Sew Catchup 2 - Size Matters

 

#2 in my catchup posts

Online fabric shopping.  It is becoming the norm these days what with physical fabric stores closing.  I like the convenience and variety of fabrics online stores offer. And my knowledge of fabric type and weight results in a good choice if this info is provided the fabric description.   But my biggest pet peeve is when the online store does not provide information about the scale of a print or a repeat. This happened recently but I made the best of it. I loved the fabric below. The print was unique. The navy and white is a favorite combination, and the fiber also a favorite - silk.  This was the only picture on the site and there was no info on the scale of the print in the description.  But come on, how big could the print be? I was picturing one of those small-scale prints where your sewing buddy gets close and says "Oh, those are faces, how cute."  No.  OMG. The faces were huge. Life size or perhaps bigger.  Sewing buddy has to step way back to see the whole image. 

 This fabric sat in my stash for a year.  Finally, I decided to use it with a sewing pattern that had seams lines that would "cut up" the print.  I pulled out the Sewing Workshop Siena & Cortona Shirts pattern, which I have made before. The Siena has some unique seaming that result in a boxy, loose-fitting top with short sleeves.

I changed the placket, from sewn on to cut on, so I could match the print in the center front. I also cropped the top by 3 inches.  I love how it turned out.  Unfortunately, the pattern is no longer available on The Sewing Workshop website. Perhaps they are digitizing and remarketing it as they have been doing to some of their other patterns recently. 

In your Face - Siena Top

Sew Catchup - Spring Dress

I have been a lazy blogger  this year. I realize blogs aren't as popular/read as they once were. But this is my way of documenting my sewing for myself. So this is the first of several posts to catch up on garment sewn earlier this year.

In April, my local American Sewing Guild chapter had a tea party inspired event. We were encouraged to wear our party hats and fascinators.  I don't wear hats/fascinators. I like dresses though.  For some unexplained reason, all the spring dresses in my closet had shrunk. So I made a new one.  

Knipmode 2404-10 dress.  The fabric was a viscose print from Fabric Mart Fabrics. The pattern is available as a PDF download from the Knipmode  website. Instructions are in Dutch and can be translated with Google Translate 

Knipmode 2404-10

 The tie on the right hand side is cut as one with the dress front and when seamed, forms the gathering at the side waist. The dress was easy to sew except that the edge of the bottom half of the front pattern piece (D,E area in drawing below) was on the bias and stretched out a bit. It had to be eased into the front button band. And I think, because of this, the dress hem droops a bit on that side.  Something nobody but me would notice. The left front is one piece, cut on the straight of grain, with a waist tie inserted in the side seam.

Knipmode 2404-10 right front pattern 

 A couple weeks later I saw a Burda dress  (10 2024 107) with similar front waist styling, but the RHS front pattern was drafted with a waist seam and sewn on tie.  This design kept the edges, where the button band is sewn, on the straight of grain, and required less fabric. I found the comparison of the two dresses interesting.

Burda 10 2024 107  right front pattern

I enjoyed wearing the dress to the ASG event and out to some family birthday dinners  at fancy restaurants. The waist with the tie in front and elastic in back is very forgiving.

KnipMode 2024 04 #10

Kimono-inspired jacket

 One of the items on my Retirement Project List was to use my Babylock Sashiko machine, a specialty machine that is able to replicate the look of hand Sashiko stitching.  I bought it maybe 7 years ago and after sewing a few samples, haven’t touched it since.  At the time there was very little information available on using it for garment sewing.  Sandra Betzina and cohost Ron Collins eventually published two videos, Mastering the Sashiko Machine and Sashiko on Knits, featuring  Babylock Sashiko machine sewing on garments.  The videos were available only on Vimeo, where you had to pay to watch them. The Mastering the Sashiko Machine  video is now available free on YouTube. The Sashiko-Embellishing Knits with the Baby Lock Sashiko  video is available for purchase ($5) on the Babylock website.

