My First Spring Sew - TNT Pattern McCall's 6744

We've been hit by a heat wave here and the weather quickly turned my focus from winter sewing to spring sewing even though I have a couple of projects left for winter.  I saw this fabric and couldn't resist.

I used McCall's 6744 View C, a TNT pattern that goes together quickly and is really comfortable.  I feel like it's dressy without being fussy and it works in the heat.  Whew!

Last time I made it I made a skirt with no slit but this time I made it just like the pattern.  This ITY knit from Fabricland (the store I teach at) is black, white and coral.  The fabric flows nicely without clinging but all that flowing can make the slit come open a little more than I like.  I'll sew down the opening about 5" to remedy this...I don't want to surprise anyone.  Uh-hem.

I used a twin needle to finish all the hems and the neckline, and added 5/8" wide fusible knit interfacing to stabilize the front opening.  It keeps it's shape without stretching as I'm wearing it.

It looks like the weather will stay warm for at least another week so I'll be able to enjoy it.

Have you started spring sewing?

Diane

I've Got Georgia On My Mind

I just got back from a whirlwind trip to NYC for my husband's show in Chelsea.  The weather was crazy, the city was busy but I still found it all so inspiring.  Far and away, my favorite part of the trip was seeing my husband's paintings on the walls of the gallery.

Often, he invites me out to his studio at our home to look at paintings while he's working on them.  I look forward to his invitations because I love watching the process of creating a new body of work and dodging globs of paint on the studio floor.  But the best part is when the time comes to view the paintings up on a wall, well lit and in a beautiful space.  And as a bonus...no paint on my shoes!

"Beauregard"

I was able to steal a selfish couple of hours to "drive-by" the fabric district, City Quilter and M&J Trimmings.  A few pieces of fabric found their way home with me as did some ribbon trim.  All in all however, I didn't go crazy buying too much but I did come home energized to sew.

Some "Beauregard" inspired fabrics from City Quilter

Don't ask me how it happened but I went to NYC and came back with Georgia on my mind.  I found a couple of really fun knits in the fabric district and decided it would be fun to do a post on my Georgia Pattern and show you how I make it in under 2 hours!

This sounds like a great time for a sale so I'm putting Blue Dot's The Georgia Top PDF pattern on sale at 50% off, yep that's only $6 until the end of this month!  You can check out my patterns on Etsy, too.  Yay!

So my friends, grab yourself some knit and the Georgia PDF pattern and let's make it together.  I'll be posting my "Georgia In Two Hours" post next week on the blog.  I hope you'll join me!

Happy Stripe Tee - Simplicity 1620

Like most of you out there, I'm constantly looking at patterns.  I feel like I've either seen, purchased or sewn just about every pattern out there.  So, I absolutely love when a blogger shares a project from a pattern I've seen a million times before and simply passed over.  My happy stripe tee uses one of those patterns.

The lovable Sunni from A Fashionable Stitch made a beautiful blouse from Simplicity 1620 and I immediately went out and bought the pattern.  Although Sunni's version is much more elegant than this one, this pattern is perfect for filling the cute t-shirt gap in my wardrobe.  I have plenty of basic tees from Target but I wanted a couple of shirts that were not quite so basic but still really comfy for the summer.

I purchased this fabric from a store that was closing because it looked so happy it almost said "Hi" as I walked by.  I made a size 12 and I changed the straight hem into a shirttail.  It looks much better when I wear it with pants.  Here's how I did it:

I made a mark 3" up from the hem at the side seam.

Using my French curve ruler (every sewer needs one and they are super cheap here), I made a curve from my line almost to the hem, then flipped the curve and continued the line all the way to the hem.  I repeated this on the other side and got this:

Looks like it was meant to be, right?

 

Knits can be a little unruly when trying to put a tiny hem in them, so I serged the bottom and used that as the guide for pressing in the hem.  I used a zigzag stitch to finish it off.

This entire top took less than two hours to make.  It's a quick victory which we need every now and again.

Here it is tucked into my favorite skirt (not a great picture but the Santa Ana winds were in full force when I took this picture so I had to take what I could get).

I've got more clothing projects on deck but believe it or not I need to finish a DC comics "Squirrel Girl" costume for my niece first.  Because every girl needs a squirrel girl costume...

What are you making?

Diane

Purple People Sweater - McCall's 6796

As some of you know, purple makes me happy so when I found this lovely sweater knit I knew I had to get it.  I've had it for a couple of months but that weather has been unusually hot and the thought of making a sweater was more than I could tackle.  But, we got a little respite (we are only in the 80's now) and I took the opportunity.

