Baby Blue Corduroy Embroidery Kit Clutch

 

I loved making the embroidery tool pouch yesterday, and I think it will serve my purposes just fine, but I kept thinking all night last night about how I could make it better and cuter.  I just couldn't let it go, so today I went back to the craft room and tried again. I wanted to make it smaller, and more secure, a one handed grab and go clutch.

This is my first idea sketch.

 

I drew it out putting in measurements that I estimated and then calculated with seam allowances and hem allowances.  I even wrote out the order of the steps in the sewing process. Yes, that is my horrible handwriting.  Don't worry if you can't read it. No one can read it but me.

 

I made pattern pieces because I wanted to make the curves and corners precise. I used my new drafting ruler, which I love.

This is how the first one turned out.  I have it posted on Etsy for sale, but I have a pattern so I can whip up as many more as I would like.  It turned out pretty well.

The next one will have shorter pockets so that they don't reach right up to the edge of the clutch and the marker and ruler don't disappear inside their slots, but otherwise it worked just great.

Here it is with all of the supplies taken out of the pockets.

My favorite part was making this expandable pocket for the round things like a thread spool and thimble. The button flap is longer so I can cram this pocket full if I want.

 

If you like this, check it out on Etsy at this link:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/122900305/embroidery-or-hand-sewing-kit-clutch-sew

 

Have a great day!

Baby Blue Corduroy Embroidery Kit

Man, I was bored today, or at least I would have been if I didn't have an unlimited supply of odd fabrics and ample crafting space in my attic crafting room.  I decided to make a folding wrap to put my hand sewing/embroidery tools and supplies into when I take my hand sewing with me on the go.

Here it is.  I finally found a use for a couple of my odd colored bright green large buttons. I think they fit perfectly.  I had to borrow my aunt's sewing machine to make the button holes. They turned out rather nice.

Here is the inside.  I probably could make it a bit shorter and use less fabric, but I was just making it up as I went.  For embroidery you need floss, scissors, needles, a thimble, and a transfer pencil or water erasable marker.  I also think I will keep a folded piece of tracing paper, just in case.  With the large size it would also be possible to fold an embroidery project in progress and enclose it within the wrap to protect it and keep it with the supplies.

A closer look with neat bows.

Here is everything laid out of its pocket.  If I were taking hand sewing with me I could put a spool of thread in the thimble pocket, even a large spool fits, or tie one or two spools in with the ribbons.  I would also need sewing needles instead of embroidery needles, and could want a chalk pencil rather than a transfer pencil. This is not the  thimble that I actually use, but was god enough for a photo prop.

This is what the back looks like.  I could have avoided the seams showing on the back if I would have sewed the pockets on before I sewed the layers together, but I am not too picky.  If I were to make these for selling on Etsy, then I would be more careful with things like that.  I also would try to make the seams a little straighter.

 

I have a color theme going on in my craft room.  It was totally unintentional, but almost everything, from plastic bins and baskets to the projects in progress are light blue, bright light green and white or cream.  I had a whole bolt of this light blue corduroy just sitting there, so I thought it would look nice and be very functional. I got the bolt of fabric at the community yard sale at the Toyota Center in town last year.  I think I paid 5 dollars for the entire thing.  There is at least 15 yards on it.  Carrying it around the sale afterward was a bit heavy.  I was with my aunt and she got a bolt of very heavy dark blue denim.  That was even heavier.  They were too good a deal to pass up, even with the heavy load we had to carry with us the rest of the trip and all the way back to our car afterward.

My Corset Supply Order Arrived on Friday

 

I couldn't believe it.  My order arrived after only three days.  I was so exited to get to work on it, but I had a few other things to do first.  My Grandpa's 80th birthday party was on Saturday and I had to help with that, so I didn't get to work on my corset until Sunday. My auntie came over and sewed her muslin while I worked on mine.  First, I had to try it on again to mark the waist for the twill tape reinforcement:

I took this picture in the mirror.  You can see that without the bones the waist puckers, but it is already a pretty shape.  I think I am going to love it.

Sewing the twill tape on is one of the harder steps of this process.  You have to be careful to make it exactly the same on both sides of the corset.  It is also hard to sew the ends of the twill tape down close to the busk and back boning channels while making a strait seam.  This seam shows though because you are sewing it onto the coutil layer before you attach the lining.

