Tag Archives: sewing project

Last make for 2022…

Posted in Handmade, Sew this by

…not that I’ve posted anything I made in 2022 but what better place to start than the end of the year! My last make of the year was my second Blackwood Cardigan by Helen’s Closet patterns. I love her patterns, they fit a curvy body great and are well drafted with excellent comprehensive instructions. This version was in a completely yummy fleece which I think came from Stylemaker Fabrics. I made the long version with an extra wide front band so the two sides of the garment will overlap in front for extra coziness! The Blackwood is a super quick make, 1-2 hours once it’s cut and marked. My serger had trouble with the super thick fleece but since there is no fraying, I used my sewing machine for the bits that the serger couldn’t manage. My only issue with the pattern is that the arms are very very tight… and I have average sized arms. The first version had this issue and I thought it was related to the fabric I used, a herringbone french terry with not much stretch, but evidently it’s related to the drafting so I will need to address this the next time I make this pattern.

Is this the most awkward selfie ever?!! Also could have cropped the photo but it was take the photo and write the post or wait another year!

Now, of course, as soon as I finished this, the temperature here outside of Boston went up to almost 60 (!) making it too hot to actually wear this because it is warm and snuggly (and in need of a press still). All in all, I love this pattern and look forward to making it again at some point … with more generous arms!

What’s on your sewing table this month? Over Christmas break I cut out 6 garments to and tidied up some of my in-process project organization… more on that another time!

Happy Crafting friends!!

2020 1st Q Creative Wins !

Posted in Craft, Creative Practice, Every Day Life, Fiber fun, Handmade, In the Studio, Knitting, Make Stuff, quilting, Quilting, Scrapbooking, Sew this, Yarn hobbies by

May 3 – I am finding one way to grab any kind of positivity out there is to look back and acknowledge things that I have completed (Complete – my 2020 word) and celebrating that…since 1/3 of the 2nd qtr of 2020 is done (how did that happen…because we are all just working and/or sitting in our houses) I figured it’s high time to note what I managed to complete in the first quarter of 2020 for my own tracking…

January

Memorykeeping: Finished my December Daily album (38 layouts) and made 10 other pages. Worked on Stacy Julian’s 20in20 class setting up project ideas and completed 1 project for that, finding photos of myself for an project about me.

Fiber: Started a Cables and Colorwork Class taught by my friend at Cambridge Center for Adult Ed. Worked on broken rib cowl, worked on Briochealicious shawl. Finished mini quilt and quilt blocks.

Went to FLA with the Fam ! (Album or photo book forthcoming this year)

February

Memorykeeping: finished my OneLittleWord album for 2019 (27 layouts), and made 8 other pages.

Fiber: Continued C & C class, broken rib cowl & Briochealicious shawl. Finished a cable knit hat, with fun faux fur pom pom. Started the Hinterland dress in yummmmyyyyyy red buffalo check flannel. Took old binding off of circus quilt…

Other stuff: Designed a poster of Gun Digest covers painted by my Uncle, James Triggs.

March:

Memorykeeping: Made a photo book of Shadows “stick of the day” and sent copies to the girls at school. Completed my March One Little Word work. I think I only did one digi-layout … I know I have other scrappy layouts but quite frankly, March was when the world fell apart so I am amazed I did anything at all…

Fiber: Finished! Hinterland dress in yummmmyyyyyy red buffalo check flannel (photo before I put the black buttons on… I actually don’t think I took a photo of it completely done… at any rate, it qualifies as secret pajamas.

Re-bound the vintage circus quilt (Pretty sure it was my sisters quilt when she was little so it’s going back to her so she can use it with her grands!) Binding is still one of my bugaboo’s in quilting, v tricky for me to get right on both sides with the machine stitching… but I keep plugging away at it.

And March was when mask making and scrub cap making started… I only made two caps for my Dr friend but began what would end up as over 200 masks for family, friends, church family and donation to a nursing home.

Alright then. Things are so weird right now, no other way to say it… I find that if I don’t jot down or take photos of what’s going on… it all becomes one big blur of mush overlaid with nothing but bad news from the outside world, especially from the middle of March onwards… But that is why we make things right? To keep our hands busy, our minds calm and to spread some cheer in the world.

What are you making this spring? Stay safe and wash your hands everybody…

2019 Makes

Posted in Knitting, Make Stuff, Sew this by

I don’t know about you but did it seem like January was concurrently extremely long and extremely fast moving?? I had meant to post a recap of my making adventures last month but since it feels like February is the new January … here goes!

Last year was super busy with two graduating HS Seniors, College selection / College visits / Buying all the things for College, a business and a household I was not sure that I actually had managed to make anything… but the photo evidence tells the tale (as I may have mentioned in a previous post, I am not super good at tracking things). Photos below in no particular order (and I’m experimenting with photo display style so bear with me…

Knitting makes included: My second pair of socks in Regia Perfect yarn : Lace Cowl (can’t remember the pattern now) : Cable hat out of Madeline Tosh Home (just needs the faux fur pom pom I bought last weekend) : Cable scarf out of Madeline Tosh ASAP (needs to be re-blocked!) : Baby sweater for our contractors first baby ! There was also a lot of filler knitting on the scrap blanket that is always nearby and also STILL working on the brioche shaw…which I should finish before I am eligible for Social Security!

