Tag: sewing

Sewing

My Favorite Makes

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I’m so far behind on documenting my recent sewing that I decided to just make highlight reel post to try to catch up. It’s appropriate, since it’s now Me Made May! Me Made May is where you make a goal to wear all handmade items. Generally it’s a way for people to rotate their closet, maybe put together some new outfits, and learn what works and what doesn’t for them. When I first started sewing more clothes, I was so excited to eventually to have a big enough wardrobe to participate and now I don’t know what angle to take with it because most of my wardrobe at this point, is me made! I have been trying to let myself give away me made items that don’t fit for one reason or another, so maybe that can be my goal this May.

Looking at these pictures, I’ve learned that my pose is one hand on hip, foot cocked- probably from my dance days. 🙂 I’ll have to experiment with other poses for this year. I’m struggling with how I look in some of them, but wanted to be brave and post them because while my body may not make me happy, the outfits do. Please excuse the mess in the background. I haven’t been able to organize the basement yet.

First up is my Christmas jammies. My pet jammie peeve is when they ride up my legs in the middle of the night and my ankles get cold, so I have started wearing more leggings in the winter. I saw this shark in plaid pjs fabric on Purple Seamstress and immediately ordered it because.. Sharks! In plaid jammies! They have buttons down the bottoms!!! Whimsical and ridiculous, just like me! The Husband has given up attempting to reign in any hope of a normal wife, by the way, although he claims I’ve gotten weirder over the years. (He’s not wrong. ;)) The grey is a thermal print that doesn’t have a lot of recovery, so I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It’s nice, cozy, and warm though, so it works perfectly for the sleeves. The patterns are both Patterns for Pirates- the Relaxed Raglan and the Peg Legs leggings.

This shirt is one that I thought I wrote about, but may have done that elsewhere, so excuse it if you’ve seen it already! I made this Sinclair Cachet, modified with a bottom band, for workouts, gardening, and sleeping. I wasn’t sure about the material when I bought it, but it was on a really good clearance sale, so I tried it out and liked it a lot! It’s drapey and cool. Perfect for yoga too. I realized this shirt pattern is the same pattern as my favorite RTW shirt.

This is a Relaxed Raglan from Patterns for Pirates and also a great example of fabric type making all the difference. I can wear it with jeans or with work pants and it looks fabulous either way! I did accidently sew the neckband on backwards, but it doesn’t bother me to have the little seam in the front. I made big thick bands on the bottom and for the cuffs and I really like it. It’s cozy and warm without being too hot and is made from hacci sweater fabric. The hearts are more grey in person.

This sweater. Where do I even start?! It’s made from the softest hacci fabric I have ever felt. I think it’s actually brushed hacci, so is cozy, comforting, and warm. I made a bigger collar but was pushing the limits of the fabric I had bought, so couldn’t make it as big as I wanted. I love it! It’s nice to wear to work because it’s longer and makes me look much more put together than some of my outfits. It’s the Grandpa Cardi with no pockets from Patterns for Pirates as well.

I was wearing these pants actually while typing this. They are one of my pairs that I wash and immediately put right back on. The fabric is running in weird ways though, so I’m not sure that it’s all that sturdy, despite being super duper comfy. But I really like them! The pattern is a free one from Petite Stitchery, the Women’s Yoggers.

This is a triblend fabric, which is one of my favorites, as it’s warm, but not too warm and it feels lovely to wear. Triblend is a mix of rayon, spandex, and cotton and when I find it, I buy a bunch of it. I love how this tunic fits. It’s the Patterns for Pirates Relaxed Raglan with a wide band on the bottom. It’s very cozy.

These pants gave me fits, but I was able to finally figure it out and they are one of my favorites now. I used a faux linen and made work pants. These are actually the Yogger pattern as well, but without the cuffs. They are loose enough in the hips, but don’t make me look like I’m wearing pants that are too big. I had some issues with the waistband, but it doesn’t show under shirts anyway.

And last, but certainly not least, my sewing themed accidental track suit. I made the top, a Be Creative Hoodie from E&M a while ago, but then got more of this fabric and made a pair of Yoggers. Much to the Husband’s dismay, this is my favorite around the house combo when I’m chilly. I think it’s fantastic! How can you not love the neon notions? Also notice the purple hair. I think it was right after I had got that batch of color done. Currently my hair has blue highlights and side swept bangs! It still has the purple and the pink as well, but they are faded. It gives a cool effect though when the older colors come through in the light.

I hoped you enjoyed a glimpse at my favorite sewing projects. Hopefully I’ll have some more to share shortly!

Sewing

Small Sewing Projects

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Here’s some smaller sewing projects that I’ve made recently. I looked back and realized that I hadn’t been posting anything of sewing or food. Mostly because it’s been hard to make myself do either for some time. Having the monthly challenges is helping, but sewing hasn’t been as much of a draw for me lately. I’m having some struggles with low motivation and difficulty making decisions, so it’s been hard to pick what I want to sew and when. Our basement is still a mess. It got overwhelming very quickly. The upstairs public areas have stayed relatively tidy since we’ve started to have people over more. The basement however, is still in recovery mode from the repairs. Hopefully we can get that sorted soon as well.

