Better late than never!

 

I am a few days late with this finish of the Colette Sewing Handbook Truffle Dress for the Sew Colette sew-along, but let me tell you: it was worth it.

Before I even stitched up my muslin for this dress, I made all of the adjustments I had made to my Pastille Dress, except for a few random adjustments to the back bodice, to the pattern pieces. Then I stitched up my muslin and--miracle of miracles! It nearly fit! In fact, the front fit perfectly (!!) and the back fit perfectly, too, until about 5" up from the waistline. I am coming to terms with the fact that my back is narrower and shorter than Colette Patterns are meant for, so I went two more rounds to perfect the back so that it was nicely tailored. That is the piece that threw me off schedule to meet the sew-along deadline. (And the hem really is straight; I am just standing with my hips canted in this photo!)

Here's a side shot, where you can see the drape a little better. Because of the print, it kind of disappears into the fabric, but there's movement when I walk, which is very sweet. The fabric I used is a gorgeously soft and drapey rayon poplin. I scored mine at a fabric store in Portland, Maine last summer, but some is still available here (on clearance!) It was my first time working with something like this, and I think I did pretty okay. I cut the fabric with paper underneath, to reduce the slipperiness, and I made sure everything was on grain before cutting.

The bodice is lined with an electric blue quilting-weight cotton, which really did the trick! It's structured and the bodice looks extra smooth, where it would sag slightly if unlined. Because the rayon is so drapey, though, it kept sliding off the table, ironing board, sewing desk... The neckline gapes a little, probably because it could've benefited from some stay-stitching right off the bat.

I love everything about this dress: the shape, the feel, even the skirt drape, which I wasn't crazy about but decided to include because I think Sarai knows what she's doing! I would like to make another in a crisper fabric, more like the example in the book. And then I'd like to make one without the drape, maybe with a fuller skirt (with pleats at the waist?), or maybe another using the skirt pattern from the Pastille dress instead... I dare say, it may be the summer of the Truffle for me!

Birthday gifts update

Argh, so behind on documentation! I have been cranking away at a little something, plus trying to keep up with my Dear Jane (and failing) and Sew Colette sew-along (doing marginally better), but it seems blogging is the thing that always falls by the wayside. What you see above was crafted and gifted in January. January!

These are versions of the basket from Zakka Sewing: the big one was enlarged by 1" and the smallest one was decreased by 1". What makes them awesome, though, is that I embroidered various designs from this (free!) sketchy cats embroidery pattern by Speckless. The embroidery designs are so cute that I had a hard time choosing which ones to use!

But this bit? This is my favorite bit of all! These nested baskets were gifted to my friend Kate for her birthday. Awesome. I embroidered for that entire weekend (you can see the other embroidery I did here) and totally killed my hand, though. Definitely not something I'm used to working on!

These gifts were made for my friend Sandy, also in January, and gifted before her February birthday. It was a big birthday for her, and she celebrated by going on a safari in Africa! I knew I wanted to make something that she could take along on her trip, so I made the above: a boxy toiletries bag lined in oilcloth and made following this tutorial, and a travel portfolio from Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders.

So far this is the only project I've made from the book, but it turned out well and Sandy said it was invaluable for her trip. I don't have a passport (I know!) to test the pocket, but I guess the measurements are spot-on, which was my biggest worry. It is a great gift for someone about to take a trip, that's for sure!

Sew Colette - Meringue skirt, finished!

I was catch-stitching the hem facing until almost 11pm last night, but I finished! Here are some hastily-taken pictures of me at the office this morning.

When I decided to sign up for the sew-along, I had no idea what to make this skirt out of, so I hastily ordered some charcoal 100% twill. It's a good, basic skirt that I will be able to wear with a lot of different things, but maybe wasn't the best choice. After working with it for a bit, I realized that the twill picks up every hair and fuzz it comes close to. I created the entire skirt out of the same fabric, so the hem facing is twill, too, and is a bit "grabby" with my cotton tights. I probably should've faced it with something a little more slippery to counter that.

