My Personal PR Weekend

Hooray! She graduated!

Back when plans were being made for PR Weekend 2012, one of the options was San Francisco.  Britex Fabrics is on my Fabric Store Bucket List. Match made in heaven, right? Wrong.  My daughter's graduation from University of Virginia was the same weekend and I would have missed PR Weekend, no matter where it was held. Fortunately, a scheduling conflict made it necessary to postpone PR Weekend in San Francisco until 2013 and hold PR Weekend 2012 in New York.  Since I'd shopped in New York before, I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything by attending my only child's graduation.  (Does that sound bad?)  I managed to have my cake and eat it, too. I attended DD's graduation and had my own personal fabric shopping spree in Virginia.

First, I went to Les Fabriques, my usual stop when visiting Charlottesville.  I drove to the location and discovered an empty store front!  My heart fell.  I panicked. But then I checked online and learned Les Fabriques hadn't closed, it moved.  The new location is much bigger and more luxuriously decorated.  Here is what I picked up:

teal cotton stripe; teal stretch woven; yellow knit

I strongly suspect the teal stripe above is actually intended for quilting. But it was displayed with the teal bottom weight and matched so well! Since I am the Queen of Matchy-Matchy, I had to get it for a blouse.

It being graduation weekend, hotel rooms were scarce and overpriced.  As a result, my hotel was about 25 miles from Charlottesville in Waynesboro.  Naturally, I searched for independent fabric stores in Waynesboro and found Fabric Warehouse.  This store and Les Fabriques are polar opposites.  Les Fabriques is located in an upscale shopping plaza. Fabric Warehouse is located in a low rent strip mall which translates to lower prices.  I picked up these two pieces for less than $25.00:

magenta twill and cotton check

The check can also be worn with the teal shown above.  The Queen of Matchy-Matchy is pleased!

So, I was not able to join the PR Weekend fun in New York City.  But I was able to score nice fabrics in my own personal PR Weekend.

Finished: Kwik Sew 3866 (Rant & Review)

Chapter 1

The Rant

I have a problem with knits.  It's not a secret.  I was feeling more confident about knits until I met this green fabric last month at G-Street Fabrics in Falls Church, VA.

Ridiculous amount of rolled up edge!

Some knits just will not lay out smoothly for pinning and cutting.  This fabric behaved just like the red knit that made me rant and rave two years ago.  It had a infuriating tendency to roll up at the edges.  I like to match the selvages and fold the fabric in half.  Is that wrong?  Is that too much to ask?  Since it was impossible to place anything on a fold, I ended up tracing a full front, back, and collar pieces and two separate sleeves.  I forgot about folds and laid everything out on a single layer.

Maybe I'm over-reacting.  I've been known to do that.  After I got the pieces cut out, I experimented with the suggestions from my previous rant. I tried pressing. I tried spray starch. Some of the techniques helped, but I still wasn't satisfied.  I just want knits to behave like wovens and that will never happen. Maybe I just shouldn't be sewing knits.

Chapter 2

The Review

Click here or see sidebar for Pattern Review

One can never have too many polo shirts.  Polo shirts are a slightly less casual than t-shirts, but just as comfortable.  Now that I have Kwik Sew 3866 I can pick-up (easy to fold) knits (that don't roll up) suitable for polo shirts every time I see them.  This pattern offers long-sleeved and sleeveless versions as well as the short sleeved version.

Kwik Sew's instructions often are much easier than other pattern company's instructions.   I struggled trying to follow Burda's instructions for a front placket.  Kwik Sew's instructions were as easy as pie.  The band is interfaced and that made the knit behave a little better.

I'm not sure about the fiber content because I found this fabric on the $2.97 table at G-Street Fabrics.  I suspect it's cotton because it pressed so well.  (You'd think I would have been able to press out those rolled up edges!) When it was time to press up the hem, it held the crease better than any knit I've had the displeasure to press.  I had to use my walking foot on any seam that wasn't serged.  The fabric tended to drag and would have made a huge gap when I reached the end of a seam.  I used the walking foot when sewing the upper and under collars together and when top stitching the placket.  So that dragging wouldn't be an issue, I used the cover stitch capability of my serger to hem the sleeves and bottom.

In spite of the knit's idiosyncrasies, this was an easy shirt to sew.  The pattern was so easy, you could almost ignore the knit fabric.  I'll make more of these tops if I can find knits that know how to behave.

Finished: BPF SS-2008-404C

Burda Magazine patterns remind me of Ike & Tina Turner's version of "Proud Mary". I can almost hear Aenne Burda singing:

"Y'know, every now and then
I think you might like to sew something from us
Nice and easy.
But there's just one thing
You see, we never, ever do nothin' 
Nice and easy.
We always do it nice …… and rough!"

I needed a pattern for a nice and easy pull-over top. The closest thing I found was from the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of Burda Plus Fashion; a simple, short sleeved pull-over top with shirring on the front.  I wasn't looking for anything with shirring, but one of the reasons I like Burda is the design details they include on the simplest garments.

Burda's instructions for binding the neckline seemed a little rough so I used an easier french binding technique.  The binding doesn't lay flat against my body the way I would have liked.   I checked other reviews on PR and a few other sewers had the same issue.  It's not like I'll be wearing this top to a State Dinner at the White House, so it's okay.

