Peek-a-boo pattern's Park City Pullover

As you know I am interested in exploring patterns beyond the Big 4. Over time I have found that some independent pattern companies are simply doing a better job with fit that more closely resembles RTW, than the usual pattern companies, and also give us access to styles that are also closer to what real people are actually wearing in their real lives.

My admiration for StyleArc patterns, the pants in particular, and Jalie patterns is well documented in both my wardrobe and in the patterns I review on this blog.

As a result I intend to sew even more this year and to expand my horizons in as many ways as I can.

So for this reason I decided to make Peek-a-boo patterns Park City Pullover for my husband. I knew he needed a fleece jacket before our trip, all those state parks and campgrounds, and of course all those golf courses too.

My husband is hard to fit, or to be more accurate he finds it hard to fit himself. He is a trim fit guy but his shoulders and chest are proportionally larger than the rest of him. If left unattended, something we try not to do,  in a store he will buy himself XL tops (because they are comfy), completely ignoring the extra fabric that flaps around his waist and hips.

His approach to dressing has made me highly motivated to do more sewing for him. 

So when I saw this front zipper jacket from Peek-a-boo  I thought it would be a nice quick place to start:

I have had good luck with Peek-a-boo for kids clothes and for the diaper bag and diaper bag I made my niece in the fall. 

Like many independent designs the instructions are incredibly detailed, well-illustrated and carefully explained. As someone who has worked with new sewers, and seen them struggle through cryptic standard instructions sheets, I really appreciate any pattern designer who goes to all this trouble and makes sewing so clear and easy.

My husband is of average height but as someone who also sews for very tall sons and sons-in-law, I appreciate too that this pattern also has complete tall pattern pieces - another plus for a new sewer who would need them.

Now onto how the pattern worked for me.

Pluses:

The sizing was great. The large gave my husband the perfect amount of ease in the chest and shoulders but was trim everywhere else. He has more or less worn it nearly every day here on the road.

Minuses:

The details need a little work and there are some changes I would make next time. Here those are:

• The pockets are the standard inseam tear drop pocket units. These are fine in something with a long side seam but as soon as my husband puts his hands in the pockets they hang out below the hem.

He isn't really that sad about the pockets, just got him looking down in this picture! I actually think this shot makes us even for all those pictures he has taken of me that make me look fatter than I actually am ...

If I were to make this again I would use one pocket piece, sew it to the back piece at the side seam, tape turn and topstitch under the seam allowance at the pocket opening in the front piece and next topstitch the pocket piece to the front of the jacket to make the pocket. 

Does that make sense? It would fix this problem.

• The collar piece is a straight sided rectangle. You see this a lot but it makes a collar that stands up straight from the neck, rather than being curved into it, and a jacket that hugs the neck a little is warmer. A curved neck piece would fix this.

• Finally the construction of the band attaches a little awkwardly to the front zipper. There is no way if you follow the instructions to have a clean serged edge all the way up to the zipper. Following the instructions this is what it looked like before I finished the short unfinished part by hand:

I am sure I can find a way to wrap so it turns out more neatly.

So my final feeling is that this is basically a nice, well fitting pattern, great for beginners, but definitely needs some refinement to be as good a pattern as it could be.

Sewing for Christmas

For some reason that is not entirely clear to me I decided to make everything for Christmas.

I think it might be as sort of a celebration of having this fall off from teaching combined with a sort of if not now when sort of thing.

In general I do not believe in putting yourself under a lot of production pressure, particularly over the holidays.

Seared in my brain is an incident at a sewing class I taught years ago when one woman had such a melt down over the stress of trying to get a huge amount of sewing done that she started crying and couldn't stop. We ended up having to call her husband to come and get her. Really matching sweatshirts for 27 people was not worth it.

That said I decided to use November to immerse myself in my projects in a sort of university student doing the term papers sort of way. This way I won't have much to do before the day actually happens and I can just enjoy my family, everyone will be back in Nova Scotia this year, and eat.

I can't for security reasons show you everything, or even mostly what I have made, due to the fact that the recipients have access to internet. 

Here are a few things I can show you however with a few thoughts on how to sew for this season without losing your mind, although it is never clear around here that I have managed to achieve that.

First the requisite Christmas jammies. I have made two nightgowns for the little girls and two pairs of pyjamas for little boys. I used Jalie's wonderful multi-sized PJ pattern, now available only as a .pdf and Peek-a-boo patterns Sugarplum nightgown for the girls:

They were a pleasant sew (I simplified the bottoms on the pyjamas to a plain elastic waist, rather than the drawstring through buttonholes Jalie suggest).

I have to say too that I recommend Peek-a-Boo for gift sewing. I used their diaper bag and changing clutch for my niece's new baby present and both were far simpler to sew than many other patterns I looked at. This nightgown pattern is also very easy, and multi-sized. Nice to have a place to look for fast projects when you need them.

I have also downloaded their sock pattern, on the recommendation of my friend Pat, and may try those too. Apparently the toe seam is on the top, not the end of the foot, and that makes these comfortable.

Sewing socks is pretty nutty as an idea. This is probably why it is a sure thing I will make some.

I also turned around a fast tree skirt for my son and daughter-in-law in San Francisco. 

They called me Sunday night to say they had bought their first tree and asked me if I would make a tree skirt for them some time. Doesn't have to be this year my son said etc. As if I am not on permanent standby for any chance to do anything for my very competent and self-sufficient adult children.

We texted a few ideas (me secretly hoping they would not want one of those elaborate quilted numbers since I am not much of that kind of sewer) and they went for something tasteful and modern.  Since they are modern and have much better taste than I have this was no surprise. 

At any rate I went from design confirmation text to a trip down to Canada Post in less than a day. This pleased me as I am not a particularly efficient person.

Here is the finished product:

For fabric I used some soft-shell, rainwear on one side, low pile fleece on the other, fleece side up of course, because it had a nice weight and of course did not have to be lined.

I finished all the edges with a sort of satin stitch on my serger, stitch length set to close and Wooly Nylon in the upper looper, so it was basically a two seam project only. I made the pattern myself on the back of some old wrapping paper with a dinner plate used as a template for the hole in the middle.

The stars were stick-ons from Michaels that I glued more securely with some E6000.

Not sure how sturdy this whole unit is but when it wears out I will make something else for them.

So folks that's why I have been AWOL but rest assured there have been multiple blog posts written in my head.

Some might even make it to print fairly soon.