Ench By Sew-39: Plaid tidings’ to you and all of your kin! Part 2 of Tartans and Plaids (Winter Holidays Mini-Cast)

Newly togged out Katie Rose is an Engel-Puppen doll

Click on this link in iTunes  to download the 39th episode of the Enchanted by Sewing Audio Podcast,  recorded in December of 2015. Or listen directly on the web by clicking on this link.

Plaid tidings’ to you and all of your kin! During the winter holidays, plaids and tartans look so festive. Dolls are the perfect plaid-sewing partners, because sewing for a doll, gives me the motivation to engage in some sample sewing. And at this time of year they remind me of  dollies, and doll clothes that were sewn for me, at this special time of year – like the mini wardrobe of Barbie clothes my aunt gracie sewed and sent me one winter holiday, as well as the red courderoy jumpers and dotted slip dresses, Mama made for our Chatty Kathy dolls, as well as for me and my sister Trisha in the winter I was 4 (with matching girl jumpers).

K.R's green plaid jumper is based on an
 American Girl free doll clothes pattern in "Mollie's Pretty Clothes"

The doll featured in this sewing project is Katie Rose. K.Rose is an Engel-Puppen doll. (Engel-Puppen doll link - has history of these dolls)

Sample sewing may not sound very exciting, but sewing an 18” (think American Girl sized) plaid doll’s dress gave me a chance to – in a very limited amount of time - practice my pattern cutting out skills for plaid fabric, as well as experiment with a new-to-me technique for improved  plaid matching

This  show is all about technicos/techniques.

My goals with this doll’s dress were to work on:
Primero/First)Careful layout of multiple princess-seamed bodice pieces - definitely less nerve racking for a doll, and gives me confidence to work on the red plaid princess-seamed shirt I’m muslin’ing - as well as the plaid nightshirt I’ll plan to be making soon for my husband.
Entonces/Then)I tried Fusible Thread to decrease slippage during sewing (a new-to-me technique for enhanced/ improved  plaid matching).  Also useful /good idea for sewing on patch pockets  

I used crafster to look for help regarding my challenges with fusible thread.
Response from ~T Read more: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=442125.0#ixzz3ufLODkuJ
https://www.byannie.com/shop/product/fusible-thread/

“She calls for low heat, so I am guessing you just had the iron too hot.

She also describes another technique for using it with aluminum foil as your pressing cloth..letting that cool and peeling it off, to create a design on fabric. Like a dimensional paint overlay technique?

You Craftsters always inspire me to hunt for new ideas   

I Goggled 'Fusible Thread Instruction' for this one. There are more on there as well.

~T”

I love using succulents all over the house during the festive season.
This simple arrangement provides the perfect place for Katie Rose to hang out.

American Girl Doll Clothes Patterns - Free http://www.agplaythings.com/AG%20Patterns/DollDressPatterns.html

More Plaid Web Resources

http://moviestarmakeover.com/category/classically-ladylike/

http://moviestarmakeover.com/category/myrna-loy/

http://www.pendleton-usa.com/thumbnail/Home/FABRIC/PLAIDS/1721/c/1828/pc/1816.uts

Summer of Jeans Sewing: The Plan

Pockets like the ones on these
L.A. Idol jeans are inspiration for learning to
sew my own denim threads.
No, I don't know yet how they get that bling,
And I also wonder what kind of thread they
use for topstitching. Learning about stuff like
that is a ways down the road for me. I've got a lot
of basic skills and fit lessons to learn first.

I've been promising myself since last fall, that I would begin to work on learning to sew jeans this summer. Isn't it important to keep those promises we make to ourselves? Part of that promise was that I'd take the beginning and intermediate construction sewing classes, as well as the pants construction class, at Cañada Community College, in order to improve my overall sewing skills and begin learning techniques that had always seemed more advanced.

OK, I did that.

Now, the plan is to:

1) Sew samples to work on learning and improving jeans sewing techniques : flat felled seams, fly front zippers, special pockets, decorative pocket stitching, attaching rivets and special jeans buttons, jeans hemming, belt loops, dealing with those thick seam crossovers (I know people use hammers and little shim's and stuff)  and probably some other things I haven't thought of yet. And what about embellishment? How do manufacturers, like L.A. Idol create the cool bling on their pockets? I don't know yet.

2) Work on jeans ft for me. Improve knowledge of general pants fitting. Use instructions from various jeans patterns to assist with fit. Take the pants fitting class in the fall to produce a muslin/toile/sloper.

3) Collect information from others - books, magazine articles, web links. Pattern Review has good resources I've been reading and Threads Magazine did a series of three articles a couple of years back, that I have set aside (even though I broke down and bought the full archive of Threads, I held onto those particular paper issues in my "Jeans" drawer).

4) Collect resources to help get started: needles, topstitching thread, budget denim, sample (worn out) jeans from others I can analyze, study and maybe even cut up for sample sewing

5) Collect inspiration. Photograph cool jeans - especially pockets - I see people wearing and I use pinterest (http://pinterest.com/lrshimer/boards/ )  to save references to beautiful jeans features - yes more pockets!