Hokay! I can get the back and the front from one strip.
Every time I make a decision, I have to rest for a while.
The back is cut out, the front is cut out, a piece of fabric is dedicated to one half of the front yoke, I'm planning to cut a strip wide enough for the sleeves, but not all the way across, and I've tried on the old do rags and selected pattern gamma to make the new one.
I've decided to make the collar black on both sides, and that pattern, all the other black parts, and the interfacing patter are in the bag the fabric came in, together with some papers that came with the fabric.
Everything is piled on the card table, except what's in the folder I made from a large cardboard box. I plan to keep this folder under the bed while I work on the bras.
Real Soon Now I'll write the introduction and organize this file as a blog.
I folded over 19" and cut out the sleeves. At the last minute, I noticed that I must fold out the bottom 3 1/2", partly because the sleeve is bound instead of being hemmed, but mostly because the sleeve is too long.
Now to arrange the small pieces. Yesterday I found two of Dave's do rags, tried them on, and selected pattern gamma to make my new do rag.
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Another last-minute notice: I moved the fold line in a quarter of an inch for the yellow cotton, and I'm planning to use the same style of zipper on this jersey.
While tabbing back to find the asterism, I noticed that I have a lot of construction blogs that I ought to read before working on this jersey.
My yellow linen do-rag comes too far down my forehead, but comfortably covers my sensitive ears, so I tried the plaid do-rag on again. It *will* cover if I tug a bit.
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Cutting two copies on the fold is a pain, so I paused to make a full pattern for the front yoke. It took an entire 22" x 28" sheet of posterboard, which leave me with only one, so I must go to Dollar Tree soon. I hope they still sell oaktag-weight posterboard.
Today I drew threads to cut out the front pockets. After detaching them from the scrap, I decided to wait to separate them until I want them for the jersey. There was room above where I'd cut them to cut the side pieces of the do rag; again I left the two connected, and left cutting the curved top until about to assemble. I might change my mind about *which* curve to cut! I cut a strip to shape into the top of the do-rag yesterda. I expect to cut the yard-long band in among the bras. I must remember the trick of cutting the ends on the bias to avoid having a seam at the very end.
I think it was yesterday that I cut two rectangles from the tab beside the place where I cut out the sleeves and pinned the back yoke pattern to them.
Before beginning my bras, there remains only to cut one of the halves of the front yoke from the main body of the fabric, then pin it and the pattern to the scrap designated to cut the other yoke.
Posterboard can't be pinned, but I can baste it.
My paper punch is small cube that cuts a hole just the right distance from the edge to suit a ring binder. I don't have anything that will cut a neat hole in the middle of a piece of cardboard.
Might be something in my eyelet box, and Dave has a grommet set -- but it might could be that needle holes would be best for marking the corners of the front pockets.
All hemp pieces of the jersey are in the folder and under the bed. I cut out the side of the front yoke to be cut from the main body, but only labeled the scrap from which I intend to cut the other side of the yoke.
I made holes for marking the dots aligning the seam with the front and the dots marking the corners of the pockets. I poked holes with a brass knitting needle, shaved off the turned-up paper, poked again, shaved again, then enlarged the holes by repeating the entire sequence with a #0 knitting needle. Came out just the right size to twist a wash-out pen in.
I shaved by holding the
razor blade Also
took some pictures of the
remaining fabric, showing which way the bias lines
for the bras should slant.
I carefully pinned the selvage -- or, rather the
edge that *should* be a sevage -- to the thread I
drew for straightening. Some time or another, I
drew a second thread because the gap left by the
first one got hard to see when the fabric was
washed.
Marked the width of the fabric on the selvage,
alligned the fabric to the edges of the table,
drew a bias line with my 12" 45° triangle.
Oops, I put these lines on what I have designated
as the right side of the fabric. My code is to
put marks on the wrong side.
I use small wash-out arrows in places that I
expect to end up on cutaways. That way I mark the
wrong side, the straight grain, and the nap all at
once. The hemp is so fine that the marks bleed
through to the other side, but they are
sufficiently atenuated to show that they were made
on the other side.
