Amherst Pattern Test

You’ve seen photos of me. You know I’m not digging through the racks looking for the last XS (Aside: as if. It’s always the bigger sizes that go understocked and/or hidden.). Like the RTW (ready to wear) manufacturers, many (most?) sewing pattern companies also draft based on a skewed small set of measurements. When looking to see if I fit into a pattern draft I’ll look at the largest size. I’m usually either pleasantly surprised (looking at you Cashmerette, Patterns for Pirates, Made for Mermaids and others) with a range that goes beyond my measurements or unpleasantly unsurprised when I would have to redraft the pattern to fit my body which, frankly, isn’t what I’m paying my money to do.

On occasion, I just fit into the largest size. I try my best not to spend my money here anymore as a vote in solidarity with the move towards sizing inclusivity in the sewing world. In the past, a designer I really love has been in this category. So, when Adrianna of Hey June Handmade posted on her Instagram that she was looking for testers to expand her size range I jumped at the opportunity. Shortly thereafter she put out a call to her tester pool for the new pattern she was working on: the Amherst Shirt. I try to consider whether I want to really make and wear something before I volunteer for something and boy am I glad I went for this one. It rocks. 

Amherst is a loose button-down blouse with a traditional collar and stand and optional cargo breast pockets for woven fabric. It has a yoked pleated back and a really well drafted shirttail hem. It has grown on cuffs with a wacky (but easy!) construction that leaves it much less bulky than a separate pattern piece would be and sleeve tabs to keep them in place. It has two different drafts, a dartless standard bodice and a darted bodice with a built in FBA (and separate button plackets to go with each one) which saves so much work up front if you are full busted. It is drafted for sizes 0-24 and I made a straight 18 without the FBA in a poly crepe and lightweight knit interfacing.

Readers, I love it. It looks great. It fits great (I have a few personal adjustments that I may make for next time but they are specific to my body and not significant enough that I won’t wear the one I’ve made constantly this spring).

Also, I got a new sewing machine! I suppose I should do a whole post on it, but this is the first garment I’ve made start to finish on it. It’s a Juki QVP2000 and I’m in love. It stitches a buttonhole like a dream.

A word to the wise, this pattern looks incredible in a drapey fabric. That said, it can make things more difficult to deal with. In the past I have attempted to deal with this by tracing my pattern pieces onto interfacing, fusing to the fashion fabric and then cutting the traced line. This caused problems because the interfacing shrinks a little when you fuse it so my final piece was a little shrunk once I cut it. I got around that this time by rough cutting a piece of interfacing (pay attention to the grain of the fabric and the interfacing here!), fusing and then cutting the piece using the printed pattern piece. Works great and I’ll keep doing it this way in the future. 

The shiftiness and resistance to pressing also caused problems with the pocket. I used the curved pocket piece (there are two styles provided) but had a bear of a time getting it to look nice. In the future I’ll try using starch. For the hem I set my serger to a ¼” wide stitch and finished the rough edge before double turning and edge stitching. Made it much easier than attempting to press up the aforementioned shifty fabric.

Let me just hammer home my recommendation: make this shirt. It’s a great pattern, drafted meticulously, in an expanded size range by a person who really cares and knows about what she’s doing. 

Waka Waka

This summer has been a wild one, seeming so slow, then crazy busy, always going by too fast. (Summer is like that. I think it’s fleeting nature makes me love it more. It’s hard to love crazy heat and humidity when it hangs around too long.) Importantly, some dear friends of mine were expecting a baby midsummer. I had a grand plan for something highly complicated, and each time I simplified the plan the project got easier, but more importantly, better. My whole time working on it I’ve had this quote from the opening of Pride and Prejudice stuck in my head:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. 

Of course my mangled mind deemed that in the same vein that a fresh baby, in acquaintance of a good quilter, must be in need of a quilt. This baby has a big sister whose baby quilt features Kermit the Frog and as such needed something in the Muppet family to stay on theme.

Now, I had planned this quilt far in advance to give myself lots of time. Unfortunately, all I had were plans, and all she had was hurry because she arrived three weeks early and I had only just purchased the fabric. In the end, this worked out well, as I was able to incorporate her name into the quilt. I used a paper piecing patter that was free from Fandom in Stitches, printed at 200% for a 20” block rather than the drafted 10”. This pattern looks great when done but it is decidedly not for the faint of heart. It had 135 pieces and even doubled in size there was a not insubstantial number of pieces that were so small I couldn’t read the labelling and had to fiddle around figuring out which piece was which. (The smallest was a piece of the eyelid so small that it was barely 1/8” tall.) I did do a dumb thing and print, tape and cut out the entire thing on regular printer paper before I remembered I much prefer my newsprint for paper piecing. It worked out well, since I cut out each individual piece from the thicker paper and was able to use them as cutting templates.

