November Garment of the Month

Clothing this time of year needs to be warm, so when my sewing guild's theme for our Nov. meeting was "cozy" garments, I decided to finally finish a fleece jacket that I started back in 2010 and I actually met the deadline, the only thing that seems to get me to complete projects.

This jacket was made from a piece of reversible fleece from JoAnns that had been bought by a non sewing friend of mine to make a hooded scarf until she decided that that project was beyond her abilities, so she was kind enough to pass it on to me.

JoAnn's fleece isn't the greatest quality, though, so I decided to use it for a muslin of a new (at the time) jacket pattern I had bought from the same company who makes the Little Somethin jacket pattern that is so popular.

The pattern I used is called Start After Breakfast Finish Before Lunch, which was obviously NOT the case for me since it took years to finish but it really is a simple pattern that I will probably make again, adding the back pleat that I decided would not work with fleece.

I couched yarn along all the outside edges to finish the jacket, but the yarn was too thin to work properly, however it was also in my stash so that's what I went with. I would have liked to have used 3/8" wide strips of fleece that I stretched to make yarn, but didn't have enough left over since this was only enough fabric for a scarf to begin with.

At least I now have one less thing in my UFO box, though, and something I can wear to keep warm on those cold winter nights and at the moment need for daytime wear, too!

October MAGAM/fashion show garments

Having not only the deadline of the October Make a Garment a Month challenge, but also the fashion show for my sewing guild's annual meeting and the Artisan's Square 6pac Autumn challenge that I recently joined, made me do a LOT of sewing the past couple of weeks, but I got everything done the day before our annual meeting, something that's actually quite early for me!

I first wanted to show and describe the silver knit shell that I modeled since I think it fits October's MAGAM challenge to make something "shiny" quite well and also coordinates with the other garments I made, so is now part of my 6pac autumn wardrobe, something I now only need one more garment to complete.

This top was made with a piece of slinky like knit that I picked up on the free table at a sewing guild neighborhood group meeting and a Cutting Line Designs pattern called Pure and Simple which is unfortunately no longer in print. I used my Sure Fit Designs bodice pattern to determine the cutting lines to use and also to add a larger dart that the CLD pattern called for.

I also modeled the jacket I just completed on Friday made from the Fit for Art Tabula Rasa pattern and a piece of rayon/poly fabric that I recently purchased from Vogue Fabric's online store in hopes that it would coordinate with the brown pants that I made earlier this fall from a piece that I purchased from the Vogue Fabrics booth at the Worcester Expo in 2009 and the Sure Fit Designs pants pattern that I am still trying to get to fit properly.

The other outfit that I modeled yesterday was a gray knit top that I also finished recently made from a piece of sweater knit fabric from my stash and my Sure Fit Designs shirt pattern, the first time I used that pattern so it still needs a bit of work.

I wore a pair of gray knit pants that I just made this week with that gray top using a piece of "performance" fabric from JoAnns (which I guess means it has four way stretch since it was with the swimsuit fabric) and a pattern that I made some time ago from a pair of commercial one seam pants that I liked the fit of.

I wore a scarf that I recently made from a rayon sarong and instructions I found on the web with my gray outfit to "spice" things up a bit, but since my 6pac wardrobe is supposed to be garments that are "basic and boring", that is neutral colors and simple patterns that can be mixed and matched and hopefully coordinate with other garments that I have in my wardrobe, nothing I modeled yesterday was very exciting, but I think will be clothes that I will wear over and over again, unlike some former fashion show garments that were more for "show" than practicality.

September MAGAM/6pac challenge

I finished two new garments this week in addition to several scarves, since that was the topic of this month's sewing guild meeting.

The first garment I made is a a top that's a muslin of my Sure Fit Designs shirt kit pattern using some really old gray sweater knit fabric from my stash. Still need to do some adjusting to this pattern and I'm afraid the creases in this fabric will never come out, but at least it's done and I now have one more garment to enter in the 6pac wardrobe challenge I'm doing on the Artisan's Square site.

I also made a pair of pants from the Sure Fit Designs pants pattern I am getting close to perfecting using a piece of brown stretch cotton fabric purchased at the Vogue Fabrics booth at the Worcester MA Expo, I believe in 2009.

