men's sewing – Damselfly's Delights

Spring has sprung in a big way around here, even though we had one more frost yesterday morning one day past our average last frost date. The daffodils are blooming and the plum and cherry trees are covered in pink and white. So pretty! I’ve got my peas and potatoes in. I was happy to finally find the Prince of Orange seed potatoes that grow so well for me at the garden store. They are so good that I didn’t even plant any last year (or the year before, come to think of it) and still harvested an ice-cream bucket full of volunteers! I decided this year to dedicate an entire bed to them. Just because. Meanwhile I’ve been planting wee seeds in the basement Grow-Op.

Now I need to start transplanting these guys into bigger pots so I can put them out into the greenhouse before tucking them into their garden beds. I started to prep the bed for the mustards yesterday but the soil was so wet it stuck to my shovel. Yuck. And today our next door neighbour has workmen ripping things out to put in a new fence between our properties so I’m hiding out where I can’t watch them trample the raspberries. They’re trying to be careful but not really succeeding terribly well. At least we don’t have to pay for the fence. They’re doing some major backyard renovation and replacing all the fences all the way around. Fine by me as long as it doesn’t block any more of my precious light than the former eyesore. Good fences make good neighbours, right?

In crafting news, I haven’t really finished anything at all since last post. I repaired a few pairs of socks. My red kneesocks blew a hole in one heel and the other was dangerously thin so instead of duplicate stitches, my usual fix, I picked up stitches and knit a replacement heel. When I was done I grafted the free stitches onto the sock and then did a bit of freeform stitching underneath to secure the loose ends of the hole.

*Preparing to graft the heel stitches to the sock.*

The other sock didn’t yet have a hole but it was dangerously thin. I decided to make the pair match I’d do the same knit-on patch as the first sock. It feels a little thicker under my heel than the one with the actual hole but it’s not really a problem. Now I can wear them again.

I’m up to the heel turn on yet another pair of socks, these ones for Thom. The knitting is going very slowly but still faster than that last pair! They are very plain but the yarn is so nice I’m almost regretting letting him have this one. Oh well. There’s lots more sock yarn in the stash.

And speaking of Thom, the second version of the Sanders Button-Up Shirt (pattern from Elbe Textiles) in a nice linen cross-dye (darkest navy warp woven with a natural tan weft). I’m nearly finished. Just sleeves and buttons/buttonholes left to go. Meanwhile, Debbie Double is wearing it and putting lady bumps in the front! Yes, it’s truly navy blue and tan but the optical mixing makes it look charcoal grey.

*Shirt in progress, lightened up a bit to show detail*

This time I left myself wider seam allowances so I could do much neater flat-fell seams instead of serging them and topstitching. The look on the outside is the same but the inside is a whole lot prettier. I’ll be sure to show a detail photo when the shirt is completed.

What else? I bought Muna and Broad‘s latest pants pattern, the Birchgrove Pants. These have an elastic waist, tapered legs and slash pockets and are suitable for a wide range of different medium weight fabrics. I have a piece of linen (I think!) fabric that would be perfect for them but it’s in need of a trip to the dyepot first. I was kind of waiting until it was warm enough to do it outdoors comfortably. Which I guess could be very soon, no? I’m trying to become more used to wearing pants made from woven fabrics instead of knits. Unfortunately I still find knits more comfortable! But I like that M&B pants fit me so well with very little tweaking necessary. Their patterns call for 1-1/2″ wide elastic for the easy factor but I need to get some. My local shops don’t have non-roll in this width. And I’m afraid that if I go shopping in a real store, I might lose my determination and buy more fabric!! I’ve been doing really well for over a year of working from the stash. Still not diminished nearly far enough to be reasonable. Too many boxes still lurking about in the attic. It’s a challenge.

Hey, lookee! I actually got around to a post before the end of the month! I’m impressed with me. Heh.

So I’ve been working a lot in the garden on nice days. I can only manage a couple of hours at a time so I’m attempting to pace myself out accordingly. I haven’t actually started to plant seeds indoors yet. We’ve still occasionally been having some frost in the mornings so it’s not urgent. However, the veggie beds are turned, perennials manured and clean-up begun. The dye garden is ready to plant when it warms up enough. I haven’t gotten to the front garden yet, but Thom has been raking and pruning out there. You can always tell where my priorities lie when I spend most of my energy on the vegetable and dye gardens first! And leaving the flowers and shrubs to the last. Thom and I have a division of labour where he does the mowing and most of the pruning and raking and I do the fiddly planting, weeding and harvesting. What a team!

