After I made my Tiramisu, I was halfway through cutting out another one when I got a request from Steph to test the Hummingbird skirt, which was quickly followed by the Cabarita. (As I mentioned in my last post, while I did receive advance copies of these two patterns for testing, that was weeks after I had actually purchased them in the pre-sale. No compensation was involved — except being able to get my grubby hands on the designs a few days early!)

That dress is still half cut, and I haven’t forgotten about it nor the other versions I want to create. In the meantime though, I have been adding some great new basics to my closet, including this latest. Pardon the sunburn.

I have been dreaming in navy and mint for a while. I’ve even sketched up a few garments with this color combo, but they haven’t made it to the cutting table. Then Girl Charlee started the presale for this fabric. I was initially thinking I would make a striped Tira with it, but I went this way instead. (The brighter mint in these pictures is more accurate than the one on their website, at least on my monitor.) GC calls this fabric a “cotton jersey blend,” but I’m not sure what it’s blended with. I doubt there’s lycra because it doesn’t feel that way in the stretch, and there’s next to no stretch on the straight grain, which lycra blends typically have. I did a burn test. I’m a bit of a pyro so I like doing those, but I don’t have much experience with deciphering them. It smelled like paper, did not self-extinguish, and left a brittle, crushable black ash. I’ve got a bunch of fabric burn charts but this didn’t perfectly fit any of the descriptions, maybe because it’s a blend. Anyone know? Anyway, I’ve already worn the top and did not find it too warm, which I typically do if there is much non-breathable (synthetic) content.

The fabric was great for this pattern, in most regards. It’s stable, a good light-medium weight, decent cross-grain stretch, and very easy to control and match stripes. The only caveat I have is regarding the bindings at the back neck V and sleeves — if you use fabric like this one without straight-grain stretch, they may need to be a little longer, so use your judgement.

This top came together so quickly! You choose the outlines for the pattern pieces based on your full bust, hip, and desired front length. You can also provide shaping at the waist, if you want. I made the 50 based on my full bust measurement of 51″. My desired length (28″) and actual hip measurement (54″) were a bit outside of the scope provided, but drawing the lines to fit me was still super easy; really, it was no more difficult than if those dimensions had been provided. The “connect-the-dots” method takes all the mystery out of fitting. It takes a couple of minutes to draw your lines based on your body, and tada — custom fit.

This is my best knit hem ever. I used all the tips included in my twin needle tutorial, plus two more that I tried for the first time: 1) wooly nylon in the bobbin, and 2) “nesting” the side seam allowances. Huh? Yes! This is another pearl from my wonderful friend Miss Lulu, who has given me more tips than Pinterest and the rest of the interwebs combined. Here’s what you do…

After you’ve pressed the hem up, clip the side seam allowance to just shy of the seamline. Leaving the main seam allowance pressed towards the back of the garment as usual, push that little part that’s contained in the hem allowance toward the front of the garment, like this:

Then, just press the hem up again, adding your fusible webbing if desired (which it was for me). This little snip makes a huge difference — not only is the hem more even, but the reduced bulk makes stitching over that part much smoother. Regarding the wooly nylon, it does seem to have provided even more stretch to the hem, but it’s hard to tell without doing a side-by-side comparison with the same fabric. Which I haven’t.

My next planned Cabarita is… wait for it… a solid. Whaaaa? I know! I went to the stash closet, thinking I would make a solid one with contrasting print details, and ended up choosing to make it entirely one color. I’ve never made such a decision before. I only possess solids in my stash for coordinating purposes! The only thing I can figure is that I love the details already baked into this design, and I just wanted to let them speak for themselves. Who am I and what have I done with Susan.

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In other news, I’m really behind with documenting and posting about MMM! Catch-up coming soon. Well, at least in May.

Lately, I’ve noticed that I attribute the neutral characteristic to something based on its role. Does it coordinate with tons of stuff? It’s a neutral. Case in point, I’ve decided that these shoes go well with damn near every garment I own. Neutral!

(A gift from my lovely sister last Xmas! They’re Cole Haan Air Jenni Ballet II flats in cobalt suede. ♥)

And with that logic, this skirt is the latest neutral addition to my wardrobe:

The skirt was made from the new release from Cake Patterns, the Hummingbird. I pre-ordered this pattern even before making my Tira. Not to go all PatternReview rating on you, but it truly is a Great Wardrobe Builder. It contains a knit peplum top and woven skirt, both with fantastic variations. I love the dickey top and flounce skirt designs, but I also I applaud the inclusion of the more-repeatable styles without these details.

