Back to Sewing

I really enjoy reading sewing blogs, but have noticed that many bloggers are quitting and just using Instagram or Pinterest only. I don't like those forums, as there are only pictures and not much written text so you can't really get to know much about the items.

I do hope that sewing bloggers continue to record their sewing efforts. If not, what will I have to read?

I have been sewing but have been remiss about blogging my finished items.

Since the summer, I have made a Kwik Sew classic shirt from some lovely quilting cotton I bought at Dolans' in Renfrew. It is a black background with tiny leaves in mustard and soft purple (what I would call mauve).  Years ago, I read an article in Threads about coordinating your sewing by using a piece from one finished item and incorporating it into the next garment, thus tying them all together. The result was a kind of artsy-type wardrobe, not to everyone's taste, but an interesting concept.  This cotton has me thinking that I should use the remains of the quilting cotton in another garment, and I can see a shirt-dress that is colour-blocked with this print being used as the border on a solid colour dress.
Hmm, we shall see if I actually get to it.

Then I sewed a Coatigan, at least that seems to be what this sweater-coat garment is being called. I found an independent pattern featured in a blog, but it was from Australia and the printed pattern cost $35 plus the price of shipping. Whoa - way too expensive. I found a very similar pattern in McCalls.

                                                 
I ordered a sweater knit from Fabric.com and it is sitting in a box waiting to be cut and sewn. In the meantime, I wanted to make a muslin first and used some black French terry from the stash. The terry has much more body to it than the sweater knit and the result is more like a coat. In fact, because of the colour, I am calling it my "funeral coat". I will be ready for any funeral I have to attend in the near future. As a result of making the muslin, I am going to add 1" to the side seams for better closure and I will shorten the bodice 1" to bring the bottom of that V up higher on me. After all, I am short and the pattern would have been designed for someone 5" taller than me.

Next, I ordered 4 patterns from Grainline Patterns, which came in record time. They have really good service. I made up the Lark Tee in a knit from the stash and it is looking pretty good. I am going to cut down the shoulders and neckline and armscye to a smaller size as they are too big on me, but the body is just right. I can also lose some of the length in both sleeves and body, although I prefer to have the length there before hemming. I really dislike t-shirts that end up being too short, and I have found that I like a deeper hem than most patterns allow for. From the Loes Hinse line of patterns, I have found that a 2" hem on the bottom of a knit top gives it nice weight and it hangs better.

Then I sorted out my pile of fabrics that seem to accumulate in my sewing area. I found a Kalle shirt cut out in a cotton print that I love. I think I bought it from Blackbird Fabrics last spring.  Over the summer, I made 2 Kalle shirtdresses and cut out this blouse. I lengthened the cropped version about 3" in front and 5" in back. Cropped tops on a woman my age are definitely OUT.  This is a lovely pattern, it is so well drafted and the instructions are great. Everything goes together so well, it is a real pleasure to sew.

I do finish my pockets differently, I sew the top facing over to the right side, then flip it over, which brings the sides in, then press and topstitch in place. I also use the Islander burrito technique for the yoke rather than the one that Heather Lou uses. I don't like rolling all that fabric up into a little bundle; too many creases for my taste. Margaret Islander's technique does one side at a time, and there is no bunching up of the body of the shirt inside the yoke.

Now that I am making the Kalle again, I want another shirtdress in it.  I have a teal green cotton blend in the stash that I think would be good. I have to force myself to sew solid colour garments; I am simply drawn to prints time and again. But solids have much more wearability than prints.

Also in January I made a pair of Burda pants from some black rayon/poly/lycra from the stash. So it has been a rather productive time here in my sewing room. I will try and get some photos up here shortly.

Dress for Sarah

A dress for  Sarah, who turned six in June. She has been asking me for a dress since I made two  for her sister Hannah.

The pattern is Simplicity 2377, view E made in size 7.

                          

April Sewing

A recent trip to Texas netted some fabric that was turned into a dress for grand-daughter Hannah. She is 14 about to turn 15 this month and fits a size 12 pattern perfectly. I don't understand these bloggers who make size 4 or 6 for themselves when they can't possibly measure that small. I mean Hannah is a very slender teenager and her measurements put her exactly into a size 12. I know that some patterns have more ease than others, but generally I have found that they are in the ballpark and only require minimal tweaking to make them fit well.

