High Five

I made something! An actual garment. And I am pretty crazy about it. But it is not for me. It is a gift. Oof. It's hard to let it go. And, of course, I don't have to do so. But I want to. Really, I do.

This super-cool, amazing fabric was a gift from a fellow University of Texas longhorn fan. Actually she's a much more loyal fan than I am. Though I have 3 degrees from the humongo university in Austin, I don't really follow them the way she does. Over the years, when she would visit her sister in Austin, she'd bring me a little momento.

The most recent gift was this very nice cotton piece of fabric. It is not your standard cotton-with-a-logo which is printed on very cheap almost-quilt-quality cotton. This is more of a fine pique. It was a dream to sew.

This lovely friend has developed tremors and cannot sew now. And her sister died. And, yet, she still thought of me when she was cleaning out her stash. I said thank you and gave her a hug.

Then I decided to make something for her, a little jacket for *game day.* I know in my heart of hearts that she will enjoy it more than I ever could. At least, that is my sincere hope. 

The pattern is the High Five, one of the Shapes patterns developed by Louise Cutting of Cutting Line Designs, and Linda Lee of the Sewing Workshop. They jointly developed a series of easy sewing, easy fitting garment in this line. The High Five jacket, is the best one.

And it is stinkin' cute, in this rather unique piece of fabric.

In her honor, I will watch the big game this Friday. I will visualize her cheering them on in this jacket.  We will share some joy or sadness with the results. I am lucky to have a friend like this, for sure.

Sewing friends are the best.

17th Birthday Gift

I've not been sewing as much in the last few months as I wish. Too much in the non-sewing part of life going on and demanding attention. Sewing keeps me sane, so this is not something to mess around with.

After my fun with bricolage, I found the sew-jo to finish a shirt I cut out maybe 3 months ago. It was dicey because it has all the classic shirt details that I love. I just assumed I would ruin one or more of these details.

But, surprise! It all went great. I took my time and enjoyed the entire process. 

Luckily the pattern I chose was The Blouse Perfected from Cutting Line Designs. I have blogged about that in the past. It is just such a great pattern - really a small book on professional techniques for completing classic shirt details.

First up was the collar and collar stand. CLD approaches this process in a manner that is quite different from others, I think. The collar stands are attached first, sandwiching the neckline in between the two stands. Then the ends of the collar stand are completed, leaving a gap for the collar. The collar is finished on three sides and top-stitched. Then the collar is dropped inside the gap in the collar stand. It is machine stitched to the right side of the stand and invisibly stitched to the inside of the collar stand.

I thought I'd screw that up, for sure. But indeed, it worked out perfectly. CLD patterns are nothing if not meticulously drafted. And the explanations are detailed with clear illustrations. Everything fits together as it should.

I also took my time on the sleeve plackets. There are so many ways to mess those up! 

The stars were aligned and it too worked!

And then I found perfect buttons in stash. This is when sewing is totally satisfying, right?

Camp Shirt Happiness

Happiness is...

A 16 year old grandchild who loves the item you made, just for them!

First the fabric. I spotted it when I was lucky enough to visit Mulberry Silks and Fine Fabrics in Carrboro NC. Hubs and I were on our way to visit our grandson who lives in Raleigh NC. Our son plus wife and daughter rented a house there so that we all could visit and catch up. It was delightful. 

Back to the fabric. It's probably quilt weight but I don't care. I kept circling the store and returning to it. It came home with me. When I showed it to the 16 year old (SYO), there was a squeel of delight. I knew immediately it should become something for not-me. 

I wanted the print to be about foxes but it is definitely squirrels. Foxes don't climb trees, it seems. Oh well. 

Aren't the colors wonderful? We have a lot of squirrels around here but they are not this wonderful color. SYO has a sweat shirt the exact color of the fox-squirrels. 

After some consideration, I decided upon the Cutting Line Design shirt in the Easy, Ageless, Cool envelope. I had made it once before for moi and did not like it on me. But it seemed like the style SYO gravitates towards. 

Size was not a huge deal because this is a loose fitting shirt, but SYO is petite so I went with a size S. The size is just right!

The cutting of it was slow-going. I wanted to match as much as I could. I think I succeeded with the center fronts, as well as the chest pocket. I forgot to check the side seams before gifting it.

Making it was such fun. I immediately went into the zen zone. This style is simple - slightly dropped shoulder inserted flat, convertible collar, front and back facings to enclose the raw seams of the collar, side seam vents. It was totally meditative.

I made one tiny change to the pattern, converting the Louise-Cutting version of mitered corners (at the hem) to the Linda-Lee version.

I need to make another shirt now. It is so predictable and cooperative. And I love the top-stitching part, even when it doesn't show. The next time I make this, I expect I'll add a yoke. I do love that shirt detail missing from this pattern.

Before gifting it, I did try it on, just in case it got shoved into the back of the closet at SYO's house. But I do not think that will happen. SYO is pretty honest with me. And I see happiness here.

Black pants, always

TSW Hudson top with TSW Picasso pants

Somehow, I always need more black pants. That's because I want them to be really black, and they only stay black as long as they make regular visits to the dry cleaners. I have a pair of black wool Cutting Line Design one-seam pants that I've worn for a very long time because they always go to the dry cleaners.

But I also like knit pants. A lot. I've been having some back issues, and soft knit pants are my go-to. I particularly like ponte that is rayon-based, rather than polyester based. Over time, they begin to pill and I put them in the laundry. That relegates them to casual wear only. Then I make more black pants!

At the moment, my favorite knit pants pattern is the Pencil Pant from the Sewing Workshop (TSW). It's one of those PDF downloads that you tape together, but I don't mind that. It's mindless work while watching the news. Based on a recent article, that may be the way of future patterns, as the pattern-printing business contracts.

My previous favorite knit pants pattern was TSW's Helix pants. I've made those a number of times. I still wear and enjoy them, but I have never been 100% happy about the waistband finish. The waistband is created with a wide piece of elastic that is zig-zag stitched to the top edge. Then it is flipped to the inside. It makes for a very nice flat waistband, but it does mean that the elastic sits against my skin.

The waistband on the Pencil Pants is more to my liking, as the elastic is fully enclosed. It still has a fairly smooth waist line finish, much like yoga pants, without all the gathers of some pull-on pants. One of the nice details of most TSW pants is a flat front, achieved in a variety of ways.

New black ponte pencil pants - not much to photograph!

Another pants look I like a lot is captured in TSW's Picasso pants. I have made those in a variety of fabrics, now in wool. It's a shape I have to be careful to pair with the right top so that I don't look like the Pillsbury dough boy, or just a blob. But I think they are interesting due to the slight cropping of the length and the shaping.

Again, notice the flat front achieved in one of TSW's signature waistband designs.

Stitching the waistband with the elastic inside

These pants are constructed with three vertical panels, rather than the usual two. and there is a horizontal seam below the knee creating more shaping in the lower third of the silhouette. They are super comfortable and so it may be that I'm just kidding myself about the cool shape. When your back hurts, all comfort options are considered!

And I had this yummy light weight black wool in stash. I bought it from a local designer when she had a de-stash sale a while back. It is almost a gauze, with a pebble finish. It has nice drape and the color is very, very black.

The last time I made a pair of Picasso pants I was short of fabric and had to piece one of the side panels. After completing them I realized I had missed a great opportunity for an inseam pocket. This time around, I deliberately added an in-seam pocket to each side panel.

In order to add the pocket, I drew a line perpendicular to the grain line about 10 inches from the top of the side panel. Then I drew a second horizontal line that was 1 1/4 inch from the first drawn line. When I cut the two pieces of each side panel, I folded the pattern tissue up to the bottom line for the top piece, and the top line for the bottom piece. That way, the two pieces overlap by 1 1/4 inch, or two 5/8 inch seam allowances.

Before constructing the legs of the pants, I sewed the upper and lower pieces of the side panels together along the new horizontal seam. I used a basting stitch for the middle 6 inches of that seam. Then I pressed the seam open, and top-stitched the lower seam allowance.

For pocket pieces, I cut fabric the width of the new horizontal seam and about 7 inches long, following the curve of the side panel. I finished the raw edges of each pocket piece.

Then I sewed the pocket piece to the upper seam allowance of the horizontal seam. I top-stitched the hem of the pocket in place, creating another horizontal line in the side panel. The sides of the pocket are caught in the seams attaching the side panels to the front and back panels of the original pattern pieces.

I worried that they might be too sheer as I was sewing them. Now that they are finished, I'm convinced they are fine. But I can always wear leggings or tights under them, or go back and add a lining at some point. For now, they feel great and I don't want to add another layer.

The weather is right for wool right now, so I look forward to wearing these very soon.

Splice, now thrice

Another Splice top: As soon as the pattern was published, I knew I wanted to use this fabric with it.

It's a linen-cotton blend from Craft South. It is perhaps a bit too heavy for this pattern but it's striped. Stripes are great fun to sew, especially one like this that is perfectly symmetrical and in a neutral color. The stripe that reads gray is a shot weave in black and white. And I'm almost always drawn to a shot weave.

As described in my previous post, the Splice top is a blank canvas. It is a loose-fitting, drop-shoulder shirt with 3/4 length sleeves, side panel pieces and an uneven hem. The weave of this fabric places the stripes vertically, so I was mighty tempted to make pants, but in the end, I knew that this was not the kind of stripe that makes flattering pants. The stripe is too bold for that (on me).

This stripe was perfect for a cross-grain cut on those small splices in the sides, with the body following the usual lengthwise grain. The weave is quite stable.

before top-stitching the hem

It has facings that I like but I worried that the stripe would show through and distract from the simplicity of this top. So instead I cut a bias strip for the neckline. I finished the front neckline and then the back neckline before sewing the shoulder seams. I like this treatment for a bateau neckline as it prevents a center front gap by drawing the neckline in just slightly.

I made one additional change to the pattern. It is very loose fitting. The earlier versions were all size M, my typical for Sewing Workshop tops. But I was curious about making a size S. The finished measurements are plenty generous for my hips. I cannot actually tell any difference between the size S and size M, probably because the fabrics are so different.

In other sewing news, my latest *fix* (hack?) was to add a pocket to a pair of Picasso pants. I was short on fabric when I made this last pair and had to piece one of the side panels. Each pant leg has three panels so I figured, the additional seam was a good fit with the style, even though this one is horizontal.

As I wore them, I realized how perfect that would have been for a pocket. Inserting a pocket into the seam would have been super simple if I had thought to do so during construction. Inserting the pocket after finishing construction was a bit time-consuming but not difficult.

BEFORE:

AFTER

Inside - pocket was attached to the upper and lower seam allowances, top-stitched at the bottom.

At the same time I've been increasingly interested in a pattern hack I see on Instagram - the Clyde pants hack.

Original Clyde pants for Elizabeth Suzann

The hack starts with a pair of favorite pull-on pants. These pants are then hacked so that each pant-leg is composed of three panels, with a pocket in the side panel. That side panel becomes an easy location for almost any pocket shape.

I did all the pattern work for this hack, starting with Cutting Line Designs One-seam pants.

And then I realized. Duh. The Picasso pants are perfectly suited for interesting pockets. And they are loose fitting, a must with deep side pockets. The shape of the original Clyde pants is more narrow than the Picasso, but otherwise, just right.

So now I'm thinking about a future pair of Picasso pants with more cool pockets. Or maybe I'll make a pair of pants using the One-Seams I hacked into Clyde pants. I can always use another pair of comfy pants!