November 2019

I did a lot of traveling in November (see my travel wardrobe capsule posts here), which didn't leave much time for sewing. But I also managed to refrain from buying fabric, so that was good at least.

Projects Completed:

One of my flights was a red-eye, so the morning of the trip, I quickly made a velvet sleep mask from the Tilly and the Buttons free pattern. I can't really claim any fabric used since the project is so small though.

Capsule travel wardrobe: Family wedding

Earlier this month we flew to Virginia for 10 days to attend my brother's wedding. The trip coincided with a cold front that plunged temperatures into the high 30s and low 40s. I needed to pack for casual hanging out with family and friends, two weekends at church, a rehearsal luncheon and a wedding. 

My favorite TNT patterns

Hi friends!  There isn't any sewing going on here these days, because I'm on vacation. We have been having a fantastic time visiting family and friends and enjoying the warm weather and everything that goes with it.  I've also really enjoyed wearing my handmades on this trip.

Me-Made-May - second half

Starting from the top, left to right:

Day 16: A Sewaholic Renfrew shirt and a new pair of Ginger Jeans (now all finished, to be blogged).

Day 17: A Bonn shirt and denim Tillery Skirt.

Day 18: A Josephine top and Chi-Town Chinos.  I love this outfit but it needs work.  I need to loosen the elastic in the sleeve hems of the top, and just make a new pair of the chinos, since these are too tight in the thighs and bag out to the point of falling down within a couple hours' wear.
Day 19: A Plantain tee with a brand-new cropped Blackwood Cardigan and my first pair of Ginger Jeans.

Me-Made-May - first half

Me Made May is halfway over, and I'm rounding up my outfits the last fifteen days.  My goal this year, like last year, was to wear handmade every day and to avoid repeating full outfits.  Wearing handmade every day isn't a challenge for me anymore, as most of my clothes are made by me.  But I do tend to wear the same dozen pieces over and over again, so forcing myself to come up with new combinations is definitely an exercise.

I decided to just take crummy bathroom mirror selfies this year.  That way I'd be sure to get a photo in.  While not necessary for the challenge, having all of these photos is helpful to me to see what I like, what works, and what doesn't.  I also just enjoy the fun collage.  While the picture quality is abysmal, I've linked all the blogged items below so you can click over if you want to see more.

Copycat Plantain dress

Earlier this winter, I saw a lovely dress on Instagram and immediately fell in love.  It was a lengthened navy-blue jersey Plantain dress and the shape was perfect and easy.  

Fabric Mart had a sale a few days later and in the sale was a 4-yard pre-cut of this navy jersey, which was listed as cotton/rayon/lycra.  My striped Blackwood cardigan is also cotton/rayon/lycra from FabricMart, and I really liked the heft and hand of the fabric, plus it was in the exact shade I wanted, so I was sold.  The fabric didn't disappoint, and I was even more pleased with my purchase when the yardage came out of the wash with that unmistakeable wool smell.  I don't think it's a pure wool/lycra, but some percentage of the fabric definitely came from a sheep.  The dress took just under 2 yards, and I have about 2 yards left for another garment in the future.

I made up a Plantain from the same adjusted pattern as the purple Plantain tee I made last month.  I lengthened it 17", continuing the side seam angle all the way down.  I ended up cutting about 2.5" off before hemming it up another inch.  (I actually didn't realize that I had ended up with a dipped hem in the back until I saw these photos.  I might even it out, I might not.  Haven't decided yet!)

Following my frustration with the Plantain sleeves when I last made the pattern, I decided to use the size 16 Renfrew sleeve with 1/2" shaved off each side seam. The Renfrew has a symmetrical sleeve, but it generally fits me with the right amount of ease once I take in the side seams.  

I had assumed that the sleeve was just wider at the top, but I was curious, so I compared the two pattern pieces.  Apologies for the blurry iPhone photo, but it illustrates the differences well enough.   The Plantain sleeve, in white, is underneath the Renfrew sleeve, in pattern tissue.  

