Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

I do!  I do!  Well, Joy and I do!  Lots and lots of buttons

Now these aren't just any old buttons that you can buy at Hancocks or JoAnns.  These are BUTTONS.  Beautiful, special buttons made of glass, wood, shell, enamel, and even some plastic (shudder), but all very special.

As I told you three weeks ago, (I can't believe it has been three weeks since I last wrote in my blog.  I obviously live a very boring life!) our favorite fabric store, The Cloth Merchant, is closing the middle of October.  They have a wall of buttons.  Gorgeous buttons.  I would call Debbie and say, "Hi, Debbie!  I need buttons for the fabric that I bought last time.  You remember it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  She would send me an email with pictures of several buttons and I would call and say send me the blah blah ones.  A couple of days later they would arrive in the mail and I would be delighted.  I wish I had done that more often. 

Joy and I talked about their buttons  earlier this week and how much we were going to miss getting buttons from them.  Anyway,  I got the bright idea of  driving to Tulsa this morning, timing it to arrive when TCM opens at 10:00 a.m..  We were going to shop for buttons, have lunch and then head back home.  I figured we would be home between 2:00 and 2:30.  Now I should have known better than that!  But it sounded good to my husband.  Oh, yes, we were scheduled to have the grandkids this afternoon starting at noon.  I figured DH could handle the kids for a couple of hours without me.

I got up this morning to pouring down rain.  Not the greatest of weather for a Road Trip, but not bad enough to stop us.  I got all dressed, did my hair, put on makeup; the "I'm going somewhere" thing, not the "Its Saturday and I can just whip a brush through my hair, brush my teeth and skip the makeup" thing. 

I hopped into the car and backed out only to discover that the moon roof was not quite completely closed and water had gathered in the corner over my head.  Of course, when I backed out the water ran out of that corner right on top of my hair and down my face!  Forget the hair and makeup!  Oh, well, we are going on a ROAD TRIP.  Woo Hoo!  I did make sure the moon roof was now closed tight and took a paper towel and dried up any extra water that might still have been up there.  Didn't want Joy's hair to get ruined.

I pulled up to the gas pump because I wanted to top off my gas tank.  I didn't want to start out on a 250 mile round trip with just a half a tank of gas.  Just as I was getting my debit card out to go buy the gas, Joy called.  She wanted me to know it was okay if I wanted to cancel because of the weather.  Weather?  Why would a little rain stop us from making our ROAD TRIP?  I'd cancel if we were traveling after dark and it was raining!  I'd cancel if it was snowing or even threatening to snow, or in this part of the country, I'd cancel if the weatherman was calling for ice or sleet.  I don't do those things, but for a little rain, heck no, I'm not canceling a ROAD TRIP!  Got out of the car and went to pump the gas only to discover that there was a leak right over the area where I had to stand to pump the gas.  Drip, drip, drip right on the top of my head.  Thankfully, I had my raincoat on and the hood up.  Didn't take long for the pump to click off.  I closed the gas tank and hopped back into the car only to discover that I had only pumped a couple of gallons and I had just a little over a half tank.  Sigh!  I decided I could get gas in Edmond.  I headed off to Joy's house.  Yes, I did stop before I got there and finished topping off my tank.  No drips on my head as I pumped the gas, but this time the drip was right over my car door.

I walked in the back door at Joy's and greeted Jerry.  He told me Joy would be out in just a minute.  Then he looked at me and said, "I can't believe you two are going to drive two hours one way in this weather just for buttons!"  Really!  I was standing there in my raincoat with my once lovely hair now wet and flat and my face washed clean of all my makeup and he is asking me why we would go 125 miles one way in the rain for buttons!  Didn't he understand?  The buttons were just the excuse!  This was an all girl ROAD TRIP!  Lots of time to talk and laugh and hoot out loud.  Stop and eat where we wanted.  No kids or husbands to take care of.  Good shopping time with someone that understands that you have to pull out five sets of buttons just to find the perfect set.  We were going on a ROAD TRIP!!!!

