Cycling, Upcycling, and Little Risks

Tags

alterations, Cascade 1200, clothing, Columbia Park, cycling, Kennewick, Mattawa, Seattle International Randonneurs, Sew-Along Dinner Date Dresses., sewing, travel, upcycling, Vogue 9314, Washington

It’s a lovely time of year here.  Here’s our old buddy Mr. Moon rising over Columbia Park one recent evening.

Happy Saturday!

I have some random bits and pieces for you today, because, well, it’s been kind of a random couple of weeks.

We had another cycling event near here, this time with an actual sewing connection!  The Cascade 1200, a 1200-kilometer randonnée, began at the Space Needle in Seattle on Saturday, June 23rd.  The cyclists traveled across Washington state in a big loop, finishing up in Snohomish on the following Tuesday.

My part in that–not being the sort of person who rides a bike for 750 miles at a stretch–was to set up a control in the little farming town of Mattawa so that the cyclists could get water and food out there after everything closed down for the night.  My partner had originally intended to do the ride, but later decided against it and came out to help me with the control.

Here we are all set up under a street light with a cooler full of drinks in the back of the car, coffee brewing, and me making sandwiches out of frame on the right.

(I have these strange moments of self-awareness when I do this kind of thing.  I suddenly realize that I’m sitting in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere at 1:00 a.m. feeding meals to a bunch of people I don’t know, and I wonder how I ever got into this situation.  Volunteering can be quite surprising, like the hug I got from a South African cyclist because she was so excited that I had hummus to feed her.  And running across a parking lot after your camp stove at 2:00 a.m. because a storm suddenly came up and blew all your stuff off your tables.)

Anyway, the sewing connection is this:  all the volunteers were wearing event tees, and I hadn’t planned to because it fit me like, well, like this.

I feel like a lumpy sausage.  😦

It was too long, too tight, and the neck was too high.

But then I noticed all the pictures on Facebook of the volunteers wearing them, and I started to hear a little voice in my head:  psst . . . you know you could alter it . . . c’mon, it won’t take that long . . . .

So the morning of the day we were supposed to go out to Mattawa, I decided to do it.

The only knit fabric I could find in my stash that even kinda sorta went with this slate blue tee was this scrap of cotton jersey:

No, it doesn’t go, but at least it’s busy and cheerful.

I cut a few inches off the bottom of the shirt and cut off the side seams from armpit to bottom; the sleeves and bust on this fit fine, so I only had to worry about adding width to the waist and hips.  Using a rotary cutter and mat, I cut two wedges of the jersey, 1/2″ wide at one end and 4″ at the other.  I’ve been hearing for a while now that cutting knits with a rotary cutter is the way to go, and it worked surprisingly well on this fabric.  I was worried that the knit would shift around or not cut cleanly, but no problems at all.

Then I inserted the wedges into the side seams and pressed them.

I cut off the neck ribbing maybe 1/4″ below the stitching and sewed on some binding.  Quick hem and I was done–literally about 15 minutes before we needed to leave for Mattawa.

It still looks a little lumpy, but I AM lumpy, so that’s gonna happen.

It was a rush job, and most definitely not anywhere near being my best work, but it’s much more comfy now and just feels a lot more like ME.  I really intended to only wear it that one time, and then maybe use it for exercising, but I’ve found myself wearing it a fair bit.  The fabric is so soft, and the shirt is so comfortable now, that it’s just really nice to wear.

More importantly, I’ve been wanting to get into upcycling for a while now, and this alteration is my first tentative step in that direction.  More to come on that–I’ve actually got a second alteration project to show you, but I’ll wait until I can get some decent pictures.

In the meantime, here’s something interesting to consider.  I’m running a sew-along on Facebook again this July-August in the Sew-Along Dinner Date Dresses group.  I agreed to do the sew-along last fall, but it took me the longest time to find a designer dress pattern that I thought might work for larger or apple-shaped women.

Here’s the pattern and the fabric I got for it:

This is one weird design!  There are no side seams, just a front and back that extend and have ties; you can tie it in the front or back.  I have no idea if this is actually going to work, much less look good on me, but I think it will be fun to find out!

