Sunday, September 28, 2014

How to move front pockets

I should have posted this weeks ago, but, well, life has kind of gotten in the way.  Here's a link to the original post so you can tie the two together.  So, this is how I move front pockets when tailoring a pair of pants.
As you are marking the cutting line up the leg put those marks on the pockets.
Transfer those lines to the fabric of the pant legs to the seam where the pocket joins the front.  Then get your handy-dandy seam ripper out and CAREFULLY remove the pocket unit from the pant leg.
 Then pin the pocket back in to match up on the new cutting line.  Now you can cut all the excess fabric off the front pant leg using the pocket edge as your cutting edge.  You will be able to see where any notches need cut or stay-stitching needs done.
On this pair of pants the pockets were twisted.  Probably because the fabric was off grain and after they were washed and all the sizing was removed the fabric returned to its natural lay.  Another reason to always prewash your fabric.  I did have to take the pockets apart, re-cut and re-build them so they would lie flat in the garment.  Not something you normally have to do.
Lay the right side of the pocket facing against the right side of the front, pin and sew.  I usually set the pocket on the inside of the front where it goes and then flip it to the front to make sure I putting the right pocket on the right side of the pants.  Cause, well, I've been wrong before.
Clip any corners, flip, iron, top stitch, and press everything flat.  Pin the pocket edges to the side of the pants and to the waist of the pants, then baste the pocket edges where they meet the sides and waist of the front.  Bar-tack (usually a narrow, short [quarter to half inch] zig-zag) at the bottom of the pocket opening and at the top of the pocket opening.

As you can see the side of the pants is a smooth line, but at the waist I have a little of the pocket peaking above the waistline.  This had to do with the way Hubby's pants needed to be tailored.  (Interesting note:  less than 12% of the people in any given size are actually those measurements.)  I just trim that little bit off.  To me having the side of the pocket lying right is more important than that little bit at the top of the pocket that needs trimmed off.
Now you just finish sewing the pants back together!

 I hope everybody is having a good day!

Judy

Sunday, September 21, 2014

my heart is broken

My heart is broken; my compadre in life is gone.

Hubby passed away Friday morning sometime between 9:00 am and 11:30 am while we were taking a nap after a night where neither one of us slept well.

I relieved I don't have to watch him struggle to make himself understood.  But I miss his rapier wit.

I am relieved he no longer hurts so much he had to have help most days to get out of his chair.  But I miss his gentle smile.

I relieved I don't have to watch him struggle after the gout crippled his hands so bad he couldn't do the simplest tasks some days.  But I miss his touch.

I am relieved he is no longer in so much pain he couldn't lay down to sleep.  But I miss the mischievous twinkle in his brown eyes.

 My heart is broken; my rock in life is gone.

Judy

Sunday, September 14, 2014

my take on a jellyroll race quilt

This is my take on a jellyroll race or lasagna quilt.  I wanted to do one and I needed to make a quilt for a wedding gift for a friend's granddaughter so away I went.

I studied several you-tube videos.  Starting with the Missouri Quilt Co. video with a white block spacer between each new strip.  When I got to thinking about how I would construct and quilt a king-size quilt I decided to turn it into a giant nine-patch.  I decided that a random placed white patch might not look so hot so I went with the original jellyroll race quilt look.

A 40-strip jelly roll will make approximately 50" by 64" quilt.  So how would you expand it to get a king-size quilt?  Web surfing to the rescue, of course!  And now that I want to write it up I can't find the you-tube videos that explained how to make different sized quilts! Damn-it!

EDIT:  Found It! Jean JellyRollQueen 
                            Part 2

Any way, I wanted to make an 84" by 84" center. The formula is to take inches wide times 32 rows, then divide by the length of the strips for how many strips in the main body of the quilt.  Next for the 20 inches left over which is 10 rows do the formula again to know what you need for the added length of the quilt you want to make.  Okay, clear as mud, right! LOL!

Main Body    84 x 32 =  2688 / 41 = about 66 strips (round up)
Second Half  84 x 10 = 840 / 41 = about 21 strips (round up)
Add 66 strips + 21 strips = 87 strips of 2 1/2" fabric.
The advice of the lady who posted the you-tube videos was to add a few extra strips so you wouldn't be short.

This lady's advice on adding the extra strips to get the length of quilt you wanted was to add them evenly to the top and bottom, in my case five rows top and five rows bottom.  Just to make sure I had enough (cause I'm paranoid like that) I stopped and measured my strips when I had sewn the first seam in the first batch of strips together.  I was too long and trimmed it back to the size I needed.




This is the back.  I randomly sewed strips I had cut from the stash together.

  
Cut and turned as a nine-patch


See those two yellow strips that are side by side?  That's the middle of your long strip of fabric, which would be no big deal if you were leaving as one big piece.  However, I wanted to make blocks, so I picked off that bottom row and re-sewed it to the top of that block.


This is the front.  I decided to sort the fabric into color families and I changed up the construction, too.  After I had sewn the long strip in half, I cut the strip in the lengths I need for the width of the quilt top.  Then I sewed the top in three sections before cutting it into my blocks.  I think it turned out better.  I didn't have any spots where the fabric doubled over on top of it self.

 This is the nine-patch layout of the top.
I didn't like the original border fabric I had picked out so I switched to this black print.  Better but still not the pop I was looking for.  I decided to use cornerstones to finish the borders.  After sewing them on I liked the square-in-a-square the best.

I'm thinking I should have used black strips to set the quilted blocks together.  That might have helped the over-all look of the quilt by giving the eyes someplace to rest from busyness of the quilt.

Will I make another jelly roll/lasagna quilt?  Only if it is in a size I could comfortably quilt as one piece in my machine, so that would mean probably nothing bigger than a twin or maybe a double with a traditional weight batting.
So the label is on and the quilt is ready to be shipped.  Now to finish up another quilt I'm working on for a wedding in October.

Everybody have a good day!

Judy