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 I'm in a similar boat as the above poster; I have 'tailored' shirts that do not fit me properly. Who do they make those for, anyway? Recently I read that most 'tailored' shirts are made for a B cup, which makes no sense once you get up into the medium-large-xlarge sizes. I have an old (but barely worn) shirt in this style and once I replace the pieces of my sewing kit, I'm going to try taking in the back darts, because that's where I always have the most excess volume. Is it better to walk into my local craftstore and pick up the stuff I need, or is it cheaper to buy it online? Most of my local stores are very out of the way to get to by bus and horribly overpriced. And I mean overpriced in that giant-chain-store sort of way. I think I have the pieces of a toolkit somewhere deep in my storage, but I'd rather just get new stuff as I'm not sure of the quality or shape the old bits are in. I think my first step is to try and make a duct tape dress form of me as I don't have a ready assistant to help me with fittings.
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Dec 3, 2007 17:49
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squirrellypoo posted:Notions and tools I'd say get at your local store if you want, but stay the hell away from the fabric unless it's some anomoly and they actually have a buyer with a clue at your branch. I guess what I'm trying to say is that getting to my local store will be a giant pain in the rear end, and is there anywhere cheap online that I can scrounge for the pieces of my toolkit? I stumbled across that DIY dress form guide previously, I think I'm going to try out the paper tape version, since it seems to harden into shape. Thank you for starting this thread, and thanks to the experts who have come out of the woodwork! Elanore, thanks for the advice. I measured my shoulders again, and it looks like they're even wider than I imagined 
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Dec 4, 2007 05:44
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seriouslywtf posted:I just wanted to post and say that you guys have inspired me to sign up for a local sewing class (I'm retarded and need someone to show it to me). I'm excited. I'm jealous. I've been searching for local sewing classes in my area (Kitchener-Wterloo Ontario) with no luck; I'm not even sure where I should be looking. Google is not getting me anywhere. Any ideas?
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Dec 10, 2007 04:23
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Captain Schlork posted:Dressmaker discouraging newbies from experimenting I appreciate 'experts' weighing in on this thread, but can I ask that you avoid openly raining on people's parades? I've taken it as a given that my first year's worth of projects are going to look like crap. That's to be expected. It's very disheartening to hear an 'expert' come in and tell us that unless we already know what we're doing and have expensive machinery that you are 'against' us even trying, since obviously it's going to be impossible and not to waste our time. I am sure you didn't mean it that way, but ouch. We need to be cultivating bravery in this thread. The 'first thing I sewed at home' was a long a-line skirt with a zipper back in high school, and I wore it to pieces. It wasn't the most professional looking garment, but I was proud of it regardless.
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Dec 17, 2007 00:50
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We were most definitely asking to see that dress. In terms of moving on, SA or not, it will help to keep criticism constructive and not as personal as it's being made in here. I'm not suggesting we start adding lolcats and toilet paper covers, but can we avoid scaring people off? On-topic, I am dying to get my paper-tape dressform made so I can start tearin' poo poo up. All my potential assistants are in finals hell. I'd like to get into painting designs on fabrics, but all the online resources I have dug up so far all seem obsessed with puff paint. Not my style. Is it better to look into silk screening?
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Dec 18, 2007 05:42
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4R7 THi3F posted:jacquard fabric paint awesomeness  This looks perfect! Is there a specific brand that you use? I am so excited, I plan to make plain wrap skirts and then paint them. And hunt down plain cheap skirts online and paint them as well.
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Dec 19, 2007 05:34
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I've got some ignorant questions to ask that the fabric glossary in the OP didn't cover: Can someone explain to me what 'stretch twill' is? Also, I take it that quilting cotton is much thinner than apparel cotton, but sometimes I find quilting cotton lumped under apparel even though there is a separate quilting section. Can it be used for apparel as well? I'm dying for a skirt in some of the quilting prints out there. Thanks.
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Jul 21, 2008 19:05
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Thanks for the replies, good to know. I've since gone quilt fabric groping, and I see what you mean. New question: has anyone every worked with bamboo fabric? I'm tempted, but have no idea how it handles, even if it's safe to press, although I'm assuming since it is a natural fiber it would be.