I found the perfect garment project to use this machine on.  The Emy Kimono jacket from Etsy vendor MspatternsAlelier.

Emy Kimono

 It had lots of curved seaming that just begged to be highlighted with topstitching.  The pattern was one size fits all and did not come with any instructions.  I could not find any reviews or makes of it anywhere.  I took the risk and bought the pattern. After printing and assembling the PDF pattern, I checked all the finished garment measurements and walked the seams to make sure the drafting was correct. The only issue I found was that the 2 pattern pieces for the front lining had the writing/label on the back side of the pattern piece, unlike all the garment pattern pieces which were labeled on the front side. The two pieces are different shapes because of the asymmetrical fronts and must be cut so that the good or face side of the lining fabric is on the inside of the jacket when it is assembled. After giving this information to the pattern maker, she notified me that she had corrected the issue in the pattern PDF. 

The size was perfect for me. For reference I am a large size USA woman. It would also fit a medium USA man.

It was so satisfying watching the Sashiko machine form perfect topstitches in yellow thread on the orangy red fabric. 

Fabric is 80% wool/20% silk purchased from Fabric Mart Fabrics in 2006, in the color "Paprika".  Lining is a coordinating silk print from the stash.

Kimono with Sashiko Machine topstitching

Sewing for Others

A bit of non-garment sewing.  First up a quilt using a  free pattern from Quilting in the Rain la-conner-stars-free-pattern.html

 I was responsible for 16 quilt blocks for a queen size quilt. The other 48 blocks were made by my sister, sister-in-law, and my best friend from college.  These were for a quilt for DIL#1.  She thought that you went to a "Quilt Shop" to buy a finished quilt.  We had to explain that wasn’t quite the situation.  And since she loves pink, and we all had pink remnants in our stashes, we decided to make her a scrappy pink star quilt.  I did a lot of quilting in the late 80’s and early 90’s and have more than enough quilts to cover every bed in the house. But it took sewing a few blocks to remember the best sewing and ironing steps to get accurate blocks.   Every type of sewing has its tips and tricks. The quilt top was laid out during a family get together weekend, with everyone, spouses and pets, helping out.  

Quilt top layout

 I volunteered to put the blocks together and did so in four days.  That was a task. Four different makers that had pressed their block seams in different ways, trimmed their blocks in different ways, etc.  But it was finished, was actually square, and is at the professional machine quilter as we speak. 

My husband and I are becoming grandparents this year. No to one, but two grandbabies. The invite to the baby #1’s shower, held in Virginia, was done by Evite and had links to suggested gifts requested by the parents to be. We bought a combo stroller/car seat through the links, and it was sent straight from the vendor to the couple’s house in Louisiana. But I still wanted to take a gift to the baby shower.  I made this darling stuffed lamb from a pattern I found on Etsy. Lamb pattern 

I had to source my fleece fabric from Amazon, now that JoAnn’s Fabric stores are closed.  My backup source was the paint aisle at Lowe's Home Improvement store, where they had big fleece mitts for applying paint finishes. The fabric was a knit backed fleece that had the annoying edge curling tendency found some knits.   So, I was dealing with narrow seams, with fleece in them, that wanted to curl.  Got it done and was happy with the result.  My husband called it “Lambchop” after the lamb puppet that was in a popular child show back when he and I were kids.

Here is the father to be trying out the new rocking chair in the nursery with Lambchop. 

Double Cloth Coat UFO - Complete

 During the uncharacteristic cold and snowy weather in Jan and Feb, I found myself  unmotivated to do anything except watch YouTube videos. I felt guilty about not doing any sewing.  So, as a guilt assuager, I pulled out an unfinished project that required hand sewing. At least I could do some "hand" sewing while vegetating in front of the screen. The project was a coat I cut out of wool double cloth about a year ago. I wanted to use special seaming and finishing techniques to create a completely reversible garment.  But lacking confidence in my ability and stick-to-itiveness, I purchased a sale priced, 2-yard double cloth remnant in boring colors for this project. After cutting out the pattern pieces, I lost interest and packed it all away.