I did sort and put away a bunch of woven fabrics the other day and have been boxing stuff up for my local Buy Nothing group. Some of the fabric and patterns that I haven’t been able to use for a while, or didn’t really care for any more went to a group that works with disabled individuals to teach sewing and a bunch of the other fabrics have gone to beginning sewists to help them make muslins and other things for practice. I sent a big box to a sewist friend of mine and have one started for K1 too, although it’s been long enough she may have forgotten it’s coming. 😉

Anyway, here are some projects. Some of them are gifts from Christmas!

Here’s some snuffle mats I’ve made for the dogs in my life. Piggy has one too, but we have to monitor pretty carefully, as she gets super excited and tries to rip the fabric thinking there’s food inside. Silly girl. I swear, we do feed her the vet recommended amount!

The blue and black one is for my sister in law’s dog. She also likes to inhale her food, so hopefully this will help her calm down too. You hide the food in between the fleece lines and on top of it and the dog has to snuffle her way through to find the food or treats. Piggy loves hers!

The second one is for K3. Her pup is on restricted movement right now due to an injury, so I thought maybe it would cheer him up. I tried a different folding technique on the ends and if it works, I may make another one for Piggy too. These are all completely washable, much better than the ones that are tied to a plastic mat. You can’t wash those and that seems unhygienic, considering how drooly dogs get.

I found some new doll clothes patterns and even though none of the kiddos have complained about the doll wardrobe lately, I was getting bored with it. I did have a request for a cheerleading outfit though and may have gone down the rabbit hole of really fancy doll clothes patterns on Etsy. It’s also possible that I now own patterns for a full doll size tutu with the Basque bodice… You know, the really fancy, stiff pancake tutu with the heavily embroidered bodice? And the Giselle flowy tulle tutu that can also be a ballgown. And maybe a Regency style doll gown (I would look terrible in the Regency style, but it’s so pretty, so the dolls get it instead.) And maybe also the following adorable patterns. This first skirt is the Tie Dye Diva Potato Chip Doll Skirt- Because you can’t just make one! I made this one super fast and it has the tiniest little pockets that are surprisingly easy to make. I also own the skirt in real kid and people sizes, so there’s that. Tie Dye Diva is one of the sponsors for the 52 Week Challenge.

These two are also from Tie Dye Diva- the pink shirt goes with the Potato Chip skirt (not these two obviously) and the dress is a reversible dress for a 14 inch doll of which I now have Anna and Elsa from Frozen. They came from my Buy Nothing Group as well and I had a mighty need to dress them in traditional Scandinavian clothes. What can I say, as tiny as they are, doll clothes are proving to be the thing that gets me out of my sewing slumps a lot. And I’m a grown-up, so get to decide to dress up the dolls. Plus, my American Girl doll, Kirstin is now retired and needs more clothes. I do have her sewing patterns too, but wanted a full Scandinavian costume. The 14 inch doll clothes are hard to find too, so who knows, if I can get them looking nice enough, I could sell them.

The last doll clothes item is this raglan shirt. I don’t remember who it’s by though so will have to tell you when I make the next one. This set of fabrics matches a hoodie I have and it makes me happy because they’re so cute together. I’ve wanted a doll raglan for a while because ragland style and dolman style (where the sleeve is part of the top piece) are the easiest styles to sew and I abhor sewing tiny little sleeves in flat. Now I can make all the cute baseball shirts!

Piggy also got a sweater when she was nervous about the windows being replaced. I had to keep her in the basement with me. We should have probably given her the stronger meds that make her calm, although the herbal ones worked too. Isn’t she adorable? When/if I make her more, I’ll extend the back and the belly coverage a little. The front fits fine, but the back and belly is slightly shorter than I’d like it to be. I have thought about making her a mesh shirt for hikes that has fabric on the belly to keep her from getting itchy, but mesh along the back so she doesn’t overheat, which bully breeds, especially bulldogs, are prone to have happen.

Her new collar says “Don’t go bacon my heart.” with hearts and bacon. I couldn’t resist although it made the Husband sigh and shake his head. He loves me and my punny heart though, so it’s all good. 🙂

I made this bag to hold my dowel rods for my dolls at work. It’s a set of hanging racks that you can use for display if you’re selling at craft fairs and such, or in my case, when the office dolls need to go shopping at the clothes store. It gets set up in very elaborate ways, but I kept having dowels roll under my couch and it was very annoying. Now they’re all safe and together and my office doesn’t look quite as much like a toy store exploded in it.

I made us chopstick curtains for the kitchen too! We just had the windows done finally so now can have pretty things. Unfortunately, the curtain rod that was up there needs to be changed out, as the hanger bits in the wall just fell out when we took it down. Whenever we try to do house projects, we always find stuff that makes us either very annoyed or very confused. Things just weren’t done or not done correctly which makes more work for us. But my curtains will look super cute once we get a new rod for them!

I made this adorable gnome shirt too for K1’s kids, but I don’t know if it will fit any of them now, as it’s been a while. If she thinks it will, I’ll send it, otherwise I’ll find someone else to give it too. I don’t want the cuteness to go to waste in my basement!