The fabric is a lightweight “burnout” cotton found in the “specialty cotton” section of the Joann’s in East Wenatchee.  I still need to come up with a contrast fabric for the binding, hopefully from the stash; I’m planning on making a muslin tomorrow, and that will help me get a better sense of whether this is a disaster in the making.  (Plan B, if this indeed does turn out to be a disaster, is to recut those big pieces into something else.)

So if you’re on Facebook and want to try this very weird pattern, join us!  It’s an easy pattern, but there are opportunities for practicing skills like making bias binding and doing narrow hems.  There aren’t many steps in this pattern, so making it over a two-month period will produce a nice, easy pace that won’t interfere with all your other summer fun.

Have a great week, everybody, and take a little risk if the opportunity presents itself.  You can always re-use your fabric for something else.

STH

More Adventures in Fleece

Tags

cats, clothing, cycling, FNWF, Jalie 2216, sewing

I CAN FEEL THE EYES UPON ME . . . .

Friday night was another Friday Night With Friends, so I got busy with my pliers and zipper repair kit and put new top stops on my partner’s fleece cycling jersey zipper.

Oh, how I labored over that zipper!

I wasn’t able to find a repair kit for the kind of big chunky zipper I’ve got in here (I don’t know the correct name for this type, but it’s the kind that’s labeled as a “parka” zipper), so I ordered the #5 kit and hoped for the best.  As I feared, the only way to get the stops on was to put them parallel to the edge of the tape, rather than parallel to the teeth as they usually are.  They seem secure enough, though, and I sewed a stop with thread below them just to be sure.

I am proud of how that zipper came out, though, and that the collar seams match up when the zip is zipped up–probably the first time I’ve ever really managed that.  Hand-basting the zipper in made the difference, though removing basting from fleece is not a task designed to make you happy.  😛

The pattern I used is Jalie 2216, and this is the third version of that jersey.  For this one, he wanted a warmer, thicker fabric, so we chose Joann’s “Blizzard” fleece, which is really nice stuff.  Dense, thick (but not so thick that it’s hard to cut or sew), and very soft.  (No, I am not a paid spokesbot for Joann’s, but my opinions can totally be purchased with fabric.  Call me!)

He also wanted the back pocket extended a bit on both sides so that he wouldn’t have to reach so far to access it.

BTW, getting better results when photographing black things by putting them on a darker background, overexposing them, then darkening the pic as needed.  Would be even better with a model in it, but he is busy napping at the moment.

The ends of the pocket are supposed to be enclosed in the side back seams there, but I’ve extended them a few inches and just sewed the raw edges down.

He also asked me to change the way the elastic is attached to the wrists of the jersey so that it would be fully enclosed.  Jalie’s method for attaching elastic is to have you zig zag it directly onto the raw edge of the fabric on the wrong side; then you fold the raw edge under and zig zag again.  The problem is that the edge of the elastic inevitably sticks out a bit and can irritate your skin.  So I simply added 1/2″ to the sleeve length and folded the edge under twice before zig zagging.

I’m very happy to say that this version of the jersey came out infinitely better than the first one, and much better than the second.  The recipient loves it, I’m happy with my work on it, I actually got it done BEFORE the season in which it will be worn, AND I had enough black fleece left over to use it for the hood on my Hello Kitty pullover.  WIN.

Also, I finished the pullover yesterday–I AM WEARING IT NOW–and will get pics for you ASAP.

SO VERY FABULOUS, my friends.

FAB.  U.  LOUS.

Have a very excellent week, folks, and I will yell at you again soon.

STH

Cycling Jacket, Part 2: The Finishing

Tags

cats, clothing, cycling, Kwik Sew 4017, sewing

So, when we last saw our scrappy hero, she had turned her $15 charcoal wool into the shell of a cycling jacket based on Kwik Sew 4017 and was waiting for her lovely map-patterned silk to arrive for the lining.

Once it arrived, the next step was to use it for the pocket linings.  The pattern had welt pockets on the front; I had changed those to zipper pockets and added an additional zipper pocket to the left chest.  The original pocket bags were designed to just hang loose in the jacket, but my partner and I both felt they should be attached to the jacket seams, so I made some new pattern pieces for them.

I cut them bigger than necessary and sewed them to the zipper tapes so there wouldn’t be any exposed raw edges.  Then, making sure I had enough slack so that they wouldn’t tear when the pockets were used, I sewed the bags for the two side pockets to the center front seam and the bag for the chest pocket to the side seam.