The lettering is a personal favorite. The pattern is drafted so well, it always comes out looking so impressive. It’s My First Alphabet by From Blank Pages. Framing the text in a cartoon speech bubble was a stroke of a genius (if I may toot my own horn) as I was beginning to plan out the quilting. Beyond that I outlined Fozzie’s head, eyes and mouth and stitched vertical lines 3” apart, going around the main motifs. I’ll be honest, the quilting is my least favorite part (besides basting, but no one likes basting). I also really like fluff and drape in a quilt so sparse quilting works for me and is my go to. I think it works well here.

I made a label using a Dear Stella fabric that has a bunch of printed labels you can fill in. I played with the monogramming feature on my machine to embroider the label. It did go a little sideways but I still think it looks nice. You can see that I am quite the novice at needle turn appliqué but hey, you know it’s handmade.

I had the pleasure of gifting it to said lovely baby upon meeting her tonight and it was just a delight. My friend told me she had forgotten to buy a quilt in the lead up to baby’s arrival and was planning to do so ASAP but I beat her to the punch! Perfect. Then she said the thing everyone wants to hear about a thing you’ve made with your hands and your heart and given freely:

This is the best present we’ve gotten.

There is a truly nothing better. I am the cat that caught the canary.

In defense of internet friends and finishing WIPs

First, an update: I won! I was on the ballot for School Board Director in my township and I was actually the top vote getter for any race in the township. My colleagues on the slate with me won as well and now we are not only the endorsed Democrats, but the winning Democrats who will go on to run in the general election in November. Thank you so much for your support! (If you want to check out me and my running mates, see who we are and what we’re about and, if you feel so inclined, help fund our campaign you can do that at votelmsd.org.)

Now, sewing! The dress I’m going to show you today has a lot of different angles so I’m going to try my best to just do it chronologically. This has been over a year in the making so forgive me if some of the details are blurry.

A while back I found this vintage-ish simplicity pattern. It’s old enough that there aren’t a lot of copies floating around but new enough that it’s not in high demand in the vintage market so info was pretty scarce. It’s from 1996. Does a 23 year old pattern make it vintage? Anyhow, here’s the cover illustration:

Let’s just say I was pretty liberal in my alterations. I redrafted the bodice to eliminate the center section and make the bodice one piece. I omitted the patch pockets and used my favorite pocket bags from the True Bias Southport dress to add inseam pockets. I ignored the patterned skirt and just used as much width as I possibly could since it was a gathered skirt and I wanted it full. And I lined/underlined the whole thing in the weirdest, fly by the seat of my pants kind of way. (Read a book to learn the proper methodology? Pah!) Also, I trusted the pattern illustration which I never do because it’s what the designer wanted it to look like and not how the drafter actually made it. Had I to do that over again I’d lower both the waistline (which is almost at my bra band) and the neckline (which is borderline choking me, which I hate. Turtlenecks and I are not friends.). I think I got this pattern for $1 at a thrift store in Austin with my mother in law but I’m not sure so let’s just go with it.

Anyone who tells you that internet friends are not real friends are some combination of dumb, wrong, oblivious and obnoxious. In this case, my lovely friend Bianca (whose blog you should totally read. She makes the most wonderful clothes and she is just an all around fantastic human being.) just offered me up some Liberty fabric she had cluttering up her stash and wasn’t going to use. If you sew, you know what a gift this was. She gave me the wild floral I used here and some Carline poplin that, inspired by another favorite internet friend Roisin, will someday become a half shirtdress with as full a gathered skirt as I have yardage for. Unfortunately this fabric was just too sheer and fray prone for me to leave it unlined. So I went to my ever trusty Gaffney Fabrics who just so happened to have the perfect pink cotton voile on sale for something like $2 or $3 a yard. I thanked my lucky stars and frolicked on out of there.

Like I said before, I made up a way to line this dress that confused even me. I figured I could put the bodice and bodice lining right sides together and sew the neck and sleeve hems and then turn the thing out and have it perfect. Turns out that’s a recipe for a date with the seam ripper and a year in the naughty box. I did have a cool way of finishing the hem that I’m rather proud of. First, you lengthen the main skirt by depth of the facing you want on the inside. Then shorten the lining by the same amount. Stitch hems right sides together, (my lining was nondirectional but if yours isn’t make sure you aren’t sewing it on upside down once it gets folded back). Press seam allowance towards the main fabric. Pin the top edge of the skirt and skirt lining wrong sides together at the waist seam, your facing will show on the lining side at the hem, and press. I hate hemming and will figure out all sorts of creative ways to avoid it, especially if they mean no measuring.

I then had the pockets to deal with. In the end I serged the edges of the skirt pieces before sewing them together and finished the seam allowance of the pockets in self-made bias tape from the lining fabric.

I didn’t do anything fancy at the waist (I used slippery thread and two rows of gathering stitches in four sections) but my gathers came out so pretty and perfect I’m going to make you look at them.

