Lizzy House Glam Clam Quilt

Earlier this year, I had the good fortune of taking a class from Latifah Saafir on her Glam Clam quilt. Yes, I already made a Glam Clam quilt for my daughter back in 2014, but I wanted to make one for myself. I also wanted to take a class from Latifah, as I had long been an admirer of her work. I backed her Kickstarter campaign, and was itching to try out my new Clammy ruler. The class did not disappoint. I learned how to use the new ruler, was introduced to using "registration points" instead of the tabs from the old templates, and got to hear a few stories behind the motifs in Latifah's new fabric line, Grafic. It was a really fun day.

  

For this quilt, I broke into my beloved Lizzy House stash, which I had been saving for a special quilt. There were several different designs covered in the class, but since I wanted to make the classic version again, I cut all my fabric beforehand. Cutting the clams with the ruler was so much easier than cutting them out by hand with the old templates. (On my first Glam Clam quilt, it felt like I spent more time cutting than sewing, and I had to take breaks because it made my hand hurt.) Since I arrived at class ready to go, I was able to sew a little more than half of my lap sized quilt during the class. I finished the piecing the next month at my mom's house during one of our sewing days.

It took me a few months to get up the courage to quilt this, as the last lap sized quilt I quilted wasn't very fun. Since I knew this would be a couch quilt, meant for cuddling, I keep the quilting light and simple: vertical lines two inches apart. I had fun with it and used a light blue thread. This quilt is currently being used and loved and is one of my favorites. 

The Glam Clam pattern is fast and fun, and I already want to make another. Latifah just updated the pattern in her shop, if you interested. (This post is not sponsored. I just love these quilts.) 

Essex Linen Hayden Tee

It's probably obvious by now, but I am a big fan of Seamwork patterns. Still, rarely do I make both of the patterns from a single issue. In 2015, I made both patterns from the June Knits issue. In 2016, I made both patterns from the April Intentions issue. I've already written about the Seneca skirt, so today I will tell you about the Hayden tee.

Last April Carolyn Friedlander announced her Euclid line, which is printed on Essex Linen, and posted about a Hayden tee she made from one of the fabrics. I immediately wanted to make a Hayden tee out of Euclid fabric. Sadly, the fabric would not be available for purchase for months and months. Since I had never sewn a garment out of Essex Linen before, I decided to make a wearable muslin while I waited for Euclid's release. Cropped isn't my style, so I chose to make the longer version. This shirt ended up being my favorite shirt of the summer.

I ordered a few yards of Essex Linen in Water, and I'll admit I was a little disappointed when it arrived. It felt rougher to the touch than I expected and I didn't see how it was an improvement over quilting cotton. Nevertheless, I continued on. It softened a bit with prewashing and its stiffness made it a joy to sew with. I used French seams everywhere I could and took my time. I took particular care when grading between two sizes and it really paid off. The end result fits me perfectly and I wore it frequently throughout the summer. Since I wore it so much, I can tell you that the Essex Linen does soften considerably with repeated washing.

The neckline gave me some trouble. Since the Essex Linen was so thick, I tried a couple different alternatives for the finishing bias strips. I had to rip out the quilting cotton I used the first time, and ended up using some leftover Triangle Tokens voile. Even so, I used a denim needle to sew the neckline, due to the thickness of the Essex Linen.

The only major change I made was to use elastic for the button loop instead of fabric, which was a detail I had seen on several of my daughter's dresses over the years. It works really well and I would do it again.

  

Interestingly enough, both the Seneca skirt and Hayden tee are supposed to be two hour projects. Personally, Hayden took me much longer to sew than Seneca, but was well worth the extra time. I could totally see myself making more of these next spring or summer. 

Basic Black Seneca Skirt

Early in July, I whipped up a new wardrobe staple: the Seamwork Seneca Skirt. Of all the Seamwork patterns I've completed, this sewed up the fastest. Usually my sewing style is to pick away at a pattern, sewing a little bit here, a little bit there, over several days or weeks. For this skirt, I started after dinner and was finished before bedtime. The instructions were clear and everything fit together nicely. It felt so good to sew such a quick pattern!