I also added the back pocket, lined with the silk fabric, at this point.

LESS PIC, MORE CUDDLE.

I used this tutorial to cut the jacket lining.  From that point, though, I was on my own.  I wasn’t able to find a tutorial that explained how to line this style of jacket, which has no back facing; there was also the added complication of needing to add elastic to the sleeves and hem, not exactly the type of thing you’re going to find in a typical lined jacket.

I assembled the lining and sewed it to the jacket all the way around the hem and front facings.

I safety-pinned the elastic in the hem and adjusted it to size; once it was right, I sewed the ends to the center front and top-stitched to hold the elastic in place.  It was a little fiddly to do, what with the silk wanting to slide around, but I pinned and stitched and unpicked and stitched until it looked good.

I then turned the jacket and lining right side out and slip-stitched the top of the lining to the collar, adding in the pleat at the center back.

For the sleeve hems, I folded under the raw edges of the jacket and lining and top-stitched them together at the edge and also about an inch away.  I unpicked the lining seam to insert the elastic.

A bit more top-stitching and it was finished!

You’ll note the sleeves are a little long–that’s because they need to be for the arms-outstretched position you’re in on a bike with drop bars.

Also note the zipper doesn’t reach to the very bottom of the jacket; near the end of the process of making it, he decided he wanted it a bit longer, but didn’t feel like he needed a longer zipper.

You can’t really see it here, but the jacket hem dips on the sides so that the back is a couple of inches longer than the front, also helpful when you’re bent over on a bike with your arms outstretched.

So, what did I learn from making this?

• Use safety pins for fitting–no sticking your honey with straight pins!
• When sewing for someone else, and they tell you something is too long, put off removing the extra as long as possible because you just might need it!  I shortened the sleeves and hem on this, then the recipient wanted the extra length back.  😛  I wound up using a 1/4″ seam allowance on both.
• Ditto for width.  I had been all conscientious and overlocked the edges of the lining pieces before sewing them together with a 5/8″ seam allowance, then, well, you know the rest.  You don’t ever want to try to pick those tiny, tiny stitches out of silk fabric.  I got as much as I could, but there’s still some overlocking in there that’s never going to come out, which is just fine with me.
• I’ve said it before, but I’m going to say it again:  trust your inner kickass sewer!  That big complicated thing with all the steps?  You can totally do it.  I did a lot of anxiety-driven procrastination on this, but one thing that really helped me was to make a plan.  A couple of times during the process, I made a list of the steps I had to do, put them in order, then focused on tackling one step at a time.  I also think it helps, when tackling something like this with endless problems to be solved, to have experience making all kinds of different things.  The bags I’ve made definitely helped with the pockets and lining.

Happy sewing!

STH

Sunday Sevens 06-28-15

Tags

cats, cycling, quilting, RSC15, sewing

Sunday Sevens is a blog series in which we share seven-ish pictures from our week.  Thank you, Natalie at Threads and Bobbins for getting it started!

Busy week here, but I made some progress on my projects, so it was a good one.

I finally got around to finishing up sorting out my scrap fabric drawers.  The bins with my main stash are still pretty messy, but at least I’ve got the scraps tidied up so that I can work on some stash-busting projects.

JUST LOOK AT THIS LOVELINESS:

I’ve been doing some yoga lately to try to reduce the chronic tension that I seem to store up in my upper back and THE CATS ARE LOVING IT.  I regularly have to watch out for this little beastie, who loves her yoga.  (That’s my mat she’s beating up there.)

The neck and back routine I’ve been doing is here, and it has been helpful.  And, for those of us that are allergic to the woo that often accompanies yoga, the video is refreshingly woo-free.  😉

By Wednesday, I hadn’t done any crafting in several days and I was getting a little desperate for a fix.  So I put everything else aside and made the second block on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt.  That Card Trick block in the center was a bit of a brain teaser, but this tutorial was really helpful.

Strange things sometimes come in the mail when you live with a bike geek.

Saturday craft projects:  quilting and wheel building.

That fabric there became this, the third block of the RSC quilt.

