longsleeve T shirt for J

See here, here and here for previous attempts at this pattern, KS2561. Version 1, made in 2006(!) is getting tatty, version 2 is never worn because it is "horrible" and a bit skimpy (and unfortunately yellow doesn't suit me at all, or I'd wear it), while version 3 remains very popular. This new version is a golden brown rather cheap knit from Tomato in Nippori, Tokyo. I used a gold thread (bought in Swany's Yokohama branch one Sunday morning) which stands out quite well so had to top stitch carefully, which was probably good discipline. I added an inch to the arm pattern piece - I have a feeling I added the inch last time then failed to mark it on the pattern. Anyway, the result is not too long, although it may get a bit longer in time. How much the collar stretches effects the effective length of the arms and body, and since the collar is made from the fashion fabric this is not, a priori, a well controlled variable (since different fabrics have different Young's modulus, and different weight). Please excuse the physics, but it means that you can't tell whether the arms and body will be long enough just from looking at the pattern.

The top seems like it is a good colour, fitting effortlessly into the brownish side of James' wardrobe.

Click on the picture to get an indistinct impression of the not quite as messy as usual top-stitching round the collar.

fuxxyfix

In 2006 I sewed 2 pairs of fuzzy cycling legs, one for me and one for James. In 2010 I sewed another pair for James, while I still wear a RTW pair as my second pair. It is the seats that wear out first, and they are really quite worn on all pairs apart from James newer pair. I thought that the only sensible way of repairing them would be to sew in a whole new seat area.

Here are the pattern pieces I came up with, the top one for me and the lower for James:

For my first pair I just cut out the original seat and sewed in the replacement piece to occupy the same place in the original. I cycled in the fixed pair for a week. They are a bit tight. It seems to me to be not a good idea to have the fabric under strain as the new strong cloth may cause the weaker cloth to stretch further. So for the other two pairs I adopted a slightly different strategy, pinning the replacement piece onto the garment while they were being worn and making sure that the original fabric was not being pulled out of shape. This means that the replacement piece is fitting in a smaller space than would be expected from the pattern. Nevertheless it seems to work. We wore them today and they are comfortable. Time will tell if these fixes will really work. If not, I already have sufficient Powerstretch in the cupboard to make more.

This is, of course, in the back of my mind:

Mark 9:16 "No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse."

waffle baffle saga parts 3 and 4 or is it 5...

The backstory of the attempt to copy one of James' tops can be found here. I thought that was the end but no, in September 2010, James managed to leave the jumper I had lovingly made at South Mimms service station, somewhere in middle England. Not being Japan, the lovely jumper was never seen again! It wasn't until the end of last year when I found some waffly baffly type fabric in Swany, Kamakura. Like the original this is a low stretch knit of mid-weight with a thicker yarn adding texture to the finely knitted backing. I asked Rockywoods and they told me the original was a kind of berber fleece. This fabric is perhaps a distant relative. Anyway, I adjusted the pattern (originally adapted from KS 2439 View B) so that the neck opening was actually on the centre front (!) and the fabric sewed up nicely. The new waffle baffle is all ready for when the weather gets a bit warmer. 

But then I wondered whether it would get lost again, so when I saw some wool in a nice James-blue on a trip to Nippori fabric town in Tokyo, I bought it. This is much thicker and so I remade the pattern with 1cm seam allowances so make it easier to work with under the sewing machine foot. It was straightforward enough to make, but i must remember to hand wash it so as to not get the shrinkage debacle of the waffle baffle before the one before last.

 So now there are two wafflebaffles! The blue one is heavier and is presently being worn at work.

[sewn in January and February 2012 - here is the thicker blue wool version. The photos of the lighter weight beige version will have to wait until spring]

And here's the lighter weight version:

recorder case

My new alto recorder arrived in a plush hard case, but it is quite large so not very convenient for putting in a rucksack and carrying around. Last Saturday afternoon I made a soft case to carry the new recorder and the smaller descant. The fabric is a windproof hard face fleece that has previously been used for gloves and hats. It has a very tough face but is actually not as warm as it might be and the remnant is quite bulky so it was nice to use some of it up on this project. I just cut a large enough rectangle, marked the seams on the wrong side with felt-tip pen and set to work. I fitted an old zipper across the top, as I'd seen a case with such a zipper in a brochure. Later I added some elastic straps to hold the cleaning rod. The case ties up with a piece of ribbon which is stitched to one edge.

Sasha stitching - pinafore and blouse

I haven't blogged for a while, but I have still been stitchin' most days!

