Washing The Finished Project

I made a few masks lately and as usual, after making it, I always washed it and then put it under the sun light/heat or under it’s SHADOW. I found that the projects that I put under sunlight or heat directly will create stain which comes from the fabric own colors, especially and mostly RED! Whether it’s Japanese fabric or local low quality fabrics.

I remember, long time ago, I lived up behind a mountain. The company provided each household with drier machine. First, I put my wet project on TOP of the machine. I turned on the machine to dry my clothes inside while the outside machine body itself felt very warm, including the TOP side. My project somehow, STAINED by it’s own colour. I was frustrated! It was then hard to even tone down that stain.

Then, i thought of put it under bathroom heater, not kind of directly put, but rather lower under the heater. It was still staining! Then I just used the bathroom fan to dry it. Not cooold, not hot. Just room temperature. It worked!

 

Another case: I used strong laundry soap. It was ok though, not kind of very very strong that will destroy my clothes. Yet, for some fabrics, especially when it contains RED (and black, too, even though black is not an often case as red), it will create stain, too. Seems like the soap reaction to red colour works in a bad way.

 

Another case: it’s ok to put under the sun heat, as long as the ‘fabric’ is squeezed as hard as possible; the point is the water is very very minimal on fabric. Yet, we can’t always do that. If we didn’t wash the fabric before sewing it, we can’t squeeze the finished projects. We just can press it the best we can do, yet, the water is still a lot on fabric.

In my recent cases, I put it under sunlight /heat shadow, it was ok, but when the temperature is hot, too, even under the ‘shadow’, it can create stain.

Some fabric colours can create erasable stain and some are not. Once it’s staining on it’s own, it’s hard to wash. You see, most fabrics have kind of light background colour, for example black; then the pattern, for example owl, can be red colour. The pattern colour can stain the background colour. Sometimes, i thought, the background colour that would be dangerous but in my cases, the pattern colour can be dangerous, too. I then thought if the paint of each colour used to colour the fabric is different brand/type or what?
I still understand if one fabric colour can stain to OTHER fabric. Yet, I didn’t really think much about it when it’s in one fabric that contained more than 1 colour and it can stain on the fabric itself.

Someone also said to me not long ago, red-black-navy usually create staining. Lately, i also found dark green; may be because i rare work with green, so i just found it. Strangely, dark brown is almost never staining; yet, i just found that my pink fabric stained other fabric. The last one (pink), i suspect the detergent is surprisingly strong and can ‘squeeze’ pink colour out. The fabric i used is a good fabric which USUALLY never stain.

Sometimes, even though i have some experiences, i forgot myself about it. May be because the project is DIFFERENT, so, i’m not cautious.

 

So, here what we can do:

  1. Wash the fabrics before using it or pre-wash the fabric.

To be honest, I’m so lazy about this, especially because I rarely have the staining problem. Yet, now, when I’m starting to suspect some fabrics, i wash them first. I think, it’s ok to wash AFTER CUTTING but BEFORE SEWING if you are that lazy to wash the whole fabrics. Most fabrics don’t shrink much unless may be if you use very hot water, put it in the drier, or other harsh treatments that shouldn’t be done to that kind of fabrics. (^_^)’. Sometimes, washing the whole fabric can expose more staining on many parts on the fabric itself; so, may be if we cut first and then wash it before sewing it, if there is stain, we can fix it on that location only; not on a whole fabric which may cause headache because stain can be like spots everywhere. Well, it’s up to you, though. (^_^).

2. If you don’t want to pre-wash the fabric, then after finishing the project, wash it and dry it not under the heat or not in hot temperature. So, if outside is hot, put the finished project inside.

3. Don’t soak too long! 5-10 minutes and keep rechecking. It’s because sometimes, we think our laundry soap is ok but apparently, to some craft fabrics, it can pull out some colours and then create stain to that own fabrics. So be careful. Even if you don’t use laundry soap, just keep rechecking! I haven’t tried using silk or baby clothes detergent. Perhaps, next time, i will try it. It’s usually not as strong as common detergent.

