Oh, And Did I Mention?.....

...that I finished cleaning out the sewing room? No? Well, I did.

Over four months ago. And I'm only now posting? How did that happen?

I'm not quite sure. I was determined to get the sewing room cleaned out before my daughter went back to school BUT I also wanted it to be early enough so my husband could get his stuff moved out of her room and into The Secret Lair, as we are now calling it. So, late in August, I took time off work and set to it. (I have a vague memory that I was ill, too, but that may just be from being sick at Christmas and remembering just how exhausted I was when I finished cleaning out the room.) I managed to pack the last boxes I took from the sewing room into every nook and cranny of the house: in the garage, under the bed, under the bedside table, stacked in my closet, behind the couch in the living room, even stacked on a dolly in the one remaining spot in the storage unit. Still have not found a place for my two dress forms, nor a storage spot for my sewing machine and serger, nor for my tool box; those all still live in the middle of our bedroom floor. However, the point was that I was able to clean everything that the Hubster was not using (I left him a book shelf, a TV and VCR, a table and a trash can, all at his request; I had intended to dump or donate them.) out of the room, and vacuum the floor, the walls, the louvered doors to the laundry room, and the window, window sill, and vertical blinds. Them as has visited the former sewing room, even in its best days, would be astonished by this feat.

And the Hubster, Lady bless him, stepped up to the plate: he moved all of his stuff out of Sam's room before school started, despite having Sam available to help him, and me being back at work. We even managed to get all of her furniture re-arranged, and the new furniture bought, though I admit she didn't get the desk until just after school started. I was so happy! I really wanted her to have her own space, and she's been much more interested in having things neat and clean, now that that's more doable.

The bad news is, of course, that it is extremely hard to sew, now. I managed to make a camp shirt for my BIL, and the nightshirts for Sam and my mom and me, but at the cost of having the dining room table laid waste to for several days. Got to find a better way to do things.

And in better news, the closet in Sam's bedroom that did not get cleaned out earlier got (mostly) cleaned out this weekend! Sam was able to hang all her clothes, even some of her costumes, in the closet, as well as storing boxes of toys in there. She was so happy! The only thing left is the shelves at the top of the closet, on which I would like to keep her linens; Bruce still needs to organize stuff in his Lair to find space for the stuff still on the shelves. But it's such a big improvement!

So, there you have it folks! One huge task, that has been hanging over my head for literally years, and when I finally complete it, it drops off the radar so fast, I forget to even post about it. Weird, I tell you.

The Pledge

O.K., I said I'd do it, so here it is:

FIVE THINGS I WILL FINISH IN 2009

1. The bleeping sweater coat! Thanks to Ravelry, I may have found enough of the 20 year old yarn to finish the sucker. If not, I've thought of a few ways I can rob Peter to pay Paul, so to speak; it should be enough. There isn't really all that much left to do on it, but the lack of yarn and the bulkiness of the front pieces meant I had to put it on the back burner for a while.
2. Linda's table cloth. I've talked about this before, as well. (I'll put the links in later.) I've almost finished one corner, which means that most of the design decisions have been made, so it should go faster from here on.
3. Samantha's space quilt. Really feel bad about this one; it was supposed to be for her 1st birthday, and she turns 8 this month and it's still not done. cringe This will involve some re-work, as it is no longer big enough, but mostly I just have to figure out when and where I can work on it, without rubbing off all the chalk lines for the hand-quilting. (You can see why it didn't get done, perhaps....)
4. Samantha's Disney Princess quilt. I've had all the Princess squares crosstitched for more than 4 years, and have not yet put the thing together. I think I even have all the fabric, including the batting, and this one will be machine-quilted, so there really is no excuse.
5. I've been a little stuck on what I should do for item 5. I owe my step-great-neice a pair of leg warmers from last Christmas which will only take about 3 hours to finish, if I can just get the darn yarn to stop bleeding OR find a good source of superwash DK weight yarn in a good, primary red that looks the same as Knitpick's Bare, so it will blend with the other colors. However, I since that one is not yet quite a year overdue, I think I'll go with the black beaded purse I started for Kate, lo these many years ago, when I was making period purses for the sewing circle. I don't know why it is taking so long; I used the same smocking technique on the sleeves for Sarah's wedding dress, and those went quite quickly. I guess it's because I'm smocking and beading at the same time; maybe if I separate the two steps it will go faster? Hard to say; in any case, since that is nearly 8 years overdue, I think that will have to take slot #5.

So that's it; these are the things that I want most to finish this year. I will be working on these while I am also working on the following:

• scarf and hat for a friend's daughter's school's auction (I know; she really should be some sort of professional donation-gatherer. Her talents are wasted on the homefront!)
• grocery bags for my daughter's school's auction. Already have the organic cotton, just have to decide which pattern to use
• belated Christmas presents
• -scarf for my brother; need the yarn
• -socks for my mom, and three friends; have the yarn, and have even started two of the pairs
• -slippers for my sister and brother-in-law; have the yarn
• -Barbie's holiday dress; didn't get finished, due to the Great Christmas Flu, but should be able to finish it in the next day or so
• 6 freakin' corsets for sale
• Mini-Muppet sweater for Samantha's American Girl doll Samantha
• a camp shirt for the Hubster (fortunately, his birthday is a few months after Christmas, so things that don't get done for Christmas just slop over)

This does not include socks remaining from last year's Sock Madness, nor those I'll get for this year's round, though I'm really hoping both my designs get into the contest this year.


And just so I don't get totally discouraged, things I've finished since my last update post: two tea cozies (neither came out nearly as cute as I wanted them to, due to proportion issues; will post a pic of the Cheshire Cat soon); camp shirt for my brother-in-law (of which, once again, I did not take a picture; I blame the Great Christmas Flu); two more sleepshirts (one for my daughter and one for me); and a knitted version of the ruffled scarf (I tried a free pattern, and didn't like how it was coming out, so I made up my own).

So that's where the Queue stands, as of January 1. Pretty daunting! Wish me luck!

Post-Christmas Notes

Just a few things I'll want to remember either next Christmas or at some other point:

Nightgowns: Until/unless Samantha goes through a HUGE growth spurt, I really only need 5 yards of stretch velour for the nightgowns. Really. Honest. However, it would be good to remember that I need two small spools of Gutterman thread and two large spools (one for the sewing machine, one on the far right spindle on the serger). Ask me how I know (the Monster Joanne's on Christmas eve shudder). And two bobbins works fine. Also, double-check Sam's neckline; dark green one is too big, but aqua one is a bit small. Last technical point, they really don't need to be that long; remeasure, so they don't come down below the knees.

Remember that, even with serger hassles, it only takes 2 hours to make one of the nightshirts, from cutting out through final hem. So, next year, make a weekend of it; shop, buy and wash on Saturday, then take 6 or fewer hours on Sunday and just FINISH THEM!

