Proper Summer Sewing (aka Revenge of The Hammock)

Hi again!

As promised, I have two recent projects to share today: a Style Arc Blaire shirt and a dress made from McCall’s 6886! I’ve made both patterns before so there isn’t much new to say, but I’ll share them anyway. Plus we got some pretty ridiculous photos of the McCall’s dress, so stay tuned for those!

First up is my new Blaire:

Yep, it’s a shirt

Closer view of the front

Side, with flaps!

Back

I really must have a chat with my photographer about his favorite editing preset, as it does nothing for my scary-visible circulatory system! 😀 😀

As I said, there isn’t much new to say about this shirt that I didn’t say the first time around. I followed the same order of construction and everything! This fabric is cool though: it’s a cupro/linen/tencel blend from Blackbird. (I’d link directly to it, but her stock is always changing and I know eventually this will sell out forever and break my link! As of this post going live, she still has this fabric in multiple colors.) Originally I wanted a white Blaire but settled for ecru because there was no white, but this fabric seemed neat. It’s not really visible in photos, but the fabric has a sheen to one side; I used that one as my right side, because of course I did. 😉 It feels much heavier than I expected, but is still light and has a very fluid drape. No regrets whatsoever! This stuff feels great against the skin. I have just enough left over to use as a bodice lining for an upcoming dress, so yay! The buttons are shell ones from Wawak; it was tough choosing between the 2 different off-white shell buttons I have and my coconut ones. (I’m only kind of kidding…I spent way too many minutes agonizing about it. #getalife)

“Mom, this is boring. I’m bored.”

Couldn’t leave you all without a cutie cameo, could I? 😉

Now for something much cooler than a flappy off-white shirt: this dress!

Stripes!

Side slits!

Tight fit!

Ridiculous pose!

All those captions are basically “‘Mads’ Bingo!” aren’t they? 😉

This dress came to life because of the ponte knit fabric. Several months back, I was the lucky winner of an Instagram giveaway by Gorgeous Fabrics–I KNOW!!!!!!! I was very excited because the prize was 3 yards of an amazing bright red lace. However, I felt kind of guilty just taking free fabric, you know? Especially a nice fabric like double-scalloped lace! (And no, it wasn’t for a partnership or sponsored post–Ann was doing a few giveaways to clear stock and I happened to win one of them.) So I headed over to the site and poked around, as one does. >=D Ann has great taste and I’ve bought amazing things from her since I first learned to sew, so I knew I’d find something. My eye was immediately drawn to this fabric, as it’s the perfect stripe width AND bright shade of cobalt blue. I had to have it! (I also got an animal print ITY with a cool border fade effect. That will be fun to use!) Immediately I thought of a dress like this one: midi length, short sleeves, snug fit, side splits, worn with white sneakers. I couldn’t really be much happier with the result! (And I definitely bought these sneakers just because of this dress. And yes, they’re Sperrys–don’t @ me.)

Pure class.

I’ve made M6886 a few other times, and it’s a great dress pattern. However, I learned early on that I really benefit from putting a CB seam in it: it’s a must to get the snug fit through the waist that I prefer. I didn’t 100% nail the stripe matching up the CB because I didn’t baste the seam first, but it’s sooo close. I did baste the side seams and the actual neckband–I wanted the stripes to be perfect and that’s a tricky prospect on a neckband.

Neckband action

Sweet-ass side splits

I need to adjust the shoulder slope on this pattern–it’s really obvious to me now, lol.

This dress is also the first project that I’ve sewn on ALL THREE of my machines!!! (Oh yeah, by the way: I got a coverstitch last summer from a friend who had upgraded to a Babylock combo, and am now the proud owner of the legendary Janome Coverpro 1000CPX.) The CB seam was done on my sewing machine with a narrow zigzag, and the split openings were topstitched on it as well; I serged every other seam and the raw hem edges; finally, I sewed the bottom and sleeve hems and around the neckband with my coverstitch. Boom!!

Okay, with the technical stuff out of the way, I have some hilarious (to me, anyway…) photos of this dress for you. The day we took photos, Tom had used his hammock to lounge out in the yard. I thought it would be cute with the nautical look of my dress if I got some hammock shots, but it turns out I am rubbish at hammocks! See for yourself:

 

 

So far, so good, right? Nope. Behold the immediate aftermath of the above photos:

 

 

This thing kept spitting me out like I was a piece of gristle in a steak, y’all.

For real, I look like I’m trying to elaborately hide behind the hammock.

Finally, after resorting to using my chin for leverage…

 

 

…I managed to stay on the hammock. Sort of. Less “lounging” than “clinging desperately and in a state of exhausted exasperation”…

I mean, come on.

A perfectly accurate face for my emotions.

In between Tom’s cackles at my ineptitude, he captured these photos (and more, if I’m being honest). You’re welcome.

