rostitchery

being a beginner

this post was originally published here on 10 january, 2005.  i repeat it every january to help us all get off to a good start for a new year.  enjoy!

the beginning of a new year brings with it a host of new seamstresses who received their very first sewing machines for christmas and are ready to get started on their sewing adventures.  it can be confusing at first, there are so many choices to make and so many ways to do things, and it seems that many people give up really quickly because their things don't seem "perfect".  i'm hoping to fix that.

the first thing i ever sewed on a machine, using a commercial pattern, was a skirt and top that i made when i was in 8th grade.  it was a peasant top with raglan sleeves and an elasticized neckline, and a 12 gore skirt with waistband and back zipper.  my mother showed me how to thread her sewing machine, gave me a book on sewing, and left me to make my own mess.  this was the result (click to enlarge):

now, before we go any further, please take a moment to notice all the flaws.  seriously--look it over carefully, get a pen and paper if you need to, make a list.  i'll wait.

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so, what's wrong with this outfit?  why, nothing of course.  :)  i wore it with pride for several years, i got many compliments on it, and i always felt beautiful when i wore it.  this outfit was so popular that other girls paid me to make outfits for them too--even one of the teachers hired me to make an outfit for her daughter.

but why did i just put you thru this???  because, now you will appreciate this picture even more, this is the inside of the skirt, at the waist where the zipper joins the waistband (please please click and enlarge, i don't want you to miss anything):

now let me give you a few more details about this outfit.  when mama took me shopping for fabric, the store didn't have enough of the red fabric on one bolt to make the skirt, so i bought some from a different bolt and it wasn't the same dye lot and the reds don't match.  i alternated the panels because i thought it wouldn't be so noticeable (but you can clearly see the two different reds, look again at the enlarged pictures).  i didn't know what interfacing was, so i skipped that part on the waistband.  mama couldn't find the zipper foot, and i didn't know how to use it anyway, so i put the zipper in by hand.  i was in a hurry to make the outfit, so i didn't read the part of the book that mentioned edge finishes.  all the seam allowances are still raw (and they haven't raveled yet, lo these 30 years).  i was also in too much hurry to learn how to gather, so i just pleated the ruffle, by eye and not by measuring, and cut off what was left over.  and please notice that the hooks and eyes are sewn on, badly, with baby blue thread.

the top is much better.  ;)  the lace is not stretchy, but i didn't stitch it on until after the elastic casing was complete, the neckline doesn't actually stretch.  the hem is 1/2"--1/4"--3/8"--1/2"--etc.  and in the same hurry as with the skirt, i skipped the casing on the sleeve hems so instead of being puffy, they are droopy.

however, i DID read the part about pressing each seam as i sewed it--i'm pretty sure that is the main thing that saved this outfit from that "loving hands at home" look.

what's my point???  it's just this:  not knowing how to do something is no reason not to do it.  just make something, learn as you go, before you know it you'll be teaching someone else all the tricks of the trade.

i LOVE this outfit, i am still proud of it, proud enough to show it to you here, proud enough to show it in person to anybody i can trap long enough to show it to them.  whenever i look at it, i hear the song i listened to when i cut it out, i smell the detergent in the laundry room where i sewed, and i feel my heart pound with joy the way it did when i tried it on for the first time.  this outfit made me love myself in a way that i never did again until ella was born.

i could still fit into this outfit before i got pregnant with ella.  hey, this summer i might even wear it again.  just because. 

oh, and that sewing machine?  i still have it, and i still use it.  it makes some of the best buttonholes i've ever seen.

putting my blog where my mouth is

so much for posting every day in september.  LOL

october has been full—and of course, it is two days before halloween and i’m semi-frantically trying to finish ella’s costume.  i’ll post about it when the rush is over.

i’m about to make a partial about face on my stance against holiday crafting.  or rather, i’m about to make that about face on behalf of local and regional crafters and i hope you’ll join me.

