Stretching 2 yards of Stretch Terry

Yesterday I got a little sewing mojo back and brought out both my sewing machine and my serger to complete a few projects on my list. On Saturday I ventured down to the Mill End store to pick up terry cloth with the goal of making washcloths and towels for the baby, and I ended up scoring a great deal on 2+ yards of turquoise cotton stretch terry in the mill end section.

The stretch terry is super soft, and I wanted a slightly rougher fabric for the flip side in case the baby has cradle cap, so I also picked up a half yard of plain white cotton terry cloth that was slightly rougher. I kept it simple by tracing a rounded corner rectangle onto the fabric and then serged the two fabrics wrong sides together: quick and easy!

I also wanted a couple of dedicated baby towels, so I doubled up on the stretch terry, once again serging the edges together to create 2 baby-sized towels.

And since I still had some terry cloth left, I decided to make a couple of "kerchief drool bibs".

I have a friend who's baby drooled so much while teething that she just kept a bib on him at all times to help protect his clothes from being wet all the time. This seemed to work well, but I'm not a big fan of the look of bibs, so when I saw one of these "kerchief bibs" in a photo of a friend's teething baby I figured it was a much more stylish alternative.  Each bib is essentially two triangles sewn together and secured at the back with velcro. I could have used snaps, but I'm hoping the velcro will ensure that they will fit regardless of how pudgy his neck is.
  

Baby Guitar

Last week my niece Elle turned 1 - where did the last 12 months go? While I feel like my pregnancy has been going on forever, it feels like the rest of the world has just sped by.

To mark Elle's birthday I made her a mini guitar from felt and velveteen. I used a free pattern online for a ukelele, and basically just added more strings. I also added a band all around the outside so that it resembled a guitar more, and looked less like a flat pillow. The strings are made thin cotton yarn, and I tacked it down every 3" or so. And I used white pearl snaps for the "tuning" keys.

Sadly, I don't have any photos of the guitar other than this awesome one of Elle. I got a new camera for my birthday and accidentally reformatted the camera card before I took the photos off of it. But you get the idea...

The "Island Cover" from Hell

I finally started sewing again!  It actually happened a month ago over the 4th of July weekend. I made myself pull out the sewing machine and run to the fabric store, and before I knew it, I had finished projects to show for it.

I started by tackling a project that I've meant to do since last fall - a table cover for our IKEA butcher block island. I thought it would be a nice easy project to ease back into sewing, but it turned out to be the most difficult table cover ever.

I decided to make it similar to the one I made for our coffee table, which was made with laminated cotton, and has been great for protecting the table from spills and cup rings.

I had a piece of laminated cotton that I love, and I'd been using it as an unfinished table cloth on the butcher block, but I only had about half a yard and I couldn't find any more of it. I don't even know who made it, but I wish I had picked up yards of it, as all of the colors work so well in our house.

I got the idea to use it, but to add a border around it so that it would fit the required dimensions. I went to Bolt to see if I could find a solid color to pair with it, but they don't carry solids. They did have a "wood grain" oilcloth however, so I thought that would be the next best thing.

Unfortunately I made this purchase without thinking it through and came away with the following realizations:
1) sewing through multiple layers of oilcloth is a pain.
2) measure before you purchase fabric.

I got home, measured the table and realized that I didn't buy a long enough length of oilcloth and would therefore have to piece it together on the long sides.

I used Adobe Illustrator to draft up a pattern that included pieced together sides, mitered corners, and drop sides. With all that precise measuring and drafting I was hoping for a sharp looking finished product.

I ended up with corners like this:

Apparently my measurements were off somewhere.

Ultimately, the finished product is still very useable, though not without a lot of headache.

I ended up binding the edges of the laminated cotton with bias tape, then sewing that on top of the oilcloth border. I then added the drop down sides (returns). Those sides would not stay flat! So I had to then top stitch them to the seams inside. It was a long and arduous process, and my sewing machine did not like all those layers of oilcloth. I realized that the coffee table cover was so much easier because I used a single layer of laminated cotton and the table returns were angled, making the cover stay on quite nicely.

That said, I'm glad I got back into sewing and ended up with a practical finished project. And perhaps it was better to start off with something difficult - it'll all seem like cake from here on.

