Spring Race Challenge!

I did it.  I ran a 5K.  And I have Melissa from Fehr Trade to thank for setting the totally brillz Spring Race Challenge.  I've been meaning to sign up for a 5K forever but fear of.. something (running in front of people? social interaction? middle school PE flashbacks?  I don't really know) kept holding me back.  With the gauntlet thrown down, though, I went for it.  I just registered for a race on somewhat familiar turf near my house early in the morning.

The challenge: to complete a race while wearing me made gear.

The race: Top Pot Doughnuts Doughnut Dash.  Yes, there were doughnuts at the finish line.  Yes, that's a trailer with a doughnut on top I'm posing in front of.  Yes, best 5k name ever.

The pattern: Duathlon Shorts by Fehr Trade 

The fabric: Some weird mystery knits from the local fabric store.  The orange is definitely active wear.  The print is some kind of slinky knit.  I may have accidentally bought like a yard extra of the print that will need to become a maxi skirt or a top... I haven't decided yet.  

Not knowing anybody who runs I was on my own on race day.  I would like to profusely thank the nice stranger who snapped this pic for me shortly after I crossed the finish line.  It's not the best picture, but it's proof.  It's a shame you can't really see the pants, cuz obviously it's all about the pants.  Part of the challenge was to actually make exercise gear, which I thought would be really scary.  It's seriously hard to find exercise gear that fits and looks ok and that you actually like.  I won't even mention pockets, because unless you're shelling out the big bucks for Lululemon it's not happening.  And shelling out the big bucks for Lululemon isn't happening for me at this point.  

I made the capri length and even with all the problems I ran into they probably took 2 or 3 hours from start to finish.  Since I had to run to the fabric store before I could finish them, it's kind of hard to gauge, though.  I used this double sided sticky tape (I think it's called Wonder Tape or Magic Tape) on the hem and let me tell you, the name doesn't lie.  That shit is incredible.  The hem looks good even when I'm not wearing them!  Even though I zigzagged everything instead of using a twin needle!!!!!  I have since bought twin needles to replace those that were either lost or broken and forgotten.  The zigzag hem isn't bothering me any, though.

I've been really sick since Easter and am finally getting over this terrible cold.  I almost decided not to run, but in the end I'm glad I did.  I think that it was a lot scarier for me than it needed to be.  I'm already signed up for another 5K for my son's school in June, and I'm seriously thinking about setting some new running goals.  I feel like the next logical step is a 10k, and 6 miles isn't really that far.... right?

Completed: Poly Paisley Button Up

Otherwise known as slippery shirt of fraytasticness.  I know, I'm still workin' on the last part.  This is the same pattern I've been working with, I'm going to start calling it "My Express Button Up Shirt pattern."  It's kiiind of a mouthful, but it sounds like it's super speedy to sew (which it's not really, but there's always hope right?)

I'm really looking far too pleased with myself here

The fabric is some ridiculously slippery poly shit that I knew I was going to hate but it's paaaaisleeeey!  So home with me it came.  I must make a full disclosure right now, I don't usually buy fabrics from Joann's because there are some local fabric shops around that I'd rather give my money to.  You know, the kind that let's their employees wear clothes them made instead of some generic uniform and where the staff actually KNOW HOW TO SEW????  Sorry, rant over.  But beyond all the economic arguments, I'm really just usually disappointed in the comparative fabric quality.  That's why it's cheaper, it's not the same stuff.

I mentioned in my last post it's just not short sleeve weather yet

Unfortunately, when I was cutting out I came just short of having enough fabric.  There wasn't enough left to cut the collar.  THE COLLAR!!!!  The single smallest piece of the pattern.  No matter how I turned the scraps, though, I just couldn't fit the four collar pieces on any of them.  And this is not the kind of fabric I'm super comfortable with piecing together (because, again, soooooo slippery).  After a great amount of hemming and hawing I eventually cut the collar piece out of one of the sleeve pieces.  Since this is polyester and warm weather is coming, it's really probably a blessing in disguise.  Maybe.

I have made one very important discovery about button up shirts.  They really need a lot of buttons.  More than I've been using.  Too few buttons = weird gaping.  I actually had to sew a hook and eye at the full bust point on this shirt because I epically failed to get the button situated at the right spot.  Why is that so hard?  It seriously looks like magic though.  What keeps it closed right there?? 