the difference it makes when you place your cash into the same hands as the ones that made the thing you’re buying is profound, especially if it is someone from your own town, your own neighborhood, maybe a friend you know in real life.  you establish a relationship of trust, of mutual benefit and support,  which imbues the transaction with meaning well beyond the simple acquisition of goods or services.

my family has experienced this over and over—by purchasing our beef from a farmer we know, whose family has been in our home and with whom we have a relationship.  we have visited the farm where our CSA vegetables were grown, have had our vegetables placed in a box for us by the farmer himself, have carried the box of fresh peppers and eggplants back to our car past the rows and rows of fresh peppers and eggplants still growing on his land.  we have, of course, made many, many gifts, and have delighted in the hours of contemplation on the person we love so much that we are willing to invest hours of work to make something just for them.

so what i’m proposing is that we all stop, as much as possible, offering our hard-earned cash to big-box retailers, stop giving away our precious financial resources for cheap trinkets, and take it all back home, by either creating our own gifts and providing our own events and services or, perhaps better yet, by putting our gift and service dreams in the hands of people who can make them come to life.  i’m proposing that we buy local or regional, or if you must go afield, to consider places like etsy, where crafters and artisans make their goods available to the whole world.

so--for the month of november i’ll be featuring nashville/middle TN crafters and artists, as well as online makers for those outside middle tennessee.  i believe you’ll find someone, or several someones, who can provide the type of handmade craftsmanship that is worthy of your cash and of the recipients of your thoughtfulness.

if you want to be featured in this series, send me a detailed email at rowena@rostitchery.com, with information about your product, service, event, etc.  i want to include as many people as possible, so don’t wait--the first week of listings is already full!

 

*please feel free to share your own stories about buying locally, as well as links to artists and craftsmen in your area.  i promise, word gets around, and there is power in numbers.  :)

remembering, again

on this, the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, i am revisiting this post which was originally published in 2006.  

in the days immediately following the attacks of 9/11, i spent a lot of time just trying to keep my mind off my fears.  flylady was a tremendous help in this--she had taught me that i could add to the total peace in the world by creating peace in my own home.  it was soooooooooo soothing to take up a mop and just clean--to spiritually unite my little effort to the efforts of so many brave, heroic men and women who were cleaning up a far greater mess.  a lot of contemplation can be had while swiping back and forth, back and forth, back and forth....

my heart began calling me to do something outside myself, to offer whatever i could to help.  and like most americans, my mind turned to the one symbol the entire world recognizes as "US"--our flag.

from my scrap bin i found just the right red--just the right white--just the right blue (it even had some stars on it).  i cut and sewed and pieced and trimmed and at the end of the day, i had a pile of little quilted flags.  TINY flags, small enough to fit in the palm of my hand--all different, all made on instinct and without a plan, all of them childish and simple and utterly comforting to my sore, scared heart.

i wore one as a pin that night to the show, and so many people asked to buy one that a little "industry" was born--i sold dozens of these little flags for whatever donation the buyer thought they were worth--and in just one week i raised hundreds of dollars to give to the american red cross.

as much as possible, i will describe how i made these, but there aren't really any instructions because the making of them was more a process toward healing than an exercise in creativity. 

i started by cutting several strips of white and red fabrics and piecing them together lengthwise in groups of two (white and red) and three (red/white/red).  i also cut little rectangles from the blue fabric, not really paying attention to how many stars were in each piece but making them about the width of the red/white/red group.

i cut the group of red/white/red strips into segments that seemed proportional to the blue field--i did this by eye, and i think you can trust your own eyes for this too.  i stitched a blue piece to a red/white/red segment, stripes running horizontally of course, making the upper half of the flag.

i cut the white/red pieced strips into segments the same length as the upper sections, stitched the upper and lower sections together, and trimmed them to square up the corners.

lastly, i layered the flags with batting and muslin backing, stitched around them and turned them right side out, then quilted along the stripes and around the blue field.  i sewed pin backs on by hand after the flag was all done.

i kept two of these little flags, the one that i wore, and one other.  i got them out today so i could wear mine to work, ella took the other one (that one does not have a pin back on it), she held it over her heart and sang her ABC's.  i think that is as american as it gets--to hope for a better future as we remember the sorrows of days past--all wrapped up in the hand of a child.