Confessions

I have not sewn a damn thing in 5 months.

Nor have I needle-felted or crocheted. I have barely even cooked.

I have managed to clean the bathroom a few times, and keep the laundry from piling up too high, and I've even gotten to the grocery store on a bi-weekly basis. And I can't even blame it on my nausea anymore, as luckily that has passed. I had no idea that pregnancy would just drain the project-motivation right out of me.  I'm looking at July as a possible month to get something fun/crafty accomplished - but don't hold me to it.

When I got pregnant I had all these plans to sew maternity clothes (Megan Nielson has a great maternity collection), but even that quickly became unappealing. Lucky for me, my sister Sara has an amazing assortment of maternity clothes, in my size and style no less. When Sara visited in June she brought an extra suitcase of clothes for me. I am immensely grateful to have an entire new wardrobe of clothes that fit, and that I didn't even have to shop for. Word of advice - if you have a friend with great style, get pregnant right after they have a baby.


Amazingly, I did find a few handmade tops in my wardrobe that I rarely ever wore because they made me look pregnant, and now they fit perfectly! One is the Wiksten Tova in dotted flannel:

Another is the Amy Butler Long Top:

And now I have the version I made Sara too!

Lastly, I made another version of the Washi Tunic in flannel that I never blogged about because the fit wasn't great. I finally figured out that the bodice size that fit my measurements was actually too large and that was the cause for the large gap in front. Sadly I made three Washis before I figured this out. Lucky for me, my increased bust and rib cage size (side effect of pregnancy) means that the top fits better now that it ever did.

And I don't even mind looking pregnant!

Forest Animals (A non-mobile mobile)

More baby presents! When you're in your thirties it's pretty much non-stop baby season.

Next month my friends Megan & Trevor will become parents for the first time to a baby boy. I first thought that I'd make them a mobile, but I wanted to do a forest theme and I had already created that in a mobile in various ways (Forest Friends, Festive Forest, Mushroom Mobile), so I decided to interpret it as a wall hanging instead. 

This approach allowed me to be creative and not feel like I was making the same thing twice.
Most of the piece is handsewn flat felt, stuffed with wool for a little dimension. The animal tails, bird eggs and owl body are needle-felted directly to the blue felt background. The whole piece is framed in a purchased bamboo frame without the glass.

You can see that I adapted my raccoon pattern to be a bit more two-dimensional.

In general this piece came out how I imagined, though I thought I'd get more animals into the scene. Alas, I ran out of time. So while I think it's generally well-composed, it does feel a bit "empty" to me. On the plus side, it is for a baby, so I think he'll enjoy looking at the shapes and colors regardless.

I gifted this to Megan at her baby shower last week, and the invite requested that in lieu of cards the guests bring children's books. So I paired this with the book Forest Bright, Forest Night.

Renfrew #3: Red Cowl

Per my logic on pattern prices, this third Renfrew means that the pattern was free!

After seeing several more Renfrews online, I noticed that some people have been using sweatshirt fleece – and they look comfy!  I went to Rose City Textiles looking for sweatshirt knit but their selection was not great. I perused their sale room and came across this awesome fabric 50% off! It's a performance fleece, and very warm.

It doesn't have as much stretch as jersey so I had to fiddle with the pattern sizing once again. I basically went bigger all around, but tried to keep the shoulders narrower.

Since I liked the look of the wrong side of the fabric (maybe a little more than the right side even), I opted to turn the inside layer of the cowl wrong side out, along with the sleeve bands.

This is the closest I've come to making a winter appropriate top. I only wish that I had added pockets.

Renfrew #1 here

Renfrew #2 here

Renfrew #2: Turquoise Striped Cowl

I love pattern books and I always think that it's such a good deal to buy a book full of patterns for $20 rather than one pattern for $20. However, I rarely make anything from my sewing books. I use them for reference and inspiration, but I find more and more that I purchase the single patterns for actually making things.

Sadly the single patterns, particularly from the independent designers, are significantly more expensive than the books/magazines. I prefer to wait until lots of sewing bloggers use the pattern so that I can peruse the internet to ensure that I like it enough to make multiple versions from it. After my experience with the Colette Parfait dress (expensive pattern and total fail dress) I realized that it’s not always easier/cheaper to make your own clothes if you’re only going to make one. I decided that if I make at least three items from the pattern then I can forget about the cost of it.

