#but I also want to finish this quilt

[tj-crochets]

Another row sewn on the progress pride quilt!

Starting a new post because I don’t want to go find the old one lol

[sheliesshattered]

It's been almost two weeks since my last sewing update, but I have been making progress on a couple different projects, thankfully. I mentioned in my last post that I was hesitant to cut into a king-sized 100% linen bedsheet that I've been hoarding for 10+ years. I knew I wanted to make an apron, but I also knew that it wouldn't take up anywhere near the whole sheet, and I had the thought that I might be able to get two projects out of this one sheet (and the remnants of the matching fitted sheet) if I was careful about how I cut out all my pieces. Possibly a gathered tiered skirt/petticoat, along with the apron.

I measured the two long sides of the flat sheet that had identical ~1.25" deep hems, and I found that each side was 112" or just over 3 yards long, not counting the top and bottom hems. That meant if I did side seams, I could get a 6 yard wide bottom tier for the skirt and not have to do a hem at all, just use what was already there. Not the widest hemline on this kind of skirt (I have a purchased skirt with a 25 yard hem, and years ago I made a 26 yard tiered skirt out of muslin), but with this heavy weight linen it felt like 6 yards at the hem would be plenty.

Gathered tiered skirts are really just rectangles and a bit of simple math. Since the sheet's side hem determined the size of the lowest tier at 224", I figured I would do 2-to-1 gathers and make the next tier up 112" wide, and the third tier up 56" wide. A fourth tier at that 2-to-1 gathering ratio would have been only 27" wide, which wouldn't have fit over my hips, so the skirt would have 3 tiers.

I'm a short girl at not quite 5'2" and I like to wear my skirts pretty low on my hips for spoonie comfort issues, so after measuring a purchased skirt whose length I like, I decided that between 30" and 33" inches in total length would be ideal. With three tiers that length could easily be divided into tiers that are each 10"-11" tall. I added a half inch for seam allowance (but no hem allowance on the lowest tier, since I was re-using the existing hem) to get the exact measurements for each of the pieces I needed for the skirt.

I was able to tear most of my pieces, since the linen bedsheet was nicely on the grain and tore relatively cleanly, thus saving my hands from cutting all those long pieces. I had meant to cut the top tier at 14" tall so that I'd have room to turn under a nice thick waistband too -- and then I totally forgot and cut it at 12" just like the middle tier, lol. I was able to get one of the middle tier pieces and both of the top tier pieces out of the remains of the matching fitted sheet, so I only needed one middle and two bottom tiers from the flat sheet. That left me with plenty of flat sheet left over for the apron, but I'll talk more about that in my next sewing post.

With my pieces all cut out, it was time to start the most annoying part of making a gathered tiered skirt: gathering all those tiers. I'm trying to sew with cotton thread more often these days, but for the gathers I switched back to polyester thread just for the strength. For the two bottom tier and two middle tier pieces I ran two lines of gathering stitches along the top edge, placed pins to divide each panel into quarters, and got to gathering and pinning.

With tiered skirts I really prefer to work from the bottom up, so that I'm always attaching a gathered piece to a completely flat piece of fabric, and save side seams for last. So the bottom tier pieces got gathered up and attached to the middle tier pieces, then the middle tier got gathered up sewn to the top tier.

Since I accidentally cut my top tier pieces shorter than I'd meant to, I did play around with adding a separate waistband for the top tier to be gathered onto. But I couldn't do a full 2-to-1 gather if I wanted the waistband to pull on over my hips, and the waistband made the proportions look weird, like the top tier was too long. So I ended up cutting the waistband off after I sewed it and actually shortening the top tier even a little bit more. After turning under the top edge to enclose the raw ripped edge and then turning under 3cm (~1.2") for a waistband casing, that top tier ended up being about 9" tall, and the proportions of that look much better for some reason.

Before I sewed the side seams, I decided that this skirt needs to have pockets, of course. I knew I was planning to do French seams to protect the raw edges against unraveling, so I put the pockets in with a French seam as well.

