Purple Robe and Anemones

Well, hello there, old blog!  It's been a while, hasn't it?  I thought this latest project I worked on deserved a real bona fide blog post. So here it is.  And boy, is it a long one.  I wanted to keep all my info in one place, so just skim if you are not interested in the whole lengthy process.

I have been inspired by Matisse's artwork since I was a kid.  I remember the painting Robe Violette et Anemones hanging in my elementary art classroom.  For as long as I have been sewing, I have wanted to create my own version of Matisse's purple robe.   The whole 'quarantine art' social media trend gave me the push to do it.  In fact, a local arts festival, Artisphere, put out a contest to recreate a famous work of art at home like the 'between art and quarantine' hashtag that I think originated with the Getty Museum. Years ago, I came across an article talking about an exhibition of Matisse's paintings displayed along side of a collection of his textiles.  Matisse was a textile lover (and aren't we all around here!).  He grew up in a textile region of France and his studio was filled with fabric, clothing, weavings and wall hangings.  Some of his textile items show up in multiple paintings, like the purple robe.  There is an exhibition catalog titled, Matisse: His Art And His Textiles that is amazing.  I ordered it when I began this project.  The book is full of photos and beautiful examples of Matisse's textile collection.  There is even a photo of the real purple robe. If you are a fan of Matisse's work, I highly recommend the book.  

The biggest issue with making myself a purple striped robe was finding the right fabric.  Over the years I have bought purple fabric a couple of times thinking I could paint the white stripes.  I even thought maybe I could bleach them.  I actually had a length of purple linen in my stash for a long time specifically earmarked for this.  I pulled it out and tried painting the white stripes with fabric paint and it looked bad. Extremely homemade.  I tried bleaching a little piece but it only bleached to pink.  I figured I'd have to dye the stripes to get the look I was going for.  I almost pulled out my batik supplies but I wasn't sure I'd have the time nor the means to get the wax out, so I looked in to painting with Procion dyes instead.

Believe it or not, I had everything I needed to do this except for the sodium alginate, which I ordered via amazon.  Apparently it's used in cooking. This truly was done with things I had at home. I had the deep purple Procion dye and the things needed to mix with it (urea and soda ash).  For the fabric, I had a leftover piece of white rayon challis that I had been using to line things.  I laid it out and rough cut it to fit my pattern pieces.  I used Burda 6740, a pattern from my stash- which again, I think I bought a while back just to do this purple robe.  I only had enough fabric for the fronts, sleeves and facings so I planned on using the printed rayon for the back and belt from the beginning.  I like a bit of print mixing anyway.

When it came to mixing the dye to paint with, I used the recipe from the Dharma Trading Company website to make the 'chemical water.'  I mixed 3/4 cups of urea in to about 4 cups of water.  I mixed it in a big glass jar.  From what I understand, the urea keeps the dye from drying too fast once it's been painted on the fabric.  Then I mixed in about 4 teaspoons of sodium alginate.  The sodium alginate is a thickener which keeps your dye from spreading.  I could have used more sodium alginate.  I let that mixture sit overnight before mixing up the dye.

The next day, I separated half of chemical water and mixed up my purple dye.  I used 3ish teaspoons of deep purple and 2 teaspoons of soda ash.  Soda ash is necessary for the chemical reaction between the dye and fiber (hence 'fiber reactive dyes').  Once you mix in the soda ash, you have to use your dye right away.  And so I painted my stripes.  

I laid each piece of fabric out on a piece of a plastic drop cloth and painted long vertical purple stripes.  I tried to leave enough space in between each purple stripe so the white would remain.  In hindsight, I could have used a smaller brush to make smaller stripes, but that also would have taken me even longer.  Doing these three pieces of fabric took about an hour and half.  It was a little tedious.  I did get some ripply edges because the dye would pool underneath the fabric on the plastic.  It would have been better to have something absorbent underneath, but I don't mind the ripples.  I wanted the stripes to look painterly like the Matisse painting.

After painting, I left the fabric to sit overnight underneath another piece of plastic (to keep it from drying all the way).  I actually sandwiched all three pieces on top of one another with their respective pieces of plastic.  Now, when I was painting the stripes, it was that beautiful deep purple that I was hoping for.  The next day, however, it was much lighter.

