This and That

Yeah, it's been a minute since my last post. Er, no excuse. Just no blogging mojo. Right up there with the mostly missing sewjo. But there has a been a little teeny tiny bit of sewing so I'll document it for posterity. Nothing exciting, but at least I've finished some things. Which lately is a major accomplishment. :-)

First up, but the last things made, are a Hot Patterns Sunshine Top (the original) and a circle-ish Simplicity skirt. I haven't worn the two together yet, but I have worn the top. It's so nice to have a new Sunshine in my wardrobe. For this one, I went down to the size 14 for the neckband and shoulders, which is perfect. I had sewn it before with a 16 neck/shoulders and it fit, but flashing a bra strap was likely without deploying some strategically placed Hollywood tape. Now, no more worries for that. I think this top took me 5 weeks to sew. Not literally all sewing time, but for some reason I just couldn't force myself to sew even though I knew I wanted this top DONE and it took about that long in 10-minute spurts. Ahhh. That sewjo is a mysterious beast, no? I'm hoping it returns with a vengeance soon because there are things I want NEED in my wardrobe.

Stripe matching like a boss at the sideseams. Just don't look at my completely mismatched sleeves. I totally spaced on those and then was too lazy to fix it. It's really not a problem, so while I'm pointing it out here, I've already forgotten about it in real life.

Here's the famous and flattering neckline. And finally a clear photo. I have no idea why my camera didn't like the full-length shots but if I had to re-do them again, this blog post was never going to happen.

Here's a crappy (sense a theme?) mirror shot of the finished SBCC Mimosa top, which is what I was sewing last time I blogged. I did actually finish it fairly soon after and I've worn it a TON. I really, really needed a white blouse for work. It's a great layering piece and the front tie makes it a little less boring white shell and more pretty white blouse.

Less blown-out photo, easier to see details. One of these days I'm going to remember to cut the ties different lengths so they finish at the same length when tied.

I also got a wild hair and sewed two doggie hoodies. It's a Kwik Sew something ... too lazy to go look.

Now Alex and Charlie semi-match. Actually, the wild hair was Alex egging me on to do it.

Dani didn't get one. She doesn't get cold easily and would probably freak out if we tried to put her legs through the sleeves. She's got quirks.

Alex putting the final touches on his investment house. It rented in a week and the tenants have been in it for almost a month now. Go Alex!

And lastly, for no good reason, here's a pic of one of the two new palm trees in my yard. Summer is coming.

Hopefully, I'll be back here soon. I've got a new project on the cutting table.

Simple Plans

I need a plain white blouse. It's something I often wish was in my closet when getting dressed for work, but finding fabric was more difficult than I imagined, mostly because what's available online seems to be too sheer or too fancy and what's available locally ... er ... isn't available. At least until a couple of weeks ago when I was in Hancock Fabrics to stock up on some thread. And, um, yeah, I also bought a couple more fabrics.

I didn't want high-end fabric because I want the blouse/top to be a workhorse, which means the ability to throw it in the laundry every week and to take it from the dryer back to the closet without a stop at the ironing board. In other words, polyester. But nothing that felt too icky.

I think I found a winner in this textured white woven poly. The photo below shows the texture (crinkling) a little closer up. (I may have also bought the same fabric in black. And 1 yard of the stretch woven destined to become a Magic Pencil may have flown into my shopping cart too.)

So I think the white fabric will become a SBCC Mimosa top (above) this weekend. I've already promised Saturday to Alex for tiling in his investment house, but that still leaves me Sunday and  Monday, since Monday is a holiday. Yay long weekends!

In the meantime, here are some gratuitous family pics ... my (step)grandson turns 1 today. He's the most chill baby/lil' dude I've ever met.

Happy Birthday Dean!

And my other "babies" on duty. Not a pedestrian or mailman goes by without their permission. Or so they think.

P.S. Thank you for all the super nice comments about my dotty Appleton dress. I still haven't fixed the tie ride-up issue so it's still just decorating Zillie and it's been rather cold here (for here) anyway so I haven't been extra motivated, but I'm hoping to fix it this weekend too.