With the pockets in place, the next step was to do the side seams (including the pocket bags), being careful to match up the height of the hem and each of the tiers so everything was nice and clean and square. Then I was able to turn under that waistband casing and sew it in place -- my original plan had been put in three separate channels for narrow elastic that would result in a bit of a faux-cartridge pleating look, but actually getting the elastic strung through there turned out to be more of a pain than it was worth, so I ended up picking that out and just using a single 1" wide elastic band in the waistband casing instead.

And with that, the skirt was technically wearable, and with some fabrics I might have been happy to leave it there. But the raw ripped edges at the seams between each of the tiers worried me. I've had well-loved sewing projects just shred after many wears and washes because I left the seams unfinished, figuring I would be the only one to see the inside. Ideally I want this skirt to be in my rotation for years and years, so I decided to make the effort to finish those seams too.

My original plan had been to cover the raw edges inside with 3/4" herringbone twill tape. For some reason I was convinced that I had a bunch of it left over from a Wasteland Weekend project from 2018, only to discover that I actually only had ~3 yards left. So rather than ordering more and waiting for it to arrive (and then inevitably having some of that left over too), I decided to just make some 3/4" tape from the linen sheet itself. Since this whole skirt is rectangles on-grain and the tape wouldn't have to go around any curves, I made the tape from on-grain rectangles too, rather than bothering with proper bias tape.

With the hem and the waistband already cleanly finished, I just needed tape to cover the ~3 yard seam between the bottom and middle tier and the ~1.5 yard seam between the middle and top tier. I tore nice straight strips, trimmed off the frayed edges, and ironed the raw edges under to give me that 3/4" width. It's three layers thick in the middle but only 2 layers thick on the sides, since it isn't a proper double-fold tape.

Then it was just an issue of pinning it over the raw edges inside the skirt -- first from the inside in roughly the right place and then from the outside to make sure it lined up with the seam well.

I stitched-in-the-ditch from the outside right where the gathers met the next tier up, and then went back and did another line of stitching just slightly up from that, using the width of my machine foot (~1cm) as a guide. That covered all the raw edges inside and reinforced the seam, and gave it a nice neat appearance from the outside.

It also had the added benefit of behaving almost like cording on a corded petticoat -- the gathered seems have a lot more body and stiffness now than they did before, which gives the finished skirt a really lovely lofty structure.

The whole skirt ended up being about 31" long, right in that 30"-33" length I had originally aimed for, and when I wear it low on my hips where it's most comfortable, it just brushes the tops of my feet.

My plan is to wear this mostly under other long skirts and dresses, more as a petticoat than a skirt on its own (tho it is heavy enough and neat enough to be worn on its own, if I want). That lofty structure from the seam finishes adds a lot of floof to my other long skirts, just barely peeking out the bottom of the purchased green skirt I originally measured to figure out the length for this one, and hiding completely under my purchased 25 yard burgundy skirt but giving it enough extra volume that it doesn't drag on the ground quite so badly.

As the colder weather sets in I'm sure this will get a lot of wear under skirts and dresses (including the several dresses I'm still planning to sew in the next couple months!), but even now in the last heat of summer it's quite comfortable to wear, since it's linen. Jack commented that it seemed like a lot of work for a skirt that won't be seen (and it did manage to remind me how much I dislike gathering long lengths of fabric), but as long as it's functional and gets used often, I feel like all the effort was worth it.

While I was putting this together, I also cut out and started assembling the apron project from the same bedsheet. Even with all those pieces cut out, I still have enough linen left over for at least one more, maybe two more projects. Next up I'm going to get to all the finishings on the apron (which will be getting its own post once it's done) and keep trucking along on the handsewn eyelets for the Lengberg Castle Bra-thing. And once those two are done, I think I just might be ready to finally start on all the dresses I want to make with my new fabric.

[pearl-kite]

A resolution, I guess: a few Christmases back I got a kit for this lap-sized fox quilt and I've FINALLY got everything cut, minus a few one-inch squares that went missing in the meantime.

