The Camo Moment

We survived back to school shopping without killing each other.

When she wanted a camouflage print scarf, I balked. I know that camo is supposed to be a big trend this year, but I didn't think that camouflage is an appropriate fashion statement while we are at war in two different countries and on the brink of war with another one.

She insisted that she loved the scarf so we agreed she could purchase it with her own money.  On the way home, she made a valid point that camo can be used in other contexts, such as hunting or even in irony. I saw what she meant.  I envisioned another one of her purchases (that I didn't approve of at the time), paired with camo.

I went to SAS the next day on the off-chance that they had the appropriate fabric.  Score!  ~2.5 yards of cotton/lycra camo print for $3.50/pound.   I cut out a pair of Kwik Sew 3476 leggings (her 4th pair this year!).  I added 2" in length to accommodate her growth spurt at the beginning of summer.  I managed to cut out another pair of Kwik Sew 2666 shorts from the large scraps leftover at the sides after cutting out the leggings.

If you are a data geek, the legging pieces weighed 130 grams, the shorts 88 grams, small scraps 66 grams--an overall 86% cutting efficiency.  The remaining 1+ yards will be saved for another pair of leggings, either for her or one of her friends.

After laundering, I put the fabric on the cutting table and got to work. This is an extremely quick and unusual turnaround for me, but I decided to strike before the fashion winds blew away from camo or I strangled my teenager. (If you have a teenaged girl at home, you know what I mean.)  Both camo pieces, as well as the black KS 2666 shorts have seen heavy wear as soon as they left the sewing room.

The Arm the Animals shirt is growing on me.  In talking to the kids young entrepreneurs selling the shirts at the Hermosa Beach festival, I thought that they were a bunch of pretty hardworking and savvy animal rights activists.  Instead of breaking into labs, they are raising money to help save animals in a peaceful way.  I didn't like the shirts with the animals holding guns pointed at would-be hunters.  But brass knuckles are kinda funny.  Besides, would anyone pick on my kid when she is wearing this?

The shirts are made locally; they are sewn in Mexico, designed and screened in LA.  The cotton is very soft, not sheer, and the seams are well sewn.  After washing it all summer, I decided it was reasonably priced for the quality.  I'm still not going to buy her clothes that (even ironically) condone violence.  But, I don't feel upset about her buying and wearing it either.

According to my pattern spreadsheet, I've made her 11 pairs of pants and 5 pairs of shorts from KS 2666.  I cut out and sewed most of it in 1 hour the first evening.  I hemmed and put in the elastic in 30 more minutes the next night.  Luckily, the serger was already threaded in black.  I plan to sew some black pieces for myself soon, if this monsoonal flow (hot, humid) weather ever lets up.

I like quick, well-engineered patterns for casual day clothes.  They give a lot of bang for my sewing time.  How about you?  Do you think about (time) cost per wear when sewing?  Do you track your cutting efficiency?  Kathleen says I am an Aspie in denial.  I say that I am just data-driven.

Bon Voyage

I'm feeling so much enviroguilt these days, I feel a compulsion to use every last scrap of fabric.  (Though that doesn't stop me from buying more--just less.)

I turned one of Bad Dad's frayed Hawaian shirts (bought on our Maui trip ~2004) into another Simplicity 2938. Do you recognize the black/white center panel from the duvet I made in February?

 The inside is finished in true grandma sewing style with flat-fell and French seams and bias binding.

I purchased 4-5 yards of this black/white ponte knit from SAS Fabrics years ago.  It didn't have enough stretch for the ski underwear that I tried to make for Iris.  But, she wore two pairs of yoga pants (Kwik Sew 2666) in successively larger sizes in this fabric.  Now she has another pair of Kwik Sew 2666 shorts.

There was still a little bit of fabric leftover.  A petite friend is going on 3 trips this summer and I thought the ponte would be make her a good travel skirt.

Because two of the trips are overseas, I put in a hidden passport pocket. The pocket is functional, but not fully functional.  Next time, I need to make it 1" deeper and move the opening/overlap up about 0.75".  My passport is in the pocket in the top photo.  Can you see it?

I put my passport in it to test.

This is the fourth knit skirt I have sewn from the bottom half of Vogue 1224.  Its subtle shaping is a cut above most knit skirts.

All three pieces were made from materials in my refashion bin or scraps bag.  OK, I used new thread and elastic.  This is my sartorial version of Stone Soup.

With this outfit, I get to say Bon Voyage to both this ponte and my friend.

Dwelling

I've been dwelling with my collection of Bernina sewing machine feet. Perhaps you have to be a fellow Bernina owner to understand why home sewing doesn't save me money. If the Swiss economy tanks, it won't be for lack of effort on my part.