I walked the Renfrew sleeve cap along the Plantain sleeve cap, and they are almost exactly the same length.  But as you (probably can't) see, the Renfrew sleeve cap is about 1/2" taller than the Plantain sleeve cap.  I was also surprised to find that the Plantain sleeve is actually a bit wider than the Renfrew sleeve at the top of the arm (and more than it would seem, because this newest version of the Plantain only has a 3/8" seam allowance, while the Renfrew has a 5/8").  And yet the Plantain sleeve is much tighter on my biceps than the Renfrew sleeve.  So it turns out that the height of the sleeve cap has a good deal to do with fit at the bicep.  I feel like this is a pretty significant lightbulb moment for me, and am looking to the prospect of better-fitting sleeves in the future!

There is a bit of fabric bunching at the front armscye.  I think I could fix that by moving the center of the sleeve cap towards the front sleeve, the way you do when you adjust a sleeve for a forward shoulder (and this would take care of making the sleeve asymmetrical).  I may try that out next time I make a Plantain (which might be sooner than I thought, now that I have a better-fitting sleeve for it).  The folds on the lower 2/3 of the sleeve indicate that it's too big, but they really don't bother me - they pass the "would I notice this if it were on a RTW dress sleeve?" test just fine.

All in all, I think the dress was a great success and I am very excited to have it in my closet.  I'm looking forward to wearing it with clogs and bare legs in the not-too-distant future!

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Plantain Reboot

Last weekend I downloaded the update of the free Plantain t-shirt pattern.  I've made the pattern a few times before, but I'm up a couple sizes since then, so I decided to use the new pattern and refit it from scratch.

2017 Top 5 Misses

Ah, the fails.  As I discussed in my year in review post, I had what I consider to be a very small number of fails.  Some of them still irritate me, though.

2017 in Review

I've never done a year-in-review post here before, despite having kept this blog for nearly four years.  But this year I tallied up all my sewing and crunched some numbers so that I could make a fun chart. The results surprised me!

Surprise #1: I sewed more for others than I did for myself.  I was under the impression that I've sewed overwhelmingly for myself for the last two years, but it's not true.  In 2017, I sewed 46 garments for myself (43 percent) and 62 garments for others - mostly my kids (57 percent).  I would have guessed that the proportion of selfish vs. unselfish sewing was more like 75/25 percent.  In 2016, I sewed 40 garments for myself (37 percent) and 58 for others, again, mostly my kids (63 percent).

Here's a graphic breakdown of my selfish sewing for the year:

V-neck Renfrews

V-necks used to be my t-shirt of choice.  In college I had a heather gray one with the most perfectly-shaped neckline.  I wore it twice a week for several years before it got lost in the laundry room.  After that, I searched to no avail to find another v-neck that fit me as well.  Once I began sewing, it had been so long since I'd worn a v-neck, that it never occurred to me to try to sew one.  But recently I was inspired by a great striped v-neck tee sewn by Inder.  I remembered that my Sewaholic Renfrew pattern had a v-neck view, so I got to tracing.

As for my most recent long-sleeved Renfrews, I cut a size 10 shoulder graded to a 16 and did a 1/2" forward shoulder adjustment.  I shaved 1/2" off the outer shoulder and 1/2" off the side seam at the top to deal with some excess fabric I always seem to have in the armpit, and I lengthened the top and the sleeve because I didn't want to use bands.

I couldn't be more thrilled with the results.  While it took me a little while to puzzle out how to sew the neckband, once I figured it out, it was pretty easy.  I normally construct knits entirely on my serger, but I found that in order to get a nice, sharp mitered point to my v, I needed to stitch about 1.5" on either side of the v's point using my sewing machine.  After that, I serged starting at the point, going around the neckline and ending by serging over the point again.  Then I wove in my serger tail and, voila, perfect v-neck!

I think the shape and depth of the v on this pattern is perfect.  I decided that I wanted a wider band on the white tee, more like my husband's undershirts, so I sewed the band on with a smaller seam allowance.

Since the long sleeve on the Renfrew has too much ease for me, I didn't bother with a full bicep adjustment.  Turns out I should have, though, as the sleeve on my first iteration were way too tight.  I tried a 1/2" adjustment on the small stripe Renfrew, but it wasn't enough (and the whole shirt turned out too tight for some reason). So for the white one, I did a 1" adjustment and then sewed it and the sides together with a 3/8" seam allowance, and it was perfect.

