Pattern Comparison: Liana Stretch Jeans vs. Ginger Jeans

Sewing your own jeans for the first time is intimidating, and trying to decide which pattern to start with can be one of the stumbling blocks.  I've written this pattern comparison of the Liana Stretch Jeans vs. the Ginger Jeans sewing patterns to help remove one obstacle from your jeans-sewing journey. I've sewn both multiple times and am sharing my detailed thoughts on all aspects of the patterns.  

Lago Tank Pattern Review

Virginia tends to be pretty steamy during the summer.  I wanted to make a few knit tank tops for our summer trip home since most of my summer clothes no longer fit.

Liana Jeans #2

Immediately after completing my first pair of Liana jeans Liana Stretch Jeans (affiliate link) I cut out a second pair.  This time I used a black Cone Mills denim that Fabric Mart briefly had in stock in March.  It was a 62" wide denim, so I used less than two yards of it. It's a stretch denim, but it's not the S-Gene that everyone raves over.  It's also a bit lighter weight than I had thought it would be.  The recovery is excellent, though.

Liana jeans, finally

Me-Made May made painfully obvious that it was time for me to make some new jeans. As I had put the Liana Stretch Jeans pattern (affiliate link) from Itch to Stitch on my 2019 Make Nine, it was clear what had to be done.

Bonn 5: The Make It Work Shirt

Surprise, I made another Bonn (affiliate link).  I'm not sorry.  I'm going to make more.  You'll see another before long, I'm sure.  This one, though, is made out of the prettiest, softest flannel, and it's in a tunic length for extra coziness.

Funny story about the fabric.  The temperature briefly dipped into the 40s a few weeks ago, and I felt miserably cold.  I know, mid-40s isn't really that cold, but I am a naturally cold person, plus I'm a bit anemic, and that particular week, 40s may as well have been 10s.  One night after my husband came home, I couldn't take it anymore.  I told him I had to go buy flannel ASAP and I took off to Joann's at 8 p.m.  I haven't bought apparel flannel there before, and my expectations were quite low, so I was really excited to find a bolt of this stuff.  I can't find it on the web site, but it was one of only two 55" flannels on the shelf; most of the other apparel flannels are 41"-ish wide.  Plus it was the same price as the narrower flannels, and of course it was on sale.  I came home and washed and dried it three times, and was astounded when it came out of the wash pill-free.  It didn't even shrink that much.  So, I'm sorry I can't find it online, but if you see it in store you can buy with confidence.

I spent about an hour cutting my fabric, including lengthening the overall length by about 6" and narrowing the sleeve from the wrist to the elbow after comparing it to my Gallery Tunic pattern sleeve.  I thought I was careful in my cutting, and of course, I've made this shirt four times before with great results.  But somehow, my darts ended up way too low.  I have no idea what happened - I must not have had the fabric completely smoothed out while cutting, but I wasn't any hastier than I normally am. When I tried on the shirt before sewing on my pockets, I was very bummed.  The too-low darts really made a huge difference in the fit and it just wasn't the pattern I loved anymore.

However, I needed this flannel coziness in my wardrobe ASAP, so I just kept on trucking.  I had planned to make pockets anyway, and so I decided to make them extra huge to hide my darts.  I also placed them strategically to mitigate the poor-fit wrinkles as much as possible.

My cutting error wasn't limited to the dart.  Somehow this shirt also just ended up way too big.  Part of it was the improper dart placement, and part of it could be the way this thicker flannel behaves, but there was also just a lot of excess fabric.  I also think that I made my initial full bicep adjustment too large; I will need to remedy that before I make Bonn #6.

So on this shirt, I ended up taking it in about an inch, starting about 1.5" below the bust dart all the way up through the sleeve, ending slightly above my elbow crease.  The sleeves in this shirt are set in, so the adjustment was a bit sloppy as I didn't do it the "right way" by unpicking the sleeve; I just sewed straight over the seam.

I guess we can call this a "Make It Work" shirt.  The bad dart makes it feel a little sloppy, but it is so comfortable that I've worn it a bunch since it came off the machine.

As an aside, I'd like to mention that we lived in Moscow, Russia, not too long ago, and I was not nearly as wimpy about cold weather then, as I am now.  I think that I just used up all my cold tolerance during those two years when I forced myself to take the then-baby girls for walks in their stroller every day as long as the temperature was above 14F.  And now I'm done.

Thanks for reading, stay warm, and I'll see you next time.

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Bonn #4

Another week, another Bonn (affiliate link).  Don't worry, I've decided that after this one, I should probably crack open a different button-down shirt pattern as I round out my fall and winter wardrobe. But the newest horse in my stable is made out of what appears to be a cotton/linen blend shirting I recently ordered from FabricMart.

