My Sewing Space

Every once in awhile I feel like I want something "different" in my closet. Generally I'm not super trendy, but from time to time an odd trend appeals to me. This time it was culottes. I had a piece of black wool in my stash that was too lightweight for pants. Using it for a skirt was an option, but that would have left a good sized remnant that would be too big to toss and too small to do much else with. Since it was lightweight and had some good drape, I thought it could work for culottes. Plus, stash fabric seems "free" to me, so if it was a total bust not much was lost. There are quite a few patterns for culottes available now. The one I chose was  Vogue 9091 . I prefer a yoke to a regular waistband. Views A and B are considered culottes and View C is considered pants. I chose to make View C, but shortened it by five inches. I also added a lining, but those are the only real changes. This is not a complicated pattern. The pleats are deep and gett

I made this pair very shortly after the first version , with only a couple of changes to the pattern. I took out some height at the CB (I don't remember exactly how much), tapering to nothing at the side seams. I also changed the size of the pocket bags. I'm happier with this pair, but still need some more changes. Half grimace, half smile. It was so cold and windy. I thought outdoor pictures would be better, but the sun was so bright (not complaining!) that it makes it hard to see any details. The fabric is a black and blue loosely woven wool. From anywhere but up close, it looks like a very dark navy. It is the same fabric used in the Lisette moto jacket sew-along . I think I used what would be considered the "wrong" side of the fabric, but I liked it better. Other than the fact that it frayed pretty quickly, the fabric was easy to work with. Most of the pattern details are the same as the last pair. The fabric pressed well and the finished pants are

A plain black skirt. So basic, yet I didn't have one. I needed to change that. After making these pants (which are refinished and wonderful to wear, BTW) I had just enough fabric left to eek out a simple skirt. Given the fabric constraints, I didn't have a lot of options for styles or details, but I wanted to create a little interest somehow. I started with McCall's 3830 , a pattern that I've used many times before and have tweaked to fit me. For this version, I sliced and manipulated the pattern to add a yoke at the top and a seam down the skirt's center front. The back darts are incorporated into the yoke piece. The additional seams are accented with topstitching on each side. I used the triple straight stitch so that it would be more noticeable on the black fabric. The addition of the seams and stitching is nice, but the really interesting part of the skirt is the lining (also leftover from these pants ). The facing pieces are sewn on top of th

For the most part, my blog posts are about finished items. These pants aren't finished yet. They need to be hemmed and I think I need to completely redo the waistband (a real bummer since it is totally completed). So, I wish this was a post about a finished item, but instead it is just a post where I am excited about something new to me. SILK-LINED PANTS! Whoa. I think redoing the waistband will be worth it. I'm going to want to wear these all the time. So, of course, I want them to look good. Both the silk and the black wool are from a trip to NY and I'm confident using them now since it's been awhile since anyone spit up on me or wiped their nose on me (thanks, kids!). I'm happy with how the welt pockets turned out. The wool was really nice to work with. My local Fabricland rarely carries high quality fabrics like this. These were a treat to work with. Now, where's my seam ripper...

This pattern is now a three-peat for me. Lucky me - I have another new niece, so I made another version of this very sweet coat! The first was in denim , the second in corduroy , and now the third in a tweedy wool blend. The pattern was all ready to go, so it came together pretty quickly. I lined it with a quilting cotton featuring a lavender motif (not fireworks as suggested by The Preacher). For extra warmth, I added a layer of flannel to the bodice and skirt pieces. I used a traditional lining for the sleeves to make getting them on and off easier. I had this ribbon on hand that matched really well and added that at the neck for a hanging loop. The sleeve tabs might be my favorite part of this pattern. I really like this pattern. One of these days I may just have to sew a coat for one of my own kids!

