My Sewing Space

It's been awhile since I've used an Oliver + S pattern . I bought this Seashore Sundress pattern quite awhile ago and am happy that I finally made use of it. It was as enjoyable to sew as every other Oliver + S pattern I've used . This sundress is for my older daughter. The fabric is a lightweight twill that I picked up on clearance around the same time as I bought the pattern. As it turns out, it is a Lisette fabric, created by the same designer as the patterns. I thought the stripes might not be ideal for this pattern since I didn't have enough fabric to do much matching, but I'm pretty happy with it after all. I finished the facings with bias binding and added a tag for fun. The instructions are both good and thorough, but the techniques used are not advanced, so this would be a good beginner pattern. My daughter likes the small pockets in the skirt, but they are not very noticeable. I had absolutely no length to spare, so I used bias tape as a ...

It's that time of year - the seasonal change and the ensuing wardrobe upheaval that it brings. As always, my oldest child has the least number of suitable warm weather clothing items, so my spring/summer kid sewing begins with her. These two pieces were very quick to make and turned out really well. Both she and I are pleased. And, bonus - the fabrics for both are leftover from other projects! The skirt is made from fabric I purchased for this shirt . I also made this shirt from it. There is none left. The top is made from the fabric of this dress - using the border print left some strangely shaped remnants and the pieces for this top fit them just right. The pattern for the top is Kwik Sew 3169 - one I've used multiple times. I like this short-sleeved version the best. For the skirt, I graded up the measurements for this twirly skirt initially made for my younger daughter. I started assembling both of these after my daughter went to bed one night and she had ne...

When I thought through my spring sewing plans, I came up with five things I really wanted to make for myself. That was the short list and I'm not sure I will actually make it happen, so I thought I would start with the most involved project. If I left it for the end it certainly wouldn't have gotten done. This is McCall's 5525 in my very favorite color - sour apple green. The pictures don't really show the color accurately. It's pretty bright, but I love it. I should have noted the date when I actually started this project because it feels like it took me forever - partly because I just didn't have significant chunks of time to work on it and partly because I did some tailoring work on the lapels and the collar. That meant that I had hours invested before doing any assembly. I haven't done much classic tailoring work at all up until now. This book was a big help to me and I followed the machine method outlined in it. I also referred to this book an...

In the last two months, I have spent a lot of my sewing time making things for other people. Some of the items were for the two stores in town that I supply and others were just for individuals that wanted something specific. My natural tendency is to be selfish with my sewing time, but it's good to have a bit of money coming in to keep the sewing room stocked. Not much to say about all the things, but I did want to record them here... Bibs: Pillows: Angels: Pillows for charity auction: Vogue 8828 for a client (Really? Can I have a "client?" It sounds a bit more pretentious than I'm comfortable with, but I should probably own it and add a bit of professionalism to my work. And it's much more succinct than "a nice woman I know that wants me to sew things for her." I like succinct. But you'd never guess that from this long, rambling parenthetical comment). It's a very poor fit on my dress form, but was...

Crazy. And more crazy. I’m really happy with how these three outfits came together. I like the fabrics, I like the patterns, and I like these kids (even though they’re crazy).

The fabric for my older daughter’s dress was the inspiration for this coordination effort. I picked it up for a great price at the end of the summer last year. I had the fabrics for my son’s clothes already in my stash. I knew that I wanted to use some sort of bold stripe for my younger daughter’s dress (initially inspired by this one ) but it took me awhile to decide on exactly how to make it work. After some more searching and perusing, I came across this dress and thought it was perfect. Of course, I didn’t have a pattern exactly like that and looked for one that would get me close. Last year I was so happy with New Look 6089 so I decided to work with that one again. The biggest change to the pattern was the cut-away shoulders and it wasn’t as hard to do as I thought it would be. If I were to do it again, I would cut them away a little further - more like the inspiration photo. The stripes are made by sewing navy bands on top of the white skirt. I made pres...

About this time last year, I made a pair of pants for my son from an Ottobre pattern (1-2011-29). I had wondered if all the pieces and details were really worth it, but concluded that they were. I really liked those pants and felt inspired to try more similar patterns. And here we are, one year later, and I didn't do anything of the sort. Time flies. I considered using other Ottobre pants patterns for this project, but in light of the time crunch, I went with the same pattern. I did need to trace all the pieces again in a larger size, but the construction was familiar and I had the outgrown pair to reference as needed. I love this railroad engineer stripe fabric and couldn't resist playing with the stripes a bit. Sadly, most of that gets covered up by the shirt. The back pockets don't get used, but I really like how they're formed. I left off the belt loops and outer leg zippers in the name of simplification. The shirt is another Ottobre pattern (6/20...