It's Time for More Crappy Photos

Maybe Santa will bring me a better camera, but for now we're all stuck with a simple Point and Shoot and/or my phone. But at least you get me and not Zillie, right? (cough:cough)

So here's what I wore yesterday, which is the newest Jenna cardigan paired with the Kwik Sew tank and the Butterick "Carolyn" skirt. Love! this skirt. I want two more.

I've been wanting a pinstripe skirt for a while now and I'm so glad it's finally in my closet. I may go back to Hancock's for more of the fabric to make a pair of pants too. It was a steal at only $3.99/yard.

Bought these last night in anticipation of The Big Freeze today. Brrrr! They are very comfy.

I did finish the Hot Patterns Uptown/Downtown Knit Dress last night, motivation rising as the temps kept falling. It was in the THIRTIES people. Good god! This is what I wore today ... Yeah, you can't see the dress very well in these work bathroom cell phone pics, but I like it a lot and it was nice and cozy. New boots, check. Scarf I made last night from scraps of that dress I made and hated, check. And a RTW cardi. Gillian, if you're reading, this is the curved hem RTW cardi I mentioned. Somehow that curve minimizes my hips. I want more of these too. My head looks huge in these pics and I have no chin. Lovely.

 Here I was trying to show more of the dress not hang myself. Not sure it worked out as planned. :-)

And now I'm off to brave the cold again with some dinner out. And tomorrow night is our firm's holiday party for clients, at which I'm "working" (hello overtime!). Everyone says it's lots of fun. I believe them ... the caterers were in all day today setting up bars and food stations all over both of the floors we inhabit in the building. Nice! Staff gets its own party next month.

The mini SWAP continues

Lots of sewing has been going on but you'll have to settle for Zillie doing the modeling for now. And crappy nighttime indoor photography, which is doing horrible things to the colors.

I finished the next Jenna cardi. You saw a sneak peek of this one last post.

While I didn't use the gathered front version, I did use the shoulder yoke pieces for a contrast and applied them over top. Also contrasting is the neck, button, and sleeve bands. I have used what seems like a TON of this gray sweater knit in the last 10 days, as you'll see. It's been in my stash for so many years I've lost count. And I still have at least 2 yards left. Holy cow ... it must have been a really good deal whenever/wherever I bought it.

I also made another KS tank so the cardi becomes a twinset.

But I made this one with a little "twist." It's party in the front, business in the back. A un-mullet. Ha.

This way I get a plain gray-fronted tank to layer under the cardi and other things when the mood strikes. I'm a little proud of myself for thinking of this. I know it will come in handy.

Next in the queue was this Simplicity gored skirt. Trust me, it's purple, not red/maroon, and matches the new cardi. This pattern is made for a woven but I used a knit. I omitted the back zip and inserted some elastic into the sides of the waistband to snug it in when worn. I have no idea what this knit fabric is. It looks like a double-knit or golf/pique knit but it's really stretchy and drapey. It's also been in my stash for a long time. A. Really. Long. Time. As you can tell, I'm on a flippy skirt jag at the moment.

The skirt ... again, really purple, not red ... also coordinates with the other Jenna. Looks like Zillie is leaning like the Tower of Pisa. Weird.

I'm now in the process of making this HP Uptown/Downtown knit dress, with yet more of the gray sweater knit. It's my plan to have it finished tomorrow night so I can wear it Wednesday, when it's supposed to be quite FRIGID here. What the heck northerners ... keep that stuff up your way, OK? It's not even Thanksgiving and we're dropping into the 30s?? Yikes. Good thing I've been sewing (and buying) cardigans.

I still have to add the waist elastic and sleeve bands, plus decide on either a hem or hem band for the bottom. I wore the heck out of my summer version of this dress and decided I definitely needed a winter one. The plain gray is going to be a great blank canvas for layering. Obviously the new Jenna matches perfectly. I kept the neckline lowered per the last make and didn't add length to the neckband even though this knit is a lot less stretchy ... which made for a bit of gathering which I actually quite like. Happy accident.

Here are the patterns, for anyone interested.

Muse Jenna for the cardigans.

Kwik Sew 2759 for the tank underlayer.

Simplicity 1697 for the purple-not-red skirt.

Hot Patterns 1090 Uptown//Downtown Knit Dress.

