Projects

Frustrated

Rachel — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:44:19 GMT

I’m going to post about the drapes I’ve been trying to make…notice I say trying. I bought fabric from Spoonflower to make them and when it arrived I was very excited. The fabric looks great. I’m extremely happy with the design and the printing.

I ordered 5 yards because each panel needs 2 1/2 yards. The first thing I needed to adjust and figure is that the printing starts at the left side and however it ends on the right side with the repeating is just how it is. This caused a slight problem in that when you put both cut panels together, they aren’t uniform. The right side of panel A is the drifting repeat pattern and the left side of panel B is the clear starting pattern. Does that make sense? I needed to cut the fabric down so that both panels look uniform when they hang next to each other on the rod. Cutting down the fabric makes it necessary for me to use another fabric to make the panels wider to fit our windows.

The next challenge is that I need to use sun-blocking lining which for any of you that have used it know that it’s a pain to work with. It’s thick and rubbery and it so difficult to keep smooth. We have a projector screen TV and it’s important for optimum movie viewing to have the light completely blocked.

The final challenge is that my husband thought it would look nice to have a solid red border around the 3 edges of each panel to bring out the red flowers and I agreed with him. However, this third fabric is yet another weight and all three of the fabrics are fighting against each other and look just horrible. Yesterday I was so frustrated I took the drapes down and folded them into a pile in my office with intentions to just start over with something else.

THEY ARE JUST STUPID RECTANGLES! WHAT IS THE DEAL???????

Drapes open. Right drape is not finished on bottom because the sides are already pulling.

Left panel drape with side pulling and bringing left corner up off the floor. I measured the hem with them hanging and the length should have brought the corner right to the floor.

“Oh, why don’t you just bite the bullet, pick it out, smooth all the layers and put it back together again? They could look really nice and you already put so much time into it.”

I DID!!!! This is what it looks like after I picked it out, laid it on the floor, put a million pins in it to keep it in place, and then sewed it back together.

So, now you can see why I haven’t posted and what my latest endeavor has been. I did finally decide today that it’s actually human to show the projects you work on that just look like CRAP.

Love,

Spoonflower Green Flower Tent Dress

Rachel — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:42:13 GMT

Finally! I’ve had a chance to whip up this little thing. This is my design from the Spoonflower Children’s pattern contest. I will show you the pictures and then share my comments at the end of the post.

We actually received the fabric on Christmas Eve and here is Eleanor with it. I don’t think she actually “got it” of course. She just loves the green flowers because green is her favorite color.

My 2 eldest girls holding up the fabric. I don’t know why Rosemary is making that crazy face.

I sewed up the dress last night and it went together very easily. Here is Ellie modeling this morning.

This mountain is in our backyard. Can you believe it? I still can’t.

My sweetie pie. Finally one girl who got my crazy red East Coast hair. Enough of the California blonds!

All in all, I’m satisfied with the dress. However, for those of you that know me, satisfaction just isn’t good enough. There are things that definitely need to be modified.

I had the dress printed on the upholstery weight fabric. I liked the idea of having a sturdier feel to this dress, but after sewing it up I realized it was a mistake. This dress is a tent dress and is supposed to flow nicely. The dress doesn’t flow at all—it kind of holds it’s shape. When I get it printed on the quilter’s weight, the cloth won’t be so white, which is kind of a bummer. I like the contrast between the colors.
The armscye is too tight. In general I feel that children’s garments go way overboard with the enormous arm holes but I need to let the bottom down at least a 1/2”. I also would prefer for the straps to be just a little thicker, maybe 1/2”.
The dress fits too perfectly. I need to add an extra 1/2”-1” for a little growing room.
I also need to lengthen the dress an 1”. I did the tiniest of hems, so I kind of faked it.

Well, that’s it in a nutshell! Eleanor couldn’t be more pleased with her dress and this is just the beginning for me with designing garments on fabric. I am so fascinated with digitizing my patterns and getting them to a place where I am completely satisfied and proud of my work.

Love,

My Little Love Birds

Rachel — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 06:10:40 GMT

I decided to create a dress from the “Love Birds” fabric design I created for Spoonflower.

I have digitally laid out all of the pieces except for the sleeves. The images you see here aren’t accurate but show the composition of the pieces. I’m also going to play around with a different color scheme after I write this up.

Here it is!

Love,

Loving The Elephant

Rachel — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 03:18:58 GMT

Thank you everyone who voted for me in the Spoonflower Challenge. I didn’t win but I am very excited none-the-less. I received my fabric with the dress on it and I quickly cut it out to see if the sizing was good. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!!! I pinned it together and put it on Ellie and it just looks amazing. The printed fabric is so much better than the computer image file. I will write a separate post on that once I sew it up.

Today we are going to talk about ELEPHANTS! My new elephant dress for my little Ellie Belle:

I am also going to have a sleeve, but I’m going to work on that tonight.

Love,

And The Voting Commences

Rachel — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 06:04:02 GMT

The Spoonflower Children’s Pattern Design Contest is officially open for voting. I don’t want to TELL you to vote for me, but PLEASE!

Vote HERE!

Mine looks like this:

You know, free fabric and just FAME.
Hee hee.

Love,

What Is It About The Elephant

Rachel — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:29:01 GMT

My daughter Eleanor LOVES elephants. She carries them around everywhere in her elephant purse and if we forget even one of them…God forbid. She also loves the colors green and blue. I welcome the change from pink.

