Engineered to Fit -- Every Day is Pi Day

About me? TL:DR*
My studio - I am blessed with good friends who call my work space a shop, studio or atelier.

My husband refinished the basement, so it maintains an even temperature year round in our super-insulated house, which was designed by a local builder who studied double-two-by-four construction at the Univ. of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, a credible institution where the only thing between it and the North Pole is a barbed-wire fence. That was back in 1985 before eco- friendly, sustainable and green came into the national lexicon.

So the ping-pong table became a cutting table bordered by three Berninas (Nova 900, 1130 and 350PE), a Babylock Imagine serger, and a Tabletopstudio.com pop-up photo tent. Our son's colorful foam puzzle mats were put under foot to avoid fatigue. The work flow moves counter clockwise around the table from cutting, pressing, sewing, and photography.

Seeing how well my trusty old 1980 Bernina Nova 900 tackled new vinyl seat covers for our son's 1990 Suzuki Samuri, my husband sprung for a refurbished CONSEW 277-R cylinder arm with a quiet, 1/2-hp variable-speed motor and combo needle-feed-walking-foot. Then he assembled wire shelving to stack tubs of fabric to make room for it. While I was planning to sew thick layers together that gave the Berninas pause--especially fedora hat bands--my husband goes shopping for marine vinyl so I'll sew him new boat cushions.

l usually work in themes, say, browns and creams, or floral silks in orange and pink, and assess their mutual color resonance. A collection emerges from these fabrics that have been singled out from garments whose fabric quality was overlooked and under appreciated.

Fabric whisperer
What will I become today...says the tweed suit before me. It's a tailored herringbone wool in teal and grey with a deep lapel and three corozo buttons on each cuff. A pillbox maybe or six-panel English cap? I search the tubs for harmonizing fabrics and lay them on the cutting table. I refer to some hat styles that will best reflect the garment's personality. A collection of basic hat patterns--bucket, pillbox, floppy--form the basis from which I'll cut a sub-master and then modify its lines to create a unique design or swap out pattern pieces for the right look.

Some of the more interesting hats made are based on a customer's description or picture: a Russian budenovka in light grey wool, Aunt Bethany's black velvet pillbox, a Disney greeter cap in blue velvet, and a Chairman Mao cap. After researching its background and views from all sides to determine construction and fabrics, patterns are drawn with the help of a French ruler, then muslin prototypes are made.

Every Day is Pi Day
Mass-produced hats begin with an initial machine set up and then are made by the thousands. In contrast, for me it's several test runs. The fabric from each garment holds its own secrets--how it wants to be cut, pinned, sewn, stretched or draped. Some need special pins or needles, maybe a walking foot or, say, for silk, special tear-away fabric beneath it so the feed dogs don't eat the silk. Sewing very different fabrics together so that their seams end in the same spot, causes quadratic equations to float before my eyes--which variable needs adjustment? There's something to be said about introducing math concepts using fabric.

I digress...Allowing for set up, one suit jacket will make up to three hats, maybe not all the same style, but generally the exterior wool and liners are distributed among different designs. The cuffs, lapels and welt pockets are prized for their design elements that add character. An iron and pressing ham are vital tools as pieces are steamed and coaxed into place. A final series of whacks on a wooden percussion block that my son made back in junior high school produces a neat flat seam (hearing protection required). Then the hat 'rests' between sessions once on a re-purposed bowl but now on a proper wooden head form.

The hats are sewn together with one of more of the sewing machines and finished by hand. When a hat is mostly formed, I'll sew in a silk tie or grosgrain hat band and select buttons that seem to beg for inclusion. Then it's photographed and carefully stored until someone orders it. Tissue paper supports the crown and then it's wrapped in tissue paper, tucked into a plastic sleeve tied with a bow and securely packed into a sturdy box for shipment.

Thank you for reading this far. Now, about those math concepts and the physics of fabric...

*About me? Kind of Canadian, grew up in Arizona, college in Florida, worked at Ford, NASA, and a Rt. 66 diner, in Maine as an electrical engineer. Raised a 4-H pig, steer, and a black Quarter Horse filly, scuba, fly, sew, knit, type, shorthand, garden, ski, goof off, INTJ, SWE, FIRST, ASQ, sew. All the normal stuff.

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