Adding a Canadian Element to My Wardrobe

December 26, 2018 By Gala Fabrics 6 Comments

I have lived in Canada since the mid 1980’s (having come from Australia via Hong Kong) so have slowly adopted clothing suitable for this Northern climate. That means more sweaters (or jumpers in Aussie slang) including a Cowichan sweater that my mum knitted, a puffy vest, hiking boots (because I have 2 active dogs) and the ubiquitous rain jacket. What has been sadly missing is a garment made in the (apparently) very Canadian red and black buffalo check.

How this has become something of a traditionally Canadian fashion statement, I’m not sure. From the internet research I have done, it seems to reference back to the lumberjacks of the early 19th century. Think Paul Banyan (except he is American). Interesting side note, the term lumberjack is of Canadian derivation.

Since this red and black check design is the Rob Roy tartan, maybe it came to Canada via the Scottish immigrants who became lumberjacks. Other internet sources say the buffalo plaid originated from the American company, Woolrich Woolen Mills which began producing the red and black buffalo check shirt around 1850. No matter, when the shop received a red and black buffalo check in an acrylic and wool blend (made in China), I felt a garment from this fabric had to be made.

The pattern I chose to make was McCalls 7202. Option B no less!

It is a poncho design with optional hood or collar with extended ties. I chose to make the hooded version in a size Medium. According to my measurements, I should have made Large, but decided the style was roomy enough for me to get away with a Medium.

It is an easy pattern to follow. If you wish to match the check design, you will definitely need to calculate extra yardage. I did find that the pattern pieces were slightly too wide for the fabric. The body pattern pieces, even when placed on the fold, were 3cm too wide for the fabric. I ended up shortening the poncho length by 5cm. This observation has not appeared by other reviewers of this pattern.

I did end up using a narrow bias tape to finish the neckline. The seam allowance was too narrow with the thickness of the fabric to fold down twice and finish.

Did you know of this neat trick to turn a point in thick fabric? Such as turning the point of the facing and hem? Instead of stitching a regular right angle, clipping the corner and turning it out, take the edge off the point. Also use a smaller stitch length so when you do trim, the small stitches will keep the fabric from fraying out.

To give yourself a guide, you can stitch the right angle. This is where the front facing intersected with the hem allowance.

Here I stitched the angle. Once you cut off the corner, the angle will give the fabric more room to sit.

Because the buttons I chose were bigger than my buttonhole maker from my Janome sewing machine, I had to make the buttonholes the “old” way – by sewing 2 narrow lines of zigzag stitching close together with a wider zigzag stitch across the bottom and top of these lines. I also used backer buttons behind the fashion buttons. Although not necessary, I find the backer buttons useful on heavier weight fabric garments since you can pull on the garment when buttoning and unbuttoning.

A quick and easy garment to sew. Now all I need are some sled dogs (my dogs are an Aussie shephard and a Border Collie) and an igloo! Eh!

Because I was on a red and black buffalo check kick, I decided I would make some little fabric shoes for my new nephew with this fabric. Well, not so new as he is now 7 months and 20lbs (9kgs). Since babies seem to grow quickly, I searched for and found these toddler sized, Tom’s-inspired shoes by homemadetoast. Easy instructions, lots of pictures to guide you and fun to make! The nephew has to grow a little more, but it won’t be long! And it’s a great way to use up scraps.

Interesting reading sources:

Canadian Fashion Stereotypes

How Stereotypically Canadian Is Your Wardrobe?

The first mention of LUMBERJACKS

Buffalo Plaid: Its Origins

Lumberjacks

Rob Roy Tartan

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Outfits

18 Days to Christmas

December 7, 2018 By Gala Fabrics 2 Comments

Tis the season for those social gatherings of festivities and good cheer. Like most of you, I usually just pull out my trusty LBD for these events. But this year I wanted to have something different. I found this Butterick 6418 pattern when looking on their website and thought it would be both easy to make and festive to wear.

The written description on the Butterick website reads as :

Close-fitting pullover top has sleeve and hem variations. A, B, D: Front yoke. C: Front and back overlays. For moderate stretch knits only.

Initially I was thinking of using some red stretch lace with some red bamboo knit, but unfortunately I couldn’t find any reds that matched. I ended up falling back to black! Oh well. I chose to make option D except using the lace in both sleeves since I had the yardage and didn’t want to waste it.

