April Updates

I can hardly believe it's April already! March was a blur for me: I didn't get everything done that I'd planned. So here is a little update about what's happening in April around these parts...

I need to finish up my purple polka dotted dress for Fabricville! It's all cut out and ready to sew...I'd planned on finishing it last week, but flu put a halt to my plans. This week is the time :)

I did finish my Louis Antoinette Plume Dress for the Literary Sewing Circle sewalong, in the nick of time.

And then I discovered on Instagram that Louis Antoinette is running a sewalong contest, #hacklamode, in which you can pop over to their website, download the Lolita Dress for free, and hack it to your heart's content. Prizes & everything! It runs until May 5 so you have a month in which to get creative.

Another free sewalong, with random prizes, can be found over at BurdaStyle -- there is a track jacket sewalong hosted by Meg Healey. You can register for the sewalong and get a copy of the pattern, until the end of April. Registering makes you eligible for the prizes. If you've ever wanted to make a light rain jacket for these April showers, now is the time!

And of course today is the final episode of the Great British Sewing Bee -- while two of my favourites didn't make it to the final round, two others did. So I'll be watching with bated breath to see who triumphs this time around. And I so hope we won't have to wait years, again, before the next season.

What else for April? Well, I have many patterns in the queue that I'd like to try. I have a few books, like Breaking the Pattern, to trace some patterns from; I have a long queue of shirtdresses to get started on. There is always something!

What about you? Does April look busy for you?

Sewing Bee Inspired Blackwood Cardigan

What did I just say about contests? Ah well, inspiration struck this time, so I've ended up entering the first round of the PatternReview Sewing Bee (along with 117 other sewists!). When I saw that the challenge was to make a cardigan, I knew I had to try, but it was only when I finally found the perfect fabric halfway through the week that I decided to go for it.

The challenge was not just a cardigan, but a cardigan inspired by the Pantone Colour of the Year, Living Coral. I finally came up with a concept after a few days of mulling it over. Here's what I wrote about my inspiration on PatternReview:

When I first saw the challenge I wasn't sure I'd enter as I couldn't come up with a good concept. But when thinking about coral, and about the description of the colour at the Pantone website, the phrases "authentic, connection, intimacy" made me think of traditional Ukrainian korali, the multistrand coral necklaces often interspersed with silver beads or crosses worn by women in traditional costume. These necklaces were highly valued and every woman had one - the more strands the richer you were. 

This use of coral felt like an authentic connection to my own family heritage, and so I wondered if I could make a cardigan in the redder tones of most korali, with silver accents. I was fortunate enough to find a reddish poly knit at my local Fabricland with an embossed surface; the colour and the texture both remind me of coral. I used silver reflective piping in the front band seam to give a touch of silver to the cardigan, and then I found some silver buttons with designs that look very much like the kinds of beads and crosses in these necklaces so made a little feature of them as well. 

I feel like this is my Ukrainian style coral cardigan and am quite happy with the fit and the colour -- though not exactly Pantone 16-1546 it does give me a sense of connection and joyful pursuits as described in the colour write up! 

The pattern is the Blackwood Cardigan by Helen's Closet, a pattern that I had out and ready to trace anyhow -- because this contest challenge was something I was planning on making and know I will wear, I went ahead with a different colour and fabric than I'd intended for it first. I only want to enter in to contests or sewalongs that fit in with my already scheduled sewing, otherwise I find they kill my joy in sewing. So this one was fortuitous.

The fit is pretty good, though the sleeves are quite narrow, not really great for layering over anything else that is in the least bulky. In my next go I may enlarge them slightly around the upper arm in particular.

I used a different fabric than recommended; this one is a lot sturdier and much less drapey than the recommended knits. But I love the way it turned out -- it's like a cozy sweater cardi, perfect for the cold weather we're having currently. Though I don't really recommend standing outside in a snowstorm for very long only wearing this! It was rather blustery on Saturday but I had to get some pics to enter the contest so out we went. 

I'm wearing it with my own coral necklace I bought when I visited Kyiv about a decade ago. I think it pulls it all together quite nicely. I do like the cardi, and I really like how I was able to take my vision of something that coral means in my life and turn it into this project.

Warm, cheery, and personal. What more can we ask of our sewing?

When I Put My Red Skirt On...

I recently made a bright red pencil skirt, inspired by the first week of the Pattern Review Sewing Bee. I didn't have a pencil skirt on the sewing list for fall, and wasn't planning on sewing along for the Sewing Bee -- I don't do so well with time limits -- plus I have a sewalong of my own on the go right now ;)

But the challenge was to make a pencil skirt inspired by music, and as I read the rules, a song by a group I've recently been listening to a lot popped into my head. Rosie & the Riveters are a vintage-folk band from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (close to my hometown) who are both fun and socially aware, not shying away from stating their feminism in their songs.

The particular song that jumped to mind when I saw this challenge is called "Red Dress". It's a peppy song about the confidence that comes from wearing the perfect red dress, in this case, a gem found at 'the Sally Ann'. Since I do most of my clothes shopping either in the fabric store or the thrift store, this one really speaks to me. And the tune is great too! Listen to it in this music video the group made -- you can find many more on their website.