The Muppet: it makes absolutely no sense to leave live stitches on the underarms for later grafting if one is working with fun fur. Just bind the suckers off and sew the seams. Much less of a headache. Also, remember to allow more ease in the body; putting the buttons right on the edge helped some, but not enough.

And, in general, having margin in the schedule is a good thing. This horrific flu threw the schedule all to hell-and-gone; if I'd been beforehand, I could have slept, instead of staggering through the remaining tasks.

A Few Pix and A Few Updates

Finally got a few pix of The Muppet, though it doesn't photograph all that well. Here are the sleeves, in progress:









And the (all but) finished project:









Very simple garter stitch pattern, with the sleeves knit in the round to the armpits, and the front and back knit as one piece to the pits. The whole thing was then knit as one piece from there up, including the the little Peter Pan collar (which you really can't see in the photo). Should make finishing it a snap, though the first few inches after the armscyes is a PITA to work. (Using the "two circulars" method, as if knitting in the round, with the fronts to the middle of each sleeve on one needle and the rest on the other, seems to work best.) Sam picked out somewhat expensive buttons, but she was absolutely right, they are the only ones that could stand up to the rest of the jacket. The kid has a fine sense of style/taste.

The idea came from this coat I knitted for her Barbie; Sam liked it so much, she wanted one for herself. (I'm leaning towards wanting one, myself! So soft and fluffy!) I made up the pattern and if I had to do it over again, I would make the body a little bigger around. I also did not make it full length, as Barbie's is, so I might make it a little longer next time, too.

Forgot to mention in my most recent post that I also have two camp shirts to make before Christmas. And in the interim, I have a good start on the first draft of a silly tea cozy. Thought I'd be finished with it by now, but.....

Stuff and Nonsense

I have gotten a little draconian with my projects on Ravelry: anything that isn't really, actively being worked on is being listed as "hibernating". This leaves me with only two active projects:

The Farm Blanket

This has been something of a challenge, but I think I'm getting on top of it. Was a bit more expensive than I had hoped, but I think Kate is going to do the assembly (for which I am truly grateful!) and chip in some money (for which I am even more grateful!). The idea is that the finished product will be less a blanket than a play mat, and will represent a farm: there is a vegetable garden, a hay field, a wheat field, an oat field, a sheep pasture, a horse pasture, even a pond. The squares are knit individually, with two strands of worsted weight, so it goes pretty quickly, but there are some issues with the pattern (and you know how I feel about that!). Yet another feral project, between the miscues between the eventual recipient and I, the high cost, and the pattern deciding to get lost, but I will persevere! Have six and a half out of twelve squares done, though the half might have to be taken out and redone, as the second batch of yarn came from different dye lots and the color of the one green was very different. (You wouldn't think it would matter, with so many greens, but it does, it does....) Anyway, here's what I have so far: wheat field, sheep pasture (this is the one that may have to be frogged), hay field, vegetable garden, barn yard, cornfield, and the flower meadow.



























As I said, they go pretty quickly. I could probably finish the rest up in a day, if I had a day to devote to them......

Lace-weight Socks

The other project being actively knitted on at the moment is the lace weight sock from Round 3 of Sock Madness II:
Absolutely love these socks! Especially now that I have the yarn all wound up properly, and they go pretty quickly. (This is a pic of the first sock before I finished it; I am now almost this far on the second sock.) Have the yarn to make two more of these, one as a gift, one for me, during Summer of Socks and am really looking forward to it, as I paid to have that yarn pre-wound! (Remember! Make new mistakes!)

However, in addition to these projects, I have six? seven? polar fleece capes to cut and assemble. Kate and Belle and I are doing them for the sewing circle ladies and since I don't crochet, I drew the task of cutting and sewing them, while Kate and Belle will crochet the collars. They are really quite fun, and the cutting and sewing won't take me long. Again, I could finish it in a day, if I had a spare day....

The thing that will take me much more than a day are the 5 corsets I need to make. My friends at Z'Ettiquette have sold another 4 corsets for me, which means their stock is sadly depleted. Since each one takes on the order of 6 hours to make, that's at least 3 long work days, if I had them; more likely, it will take a few months for me to get them all done. Oh, for the joys of a working sewing room and time to myself.....

The stuff that went into hibernation recently are the ancient sweater coat (I really need to finish that this year.....), the scarf I started on a whim, the pants to a Barbie ski suit, the second sock of my Sock Madness pattern, a sock and a half in the revised version of the pattern, the test knit of the Red Carpet Convertible, and the blasted rainbow leg warmers.

Those last deserve a paragraph of their own. How can something so simple (it's freakin' stockinette in the round, for pity's sake!) go so wrong? Dyeing five of the colors went just fine, but the red refused to play nice. Then, when I ordered another skein to try dyeing again, the first half-skein didn't work well (KoolAid failed me!) and the second half-skein went missing! And the pre-dyed red yarn that I bought (just in case the dyeing went badly) turned out to be a) the wrong color and b) way too scratchy to use. I finally admitted that I would not find the second half-skein, so I ordered another skein--and forgot that it was supposed to be superwash. Sigh. I have mailed the non-superwash skein back, and ordered yet another skein. In addition, I have found several colors of Wilton's cake decorating dye that I had been looking for, so I can try several things on the first half-skein. And, if all else fails, I will, by the Goddess, go out and buy myself a carton Rit to dye the sucker, because I am SOOOOOOOOOO ready to be done with this!

More Pix!

Thanks so much, Jack!

CC26--Preliminary Report

O.K., my mommy points for finishing my daughter's costume get taken away because I took NO pictures at CC26. Sigh. Will have to rely on the kindness of others, that is, those who have posted their pix to the CC26 group on Flickr. Not much of me and mine in there, but here is what we have, so far:

First, we have a pic of the infamous Pink Muff, and the hat that went with it, just in case you were wondering what they looked like. They were for my version of Erte's Symphony in Black. Also on the table are my tea cozies, some purses I made for my sewing circle friends, and a fan made for me by a dear old friend. (Hi, Sherry!)

Next, despite the gazillions of folks who took our pic, this is the only one I could find of me and Sam in our nightgowns. You can see she's sans hat, so it must have been from later in the evening.

And that's it. Sigh. Here's hoping I'll be able to get more later.