So what do I think about this dress? I think it actually looks pretty amazing. It also feels amazing on. That said, I feel like I’m really nitpick on this one. The neck is too high and the back is a bit tight (I often have this problem, especially with dolman styles. I really just do better with a set in sleeve.). The waistline is too high (and this coming from someone who loves things to hit at a natural waistline, not where I like pants to hit/high hip) which also means my pockets are too high. This doesn’t look off but can feel that way. The waist taught me to never judge a make without a bra on. I finished at night and whipped it on and almost cried. A bra and some daylight made a world of difference. A belt really brings it together and defines the waist in a way I really like. Without one it is super comfy and I feel like I’m channeling another internet super friend, Shannon, who has been on a sack dress kick. My favorite parts are the fabric (so soft and breathable) and those perfect gathers and the shape they make on my body. In the future I’ll be looking at silhouettes with a heavily gathered skirt and without dolman sleeves. Will I make this one again? Probably not. Will I wear it all the time? Oh hell yes.

When Life Gets Big

I thought I’d pop in before the absence got too terribly long again. I have been sewing but not really doing the blogging to go with it. I’m trying to think of a decent analogy so forgive me because this is the best I’ve got: you know jugglers? When they’re performing for a crowd and they start juggling a few really disparate objects? An apple (that they eat as they juggle), a beach ball (fun but light so it gets tossed again quickly) and a bowling ball? Well, that’s my life at the moment.

And my bowling ball? A campaign.

That’s right. I’m running for office. I’m on the slate of endorsed Democratic candidates for my local school board. You can check out our campaign website here (and contribute if you’re so inclined).

Our primary here in Pennsylvania is May 21. Wherever you are and whenever yours is, please vote. I know it’s an off year and a primary, but local elections are incredibly important to your every day life and your support means more than you know to these candidates.

In which a long absence begets an equally long post

My parents have done a lot of traveling to Africa over the last few years. The first time they went they brought me back a heap of lovely wax print (also known under the names African wax print, Dutch wax print- a term I avoid, and my preferred name, Ankara) fabrics from Namibia and Malawi. I let them sit for an embarrassingly long time in my stash. Beautiful though they are, I was a little intimidated by the intense colors and large scale prints. Over New Year’s I travelled with my family to South Africa (gorgeous, amazing, breathtaking country and people, I highly recommend a visit!) and added to my stash with several cuts of my own choosing.

First, let me explain why I think Dutch wax print is a problematic term. Essentially, it is a term of colonization, and one that takes credit for a beautiful thing and gives credit for it to the group of white people who enslaved the people who created it. The technique was inspired by Indonesian batik and today most wax print fabric is made on the African continent. With this complicated history and the potential for cultural appropriation I felt intimidated and wanted to proceed with my work in the most respectful manner I could. I spent a lot of time soul searching, doing a lot of reading and a lot of thinking. In the end, I came down to the fact that I had this beautiful fabric and wanted to honor the rich and varied African cultures with my work by making it into beautiful things.

That decision made, a sewalong popped up on instagram at just the right moment. Sew Wax Lyrical is an Ankara sewalong hosted by one of my favorite seamstresses and judged, in part, by another. I started out attempting a peplum blouse (I wanted to honor the style of Ankara fashion without ripping it off outright and peplums are pretty ubiquitous in this fabric, if not so much in my own wardrobe). I wanted to use this amazing Ankara fabric I bought in Cape Town, white with large scale yellow and red horses and the negative space filled in with little navy chicken feet so I knew a muslin was in order. (Am I growing into a real seamstress or what?! A muslin, look at me.) I recently took Fit for Real People from the library so I did some paper pattern fitting and determined that I needed to move some darts. I’d never done that before, but hey, I can try new things. Only problem was that this particular pattern is a vintage style (rerelease?) and has a double dart, both of which were quite low and didn’t point to my bust point. This set off a firestorm of attempted changes and dart rotations. At this point I think I have it right… and then I just lost my focus. I couldn’t decide whether to prewash (instagram sewists say prewash, and that was my instinct too, until the fabric merchant in Cape Town looked at me like I had kicked her dog when I said I was going to. Apparently the strategy there is the cut it as is from the manufacturer and wash as infrequently as possible. Now I’m battling between not prewashing making the fabric easier to work with but it also having the potential to shrink on my during the first wash. Have thoughts? Opinions? I want to hear them in the comments!). I couldn’t decide what fabric to use to muslin. So I did what anyone sensible would do: I left all of my materials on the floor in a heap and made a dress for my daughter instead.

Three full paragraphs and I’m barely at the description of the garment I’m blogging? Well, I did warn you with the title I suppose. Anyhow, I bought Clara from Violette Field Threads when it first came out. It’s been sitting on my computer since then with no love. In the end what I made was really more of a FrankenClara in the end. I used the bodice from Clara, skipped the shoulder ruffles, used the sleeve pieces from the Shwin and Shwin Modern Baby Doll and the biggest rectangle I could squeeze with the remaining fabric for a gathered skirt. In the end I didn’t read the pattern directions right and cut the back on fold by mistake. This added an extra inch in bodice circumference (2x0.5” seam allowance). After debating with Nina about what I should do, we decided to leave it closureless and the extra ease makes it so she can pull it on and off herself. Miraculously, the sleeve pieces from the Modern Baby Doll fit almost perfectly into the size 4 Clara bodice. Happy accidents.

