Sewing – JjD

artful patches 2

Published on August 15, 2020May 24, 2024 by Jen4 Comments

jenjoycedesign© patch 8

Its been a lovely relaxing couple of weeks since not allowing myself any serious knitting. I have had a pile of linen shirts & pants staring me down that have been needing patches, and in recent days I finally attended to the chore. Actually, its not a chore at all, mostly it is an opportunity to be creative. I am refining my patching technique to using the “pad stitch”, effectively stitching the layer with a hole against a patch layer, and learning that this pad stitching thing really strengthens the all over fabric from the back of the work, while keeping the little tacks of thread in front looking as artful as can be, nearly like sashiko. With a back stitch around the perimeter of the patch, so that in front it looks like little bead stitches, but again, it is all quite well fastened as it has a lot of thread running along the back. Ironing well between each step, I find the fabric grain stays straight much better too. And while I only demonstrate an outside facing patch, it would of course be much more couture if a second patch were placed on the inside of the shirt, pad stitching through all three layers and sandwiching the actual shirt layer between so no raw edges of the hole ever would show on the inside, but I’m just not that fussy. If you click the 1st image in the mosaic, you will see the steps and stitching . . .

This is my first patch I’ve used linen thread on linen fabric, and I am smitten with the feel, and the look of it. It is a little thicker, but more pliable, and works fine with linen. Oh, and I have a thing about linen going way back in archives, and so that most of my clothes I’m wearing are linen, and Irish linen is my favorite linen of all linens. This is an Irish linen shirt . . crisp and long wearing . . . just an old gardening & hiking shirt which has many patches all over it, but worth every one, some patches overlapping patches, because it is lasting me quite a long time. After the wildfire I ended up buying mostly used linen clothes on ebay, really affordable , but also the odd thing is I’m not really comfortable in new clothes anymore. So the great thing is that I could say I’ve gotten a lot of practice developing my mending methods — I swear by pad stitching! — and going for the element of very functional as well as the artfulness of nice hand-stitching.

Short days and long shadows.

Published on January 16, 2020May 24, 2024 by Jen9 Comments

jenjoycedesign© small quilt 2
This morning was very exciting when we got hit with a storm, and with the temperature dropping degree by degree, I won’t be surprised if it snows in the next few hours. I have been taking a break this January from all self-expectations and enjoying some slack! Three months living in our new house, I’m wanting to work on new habits and trying a few new things, in addition to keeping up the knitting. One of the new things is starting sewing again, which actually is a lifelong passion of mine, but has been pretty much not for a few years. Lacking a lot of confidence, I have to start really small, so after the holidays passed I made a bunch of quilted coasters and a small coffee table quilt for Jeff’s den, done in the Amish quilt style.

jenjoycedesign© itty bitty quilts

Also I have tentatively begun sewing some much needed clothes, for making my own clothes is truly is a mark of my authenticity, and so I am experiencing a beautiful reunion with the needle, thread & thimble after a long hiatus. I’m really enjoying hand stitched finish work, delicious felled & French seams, slowed to a snails pace, and frankly I couldn’t bear it to go any faster for the hand-sewing just tickles some innate part of me which must have lived a hundred years ago. But more on that later. The month is already half gone and not wanting to lose my knitting mojo entirely I decided to quick knit a pair of socks. I picked up a few ‘flavors’ of Kroy Sock yarn at Michaels some time over the beginning of the holiday, and am now finally enjoying some calm hours to knit. Here beneath the sleet coated sky window, I thought I would photograph this unexpectedly fun pair I’ve got going . . .

jenjoycedesign© Kroy striped ragg — Pattern is Walking With Emma , chart A ribbing and modified with stockinette.

The days are short but getting noticeably longer by the week, and the wet snowy sleet is falling. I love January!

Meet Miss Singer. . .