I bought this fabric thinking it would make a cute jacket. But when Steph recently asked me to test the Hummingbird skirt, my eyes went straight to this piece and it was on. The fabric is from IKEA, and it’s a 100% cotton bottomweight (some may call it home dec weight) — ask for the Lappljung Randig, if you know how. I wanted to use contrasting stripe direction somewhere, so I opted for horizontal stripes at the upper side panels. Also, pockets!

Just as with the other releases from Cake Patterns, the sizing methodology for this skirt is brilliant. (And I’m fully aware that I’m prone to hyperbole, but I’m not exaggerating this!) You choose the skirt size to trace based on both FULL HIP and WAIST. Of course, this can’t guarantee a perfect fit without tweaks, but it got me awfully close. The instructions include a fit-check prior to adding the waistband, and when I did this, I found that the hip fit just right but the waist was a tad loose. I need to interject an important point here — this was my first fitted waistband. All the “bottoms” I’ve made prior had either elastic or drawstring waist. So, I wasn’t sure whether to cinch up the waist or not; I mistakenly assumed that the looseness would be corrected when the band was attached. Some of it was, but not all. (Another lesson for me to trust my gut! In this case, it was saying, “Hey you, I’m about an inch smaller here.”) So, my skirt sits lower than designed. (It’s supposed to sit about 1″ below your natural waist.) This wasn’t a big enough deal for me to rip out the waistband, so I just made a deeper hem. I’ve decided that the bit of extra circumference should be taken out of the back waist for the best fit on me, so next time I’ll adjust the darts and the waistband accordingly. I may still make the change for this one, depending on how it wears.

The only design change I made was to use an exposed zipper instead of an invisible one. I looked at the fabric and immediately thought, “Hey, the cross-threads on those colored stripes look kind of like zippers already, so I’ll mirror that!” No, that’s a lie. I did think that, but I did so after I realized I had no black invisible zippers in my stash. For most of the time that exposed zippers have been a thing, I’ve kind of hated them. Then I decided that maybe they were okay in some cases. My favorite one is the zipper Liz installed on her “mixed metals” dress…a gorgeous zipper absolutely worthy of being exposed! Then, Steph put one on a denim Hummingbird skirt and I liked it too. So I tried it, using this tutorial. (Except, instead of pinning in step 9? Glue stick!!) I didn’t do a perfect job, but the method worked well. I clipped too far in step 5, so those bottom corners are fray checked within an inch of their lives…

I adore my new skirt! Despite being multi-colored, or maybe because it is, it goes well with a surprising number of things in my closet. I have avoided making any sort of straight skirt since I started sewing, expecting that the fitting would be a nightmare, and perhaps it would have been with a different pattern. This one calls for the option of pegging in the sides a bit more towards the hem, and I’ll likely do that with my next go. This time I opted against it because I didn’t want to interfere with the lines woven into the fabric. I am so excited about making more versions of the Hummingbird skirt — this is a whole new style of garment for my wardrobe, and one that I’ve been missing!

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PS: I want to describe one part that you may find helpful when you make this pattern. The Upper Side Front piece (the one that I did with horizontal stripes), is shaped based on both your Full Hip and your Waist measurements — you trace or cut the outside edge of this piece based on your two numbers. The picture of it on the pattern instructions looks like the one on the left here:

Because of my hip-to-waist ratio, the slope of that edge isn’t as dramatic on my piece. Also of note, see the straight right edge on the illustration? On the pattern piece itself, that edge isn’t actually straight; it contains a dart hidden in the seam, as shown in the right picture. (Even with a hip-to-waist ratio larger than mine, the slope still may not be as great on the outside seam as it is on the inside dart.) So, you might get confused and sew the left upper side piece to the right pocket bag piece. Theoretically. :) That can be avoided if you just mark the outside edge in some way that you’ll remember. I’ve just read back over this paragraph a few times, and I may have even confused myself, so if this doesn’t make sense and you have questions, please let me know!

ETA: I did receive an advance copy of this pattern for testing, but I purchased it during the pre-sale even before that. I was not compensated for testing the pattern nor for writing this post; it was entirely volunteer!

Apparently, I’ve decided by default to break my MMM reports into 3 posts over the month. Feels about right.

I, Susan of moonthirty.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavour to wear 5 me-made items each week for the duration of May 2013.