Unfortunately I didn’t really have enough fabric left to really go for the gathered skirt I wanted. This meant that I gathered, pinned, basted, checked, ripped out, repinned, etc. several times until I landed on little/no gathers on the back and most of the ease distributed across the front in a way so that the volume looks balanced and the slightly off center focal print is shifted to the center. When I tried it on her this morning she liked the length, but I thought it was a touch short, plus it hadn’t been hemmed. I had a bit I could get 5” wide and sewed them together, pressed in half, gathered up and then serged onto the hem. Voila, a dress she loved so much she didn’t want to model, just play, and is already planning to wear it to school tomorrow (with leggings and a sweater, it’s not that warm yet).

Pattern Testing - Dana Point Top

I had a phase where I did a ton of testing, anything that came up, I threw my hat in the ring. I've been doing it a bit less for two reasons: one, as a form of self care I have been on facebook less (I deleted the app from my photo so if I want to look there I have to use the intentionally crappy mobile webpage) and two, I thought about how many hours I spent doing a test, plus the cost of muslining, sometimes more than once, and I had "spent" so much more "paying" for my own time than if I just bought the pattern. 

That was until I saw the call for the new Itch to Stitch pattern, the Dana Point Top. It was just what I wanted (and I wanted it NOW). Kennis is a fantastic drafter and her patterns have clear instructions and diagrams and best of all, layers! I think this is my all time PDF pattern feature. Anyhow, I've tested for her before, the Lisbon Cardigan which I actually managed to blog about and the Belize Shorts and the Vienna Tank which I didn't. The Idyllwild Tee is my TNT knit top and I love my Lindy Petal Skirt (free!). I'll get back to that later. All of this amounted to me eagerly applying and joining the test team for the Dana Point Top.

Image copyright Kennis Wong, Itch to Stitch Patterns

First, I actually made a muslin. This is not normal for me, but it let me check fit and use up a bunch of fabric that I didn't want to toss but didn't want to wear, so win/win. I was super punctual. Got it done within a day of the pattern going out. Then came my sister's birthday, and Wes' and my real fashion fabric, all of which conspired to kill my progress on this thing. My fabric is a lovely black with floral pattern rayon challis from Gaffney that I got maybe two years ago for $3/yd. I had them earmarked for culottes but the pattern didn't have the finished waist measurements (who cares about the finished hip circumference when you've got swishy, wide leg culottes with a fitted waist?!) so they forfeited the fabric claim. Luckily, because my fabric was not unidirectional I was able to fit the whole pattern (self-lined) on 2 yards, rather than the 2 3/4 the pattern called for! (YMMV, measure twice, cut once!)

The fabric is buttery soft, breathable, with a lovely drape. Only problem is it's black, and the back is dark grey, and none of my damn chalk markers or transfer paper and wheel would work to show the markings I had to transfer. It was so lightweight that even when I used pins or thread to mark points they would fall out. Amazingly, for all it's shaping, only has two pattern pieces, the front and back. This is one of the blessing/curse things with this pattern.  Unfortunately that means each piece has six pleats, multiplied by two because you have to do the same again for the linings. If you cut a C cup or larger, there's also bust darts. My fabric also had the bonus of being slippery. Next time I make this top (not this year, I'm all pleated out, sheesh!) I will use a lighter fabric that will take my frixion pens and maybe try doing the gelatin method to stiffen the fabric as I trace and sew. So with all that, I finished my final version a week later. But damn, am I pleased with the final result! 

Pros: 

• fit is ON POINT
• only two pattern pieces (makes pattern assembly and fabric cutting way easier)
• clear instructions and diagrams
• LAYERS
• Cup sizes (the are very generous. I wear a 38DD in RTW and cut an 18C according to the sizing chart and the fit is perfect. If you have a larger bust there is more room for you in these bodices than you think.)
• fully lined so you can use those lovely sheer fabrics you bought but don't know how to use without showing the world your boobs
• flattering design, hugs and skims in the right place, lovely v-neck
• can fit over your head without unbuttoning

Cons:

• lots of markings to transfer
• difficult with shifty fabric
• prone to puffiness if you have a significant swayback (though not really much of a con since Kennis has a blog post of how to easily adjust your pattern pieces to fix this

Seriously, I love this shirt. In the end I didn't have enough buttons so I invisibly hand stitched the button "bands" to overlap as they would when buttoned. I had planned to sew dummy buttons on top to be decorative but I'm really liking it as is.