 

a stitch by any other name is still just a loop

 

a few days ago a question was posted on the gettin' it pegged! loom knitters clique facebook page that got my mind whirling:

“Do you prefer the true Knit Stitch, the U-Knit Stitch, the Flat Stitch or the E-Wrap (Single) Stitch? I think I prefer the U-Stitch.”

it is often said in needle knitting that there are only two stitches:  knits and purls.  everything else is a variation on these two stitches.  i contend something a little different:  that there aren't actually two different stitches at all, but two variations on the same stitch:  a loop.

 

further it is my opinion that the terms "knit" and "purl" are actually verbs, not nouns.  i hope i can explain.

the only difference between a knitted stitch and a purled stitch is what it looks like on the front of the work.  whether the head of the loop appears on the front or the back of the work determines whether or not it is called a knitted or purled stitch. 

you can demonstrate this to yourself easily.  when working in the round, if you knit every other round and purl the rounds in between, you end up with only purl bumps on each side of the work.  you know you made knitted stitches at least half the time, but the surface is not flat, it is bumpy.

the product when knitting flat panels depends on whether you are knitting with needles, machine, or loom.  when working on a flat panel on needles, if you knit every row, back and forth, the final product will be two sides with purl bumps on them.  you didn't purl at all, yet you have only purl bumps showing.

when knitting back and forth on a loom or a flat-bed machine to make a flat panel, you will end up with one side of the work that is smooth, showing the knitted V's, and the opposite being bumpy, having only purl bumps.  if using a loom, it doesn't matter if you make knitted stitches back and forth or purled stitches back and forth, you will always have one side flat and one side bumpy.  (flat bed machines don't make purl stitches, but that is for a different post).

now to put this to a more strenuous test:  knit 2 purl 2.  when knitting this on a flat panel you have to purl 2 knit 2 on the back side in order to maintain the pattern.  that's because when looking at the back you are presented with the purl bumps on the stitches you knitted and the knit V's on the stitches you purled.  but the final result on the front will still be K2P2.

i bring this up because in my opinion all the talk about different knit stitches in the loom world is really not useful, and i'm hoping eventually the loom field will standardize the terminology so as to be less confusing.  the method you use to create a stitch is really not critical except as it pertains to achieving the look you want.  needle knitting patterns do not state "make this kind of knit stitch", they tell you to knit, and you then knit according to your preferred method—continental (this is the method i use), or english, or eastern/combined, or backward, or one-handed, or whatever.  same with purling--a pattern doesn't tell you to form a purl stitch, it tells you to purl--verb, not noun.

rightly the term “stitches” should apply to the fabric created by knitting, such as stockinette stitch or basketweave, or cabled stitch.

the stitch most commonly used in loom knitting is referred to as the e-wrap stitch, but to needle knitters it is just a twisted knit stitch or KTBL (Knit Thru the Back Loop).  the stitch that loomers call the flat stitch is just a plain knitted stitch as in all other forms of knitting.  whether or not you create this stitch by flat wrapping, or U-wrapping, or some other wrapping method, what you end up with is a knitted stitch.

it is important for loomers to start taking charge of their knitting.  i hope that patternmakers for looms will begin using the standard that needle patterns use, which will make patterns more concise and will also eliminate a lot of the confuse loom knitters seem to have about which "stitches" to use for their projects.  the point of a pattern is not simply to dictate how things are made but to give a blueprint for creating a finished product.

thoughts?

