My Sewing Space

I'm not really sure why it took me so long to finish this jacket.  I didn't find it all that inspiring even though I was pretty sure I would like the end result.  Anyway, here it is... My thoughts about the beginning of the jacket and pattern pictures are posted here .  There are a lot of seams with a lot of topstitching on this jacket.  I used regular thread with the triple-straight stitch for the topstitching.  My machine doesn't really like heavy-duty thread so this seems like the best option for me.  Getting nice straight topstitching on the corduroy was difficult.  If I was stitching in the same direction as the wales, the stitching either "fell" into the troughs or looked very crooked and messy if I wasn't stitching exactly parallel to the wales.  If I was stitching across the wales, the presser foot tended to slide one way or the other with the nap. The lining is a poly stretch satin that is pretty wild.  It might even be objectively ugly.  But, h

I actually made this top several weeks ago, but never photographed it.  I mentioned it here .  While shopping before Christmas I noticed lots of gathered necklines and I found that I liked this detail.  I'm not one to wear ruffles or anything with lots of volume, so I was more drawn to the controlled gathering. Kwik Sew 3617 isn't a new pattern for me.  I used it here and here .  I considered combining the two views - the neckline of View B with the long sleeves of View A.  Instead, I decided to just make the neckband of View A gathered. I was so tired when the Preacher took this picture.  Apparently, too tired to even straighten out my shirt.  Pardon those wrinkles on my right side.  I took a nap right after this picture was taken.  :) It was a pretty simple change.  I just cut a strip of fabric the same width as the neckband pattern piece and twice as long as the neck opening.  I gathered both edges and sewed it to the neck edge.  Since I cut a straight strip, the lower

My son had his fourth birthday at the beginning of the week.  I decided to spare no expense on him and made him a bathrobe using both a pattern and fabric that someone else passed on to me.  Red is his favorite color and he loves fuzzy things, so this fleece had his name all over it. The pattern is McCall's 4643 , toddler pajamas and robe.  I made a size 4 with no changes.  I was hoping it would be too big so it would last for awhile, but it isn't really. The robe has a hood and bound front edges and sleeve hems.  The instructions suggest using purchased bias binding, but I made my own from a red plaid print that I had.  I did everything besides the bottom hem on the serger. I also cut the tie from the red print rather than from the fleece.  The thought of turning and topstitching a fleece tie was not at all appealing to me.  The tie is attached at CB. I'm glad I didn't invest a great deal in this because this robe did not get a second look after he opened th

Bummer.

Thanks for all the comments about my sweater !  I'm still so happy about it.  I usually like everything to be put away as much as possible, but I've intentionally left it out so I can admire it.  :) But, in order to wear it, I needed a lightweight long-sleeved shirt to keep me from being too itchy in the wool.  So even though I have other things in the works, that jumped to the front of the line.  I pretty much made it while the kiddos watched Sesame Street this morning. Not terribly exciting, but it fulfills its purpose beautifully.  I'm not sure exactly what the fabric is.  It's super stretchy like a rib knit, but looks more like interlock.  And I'm not sure about the fiber content, either.  It feels like some sort of blend - very soft and smooth.  The color is difficult to discern from the photo, but it's a heathered oatmeal sort of color (somewhere between off-white and tan).  I'm pretty sure I bought it at Metro Textile in NYC. I used Butterick 3

I finished my Owls sweater and I am so happy with it.  I mentioned before that I've never knit myself a whole sweater before, but after this I think I'll do it again and again and again. I'm happy with the fit.  The right sleeve looks shorter in the picture above, but they are actually the same length.  Knitting in the round does have some disadvantages, but for this project I really liked being able to try it on to check the length both in the body and the sleeves. Blocking really helped with the shaping in the back.  The increases and decreases created some strange lumps and bumps that flattened out nicely.  Blocking also helped smooth out the owls a lot.  I have been frustrated before by yarn that relaxes a lot during blocking - enough to even change the gauge.  This yarn ( Cascade Ecological Wool ) didn't do that at all.  I kind of held my breath during blocking really hoping it would come out the same size.  I was really relieved to find that the blocking di

My daughter has a birthday party to go to on Sunday afternoon.  She's soooo excited.  A birthday party is always great, but the excitement is compounded by the fact that this is a swimming party at the local recreational complex.  That's all fine and good except that my daughter's swimming suit from this past summer was really tired.  The elastic wasn't elastic anymore and it didn't cover her up as well as it should have.  So, a new one was in order. I've never sewn swimwear before, but I wasn't optimistic about being able to find a RTW one to buy, so now was as good of a time as any to try it out.  Fabricland still had some swimwear fabric and I found one that would meet with my daughter's approval. I used Kwik Sew 2605 .  It included good instructions for sewing swimwear and good measurements for sizing. I started with a size 4, lengthened it about 0.75", and took 0.25" off of each side seam (front and back) at the underarm, tapering t

My local Fabricland is slated to close March 31.  Sniff.  The closing sale has started.  So I've started stashing notions as these will be hard to get in a couple of months.  Sniff, sniff. Today's haul was mostly buttons and zippers.

I'm having a great time knitting the owls sweater .  I'm not a fast knitter, but this is coming together quickly and it's encouraging to see progress each time I work on it. It's a lot of stockinette stitch, which many find boring, but I don't.  And most of the sweaters that I really like are mostly stockinette stitch, so that's what I'm doing. The shaping is all at the back, rather than along the sides. The yarn is Cascade Ecological Wool and I love it.  I needed to double the strand to get the right gauge (I'm a tight knitter, I guess). I just have to finish the second sleeve, the join the sleeves to the body and then come the owls.  Hoot!