Wool Knits and Jalie Patterns

So back in November (maybe?) when FabricMartFabrics.com had their big sale on wool knits, I bought ....and astonishing amount of yardage from them.  Which I then proceeded to make woolen warm clothes for the whole family.  I got a combination of jerseys, interlocks, and ponte knits, all of them almost 100% wool.  A little itchy, like all wools but the most cozy merinos, but for $8-$12 a yard, who's complaining?

I used mostly Jalie patterns, as I am in love with their fit and all those sizes. One of the first Jalie patterns I ever bought was 2328, their men's thermal underwear pattern. I've used it countless times for either my husband or one of my three boys.  I've got the paper pattern which is no longer available. It's still available off the Jalie website as a download, however.

Here it is in a heathered gray wool ponte knit.  I used the three yards I bought of this fabric for a pair of leggings for me, one for DD, and one for DIL as well as this pair of thermal pants for one of my sons.

I also made a whole lot of shirts for my sons and husband using Jalie 2918. No pics of those, but there's only so much to see.  It's a t-shirt. Nuff said.

For DIL, I made this matching set of leggings and Jalie 2806 the gathered scoop neck top.  I made a whole lot of these for myself a couple of years ago.  These are made of wool/lycra jersey in a gorgeous periwinkle.  Not my color, but it looks fabulous on her.  The leggings I made from a pattern copied from a pair of leggings she already has that she likes the fit.

Apologies for the crummy pictures.  Laying things out on the floor is not my preferred way of displaying my creations, but it's snowing and blowing outside and kinda dim and dreary inside.

All in all, since November, I made alot of tops and pants for all the members of the family.  Good thing, too, 'cuz it's been coooold this year.

Racerback Tanks in Jersey Print

It's summertime and time for some new tank tops.  My old ones are pretty much worn out and recently I've had to throw several away.  One got stained beyond rescue and in two others the lycra gave out and made the fabric all ripply and weird. 

I love these two newest additions to my tank top stable.  I spent many an hour developing this racerback tank top until I got the pattern and every little curve of the straps just the way I wanted them.

The yellow print is a cotton/lycra jersey several years old trimmed with the same print fabric in the black colorway.  The binding is a tiny 1 inch wide before it is sewn on -- you have to be very, very careful with that one, there's no room at all for error.

The camouflage -- and I do love camo -- is a plain cotton jersey, kinda flimsy and I don't think this tank will make past this summer season before it starts to develop holes and such.  But it was so cute, I couldn't resist.  If you look closely, you can see the butterflies integrated into the camouflage pattern.  Is that awesome or what?!  I used a slightly wider binding on this one -- 1 1/2 inches unsewn.  You wouldn't think that just a little bit of extra binding could change the look of a shirt so much, but it does. 

I've got two more tanks tops to finish off and a knit dress for Daughter as well.  As soon as those are done, it's off to a couple of simple ballet tops for me.

Mini Wardrobe -- Finished Contest Entry Safari Style

So here it is:  My finished contest entry.  Safari style extravaganza!  If you're a PatternReview.com member, you can vote for your favorite mini wardrobe.  Check out all the entries.  So many people have done such a fantastic job.  It was a real pleasure to chat with them on the message board for the whole trip.

The tank top is a modified Kwik Sew 2517.  It would have to be -- that pattern is actually a dress.  I've made this tank top lots of times and I really love it.  For this one, I used the original armhole curve, but I've also modified the pattern to make a racerback tank top as well.

The pants are Jalie 2908 stretch jeans.  For these, I added expanding cargo pockets to the back and thighs and narrowed the pants legs so they'll fit smoothly into my boots.  I love these pants.  I wore them all day yesterday and they are oh-so-comfy.

The button down shirt is Jalie 2322 done in a stretch linen.  Also a comfortable fabric.  I wish I'd bought more than just enough for one shirt.

And the vest is Butterick 5616 made in the same stretch sateen as the pants.  With extra pockets.








I am really loving all of these outfits.  Different shoes give a whole different look to them, too.

Mini Wardrobe Contest -- Third Piece Finished!

