here is the fly-front zipper tutorial i promised y’all! it’s not perfect by any means – i’m still learning zippers myself! but this is a pretty easy, tried-and-true method that delivers great results.
you want to start with the front of your shorts (or pants!), sewn together up to the point where the bottom of the zipper will reside. we will be working flat – no back or side seams yet. this makes the insertion much easier and quicker.
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i just love bound seams – i think they are so pretty and neat and add a really nice touch to an otherwise simple garment.
i am currently slogging away at simplicity 2412 and, god, has this pattern been a lesson in patience. from the initial tracing, to decoding all the weird pinholes and perforations (verdict: unprinted patterns really aren’t that scary, but i wouldn’t recommend them to a total beginner), to the multiple pattern adjustments (taking 9″ off the bottom and the dang thing is STILL too long! and omggg so much unnecessary ease!)… at least the actual construction is going together fairly smoothly!
i decided to bind my seams for a few reasons:
– this dress is seersucker. who wants to line a seersucker anything? talk about defeating the purpose!
– out of all the garments i’ll be working on this spring, this one has very few seams and they are all straight – perfect for this kind of finish
– i have the most gorgeous lipstick red rayon seam binding. GORGEOUS. it was crying to be used!
happy holidays (whichever you prefer, i’m not picky!) to everyone! i’ve been MIA for the past week or so, and about to disappear again for another week due to this:
my poor bb sewing machine + serger awaiting the sewing machine doctor!
nothing is wrong with them… they just need their yearly check-up (same as you’d do for your pet, or your car, or uhh yourself). turnaround time is about a week, so i took the opportunity to drop them off today since i will be spending my new year’s weekend in new orleans 🙂
but i miss them already!
in other happy fun-times news, i did get a new camera for christmas! so i can start taking pictures again, although this camera is much different than my previous one so it is taking some getting used to. my pictures are pretty sucky right now, hopefully i’ll figure it out sooner than later!
oh, and i got new sewing books!
kwik sew method for sewing lingerie
singer sewing for special occasions
my brother & sister-in-law bought me a couple sewing books for christmas – tailoring and boutique apparel. i couldn’t get a good picture of them, but here is the art of sewing flickr set. aren’t they gorgeous? there is a great cape pattern in the apparel book that i am dying to try!
i also made some little fur cuffs & pom poms for my boots over the weekend 🙂
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let me preface by saying that i LOVE a good invisible hem. not that horrible weak shit provided by the “blindstitch” hem a sewing machine does (i had to put that in quotes because they aren’t even blind and they look horrible and tacky and ugh ugh ugh h8 machine-sewn hems ALL OF THEM), but a dainty hand-sewn invisible/blind hem ♥ so classic and clean, the mark of true craftsmanship.
don’t even get me started on machine-stitched VISIBLE hems ew ew ew
anyway, this process mystified me for a long time:
first it was “LOL WHY I AM GONNA DO THAT, THE MACHINE IS GOOD ENOUGH AND IT IS FASTER” (yeah, if you want your finished piece to look extra suzy homemaker. gross, i bet you used quilting cotton to make that, too).
then it was “HAND SEWING IS BORRRING UGHH”
then it was “I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO DO THAT STITCH LOL AND HAND SEWING IS STILL BORING”
i don’t think hand sewing is boring anymore, not even after putting hours of padstitching into my lady grey. i guess i see it as the difference between “homeade” and “handmade.”
i’m hemming a gorgeous black 50s cocktail dress (another spoil from closet case vintage ehehehe), so i took some pictures to maybe de-mystify the process for some of y’all.
and also to point out why, when someone asks me “oh, can you hem this, i know it’ll be quick bc you have a sewing machine!” i tend to snarl and spit and spout profanities.
LLADYBIRD 
