StuntSewing

What a great vacation! First, spending a bunch of time with the family, in the mountains (even trekking through some snow), collecting building materials for our fairy house at Grammies. Miley Cyrus, the Blue Man group and one of the largest fire-works displays in the country. Lots of swimming and sleepovers, can it get any better? Oh yes it can...

Then, WOW, over to Sundance for a date, a real date! The symphony on the side of a mountain with a picnic dinner and no no we don't need the shuttle from our room to the concert, or back again; I can't really call it hiking but it was a very nice walk.

Next we set off to Southern California. I've never been to California, man you can't beat that weather with a stick! Coronado Beach ROCKED!, Legoland and the Wildlife Park were great and man, the SD Zoo is something else!

I'll happily post a few pictures of some of our trip, um ... well, soon. I was technically challenged while away. I broke the USB ports on my LT, making it impossible to upload pictures or recharge Grace's "ipod" grrr. This makes a new computer a necessity, but for now I'm pretending that I'm whipping through projects with a mouse and can get my pictures and stuff. This is NOT working out very well so I imagine it won't be long before I take the plunge and get a new one. My other mishap is, let me just say, DO NOT select format on your dslr viewing menu. The first warning sign which I didn't heed is the red circle with the !, next that you have to press ENTER to make it happen. DRRRR, I re-formatted my card. Half of all the trip pictures are gone. But there is still plenty of fun to be seen.

I'm all recharged and ready for an awesome summer and beyond. Starting with a banberry GIVE-AWAY.

SEW WITH ME, for the next 2 weeks the studoTANTRUM pattern ZUMA will be on sale. I'll have lots of posts with sewing help, here at stunt sewing. Including, trying something new (at least for me) GROMMETS and making my own BINDING. All you have to do to be entered into the drawing is post your ZUMA's at the banberryPLACE flickr group before August 18th. The lucky winner will receive 3 yards of fabric!

Sew with me is something to help me climb the hurdle of trying something new and actually completing in in a timely manner. Let me digress. Totes, yes totes would be an excellent Mother's Day gift for the 3 mom's in my life. Yeah, yeah I know I've never done it before but it shouldn't be that big a deal - when was Mother's day? Do those mothers have their totes? NO! Call me a major slacker. I've started and stopped that darn project more time than I care to remember. Fast forward a couple of months and meet a pair of ZUMA's. I would like to make my own binding and I would like to try using grommets. So that's where we'll start, let's try sewing something new. I'll hold your hand the whole way through.

For the next 2 weeks the studoTANTRUM pattern ZUMA will be on sale. I'll have lots of posts with sewing help, here at stunt sewing. Including, trying something new (at least for me) GROMMETS and making my own BINDING. All you have to do to be entered into the drawing is post your ZUMA's at the banberryPLACE flickr group before August 18th. The lucky winner will receive 3 yards of fabric!

Let's get started!
-C

Tracing Zuma is about as easy as pie. Really, if you are new to pattern tracing this is a good first trace. You'll feel all accomplished and stuff. A note about size selection. I think the sizing runs spot on, but I want to STRONGLY encourage you to measure your sewing subject and go off those measurements not the "size".

I'm making "capri" Zuma's. So I got out my handy dandy measuring tape and decided how long I wanted the pants to be. It turns out that I was able to follow the length for 2 sizes smaller. Oh, Lucky Day! I already have this pattern traced so I've marked the new capri length on the regular pant pattern and pinned it up. So I can keep using this same tracing for either pants or capri's.

Next, I'll cut out the fabric. A FABULOUS summer weight stretch twill. With a great small print, very lightweight, poplin for the binding. Have you discovered the small 28mm rotary cutter yet? For cutting patterns/fabric with tight curves this notion is "brill". I don't pin. I lay the fabric out, put the pattern on top and use tuna cans to hold everything in place. I've heard of some people using special pattern weights or even big nuts from the hardware store, but I have tuna on hand, so that's what I use.

Cut 2 fronts and 2 backs along with the waist band and pocket pieces, if desired, for regular Zuma's. If you're getting all fancy and want a pair of reversible pants cut 4 fronts and 4 backs.