The new job is going well. Thanks again for all the good wishes. I'm working with a really great and fun group of people in a really great firm. I'm so thrilled that a permanent position opened up at just the right time. And I really, REALLY hope this is the last job I have to get for a good long time. It's going to take a little while to get my finances caught up but it's so nice to finally know it will happen. I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and your virtual support is truly one of the things on the list.

The start of a mini SWAP with my Carolyn Skirt

After the wadder from last weekend's sewing, I went in a different direction for the pinstripe skirt after finding this inspiration photo on Pinterest. I'm calling mine the Carolyn Skirt because (1) pinstripes are very corporate and Carolyn is all about sewing a corporate wardrobe and (2) she's also all about finding inspirational fashion pieces and interpreting them for herself.

My skirt didn't need much interpretation since I already had this Butterick 4877 pattern stashed and my skirt is pretty much a straight copy. But I did have to do a bit of pattern hacking, first for the size and then for design details. The pattern is from my bigger days and the size range I bought is too big for me now. I graded it down two sizes, using the pattern's actual grading upward as my guide downward. That sounds a lot more complicated than it actually was. Essentially all I did was to chop off  1-1/2" from each side seam and shorten the waist facings to match.

I had previously made this skirt 2-3 times in the larger size range in a couple of the different views and loved the fit of them all so I had high hopes for a new smaller version. I wish it wasn't OOP because it's an awesome draft for women with curves. If you're curvy, I definitely recommend picking it up should you come across it. 

So, anyway ... my Carolyn Skirt. I started with View A (the white skirt), shortened the flounce by 5 inches, and then traced it and spit it so I could make the chevrons at the seams per the inspiration photo. I had to cut the flounce pieces (there's 6 of them total after the splitting) single layer so I could be sure my seams would create actual chevrons and not almost-chevrons.

I think I did very well with the stripe matching and the skirt copying. I added topstitching which the inspiration didn't have, but I wanted to really set off the seams. My skirt sits at my knee instead of above it, which is more flattering on me. And I'm as happy with the fit of my smaller version as I was with the original makes.

I debated a machined blind hem but decided for the faster method of just topstitching a narrow hem, figuring it blends with the other topstitching and, really, NO ONE is going to be looking at my hem. I'm not aiming for couture here. ;-)

I did think to take a pic of the serged/overlocked edge for anyone that's new to sewing a curved hem where the outside edge is larger than the turn-up. The trick is to turn up the differential on the serger so it very slightly gathers the edge and then to softly turn the hem under without straightening out the gathers. You can see in the photo below that the edge is already cupping inward. Work with that cupping so you can pin a hem that turns smoothly without actual gathers/ripples. Then press (up and down motion) it in place and sew it right side up so the feed dogs help in easing the longer edge too.

Next up is another Jenna cardi (in progress below), which will go with this skirt and another skirt already cut and waiting.

I'm hoping to finish the cardi in the morning, and that will probably be it for sewing this weekend as I have a bunch of errands to run and then dinner with a friend. Plus I'm hoping to do a little housecleaning too. But that's last on the list because ... well, it's housework. No pics on me until next week at the earliest since it's supposed to be still raining tomorrow. And one of my errands is to hopefully get a hair cut.

Muse Jenna Plus Kwik Sew 2759 = New Twinset Love

Here's my almost complete Jenna cardigan over the tank from Kwik Sew 2759. I still have buttons to sew onto the cardi tonight while plopped in front of the television. I decided on shank buttons from the button stash and so there's no way NOT to do these by hand. Oh, the sacrifices ... ;-)

The fabric is an acrylic/poly lightweight sweater knit purchased from Hancock's on Friday during my aerobic lunchtime shopping. I say "aerobic" because I was out of the office, into my car, in Hancock's (3 miles away), through the fabric and cutting table for 4 selections, a stop at the pattern cabinets to pull 8 Simplicities I had on a list for the sale, through the checkout, and back to my desk in a little over an hour. Whew! It's probably a really good thing that I was so time limited because I saw a LOT of fabrics that were asking to come home with me, made worse by my fabric shopping withdrawals for the last many months.

