sewing workshop

sewing workshop: storing patterns

Tilly posted last month about storing vintage patterns, and as I had been mulling over a post on this topic lately, I thought it was high time to delve a bit into this myself! I have gotten a number of questions over the years regarding how I store both my new and vintage patterns, so hopefully this post will be useful to a few readers.

Let me preface this by saying that no one method is entirely perfect or right. Just because I tend to take a more “Preservationist” viewpoint (as Tilly aptly called it), doesn’t mean that everyone must, or I somehow am looking down my nose at those that don’t follow that method (I detest Vintage Sewing Snobbery!). So if you find an aspect helpful in this post, then I couldn’t be more pleased! But if it just doesn’t work for you in any way, then I’d love to hear about your personal method of storage.

Let’s start chatting a bit about my beloved vintage pattern collection, shall we? It grew quite a bit recently thanks to my grandmother’s patterns joining the stash. Which means that once again I’m running out of storage space. But this is what method I used up until the New Year… All my patterns are stored in sturdy, cardboard banker’s boxes. For several years I used plastic boxes I picked up at Target, but the collection outgrew those quickly, and Target was no longer selling a similar size. So back to banker’s boxes it was! These are great though, because I can line up the smaller (Simplicity, Butterick) patterns side-by-side, and double stack them as demonstrated above.

The patterns themselves are currently divided up by category. Dresses, suits and outerwear, sportswear (bathing suits, shorts, etc.), children’s patterns, etc. When my collection was smaller, I had things divided up as early vintage (1920s-1940s) and later vintage (1950s-1970s), and then subdivided by style. But this became a bit of a storage nightmare, as I don’t have that much room for that many boxes.

Within the boxes there are patterns loose without plastic slips, a few in large sandwich bags, and some in archival envelopes (which I bought from Ebay so long ago I don’t have any specific link to share!). Generally the ones in the archival envelopes are older, more fragile patterns. At the moment not everything is bagged, and honestly, I’m not too worried about it. Unless I start noticing something is disintegrating or there are bugs eating away at the paper (silverfish are my enemies), it’s not too much of a bother. The only real advantage to having everything bagged is that I can take the pieces and instructions out of the envelope, which means I’m not in danger of ripping the envelope when I try to repackage the pieces!

I do trace many of my vintage patterns, most often because they’re either too fragile to handle (especially in the case of my 30s patterns), or I need to make fitting changes and having a tracing to work with means I don’t wreck the original lines of the pattern. But again, this often depends on the pattern. For some later vintage patterns that I know will fit or are really simple lines, I don’t bother! But once I have a tracing, I do keep it in a separate box with all my other self-drafted and fitted tracings. Storing them with my vintage patterns got too cumbersome, although I do keep a slip of paper in many of the patterns noting I do have a tracing. (Otherwise I’ll retrace it!).

But what about modern patterns? It’s a fairly similar approach–sans archival envelopes. Patterns are generally kept in boxes, but organized by pattern company. This is because many of the patterns I own that are modern are indie companies, and I like to be able to access those easily. Cut patterns are often placed in a large sandwich bag, along with any tracings I did to alter the pattern. It’s a fairly easy method, but keeps things organized enough for me to easily find what I’m looking for.

What else do I do? I’ve used a pattern organizing software in the past (full disclosure: the software was provided to me to test drive) and also scanned pattern envelopes to add to my own image files. The latter tends to work best for vintage patterns, and allows me to virtually go through my collection without having to pull all my boxes out! But it is time consuming, which is why I am still working on cataloging everything.

So that is how I store all my patterns, for the curious! I know it may sound very organized to some, but I am such a scatterbrain otherwise, it would result in Pattern Chaos (which would make me unhappy!). When I got married and moved I had no order to my pattern storage, and remember finding vintage patterns I had forgotten I had! Now that doesn’t happen very often, which means I can utilize the patterns better than I did before. Which means better sewing productivity for me! Hooray!