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Jul 26, 2008 01:09
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After hearing the glowing reviews of bamboo fabric, I am interested in trying it as I love anything that involves bamboo from a pro-green standpoint. I purchased some ballpoint needles (and some universal spares, very glad they fit my machine) and have some patterns that call for stretch/jerseys/knits. I've gotten the impression, however, that working with stretch fabrics is a difficult task and am wondering where I would start in terms of learning how to work with it before I shell out for bamboo fabric. Speaking of patterns, I hope there is a hell reserved for those who draft the instructions for patterns. I swear I spent more time trying to figure out what the christ they were talking about than actually sewing my garment, which was easy once I translated their half-baked gibbering into sense.  Lastly, I'm currently painting a skirt. I'm using Tulip Sosoft paints because it's all that Joann's had, and a pair of black and white Scribblers which I've learned the hard way to just squeeze out and use with a brush. I wanted to start small before I got ahead of myself and spent a ton of money on paints online. I'm reminded of how much I hate working with acrylics in general, and fabric paint just compounds their fatal flaws, but I'm hoping it's just the quality of the brands I'm working with. Does anyone have a favourite brand of fabric paint of which they could sing praises?
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Jul 31, 2008 21:55
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Goldaline posted:Patterns always suck. Toss them out and draft your own from clothes you have. Totally worth it. Thickened dyes? Interesting, I must know more! Do you just gradually add water to powdered dyes until you have a fluid paste? How easily do they layer? Do they blend as you paint like a watercolour would? Do you use mordant as you go? Is there anyway to treat the fabric around it to keep the edges from bleeding? Do you think cutting out a design in waxed paper and then ironing it onto the garment beforehand might keep the dyes from bleeding? Thanks for the paint tip; I'll have to try that next. When you say craft-grade acrylics, though, do you mean like a fine art acrylic or the kind you'd use to paint knicknacks? And hells yes on the pattern suckage. The amount of tinkering, darting, pinning, and altering they take not to scream 'handemade clothing!' is retarded, and trying to fit it on yourself without a dressform shaped like you is impossible. I actually went into the bathroom at one point, for the mirror, to add some front darts and called my guy in to stand behind me and hold my boobs up out of the way so I didn't have to lean over to see what I was doing. Eurgh.
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Aug 1, 2008 08:07
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I've been hankering to make myself some shirts and jackets, but until I get a dressform that's shaped like my boobs, I will have to stick to skirts. I made a skirt tonight (it's currently 7:33 a.m.) without making a muslin first, which was a bit of a thrill. I used fabric I wasn't terribly keen on, so if it sucked there was no big loss. It did, however, have a full circle flounce and butt darts, which was a bit of fun to deal with once I got to the flounce and realized I'd forgotten to account for the 4 inches I'd taken in from the body of the skirt. Whoops. I also got to have at least twice the hemming fun of a normal skirt, and I'm feeling like a huge sewing nerd for being so chuffed with my hem. It's basically a rolled hem, but pressed twice to get the raw edge sealed in and the curve of the circle perfectly maintained, which was very painstaking. Am I abnormal for preferring french seams? I hate zig-zagging my seams to finish them, it takes forever. I also took advantage of the darts and curved side seams to get friendly with my new tailor's ham. I've realized that I actually enjoy pressing more than sewing at the moment. It's so rewarding to shape the fabric with the iron and revel in the knowledge that what you're trying to achieve would be impossible without the iron action. Question: How much 'ease' is factored into patterns? I've yet to make something based on my waist measurements that didn't feel like a tent once I put it on, and require several inches to be taken in.
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Aug 8, 2008 13:47
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Does anyone know what name is of the sewing tool that functions like two tracing wheels side by side that allow you to run along the cut edge of a fabric piece and it marks off the seam allowance? I saw it in my travels and now I'm hankering to get one because I'm tired of having to trot my gauge over an entire seam and then sketch in the seam line. My sewing machine doesn't have measurements on it's foot plate, and even if it did managing curves using the plate is annoying and gives me puckering on my seams. I've been googling like a madwoman but can't find the tool that I'm looking for. I could make one by lashing two tracing wheels together but then I'll have to dick around to get the measurements exact and it won't be adjustable.
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Aug 16, 2008 01:08
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boscokitty posted:It's called a "double tracing wheel." http://www.friendsofpr.com/regine/wheel.jpg.jpg I couldn't decide between  and so I had to use both!Thanks so much!
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Aug 16, 2008 20:14
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Gonktastic posted:Out of curiosity, how do you ladies pick what you're sewing? Do you sketch out what you're thinking of, then go to the store to find a good enough fabric? Or do you start with fabrics and then design from there? Both/either. I keep an eye out for sales on patterns, like when Joann's has patterns for 1.99 each, and then swoop in and buy the patterns that I've already scoped out online. I'll also flip through the pattern catalog when I'm there to see if anything else catches my eye. Then I pick out fabric. I also get a lot of my fabric from trolling ebay. Then I squirrel it away until I'm ready/have found something to make from it.