I tried to explain it to him, but I don't think he got it.  Thankfully, Jerry knows, as does my dear Roger, that nothing should stand in the way of an all girl ROAD TRIP!

So, off we went.  I had to drive slower than usual because of the weather.  I mean, just because it is a ROAD TRIP, does not mean that I wasn't going to be careful.  Joy said if it started to lightening we had to pull over, which I thought was a rather strange thing to do.  I mean, I've never heard of a car being hit by lightening.  I guess it could happen, but unless the road was higher than the trees all around us I figured we were pretty safe.  Anyway, it took almost two hours to make a trip that normally takes 75-90 minutes, but the time flew by because we were talking, laughing and hooting!

TCM was busy when we arrived.  Of course, there was a woman and her daughter standing right in front of the buttons where we wanted to be.  They finally moved and Joy and her sister, Janice, and I hogged the button wall after that.  Janice met us at TCM and helped Joy pick buttons while I picked out some.  I wanted some of all of them and I thought I must have bought a gillion until I laid them out and took a picture.  I had budgeted $50.00 in my head for the buttons.  Oh, that was funny!  I must have spent that in the first five minutes.   I am a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University failure!  Sob! Sob!  But I do have buttons,  $158.00 of beautiful buttons and I will jump back onto the budget starting tomorrow.  I also bought a couple of end pieces of fabric and a package of Louise Cutting's elastic, so, as Joy reported in her blog, I did spend $200.00. I plan to use each and everyone of those buttons and when the garment is worn out or gets tiresome, I'm cutting them off and re-using them.  My $158.00 of buttons may last me the rest of my life!

We had lunch at a place that Janice knew of not too far from TCM.  Good food and lots of talk, laughter and hoots!  Then back to TCM we went to finish our shopping and pay for everything we bought.  About 1:00 p.m. I had a text message from Roger, "Are you on your way home yet?"  My response was, "Uh......no!"  What?  Did he think we were going to cut our ROAD TRIP short just because the grandkids had arrived?  No!

I don't even know what time we left TCM, but the rain had stopped and the sun was out and we did even more talking going home.  What a lovely, fun day we had.  If we had let a little rain stop us we would have completely missed out on a wonderful day and lots of gorgeous buttons!  Oh, and I was home by 4:00 and fixed dinner and did the dishes afterwards.  Roger even admitted that the kids weren't a problem.

So here are my beautiful buttons.  The top two rows were 50% off and the rest were 30% off.  The big ones on the right side will be used for purses or when I need just one special button for the finishing touch.

Happy Sewing!

Hugs, Phylly

A Weekend of Fun and Sadness

Roger and I just arrived home from a weekend spent with our oldest daughter and son-in-law, Heather and Ron and their two boys, Blake and A.J. I have decided that I consider Ron my son, that is why I crossed out the in-law part.  He belongs to us as much as Heather does.

Anyway, we didn't leave the three grandchildren that we take care of all the time behind.  Joshua, Keira, and Justin went with us.  Roger and Ron are big Ford truck enthusiast and they had a Ford Truck Meet at some members super nice garage.  They were very impressed with it, like I am with Joy's sewing room.  A place for everything and just gorgeous.

The older four of the grandkids are good friends and always have a blast when we get together.  Of course, Uncle Ron always has big plans for them and this trip was no different.  One trip they had Mentos and Diet Coke rockets.  This time he had built some kind of contraption with  balls and polls and they had a fantastic time.  Then he turned on the water sprinklers and handed out super soakers and they all had a good time, with Justin entertaining himself in a bucket filled with water.

Kids ages are 11, 8 1/2, 8, 6 1/2, and 2.  Heather and I took all of them for ice cream cones while the guys were at their truck meet.  As we sat at Braums amid two teams of junior high football players, I looked over at Heather and commented, "You realize these people think all of the kids are yours."  A look of shock came over her face.  I thought she was going to get up and start telling every table that she was only the mother of the two dark headed ones.   It just cracked me up!