Sewing makes included: Hemming and altering 3 Prom Gowns (!) : Drawstring shorts : Cashmerette Springfield Top in floral rayon : Sew Liberated Metamorphic reversible dress in sanded rayon (it’s like wearing secret pajamas!) : Butterick 2925 grey knit top (no idea where I got the fabric!) : 2 underwire bras in an Orange Lingerie weekend bra workshop : Helen’s Closet Patterns Elliot tee shirt in black jersey and Elliot Sweater in grey sweater knit : Helen’s Closet Patterns Blackwood Cardigan in denim blue herringbone french terry ( LOVE this pattern and have a cream sweatshirt material on deck for another sweater) and some more organizational pouches for Charlie out of my cotton fabric stash!

As I mentioned in my post about quilting, I am making modest sewing goals for 2020… one wardrobe piece a month. January will be the Sew Liberated Hinterland dress in red/black buffalo check flannel (yes, I am aware that as of this writing it’s February 4th). February will be some kind of shirt/tunic out of a butternut herringbone flannel and March will be pants in a olive green heavy twill. I am determined to winnow down the wardrobe fabric stash this year and all three of these fabrics were purchased in 2019 or earlier !

Wish me luck! What are you sewing in 2020??? Do you plan or do you sew on a whim??

2020 Mini Quilt project – January

Posted in Craft, Creative Practice, Handmade, In the Studio, Make Stuff, quilting, Quilting, Quilts by

I have been thinking about crafting goals since last December. I have the habit of making lists of things to do that are so huge that there are literally not enough hours in the day to get it all done. Then I get frustrated that I can’t get 40 hours of work done in a 16 hour day (assuming 8 hrs for sleep … but not accounting for anything else like work, or dog walking or laundry… you get the idea). SO This year I decided to set ATTAINABLE goals for my creative endeavors. I am still working through the details on knitting and memory keeping (but enough to say that my goal is to use up both stashes of supplies) but I have narrowed down quilting and garment making.

Today…I present to you completed project #1 on the quilting list for 2020! My quilting goal this year is to complete at least one quilt block and a mini quilt each month following Alyce Blyths “Mini Master Pieces” book of 12 essential blocks and techniques. I love Alyce and several years participated in a Half Square Triangle quilt along with the result being a beautiful quilt for our home!

The first lesson is a basic 9-patch block, super simple so I wanted to play with dark backgrounds and using some fabrics from my stash that have been aging like fine wine under the piles ;-). I’m very happy with the result!

The block finished size will be 6″ square and I made up 7 to set aside and see what percolates after working on more blocks from the book.

I don’t have a design wall but fortunately, the mini quilt is about 24″ square so laying out the squares on the craft table totally works! Some blocks were fussy cut around motifs and I will admit to liberal use of the seam ripper when I sewed blocks together in the wrong order and upside down.

No photos of quilting, I used two layers of scrap cotton batting… I think by the end of this project I will have used up my bin of batting scraps in the attic – huzzah! I set my machine to it’s slowest setting and used my walking foot, remembering I had quilting gloves after about 1/3 of the way done. Definitely room for improvement as far as machine quilting. But that is the beauty in smaller projects, room for experimenting on a small scale.

I am very pleased with the finished product! This series will also be a good exercise in binding. My corners need a bit of work and there was a bit of hand stitching involved but still a success!!

Looking forward to Februarys block…I’ve got my fabric all pulled and set aside!

What projects are you working on in 2020?

(Also…am not a huge fan of this new “block” arrangement on WordPress, I feel like it’s getting in the way right now more than it’s helping…anyone else out there have feelings on this???)

Pajama Pant Party…

Posted in Craft, Fiber fun, Handmade, Make Stuff, Sew this by

Awhile back, I posted about the stacks of fabric needing to be magically transformed into projects.   I am happy to report that I managed to complete 9 pairs of PJ pants…plus one.  Yes, I am insane, 10 pairs of pj pants.  I suppose technically they were 3 pairs of fleecy/sweatpants and 7 pairs of pj bottoms…. but 10 none the less.

studio pix

yes, this is what it looks like “in process”

The girls had picked out 3 flannel fabrics and a fleece fabric each.  As I was going through my stash (another post for another day) I found a big piece of flannel so I could make pants for Charlie and a length of orange cotton fleece that I had bought on sale to make Gwen something.  Since the pants for the girls would all take the same pattern, and it’s the same assembly routine for all the pants, I decided to go for it and make them all up at once. I sewed in two batches, two of the fabrics were on the light side so I made those up with cream thread and the rest were in black, this saves me having to re-thread my serger for each color.

puzzle pants

When I have a number of the same things to make, I do all the operations in batches.  I cut and mark everything at once, stitch all of the inner legs at the same time, press and stitch all the hems at the same time…you get the picture.  It is far more efficient to work this way than to complete one pant then start on the next one.

Each pant gets a ribbon "tag" at the center back so everyone knows front from back!

Each pant gets a ribbon “tag” at the center back so everyone knows front from back!

The bonus to this process is that when you’re done, you’re DONE.  And, I won’t have to sew pajama pants for awhile.  Of course, you will note there are no pants for me ;-).

a stack of cozy goodness

9 pairs of “cozy pants” as we call them.  They are growing leaps and bounds, hopefully this will hold them for awhile.  One last pair of pants…

fred and the orange pants

Of course, they need to be approved by the studio assistant.   On to the next stack of fabric!