Well, sort of.  I tried to make the center block (Marley) twice and just could NOT get it to work with the rather minimal instructions given.  Couldn’t find a good tutorial, either, so I did this one instead.

I’m subbing another block for the fourth one, too.

And it is officially too damn hot here.

The official high here on Saturday was 111F, which I’m fairly certain is the same temp as the surface of the sun.

Felt that way, anyway.

And we’ve got at least a week of over-100 days coming up.

SEND ICE CREAM.

Sunday Sevens, 05-17-2015

Tags

bags, cooking, cycling, Kennewick, La Cartera, recipe, Starbuck, Sunday Sevens, Zintel Canyon Park

Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series in which we post seven-or-so pictures from our week.  See Natalie at Threads and Bobbins for more info.

Hoo boy, it has been a week of ups and downs here!

Last week, I got the exciting news that I won this adorable bag from La Cartera!  Monday, I received the bag and it is BEAUTIFUL!

More pics to come–I took it on an adventure this weekend.

Tuesday morning, I had this conversation with my honey:

Partner:  I’m going to pop ’round the doctor’s this morning about the [SCARY SYMPTOM] I’m having and feeling weird.  I told you about that, didn’t I?

Me:  WHY NO YOU DID NOT

Followed later by this conversation:

Me:  When you said you felt weird earlier, what did you mean by that?

Partner:  Oh, I just meant I’m having [SUPER SCARY SYMPTOM].

Me:  AAARRRGGHH

So I made cookies.

I totally get why people make food when somebody is sick.  Because 90% of diagnosing and treating an illness is actually sitting around waiting–for tests, test results, doctors, medications, whatever–so making food gives you something constructive to do (other than sitting around fretting) and it helps to nourish and strengthen the sick person (and all the people sitting around fretting with them).

He’s okay for the moment–both SCARY SYMPTOMS are almost gone–and more tests and visits to specialists are in the works.

For this week’s walk with my mother, we went to Zintel Canyon Park in Kennewick.  This was absolutely essential, as they’ve got a team of 200 goats there working on the landscaping.

Most of them seemed to be on their break when we were there.

Please enlarge:

Another thing I cooked this week was Kale and Pasta Salad, which I’m mostly posting because several people I know have asked me, “what do I do with this kale stuff?”

I put the kale in my colander, then pour my hot pasta over it to soften the greens a little.  Be warned if you make this recipe that it makes a TON.

Cats recharging their batteries:

This weekend, my partner and I are helping run a bike ride–riders choose a 400k route or a 600k one.  Beautiful ride through grasslands and wheat fields in mild weather, though the tailwind they had Saturday morning turned into a headwind in the afternoon and made these hills outside Starbuck pretty challenging.

Have a great week, everybody, and be sure to care for the people you love in whatever way you can.

(Oh, and Flickr is having some trouble with uploading, so I’ve just now finally got some extra pics from LAST week up there and can’t get this week’s pics to upload.  Will keep trying.)

STH

Sunday Sevens 04-26-15

Tags

cycling, Kennewick, Pasco, quilting, Sacajawea State Park, sewing, Sunday Sevens, Washington, Zintel Canyon Park

(Sunday Sevens is a weekly blog series of pictures from our everyday lives.  I blame Natalie of Threads and Bobbins.)

I had a pretty productive week, with lots of sewing and some work on the mending pile, but there’s still plenty on the “to do” list to keep me busy next week.  A new cycling bag has also been requested . . . .

Monday’s task was to deal with this:

Sunday’s roast chicken and side dishes became chicken pot pie and stock for the freezer.

Tuesday was Physical Therapy day for my mother, so I took the opportunity while I was waiting to work on my hand applique quilt block.

Here’s one of the finished ones:

There are four of them and I’m currently working on number three.

Wednesday was a free day at Washington state parks, so I went over to Sacajawea State Park in Pasco to take a walk.  A corner of the park had been turned into a baby goose nursery, so I tried to get the best pictures I could without disturbing the very vigilant parents.  Please enlarge this and squee along with me:

Bonus shot–I like the juxtaposition of old and new here:

I took my mother out for a walk on Thursday.  We went to Zintel Canyon Park in Kennewick, which has to be the soggiest place in eastern WA that is not actually a river.

