Sewing Tip 7: Embroidered Dog Pocket Tutorial

Perfect Twirling Nightie with embroidered, cheetah fleece, boxer dog pockets

One of the required elements of my daughter's Perfect Twirling Nightie was "something doggish". Another was the inclusion of a small piece of soft, cheetah print fleece. "Boxters" are her favourite dog; how about um... cheetah print, boxer dog pockets...? It was a stretch, but nothing else came to mind!

Not knowing much about what dogs really look like, I searched the web for a picture to use as reference, sketched it to size on two sheets of tracing paper and went to work. Briefly considered hand embroidering the motif, but I really enjoy freehand machine embroidery, so that is what I did.

Thread, stitching test sample

Hunted in my thread drawer for something appropriate, and came up with a mystery spool of bulky, silver-wrapped polyester (?), origin unknown, marked only "Made in Taiwan". At this point I did a test sample and chose to ignore the warning signs. My trusty machine was not amused: the tension could not be properly adjusted; the thread shredded and broke in any needle I tried, including a big-holed topstitching needle and a heavy jeans needle. I spent so much time re-threading the machine it would have been faster - and far more relaxing - to do the embroidery by hand. And when it was all over the silver barely showed. Back to the thread drawer... 

This time I came up with three oldish spools of Coats coral-pink cotton - one for the bobbin thread, one for the stitching, and one just in case. My machine was pleased. Stitching the pink over the silver was easy and fun.

Here are the fine points of making this pocket:

Fleece, silk organza, fleece, tracing paper, Solvy, diagonal basting. Sweet woodruff

Silk organza supplies stability between the 2 layers of fleece, which are diagonally basted together. Fusible interfacing would work, too, but I didn't want to squash the fleece. The design, sketched onto tracing paper, is diagonally basted on top of the sandwich. Finally, a layer of water-soluble Solvy is (yes, diagonally) basted over the whole thing. The outline of the pockets is cut after the embroidery is completed. For freehand embroidery basics click here.

The right side, embroidery finished, prior to clipping thread tails

After stitching the motif, remove most of the Solvy by ripping it off like a Bandaid: bravely and quickly. Remove the shards of tracing paper and Solvy bits with tweezers. 

If you do not want any thread tails to show on the right side, do the following: clip the centres of the thread tails and pull through to the back by gently tugging on the bobbin thread tails. Avoid the temptation to trim the threads close to the fabric: they will fray and show on the right side. A pin or slim scissor point can help coax the threads through to the back.

The wrong side, all the threads pulled through

Leave thread tails about 1cm long and they will be more likely to stay at the back, where they belong. Short-trimmed threads will "un-sew" themselves, showing up again on the front of the work. Consider tying reef knots before trimming, if the tails are long enough. For extra security, a tiny dot of Fray Check will keep them in place, though I've rarely bothered.

Pocket opening finished, ready to be attached to garment. Solvy sheet extends onto garment

To finish the pocket opening, zigzag with Solvy folded over the edge. The Solvy will keep the stitching flat and not warble the fabric. Hide thread tails on wrong side of pocket.

Reinforce ends of stitching with circles of fabric on back. Tie off ends

Place pocket on garment, pin in place, then diagonally baste yet another sheet of Solvy on top, extending onto the garment. Remove pins. 

To reinforce the garment at the opening of the pocket, on the back place a loony-sized circle of fabric to be caught in the stitches. I used fleece. Baste - or pin, if you will remember to feel under the work with your fingers to make sure the circle does not flip over while stitching.

Use a zigzag foot for best accuracy, but a regular foot will do the trick, too. Zigzag from the right side through all layers, overlapping stitches at the pocket opening, and being careful to keep the zigs and zags centred - just barely going off the edge of the fleece onto the garment. 

Remove Solvy. Pull thread tails to back and tie off. Press, using a pressing cloth, just in case. Any excess Solvy will disappear with the first wash.

Garment 14: Perfect Nightie

The perfect twirling nightie - in theory

Raw materials, before editing

The nightie is finished. Or so I thought. It is perfect - or so I thought. It has all the requirements set out by my daughter when we began the project, three months ago: it is made from fabric she tie-dyed last summer at day camp. It has maximum swirl and length, elasticized wrists, cheetah print fleece and something doggish.

So why won't she wear it? She likes it alright, despite the pink stitching on the dog pockets. (Why did you put pink? Grey would have been better.) That it's itchy is all she will tell me - but she won't keep it on long enough for me to figure out how to fix it!

