ANOTHER tee shirt

My latest quick little project was another version of this RTW top. The fabric is an old cotton knit from my stash. It's not the best fabric, but it's ok for a little tee shirt. This first photo is the closest to the actual color - pale-ish blue leaning toward periwinkle.

Well, actually, the fabric wasn't the best fit for this top. The original and my first recreated version are in jersey. This cotton knit is a bit beefier with less stretch, so my arms feel a bit like they're in sausage casings, although I don't think the shirt looks super tight on. Also, the top part doesn't drape nicely. It gives me a serious uni-boob and doesn't reach all the way under my bust easily.

All in all, another so-so project, but it only took two evenings of work. It probably won't last in my closet more than a year or so, but I can't bring myself to get rid of it right away, even though I don't LOVE it. It's a perfectly fine top. I do like it today under my new sweater (X-mas present from my hubby). It's nice and cozy for ANOTHER snowy day today.


...and here's a sneak peek at what's up next. I'm going to walk you through my patent-pending (ok, not really) "make-it-up-as-you-go-along method of neckline construction.

Vogue 8409

This dress has been sitting on the back of my sewing chair for almost two years. I just finished the hem a couple of days ago. I can rest easy in the knowledge that I'm much better at either finishing or tossing things now than I was two years ago. I only have a couple UFOs still laying around that I want to finish. The pattern is Vogue 8409.

The interesting thing about this dress is seeing how far I've come in the past two years of sewing. I'd been sewing for many years before I made this dress, but never as fervently as the past two years (not coincidently, since I became a SAHM). Anyway, I won't be showing you any inside shots. It's embarrassing. :-) Let's just say, I treated the dress and lining as one when I put in the zipper instead of hand stitching the lining over the zipper. Not sure why I did that. I knew better! Lazy, I guess.

Overall, I'm really happy with it, though... the outside, at least. It fits very well, despite having an entire pregnancy and baby while this languished unfinished. I'll definitely wear it to church come spring and summer. I'm kind of regretting going the lazy way when taking the photos and not accessorizing at all. That's a new, late New Year's resolution - better photos, at least where staging is concerned.

The fabric is poly satin from a German department store here. The lining is horrible, very cheap poly. I definitely wouldn't buy that again, not that I remember what it is.

My Pattern Review is here.

A miss and a tee shirt.

I was going for something similar to this, but instead, I got this:

I really liked the orange jersey fabric when I bought it, but after pre-washing, it's not really soft (maybe lower-quality poly?), and then I botched up the sewing pretty well - I'm not sure why, but the armhole seams are pretty wobbly. On top of that, the fit is a bit big, and it just kind of feels like a choir robe. To top it off, I didn't think out the hemming in advance well enough, and where the collar thing folds back, you see the wrong side of the hem on the bottom. Ehh, it's going in the trash.

This is a simple t shirt I made from the remnants from this top. It's ok. Not my favorite thing I've made or anything, but it's a fine t shirt. I used the same raglan t shirt pattern as a starting point. I was going to make it 3/4 sleeves, but only had enough fabric for short.


I think it looks cute peeking out from under a sweater.

Little boy sewing

I thought those of you with little girls had all the sewing fun... until a certain need arose. My son has a lovely new red guitar from his aunt (which he looooooves), but it was difficult for him to hold and strum at the same time. Enter Mommy to make a custom guitar strap!



Ok, so it's a rectangle of fabric with batting and buttonholes, but I am proud!

Apparently he's decided he's going to be a left-handed guitar player. He always puts it on that way.
And, yeah, he insists on holding it around his neck like that, not behind his back like most guitar players.

Wearable Muslin

I made a wearable muslin** of this free BurdaStyle skirt. I love all the pleats, the asymmetry, and the topstitching.

After making up most of it last night, I decided I still love it, but I'm not going to finish this one. The fabric I used (black cotton, with a kind of linen-y texture) just looks cheap made up in this pattern. It just a case of a bad fabric/pattern matchup by me. I was hoping for a cute, season-spanning, casual black skirt, but I'm not loving it. Luckily, I'm not in love with this fabric or anything (it's of really old stash vintage), so no big loss. I'll definitely try the skirt again, probably in wool.

Here's the back:

a pretty simple 4-gore, A-line. I think I'll carry the yoke around to the back for my next version, though.

Here's a close up of all the topstitching. I used regular thread instead of thick topstitching thread because it became quickly apparent that I didn't love this skirt. I still wanted to see how it all looked, though.


Overall, I still LOVE the pattern, but I'll need a nicer fabric to do it justice. Also, it's a bit big (only a 40 is drafted and I'm generally a 36 or 38), so I'll need to alter the pieces a bit for the final version.


** People can get kind of violent with their wearable muslin opinions. "A MUSLIN IS NOT WEARABLE!!" yada yada yada. I make them from time to time if 1) I want to try out a pattern before moving to the "good" fabric (the usual reason for making a muslin) and 2) I have a fabric on hand that may or may not make a great garment, and I won't be devastated if it doesn't pan out. Please don't judge me.

Striped cowl followup

This is a follow-up to my striped cowl top post. In case you missed it, here it is:


So you can see the proportions a bit better, here is the front:

...and the back:

I made a similar style neckline this past summer, but I can't find a blog post about it, so I guess I missed it. Anyway, I learned some things while making that that I incorporated here. First, I always need a bigger piece of fabric for the cowl than I think I will. I had plenty of fabric this time around, so I made a second one when the first wasn't big and floppy enough. Along the same lines, the neckline needs to be pretty low if you want to show a little neck and upper chest skin.

For my first cowl attempt, I measuered the neckline I had cut and just made a rectangle that length. However, after I sewed it on, it wasn't as big as I wanted, so I made a new one, adding about 5 inches and stretching the shirt's front neckline a bit to fit. Much better! In the end, the cowl is 33" around and 14" deep.

Here's a shot inside the neckline. I used a french seam here since it's possible this seam could be exposed depending on how the neckline falls.


The pattern I started with was Simplicity 3536, which I picked because I already had it, it has raglan sleeves and didn't require me to trace anything (BWOF). I'd recommend finding a simpler pattern to start with, though. I had to fold out the gathers.

I think I answered all the questions. One more:

What Would a Nerd Wear said...
wait, you MADE this??
are you selling these anywhere?
this is seriously fabulous and completely my style--i love it!!

Aw, thanks! Nope, definitely not selling. I don't have the original ideas to make and sell stuff... just making knock offs. :-) You alter stuff, though, so you're just a few steps away from making your own!

Quicky sweater project

This sweater was my husband's. Somehow it shrunk... no one wants to take responsibility... True, I do most (almost all) of the laundry, but I have a near-flawless record, people!! Ok, anyway, this sweater was my husband's until it shrunk. I couldn't part with it, though. It's a really nice sweater! So after a year or so marinating with my fabrics and other messed-up clothes I can't part with, I decided I could make it a sweater for me.

Before:


After:


this was so easy. The sweater was the right length, but the sleeves were too short, so I made them 3/4. I just cut off the sleeves, took in the side seams, made the sleeves narrower, took a bit off the tops of the sleeves, and put the sleeves back in.

Tomorrow, I'll do a follow-up post to my striped cowl since there were a few questions.