This one is a size 10DD with a 1 1/8" forward shoulder adjustmen. Both the body and the sleeves are lengthened 1.5" and point of the V neckline is an inch lower.  Now, maybe because of the lower-v and the forward shoulder, the neckline isn't as open as I'd like and I notice that the back neckline is just a bit too wide.  I am thinking of reducing the length of the neckline and collar (ok, maybe I will make another one sooner than I had thought).

Like on my last two Bonns, the bust darts are an inch shorter and an inch lower, and the sleeves are a size 10 with a 1.5" full bicep adjustment.  I find on this one that the sleeves are a little too voluminous below the elbow.  I think they look great rolled up, though (and the extra volume makes a neat roll a little bit easier).

I ended up hemming the shirt with self-fabric bias binding.  I did have to redo it once, as I had forgotten to clip the seam allowance before turning it up, but once I did that, the hem fell flatter than the hems on any of my previous Bonns (though still not completely flat, grrr).  I just can't seem to figure out how to hem a curved shirt tail satisfactorily.

Also, I want to note for future Masha that this shirt used up 64 inches of a 57" wide fabric.

Like my other Bonns, this one is sure to be a regular in my fall and winter rotation.  It's not actually warm enough to wear it yet (and I'm totally ok with that), but I imagine I'll be reaching for it in a few weeks.

Bonn Fever

I've been sewing a ton the last couple of weeks in preparation for our upcoming annual beach vacation.  I've made four men's short-sleeve button-down shirts,  two girls' dresses andthree swim suits with another in progress.  But I haven't had time to get any decent pictures.  I'm hoping to remedy that with the ocean and the sand dunes as my backdrop. For now, I leave you with an overdue post about my latest Bonn Shirt (affiliate link), sewn back in May.

So it's official, I have Bonn fever.  I haven't had any good button-down shirts in my wardrobe since I got pregnant with Niko and outgrew the Lisette Travelers I made in 2014.  I'm rapidly filling those holes, and now I present Bonn #3!

I should note here that I tried to photograph this shirt a number of times during an overcast spring.  I still haven't found a good spot for photos in or around the new house, so here's a bunch of blurry images featuring a wrinkled shirt that I refuse to iron it single time I try to photograph it.  And also I wore it a lot before it got too hot.

I made this one in the long-sleeved view.  I think I will probably make them all long-sleeved from now on.  I like a full-length sleeve in chilly weather, and when it's not so cold, I just roll them up, so this will make them more versatile.  The sleeves did end up a bit short so I will need to lengthen it about 1.5" on my pattern piece.

Again I sewed a 10DD graded to a 12 at the waist and a 14 at the hip.  It fits well, though I think if I ever make this as a dress or a tunic (which I am planning to do), I should probably grade out to the 16 hip if not the 18, as I think the 14 will be too tight if I continue it all the way down.

Like on my second Bonn, my bust darts are an inch lower and an inch shorter, the shirt is lengthened 1.5" and there is a 5/8" forward shoulder adjustment.  This time I also deepened the V in front by 1".  I forgot to do this on the pattern, so it was an afterthought alteration after my pattern pieces had already been cut.  I need to redraft my pattern to include this change.  I am forever lowering necklines as I usually find a lower neckline to be more flattering on my large bust - it seems to have a minimizing effect.

The sleeves are pleated to fit them into the cuff.  I didn't read the instructions carefully enough, and I stitched my pleats closed rather than basting them.  It doesn't really matter, though, given my predilection for rolled up sleeves.

I am scratching my head a little on the forward shoulder adjustment.  I've read a number of different tutorials on the forward shoulder, and I see two different methods - the first calls for shortening the front shoulder all the way across, and adding back to the entirety of the back shoulder.  The second method, which is the one I use, calls for subtracting from the front outer shoulder edge only, leaving the neck edge as is, and drawing a diagonal line between the two.  I use this method because it makes sense to me that only my outer shoulders are forward - the part attached to my neck can't really migrate forward because it is attached to my neck.  But maybe I need to do it the other way, because the adjustment I made hasn't totally worked on this shirt - it still migrates backwards.

I didn't mention hemming in my other two Bonn posts, but I had quite a difficult time making the small hem on the curved shirttail.  I ended up with a flippy hem on the linen one even after I redid it.  This time I used a triple-stitch method that now I can't locate to link for you, and it was better, although I still find that the hem flips up after I wash it.  It's really annoying, but I have had RTW shirts do that too.  Does anyone have any tips there?