This is a very easy pattern to put together.

One recommendation I would make is to use a stabilizer (tear away or wash away) when hemming the lace sections. When I first hemmed the lace sleeves, I used my cover stitch machine without the stabilizer. The machine stitches actually tighten up the hem so it made it like a ruffle. Thankfully the sleeves were too long so I was able to cut off my inadvertent ruffles and re-hemmed the sleeves using a tear away stabilizer. The stabilizer worked like a charm – I just had to tweezer out the product from under the stitches! Luckily I experimented on the sleeves first since I did have room to adjust. I hemmed the neckline without a problem with the stabilizer.

So bring on the eggnog and Christmas pudding. I’m ready for the festivities to begin!

BTW, the store has some copies of this pattern is you would like to add it to your wardrobe too.

Butterick 6388 Tunic Dress

November 16, 2018 By Gala Fabrics Leave a Comment

A couple sewing friends turned me onto this pattern since Butterick is not usually in my immediate horizon. I particularly liked the look of the shawl wrap collar of the top/tunic and thought it would be the perfect pattern for some of the printed pontes we had just received at the shop.

The description for this garment is:

Semi-fitted, unlined vest has front extending into draped collar. Wrong side of fabric will show. Tops and dress have side-front seams, lapped collar, and back yoke. Pull-on pants have elasticized waist, front pleats, and side-front pockets. C, D: Lower sleeves. D: Side-front pockets. For moderate stretch knits only.”

Going by my measurements, I chose the size L but after having completed the tunic I would like to try the M. I feel the size I made was a little too roomy!

Construction-wise, this is an easy pattern to put together. I did omit the pockets after feedback from my sewing friends. The only sewing hiccup was trying to attach the collar to the body with my serger. My poor machine was having difficulty cutting 5 layers of fabric where the collar overlaps! Measuring 3/8″ or 4mm in fabric layers, it was no wonder my machine was protesting. I ended up basting everything together, trimming down the seam allowance, then serging the seam together. All the other seams went together like a dream.

I foresee more versions of this garment in my fall wardrobe. It is quick to sew and comfortable to wear and who doesn’t love that!

November Events

November 3, 2018 By Gala Fabrics Leave a Comment

November’s Sewing Forum will be on Sunday, November 4, 2018 at 11:30am at the store.

Do you like colour but don’t know how to put colours together? Do you know which colours suit you? Did you know your colouring changes as you age?

For our November forum, we welcome guest speaker, Brenda Stengel. Brenda is a mixed media art instructor with a special interest in textiles. With the use of a colour wheel, she will discuss how colours work together and what colours would suit your skin tone. We will get to explore which colours to use as your main colours, neutrals and accent shades, and which to leave out completely.
If you have your own, bring a small colour wheel and grey scale or the store will have them available for purchase.
Brenda will demonstrate and guide you through a new way of developing a personal guide for your wardrobe and accessory choices. You will never look at fabrics quite the same way!

Free event

This will be our last sewing forum for 2018. The next forum will be February 3, 2019.

Our fall sale starts November 4!

Check out our brand new fall items from coloured ponte knits to stretch velvets.
All regular priced fabrics will be 25% to 50% off.
Special sale on our solid coloured Italian light weight wools.
Regular price at $33.90/m.
Sale price $15/m (for 100% wool!!)

For online shopping, use the code November
Sale until November 10, 2018

Out Out Damn Spot!

October 12, 2018 By Gala Fabrics 2 Comments

Ok, I will admit it. I have a bit of an addiction. I have such good intentions when I acquire ANOTHER piece of fabric but somehow life gets in the way, so that new piece gets added to the pile. I was digging around in said pile looking for something (I can’t remember what now!) and found this 3m piece of grey 4 ply silk crepe.

I can’t remember how long it had been aging in my stash but I do remember envisioning a pair of pants from this silk, just not a tailored pair. I wanted a softer silhouette to take advantage of the drape. After drooling over it for a while, I realized there should be enough to make the Marcy Tilton pants (V9193). But life is never that easy. In fondling the fabric, I discovered what looked like grease marks scattered over the yardage (and not it wasn’t my drool!). I then remembered that was why it was cut off the roll and stashed away.

Can I try washing the fabric to see if I can remove the stains?

