My Sewing Space

One more new niece needed me to make something for her. Her older sister received this coat , and I suspect she will also wear it when she's the right size. So, I thought it might be smart to make something else for her. There is no shortage of Ottobre things I'd like to make, so it was just a matter of picking one! I love this little hooded shirt jacket and wanted to combine it with this corduroy fabric ( also seen here ) even though it isn't a knit as called for in the pattern. The piping helps define the yoke seam and makes the sweet gathers a little more noticeable. I was not intending to line the hood until I started putting the hood together and realized it wasn't going to look that nice with the wrong side so visible. Thankfully, I had this broadcloth that was a pretty good match for the piping. The skirt is a scaled-down version of this one , made from a dark purple ponte knit. I scaled it down too much the first time, so I had to add an e...

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 ...

A plain black skirt. So basic, yet I didn't have one. I needed to change that. After making these pants (which are refinished and wonderful to wear, BTW) I had just enough fabric left to eek out a simple skirt. Given the fabric constraints, I didn't have a lot of options for styles or details, but I wanted to create a little interest somehow. I started with McCall's 3830 , a pattern that I've used many times before and have tweaked to fit me. For this version, I sliced and manipulated the pattern to add a yoke at the top and a seam down the skirt's center front. The back darts are incorporated into the yoke piece. The additional seams are accented with topstitching on each side. I used the triple straight stitch so that it would be more noticeable on the black fabric. The addition of the seams and stitching is nice, but the really interesting part of the skirt is the lining (also leftover from these pants ). The facing pieces are sewn on top of th...

Generally, I don't do UFO's (unfinished objects) when it comes to sewing projects. I either finish it before starting something else or toss it at the point I decide it isn't going to work. However, this skirt was a UFO for about two months earlier this fall. I was hoping it could be an entry in the fair in September and made the mistake of rushing through it in an attempt to meet that self-imposed deadline. In my haste, I made a significant mistake while cutting out the skirt. I didn't pay enough attention to matching the plaid. I thought it was matched, but I was only looking at the heavy black lines going in one direction. This pattern is a fabric hog, so after making that mistake my options were really limited. I was able to match the front well, but that's it. The back is somewhat matched with the heavy black lines, but not exactly and that's the only part of the plaid that does match. You can't actually see most of the seam in the picture, s...

So, I've fallen hard for Pinterest . Thankfully, I'm finding it really useful and not quite the time-suck that I feared it would be. Awhile back I saw this skirt and was inspired to copy it. Truth be told, I had just repinned it from someone else's board and didn't bother to check where it was from. The original skirt is from Old Navy , and I probably could have bought it for about the same amount that it took me to make it. Knocking off an expensive designer garment seems like a great idea. Knocking off inexpensive and very accessible clothes initially seems less worthy. But, I'm still glad I made it instead of buying it. More about that later... The skirt is quite simple and could have been adapted from any basic A-line skirt, but I had  McCall's 6438  on hand and since it already has the center front and back seams (and even the bias grainline marked) I opted to use it - View C. On my most recent trip to Fabricland, I was pretty excited to see a selecti...

This skirt has been completed for awhile. After I finished it, I took a bit of time to decide if I liked it and then a bit more time to decide how to wear it. I haven't had a skirt this long or this full in years. It feels really different. Even though this is a pretty simple project, I bought a pattern (Simplicity 2609) for it. The main fabric is pretty lightweight and sheer, so a lining was pretty important. I saw this pattern during a Simplicity sale and figured I could use View A for the skirt and View D for the lining. I think I like the skirt now, but I almost abandoned it mid-project. I spent a long, frustrating time trying to find the straight grain of the fabric and then started cutting out the pieces when I thought I had it. Turns out that I didn't have it at all and the pieces were all off grain. But, I don't think anymore fussing would have helped. It was just one of those fabrics. (But, I can't complain - it was $1.50/meter). The skirt required ne...

The fourth (and final!) part of the Coordinated Christmas Clothing project is a skirt for me. Truthfully, this was the piece I sewed first for a couple of reasons. I originally bought the fabric to make something for me and I knew that if I didn't like my garment I wasn't going to want to go ahead with this endeavor. So, I actually sewed this at the end of November and it might be a stretch for me to remember the construction process! I searched awhile for a pattern that I liked. I wanted something a little more interesting than my usual plain choices, but didn't find anything from the major pattern companies that jumped out at me. I've never sewn a Knip Mode pattern before, but I've seen others make unique things, so I perused their site. There I saw this skirt that did jump out at me. I tried buying the pattern when I saw it, but I was having computer issues and couldn't get the transaction to go through. Then I started thinking more about the patter...