All the fabrics are stash from Fabric Mart.  The navy and white fabrics were listed as cotton/lycra jersey, but the navy one feels like it also has some poly in it, and the white definitely has some rayon.  The small stripe is a rayon/lycra.  I'm pretty psyched about the stripe placement on the neckline of that one.

It's nice to have some v-neck tees back in my closet.  I only completed them a few weeks ago but they've all already been worn multiple times.  Thanks for reading and see you next time!

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Me-Made-May Week 4+

May is over!  I had such a good time with it this year.  I felt a little sheepish by about the mid-point, asking my kids to take photos of me every day and saturating my IG feed with my clumsy poses.  But seeing my outfits in photo really helped clarify what I like about my wardrobe (and what I don't, which, happily, isn't much at the moment).  It also helped me out of the rut of t-shirt-and-skirt or t-shirt-and-jeans, and inspired me to start sewing woven tops again.  So here's what I wore the last week+ of May:

Day 22: I was bleary-eyed and cranky because I had been up the previous night cleaning toddler vomit out of a crib.  I wore one of my Fjara tanks and a pair of Ginger jeans to meet a cruddy day.  Incidentally, this was also said toddler's second birthday; we didn't manage to celebrate until a full week later.

Day 23: Rainy and cool, so I wore the same Gingers as the day before with one of my new v-neck Renfrew tees with a Lisbon cardigan.

Day 24: I wore my pull-on super-stretchy Gingers with a new, unblogged, somewhat disappointing, Kirsten Kimono Tee and my linen Bonn shirt worn open over the top like a cardigan.

Day 25: Same Bonn shirt, don't care because I loooooooooove it so, with my yellow linen/rayon Simplicity 1887 and rtw leggings.

Day 26: I wore my anchor-print denim pencil skirt and a voile Simplicity 1377 blouse.  I was reminded how much I love the fit of this skirt, and that I should really make more instead of cooking up new versions of the Alberta Street Skirt, which I don't like as much.  This top is just meh, though, - it was an early version of my hacked 1377 pattern and the neckline is too wide while the hips are too narrow.  I should really retire it but for some reason I hung it back up in my closet.

Day 27: We went to the Strawberry Festival.  I was too busy mom-ing to obtain any photos of myself while we were in the mountains with beautiful scenery, so instead I had to pose in front of my front door when we got home.  I wore my yellow Simplicity 1887 skirt again, with another, more successful version of the Simplicity 1377 hack, and a Blackwood Cardigan.

Day 28: Church.  I wore one an Appleton dress.  This one doesn't get much wear anymore for what is probably a silly reason.  One of my sisters told me she did not think it was flattering because it makes me look top-heavy.  That by itself wouldn't have made me stop wearing it, but I was already a little self-conscious about how tight the back is - I feel like it really illuminates the back flab.  Although I was wearing it to church relatively frequently, I did already feel a bit uncomfortable in it.  And after my sister's comment, and it hung rather sadly in the closet, unloved, for a few months.  My husband was happy to see me in it on this day, though, and I think I'd like to revisit the pattern this fall, perhaps cutting a larger size for the back.

Day 29: Memorial Day, and the day we actually celebrated Niko's birthday, poor thing.  I don't even have a single photo of him from the day he actually turned two.  I wore my denim Alberta Street Skirt (which I still haven't shortened as I resolved to), a new, unblogged v-neck Renfrew tee and a Blackwood Cardigan.  This right here is a classic default outfit for me.

Day 30: It was dreary and spitting rain, and I would have been upset but it was actually the perfect weather for my brand-new Bonn shirt (blog post coming soon), which I paired with my zip-fly Gingers.

Day 31: Finally a warm, sunny day! I took the kids to the park and ran errands in my linen Simplicity 1887 shorts and my favorite hacked Simplicity 1377 top.  I love this top so much, and wearing it today made me realize that I need a white button-down shirt in my wardrobe.  No shocker which pattern I'll be using to make that one ... I just need to find the right fabric.

