McCalls 6747 - sewing in familiar territory...

Well, I must say this - I am so over my knee-jerk pastel reaction to my gray hair. No more mint. No more pink. No more fluff...

That felt good!

I finished a muslin of the Grainline Studio Farrow Dress this morning, and it, on top of my watercolor floral dress of last week, nearly sent me over the edge.

So moving on and back to what feels more natural for me.

I have so loved the McCalls 6747 maxi pattern - I made 4 versions in cotton jersey a few years ago. And I wore them out.

Time for more, and this first one is a fabric departure for me - I used rayon/lycra jersey instead of cotton jersey (oh, I hope it doesn't pill). And it has a 1/8" stripe. I sure pick some doozies for print matching. Laying this out and cutting it was a beast, my eyeballs felt jittery. But check out that center back seam!

A few sewing notes:

• The fabric is pretty light, and it has 4-way stretch, 60% horizontally and vertically. I used 1/4" twill tape inside the shoulder seam allowance to add some stability. When the seam was sewn, serged, and topstitched down, the tape disappeared completely - no scratchiness going on.

• The stripe is so small that I couldn't use it horizontally for the neck binding. So I decided to use the stripe vertically. I love how it looks - it breaks up the dress a little bit.

• And to balance the binding, and add a little interest to the dress, I used a cuff on the sleeve, also with a vertical stripe.

• I also raised the neckline, about 1 /34" at center front, and 1" at center back, and adjusted the shoulder width to fit. I'm just a little tired of deeply scooped necklines, plus it's fall/winter season. Seems reasonable.

• As in my previous versions, I skipped the front button placket and center back slit.

The whole time I was sewing this, I was thinking that it would be a bust - that it would hug every curve and bump and not work at all. However - it's great! I'm not a 'body-conscious lingerie' person. No Spanx or so on. Here I'm just wearing a midi-length half slip, so that the fabric will glide rather than cling.

Great little dress - love it. 

News flash: David whisked his lovely Elizabeth off to Sedona this past weekend. And they came back engaged! Such joy...

Ciao! Coco

McCalls 6987 Round 2 - the adjustment bureau...

I'm so stubborn. After my struggle to like my first long version of McCalls 6987, I almost immediately searched for different fabric for a second attempt. Honestly, I really like the vibe of this pattern - there is a Lagenlook lady lurking inside me, and she keeps knocking. Kind of fun.

I've sewn the short version 4 times - love it.

This time I tried a quiet seafoam floral challis that I picked up from Fabric Mart's pre-cut buyout. And I really like the balance of the color and the print with the lines of the dress.

However - after hours and hours of cutting and sewing, I was perplexed once again. I loved the way this looks in the back, but the front not so much. I paired it with black leggings, white leggings, and bare legs. The bare legs are an easy nix, but I was torn between the black and white leggings. I looked at these pics every way but upside down, and couldn't decide...

From VividLinen - aren't those great pants!

I was beginning to feel like a long tunic weeny. Maybe I should lift the back a little bit, more like this tunic...

Yes. I took off the ruffle and raised the back 3" (it was loooong in the back). And now I really like it!

All this kept me very busy and interrupted my sleep. I think this white hair (which I love) has messed with my fashion equilibrium :-)

Parting shot: Mr. Cuban Knight anole is back this morning! This one is a juvenile, only about 14" long. Such a handsome fellow.

Ciao! Coco

Re. Thankfulness...

The tissue lady here...thank you, friends, for the warm, caring, and supportive comments on my original Thankfulness post. After about 12 hours, I just had to close it. I was in tears and feeling overwhelmed. Please know that every single one resonated with me and is so appreciated.

The experiences you shared are touching. So many of us are traveling a challenging road - my thoughts are with you. And I hope you also have the joy and happiness of a full life, family, and friends.

From the heart - Coco

New Look 6323 - Love this tunic pattern

This tunic and Butterick 5954 are officially my go-to patterns for knit tunics. A love affair!

I used view B: gathered back, long sleeves, and a bit of sharkbite at the side seam. BTW, I tried to find this pattern online so I could supply a link. And it must be getting scarce - it's not on Pattern Review or the Simplicity site. But it's still on SewingPatterns.com.

