Update on Zambia

Sewfordough readers,

My daughter, Michelle and I, want to thank you so much for your generosity and give you an update on what is happening with the incredible donations for the mamas in Zambia. 

Michelle sent this email for you yesterday:

Ladies,

I just wanted to email you and thank you again for blessing us with the sewing supplies and donations that you have sent in!

We have more supplies on the way, but these are the supplies I packed up yesterday:

Our Mamas in Zambia will be so blessed by your donations and we couldn’t be more blown away by your generosity- the boxes just keep pouring in!

My husband and I leave in 12 days and we would greatly appreciate your prayers as we head out. I hope to take many photos of the Mamas and these wonderful supplies! We have received approximately $1600 for the sewing machines (which is about $500 short of our goal for purchasing the machines….$2100 is the discount price if we buy them all at once), which is another HUGE answer to prayer! I hope those funds will continue to come in as we are on the ground in Africa – maybe the Mamas will even get machines while we are there!

Again, thank you so much for donating. Please know what a blessing this is for all involved. God continues to move and amaze us through this ministry.

May God continue to bless you as you look after the orphan and widow (James 1:27).

Have a wonderful weekend and thanks again!

Michelle Jackson

Sponsorship Relations Coordinator

Every Orphan’s Hope

3245 W. Main Street, Suite 235/332
Frisco, TX 75034

If you’d like to know more about Every Orphan’s Hope, and what they are all about, please visit their website at:

www.everyorphan.org

Sewing in Zambia

Hi Everyone,
Some of you know that our daughter, Michelle, works for a ministry called Every Orphan’s Hope. It is an organization that has rescued orphans in Zambia, Africa, and built homes for these children to live in. Each orphan home has 8 children and one widowed “mama” who cares for the children. For several years, the mamas have been dreaming of being able to sew. So, our daughter, thought this would be a good time to pitch out the need and see if we can make their dream a reality.
 
If you’d like to see their website and learn what they are all about, please visit : http://everyorphan.org/

 If you’d like to meet the mamas, click here: Sewing CampaignB (2)
 
The mamas have identified two main desires: basic sewing supplies and sewing machines. In Zambia, the electricity is very unreliable, so getting treadle type machines is the best choice for them. Every Ophan’s Hope could buy the machines here, but shipping them would be very expensive, so they have found a way to buy them in Zambia and have them transported to the villages. It will cost around $2,100 to purchase 14 machines so that each home would have one machine. (They have 11 homes now and three more are being built soon).

I’d love for you to join me in making these mama’s dreams come true.
 
If that’s your desire as well, there are two ways to help them out:
 
1. You can donate directly to Every Orphan’s Hope online at  http://everyorphan.org/
2. You can gather basic sewing supplies and mail them directly to Every Orphan’s Hope.

Their mailing address is:
Every Orphan’s Hope
3245 W. Main St., Ste. 235/332
Frisco, TX 75034

Basic sewing supplies would include: thread, scissors, needles, pins, patterns, seam rippers, measuring tapes, or anything else you have that you are not using or would like to purchase new. Anything you donate will be greatly appreciated. They will not be collecting fabric because the weight of the fabric would make it too costly and because the Zambians prefer purchasing their own fabric from local vendors. 

If you mail your supplies to Texas, please be sure and send your package by June 8th if possible. There will be a team flying to Zambia at the end of June to deliver the goods and purchase the machines, if enough funds are collected.

Please send a link to this post to any of your sewing friends or anyone you think would be interested in helping these women achieve this goal.
 
Thank you for your consideration. I have a feeling that Sewfordough readers are going to be very generous! So many of you have a heart for those less fortunate than we are and we have a unique opportunity to help these ladies develop this craft that we love so much. It will give them an opportunity to teach the children in their care how to sew and provide a skill in which they could someday run and operate their own sewing business and provide for their own families.

I know they will be greatly blessed by whatever contribution you can make.

You will receive a tax donation receipt from Every Orphan’s Hope for any monetary donations you make.

If you have any questions, you can email me here at thesewinggarden@gmail.com or you can contact Every Orphan’s Hope.

Thank you so much for your consideration.

Go team Sewfordough!

Celebrate With Me…It’s Free!

Today is the 3^rd  anniversary of this blog and I thought you might like to know how it all started.

About seven years ago, a customer came to my door needing his suit jacket altered. As I spoke to him about the changes that needed to be made on it, he asked me if I had written a book on how to alter clothing. That was the spark. After thinking through the details, I realized that with the incredible amount of photos it would take to do the job well, no publisher would touch the project. It would just be too expensive to print. So, I put the idea on the shelf of my mind.

