy with in the end.  The only challenge for me (and its a little tongue in cheek) was fleeing from the temptation to dress envy - or comparison.  Women put together some very creative, beautiful dresses during the sew-along (and some even did multiple dresses at the same time).  So the temptation was there to think, "I wish I'd have come up with that color scheme" or "Wow!  What is my dress compared to that one?"  But that is not the point really, is it?  My goal was to be happy with my dress at the end, and I certainly am very happy with it.

FIRSTS
This was my first time:

• sewing a sash
• sewing on my new Janome sewing machine
• "bothering" with a muslin (I hate to confess) - as mentioned this was very helpful.
• making button holes on an actual garment (instead of just practicing on test fabric)
• participating in a sew-along
• using a pattern from Candy Castle Patterns
• incorporating a placket
• Using a serger for a rolled hem (not required, but I used it for the ruffles on both skirts)

CHANGES & SPECIAL TOUCHES

Besides the adjustments I made for my own errors (see below), the only changes I made to the pattern were to add a ribbon backing to the button and buttonhole area for extra strength.  I used fusible bonding to attach the gross grain ribbon to the underside, then ran stitches across the top and bottom to secure in place before adding the buttons and the button holes.  Not sure it was necessary, I just did it.  As I mentioned above, I also scaled back the puff sleeves for this particular dress.  I then tested it when I made my muslin.I also wanted to bring some of the green fabric to the upper part of the dress, so I added a double band on the sleeve edge, instead of the single edge.  I also made a coordinating headband/hair clip and made use of the included the leaf pattern with the flower.

MISTAKES
Since I am not perfect, I will share my three main errors or mistakes while making this dress.

The first was sizing.  I measured my daughter and thought for sure a 12m slim would be the size to make.  I went ahead and made a muslin since it was on the schedule and my first time with the pattern.  When I tried it on my daughter, I was afraid it would be too narrow, especially by spring, so I decided to try the regular.  This is also when I scaled back the puff sleeve.  Still too narrow and perhaps, too short, I moved to the 18 slim.  I also looked at the size chart again and realized that really the 18 slim is where I should have started in the first place.  I was still concerned with the very bottom of the bodice being too tight at the bottom of the chest, but decided to forge ahead.  I am glad I did, because I forgot that the dress and skirt meet there, with a placket that can flex open.  So it ended up being a lovely fit.

Secondly, when cutting the scallops in the bottom of the skirt, I cut scallops in both skirts instead of just the top skirt.  It was late.  I wasn't thinking straight.  Since the skirts are gathered at the top anyway, and didn't have enough of the underskirt fabric to cut another, I sewed the cutouts shut, and in the end (after gathering) it didn't make a difference - thankfully!

Thirdly, when I was sewing the finished skirts to the bodice, i misaligned the side seams on one side.  This happened because I actually misaligned the two skirts - so the underskirt was aligned properly, but from the right side (outside) they were misaligned.  This was disappointing because I had to pull out the stitched and also ended up having to re-gather a good portion of the overskirt, then resew it all in the proper position.  The whole time I was praying I wouldn't accidentally put a hole in any of the fabric.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief and pleasure when I finished!

See?  Not perfect.  Mistakes happen and happily they were all fixable this time.  But, thankfully, the dress as a whole is anything but a mistake.  I love it!  I'd love to see links to your own Princess dress or other Candy Castle Patterns garment in the comments section!