Designed my own jeans

I've been thinking about making these jean capris since I started sewing for myself a few years ago, but I didn't know enough about pattern alterations, drafting and fitting to make them possible.  After several years of practice I finally felt ready to give them a go. 

I knew I liked the way my RTW jeans fit, but I was having a hard time finding a similar jean pattern, so I did the next best thing.  I took apart a pair of my RTW and created a pattern from there.

My jeans were a little to tight, so I had to add a little room in the waist and hips and just a smidge to the crotch points, other than that I didn't have to do to much fitting.

I cut the pattern about 4" below the knee and drew the cuffs.  They are folded under and both raw edges of the cuff sewn to the bottom of the denim.  I did the same with the back pockets, where I cut off 2" and added the accent fabric.  I also used the accent fabric in the front pocket bags and inside waistband.

My ultimate goal was to create a pair of pants that looked like RTW, not something made in my basement.  So I used real top stitching thread and my new sewing machine came with an edge stitch foot which helped keep the top stitching nice and even.  This was the first time I've added belt loops and rivets.  With a hammer and nail adding the rivets wasn't that hard.

The only thing I would change next time would be to use a smaller zipper.  I've always used 7" nylon zippers and have always shortened them, but this time wanting to be authentic I went with a metal zipper which can't be shortened without a pliers.

Can't wait for the weather to warm up so I can wear them.

Yes, a hammer is a sewing tool

Looking through my sewing cabinet, I have some non-traditional tools that I use in my sewing.

Sharpie Markers:  I use them in drafting patterns and marking my muslins.  When I'm drafting a pattern I usually use a pencil or a colored pencil to mark my stitching lines.  I use the sharpies to mark the grain line, pocket placement, and cutting lines.  If I need to make changes to the pattern after it's been drafted, I make sure to use a different color to mark my new cutting lines.

Tagboard:  When I get a pattern to the TNT (tried 'n true) point and I know I want to use it design other items I transfer my paper pattern to tagboard.  I do this by taping the paper pattern to the tagboard and cut the pattern pieces (with my paper scissors), so when I want to do a redesign I can just trace around the tagboard pattern and there's no need to reinvent the wheel.

Scalpel:  Works great for cutting open button holes, especially in waistbands.

Hammer & Nail:  I make a lot of pants and I like to use tack buttons on them.  They're stronger than regular sewn on buttons, but sometimes trying to poke the tack through 2-4 layers of fabric in the waistband can be kind of tough.  I use the nail to make a small hole where I want the button to go, and then the hammer to pound the tack and button together.  The hammer also comes in handy when adding grommets.

What kind of non-traditional tools do you have in your sewing arsenal?

Why I chose to fit good enough instead of perfectly

I finished my jeans.  And yes they don't fit perfectly; there's still some fit issues that I could work on, but you know what?  They're good enough.  I have the same fit issues in RTW and never noticed, so why should I let it bug me in what I make?  I've spent a lot of time looking at other people's backsides and noticed a lot of fit issues and nobody seems to notice.  Have you ever heard anybody (besides a seamstress/tailor) say "Look how those trousers don't fall from the hip correctly."  Or "You know...You have have smiles under the bum."  I never have.  Unless it's something really poorly fitted, who's going to care?

It's taken me 3 years to get here and I finally feel like I accomplished something.  I want to make myself some capris for summer and if I obsess over a few wrinkles; it's never going to happen.  I'm not saying I won't ever try to correct these issues, but right now I have a pattern that's wearable and I'm happy.

 

Side note:  I know I need to add a little extra room in waist and hips, and work on a contoured waistband and then they should be good

Fit vs How you feel wearing your clothes

Maybe I'm totally off base here, but how can you say something fits if you don't feel good wearing it?   This is something I've come to terms with over the last couple years while trying to make a decent pair of pants for myself.  I've talked a lot about this process over the years as I shared my trials & errors, disappointments & semi-accomplishments, but it always came back to one thing, even if I was happy with the finished product at the time, I never wore it in public.  They "fit" (according to all fit rules) but they didn't make me feel good.  In fact they made me feel like I was wearing a tent.  I'm a big gal, so I don't go for skin tight, but I also don't want clothes that I feel like I'm drowning in.

Many of the pants I made, in order to get them as wrinkle free as possible, I had to lengthen the crotch which made the crotch sit about 3 inches lower than where I wanted it.  I had to add width to the hips and thighs making the legs very wide; which also added inches to the waist.  To fit them to my waist I had to put in multiple darts, which looked like pleats, which emphasized my stomach making me look much bigger than I already was.

I kept going back to my RTW jeans, and wondering why what I was making was so far from my RTW jeans.  And then I realized it was because I wasn't makeing jeans; I was making slacks and there's a big difference.  I don't wear slacks and even though they "fit" I wasn't comfortable in them.

So this year I decided to change direction and instead of trying to turn a slacks pattern in to a jeans pattern, I took apart a pair of RTW jeans and created a pattern from them.   There's still a little bit of work to do, but this is as close as I've gotten to what I was hoping to accomplish in the first place and I feel good in them.  If I feel good in them, I'm going to wear them; even if they may not "fit" perfectly.

 Excuse the mess in the pics.  It's my daughter's room.

Going on a prom dress hunt...I'm not scared....Well, maybe just a little

My daughter has announced she's going to prom.  She doesn't have a date, but that's not going to stop her.