I'm going to rearrange things so I can stop using the sewing machine table as a side table and actually piece this fucking thing together.

It's so cute, some of the fabric even has foxes, so you can make your fox faces out of foxes in case 42 fox blocks aren't enough

[asterdeer]

spent 80% of my day making the pain-in-the-ass squares for my ace jon quilt and consequently my body is 80% pain now

[to-the-fishies]

Y’ALL.  I have finished my 7th quilt!

[muirneach]

i was like aw i wish knew someone getting married i want to make a wedding quilt and then i remembered my best friend is moving out for the first time this year so i get make a housewarming quilt instead. such joy!

[arsenicflame]

so, with my weekend unexpectedly free, i think im gonna have some time to start a new project this weekend- but im not sure which way to go, so i am once again bullying you all to help me decide

the break up robe:

i have preeeeetty much everything i need to finish this project, or at least get quite a way in- its gonna be the harder of the two options as i have to (mostly) make the pattern from scratch so i dont expect to get much past the mock up stage this weekend, but i think once im started, i might be able to do bits and pieces in a spare hour over the week.

im quite looking forward to this, its far more in the comfort zone of things ive made before, but it also has its fair share of new techniques to keep me thinking! i expect this is gonna be a semi long project, so progress will be pretty slow but hopefully steady

also this project is the same velvet as the skirt i was making, so im expecting the same technical issues as that (ie. it is velvet and velvet is evil) and the lining is probably just as evil in the exact opposite way... so.... fun..... :)

the lighthouse painting quilt:

i am VERY excited to work on this one right now, however im not sure i actually have enough colours to make any meaningful progress on it. its gonna be an easier make (i think), i already have the pattern prepped, so i should be able to get right into assigning colours to sections and cutting them out- however if i am missing colour sections from my plan, im gonna run up against being able to do any actual sewing- i might be able to get the land and lighthouse done, but the whole background could be pretty much pointless to start when i cant do 90% of the seams.

im not sure if its worth starting any of it when im not sure when ill be able make the next jump in progress (and im worried when i get other colours i might want to move things around), but on the other hand it /could/ be good to get started on some of the prep work so i dont have to do it all in one hit when i just wanna start on the actual project.

[onbearfeet]

A conversation at a wedding, beside the gifts table. There is a large box wrapped in violently purple paper sitting beside the table.

Guest: That's a big box. Wonder what's in it.

Me: A custom handmade quilt on an oak quilt rack.

Guest: Really?

Me: Yup. Wanna see?

Guest: Sure.

Me: *shows pics on my phone*

Guest: Wow. You made that?

Me: Yep. Finished it last night.

Guest: That's amazing. Very purple.

Me: Yeah, (bride) asked for that.

Guest: Oh, she knows about it?

Me: I worked with her on the design. But she hasn't seen the finished quilt yet. It's a surprise.

Guest: So you take commissions? Could you make one in, say, two weeks?

Me: That depends. Do you have ten thousand dollars?

Guest: What.

Me: Materials, labor, overtime to make that deadline--yeah, it would start at 10K. Might be higher if you wanted expensive materials or some really fancy technique.

Guest: That's a lot of money!

Me: It is.

Guest: Did you charge (bride) that much?

Me: No. Hers is a gift.

Guest: A ten thousand dollar gift?

Me: Well, to the extent that I am part of a quilting tradition at all, the tradition I'm part of is that quilts can ONLY be given as gifts. Anyone who could casually afford to pay for the amount of work involved in a quilt is probably not someone to be trusted with art.

Guest: Art?

Me: ART.

Guest: ...

Me: I also made her a nice satin dressing gown, which she wore for hair and makeup earlier.

Guest: Is that art, too?

Me: I mean, it's got pockets.