 

 

 

*NOTE: to know why heat and other stuff can make such stain to fabric, I won’t explain it because it’s out of my knowledge. It’s so chemical, i think, so i don’t want to talk or discuss any further about it. So, please google yourself if you want to know deeper.

High Waist Skirt For Minifee

I don’t know where to start… It’s quite confusing me. I thought minifee body would be good if wearing skirt like this, high waist one and ‘pencil’ or I-silhouette skirt. When i made this, i thought, i made a mistake because of the fitting wasn’t too good. I remade and remade until it became good, but it wasn’t impressive. Then I was at a 90% conclusion that the body shape/type isn’t for this kind of dress. When we learn about fashion and body shape, sometimes, some shapes are good with kind of fashion style/silhouette and not good with others.

One day, i watched a korean drama and the actress wore quite same skirt style. The actress is actually sexy. I think, the body shape and ‘height’ is kinda minifee too. Not tall, thin, but sexy. When i saw her wearing the skirt, I didn’t see it as sexy as expected. It felt ‘plain’ to me, unlike when she wore A-line skirt or even denim pants. I thought at that time, it is the body shape! I wanted to enhance the side-silhouette of minifee body but ended up with ‘plain’ and ‘flat’ feel.

It’s interesting to know that when thought a body, whether human or doll, looks perfect but actually it can’t wear something better than other body. Well, of course, in the end it’s the owner of the body or doll that decide. They still can go go with it or not. So do I… i have my own opinion and i’m quite unhappy that i can’t dress up minifee with this kind of skirt. I’m going to try it with narae next time or bigger doll.

Sorry for not good picture…the thread is still seen. (^_^)” … It was right from the sewing machine, can’t wait to fit it on doll body. (^_^)”

Greedy

I think, i have been too greedy; I want to sew and craft whenever i have time.

Today, i made patterns while in a cafe for about 1,5 hours. When i got home, i still wanted to do things. Yet, i didnt feel well and my sons wanted to learn something with me. So, i didnt continue anything.

I realized, i actually had done much. Making patterns, sewing, crafting for only 1-1.5 hours each day is already a lot! I guess, i have to accept that it is my limit. I have to set time for other things, including taking care of myself.

GANBATTE, NICHAN!

It’s not the first time but may be today is the most touching one and such a wake up call for me.

I shopped from an online store today. I supposed to make 2 quantity but i forgot. The seller already sent the items to me. I was so panic. I can make an order again but the shipping fee will be calculated again. He said, it’s ok. Next time, you shop from us, please order 2 and we will send 1 quantity. I said to him, actually, i want to buy again another size but still not sure. He said, it’s ok. No need to buy now. The most important is, your business runs (well) first.

Business.
I would like to underline that word.

The boss didn’t know that I haven’t opened my business officially. I mostly do it for fun or for ‘free’ stuff I’ll be giving as a gift to my boys’ friends. Yet, his words were such a wake-up call. Long before and after that, my friends also mentioned about same thing. They’re willing to buy, too.

I’m crying inside now. Knowing but not just ‘know’ but really know that i’m supported by the world to achieve my dream. What am I waiting for now? I’ve been being hesitated but I must stop now. It is the time. I want to take this whole positive energy as my fuel to realise my dream. I will go through the obstacles using this energy.

Thank you, God, for sending me good people with of course good words. My Christmas wish is please bless them all with Your kindness and peace. I hope, their life runs well and they can go through obstacles with Your bless.

Merry Christmas, every one. Let’s be kind to one another, be good to one another, and make a peace with one another.

Ganbatte all! Ganbatte of course ME!

Upgrading The Sewing Machine

I just bought an industrial sewing machine. I realised I needed it when I was working on a souvenir project. Using my lovely janome sewing machine was ok but there were small interruptions regarding to the capability of sewing machine. Those small interruptions gathered into quite amount of time needed to fix this and that. The result was ok but sometimes not stable in terms of stitch length. May be I was supposed to use walking feet (sewing feet type). I didn’t think of it, but then I remembered anyway and my walking feet was lost. Haha. So, well. Before I remembered, I had decided to buy an industrial sewing machine.

