New Look 6843 as yet another stretch A-line skirt

Last week's fall color

Hey, so the PR Sewing Bee contest is going on right now, and if I were participating, I would totally make my favorite A-line skirt (week 1 challenge), which is New Look 6843, meant for a woven.  It meets all the requirements of the contest out of the envelope except the lining--and it is relatively easy to pop one of those in.

I've been making this skirt lately as a stretch knit with an exposed elastic waistband.

Black with white scallops knit skirt sewn in May
Purple stretch lace skirt sewn in August

I sewed the latest incarnation two weekends ago on my brand new serger, yay!    This gave me a chance to practice changing the thread and try something new-to-me, which is sewing a rolled hem on a serger.

This fabric is from Paron's.  I bought it in Sept with ATP during her NYC visit.

1.  For this knit, I cut the front and back out separately.  I actually used the front and back pieces with darts folded out, unlike last two times where I used the front for both the front and the back.  

2.  Since the fabric is striped?  chevron? I basted the side seams using my walking foot to try to prevent shifting.  I love the clackity-clackity-clackity sound my walking foot makes.

3.  Futzed with the stripe/chevron alignment.  Decided it wasn't worth it to try to perfectly match it but just make sure the white stripes were aligned with white, gray with gray, black with black.

4.  Serged with my new serger and pressed with my Elna Press (that press is a Miracle Worker, I tell you).

5.  Zig zagged the waistband (I am loving Pamela's Fantastic Elastic--high quality stuff and you can cut it down to any width you want without it fraying).

6.  Divided the skirt and waistband into eighths.  Serged the waistband on

7.  Ironed interfacing to the bottom 2.5 inches of the skirt.  Originally thought I'd use my rotary cutter to cut along the chevron and call that a hem like I did on the black and white scalloped skirt...but it looked terrible!!!

So then it was like, what to do?  I could hem it with a blind hem but I would lose length and it was the perfect length already.  I abandoned that idea and used the rolled hem feature on my serger to hem it.  This was my first ever rolled hem on a serger.

8.  Wore with pride!



Dressform shots:

Front

Back

Side stripe "matching"

I have a lot of this fabric left over--would it be too crazy to make a whole dress out of this fabric???

Be well!

Simplicity 1314: done or not done?

Does this view make my dressform look tall?

I spent pretty much all day working on Simplicity 1314 and I had to take some quick pix to show you where it's at.




Well, they were quick pix.  This is the only one  I took from the side.

I'm pretty ok with the front now, and the front points.
Seriously, it's not going to get any better than that.

It's the back that I'm concerned about and I'm not sure I can just binder clip a solution.  Should I attempt to fix it next weekend?

Or should I use this kludgey, duct taped solution and call it a dress?

Or should I focus on the good parts instead?

The quilting is pretty awesome for the first time I've ever quilted.  More about that process here.

I bound the neckline instead of using facings

I twin needle stitched the hem

I serged most of the inside with my new serger, the BabyLock Enlighten

...except for that horizontal line in the front panel--that was with my old serger

Soooo..the new serger is pretty awesome.  When I serged the CB seam, it glided over a very thick fabric intersection that would have made my old serger go clunk-clunk-clunk and then a thread would have broken....or it would have started wrapping the fabric over instead of cutting it off, etc etc etc.  The Enlighten serged right over it no problem!  (I cannot wait to serge embroidered fabric with it--my old serger *hated* embroidered fabric!!!  Clunk clunk clunk snap)

I do have to play with the DF on the Enlighten a bit to get non-wavy results.  No matter the setting I had my DF on, it always made slightly wavy seams that the Elna Press did not eliminate.

I intend to show you next post how I binder clipped out the wrinkles on the side front panel--it will answer your question, Summer Flies!  (Spoiler alert--yes, I clip it out myself and I will describe how)

PFM flowers (lisianthus) from 10/9/14.  They have a Victorian, rosey feel but they're not roses.

Ok, what do you think I should do with the back?
a) leave it as is--don't cover it up--it's beautiful
b) try to fix/improve it
c) wear it with a cardi
d) other

Be well!

It's here! My new Baby Lock Enlighten

Thanks for all your comments on sergers--new, used, Baby Lock, Juki, industrial--all good points!

It happened today darlings!!!

Dad and I went to American Sew and Vac in Princeton, NJ, very conveniently located, to buy his birthday/Christmas combo present to me:  A Baby Lock Enlighten serger.  Thank you Dad!!!


Dad carrying my new serger into my sewing room


Me opening the box

Running out the white thread it was threaded with

Unwrapping the "vibrant turquoise" MaxiLock thread

reading the manual on how to thread it

My first run of the serger!

Such a good serger!


Mark, the guy who sold us the machine, asked what sewing machine I have, and I said I have 3 of them, to which he replied, "You really sew!"

Yup!