Three more angels for M's shop... I've been pretty honest about these angels in the past , I think. They aren't my favorite things to make. But they sell and do a little bit to support my addiction hobby. And it is pretty interesting to watch them morph from something like bowling pins.... ...into something more like rubber chickens..... ...and finally into something human-like. This bag is also for M's shop, to replace this one that sold very quickly. Yay! It is made from wool very similar to the first one, but it started as a neutral beige color that didn't seem very exciting for a handbag. I chose to dye it purple. The wool felted a bit during the dying process, so it was a little harder to sew (more bulk). My Pfaff still muscled through and I'm happy with the result. This one closes with a snap rather than a zipper. I thought these instructions for applying magnetic snaps were quite good. The application feels very secure. I'm not d

I hesitate to consider this the "big reveal" because the coat does look very incomplete without buttons and because the pictures are really lousy. Uncooperative weather and an overly busy photographer have conspired against me. It was really windy outside when we took these pictures. This was the only one where the coat wasn't flapping in the breeze. I should have pinned it closed. It doesn't look so good here. The shoulders/chest are a good fit when the CF's are pinned how they will be buttoned. I used red thread to mark buttonhole placement on the right front and to loosely tack down the other button locations. I really like the seaming on the back and the back latch. But, I feel really defeated by those sleeves. They look beautiful from the front, but they aren't smooth in the back. I think they look worse here because of how  I'm holding my arms, but maybe not - it's hard to know. I matched up the marks, but it seems like they must be rotated

I'm just really not very good with in-progress posts. I thought it might be a good thing for a longer project like this coat, but I still just sew along without thinking to stop for pictures. Oh, well. I think this will be the last progress post before it is complete Woohoo! Let's see...where are we? The collar, which I didn't need to be so afraid of, is in. After thinking about a few options, I decided to use weft-insertion interfacing in the collar and stand. To give the collar a bit of a roll, I used a lot of steam - first on just the undercollar, and then on the whole collar (upper and under) after it was together. After attaching the stand to the collar, I attached it around my pressing ham with pins, steamed the whole thing and let it sit overnight. I don't know how much of a difference that all made, but it didn't hurt anything. The sleeves are set in with sleeve heads and shoulder pads. They're also hemmed and lined. The lining is partly

A nasty case of pink eye slowed me down a bit over the weekend, but I am still working away at the coat. Some details... Yoke with tabs: Pocket with flap: The pocket is lined. To ensure that none of the lining peeked out to the front, I slipstitched the pocket to the coat before topstitching. I placed the stitches on the underside of the folded edge of the pocket to prevent a flattened look. Burda's instructions don't include lining for the pocket, but a lined pocket feels so much nicer. Back latch: Burda calls this a "latch." North American patterns would probably call it a belt? I kind of like latch. I really like the seams on the back. Construction thoughts... This project is a bit of a stretch for me. My experience with tailoring and jacket/coat making is pretty minimal. It seems like something I might want to do more of someday, but right now I just don't have much need for tailored clothes in my life. So, for this coat I've been relyin

After muslining, altering, lining drafting, and cutting, the sewing has begun. And I think it's going to be better, easier and more enjoyable than I initially thought. In case I found that I needed to make adjustments to machine settings or technique, I decided to start with the small parts of the coat. That way if I messed up anything too badly, I could still re-cut it and start over. So far, so good: These are shoulder tabs (2 sets), sleeve tabs, back latch pieces, and pocket flaps. Heh, heh...the tabs struck me as finger-like...I couldn't resist. The pieces aren't perfect, particularly noticeable when they're all lined up next to each other, but I'm still happy with them. Even though the pieces are small, it took awhile to finish them since each needed to be stitched, trimmed, turned, pressed and topstitched. This fabric doesn't like to be turned - it seems a little velcro-like and wants to stick to itself rather than sliding over. The pressing par

It was cold here today (-26C when I took the kids to school this morning- brrrrr!) but I stayed warm inside working in my sewing room. Back in July , I started knitting a cardigan for myself - Rosamund's Cardigan by Andrea Pomerantz from the Fall 2009 issue of Interweave Knits . I finally finished knitting it while we were away for Christmas and today I finished the finishing - refining the shape and sewing on buttons, hooks, and eyes. Now I am happy with it. Before today, I wasn't sure about it. While I was knitting, I knew that I was going to want the sweater to be longer than what the pattern said. But, I added the length at the very bottom (the sweater is knit from the top down) when I should have added it in between the waist decreases and increases. It resulted in a sweater that had a shape very different from my own. Ripping out half of the sweater didn't sound appealing to me (remember that it took me six months to knit this!) so today I decided to try steam