Some silks should always be dry cleaned. Silk doupioni, taffeta, peau de soie and brocade are some examples of fabrics that should be dry cleaned. Washing will change the texture and hand of the fabric. Also silk garments with embellishments, linings or detailed construction (boning, shoulder pads etc) should also be dry cleaned. Very dark or brightly coloured silks should also be dry cleaned to keep the intensity of colour. Washing will likely lighten the colour. (black will become grey …)

However, if you are like me, and have a skin sensitivity to dry cleaning chemicals, silk can be cold water hand washed or delicate machine cycle, but care must be taken as silk fibre becomes weak when wet. Hence do not wring the fabric. Wrap the fabric in a towel, squeeze the moisture out and hang to dry. Do not dry in direct sunlight as this will cause fading. If I’m washing more than one garment in the machine, I like to put the silk fabric/garment in a garment bag. This way it is not likely to tangle up with the other garments in the wash. Like my silk undies, silk slips, silk nighties, silk blouses … (yeah, right!)

Because silk is a protein fibre (like wool and your hair), use a suitable laundry soap such as Eucalan, Woolite Extra Delicate Care or Persil Silk & Wool. You can even try using a mild shampoo like Ivory. Soaps with harsh chemicals such as bleach or optical whiteners will damage the silk.

Also check for colourfastness. To do this, cut a small fabric sample and wet it with cold water. Place the wet piece on a some white fabric and press with a warm iron. If there is little to no colour transfer onto the white fabric, your fabric is colourfast. If there is colour bleed, dry cleaning is recommended.

So I tried to wash my fabric to see if I could remove the stains. No such luck. But my fabric washing resulted in a suede appearance in the fabric. (The colour difference is not significant as these are from different dye lots, but note the surface difference between the fabric still on the bolt – top left – and my washed 4 ply silk fabric – bottom right)

Then I spent a good 30 minutes laying out the pattern pieces so as to avoid as many spots as possible. I was mostly successful with that. There were a few spots in some seam allowances, a couple spots on a pocket bag and one spot on the inside crotch curve, but I figure no one is going to see that!

Now I have a comfortable AND luxurious pair of pants. My problem now is that everyone wants to touch them!

Here are some handy links if you want more information about caring for your silks.

The Silk Association of Great Britain

Essential Tips on Caring for Silk Clothing at Home

Fillmore Duster

September 21, 2018 By Gala Fabrics 4 Comments

Do you have any patterns that you are interested in making but cannot decide what fabric to use? I usually have the opposite problem, where I love the fabric (afterall, what’s not to love), but cannot decide which pattern to use!

I fell in love with the Sewing Workshop’s Fillmore Duster when a friend, Marilyn Carter, had a trunk show at our local sewing and craft show back in the spring. I found it to be an interesting silhouette and Marilyn presented a variety of options on how to wear it. The Sewing Workshop website also has a gallery of pictures showing this garment in a variety of different fabrics as well as colour blocking suggestions. The pattern description is:

“Knee-length, button-front duster with circular pockets, winding seamlines and strategic tucks. Soft, fold- down mitered collar and extended shoulders. Narrow stitched hems and armhole binding. Wrong side of fabric shows.”

But I couldn’t decide what fabric to use! Should I use something with a bit more body to emphasize the shape of the garment, such as a taffeta or doupioni? Should I use a print such as the striped fabric in the illustration? If I use a solid colour, would the design lines show?

After much debate, another friend suggested the tencel denim because

it would present a sleeker silhouette, especially since I’m not that tall (5’4″ or 162.5cm height)
it has an interesting weave and sheen that would show up in the bias cut pieces
it has an obvious right side/wrong side which would show up at the collar
and being grey, it would go with all the black in my wardrobe!

As with previous Sewing Workshop patterns, I chose to make the small, even though with my 40″ bust, the suggested size is a medium. Everything was coming together nicely as the instructions are well written. Even though it was optional, I did add interfacing to the front facings as I found the front edges would ripple. The bust fit nicely. The mitered corners on the collar worked out well. Then I put the bias binding on to finish the armholes and found the armholes too tight!

Note how the shoulder seam extends past the edge of the shoulder. Maybe because I have broad shoulders, this style didn’t physically work for me. After unpicking the bias tape, local sewing guru, Fern McDonald at Sawyer’s Sewing Center, helped me reshape the armhole. Starting about armpit level, we redrew the curve so that it measured 1.75″ or 4.5cm in from the edge of the shoulder seam. See below for the piece we removed.

