Terminado! Lilacs and Liberty - New Shirt for a New Year

This shirt symbolizes my plans for 2014. It's one of several projects, sewing and otherwise, that  I've been wanting to complete.

Finishing Lilacs and Liberty in time to wear it out to a movie on the last day of 2013, gave me a good feeling about starting the new year out right.

The lilacs part comes from the lilac gingham. The liberty because the accents are from one of the smaller pieces of Liberty Tana Lawn I bought on a trip to London. I wrote and podcasted about that trip in June. This Liberty print is named Mauverina (the link is for another color variation).

The pattern I used for this shirt, B5526, is the one my friend Susan altered for me. I've sewn it twice since. The first time it was my No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency shirt. This time I altered it by adding tucks in the front and fish eye darts on either side in the back. I also used the pocket in the pattern but made a little kind of heart shaped tuck in the front I'm really happy with.

I interfaced the pocket, color, cuffs and hem with silk organza, that's a new thing for me to try.

I'm really happy with the way I grouped the buttons in groups of threes (except the top button stands alone, and it can also be left unbuttoned) - one every inch apart and then a space of 3 inches between each grouping.

I'm also happy that this long shirt is flattering over the jeans I made in the fall.

Knowing this is a piece I'll be reaching for again and again in my closet, keeps me....

Enchanted by Sewing

~ ~ ~
Resources

I like to pin swatches of Liberty's Tana Lawns 
http://www.pinterest.com/lrshimer/gorgeous-fabric-liberty-of-london/

Jeans Sewing: Skirting the Issue - Terminado!/Done!

¡Que Bueno!
Huzzah! 

Worth the Work
I created this jeans-style denim skirt
in order to work
on jeans sewing skills
I do feel more confident about approaching my
first jeans project.
I'm also really looking forward to wearing this
great new addition to my wardrobe!

On the final evening of Labor Day weekend,  I finished the jeans-style denim skirt (  Palmer and Pletsch M6361 )  I've been blogging about over the last month. (*) The task was acquiring the tenor of a forever-more sewing project. Those are deadly! Sometimes I get so tired of long-term sewing projects, that they get popped into an in-process bin and you know what happens next, right? Often, by the time I return to the bin it's even more intimidating. Or maybe it just looks silly or dated. I didn't want to have my skirt become a UFO (What Lori often referred to as UnFinished Objects in the Sew Forth Now Podcast). So I kept at it, even when other sewing projects sung out, and they definitely did! You can just bet I never let myself take that jeans needle out of my machine.

My skirt looks so official
with it's jeans button
I lined the waistband with a light weight
cotton batiste print
I interfaced it with a medium weight
fusible. That was a big decision and
I'm glad I did interface it now.

I really wanted to shelve the skirt many times, because sewing that heavy weight 11-oz denim (like Levis 501's ), figuring out where to find and apply rivets, jeans button, when to do the topstitching (I wanted complete lines of stitching because it sure shows when it's not), not to mention addressing the faux flat-felled seams, was just a lot of unfamiliar-to-me work and techniques. I never managed to get the real kind of flat-felled seams to to roll around and stitch straight, though I'm good with the faux look for now. I blogged about that a couple of weeks back.

Oh and don't get me started on the curved waistband! I think the topstitching and waistband seam and top of waistband finally go straight across on either side. I sure checked those (and pinned, re-pinned, hand and machine basted and re-basted) to get those areas crisp and clean. I did have to add a snap on the inside of the fly. I think  that was because I over-fitted the garment a little and the fly band gaped a little. I over-fitted because otherwise the a-line skirt didn't 'a' out. At least for me, that heavy denim is not at all easy to work with. Maybe it's simply different than what I'm used to sewing with.

I'm really proud of myself for doing something hard and new-to-me. When I get ready to sew my jeans project for the Pants Drafting class I'm currently taking at Cañada, I'll have a head start on some of those techniques. I'm sure they won't be perfect, but they will be lots better than if I hadn't sewn this skirt first.

Another thing I'm glad I thought to do. I sewed several fly-front zippers (FFZ) in trouser and shorts project over the last year or so. So, although I still don't love doing a FFZ, they don't overwhelm me. And that was important when learning to work with heavy fabric, different threads and needle-type, new-to-me techniques and hardware.

I didn't make the cute pockets or belt loops I meant to do (I know how to use a double needle to make those belt loops professional too), cuz I was just done with it. I'm planning to prep the pockets and belt loops for my jeans project first , because those are really the fun part. In this case I'd had enough and just wanted to move on with life. That's the way it goes with me, when I'm learning something new. In software application development (and probably other fields as well, I imagine), we called that MVP - minimal viable product.

Sometimes I just want to be finished/terminado!

Now I'm planning to do some fun and familiar sewing for a bit. I have another one of my favorite shirts to finish up. I last blogged about it as Kit 1 (here's a link). I'm now calling it "Lilacs and Liberty". It's a romantic fem style - lilac Robert Kaufman gingham with accents in a darker purple and green Liberty of London Tana Lawn print, (which I recently identified as the Liberty print "Mauverina") and sparkly'ish buttons. Bet it will look cute with the denim skirt too....

The challenge of acquiring new sewing skills, and the pleasure of returning to comfortable and favorite sewing projects, keeps me....

Enchanted by Sewing!

~ ~ ~

* All the posts about this project, begin with the phrase "Jeans Sewing, Skirting the Issue"

1) I began writing about the project, fitting and pattern selection on August 9'th http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/08/jeans-sewing-skirting-issue.html

2) When Zippers Fly

http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/08/jeans-sewing-skirting-issue-when.html

3) Resources

http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/08/jeans-sewing-skirting-issue-resources.html

4) WAISTing Time

http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/08/jeans-sewing-skirting-issue-waisting.html

5) Absolutely Riveting

http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/08/jeans-sewing-skirting-issue-absolutely.html