The one major problem that arose with making this shirt sleeveless: I knew there was some excess fabric along the front armhole in my original version, and I tried to remove it, but I came nowhere near taking enough out.  I ended up having to take huge (1.5 inch, so 3 inches removed in total) darts.  And since the front is pieced the way it is, it just looks weird.  There was just no way to make it look ok.  Fortunately this busy-ass fabric totally camouflages pretty much everything.  I think the armhole looks fine from most angles, but yeah, it's shaped kinda weird. Le sigh.

I'm wearing it here tucked into my grey Hollyburn skirt.  I need like a million more of these ASAP, but I don't think I have any suitable fabric on hand.  I'm trying to shop the stash this year, but I keep wanting to make things that I don't have fabric for (Duathlon Shorts, I'm looking at you!).  I just need to sew faster, maybe.  By the way, I know that's a weird derpy face, but I'm pretty sure I'm talking to the dog here.  

In retrospect I think the collar needs some topstitching to stay together.  It's weirdly puffy in a way that interfacing is not helping.  Boo.  Or maybe a nehru collar would've been the way to go?  Speaking of retro.  I'm not sure if it's really bad enough to actually get done though.  It's wearable as is, so I probably won't bother.  There are so many new things to be sewn!

Here it is untucked.  (By the way, this fabric is so shiny it kind of amazes me that it's even fabric as opposed to some kind of metal?)  I've worn it several times now to work and I always tuck it in.  I don't think that the cut of the shirt works with leaving it untucked.  The original shirt was not like this, so I've definitely done fudged it up somewhere.  I need to take width out of the waist/hips and lessen the back curvature (that shit's like impossible to hem as is anyway.  And I thought circle skirts were bad.)

The back cure is pretty low. I'm not sure if I need to bring it up or bring the front down a little.  Maybe a bit of both.  I do like the way it looks here, though, just not so much from the side.  It looks super sloppy.  It does stay tucked in pretty well when I bend down, though, and I assume that's the point.  There's some excess back fabric, but I don't think I'd be able to put my arms in front of me if I took any out, so there it shall stay.

There's that awful side view!  Ugh.  And that's why it's a tuck in shirt.  It's pretty loose through the waist and hips, but that makes it kind of poof out when it's tucked in (which I'm pretty sure is standard?) so I'm not sure how much I should/can take out.  It just needs a little more experimenting.  

I'm getting close with this pattern.  I love that it's just the right style and the fit was already pretty close.  Those are the perks of rubbing off your favorite clothes.  I know that every time I buy a pattern it's the same struggle to get the fit just perfect, so I don't feel discouraged by the imperfect fit.  As a matter of fact, I just want to make about ten more of these right now, all with little variances (sleeve style/length, ease, etc.).  As a matter of fact, I've already got one more to show you and it's my absolute faaavorite button up shirt ever!  Now I just need to get pictures.

And in case you wonder what I'd look like as a farmer, this is pretty much it.

My dad took these pictures and he has a strange sense of humor.

I'm curious, where do you stand on buying vs. making your own patterns?  Do you always go one way or the other?

Completed: Orange-You-Glad Button Up

The full name has to be the "orange you glad it's not another pair of Thurlows" button up shirt.  Not that you're really happy that it's not another pair of Thurlows because, honestly, how could you ever get tired of the genius that is the Thurlow pattern.  Moving on, though.

I've been exceedingly jealous of all the lovely Archer shirts popping up all over the place... unfortunately the cut of the pattern is just not my style.  I need a slightly more fitted (or perhaps shapely is the word) button up.  Boxy clothes make me look, well, really boxy.  No bueno.

The ratio of handmade bottoms to tops in my wardrobe is beginning to spiral out of control.  The sad truth is that it isn't the result of an excess of serviceable RTW, but rather of finding and falling in love with the Thurlow and Hollyburn patterns.  The problem with tops is that I just can't find a pattern that I like.  I tried modifying the Darling Ranges dress to be a top, but honestly it's just so low cut and raising the neckline is tricky.  Then I tried some godawful big 5 pattern and you never saw the result (for very good reason).  I seem to recall a Seinfeld episode featuring that pattern...  Can anybody guess which one?

