It's 102 Degrees out...

...with 39% humidity.  It's gross. 

No joke, I've been running in the middle of the night just so it's not so bad.  

While it's one thing to get all sweaty when you mean to, it's not nearly as fun when you're trying to look nice.

Curly hair, sports bras, and flip flops are as real as it gets.

I actually wore this skirt to a wedding a couple of weeks ago, but I took a quick second in the heat today to make a child get off the ipad and take pictures... 

only to realize I'm way late for the round-up on the skirt.

Ooops.

Anyway, I really do like this skirt, and being all light-weight cotton, it's pretty wonderfully breathable and cool.  And I think it will work for school in a couple of weeks when we go back. 

Also, this may be the sole patch of grass in our yard that's not currently brown and crunchy. 

Pattern: Liesl + Co Extra Sharp Pencil Skirt

Fabric: Rag and Bone Geometric burn-out cotton, + dark gray cotton lawn for underlining

Notions: invisible zip, interfacing for waistband facing, rayon seam binding for hem

The best part of this skirt is that the pattern is simple enough that the fabric stands out.  

Underlining it in dark gray helped make the burnout parts stand out, AND it makes the skirt opaque enough to wear to work.  (Everyone wins, here.)

I am, naturally, too lazy to change the serger thread from navy. 

And if you can't tell (?), I interfaced the zipper tape area.

I used navy seam binding for the hem to make the navy serging look like a "design decision".

 I liked that the pencil skirt includes directions for a walking hem, instead of just a slit.  

I did tack it to the  inside of the hem just for extra insurance, but it looks very clean and precise.

I've never sewn one of Liesl's patterns that didn't go together wonderfully, and this one is no exception.

I have been back into the swing of sewing, but picture taking is hard, so no promises on future blogging...it's way easier to stay inside in the air-conditioning!

I've Been Granted Permission

For the first time in forever, I've felt like blogging!

No big issues, just busy.  I actually have a draft from January that is still unpublished, and still totally relevant...burning the candle at both ends means something's gotta give. 

But for today, I have permission to share a Halloween costume.  

To be honest, Amazon and Ebay were my friends, here for the vest and jacket.

The shirt, because every Marty McFly needs a short-sleeved window-pane check button down, is courtesy the new-ish Oliver + S Buttoned Up Button down.

Pattern: Oliver + S Buttoned-Up Button-Down

Fabric: cotton shirting from Joann's

Notions: buttons, from an embarrassingly large stash

Time to complete: not quite a weekend, minus hayride, errands, life, etc.

I cut shortened the sleeves and omitted the pocket flaps. 

And because it decided to snow a bit last night, we rocked the long underwear, too. 

The star, though, was the vintage 1980's walkman, complete with Huey Lewis and News on cassette. 

What can I say?  Every sewer knows it: hoarding pays off.

So rest assured; we're busy, but we're raising our kids right.

Surviving September

Apparently, the only way out of September is through.

Pattern: Sewaholic Fraser Sweatshirt

Fabric: Fuschia rayon/nylon/spandex ponte from Mood (here)

Notions: none

You know how it goes, when you're super busy, and you want to sew, but everything is so fiddly.  You start a dress, but it grinds to a halt when you realize it needs tinkering.  So you set it aside, and start an elastic waist skirt.  Then you realize it needs a lining, and you just can't bring yourself to cut the pieces, so you set it aside, too.  Then you just go for broke and cut out a sweatshirt, just because you need something you can finish.

Right?  

Please tell me I'm not the only one who loses momentum on a project, and just starts another.

This explains not only the state of my sewing room, but also my desk, the laundry room, and, well, my boys' rooms, too.

Anyway, this is view B, with the contrast collar.

Except I didn't have any coordinting ponte, decided it might be too limiting if I did make the collar contrast, and decided to just go with it -- for interesting seaming. 

And to just finish something.

It's really bright pink. 

This is a pretty easy sweatshirt, and it really didn't take very long. 