Next I sewed the lining pieces together and to the coutil pieces.  You have to turn it right side out with the busk in place after ironing the whole think.  My aunt and I decided to look into getting a tailor's ham.  Ironing all those seams open on the hip and bust curves without putting in creases is challenging. The next step was to pick stitch all of the seams to keep them from moving around while I sewed the boning channels.

Here I am stitching though the seams of both layers along every seam line.  It took me over an hour.

 

Here I am sewing along the bottom edge of the corset. 

My aunt took this picture of me sewing the boning channels from bottom to top.

 

 Here I am using a seam ripper to pick the pick stitches at the seams back out after sewing the boning channels.

 

Here are the channels.

 

Here is the work station with all the supplies getting ready to start putting in the bones.

The straight steel bones went into the channels on both sides of the grommets in the back.

 

 

  My aunt helped me by measuring them and handing me the ones I needed.  I hit a major hiccup here.  I ended up two 11" bones short.  I was unable to finish the corset because of this.  To order just these two bones (sixty cents each) I will have to pay $8.95 for shipping.  It would make sense to order other things I will need for my next corset to make the shipping feel more reasonable, but I don't have the money to get all of that stuff right now. 

 

So here is where I am at, just waiting for two 11 inch bones.

It is looking very nice.

This is the lining side.  The tracing paper and tracing wheel I used to mark the boning channels worked pretty well.  There were three channels that were pretty hard to see, but I was able to make it work.

 

This is all the bones I have left over.  I am thinking about trying to cut two of these longer ones.

 

The corset supply company, corsetmaking.com, has changed the way they do the bone tips.  They dip them in a kind of epoxy resin instead of using the metal tips that you can see on the longer ones.  In theory it seems like a good idea, but the execution might be a bit lacking.  Some of them look like this:

 

The ends that look like this do not slide well into the boning channels and I really wonder how long it will take for them to wear through the coutil.  I tried not to use these ones.  I will be stabilizing the ends of the bones with embroidery to help prevent wear, but for the amount of work and money I have invested in this corset I want it to last a long time.  I have written an email to the company.  So far, I haven't heard back.

This is a picture of my calculations and measurements for the bones I needed to order.  Next time I will at least use real paper with lines instead of a scrap piece of tissue paper.

Here I was tallying the lengths I had from the silverado kit I ordered a long time ago, and figuring out what I needed to order to make the Dore.  I ordered the white straight bones for the straight channels, I ordered extra, just in case they worked in some of the other channels.  They are very inexpensive as long as you are already ordering something else, so you don't have to pay shipping.

 

When I get the bones I need, all I have to do is sew along the top edge and sew on the bindings.  I will also embroider the boning tips to add strength and durability.  I am going to do white on white, so it won't show very much, but it will add some texture. I will let you all know what I decide to do.  I am going to the hardware store to check on tool dip, that is what people suggest using to tip the spring steel bones.

 

Victorian Corset

My latest projects are: curtains for my house, a cross-stitched creeper, scrap books of my cousin's wedding for the bride and the mother of the bride, and my favorite: an authentic Victorian corset.

I have been dreaming about making one for a few years.  You need lots of special equipment to make one: a good pattern, some special fabrics, steel boning, grommets and grommet setter, lacings, seam binding, and twill tape to do it right.  I spent some time mulling it over and doing my research.  I bought a pattern about 2 years ago:

 

It is from Laughing Moon Mercantile, I bought it on http://corsetmaking.com/, but I think you can order it direct.  It has patterns for two different corset styles (the Dore and the Silverado), pantaloons, and a chemise and it comes with every size in one envelope.  The instructions are very detailed and the materials list is very thorough.  I couldn't decide which style of corset to make, so I made muslins of both corsets and had my husband help me pin them on. 

 

Dore

Silverado

 

WARNING! Don't ever ask your husband to help you fit sewing projects on yourself unless you have no other choice.  If your husband is anything like mine, he will first whine for half an hour about how he might poke you, trying to get out of it, then be so timid and full of doubt about what you are making him do that you have to talk him into each step against his will.  Seriously, it is like pulling teeth. When you finally get it pinned on do not ask him what he thinks.  He won't know what to say, trust me.  He didn't poke me, though.  That is something.  I didn't really like how the bust gores turned out the the Silverado.  I needed to either take in the top of the bodice pieces all around or choose smaller gores.  I tried it with the A cup gores, and it fit better but the overall look was too strait and flat.  I think I will start with the Dore style.  It has fewer pieces and the shape is really nice and curvy, a classic Victorian era hourglass shape.  My muslin seemed a tiny bit on the small side (it is supposed to be about 2 inches apart in the back), but since I do want to tight lace it and I do plan on losing my winter chubs come spring, I think I will just go with it. The length of the muslin was perfect so the boning that comes with the kit that they sell on corsetmaking.com would have worked, but after reading the instructions in the envelope I decided to order straight steel for the straight boning channels and spring steel for the more curved channels.  The kit comes with all spring steel bones. I had ordered a yard of white coutil and a couple yards of the lining fabric along with my pattern so I can get sewing while I wait for my bones, twill tape, bias tape and lacings to arrive.

