carrotflowers

Made: summer blouse from Weekend Sewing

Project Notes: I only recently noticed people talking about this book, Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross, and most people had started with this project, the ‘Summer Blouse’ (which I still find odd as it’s long sleeved! Wherever I’ve lived in my life, summer is pretty hot, night and day!) I loved this blouse the moment I saw it. I went around blogs and flickr, and Heather’s own site for the book, trying to see what else the book had so I could justify getting it. If I’m being honest, there’s nothing in it that comes close to this top for me, personally, but there are still quite a few other fun projects in it. Some are for the home, some are for children, and there are also pajama pants for adults and kids, handbags and totebags.

I deemed it to be my Mother’s Day gift, and soon after I got it, I started working on a muslin for this top.

The muslin went smoothly, but right away I felt it was wide and a wee short (the length is a common issue other people took with the pattern.) It also was a bit wide in the shoulders for me, and it was the smallest size. The sleeves were also a bit wide overall on me. So, I set about making the most alterations to pattern pieces I’d ever done before, and felt very adventurous!

I narrowed the sleeves, shortened them by almost 10″ (!!), narrowed the shoulders by a few eighths, sewed the side seams at 4/8″ instead of 3/8″ and I lengthened the pattern by almost 2 inches. I cut the pattern just below the darts and added the length there - I didn’t want to add too much flare, and I remembered that with a lot of patterns the ‘lengthen or shorten here’ mark is usually not at the very bottom.

Mistakes/Complications: The top went off pretty much without a hitch except for one step which for some reason gave me a lot of trouble. That was sewing the bias trim around the neck edge.

Notes for Next Time: The neckline could be lowered, then length is a bit too short still, and the side seams might be taken in a bit. Also now that I’ve washed it a few times, I see the kokka linen/cotton mix frays like crazy. Trimming with the pinkng shears was def. not enough. Next time, overlock the SAs!

Tags: heather ross, summe blouse, top, weekend sewing

Made: onesie from Ottobre (knits class)

Project Notes: I took my first class at my local fabric store. It was called Sewing With Knits II. I’d taken one knit class before in the last city I lived in, a t shirt class. That was less than successful, although I don’t know that it was as much the class. At any rate, this time, things went very well. I think because I did some reading and had more general sewing experience, this time I had many questions for the instructor. I also busted out my snap setter for the first time (a snapsource tool) - that didn’t go so well in class, but when I got home, I went out on the porch and really hammered those snaps in. Success!

My main goal was to really get a handle on doing the binding so I brought a pattern with a lot. I cleverly, but by accident, bound the little sleeve ends first, and by the time I did the longer and more visible neckline binding, I was really getting the hang of it.

I’m so glad I took the class, and feel much more comfortable with knit sewing now.

Mistakes/Complications: I put the snaps on the wrong side, so the bottom snaps over the front, rather than vice versa. No biggie.

Notes for Next Time: None.

Tags: knits, onesie, ottobre design