Weekend warrior!

I'm not sure what got into me, but last weekend was an epic quilty extravaganza! After finally getting around to completing my True Blue top (woo! but I don't have a picture of the top yet... hopefully soon!), I was feeling the need to start something new.

Knowing I wanted to start something fresh and small (i.e., something I can finish in a relatively quick manner), I wandered aimlessly through my stash of patterns and fabrics. Then I stumbled across a roll o' fabric. I acquired the roll in 2009 from a Project Linus work party. There were actually two rolls, and my friend Evelyn threw down the gauntlet and issued a challenge: whoever can get through the roll first wins! I have no idea how much fabric is actually on this roll-- only that it is one, very long, continuous cut, approximately 5.5" wide from selvedge to cut edge. Shortly thereafter, I finished up three quilts (one, two, three) using the fabric and it felt like I hadn't even put a dent in the roll. The roll has been sitting on my floor (buried and out of sight) since that time.

So I spot this roll just sitting there on my floor and inspiration strikes. I immediately started pulling fabrics from my stash and put together this first top:

The design is from the book Simple Quilts from Me and My Sister Designs: Easy as 1, 2, 3 by Barbara Groves and Mary Jacobson of Me and My Sister Designs. This is the "Easy as 10" design. It only took a few hours to cut it out and put it all together.

Feeling motivated at this point, I decided to make another. I took a few more brights out of my stash (27 in all) and made another:

This design, "Floating Triangles," is from Skip the Borders: Easy Patterns for Modern Quilts by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts. It was definitely more involved than the first top, but overall, it too went together pretty quickly. In making the half-square triangles for this design, there was lots of trimming. So I decided to sew the trimmed corners together resulting in a pile of smaller (2.5") half-square triangles.

Now that I had this pile of 2.5" half-square triangles, clearly I needed to do something with them. So this time I created my own design to use them up:

And by the end of the weekend, I had finished up this top as well.

And check out the giant roll o' fabric now:

Woo! It finally looks like I'm making a dent!

Three tops! And I'm still feelin' the itch to make that roll disappear. I wonder how many more projects it's going to take?

Simplicity 1783 - Part 2

Big Bear's birthday party was Saturday, and it seemed like all of the kids had a really fun time. Woo! I hope to share more on that soon, but I need a bit more time to decompress. In the meantime, let me share part two of Simplicity 1783. In Part 1, I shared View B, the top. This time around I made View D, the skirt.

What drew me to this one was the front kickpleat and the fact that it called for only 1 yard for fabric. The fabric is a poly-blend plaid I found on clearance at JoAnn's back in 2008 (yay for finding using stash (but it is true that I forgot I had this, it was buried so deep)!).

It turned out really well!

Just don't look too closely at the pockets. Ugh. I decided that I wanted to try and add some interest to the pockets by having the plaid on the diagonal. I knew this would mean I'd be working with all bias edges, and if I had followed the instructions in the pattern as written, it would have resulted in all kinds of wonky. So I decided to first underline the pockets with a quilting cotton (highly stable) and then follow the instructions as written. Unfortunately, there was a fair amount of bulk and I had a hard time trying to keep everything pretty and even. What is worse is that the first time I attached them to the skirt, I didn't even line them up-- which, with the plaid, was VERY evident. And then, after attaching them the second time, I realized that they are actually different sizes. Doh! I don't know why it didn't occur to me to actually compare the finished pockets before I attached them to the skirt. Fortunately, I don't feel like it is very noticeable when I'm wearing the skirt. Certainly, not noticeable enough to make me do them a third time.

I gotta say too that I am pleased as punch with how the fly turned out. Woo! I've never done a fly in this manner before, and it was definitely more involved than the ones I've done in the past, but I really appreciate the finished look. Very snazzy.

I made a size 16. The only changes were to use 1/2" side seams and to use hem tape at the bottom hem.

The hem tape allowed me to do a 5/8" hem instead of a 1-1/4" one, resulting in a really nice, wearable length for me. I'm not sure I would have felt as comfortable even 1/2" higher. This is already what I consider very short for me. I am 5'4", so if you are any taller, you may want to add some length.

While the top in this pattern may not have been my cup of tea, the skirt is definitely a winner!

Party prep time!