I like this thing so much I've already begun scheming the hacks I want to try in the future. Extended to knee length to be a dress, for sure. And can I hack the front so that it's a single cut on the fold piece now that I know I can fit it over my head without unbuttoning it? I think I'm going to have to hit up Gaffney and see if I can get any summer weight fabrics on clearance to stash away for next year. While I'm at it I'm going to grab some ponte or scuba to make a black Lindy skirt to go with it. I tried Dana Point on with my cream, black and plum leopard print Lindy and the silhouette was perfect (despite the intense pattern clash). 

In the end, I think my problems were mostly down to fabric choice and going forward I shouldn't have problems with it in the future. Even if it weren't I think the fit and style would be worth it. I wholeheartedly recommend this pattern.

This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase through one of these links I earn a small commission but the price remains the same for you. I only recommend things I can truly endorse and all opinions are my own.

Twinsies

So, I did a thing. I couldn't resist.

In my defense, she loves to wear matching stuff. I do too. I love the compliments and feeling cutesy with my girl.

Confession: I'm not going to stop until she makes me and I hope that day is far, far away.

Pattern is the free Popover Dress from Oliver and S. It took about 90 minutes from idea to finished product and that was mostly due to the fact that I did a bias tape hem instead of a double fold and that I tried it on her to double check the length of the shoulder straps (I didn't bother measuring against the cut pattern piece). I used leftover fabric from my Jessica Dress. You can check out the details in my last post here.

She loves it, it's super comfy. I recommend it if you need a quick palate cleanser project. I can easily get a size 3 (that's what I used, same as last year. She's gotten taller but not broader.) on less than half a yard of fabric.

And in case you need further proof that we are related, here you have it.

Summer uniform

I know, I know. Two posts in a week. Wild. But here's the thing: I made a dress and I'm obsessed.

See? It's fantastic. It's awesome and I feel awesome in it.

I visited my parents in the spring and came across an old shirt of my dad's that I wore through high school. It was a white and blue striped loose weave cotton shirt he go from Greece in the early years of my parents marriage. I became fixated on finding a similar fabric to make myself a breezy summer dress. I was prepared to drop a bunch of money on yardage to make my vision reality. (I never do this. I am a fabric bargain hunter to the core.) And as if I had forgotten the wonder of a true find, the perfect fabric showed up at my usual place, Gaffney Fabrics. It was exactly what I wanted, white with an uneven blue stripe on a loose weave cotton. Oh, and did I mention it was $3/yard?

Knowing how in love with the fabric I was I searched around for a pattern suitable for my summer uniform dreams. I was wavering on the Chalk and Notch Fringe Dress, a pattern I've been keen on but not entirely won over by since it debuted. In the end though, I worried that it was a style that had just as much potential to look like a sack as it would to look amazing when cutting the biggest size and I wouldn't know until the whole thing was finished. Then my online sewing friend/muse Bianca posted this dress.

It just screamed summer. Plus, it was a free pattern! (I am not opposed to paying for a pattern, not in the slightest, I just know how much information I can get from looking at the actual pattern rather than the pattern description. You can see the quality of the drafting and instructions, the style lines, how everything is organized, whether it's the type of pattern that just comes together beautifully or is a headache every second you touch it.) The pattern is the Jessica Dress by Mimi G. and it's a free pattern download when you subscribe to her newsletter. I highly recommend it. It's a well drafted pattern with a good size range and clear instructions.

I "color blocked" my version by playing with the directionality of the stripes. This meant that the only stripe matching I had to do was across the center bodice pieces whose stripes I wanted to line up. Everything else was perpendicular to its neighbor. The bodice button band is grown on so that made things even easier. I had originally planned to make the bottom hem a big ruffle (that huge 70's ruffle is so in right now) but I only had 3 yards and that just wasn't going to cut it. In the end I cut one strip as wide as the hem of the skirt and as deep as 2(band length + seam allowance) and folded it in half wrong sides facing. This makes a lovely visual addition and also mean my very favorite thing in sewing: NO HEMMING! I widened the straps a touch so that they are the same width as the button band and can cover a bra strap. I interfaced them so they wouldn't stretch out on me (they still do a bit. Best laid plans and all that).

I used my new snap setter and some pretty grey pearl snaps from an etsy shop called Bags, Beads and More. I ended up with 15 sets of snaps down the front so the setting took forever but I think it was worth it! Plus, no buttonholes to sew or buttons to sew on so there's that. I also got a set in black and a set in peacock teal that I'm sure will make an appearance at some point. As for sizing I graded the bodice between the top two sizes and I believe I used the largest size for the skirt (extra fullness on a gathered skirt can only be a good thing) and shortened the length a touch to hit me at a better length. It fits beautifully but I have a bit of extra room in the underarm so I'm debating sizing down in the bodice for the next time, but I'm having to weigh that against the loose weave of the fabric and the likelihood that it stretched beyond the original size as cut. That said, there will totally be a next time. I think I need this as a top with a peplum, a dress with a skirt hitting just above the knee and a full on maxi. I'm planning a version with a lined bodice and one that has topstitching everywhere.

Basically, I freaking love it and you should make one.

