Love for Zenith and Quasar

    This fall and summer I was raving about some of my favorite fabric and pattern companies, and I have another one for you today. Zenith and Quasar is a fabric company that sells mostly athletic type knits; think supplex and really high quality brush poly. Lilly Himrod (the owner of the company) also creates some of her own fabric that is usually science based in theme. I just bought some goodies from her for the first time, and am in love with my new duds.

      I have some neuron leggings (Peglegs from Patterns for Pirates of course):

 And a nebula dress made using the Free Spirit Tank (dress version) also from P4P.
            

-with the racerback option.  

Aren't the nebulas incredible?!I've seen a lot of space prints and this is my favorite. 

I love both of these fabrics so much. I like them together a lot as well. 

They symbolize the magic of life to me; the similarities found in the macro- and microcosms of our world and beyond.

I had been thinking about make some raglan shirts combining both fabrics but then changed my mind. These two pieces will end up getting more use than a single shirt would have I believe. And I can always pair them together!

When I made the dress, it was 50 degrees outside, then the next day it was in the 20's and dumped over a foot of snow. (Hurray for an actual winter!) 

No worries though, this layers nicely right into my winter wardrobe. 

     Lilly is also running an awesome preorder right now with some sweet Earth Day / March for Science panels. Check them out here through February 28. or if you'd rather have someone else sew them up for you, you can check this out.
    Here's a peak of my favorite:
                                       
 
Thanks for stopping by!

My first Me Hearties

    That rose red P4P Me Hearties dress I made for Althea at Christmastime was not actually the first Me Hearties that I have put together. Earlier in the fall, I made one for Fern. Both fabrics are from a knitpop auction box (surprise); the floral is a DBP, the teal I believe was said to be double brushed but it is a lot thinner than the floral so maybe a brushed rayon? Do they do that? Anyways, it's crazy soft. And actually the exact same fabrics that my SIL's harems were made from.

 I made her a size 7 (which she had just turned) and it was a tad big, but that's all right. Better than too small. She hasn't stopped growing yet. 

 It's nice to see pictures of the yard in bloom, seeing as it is currently covered in a blanket of snow. 

Her flowers fit right in. 

 Circle skirts are of course the best to twirl in.....there she goes!

 She's got a pair of bonny leggings from Made for Mermaids underneath there. They sure do love to match. 

And to eat the baby strawberries growing in that "red" section of my rainbow garden. 

And why not throw in a matching pair of P4P Peglegs for mom? 

Thanks for stopping by!

Well hello there! My it's been a long long time.

As is my tradition, I took a blogging hiatus over the holiday season. I never take a break from sewing  though, so I will begin a partial review of some of my favorite projects from the past few months.

On Halloween, Knitpop had a trick or treat sale in which they added an extra yard of fabric to your purchase if you spent over $50 (a mystery treat!). I was happy to oblige them and met that quota, and in return they sent me this gorgeous red rose fabric. Then, to make things even more exciting, they announced a December sewing contest with big time prizes in which everyone had to use this lovely fabric (Edith is the name of the print) to sew something for themself and also for someone that they love and post a picture of them side by side in the knitpop facebook group. 

I have been seriously working on my ninja fabric cutting skills. 

Along with some olive french terry (also from knitpop) and some pretty black lace that I picked up I believe at JoAnn's a while ago, I was able to make three garments from that one yard!

It's just too hard for me to choose one person to join me in a situation like this, I love to sew for both of these beauties so much.

        On the left we have Fern in a Margot top by Violette Field Threads. I shortened the bodice by a few inches and added the lace over some of the olive in lieu of the ruffle.  I finished the neckline with a facing from the olive and finished the sleeves with regular cuffs (as opposed to the fancy ones in the pattern).

    On the right, we have Althea in a Me Hearties dress / tunic from Patterns for Pirates (aka P4P). I used the olive for the top of the bodice, obviously, and also for more than half the skirt. Basically I used as much of the rose as I could and filled in the rest of the skirt with the olive. It worked out great, though, I think hers is my favorite. The french terry is really heavy and has a great drape; it is perfect for winter time and also twirls fantastically.

