LateNightStitchery

At the end of December I shared my #2018MAKENINE sewing goals on Instagram.  I thought I would share them in this space too.  Included are the links, in case you would like to sew them!

Are you perhaps wondering what the “Make Nine” is all about?  There’s a really great blog post to explain it here.  My intent to join this years challenge is so that I can keep my focus and not get crazy MAKING.ALL.THE.THINGS…..which very well could happen.

Here is a rundown of my nine:

1.  The Toaster Sweater by Sew House Seven.  I’ve had this cut out for a while and really need to get sewing it.  It’s a cozy pullover that would be perfect for February weather.
2. The Branches and Buds Pullover by Carrie Bostick Hoge from Making Magazine, issue 1, Flora.  It’s so beautiful and I have cast on and but have made a mistake with the branches in the second row, so I need to fix that.  This will be the second sweater I have knit.
3. The Owyn Pants by Lotta Jansdotter from her wonderful book Everyday Style.
4. The Gemma Tank by Rae Hoekstra.  This is a staple pattern in my wardrobe and I’ve blogged about it here, here and here.  I was thinking about adding sleeves.  Hmmm.  We’ll see.
5. The middle picture above of the yellow Ruby Top/Dress, also by Rae Hoekstra is another favorite.  I only have one hanging in my closet and yet I think its such a wardrobe staple.  I would like to have a few more in my closet to pair with jeans.  I see this top in a lot of catalogues; here is one from Garnet Hill, with sleeves:
6. The The Lander Pant & Short pattern by True Bias.  If you are a garment sewer, you will have heard of these pants.  They are all over the internet and with good reason!  This pattern makes such a great pair of pants.  I have made a pair (to be blogged soon) and just love them.  I would like a pair of shorts for the summer.
7. The Lander Shorts (see #6).
8. The Sophie Swimsuit by Closet Case patterns.  I want to make a swimsuit (or two) for myself.  I’m sick of not finding swimsuits that fit my bust or finding ones that do but having to pay a small fortune.  The Sophie Swimsuit has a one-piece version with chest support and I want to challenge myself to make one – and be brave enough to blog about it.
9. Last of my Instagram MAKENINE is the Wiksten Oversized Kimono from Making Magazine, Issue 4, Lines.

While those patterns above are what I want to make over this year…of course there are more things that I would also like to sew.  In my sewing que is the Archer Button Up Shirt.  I’ve got two fabrics waiting to be cut!  And how about another Stasia dress?

Better get sewing….

This summer, Meg from Sew Liberated released the Stasia dress and top pattern. Although it was mid-summer and I wasn’t having a lot of sewing time, I knew as soon as fall hit that I would want to make the 3/4 sleeve Stasia.  It looked really great on Meg (she is a fashion inspiration) and I kept seeing great versions popping up on Instagram.  Really, ALL of the versions looked great on everyone who had made the dress…I couldn’t wait to get sewing.

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Usually, I sew with woven types of fabrics and tend to shy away from knits often feeling that they show every lump and bump.  I hoped this wouldn’t be the case with a good quality knit and decided to buy jersey from April Rhodes line, Observer, by Art Gallery.  I’m slightly in love with this collection of fabrics.

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After reading through the pattern and cutting the fabric, I found this dress to be a very quick sew.  The Stasia Dress shows off your curves but doesn’t feel too revealing at all.  In fact, it’s amazingly comfortable.  If your tummy isn’t super flat (…ahem..) it doesn’t matter as the cut of the dress is so flattering.  The top of the pattern is cut shorter; the top ends at the smallest part of your waist.  It really accentuates the waist and the skirt is full without gathers around your middle (which can sometimes make your waist look bigger).  The directions are very well written and the pattern is true to size.  There’s a great section about “Tips for Sewing with Knits on a Sewing Machine or Serger”.  I used a Schmetz Stretch needle based on the recommendation from this section.  The pattern also mentions using a different type of thread, which I didn’t have on hand but will be picking up soon.  Did I mention there were pockets?

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Hello curves, there you are!  I cut a straight size 12 for the dress although for the shoulders I cut a 10.  I also added 1.5″ to the length of the skirt.  I wore this dress to the fair with my family.  Without trying to sound obnoxious, I loved wearing this dress.  I felt pretty, feminine and stylish in it.  Thank you Meg for making such a great pattern!

Hi there! It’s been awhile!

Summer came (and is on its way out) and I’m getting back into the groove of sewing and planning for the fall.  Since I’m not quite ready to acknowledge fall–I want to tell you about a fun sewing project I had at the beginning of summer.  Have you heard of the #handmadedressswap over on Instagram?  I signed up this spring and was paired up with a woman from Australia.  It was quite simple and as the website states: You make a dress for someone and they make one for you. Simple. No money is exchanged.  I’ve been following the dress swap for a bit on Instagram and signed up as soon as applications were being accepted.