 

*pretty much everything you could want to know about the technical aspects of knitting can be found at techknitting and its companion site, techknitter.  loom knitters and beginning machine knitters might find the article about why some knitting curls and other knitting doesn’t.

helping kids learn to sew

 

recently ella made her first dress, pretty much all by herself.  many people have commented to me that they were astonished at her accomplishment.  but honestly, although i am certainly proud, i am not at all surprised, nor would i be surprised if any other six-year-old did the same thing.

the secret is in putting together the correct project with the correct tools.

for example, many people believe that children should start on small projects, such as doll clothes. however, anybody who has ever actually made doll clothes knows that they are fiddly--the seam allowances are very small, the pieces are very small, and the notions are very small.  doll clothes are hard enough to manage when you have some experience, much less when you have NO experience.

likewise, many people believe that hand sewing is easier than machine sewing but in fact i have found over and over, with adults as well as children, that sewing by machine is really easier.  it takes very well-developed fine motor skills to make a strong, even seam by hand, whereas sewing by machine only requires the operator to be able to press a foot pedal and to guide some fabric.

along with all of this, it is important to choose a project that really interests the child.  most teachers start out with things like pillow cases or tote bags--which are perfectly fine projects that teach a lot of good basic skills but let's face it:  wearing something you've made is infinitely more rewarding than sleeping on something you've made.  and if you pick the right project, it has no more pieces nor more complicated construction than an ordinary tote bag does anyway.

the dress ella sewed has only four pattern pieces:  a front, a back, and a front and back neck facing.  the sleeve is incorporated into the design, and the only sewing i had to do for her was finish the neck placket in the back.  

i did do the cutting, using rotary cutters, but she could definitely have done it herself if i had a pair of dressmakers sheers for her to use.  :D  i haven't cut anything with sheers in so long--at least 12 years--that i don't even own any.  i'm thinking they might be on the list for our next shopping trip.  if i find a pink pair, she will be in dressmaker heaven.

now--if you could make a first project all over again, what would it be?  dare to dream big.  :)

quilt blocks i have known and loved

 

confession of a patternmaker:  about three days after making my first quilt blocks, i decided that i really did not like cutting to measure.  :D  it's not that i couldn't do it--i had the tools, i had the know-how--but it was really BORING.  every block looked like every other block, and every block looked like everybody else's blocks.

so i gave up doing it that way.  even now, i rarely make a quilt block using a template or cutting to measure--i only do it if i'm working on a project that requires it (which means it is usually not my own project).  instead i cut by eye, or i piece and then cut.

for example, i made these log cabin blocks completely free-hand.  i started with a piece that was more or less square, added a strip that i cut without a ruler, and continued around and around, like usual, but without using any precut or premeasured pieces of fabric.  (i apologize in advance for the low quality of these images--this was the dark ages, when digital cameras first hit the consumer market and cost half a billion dollars--thus these are scans of the actual quilt blocks, not photos).

 

the next block is a variation of the log cabin, it is my version of the pineapple block, which i called "pineapple right side up".  i have no idea why i called it that.  i was in the habit of naming my blocks.

 

some of my favorite blocks for free-hand piecing are houses.  at one point i had so many house blocks that i started giving them away.  these were all made by taking pieces out of my scrap box and piecing them at will.  i'd start with a center piece, usually a door, then add a wall, trim it if necessary, and continue adding bits just like for the log cabin block.  i made many of these to send to my friend tiina who collects quilts for preemies.  these quilts were TINY--each finished quilt was only 15" square.  i have lots of good memories of quilting these backstage during a christmas show.  i hoped the little houses would keep the babies cozy until they were able to go to their real homes.  (tiina, if you see this, i have been thinking about you and pray you are well).

 

    

ocassionally i need or want to make a block for a special project, like the HUG quilts we used to make on the rec.crafts.textiles.quilting newsgroup (the last one i participated in was at least 10 years ago--i see they are still making them!).  this heart block was made for someone i knew only as "singer", a member of the RCTQ group that needed a HUG.  it is pieced freehand, then i did a free-motion embroidery sun on it (from the back, using metallic thread in the bobbin), and i wrote a little message and signed it.

 

these are both moon over the mountain blocks, pieced and then with two different kinds of applique moons.  i don't love these, but i don't hate them either.  i have no idea what i used them for.  LOL

 

  

revisiting these photos makes me think it is time to get out the scraps again.  the little houses were lots of fun and i'm very home-centric these days.

this style of piecing is definitely not for everbody, but if you enjoy a little improvisation, give this a try! you might get hooked too.

