I love sewing stuff for other hobbies (example 1, example 2, example 3). So now that I’m deep into knitting, it only made sense to sew up some project bags.
I made two Field Bags in a canvas from Ruby Star Society. One is for me and the other is for my cousin / knitting fairy godmother.
And here they are all together! I have two almost finished sweaters in these, plus yarn for my next project.
And I’ve been working on an ultimate needle / tool case to replace the hideous things that came with my Chiaogoo needles. I’m still noodling on one of the page designs, so it’s been taking longer than planned. VERY excited about it.
I made another pair of Shop Pants! The first pair was a wearable muslin that ended up being a little too big.
For this version, I made a size 2. Usually I write notes on the pattern pieces if I make adjustments, but I failed to this time. It’s clear that I shortened the leg by 1/2 to 1″ but I’m not sure. Overall, I think the 2 fits much more how I want them to, but I do wonder if I need to grade to a 1 at the waist, especially with denim.
I’m also wearing a newly made Seamwork Orlando that I hacked to have a crew neck. I used the bonus sleeves, which I also added 4″ inches to. I have another pointelle from Lyrical in a warm brown that I plan to make another long sleeve crew neck with. It’s a perfect winter layer.
Once again, I didn’t staystitch the waistlines after cutting everything out and things definitely got weird. I had to do a lot of easing to make the top of the pants fit with the waistband and there’s some puckering in the back. It’s not terrible, but I know it’s there. Next time (yes I have one more pair planned) I will stabilize before construction! I also only interfaced the inner waistband this time since my machine hated sewing the belt loops on at the end.
On my first pair, I followed the topstitching instructions exactly. I found though that I had some puckering right where I’m pointing above. So I decided to topstitch like traditional jeans and I really like how it turned out. The right bartack is kinda in a weird place, but it’s covering where I stopped and started to stitch the bottom of the fly guard down.
I like to press and sew the rise seams in opposite directions to reduce bulk.
My machine got pretty mad about the belt loops last time so instead of making them 4 layers thick, I folded the strip in 3rds and serged the exposed edge. I like that they’re a bit wider too.
I forgot to change the stitch length on the waistband so the bottom line is 2.5 and all other topstitching is 3.20. Whoops!
I added another line of stitching on the zipper tape after seeing that on a pair of RTW pants. The rivets at the pocket openings and the jean button are from Blackbird and the denim is Robert Kaufman’s bleached denim.
I’ve worn them every day this week and can’t wait to make another pair!
WildCraft had a back to school sale, so I signed up for a four week introduction to oil painting course with Rachel Warkentin. I busted out my decades old oil paint and I’m having a blast. The last session in next Monday (sad face) and I’m hoping to start up an at home practice. In the second week we painted rocks and eggs. My egg and rocks are in the lower right.
Here’s the progression of some spoons. I’m most excited to have learned some less toxic options for working with oils. Canola and walnut oils are way less stinky too!
Sadie designed this fun top (there’s a dress version too) for Tauko Magazine. I got to make it over the summer and it’s finally cool enough to wear it! This fabric is from Anuprerna.
And another WildCraft class – visible darning with Erin Eggenburg. Getting to her level of skill is going to take some practice.
Here’s my hot mess!
I learned just how well WD-40 cleans and conditions metal. I bought this vintage desk chair to make my work from home space a little more comfortable but it was GROSS.
There was a long abandoned spider nest in the back rest and it had so much rust and grime. It cleaned up so much better than I thought it would.
I saw this post last month and immediately wanted to make one. Just like in the post, I used the Seamwork Orlando. I made a size 8 and shortened the length by 1/2″.
Lyrical Fabrics has a great selection of cotton pointelle, which I think might be deadstock. There are a few prints and colors I missed out on so I was quick to grab these “Lemoncello” and “Champagne” pointelles when they were released.
I followed Lyrical’s shell tuck / picot hem tutorial on their blog. I wasn’t sure if this stitch would work on the sleeves and hem but I haven’t heard any popped stitches yet!
