Wedding Quilt and Bedskirt

I have a personal rule for internet equanimity: don't read the comments. If I want to continue happily about my day I do not want to know what the random strangers on the internet think, it's why I rarely solicit comments on my blog (even though I know inviting discussion helps grow readership), because in my experience, usually, random strangers are cruel. A wonderful exception to that rule is ravelry.com where I participate in the Sew Obsessed forum. That is a wonderful group of people who always make me feel so good about my projects.

My most recently compleated project is a queen size quilt. I'm not really much of a quilter and I was feeling a little self-conscious about some of the mistakes on my quilt, so I wasn't sure I wanted to post it, but I did. I prefaced it by saying is was only mediocre and I've received nothing but positivity and support about it. People said things like I must use a different definition of mediocre then them and that there never was a quilt made with perfectly straight lines. Thanks to the support of random internet strangers I am feeling much happier with my finished object so I wanted to share it with you also. I wish the rest of the internet was as pleasant as that group.

When I got married my goal was to make as much that was reusable as possible and to spend as little money as I could get away with (I'm pleased with my success on both counts). One of the ways I did that was making bunting to hang from the ceiling of my venue. 

All of the fabric used in that bunting came from my grandmother, my mom, my mother-in-law or my own stash of fabric. That alone gives me a glowy, happy, peaceful feeling. I thought the bunting was a sweet touch and a nice way to bring in some color and it didn't take too long to make, all things considered. And when I was done with it all that fabric became the triangles in my quilt. Now being wrapped in that quilt is like getting a warm hug from all the crafty women in my family.

Like I said, I'm not really much of a quilter. I've never attempted anything that big before, but I pieced the top together, sandwiched batting between it and a giant piece of white cotton, slapped the walking foot on my machine and I stitched about 1/4" away from each seam on the triangles in nice long diagonal lines. 

I really like the pattern that the quilting made on the backing too. 

I know white on white is hard to see, but it makes a cute little Star of David. 

I used a bright white 100% cotton batting. I like cotton for batting because it's still thin, but it has more weight to it than poly or blends. I like a quilt to be a bit heavy, but not too stiff. I stuck to minimal quilting partly because it was less intimidating and partly because the less you quilt it the less stiff the finished quilt it. This particular batting only had to be quilted every 10" so my 6.5" triangles fit the bill just fine. 

The other fabric you may have noticed in the shot of my venue was the burlap runners on all the tables. 

I was going to just use burlap table clothes, but Husband was convinced that it would be scratchy. I kept saying no one was going to be rolling naked on the tables, but he was adamant. Fortunatly, my mother-in-law had white table cloths so I bought 20 yds of burlap and cut it in half and hemmed it to make table runners instead. At the time I was grumbling about the extra work but now I'm happy about it because the tables looked cute and the runners were easy to reuse. I turned them into a bed skirt.

The finished length of my table runners was 2.5 yds and I used 8 of them (so 20 yds of fabric, but the yardage is cut in half, you would need to buy 10 yds of burlap to replicate this). I sewed them to the remains of an old fitted sheet I got from my mom. I didn't want the pleats to look too even and mechanical so I just did them randomly by hand as I was feeding the fabric through the machine. Since I had already hemmed the fabric it only took about 2 hours to finish this project. 

And I think it looks great with the quilt. Now the bed just needs like 6 or 8 more pillows (I love pillows, Husband thinks they are stupid, but I think he is going to lose this battle) and a headboard and it will be perfect! When Husband and I first started dating more than 6 years ago I made him buy a mattress but I bought the sheets and comforter. We've had the same one since then and I am totally sick of it now. I'm really glad that I was able to repurpose wedding items into a nice update for our bedroom decor. The comforter is still under there, the quilt isn't warm enough for winter all on its own, but at least I don't have to look at it anymore and I've still got some burlap left, so I might make it into pillows, or curtains, or something, I'm not sure yet, but for the moment I am pleased. 

Leggings

I was really slow to embrace leggings as acceptable public articles of clothing. I still don't think they can be worn as a substitute for pants, but I am now willing to leave the house in a tunic and leggings. I've been told by friends that what I think of as tunic length the rest of them just call a short dress. Ah well, the beauty of making my own clothes is that I can always make sure my dresses and tunics are lengths that I am comfortable in.

Anyway, as part of my new willingness to wear leggings, I decided to make a pair. I found some absolutely beautiful rusty red knit fabric at JoAnn's the other day. I don't think any of my pictures do justice to the color. It is a nice thick rayon/poly blend with 1% spandex and about 30% 2-way stretch. I decided to make one pair of long leggings and if I liked the way the fabric wore for the day I might go back and get more.

