Progress. Slow, but progress

So, I have actually been working on this cutting table. The weekend of my last post, I had a flurry of activity and even got all the drawers done. The next weekend was tied up doing life stuff, but this weekend I did get the whole bugger-boo upstairs.


Yes, it does look like I was drunk when I put the right side together. No, I wasn't. Unfortunately, I can't really fix any of it now. The right most cabinet is too small to get my drill in, so I can't replace those drawer slides. And I have no idea what happened to the cubby holes, but they are all messed up. They are functional, though. So I'm sticking with them.

I had another drawer that simply did not want to function (far left, middle drawer). It was working find downstairs, but refuses to slide up here. So, I just gave up and used the mallet to knock it in.

Speaking of mallets, I have finally gotten my finders smashed. Was it while working with a finicky drawer? No. At least trying to get the massive cabinet together? No. It was inserting snaps...

Sigh. I did actually get some sewing done. My gym bag is starting to get funky. I hate fragrance, though. So I read about Zeolite as a natural deodorizer.

And if it comes in a bag with a cool hamster, all the better, right? So, I made some muslin bags. I wanted to be able to remove the rocks and 1) wash the bags and 2) "sun" the zeolite which supposedly clears out the smells once it starts working.



Anyway, there I am installing the snaps and bang! Felt like an idiot. But, it was still better than paying 25 bucks for something similar.

Anyway, still have to get the doors installed, then take everything off and paint it. Then I will be done!!

Cutting Table is coming along!

Last weekend I was able to do a little bit for my cutting table, though not as much as I had hoped. Since many of us in the US get this Friday off, I'm hoping I'll be able to see significant progress this weekend.

Here's where I am right now:
Bay 1 and 2 will hold two wide stacks of drawers, and then a thin shelf area (complete with another landing zone!) The bit on the far right on top of the toolbox is the beginning of my custom mod for this. It will be four simple cubbies to hold my fabulous Greenberg & Hammer transfer paper. These are huge sheets that I don't want to fold. Right now I just lay them in my closet, but that's not very safe.

The inside is made from two thin sheets of plywood cut halfway down the middle and then pieced together.

I remember playing with toys like this when I was a kid, but I can't remember what they are called. Luckily, the idea stuck with me.

Right now, the paper holder is disassembled and being painted before I glue it up. (I really want the paper to have a nice slick surface to slide on, so the high gloss paint, and a bunch of sanding, should help).

This weekend I'm off to the hardware store to look for the final piece for my paper mod. And I hope I'll get the drawers cut out. I may even start routing all those edges, but I really don't love that part.

BWOF 5-05 #133 Facings

For those family and friends who read this blog just to see what I'm up to, feel free to stop now. I'm going to try to demonstrate a sewing technique.

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Drafting the facing:

After altering a pattern's body pieces it can be a real pain to then have to remember all the alterations you did to change the facing. So here is my quick and dirty trick.

Note: I only do this when I have enough fabric to cut out another facing if this doesn't work :)


Note 2: If you click on the picture, blogger will open it up a little bigger.

These are the back pieces for the dress. The black lines are the important seam lines for the center back piece, the green lines are the important seam lines for the site back piece. I lay the pieces down so that the princess seam lines at the armscye are touching. This means that they pieces overlap by 1 and 1/4" because you must take the seam allowances out of the equation.

Don't worry about the big old gap caused at the bottom, we don't care for the facings. Instead, just lay another piece of tracing paper and trace around the edges and then cut roughly around the blue line. Voila! A back facing that takes into account any busy/shoulder/width adjustments you made.

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Sewing the shoulders.

Burda's directions are plenty accurate, but they aren't intuitive, so I'm trying to share some pics.

I think the directions are clear about putting the facing on, and sewing up to about 1.5" away from the cut edge. Then it all goes crazy.

The first important thing is to turn facings to the inside at this point (ask me how I know). Then sew the shoulder seams for the body. It's important to fold the facing bits down. I pinned them to keep them out of the way, as below. It's also important to sew the right front shoulder to the right back shoulder. Your dress will look very odd if you try to sew the right front shoulder to the left front shoulder (ask me how I know).

Then, with some finagling, sew the shoulder seams of the facings. This will take some work, but you should end up with something that looks like this:
This is me coming from under the facing and poking my hand out where there are still holes.

I tried to take pictures of the next bit, but the fabric is very busy and it just looks like a wad. So, first thing to remember is that it's o'kay if it looks like a wad.

To get an idea for what you do:
Sew one side of the straps at a time.
In the picture above, as I am pulling by thumb out of the gap, I would pinch the facing and body pieces at that opening and pull them with me. Then sew the gap opening closed. Here is what it looks like after you've pulled the gap. The red line is the approximate sewing line.

After you sew that line, sew the other side of the strap by following the same procedure.

It's hard to visualize, but easy once you do it. The nice thing is that there is no need for hand sewing!

Pressing Table in Action!

I actually sewed some this week. It was the first time I needed to use the entire top of my pressing table since its completion.