The back curved seam and gathered skirt are just so  appealing. And add a little sass walking away...

 And the hi-lo hem is just about perfect. Unexpected and so much fun.

Sewing notes:

• This is size 12. My very first version, in lagoona interlock, was size 14, and it was just too big for me.

• I dropped the center front by 1 3/4", trued out to the sides. This decreases the sharkbite effect a little bit and brings the front below the crotch of my pants. Just my preference - I don't care for tops that stop just above the crotch. IMHO, so unflattering...

• This wonderful fabric is a cotton/rayon jersey from Fabric Mart. It has 80% stretch horizontally and 10% along the selvedge. Fabric Mart doesn't give fabric weights, but I would put this at 6 - 8 oz. It's not sticky (the bane of cotton/spandex), due to the rayon content.

I'm wearing my Essex linen/cotton wide-leg pants in the pics above. But this tunic is also great with my Love Notions Sabrina Slims. 

Last spring I made this in black spun cotton/rayon jersey from Girl Charlee, and for some reason I never blogged it - but I wore it in  in my post on those Slims...  

The black jersey is 6.5 oz. and has 50% horizontal stretch. I hope it comes back to GC, it's so nice for tops. Funny story: I wore the outfit below to my annual checkup in May - when my doctor walked in, she said "you've lost weight". Nooo, but I'll take it!

So - Election Day tomorrow! I voted by mail several weeks ago, rather than try to stand in line with my cane (would they take it away at the door?). I find voting to be so empowering and levelling at the same time - the country feels like a small community when we do this.

And I'm looking forward to watching the election results all day tomorrow to see if I won :-)

Bye for now - Coco

Edited to add: Stirswatersblue on Pattern Review let me know that this pattern has been re-released as New Look 6439 - and sure enough, the exact pattern!

Grainline Studio Tamarack Jacket - having some fun...

Very selfish sewing - I've resisted the urge to try the Tamarack jacket for almost a year. But Jen Beeman has been posting so many nice versions lately, letting folks know that the pattern now includes a button front option. I thought I'd just give it a go. And I thoroughly enjoyed the quilting process and the sewing while I'm waiting for the arrival of some new fabrics (my stash is pitiful these days. I've done a great job of 'sewing it down').

The lines or the jacket itself are very nice, particularly the hi-low curved hem. In fact the latter is my favorite part.

Both my fabrics are straight from the stash. Nicely aged. I didn't have enough of either to do the entire jacket, so I decided to piece the inside. No, I did not do this in time for Halloween, but the combo does look 'seasonal'. Both are cotton quilting fabrics, and, coincidentally, both have metallic details.

About the batting:


I used a piece of low loft poly quilt batting that I robbed from a quilt project that's been in progress for about 4 years.


 And I cut it just as I would cut fabric: I pressed it on my poly setting to get rid of wrinkles, laid the pattern on top, pinned it, and cut it out. Jen suggests laying each cut fabric piece on top of a largish piece of batting and using the fabric as a marking guideline for the batting. IMHO, too much work.



If your batting is stuck to itself, wrinkly, and so on (it can be really wonky coming out of a package, e.g., a twin-size quilt bat), toss it in the dryer on low heat for a short time. It will be so much nicer.

Marking the main fabric for quilting:

I used 3" spacing, because my ruler is 3" wide. Years of quilting have shown me that using the width of a ruler to mark quilting lines (not going for some fancy spacing) pays off. Easier.

And there are no quilting police out there to say otherwise.






Here's a fabric-batting-fabric sandwich, post-quilting. On the left, the batting is a bit squished out. Cutting batting is imprecise, don't be dismayed if it doesn't fit the fabric precisely. On the right - a piece that's nice and trimmed, ready for construction.

A note: I wouldn't even try machine quilting without a walking foot. I pinned and thread-basted all my pieces, and had zero slippage between the fabric layers. 

I used black lawn for my binding, since I had so little of my main fabric. To answer the unasked question, I have an aversion to packaged binding. If you do use it, I suggest you give it a wash and dry in a lingerie bag before you use it. It comes full of finish, is very stiff, and is not preshrunk. 

