Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Lucy Learns to Sew: Project 1


Like Laura Ingalls Wilder, I learned to sew from patchwork- an excellent primer for even seams of small stitches, ironing as you go, and a variety of sewing techniques such as applique and curved seams. My mother loved to sew, but I never learned how to use a sewing machine.

But a combination of the Dress a Week blog Therese linked to, finding some fabric during New Year's cleaning and my wins at the Knights of Columbus raffle last fall got me interested in sewing some garments.

This garment was completely sewn by hand. For my first project, I picked a cotton fabric with an all over pattern for maximum forgiveness.

Pattern:
Simplicity New Look 6870, Option D ($3.99, Joann)

Fabric:
1 1/2 yards, Originally purchased for a quilt back 5 years ago (sunk cost)

Other Notions:
1/4" Elastic (1/10 package @ $1.29)
White thread (1/4 spool @ $2.29)
1 1/2 yard of 5/8" and 1 1/2 yards 3/8" Ribbon
(sunk cost from a previous project; used because I was too lazy to sew fabric ties)
Hook and Eye: (1 @ $1.29 a dozen)

Total Cost: $4.80
Time: About 6 hours, at least half of which was because I sewed by hand
New Sewing Techniques: darts, elastic casing, waist ties

Comments: This is a quick and easy pattern. It is very feminine and flattering. There was 4" extra positive ease in the back which I eliminated with a hook and eye at the middle back waist (and gets covered by the waist ties).

1 comment:

daniela said...

This is a beautiful creation!

Many of the Very Easy Very Vogue patterns also lend themselves quite nicely to hand sewing; registered members of their website receive frequent offers of $5.99 per pattern.