The industrial sewing machine is kind of my ‘grail’ sewing machine. Been wanting it so much but I hadn’t bought it yet. Always think, I still could handle it with my janome. Always like that, until I experienced ‘regular’ experience like I said above. It was like, I can’t do this anymore. I need something more sophisticated.

So, here I bought a TYPICAL sewing machine. It’s new type. I forgot the type. Haha. The dynamo is not outside. The machine sound is very very soft. Softer than my janome! The speed can be arranged, the lowest is 1000 but i can lower it with how i push the pedal. The starting electricity watt requires 500W but then, on stand by mode on, it’s only 45W. 

I’m still torturing the machine as well as adjusting to it. The sewing itself is now better in terms of there’s no such small interruptions and efforts that accumulated into quite amount of wasted time and tiring energy. Yet, because it’s my first time using it, i still can’t sew as fast as I have expected. I even laughed at myself today because I was so lost in focus. While busy adjusting to my new sewing machine, I didn’t notice the sides of the fabric and so on. Goodness! Silly mistakes. Even so, it was compensated with how the sewing machine handled the thickness over time as well as how smooth the sewing machine do it’s job. 

I also use thicker sewing threads this time. Threads that I find it is not really fit into my lovely janome (it can be used so far i remember but somehow, there will be some little troubles like messy threads or ‘broken’/’damaged’ threads when I sew using it). I really like it. 

The ‘stitch’ is also strong even without doing forward-back-sewing function (what is it in official term? Haha). Yet, I use it anyway, combined with my regular technique to lock the stitch (I got the technique long time ago when having sewing course).

May be one thing that I would say as ‘light’ weakness is that I have to provide more spools for one project. Haha. No wonder, the sewing machine provides two sticks to place threads. As my seller said, one is for making spool, the other one is for sewing. I usually provide one spool for one color, unless in know the sewing will be a lot. Now, in the future, i must provide minimum 3 spools for 2 projects. May be minimum 2 for 1 project.

Well, i hope, this sewing machine will help me to sew a better quality projects. I still use janome for doll sewing. Haha. I think, it’s more comfortable to use for doll clothes sewing. For big projects like my own clothes or bags, for sure, I prefer Typical sewing machine. May be for some clothes, I prefer my old vintage sewing machine. It’s very slow and is very good to make gathers. Haha. 

Anyway, the brand name of sewing machine is TYPICAL. It’s not that typical like ‘typical’ meaning in dictionary. The series is Typical GC6-28D Direct Drive. 

My seller is the BEST! He provided me with imported sewing machine table. It’s very pretty. I thought, i was going to be given a regular table I’ve always seen. 

How Many Times Do You Practice Before Making Real Project?

 #WIP #stillpractising

 

I’m making a project which design belongs to my favourite illustrator. The drawing is so cute and lots of details yet, few things are not clear enough. I couldn’t see what kind of collar she was intended to be. It was easy to assume it was just flat collar but I was not sure either, besides, i also added another consideration into my thought

There were kind of collars that i had to choose and some were fail. For each collar pattern, i practiced 2-3 times to sew the ribbon, then do fitting to see how the collar look on torso; if the look looked awkward, i put it on doll body. I wasn’t satisfied at all after some trials and decided to use another pattern, the one i was quite ‘pessimistic’ of how it would look. Apparently, it looked the best among other pattern I use. Yet, i was still not satisfied, so I modified the pattern a little bit. Each time, as i mentioned before, I practiced minimum 2 times to sew the ribbon on the collar.

Sewing the ribbon with that curve is not easy. There is techniques to try and of course need a concentration more than before to do it. Quality of ribbon affects, too. So, yess, I also tried some ‘different’ ribbons.

I practiced more than 15 times, trying about 5 patterns. Before making real project, i will make a prototype first using cheaper fabric. Last time, i was so sure to make on expensive fabric, the result wasn’t as expected. In a glance, it looks good but i’m not sure to represent it as ‘sell-able’ clothes (though I won’t sell my real project either…haha).