It works so fabulously! The top is much firmer than the ironing cover for the hobby table. There was one small glitch:

If you look closely, the landing zone forces the fabric to bunch a little. However, I don't know how one would get around this since I want to be able to have fabric running off on all sides. It's still much nicer than having to find another place to put the iron.

Today I got some of my big cuts done for the cutting table. Don't know how much I'll be able to get done the rest of this month since we're having visitors next weekend, but it's a start.

Planning the last part

This weekend the only productive bit I did was to mess up my sewing room :) I drug out all the materials I want close at hand while cutting/tracing/altering patterns.

Here's what I have and how I'm thinking of storing them:

Left to right:

• Rulers/french curves: I think I'll build a divider like the following into one of the drawers. That will mean that I will need to make the drawer a little taller than my cone thread drawers in the pressing cabinet, but that's okay

• Cutting implements/ Pattern Weights/ Tracing utensils: Just a shallow drawer for this. Don't need anything fancy:
• 
• The really long things are my lovely tracing papers that I got from Greenberg and Hammer Plus there is my tracing paper. Like many folks on PR, I use Soil Separator cloth
  to trace my patterns. This pieces are really long, so I'll have to make full width cubby holes. I have a special idea for the cloth, but I don't want to spoil it if it doesn't work.

Two down, one to go

The pressing table is finished!

The cabinet took one coat of primer and two coats of paint to get an even color. The white makes the muslin look really dingy, but I don't care.

I put it to use the last two nights making up a very quick tshirt. It's so fabulous I think I need to name him.

Me: I really should get the seam roll out, but then I'd have to find it and put it back up.
It: No worries, just pull open this drawer.

later...

Me: Shoot, I need my pressing guide.
It: Why here it is.

So fabulous having two flat surfaces. Normally I have to drape my chair with the cut pieces as I work, but now, I can just move them to the pressing table.

I did decide to put the pressing table against the inner wall instead of the window b/c I do more long term cutting/altering than long term pressing. I need to get a good pic up, though.

Oh, and I did get one thing sewn between starting work on the cabinet and finishing it:

I sewed my husband a shirt he actually likes!!! Of course, it's because he told me to copy another RTW shirt he likes. I used David Coffin's copying shirt video to get me started. It was fairly easy and dh actually likes the shirt. Piping and the collar were a beast, but I got it done.

Now that I've seen how wonderful the pressing table is, of course I don't want to wait to start on the cutting table. Maybe I can get it all done before school starts up again in August.

Huzzah!

It still needs painting, but I feel like I've reached a major milestone... All construction is completed.

May I present to you....

the back

and the front
Sorry about the fuzziness of the pics. I'm not the best photographer anyway, and I'm shaking with excitement (and I'm only slightly kidding about that last part).

I was a little disappointed yesterday b/c none of the drawer fronts line up right, but dh reminded me that it's not a professional job ("and it looks it"). It is my first project with drawers and only my second project with doors, so I'm feeling okay.
All the knobs and handles come from the Habitat Restore center. They were pretty cheap, and I bought sillier knobs because of it. The back has black and blue knobs, the front these cool red jewel like ones.

This is probably more information than you need, but I chose to use pulls on the top with rounded edges because I hate the knob in my kitchen b/c they catch my zipper fly. Hence the three center drawers with pulls.

I did go to the restore center before I began building and thought about cobbling together a cabinet from old kitchen cabinets. It certainly would have been cheaper (probably not even counting the hours of work I've put into this thing), but then it wouldn't have been just what I wanted.

Such as....


A file drawer to hold my patterns without squishing them. It's slightly wider than the normal so the 9x12 envelopes fit easily AND it's taller so I can have dividers sticking up, and my Jalie and Hot Patterns envelops fit in it as well.

Above that:

One drawer that holds all my cone thread!

And then:
Drawer for random accessories to my machines.

To the right... well, this was actually an accident, but I think it's ended up well. For some reason the top middle drawer did not want to fit. I think the sides of the cabinet ended up not being square. Dh suggested having a larger drawer front, and it works well.

It holds my iron and my lesser used pressing aids (and iron cleaner)

Under that, more patterns (no it's not even half full).

Last column of drawers:
Most used pressing aids on top

AND THEN TWO EMPTY DRAWERS! Who knows what wonders will fill them!

The far right has a shelf for my notebooks with patterns in them. The bottom shelf was originally for those large Jalie and Hot Patterns patterns, but I don't need it any more.

And my favorite piece:

The landing zone. When the iron isn't being housed in the drawer (or on top, as I suspect it will be), I created a landing zone so I can have the table completely covered with fabric and still have a handy place to keep my iron.

I couldn't find a drawer pull for it at the restore center, or any hardware shop, or at any common online hardware store. But, while I was searching for a drawer pull at 11 pm on a Friday night (as you do) I found this site. The shipping cost twice as much as two pulls (a whole $8.40, but I don't care. They should be on their way to me soon!

Anywho, I've vacuumed the room (such a relief!) and will prime/paint it this weekend. Then I'm going to get back to sewing before I build my cutting table. I've got to think about what worked/what didn't this go round.

If you have any questions, let me know and I'll try to answer.