OhSewCrafty

Happy Birthday my dear! + Sewing (his and hers!)

Today is C's birthday but we celebrated last night as it was a holiday.  My parents graciously provided a fabulous meal, while I baked the Strawberry Chiffon Cake.  Though I typically bake a red velvet cake, this year he wanted to mix it up.  He loves strawberry shortcake, and when I saw Smitten Kitchen's cake, the tall height said "celebration" to me.  And I love to celebrate birthdays in high style!  The cake was pretty and C thought it tasted better than it looked.  The layers even held together well while cutting and serving; it was light and delicious.  My only mod was adding less than half an envelope of gelatin to the whipped cream, to stabilize it as I wanted it to hold together overnight.  I don't have a layer cutter, nor a knife long enough for the purpose, so I used dental floss to cut the layers crosswise.  It wasn't the easiest method, but it worked.  

We both happened to be wearing linen shirts that I sewed up, eh, let's say years ago.  I'm thinking 2003-ish.  C's shirt is Mccalls 8409, in brick red lightweight linen.  I used flat fell seams throughout, for comfort and durability.  It's an easy, straight forward men's shirt pattern, TNT for me.  Only the collar and cuffs require much skill, and of course the short sleeved version doesn't include cuffs.  

Mine is Vogue 2677 View B (OOP), made from navy handkerchief linen.  As I recall, I obtained the fabric crazy cheap from fabric.com.  I cut the 12, lots of pieces but the sewing was fun.  No mods, quick project.  Vogue rates this pattern "average"; challenging elements include the fact that every piece is cut on the bias, and the patience required to sew MANY narrow hems, but an adventurous beginner could handle it.  I love this shirt for its featherweight, perfect for hot summer nights, the deep vneck and flirty ruffles.  It requires a thorough pressing before each wear, as the ruffles tend to go awry, but no big deal.   This would be less of issue if I'd used a fabric with less "body", like chiffon.  The dark linen has the advantage of being opaque, a good thing when it's beastly hot and muggy outside and I do not feel like layering. 

WIPS Galore

I'm usually a one project-at-a-time sort of girl, but I've got a bit off the rails lately.  I blame my retro jac, which apparently does not want to be finished.  But I plan do so this weekend when I'll be riding in the car for several hours.

The knitting is finished on Camellia; here are the cute fluttery sleeves.  I was almost certain I would run out of yarn, but somehow I managed to eke out two sleeves plus the neck trim from less than 1.5 balls.  Camellia was a superfast knit, clocking in at 10 days.  I've already started the seaming and finishing it up won't take long.  This is a great pattern and I highly recommend it.   

 

I'm nearly done with gift for my friend's baby.  It's turning out supercute but it hurts my hands to knit on it for very long (I'm using cotton ease on size 5 needles).  I'm not a huge fan of cotton ease (I used it for my first sweater project, which was a huge disaster!), but I wanted something washable and my options were limited at 5 pm Sunday afternoon.  The weird photo is to make identification difficult, on the off chance she's reading this!

I cast on Karma tank, for the SKC's 2nd quarter knitalong.  I am enjoying the pattern, and I think the yarn, cascade pima tencel, will feel divine against the skin, so I'm excited about this one.   I did do a lot of swatching, and plenty of math, to try to obtain the fit I want for this.  Lately it seems like my knitting patterns are SO long!  I'm not a small person, 5'8", but anything longer than 15 or 16" from underarm is going to bisect the fullest part of my rear and that is just not a good look for me. 

I'm also working on a dress, McCalls 5802, using a semi sheer floral georgette and rayon for the lining.  Last night I cut out all the fabric, which was a pain, lots of large pieces on single layers.  I'm going to try to sew it up tonight (I have a wedding to attend tomorrow), but no pressure.  C suggested that he'd like to see me in the black floral printed Vogue dress again, and this wedding will be an entirely different set of people from the one a few weeks ago. 

WIP Update: Retro Jac

All blue all the time... I had grand plans to finish sleeve #2 on Sunday and cast on the right front, but alas that did not happen because it was too hot to move.  Too hot to do anything other than sit  still, read, and perhaps wash one's face with cold water every hour or so.  At some point I had to escape, so I took my sleeve to the G Street sale, and bought some more fabric, including some cotton to make a cute sundress that will coordinate with the Retro Jac.   This decision was inspired by my mom, who when flipping through the pattern book, pointed out the dress modeled with pattern and said, "that would look good on you, you should make it!"  I do get a small thrill from copying ready-to-wear (yes, I am a sewing geek), and I won't even have to draft this one, because I found a similar pattern, New Look 6457, View A (bottom right).  I plan to use piping on the princess and bodice seams.  The classic elite dress has a patch pocket, also trimmed in piping, on one side of the skirt front... not sure about that yet, I'm not crazy about patch pockets.  Luckily that can easily be added at the end if I feel like it.  Anyway, as of today, the retro jac is the right front + the collar away from completion.  I'll admit that knitting has taken a slight backseat to sewing recently, but still this project is taking forever.  The allover cabled stitch pattern, combined with twisted purls on the WS, make for slow progress.  I'm not sure I would have chosen this project if I'd realized what I was getting into!   Next up I will be knitting something simple, like stockinette, perhaps with a little lace for interest... I think  Camellia will be perfect! 