In the meantime, I can tell you about our Historical Masquerade entry! Picture a dark stage, with Carmina Burana playing, and something large and dark on the stage. Cloaked figures file in, holding candles, and form a semi-circle around said dark item. Suddenly, the music changes to salsa-esque rhythms, and the cloaked figures fling off their capes to reveal costumes of various historical periods, in various colors, all made of satin. The central figure is last to uncloak, revealing a man in a carioca shirt (sleeves covered with ruffles) in all the colors of the other figures. The drapery falls off the alter, revealing bolts of satin, and the central figure steps forward, shaking his maracas. The music changes to a conga, and all proceed to conga off stage, with each getting a moment center stage to show off their outfit. As the last person leaves the stage, the MC announces, "That was, of course, an Evil, Satinist Cult."

We're sick, I know.

The groans can be heard on the DVD for a full minute. What can I say? One should always do that at which one excels...... We even took two awards: the Spazzy (basically, given for the worst joke) and one for excellence in working with evil fabric.....

For reference, this is the pattern that I made my gown out of, in dusty pink silk satin. The others were in 1920s, 1930s, 1760s (men's) and 1650-ish Korean woman's attire.

In other news, my daughter covered herself with glory in the Science Fiction/Fantasy Masquerade, as Edna Mode. Not only was she very patient and well-behaved backstage, she stayed in character the whole time. (At one point I told her how adorable she was, and she replied, "I know, dahling, I know." She also went around telling everyone backstage, "You look mahvahlous, dahling!") In addition, there were tech glitches (part of which was our fault, I must admit) in her presentation, and she stood patiently, waiting for her cues. I have seen many older folk (including myself!) go to pieces in such situations; while she was nervous, she did wonderfully well. (Maybe I need to consider theater camp, instead of Girl Scout Camp for her this summer....)

Will be trying to get more pix; will let you know how that goes.

Sleeves. Why Did it Have to be...Sleeves?

(You may have to be above a certain age to get that joke....)

Spent Sunday down at Kate's, working on our Super Secret Historical Masquerade Entry. This involved a carioca shirt and the ruffling thereof, so by the end of the day, I was pretty much sick of sleeves. (And ruffles. And satin. But I digress.) Anyway, the shirt was well on it's way by the time I left, so I'm confident that Kate was able to finish it and the pants pretty easily. (Right? Right, Kate? You were able to finish, weren't you? *crickets chirruping in the distance*....)

The bad news is that I came home to yet MORE Sleeves From Hell(tm). Much as I love "The Incredibles", right now I want nothing more than to take the animators out and SHOOT them! What possessed them to give Edna those sleeves?!?!?!? Are they insane? Don't they know that some of us will be compelled to try to render in 3-D what can, really, only exist in 2-D? And that we would drive ourselves insane in the process? Not to mention not getting any packing, cleaning, or knitting (not necessarily in that order) done in the meantime.

O.K., I admit that it is partly my fault. First, for telling my daughter, "Sure, honey, I'll make you an Edna costume." I mean, I had planned to make one for myself, after all; I could just use hers as a prototype. Secondly, when it became clear that the pointed strips I had cut would not work with the originally-intended amount of overlap, I did make the decision to cut more strips, instead of cutting all new, wider strips. But that is no excuse for the freakin' thing to go all feral on me! It was clear from the images that the points in one row lined up with the dips in the previous row; thus, when I realized that I had to add rows, and added them in the middle (had to be done that way, because of the shape of a sleeve, to make the lengths work), the fact that I added an odd number of rows meant that the points on all the subsequent rows had to be moved. And then, somehow, I miscounted (don't ask me; triple-redundancy failed me) and had to add yet another row, in the middle, then re-adjust all the rows above, because by now the ones below had all been sewn down. (And after finding out it was a stretchy fabric the hard way--when my strips all grew loooooonger during the working and the pressing--and thus having to ease them back to the right size, requiring another pass through the sewing machine for each of 16 freakin' rows PER SLEEVE, I wasn't ABOUT to rip them out again.) So, we're talking about 32 point strips, each of which had to make 4 passes each through various sewing machines, and it's no wonder I'm out for blood at this point.

However, there is good news: the sleeves. are. done. There, I said it. They're done, they're ready to be put into the tunic (which, oddly enough, went together much more easily than I had anticipated.....what is it planning?.....). I was working on the tunic this morning, and it, too is now ready for the sleeves, plus a final fitting and a little handwork. My promise to my daughter will be fulfilled, and even if it kills me, I can die happy, with the knowledge that I am a Good Mom. Whew!

CC26 is Fast Approaching.....

...and, for once, I actually feel almost ready.

But what, you may ask, is CC26? It is Costume Con 26, and it is hard to believe a) that there have been 26 Costume Cons, and b) it has been on the order of 10 years since I've been to one. Used to go every year, both CC and Worldcon. But then, DD came along, and the Hubster quit his job to stay home with her, and luxuries like cons on the other side of the country and cable TV went by the boards. But, for the first time in umpty-ump years, CC is within driving distance of the old homestead, so I'm packing the Hubster and the DD into the car and we're off for a wild weekend of ogling other peoples clothes, and showing off our own.

May write a more complete summary of What to Expect When You Attend Costume Con at some point (or may just post the article I wrote for our costuming group's newsletter), but a short summary would be wise. It is a 3 to 4 day event, where the days are filled with panels about how to wire your costume for electricity, how to glue without asphyxiating oneself, how to research both historical and science fiction/fantasy costumes, how to run a Masquerade, how to be a good Masquerade participant, how to document a recreation or historical costume, how to herd costumers in a large group entry, truth and fiction about corsets; you know, just about what you'd expect. It's the evening where the fun starts. There is a Friday Night Social, and there are two costuming competitions : the Science Fiction/Fantasy Masquerade and the Historical Masquerade. There is also often a Single Pattern Contest, where everyone is free to take the listed pattern and put their own twist on it, then enter it in a fashion show. And there is also the Future Fashion Competition, where people submit costume designs well in advance, they are judged and the winners are printed in a booklet that is sent to all the con members. The designers have the right to reserve their designs for themselves to make, or they can open it up so that anyone can make them. These are then also entered into a Fashion Show. Oh, and there's also usually a doll contest, and sometimes an additional competition: one year it was a cod piece competition, the next year the guys demanded equal time, so there was a bra competition. This year, there is a props competition, with a somewhat loose definition of what constitutes a prop. (I, for example, have been requested to enter some of my tea cozies and an enormous muff, mentioned in an earlier post.)

The Friday Night Social usually has a theme; this year, the theme is Victorian Underwear. Now (as I believe I said in an earlier post) I think I can lay claim to a larger wardrobe of Victorian underwear, corsets in particular, than pretty much any other rocket scientist in the world. However, I also have a 7 year old daughter, and while I'm not shy about wearing a corset in front of her, a friend came up with a fabulous idea, for herself and her two daughters: Victorian nightgowns. I thought this was a great notion, and so made them for myself and Sam: (unfortunately, Blogger is being a pain, and not allowing me to post pictures, so you'll have to follow the links: mine, Sam's, both.)

