Self-drafted jungle trekker shirt

I am somewhat ashamed to admit that the Amazon rainforest was not on my list of places to visit in Colombia. Although I love hot weather, I like that hot weather in proximity to a sea or an ocean. But last year, after we studied South American geography, Z announced that she just had to see the pink river dolphins in the Amazon. In October we finally made the trip.

Colombia has a tiny slice of the Amazon River, something like 50 miles of the Amazon's 3,977 miles, and 10 percent or the Amazon rainforest. We stayed in the town of Leticia, which is right at the corner where the borders of Colombia, Brazil and Peru meet.

<a href="http://www.noticiasser.pe/index.php/opinion/trapecio-amazonico-tierra-de-nadie">Photo credit</a>.

October 2019

October was nuts. We had a birthday, a trip to the Amazon and our 12th anniversary. I had been in a bit of sewing rut, but this month pulled me out of it.  I made a few things for myself and sewed a lot for my kids, which was one of my goals for this year.

June 2019

This month was a little bit insane.  Fueled both by the need for clothes that fit AND the knowledge that I was going to be away from my machines for all of July and August, I sewed 15 16 17 garments (19 20 21 if you count both pieces of the four two-piece sets that I made). I completed another item off my Make Nine list- the Liana Jeans - twice.

April 2019 and my Me-Made May Pledge

I don't have a focused Me-Made May Pledge this year.  I've gone from nearly everything in my closet being made by me, to not having much that fits, and even less that is me-made. I'm hoping to continue losing weight, so trying to sew a new wardrobe quickly doesn't make too much sense either.  So I will document my outfits on the days that I wear me-made, try to repeat outfits as rarely as possible, see if I can alter anything else to fit, and sew a few new things that I really need - like a pair of jeans and long-sleeved tops.

December 2018

December began without much hope of sewing. As I keep saying, I've had trouble carving out that time for myself.  I think that part of it, to be honest, was feeling a bit blah on living in this huge, crowded, polluted city. The weather was particularly awful in November and the first half of December - overcast and smoggy with very little sun.

I attempted to  jumpstart my sew-jo with a tiny project.  We had a Girl Scout campout in mid-December, and bandanas were on the packing list.  I used to have a drawer full of bandanas, but it turns out that only one survived my ruthless pre-move purge - I forgot about the fact that maybe my kids would need bandanas at some point too.  Hoping that it would jumpstart my sew-jo, I decided to make a couple the day before the campout.

June 2018

I'm late with June's update, primarily because I'm in a packing frenzy.  The movers come in a week and a half and I'm just a wee bit stressed out.  I'm closing up the sewing shop today so there won't be any more sewing for at least a couple months - that hasn't stopped me from buying a bit of fabric in July though.  

Without further ado, here's what I got up to last month:

PROJECTS COMPLETED

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:

April 2018 and my MMM pledge

Are you participating in Me-Made May?  This will be my third year, and I've been looking forward to it for months.  I feel very prepared for it this year.  Like last year, I'm pledging to wear at least one me-made item every day.  Additionally, I am going to try not to repeat any outfits during the month (repeating garments is ok, and necessary).  I'm looking forward to the challenge, and am planning to post on IG, but probably not every day.  I will post a few round-ups here.  As for sewing, I'm currently redrafting my Ginger Jeans pattern to address my back leg wrinkles, and am hoping to sew up a pair or two during May.

But enough about May (at least, until tomorrow).  This post is about April.  It was a busy month with Easter, two weekend trips and my older daughter's spring ballet show, but I still managed to knock out a few things, including a shirt for my husband, which has been on my sewing list since we bought the fabric for it in October.

PROJECTS COMPLETED

1) Art Museum Trousers for G to replace a pair he had recently outgrown.  I sewed a size 4 lengthened by 1" with enclosed welt pockets and no belt loops.  I used 33" of pinstriped denim plus scraps of airplane quilting cotton. Sewed everything in 3 hours, including time to interface my welt pieces. Ended up using a hem allowance of 3/4", so I should have lengthened by 1.75" instead of 1".  Width is perfect.  Completed 4/4

2) Bow tie for G using this tutorial and scraps. Completed 4/4.