I thought I had talked about this apron on here, but looking back, I don’t see it. So this was one of my Mom’s Christmas presents. The pattern is called “Pickle Dish” so she obviously needed to have it! I used pickle fabric for the backing and canned pickled veggie fabric for the contrast. I think this picture was taken quickly right before wrapping it for the trip there, so I don’t have any detailed pictures, unfortunately. It was my first time making the block and it was a doozy! I used the Accuquilt block die for it, otherwise it wouldn’t look as good. I will try it again because I need a pickle dish apron too, but I’m still recovering. 😉

So that’s the non-clothes or not for me items I’ve made lately. I’m going to post the clothes for me in a separate post to not clutter things up. I really haven’t posted about sewing since January, but I promise I’m still stitching along. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my sewing room!

Adventures · Sewing

Accuquilt Fun

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(I swear this isn’t a sponsored post!) I’ve had my Accuquilt machine for a while and it’s been super useful and fun, so I wanted to share some things about it. The Accuquilt is a die cut machine for fabric. Here’s the machine when it’s ready to go:

I was introduced to it through my MIL when we used to cut our jellyroll strip pieces for our Jellyroll Quilt class. (She’s fond of getting me hooked on “sewing game changers” that happen to be expensive. Not that I mind, obviously!) I finally got one of my own after a really bad tendinitis flare made it impossible to quilt or sew. I just can’t cut fabric for that long without hurting myself. Cutting fabric is my least favorite part of sewing, only shortly after ironing in levels of “eww.” Since it’s more accurate than rotary cutting as well, it makes my quilts look much more professional. Sadly, it does not iron my quilt squares for me, so it’s not quite perfect, but you can’t expect everything I guess.

On to how it works! It has dies that are plastic on the bottom and foam on the top with some mysterious heavy thing, probably metal or wood, I would guess, in the middle. It has blades hiding deep in the foam that form the pattern you are trying to cut. Here’s a picture of what the die looks like. This particular die is a Block on Board one, which means you can make a whole block with just these pieces. They are turned to make sure your fabric is cut on grain, as a lot of quilt fabric can be slightly off grain.

This particular block is a Bear’s Paw block. Isn’t it cute? I’m going to make a Scandinavian Christmas gnome quilt with it.

To use it, you make a sandwich with the die on the bottom, up to 6 layers of fabric, and then a special cutting mat. Then you put it on the flat part of the machine and gently guide it through. The machine compresses the sandwich/foam and allows the blades to come out and cut the fabric. It comes out the other side, as you can see. but you have some time to get around the machine and support it on the other side.

After it comes out of the machine, you can pull off the extra fabric and you’re left with the cut out pieces for the quilt square. Then you can do the fun part and actually sew!

This quilt will be a Scandinavian Christmas Tomte quilt. I have this fabric in a bunch of different color ways and I think it will be super cute!

I’ve been enjoying collecting all my die cutters for it and have used it to make a bunch of quilts without hurting my hand. This was the first one I made, although I used my MIL’s Accuquilt. We took a jellyroll quilt class together and decided to make our own rolls instead of buying one. The borders weren’t cut with it, but the strips for the blocks were. I have this quilt in my office currently for naps and times when people might need a comforting blanket.

This quilt is one I made for my boss for her wedding. It’s the same pattern, I just had forgotten the sashing in my office quilt. I really liked how sunshiny it is!

This is probably my favorite quilt I have made and I gave it to a friend of mine because I thought it belonged to her after I made it. It uses two Accuquilt dies- the Gnomies and the Snail’s Trail die. The Snail’s Trail is one of the block patterns that I really wanted to make, but I was intimidated by the smaller pieces. I didn’t think I could get the pieces cut accurately enough, so I was super pleased with how it turned out.

The latest quilt I’ve finished is this one for my friend above’s mom. It did get a little wonky. I think I forgot to flip the rows as I was sewing them together.

I can’t find the picture of this quilt finished, but it had another row of hexagons and then also another big black border on the top. I made it for my Secret Garak swap in one of my craft groups. I was pretty pleased with it.

I have three more quilts cut out so far: one hexagon with gnomes, one similar to the quilt above with really pretty florals, and one made of strips to be a bookshelf quilt! Won’t these two be super pretty?

I hope you enjoyed seeing what’s been helping me with doing more quilting lately. I’m excited to start using more of my die cuts once my sewing area is more set up. Wish me good, quilty luck, smooth thread, and never empty bobbins!

Monthly Review · Sewing

Sewing Round Up- 2021

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Sew how did your year go? Was it a creative year, or did you get creativity slumps like me? It was really hard to maintain my sewing habit this year, due to several basement heavy house renos. We’re grateful to have the means with which to fix our house and looking forward to the new windows in March so we have less drafts, but it was a lot to have done all at once. I did still manage to do a lot of sewing this year. I kept up mostly with the 52 Week Sewing Challenge, although I had to utilize the make up threads a little bit.

Here are some of my favorite patterns or makes from the year.

This purse is one of the things I am most proud of making. I always feel that my bags don’t look as professional as they could, even when I do the ironing and all the extra steps. But this bag turned out really well. The pattern is from Linds Handmade on Etsy and is called the H2O to Go Sling. the rose part that you can see with the water bottle is actually a waterproof fabric, I think a thinner oil cloth or PUL fabric. The front pocket has a little pocket and a bunch of card slots. I sewed a little too close to the zipper, so it is a little hard to zip occasionally, but it’s the perfect size for outings and every day. I made it specifically to take on my Wine Hike Trip with the girls and it worked really well. I need to make one with just plain fabric on the inside too for my every day purse. It fits my inhaler, phone, large battery power back and cord, a water bottle, chapstick, a pen… The list goes on, despite it looking very compact.