 

So, again, how many times did you practice before making a real project?

Or may be before that, Do you practice? Or sell right away to get money (even if the result is well not good? Or may be you believe it’s extraordinary work as someone still buys it?). I know some people who have extraordinary sewing skill that still do practice before selling and even they don’t, they still do a great job. I also know some people who have a not too good sewing skill and sell their messy handmade to get some quick money (no need to get offended. It’s reality. My friends have experience with that kind of people. So, i’m not talking bullshit here)

I’m not a professional seamstress, yet. Only selling a few. Yet, my soul is professional. My best friends who sew, too, AND not selling their handmade also have that professional soul. Even for ourselves, we want to do it correctly, well, properly, and decently. 

Real Doll For Quality Control of Handmade Doll Items

Doll torso

I have  a bad experience when purchasing a hand-styled doll wig. The wig, when is put on my doll head, is unbalanced. The back-ties is more to the left. The crafter/stylist said it’s ok on her doll but i’m not sure if she has tested it on her doll head. She just showed me photos of the wig ,before being sent, on wig-stand (wood made, no face of doll, usually the wig elastic won’t be too tight when it is put there). Because of that, i asked her, did you test the wig you sent to me to your doll head. She didn’t respond to that, instead kept insisting that it was impossible that the wig was unbalanced without her  knowing. (Her wigs are usually ok but when it comes to ‘hand-style’ by her, it’s risky apparently. So, I will not buy her handmade-styled wig again. I will just buy her regular wig).

While chatting to my dear friend who shopped with me, I said few things. This is what I’m going to write here.

Do you see the pic before my write starts? Yes, A DOLL TORSO. Some people may use it to display clothes, to help when making doll clothes, etc. Yet, IS IT A VALID TOOL to represent a doll clothes? I will say, NO. Doll torso is a doll torso, we don’t know which exactly bjd size it is made. Is it eluts? is it volks? is it angellstudio? No, we don’t know. Even a clothes may look good when displayed on a doll torso, it doesn’t mean, it will look good when is put on doll body, and vice versa.

I, personally, use doll torso to help me sewing doll clothes (like to mark few things, to try arranging some decoration on clothes, and so on) and to give a rough look before I finish sewing and put it on real doll for real fitting. Yet, when it looks bad on doll torso, I don’t really take it seriously unless, it looks really really bad and not convincing, then I’ll take out my doll body even the sewing process is still half way. Using REAL doll to do quality control before my product is presented is a MUST. Even if it’s just for my own doll, not for sale, FITTING ON A REAL DOLL IS A MUST.

I asked the wig stylist whether she tried the wig she sent to me on a doll head because i know what is a wig stand. It has no face. So we don’t know where the nose is. We know, the nose is ‘dividing’ our face into two. It’s in the middle (normally). Wig stand has no eyes. The eyes of the doll, they are the ‘border’ of left and right face area that shouldn’t be covered by hair, unless it is the style; Even if it is, then the eyes position is important, too. Wig stand ball is not the same as doll head. The position of the top centre is different from real doll. The top centre of the doll head which will also be used as another control when putting a wig on it. Wig stand ball size as well as (again) shape are not as same as doll head. Even one doll head at one line of size can be differ in shape and size (8-9 inch, the doll head can be 8,8,5,9 inch). From what i see, it looks smaller (because it’s for display, it shouldn’t be ruin elasticity of the wig fabric). Using real doll is better as its size and shape are much more exact to ‘hold’ the wig fabric so it wouldn’t turn around when is being styled. Yet, even if someone still want to style wig on a wig stand, it is highly recommended to use real doll head for quality control because aside of shape and size, it has nose, eyes, and ‘exact’ top centre of the head. I think, when it comes to sell, someone has to make a sacrifice; use the available head to be used as quality control or buy a cheaper head but still at one line of size. We know there are few brands that sell less expensive than the other.