Jalie Cardi Hacking

You may already know but there's a new indie pattern company, Muse, and their first release is the really cute Jenna cardigan. If I had extra money right now (no, didn't get that job), I'd have bought the pattern. But since I didn't and, darn it I wasn't a tester (hint, hint), I had to settle for using it as inspiration. So I dug out my TNT Jalie 2566 twinset pattern and proceeded to hack away.

The hacking was pretty easy actually. I chopped off about 9" from the length and then added a 3" band at the hem and a 2" band at the sleeves. Both bands are folded, so the cutting width was actually 6-1/2" and 4-1/2", including seam allowances. The Jalie is also a vee neck with a continuous neck/button band vs. the Jenna's jewel neckline and separate neck and button bands. I left mine as is, since I prefer the vee over a jewel neck anyway.

I was really second-guessing cutting off all that length since such a short side seam looked almost comical to me, but the fabric is a cheap stashed sweater knit and I had enough to try it again if the hacking was a disaster. It wasn't. :-) The finished cardi could even be an inch shorter and still be all right.

What I didn't have extra of is interfacing. Even if I have to keep sewing from stash until that real job materializes, I'm going to have to break down and order some more interfacing since I'm seriously running out and nothing available local is even close to being suitable. (Will work for interfacing. hehehe) Having to be extra frugal these days, I did some creative piecing for the front bands.

Interfacing definitely was not optional for this squishy sweater knit since I had to put in 6 tiny buttonholes on a very narrow band. I am not exaggerating when I say I was holding my breath during each one, just waiting for my machine's auto buttonholer to screw up. Luckily, they all came out perfectly. And mostly spaced evenly.

Since the budget is also not allowing extraneous thread purchases, I went with what I have for the serger. I used overlocker grays in the needles to blend and regular turquoise in the loopers so the loops wouldn't contrast when the cardi flips open. The knit is actually much more aqua than the baby blue it appears to be in the top photo so these threads were a pretty good match.

Inside view - good blending job, right? I'm happy with it.

The buttons are Mother of Pearl from the Carolyn Norman collection. ;-) Mother of Pearl naturally has some teal-ish iridescence and goes nicely with this knit. Too bad the photo lies, but trust me ... they look really nice. And they're tiny so fit perfectly on the narrow band.

Lots of topstitching around the hem and sleeve bands and around the button/neck band.

I had just enough thread on this spool. Whew!

I'll probably wear it open, like this, but for the main photo it looked nicer buttoned up.

The blouse is a SBCC Mimosa made last year. I also made the skirt but I can't talk about that yet. ;-) The cardi is a perfect match for it and now I have a new outfit for Monday. It's still hot outside here and will be for a long while yet, but inside A/C is always chilly so layers are a must.

Even though my Jalie/Jenna hack is a successful knock-off and I can hack further for Jenna's gathered shoulder yoke view, I would still like to buy (or win) the actual pattern at some point because I think it's so cute and the sewing nerd in me wants to see the original. What can I say? I read patterns like others read magazines. ;-)

SBCC Mimosa 2 - First Make of 2014

There's not a lot to add to my first go at the Mimosa, except that the ties are certainly more visible for this version on their own. The pattern is a winner, but since it's definitely distinctive, I'm afraid I will need to let it rest a while. At least with this one, it's a neutral that should go with many things in all seasons. The fabric is an ivory rayon "leftover" from the stash, with a slight "ribbed" texture, which you can sort of see in the pic below. I love this fabric, but it's so drapey that it wiggles something awful to sew with and it wrinkles as soon as you look at it. (Which is making me think ... hmmm ... maybe I need a third one after all, in a synthetic blend.) I started this one on Wednesday like I had planned but because I had to sew very slowly and carefully due to the fabric acting like it was cut on the bias all around, I didn't finish it until today. I'm glad I took my time though, because it did turn out to be a lovely blouse.

I cut the raglan shoulder dart with the exact alteration I showed a couple of posts ago and I'm happy to report that it's just right. No more poof ... even though it looks poofy here, but that's because Zillie is wearing a bra over shoulder pads to mimic my square shoulders and that combination creates dents.