May 01

This was my first make from the Colette Taffy pattern, blogged here. From a fit perspective, it is almost perfect — the shoulders are a little wide, but nothing I can’t live with. When I made this I understood very little about dart manipulation, so I left the darts as they were designed in this pattern written for bias-cut chiffon, even though I was using cotton jersey. That’s not a move I would probably make today, but I didn’t know any better. But the thing is, I think maybe that’s why I like the fit so well. This jersey is very stable, some stretch but it’s reduced by the non-stretchy embroidery. If I were making a Taffy again from a fabric with similar properties (and I should), I might even leave those darts right where they are — is that crazy?? Anyway, I do really like this shirt but the fabric isn’t the best quality — the nylon(?) thread on the back of the embroidery is sometimes scratchy, and there are tiny holes left by the embroidery needles, some of which are growing and I’ve already patched. So I’m sure its days are numbered.

May 02

I blogged this top at the beginning of this year. I’ve worn it a handful of times, but I don’t love it as much as I did initially. To begin with, the placket on the front just doesn’t lay quite right, even with well-placed snaps. Also, I just don’t love the mega collar. It’s not my favorite look for me; in fact, this pattern has already gone into the donate bin. I like the shirt enough to keep it at this stage, but it’s on the cusp. Side note, this was my first phone timer shoot ever — my husband was out of town on a business trip, so I had to find an app to take selfies. Took more time by far to take one decent, focused picture than when he snaps enough for a whole post. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it!

May 03 – I actually wore my Tira for the first time on this day, but I didn’t post a picture to the Flickr group because I hadn’t blogged it yet and yadayadayada. Doesn’t count! :)

May 04

I never blogged this t-shirt but it was my second make from Vogue 8536. (My first was blogged here, and rest assured it will make a very faded appearance this month.) The fabric was from Denver Fabrics from forever ago, and it is a medium weight cotton-lycra blend. I wear it lots and lots and it’s pilling and I need to make more.

May 05 — nada. Well, not nada, I’m sure I wore something??

May 06

This was my second make from the Sewaholic Renfrew pattern (blogged), and it’s still my favorite. Here’s a funny little story about this top… After I made it, I gave my leftover fabric to Dixie, who decided it really needed to be the exact same thing. Dixie is a close friend of mine IRL* so we’ve accidentally been t-shirt twinsies a couple of times. THEN, earlier this year, I saw a picture linking to a post from Roobeedoo, who had bought the exact same fabric and made herself a Renfrew from it too, at almost the exact same time. (Hers is long-sleeved with a cute lace collar.) So if you ever come across any of this fabric, just know that IT WANTS TO BE RENFREWS ONLY RENFREWS.

*IRL=in real life, as opposed to our (also real) online lives. ;)

May 07

So May 07, despite being the third time I’d actually worn my Tira, is the day I’m counting it for MMM. (The second time was sometime during the previous few days, when I put it on for the blog photo shoot, then left it on. Because.)

May 08

Hey it’s a whole TWO me-made pieces! The top is my first Renfrew, which still gets wear despite being a teensy bit too short. That makes it work kinda great with this skirt though, which I’m still loving!

May 09

Yesterday, I took pics of this top, blogged it, and then just to give it a really fair try, wore it until bedtime. Opinion firmly cemented. Still a no. I am going to keep it until I get ready to re-make it, so I can be sure of the changes I want at that time, and then it’s getting donated.

May 10

I didn’t realize the Friday theme element of MMM until last week, so this is my first attempt to participate in that part of the process. (I really want to get my studio shined up and blogged about in detail one day… I lurve it and I totally dig other peoples’ studio posts.) My top is Simplicity 1805 from my “accidental pajamas” post and it is another one that gets worn to death. The shorts are RTW — I think from JCPenney! — and they will probably be my first rubbing-off attempt from this masking tape technique. Most of the fit is really good; it would be leagues ahead of where I’d start with a pattern.

According to my highly questionable calculations, if I vowed 5 items per week, that equates to 22.14 items for the month, or 7.38 items per volume in the trilogy. So I’m ahead of the game, woot woot! But I am unofficially stepping up my vow to repeats-don’t-count, in the spirit of the retrospective I’m trying to accomplish. I’ve been pretty brutal about getting rid of undesirables, so I don’t have as many me-mades as you might think — even a few things that I’ve blogged within the last year, I no longer have. It’ll be tight!

This last round of McCall’s releases held fewer temptations for me than any in recent memory. I can’t imagine why, since clearly if you’re wearing these styles, you’ll instantly be whisked away to the most beautiful, exotic beachfront…

Wait, what now?