As it's summer now, I haven't worn the shirt much lately.  But I'll be pulling it back out for heavy rotation later this fall, and I even have this fabric stashed away in the black/gray/white color (100% cotton shirting, from Walmart of all places!) to make another one.  It's definitely a winner.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Seersucker Bonn Shirt

I made another Bonn Shirt (affiliate link)! This one is in cotton seersucker from Fabric Mart, purchased about a year ago.  Like my last Bonn, this one is a 10DD graded to a 12 waist and a 14 hip.  I also shortened the darts by 1" and moved them down 1", and fixed the botched forward shoulder adjustment I had made on my first Bonn.  I left the cuffs off the short sleeves because that is an area on my body that needs no extra bulk.

When I finished the shirt, the expanse of hot-pink gingham seemed to cry out for some breaking up.  So I cut out a patch pocket on the bias.  I considered cutting two pockets but thought it would make the shirt look campier than I wanted.  I'm still pondering adding the second pocket, though.  I did a 1.5" full bicep adjustment on the short sleeve piece (since I had had to do on the long-sleeve piece), and the sleeves ended up way too big at the opening.  I didn't feel like ripping and recutting a sleeve, so for this casual shirt, I made a 1" pleat on each sleeve hem, topstitched the pleat down and called it good.  It looks fine, but it actually restricts my movement - when I raise my arms the whole shirt comes up.  I should have taken out the excess under the arm, and actually, I can still do that pretty easily since I pleated the sleeves after I had already hemmed them.

I can get this shirt on just fine with the front done up, so I skipped buttonholes and sewed my buttons right on.  I also didn't sew a button at the top.  This allows the top to open up a slight bit but still keeps me covered up.  I think I'm going to try deepening the v just a little bit on my next version.

There is no shaping on the back of this shirt - no yoke or darts.  I could see putting fisheye darts into the back in a more refined fabric, but in this seersucker, the loose fit back there will make for a very cool top for our sweaty summers.

When I finished this top, I tried it on with all my skirts and shorts and was disappointed because it just didn't seem to work with any of them.  It's a bit long and voluminous for all but my most fitted pencil skirts, and the color just doesn't quite work with most of my shorts.  But I do like it a lot with skinny jeans, and now that I've seen these photos, I like it even more.  I think it would be really cute with pedal pushers for a vintage vibe, though that's not usually my thing.

I'll definitely be packing it on vacation!  Do you have any favorite vacation me-mades?

 Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Bonn Shirt

I made a shirt.  I've been eyeing the Bonn Shirt pattern (affiliate link) since it came out, and I finally bought the PDF a couple of weeks ago.  I love everything about this pattern - the shape of the open neckline, the mandarin collar, and the shirt-tail hem.

Based on my current 41-35-44 measurements and knowing that my shoulder size is always a bit smaller than my bust size, I chose a size 10DD graded to a 12 waist and a 14 hip.

I didn't muslin this one.  I pinned the dart closed on the pattern piece, pinned the shoulder seams together, and laid it over my body.  It seemed as though the dart would be in the right place (or at least close enough), and that I was definitely going to need a forward shoulder adjustment.  I eye-balled it the forward shoulder adjustment at 5/8", but when I was done sewing I realized that I only drew the line on my front pattern piece, and forgot to actually remove the resulting triangle.  As a result, the front shoulder is too long and it still migrates backwards a bit.

Obviously, I should have made a muslin.

I also knew that I was going to have to do a full bicep adjustment on the sleeve (something I've never successfully done before), so I measured my arm and the pattern piece and used this tutorial to figure out the rest.  I ended up doing a 1.5" adjustment to the size 10 sleeve.

I am 5'8", so I lengthened the top 1.5".  I did end up shortening the shirt in front before I hemmed it (but this was probably also because of the way I messed up the shoulder adjustment).  I'm really quite happy with the fit, aside from the shoulder issue, though you can see in this photo that the dart isn't quite in the right place - the dart point is right on top of my bust apex, and the dart needs to be moved down about an inch.  I've made adjustments on my pattern piece to fix this for next time.

The fabric is a gorgeous linen I bought from Fabric Mart three years ago.  Those of you who know Fabric Mart know that, if you wait a few days, whatever you have your eye on will go on sale.  This is a rare fabric that I bought at full price because I was afraid it was going to sell out before the next sale.  I used some of it to make a dress for Z last year, and this shirt took out the rest of the cut.  And I feel completely satisfied with that - it's like the fabric met its perfect destiny in this pattern.

I think this shirt will get a workout with my skinny jeans, but I also wore it yesterday with a skirt, and I like it with shorts as well.  I don't know why I waited so long to buy this pattern, but I know I'll be using it again and again.  As with the other Itch to Stitch patterns I have tried, the drafting and instructions are very good.