Sewing FO: Vogue Dress

• Pattern:  Vogue 1086 by Tracy Reese
• Fabric: A bit over 2 yds poly crepe from G Street
• Time to sew: ~18 hours + 2 hrs cutting time over a week

I like it because I feel the style is very versatile- fancy enough as a cocktail dress, but I could wear it during the daytime or to work with a little sweater over the bodice.  The pattern had many designer details; and this dress looks incredibly neat on the inside.  

This dress took me longer to make than it should.  I bought all the fabric remaining on the bolt, but it was a bit short of pattern requirements, so the cutting was painstakingly slow, as I tried to make every bit count.  The pattern was very well written; it had 60 steps and french seams were used throughout (except on the facings).  I had some trouble with the  back neck, made a rather impulsive decision to rip out and redo, and wasted several hours reconstructing it exactly like it had been (which was the best I could do given the fabric, more on that below).

The fabric, while lightweight was not truly light enough for this design in my opinion.  There was simply too much bulk at the front and back vnecks to get perfect points.  I wouldn't mind making this again; I'd use a super thin fabric that still had some body- silk crepe de chine would be perfect.  I'd also cut the bodice sides below the armholes and midriff a bit wider; the dress fits me in this area, but there's very little ease, even after using 3/8" seam allowances here.  A bit more breathing room would be nice.  I don't think my ribcage is that big, so I'd advise checking the fit before cutting.  I made the armhole facings about an inch shorter; they seemed to be much longer than necessary.  My last quibble, I made the side invisible zipper a bit too invisible through the midriff section; there is enough fabric bulk here, with the faced midriff, that I should have made the seam a little further from the zipper teeth for smoother operation.  

FO: Millefiori Cardi (+ I sewed a skirt!)

• Pattern: Interweave Knits, Spring 2009
• Yarn: Ella Rae Silkience (cotton/modal/silk/rayon), color #11, 8 balls
• Size/Gauge: 35" /gauge on US 5= 21.5 spi
• Time to knit: 2 weeks in March 09

I love it!  It's cute, perfect for spring, and while knitting through cold, gray, dreariness, the color reminded me that there would be brighter days ahead.  The sweater feels heavenly to wear and it looks great dressed up or down. 

I made a lot of mods to the pattern, starting with knitting at a smaller gauge to get a size between the two smallest.  I knit the sleeves flat, since the sweater was knit flat.  I knit the armholes to a half inch shorter depth, then did short row shoulder shaping.  I skipped some of the slipped stitch edges; I find those awkward for seaming.  After reading about stitchywitch's problems with the buttonbands, (and finding the directions strange), I decided to knit them completely separate and attach buttons later, after the bands were seamed to the front.  This meant subtracting the stitches that would later be put on hold when I casted on each front piece (I did include a seam stitch).  Instead of knitting the bands until equal with the fronts "slightly stretched", I just knit the same number of rows (122) and figured that since the twisted rib patt has a slightly compressed row gauge, it would work. 

The yarn is lovely!  It's soft, silky, cool to the touch, with a wonderful drape and slight sheen.  Unlike many cotton/rayon blends, this yarn is not terribly splitty.  I would love to use it again.  It was a joy to knit with, except for the clam stitch.  I had to knit that very tightly for it to look good, maybe I should have gone down more than just one needle size.  Still, I find this section of the sweater has a tendency to poof out, as you can see in the photo above.  The buttons are from M&J Trimming in NYC. With buttons stacked to the ceiling, and another huge room full of ribbons, etc., M&J was this seamstress' dream.  But my birthday weekend trip to NYC perhaps deserves another post!