Summer is what’s on my mind where sewing is concerned: I have plans for at least one sundress, and maybe some linen pants. (I know, soooo original…) I also need to replace one of my Reeta dresses 😦 😦 so that’s on the agenda also. What are you sewing now?

 

 

Adventures in Pattern Testing feat. Work Horse Patterns Ione

Hello out there! It has been a while, hasn’t it? I’ll be very honest and say that it’s been a rough few months mentally; I had a good run with managing my depression, but it’s really been a struggle recently. I’m okay(ish), just utterly out of energy and motivation for…everything. I’ve barely done any sewing since December! But I’m hoping I’ll come out the other side soon and be back to sewing and posting regularly.

In the meantime, here’s a post I had written wayyyyyy back about a pattern I tested.

(WARNING: post contains a .gif)

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Today I have a tester version of a pattern to share with you all, and from a new pattern company at that!

After my first testing experience was so positive, I applied for a few more calls in the months that followed. I was delighted when Becky added me to her tester pool for her first pattern, the Ione Shirt. Full disclosure: I cannot for the life of me remember if Becky posted a brief description of the pattern in the call for testers. All I know is I was up for it and sent in my stats, and was accepted!

Ione!

Better view of the high-low hem

Back

So what did I think of the pattern? Well…

1. It invites pattern play. I am a sucker for designs that make it intuitive to play with directional designs like stripes and plaids, so the cuffs and yoke had me like ❤ ❤ .
2. However, it does require a patterned or other interesting fabric for best results IMO. I will be honest: I was afraid to make this in a plain fabric because I was worried it would look like I was wearing a sexy scrub top.
3. The shape of the hem is very well executed. High-low hems aren’t anything we haven’t seen (and honestly, unless they’re vented, they aren’t normally something I go for), but I really like the shape of this one with the cropped length. The curve of the front is very pretty and I love how it looks with my high-waisted trousers! It looks well-designed and intentional.
4. Clean neckline finish. THERE IS NO BIAS TAPE FINISH ON THE NECKLINE THANK YOU JAYSUS. This is a pet-hate of mine, because unless finished invisibly (aka by hand), I think it tends to look cheap and/or homemade-in-a-bad-way. (And I say that as someone who once-upon-a-time used that finish. Time makes fools of us all!) Plus you also tend to see that telltale upward bend at the bias tape from there being layers of fabric folded together and possibly distorted or stretched during application.
5. Clean, professional treatment of the yokes. Relatedly, the finishing of the yokes and neck opening is awesomely clean and professional-looking.
6. I am unsure of the proportions of the yoke on my body. I am not 100% keen on where the yoke stops on me, personally; it ends just about at the top edge of my bra cups and I vacillate between being fine with it and finding it unbecoming.
7. The size range!! The Ione pattern comes in sizes 0-32, which the size chart equates to a bust ranging from 32″ to 57.5″.
8. Approachable project that’s highly wearable. It is a very approachable sew, especially for people who are beyond the Beginner level. Once you get past the neck opening, it’s so quick. And the resulting top has been a great fit for my wardrobe from Spring to Fall, so it proved to be a good use of a small amount of precious sewing time.

My favorite way to wear this top so far!

Ah yes, another #jumpfail

Honestly, the only bad part about this project was my fabric, which was not only guilty of perpetual show-through of the black stripes but was also rather uncooperative with my machine! The stitches were really tight and were causing puckers in the fabric. Since I made this amidst the chaos of house stuff last year, I didn’t have all of my supplies back in my sewing area yet–sewing machine needles included. So rather than attempt a needle change to solve the tension issues, I lowered the needle tension on my machine from “Auto” to 2. This is quite low, but it did the trick. I would like to see what happens with “Auto” tension and a smaller needle though!

Related to this, I should note that I used a different fabric for my yoke linings–a cotton batiste. I used the same material to make bias tape for hemming also. As it was, I had to trim all the black yarn out of my seam allowances wherever I could–it showed through horribly and ruined the look of the top. Using it for the inner yokes would have been a disaster! And while my hatred of bias tape is now a known thing, the hem finish ended up being a two-fold problem for me. For one thing, despite knowing my body is long up top even on Named patterns, I didn’t add any length to this top at the given lines. (WHP are based on a 5’8″ draft height, FYI.) This was dumb and I knew it was dumb, but did it anyway. #lazy So when it came time to hem, I needed to take less than the given 1 1/2″. On top of that, I could not abide the shadow of the black stripes all around the hem. My solution was to make bias strips out of the plain white batiste and take about 1/2″ for the hem in total.

Patchwork innards

Bias hem

For those of you who have been around here for a while, you may recognize this fabric from this 2013 project. (I KNOW, WHAT?!? IT WAS LIKE MY SECOND FINISHED PROJECT EVERRRRRR.) Total throwback. 😉 And yes, this means that Past Mads held on to nearly 2 yards of this material for 5 years “just in case” and actually did end up using it. I have enough left for an Ogden cami after this top, so that’s probably going to happen. (The first blouse I made with this fabric has since been donated because I didn’t wear it anymore.)