See you next time!
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A bit of sparkle in the gloom

I had originally planned to sew myself a dress to wear to my brother's wedding.   I even bought the Appleton dress pattern and some fabric to sew it up. As time drew near, however, I made the uncharacteristic decision to save myself stress and not try to do all the things, and went shopping instead.  

I got really lucky and found a beautifully fitting princess seamed lace fit-and-flare dress at, of all places, Dress Barn. I find the name of the store really off-putting, but I had received a coupon in the mail and there's one near my house, so off I went.  Dress sorted, the only thing remaining was to decide what to wear over it. I had a number of appropriate shawls, but one day I found myself with a couple free hours, so I sewed up my fifth Lisbon cardigan (affiliate link) in a metallic knit from the stash.

I sewed the cropped variation with a few mods. For this one, I went down to a 10 shoulder and graded to a 12 bust. I sewed a thinner bottom band and left off the buttons. When it was done, I found that the sparkle wasn't reading as much as I thought it would be, so I spent a few evenings embroidering beads on it.

It was a very satisfying project.  I was so busy during the wedding that I didn't have time to do any proper blog modeling, but here are the two photos I could find.

I know I've already posted about how much fun the wedding was, but it's good for morale to keep reminding myself of it.  Because two days later, my husband had open-heart surgery for a problem that we thought wouldn't need addressing until his 50s. Then not two weeks later, we found ourselves back in the ER and were admitted for another surgery to fix complications arising from the first.  We spent a lot of time in the hospital in November, and the few weeks since at multiple doctors' appointments each week.  He is at home recovering now, but I have to say I wouldn't be sorry to never enter a hospital again.

That was the last thing I sewed for about six weeks.  I'm finally back at the machine again and have finished a few things for me that I'm looking forward to sharing.  We just need some sunshine so I can take photos. Our winter has been warm thus far (and I'm not complaining), but a little dreary too.  Is it spring yet?
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Purple Kool-Aid cardigan

I finally got around to sewing another Lisbon Cardigan (affiliate link).  This is #4 and I am planning a few more.  What can I say, I'm just a cardigan kind of girl.  

Like my last three, this one is a size 12 graded to a 14 at the hips.  I was tempted to cut a size 10 shoulder on this one, but I had not yet used a cotton/lycra for the pattern and suspected it might sew up a little smaller than the drapey rayon French terry and bamboo jersey I had used on previous versions. 

So I stuck with the pattern pieces I had already drafted.  I had lowered the neckline on two of my previous Lisbons but I decided to leave it as is for this one.  It did sew up smaller, but the shoulder is still too wide.  Also, because the fabric is less drapey than the fabrics I used before, the cardigan is shorter than the others and feels a little boxier.

It might seem kind of surprising that it would take me four iterations of the same pattern to figure out what alterations I'd like make, but different knits really sew up so differently.  No two of the four cardigans I made fit the same.

And now I know that, for next time, I am definitely going to cut a smaller shoulder.  I have to go back and look at the pattern to see how much narrower the shoulder is on the 10; I might go down to an 8.  I'm unsure as to whether I'm going to do an actual FBA or just grade out at the bottom of the armscye.  I also want to experiment with the sleeve - I think I'd like to do a long hemmed sleeve instead of a cuffed sleeve.  I won't want to lose any width in the upper sleeve, but I have a good bit of ease beneath the elbow, so I'll need to narrow that part.

Like on my French terry version, the front hems dip when the cardigan is worn open.  I wonder if that is just what is going to happen with a cardigan, or whether it indicates a fitting issue, because it's not noticeable when the cardigan is buttoned.

And speaking of buttons ... I recently picked up another bag of buttons from the thrift store, and it happened to contain about two dozen 1/2" purple buttons that match the fabric perfectly.  You may have noticed that they are not on the cardigan.

That is because I could not get my machine to sew buttonholes on this fabric for love nor money.  Whomp whomp.  Although my machine generally stinks at sewing knits, a layer of interfacing on the fabric has always been enough to get it to make buttonholes.  I was out of knit interfacing when I sewed this, so I used two strips of knit stay tape instead.  My machine didn't like that, nor was it cowed when I attached some tear-away stabilizer to the underside of the placket.  So I bought some Dritz snaps, grabbed my hammer and got to work.

