Leave Your Hat On - September SewAlong!

Ok, I was going to put in an MP3 plug with Joe Crocker or Tom Jones or Etta James singing 'You can leave your hat on'...I love love the movie 'The Full Monty'.

But - I will respect that not everyone will appreciate the lyrics!

Moving on - a September Sewalong from LiamSolomonsMommy...hats! I know there will be lots of baby and toddler and children hats.

So I am sewing grownup things :-)

Vogue 7600

Perfect! Coco

Reminder to self...do not buy cotton blend jersey

I am in love with my purple passion giraffe print jersey! but it does not love me so much...

It is a cotton blend. I should have paid attention, but I was so captivated by the print -  I'm easy, I admit it.

I have laundered, stretched on the floor, steamed on the floor, basted edges, hung, pressed, steamed again, rehung, resteamed....now I'm done.

I have the stripes lined up - but they always were. I made zero progress against the twist in this fabric!

My love is undiminished - I will find a pattern that can use my yardage minus all that I have to give up to the monster twist.

Oh. Coco!

New Look 6936 Knit dress with kimono sleeve

I am not used to taking photos inside! Still rainy and buggy outside, I miss the gazebo and sunshine and breezes. hmmm. OK, end of complaint list...

I love this dress! It is one of the patterns for knits that I bought before I brushed up on my knit sewing skills. And I bought the fabric at the same time  - good motivation!

And please note that I have to make things as hard as possible for myself. Another stripe! Matching stripes on a knit is slippery business...at least this is a big pattern.

 

I sewed view A in size 14, my usual size. The fit is great, all the way down to the hem. However - I'm 5'7" and only took up about a 3/4" hem, others might want to cut a little extra length...

 

 

The fabric is an Irat tye [?] dye cotton jersey knit from Girl Charlee, a great online shop for casual knits. It's midweight and is well saturated with the dyes. With minimal 1-way stretch (15%), it was very manageable on both the cutting and sewing table. Thank goodness!

If you are just getting into cotton jersey knits, a caution: order generously and launder first! shrinkage loss was about 16% on this one. To allow for pattern matching and shrinkage, I ordered an extra 3/4 yard and used it all.

 

 

 

Just one sewing change on this one :-)  The directions are to make a 5/8" narrow hem in the front and back neckline edges. Aaaghh. Clearly the folks who write those directions have never tried to do a narrow hem in the curve of a back neckline.

 

 I drafted a 3" wide back neckline facing and used a narrow hem on the front neckline edges only.

 

 

A simple change that makes a big difference in the finish of the dress.

 

 

 

Couple more pics - pretty sleeves...

 

 

Great little number! Ciao! Coco 

Burda 7513 - A Phoenix

Fabric, Keepsake Calico, Contemporary Circles, JoAnn's
Contrast, Pimatex Cotton Dots, Fabric.com
Sandals, Easy Spirit

 

I feel sooo much better now! I fixed my olives dress...no, I did not really burn the pattern on the bonfire. Just thought about it and fussed a little bit.

  

Here are the pattern and my original  olives dress. It really is pretty true to the pattern, except that I lengthened it and left off the pockets:

Actually, the dress has a beautiful bodice. And the skirt is pretty as well, an easy taper:

 

 

 

 

So I did the only logical thing, really. I cut it up redrafted it and kept the best parts! It was pretty easy:

• Based on other dresses, I decided I wanted this one to be 39 1/2" long from center shoulder to hem.
• I allocated 13" in length to the bodice, 2" to a waistband, and 24 1/2" to the skirt.
• And marked/cut my bodice at 13 1/2" down from the shoulder to remove it from the skirt.
• I marked/cut the skirt 25" up from the hem, since the hem was already finished.
• And cut 2 strips of contrasting fabric, 39" x 3", for the waistband and waistband facing.
• All seams were sewn at 1/2" because that's the distance to the edge of my general purpose pressure foot!

Does anyone know where the 5/8" seam originated and why there's not a 5/8" pressure foot :-)

 

You can't really see them, but I did put patch pockets on the front as well.

 

 

This made such a cute dress! It is so comfortable, just slips over my head, no zipper or buttons or snaps. Just right.  I traced a new pattern with my changes and made another one right away!

 

Fabric, Calico, Holly Lobby

 

A few sewing notes:

• The hem is actually an applied band, cut at 4" wide, folded in half, and attached as one would attached a tee shirt band. I like the extra weight this gives to the bottom of a short cotton dress.
• The armhole binding is finished to the outside instead of the inside, and is topstitched. This picks up the topstitching in the bodice neckline.
• I used the front bodice facing from View A and drafted a back neckline facing. I think Burda meant for the front facing to be used, but left out the cutting and sewing directions for it!  Oh well, it is Burda - best to read everything before starting!

 

 

 

Happy I saved my dress... Coco

Stormy weather!

I am nothing if not an optimist...and I love Florida! Can hardly believe I am sitting in the lanai and actually have power! The wind has been blowing incredibly - and the rain has been blowing sideways, straight down, and backwards. But here I am!

We've had a crazy few days, but are very fortunate to have come through Isaac so well. In fact, my cohabitants are a bit happy about all this...

Old mr. toad and all his brood (quite large now after some seven years of hanging out behind the air conditioner) love a good swim. He hopped in just after I took this pic.

And my alligator is all smiles when he gets drenched. What a cutie, gifted by my son and his wife some years ago, rare!

My thoughts are with all those impacted by the storm...Coco

Fall Storyboard - jackets & cardi's!

Everything in me is saying 'change, change - just around the corner...'.  In spite of volumes of rain, the grass and trees look dry, and the birds and lizards are definitely not amorous. Slow, lazy, yes, but beat. It must be coming up to fall...

I just updated the Coco's Loft Website - which you can also reach from the blog. It is my very self-indulgent personal version of PInterest before there was such a thing. They are such copycats.

Just a couple notes:

The beautiful Akasha quilted coat, I am so excited. It is reversible, I have the fabric. Getting the pattern was the hardest part, as it is limited in print. Got it!

The other long coat, from Loes Hinse - I am torn between purple and picante linen.

The traditional blanket coat, upper right hand corner, will be very untraditional in chenille! I had a Ralph Lauren navy blue chenille blazer that I wore to nubs. Perfect fabric for our light winter.

And the knit cardi's and Cynthia Rowley jacket are just fun. I have the leopard print already, a knit fleece, very lightweight. Would you believe 2 fleece throws from ACMoore, on sale? Should work out great.

Sorry for so much text without a picture...Coco!