When I tried on the finished skirt in front of a mirror, I was a little unsure about the length. I'm much shorter than the model, so it's possible that I should have shortened it a few inches. In the end, I decided I love the length because of how comfy the skirt is. Also, it has pockets!

The fabric is my tried-and-true Robert Kaufman Laguna Jersey Knit in Onyx. I noticed during this year’s Me-Made-May that I reach for basic black items the most often. This skirt also filled a glaring hole in my wardrobe. Now I have not one, but two skirts in my closet!

My  Seneca skirt has gotten quite a bit of use this summer. I usually wear it with my blue Akita blouse, which is also a Seamwork pattern. I'd definitely like to sew another of these skirts next spring or summer, but am currently focused on planning my fall garment sewing. 

Mini Pearl Bracelet Bettine Dress

I am a big fan of Lizzy House’s fabric designs, so when she announced a dress contest using her fabrics, of course I had to participate. (My Chasing Butterflies Myrtle Dress was ineligible because I made it before the contest was announced.) Even though you could use any Lizzy House fabric, I wanted to try one of her new woven substrates. After much deliberation, I decided on Mini Pearl Bracelet Double Gauze in Periwinkle, as I knew it was a motif, substrate and color that I would enjoy wearing. The dress pattern was harder to decide on. It had to be simple enough to make in time without stress, cute enough to be a contender for the contest, and comfortable enough that I would actually wear it after the contest. I settled on the Bettine dress by Tilly and the Buttons, and was not disappointed.

This double gauze was a dream to work with. I took my time and slowed down to enjoy the process. I used French seams whenever I could. I did stall at the facings for a little bit, as I really don’t like interfacing. I did, however, like that the facings are stitched down nice and secure and out of the way. The pocket bag technique was new to me, but quite easy to follow along. Hooray for pockets!

My dress turned out a little more “blousy” up top because my bust measurement is between sizes, and I went with the larger size. I also graded up another size at the waist to make it match up with the skirt. Speaking of the skirt, based on the examples I saw online, I added 3” to the length. I am glad I did, as it would have been too short for my taste otherwise. Even with grading out to a larger size in the skirt, the hem feels a little constrictive occasionally. Okay, it’s only constrictive when I’m running after my five year old. It’s good for all my grown-up activities.

Next time I make the Bettine dress, I’d like to go down a size on top, and make it out of knit fabric, which should be fun. All in all, I am super happy with how this dress turned out and look forward to wearing it all summer long.

Adjusted Akita Blouses

I was pretty disappointed when my first two Akita Blouses ripped in the same spot in a matter of weeks. Even though I like to keep things positive, I also value honesty, so I mentioned my frustrations with the finishing technique in my blog post and on Instagram. The folks at Seamwork reached out to me and said they would give my feedback to the pattern designer, which I appreciated. A few weeks later, they direct messaged me on Instagram and suggested finishing the sleeve with bias tape. In fact, they recently updated their pattern to completely avoid the “snip the seam” step that so bothered me. While I haven't tried their new solution yet myself, their openness to feedback and willingness to improve inspired me to take another shot at the pattern. 

Using my Staple dress pattern as a guide, I redrafted the side seam. Whenever possible, I like to use French seams on wovens, so that's what I did. Then, I used bias tape to finish the sleeves. It's not perfect, but I am super happy with it. In fact, I was so pleased with my newly tweaked pattern that I made it twice!

For the first adjusted Akita, I used some Gleeful voile, underlined with white lawn. I bought the fabric ages ago from Intrepid Thread when I was vacationing in California. The blue really speaks to me. I have washed this shirt several times without incident and have worn it weekly. I’ve received several compliments on it a work, which is always nice.

