Unfinished Object Challange

[gem]

My problem is the fabric I buy for specific projects... that then never get made.  That's probably 90% of what's in my stash--I can tell you exactly what a fabric was purchased for and hasn't been made yet. The bulk of the rest was the extra yardage I bought over the amount I needed (um, 8 yards of chocolate brown linen for a gamurra that took about 3...).

Anna, instead of the shopping trip to buy trim, why not take a look at your stash and see what you can make into trim? Either basic guards from bias tape, maybe with a decorative stitch from some metallic thread ('course, you'd have to go buy that...), or piping... or if you're interested, the March 2011 issue of "Threads" has a whole article on making trims from fabrics.

I want to pipe the edges of my purple kirtle, and I keep thinking the butter yellow damask that I bought for my half-finished giornea would be *perfect*... but I still have hopes of making that giornea with it!! Alas! What's a costumer to do?

...Go buy more, apparently. LOL

[Anna Iram]

Gem, you've read my mind. I was looking at piping at the store today. Didn't ocur to me to actully make some from the fabric I have. I thought, too of making trim using the forpart fabric as Isabella did, but I'm not sure how much I'll have left over. It's a possibility. I'll certainly look for that magazine. Can I find it at JoAnns?

Do we have a thread on that here? It would be good reading.

I'm wondering for your own project, is it possible you can salvage enough from the edges of your butter yellow to do both the gionea and the piping?

..and yes, I would love to see your gown as it comes together Syrilla.

[gem]

Anna, there's a thread on making trim going on right now on Pattern Review, with some interesting links to articles, videos, etc. I haven't checked out any of the external links yet (sloooow computer), but it looks like some good stuff, particularly if you have a serger or an embroidery machine.  And yes, you should definitely be able to get a copy of Threads at JoAnn. You're looking for the issue with spools of silk thread on the cover.

As for my own piping dilemma, I'm afraid I won't have enough damask for the giornea because I've earmarked the extra I did buy for remaking the bodice (the original's straps were too narrow and didn't cover the gamurra straps). One useful thing I learned from the folks at Pattern Review was that when you make bias trim, you don't have to do it on the absolute true 45-degree bias; any bias will work so you can use less yardage. I don't know that I'm brave enough to try that yet, though!

[Anna Iram]

Thanks Gem. I'll look for it. Didn't realize piping needed to be cut on the bias. Lot's to learn if I'm to go in that direction.

Found several threads here as well on piping and adding trim. I may start a new thread here a bit down the road to gather all those together and ask more questions in direct regard to my project. Have a few ideas about how I want to remake this, but like you it's going to depend on how I can best use the very little bit I have of the fabric and I really want to make a hat... biting off alot here, but looking forward to the challenge.

[gem]

Well, it doesn't always have to--if you're doing something like cushions or pillows with straight lines and corners, you can use straight binding... but you need bias to go smoothly around curves, like we do in costuming.

...Should really be sewing now!

[gem]

Well, I am back from my piping/flange-cord shopping trip, where I found absolutely nothing I liked. This is both good and bad. Bad because I love the look of twisted cord and *really* wanted to trim my kirtle with it--alas--but good because now I'll *have* to pull something from my stash! So I'm just about to go dig through the fabric I just spent a week painstakingly sorting through and putting back in my closet. Bigsigh. 

[LadyStitch]

I got another dent in the sewing room.  Being nauseated all weekend didn't help my sewing plans much. The room is set back up, but I still have some piles of little things that need to be put in their final homes, AND i need to go through my UFO's that are in my closet.  I'm just amazed at what I actually had that was just put away where I couldn't see it. 

[Butch]

Just took the cloaks out of their respective dye bath.  Not as dark as I had hoped.  Oh well, good enough for the 1500's!  Now to hang dry them.  Then will cut them to length and attach the closures when they arrive.  I ordered the Renaissance Floral Closure for mine and the Double Griffin Head for Michael's.  Coming right along!

[gem]

Butch, just wait--now that we all have heavy warm wool outerwear (I got a wool frock coat for Christmas), it will never be cold enough to wear them!!

Had my second sewing studio last night; spent the whole evening trying to figure out how to knife pleat a three-panel skirt to a bodice that opens up the side backs. I'm still not entirely sure we managed it. But now at least I'm ready to assemble the bodice flatlining/bones, and cut out and sew the skirt panels. So I'm hoping for really good progress on it this week. We also found a couple of fabrics that might work for the piping (if we decide not to use the self fabric)--one is a navy and purple pima cotton stripe (so it would look like navy and purple twisted cord), and the other is a black wide-wale metallic (?!) corduroy, which would look like twisted velvet cord. My instructor wanted to use them *both,* and stack the piping!! I reminded her that our goal was to actually get the kirtle done.

[LadyStitch]

I wish you luck Gem.  Sometimes we get our eyes so big to decorations we forget our job is to actually FINISH the item.     Keep it up!

[gem]

So today I was rarin' to go for the first time in ages--I had a whole list of things I wanted to accomplish on the kirtle, with "bind the corset..." in the back of my mind, too...

...And the machine broke. Waaaahh!!!  I have a backup; my older Brother can do everything I need to with the kirtle bodice and skirt right now, but still! Diagnosing the problem (I think part of the bobbin assembly snapped) just stymied me, and now I have to spend time rearranging things so I can pull out the older machine, and find the time to head back to the shop to get it fixed! 

[Butch]

That has happened to me too!  Thank goodness for back up machines!

[LadyStitch]

Ok, I'm bumping this back up. Where are we on our Un Finished Objects?
My sewing room now has a floor, and all my tools now have a nice home.
The PP's new pants are on the cutting table waiting to be sewn up.
I'm starting a new show on Saturday but I will have help on this one.

[Lady Rebecca]

I don't have any pictures of it, but I finished my stays a couple weeks ago!

[gem]

I've actually gotten quite a bit done on the unfinished corded corset! I trimmed all the cords to fit, sewed all around the edges, and have done half of the eyelets (by machine). I'd sort of forgotten about it in last week's handwork on the kirtle, but I should pull that baby out again.

As for the kirtle (which wasn't really a UFO but was the project I was focusing on for this thread), I've made fab progress! The bodice construction is completely done; all it needs now is the hand-sewn lining and the eyelets. Today my focus is going to be the skirt; still haven't decided between cartridge pleats and knife pleats, and the curved top of the gores is making me angry about attempting cartridge pleats. 

I'm feeling stitchy lately and need to pull out some embroidery, which will probably be the smock again. I had almost reached the halfway mark on the first sleeve when I abruptly stopped working on it for no reason I can discern. Huh.