Anyhow, I spent a full day going through my pattern and fabric stash, trying to decide what I should make for this contest. I finally decided on the wardrobe pattern Simplicity 1919 because of the skirt's cute ruffle at the back which acts as a walking pleat. Then I matched it up with some heavy red stretch fabric in the stash which I had originally bought with Jalie's Eleonore jeans in mind... but I so rarely wear pants I thought I would use it for this pattern instead.

side view of the substantive ruffle!

It worked, but the fabric is quite stretchy -- more than I'd anticipated. I had to take the waist in even more than I'd originally decided. It's still a bit loose but wearable, so no big deal. I think the rest fits well, and smooths over most of my lumps and bumps, even if the heft of the fabric gave me a little trouble with getting clean seams (it's not easy to press this). I'm going to show you two unflattering pictures just so you can get a better idea of how this turned out.... oh, the sacrifices sewists make.

Not sure why the zip is bumpy in this pic, it is smooth while I wear it. Despite the flaws, I love this deep red and find it really fun and comfy to wear. I think it will go with many neutral tops and be something I can wear nearly year round, with the addition of tights.

So although I had no plans to make a skirt, this has now started me off on all sorts of ideas for other patterns I'd like to make -- after all, I think I looked at every skirt pattern in my stash before picking this one!

Coming up soon, I'll have a great pull-on stretch knit skirt in this year's velvety fabric ready to share; I'll be refashioning a velour maxi tank dress from the 90s that I found at -- yes -- the Sally Ann! Have you made any great thrift store discoveries lately?

Kwik Sew Two-for-One: Bookish Inspirations

 

My "Book Dress" -- you can vote for me at

patternreview from Sept 3 - 9, if you like

PatternReview has a regular series of monthly contests; this month's was the "Inspired By A Book" contest. As a librarian, how could I NOT enter this one?

I went back and forth with ideas, but finally decided on using the idea of a physical book as my inspiration. Rereading a favourite author, Ray Bradbury, made me think about the importance books play in civilization. There's a scene in Fahrenheit 451 in which a woman refuses to abandon her books when the Firemen come to burn her house down -- she'd rather not live without them. As Montag (our hero) encounters her:

"Come on, woman!"

The woman knelt among the books, touching the drenched leather and cardboard, reading the gilt titles with her fingers while her eyes accused Montag.

"You can't ever have my books," she said.

The idea of physical books vs. ebooks is also a constant refrain in my job -- I love both, in different settings. But the book as object is what inspired my idea for this dress.

Because I really wanted this to work, I first made a (hopefully) wearable muslin from a grey printed sheet and some leftover grey cotton from last summer's sewing. 

I'm very glad I did, because KwikSew 4098 is one messed-up pattern. The sizing was way off from what I expect from KwikSew. The finished measurement for the Large waistband, for instance, was indicated at 37". It was close to 34" in reality. Even with that, the Large skirt didn't quite fit itself to the waistband either, so I did a lot of last minute fixing and trimming and restitching of seams to get it all together nicely. My fault for not measuring all the pieces before cutting, so I'm glad it was a first go, not my good marbled fabric! 

I added trim to the grey dress, to try out the idea of piping my final make. Thanks to Facebook groups Monthly Stitch & MAGAM for their advice -- I decided to place the trim against the patterned fabric. It turned out very pretty, I think.

Then I added sleeves -- I chose two patterns, McCalls 6503 and Kwik Sew 4068 (both patterns with a sleeveless & sleeve view) and tried out each sleeve style. I ended up going with the other KwikSew for the grey muslin, and leaving it ungathered as I liked the bell shape. But for the final dress, the McCalls' narrower shape worked better. 

When I made the grey muslin I realized that I was going to need a big sway-back adjustment. I've never had to use one before, but adjusted the pattern to take a wedge 1/2" in length at the sides but nearly 1" in the middle. It seems to have worked nicely on the finished Book Dress, but I have to redo the original grey one.

I used a centre back zip in the grey, as called for in the pattern, simply because I couldn't find an invisible zip in the right colour. It worked okay, but was another reminder that I like invisible zips better, and so that's what I used in the final Book Dress. 

So I was super happy that I did a trial run on this one, and with a few unpickings & resewings, the grey one will be wearable as well. I tried out the cute patch pockets on the grey and really like them, but went with side seam pockets on the final make as I didn't want to interrupt the regular pattern of the marbling. 

Cute patch pockets

I don't think I'll use this particular pattern again, I had so many problems with sizing. Lots of redoing got the dress to the wearable and fitting stage, thankfully. But having to put in a zip three times is not my idea of fun. Still, I ended up with two very nice dresses so I am grateful for that, and the final Book Dress was exactly what I'd imagined in the first place.

closeup of bodice

closeup of back -- the piping is *nearly* perfect.

I match my marigolds!