I made a self-fabric bias facing for the back neckline, which turned out nicely despite the wiggly fabric. I hemmed the sleeves and bottom with a machine blind hem stitch, which photographs horribly as in the first pic above, but it looks smooth and nearly invisible in real life. I suppose I could've done the hems by hand, but they likely wouldn't have turned out any better.

Here's the sewing table after finishing today. I've got a bit of cleaning up to do and then I need to decide what's up next. I really want to sew a pattern from the stash, but there's another indie that's calling my name and it's really hard to tune it out. I'm trying to convince myself that instead of caving in right away, I'll "reward" myself with it after sewing at least two stashed patterns first.

Wish me luck on that, and have a great week! Right now, it's time for Downton Abbey!

Modeled Mimosa

After 5 days off, I sure didn't want to get up when the alarm went off this morning but it was a little bit easier throwing off the covers knowing I had a new outfit to wear. Plus, I had to pee. TMI? Hahahaha ... sorry in advance for any young women reading, but the truth is once you're past a certain age, your bladder just doesn't let you sleep in. Isn't getting older grand?

OK, not exactly how I planned to start this post, but once the thought came, it just wouldn't go away.

So here's the OOTD. I really (as in REALLY!) like this top. So much so that I just might be popping out another one come Wednesday. The fit is perfect, with minimal alteration. The neckline is just right, both in shape and depth. The ties are adorable yet not too cutesy for a woman of my age (cough:29:cough). It's an easy sew. And the instant gratification PDF is very reasonably priced at $10.

Here's the lowdown on the minimal alterations, besides the 1-1/2" I added at the hem while cutting. Love that little arm thingie that slides onto my rotary cutter.

1. Moved the bust dart downward. See age comments above. Nothing complicated here. I just drew a box around the dart, cut it out, slid it straight down, and filled in the empty space with tissue.

2. Added 3/8" at the shoulder-neckline point of the raglan sleeve. My bra straps were covered in the muslin, but I just felt I wanted a smidge more. The smidge added was the perfect amount.

3. Fiddled with the raglan dart in the fabric, until I ended up with this new seamline you see in red below. I've had the poof problem with darted raglans before, so I'm definitely chalking this one up to my particular shoulders and not the pattern.

For next time, the poof has been trimmed from the pattern so I should be able to just sew and go.

Parting shot: This pic is for Barbara. A quick blurry and crooked mirror selfie in the messy sewing room after throwing on my black knit dog-walking pants. IOW, the real me. And yes, I love this top so much I left it on to walk the dogs. They were impressed.

SBCC Mimosa

I sewed 4 items during my mini sewcation ... a SBCC Tonic tee, a pretty well sewn (vs. down and dirty since I was also testing construction) muslin for the SBCC Mimosa top, the final Mimosa, and a slightly modified Magic Pencil to wear with the Mimosa. My sewing plans are always grander than reality, but I'm good with 4 items over 5 days, especially considering I didn't spend every waking hour in the sewing room. The mojo is still whispering to me, so maybe I can pick back up mid-week when I'm off from work again for New Year's Day.

Here's the final Mimosa with the Magic Pencil. The Mimosa is from a black/taupe crepe print from deep in the stash, which I thought was synthetic but after pressing the heck out of it without any heat damage, I'm reconsidering and may do a burn test on scraps just to quiet my curiosity. The Magic Pencil is from a putty colored doubleknit purchased from Lucy's Fabrics years ago. I miss that shop. (I added a bottom band instead of a turn-up hem, which is the slight modification.) I also have a short-sleeved jacket from this same fabric so I guess I have an actual suit now too.

I really like this top. It's easy to sew, feminine, flattering, and comfortable to wear. Especially after too many holiday treats. ;-) The pattern is a winner, both for style and drafting. The only alterations I made were to move the bust dart down and to fiddle with the shoulder seam in the raglan sleeve to fit my square shoulders. Even with what I thought was an adequate pattern adjustment from the muslin, I still ended up with a poof at the shoulder and so I just sewed the poof out in the real fabric and will adjust my pattern to match, hopefully tomorrow night while it's still fresh in my mind the pattern is still laying on the floor. Oh, I also added about 1-1/2" to the bottom length and kept it. I wanted this top a little longer in case I want to belt it.