These are the Briar Shorties from Petite Stitchery and are my favorite sleep and lounge shorts in the summer. I made 4 pairs because I would get sad if I had to wear anything else. My favorite part is that the pattern itself says you don’t need to hem them.

I adore this dress so much that I needed to use a whole collage to show it off. The fabric is a slinky, drapey ITY (Intertwist yarn, I think it what that stands for.) It’s cool to the touch and flows like a dream, as you can see by the perfect drape of the skirt. It looks gathered, but it’s in fact, just a straight full circle skirt. The pattern is a modified Sweetheart Dress from Patterns for Pirates and it has a lined bodice. I dropped the neckline slightly lower as the original one often makes me feel a little choked and made it a slight hi-low hem, so it lines up across my booty and doesn’t look like it’s two inches higher at the back. You can see the hi-low in the side picture of it on Betsy. (Also, the wall which we removed to fit the new furnace in. )

This dress is the Gala from Patterns for Pirates and was part of my capsule collection. I wore it for work pictures and everyone was very impressed. It’s super sparkly! The gala looks flattering on literally everyone who posts pictures of it and although it has a lot of pieces, isn’t overly complicated. I just finished a tank dress version of it too, but don’t have a picture yet. You can definitely dress it up or down.

I made this little sign for my office, but haven’t managed to get a hanger on it or bring it in yet, so I should do that after I finish writing this post. K2 made me the vinyl. I also have it on a shirt, but the shirt shrank in the wash, so I need to iron it again.

I made this shirt for Valentine’s day! Isn’t it just the most perfect shirt for the office? I didn’t have enough to do both sides so I made the back black. This is the Sun Kissed Tee from Peekaboo Patterns. I really like this pattern and made four or five in different fabrics.

I made this quilt with my Accuquilt on a whim and ended up giving it to another K friend and I adore it. I’ve wanted to make a snail’s trail for a while, but it’s a hard pattern to cut out the pieces for and I was excited to not have to do that here. The rainbows make it so bright and happy! It’s really fun to give someone a completely unexpected quilt. (Look, Dad, you’ve gotten three quilts already! You don’t neeeeed another right now! 😉 )

I’m also proud of making swimwear, but definitely need some work on execution. Both suits had their issues. I just bought another pattern that is a swim dress, so I think that will be super cute!

I did learn to make nice pants this year! Pictured below are the Patterns for Pirates SOS Pants. (I swear, this isn’t a sponsored post, they just have really nice patterns!) I think I need to got up half a size, as my seams are straining a little when I wear these, but they don’t make me feel like a sausage stuffed into too small of a casing. I’ve been very intimidated by the pattern for a long time. I did not add pockets on this first pair but probably will add them on other pairs. I used a nice heavy ponte fabric and they look like professional pants and feel like pjs, which is one of my favorite things.

Now that I’ve showed you some of my favorite makes, want to see some of my problematic ones? Of course you do! Where’s the fun in just seeing the good ones? Take this shirt for example. Idea was good, excecution is way off. The neckband doesn’t work, the color is way too pink. The lettering is on my stomach. *headdesk* I can’t even wear it because it’s also clingy in the wrong places and feels awful. I have no idea how to fix it either.

I was rushing for this one and it shows. I’m sad that I essentially ended up wasting this fabric because it’s not very wearable. I made this for my capsule collection for a challenge and it was the last piece I made right before the deadline. I don’t know if I can salvage it, but it’s been banished to the closet where I can’t see it and be annoyed.

This dress, I do want to save! I adore the pop of yellow I used and it has snails on it. The skirt part fits well. The bodice is all jacked up. I can’t raise my arms in it, it has those big wrinkles in the front, and it was so disappointing. I think I jus need to actually make a muslin for the bodice and try again. It is a big 4 pattern- McAlls, I think, so it’s not always reliable or customizable. I graded the bodice up as I have a pattern that stops one size under where I need, but it didn’t work. I’m debating cutting the bodice off, and just putting a waistband on the skirt.

I’m sure there are more, but these were the most egregious errors that I can remember.

It was a fun year of sewing and I’m excited to see what I can do this year. The 52 week challenge changed the format this year and you can up to 4 projects and 4 bonuses per month. It’s been a lot less stressful to sew for knowing I could have done them all at once instead of waiting a week to start a new project and only have a week to get it done. The challenge of course, continues to be not waiting until the last minute to finish!

I hope your year is off to a creative start!

Sewing

Still Sewing!

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I haven’t had a sewing post up for a while because while I have been sewing, it has been erratic. We’ve had so many house repairs done in the last four months, most of which required the basement to be ripped apart. Our last one until the windows was last week and we had to move everything away from the basement windows.

My sewing area is currently spread across the basement, my serger is packed in its travel case, and my sewing machine is upstairs on the dining room table. It’s a mess! Hopefully this week, we can start rearranging. The Husband starts play rehearsals this week, so will be having some late nights again for a few months. I’d like to have the heavy things moved into place at least before that happens. But I have managed to sew some things amidst the chaos. Here’s what I have pictures of at least.