I'm very happy with how they came out, and even happier that they are done more than a week before needed, thankyouverymuch. Mine needs some adjusting, since I was faking the pattern, but it is wearable, and Sam's has a foot-deep hem, so that I can let it down as she grows. (She doesn't grow so much as telescope; she gets very little larger around, just lo-o-o-onger. With this hem, she should be able to wear it until she fits mine.) The only thing I don't like about them is that they are so thin. I'll have to wear my regency slip under mine, and I'll find something for Sam to wear under hers, so that we can be seen in public. And I was sad to hear that the woman whose idea this originally was (hi, Denison!) has been unable to make them for her and her girls, which is too bad; I thought we'd have made an adorable picture. (Oh, I forgot to mention that I also made nightcaps for us, (no pix, yet) and you've already seen the slippers.)

My lunatic friends and I are entering the Historical Masquerade with an amusing entry. (The costumes are serious (well, most of them), but the presentation is not.) Can't show you any more about that until after the con, but I promise to take good pics and blog about it right afterwards. Suffice it to say that it involves several different historical periods and a conga line; let your imagination chew on that for a while. The good news is that my dress is all but done: I have to hem the sleeves and put in the snaps and hooks, make loops and sew on buttons, and have Kate trim the hem, then hand-turn it. But all of that is handwork, and I should get the sleeves and all the fasteners done tonight at WeHo S&B, and Kate will trim the hem on Sunday, so I should have that done as well before we leave.

Where I am a little behind is on Sam's costumes. It might appear that a girl who already has two Disney princess costumes, a fairy costume (including at least half a dozen sets of wings to choose from), a mermaid costume, another fairy costume, a ballerina costume and a hula girl outfit might not need anything more. There, you would be wrong. There are two other costumes in the works for her, one at her instigation, and one at mine. Though she has never seen the TV show Firefly, I just have to dress her as Kayleigh; most of it is purchased, but have you ever tried to find a jumpsuit for a kid? I'm having to improvise, fortunately with sale items. It won't be exactly right, but she'll look a lot like Kayleigh's kid sister, especially if Belle gets the parasol painted. I've taken the sleeves off the shirt; now, I just have to sew them on to the pants (well, I suppose finding the pants would be the first thing) and deconstruct a shirt that's too small for her, for her to wear underneath. Other than that, we're good to go.

The one she asked for was Edna Mode from the Incredibles. Since I had already planned to make said costume for me, I kind of knew what was involved, and have been slowly assembling the pieces needed though I had a bear of a time finding a cheap wig small enough for Sam. The one I have is too big, but it will do. Sunglasses with the lenses popped out give the huge black frames, and though it was surprisingly hard to find black full-length leggings in her size (there were capris everywhere), I finally did, and found black tights and black flat shoes (well, ballet slippers) as well. Now, all I have left is the tunic and those @#$%@! sleeves, which I had planned to do this past Sunday and just didn't happen. Time is running out, but I think I can do it. Wish me luck!

Socks and Other Unmentionables

I've been meaning to write a post titled, "I'm Doomed! Doomed, I Tell You!", but, you guessed it, I died before I could do so. Oh, well. Just to clarify, I'm talking about Sock Madness, and once again, I made it through to Round 2, but didn't make the next cut. The cool thing about SM, though, is that you get all the patterns, no matter when you get knocked out. AND the community is fantastic! A great bunch of people. Definitely worth the two down days that always follow getting knocked out of the running. And this time, I'm almost done with the socks, whereas last time, I had picked poorly for the yarn, and ended up frogging what little I had managed to do before my untimely demise. The one pic I have of the socks-in-progress is pretty bad; I'll wait until I have the pair finished and can take a good shot of them. The second round socks were Reversai: socks that look the same, inside and out. A cool concept, a great pattern. I will be happy with these when I finish them.


On to other things! I've made great progress on the leg warmers, though I'm stalled out on them, in favor of more challenging items. (And I forgot how SM speeds up as the rounds progress: I'm not yet done with my Reversai, and the lace weight sock will be released on Thursday! Yikes!) But I do a little on it, here and there; it's good for the treadmill, since it's not on tiny needles, and I really don't have to pay much attention to it. They're so late already, not sure a little more matters. Will have to get around to dying the red soon, though. I've GOT to remember to pick up some KoolAid......

I finished Barbie's sweater, almost in time for her Easter birthday (finished it up that morning), and made the hat later, but ran out of yarn on the pants. This puzzles me extremely, as I doubled what the recommended yardage was, as I was going to be holding the yarn doubled, only to later realize that the yardage given was for holding yarn doubled. Do I really knit that loosely, that more than double the yardage wasn't enough, by more than half the pants? I find that difficult to believe. Never had this trouble with Nickey Epstein's Barbie book before, but I guess there's always a first time....

Outside of competitive sock knitting, what I have been spending most of my crafting time on is the costumes for Costume Con 26, which starts April 25. I'm cautiously pleased with my progress, and hope I'm not tempting Murphy to mess with me by saying that I think I will get the costumes done with time to spare. I have assembled most of the pieces of Sam's Kayleigh costume, though I have to do some modification of some of the pieces I bought. I have everything I need for her Edna costume, except the fabric for her tunic, which I should be able to get Friday. The tunic itself isn't too difficult, except for the sleeves; thank goodness little girls have small arms! Our nightgowns are almost done (hems, buttons and button holes, and one structural seam); I still have to make our nightcaps, and decide if I want to do the wrappers or not. And my dress for the historical Masquerade is probably about half done, not counting the hand-rolled hems on the skirt and the sleeves. It will be drop-dead gorgeous, if I do say so myself, and I can't wait to post a pic. If I can get most of the rest of the historical gown done on Friday--or--clean house on Friday, so I can sew on Sunday, I should be down to handwork by next week. Please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeez make it so!

Oh, I did get one body blow recently: remember all those scarves that I made for the flea market at my daughter's school? A dozen hand-made scarves, some knitted in fun fur, some loopy ones crochetted in Homespun? They never made it to the sale; they were put, instead, in the donation box, to be sent to the school on the poor side of town that we help out on a regular basis. I was really bummed; I know it's not particularly admirable, but I was looking forward to the "ooh!"s and "ah!"s that I would have overheard, to seeing how much they were selling for, and how fast (and if!) they sold out. Disappointing.