I rinsed out all three pieces the next morning until the water ran clear (with gloves in my bathtub).  Then I washed in the washing machine with some synthrapol.  When I took the fabric out to dry, it had faded to a pretty violet-red and had a faint blue halo around all the edges of the stripes.  I still thought it was pretty and planned to use it, but it didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned.

I read around online to try and figure out what happened and came across a great website with tons of info about hand dyeing. One article I found interesting was that some dyes are pure color while some are mixtures. In mixtures of color, sometimes the two colors react with the fiber at different rates, which is what I am assuming happened here.  The website also specifically mentions fuschia reacting faster than blue, meaning the blue will travel longer and create that blue halo.  So that's probably what happened.  I do like the blue halo anyway.

After the fabric was dry, I cut out my pattern pieces and sewed.  The pattern was pretty straight-forward, though there was a little bit of hand sewing the facing at the back neckline.  I tried to avoid hand sewing whenever possible.  I made a medium and left off the pockets, no other modifications.

I was super pleased with how it turned out.  Not only did I plan to recreate the Matisse painting, Robe Violette et Anemones, but I also planned to use my robe for real (and I have been using it with all my time at home lately).  I spent an embarrassing amount of time staging my living room to snap a photo.  I hung pieces of fabric and party streamers on the wall behind my couch and made anemones with tissue paper and pipe cleaners.  My daughter helped.

After I finished everything, I decided to use the leftover piece of printed rayon (the back of the robe) to make myself some pajamas.  I mean, if I'm going to lounge around in my beautiful hand painted purple robe, I might as well have some swanky pj's to go along with it, right?  I used every scrap of the printed rayon to make an Ogden cami and elastic waist bottoms using Simplicity 1112, which is now OOP, unfortunately. 

I'm late to the Ogden cami game, but I love it.  This is the first one I've made but there will be many  more.  This is a size 12 graded out to a 14 under the bust.  Next time I'll add an inch or two of length and I'd like to experiment with making a wider strap.  The pants pattern I've used too many times to count (see my faux jumpsuit from a couple of years ago).  I cut a 16 but added a smidge more to the hip area (weight gain, yay).  I used every bit of fabric I had, so there is no pattern matching anywhere and the length hit just below my knee.  I wanted more length, so I found a teeny, tiny scrap of a cotton and steel rayon (leftover from a romper I made for my daughter) and added to the hems.  I love the end result. And all from the stash! Woo hoo. 

If you made it to the end here, you are a champion. 😆 All in all, it was a fun and really rewarding project where I got to combine my love for art and sewing together.  And bonus, I get to look pretty fancy while I sit around my house and sip my tea during this time (but not with my mask on).  Stay safe and healthy, friends!

A Very Late Review

Ok, I told myself I wasn't going to bother doing end-of-year graphs this year.  But Joy's post changed my mind.  I love a pie chart.  Can't help myself.  So I make no apologies for this post.  I was curious how my year stacked up against previous years being that this was such a crazy one.  And I want to be able compare this year visually to the previous two years that I've done year end graphs.  That was a mouthful.

 Thirty-nine projects!  Holy cow.  I honestly can't believe I made so many things.  Most projects were super easy ones, but still.  I must have found more time to sew than I thought.  Of course summer is more productive since I get to be home all day.  Nap time equals sewing time around these parts.  I probably should have used nap time for cleaning time, but you know.  Most were blogged.  I think.

Here are some pie charts for your viewing pleasure.  First up, by garment type.

Lots of tops.  Lots of quick and easy tops.  No closure, pull over tops.  That was half (!) of what I sewed.  I guess that's why I ended up having such a large grand total.  I do love my Jacqueline tops so the fact that they were quick and easy is only an added bonus.  I only sewed four measly items for Jane.  Yikes.  I really thought I sewed more for her.  The things I did sew for her were a little more time consuming, though.  She has some projects already planned for this year.

Jacqueline Tops

Next chart, by pattern company.

Self drafted sounds fancy but most of that is all those half-circle skirts I made.  And I love all of them.  They probably win for most worn garment of this year, especially the leopard print one.  I used a few Indie patterns but most of that category goes to Tina Givens patterns.  I really like her wild, art teacher designs.  I love a big linen top.  My white Luella is such funky one.  And I wear my Jacqueline tops all the time.  All the time.  In fact, they may have surpassed my circle skirts at this point...

By fabric type. No surprise about the linen.  I love linen.  But yes, you so have to embrace the rumple.  I also discovered Fabrics-Store.com this year.