As enticing as that extremely realistic backdrop is, it didn’t sell me on most of the designs. I think I only put two on my wait-for-a-99¢-sale list. Actually, I should thank you for that McCall’s, ’cause I have way too many patterns as it is. I needed to add this one to the mix though, being all peplumy and knit-intended as it is…

While I like all the views, the stripes-to-chevrons in view C really sucked me in, because I have some striped knits in my stash that are becoming impatient. To get the fit nailed down, I made this one simply, without worrying with the stripe matching. I cut the front and back bodice pieces on the fold and also not on the bias.

There were no finished garment measurements anywhere to be found — not on the envelope, nor the pattern tissue, nor the instructions, nor the website. Normally I wouldn’t fret… I’d just measure the flat pattern and adjust as necessary. But this bodice was in six pieces, it was my first time working with princess seams, and the waist seam was pretty curved, so I wasn’t sure how to get an accurate measurement. So, I just graded up the same amount/locations as I would normally with a Big 4 pattern.

When I first put the bodice together, it was too big in the chest, which really surprised me since it seems to be designed fairly close-fitting. I took in inches — granted, I had initially added inches, but I do that with every pattern, so it’s all relative. I took out most of what I had added in the grading. But this might be a your-knit-may-vary thing. They call for medium-weight jersey with about 60% stretch, and mine was on the lighter-weight end of the spectrum. (Plus my cross-grain had more stretch than the bias did, which I thought was weird. Is that normal for a knit?) So, despite the instructions, I recommend attaching the sleeves flat before sewing up the side/underarm seams — it makes the fitting/altering a lot easier.

So why does this top have a one-way ticket to donation land? Getting there. For next time with this pattern, the most significant change I need to make is to the length; I need about an inch more at center back and maybe even three inches at center front, mostly due to me skipping any FBA. I intended this as a wearable muslin, but it is not wearable, at least not on me. The overall length of the top is shorter than I like, but that’s not the deal breaker — where the waist seam hits me, that’s the problem. It falls right at the top of where I start to widen below my ribcage, so it constantly rides up farther, which accomplishes two things: flashes of bare midriff, and baggy bodice. (You can kind of see the excess fabric “stacking” above the waist seam in a couple of these pics.) So I’m constantly either tugging it down or slouching. No thank you. This is one of those specific-to-plus-size issues, I think, because that excess waist “fluff” is right were the smallest part of my waist would be if I carried less weight there. I’m trying to be as objective as possible here, hopefully it makes sense! The pattern can still be adjusted to fit me right; these are just necessary things to consider.

Because I knew I didn’t want to lose even a narrow-hem’s-worth of length, and I was apparently still under some delusion that I’d get wear from this make, I used a rolled hem finish on my serger for the sleeves and hem. It’s probably the best I’ve had this turn out so far; I think I’ve finally cracked the code for the right tension settings. Oh and check this neckline finish! I pinned this tutorial from Handmade by Carolyn a few months ago and have been wanting to try it. I really like it and will definitely use it again! But next time I’ll try to pay attention and put the binding seam at center back instead of center front. Whatever.

This jersey is from Girl Charlee, bought in my very first haul from there almost exactly a year ago. Whoa… I need a moment to reconcile the sheer volume of fabric I have from GC with the fact that I only found them a year ago. Ouchie. Anyway, I usually try to do my v1 makes with the less-than-favorite stashed pieces, but I used this one that I liked because I expected this one would be wearable. No biggie, I still have a scant yard of it, so I’ll make a tank top or incorporate it somewhere. (Maybe as the bottom of a Butterick 5356?)

I finished this top a couple of weeks ago, and since then, I’ve produced the most successful first version of a pattern ever for me, so I’m feeling acutely resentful of all the changes this one’s going to need. So I’ll set it aside for a while… we’ll see if I come back to it! Also, apparently I learned nothing in childhood if not “say cheese!!!” Even as unsuccessful as this garment is, I have trouble donning a frowny face in front of the lens. This was as close as I came…

I spent the better part of the time it took to construct this dress asking myself that exact question. I’m going to get all psycho – logical up in here, so take heed. Usually, when I’m avoiding something, the culprit is fear. So, that was an easy answer, but the hard part was fear of WHAT? Figuring that out took a process of elimination.

Big milestone here: this is my first self-made dress! I have collected so many dress patterns — from any new release, they are the shiny objects that excite me. I don’t know exactly what the ratio is of dresses to other patterns in my stash, but it is quite high considering this is the first one with which I’ve actually gotten past the muslin stage. You see, sewing cake instead of frosting has never been a problem for me. Getting to wear my makes on a daily basis is the draw — I really don’t even strongly consider making something that won’t get much wear. And since there are hardly any dresses in my closet at all, only like three ready-to-wear ones, I guess that translated in my mind as dresses=rarewear. I suppose my RTW options have been so limited from a style and fit perspective that they never became a mainstay in my wardrobe. So all of that’s interesting (arguably), but was I *afraid* to make a dress? No, actually I wasn’t.

