Sewing for a man #2: White lies and guesses

My two eldest children are very close in age and very different in personality. As small children, playing with Lego, when a new kit arrived with a set of instructions, the eldest pored over the instructions, keen to get the details correct. The second child tossed the instructions away without a glance and just went for it with the Lego.

I have to confess that my sewing is rather like the latter. I do consult instructions from time to time. Now we have the wonders of the internet, I can consult tutorials and all sorts of ideas, but I am impatient with the minutiae, and tend just to go for it, using guesswork and holding my breath a lot.

I guessed at how to do the neckline of this top and have had to do a bit of handsewing to patch up and hide errors - as long as the outer appearance is OK, that will do. I have the same issue, to a degree, with making split sides, although I actually did consult the pattern ... and then did my own version. I think some handsewing will be required there to cover up.

Much of my sewing is about clever hiding. Maybe that's the case with many artisans. I don't know. Their white lies are too good.

Did I say Zips?

Once I discovered that these existed, I had to hunt them down. I am going to have fun putting these on bags and pouches!

Fairy Godmothers and Zips

This tree fabric was a remnant, a gift from a dear old lady who swaps fabrics with me and gives me zips because she doesn't like sewing them. Her tidy house hides her stash of items given to her by various people across the years. Every now and then, she pops into my work to give me little bits and pieces, and when I get a decent lot of the right sort of fabric for her projects, I take those to her.

Before she started bringing me zips, I already had a fair stock of zips bought from here and there, among which was this lime green job. The photo on the right doesn't show the true colour - it's actually a perfect match for the green on the trees. The black zip in the left photo I actually had to go and buy, despite my stash. I did manage to find one at the op shop, though, so no real hassle. I incorporated lime green into the lining of the pockets and a thin trim of it shows around that black zip.

The bag on the right has been sold, but the left one is still up for grabs. It has inside slip pockets (lime green), a secreted metal loop for hooking on keys, a decent sized outer zip pocket and a sturdy strap.

Aaaaarrrgh! or The Best-Laid Plans

I am not an absolute perfectionist. I try to apply a motto to my life of aiming for 100% but being satisfied with 70-80% in results. I have even stopped correcting other people's spelling and grammar. A bit.

When I am sewing, I  do try to do the best job possible. I will take shortcuts and cheat a little if I can get away with it, but I do like to make sure I have cut correctly. This man's top I am working on is from a piece of fabric bought on Ebay - an odd-shaped remnant, but large enough for the task. Well, large enough if I had cut everything correctly.

I pre-washed the fabric, as one should, especially with knit fabrics. I hung it on the clothesline, which caused a bit of a line mark across it, so I placed the pattern pieces carefully to avoid having this mark show.

I had just cut out the two sleeves and was marking the centre top of them with pins, only to find that I had not placed the pattern quite as carefully as I thought. Some remnants of knit fabric have overlock stitching towards the end of the roll - this one had that stitching right at the top of one sleeve.

It's ok, I thought, I'll change the shoulder shape a little. I cut the shoulder of both sleeves to match, trimming off the unsightly stitching. Then I saw it. About 7cm from the top of one sleeve were two rectangular marks resembling sticky tape stains. I haven't worked in the industry, so I don't know what causes these horrors, but horrors they are, and I do not have enough fabric left over to re-cut the sleeve.

Right now, that piece is soaking, having been scrubbed with eucalyptus oil and soap.

Please pray for me.

Sewing for a man

When Australia still had a healthy manufacturing base, and there were many clothing factories operating, we could buy decent off-cuts, remnants and sometimes fair lengths of fabrics for stretch sewing - T-shirts, rugby tops, windcheaters, etc. I used to make a lot of stuff for my husband and use the leftover bits to make things for the children.

In recent times, sadly our manufacture has dried up and along with it this rich resource. Imported clothing can be bought so cheaply that it is more expensive to sew a windcheater or pair of track pants now, even if any suitable fabric can be found, so the joy of creating something for a specific person has gone, unless we want to pay extra just to be able to produce an item.

Well, I decided I will still do it a little bit. A recent attempt at a long-sleeved T-shirt came out with reasonable results, but I wasn't really happy with it.

The fabric was the only thing I could find remotely suitable and was not a nice fabric to sew. At least I was able to get a custom length to the garment, which gave it a definite edge over bought tees, which are often too short for a middle-aged man. Add to that the sheer delight it gave him to find I had made him a present, in among all my varied (and fairly girly) sewing projects.

My next project has only just begun. I tried Ebay and was fortunate to find a lady selling several pieces of fabric from her home, not terribly far from where I live. I did have to confess to my husband that I had bought more fabric (when our house is full of it), but I was very restrained and bought only a very small number of items, one of which was the Ebay find from my search: a navy knit fabric, hopefully suitable for a man's casual top.

I have cut out two of the main pieces, have worked out how to create a section to insert a zip and have inserted said zip. Happily, it appears to have worked, and equally happily, the zip came from my collection - I didn't buy a new one.

If I can work out how to put pictures in a blog, I may illustrate this point, but for now, the pictures are more likely to appear on my Facebook page, Kwee. https://www.facebook.com/Kwee-977106825639876/

Off to tackle the next pieces to cut out and contemplate the overlocker, which will require all four of its threads to be changed to a dark colour for sewing navy. This may cause a hiccup in the proceedings.....

P.S. Zip photo added!!

Introduction

I am a person of many interests and ideas. I like to share my ideas with others and to teach people how to do the things I can do. As I learn a bit more about blogging, I am hoping to provide tutorials in sewing, among other things. If you would like to learn along with me, please feel welcome to visit my blog.
You can follow my Facebook page, simply called Kwee, to see the latest items I have created.
https://www.facebook.com/Kwee-977106825639876/