Sewing Outside the Box

With color that is.  Almost everything in my wardrobe can be worn with black or gray.  I have one pair of brown tweed pants and a few things that go with them, but that's it.  Last year or maybe it was the year before I bought this lovely blue and white herringbone bottom weight  cotton from Zegna at one of Michaels fabulous half price sales.  The only problem is that the only thing in my wardrobe that it would go with are a few white knit tops and they are pretty shabby.  Since I really wanted to make a pair of pants with the fabric I needed to build a plan around it.  A capsule wardrobe would do, and  all of the tops will actually go with other things in my wardrobe, so double duty.  
Color blocking is big news this season and that was my starting point, that and everything except the paisley below was in my stash.  

Do You Staystitch?

When I get a new pattern I immediately, well as soon as possible, start reading the instructions.  I know sewing nerd here.  I don't always use the instructions but I like to see if there are any surprises or I make notes on how I want to change things. Usually I make notes on where I will change sas on Vogue patterns. I trim the enclosed seam allowances to 3/8 and add in case sas to the side seams. Then I note the sewing order, not necessarily writing it down but I never sew in the order they advise.  I like to group details and sew everything I can before I get up to press.  The first one I looked at  is this Vogue  top.

I knew from the notions list that they call for packaged bias tape.  I'll make my own.  Wouldn't it be nice if they mentioned making your own and how to do it?  But, no this is an Easy Vogue pattern and I guess they deem it too hard.  But I digress, the topic of this post is do you stay stitch and before they  get to the binding, they tell you to stay stitch the neck edge.  I don't do this anymore.  I used to when I remembered and then for the most part I just stopped.  I still  do it for opposite curves like a very curvy princess seam that I have to clip, but mostly I don't stay stitch anymore.  I don't think it keeps a seam from stretching.  I'd be more inclined to stay a bias edge with tape, interfacing or a piece of thin 

fabric.  I also see directions for stay stitching a knit neck edge.  This I really don't get.  I do do this with Lynda Maynard's knit binding method, but I use interfacing on the neck edge first and the stay stitching is a placement guide for the binding.  

If you've been watching Peggy Sagers webcasts she is vehemently opposed to stay stitching and other archaic home sewing methods.   I feel vindicated in my laziness!

How about you, do you stay stitch and if you do when do you do it?

Spring Sewing

Vogue came out with new patterns this week and I managed to buy a few on sale.  I missed the last day of the regular sale but gave in and bought a Club BMV membership. They have finally included 15% off on Marfy patterns which was an incentive. With the decline of Burda's offerings I am having to branch out and sew more Vogue.  I used to sew Vogue almost exclusively until I was introduced to Burda World of Fashion, as it was then called.   Times change and the new direction at Burda Style mostly doesn't work for me.  I was hoping that the excellent May issue was a turning point but the previews of June are pretty dismal.  I also bought two dress patterns from Hot Patterns catching their 20% off sale, which runs through the end of the month.  I run hot and cold with them. The fitting seems to so uneven across the line.   That's one of the things I've loved about Burda, the fit consistency was better than average.  I love wearing easy dresses in the summer.  We don't have ac and the loft I work and sew in gets pretty hot.  Dresses are comfortable and cool.  I was looking for semi fitted dresses and decided on these two.  The Plain and Simple Dress and Top for some lovely linen I've got and maybe even a casual LBD in some silk linen blend I have. 

I have two pieces of fabric in search of a dress and I think that this one will fill the bill, finally.  The shorter version with the v neck would work for me better than the round neck or the maxi dress. I can see that one getting caught in the wheels on my chairs. 

How many unmade patterns do you own?  I have quite a few, but that doesn't count the Burda Style magazine patterns I haven't made.  The cheap sales make it easy to succumb to patterns that really don't either work for our bodies or our lifestyles.  I've been trying to be more discriminating lately so that I might actually make them up!

Here are my picks.  This is not to say that I didn't like some of the others quite a bit, but these meet my criteria of fitting my lifestyle and being flattering or at least having the potential for looking great on me.  I am very careful to buy patterns that work on  my body, not patterns that I love but won't love my body. All those unmade patterns in my drawers have taught me a lesson.  Finally.

The round neck on this isn't the best for me, but I wanted the 3 piece sleeve and the jacket instructions.  I will have to take a look at Chanel and see how I can change this to make it more flattering for me.  I don't think that I'll get to this one until late summer for fall.