*the first HUG quilt we made on RCTQ was for a member named ruth, who died from cancer so quickly after her diagnosis that we were not able to give it to her.  :(  we gave it to her family.  but we had collected so many quilt blocks, from all over the world, that we were able to make a second quilt, which we raffled off to raise money to help her family defray expenses.  i am honored to say that i was able to participate in about a dozen HUG quilt projects on RCTQ and am currently involved in a new local HUG project that has lead me down this memory lane.

*gwen marston has written a series of books on "liberated quiltmaking" in which she describes the process, as well as the philosophy, of this way of making quilts.  even if you have no interest in following this method, the quilts in her books are really beautiful to look at.

old times nightgown

ella wanted an "old times nightgown", meaning something like what laura ingalls would have worn (we are on book four of the little house series--yes, i know technically it is book five but we skipped farmer boy until later).  so yesterday i took some time to make a nightgown for her from some stash.  (please forgive the poor quality of this photo--i keep thinking i need to make a little mannequin in her size, and here's proof of that).

i wanted the speed of a peasant dress with the fit of a set-in sleeve, but i didn't want to make the pattern from scratch because i am doing a lot of that lately and i just wanted this to be a fun, quick project.  so i went thru my stash and found the perfect pattern, mccall's 4547, which happens to be what ella calls an "old times outfit".  it includes a pattern for a chemise that fit the bill perfectly.

the pattern instructions are written for use with woven fabrics but i chose to use a soft knit that i found last winter at joanns--sorry internet, i like joanns, most of the time.  but i refuse to put a drawstring in a neckline, especially on night clothes, i don't care how historically accurate that is, so i chose to ignore that and make an closed casing and elastic.  the construction sequence i used was:

1. join shoulders on the serger, then topstitch the shoulder seams flat on the sewing machine (top stitching adds stability to the seam that bears all the weight of the gown).
2. fold down the neckline casing and stitch in place with a narrow, short zig-zag on the sewing machine (this preserves the stretch in a knit fabric--totally not necessary on this neckline since it will already have stretch built in, but i needed this stitch setting for the hems and i didn't want to keep resetting the machine).  leave a place open in the back to insert elastic.
3. set in the sleeves on the serger--don't waste your time pinning--just serge with the sleeve on the bottom and stretch the armscye to fit.  i promise, it will work.
4. serge the side seams closed.
5. serge finish the sleeve hems and skirt hem.
6. hem sleeves and skirt using the narrow short zig-zag stitch from step 2.
7. insert elastic in neckline, zig-zag the casing closed, add a tag so the child can tell front from back.

if you don't have a serger, just do the whole thing on the sewing machine using the narrow zig-zag, and don't bother finishing the edges--the knit won't fray.

this was the fastest thing i've made in a long time--less than an hour from cutting to wearing.  

she loves it!  so much so that i already made another.   behold, the old times nightgown dance:

the long johns underneath are because it got COLD here last night!  yippie!  i pray this is a sign that snow is in our future this winter.  also, she does not wear eyeglasses, she was wearing mine for fun.

i plan to make more of this design, adding embellishments and different sleeve designs so she can wear them as dresses.  tiny versions of this might just become my new go-to baby present.

i highly recommend this pattern, it fits well and sews together accurately.  the only error i found was in the notches on the side seams but that is so minor it isn't worth mentioning except that i don't want some beginning seamstress to think she was the one who messed up.  and i do believe a beginner could manage this whole pattern package--after all, mothers and daughters on the prairie were sewing these things, by hand, without so much as one website to guide them.  i'm pretty sure a modern seamstress with access to the interwebs could do it too.

and now, back to the project!

creativity: sacrifice

IN SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE OF IRAN

AND THEIR STRUGGLE FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY.

"the important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."