Why am I scared?  I like to think of myself as thrifty.  I hate to spend a lot of money on something that will only be used once.  Case in point, my wedding dress was under $300 and I thought that was a lot of money.  I liked how we did it last year.  She didn't have any particular style in mind, so we went to a used dress sale, and she was able to find a brand new dress (still had the tags regularly marked at $500) for $30.  Then while we were at Goodwill, we found another dress, that I liked more, for $30.  So for $60 she was able to get a dress for morp (kind of like prom but for the freshman & sophomores) and a dress for prom.

Morp 2014

Prom 2014

This year she's decided to more picky about her dress.  It has to have shoulder straps (nothing halter top or spaghetti straps.  Nothing to low cut in front or back and must be about knee length.  These are all her requirements for the prefect dress, so I really can't complain about modesty.  And it must be alternative, whatever that means.  She showed me one she found online some where, but I've never heard of the site before and was a little leery about buying one online because of some of the horror stories I've heard.  I'm trying to talk her into a cute vintage inspired cocktail dress from J.C Penney's.  If I'm going to spend the money it should be something she could wear again.  We'll see how it goes.

Makin' moonshine in Minnesota and grabbing ass in Iowa

The hubby and I have a new hobby, and not it's not what you're thinking.  It's visiting small independent distilleries and wineries in the region and sampling their products.  It actually started several years ago on a romantic weekend in Wisconsin Dells; where we visited our first winery Wollersheim.  Then a few years later we visited the Amanas in Iowa where we came home with I think 6 or 7 bottles.  But it's just within the last couple years that we've really picked up the pace.  We have hit just about every winery in central Minnesota and many along the Wisconsin border.  In just about every one we've visited, we've brought home at least 1 bottle, usually more.

Panther Distillery 

Friday this week, we took a drive out to Osakis, MN (about a 2 1/2 hour drive) to visit Panther Distillery; the first legal distillery in Minnesota in 154 years.  There we learned the whiskey and bourbon making process, toured the facility and got to sample.

While chatting with our tour guide, she told us about the role Sterns County played in the production and bootlegging of moonshine during prohibition, and how the Catholic church was even teaching people how.  I knew that the Minneapolis/St. Paul area was a haven for gangsters during this time; Al Capone had a hide out in Hayward, WI; but I had no idea ordinary citizens were involved and found it fascinating.

Minnesota law still prohibits distilleries from selling their products to the general public, so we weren't able to buy any spirits there, but I couldn't leave without picking up a copy of Minnesota 13 Stearns County's Wed Wild Prohibition Days.

Then Saturday, we headed south, to Iowa.  Hubby had found Bel-Aire Estates online and with wine names like Happy Ass, Wild Ass and Grab Ass, he just had to go try it out; and it was well worth the trip.  The wines were great, we came home with a bottle of each.  They had an apple wine,  a grape & apple, a peach,  a rhubarb (and I'm not a rhubarb fan but this was good), and a wild grape wine.  All locally gown, except the peaches.


But what do asses have to do with wine; you ask?  They have two donkeys that are kept as pets.  It was 2 degrees with a windchill somewhere below 0 when we visited, so we didn't go see the donkeys, but if you visit the winery in warmer weather you can visit with the donkeys and go for a stroll in the apple orchard.

We also picked up an Iowa Wineries guide, so next year I think we'll be making more trips to Iowa.

If you want to see a list of all the wineries we've visited so far you can find it on my Pinterest board Booze Travels.

The true costs of handmade

 

 http://www.gosocial.co/wedding-dress-on-a-bus/

I've seen articles about this before and thought the dress was beautiful and she looked gorgeous on her wedding day as any bride should, and that's as far as my thought process went.  But then today in my Facebook feed I saw this article again and they were making a big deal about how it only cost her $30.   For her this was a labor of love and she was doing it for herself, if you were to hire her to make this dress for you the cost would be much more.

Some people don't really understand the real costs of handmade.  They think that because the supplies and materials cost X amount the finished product should be X amount.  There's much more that goes in handmade than the materials. Lets look at the true cost of this dress.

The article says she worked on this dress during her 1 hour commute.  I'm assuming that's 1 hour each way so that gives her 2 hours a day to work on it 5 days a week.  That's 10 hours a week.  You'd expect to pay her for her time.  Minimum wage  being around $10/hour we'll use that figure.

If she worked 10 hours a week for $10/hour that's $100 a week.  It took her 5 months.  10 hours a week for 5 months is 200 hours.  There would be fittings, which would take at least 1-2 hours each.  With a minimum of 3 fittings, we'll average it out to 1.5 hours for each fitting, so that's another 4.5 hours of work.   200 hours crocheting + 4.5 hours fitting.  We're now up to 204.5 hours at $10/hour; that's $2045 + $30 materials.  Total cost $2075.

That's still not a bad price for a wedding dress, much less a custom handmade wedding dress,  but that's quite a bit more than the $30 they said she spent; and that's a conservative price because I'm not taking in to account how much time she spent planning and designing, and I'm sure she put in more than the 200 hours she spent riding the bus.

When you look at handmade items whether it's at a craft show or a boutique and think to yourself "That's so overpriced, I can get it at Target or Walmart for less than half"; think about the time that was spent working on it, the craftsmanship of the work, the skill level of the artist, and the fact that you're buying something unique, not mass produced, directly from the person who made it.