I did make a couple of regrettable-in-hindsight mistakes with this top, namely centering the outer yoke CF and CB folds on a stripe instead of the actual center of the fabric’s repeat. But the yoke stripes match across the shoulder seams, so it’s not a total loss. I also wish I had considered the placement of the stripes on the cuff pieces better; they’re identical to each other, but don’t match with the horizontal stripes of the lower bodice pieces AT ALL because I didn’t think to check that. Derp.

Poor choice of pattern placement by yours truly…

At least my shoulder matching is on point!

If you are intrigued by this pattern, you should know that Becky made a few adjustments after receiving tester feedback: she has added 2 additional neckline shapes as well as a few other tweaks. She’s also hard at work on some hacks for the Ione, so keep an eye out for those too!

And I couldn’t leave you all .gif-less now could I?

Bouncing Ione

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So that’s my Ione! I hope I’ll be back again soon to share new projects, plans, etc. because I miss blogging so much! But you know, it’s hard to blog about sewing when you haven’t really been sewing, eh? 😉

 

“Dress”ing for Winter

Hello, everyone!

One of my wardrobe goals of late has been to add some suitable-for-cold-weather dresses to my rotation. I had a few old RTW ones, but they’ve either gotten worn out, stained, or are wayyyy too body-con for the office! 😉 Without better options, I tend to revert to jeans; that’s fine of course, but sometimes you want to feel a bit more stylish to counteract the bleak weather. This month, I have managed to make 2 such dresses–hooray!!

This first garment has been a long time in the planning, but I only just got around to sewing it. Without further ado, here is my version of Butterick 6388 (Beware: yet ANOTHER striped garment ahead–my 4th this year!)

My face does not reflect how I feel about this dress!

Hand swish!

“Oh, this old thing?” 😉

Back view, very nearly perfectly matched. =/

Collar close-up (again, so close to perfectly lined up!)

Back yoke close-up

Side view (now with 100% more derp)

We took these photos at the same time as those in my last post, so apologies again for the scenery (or lack thereof). And pay no mind to my hair looking layered or feathered–it’s a trick of the flash behind me, and my hair is the same as always. (That is, totally t*ts awesome.) But anyway, back to business!

I have to admit that I don’t usually connect with Butterick designs. However, I loved this pattern the minute it came out: the collar, the angled front pieces, the back yoke, and pockets all make it a cool take on the “athleisure” trend. (Hell, I like the entire wardrobe included in the envelope–who am I?!?!?!?) At first, I had my heart set on a white version–it wouldn’t get much more winter-y than that, eh?–but decided to use this striped french terry instead at the last minute. Why? Well, I do love me some stripes, and this pattern has plenty of opportunities to play with direction(s)! But I was also nervous about such a high, close-fitting collar in solid white fabric: my hair is not safe for white collars in the first week or so after coloring! But having made this pattern now, I think it might be okay–the collar doesn’t come up as close to my hairline as I expected, in part because my neck has #giraffegoals. 😉

Basically me. (You’re welcome.) #giraffegoals

See? I fit right in. 😉

(Sorry-not-sorry, guys. I had to do it.)

I had some fun with my photos AND the stripes on this dress, for sure. My french terry only stretches in one direction, but I figured it was forgiving enough to use the vertical layout on the front triangle pieces and the back yoke, which it was. I did sew the side seams at a 3/8″ allowance below the waist just to be safe though; they are sewn at the given 5/8″ everywhere else. This pattern is pretty simple to make, with the trickiest parts being the back yoke and the pockets (of which more in a moment). The yoke is easy to install if you’ve ever put a knit sleeve in flat, though!

About the pockets: I don’t have them in this dress, which is a big disappointment. I put them in, thinking I was soooooo smart for using the aforementioned white knit for one half of each pocket to prevent stripe show-through. Unfortunately, I got the pieces flipped around, resulting in a big white section right at the pocket opening, grr! I tried unpicking them but between the loops of the terry and my matching thread, that wasn’t happening. (I had sewn them using my sewing machine and a narrow zig-zag.) I cut them out and reinserted them the other way around, then finished up the sleeves, collar, and side seams so I could try the dress on. Aaaaand the pockets were hideous!!! (Well, not aesthetically: I stripe-matched the shit out of them!) They were super gape-y and sloppy-looking. 😦 So in the end, I cut them out AGAIN and sewed the openings shut. Perhaps they would sit better without all the extra ripping and trimming I had to do, but I don’t know. So at any rate, no pockets for Mads this time.

I honestly can’t remember if I lengthened this dress or not–whoops!! I blame the pocket fiasco and the fact that I made this dress a few weeks ago. 😉 If I did, it wasn’t by much. (I am about 5’8″, but have short limbs for my height–giraffe hopes dashed, LOL.) I took 5/8″ for the hem, and the same for the sleeves.