In a lot of ways, this is the best garment I've ever made. From the really cool invisible-zipper-insertion trick following the book's instructions, to the faux overcast stitch I used to finish the side seams (instead of my usual pinking), to using my pressing ham (Merry Christmas to meeee!) to press the darts, to catch-stitching the hem facing by hand... Yep. I even traced the pattern from the tissue onto freezer paper first. This is probably the first time I've ever done things really right. And the result is a really well-made garment that fits incredibly well.

I made a few adjustments to the original pattern. Because I'm a little short, I removed 1" from the length as I was tracing the pattern, since you can't really take it off the hem at the end. I also lengthened the back darts by 1.5" for a better fit; for some reason, the tips just didn't look right. I'm not sure they do even now, but part of that could be the bulkiness of the fabric.

Overall, I'm quite pleased. The skirt fits perfectly just below the waist and hasn't done any shifting around, which is fantastic. For a beginner garment, there are enough challenges and interesting bits to keep it, well, interesting. Now it's onto the Pastille dress--which, I must confess, scares me the most of all the projects in the book. A well fitted dress with little embellishment?! No time to be scared, though--I just have to dive in!

ETA: My skirt was featured! Thanks, ladies!

Clothes for me!

In between making stock for my upcoming show/sale and sewing for birthday and other gifts, I took some time to craft a few more wardrobe essentials for myself. Like the giraffe bubble skirt you see above. Essential, right?!?

I can't fully explain how much I adore this skirt. It is so. much. awesome. in such a small package. The giraffes! The hem! The overall foofiness of the shape! LOVE.

Okay, the details: The outer skirt is cut using my go-to self-drafted full skirt pattern (side note: I just realized that I mentioned the giraffe bubble skirt in that post! It only took me a year to get around to actually making it...). The lining is cut using my self-drafted A-line skirt pattern (all of which I learned from Cal Patch's book, which I can't recommend enough!). The assembly was kind of done on the fly. I'm starting to realize that I'm understanding garment construction much better these days, and it a really fantastic, I-just-know-what-to-do-and-don't-have-to-really-think-about-it kinda way. So when I knew I wanted to make a bubble skirt, I made my A-line, chopped about 4" off the hem, attached the gathered outer hem, and then attached the layers at the waistband. I added little snaps to hold the overlapping waistband in place, and hand-stitched the lining to the invisible zip (I'm starting to figure those out too--yay!) on the inside. The lining is leftover from my birthday dress and is really lightweight (I think cotton lawn), so even though the outer fabric is quilting-weight cotton, the skirt is not too heavy.

I also made this flora skirt using the A-line pattern I drafted from the Cal Patch book. I drafted the pattern a year ago and only just now put together a skirt from it, and it's actually a little big. I need to make another muslin and possibly re-draft the waist a bit. (I don't think this means I've lost weight, though, maybe just that it was really hot when I made my first muslin?) I put the pockets too close to the center / too far away from the hip seam, but I think this skirt is fine for a first try. I'm definitely wearing it!

Last is not a new skirt but a bit of an update. I originally blogged this fishy skirt here, but only just got around to adding the contrast stitching. Now that I look at the before and after pictures, I'm really glad I did it--I think it adds a lot. Plus it only took me like 2 episodes of Law & Order on a Saturday morning to do it all.

More gifted crafts

Poor, neglected blog! I am so so bad at keeping this updated... Here's a quick catch-up of gifts I've recently presented to friends. First up is a bridal shower gift: a vintage-inspired handbag. This is for my friend Chrissy, whose wedding dress I made! (!!!) More on that in a month or so, after the wedding--I can't ruin the surprise! But you can consider this your sneak peek, as I used the same fabrics from the dress to make this sweet little bag.

The pattern comes from Making Vintage Bags, appropriately enough, except instead of copying and enlarging the pattern, I made some quick measurements and drafted it myself on some printer paper. Easy peasy. Other than that, though, I followed instructions as written and, in the process, learned a nifty new way to set in a zipper, which you can see above!