As soon as I finished my Gleeful Akita Blouse, I started another. This time, I chose Cotton + Steel's Mightnight Gust rayon, which I purchased from Island Quilter's pop-up shop at the last Pacific Northwest Modern Quilt Guild Meet-Up. Now, I learned an important lesson about this fabric that I want to share with you: follow the care instructions! When Cotton + Steel released their first rayon fabrics, I read blog post after blog post stating that the care instructions were dry clean only, but various bloggers washed the fabric in the washer and dryer and it was fine. As a result, I washed my Gemstone Staple Dress normally. Over time, I noticed that the white diamonds weren't so white any more. I decided that for my Midnight Gust Akita, I would wash the fabric normally once, and then hang it to dry going forward. (I'm not the only one who does laundry in our house, so I wanted to pre-shrink the fabric in case it ever ended up in the dryer by mistake.) After I washed and dried my yardage, I noticed a few light spots on one end. I was puzzled, since Cotton + Steel's fabric is generally high quality, but I figured these things happen. Since I had about half a yard extra, I just cut out the pattern piece from the unblemished section. I stitched it up without any issues, and finished it just in time to wear it on my birthday. It was my new favorite shirt. Then I washed it and hung it up to dry. Can you guess what I discovered when I went to iron it? The spots were back! My previously pristine shirt now sported several splotches. They weren't imperfections in the fabric, they were the result of washing it in the washing machine. Needless to say, I was crushed. I had ruined my new favorite shirt by disregarding the fabric care instructions. Never again!

It's a shame that I more or less ruined this shirt, as it has an additional detail that I really like. I didn't want to fiddle with rayon bias strips for finishing the sleeves and neck, so I used a coordinating Cotton + Steel quilting cotton. Nobody sees it except me, but it makes me smile. I'll probably still wear this shirt under cardigans that covers the spots, or around the house. I like it too much to throw it away.

So far I have made four Akita blouses, and only one turned out well. Despite bad luck with this pattern, I still really like it and plan to make it again. I'll just pay closer attention to the fabric care instructions next time.

Unvalentine Quilt

Way back in February 2015, I had the good fortune to take Lee Heinrich’s Off the Grid class at QuiltCon. It was all about how to design quilts using alternate gridwork. I really enjoyed the class, and even finished a quilt top that day, but it was not my favorite quilt by a long shot. You see, we were told to bring a few already made blocks to class, and I made the mistake of bringing blocks that I didn’t even like.

A couple weeks before QuiltCon, I dug through my orphan blocks bin and pulled out all the extra blocks from my Perseverance Prevails quilt. Since I had already made a whole quilt out of them, I decided to cut them up and sew them back together again so that they looked a little different. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn’t like the end result, but I didn’t have time to make more blocks from scratch, so I just rolled with it. I chose to pair the blocks with a gray solid, because someone at the Seattle MQG meeting had asked if they could make their postcard swap an “unvalentine” and I wanted to play with that idea.

After I returned home from QuiltCon, I kept working on this quilt. I made a scrappy back for it and basted it in March 2015. Initially, I quilted it with straight lines in gray thread, but I really wasn’t feeling it and set the quilt aside. It languished in my WIP pile until I decided in May 2016 to suck it up and finish it. I decided to leave the quilting I had already done as is and continued with pink thread. That was a good decision. Even though I still don’t like this quilt overall, I like the look of the pink thread against the gray solid. I finished the quilting at the end of May at a Seattle MQG sew-in, and bound it in June. My goodness, am I glad to have finished this quilt! It’s my first completed quilt in 2016 and I hope it will inspire me to tackle more of my WIP pile and finish something else soon.

Easter Outfit: Chasing Butterflies Myrtle Dress and White Wembley Cardigan

Last year when I was following the Wardrobe Architect challenge, I attempted to build a cohesive handmade capsule wardrobe by sewing a lot of basic clothes in a limited color palette. That was a worthwhile endeavor, but I panicked a little at Christmas and Easter, because I didn't have any special dresses suitable for those holidays. I ended up wearing the same dress for both holidays: my Dotted Boulevard Myrtle Dress. It was the first knit garment I ever made, and I feel comfortable and confident wearing it. This year, I was determined to not let another major holiday pass by without at least attempting a little special occasion sewing, even if it didn’t fit within my self-imposed style guidelines.