Thirteen years in the making

My husband and I met in October of my freshman year of college. We've been married since 2010. In the almost fourteen years I've known him I've frequently offered to make him things. In all that time I can detail exactly what I made, with and without permission.

Before I thought to ask him if he'd even like such things I knit him a scarf and crocheted him a throw blanket. The scarf was a green and brown Homespun, likely in garter stitch that has since been lost to the ether. The blanket lives in the closet. I think he likes it fine but it doesn't get a ton of use. Since my skills started to broaden, I began to ask him what he'd like (I realized that if I was going through the expense and trouble to make him something I wanted him to both like and wear/use it). This, friends, may have been a mistake. In the last ten years or so, all I was permitted to make for him was a single watch cap. It is brown and simple but it does look quite nice on him. I used vintage Australian wool I got from an op shop while I was living there in 2007.

I grew tired of being able to make these wonderful things and not share a bit of shine with my honey. (It's how I show love. I get it.) I offered to knit him a sweater which he repeatedly declined since he doesn't much like wearing sweaters. (In hindsight I'm glad he didn't let me knit some fine sweater for a six foot tall person that would never get worn.) So I decided to really look at what he did wear. Enter the Fairfield Button Up from Thread Theory Designs. His wardrobe of tops consist in large part of polos, graphic tees, and button ups (largely in a plaid cotton). I showed him the pattern and asked his thoughts. He gave the go ahead and I got to work. I hit my favorite fabric store (Gaffney Fabrics in Germantown, if you're in the Philadelphia area) and found a cute print (Dear Stella Fabrics Jetsetter print in Sky, unfortunately discontinued) on sale so it wouldn't be so precious if I needed to make some fit changes in the next iteration. I took measurements and double checked with the helpful Morgan at Thread Theory to make sure I was choosing the right size based on those measurements and then I got to work.

I made used the Average Figures block, the darted back which I think looks lovely and slimming, the standard pocket (the pattern comes with one pocket style but there is a free download of three additional pocket shapes available) and the short sleeve from the free sleeve download. If you read the sew along, I used the less stiff interfacing scheme and just did one button band (the one with the buttonholes), one collar piece and one collar stand. Instead of topstitching the inside collar stand I hand stitched it for a clean finish. I used a double border of topstitching to attach the pocket.

I found the instructions quite clear and very rarely had problems. The drafting is really spot on. I used my blue frixion pen for markings and they came out completely with the iron. I highly recommend trying these if you haven't. The marks will reappear below 30 degrees F but I'm not worried as this is a summer shirt. My only problem was when I accidentally cut the directional print of my upper collar upside down and only realized after I'd sewn the whole thing, trimmed the seam allowance and turned and pressed it. Luckily I had a good amount of extra yardage to redo it. Most of the garment is constructed with flat fell seams so it has a beautiful, professional finish inside and out. To facilitate this, some of the seams that match up have different seam allowances (for instance a seam where one piece has a 5/8" SA and the other a 1/4"). You line up notches at the edge but I did not like having to justify the piece with the smaller seam allowance along that long seam. Yes, it meant no trimming at the end, but I didn't want to just eyeball things so I measured out the difference and marked it all the way down. My preference would have been to trim later but I could see where the designer was coming from with this approach. My only other qualms were in the absence of two things I really like to see in PDF patterns: layers and a map of the full document so you know which pages to print for the style you're making. Layers let you print only the size you need and avoid the guesstimation at the points where several close lines blur together in a blob. A map lets you save on printing. As it was I ended up having to print both back pieces (this pattern has the option of a pleated back or a darted one) even though I only needed the darted one.

All in all I'm thrilled with how this came out. He liked it so much that he not only put it on to wear to work but agreed to quickly pose for photos before he left! Once he's back I may pop with a shot of the contrasting inner collar stand and my label on the inside yoke. I will certainly be making this again and am just over the moon to have found something I want to make and he wants to have. I'll add a touch of ease in the midsection per request and try to troubleshoot the draglines at a front and back armholes. Might a rounded/forward shoulder adjustment help with that? I may try a small one next time using the fitting instructions from the sewalong in this post. Oh, and I'll ignore the button markings and make my own since the top button is a little low for his liking. Tiny tweaks. This really is a great pattern with serious TNT (tried and true) potential. I recommend checking out Thread Theory if you're looking to sew menswear. They have a free undershirt pattern you can try out to get a feel for their stuff. They also have two womens' patterns, one of which, the Camas blouse, I've had finished but for some fiddly topstitching (a breeze on wovens, an epic headache on knits) and some hems. Hopefully I'll have an update with that one soon.

Warm Hearts and Toasty Toes

When you make something with your own two hands with the intention of giving it away to another person, there's always something that keeps you going, gets you through the ripping and redoing, the stupid mistakes, the body aches, the feeling that the project won't ever end. For me, it's this face:

This is my dear friend Stefie. We met in college, were in the same fraternity. She is just a wonderful human being. We have all sorts of things in common, but one of them is a love of this stationery brand Rifle Paper Co. I was beside myself last year when they put out their first fabric collection with my favorite quilting design house, Cotton + Steel. Completely unprompted, Stefie messaged me about it. We both loved it.