I made these bookshelf mini-quilts for two friends who had May birthdays. The design is from Modern Quilt Workshop and is pretty easy and fun to do. Once again, I machine-applied the binding, which really sped up the process. This is beginning to become my go-to method...

Last is this Mexi-themed apron I made for my friend Vanessa as an additional birthday gift (hey, she threw my birthday party in April, so it was the least I could do to try to pay her back!). This apron pattern was completely drafted by me, which makes me ridiculously happy. The skirt is modified from this one I drafted for myself, and the top is a pretty simple geometrical shape that I forgot the name of as soon as I finished 8th grade geometry. The skirt corners are rounded, and the whole skirt is bound in my first (and possibly last) attempt at continuous bias tape. Seriously, it was BAD! I liked the final outcome of this apron, but there are a few things I tweaked for my next round, which I will be showing you soon!

Baby shower gift round-up

I know I've mentioned this before, but it really seems like everyone is pregnant! I had a baby shower to attend two weekends in a row! Phew! So please forgive me if this post is a bit all-encompassing, but there's a lot to share!

First was Steph's shower. I made her the gift you see above: A stroller quilt (finishes around 18" x 30"). You may recognize the pattern from the cover of this book. I adapted the blocks to finish much smaller, and just pulled some neutrals and stripes from my stash. The quilting is an easy diagonal cross-hatch, and the backing is flannel for extra coziness. I put the binding on by machine to save more time. I really like how this one turned out!

I also made Steph four little stuffed lambies for her mobile. That last was a special request, and I was happy to oblige! I love softies :) These were my own pattern, made with some faux fleece and felt that I had on hand. Steph texted me a photo of them on the mobile, which you can see here. Aww!

Next up was Michelle's shower. She's having a girl, and the nursery is ladybug-themed, so I gifted her this quilt (which you may remember from way back here) and made her the ladybug softie from Little Stitches. I omitted the antennae because I thought they were too fussy and added eyes instead--blanket-stitched circles of felt. Now I think that I'd include the antennae next time; I think it looks like a little something is missing.

Since I've been giving my friends two things (a quilt and a softie, usually) for baby shower gifts, I wanted to make another something for Leah, to whom I'd only gifted this sleep sack for her shower. She was kind enough to host Steph's shower while caring for her own newborn daughter (!!), so I whipped up this Mermaiden from Wee Wonderfuls for her. I was in a time crunch so I did most of the assembly by machine. Still, she turned out pretty cute!

Natural Patchwork

I was just skimming through old posts from last summer, looking for a mention of working on a big commission project, but I couldn't find any?? Hmm. Anyway, last summer I undertook a large commission project for the publisher I work for: Make 12 sample projects from Natural Patchwork to be given out to sales reps to help sell the book.

These have all been finished since August (!) but I wanted to wait until the book was actually printed and on sale before I posted them (I worked from a Word file of the manuscript and a photocopy of the Japanese book, which was really tough!). I tried out a variety of projects because I wanted to test some of the patterns and also show some of the range that's in the book.

I spent a lot of time trying to match the fabric choices in the original book, which made everything take quite a bit longer than if I'd been making them for myself and using fabrics I had on hand. These hot pads, especially, were really time-consuming!

These bags took a while, too. Those courthouse steps blocks are really small! I consolidated some of the quilting (I did about half as much as was recommended in the book, and all of that by machine) and they still took a while. Looking back on them now, though, I am really loving them, especially that red bag!

I learned some new construction techniques, especially with the courthouse steps bags, which are quilted in sections and then have bias binding applied to cover the raw edges. The bags also use an interesting zipper insertion method that I had never tried but did like.

In all, it was a great experience. I really like the book and the variety of projects in it and would highly recommend picking up a copy (and not just because I work here!). It's sweet to look at all this happy patchwork now, and I'm a little sad I had to let it all go. I'm thinking now that I may have to revisit some of it this summer...