The fabric was “Taupe Brown/Black Wool Blend Double Weave Jacketing” from www.FashionFabricClub.com. The coat pattern I used was BurdaStyle Coat 10 2023 #110   I had to shorten the coat and seam fabric to the bottom of the sleeve because of limited fabric.

 What FFC called “double weave” is what I would more accurately describe as double cloth. Double cloth fabrics are made of two separate fabric layers, attached with wrong sides together by a third set of warp threads, to form a thicker and more substantial fabric. At the fabric edge, you can peel apart the two fabrics and see the connecting threads. 

Connecting threads between layers of double cloth

 Many types of wool and cotton can be made into double cloth, and in all sorts of combinations—like contrasting solids, a solid and a plaid, or a smooth surface with a napped surface. There are special seaming and finishing techniques that can be used with double cloth garments to make them reversible. It involves splitting the fabric at the garment edges and seams.  And a lot of hand sewing to get everything looking neat and tidy.  I had never done this type of construction before and I was so intimidated after cutting out the garment, I set the project aside. 

I did find resources on sewing double cloth, reversible garments. They are listed below.  

Double Cloth Garment Constuction Resources

Websites and YouTube

 Double Fabrics - The Pattern Line

Maria Sewing: Tutorials

a-reversible-double-cloth-coat-with-matching-scarf

Design A Double - Faced Wool Coat / Part 1

Threads Magazine

Threads magazine has, over the years, published some very good articles on this subject. Several include incorporating style details that I did not see mentioned anywhere else. Unfortunately, you will need access to the magazine, either printed or online, to read them.  

Elliott, Mary: "The Cloth with No Wrong Side", Threads, March 1997 (#69) pp. 60–63 Really interesting inseam pocket for reversible double cloth garments.

Mazur, Anna: "Reversible Techniques for Double Cloth", Threads, Taunton Press, February/March 2006 (#123)

King, Kenneth:  Classy piping highlights both sides Threads Jan 2011 #152 Interesting technique for inserting piping in edges of double cloth garment

Debby Spence: Double Cloth Sewing Techniques, Part 1 Techniques to ensure Elegant Seams, Edges, and Corners   Threads #223, Fall 2023

Debby Spence: Double Cloth Sewing Techniques, Part 2 Advanced Techniques for Darts and Closures  Threads #224, Winter 2023 Includes instructions on inserting an invisible zip in double cloth

Japanese Pattern Magazine Mrs. Stylebook,  

I know this resource is not for everyone. However, the Japanese Pattern Magazine Mrs. Stylebook, Issue 210 Oct 2022 had over 14 pages of color photos and diagrams showing how to sew every detail of a reversible double cloth coat. It also included a unique pocket, usable from both sides, that I included on my coat. I translated the Japanese text using the Google Translate app on my phone. Using the app and the camera, I captured pictures of the pages with the English text and saved them to a folder for easy access.  My husband saw me looking through my phone at the magazine pages and said with an incredulous tone in his voice “Are you using the magnifier to read a magazine?  I assured him my current glasses worked well, and I was using the translator app. The magazine is available from Etsy seller "pomadour24" Mrs Stylebook   Warning, the postage is more that the cost of the magazine.  I have a subscription from a foreign document service based in NY and it is slightly cheaper.

Mrs. Stylebook, Issue 210 Oct 2022

Pocket from Mrs. Stylebook, Issue 210 Oct 2022

I am so proud of myself for finishing this UFO. I won't be able to wear it until next fall as the weather has warmed up. See my daffodils.  You'd think at my age I would have had more confidence in my skills and used a fabric in colors that fit into my wardrobe. But on the other hand, because of my age, I have a huge fabric stash that includes some beautiful double cloth. Maybe a project for next winter.

Kitty Kraze

 

I finally retired from all paid employment on Jan 1. No more IT contracting work. I am still adjusting. My first sewing project of the year was a shirt in a cat print. 