I had some sewing time open up yesterday, so I spent those precious few hours working on the next piece of my mini wardrobe: the safari style vest.

I really like the way this turned out, even though I'm not terribly excited about the collar.  It also doesn't look a whole lot like what I had drawn in my storyboard, except in a general sort of way.  I was planning to use just a plain vest pattern and adding some pockets, but when I looked through my stash of patterns, I found that I didn't actually have a plain women's vest pattern.  Amazing.  I tend to collect plain patterns, so I can use them for a base and then apply my own creativity to them (which I haven't done lately, but the intention is there).

Instead, I found this Butterick pattern, B5616,  which I decided was close enough to what I wanted.  The pockets are just plain patch pockets, rather than expanding cargo pockets, but since I used a stretch sateen they kind of expand anyway.  It's unlined, which is okay -- I just serged the seams and some of them are topstitched down as well.  And it has a higher neckline than I was quite envisioning, along with the collar, which I wasn't intending at all.    But I decided to go ahead anyway.

I traced a straight size 6 in the View B with length of View A and pretty much followed the instructions.  I had to take in the sides about two inches and gave it some waistline shaping, of which it has practically none. The envelope says that it's loose-fitting, but even though I've used lots of Big4 patterns, I wasn't expecting quite so much ease.  I left off the back ties, though on reflection, maybe I should have put them on -- the vest still fits a bit more loosely than I'd like.  I'll probably sew this again, in a non-stretch fabric, with the other collar option.  I have a really cute brown and pink paisley Kaufman corduroy that I think would work great with this pattern.  Oh, wait.  It's a stretch corduroy.  Oh, well. Whatever.

All in all, I like it.  And it goes well with the linen shirt and with the tank top.  I still have a few days before the contest ends.  If I get a move on, I can get those pants finished.

Shirtmaking -- Seam Finish Details

Yep.  I'm still working on Jordan's shirts.  But I'm making some progress.  I think once I finish the one I have almost done, I'll take a break from shirts for a little while.  Youngest Son and Daughter both could use a few new things.  As could I.

I have to say, though, all this practice has been good for me.  My shirt making skills are definitely improved since last year.  Every new shirt goes a little faster, my technique gets a little better, and the finished product is a little nicer.

And I've been telling myself that I need a flat felled foot if I ever want a decent flat felled seam on the sleeve cap of these shirts.  But after this last shirt, I no longer believe that's true.  This was done just by ironing really, really carefully and scrunching up the excess fabric at the sleeve cap.  Boy, am I proud of this flat felled seam! 

I love it when the seam finish is so nice, you have to look twice to be sure the shirt isn't inside out!

Girls' Spring Dress in Yellow, Pink, and Green

I made this Spring dress for Daughter out of the same pattern that I used for the Daffodillies and Lilacs dress, Butterick 3350.  Since it was the second time around, I think I did a much better job with it.

The fabric is a stretch poplin of flowers on a pale yellow background. Perfect for a Spring dress.  I used a pink 1 inch grosgrain ribbon for the waist tie, which is sewn into the side seams so that it can be tied in the back or at the front.  Daughter prefers it in the back.

I used self fabric to line this dress, and I didn't line the sleeves this time.  This has limitations, namely that it's really hard to do a circular sleeve setting in a sleeve opening this small.  To Butterick's credit, the sleeve fits in the armscye beautifully.  There's enough ease for good movement but not so much that sewing it in is a nightmare of ease stitching and ripping.

I was also able to press the seam allowance of the lining at the waist seam and then stitch it down from the right side, in effect topstitching the waist seam while attaching the lining.  Way better than hand sewing the lining into place.  It looks better than hand sewing, too.  At least, it looks better than my hand sewing.

All told, I think I finished this in an afternoon.  And it turned out very pretty.

PR Menswear Contest Day 1

Today is the opening day of the Pattern Review Menswear Contest.  This means that the entrants can begin working on projects for the contest. I got the fabric pieces cut out for my Oldest Son's next dress shirt.  I decided to start with the gray stripe, but I'm tempted to cut the olive/cream, too so that's it's all ready to sew when I finish the gray.


