Upgrading My Wardrobe from Dowdy to ??????

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Sewing Clothing / 2 Comments

I have finished my show quilts. I still have to sew the labels on “Sky Horse” and my Chaucer quilt, which I have named “Canterbury Silk”, but I am ready to start an upgrade to my wardrobe. Like I said in my last post:

One of the things that has occurred to me is that my wardrobe is looking a little on the dowdy side. I managed to get to my retirement with a handful of slacks suits that have seen their better days and some blouses. I made a few summer clothes last year, but I have to do something about my wardrobe. It’s a very good thing I know how to sew and have a wonderful stash of fabrics fit for clothing, because my clothing funds are slim since I am going to Houston.

Sew I am starting my sewing plan for my wardrobe upgrade. I found a good basic sloper in my massive pattern collection (not the one pictured here), an out of print pattern in the approximate right size. (Definition: A custom-fitted basic pattern from which patterns for many different styles can be created). I’ll make one in muslin with wide seams and long stitches, and work it until I get it into a perfect fit, mark the sloper and take it carefully apart and fuse it to a woven interfacing. Once you have one of these treasures, you can use it to design your own fashions or flat-fit patterns with. It’s been many years since I have done one for myself. High time!

I have patterns for everything…not all the styles available but absolutely every type of thing…hats, bags, gloves, vests, coats, dresses, slacks, tops, tailored suits, intimates, swimsuits, special occasion, costumes, and retro garments. Some of them are a little dated, or not even approaching the right size, but often have good lines to use with my sloper and my own ideas in an update. I’ve usually dressed to my own drumbeat, and especially when it was not for my old workplace, which required mostly black, tan, or gray tailored suits with simple blouses. But now I’m free, free, free…I am retired and playing in the artist world. Though in truth, I am wondering how well I will be able to break away from that fashion environment as I upgrade my wardrobe. I do know I look best in blacks, teals, and wines, and I have a nice stash of fashion fabrics that I must draw from (this is a tiny expenditure upgrade). We’ll see what happens. 😎

Sew come along with me on this journey in my blog posts. I’ll try to post the journey with pics and interesting pointers.

Sew happy everyone! Teach someone to sew or quilt…yourself, your loved ones, your fur babies, your coach. 🙂

Lots of Fun

Posted on July 19, 2014July 19, 2014 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in Quilt Journal, quilt shows / 4 Comments

I don’t have pictures for you all this time, because I am keeping final pictures of quilts under wraps until after they debut. Sky Horse was juried into Houston, if you don’t know that already. You probably do, because I was obviously having a lot of fun on Facebook after I announced it there, but there may be a few of you who are not FB fans.

So today I finalized my plans for going to the International Quilt Festival in October. I have the hotel, I have a roomie to split the cost, and I have the tickets. I’m going! I’ve never been to the show.

I also have just now finished my Chaucer quilt. I am trying to decide its name. I am thinking “Illuminated Chaucer” or “Illuminated Aprille” or just
“Aprille”. What do you like? I don’t have to put the label on it until August.

So this means that I am going to spend the next three months making a new wardrobe, cleaning my house, and getting into somewhat better physical shape so I can manage that huge quilt show and the flight.

One of the things that has occurred to me is that my wardrobe is looking a little on the dowdy side. I managed to get to my retirement with a handful of slacks suits that have seen their better days and some blouses. I made a few summer clothes last year, but I have to do something about my wardrobe.

It’s a very good thing I know how to sew and have a wonderful stash of fabrics fit for clothing, because my clothing funds are slim since I am going to Houston. I figure I can make an embroidered black denim slacks suit I have had in the plans to make for some time now. But I will also need something kinda dressy to wear to the rewards ceremony, since I decided to attend that. And if I can squeeze it in, I should probably make a fall quilted vest and maybe a nice tote bag and clutch too.

It’s all very exciting.

Sew happy everyone! Teach someone to sew or quilt…your mom, your dad, your husband, your married son, your grandkids, your dog, your cats. 🙂

Progress Report and Thoughts on Quilting Economics

Posted on July 12, 2014July 12, 2014 by Betty Jo's Blog / Posted in A Little How-To, Art Quilt Techniques, Design Work, Food for Thought, Quilt Journal, Techniques, Threads / 4 Comments

Saturday Morning 12 July

Hi. It’s been a while since I wrote a post mainly because I didn’t have anything more interesting to say than “I’m still quilting.” 😀 Well, I finally finished the quilting and moved on to painting the border.

Now I thought that painting the border would not take me more than a day or two, but I have been painting about three full days so far and as you can see, I have less than half of it done. I’m using a combination of Lumiere and Setacolor paints. I found if I accidentally paint a little outside the stitching, it can easily be removed if I act quickly with a dampened paper towel. Then I finish off the leaves and flowers with a coat of SoSoft glitter finish. I actually like the Setacolor glitter finish also, but the glitter pieces are much larger in it and I thought the subtlety of the SoSoft works better for this quilt. SoSoft takes a couple of days to stop being sticky, but it dries to a level where it doesn’t disturb it if you touch it in about 10 minutes. Setacolor dries faster and better than any of the paints. After the paint dries for a couple of days, I will turn the quilt upside down into a soft towel to prevent the trapunto effect from being squashed and heat set them by ironing from the back of the quilt. I’ve already tried this with my sample pieces and know it works well.

I estimate that I will finish the painting in about three more days of work. I am using multiple paint colors on each leaf, flower, and swirl and this takes time. Then I will bind it and I have a lot of beading I want to add to the quilt…beads in the middle of the flowers, around the center of the faux sashing between the red center block and the border, and I ‘m debating whether to scatter some beads on the border. The original design from the illuminated manuscript has some scattered spots of paint that could easily be beads on the quilt. Here it is. See the spots?

My design…border taken directly from digital picture of an illuminated manuscript.

Sew that’s why I haven’t been around to post anything much lately. But I have been taking periodic breaks and watching entries in Facebook, The Quilt Show, and so forth. I have noticed that there is a bit of disturbance in the quilting world regarding what threads and fabrics to buy, what fabrics “require” what threads, and where “responsible shoppers” buy them. Sigh. I may lose some of my followers here, but this is what I think about all of this. Buy the best grade of fabrics and threads you can, because you are spending so much of your time and effort making these wonderful quilts and garments, but sometimes you can find real bargains of fine quality threads and fabrics. So buy them where you can get the best for the best price. If you buy them from JoAnns, or the big box store, you can take comfort in the fact that you are helping supply badly-needed jobs for your neighbors. If you buy them at your local quilt store, you can take comfort in the fact that you are helping to keep them in business. If you buy them from the Internet for a particularly good price and convenience without spending gas to go get them, you can rejoice in having saved enough over time to make one more quilt—perhaps even a charity quilt. Don’t feel guilty for where you shop or what you buy, but DO pay attention to the quality.

Sometimes it is just as cheap or cheaper to buy a high quality thread in a cone on sale than it is to buy a low quality thread in smaller quantities at a discount store. The lower quality thread also can damage your machine, so that has to enter into your thinking about the economics behind your purchases. Also, it is not necessary to use cotton threads on cotton fabrics. The quality of the higher end threads, especially, are so high now that no longer applies.

Sew those of you out there who have developed into–for good reason–thread snobs or fabric snobs, please be gentle with those who shop where you think they should not and buy the threads you think they should not, and vice-a-versa. Love thy fellow quilter or sewist as thyself.

Sew happy everyone! Teach someone to sew…your son, your granddaughter, your nephew, your niece, your fiance, your neighbor down the street, your cat, your dog. 😀