Jalie 2921: Scarf Collar Top

I think this was my first make of 2014 for me.  I've been wanting to make this pattern up since I saw Lauren's version last year.  I love it!

One of the things I loved about making this top was the construction steps.  Jalie has you sew the scarf collar with the top inside it (before sewing the side seams) so that the scarf has a nice finish all the way around.  It looked a bit like a sausage when I sewed it up:

You have to remember to leave a gap in one end of the scarf so that you can turn the sausage back into a top (and then slip stitch the hole closed).  I love learning new techniques like this!

I used a super soft rayon blend fabric that I purchased from GorgeousFabrics.com.  I bought the magenta, and now I have my eye on the peacock.  Seriously, this fabric is like wearing marshmallows, without the stickiness.  It's so stretchy that I was worried about recovery, but it's not an issue - it stays in shape all day. And I've washed the top a couple times with no funny business.

See how cozy it is?!

I didn't need to do much with this pattern, fit wise.  I cut a U on top and tapered to a T at the waist/hips. I lengthened the sleeves, because I wanted something that would keep my lower arms warm. And I added clear elastic to the back neck area as well as the shoulder seams because it seemed like a good idea with the scarf. This is my first Jalie pattern and I'm sold!!

I'm not really sure about the tying the scarf into a bow.  Here's my best attempt, and it's not so hot:

This really is a bow, trust me.

 I'm much more likely to wear it in a knot (I'm capable of tying that) or loose like a tie/scarf.

I liked this pattern so much, that my second make of 2014 was a dress, using Jalie 2921 on top and my TNT Sew U Stretch skirt on the bottom.  I'll show you how I did it later this week!

P is for Perfect

And it is also for peplum and I am in love with this style top!  Oh, Peplum, where have you been all my life???

I can't believe it took me this long to make one.  I could have been wearing these tops for at least a year now!  I think they are just pefect for us inverted triangle shapes - boosts the hips, nips the waist just like I like it. 

This is the first one I made.  The fabric is a ponte knit I bought from Fabric.com ages ago.  I like how the peplum forms with this weight of fabric.  This is the second version of this top - I first made the peplum with a 3/4 circle skirt but it was too full for me.  So I ripped that seam out and re-made the peplum closer to what I had in mind.  I kept things simple and finished the neck and arms with black fold-over elastic (stretching just a little as I sewed).

I had to add back darts to get the back to fit well in the upper back, but hey!  They worked!

And the next day I made another one . . .

This one is made from a crepe jersey I purchased from GorgeousFabrics.com (yes, it's also the fabric I used in my Garnet Hill knock-off, and yes I might just have enough for one last top).  This time I finished the neck with neckline binding using a bias strip of fabric.

I extended the bodice on this one and it's a little too long in the back.  I should rip and re-stitch, but we'll see.

I used the bodice, skirt, and sleeve patterns from Wendy Mullin's Sew U Home Stretch.  To make the peplum, I traced the top 10 inches of the skirt pattern, then drew two slash lines (dividing the skirt into three sections, two equal sized sections and one half as big at center front/back).  I spread each slash 1.75 inches and the new pattern pieces look like this:

You want to see the pieces with the slash & spread?  Yeah, sorry about that.  I crumpled them up and tossed them in the trash before I thought about taking a picture.  Oh, well!

For the elbow-length sleeves I morphed the short sleeve pattern and the long sleeve pattern in the book to get the look/fit I wanted.  I can't really describe this process.  I just played around with the two pieces, tracing them and re-tracing them until they looked right (ie., looked similar to the Silhouette Pattern #195 sleeves that I often use as a base).

I like this look so much that it might inspire me to try a dress with a full skirt, something I've long avoided.  Who knows?  This could me a turning point in my wardrobe and next thing you know I'll be making one of these:

Vogue 2960

I do love this.  And I actually own dear Vogue 2960.  I just can't see myself actually wearing this to anywhere except tea with the Queen.  And as of yet, I haven't been invited.