Speaking of sewing, guess what?  I made the skirt too!  (It was always my plan to debut this sweater on Easter Sunday, and I decided I needed a new skirt too).  It's Vogue 8560.  The fabric is quilting cotton, and cling-free lining for the pockets, from G Street.  Mods to the pattern: had to cut a new pattern piece for the upper yoke back, as that piece was identical to the lower yoke back.  To accommodate a few extra pounds on my waist/hips, I cut the size 12 (my usual) but added 3/8" to the width of all the pieces and used a 1/2" seam allowance on the side seams.  I subbed an invisible zipper, which I do 99% of the time.   I skipped the waistband, just sewed the yoke and yoke lining at the waist with right sides together, pressed the seam towards the skirt, turned the lining to the inside, and topstitched just below the waist.  I had no problems with the sewing, though the two-tier yoke, pleats, and pockets took a bit longer than a typical skirt.  Below, a closeup of the back.  I just love this fabric, the vintage vibe of the pattern, and the punch of color from the green hem band.   

Hallowe'en 08, or Tinkerbell & Peter Pan

This year I was invited to a Halloween party hosted by my oldest friend.  I decided we needed new costumes for the occasion.  Some years ago, I sewed up vampire outfits for C & I.  We've worn them a few times, but not in recent years, as grad school commitments have precluded any real Halloween partying.  Sad, that.  I love Halloween and I wanted to be Tinkerbell!  C agreed to Peter Pan as long as I would sew the costume, and no tights would be involved.  Here we are, ready to party!

The pattern I used for my costume is out of print, Simplicity 4902.  I had some issues with the sewing, some of it was my fault, but the pattern was weird too.  I wound up lowering the rise of the skirt significantly and also lengthening it a bit.    The fabric for my costume was from Joann and not really the nicest stuff, but fine for a costume.  I used swimsuit lining for the raglan tee, sparkly satin for the underskirt and corset, and iridescent tulle for the skirt ruffles.  C's tunic was made from Butterick 4574, I used some green calico, shortened the sleeves and cut the hems in a zigzag.  I found some leather laces from Michael's, in brown for the lace up neck of C's shirt, and green for the back of my corset.  

The eyelets were the worst part of the sewing, it took forever to cut tiny holes through multiple layers of fabric.  I made a little wand from a pencil, green paper, tape, and a leftover tulle.  The wings were created from two wire hangers, which I shaped into loops, taped together at the mid section, and draped each side with plenty of tulle.  I secured the tulle with the green leather laces, and also used the green leather to make two long loops extending from the wing center, to tie around each shoulder.

Thanks to my dad for the awesome photos and to my parents for some sweet treats and the excellent spooky "graveyard"!  A bit later, we headed over to my friend's house and had a fabulous time at the party.  Hallowe'en 08 was a definite success!  

Twilight Obsession and Sewing

On Friday I went out to dinner and to a midnight release party at a local bookstore for "Breaking Dawn"  (Thank you, C, for indulging my twilight obsession... my DH rocks!)  I got home around 12:45 am, and spent the next 12 hours reading, with a 5 hr nap in the middle.  My succinct assessment of BD:  Weird but good in the end.   Anyway, the theme of the release party was "prom", so I figured I'd dress up in something fancy, sparkly, and blue (in reference to Edward's favorite color on Bella); I am certainly pale enough to be vamp anyway!  This is a dress I sewed maybe 5 years ago, pattern is Vogue 2475.  I used a sequined royal blue poly chiffon for the overdress and an ice blue satin for the inner slip, both of which I obtained for a song at fabric.com.  There weren't any issues with the pattern, as I recall, and vogue designs fit my body without much alteration.  Sewing with chiffon is always a pain, and for this particular fabric, I spent a lot of time carefully cutting sequins out of the seam lines.  Also, due to the all over pattern on the fabric, it's hard to see the pretty seam lines.

My favorite details are the handkerchief hem, and low back.  The pictures make the chiffon seem more reflective than it actually is... IRL the fabric is matte, I swear!  I love wearing this dress, it's quite vampy but comfortable at the same time.  

A sewing FO... at long last!

It's been ages since I did any real sewing, so I decided to start with something easy that I've been needing for awhile- a case for my knitpicks options needles, cords, ends, etc. 

 

All this stuff was loose on a shelf in my crafting cabinet and that was not a good solution; I kept misplacing things.  I used this tutorial, and adapted it for my own needs, using some quilting cotton from Joann that only cost a few bucks.  My case isn't perfect, I was a bit haphazard with the cutting and I didn't stress too much about the seams.  The whole thing was done in under 2 hours, and it works!  It's basically a trifold wallet with a double snap closure.  The first third holds my needle tips, sizes 4-9 (I'm not planning to buy any larger sizes, as I rarely use large needles, and besides, I have my denise set).  The second third has a pocket for the ends, keys, etc.  The last third holds all the cables.  The pockets close with velco tabs.  It's quite handy!   I may make another one of these for my dpns, I have plenty of leftover fabric.