Category: sewing

“Merino sun hoodies” have been on my radar for a season or two, but the older I get the less able I am to wear wool on my torso. So I went stash-diving and found some Polartec Power Stretch mesh to try it out. (I think I had meant to make Doc a new sun shirt with it? Whoops.)

The LearnMYOG pattern guy is teasing a pattern for it but 1) I’m still mad about his instructions and 2) I already owned the BEAUTIFULLY drafted Jalie Marie-Claude, which I’d made before and had a hood option.

Initial verdict: I like it! It definitely works to keep the sun off the back of your neck and ears, and the crossover hood front even protects your throat. But I kind of wish I’d made the thumbhole cuffs on this version, too, to keep the sun off the backs of your hands. And while this fabric is definitely wicking, I wouldn’t say it’s cooling. I guess I’ll just have to buy more fabric and try out Polartec Delta, which is reportedly magic.

 

But, ok, we all know the REAL reason I like this: I can put my hood up and ask for a crappucino. It’s even the right color!

I made some fruit undies, because the underwear drawer was looking really sad and it seemed like a natural progression from the last couple weeks of t shirt sewing. (I wanted to make a Fruit of the Loom / fruits on my b00bs joke here but I thought that might be too much for the title.)

These are various cuts of Euro knits and the scraps from the green stripe tee, sewn up into the trusty Watson Bra and Acacia Undies. I haven’t made new lingerie in over a year so it was time; I’ve also been assessing exactly how much fabric I have in the house and how I’m going to have to move it all someday, so it was time to sew some of the stash too. Only 3,000 more yards to sew up! (I’m joking. Mostly.)

I’m on a quest to find a good t-shirt pattern and I had three yards of inexpensive (but surprisingly high quality!) cotton knit, so now I’m prepared for any regattas that I might need to attend:

The back is the free Closet Core “Core T-Shirt” in the 3/4 sleeve version. The neckline is gorgeous–not open but also not too high, very elegant–but I don’t love the boxy fit in this knit.

The middle is the (also free!) Secondo Piano “Basic Instinct T” and it’s the perfect vintage/boy fit, with neat shoulders and a high neck. I’ll size down for the next one but it’s the winner for the third stripe colorway I bought and maybe even a solid white version.

And the scraps from the 3/4 sleeve tee got turned into a test of the Wardrobe by Me “Muscle Tank.” I’m generally impressed by their drafting but the binding lengths were way off here (and I double checked I cut the right sizes)–the neck was too tight and the arms were too loose? Very strange. And the negative ease is intense, but I like the shape enough I might try again with tweaks.

Now I just need to make some khakis and then find a boat race or two.

While I was making my most recent stripe shirt, I worked in a shirt for Doc. I don’t batch sew often but it really works, because in about the time of making one shirt, you have two!

This is the antithesis of preppy but it’s glorious:

That “cat portraits in space” fabric was from Miss Matatabi; when I ordered my skeleton fabric I saw I could get free shipping with just a little more and there were cat! portraits! in! space! so it was a no-brainer.

This is McCalls 6044 yet again, going on a decade of being the go-to shirt pattern here. Doc certainly has some good taste in fabric.

Predictably, it’s late spring and I’m thinking that classic button-ups would be a good summer uniform. Unlike the last Summer of Shirts, I’m a lot faster now so I might be able to get a few made before I realize yet again that they’re TOO hot for real summer.

But for now, the timing works: Closet Core launched a new pattern just in time for Summer of Shirts 2.0 and I have a lot of shirting in my stash to sew through. This is their Jenna Shirt and it’s 90% great:

 

The pros: The details are great, very classic menswear. The tower placket instructions were clear and the collar stand instructions were brilliant–they use a whole new order that gives a beautiful finish.

The cons: I had to reduce the curve radius on the hem to get a smooth finish and now that the shirt is done, I’m not loving the small collar and how it all sits. The shirt wants to pull to the back, which RTW shirts do on me too, so it might be that the drafting is fine and I just need to do a forward shoulder adjustment. However, all the pattern photos show the collar either popped or buttoned all the way up, so I’m a little suspicious …

 

The fabric was from my stash, originally from Farmhouse Fabrics. (I think I moved it to this house from my apartment, it’s that old). I had a three yard cut because I bought it in my dress era and just never used it, thinking “someday” I’d need a shirt dress to wear on the Amalfi coast or something. In the spirit of dressing for the life I have NOW, I used the extra fabric to make a pair of shorts for a matching set, like I see on Pinterest.

