My Sewing Space

I made this shirt back in early spring. My wardrobe needed something fresh and I really just wanted to make a shirt. It's nice to end up with a lovely product, but when it comes to shirtmaking, I really just love the process. The original pattern is Burda 04/2010 #114 , but I've used it multiple times and made several changes. The gingham is not really the ideal weight for a classic shirt. It's more like quilting cotton - not real fine and a little spongy. It is nice quality and was pleasant to work with, but the bulk was a little frustrating at some parts of the process. I added some bright yellow-green accents to the shirt. The color isn't accurate in any of these pictures. I had both yardage and bias tape in the exact same color. That was a surprise to me (I guess I really like that color…) but I made use of both of them. I did consider binding the hem with the tape so that it showed on the outside of the shirt, but decided against it. The ot...

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...

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 don't wear many blouses or shirts made from woven fabrics. For comfort and ease of fitting and wear, I generally prefer knits. But, there is one traditional button-up shirt in my closet that I do like and wear regularly. This shirt came off the clearance rack at Kohl's about 7 years and 10 pounds ago. It no longer looks good on a hanger or on me and needs a replacement. The reason I liked this particular shirt is because it didn't restrict my arm movement or pull across my back when I would reach for something. The armholes were cut quite high and the sleeves were pretty slim. The style was pretty classic and casual - yoke, collar and stand, bust darts in the front, vertical darts in the back, placket and cuffs. Since the fit wasn't so great anymore, I couldn't just use the original as a pattern. Instead, I looked for a similar pattern and figured I would just need to do a lot of tweaking. Burda 04/2010 #114 was my pattern of choice. It doesn't have back ...

I was pretty happy with the look of this dress on my daughter and wanted to use the pattern again.   New Look 6884 has several different views and I think the collar, sleeve and ruffle choices make them look pretty different from each other.  For this dress, I left off the collar and used the cap sleeves with elastic bands. My MIL picked up the fabric awhile ago and I'm really liking all the stripes in the dress.  There are a lot of places where the stripes could  match up, but they don't at any one of the places.  Not from bodice to skirt (neither front nor back) or at the shoulders. I cut this out several weeks ago and I can't remember if I just didn't think to match them up or if I decided it would be okay to ignore it this time. The stripe repeat is rather large, so it would have taken some work to get it matching, but probably still would have been good to do. The sleeves are cut on the bias and have a partial elastic band at the bottom.  Bias ...

Tomorrow is my daughter's sixth birthday.  She's having a party on Sunday afternoon with seven friends. My goal for party favors was to avoid junk - both the plastic/toy variety and the edible kind. These headbands were part of my solution. I used Heather Bailey's pattern. The pattern and instructions are great and this was a very quick and easy project. The headbands work well thanks to a piece of elastic inserted between the ends of the band.  The ties are purely decorative. I had a good time working on these together with my daughter.  I did the sewing, clipping and pressing and she turned the pieces right-side-out, cut the elastic, and did some of the assembly. She's very excited about giving them to her friends. Next Up:  I don't know exactly what, but it will be more summer clothes for kids.

I actually made this dress about a month ago and don't remember much about making it.  So, we'll have more pictures than text today.... The border print fabric has paper dolls on it.  The Preacher's grandmother gave it to me a couple of years ago.  There wasn't a lot of it - just enough for the skirt of this dress.  I even eliminated one side seam to keep it as simple as possible. Last summer I asked my mom to pick up some black/white gingham to go with this fabric.  I couldn't find any here and she was coming for a visit. After I had put the gingham with the doll print, I wasn't so sure I liked it. I thought some eyelet trim along the top edges would soften it a bit, but I didn't have any in my stash and didn't have an extra hour and a half to make a trip to the nearest fabric store.  So, I made a ruffle out of the  solid pink at the lower edge of the border.  I'm still not all that excited about it, but my daughter loves  it.  A...

About 30 minutes after I finished the last closet clutch , S called to ask me to make more wine bags as she only had one left. I dropped these off on Friday: I wanted one of them to have the same sort of look as the notecard that I liked so much. Next up :  finishing two little quilts...not very exciting...but still must be done.

I've been referring to these various ways: hanger pouches, hanger pockets, hanger things, etc.  I dropped them off yesterday and M called today to say that she was calling them "Closet Clutches."  I thought that was a great name.  Naming something gives it (more) value. M had described these closet clutches to me as she had seen it somewhere else.  She thought they could be used for holding a sachet or jewelry or for hiding money or the family jewels.  (Ideally, none of my readers are into burglary, since I've just given away a big secret).  Honestly, this seems like a strange thing to me and like the angels , I wonder who will buy these?  But, as the wise Preacher said, I don't have to sell them - just make them.  M was really happy with them, so maybe she'll have no problem selling them. The construction is really pretty simple.  There is an outer piece with something decorative on the front, a lining/inside piece with a pocket att...

My daughter's school is having a fashion show and silent auction fundraiser later this month.  I was asked to make "something" for the auction.  This is what I came up with... ...an apron/potholder/tea towel/dish cloth set. For the apron, I used Butterick 4945 .  Usually, aprons are good beginner projects and I think they are pretty simple.  Not so with this apron.  I was looking forward to just cutting out a pattern with no alterations and then just sewing it up following the directions without too much thinking. For the most part, the no alterations thing worked.  The only thing I changed was the waist ties.  The ties in the pattern were a single layer and rather wide.  It seemed to me that they would be hard to get to look good when tied on a person.  So, I made them double layer and narrower. I should have thought through the directions instead of blindly following them.  The apron turned out okay, but it could have been sim...

I guess I'm calling these Easter dresses, but my girls actually wore these last week and I initially intended them to just be spring dresses.  But, whatever....having a new Easter dress is nice, so we'll go with that for today. My daughters are five and two and they were both so thrilled about having matching dresses.  I was a little surprised, actually.  I bought this fabric at Fabricland during their closing sale when they were considering a meter to be about as long as a full arm span.  I think I asked for three meters and came home with at least five.  So, there was plenty to make a dress for each girl and I have lots of this leftover.  (Please, no one suggest that I make something matching for me.  I heard that no less than five times at church.  It's just not going to happen). The girls look very cute together, but I had a hard time getting a good picture of them together.  We headed outside this morning, but didn't find a good...

It's time to start thinking about spring clothes for the kiddos.  I started with this no-brainer for my son: a new shirt to wear to church. I've used this pattern many times before (see here and here ).  But, it looks like I need to look for the next size grouping because I used the T4 and had to make it bigger to fit.  I added 1" in width to the yoke, 1/2" on each side of the neck and also 1" to the front and back (added 1/2" to each pattern piece).  I added the extra in the middle of the shoulder seam so as not to mess up the neck or armhole.  I didn't want to have to change all  the pattern pieces.  I also added 1.5" in length , but trimmed off 5/8" before hemming. I bought the fabric at Fabricland during the closing sale, so it was a pretty good deal.  It's pretty lightweight, but I liked the yellow puckery plaid for spring and summer. Next up:  Spring dresses for the girls.