The corduroy jumper was finished this morning without much fuss, which was a big surprise to it's creator, who thought she would have to wad it up and hide it in the closet before it ever actually became a garment! Perseverance won out though, and it actually turned out nice despite the bust point being closer to my belly button, the pattern pieces that were cut out wrong, the recutting of said pieces that had to be altered to fit the remaining fabric and the sewing together of things wrong!!! I think it may become a favorite outfit. My dear husband made such comments as "Bathrobe?"..."Grandma Dress?"..."Are you from the Little House on the Prairie?" and my personal favorite "Corduroy is a comfort fabric, isn't it?" Yes, it is. I hope to wear it tomorrow to work and will try to get a picture so you all can form your own opinions. To answer a question from my last post (Hi Kat!)...I did learn a lot of tips working in a sewing factory. The main thing to remember in production sewing is that everything is done as an operation. So if you were working on a T shirt for example, your operation might just be the shoulder seams. Your work would come in a bundle of 12 items and you would just serge up those seams and bundle them back up to be taken to the person who was putting the binding on the neck, or the person who was doing the coverstitch hem, depending on who's bin was getting low. I did primarily elastic application on the serger, so I was the one putting the rubber elastic on the legs of swimsuits before they were hemmed. There is a real art to how much ease to put in the front elastic and putting the right amount of tension to gather the behind. When I look at pattern instructions today, I look at what operations I can group together to make the construction go faster. (that may account for some of my faux pas, as well...LOL) I use my serger for most things unless I absolutely must press the seams open (the one exception is lined garments...I usually use my regular machine for those). I loved working for Jantzen...one of the coolest things was when they would clear out the scraps. We were allowed to go in the back and take remnants from the cutting room and there would be some pretty big pieces, especially if you are making swimwear. They then decided that we should be paying for it so they charged us a quarter for a garbage bag of fabric...oh, hurt me! My daughter had a lot of swimsuits for a number of years growing up! We also could take home roll ends of elastic because when it got too close to the end the elastic sometimes was wonky and was not good at keeping your measurement specs. I think I have one roll end left that is almost gone...pretty good considering I quit that job in 1982!!! Wow...how time flies!
For the past couple of years, I have made dresses for Project Dress a Girl Around the World, in part thanks to the campaign launched by Mari...
I have been making baby stuff for the last couple months. My daughter is almost through her first trimester so I have been given the officia...
You asked for it...so voila! Here it is! I apologize for the slight delay...I was slightly distracted yesterday by my thrift store find, whi...
1 comment:
Husbands! They are not always the most verbally complimentary creatures on Earth LOL.
That is so interesting about the assembly-line production. With what you say about the "art" of knowing how much to gather, that's probably the one thing that holds me up from doing a serged elastic waistband application instead of using a casing. I don't make too many things for myself with an elastic waistband, but DD#2 loves her elastic waistbands! Her problem is adjusting for tightness. It's always an adventure asking her, "Is it tight enough?" She walks around, thinks about it, and says at LEAST twice, "It could be tighter, Mom." Therefore, I NEVER use a serged elastic application on her pants. And then there's the issue that a little more elastic gathering in the back than in the front is simply more flattering for both DD#2 and me. But, it is what it is. And remnants for a quarter? Ya just can't beath that :) ! Even back in '82.
Post a Comment