I picked this fabric with the Jenna in mind and to hopefully match this Sophia knit KS skirt I made last year. I love the skirt but don't wear it much because I'm not so in love with the pairing possibilities in my closet. I made a knit HotPatterns top which goes with the skirt perfectly but the fabric is just so clingy that I tend to avoid wearing it. The new knit doesn't match exactly but I think it blends well enough at a reasonable distance to fool the naked eye, so I'm very happy the skirt has a new mate and I'll be wearing this tomorrow. (Plus I did hem the Gillian dress shorter which means TWO new outfits to wear this week!)

The underlayer of the twinset is the tank from this classic Kwik Sew 2759. And, yes, you're probably thinking I could've used the cardigan from this or even the Jalie I hacked instead of buying the Jenna, and you'd be sorta right. Except, one, I really wanted to try the Jenna, especially after my recent success with the Gillian. I'm not immune to the call of new patterns/designers and I've really liked all the Jenna makes I've seen around the interwebs. And, two, there's enough shaping subtleties between Jenna and the other two to make the Jenna much more current-trend fit-wise. Jenna's more fitted, with nice sideseam shaping and high armholes (something KS is notorious for NOT drafting).

After cutting the Jenna, I had enough left from the 2 yds I bought to eek out a tank. So, out came my personal pattern catalog for a quick look to see what I had on hand, and then the tracing paper. I know KS always runs big on me and those armholes always low, so I traced a M everywhere and raised the armholes to the XS height, and while tracing made my usual square shoulder adjustment. The finished tank fits very well. I just wish I had added an inch in length because this thing is pretty short as drafted and I had to turn the tiniest of hems when I would've preferred to hem this knit a bit deeper. Oh well. Sew and learn. I like how the print worked out for neck and armhole bands, even though I will NEVER wear this single layer. So I'll just enjoy the bands in the mirror and on the hanger. :-)

For the Jenna, I cut at the 42 for the shoulders/neckline and morphed out to the 46 for the rest, also adding a square shoulder alteration before I cut the pattern. There was nothing particularly scientific about this, just my gut after sewing the Gillian in a straight 46 that I probably could've gone down a size or two but the wrap styling forgives sizing accuracy a lot. My gut was correct and the finished cardi fits just as I was wanting. Which you'll see when I get photos of it on me instead of Zillie.

I had a few problems with the page alignment marks on my printout but I haven't studied it enough to blame the draft or the printer. Whichever it was, the actual pattern lines fit together without issue, which makes me lean toward the marks being the culprit. The whole thing prints out on 30-ish (I forget the exact count and the PDF is at the office) pages, which tape together just as quickly as unfolding and pressing tissue. I know I'm an oddball, but I actually prefer most PDFs over tissue. I've always had an aversion to pattern tissue. It's gotten better over the years, but I still don't love it.

The only drafting issue I found with the Jenna is very minor and does not affect fit at all. Where the side seams come together creates a "bump" at the bottom edge, which will affect how the hem band sews on and lays if left alone. (Don't stare too long at my sad matching at the sideseams. This is what eyeballing will get you. And I actually cut this single layer!)

Solution: trim the bump away.

Everything else fit together perfectly, including the neckband and center front bands. No overage, no shortage, so nice even edges top and bottom on all the bands. Here's the top button waiting for handsewing tonight. And a glimpse of the teal topstitching.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the two offerings from Muse, after sewing and fitting them both, and I know that you'll be seeing more of these patterns made up in the near future because I love me some pretty cardigans for our Florida winters and who doesn't love a nicely detailed wrap dress? (So, Kat ... when is your next pattern due??)

I want to get back into the sewing room later today to start on something else because the mojo is on FIRE, but the grocery store and weekly trip to the dog beach call first so we'll see how far I get on the next project.

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. ;-)

Re-Make Modeled

Above is how I wore the outfit to the office this week. It's way too cold in A/C to go without a second layer. Plus, farmer's tan. ;-)

Here's the before (right) and after (left). It's not hugely dramatic but there's enough difference to see less sack and more shape.

I left the pleats at the center front of the skirt but it's hard to see them in the pic. Whatevs. They're there. And my tummy thanks me for that.

This shows the back, with the new empire seam, already serged, and the new sideseam sewn pre-serging.Yes, I was lazy and sewed it all the way down through the finished hem. And, of course, this would be the week that Carolyn posts about slow sewing and nice interiors. Hah. This ain't no couture dress. Never was. Never will be. But it's being worn, and no one but us is going to see the inside anyway, so I count that as a win.