This was my intention when purchasing the Sewaholic Renfrew pattern (@ $22!). Luckily I'm nearly at the point where I can erase the cost from my mind, because here is Renfrew #2.

Learning from a few of my mistakes making Renfrew #1, I cut out a new pattern with size 4 around the shoulders and chest, but keeping the grading to a size 10 around the hips. This time I used a sweater knit from the Mill End store. This was my first experience sewing with sweater knit and this was a weird one. The two colors are knit with very different thread types. The teal is thin and very stretchy, and after one washing looks like it might pill. The white is stiffer, doesn’t stretch much, but looks very crisp. We’ll see if this one makes it through more than one season.

Sticking to my goal of having more winter clothing, I used the long sleeve pattern piece for this one instead of the ¾. I like the fit of the narrow shoulders better and I like the long sleeve length much better. The torso length is still too long, but most likely I'll just live with it.

Renfrew #1 here

Renfrew #1: Plum Cowl

Living in the pacific northwest I tend to populate my closet with “layering” items. My intention is to be able to wear most of my clothing items all year long, just layering on more when needed. In reality, it doesn't really work for me. I'm always so cold that to be warm enough in the winter I'd have to wear 3 or 4 layers. Instead I tend to wear 2 layers, find that I'm still cold, and proceed to wear my down jacket all day while I sit at my desk.

So this winter I’m attempting to make myself some clothing that could be considered “winter” appropriate.

I started by picking up the Sewaholic Renfrew pattern that has been on my wishlist since summer. I love cowl necks and I really wanted to start sewing more knit items. I picked up a plum jersey over the summer at Joann Fabrics before I had any project in mind. It's a great winter/fall color, so I used it for my inaugural attempt at the pattern.

Based on my measurements I cut the pattern for a size 6 top and graded it up to a size 10 around the hips. As you can see, it's much too big. The shoulder seam is a couple inches down my arm, it's baggy in the armpit and it's a several inches too long. The designer must have a long torso because in all of her photos the shirt looks much shorter.

I followed the pattern exactly for view C, which resulted in some cursing at step 6 when I encountered a typo and had to sew the cowl three times (I did it correctly once; reread the directions and thought, "oh crap it’s backward"; resewed it; realized that the direction was a typo and the way I did it first was correct. Finally, I went back and did it a third time to get it back to how I originally had it). Luckily I didn’t have to cut the fabric more than once, but as a result the cowl is slightly shorter than intended.

I clearly need a smaller size at the shoulders and arms and to shorten the overall length. I also need to use the long sleeves, since as I've mentioned before, I really dislike this sleeve length.

I wore this top for the first time layered under a green cardigan, so while it’s a step in the right direction, I suppose I haven’t really achieved my goal.

Especially since I was still cold.

Planning for the Future: Sewing Projects, that is

Well, I am a project manager by trade, so occasionally I try to apply those skills to my personal projects. Most of the time I see a pattern I like, or fabric, and I drop everything to make it. I get a bit obsessed actually. But when I happen to acquire several patterns and yards of fabric at once, I get a tad overwhelmed and I must plan to stay sane.

Thanks to my recent purchases from Joanns, Mill End and Fabric.com, I now have 6 new cuts of knit fabric in my stash.

The Teal Striped fabric is very drapey and heavy, so I'm thinking a wrap dress would work.

The Charcoal Ponte would be perfect for a tunic. It's thick and doesn't wrinkle. I wish I had more of this because it's the perfect fabric for my lifestyle.

The Purple Space-Dyed is very thin and I got it specifically to make leggings.

The Black Ripply was too cool to pass up (plus it was on clearance). It's got medium stretch and I think it would also make a cool pair of leggings. Especially to go with the Charcoal tunic.

The Gray & Pink is a light-weight sweatshirt french terry. The inside is bubblegum pink! This will be used for a gift.

The Brown Sweater knit is thin and drapey. I have a lot of it, so I thought I'd try a couple different cardigan styles. I'm thinking of drafting some patterns off some of my favorite sweaters.

