A sewing blog about building a functional, cohesive handmade wardrobe, one garment at a time.

Friday, June 1, 2018

May 2018

It was a busy month, in which I spent a lot of time testing a pattern, bought a good amount of fabric than I probably should have, and also completed two pairs of jeans and a cardigan that will be very useful in Bogota.

PROJECTS COMPLETED:




Blank Slate Catalina tester dress. This one has some fit issues and I'm not sure whether it will end up being blogged.  I used 1 3/4 yard tencel twill for the final, and 2 1/3 yards of old sheets for more muslins (on top of the muslins I did in April for the same dress).  Completed 5/10.


3 yards gauze for two baby blankets for a friend.  Completed 5/14.


Another pair of pull-on Ginger Jeans, View A with modified legs, using a super-stretchy Kaufman denim I bought at Cali Fabrics back in January.  I actually didn't realize how stretchy the fabric was.  My intent had been to make a proper zip-fly pair of jeans, but the fabric is so similar to the fabric I used for my first pair of pull-on Gingers, that I decided to just make another. Major leg twist issues with these.  Will be blogged.  Used 2.5 yards.  Completed 5/15.


Orange wool/cotton Blackwood Cardigan, shortened.  1.25 yards used. Completed 5/17


A pair of long-sleeved pjs for G and a pair of leggings for N.  Surprise, I used the Oliver + S Playtime Leggings pattern for both pairs of pants.  Both were a size 7 with 8 length; I hemmed Gs but not Ns.  The pants will fit him for a good long time, but hers were ankle-length which is why i did not hem them.  G's pj top was made using the Field Trip Raglan pattern, size 5 with the length of a 7.  Used 1.5 yards of the red cotton/lycra knit I purchased earlier in the month.  Completed 5/22.


A pair of black pull-on Ginger jeans using the stretch twill I bought from Fabric Mart earlier in th month.  2.5 yards used.  Completed 5/30

FABRIC PURCHASES:

May 3: 3 yards of cotton gauze from Walmart to make baby blankets for a pregnant friend.  I used this all up this month.  $16ish.

May 5: I visited Stitch Sew Shop for the first time and bought a bunch of things.  I went in with goals and didn't deviate from them!  I bough: 2.5 yards of Robert Kaufman Laredo stretch denim for another pair of jeans; 1.75 yards of mallard green tencel twill (used for the Catalina dress); 1.75 yards of mustard yellow rayon jersey to make a Blackwood Cardigan (I've had this specific pattern in this specific color on my list for months, but after having bought it I put it up to my face and am not sure that it's actually a good color for me); and 2 yards of red cotton/lycra jersey - it was on sale in the remnants section and I've already used 1.5 yards of it!  Total cost: $91.  TI have already used up nearly half of what I bought, so I guess it's not so bad.

May 7: Totally ordered more fabric! I ordered 2.5 yards of Ralph Lauren stretch black twill to make another pair of Gingers (all done already!), and 2.25 yards of jacquard dot white cotton shirting to make a button-up shirt.  Total cost: $35.

FABRIC OUT/IN:

Fabric in: 15.75 yards.
Fabric out: 14.83 yards ... so close!

Fabric in YTD: 76.23 yards
Fabric out YTD: 63.06 yards

4 comments:

  1. It was a busy month indeed! I am so jealous of your jeans sewing!

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  2. I would be SO interested to learn how you made your Gingers into pull-on stretch jeans which are my favourite pants ever :)

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    1. Hi Kathleen, sorry for the delay, my blog platform stopped sending comment notifications to my email for moderation! Anyway, it's very easy to modify these jeans to be pull on. Basically, instead of making the zip fly, you sew (not baste) the front rises together on the leg pieces, then press the fly portion to the side and topstitch it for "faux fly" detailing. Then I took self fabric (because it's stretchy) and just stretched it around myself to see how much fabric I needed to get it to stay up. I ended up making a band with about 6" negative ease. I cut it in two pieces so that I could adjust the side seams if necessary. That worked well, but I ended up slashing and overlapping later to create a more curved band that didn't gap at the top. Some more details on how I modify the jeans to be pull-on are in this post: http://itinerantseamstress.blogspot.com/2017/02/ginger-jeans.html.

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  3. Wow, a seriously productive month for you, Masha! I think you get a "pass" on some of the fabric because you've sewn it up already. In May I made only three items, but all for myself and I'm learning that selfish-sewing (especially with muslins) is just more time consuming than sewing for kids. I only bought one length of fabric (linen for the Grainline Uniform tunic), putting me at 11 yards out (including muslins and one item I've cut but not sewn) and 2.5 yards in. And then I fell off the wagon and immediately bought another 2.5 yards early in June. So it goes!

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Hi! I am so happy you came by. Thanks for your comment!