Here is a picture of the new armhole.

Another lesson I learned from this armhole episode, is make the bias binding fit the shape not the other way around. Since bias binding has inherent stretch, I have a tendency of stretching the bias tape as I sew which results in shrinking the armhole shape. If you look at the second picture of the tight armhole, you can see the gathering of the vest body under the arm. This was because my bias tape was stretched too tight.

Once this hiccup was fixed, I had a fun conversation garment piece. Other women have stopped me on the street to compliment me on this garment. When they ask where I got this, I proudly say, “I made it!”

When is it too late for Linen?

September 3, 2018 By Gala Fabrics 2 Comments

Here we are at the beginning of September already! I guess we are truly in the dog days of summer since Fall officially starts September 22 this year. The store received some gorgeous digitally printed linens that I simply couldn’t resist!

I had a bit of an internal debate as to if it was too late to make another linen outfit for this year but decided that making an easy project that I could complete in a day would mean I still have ALMOST one month to wear it. (no twisting my rubber arm on this decision!)

Having done the Pia dress numerous times already, I decided this would be a good pairing for one of the larger printed linens as this design has few seams to break up the print. And it is a quick pattern to put together. Bonus!

The only adjustment I did was to drop the front neckline by 1″.

Do you know what went through my head once I finished the dress and put it on?

“I feel pretty, I feel pretty ….” If you have no idea of what I’m talking about, it is a song from the iconic movie/play, West Side Story. Now if only I could dance.

Here is the full version of the song.

No need to thank me for the ear worm you now have 🙂

The Humble Beginnings

August 24, 2018 By Gala Fabrics 2 Comments

In my last post, I mentioned making a simple white T-shirt to be worn with the Marcy Tilton V9193 pants. Little did I know what rabbit hole I would fall into! After searching in all the pattern books we carry, I could not find what I would classify as a t-shirt. There were lots of knit tops but not the fitted T-shirt I was envisioning. I even searched some online stores hoping for a better selection. To no avail! But in all the online searching, I discovered some interesting history of the T-shirt.

Did you know that many think that the ubiquitous T-shirt (in RTW anyways) evolved from the basic union suit? The union suit was a one piece underwear garment for men in the 19^th century. While it was great to wear for warmth, it was too hot for summer or labourers so the garment was cut in half into what is now commonly known as long johns. With some experimentation, companies began making these garments with knit fabrics eliminating the need for buttons.

It wasn’t until 1904 that this piece of underwear truly caught the attention of the public. Cooper Underwear Company (later known as Jockey) published an advertisement marketing the undershirt to sewing-challenged bachelors. No buttons to fall off meant no sewing! And what institution had the greatest number of bachelors in their ranks at this time? The US Navy! About 1 year after the advertisement ran, the US Navy incorporated the white undershirt as part of the uniform. This was later adopted into the US Army uniform.

The undershirt only became popular as an over shirt after World War 2, when soldiers returning home made this garment part of their casual wardrobe. Then, of course, there was the release of A Street Car Named Desire (both movie and play) where Hollywood hottie, Marlon Brando, played Stanley Kowalski. Brando’s Oscar nominating performance in a tightly fitted t-shirt caused a spike in sales which put the t-shirt on the landscape as a sexy, outer wear garment.

So what did I end up using? I paired this new burn out knit with McCall’s dress pattern M6886, cutting it short, about ½” below the lengthen/shorten hip line. I liked the V neck detail so cut out the size 16 (the largest in the size range I picked). It is classed as an easy pattern, but maybe it was the instructions or maybe it was the smoke filled air (remnants of large forest fires in the British Columbia Interior) but I COULD NOT figure how to attach the neckband! I went on Youtube and found a few tutorials on sewing the V point but mine ended up a big mess! Instead, I got my French curve out, cut off the V-neck and made it into a U-neck.

I had to cut another neckband but that was easy. To measure the neckband size, lay out flat your T-shirt. With a flexible ruler or measuring tape, measure your neckline. Depending on how much stretch your fabric has, cut your neckband anywhere from 2 – 3” shorter. The less stretch, the less difference. Because my fabric is very stretchy, the neckband I cut was 3” shorter than the neckline measurement. Make sure you mark the center back and center front points. Pin to the matching points on your t-shirt. Measure the distance from the CB to a shoulder seam on the garment. Measure the same on the neckband but decrease by ¾”. Pin. You will need to stretch the neckband to fit the garment but to do so evenly, you anchor it at the center points and shoulder points.

