The Winter of Two Patterns

Fast forward several months and I’m still getting organized. Can you believe it? Simplify has become both my middle name and my mantra. I’ve tossed most of my old clothing. A few things I’ve been able to alter - but most? No, not worth the time or effort. Even though I don’t have many garments, my closet has nine boxes of fabric along with a floor to ceiling stack of neatly folded two to three yard lengths.

I have been sewing, just not blogging. The quality of my photos gets the blame. Usually it is late at night when I take pictures of my projects. I don’t know if it is the camera or the lighting (or both), but the photos are awful and I end up deleting them and then not blogging. I either need to find a decent lamp or a new camera…

Jalie 3245

This winter’s sewing focused on two patterns. One for tops, Jalie 3245, and the other for pants, Burda 2-2007-120.

Burda 2-2007-120

Why only two? Well, once home after working all day and fighting traffic (both coming and going), I often didn’t feel like tracing new patterns and wondering if I was going to end up with something wearable. With so few garments in the closet, I needed a sure bet and took the expedient route. Boring, utilitarian sewing with incredibly bad lighting (really, really bad!) produced enough business casual garments to get me through the winter.

The pants are straight forward, nothing fancy…just pants, but I like that back yoke seaming that meets the pocket seam on the side. For me, sewing a yoke seam is much easier than marking and sewing waist darts, especially with dark fabric and INCREDIBLY BAD LIGHTING. I didn’t include the cuffs. Sewn entirely on the machines.

The tops came together with whatever knit fabric I could extract from the stack without knocking it over. Some even came from the Fabriconda. Those were the most interesting as I had to combine fabrics to have enough to make make a top.

This cotton tunic is my escape from the Winter of Two Patterns. I bought the fabric at Super Textiles in Dallas. It is just down the road from the Golden D'or Fabric Outlet. Interesting place. Go there if you get a chance. Haven’t worn it yet as it is waiting for a pair of white Capri’s. The pattern is Burda 8918, and long OOP.

Burda 8918

I did my standard "add an inch to the neckline at the shoulder" maneuver. I also left off the ties and went with a narrow elastic loop and a button instead. I didn’t want to fiddle with a skinny bias loop. Simplify…

News? Well, DD#2 got married and it was a very happy wedding. Their new puppy even showed up! I ended up purchasing my MOB dress. I shopped for quality fabric, both online and off, that would be flattering and a good value and was unsuccessful. I think it would have helped had I had a definite style in mind. Anyway, no complaints. The purchased dress was kind to my budget and appropriate. Plus, it fit and I was comfortable the entire evening. A win all the way around.

Here we are at Easter:

What else? DD#1 graduated with her MBA. I’m so proud of her!

Will work on the lighting thingy…

Fabriconda #6 – Style Arc Riva Raglan T-Shirt and the Jalie Scoopneck Top

Another lucky unused pattern, the Style Arc Riva Raglan T-Shirt, was chosen for the plaid knit from the Fabriconda. Like most of the Fabriconda fabrics, this one had lots of tape and tape residue. I cut all of that tape stuff away before starting. That way I knew exactly what I had to work with (barely just enough!).

Style Arc Riva Raglan T-Shirt

Looking at the pinned together pattern on the dress form, I could see that the neck was close fitting and the hem long. My only modification was to smooth out the side seams a bit for more room at the waist…

I wore it last week with my Burda Style 01-2010-136/Ottobre bird Capri’s and some cute sandals. The shirt fits nicely and I was comfortable. Enough said.

However, the Fabriconda has freed me up to try patterns that I’ve been hesitant to try. Testing a new pattern is often risky and for that reason alone, it has been well worth the $7.00 spent. After all, patterns aren’t much good if they don’t get used.

And yet the next top did not come from the Fabriconda.  This Fabric Mart ITY has been on the shelf for several months. With confidence from the success of the Jalie Raglan Tee, #3245, I went forward with the Jalie Scoopneck Top, #2806.

This is view B with the 3/4 sleeves from view A. The fit and comfort of this top is simply wonderful and the style is appropriate for office garb. I’m restraining myself from gathering every piece of knit fabric here and turning them into this top! Seriously, I so wish I had attempted this one a long time ago!