It wasn’t long after that when my friend, Sharon, asked if I wanted to take a blogging class with her to learn how to start a blog. I thought it would be fun to learn something new, but really didn’t think I would ever really follow through with it. The instructor asked us to each create a blog designed around a passion of ours. He asked us to think of some subject that we were interested in or that we knew something about. He also said it would be beneficial if our blogs were on a unique subject that not everyone else was writing about.

That’s when it hit me that I could blog about all this information that I had stored in my head just waiting to come out. There were a lot of details to setting up the format and learning how to use WordPress, but it wasn’t too difficult. The next challenge was coming up with a unique name for the blog. So, onApril 27, 2009,  Sewfordough was born!

This site is the culmination of 44 years of sewing experience.  Most of the techniques you see here were learned from just doing what seemed to make sense. As you know, there are hardly any books on these subjects and the ones that are out there, don’t have enough pictures in them. So, the goal of this website was to make each step of every technique easy to follow and understand.

Many people ask me why I don’t charge for all this information and instruction. When I was setting up the blog, my husband helped me process through that. He is great at that. And great at helping me to set goals, looking at the motives behind what I do.

If you’ve been on this blog for any length of time you know about my faith. Well, one of the things I want to do is serve others with the gifts God has given me. I feel pretty blessed that He has given me so many incredible people and things in my life and I just wanted to say “thank you” to Him for that. My hope is that you have received great benefit from all you’ve learned and it is my prayer that your sewing business (or hobby) is thriving.  So, that is my free gift to you.

But there is a free gift available to you that is much more important than this blog. It is the free gift of eternal life that Jesus offers to anyone who asks. Many people have heard of Jesus but they don’t know why He came to earth. He came to save us from our sin and give us the free gift of eternal life. But He doesn’t force His gift on us and we can’t pay for that gift by living a good life. And, we can’t earn our way to heaven because of our sin. But by the grace of God, Jesus came to earth to die in our place for our sins. Not everyone gets to go to heaven automatically. We have to receive His gift by placing our faith in what Jesus did on the cross and not on being a good person or doing good things. If getting to heaven had anything to do with us, then Jesus wouldn’t have had to come.  The Bible says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.” If you’d like to know more about this free gift and how Jesus can be personal to you in your life, just send me an email.  It would be my privilege to talk about these things with you.

Altering the Shoulders on a Jacket

A customer brought me two jackets to take in at the shoulders.

Both of these jackets had shoulder pads, too, which she wanted removed.

You don’t see those much anymore!

She tried the jacket on and I put a pin marking the spot where she wanted the sleeve to be moved to.

See the white pin head about one inch in from the armscye (sleeve seam)?

This customer is a very classy lady and I know this jacket probably cost a pretty penny.

But, doesn’t it just scream “80′s” to you?!

Let’s get started.

The first thing you want to do is, turn the jacket inside out.

You are going to open up the forearm seam.

Open it up about 5 or 6 inches using your seam ripper.

Then, pull the shoulder area out so you can work on it.

Unsew the lining seam:

If you have sewn blouses or jackets with a pattern, you know that there are notches on the pattern of the sleeve.

This diagram shows how far you should take the seam out:

You don’t have notches on your sleeve, but you can eyeball the distance.

Next, take out the shoulder pads.

These particular ones were made of foam rubber!

That’s the first time I’ve seen foam rubber shoulder pads….ick!

They just disintegrated:

Shoulder pads are usually just attached with tacking threads.

Just clip those threads to free the pads.

In rare cases, however, you may have to open up the shoulder seam, take out the shoulder pads and restitch the seam together again before doing any alterations.

Once you take out the shoulder pad, you’ll notice that there are a few items you may not be familiar with.

One of them might be the white interfacing strip (or a strip of seam tape).

It is there for support

The second might be a  flannel-like sleeve cap (or one made of a similar material).

In this case, it is the grey fabric strip:

This gives the sleeve stability and shape.

Take that off.

Before you take apart the shoulder seam, put in a tailor tack at the top of the sleeve.

You will put it in directly across from the shoulder seam.

You need this tack in order to match up the sleeve after you make the alteration:

Next, match up the tailor tack mark to the pin mark on the shoulder:

Be sure you are matching the seam allowance of the sleeve to the pin mark, not the cut edge of the fabric to the pin  mark.

Next, pin the sleeve all around the arm seam.

To sew, just stitch over the original seamline. It will work great.

If for some reason, your sleeve doesn’t match up to the armhole, make a deeper seam in the shoulder seam first.

To do that, put a pin down from the shoulder seam (in this case, 1/2″ away from the shoulder seam).

Stitch from somewhere near the neckline out to the edge of the shoulder, tapering in a smooth manner before reaching where the pin mark is.