When the guys got home, we still had time to visit her local knitting store, The Knitting Nook.  What a lovely place.  This is the second or third time I've been there with Heather, but they greet me and help me with things just like they do Heather, who is a frequent customer/knitter.  They were having a "Yarn Tasting", which was a trunk show for Cascade Yarns.  They had dishes set up on all of their display tables.  Beside each dish was a set of knitting needles and on the dish was one to three balls of yarn.  The idea was that you could pick up the needles and knit a row or two or three so that you could try the yarn out.  What an absolutely wonderful idea.  Heather and I both fell in love with one yarn, but, of course, they didn't have it in the store, but ordered it for us plus some extra because after we showed interest in it, others came up and wanted to try it.  Oh, they were also giving away door prizes and both Heather and I walked out with free yarn and a pattern.  That was a pretty cool trip to a knitting store.  I forgot, they had a table full of food, as in cookies, candy, and brownies that were really tempting, but we both resisted since we had ice cream cones earlier.

But now I must talk about the sad part of my weekend.  Friday I checked my email and had an announcement of a Whine and Cheese party being held at my favorite fabric store which just happens to be in Tulsa.  The party was being held on Sunday, which was unusual since they aren't normally open on Sunday.  Yeah, I could go.  But, boo hoo hoo, it is the beginning of their going out of business sale and they wanted to give their loyal customers a chance to get what they wanted before the general public.   Since I was in Owasso, which is just next door to Tulsa, there was no doubt I was going.  I would have come up just for it if I wasn't in Tulsa.  Debbie and Nancy are just two very special people and I really hate to see them close their doors.  I had an email from Joy immediately after and she was as shocked and heart broken as I.

It turns out that with the economy and the fact that there isn't the strong interest in sewing they just weren't making it.  Okay, the interest is coming back, but it is mainly in quilting or from people that buy cheap fabric at Hancocks or JoAnns and have no idea how lovely it is to sew really quality fabric.  They don't value their own time.  Yes, good fabric is expensive, but it is a pleasure to sew and wears so much better than the cheap stuff.  I order a lot from the internet, too, which is another problem for the local fine fabric stores.  Actually, if I wanted fabric from Cloth Merchants, I did order over the internet, because I am a hundred miles from them.  I paid shipping costs and sales tax as well as the price of good fabric, because it was worth it. 

The lesson to me is to value the fine fabric stores.  There is one in OKC, but it is across town from me in an area that I seldom go to.  In order to patronize it I will have to make a special trip to shop there.  My time is very limited and just don't know if I will make the time to go there.  I also don't like the way it is arranged.  I find it hard to find what I want there and even the people that work there admit that they can't find fabrics.

 Shall I take my limited amount of sewing time and go to the local store or do I shop on the internet?  If we each find two or three special stores on the internet and support them wouldn't that do almost the same as shopping at the local store if they carry fine fabrics?
  So, what shall I do? I am really feeling heartsick over Cloth Merchants. How do we keep the fine fabric stores in business, whether they are local or on the internet?  I didn't teach my girls to sew.  Neither had an interest.   I learned to sew, because it was just part of being a woman, I thought.  I still have a hard time understanding how a home can be maintained without at least one sewing machine in the house.  How do we encourage our girls and even our guys to learn to sew and to value fine fabrics?  Has our society become too much of a disposable/throw away society to value time spent working with fine fabrics?

I'm thinking I can make a point of buying fine fabrics whether they are at my local fine fabric store or from two or three internet stores that I like and can establish a relationship with.  I'm also thinking that I can take the time and try to find the patience to teach my grandchildren to sew.  That patience thing is the hard point as they tend to bring out my anxieties when they are in my sewing room.

