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Messages - WendyW

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1
Sewing Professionally / I'm in business
« on: November 18, 2023, 23:30:48 PM »
Well, I'm finally putting my fancy new sewing room to its intended use. I opened up shop as a teaching studio. My first class begins on Monday night. My sign to go out by the road is in progress in my husband's woodshop and should be in place tomorrow (Sunday). Currently I'm taking registration for 4 different classes, and have a grand total of 3 students signed up, two of them for the class that begins Monday.

Here's my website, for those that want to take a look. Bosky Glen Sewing Studio

2
Current Projects / Re: What are you sewing?
« on: September 01, 2023, 13:41:46 PM »
I'm working my way through a stack of flimsies for charity quilts, getting them sandwiched and quilted. We have a drop-off next weekend and I have 4 more to finish, for a final stack of 14, I think.

3
Sewalongs and Competitions / Re: A "WIPGO" sew along
« on: August 25, 2023, 14:25:58 PM »
My projects this month are a quilt to hang above the living room from the loft, and cutting up scraps.

Has this method helped any of you to actually finish anything?
LOL! Very good question! It helped me the first few months, but then we got a puppy. As she is not, and never will be, allowed in the sewing room, keeping her out of trouble has put a dent in my sewing time. I'm starting to get back to it now, so hopefully I can play some catch-up, as soon as I finish the doll dress requested by my granddaughter.

4
Sewalongs and Competitions / Re: A "WIPGO" sew along
« on: August 19, 2023, 14:51:36 PM »
My progress has been non-existent. I have been much more inclined to spend my summer days outside, and when I am in the sewing room, I'm usually working on something for a client. I have started teaching my granddaughter to sew, and that's much more fun than UFOs.

5
Tech Know How / Re: Recommended books on pattern drafting?
« on: July 14, 2023, 17:00:38 PM »
@Elnnina mentioned Sure-Fit designs, which is a great system. There are also 2 other systems that I am familiar with. Fit-Nice Designs and Lutterloh.

Lutterloh requires the most drafting work, and it uses miniature patterns that are expanded during the drawing process to your particular size. You get a pattern that is specific to the style of garment you are making. You have to buy the drawing kit which includes a specialized tape measure for expanding the drawings into your pattern. Several times a year they release a new pattern book with about 30 pattern drawings in it. You cannot buy individual patterns, and they are extremely thorough about keeping copies of their pattern drawings off the internet. I have and like this system, but rarely do their books have patterns I'm interested in, and you have to pay for 30 patterns to get the one you want. There are zero sewing instructions. They assume you know how to sew and are only providing the pattern.

Sure-Fit uses a basic pattern that is drawn to your measurements, and offers design kits to draw different designs with the standard pattern as a base. The system is divided up into various packets. The basic packets gives instructions for using the system and making a variety of designs, and there are additional packets that each have a selection of several designs. It offers some education in how the patterns are put together, and how to turn a basic pattern into a stylish garment.

Fit-Nice gives you a basic pattern, already drawn to multiple sizes and extremely basic. All the designs are in one large and expensive book. I don't know how much instruction is included. 

This video gives a comparison of both Fit-Nice and Sure-Fit. The lady has many videos of her projects with both companies. The videos are useful and informative, but I'm pretty sure she has something other than just coffee in her mug! I must watch her in limited doses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prnA8f5-AD0

If you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty of drafting patterns from scratch, I have 2 books I can recommend.
 
Coordinated Pattern Fit by Jan Minott was written in 1969 to be used in a class on the subject, and my copy was obviously never intended for commercial sale. I don't know if it was ever re-published in a commercial version, and therefore may be hard to find. It goes into great detail on creating a custom pattern sloper for bodice, sleeve, and skirt, and ends with how to use this sloper to make pattern adjustment to commercial patterns, giving you access to a custom-fitted version of nearly every pattern, except pants, made by every company.

