Sew What You Need in June

When I was trying to pack light for my recent travels, I was having some difficulty putting together a small capsule wardrobe. Many pieces in my wardrobe are standalones, and trying to put together 5 or 6 pieces that could be interchangeable was harder than I'd expected! I really noticed a lack of button up shirts in my closet. I was hoping to take one that I could wear as a shirt and also open as a kind of jacket. There was nothing really suitable for that purpose.

And then a Sew Over 50 challenge called "Sew What You Need June" popped up in my IG feed and I thought, well, I know what I need! So I've decided I could really stand to make one or two solid colour button up shirts for my wardrobe this month. 

I have sorted through my patterns and chosen a few that might do the trick. I have 3 choices for a long sleeved button up shirt, just have to choose one to move forward with! 

I have also pulled 3 patterns for short sleeved button front blouses, all from my thrifted retro stash; the Simplicity one has a hidden button placket. The Simplicity and Burda ones use small amounts of fabric so might work well with some of my recent thrift store fabric purchases. 

I have a few fabrics I'd like to make summer wear with, so hopefully I can match up at least one of these blouse patterns with one of these fabrics! I seem to be sewing very slowly these days so if I can get to one I will be happy :) 

Solid rayon, cotton & linen

Colorful cotton prints!

February Sewing & Challenges!

 

It's February already, and I have lots of sewing plans for the month. There are some regular sewing challenges that I'm planning to join in on, as well as some of my own sewing plans to come. 

I always love the #BHMPatternDesigners Challenge! It's hosted mainly on IG but you can find all the details and links to many designers, and the challenge sponsors and their February discounts, on the BHMPD website now, as well. 

I've made a few different items for this challenge over the years (even won a prize one year!) but this year I think I've decided to make the Nikki Blazer by Style Sew Me which I bought in 2022. Sadly, this shop is now closed but I have the pattern so will go for it. I'm really loving fitted jackets lately. I've even put this pattern on my MakeNine for this year, for extra incentive! I have two potential fabrics in my stash that I am wavering between. Now I will have to decide... 

Another pattern that I haven't bought yet but am very tempted by is the Ada Peplum top by Duana Studio. The sleeve, with its button detail, is so cute! 

And I really love so many of the patterns found at Les Lubies de Cadia like the Girna dress or the most recent Lysiane blouse. Swoon! 

Another focus of my sewing this month is due to an unhappy anniversary coming up. February 24 will mark the second year of Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This is still going on, and still as awful as ever. I don't want to lose sight of that. 

I'm planning to continue my search for the perfect base for my own Vyshyvanka by making up the Poppy Blouse by PatternScout OR New Look 6704 this month. I want to make the basic pattern up to see if I like the fit and style enough to spend some hours embroidering it. I like my recent ITS Palermo but not 100% sold on it as a Vyshyvanka base yet... 

And I also want to make another project from my MakeNine list, Burda 6354 as a colour blocked top in blue and yellow. 

I think that this will give me lots to work on this month, alongside some art projects I'm starting to get stuck into! We'll see how it goes. Although I do have an extra day this year ;) 

Literary Sewing Circle: Sisters of Grass Inspiration

 

Time for a little more inspiration for your Sisters of Grass sewing project! Today we're going to be looking at some of the imagery and the themes of this book to see how we might pull them out to inspire a project. 

Starting with the opening of the book, there is a constant focus on the landscapes - in the beginning, there is a description of "grass like uncut hair" that I found striking. The golden light and grasses might suggest a prairie dress style like the Champagne Field dress by the Matchy-Matchy Sewing Club.

Or  maybe your project will take shape more literally, using this kind of print:

Landscape Medley Wild Grass cotton from
Lindley General Store

Maybe you'll find something in the flowers that Margaret names as she's wandering the woods, or even the birds she sees. When she's showing Nicholas around the countryside, she points out some Mariposa Lilies, Rose hips, mint, and more. Around home there is lavender and apple blossom mentioned a few times. You might take these elements and make one of the projects from pattern company Wildflower Design. Or you could put together some Wildflower Cargo Pants by Lauren Van Der Mast with a Rose Tee by Blank Slate Patterns for a whole floral outfit! 

Or you could just decorate an outfit with some wildflower embroidery, like these from Twig & Tale. Or of course freehand some!

When Margaret and Nicholas camp out with her father, the night scene with the firepit and the endless night sky is evocative. Perhaps you'll take the mentions of the stars and constellations and try something inspired by the night sky. The Star Struck bodice by George & Ginger perhaps?