Stefie had just gotten engaged to the kind of person you always hope your best friends will marry: smart, funny, kind, and loves the hell out of your friend. Pair that with the knowledge that Stefie is worthy of handcraft and it was obvious: Stefie and Marcus were getting a wedding quilt.

I thought a lot about exactly which fabrics to use, what pattern to make. I settled on my own spin on the Wanta Fanta block from Blossom Heart Quilts (it's free if you want to try it too). I am many things, but crazy enough to attempt a traditional Double Wedding Ring Quilt I am not. I just loved how the combination of snowball blocks and a paper pieced cross could make a block that looked so similar to the DWR. I did a lot of sketching and math (I rearranged the blocks so that the edges would be complete circles floating on a background rather than being bisected by the binding of the quilt), followed by a lot of shopping (my background fabric was a variety of white and off-white low volume fabrics), followed by A LOT of cutting followed by A LOT of sewing. I stood on balconies to assess my layout, arranging and rearranging. I used SuzyQuilts' tutorial for chain piecing blocks. I did a lot of ripping and resewing so that points matched perfectly. Eventually my top was finished.

I sourced and pieced my backing fabric (Cloud9 organic cotton from my ever favorite Gaffney Fabrics) basted and got to quilting. Friends, when I tell you that this nearly killed me I only exaggerate slightly. For love or money I could not get my machine to keep good tension. I quilted, ripped and restitched the same sections. I gave up to preserve my sanity (and my neck and back!) many nights but I kept at it. I had the wedding date as my target but I had a countdown clock of another sort limiting my craft time and my baby made his presence known (oh yeah, surprise! I had a baby!). I missed my deadline. But I managed to pull it out and finish it up and bang on a label (my first appliqué!) this week in time for a trip to NYC this weekend. I handed over that amalgam of cloth and thread and love that I'd had my hands and heart on for over a year. I'll admit I was a little sad to give it up but I know it will be well loved with them.

Congrats you crazy kids. Use it in good health.

Blooming

Everything here is blooming. Spring is in total swing here in Philly. Unfortunately, the temperatures haven't gotten the hint. It's a high of 60 today. At least I have pretty stuff to look at while I'm back in boots and jeans.

Hexie count: 76

All Decked Out

Hexie Count:75

A day for the snails

It's raining buckets here. I feel like Nina and I are Sally and Nick at the beginning of the Cat in the Hat. At least the snails are happy.

Hexie count: 74

Me Made May

If you're at all into the online sewing community, especially on Instagram. You've heard of Me Made May. A challenge started years ago by Zoe who blogs at "So, Zo, What do you know?" Essentially the point is to wear something you've made each day in the month of May. I love the idea but frankly I'm not prolific enough at this point that that's really feasible (#lifegoals). So my goal (I'm making a goal rather than a pledge, don't want my failure to be that catastrophic if it happens) is as follows: 

“I will do my level best to wear, dress my daughter in or use something that I have made, mended or altered with my own two hands each day this month.”

I'll document my progress as best as I can manage on my instagram account: @KnitsMcGee. Today I'm wearing an Itch to Stitch Idyllwild Tee (my TNT t-shirt pattern) that I lengthened to tunic length and made into a swing top using this tutorial from Hey June Handmade. It's just a selfie shot since I slept in wet hair last night so my hairdo looks like I woke up at 7:56 for an 8am class. At least you get to see the pretty neckline which I totally nailed.

If you want to follow along with the Me Made May fun, hit up the Instagram hashtag #mmm17.

Poppy - Pattern Testing

I am a magpie when it comes to patterns. Always into the new and shiny. I love the Jo-Ann pattern sales and just grab up tons of $1 Simplicity and $2 McCall's. But as I get more experienced at sewing garments for myself and my kid (all of my early, formal sewing education was costuming, so I never got much guidance in how to select and tweak patterns for my own body), I'm learning the value of TNT (tried and true) patterns and designers.

For me, I love Itch to Stitch. Kennis' block is just spot on for my body and her designs have a really classic, wearable aesthetic.  The only changes I have to make are usually to add length (I like tops longer than most designers or RTW manufacturers for that matter, design them) and sometimes grade between sizes, depending on my body measurements. Likewise, I've found the perfect designer for kid dresses: Bubby and Me Creations (the designer of my all time favorite kid sew, the Ava Dress). Both designers have really clear instructions, with professional finishes and layered pdfs (this is HUGE. It means that you can print the pattern in only the size(s) you need. No more going blind trying to find your line where ten sizes converge!).