I made my normal size 10, and it's perfectly slightly-loose-and-yet-still-fitted.

I will admit I used the wrong cuff piece; I didn't realize there were different pattern pieces until I'd already attached these--they're the short sleeve ones--but decided it was okay anyway.  

This probably explains how my other projects ran aground, but couldn't risk losing momentum again!  I mean, I didn't even change out my serger thread to match.

And yet, I'm deliriously happy. 

 I am definitely making more of these.  It was quick, it went together easily, and fits without drama.  I'm not even going to think about how many I can have without my students starting to ask if I actually have anything else to wear.

It's September, and this is how it goes.

Anne Adams 4776

I originally started drafting this post over a year ago, got around to the hemming stage of this dress, and set it aside for some reason.  Maybe because I'd originally intended this to be a first day of school dress for last year, and didn't get it finished?  Maybe I'd worked on it, decided I wasn't happy with the fit, and meant to come back to it later? And then didn't really have a need for a fancy-ish dress?

In any case, on Monday, a call went out to wear school colors for the first day, and I remembered I had this mostly finished.    So of course, after sitting folded off in a corner for more than a year, I went to work on it at 11 pm, the night before I wanted to to wear it.

Pattern: Anne Adams 4776

Fabric: Rag and Bone textured cotton (here), muslin for underlining

Notions: 22" zipper

I fell in love with this pattern illustration when it popped up in my pinterest feed, saw it was my size, and pounced.  And all I could picture it in was red.  Bright red.  And okay, I kind of wanted her hair, too.

When it came in the mail, I couldn't wait to trace it and muslin it, pretty sure it might be a disaster after all my excitement.  And honestly? Not so bad!  The gathers are designed to hit right at the natural waist, which fell a little low, so I shortened the bodice all the way around with a 1/2 inch tuck, and that's it. Well, and I shortened it.  Like by 4-6 inches.  I honestly don't remember at this point.  Which leads me to beleive this pattern was drafted for an Amazonian.  The illustration shows the skirt ending mid-knee?  Much closer to tea-length as drafted.

As far as the pattern goes, I need to add here two great things:

1.  This pattern has options for short and 3/4 length sleeves, and the side bodice pieces have different markings for whether you're sewing the sleeveless vs. sleeved version.  So I love that there are built-in higher armholes for the sleeveless version.

2.  The directions included in this pattern were 9 steps, confined to the bottom half of one side of a sheet of paper.  The remaining space was devoted to cutting layouts and technical drawings on the front, and general sewing tips on the back.  The directions made sense, but they pretty much assume you know what you're doing.

Unfortunately, this pattern does not recommend any specific type of fabric, so I figured something medium weight with body would work.

It's not perfect, by any stretch, but it was pretty comfy, and I may yet come back to fix it. 

I need to decide if I'm okay with it as is, or if I want to come back and tinker more.

My son took these for me after the first day was over, so I have a lot of wear wrinkles, but there are still quite a few fitting wrinkles, too.  

And in full disclosure, that one on the bottom front is a hem wrinkle from the catch-stitching the hem to the muslin underlining too high up.  It's an easy fix; I blame the olympics and the late hour there.

Here's a wrinkly back shot.  The collar is supposed to attach in the back with a hook and eye, but I liked it this way when I first worked on this dress.  The collar lays a little softer in the front without the hook.  I can see a little extra ease in the lower back, and some pulling at the back armhole.  They are very closely cut armscyes, and I may need to scoop them out a little.  They have facings which are tacked down, but a bias finish would lay smoother since the fabric is pretty thick.

I'm standing awkwardly on a sloping driveway; the hem is actually even across the back.

Here's a weird picture of the front, that looks relatively smooth, but you can still see a wrinkle there in the front armscye where it might lay smoother if I scooped out the armscye a bit.

Here's a better view of the same issue: 

So, what should I do: live with it as is, or pick out the armhole facings and do some adjusting?