As you can see by the picture above, I bought my share today to help Debbie and Nancy clean out the store.  At the very front are four pants weight fabrics. The print to the left on the back row is a fraternal twin to the fabric Joy made her AND jacket from.  The next three are beautiful knits, the middle one even has sequins.  Then there is a turquoise linen and a pink linen for tops. Lastly is a red print with large flowers that looks more like Joy than me, but I've drooled over it a couple of times before, so I decided I was going to buy it today.  There is one other fabric that got cut off from the picture and it is a grey and tan Liberty of  London print.  I also bought three spools of thread and a package of interfacing.

Fare Thee Well,Cloth Merchants.  I will miss you dearly.

Hugs, Phylly

Its Better Than "Good Enough", Its Perfect! Well, Almost Perfect!

I usually settle for good enough instead of continuing to work for perfect.  I'm not saying I won't do that in the future, but this time I was determined that my Sure-Fit Designs™ Blue Print was going to be perfect because if I am going to use it for pattern work I don't want to be transferring problems into the next design.

Now this is a Happy Face!

 

No, this is the flat backside you are seeing.  The Happy Face is the picture above this one.


I had the three grandchildren on Sunday, so didn't get any sewing done at all.  But bright and early on Monday morning, which happened to be Labor Day and a Holiday, I started drawing off my new SFD Version of ABO  I used the SFD through the shoulder, armscye and the dart.  From the dart I went straight down and used the ABO pattern to determine how long to make it.  The ABO is basically straight, so this was a very easy pattern to change using my SFD blue print. I did lower the neckline a bit lower than the ABO since I didn't want to put the tab on the back that the ABO has.  I cut the pattern out of a piece of cotton quilting fabric that I picked up in Dallas a couple of years ago.

I noticed a few problems when I basted it together.
This is a bad "bathroom in the mirror" picture, but you can see that there is something wrong with the bust area.  Sometimes I have problems with darts
sticking out and wanting to make a point out on the side all by itself.  Normally, I do the "good enough" thing and ignore it, but this time I wanted it fixed.  I've been told that means the dart is too long, too wide, and/or comes to a point too fast.  So, I shortened the dart by half an inch.  That made it worse.  So I made it a curved dart.  Now the dart wanted to create its own fold.  Then I remembered a class with Lorraine Henry in which we were discussing my extra pointy darts and she said to do what the fabric told you it wanted to do.  So, I followed that fold and pinched it up until it disappeared.  I took a couple of pins and pinned that in.  I don't recommend this procedure as it was rather painful since the pins did not want to cooperate and go into the fabric.  Somehow, the pins found themselves into me each time.  took the top off and marked each dart on the inside with chalk and then stitched them.

 The stitching on the right was the shortened dart.  The dart to the left was the final stitching.  You can see it comes close to the end of the original dart and then actually becomes very shallow and and an inch longer than I usually do my darts.  These darts come to within 1.5" of my apex.  I usually stop my darts 2 to 2 1/2 inches from the apex.  I transferred this to my pattern and to my SFD Blue Print.

See the little extended point.  It is hard to see, but it is also curved in.  In the fabric it almost curves around my bust a little to allow for the fullness right in that area.  Yes, another one of my body's idiosyncrasies.

While I'm talking about the bust dart there was another change that I made in my SFD/ABO pattern.  I drew the front side seam straight down from the bottom of the dart.  After I sewed the dart into the front the side seam didn't meet the back seam properly.  I had a V dip in the area of the dart.  In order to sew the sides together I had to twist the front side seam a bit, which created a drag line under the arm.

Nothing like a shot of someone's underarm.  At least I removed the rest of the wrinkly arm!  Anyway, you can see the drag line.  There isn't anything I can do about it in this top, but I wanted to know why it was happening so I went back to the paper pattern.  The SFD/ABO pattern did the same thing when I folded out the dart.  So, I pulled out the SFD Blue Print and folded out the dart and the side matched up perfectly.  It wasn't the SFD BP, it was how I translated it into the ABO pattern.  So, I taped extra paper all along the side of the pattern, folded the dart and then cut the side straight.  When I unfolded it, I had a corrected dart, so the next top won't have that drag line.  This is another problem I have had in other altered patterns and it is caused by my poor drafting skills.  But now I know what I have to do to fix it.