Fashion Parade, Part the First

Happy December!  I have been hunkered down for the past few (oops, five) weeks, drafting and sewing and seam ripping and handstitching.  I received so many orders during the double skirt party weekend, that I haven't been able to think much beyond trying to get the orders done.  But as the holidays are here, I'm making myself relax a bit.  Feels good.

I have a heap of garments to show and I thought briefly of cramming them into one long post, but that seemed, well, too crammed.  So I hope to break them up in a series of posts so that you can see what I've been up to!  And when I say "I", I really now mean "we" - I hired a lovely woman named Carol to help out so that I could finish all my winter orders before spring comes around.

I'm going to start with the two skirts we finished most recently, as the process is still fresh.  Catherine is a new client, and she wanted a skirt replicated.  I've done this for myself before, but never for someone else.  Here's the original skirt:

It is a simple six-panel straight skirt with a cute pleated section in the center back, welt pockets, and a waistband.  Catherine says she wears this skirt all the time so it's a good style to copy.

She chose a striped stretch sateen fabric that I purchased a while back from GorgeousFabrics.com.  The two challenges to this skirt were 1) matching up the stripes, and 2) making the welt pockets (something I'd never done before).  To make the stripes go a little easier, I decided to cut the waistband in the opposite direction.  Carol handled challenge #1 beautifully when she put the parts of the skirt together, which left me with the challenge of matching the kick pleat to the stripes and making the welt pockets.  Here's how it turned out:

I planned to finish the waistband with topstitching but that didn't look right.  I ripped out those stitches and finished the waistband by hand - I'm very happy I did as it looks so much better!

This next skirt was for Stacey, another new client.  I've made something similar to skirt before, so I decided to change it up by adding a hem facing.  I love how cute it looks from the inside and I hope it might peek out every once in a while! 

I also did a drapey deep cowl neck for Stacey in the same metallic jersey I used for my own.  I've got another top like this on order - I guess everyone loves a little sparkle at this time of the year!

A Solution to the Problem Shirt and a Warning from Trivium

One of the things I love about sewing is that it gives me ample opportunities to solve problems.  In my past life as a teacher and teacher supervisor, solving problems was my favorite part of the job because it allowed me to make connections and be creative. 

Last weekend I didn't have much time to sew so I decided to make another top based on the Simplicity 2580 pattern.  I've already made a dress and another top from this pattern, and I was pleased with the results both times:

I decided that I wanted a basic white version of the top. Sunday afternoon I quickly cut and sewed the top only to find when I threw it on that there were tiny HOLES in the fabric, about 4 inches above the hem.  I bought this fabric on clearance from the Vogue Fabrics booth at the Sewing Expo I attended last March in Schaumburg.  I vaguely remembered (after the fact) seeing these holes when I took a closer look at the fabric when I got home, but when I went to cut out the fabric I completely forgot about them because I was trying to avoid a rust-colored smudge in the middle of the fabric (not my most successful clearance purchase). 

So now the small amount of sewing time I had last weekend had been squandered on a failed project.  Before I got too humpfy I decided to see if there was a way to solve the problem.  The holes were too high up to fix by cutting off the lower part of the shirt and adding a hem band.  Then I thought about cutting off the entire bottom half of the top (at the bodice seam).  I've been wanting to sew a color block something so this seemed like a good fit, but I couldn't find any solid jersey in my stash that felt right.  So I turned to my closet to see if something would work. 

And now I have a top I like made up of my failed project, an Anthropologie shirt that never really worked on me, and a strip of fabric left over from an alteration I made to a client's jersey skirt: 

Ta-dah!