    I am in the center with my Maria Denmark Day / Night drape top. This makes the third one I have made of those now. It is such a fun pattern. I knew I was going to have to make myself a top, not a dress if I was going to squeeze three things from the one yard, and I thought for a little while about how I could make something that would still be unique and stand out in the contest. I came up with the idea of adding the lace panel to the front of the shirt. Man, that took a lot of trial and error, basting and seam ripping, cutting and then recutting that panel. But it was a labor of love and in the end, I am really thrilled with the way it came out. Exactly what I was going for! Although it does sometimes ride up (the lace is sewn into the armscye and goes down below my bust, so I can kind of tuck it into my bra). I wanted to avoid creating a seam across the front of the shirt, but I may tack it down in a few places at least. I finished my shirt with olive bands on the arm holes, which I was a little unsure about, but I really didn't even have enough Edith left for that, so there you have it. I think it works.

It was pretty cold that afternoon when we went out for a photoshoot in the driveway. The girls were troopers. At least they had sleeves! And I am always warm when I am excited - and I was pretty excited to be triplet-ing with these ladies in this beautiful fabric.

     Dave does a great job running around as our photographer; he acts really silly and makes it fun and gets us laughing. Love that guy. 

    And I love these two hams....they are getting so grown up, <sigh>.
 
                            Thanks for stopping by!

Adult romper?!?

I have had no lack of sewing inspiration lately. Ideas have been coming to me from all over and the more I sew, the more competent I feel and the faster I can put things together, the more fun it all is. 

At one point this past summer, I had been away on vacation for a couple weeks, and came home super ready to bust out some projects. One thing that I couldn't stop thinking about was a romper.....for me. I love the look of them and the comfort factor, but hadn't actually gone there until this project. It's one of those styles that you know you will look back on and laugh, and also makes me question if I am trying to pull off a look that may be a little younger than I am.

But hey, I'm not getting any younger, right? So I might as well go for it now. 

I did some severe pattern hacking for this, so was pretty unsure if my vision was going to play out. 

I have waistline issues, so I didn't want to give it a waist. It seems like no matter where I place it (empire / natural waist / low slung) it still makes me look pregnant. So I used the P4P pumpkin spice dolman and added self drafted harem pants to it which were based off the bottom half of the Alley Cat Romper by Lil Luxe Collection. I sewed it up so fast I forgot to add pockets. 

Which was too bad. 

But it was a very quick sew, and a lot of fun. 

These pictures were taken by Fern when I first made it; before I even added a neckband. 

I wasn't sure what I thought when I first made it. I finished it right before bed and then slept in it because it was so comfortable. Then I showed my husband first thing in the morning and he just crumbled into hysterics laughing at it. My kids loved it though. And I kind of thought I did too. 

As time has gone on, I have gotten even more comfortable with it and have worn it around town a few times. It's truly one of the most comfortable things I own, although I do have to strip to use the bathroom (I generally wear a tank top underneath so that I don't feel too exposed / chilly.)

I think this fabric was absolutely perfect for it. It is rayon spandex from knitpop (of course) that I got in an auction box. This was probably my least favorite fabric in the box when I bid, but the 80's feel of it is spot on for this. 

So of course I had to break it out for #memadeknitpop week.

 I think the thing that tickles Dave the most about it, is the flying squirrel aspect. (Along with the fact that he is so clueless about fashion / trends he had no idea women have been wearing one piece outfits along these lines for the past five years at least). Althea loves the flying squirrel look as well. She is always grabbing the front of her coat, ripping open the snaps and throwing out her arms to reveal her "wingsuit" and zooming around everywhere she goes. 

So I will leave you with one final visual treat so that you can get the full picture of all the things this garment can bring to the table....

My dog's even wondering what the hell is going on!

