A matching set (for the young man on the go)

One day at Goodwill, Django reaches out and grabs this insanely blue corduroy printed with red, green, white, and yellow dogs.  I would never have bought it, because even a pre-schooler would be embarassed to be seen in that, right?  Apparently wrong.  Very wrong.  He insisted that we buy it, so home it came.

The fabric was in great condition, fortunately.  When buying corduroy at Goodwill, be sure to open it up and take a look.  The pile gets smooshed sometimes, especially when they use those crazy pants hangers with the locking bar.  It ends up leaving big lines where the pile is just crushed and it's super visible.  You don't want none of that.  But this fabric was mostly fine and there was plenty of it.

These are (surprise) the Little Heartbreaker Pants from Sewing for Boys.  Again.  IDGAF they're awesome.  I would never dress my son in skinnies so this is really the only pants pattern I need for him.  And, as always, such a great pattern.  He's kind of between the 4/5 and 6/7 sizes right now.  I can't remember if these are 6/7 or if they're lengthened 4/5s.  He's got some of both in his wardrobe right now.  

He can be such a little ham for the camera sometimes.  When he's not running away trying to foil my evil plot to take pictures of him to post on the internet, of course.  As you can see, these pants have seen a lot of wear: the zoo, the playground, school, you name it.  No shame, this kid.  I hope he stays that way.

This is just about the only close up I have of this fabric.  It's even worse than you thought, isn't it?  I had sooo much left after making him pants (and really, what boy needs more than one pair of brightly colored dog pants?) I made him a backpack.  Oh. My. God.  It's just too much isn't it?  That's ok, I don't have any pictures of him wearing both at the same time.  Because that is too much.  At least for me.  I don't think I could handle that much.

I used the Toddler Backpack pattern from Made by Rae.  This was actually a Christmas present so it's been a long time since construction.  I seem to recall that it came together with no problems, though.  I really like the size of this backpack.  All the kid backpacks I've seen in stores are huge for him!  Although he's growing so fast, I definitely think he'll need a bigger one for kindergarten (yikes! I still can't believe that's coming up so soon).  

I lined it with some more of the fish sheet.  That thing just keeps going.  It's become a Henry shirt, one or two pairs of boxers, a number of quilt squares in a few different quilts, and there's still more!  Inserting the lining wasn't nearly as difficult as i expected; the instructions are very clear and the technique is a cinch.  I think I even got it on the first try!

You can see it here filled with lots of Christmas schwag.  I did add a pouch with elastic at the top for his water bottle, which was also a Christmas present.  The straps were made with Kona cotton, the piping I bought pre-made because I'm lazy, and the straps are that stuff they use for bag straps.  The pattern calls for it, but I forget what it's called.  Ahh, there it is: nylon strap, often called "webbing."  

The Boy is already growing out of this backpack, but hopefully his lil' sis won't be opposed to inheriting it.  

Me Made May 2014

Well, it's that time of year... time for

I swear I've been thinking about this for ages.  For those of you who don't know, you can read all about Me Made May here.  Basically, though, you make a pledge to wear items made by you however often you like (so once a week, every day, or all handmade all the time - it's your challenge!) and then you basically follow along with the rest of the online sewing community while keeping your pledge.  Photographic evidence isn't mandatory, but it is more fun ;-)

I'm to a point now where I do wear a lot of handmade clothes, but still not necessarily every day.  What I would really like to do this Me Made May is pull out some old hand made clothes that don't see as much wear as I'd like.  I'm specifically thinking of a few hand knit sweaters (which it's just about the season for) and some dresses/skirts.  Since I started making pants, there's been a lot of pants wearing around these parts.  I hate to admit it, but I've been wearing pretty much the same things on the same days all the time.  Me Made May should be a good time to shake it up, since I can look back at last week's photos and make sure I'm not wearing the same outfits all over again.

This Me Made May I want to make sure I get some of those beloved pieces out of storage and into rotation, shake up the portion of my wardrobe that I actually wear, and hopefully even catch up on blogging some of my me made clothes.  So, without further ado:

 'I, Nicole of Reloved, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear at least one handmade item each day for the duration of May 2014, and at least one skirt/dress and one me made sweater per week' 

I can't quite figure out how to phrase it in my pledge, so I'll just tack it on here.  I will not be allowed any outfit repeats per two week period.  So basically if I wore it last week, it's not happening this week!

So have you jumped on the Me Made May crazy train yet?

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?

Happy Easter!

So I'm pretty sure it's been about a million years since my last post.  Life and stuff..  You know how it goes.  Since Me Made May is coming, though, it's time to get back in the swing of things.  Here I am posting Baby Girl's Easter dress ON EASTER!!!  I must be turning over a new leaf ;-)

I basically drafted this dress based off of an existing vintage shirt pattern (which is the one I've used to make her several shirts already, I just forget the number and am too lazy to look it up).  Apparently that new leaf business was short lived.  I lengthened the front bodice piece and adjusted the back to be made from two pieces instead of one like the original pattern.  The skirt is, well, it's pretty much three gathered rectangles so there's not much to say about that.  I also changed it from a button back to a zip.  That's right!  It's still the year of the zipper around here.  I also widened the bodice pieces a little bit.  The neck on the original pattern was kind of tight and narrow so this helped make the neck wider (and hopefully it will fit her this summer).