How to Draft Basic Patterns (4th edition) by Kopp/Rolfo/Zelin/Gross is a professionally-printed book. The drawings are much nicer, being computer-generated rather than hand-drawn. It gives charts of "average" measurements for a range of sizes, which would be nice for making practice drawings or if you plan to draft patterns for sale, but not of much use for making a custom pattern. This book goes beyond the basic sloper, and tells you how to covert it into a princess seam, caftan, pants, jump-suit, and coat, but not style options, and not how to use it to alter a commercial pattern.

Lastly, on Craftsy there is a series of videos by Suzy Furrer on drafting each sloper and creating design options. I own all of these, and if you like video instruction rather than books, these are well worth your time and money.

6
Dolls and Toys / Re: Sewing For Dolls
« on: June 21, 2023, 18:11:43 PM »
This dress was intended to be part of the collection I gave my granddaughter for Christmas, but I got totally frustrated by the project and decided it would be worthy of being a birthday present on its own- 6 months later, when I didn't have a zillion other Holiday details to take care of. The pattern I started with is "To the Ball" from Dollhouse Designs.

I love the finished dress, though it is far from the original intent. The entire bodice was supposed to be the sequined fabric and there are supposed to be petticoats, and there is not supposed to be a corset panel in the back. My granddaughter LOVES it, which is, of course, the most important part.

I had SO MANY issues making this dress. Some issues were my own fault, but there were major issues with the pattern instructions that drove me batty! The sequined fabric is a knit and I should have interfaced it before cutting; I finally figured that out before making the final version. The shoulder drape is not drapey enough, and makes her look like she's got boobs, which is NOT the effect I was going for a little girl's doll. (I had limited options in fabric choices for that.) I should have made a muslin first, which would have save me a lot of time and stress, but why would I think of that for doll dress??

That pattern though?! OHH! I was so mad at that pattern!

1. Conflicting instructions. In the bodice section (step 7) it had me sew both the top and bottom of the bodice to the lining, then turn it right side out through an open side. Later, it told me to attach the skirt to the bottom edge of the bodice (step 16) then hand-stitch the bottom of the lining (step 27).

2. The instructions are comparable to a run-on sentence. There is no division or headings to separate the various stages. On a purchased pattern I can check off the finished part, or refold the instruction sheet to keep my place, but in this download it got very frustrating. I was not about to print out *20+ pages* with color photos and was reading the instructions from the computer. Whenever it was necessary to scroll, finding my place again was difficult.

3. The photos. The instructions include many color photos. The quality is good. They are clear and easy to see. However, many of them were so close up that you couldn't tell WHAT the picture was of. If I'd had section headings it would not have been as big of a deal, but I tried using the photos to find my spot as I scrolled, and many were worthless for that. Also, the sample dress used for the photos had all the fabrics in the same color. It was difficult to tell main fabric from lining fabric from netting fabric, etc. This pattern would have benefited greatly if the sample had used different colors for the different layers.

4. Sizing.  All three attempts at the bodice came out way too small. The first bodice attempt was so bad I never even tried it on a doll. After second attempt, I added to the seam allowances because curves on a 1/4" seam are hard, and it still came out way too small. I ended up adding a corset panel in back to make it fit.

Ball gown 1 by CraftymamaMN, on Flickr

 Ball gown 2 by CraftymamaMN, on Flickr

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Dolls and Toys / Re: Sewing For Dolls
« on: June 20, 2023, 12:51:14 PM »
@Ann This outfit is adorable! The hat definitely gives it a 30's vibe, and i love the fabric. What pattern do you use for the shoes?

8
Sewalongs and Competitions / Re: A "WIPGO" sew along
« on: May 25, 2023, 20:18:43 PM »
For me that's blinds for the guest room, and a scrappy charity quilt. Both small enough to be do-able. I'll need a trip to SR Harris for fabric for the blinds. (Such a hardship THAT will be!- a whole warehouse full to choose from!) And now I'm off to choose a pattern for the scrappy. I've got lots of options awaiting me on Pinterest.

