Now Shirts

One of my favorite patterns is the Sewing Workshop Now shirt.  I have made a couple in the past, and although I didn't think I would wear them, they ended up being one of my favorite garments.  I wanted to make a couple of lightweight shirts to take to Uganda, and also wanted to teach my friend Sylvia how to make a shirt.  She did GREAT with this pattern.













The first one I made out of light weight Merlot linen from Fabrics Store.  The next one is a sheer crinkled georgette type fabric, probably polyester.  I changed the sleeve length and overall length of the shirts.

One of the things I like about this shirt is the unusual collar construction.  You kind of use the burrito method to put it on, so there is no hand stitching or stitching in the ditch.  Another nice thing is that the entire shirt is constructed with French seams.  This makes it perfect for a ravelly or sheer fabric.  On the sheer shirt, I used baby hems for the bottom and turned up a double hem to the outside on the sleeve.

My Babylock Ellageo was giving us fits with the buttonholes, so I dug out my trusty Pfaff hobby machine.  We could have made the buttonholes on the Aria, but I wanted Sylvia to learn how to make a 4-step buttonhole.  These buttonholes turned out perfectly every time!  (I'll have to snag a picture next time she comes over.)  Now she knows how to make great buttonholes on a four-step machine.











She has a really cool vintage Nelco machine (sz217) and we just got it back from the repair man in Fresno.  Going into his shop is like going into a sewing machine museum.  There is every make of old sewing machine and every type you've ever seen.  He is very knowledgeable about every little detail of sewing machines.  We were just getting her machine out of the case to show him and he knew the model number  before we even showed it to him.  He said the machine is well known for its quality among the sewing repair community.

The next few days will include very little if any sewing.  After that, we will be sewing maniacs getting ready for our trip to Uganda.

Sequoias and Mix It Top

Yesterday, Andy and I took a trip to Sequoia National Park.  If you have never been there, you need to put it on your bucket list.  I have been to a few National Parks, but I really think Sequoia is the most beautiful.  We had perfect weather and it was a wonderful day.  We only live about 10 minutes from the park entrance, so I think we sometimes take it for granted.  It is so gorgeous and I always wonder why I don't go more often.  Well, one of the reasons I don't go more often is that once you get in the park, there are a lot of winding roads and hairpin turns to get to the big trees.  But, the road is good and well-maintained, so it's not that bad.  I just hate driving, especially on wind-y roads.











The giant Sequoia Trees are the largest (in mass) in the world.  The General Sherman tree, is the largest living thing in the world. I didn't take a picture of it this time, but it has lost 40 feet off the top of it due to lightening.  It also lost a large branch.  The branch is still on the ground and is as big as many trees.  Even with losing all of this, the Gen'l Sherman is still the largest living thing!

 The coastal redwoods are also beautiful and they grow taller than the Sequoias.  However, the Sequoias are very fast growing, live to be thousands of years old, actually thrive with some forest fires and have huge bases.







Here we are standing in front of a fallen tree and you can see the amazing root system. Sometimes the Sequoias just lose their balance and fall over.  They have very shallow root systems.  This particular tree, named the Buttress Tree is about 272 feet long and the base is over 20 feet in diameter!  The tree was estimated at 2300 years old when it toppled over in 1959.

 No, I'm not wearing white socks.  My legs are just that white.  :-(

 And another view from inside of a dead tree looking up to the sky.  You can tell that I just LOVE being in the park.  It's kind of like a magical fairy-land.

We got home late in the afternoon, so I did get some time to finish up a sewing project.  This is the Mix It Top from The Sewing Workshop.  Normally I do not like things up close to my neck, and this is no exception.  Although this top does button, I will be wearing it unbuttoned.  I really do like the Sewing Workshop patterns.  Sometimes they don't look that great on the envelope, but I usually end up really liking the patterns.  The instructions are always well written, and there are usually some interesting applications.  I don't have a picture, but this time it was the way the neckline facing was done.  I like the way it came out and it was easy to do.  

I do like the little button closure in the front, but again, I will not be wearing it like that.  In fact, if I make this again, I will change the neck treatment.  I found a cool vintage button, so that's what I used on this one.  

This top is basically just straight.  There are horizontal darts, but I still did a FBA.  Next, I added vertical darts in the front and back.  I could have taken even bigger darts, but I've found that blouses that are that fitted are difficult to iron, and I like to iron my tops.

I'm really liking the color of this top.  I never used to like orange, but lately I've been into it.  This is a good thing since this shade of orange is right in my color fan.  

Another thing I like about this top is the back.  It has a yoke.  I think I need to lengthen the top of the back because it wants to fall back on me.  This is something that always happens with me and blouses.  I do not have a rounded back, in fact, I usually have problems because my back is erect.  However, I do have a forward thrusting neck, so I think that is what causes my collars to fall back on me.