This last graph is a new one I added.  It's all my projects categorized as either a success, fail, or meh.  I added in ufo and baby for a few projects I couldn't categorize.  

I had a rough time this year with making things I was unhappy with.  It all came to head this summer.  It looks like I made a ton of projects in July but most of those were a bunch of fails I made at one time.   Looking back, my unrest in sewing things coincided with my unrest with life at the time.  I wrote a post about J's leukemia diagnosis well over a year ago and then never mentioned it again in this space.  He has chronic myeloid leukemia for those who are new here.  It's been a rough year, although things have ended up really well these last three months of so.  J "failed" two of his medications earlier in the year.  One lowered his platelet count too much and he couldn't take the full dose.  And one caused liver toxicity, which is scary in it's own right.  Anyway, he had to stop taking medication during the summer for a while to recover before we tried a third option.  And you don't want to be off of medication for too long when you have cml.  So in hindsight, I get why I've been so wishy washy and anxiety ridden this year.  2014 has been somewhat of a roller coaster.  I've had to put on my big girl panties a few times.  J is on a third medication now and is doing fantastic.  Very minimal side effects and all of his counts are in the normal range.  I think we can exhale now because I hope we've found the meds that he can be on long term.  Which, you know, we need him around long term.

Of course this little one has been a huge bright spot this year.  She mostly overshadows all the hard stuff.  And makes it all worth it.  Those teeth...

Anyway, this turned in to a rambling and deep post.  I so enjoy writing this blog even when posts are few and far between.  I've thought lots about whether I want to keep this space up this year.  And yes, I do.  I love the sharing, the connection with others and sense of community we have around here.  I love reading sewing blogs whenever I have a free moment.  It's like being a part of great big, bright and boisterous sewing club.  So thank you for reading, thank you for having conversations with me and thank you for sharing, too!  Here's to never ending bobbins in 2015.

Big and Bold

Ok, I'm going to pick on my mom here just a little.  I was in the middle of sewing this wrap dress (and another to-be-blogged floral dress) when she made the comment that maybe I shouldn't use a large floral print because it would make me appear bigger.

Bwahahaha!  Bigger!

Hehehe.  Snort, snort. Chuckle, chuckle.

She may be right.  But there is no hiding my size at this point.  May as well celebrate it, right?

After all the gray and black and blue things I've sewn during this pregnancy, I was really itching to sew something bright and colorful.  I am so ready for spring.  I love this dress.  Love it.  But boy was it a pain to sew.  I never want to see any wiggly rayon jersey again.  Or at least for a while anyway.  This is the other Burda maternity pattern that the wonderful Tj of The Perfect Nose traced for me.  I still can't believe her kindness and all the effort she went to.  I feel totally guilty that I asked for probably the two most difficult patterns to trace; a jacket that had eight billion pieces and this gigantic wrap dress.  When I say gigantic, I mean gigantic.  I've never seen pattern pieces so large.  I know Tj was cursing me as she was taping multiple sheets of paper together to trace.   I have to say it again, Tj-- You rock!  Thank you so much. 

When I first got the pattern in the mail, I thought I would be swimming in fabric.  Turns out when you are eight and half months pregnant that is not the case.  It fits pretty well.  This is the pattern with no alterations except taking about two inches off the hem.  Although I do think I took much larger seam allowances than the pattern called for.  It's very hard to be perfectly precise when using rayon jersey.  I know I took it in a bit just from trying to make everything match.  I did my first ever rolled hem on my serger.  It turned out ok.  I should have used a decorative thread in the right needle spot but I just used the regular old serger thread I bought.  I sewed this dress with the sewing machine and the serger.  I basted the seams on the sewing machine first and then took it to the serger to run it through again.  It was just too much jersey to mess around with.  It was quite difficult to wrangle it all.  The pattern is relatively simple, but the amount of jersey made it a difficult sew.

 

The facings flipped out terribly.  There was no way I was going to under stitch all those wiggle rayon facings.  Not that I think it would have helped anyway.  So I just top stitched with a narrow zig zag.  I'm calling it a design feature.  And I think it will keep the neckline from stretching out too much.   The pleats at the top of the sleeve cap are from the imprecise nature in which I sewed everything together.  I pinned in the sleeves and whatever ease was left was pleated at the top.  I love the big blouse-y sleeves.

