Car knitting

 I have a funny relationship with knitting.

I actually really enjoy the process of knitting itself but hate the process of sewing up, always looks so messy to me no matter how hard I try, and I have trouble getting gauge and keeping it there.

Very few of my sweaters over the years have been happy projects, which is turned me to sock knitting more than anything else, which has frustrated me because, let's face it, I am a garment sort of person.

So finally inspired by Ann Budd's excellent book on top-down knitting, where she gives more formulas than patterns, I brought some hanging-around-the-house yarn and tried to knit without a real pattern, just a sense of the starting formula. (Because someone always asks, there are never any affiliate links on this blog btw).

The beauty of top down seamless sweaters is, you guessed it, no seams to sew, and you can keep trying it on as you go to see if it fits, and if not you can self-correct.

I did just that with this wearable muslin of a sweater, ripped back the sleeves for example and made them wider once I realized my first attempt was too tight.

I had a lot of fun doing this sweater as we zoomed along the roads and finished it today - hence the lovely pose in front of the back of a hotel door with the sign of what to do if there is a fire.

I am excited to try to knit another one this way now - it's just too easy. If you look at the book I used the modified drop shoulder version as my starting point.

This picture reminds me of some travelling advice a friend of mine once told me.

This fellow travels a lot for work and he once told us to always make sure to pack decent nightwear. He was once in an actual hotel fire and had to evacuate down to the lobby. He said he was amazed at how everyone looked in what they had worn to bed under the bright lights of the hotel main entrance - obviously many people had packed under the assumption that no one would ever see them after hours on the road.

Anyway it's something interesting to think about, and the reason why I bought new slippers for this trip.

Wedding tomorrow, more later.

Grey basics for the suitcase

You know I like bright colours and quirky projects, I have been particularly quirky lately. However getting ready for a little road trip this last week down to a wedding in DC I remembered that packable basics have their place.

I also gave the colour grey some thought - it's a basic but not too dark - so check trans-seasonal. It goes with other basics, namely navy and black, and it's also a low key backdrop for bright pastels, which I love.

I also figure that with all the visiting and road trips I do, knits are my only option.

Since I did all this serious thinking only a few days before I was due to fill up the suitcase, I decided that TNT patterns were my only option.

Since I have made the little girls both velour Helene cardigans in the last few weeks, they loved them and I thought they looked cozy too, I decided to just go ahead and make myself a big girl version.

I used a grey version of the cotton mix knit velour I got at Fabricville for the little girls. It has a sort of silvery cast to it which I think is useful in case I go out to a restaurant or something in my travels and want to look smoother than a person who spends most of her time walking dogs and sewing.

My assistant has to be in every picture

To wear under this I made a pair of pull-on pants from the Jalie woven pull-on pants pattern, just cut a size smaller since I was working with a stretch crepe knit.  I really like the leg of these pants, straight leg and sort of wide but not overwhelmingly so, unlike so many similar patterns.

This left me with a top pattern to come up with and here I went for a new to me pattern but an easy one.

This is the pattern I used, a sort of athletic looking top I have passed over for a few years now:

It turns out that you don't have to have a zipper in this top and you don't need to carry a bike helmet. This is good because I am going by car this trip.

It also turns out this is a super pattern, the front is made from two folds seamed up only half way making a facing/lining along the neck edge. The whole thing cut to finish only took me under an hour which is about all the time I had to pull the last part of this little outfit together. I made it from the same crepe knit as the pants to make a sort of ensemble which is handy when you travel.

Here are my shots, the whole project, done with one eye on the clock. I am pretty happy with how this outfit turned out because I know it is going to be so useful.

A fun sew and not the last time I use these patterns.

I have to say that I am beginning to really appreciate the multi-sizedness of Jalie's patterns. My pants here are the same pattern I used to make little Billy's size 3 PJs, and the cardigan has now been made for four members of the family sized 6- 40.

