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. 

A few pieces of black clothing

It's been awhile since I posted anything. I have not been really busy so I'm not sure what has kept me from writing. It snowed here just after the new year. It was a beautiful couple of days.

I finished the Red Fox Quilt and gave it to our friend Chuck.  I used Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Fox pattern...great pattern by the way. The quilt is about 48x40. I used a very soft flannel sheet on the back with a very modern pattern.

A couple of weeks ago I spent a Sunday afternoon making several pieces of black clothing. I had some knit/fleece fabric that I bought sitting in the studio and wanted to try to make a warm shirt. I have made several of the Jalie 2805 tee shirts and I think these are my favorite. They fit nicely and go together in about an hour. I bought a couple of cotton jersey bed sheets and practiced with those to make sure I really liked the end result. I have posted about making these shirts previously.  This time I made the shirt with a knit/fleece type of material that I had in my stash. Since the fabric is thicker the shirt is nice and warm.The only thing I would have done different is make it a crew neck instead of a V-neck, for some reason the fabric stretched out quite a bit around the neck. I had enough of the fabric left that I made a pair of leggings. I had some issues again with the elastic waist band again…but they fit and are nice and warm. I need to read about sewing with elastic then do a bunch of tests. I hate muslins or testing materials...even though I know it will help me in the end. I also made another little bag, this one with some of the left over Pendleton that I use to make my husbands Christmas shirt this year. 

I then pulled out some black rayon type fabric…again not sure where it bought the fabric or what the exact content is but it flows nicely & has a nice drape. I had a cotton slip that I really loved but the slip was falling apart. I made a difficult decision to take it apart so I could make a pattern. I had made a slip from the pattern a couple of years ago but since i used a quilting cotton the slip/dress was a little stiff. I made it again from a seersucker type of material and I loved it. Though I think the shoulder straps were a bit too thin. I felt the rayon type fabric was perfect, I could wear the slip/dress under a sweater in the winter or as a nice summer dress.

When I made the pattern the first time I felt the underarms were a little strange. So I looked a the original pieces and decided to add about 1/2" to the underarms. Well that was a little too much because now the underarms are too large. I think I have to use a facing or hem the neck and arms to make it fit better. That of course did not stop me from wearing the dress under a warm sweater last week. I'm always looking for simple summer dresses because I live in them all summer long. I think this pattern will work nicely after a few more tweaks. I guess I have to get out my pattern making books and read up on how to make the pattern to fit properly.

Another shirt

Have I talked about how much I love this pattern for a long sleeve t-shirt? Well I had another jersey sheet that I got at the Goodwill and wanted to make a winter shirt from the jersey, but I thought the lavendar color washed me out too much. So... I decided to try to do some Shobori Dying for a little more color in the material. I had some blue gray from Dharma Trading that I had yet to test on any fabric & I was hoping for a nice interesting pattern of the blue gray on the lavender. 

I did an accordion fold that I sandwiched between a couple of boards. The fold was about 5 inches wide and I folded it over on it's self before sandwiching it between a couple of boards. I only used a few rubber bands because I did't want a lot of lines across. This is my dying tub and I know it looks fifthly, but it gets a lot of use from dyes and screen printing ink. 

The design was very sparse, I think I should have used a smaller fold or maybe even use an eye dropper to add the dye to into the folds a little more. I really liked the blue on the lavender. 

I really liked the blue on the fabric but I thought I didn't get enough of a pattern on the material to make a difference. You can see the blue on the lavender material as well as on some white cotton jersey and some random white material that I found in my studio. 

So I dyed the material again. This time in a amethyst color.  I did an accordion fold again but wrapped it in rubber bands. You can see that the folds are about 2 inches this time and I wrapped rubber bands about every inch across the folded piece of material. I did not sandwich the material between boards this time.

The first thing my husband said when he looked at the piece of fabric was it looks like a hippy wedding. I did have to agree. But I also thought that once I cut out the pattern it would look a lot different. I liked how this came out even though I think it's still a little sparse. There are some really nice colors that came from the lavender sheet, the blue gray dye and the amethyst. I still have another half of the this sheet I think I will practice some more with the Shobori dying techniques. 

I wanted more of the color on the arms so made sure to get the blue and pink dyed pattern  on the top of the  sleeve.

I did a rolled hem on the neck line and the bottom of the shirt. I like the way the rolled hem finishes the shirt. I also like the really long sleeves. This is a very warm & comfortable shirt that if I get it dirty or rip it at work I know I can make another one really easy. I think next time I will make the shirt then do the Shobori wrapping and dye. My husband said he was amazed that it came out so nice, he didn't think the shirt had a hippy wedding look anymore. 

Winter is here

When the weather starts to get cold and rainy I start to think about nesting and hibernating through the dark months of winter. I go to my studio and sew or I bake. The last couple weeks I have done a little of everything. I bought some nice pink burn out tissue jersey at mill end. I liked the drape and it was inexpensive so I bought a couple yards. I made a shirt from a pattern that has proven to be the best t-shirt pattern I have made so far. It's the Jalie 2805 shirt pattern that has a few different neck line varieties. I tend to like a nice v-neck but with the cold weather I decided to try the jewel neck line.  From this adventure I realized I do not like working with tissue jersey...it takes forever to get the pattern pieces to meet properly. I fussed a lot with this material. I did add a neck band to the pink material because it seemed very loose and I thought it would help keep the neck from stretching out too much. After my struggle with the tissue jersey I cut out a basic black shirt. I found a black cotton jersey sheet at the Goodwill and thought it was a decent material, very soft. I made the same jewel neck shirt, it's wonderful. It took me about 1 hour to make, no fussing to meet the pattern pieces it all went together beautifully. I decided not to add a collar band to the black shirt and instead finished the neck with a rolled hem stitch on the serger. I think this it my new winter shirt, its soft and warm. I had enough to make another shirt so I made a v-neck with long sleeves (the other shirts are 3/4 sleeve's). I really really like this pattern. I did a rolled hem on the v-neck shirt too, but it puckered a bit more than I wanted. It's a warm comfortable shirt and I'm already planing a few for more.

