life:and:lim

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First sewing project in a long time.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday break!  To help fill my newfound leisure time, I lugged my Kenmore sewing machine 300 miles back home to LA.  The first order of business was a pair of armwarmers or fingerless gloves, because it's been super cold and I was struck by inspiration when I saw this rather sweet black and white rose print against an old lavender scarf that a friend gave me.  Lavender was once my favorite color (and still is one of the faves).  


It was one of those, a-ha, why didn't I think of that before kind of moments.  When I saw them together I knew what I had to do.

I started by making the ruffle for the trim.  That was straightforward, just some careful measuring, ironing, and sewing with a very long stitch before pulling the thread to make the fabric bunch up.

Then, the pattern.  I looked up a bunch of glove-making tips online but couldn't really find a good pattern for fingerless gloves.  So I modified the guidelines set forth in this very helpful step-by-step demo of how to first make a pattern, then construct a pair of costume gloves (the ones here are gorgeous!).  

I screwed up the pattern-making, as I did not account for the fact that my arm is about 9 in. in diameter at its thickest, and I didn't cut enough fabric.  I had to add scrap pieces to make up the difference.  The first part of the construction wasn't so bad, but then I found the thumb extremely difficult to attach--I had to do it by hand, and I still don't like how it fits... there is some extra room in the fabric that I could probably take in a bit.  

Oh well.  A decent first effort, I say.  I have to figure out what I'd do differently next time... definitely work with a different fabric because that fake acrylic I used from the scarf kept falling apart.

               

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Comments (4)

Dec 28, 2008
Suzanne said...
Sewing is so much trial and error. My friend Ruth and I laugh over the fact we do it wrong almost every time the first time we sew something new. Part of the process, really...
Dec 28, 2008
Wendy said...
valiant effort! certainly not a bad first try, especially since you made the pattern yourself!
Dec 28, 2008
Stephanie Lim said...
haha I felt so dumb after I'd already cut out the fabric from the scarf and wrapped it around my arm and realized I still had an inch or two. my mom and brother laughed at me.
Dec 29, 2008
clementine said...
very creative work, i really like it

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