BTW Daisy is not on this trip. Too quick and we will be at a wedding etc. most of the time. We really miss her but she is at home with my niece who is the midst of major studying this week.

They are spending most of their time right now reading in Daisy's favourite chair - and we got this update today:

I think she will survive the week without us.

Quarter note clutch

To add to the list of things that I am guilty of (this is not a finite list) would be to get so busy sewing that I neglect the blog posts about my sewing.

This is not my intention but one day leads to the next some times.

Also I have been in a minor slump for a while now, my boys moving far away, the end of my summer school term and releasing another crop of students, my husband coming to the end of five months working away from home only back for a bit on the weekends, thinking about Nancy Zeiman, the grandchildren back at school, the leaves turning. The usual.

Now I have to say that getting down, which I absolutely believes runs in families, does not run in mine. I also believe every family has their theme and we run pretty busy and intense instead. More burn out that worn out. Truth is we are probably more likely to cause depression than suffer it ourselves. That said for about a couple of weeks I felt like I was at loose ends, knocking around in my own head a bit, so I decided to put all the ruminating aside and just sew.

I have my wonderful niece living with me and as she passed by she laughed at me, you're just not stopping are you?

Got that right.

I made the bed and swept the floors and cooked things I could eat for two days every two days and I took care of the dog and did the babysitting I could.

But apart from that I just sewed my brains out.

Like  always I picked right up, more or less right away. Life got back to looking exciting and the changes, like opportunities.

Not exactly sure how this works but something about giving myself over to sewing completely always fixes me up and gets me back to normal.

I have a theory that there is something fundamental about creativity that not just resets but outlets. 

There is a direct flow out of yourself into the world when you make something that just has to happen. In fact I would go even further and say that when that ability to be just making something gets blocked, which in my case occurred because I had a long period of being too overbooked to sew, something backs up inside you and makes you off kilter or, if it goes on too long, actually some kind of sick.

Does any of this make any sense to you?

So getting to some of the things I made during this mighty restorative couple of weeks I will start with my out of my comfort zone project, a leather clutch purse with a detachable chain strap.

First, because it's about time there were pictures, here they are:

I used my regular machine, a long stitch length and a leather needle no problem but the last step of topstitching the flap to the bag opening was too many layers to get under the presser foot. As a result I used Chicago screws instead for this step

Closed up and ready to wear

As a bag maker I am a newbee.

This was a great pattern however, very easy to do, from the wonderful Janelle Mackay at Emmaline Bags

I have read a lot of sewing instructions in my day and I have to tell you Janelle's are the best, really, really clear and thoughtful with all the handy hints built in.

The hardware, the large flip lock and the chain with hooks attached also came from Emmaline bags. Hardware is key of course to making a first time home made project just a lot less so.

Because this was a completely experimental project I used scraps - in this case some Liberty of London lawn left over from a blouse project and some leather from a thrift store coat.

With a 4.0 stitch length, a leather needle and walking foot I had no problem at all sewing the leather except for the multiple layers at the top of the bag front where the flap folds up to meet the bag opening. The issue there wasn't so much stitching as I couldn't raise the presser foot high enough to get it all under to sew.

Since attaching the front flap (actually this is just a long clutch that you fold up to make the folded look) mattered I resorted to rivets, or in this case Chicago screws. I used a Clover punch I bought years ago to insert garment snaps to make the holes and unlike rivets, which have to be sort of hammered on, the Chicago screws just screw together- I like them a lot, far less traumatic.

I interfaced the lining with a woven fusible. I fused some fusible fleece to a sew-on interfacing (minus the seam allowances in the fleece of course) and stuck that to the wrong side of the leather with fusible tape.

I used fusible tape, the sticky kind you unpeel the paper from (anyone have a source for this in big rolls BTW?) a lot for this project, to attach the lining to the leather before stitching for instance.