 

I used the LearnMYOG DIAS pattern for the shorts, because I knew they fit and had excellent pockets. (I never blogged them but I made a pair in Supplex last summer, seen here.) In a nice shirting vs a technical fabric, they read more “boxer,” which is just what I wanted, and the back welt pocket adds a nice touch.

Hopefully the shorts help me keep Summer of Shirts going a little longer into the actual summer. I can always wear the shirt as a jacket, too.

Behold, my Easter outfit. What says “resurrection” better than skeleton ghosts?

 

This is the Daughter Judy Patterns Genra Shirt. I’d actually bought the pattern before the Worship Jeans and made the long sleeve version last year. It didn’t get blogged or worn because it felt too dressy, so earlier this year I hacked the sleeves off at the elbow and had an aha! moment. With short sleeves, this feels really cool and casual. In a SPRINGTIME SKELETON print, it feels awesome:

 

I haven’t been buying new fabric this year, but when I saw Miss Matatabi had this rayon plus an  insane cat print for Matt, I smashed that “buy” button. The rayon was expensive but the quality is wonderful–matte and opaque but so fluid. I think a drapey fabric makes this pattern shine:

 

There are some lovely Daughter Judy details, too, like the longer hem in the back and great instructions for finishing the side seams. I need to go back to not buying new fabric but there are a couple other [non-skeleton] drapey pieces in my stash that might become Genra Shirts next.

This is the face you make when you wear JEANS that you MADE to the ARCADE:

 

I don’t have a new hobby (yet) but my friend is really into pinball, so I joined her for a Saturday morning and also wore these JEANS. Did I mention I MADE them? And they FIT?

 

These are the Daughter Judy Worship Jeans and I made ZERO pattern adjustments. I did go down a size–it calls for a 12-ounce rigid denim and I was using a 7-ounce (barely) stretch denim. I had one bad moment when I sewed them up for real and thought maybe I shouldn’t have interfaced the waistband, but they’ve relaxed.

Many people on the internet were complaining about the fly front instructions but I thought they were perfect–clear and logical and made for a really clean professional finish. I did make a rookie mistake and use a pant zipper vs a jean zipper; turns out jean zippers have a more robust locking mechanism, so it remains to be seen if the zipper is going to stay up long term. But that’s why I was treating these as a wearable muslin and used the cheap denim. And it’s nothing my Rainbow Brite sweatshirt can’t hide.

If you couldn’t tell by the caps lock, I’m delighted by the fact I finally made jeans that fit. I’ve definitely made more complicated projects but for some reason these really feel like magic. I’m going to try the straight leg version next!

I’ve been regularly sewing clothes for myself for nearly 20 years now (and sewing in general a lot longer) but I’ve never tried making a pair of jeans. At first it was because I didn’t have the skills, then because I could fit into off the rack jeans, and then, even when finding off the rack was getting tricky, it seemed too hard to both sew and fit a pair.

Well, five years of regular gym-going and the unstopping march of time means I don’t have a chance of fitting into anything off the rack now–there’s nearly an 11-inch difference between my waist and hips (most commercial blocks assume an 8- or 9-inch difference). I’ve just avoided jeans since the pandemic, but I started seeing a new pattern pop up on Instagram with raves about how it fits those of us with a big boo-tay.

Enter…the Daughter Judy “Worship Jeans” pattern. Reader, this is a baste fit before I went too deep into the pockets and other details and the there are ZERO mods. I haven’t had a pair of jeans fit this well at the waist and hips at the same time in YEARS.

I’m also delighted by the flare silhouette–that was my preferred shape in the early 2000s and it’ll always have my heart–and all the little details that make it look like REAL JEANS:

I only have the belt loops and waistband to attach (for real this time) before they’re finished. Suddenly I’m excited about jeans again!