I almost didn't make this dress.  I actually ordered two other fabrics before I finally settled on this knit.  One was an ity knit that was so incredibly heavy and the other a crinkly poly jersey that was too sheer.  Word of advice: just say no to poly knits.  This rayon knit came later.  It was a tiny bit sheer in the pink and white flowers.  So I lined it with tricot.  How do you pronounce "tricot" by the way?  I'm sure it's not the way I say it in my head.

  Ignore those wrinkles.  It feels like a sleazy bathrobe inside.  Which is great for a pregnant person.  Tricot reminds me of Halloween costumes.  I'm not entirely sure I would line something with tricot again, but it worked really well for this dress.  It keeps the jersey from showing every lump and bump and it cuts down on the sheer factor.  It was like having a slip attached to the dress.  I wore this dress to a baby shower this weekend.  It was fantastically comfortable.  I'm planning on wearing it every other day until I deliver.  Just kidding.  But I do think I will wear it a lot in the next few weeks.  And maybe I can wear it post delivery for a little while anyway.

 

And here is the bump at 35 weeks.  Four and half more weeks to go, my friends!  

Assuming she's punctual, of course.

Nerd Alert!

Ok, ok.  I am ousting myself.  I get excited about graphs.  Something about seeing information visually is really cool.  It's totally on the opposite end of the spectrum of what I actually do for a living.  But there was a part of me that loved Statistics in college (especially Educational Statistics).  Weird for an artist, I know.  I have enjoyed reading everyone's end of year posts (Gillian, your Top 5 idea was awesome!).   Though I'm really not a sentimental person.  I don't look back very often.  I am a firm believer in always looking to the future.   But Molly's graphic approach to her 2012 sewing data pumped me up.  I fired up my work computer (which I brought home over break because I swore I was going to get some work done....) and tried to refresh my Excel skills.  I haven't had to use it in years.  On a side note, Excel sure does look different in Microsoft 2010, doesn't it?  Took me a bit to figure it out.  I'm dating myself, I'm sure.

Here is my end of year data in all it's nerdy, graphic glory!  I made a grand total of 47 projects. Not too shabby.  I did quite a few home decor and crafty projects that I counted as well.  If I sewed it, it was included in the data.  I love looking at everything from this point of view because I get so much information about my productivity.  That's good knowledge to have.  Especially when my future sewing time involves also taking care of a babe.

 

My first chart is number of sewing projects by month.  I was more productive in the summer.  No surprise there since I get eight weeks off then.  And what went on in July?  I have no idea how I churned out so many projects that month.  That was also the month this little baby was created.  Hehehe.  Twas a productive month in many respects.  My productivity dwindled in the fall due to being newly pregnant.  But I managed to make something every month.  I also noticed a shift in my use of knits then, as well.  I seem to have been a little more productive lately.  It's true what they say about getting some energy back in the second trimester.

  Not sure why this chart has a title and none of the others do.  I did quite a few home decor projects early in the year.  I consider the sofa to be my biggest accomplishment of 2012.  It was completed in February, though I spent almost the entire month of January working on it.  I like sewing for the home.  Truly, I like variety.  I also noticed that I sewed a lot of baby clothes.  And no baby of my own yet!  All of the baby items I sewed were for friends or coworkers babies.  I love me some baby gift sewing.   Something about sewing miniature cutesy things is so satisfying.

Next chart is the type of fabric I used for my sewing projects.  I used a lot of cotton wovens.  I labeled that category to describe all sorts of wovens I used that were mostly cotton; seersucker, batiks, shirtings, etc.  That's pretty self-explanatory.  They are easy to sew with.  The polyester category was surprising, although one project was a craft project and the other two were fails.  What does that say about poly?  I love linen, so I'm actually surprised I didn't use more than I did.  I'd love to push myself to sew with some different types of fabric in 2013.  Um, silk would be nice.  But I'm also on a strict fabric diet, so that may be difficult.  I will be sewing from my stash whenever possible in the next year.  I predict that there will be a lot of pink frilly cotton things sewn in the future.