I think the real crux of the matter is that I have an impossible time finding button up shirts that I like.  In my entire life I have found two that I liked.  One was a white button up with 3/4 sleeves from Van Heusen (come to think of it, where the hell did that shirt go anyway?) and the other is a black long sleeve button up from Express.  Since, obviously, the Van Heusen top is long gone, I used the black Express top for inspiration.

I bought Pattern Making for a Perfect Fit aaaages ago.  Before I even knew much about sewing, to be perfectly honest.   I thought it was a really cool idea, and it is... but there was just so much in the book that was beyond my realm of knowledge.  Seam finishes?  Interfacing?  What da whaaa?  Of course that was a long time ago and when I picked the book back up (specifically for this project) it all made a lot more sense.  I've got a lot more techniques under my belt and have even tackled a placket or two.

 I don't have the same set up (nor am I prepared either spatially or financially to set up) for pattern tracing.  Instead I laid down my big roll poly tracing stuff (sorry to get all technical on ya there) on an overstuffed ottoman, laid the shirt on top of that, pinned, and sort of traced around the pieces one at a time.  It worked out pretty well.  Then, of course, I had to go in and add seam allowances.

The construction of this shirt is interesting.  Each front is made of three pieces: a yoke, a center front piece, and a side front piece.  The back also has a yoke, a center back piece cut on the fold, and side back pieces.  It's like partial princess seams and I think it works really well to give the shirt shaping without the harsh look sometimes afforded by darts (not to mention awkward dart pointage, ewww).  The original shirt had pockets covering up the point where the three front pieces meet, but I didn't bother with this version as it's a "wearable muslin" if you will.

I did have a few minor problems.  I need to lower and wide the full bust about a half inch... other than that I had a little trouble with the hem. Mostly just the center back.

That just might not steam out.  It actually borders on a high/low hem in real life.  The shirt looks great tucked in, though, so I'm not too worried.  I will raise the center hem just a smidge on my next version though.  The original version has this same shape of hem, I just traced it off.  All the curves made it surprisingly difficult to actually hem.  I think that might be part of the back problem you see here.  It's just too much fabric being sewn to too little.

The single biggest problem i had with the shirt is almost too embarrassing to share, but what the hell, here it goes.  I flatfelled every single seam in the body... only to sew the sleeves on inside out.  When I realized my mistake I just didn't have the heart to rip them off. Besides, the collar seems to sit better inside out so I just zigzagged the seam and left it that way.  As a result, though this is what my seams look like.

Le sigh... So close.  This is one of those strange little details, though, that I daresay no one is likely to notice.  Design feature?  I originally thought the inspiration shirt had flatfelled seams, only to find upon closer inspection that the seams were actually serged and then topstitched down to look like of like flatfelled seams.  Which means, really, this is closer to what the original shirt looks like.  Still... just no.  I may have also had a little accident when i was opening up the buttonholes...

Yikes!  It's Frankenshirt!  Oh well, at least it'll always be hidden under a button.  You can see how awful the stitching on the placket looks, but again: that was supposed to be inside!

Still, with all it's foibles I'm ridiculously proud of this shirt.  This is by far the most complicated thing I've ever made without a pattern (a real pattern, with instructions and stuff).  I was really confused about where the collar interfacing went and I'm 100% sure that's not how it goes, but I don't care. It lays pretty well when i'm wearing it.  Oh, and check out my cuffs...

Very sharp.  The sleeve has two pieces, which I think is weird.  I don't know if I'll stick with that on future versions or not.  It does make that slit very easy, though.  I'm still mulling over how to make it look more RTW with all the little details and seam finishes.

Fabric: Thrifted sheet

Pattern: My own

Notions: Interfacing, buttons

Changes: To be made in future versions

Final thoughts: I'm very happy with this pattern.  It needs a little tweaking, but I'm ready to work on it.  I definitely need more tops!