Charles DuBos, french critic of french and english literature

 

 

creativity at the ground level

there is a whole different kind of creativity that has called me for a long time now--an impulse to live the life i have now more fully, to embrace with enthusiasm the being at home-ness that is my life today.  it is very different from the chase i have been in all the previous years of my life--and yet being in it, right in it, i have learned how much there is in this kind of life to appeal to the one thing in me that is consistent across all times and places:  my urge to bring something new to life and by doing so, to bring something special to the lives of others.

this year, it lead me to do something i've wanted to do for almost 20 years--i've started a square foot garden.  my wildly-ambitious intention is to provide my family with daily fresh veggies during the summer and hopefully preserving the excess to help provide for us over the winter--all the while spending time in touch with the child and the land we have been so generously blessed with.

what finally convinced me that this was the year i could make it happen was a post on the wonderful blog little house in the suburbs--it was a plan for a beginner's garden that could be planted in a day.  that sounded manageable, and i set out to find what i needed to make this miracle garden happen.  within a few days i had been given or had traded for nearly everything i needed for the garden--boards to make the raised beds, ready-to-plant seedlings, and even some compost.  i had seeds saved from past failed attempts to garden in the backyard that time forgot, and i bought some "fencing" to hopefully keep out the dog that will not be taught.  in just four hours and with some help from rudi and ella, i had not one but two square foot gardens all done.  we put the gardens in the front yard, which is the only place in our yard that gets enough sun.

 

this is the beginner garden, but i'm calling it my italian garden because if all goes as planned, we'll have pasta sauce and pesto sauce and pizza sauce and who knows what other saucy things as well:

this is the squash garden, which i briefly called the squashed garden (you'll understand why in a moment):

we finished them last wednesday, around 4pm. 

at around 4:30pm our dog sprinkles, who i love in theory but who i have a "difficult" relationship with in practice, completely trampled the squash garden and scattered the seeds of most of it.  i was so angry that i threatened every kind of awful thing and scared ella to tears for love of her pet and learned the first lesson in gardening humility which i will write about on my other blog because it doesn't carry this story along.  :)  ella and i did our best to get things back to the way they were, we propped up the broken plants with mounds of dirt and tried to find every little radish seed and every little chard seed and put them back in their rightful place, and then we folded our hands and prayed, right there in the garden, that our little babies would be ok.

the next day, i read a recent post by a friend of mine who lives more or less completely off the land, in which she said she believes you can plant early or you can plant late, but everything still seems to come up at about the same time, so i felt ok that i hadn't gotten the early start that most gardening experts suggest.  ella and i have gone out every day to water each plant and seed by hand, carefully, so as not to disturb them. 

this is what the gardens looked like yesterday, around 4pm, 7 full days since we planted them:

 

italian garden:

 

squash garden--it's alive!

 

don't be fooled by all the "open space"--there's so much going on, i can barely believe it:

 

do you know what that is??? that's the beginning of a pumpkin patch!!!  and look, there's a forest of bush beans!!!  ella calls these praying beans, because when they emerge they look like they have their heads down and hands folded in prayer:

and there are pole beans too, with sunflowers in the middle for them to climb (i didn't have corn to plant which the garden plan called for, but i always have sunflower seeds), and already, in just seven days, there are little baby tomato flowers!

and get ready to "aw", there are even tiny little chardlings with tiny red stems:

i am SO SO SO EXCITED!!!  i am forever indebted to little house in the suburbs for generously giving the world these simple garden plans for those of us who don't have the know-how to do it on our own.  thanks to her, i have a chance of success.  please go visit her blog and give her your undivided attention, you will be glad you did.

today, as i look over my little gardens and see yet another version of the miracle of life unfolding right in my own yard, i am puffed up with a feeling that is very close to self-respect.  if i can shepherd that little pumpkin seed all the way to the jack-o-lantern stage, i will feel like superwoman!!!

creativity: a learning process

"creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual."

--arthur koestler, novelist

a tank of gas...

dear maternity apron seller,

glad you got that tank of gas.

love, rowena___.