Published on July 10, 2019May 24, 2024 by Jen16 Comments

jenjoycedesign© old Singer.JPG

Oh look! Its the old late-1940’s Singer drop-down sewing machine I was talking about a short while back, that I found last January and bought myself for my birthday. I was in need of a sewing machine and strangely have been feeling so nostalgic about sewing like the tailors & seamstresses of old days, with naught but a straight stitch. I dream of hearing the racket of this thing going while industriously I create things of cloth, but right now I am going over the wood with citrus beeswax and sprucing up a little, to move up into the loft.
jenjoycedesign© old Singer 2
I think the bee in my bonnet of a couple of months ago has finally decided to start getting going, and as I got to thinking about what do I want to do with my time when moved in the new house, with a fresh new start. Besides continuing on my knitting & design, I really think its time I start some quilt projects! I aspire to make another Amish style bed quilt or two, and a pile of throws, but really, just artful & mindful sewing in general. Starting with the little quilty things like table runners, pillows, and the like. She’s going to be a beautiful side-table to the bed frame I found last Autumn. and posted in Four Posts. Anyway, its going to need a couple of days airing out in the woods to evaporate the strong citrus odor, but soon the lovely Miss Singer will be in place and I will be stitching!

Artful Patches

Published on May 31, 2017August 3, 2024 by Jen6 Comments

jenjoycedesign©014

These days when I take a needle & thread to mend,

I attempt to do something artful.

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Becoming intimately involved with warp & weft in the fabric of something that you wear on your skin is beautiful,

and maybe even a little bit essential.

It is such a novelty these days it seems, to have any skills at all in mending.

jenjoycedesign©002

Do you recall this linen shirt make-over from nearly two years ago? You might recognize the collar re-do, and already I have nearly worn a hole in the linen, and this is just a fun patch job of it, although the white-on-white is not really easy to see the detail, especially in this early morning light.

I have a second shirt I’m patching here, that is full of holes, and I am using it to practice my new ‘quilt patching’ technique.

Here is what I do:

Whip stitch hole shut, aligning grain of warp & weft threads as much as possible.
Cut squares of new fabric on the grain, big enough to fold back up to 1/4 inch hem on all edges.
Iron all edges to fold in, and pin to garment with care to aligning grain of fabric with both garment and patch.
With a simple running stitch, sew as close to edge as possible, then again, artfully fill in the patch with shapes, ‘quilting’ the patch against garment, which improves wear of patch as well as looks good. Almost as if you stuck on squares to quilt for the pure craft of it!

Quite a hash of patches, but it makes the shirt all that much more of a treat to wear again!

Just in case you’re curious, you can see all posts “New From Old” HERE (including this one, but scroll down!) This category has grown over the years, sharing artful mending & upcycling that I have done, where even I go deep into the warp & weft and try my hand at difficult weave darning.

I hope you try the quilted patch on one of your holey shirts, and see how useful as well as lovely a simple running stitch can be!

xmas shirt

Published on January 6, 2017March 11, 2019 by Jen10 Comments

jenjoycedesign© Christmas shirt 2016 (2).JPG Every Christmas I make a shirt for Jeff. I finished this one belatedly on new year’s day, then as soon as I finished sewing on the last button Jeff had to try it on, and then of course… he was so cozy in it … it was too dark to photo…. he wore it to work the next day, and I never got to photograph it. Now it has been already washed, and being flannel it’s already lost its crisp allure and gotten a little fuzzy ….

What is so funny is that every time I make one of these Christmas shirts I seem to mess something up badly, if not disastrously. This year the buttonholes were okay, plackets and collar okay … but…. the plaid was so wavy as it was probably the last on the bolt and warp/weft apparently is terminally twisted, and so the plaid did not/could not/ would not stay square. Thus I did a horrible job of matching up in front (like if I make it match at side seams, the front is wonky). Whatever! Who cares! (except that I kind of do care). A bit dissymmetric, but I will just let it be what it wants to be.

Needless to say, since my sewing machine is already out, I may have to sew some other crazy new-from-old shirts, so watch this space for some fun upcycling!