                                               
The pattern for this dress is Butterick 6331; it has a vintage look to it and could be a little too cute, but hopefully she will wear it. I am making the same pattern again in a soft printed chambray, that version will be collarless and sleeveless plus it will have the full skirt. So it will look more like a sun-dress.
I figure that since version 1 fit her so well, that I should make a second version right away before she grows. The only changes I made to the pattern were to bring the neckline in slightly (it looked very wide to me) and I took in the side seams 1/4" directly under the arms to eliminate gaping there.

Second version of Butterick 6331 in a lovely printed denim chambray. Instead of gathering the skirt, I pleated it so that it would not be a full waist. Very few people feel comfortable in a gathered waist I find. Pleats give you the exact same circumference in the skirt but the fullness is controlled at the waistline.

These two fabrics will be made into a tiered dress for grand-daughter Sarah who is five, but a very tall five. The pattern is Simplicity 2377, which I picked up at Joanne's in Texas. Simplicity patterns aren't sold in Canada any longer. The reason given is that they don't print the instructions in French and Canada insists on all products being sold in the two official languages. Stupid I say, as the percentage of people who speak French in Canada is not that great. There are probably more people who speak Chinese than speak French now.

I will make her a size 7, as she is growing like a weed. She is already wearing Hannah's old clothes from when Hannah was 8 years old. I had the plaid in my stash and picked up the batik pink quilting cotton to coordinate with it. Sarah's favourite colour of course is pink, as is the case for most little girls.

And the yellowy cotton above is going to be a gardening blouse for me, using Vogue 8689.  My daughter in Texas made this pattern up for her very first sewing project and it looked great. She made it first in a cotton/linen blend, then again in a cotton lawn print. She said the second version looked like scrubs so she took off the sleeves and bound the armholes. And that blouse looks wonderful. She ties the ends in a knot and wears it with a very cute heart-printed blue denim.

I also bought three fabrics from Blackbird Fabrics last week. One is a stretch twill in tan to make into pants, and there are two lengths for summer blouses. One is a double gauze in navy that I think will be very interesting to work with. 

Photos from snowy northern Ontario

Tekla, now 23 weeks old

Standing on the back deck

Those perky ears

She blinks in the bright sunshine

So long since posting here, life has been busy with all sorts of new things. Adjusting to a new house, to a new community, to a new weather system and also to a new puppy.

But I have made some living room curtains. There is another window that needs another set, but this is enough for this week. I so dislike sewing home decor items, I find them incredibly frustrating for some reason. The quantity of fabric, the weight of it, the need for exact measuring, and then the task of mounting the hardware on the wall. Neither one of us is very practical and it takes a major effort to screw in brackets for the curtain rod. But we managed today to get this one up and so I felt obliged to finish the first pair of curtains and get them hung. The brackets need to be extended a little further as the curtains get stuck on the blind hardware that is also there, but that is a minor job.

I will so enjoy getting back to garment sewing. A zillion pieces of a pattern is far less intimidating that the 94" of curtain lengths that I was dealing with in these.

This is Tekla, a Norwegian elkhound. She is now 17 weeks old. We got her at 10 weeks, and she has been quite the handful. We have always had dogs from their young puppy age, but I don't recall any being quite so difficult to train as this one. Of course, having a UTI for two weeks at Christmas didn't help as she had to go out every 30 minutes and there were many accidents in the house. But she has a wonderful loving nature and is incredibly curious and energetic. And she will keep us exercising and walking which is so necessary in this stage of our life. 

Other than that, I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring. But before that, we are heading south to visit our daughter and her family in Texas. This is the daughter who took up sewing 10 months ago, and has successfully completed over 50 items of clothing so far.  This includes 4 bras and 2 pairs of jeans, there is no stopping her. She has discovered the wonderfully creative world of sewing and her husband even bought her a serger for Christmas. She made a fleece dog coat right off with it. Next are t-shirts and sweatshirts for the kids; the oldest boy said that he was looking forward to something without buttons. 

 
This is Tekla when we first got her, about 11 weeks old.

And this is her when she takes a nap; she often rolls over onto her back and is out for the count. Only lasts about 15 minutes though, then she is up and ready to go again.

Of course, this has severely limited the amount of sewing that I get done. But every thing has its season.

Sewing Swimwear

For some reason, I got it in my head that I wanted to make a bathing suit. The idea took over and I searched for a pattern that would be suitable for this aging body. Aha! Butterick 5795 popped up and, although the photos were not that helpful, the line diagrams showed a "swimdress" that I could see myself wearing. 