Meanwhile, I sewed a couple more things. First I made a wearable muslin for Thom.

The pattern is the Sanders Button-Up from Elbe Textiles. It’s a lovely detailed design with pockets hidden in a front yoke and a shaped and pieced back.

The sides were quite shaped and Thom isn’t so I straightened out that seam but left the shaping in the back. It fits the way he likes, not too tightly around the waist and hip. The cuffs are a little loose though so I’ve reduced them for next time. The fabric is the hemp muslin that I dyed last summer with fresh Japanese indigo leaves from my garden. It’s quite blotchy and pale but it’s holding up to laundry okay so I’m considering it a successful dye experiment. It reminded me of the sky with clouds so Sky Shirt is now its official name.

The only thing I didn’t really like is that the main seams have a faux flat-fell finish, serged and then topstitched. I prefer an actual reverse flat-fell but the seams are only 1 cm so couldn’t do that on this one. However, I’ve already cut out a second version and left the formerly serged seams wider so that I can experiment with finishing them my way. The place where the pockets meet the front yoke might be a bit tricky. We shall see.

The second item sewn is my view B version of the Sienna Maker Jacket by Closet Core Patterns. This design is based on a vintage French worker’s jacket. The belt wraps the gentleman’s way underneath the front flap, through a slot and then around the body to a double D-ring closure. It takes a wee bit of fiddling to get into or out of! The pockets are capacious and as well as the outside left breast pocket, there’s a larger interior pocket on the right side. Perfect for my cell phone.

The fabric is a very heavyweight brushed bull denim that’s been in my stash for quite a few years. I love it so much that I didn’t want to use it on the wrong garment!

I had a difficult time (as usual) figuring out which size pattern to go with. Closet Core has this in two ranges, one based on a B-cup bust and one based on a D-cup. The curvier range starts at a size 14 which is the middle of the 3-4 sizes I need to grade across to fit my body so I needed to reduce the shoulders, armholes and sleeves which is quite tricky. I couldn’t graft on the upper bodice in a smaller size in the regular size range because the two ranges are actually quite different drafts. Luckily I’ve got lots of well-fitting patterns to check against to get the changes right that I had to make. The easier part of the grading is from the size 14 out to a 16 just above the waist to the hem. Then I bravely went ahead and cut out the jacket, not making a muslin this time. And miraculously it fits really well.

Speaking of the differences in the two size ranges (which very kindly come together in the download so you don’t have to choose ahead of time or buy the pattern twice), unlike the B-cup the D-cup range has a bust dart and a curved back seam and side seams. The design includes some nice tailor-ish details like a proper bias under collar and a two-piece sleeve. The instruction booklet is very clear and detailed and I had no difficulties figuring out how this jacket went together. I sewed it all with cotton thread and a size 90 jeans needle using my heavy duty Janome machine with the straight-stitch throat plate and foot. The seams were quite thick but Janny made it through it all pretty well. Unfortunately I didn’t discover that I actually have a hump-jumper tool until I was almost finished!

It’s been in my drawer for about 25 years (it originally came as an insert in a magazine) and I’ve always just used it just as a point turner. I had to look up how to use this type of tool since I never tried it before. But hey-ho! It’s quite functional in helping to get my presser foot over the bulky seams! I could have used it on a number of sewing projects before now. Better not lose it in the drawer again.

I finished the jacket completely inside with reverse flat-fell, turned under or in the case of the armhole seams, a faux French seam.

The only downside to this jacket is that it’s very warm so only suitable for cooler weather wear. It would be fine as an extra layer in my chilly house in mid-winter too. I can wear it open but only if I put the tail of the belt in my pocket. Otherwise it’s so long it drags on the ground!

I seem to have been on quite a jacket sewing roll lately! Three done this year so far and I still have one more in mind. Hopefully I’ll get to it before it’s too warm to wear a jacket at all.

Tag: men's sewing

Sproing!

Mid-Month Roundup