Oh boy. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Harem Pants

   It is Thursday (technically Friday by the time I am writing this), and I am still enjoying playing along with #memadeknitpop. My Tuesday and Wednesday didn't make it onto the blog, because this is a busy week (per usual) and I just wore shirts that have appeared here before on those days.
   Today I was head to toe me made and (mostly) knitpop. Clothes just plain don't get any more comfortable than this. It is glorious being wrapped in yards of this soft stuff. This hoodie has shown up here before; it's reversible and the blue sky tie dye is knitpop. On the flip side, the tie dye is the sleeves and hood and the floral is the body.

Under the hoodie is a flowy tank that I made from that tie dye. This shirt was pretty much my main uniform of summer. Every time it was clean(ish), I wore it. A free spirit tank from Patterns for Pirates; Fern chose the side dipped hem feature. This was a Cape Cod sew. 

And under the top is a pair of harem pants, and I am pretty obsessed. Totally digging the look of wearing them with booties, too. I drafted this pattern based the shape of the lower portion of the Alleycat romper from the Lil Luxe Collection that I have made for my kids. 

I also made a pair for each of my kids; one exactly like this pair, and one the opposite (the wavy tie dye that is on the waist and cuffs of these is the body of that pair, and the navy is the waist and cuffs). Fern likes them and wears them; Althea has decided that she doesn't wear baggy pants, only leggings and certain jeans. You can't win them all. 

I learned a few lessons from the first pair though, and now know that I need to make sure the waist band is tighter or else they start drooping. I also thought the lower leg could be a little bit wider and the cuff should be more snug as well. 

So I applied these bits of knowledge and made a second pair out of two gorgeous pieces of knitpop brushed poly. These were a gift for my sister-in-law's birthday. 

(I swear I only wore them for pictures Lauren! :)

Now I want to make all the harem pants. I almost think they could rival pegs for the spot they could fill in my wardrobe. Just as comfortable; pocket potential; can wear them without a tunic. And I just dig this type of style. 

I'm kind of even thinking about making some for sale. 

What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall wardrobe sampler: #memadeknitpop Monday

    When your favorite fabric store hosts a #memadeknitpop week, you might as well try to blog along, right? I can always use a little inspiration to get blogging. Sara Jaggers Knook has all the knitpop ladies wearing an item of clothing they made using her wonderful fabrics every day this week and documenting it / sharing with each other. And there may be some prizes involved. Check out the knitpop facebook group to join the fun.

So here I am on Monday.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to make with this gorgeous yellow floral DTY when I bid on it. I was thinking a fishtail skirt a la the lovely Delia's tutorial, but ended up going with palazzo pants by P4P instead. I think it was a good choice, because these pants have been getting way more wear than a dramatic skirt would. (Of course, I am now on the lookout for the perfect fabric to make one of those skirts; I think DTY is probably it).

I'm pretty psyched about these pants. I realized when I was cutting them out, that the scrap fabric created by cutting around the crotch part of the pant piece was the perfect size and shape to create side seam pockets. Score! I just had to cut a rounded notch out of the top corner of the front pieces, fold down that edge and top stitch it to finish the pocket opening; then I top stitched the pocket piece to the pants, right side of pocket facing wrong side of pants. Since there is a side seam and waistband in the pattern already, you just proceed as usual at that point. The last alteration I made to the pattern, however, was to use the measurements for the Pegleg yoga waistband instead of the palazzo waist. I prefer the tighter waist so that I don't lose my drawers; especially if I am going to be toting around the weight of items in pockets.

This is a view of the pants from the inside. You can see the shape of the pockets here. I didn't alter the crotch scrap at all to make the pockets. 

I love how knit fabric doesn't fray; I didn't worry about finishing the edge of the pocket or folding it under or anything; so it is not very bulky at all and I can't even feel that seem against my leg when I wear them. 

Here's a close up of my pocket from the outside. You can see where I top stitched the pocket opening with my double needle and also where I top stitched the side seam of the pants (on the right) with my double needle as well. 

 And here is the whole top view of the pants. If you look carefully enough you can see the double needle stitching that attaches the pocket to the pants. On the right, the pocket goes around both of the large yellow roses and the stitching goes down through the green leaves. These are ample pockets that hold all the essentials; phone, keys and even wallet.