I've had this McCall's 6796 for at least a year and with the perfect fabric finally in hand I dug right in.  This loose weave sweater knit from Fabricmart fabrics is soft and really feels like a knit sweater.  Because it's a knit I found that the easiest way to mark the pieces was with tailor tacks.  Now I know to some, tailor tacks are laborious but they went fast on the loose weave and for sure it was faster than trying to find my fabric pen, which wouldn't have worked anyway.  I serged all of the seams which is normal construction for me but it really was necessary to keep all the threads together.  

After cutting, it took less than an hour and a half to construct (fast and fun) and I made three small changes on a size 12 during construction.  I shorted the sleeve 1 1/2",cut the hem 3 1/2" and put on the collar different than the instructions.  I sewed right side of the collar to wrong side of bodice therefore the seam allowance would be hidden under the collar when it was folded in place and not show.  The most difficult thing about the entire project was choosing buttons.  I have an extensive collection of vintage buttons and I easily spent 15 minutes of that hour and a half choosing.

Hmmm.....which to choose.....

After all that I went with a large white vintage plastic button.  But that's not to say I won't change my mind later.  I only takes a minute to change a button.  And....I went with a skin color cami underneath but I think I'll look for a purple one instead.

The wind was really blowing that day!  Nice hair!

A purple people eater to make your day!

Here are links to my pattern review and kollabora.

Sweatshirt With No Sweat

I'm looking over my projects for the year so far and see that I've made quite a few tops!  I must be living in jeans because the new tops keep coming.  And here's yet another.  When I go in my closet I always want something cozy like a sweatshirt but don't want to wear a hoodie.  I decided it was time to make a sweatshirt pattern of my own.

This is round one of a new pattern I drafted and I like it because it's soft like a sweatshirt but doesn't look sloppy (or have to be dry cleaned like a sweater).  It has a scoop neck, dolman sleeve, and bands at the neck, sleeve and waist.  I used a reversible knit from Joann using the dot side for the body and stripe side for the bands.  I've since made it in hot pink ponte knit and did twin needle top stitching in white and made the neckline a little smaller.  I'm working on a purple jersey knit now and maybe that will be the final draft (but certainly not the final one....I want to do some color blocking).

These pictures were taken on my son's 14th birthday when we went down to the Beachcomber restaurant (you need to go if you're ever in So Cal) for beignets on the beach.  He was a very happy boy young man!

Lacey Dolman

I'm continuing to power through my lovely box of fabrics from FabricMart Fabrics.  Ooooo, and this one was really fun to make.  This antique white wavy pucker lace knit was described as "springy" and that's exactly what it is.  It's very exciting to get fabric in the mail but it's even more exciting when it ends up being what you expected!

The new spring Simplicity patterns just came out and I brought home a fashionable few and 1463 was among them.  I rarely buy fabric with an exact pattern in mind but I knew with this knit I wanted to make some sort of top and this was pretty and looked like a "quick sew"....and it was!  It was about 2 hours total cut and sew time.  Yay!

I didn't make any changes to the pattern and it sewed up like a dream.  I used a twin needle to finish the hem and to topstitch the neckline.  I'll be making it again....this time in a stripe.

Here are my reviews on PatternReview and Kollabora.

Fabric Mixer

It’s always been a little taboo to mix knits and wovens in sewing but with the comfort of knits and the fun of wovens, I decided to break the rules and realize the best of both.  I wrote this post for the Fabricmart Fabrics blog in the hopes that others would do some mixing too.

I’ve been drooling over this top from my Pinterest board for quite a while and I used it as my inspiration. I chose a super soft navy slub knit from Fabricmart Fabrics for the body of the blouse and rooted around in my scrap basket for the wovens for the yoke.  

I chose New Look pattern 6187 View C  because it’s a simple design with a yoke. When mixing knits and wovens, the wovens are best placed in the most stable parts of the top like the yoke, collar, cuffs and placket.  It helps keep the shape of the garment without losing the comfort.  For example, it’s nice to have a yoke that stays in place but a sleeve that stretches and moves.  

I made a few simple changes to the pattern.  

1.  Omitted the collar and lowered the neckline 1/2”, 

2.  Shortened the sleeve 4” and added elastic instead of a cuff.  

3.  Pieced the yoke out of scraps,  lined it in voile and added a fabric "tab" to the back of my blouse.

4.  Replaced the neck facing by lining the front yoke and binding the back neck with 2” knit strips (see the photo) and then sewing in the shoulder seam.

To make the hem lay smooth, I pressed 1/2" wide strips of knit interfacing to the hem, folded up the hem and used a twin needle to sew it in.

This was a fun project and it's comfortable and cheery.  I highly recommend breaking the rules and mixing it up!

Here are my reviews for Pattern Review.com and Kollabora.

Happy Mixing!