There's not a lot of waist shaping in the pattern, but with a drapey fabric such as this, it still hangs nicely. In fabric with more body, I might want to add back waist darts or curve the sideseams inward. Either of those is easy to do as a final step, so I won't alter the pattern.

What drew me to the Mimosa was the tie coming from the raglan seams. And then I went and chose a fabric that completely obliterated this design feature. If I had been more forward thinking (i.e., before I had sewn, trimmed, and turned), I would've piped the ties. Instead, I used narrow purchased bias tubing from the stash. And now the ties are visible again.

I used purchased black bias binding for the back neckline and sewed on the front facing last and different from the pattern instructions, so that the front raglan seams and bias are caught in the facing and covered. Hard to explain, but a little cleaner finish this way. Although a slightly bulkier finish too, so I'm still undecided on what I'll do next time. And, yes, there will be a next time. I really like this top!

I'll share the minimal alterations on my pattern pieces next time.

Slow Start

I have been sewing, just not as fast and constant as I want. I'm blaming Christmas dinner hangover. Ugh. I feel like I've gained 20 lbs this month. I haven't, but I haven't been very good either. I *know* what my New Year's resolution will be, and I don't even usually make resolutions. But I want to fit into ALL of my clothes again and now that I'm settled into my job, the pity party (read: food medication) is over.

Wednesday night, Alex was whining (not really) that his purchased key lanyard had met its demise. I'm not sure exactly when he started wearing his keys around his neck, but whenever it was (probably at least as long as he's been driving), he's been doing it ever since. Having to put his keys in his pocket Thursday morning threw off his entire workday zen/balance. Overly dramatic much? Hahaha.

So, sewing mom and stash to the rescue of course! Grosgrain ribbon? Check. Key fob hardware? Check. (Yes, really ... and I even have more.) Tag to disguise a mom-sewn item? Check.

My choices for wide-ish grosgrain ribbon in the stash were limited. I needed one I could fold in half (for strength) and which was not entirely too girlie. This brown/aqua stripe fit the bill best. The unpressed ribbon is on the right below. Cutting the length of ribbon, pressing in half, and then stitching the halves together and over/through the hardware took all of about 10 minutes. 15 tops.

A thread change and then sewing on the label cut from some old pair of jeans years ago took another 2-3 minutes.

And that was the extent of my Thursday sewing. But all was right in Alex's world again as he left for work Friday morning. And he even likes this hardware better than the lame clip of the purchased version. So I call that a sewing win, even if it was only 20 minutes.

Yesterday, having had success with the SBCC Tonic tee, I bought and downloaded the SBCC Mimosa top and muslined it. Both for fit and for construction testing.

The 16 PDF pages for this top were also to be butted together when taped, instead of overlapping, but the "missing bits" of the pattern lines were easy enough to fill in where needed. Even though I did pay for this pattern vs. the free Tonic, I still didn't really mind filling in the lines since the butting up/taping is easier than trimming 2 sides and then overlapping sheets. In other words, this method was a lot faster and I think even more accurate in the long run. For the Mimosa, the separate pages/tiles of the PDF print-out were also numbered so there was no guessing as to what page went where if the printed pages happened to spit out of the printer out of order. Which they did with the Tonic. Ahem. My fault on that.

Before I get into the fit of the muslin, I want to mention a few observations. First, if you look at the coral Mimosa from the SBCC website above, you should notice a back neck facing. It doesn't exist in the final pattern. Instead, there is a pattern piece for bias binding. I think this is better. But don't expect instructions for attaching it. As I mentioned with the Tonic, these are not learn-to-sew patterns. In fact, there's not even a cutting layout given. Which I actually like since I never follow suggested layouts anyway and it saves on printing output too. Grain and fold lines are marked as you'd expect, which is all that's really needed.

The instructions are fine (with one semi-mistake, noted below) but they are in bitmap format instead of a vector PDF. If you don't know the difference, in layman's terms ... a bitmap is like a digital photograph where resolution (file size and pixels) counts, and if resolution is too low, you won't be able to print a clear (unpixelated) rendition. This is the case here. I hope the pattern designer is reading, because I want to suggest that she keep the instructions in the infinitely scaleable vector format and save as PDF, like the Tonic instructions, because the print-out as-is is only so-so. Readable, but blurry. And so easy to make perfect if staying with vectors.