 And voila! The perfect pair of new pants for fall. (My favorite time of year!)

Thanks for stopping by!

Variety of fabrics for raglans

          I am going to continue sharing my Patterns for Pirates projects, because that is practically all I have sewn this summer, on my journey of sewing up my wardrobe and not buying any clothes.
          There are two raglan patterns from P4P, the relaxed fit and slim fit raglans. There is also an "accessory pack" full of options that you can use on either pattern. I thought the relaxed fit was going to be the one for me. My waist measures two sizes larger than the rest of my body, and I do not like to have things fitting me snugly there. So I got the relaxed pattern, and made a shirt. I decided that I would make it reversible since I had decent yardage of each of two fabrics that I wanted to use and couldn't decide which should be the body and which should be the arms.

        I spent longer than I should probably admit thinking about the pockets. This is not the first time I have done this to myself. I finally have come to terms with the fact that it is not possible to make a reversible garment with side seam pockets in which the same pockets are accessible from either side of the shirt. Because if you are making pockets with a pocket bag on the side seam, being able to access them from the inside and outside of the shirt would mean that your hand would go right through the shirt to the inside when you reached in. I know this sounds confusing, but I feel like I need to put this in print so that I don't try to rack my brain figuring out how to make it work another time. I ended up making a pocket for the righthand side of each version of the reversible shirt.

       But do you know what is possible? Following the directions exactly as they are written. If I had done that and made side seam pockets that are sewn to the front shirt piece (which I wanted to avoid for some reason), then I would have saved myself a lot of trouble and ended up with two pockets for each incarnation of the shirt. 

        Anyways. The fabrics for this shirt are so soft, and I like it a lot aside from that striped cuff fabric.  Doesn't  quite match.  But  I am going to  say it works. Tie dye from my  dirty hippy box from Knitpop; floral from that long ago knitfix from Girl Charlee, stripe from JoAnn's.                                 

         I also wanted to use a raglan pattern to make myself a rash guard. I asked on facebook what people thought about sizing down the regular and many were adamant that the slim fit and regular are completely different patterns and that sizing one down does not yield the other. And then they had a sale, and I ended up with the Slim fit raglan in my cart along with a few other things. It seemed like the way to go for a rash guard. I did grade between sizes when I cut the pattern, and man this is why I sew my own clothes. It feels like such a miracle to be able to grade sizes and turn a pattern for something that I thought I wasn't capable of wearing any longer into something that I LOVE to wear. This is more of the nylon spandex I bought from Spandex House for all of our swimwear.

There's my rash guard. Fits well through the arms, shoulders etc. but is loose at the abdomen. 

I will have to get a picture of me twinning with Fern!

         I splurged on some merino wool from New Zealand Merino and Fabrics when we got our tax return. The shipping was steep, but that is to be expected since it came from the other side of the world. The conversion rate from kiwi $ to US was definitely in my favor though.  Both my husband and my favorite store, Ibex, is not a cheap place to shop and I had been looking for a place to buy merino wool so that I could try to make us some performance clothing items that would be on par with something we love to buy ready made. Also, I would like to buy merino products for the kids but really can't justify it seeing how fast they grow out of things. So this purchase made sense in many ways. I had been scared to cut into this lovely stuff though, until I practiced my ideal pattern on another type of fabric and got the fit right. I had been thinking that I wanted to make myself a regular fit raglan, but through sewing both of the previous shirts, I realized that when I grade, the slim fit raglan is perfect for me unless I am wanting to make a bulky sweatshirt style shirt.
         So I made a slim fit,

with a wrap around hood,

and side seam pockets as the pattern instructs

except that I added a zipper to one of those side pockets.

I also used the thumb hole cuffs and enjoyed seeing the way Judy teaches thumbholes. It was totally different than what I have done in the past.

 I love everything about this shirt. It would have cost big bucks if I bought it elsewhere and I got all of the details I wanted with a perfect fit. Not to mention the satisfaction of knowing I made it. Winning all around.