February 20, 2012 · 33 lovely thoughts
posted in tutorials · tags: , ,

sewing workshop: dealing with mistakes

Note: I had a finished project to show off today, but the photos weren’t turning out right (my fault for waiting until the evening to take them!), so that will come later in the week. Instead I decided to share a post on sewing failures that I had in my draft queue and had been tinkering on the past few weeks…

01.23.12 | failed projects

You all know I’m not a magical seamstress who has every project turn out perfectly, right? Good!

I, like everyone else, have had more than a fair share of projects that hit major snags or just bombed completely and were discarded in frustration. Just in the past year my two biggest sewing-disappointments were a 1940s swimsuit (above) I tried to make, which turned into a nightmare scenario of of fiddly fit and deciding I really wasn’t sure I like how the high-waist bottoms look on me with swimwear. The other was my version of Colette Pattern’s Lady Grey pattern. The latter has been a big frustration for me, and yet I can’t motivate myself to finish it. My first version used a wool I had bought online that was just too thin for tailoring, so I ripped all the horsehair canvas pieces I had handbasted and padstitched to the coat, and cut out another jacket from a boucle suiting I had in the stash. Problem is, I’m not crazy about the fabric or the style of the coat (on me–I love it on everyone else. I think I tend to gravitate towards more loose, trapeze style coats). So I’ve just kind of been dragging my heels for over a year on this one. Every time I look in my drawer of “unfinished projects”, the half-tailored pieces mock me. Maybe one day I’ll finish it, but I’m too ambivalent on the project right now to work on it. (I’d much rather sew a pretty dress, frankly.)

09.30.10 {lady grey sew-along}

But even in the midst of some of these projects that have ended up in the scrap bin (which is highly frustrating!), I have learned quite a few lessons about sewing and myself:

  • What I dream up and am super excited about, no matter how much planning I put into it, won’t always live up to my expectations. I don’t have to feel bad about it–that’s just the reality of translation from an idea to an actual garment.
  • Putting a project aside–even for a year–gives clarity as to why it’s not working or I’m not as enthusiastic about it. Sometimes this means the project ends up in the scrap pile, other times it just needs to be reworked and seen with fresh eyes.
  • In relation to the above, it is sometimes quite helpful to have a few close sewing friends who can give you honest opinions about what is going wrong, offer troubleshooting on things that have you stumped, or be the ones to agree that it’s a hopeless case.
  • No project is ever a complete “failure”. Rather, they’re learning experiences! Through the Lady Grey jacket, I learned about tailoring and discovered my love of padstitching. Sewing the failed swimsuit meant I gathered a lot of information on sewing swimwear knits and how to properly line everything. Which I’m sure will come in handy in the future!
  • The most important thing is: no matter how long you’ve been sewing, you’re constantly learning something new! I think the “failures” are a great way to keep one on their toes and searching for new techniques and stretching their skill set. Without mistakes, how would we grow?

So what is your biggest sewing disappointment? Is there a project that just frustrates you every time you look at it? What lessons have you found helpful when dealing with these “tough” projects?

January 23, 2012 · 46 lovely thoughts
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sewing workshop

Stabilizing Older Textiles

shattered silk I

I got this question in my inbox the other day, and thought it was a useful topic to chat about—especially since many are gearing up for some seasonal sewing! I know many of us love older textiles and using them in our sewing projects. Problems can arise though when the fabric is weak from age, or could be placed under a lot of stress at certain seams due to choice of garment or the item that you’re sewing. So when a reader emailed me about if I had any ideas on reinforcing old fabrics, I thought I’d share my response!

First let me say that I am very cautious about using anything that involves adhesive. The reason being that sometimes glue (such as what is used on fusible interfacing) can react with the older fibers (especially old rayon) and make the fabric stiff or discolor/bleed through the portion of the material the interfacing is applied to. More often than not I opt for one of the following:

Sew-in interfacing. Whether this is a commercially labeled sew-in “interfacing”, or something like silk organza, cotton batiste, etc., I find this works the best because it doesn’t risk harming the textile. Just baste it to the seam allowances of the piece or area you want to reinforce and you’re set! Bonus is that if you use a natural fiber sew-in interfacing, it’ll allow the fabric to “breathe”.