Chasing Butterflies Myrtle Dress

Since I get so much wear out of my first Myrtle Dress, I decided to use the same pattern again, making this my third overall Myrtle Dress. Lizzy House's Chasing Butterfly fabric was perfect for the occasion. The symbolism of the butterflies seemed especially appropriate for Easter. The purple coordinated really well with my daughter's store bought Easter dress, and at five years old, she's young enough to enjoy matching Mommy.

Last time I made a knit Myrtle, it was my first time working with the substrate, and I remember it taking forever. With a year and a half more experience under my belt, I whipped this dress up over a weekend. I could scarcely believe how quickly it came together! The only issue I had was cutting out a second back bodice so that I could self line it instead of hemming the neck and armholes. I bought the exact yardage that the pattern called for and that wasn't quite enough fabric for what I wanted to do. I ended up piecing the lining of the back bodice, which no one but me will ever see. Next time, I'll buy an extra quarter yard of fabric, just to be safe.

My two favorite things about the Myrtle dress pattern are the fit and the pockets. The drape of the front bodice and the elastic waist make the fit super forgiving. Putting pockets in a dress is a must for me, and I'll take the added bulk any day, for the sake of convenience.

White Wembley Cardigan

Since Easter in the Pacific Northwest can be wet and chilly, a coordinating cardigan was a must. I am really pleased with how well the Wembley Cardigan pairs with the Myrtle Dress. This is my second Wembley Cardigan and the fabric for this one is Robert Kaufman's Laguna jersey knit in White. While I still love the pattern, the white fabric makes the unfinished seams more obvious when the cardigan flaps open. After making this, I found myself yearning for a serger, just so I could make the insides neater. Even without a serger, it came together quickly, and I managed to figure out the neckband issue that I had with my previous Wembley Cardigan.

Overall, I am very happy with how my Easter outfit turned out. Since I used patterns that I was already familiar with, it came together quickly and stress free, with no last-minute panic sewing. I'm hoping to have a similar experience making a dress for Christmas. Stay tuned!

Note: All photos in this post were taken by my dad, Joe Jeske.

Heather Gray Wembley Cardigan

Undaunted by the issues I experienced earlier this year with the Akita Blouse, I tried a new Seamwork pattern recently and was not disappointed. I am happy to say that I adore the Wembley Cardigan! It’s everything I expect from Seamwork: fast, easy, cute and a little bit quirky. The slanted hem makes it a bit tricky to wear with the long tunics I’ve been favoring lately, but I find Wembley is well suited for wearing over dresses, and therefore fills a gap in my wardrobe. (In these pictures, I’m wearing it with my Gemstone Staple Dress.)

The fabric is Robert Kaufman’s Laguna Jersey Knit in Heather Pepper, which I purchased from the Everett Pacific Fabrics store right before it closed. I should always keep a few yards of this fabric on hand, because it’s great for trying out new knit patterns, and comes in a wide variety of colors.

As advertised, this cardigan went together quite quickly. Since it's not designed to meet in the front, I omitted my normal grading between sizes, which saved time. I especially like that I didn’t need to break out my double needle and Wonder Tape to finish it. Love that! I also love the sleeve length. On the model the sleeves look about three-quarter length. On my short arms, they hit just at my wrist, which pleased me to no end.

The only part of this pattern I found confusing was the neckband. It’s hard to tell which end of piece E attaches to piece F, so half of the notches didn’t line up correctly for me. I just rolled with it and it turned out fine. I’ll pay closer attention the next time I make one, which will be soon!