See sidebar or click for Pattern Review

I wouldn't describe the shirring as rough, but it was fussy.  It was easy enough to couch the elastic using Bernina's Embroidery foot which has a little hole through which the elastic was threaded, but each of the four rows had to be gathered a little shorter than the previous row.  And six rows had to fit into less than two inches of space.  It took some time to arrange the gathered rows evenly.

Karen gave me the rayon challis because she knows how much I like things to match. This fabric has lots of colors in it and is easy to match, just as she predicted. It just so happens, this fabric looks good with the two bottom weight pieces I bought at G-Street recently.

Even with the rough spots, I was able to finish this top in one day.  I'd like to make it again using a knit fabric.

But I Never Win Anything!

On a recent morning, I found this in my email inbox:

Congratulations!  You are one of our five March Lucky Threads Insiders.  Each month we select members to receive a prize and our March prize is our 2011 Threads Magazine Archive.  You can see more information on the Archive here -  http://store.threadsmagazine.com/2011-threads-magazine-archive-031029.html.  The DVD should ship out tomorrow and you should receive it in the next few days.  Congratulations and thank you for being a Threads Insider!

---------------
Missy Robinson Senior Marketing Manager
Fine Cooking

Fine Homebuilding

Fine Woodworking

Fine Gardening
Threads

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

It's my nature to be a little suspicious. Was it safe to click the link? Was my computer being infected with some horrible virus?  Yes, I paid for a Threads Insider subscription, but I never win anything!

A few days later, this arrived:

My luck has changed!  Maybe I'll buy a Mega Millions lottery ticket!  Maybe I'll meet Idris Elba in the supermarket and he'll insist on taking me off to Brazil for a wild, guilt-free, three-day weekend!  And when we get back, I'll find I won the lottery!

Or maybe I should just count my blessings and watch the DVD.

Finished: B5721

Click here or see sidebar for PatternReview

I love camp shirts for warm weather.  I haven't seen anything that looked like a camp shirt from Burda, my first choice in patterns, since April 2006.  I'm trying to move away from my "All Burda – All the Time" stance and sew other pattern companies, including Big 4.  Butterick used to be my favorite pattern company and I was happy to find B5721 for a warm weather blouse.  (The May 2012 Issue of Burda Style has a short sleeved button-up blouse 05-2012-135  but the issue arrived after I'd already started this blouse.)

I bought the fabric, a cotton-poly blend, to coordinate with pants fabric I had, but decided to go another way for that blouse.  That made this fabric perfect for experimenting with a non-Burda pattern.  Butterick didn't let me down.  I like the way this blouse turned out.

There was a little too much sleeve ease.  In addition to my usual finger easing,  (or "ease plus")  I used a method I saw demonstrated by Louise Cutting.  Cutting's method takes advantage of turn of cloth to ease in the extra fullness.  This method is done while pinning the sleeve to the armscye and didn't take any extra time and very little extra effort.  I don't know if piggy-backing two techniques is recommended, but it worked in this case.

Since this was a test garment, I didn't agonize over selecting buttons.  I dumped my buttons out of the jar and onto the fabric and discovered antiqued metallic buttons that looked good. They weren't even green! OMG!

This may be the first pattern from the women's size range I've sewn.  Usually I choose patterns from the misses size range.  Who comes up with theses labels anyway?  Somehow, I feel older and more matronly sewing women's than I did sewing misses.  While this crushed my body image and dented my self esteem, I have to admit, the blouse fits.  Just one more way the universe has of telling me I'm getting older.

My First Hot Pattern

I'm probably the last person on earth to try Hot Patterns.  What's not to like?  There is a great variety of designs from current and trendy to timeless and classic.  All designs come in plus sizes. There is even a whole line called "Plain and Simple" which describes my tastes exactly!  I decided it was finally time to try Hot Patterns.

For my first attempt, I chose HP1133:  Plain and Simple Fitted T.  I had over three yards of a knit I didn't like anyway - just in case the pattern didn't work out.  I chose the size based on my measurements and the fit was too awful to photograph.  With the leftover fabric I tried a second shirt two sizes larger and the fit wasn't any better.  The top really needed darts. The fault was not Hot Patterns' though. My body is just not suited for a fitted t-shirt. The fabric was perfect for experimentation so I really didn't mind throwing it away on two poorly fitting t-shirts. And the shirts sewed up very quickly so I didn't waste a lot of time.  There is a Plain and Simple Relaxed T-shirt that I may or may not try.  So far, I haven't warmed up to Hot Patterns.  (warmed up to Hot Patterns - get it?)

I ordered two patterns:  the t-shirt and HP 1120:  Classix Nouveau Primavera dress.  I still want to make the dress before I completely give up on Hot Patterns.  I'm sure I can find some $2.00/yd fabric at JoMar that I would like well enough if the dress works out and that I won't mind getting rid of if it doesn't.  When I read Hot Pattern reviews on PatternReview, they seemed to need lots of tweaking.   Trudy, the designer, always recommends making muslins, but I have been able to get away with not making muslins when I use Burda patterns.  I liked the online support available for HotPatterns on YouTube, but the YouTube support won't matter if I have to spend extra time fitting and making muslins.

I really want to like Hot Patterns.  I'm trying explore other independent patterns and to loosen the ties that bind me to Burda.  But if the dress pattern is as disappointing as the t-shirt pattern, I'll probably end up doing a giveaway.