Ye Olde Curiousity

 

I always like to look for vintage sewing items whenever we come across vintage/antique/junk stores in our travels.

The pictured box and its contents are totally unrelated, but piqued my curiousity and I found I just couldn’t leave them.

The box must have originally contained some type of threads — I suspect embroidery, rather than sewing — due to the Handbeitsgarne (handcraft yarn) printed inside the lid. As far as I can tell, the company was located in Saxony, from the mid-1920s until ?. 

Inside the box are a lot (!) of embroidered tapes — most are two initials, a few are single initials.

A Google image search identifies them (for the most part) as French laundry labels. No idea if this is accurate, and no idea how they came to be in a German thread box — but it’s fun to speculate.

I keep thinking that one day I’ll have a flash of inspiration and find some creative use for them, but so far they’ve only been used as labels to mark the back of various slacks. They seem too narrow to easily be sewn together to make yardage and while they could work as trim, the red thread doesn’t always work with the colors I tend to sew. Oh well — Don’t hesitate to share a comment if you have a clever idea!

Minor alterations

 My sight is improving, but I’m still limiting my sewing to very basic projects. I have been able to (finally) have a prescription exam done so that I can get a new pair of glasses to serve during the interim between operations — still don’t know when my right eye will be scheduled.

At any rate, I’ve been catching up with minor repairs and alterations. I had made a jean jacket from a lighter weight home dec fabric a while back, and it didn’t get worn very much. Probably it was a bit light for cooler weather and too warm for hotter weather. I saw a cute jean jacket in a catalog that had short sleeves and decided I’d try that. Sleeves were not really tapered, so it was easy enough to lop off the extra fabric and do a machine hem — they are hemmed to just slightly above my elbows. I like how it turned out, and hope to be able to finish up a yellow tank I was machine knitting to wear underneath at some time soon.

Hopefully it will receive more wear with its new look. Not this week though — we’re hovering around 94F (34-ish C) at the moment, and even light layers are too much.

Buttons…and a Tee

From Stockwell Ceramics in Cornwall, UK — some delightful buttons.

Some vintage style birds, approximately 18mm.

And some square (24 mm) William De Morgan tile designs. 

I was also happy to be able to complete a tee (Pamela’s Patterns) from the really nice Emma One Sock jersey — dead simple, but a nice addition to a casual wardrobe.

Forced Hiatus

 Sometimes your sewing mojo hits a wall, and sometimes the wall hits you. This Spring hasn’t been great for finished projects — I blame the erratic weather,  hot and sticky, wooly sweater cold, rainy — it’s been a roller coaster. It finally settled down a bit and I started a linen top (Zalia by Style Arc) in a lovely shade of blue. I was scheduled for my first cataract surgery, but thought I could make a good start and then finish it off after Few days of recuperation.  That was not to be. Complications arose, and it’s been 4+ weeks and my vision is not yet totally clear, although it’s very much improved from not being able to see at all for several days after the procedure.

I’ve managed a few small sewing repairs in the past few days, but still don’t feel confident with “good” sewing and I’m keeping my fingers away from serger blades and rotary cutters for a while longer. Oddly enough, wonky vision doesn’t preclude online fabric shopping — who would have thought? 😀

I’m looking forward to sewing up a simple tee in this lovely cotton jersey from Emma One Sock soon, and  there’s a few cuts of solid color linens waiting to be transformed.

It’s so hard to be patient when you’re itching to sew, but hopefully I’ll be back in the work room soon.

2 Sides of Spring

 Spring — so eagerly awaited, so unpredictable!

My end of winter/beginning of spring project was a simple design from Wardrobe By Me (Boxy Raglan) chosen because I had made it before and knew it would work well with my fabric. The fabric is a luscious wool/alpaca blend from Emma One Stock - a little splurge, but so worth it.

It feels just like a warm hug when wearing it, and I love the color.  It was labeled as dead stock fabric from Italy. I love looking through the fabrics there — always little treasures to be found!

My second project was not sewing, but also a top, that was machine knit. This is definitely a warm weather style, and wouldn’t you know — as soon as it was finished we went from high 70’s (F.) temps to chilly mid 40’s. As I said — Spring - unpredictable!

The yarn is a cotton/linen blend in a lovely teal blue (Valley Yarns Leverett by Webs). Simple styles like this are such fun to whip out on the machine, they take almost no time at all. My very basic LK-150 mid-gauge has no ribber, so that was done by hand, as was the crochet joining of front & back halves.  Adapted from a hand knitting pattern Longboat Key, also available from Webs.

Serger Update

 Although I haven’t been sewing as much this season as I usually do, I have had plenty of time to put the BERNINA L890 through a fairly thorough test of what I want a serger to do. I’ll say up front my serger use is basic — I use it for garment construction —I don’t quilt, and my home dec projects are few and far between. Nonetheless, I want a machine that performs those basic tasks easily and well. 

I looked at this machine for a couple of reasons. I had a perfectly fine Baby Lock Enlighten purchased used from a dealer. Its stitching was fine and the air threading was a game changer for my eyesight issues. It was fine, but not fabulous, and I wanted to see what a newer machine had to offer. I also wanted to replace a fairly old cover stitch machine which had seen better days. The idea that I could have one machine to do both operations appealed, as my sewing room is crowded. So, has this machine lived up to its hype, or is it buyer’s remorse?

Ease of use — it’s a complex machine, and some folks are put off by that. I am still using the ‘idiot’ setting (no, BERNINA doesn’t call it that!) that prompts each step of every operation. Very helpful, especially for things you don’t do enough to have them become second nature. I think it also helps that I sew on Bernina machines so I have some familiarity with how they ‘think’. Air threading of the loopers is fine — not as ‘whoosh’ as the Baby Lock but works well. Two things I love — the presser foot swings away from the needles for extra maneuvering room when threading, and you can actually see that needles have been inserted fully due to slots. So, I rate ease of use as “learning curve, but Bernina gives you plenty of help to succeed “. There are plenty of You Tube videos for the machine also, and (obviously) the more you use the machine the easier it gets.

Stitch quality — one word — wow! Minor adjustments (stitch length/width) for different fabric weights, but beautiful stitching. Easy adjustments for cover stitching and I was blown away by stitch quality.

All in all, I am very pleased. This machine meets my expectations and then some. Is it the perfect serger? No, that doesn’t exist. It is a very good fit for me though, and I look forward to learning more as I use it more. Still cringe at the price, but I’m worth it?!

Spring forward

 Still wintery weather here, but I’ve stitched up a lighter cardigan for Spring. Imagine that - sewing something at leisure, before it’s actually needed!

The pattern is Wardrobe by me Balloon Cardigan. This is my second make from their line, and I’ve been quite pleased with both. Clean lines, simple practical garments that suit my life.The sleeves are indeed balloon - the body not as much. I’ve made the v-neck version and the cropped length, but added 1 1/2” so that it hits at high hip rather than at waist. Buttons/buttonholes left out - I’ll add snaps later if I decide they’re needed, but I don’t usually fasten up cardigans, so…

The fabric is a rayon doubleknit. I was thinking I’d make a matching tank with my leftovers, but wouldn’t you know I made a classic rookie mistake and forgot to lengthen the front bands after lengthening the body - doh! Thankfully enough fabric to recut two pairs of front bands, but probably not enough left for a tank - twin set dreams denied! Who knows though - maybe some creative piecing? It’s always fun to play with stripes.