To ensure an even width when I turned it to the inside, I butted the binding all the way up the edge of the fabric and used a 1/2" seam.

Pinned in place:

On to the jacket - Emile is doing the honors today. First the inside:

And one more of the outside.  

The whole time I was working on this, I was thinking of ways to change it. Sleeveless and long as a topper, with a collar (which would change the vibe of the jacket completely), with cuffed sleeves. In a floral print, in pieced linen solids and prints, with a rounded corner at the front neckline, maybe not quilted at all... Because as it is, I really won't wear it - I'm much more happy in unstructured styles, and I'm not likely to wear something that reminds me even remotely of a suit jacket.

But I do love that hem... Ciao! Coco 

BurdaStyle 7184 waterfall cardi...

Well, there's nothing like just jumping in and sewing a muslin with corded velvet knit!

But it was only $1.80/yard - which makes this a $2.50 project :-)

I got the fabric from Fabric Mart two years ago, thinking of a midi-length sweater coat, something kind of boho. But I just couldn't settle on a patten. It has just been decorating my stash ever since. Rather nicely, I must say, since it doesn't wrinkle. It's been rolled, tossed, pulled out and thrown back in, and not a wrinkle in sight.

Finally, I took it out and gave it a real appraisal. I was going sew it or donate it - it was kind of bugging me that I would buy fabric and not use it.

Then I realized that it would make a great waterfall cardi - it's drapey, the color is really pretty, and it's light enough that I'll actually wear it in our winter months.



On to patterns. I made a cascade cardi from the Grainline Lark tee earlier this year, and it has a nice little funky vibe. But I wanted something with raglan sleeves, a higher start to the cascade, and very little else. Picky.

A search on the web turned up a gazillion variations on this style. It's a good thing I like to research patterns...

Finally - BurdaStyle 7184. It has clean lines:

Nice sleeves and cascade:

A clean-finish neckline and front edge:

And bonus pockets for those who can't live without them. It's also designed for knits!

I got the PDF version from SewingPatterns.com, which meant printing it from the sometimes finicky PrintSew site. But I today I found it on BurdaStyle as pattern 08/2011 #117D. Printing from the BurdaStyle site is so easy - wish I'd seen it there first!

Some sewing notes:

• I sewed size 12, View B, but only after some prodigious flat-measuring on the pattern. I could not find finished garment measurements anywhere, and I was torn between size 10 and size 12. Since I did all that work, I'll share. For reference, I'm 5'7", 36"-31"-42", and have an 11" upper arm.
  
  Finished garment measurements, in inches:                        10                       12

Width at bustline, waist, and hip from CF to CF                35 1/4                 37 1/4
Cascade width at bustline and waist, each side                 9 1/2                   9 1/2
Upper arm width                                                                13 7/8                 14 3/8
Sleeve width at hem                                                           8 1/2                    8 7/8
Back length from top of neckline with 5/8" hem                 32 3/4                  33

• I used a piece of cotton calico, cut on the bias, for the back neck facing. It adds a lot more stability than a piece of the knit fabric would have done. Also, I lowered it by 3/8" at center back, to remove a slight roll below the neckline.

• No pockets, because my fabric is just too stretchy for them. Maybe in another version...

• I used 5/8" seam allowances everywhere. This is one advantage of the PDF I used - it included seam allowances. The version available on BurdaStyle does not.

• I also used a 5/8" hem, which matches the front edges. The cardi would be a lot shorter with the suggested 1 3/8" hem allowance.

• One caution: the sleeves might be short on some people. My arms a not long, and I used a scant 1" hem. However - and this is amazing, not often seen - the sleeve has lengthen/shorten lines for both the upper/armscye area and the area below the armscye. 

My flash went off on the next pic - it's not really this shiny or this purply color! But it's the only back view I have. I love the way this lies in the back and across my shoulders, and I think a lot of credit goes to the two-piece sleeve. 

Great cardi, and worn with a new pair of Love Notions Sabrina Slims.

Ciao! Coco