Completed: Denim Thurlows

I really like this pattern.  A lot.  I feel like Sewaholic kind of specializes in basic, everyday wardrobe pieces (or "cake" if you will).  Which is really just fine with me because, no matter how much I may love fancy dresses, they just don't really fit my lifestyle.  I'm not planning on giving up on making dresses just yet (as a matter of fact I'm lurking on the Emery dress pretty hard right now), but I would like to have a handmade wardrobe that fits my lifestyle better than a closet full of dresses.

One of the tricky things about pants is that they can be rather expensive to muslin (or so I thought).  I ended up finding the black mystery fabric I used for my first pair of Thurlows dirt cheap at Goodwill, thereby allowing me to save this denim bought at Joann's for a second, less unpredictable pair.  

Before we can go any further I have to mention one thing.  I don't like buying fabric at Joann's.  I am just perpetually disappointed in the product I end up with.  I know it's cheap, but I always find myself at the end of a few washes saying "Oooh, so that's why it was so cheap."  In general I think it's a better investment to start off with fabric that you can have a little faith in surviving the wash.

See?  See the sagging?  It's a dark denim which means it's kind of hard to get pictures, but take my word for it: every part of these pants stretch and sag something awful.  

Now for the other thing I must mention.  I fucked up.  So bad.  I've spent a lot of time sewing with unconventional fabrics; sheets, fabric from Goodwill in strange cuts without selvages.  So I never really learned which way the grain runs.  Whoops.  Guess what?  It runs the opposite direction.  On the bright side, I'm pretty sure this is one of those lessons that will stick with me.  Aaaand at least the denim was crazy cheap.  

I think for future iterations of the Thurlow pattern I will make a few changes to the legs.  I really like how the top part fits (and even if I didn't, awesomely clever last minute adjustment opportunity!).  I may need them to be a little bit more flared.  Maybe not on future work pants, but I'd like to try another (better) denim pair with wider legs.  I may or may not already have the denim, as a matter of fact...

This denim also unravels like... well, like cheap denim.  I'm not feeling terribly clever just at this moment, obviously.  I did line the waistband and pockets with this cute ivory and beige polka dot fabric.  The polka dots are actually embroidered on.  The fabric was reclaimed from a men's shirt turned maternity top and I just loved the fabric too much to throw it out but there wasn't really enough of it to do much with.  Also: bright green zipper!  =)

See that massive unravelling happening?  WTF.  I was so careful with my corners on those welt pockets, but apparently not careful enough!  They looked so nice up until they were worn/washed a few times, too = (

Le sigh.  Let's try and be positive, though, shall we?  I feel like these pants were a learning experience and they are more than comfy enough to kick around the house in.  And maybe I can restitch the corners on the welt pockets....  It's probably worth a shot!

Spoiler alert: Thurlows version 3 turned out much better than version 2!

Thurlows I (I MADE PANTS!!!)

I made pants!  Real pants!  They have a zip fly and pockets (fancy pockets at that) and they fit and THEY.ARE.PURE.AWESOME.

I'm kind of excited about it... can you tell?

That's right.. can't you see the excitement?  No?  How odd....

January and February have been unusually sunny this year, meaning I have no excuse for not getting pics of my recent makes other than shame at passers-by seeing me struggle with my digital camera settings on my lunch break (it may be sunny during the day, but it's still dark at 5:30).  For above reason I stick to snapping pics on the weekends when it's just me and the kids...  Which is why I'm not wearing makeup.... or a clean shirt.  Sorry.

Pardon the lint and cat hair, but look how pretty my welt pockets are.  They kind of gape open a little bit when I'm wearing them though :P  For subsequent versions I'll definitely baste the lips together and see if that helps.  (I won't pretend I came up with that on my own; that one came from Lladybird's incredibly helpful Thurlow Sew Along.  I'm telling you, if you're making these pants just check it out.  The welt pockets and fly were so well explained with lots of great pictures that I didn't even manage to sew anything backwards!  That's kind of a big deal.  In all seriousness, though, her sew along did make the construction of these pants seem relatively effortless (as opposed to trying to figure it out on my own with the rather sparse instructions that came with the pattern.  Not that it would've been impossible, but it certainly would've taken longer). 

Gaping sighting.  Oy.