After conferring with my brother I decided to send my niece, Penelope, a stitching project for her Sasha doll (for her birthday, which is on Christmas Day!). So I sent her Ted Menten's pinafore pattern  (available as a file from Ted). Felt seems the simplest fabric to use as it does not fray, so I sent various colours of felt, buttons and thread, with the pattern adjusted to remove unnecessary seam allowances. I also made an example pinafore out of an old pillowcase - I always find it easier to make something if I already have a sample to copy so I thought perhaps it may work for my niece too. The pinafore is a bit bare up top so I made a blouse to go underneath it. For this I used patterns from "The Doll's Dressmaker" by Venus A Dodge, which I bought second hand online. This book contains pattern pieces for various sized dolls. I only tried the shirt pieces, but they were a fairly snug fit. There was also what I would consider a mistake in that there was no overlap at the front to permit buttons to be in their proper place. Anyway, I made a couple of muslins from the pillowcase fabric, and adjusted the pattern a bit, fitted cuffs and a round collar. There isn't much in the way of instruction in the book - it is more about opening one's mind to the possibilities. I enjoy making things without detailed instructions as it feels like the pieces get fitted together naturally rather than being forced together according a set of rules, and the whole process flows more pleasantly, even if it does take longer working out how to make it work. The final blouse was made of some nice cotton, a remnant from the frock I made for my niece a few years ago. I haven't heard whether Penelope has attempted the project yet - I'm not sure - maybe she is still a bit young for it. Maybe it is more of a project for her Mum! :o 

nobby nobheads

For some reason hats keep getting lost, so a couple of months ago I whipped up a couple more. Basically the construction was the same as last time, but the materials were a little different. The bands are made with powerstretch. Since powerstretch is...stretchy...I made use of this facet, and made the bands a bit shorter, and so the hats grip the heads gently. The aim of James' hat was warmth so the top is made of sturdy non-stretch windbloc hard face, with shearling inner. I already have a nice warm hat given to me by my sister in law so I made a lighter weight hat for cycling and running, and the top is just a single layer of powerstretch. It has taken a while to take the photos as it has only recently become cold enough for James to start wearing his hat. I have been wearing mine regularly for a couple of months, but don't know how long I will be able to not loose such a black hat. 

pinky

Not quite my usual sort of thing this...

On a rainy day in autumn it gets a little cool at work in the afternoons. I thought an unconstraining flowing kind of garment might be nice to throw on at these times. I chose Jalie 2919, but then had much trouble getting my sticky little hands on the pattern. The shipping is too expensive at patternreview and (IIRC) it was out of stock at Jalie, so I purchased it at sewing patterns.com, a store I have used successfully in the past. The postage was certainly cheap, but several weeks later it still hadn't arrived! I complained and they said they'd send it again. Eventually, about 3 weeks later I got an email saying it had just been shipped and it duly arrived in Japan within the normal 2 weeks that airmail from the US takes. I'm guessing it was actually also out of stock at sewing patterns.com...

The fabric is a 2 way stretch lightweight hot pink silk knit that I impulse bought online from the USA. Such impulse purchases are not as uncommon as you might hope. When I am making a sensible fabric purchase online for a planned project, the postage is so expensive for a single purchase that I typically add in a few extra things to make it feel like less of a rip off. Thus my pile of fabric continues to grow, sometimes with rather curious pieces. I could see from the pattern that it wasn't going to fit my shape with the bulging hips and one-piece back, but I thought it possible that the drape of the fabric or tightness of the design might counteract these potential issues, and thus did not adjust the pattern. When it was made up I did decide it would benefit from refining closer to my shape. Since the design had a pleated front but no design features on the back or side, rather than just take in the seams, I sewed the new seam lines just down to the waist so that they appear to be pleats giving a vaguely similar design to the front. I did this for the back, and both sides. I don't have a photo which clearly shows these features - the wind blew too hard when James took the photo of the back of the garment.

As you can see the arms are quite long. I thought that was no bad thing for the intended use, but I still shortened the arms by 2cm with respect to the pattern. How much one may need to do this will depend on the stretch and drape of the fabric.

I am not sure that my legs are long or straight enough to pull this design off, but I do like the colour, and since I will mostly wear it sitting at my desk and generally skulking around work in the afternoons perhaps the leg issue won't matter too much. How will it look with my pinky Marfy trews?

Now, what to wear for the very cold winter days at work? During that season some people basically wear rugs while at their desks.

Simple Sack

The Yokohama walking shop, Kamoshika, gives out a couple of bags to those who join their loyalty scheme. Then, rather than hand over a card at the cash desk you wave a bag and they take n% off the purchases as they put them in the bag. One of the bags is perhaps the most simple rucksack there is. Basically it's a drawstring nylon bag, but the strings are webbing and attached to rings in the bottom corners, so it can carried on the back.