It was also time to get the last of the peppers from the garden. One of the gardeners in our community garden pulled all his pepper plants and left them in the garden to rot...so I took some more peppers and pickled the last of the vegetable from the garden. The peppers are great on sandwiched and in salads. I also found a recipe for Salted Cantaloupe Jam. I had made some Cantaloupe Jam from the book "Food in Jars" and I loved it. I thought the Salted Cantaloupe Jam sounded great. I bought a cantaloupe but it had to sit and ripen for a couple of days as it was very hard. I made the salted jam in my FreshTech Jam maker and it came out quite nicely. I was surprised at how different it tasted because of the salt. It really changed the taste, it was more of a woodsy and slightly sweet taste. I think it would go nicely on chicken or pork as well as on toast. 

Lastly I made another pair of pants for my husband. He wanted some wool pants. I found this nice balk wool at Scrap. It was about 5 yards of material for $10. I used 2 for the pants so that is a cheap pair of wool pants. I finished the pants this evening and my husband tried them on, he did not like that the pockets tended to stick out on the sides. Not sure why this happened or how to fix it with out taking the pants apart. I told him the flair to the pockets it has a slimming effect. We will see if the believes it or if he sends them back for me to "fix" the pockets.

I also had to go to the dump the other day and I found a box of photos. It's always sad to see someones life in photos tossed. Most of the photos were from a remodel of a 'Mary's Kitchen", but there were also several other remodel projects photos. Along with the remodel photos were several family photos, and photos of what looked like high school parties from the mid to late 80's. 

A couple of dresses & a shirt

I have been hopelessly looking for the perfect dress for years now. Something that is comfortable, easy to wear during the summer and winter. Of course something with pockets. I want something very simple in the design, that will show off the fabric.  For a long time I drooled over these dresses at Tumbleweed in Portland. They are all very cute, simple lines and beautiful fabric. Looking at the dresses I always felt that I could make one that would be perfect for me. I even had a dress that was very close to what I wanted, I bought it at a garage sale and wore it till the fabric started to give out at the underarms. I called it the summer Christmas dress because of the colors. I should just take it apart and make a pattern from this dress, but for some reason I keep thinking that I will find a pattern that would be just perfect. 

When I first saw the Dottie Angle Dress Simplicity 1080, I thought this is it. But I had some problems when I made the first one, I might have made it too small. I believed the finished measurements thinking that I would make it a little more form fitting by making a medium. It does fit but I have a feeling I will rip out the seam under the arm the first time I wore it and was too active...like gardening. So I made another one this time I made a large. It was a little too big, the arms gaped and it felt like and looked like a potato sack. I had a friend over watching me make the dress and we decided to cut off the strange flap of the sleeve, thinking that a sleeveless dress would be nice, we also put in bust darts because it looked like it needed them when I tried the dress on. This did not improve the drape of the dress. The fabric was a quilting cotton so it did not drape as nice as I thought it would. Of course after a couple of washings it may loosen up. I like the fabric and I have not give up on this dress or the pattern. I just have to find the way this pattern will fit me. I may need to adjust the darts or try something different with the sleeves.

The next pattern I found that I thought would be great is from "A Verb for Keeping Warm" called Endless Summer Tunic. I really liked the simplicity of the dress and it had pockets. Well after the making two dresses that I felt were fails, at least for now, I decided to try the Endless Summer Tunic. It's a very simple layout and really the directions are very simple, thought I would like some illustrations as I'm a very visual learner. I used thrifted sheet to make a muslin. I liked the dress but when I was done I tried it on and Oh WOW it was short. I also think I need to make it one size larger. That seems to be a theme for me right now...one size larger. Maybe I will get someone to actually take my measurements so I can get this right. Interesting enough while I was looking for other images of the dress I found a blogger that made one of the Endless Summer Tunics in the Alabama Chanin Style.  I can't wait to try the pattern in a knit. 

Which brought me back to my favorite pieces of clothing...anything from Alabama Chanin. I had made one of the long sleeve shirt a year or so ago...that was a fail..I used some very strange jersey that had very little stretch. I decided to try it again as I really love loose long sleeve shirts in the winter. They are great under sweaters. I had bought what looked and felt like a tissue jersey at a resale store. I started to hand sew the shirt together but the thin material was almost impossible to work. The seams looked terrible all bunched up and very fragile looking.  So I took out what I had already sewn and used my serger to make the shirt. I used a rolled hem on the neck line and along the bottom of the shirt. It's very thin fabric and I will see how it lasts. I struggled the entire time with this material,  I believe the reason this 2 yards of material was at the resale shop was because the grain was off. But we shall see, for now I have a simple undershirt to wear this winter. I have a couple of things coming from Alabama Chanin that I bought at the Orange and Black sale last week, I can't wait to start another hand sew project.