Sewing, Snow, and Stuff

Tags

clothing, Columbia Point, FNWF, Healthy and Happy: SSWD, Oregon, Portland, quilting, Richland, sewing, travel, Washington

From today’s walk:  14F and enough wind to make the snow “fall” horizontally.  😦

Hello all, and I hope January is treating you well!

I’ve got some frosty pictures to show you, as well as some news, and, most importantly, sewing!

I participated in Friday Night With Friends last night, and did some work on another colorblocked fleece pullover.  Do you remember the wild flowered fleece remnant I got from SCRAP?  It’s now become this:

It’s hard to see here, but I’ve put in a black zipper which I took out of a cheap and nasty waist pack.  I like the long zipper pull on it. 

I’m using an old pattern (dated 1994), also from SCRAP, which should win some sort of award for least promising cover photos ever.

Don’t bother fitting–just make everything as large as possible!

The line drawings, though, show that this is a nice basic pullover that’s perfect for colorblocking (i.e., not a lot of seams to complicate matters).

The fit on this thing is SUPER weird, though.  It’s designed to fit some sort of busty linebacker, as far as I can tell.  In order to get those slightly-dropped shoulders, I had to bring the sleeves up a full three inches.  I also had to narrow the sleeves by 4″ so they wouldn’t be massive.  I took in the side seams, but I’ve still got all this room for the huge bust that I don’t have, and it’s now too tight at the hips.  More work to be done there, needless to say.

And I can use all the fleece I can get.  It has been SO COLD and SO SNOWY here–pretty unusual winter for us this year.  I haven’t taken many photos because it’s been way too damn cold to go outside much, but here’s another one from this afternoon.

I’m starting to understand why “snowbirds” here travel south in the winter, while these obviously-not-very-bright geese and I stay here for some reason.

Partner and I took a trip to Portland last month and apparently brought the bad weather with us.  It was a bit warmer than at home, which meant the snow had thawed halfway and had the usual Portland rain on top of it. 

BRRRR . . . I had packed for typical Portland weather, not this, so I wound up wearing many, many layers at a time.

Always looking for color.

A small part of the large stained glass window in the fire station near the waterfront Saturday Market.

In other news, you remember the sew-along that I was doing with the Sew-Alongs and Sewing Contests Facebook group, right?  Well, I won!  The prize package consisted of several indie patterns, plus a gift certificate for some fabric–WOOT!  And I’ve also been asked to run a 2-week sew-along in the group, to be announced tomorrow.  That should be super fun and get me to FINALLY use some fabric I’ve had forever.  Stay tuned for more on that.

I plan to focus more on quilting than clothing this year, though.  I didn’t feel inclined to do any sort of wrap-up post at the end of the year, but I did look through what I’d made in 2016 and realized I managed to not finish a single quilt!   I’ve been missing quilting and I want to get back to it.  I’ve pulled out my blocks for the RSC 2015 quilt and I would like to finish that up–it’s way past time that I finally made a queen-size quilt for our bed.  In addition to that, I’ve got a commission to make a simple baby quilt for a friend of my sister’s, and my niece will need one for her baby that’s due this summer.

So that’s the plan for the moment.  I’m really glad I don’t have to actually stick to these plans that I make, as they’re constantly evolving, but that’s the plan right now.  Until it isn’t.  Which could happen at any moment.

Anyway, I hope you’re enjoying your January and keeping your feet warm (currently my number one goal).

STH

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Just So Very Fabulous

Tags

cats, clothing, Healthy and Happy: SSWD, sewing, Simplicity 1261

Proof that my inner child has excellent taste.

Yep, other sewing bloggers make Chanel-style jackets with all sorts of fancy tailoring, I make goofy pink hoodies with cartoon cats on them.

I LOVE THIS, you guys.  It’s so soft and warm (and I have been informed by a reliable source that I am extra huggable while wearing it), plus it’s bright and colorful and I really like how the colorblocking turned out.

AND it has this super-warm hood with EARS.

Livin’ the dream.

