Mom's blue doublet

My move is today. After two solid weeks of work, the household is finally ready to go. I am anxiously awaiting the moment when I can get started, but in the meantime am trying to think about something else.

I sent my mom pictures of my skirt that I've been working on, partially to show off, partially to encourage her to send up the sewing machine already. ("See how much labor you'll save me if I don't have to do all this by hand?") When I explained the waistband application tehcnique that I messed up, she knew exactly what I should have done, but said the way I fixed it was a good idea. She's one of those people who's good at everything, particularly artistic or crafty things, and she taught herself to sew quite capably in order to make the various costume pieces that her two theatrically-inclined children required over the years.

Probably the nicest and most labor-intensive thing she ever made was when Casey was cast as Romeo in his school's production his senior year of high school. Unimpressed with the rather slapdash job the woman in charge of costuming was doing, she designed a beautiful blue doublet and made it herself. It's a beautiful thing, totally reversible with blue crushed velvet on one side and a shiny tapestry-like blue and metallic on the other. With my larping and Shakespeare, she gave it to me and I have found a lot of use for it. Brenda wore it when she played the Duke in Comedy of Errors for Hold Thy Peace, and more recently Plesser wore it to play Damon in my show To Think of Nothing. It was quite serendipitous that I had it, because I always knew that I wanted Damon in blue as well as somewhat Elizabethan. (Actually, now that I think about it, it was worn by the original Cassander the first time the play was put on at my high school, which I found inappropriate for a number of reasons, but I didn't have anything to do with that production besides the writing of it.) Here is Plesser wearing it as Damon:

Mom said she learned a lot while making it, and that whenever she came across something in the instructions she didn't understand, she would try the technique out in miniature on separate fabric so that she would make sure she did it properly before trying to apply it to the doublet. I think this is a great idea, and plan on adopting this method myself. It's still short of making full muslin, which is something I think I'll need to move into the more complicated the things I try to sew become, but it looks like a good idea for teaching myself new techniques.

Sewing project progress: full gathered skirt in red dupioni, part IV

Thanks to captainecchi*, I think I've figured out what I did wrong on the skirt. I put the skirt up INSIDE the two halves of the waistband (it's sewed on three sides only, making a little pocket) and attached it to the muslin interfacing in there. I think when I heard the bit about flipping it down, I thought that turning both sides of the "pocket" down would better encase the top of the skirt, so that seemed like the right thing to do. If I understand this properly, it seems the actual thing to do would have been to lay the whole waistband on top of the skirt piece, right side of the interfaced piece of the band to the right side of the skirt, and sewed them together with the seam inside the pocket. Then you just roll up the bottom edge and sew it down with an invisible stitch.

I think my method would have worked if I hadn't turned the waistband piece right side out. If I'd done exactly what I did, sewing the skirt to the muslin, with the piece wrong side out, then flipped it, then I think it would have worked fine. The top seam would have been hidden, and I kind of like the way the band encases the top, so if I ever make such a thing again, maybe I'll try that and see if it does indeed work as nicely as I think it would.

Well, I had to work with where I was, and it wasn't hard to fix the damage I'd done-- Just needed to add in an extra row of stitches. More work, I guess, but whatever. I went about hiding that exposed waistband top seam first by pinning it down to the back side. I didn't want the stitches to show through on the outer side of the waistband, so I thought maybe I should use a blind stitch becase they're relatively simple invisible stitches. They're made by slipping your needle through only one or two threads of the weave of the fabric you don't want to show through, and then through the piece you want to join to it. But I realized that all I hand to do was make sure I sewed it only to the muslin layer and not to the silk layer and nothing would show. I practiced the blind stitch anyway, as I think that's what I'll be using on the hem. I kept feeling like the single thread I was putting my needle your wasn't going to be strong enough to hold the seam in place, but apparently a row of that kind of stitch is strong enough. It was relatively easy on the muslin (though I couldn't check the back of it to see how invisible my stitches actually were) but I think it'll be tougher on the silk. That was easy, and the new kind of hand stitch was fun.

Then I went down to the bottom edge of the waistband. I had pinned it so that there was a tiny bit of the edge of the fabric rolled under itself, and I realized I only wanted to sew through that rolled-under part and attach it to the skirt body so that the stitch didn't go through the layer of the waistband that was visible. That was tough; I often pierced the top layer of the very thin silk, and while I managed to eventually sew everything down without much visible stitching, I left a lot of ugly needlemarks. They, and the marks from the pins, mostly came out with pressing, but I can still see them up close.

Here is the result of all that.