I drafted new short gathered sleeves.  They're not terribly poofy, but there's gathering at the sleeve cap and also the arm is gathered into contrast bands, made from the same fabric as the skirt obvs.  I kind of wish I'd cut the bands either on the bias or so that the stripes ran up and down.  As it is only one color shows and it doesn't really look like it matches the skirt.

The pink fabric is from an old dress my mom gave me.  I'm not really sure what her issue was with it, but it's so pink and I love it!  The bodice had this lovely floral embroidery and buttons.  Strangely, it was hard to cut out even these tiny little pieces because the neckline on the original dress was really low.  I have the entire huge gathered skirt left and I love it and I can't decide what to make out of it.  I could do a gathered skirt, but I've owned one in my entire life and I hate it.  I've never even worn it. I don't think I like gathered skirts on me.  What's more likely is another button up shirt.  It's just the same weight as the inspiration shirt and i think it would be gorgeous.

The striped fabric is a thrifted sheet I bought with the intention of making.... ???  I have no recollection of why i bought it other than it's pink(ish) and the stripes are kinda cool.  I really want to use the rest to make myself some more PJ shorts, but the practical side of my brain says i should probably make Baby Girl some more clothes with it since she'll be needing summer clothes soon (hopefully).

As you can see, it's not quite short sleeve weather here yet...  But I can feel it creeping up!  I've got so many ideas of clothes I want to make for summer, but the cold weather is really putting a damper on that.  I'm not one to make an item of clothing I won't be able to wear right away.  I'm not that patient.

She was pretty much all business once she found that huge sucker.  No, she didn't finish it.  If she had I'm sure we'd all be in the ER right now instead of hanging out at home nursing terrible sugar hangovers.  I feel kind of awful that the Boy didn't get a new outfit for Easter, but he didn't really seem to care.  At all.  Umm.  Hello?  Easter is about candy, not new clothes.  I did manage to dress him in me made LHBs and his dino sweater, and he seemed pretty happy with that.

I hope you all had a lovely day with not too many tummy aches =)

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: Quilted Sewing Kit

Ok, let's get real here for a second.  Is there anybody out there who sews or knits who doesn't have some obscenely large collection of scraps shoved in some dark corner somewhere?  That's my goal.  To have them all fit in one corner.  Ugh.  So.many.scraps.  And I'm really not feeling up to a whole quilt right now.  So I'm trying to think of smaller projects that can utilize piecing/quilting that maybe I can even try out some new techniques on.

TRIANGLES!!!  Do you see that?!  Are you impressed?  No?  Well, don't be.  My squares came out crazy wonky and I had to cut them down to a size.  Le sigh...

However subpar my quilting might be, I'm still overly proud of the outside of this sewing kit.  It's sooo hard to sew triangles together!  They stretch.  Boo.  Even though there was some <ahem> evening of the squares I think they look really nice.  I'd love to have a whole quilt done in this pattern in shades of pink, but I don't know that it'll ever happen.  I do have more, slightly larger triangles cut out and I've started sewing them together.  I'd like to either make some market bags or a quilt like this.  I can't seem to link to the site directly atm, but I've viewed the page and the quilt is sooo pretty.  

The inside is pretty cute as well... continuing with the pink theme, obviously.  I mostly followed this tutorial, but my pieces ended up much smaller and my scissors ended up slightly larger so I had to improvise.  By the way, I thought that was wool felt but my iron disagreed.  Be advised that your long piece of felt can easily become one small, square, thick one.  You've been warned.  

The only real problem I have with this kit is that things won't stay in the vertical pockets (the ones facing the open edge).  So the scissors and my seam rippers are always falling out.  I have a few simple ideas on how to fix this but obviously can't be arsed as I haven't done it yet.  I'm also not quite convinced about the spools of thread on the ribbon....  I usually use whatever I have left on the bobbin for handstitching and that seems a lot more portable to me.

I'm just really psyched to have pieced together something other than squares for a change.  FTW!  And just look how tiny it wraps up to be. 

 I definitely love the idea of this little sewing kit, now I just need to figure out how useful it really is (before I start thinking about making more, as I am so wont to do when I finish a project).  At least it used up some scraps and was pretty quick.  I used to use an empty (clean) glass peanut butter jar with the lid on as a sewing kit.  I liked it because I could throw the buttons, thread, needle, pins and even a tiny pair of scissors in without worrying about anything falling out (or anyone stepping on a stray needle, yeowch!).  I'm curious, what do you use as your sewing kit?  

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!