Seam tape/stabilizing tape/interfacing strips. If you need to reinforce only a narrow area, I’d recommend using one of the aforementioned tapes or strips of sew-in interfacing (cut on the bias or straight of grain, depending on the curve of the area as well as the level of reinforcement). These can be basted in the seam allowances prior to sewing two pieces of the garment together, and add a little extra “oomph” to a seam.

Underlining. If a textile is particularly fragile, or will be used over high strain spots (like through the hips/seat in a pencil skirt), I’ll often underline the entire piece. This give the seams an extra layer of (newer/stronger) fabric to hold on to, and reduces the amount of seam strain on the vintage fabric. Underlining materials are typically fabrics like cotton voile or batiste, silks of various types, etc. Basically you want something that matches the drape and weight of the fashion fabric. There are several methods of underlining, but my favorite is taken from the Vogue Book of Sewing: cut out your fashion fabric and underlining material from the pattern pieces, then lay the underlining over the fashion fabric, wrong sides together. Smoothing from the center outwards, use pins to secure the two layers together (be sure you don’t stretch or create “bubbles” between the two layers). Hand baste the layers together in the seam allowances (I like silk thread for this since it doesn’t leave any impressions when ironed). Remove the pins and check to make sure the two layers lie flat and are not pulling or rippling. Threads has a good article here on underlining basics. Gertie also wrote about her method of underlining (different from mine) for the Crepe sew-along she hosted here.

Lining. Another method to reduce the amount of strain is to line your garment; this is especially helpful on skirts. Even a partial lining over certain areas puts a barrier between the outer fabric and movement-induced strain. Threads has a useful article on choosing linings here. Not all patterns come with linings, so sometimes you have to figure it out as you go regarding the best method to construct one. The approach will vary greatly based on your garment, so I’d suggest doing a Google search for specific garment types and lining methods.

Finally: just use common sense when it comes to using older textiles. If the fabric is too fragile, then it probably isn’t suitable for garment use (or anything that will be highly used or under a lot of strain). Keep in mind too the garment style you pair with old fabric. Lighter, more fragile textiles are best suited to styles that have more ease (so skip a wiggled dress with your old, lightweight rayon). Picking the right sort of garment when using an older fabric is half the battle!

I definitely do not claim to know all the methods for stabilizing older textiles, so I’d love to know if you have any favorite methods? Please share!

September 7, 2011 · 17 lovely thoughts
posted in sewing · tags: ,

sewing workshop

Drafting Toolkit

Remember this post last month when I asked for your sewing-related questions? Well, I’m trying to (slowly—I apologize!) go through and glean some ideas for potential post-topics. One of the questions from Vicki Kate (yes, the same gal who won the buttonhole tool giveaway!) caught my eye:

“I’d love to know what your basic drafting tool kit is!

For following along my kit currently consists of:
Tape measure
Ruler
Yard stick
Compass
French Curve
Tracing Paper
Calculator (for doing the maths required when grading a pattern)

Anything else that would be helpful? I keep wondering about one of the gridded cardboard cutting mats.”

This seemed a particularly apropos question to address, since I’ll be doing a little pattern drafting instruction in the upcoming circle skirt sew-along. (Don’t worry though, you won’t need all these tools—I’ll give you a supply list when the time comes!)

My drafting toolkit isn’t that extensive; I’m sure there are those who have lots of the professional-type bits and bobs for pattern drafting. But as with a lot of my sewing equipment, I tend to keep it simple.

Pattern drafting paper: I keep several types on hand. For larger projects or those that will take a beating, I use inexpensive banner paper that you can get at an office/stationary supply store by the roll. It’s about 30” wide and lasts for several projects.

I also use a lot of my favorite paper (both for drafting and pattern tracing): medical table paper. You can get it on Amazon for about $30 for 12 rolls. I split an order with a friend last year and am down to my last roll already. (Guess I draft/trace a lot, huh?) It’s not as sturdy as banner paper, but is great for initial drafts that I end up tossing as I go. Comparable to this would be extra-large sheets of tracing paper (available at most art supply stores), although more expensive in the long run if you are serious about drafting.

