Mood:
luckyNow Playing: "Sky High" - DVD rental Dearest Son wanted to see.
While I'm still an emotional mess and I'm working through stuff, I keep on sewing. Today's Home Page photo was a new exercise in things I normally avoid - thin, chiffon/tulle like fabrics and pleats. I confess, I was looking for easier things when I saw this view - it's C on McCalls 4400 - and realized I had a basketload of fabric that I like, but avoid, because it's often difficult to work with. Sometimes the beautiful stuff is the biggest pain...
Since the pink I used for the blouse is a remnant from the junk shop grab-bag, I have no idea what it is. It's sort of like lining material. Slippery, shiny, a little stiff, and skritchy-textured. Some of the other 'avoid' fabrics are like scarves. Softer, but also slippery and shiny. I love the way these materials look, but they're harder to sew, so I tend to reach for good ole cottons and knits instead.
But I used to avoid knits, too. Few rounds of sock sweaters for Elphie cured me of that, so I decided to do the same here. 'Joy' got simple white cotton pants - a bit short, even though I measured everything carefully, I hate that ! - so I'd have time for the more complicated cowl-neck blouse. It has a set of three pleats at the neckline on each side, and I can tell you, trying to pin those tiny things down was a challenge !
I don't often use Fray-Check, even though I have an open bottle and four more new ones. What can I say, it was a great sale. But doing the Kelly-size Michio shirt was frustrating because the cotton frayed from so much handling. F-C would have helped, if I'd have used it. I don't because I don't like the smell, hate to wait for it to dry, and it stains some fabrics. I doubt anybody likes cutting out a pattern twice because of staining, and I forget to test on scraps.
But like ironing, F-C is an important step that's easy to skip, but it eventually shows, either in the finished item or in the frustration level during sewing. I'd much rather cheap-serge (zigzag) the raw edges. Doing that on this thin, scritchy material would have thrown the whole pattern off, so F-C it was. I guess I'm getting used to it - I was able to keep it going and it didn't smell as bad. While they dried, I got other things done, so that time wasn't a loss.
And the finished item came out nice. It was simple to sew once I traded the all-purpose sewing machine foot for the straight-stitch only one, and I did OK on the pleats, but I think one slipped. Hard to see on the photo.
I'm glad I gave me a challenge. Only way to learn, after all. I may just try Barbie-size princess seams again...someday.