The first twirly skirt I made was so fun that I immediately cut out another. I had small amounts of all the fabrics left over from this project and combined them in a different way for my younger daughter. This cotton poplin print is really nice to work with. I added piping to the horizontal seams but even with that addition, this was a really quick make. The top is made from an Ottobre pattern (4/2011 #15). I think the style is really cute, but I didn't do a great job with the binding. And there's a lot of binding on this top - sleeves, keyhole at neck, and neckline. Clear elastic is stitched to the edges before the binding goes on. I tried using a double needle to finish the binding on the sleeves, but it doesn't look great. For the keyhole and neckline I just stitched in the ditch like I usually do and that looks better except that I didn't get the clear elastic on very evenly. It should be gathered evenly all around, but there are more gathers in the back. T...

My younger daughter continues to prefer skirts and dresses to pants. She gets my older daughter's hand-me-downs, but they aren't always the right size or season. I'm finding that I need to fill in a few holes in her wardrobe for fall and winter. I started by replacing a black skirt that was too short and too tight. Since it was a skirt, my daughter didn't want to give it up. I pledged to replace it with a skirt and decided to copy a simple RTW one that she really liked. It's a very basic three-tiered ruffled skirt. The top tier is hidden by her top here. I used the leftovers from this skirt . This fabric doesn't press all that well, so I topstitched the tier seams to keep them flat. The outfit is really all about the shoes (red mary janes!) which are sadly getting pretty tight. One or two more wears and then they'll be put away. It took me a few minutes to figure out the dimensions of the tiers from the RTW skirt, but once I had them figured and re...

The only thing that is really noteworthy about this skirt is that it isn't needed until December and I made it in October. My daughter needs a black knee-length skirt to wear as part of her school uniform for concerts and performances. The first concert she is a part of is the Christmas concert. Assuming this December would be just as busy as those in recent years, I tried to be proactive and get this done earlier than a couple nights before the concert. Yay me! I've made this skirt before , so I was familiar with the pattern. I want this skirt to be wearable for a couple of years, so I added three inches in length to the size 7. It finishes just at the bottom of her knee cap. The fabric is a basic poly suiting with a little bit of stretch. Poor planning on my part, but I added all of the length to the middle part of the side panel. It would have been smarter to add 1" above the pocket, 1" in the middle, and 1" to the pleat. That would have kept the proporti...

Thank you for the lovely comments about the quilt top! The quilting is complete now too, but I don't have pictures to post yet. It was a really good experience using the long arm machine and I'm so happy with how it turned out. Finishing the binding might take awhile as I don't find that quite so exciting. In the meantime, I have a few projects sewn that I haven't blogged and will try to get caught up with them. The first two things were actually sewn several weeks ago. They are the first pieces of fabric from my NY trip that I cut into. While I really liked this plaid fabric, I didn't buy very much of it. When I decided I wanted to sew it up, I was hoping to make a paneled pencil skirt with the center panel being cut on the bias. However, when I tried to fit all the pattern pieces on the fabric, it was impossible to make it work. In the end, I made just a plain skirt using McCall's 3830 . I guess I'm not unhappy with it, but not as excited about it as ...

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...

So. It's been a little while. Not a lot of sewing to tell about or show in this space lately. Hopefully I've have some coat progress reports to make soon. More on that later... It seems I've taken a style that was new-ish for me not all that long ago and turned it into a very common piece in my wardrobe. When I find something I like I tend to overdo it, I guess. I give you another McCall's 3830 straight skirt: This time I used a non-stretch denim and chopped up the front a bit to make it a little interesting. I saw a skirt like this somewhere and have had a rough sketch on my bulletin board for several months - too many months to remember where the inspiration came from. The top-stitching is done with taupe thread and the triple-straight stitch. I include the facings with the lining because I want the waist to feel stable and not stretch out and since the lining doesn't match the outer fabric exactly, I don't want to deal with it peeking out. As yo...

I knit this sweater for my daughter more than three years ago. It was just a wee bit big for her at the time. Finally, it fits. Mostly. Overall, it is not a great fit - too wide everywhere. But, if I wait until the width is right, the length will be far too short. That's the story for everything I make this girl - start with a small size and add a whole lot of length. I'm not adept at altering knitting patterns yet (and was really clueless three years ago). So why have her wear it if it isn't a great fit? Because I can't let a hand-knit sweater just go without wearing! Maybe that's crazy. But that's me. I actually think it looks better on her than it does in the picture, but still not great. To make it wearable, my daughter needed some coordinating clothes. She initially requested a jumper to wear with it, but I didn't find any fabric that I liked for a jumper. Instead, we went with a peasant-style skirt and surplice top. The skirt is the Can-Can Ski...