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Topics - Sandra

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31
Sewing Professionally / Letting out the Waist on Trousers
« on: January 24, 2018, 10:27:54 AM »
A short while ago, Fran asked about letting the waist out on men's trousers. This is an easy alteration and I've had a pair in to alter so I thought I'd show you how easy it is.



There's not a lot to let out on this pair, but I'll do as I've been asked.

Firstly you need to unpick the row of stitching which is holding the waistband facing down...roughly between where I've put the pins... and the little bar tacks which are holding the tops of the belt loops in place.



When you've opened up the waistband, you sometimes find that there isn't as much fabric to let out as you thought. It might have been cut away, but this pair is O.K.



I'm only going to get about an inch, but it might be enough to give a bit of ease.

 The stitching has started to come undone slightly on this pair, where the waistband attaches to the facing, so I need to restitch it to make it secure, so I undo the back seam from the top of the waist down about 3 inches...and restitch.





Once that's done, it's time to pin the half an inch, on the double to gain the extra inch...I place pins horizontally at the point of the waistband seams to try to ensure I match the joins neatly.



Try to run a neat line down...if you run the angle off too quickly you'll end up with a funny shaped seat.....Machine from the top of the band, down, then I always go straight back up again. Hopefully this should give a strong seam which won't cause any embarrassing wardrobe fails when bending over.  :|

Unpick the old seam and press.



All you need to do then is to restitch your waistband facing back down and re-attach the belt loops.



All done.

Taking in the waist is just the same and just as easy a job, but obviously in reverse.
Depending on how much you've needed to take in, you might need to trim some of the excess fabric away. Also, remember when taking in, that back pockets will pull closer together and can sometimes look a bit odd.


Sandra.
xxx

32
Sewing Professionally / Darn Repair on Jeans
« on: January 21, 2018, 10:51:05 AM »
I hate this sort of repair... :\



A decent brand of jeans (Armani...unless they're fake)...and they seem to be in a good state. They're not threadbare or worn, so it's a slightly odd and quite dramatic tear.
I checked to see if I had any spare denim in this colour but have nothing suitable, so have decided the best and neatest thing to do is a darn.

So...first thing is to open all the seams to be able to work on it properly.



Starting with the inside leg seam...next undo the seam beneath the fly....then unpick the fly facing a little to be able to move it out of the way.

The damage needs to be backed with a bit of fabric. I have used a scrap of Egyptian cotton. It doesn't need to be thick fabric. After it's darned, it will feel more rigid, so thick fabric will make it too stiff.



This fabric needs to be tacked onto the back of the damaged area. You need to try to get the rip as close as you can to its original shape so the jeans will fit back together again when you restitch all the seams.
I also tacked across the frayed jeans threads to try to hold them as flat as possible. I snipped some of the worst of the straggly white threads off these too.

Try to match a thread as close in colour as possible....and...Darn....

     

When you're done, remove all the tacking threads and trim off any excess backing fabric.
Pictures show from the back, where it's clearer how I've stitched it. The white threads are always annoying on jeans. I sometimes feel I'd like to colour them in to hide it  0_0

And then you just need to stitch all your seams back together.



All done. Not an especially enjoyable or nice job, but it's better than flashing your crotch!

Sandra.
xxx

33
A bit of a 'do' / My Daughter's Prom Dress.
« on: December 28, 2017, 12:41:28 PM »
I ordered it from China!  :S :fish: :fish:

What could possibly go wrong?  0_0

About a month ago, my daughter was browsing dresses online and found one she liked...really liked.
The image on the website showed a lovely off-the-shoulder, A-line dress with elbow length sleeves....it really did look very, very nice indeed, and I could imagine it suiting her...so we ordered it. :fish: ( I know! I should know better  :fish:)

I searched online first for reviews about the company involved and was surprised to see people were either very happy with their dresses or absolutely disgusted...there weren't many inbetween...but of course, you never know whether they're real reviews or fake...so we nervously waited for the dress to arrive.

It is here!
Arrived this morning exactly when they said to expect it. My daughter is happy with it and I'm happy with how it's made.

I was never worried about the fit of the dress. My daughter's a funny size...( aren't we all?  :))..and I know I can alter it and tweak it to fit. My only concern was if it was inferior, rubbish, cheap, tatty fabrics...and it's not.

Here's a sneaky look at the back...she'll be annoyed if she finds out I've put her on here.