Then, rip out the original stitches and “finger” press the new seam open so it lays flat.

Then, stitch the new seam of the arm (from imagined notch to imagined notch) to close it up:

Don’t forget to get the grey matter in there!

Once you’ve sewn that seam, check how the sleeve looks by turning the farment right side out again.

If it looks good, trim off the excess fabric:

If your jacket came with these “stays” (this one has blue stays), be sure and sew those back on. One end should be sewn to the jacket on the seam allowance and the other end gets sewn to the shoulder seam allowance.

These keep the jacket and lining from straying too far from each other.

Stitch the opening closed in the sleeve lining.

Make the same alterations to the remaining sleeve and the lining on both sides of the jacket.

It is easier than it sounds and I hope it gives you incentive to give it a try!

Update: 2/28/12:

Below in the comment section, you’ll see a comment from a Linda M.

Here are the photos which go along with her comment.

She adds pleats in the seams to take in the extra fullness.

Its another option if your customer would like that look.

Since one of you posted a reply asking for photos, here they are:

You can see how they look in the photos above.

Thanks Linda, for sending those to me.

 

How To Make a Sewing Pattern

A question came in yesterday asking how to line the inside of a nightgown.

Without having the original pattern, one might think it impossible.

But, I have found an answer to that diemma and I’d like to share it with you.

Call it my early Christmas gift to you!

All you need is some wide paper of any kind.

I use the end rolls of newsprint.

Our local newspaper office gives these ends out free, so I grab one or two a year.

They are great for all kinds of purposes.

If you can’t find wide paper, just tape what you do have together to make pieces wide enough for your project.

This is what my newsprint looks like:

Begin by rolling out a length of paper for your project.

Do this on the carpet, not on your floor.

You’ll see why in a minute.

I chose a simple T-shirt as my example.

Lay your garment on the paper:

You are going to do what I call “pin tracing”.

So get out your stash of straight pins for this.

You are going to trace each piece of your garment.

You will need to trace the front, the back, the sleeves, the collar pieces, the plackets, the cuffs, the leg, the waistbands, etc.

Get the idea?

Ok, to pin trace, you are going to start at one point (any point) on the first piece and poke a pin (through the paper) along the edge of that piece every inch or so like this:

This is why you need to work on carpet, because the pins can scratch your floor and it makes it difficult to poke them through.

On this shirt, I am pin tracing the front of the shirt first.

Pin trace all the way around.

If you’re not sure what a pattern piece should look like, take out  a similar one in any of your Simplicity, McCalls, Butterick, etc. pattern envelopes and study it.

Just keep poking your pin all around the piece.

Along the side seams, it will look like this:

See the pin holes? Look closely.

Now, just connect the dots with a pen or a marker:

I’ve done only a partial section of this shirt, but you get the idea, right?

Can you see the shoulder seam, armhole and side seam in the photo below?

When you are finished tracing, be sure to  add on your seam allowances.

Next, move the shirt to a fresh spot on the paper and trace the next piece, making sure you’ve left enough room for it.

There’s nothing more frustrating than tracing one piece over another.

But I wouldn’t know anything about that!

Be sure to think ahead. If you are tracing a sleeve, you’ll need to either: fold the paper and line up the edge of the sleeve on it, or trace half the sleeve, move the sleeve and trace the remaining half.

Does that make sense?

Just be sure to think through each piece well before you cut it out of fabric to make the new garment.

This technique works well with garments and linings.

The idea came about because I had an favorite pair of shorts and I wanted to reproduce them, but I couldn’t find a pattern that was even close to it in style.

It’s not beautiful, but it’s cheap and fast and it works!

Give it a try.

 

A Finely Tailored Jacket

It’s not often that I am in the presence of a finely tailored garment.

It’s a rare commodity these days.

But recently, a customer brought this gem to me to have it altered:

Those of you who live in the U.K. will appreciate this label:

It reads: Catherine Walker…The Chelsea Design Company

Catherine Walker designed clothing worn by Princes Diana and others.

Her designs were beautiful.

So, to have one of these pieces in my hands was a rare treat.

My customer is from the U.K. and purchased this jacket there many years ago.

It is timeless in style. A real classic.

What you see on the outside is great, but the inside is what took my breath away!

Just look at the attention to detail.

These aren’t your store bought shoulder pads:

See the grey wool piece? That’s a sleeve head. You don’t see those very often.

Look…hand stitching!

When I pulled back the lining, I saw the hand stitching through the shoulder pads:

Why do I get so excited about these details?

Because I know the amount of time it takes to make a hand tailored garment like this.

I know how much better a garment like this fits.

Time equals quality.

