Fabric Shopping in Austin

Yes, you read that right. There is now some serious, quality fabric shopping in Austin, Texas.
Mom and I spent the afternoon on Thursday making the rounds to our favorite stores: Sew Much More, The Common Thread and TexStyles.
We hit Sew Much More for the great sale. I ordered a bias binder, Mom got a part she needed for her Elna, a Chalkoner, and we each bought a rolling cart of drawers so I could better organize all my trims.

Our first fabric stop was The Common Thread on South Lamar.
Jeannie has a great selection of quality fabrics--silks, bamboo/lycra knits, quality flannels, organic cotton blends.

Mom picked up an abstract print rayon/lycra jersey, a cotton peacock print from the Victoria & Albert Museum and a GORGEOUS Valentino print on silk charmeuse.

The makeup bag I made for Mom with the peacock fabric. I monogrammed the "S".

The fun flannel print I picked up for a new pair of pajamas.

The amazing Valentino print silk







If you're in the need of some gorgeous fabrics, real petersham, or Russian/French veil, stop by and visit Jeannie. She can also order lots of fabrics if she doesn't have exactly what you are looking for.

Happy Sewing!
Juliette

Even Boys Like It!

About 2 weeks ago, my neighbor came by with her son to have me fit a dress for her vow renewal. Her son is about 8, and apparently her stylist. I could tell by the way he looked at her in her dress, clearly looking at the fit and design and how it flattered her, that he has an eye. After the fitting, I set up my 830 to embroider his name since I thought he might get a kick out of it. Well, he was mesmerized. And when it was done, he already had decided which bag he wanted it put on. I told him I would some better ones for him, and here they are:

I realized that kids just don't get the exposure to mechanical things like I did as kid. My dad and brother were always working on our cars, we did most of our own home repairs, and my mom sewed. I think kids are really missing out--another reason for more people to get sewing!

Juliette

The Upcycled Chanel Jacket

My last post showed the first steps of a new Chanel jacket. The original garment was a swing coat my aunt wore in the 60's, probably made by my grandmother. The fabric is a gorgeous classic: a very loose weave mohair houndstooth in off-white and black:

I decide the only way to reuse this fabric was a classic Chanel jacket. I used Susan Khalje's method featured in Threads Magazine issue 121.
I was able to cut the jacket body out with problems, but did have to piece both the upper and under sleeves. I've been watching a lot of Mad Men lately, so decided to go with a shorter sleeve, which I believe is called bracelet length. The sleeves ended up being the same length as the jacket.




I combined purchased trim with torn strips of black silk charmeuse that I ran through the ruffler on the 830LE:

And here's the (almost) finished jacket. (I still need to finish the lining at the top of one sleeve and add the chain along the bottom. I'll probably add pockets as well.  What do you think? the classic 2 large and one small? Cut on grain or on the bias?


Decisions, decisions.

Happy Sewing!
Juliette

In Praise of the Dual Feed

One of the features of the Bernina 830 that I underestimated is the dual feed. I've often wished I could switch out the feet on my walking foot, and the dual feed foot essentially does that. Only a handful of feet are available for use with the dual feed, but they are enough to make me very happy. There are more, but so far I have the edge stitch foot, jean foot, 1/4" patchwork foot with guide and the standard foot that came with the machine. The dual feed makes everything easier, whether it's matching a design, quilting charmeuse to boucle, or stitching seams on a stretch knit.

Below are a couple of shots of the 1D foot.

In the first photo you can see the "arm" that slips between the legs of the foot:

And here you can see the mechanism behind the foot: the whole thing swings down for use and back up and out of the way when you don't need it:

 

This is the beginning of re-purpose project. I've taken apart a coat of my aunt's from the 60's to make a Chanel style jacket. Can't wait to finish it and for it to cool off enough for me to wear it!

Happy Sewing,

Juliette

Love my Baby(Lock)

With all my going on about my wonderful Berninas, I realized this weekend that I haven't given any credit/praise/love to my BabyLock Evolution which I bought earlier this year. This is my second overlock/coverstitch combination machine. My first (which I still have) is an ElnaPro DCX 905. It was one of the first home machines to offer a coverstitch. This machine is about 17 years old, so I decided that it was time to look for a newer overlock. I wanted at least 5 threads for a safety stitch + 3-thread overlock, which quickly narrowed the options. I looked at other options, but quickly settled on the BabyLock for its reputation for quality, and the Evolution for the 8 threads that provide so many options.

Compared to the Elna, the BabyLock seems very low tech, but looks can be deceiving.

My 17+ year old Elna:                                              

 

The pretty new BabyLock (photo from BL site): 

 

The cover stitch on the BabyLock is beautiful. I love that there are 2 widths, though I've had some trouble with the wider one tunneling on light fabrics. I just used the narrower one to apply elastic on a peasant top. So much easier and faster than sewing a casing with a regular sewing machine! I was able to sew the entire top on my BabyLock, and the air threading makes switching between overlock and cover stitch even easier.

This is closeup of  both the right and wrong side:

...and the finished top, dyed:

Making Room for Baby

This past weekend my supportive, wonderful husband extended my work table for my Bernina 830LE.  It was fine for all the standard hoops, but not deep enough to use my mega or jumbo hoop (just got an email that it's in!)
We added 6" to the front, reinforced with dowels and high impact plastic panels that were left over from another project. We also added "desk grommets"--those capped holes in most modular office furniture. Since my work table is at bar height, I had to put my machines right up on the front edge of the table. The desk grommets let me set the machine a little further back and gets all the cords off the work table. Finally, I covered the tables with a black leather texture contact paper. It's not perfectly smooth, but it does cover up all the snags and rough areas and saved me from a few days of painting.

Here's a pic of the new work table. Hopefully you get the idea...

 

Happy Sewing!

Juliette

More 830 Awesomeness

I only got about half a day in the studio yesterday--too many other things to wrap up before I start my new job on Monday.

I'm working on a KitchenAid mixer cover for my mom, and of course, *had* to do embroidery on it.
Here are some of the really cool features for embroidery on the 830:

•  The machine stops immediately when a thread breaks or runs out, so no need to back up and much less time lost from "threadless sewing".
• When you combine designs onscreen, you can combine colors with the touch of a button. Ex: you choose two designs, both use 3 colors. Click the reduce colors button and the machine combines the similar colors so you have half as many thread changes and faster stitchout.
• The start button does everything: If you need to raise the presser foot to clean out the bobbin case or rethread, you don't have to lower it to get going again. Just hold the start button, and the machine lowers the presser foot and resume stitching.

Here are a couple of pictures of the embroidery. I'll post more pics when the cover is done.

Happy Sewing!
Juliette