Or for something a little bit cozier for a camp-out, try the Constellation Hoodie by Love Notions. 

Margaret's late-adopted hobby of photography also opens up some great areas of inspiration. Will you make something inspired by cameras or photographs? Or by the idea of the past in the present? 

In a nod to vintage cameras, you might choose the Brownie Dress by Waffle Patterns

Or, you could make the Hosta Hobo Camera Bag by Blue Calla to carry your field camera in!

There are also the scenes with many of the horses on the ranch, and Margaret's connections to both Thistle and Daisy. Lots of wonderful horse inspired patterns/fabrics to use here! Some examples can be found at The Sewing Shoppe -- my fave is the Multi Horse Stampede Cotton - love the colours!

There are also descriptions of clothes in the book, some that are particularly important to Margaret at various moments. When she buys some cord riding pants, utility overcomes gender expectations to allow her to continue her riding and ranch work. You could try SuitAbility to make your own women's riding breeches, or shirts, helmet covers and more. Plus many patterns for your horse to wear, as well! 

Or maybe you'll just make some casual Ranch Pants (found at Mrs. Depew) inspired by Margaret's workwear. 

It could be that you're more intrigued by the pretty dresses that the family wears to hear Emma Albani sing in Kamloops. Margaret's gown of rose muslin, Jenny's one formal gown of grey taffeta, and even Jane and Mary in their white organdy dresses accented with blue and pink sashes, may inspire you. Madame Albani herself could be your focus, with her operatic presence. 

You could try the Roseclair by Cashmerette, even though Margaret's gown would likely have used the ankle length option! 

Or maybe you'll just want to make something extravagant in grey taffeta! Check out this pretty option at The Fabric Merchant.

And don't forget about the items that Anna receives at the museum in our present day timeline. Are you inspired by the hand embroidery on the tea towels, or the sashiko stitching on the Japanese textiles that arrive for her exhibit? Does the idea of Irish linen (go to the source!) or historical samplers bring something to mind for you? 

If you like the idea of sustainable sewing, you could check out the Zero & Zen course by Kate Ward & Liz Haywood; they make a zero-waste, upcycled denim jacket and then cover it in sashiko stitching. 

Or check out this very pretty vintage tea towel shift dress made by an Australian blogger -- if she can do it, so can we! 

There are a few more ideas about what to do with old linens at this Peppermint Magazine article, too. 

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

Your inspiration can come from any small moment in the book -- maybe it will even be the brief quotation from the Skye Boat Song that Margaret's father shares near the beginning, as part of their Scottish heritage. The free Crowning Glory from aptly named Waves & Wild could be just the thing for this inspo!

I hope that with all these different ideas you're starting to see the potential for a project of your own. If you have another idea, or a part of the book that has jumped out at you as your own inspiration, please feel free to share in the comments! The closer we look at the book, the more there is to work with, and your vision might add to someone else's too. 

Next week's book discussion post will be our wrap-up post for the reading part of the Literary Sewing Circle. There will be 2 more weeks to get your project done and posted, on the link up that will appear next week as well. I'm working on developing my own project ideas, from the many things I shared here and in our first inspiration post, too. Look forward to seeing all of yours. 

Thinking Ahead to February Sewing Challenges!

I can't believe it's nearly the end of January already. Time has simply whizzed by and I feel like I turned my head and two weeks have disappeared. I'm still working on the one project I have started in January -- nearly done now and looking forward to sharing it soon! 

But as I draw close the finishing this item, I'm also thinking about February. I have lots of my own plans, as evidenced by my Make Nine; however, February is full of great sewing challenges. One of my favourites happens every February, the Black History Month Pattern Designers Challenge. It's run by Nateida of SewNaturalDane, and features all sorts of Black pattern designers - for sewing, knitting/crochet, bags, fabric etc. The challenge is to make something by a Black pattern designer between Feb 1 & Feb 28, and share it following the rules on the website/IG post. It's always great fun to discover new designers and see all the projects coming in. Really interesting every year. 

I'm thinking about what I will make this go round -- I have a number of items in my pattern stash that would suit. Two which I bought last year but haven't made yet  are from two different Indie Black designers. I picked up the Temi Top/Dress by Sewphilia, and the Nikki Blazer by Style Sew Me. They are still on my to-sew list, especially the blazer as it really fits in with my wardrobe plans currently.  

