And there’s even a few more in my already-cut-out pile. I finally sewed one garment out of those 8 today.
Not the old top! The stretch grey Cropped Pants underneath.
This was a test sew of a pair of RTW knit pants that I copied for a new pattern. I think they need a little more height on the rise but these are quite wearable anyway. I’ve just about worn the original black ones out so it’s good to have a replacement. I hope to make more pairs of these Croppies! More sewing coming soon too.
You might also notice my new sandals. I don’t often buy shoes because my feet are rather (OK, extremely) particular about their footwear. And I also have an aversion to flimsy or overly embellished shoes. I want relatively plain, well-padded, comfortable flats and these fit the bill perfectly. I loved them so much I bought 2 pairs!
New purchases
You will note that those are not pink. The colour name is Terra Cotta and it’s much more orange than pink. (Thank goodness! You all know how I feel about pink.) The other pair is a lovely indigo blue referred to officially as Navy. I was obviously on a blue kick because I also bought a new indigo hat from Edie’s Hat Shop on Granville Island. It’s a Wallaroo Tori and I knew the minute I tried it on that it was coming home with me. See?
Tori Hat
It just felt totally right on my wee head. Plus it rolls up to stash in my pack and 50 SPF sun blocking too. Yup, I’m worth it.
Been awhile, hasn’t it? Time flew while I was having fun! You know they say that older people need to exercise both their body and their brain, right? I’ve found that running around my cutting table is definitely physical. Pasting patterns together, making fitting changes, straightening fabric folds, organizing pattern pieces and cutting them out makes quite a workout. The brain gets fully engaged too: deciding on pattern/fabric combinations, how to make it fit me correctly, getting the most economical layout of pieces and making sure I have them all on grain. Serious body/mind engagement! And I haven’t even started to actually sew any of it yet.
Pattern development
As you might have noticed I tend to work in batches. I mess with patterns for awhile, then I cut out for awhile and then I sew for awhile until I’ve sewn up all the current pile. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Self-drafted tunic top
So far in the last couple of weeks I’ve assembled 4 PDF patterns: In The Folds Rushcutter Dress, a revised Grainline Farrow, Thread Theory Jedediah pants and Wardrobe By Me Chinos but I’m not going to cut and sew them quite yet. (The last 2 are for Thom.) Instead I’ve also done a rub-off copy of a pair of cropped knit pants that I’ve had for at least a decade. They’re sadly wearing out so I wanted the pattern before they do. And I drafted a new knit tunic pattern based on my personal TNTee. It’s got shoulder-princess seams and I’m calling it the Big Pockets Tunic for the obvious reason. The pockets are so big that I didn’t have enough fabric to cut them on the straight grain so they’re cross-grain instead. No biggie. (Hah! See what I did there? Punny.)
Grey on grey
There were two different grey knit fabrics in the stash so they’ve become my wearable toiles/muslins for the Croppies and the Big Pockets. Of course there was enough fabric to cut out another garment from each. I like to use up as much as I can! So the slightly heavier knit (on the left in the photo) will also become a Katherine Tilton B6101 top. I’ve made this one before and wear it so much that it’s starting to pill. All I had to do was press the wrinkles out of the pattern. Have you sewn one of Katherine’s (or her sister Marcy’s) patterns? They are often an exercise in cutting a gazillion asymmetrical pieces single layer and then piecing them all back together again. Must keep your wits about you! They also are not at all economical with fabric though I managed to get it all cut out with a little room to spare.
This fabric’s fibre content is lost in the mists of time. I think it’s a cotton/poly blend and there may or may not be a hint of Lycra in there. Dunno. Anyway, I actually like the reverse side better with it’s one knit row black/one knit row tweedy grey. The “front” of this interlock knit is softer and more blended. You can see it on the wee top square here. Anyway, I’ve decided to use the striped side as “public”. That leaves the softer side next to skin. I like that.
Tweedy interlock knit
Even tighter of a cutout was the second grey knit (the one on the right up there and a little darker than the first). I first cut a dress version of my slightly modified Hey June Lane Raglan. This pattern is my raglan TNT shirt and I’ve been wearing the heck out of 2 previous dress versions so another would not go amiss. This one has my favourite 3/4 sleeves. This single-knit cotton jersey (no Lycra) came as a very wide tubular fabric and, boy-howdy, it did NOT want to lie flat! I ended up cutting it down as close to a straight selvedge as possible and then into two pieces so that I could get it as straightened as I could. Whatevs. I did my best. Hopefully it will be wearable. The second garment from this wonky stuff is the test of my self-drafted Big Pockets. Same issues with the grain. As I mentioned above I ended up cutting the pockets sideways. We shall see how it goes.
I still have more patterns to mess with and of course lots more fabrics in the stash. I’m trying to work with what I have for now and see how far I can go before I need to go shopping! Speaking of stash, my sister from Haida Gwaii came to visit and took all the rest of my beads and about half of the leftover books with her. Yay! At least they were driving so not having to deal with airline weight restrictions. Heh. And the rest of the books, magazines and even my poor old Pfaff sewing machine went to the salvage. Hopefully someone will get some use out of them. Apparently they were quite happy to receive craft stuff so I know where to unload anything else I decide to de-stash if nobody wants it. I’m not done yet. There will be more. As soon as I get over the trauma of that last lot!