Still have several old projects in progress: the sweater coat (though I heard of a great trick to soften it up, so I won't worry about finishing it up and having the recipient not like it, so THAT's a good thing. Thanks, Ellen!); the Red Carpet convertible (keep going back and forth on that one. I think I've finally resolved to finish it in a short length and maybe try a corset version of it later on, maybe in chenille); the second sock of the pattern I designed for SM2; the (shudder) embroidered tablecloth. There's also a blankie for the Hubster that I bought the yarn for, but have not yet picked a pattern. And the Farm Blanket that I keep forgetting about, for some reason. Have cast on socks for Kate's birthday, but have not made much progress yet, and have asked for the measurements for the German Stockings I'm making for a friend. (Is it rude to write to a woman and ask, "Is it O.K. if I knit these socks for your husband?" Shall have to ask Miss Manners. From Kate and Belle's responses, I was apparently not thinking clearly, in that their husbands and they themselves need these socks. We shall see.)

Feral-ville and Its Environs

O.K.! Now that I finally have 5 minutes to breathe, I'm going to try to get caught up on my recently finished projects, recently started projects (sigh) and more, with special attention to those dear friends, the Feral Projects.

When last we spoke, I believe I had just finished the Lobster Pretzel scarf (which, BTW, has still not been delivered to its intended recipient, through very little fault of my own) and Kate's pumpkins, and was set to frog Sam's Christmas sweater yet again (I thought of it as my own private low-impact workout, for a while there). Yes, that sweater was a charter member of the "Let's annoy Bridget" club: frogged the body three times, and the sleeve twice, before making it all work out. And then I couldn't find buttons I liked! I found something that would do, finished it at West Hollywood Stitch & Bitch the week before Christmas, and here it is:
I'm very pleased with how it came out, considering I didn't have a pattern and was making it up as I went along. But Sam liked it, and has worn it, and it fit, though I think I need to get some bigger buttons, as these don't seem to hold. But I like it. However, as we know, the traditional reward for a job well done is another job--I now have to make this sweater for Samantha's doll Molly, a soft-sculpture about two and a half feet high. Sigh. I hope I took good notes on how I made this thing....

Next up, we have a corset, of which I have no pix, that a friend ordered from me this summer and I really wanted to get it to her (and off my list!). It's a lovely grass green slubby silk, trimmed in white, (just like this one, but in a different size) and I was very pleased with how it came out, as well. I finished it in November, and it covered the last of what I owed myself for my little jaunt last summer.

Next, we have Yet Another Tea Cozy. This one is for my friend Suzie, and, surprisingly, did NOT give me much trouble. Oh, O.K., I didn't like the flowers that were given in the pattern, but I borrowed Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers from a friend, and made a few of those to mix in and that did the trick. And Suzie loved it, which is the important thing.

Now, we come to my recent foray into Fun Fur land! Those are just four of the dozen or so skinny Fun Fur scarves that I made over the holidays. I even tried a new trick: I used two colors of eyelash held together, which makes for an interesting look. (No pix of those scarves, unfortunately.) These things are great, and work up very quickly. The bad news is, requests for these breed: every time I thought I was done, I thought of more people who needed them, or got requests for more. But I got them all done in time, without much rush. Even got some yarn to make a few more for myself!.....




Finished up Barbie's coat, also in fun fur, and Samantha helped me wrap it, then "helped" Barbie unwrap it on Christmas morning. More Nicky Epstein patterns; the coat worked well, but the hat didn't. shrug









Made a chemo cap for a Ravelry knit along. Not as happy with this as I wanted to be. It's hard to get gauge, it's hard to measure gauge, with this yarn. Might stick to things like scarves, where one size really does fit all.





Enough of the fuzzy stuff! I forgot that I never did a final report on Teo's jeans:
(must have blocked it out, because of the pain....) This is the pattern from Knitty called Blu and it was great. Not sure about the whole purpose behind the dropping the stitch all the way down, then picking it back up, since I don't think it looks all that much like a seam, except on the reverse stockinette "cuff", but no big deal. What was a bigger deal was that I bought the recommended amount of yarn and came up an inch short AND Elann was out of that color and not expecting to get any back in. Grump. I guess that's what I get for substituting yarn; will have to remember to check yardage as well as weight, in the future. However, Ravelry came through for me, and I was able to trade for enough yarn to finish them up. In all, I'm very pleased with how they turned out, and they fit Teo, so it's all good. (In a "any landing you can walk away from" sort of way....)

What next......a quick hat that I made for the Hubster for Christmas.
Don't think he really likes it, but I'm pleased with it, and he was looking for a hat recently, so I thought he might get some use out of it.







What was MUCH more successful were the camp shirts I made for the Hubster and his brother for Christmas:
The fabric is FABULOUS! I call it "Space Babes", though the selvedge says Futurella. (Think generic Barbarella figures and poses.) This is the first "stereo feral" project I've done in recent memory (don't ask about SWAT and Chess) and it had it in SPADES. To start with, I bought the fabric two years ago, which means, of course, that it is no longer available. O.K., technically, it is "available": on ebay, as fat quarters, for $10 each. (Just for the record, a fat quarter of this fabric would be virtually USELESS--the pattern is just too big to get a reasonable segment of it in that small a piece. You'd be lucky to get one whole space babe.) And they even offer to sell it to you uncut, at the same price. You do the math; it comes out to $40/yd, and you need more two yards/shirt for this width. (Ask me how I know....)

In any case, two years ago when I bought it, I only thought I'd make a shirt for the Hubster, so I think I bought three-ish yards, but I forgot that when I went to cut. O.K., so the first thing to go was the collars; I figured those could be made in black cotton w/o impacting the impact (as it were) of the shirts. Still not enough, so I made the second facing in the black, as well. )First one was already cut.) STILL not enough, especially when you have to juggle the front to place the pattern felicitously AND be able to cut a matching pocket. Then the real death blow: the fabric was too narrow to cut the sleeves together, I had to open the fabric out and cut them one at a time, and even spaced that way, I could only get most of three sleeves. Finally decided to shorten the sleeves by 2", extend it with the black, then cover the extension with a black cuff. Still had to piece one sleeve, but was able to match the pattern, so it's not too visible.

And you know what? The black collar and cuffs made these shirts. They look much more sharp and put together than they would have otherwise. So I guess you never know. Hubster liked his and BiL LOVED his; too bad he can't wear it to work w/o drawing a harassment suit. I suspect he'll have fun with it, anyway.

Was also able to finish a Hawaiian shirt for Thomas, and design and test knit a sock for Sock Madness. They were desperate for patterns, thinking they might not get enough to run the game, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I like the pattern I designed, but I chose poorly on the yarn. Ah, well, things to learn. Fortunately, they got enough patterns, so the game will go on. If my sock gets used, great! If not, that just means the pattern will be posted here sooner! :-)

I suspect I've forgotten some projects, but that's the gist of finished things. Currently on the needles are the second sock for the Sock Madness design, the final two tea cozies (both TOTALLY feral, so look forward to hearing me gripe about those, soon, I hope), a test knit of Annie Modesitt's Red Carpet Convertible, plus all the things I had in work last year, that I haven't finished. I'm getting exhausted just thinking about it......

