Another comfy Closet Core lounge set!

As I mentioned in my last blog posts, i had another set of comfy clothes cut out and ready to go. I wanted to sew the Mile End sweatshirt and Plateau joggers up in other fabrics because I wanted to see how they fit with different knits and play with some cool fabric.

Let’s start with the fun one! The Mile End sweatshirt made up in this great novelty green knit that I purchased in NYC in 2017 from Elegant Fabrics on W 36th street.

I made no fit changes at all. I really like the boxy slightly cropped silhouette of this top. The shape along with the details make it feel a little more modern and stylish and less like a plain old sweatshirt. 

This time I made up view A but added the kangaroo pocket. I really love a good pocket. I can stash all kinds of good things in there if needed! Phone, tissues, candy, dog treats, hand sanitizer! LOL!! Plus I really like the look of it.

I also cut the main fabric on varying grain lines. Some I cut crosswise and some I cut lengthwise. This was for 2 reasons. The lengthwise grain has a lot of stretch and i wanted to control some of that stretchiness. The second was for aesthetically pleasing rotation of the ribs that have a predominate look of stripes. 

The neckline, sleeve cuffs, hem band and pocket were all made out of this very soft and very black ribbing. This is the kind of ribbing that is 20 inches wide but in a tube and i had a remnant piece left over from another project. I had just enough to complete this project! I have no idea where I purchased this ribbing… or when. I think, maybe, on Etsy. Nope just checked my history there so, somewhere else online at some point in time! 

Just like in the last one I interfaced the pocket openings and the shoulder seams only.

Constructions was done mostly on the serger, except for attaching the pocket and the shoulder seams.

Hems were done with the ribbing bands which makes it so nice and easy. One thing to note, with the ribbing I did not use the recommended lengths from the pattern instructions. The ribbing is like crazy stretchy almost 75% so I started with subtracting 25% off the length and then pinned it on place on the garment and made it even shorter after that. The waist band ended up being almost 8 inches shorter than the length I used on the previous top!

Totally worth taking the time otherwise the ribbing would be all wavy and look funny and then I would have been very disappointed.

This version of the Plateau joggers was made with black ponte knit from my stash. A much more stable knit then the soft French terry in the previous pair. Due to the more stable knit you can certainly see where my fitting flaws are, particularly in the back! Front looks great!

Like most of us I have a funny body. When I stand straight and you view me from the side my calf’s stick out quite far. In fact if you place a vertical line my calf’s stick out just as far as my tush! Which gives me drag lines on the side and back of my legs. Plus i have ‘fleshy’ inner upper thighs. So be warned of the upcoming backside photos!! They look quite different from the same exact pants in the same size cut from a different fabric in the previous version!

This time I made the view with the cuff instead of the elastic and I made them 1 inch longer.

For the waist band drawstring I used buttonholes in green thread and a ribbon from my stash. (I got this idea from one of my granddaughters pants that have a fun ribbon drawstring)

One of the things I really like about these pants is the side pocket construction! And the lack of a side seam at the top. 

The only change I will definitely make next time is to deepen the pockets. They are good I just would prefer them slightly deeper. Maybe a 3/8 to 1/2 an inch. 

The back pockets have a great size and placement.

Black is so hard to photograph and apparently shows every single dog hair especially when I lightened up the photos for details! Oh well, that’s life.

These pants are really comfortable and this is definitely my new TNT jogger pants pattern. I may or may not play around with shifting the calf back. I have tried many things over the years and have found that I either need to make my pants wide legged so they hang from my butt down straight and skim the calves, make bell bottoms so there is no pull from the calves or make the pants super tight, like leggings, so there is no place for wrinkles. Other than that there are wrinkles. I have even tried changing how I stand !! LOL!!! If I stand so my calves are more under my body then all the wrinkles go away but then I am in danger of falling over. Hah!! The things us sewers do to get rid of the wrinkles!

Happy sewing!!

PS- enjoy a real life moment of me in my new top, snuggled with The Princess and the little dog. :)

Mini Lounge Collection! Keeping Cozy this long winter - Part 1

Last weekend I had all to myself and decided to sew up a great cozy and comfy mini-collection. The winter in Chicago and the ongoing pandemic just has me crazy fun, comfortable and stylish lounge wear. Something soft and lovely against my skin as we just keep enduring this never ending time of being extra careful just gives me some extra good feels.

I made 4 garments:

Closet Core Plateau jogger, View A with the elasticized hem.

Closet Core Mile End Sweatshirt, View C the hoodie.

Jen Stern’s Easy fit and sew tank top (my TNT tank top pattern)

Self Drafted boat neck top- design inspired from a Sarah Veblen zoom class on developing a boat neck neckline.

I’ll talk about the Closet Core Patterns in this first installment . I must say that I am a bit of a fan of Closet Core patterns. I find them to be very interesting, with well thought out details, great seam lines and always some part has a different way of construction. It’s kind of like sewing with a pattern that goes “what if” we did it this or that way instead of the way 99% of the other patterns say to do it.  Heather Lou owner of Closet Core Patterns is a really great person, also quite interesting! Just like her patterns.

I made no fit changes to the joggers. I cut the size indicated by my measurements and the fit was spot on in the French terry I used. I plan to make another pair in a ponte and see how those fit with just adding a little length at the hem line.

For the hoodie, I cut a size smaller than my measurements indicated. This decision came from comparing the size measurement chart and the finished garment chart. This design has a generous amount of ease. It is a super fun and updated fit with a boxy design and slightly cropped length.