There was enough of this vaguely-prison-striped fabric left to cut out a pair of Hudson pants, which is exciting. I did have to piece the waistband (and take some liberties with stripe matching on the pockets), but that’s a small price to pay for a nice pair of sweatpants in my book. 😀

So that’s one very “jailbird chic” dress down, but I have one more for you: the Sew Over It Heather dress!

Winter white Heather dress! (My legs are down there, I swear!!)

Oooh, moody!

Less moody, more bitchy. xD

Pockets!!

Back view (and yes, I will be steaming this after seeing these photos!)

I am wearing black tights in these photos but the black backdrop was necessary to show the dress, so you can’t see my legs!! Trust me: they’re there. 😉

I mentioned my interest in this pattern in my last post and didn’t wait long to buy it. (I wrote both of these posts together, starting them a couple of weeks ago.) I actually joined the SOI PDF Club; you get a free PDF pattern for joining (and if you join before Feb 9, you can pick ANY PDF pattern, not just a PDF-Only one), and the cost of joining was less than the cost of the Heather pattern, even after the discount they’ll give you for signing up initially. (And if you were wondering, I did use that code…to get a discount on the PDF Club membership, because SOI is awesome and allows that. 😀 ) I shopped smart, y’all. 😉 I have to say, I am really impressed with SOI thus far. I don’t know how many of the PDF Club designs will appeal to me, but I’ve been very happy with the two patterns I’ve made and with my shopping experience.

Anyway, you probably want to hear about my Heather dress now! This design is so perfect for F/W here in Ohio. For this version–there will be others!–I used the off-white french terry I had considered for B6388. It’s a little lighter weight than the stripes but still plenty thick for a dress. The construction was very straightforward, but of course the pockets are the trickiest part. I did those steps on my sewing machine just to be safe, and serged the seam allowances after. Apart from needing a good pressing/steaming and the dreaded white-on-white show-through, I think they turned out pretty well! Part of me wishes I had thought to topstitch the princess seams though–next time, maybe. The shoulders are just a bit broad for me, but I expect it’s down to the size I made (and grading principles). It bears mentioning that I made the UK 8, the smallest size; in reality, I need a smaller size in most areas but wasn’t concerned about the fit being a little more relaxed. However, I am pleased to report that the sleeve caps did not have excessive ease in them, which influenced my gushing above.

As for alterations, I added 2″ of length to the pattern at the hemline but that was not necessary! I ended up taking it all back off following a try-on before I hemmed the dress, and then I took a 1″ hem. I should have just measured the dress itself but was influenced by the sample photo on Lisa, which is quite brief! I’m not sure if they altered the pattern to achieve that length or if she herself is just particularly tall. Oh well, no harm done–better too long than too short, right? I did lengthen the 3/4 length sleeves by about 1″, and took 5/8″ for the hem there. I also sewed the side seams from the pockets to the hem at 3/8″ instead of 5/8″ just to be safe, but needn’t have done that in the end. Next time, I will just use the 5/8″ all the way down; I will also probably shorten the next one and bring the shoulders in slightly.

Once again, I’ve got leftovers from this project. It’s a lot of leftovers, too: my material is 1.75 yards wide, PLUS I bought 3 yards of it. I can’t decide what to make with it, but I’m really hoping I’ve got enough left for 2 tops! I know for sure that I want one with a collar; I’m thinking Talvikki or the top version of B6388. What do you think I should make??? Sound off in the comments!

And you people KNOW there are other non-giraffe outtakes, right? Right:

Testing the stretch factor!

Nifty blue post-filter

Half-hearted “Vogue”ing

Jailbird photos for jailbird stripes! (Obviously the best one!!)

There you are: 2 winter-friendly dresses! I admit that neither of them are particularly figure-flattering (hellooooooooo, swayback + hip/waist ratio!) but they are warm and stylish and comfy. I think that keeping them shorter helps–it helps me *feel* less dumpy, anyway. 😉 I haven’t worn my Heather dress yet apart from photos but I’ll wear it how I’ve styled it here, with tights and boots.

Hopefully I will be back here soon with more nifty things! I’ve got plans, though we’ll see what I end up showing you next time–it could be sweatpants or shirts or jeans, or just blatherings about other plans. Let’s hope for the former, shall we? Thanks for reading!

Do you have a “cold weather uniform”? Would you ever Photoshop yourself for the sake of a joke? 😉 How many yards of a fabric do you buy when you haven’t got immediate plans for it? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Year, New Tops!

Hi there! I want to start by saying “Thanks!” to all of you who read and commented on my 2017 Top 5 posts: I enjoy sharing a year-end recap, but it’s so heartening that people read them and take the time to leave a comment. And while I’m at it, a massive “THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!” to anyone who read or commented on this blog over the course of the past year! My sewing friends–online, on social media, and in real life–add so much joy and inspiration to my life, and I hope I am able to do even a fraction of the same in return. ❤

And now, on with the show!

