Adventures in Upholstery - Rocker for Susan - Jan 2011

I've been thinking about sharing some of my upholstery adventures with ya'll for a while now.  Upholstery is my day job, and I run my sewing business on the side.  I work with my dad at his shop, which he runs out of his house.  So, I get to hang out at mom & dad's house all the time!  It's really fun.  Dad and I make such an awesome team.  

I'm more or less an apprentice.  I started working with dad during my summer between my first and second year of fashion college, and after college, I worked with him for over 2 years.  I then moved away from home and worked as a cashier at Wal-Mart, then upgraded to a teller at a bank, then worked my way up to receptionist, then Mortgage Administrator.  I was at the bank for 4 1/2 years.  I could have worked my way up the corporate ladder, but it was pretty clear that paperwork was not my forte.  

I was itching to sew.  So, I left the bank and worked at The Bridal House for 7 months and learned a ton about altering wedding gowns.  The experience I gained was priceless.  But it was very busy, very stressful, and sucked up all of my summer.

So, I started dreaming of starting my own sewing business, but I didn't want to rely soley on that.  I asked my dad if he would like me to work for him part time, and he almost came unglued!  "Really?!"  He was thrilled.  And that was history.  I'm not making as much money as I used to, but I finally feel like I'm doing what I was meant to do.  I can finally say that I LOVE MY JOB!

So, to introduce you to my trade, I'd like to show you the rocking chair I recovered for my mother-in-law Susan's Christmas present.  In keeping with my usual timelines, I missed the Christmas deadline and did this in January.

This is her mother's chair, and she sits in it every day.  I helped her pick out a brand new fabric, then I kidnapped the chair for a couple weeks, and got to work!

Before

Eep!  It's naked!  This is a typical piece of good-quality older furniture with all its clothes removed.  This is like working on a blank canvas.

 When you recover furniture, you measure and take apart the old pieces and use the shaped ones as patterns to cut new ones.  The closest thing that describes it is a knock off.  If you've ever made a pattern out of your favorite pair of jeans without taking them apart, you know what I mean.  Except in this case, you can take it apart, which makes it easy.


I've now clocked in over 4 years in this trade, so I can do furniture almost entirely on my own.  The only stage I need help with now is stapling it together. I just ask Dad tons of annoying questions.  But he assures me there is no such thing as a stupid question.  He's an excellent teacher.

 The chair gets assembled in a logical order.  First, the deck, then the arms, then the back.  Here you can see the pulls on the sides (the beige strips), and the little rolls of fabric that you tie the buttons to.

 Here is the front.  Coming together nicely!  Isn't this fabric fabulous?  It's very similar to the old fabric, only more modern, and quite striking.

 Next steps are to cover the outside arms, the outside back, and attach the skirt.  The very last thing we do is the cushion.  We always add extra padding, so we put in the old cushion and double check the fit so we don't make it too tight.

 I love this trade.  Every time you finish a project, you get such an amazing sense of accomplishment.  I love being able to take old, ratty things and make them shiny and new!

 Susan loves her chair.  And I love being able to see it every time we visit!

I hope you enjoyed my first upholstery post.  I have lots more cool stuff to show you.  As a seamstress, I find lots of this stuff fascinating, and I'm taking a chance that you will too!

Racerback Bathing Suit - Kwik Sew 2962

For those of you who have been with me for a while, you may remember that I made a whole pile of 2-piece bathing suits for Mexico in April.  Once I discovered how easy it was to make swimwear, I've been itching to make a new suit to wear to aquafitness at the pool.  My old faithful Speedo finally kicked the bucket, and I've been wearing my flame tankini for the past couple months.  2-piece bathing suits are not very comfortable to wear to the pool.  I wanted something secure and able to withstand crazy exercise.  I've had this pattern in my stash since the spring, and I finally got around to making it!  Yay me!

It also happens that my parents went on holidays for 2 weeks, which means I don't have to go to work!  That's why I've suddenly stumbled on a whole pile of free time.

 One of the reasons I've always loved racer backs is because I had the misfortune of wearing a U-back bathing suit when I was a kid, and I hated the feeling that it might fall off at any moment.  Since then, I've loved the secure feeling that a racer back gives you.  So, naturally, I chose view B.  View A is simply a waste of paper, in my opinion.  :P


I was hoping to make this suit fully lined, so I cut the lining and used it to test the fit.  I measured my torso length, just to be sure, and from what the pattern said, I would be okay with the regular length.  I cut a straight Medium, grading out to a Large at the bust.  

 The bust was too big, so I took it back in to a Medium.  The racerback sits a bit low, but from these first 2 shots, it doesn't look that bad, right?

 Until you get to the side.  Remember that the edges still have to be turned under 3/8" for the elastic.  Yeah.  Not digging this.  By the way, do you like my safety pins?  I figured this would be a quick way to check the fit.  Works for me!