If you’ve been with me for any amount of time, you likely already know how much I adore knits. I didn’t learn to sew using them, but as soon as I started, I never looked back. The prints, variety of weights and textures, easy-to-wear-ness, I love all of it. So I had lots of stashed choices for my first Tiramisu. As much as I am infatuated with the striped/chevron version of the most famous sample — as well as all the other striped versions I’ve seen — I knew I didn’t want to mess with that for my first go, until I was sure the pattern would work out as I wanted. The fabric I chose, this cotton-modal blend from Girl Charlee (purchased last summer, not currently available on the site), was a dream to work with. It’s light- to medium-weight with plenty of stretch, decent recovery, and nice drape, but it behaves as obediently as a stable double knit. I had no problems getting it laid out on-grain and keeping it there. Even if I had chosen a trickier one, it’s been a long time since I’ve been afraid of knits — that definitely wasn’t it.

I know there are a few people who read this blog but don’t sew. So I’ll give a quick rundown regarding what distinguishes Cake Patterns, from which this Tiramisu dress design hails. Normally, sewing patterns are available in a range of sizes, just like the clothes you can purchase from a store. You choose which size to make based on one measurement — bust, waist, or hips, depending on what you’re making. The problem is, if you’re not “average” in one or more of the other areas, which applies to almost everyone I know, a pattern can require quite a bit of altering in order to get a good fit. With Cake Patterns, you choose each piece of the pattern based on the applicable measurement(s) — for instance, the Tiramisu bodice is chosen considering both high bust and full bust, the skirt pieces are based on waist, etc. Additionally, the range of sizes covered is great — 30″ to 50″ high bust, 25″ to 50″ waist.

This may sound like preparing the pattern creates a tiny bit more work, and for some, that may be true. But I cannot even begin to tell you how much less work it was for me. Even when a pattern is offered in my theoretical size range, I am never able to just cut-and-sew — choosing based on my full bust makes it way too big in the neckline and shoulders, and I’m still going to have to grade out at the hips anyway. So, when I read about the approach Steph (owner/designer) was taking with Cake, I was floored, excited, impressed…

And — there it is — scared. I didn’t realize it all these months that I was sitting on the pattern, but the aha moment struck me while making this dress. All these gorgeous, wearable, well-fitting Tiramisus had been popping up everywhere — how cool! how inspiring! As long as my pattern remained untried, the amazing potential, the validation, of something that might fit me “out of the envelope” was still there.

You know when you try to figure out something, brainstorm lots of potential solutions, and then strike the right answer — you just feel it? I knew the moment I slipped my nearly-finished Tiramisu over my head for the first time, looked in the mirror, and exhaled, that I had been right about what my fear was. See, it wasn’t the fabric I was afraid of ruining, and I knew that the techniques were likely ones that I could do in my sleep. But I realized that subconsciously I was afraid that mine was going to be the body for whom this wouldn’t work. As someone who has struggled mightily to be comfortable in her physical form, this was scary. (Almost as terrifying as it has been to write and publish this post.)

Was this an unfounded, illogical thing to be afraid of? Of course, but #1: I didn’t even realize it, and #2: Feelings aren’t logical. The fit of this dress isn’t perfect; there are a few things I want to tweak next time. However, it is much, much better fitting than any of my previous v1 makes, with which I spent hours pattern altering prior to even cutting out. Having said that, even if I had needed to make substantial changes, that would have been okay. I do that all the time, and I’m getting pretty good at it! I’m beyond glad that I figured out what was holding me back — now that I’ve discovered it, thought about it, written this post about it, it really no longer exists.

I probably should be quite glad that I didn’t begin sewing with Cake Patterns. I’ve learned a ton and a half about fitting and pattern alterations over the last couple of years, because I’ve had to. If I had made this as my first sewing project, then tried, say, a Big 4 one next, I likely would have said “screw this” (or something equally eloquent) and started calculating how I could stay satisfied with just Tiramisus for the rest of my life.