In college, I took a tailoring class and the prof was all about these kinds of details.

I just pulled out my class book:

Aren’t you impressed I still have this puppy?

I kept it because I knew I’d reference the material now and then.

Having the book around has been invaluable.

I can look back through it when I need an overview on construction details like bound buttonholes.

Do they still make hair canvas interfacing?!

If you are in to construction of garments, you really should take a tailoring class.

You’d really enhance your sewing skills.

Check out the local college and see if they offer such a class.

Meanwhile, my next post will be on a shoulder/sleeve alteration.

Do you have a jacket where the sleeve sits off the shoulder?

This alteration will take care of that problem.

Stay posted and have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Fun At The Family Dinner

As I mentioned in the previous post,

we held two receptions for our daughter’s wedding.

One was held at the church.

The second was a family dinner at a public golf club in the next town.

Here are the newlyweds leaving the church:

The wedding party planned to stop off at a local reservoir for some more pictures on their way to the golf club.

We swapped cars with the newlyweds which meant we had their rental car, a small little domestic jobbie.

About a mile from the church, my husband noticed that the “low tire” indicator light had turned on.

He figured it was a computer glitch and thought we should keep driving.

(Does this sound like your husband?!)

But I really thought we should get it checked out.

(Does this sound like a woman’s response?!)

We realized that there was a tire shop within about 6 blocks of our predicament.

As we got within 2 blocks of the tire shop, we felt and heard the wheel go “thu-think, thu-thunk”.

We pulled in to the shop just as the men were closing up for the day.

And they graciously agreed to fix it for us.

We had the best time with it all.

Here we were in our formal wear and they in their grease and grime.

I said to one of the men, “People go to great lengths just to get their tires fixed, don’t they?”

We found all sorts of things to laugh about.

I figured no one would believe our story without proof, so I snapped a shot of “Jose” and my husband enjoying the moment for all it’s fun:

We kept thanking the Lord for His provision:

1. The flat tire came at a great time in the day (good thing it wasn’t fifteen minutes later) and at the perfect location

2. It didn’t happen to Jake or Michelle

3. It didn’t happen to us out in the country between our two towns

4. It didn’t happen to them the next day on their way to the airport

We were on the road in fifteen minutes and the last ones to arrive at the reception.

And the reception was so much fun too!

The bride and groom at their sweetheart table:

First Dance:

Jake and his ten,or so, buddies danced and got the whole crowd cheering with each of their unique dances:

Jake even walked on his hands across the floor. I didn’t know he had such talent!

Everyone joined in the fun and celebration.

It was my favorite reception of all time.

(Does that sound like a mom?!)

At some point in the evening, the photographer took the wedding party outside for pictures.

At the end of that session, Michelle came back inside to let me know that when Jake carried her across the expansive lawn, one of her bustles “broke”.

(Didn’t I tell you I would relate it to sewing at some point in the story?!)

Upon further investigation, we found that one of the plastic rings had actually broken in half!

If you notice in the side bar of this blog, I have a suggestion for brides to pin about 5 safety pins along the inside lower edge of your dress in case of emergencies.

I never thought I’d use my own advice!

I took one of those safety pins and used it as a “ring” and then re-tied the ribbon onto the safety pin.

She was “good to go” in mere moments!

We sent them off under a canopy of sparklers.

It was such a beautiful scene.

I wish I had a photo of that to show you.

Everyone left and I realized I had forgotten to ask for help in dismantling the banquet room!

I also forgot to take into account that we had the rental car with about 2 square feet of storage space.

So, we detained our younger daughter for awhile while we packed her car to the brim and sent her off.

While we were packing our car, she returned to tell us that Michelle had lost her wallet somewhere.

She needed it for the airplane ride the next day.

So, we prayed on the way home that God would help us find it.

When we arrived home, one of her bridesmaids was there ready to help us find it.

We scoured the house… everywhere we thought she’d been that morning and couldn’t find it anywhere.

As we were looking in her bedroom one more time, and thinking about heading over to the church to look there,

Michelle called and explained that she remembered it falling out of her purse at some point during the day.

With that, I dropped to my knees and lifted her bedskirt and there it was right in front of me!

It had rolled under the bed apparently after it fell out of her purse.

Praise-a-lu-jah!

We were so happy to be able to tell her that God had answered yet another prayer that day!

We took it over to the hotel they were staying at and stayed up all night chatting with them.

Just kidding. We dropped it off and left.

And they had a wonderful honeymoon in Hawaii.

Now they are enjoying married life and we are enjoying being in-laws (or maybe we are outlaws!)

Now share with us your funny or unusual stories from your wedding day.

Don’t be shy.

Everyone has a story.

I can’t wait to hear yours!!!