I'm going to need to go get more in other colors.

I finished the leggings yesterday and I wore them all day and even slept in them to see if they would end up baggy the way some knits do. There were no problems. I woke up this morning with them looking as fresh as they did when I first slipped them on.

I think I am going to make this pattern again, but I am going to make some changes. When I first sewed them together I thought the rise through the crotch looked ridiculously long. It's meant to sit 1.5" below the natural waist. After wearing them for a day I've decided that I would actually like it to be higher, like at my natural waist. They fit alright standing, but I think they were designed for someone with a little less booty because when I sit down they slip too low. Not a problem with a long tunic, but not what I want them to do either. They also stretch oddly around my tummy. Not in a I-made-a-size-too-small way, but just in a they-are-not-the-same-shape-as-me way. Before I put the elastic in the casing it gapped a little in the back, so I think they pattern was designed with more of a teenager's body in mind, you know, very very straight, no tummy, hips, or booty yet. I think I need just a little more room in the front. 

But again, with a long tunic on, this pair will totally do the trick. And speaking of neat tricks, I played with the stretch stitch on my machine for the first time while making these. 

Stretch stitch is a cool stitch that stitched and finishes a seam in one pass. It also makes a strong seam with enough stretch that you can use it on knits without popping a stitch. In the past, I've just zigzagged seams on knits and that also does the trick, but the stretch stitch looks neater and more professional. I learned how to do it by checking my machine's manual. I've actually learned a fair number of neat stitches that way.

I also finally got a twin needle hem that I am happy with on these leggings. Not a super straight hem, mind you, but at least the tension is okay.

I love how professional the twin needle looks because it looks the same as ready to wear, but you also have to hem from the right side because the wrong side of a twin needle hem just looks like zig-zag stitch, so I think it's going to take some practice for me to keep fabrics from slipping while sewing on the right side of the garment. 

Oh, I nearly forgot. The pattern is from New Look. I don't remember the pattern number but the legging pattern was available in a couple different pattern envelopes paired with knit tunics. 

Works in Progress (WIPs)

Are y'all familiar with the term multicraftual? It's like being multilingual, instead of just speaking one language (knitting) you speak multiple languages (knitting, sewing, quilting, spinning, tatting). Some people see it as a sign of being unwilling to commit/having a short attention span. Others see it as natural branching out of interrelated talents. Guess which school of thought I belong too.

And speaking of opposing schools of thought there are also those who say that you should have only one project at a time, while others believe that variety is the spice of life.

Normally I have three or four knitting projects, a quilt, several sewing and tatting projects and a cross-stitch all competing for my attention. This blog probably makes it appear that I spend most of my time sewing because most of my posts are about sewing, but hour for hour, I am a knitter first and foremost. Of course, hour for hour, it just takes longer to knit something then it does to sew. 

Today I was thinking about Works in Progress (called WIPs if you are on Ravelry) because since the wedding I have felt like I have nothing going on project wise. Seriously, my sewing table is actually clean of projects right now, it's sort of freaking me out. Husband and I got engaged one year ago today and since then it's been a whirlwind of wedding related DIY craft projects. The post-wedding project void feels very really y'all. But contrary to the way that I feel I actually have a lot going on at the moment. It's just less stressful because there is no "due date" so to speak.

Right now I have a quilt top pieced together and half quilted. This picture is the unquilted top laying on my bed to show the size.

I've also got a bolt of burlap, hemmed and waiting to become a bed skirt. 

I have a pair of leggings that just need to be hemmed, and I have four t-shirts, four camisoles, and five pairs of panties cut out and waiting to be sewed together. I don't have pictures yet, but I will probably bust them out this weekend and then post pics on Instagram. 

Knitting wise I've got a pair of socks I just started two days ago. Also, I love how well the yarn coordinated with my pajamas.

I have a perpetual sock yarn scrap miter square blanket going on.

I have the scarf of insanity that I will honestly maybe never finish, but I enjoy working on it sporadically anyway.

There is also a secret Christmas project on the needles. And there are always washcloths to knit because it is impossible to have two many washcloths.

Non-sewing and knitting projects I have half a skein of alpaca/silk noil yarn spun, and 3/4 of a handkerchief edge tatted.

And I've got a large cross-stitch image that I've been working on for years and probably will continue to work on for years to come.

So really, I have plenty going on. Maybe I've even got a touch of project ADD, but I prefer to think of myself as more of a Renaissance Man. I don't want to specialize, I want to know a bit about everything. Husband is afraid that it's a way to never really master anything and I am not saying that he is wrong, but I do think I would feel limited if I had stuck to only knitting. What do you think? Do you prefer to have only one project at a time, or do you want to be able to switch what you are working on whenever you get bored?

