Frankie Day 4

Frankie is done! Here are some of my final steps in my first journey with the new Frankie pattern from the Sewing Workshop (TSW).

Buttonholes and buttons, done. I'll live with these for a while. They were in stash so they needed a showing.

As Elaine on FB pointed out, the exterior of the sleeves is just right, but there is a remaining raw bit on the inside, right at the top of the vent. My French seams didn't help. I find it difficult to smoothly transition from a French seam to another seam finish. In the end I tried to fold under the raw edge and slip-stitch in place but it is a bit of a kludge.

The deep inverted pleat in the back is so pretty, I think. I decided to edge-stitch along the inside fold in the hopes of keeping it pleated as I wear and sit in it.

DH was sweet enough to take a picture of me. I guess this is how he sees me (he's quite a bit taller than I am).

So I did a selfie that may be a more accurate read on this shirt, or at least its proportions on my 5'5" frame. Or maybe it's just the way I see me.

Things I love:

• Face-framing collar
• Overlapping seams on the sides of the shirt, as well as the sleeves
• Back pleat
• Oh, my, this navy blue hammered silk!
• The final result.

Things I love less:

• Overall length was too much for me - I shortened it 3", making deep hems that I love.
• I wish I had lengthened the sleeves an inch. Next time.
• That raw bit at the top of the sleeve vent. If I had been working with sturdy fabric, I might have been able to finisse it better. Next time.
• I should have made a narrow shoulder adjustment rather than fudging it. This pattern has wide shoulders, wider than my older TSW patterns. Next time.

This was a fun and challenging make.

Now it's time to make a few gifts.

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Frankie Day 3

Please excuse that fold across the left front - just a random mis-press.

Progress continues on my first Frankie, a new pattern from the Sewing Workshop. I'm using navy-blue silk charmeuse that has a slight pebbled texture. At this point, it looks finished but it's not.

After hand-basting, I inserted the sleeves by machine. And I made a decision about the finish on those raw edges. I found some very light weight silk remnants in stash to use for binding them. I cut strips on the bias and machine sewed them to the raw edges of the set-in sleeves. I placed the bias strips up against the feed dogs so that the bias would not stretch too much. Now I'll wrap the binding around the raw edges and slip-stitch in place.

I also decided on a 3" deep hem on the body of the shirt. The pattern calls for a standard shirt tale finish which would have resulted in a 3/4" hem. This shirt is long - long even for a tunic. There was a time in my life when this would have been a dress. Sigh.

The fronts are cut straight on the cross grain and so I was able to easily create the 3" hem. I stay-stitched 1/4 inch from the raw edge and pressed at 3". Then I machine stitched the hem in place. 

The back hem required a bit more work. It is slightly shaped, dipping lower in center back. I could have just whacked it off straight across the grain, rendering it similar to the fronts. I'm glad that I remembered that the gentle curve adds elegance to the overall shape. So I marked 3" from the raw edge and cut it off, retaining the original curve. The piece removed became a facing by recutting it to match the smaller size of the remaining back hem area.

I attached the hem facing at the bottom with 1/4 inch seam allowance, pressed the seam open and then pressed it in place. As on the front, I stay-stitched the top of the hem 1/4 inch from the edge to make it easy to fold under and machine stitch.

Here you can see the finished back hem:

The choice to shorten this garment was not an easy one. The extra length in this tunic could be dramatic. And this navy blue silk is dramatic. But I feel sure I'll get more use from it in a traditional tunic length. And I love deep hemlines on a tunic, as it adds weight and drape.

The shoulders on this shirt run wide. I'm not sure why - it's not intended to be a dropped shoulder line. I checked the pattern tissue against a couple of Sewing Workshop patterns that fit me well and the Frankie shoulders are 3/4" wider than the others, all in size M. I was able to fudge 3/4" off the shoulder and still insert the sleeves. Otherwise this size Medium runs the same as other size Mediums I have made from The Sewing Workshop (TSW). Beware of the wide shoulders if you have a standard size in TSW.

I am pretty jazzed about this shirt at the moment, even though lots of work remains. The next step is buttonholes. Fingers crossed, mouth held just right. Send good karma, OK?

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Frankie Day 2

My ten-year-old grandson spent part of today with me. He had to miss school for a cold. He asked me, "Grandma, what do you DO all day?" I told him I read, I sew, I do laundry, run errands and cook sometimes. Mostly I sew. He said, "But don't you get bored with that?" No, I said, I love it. "But why?" Well, it's like when you get a new Lego kit. You cannot wait to work through the instructions and make it. That's the way it is with me and a new pattern. He rolled his eyes and smiled.

After he went home I had a few hours to sew and made progress on the Frankie shirt from the Sewing Workshop. Because it is made from silk charmeuse, I'm taking it nice and slow. Here is today's result:

That is correct. I made two sleeves. And I had a blast, Lego-boy!

Beyond the challenge of the fabric, these are somewhat intricate sleeves. It is a two-piece sleeve (hooray!) with an uneven vent. The vent mirrors the design of the overlapping seams on the body of the garment. So pretty.

Constructing the sleeves required more pressing than sewing. I made good use of my TSW pressing templates. I first learned about pressing templates in a class I took with Linda Lee years and years ago. It was a class at the Atlanta Expo. I think that the templates were actually provided as part of the class registration. Imagine that!?

It was again one of those cases where I could not visualize the construction ahead of time. So I followed each step carefully with fabric in hand. By reading and re-reading the instructions, and lock-stepping through them, the vents came together like magic.