I wish I had enough of this fabric to make a top to match the brown pants since I love that color brown and think that would be a good addition to my 6pac brown and gray wardrobe, but since this piece was a remnant, I only have a little bit leftover after cutting out the pants. I am still going to try and use it for a top, though, even if I have to use different materials for the sides and sleeves, since I would probably wear a jacket over it.

I am trying to learn a bit more about styling my outfits and would most likely wear some kind of scarf with this top if I were wearing it for "real", but I just threw it on so I could model it for show and tell at my Garment Group meeting yesterday since it was much too hot to wear a sweater knit, even though it is almost the end of Sept. I know I'll soon be longing for these extra warm temps, though, living in the great Northeast as I do...

August MAGAM

This jacket is so old that I don't remember when I first started making it, but am pretty sure the fabric came from the flat fold table at a Woolworth's store! I also long ago lost the pattern that I made it from, however I liked it enough that I took the jacket apart and traced the pieces in case I want to make another like it someday.

I've been not only trying to mostly make things from my stash lately, but also finish some of the things that have been sitting in my UFO boxes for a very long time, and having finally completed this garment is a very good feeling, even though I'm sure it started out as a jacket with buttons and buttonholes down the front, since I've unfortunately grown quite a bit in size over the years.

I've also forgotten what fabric I used for this jacket, but am afraid it has quite a bit of polyester in it since it doesn't wrinkle at all and smells when I iron it, but it's a bit linen like so something I might actually wear, esp since it's a color that I planned to use as the "accent" for the neutral 6 pac wardrobe of browns and grays that I am going to make for the online Artisan's Square autumn challenge. One down, five to go...                                                             

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July MAGAM/Patriotic challenge outfit

I recently decided to make a pair of white capris using my Sure Fit Designs Pants pattern and the wonderful elastic waistband from Louise Cutting's One Seam Pants pattern and was fairly happy with how they came out, but I needed something to wear on top, so thought I would use a piece of patriotic fabric from my stash to make a vest since the challenge for my July Garment Group meeting was to make something patriotic. Here are the results of my efforts:

I used my Fit for Art Tabula Rasa jacket pattern without the sleeves for my vest since the front and back panels were narrow enough to fit on the small piece of red, white, and blue striped fabric that I found in my stash, a size that also determined the length of my vest, but I think that is a pretty good length for a vest that I will probably also wear with dresses

I made the vest reversible (my favorite approach to vests since all the edges are finished and you end up with two rather than just one garment) but used a plainer print on the other side so I could wear the vest the rest of the year too.

I had to piece some of that second fabric for the side panels since it was an even smaller piece of fabric, something that must have come from a skirt or dress someone once made since it still had a metal zipper in the middle of one of the sections, but I don't really know its history since that fabric too was bought at a rummage or yard sale, my usual approach to fabric shopping these days.

I did buy the fabric for my white pants at a real store, though, since I had nothing like that in my stash, but our only choice for clothing fabric in the Albany NY area is JoAnns and they didn't have a heavy enough white linen to use for my pants, my original plan.  The piece I bought is a cotton and lycra blend which is quite comfy and isn't as see through as even a thick piece of linen might have been, always a concern when making light colored garments.

June garment(s)

When I first joined ASG, I thought people actually did the yearly Simplicity pattern challenge that I read about in Notions magazine, so I decided to try and make a jacket from one of the patterns chosen for 2003, (Simplicity 5687) however just now finished it and amazingly enough it still fits!

I did know where to find the rest of the fabric that I used in that jacket despite all the time that had passed since I first started it, so I was able to make a pair of matching pants (from Louise Cutting's One Seam Pants pattern) and eventually plan to make a top from the fabric left from making the front band that I added to the pattern by following instructions on Asian clothing in an old Sew News magazine. For the moment, though, I was pleased to find a thrift store shell in my stash that worked fairly well with this outfit.

I also just finished working on another project, one that I didn't do from scratch, but which took so much time that I thought it also deserved to be mentioned here.

I purchased a blue linen dress and jacket from the Salvation Army recently for $10 since I loved the fabric and lines of the clothing, but it was much too big, however after taking off about 6" from the side seams and 5" from the length (jacket and dress) I now have something else I can wear and enjoy, esp. since linen really is perfect for the hot humid weather we've been having.

May Garment of the Month: Tabula Rasa jacket

I've owned my Fit for Art Tabula Rasa jacket pattern for a long time now, think I first heard about it on one of my online digests as being a way to use things like quilting cottons and blocks without the unflattering style lines and drop shoulders that so many art to wear patterns seem to have, and when I pinned that pattern together and tried it on I was quite impressed by the fit.