The pink lines are the new seam lines for my dart in the SFD/ABO.  The change in the dart is because I made the sides straight instead of fitted like the Blue Print.

Lastly, was the sleeves.  I did the whole sleeve as a 42.  When I put the top on this morning I thought the sleeves or the back of the armhole felt a bit snug when I reached forward.  Not bad, but just a little snug, although I didn't have any problem driving or working on my computer.  But I met Joy for lunch (good excuse, as if we needed one) so she could look at it and see what she thought.  We agreed that it is actually the cap of the sleeve that was a bit snug, so, I will re-draw the sleeve on the Blue Print and on my SFD/ABO pattern and use a 44 for the back of the sleeve.

Thanks Glenda for the challenge.  I am absolutely thrilled that my SFD Blue Print is fitting so well. I intend to continue using it to make my patterns and yes, I'll just do it.

Just a word to those of you that haven't really used SFD.  I did a lot of the alterations that I knew my body would still need even with SFD as I was drawing out the pattern.  Joy and I have been working on fitting our bodies for four years now.  I know my body's problems/idiosyncrasies/uniqueness; whatever you want to call it.  Until you reach the point we have, please follow the directions that comes with SFD.  You will get a really good fit and will just have to tweak the fit a bit to make it almost perfect.  I don't want someone new to SFD to do what I did and then be disappointed and blame SFD.  It is a fantastic system.  If you don't use it you really should.  If you don't have it, why not? No, I have no connection with SFD other than a happy customer.

Happy Sewing!
Hugs, Phylly

My Perfect Sure-Fit Design Blue Print

If you read my last blog you know I was planning on working on the Sewing Workshop eShrug.  I did print out the pattern, taped it together and then drew it off on tissue paper.  I hate working with regular paper.  I always wind up with my hands cut up with paper cuts.  I am a paper cut wimp.  The only thing worse is pin rips in your hands.   One of these days I'll tell you about the tribulations of professional quilters!

I had also commented that because of the super boobage I panic when I try to combine a SFD Blue Print and a commercial pattern.  For me they are so different that I can't figure out how to work them into one pattern.  But Glenda, SFD's owner and designing magician encouraged me to just give it a try.  I decided it was a challenge so I set aside the eShrug to work with SFD. 

Now, I am very familiar with SFD.  Joy and I explored it a lot about three years ago.  But Joy has really worked with it a lot more than I have.  I tend to jump from pattern to pattern.  I have to do a lot of work on patterns to get them to fit me, so you would think that I would use a pattern multiple times once I get it to fit Nope, not me!  But recently, I discovered Louise Cuttings pattern line and I have been doing multiples of them because they seem to suit me so well.  The one thing I find with her patterns that I don't care for is that they are almost always over the shoulder and with my narrow shoulders, the shoulder is halfway to my elbow.

With Glenda's challenge to just do it.  I decided to re-make that pattern so the shoulders are where I want them.  Now, before you read the rest of this, please realize that I did not follow the instructions in the SFD book or video.  When you follow those instructions things work really well.  I promise they do.  I've just done it enough that I've started doing my own thing; not to mention when you don't read the instructions, you tend to forget the little things.  So any mistakes or problems I had are my own fault. Not SFD's