I love this dress, and everything that it represents to me. It wouldn’t feel right, in this post, to include a proper “pattern review.” It’s like I would be missing the forest for the trees, or something. I will do one the next time I make the pattern, because you can consider me officially bitten by the Tira bug. :-)

But here’s the rub: I have a weakness for those rayon or mostly-rayon knits that aren’t so stable. The way they feel, the gorgeous prints, the beautiful drape, the way they feel, the light-as-air breathability, the way they feeeeeeel…. yummy. But it seems like I typically pull out patterns to make that lend themselves to something more stable. So, I went on an electronic search through my patterns to find some suitable matches for this growing population in my stash.

Vogue 8581 is the quintessential drapey knit pattern. It has been in my collection for a couple of years, and it’s been a HighPriorityToMake that whole time. Clearly, I need to get in touch with the meaning of the phrase “high priority.”

The Pavlova top would work great, wouldn’t it? I’ve seen this made up in all kinds of fabrics, and it seems that because of the wrapping and tying, the unstable ones may even work better. At minimum, wouldn’t the design be an easy solution for poor recovery (i.e., just retie them a little tighter)? I admit that I wasn’t an early adopter of this pattern — it’s the only Cake release that I’ve been lukewarm about. Actually lukewarm isn’t accurate; I liked it quite a bit, but it was the length that concerned me… I’m not a short-top wearer. Of course it would be possible to modify that, but being inherently lazy unsure about figuring out such things, it wasn’t until I saw this post about lengthening it that I pulled the trigger on buying it.

Flowy cardigans like this are spot-on for drapey knits. I have several patterns for them, each with slightly different details, but this Jalie 2919 is one of my faves. It has cute tucks running from the shoulder seam to the waist — but as much as I love them, I might turn them into gathers. The thought of making pintucks out of a rayon knit is…well… I want the knit unstable, not me.

My second make from the Colette Taffy pattern is one of the drapey knit garments in my closet. Despite adding the hem band, the shirt remains clingier than I’m comfortable with in this fabric, and I don’t wear it often. But what I absolutely love about this top? The sleeves. In the rayon they are brilliant, even — maybe especially — unhemmed. What I need to do is rotate the side bust dart (which is totally irrelevant in this fabric anyway) to the hem, then maybe elasticize the bottom à la Vogue 8581 up there. Hmmmm…

Do you have any good pattern recommendations for drapey knits? Like ‘em? Hate ‘em? They sure take more fiddling and time to construct, but I think it’s so worth it! Sometimes.

I first made Simplicity 1805 last summer, and despite my complaints that it smacked of PJs, it has been worn several times per month since it was finished. It’s fun, comfortable, and has hand-stitching embellishment. WinWinWin.

And naturally, since it worked so well for me the first time I made it, somehow it seems to be one of the few times I’ve made a pattern only once! Time to fix that. This time I wanted to make the cold shoulder version (view F). Calling that style “cold shoulder” makes me chuckle. #1: It sounds really bitchy. #2: If it manages to make my shoulders anywhere in the general vicinity of cold during a Texas summer, I’ll make another 47 of them.

The fabric for this make is a lightweight 100% cotton jersey, and the floral motifs are actually burnout, though fortunately it isn’t too sheer. I bought it locally at The Common Thread, but she’s been sold out of it for a while. I love it — it’s super soft, the print steps it up a bit from plain t-shirt status, and the weight will be perfect in the heat.

A shortcoming of this pattern was the treatment of the cold shoulder facing, or I should say the complete lack of treatment. Basically, they just say to fold it under and press, prior to positioning it to attach to the neckband. Um, no. Thankfully I knew this going in — gotta love pattern reviews — so I had a plan to fix it. I cut strips of fusible webbing the width of the facing and glued it down. So yeah, my t-shirt isn’t heirloom quality.

The other thing I was prepared for from the reviews was the visible bra strap issue. The way the pattern is designed, you would need to have a super-skinny bra strap positioned perfectly under the narrow neckline binding in order not to have this problem. Apparently no one falls into this category, shockingly. I slipstitched the opening together about 2″, from the neckband out:

While looking at the aforementioned reviews, I came across a version that I really liked where the sewist used a few rows of shirring at the hem. I blatantly copied it! (Thanks for the inspiration, Diane!) I started about 2″ up from the bottom edge and shirred five rows roughly ½” apart. “About” and “roughly” may not be words that I usually embrace when sewing, but it’s shirring on a lightweight knit – I was shooting for presentable, not perfection! I didn’t hem the bottom, and after a wash or two it has created its own nicely rolled hem. :-) I would totally do this treatment again next time, though I typically think shirring looks a little better with more blousing than I left myself, so I might adjust that. As designed, this top has a ton of ease, but I factored that in when I opted not to grade it up, so on me it has far less.