3) Another OOP Lisette Portfolio/Simplicity 2245 for me, using 1.89 yards of 50" wide fabric bought last July.  This dress is evidence that sometimes it's good to stash fabric without a purpose. I had actually envisioned this dress in a vivid emerald green linen and kept putting it in my cart, when I remembered this cut of designer fabric that I had bought without purpose.  The linen/viscose blend fabric is cool and breezy with a gorgeous drape that was better for this dress than the linen I had originally chosen. Stash win! Completed 4/10.  Blog post coming soon.

4) Fairfield Button-Up as a birthday gift for J. I used 2.5 yards cotton shirting purchased in October to make this shirt. Completed 4/22. Will be blogged soon.

5) Four bodice muslins for a pattern test I'm doing.  88" used of an old sheet.  Completed 4/23.

I also took in the waist and hips of my houndstooth Alberta Street skirt, which has been bothering me all year because it was just too big in those areas.  It took me less than an hour and I feel like I have a whole new item of clothing in my closet.

FABRIC PURCHASES

4/21: I bought 5.33 yards of fabric to make elf costumes for my girls and my niece.  I'm not sure whether they will be helping me with the sewing or not.  All of it was bought at Joann's - one cut of sale yardage, and the rest from the remnant bin.

FABRIC IN/OUT

Fabric in: 5.33 yards
Fabric out: 7.75 yards

Fabric in YTD: 60.58 yards
Fabric out YTD: 48.23 yards

Sewing for Kids: Yes, I still do!

Although this blog has become much more about my sewing for myself in the past year, I do still sew for my children.  I tend to stick to easy (and comfortable) knits, and I generally sew for them in huge batches over the course of a couple of weeks, two or three times per year.

I'm gathering up a bunch of the pieces I've made recently and dumping them all in this post.  It is going to be long, so bear with me.

I found this fall that Natasha (who is now 8), needed some fall/winter dresses.  And when you sew for one girl around here, you kind of have to sew for the other one, so 7-year-old Z was getting a new dress, too.

My intent was to make very simple jersey dresses that were roughly knee length.  But I sewed Natasha's out of a very unstable knit (probably poly and/or rayon with some lycra, though FabricMart listed it as a cotton/lycra), and the weight of the skirt pulled the bodice down much more than I had anticipated. She begged me to leave it long, and now she swishes around in what she calls her "simple dress," pretending to be a 19th century prairie girl.

I used the School Bus T-shirt pattern from Oliver+S for both dresses, in a slimmed-down size 5 for Natasha, and a straight 5 for Z.  Then I cut long width-of-fabric rectangles for the skirts and gathered them up, then stabilized the waist seam with knit interfacing before sewing them together.

Of course, after I made Natasha's dress, Zoia decided that hers also needed to be ankle length.  It's sewn out of a less drapey cotton interlock with a cotton/lycra jersey scrap for the neckband.  It turned out a little nightgown-esque because the interlock has less drape than the jersey, but she loves it.

The School Bus pattern has gotten a workout here lately.  I used it to make cotton interlock nightgowns for my daughters and oldest niece (hers is not pictured, but it's a tank version of the same nightgown).  These are constructed just like the dresses, but with an added ruffle at bottom.

As my kids have grown, my ability to use up small scraps for their clothing has decreased.  When the boys needed new pjs, I tried to use up most of remaining knit scraps.

I made these pjs out of a red and blue stripe cotton interlock I found at the thrift store last year.  The body of Niko's shirt is a cotton rib knit that's been hanging out in my stash for awhile.  The pants are Oliver+S Playtime Leggings - definitely my most-used pattern ever - in a size 4T + some length for Gabriel and size 2 for Niko.  I added a cuff on the larger pair to make them even longer.  Neckbands are cotton/lycra jersey scraps.  G's top is the School Bus T-shirt, and Niko's is the O+S Field Trip Raglan.

The second set is made from the same patterns (both shirts are Field Trip Raglans this time) and all cotton/lycra jersey except for Niko's pants, which took out the rest of the navy rib knit.

This set, for Gabriel, is another School Bus + Playtime and is made out of striped interlock and a really nice and thick brown cotton/lycra jersey, purchased years ago from Fabric Mart.

Natasha also needed some pants, so I made two more pairs of Playtime Leggings for her.  These are a size 4 with the length of an 8.  Next time I'm going to make the 5 plus length for her.  The gray ones are French terry with cotton/lycra jersey knee patches, and the black are cotton/lycra jersey.