 So, I decided to lengthen the torso above the waist by 1 1/2", and I cut the whole suit in Medium.  I also decided to use the lower cut leg openings, and I added an extra inch to the bum curve.


Since my white lining was too short, I couldn't use it.  Instead, I cut a shelf bra and lined gusset as per the pattern.  My swimwear fabric was uber cheap, and I figured this would still be a wearable muslin, so I'm okay with not having a full lining right now.


This picture shows the armhole gaping.  This is easily remedied by pulling the elastic in that area.  Cinched it up perfectly.  I also decided to hike up the shelf bra at the center front, since I like things nice and tight.  Also, since I added 1 1/2" to the torso length, I took my shoulder seams in by about the same length.

 Here is the inside view of the finished suit.

 Isn't it cute?  I really love this fabric.  Fabricland had no new swimwear fabric since sometime last year, and this one was 70% off, and it was one of only 6 prints to choose from.  I've had my eye on it for some time, and I'm so glad I picked it.  I love diagonal stripes, and I'm pleasantly surprised by the colour combo!

 Here is the back.  I forgot to mention that the other adjustment I made was to make the racer back wider at the center back, and I curved it up so it wouldn't cut down so low.  I was also afraid my shoulder straps would stretch out, so I stretched my elastic across the shoulders.  Ha ha.  This is such a learning experience.  Again, not necessary!  It only needed to be stretched at the armhole.  No wonder this is a wearable muslin.  And by wearable, I mean barely.  I can barely get it on, it's so tight!

 I do hope it stretches when it gets wet so I can get the darn thing off.  Cuz I'm definitely going to wear it.  I love it!

 See how nice and high it is under the armhole now?  And I really cinched the elastic around the back of the bum.  This suit is purely functional, and there is no way this baby is going to slip on me!

 I should also probably add a bit of width to the side seams on the back.  It's really tight across my back, which adds to the tightness problem.  I love the width of the racer back, but I could probably stand to cut the lower part of the curves down again.  I didn't realize this poor suit would be so hard to get on!  But, once it's on, it's so awesome!  I can't wait to wear it to the pool tomorrow morning!

I estimated that this suit would take me about 2-3 hours to make.  I spent a bit of time on the lining fitting and pattern alterations, but on Tuesday morning, I cut out and sewed my suit almost all in one sitting!  I love that you do the whole thing on the serger and don't have to make umpteen trips to the ironing board.  I finished my coverstitching later.  In total, I spent 2 hours and 20 minutes on this suit.  It felt way faster than that!

So, with a few minor tweaks, suit #2 should be great!  In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy wearing this one.  Cross your fingers that I don't rip it!  Yikes!


Update: I wore it to the pool this morning.  It's great!  I can tell that it's really tight around my armholes and shoulder straps, so I'll probably let out my shoulder seams by 1" and go easy on the elastic stretching.  And my other adjustments should be good, as well.  I'm happy to report that the elastic around my bum curves did its job and I didn't even have to adjust myself when I got out of the pool!  And, I managed to peel myself out of the wet suit, and it wasn't any harder than putting it on.  Mission accomplished!

Ken's Superman Onesie - With Tutorial! - McCall's 6251

Ken is the guy I made the blue Batman onesie for back in February.  

He told me if I ever found more superhero fleece to let him know, and he'd get another one.  Well, I found a few new Batman and Superman prints, and I sent him pictures, and he picked black Superman fleece.  He also requested booties and a chest pocket.

I had drafted fun fur boots for Karen's Lion Costume a couple years ago, and I used that pattern as a guide for the booties.

This is my pattern for the booties.  I had to make the toe section shorter, and I traced around some of my husband's shoes to make the feet.  I cut the feet bottoms out of leather and lined them with fleece.

Here starts the tutorial.  Bear with me, as I've never done this before.  I'll just try and talk you through the steps as best as I can.  Note: This is just a supplement to the instructions in the pattern.  These are my tips for the zipper, ribbed cuffs, and ribbed neckline.  The only thing I would do different from the order laid out in the pattern instructions is to sew the center front seam and zipper first.  The instructions have you do them much later in construction, when most of the onesie is assembled, and it doesn't make much sense.  This is way easier.  


As for general construction, I sewed all my seams with my serger.  The only seams I reinforced with stretch stitch were the center front, center back, and anything with ribbing attached.


This is the center front seam.  For all my seams, I have my pins spaced about every 4-6".  

Place your zipper on the seam so you can mark the bottom of the zipper stop.  For most cases, you can have the top of the zipper flush with the neckline, but in this case, I'm only taking a 1/4" seam at the neck, so I want the top of my zipper to line up with my 1/4" seamline.  Place 2 pins where the zipper stop should be.  Sew the crotch seam with stretch stitch, then where the zipper opens up, change to a regular long basting stitch.

Clip to the seam slightly below the zipper stop.  Serge the seam together below the zipper.  If you wish, serge the edges of the zipper seam, although in fleece like this, it's not necessary, because it doesn't fray.

