Fashion Geeks Only: Thread Tracing How-To

I have accomplished much on the jacket today. All pieces that can be assembled before I press any seams are done, so my next step will be to have a press conference with my iron. Once you do all that pattern cutting, sewing on stabilizer, and tracing markings, you really start flying. Phew.

In my last post, someone asked about how I did thread tracing so I thought I would do a pictoral tutorial. I really despise all the tedious markings you have to transfer from your pattern pieces, and I never get the pieces sewn before the dissapearing ink evaporates or I brush away all the chalk. So I usually use a sharpie, I have a rainbow of options, yet there are still times when it can decimate the professional look of your work. I happened upon a class on iTunesU about how to do markings with thread while sewing a jacket and picked up this neato trick, which was just in time as I started my jacket the next day and it is a rainbow of colors. I chose to use a rubber duck yellow so I could see my thread!


Here is a daunting looking pattern peice, cut out in double, ready to be marked!

line the pieces up as perfectly as possible, and pin or weigh the stack down ( I use some heavy old shower hooks, they are the best pattern weights ever!)




Insert your needle through the pattern marking, through all layers. Use a contrasting thread so you can see your markings.






bring the needle back up through and down again, making a loop.

put your finger in the loop to keep the slack and bring the thread back up through one more time. If you are going through four layers, make sure to make the loop even bigger to give yourself more slack to work with.

trim the thread length longer than the loop length.

Pull the pattern pieces taut. (in this photo, there are two pattern markings showing. It is easiest to do all your markings on the piece at once, then cut them apart, for marking consistency with the pattern spacing.)
Snip the thread between layers, leaving enough slack on both sides of fabric that it won't pull through when you are moving your pattern pieces. No need to go crazy, you don't need a tail, just enough to see, a quarter inch aughta do it.)

See the final markings below. Note that the bottom layer will have just a stitch of thread showing, unless you want to pull more slack through to make it furry like the rest!

HalloCrafty!

Lazy bones is back! I have let go of my daily blog habit. I now blissfully relapse! I have been crazy busy lately, running all over town, hosting playgroups, planning parties, and spending my online hours doing Mommy group stuffs, it's practically a FT job. Plus, my pregnancy has officially slowed my butt way down. 3 more weeks...

My crafting has suffered. Immensly. I have an all new list of projects, all with pressing deadlines, which is exactly when my super procrastination kicks in!

Speaking of Super... Finally with hubby home all day yesterday, I peeled that cover off my sewing machine and went to town! I spent at least 8 hrs yesterday and made all three of our Halloween costumes. Yes, I opened that well organized craft box of materials labeled "Project Superhero" and made Taylor history. Well, I think it went well anyway. All I did was make three Superhero capes and three Superhero belts. I had to, since today was wear your costumes day.

I plan on embellishing further, since we have two more dress up events. I'd like to make some arm cuffs and maybe add some lightening bolts on the front of the chest or back of the cape. All in the gold, of course. But I really cannot complain with the minimum I finished, I mean just take a look at this baby in tights!

Now with the sewing machine dusted off, I must finish making beanbags for the Mommy group Halloween Party by Tuesday, and another assembly line of skunks by next weekend for the Skunkfest. Whew! Nothing like serious procrastinating to get some fire under your butt! Feels just like college.

I'll be back tomorrow with another post, I was tagged and need to get that ball rolling. Thanks to MAB for bringing me back to my blog!

It's Curtains for the Polyfil!

Today I hit Hancock Fabric for their big sale, still needing that elusive giant box of polyfil that they told me two days ago was just coming off the truck. Nope. And I cannot get the sale price on out of stocks. That's ok, because Joanne's Fabric is opening in a few days across the parking lot with their Grand Opening Sale. (this magical place is five minutes down the road from my house!) Since I was already at the fabric store...why not take advantage of the sale?


I bought an off white home decorator fabric with a cool blues botanical print to make curtains for my son's room, I have been working on decorating it since our move. With the new baby on the way, I am trying to really pimp out the nursery because I never did with Lincoln's arrival. We didn't even have a crib until he was three months old!


Of course, I wanted to get some kind of liner to block the light, and even thought the print is cool blues and greens, It is sort of a floral, so I saw exactly what I was looking for at 99c a yard! Burlap! It is dark, and masculine, but perforated enough to let some light through. It seems like it will look good in my head, but we will see when I get it done. Of course, I've never made curtains and have no plan or pattern, I'm just going to wing it. How hard can it be?


I'll post pics once I get them done, but above is a photo of the room right now, after I put up a big tree decal I got on etsy at http://www.bubbaanddoodle.etsy.com/


Happy Labor Day everyone!!!! Anyone else pick up any new projects from the holiday sales or get any new inspirations?

Finished top! Please vote in comments! :)

I just finished making my maternity top. It is the first article of clothing I have ever sewn from scratch without a pattern (other than altering something). I may have a few years of practice needed before I can audition for Project Runway, but it came out way better than I thought!

Please add to comments and vote: Can I wear this out in public?

Down to Busy-ness! (Also, Don't Sew Tired!)

Allrighty then, for some inspiration I posted a thread on the etsy forums asking for people to share there blogs and look at mine, so I could get some pointers and see how this Crafter/Blogger lifestyle goes. WOW! I got some overwhelming results! I now have an insanely full dashboard to say the least. I will try to refrain from LIVING online(it's so easy) so I will check in with just a few a day. Glad to know I have some peeps.

Yesterday I did get the ball rolling and go to town on some skunk assemblage, clocked in and all. I only got in a few hrs, but that really beats my usual 45 minute stints when baby gets up from naps. I hope my momentum doesn't go completely in the toilet when #2 comes along in November! I'll just try to get alot done before then. Well, I did great with sewing the stripes on the back, I use a really heavy zig zag stitch, and it sounds like a jackhammer! Luckily I have some really nice sound-blocking headphones on my ipod, and that made ALL the difference! Why didn't I think of that before? I really got cruising along listening to what I thought was the Avett Bros, but really different...What is this? Are they singing about my hometown? Yes! Turns out it was a Ryan Adams I had thought I lost, I had never listened to it, and it was mislabeled. He is from my hometown, we actually went to highschool together, but I didn't know him. It was uncanny how he brought to life the Jacksonville experience. (NC not Florida) had to grow up there to relate! So that was a really weird mind trip on the headphones, and I zipped through all 11 skunk stripes in no time. Here's where my lack of sleep kicked in...

I go to attach the ears and sew the body together. It wasn't making sense, I couldn't do the logic and I had done it easily on my proto-skunk. I knew I wasn't doing it the same way but thought I had outsmarted the system. And turn outside out, NOPE! the ears were sewn to the inside! (You have no idea how hard it is to rip out matching thread from canvas! BLINDING!) So I rip it out, reverse, resew, and "Viola!" they are outside now, but upside down! I decided that this would be Lincoln's skunk. (My one year old) And I quit immediately, vowing never to sew on no sleep again. It took longer to "fix" the ears than to sew on all the stripes!

The rest of my Craft time was online doing Storque article research on etsy. (Invaluable!) and making new blog friends. I am well rested now and I look forward to getting down to busy-ness during nap 2.

Side note, husband had a good idea, I think I will make some vampire/franken robots for Halloween. Maybe even some stars and skunks. Why not? I only have 40 more skunks to make after I finish this batch, then 100 postcards. I can do it...I can do it...