9
Sewalongs and Competitions / Re: A "WIPGO" sew along
« on: May 23, 2023, 18:49:09 PM »
I've done zilch on mine this month, and with a new puppy in the house and two client dresses awaiting my attention, I'm not likely to change that before the end of the month.

10
Sewing Machines / Re: Keep your fingers crossed for me!
« on: May 06, 2023, 01:53:39 AM »
@Renegade Sewist It does have that feature. The slow speed will be good to have for young students. Good to know it works for leather too! I sat down this afternoon and played with it for a while. It sure sounds nice!

11
Sewing Machines / Re: Keep your fingers crossed for me!
« on: May 05, 2023, 05:13:16 AM »
@Renegade Sewist It is the colormatic ones, so that sounds like  a "yes"! There's a wide variety of Colormatic cams on Ebay, nearly-full sets of 8, singles, and mixed random combos, with prices ranging from very reasonable to crazy expensive. I'll have to figure out the best selection to get a full set with no duplicates at a decent price.

12
Sewing Machines / Re: Keep your fingers crossed for me!
« on: May 04, 2023, 07:47:05 AM »
I dropped my machine off at the repair shop yesterday. Got a call today about what they found. All just gunked up with grease. The electrical issue was a "rheostat" that went bad. It had one broken knob which was a simple fix. Bottom line- I can pick her up on Friday, with a cost of about $90 for all the work.  :dance: :dance:

Now for a question. It only had one cam, but was supposed to have 3. On Ebay, I have found a set of 8 cams for the 6000 series. Will all of these cams work in my machine, or only the 3 it was intended to have?

13
Sewing Machines / Re: Keep your fingers crossed for me!
« on: April 28, 2023, 01:52:59 AM »
Finally managed to connect in person with the seller, and the machine came home with me today. It definitely has to go in for service, and hopefully I didn't just buy a brick. The innards seem to be working when I turn the hand wheel, but it all feels like the grease is dried out/thickened and needs a good cleaning out. And there are zero signs of power when it's plugged in. Potentially a couple easy fixes, but potentially a total bust. We'll see what the repair shop has to say.

When i told my husband I was buying another machine, his ONLY comment was "I'm going to start collecting motorcycles."

14
Sewing Machines / Keep your fingers crossed for me!
« on: April 16, 2023, 04:15:05 AM »
The first sewing machine I bought for myself was a used Viking 6360. She got traded in for a new Pfaff 1467 when my husband wanted to upgrade it for me. At the time I hesitated to give her up, but I was offered a $100 for the trade-in and we were on too tight a budget to turn that down. Though i LOVED that Pfaff, I have always regretted giving up the Viking, particularly because she made gorgeous buttonholes that neither of my Pfaffs could match.

I occasionally do a search on Craigslist or FB Marketplace for machines, always keeping my eyes open for another one, but when they turn up, either they are priced too high, missing all the accessories, are too far away for pick-up, or are timed badly for my budget. The stars have finally aligned, and I just contacted the seller of one with all the parts. They're asking $100, but I offered $75 (Can and will pay the $100 if I have to.) Keep your fingers crossed for me that we can work out a deal!

15
Sewalongs and Competitions / Re: A "WIPGO" sew along
« on: April 01, 2023, 02:48:23 AM »
That's a very nice shirt, @SewRuthieSews! I love the color.

I completed my bag. It's the third time that I've made this pattern, and while I like the design of the finished bag, each time I make it only reinforces my dislike of making bags in general. I made this to fill a need, and used fabric I had on hand. Can't remember why I bought this fabric collection, because I do NOT like the colors. They won't go with anything I'll ever wear (Not that I choose either bags or outfits to coordinate, but it's nice if they don't clash.) It will function well and do the job it's needed for. It won't ever know that I don't think its very pretty.

I haven't even started the wedding dress. I had other priorities today.

CBS bag by CraftymamaMN, on Flickr

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