A Hoppy Christmas

What's that, sleighbells jingling? The salvation army bells ringing? No? Hmm, must just be me. This project is a belated christmas present for my brother who hasn't seen it yet. When I saw this fabric I knew I had to make a quilt out of it. My brother, if you hadn't guessed, loves beer.

I used the Kaufman Cheers Collection. It's a pretty simple quilt, I only cut out the blocks on the panel and corresponding sized blocks of another print in the collection, sashed, and then sewed together in strips. The back is more of the black beer glasses. The sashing is a charming print with the words for different beers.

I had visions of grand free motion quilting spelling out the virtues of beer, but went with simple stitch in the ditch quilting in the sashing for a cozier quilt. Hand bound in an orange shot cotton I had in the stash that matched.

It's a pretty great man quilt, if I do say so myself.

A Surfeit of Mccall's 6044's

This past week was my Dad's birthday. As the man who has everything, it's notoriously difficult to even make him something useful. Thankfully, I have found the button down shirt.

This is the 3rd shirt I've made for him and my fourth total. I get a bit better each time. This is Mccall's 6044. It has a few different options and I really like how it fits. It's also a ton easier than the Colette Negroni, which was my first foray. The 6044 does not have a back yoke unless you're doing the western style.

I made it out of the Robert Kaufman Fineline Twill in Forest Green. I am loving this fabric. It comes in a ton of different colorways, has a nice crisp hand, and isn't too wrinkly. It is a very fine twill, as the name suggests. There is actually a right and wrong side, and I think the collar stand may give me away on that one, so be careful to keep cutting consistent. I have also been informed that one cuff is backwards. Next time.

I flat felled all of the seams but the armholes and the slits on the sleeves. The buttons are mother of pearl from amazon that are left over from a different project.

For Christmas, I made him a flannel version out of kaufman tahoe flannel. It is the Shirt Of Many Buttons. I did not pay attention when making the buttonholes and I didn't realize until I was sewing those suckers on. It was not one of those mistakes that no one notices. He has to leave the bottom one unbuttoned.

The tahoe is very nice and lofty, more brushed than the mammoth flannel. It's quite nice. This is definitely my favorite men's shirt pattern.

 He's looking good for 60, ya'll!

A Knitter's Maker's Tote

I recently started going to my LYS (local yarn shop) knit night on Tuesdays to chat with other ladies who also like to knit. Now, knitting is definitely not my primary hobby, sewing will always take first place in the handicrafts category, but knitting is a little more social and a little more relaxing than sewing. I probably only finish about 2-3 things a year with knitting. It's my tv hobby.

Anyway, I needed a thing to carry all my supplies in to knit night. I happened to have this gorgeous print by Sarah Watts in her Cat Lady collection for Cotton + Steel. I am a total Cotton + Steel fan, and especially Sarah Watts. That she also lives in Atlanta means that my dream of becoming her best friend is actually a little possible (you too, Jody Benson). I managed to find two coordinating prints also in my stash.

I've been eyeing this pattern for a while, so I knew that I definitely had to use my cat lady fabric to make it. It's Anna Graham of Noodlehead's Maker's Tote. It's this genius bag (she's a genius bag designer, after all) with gussets and lots of useful pockets, that has binding all the way around.

I wasn't surprised to find the construction was absolutely on point, as usual. An inset pocket, bellows pockets, and a separating zipper all make this for a fun and practical sew. I use the Pellon double sided fusible foam instead of soft and stable. I used soft and stable for another project, and at first I didn't like the finished result of the fusible foam, but now I think they're about equal. The foam was actually a little hard to fuse.

The most challenging part was binding the whole thing, but thankfully the thing is hand stitched the front (I love me some hand binding) so it turned out pretty awesome. The trickiest part was sewing the zipper in neatly and covering the raw edges.

If you're not familiar with Anna's patterns, they're all excellently laid out with thorough instructions. I personally think that any advanced beginner or beyond could tackle this, with only a minimal amount of cursing.

It fits this whole sweater project, plus Vogue Knitting magazine, with room to spare, and so many notions in those awesome pockets! I don't know if I'll ever make another, but I'm certainly going to keep this pattern around.

Fabrics Used:

Cat Lady Pouncy Ball Green
Cloud 9 Organics We Are All Stars Lime
Kona Cotton Geranium
Kona Cotton Iron Grey

A Fantastical Mermaid's Tail

My love of fabric, mermaids, and all things sparkly came together when a co-worker asked me to make her daughter a mermaid tail for her birthday.

It just so happens that there are some amazing mermaid sequin fabrics out there right now, and they are fantastic. So many brilliant colors to play with and swoosh around. However, I wouldn't work with sequins unless you paid me, so here we are.

I used the Made for Mermaids Mermaid Tail Pattern and altered it just a little. I used this gorgeous mermaid sequin fabric that is green with glints of blue and purple on one side, and matte charcoal/black on the other. Just gorgeous.