 

The first steps after making and fitting your muslin are to put the busk and grommets in. You have to sew the fabric and lining together at the front and back seams first then get right into the muscle work.

 

 

The busk was a bit challenging from a sewing perspective,  You have to sew the front seam leaving openings properly spaced for the busk loops to poke through and back stitch for strength.  It was nerve racking, but I got it without having to rip more than a few stitches. Then you have to use an awl to poke the holes through the coutil for the pegs of the other half of the busk. I was worried when I saw that some threads appeared to be breaking. I tried to be so careful. Now that it is done I think it is fine. I had to borrow my daughters sewing machine to use her zipper foot on the backsides of the busk halves.

 

The instructions say to start the grommets one inch from the top edge and space them every 3/4 inch until 1 1/2 inches from the bottom. It took 32 grommets to finish mine.  The instructions say to practice setting a few grommets to get the hang of it, so I did.  It isn't too tough.  The hardest part is making the hole with the awl.  You have to try to work it in gently and strait.  If you stretch the fabric in one direction more than another you can end up with off-center grommets.  There are so many and they are so close together that you can't really notice it.  When the lacing is there, I think it will be even harder to notice.  They are all set well and will be strong enough to lace even my muffin top into submission.

 

Here are the awl, and grommet setting tools. The flash went off.  My craft room is light challenged when the sun is not sunny. (pardon the Cat in the Hat reference)

 

Here is the rubber mallet.  Take it from me, rubber mallets can hurt.  I got a nice little bruise on my index finger of my left hand after I hit it a couple times.

 

The next step was to sew the rest of the coutil fabric panels in place and do a fitting check.  Yay.

 

 

Here are the two halves all sewn together. I inserted bones into the straight channels around the grommets and laced up the back.  Another WARNING: if you can get someone to help you with this it will be much easier.  I did it by myself.  Given my earlier warning, I didn't want to wait until my husband got home.  My daughter doesn't like to see me in my underwear, or help me dress so I didn't wait till she got home either.  I laced the back lacing very loosely, as loose as it would go with the ends tied.  Then I wrapped it around and did up the busk in the front.  This was pretty difficult, but I finally managed.  Then I pulled on the lacing loops left in the center waist and tightened it.  It tightened right up.  the fact that there was no boning allowed it to pucker at the waist a bit, but otherwise it looked really cool.  No alterations necessary, Yay!  No pictures, sorry.  Not because I was indecently exposed (I wore the chemise from my pioneer costume), but because I was so excited. I went and called my aunt and forgot to take pictures.  I also forgot to mark the waist for the twill tape, so I will have to try it on again for that.  Hopefully, I will remember to take pictures.

 

This pattern has many boning channels that you have to trace from the pattern to the lining pieces on the right side of the fabric.  I didn't want to leave permanent marker on there so I bought a tracing wheel and some double-sided tracing paper at Joann's.  I had never used it before.  So far so good.  I won't be able to sew the channels until my order comes in the mail, though.  We will see if the markings last until then.  I am at a good stopping point until my order comes in. I am hoping the order will arrive by Monday of next week.

 

My Auntie is also wanting to make a corset.  She made a muslin of the Silverado, but it is very apparent that she needs to shorten it by at least 2 1/2 inches and the bust gores just aren't right, so I offered to help her alter the Dore pattern in her size so she can try another muslin.  She was so happy that she bought me a pattern altering ruler. It is a french curve and strait edge and ruler all kind of rolled up in one.  I have already found it very useful in measuring boning channels and seam distances.  I traced off and altered her pattern for her and even cut out her muslin pieces, so hopefully she can catch up to me.

 

 

Here is my auntie's sewing machine, in my craft room with her muslin pieces on top waiting for her to come over. I bet she can hear them calling her name.

 

Well, I guess I have nothing else to sew except my dreaded curtains, I better get to work on them.  Have I mentioned that I hate sewing curtains?