My week has been consumed by party prep for Big Bear's birthday party. Tomorrow is the big day. He's turning 7!

I'm definitely getting my craft on with this theme!

Simplicity 1783 - Part 1

I've been continuing to follow my garment-sewing mojo and last week I made a couple of pieces from Simplicity 1783. This post will focus on View B-- the short-sleeved top.

What drew me to the design were the lines-- the pleats and darts looked lovely in the line drawings and the top seemed to have a nice shape to it.

The pattern is designed for a woven fabric and includes a side zipper. But since I decided to use a lovely crepe jersey knit that I had in my stash, I omitted the zipper. Though I'm not sure I would even have needed it in a woven as the top is not really fitted and can easily go over my head with no stretching. I cut out a straight size 16 with no alterations.

I also liked the feminine button-loop closure on the back. And it was a new technique for me-- so that was fun too! I used Vogue Sewing (a wonderful reference book!) to guide me in making the thread loop and it worked like a charm. Yay!

Unfortunately, what looks good in the line drawings and on the hanger does not necessarily work for every shape. It is just okay for me. It is not horrible or anything, but I think the pleats just don't work quite right with the boobage. I actually ended up tacking down the center pleat at the 'V' as it is pretty open on me and I can just envision stuff dropping right down into the pit. My husband noticed that aspect right away and told me he thought it would work well as a crumb catcher. :P

As the jersey not opaque, I decided to use French seams. It is very prettily finished on the inside and the seams look very nice from the outside as well. But it made for some obnoxious bulk when I attempted my narrow hem at the bottom not to mention the bulk of the pleats as well. I really wish my hem were smoother and more even.

On the bright side, I tried a couple of new techniques (French seams, thread loop closure) and was really pleased with how well they worked out. So I definitely learned a bit. And the top is wearable (I'm wearing it right now, in fact... we'll see at the end of the day how full my pleat is. Ha!). I just don't love it.

Simplicity 5914 - again!

This is actually the fourth time I've made Simplicity 5914, and the second time I've made View A, the long, flared version (I've previously blogged about View B). Clearly, I like this pattern.

For this go 'round, I used a lovely tweed-look RPL from Gorgeous Fabrics (still available here!). It has a wonderfully nubby texture to it, and I think it drapes beautifully in this skirt.

I sewed the size 16, shortened it by 1.5" and used 1/2" side seams and an invisible zipper. I feel like it fits me really well. Yay!

My first completed project of 2014!

Looking Forward: 2014

On the one hand, I really enjoy blogging. It is my crafty journal, with pictures, notes, stories... a record of the things I make. It is a wonderful thing to have that and to be able to share it with others.

On the other hand, blogging kind of stresses me out. It takes time. LOTS of time. And some days, the prospect of sitting down to try and accomplish a blog post just seems hard. Last night, as I was laboring over my coat post (which took me a couple of hours to put together), my husband suggested to me that maybe I should make it easier on myself by blogging projects in pieces rather than all at once at the end.

I like the sound of that! I have kind of been doing that some using Instagram-- micro-blogging, quick pics of what I'm working on with a little update. I want to do more of that. I want to do more of that using my actual blog-- smaller posts, vignettes of what I'm doing, small discussions/musings on whatever questions or challenges are developing as I work on something. So that is something I hope to work on for 2014. Smaller, more consistent, posting more regularly. I think it is a good goal.

Speaking of goals. Check out my 2013 completed projects collage:

Woo! Look at all of that! It is fun putting the collage together. Seeing it all together like that really makes me feel like I've been productive in the last year. Kind of cool! And some of those were big projects, too!

Here were my goals for 2013:

1. Use more fabric than I buy.-- Check! And an improvement over last year, too:
   

   Fabric In: 61.600 yards
   Fabric Used: 79.195 yards

2. Finish at least 2 UFOs.-- I finished a couple of lingering UFOs, and even dug out a couple of languishing projects and made progress. (Many thanks to Carrie P. over at A Passion for Applique for her yearlong "Nothing but UFOs" initiative-- it was inspiring!)


3. Sew more clothes for me!-- I only made three items for myself, but they were all awesome, and one of them was a coat (which I was shocked to see that I mentioned specifically in my goals last year!).


4. More handwork.-- Sigh... I guess I can't meet every goal. I am still missing handwork. But I did do some toward the end of the year as I have been working on Wild Olive's Autumn Stitching Club.