I've been wearing this top (and the skirt is the Saltmarsh Skirt from the Merchant and Mills Workbook) all afternoon and evening, and it is very comfortable.  I like it a lot more than I thought I would.  This one is just made from quilting cotton.  I love the look of all the poly slinkies that are available, but I just can't wear polyester for more than a couple of hours.  I have some silks in my stash that I've been experimenting on with dying.  I'm sure one of those fabrics will make its way into this pattern!

Eureka!

If you are a fourth grade teacher in California,  you know that "Eureka!" means "I have found it!"  And what have we found?  Gold of course.  Well, Eureka is the name of this pattern by The Sewing Workshop, and that is the way I feel about it.  I would have never chosen this pattern based on the line drawing (just kinda blah) but I'm loving this top!  Now, I'm not sure if that is because of the pattern, or because of the fabric, but either way, it's definitely a win!

I was looking to make an overshirt for my Jacqueline slip, and originally I was going to use another knit and another pattern.  But, for some reason, I decided to do this one instead.  The fact that this top only takes one yard of fabric made it a little challenging.  I hate to cut one yard out of a longer piece unless I know something else I want to make out of that fabric.  Do any of you get stuck like that?  It's kind of ridiculous because that fabric is just sitting there waiting to be cut, and yet, I don't want to do it!

Any way, I found exactly one yard of this fabric in a drawer.  It's a beautiful rayon double knit/ sweater knit and I have no idea where I got it!  It looks like something I might have gotten from Casual Elegance, but I really don't remember.













This pattern was fast and easy to make.  I love how the neckline is done, although I didn't follow the directions in the pattern.  They have you mark a line on the band and line that up with something and it just sounded complicated to me and an extra step.  Basically, if you sew the band to the neckline with a 5/8" seam you'll come out with the same result.  I can see why they do it the other way, and maybe if I had done it that way my band would be exactly the same width all the way around, but I'm OK with a little imperfection on something like this.  I still think it looks pretty darn good.

The sleeve bands are sewn onto a kimono/cap style sleeve and give it a nice look.

I did use my serger to put this top together, but on the neckline, I sewed the binding on with the sewing machine first and then trimmed it with the serger.  I'm really loving this top!

The Sewing Workshop Ann's Top

A few years ago I bought the Ann's Cardigan and top from The Sewing Workshop.  (Well, I probably bought it on Pattern Review)

















I bought this pattern to make the cardigan, and I still want to do it.  I was looking for a pattern to use a for a high-low tank, and ran across this in my pattern stash.  It wasn't what I was looking for, but decided to give it a shot.  I had some pink rayon knit that I've never known what to do with, so I used it to try this out.

I probably needed to go down a size in the neckline because it seems a bit shapeless on me.  The pattern is designed to have unfinished edges, but I decided to do a shell finish edge on the neckline.  My sewing machine has a stitch that does this, so that made it easy.

On this version, I left the tails unfinished, and I like the look.


The whole reason I picked this pattern was because I had something in mind that I wanted to do with a woven.  Unfortunately, this took some extra work and the result was not as good as I expected.  I turned under the edges twice all the way around and stitched them down.

This top may work with a belt, but it won't work for the combination I had in mind. The fit came out OK, but if I were to do this again in a woven, I would need to do a major sway back alteration, or maybe start the slits up higher. Also, I would like to find a better way to clean finish the edges of those points on the hem. But, with all the sewing projects I have lined up, I don't see that happening. If I make this again, I will stick to a knit.

Me Made May day 7 - #mmmay15

Today I was dressed all wrong.  It's been hot here and the weather report said 85 for today.  It was cold and windy and I froze most of the day.  Fortunately I had a little jacket in my car and I grabbed that at lunch time!  This is what I wore for #mmmay15 today:

Yeah, it's a pretty crappy picture to.  I look like I'm going to fall over backward.  I even adjusted the vertical line on the photo so it wouldn't be so bad!  Oh well.  I don't have a photographer and working with auto shoot at 6:30 a.m. is not the best.

The top is The Sewing Workshop Now and Zen pattern.  This is the Now shirt.  I have made that top twice and I really like it.  This one is lengthened.  The first version was really too short for me.

These crops are from the Japanese sewing book, Simple Modern Sewing.  I really love these pants and will make more of them.  Super comfortable and actually pretty flattering, not that you could tell in this picture!

So, what's up next?  I'm going for the Colette Moneta Dress.  I think I'm going to make the sleeveless version with the bodice in the black knit and the skirt and collar in the print.  Hope I can get to it this weekend.  We have dinner guests on Saturday and family on Sunday for Mother's day.  I guess I'll have to get up early on Saturday and try to squeeze in a few hours!