So this is a two-for-one pattern in many ways -- I made two dresses from the same pattern, meaning I had 2 full weeks of cursing and jabbing myself with pins and washing blood out of fabric and having to do everything twice (hey, another two!) For some reason, this pattern was a massively complicated affair -- besides the sizing issues, there seemed to be something going wrong with nearly everything at some point. I'm so glad I had TWO reasons to continue.

I've entered the Book Dress into the PatternReview contest (and hey, you can soon vote for me there if you like) and this is also my project for the Monthly Stitch August theme, Two is the Magic Number! 

So Much Sewing: Some Thoughts

So as my regular readers may have noticed by now, in the month of July I was sewing up a storm. I signed up for the Pattern Stash contest at Pattern Review, hoping to inspire myself to get to some of those older patterns in my stash that looked good to me at the time but somehow never made it out of the envelope.

I discovered a few things about myself and my sewing while participating in a contest like this.



On the positive side, I did make 15 patterns! That is, quite literally, 5 times my normal output; usually if I make 3 things a month I feel impressed with myself. Only a couple of the things I tried this month were items that I ended up not liking -- most of them were really satisfactory. Out of everything that I sewed up, I think I'll be most likely to want to make these ones again:

Vogue 1247 -- a well-fitting, practical skirt
New Look 6977 -- an easy and pretty skirt
Simplicity 3790 -- wonderful pullover top that fits well
Kwik Sew 3756 -- unusual neckline, easy top -- it's all good
Kwik Sew 3559 -- the first thing I made this month; and it's been worn at least 10 times so far. Great pattern, wonderfully useful top. Definitely making this one again.

I enjoyed sifting through my older stash of patterns and matching them up with fabric stash -- got lots of ideas and even decided to give away some fabric that I didn't like anymore. Plus, I used nearly 19.5 yards of the stash in this month's sewing! I enjoyed having a deadline of sorts to keep me focused on my sewing, and I enjoyed how it helped me to stop dithering and just cut a pattern out already ;) I discovered that I like cutting out the next few projects all at once and then having them ready to go, even if I will be limiting that to only 3 projects cut out at once in future, to avoid the dreaded UFO.

However, this hyper-focus on sewing is not sustainable in my lifestyle. I also discovered this month that I am a slow sewer. To get 15 items sewn (many of which were "quick and easy" patterns) I had to spend the vast majority of my available time sewing. While I of course love to sew, I also have other things that need doing, and most of those things were entirely neglected this month -- and I'll be playing catch-up for the next week or so.

I also find that whenever I place myself under an obligation to do something (no matter what it is) I immediately begin to feel less excited about doing it. I don't want to rob myself of the joy of sewing, which is why I do it, so I don't think these kinds of competitions are in my future. Plus I don't like the feeling of comparing myself to others that contests engender, or the anxiety of not doing as much as I had thought I could...

Another element is that these kind of quantity contests mean you're in a rush and whipping things up -- and I found that I'm not interested in just making something for the sake of making it; I want to take more time over the things I'm making, and learn things with each project, and go the extra bit to line a skirt or add a nice seam finish, or rip out a zipper and do it over again. Or take on a difficult pattern and spend the whole month just fitting it and testing it. So while I did have fun this month, I have to accept that I am not a rapid stitcher who can turn things out instantly.

Despite all this, I thought this was a valuable experience -- I learned to think about sewing more consciously, and was able to make up some items that I was just not getting to, due only to procrastination. I streamlined my crowded sewing space to make it more functional, and went through my pattern and fabric stashes. I was inspired by other participants' makes and their sewing habits. Now to incorporate that into a more normal schedule for all that sewing ahead!

All photos via British Library on Flickr

Sewalongs, contests, and themes, Oh My!

I've had some fun joining in on projects and contests lately, but have been feeling like I just wanted to sew what I wanted whenever I wanted. I have a long backlist of things I want to try.

But. Pattern Review has just posted the rules & regs for their next contest, the Pattern Stash. Essentially, you can sew from any pattern that you've had in your stash pre-2014 which you've never used before. I have a basket that I keep my "I want to sew next" patterns in and it's beginning to overflow.

So I have jumped in and signed up for this July contest. It doesn't start until July 1, and there are no pre-contest preparations allowed in this one, except for choosing your patterns and pre-washing your fabric. No muslins, no pattern fitting or prep ahead of time. Just wait for July 1, then GO!

I've made a couple of skirts in May, and really want this to be my summer of skirts. So I'll be sorting through all of my older patterns to make a wishlist for July... and of course, I'll keep sewing in June! I'm working on a couple of projects I have cut out, and still want to finish tracing off the SBCC Tonic Tee and make it before the end of the month. I now have even more incentive to finish it up!

What about you? Do you ever feel contested, challenged, sewalongingly overwhelmed? Or do you just join in for fun? This is something I've always been aware of in the book blogging world; there are always numerous "reading challenges" and readalongs going on at all times. I've had no problem picking and choosing with those, but I'm newer to the sewing blogosphere and so everything looks bright and shiny to me! Hopefully I'll get to the same level of equilibrium as I have as a book blogger, someday :)