Suit Rescue

Small, gray, wool and impeccably styled, it was a suit from the 80's approximately the size of my niece.  The price was too good to ignore. I bought it and later made the niece try it on. She was in raptures. Her main concern was the length of the sleeves. Mine was that the skirt was too tight around her middle. Both of us thought that there were only one or two stains, and that they would come out when I soaked the suit in cold water.

The first soaking produced grimy gray water. The second produced water the color of weak coffee.

I used the waistband of the skirt to lengthen the jacket sleeves, and noticed yellowish stains on one sleeve. I released the darts in the skirt front and added another inch to the waist and hips by letting out the side seams. Because Petersham ribbon (stretchable grosgrain) is so hard to find, I used a woven braid to face the waist, and added a button tab at the back, made from the last bit of the former waistband.

It was all done except for the final pressing with steam and pressing cloth. I do this in front of a window, There is an abundance of natural light, and this showed more yellowish stains. All the stains I noticed, I scrubbed with plain cold water. So far, all have come out. Granted, the stains were faint and could only be noticed in strong light, but having seen them, I couldn't ignore them.

And this makes me wonder what in the world the cleaners of that suit did. If anyone had soaked the stained area in water before sending it through the dry cleaner, none of these stains would  have hung around.

Unconventional Alterations I've Never Read About (But Tried Anyway)

Like most  people, I tolerate a certain amount of annoyance from my clothing because the color is right, the price was right, or  the thing looked mostly good. One day  ALL of my clothing was annoying, and I had no choice but to deal with it.

A couple of years ago I bought  pair of pants a size too big because I knew I could take in the seat. The color was perfect, a gray-lavender. Two years passed. The fabric shrank and faded and I got a little larger. The too-high-in-front waist became annoying enough for me to want to do something about it. After removing the belt loops and the button,  I started my cut where the button sat, and tapered it toward the side seams. The waistband lining was shredded by removing so many threads, so I replaced it with bias tape.

Finally, I sewed the belt loops together with a slit for a buttonhole, and put a button tab on the front. The pants are much more comfortable, but they are still faded. See the dark spots where the belt loops were? If the pants had been brand new I don't think I would have been quite so cavalier about chopping here and sewing there, but the change worked, and I have a new sewing trick.

Recently I  got angry with a pair of pajama pants. If I bent over and straightened up, there was the sensation that I was losing my drawers. Adding a diamond  gusset at the crotch, the most suggested alteration for pants, only added fabric where no extra was needed. Another way to increase the back rise is for paper patterns only. I was not about to  remove all the elastic, increase the scoop in back and add to the sides -- in essence, remaking the pajama pants. I wanted a fix and I wanted it fast.

I cut horizontally from side seam to side seam about an inch below the elastic. At that point, the worst that could happen was that I'd lose a pair of pj pants that I didn't like anyway.  I sewed a rectangle of flannel  to the upper edge, then  tried on the pants and pinned  loose edges together. At the side seams, I needed no extra fabric, but the center back seam required 2 inches. I ended up with  a back addition that looks a bit like a grin, or a semi circle. My pajama pants are now comfortable.

This works for any elastic backed pants where the waistband is not a separate piece. I've done it on pull on jeans, and a dressier pair of pants,  mulberry corduroys with a velveteen insert. As long as I match colors, the addition looks like a pattern detail and not like the salvage effort it is. 

Pattern Quest: wearable pants

You'd think that with 30 years of pants patterns, I would have one that actually fit. I can find pants in stores. I just can't make them from patterns. It's given me a warped view of myself. The reason is that patterns are made for banana shaped people, and I am a pear. Or so I'm told.

My quest for a decent pants pattern is strewn with many disappointing results. Some are garbage, some are cut up for other projects and one or two get worn no matter how bad they look. My size changes before I get around to altering the pattern, or to making something new from an altered pattern. The whole process is exhausting and discouraging. I think I've gotten fussier over the years. It never used to bother me that I was taking in 2 inches on each side seam even though I used the sizing the package  recommended. I'm not sure why they want us to measure, when they don't pay attention.

The problem with most patterns is that nothing fits well. I alter one thing and discover that another problem was hidden by the major annoyance. Years ago I made a pair of pants from a wornout pair and they were too small. Why? Because the worn out pair was relaxed fabric and the new ones were new fabric. I guess.

From time to time I decide to take my measurements and draw a pants pattern. Several times I've done 9/10 of the work to draft a pair of pants from scratch but I never have the nerve to cut out the pattern.  I have one from the 70s made to Ruth Amiel's instructions in Finally It Fits. I've got a larger one made to  Donald McCunn's instructions. Making the pattern takes so much time I'm exhausted for the next week. The resulting pattern looks so strange I never make it up. But I save it.  I'm always a different size. Smaller, larger, smaller…

Right now I am larger, and can use a pattern I made from a pair of jeans that almost look decent. They feel fine, so it doesn't really matter how they look. The day before I wanted to use the pattern, I folded all the pieces together and rolled them up. The next day they were nowhere to be found. Today the pieces popped up as if they've never been AWOL. Before cutting them out, I tried the pattern up against the pants again, added a little here, subtracted a lot there, and cut them out.

I'm afraid to sew them up. A friend pointed out I had nothing to lose, that the worst that can happen is that they don't fit.    

