My Sewing Space

Last spring I decided I wanted to make a white denim jacket in the traditional jeans jacket style. I never got around to it, but returned to the idea this year. My plan was to use this pattern and when I went to the site to download it, I saw this moto-style jacket and was quite taken with it. The fabric I used was a lightweight denim with a lot of stretch. Too much stretch. In hindsight, it's clear that I should have interfaced the bodice pieces to control some of the stretch. I think it will be comfortable to wear, but it was frustrating to work with. I quilted a block of the denim before cutting out the shoulder insets and upper sleeve pieces. I'm happy with how it turned out. I used a heavyweight thread and was pleased with how well it worked. When it came time to topstitch, it didn't work nearly as well and I had to do some switching around between machines, types of needles and thread. Eventually, I found an arrangement that worked, but a lot of the topst...

My younger daughter had her sixth birthday in January. I purchased some clothes for her as a gift. One of the items was a pair of jeans and they were a terrible fit. We took them back and tried a different size, but they were all bad. She was bummed about that, so I told her I would make a new pair for her. Awhile ago someone gave me a few cuts of denim. They're all too short to be used for me and I don't really care for the finish of most of them, but they're great for kids' clothes. The fabric I used for these jeans does have a bit of stretch and a very soft feel, making these actually quite comfortable. I used Jalie 2908 and am really happy with the result. The only modifications I made were for length (adding some), leg shape (straight vs. boot cut) and the waistband. I wasn't impressed with the waistband the last time I used this pattern , so this time I did my own thing. I made a pattern piece to match the circumference of the top of the assembled jea...

After botching the jacket part of the "jacket and skirt outfit" plan, I figured I'd still go ahead with the skirt as planned. Until I can make another nice jacket or top, my daughter can wear something she already owns with the skirt. To keep it versatile, I made the skirt out of denim. I will likely make her a nice winter dress in a couple of months and wanted this to fill in the gap now and also hopefully work into the spring. To guard again growth spurts, I made the pattern quite a bit longer than as drafted. Honestly, between that and other changes, it doesn't look all that much like the technical drawing! (Pardon the wrinkles in all the pictures. My daughter was snuggled up with a book on the couch when I pestered her for these pictures. She wasn't really pleased at all. Hence, no faces in the pictures!) I used buttons instead of the recommended ring snaps. Because of the added length, I had to use five rather than four. It looks like I should move ...

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...

My daughter has a pair of skinny jeans that she really likes. I bought them from Old Navy. They are both the tall and slim version of her size. The adjustable waistband elastic is pulled as tight as it can go and then they stay up. She hasn't really liked jeans up until this pair, so I'd been surprised by how much she wears them. When I asked her about it, she told me that she really likes them because they make her feel tall. She said something like this: "You know how if you have a square and a rectangle that are the same height, the rectangle will look taller? I think it's kind of like that. I know I'm not actually taller, but it kind of seems like it more with these than my other jeans." Very insightful, kiddo. I was very unimpressed with the quality of those Old Navy jeans. The denim looked very worn after just a few washes and they had a hole in the knee after a couple of months so I wasn't eager to go buy another pair. I had flagged an Ottobre ...

This jumper pattern from Ottobre seemed like a good one to use with the second pair of huge jeans passed on to me. Seams at the sides, center front, and center back made it easy to make good use of the jeans legs. The jumper pattern has pockets, but I left them off and added some flower appliques. The buttons are tack style jeans buttons and one of them bent as I was hammering it on, so I'm curious how long it will last. All of the topstitching is done with the triple straight stitch and you can see I had some difficulty crossing over seams. This denim was pretty thick and heavy. Overall, I'm not that excited about how the jumper turned out. I should have taken in the CF and CB seams, but I had those all topstitched before my daughter tried it on. Those triple stitches are really awful to rip. The denim was just a little too heavy for this pattern and the jumper stands away from her body a little too much. It's wearable and my daughter likes it, so I don...