When we went to volunteer in Ishinomaki, we couldn't carry that much stuff so James took this extremely lightweight rucksack and it worked out well, so I decided to make one for me. I also added an insert to both bags to allow a Platypus water carrier to be carried a little separately from the other things in the bag. The pattern for the main body is pretty simple - just a rectangle with some folds in. The metal rings came from the make your own handbag section of Swany, in Kamakura. The seams in the original and the copy are bound with tough binding so that the binding takes some strain off the fabric. I made the bag out of left over trench coat fabric, and the Platypus holders are made of Pertex.

More cool bizz

The faux suede shorts wore through and James requested more. I found I still had enough tencel left to make another pair, just like the last ones. In fact I had just enough fabric for 2 pairs, although there was one flaw in the fabric which appears on the arse of one pair. I also managed to cut a waistband out wrong (not straight enough on grain) and then didn't have enough to cut another one long enough, so one of the waistbands has side seams. Due to the small overlap at the front, I fastened them with a snap rather than a button and the waistband was interfaced with Pro-Weft Fusible. 

After they were finished James told me that he always wants rear pockets in trousers, even shorts. This pattern doesn't have a rear pocket and I'd assumed since he'd been wearing both previous pairs happily for years that an exact remake of the pattern would be desired. Oh well.

Here's a recycled photo from 2006, but it's not that inappropriate as the shirt is still being worn too. The shoes are relegated to gardening only, but the model has only become more handsome. 

hippo-crit

About a year ago, instead of using the used tea leaves to grow mould in the sink trap, I made James dry and save and store them all in tins. It was really the mother-in-law's idea as she had remarked that old tea leaves make good stuffing for pin cushions and the like.

The question was, which stuffed toy should we make. We pondered various options, but suddenly realised that we needed a hippo in order that the one of us being the most hypocritical at the time, could be given the hippo. 

For the first time I made a purchase on a website called Etsy. I bought a pattern called Heather Hippo, by FunkyFriendsFactory. The pattern arrives as a PDF file a few days after the order is placed, and then it can be printed out. Wanting a slightly smaller hippo, I printed out the pattern at 75%. The pattern is very well made and the pieces fit together very well indeed. The instructions were also comprehensive. 

I found enough red fur for about 600¥ in the bits bin at Yuzawaya in Kamata, used fake suede for the contrast and sewed Hippo up my hand. The tea gives her almost a bean-bag feel, and she smells very nice, but I should have made a lining out of a closely woven fabric, as little bits of tea are going to escape through the somewhat loose weave of the slightly stretchy red fur fabric.

therma-stuff

Last week we went volunteering in Ishinomaki, one of the the tsunami hit cities of north Japan. See here for the story and here for some videos and photos. Shelter was the campsite at the local university so I took the opportunity of upgrading my leaky thermarest to the fabulously expensive super-light NeoAir Thermarest. This piece of equipment is so expensive that the stuff sack is sold separately (here it is on Amazon). Bugger that, thought I, and swiftly stitched up my own version with some Pertex that I had from when I made cycling tops and bottoms for James. The NeoAir, although a bit noisy, certainly was comfortable, and we had such a good time volunteering that we intend to go again, only this time we hope to take our bike, so James will not be able to bring his air bed. Thus, a longer NeoAir has been duly purchase, and a slightly larger stuff sack knocked up.

The stuff sack consists of a rectangle, sewn with a single seam to make a pipe, stitched onto a circle on one end and with a hem on the other through which a string is threaded. One sentence! 15USD on Amazon!

Marfy trews #4

I made another pair of Marfy 0680, this time in a fairly heavyweight (at least so it seems from here in the middle of the Japanese summer), striped stretch fabric from Gorgeous Things. I made jeans style pockets on this pair, and added patch pockets to the back. With the stretch, they seemed looser, and I took them in a fair amount (making about 2cm extra seam allowance) on the outside seams. They have come out feeling a little long from waist to crotch. In theory I could I suppose take off the waistband and move it down a centimeter or so, but probably I won't get a round tuit.

So, I haven't actually worn these yet, except a little round the house just after they were finished and very quickly just now to take the photo, because, just as I finished them, summer suddenly arrived. Stretch trousers are really comfortable on aeroplanes so I hope these they may be an alternative to these flower trews which are now rather faded.

