Sewing with Knits

I took a Craftsy class about 3 years ago called Sewing with Knits by Meg McElwee. I made a pair of yoga pants that were a disaster. The fabric I used was too stretchy and thus fell off me when I put them on. I liked the class, it gave me a lot of information about different types of knit material and how to work with different knits. Meg explained a lot about how to work with different knits, what to look for when choosing knits and how to do stretch tests to make sure your knit material with rebound. 
I was also surprised at all the different patterns that came with the class. There is a fleece hoodie, 2 different t-shirts, yoga pants and a dress. Printing out patterns and taping them together is such a pain in the ass I never printed out any other patterns from this class. A couple weeks ago I finally went back and printed out the pattern for the scoop neck shirt. I was getting tired of the old standard Jalie pattern that I have been using for the last 5 years and wanted something a little different. 

I usually do not add a neck band when I make t-shirts as they are always the first thing I cut off on ready made t-shirts. But this pattern is a bit of a scoop neck so I thought it would be fine to add a neck band...I'm glad I did. If I had not added a neck band I think the neck line would have drooped and looked shabby. 

I made another shirt to make sure I had the pattern down, this one I screen printed and gave to a friend. Actually it's a reverse screen print. When you use Soft Scrub as ink it will bleach out the material leaving an image in the material that is soft and part of the material. There is no ink sitting on top of the material. 

I wore my shirt a couple of times and decided I wanted the shirt a little longer. While watching the class again to get some specifics I saw a part about adding a hem band. I decide to add a band of material around the bottom of the shirt.  

I used a knit sheet that I found at a thrift store to make both of the shirts.  The sheet was an Amazon Basic King size sheet that was 100% cotton. There were a couple of small holes in the middle of the sheet, I have a feeling that is why it was donated to a thrift store...no problem for me as I cut around the holes. I have enough material to make one more shirt. It's an attractive grey color that will go with anything. I may try to make a v-neck or a longer sleeve shirt with the remaining material 

I think this scoop neck shirt is my new favorite. I expect to make more of these shirts and want to try making a dress version. I think this pattern will also work great in repurposing old t-shirts that are too large. 

3 Quilts and a Pair of Sushi Pants

My husband gave me the Legendary quilt pattern from Elizabeth Hartman a couple of years ago. I kept putting it off when it came to making it as there were sooooo many pieces. About 180 half square triangles for the background of the trees. Well I finally  cut it out and finished it in late April. I like the quilt top,  now I want to make it was a dark blue background and the  Abominable Snowman or as some people call it a Yeti in place of the big foot. The pattern actually goes together quickly its the cutting that killed me. I spent 2 days cutting and you have to be very organized and accurate or you will have issues when the whole thing goes together at the end. I saw a woman that made this same quilt but staggered the trees and had a sun in the corner. I liked the way that flowed. It had a much more organic feel to the quilt top then lining up the trees and big foot. I love Elizabeth's patterns but they are all very precise, I tend to like randomness in quilting...like the quilt below. 

I love Pendleton Wool. Living in Portland I'm close to one of the mill outlet stores and I go there often to get wool scraps. I have been collecting cream with yellow and black stripes for the last couple of years before I finally got enough to make this all wool quilt. It then took me a year to figure out the back and what I was going to do to quilt the piece. It's heavy so I knew I would not need a batting. I wanted a simple fairly lightweight backing that would not take away too much from the front of the quilt. 
I found a bolt of yellow wool fabric at a place called City Liquidators, they usually do not carry fabric but they had bought out a fabric store that closed about 5 years ago. The fabric store had a strange mix of polyesters from the late 70's, batik fabric from India, Cotton Jersey and strange uniform looking shirts. City Liquidators was selling the bolts of fabric for $25-$100 a bolt. There was a lot of fake fur and upholstery fabric that was the $100 bolts.  I found a bolt of yellow 100% wool fabric (about 16 yards) for $30. I'm not a fan of yellow but I could not pass up that much wool fabric for such a cheap price, I figured I would find something to do with that yellow fabric. 
After I finished the quilt top it lived on my wall for about 6 months. Looking through my fabric one afternoon I realized that the yellow fabric would be a great backing for the Pendleton Wool Quilt. 
I decided to tie this quilt because I thought it was too thick to put through my sewing machine. My husband cals this the Canadian Winter Blanket, it has been kitty tested and kitty approved. It's a 52"x 72" 100% wool quilt.

I found this quilt top at a resale store called ReRun in Portland. I think it was about $15, maybe $20, it was 88"x88". I liked the turquoise color and the Sarah Jane  Mermaid fabric that was used in the quilt. I was going to take this to the long arm and quilt the piece but in the end decide to tie this quilt too. I used a fluffy polyester batting so it was a little thicker, but not too heavy. It's a nice bright quilt that we used at the end of summer on our outdoor bed. 

 I finally finished the Sushi Pants for my husband. We bought the fabric in Hawaii last January and I kept putting off making pants for him as I made other things (like more quilts that we really do not need). They are a simple elastic west pant, with larger pockets. The pattern is Simplicity 3645, it very easy to sew. Needles to say he put the pants on as soon as I was finished & wore the pants the rest of the summer. 

A Kitten Quilt

I received Elizabeth Hartman's quilt pattern "The Kittens" for Christmas. Since made her Fancy Fox quilt before the holidays and really wanted to try the kitten pattern. When I looked at the pattern I saw that there were a lot of small pieces. The eye's and noses are 1 1/2 x1 1/2 inch pieces. That scared me as I had tried some of Tula Pinks City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks and I did not do well with all the small pieces. I also have a hard time cutting out small pieces and made some mistakes when I was cutting. 

