New Sewing Room Furniture

Thank you, everyone, for the warm welcome back!

Like I mentioned in the previous post, one of the reasons that I hadn't been sewing anything was because the room was such a disaster.  I had eleven, ELEVEN, sewing machines in there because I simply cannot control myself when it comes to old machines.  The room also had to function as a guest room, so on top of all that, there was a queen sized bed in there, fabric in big plastic tubs, a folding table for cutting, it was all just too much to deal with, so...I didn't go in there for a while.

Over the Christmas holiday, my husband started helping me make some changes.  I edited my sewing machines, as painful as that was and he helped by going to visit his brother in Chicago...who just happens to live on the same exit as Ikea. The two of them took my list and got me (almost) exactly what I wanted.  I say almost, because they are boys...of course there was something that was almost, but not quite, what I had asked for.  But I love them anyway.

The first thing that I did was I traded my brother the queen size bed for a twin size mattress set that he had.  I got a daybed frame that was totally flat across the top, and then added a table top.  Well, not  really a table...it is a 3/4 inch thick piece of plywood that I wrapped with dense batting and canvas. So it is both a working surface and an ironing board.  Since it is taller than the old table that I used, it doesn't make my back hurt to cut patterns anymore.

Here is the new bed:

If I have guests, I can take the table top off and stick it in the basement.  The bed is an Ikea Hemnes Daybed, which was very reasonable in price but a complete bastard to put together:

The second thing that we added was an Ikea Expedit shelving unit that would allow me to keep my fabric in a place where I could SEE it, and not stuffed away in plastic tubs:

Here you can see that yes, there are still some tubs with things that need to be organized (or finished) but for the most part my shelves are complete.  The desk attaches directly to the shelves, and gives me space for two machines, my serger and my 301 which I usually keep set up for buttonholes:

As painful as it was, I now have just two other remaining machines, my 401 and 503:

I hate to admit that there are still tubs of fabric tucked into the corner behind the bed, but...they are all things that my niece and nephews use for their "crafting needs" (which in my littlest nephews case just means making the iron steam and cutting fabric into smaller and smaller pieces) when they visit.

All in all, the reorganization of the sewing room was not at all expensive...far under $1000.00, even if you include the gas to Chicago (why, oh why, is there no Ikea in St. Louis?).  But, turning it into a pleasant place to work rather than a room that just raised my blood pressure means that my urge to create something has returned.

Hopefully, I will have more projects to show you soon...especially since I am now obsessed with Lekala patterns and have downloaded 4 more.

Happy Sewing, All!

Renewed Adventures...Including My First Attempt at Deciphering a Russian Pattern

So it's been over half a year since I posted anything here, I am ashamed to say that the reason is that for most of that time, I had not done ANYTHING of interest in the sewing room.

But, over the Christmas holiday something happened that made a huge difference...I finally got new furniture in my sewing room.  I'll do a separate blog post on that, but thank goodness my brother-in-law lives about a mile from Ikea.  Visits to him have resulted in all new furniture, organization, and less of a feeling of "ohmygod, what a horrible mess" every time I walk into the room.

With a freshly organized workspace, with lots of working surfaces, I seem to have found my creativity again.  I also have been doing more with independent patterns.  For years, all I sewed was "Big 4," but since more and more independent companies are out there, and Burda is available for download, even though I let my subscription lapse...I've been trying other new things.

The first thing I made in the new sewing room was a Burda from 11/2010, a wrap blouse:

Nothing really to say about this one...how many times can one say that Burda has good fit, interesting styles, and crappy instructions?  Ditto for this.  I made it with a georgette that I had in my stash...that waist tie takes a ton of fabric, so you need nearly 3 yards of 60-inch wide fabric.

A much more interesting endeavor was the purchase of my first Lekala pattern.  Lekala is a very interesting pattern company from Russia...the styles are alternatively fashion-forward and a bit risqué (lots of bare midriffs).  I decided to give it a try and the best advice that I can give is to read Melissa's post at "Fehr Trade," on how to purchase Lekala patterns.  The process is a bit confusing because the english on the site is not fantastic...and there are a lot of steps to purchase:

1. you have to purchase a code for downloading patterns from an external site
2. you have to return to Lekala to activate the code
3. after you activate you can order patterns 

I can say that it is well worth it mainly because even after the conversion from euros to dollars, the downloads cost in the neighborhood of $1.00, AND you purchase them according to your own measurements, so the patterns need little, if any, alteration.  Sure, you have to tape the pattern together but...a dollar.  It cost a dollar.

I started with Lekala 4100, a knit shirt with an interesting collar:

After jumping through the hoops to purchase and activate the code, I received an email with the pattern pdf...and a little something extra.  You get what the computer has decided you look like based on the measurements you entered.  And all I have to say is "holycraponacracker, tell me I don't look like that!"

Aaaanyway...the pattern was pretty simple to assemble...21 sheets.  Not ridiculous like some Burdas I feel like I have spent days taping together.

Much like Burda, the instructions are not going to be helpful if you don't already have a pretty solid understanding of clothing construction.  Google translate is only minimally helpful:  link to instructions.

As for the construction, the front collar gave me a bit of trouble and I ended up scrapping and recutting it once on the first shirt...and changing it on the second.  Here is the collar:

It looks like it has an overlap, but the way the pieces are constructed, they butt up against one another:

In the second version that I made, I ditched the piece on the right, and just cut 4 pieces of the one on the left, and created the overlap that it appears to have in the line drawing:

The shirt also has sleeves gathered into a small cuff:

The first version I made from a bamboo knit.  I had never sewn with bamboo before, and it has a great hand, but is it ever infuriating to work with!  The final product was better than I possibly could have predicted:

The only issue that I encountered was that it was a bit smaller across the hips than I would have liked, but I'm not even willing to say that it is a fit issue, as it may just be more personal preference in regards to amount of ease.  In fact, I liked it so much I made another version today.  I had a yard and a half of a wonderfully soft rayon knit that I purchased in Texas many years ago and could never find anything I really wanted to use it for.

The only problem was, I didn't have enough.  So I had to convert it to short sleeves so that I could use the fabric that I wanted.  I used a sleeve from a tshirt that I had made before and just drew the contours of the sleeve right onto the sleeve pattern piece, so the sleeve cap would remain unaltered:

And in a snap I had a short sleeve, and a 3/4 sleeve traced off.  Here is the second version, with short sleeves:

I made one other change in the construction, I moved the gathers for the neckline further down towards the point:

The reason for this was in the original, the placement of the gathers made a couple of small wrinkles that extended from the neckline to the armpit.  Maybe I'm just being overly critical, but I disliked the same thing about my Hot Patterns Weekender Sunshine Top, I suspect that the combination of those gathers and a full bust means that those wrinkles will just happen if not placed PRECISELY right.

And since it's the dead of winter and too cold to wear short sleeves, I made a cardigan from Simplicity 2603, that I think everyone and their mother has made at some point:

It seems more difficult than it looks because I don't actually hem them...I just cut it really carefully so the edges are PERFECT.  The first one I made I hemmed, and it did NOT drape the way I wanted it to, and I believe the thickness of the hem was to blame.  I noticed that RTW versions were made without hems, so I gave that a shot and...much better.

All in all, a productive weekend...and I will DEFINITELY be making more Lekala patterns.  I am thrilled with how this first one turned out.

PS...all of these were made with fabrics and supplies from the stash.  It sure didn't make much of a dent in it, but I'm trying to NOT buy new fabric for a while!