Warning: Sewing content. Followed by open thread.
Tom Fuller emailed with a climate related question asked what I’d been up to. I told him I had been diverted on a sewing interlude. I described items I had made for Jim. I told him I had just finished a white, blue, green red, purple and white checked shirt for Jim– but it wasn’t as bad as that sounded. Tom being a guy was very interested in this and wanted to know how various things I made for Jim looked.
To the right you can see the white, blue, green, red, and purple sweater along with a pair of rust/red corduroy trousers. The the left of that outfit, you will see a blue sweater I designed and knit and a pair of olive drab corduroy trousers.
His brothers have decreed the rust/red trousers “too wild” and “not a manly color”. In fact, they decree these Howard Wolowitz pants. Jim likes and wears the pants. I’ve consulted further and concluded that acceptable colors seem to include only the following: black, white, grey, and any color in standard issue military uniforms; they approve of the olive drab pants to the left.
To prove Jim is wearing pants I made, I forced him to stand still and have his picture taken before he jumped in the car to drive to work. I finished these grey wool/poly trousers on Friday. I’d show the whole picture, but pointing the flash at the slacks left a dark shadow over Jim’s face. So, you’ll have to settle for the pants only.
It seems to be traditional to mention the pattern when reporting on sewing projects. The trousers were made from Vouge 2209 tracing the view without pleats between the size 28 and 30. Jim claims to have “porked out”; years ago I made these tracing between 26 and 28, so I figured going up a size would be fine. Knowing Jim will wear these out before he “porks out” to a size 30, I immediately modified the pattern to omit the provision for letting the pants out in the back. (This involves taping together the tissue pieces for the waistband in the back and trimming the extra seam allowance to the standard 5/8″.) While stitching up the corduroy pants I noticed pattern instructions use the “absolutely ridiculous stupid profanity inducing” method for constructing a back welt pocket and the “somewhat unnecessarily difficult” method of inserting a fly zipper way. I dug through other men’s pants pattern in my stash and modified the pattern to do let me insert the welt the “easy nearly fool proof way” and the zipper the “easier, just as good method”. I found these on a Kwik sew pants pattern and modified the construction method. Making the grey pants was easy. Fabric for all items above were purchased from Vogue Fabrics in Evanston as these materials were purchased back way back when and were in my “stash”. I highly recommend Vogue Fabrics for price, quality and selection– the quality of the fabrics above is “ohh. I love it”.
The shirt is made using Burda 7054 view B but with collar A. While making it this, I discovered the placket construction method is the “stupid way of making a placket”.
I’m enjoying sewing and I’m planning 1 garment a week. Today, I purchased 100% cotton flannel to make two additional shirts. I hope Jim’s brother’s don’t decree either of these “Howard Wollowitz” fabrics!
For those, who like Kenneth, were wondering about the out of pocket costs of sewing: Using a 50% off coupon from JoAnn Fabrics, the fabric cost for each shirt is $9.98. Buttons will cost an additional $1, thread, about $1 depending and interfacing to stiffen the collar, cuffs and button placket about $1, but those are already in the stash. The burda men’s shirt pattern cost $6– but I’m reusing that so I guess it’s sort of free at this point. Sales and coupons are so constantly available at JoAnn that I don’t think anyone ever buys their fabric at full price. Frankly, with some exceptions I think one shouldn’t pay full price for fabrics from JoAnn, their fabric is an ok value at their sale prices. So, the out of pocket cost for a decent flannel short is going to be about $12. This fabric is on the lighter weight end of flannel and I would rate the quality “ok” rather than “to die for”. Both will make nice casual shirts to wear with jeans or casual slacks. They are certainly nicer than anything I’d find for $12. So, if you gauge the cost based on the out of pocket costs for materials, the shirts are a bargain.
The real cost is the time. If you enjoy sewing, you are an unusual size and have a difficult time finding clothes or like creating unique items, it’s worth it. Jim can easily spend 8 hours on a Saturday searching for a decent shirt or slacks in his size and find nothing remotely reasonable but jeans. I can make set of trousers or a shirt in that time. So, family-wise we’re just replacing shopping time with sewing time. But this wouldn’t be the case in many other families
Open thread!(Oh… and I just heard that UAH posted. Gotta go check that. And throw the flannel in the wash to preshrink!)
I would be happy to wear any of that, except the red pants 🙂 Nice work.