I flatfelled the side seams and the inseams just cuz I think they look nice that way.  Plus I don't have a serger so it's either that or zigzagging them... or bias tape but FTN I hate finishing seams with bias tape it takes FOR.EV.ER!  If I take the shortcut I inevitably end up missing the fabric in one spot and then it totally defeats the purpose.  You probably don't eve know what I mean by that because who does that seriously???  I do.  All the time.  It kind of drives me crazy that both the sew along and pattern instructions pretty much assume you'll be serging everything.  What about the rest of us?  Ah, well, I'd rather have flatfelled seams than serged seams on my pants any day.

Pretty flatfelled seams... and less pretty belt loops :P

You may remember that I won this pattern in a giveaway from Handmade Jane (thanks again Jane!).  I made up a quick muslin over summer out of some lightweight cotton.  As it turns out, though, I misread the size chart and they were two sizes too big (epic fail!).  I still wore them around the house quite a bit last summer, but I'll probably be cutting those up for quilt pieces sometime soon (trust me on this one, it's just so.bad).

Honestly I was a little intimidated after that and, even though I traced the correct size off right away, I didn't touch the pattern again after that for months.  I've made a lot of quick, simple projects so far this year (skirts, baby clothes, things like that) and I was feeling the urge to tackle something bigger.  I originally intended to make a new dress, but it's cold as F*CK outside and has been for ages.  It seemed like a good time to tackle the Thurlows again.

I had bought this black bottomweight fabric at Goodwill ages ago with the intention of using it to muslin up some Thurlows.  Of course it turns out I'm super happy with them, so they've made it into my regular work rotation.  Hopefully the fabric holds up for awhile!  It's a very drapey bottomweight fabric with (to be totally honest) a weave that's a bit loose for pants IMO.  Surprisingly they hold up very well with little to no sagging/stretching between washes.  This leads me to suspect they may be something other than cotton (surprise, surprise) but they're comfy as hell so who cares?

By the way, I've always been an avid stripe-avoider but this shirt was so soft and so new at the by the pound Goodwill I decided to try it out.  Only looking at these pics do I see how pregnant it makes me look.  Suffice it to say, I am not.  But I will probably be taking the shirt in a bit.  Maaaaaybe that'll help.

Oh God how excited am I about the zipper.  The bright ass green zipper.  It's my faaaave.  It makes zipping up my pants strangely fun.  That was waaaay TMI wasn't it?  I also like how the striped fabric I used to line the waistband ended up making chevrons at the CB.  Not even planned.  Awesome!  I just used whatev was lying around for waistband/pocket lining, since these were supposed to be a muslin.  As it turns out, though, the inside of these pants are way more fun than the outside.  Not that plain black pants aren't fun... I know they are for me =D

You can see all my ugly zig-zagged seams :P  But look: party in my pants! ;-)  Haha!

Now that I've made pants I"m pretty excited about making more.  I've already made one more pair and my next fabric purchase (remember I'm trying to destash this year) will def be some nice pants quantity 

Jungle January: Bite Size Edition

Aww, she's so wiggly she always comes out blurry!

I never participate in Jungle January, not being much for animal prints, but the making of this top just so happened to coincide with it so I figured I'd steal the catchy name.  I bought a rather large woman's button up shirt from the by-the-pound Goodwill which is the main fabric for this little shirt.  It's not just an animal print, it's some kind of crazy paisley, multi-species animal print.  I saw it and had to have it.  Then I used some of it to make a gal at work a Christmas stocking (which I wish I had a picture of because yes it was awesome!!!)  As such, there wasn't really enough left to do a full garment for myself, so I opted to put it on Baby Girl.

She's such the little model, I know.  If you can't guess, this is another iteration of McCall's 8473.  This time with the matching pants.  The pants pattern for this is weird...  It's designed to have suspenders and snaps in the back and along the legs (obviously for diaper changes, I got that much).  Honestly, though, I just don't have time for that so I simplified it a bit (a lot).  I just use the  main pattern piece with the extra snap overlap fabric cut off (yes I traced the pattern first, geez!)  The pants pattern is a bit big, but she grows so fast I'm not too worried about it.  This way she'll actually get to use them for more than a month or two (hopefully!)