I’ve worn this top a few times already, and while I do think I’ll get a lot of wear out of it, I doubt that I’ll make this particular view again. The sleeves / cold shoulders don’t seem to lay quite right to me. I am captivated by the concept in general though, and I will be searching my pattern stash for other cold shoulder options…

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In other news… I’m joining MMM’13! This will be my first participation in this type of challenge. Even though I do wear handmade often, I don’t have a whole lot of go-tos, so this may be as much of a laundry challenge as a styling one. ;-) My pics will be mostly phone selfies, because committing to anything other than that will just be a setup for failure! I may post about it weekly or just mid-month and end-of-month, haven’t decided yet.

I, Susan of moonthirty.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May ’13. I endeavour to wear 5 me-made items each week for the duration of May 2013.

I knew this would be a (hopefully wearable) muslin, but still, to trace/alter/cut/fuse/construct over the course of a few days would be a tall order for me. One that I failed at actually, but … I’m still calling it a win since I only finished one day late! This was my first blouse with a collar, since I’ve fallen quite behind with the Archer sewalong. If only my hands would work as quickly as my plans.

I really like this feminine, classic design. For a t-shirt-and-jeans girl, it says a lot that I think this could be an oft-worn style in my wardrobe. It will go great with my plethora of jeans, but I could cute it up with a skirt or any variety of accessories. This is my first Peter Pan collar — not just self-made but in the entirety of my closet, but it won’t be lonely for long because I’m already scoping out Violets number 2, 3…

Regarding sizing, I wasn’t really sure which way to go, because this was my first Colette make — not counting the Taffy blouse, with which I went so far off course that it can’t be considered. I started with an 18 (46″ bust). I did this because, while I usually choose the 44″ bust size to fit my shoulders, I figured that the C-cup block would make a difference. It worked fine, but I will shave off a little from the front upper chest between the armscyes next time. Aside from that, the only other change I need to make is to pivot out a bit more at the hips, which is an adjustment that I should have made this time but miscalculated.

I lengthened the top about an inch, so I decided to add one more buttonhole at the bottom, spaced just as the rest were without redistributing them. I do like the eight, but that’s about the only thing I like about the way these buttonholes came together. My one-step buttonholer on my sewing machine starts at the bottom of the buttonhole, so I should have worked in from the shirt’s edge, but I sewed the first one the opposite direction, and it came way closer to the edge than I’d anticipated. But since I’d rather stick a fork in my eye than unpick a buttonhole on a wearable muslin, I ignored the warning bells and trudged forward with the remaining ones. Problem is, since I didn’t grade up enough at the hemline, the buttons want to pull all the way to the end of the buttonholes. Not a good look:

So, I decided to slipstitch the whole thing in place so that the buttons will stay a tiny bit away from the edge of the placket. Fortunately the shirt can slip over my head so I don’t need the buttons to be functional. But yes, this slipstitching took quite a bit longer than unpicking the one buttonhole would have. Thanks for noticing.

Due to the sizing missteps, time will tell how comfortable I find this particular make. But I love the design, and I consider the wearable muslin a success — I know what I want to change, and I learned a lot about blouse construction in the process. Thanks for the challenge, Antoinette! (Her Violet is here!)

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P.S. Do you Instagram? It’s fun! I joined a long time ago but have become much more active recently. The pics I post are often sewing-related, e.g., my progress during this sewalong, but I sometimes snap doggy, foodie, other life photos… I’m moonthirty there if you want to play. :)

Yes, the spikes are supposed to go North-South à la stegosaurus, not East-West à la Statue of Liberty, but YOU try telling him that. And that’s his bro over his right shoulder, sporting a hat I did not make.

As on-topic and appropriate as any talk of my brilliant nephews always is, that hat pattern didn’t come from this book. (It’s here if you’re interested.) This one did, though:

This stylish little number is the Eddie Cap from the book, and it’s provided in youth to adult sizes. Since this was my first go at this pattern, and I have serious trust issues, this one was a wearable muslin. It’s made from a home dec weight cotton from Ikea (the scraps I had left after making the curtain that hangs in front of my stash closet). The pattern worked wonderfully and fits just right. I made an adult large, as my head measures 23″. Wow, how nice it is every once in a while to make something that requires no alterations!