I wasn't interested in the fuller top, but this princess seam version looks interesting as well as flattering.

Finally, I bought this peplum blouse a style I've been looking for to knock off a blouse I have up on my idea board.  I like the second view in this one as well.  The high round neck has to change though.

I've got fabric in my stash for most of these and that's good for the budget.  
Add pants from my tnt pattern, a skirt or two and at least one more cardigan and you have  my spring sewing goals.  The leather jacket is on hold till summer for fall. I've got some reservations about the neckline on that one so I'll have the summer to decide.

The Never Ending Quest

Hubris does come back to haunt you and in the case of making jeans it's certainly bit me on the ass.  I was so sure that I could make a better fitting pair than the jeans from Net a Porter I posted some time back.  Quite a while back. 

I started out with copying a rtw pair that was too small but I thought had fit me nicely.  Enlarging them seemed to focus on how they really hadn't fit as well as I thought they had.  I guess I was just willing to accept less perfection from a pair that was really just ok as long as I didn't have to make them.  The front was fine, but the back had my usual problems due to a flat low seat.
I chucked those and decided that of the many jeans patterns I owned I'd make the Hot Patterns dressy jean.  It had that L shaped crotch that fit me and after all my tnt pants started out as the Razor Pant from Hot Patterns.  Enter many, many muslins and two pairs that were supposed to be finals.  The  black corduroy I posted were great in the front, but way too short in the back and pulled down uncomfortably. The  pants ended up with a really pointed back crotch and when I cut it off it made the back crotch too short, and if I didn't cut it off it made the front crotch look like this:

This is what the back crotch ended up looking like as I tried to get more room in the back crotch so that the pants wouldn't pull down when I sat.  

The back didn't look bad, unless you count the fact that they were just too low at the waist.
I've put them aside for the time being while I figure out what I want to do.  I've gotten so far from the original pattern, which by the way also had this very point back crotch, that I am considering starting over with another pattern.  But not now.  It's taken too much of my time and a lot of denim.  I need clothing for spring and summer so I am going to give it a rest and try again later.  I may even go shopping and try to find a pair that I can live with.
If anybody has a pattern recommendation that works for a flat low rear end do let me know.


I leave you with my pile of rejects and this isn't even all of them!

Variations on a Theme Part II

Lots of sewing has been going on, mostly for  my unexpected trip to Austin to see Alex and spend her birthday together. My wonderful husband surprised me with tickets and I was there last week during prime wildflower viewing.  The bluebonnets were spectacular.  After she picked me up at the airport we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower center.  It's a must see if you are in Austin.  I've always wanted to see the blue bonnets in bloom and this year they've had some respite from the drought and the wild flowers were everywhere.  Here we are in a field of blue bonnets at the Center.  I've got on another version of my tnt t shirt in a coated gold knit.  It's not like the metallic knits that I've gotten from EOS where the yarns are metallic, but it seems to be a printed light metallic gold on a beige rayon knit.  Not as drapey but nice for a t shirt.  I'm wearing it with a new pair of black pants from my tnt pants pattern not that you can see them all that well here, but there's nothing different from the last 6 pairs. It's fast and easy to make garments from a tnt pattern and I choose to make a very simple fly front pant without details that add to my hips.  However, these are a cotton lycra and  cut them out with a pair in a cotton acetate brocade without lycra and the non stretch pair fit better, perfect in fact.  It just proves that you really do have to fit as you sew even if you've made the pattern a dozen times.  Every fabric sews up differently.  

I've been trying to sew from stash lately but this brocade was a new purchase from a recent FM sale.  Half off a selected group of brocades and this one caught my eye.  The black and white floral looked very current.  I am wearing it with a top from Tom and Linda Platt in matte jersey from a few years back and another version, this one in a scrumptious cashmere knit from Mood, of Pamela's Pattern drape front cardigan.  I got a lot of use out of this cardigan all week starting out with wearing it over my gold top and black pants from the first picture.  A cold front had come through and it was in the chilly most of the day.  Here I am in front of the bat sculpture next to the Congress Street bridge before we went down to see the bats fly out at dusk from their perches under the bridge.  Pretty cool sight. Austin has the largest urban colony of bats in the world.  