I'm happy with this save but I was left feeling vaguely dissatisfied.  I think I have a bigger problem to solve.  I've been reading The Phantom Tollboth to Cora and this passage really struck me:

     "But why do only unimportant things?" asked Milo, who suddenly remembered how much time he spent each day doing them.
     "Think of all the trouble it saves," the man explained, and his face looked as if he'd be grinning an evil grin - if he could grin at all.  "If you only do the easy and useless jobs, you'll never have to worry about the important ones which are so difficult.  You just won't have the time.  For there's always something to do to keep you from what you really should be doing, and if it weren't for that dreadful magic staff, you'd never know how much time you were wasting."

The man speaking in this passage is the Terrible Trivium, "demon of petty tasks and worthless jobs, ogre of wasted effort, and monster of habit."

And I realized (probably again) that I've avoided taking on harder personal projects during my weekend sewing time because I'll need several weekends to finish them.  I've opted for unimportant, easy projects instead of important (in terms of skills development), harder ones.  And so even being successful with a problematic small project just doesn't thrill me because the whole project is not that challenging.

So here's my solution.  This week I will cut out and start work on one of the Burdastyle dresses I've had my eye on (so that I can finish it in time for the August 5 Summer Sewing Challenge deadline).  And then I'm going to start Gertie's Bombshell Dress online sewing class I purchased from Craftsy.com, in which I'll learn to "customize the included BurdaStyle pattern, make a muslin, and construct a highly tailored garment with boning, bust padding, underlining and hand-picked zipper."

Oh. Boy. 

What's Up: Chevron Skirt, Sewing Supplies Organizer, New Fabric

Greetings!

One of my new clients, Maria, ordered a chevron jersey skirt.  I'm making it from a striped fabric, so I needed to create a prototype to figure out how to do it before I started cutting up her lovely Ella Moss fabric.  Since it worked, I now have a new skirt for myself!

The fabric is a striped rayon jersey that I bought from Fabric.com a while back because it was a) on sale for $2.39/yard, and b) a interesting color combination for a stripe.  It's now out-of-stock so don't fall in love with it!

I had to do some fiddly cutting out and pinning to get the chevron effect at the front and side seams but it was certainly worth the effort.  I hope to get a tutorial up for this skirt by next week for those who want to DIY, and I hope to have pictures of Maria's version of the skirt by then, too.

I wrapped up a different kind of project that I started while I was on vacation in Pennsylvania.  I did most of it there but needed some tools that I didn't have to finish it up, and I finally found a free hour this weekend.  This pocket organizer is long overdue in my sewing room:

I used a large upholstery swatch and some thick plastic wrap that came with something we bought ages ago.  I usually love to throw things out, but this plastic looked like it might be useful someday.  And now it is!  I generally followed a tutorial I found over at IndieTutes.  I also think this would be a great project for recycling a crib bumper and the vinyl wrapper that housed it.

Fabric.com had a big sale on ITY and other knit fabrics and I went a little chevron crazy there.  I did buy a few not-chevron prints, but as you can see, the chevrons won! 

To my clients: let me know if you see something you like for a late summer/ fall top.

The top I worked on this weekend would look fantastic with a chevron print and I've got a couple variations of this top in my head that I hope to produce soon. The top is based on the Simplicity 2580 pattern that I used for a dress a few weeks ago.  And it also features one of my new loves: fold over elastic!  I'll wax poetic on wonderful stuff another day.  And I'll have better photos of the top later, but here's a quickie:

Next week I'll have some lovely client skirts to show and a funky dress I've been working on for Cora!  Have a great week!

What's Up: Work on Skirts, MaiseyBelle Reversible Bags, Flower Scrap Pins, Yet Another Cowl Neck Jersey Top

Greetings and Salutations!  I'm in the middle of finishing items for the Urban Crafter's Trunk Show on Saturday, so today's post is going to be fast and furious so I can get back to getting things together.

