fall Archives - Page 2 of 4

Lucinda October 22, 2013

Finished Project: Polka Dot Laurel [Colette Patterns]

Pattern: Laurel from Colette Patterns
Fabric: cotton voile from Mood Fabrics
Size: 2 graded to a 6

Jeans: Michael Kors

Hooray, it’s another Laurel! One of a few I have planned for fall. When I was in NYC last month I stopped by Mood, and just about every fabric I walked out with has some iteration of a polka dot print. Maybe I was having a polka dot moment? Well, in my opinion, you can never go wrong with polka dots.

This version is probably more suited for spring since the cotton is very lightweight and a little on the sheer side, but our fall has been really mild so far and I wore this all day at the park without a jacket. It also gets a bit wrinkly, just like my previous Laurel I made in the spring.

I opted to use a bias facing for the neckline instead of binding the neckline for this version (I was also being suuuuper lazy in making bias tape, too). I followed Jen’s directions and they worked like a charm, I actually like the result much better than my first top. I think I’ll be doing this in the future for my next Laurel, a plaid flannel.

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Lucinda October 19, 2013

Fall So Far

At the Amtrak station, going on my first work trip to NYC!

Try as I may to squeeze in some sewing time, fall seems to be flying by – I can’t believe it’s getting close to Halloween already. I’m still trying to adjust to a new job and new work schedule, which include many perks like working from home a few days a week and trips to NYC (where I managed to squeeze in some serious fabric shopping). And now, since I don’t have a set dress code for work, I’ve been itching to crank out some projects on my sewing machine…but it’s been tricky figuring out when to sew. Weekends have been full, like during the Greater Boston Yarn Crawl and with time spent with Chris before his schedule shifts gears into retail holiday mode (something I will never miss!). Evenings after work have been filled with barre classes, running at the gym, and starting to bring out the knitting as the temperatures change.

Well, I guess I have made a couple of things, like a knit cardigan on my serger – however, I don’t think I set the tension correctly since the seams are a little wavy around the bottom and front bands, oh well! I used the leftover fabric from that project to make a jersey infinity scarf, which I’ve been wearing pretty regularly and plan on sewing up a few more. I’m just about done with a polka dot Laurel top and have plans to start a black and white plaid flannel version with longer sleeves, and just last night I cut out a green wool Moss Mini Skirt with fabric leftover from the Beignet skirt disaster earlier this year. I find, though, that my sewing productivity goes down around this time each year because I want to spend all of my evenings working on sweaters and scarves – if you look at my knitting projects on the left sidebar, you can see that I’ve got quite a few ready to come off the needles! Maybe I need to try out my sewing experiment again to see if that will help.

How’s your fall sewing coming along?

Oh, PS: I wore my Archer shirt to work this week and I felt great in it! Thank you so much for all of your kind words, I bet no one even noticed my mistakes. I definitely want to get that David Coffin book now.

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Lucinda October 3, 2013

Pattern Review: Archer Shirt [Grainline Studio]

Pattern: Archer Buttonup Shirt from Grainline Studio
Fabric: Art Gallery Fabrics cotton voile in “Branch Silhouette,” from Grey’s Fabrics
Size: 2 graded to a 4 from waist to hips

Jeans: Levi’s

This is my third Grainline Studio pattern and I’m not stopping anytime soon. I love Jen’s design aesthetic – modern wardrobe staples with a minimalist approach. Which reminds me, I need to crank out some more Moss Minis for fall/winter this year since the one I made last year was not enough (plus I need to make one a bit longer so I can wear it for work, eeep). She’s an expert pattern designer and writes great instructions, so I knew I’d be in good hands using this pattern as my first serious foray into shirt-making.

So, this shirt isn’t perfect by any means, and I’m ok with that. I realized after the fact that I haven’t been stretching and challenging myself with my sewing skills – I love me some knits pretty hard, and that’s great for whipping out basic tees and cute dresses for my closet. But if I want to grow – and truly become a better sewist – I need to start taking on more projects with more challenging techniques.

Let me put it this way – that collar stand kicked my ass.

To borrow a term from Lauren, who borrowed a term from Clueless, this shirt is definitely a “Monet:” it looks good from a distance but up close, it’s kind of a mess (thank goodness for prints). Everything started out all fine and dandy: sewing the side seams together, attaching the yoke, adding a pocket (I was going to put on two, but after I added one, I decided not to since it just gets lost in the print, as demonstrated in the picture above). And then came the sleeve plackets….they’re kinda meh. I think I may have goofed with them overlapping the wrong way, but it doesn’t seem that noticeable to me. The button bands went on smoothly, cuffs were attached ok…

And then that goddamn collar stand.

Ok, shame on me for not at least *practicing* how to attach a collar stand to a shirt. I’ve made a couple of collared shirts in the past out of cheap shiny poly and other wonderful fabric choices from Joann Fabrics, but they were just the simple kind of collar that attaches to the neckline. Dust-your-hands-off-and-call-it-a-day kind of collars. So, I thought, how difficult could this be? It’s not awful looking…it just doesn’t match up well at the one side, it kind of juts out from the button band. And hell, my stitching looks awful in the inside of the collar – there’s some fabric that got tucked and sewn in place, and I didn’t have the heart to rip it out and sew it again, and I figured it wasn’t too noticeable when the collar is open (ehhh it kind of is). Plus, when I was turning the collar right side out, I poked a little too hard with my point turner, made a hole in the edge of the collar stand, and it started to fray – greaaaat. Some Fray-Chek solved that, but again…it’s just more little details that make this not the best thing I’ve ever made.