I know many sewists have issues with hemming knits. One issue is the curling of the cut edge of the fabric. Even pressing doesn’t flatten it! I use the “magical” basting tape which holds everything in place then dissolves when washed.

Another hemming issue is when using a twin needle, the fabric peaks between the 2 lines of stitching or what is labelled as tunneling. This is because the bobbin thread that zig zags between the 2 needles is too tight and gathers up the fabric. One way to solve this is to use a narrower twin needle. The lighter the fabric, the narrower the space between the 2 needles. You can also try wooly nylon in the bobbin thread as this has some stretch. You can also try using strips of tear away or rinse away stabilizer to support the stitching area.

If the hem is rippling, it means the fabric is stretching as you sew. Try sewing with a walking foot. The walking foot is an even feed foot so there is no pressure or stretching of the fabric as it is sewn. Also try the stabilizer which will support the fabric as it’s fed under the needle.

As always, try these suggestions on a sample first to see what gives you the best result. Not all machines sew the same!

If you have issues with the needle threads tangling, try putting your spools so the thread is coming off in opposite directions. Check out Nancy Zieman’s article.

If you would like to read more about the history of the t-shirt, here are some interesting articles.

How the t-shirt was invented

History of the t-shirt

Who made that T-shirt?

And here is my white, tight t-shirt with the Marcy Tilton’s pants. Its debut was at a local fibre art festival, Fibrations. And I think it got a standing applause from the audience!

Too much of a good thing?

August 10, 2018 By Gala Fabrics Leave a Comment

Are you a linen lover? From my experience with selling the fabric, it seems to be one of those fabrics that people either love or hate. The haters are mainly concerned with the wrinkling aspect of the fabric. But those who love linen, call them status wrinkles!

I’m an all natural girl, so while admittedly, I don’t have a lot of linen outfits in my wardrobe, I’m not one to turn down the fabric if something exciting crosses my path! When this fabric arrived in store (it comes in black and dark navy), I immediately took home a piece of the dark navy (too much black in my closet) wondering what design I could use to showcase the two sides of this fantastic fabric.

I had the “ah ha” moment at one of the Sunday forums when one of the ladies (Thanks Marian!) showed her cotton top using Marcy Tilton’s Vogue 9193 pattern.

I liked the idea of split top where I could use the light side of the fabric on the top half of the garment, and the darker side for the bottom part. It also had an interesting in seam pocket detail. I chose to do the sleeveless top because it would be cooler to wear during the summer, and, quite frankly, because I didn’t have enough fabric for sleeves!

I also searched around for some fabric for the pants as the pants looked interesting with the repeating pocket detail. Unfortunately we didn’t have a dark enough navy in the linen, but I did discover the dark navy narrow silk noile worked well with the linen.

The entire project was easy to put together. The only thing I would suggest regarding the construction of the top, is to use a small piece of light weight fusible interfacing (I used sewer’s dream) to reinforce the “clip to stitching line” turn point of the pocket. It is not suggested in the pattern instructions, but I like to use it to prevent future fraying in that area.

So why the title of this post? Too much of a good thing? I like the top. It has an interesting design feature. I like the pants since they have the same design feature.

However, I don’t really like the two garments together. I felt there was too much fabric around the middle. And who needs extra bulk there? I could better see the top being worn with a simple pull on, narrower cut pant. Also, the length of the top hides the design feature of the pants. Or I could see the pants being worn with a fitted t-shirt or blouse. Either of which would take away the volume of puff from around the middle.

So now I’m off to make a simple white t-shirt because apparently my current wardrobe is lacking such a basic. Who’da thought!

Summer Sale

July 20, 2018 By Gala Fabrics Leave a Comment

Are you looking to escape the summer heat with some indoor sewing? Want to squeeze in some more summer outfits before the start of fall? Take advantage of our store wide sale to score some great fabric deals.

25% to 50% off regularly priced fabric

70% off printed canvases

Sewaholic, Victory and Colette Patterns all on for $10 each

Remnants are Buy One, Get One Free (of equal or lesser value)

Sale prices are available in store and on the web store with the coupon code SUNNY. Starts July 21 to July 29, 2018

November’s Sewing Forum will be on Sunday, November 4, 2018 at 11:30am at the store.

Welcome to Gala Fabrics!