Along the homieness line, I just found the definitive recipe for pie crust. I have been looking for an elastic but flaky cover to perfect my already world famous empanadas, and I discovered that one of my go to sources for culinary info had posted the best yet, a couple of years ago. It’s really great and relative easy:
http://sweets.seriouseats.com/2011/07/the-food-lab-the-science-of-pie-how-to-make-pie-crust-easy-recipe.html
hmm…. pie….
Obviously, Jim and I don’t care if his brother’s call these Howard Wollowitz pants. My sister was the one who observed they will wear pants of any color that is found in a US military uniform. All others are “Howard Wollowitz” Needless to say plaid is not allowed. I think James Annan modeled some wild patterned pants Jules stitched up for him. Robert and David (aka “the twins” ) would definitely have something to say if their brother wore those!
My sister Patricia is similarly conservative when it comes to clothes.
I just got back email from Jim. He approves of the flannel. It’s now in the washing machine getting pre-shrunk. I always, always, always preshrink fabric. There is no point in spending time fitting a garment that’s just going to shrink! (Worse, if the interfacing, zipper, fabric and other stuff shrink at different rates. Oy!!)
When will custom Blackboard shirts be available for online purchase? Hockey Stick on the back, of course.
Lucia, I enjoy your sewing threads and particularly when you noted your brother-in-laws’ observations on Jim’s new clothes. It sounds to me that you have a relationship with your brother-in-laws where none of the parties is offended by honest opinions from the other party. I think my kids generation might be better at that than mine and mine was better than my parents but that observation might be tainted by my generational perspective.
You got me to thinking what it cost my mother to make shirts for my brother and me out of sacks of chicken feed:
Material: $0.00
Sewing thread: $0.10
Electricity to operate sewing machine: $0.15
Labor: $0.00
Having 2 sons brave or naive enough to wear shirts in public: Priceless
Kenneth–
Actually, early on, I had to train all three of these guys to give honest opinions about food. No matter what I served, they would say they liked it. That’s polite, but has some drawbacks. Sometimes, I didn’t even like it. So I began to say things like “Would you like this again next week, next month, or next year?” or “If I make this again, do you think it should have more salt?”
It’s actually nice to know the boundaries of what different men consider “normal” for clothes. Jim likes rust colored pants, and neither of us things most Americans people are going to think that color is “weird”. After all, when you sew, the possibility of making something that is a bit too far outside “normal” and that can matter when making choices for work clothes. Turns out some guys think the only color for Men’s pants are colors that exist in military uniforms. Worth knowing.
Kenneth–
I couldn’t help myself. I googled “feed sack fabric”.
It turns out one can *buy* vintage feed sack fabric on etsy: have a look. Even better, you can get reproduction feed sack cloth. It’s not even inexpensive!
Your son’s should be proud of their shirts. The fabric in them seems to go for $30 a yard. Shirts require a minimum of 2 yards. Oy!
lucia (Comment #111041)
Lucia, I emailed my brother and sister about your discovery of vintage feed bag cloth and facetiously suggested to my brother that we get some of that cloth and make feed bag shirts to wear to our next school reunion. We had such a small school that all the graduates come to a yearly reunion. My sister has now offered to sew the shirts for us. She even suggested that we wear bib overalls and high top shoes. As is often the case when I make a suggestion like this one I have to await one of my siblings backing down.
After middle grade school I was very sensitive to being perceived by what I wore and even though most of the students were in the same boat I had this idea that overalls and high topped shoes (that I wore to school in the lower grades) made me look hickish. I did not even wear blue jeans until I got out of college because I associated that apparel with bib overalls. Of course, as I matured I realized that any hickish tendencies I had and were recognizable by the public were not associated with what I wore.
My kids wore bib overalls to school because that was a cool trend for awhile. High top shoes were also a fashion statement as I recall.
Most of my life I have dressed rather conservatively and usually avoided any trends. I did, however, have a powder blue leisure suit that I wore with colorful shirts for a short period of time. That outfit seemed to take on a life of its own and it became a path for me to mock the whole trendy fashion thing. Lots of people remember that outfit. I have a friend who dresses even more conservatively than I and when I reminded him that he never had worn a leisure suit he begged to differ saying he always wore a plain colored shirt with his tan leisure suit.
Oh no!!! You might end up wearing this at your reunion!! Actually, that could be fun.
I wore uniforms in highschool. I would have preferred to wear bib overalls, feedbag shirts and high tops!