Kicking off 2019 with 3 Knit Tops!

To kick off the new year, and my birthday, I decided to do a couple quick projects.
AND in an effort to remedy my lack of blogging in 2018 I am attempting to share more and not worry about being a perfectionist.

All 3 are knit tops and well needed additions to my winter wardrobe.The first of the three is the yellow long sleeve tee. The knit is a cotton knit from EmmaOneSock. It is a nice beefy knit that holds the shape of the fun sleeves quite well. I technically finished this on December 29th to wear for my birthday :) 

On my birthday dinner I paired this relatively simple top with a silk scarf and my wool cashmere skirt. It was quite a fun and happy outfit. The only drawback to those sleeves is that you need to take care when eating to not get them in your plate!

The second long sleeve tee is this red and purple one. Both of the fabrics were leftovers from previous projects. It is the same pattern as the yellow one with a couple small tweaks to the back armsyce and back shoulder. These small tweaks have made for a better fit and less excess fabric. The red is a rayon knit and the purple is a bamboo knit, both so very soft and comfy!

The last of the new tops is a modified Stella from Linda Lee. I have had this in my pattern rotation for many years. The one I currently have in my closet is starting to show some wear so I used a sweater knit from Marcy Tilton to make a new one. This top is a bit oversized with drop shoulders and a comfy V insert in the front that is cut on the bias. 

What’s on my sewing table now? A trio of nice ponte and double knits to try making an outfit from. I have some ideas about making a knit jacket but possibly using my regular jacket pattern since it is a very stable knit. The brain is working away on some fun ideas!

Happy Sewing!

PS- using a new blog app on my iPad to try to make my life easier! Hopefully this goes well.

One of my favorite pics from over the holidays! My sister came and spent the week, it was wonderful :)

Draped/cowl Necklines and perfecting armholes! Summer Sewing

Last month we had a couple days of quite warm weather for spring in Chicago. As I went to grab for some of my warm weather clothes I quickly realized that my supply of well fitting clothes were rapidly dwindling. I tried on a couple of tops and they were just swimming on me! A couple of them I decided that I could probably easily make adjustments too so they will fit. However, the majority were just too much work to try to redo. These went into the donate pile! (In fact I ended up going through my entire wardrobe and collecting quite a few garments to go to the donation center.)

I decided I need to make several new tops. I also needed to re-make a good TNT knit draped cowl neck top. I like having a drape necked top in my wardrobe. It adds a little interest and softness. The thing to be careful of is that depending on the knit fabric choice the drape can be quite different! 

Top #1

 I started with the knit snakeskin cotton/Lycra. 

This top started with some adjustments to the garment width to take into account my weight loss. I first made this up with no sleeves to see how well the armhole would fit on me. It needed some fairly good changes. From this muslin I made several changes to the pattern; scooped out the back armhole, added height to the lower armhole and flattened it out, as well as adding ever so slightly to the front armhole. 

Since I had the sleeves already cut out I decided to put them in to see how well they fit. The entire fit is okay. Good enough for a wearable muslin for the summer. You can see in the photos of me wearing it how the armhole is just not right.

A great summer top but changes were needed in the armhole!

To make the changes, I literally stand in front of the mirror with my small clear ruler and measure with top on with no sleeves in. I measure from the cut edge to where I think the armhole should be and make the changes to the pattern. Sometimes I will also place a couple of pins and/or masking tape to mark areas. This took me a while to feel comfortable doing this and feeling like what I was doing was correct. All I had to lose was my time and maybe a bit of frustration... Using muslins and making several mockups is such a valuable tool to try out changes.

Top #2

Once I made the changes to the pattern (which also included a change to the depth of the drape) , I cut out a second top from a fabric remnant to make a sleeveless version to really test out the armhole fit. I love how the changes worked out. This knit is a bit beefier, spongier and heavier so when the neckline was draped the double weight was pulling to low for me so I added the tucks to the upper neckline. Win-win for me!!! This make it work moment gives the neckline a lovely interesting design detail. I played with pinning up the fullness to see how much I would need to change and ended up liking how the tucks looked pinned in. 

This is the same bodice pattern pieces as top#1 but with the armhole changes. I really liked the changes but since I did not have enough fabric for sleeves this became a sleeveless summer top!

These 2 photos on the dress form show the tucked drapes on either side of the neckline.

Top #3 

This fabric is a very lightweight poly/Lycra knit from a 1 yard remnant.  Perfect bright and fun summer top.The last top I made was to make changes to the actual sleeve. I used Sarah Veblen's technique described in her book The Complete Photo Guide to Perfect Fitting to give the sleeve more room and shape yet still fit in the perfected armhole. For this sleeve I split it into 2 down the center line and then walked each pattern, marking the shoulder point and just added the amount of ease that I wanted. My first try resulted in a  seam that stuck out to much for the look I was going for. I flattened the outer seam curve quite a bit to make it fit nicely. The second try on the sleeve, which you can see here, is much better. Not quite perfect but much better. 

I am done with this pattern for a while. I will probably pull it back out in the fall to make several 3/4 and long sleeve versions and at that time I will perfect the 2 piece sleeve.

The armhole fit on this top is so much better than the first one! You can see in the pictures where the upper bust area meets the sleeve how much better it looks and feels.