I also picked up a 1979 Willi Smith pattern at the thrift store a while back. I love the blouse, but I would have to grade the pattern up since mine is a 12, so not sure I'll get to it in time. And of course I have many Khaliah Ali patterns in my stash too! 

Another temptation is this unique pattern I came across recently. It's the Girma Dress/Top from Les Lubies de Cadia. It's a French pattern company but seems to have English instructions too. I love the wrap style and the cute side pleat feature. 

I'm kind of spoiled for choice for this challenge, the difficulty is in deciding what to make!

The next big thing that's happening in February is the start of the Pattern Review Sewing Bee! Well, it actually starts Monday, Jan 30. This is such a fun event -- the first round is open to everyone and then you get selected (or not) to move on through other rounds. I've been knocked out in first rounds before, and made it to the third round last year. If the first challenge is something that appeals to me I might jump in on this year as well. I don't like to spend my sewing time making things that I will never wear though, so it'll have be something within my sewing preferences to make me jump in. Either way it's fun to follow along and see what people are making for each rapid challenge! 

Other February plans are to continue with my stash cull and reorganization, and to work on at least one project from my Make Nine plans. Let's see if this short month will be full to bursting with sewing!

#SewWrapped in Red

I finished my project for the #SewWrapped Instagram challenge that I mentioned last week -- I did get it in by the deadline on IG, but haven't got around to writing a full review of it, until today! I decided to use New Look 6081, a pattern from the 80s that's been in my stash for a while. I paired it with a stash fabric, a red & white, faintly sparkly stretch lace that I bought ages ago. 

The pattern calls for wovens or a jersey, so I thought that this not too stretchy lace would work for it. It's a fairly simple pattern, with four pieces -- front, back, and two ties. I had to make adjustments with my fabric in mind. First, I had to cut it out on the crossgrain so that the stretch was going around my body and not vertically. Luckily the floral pattern is random, not a vertically oriented one, so that didn't matter. The hems and finishes were actually easier than the pattern required; since this fabric doesn't fray, and I didn't want lumpy double folds I just turned and stitched - the single fold and the stitching don't show much at all. I can only press this fabric very lightly so didn't want to depend on flattening thick seams or hems. 

The other difficult part was the gathering at the bottom edges of the front pieces where the tie attaches on the right, and the buttons are installed to keep the left side connected to the interior. Gathering a stretch lace with so many open areas was difficult. Luckily the right side (the visible one) worked out well; the left side is a bit more of a mess but as it's inside I didn't try to unpick invisible stitches from a lace, I just 'made it work'. I didn't want to use buttons to fasten the underlap as called for in the pattern since I didn't want anything to get tangled up in the open spaces of the lace. I just stitched on three flat snaps - they are attached to the underlay and the right side seam and close up neatly. This fabric is so lightweight and forgiving in motion that I am not worried about snaps coming open here. 

The neckline is just folded in half at the back neck when you put it on, and that makes the rest of the front edges follow suit and gives that lovely swooping gathered look. One long tie is attached in the right side seam and wrapped around your back, while the short one is attached to the right front edge, and when they meet you make a knot and voila, a very quick wrap top. 

I am very pleased with this in this red lace - I can use it as a holiday piece or in this outfit that I'm sharing today. Here it's worn over a red camisole and with my favourite black skirt. Medium dressy, let's say. Over a red dress and with some sparkly jewellry it could really look fancy. I enjoyed this project and now a couple of my other wrap patterns have shifted up the queue a bit! 

It's a Wrap

Sewing Challenges are always a fun thing to follow on Instagram -- I must admit I don't do all that catch my eye, as my sewing schedule is always pretty full with preplanned things. But now and again one aligns with my ideas and my stash and piques my interest.

The latest one is #SewWrapped, hosted by @cloth_edit and @dahlia_sewciety

I have come across this one at the eleventh hour: the deadline is Nov 27, NZ time. The challenge is to make an item of clothing with a wrap or surplice feature. I'm not always very fond of wrap designs so don't have a ton of patterns with that feature -- or at least I thought I didn't, until I sorted through some patterns to see what I could make. 

Here are some of the patterns I'm considering: 

These are all stash patterns and I'm hoping to find the appropriate fabric in my stash as well, as I am not buying any more fabric this year!