What is it about these crazy looking animals that kids just love so much? I mean they are really strange looking. Not cuddly and cozy at all.

I’m on an elephant mission.

Love,

What Do You Do

Rachel — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:12:10 GMT

…when you are furiously working on a design that has a deadline by midnight because there is no way you are getting up early to make the East Coast deadline the next day and your computer crashes and you lose all your work that you did over the past 4 hours? Whew. Someone say run-on sentence. Anyone? Anyone?

Hmmmm…Cry? Start Over?

Okay, in this case I did fight the tears but they didn’t come. I went to the kitchen to get a drink and I did start over.

This Spoonflower Challenge was fun and difficult—I loved it. I just wish I had found my patterns earlier and had a bit more time to work on it. I was very concerned with getting accurate sizing on the digital pattern pieces. I asked my husband to help me print out the image into tiles so that I could tape them together to see if they matched up with my paper pattern and it seriously took hours to figure that out. Why should that be so stinkin’ hard? I don’t know, but it was. So hours are drifting away trying to figure out how to print it out so that I could check my work.

It was about 1 am and I was done. I was throwing the towel in, but my husband Jon, the trooper, made me work on directions and he continued to figure out how to print out my image in tiles. When they finally printed out and they matched up exactly…I was so happy! I clicked in my official submission at 3 am Pacific Time telling myself that tomorrow I would be happy that I stayed up. I am.

Here is my submission: The Green Flower Tent Dress

Love,

Looking...

Rachel — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:41:48 GMT

and I found them! Finally! I could not find any of my patterns and so my design project for the Childrens Wear Spoonflower Contest was put on hold. I was able to dabble on some fabric designs for the actual garment, but the hardest work will actually be with the pattern.

I decided to go with something simple to let the fabric design take center stage. I am using my Toddler 3 Mamma Made Tent Dress Pattern—pretty easy for novice sewers and is absolutely adorable on little kids. Also it will fit well in the 1 yard restrictions…although I have to say I’m so relieved at Steven’s latest post allowing us to use upholstery weight fabric because the width is 10” wider and boy can I use those inches with this wide hem.

No pictures yet…I’m going to keep you in suspense.

Love,

I LOVE Enchino

Rachel — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:28:20 GMT

Some designers never disappoint. I am always inspired by the Japanese designer Enchino and all the amazing prints available. The colors are bold, the patterns quirky and not predictable. After awhile you can just predict fabric lines, colors, themes…it’s so refreshing when the little box of rules gets broken up a bit.

Just to test you…here is a question. My daughter Esther LOVES tigers and so we are going to be designing her a “tiger inspired” room. Okay stop. What is the first vision that pops in your head? Is it this?

Just kidding.

In the end, these are the fabrics and colors designed by Enchino that will make up Esther’s room.

I’m very excited.

Love,

A Vintage Journey

Rachel — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:40:38 GMT

School is upon us—we have four weeks left of summer. It’s crazy how quickly time goes by. After sewing my bag and getting my quick creative fix, I wasn’t really thinking about sewing again until we were settled in our new home.

I changed my mind when I was perusing the designer Amy Schimler’s blog Red Fish Circle and saw this:

Oh my goodness! Pink hippos! She only had one fat quarter left for sale in her shop and I grabbed it up. I didn’t even know what I was going to make with it yet, but I had to have it. This is the beginning of my vintage journey.

I had to find the perfect pattern for these hippos. All of my pattern-making stuff is tightly packed away in the garage and I have no desire to dig through and find everything right now. I headed over to ebay to peruse the vintage children’s patterns and I found some gems!

Project A – Eleanor Grace

This pattern is so adorable! It’s from the 40’s and all the pattern pieces are pretty solid and complete. This will be the hippo dress. I am going to sew View A and the hippos are going to be the yoke and the top half of the skirt (ie. all the white parts!). The dark pink fabric is going to be the main dress and I’m going to use the green fabric as the ruffle trim around the hippos.

The dress is very straight forward, so I don’t see any real problems surfacing. The only thing that might need adjusting is the neckline. For some reason a lot of the older patterns have really really high necklines. So high they look uncomfortable. I’ll keep you posted.

Project B – Rosemary Elizabeth

I was so excited looking at the vintage children’s patterns, that I decided that although finances were a bit tight, I could make my big girls a “back to school” dress. This is what I found for Rosemary.

My 8 year old is such a 50’s girl. She loves to tuck her shirts in (even when they are supposed to blouse out over leggings) and wear belts cinched tightly around her waist on all of her pants. The styles today are mostly casual and flowing for children, but she will make an unstructured outfit structured. I gave up and just let her do her thing. She is just more comfortable. She will love this dress with the fitted bodice, pin-tucks with ruffles, and very full skirt. Here are the fabrics I found for her:

Project C – Esther Marie

I can’t make a dress for one and not the other! I found this really sweet dress for Esther. This pattern is also from the 50’s. She loves dresses but isn’t quite as girly as Rosemary; I thought this design was just right for her.

She immediately knew that she wanted View 1 (that’s my girl!) so that she could have two different fabrics playing off each other. Here are the fabrics I found for Esther:

So begins my vintage journey. I also had to track down some one-piece slips for the girls to wear under these dresses so they would get the desired fullness.

Some things are easier and cheaper to buy than to make. Plus, I really dislike making crinolines. If you do it right (and my mother always made me do things the right way), it’s a lot of work.

Let the fun begin!

Love,