I tend to get my back up when I feel like I am forced to make a bad choice. Like I don't have any good options, but I still have to pick one. Hate that. It happens in all different parts of life, some easier to deal with than others. One of the places it happens quite a bit for many people is with clothing. Depending on availability and geographic location, options may be quite limited. There's not much choice to be had on price point, origin, style, fit, color, etc. I love it when I feel like I can use my sewing skills to subvert that. When I finish a project and want to point my finger and yell "Ha!" like I'm stickin'-it-to-the-man, I feel ultra successful. Such is the case with these denim shorts. My summer wardrobe was in need of another pair of shorts and I knew denim would work well. An attempt to buy a ready-to-wear pair turned out to be a waste of time and a somewhat demoralizing experience. Why did I even bother with that when I have a tried-and-tru...

Back in July one of my aunts passed on some old jeans to me. They were initially headed for another aunt that makes quilts from old jeans, but lucky for me, I was in the right place at the right time. She had three pair of jeans and one pair of shorts passed on by a friend of a friend or something like that (let me be clear - these were not my aunt's jeans!). Now, these were not just any jeans. These are a size 58 waist jeans. We can only hope that the owner of the jeans didn't pass them on because he grew out of them. So, the challenge for me was to come up with some way to refashion these. Let me tell you, there is a lot of fabric in jeans this size. Everything about them is different in scale. The fly is more than 10" long, there are 9 belt loops around the waistband (four more than your average size jeans), and the back pocket is just really, really biiiiiig. The kids were quite intriqued by these big pants, so we had a little fun with them.... I like the thre...

A denim shirt has been on my wish list for awhile. The ones I've seen and have liked online are too expensive for me right now, and the ones I've tried on in stores haven't fit all that well. It seemed that the answer would be to make one, but I wasn't hopeful about finding the type of denim that I wanted. It couldn't turn out like a jacket - I definitely wanted a shirt. On the next visit to Fabricland, I saw this lightweight denim that would work well for a shirt, but it was more than $20/meter - more than I was willing to pay. I waited until it was significantly marked down before I purchased it. For the pattern, I used Burda 04/2010 #114 , the same as I used here (and for another shirt that I have yet to blog about). I wanted breast pockets with flaps and borrowed the ones from New Look 6704 . The insides of the cuffs, the undercollar, the inner collar band, and the underside of the pocket flaps are all cut from a blue and white stripe fabric. ...

Back in the fall, I read this post from Ali and was so inspired to do exactly what she did - copy a pair of pants that I knew I liked and would wear more of. I got the book she used, Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit , from the library and set to work on a pair of well-loved trouser jeans from Gap. The process outlined in the book is good  - I'd recommend it (I've since purchased the book). I started this project in November, so I honestly don't remember a lot of the details. The only thing I do remember is that it is really important to start with the grainline and get that spot on. I didn't do that initially and I had pant legs that twisted around like a barber pole. It's a difficult part to just eyeball. The front of the first muslin was good, but the back was a disaster. I made some adjustments and cut new back pieces. After I had the main pieces how I wanted them, I made a second muslin to test out all the small pieces that I was drafting based on measuremen...

The Ottobre adventures continue! It has been fun to have a few issues at hand when planning warm weather wardrobes for my kids. This latest project comes from the spring 2011 issue - a flippy, ruffled skirt. The plan was to use the remainder of the striped fabric from these dresses to make the ruffles on the skirt. I made a very valid attempt, but those stripes drove me absolutely batty. First I cut the pieces out without placing them on the fold, so they weren't long enough. Then, I tried to cut out two more, figuring I would just have seams at center front and back. But, I cut them the wrong direction and no matter how I turned those rectangles, I could not get them to work together. Since I wanted them to match all along one tier, but be the opposite of the other tier, it made it more complicated than my brain could handle. In the end, I bought more fabric and still have a seam at CF of the top tier and CB of the bottom one. They don't really show up in the pictures, bu...