When I started this hoodie, I figured it was just a fun, goofy thing that I’d wear around the house, but it actually turned out much cooler than I anticipated.

Here’s the pattern I started with:

I omitted the front pocket and the bottom and sleeve bands (plenty of length without using the bands).

For the colorblocking, my arrangement of pieces was guided by how much fabric I had.  I had only one strip of the Hello Kitty fleece–11″ x 60″–and only one of its long edges was straight, so the strip went down the front and back with the straight edge toward the center of the pullover.  (I got really lucky and had just enough to make it all the way down both pattern pieces.)  I had lots of pale pink fleece, so that became a sleeve and part of the front; I was hemming and hawing about how much of it to put on the front when I realized the fabric had a stain on it.  So it was cut where it is to avoid using the stained part.

Here’s the process I used to assemble the front.

1.  The pattern piece was meant to be cut on the fold, so I traced it and taped the halves together.

2.  I laid the fabric pieces out and moved them around until the front pattern piece was covered.

3.  I pinned the pieces together wrong sides together.  I used lapped seams to attach them, which I had read somewhere was a good way to do non-bulky seams on fleece and other non-raveling fabrics; you just sew the pieces together wrong sides together, trim down one seam allowance, and sew the other seam allowance down over it.  Similar to flat-felling, but easier because you don’t have to fold the edge of the seam allowance under.

There is seriously nothing Shelby likes more than cutting out fabric.  This whole process took HOURS and she sat there and watched intently the entire time.  She looks relaxed here because I was taking pictures rather than cutting; as soon as I started working with the fabric again, she was up and studying what I was doing.

4.  I placed the pattern piece on my newly-pieced fabric, pinned, and cut.

The piecing on the back is simpler, in large part because cutting this out took forever and I was tired and ready to move on by the time I got to the back piece.  As I wrote above, at this point I wasn’t really taking the project seriously and trying to do my best work on it.  But my view of it changed when I tried it on after putting the black band on the neck edge.  It just all seemed to work much better than I had expected.  I had been planning to do a white hood and skip the ears, but it suddenly seemed very important that I make a black hood with ears.

This is a double layer of the leftover Blizzard fleece from my partner’s cycling jersey, so it is WARM.

Side note here:  between my scrap quilting and my adventures in colorblocking items of clothing, I think a lot about how best to combine different fabrics.  The issue for me is that I love to use scraps to make things–it’s cheap and fun and creative and interesting–but I don’t want the things I make to look “scrappy” in the “scrappy quilt” sense of the word.  I want them to look put together and coherent, not random or disorganized.  And one way to do that, I’ve found, is to use a very limited set of colors, as I’ve done in this hoodie.  So I decided not to include the white and orange fleece remnants I had.  And I kept the sleeve colors the same as the front pieces they were next to so that they would look connected, not random.

As for the pattern, I sized down a bit as it was pretty oversized, and the fit is fine.  I’m always a little bit wary of unisex patterns because they usually involve some weird fitting issue due to the pattern company’s attempt to fit everyone in the world with one pattern.  Usually it’s linebacker shoulders, but in this one the only problem I have is that the sleeves are a little bit looser than I would like.  I get a draft up them, so I might try to overcome my aversion to mending and narrow them a little from the elbow down.  ETA:  I did take in the sleeves, and the fit is MUCH better.  I tapered from the shoulder because a whopping 3″ needed to be removed at the wrist and the look and fit of the entire sleeve is much improved.

I’m really happy with how this project came out, and I’ve been wearing my new hoodie pretty much constantly since I finished it.  I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the last colorblocked fleece I make this winter.

I hope you’re all staying comfortably warm in fun and colorful ways, and I will be back soon with some nature-y pictures I’ve been accumulating and some fun news as well.

STH

ETA:  I have linked this post up to Scraptastic Tuesday over at She Can Quilt.

Dramatic Developments

Tags

clothing, Healthy and Happy: SSWD, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing, Simplicity 8349, Simplicity 9873

The gun that is introduced in Act One . . . .