There are a couple of spots that I marked with
embroidered arrows; when I find them, I will
remember why. When I made the first one, I relied
on my rustiness (I *never* use a knot in a
finished garment) to make the knot big and messy,
and ended up with a small, neat knot at the very
end of the thread. But the second arrow was in
sight of the first.
I marked two bias lines on the fabric today, a
fabric width apart as measured along the selvage.
The remaining fabric is a square and half a
square, with some tabs sticking out.
I got two bias lines drawn yesterday. Today I
tried the bra pattern on the bias line nearer the
cut end. Lining the hemlines on the bias line
wastes some fabric, but lining the dart seamlines
doesn't quite fit. I think I'll just designate the
"wasted" fabric as where I cut my bias tape.
I may cut the band of the do rag there too; I don't
think the rag cares which grain it's on as long as
it's on one.
I can get three bras from one bias strip, and
since I hand wash a bra every other night, three
will suffice, so I think I will put the rest of
the fabric away for future projects. There will
probably be less than a yard on the shorter side.
The edge of the scrap will be on the true bias, so
it will be easy to cut more binding if the wasted
fabric isn't enough.
I marked a front and a back on the fabric today.
I plan to mark another front, then mark two backs
and a front with straps interlocking. Three bras
should be enough, so I'll put the rest of the
fabric back for later. I have a good suit-type
box that might be big enough.
I marked the remaining front this afternoon. When
I pulled the fabric over to mark the remainder of
the bias line defined by the bottoms of the
pieces, I noticed that there is a wide dart
between the first front and the back, but a narrow
dart left between the back and the second front.
I shall ignore this.
There should be time to mark the second strip and
begin cutting tomorrow afternoon.
Got back soon enough to start before lunch.
The bias line I measured with the back pattern
intersects the selvage twenty and a half inches
from the drawn thread, so it's good that I bought
the extra yard.
And then I found it necessary to mark with a
hemline on the bias line, rather than the cutting
line as I'd intended, because the straps of the
front wouldn't interlock.
I could get a front and a back out of the left-
over triangle, so I think that with more ingenuity
and economy, I could have gotten a jersey and
three bras out of four yards.
The pattern slipped while I was marking the back
on the fabric. I considered just marking the
correct lines for a moment, then fetched a wet rag
to erase the incorrect lines. While waiting for
the fabric to dry, I started to mark the front
pattern, but before deploying the marker, I tried
the back pattern on the other side and found that
the corner extended a bit beyond the selvage. I'd
marked the first back farther to the left than it
needed to be by just the amount I needed to slide
everything to the right, so the wet rag came out
again. I did leave the bottom cutting line, since
sliding it to the right means only erasing a bit
at the left and lengthening it a bit on the right.
By then my lunch was ready, so I'm going to leave
off until after my nap even though the fabric is
dry now.
It's really hard to arrange bias on a table that
is too small; it changes shape from the weight of
what hangs over.
When I resumed marking, I had to shift down
another hem width. It worked before! ???
Yesterday I cut off the larger scrap and today I
put it into a box.
I also punched holes in the front pattern to mark
the darts. I put a "ready to thread brass rod"
knitting needle (Made it myself with a Unimat
lathe before steel sub-zero needles became
available) on the point and pushed it through,
which created a hole centered on the point to be
marked. Then I enlarged it enough to put a
washout marker in by pushing a #0 knitting needle
into it.
I shaved the bumps off with a
single-edge razor blade, sliding it
flat on the poster board with a slicing motion as
it touched the bump.
The sticker that Dollar Tree puts on the back of
its poster board annoyed me, and I discovered
that one can lift a corner of the sticker with a
razor blade, enabling one to peel off the sticker
-- very slowly and very carefully, and I still
marred the surface of the board, but a very small
slightly-rough streak is much less annoying than
the sticker was.
Today I cut the smaller scrap off. (Also ran two
loads of wash.)
C:\ED.DIR/E C:\RUFFTEXT ED.DIR/E
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