The first thing I had to do was make a new SFD Blue Print.  I've made a dozen of them, but it had been a while since I did one, so I whipped out my dress kit and my paper and made up a new one.  I remembered that the best fitting SFD that I ever did I used a 38 at the neck and shoulders; at the first armhole point I moved up to 40 and at the second armhole point I went to 42 and used that along the sides until I got to the waist.  So that is exactly what I did.  I pinned it together and checked the fit in the mirror.  Hmmmmm.......a problem, it didn't make it to the middle in the front.  Argh!  It needed an FBA!  I'm not supposed to need an FBA with SFD.  So, back to my cutting table to whip out another blue print.  This time I used the 42 all the way around until I got to the waist.  As I did this I realized that on the first one I had used the E cup instead of the F cup.  (Slapping my head. No wonder the first one didn't fit.)  So, I pinned the second one together.  Hmmmmm......., it still didn't quite meet the middle; still needed an FBA, but only an inch.  Back to the cutting table to add the extra inch.  Again, obviously, I'm not doing it right or I wouldn't need that extra FBA.  Now it met in the middle, but I had all this extra paper in the area above the bust. SFD is drawn to your measurements so it fits better than any pattern you can buy, but each body still has idiosyncrasies that you have to adjust for.  My body has lots of idiosyncrasies.  It comes from being sixty, bad posture, too many hours at the computer and sewing machine and carrying heavy purses and babies with one hip and shoulder. I have a round upper back, forward thrusting shoulders and I'm very narrow through the front, plus one shoulder is lower than the other.  That is above the waist; below the waist one word describes my body--short.

So, I took a marker and marked out all the extra that had to be removed in the front between the shoulders.  I noted the end of the shoulders needed to be moved forward an inch and I needed to add an inch for my round back.  So, I went back to my cutting table and did the third SFD.  Usually, I am not this persistent and would have just done the alterations in that second one.  OK, I would have done them to the first one and declared it good enough!  But I am tired of the shoulders never fitting in my tops, so I was determined to work out the problems and figure out what my problem is with shoulders, sleeves and armholes.  I started on the third one by marking the 38 and the 42 through the neck and the shoulder.  Then I laid the second BP on top and compared it with the changes that I knew it needed for my body.  I used the 38 at the neck, went to the 42 at the top of the shoulder and placed the end of the shoulder at 35.  The 35 accommodates the forward thrusting shoulder.  When I laid the pattern on top of the narrow chest I found that I needed to go to the 38 for the first number in the armhole and then went out to the 42 for the second number.  (Glenda, I'm sure your head is in your hands and you are wondering what I am doing to your beautiful system.  It is okay, I promise.There is nothing wrong with your system.  It is my body that is weird!)

For some reason, I picked up and actually read the instructions for those of us that need a bigger cup than the Adjust-a-Bust allows.  I was one of those that helped Glenda figure out what needed to be done.  I had already added an extension to my Adjust-a-Bust before she provided the instructions.  But as I read the instructions I found that my middle point on the AaB should be 2 1/2" from the one for the E cup instead of the inch that I had been using.  TaDa!  Didn't need the FBA anymore.  With that change, I was able to finish the front and move on to the back.

Oh, I forgot to say that I used the armhole template for the larger sizes between the two armhole points.  I liked the armhole that I got doing that better than using the design tool.

The back started with the 42 at the neck and the first shoulder point.  Then I added the 1" for the forward thrusting shoulder and found that I needed to use 48 for the 2nd shoulder point.  Coming down from there I used the 38 for the first armhole point and out to the 42 for the 2nd point.  I finished drawing the side and the vertical darts. I cut it out and did the round back alteration.  I pinned it together, tried it on and looked in the mirror.

IT WAS PERFECT!!!!!  It fit through the bust without any extra paper in the upper chest.  The shoulder seam was exactly on my shoulder and the neckline at the back set exactly where I needed it.  I was so happy!  I've never had any pattern fit me that perfectly before.  Of course, I still have to set the sleeve into it and see how it fits, but I have two inches of ease and I measured the armhole and the sleeve cap and found that the sleeve cap is 1 inch bigger than the armhole, which I believe is just right.  So, I am thinking it should be good.

I then drew off a blouse to try out the new pattern.  I have it cut out.  I kept the parts of the CLD's ABO that I liked but eliminated a lot of the extra ease (11" through the bust).  Hopefully, I can sew it up tomorrow and have a picture or two to add to the blog instead just my boring writing.

Happy Sewing Everyone!
Hugs, Phylly