Sorry to have disappeared on you folks!  I keep doing that, don’t I?  I’m going to have to get a regular weekly-or-so thing going again . . . .

Anyway, the good news is that I am better at sewing than I am blogging, and work on my Destination Happy and Healthy collection has been coming along well.

You’ll recall that I wanted to make a slightly-slouchy turtleneck using this vintage pattern and some black cotton knit I got from SCRAP.  What I was going for was a top with lower armholes, a looser fit, and a softer, less constricting neck than the base-layer-type turtlenecks I see in stores.

I wasn’t sure how much ease I’d want in this, so I tried to err on the side of more–about 5″.  That was pretty close to perfect; I just increased the seam allowance a bit on the side seams to get it just the way I wanted it.  I also shortened the top and raised the shoulders so that the seams weren’t halfway down my upper arms.  And the collar piece was just ridiculously long–something like 13″, I guess for those women with “swan-like necks”?–so I shortened it, folded it in half, and sewed both edges to the neck of the top.

Dropped shoulders still dropped, just not as far.

Loose, comfy fit, but not sloppy.  Win!

 

I’ve also finished my black jumper!

My goal with this was to make a plain black dress that I could wear with a blouse or turtleneck underneath (and maybe leggings also) and accessorize with my VAST collection of hefty “statement” necklaces (see a small portion of said collection in the top photo).  Which I seriously love but never get to wear because I don’t have anything plain enough to serve as a good background for them.

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I’ve had the lightweight, stretchy black denim for this in my stash for a couple of years now, but I’ve been putting off making it, I think because I was afraid it wouldn’t work.

But we have a success!

I really like it!  I was going for “Art Teacher” and hoping to avoid “Nun” and “Dystopian YA Novel” and I think I’ve done that.  (I have some experience with nuns and they don’t generally go for statement necklaces.  I just hope I don’t look like an extra from “The Handmaid’s Tale.”)

I was surprised when I first took the pattern out of the envelope–I had already cut it and had totally forgotten.  I suspect that project was a wadder; this dress is fairly fitted and I had cut out a 20, which would have been too small.  This time, I graded up to a 22 at the bust and hips, 24 at the waist, and the fit was right on.

This is a really simple style, but it took some time to complete because the denim frays like you wouldn’t believe, and I had to finish all those long, long seam allowances.  I didn’t want to use my usual French seams because of the bulk of the denim, so I chose two different finishes:  for the princess seams front and back, I pressed the seams open, folded the seam allowances under, and stitched them down about 1/4″ from both sides of the seams.  I also changed the back zipper from a lapped to a centered style so that I could approximate the look of the topstitching on the back seam as well.

You can see some zig zagging there; I initially hoped that would be enough to tame the fraying, but no way.

I inserted pockets of black rayon-poly into the side seams (YAY POCKETS), then bound the seam allowances with some bias fabric strips I had cut the wrong size some time ago and never used.

Somewhere in the midst of all this, my sister and I signed up for an “Intro to Beading” class at the new Makerspace that opened up here recently.  And I made this:

I’m pretty sure I was the only one in the class that didn’t think it was weird, but it reminded me of a Mid-Century Modern walking tour I had done not too long before.

I was thinking of that black jumper as I was making it, and then I remembered that I still had some of that fantastically-soft purple knit in the stash.  So obviously I had to make a purple turtleneck to go with my black dress and purple glass necklace.

 

AND, as if that wasn’t enough, I’ve also taken my first stab at making leggings!

Which . . . didn’t work out so well.  I need to take them in at the waist and, I suspect, add some elastic to the yoga waistband, so I’ve set them aside for now.  I’ve still got about 2 yards each of the black and the purple knits, and definitely want to turn those into leggings once I have a pattern that works for me.  I’m going to have SO MANY cozy warm layers to wear this winter!  I’m really pleased with how my fall sewing plans are progressing.  I’ve now got 6 wearable items done!

Next up may be the vest, now that I have the turtleneck I wanted to wear under it.