5. Lose that last 15 pounds.-- Almost. And I am okay with that! I managed to stay active and drop 10 pounds this year.

My goals for 2014:

1. Use more fabric than I buy.-- I intend to keep working on shrinking the stash.


2. Finish at least 2 UFOs.-- This is the year I am going to finish my Bargello Reflections quilt. For reals. And hopefully some other stuff too.


3. Finish at least 1 kit quilt-- In the past few years, I've acquired a number of quilt kits. I want to start making those kits become real quilts.


4. Blog once a week.-- See above. This feels like a reasonable expectation I can set for myself. (Says she who blogged one time last month... ha!)


5. Lose that last 5 pounds.-- ... or maybe even a little more. I am finding it harder to keep a regular exercise schedule lately. I want to re-focus and really push myself to be intentionally active at least 4 days a week as well as be more whole foods focused (and eat a lot less Doritos).

I'm feeling like 2014 is going to be a fun year!

McCall's 6442: A Coat!

You know when you get all dressed up for something, and it's chilly, and all you have is that one winter raincoat that is maybe not-so-fancy? Maybe you don't know. But in my experience, it just feels weird to put on that casual-ish raincoat over the fancy-schmancy outfit. I needed a coat. A nice coat. But buying a coat from the store is tough because it invariably fits in one area, but not in another-- so I'm either squished in the boobs, or wearing a tent. So I decided I was gonna make me a coat... in 2008. That is when I bought the fabric. But frankly, I was intimidated.


This year, just after Thanksgiving, I found myself inspired by a few lovely versions of McCall's 6442 that I found on Pattern Review (including this, this, and this). I started out by making a muslin of the bodice.

The muslin helped me to decide on a full bust adjustment of 1" (which included adding a horizontal dart from the side seam), shortening the sleeves by 1-1/2", and going up one size (to an 18). Then I went to cut out my actual fabric. That was a time-consuming process. Because I wanted to be sure it was a warm coat, I decided on adding an underlining of flannel to my wool outer fabric. I did some research and found a Threads article by sewing guru Sandra Betzina, "Understanding Underlining," that offered great guidance on how to go about doing that. Part of the process involved hand basting all of the wool and flannel pieces together. By the time I was done with that, I needed a break and just stepped away from the project (and all other crafty pursuits) for a month.

Last weekend, I finally got to work on the actual putting-together of the coat. Over the course of three days, I finished it. Yay!!! My husband helped me take some pictures today:

I made view C with the notched collar and then added the belt from view B.

The outer fabric is wool purchased from Hancock Fabrics in 2008. I just used a plain off-white 100% cotton flannel for the underlining. The resulting coat really is nice and cozy!

The pattern does not include belt loops. I really wish I had thought to include some. They would make putting the belt on a bit simpler.

The lining is a poly charmeuse I found at JoAnn's. I wanted something fun and colorful.

I ended up making a few other changes as I went:

• Added topstitching to the collar and the bodice front facing.
• Shortened the sleeves by an additional 2-1/8" from the outer fabric, and 1-5/8" from the lining.
• I didn't like the way the pattern suggested to finish the sleeves, so I finished it the same way as the pattern instructs to do the skirt hem.
• At step 45 in the instructions (wherein you baste the skirt lining to the outer at the top), I trimmed the lining by about 1/2" and then aligned the edges and basted (I didn't want my lining, which is slinkier, to be drooping down below the hemline).
  
• Added two 30 mm snaps.
• Interfaced and topstitched the belt.

This coat was NOT a fast project. In addition to the work I added for myself with the underlining, there was a lot of hand sewing involved with the lining (the sleeves to the armholes, the bodice to the skirt, the skirt facing to the lining). I know there are ways to do linings that don't involve nearly so much handwork, but I was tired of researching and just wanted to get in there and get this coat made; so I went with what the pattern instructed. The pattern instructions are straightforward and the techniques involved are not difficult, but I still don't know that I would consider the pattern to be "Easy" as advertised on the pattern cover. Overall, this coat is a winner. It was a great learning project and my sewing skills have improved as well. And it feels good to finally have a snazzy, fancy coat to wear when I'm feeling the need to dress up.

Huzzah!!! A new coat!!!

Happy new year!!!