The pants are black velour (I think that's what it is anyway).  It's from a maxi length skirt I had in high school for band concerts.  The skirt was definitely showing some wear (most notably from when I tried to hem it with purple thread WTF?) and had generally seen better days.  There was actually just enough for the pants, collar, and cuffs.  The fabric is stretch so it was rather a bitch to do the collar and cuffs, but the pants were easy peasy and oh so warm and soft.

There are four big black buttons on the back.  I was almost surprised I found that many matching ones.  They're all from the big bag o' buttons I found at the thrift store...  Or in the big bin o' buttons that came from my mom.  They're all pretty well mixed together at this point.  It's nice to have lots of buttons on hand for when you need some, but it gets messy finding a number of matching ones!  I started organizing my buttons by color, but kind of petered out at some point.  I really should finish doing that...

The collar on this one is a little crazy but, again, it was really hard to sew that stretchy velour to the not at all stretchy animal print polyester.  Again, I could probably fix it, I just lack the motivation.  

All materials were from stash (yeah! for shopping the stash) but even considering what the main fabric and buttons cost when I bought them, the whole outfit wasn't even close to costing a whole dollar.  Score one for thrifting!

I really like this outfit.  I feel like it's kind of sophisticated since they're less childish fabrics/prints.  She's more like a real person every day!  (A tiny person, but a walking, talking person nonetheless).

Baby Girl's Christmas Outfit

Opening pressies

Stealing strawberries

Twas two days before Christmas when, emboldened by success,

Mom decided baby girl needed a new Christmas dress!

Something white, green, and red with a round little collar

Something vintage, with ric-rac for my little crawler.

The pattern, the fabric; twas all in the stash

But the buttons Mom had, how they all did clash

So off to the store after work Christmas Eve

She found ric rac and buttons and fabric she couldn't leave

Christmas morning found her threading elastic

Surrounded by boxes, paper, and plastic

Just in time for the presents, candy and food

The outfit was finished and it sure did look good

So excited for hot chocolate pants!

Ugh.  Sorry for the totally unnecessary thing that just happened.  I'll try not to do it again...  I will probably fail, but I will try.  The holidays put holes in my brain, I swear.  In case you need further proof, the Sunday before Christmas I became convinced that Baby Girl must have a new Christmas outfit.  You know, because The Boy got new clothes for Christmas... and that's what kids really want for Christmas: homemade clothes.  Yeah.... ok.

I happened to have this lovely little vintage pattern that is just exactly Baby Girl's size (it's size 2 years and she's pretty big for her 18 months).  I got a big package of little people patterns together at Goodwill for $2 and this is only the second one I've used....  Unfortunately I better get crackin' on the rest of these if I want to use them, for as we all know, size 2 years is not a lengthy visitor.

I picked up the fabric for the top at the thrift store on the cheap; $4 for 4 yards.  Once it was made up it just begged for matching pants.  I'd been eyeing this hot chocolate print fabric since they got it in at the fabric store and just couldn't justify buying it with no project in mind...  problem solved!  I love the way the two fabrics look together.  The print on the top is so tiny and the cups of hot chocolate are so big.  Combined with the big red buttons and teeny little ric-rac....  well, it's starting to sound a little unbalanced but I think it comes together perfectly.

The fiddliest part of this pattern is piping and attaching the collar.  The neck edge is bound in bias tape, which  (being an adamant facing-hater, I dig) but gah, them's some thick rolls to try and bind with bias tape.  I think the trick is to just clip the seam allowances close, stitch the tape down, then iron the shit out of the whole thing to keep the collar in place.  That's really all I've got.

As you can see it's already covered in food

The pattern didn't call for the piping at the bottom of the front bodice piece, but it was easy enough to add and I think it looks really cute.  It's a little weird how close it is to the huuuge collar, but I think it makes the gathering pop a little bit.  And, you know, yay piping!

Look how well the bottom and ric-rac match up.  Boo-ya!

Oddly, I never seem to have red anything so I definitely didn't have any big red buttons.  Fortunately when I went to buy big red buttons, I also found the hot chocolate fabric 30% off..  Meant to be?  I think so.  Anyway, I think that's about all there is to say about this set.  I've already made up another one of these tops and there will be more (one is already cut out!).

Dear Baby Girl: You just get cuter and more loveable every day.  Stay sweet and happy please :)