Slit Packets – Trial #1

To start, let me tell you what a slit placket is to me because I know not that that is what the sewing community really calls it. When I sew the husband a placket shirt, I make two facings and cut out the center of the shirt and sew the facings in. I call this a cut placket. When I make a placket shirt for a child, the pattern I have calls for one facing and to sew a slit, cut, and then fold the facing to form the placket. Thus, I call this type of placket a slit placket. Now, of the two, I like sewing a cut placket so much more because that is what I have been making for years but the time has come to learn a new skill and master the slit placket.

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As I mentioned in my previous blog post, the construction of the child’s shirt to try out the sew in interfacing was a disaster because of the slit placket. I went into the construction a little cocky because of the the success I had on the slit for the button in the back of the gray Mickey Mouse dress I had previously made. What I quickly learned was that the slit was easy to make but matching the fold is the hard part especially if the slit is not just right. I struggled my way through the slit placket construction. It was not perfect, barely acceptable. I know where I went wrong but I was done playing with it and pushed it to the side. I did not know if I would finish the shirt or just call it a practice run of the sew in interfacing and the placket.

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When I panicked about preshrinking the interfacing, I grabbed the half constructed shirt and threw it in the washer too. I had not preshrunk the interfacing before I sewed it in. Washing it would tell me about shrink in an already made garment.

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This comforted me that maybe the fabric and interfacing was not a total waste. I would learn from it and boy, did I.  The interfacing did just fine in the washer but the placket fell to pieces. It totally came unstitched. Now, the placket was totally unacceptable and I learned that I had done something really wrong, and I definitely had some more learning to do.

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While the interfacing was washing, I did not want to waste precious sewing time, so I decided to cut out the husband’s new shirt while waiting for the wash to complete. After having a blonde moment and cutting the front of the husband’s shirt not on the fold, I decided to cut out another child’s shirt with a slit placket from the fabric of my cutting error. Luckily, I had extra fabric and was able to cut out a new front for the husband’s shirt on the fold. When the first shirt came out of the washer and the placket was a mess, I decided to sew the new child’s shirt I has just cut out first. I will let you know how that turned out in the next blog post.

Just Sewing It In

It sounds pretty simple of course, but it is not really. Let me explain. I spend a lot of my sewing time having epic battles with interfacing. A commenter to one of my posts of interfacing frustration said to stop using cheap interfacing or to use sew in interfacing rather than the iron on interfacing that I have been such a fan of for years now. Since the only stores I have to buy interfacing from are Joann’s or Walmart, I can only buy what they carry, and they seem to only have the cheap interfacing. I could order more expensive interfacing on line but I don’t know what I will get without seeing and feeling it first. With that, I decided to try some sew in interfacing on the next shirt that I made the husband.

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When it came time to cut out a new shirt for the husband, I grew leery of trying the sew in interfacing on his shirt so I decided to make a child’s shirt first and try it on that instead. I figured it was less fabric and interfacing wasted if it didn’t work out. I did not think that you needed to preshrink interfacing so I cut out the shirt and the interfacing and started to sew. I did preshrink the fabric before I cut as I always do. Later, I read online many horror stories of people not preshrinking their interfacing first and I panicked. I then proceeded to wash all of my sew in interfacing, cut, sewn or not. It did shrink a little in the washing and drying process, but probably not enough to make a difference on this small shirt. I do feel better now though about using the interfacing and not having to worry about it shrinking after the garment is finished.

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As I basted the sew in interfacing to the fabric, I quickly learned that it was not as easy as I thought it would be. First, I tried using long stitches to baste the interfacing to the fabric but quickly learned that I liked smaller stitches better. When I remembered that pins are my friends, I found that rather than basting, I could just pin the sew in interfacing and the fabric together and I got a good result as I sewed, especially if the pieces were small. Next, I learned that you really have to watch the stretch of the fabric. You don’t want to let the fabric stretch as you sew it to the interfacing. They need to match and match flat. Keeping it flat was not as easy as it sounds either. For me, the fabric sewn to the interfacing wanted to bubble in the middle as I sewed the shirt together, which is what the basting or the pinning was not suppose to let happen. Argh!

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So, in conclusion, what I learned is that using sew in interfacing is a skill like any other with sewing. There is more to it than just sewing it in. Also, I learned that I need lots more practice with the sewing in of sew in interfacing before I can say I have mastered the skill.  So, I will keep sewing with it and learn this new skill of using sew in interfacing.

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P.S. The construction of the child’s shirt has been complicated, not so much because of the sew in interfacing but because of my inexperience and lack of skill in constructing a slit placket. I’ll talk more about that problem in a later blog post though.

Meng Long – The Fierce Dragon Panda Bear

After perusing my usual crocheting web sites, I noticed that many people were crocheting amigurumi panda bears in various shapes, styles, and sizes. All the panda’s looked so cute that I decided I wanted to make one too. So, this is Meng Long. His name means fierce dragon but I don’t really find anything fierce about him. I think he turned out super cute, and is just adorable.