Jalie Scoopneck Tops #2806

Oh, the quilt has been calling my name…

Jalie 3245 - The Raglan Tee

I have a lot of patterns. Some would say I have more than I could ever use and they would be right. Yet, that doesn’t prevent me from buying more. These days, I purchase most of them online and once in my possession, I scan the front and back of the envelopes and file them first by pattern company and then by number. I’ve turned the PDFs into my personal pattern catalog by grouping them together by categories: skirts, tops, dresses, etc. I keep the ones I want to make soon in a basket by the Bernina. Having those Golden D’or remnants got me to thinking about trying one that has been patiently waiting, Jalie 3245.

Jalie 3245

I took my measurements and a leap of faith and traced the size that matched. And, to give my faith a bit of insurance, I also compared it to my Style Arc Susan t-shirt pattern. It was spot on.

The fabric for this first t-shirt came from a Wal-Mart $1 or $2/yard cotton knit. There wasn’t enough length for the sleeves, so I quickly serged scraps on to make pieces that would work. I wouldn’t have thought to do that otherwise. I like it.

But, what I didn’t like was my bra straps at the edge of the neckline threatening to show every time I moved. Therefore, this second version has a neckline with one inch less exposure. It doesn’t change the look (can you even tell?) but makes me much more comfortable. I started with the top back of the sleeve (which is actually the neck) and, using the French curve, gradually added one inch to the top of the sleeve and the front neckline. The back stayed the same.

The orange stripe is a soft stretchy cotton from the Golden D’or bag. There was barely enough for the front and back and I didn’t even try to match the stripes though it doesn’t look bad. I want to say the grey and white knit was from a Fabric Mart bundle. Anyway, there is enough of it to make something else later.

I love this pattern and it has so much potential!

The eBay serger arrived. I chose this model at it was pretty close to the one I had. The tension disks are different and you don’t have to change the needle plate to do a rolled hem, but other than that they are very similar. It wasn’t used much at all but will have its chance!

Have a wonderful week!

Jalie 2445 – Yoga Pants

My first born always has difficulty in finding pajama and lounge pants that are long enough for her legs.  Recently, while searching for her jeans pattern on the BurdaStyle website, we saw a yoga pants pattern, Corrine #6021, that she liked enough to download.

BurdaStyle - Corrine #6021

I made a muslin out of some unsightly knit fabric and though the sizing was correct, she was unhappy with the tight fit at the knees.  A yardstick and a pencil could easily change that, but she realized she was really after a less curvy/more angular style of lounge pant.

She showed me a picture of some Juicy Couture velour pants and instantly I understood. After all, one must be comfortable when stretched out on the sofa, sipping tea and interneting. I felt that it might be faster to find a pattern that already had what she wanted rather than experimenting with the BurdaStyle pattern. Jalie 2445 (OOP but available as a download) had all the desired features:

• Young, feminine styling – in no way to be mistaken for men’s pajama pants

• Snug, but not tight, fit through the hips

• Straight legs

Jalie 2445

Based on the measurements of the BurdaStyle yoga pants, I went up one size on the Jalie muslin.  They fit, though were almost too snug.  The stretch velour she bought, from JoAnn’s, did not have as much stretch as the knit muslin fabric so I went up another size when cutting the fabric.  They went together quickly as the ¼” seam allowances meant that I was able to use the serger for most of the construction. For built-in stretch, I chose to coverstitch the casing to the waistband and, of course, I coverstitched the hems, too.

Instructions - Jalie 2445

I don't understand why the instructions have buttonholes placed on the backside of the waistband and so I skipped that and put them on the casing instead.  Actually, I didn’t make buttonholes but simply snipped the casing fabric (a knit mesh) where the buttonholes needed to be. However, I did sew buttonholes in place of grommets on the front of the pants.

The pants fit her very nicely and the styling is exactly what she wanted.  Really, it has taken longer to write about than it did to sew them up.  There is a good chance that I will use this pattern again - for me… J