I don’t know why but both necklines produced one skipped stitch on the same side so I had to hand-sew one “tuck” on each tee. I hope they hold up to wear… I think it might have been a combination of the foot straddling the seam and the needle not quite dropping off the edge. Skipping only happened on the necklines.
I used my coverstitch machine to hem everything and was delighted to find that the white cones worked for both colors and I didn’t have to rethread it. I sure do love having a coverstitch machine.
The cuts of fabric are unusually wide so I have a decent amount leftover. I’m thinking maybe a True Bias Zoey tank with the same scalloped edges on the bands.
I haven’t made, or really worn, hard pants in quite a while, but this post caught my eye and I knew it was time to make some pants that didn’t include elastic. After I’d downloaded and printed the pattern, Open Studio reached out to offer a $100 stipend and the pattern in exchange for a review/IG post. They kindly sent their two other patterns since I’d already purchased the Shop Pant.
Based on my measurements, I decided to make a size 3. Aside from shortening the leg length 1″, I didn’t make any other pattern adjustments. Being out of hard pant practice, I knew I needed to make a wearable muslin and actually wear them to assess if I chose the best size, or if I just need some small tweaks to size 3.
After wearing them for a day, I think I need to grade to a size 2 at the waist and potentially shorten the front crotch (see crotch wrinkles in first photo). The intended fit of the waistline is high, but they fall down to my mid waist. Although they are VERY comfy to sit in, they’re just a wee bit too roomy.
Hello underwear!
I love the front pockets! They’ve got a fun angular opening and very deep, functional bags. Seriously super deep. My whole phone fits in there. I used a thrifted Indian cotton print for the pocketing and made it so the right side was facing the inside of the pants.
The fly constructions is straightforward, but I ordered a “jeans zipper” which is obnoxiously huge and kept getting stuck under my presser foot. If you want to sweat and swear a lot, order a #5 jeans zipper and you’re guaranteed a challenge.
The topstitching was interrupted by the zipper on both the fly extension and the fly front when I had to take the whole presser foot off my machine to zip it up. Quite annoying.
#5 jeans zipper (left), vintage zip (right). Look at how massive it is and this pic doesn’t even capture its girth.
I really love the barrel shape. I did an extra line of topstitching here to match the stitching on the butt pockets.
One construction step that I’ll be adding to future pants is attaching the waistband to the wrong side of the pants first, then folding it to right side to topstitch. No more having to redo the topstiching because you didn’t catch the inside folded edge of the waistband! Brilliant!
I do plan to change up the waistband construction a little since I didn’t get the crisp corners I can achieve with a different method. The right waistline must have gotten a little stretched out while I was sewing so it didn’t match with the band. I had to do some easing and got some annoying puckers because of that. Wild how it only happened to one side!
I really like this pattern and totally plan to make at least one more pair!
After two years of only going to 100% necessary inside places, I cracked and took an in-person workshop. There were a lot of bare faces, but us masked folk all gravitated to the same table near the open the door. I didn’t realize how much I missed making stuff with other people until the six hours had whizzed by and I felt super energized. Anyway, I’m really hoping we’re all healthy after spending so much time breathing in a room together.
The end product of marbling isn’t really my jam but it’s a fucking fun process. Wildcraft provided a beautiful little booklet with instructions for doing this at home.
Each participant was given a cut of pre-treated cotton fabric, one cotton bandana, one large piece of silk, and an individual marbling tub. Each table also had a larger basin to share and everyone rotated through doing one large sample in the big tub pictured up above. I had so much fun playing I only took three photos during the workshop so here’s a short video of what the process looks like.
Marbling really forces you to let go – you don’t really know how the paints are going to interact with each other, or which colors are going to actually show up on the fabric. Most of the colors I’m drawn to weren’t very vibrant once transferred to fabric.
Knowing I was going to have a lot of small cotton samples, I tried to stick with the same colors so they could be used in a mini quilt project, which I started sewing immediately at home.
I decided to cut up this blue piece because the fabric wasn’t great quality, I didn’t think I’d ever use it as bandana (its edges were finished), and I needed something to bind the wall hanging with. All of my other scraps didn’t quite work with the marbled fabric.