Actual sewing - coming soon :-)

One of the fun things we did in Utah was spend time with our family. And when I say family, I mean fAm-o-lEE. Let's see; there's my mom and sis #3, we invaded their basement for the duration. Sister #2, her hub and 2 kids whom we swam and had sleep-overs a plenty. My Grandma, who so graciously had us to her house not once but 3 times. My Dad flew in from Oregon, sis #4 and hub drove up from Vegas and my Aunt, who is more like an older sister to me came in from Florida. We also got to see one of my Uncles and his son. This sounds like a family reunion, but it wasn't it was all at different times. I'm glad we were there long enough to see everyone in their comings and goings.

One visit was to my Grandparents house (the other Grandma), She used to run a drapery shop and has all kinds of remnants from the 70's and 80's. I was hoping to score some swatch books. As a young girl I remember going through all those book, literally shelves and shelves of them. My own girls will have the memory of bolts and bolts of fabrics, I guess. However, she's been pitching them and doesn't have any left. What I did score was some trims. The girls are into pink, yellow and purple for their rooms so I stuck with those, but I secretly wanted the 70's green and orange pom pom's too. Some lace to top it off and I left happy.

Jackson scored a huge bowling trophy of my Grandpa's, Olivia got a porcelin betty boop baby and Grace and Maiah left with plastic farm animals. My grandma lightened her load a smidge. I think everyone was happy.

Yesterday I had a surprise visit, this is what came from that doorbell ringing;

The new Ottobre magazine plus some back issues.

FELIZ in ENGLISH yippee!

SOLANA in ENGLISH Yes, these are the same pants that we thought we would have about a year ago. Better late than never right ;-) We still have a small stock of this pattern in German that are discounted, if you don't mind translating.

some German FARBENMIX patterns.

What a lucky day! It was in fact dubbed by sewing day. It turned out to be a pattern day. TOMORROW or tonight after the play will be 'sewing day'. All pre-ordered patterns were collected by the post-man this morning. If you're nearby maybe you'll get yours tomorrow but for sure next week :-)

I've got some SwM to post but it'll have to wait just a smidge.

First let me say the the binding went well, delightfully well! I used this cutting technique and although I didn't end up with one long strip of fabric, just the right size for ironing and sewing, I did end up with 2. Which, for this project was perfect, seeing that Zuma pants happen to have 2 legs and all. I guess I need to practice to see where I went wrong so that when it's a skirt and not pants I'll be all set.

This little do-dad, is [insert your own favorite word]! Can't live without it, no-sir-ee. It's a binding maker tool. I found this one at Hancock fabrics and it was under $5 so it's not going to set you back to much. I wasn't sure the width I'd need so I bought the 1" and the 1/2". The 1" is what I've used so far, I don't forsee much use for the smaller width for the type of sewing I do.

The pocket tripped me up a bit. I got the pocket put together, but didn't finish the top edge of it. I want to say that it's not in the instructions but that may or may not be correct. I've had some heat and bond that I've never used and felt like this was a great time to try it out - one finished edge, no un-picking! The other suggestion I have is to use a pencil and the pocket piece to mark on your pant leg your sewing line. I also added the ribbon to the pocket flap, but my package of grommets has gone missing. I know I've had little hands help find them a new location, so once they're found I'll add them to the pocket flap and report back :-)

-placing the pocket

-Can you see the sewing line?

-Stitching on the pocket flap

Other than that it went pretty smoothly... Sew the inside leg seams then the crotch seam. Decide which way you want to wrap it and how tightly you want it wrapped. I stay stitched the wrapped up waist to keep everything together and then added the waist band.

Done! I must say that I am in love with this twill! Although it's hot enough to have used a poplin I think I prefer the hang of the twill.

I did a lot of seam ripping on this pattern. Let me start off saying that I have the German copy of this pattern but the English sewing guide. AND I am an instruction follower. I know that a shirt pretty much goes together like a shirt, but I still go step by step with the instructions. Maybe I need more confidence, I dunno. I do know that I follow instructions ;-)

First the sewing guide mentions that it runs small. The pattern itself says that it is a snug fitting tee. I measured and found that I did NOT need to go up a size. This fits a lot like ZOE, I really like it!

If sewing the yoke version make sure you are placing the yoke with the correct sides on the front piece. They will not go all the way down the entire sleeve opening, try as you might ;-)

On the neck binding I folded it long sides together and then stitched it to the neck opening, I didn't get as much stretch in the binding as I would have like. In the end I had to take off the front piece (I had marked my tracing as 110/116 when it was really a 98/104) The little bit of extra fabric coupled with the neck binding not stitched together let there be just enough stretch that it fits nicely.

This is a great shirt and I'm glad I traced all 3 girls' sizes. I will definitely be making more of these :-)