        I continued on and have made one more slim fit raglan so far. I used the gorgeous purple dahlia on blue poly cotton spandex from Knitpop. It is a pretty basic shirt, but it represents everything I love about sewing. The print had been calling to me for a while. Some do that. It is interesting to me how different ones say different things to different people. As it is with all art. But the colors, the size of the print, the different take on the popular floral theme, I love it. I also love this pattern. The print is so exceptional that I knew I would use a fairly plain pattern that doesn't distract from the fabric. Also, while it may seem that the fit is not super flattering in photos, it is exactly what I want. I'm fairly square, so there aren't that many curves to accentuate, and I am tired of being asked if I am pregnant. I also love leggings and slim leg jeans, yet I lack tunic length tops. So this covers many categories for me, with the tunic length and graded out waist and again I LOVE IT. 

So there are my four raglans from this summer so far. 

I have some short sleeved versions planned as well.
Such a great staple item that can come to life in so many different ways depending on the fabric choice.

Thanks for stopping by!

Handmade wardrobe goals and P4P

         I tend not to make super specific New Year's Resolutions, because I have a hard time keeping them. I have yet to break the habit of destroying my cuticles for instance. I do like to think of goals that may span the year though, or things that I want to accomplish or hobbies or projects to work on. Somewhere around the turn of the year, Katy of No Big Dill was announcing her plan to not buy any new clothes this year. As I've been enjoying sewing so much lately, that seemed like a reasonable and fun goal to me. There is also a lot of noise about creating a capsule wardrobe. Colette has a series called the wardrobe architect which is totally worth checking out. I know I could benefit from this.
       I haven't really tackled both of those things though. Doing the capsule thing involves more purging than I have done yet. I will get there. In the meantime I have been distracted by pretty fabric and the idea that I want to be capable of sewing any item that I want in my closet. This has meant that I have been sewing with fabrics that are new to me. And spending money on said fabric. So that lead to a third goal for the year: to sew with patterns more often! Good patterns not only save time, frustration and wasted fabric, but they teach you new tricks and tips as you use them, and they are so worth it as I continue my journey of educating myself as a seamstress.
         This brings me to the other site I was alluding to in my last post; the other sewing related business that I am obsessed with. Judy Hale and her Patterns for Pirates. This woman has made a huge impact on the revolution of (mostly) women sewing their own clothes. Most of her patterns are for women, but there are plenty for girls and boys and even some in there for men. And these are reasonably priced patterns for everyday staple items that you will use constantly. They are great ways to fill in gaps or to make an entire wardrobe. There is also a P4P facebook group that is almost 24,000 members strong, filled with people that share their creations, ask and answer questions about the patterns and provide encouragement for other members in a way that is uplifting to see. So if you are thinking about sewing something for yourself, just do it. Join the P4P page, check out the coupons she has for facebook group members, and take the plunge.
         One of the most iconic patterns from Patterns for Pirates is the peglegs. This is a basic legging pattern which, it must be said, requires a fabric with at least 50% stretch in both directions. (This is one of the patterns with a FREE coupon code if you join the fb group). I am in love with it. The pattern has four lengths: shortie, biker, capri and full length.
         I have sewn three plus one: shortie, biker, capri and a version between the shortie and biker length.

Fabric from left to right: Knitpop cotton spandex, Girl Charlee Rayon Spandex, a poly spandex blend from JoAnn's, back to the knitpop again

I basically followed the pattern as written, except for making the blue pair at an in between length (which I prefer to the shortie). The one other modification was doubling the height on the waistband on the purple bikers. This was my first pair and I had heard folks say they like to do that to create a control panel. It does work as this I think, but looks pretty maternity if I get caught with my shirt pulled up! In any case, I like them all and definitely will be making piles more for fall. 

 So like a dummy, I cut two of the same piece of these  instead of mirror images. So I ended up making two pairs. And I ended up giving the other pair to my mom! She seemed psyched about them which was great. She is going to use them as her beach shorts for the summer. They are super soft, I want to live in them.

Paisley pegs, perfect!

Thanks for stopping by!