This picture is a fair representation of my life:

BTW, the white embroidered fabric I had planned to use for a blouse turned out to be narrower than I thought and there’s no way that pattern is going to work.

AND LO, THERE WAS MUCH HARRUMPHING.

Any ideas you may have would be most welcome.

Saturday, partner went out on his bike and I worked on my Yellow Submarine blouse.

I can just put this on the shirt and nobody will notice, right?

I may have been a bit distracted when I sewed this collar.

Have a great week, everybody, with plenty of sewing mojo.  May your collars be . . . better than mine.

STH

Sunday Sevens 04-13-2015

Tags

cycling, Olympia, sewing, Sunday Sevens, travel, Washington

(Sunday Sevens is a more-or-less weekly wrap-up of the week, including seven pictures more or less.  Natalie is our Fearless Leader.)

I’m a day late and a dollar short on this one, I’m afraid; I had a bad week, mood-wise, and didn’t take as many pictures as I usually do.  So I have more pics from the weekend (which was more interesting, anyway).

I’ve been working on putting my recipes into Evernote; it’s so great being able to search by the type of thing you want to make or the ingredient you need to use up.  The problem is I have a HELL of a lot of recipes to enter and the task is deathly boring.  Oy.

My honey wanted to do something nice for a friend of ours for all her work putting together the weekend’s bike ride, so I volunteered to shop for a present and came up with this:

It didn’t have a lining, though, (WHY) so of course I had to put one in, with a fancy divided pocket and everything.

(The tag that was on the bag had washing instructions, so I sewed it into the lining.)

I took my mother out for another walk this week along the Columbia, as for once there wasn’t much wind.

Here’s a close-up of the rather strange-looking plant we found growing there.

On Thursday afternoon, we headed down to Portland for my partner’s Fleche (French for arrow), a one-way team bike ride.  Each team designs their own route, but it must be a minimum of 360 kilometers, finish at a set location in Olympia, WA, and it must be completed within 24 hours.

On Friday morning, partner’s team set out and I drove to Olympia to meet them.

Friday afternoon was spent wandering around Olympia  (new word:  flanerie!) and taking pictures.

On Saturday morning, I walked down to the Farmers Market for a few treats (more lovely French words:  baguette, brie, croissant, andouille!) and more pictures at the garden there.

And I walked back to the hotel via the boardwalk.

The Fleche team finished their VERY wet ride right on time, which was followed by a meal and a long sleep.

This coming week, I’m hoping to finally do a post about my purple blouse–if the sun comes out long enough for some decent pictures–and start work on my green one.  Some mending also needs to happen before the pile teeters over . . . .

Have a great week, everybody, and take care of yourselves.

STH

ETA:  Almost forgot!  Verdict on the cycling cap was that it was great, though, as expected, the cotton fabric was cold when it got wet.  A Gore-Tex version has been requested.  The idea of merino wool caps with the logo of our local randonneuring club has also been floated, but that will have to wait until said logo actually exists.  😉

ETA:  Cripes, I was out of it yesterday!  Just added the logo and link to the beautiful and talented Natalie.  I need another cup of coffee.

Grandma’s Cycling Cap

Tags

cycling, sewing

YOU GUYS, LOOK WHAT I DID.

 

You know, I don’t much care for chintzy florals, and I don’t much like pink, but I KIND OF LOVE THIS.

 

Partner’s comment when he put it on for the first time:  “Oh, yes.  I AM my grandma’s wallpaper.”

Here’s the linen version:

 

The combination of the color and the shape makes it a little bit Castro-esque, but my partner likes it.  Power to the cyclists!

(It’s really hard to take pics of these things without a head to put them on, BTW.)

And a glimpse into the innards:

 

Okay, notes on the pattern:

—  Easy and quick to construct.  Not the most detailed diagrams or instructions, and there are a few odd choices in how the construction is done and a few missing details (I had the impression that the pattern was written by a not-very-experienced sewer for other not-very-experienced sewers), but pretty easy to figure out.

—  Pattern calls for 1/2 yard of fabric, but that’s actually more than you need; you can get at least 2 caps from a 1/2 yard.  So this would be a great project to use up smaller pieces of fabric (and elastic, too, as I only used about 5″ per cap).