Iris did not have a pair of pajamas that fit for those "pajama days" at school and camp. She usually wears ratty old dresses as nightgowns. I was embarrassed for her on "pajama days". She now has a nightgown (Simplicity 4767) to match the flannel-lined robe I made earlier out of Liberty of London Tana Lawn. She will be the best dressed kid next time.

The serger still held pink, not beige, thread so I attempted to make this nightgown without the use of a serger whatsoever. I flat-felled the ruffle strips together and employed French seams elsewhere. I used a rolled hem foot for all the hems. I stitched over (stretched) clear elastic at the wrists instead of making a casing and inserting elastic. I cut a size 8, but the sleeves could be 2" longer. Others on Pattern Review mentioned the too short sleeves also.

When I used the ruffler foot for the first time, it was love. The ruffles were gathered in the time it took to snap in the foot and to sew a straight line. Why did I sew for so long without it? (Um, was it the $100 price tag for the ruffler foot and the shank adapter?) I had to break down and use the serger to finish the seam that attached the ruffle to the gown.

I used the ruffler foot again to make curtains for Iris' IKEA Billy corner bookcase, which she uses as a hiding place and a stuffed-animal playhouse. She helped me attach the adhesive hook side of the Velcro to her bookcase. I sewed the loop side to the top of the curtain and we completed the project in 20 minutes!

As long as I had pink thread in the serger, Iris received a pair of pink and maroon pajamas. I forgot to mark the back with masking tape, so I confused the front and back; the seam in the neckband is in the CF instead of the CB. I had just trained Iris to put the neckband seam in the back when she dressed. A better mother would have redone the neckband. This one turned out the lights and went to bed instead.

I used Kwik Sew 2666 for the pants and 2893 for the top. Unfortunately, 2666 is out of print (OOP). I don't know why. I have made the pants in size 8 three times for Iris and the fit is superb.

Iris' cousin and Mark's sister stayed with us this weekend. I made two pairs of pull-on pants. I had to change just the left needle thread on the serger to maroon for the bottom pair.

I made the 4T size from Kwik Sew's Sewing for Toddlers. As Iris grew, I collected the whole Kwik Sew set of books, Sewing for Baby, Sewing for Toddlers, and Sewing for Children. Even if you don't make the patterns, it can be worthwhile to buy at least one of Kerstin Martensson's books just to learn her quick techniques.

I find KM techniques very easy, and they give better (albeit slightly slower) results than Serged Garments in Minutes. The latter's techniques are comparable to the cheap things you would find at the Gap. Why imitate cheap construction techniques at home?

Today's LA Times ran a Melissa Magsaysay piece, Gift-buying made simple. She advocates making the same signature present for everyone. With 55 yards of the Tana Lawn score remaining, I could do that. But I won't. The rest of you can buy your own Tana Lawn PJs online.

More about Kwik Sew patterns in Sweatshop and More from the BMGM Sweatshop.

Carmegeddon 2 Adventure

Interstate 405, one of the busiest freeways in this country, was shut down again for construction/demolition this weekend.  Angelenos were warned to stay off the roads or use public transit.  We live by the beach.  The Cinerama film festival is across town in Hollywood.  We took public transit.

Redondo Beach was once a streetcar suburb of Los Angeles.  A light rail line once ran diagonally across the LA metro area grid of streets that took riders directly from our neighborhood to downtown in less time than it takes today to drive on the freeway and in about half as much time as it takes on today's roundabout mass transit system.  Grrr.

Anyway, here we are waiting to transfer from the green line (an elevated train) to the silver line (a bus on a dedicated bus lane on the freeway and then on regular surface streets).  Notice both TFN and Bad Dad reading on their kindles.

And transferring from the silver line to the red line (subway).This is the best of the blurry photos that Bad Dad took.  I'm carrying knitting in the white bag.  Iris is wearing Simplicity 2689 (top) and Kwik Sew 2666 (pants) and I am wearing Simplicity 2938 (top) and Vogue 1247 (skirt).

Hollywood, baby!

We watched the sole surviving print of The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.  Russ Tamblyn, the only actor to have worked in two cinerama films, regaled the audience with reminiscences about the experience and explained some of the technical difficulties from the actors' viewpoint.  He sat a few rows behind us with several of his West Side Story costars, including Rita Moreno. 

The screening ran long because it was interrupted by technical problems.  With three cameras and three aged strips of film, the likelihood of problems grew geometrically.

During intermission, we looked at the special camera used for cinerama filming and spoke to the film editor for all of the cinerama films and the son of the inventor of the camera.  Do you know the connection between cinerama and Cold War U2 spy plane photos?  Stay tuned.

BTW, the movie plays fast and loose with history.  Listen to what University of Michigan's professor Eric Rabkin has to say about the Brothers Grimm.

