Buying Fabric and Fabric Prep

It's time to go fabric shopping! I love this part.

How Much Fabric:

First of all, before you leave the house, you have to figure out how much fabric you need. Again, I always overestimate.

I found this photo on Pinterest, and I'm modeling my dress on it.

It's not quite floor length, and since it's for Pennsic, that's what I want. I'll still use measurements and cut it as if it's floor length just to be safe. Then I'll hem it up to where I want it.

The quick and dirty way to estimate fabric for a dress like this is to take your shoulder to floor measurement, double it, and then add extra. How much extra? I don't know. You'll need some, maybe ¼ yard, to account for the fabric shrinking when you wash it. If you're adding separate gores to the skirt, you'll probably want at least one additional yard. If you're doing a neck facing like I am, you'll want another ¼ to ½ yard. If you're nervous, you'll want to add another ½ yard. 

If you're really nervous, you can sketch out how you're going to piece the fabric, decide how you're going to lay it out, and get an exact amount. I usually don't bother doing that unless I'm making something I've never made before or something that has a lot of pieces.

Here's the quick math I did to figure out how much fabric to buy for this dress.

Shoulder to floor = 62”

62” x 2 = 124”

124”/36” = 3.444 yards

I round up to 3.5 yards and add 1 yard because of shrinkage and because I'm going to do a neck facing. I think I'll have enough for the gores on the side of the tunic when I cut it out. If not, I might have to buy more fabric later and the color of the dye lot may not match exactly. I'm willing to take that risk.

But wait! Fabric comes in different widths, usually between 36” and 60”, with 44” being the most common. The linen I like is 51” wide. If you're using something narrower, you might need more fabric. If any part of your finished garment is going to be bigger around than 2 times your fabric width (subtracting a couple inches to account for seams), you'll need more fabric. For the T-tunic, though, that shouldn't be the case unless you get fabric narrower than 40” wide, which isn't very common.

I bought 4 ½ yards of 51” wide fabric.

Fabric Selection:

When you're picking out your fabric, if you aren't getting sheets from a thrift store, check out the label on the bolt. Aside from the price, it will tell you the width of the fabric, washing instructions, and the fiber content. Keep in mind that almost all fabric shrinks when you wash it and that cotton shrinks more than most other fibers you'll see. I would stay away from fabrics that are more than 50% polyester or rayon since they don't breathe as well and get uncomfortable.

Speaking of comfort, check out the “hand” of the fabric. That just means to feel it, get a sense of the weight and the texture. You may have to unspool the fabric from the bolt a bit to do this. When you do that, you also want to find out how see-through the fabric is. Put your hand under one layer of fabric to see how sheer it is and decide what you're comfortable with. You might have to hold the fabric up to the light to get a real sense of this.

Take the fabric to the counter and get it cut.

Rant:

At a good fabric store, they will usually tear the fabric rather than cutting it. Not all fabrics will tear well along the grain, but cotton and cotton blends do, as do most linens. Tearing it ensures that your piece is on the grain and you're getting the full length that you're paying for. JoAnn's won't let their employees tear the fabric and it upsets me. I actually mentioned this to an employee the other day, and she said, “But tearing causes it to pull and pucker.” I wasn't going to argue with her, but that's stupid for a couple of reasons. One, it usually doesn't pucker or pull beyond a half-inch. Meanwhile, I can usually count on losing at least one whole inch due to the fabric not being cut on the grain. In fact, I usually lose two or three inches. Two, you should always wash and iron your fabric before you start cutting and sewing. If you do that, the puckers go away. So, to summarize my rant, tearing good, cutting bad, but most of us don't have much choice when it comes to where to buy fabric.

Fabric Prep:

Now that you have your fabric at home, it's time for my least favorite part: washing and ironing the fabric. Always washing your fabric before you make your garb. You don't want it shrinking after you've put all that work into it, and you definitely want to be able to wash this stuff.

I wash the fabric in hot or warm water with a normal spin cycle and dry it on hot or warm. If you got a strange fabric blend or wool, you'll want to follow whatever care instructions that bolt of fabric had on it. Once the garb is made, I'll only wash it in cool or warm water and do a low dryer cycle to ensure that no more shrinkage occurs. While your fabric is still a tiny bit damp, iron it. The dampness makes it easier to get the wrinkles out. You can always spritz it with a little water if it dries before you iron it.