And the last chart is sewing project by pattern.  I didn't include my home decor projects in this chart since they didn't really require patterns.  Just measuring.  I guess I like Simplicity patterns!  I probably own more Simplicity than anything else.  They seem to go on 99 cent sales more often than Vogues or Burdas.  I was pleased to see I actually had a category for self drafted.  Though all of those projects are either a baby robe or an a-line skirt.  The Oliver and S category is misleading because all four of those projects were popover dresses for baby gifts.  I counted each project individually.  I would love to sew some other Oliver and S patterns in the future.  All in all, I'm happy about my year.  I see from my graphs that again,  I like variety.  That's generally how I am with art as well.  I consider myself to be a jack of all trades, master of none ;)  My only sewing goal for 2013 is to manage to carve out some sewing time while taking care of this new baby.  I don't want to let sewing go to the wayside since making is so important me.  I don't foresee that happening, but you know... I'm determined to make it a point to keep sewing.

Lastly, I just want to say thanks so much to all you lovely folks out there who read my dorky ramblings.  I can't tell you how much fulfillment I get from sewing and being a part of this online community.  I truly enjoy starting my day (and usually ending it, too) reading your sewing blogs also.  Like others have noted, sewing blogs are organic, rich and exciting reads.  It's real life.  So much better than any magazine or newspaper I could pick up. I love that I've made online friendships and connections with kindred souls all over the world.  It's a great feeling.

 Wishing everyone an awesome 2013 full of nothing but sewing successes.

Red Wrap

 

I get tired of my same old, same old brick chimney backdrop. And I like to play around with the seasonal goodies that PicMonkey puts out.  Sorry.

 

I decided to make something a little more snug for my bump after my 70's maternity top.  So I made up this Burdastyle knit wrap top from the 11/2011 issue.   Molly made up this same top a few months ago and I really liked her version.  I realized I had the perfect sweater knit in stash and that particular issue of Burda already.   Only I did a little slash-and-spread to the front piece to accommodate a growing belly.  I did a quick and dirty full belly alteration and added some length to the front so I could ruche the side seams to match the back.  It sort of worked.  I probably should have been a bit more technical about my alteration.  But my knit is super duper stretchy, so I wasn't too worried about it.

 

I cut a size smaller due to the stretchy nature of the sweater knit I used.  It's some sort of lightweight acrylic knit I found at Hancock last year.  Very warm and soft; two things I look for in clothing right now.  The instructions were pretty good for Burda.  This was the illustrated pattern of the issue, so that helped.  Only the illustrated instructions were not on the page the insert said they were on, fyi.  And after the instructions told you to put in the sleeve, they abruptly stopped.  I guess Burda figures you know how hem.  Anyway, those are nit-picky criticisms.   And actually, the hem is the only thing I'm not happy with.   Go figure.   My knit was so soft and stretchy, I should have stabilized the hem before stitching it.  It had to be hemmed, though, since this knit seems to unravel a bit at the edges.  Do you see that rippling?  I can't decide if I'll leave it, or fix it.   I like my top.  I don't love it, but I like it.  I like the soft, slouchy-ness of it.  One thing that bothers me is the fact that the sleeve seam slips off my shoulders and feels a little strange.  I'm assuming it's supposed to be that way since there is no shoulder seam.  I even caught myself in a photo sliding the seam back up on my shoulder.  I also stitched down the sides of the front pieces where they crossover in the front.  The drape part takes a while to situate just right otherwise.   I figure the seam there just resembles a bust dart.  It's pretty well hidden.

 

Any clue why the back of my top rides up so much?  Is my swayback becoming more extreme before my eyes?  I think I've always had a slight swayback, but now I think I'm actually going to have to accommodate for it.  With the belly I've got, I figured the front would ride up instead.  I may not have slashed and spread the front wide enough.   The side seam pulls toward the back.  And my ruching is almost non-existent.  I'll still wear it, though.  It is comfy.

 

And this is my little bump at 21 weeks.  I think the snugger stuff makes the bump look a little bit smaller, if you can believe that.  I feel huge, yet when I look at these photos I don't think I look very big.  I'm sure that will change ;)  I'll be cursing myself for saying I look small later on.  I agree with some of the comments on my last top that maybe the snug stuff is good for a bigger bump.  Little bub is definitely growing.  I felt some kung fu kicks and punches for the first time this week.  It sure is wild!

Groovy Mama

 

Maternity wear circa 1975.  Can you dig it?

 

 

I've been scouring the internet for decent maternity patterns.  I've found a few, but I really enjoy the ones from the 70's for some reason.  I ordered this pattern and made it up right away when it arrived.  It would have been a super quick if I hadn't made so many dumb mistakes.  But I have an excuse-- my brain cells are depleted.  Does anyone else find it a little creepy that being pregnant actually reduces brain cells?  Hopefully only temporarily.