Looks pretty good, eh? The waistband looks relatively smooth and unmarked, and measured about 5cm all the way across. I really was careful to keep it even. So even with a mistake, I figured out more of less what I'd done wrong, figured out a simple way to fix it, and even think I determined how to make the method I did use work. Yay! I'm learning!

Next up: figuring out how to put in an invisible zipper without a sewing machine. Woohoo!

Sewing project progress: full gathered skirt in red dupioni, part III

Well, I screwed up. I just discovered my first noticeable mistake in my skirt making.

Where last we left off I was struggling to understand how the waistband met up with the body of the skirt, and I thought I had figured it out thanks to a comment from wired_lizard* about how it's supposed to be flipped over to hide the attachment seam. So I pinned it together in a way I thought was proper and backstitched it together. But when I flipped the waistband over that new seam, I got this.

This is supposed to be the right side of the skirt, the outer side that is visible, and you can see the seam holding the two sides of the waistband together. That's not right. I am certain the problem came from attaching the skirt to the incorrect side of the waistband, but I'm not sure where it was supposed to go. Again, my directions were "Next, you're going to pin the interfaced side of the waistband to the gathered skirt, right sides together. Find the middle of the waistband by folding it in half. Mark that point with a pin. Match the halfway point on the waistband to the side seam on your skirt. Next, pin the ends of the skirt piece to the end of the waistband. The finished ends of the waistband will match up to the raw edges of your skirt." Gertie then specifically notes to make sure to pin the skirt only to the interfaced side.

I'm not sure where I went wrong. My gut reaction is that that what I did would have worked out if I hadn't turned the waistband right side out, so that when I flipped it down now that seam would be hidden, but Gertie specifically has you do that. So what wasn't lined up properly? I kind of want to make a paper model and see what the physics of it actually are.

Ah, well. It's easy enough to fix. What I'll have to do is fold down that seam along the top and sew it onto the inside of the skirt with an invisible stitch, as well as fold up the loose bottom edge of the waistband up inside itself, and sew them both with an invisible stitch. Here is the inside of the skirt, with that top seam folded back and pinned down. Note that the interfacing is visible from the inside; is that correct, or should the silk side of that piece be exposed?

And here is the outside view, now with the bottom of the waistband rolled up and pinned as well. Both of these I will attempt to use the blind stitch to finish, as it is supposed to be invisible.

So can anybody tell me where I went wrong? I'll let you know if making the paper model illuminates anything...

Sewing project progress: full gathered skirt in red dupioni, part II

My life is only packing, with occasional calls to utilities companies, and will be continued to be consumed with the move until next Tuesday. However I allowed myself to take a short break yesterday and reward myself for my diligence and responsibility by working on my skirt a little more.

Where we last left off, I had sewn the waistbad on three sides and needed to press it, while I put the basting stitches into the body of the skirt that I would pull to make the gathers. Yesterday I pressed the waistband and looked onto the next step. Gertie provided this paragraph of instructions:

"Next, you're going to pin the interfaced side of the waistband to the gathered skirt, right sides together. Now, find the middle of the waistband by folding it in half. Mark that point with a pin. Match the halfway point on the waistband to the side seam on your skirt. Next, pin the ends of the skirt piece to the end of the waistband. The finished ends of the waistband will match up to the raw edges of your skirt."

You have no idea how perplexed I was by this. Perhaps it makes immediate sense to you experienced sewists, but I couldn't parse from this how the two pieces were supposed to be fit together. I didn't get how the edge of the skirt was supposed to meet with the finished ends of the waistband-- how was that supposed to look when the skirt was finished? Wouldn't you see the messy inner bits? But then I remembered a comment that wired_lizard* had posted on my last sewing report-- "This may be different in your pattern, but the way I discovered that the waistband worked on my thingamajig was that waistband and skirt went right sides together (plus gathers) and sewed with a normal seam allowance, and then you fold the waistband up. So the seam is hidden in the fold." That turned out to be exactly what was intended, and her saying that allowed me to parse that out of the instructions. So thanks, Tory, that helped me enormously! Sewing can really be an interesting logic problem, figuring out how the pieces will have to fit together in order to give you the result you want.

At least part of the problem was that I had pinned the unsewn seam of the skirt together to make it easier to divide the skirt in quarters to put in the gather basting. So when I laid the skirt flat, it was actually doubled over on itself. I had to unpin that open side and lay it out so that I could match the ends of the skirt piece to the ends of the waistband. Not only did that make the gathers look a lot better, as they were condensed to the proper degree, it also saved me from sewing both sides of the skirt together at the waistband and making it impossible to put on!