The designs of these garments are fun and i did not make any changes in design, no need too! The hoodie features a side seam that wraps from the underarm around to the front and the sleeves are 2 piece with the front inner sleeve having dual elbow darts and  a dropped shoulder. The front cross over piece has an interesting construction method that I was initially thinking was weird and unconventional. Once made I really appreciated it. The only place you have multiple layers of fabric from the crossover is above the pocket! Definitely not the type of construction that you would see in RTW.

The joggers have an interesting pocket construction that makes for a nice smooth side seam. The pockets wrap around and the back wraps around to form the pocket facing area. Making for very little bulk, a strange looking pattern piece and interesting construction that you need to pay attention to, but very little bulk! Which I appreciate since that is where I carry my extra bulk :)

When planning for my garments, I almost always do some planning and keep a record in a sewing journal. This is a working journal, which means that i write out any planning info, my intentions, a print out of any Procreate sketches and just general thoughts. Then as I progress along the project I add in notes of things I may want to change next time, any notes that I think are important or pertinent, as well as what my next steps are. I almost never finish a garment from planning to start to finish in one go. So I like space where I can keep progress notes. My brain just doesn’t retain all the details and information like I would like it too! 

Fabric for both is a Oeko Tex bamboo/cotton French terry called Limeade Graffiti from online retailer EmmaOneSock. It is sooooooooooooooo soft!! I don’t want to take it off, I think it may only last one season from all the wear it is going to get. The French Terry is also light enough to last well into spring and the print is so fun and so me.

On the joggers I only used 2 small squares of interfacing about 2inches by 2 inches to interface the area of the grommets on the waistband. I used a medium weight fusible tricot(which is the heaviest i use for garment sewing). I fused the squares on top of each other rotating them 90 degrees so that i really controlled the stretch in the width and length. In my test I only did one square and I was able to pull out the grommet. 

In the hoodie, I used a variety of SewkeysE knit stay tapes. I used them on the kangaroo pocket edges, the shoulder seams and the front crossover neckline opening. I took a hands on class with Emma Seabrooke maybe 20 years ago, when she just had a few of these tapes. It was a knit serger class on controlling hems and seam lines and since then I have used these in my knits and swear by them! There are also some other brands or you can cut your own. I won’t sew knits without them. 

Not a lot of notions needed. I used grommets that I had in my cupboard that I am sure were just a package of cheap ones from JoAnn’s from years ago. The lime green drawstring came from an Etsy seller. What would we do without Etsy???

I also used 2 of my favorite labels from the Kyle and The Machine advent calendar. GoGo Juice!! 

Construction wise these came together pretty easily as long as you followed the directions for the tricky parts. By tricky I just mean unusual construction methods that have reduced bulk and gave us sewers something to keep us on our toes. 

Some seams were done on the sewing machine and some on the serger using a 4 thread overlock. The sewing machine used a reduced pressure on the presser foot to keep the fabric from being pushed about and the serger had a differential feed of 1.5. Area where I used the sewing machine are always the shoulder seams. This lets me press the seams open and reduce bulk at the sleeve and the neckline. Also anywhere that is enclosed, like the cuffs and waistband. All other seams are serge constructed. 

Hem finish on the hoodie is a band and the joggers have a stitched elasticized hem. With the elastic serger to the raw edge then turned up and stitched.

I am definitely making more of both of these! I have so many knits of so many different types and I find it endlessly interesting trying different knits and seeing how they will behave in the same garment design.

Next blog post will have the details from the tank and short sleeve boat neck top.

In the meantime I have a couple more ideas on the work table and ready to go. Hint… more joggers and another view of the MileEnd sweatshirt. Still craving the comfy winter clothing especially after the trip to the paradise of Costa Rica!

Happy Sewing!!

Enjoy this pic of The Princess and I wearing our matching aprons and cutting onions for chili  with swim googles on so we don’t cry! LOL!! The things I do for my granddaughter!

Closet Core Elodie in the wilds of Costa Rica!

 Last week I had the enormous pleasure of going to Costa Rica for 5 nights. It was glorious!! Costa Rica is such a beautiful place and offers so many things. Granted, on this trip, all we did was stay at the resort except for one half day excursion. We just felt it was a safer thing to do during this crazy omnicron surge. 

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The resort was beautiful and not even close to capacity so we had plenty of room to be spread out. We out outside every day for all meals except for 1 and spent so much time at the pool and the beach. It was such a welcome respite from Chicago’s nasty winters.

I wore my new Closet Core  Elodie wrap dress to dinner twice. The fabric was perfect both in the tropical print and in the fiber content. It also hung up so nicely in the room and any wrinkles from packing came right out without having to iron it! (It hung for about 48 hours before I wore it)

This time of the year the sung goes down well before dinner time! So most if the pictures are taken in one of the resort courtyards or on my balcony.

I felt delightful wearing this dress!!! It fit wonderfully with no gaping, the cotton fabric held its shape so well which gave it the feeling of wearing a more vintage silhouette without having any petticoats. I loved the midi length with the slightly shaped front skirt panels. I am also quite glad that I added on the large patch pockets. They had plenty of room for my cell phone, room card, cash and my stash of pancreas pills. No need to have to carry a separate hand bag around the resort. 

On the topic of the patch pockets, I have a collection of cool shaped patch pockets that would be super fun to try on this dress! SO many ideas, so little time!!

Happy Sewing!

PS- my room was right on the Pacific Ocean and I had the most incredible sunset views every day as I was relaxing from a day at the pool/beach and getting ready to go for dinner!