Side by side comparison!

My Last draped garment is the Colette Myrtle

The last draped neckline garment I made was a Colette Myrtle dress. I wanted another easy knit dress pattern to add to my Appleton knit wrap dress pattern.

This is the same fabric as my first top above. A very soft, light-mid weight cotton/Lycra knit in a snakeskin print from my stash. 

This is a sleeveless dress and very easy to make with a cute shoulder sleeve detail.

Likes: the armhole fits well. The shoulder detail. Inseam pocket. The front bodice is a double layer. The elastic waist is cute and comfortable. Perfect length. ( I used the longer length) 

Dislikes: the draped neckline is slightly deep. I just have to be careful when bending over or reaching down to get something from a bag. I will change the pattern for the next time I make it.

Fun, comfortable, cute summer knit dress!

Shoulder detail. I put this on so that it could be used as not just a detail but also as a bra strap keeper!

Love the inseam pockets!

I have to be honest. I originally didn't like this dress too much. Not sure why, maybe I thought it was too simple and too casual. But, it has grown on me and I find myself reaching for it quite often! This dress will be great on its own when the weather gets very warm and with a cardigan for spring/fall weather.

With this dress addition, I am done with draped necklines for a while! time to play with some other styles. 

Happy Sewing!

Me, My daughter, Melissa and my granddaughter, Princess Victoria enjoying time together at the Morton Arboretum.

Happy Sewing!

A trip to Les Fabriques and a new top, McCall's 6963

I had a quick trip this week down to Fisherville, VA. Think southern Virginia right smack in the middle of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Beautiful area, stunning blue-grey mountains layered upon each other with a softness about them that you just don't get in the western US. 

My meeting finished up by 2pm and my flight home wasn't until 6:30. A little research was done as I grabbed a bite to eat that turned up an eclectic looking fabric shop in the town of Charlottesville, just a few miles from the little airport. Armed with my GPS and a couple hours to spare I headed to Les Fabriques. 

The store was comprised of a fabric shop with a great variety of specially curated fabrics. Think a little bit of everything with all of it being high quality. There was also a large selection of vintage patterns, think patterns that have been picked from garage sales and estate sales. Everything from vintage woman designer vogues to great 1950's children's pinafores. Rounding out the shop were a beautiful selection of notions and buttons, again quality was abound in all the products. 

At the end of the shop was a small resale shop area that had a great selection of clothes and handmade jewelry. 

The almost haphazard way the fabric was strewn on the periphery shelves was very charming and invited you to touch and pull out fabrics and pet and feel them. I took my time and took it all in, such a pleasure to have time to browse and peruse the goods. 

I ended up leaving with 2 cuts of fabric, how could I not?!?  After all, there was a 20% of everything in the store ale happening for the holidays! 

I purchased one yard of this mat bronze sequined fabric! So pretty... Maybe a new top for my birthday!

The second is a beautiful silk that was priced at 36$ a yard but since it was an end cut with only four yards left they gave it to me for 64$. The best part was, I had no idea that it was on sale! The colors and print and feel of the fabric just grabbed me. They had a roll in a purple color way as well but that one just looked a bit more harsh! 

Late last week I finished up a new top. Having been sick I needed to work on some comfortable and easy fitting projects and I kicked off on an unplanned knit fixation! I will get back to my previously scheduled works this week!

Along my diversion into knits I wanted to use this double faced 2 way stretch ITY knit. It has been marinating in my stash for a while and the fabric closet had spit it out for me to use! I had 3.5 yards enough for a dress (to yet be blogged) plus this top.

Last winter I made 2 versions of this top, one very similar to this one with a deep cowl and long sleeves but in a lightweight ponte and one with long sleeves and a higher shallower cowl out of a weird nylon double knit. I like the fact that even with the deeper cowl you can lean over, bend and pick things up and not necessarily flash all of you r boobs to everyone around you!

I like this top and I wanted long sleeves. Actually I wanted extra long sleeves, sometimes I like the feel of the fabric pooling slightly at my wrist. Especially in the winter! Looking at the photos the sleeves look a little long... And this is why I love to sew!!! I can make them exactly how I want them.

This top is multi purpose. I can wear it as shown in these pictures as a casual wear. I can also wear it belted with a cardigan over it with a skirt to make it business casual .  Good versatility! 

So when do you consider a pattern to be a t-n-t pattern? I have this pattern with all adjustments made so I can just pull it out sew away without much thought to fit. I think with knits you have a leeway of weight gain/loss before you have to reassess fit. Of course you always need to keep in mind the type and stretch of the knit. I used my tripod and wireless fob to take these pictures and being too lazy to check anything but the first picture for frame and focus I realized after I put everything away that the photos from the back look like crap. I didn't straighten out the top at pull it over my bum hence it looks a bit wonky.  Part of that has to do with my generous bum, if I want something to stay down over it all the time it needs to be more of a tunic length versus a top ending at the high hip. 

I think I need to write out a cue card checklist to keep with my camera setup. 

- smile, I always look so serious like I'm sending mental brainwaves to the camera to please work as intended!!

- straighten the clothes out

- stand up straight

- check all photos before changing outfits or putting all the camera crap away!

Happy Sewing!!!

Family day at the Field Museum!