Marides' skirts are next on the list for client work.  The first skirt is one of my bias trim skirts and it is coming along nicely.  Marides chose navy twill with Amy Butler Midwest Modern II Fresh Poppise in sky, and the colors work well together:

Marides' second skirt is a yoked a-line from Joel Dewberry's Tile Flourish in Amber.  As the print is large and striking, I wanted to match the print across the center back seam and join it in a thoughtful way between the yoke and the skirt.  Everything was going well until I forgot to fold back out the center back seam allowance after matching the print so one half of the back was 1/2" wider than the other.  If you had been in my neighborhood you would have heard the long ARRRRGGHHH I let out.  I didn't have enough fabric to cut a new piece so I had to order more.  I tried to console myself with the knowlege that this is only the second time I've had to go out-of-pocket to fix a mistake, but it's still frustrating - especially since my mistake was so, well, dumb. 

Devon's aunt ordered another MaiseyBelle Reversible Bag for a friends' birthday (she's a great supporter - see my Seven Bags in Seven Days post) and since it only takes a bit longer to make two v. one, I made a second one for the show.  I still love this bag!

I've also been putting together some flower scrap pins to have a small, less pricey option on offer at the show.  These are easy because I can work on them at the kitchen table with the girls while they are doing crafts. 

One of the things I've learned about myself over the years is that I'm not very good at keeping a slow-and-steady pace.  I tend towards more of a go hard-crash-go hard-crash pace.  For a long time I thought that this was a flaw that I should fix, but I've learned that I'm much happier and more creative this way.  I have learned to see the crash coming so that I don't completely run myself into the ground so that it takes a whole week to recover.

And that's what I saw coming as I contemplated what projects to do this past weekend.  I wanted to do a corsetted pencil skirt - I want one for myself and it would be a good thing to have as a sample at the craft show - but it requires a level of effort and concentration that would have just sent me crashing into a pit of exhaustion.  So instead I did some mindless cutting out of wallet pieces and a couple of quick cowl neck tops (one for myself, one for a friend's birthday).  I changed things up a bit by adding a 6" band to the bottom of one top and contrast thread on the other:

And then I went out on the town with my friends Candice and Kristen for an evening of cocktails and laughter and stories.  Here I am posing with Cora and Maisey in my handmade outfit (and the girls wanted to get in on the action by also wearing things that I've made) as I head out the door:

I'll post later this week with more info on the trunk show and pictures of the set up.  Have a great week!

What's Up: Skirts for Domenica, Teaching, Sticky Fingers, Sleeves

It is a lovely spring day here in Berwyn: the sun is shining and all is well.  AND Grandpa is coming to take the girls to the zoo shortly so I can have a few extra sewing hours, so my cup overfloweth indeed.

I had a good week although it was not without it's pitfalls.  My main focus was completing Domenica's skirts as she wanted them for a vacation this week.  The first skirt came together well: straightforward fitting and no sewing mishaps.  Domenica chose a fun print from Sherri Berry Designs called Mod Tod Gears in Green.  The shorter length and flirty ruffle work well with this fun print:

The second skirt should have been easy as it was almost the same style as the first; I just wanted to move the zipper from the center back to the side and add a lining.  Easy peasy.  But you know when you are trying to parallel park your car into an easy spot but you just can't seem to get the angle right?  That's how I felt mid-way through making this skirt.  I felt like the skirt was cursed.  (Sorry Domenica, it really isn't.)  At almost every step I made some dumb mistake that was completely fixable but still annoying and time-consuming.  Like: I almost ran out of fabric while cutting it out (I had to piece together the inside back waistband), I sewed my label onto the front of the waistband instead of the back, I completely sewed up (and SERGED) both side seams of the lining so there was no opening to put it on, I turned around one part of the waistband while sewing it together.  My seam ripper got a good workout on this skirt as did my patience.  I finally walked away and came back to it later in the evening after relaxing for a bit.  The last few steps went smoothly so I guess the poltergeist had moved on from my sewing room.  I hope she didn't come to yours.