Onto the muslin.

Overall, pretty darn good for a first muslin and the top looks like I expected from the SBCC website. I cut the same sizing as for the Tonic ... which was a straight XL for all of the front and back shoulders/neck/arms, then blending to XL+1/2" for the back bodice starting below the armpits. I did not do an FBA and there is plenty of bust width/length for me. But the bust dart is pointing about 1-1/2" too high for these non-perky girls. That's an easy fix and I've already box-cut around the dart and moved it down on the pattern to be ready for the real fabric today. I also cut the pattern the full length of the biggest size because the hem allowance is only 3/4". I think I might want another 1" and will cut the next one with that additional length to see. I anticipate that most of that will be used as hem allowance, since I prefer a deeper hem.

While my bra straps are technically covered, the neck opening still feels a little wide over my shoulders. I added about 3/8" to the width at each shoulder for the next make, and will show the altered pattern piece when I show the final fabric top. Lastly, as far as fit, the dart in the raglan sleeve poofed on me, because I didn't make a square shoulder alteration for the muslin. I've now done that for the next make (same pattern piece to be shown next time).

The semi-mistake in the pattern that I mentioned above is the mark for where to place the ties. It's just not in the right place to allow for the seam allowance to attach the facing. (The sleeve notches don't match up to the bodice either, but that may be as designed ... IOW for identification only ... since you're never instructed to actually align the marks.) As long as you remember to ignore that mark for the ties and just place them lower with the seam allowance in mind, you'll be fine.

Finally, I also think I may change up the sewing order and attach the front neck facing before I've attached the back bias but after joining the front raglan seams (did you follow that?), because as you can see in the 2 photos above, my joins are not exactly even. :-) I'm still thinking on this and probably won't make up my mind until I'm actually at the sewing machine with the real one.

Which is where I'm headed now ...

SBCC Tonic Tee

This is my Christmas outfit. And my little photobomber. We were quite casual around here today. Hello wrinkled shorts. :-) What's all that green stuff, I hear you northerners asking. Why, that's grass and tropical plants. Hee hee. No White Christmas here. But then I'm guessing you also weren't dripping sweat as you pulled the Christmas ham from the oven. ;-)

This is the fit of the Tonic, pretty much out of the "envelope" ... (pssst ... there's not really an envelope since it's a downloadable PDF). After deciding on size (more on that below), the only change that I made, and kept, was my square shoulder adjustment which I made before cutting the pattern. I also added 2 inches to the bottom length and 1 inch to the sleeve hem on paper, and then ended up cutting both off in the fabric after sewing the sideseams and trying on the tee. So, while at 5'5" I'm not technically a true petite, I am a petite in the chest, shoulders, and armholes. Something I've known and usually have to adjust for in other patterns. Armholes are ALWAYS too low on me as drafted, but not this one! How nice. Also, no FBA was done or needed.

The photobomber strikes again.

The sewing instructions are simple/easy but really good and very nicely illustrated. Some PR reviewers commented that there is no instruction to stabilize the shoulder seams, but this is NOT a teach-you-to-sew pattern so I'm OK with that. Besides, I don't stabilize every shoulder seam I sew anyway. It depends on the fabric. (I did use Design Plus on these shoulders.)

(Mini rant ahead.) I'm of the opinion that you if you're serious about your sewing projects, you should be serious about educating yourself. In other words, reference books either purchased or borrowed from the library, videos, classes, sewing friends with a little more experience, and even free blogs and YouTube. Yes, it's nice when you learn something new from a pattern or blog but I don't expect to learn it all from one place at one time and I always give myself permission to use a different method than a pattern instructs if I know what works better for me or something just isn't making sense. Just jumping in as a newb to start is great, but after dipping your toe, knowledge is power. I feel empowered and much more confident when I've equipped myself with information before I start a project.