There will be slower sewing this weekend because I think I'm going to be fitting a new dress pattern, for a woven. Good thing I have 3 days to procrastinate and over-analyze.

Happy Fourth!

A Couple of Round Tuits

The cardi make and the dress re-make have been on my To Do list forEVER. I made the dress 3-4 years ago and shortly after it became too big. Since I love the print and colors, I've wanted to re-do it. I've also wanted a lightweight short-sleeved brown cascade cardi for far too long. I need the extra layer in an air-conditioned office and brown goes with so much in my wardrobe (and matches this dress too, actually, although the colors are off in the photo).

I'm happy to report that both items are now in my current wardrobe.

The cardi is a quick sew, using Simplicity 1945, which I had used once before for a beige winter version. I had it cut out last weekend but needed to get some more dark brown thread before I could sew it. Both of which I did yesterday. There's no pattern indication for short sleeves so I just eyeballed it and folded up the pattern pieces evenly so all the seams would match.

The dress re-make was a little more convoluted, especially since I also wanted to shorten it about 4 inches but without losing any of the brown "stripe" at the bottom, which meant taking the length from the waist, which meant ripping apart almost the whole dang dress. I cheated and cut the seams apart. I was making it smaller anyway, so losing seam allowances wasn't a big deal. But since this knit is kind of spring-y with a mind of its own, I had to cut very slowly to keep things even or else I would've ended up with very jagged cuts.

The original make had a front empire seam but no matching horizontal back seam. It does now, because I had to remove the unwanted length that way. Along with shortening the length about 4", I removed about 10-12" in circumference, split across the sideseams.

I took a before pic but haven't taken the after yet, since it's lazy Sunday and I'm not camera-ready. I'll do that when I wear it and show you the difference.

Simple Sewing

Yep, I'm still here. It's just that some life activities, chores (and football playoffs!) have zapped the blogging and sewing time/energy.

I started my latest project last weekend. A really simple sew with a "pattern" made by using a crayon to rub off seam lines onto tracing paper laid over a RTW cardi that I've wanted to duplicate forEVER.

This is the finished result, using a 2-yard cut of a lightweight sweater knit purchased from Fabric.com a couple of years ago.

And a little bit wider shot cuz I like sneaking a peak at others' homes too. ;-) But don't get too used to this view because I think Alex and I might be moving soon after my lease is up in May. I want to spend less in rent and he wants to be closer to work, so we're thinking about leaving Valrico after more than 20 years and heading across the bay to Pinellas County. We'll see. I know I'm NOT looking forward to packing again. And I can't believe I've been here almost 2 years already.

Here's the RTW cardi I used for the rub-off pattern.

And the copycat, but with long sleeves. Hey, it's been COLD here. Really.

The front and back pattern pieces I rubbed off. No seam allowances, of course, but I added them as I rotary cut the fabric.

The sleeve pattern was adapted from my TNT Ottobre tee since it's impossible to lay a sewn sleeve flat and rub off a pattern. Well, probably not impossible, but certainly more fiddly time than I was willing to spend. All I did to adapt the sleeve pattern I had was to measure the armhole opening from the pieces above and add to the underarm seam of the TNT sleeve so they matched. Highly scientific.

This is my TNT front bodice laid over the tracing to give you an idea of shape.

All of the outside edges of the cardi are finished with bands. On the RTW cardi, they are knitted in, but in a different stitch (or something ... I don't knit) so they look like separate bands. When sewing, they had to actually be separate bands.

I just measured the widths of the RTW bands and doubled that so I could fold in half for a finished edge, and then added seam allowances to the measurements. Then I measured around the outside pattern edges to figure the lengths needed for each section.I winged it for the sleeve cuffs. ;-) The neckline band is folded around the neck edge to create a shawl collar, and hand-stitched at the CB to hold it in place. This was done on the RTW cardi too.

To construct, you sew the body together like any other knit top, including sleeves and sideseams. Then the bands are pressed in half RS out and added to the raw edges like this: The bottom band (green) first, then the front (blue) band, and lastly the neckline (pink) band. The bottom edge of the front (blue) band has to be finished and turned before sewing on the band, and the same for the front edges of the neckline (pink) band.

And that's it. Really easy "drafting" and sewing.