Now you're ready to start cutting and sewing!

Taking Measurements for Medieval Garb

This is not (entirely) the way to take measurements for making modern clothing and certainly not the way to take measurements if you're doing serious pattern drafting. This is the quick, dirty, and easy way to do it so that you don't accidentally make things too small or buy too little fabric for yourself.

Ready? Let's get going!

End of Year Wrap-Up, Goals for 2014

Happy New Year, everybody!

Last year was pretty good, overall, but I am sure this one will be even more exciting, what with the wedding and the possibly house-buying.

I did reach my goal for last year of reading 26 books, but I didn't surpass it even though I had extra time at the end. For 2014, I'm setting my goal at 30 books. It will be trickier, to be sure, but I could easily spend less time watching TV.

My other goal for next year is to post more on here. I made 16 posts last year. I know I can do better than that, especially if I spend more time talking about the books I'm reading and the crafts and cooking I'm doing.

As far as everything I read last year, here are some of the highlights and lowlights:

Books read: 26
Fiction: 24
Non-fiction: 2
Graphic Novels: 3 (both also included under Fiction)
Approximate number of pages read (according to Goodreads): 10,000

Books with Male Protagonists: 12
Books with Female Protagonists: 7
Books with Both/Neither: 7

Favorite Book of the Year: Well, really, there were several, but at the very top, I think I'd place
"The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern, followed by "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman, "Life After Life" by Kate Atkinson, and "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman.

Least Favorite Book: "The Sword in the Stone" by T.H. White. Sorry. I know a lot of people love it, but I really didn't.

And since I don't want to end this on a down note, here are some of the books I plan to read in the next 12 months:
"Cleopatra" by Stacy Schiff. In truth, I've already started this one.
"The Passage" by Justin Cronin. I started this one when it first came out (and may have read about half of it on a Nook while working,) but I never finished it. I'll have to start from the beginning again.
"A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman. Since I won't be able to go to Pennsic this year, I'll read this book about the 14th century instead.
"Flight Behavior" by Barbara Kingsolver. My mother and my sister both got a copy for Christmas. Okay, I may have been the one to give my mom the copy. Anyway, we all love Kingsolver, and I'll be able to borrow a copy.
And, of course, many, many more, but if I plan my whole reading list out ahead of time, I'm guaranteed to not read any of the books on the list and choose entirely different things to read.

"The Ocean at the End of the Lane"

I just finished "The Ocean at the End of the Lane" by Neil Gaiman. It was book number 25 of my goal of 26 to read this calendar year. I'm so close to my goal! At this point, I'm hoping to actually reach 27 or 28 books for the year, but we'll see. I still haven't chosen what I'm going to read for book 26, and since I have so much time, I think I'm going to choose a longer book from my list.

Anyway, back to the important part: my review of this delightful novel.

I've read a fair amount of Mr. Gaiman's prose but not nearly enough. Like everything he's written that I have read, the story lies in the in-between of folk tales and reality and the suggest to the reader the delight of the unknown mundane. "The Ocean at the End of the Lane," without giving too much away, reminds us our memories are necessarily filtered through our experiences and our present worldview. How do we know that our memories are true? When we walk a familiar path, do we know how many times we've walked it before?

It's impossible (isn't it?) to adequately describe the books that truly consume us as we consume them. Suffice it to say that I loved this one, and it's something I know I'll read again and again. If you haven't read it, you should immediately reserve it from the library (as I did) or purchase a copy or borrow it from a friend, make yourself some tea or coffee or cocoa, curl up in bed or in a large, comfortable chair, let a cat or two curl up with you, and begin to read. Mr. Gaiman, in the way of Maurice Sendak, charges us to remember the dangers and horrors of childhood along with the magic. While it is just as scary and dangerous as our own world, I want to live in Mr. Gaiman's worlds.

Good News/Bad News: Tim Horton's

Good news: A Tim Horton's just opened up near Pittsburgh!