 

I originally moved the bust darts down 3/4" after holding up the paper patten piece and seeing that they were pretty high.  When I sewed them up and tried on my top, they were way to low.  Bust darts that are too low do not do anyone any favors imo.  So I unpicked and moved them back up to the original pattern placement.  Now they are too high again, but higher is definitely better than low.  Next time I'll go somewhere in between.  I also had to unpick and straighten the shoulder seams.  I knew when looking at the paper pattern piece that the shoulder seam was at too much of angle for me but decided to sew it up as is.  I should have trusted my instincts and straightened them out in the beginning.  My original hemming job was absolutely hilarious.  I've never hemmed anything so crooked before.  The front angled down to one side while the back angled down to the other.  So I also had to unpick all that decorative stitching and straighten everything out.  There was lots and lots of unpicking.  But I'm glad I persevered.

I used a brushed cotton interlock I had in my stash.  It's heavier than a tee shirt knit but lighter weight than sweatshirt fleece.  It feels like a really thin sweatshirt.  I used a decorative stitch on either side of every seam that mimics the look of "athletic" stitching on active wear.   The idea for that came from Tanitisis.   I used a turquoise thread to break up the otherwise drab olive green. I didn't like the way the split at the neckline looked on it's own so I folded down the edges and pressed to make it look like a little collar.  I'm not happy with the points on the "collar" but they'll do.  I would actually like to make this again in a black drape-y knit but I think I'd round off the edges there at the neckline split.  

 

It's very comfortable and casual.  And great for a burgeoning belly!  I haven't been in to maternity wear that clings and hugs every curve thus far.  I think I prefer the loose and blouse-y over the snug.  I guess I prefer the "tent" silhouette, though I've never liked that term.  But maybe I'll change my mind as I get bigger.  What do you think?  Is the tent silhouette totally frumpy and unflattering?  Maybe I should make something snug and compare...

Does This Dress Make Me Look Pregnant?

Well, I hope so.

Because I am!

Yes my friends, I am with child, in the club, have a bun in the oven, a pea in the pod, in the family way, cooking one up, preggers, knocked up...

All of the above. (Can you tell I had fun looking up phrases for pregnant? Up the duff was another strange one.)  There seems to be a sewing blogger baby boom going right now.  This little bump actually just appeared this week.  I swear it showed up overnight.  I'm hoping I'm beyond the point of did she eat too many doughnuts or is she pregnant? Lol.  I do love a good doughnut.

All silliness aside, I am over the moon about being pregnant.  J and I are so excited.  We actually discovered I was preggo two days before we left for St. John back in August.  That was an interesting plane ride, which is a long story for another day.  I've spent the last couple of months giggling for no reason and oohing and ahhing over all sorts of tiny things.  I'm seventeen weeks along right now.  Little one will be here in early April.  We can't wait.

The only down side of being pregnant is the tiredness.  I knew it was a side effect, but I had no idea how extreme my fatigue would be.  Hence the lack of sewing and blogging around here lately.  I get home from work and crash on the couch.  I've been enjoying taking it easy.  No guilt here.  I go to bed super early.  I'm trying to get in all the sleep I can now.  And I've read quite a few good books in my down time (not just baby books!).

But I did finally manage to finish a dress.  And it's a dress that will see me through my pregnancy, no less.  I made up McCall's 6553.  I know this dress is not everyone's cup of tea, but I'm in love with it.  I actually had plans to make this dress long before I was pregnant in a lightweight drapey linen.  I know this pattern has received a fair bit of criticism of just being a big sack. But Sallie's blue ikat dress and Ginger's lovely version convinced me otherwise.  Both ladies look fantastic in their makes.  Ok, ok, so on me it is a sack.  But I think it's a sack with a really nice shape.  The pleat in the back gives it such unique volume, though I'm not sure it translates well in a knit.  The high low hem makes it modern.  This is not your ordinary sack dress.

After discovering I was pregnant, I bumped up this dress in my sewing queue. I decided I wanted to make it in a knit for extra growing room.   The pattern claims it can be made in double knit.  I rebelled and chose a super soft modal knit from my stash.  Maybe not the best choice because it was a pita to sew.  But boy is it comfy to wear now that I'm finished.  

