Category: sewing

There’s nothing like seeing your man in a hospital gown for four days to make you realize he’s due for some fresh underwear. I mean, I do the laundry, so I was aware the pairs I’d made him with Joann knit had lost most of their color and that the elastic was going, but it becomes a little more urgent when the entire world can see it, too.

Fortunately, I’d already been buying some better knits to make him more undies for Christmas, so I just bumped up the schedule.

These are both sold out now but the raccoons (Raccacoonie!) were from Nature’s Fabrics and the cats were from Jumping June Textiles. The pattern is the Greenstyle Walbrook Boxer Briefs and I sewed both of these up Sunday in about 90 minutes.

At some point in the last few years I’ve become a knit snob and the Euro stuff (especially from Jumping June) is indeed worth the price tag. It doesn’t fade, it doesn’t bag out, and it’s just such a nice quality–smooth and thick. I sincerely hope we never see the inside of a hospital again, but it’s good to have deluxe new undies anyway.

Last week I mentioned a string of projects in a row not working out for me. They included two pairs of undies (one a new style I hated, one in a pattern I forgot I altered to be too low rise); a hat; and a too-small pair of pants that ALSO had incredibly disturbing pattern matching across the butt:

The tigers were an expensive Euro knit and I thought that since I’d made a successful version of these pants previously, I’d be fine using it. Except I didn’t think to check the stretch percentage on this knit and they’re just barely too small (and being stretched to the fabric’s limit really doesn’t help that six-legged tiger be any less disturbing).

As for the hat, it’s just meh. I can’t get the wave out of the brim, even though I used the recommended stabilizer, and I don’t like the shape of the crown. I keep wanting to be a hat person but then I never like myself in any hat, so maybe I just need to accept that.  At least this was a free pattern and I used fabric scraps for it (recognize the patio chair cushions?).

I don’t post the duds much but they do exist–especially in this Summer of Struggle. Between Toby and my job, I have limited mental capacity for anything extra (even the gym lately) so it’s extra frustrating when the sewing I do manage to get in doesn’t work out.

But maybe the Summer of Struggle will be followed by the Autumn of Ease & Abundance and I’ll be back to complicated, beautiful projects?  Here’s hoping.

There was record heat on Sunday, our door was boarded up, and I was already dreading Monday back at work, so I holed up in the sewing room for a few hours and made cat pants to calm down.

One pair was for a friend:

And one pair was for me, using my fabric payment from said friend:

They are both the Greenstyle Cavallo Leggings and the fabric is from Spandex World. I’m waiting to deliver my friend’s pair so it’s unknown whether the fit will work for her, but I wore my pair to the gym this morning. I’ve had about 4 projects in a row not work out, so it was nice to have two quick wins to get my sewjo back.

Even though I was pondering fancy “egg” chairs, I ended up buying some mod IKEA chairs for the patio. The IKEA chair pads made me sad (too thin and too beige) so I made my own:

Joann had outdoor foam in a 15×17 inch size so I didn’t even have to cut it. I used an outdoor jacquard that was on sale from there, continuous zipper coil from Wawak, and the Sailrite tutorial I used for the chaise slipcover.

It took me three weeks or so to get around to making these, but the actual sewing time was under an hour. And now we can sit more comfortably and watch the slowpocalypse from the deck!

The Canadian third of our friend trio hasn’t been able to visit for the entirety of the pandemic. Last year when we all got our first vaccine, my US friend and I started making plans for her to drive down and all the hot spring trips we’d take. Her visit didn’t work out–but I had already bought fabric to make them robes to wear to the “onsen.”

This year is finally the year she is coming to visit, so I got going on their robes. The fabrics are batik from Itokri and they’re nice and soft but wow did that indigo bleed. The pattern is the (out of print) Dressing Robe from Helen’s Closet and it was a simple sew.

I’d also been hoarding these for a year, which I know they’ll appreciate:

We will be the toast of many Idaho hot springs!

I only have car trips planned for the year, no flights to exotic destinations, but here I am making things I could take with me to Hawaii or Palm Springs.

I wanted to keep using up those scraps of upholstery fabric. I also wanted to re-create the fun of working with a new material and following a good pattern, like the toiletry bag last week. Well, I worked with a new material (cork!) but I didn’t love the pattern (the Flip Clutch Wallet by Spencer Ogg).

I think part of the difficulty was that the pattern is designed for fabrics that will hold a press, and cork and outdoor fabric just won’t. I think the other issue is just the drafting–the credit card pockets and lining were the exact same size as the outer, and I know better by now and should have trimmed them down by an eighth of an inch.

I need to add a wrist strap but I do think this will be a useful clutch/wallet for going out to dinner or replacing a purse when you want to travel light. The pockets are wonderful–a slip in one for your phone and a zippered one for anything you need to secure.

Writing this up, I realize it’s my first really involved bag project in years, with magnetic snaps and continuous coil zippers and cork to boot. I SUPPOSE there’s a possibility that my struggles weren’t entirely the fault of the pattern….

I’ve been thinking about sewing travel gear for a while now; when I found this pattern on Saturday night, I had to add clear vinyl and some zippers to my JoAnn list and start it on Sunday afternoon. I finished it up Monday and I’m just tickled with it.

 

I’ve made complicated things before–curtains, quilts, entire coats–but the sense of accomplishment I got from this is equal to or greater than those projects. Maybe because I don’t usually sew bags? Maybe because…there’s a zip down pocket in clear vinyl you can put your makeup in?!

 

The pattern is the “All In One Box Pouch” by new-to-me Aneela Hoey and it was so easy to follow. I don’t love how bag patterns just give you dimensions, not actual pattern pieces to cut out, but everything here fit together really well. The only hard part was getting the zipper tape to curve evenly around the edges of the vinyl pocket but that just was fiddly, not impossible.

 

I used leftover outdoor fabric from my slipcover project last year and lined it in some silicon-backed ripstop I had on hand from various hiking jacket projects, so it’s all waterproof. Instead of fusible fleece interfacing as recommended, I sewed in some foam stabilizer I’d bought back in January and wow, that makes for a professional finish.

I guess I need to make that carry-on bag now and then I’ll have a whole travel set I made. Next step: actually traveling somewhere.

 

A couple of months ago, I was pondering trying the Greenstyle Flare Leggings again. What made me do it? I bought the Nooworks “Cropped Kick Flare” pant (about the only place I buy RTW now) and I realized I could crop the Greenstyle pattern and get exactly the same thing.

Nooworks (yes I bought this whole ‘fit, even thought the pants don’t have pockets):

Cropped Flare Leggings by me, hot off the serger:

I took about 4 inches off the bottom hem and also narrowed the flare by about half an inch on each side. I used the last of a Nerida Hansen designed by Lilian Farag (last seen here, and wow if I really want to bring back the 2000s, I could layer them).

Anyway, those alterations and the print made me really love this pattern. It might me the summer equivalent of the joggers I live in all winter, since I’m already planning more.