It seems that, for the second year running, I will be starting a new year of project posts with multiple knit tops! But unlike last year, all three tops in today’s post have something in common: stripes!! First up: the Molly top by Sew Over It!

“Are you taking the photo now?”

Back!

Side, with poor stripe matching on full display.

Tilt

Sass

Sorry about these relatively boring (but still very high-quality, IMO) photos, guys–I vastly prefer outdoor shots, but the weather was far too cold and snowy for me to risk it this time. Tom was also messing with his lighting and flash options, which resulted in some unusually crisp shadows. (We don’t Photoshop around here unless we’re doing something really obvious–this ain’t a magazine shoot.)

This top is actually my final garment for 2017–I cut it (and the other 2 below) out on 12/30, and somehow sewed it up completely before noon on 12/31!! Not at all what I planned or expected, but that’s what happens when you’re up at 5:30AM*, even on days off: you get shit done! 😉

*And you also have a serger

As basic as it is, this pattern was one that I was excited about, for a few reasons. First, because I’d never used a SOI pattern before–I was eager to see what they were like, how they fit, and how I felt about the resulting garment. Second, because I bought this fabric and wanted a different pattern to showcase the stripes. (Is it just me, or are stripes of this scale oddly difficult to match to a pattern choice?) I love my Lark tees–and totally intend to make one with what’s left of this material–but I wanted something that looked a bit more unique in stripes. Finally, I figured if I liked the top version of Molly, I would be able to crack on with a dress version eventually!

So first impressions: the pattern printed a little oddly for me, but not in any way that negatively impacted the scaling or fit. I think it’s more to do with UK vs. US paper formats, because even scaled at 100%, I ended up with a weird section of overlap on the edges of each page. But it was simple enough to just cut that section off, once I realized that it wasn’t supposed to be there! My other first impression was that the pieces looked really wide compared to the not-at-all-oversized finished versions I’d seen people make. But I quickly realized that I didn’t know what the seam allowance was, and sure enough, a trip to Google revealed that it’s 5/8″. Mystery solved! And while we’re discussing first impressions, I should note that I got this pattern for free; I can’t remember where I got it, but it was from a link multiple months ago that I saw online someplace–again, I can’t remember as it’s been a while! Rest assured that 1.) this is not an affiliation thing and 2.) I came by the freebie legitimately, as far as I know. 

I had a heck of a time with this material! (It’s a rayon/lycra jersey, which I’ve used before with not nearly this much fuss!) No matter what I did, the yardage was distorting each time I tried to place and weight my pattern pieces. On top of that, fusing interfacing to my hems was awful! I actually had to stand there, pressing my iron down firmly and holding it there for 20-30 seconds or the fusible would not melt into the fabric. I have used the same knit interfacing many times before (from the same cut) and have never had this happen; as such, I am prepared to blame my fabric for this difficulty rather than my interfacing.

Since I struggled to get the fabric to lay still and stay on-grain easily, I didn’t do a great job matching stripes in the end. My sleeves look pretty good though, and I LOVE how the neckband came out! 😀 I’m not too bothered by the poor matching at the shoulders and side seams, though perhaps I’d have done better if I took a break from the project instead of forging ahead with the cutting. #YOLO

The only alteration I made to this pattern was to add a little bit of extra hem allowance. I think it’s meant to be longer, but I am glad I left it as-is: tunic-esque tops feel awkward on me. My only real complaint about the pattern itself, apart from those seam allowances (have you ever tried to serge rayon/lycra jersey with 5/8″ allowances?!?!?!? It’s soooo annoying!), is the length of the lower sleeves–they come up a bit short on me, and I’m not in possession of particularly long limbs. But going by the sample garment photos at SOI’s website, it actually looks like this is the length they intend for them to be, but having a free pattern-only (no instructions or line art) version, I can’t be sure. But that aside, I love my Molly top! I might make the dress version, although I’m not sure how much I’d love it in a solid fabric–it would be pretty plain. I would really like to buy the Heather dress pattern next, as I love the front panel with integrated pockets; I also think that pattern shines in solids, whereas Molly probably looks better in stripes since the dolman sleeves are the only real design lines. That’s my $0.02, anyway!

Next up is a pattern I have made once before, but not for a few years: the Tamara top from Style Arc!

Always Be Primping

Front view

Back view

Side!

This one is quite a bit more tasteful than my first version, LOL! I had enough of my striped bamboo jersey left to do something with it, but not quite an entire garment. (THE WORST!!) Luckily I remembered this pattern! I have a few yards of a (slightly darker) plain navy bamboo jersey, so I decided to use that for the angled pieces. Speaking of which, the passage of time really made me forget how annoying those shoulder insets were to sew, haha! They definitely aren’t identical but I’m hoping non-sewers won’t even notice.