Summer Work

O.K., got some pics and finally found the cord to download them, so let's recap What I Did On My Summer (non-)Vacation:

First up, I have to confess something: I have a side business making corsets. I have no plans to quit my day job, as I couldn't afford the cut in pay, and I really wouldn't want to do it all the time (despite what I said in my last post), but it brings in pin money and makes it possible to go to cons and such. I rarely remember to take pics of them before I hand them over to the folks who sell them, but managed to get some of them this time:





That's silver satin trimmed with white; cafe-au-lait heavy taffeta trimmed in cream; grass-green slubby silk trimmed in white; and pale blue satin trimmed in cream. There were three more delivered before that, but can't remember the fabrics or colors (will update later). And I still have one in black satin trimmed in black and red that needs about 45 min. more work done on it. Should get that done tonight or tomorrow, and deliver it tomorrow evening. (There's a small costuming conference in LA this weekend, Costume College, which has as it's theme this year the Civil War Era, so I'm desperate to get as many of my corsets there as possible, as it is exactly the sort of folk who are interested in them.)

In addition, I've got one more tea cozy done:



I'm pleased with how it came out; the fabric is very thick, and I'm thinking of adapting it to make hot pads. Got the pattern here, but have made some modifications to it.

What else?.... I've made some progress on Sam's poncho, but have gotten to the point where a) it's pretty awkward to work on, unless I'm sitting down, and b) I'm putting in a row of kitties, so I have to read a chart, which means I have to pay attention, which means it's going slower. Hope to get the kitties done fairly quickly, so I can go back to the mindless stockinette-in-the-round. (No pic, yet.)

Made a little progress on the Barbie stuff, but have been concentrating on corsets this month. Should be able to get back to the original Material Girl, now.

Oh, and have turned the heel on the Mash-up Madness socks. They seem a little tight over the instep, despite the fact that I picked up double the number of stitches recommended. It's O.K. once you put it on, but it is hard to pull them over your heel. Oh, well. (Again, no pic, yet.)

Pedal to the Metal

I had no idea how much I loved sewing, until I returned to it this weekend after a long hiatus. How could I have forsaken this friend that has done so much for me, helped me work through so much in my life, to say nothing of providing me with costumes, clothes, gifts, and pin money? I am appalled that I let it get away from me like that.

I know why it happened. For a variety of reasons, I have been trying (for over a year, sigh) to mothball my sewing room, but it has been very slow going. I was trying to force myself to complete the process by saying that I could not sew until I had made the switcheroo. (Ideally, and eventually, I will have a sewing "nook", or at least a place to store my sewing essentials (thread, interfacing, elastic, plus all the stuff to make my corsets: two buckets of fabric, twill and bias tape, laces for trim, the mondo grommetter, etc.) in the house.) I have broken that once or twice, but I really haven't done much, particularly compared to my normal output.

But what I had forgotten was how much it feeds my soul. I can't really explain it, any more than I can explain why I must dance to stay sane (haven't been doing much of that lately, either; can't you tell? :-). I just know that my spirit needs this, and I forget that at my peril.

Oh, not all of it is a religious experience; to be frank, I dislike the cutting-out part. In fact, one of the things I like least about the type of sewing I do (designing my own things, mix-and-matching pattern pieces, having to make muslins to try out new patterns, that sort of thing) is that I can't get the cutting out of the way up front; I so often have to go back and cut a waistband or facing, or re-cut a piece, that I can't say until the very end, "Well! At least all the cutting is done!"

Yes, I'm one of those who does the unpleasant part first, if at all possible. (Since I dislike bread crusts, it's quite entertaining to watch me eat a sandwich: I eat all around the edge, saving the good inner part for last. I'm certifiable.) So it was that I spent much of the weekend cutting corsets. Since I've made a gazillion of them from this set of patterns, I can be pretty sure that I know what pieces need to be cut, so once the one remaining one is cut, I can sit down to the part I really enjoy, to wit, the actual sewing.

And if I actually even enjoyed the cutting this time, imagine how much happier I will be when I get to sit in front of the machine and just sew.......

Updates

Still no change in my Sock Wars status. I really hate that some people aren't taking this seriously; it makes it much less fun for the rest of us. I don't know if my latest target is actually dead (she's been listed as dying for about 2 weeks), and I haven't gotten any replies to emails in over a week, so I'm stuck. Fortunately, chaos seems to be reigning above me, as well, so I don't think I'm in immenent danger of dying. Ah, well.

In the meantime, I finished the socks for my mom. Didn't really like them for several reasons: didn't like the pattern (then why did you let Samantha pick the pattern, hmmmm?), didn't like the way they knit up (probably should have used an even smaller needle size), and I grew to like the color less and less as I worked on it. However, they are wonderfully soft, and look great when on a foot, and I was very pleased with the result of my conversions of a top-down sock into a toe-up sock and the heel-flap to short-row heel. Those techniques should be very useful in the future.

Finished the foot of the first slipper for Kate's husband John, and am REALLY hoping the felting process works as advertised: this thing is HUGE! Will have to finish the second and felt them right away, as I have two more sets that I want to work on, so I need to know if this pattern and technique actually work.

In sewing news, I cut out the matching sleep shirts for Sam, my mom, and myself for Christmas Eve; this year, they're raspberry pink! (Sam picked the color.) Also, I finally remembered to pick up my mom's cross-stitch from the French Hand Laundry, so now I need to pick out a mat and get it cut, and buy the frame, then do the framing myself.

What else? Did a little more on packing up the sewing room; this consisted of building one of the two new racks that I bought for the storage space, and stacking it with boxes already in storage. Since the two new racks are shorter than the old ones (3 ft. vs 4 ft.) I'm trying to decide whether to put another of the old racks in storage or put up a pole to hang costumes from between the two new racks. Tough call.

Consulting the old accountability matrix, (spreadsheet listing current projects, their status, their due-date and their priority. Used to send it to a friend, and she sent me hers, to keep us honest and making progress on our projects; that's how it got it's name.) I note that I started the last pair of mitts for the Sewing Circle ladies (Belle is the last) and finally finished Kate's stockings! Woo-hoo! Also, picked out patterns for socks for several people and was intelligent enough to realize that I won't be able to finish them until next Christmas, so I DO learn from my mistakes. AND I finally decided what colors to use where on the tablecloth for my sister-in-law (bought the floss last year, but had forgotten what I had planned) and started stitching! Now I remember why I prefer cross-stitch to regular embroidery: there is no "right" answer in embroidery, there are only many wrong and a few not-so-wrong answers. Sigh. I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of satin stitch soon; I remember enjoying the last thing that I did that was mostly satin stitch. Oooh, that reminds me! I have an embroidery project for my mother that I need to include on the accountablility matrix.....