 

In addition to the fabric, I picked up a few new patterns as well. And I've already put a couple to good use:

I've been wanting the Minoru for a long time. It looks perfectly my style. I've been hesitant to start because it doesn't look like a quick project and I know I'll have to create a muslin first - which is not appealing. I keep seeing great fabrics for this jacket at Rose City Textiles, so at some point I'll bite the bullet and start the project.

 For a more instantly-gratifying project, I also picked up the Renfrew pattern. I've already made three! I'll be sharing them soon.

 I got this one at Joanns on sale for $1.99. This will be my first "non-independent" pattern. I got it because I'd like to make Mike something and this is the only handmade thing that I think he'll wear.

I saw a few bloggers recently make this dress so I slapped down the $13 for the digital pattern from Craftsy. I made a version of this last weekend and I've got quite a few comments on it...











I feel better now that I've planned. I'll be curious to see if the projects actualize correctly.

Malt Bags

My friend Alan is a brewer and we're happy to be his taste testers.
He also is a great source for materials and recipes for Mike's home brewing adventures.

Last fall he gave Mike some malt to brew with and the empty malt bag laid around the house for months. I told Alan that I really liked the bag and wanted to come up with something to do with it -  he proceeded to give me 5 more.

So, in the interest of checking off  an item on my "to make" list, I turned two of them into shopping bags.

It's a pretty standard bag with a boxed bottom.
The bag material is woven from plastic strips that fray (making quite a mess) so I finished the bottom seam with some white bias tape.
The handles are white cotton webbing.

Here's another one filled with fabric scraps.

I've got a few more of these bags and could turn them all into shopping bags, but I'm overloaded with shopping bags right now.  I'd love to come up with something more creative. If not, it looks like several people are getting Malt Bags next Christmas.

Fabric Planning: a retrospective

I’ve recently acquired a stack of new fabric and several new patterns (ie, I recently purchased it all).

As a planner, I’m busy creating lists of how I’m going to use it all, and it prompted me to look back at the last time I stockpiled fabric and patterns to see how all my planning worked out.

Why do I even bother to plan?

I did make the Colette Parfait dress from the Batik, and I used the Minkie for backing Elle's quilt.

I'm really happy with how the Coated Cotton looks in our kitchen, and I didn't really need outdoor pillows anyway.

The Heathered Cotton looks good as a sleeveless blouse, and I found another source for the toddler skirt.

The Flannel and the Dotted Cotton are still in the stash and I probably will use them for baby clothes.

The Floral Cotton and the red Jersey were used, but they did not work out at all so they are now scraps.

The white/purple/orange Jersey went to a very comfy nightgown and two infinity scarves.

At least I used most of the fabric even if it didn't go where I thought it would. 
Let's see if I do better this next time...

Franken-Scout

 
Last fall I made my my third Scout tee (1 and 2 are here). This time I did deviate from the pattern – so much so that it’s not really a scout tee anymore. It’s a franken – tee.

The first and obvious deviation is that I used knit fabric. This was only my second attempt at sewing with knits (the Washi Dress #2 was the first). At the time I didn't have any patterns for knit garments (I've since loaded up), so I thought I'd adapt what I had.

I used the front and back pieces of the Scout, but I narrowed everything significantly because of the stretch. Then I cut a keyhole in the front piece by matching an existing RTW shirt. Lastly I used the pattern for the sleeves from the Washi Dress in order to give it a little more character. I love how the keyhole and the sleeves turned out, but I hate, hate, hate how short the shirt is. I only had a yard of fabric so I had to skimp on the length - lesson learned - never buy only a yard of fabric. I've been checking in at the Mill End store to see if they get any of this back in stock. If so, I have a plan for adding some length. If not, I may turn the hem into a hi-lo and layer it over a tank top.

In addition to learning to sew with knits and adapt patterns, this was also my first attempt at attaching bias tape the right way. I reviewed Dana’s tutorial and decided to give it a shot. In general it worked – the inside is a little rough, but I’m guessing that’s to be expected and at least the front looks good. I just cut off a couple stripes from the leftover fabric for the bias tape. I'd like to add the keyhole feature to some future shirts - I think it's a nice detail.

Not my most successful project, but I think it's wearable. At least under a cardigan.