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Meng Long’s pattern came from the book Amigurumi Two by Ana Paula Rimoli. I used the “toys in pajamas” pattern. I have made this pattern a couple of times and just love it. It crochets up quickly and easily and the end results are  always cute. I really like the shaping on the hands and feet of this pattern.

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The time limiting factor in Meng Long’s construction was the details on his face. Did I want to use felt or crochet rounds for the black of his eyes? Did I want to add white felt to the eyes as well? Did I want to crochet him a muzzle or just use felt for his nose and mouth? If I crocheted a muzzle, did I want to use a plastic nose or embroider a nose to the muzzle? I finally decided to stop asking questions and just try a few things out. So, with that, I got started.

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I liked the felt on the eyes better than the crocheted rounds right off. And I decided on blue eyes early in the process even though I know that pandas do not really have blue eyes naturally. The white felt on the eyes was a must. It took a long time, with lots of trimming, and several tries to get the felt shapes I wanted for the eyes, but the end result was worth the time and effort. I crocheted a muzzle but it took only a couple of minutes to decide that I did not like it with the muzzle. I decided I wanted him to be cartoonish cute, and not look very realistic in the end. I embroidered  his nose square, but the husband said to add the point at the top of the square. After adding the point, I agreed with the husband. It looked better that way. The crooked smile I made him with was my idea though.

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After the face was designed,  Meng Long just needed to be stitched together. The stitching together of the parts went smoothly. I did not rush the process. I took my time to do it right, which kind of made it fun to see him come together. I decided to stitch his arms and legs closed and then stitch them to his body. This way he can sit down, but it is harder for him to stand. This is ok because I designed him as a toy to be  played with, and not a decoration to be displayed.

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Meng Long is having a great time in the sewing room playing with Sarah and the other amigurumi’s hanging out in there, but he needs a home of his own where he will be loved and played with.

I put a Curse on You, You evil Fabric Sale you!

Joann’s last sale featured some basic sewing supplies I was running low on, so I decided to take a journey to the sale. Before we left, the husband handed me an emailed coupon for 20% off my purchase including all regular and sales prices. Excited at the thought of saving even more on the supplies I needed, we headed for the store.

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When we got to the store, my list of needed supplies was quickly put in my pocket as the first rack of fabric was all leftover holiday prints 60% off. 60% off was a great price but then add my 20% off on top of that and I was in sale heaven! I quickly filled the cart with bolts and bolts of wonderful fabric which included holiday Snoopy and Mickey Mouse in both cottons and fleeces. After the cart was too heavy to push, I made my way to the cutting tables to have it cut.

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On the way to the cutting tables, I passed the licensed prints, at 40% off for the sale. You can do the math, 40% sale plus 20% coupon. How much more can I fit in the cart? How much more can I fit in the trunk of the car? How much more can I fit in the stash? Without answering these important questions, several more bolts of precious fabric made its way to the cutting table with me.

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After spending a fair amount of time at the cutting table, the husband, who is a real trooper, reminded me of the list of supplies that we really came for. It did not take long to pick those up and then we were off to the registers.

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After ringing up my piles of fabric and needed supplies, the young man behind the register handed me a coupon for 30% my total purchases for next week. The husband about burst into tears and I started to plan my trip to Joann’s next week to shop the sales again.

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And yes I do have to keep reminding the husband that if the apocalypse happens in the near future that I will always be able to trade fabric for food. If it wasn’t for that, I’m unsure he would let me continue to purchase more and more fabric for the stash.

Putting the Magic Circle To The Test

After determining that I liked the looks of my sample magic circle better than my chain two sample, I decided to use the magic circle in my next amigurumi project. What I figured out was that I had more to learn about the magic circle.

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I started my latest amigurumi project with a magic circle. Row 1 turned out great, but as I crocheted row two, the circle grew and grew. It ended up making a bigger hole than I have ever got with the chain two method. Confused and a little disappointed, I undid my crocheting and started again but got the same results, so I tried it again. Now, totally confused and flustered, I said to myself, “Strike three, you’re out.” and went back to the chain two method. But, after finishing a couple of the parts for this amigurumi, the magic circle started to haunt me again. And I just could not get over the fact that I could not get it to work, so I tried it yet again. And the same thing happened. After crocheting the second row, the hole was huge!  This is when the simplest thought ever hit me.  To fix the problem, I needed to pull on the tail again and tighten the circle again like I did on row one. And, guess what, it pulled that big hole in tight. Wow, how simple!  Sometimes I amaze and scare myself.

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With this new knowledge on how to use the magic circle, I started the next piece with a magic circle and it worked great. Now that I have done the magic circle with success, the only advantage I can see to the chain 2 method is that you have a little knot to push in the hole to hide it. The magic circle is smooth with no knots, but you still have the tail to cover the small hole.

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I don’t think I will discard the chain 2 method completely. I think I will let the project, the yard and the pattern determine which method I start with, but for now I think I will continue to work with the magic circle.