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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.)
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The back has deeper armholes than the front.
The bias strip is a tad under thirty-two inches wide. It's one yard and eleven inches along the selvage. My calculator says it should be forty- five and a quarter.
When I started to use the holes I punched yesterday to mark darts on the fronts, I discovered that the marks on the fabric are not the same shape as the patterns -- distortion from letting bias fabric dangle off the table.
I ignored it.
Thinking about mending the pattern before putting it away -- there's a false cut on one shoulder strap that can be repaired with Elmer's glue -- I wondered whether I'll still need clothing when this set wears out.
I've got one back cut out. I marked the pieces A, B, and C before beginning to cut.
I'm about to switch to the smaller cutting mat. It's easier to shift the cloth around to keep the marks under my eye, as when cutting along a drawn thread. I've been cutting the corners with my SuperSnips.
I don't think I'll find time to organize this mess into something useful for strangers to read.
I finsished cutting out bra B. Took one slash at C.
Bras are all cut out, now for the bias tape.
I figured I'd mark a line four and a quarter inches from the cut edge, cut along it, fold it in half and press, fold each half in half and press: voila, one-inch tape for facing the armholes and binding the neck, maybe two-inch tape for the band of the do-rag (but I've decided that that must be cut on the cross grain.).
Started to mark, moved the fabric, measured again: half an inch different.
Much thinking needs to be done.
I should have marked four and a half inches, but I've got tape. I folded it into four parts, pressed a quarter inch under at one edge, and wound it on one of the peices of cardboard Evelyn accumulated when making baby gowns for missionaries. (The church later gave me the supplies, but I gave up on organizing a team when I realized that missionaries could buy ready-made gowns for less than we were spending on the fabric.)
I threaded the sewing machine yesterday, but didn't find time to say so. It was harder than expected because the bobbin case kept falling out. I never did figure out what I was doing wrong, but eventually I did it right by accident.
I've realized that I have to grok the openings for the elastic in the bra bands before sewing the darts, so that I'll know which side of the seam allowance to trim. I think I'll put the openings on the "public" side, as && puts it, to maximise the linen between the elastic and my skin.
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Entry copied from 2025SEW1.HTM:
Long time me no write. There have been some entries in the bra/jersey blog, but that has also been neglected -- I threaded the sewing machine yesterday, but didn't find time to say so. I've realized that I have to grok the openings for the elastic in the bra bands before sewing the darts, so that I'll know which side of the seam allowance to trim. I think I'll put the openings on the "public" side, as June Hyatt puts it, to maximise the linen between the elastic and my skin.
I spent considerable time yesterday picking at the very low-priority job of ravelling off the bottom tier of my orange dress to make it into a slopping-around shirt.
Noon, and I'm finally ready to start work. I wonder what's for lunch? 12:31 PM 4/9/2025 Got one dart sewn. I cut the ends long enough to thread into a needle and secure without a knot. The trick where you pull up the bobbin thread and thread it backward to start stitching at the point leaves a bubble at the start, but it should work a treat for the topstitching. Duh. To get topstitching started at the point, one must begin in the middle of the cloth. But topstitching would flatten the bubble if I begin the other dart at the point to use the bobbin-pull trick. I was quite wise to decide to complete bra C before beginning on A and B.
I sewed the little hem on the left side of the back of bra C today, then realized I'd made it way too long. I was minded to leave it until I noticed that it was actually on the wrong side (for the pre-graded flat fell, it needs to be turned to the right side) -- and this is actually the right side, not the left side.
Double checks: yes, the dart in the front is on the inside, and it's on the left side -- but that beautiful job of top stitching and end securing was presses the dart up, not down.
It's time for a nap.
Trying to remember where I left off. Picked out the wrong stitching (not easy; I secured it well), started the other dart. Time for a nap.
16:24
I tried sewing the other dart with the bobbin thread in the needle.
In addition to the awkwardness of threading the machine backward, it isn't possible to take some trial stitches to make sure you got it right. The first stitch was a tad loose, but I sewed it down while securing the first row of topstitching. I want to press before stitching the other side of the dart down.
I pulled out enough bobbin thread that the scrap was big enouigh to thread into a needle, but the knot securing it to the needle thread was about to the thread guides when I finished.
Aside from my dire need of new bras, finishing one bra before starting the others is necessary for the practice. Despite the poor quality of the linen, it's been three years since I made bras. C:\ED.DIR/E C:\RUFFTEXT\ED.DIR/E
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