One Piece at a Time

One-Piece Wearables

Sheila Brennan's One- Piece Wearables came out in 2008, but I didn't hear of it until after it came out in paperback last August.  I had even seen reviews, here and  at Craftside . My initial reaction was ho-hum, more sleeveless stuff for teen sylphs. Once I had the book in my hands, some of the patterns were so clever I literally could not walk away.

To be sure, there are a good many sleeveless things that only the under 30-set should wear, but a blouse/jacket and a wrap dress (inexplicably called a robe) are cleverly shaped and flattering to many figures. I bought it in an actual physical book store for full price and was happy to have it. Yes, I know that using a single pattern piece wastes fabric, but it saves time and eliminates tedium, not to mention preventing backache! I have enough fabric in my stash that I can afford a bit of waste. Besides, much of my waste gets used in smaller things. And there is absolutely no reason I cannot piece fabric together.

I'm excited. I'm thrilled.  Maybe I'm even motivated. We'll see. I'm already planning to add sleeves to one top, and facings to another.

How to Combat Fear of Sewing

A neighbor confided that she’d rather read or spend time with her kids than to learn a new craft like sewing. My first thought was, "Since when is sewing a craft?" Being able to thread a needle and replace a button are life skills on a par with being able to open a can of soup and heat it.


The trick to learning anything is to break it down into steps you can succeed at, so trying to thread a Milliner’s Sharp before you have threaded an Embroidery needle is not your best move. It also helps if you use good thread, as opposed to the cheap no-brand spools of polyester. Good thread is easier to poke through the hole of a needle. No-brand thread has almost invisible hairs that fight you.


I’ll bet that most folks who hate the thought of sewing on their own buttons have hairy thread and needles with tiny eyes, because those are sold on the racks of sewing supplies you find in stores that don‘t have fabric departments. There’s a paradox for you: sewing supplies for non-seamsters are pre-selected to make them fail. Lesson Number One is to thread the needle.


So what if your stitches aren’t as tiny and regular as the ones you see in quilts? You think quilters learned overnight? My mother let me play with a big-eyed needle and a spool of thread on my own. Once I had mastered threading the needle, we ventured into knot making. Sewing a strip of fabric and pushing the fabric back against the knot was magic: a flat piece of fabric turned into a ruffle. My stitches were large and higgledy-piggledy across the top of the fabric, but I had learned a new trick. It took awhile before I cared enough about the shape and size of my stitches to do anything about it.


For awhile every button I sewed was put on with lavender thread. I thought white and black were boring. My mother said," As you sew it, so shall you wear it." I took that to mean that I could add buttons and lace and sequins to boring clothing. I’m pretty sure she meant simply that she wasn’t going to come along and fix my mistakes. She was a good teacher. She’d show me how to do something, then go away and let me try it myself.


Sewing clothing is very forgiving. The first time I sewed a "straight" seam on a sewing machine, it meandered all over the place like a lazy ribbon. It was the side seam in a gathered skirt with a pre-elasticized waist. The seam was on the inside of the skirt and didn’t show. I soon mastered the idea that pressing the foot control hard meant the machine would go faster. I went so fast that I was finished with the seam before I had time to make a mistake. Lesson Number Two is to sew something where mistakes won’t matter.


Lesson Number Three is that clothing manufactured for stores is made to somebody else’s measurements. If it isn’t too long or too short, it’s in a color that you wouldn’t wear if you were paid to. It can be cheaper to buy manufactured clothing than to make it yourself, but the search  for acceptable clothing can take weeks.If you can sew even a little, you can fix  manufactured clothing.


Sewing is a life skill like any other. Give yourself the chance to have fun. Don't expect perfection. Relax, give yourself an easy assignment, and let her rip.

Insomnia Remedies I Have Tried

Denial. "My eyes are closed so I must be resting." This lie is not terribly effective, but hope springs eternal.

Stretching exercises just before going to bed release muscle tension, and sometimes that is enough. The Bad Back Book in Ox Bow's self help section has my favorites.

In winter, warming the bed before I get in it helps.

Sense memory acting exercises worked until I realized that the moment I had memorialized was 15 years old and it should have been replaced by something in real life.

Calcium at bedtime worked until for a few months, until I became allergic to the inert oil used to compress the calcium.

Caffeine used to put me to sleep. I don't know if it will keep me awake these days, but everything else has changed in the past 30 years.

Drinking alcoholic stuff is out. At one time, waving the cork from a bottle of wine in front of my nose would put me to sleep. Now when a bottle of wine is opened in my presence I get a bisulfite- related headache.

The difference between being a drug abuser and a visionary is a medical degree. When a doctor prescribes medicine for other than its expected use and writes about it, he's a visionary. Think Minoxodil. When the rest of us discover that Tylenol, aspirin, or even antibiotics will put us to sleep once or twice, we're technically abusing the drug.

Family members can fall asleep on Benadryl. I was up for 5 days and nights on a teaspoon of the stuff. I didn't itch, though. Technically, that was a win.

In my medical guinea pig days I learned that a small amount of codeine was relaxing once, but the next time I used it, it gave me a headache. I can use it once every 13 years. Good to know.

Repeating a mantra worked in good times, but was not strong enough to defeat the adrenaline surge that comes from talking down a jumper.

Self hypnosis Long slow breaths and imagining that I am lying on a beach, that my body is heavy, that it is sinking through the sand. This used to work very well, but I've lost the knack. A You-Tube production on self-hypnosis almost worked but I didn't bookmark it and many look like it.

I guess I could spent a night looking at self-hypnosis videos.