My Sewing Space

Hey, thanks for the lovely comments about my coat. I was down and out with a stomach bug for three days this week and your kind thoughts were a very welcome bright spot! Three years ago I made a shirt for The Preacher . At the time I wasn't sure that it was a success, but he really liked it and continues to wear it often and really appreciate it. Decent quality shirting fabrics are really hard to come by locally so I don't do a lot of sewing for him. Okay, that's just an excuse. I bought a nice piece of shirting cotton in NY with him in mind more than 18 months ago and didn't do anything with it until now. It was The Preacher's birthday at the beginning of November, so I did some stealthy sewing and worked on this without him knowing. The sewing was stealthy, I guess, but the idea of this shirt wasn't really. He knew about the fabric when I bought it and had talked about making it a couple of times. I had tried to talk him into a trimmer fit and I thought...

I have more fabric than will fit in my fabric closet. It seems that a purge and reorganizing effort is on the horizon. But, before I get to that, I've queued up projects for some of the bulkier fabrics. I need the space that they take up. The first of these projects is a new coat for me! The fabric... I purchased this orange coating fabric over a year ago when all the clearance fabrics at Fabricland were $1.00/meter. However, this is not a high-quality piece of fabric. It is mostly polyester and I don't expect it to wear well. I suspect it will pill. For that reason, I didn't invest a lot of time in the construction. Also, I'm thinking that I might get tired of an orange coat more quickly than something neutral, so I didn't see the need to use lots of elaborate techniques on this project. The lining fabric was given to me by a destashing acquaintance. It isn't particularly fabulous, but it was on hand and perfectly serviceable. The entire coat is und...

At the end of the summer I shortened a dress for a friend. It was a dress she had worn as a bridesmaid in a wedding. Shortening it meant that she could wear it again and she did - as a wedding attendee. I was left with a pretty good size swath of fabric that was cut off the bottom of the dress. I didn't really have a plan for it, but thought it would be best to hang on to it. Fast forward a few months....and I turned some of the fabric into a matching clutch: I drew up the pattern, but copied the shape of the bottom from one of my daughter's purses. The bag is underlined with a pretty heavyweight upholstery fabric. It gives it some heft and stability. The fashion fabric actually has a lot of stretch. The flap is finished with a bias binding and the bag closes with a magnetic snap. The inside is lined. I actually made this gift using her sewing machine! She loaned it to me when mine needed some attention in the shop. She's a good friend!

I made this knitting needle case for my mom's birthday. It is intended for double-pointed and circular needles and I really like the zippy pouch to hold all the other knitting tools. It folds up in thirds and ties with a ribbon. It's hardly visible in the picture, but I quilted the outer layer with a large diamond grid. The pattern called for fusible fleece, but I didn't have any on hand. Using regular batting worked pretty well. The pattern is from this book, Everyday Handmade by Cassie Barden and Adrienne Smike , which I picked up at my local quilt shop several months ago. The instructions were good and there are a number of other cute projects that I'd like to try, like this lady bug coin purse... This Weird Science lap quilt is actually what made me want to buy the book. Love it! But, actually, I should probably first make myself one of the knitting needle cases. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but I had to pull my dpns and circulars out of ...

For the most part, my blog posts are about finished items. These pants aren't finished yet. They need to be hemmed and I think I need to completely redo the waistband (a real bummer since it is totally completed). So, I wish this was a post about a finished item, but instead it is just a post where I am excited about something new to me. SILK-LINED PANTS! Whoa. I think redoing the waistband will be worth it. I'm going to want to wear these all the time. So, of course, I want them to look good. Both the silk and the black wool are from a trip to NY and I'm confident using them now since it's been awhile since anyone spit up on me or wiped their nose on me (thanks, kids!). I'm happy with how the welt pockets turned out. The wool was really nice to work with. My local Fabricland rarely carries high quality fabrics like this. These were a treat to work with. Now, where's my seam ripper...

Hooray for busting some fabric out of deep stash! This sweater knit has been with me for a few years. It survived a couple of purges, but I always had a hard time deciding what exactly it should be. At some point, I bought a piece of matching Ultrasuede. I assume I had a plan in mind then, but it never happened. When I saw McCall's 6603 , this fabric came to mind. When I actually got around to making this top, I struggled to remember what I was actually thinking when I ordered this pattern. After a quick-and-dirty muslin, I ended up combining views A and D and significantly shortening the length. I used the Ultrasuede for a hem band and the sleeve bands. Getting the corner mitered appropriately was done without any precision or calculating - just guessing and testing. I did have to do a wee bit of trimming after the stitching was done to get the edge sharp. The pattern for the hem band in View D is a separate piece added on to the bottom. I didn't wan...