I wouldn't really know what it was like until I made it from fabric, though, so I decided to use a $2 church rummage sale orange linen tablecloth for a muslin even though I wanted to save that for something "special" but this seemed like the perfect color for a "Merry May" garment and I have got to start using the fabrics I like, not saving them until I no longer like them.

I wanted to use the hem of the tablecloth as the hems in my jacket body and sleeves so had to decide what length jacket would look best with the dresses I usually wear this time of year since I wouldn't be hemming the jacket after it was sewn together. That also determined the length of the sleeves but they actually ended up being full length even though I cut a lot off the TRJ sleeve pattern, something I have to remember next time I use this pattern.

I had to use some of my orange quilting cotton for the side panels so I would have enough linen for the rest of my garment (since it was a pretty small tablecloth), but didn't like the way that fabric looked with my much softer linen fabric nor did I like the way the jacket fit in size XL, so took it apart and cut a smaller size and was able to cut the side panels from some leftover pieces of the linen in that size.

I was pleased with the way my second attempt at my jacket looked when I added the front band (made from the same cotton fabric I first tried using as the side panels) after I cut the smaller size, but I'm afraid it doesn't look all that great in the photos I had my husband take of me this morning, since even though I've ironed this jacket a ton of times during construction and hung it on a hanger when I wasn't working on it, it still looks horribly wrinkled and the seams don't even lie flat, all things that probably have to do with the fabric I used, something that makes me wonder if my tablecloth was actually linen or a good enough linen to make a garment from. I think I read somewhere that if you wash linen too much, it becomes permanently wrinkled, though, and perhaps that's what happened with this tablecloth, but since it's just another 'wearable muslin", I'm not unhappy with the way it turned out.

Fit for Art patterns provides a pdf file with tons of instructions on how to make their Tabula Rasa jacket fit properly, but you are supposed to start with a literal muslin that you draw horizontal lines on where you can make adjustments by following their detailed directions, so I will be able to make changes to the pattern to perfect the fit the next time (and there will be a next time!) I make a jacket from this pattern.

April Make a Garment a Month Challenge photos

I was glad that I took the time to almost finish (I still had to add buttons and buttonholes, but fastened it together with snaps) my Barb Callahan Damask Jacket for the class I took with her at the Worcester Expo earlier this month since at one point during the class she was talking about the way she usually sets in sleeves (flat) and I was able to stand up and show the class what her sleeves look like when they are set in that way. I also showed them the back of that garment since I think that's the best thing about it and I think many of them did, too, esp. the neat way that striped fabric curves at the ends of the peplum.

I ended up hand sewing some buttons on the front of that top once I got home, going through all the layers since I can take it on and off by pulling it over my head, but then decided that since the white flowers didn't match across the front, those buttons just drew people's attention to the wrong part of that garment so took them off and sewed a white band down the front in hopes that that would hide my mistakes. Since I was using a white band, I also had to go through my button stash to find black buttons to replace the white ones I'd originally used, but finally found enough that matched to make it work.

I was very pleased by the reception my top got at the meeting of my sewing guild the other night, in fact, one woman thought it was a store bought top, and since a lot of that design was my idea, not something Barb included in her pattern, I'm esp. proud of my results which you can hopefully see in the two photos below.

Rayon One Seam Pants

I thought my Ponte Roma Louise Cutting One Seam Pants turned out OK until I made a pair of rayon pants from the same pattern, without taking 1" off the pattern width and I am much happier with the results, although I still have to learn how to make the bottom of the pant legs less tapered than they appear in these photos, but then this is a very old pattern, one that has since been updated. Since Louise Cutting is going to be teaching classes in our area this weekend, though, I'm hoping she can help me with the fit since I can definitely see making lots more of these pants in the  future.

This garment is also my entry in the March Make a Garment a Month challenge, rather than the Barb Callahan Damask Jacket that I originally planned to make, since I realized that my classes with Louise were before my class at the Worcester Expo with Barb, but since I have over a week to go until the Expo, and already cut and basted the Damask Jacket together, I should be done in plenty of time and have my April MAGAM entry done well ahead of time for a change!

Ponte Roma One Seam Pants success!