A quilt for Elle

In case it bears repeating, I come from a crafty family. We all have some unique interests but a lot of overlap as well. One of the projects that my sister Sara frequently partakes in is to make quilts (here's the quilt she made for our niece Freya). And my mother is a big maker of crocheted blankets.

And we're also all very sentimental.

All of this combined last Spring when Sara announced that she was pregnant, and Susanna, Mom and I decided to make the baby a quilt. We had several planning sessions where we plotted out the quilt (size and number of squares), determined our theme, assigned topics for each square, and selected all of our fabric.

We selected fabric by wandering around Fabric Depot until we found a printed fabric that we all liked the colors of. Then we each took a swatch of the chosen fabric and found colors in that palette for our respective squares. We didn't actually use the sample swatch in our quilt, but it ensured that our colors all coordinated as we picked up fabric separately.

Sara and I made a couple of quilts for our nephew Aidan when he was born, but my contribution was just to make some squares and Sara put the quilt together. So when it came time to assemble the quilt we kept it pretty simple. There's no border or binding, but I did use batting in between the layers and a soft coral "minkie" as the back. I attached the front and back with embroidery thread at each square intersection.

Each square of the quilt is part of the story of Sara and Bobby, and now Elle.

The banjo represents Bobby's love of music (and his stellar skills):
"it may twang a little, 
but it don't hurt".

The Love square is a photo transfer of the the Robert Indiana sculpture in Philadelphia. My mom has had a miniature of this sculpture on her shelf for as long as I can remember. And Bobby and Sara both went to grad school in Philly.

The artichoke represents my parent's gardening skills, and is a reoccurring theme in my Mom's artwork.

Oh the football... Bobby and Sara are NY Jets fans. Sara says it's a form of child abuse to make Elle a Jets fan too, but what can you do.

Sara grew up in Washington, which is where Elle will be spending many of her future vacations. This square pretty much speaks for itself.

This square has two stories to tell: The sternwheeler is representative of Marietta, Ohio, where Sara, Bobby and Elle live. But the Sternwheeler patch is another photo transfer of one of Bobby's woodcuts.

St. Johns Bridge is Portland's most iconic bridge. And we happen to live in St. Johns! This square represents us, but also represents Sara and Bobby's 3 years living in Portland.

Mom and Mark have a landmark in their yard: the Eagle Tree. I've seen as many as 11 eagles at once sitting in this tree keeping an eye on the river.

Since Sara was 7-years-old our family has lived in the Skagit Valley in Washington State, and the Skagit Valley is known for their tulips!

 

Before we moved to the Skagit Valley we lived on a sheep ranch in Arlington where Papa was a shepherd.

We grew up in a family of girls, and as soon as we all moved out Mom got herself some male poodles - Jack and Gibbs!

For at least the last 20 years, if not longer, either one or both of our parents has had a stable of kayaks ready to take out on the ocean or river. I've had some wonderful times out on the water in those things and we hope Elle will enjoy it too.

When Susanna was pregnant with Aidan we called him "Lil Fishie". Susanna has a Pisces tattoo around her bellybutton, which started the nickname, but it was also apropos of his dad and grandad's careers as Alaska fisherman - and now Aidan has started as well!

This square represents Sara and Bobby's house in Ohio. See Elle in the picture too? Their house is actually mint green, but we took some liberties in order to stay within the color palette.

My dad used to be an epic hiker/trekker - hitting the trail for weeks at a time. He couldn't convince any of his daughters to join him for such a long hike, but for many years we joined him to hike Sauk Mountain.

The trail is a series of switchbacks through wildflower meadows, and the top has lots of rocks and boulders for scrambling.

Bobby went to grad school for the Book Arts, Sara has a book published (Soil Mates) and they both love to read - 'nuf said.

Just A Jar - the name of Sara and Bobby's Letter Press & Design business. Get it?

 

Last, but not least, a bear. A reocurring theme in Bobby's artwork, and something that I really like making (see here and here).
Naturally, he had to be included in the quilt as well.

Making this quilt was actually a lot of fun. It helped greatly that I was only responsible for a third of the squares and that we kept the construction simple. But it was fun to plan with Susanna and Mom, and to think of Elle asking about each square when she's older, and Sara and Bobby telling her stories.