Sunday, January 13, 2013

UFO Escapes

Stud Muffin's New Shirt
Today, two garments managed to escape from my UFO (UnFinished Objects) sewing pile. A-ma-zing! Two completed garments in a single day! The fact that both were nearly finished in no way negates this miraculous occurrence. They've been "resting" in that UFO pile so long, it's a wonder they didn't disintegrate.

First to escape was the black and white striped shirt I made for Stud Muffin. The project stalled when I couldn't get my buttonholer to work reliably. (I think the problem was the lump in the chair.) After all the work I'd put in to the shirt, I wasn't going to finish it with shoddy buttonholes. No sirree!  Better to submerge the dang shirt in the UFO pile where it could be forgotten/ignored. (Punishment for being difficult?)


Under collar with its collar stay pocket
I hauled both the shirt and the buttonholer out and tried again. Success! The project almost stalled at sewing on the buttons but guilt kept me going and voila - finished shirt! 


I like the pattern play of sleeve, placket
and cuff
Stud Muffin is rather conservative and the stripe of the fabric is quite bold. I knew I had to limit the shirt's design elements or else it would not be worn. Alas, I think I restricted myself a little too much. For a striped shirt, it's rather plain. I love the sleeve placket and cuff play of patterns and wish I'd added one tiny detail on the front. Next time....

Finishing the first project felt so good, I moved on to another - pj pants that were Stud Muffin's Christmas present. Everything was done but the elastic. Can you imagine - that's where I stopped! My excuse was I wanted to cut the elastic to size, as the last pair I sewed for him are in danger of sliding off whenever he sneezes. Oops! I corralled the man, the elastic and the pj bottoms and came away with another success.
Bay City Roller pants? (I'm dating myself
with that reference.)

If all that excitement isn't enough, I started pattern drafting today. I finished the front upper torso block. I'll tackle it again tomorrow.

            - Lady T

2 comments:

  1. Do you use a vintage buttonholer attachment? I've got three but haven't had much luck getting them to work. One won't work at all, and the other two produce messy shapes and won't work on medium or lightweight fabric - definitely not shirting. Sigh!

    ReplyDelete
  2. i have 3 vintage Griest buttonholers for straight-stitch machines. Two are the kind that use internal cams to make the stitch. The other is a weird looking contraption that utilizes wing-nuts to adjust the settings, and it's my favourite!

    As long as the fabric can fit under the presser foot, my buttonholers will make them! One of the cam-style units has an ancient grease/lint build up in one of the gear grooves, and sometimes it skips a stitch.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete