Let It Glow Berry Shirt

  When I was finished making the dresses for the girls, I had a good-sized chunk of the berry fabric (Let it Glow Berries in Slate by Moda) left, so I decided to use it for a coordinating shirt for myself.

  I started with my woven sloper, created a yoke, and moved the waist dart into gathers at the neckline. Since it's been over a year since I last used the sloper, I had no idea if it would fit or not and made a muslin out of some flamboyant quilting cotton I had taking up room on my shelves. 

  Based on the muslin, I lowered the yoke and neckline by 1.5", brought the shoulder seam in and raised the sleeve cap by 1/4", added 1/2" across the bust, and widened the hips by... I think it was 3/4". I didn't have enough fabric for full-length sleeves like I'd originally planned, so I made short ones with bows. And the result?

  It's far from perfect, but considering how long it's been since I sewed anything woven for myself, I'm pretty pleased! The curve from the waist to hips is a little bit too dramatic, and results in kind of a fin across the hips, so I'll definitely change that next time. I may go back in and smooth it out on this shirt, even though it will mean unpicking part of the invisible zipper. I'd also add a little bit more room across the bust and straighten the side seam slightly.

  If I wanted to make it more fitted, I would deepen the back darts a little bit too... but I wanted this one a little bit more relaxed. I think I might prefer keeping the waist darts instead of the side bust darts, but this does help smooth the lines over my belly a little bit.

  The main fitting issue in the back is the armscye... there appears to be entirely too much fabric there! I'm hoping to make a set of muslins to work out that issue, but I want to do it in solid fabric so I can see what's going on better.

  As for construction, I kept things pretty simple by serging a lot of the interior:

  The yoke is clean-finished though, and has flat piping on both exterior edges. This is the interior:

  The only invisible zipper I had that would work at all doesn't really match:

  But it's not noticeable at all from the outside.

  I made short continuously bound vents on the sleeves and added 'cuffs' that are folded and top-stitched down along the top edge. The ends of the cuffs are cut in a curved point.

  I top-stitched the vents too:

  I love the way the sleeves turned out!

  And I think that's it for this shirt! I'd like to make this again in a fabric that drapes better with all of the changes mentioned above, but it may be a while until that happens. This shirt is pretty awful for nursing too, so that's something that I'd want to fix. But overall, I'm still pretty happy with it!

Thanks for stopping by,

Christmas Dresses

  I've been spending most of my spare time sewing and crafting instead of posting lately! Which is why I haven't shared these dresses until now... but here they finally are!

  For the three older girls, I started with the Georgia Vintage Dress pattern, but heavily modified it. I swapped the gathered skirt out for a circle skirt with a continuously bound back placket. I'd never done one before so I tested it out on some scraps first. I decided to hand-stitch rather than top-stitch for the second pass for these dresses. I love the results!

  I moved the shoulder seam in or out as necessary for each child so that once sewn it would land 1/2" inside their shoulder points, then added gathered sleeves. The sleeves narrow at the elbow and flare out again toward the wrist, then are gathered with elastic thread at the wrist. I did a double-fold hem on three of the dresses' sleeves, and did a bias facing on the fourth... next time I'll use the bias facing on all of them!

  I sewed the sleeves and bodice this way, and slip-stitched the waist seam down. I French-seamed the sleeve seams, and the seams of Booper's skirt (hers was longer and wouldn't fit on the fabric in one piece). I added a back seam to Booper's skirt too, but realized later that it was totally unnecessary and only served to add bulk at the point of the vent.

  I kept the front sash piece, but sewed it on differently, and altered the necklines for all of the dresses. For Boopers, I widened and scalloped the neckline:

  The center back scallop should have been curved a bit more gently, but at least it lines up at the top!

  Here is the whole front of Booper's dress... I also added flat piping to the front sash on all of the dresses.

  And the back... I really love the contrasting sash! Especially when it's been starched and pressed. I originally planned on interfacing all of the sashes but didn't have nearly as much interfacing as I though, so didn't end up adding it to any of them.

  And here it is on Booper:

  Back:

  For Gaiw's, I squared the neckline and added a ruffle. I wish I'd thought this through more thoroughly though... I would have bound the neckline after adding the ruffle instead of tucking it into a seam, because of course it wants to stand up even after pressing it vigorously.

  I also clipped the ruffle in one spot when I was grading the neckline and it pulled out of the seam when I washed it... so that's going to have to be repaired. =(

  Overall it's still cute though!

  And Gaiw loved the unruly ruffle.

  Gaiw managed to grow quite a bit between when I measured her and when the dress was done, so it's shorter than I meant for it to be, but not too much.

  Back view:

  I added a flat-piped yoke to Becker's dress.

  From the back:

  I really love how this one turned out!

  I think I need to make more yoked dresses. =)

  Here it is on Beckers:

  And from the back:

  Foof's dress was made using the free baby Geranium pattern, but heavily modified. I added a sash, added sleeves, made a circle skirt, and brought the sides in by about 1/2" to make it more fitted. Of course I failed to take into account how fast babies grow, so by Christmas it was quite short and a tiny bit tight in the chest, but still pretty cute!

  I also converted the front to a crossover.

  I had a hard time wrapping my brain around how to sew this one so the insides would be nicely finished, but in the end I made it work!

  I love the giant sash, even though it's not exactly practical on a baby who can't quite sit up on her own yet!

   I made a matching headband for Foof, and bows on clips for her sisters, using a combination of sewing and (ick) hot glue.

    I seriously love that sash!

  After making and photographing these dresses, I had a lot more fabric leftover than I expected, so I made a coordinating shirt for me... the first time I've sewn a non-stretchy garment for myself in quite a long time! I don't have worn pictures of it yet, because my schedule and the weather haven't been cooperating with each other.

  This fabric is Moda Let it Glow Metallic Slate Berries, bought from the Fat Quarter Shop. It appears to be gone there, but I've also seen it at Fabric.com and a couple of other quilting fabric stores. The red is Moda Bella Solids Country Red, and the flat piping is made from Moda Bella Solids U Brown.

  The owner of the Fat Quarter shop was wonderful, and helped me pick the fabrics that coordinated best. =)

  The gold KAM snaps were some I bought last year, but they matched the gold glints in the fabric beautifully. =)

  And that's it for these dresses! Now to get photos of the shirt I made myself! =)

Thanks for stopping by,

Knight Hoodie

I didn't get to make a whole lot of gifts for Christmas last year, but I did get to make one!

  My in-laws do a drawing every year so each family member only has one gift to give (I usually make two gifts for the person I draw and one for everyone else). This year I drew my youngest brother in law, and had very few ideas as to what I could make him. Then I happened across this popular knight hoodie pattern again, and thought it would be a great gift! However, I quickly decided NOT to use the pattern, since I wanted the details to be a little bit different, and thought that he was above the pattern's size range. (It turns out that there is an adult version too that includes size 12). Instead, I bought the PDF version this Jalie pattern (in spite of the pattern cover, it's unisex and has a fantastic size range, which means it's very versatile... and it also includes sweatpants). I initially looked for sweatshirt fleece at JoAnn, but they were out of grey, so I ordered this one instead.

  I added this piece to mimic the gorget, or neck armor. It's a single layer with the edge folded under, top-stitched on the body of the hoodie before adding the hood:

  It's also in the back, but slightly shallower:

    The pauldrons are darted circles (if I were making this again I would make these a bit bigger, and the darts deeper). I sewed two of these right-sides together, then turned and top-stitched. I machine-sewed them to the hoodie at the top edge and by stitching in the ditch near the top of the dart.

  I cut the sleeve a few inches below the elbow and, along with seam allowances, added a pointed, flared piece to look like a vambrace. I also added a turned and top-stitched football-shaped piece, which was sewn down for about 1/2" at each of the corners, to resemble the couter.

  The pocket is sewn according to the pattern, except that I'd added a few inches to the hem in place of a ribbed band, so I folded the lower edge of the pocket under as well:

  I also omitted the ribbing on the sleeves, and just lengthened and hemmed them instead.

  On the hood, I added a comb, which was sewn in the existing seam, and a turned-and-top-stitched piece to resemble the upper visor, which was sewn down at the corners and along a small portion of the upper edge. I'd probably curve the center front seam a little less next time.

  And finally, the most labor-intensive portion of the whole thing, and the part where I accidentally steamed my fingers several times- the lower visor. I reverse-appliqued the black pieces in using this method, then added an un-appliqued piece, turned it right side out, and top-stitched.

  I wanted my brother-in-law to be able to wear raise and lower the visor, so I added buttonholes at its ends, then sewed buttons on the hood.

  I'm happy to say that this was well-received, and fit! Although it was a little bit difficult for him to get on and off due to the low stretch in the fabric. Going up one size would have helped.

  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

  Thanks for stopping by,