Another option would be Swedish Interfacing. Though I don’t favor it because it’s pricy, and you go through a lot of paper when drafting!

Cardstock/light cardboard: I use this to draft my finished “master patterns” on (such as a sloper). I generally just cheat and use heavy cardstock sheets from the office supply store, but you can buy the stuff professionals use online. This is great because you can just trace around your pieces, either directly onto the fabric or paper. (Which is why it’s perfect for slopers!) The upside of tracing finalized patterns onto card is that you can clip and hang them so they won’t get crushed.

Rulers: This category encompasses several types. I always have at least a couple yardsticks on hand for longer measures (such as skirts), an 18” x 2” gridded ruler, a metric ruler (for using with some of my British drafting texts), a metal curved ruler (I have a Fairgate 24” curve), 90° triangle protractor/ruler (that also has a 45° side), and a tape measure. The combination of these four usually suffices. Sometimes I’ll also use a French curve for tight, fiddly curves, or a circle template, but neither of these are technically “rulers”.

Marking tools: I have a package of regular old #2 yellow pencils and some fine-tip Sharpies. I usually start out by drafting with the pencils (so I can erase any mistakes) and finalize the lines with the marker. Also handy to have: fine-tip markers or pencils of different colors. This is good when you’re adjusting a pattern so you can differentiate the alteration lines.

Cutting mat: I use one of those basic, fold-out, gridded mats for all my drafting (and fabric cutting). The grids are semi-helpful (check to make sure they’re accurate first!), and having that much surface to work on is a plus. You can find them inexpensively at most fabric stores. I go through about one of these a year, and then recycle the old one!

Drafting compass: Useful when I have circular curves to draft.

Paper scissors: A must! Along with a lot of marking, you’ll be doing a ton of cutting. Get a decent pair that won’t get nicked too easily and cuts well.

Tape: Needed for taping together sheets of paper for larger drafts, or accidental (oops!) cuts into your paper pieces you may make while drafting a pattern.

Tracing wheel: I have the sort (purchased on Ebay last year) that has pin-like tips all around the wheel. I like this because I can trace through a pattern I’m working with onto paper below and transfer important lines like grainlines or seam allowances. Very handy when not working with transparent paper.

Zip bags or manila envelopes: I use these to store all finished paper (non card) drafts in. I’ll usually include my initial sketch, the date it was drafted and such in there are well.

Reference books: I always keep these handy! On my shelf at the moment:

  • Aldrich, Winifred, Metric Pattern Cutting for Women’s Wear: My hands down, favorite drafting book. Shows how to draft a variety of slopers (fitted, jersey, etc.) and basic variations.
  • Bergh, Rene, Make Your Own Patterns: The first book I ever bought on pattern drafting. Fairly easy, though the instructions are sometimes a bit wonky (technical term).
  • Brockman, Helen, The Theory of Fashion Design: A great 1960s era drafting book. Few instructions on slopers, but great for period-appropriate silhouettes and details.
  • Ein, Claudia, How to Design Your Own Clothes and Make Your Own Patterns: This is a charming little 1975 how-to book. Only covers how to actually design the clothes from a base pattern, so does not include sloper-drafting information.
  • Kopp, Ernestine, Designing Apparel Through the Flat Pattern: I have two, older editions of this large textbook and refer to them often. Kind of a dictionary of styles for drafting!
  • Patch, Cal, Design-It-Yourself Clothes: One of my favorite to recommend to beginning drafters. Take note though that the base patterns she shows how to draft are not the traditionally fitted slopers.

There are of course plenty of other books that I don’t yet own in my personal library. If you’re interested in investing in one of the larger drafting textbooks, I’d highly recommend checking out reviews on Amazon.

I hope this answered some questions! If you draft patterns, please chime in with your favorite tools that I may not have mentioned. As I said: I tend to keep my toolkit pretty simple, so this doesn’t encompass everything.