I hope that your creativity is flowing in dramatic (and well-fitting) directions.

Talk to you soon.

STH

ETA:  I have linked this post up to Crafty Quilter’s October UFO Linkup.

 

 

 

 

Folk Art Flannel

Tags

Butterick 6099, clothing, Healthy and Happy: SSWD, SCRAP Tri-Cities, Sew Alongs & Sewing Contests Facebook Group, sewing

I am so very much NOT a fan of brown, but I LOVE this shirt.  Love all the fun colors, the super-soft flannel, the shape, everything.  And I did an image search to see if I was totally off-base comparing this to folk art and, nope, I was right.

Just to refresh your memory, the brown fabric was 2 yards of flannel from Goodwill, supplemented with some scraps of green flannel from my stash.

The illustrations on B6099 don’t do a great job of selling the pattern, but I liked the fact that it had some unusual features and I thought it might give me sort of a peasant-y look when paired with the flannel.

I did view A and sized down to an L based on the finished measurements, which worked out perfectly.  When Butterick puts “loose-fitting” in the pattern description, they mean it.

Still have a comfortable amount of ease there.

Cutting this out was quite a project.  I deliberated a long time on what fabric to pair with the brown, but I ultimately decided that I wanted something dark that wouldn’t upstage the main fabric.  Problem was that I only had scraps of the green.

I shortened the sleeves a few inches, but still had to piece them in order to get them on-grain.  I also added a center seam to the yoke and the collar facing.  The cuffs were narrowed and done in two pieces, as I didn’t have big enough scraps by that point to cut them whole and fold them over.

I added extra buttonholes and buttons (somehow I keep on doing that, don’t I?)  I marked the first buttonhole going the wrong way–perpendicular to the band rather than parallel–but I liked it, so I did them all that way.  😉

Breaking with tradition, I got the collar on the first try!

I don’t repeat patterns very often, but odds are good I’m going to try this one again; I think it would be wonderful in a lighter fabric for the spring, maybe a solid to show off the features better.  It’s not really a quick and easy sort of pattern, what with the pleats, front band (those things always confuse the hell out of me), and the cuffs; I think it could be very versatile, though, depending on the fabric you use.  In the meantime, however, I’m really loving how this came out, and I’m looking forward to wearing it if it ever cools off here.

This is project #2 in my Destination Healthy and Happy sew-along.  Project #3–the denim dress–is actually finished also, but I don’t have any decent pictures of it yet.  And decent pictures may not be possible until I up my exercise to where it should be and lose a few pounds I put on recently (I am HARRUMPHING SO HARD about this right now, you have no idea).

Next up is the black jumper that I’ve been meaning to make forever; I cut out fabric for a muslin last night and will sew that up this weekend.

There is a chance, however, that plans could change.  Just look at what happened today:

I saw this fabric yesterday at SCRAP and didn’t buy it.  Because I’m a sensible person, and I have lots of fabric, and I really don’t need more, right?  But then I obsessed over it–I actually dreamed about it, if you can believe that–and I went back this morning and bought it.

I initially thought it was fake fur, as I commented over at Steph’s place, but it’s actually a fuzzy fleece–even better!  The real color is a bit darker than the photo, just the richest, deepest red you can imagine with a subtle floral pattern.  I rarely wear red, for multiple reasons (that I really should write about sometime), but this is just gorgeous and so cuddly.  A jacket made out of this may yet find its way into my fall sewing plans.

Have a great weekend, everybody, and I hope you’re planning all sorts of colorful sewing for fall.

STH

Note:  I am linking this post up to Finished Or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts and Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.

Fall Sewing Plans

Tags

cats, Chiawana Park, clothing, Columbia River, Healthy and Happy: SSWD, Pasco, SCRAP Tri-Cities, Seasonal Sew Wardrobe Destination, Sew Alongs & Sewing Contests Facebook Group, sewing, Washington

Banks of the Columbia River on a warm late-summer evening . . . good place to ponder what to sew.

I have this terrible conflict when it comes to making sewing plans.