And, that's it.  Moving forward, I will try to vary my outfits as much as I did this month, instead of wearing the same 10 things over and over again.  I have enough clothes to do it, so there's really no excuse.  I had gotten so used to not thinking about what I was wearing that I don't think I realized how much variety I actually have in my wardrobe.  (Though I don't apologize for wearing the yellow skirt and the linen Bonn so much - I imagine those will continue to be on heavy rotation.  They're definitely winners!)

On to summer!

Me-Made May Week 3

Only 10 days left of Me-Made May! I've had such fun with this challenge this year.  I did not make any pledge to avoid repeating items; only to avoid repeating outfits.  Even so, I've tried not to repeat items too often.  This forced me to reach for less-worn things in my closet and is helping me evaluate my wardrobe.  Happily, there isn't much that I'm planning to part with!

Day 15: I wore my red linen/rayon Simplicity 1887 skirt again.  I really love this skirt (and its yellow sister), and am considering making a third one out of some teal linen I bought last year with this pattern in mind.  How many is too many?  I paired it with my new linen Bonn shirt, which I also really love.  And I wore the shirt tucked in the whole day.  I'm usually not a tucker, because I always feel like I am having to adjust the tuck and it feels too high-maintenance.  But this shirt is long enough for a fuss-free tuck and I very much like how it looks with the skirt.

Day 16: I wore a new v-neck Renfrew tee (blog post coming soon) with my green bamboo Lisbon cardigan and my denim Alberta Street skirt.  I usually wear this skirt a lot (like two or three times a week) even though it's not the most flattering one I own.   It's relatively high-waisted so it sucks me in and I feel secure in it, if that makes any sense.  I am still meaning to raise the hem a touch and maybe peg the side seams a bit.  The cardigan is getting pilly, but I have enough of this fabric left to remake it, so I might do that at some point too.

Day 17: I wore one of my Kirsten Kimono tees and my McCalls 3341 skirt.  Sadly, I think I am going to have to retire both of these.  Both items are kind of stretched out and I felt really frumpy wearing this to our homeschool enrichment program.  The fabric on the top was listed as a cotton/lycra jersey but it seems to have no lycra in it at all and is starting to bag out beyond repair.  The skirt has also stretched out considerably around the waist.  I washed and dried it in the dryer after wearing it to see if it would shrink up a bit, but it doesn't seem to have helped much.  I do have another cut of animal-print stretch twill in my stash that will make a good replacement skirt.  But I'll need to buy fabric for a new black t-shirt.

Day 18: I wore my rayon/lycra Kirsten Kimono dress.  I actually don't wear this all that often because I had got it into my head that the elastic around the middle was uncomfortable.  I wore it the whole day, though, and it really wasn't.  I feel like I should make another one of these. 

Day 19: It got really hot!  I pulled out one of my pairs of linen/rayon Simplicity 1887 shorts and a brand new v-neck Renfrew.  I felt quite a bit more casual than I normally dress, though that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  These shorts, and the others I made last summer, are very comfortable but the pleats aren't the most flattering thing around.  I think I might want to try to make a pair of elastic-waist flat-front shorts; maybe the Parkside Shorts?  I am not sure.  

Day 20: It cooled off.  We had brunch at a friend's house and I wore my new seersucker Bonn shirt (blog post coming soon) and my pull-on Gingers, rolled up.  Then Niko got sick in the afternoon and threw up all over me.  I changed into a new me-made outfit - a skirt, new t-shirt and cardigan - and proceeded to splatter chicken grease on the brand-new tee.  I should have worn an apron.

Day 21:  Niko was still sick so I took the other three kids to church by myself.  It was only in the 60s today.  I wore my new Alberta Street Pencil Skirt, my white v-neck Renfrew tee, and my green Lisbon cardigan again.

I think the most valuable part of Me-Made May so far has been the pressure to not repeat an outfit.  I definitely am guilty of wearing the same easy things over and over again, and I don't really need to do that anymore, because I have a pretty sizeable and varied wardrobe now, almost all of which is me-made.  Aside from that one long-sleeved tee from two weeks ago, I haven't even considered reaching for any of the remaining RTW items in my closet.  I like the stuff I have made better, mostly because it fits properly.  And that is really satisfying.