Style Arc assumes you’ll use the same material for the front bodice piece and the neckband, but I wanted plain navy for the neckband instead. (There were plenty of stripes already!) And I forgot about the sleeve construction, so my genius intentions to put the sleeves in flat didn’t work out–they had to go in round. Luckily SA understands that you don’t need 2″ of ease in a close-fitting knit sleeve cap–more like 0″–so they went in with no trouble at all, just like last time.

Finally, I made a Hemlock tee!

Seems legit (Also, damn my bangs are getting long!!)

So much fabric!

Side (stripes match decently this time!!)

Yikes.

“Chop chop buddy, I don’t have all night!!”

Always Be Primping, Round 2

This is a freebie pattern from Grainline; I’ve had it for a while but hadn’t made it yet! I used the same fabric for this tee that I used for a different Grainline pattern, the Lark, late last year. I added maybe 1/2″ of length to the body pieces here, but that’s it. The pattern has 1/4″ seam allowances, so it’s perfect for zipping through a serger. It’s a really comfortable and relaxed tee; I actually think it would make a nice pajama top. 😉 Otherwise, there isn’t much to say!

Here are some outtakes for all y’all, as is customary:

Angry stretchy shirt

Abb’s Abs

Dancing?

Senior Portrait Pose

Giggles

There you have it: 3 new tops, all in stripes! (Have I mentioned that I love stripes? Because I do.) I have 2 other projects to share with you also, and that post is coming very shortly. (And one of them is also striped…) I’ve been busy and have plenty of plans for more Winter sewing as well; I’m thinking of putting together a planning post to share my ideas with you all, but who knows if I will do that or not. (Perhaps my focus should be on just sewing stuff, rather than navel-gazing about sewing stuff. 😉 )

Have you gotten off to a running start with your sewing projects in 2018? How do you feel about stripes? Do you find that sharing your ideas or plans helps you solidify them? 

 

These Are Clothes

Shout-out to Project Runway Season 9 Michael Kors, who used, “This doesn’t look like fashion, it just looks like…clothes!” as an insult, which inspired this title. 😉

Because I have a few repeat-pattern things to share today, I figured it was easiest to just throw them all into one post. And I’m just in time for the Sewcialists “TNT Month” theme, yay!

Ready? Here we go:

I felt like I should have been on a boat in this outfit!

…is this how people sit on boats?

Frontal region

#derpface

#nowwith100percentmorederp

A basic bitch in basic black…

Yep, it’s a t-shirt!

These are my newest t-shirts! I made them with the Lark pattern, which is definitely my TNT for t-shirts. I love all the options, though I tend to stick to just a few of them (v-necks aren’t my favorite, either to sew or wear). I also love that, for a Grainline pattern, it’s quite long–I don’t have to lengthen it! The two striped ones are the drafted length (with about 5/8″ taken for a hem, I think? I don’t even know the pattern’s hem allowance…), but the black one was shortened about 2″ to make it more summery. One of these days, I will try making a more fitted version; I still feel frumpy in this weird middle ground between fitted and oversized!

The navy/white Lark is bamboo/lycra jersey (Telio!), and the obnoxious yellow/navy one is a rayon/lycra jersey. The basic black tee is a tencel t-shirt knit that I previously used for an Inari a few months ago. I have to say that I’m not so pleased with how this last material is wearing: it pills very early into its life cycle. (And that’s from someone who will absolutely wear non-underwear things more than once before washing them whenever possible. ) But that said, having a plain black un-cropped tee in my wardrobe again has been a lifesaver! Now I just need to make more, in a hardier material!

Meanwhile, I am putting together a list of “cool” knit top and dress patterns, because I feel like I’m wasting my bamboo/lycra jersey if I only ever make basic t-shirts with it! It drapes and stretches wonderfully, so I’m hoping to take full advantage of that with some twists and stuff. Ditto for the stash of wool/lycra jerseys I’ve built up. Watch this space! In the meantime, do you have any “cool” jersey top or dress pattern recommendations for me? I’d love to hear them!

And speaking of knit tops, here are 2 more:

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Loud-ass outfit

How I feel about my tummy showing most of the time…

It’s cooooooooooold

Sulky Mads

Back view, with an “oops”

These are Lexi A-line tops by Named (of course). Both are made from scuba knits, which I LOVE for cold-weather garments. I am always cold, and this shit doesn’t breathe: it’s like wearing insulation! 😉 You may have seen the lapis blue one with my TPC6 trousers, which is usually how I wear it. Even with my 1″ of length added at the bust, it’s just not long enough to wear to work with pants or bottoms that don’t come up to my waist. That’s why I made the blush version, which is 2″ longer (3″ longer than the draft of the pattern, because of my 1″ adjustment). Which brings me to…

I’ve shown all the good front views for the tops, so here are some of the back!