J's Trenchcoat

At last, many years after I made a trenchcoat for myself, someone (Vogue patterns) brought out a pattern for a men's trench coat! This is V8720. I'd considered making a coat for James - we even went snoop shopping in San Francisco last year to consider styles - but I had been very put off by the available patterns. On the verge of adjusting my trenchcoat pattern for James, luckily this pattern came out just in time to save me all the work. 

The search for fabric was taxing. The idea was to make a coat with a softer drape, unlike the typical tight fitting straight-jacket style worn by the prim young salarymen in Tokyo (James is not prim!). I ordered swatches from Rockywoods and Gorgeous things, and eventually we chose some shiny and slightly crinkly dark brown slippery stuff. It isn't waterproof, but is hopefully showerproof,  and it cost quite a lot. I tested pretreating the fabric in various ways. Washing it seemed to shrink it a little, but more importantly it lost significant water repellency. So instead I ironed the whole yardage with a cool iron to preshrink it a bit so that it could be washed in the future if required, and also so that it would not shrink as I ironed it during construction. Getting the interfacing to stick down with the cool iron was a challenge, but I think it is all stitched down by all the edge and topstitching so it should be OK. It is rather softly interfaced (with pro-weft), and tacking down a fusible interfacing with the iron seemed preferable to sewing in interfacing, which would have made additional holes in the fabric!  

I had plans to line the coat, but the pattern is deliberately designed to be unlined, with carefully finished seams and large front facings. Since this version is meant for use in rainy season in Japan, when it is warm and wet, we decided to go with the unlined version. My feeling is that this will not aid the performance in wet weather as when it gets wet it will probably stick to the clothes underneath. The fabric is, however, very slippery so perhaps it will be OK. Time will tell. I finished the coat several weeks ago, and it has been quite wet in Japan ever since - but we have been away in a very dry part of the USA instead - so it had yet to be thoroughly tested. 

I happily used up some accidentally purchased (otherwise known as "what was I thinking?") cotton to make a test garment for fitting, adding several inches to the length of body and arms. I cut size 40 for the test, but ended up increasing the width across the back and shoulders, somewhat and fitted the size 42 collar pieces to the adjusted body. The resulting coat is perhaps a bit loose across the chest. The main mistake in construction (apart from sewing one pocket on upside-down and the other inside out, which I managed to recover from by sewing a new pocket bag onto the wrong way up one) was not altering the position of the lowest button after lengthening the garment. I think this button is too low, and will sometimes have to be released so that it does not restrict motion. The buttons are deliberately size 30mm rather than 25mm - I thought the over-sized buttons added a little something to the intended looser styling. Other changes from the pattern were to add a pertex lining (purple!) to the back flap piece, and also to stitch down the centre of the flap. The belt loops were fitted according to taste of the wearer, somewhat below his true waist. Otherwise I basically followed the instructions. I intend to include a belt buckle, but have yet to travel in to Yokohama to get one.

Thermo-nuclear gloves

Found some Polartec Windbloc at Rockywoods and made lobster cycling gloves for him and her. The fabric description says - "Brown Nylon Canvas face and Cream Shearling back. This fabric would make a nice jacket, vest, hat, mittens and other outerwear". The fabric is pretty stiff and thick, so these were put together slightly differently to the previous pair. I trimmed the fleece from the edges before stitching, overlapped most of the seams, handstitching where required, and made the gusset between the pincers from the more pliant windstopper fabric used for the last pair. The photos show one hand from each pair. James' pair came out too tight, because I stupidly used the same pattern as before even though this time the fleece was on the inside, rather than outside. Some surgery has fixed this; cutting them open and adding a windstopper gusset down the thumb. As well as giving the required room, this gusset does make the fit look better. I suspect that fitting a similar gusset down the index finger would further improve the fit. Some of my gloves do include such a thing, although it is clear from looking at all our pairs of gloves that there are many acceptable ways of constructing a pair of gloves.

Of course now it is warming up here a bit, so these wont get properly tested until next year, however, mine did keep my hands warm and dry in a relatively cold and rainy day recently. James' have only just been finished so are not tested yet.

World's best Mini MacbookAir case

World's best because it seems to be the world's only. Can't find any cases designed to fit the thinking woman's iPad, and so now have to face the fact that the only things in the MacStore that we haven't bought yet are the things that haven't been invented. Not that the thinking woman's iPad necessarily requires a case, but it would be a shame to pull it out of my rucksack and find it had a big scratch across the top.

This case is made from leftover denim lined with leftover wool, fastened  with two little magnetic fasteners. Total cost: 200¥ (1.66 UKP) plus a few hours hard labour. It being denim, I had to include a patch pocket, so I made it to fit an ipod, as I often carry both items around together at work.