This is my favorite tank, the Itch To Stitch Lago. The fabric is a drapey rayon spandex. It’s super comfy to wear and can be dressed up or down (relatively speaking.) It’s got tiny hearts! I just serged the bottom hem.

This is probably my favorite dress I have made in the past few months! This is a modified Sweetheart from Patterns for Pirates in a super slinky and cool feeling ITY. I lowered the neckline, banded the sleeves, and made the skirt slightly hi/low to better suit my bubble booty. I wore to work and the very stylish people there all liked it! It makes me feel super duper cute, which is always helpful. The skirt was cut in half circles instead of a full circle because it is a directional print. I forgot to put in pockets, but ITY is a funny drape sometimes and this fabric is super thin, so I wasn’t sure how the pockets would hang. It definitely fulfills my twirly skirt dreams!

I love this pattern, but I think I need a full bust adjustment, because although it looks cute here, I cannot raise my arms in it and it pulls very funny. It has princess seams though and is made for woven. This is a snail print rayon voile maybe? I ordered it a while ago, so don’t remember exactly what it is. The skirt part fits me though so I may just try to recut the bodice into a shape that fits better. This one does have pockets!

Now this project was super fun to try, although a bit confusing. It is the H2O To Go sling by Linds Handmade. It carries a water bottle for hikes and is lined with waterproof fabric, so it won’t get the rest of your purse wet! It’s my favorite purse right now and I need to make another with just regular fabric so I don’t wear this one out. I used the card slots in the pocket. I took it on our wine trip and it worked very well!

These are the inside pockets/card slots. It actually fits my inhaler and everything! Funny story, I had this when we went to visit K1 and her family and she gave me a tiny bottle of herbal bitters that I put in the water bottle pocket and promptly forgot about. I’ve been carrying it everywhere with me unknowingly since! I found it again early this week and it’s now in the booze cabinet where it belongs.

I think I have four pairs of the Petite Stitchery & C0 Briar shorts now! They’re so comfy! I made these for a challenge and it took me 20 minutes to cut and sew them! Super easy and super flirty. I made a matching bra top to go with them, but got the band wrong, so have to fix it.

These pants are for K1’s baby, but if I don’t get them there soon, they’re going to end up as capri pants instead! Her brothers have matching pairs and the oldest helped me serge his. He was super excited to help. They are flannel, so they’d be good pj or lounge pants. I used the Walk the Plank Kids PJ Pant Pattern from Patterns for Pirates.

I made these two leggings for me! Both are Peg Leggings from Patterns for Pirates. I love the bright leggings and wear them with my plain colored tunics or dresses so they have the proper focus. I will be wearing them possibly all winter, although they are capri length, so I may not be able to wear them with boots. Maybe just summer and fall. The cacti are cotton lycra and the bright pair is DBP.

I have made two swimsuits this summer! I only have a picture of part of one though because swimwear pictures are not something I’m ready for. This is a set with a Shenanigans Skort and a LBB from George and Ginger with an attached lace part for the belly coverage. It works pretty well. I wore it on our visit to K2 and it held up decently in the water. I think I would give myself a little more top coverage and shorten the straps though. The purple and black are both swim fabrics.

Piggy swam out to “rescue” me and nearly pulled down my top clinging in panic to my shoulders. She’s not so much a water dog it seems. After the first time of swimming out to me (attached to a leash held by the Husband for safety) she swam back to shore and shared K1’s lap with the baby and shivered for a while. We’re going to get her a life jacket before taking her on the inlaw’s boat.

I just made this quilt for a coworker’s mom and I’m hoping she liked it. I’m pretty proud of myself, as this is my second all Accuquilt cut quilt! The sashing got a little bit wonky, but oddly enough, it was wonky in a way that looks almost deliberate. I tried to do something fun with the border, but think it looks weird.

K2 and another friend came over for a tie dye birthday party for K2. I was proud that I got all three of these garments done. I do have a ton of white fabric left over though, so I might try to make a couple more things with the leftover dye. Or maybe just save them for next summer. Who knows? They are- Patterns for Pirates Cocoon Cardi in the big sweater, Petite Stichery & Co Briar Shorties, and the Sinclair Cachet for the shirt. The Cachet just has serged edges as it’s meant to be a swimsuit cover up or pj shirt. The Cocoon has a shawl collar and can I just tell you how comfortable this is? Oh my goodness, I neeeeeeeed one as a cozy fall cardi. I think I have an oatmeal colored waffle and a dark blue waffle fabric that will be shawl collared Coocoons when I get my space back.

I made a doll shirt for my challenge today as I was feeling under the weather. I have two more cut out, but my bobbin thread ran out and I didn’t feel like threading more.

And last, but not least, in my quest to have all the cozy hoodies, is this slightly oversized Ellie & Mac Be Creative Hoodie. It’s made with white printed French Terry and a purply waffle fabric. Waffle is like thermal, but thinner. Still pretty warm though, but doesn’t have a lot of recovery. I may go in and slim it down in the sides and arms a little. But it’s super cozy! I ran out of material for the sleeve, but I think it looks good with two different ones?