So the weather has been quite cold at night still. There was even some frost on the roofs and cars this morning! Yikes. My plantlings are being held too long without going into the garden beds and are starting to show signs of stunting. I’ve had to bring everybody in from the greenhouse every evening. Bleh. My min/max thermometer in there only registered 2C on the minimum this morning! Everything is still running quite late and I’ve kind of lost some enthusiasm at the moment. You watch, I’ll be complaining of the heat in another couple of weeks. No pleasing some gardeners, I tell you.
Sewing stuff is easier right now. So that’s what I’m doing. Avoidance maybe?
You know when you’ve had something for ages and every time you wear it, you wonder why you haven’t thrown it out yet? Because it’s just annoying or uncomfortable? Such as pants that won’t stay up? But you haven’t chucked it because for some reason you still like it? This pair of leggings is one of those:
Actually there’s two pairs, this brown one and a black pair that’s currently in the laundry. I’ve had them forever – at least 10 years – and they’re both by the same manufacturer. I liked them because they are warm and have interesting seamlines combining a heavy stretch knit and a rib knit. They’ve actually been quite durable even if they weren’t as comfortable as they should have been. Sorry I didn’t give you a before photo but by the time I thought of it, I’d already started altering them. This is the fixed version! Originally they had a wide folded waistband with that 2″ elastic inside. But they didn’t have a high enough rise for my body. And the elastic just kept folding up inside the waistband. And they kept sliding down. Grrr…
So I finally broke down and thought of a way to make them better without a whole lot of work. Took me long enough, eh? I didn’t want to take off the whole waistband piece so I cut through the back layer next to the flat-lock stitches and removed the elastic. Which didn’t look too bad after I pressed the wrinkles out of it so I just used a 3-step zigzag stitch to attach it onto the top of the unfolded waistband. Which effectively added nearly 4″ to the rise so the waistband is actually at my waist and most importantly, above my hips so that now they are comfortable and stay up properly. The elastic stays flat and doesn’t fold over into a rope either. So simple. Now I hope to get another few years out of these leggings. Why the heck didn’t I do this way back when I first bought them? Sigh.
Brown is definitely the theme today. I finished the second pullover for Thom that I had cut out back in February before I started on the Peacoat Project. This one is the modified Love Notions North Star pullover but this time in a brown cotton fleece-backed sweatshirt knit.
He likes this one best of all since it’s really warm and cosy. I put the soft fleece side out on the neck side of the collar and on the pocket bands for comfort. The zipper was another too-long separating zip from Dressew. It’s got bronzy-green plastic teeth with a nice rubber pull and brown tape that matches the fabric. Not a problem to shorten it. This fabric sewed much easier than the navy french terry even though it was quite thick.
Now that Thom has four pullovers made by me, I think he will stay warm for awhile! And I will go on to other things. Time for a reassessment of my sewing queue. I also hope to finally have a finished knitting project to show next time.
In other news, the garden is not growing very quickly thanks to the cool rainy weather we’ve had. I’m still bringing seedlings in and out of the greenhouse daily and I’m getting impatient to get them planted. In a moment of fair weather I did manage to get the dye garden cleaned up and ready to plant as soon as it’s warm enough for my little indigo babies. The tomatoes are still in the basement grow-op under the lights and I haven’t even considered planting the squash and cucumber seedlings quite yet. There’s plenty of time still and their beds are still waiting on me to dig them properly. Spring is still running quite late this year.
I’ve had a couple of sweatshirt-type pullover tops cut out for Thom since before I started the Peacoat Project back in February. Both that coat and the sorting/cleaning for the craft supply sale last weekend kind of got in the way of any other sewing projects since then. Which reminds me. If you don’t follow my Instagram (where I’m @damselfly.ca) you might not have seen the photo I managed to take at the sale.
A lull in the action
It was more fun than I anticipated and I did alright but there’s still too many beads, books and magazines left! More on that later when I finalize what I plan to do with the excess. Anyway, I had a few days of a rest after all that socializing – if you can call it rest when it includes repotting seedlings and getting baby plants in the ground – and finally got back to the studio yesterday.
Having something already cut out made it a lot easier to get started. Having made this Thread Theory Finlayson before I expected an easy sew. Not! The fabric, a heavier cotton french terry, gave me a much harder time than similar fabrics I’ve used before. It curled. It slipped. Pins didn’t hold it. Clips didn’t hold it. The sewing machine went through all the layers ok except that it was hard to get such thick seams under the presser foot. The serger wouldn’t cut through the seam areas so I had to pre-trim them. The top layer kept curling over the cutting knife instead of going under it which messed up the seam.
Note to self: keep your fingers away from the knife!
Struggling to keep everything doing what it was supposed to distracted my attention. Luckily the blade only sliced into my nail and not me! Anyway the final results look reasonably good from the outside. Just don’t look too carefully at it because none of the seams line up properly and the inside serging looks like it was nibbled by rats! Thom doesn’t care nearly as much as I do. Besides he’s likely to wear it out mowing the lawn or pruning the shrubs anyway.
Thread Theory’s Finlayson
I was just happy to finish and thought that hanger shot would be the end but Thom immediately put on his new pullover so there’s a modelled photo.
Guess it’s a hit, huh?
So now I still have a modified Love Notions North Star pullover cut out and ready to go. It’s a fleece-backed sweatshirt fabric so it might been even more problematic to sew! I hope not. I only have just so many fingernails.
Meanwhile I think I’ll go spin for awhile It’s raining again.
Damselfly's Delights 