So, back to the pattern. The only quibbles I have is with the print-out of the pattern. I'm really glad I read the PR reviews first, because I probably would not have caught that the individual sheets are to be butted up against each other instead of overlapped as with most other PDF patterns. But since most home printers don't print to the absolute edge of the page, some of the pattern lines go missing. On this simple (and FREE) tee, it didn't bother me at all. But I'm not sure if I would feel quite the same on a more detailed pattern. I think it really would depend on how the layout landed on the page tiles. But on the other hand, I LOVED not trimming the pages and overlapping before taping. This pattern printed in 16 pages and I had it off my printer and taped in 30 minutes or less.

Once I had it taped together, I got out my TNT Ottobre tee, which has been my Holy Grail of tees and tee morphs for years now. My Ottobre is NOT from a straight tracing out of the magazine. The pattern was a good foundation but there was also some finessing to get it to Holy Grail status. So, to see how similar the Tonic was hot off the printer was a very nice surprise. And a little bit of a shock. ;-)

I traced a straight XL (from the Curvy Chick side of the size range) for the front. For the back, I blended from XL at neck/shoulder/armhole to XL + 1/2" at the hips. The 1/2" is pretty much right in the middle of the XL and 1X, and was where my TNT "told" me to blend. The waist shaping of the Tonic lined up well with my Ottobre, which told me the SBCC petite body length would work for me. As I mentioned above, I added 2" to the bottom which I ended up cutting off. But I always cut my tees too long because I want the insurance I'm too lazy to just measure. Even my TNT pattern has the extra length on it, as you can see above.

Overall verdict: Winner winner chicken dinner! It fits great out of the envelope, nice instructions, and it was free!! What more could you ask for? Oh, the link, you say? Well, here it is again: SBCC Tonic Tee

Before I sign off for some sleep before starting my woooSEWCATIONwooo tomorrow, here are a couple of tips for sewing the neckband of this tee (and others, as applicable):

The pattern comes with a piece for the neckband, to be folded in half WS together and pressed flat. It is intentionally longer than the actual neck hole. You are instructed to leave one shoulder seam open so you can apply the neckband in the flat. (I don't mind the minimal extra bulk at the last-sewn shoulder seam. I do this all the time when using my CS binder.) You are also instructed to gently stretch the neckband around the tighter curves of the neck opening. This is all well and fine. But what if you don't know how your neckband fabric is going to behave?

Well, get out the pins!

Put the tee on your sewing table, not your lap, so you can work flat and eliminate fabric dragging down with gravity. Leave a little "grabber" end and then start with one pin at the open front shoulder. (If you leave the right shoulder open, when you sew on the neckband you'll be sewing the already-sewn/serged left shoulder seam allowance to the back naturally as you go over it, instead of trying to wrestle that seam allowance and the neckband at the same time.) Then work your way around the neck opening 1-2" at a time, gently stretching the neckband as you go. Don't stretch enough to create actual gathers and curls in the tee fabric, but only enough to create gentle waves.

Now here is the scandalous part. Leave the pins in and SEW OVER THEM. Sew from the top so you can see the neckband and keep your stitching even on it so you'll end up with an even band, and just sew S-L-O-W-L-Y and steady, leaving the needle down if you need to adjust as you go. I guarantee that as long as you are sewing slowly and steadily, your needle will not hit a pin and instead it will work its way around a pin to find the fabric, just like it's actually engineered to do. You only break needles when sewing over pins at Danica Patrick speed.

Below, you can see the backside with my stitching ... and the pins still in place. I practice what I preach. ;-) Most of the time I don't use this many pins but the print is a poly knit and the neck band is rayon/Lycra and they just weren't behaving nicely together. It's a lot faster to just pin the suckers down than to fight with them on the sewing machine, so sometimes I do actually use a crap-ton of pins. As with most everything in sewing, it just depends.

Another tip ... leave the tails at the beginning and end until you've sewn the second shoulder seam. It will give you something to hold onto when starting or ending the seam.

Final tip of the night ... press the seam allowances to the tee with steam and then lay your clapper on the front neckband until it cools to create a shape memory in the fabric (before topstitching or edgestitching). If you don 't have a clapper, something heavy but porous over a press cloth works too. It has to be porous so it can absorb the steam/moisture.

And, t-t-t-t-hat's all folks. Good night!