Last, I wanted to use up the less-than-a-yard of this flannel from Joann's that I used on my Bonn No. 5.  I also didn't want to buy a new pattern.  So I flipped through my one issue of Ottobre Design (Winter 6/2015), and found the Tiny Pussy Bow blouse, #21.  I traced it out in a size 110 with the armhole height of a 128 and the length of the 134.  I left off the pussy bow and just bound the neckline.  I wanted a bit of extra length so I added a ruffle at bottom.  I had so little fabric left that I had to piece that ruffle in five sections.  N loves the shirt and I feel good, having used up every scrap of fabric.

This pattern only has five pieces, which makes the tracing more tolerable.  The instructions were fine, and it went together quickly.  My only quibble is that the yoke is a single layer.  I didn't cut it on the bias because I was afraid it would distort without a facing.  But in this thick fabric, cut on grain, it works fine.  The pattern has a tiny bit of gathering at the front shoulder, which is hard to see in this fabric.  The back is supposed to be gathered too, but I decided to do an inverted pleat instead.  I'm very happy with this make.

There are a few other recent makes that I didn't manage to get pictures of - another pair of pjs and two pairs of leggings for Z and another School Bus dress for N.  Coming up for the end of the year, I will have my end-of-year sewing review and some Top 5 posts that I'm looking forward to sharing with you.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Gifts for little people

I recently acquired a brand-new nephew, and my youngest niece just turned two.  It was time to make some wee little things.

For the little guy, I wanted to sew a collared romper, but did not have such a pattern in my stash.   I did a little Googling, and found the Button-Up Baby Romper pattern, here from Peekaboo Patterns.  The free pattern comes in a 0-6 month size.

I used a length of mustard yellow cotton I found at the thrift store a few months back, trimmed with scraps of the gingham linen I used here, here and here.

I didn't initially intend to add an appliqué, but when I had finished, the romper, perhaps because of the color, was looking a little prison-jumpsuit to me.  I thought about using a whale appliqué (my favorite for little boys), or an elephant, but ultimately decided the colors of the romper were more giraffe-esque.  I found an outline on Google and used my computer screen as a lightbox to trace it onto my fusible web, then created the appliqué from there.

The pattern went together easily and all the seams match up, however, it only includes 1/4" seam allowances which mean it's hard to get a clean finish without thinking ahead (or seam binding).  That's my only quibble with this otherwise very nice (and FREE) pattern.

For my niece, I pulled out my Oliver+S Library Dress pattern, which I've used once before, and not in the way it was intended.  I had in my head that the dress would take awhile to sew, but it wasn't bad.  The cutting was a little less tedious than usual, because I block-interfaced my facings for the first time.  I cut out the pattern pieces in interfacing first, then turned them sticky-side up on my ironing board and laid my fabric wrong-side down on top of them.  Then I pressed.  It seemed to save a good amount of time and I'll use the technique again.

The actual sewing took me two evenings.  Not bad at all.

I made a 6-12 month size with the skirt lengthened to the 12-18 month.  My niece is a little peanut of a thing and I have always found O+S dress patterns to run quite large.  I think the resulting dress will be a good fit for this fall.

I used some quilting cotton from Spotlight, which was sent to me by a thoughtful Australian friend.  I love the print, and I don't at all mind using quilting cotton for little girls' dresses.  The waistband and sleeve facing was cut from gray shot cotton scraps from my stash.  Instead of bias trim on the waistband, I used black pre-made piping, also from the stash.  Looking at the photos, I wish it had occurred to me to trim the sleeves with the piping as well!  Maybe next time.

I hadn't appreciated how pretty the details are on this pattern before now.  That notched sleeve is really nice (though maybe it would have been tough to trim it in piping after all), and I love the little pleats on the front and back skirt.  I might have to buy the next size up to make this for my own girls!

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Boy Tees

I've been making good progress on my spring wardrobe plans, but I had to take a break when the weather warmed up and I realized that G had only two short-sleeved t-shirts that fit him.  I pulled out my trusty Oliver+S School Bus T-Shirt pattern and my knit fabric scraps and got cracking.

These are a size 5 with 6 length for my tall but lean 4-year-old.  I only have the larger size range, otherwise I would have added length to a size 4, but these fit fine.

I decided to make some fun appliqués for the tees.  The star and the lightning bolt on the Flash tee were just drawn free-hand on the paper side of some Heat n' Bond.

The Flash tee is made of a scrap of cotton interlock and the neckband and appliqué fabric are cotton/Lycra jersey.  All the other tees are also made of cotton/Lycra jersey.