Related posts:

Royal Oslo Cardigan
Basic Black Staples: Julia Cardigan, Aberdeen Tunic and Manila Leggings

Akita Blouse Ambivalence

It’s fairly obvious that I’m a big fan of the monthly Seamwork patterns. Their Aberdeen Tunic is one of my all-time favorite patterns. I have limited time to sew, so I really value quick, fun patterns when it comes to garment sewing. Back in January, I caught the garment sewing bug again and decided that the Akita Blouse would be just the thing for stash busting. I was really intrigued by the fact that it only had one pattern piece. I grabbed a black lawn from my stash and set to work.

I’ve been known to sew what I think my size is, rather than what my actual size is, so this time I carefully measured myself and compared my measurements with the size chart. Based on my measurements, I graded the pattern from a 10 at the bust to a 14 at the waist, and then a 16 at the hem so that I could omit the split hem detail. That’s a significant amount of grading, so I was worried that it wouldn’t come out right. However, when I tried it on after sewing the side seams (using French seams, of course), I was pleasantly surprised. It fit, and it looked cute! The bust dart was a little low, but on such a loose top, that didn’t really matter. It was one of those joyful, confidence boosting moments that makes sewing your own clothes so rewarding. I happily finished the black Akita Blouse and whipped up another one out of flannel right away. Then I proceeded to wear the heck out of both of my new shirts.

Several weeks later, I noticed something troubling. Under the armholes, my black lawn Akita Blouse was fraying and my flannel Akita Blouse was ripped! The way the sleeves are constructed, you clip the seam allowance in order to hem the sleeves and then go back and stitch the side seam allowance in place across the bottom of the armhole. Therefore, where the armhole meets the side seem is essentially unfinished. I used my amateur mending skills to “fix” the flannel Akita, and decided the fraying on the black Akita wasn’t that bad. Still, I was disappointed. When I make a garment by hand, I expect to get a lot of wear out of it. I had planned on making a bunch more Akita Blouses, but now I’m not so sure. I may go back and try to draft a better sleeve/side seam intersection, or I may not. Time will tell.

Firefly Aberdeen Tunic

Last fall, my garment sewing efforts ground to a screeching halt. I didn’t start or work on a single piece of clothing for all of October and November. Finally in December I found the time to cut out the pieces of a new Aberdeen Tunic, but those pieces sat neglected for weeks. I wanted to work on it, but I just couldn’t muster the time and energy needed to start it. Then, on December 31, as I wrote my year in review post, my desire to make something grew and grew until it overcame my inertia. At 10pm that night, I decided to see if I could make an Aberdeen Tunic under the advertised two hours. It took me two and a half hours, but since I don’t own a serger, I think that’s pretty dark quick. Most importantly, I had started the new year making something, and shook myself out of my sewing funk.

The fabric that I used for this shirt is Firefly Knit in Sigh by Bonnie Christine for Art Gallery. From far away, it looks like a solid mint color, but up close it also has little white dots. It’s quite subtle and I really like it.

The eagle-eyed among you will notice that there’s something different about the neckline of this shirt. I loved the previous three Aberdeens that I have made from the Seamwork pattern, but the necklines have never sat 100% flat for me. I thought that if I took out the v-neck that would fix the problem. While the slightly scooped out neckline is less wavy, the shoulders are pulled down by the weight of the sleeves, so if anything, this shirt fits worse that my previous versions. Since it’s the middle of winter, I added the cuffs this time, and like them a lot better than I thought I would. While I still need to solve the problem of the neckline/shoulder fit, I learned a lot from making this shirt and enjoyed the process.

January 2016 in Review

At the end of last year, my sewing had more or less stalled out. Luckily, my sewjo returned in January! I finished one Aberdeen Tunic, two Akita blouses and two crocheted scarves. More detailed blog posts will be forthcoming as soon as I carve some writing time out of my sewing time. For the last few weeks, I have been plugging away at my #seamqgbom medallion quilt and have prioritized sewing over writing blog posts. I only have one more border until the top is finished! Looking forward to making more things in February.