I was impressed with the detailed instructions and clear illustrations. I only have a couple of notes for next time, and in case anyone who’s reading makes this one…

• I used the fusible webbing that she called for on the outer band, but I don’t think I would next time. I didn’t find that I needed to fuse it in order for the band to stay put during the final topstitching, and it really was just a pain to have it there during other times in the process (had to steer clear of it when I needed to press).
• When getting the “band/brim sandwich” sorted in step 5, be sure to press the inner band up towards the seam allowance. That makes the basting later in step 8 much neater and easier.

This book rocks, y’all. From the 35 designs it contains, I truly like and would make at least 20 of them, and that makes those patterns just pennies apiece. The styles range from baby to adult, but a lot of the kid ones wouldn’t necessarily be juvenile with the right fabric. Most of the patterns include sizing for both, and a section in the front of the book describes how to enlarge or reduce patterns for an even wider range. Be aware that the templates themselves are not contained in the book — they’re all pdf downloads. To me, this is a bonus, because I wholeheartedly prefer pdf printouts over the enlarging rigamarole anyway, but I know that opinions vary on this. The only minor complaint I have is that the book isn’t spiral-bound, so it doesn’t lie flat open. But I’m sure that’s a tradeoff for it being so affordable.

Here is a scan of the two pages from the book containing the pictorial table of contents. If you don’t do a lot of sewing for children, don’t be turned off by the styling! There are only five patterns that don’t include the sizing for adults, which I’ve marked with blue dots (click for a larger pic):

[I do feel the need to point out here that NAYY -- I was not given this book nor asked to review it. I bought it with my own money and am a satisfied customer!]

And lastly, in order to make my cute punny title work, here’s a gratuitous photo of my angelic little Elphie, whose favorite treats are ice cubes and the tracing paper scraps I cut off while working on patterns…

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Now a blog housekeeping topic. Just like every single blogger ever, I love comments — the interactions in that area of this site are one of my very favorite things about blogging, and I generally reply to each one. Early on, I decided to put my response in italics within the body of the original comment, to keep it clean and easy. But I realized recently, after reading this post from Lisa, that it may not be ideal because no one would ever see a notification of the response. I really don’t have much of a preference on this, so I thought I’d toss it out to you guys to see how you like it. Thoughts? What about other types of commenting platforms like DISQUS? Likes and dislikes?

But lately, in the past month or two, I’ve been flirting with the other side. I started doing it without consciously deciding to, but in retrospect there are several justifications for it. The biggest one is that I have favorite and unfavorite parts of the sewing process. For example, I dig the pattern alteration and actual stitching/construction parts. I typically do not enjoy cutting out the fabric or fusing the interfacing. I’ve noticed that if my next step is a part I am dreading, sometimes it will keep me out of my studio for days. During that time, I’m not getting my sewing fix, which… isn’t pretty. On the other hand, there are times when I feel up to these things, and I can capitalize on it when that happens.

Plus, sometimes a project needs to marinate, either literally or figuratively. There are the times, for instance, when a garment needs to hang for a while before hemming. But even more common for me is when I’m stuck on something and can’t figure it out — often walking away is the best plan. Maybe I only need a ten-minute break, but maybe I need a few days. Sometimes I even dream the solution, for realz.

Here’s yet another reason: different projects meet different needs. I have had a pressing (haha) demand for a new purse for a while now. The one I’m carrying is getting worn out and I’m tired of it. But I don’t feeeel like making a bag; I wanna make clothes. I’m unwilling to make a complete departure from garments for however long it would make me to complete the purse, so I work on it for a few minutes here and there. In a year or so, I’ll have it done. ;-)

Want another reason? Other timing things can make an impact, like this one: I’m participating in the Archer Sew Along. This is my first time making a shirt like this, so I think it will be good for me to get all the helpful tips that Jen will provide. I have never actually sewn along during a sew along, but it’s kind of fun to do it like an actual class and not skip ahead. But after my Archer homework, which isn’t much at one time, I still have other things I’m doing.

So for all these reasons and probably more, I’m giving this juggling act a go. We’ll see if it’s successful or if I crash and burn. The measure of success? Whether or not I actually complete the works-in-progress. You know, the creating part of creativity. So far, I like that I seem to be going to my studio more often, rather than just when I have hours to spend there. It seems more balanced and manageable somehow; I know there’s a little something I can do on one of my projects that won’t take long. Hopefully it will be sustainable!

Whether or not you like to spread your energies over multiple projects simultaneously, here’s a favorite tip I’ve adopted from Tasia (Sewaholic).

These pant hangers from Ikea are 99¢ each, and they are an absolutely brilliant way to keep your in-progress or TNT patterns out of the way and uncreased!

PS: The sleeping beauty photo up there isn’t mine. Click here for source (Health magazine).