The triceratops and Batman appliqués were traced from online images, using my computer screen as a lightbox.  I appliquéd the gray bat (fused to Heat n' Bond) to a scrap of yellow jersey, and then applied Heat n' Bond to the back of the jersey before cutting out the oval free-hand.  It turned out so much better than I expected!

The gray shirt is actually cut from a tee I made my husband last year, (which he ripped a big hole into).  The jersey, a lovely 10 oz cotton/Lycra from The Fabric Fairy, was too nice and too spendy to just throw away. I'm glad I was able to reuse it.  Bonus, I cut G's little sleeves from the original sleeves, preserving the original hem, so that saved time too.  I didn't actually hem the bottom of this one because I wanted to make sure he could wear it next year too (assuming he doesn't rip a hole in it also).  And because I wanted to be done with the shirt.

Here are some rotten iPhone photos of G in his tees.  You can see how long the sleeves are, and that is after I shortened them by at least an inch (I don't actually remember).  The sleeves on this pattern run quite long.

G is thrilled with his new tees.  I'm thinking of making a Robin tee for Niko so they can be Batman and Robin.  But really I just want to get back to sewing for myself.

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Just do it

It has been so long since I've posted here, that I was afraid if I didn't put something up soon, I'd never post again.  This fall and winter have been a little nuts.  My brother got married at the beginning of November, and I spent the last two weeks before the wedding finishing up all the junior wedding party clothing, as well as making the cake.  I've done tiered cakes before, but this was my first four-tier, and my first wedding cake.  This sucker served 150 people.

It was an almond cake with raspberry filling and almond buttercream frosting, covered in fondant.  The ribbon was satin to match the bridesmaids' dresses, and the pearls (more than 300!) were hand rolled by me.  This was such a huge job, but I was so proud of the finished product, and more importantly, the bride and groom really loved the cake.  

But that's not why you're here ... so on with the sewing.  Today I'm going to post the boys' outfits, and hopefully I'll get the details up about the girls' later this week.

I sewed three pairs of pinstriped gray brushed twill Oliver+S Art Museum trousers, three satin bow ties and three pairs of black suspenders.  I can nearly sew these pants in my sleep now, I've made so many of them.  I bought the fabric from Cali Fabrics - it's a lovely sturdy fabric with a soft brushed texture; really perfect for little boys' winter pants.  I WAY overbought, and have enough left to make myself a skirt and then some.  The bow tie tutorial, which I've used before, came from Make It Love It, and I used this suspender tutorial.  Though for the money I spent on the necessary hardware, I could have purchased ready-made suspenders from Amazon and saved myself a couple of hours.  For black suspenders, it was not worth the effort.

For the trouser welt pockets, I used the method from the Alina & Co. Chi Town Chino Expansion Pack, which fully encloses the pockets.  Alina's method uses French seams, but I decided mid-way through making these, that a serged seam would work just fine. I also put little surprises in the pockets for the boys:

I was so busy during the wedding that I was not able to take any photos, and there weren't any good ones of just the three boys.  G was the only one of the boys who made it to the reception, and he was a dancing fool.

He even kicked off his shoes midway through the evening.

Though by the end he was just plastered onto me and refused to let me out of arms' reach.

See you back here soon with photos and details of the girls' dresses!

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KCW Days 4 and 5: More Swimwear for Boys

I am swim-suit-sewn-out.

But I got it done, and I am not sure that would have happened without the external motivation of Kids Clothes Week.  Here is the final batch.

For Niko, a rash guard using the Oliver+S Field Trip pattern in size 12-18 months and a pair of Euro Swim Trunks.

The trunks pattern comes in sizes 2T-5T, so I graded the pattern down to a 12-month size by chopping off 1/4" on all seams (this is the difference between the sizes in the pattern).  When I was done, the rise was a bit low.  So instead of folding over the waist and using elastic, I made a yoga band.  I cut my fabric about 2.5" by 14" and then stretched it to fit.  It works very nicely and I think it will be more comfortable for him than an elastic waist.

I overstitched the curve; it's hard to see in the photo (that orange is hard to photograph in the morning!), but I love how it looks.