For the lining, I used minky to make it extra soft. The sequins are heavy and scratchy, so it was important to have a cuddly inside. They're also not washable, so that's where the alterations come in.

Instead of attaching the lining and the outside, I used velcro on both, hidden by the minky cuff at the top. It was pretty easy. 

I'm loving the shimmer and shine! 

Intention

Hey ya'll, in the blogoverse.

So I created this blog a year or so ago in an attempt to sew more. It lasted all of one week, and under a different name. I was going to sew one thing a week (woah, crazy). This time, I'm going to be a little more realistic in my goals.

This year, I'm trying to be more intentional. I've started bullet journaling, and surprisingly, have stuck with it more than any other planner I've ever attempted. Maybe because I've got more control over it and it's not as linear. I like how it gets me to reflect on things, like how I'm feeling and how I'm doing health wise.

I use it for planning sewing things, too, but sometimes the platform is just a little too small and a little too, well, "pen and paper".

Ha, I'm a funny one, let me tell you.

So in an effort to be more intentional in all things, from my work, to my journaling, to my reading, and more, I'm doing it for sewing as well.

I want to have a record of my projects: what worked and didn't, what I liked about the technique, what thing I never want to try ever again, the fabrics that work the best for me, brands I like, and a place to plan my projects other than my head and random dispersed scribbles in ten different notebooks. I want to be able to look back and see the progress I've made and the new things I've tried. It's nice to be able to look back and see how far you've come, wave at your younger self far down the path and yell at her to "Keep coming, it's better up here!". Just don't tell her about the mountain that's coming up, guys.

So I'm going to try to blog everything I sew, and maybe a little more. The good, bag, and the tossed. Let's go.

Sewing Resolutions

It's 2016 and I must say, I am happy to be here!

I always try not to hop on the resolutions bandwagon, but it's so hard to do with the feeling of the new year, endless possibilities, a whole 365 days stretched out in front of you where anything can happen!

Along with some regular ol' resolutions, I made some sewing resolutions (which are generally easier to keep)

As you know, I have already made a plan to do 52 projects this year.

Now, I'm not going to be very strict about it, I'm counting knitting projects, small projects (I'll probably count them as .25 or .5 depending on how easy they are), and accessories. But by the end of the year let's hope I have an amazing me-made wardrobe!

My sewing resolution last year was to learn how to sew clothes, and I moved almost completely from quilting to garment sewing. That went pretty well, so let's just say I'm a little more ambitious this time around.

Excluding the whole 52 things thing, here they are.

My Sewing Resolutions 2016

1. Make lots of basics

I need functional clothes that I can wear to work, not party dresses and novelty print skirts. Although I love my cotton + steel octopus skirt, I just can't wear it that often. I want to make my own clothes because I am not a fan of fast fashion. I want quality garments that were taken care with, and unless I shell out several hundred bucks for a shirt, I'm going to have to take care of that myself. I'm also pretty loathe to contribute to sweatshops, I'm pretty sure the $5 t-shirt at Old Navy wasn't produced very ethically.

2. Work on Professional Finishes

For christmas, I went the handmade route: dad got a button down shirt, brother got a - you guessed it! - button down shirt. The extra details, although they took longer, were eye-opening. Spending a little extra time with professional seam finishes made a huge difference in the finished product, whereas when I'm sewing for me, I just want a finished product, like RIGHT NOW.

3. Conquer the zipper

I suck at zippers. I want to be good at zippers. The end.

4. Jeans

I want to make my own jeans, because buying jeans is a special kind of torture. I don't want to have to pay an arm and a leg for poorly fitting jeans. I'm thinking the Giner Jeans from Closet Case Files. Other's have had fabulous results.

5. Outerwear

This is especially true for the near future - my outerwear situation is abysmal. The only coats/jackets I have to my name are a too small North Face, a too large michelin man situation type LL bean coat, and a jean jacket. This situation needs to be remedied.

6. Underwear!

What's outwear without underwear, eh? I don't know if I'm quite brave enough to conquer bras, since it will take some serious time and dedication and this blog is pretty much about quantity, but maybe some underwire-less ones for practice and some panties.

That's all, folks!

This is going to be one wild ride!

Welcome!

I'm starting this a little preemptively - I started learning to sew my own clothes in January of this year, and I've grown a lot in my skills. BUT, as any other sewist knows, there are A LOT of things to learn when it comes to sewing, little tips and tricks, BIG techniques. I still have so much room to grow! 

So (or SEW, haha) I'm going to use this blog as a platform to keep myself honest and share my projects, as well as a sounding board for my ideas and sewing wishlist - all by sewing one thing a week.

(gasp)

It's a lot, and I may very well not end up with 52 pieces of clothing at the end of the year to show for it, (and I may very well cheat) but it's a stretch goal and I'm going to try my very best! 

I can't wait for the new year! But I will start planning soon...