 

Yeah, so that wasn't so easy.  I've never used metal snaps before, and it was a pain.  I had a pack of 12 snaps and had to use them all to get 7 useable snap sets on my cardigan.  I kept hammering the male sockets to the side, thus rendering them useless.  I have a Kam snap press from my diaper-making days and am considering buying the dies I need to install metal snaps.  Or maybe I'll just get a Snap Setter - I've heard good things.  I don't mind the look of the snaps on the cardigan, but as I don't trust my snap installation, I'm very, very careful when I undo them

The fabric is Robert Kaufman Laguna cotton/lycra jersey knit in Amethyst.  I've used Laguna a few times in the past and have found it to hold up pretty well.  But I'm not the biggest fan of the available colors.  This purple seems a little juvenile to me - not much depth and it reminds me of the color of artificially "grape"-flavored things.  But one can never have enough cardigans (at least, not if one is me), so this has already gotten plenty of wear and will continue to do so.

Even if it does remind me of purple Kool-Aid.

Two more cardigans

Well, it seems my selfish-sewing-jo is really on fire.  The sewing streak I began in May has not let up, and now that I have a greater variety of clothing that fits, getting dressed is actually starting to become fun again.  Recently, I've made two more Lisbon Cardigans (affiliate link).

For the first one, I used a 1.5-yard cut of a J. Crew polyester jacquard stripe knit acquired last year from Fabric Mart.  I had bought it to make a slouchy t-shirt, but the lace stripes were a lot more see-through in person than I thought they would be.  So the fabric went back into the stash to await its destiny.  When I came across it in late May, inspiration struck. Sheer fabric isn't a problem if you're always going to wear it over something.  So a cardigan it had to be.

I could have sewn this up in an afternoon after the pieces were cut, but I spent a couple of days considering what to do about the button bands.  Originally I cut an interfaced band out of a different fabric, but when I went to put in buttonholes I didn't like the way the wide black band looked with the lace.  After a few days' consideration, I cut the band off (unpicking black stitches on black fabric? No thanks!) and added a thinner band of self-fabric, no interfacing, no buttons or buttonholes.  As a result, the cardigan is smaller.  I can close it at the top with a pin.  I like how it looks open when I arrange it just-so, but as you can see, the fabric is so floppy that it doesn't stay just-so.

It's a size 12, just like my first one.  This fabric is a lot less stretchy than the French terry I used last time, so it's a closer fit.  I sewed the whole thing entirely on my serger and coverstitch machine.  I did not add the sleeve bands, instead just turned up and coverstitched with a 1/2" hem.  I also lowered the neckline by about 3/4".

I recently wore the cardigan on a date night to the movies.  It is the perfect weight for the theater - I would have been cold wearing just the t-shirt, but a heavier cardigan would have been too much.  So, although it won't stay on straight without a pin, it has already gotten a lot of wear.

As the cardigan corner of my closet is still fairly empty, earlier this month, I made a green Lisbon out of this beautiful bamboo/lycra jersey knit.  There was a fluke on the Fabric Mart web site a month or two ago, where this color of the fabric was briefly (and probably accidentally) on sale for $1.80 a yard.  I bought three yards.  I would have bought more, but I felt bad, like I was cheating the company or something.  Later that day the price went back up to $11.99/yard but Fabric Mart honored my order, which was nice of them.

Anyway, I sewed up the cardigan in the 12 graded to the 14, just as I had the previous two times.  I tried it on and was ... totally disappointed.  It was way too big.  Fabric choice plays such a huge role in how knits fit, and I guess the drape of the bamboo meant that I should have cut a smaller size. 

Trouble was, not only had I serged all my bands on AND sewed the buttonholes and buttons on, but I had coverstitched the bottom band, too.  It was well and stitched together.  I was so mad.  I threw the cardigan down the basement stairs and went to bed.  I thought about starting over (after all, the fabric was less than $2 a yard), but I wanted to save the rest of the green fabric for another top down the road.  So over the course of three days, I slowly picked out my stitching and then took my side seams in 1/2" from hem to sleeve.

MUCH better.  I do wish the shoulders were narrower, but I'm not picking out any more stitches. The good thing is, now that I've sewn three of these in different knits, I should have a better idea in the future whether to cut the 12 or a smaller size, based on the fabric I am using.  And given how often I reach for these, I could easily use three or four more of them.

 

Also seen in these photos - a new Kirsten Kimono tee (size medium with my 5" FBA and hips graded to an XL) in cotton/lycra from Fabric Mart.  I wore this outfit to church last week and felt cute.  It was a good day :) 

I'm including the next photo (taken by my 3-year-old son) because it is the truest to the color of the fabric.

I'm currently trying to decide what color fabrics to order for my next few Lisbons.  I'm thinking a deep peacock blue, and maybe a yellow if I can find the right shade.  I love this pattern!