I’ll leave you with this picture of Piggy in a shark hoodie. Look, it was on sale and I couldn’t resist. Plus, she seems to actually be ok with shirts when she’s cold. And she’s got a belly skin thing going on, so this helps keep that reaction down when she goes outside. I hope this makes your night end on a giggle!

Sewing

Sewing Shenanigans

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Literally, in fact, as I made two new 5 out of 4 Patterns Shenanigan Skorts! This is my favorite pattern and I laugh at how much things come back around, because I threw terrible fits when my Mom tried to make me wear them in middle school. Now as an adult, I’m all about built in chafe protection and ability to sit on the floor with kids without showing off any unmentionables. 😆 How times change!

This skort fits me really well without any modifications. I have yet to mess with pockets on one, but I think it would be pretty simple to add them. I made these two for a sewalomg sponsored buy the pattern company. Sadly, I didn’t win any of the randomly drawn prizes, but I now have two more cute skorts. It also inspired me to fix the shorts on the two (books and birds) that would fall down, due to the shorts not having enough vertical stretch. Here are the two new skorts.

This first one is made out of blue refined ponte that I found as a remnant or end of bolt at Joann’s. Ponte is a structured knit that holds its shape and is slightly less vertically stretchy than horizontally stretchy. It works really well for things like this and looks really professional. The shorts underneath are a teal dbp. I didn’t hem them, as I wasn’t sure if the length yet. They need to be shortened just a smidge. I just finished the bottom by serging it. Honestly, no one really cares or knows the difference. Ponte won’t unravel anyway, but it helps the hemline looks nice and straight.

The second one is dbp for both the skort and the shorts. Something went wrong with the shorts, so I need to remove them and put in new ones.

For the “Fix The Fit week I sewed up holes in these pants and shorts. It seemed appropriate and now they can be worn again.

These cute Linen Loungers were made from a remnant. I like them a lot!

This fabric was advertised “sheer,” but after it’s been washed, it goes pretty opaque. It’s super comfy and goes with a flowy pair of teal Briar sleep shorts.

I finally made this shirt, but then I washed it and it shrunk. It’s still nice to wear though!

I really like the Made For Mermaid’s Sweetheart Dress, but it is a little tight in the arms. I probably just need to go up a size and grade from there. The fabric is flowers in kaleidoscope patterns. It is a single brushed poly, so is super soft on the outside and not as stretchy. It needed to be in a garment that wouldn’t hide the pattern by being too complicated.

The skirt is very twirly, so I do love it. I’m going to make some more, I’m sure.

So those are my latest sewing adventures! Hope you enjoyed seeing them!

Sewing

Adventures In Capsule Sewing

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A lot of my sewing groups have been running extra challenges with fun prizes and percentages off patterns, so you know I’ve been abandoning my previous projects like a snake shedding skin. 🙂 For this particular challenge though, I was able to fill a couple of wardrobe holes.

The idea of a Capsule Wardrobe has it’s roots in minimalist culture as a way to get the most out of a few pieces. They are all supposed to mix and match, so you have lots of options. Generally this means picking a focus fabric and carefully thinking about prints.

I called it my “Picture Perfect” Capsule, because I needed a few new work things, especially something for my new headshot. I had planned to sew up mostly solids and did succeed in getting some more made. I had to abandon part of it though, as I ran out of tracing paper.

This particular challenge was sponsored by Made for Mermaids and Patterns for Pirates. They are PDF pattern companies run by two sisters. The vibes are similar. Made for Mermaids tends to be softer and more flowy. Pirates seems to have more sleek things. I have a bunch of patterns from both, so was excited to use new ones. The deal was that you had to use only patterns from both companies and you could mash them together if you wanted to. You had to have 9 items total and could use up to four previously made items.

Mine ended up being almost all Patterns for Pirates by accident. More of them fit into my capsule idea and I ran out of time and tracing paper to include the Eloise and the Lauren from Made for Mermaids. Here’s what my original concept was:

It took me a while to combine the fabrics, as I didn’t start with a main fabric. Once I realized that having a main fabric would help pull everything together, I settled on this one: a floral Liverpool with a navy background.

After that I pulled a couple of coordinating colored fabrics. The purple rayon spandex below really wanted to be an Eloise and I have it cut out, just not finished yet. The glittery blue is actually on a black background and is ITY, which is a cool, slippery feeling fabric. The flamingo is a rayon challis, I believe. The green next to it is another rayon spandex, but it’s thicker and more slinky feeling than the purple. It could possibly be bamboo rayon, but I’ve never felt that, so I don’t know for sure.

The main dress is a Patterns for Pirates Sweetheart Dress. It has a full circle skirt and is very dramatic and excellent for twirling. I may have twirled every time I got compliments on it. 😉

The only thing I didn’t like is that the neckline feels like it’s strangling me. I’m going to scoop it out lower for comfort.

My original pre-made items (we were allowed 4) for my capsule were a pair of grey leggings, a navy floral Brunch Blouse from P4P and a grey cardigan. I switched it up at the end as the cardi didn’t really go and I was running behind on time. I decided that after all the work clothes, I would probably need an after work outfit and used my vaccination outfit as my final two pieces.

