Category: sewing

It took me a couple years to jump on the “matching set” trend but I finally sewed up some block print fabric I bought pre-tariffs into the Florence Pant (lengthened 3 inches with a 1.25 inch hem) and the Genra Shirt for a look that screams… pajamas?

I promise, these sets are all over the fashion world. There’s even a sewing pattern for both that I was inspired by, but I decided to use patterns I already had and that I knew fit (I have never been a “make a lot of muslins and tweak the fit” sewer).

Looking at these FASHUN examples, I think I need to try the top tucked in and add some jewelry if I wear it out of the house?

I do like the final pieces, though–as you might expect from almost-pajamas, the whole set is ridiculously comfy. I love an Indian block print for summer; the cotton is so nice and light.

I don’t wear a lot of my mom’s clothes, but I did take a camp shirt she made back in the late 80s in a cowboy print, when Ralph Lauren’s “RL Country” Western aesthetic was everywhere.

I do have all of her patterns, though, and since I love the boxy fit of the cowboy shirt and I was missing my mom, I thought, “Why not find the pattern she used for that and make another shirt?” Comparing the actual shirt to the different camp shirt options was pretty easy; it turns out she used the contender I liked best, an old designer one from The Gap before they got their modern logo (!).

 

Like Mom did with the cowboy shirt, I used a quilting cotton in a fun print. (I bought the last of it from Sewtopia so I can’t link it, but I’m pretty sure it was a Kokka import.) I like how the clouds behind the tigers can also be breath/fart clouds 🤣

 

I decided to go full 80s when I wore this out of the house, with my light jeans and huaraches for Magnum P.I. Summer vibes.

We had a family reunion/vacation with Doc’s family planned in April but then his mom fell. (She’s home now and on the mend.) We didn’t end up going but of course I’d already made a new swimsuit for it.

So I broke it out at the sauna/onsen (saunsen?) and it looked wildly tropical in the alpine setting:

The fabric had been “marinating” in my stash for a few years, as it does, but I always planned on a vaguely retro-style bikini. I used a pattern from my beloved and dependable Greenstyle, the Surfside Wrap Top and the Waimea Bottoms (this time without the pocket and high waist, but I might be regretting that) (it’s less retro without it).

I love not having to find commercial swimwear that 1) meets my style criteria; 2) fits how I want it to; and 3) isn’t $200 for tiny pieces of fabric. Hooray for sewing!

We’ve been seeing more sun hoodies on the trail lately and I asked Doc if he wanted one. He said, “You mean a Cornholio hoody?”

I did end up using the LearnMYOG guy’s pattern I was rolling my eyes at back when I made my sun shirt in 2024. His patterns have gotten better in the last 5 years but the order of operations on this still made me mad. But he has the only men’s/straight fit sun hoodie out there right now and I didn’t want to draft something, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. The thumbholes for this are literally just a hole in the sleeve seam (EYE ROLL) so I added two inches to the sleeve length (and an inch to the body; Doc is 6’4″) and they work without pulling.

I used “SunScreen50 Activewear Poly/Spandex” from Rockywoods for this. I’ve sewn a lot of activewear knits over the years but this felt really high quality–I kind of want a version for me in it now, too.

Doc reports it wasn’t too hot to wear. He also immediately said, “Are you threatening me?!” when he tried it on for the first time.

We had a canceled vacation a few weeks ago (Doc’s mom is having health issues) but I still wanted to go somewhere on my day off. I ended up at the creative re-use store 40 minutes from home and saw an entire poppy red leather hide for TWELVE DOLLARS; I immediately decided to make a project with it, as one does.

This fashion belt bag pattern had crossed my radar the week before and I realized I could re-create a $395 designer bag pretty convincingly with that pattern and hide.

…Just like this!

This hide was thicker than my last leather sewing project and my machine struggled a bit, so I decided not to line the bag. (It’s not like leather is going to fray.)  I didn’t do a matching strap so I wouldn’t have to sew triple thicknesses of leather, but a contrast strap is also something the designer does:

I added leather tabs to the end of the strap to make it look more intentional, like the ready-made one, and reverse-engineered the strap mechanics from the pictures on the site.

I hadn’t been sidetracked by a new project in a while; this was fun to just obsess over for a couple free days. And now I have a lifetime supple of leather so I can make all the bags I want!

My Easter Liberty print shirt clearly wasn’t bright enough, because I had to buy some of this neon apricot cotton when I saw it on Harmony’s site and make an even brighter one.

I tried a new pattern for it, the Rose Raglan Button Up from Paradise Patterns. It, uh, reinforced why I stick to my two main pattern companies (Daughter Judy and Closet Core). Thankfully I read this review and suggested mods before I cut it out, so I still ended up with something wearable.

For the sewists out there, here are my mods:

• Made a half-inch forward shoulder adjustment (standard for me).
• Took a total of 1.5 inches out of the sleeve length; normally, I have to ADD an inch to most patterns so the sleeves on this as drafted are hella long. (One inch of that removed length was off the bottom, thus reducing the sleeve placket length, and the other half inch was taken off at the lengthen/shorten line.)
• Reversed the side of the sleeve where the placket extension and pleats appear, per the Threadloop review. (Making it as drafted would have had the cuff buttoning the “wrong” way, wrapping under the arm to button instead of over it. Why?!)

The pattern does walk you through making flat felled seams for everything, though, so the finish on the inside is nice and clean and I’m happy with the finished shirt. It’s so BRIGHT!

 

I finally made some matching machine covers for the Luxury Sewing Lair so now the decorating is all done.

Look at all those matching machines! I used the Closet Core free patterns  for this but adjusted them for my machines: I cut the serger/coverstitch one down about an inch in width and two inches in height based on the last time I made it since it’s a little big for a Juki. And I had to add quite a bit of width/length for the sewing machine cover, since my 740 is about twice the size of a regular machine.

The fabric is from Spoonflower. I just guessed quantities and got a yard of their heavier sateen wideback. At 108″ I was just able to fit all three covers on there, but I didn’t have enough to make a table pocket for the back of the machine cover.

That 6.5 oz sateen is a nice substrate, though. Part of me wants to get more printed so I can have a pillow on the couch that matches the machine covers, but that might be getting a little TOO matchy-matchy.

Did you know? When you sew two shirts at a time, you end up with two shirts! I don’t usually batch sew things so this feels kind of like magic–I know intellectually that it took twice as long to make two of them, but it feels like I got a bonus one for no extra sewing time.

First there’s a Robert Kaufman woven stripe, which I think is intended as quilting cotton but looks like a washed oxford. It’s soft but substantial; I flat-felled all the seams and added a pocket and a contrast inside yoke (and a fancy label).

The second one is Liberty from deep in the stash, which I’m calling my “Easter dress.” This one got French seams and a contrast inside yoke not to be fancy, but because I didn’t have enough main fabric. (That contrast is also Liberty and it’s from even deeper in the stash–maybe 16 years old?) I can’t get the phone camera to capture that neon coral background and neon pink leaves situation very well, but trust me that it’s BRIGHT.

The pattern for both of these was the Jenna Shirt from Closet Core, which I’ve made three times before (only two made it to the blog). It’s my current ideal button-up shirt pattern, mostly because it’s oversized which means I won’t Hulk out of it after a year.