"Boxter" dog pocket tutorial here
(Freehand embroidery, silk organza and lots of Solvy)

Are the raglan sleeves too high? Do they cut into her pits? I could sew in a gusset. Perhaps the wrist elastic is too tight - an easy fix. Maybe it's the surface design: fine, meandering soutache anchored by loose, invisible stitching. That stuff can poke like fishing line. A cotton lining might take care of it, or the soutache could be removed completely - a big, boring job, just right for bus rides.

If the itchiness could just be pinpointed, this project could be checked off my list and I could get on to the other two biggies: Blossom's corset, and the Humatrope collar. Then start the next thing - a presentation for the BCPWS conference in October: My Holland: Projects Inspired by My Children's Special Needs. (Iffy about the title...)

Sigh. Silly me to think I was finished.

********************

Two days later - tonight she is wearing the nightie for the first time. Fingers crossed, I wait, wondering if the source of the itchiness will be revealed. She yells down the stairs: Mom! It is absolutely comfy!

Joy! It would seem time heals all itches, too. Corset, here I come!

Sewing Tip 4: Puzzle Top How-To (4/5)

Fun to make, and used up a whole whack of useless stuff

The Puzzle Top consumed three riveting weeks of spare time and brain-power. Here are all the nerdy construction details.

Since I like the fit of the Garden Gnome Top, I started with a copy of that flat pattern - minus the sleeves - placed on the mannequin to get a good look. Snip, slash, spread, trim - after adjusting the length, width, neckline and armholes, the new pattern was trued, marked with grainline, and traced. Full front and back pieces were taped together at one side seam and placed on a padded table. The scraps were then arranged - held in place while working by loosely pinning into the padding. There were two rules:

No Cutting Allowed

Grainline Must be Maintained

What I envisioned as a 20-minute frolic of deftly flinging and rearranging scraps into place, took 3 painstaking days. There were plenty of cuttings to choose from, but most of them were the wrong shape, wrong colour (too much red!), or on the wrong grain.

Once the placement was finalized, I held my breath and removed the pins. A layer of lightweight, water-soluble Solvy was laid over the work, pinned, then diagonally basted with cotton thread to each scrap along each join.

Full back and front pattern pieces, abutted at one side seam, scraps placed, covered with Solvy and diagonal basted.
The red plaid, with narrow "bridge", is my favourite: such a useless snippet

Have you discovered Solvy yet? Solvy is a nifty, plastic film-like stabilizer commonly used for appliqué or machine embroidery. It comes in different degrees of stiffness, and in different manners of disappearing: by water, heat or tearing. I use it often, mostly to prevent distortion when sewing tricky fabrics or doing freehand machine embroidery. In this case, the Solvy held the puzzle pieces in their correct alignment during the machining - a triple zigzag along each join.

The stitching was mindless fun. I chose second-hand, silver, cotton thread from my stash, and had almost enough, with only a little cheating near the end with mismatched bobbin thread.

Next, the pattern was laid on top once again, and the edges were marked all around with a running stitch*. To form the flat puzzle into a 3D garment, the scraps at the remaining side and shoulder areas were overlapped exactly the right amount, and in the correct orientation, by matching these running stitches. The scrap-flaps were diagonally basted in place then checked on the mannequin before zigzagging.
*Super-Sewing-Geek note: a couture pattern has no seam allowances. When the pieces are laid on the fabric, the edge of each pattern piece (i.e. the seamline!) is marked on the fabric with a short-short-long running stitch, before it is cut - with seam allowances gauged by eye. In couture sewing the seamlines are matched, rather than the edges of the seam allowances.

Would-be shoulder seamline, marked with pink running stitch

Rick rack holds bust shaping in place after easing,
and delineates the neckline and armhole

From the inside: raw edges at the underarm: no cutting!
The plaid patch hides the button stabilizer behind the pocket

At this point the garment was rigid from all the Solvy, so it was sent through the washer and dryer to remove the stabilizer before the Moment of Truth: the first fitting.

Since the original, unaltered shape of the scraps dictate the curve of the neckline and armhole, I planned to leave the wonky, raw edges unfinished to celebrate this feat. However, once it was washed, I didn't care for the fit of the armhole at the bust. To fix this, a row of basting stitches was run along the baggy areas. With the garment on the mannequin, the thread was pulled up to ease the gaping, creating bust shaping, which was then held in place by some lovely, hand-me-down, cotton rick rack. The rick rack was turned under and topstitched, so only the points are seen. The uneven fabric edges no longer showed, but rule #2 decreed the urge to trim them must be resisted, so they were left to tell the tale.