I'm afraid Louise Cutting wouldn't be impressed by the One Seam Pants that I made from her pattern using my JoAnn's Ponte Roma knit fabric, but since she is going to be doing some classes for our Albany ASG group this coming weekend, I decided to make a pair of these pants for my March Garment a Month Challenge because my original Barb Callahan Damask Jacket doesn't need to be finished until I take a class with her at the Worcester Expo next week, so that jacket is going to be my April challenge garment.

When I first made this pair of pants, they were so big that I almost could put two legs in one pants leg, but I am quite happy with the my pants fit after I went back and made some changes to the pattern yesterday (lowered the waistline, shortened the hem, and took 1" out of the center of the pants leg since there's no side seam) because they are now much more like the fairly straight legged pants that I like to wear rather than the looser pajama type pants that I think that pattern was originally supposed to produce. Louise later provided a pdf file with instructions on how to change that on her website, though, so I guess I'm not the only one who doesn't like wide legged pants.

I also want to try making these pants in rayon and will have to reduce the amount I took out of the width in order to do that since that fabric doesn't stretch and I'd also like to make pants that look more like her original design, but think first I am going to use some of my Arlene's tracing paper to make a copy of this pattern the way it is since I can see myself making lots of straight legged one seam knit pants, esp from JoAnn's Ponte Roma, since it worked so well this time. Based on my experience with the pieces of Ponte Roma I have bought at JoAnn's, though, there's no telling if the other pieces in my stash will work the same.

I was pleased to discover a box full of rayon fabric in my stash this morning along with quite a few other pieces of rayon that were kind of "hidden" on my shelves since I've long avoided working with this kind of fabric as I have working with knits since both are far more difficult than the much more stable fabrics that I usually use for my clothes, but since I do like WEARING clothes made from rayon and knits, I'm just going to have to learn how to sew them, and thanks to my wonderful Pfaff's dual feed foot, I feel like I have a much better chance of doing that than I did when trying to sew Ponte Roma on my Bernina, even with the walking foot attached.

March MAGAM project

My pattern for March is one from my stash designed by Barb Callahan called Damask Jacket and it has what she calls a swing back and what I call a back peplum. This is yet again a muslin since I've never made this pattern before so I used a piece of cheap fabric from my stash. Not sure what it is but it doesn't seem to stretch even though I thought it might be a knit however I thought the black and white design might be good for spring.

I cut and basted my jacket together yesterday morning after comparing it to my Sure Fit dress kit pattern and am not unhappy with the way it fits although the striped fabric does strange things in the back peplum. I like it enough to keep going through and perhaps wear to the Sew and Quilt Expo in Worcester MA next month so the designer, the teacher of my first class, can see what I did with her in pattern.

Pintucks and edge finishes

When I first started doing the twin needle stitching on my jacket collar yesterday, I tried taking each thread through as many separate guides as I could, but put both through the one thread guide right above the twin needles on my Bernina 1230 and that seemed to cause things to jam up, however once I took them out of that guide, it seemed to work OK. Guess I should also try running both threads through all of the same guides, though, to see how that works.

I also couldn't figure out how to set the tension on my machine since when it was on normal, my two rows of stitching just lay flat on the surface of my sweatshirt fabric and tightening the tension up didn't seem to change that much, but when I loosened the top tension, that did the trick, I guess because that meant the bobbin thread was pulling harder, however I didn't want to adjust the bobbin tension unless I had to and luckily didn't.

I'm still debating about adding more rows of pintucks on the back of my collar, but am afraid that would be too much, however since I'm using fairly big stitches, as I did with most of the sewing I've done on this sweatshirt fabric, it wouldn't be too hard to take out, so I may try adding rows of stitching between my original rows today, I'll have to look at it again before I decide.

The worst part about this project has been trying to figure out what to do with the edges of the jacket since even though it's OK to leave boiled wool edges raw, this sweatshirt fleece doesn't lay flat or look all that nice when used that way, however when I tried to zigzag yarn to the edge of the back yesterday, even though I was using a walking foot, the bottom got all stretched out, so I cut that off and decided to try using a regular three thread serger stitch around the outside of my jacket since I knew I could reduce or increase the pull of the feed dogs on that machine. That worked OK, aside from the corners which I still don't know how to do on a serger, so have to figure out some way to get rid of all those serger tails.

The bottom of my jacket still doesn't lay as flat as I'd like, though, esp. on the sides where it's supposed to go from a short front to a longer back, so I think I may end up evening those up if I can figure out how to mark the bottom edge of a jacket. 