Our product may look the best or slightly best on different doll sometimes. That’s why, sometimes, we have to specific based on what doll size and BRAND (for exactly) we make this product. We can add warning that it may fit on other doll brand at same size line but can’t guarantee the same look and good fitting.

We can buy doll torso and wig stand, but we must have real doll if we want to sell doll items and use the doll for last quality control, even if it’s just head accessories or necklace. Believe me, it’s DIFFERENT.

Practising Before Making

I’m having a Doll clothes project that will need some particular details that looks ‘easy’ to be done but actually not easy. Just because something looks simple, it means it’s easy to be done. It’s not.

Before I start my project, I had been practicing to make small pleat.

  1. I used varied ways, start from using particular sewing feet up to regular sewing feet. I ended up  making it in ‘manual’ way, using regular feet, mark the fabric using ruler, and pleat-sew it using sewing machine.
  2. I found that some fabrics are not good for creating small pleats like this. Small and ‘close’ pleat for exactly.
    1. Using thin and paper-feel linen fabric is the best but we can’t always use this fabric for our any project, like my current project.
    2. I found a very good fabric with colour I needed but the price is a big NO. I think, the store was a bit thrifty. The fabric was like ‘abandoned’ but they didn’t want to give more discount. Good quality one yes, but I am not sure either it’s kind of colour that will sold out quickly. The length is also too short for man clothes but the colour is rarely used for woman clothes. It’s also slightly dust-dirty as well (and i don’t know whether it can be washed or not). So, yes, NO buy.
    3. I used another fabric, brand TOYOBO. It’s cotton. the thickness is good for my project, it’s slightly thicker than i need but it’s ok. The texture is good. The price is good, too.
    4. There are several fabrics that actually i can use, too but again, sometimes, we can’t compromise with the design and the whole look we want to see.
    5. The problem that should be underlined is that when making pleats like this, we can feel, the fabric ‘becomes’  slightly stretchable. That’s why, I said before, the linen on no.1 is very good, because I didn’t feel the stretch too much. Yet, again, back to number 4.
  3. It’s difficult to make a consistent pleat width
    1. I used ruler to help at first but then I did another way.
    2. I fold the fabric and try to fold as same width as previous pleat and then sew it. The previous pleat position is not ‘opened’; if it faces to the left, then let it be. It is to make me keep focusing on the width pleat i’m sewing. I found it’s more difficult to do it when I change the previous pleat direction or open the previous pleat while sewing the current pleat. I’m always distracted and can’t sew it consistently.
  4. I used small stitch size and try to sew about 1mm or may be slightly less than that from the edge/folding. I didn’t sew current-pleats ‘under’ previous-pleat. I don’t know, I feel like the feel of the fabric becomes ‘thicker’ and not like i want. Feel like I’m making ‘accordion’. I really don’t know how to explain it in detail but the point is I just feel it doesn’t become what I want it to be if I didn’t sew it like that (^_^)”. If you think, you prefer to sew the current-pleats ‘under’ previous-pleats a.k.a the stitch is under the previous-pleats, then do it. No-restriction in this case (^_<). You can of course have your own R&D, too!
  5. If you see the pictures above, I haven’t reached what i can call consistency. Even so, it’s the best so far I can get and quite good progress compared to many failures (^_^)”. I still want to do 1-2 practice on ‘real’ project before real-real project is made. Haha. You know what? in real-real project, i only need 2-maximum 4 close pleats actually. Yet, i practice more than 4 pleats in ‘every practice-batch’ because I want to get used to the technique I think it’s the best for me.

I can sewing like this in easy way and fast but the result will not as good as i want it to be. Besides, actually, sewing will be easy and fast if I practice hard and harder. First important is to practice while analysing the BEST way to do it and then keep practicing the best way I find. The more I’m getting used to, the faster i can sew well

It would be different if I sew like a mess and keep sewing like a mess and get used to it. The habit and skill that i will get is skill to sew like a mess.

So, let’s not be lazy and keep practicing a GOOD sewing.