Lastly: the pocket, made from a buttonhole test, was attached with the triple zigzag. The button was given a sturdy shank using silk buttonhole thread, anchored from the wrong side with a folded square of silk organza, so it can't pull through. This is hidden by another scrap, hand-sewn with herringbone stitch using the rest of the thread left in the needle after applying the button. The hand sewing wasn't entirely necessary; the thread was so smooth and lovely to sew with, I just didn't want to stop.

An ode to the importance of grain, I'm happy with how the Puzzle Top turned out. It reminds me of my grandmother and namesake, whom I remember in her rick rack-trimmed housedress, making heavenly bierock, cinnamon buns, and doughnuts. She grew fragrant sweet peas in her garden, and kept a vaseful on the table. This is my housedress, in memory of her.

Puzzle 1: Button Sewing Tutorial
Puzzle 2: Blatant Advertising
Puzzle 3: What and Why
Puzzle 5: Rick Rack Tutorial

Garden 3: Family Portrait

Not about the garden, but it takes place there.

Lego homage to my son's favourite dubstep artist, Sonny John Moore, AKA Skrillex

The one thing I ever stole in my life (on purpose) was a 2X4 piece of yellow Lego. I took it from the house of a friend, hidden in my sock. It hurt my ankle a little, and rubbed my conscience a little more, but replacing it seemed impossibly risky. And then we moved.

It's love

There's not much you can do with one piece of Lego, regardless of the size or colour. My parents would surely have been more than happy to provide me with some, had they known, but I didn't ask, and they didn't guess. That lone block travelled with us from house to house and town to town to town to city, useless as only one piece of Lego can be. It ended up in a box of donations. I wish I had kept it just a few years longer; I would have given it to my son. Many of his sweetest gifts to me have been made of Lego.

Which brings me to vacuum cleaner bags. I admit it: I sift them when they're full. It's the Lego! I know it's in there, and I can't bear to throw it out! Classic Lego, or Lego Friends - all over the world, where there's a vacuum cleaner and imagination, there's Lego.

Can my house be that filthy?

It's not a job I look forward to - the puffed up, surprisingly weighty bag might sit on the back porch for months before I get to it - but nary a sift occurs that I'm not glad I did it. 

Three days ago, during a session of "To the End of the Yard and Back" (an after-dinner exercise in which my family and I attempt to get from the kitchen, to the alley and back to the house, while engaging in appropriate social interaction), I deftly orchestrated the first family sift. I have been steadily working to hand over to them the jobs my family is capable of doing for themselves. Rescuing aspirated Lego was next on the list. 

I expected mass disgust and outright refusal, but it went surprisingly well. Sitting in the grass, I showed them how to slash a big X in the bag with the kitchen scissors (NOT! my sewing shears!), revealing the contents: a detailed, if dirty, portrait of our family. 

Life is a vacuum bag of debris; you never know what you're gonna find

Aside from 7 pieces of assorted Lego (both kinds), we found: a Polly Pocket purse; a purple hair elastic - the good kind; a dime; three types of pins; a tiny screw lost while modifying a Nerf gun; a tube of whipped eggnog Lipsmacker (No! Wash it first!); broken glass; popcorn kernels; bread clips; unidentified, random plastic toy parts; several lavender syringe needle caps, alcohol swabs, and needle safety tabs; thread. Whoo! Bits of paper from my daughter practising how to hold a pair of scissors. Lots and lots of hair. (Trying not to breathe.) What is that...? The peeled-off backing from numerous stickers, a plastic sock staple, some tape, some Solvy scraps, cardboard bits, two Kleenexes, ew. Uh... more thread, more Solvy, more popcorn. And we've got pencil sharpenings, feathers from the duvet up in our bedroom (need to mend that)... There's a sequin, more Solvy, more feathers, another needle security tab. A Dubble Bubble wrapper - one of dozens brought home by my son from Cogmed. A pill bug carcass - my daughter likes bugs. Vector - we all like Vector. More needle tabby thingies, more bread clips. Oh: another nice hair elastic! A Q-Tip - gross. OK! Enough! Gross...

When it was finished, my son thanked me for the tutorial.

Garden 14:  Harvest
Garden 13: Abandoned Stuff, Things of Beauty
Garden 12: Death and Potential
Garden 11: Japanese Maple Tree and Sedum (?)
Garden 10: Foxglove and Weed Digger
Garden 9: Veggies and Sweet Pea 
Garden 8: Gnomes and Slugs
Garden 7: The Lady Next Door
Garden 6: Euphorbia and Rusted, Metal Things
Garden 5: Cement Bench and Wallflower
Garden 4: Maryjane
Garden 2: The Neighbours'
Garden 1: Lilac Bush and Abandoned Cans