Leather isn't hard to sew but it does stretch, like a knit, and you do need to stabilize the stitching area. I found the fusible tape helped with that a lot too.

If I did it again the only thing I would do next time is use a firmer interfacing like a foam. Didn't have any on hand or available locally for this project and was sewing too quickly and randomly to order it in (I needed a 20 minute delivery time once I decided to start making this bag).

Next week we are headed off to the US for a fall road trip with a destination at a wedding in DC next weekend (my son's brother-in-law) and we will certainly be hitting a few fabric stores en route- although I doubt if we will have time to get into NYC and the garment district this trip, as much as that breaks my heart.

As always I will be crossing the border with a supply list.

More project photos to follow in the next few days.

Promise.

Stylerc's Besharl jacket

I am guilty of many things.

Eating all the chocolate chips in the cupboard before I make the cookies and then surprising myself because the bag is empty.

That's one.

Going in a business trip with a computer case that actually contained a small sewing machine, rather than my laptop which I had left at the office. A prop for escaping after dinner events - because I had "work" to do.

Another one I did a lot when I worked for politicians.

Leaving clothes to be mended untouched for years even when I really, really loved the person who was waiting for that zipper to be replaced.

I am doing that one right now but would rather not think about it.

But most of all I am guilty of delusions of sewing grandeur.

Case in point is some raw silk I got some time ago to make a jacket. 

My intention was to underline it for stability and line it for practicality and do bound buttonholes because that was what would work best.

The problem is that increasingly, structured clothes, although a worthy use of a good sewer's time. make little sense for my increasingly unstructured life.

So I decided to do something unusual for me and be realistic about what this fabric should become. I decided to go with the silk's characteristics - drapey and mobile - rather than tactically trying to counteract it.

I decided to save time.

I decided to sew easy.

Which led me to consider this pattern, part of my current quest for a multi-purpose over everything type jacket pattern (if you have any leads for this campaign please let me know):

This is Stylearc's Besharl jacket and apparently can be made in wovens and knits. 

Of course my fabric was woven so I widened the arm bands about an inch, in case I needed the ease in a non stretchy fabric. I also straightened out the shoulder slope a bit because my own shoulders are very square but apart from that made it as is.

During construction I also sewed tape along the front edges where the bands attach, just along the seam lines. I wanted to balance the baggy look I know this jacket will acquire pretty soon because that's what this fabric wants to do. I thought taping would help the front hold the line.

I also interfaced the sleeve bands and the hem with fusible knit interfacing but did not interface the band, which is doubled, because I could tell it would have to gather around the neck a bit and I wanted to let that happen.

Here are the shots.

Of course I have to say I am aware that my photography is never optimum.

We try but our photographic department fits these pictures in around other jobs. Today that included bashing a hole in the tile in the bathroom wall as part of a get the hot water tap to stop dripping job.

I have to tell you when you pull a man out of the bathroom when he has a hammer to a wall, your first pictures look like this:

Moving on here are better shots taken after a marital consult, with various attempts at lighting:

Of course this fabric is going to droop pretty quickly, and I am going to snag it even sooner, but I have to say I am really pleased with this pattern and with the jacket overall.

One post first wearing change I made though was to go back in and sew a chain to the top of the hem allowance to help keep the whole thing from riding up and to help it hang. This technique really works and is something I often do in unlined and knit jackets if they are longer.

You can thank Coco Chanel for this little trick:

So that's one interesting project done this week, several more on the production line as we speak, or at least I write.

In the near future however I am definitely going to come back to this pattern, next time as specified in a knit.

There is real potential here.

Birthday girl Jalies

My oldest granddaughter Scarlett turned 8 over the weekend. She loves clothes and her mom, my daughter, said she wanted cardigans.

So I made her two from some Jalie patterns I have used to make adult garments. I used her body measurements picked a size and added about an inch in length because she is a member of this family and therefore tall.