It was fun!  And a bit nerve-wracking (well, not really) just in the usual way of “Oh, I hope she likes it!  I hope it fits her!”  I was paired with a lovely woman named Erica who specializes in working with African Wax Print Fabric.  She has a an online shop called Been And Done and makes beautiful things!  After many emails and messages we both picked out the patterns we liked and got to sewing.  We both wanted dresses in this fabric.

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Erica chose the Deer & Doe dress pattern “Belladone”.  It makes such a flattering dress!  It nips in at the waist and has front pockets too.  She had requested the back cutout and I made that but could not for the life of me get the back top piece to lie flat.  It’s the third time I’ve made this dress and have not had success with the cutout piece. Does anyone else have this problem with the Belladone?  I fiddled and fiddled with the back until I threw my hands up and decided to make the plain back.  I’ve also never sewn with African Wax Cloth before and wasn’t sure about the texture of the yellow fabric that I bought.  It was beautiful but didn’t have any body and so the finished dress seemed a little dressier, in my opinion.  I think I need to learn more about this type of fabric as it is BEAUTIFUL and I would love to sew with it more!  Here are pictures of the finished dress:

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For my dress I chose Simplicity Amazing fit 1277 dress pattern.  I really liked the side panels and the hidden, flat front pockets.  After I received my dress I bought the pattern.  It’s very flattering on!  I will be making more.

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One thing I loved about this swap is that I was paired with someone with children.  We both completely understood if we were running behind schedule as there were little ones around to take care of.  That was pretty great!  We got our dresses in the mail right around the same time and received them around the same time too.  The dress I received was so beautiful!  So, so gorgeous!  But sadly, it didn’t fit.  I couldn’t zip it up (note to self: eat less bread).  This wonderful woman sneakily sent me ANOTHER ONE!!  She was so incredibly kind to do that and it really made my day.  Thank you again Erica!  The dress was sewn so perfect and I just love it!

Here is my beautiful dress:

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Many thanks to Taz who does this amazing dress swap.  Thank you for organizing the swap.  What a wonderful idea and thank you so much for letting me participate!

Thank you also to Erica for the beautiful dress and your kindness!

I’m off to sew….more projects coming soon! Have a great week.

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If I was a poet and was gifted with rhyme and song, I would call this post ‘Ode to a tank top’ or ‘Ode to Gemma’.  Alas,  I am not, but you’re still welcome to sing this post in your head as it’s my love song to this simple summer pattern.  (FYI – I’m singing as I type.)

If you read along at all, I have made a couple of the Gemma Tank tops here and here.  The pattern is by Rae Hoekstra of the Made by Rae blog.  In the past, I hadn’t quite perfected the fit.  Having previously cut a straight medium, based on bust measurements, the bust fit great but everything lower was too big.  This spring, after unloading my summer bin of clothes (Does everyone else use bins for off-season clothing?  We do.  Big plastic bin family here.) I realized basics were needed.  Badly.  While being a big fan of skirts and dresses, tanks and shorts are required when you are chasing your 5 yr old around or going for bike rides.  I’ve tried a few other woven tank top patterns but haven’t had a lot of luck as they tended to run boxy.  Boxy = maternity-looking if you are short and curvy, which I am.  I want something to accentuate my curves not hide them.  Which brings me back to this great basic summer tank top, the Gemma.  It’s easy and quick to sew, comes in different cup sizes (yay!!) and is very easy to adjust the right sizing for the perfect fit.  I’ve made quite a few!

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The yellow floral tank top (above) was my muslin.  The fabric for the yellow floral is a very lightweight quilting cotton and I have yards and yards in my stash.  I’m not sure where I bought it.  I planned on using it to perfect the pattern but actually liked it after it was sewed up.  My perfect fit for this pattern is/was a medium for the bust in a C/D cup and then tapered down to an X-small at the waist and back out to a small for the bottom.  Based on the finished garment measurements, this would fit me perfectly, and it did.  I didn’t want it too loose.

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Next up, I made two tanks from the Luminous Yarn Dye collection by Anna Maria Horner. The color way on the left is ‘Metallic Plum’ and the right is ‘Metallic Sea Foam’.  Both fabrics are listed as quilting cottons, but they don’t have the same thickness and are pretty lightweight.  If you click on the picture above, you may be able to see the metallic graph fabric.  These have already had plenty of wear and are in constant rotation.  Both fabrics were purchased at Hawthorne Threads, online.

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Everyone needs a white tank top, right?  For this one I used Brussels Washer Linen-Rayon blend, also from Hawthorne Threads.  Do you like my new clothing labels?

