Sewn Apartment Accessories

Some apparel sewers deride home dec sewing.  If you are one of them, you may want to click away now!  I am an unashamed home dec sewer: I want to have as nice and unique an environment as my wardrobe.  If one has sewing skillz, and needs new curtains, why not DIY?  

My mother has a business meeting in New York this week, and she's going to stay with me in CT for a quick overnight visit tomorrow.  This spurred me to do some of those housekeeping projects that we've been putting off - like re-arranging rugs, dusting heating boards, re-caulking the shower - and... sewing a few decent throw pillows to replace these nasty, old ones:

I don't remember where they even came from.  So today I made these!:

Instead of doing all plain, square pillows, I learned how to do piping today using this tutorial from Sew, Mama, Sew.  It was so easy! (Though a bit time-consuming the first go-around.) 

The lime zebra fabric is a 100% cotton remnant from JoAnn's.  I also did a little rectangular stripey pillow.  That fabric is from a fabulous local store: it's an old 19th century textile mill that today makes high-end designer upholstery fabrics, and sells the leftovers and mistakes in a small shop below the factory. 

Are you a garment sewer who also sews items for your home?  I actually began sewing by doing home dec items - curtains, pillows - and I think it's a great way to start sewing: it's mostly straight stitching, no complicated darts or zippers, relatively fast projects.  I realized today that it can even be a good way for the apparel sewer to learn a new skill: today I made bias strips for the first time and learned how to make piping. 

I'm not trading in my dress patterns for quilting projects, but it was a fun change today to sew pieces to spruce up the apartment.  How do you feel about home dec sewing?  Do you appreciate it as another fabric craft?  Or are you firmly a Home Dec Hata?

A Gathered Waist Skirt That Works!‏

I couldn't get the idea of a full skirt for fall out of my mind.  I again used Butterick 5285, but this time cut 4 inches off each side.  I used a lightweight wool from an Ebay seller who said it was from a Liz Claiborne factory in Fall River, MA.  It's a lovely, soft fabric that lets off that great wooly, sheepy smell when pressed.  The wool is much more drapey and lightweight than the stiff cotton poplin in my first version, so this one actually worked.

This pattern doesn't call for a lining, but I wanted to line it since the skirt's wool.  A commenter helpfully said that she lines gathered skirts by making folds (pleats) in a self-drafted lining.  I dropped the lining in, matching up the side seams, and made folds until the lining was the same size as the skirt. 

The waistband is then stitched over top of both layers.  I was intimidated by the thought of how this would work, but it ended up being SUPER easy.  (Thanks, Slapdash Sewist!)

I wore this to the office with this JCrew cropped jacket and pointy heels.  (The shoes are the Nuncio from Nine West.  It's the perfect dress shoe!  The heel is high enough to give that sexy lift, but short enough to be comfortable and walkable.  I have 2 pair, and ordered a black pair on sale from DSW yesterday!  I'm all about buying in pairs [or triples] when I find something I love.)

Classic Pencil Skirt with Vent

This weekend I finished the pencil skirt with a vent, inspired by the  Cupcake Goddess's tutorials which instruct how to put a vent plus lining into a pencil skirt.

Most skirt patterns include a vent, but the patterns don't call for a lining (isn't that obnoxious on the part of the Big 4 patterns?  Obviously, if the pattern suggests wool, it must be lined in most cases.)  If you've never lined a skirt with a vent before, it does take some mental work to figure out how to do it. 

My skirt was different from the tutorial's model - the Burda Jenny - as McCall's 3830 does not have a waistband.  These are the slightly different steps I took to construct the skirt:

1. I inserted the invisible zipper into the fashion fabric.
2. Attached the fashion fabric and lining at the waistband.
3. Finished the bottom of the vent from the inside.

That method was suggested by Connie Long in her Easy Guide to Sewing Linings (partly accessible on Google Books).  Putting the vent's right sides together inside the skirt, I took a guess at what vent seams should be sewn together, and it worked.    

A commentor indicated that her skirt pulled once the lining was attached at the waist; I recalled that Eugenia countered this by adding "wearing ease" to her vented skirt's lining, so I drafted my skirt's lining this way as well.  As Eugenia noted, it doesn't make the inside very pretty, but I don't have unsightly pulling issues when I walk.

As you can see, it was difficult to get the puzzle piece part of the lining to ease in, so that part doesn't look very pretty either, and the edge is pulling up a bit.   Hopefully I can perfect that in future versions.

I'm so pleased with how this skirt turned out.  I've started taking more time and care on my projects - serging the fashion fabric, pinking lining edges, sewing all possible seams in the same direction - and the results have been more satisfying to me. 

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I'm suddenly in a skirt mood, so I have a few in the immediate queue.  Though I ordered a vintage dress pattern, and it's calling my name, too.  There just aren't enough hours in the day!