Ruler work, a garment and a quilt

It has been a scattered kind of week, a real luxury. I didn’t have to focus on some deadline or project, just work on what I wanted to!

I’ve long wanted to work up this muslin, which will be a prototype of a jacket I want to make from this failed quilt. It is actually a gorgeous quilt but it has too many issues to resolve. I’m going to eventually make it into a quilted jacket and it will be gorgeous! I’m using a tried-and-true pattern:

I’m making view c, the green one. I suspect I will need to petite that collar as it will probably overwhelm me. I will also do 3/4 sleeves, a good choice for a short girl. Otherwise, I have already altered it to fit my body. My progress so far:

That is an odd angle, I know, I wanted to feature those seams with their awesome Hong Kong finish. It is shown inside out on my mannequin to feature them. It should be a good fit. This is the muslin, the test garment for the Real Deal to come.

Aren’t those seams just awesome? Sometimes details like this just make my heart sing.

And it is totally ironic that I am using couture techniques on this rot-gut JoAnn’s fabric. I didn’t see this until I’d already cut it out. I am just going to ignore it.

And that wasn’t all – it was so off-grain that I had to pin it every few diamonds to keep it straight. I am using this fabric because its heft will imitate the quilted garment I hope to make.

I have to remark about how delightful it is to work with the right equipment and notions. The Right Stuff makes all the difference between frustration + bad results and the pleasure of working with well-designed equipment and notions.

This project just happened to bring together a symphony of perfection:

–   My LAURASTAR ironing system. I love this thing! But when it comes to garments, there is nothing like it. Fabric obeys my LAURASTAR! If she says lay flat, it goes flat. If I steam in a curve like an armscye, it holds that curve. It makes quick work of setting a seam or ironing out wrinkles. It has an “active ironing board” that will either puff out or suck in air. OMG I can’t tell you how divine that is. It is nothing like a normal steam iron.
–  My BERNINA 765. Love, love, love. In this project, it was all about the feet: the edgestitch foot (#10c) to ditch those Hong Kong seams down perfectly and, the quarter inch foot (#97D) which I used with the even feed engaged for beautiful, even stitches.
–  My Karen Kay Buckley scissors collection – used the smaller one to trim my seams close and straight.
–  My Easy Kut snips; in my opinion, you must have good snips. These are grab-‘n-go and super sharp.
–  Silk organza – a necessity for garment sewing. I use it to underline (don’t need it in this case) or as a pressing cloth so that seams and darts do not leave bumps and shine on the front of the garment.
–  Pressing supplies – this is but a fraction of my pressing supplies. I used the ham to press the darts over. It works so much better perched securely on a ham holder. Not shown is the sleeve board I used for the shoulder seams.
–  This might seem odd, but I cannot live without moving paper. When you need to sketch out a design that is bigger than say one quilt block, you need room to roam. Packing paper is cheap and big and gives me a much better feel for how that design is going to look to scale.

There ya go – the sum total of all of that made this week’s projects easier and more successful.

Ah, but there was some quilting involved too. I took another great online class with Telene Jeffrey. I have taken 3 classes with Telene so far and I am a Fan Girl. She just puts on a great class. She is located in South Africa and draws a truly world-wide audience which makes class a little more interesting. She knows her material and is a delightful teacher. Here is a Telene quote – it’s a hoot:

“If you have to fill your glass 9 times to get the desired result, then that’s what you do!”

I wanted to learn the true best way to use rulers and Telene’s class was spot on. I wanted to put what I learned to good use, so I pulled out an ooooold quilt to play with. I have no emotional connection to this quilt, I just wanted to play with rulers. Telene had some good tips and tricks.

I used this combination of rulers for this particular project. I have lots of rulers now and it’s funny how this odd combination was what worked for this design.

I played on packing paper with my design, full scale. I tried another design in that center block and did not like that at all.

I’m not done, but this gives you an idea of how that looks like almost stitched up. I do not like it. There is lots of room to play in the borders, but even that will not retrieve this little quilt.

I’m not sure how I would do fill work on this, so this is just one idea. But here’s the deal: I do not like this project at. all. It is sooooo milquetoast, so subtle, so booooring. I will not finish this, it is not worthy of my efforts. I am not going to trash it or anything. It may eventually be ripped out for a new design, or sacrificed as a place to play with surface design, or even cut up. I’m not worried about using this piece. It served its purpose.

I had fun doing the ruler work. Telene’s class gave me so many great ideas of ways and places to use ruler work. I had fun with this project and the ruler work, even though I don’t like the result. Sometimes it’s about the process and not the product. Bottom line: loved Telene’s class, loved using ruler for the process, but don’t like the result. That’s fine with me!

I’ll link up with:

Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
and
Finished or Not Friday