Odds and Ends

First, I finished the cap for the christening gown: profile, front, back
I think it's adorable, and it was cheap and fast to make, once I got the design figured out.

Second, finally heard from target #2 in Sock Wars! She said she sent her socks out right away and she has no idea why they aren't here yet. But she also said that she had only knitted about an inch of ribbing, so I'm not costing myself all that much work by not using her beginnings. Besides, I think I'll use her yarn for myself, as it sounds lovely: black shading into rose! How did she know what colors I normally wear to work out in? :-) So, I will finish with the white wool, and dye it with Kool-Aid, and I think honor will be satisfied and I will be able to kill again.....

Next, got the knitting needles that I prattled about ordering and they are JUST like the ones I have loved for years! Yeah! They're available again! I may replace all my DPs with these, at least in the sizes they come in. Woo-hoo! Good tools are an artisan's joy.

Now, I'm trying to decide whether to bust a gut trying to make a costume for my daughter for a wedding that we are attending this weekend (one of the last of the Sewing Circle Ladies who is still single). Guests are invited to wear historical costume, but Sam has grown out of all of her stuff (except the Viking stuff, and that's not particularly festive), and I had bought a Regency Girl's Dress pattern, which is pretty simple, and I have the fabric, but am not sure that I will have the time, especially when I have a half-finished pair of Socks of Doom staring at me. So, I cut the fabric for the slip this morning, and brought the fabric for the dress to work with me, so I can cut it at lunch. My friend Trina has a sewing machine in her office (don't ask) which I can probably borrow, so I can probably get a good bit of it done after work today, before I head off to my shrink. BUT, would it be better to use that time knitting SoD or rushing to finish the dress? I think I can get the dress with no frills done by the weekend, but I'm also unsure if kids are even invited; I was taking her as a default, as we had no one to sit her, and I'm not sure I am comfortable leaving her at the weekend-daycare place for as long as this will take (long drive to and from, wedding, reception, etc.) So, I'm conflicted.

In the interum.....

...since I can't be knitting to kill someone, I finished up the christening gown for Chris and Christy's egglette-to-be. Understand that this is, as the one I made for my daughter was, a costume, not a ritual gown. That is, I don't think it will be used for a christening, but worn to various period events. As such, I can't think it sacreligious for a pagan to make it.

Anyway, finished the dress and slip, and have them in the mail. The cap was fighting with me, so it will go separately; I wanted to make sure the dress and slip made it to them in time for the shower this weekend.

First pic is an overall shot of the dress,
then a close-up of the front of the bodice (that's an egg motif in the center front, which is Christy's symbol; I thought it was a nice touch . Click on the pic to get a better look), then a close-up of the back of the bodice, with %$@#@! pleats, that never work right in this gossamer fabric. Lastly, we have an overall view of the slipand a close-up of the back of the slip, because I just love those tiny little heart buttons.

And, being both a mom and an anal soul, I made sure of several things: since most babies spend most of their time on their backs, the buttons are all flat, not shank, and those in the slip are offset from those in the dress, to minimize the lumps. The waist of the slip is below the waist of the dress, so the fullness comes in layers. None of the lace or fabric is scratchy or rough. Also, the gown is adjustable, to accomodate growing babies. And, lastly, it is washable; I washed Sam's in the machine, but it might last longer hand washed.

Starfleet Uniforms, the Easy Way!

Diagrams

As this year marks the 40th anniversary of the first airing of the original Star Trek series, there has been a renewed interest in costumes from the series. I’ve been hauling out the old ones, and am finally getting around to making some that I’ve had on my mind for years.

Of course, the quintessential, recognizable-at-50-yards Star Trek costume is the mini-skirted Starfleet uniform. However, you don’t often see this well-done, as it is made in several gazillion non-standard pieces and, to my knowledge, no one is currently selling a paper pattern (though the Starfleet Technical Manual has drawings of what the pieces look like). Those who know me know that I have a very accurate (for being made when I was 13 years old) Medical uniform, made of actual, period polyester double-knit. (I was once stopped at a con when I was wearing it, by someone who demanded to know WHERE I had gotten that fabric and I said “1973”. She was crushed, as this was in the late 80s.) The reason it was so accurate (besides the fact that I’m pretty anal-retentive) is that someone I knew knew someone who knew someone who….whose father had worked on the show and had managed to smuggle one of the patterns off the set. I was able to make my costume, but didn’t have the foresight to make a copy of the pattern, unfortunately, before returning it. Consequently, I hadn’t made a regular Starfleet woman’s uniform since then, despite the availability of the Technical Manual.

Anyway, we decided that we needed to make uniforms for our WorldCon Masquerade entry, and so I was face-to-face with the need to finally draft these patterns, and figured I had two options: take apart the one I had, make a pattern, then re-assemble it, or draft the patterns as shown in the Tech Manual. In the interests of avoiding the inevitable, I spent a good deal of time “doing research”: i.e., watching DVDs of the old series episodes. (This was how I determined that the Tech Manual is WRONG on MANY things, but that’s another article.) I just was not looking forward to drafting that pattern in three very different sizes.

And then, brilliance dawned, if I do say so myself. It finally occurred to me that the easiest way to do this was to make a sheath dress out of some cheap knit fabric (basically, a knit muslin), fit it to the person in question, then simply DRAW the lines where the seams should go with a Sharpie. Then, it would be simple to dismantle the dress and cut along the marked lines, and voila! Pattern pieces! I could either mark which seams needed seam allowance added, or cut new pieces with them included.

And it worked like a champ! I was able to fit three women with very different body types, put the seams, the necklines, the hemlines all in the right places with a flick of the Sharpie and we were golden. Don’t know if I could have done it without having made the one from the original pattern, or if I hadn’t had it there for reference, but I can give you the info to do it yourself.

First, make a sheath dress from some stretchy knit fabric (preferably light-colored, as it is easier to see the marks) and fit it to the body in question without any darting or additional seaming (and that includes set-in sleeves; you’re basically making a T-tunic, with no underarm gussets). Next, mark the neckline and seamlines as shown in figures 1 and 2, including how high up you want the pleat to open, and LABEL YOUR PIECES. Then disassemble the pieces of the dress, and cut along the marked lines. You will be left with a total of 8 pieces, AF-DF for the front, AB-DB for the back.

Lay out the pattern pieces on a single layer of the fabric, right side up, making sure to cut the pieces in the right orientation, i.e., the side with the markings up, and (if you are using the traditional velour) all headed the same way. Now, comes the tricky bit. To make the pleat, you will have to cut piece BF next to piece AF, all as one piece (see figure 3). You must then cut a separate piece BF. Do the same for pieces AB and BB.