                                        

The pattern has a lot of options: a crossover swimsuit, a tank top in two lengths with a swimsuit bottom, a skirt to wear over the bottom if desired, and a cover-up dress that looks quite good too.

I found this print at our local fabric store, the fabric is heavy duty nylon/lycra and it was pricey, especially when I discovered that I had cut the bottoms on the wrong grain and had to purchase more. In actual fact, I then found out that it was only the lining that I had cut wrong and the lining restricted the stretch of the print; once I cut lining with the correct stretch, everything was fine. 

 

I made the shorter version of the swim dress, the bottoms are pinned to the dress form because I couldn't get them up over the bottom of the stand without losing the feet (of the dress form that is). 

Rather than use the directions for the lining, I cut the front double and zigzagged purchased bra cups in the correct position. Then I simply sewed the lining to the edges of the front and treated them as one layer. That is why you can see the side seam pulling to the front; it is the elastic sewn underneath the bra cups that pulls in the lining which is attached at the side seam. It doesn't do this when I am wearing it.

This is the back view; it has a slight flare to it. The longer version would be more flared. When I tried this on, I actually thought it would make a very nice princess line dress in a knit with some body. I may actually try one later on, but I would raise the neckline and finish it with binding or a facing.  I think I would add sleeves to it as well. 

All in all, I am quite pleased with this swimsuit. Of course, one never really knows until you actually swim in it, because there can be surprises with swimwear. The swimdress may float up and be totally annoying; I should know in two weeks time when we have moved to Ontario and I take my first dip in Lake Kamaniskeg (I can hardly wait).

I have sewn two dresses this summer plus a top, but haven't posted any of that. We are intensely busy with selling this house, packing up and getting ready to leave this province. Thirty-one years is a long time and we are going back to our original province, now that Nick has retired. 

I plan on sewing one more blouse, then the sewing room will be packed up and the machines packed and ready for the big move. 

Moving and Gardening

Preparing for a big move in July or August from Nova Scotia to Ontario. I am thrilled at the fact that we now have a large lot that is great for gardening. The hardiness zone is more limiting, this is zone 3 whereas Halifax is zone 4, but the soil is clay whereas Nova Scotia is rock and more rock, as well as giant tree roots.

So first up, I just had to plant a flowering crab apple tree. So easy to dig a foot-deep hole with this soil, add the sheep manure to the soil, apply the fungus to the exposed roots (apparently it helps the roots to grow and to absorb moisture), add bone meal to the soil as well and then plant. Water generously and I'm done!

Apparently the apple tree in the empty lot next door will provide the cross-pollination required. So I don't have to plant a second apple tree. Which is a bit of a relief, I am rather tired by the effort to plant this one. 

I have also discovered four peonies in one of the garden beds. And the daffodils I planted last fall are just about finished. There is a perfect spot for a clematis vine just by the back deck (feet in shade, tops in the sun), this is something I could never grow in Halifax. I am going to push my luck though and see if I can get a climbing hydrangea to grow here. It is one zone colder than hydrangea needs, but in the right spot it just might make it. 

Next week, it is back to Nova  Scotia to finish packing up the house and then selling it. Once that is done, we will move here permanently. The move will bring us within a 5-minute drive of 7 of our grandchildren which will be great. And travel to Texas to visit the other 3 grandchildren is easier from Ontario than from Nova Scotia. The only drawback is leaving our youngest daughter in Nova Scotia. We will only see her when she takes her vacation and visits us here.

 This is the view of the front yard as seen from the front steps. This is what we see out of our living room window. In the fall, the colours are magnificent with the red maple and the golden leaves of the many birch trees.

This is one angle of the back yard, the lot line defined by large pine trees, which the neighbour emphatically informed me belonged to him. "I can trim the branches if you would like", he said. I replied "they are just fine the way they are." 

The other angle of the back yard. This is the land of sheds, almost everyone has at least one in their yard and often as many as three or four. Provides great storage for wood piles, bikes, snowmobiles, ATVs, boats, and possibly racoons and their young.

Life will be different here. I am looking forward to it. I know that I will miss terribly some things about Halifax and the closest fabric store is an hour's drive away and it's not terribly impressive. I will definitely be shopping online for many fabrics and notions. But life will also be much simpler, living in a town of 1200 people rather than a city of 100,000. There doesn't seem to be that sense of urgency that you feel when you live in a city, always watching the clock because you are on a schedule. I feel that we will be living more in the moment here. 

All in all, a good move we think. As with any major change, there will be a period of adjustment. 

I am very grateful for all the blessings in my life.