So, I followed the steps. I gathered the skirt using my four basting seams (which worked just fine, by the way) and then pinned the top of the skirt, right side to right side, to the finished edge of the interfaced side of the waistband. From this configuration I can see how the other side of the band is supposed to be flipped down to hide the seam joining the two pieces, just as Tory said. It's actually starting to look like a real skirt!

The next step will be to actually sew it, which is what I hope to move on to this afternoon. That is, if I get all the day's moving-related chores completed to my satisfaction. But I am proud of myself for being able to figure out the instructions when they were intially tough for me. I imagine as I get more familiar with sewing, I will be able to make certain logical leaps about construction that I am not experienced enough with to recognize now.

Moving to do list

- Engage moving truck - DONE

- Pack things in kitchen - DONE

- Pack things in living room - DONE

- Pack things in bedroom

- Pack things in basement - DONE

- Cancel current NSTAR account - DONE

- Cancel current oil account - DONE

- Arrange for final oil fill - DONE

- Call Formal Oil AGAIN re: final oil fill because it doesn't seem to have happened yet - DONE

- Call National Grid to make new gas account - DONE

- Fax ID and proof of residency to National Grid - DONE

- Confirm all things are in order with National Grid

- Cancel Verizon account - DONE

- Engage Comcast account - DONE

- Buy Groupon for massively discounted cleaning service so old landlord doesn't gouge it out of our security deposits - DONE

- Arrange for my cleaning service to come to the house

- Send out plan for lovely moving helpers - DONE

- Throw away massive amounts of trash and recycling

- Pick up keys from new landlord on Saturday

- E-mail old roommates about moving out finalizing - DONE

- Send old landlord information about cleaning service, key dropoff, and ask for security deposits to be returned within the legally proscribed thirty days

Gah, so much to do, so little time to do in it...

Moving plan!

I thought I'd post my moving plan here well in advance of things, in case anyone is interested in showing up to help, or provide moral support in the form of cooling beverages or delicious snacks.

The date of the move is Tuesday, May 31st. Because the only time I was able to secure a moving truck rental was 2PM, things will be beginning early. Let's say 3PM is the official start time, and I plan on working until it's finished, hopefully before the 9PM deadline when I need to return the truck. I know that some of you will be unavailable during the day, but any time you can come is very much appreciated. If you could let me know when you expect to show up, that could be useful for planning. Like, I can plan on moving the heavy furniture pieces when I'm looking to have the most people present.

We will be moving the furniture contents of a living room, a kitchen, two bedrooms, and a small mountain of boxes. My goal is to have everything ready to be picked up by you lovely folks and placed directly onto the truck or the appropriate car, so hopefully there will be minimal need for you to help with packing or anything like that. I may need some minor help with furniture disassembly, though, and I may assign people to some light cleaning tasks if no one minds.

I will be providing dinner in the form of some kind of takeout on the day of, and then everyone who shows up to help is then invited to a real, home-cooked "Thank You for Hauling My Stuff Around" dinner at my new place (Illyria, 51 Morton Street, Waltham) at 7PM on Saturday, June 4th.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. And please let me know when you think you might be coming so I can make a plan. (I do so love making plans.) If things have changed for you and you don't think you can make it, no worries, I appreciate the thought anyway.

Thanks so much, everyone. Your help is very much appreciated, and I will repay you with deliciousness the weekend after.

Sewing project progress: full gathered skirt in red dupioni

So as I mentioned, I have gone to work on my first serious sewing project, a full gathered skirt in a red silk dupioni. I made a fair bit of progress ths weekend and I wanted to document it here.

To begin my sewing journey, I made myself a little sewing kit, by which I mean I gathered up all the various sewing tools and supplies I have collected so far and repurposed a cheap, tacky purse I got at a thrift store to hold them.

I imagine it will grow as my needs expand, but this is sufficient for now. At least until I get Mom's sewing machine.

I made the waistband for the skirt by backstitching together two long pieces of the silk with approximately a 5/8" seam allowance. I measured it to go around my hips, because I prefer things to fit there rather than around my true waist. Gertie recommends you interface one side of it, which is an unseen inner layer that gives body to the piece that the outer fabric alone would not confer. I didn't have real interfacing and didn't feel like making a special trip for it, so I used some leftover white muslin I had lying around. Not going to add a lot of stiffness, but I'm okay with that. That was stitched to the wrong side (or the side you won't see) of one of the waistband pieces, then the right sides (or the sides you will see) of both waistband pieces were pressed together and sewn up on three sides. Then I turned it inside out so that the right sides faced outward. This is what it currently looks like; you can see the white muslin interfacing peeking out of the one long side that isn't sewn yet.

It still needs to be pressed, but I haven't gotten to that yet.