30 hexie bag

I've already blogged about my birthday party, but haven't said anything about how I spent my birthday day. It was pretty typical KJo, really. I slept in a little, lazed about all morning with the cat and the TV. Rob had to teach plus had office hours, so I was alone for most of the afternoon. Instead of chipping away at my to-do list (which is full of some doozies), I decided to set it all aside and do something for ME. I'd been needing a new bag for ages. I have some Modern Meadow fabrics set aside for the perfect bag, except I haven't figured it out yet. In the meantime, though, I decided to make a stop-gap bag.

So I started pulling fabrics from my stash, and when I had a bunch that looked good together, I counted. I had something like 26, so I added more to bring it to a full 30 (a little cheesy, I know, but you only turn 30 once). I really liked a bag I'd seen in an issue of Stitch magazine a while back--I can't remember which issue, but it's red, suede, has hardware on the straps, and has a large outer pocket with floral 3D appliqué. Clearly, I made a lot of changes, but I did keep the shape. I should note here that I cut at least 2 of each fabric, so the bag is made up of more than 60 hexagons total.

The hexies I cut to the pattern in Natural Patchwork, then I laid them out and stitched them together, by machine, into the shape required for the pattern. I then ironed on fusible fleece and quilted through the top layer. I added an interfaced lining with a pocket and that was that. Almost. By the time I got there, I wasn't really loving the bag, and couldn't figure out what to do with the handle--patchwork? Solid? ?? So instead of rushing to finish and risking being late to my own party, I stopped, set it aside, and took it into my LQS the next day. Maureen, the owner and a great friend of mine, pointed out that the Lantern Bloom print would make a great not-so-solid-but-not-patchworked-either strap, and she was right. I'm not in LOVE with this bag, but I'm very much in like. Which is fine by me.

Unrelated, I happened to see this Two Hippos post in my reader today and thought it was very interesting. I am lucky in that I have a fantastic LQS that is a great resource--and that is run by a kind and supportive woman. I can't imagine what it would feel like to be put down before you even buy fabric for your creative endeavors. Even though I don't get all of my fabric from my LQS, I will happily pay a bit more per yard to buy locally as opposed to paying less to buy online. I think it's really important to support your community, and the extra customer service I get in person really can't be beat!

So, inspired by Ronit and also by this post, which started it all, here are some things that I think but don't say out loud:

• I am also not a Pips fan (I think it's the colors)


• I was not in love with Innocent Crush, except for this voile, but I did buy some prints because I'd hoped they would grow on me; I am ridiculously excited about her next line, though


• I'm not a fan of the Single Girl quilt (and, in general, not a fan of anything template-cut)


• I hate Denyse Schmidt's Greenfield Hill line, too


• I'm not really big on Heather Ross, though the rest of blogland still seems to be


• I spend way too much money on craft books I look through a couple of times but don't make anything from. Hmm. Maybe that's grounds for a giveaway?

I will just continue to make what I'm inspired to make when I feel like making it, buy fabrics I'm drawn to whether they're trendy or not, and plug along at my Dear Jane at a pace I feel comfortable with. It works for me, and I don't feel any pressure to change anything to make it work for anyone else. Ahh, the fabulousness of 30!

Gifted: Koji monster

Here is another project from Wee Wonderfuls: the Koji monster, which turned out to be the perfect birthday present for my super amazing and famous friend Kate! (Seriously: read her book; it's awesome!) Once again, I followed instructions as written and, for the most part, this guy turned out perfectly! I did have trouble, like a few others, getting the bottom to fit, even though I sewed dot-to-dot as instructed. I fixed this by stitching a little extra on the legs, which made the bottom "hole" smaller, and everything worked out fine.

Seriously, this picture? Just. Kills. Me. I love it so so much! That face is just full of personality. Enjoy your new monster friend, Kate! I think he's found the perfect home.