The only tricky bit on the assembly is sewing BF to the hybrid AF-BF piece, so that the seam line lies where you originally put the line between AF and BF. (An easy way to do this is to lay BF on the hybrid piece, both face-up, and mark where the edge of BF comes to on the hybrid piece. Then, move over two seam allowances to the left, mark that line, and lay BF face-down with the edge of the fabric along this new line. But there are many other ways to do it; do what works for you.) Sew this seam to the point where you want it to open for the pleat. Then sew CF to BF without catching the hybrid piece into that seam. Finally, sew DF to CF.

Repeat all that for the back pieces, building the back pleat in the same way, then assembling the rest of the back. Sew the back and the front together along the sides and the tops and bottoms of the sleeves. (Note: the originals had invisible zippers under the left arm, but the new generation of velour is stretchy enough that you really don’t need it; you can just pull it on over your head. But you can put one in, if you want to go for authenticity, or your fabric doesn’t stretch that much.)

Next, cut the ribbing for the neckline. There are several options here, as there was little consistency in the original series. You can a) cut the ribbing so it lies flat to the body; b)make the ribbing decrease to nothing at the back point and miter it at the front point; c)make it stand out from the body in the front and lay flat in the back. All of these are defendable from screenshots.

Measure the distance between the front point and the back point in both directions (they should be different lengths). For a), cut two pieces of ribbing which slant from 5” at the front to 3” at the back, one for each of the neckline measurements. Fold each in half the long way and cut the ends as in figure 4. Open them back out and sew the front edges together and the back edges together, pivoting at the point; clip the point. Refold the ribbing the long way with the seams inside (either open out the seam or serge them and lay them to opposite sides of the seam) and pin to neck opening, stretching the ribbing to fit the neckline.

For b), cut two pieces of ribbing which slant from 5” at the front to 1” at the back, one for each of the neckline measurements. Fold as for a), but only cut the front as in figure 4. Open out and sew the back as a straight seam and the front as for a); attach as for a).

For c), cut one piece of ribbing the length of the two neck measurements minus 1”, making it 3” at one end, 5” at a point one neck measurement (minus ½”) from the end, then down to 3” at the other end. Fold in half the short way, then again the long way, and cut only the back edges as in figure 4. Unfold; seam the back and attach as for a).

For all necklines, serge or overcast the seam.

Hem sleeves to be longer than ¾, shorter than full-length; call it 7/8. Hem it to be really short; that’s how they wore it in the show. (Or longer, if your modesty trumps your need to be “authentic”.) Hand hems don’t show on the velour, and there didn’t seem to be any machine hems visible on the show.

The insignia are available online (we got ours from an ebay store) as is the rank braid, or you can sometimes get the insignia at science fiction convention dealers’ rooms. Black knee-high, non-glossy leather (or leather-look) boots can be low or high heeled, zippered or pull-on; again, all those options can be documented in the original series. Buy or make trunks to match the uniform or in black, to match the tights. And make sure you wear hair and make-up from the 60’s; it is really jarring if you don’t. (And there are some classic styles that won’t remind you of childhood horrors or bad drug trips that work just fine.)

Have fun!

Continuous Bias Strips: Trick from the Quilters’ Bag

Pictures will be forthcoming.....

Quilters often use a bias strip to bind the edges of their quilt. Usually, they don’t want to use the commercially available ones: either they’re the wrong color, or the wrong size, or they want something with a pattern, or they want 100% cotton, etc., so they often have to make their own. I don’t know who invented this technique, but it was a huge boon when I was making a Victorian gown with applied decorative bias strips of velvet 5” wide. I needed a whole lot of this stuff, and had to go back twice to get more velvet, but it worked like a charm, and I now use it quite often to bind the tops and bottoms of corsets when I have trouble matching the color in a purchased bias tape.

The basic technique is this: a) take a true square of fabric and cut it on the true bias (corner to corner), giving you two right triangles. b) Slide one triangle past the other so that instead of the bias edges being next to one another, the straight edges abut. c) Now, flip one triangle over, laying it on top of the other, with the straight edges still aligned and right sides together (the other edges won’t line up; they’re not supposed to). Sew the straight edges together and press open or serge and press. d) Now, open your fabric out; you now have a parallelogram, with two edges on the bias, and two edges on the straight of grain. e) Determine how wide you want your bias strip to be (including seam allowances) and call it w; draw chalk lines parallel to the bias edges and w apart. (IMPORTANT: when you measure to put on these lines, make sure you measure perpendicular to the bias edge, NOT parallel to the straight-of-grain edge. Otherwise, your bias tape will be narrower than you intended. ) It may not work out evenly and the last strip may be too narrow. If this happens, simply trim off the last partial strip.

Now comes the tricky bit. f) & g) You need to fold the fabric so the remaining straight-grain sides are together (right side to right side) BUT offset by one width of your tape. This seam will have one width of tape hanging off each end of the seam. (Make sure you line them up so that the marked lines cross on the seam line, not the edge of the seam allowance.) Sew and press (or sew, serge, and press) this seam. h) The marked lines should now describe a spiral around your tube, roughly meeting up across the seam you just sewed. Cut along the marked lines and voila! You now have a continuous piece of bias tape. (Note: you have just repeatedly cut across two seams; those short seams will separate, if treated roughly. Also, you can easily stretch the strip out of shape (it IS a bias strip, after all), so treat it gently. Wind it onto a card or roll until used and try not to manhandle it when applying.)

The remaining question is, of course, if I need L inches of w-inch-wide bias tape, how big a square do I need to start? Turns out that the answer is pretty simple. Multiply the total length you need in inches (L) by the width (including seam allowances) in inches (w), then take the square root of that product. The resulting number (a) is the length of one side of the square you should start with (also in inches). (I’ll spare you the mathematical proof I did to convince myself that this is true.)

The trouble comes when a is larger than the width of your fabric. You then have to either break it down into several squares, (the most you can get out of one square of fabric of width W is (WxW)/w; you can then figure out how many of these squares you’ll need) or sew several widths together to make the required width. I think the second approach could rapidly get unwieldy and out of hand, so I would recommend the first approach, even if you don’t like the math. (I suspect there are spreadsheet programs out there that can do this calculation fairly easily, and make a chart of width versus total length. I know that there are such charts in various places on the web (don’t know where, off-hand, though quilting sites would be a good place to start looking).) But this method will give you the answer. (Remember, if you use the first method and you need a square of side a, and your fabric is only half that wide, you’ll need 4 squares of side (a/2) to make the same amount of bias, not 2 squares.)

I would also recommend that you assume you will need a little more than you think, and cut accordingly. While mathematics is exact, this method loses a little in the seam allowances, and in those instances where you end up with a partial strip in figure e). It would be a shame to come up 5” short, when you could have made your square just a little bit bigger to start with, with very little effort.