Oh, and I totally did not understand how to make the top buttonhole in the collarstand, even after studying one of my own RTW shirts…I was way off with that shit.

Amazingly, my buttonholes came out ok! They were actually the least stressful part of sewing this shirt, I got the placement right and didn’t screw up stitching any of them on my Bernina 1005…I really miss the automatic buttonhole feature on my mom’s Bernina, it makes a world of difference when it comes to buttonhole precision.

So, try, try again, right? Totally. I WILL master making button-down shirts – they seem like part of the perfect uniform of skinny jeans and boots for my new job. And I like the fit of this shirt, too, it’s not too boxy and it doesn’t have any bust darts I have to worry about moving up. I think I may lengthen it a little next time…I feel like it could be a slightly longer. I’m also going to try using Andrea’s tutorial on sewing collar stands for my next shirt, I feel like she’s an “Archer Expert” with all of the fabulous shirts she’s cranked out from this pattern. My next fabric: a Marc Jacobs tiny floral print cotton shirting. And maybe on my next shirt, I’ll be proud enough to show some close-up shots of the stitching detail!

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Lucinda September 21, 2013

Pattern Review: Victoria Blazer [By Hand London]

Pattern: Victoria Blazer from By Hand London
Fabric: Shell – cotton sateen from Grey’s Fabric Lining – poly charmeuse from Joann’s
Size: 4

Shirt: Lucky Brand
Jeans: Mek Denim
Flats: Michael Kors
Shades: Tommy Hilfiger

Green is my favorite color, so it was a no-brainer to make this blazer out of a green cotton sateen I spotted at Grey’s when I went fabric shopping with my friends (Ana bought the same fabric but in a gold color to make her own version).

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this blazer since I’m not crazy about it. I love the colors and it was easy to put together, but I’m not too sure if it’s “me” or not.

I totally lucked out on the lining, I found it in the remnant bin at Joann Fabrics for $5. I decided to fully line the jacket so it would be easy to take on and off.

Even though the pattern didn’t call for interfacing, I wish it had. I kept obsessing over pressing and pressing the collar and lapels, trying to get them to stay crisp and flat. Do BHL patterns just not call for interfacing? I only made the Charlotte skirt so far, and was also surprised that there was no requirement for interfacing in the waistband. I also kicked myself for not understitching after I attached the lining to the jacket. Again, not called for in the instructions, and it bothers me that the lining rolls out from time to time and can be seen along the blazer lapels and bottom hem. I was surprised that that wasn’t a construction step, but I’m also mad that I didn’t think to do it myself. Again, something else that I’m not happy about with this blazer.

If I was to make another one, I’d probably omit the pockets – they’re not the type of pockets that you can put your hands in and walk around, they’re set back a little too far.

I’m not sure if this jacket is exactly my style, especially at this length – I feel like it was one of those patterns that everyone was making so I decided to as well. I’m more of a structured, pulled-together kinda gal, and this blazer has a very casual, sloppy kind of feel to it. Perhaps if I did a shorter length with the above mods I would get a different result. Now that I’ve made one blazer, I don’t have any fear about sewing a more complicated jacket pattern down the road.

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Lucinda September 7, 2013

Fall Fashion Inspiration

I am crushing hard on fall right now. In New England, it’s almost as if Mother Nature looks at the calender and uses Labor Day as a cue to bring in the cooler temperatures. I’ve been loving the weather this week – my windows and sliding door have been open every day while I’ve been sewing up a storm, and nothing beats sleeping with the windows open and listening to the crickets outside at night. Ahhh fall…

So needless to say, my thoughts have moved on to fall sewing. I’m digging a lot of the fashion I’ve seen pinned on Pinterest, so I created a “Fall Fashion” board to keep track of looks I love that I want to sew myself. It’s all about layers, slouchy tops, red and orange, and some plaid thrown in. Some of the patterns that I think could work well for my fall sewing:

1. Long Sleeve Scout Tee in plaid – I’m loving that Lumber Jane look, I think the Scout tee pattern would get me a close knock-off of the ModCloth top I pinned. I found the perfect plaid flannel at Mood!
2. Sloppy Josephine Tee – I like how the raglan is fitted but the rest of the shirt is loose and blousey.
3. Moss Mini in red corduroy – I made one last year in teal, I need another one this year but will make it a little longer
4. Sewing my own knit jersey scarves – so much cheaper than buying them at Gap and I have plenty of leftover yardage from knit tops in my stash
5. A modified Simplicity 3631 in red wool – wouldn’t belt the short version and would lengthen the sleeves, maybe make them a little less flared. Would be great if I could add a funnel collar or something.

Are you thinking fall sewing already? What are your sewing plans?