Lander Pants

My first pair of trousers

Since I had made the Lander shorts from True Bias Patterns last fall, I thought the Lander pants would be a good introduction to the realm of sewing trousers. Based on my shorts, I cut a size 14 and then added 3 inches to the suggested length to make sure the legs were plenty long. This time I actually made the back pockets from the pattern and I cut lining for the front pockets. I still opted to leave off the belt loops.
The fabric was from the Salvation Army and a little under 3 yards of black denim cost $6. I did prewash and dry the fabric before cutting. When I was constructing the trousers, I had three machines set up so that each step could be done without losing too much transition time. All the stitching was done on my Bernina 1230, the buttonholes on my Singer 201, and the serging on my Bernette 43D. Next time, I would consider setting up another Bernina, one for sewing and one for edgestitching.

Lining up back pocket corners

Front pockets edgestitched and lined

Outer leg seams were serged.

Inner leg seam finished

Crotch seam serged up to fly opening.

White X is for fly opening

Right side fly opening serged.

Right side of fly will be attached to pants to hold buttonholes

The buttons I chose were a bit thicker and needed a bigger opening. The holes will go up to 1/4" from the edge of the fabric. These are probably the largest size buttons I could have used.

Three holes on fly opening now and one on waistband later

I did try on the pants a few times to take in or let out the basted side seams. I needed more room in the hips, thighs, and buttocks areas so those went down to a 1/2" seam allowance, but I kept the 1" allowance below the thighs. The seams were finished with the serger and then I put the buttons on by hand. The buttons were from the old box and I was lucky to find four of a kind. When I tried on the pants with buttons, I was not happy with the tension on the top two buttons and decided to take those out and move them over.  I wanted the right fly to lay right on top of the left fly.

Top two buttons came out for repositioning

The second time I tried the pants on with buttons they lined up much better, but there was still too much tension on those two buttons.

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It's not called for in the pattern, but I ended up putting in a hook and eye between the top two buttons and this took most of the stress off the buttons.

There is a little bump above hook and eye, but buttons and both sides of fly line up

At this point I checked fit all the way around.

The back pockets look pretty even

Front pocket lining isn't visible, edgestitched nicely

Took off 2" from leg length before pants were hemmed so I can go back later and adjust my pattern. I also serged the bottoms before turning up the hem 2" and sewing it down.

Turning up hem to finish

In between rainstorms I was out in Mom's garden and mine to snap a few quick pics.

Looking pleased with my trousers

Nice big pockets

Wide-legged all the way down to the hem

A bit wrinkles, but good fit

Oops, lost my forehead on that one

2 minutes later is was pouring rain again

Lander Shorts

Shorts, for the 5 days we've needed them so far this summer

These started out as a muslin to test fit, but they turned out very wearable and will be a great addition to my summer wardrobe. The fabric came from a fabric remnant bag I picked up off of Craigslist. I'm not sure what the fabric content is, but it's thick and I think it will be very durable. The pattern is the Lander Short from True Bias Patterns. I cut a size 14 and left out the pocket lining since it was planned as a muslin. All sewing was done on my Bernina 1230 and buttonholes were on the Singer 201.

Front pocket, unlined

The back pockets turned out a bit smaller than the pattern called for because I decided to use selvedge for the tops and did not have to fold and finish the top edge.

Setting pocket before edge-stitching

Back pockets finished

Buttonholes done with Singer 201

 Edgestitching gave the waistband and pockets clear definition.

Attaching waistband

Buttons from the collection

Surprisingly, I found four matching brown buttons in the vintage button box and the hook and eye closures were picked up at an estate sale. The three bottom buttons are functional, but the top one on the waistband is decorative. There is a hook and eye underneath that button.

Buttons and hook & eye closures from the stash

Trying out the fit. There are some wrinkles and creases, but that may be due to having just finished sewing them and not pressing.

Looks good in front

Back pockets are even

I finished these shorts last fall, but they had to sit in storage until just this week. Here are a few pics fresh out of the Rubbermaid bin.

A bit wrinkly

I still like the selvedge on the pockets

Doing a little porch sitting with Stewie

Blue Scraps Quilt

Scrappy Blue

This quilt was made with a baby in mind. I planned to make it completely from scrap fabrics from other projects and to use all sorts of colors and patterns that would be a visual treat for a little one who was just learning to recognize colors and patterns. The actual design of the blocks was guided by the pieces of blue fabric left over from my nephew's quilt. These were the insides to a Drunkard's Path block and I could easily cut off the curves to make triangles. Using the blue triangles and some white square centers, I made a Churndash block. The consistent blue and white gave structure to the block and then I was free to fill in the rest of the block with eight different fabrics. For these, I used scraps from my stash, both my sisters' stashes, and my mom's stash. There are fabrics from numerous projects over the years.