My collection of machines, left to right:

• Baby Lock Enlighten serger
• Mom's Singer from 1964 --one of her wedding presents--the machine I learned to sew on til I was 18
• My Baby Lock sewing machine from 1994 --my high school graduation present--sewed on it half my life until...
• My Brother Project Runway machine from 2012 -- Christmas gift from my parents--my only computerized machine
• My White Speedylock (estimated to be from 1994) --freebie from a former coworker circa 2009-ish?

Above is my first Enlighten serged garment seam: Simplicity 1314 (the quilted dress)
And I made some progress on fitting S1314.

By having a waist seam all the way across, it means no more drag lines ! !!!
But, that "point" is a bit wonky....need to work some magic on each "point" tmw.  I'm limiting myself  tmw to 30 min per point or 2 hours....whatever it looks like after 2 hours is how it will be, then I move on to finishing the dress.

Thanks again Dad!!!

Be well!

Life-altering news: I need your advice!

I would have written a post asking what is going on in the picture above...that results in this....

and then asked how to fix it...but....

So when we were in New York, I announced to ATP over dinner that I had some big news to share with her.   Her eyes widened in that way that eyes widen when people think they are about to hear huge life-altering news, which is very much what this is:

I am getting a serger that threads itself and adjusts its own tension, as a combination birthday/Christmas gift from my dad.

This is a very sweet and expensive and life-altering gift.

I am thinking of going with the BabyLock Enlighten.  I have seen it demoed a few times, most recently at the ASE, and it is pretty awesome.

My questions to you:
1.  When is the right time to buy it for the best deal?  This weekend is Columbus Day weekend, will there be dealer sales?  Would it be better to wait until December in the weeks before Christmas?  Or doesn't it matter?

2.  Is there a different serger I should be considering instead of the BabyLock Enlighten?  Different brand?  Different model?  (I have read a few reviews on PR and I don't care that it doesn't come with the cutting catcher--my current serger has one and I've never used it).

3.  I thought these kinds of sergers did everything, including adjusting their own differential feed, but it appears that they do not.    Is that true that I still have to adjust the DF?  Part of my frustration with my current serger is figuring out the DF on every knit, in every direction I will be serging (crosswise, lengthwise AND diagonal) and taking into account if I'm serging one layer or two, if I'm cutting the edge or not cutting it.   It takes a lot of time and tweaking to get it to be where I want it to be for most scenarios (which is to say, completely flat).  Will I still have to tweak this with the Enlighten?

4.    Sometime in the future I would like to get a coverstitch.  If you have an all-in-one serger and coverstitch (like the BabyLock Ovation or Evolution), do you like it or would you prefer having separate machines?

Ok, let me know!!!!

Here I go again with my serger

Thank you for your comments on my fitting issues with NewLook 6968 (and where to get a cute tailor's ham--how cool is that, that I can get one custom made??  Very cool!!)

I decided to walk away from the dress.

Tonight I pinned out the the excess on my dressform to make the under bust dart into princess seams...I might redo the side panel so it doesn't have that side dart.   (I'm sorry BeckyMc but I'm really thinking I'm going to name her Becky HomeEcky)....
 

Speaking of walking away from things, last year Antoinette helped me get started with my serger. Then at the ASE I took the serger "learn and play" class.  And I tried to get my serger stitching properly, and walked away for a lot of months. Lately after sewing fraying wovens, I felt more motivated to learn the serger to have a more professional, no-fray finish on the inside of my woven garments.

Today I started the "Break your serger out of the box" class on patternreview.com by Jennifer Stern, which for me was really "Dust that secondhand puppy off and let's start over". Last time I talked about my serger, I didn't have cone holders and also the upper looper thread was waaaaay far away from the edge.
Well, after cramming by reading some lessons, participating in the class chat tonight, lookee here:

The top row is where I started tonight and the bottom is where I ended. Which I am documenting on my blog for my own knowledge.

The "thread twisting back on itself" problem I reported previously? It was still happening tonight. I asked Jennifer about it during the online chat and she said to try flipping the serger cone over. It totally worked! Thanks Jennifer!

And I found 3 out of 4 cone holders! Yes! They were tucked into a crevice in the back of the machine. It was like Santa left them there for me, some unexpected and very welcome gift from the sewing goddesses. And when I got out the MaxiLock thread that came with the kit fee for the serger learn and play class, it turns out I accidentally took home one cone holder with me. Woot!  Still, I used the thread Antoinette and I had purchased in NYC last year.  Maybe tmw I will be brave and rethread my machine from scratch using the color-coded MaxiLock thread. I don't need it so much for identifying the threads as now I have that down pat after the lessons tonight, but it would be cool to try what some say is the best serger thread out there.

I did a bunch of planting today and finally have my own black eyed susan plant!

I also planted some marigolds as my impatiens didn't do so well this year:

I have tmw off and am looking forward to it immensely!
Be well!