[darkmoonkestrel]

daily kestrel 87:

Thanksgiving with Paige's family was great! Sav had to go to work early this morning so we stopped by Starbies on our way to her parent's house to see her and then we hung out there for a while with her parents and Zane, watching the parade and doing food prep/packing/cleaning. mom & dad went to pick up the rest of the stuff that they ordered for catering, and we hung out with Zane for the tail end of the parade and talked about his plans for the future, which apparently include cinematography, so that was cool

Paige and I got ready and headed to Mamaw's, and it was an absolutely beautiful drive. her cousins were already there, and we chilled there for a while and watched the dog show while Mom and Mamaw did more cooking/prep and dad looked at the house inspection report. Paige and I took the pre-thanksgiving dinner smoking (vaping) walk, the parents made mimosas in the middle of the day, Lily and I played Mario Kart and then walked outside to watch her brother & dad play football and talked some, she's a pretty great kid

we headed over to the fellowship hall of the church and Lily set up her bracelet making kit, I joined her and made a PPJ bracelet, and then it was food time. we had plenty of amazing food, including several bomb ass desserts and some of Nathan's dad's homemade BBQ sauce (even though that BBQ didn't need it) - the only thing the dinner was missing was deviled eggs, and Paige said she may make me some this week bc I was really looking forward to them, so that will satisfy the hole in my heart. overall a much better thanksgiving than last year, although I still missed my family and Peyton

Paige and I played spot the Christmas lights on the way to stop by her parent's house to move the VHS tapes into the guest room and let the dogs outside, and then we got on the road home. I've been to Bucees entirely too much in the last week or so, but I got another icee and mamba sours and some more of the spicy crackers. we were able to take the expressway home, and listened to another ep of Distractible between conversations about high school grievances with teachers and peers, and now we are safely home with the car unloaded and Peyton's to go plate (and Brunswick stew and grape salad) in the fridge. Paige got the storage unit rented, and we may go by tomorrow to take a few things and get them out of the way before Nathan comes on Sunday to help us move some of the bigger furniture. Peyton will be coming home tomorrow morning, so it will be a packing day of extreme proportions

[evandore]

back to organizing again and i keep underestimating how much work i need to do 😔 cause the main thing thats left is just sorting through fabric but ohhhhh my god....im gonna have to get little cubbies or something i hate having everything in boxes it makes it so hard to organize things in a way i can easily reach stuff but also put it back -_- and not to mention the actual Fabric i have is ummm very little. other than a few packs of quarters i would collect on sale and some project specific stuff...like 80% of my 'fabric' are just my old clothes i want to scrap or clothes ive gotten from the thrift store usually bc they have an interesting pattern or material...i have however generally sorted everything into vague piles so i think ill just put it all into seperate boxes to stack them and have to figure out a better system in the future

[navybluetriangles]

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[tj-crochets]

Another woodland flannel baby quilt! This one took a little less than four hours from start to finish, including ironing and cutting out the pieces

[sheliesshattered]

sewing the first ~5' long over-bust seam to attach the new center front panel to the existing dress: smooth, stress-free, perfect result, required a mildly obnoxious number of pins but otherwise a dream

re-sewing the ~1/2" I accidentally unpicked between one of the center back panels and a side back panel: I have given up after trying to sew it no less than five times, after the fabric managed to misbehave in at least five completely different ways

[wickedhawtwexler]

i think creatives deserve regular paid sabbaticals from our day jobs so we can make things

[sleepnoises]

🥺 I love this addition so much! Thank you! I don't have anything smart to say so I will just share one of the quilted maps of Linda Gass as a little snack to go with your interesting words

Urban Power vs. San Lorenzo Creek – What’s Next? (2019)

I've started quilting my quilt and I thought it would be fun to approximately quilt in the shape of major roads (thanks yarrow for suggesting this in april) but now I want to quilt it more densely and feel locked into the road thing as 1) it is a sin to lie 2) as i am learning, Boston has an infinite number of roads

I will actually probably do leafs or vines or so on but wanted to share my road conundrum

Additional planning materials:

[thisishaskins]

recently have been feeling absolutely terrible to the point of just total inaction and staring up at the ceiling in my bedroom thinking about all the things i could be doing and how i am wasting my time but unable to move from my depression