On the one hand, I want to be free!  Free to follow my muse wherever she leads!  I am a feather on the breeze!  Etc., etc.

On the other hand, I really like sewing with other people, even if only online.  Sewing is usually such a solitary thing, and it’s so fun to do it with a supportive group for a change.

I’m a member of several sewing groups on Facebook and one of them is hosting a sew-along with the theme “destination.”  You make 8 items (one of them can be an accessory) between August 15 and December 15 and post them in an album in the group.  Your destination can be a real place you’re going to, an imaginary place, somewhere you’d like to go, whatever.

I thought I might give it a try.  I’m really feeling these days as if I’m turning a corner in my life.  I’ve had a pretty lousy couple of years, and I’m working on making things better.  As I’m hoping to be employed soon, I’m going to need some new work clothes, as well as some things for hiking and walking outside in the cold.  And I really, really need to keep my energy and momentum going.  I need to be excited about the future I’m working toward because, you know, this is all really DAMN HARD WORK.

So, off we go, destination:  Healthy and Happy!

In no particular order, here are my planned sewing projects:

• Circle skirt.  I taught my circle skirt class last Saturday at SCRAP and worked on this in the class.  It’s some synthetic mystery fabric with a nice brushed finish to it.  Love the colors!

• Black jumper.  I keep promising to make this and it doesn’t happen.  This time it will.  The fabric is a lightweight denim with a bit of stretch.

• Brown flannel shirt.  I got this flannel from the Goodwill in Newburg, OR, last spring.  2 yards for $1.99.  I normally despise brown, but the colors in this are so pretty and I love the folk art-y style of it.  I cut this out last Sunday and was short on fabric, so I used some of this green flannel as well.  I’m doing view A.

• Denim shirtdress.  I got this fabric from SCRAP with the intention of making an overalls-type dress, but I reconsidered and decided to make something a bit less cutesy and more work-appropriate.  I’ve used this shirtdress pattern before and it was a winner, so I’m trying it again with this lightweight embroidered denim.

• Red vest.  This is the leftover stretchy fleece from the cycling jersey I made for my partner a few years ago.  The pattern is from SCRAP.  Still undecided on the lining, but the current front runner is a white cotton jacquard from the stash.  I’m thinking it needs snowflake appliques, too.

• Fleece hoodie.  Is this fabric great or what?  It’s a remnant from SCRAP, so it’s going to be combined with some other remnants to make the hoodie.

• Purple vest.  I haven’t decided which of these fabrics to use, but I’m leaning toward the purple tweedy stuff.  Both are mystery synthetic remnants from SCRAP and whichever one I choose will be paired with this black fabric (poly/rayon, I think) from the stash.

• Black turtleneck tunic.  To be worn with the vest and lots of other things.  Fabric is a nice cotton knit I found at SCRAP last Thursday; there’s enough of it to also make a cardigan, if I can find a pattern I like.  The T-neck pattern is from SCRAP, too.

• Maroon dress.  I don’t know if this style will work on me, but I love the cool modern look of it.  The fabric was a lovely surprise–I bought it years ago for making bags and had no idea I had nearly 3 yards left.  It’s the thickest, softest corduroy you ever saw in your life.

Here’s a better picture of the fabric.

OMG YOU GUYS JUST LOOK AT THIS YUMMINESS

So, that’s 9 projects (10, if you count the black knit cardigan) and I only need 8 for the sew-along, so I have a little flexibility.  I am not a fast sewer, and some of these will be somewhat complex, so this is pretty ambitious for me.  Even if I don’t finish, though, I expect to come out of it with some sharp new clothes.

As of right now, I have the circle skirt hanging up while I decide whether or not to hem it.  The brown flannel shirt and denim dress are cut out and ready to sew; I think I’m going to get going on the latter, as it’s about 95F here and I can wear it right away.

I leave you with a picture of Shelby demonstrating the proper use of a scrap of embroidered denim that your mom has given you to play with.

Off to sew.  Have a great weekend, all!

STH