Fabric: Mood Exclusive White Kitty Kraze Cotton Poplin 109 gsm

 I sew in silence. No TV, no podcasts, or audiobooks. Maybe some new age music. It is my time to think.  The cat print made me think of cats. My family has always had cats. We tried a few dogs when I was a child, but they never stayed long.  Thinking about the cats I have now. None were chosen by me. I have two. LaLa, her name shortened from “Letang”. The name chosen by my sons, after their favorite NHL player.  She was being raised in an apartment by my son's friend, and one of the roommates developed allergies. My son talked me into taking her.  

Ginger.  I remember visiting my parents when they were in their late 70’s and being introduced to their three new kittens. Not one, but 3. Not older cats, but kittens. I know the enjoyment pets can give.  But I am pragmatic.  I turned to my siblings and said “Do you want to put dibs on the one you will end up with when the parents are no longer able to care for them.  Fast forward 5 years. My brother got the pretty one, who later required the kidney stone operation and special diet. I got the other two. Koi, a cantankerous cuss, who passed not too long ago, and Ginger, still with us – a runt of the litter with related health issues that require her to have pureed food and an aversion to using the litter box.  She is so underweight and bony under her fur that it isn’t pleasant to pet her.  Hubby and I have said no pets after these are gone.  But honestly, if I found a stray or one was in need of a home…  And if it outlives me, my kids will have to deal with it.

Pattern: Burda 5 23 110 Used the top of this dress pattern for the closure, darts, etc. used before for other blouses.

Burda 5 23 110

 Picture taken in our 3rd snowstorm of the winter.  We typically do not get snow where I live. The first snowstorm was pretty, until the power was out for 24 hours. The second was heavy, wet snow. Large branches breaking off the trees and crashing to the ground in our backyard. We got the yard cleaned up and next winter's firewood stacked. Now this.  It is keeping my husband from picking up his new car at a dealership a couple of hours drive from our home.  Can't wait for spring.

Surprise Dec Vacation

I was invited to go on a girls' trip to Aruba in early Dec. with my sister and her friends, when one of the ladies had to cancel. 

Morning view from our room

 I had 24 hours between deplaning from a trip to Louisiana, to repack my suitcase and drive 2.5 hours north to a major airport to catch a nonstop flight to Aruba. Fortunately, I had just completed a couple of summer garments for a cruise planned in late Jan.  Aruba was a good test of my cruise wardrobe.  

 First item was a dress from McCall's 7974.  I used this pattern to make a dress for my DIL several years ago.   Marion Dress

The fabric was purchased "As Is" with a minor defect, from FabricMartFabrics.com.   When it arrived, I was pleased with the fabric weight, texture and metallic accent threads. But the color was too pale for me.  I dyed the fabric in my washing machine using cobalt blue Rit dye and it resulted in a beautiful color. 

Fabric conversion

McCall's 7974

Second item was a top to match a pair of RTW salmon-colored shorts.  The fabric was a 1 yard 54" remnant of what I think was silk cotton lawn in a tan and salmon pink print.  I have no documentation of where this fabric came from. Most likely the Give Away table at the ASG meeting. I find a lot of summer styles I like in my old Burda magazines.  This top came from the July 2010 issue, style number 131.   I omitted the waist drawstring. 

Burda 2 2010 131

Burda 2 2010 131

I also got to wear a Burda coverup I made about 5 years ago.

Burda 06 1997 107

Sisters

The vacation was great; hot sunny weather, good food, lots of talking and laughing. The flight back, normally 4.5 hours, was extended to 7 hours when the plane diverted to Dominican Republic to offload a passenger with a medical emergency.  My husband watches flight progress real time on the app Flight Aware. When we landed in the DR and I activated my phone for cell service there, his "what is happening?" texts popped up. The flight direction/path had changed so abruptly he thought there were mechanical problems.  As a result of the longer flight, my 2.5-hour drive back home was in the wee hours of the morning. Just me and the Amazon trucks on I95 South.

Back to cold weather and holiday preparation.  Hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday season.