Baby shower gifts

It seems like everyone I know is expecting! That means a lot of baby gift crafting for me, but despite not really liking children and planning to remain childfree myself, I don't really mind making for babies. For one thing, I think it's important to surround babies with lovely handmades, and for another, those handmades are usually small, which makes them fairly quick projects. I'm thankful for a couple books in my craft book stash to help me out in times like this: Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings, and now Hillary Lang's Wee Wonderfuls. The above gift, for baby Fae (who came 5 weeks early, so it was actually crafted a couple of weeks after her birth) includes projects from both books.

I've made these booties a few times already, but they are such a great go-to project, and they're so small that they come together quickly. I'm still hand-stitching the insole to the booties; I just can't get the fusible interfacing to work the way it should, according to the book. But, like I said, they're so small that the hand-stitching doesn't take that long, and it ensures a really nice finish, so I'm happy to do it. For these I used a super soft corduroy for the outside and a bright orange solid for the inside. I think they look adorable and sophisticated!

The doll is my first project from the Wee Wonderfuls book. I have to admit, I didn't want to get the book at first. I'd flipped through it and decided not to--my original thought was that it was too doll-centric and I prefer to make animal softies instead. However, I re-joined Crafter's Choice (it's a sickness, I tell you!) and got it as part of my introductory package, and I'm so happy I did. It's true that the book is mostly dolls, but I'm now realizing that dolls are just as great as animal softies! This little girl is one of the three sleepover pals (and, I should mention, my brother isn't even married yet but I am so hoping for twin nieces so I can make them each a set!!) and I just loved making her. She was really easy to put together; I followed instructions as written except I machine-stitched her lace collar on before sewing the halves together. It did take a bit of time to finish her, though--there is a lot of hand-stitching involved with the arms and the hair, and stitching around both twice to ensure they won't fall off, but it was totally worth it. I definitely see more of these in my future!

For an as-yet-to-be-delivered baby girl, I made this sweet sleep sack from Handmade Beginnings. I saw that my friend had registered for some plain ones, so I thought a patchwork one lined in super-soft flannel would be welcome. The patchwork is made up of 2.5" squares and actually took a really long time to cut, lay out, and stitch together. The rest of the sack came together quickly--I think I spent the most time sewing around each piece of Velcro twice.

I didn't want to make my own bias tape, so I used some I had on hand, but it was much skinnier than what the pattern called for. I'm not sure if that's why the top is a little ripply?? In my card I told my friend that when the baby outgrows it she could return it to me to have the patchwork repurposed into something for the nursery (I was thinking a little pillow, maybe, or an embroidery hoop hanging with the baby's name stitched in it). I have a feeling I won't be getting this back again, though--my friend's mom saved most of her baby clothes, which are being passed on to this new baby. It was so amazing at the shower to see the handmade Strawberry Shortcake dress from thirty years ago!

Christmas recap, part 1

I've *finally* downloaded the hundreds of photos from December and January to my desktop, done some editing, and uploaded a bunch to my Flickr page. Wow--that's a lot of work! It's already been a month or more since everything was gifted, so I'd like to whip through this as quickly as possible. Here are the notes:

I made coaster sets (6 each) plus little "boxes" for my grandparents and my brother and future sister-in-law. These are the criss-cross coasters and are easy peasy to make. Everyone can use some holiday coasters, right?

I made potholders for my brother and future sister-in-law to match the apron I gifted them in the fall.

I made a plastic bag holder/dispenser (my second one) for my future sister-in-law; her birthday is in early January, so all of her gifts were bunched together.

My nana-in-law got an apron (my second take on this pattern, from Seams to Me) and potholders.

My intern got a coffee cup cozy (made using this tutorial) to go with a Starbucks gift card.

One of the things I gave my office secret santa was a tea wallet made from this tutorial.

Everyone else got one of these trivets, which were made according to the pattern in Stitch magazine (it was in the Spring 2010 issue). They are stuffed with lavender and smell divine.

Whew! That's the bulk of what I gifted, but there are a few more things I'll get to in my next post. Thanks for reading!