It always feels like it's a good sign when I get some progress made on Day 1.

Simplicity Tunic Finished!

I did indeed get both my projects finished in January.  This is A. Good. Thing.

Here's Simplicity 2852, the knit tunic.  I made this in a size 6 (the smallest size in the envelope and my usual size for tops).  The fabric is a premium cotton lycra/knit purchased from Fabric.com a couple of years ago.  This is View E, which is also the one in the sample photo on the envelope front.

I'm going to start by saying this:  I never really understood why pattern companies make patterns for knits...and then treat them like wovens.  I just don't get it. 

Case in point: This top has a kind of a neat yoke, interestingly constructed with a front yoke, back yoke, and shoulder straps.  All these yoke pieces get interfaced (with fusible tricot) which thereby eliminates most of the stretch of the fabric.  Doesn't matter, though, because the neckline is large enough to slip over your head anyway.  The sleeve caps also have ease.  In a knit?  *sigh*

Those things said, I actually like this pattern.  Everything did go together beautifully and painlessly -- well except setting the sleeves was a little funky, I really didn't expect sleeve cap ease.

I like the bell sleeves on this, but I do wish the body of the tunic had a tad more shaping.

All in all, this turned out to be a pretty nice tunic.  It really looks best on me with a close fitting pair of pants, so I may have to make a pair or two to go with it.  It looks fine with my jeans for now, I guess.

I'd like to try View B yet.  That has the bell sleeves and the jewel neckline with the front shirring.  Not sure when I'll get to that, but it is on my project list.

A Note About Knits

I think I prefer to wear knits over wovens.  Most of time anyway.  I have  a giant stash of cotton and rayon knit fabrics, some with lycra and some without.  This dress is made from a medium weight cotton/lycra jersey.  When I bought it, it came in blue and black and I've made identical dresses with both fabrics.  I originally used Kwik Sew 2517, which is a dress pattern, and adapted it into a racerback tank top.  Then I added princess seams and used those to create the sweeping skirt style of this maxi dress.  I like ankle length dresses and I like them with only slightly flaring skirts.  It makes me look taller and at 5'2" I need all the help I can get  :)

Lots of people make garments with knits on a regular sewing machine using a tiny zigzag stitch.  I've seen some really beautiful projects.  I must confess, though, I almost never sew knits with a regular sewing machine.  I use my  single needle for details on knits, but for construction I'm strictly a serger-girl.  Maybe I'm spoiled.  My first job as a teenager was sewing sleeves into knit turtlenecks with an industrial serger.  I've never gotten over the thrill of sitting down at a machine and zipping through a seam.  I got my first serger in the early '90s and I haven't been without one since. That's not to say that I don't love sewing on my regular sewing machine.  Just not knits.

Who Doesn't Need A Million Button Down Shirts?

Back to basics, wardrobe staple--whatever you call it, everyone has at least one of these.  This shirt is made from a rayon/poly/lycra stretch woven with a subtle floral flocked pattern.  This fabric was a dream to sew and is incredibly comfortable to wear.  The buttons are mother of pearl with laser cut designs in deep black. The pattern is Jalie 2322.  If you've never used a Jalie pattern, I highly recommend them--they cost more than Simplicity or  McCall's on sale, but they come on heavyweight paper.  They'll need to be traced, but the wide variety of sizes--22 in each envelope--makes custom fitting considerably easier than usual.  The techniques for sewing button down shirts for either men or women are essential to the dressmaker--photo tutorials coming soon!

Assymetrical Front Close Vest

This is a really nice vest that is so perfect to wear to the office, and the assymetrical front closure is more interesting that the ordinary one.  This is made in a heavyweight poly/rayon/lycra jacquard--the outside is black and charcoal and the lining is the same fabric in black on black.  The zigzag pattern is composed of surprisingly detailed ferns. Normally I wouldn't recommend using a fashion fabric of this weight as a lining, but I specifically chose this to make to vest heavy and substantial.  The pattern is New Look 6659.