This is the Made for Mermaid Penelope dress. I have been waiting a long time to make it, as it seemed very complicated. It has princess seams which run straight down from the shoulders, making it drape nicely and flare at the bottom. It has cap, short, 3/4, and long sleeve options. It also has mini, knee, and maxi length skirt options. My sleeves were slightly longer than the short sleeve.

This is fine in the front for work, but is a bit shorter than it probably should be, due to my curves at the back. I’ll most likely be wearing this with leggings or shorts when I do wear it to work. I really like how it looks on me and will definitely make more.

This beauty is the Patterns for Pirates Gala Gown in the knee length option. It’s made out of ITY, which stands for Interlock Twisted Yarn. It’s silky, slippery, and cool to the touch. It also rolls like crazy and was super annoying to sew! I wore this dress for my professional headshot and it made me feel special and confident. It’s got a fantastic twirl factor too. The pattern is complicated, with many pieces, but not difficult to put together. I did forget to add in the pockets though.

I love it and had a grand time swishing around in it. It also looks flattering on pretty much everyone that I have seen make it. I’m interested to try it with some other fabrics.

This is a Brunch Blouse from Patterns for Pirates. I think it’s rayon challis. It’s nice and drapey to wear. I switched this out for the Eloise.

I made pants to go with it! They are super comfy! I have been irrationally afraid to make the Patterns for Pirates SOS pants for a while, but they weren’t that hard to make. I do need to grade out at the hips. This pair has some pulling in the seams. But I do have plans to make more with my fancy pants fabrics. Excuse the wrinkles, I forgot pictures before wearing them.

Overall, it was fun to push myself to try new and somewhat intimidating patterns. I will make all of them again and it’s boosted my confidence in trying more of my patterns. I should be on a pattern buying ban, but we all know that’ll never happen. 😂

I think I’ll go find some more capsule options and work on filling my wardrobe holes next! Wish me luck!

Sewing

Stash Shopping- Challenge Accepted!

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While we were sorting out the pantry the other day, I came up with a good idea to potentially help me get a handle on my fabric storage issues. Namely, I need to sew more and buy/store less. The problem is, I get excited about new fabric and don’t sew up the old fabric, or get bogged down in ideas about what things could be and can’t decide what to make with that particular fabric.

So I decided that in order to cut down on some decisions, I would make myself a new challenge. I will only use the fabric that’s sitting out until most of it can then fit in my bins. Of course, there are a few exceptions. If I need a particular solid color for accent, or a specific fabric for the 52 Week Sewing Challenge bonus, I can use that. I took pictures of all the fabrics I had that weren’t put away yet so I could stay accountable.

The funny thing is, I generally have an idea of what I’d like to make with the fabrics, I just get distracted.

Left to Right: Pink French Terry, Teal Cotton Interlock- no stretch, light blue lightweight sweater knit, heavy quilted sweatshirt fabric, polka dotted french terry.

The pink french terry has enough to make part of a sweater. It’s thinner, so it would be good for a short sleeved shirt too. The teal interlock will be a shirt. Light blue sweater will be a summer weight Cocoon Cardigan, as it has little holes where the bow ties are. The polka dotted french terry wants to be a sweater pattern. I don’t have a ton of it though, so not sure which pattern yet. Blue quilted knit will be a vest, I think for fall. It’s super heavy and not very stretchy, so I’m not sure I want it to be a full sweater.

Black Birds- cotton interlock, not super stretchy. Good for tshirts. Music fabric is a gorgeous, thicker double brushed poly. It might be a skirt for a dress, or a tunic. I can’t decide if a tunic would be too busy. I have a lot of it though. The monsters are for my favorite little boys. It’s a cotton lycra. It will pair nicely with the black cotton lycra that’s next to it. The grey is leftover DBP from a tunic dress for K1. You can’t really go wrong with a nice grey shirt or tank top, so that’s probably what that will be. Actually, I do need to replace a grey tank I have that just doesn’t work for me anymore. This would be perfect!

Grey lightweight sweater fabric has already been made into a very nice tunic length Grandpa Cardi .

It’s got a little shimmer to it and is light enough that it doesn’t make me too warm, but keeps me at the right temp. I think it will be perfect in summer too.

The flamingo fabric is swimsuit material. I was going to make a swimsuit this week, but chickened out. I need to make a test version first and just didn’t have the time before I was down and out from the second vaccine dose.

The plaid is a soft hacci sweater knit. It wants to be a tunic or sweater dress. The starry fabric is french terry. I have a Cocoon Cardi in this, but liked it so much I wanted more for hoodies. The teal is crushed velvet for fancy pajamas. I know I swore off crushed velvet, but I couldn’t help it. These last three are from Olga’s Closet and so will be bonus entries for the challenge.

Top is a scrap of french terry for accents. I’ll make the Husband more shorts with it if there’s enough. Next is my River Tam panel, which is going to go on the back of a motorcycle jacket because it’s that awesome. The teal is a dbp and will probably be leggings or a tank. Black is dbp as well and will also be leggings. I only have one pair of black and that hasn’t been enough. The red is more berry like in real life and is double gauze. That will be a nice peasant style blouse or dress.