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Nov 30, 2008 01:30
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Post-Christmas loot ahoy! My increasingly warm in-laws have generously given me $200 in gift cards to Joann's between my birthday and Christmas presents, with an eye to buying a dressform. I realize cash would have been easier as I wouldn't be limited to Joann's dressform options, but holy poo poo are they being generous and super-sweet; the hubs told them I'd stalled out on my sewing projects from a lack of a dressform, so they decided to get me one. Since they weren't sure which one to get and didn't want me trying to lug a dressform on my return flight, they went for the Joann's giftcard instead. I'm so touched, especially since we had a rocky start at first.  So I'm looking for advice on which form from Joann's to spend the $200 on. Ideally, I'd like to cover it with a papertape dressform cast of me, but I've been trying to make that happen since the summer and it's not looking to materialize anytime soon. I need something I can use in the interim and then cover with the papertape shell if/when I ever get one made of me. Sufficiently skilled assistants are hard to find. Which one should I get? I'm currently in the process of losing weight thanks to finally being on thyroid meds (11 lbs lost in a month, with no change of diet/exercise level, woot!) so I definitely need an adjustable one. It will have to accommodate both my (hopefully) continually shrinking but still full-figured form and the papertape shell if it ever gets made. There are a few adjustable models but I'd like some recommendations. Ninja edit: I should probably cross-post this to craftster, come to think of it. I'm so excited!
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Jan 6, 2009 07:03
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Finally took a stab at tailoring a skirt I've been meaning to finish for ages. Pics are in here: Sewing Stuff and it looks completely gay on my dressform.  It was an experiment in fabric painting, and after the disappointing results and the advice in this thread, next time I will use regular acrylics mixed with textile medium. As such, it's just cheap plain black broadcloth, which we all know is hell to work with. Hence all the weird puckers and creases in the waistband especially, it's not sitting on the dressform properly, as the dressform is hard and humans are squishy. It has a side zipper and two back darts. It's also not as high in person as it is on the dressform. I may tinker with the darts again, as they're not properly centered, before I slash and press them. When it's finished I may post an action shot, but it's more likely to just be on the dress form. Ninja edit: There are also pics of some 4-way stretch lightweight knit swatches that were sent to me in there, and I was interested in the purple but the swatch shows the teeth are much, much smaller than I was expecting and now I have no clue what I would use it for. I had planned to make a high-waisted pencil skirt out of it, but it's t-shirt weight and the print is tiny. It's super cheap, though ($3/yrd + shipping) and I'm tempted to get some anyway but I don't know what to make with it! Any suggestions?
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Feb 11, 2009 11:00
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Here is the action shots of the skirt I posted earlier. waffleimages is being a oval office about uploading the detail of the painted fish. I'll upload it later.
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Feb 19, 2009 03:47
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DeliciousDarkness posted:http://www.farthingales.on.ca/simplicity_9769.php The woman who runs farthingales is always super busy because it's in Stratford, which is the Canadian theatre capital. I've been to her store, it's one woman and a giant warehouse of materials. I was under the impression that she primarily provided corset supplies to the Stratford Festival Theatre itself. She told me that she does not help people with construction issues or tutor them in any way, she just supplies the materials people need, beyond that they are on their own. She wasn't quite rude about it, just bluntly explained that she couldn't help me pick out which boning was right for what I wanted, etc etc. She could procure what I needed, but couldn't help me figure out what was needed. It looks like they've opened a US location http://www.farthingalesla.com/ which seems more newbie-friendly.
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Feb 26, 2009 23:17
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meataidstheft posted:I hadn't seen anything mentioned about this (feel free to beat me if I overlooked it), but is there ANY way to convert flared leg pants into straight leg? I mistakenly purchased these horrid flared leg khakis and I like the way they fit otherwise, because I have 4 other pairs in various colors which are all straight leg. I have short stumpy legs so the last thing I need is a foot of material drowning each of my feet. Any guidance would be appreciated, because like a drat fool I took the tags off before wearing them. I turned a pair of high waisted jeans with giant flares into skinny legged jeans by doing exactly what was suggested- turned inside out, sewed a big ol' seam down the inside of the leg to create a new inseam for a tapered leg. I figured inseam would be safer because if I screwed up, it wouldn't be as obvious as the outer seam which is more visible. Worked like a charm.
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Oct 12, 2009 15:02
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