My Sewing Space

It happens every September. You'd think I would catch on. The air feels especially chilly on a Sunday morning and my kids still only have their summer clothes for church. Find some tights! Do you have a decent looking sweater? Put a shirt under that! And off we go, looking kind of patched together. Seriously, every year. That was last week Sunday. So, last week I was busy getting some dressier clothes together. I started with my son because I find his clothes takes longer to make. It's easier to squeeze in the faster dresses at the eleventh hour. I always have success with Ottobre patterns for my son, so that's where I started. This is pattern #38 from issue 4/2011. They are called "Algebra corduroys." Ottobre pattern names are always interesting. I like the narrow legs, the curved yoke and the angled pockets on the front. They are a bit rumpled from being folded up waiting for their shirt partner. All of the topstitching is done in tan thread. I copi...

The majority of the clothes I make for my kids are for my older daughter. My son gets hand-me-downs from some other families and my younger daughter gets hand-me-downs from my older daughter. So, my older daughter usually has the greatest amount of need for clothes. The other two do notice this pattern, so they get extra excited when I do work on something for them. My daughter was pretty excited about the idea of a new dress when I started this one, and she was really excited when it won first prize in our local fair* but now she won't wear it. I love the fabric - the trees, the squirrels, the dark red background, the fact that it's corduroy. She doesn't like the fabric - "it's not girlish" is what she says. Bleh. If the squirrels were pink and sparkly (ick), she'd like it. I'm not sure if I should be frustrated with her narrow views or commend her for having a firm grasp on her own sense of style. I also really like the pattern - Burda 9564...

In this post , I mentioned my wanting more fall/winter dresses. Here we have the second dress in this "Dress Warm" project. For this one I opted to use a warm fabric and chose a design that would allow wearing a cami underneath  for an extra layer. The pattern is Simplicity 2406 , view C. I previously made view B here . I used a dark green fine-wale corduroy fabric that I've had in my stash for years. It's so soft and more drapey than most corduroy. I've considered using this fabric every winter for the last few years, but haven't felt like I found the ideal pattern for it. I'm making a concerted effort to sew up stash fabrics and not hoard them out of fear of not getting it perfect. So, did I choose the perfect pattern? I don't really think so, but I still like the dress and a dress in my closet is more satisfying than flat fabric on a shelf. I had just enough fabric to make this dress - only small scraps left, so no matching sash. This is an e...

Continuing with my new styles/silhouettes kick, I tried a skirt style that is a little different for me - the straight skirt. Now, this isn't something that is entirely new to me, but I haven't made one in a few years. I thought it was time to try it again. My pattern of choice was as basic as could be. I wanted to get the fit good without working around a lot of details and since I wasn't sure I would really like the shape on me, I didn't want to invest a lot of time in it. Enter McCall's 3830 . For the first try, I used a piece of corduroy leftover from this jacket . I had just enough of both the corduroy and the lining left for the skirt. In the past, I have been unhappy with how the front of straight skirts fit me. This time I left out the front darts. While I do curve out quite a bit from waist to hip, I don't really curve much at the front - it's all on the sides and at the back. I was really happy with how the fit turned out. This was posted ear...

I'm not sure what prompted it, but awhile ago I decided that I needed a green skirt. The last time I was at Fabricland I saw this green wide-wale corduroy. I wasn't really looking for the skirt to be corduroy and the color was a little different than I was hoping for, but since I had my eyes peeled for awhile and hadn't seen anything better, I thought I'd try the corduroy. After looking for a suitable pattern, I settled on the Burda 2/2010 skirt that I've already used three times . Because of the weight and bulk of the corduroy, I didn't want to try to mess with too many details. I'll use another skirt pattern soon. Really, I will. One of the things I really like about this pattern is the pockets. This time I made the pocket facings and part of the pocket bag out of a cotton woven solid to reduce bulk. Since I'll be wearing this skirt with tights I added a lining. Adding the lining was really simple except that I cut the lining exactly the sam...

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 objecti...

I did get the jacket cut out the other night and started sewing it today.  It's going to be a jean-style corduroy jacket.  The fabric is a stretch corduroy that I bought last year for very little money at the end of winter. The pattern I'm using is Vogue 2793, an out-of-print Oscar de la Renta.  It's a great pattern.  This is the third time I'm making it.  (To be honest, I don't really wear the other two that I've made because I don't have anything to wear with them, but I'm optimistic this one will work out well in my closet).  The sleeve is particularly fantastic - I substituted this sleeve when making this jacket.  I'll try to take more pictures of the sleeve later. Including the fashion fabric, the lining and the interfacing, there are 31 pieces to cut out.  Thirty one!  So far I've only done the corduroy.  All of the details on the jacket are great, but my goodness, this might take awhile. The corduroy is really messy....

Corduroy is one of my favorite fall/winter fabrics.  I like it's weight and texture and the rich, lovely colors that it comes in.  And I like jumpers on little girls.  So, I think a corduroy jumper for fall is a good thing. This is Butterick 4842 in size 4.  Kind of.  I took in the CF 1.5", the side seams 3/4", added 1.5" in length to the bodice and 1" to each flounce.  So, I started with size 4, but didn't stay there for long.  This pattern is really short.  You can see that from the pattern model. I thought the jumper might turn out too plain, so I added two bands of ribbon at the bottom of the bodice.  It's sheer ribbon with satin edges.  Nice how Fabricland had ribbon to match this color almost exactly, but no narrow white grosgrain ribbon.  Okay, I'm over it.... Tutorial for the flower here .   I'm not thrilled with the button in the middle.  I've been doing a great job of using up my button stash rathe...