Monthly Archives: August 2011

First Time with Jersey

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Butterick 5495, Style A

Butterick 5495, Style A

When I told my mom about the next project I had in mind, she asked if I was ready to work with knit fabrics. If you’ve never worked with knits before, they can be tricky. I had such a difficult time just laying out my fabric so I could place my pattern pieces. And sewing it can be even scarier, since it stretches, you have the possibility of stretching the fabric while feeding it through the sewing machine! But I was, and am, up to the challenge.

This is Butterick 5495, a kind of a tunic. There’s two different lengths: I’m doing the shorter of the two. Some of the women who’ve made this pattern have even lengthened the longest style to make cute knit dresses.  The other option is with or without sleeves. I was so ambitious to do this pattern that I picked up fabric to do the style with sleeves (short length, again) after I finish the sleeveless tunic.

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Stitches in Seattle

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Lightweight cotton fabric from Stitches

Lightweight cotton fabric from Stitches

When we lived in Seattle, I remembered when this shop opened. Unfortunately, I wasn’t as avid as a sewer as I am now, and nowhere nearly as comfortable with my skills as I am now, so I never went into Stitches to shop. A couple weeks ago, we happened to walk by the shop on our way to a friend’s house, and then I remembered it existed and was happy to see it was still in business! So on Friday, we had a little extra time to spend on Capitol Hill before heading to our friend’s house, and stopped in there.

There is a TON of fabric in Stitches; a lot that I’ve never seen anywhere else.  There’s even printed vinyl (I think), and a lot of prints you would definitely not find at your average fabric store. Lots of specialty fabrics that cater to the eclectic, Capitol Hill crowd.

I was drawn to a shelf of fabric from Japan, that I wouldn’t have a clue what I would do with, but it was cute. On the same shelf was the fabric pictured. I had to get it. So far, I’ve thought about making the Butterick blouse I just finished in this fabric, but I bought two yards, so I could do just about anything with it (save for a dress). Thoughts or ideas?

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APWQ Quilt Show 2011

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Best of Show Large

Best of Show Large

Since I had Friday off this week, Mom and I went to the Association of Pacific West Quilters’ Quilt Show in Tacoma. And wow! Do these women have talent! The quilts I took pictures of show just a sample of the creativity, the technical ability, and the beauty that the women participating were able to create for this quilt show.

Unfortunately, I was not diligent enough to write down the quilter’s name and the entry name with all the pictures I took, but you can view the pictures I took in my gallery here.

After viewing the main ballroom with the large quilts, we checked out the vendors so I could look for some fat quarters. I needed one more to make a twin size quilt of the Souffle pattern I picked up, since the fat quarter set I had only contained 8 fat quarters. I found a half-yard of fabric with a pretty river water pattern from Rainbow Resource Co. It matches the rest of the fat quarter set pretty well!

On the third floor of the convention center was all the wearable entries (like coats, skirts, hats), miniature quilts, and guild pieces. My camera had died by this point, but it was all beautiful! My favorite was a quilt of the Space Needle done in the style of Native American blankets, with dark blue fabric and pearl buttons outlining the Space Needle’s silhouette.

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Finishing Touches

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When we got home from our vacation today, there was a package waiting that contained fabric I’ll use to make Richard a couple of shirts, and the buttons I needed to finish off my blouse. Almost considered buying these novelty dogwood buttons instead of regular round ones, but maybe for another project.

Completed blouse--a little see-through

Completed blouse--a little see-through

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Boardwalk Quilts

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Souffle, from Mountainpeek Creations

Souffle, from Mountainpeek Creations

We’re on vacation this week on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula. While my dad and brother were fishing, Richard, Mom and I went into town to check out the new quilt store, Boardwalk Quilts. They were kind enough to let us bring in our corgi and there’s even a seating area in the front for menfolk and all sorts of magazines for menfolk.

I’ve been holding onto a penguin-themed set of fat quarters, and haven’t decided what kind of quilt to make from it. There were plenty of ideas at this store, and I found a pattern that I liked, called “Souffle”.

Hot Cakes, by Susie C Shore Designs

Hot Cakes, by Susie C Shore Designs

Also, I found a really cute oven mitt pattern that will fit right in with all the yummy gluten-free cupcakes that I like to make!

Now, I just need to find a set of fun, “cupcake” inspired fat quarters to use to make these.

Looking at the designer’s website, she also has a pattern for a penguin pincushion! I’ll have to get that one eventually.

Tale of the Dragon, by Alexander Henry Fabrics

Tale of the Dragon, by Alexander Henry Fabrics

And lastly, I found some awesome fabric, that I can’t figure out what I would want to do with it, but it’s too awesome not to figure out a project for it. I posted it on my Facebook wall and asked friends what they would do with it. I got suggestions from underwear for my husband, to curtains. I think it might be more appropriate as a dice bag, or something more gaming related, given the pattern :)

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Determination

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I’ve been determined to work through the mistakes I continued to make with the collar for this blouse. And this fabric–Kona cotton– has been determined to give me a hard time when attaching the collar to the rest of the blouse. Eventually, I won, and made my first collar!

Blouse with completed collar

Blouse with completed collar

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Interfacing Oops!

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Read. Read. Read your instructions. Don’t skip any steps! (Unless you know what you’re doing, and clearly, I’m still new at this!) Last night, I stopped at JoAnn’s on my way home to gather some notions for my blouse, and other upcoming projects. One of the things I was missing was some interfacing that I didn’t think I needed until I started sewing on the front facing and the collar.

When I sat down to work on my blouse, I finished up the other sleeve, and cut out the interfacing that I needed for the pieces that were left. Unfortunately, it was then that I discovered that I needed interfacing for the cuffs that I had already stitched and slip-stitched to my sleeves! However, since this cotton is pretty stiff on it’s own, I’m not too worried about the cuff not holding it’s body. If I were using a different fabric, with more drape, I would be!

But I managed to get the front facing interfaced and sewn on:

Blouse with finished sleeves and interfacing

Blouse with finished sleeves and interfacing

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Sleeve-tastic!

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Made a little bit of progress on my blouse tonight!  Gathering and slip-stitching are pretty time consuming, but this is about what three hours of work brought about:

One sleeve attached, the other ready to be sewn on

One sleeve attached, the other ready to be sewn on

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Cute Cotton Button-down

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I wanted to make a shirt that would complement the skirt I had just made, so I picked up Butterick 4985, and decided to make style B.

Butterick 4985, Style B

Butterick 4985, Style B

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Skirt Alterations

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As I mentioned in my previous post, I had lost some weight/inches between the time I initially tried on and sized my skirt to when I completed it. This caused the skirt to hang lower than I had liked, and it caused the back of the skirt to gap when I sat (much like my jeans like to do when I don’t wear a belt). So, with the help of mom, we took the skirt in a smidge.

This particular style was tricky. Normally, you could just take in the side seams to make the garment a little smaller around the waist, but that wasn’t going to work for this skirt style, only because the pockets make up part of the side seam. Instead, we only took in excess fabric from the back part of the skirt, and both the front and back of the yoke pieces. Mom also suggested taking in the pleats, but I think that would have required more stitching.

In the end, the plan worked out pretty well, and she even serged up the raw edges on the inside of the skirt. And the skirt fits perfectly now. In the future, I’ll be more careful about my measurements :)

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