Bad news: It's in a gas station.
More Bad news: It's an hour from where I live.
Good news: It's only 15 minutes from where I work!
Bad news: I ate about 10 Timbits in one day.
Good news: I was able to eat Timbits!

Stop Trying to Explain My Generation Using Disparaging Stereotypes

I read this article on the Huffington Post.
This is not the worst article I've read on Generation Y (born between the late 1970's and the early 1990's,) but, in general, the journalists that try to define my generation or 'understand' why we're all such 'entitled,' 'self-centered,' 'unhappy,' 'delusional' people enrage me. Yes, we were brought up to expect that we could achieve greatness. So, what? The real issue is that as we enter our mid-twenties, we're all confronting reality as previous generations have done when they enter adulthood. It just so happens that we're entering adulthood at a later age than previous generations because so many of us are going to college. And aside from the people I know with actual clinical depression, very, very few people I know in my generation are unhappy.

These articles frequently forget that the most defining characteristic of our generation is adaptability. I was born in '85. My family had a microwave, but our TV had no remote control. This wasn't uncommon. I remember a time when no one knew what the internet was. The first computer I got my hands on only used DOS prompt commands. The technology I use on an hourly basis, the very tools I use constantly at work, the way I receive my entertainment (aside from books) was unthinkable to me when I was young. I'd guess that most people my age would say the same thing.

And we've embraced these things. We aren't scared of change. We know that the way we work and function in 10 years -- heck, even in five years, will be radically different from the way we live now, and we love it! We're trying to create those new tools, those unthinkable resources, those gadgets that we won't know how we lived without.

And we understand that we can't control the world. We understand tragedy and disappointment and fear. We remember the crash of the Exxon Valdez. We remember Kosovo. We remember September 11, 2001. We've lost friends and family members in the Gulf Wars. We remember the dot com bust and the housing bust and we've spent a good chunk of our lives in the Great Recession. We lived through Katrina and Sandy. And yet most of us are still optimistic. Is that delusional? Is that foolhardy? No. It is the only way to live. We know that things are beyond our control, but we also know that the smallest things we do can make a difference. We pay more money to drive hybrid cars in an effort to wean ourselves off of oil. We've pushed for renewable resources. We christened the 'Go Green' movement. We're standing up for ourselves and our friends and letting the world know that homophobia is just as immoral as sexism and racism. We also remember the end of the Cold War, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, seeing the "Pale Blue Dot" photograph sent back from Voyager. We were breathless as Curiosity landed on Mars. We've seen AIDS go from a death sentence to a manageable, while still devastating, disease. We know we, standing on the shoulders of past generations, will find a cure. We know we will reach farther because that's what humanity does, generation after generation.

We know it's not easy. We know we'll have to work hard. We expect to work hard. And most of us don't expect to get wealthy. We know that Social Security won't be around for us when we retire. We know that our kids will have to go to college in order to earn a living wage and that college costs keep rising. We're planning on paying off our own student debts while financing our children's education. We accept that. We know that times are tough and we're buckling down.

The Greatest Generation grew up in similar circumstances. The challenges then were, of course, different. They were worried about having enough food for their families and where the money for the next bill was going to come from. We're fortunate that the Great Recession hasn't left as many families to starve. But the economic disparity between the wealthiest and the poorest in this country is enormous. The Gini index is the highest it's been since they started measuring and estimates are that it's the highest it's been since the era of Standard Oil. We might not be struggling to put food on the table, but we're struggling to keep the electricity bill paid and the car filled with gas. The Greatest Generation was made tough by the Great Depression. They learned from it and they taught those lessons to their kids. Who's to say that we won't do the same? We are willing to work hard. We are willing to pull ourselves up and we want to pull others up with us. Who's to say we won't succeed? Who's the say history won't finally see us as determined, adaptable, ambitious, hard-working, global thinkers? I think it will. Maybe I'm just delusional.

Post Dress Shopping

Yep, I picked out a dress today. I won't say much about it except that it's by Alfred Angelo, I love it, and it's beautiful.
I'm pretty exhausted. It took 3 hours and I tried on over a dozen dresses, but I'm very, very happy.