In several of the blocks you need 3 1/2 x 3 inch piece as well as 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch piece...so I had to be very diligent about marking and separating the pieces for the blocks. I cut out one block at a time then sewed it together, then another block and sewed it together...you get the picture. It was very time consuming but it kept me from making too many mistakes (of course there were a couple mistakes, but that is to be expected for the first time). I would also lay out the blocks so I knew what piece when where...this helped keep every thing organized.

I also marked my sewing line on the fabric when I first started making the blocks, it really helped me get a straight line when sewing the angels. After you make a few of these you don't need to mark the fabric but when you first start out it really helps. 

You can see that the marked line will disappear when you stitch the pieces together so no need to worry about the lines showing, they are all in the seam.  

This is a really cute quilt block and it's worth taking the extra time to cut the small squares and make the blocks. The final size of the block is 8 1/2 x 10 1/2. Mine are a little off but I can manage that when I add the sashing between the blocks. I may even get ambitious and make the glasses to go on one of the kittens. 

Happy 2016

Getting ready for 2016....I have been very industrious this last year. Orders for my screen printed bags went up to about 100 a month through the summer. For the Holidays I sold about 800 bags. That can be a little hard on the arms screen printing all those bags. This last year I also had the chance to sew more. I feel really lucky to have a decent sewing area, it's a little cold during the winter months, but we are working on that. I would like to get a dehumidifier the space since it's in the basement but really I have not had a problem since I have a small space heater that keeps the area at about 65. I also put up curtains and tapestry to keep the heat in the small area that I actually work the most. People who lived in large castles used tapestries on the walls to keep warm back in the day, though I do not have any large beautiful tapestries I do have some nice heavy fabric and curtains to close off my sewing area. 
Anyway for the Christmas I made my husband another Colette Negroni from some Pendleton wool that I bought a couple years ago at the outlet store in Pendleton Oregon.

 I was able to get about 12 yards of wool fabric for less than $100. I was very happy to score such a deal. In 2013 I made 2 shirts from some of the grey wool..one for my husband and one for my father-in-law.

There are several things that I made this year that I was was very proud of:

All the bags I made for Christmas from fabric I had collected over the years. The Red Fox quilt that is for some friends who are expecting their first baby in April of 2016, the Alabama Chanin Skirt that I printed and sewed while camping, the A line dress from Alabama Chanin...WITH POCKETS & the western shirt from a really lightweight gingham...it fits perfectly.
There are also a couple of other things such as all the pants I made for my husband this year. It was great to learn how to make pants and make something that he would wear everyday. Next I want to make myself a pair of jeans. My goal this year is to make me a comfortable pair of jeans and a few more pairs of leggings. Of course there will be several more quilts made as my husband bought me the couple of really cool quilt patterns from Oh Fransson…the sasquatch quilt pattern and the kitty pattern. 

Dottie Angel Dress Simplicity 1080

I was very excited to finally get to make the pattern from Dottie Angel. It's a simplicity pattern 1080, and it was hard to find in the Portland area so I finally ordered it on line. I have been a fan of the Dottie Angel blog for a couple of years have always loved her style and in particular the house frock she was always wearing...it had nice large pockets. When I saw the pattern I knew it was a dress for me. I had several of the same problems that others had. The tucks were too high and the instructions for the arms was kind of funky. I have never put bias tape on the inside seams either. I'm glad I decided to make a muslin for this pattern as it was easy to fix what seemed to be fitting problems. Several others lowered the tucks by about 2" and did variations on the sleeve. I  removed the ties that go around the back. Thought I lower the side tucks and I think I can go even a little lower by about 1/2" or more as there is some strange gaping around the underarms. I like the pattern and it's pretty straight forward if you understand sewing. If I was a beginner I would have been very frustrated, I mean I was frustrated when I made the dress...it fit terribly...even my husband commented that it "fit weird". After researching on line about others problems here & here , you can also see Dottie Angel Facebook page that has several photos of the interior of the dress, these helped me a lot. The dress is super cute and when I made adjustments to fit my body it's really comfortable. I was happy that I made a muslin. The fabric that I used was an old sheet I got at the goodwill specifically to use the fabric for this type of project. Though now I want to dye the dress a little darker...maybe a blue. I can see myself making several of these over the winter months for next summer...or I can wear them all winter with a sweater...either way I see several more of these dresses in my future.

Sometimes it just fails

I got very excited when I saw the pattern hack for the Colette Florence Bra. One pattern hack for a lounge bra in jersey, the other for a fabulous slip, I bought the pattern and then set it aside as other things in life took priority. When I finally had a few hours started making the bra according the the original directions, so a couple of things quickly went south. I extra pieces and did not add 1" to the bottom of the band. .

I did a 3 step stitch zigzag stitch over the cup of the braw causing it to ruffle. I don't know what it's called but it's when the fabric stretches too much and instead of a nice smooth seam you have a wiggly seam. You can see it on the left cup, the right cup is just merged on the inside, no overstitch. 

  
Then I realized that I did not add the elastic to the front of the bra cups before I sewed them in place & I stitched the elastic to the sides of the bra cup instead of all the way around to the back. Even thought it looks kind of cute it was a complete fail. I could do some sort of rescue but I think instead of spending time fixing the mistakes I just need to start over.  Funny thing I read several reviews about the pattern and everyone said it was easy you just had to go slow and pay attention. I did neither. I think this could be a great comfortable bra to wear when relaxing so I plan to try it again. 
Oh on a mother note...I't hard to get your bra size straight. I have been wearing a 38C for a while but when I read instructions on the internet it said I was a 42B. So that also was a fail when I made this piece because I cut it out as a 42B...it was too big.
Like I said back to the drawing board...I committed to making more of my clothes and the includes underthings. I hope to start making my husband cute underwear...that's fun to wear.