The wildly printed fabric is dbp and will be used for test night attire and other muslins. I really wanted it, but ended up with a lot, since it was on clearance. The white is a loose weaved sweater knit for a summer sweater. Probably a grandpa cardi as it doesn’t have a ton of drape for a Cocoon. The grey is a thermal. Probably a shirt for the Husband or the Brother, or possibly another sleep shirt for me. The gold veined fabric is a dark teal in real life and is cotton lycra. Originally it was going to be leggings, but it’s super pretty. It actually goes really well with the mustard stars, so it may end up being a hoodie instead. The stars are french terry.

The top is knight and dragon flannel that will be Husband pj pants now that I’ve found a good pattern. The next one is actually a dark navy and will be capris or pants. The next one is black jegging material and will most likely be Solar Flares. The last one is a navy bullet/Liverpool and will be a short sleeved dress. I think I’m going to try a Mix it Up dress by George and Ginger with a really pretty neckline for interest, since the rest of the dress will be so plain.

So that’s my plan for the next couple of months. Hopefully I can figure out what to do with my scraps too. They’re taking over the basement. I know some of the H&M stores will take them to recycle them. Maybe I can find a Girl Scout troop or something too. It seems Piggy needs more cushions too as she tends to curl up on whatever she can find sometimes. She needs a bed for the Husband’s office so she’ll go hang with him and not make trouble in the living room. Wish me luck!

Crafty · Sewing · Uncategorized

Scrappy Sewing and Spring Cleaning

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Hello! This weekend was a very productive one. I deep cleaned the stainless steel kitchen island. A certain Piggy has been very interested in the bottom shelves lately. It’s nice to have it all shiny and organized again! Here’s the pictures.

Before
After
After

The Husband and I tackled the pantry shelving, which was sloppily built into the walls and had a distinct tilt to the front. I was honestly waiting for it to fall over in the middle of the night. Eek! Also, apparently, that’s where all the spiders were coming from. Blech! I made the Husband deal with that part. Here’s some before and after.

Before
After

To be fair, he did the pulling down of all the shelves and I helped organize and take things out to the recycling after breaking them down. We have these metal shelves for my craft stuff too and they are good shelves. There’s space for one more shelf next to the wall too, so there should be extra storage space. I worked on my sewing spot while he was pulling shelves off the wall.

Speaking of my sewing space, I made something fun for the week where the theme was to sew something other than fabric. It was inspired by someone in the button week who made a picture like it for her sewing room. I haven’t decided exactly what I’m going to do with mine, but it’s super cute.

Isn’t it adorable? I used the leaf stitch on card stock and then backed it with translucent vellum and purple card stock. It was fun to to make. I made a water one too, but it wasn’t as successful. The buttons are hand sewn. I do have a button feature on my machine, but wasn’t in the mood to mess with it.

This wallet was made for the sewing challenge too. It’s not quite where I’d like it to be and I was reminded how much I hate making wallets while I was making it. They’re so fiddly and ridiculous. This pattern is the Demi Wallet from Linds Handmade. The pattern and instructions are fine, but my spatial reasoning and not wanting to take a couple extra minutes to interface did me in. It’s cute though and works well for the most part. I do think it’s a little chunkier than I’d like and the card slots got a little wonky, but that was due to user error/impatience, not the pattern.

This week, my entry was this cute tote bag in the same fabric for an extra Secret Garak swap present. Garak is a character in Star Trek: DS9 and is supposedly “just a simple tailor.” There’s a set of Star Trek groups on FB that are lovely and the craft group is called Garak’s Craftiers. They do a gift swap every year and I was able to join this year. This was the extra gift, as they needed an emergency gift. I’m going to make a little zip pouch to go with it too.

This was the amazing gift I received! It fits perfectly into my office decor.

This was the gift I sent. I was mostly pleased with it and my giftee said he liked it very much. There’s glow in the dark paint around the ship and for stars. I was excited to find black canvas to put it on. The ship is a vinyl sticker purchased from Etsy. I thought it was a cool angle. You don’t often see a front view.

I’m still lucky enough that my friend and her boys still happily wear the things I make. I made this tunic dress for her birthday. No pockets because they lay funny in this thinner dbp.

The boys got woodland shirts and these Baby Bear Joggers in a french terry. I have seen pictures that they are slightly too large for them and so look ridiculously cute.

I have a matching shirt. 😁

Here are two more shirts in my drawer. A neurotransmitter shirt for Valentine’s Day! Also, for work, because it’s the perfect therapy shirt. It’s got black bands and back and is the Sunkissed Tee.

This is another new pattern that I used for the challenge. It’s a Green Tee by Greenstyle Patterns. It’s free with a code from the FB group. I messed up the v neck, so it’s an around the house or under a sweater kind of tee, but it’s pretty comfy. The pattern comes with a scoop neck too.

Last, but not least, I made this super cute quilt for a friend from the office. She happens to like gnomes and rainbows and this quilt needed a good home!

I used the Accuquilt machine to cut the fabric for both blocks. The Patchwork block is a Snail’s Trail and the gnomes were fused and then machine sewn to the white blocks. Here are some close ups.

She really like it and has gotten many compliments on it. It makes me smile when I see it in the office. I’m definitely making one for myself at some point too. The Husband will complain for sure, but he can just deal with it. My love of gnomes isn’t going anywhere, after all.

Well, that’s all my exciting sewing and crafting for now. Piggy and I are both super tired and look like her picture below, so I should say good night. May your dreams be as cozy and comforting as a warm puppy!