I use my old Singer skirt marker for marking the hem on dresses, so may be able to use it for a jacket, if I can figure out some way to make the marker level with that jacket hem. Since I only have white powder for my skirt marker, that probably won't be visible on my white sweatshirt fabric, but I once read about people using cinnamon in their pounce pads when marking a light colored quilt, so maybe I'll put some cinnamon in my marker and see how that works.

Afraid these may be notes that interest no one but me, at least not in this detail, but someday I can go back and read what has and hasn't worked and that may actually be the best use for blog in my case since I am so new to garment sewing, but maybe a few other novice sewers might happen to read what I say and learn a few things from me as I have from so many other bloggers in the past!

February jacket collar and edge

Not quite done with my Feb. MAGAM entry even though I already sent in a photo, so thought I'd share what I've been trying to do to finish it so I can start working on my March garment.

To prove what a novice I am at clothes sewing, when I wanted to try doing some twin needle pintucks on the neck of my new white sweatshirt jacket this morning, I had no idea how to do that, even though I've often read about twin needle stitching in the past, proof that I need to DO rather than just read about things I've not tried before.

I had to do quite a bit of experimenting before I could figure out how to thread the machine and adjust the tension before I could start sewing those pintucks, but am fairly happy with the way it turned out, however am now debating about whether I should add even more pintucks since the collar is still kind of wide and doesn't stand up quite as much as I'd like.

I also did some experimenting with how I was going to finish the edge of this jacket, even though I'm still not entirely sure I want to do anything since that might make it much less drapey, but it does look kind of unfinished as it is.I definitely can't just do the blanket stitch around the outside as I had planned, though, since this fabric is so flimsy that the edges don't lie flat at all when I use that stitch on the outside edge. Know I could put some kind of washaway stabilizer under it, but don't think the stitching would show enough to make that worth doing.

Think I'm going to see if I have some off white yarn that I can couch along the edge as I did with one of my old polar fleece jackets, but I need to use thin yarn so it's not as obvious as the thick fuzzy stuff I used on my other jacket. I hope I have something like that in my stash since I hate to have to go out and buy things when I already own so much, but I usually can "shop" in my own house rather than in a store thanks to my huge stash of sewing related items, including the twin needles that I bought ages ago but I never even opened until today.

More on the Marcy Tilton jacket

Since Marcy's Vogue 8430 pattern is meant to be used with boiled wool, the edges are supposed to be left raw, but that doesn't work as well with the thinner, lighter sweatshirt fleece that I used so I'm  trying to figure out what to do to finish the edges of my new white jacket. 

I was thinking I might go around the outside edges with a blanket stitch, using the same off-white thread I used to construct the rest of the jacket with, but think I'll just try that on the back hem to start with, in case it makes the jacket too stiff, because its current drapeability (if that is a word!) is a large part of what appeals to me about this top.

I also plan to add pin tucks to the back neck since that will hopefully made it less wide and also help it stand up as it would if made from a fabric like boiled wool, but don't think I want to add decorative stitches anywhere else since I kind of like its plainness, esp. since a plain white jacket would go with a lot of different things.

First attempt at a blog, but I wanted to share the garment I made for the Make a Garment a Month challenge and this was the only way I could figure out how to do that, if this works!

The theme for Feb. was winter and since in upstate NY that means lots of white and gray, as well as a need for warm clothing, I made a pair of pants from some old gray sweatshirt fleece and a pants pattern which I made with the great Sure Fit Design system. This is my third attempt to perfect this pattern, so this is yet another muslin, but I'm getting closer to the fit I'd like.

My top is also made from old sweatshirt fleece, using Marcy Tilton's Vogue 8430 pattern with the cutting lines chosen by comparing it to my Sure Fit bodice. This is a pattern that's less fitted than I normally wear but it feels nice and cozy, esp. since it's made from sweatshirt fleece, and I love the way the collar drapes when made from this lightweight fabric. Boiled wool, as the pattern recommends, would have been even warmer, though, so I may also make a jacket out of some of that fabric now that I have completed this sweatshirt "muslin", provided I can find the pieces of boiled wool that I know I have in my stash somewhere.

My entry may be kind of late, but this is actually early for me since I often don't finish things until the deadline arrives, however now I can get started on an entry for the March challenge, using Louise Cutting's By Popular Demand pattern so I have something to model when she visits our ASG in April!