All fabrics are from The Fabric Fairy.  I don't love the orange; even the "matte" side of it is too shiny for my taste, and it was really slippery and hard to sew.  But I do love how it looks with the aqua gingham.  For these projects, I bought a half yard of each fabric (plus a half yard of the red I used in Gabriel's set), and I got two rash guards and four pairs of trunks out of them, plus I have enough left to make a few more things.  While the kids are small I definitely prefer to buy swimsuit fabric from places that will sell it by the half yard.

Moving on, I made coordinating trunks in the navy gingham and the orange for both boys.  They both have store-bought rash guards that will go with these so I didn't bother making more rash guards.  Again I made a yoga waist for Niko's pair.  For G's (again in a 4T with 19" elastic), I used the stripe variation of the Euro trunks pattern.  I figured I should switch it up, but the curve is still my favorite.

One girl's swimsuit, one girl's bikini bottom,  two boys' rash guards and four pairs of boys' trunks, and swimsuit season is done.  I have two days left of KCW but I may just call it quits here.

Pascha finery

Pascha (Orthodox Easter) was May 1 this year, which gave me a lot of time to sew festive clothing.  I did not have to make anything for my daughters, as they were gifted luxurious hand-sewn silk Fairytale dresses by our sewing fairy godmother (photos to come tomorrow).

For Gabriel, what else but another Art Museum set?

Having learned that the vest runs very short for my taste, I sized up to a 4 and added 2" of length. This time, I slashed the pattern at the side notch and spread it 2" to add the length. I did not alter the dart or the welt pocket placement.  I'm thrilled with how it turned out.  As cute as this vest is on the little guys, I really love to see it with a long row of buttons.  I managed to fit five onto this one.

I had been salivating over some light gray pinstriped suiting at Mood.com, but in the end frugality won out and I decided to make the ensemble from stash fabric.  For the vest front, I used a gingham linen/cotton that has been in my stash a couple years.  The back is a lovely Japanese shirting from FabricMart.  It had been earmarked for a Negroni for my husband, but it was a) much darker than it appeared in the photo and b) it is a cross-weave fabric, like shot cotton, and gorgeously iridescent.  J thought it was way too shiny.  So it was back on the market.

I have never stitched down my welts before, but they didn't stay put very well on last year's linen ensemble.  This time, I tried stitching in the ditch around the welts but I just could not get my stitches to be truly invisible.  Finally I decided to just stitch down the sides of the welts, and take a couple of tacks in the ditch at the bottom of the welt.  It's not visible, and hopefully it will help them stay put.

We've been going through a bit of a sulky phase lately ...

So, the pants. Blarg.  They are made out of a stashed cotton pique.  I realized after I sewed the two pant legs together that my back welt pockets, while executed to my satisfaction, are completely uneven.  They are uneven from the back seam, from the waistband seam, and they aren't even set in at the same angle.  I have no idea how this happened, and by the time I noticed it, I had put too much time in to start over.  I was pot-committed.

While contemplating the lopsided pockets, I reflected on what kind of seamstress I am.  I know many would have thrown those pants straight into the bin.  But that's not me.  I think I'm much more a practical crafter than a perfectionist.  There is the occasional garment that I will slave over, but I am one who will often deem something to be "good enough" even with glaring errors.  G needed Easter pants.  He needed lightweight summer church pants.  My sewing time is limited.  And it would be quite a rarity for him to stay still long enough for anyone to notice his lopsided pockets anyway.  I hope.

The pants are crazy long.  I chopped 2" off the hem and still had to sew a 2" deep hem.  Because of the taper of the pants, my blind hem is a little puckery in the back.  I decided to leave it that way because I know I'm going to need that extra length if these pants are to last until it gets cold again.  Last year's Easter Art Museums also had a 2" hem and they were high-water by September.  This kid tends to grow a lot in the sunshine.

I sewed a little bow tie using this tutorial.  I altered the main bow piece dimensions a little bit from the tutorial because I thought it was kind of big (instead of 8.5"x6.5" I cut it 7.5"x6.5").  Other than that I did it as written.

For Niko, I sewed a pair of Oliver+S Lullaby Layette pants using a stashed remnant of cotton sateen from Joann's.  I sewed the size 6-12 months but they are a bit baggy; I should have sewn a lengthened 3-6 months.  He wore them with a thrifted shirt and a 6-12 month corduroy Art Museum vest that I actually sewed for my nephew two years ago, which was handed back down to us.

I took dozens of photos of him but the weather has been awful and the light correspondingly terrible, so these are the best I could do.