Princess Seam Blouse Again

About a year ago I made McCall's 6035 button-up blouse with princess seams in five different colors and by the time I finished the last one I was way super sick of the pattern. Well, apparently it takes me a year to get over that because I just finished a new blouse. 

This one is made from the cotton lawn left over from lining my wedding dress. It is rather transparent so tank-tops underneath are an absolute must. So was fully finishing the seams because you can see them through the shirt. At first, that annoyed me, but I've successfully convinced myself that it's just a design feature. I do wish that I had realized how visible they were going to be. I don't think I like how lumpy the clean seams look on the princess seams. I don't know how hard it would be to do a flat fell seam on a princess seam, but I really want to try it now because I can't think of anything else that has a hope of laying prettily and working as a design element. I did french seams on the sides and flat fell seams on the shoulder and arms. The collar and cuffs are both slip-stitched from the inside. 

I did lengthen the shirt by two inches this time around. I have found the when I am working I'm constantly tugging on the bottom of my shirt because they feel a little short. This shirt is a bit too nice to wear to work but I might make a couple more at this length because it does fit better and the whole point of making my own clothes is to have clothes that fit like they were made for me.

One of the reasons that I keep coming back to this pattern is that it has multiple bust sizes. I really like that I can easily achieve a tailored fit without having to do a full bust alteration. It just makes life so much easier. 

I'm not sure that I'm ready to whip out another five of them, but I would like to make one more in a purple lawn because I want to try the different seam finish on the princess seams and because I found some beautiful purple buttons when I was looking for buttons for this shirt. I was inches away from sewing them onto this one but that would have limited what I could wear it with and the point of  a white button-up blouse is that you can wear it with just about anything on almost any occassion. 

Rose Print Knit

I don't usually wear a lot of tank tops, but it's been so hot recently that the idea of sleeves is just terrible. I know, the rest of the country is like, "shut up, it's 85 degrees" but for Washington that is killer hot. I like it here because it stays between 40 and 70 for 90% of the year. So after I made the two Sorbetto tanks I pulled McCall's M6794 and a rather precious rose print knit out of my closet.

The rose print is really sweet, and although I like it, it's not something I would have bought on my own, but I got it out of my grandmother's stash (which also means I have no idea what the fiber content is, but I'm guessing it's got some polyester in it). I was going to use it to make a ruched t-shirt, but I couldn't find the pattern, I don't actually remember if I really bought it, or just meant to buy it, so I made a tunic length tank top instead. I barely had enough fabric, like not even an inch to spare.

The fabric is a little bit on the see-through side. I originally put it on with denim capris and hated the fact that you could see the contrast between the dark denim and my skin through the top so I threw on a pair of white leggings instead (M6360 view c that I made a couple of years ago). I feel very all white in this outfit, I think what it really needs is a pale green pair of leggings, but white was what I had, so it was what I wore. I've only very recently embraced the leggings trend, but now I'm thinking I need to make more in more colors. But I will still only wear them if my rear is covered. I've been told by girlfriends that what I call a tunic the rest of them call a dress. 

A couple of notes on the tunic pattern: The pattern envelope says you can make it in a woven or a knit. Obviously, I chose a knit. The patterns works but the instructions and more importantly the grainline markings all assume that you are using a woven. If you make this pattern with a knit think very carefully about the direction of stretch when you are laying out your pattern pieces. The neck and sleeves are meant to have a double-fold bias facing, I changed that to single fold, but I still feel like it's too bulky, I wish, considering that knits don't unravel, that I had just folded it over once and sewed it down. 

I also played with a twin-needle to do the hems on this. On the one hand, it does look more professionally finished then zig-zagging or leaving them raw, but on the other hand, I had a really hard time adjusting the tension on the machine to make it work. I had to set the tension at the loosest that it would go and I'm still seeing a little bit of distortion because the stitches are too tight and I really don't like that.

All in all, I don't think this is going to become one of my favorite tops, but it was cool and comfy on our recent 90 degree day, and since I can't wear it to work anyway it doesn't matter if it's my favorite.

Sorbetto Top

Whelp, I jumped on the Sobetto bandwagon. It seems like every sewer has to make at least one of them (I'm sure that is totally not true at all, but it is a pretty common pattern and I've been seeing a lot of it this summer). If you don't know, the Sorbetto Top is a delightfully versatile tank top and Colette Patterns is kind enough to offer it as a free download.