I made two pairs of pants, the gold t shirt and the cardigan for my trip.  They all fit very well in my wardrobe and I wore the cardigan here over pants and a couple of tops from last year.


I took some pictures before I left but never had a change to post.  They are more variations on a theme.  

My completed Missoni cardigan.  I am wearing it with my Hot Patterns dressy jeans in black corduroy.  I am not completely thrilled with these pants.  The front is great, the back I over fitted and it pulls down at the cb.  I am going to make another pair in denim and see if I can't tweek them a bit to fit better.  

You saw this twin set on my dress form.  I think it looks better on me.  Same jeans.

The last piece I made was this nightgown from my tnt t shirt and a beefy cotton knit from EOS.  This has been one of the best things I made this winter because I really needed it and it's wonderful to sleep in.  It is hard and expensive to find a simple, long sleeved nightgown and my dh had been nudging me to make one for months. 

I leave you with a picture of Alex and I out to dinner on her birthday and a close up of the Tom and Linda Platt top Vogue 00P. I don't know why I haven't made another one in a washable fabric because I love it. (this one is in rayon matte jersey).

It was a wonderful trip; a time to see Austin and spend 'girl' time with my daughter.

Watching American Idol

American Idol has never been on our tv watching agenda until now when we actually know one of the contestants.  Jen Hirsh is my nephew's girlfriend who we met  in California last summer.   We are so excited that she made the semi finals last week.  My sister has been sending out mass e mails telling everyone she knows to watch.  I thought I'd do my part and introduce my readers to a great singer in hopes that you will like her as much as we do and vote for her tomorrow night.  Here's a video clip of her appearances so far.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

My jeans obsession has taken up a lot of my time, that and the muslins for my leather jacket as well, and I need some clothing!  To that end I have been making tops based on my tnt t shirt pattern.   My jeans actually only need a hem and button to be finished and I'll have some new tops to wear with them.

First  in the lineup is actually not from my tnt pattern but the Pamela's draped cardigan I mentioned a while ago.  I did use my tnt t shirt to make a short sleeve t to go with it.  You can just see the French dart that I made by rotating the bust dart.  It fits better on me than on my form. I really like how it slims the middle without being too revealing.  To refresh your memory, this is a wool blend  knit from Elliot Berman.  It's pretty stable with almost no stretch in the length, so easy to sew.  This type of knit, without lycra, is perfect for first time knit sewers.  I used my favorite method from Lynn Maynard for the neck binding.

There are a lot of draped front cardigan patterns out there and I have my fair share of them!  But in the end I decided that most of them have too much fabric for my figure and this one is designed with an older woman in mind I think.  I did have to chop off my usual 3/4" from the shoulder but I didn't have to make a forward shoulder adjustment as it's built into the pattern.  There is a separate front pattern piece  for larger busts.  There is no dart, but extra room at the bust that you are supposed to stretch the back to fit.  This knit has little stretch in the length so I ended up ease stitching the front bust area.  It's clearly notched for matching to the back piece.  The instructions are excellent but if you are confused there are several videos on You Tube to clarify matters.  Pamela writes that she designed the pattern  to fit a pear shaped figure and that most people wouldn't need to add to the hips.  I had to add to the hip area.  But, not  a lot and my 1" in case seam allowances took care of the extra I needed.

My second variaton is this wool blend sweater knit from Emmaonesock.  It has almost no stretch to it so I had to add quite a bit of ease to make it work, especially in the biceps.  Because there was little stretch I bound the neck, hem and sleeves with a black wool knit that I had in my stash.  Nothing really to say about it except that it too has a French dart.  I really do like them and have Peggy Sagers to thank. She talks about it on several of her webcasts and they are on many of her patterns.  If you have Fit for Real People there is an excellent explanation on how to convert a bust dart into a French dart.  You do have to pin it up in the pattern and redraft the side seam to acccomodate it.   Certainly not hard to do.

Next up is a cardigan based on my tnt t shirt in some Missoni knit I picked up at Emmaonesock.  I am debating the length before I add the black wool binding at theneckline and hems.  I debated with myself on which way to add the stripes and finally decided make the body vertical and the sleeves run horizontally.  The sleeves are basted in and side seams are pinned. It probably took me longer to lay it out than it will to finish sewing it.
Have a great weekend.