Thanks for reading!

Me Made May Week 2

Me Made May is halfway over, and I'm really enjoying it since I actually have enough me-mades to make it fun this year.  This year I wore quite a few things that I don't like that much.  I haven't made any decisions to let anything go, but I think that is coming.

Day 8: I wore my pull-on Ginger jeans and a RTW long tee.  I thought about forcing my two-items-a-day rule but I really just wanted to wear a longer shirt and I don't have any that I've made.  On this day, I made a mental note to sew a few longer tops.

Day 9: Same skinny Ginger jeans, a Plantain/Renfrew mash-up tee and a Blackwood cardigan.  This outfit is just "meh." I made the tee out of a remnant bin find that had been sitting in my stash, but it just doesn't really go with anything in my closet.

Day 10: I actually wore two outfits on this day because it was 50 degrees when I left the house and 70 in the afternoon.  This is the second outfit - my mustard linen/rayon Simplicity 1887 and a Kirsten Kimono Tee.

Day 11 was a rainy, rainy day during which we had an outdoor field trip.  I started the day off wearing some Ginger jeans but they got soaked so I changed into RTW jeans.  The top is a Sewaholic Renfrew that I don't wear that much because I forgot to stabilize the shoulder seams, and they stretch out.  I think sewing some elastic to the seam allowance would fix it, but I haven't done it yet.

Day 12: It was overcast and chilly.  I was looking for another cowl-neck Renfrew that I made last fall, but which seems to have been lost in the move.  As I couldn't find it, I wore this Traveler shirt hack with my skinny Gingers.  Though this top fits well and is comfortable, I don't wear it often.  The print was one of those "love it to look at but not to wear" purchases.

Day 13: I wore my newest ponte pencil skirt along with a hacked Kirsten Kimono tee that I made for my 20-year high school reunion and never blogged.  The shoulders aren't stabilized on this one either, mostly because I wasn't sure how to do it since the shoulder and sleeve are one long seam.  The neckline stretches out with wear and shows my bra strap, so although I love how the top looks when I put it on, I never wear it for an entire day.  I wonder whether sewing clear elastic to the shoulder seam for five or six inches would do the trick?

Day 14: I let N pick out my outfit today (I gave her two choices).  She chose my new Kirsten Kimono t-shirt dress (not yet blogged) and my striped Blackwood cardigan.  I got a lot of compliments on the dress today, which is kind of funny because without the cardigan and belt it is totally a sack.  But the color is nice.

May is really a great month to do this challenge because of how variable the weather is.  With the cold snap this week, I realized I had lost one of my go-to cool-weather tops.  I also was longing for some more button-downs, so I bought the Itch to Stitch Bonn Shirt pattern and sewed one up (post coming soon).  I'd like to sew up two or three more long-sleeved knit tops and two or three more long-sleeved button-downs for next fall/winter.

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Me Made May Week 1

The first week of Me Made May is over, and I managed to stick to my pledge, which was to wear two me-made items per day and not to repeat any outfits during the month (repeating items is ok as long as they're styled differently).

Here's what I wore, along with my thoughts on each item.

Day one: Sunny and warm.  I wore a Simplicity 1377 and an Alberta Street Pencil Skirt.  This has never been my favorite blouse, and I still have a lot of issues out it, particularly the way the double gauze stretched out in the neckline (also, I stupidly used linen for my bias neckline finish and it has frayed apart, so this make may not survive many more washes).  But I love the colors and I want to try it with my kelly green cardigan later this month.  The skirt is a wardrobe workhorse for me, but I have long thought that I'd like to shorten it about 3/4".

Day 2: Very warm.  I wore my new Kirsten Kimono Tee and a linen Simplicity 1887 skirt.  I love these two pieces together, but I think I'd also liked a striped tee to go with this skirt and the yellow one I made.  Putting that down for my summer sewing list!

Day 3: A little cooler.  I wore an unclogged Kirsten Kimono tee, a Lisbon Cardigan and my zip-fly Ginger Jeans.