—  The sizing was right on.  I measured my honey right above the eyebrows (pattern doesn’t say where on the head to measure) and the resulting cap was just right for him.  The only modification we did was to add 1/4″ to the length of the cap, so that it would come down a little farther over his ears.

—  The pattern is meant for wovens only, so no wicking “performance” fabrics.  We’ll see how my partner likes these when it gets really hot here.  I may try sizing down and using a wicking fabric for a future version.  For cold weather, the pattern includes a pattern piece for earflaps.

—  I used the overlock stitch on my sewing machine to do the major seams, which have a 1/4″ seam allowance.  Next time, I might try covering the seams with single-fold bias tape, since I topstitch them, anyway.

—  I used a thick, stiff, craft-type fusible interfacing for the bills and that worked really well.  The instructions suggest using a thin plastic and fitting the bill to it, but I think the interfacing was easier.  I tried ironing it on before and after sewing the bill together, and putting it on before worked a lot better.

—  The instructions tell you to use twill tape for the band around the base of the cap, which I did for my muslin.  I couldn’t find matching twill tape for the two versions here, so I used single-fold bias tape, which I think gives a nicer finish.   If you use the wide tape, as I did on the linen cap, you can open up the tape, pin it on right sides together, and use the fold in the tape as your stitching line; this is really handy because, with the bill in the way, you can’t use the guide on your machine to get the proper seam allowance.  3/8″ elastic fits perfectly under the wide bias tape.

So . . . pretty good pattern and we’re really happy with the results.  The flowered cap will get its first trial this coming weekend:  partner and his buddies will be riding from Portland, OR, to Olympia, WA, in 24 hours.  As my mother said the first time I told her he was going to ride his bike (voluntarily) for over 100 miles:  “but he LOOKS like a normal person.”

STH

Sunday Sevens 03-01-15

Tags

Columbia River, cooking, cycling, randonneuring, recipe, sewing, Sunday Sevens, swears

Woohoo!  Hello March, you lovely springy thing you!  The sun is out (okay, it’s about 16 degrees F here this morning, but STILL) and we survived the dreaded February!

(More power to you if you like February, but I always find it a difficult and depressing month.)

I spent a lot of time this week trying my damnedest to finish the two projects hanging over my head, my partner’s vest and the dress pattern testing, but OF COURSE there were unforeseen problems, and they’re both still in the hated “almost finished except for X” space.

Other exciting stuff I did:

I am trying to sneak a few more vegetarian dinners past the Resident Carnivore, and this one was a hit:  Crispy Black Bean Quinoa Burritos.  (Note to cilantro haters:  I didn’t use any in this and it wasn’t really needed, so don’t let that deter you.)

On Tuesday I took my mother out for another walk by the Columbia River.

Bonus shot of random urban ruins along the path (which I think used to be a railroad trestle):

I took a break from working on the Vest From Hell and picked out some fabrics for a sewing tool organizer.  I needs me some bright spring colors!

Thursday’s dinner was this chicken dish, loosely based on this recipe for Greek Inspired Steak and Rice.  I used the marinade, but added some fresh green beans.

Partner did his first official brevet* ride of the season on Saturday, so that required more cookies.  I always try to choose cookies for him that have something in them–whole grains, nuts, etc.–to keep him fueled longer, and these were perfect.

Hard to make brown lumps look sexy in a photo, though.

I found this UFO in a drawer while looking for something else, and it came THIS CLOSE to becoming quilt batting.  The collar is weird and bulky, and the shoulders are way too wide, giving me a sort of linebacker look.

But then I tried it on this morning.

And if there’s another garment in the world that is this soft, cuddly, and warm, I’ve never encountered it.

So I’m going to try and rescue it.

AFTER I finish that damn vest and test dress.

TODAY.

I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED.

Have a great week, everybody, and I wish you courage in the face of obstacles (and UFOs).

STH

*  Bit of background here:  the type of cycling partner does is called Randonneuring, and it’s long-distance, non-competitive, self-supported riding on a set course with controls that you have to verify you’ve been to.  A brevet (“badge,” more or less, in French) is a scheduled ride that is sanctioned by the randonneuring organization of your country (Randonneurs USA here) and is at least 200 kilometers (120 miles) long.

Because this type of cycling was invented in France, it involves a lot of rules and paperwork.  😉