As it is at the moment...I need to widen the sleeves...change the huge bust cups for some which are my daughters size...and shorten it, probably removing the train...(The seam at the waistline is tight too and I know the back's ruckled...I can sort it closer to the event)

All doable...but the Prom isn't until June, so I'm not going to worry about any of it yet.

It could have been a disaster, but we're happy with this....no problems for us.

Sandra.
xxx



34
Sewing Professionally / Repair to Fur Coat
« on: December 06, 2017, 09:17:01 AM »
This arrived yesterday ...it's a real fur jacket with the most enormous tear on the left front.



The customer was tearful...it had been her mother's jacket and she desperately wanted it mended, if at all possible. She would like to pass it on to her own daughter.

In total, the tear is 14 inches long, in four lengths...turning right angled corners as it goes. :S

Luckily, the skin was in pretty good condition...(I remember once, trying to repair one which was so thin, it was like trying to stitch single-ply, wet tissue).... so I was able to pull it all back together.

Firstly, I needed to open the lining. This needed to be tackled from the back. There's no chance of stitching it neatly from the outside through all that fur.



The side seam was opened, and a section undone at the hem....from here I can partly turn the jacket inside-out...



That's better...I can see what I'm dealing with now.

Oooooh.....that's a big tear!

Starting from an inside corner of the rip, I simply pulled the two edges back together.



Didn't take too long.

All done. I gave it a light brushing (with our cats brush ><)...to free any trapped fur...and the repair is invisible underneath all that.

Hopefully, the lady will be happy it's been mended and it's looking good.



Sandra.
xxx

35
A bit of a 'do' / Christening Gown
« on: November 23, 2017, 16:04:59 PM »
I'd mentioned recently that I'd been asked to cut up someones beautiful Wedding Dress to make a Christening Gown for a very poorly child, so thought I ought to show you how it turned out.
 
I used McCall's pattern M6221 to get the basic sizing for the bodice and sleeves...(there was no time for fittings to check the size).... and I also had enough time to make a very simple bonnet from the same pattern.





The gorgeous Wedding dress was crinkle silk chiffon over duchess satin...quite plain but very beautiful. I took the trim from the waist to use as trim on the Christening gown.




The back fastened with three buttons.

Sandra.
xxx


36
Patchwork & Quilting ... Welcome to the Darkside / FPP Unicorn
« on: November 19, 2017, 11:03:58 AM »
Thanks to Fajita's lovely find, I have made the unicorn block...with a RAINBOW mane!  <3

There were 12 pages of instructions/pattern to print off and only one page needed a bit of sticky tape to join 2 sections together.
This gave a total of 34! sections.



Ooooh! Daunting... :S

There are separate instructions to make up the rainbow mane which can be found easily on the blog....robynie.com...sewing tutorials page 2.)
This will give you a chart of ( her) 13 colours with the corresponding sections....( such as G1, L2, L3 )... which will be filled with your chosen colour. I printed this off and cut it out.

This was essential!!  Once I'd decided my sequence of colours, I pinned the strips of paper to my fabrics. You can see this in the picture above.

It came together easily, although it looks such a muddled mess as you're going along, you wonder if, and hope it's going to turn out ok.



But it doesn't take long before you start to see good, encouraging progress.



Yep! That looks like a rainbow mane to me  :)

Sandra.
xxx

37
Patchwork & Quilting ... Welcome to the Darkside / FPP Cow block
« on: September 18, 2017, 08:43:59 AM »
I've finally got around to buying a new printer...YAY!

So....I've been able to print off the pattern to make a wonderful cow block which I'd stumbled across while I was looking for something else.

It's on piecemealquilts.com.....I'm sorry I don't know how to make the linky thing for you to click onto.



There are quite a few sections to make up and then attach all together and I've struggled in places to get the pieces to match up nicely....you can see what I mean around the right ear.  :S

Sandra.
xxx

38
Hi, I'm new... / Lovely to be Here
« on: March 04, 2017, 18:03:42 PM »
This is more like it!

I wasn't sure I was ever going to get used to Reddit, so it's really good to be here. It looks smart and clean...I'm still finding my way around but I like it so far.

Good to see so many familiar names.
Thank you to those who've taken the time to set this all up.

I was Sajala on the other site, but I'm more than happy to be able to drop the ...'la'.. bit, (which was my married surname), and be known by my real name instead.

I must try to post more and not be such a lurker ....I'll do my best.

Sandra.
xxx

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