Day 4: Cooler, and I had to work in the city.  I wore my Appleton Top and a self-drafted ponte skirt.  This skirt is another workhorse, and it has gotten a bit pilled since I first made it.  I'll probably have to replace it soonish.

Day 5: Rainy and chilly.  I wore my pull-on Ginger Jeans, a Kirsten Kimono, and a French terry Lisbon cardigan.

Day 6: We drove 13 hours roundtrip to visit my mother's grave this weekend.  On the drive there, I wore my zip-fly Gingers with another Kirsten Kimono (this is my go-to t-shirt pattern, so, yes, I have a lot of these; you'll see them all by the end of May), a brand-new Blackwood Cardigan that hasn't made the blog yet, and a brown lace wool scarf that I knitted a few years ago.  I remarked in my blog post about the orange tee that the fabric I used for it wasn't the best quality, and after this trip I don't know that I'll wear it again.  It somehow managed to both bag out AND shrink upwards WHILE I was wearing it.  Looks like I need to find some better-quality orange jersey to make another one with.

Day 7: I was exhausted this morning, as you can see.  I'm wearing a cotton long-sleeved cowl-necked Sewaholic Renfrew and the same Gingers as Day 6.  This top has no recovery and bags out when I wear it, but I still love it and wear it all the time.

Lessons: I need to make two more pairs of jeans.  In cooler weather I am always either in my boots or my Dansko clogs, and the clogs don't work so well with either pair of jeans.  So I want to make two bootcut pairs.  It's also really not worth my time sewing with cheap knits - not only did the orange shirt thoroughly annoy me, but the knit I used for the new Blackwood cardigan isn't the best either.  I'll talk more about that when I blog it next week.

Cozy

Winter came late this year, so I had a bit of time after things calmed down post-wedding, -surgery, and -Thanksgiving to fill out my cold-weather wardrobe.  I pulled out my Renfrew pattern once more and sewed up three new tops.

For these, I sewed a 10 shoulder increased to a 16 at the bottom of the arm scye.  On my first top, made out of a denim blue rayon French terry from LA Finch Fabrics, I lowered the neckline to the lowest line on the front pattern piece.  I forgot to lengthen my main bodice while cutting, and as I wanted a longer top, I cut my bottom band to 11" wide, to finish at around 5" once folded over and sewn on.

I ended up slimming the arms significantly after I sewed it up, about 1" at the wrist tapering to nothing midway up my bicep.  The sleeve was plenty long, so I didn't add the cuff, but I think I'm going to as the raw edges are raveling just the tiniest bit.

For the black top, made of a cotton/lycra slub knit from Fabric Mart, I did the same size 10 shoulder increased to 16.  I lowered the neckline a further 1", and cut the size 16 cowl with an extra 1/4" added to the seam on each side in order to fit the neckline.  I also sewed up the sides with 3/8" seam since my black knit wasn't as stretchy as the French terry.

I lengthened the body by 1" but cut the band according to the pattern piece.  I find a black cowl-neck top to be a wardrobe staple in general, but this top was made specifically as a partner for a winter wardrobe orphan, the brown leopard McCalls 3341 I made earlier this year.  I wear the heck out of this skirt with a black tee in the summer, but it had no cool-weather partner.

I sewed my third top to use up this rayon/lycra gray striped jersey.  I didn't have enough of the fabric for the cowl, so I just made the scoop neck version.  For this top, I kept the size 10 shoulder graded to a 16.  But since I always have excess fabric in my armpit when I sew this top, this time I narrowed the shoulder from the sleeve by 1/2", and shaved 1/2" off the side seam at the bottom of the arm scye, tapering to nothing about three inches into the arm scye curve.

I also ended up narrowing the sleeves on all three tops.  I had to use the size 16 sleeves to fit my altered arm scye, but I tapered them in from about 1/2" at the wrist, ending at nothing midway through my bicep.

I have transitioned to the mom washing cycle (at least, this was my own mother's cycle) - wear the same top two days in a row before washing - so these tops last me nearly an entire week.  I do have some lovely bright red-orange wool jersey earmarked for another one.  After mulling over these photos I feel the pop of color would be a welcome wardrobe addition so I should get on that soon.