I did have to unsew a few things but the silk recovered nicely. There is top-stitching at the top of the sleeve vent that holds the vent together. It is easy to get extra stuff caught under the presser foot when sewing up inside a finished sleeve:

Next up - setting the sleeves. I have not decided how to finish those raw edges. French seams are sometimes dicey in a set-in sleeve, but I don't want flat felled seams either. I may try some hand-sewing after inserting the sleeve. I'll let that perk overnight.

What a fun pattern - have you bought it yet?!?  I think that this is interesting and lovely design.

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Frankie Day 1

Today I had the extreme luxury of a full day of sewing. That really is as good as it gets. Quiet time in my sewing studio with no sound except sewing sound.

silk charmeuse for Frankie; maybe pants with the wool plaid

It was a good day to start the new Sewing Workshop pattern, Frankie. There is a sew-along going on via Facebook with tips and hints on the Sewing Workshop blog, so I have virtual sewing companions.

Wanting to use what I have in stash, I finally settled on a piece of silk charmeuse. It is solid navy with a pebble texture. Let's just say I am flying without a net. No experience with the pattern. No toile/muslin to make sure it fits. The worst possible fabric to sew. I do like a challenge.

Kenneth King once said he'd rather chew broken glass than sew with charmeuse. And I get that. It is like sewing on jello. But look at how luscious it is:

Yum!

Really, it will be worth it, right?

Using pressing templates for center fronts

The pattern has interesting lines and I scratched my head more than once while working through it today. I had skimmed the instructions ahead of time, but some just do not make sense to me until I have the fabric in my hand. For example there is a piece labeled front/side. There is no side seam, as this one piece wraps from the front into the back. There is an underarm dart that runs under the arm about half way down.

The back piece contains an inverted pleat and it underlaps the front/side piece, rather than simply being sewn right-sides-together. That sewing was a leap of faith. And it worked out exactly right!

I used silk thread to baste the back pleat in place. I still have sad feelings about the time I made a pleated skirt from silk charmeuse. I basted the pleats in place with cotton machine sewing thread. Of course, when I removed the basting, I had little holes down both sides of each pleat. Everytime I put it one, I grimaced. It was a lesson well-learned.

French seams in progress

The pattern instructs you to *finish* edges at several junctures. I think that this means serging, but I feel like that would be too heavy handed for this fabric. So far I've used a mix of mock-felled seam and French seams. So glad I did not try any of this late in the day!

French seams in the shoulders

My last step today was to attach the collar. This part at least is quite straight-forward. I interfaced the collar with washed silk organza. This gives it some body without being stiff.

Collar needs hand-sewing to fininsh

So far, so good, but fingers crossed.

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On a sad note, I feel I must mention the passing of Nancy Zieman (1953-2017). I wonder how many sewists all over the world have been influenced by her via the long-running TV show, Sewing With Nancy. I know that she inspired me on many occasions. Years ago when I had not yet discovered the American Sewing Guild and there was no social media, I sewed in isolation. I could always count on Nancy's show to record on VHS and later DVR. I could never get up that early on Saturdays, but I played the recordings later and enjoyed them very much. I felt like I had a sewing pal. The largest quilt I ever made was based on one of her shows. I still love that quilt. You will be missed, especially on Saturday mornings  afternoons, dear Nancy.

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Silk and Serendipity

Sunflowers on a farm in NH

The more I play with plant dyes, the more I want to play. There are endless variations and the results are unpredictable. I enjoy the surprise and make no attempt to create repeatable processes. Sometimes I chastise myself for not keeping better notes, but not often.

Black walnuts rescued from my local hiking trail

Years ago I spotted a bolt of PFD china silk at an estate sale. I have only just now come to appreciate the magic that is silk. I'm guessing that most silks contain dye magic. Of course I love to sew with cotton and linen but dyeing is not nearly as exciting with those celulose fibers.

My most recent adventures have been primarily with black walnuts but also with leaves and sunflowers. Here is the (first) one with sunflowers. You can see that bolt of PFD china silk in the upper left hand corner.

I started by dipping the silk in an iron bath: The iron bath is water and white vinegar in a glass container with some rusty objects. After about a week of steeping, it was a light orange color. So I dipped about a yard of the silk in it and squeezed it out. Wearing gloves, of course!

Steamer with the silk piece and some Hanji paper pieces

Next I pulled the flowers apart and laid out rows of the various parts of the flowers on half of the damp silk. There were green leaf-like structures (sepals) under the yellow petals, the yellow petals and then the black center torn into small pieces, each placed in rows.  I folded the remaining silk half over the plant parts, rolled it tightly, securing with twine. Then I curled it so that it would fit on top of my steamer.

I am totally in love with the resulting patterns and colors. I believe that the dark navy/purple parts were stained with the dark center seeds and that the other parts produced the orange stains. Now I am itching to stitch and wear this. I've done some research and I'm fairly comfortable that these are safe to use for clothing. For more on this subject, check out this very helpful post from India Flint, as well as this one from Alpenglow Yarn.

Meanwhile I've returned to my black-walnut-dyed silk pieces with plans to make something. The variety of results is endlessly interesting to me. This one was folded and steeped in leftovers from last year. I am amazed to see the pink colors and have no idea what caused it. I was not expecting much from year-old black walnut juice. But silk is magical.

Folded, clamped and dyed with year-old black walnut juice

The fresh walnuts from this year also yielded a wide variety of results. All pieces came from that off-white china silk. The following piece was simply stuffed in the dye pot and left to steep for a week or so, stirring occasionally. It looks more solid in reality. Some combination of sunlight and the camera created a rusty color. Because of the sheen, the color varies quite a lot.

This next piece was folded and clamped between two pieces of glass. It was steeped in a plastic container also for about a week. Perhaps the plastic inhibited the color transfer, or maybe the clamping was especially effective as a resist.

So now I must make something.

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