I went down two sizes- one because I knew there was a ton of ease in this pattern plus another size down because I was using a knit.  I probably should have gone down one more, though the knit I used is crazy stretchy.  I ended up taking it in under the arms almost two inches on each side tapering to the pockets.  I skipped the belt and belt openings.  I also just sewed the top of the keyhole closed and put three pearly white buttons there.  I have two more buttons left that I may add.  I had some trouble where the back yoke pieces meet with the pleat.  The knit I used made the pleat extremely heavy.  I tried to stabilize it with some hand stitching, but you can see the pull there anyway.  There is some wonkiness where I slip stitched the facing to the yoke.  The facing was interfaced with a fusible tricot and never quite matched the shape of the back yoke piece.  C'est la vie.  There is no hem.  I tried to hem it, I really did.  All of my attempts were ripply and wavy.  I had to cut off the bottom inch and leave the hem raw.  It's as even as I could make it.  Any suggestions for hemming a very stretchy, soft knit?

The silhouette is so different for me and I was really surprised by how much I like it.  I had a moment during the process where I thought it looked like Amish pajamas, if there is such a thing.  Maybe that's what you're thinking right now, lol.  I love that I have lots of choices with this dress.  It's like a blank canvas.   I'll probably wear it with leggings and a cardigan most of the time.  But if I need to dress it up, I can put on some heels and a pretty necklace.  I think I actually prefer it without a belt. 

 

And there it is.  A seventeen week little baby bump.  When I first found out I was pregnant, I had big plans for making tons of maternity clothes.  But now that I'm almost halfway through (ack!) I know not to be too ambitious.  Sewing and blogging may be sporadic here the next few months.  There are a couple of knit things I'd love to make.  I also want to attempt a pair of maternity pants when I'm farther along.  And of course I'm sewing for the nursery!  J is actually hard at work putting in baseboards and trim as I write this.  We'll see.  There's truly only one important thing I'm making right now anyway ;)

And thanks so much for all the great advice about thread from my last post.  I'm actually pretty confident in the longevity of Coats and Clark now, but I'm going to try out a few other brands to see what my machine likes best. 

On Thread

 

A week or two ago, I read a fascinating blog post on thread and wanted to share.  Nancy, who blogs over at Owen's Olivia, did an awesome write up about visually understanding thread quality.  She did a comparison of pictures taken under a microscope of various brands of thread and I was totally intrigued.  Seeing the lint (or lack of) and twist close up was so helpful.  I borrowed one of her photos below.  I highly recommend checking out Nancy's blog, btw.  She sews like a pro and writes about her fabulous home decor projects and other various craftiness.  I love a bit of home sewing myself.  Anyway, I was really interested in this particular post on thread because I never really took thread choice seriously before.  I mean, I know the good quality stuff is better, of course.  But I kind of scoffed when a coworker who also sews told me she'd never use anything but Gutermann thread on her projects.  I didn't think it made that much of a difference.  

I've always used Coats and Clark polyester all-purpose thread.  Partly because it's cheap and readily available where I shop.  But mainly because someone gave me a gigantic bag of it when I started sewing three years ago.  I mean gigantic.  The bag must have had about two hundred spools of thread in it.  I've yet to make my way through it and I rarely buy new thread- only when I don't have a particular color.  I started thinking back on some things I've made in the past and how well they've held up.  I even examined a few of my older items closely.  A couple of tops I've made with super cheap knits have holes at every spot the thread hits around the neck binding.  I've always chalked that up to the cheap-o knit, which still could be the case.  Or too big of a needle.  But another top I made out of a woven shirting has started coming apart at the collar and cuffs.  Is that because I clipped my seam allowances too small, or is it because I used cheap poly thread that has worked it's way through the fabric?

So I'm curious, sewing friends-- what sort of thread do you use?  And do you really think that thread quality can affect the short term longevity of something you've sewn?  I say short term because most of the time when I sew, I'm not making something I want to last forever and ever.  I want it to last, but not as an heirloom item or anything.  And does thread quality matter when you are using cheap fabric?  The more I sew, the more expensive the fabric I buy.  But I still sew with cheap stuff now and again.  I'll be honest, I'll probably keep on using my Coats and Clark thread for most things because I have so much already.  Unless y'all tell me otherwise.  But I think I'm going to splurge on some nice thread for the winter coat I'm planning on making here soon.  Maybe I should not take thread choice so lightly.   Also, cotton thread versus poly thread?  Is it necessary to use cotton thread with cotton fabrics and vice versa? I want to know your thoughts on thread.  Do tell!