Next I went back to the skirt itself. I already sewed up one side, but Gertie said to go on to making the gathers along the top. Now, she assumes you already know how to make gathers, which I didn't, so I had to look it up. I discovered the suggestion to make two long rows of basting (a loose in-and-out stitch often meant to temporarily hold things together until you can put in a more secure stitch, which will enable it to be removed) around the top of the skirt. I also learned to divide the skirt into quadrants with pins so that they can be matched with corresponding pins in a similarly divided waistband, to ensure even placement of the gathers when you sew them all together. Because I don't have a machine yet, I am handsewing, and the longer a thread gets, the more likely it is to tangle and become useless, so I decided to divide the skirt up now and do a separate pair of basting stitches in each quadarant in order to keep the thread length down. Here is how my hand-basting turned out:

It's tough to see the very closely matching thread against the fabric, but they mostly turned out straight. Now here is what the skirt looked like when I started to pull the rows of strings to put the gathers in.

The gathers aren't pretty or even yet, but this was mostly to test and see if my four separate gather rows might work. I know that's not an orthodox method, but it looks like it will.
So that's what I've done so far. The next steps will be pressing the waistband, and then sewing the skirt up into it. Not quite sure how that will work, I think it will involve attaching it to just the interfacing so it doesn't show on the fashion fabric, but I'm not certain. I will have to refer back to my instructions. But I'll take more pictures once I progress.

Humility lesson

Well, neither Jared nor I got into Comedy of Errors. I'm kind of annoyed, but we're more bemused than bothered, because we seriously doubt that a small community theater got many better Shakespearean actors than the two of us. It's probably because we had a lot of conflicts written down on our forms. If that's the case, I have to roll my eyes, because we probably had fewer than HTP has to work with on average, and it never interferes with learning the show. Ah, well. I guess that's what you get when you get too sure of yourself. It's been a while since either of us didn't get into a show we tried out for, so we'll just have to take this as a humility lesson and move on. The major issue here is that was supposed to be a large part of our plan for the next several months, and that leaves a pretty big gap. I did really want to be acting again. I guess some rethinking is in order.

Diving into sewing

So I have decided to dive right in and try to sew something. I am attempting to make a "full, gathered skirt" as directed here by my new hero Gertie of Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing. I am doing several silly things on this project. The first is that though I should probably wait for my mom to send me her sewing machine, which would make this worlds quicker and easier, I am too excited and feel like diving right in, so I will be doing it by hand. I like hand-stitching, so it might be fun. Secondly, it's probably too nice a fabric to waste on what will likely be a distrous early attempt, but it was so pretty, and on massive sale, so oh, well.

Here is the piece I cut for the body of the skirt, just a large rectangle that will be gathered into a waistband at the top and wide at the bottom. I'm hoping that the way the fabric holds its shape will make for a nice full silhouette.

I am mentally preparing myself for my first attempt to be a mess. Sewing, after all, is actually quite hard to get good at. I remember when I was in the Natick Mall with my parents this past weekend we looked at the display of outfits made by local fashion design students. Some of the designs were interesting, but I was struck by how amateurish the construction of the garments was. I commented to my mother, "My friends captainecchi* and electric_d_monk*'s work is way better." Shouldn't design students, I thought, be good at sewing? But it occurred to me then that they probably have only beeing sewing as long as they've been designing. They're probably only paying their dues hoping that they'll be able to get into a position where they don't have to do their own sewing. It just shows that sewing is hard to get good at, so it won't happen unless you're really working at it.

As a side note, "sew" is one of those words that I never pronounce properly in my head; the misleading spelling just really dug into me for some reason. Somehow I always manage to say it correctly, but when I read it in my head it always sounds like "soo."

Studying iambic pentameter

I realize I forgot to mention this, and I wanted to make a point of doing so because I'm kind of pleased and proud of it. So my grad school program basically requires three classes a semester-- the class where you write stuff, the class where you write papers analyze stuff other people wrote, and a third, mostly independent class of your choice that is somehow interdiciplinary. So you know I want to make my focus the writing of plays after the Shakespearean style. After all the time I've spent studying how they work through classes and through their performance and production, I feel like I am mostly ready to make an educated attempt at this challenge. Th one crucial element I don't know if I have a strong enough grasp upon to proceed is the nature of that particular kind of poetry. Poetry has always been my weakest writing skill, and I've only studied it minimally. So I came up with th idea that my indepedent study could be into blank verse iambic pentameter, to support the final project I would be generating. My advisor loved the idea and matched me up with a teacher who only takes on one student a year. I am very pleased with the idea, as it will all tie together and make my final work better. I hope it's as helpful as I think it will be.