I Interrupt this Dress with Pillowcases!

Yes, I needed a change of pace - a quick-er pick-er up-per.

I had already bought these fabrics just for making pillowcases - except for the fabric left over from my dress (upper left fabric):

So far, I have finished the white pillowcase liners, shown underneath at the right, and the red print pillowcases.  Since this fabric has printing along one edge, I sewed the pillowcases with the printing at the opposite end from the hem so I could cut off the words:

This is my quick version of pillowcases.  I use the full width of the fabric, preferably in the 42- to 45-inch range.  I always buy 1-1/4 yards of woven cotton fabric for each pillowcase and prewash (washer and dryer) three times before cutting it out.  I cut across one end to even the fabric. The liner fabric is shown here with the big ruler ready for the cut:

First I measure 21" from the trimmed edge:

Then I roll up the fabric, skootch it across the cutting mat, and cut another 21" beyond that, for a total length of 42".

Note: When making pillowcase liners, the second cut is 20" for a total length of 41". This tutorial was originally written before I started to make the outer pillowcases bigger.

Here are all my printed fabrics on the ironing board, ready for the next step:

I used a selvage for the hems of the printed fabrics, but the white fabric had two unfinished selvages.  I serge-finished one edge of the liners for the hem.

The fabrics were folded crossways, which folded each selvage in half.  A pin was placed three inches from the selvage at the cut edge ...

... and at the folded edge:

I used the pins to fold the hem down:

I pinned all along the cut edge:

Here is a pile of pillowcases ready to be stitched:

I stitched them together on the serger, making it a quick project.  I started at the hem, leaving a thread tail:

I stitched down the length of the pillowcase, angled in a bit at the end, and stitched off the fabric.  I then stitched across the end of the pillowcase, crossing the previous stitching at the side, and tapering in at both ends of that stitching.  This tapers in the corners just a little bit.  This is when the printed selvages were cut off:

I used a double-eyed needle to tuck in the thread tails.  At the hem, I weave the needle between the hem and the pillowcase, pointing it towards the fold of the hem, and then out:

Once the needle is in place, I thread the tails into the needle and pull it back out.

When the thread tails are too long, I trim them.

Next, I steam press all the stitching, and then I pin and press the three-inch hem in place:

I stitched the hems in place along the selvage edges using my sewing machine:

Here is the end result:

Working on KwikSew 3949 part 2

I am still working on the bodice portion of this dress.  Click this sentence to see the beginning of the project.

I pinned the bias strip to the neck edge:

... and then I pinned it some more:

The bodice front edge seemed to be longer than the bias, so I eased it on.  I think it's to prevent gaping at the front, but I will soon find out:

After stitching the neckline, the seam was pressed flat, then open, with the seam allowances pressed towards the bias strip:

The bias strip was turned around the seam allowances to the right side and pinned:

I tried to make the fold of the bias strip cover the previous seam when I pinned it in place:

I used a lot of pins to hold the bias in place so I could topstitch it:

This is the stitching in progress:

When I remember, I try to take a picture of my stitch settings in context.along with what I'm doing.  I will need to remember how to do this when I get to the armhole finish:

The edge stitching did not always go completely over the first stitching, as seen from the inside:

The outside stitching is mostly even:

When all that was done, I steam pressed the neckline:

I want to test fit the bodice before I continue.

Working on KwikSew 3949

I have actually been working on this dress.  Here is the envelope with my "cheat sheet"

The pattern suggest using two or three fabrics, but I did not feel like visually cutting my body in two at the waist, so I am using all the same fabric.

I finished all the pattern tracing over a week ago, but I got a lot done just today.  I cut out the skirt pieces and set them aside:

My neckline to shoulder adjustment resulted in pointy shoulders, as you can imagine from the tracing:

I had to trim off the points after sewing the shoulder seams:

I think the most interesting part was what I did to the make the long bias strip for the neckline trim.  One long bias piece would have wasted lots of fabric, so I cut it into two pieces which I attached near the middle (click the picture to enlarge):

I have laid out all the parts related to the bodice.  This gives me two advantages, neither of which has precedence:

• The next step of this project is ready to go.
• Nobody had better put any crap on My Flat Surface!

The big piece on the left shows the front pieces attached to the back bodice at the shoulders.  The longest piece is the neckline bias trim.  The pieces towards the back are for the waistline assembly, and two pieces to the right are the armhole trim.


I am glad to finally get to work on this dress project.  I need to balance out my wardrobe, which has too much red and purple, but not enough blue.

Updating "the list"

I have finally updated the list of Big Men's Patterns.

This list is connected to the tab above labeled "Big Men's Patterns."

Duh

I hope you find this list useful.

A Weed Smoothie

No, I don't mean That Weed, silly.  I mean This weed:

Chickweed is prolific in my yard.  In fact, in Florida's wet season, chickweed grows much larger than you would suspect from the picture.

Here is a picture of chickweed growing in my yard in February, so it's not very thick:

I know that it's a very nutritious herb, even though it's most commonly known as a weed.

Click on this sentence for more information about the nutrition and benefits of chickweed.

Here's a picture of chickweed taken in April, which was dry this year, so it's not very big here, either:

Here's a picture of it in June, just as it was starting to get bigger:

After harvesting and freezing, here's what it looked like when I pulled it from the freezer.  For reference, the bag shown is gallon size:

My basic smoothie recipe is to place the ingredients in the blender in the following order:

• something green - spinach or mild herbs
• something wet - coconut water or iced tea made with stevia
• three apples - pared and quartered
• spices - apple pie spice or cinnamon or fresh ginger pieces

Here are the assembled ingredients in our VitaMix blender:

Here are the blended smoothies:

This is very tasty.  The chickweed makes it milder and less bland than a spinach smoothie.