Press the seam open.  Slide a long clear ruler underneath for ease of pinning.

Pin the zipper in place so it doesn't get stretched out when sewing.

It was a bit tricky to get the top of the zipper to sit straight, so this is what I did with it.

When you start sewing the zipper, move the slider down. 

Once you stitch down a couple inches, move it back to the top.  Also, slide the pins on the other side back so you don't drive over them.

Pivot at the bottom, giving yourself enough clearance so you don't interfere with the zipper stop.  I like to backstitch across this part for reinforcement.

When you get back to the top, move the zipper slider back out of your way.

Continue sewing and backstitch at the end.  Remove your basting stitches, and you should be left with a pretty darn perfect zipper!

This is the ribbing for the cuffs.  If I wasn't making booties for this onesie, I'd have ribbing at the ankles as well.  Same technique for both.  


I cut my ribbing by roughly measuring my pattern piece, then using my quilting rulers and rotary cutter to cut them out.  Sew it into a tube using a stretch stitch seam.  Don't use your serger.  This ribbing is crazy and it will not behave in your serger.  Trust me.  Once sewn, clip a notch into the opposite side for a center mark.

Finger press the seam open.  No need to iron this stuff, either.

Fold it into a nice little cuff, and pin it into quarters.

Pin it into your sleeve, adding extra pins inbetween so you end up with 8.

If you have a removeable arm on your sewing machine, now would be a good time to remove it.  Fits like a glove.  (tee hee!  pun intended!)  Sew the seam with the stretch stitch.

Turn it the other way up and weasel it into your serger.  Goes through pretty smoothly.

This step isn't all that necessary, but it kinda helps to flatten the seam allowance in the right direction.  Place the sleeve over a sleeve board or a seam roll, and make sure the ribbing seam is pointing toward the sleeve.  

Don't press the ribbing, just the fleece.  Again, if you don't want to press your cuffs, it won't make much of a difference.  I may even skip this step on my next onesie.

Now for the neck ribbing.  This is the only major change I made to the pattern.  They just bound the neckline, but I liked the idea of a ribbed neckline like Sue Sylvester's Adidas track suits from Glee, so this is what I came up with.

I chose to make the neckline seam 1/4" because the neckline is huge!  The ribbing helps to fill in the hole, but it still has a tendency to droop off your shoulders.  I can't imagine what it would be like with just the binding.


I measured the neckline and cut a piece of ribbing 2/3 of that measurement (for sizes L and XL, it works out to about 18") by 4 1/2" wide, folded in half.  I marked the ribbing into quarters, and matched the notches up with the center back and the top of the sleeve seams.  

To curve the neckline down at center front, keep the seam straight until you get to the front raglan seam, and then turn the ribbing so you end up meeting up with the 1/4" seam at the zipper.

This is what it looks like from the other side.  Stitch with the fleece facing up, so you can see the edge, and sew a 1/4" seam with stretch stitch.  

Here is what the neckline looks like when finished.  As you can see, I also topstitched the seam down with stretch stitching.  I also pressed carefully, but if you topstitch it anyways, it's not necessary.  Basically, when working with ribbing, pressing is optional.  It creases too easily and kinda loses its stretchiness.

I won't go into detail about how I made the booties, but this is what they looked like before I attached them.  I think they look like Arthur's elf shoes from The Sword in the Stone.  


I sewed 1" elastic around the bottom of the pantleg, and then sewed these on.  It took some fitting and measuring to get the length just right.  I didn't want the slippers to slide off, so this onesie is pretty much the perfect length.  With the ribbed ankle cuffs, you can get away with your pantlegs being a smidge too long, but not with slippers.  Accuracy is key here!  Another reason why it's easier to do the ribbing instead.

And last but not least, here is the finished onesie!

Here's a close-up of the chest pocket.  I just used my 6 1/2" square ruler and hemmed the top edge about 1/2".

The leather bottoms.  They look pretty soft and comfy, don't they?

And once again, onesies fit perfectly into the boxes I bought.  

Ken was very happy with his Superman onesie.  He still told me to keep my eyes peeled for more superhero fleece!  I think he wants a whole league!

Christie's Dress Re-fashion

Christie always comes up with really creative ideas.  She bought a plain white dress, and she had the idea of adding some red ribbon for embellishment.  The neckline was straight across, so I turned it into a sweetheart.

I wasn't sure what to do with the flowers, but I knew they needed some pizzazz.  I fiddled around with the ribbon until it turned into this!  I like it!  

I think this dress looks like it came out of a trendy boutique now!  

Christie will be wearing her corset underneath to tighten it up and give it a fantastic hourglass shape.

This was a really fun, quick project, and I love how it turned out!  I can't wait to see more pictures from the wedding she'll be wearing it to!  Her hubby will be wearing a black suit, white shirt, and red tie.  Snazzy!  Have fun, guys!