I just pieced the samples together and did a simple stitch in the ditch quilting pattern. The binding was machine sewn onto the front then folded and pressed to the back for hand-stitching.
I added little triangles to the corners so it can be hung on the wall and drilled some holes in scrap wood to mount.
I’m still very much in loungewear mode, so I whipped up these sweatshirts over the long weekend.
Seamwork Lex
This is the Seamwork Lex sans kangaroo pocket. I made a size 8 and reduced the length of both the sleeves and the body by 2″. The main fabric is a cotton french terry in the color ‘spice’ and the bands are a wide bamboo rib knit in the color redwood from Stonemountain. The rib knit is a bit too lightweight for this purpose, but it was the only stretchy fabric I had that sort of matched the french terry.
Daisy Chain Dale
This is the Dale sweatshirt, of which I’ve made three! See the color blocked one here. I made a size M with the long sleeves and no mods. The fabric is ‘maple’ sherpa and ‘toast’ 2×1 rib knit.
My quilt is done and here’s the post about it! Click here for part 1.
Since the first post, I decided to add another 15 blocks because I wanted all four corners to have a 9 patch block. With 98 blocks and a square throw shape, that pattern wasn’t happening. Plus once the top was all sewn together it was a smidge smaller than I wanted.
After the top was complete, I combed through my remaining scrap pile and pulled out all of the black and white fabrics since those seemed to be the most plentiful. Some of these ikats are from some of my first ever garment projects, which is pretty fun.
I waffled for a bit on how to bind this quilt. I started with wanting to use the greenish Calvin Klein bed sheet I’d used for my Tamarack jacket. Then I though about using the backing to do mitered corners. There was a brief time where I thought about doing prairie points to use up even more scraps but ultimately I went back to that thrifted bed sheet/traditional binding method.
I cut up the last of the bed sheet into straight of grain strips because there weren’t any curves that’d require a bias cut. I have a lot leftover which I’ll use to bind some small scale quilted projects. I really love this color.
Once the quilt backing was assembled, I realized I didn’t have enough space to baste the layers in my sewing room and would have to do this step in the basement. It took a couple of weeks before I got around to washing the basement floor.
For the quilting pattern, I wanted something that would showcase the blocks. A simple stitched in the ditch grid pattern was done and I love it. I had to move my sewing machine to my cutting table to quilt since my machine is usually up against a wall. It took a couple of days to quilt. I went too hard the first night and my hips were very angry from a long stand up sewing session.
I then machine stitched on the binding to the right side. To finish, I hand-sewed it to the back, which I did at the beach. I’d say this is the best environment for finishing a multi-year quilt project!
And here she is, my fourth quilt (see the others here). I ran around with it on the beach to celebrate.
There’s a new indie pattern designer to check out — Daughter Judy. Chelsea launched recently with four patterns and I immediately bought three of them!
I’m not in the brain space for pants fitting right now – even though I really need pants – so I decided to make the Barons Dress before diving into the Adams Pants. I really love the red photo sample and wanted to create something similar. I chose a 10oz bleached denim from my stash that even had some of the sun bleaching the red canvas sample has.
This top has lots of fun topstitching, a high collar, center back button closure, and 3/4 length sleeves that are more like full length sleeves on me.
Because I love pockets, I added some side seam friends. Here is a lackluster photo collage of how I did this.
Things I would do differently next time.
Make the buttonholes on the placket before installing. I used a 10oz denim so the seams were THICK. I can’t quite remember which two I made first but ultimately I had to change the direction of one set, so the top two are vertical and the bottom two are horizontal. Even with my compensation plate, my machine was struggling.
Use lining fabric for both sides of the pocket to reduce bulk.
I’d serge the side and underarm seams separately, then stitch, and then press open if I plan to use a heavyweight fabric again. I had a little woopsies with my serger on one side seam. It was a case of not paying attention and rushing, so please don’t give me serger tips – I know exactly what happened. The patch is pictured below.
I’d recommend this pattern for advanced beginner to intermediate folks who have a good understanding of garment construction. The instructions do kind leave some things up to the maker, which I’m fine with but might be a little frustrating for some.