Here is the cursed skirt, looking very cheerful and obedient:

Domenica chose Happy Mochi Yum Yum India in Lemon (isn't that a lovely name?) for the main fabric.  I added teal topstitching to the pockets and waistband and a teal button for the closure.  And please notice how I matched the print on the pocket and pocket facing - nice, huh?!  I'll be making a reversible wrap skirt for Domenica a little later this summer.  She even found the tutorial for me!

Cora, my 4.5-year-old, has been practicing her hand sewing with a plastic needle and felt (little holes punched out).  I decided that it was time for her to try the real thing (thread, sharp needle).  This decision was mostly based on need - I wanted to keep working on something and needed to give Cora something novel to do.  And it turns out that she's ready!  Here's what she made:

If you can't tell, it's a Tooth Fairy pillow.  She wanted to put the eye drops in the pocket for the picture so that everyone could tell that the pillow has a pocket.  And she's super happy that she now has a handmade creation on my blog.  Ah, kids!

And speaking of kids, I think I can now say that I have taught sewing.  Teaching is not new for me - I spent 13 years as a teacher and teacher supervisor at a supplementary reading program - but I haven't yet taught sewing.  Liita, who runs Little Bits Workshop, invited me to come work with one of her students who was having trouble with a pleated skirt.  I jumped at the chance and had a lot of fun.  It was rewarding to work with someone new to sewing and L, the student, did a great job.  She got frustrated/bored/tired of the skirt at one point but pushed through until she got to a good stopping point.  So now she's got one more experience with the rewards of perserverance under her belt.  And Liita offered me a more regular teaching job going forward.  You can't see my smile but I hope you can feel it coming through the screen!

I decided to try to produce 4-5 clutch wallets for the Urban Trunk Show at Little Bits Workshop on May 12.  This item fits best with the upcycling/recycling emphasis at Little Bits and Liita thinks that they will sell well.  It usually takes me about 4 hours to make one, so I'll need to find a way to shave off some time.  One way to do this is to go into factory line mode, as I'm often faster when I am doing the same thing over and over again.  This weekend I did the work of selecting about 70 swatches to use for the wallets and then removed all of their backings.  I had to stop a couple of times to wash my hands as they kept getting sticky from the backing and the residue left on the fabric.  But here are 6 (including one for Jen) packs of wallet fabric, all ready for the cutting table (I'll try to squeeze that in somehow this week).

And, finally, I managed to find a small amount of time to sew some tops.  I fixed the Dolman Sleeve top (tutorial from Make It Love It) from last week by cutting 6 inches off the length and attaching a 5 inch band at the bottom.  I used the too-small version of the top to make the band so I still have a bit of fabric left (maybe a little shirt for Cora or Maisey or their bears?).  I also re-did the neck band and I'm much happier with it.  I don't know that this is ever going to be my favorite top, but I like it more.  And surprisingly, Devon went out of his way to say that he liked it and his usual response is a perfunctory "nice, good work," when I beg for a compliment on something that I've made. 

Oh!  And check out the chevron on the sleeves.  This was a bit of a happy accident.  I wanted to make sure that the stripes matched at the side seams so I laid the cut-out front on the fabric so that I could match the stripes before cutting out the back.  I didn't even think about the fact that this would make a chevron along the shoulder seam, but it did!

I was feeling a little unfulfilled on Sunday afternoon because all I'd managed to do sewing-wise was getting all that backing off the swatches.  So while Devon took Cora to the store and Maisey was still napping, I whipped up another cowl neck top.  I wanted to try putting a short sleeve on it so I flipped through my patterns to find one that I liked.  I stole the cap sleeve from Vogue 8787 (which is a great dress - I need to make this soon!):

Vogue 8787

I didn't really spend much time thinking about how this would work.  I cut out a size and pulled the armsyce while I sewed in the sleeve to give it a curve. And it worked!  Have I said yet how much I love sewing with jersey?  So in less than an hour I had this new top:

So this week I will finish Bryn's skirts and start working on Marides' skirts.  And then there's all that cutting to do.  Maybe I can borrow some of L's perseverance.

Have a great week!