August 12, 2011 · 31 lovely thoughts
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sewing workshop

Sourcing “Vintage” Fabric

One of the frequent questions that I receive in my inbox is how to go about finding fabric sources online, and more specifically garment fabric that is a reasonable facsimile of vintage fabric. I purchase about half my fabric online, and the other half is what I’ve found at various retail spots. So I don’t claim to be an expert. But I do know a couple places to hunt online and ways to find vintage-style fabric.

First let’s talk a bit about fabric that reads “vintage”. Certainly classic patterns like plaids, houndstooth, polka dots, and checks work well with vintage styles. (There is a reason they are classic after all!) Finding novelty, floral or other prints are far more difficult—especially if you’re looking for a fabric that isn’t quilting weight cotton (of which there is an abundance of darling reproduction prints). My number one piece of advice is to study. Whether you find the fashions of the 30s or 50s appealing, spending a bit of time learning what colors and patterns were popular for your decade of choice is half the battle. I’ve included some images from my collection of mid 40s fabrics; these are not only pretty to look at but tell quite a story when it comes to selecting fabric for your modern-vintage projects.

Another key to modern fabric for vintage sewing is finding similar fabrics that were popular in the past. While they aren’t as available as they once were, you can still find rayon (or wool) crepe and challis, which were two popular fabrics in the 30s and 40s. I’ve been able to find woven rayon fabric quite often both online and occasionally at brick and mortar shops (the most surprising finds have been on the clearance racks at JoAnns!). You just have to search. (How I wish there was a one-stop-shop for vintage-style sewing supplies!)

Here are a few fabric websites that I frequently haunt and/or have purchased from. Most of these are US-only websites, so I’d love to know some other spots that you shop online as well.

Denver Fabrics – This is where I’ve found a lot of rayon material that I’ve used for dresses. It’s hit or miss, and be sure to read the descriptions carefully, but there are gems. I’ve found lovely rayon crepe, sueded rayon, cotton lawn with late 30s-appropriate prints, and novelty tropical designs that would work beautifully on a 40s midriff ensemble!

Fabric.com – I tend to go here more often if I’m looking for a cotton or linen material, rather than rayon (they carry mostly rayon knits), but I have found some cute materials (and great “classic” designs) for good prices.

Gorgeous Fabrics – Admittedly, I have only “window shopped” here, but there is a wide range of fabrics stocked here; lots and lots of nicer fiber contents that are suitable for vintage styles. Again, like all of them, you have to dig through to find prints that would work. (I’ve noted loads of florals that would be amazing for 50s dresses!)

Fabric Mart – This one is really hit or miss, and when you see something you have to snatch it up quick! Occasionally I’ve seen great rayon and silk prints that would work beautifully for many past eras, and of course lots of classic plaid wool during the winter.

Sawyer Brook – This is where I found the lovely silk print for my Swing Dress I made earlier this year. Again, another place to keep an eye out for quality fabrics in prints and colors that work for vintage sewing.

Vogue Fabrics – A mish mash of different fabrics, like most of the other websites I listed, but worth hunting for. I noticed quite a few rayon challis fabrics recently (some more appropriate for vintage sewing than others…).

Lastly, another great place to check is the Threads online fabric shopping list. It’s a few years old (so some links are no longer working), but does have a lot of websites listed that would be useful to check.

Now if you’re looking for real vintage fabric, thrift (charity) shops are great places to start! Of course, you won’t always find what you’re looking for, and supply and demand are in flux constantly, but I have discovered some real gems. Other sewing bloggers seem to have good luck at these sorts of shops as well—Debi is one that comes to mind as someone who has used some thrifted fabrics to make her vintage pieces. Other spots online would be Ebay and Etsy; just search “vintage fabric” or more specifically “vintage cotton print”, “vintage rayon”, etc. (It’s all about the search terms!)

Do you have any favorite places to hunt for vintage-appropriate fabrics online? Please do share—I’d be delighted to know!

July 20, 2011 · 15 lovely thoughts
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