Close-up of the pockets

Hems!

Walking away

…more jeans!

That’s right, I made the ugly-ass pants in some of these photos, LOL! I kinda shot myself in the foot with these: I don’t think I’ll wear them much until Spring. To me, they don’t read as winter-appropriate and they’re kind of thin, but S/S18 will see them worn alllllllllllll over the place. I used my TNT self-made pattern, though this time I made a few tweaks:

1. Enlarged those front pocket openings! They are now closer to the CF and cut down deeper as well. Much more proportional with the rise of the pants now! I made this change to the pattern itself.
2. Shrunk the width of most of the pattern pieces above the full hip. This denim is really stretchy, and I knew if my last pair were too baggy at the waist, these would be a disaster! I actually made these changes to my pattern pieces, since they were needed after I cut the last pair anyway. I will have to watch out with future pairs, since stretch % is different for every denim!
3. Despite 2., I still had to go back and take an additional inch out of the waist before attaching the waistband. And they’re still a little bigger than I’d like in a couple of areas. But better too big than too small, eh?
4. Omitted rivets and down-the-side bartacks and topstitching. I may go back and add these later, but felt the jeans were busy and tight enough to not need the embellishment. 😉
5. Stupidly put the belt loops all the way on before finishing the waistband and facing. What I should have done is put the waistband on, baste my belt loops to it at the facing seam, and THEN sew on the facing, followed by topstitching the waistband and then bartacking the bottom ends of the loops to the jeans. I’m not happy with how the bottom of the loops look now and may go back and unpick them. 😦

Believe it or not, I bought this denim from Joann! I KNOW. I hardly ever find things there that I feel like I can’t leave the store without, in terms of fabric. (I am a spoiled USian, and prefer to shop online because #choices.) But my friend had this material and brought it to a sewing night, and I had to have it. The jeans zipper came from Zipper Stop, which I had shortened to 4″ for a fee. ($1 per zip, not bad.) The button came from either TaylorTailor or Wawak…I can’t remember!

I got a big assist from my Instagram friends when it came to picking a topstitching color for these jeans. I couldn’t decide what color would work best, but you guys came through! 😀 It’s perfect!

That will do it for me today–that’s a lot of crap clothes crammed into one post! But now I am basically all caught up: the black Lark tee and the Lexi tops were all made back in August, but weren’t blogged until now, and the jeans are from September. And I have one dress I made this summer that I didn’t blog because I don’t really like it and couldn’t get excited about writing a post for it, haha! It’s not that I want to pretend I don’t have FAILs, it’s just that I genuinely am not excited to write about that dress. Maybe for Fail February it will come out to play. 😉

As is customary around here, I have some outtakes for you! (Warning: .gif ahead)

Running for warmth!

Not a terrible photo, for once!

That’s more like it! 😉

Punching myself in the face, or fixing my Very Important hair?

When will I learn that jumping doesn’t suit me?!?!?

Calling this one the “TNT Happy Dance”

I don’t know what I’ll be back to share next, folks; it’s Totally Unnecessary Holiday Outfit season, which means I will be working (what’s left of) my ass off on something ridiculous for a one-night event. *eyeroll* But depending on how that goes, hopefully I’ll be back again soon with something fun!

In Which The Blogger Is Late To The Party

The Archer party, that is. 😀

Hi, everyone! Before I get to the Archer part of the business today, I want to do a quick shout-out to Pattern Review and Creative Publishing International: I won a giveaway at PR!!!!!!! I am the lucky winner of a copy of The Shirtmaking Workbook by the aspirational AND inspirational David Page Coffin–can you hear me “SQUEEEEEEE”ing from here? My very cool and professional reply to PR’s email informing me that I had won began with a solid row of exclamation points. #nochill So thank you, PR and CPI, for offering this giveaway. I will try to do you proud with this resource by my side!

I’M A WINNER!!!!!!

And appropriately enough, the news of my random victory came during the final stages of finishing up my Archer shirt!

I know that almost everyone else with the internet and a sewing machine has made this pattern, but I’m just now getting to it. I mostly bought it for making flannel shirts for myself, but decided to take a crack at using it for at least one summer shirt when the vintage pattern I was working on proved to be too much of an annoyance. (Seriously, fuck those camp collar/ridiculous facing combos.) I recently bought several stripey fabrics at Mood (who clearly knew that a stripes sale on a Friday the 13th would bring your pal Mads out of the woodwork) and immediately knew which one I wanted to sew first: a denim blue/natural striped cotton voile, which can be found here (for right now anyway).

And now for the big reveal–my favorite part!

“ALL THE STRIPES” Archer

Pocket + Buttons

Side views

Back view, plus nature

A perfect shirt for Puppy Playtime, obviously!

Insides!

Artful front view

“Oh, funny seeing you here!”

What do you guys think? I’m really happy with it. It will definitely get a lot of wear this summer!