Innards from previously cut Drunkard's Path blocks

I cut the largest triangles I could from the quarter circle pieces and sized the new blocks this way

The piecing went along well until I was about three quarters of the way through. 

Very few repeated fabrics

At this point I decided the quilt was too small, and I needed to put another row of blocks on the top so that there would be 25 white squares total. I had used up all of the blue quarter circle pieces, but there was one piece of uncut blue left over and I planned to just go as far as I could with it.

Too small for a finished size

Last bit of blue fabric

The finished size ended up 29 inches square.

Some repeats in fabrics, but such a variety overall

Pieced, ready to baste

Quilt was small enough to baste on my dining room table

For the quilting I had the Bernina 830 set up on the dining room table and mom helped me decide on a design that would go relatively quickly on the machine. I didn't use the walking foot this time as there were some curved edges. The walking foot and I don't cooperate very well when sewing curves, but I am not yet confident enough to freehand the curves with the darning foot.

Sketching out possible quilting designs

Ah yes, more help

Binding already cut, leftover from another project

Happily, there was a suitable binding waiting in the scrap stash, so the only non-scrap or leftover fabric in the whole quilt is the white cotton used for the 25 squares and for the backing. After the binding was attached and the quilt was washed, I took pictures in my garden.

So many bright fabrics for a baby

Quilting from back

Ready to meet baby

Durkopp Hand Crank

This German made Durkopp is my first hand crank sewing machine. The closest approximation for when it was made is 1890's-1910. It has a porcelain handle on the wheel, built-in bobbin winder, and mother of pearl inlay on the base. The machine came to me in May of 2018. A couple was downsizing their collection and hoped that I would take care of this beauty. The machine had been in the family for a couple generations, originating with a relative who was a tailor. It had not been used in quite some time, but the wheel turned partway around and I had high hopes of getting it going again.  There was one bobbin in the shuttle and that was it for accessories.

The machine is beautiful and I would love to learn as much about it as I can

The wooden base has some inlay of its own, but it is missing the top

Took it down to class at Ray's with the hopes of getting some information on how to clean and service the machine correctly. Cathy was helping at class this year and she was so generous with her time and expertise. In the first two days of class while I was working on a couple other machines, Cathy spent a good while getting the machine to turn freely.  She removed the glue holding the slide plate closed, replaced the crumbling bobbin tire, and lubricated until the wheel would make a full turn without catching. I was so excited to hear the machine running on the afternoon of the second day.

The last bits of a bobbin tire

After a bit of cleaning

Learning how to thread the bobbin winder

Needlebar before cleaning

Needlebar  after cleaning

On the third day of class, Cathy showed me now to use the bobbin winder, thread the machine, put in the shuttle, crank the machine away from me, and then what the next steps would be for cleaning the rest of the machine. She demonstrated how to access the insides of the machine from different panels, where to lubricate, and pointed out where I would adjust feed dog height if needed.

Can you see that somewhat heart shaped appendage on the needle bar?

Here it is out of the machine and cleaned

Bobbin winder

Putting bobbin in the shuttle

Shuttle into machine

Threading the machine

It takes a round shank 12 X 1 needle, but supposedly a DBX-1 can be substituted. The needle is threaded from front to back.

This machine only does a straight stitch and there is no reverse. 

The stitch length knob is behind the bobbin winder at the base of the machine.

Since coming back from Ray's last summer, I had tried sewing with the machine a couple times. In the first session though, I broke the needle that was in the machine. I tried to replace it with some DBX-1 needles that Pat had sent me, but I never could get them to line up with the needle hole. The second time I played around with the machine I never did get the needle inserted and there were no stitches produced.

The first weekend in December, I was in Iowa City hanging out with fellow sewing machine enthusiasts Megan and Pat. The three of us studied the machine and Megan had a whole collection of needles to try out. We realized the needles I had were size 20 and way too big, so we replaced them with some Organ brand size 10 needles. This worked like a charm. Now the machine would sew. There are still some tension issues to be worked out, but that's a project for another day. For now, I have a beautiful, working, hand crank machine.