I had never actually tried printing out and sewing a multipage pattern before. It took me several tries to get it to print the right size. On my particular printer I had to use the zoom function and print at 106% size to get the test square to be the requiste 4"x4" and it took me 6 tries to figure that out. Once I got over that hurdle though the pattern was easy to tape together.

I ended up making two tops in one weekend. After making the wedding vests I had between 3/4 and a yard of mid-weight linen leftover. The pattern calls for both the front and back pieces to be cut on the fold, which would not have fit on what I had left, so instead I added 5/8" to the back and just put a seam down the middle. On the first top I did a mock-french seam because I forgot that I meant to do french seams, but on the second I remembered and did a proper french seam. Linen unravels like crazy so you need a good strong finished seam. Because I have a slight obsession with french seams that is what I used for everything.

Aren't they just so pretty though! That is one of the shoulder seams of the second top that I made. It pleases me to look at, all nice and finished with no unsightly raw edges anywhere. 

Here is a picture of the first Sorbetto Top that I whipped up. For this one, other than adding the back seam, I followed the directions. The blue bias trim is a single fold bias tape, applied the same way you would do a bias facing, but flipped to the front instead of the back to make a cute little detail. 

And speaking of cute details, I also added three buttons. I had way too much fun doing decoritive stitching because they aren't functional buttons. 

The only fit issue I encountered was the arm holes came down too low and part of my bra was visible through them. To counteract that I shortened the sleeves at the shoulder seam. I think I shortened them a bit too much because Husband says it looks like the arms are pinching, but I find the top very comfortable. Unfortunately, because I shortened the top through the shoulders the whole thing is a bit shorter than I would have preferred. 

So on the second top I made a few changes. I added about half an inch of fabric to the underside of the sleeve in order to insure that my bra was covered. I also added four inches to the bottom to get a more tunic length top.

I also inverted the front pleat and left it loose at the bottom. It maybe looks a bit maternity top-ish (Husband says "it is rather ambigious through the torso") but it is also super cool and comfortable and it's been hotter than heck the last week, so I will take looking like I may or may not be pregnant if I can also be a comfortable temprature.

The only other change that I made was using double fold bias tape instead of single fold. I would like to say I had a design reason for doing that, but really, I just grabbed the wrong package at the store. I'm glad that I did though, in the end I like the double fold bias tape better, not enough to change the first one, but enough that if I make this top again I will probably stick with double fold bias tape for the edges. 

And I do think I'm going to make it again. It's a pretty versitle pattern, especially for free. I kind of want to lengthen it an additional four to six inches with the inverted pleat and use it to make night gowns because it is just that comfortable a top. I'm also dreaming of versions with sleeves, but that will never help me get rid of that aweful farmer's tan.

Gathered Skirt

Today I thought I would do something a little different and finally move on from wedding related projects. I only have a couple more to talk about, and frankly, they can both wait. Instead, I thought I would talk about a skirt I finished recently.

I had some leftover poly-rayon "linen like" fabric from Jo-Ann's. It is nowhere near as nice as real linen, but it's also half the cost and doesn't have to be shipped to me. The color is much closer to Robin's egg in real life. I wanted to play with my ruffler foot and thought this rectangle would be perfect.

So first I cut out a waistband, then I cut the remaining fabric in half and sewed the two rectangles together using a french seam. Because of that, the skirt is a tad shorter than I would normally wear, but I wasn't sure how much fabric I would need and I didn't want to run out.

Next, I ran my length of fabric through my gathering foot. I set it to pleat the fabric every 6 stitches. I think I would have preferred more gather, but again, I wasn't sure how much fabric the gathers would actually eat up. 

After I gathered all the fabric I attached the waistband. I did so by lining up the center of the waistband with the french seam on the skirt, that way I could attach the zipper to the other side and have both seams be centered. (The waistband started off three inches wide, I folded up half and inch on either side and interfaced the whole thing)

After I sewed the waistband to the right side of the fabric I cut off the remaining fabric at both ends and attached the zipper. I used a clean seam to finish the seam on the zipper side. 

The skirt is cute enough and I had fun playing with the ruffler foot. The whole thing was a bit fast and dirty, for example, I machine finished the hem, although I still hand tacked the waistband to the wrong side to keep my stitches from showing on the right side.I also didn't measure a darn thing, which is why I'm not calling this a tutorial. But hey, the skirt only took about two hours to finish, I will wear it (actually I'm wearing it right now which is why I thought to write up a blog post about it) and now I want to play with the ruffler foot some more. If you have never used one, look them up on youtube. They are crazy looking feet.