New Threads Downtown

Los Angeles Conservancy gave tours of Union Station today.
Iris was in charge of the camera and it is fun to look at the outing from her vantage point. This is the ticket hall that is normally off-limits to the public.
I showed off a new skirt made with Vogue 1358. Iris and I both love this dark turquoise/teal supplex & nylon blend. It packs well, dries quickly and works with so many items I already own.
Iris wore Kwik Sew 2666 pants made of gray cotton interlock and a white Dharma Trading* smocked top.
I got the fabric for both the skirt and pants at SAS Fabrics in Hawthorne, CA. It's an odd-jobber that sews factory leftovers by the pound. In a way, these are recycled fashions because these scraps would have ended up being dumped at a fiber recycling plant if hobbyists like myself didn't find higher uses for them.

Afterwards, we went to Ocean Seafood in nearby Chinatown for dim sum. Yum!

Clockwise from left to right: house special roast chicken, shrimp with honey walnuts, rice wrapped in lotus leaves, double soy (tofu and soybeans) with mustard greens, congee/jook/shi fun/rice porridge, seaweed salad with home-style sweet pickles.
Kwik Sew has awesome patterns in awful wrapping. Would you be attracted to a pattern that looks like this?
Not many people would, which is why this pattern is now out of print, OOP. But, straighten out the leg flare and this pattern for knits with lycra makes the best fitting pull-on pants. Iris has had 8 pairs of these in her lifetime. I made pair #8 in black last night.

This is the 5th time I made the skirt in Vogue 1358. This time, I cut the front in one piece and the back in two pieces. Iris says it looks much nicer without the front seam. You can see iteration #4 here.

I do sew from new patterns, too. I made a new linen skirt yesterday from Vogue 9414 and will show it off later.

* BTW, if you know me in real life and want to place an order with Dharma, let me know ASAP. I am putting together a group order. Babies are arriving really soon and I can't let them go home without tie-dyed onesies.

Kids Clothing Week Challenge Wrap-up

I didn't officially join kcwc (kids clothing week challenge), but here's what I sewed in the month of October.

I bought nearly all of the fabrics that I used from SAS fabrics, an odd jobber near Los Angeles that sells leftovers from the garment industry by the pound. The fabric often has oddly-shaped chunks cut out of it or stains or writing or rips. This makes pattern layout challenging at times. But, at $3.49/pound, this piece of good-quality cotton French terry was worth the effort. Besides, I couldn't resist fabric printed with the fashion capitol cities of the world.

A pound-sized piece was enough to make this jacket made for Iris. She picked the buttons out. They also came from SAS (25 cents each).I lengthened the jacket in Burda 9574 to waist length and the sleeves to full-length.

There is an interesting double dart detail at the sleeve cap. Overall, this is a very well-drafted and quick pattern.

I used Kwik Sew 2666 again for two pairs of shorts. The black double knit rayon/lycra might have come from Kashi at Metro Textiles, but the turquoise cotton rib knit came from SAS.

It's baby season at work so I pulled out some of my Kwik Sew favorites, Sewing for Babies/Toddlers/Children.

If you want to sew quick basics for kids, you couldn't go wrong with these books. Here are line drawings of all the things you can make with these books.

I used some remnants to make 3 pairs of baby pants, 2 small, 1 large. They were a hit.

Los Angeles is the epicenter for the "premium jeans" craze. Much of the sewing and "distressing" takes place in Gardena, CA, near SAS Fabrics. Scraps of really nice denim are sold for $1.50/pound at SAS. I bought two 24" long, full-width remnants ($1.75), cut out two baby pants (L) and have enough left over for another pair of baby pants or a girl's skirt.

I tucked this note in with the pants.

An estimated 10% of Los Angeles’ landfill waste is textile*, much of it from the garment industry. Some factory waste is collected by odd-jobbers and sold by the pound at centers throughout the region.

The fabrics for these pants come from this type of pre-consumer waste. The thread and elastic are scraps left over from other projects. All components of these pants were diverted from the waste stream.

Dress your baby in garbage! ;-)

* This is from a 1991 estimate, before much of our apparel industry went overseas. However, a recent EPA study showed that over 5% of municipal waste nationally is textiles. LA, which has become the largest remaining garment manufacturing region in the US, will likely have somewhat higher than 5%. Fortunately, we have an economic ecosystem diverting scraps from the waste stream and I am happy to be part of this food chain.

Taking the slow road

to a big party for precision measurement nerds.

Can you guess where these photos were taken?

Hope your summer is as fun-filled as ours.

BTW, sewing fans may be interested to note that Iris' shorts in both photos are Kwik Sew 2666 and my camp shirt is made from McCall's 4056 (both OOP) and African "Dutch Wax" fabric.  Matching the slightly uneven motifs was a PITA but worth it.