And I also hope that by this Saturday (deadline Canadian time!) I'll have something to share with you from this collection. The only problem now is choosing a project so I can get busy in the evenings this week and start sewing :)

Adrienne Blouse in Floral

It's always fun to set sewing challenges for my local Garment Guild. This month our challenge was to make something we found on CreativeBug -- many of our local library systems now have CreativeBug available to patrons, and I wanted our members to find out about all the goodness in this option! 

I've already made the Shirt No. 1 from 100 Acts of Sewing, thanks to CreativeBug, and so this time I thought I'd try out the very popular Adrienne Blouse by Friday Pattern Company. I've always liked it, but worried that the close fit of the body was not for me. But onwards I went, and gave it a whirl anyhow. 

As it turns out, I really love it :) I used a rayon knit from my stash; I love the print but have never been able to figure out what to do with it, as the lightweight nature of it and low stretch were always a problem to match up with a good pattern. So I gave it a go here. It is perfect! 

I traced off the size L, but as I was measuring the pattern pieces on my fabric I realized that the waist and hip were going to be far too small for my liking. Instead of just cutting a wider line at the side seams, I swung the bottom away from the fold by one inch, giving more of a swing line to the silhouette. I did the same front and back and I am glad I did, otherwise I wouldn't have fit into this. So beware, other pear-shaped sewists -- make sure you grade out at the hip! If I make it again I may also add a bit at the bust, but I like the width and fit of the neckline & shoulder, so don't want to increase the sizing there. 

I absolutely love the soft flowiness of the sleeve in this lightweight knit. It feels so great. I used regular 1/2" elastic in the sleeve cuffs, but happened to have some heavier, sturdier bra elastic in my stash that I used for the shoulder gathering. I think it worked just great -- nice and solid, it doesn't stretch out too much, and holds the gathers nicely. I did use the recommended 7" length at the shoulder, but in the sleeve ends I reduced the circumference to about 9.5" so that it fit snugly on my arm, and allows the fullness to sit well in the sleeve. 

Otherwise this really was a quick sew; I cut it out one night and sewed it up the next day in a couple of hours. I am a slow sewist so like to have lots of time to work on things, even 'easy' projects. I didn't hem the bottom because I don't think my machine will give a nice result on this thin knit, even with a double needle. I don't have a walking foot or the ability to change the presser foot pressure, and this knit stretches as I sew; I had to stop and readjust it constantly for the seams. But I think it looks great, and I love the feel of it. I think it will go with a few different skirt shapes, and let me get a decent amount of wear out of it. I'm glad I finally tried it! 

The Busy Month of May!

 May is turning out to be a super busy sewing month! I have so many things I'd like to do this month...I'm going to note them all here and see how many I've tackled by the end of the month ;)

May of course brings #MeMadeMay, one of the longest standing and most-participated-in sewing community challenges out there. It's not a photo challenge, as host SoZo always reminds us. So I'm not really planning on taking daily photos, but I always enjoy the challenge to look at your me-made wardrobe and see how it's working for you. My 'pledge' is to see what I reach for most, and incorporate those findings into future makes so that my wardrobe will be based on things I actually wear. My recent MyBodyModel 3x3 sketch is helping me to test out ideas for my next few projects, and I'm working on another sketch now to test out some other summer pattern ideas. 

May also brings one of my favourite contests over at PatternReview, the Bargainista Fashionista! This is a challenge to knock-off a piece of designer clothing, and estimate how much money you saved doing so. It's such fun to look at outrageously expensive clothing and think about how you could make the same kind of thing. I have a few high end couture pieces I've always wanted to copy, but I don't know if I'd actually wear them in the end, and am I really saving anything by making them if I'm not going to wear them? So even though May has already started, I'm waffling between project ideas. 

The Stratford Garment Guild has a monthly sewing challenge, and this month's is to make something from the classes on CreativeBug, as this is a database that is widely available in our local library system. I've downloaded the Adrienne Blouse by Friday Pattern Company as my project, I just hope I can get it finished (um, started...) before our next meeting. 

Of course, I am also working on a project for my own Literary Sewing Circle! The project link up will be posted later this week, and we'll have to the end of the month to post something. I have one project underway and another one as a potential addition, so we'll see. 

There is also a great Instagram challenge that has been restarted, the #DressLikeYourGrandma2021 vintage challenge. I love this one, the makes and the pictures are always so much fun to go through. I have a picture of my actual Grandma that I'd love to use, but there are also some other vintage images that are really, really tempting me. 

So what I really need this month is more time...I have lots of ideas, no problems there!