I've been lucky enough to test upcoming patterns for both of them as well. In fact, I've got some tester photos and a review of the newest Bubby and Me pattern for you now. Poppy is a knit, princess seamed dress in toddler to big girl sizes. It has options for long or puffed sleeves, or sleeveless with armbands. It has circle and gathered skirt options (I went circle for both of mine for two reasons. Number one is obvious: maximum twirl factor. Photo evidence to come. Number two is my own oddity, but I feel like I have a problem with my serger making gathered seams in knit waistbands appear in big bumps rather than nice gathers when I finish the waistband seam allowance so I just try and avoid them.). There's optional faux piping (which looks so slick and was super easy) and a ton of color blocking opportunities.

See, I told you the twirl was out of this world. I used ITY on both versions from Gaffney Fabrics in Germantown, Philadelphia (a must shop if you sew and are ever in the area). I picked the purple and yellow but she was adamant about the black flowers. At $3/yd. we compromised and got both. Her review was as follows: 

“I like it because it has a big neck hole and doesn’t squish my face. It is great for spins! Here watch!”

— Nina

I made the first version with long sleeves per her request but now that the temps are warming up around here (HELLLOOOOO SPRING!) I'm planning to shorten the sleeves this week. There was no unpuffed short sleeve cut line in the tester version so for the flower dress I sewed up the long sleeve version, tried it on her, had her point to where she wanted the sleeve to end, cut it an inch longer than that and hemmed. I didn't bother to hem the purple skirt because my fabric didn't even curl. It looks even better than the rolled hem I attempted on the subsequent version.

Here's a shot of the faux piping because I love it so hard. I'm totally using this trick in garments for myself in the future.

If you couldn't tell already, I highly recommend this pattern. I've gotten tons of compliments on it and I have to explain to Nina that she can't wear the same two dresses to school every day. Once I have a bit of time to sew for myself I'm going to make up a few sleeveless versions for this summer. With pockets this time (once I find a pocket pattern to steal from elsewhere) because the circle skirt has side seams. This has the added bonus of taking less fabric because you can stagger the pattern piece instead of needing the full width to cut a traditional full circle skirt. You can get Poppy for yourself (well, your kid. I keep nagging on Nikki to make her designs in mom size too. I'm milking the age where twinning with mom is cool for all its worth!) right here. And send me your photos when you're done, I want to see!

Best of all, Poppy is on sale right now for $9! It will go back up to the regular $11 price in the next few hours so go ahead and snap it up now!

This post contains affiliate links. You pay the same price if you buy something but I earn a small commission if you purchase after following my link.

Still Life, With Toddler

She's a lot bigger now than when this photo was taken but she still loves that phone (9 times out of 10 she pretends to call my father-in-law and all she'll say is "Hello? Papa Alan?") and Legos. 

View fullsize

I'm still pretty proud of my fussy cutting on this one, I think it came out really well.

Hexie count: 73

I am unable to resist a pun

Even in photographic form.

View fullsize

Hexie count: 72

Status update

Part of why I disappear for a while is always that I'm bad about blogging. Well, probably more truthfully I'm bad about remembering I like to blog. When I'm not doing it it feels like a chore so I avoid it. When I finally sit down and start writing I tend to write a bunch at once.

The other part is that my main project has stalled. I've hit a number I'm pretty happy with piecing together (500 some, I can't remember exactly.) and settled on a layout I like (it involves a large bag of white 60 degree triangles to offset the blocks I'll piece in rows. The problem is this: when I was actively working on it, I would take and make blocks from virtually any piece of quilting fabric I bought or was given. This means I have a lot of stuff that isn't exactly my vibe in here. I found myself laying out rows, trying to distribute the browns so as to minimize its impact (I am so not a brown person) and generally camouflage the blocks I like least amongst my superstars. So I'm left with two equally unappealing options:

1. include blocks I don't much like into this quilt I'm spending year to make and many more to keep and love
2. keep offing making more of these blocks. I won't lie, I'm enjoying having other projects to work on. I'm making tops and dresses like mad (especially for the kid). It wouldn't be the worst thing to have a handwork project on the go again, but I've been dragging my feet on it, especially since I'll have to get back to the hand sewing anyway to piece the whole top together.

Oh, also, by laying out my rows, I totally spaced on marking the blocks I've already photographed for the blog (I had stored them separately to prevent duplication) which just adds a layer of complication. I'll stop whining now and give you what you came for, hexie of the day.

View fullsize

Hexie count: 71

Yes, I am one of those people

that will subject everyone to pictures of their dog. This is Cappie. He's snoring next to me right now. I love the stuffing out of him.

View fullsize

Poor guy, he was so freaked out by the thunderstorm this morning. Extra snuggles for me and the kiddo before preschool.

And I guess I can throw in a close up of the actual block, if you want.

View fullsize

Hexie count: 70

Spring, finally!

I've decided to stop fretting about how long it's been since I blogged last and just get back into it.

This morning I let the dog out and it was so much warmer than it has been. In the few minutes I stood outside I counted six different bird calls. I couldn't believe it. Spring is finally here! (Despite my crazy allergies, spring is my absolute favorite season.) So here's a springy hexie I photographed last year.

View fullsize

Hexie Count: 69