The one thing I have learned about sewing for children is just how important feel is. The fabric has to be soft or at least cozy or they won't wear it. It is interesting to me that adults try to numb the tactile sense but in the end pick favourite clothes the same way - for how they feel on us.

Raise your hand if your go-to clothes are soft, or breathable, or somehow just comfy?

Interesting how despite this we shop for fabric by colour or if it matches what the pattern calls for not body feel. Worth turning this thought over in our heads I think.

Back on topic.

The first cardigan I made was the Cocoon cardigan 

This is a wrap yourself up in it cardigan without any closures.  I made it in some nice fleece that was very soft, like Minky, on both sides.

Here it is on the birthday girl:

I triple needle cover hemmed around the band/hem with the looper side out after I had serged the band on with my new Juki cover stitch machine (BTW I highly, highly recommend Sew/Sewing & Embroidery Warehouse in Winnipeg if you are looking for a serious real deal on a Juki machine- no affiliate link BTW just another one of my own bossy opinions of which I have many, all of them my own).

I felt very proud of myself for how RTW the cover hemming looked.

This was a house type cardigan and for going out to school etc. I made a second cardigan that was quite different. I used a stretch cotton knit velvet  to make this one from Helene cardigan pattern in a knit Scarlett had been eyeing the last time we went fabric shopping together. The Helene has notoriously narrow sleeves from the elbow to the wrist but because Scarlett is skinny and the fabric so stretchy I didn't change the pattern for her. However note that when I make one of these for myself I always add to the sleeve width from the midpoint down- about an extra inch by the time the sleeve makes it to the wrist.

Again I also added an inch to the length:

Oh to be eight and so excited at a family dinner birthday party!

And how nice to have an eight-year-old in my life.

Scarlett's sister Heidi has her birthday in two weeks and I will be making at least one similar cardigan for her and another top, customized to her lifestyle. When these pictures were taken Heidi was out the back with her uncle shooting beer cans off a fence with nerf gun, she's less the flower crown type, so I am going to have to come up with some patterns that reflect her feisty little personality.

And I am going to be making some replacement pyjama bottoms for their little brother Billy since he apparently cut diamond shapes into the last ones I made up with some scissors.

Always something interesting going on around here. Just another one of your picture perfect blog families of course, but they are mine and I love real sewing for their real lives.

In celebration of National Sewing Month

To mark September, national sewing month, I have contributed a small sewing project/gift to the C & T site.

Here is a picture of the final project:

And here is a link to the complete how-to's.

Such a fun project.

Baby gift sewing

Last week one of my nieces had her first baby. Alma is a most beautiful baby and after a slow entry into the world has pretty much delighted everyone.

Being long distance on this one I decided to make a baby gift. And being a practical sort of person I decided they most needed a diaper bag with many pockets and a changing pad thingy.

I found just the patterns I was looking for at Peekaboo, a nice company that does a good job with cool family patterns and accessories. 

Here are the patterns I used:

Both patterns were very easy to sew- the diaper changing clutch is one you can file away in the Insta Gift folder.

I used a denim for the exterior fabric and some laminated cotton for the inside. I interfaced all external pieces with a fusible woven and then added a fusible fleece on top of that for support, and in the case of the clutch, so the baby wouldn't be laying right on a hard surface.

I definitely have to make up a few of these clutches to have around for emergency showers or surprise babies. 

It was fun to sew something different!

Inside view of the bag, various open pockets, a key fob, a zippered pocket, and a magnetic closure

The set and although they are made of the exact same fabric they seem to look like they are not here. Interesting.

The clutch opened up with a pocket for diapers and wipes. I would probably turn this around if I was changing someone and lay their head on the pocket.

The clutch closed - even if you don't get involved in the whole diaper bag thing this clutch alone is pretty handy.

Side view of the bag showing one outside pocket and how the interfacing combo holds the whole thing up.

The other side with a different pocket, note all pocket tops are piped for support.