I took a lot of time to work on stripe matching for this shirt, but it’s fair to say that we had some do-overs before the end, LOL! I had a very specific idea in mind for laying out the stripes (of course) and everything more or less turned out just as I had hoped! The sewn-on right front placket was tough to keep lined up and while it’s certainly not perfect, it’s damn close. Apologies for the styling otherwise: it rained a tiny bit on Saturday night (we did pictures on Sunday) so I wore my big-ass boots for our photo “shoot” to ensure that I could get to any part of the park we wanted. Those boots may not be much to look at, but they are among my favorite things; I got them at the Eddie Bauer outlet like, 5 years ago. $25 for $150ish Le Chameau boots = #winning. And the shorts? I have no good excuses there…making better ones is on my sewing “short” list (HAHAHA GET IT?!?) for sure. 😉

CONSTRUCTION NOTES

1. I used muslin for my bindings (armholes and hem) and the yoke facing and inner collar stand; voile fabric is light and the show-through from the blue stripes is no joke. (Although shockingly, the shirt isn’t see-through on me; I am not wearing a cami under it in any of these!) I bit the bullet and made my own bias binding from muslin.
2. This was my first time doing the “burrito method” for the yokes (haven’t dealt with a yoke and yoke facing before now) and it’s everything it’s cracked up to be!
3. I also used the often-referenced construction order from four square walls for my collar and stand, and I’m never doing it any other way if I can help it–my stand and button bands are perfectly aligned!
4. I put the pockets on the cross grain for maximum style points. The pockets are my 2nd favorite part of the shirt visually, topped only by my brag-worthy placement of the back pleat, which I can assure you was 100% intentional:

Attempting to use both pockets at once. #nailedit

Seriously. LOOK AT IT.

See that?!? Perfectly centered to feature a blue stripe IN THE CENTER of the pleat. BOOM! I’d like to thank my cutting mat, masking tape, clear grid ruler, and obsessive/compulsive tendencies for making this not-at-all-humble brag possible. 😀

Finally, I topstitched the side seams, collar, hem, and armholes; I did edgestitching on the collar stand, shoulders, and back yoke seam. My undercollar is on the bias, which looks AMAZING, but I did not get a great picture of that for you. Seriously you guys, I feel like I could wear this shirt inside-out if it weren’t for the buttons. (Fabric with no “wrong side” makes cutting out and matching things a bitch, but boy does it make the insides look spectacular!)

You probably noticed how few buttons this shirt has (6) vs. the pattern’s recommendations (9). I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t want my summer shirts to button all the way up to my larynx. Once I decided on which buttons to use, I opted to start from a decent-but-still-casual location at the pockets and space the buttonholes 2″ apart until I ran out of buttons or made it really close to the hem. The buttons I used are vintage; a friend gave them to me from her late MIL’s stash and I am so thrilled to have found the perfect use for them! I was thisclose to using Size 16 pearl snaps but felt they looked too puny against the 1/2″ stripes on an oversized shirt.

PATTERN NOTES

I followed Grainline’s own recommendations for sleeveless alterations, which worked perfectly. The only other alterations I made were:

1. Added 1″ of length at the lengthen/shorten lines
2. Took a slightly smaller hem than recommended (somewhere between 1/4″ and 1/2″)
3. Increased my side seam uptake below the underarms.

With respect to that last part, I ended up with about 1″ seam allowances at the waist and 5/8″ at the hip. That’s why the stripes get a little different as you look down the sides. I could have taken more at the underarm as well, but didn’t want to make the shirt uncomfortably snug or create drag lines once the buttons were added later. I don’t think it made much difference though, so I either need to be more aggressive or just surrender to the “wearing a rectangle” thing entirely next time.

For next time (and there will be one), I will omit the cut-on button band on the left front and do it as a sew-on. In a perfect world, I would have had the button band stripes going the same way as the pockets; I just didn’t want the extra annoyance after dealing with the failed vintage pattern (2 muslins and still not right–ugh). I plan to make lots of plaid flannel versions of the Archer, and will definitely want bias button bands for those! 🙂

That about wraps up the details on this one; it was a very simple project apart from the stripe matching! And now for outtakes!

“YOU’RE A MONKEY, DEREK!!!!!”

Classic Mads. The camera isn’t tilted, btw: that’s the angle of the slope and tree!!

Flailing

Having a Narcissus moment

Poppin’ the collar so you guys can see the bias effect…kinda.

Messing with the buttons

Mulder learned to levitate for this picture.

Puppy kisses!!!

What’s on your sewing table for the new season? Have you made an Archer? Would a sale on striped fabrics be enough to get you to hit “Add to Cart?” 

SUPPLIES

1.5 yards Cotton Voile, from Mood
~1/2 yard cotton muslin, from stash
6 x 5/8″vintage buttons, from a friend
80/12 Universal needle (should have gone down one size)
Thread