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Last, I made two more Gemma tanks in Alison Glass Handcrafted Jersey Knit fabric; again purchased at Hawthorne threads.  The colors are Taupe and Navy.  I really love this knit fabric.  It is very wide (67″!!) and is 100% cotton.  It feels like T-shirt weight and its very good quality.  Because it is 100% cotton (no lycra or elasticity), there is no stretch. Therefore I didn’t need to modify the pattern at all (like cutting a smaller size due to the stretch factor). I’m surprised that more people haven’t written about this fabric online.  I do hope Alison Glass continues making it and adds more colors.  For the bias around the neck and arms, I didn’t fold it under to hide the edges.  I wanted the edges to show and perhaps give the tank a little texture.

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This ends my love song for the perfect summer tank top.  If you are still singing along as you read, I’m impressed.  Perhaps you will try this pattern as a warm weather piece?  I’m giving it two thumbs up!

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It’s May…Hooray!  I love this month.  The trees and flowers are budding and it also happens to be the first day of the Me Made May challenge. I’ve just taken the pledge myself, and you might want to if it interests you, no matter how many handmade clothing pieces you own.  This month makes me proud to be able to sew my own wardrobe.

Speaking of sewing, last summer I made the Women’s Tunic, from Anna Graham’s book “Handmade Style”.  I lengthened it from tunic to dress and it fast became a favorite.  I have been wanting to make another one and bought this beautiful rayon back in February, knowing it would need to become another of these tunic/dresses.

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The rayon challis is from the Fruit Dots collection for Cotton & Steel.  It’s rather retro and I really like it.  For the tunic, I lengthened it about four inches to make a dress.  I was googling it for other pictures of these dresses (tunics) and only saw a few.  This surprises me because it’s so flattering on and such a great pattern.  It has dolman sleeves and the drawstring waist nips in to create a very shapely look; the fabric is so soft and the best part is that the dress is super comfortable!

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It was pretty dreary and cold out today so I paired my new dress with a cropped cardigan , leggings and my boots.  Please excuse the wrinkles!  I was wrangling two wild kids at the same time a friend was trying to snap pictures of me.

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I’ve got to ask because it’s on my mind and if you read this little blog at all, you know I have a penchant for WWII books…..and now a great TV show that takes place during the same time.  And the clothes are great!  🙂  Have you seen Home Fires on PBS?  This is season two, and sadly the last season, but oh, what a great show!  Sunday night’s episode was so great.  So so great!  Happy May 1st to you!

It seems kind of funny to title this blog post ‘Summer Tops’, a few days after a crazy snowstorm!  Snow storm ‘Stella’ just ripped through here on Tuesday leaving a snowy, icy mess.  The kids and I were housebound and cozy and it was exciting for them when we lost power for a few hours (maybe not so exciting as I kept reminding them not to open the refrigerator or flush the toilet).  The wind was crazy and our home is surrounded by a tall pine forest so there was a lot of tree watching going on; and boy did those trees bend and sway in the wind (yikes)!

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But summer isn’t far off, right?  I needed a few things for our past warm weather trip and had just visited the lovely Pintuck & Purl, so let me show you what I whipped up.

The first top I made is the Gemma tank by Rae Hoekstra.  The fabric is ‘Lasformas Voile’ by Leah Duncan from the Yucca collection.  I have made this tank before (here) and really like it.  I like the jewel neck (higher neckline) and cut a size medium C/D cup and then tapered down to a small under the bust.  I hand sewed the hem as I was watching a movie and it’s always so relaxing to have handiwork in my lap.  It was a quick sew, very versatile and I love that it’s a pattern for woven fabric.

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I also fell in love with some gorgeous Nani Iro ‘Colorful Pocho’ double gauze and NEEDED to make something with it.  I wanted to make a simple scoop neck woven top and thought I would try the Beatrix top (also by Rae Hoekstra), minus the buttons down the back.  I have made several Beatrix tops (here’s one and another) and really like this pattern.  For this top, I just cut the back piece on the fold,  making a size medium C/D cup.  Under the bust I tapered down to a size small.  I sewed french seams for a very clean look inside.  I love this pattern without the buttons too so there may be more buttonless Beatrix’s in my future.

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Have you read anything great lately?  I’m looking for a great book and welcome suggestions…feel free to send them my way.  Have you seen anything great lately?  I can’t tell you how many times Captain Fantastic has played after the kids are in bed (it’s embarrassing).  Viggo Mortensen stars in this great film about someone that is just an exceptional Dad (minus a few choice parenting blunders).  This is a great movie!  Last thing I wanted to tell you is that Making magazine is now offering subscriptions.  If you are a knitter, sewer or crafter this magazine is bliss.

Happy weekending folks!