Swimwear!

I spend a lot of time during the summer at the pool, and I like to vary which suits I wear each day.  I also wear rash guards so that adds more variety to my swim wardrobe.  The 3 suits I wear the most are my 2 versions of Jalie 3023, in blue (blogged here) and red polka dots (blogged here).  I also wear this one, which is a Jalie 3023 skirted bottom and a Jalie 2563 sport bra top.  

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I love tankinis and wanted to make a new one in a different style.  I wound up copying a RTW suit I had that fit well, but whose elastic was showing its age and whose straps were stretching out.  For the top front, I copied the RTW suit, and for the back I used Jalie 3023 raising up the back to eliminate the back band.  I cut the straps extra-long so that I could decide later if I wanted them to cross in the back or not. 

The bikini bottoms I copied directly from my RTW suit, and once I tried it on, it was a little blousy on the back (I’ve never had that problem before!) and I removed some of the length between the legs by taking an extra large seam at the crotch.  There is still a little bit of extra fabric but it is acceptable as is. (Sorry: no photos of the bottoms). The fabric was a printed spandex from SpandexWorld.com that I bought quite a while ago and had been saving for something special.

As I said before, I wear rash guards at the pool since I don’t want to tan/age prematurely.  My current collection of rash guards, most of which were purchased from Land’s End, are starting to wear out.  The fabric in several spots have worn thin and they need to be replaced.  I have made one rash guard for myself using Jalie 2566, (blogged here).  Searching on Pinterest for some rash guard inspiration, I noticed that most of the ones I liked had raglan sleeves.  I owned Jalie 3245, the raglan tee and tank pattern but had only made the tank.  I traced off a size V (2 sizes smaller than I would normally) and raised the neckline up to be much higher for a rash guard.  For the sleeve and back, I used the size FF neckline.  The front needed to be raised up even higher than the FF level.   I did a quick muslin and was happy with the fit.  Instead of doing Jalie’s method for the neck binding (which is quite clever) I cut a 2” wide band and folded it in half lengthwise, for a Renfrew-style neck binding.  I also made the sleeves full length. 

The fabric is a very pretty navy background with dark turquoise rose and leaves.  I purchased it from Hancock Fabrics before they closed their doors for good (sniff sniff).  I absolutely love how it turned out!

(the sleeves are all twisted because I was already wet when it put this on!) 

Sewing for kids

I managed to do a bit of sewing for my girls this Christmas.  First up is a blue corduroy skirt that I made using Jalie 2908 (yes, the jeans pattern) for a starting point.  I wanted to replace a denim skirt that she had loved to death, and I could not find a fly front denim-type skirt pattern.  This was my result:

I used gray topstitching thread for all of the topstitching. The pockets and fly shield were made from light blue poly crepe.

 

 

I made the length of the skirt a few inches below the knee and added a kick pleat to the back. 

Altering my pattern from jeans to a skirt was very straightforward.  I angled out from the widest point of the hip creating a flare for the front and back.  For the center front and back seams, I drew a straight line extending the center front at the fly, and center back at the widest part of the hip, down to my new hemline.  The only change I made was rotating the lower edge of back pockets outward toward the side seam.  As located per the pattern the pockets were a little odd looking and too parallel to the center back seam:

After rotating them outward...much better:

 

Next up for my Christmas sewing was a Jalie 2566 cardigan made with an argyle interlock knit.

 

My buttons were small pink hearts.  I thought I should use them while my daughter is still young enough to think they are cute.  She really likes this top.  I think the band lays strangely at the top button.  My version of this cardigan has this same issue, perhaps it is a pattern issue rather than an operator issue.  Much to my surprise, this pattern seems to be OOP.

 

Next up are 2 long sleeve versions of McCalls 6787 for my youngest.  The first one is made from a printed cotton jersey from Spandexworld.com.

 

 

The second version used a rayon knit for the top and a quilting cotton for the skirt.  I think it came out adorable:

 

 

 

That's it for my Christmas sewing.  It was a big success.  :)

Happy New Year everyone!   

Jalie 2566 Cardigan shirt

I have used Jalie 2566 many many times, but this is the first time I made the cardigan rather than the tee shirt. 

Jalie 2566

 

Let me start by saying this is more of a cardigan shirt than a cardigan that can be worn over something else.  The sizing is for a shirt worn next to the skin.  I should have realized that from the envelope photo. 

 

 

 

I cut a size W, graded up at the hip and did a narrow back adjustment.  I also added width to the bicep.  The bicep is still too snug, and I need more room through the bust.  Check out those drag lines!!

 

I used some stash fabric: a leaf green active wear knit from Fabric Mart, purchased in May 2013.  To make the buttonholes, I used a cut away stabilizer, which worked really well and made a big difference in the quality of the buttonholes. 

 

When I first completed this top the placket was not laying flat above the top button.  As it turns out, I didn't like up my buttons correctly and they were all sewn on almost 1" too high!  So I snipped them all off, and sewed them back on in the right spot. 

 

The button band lies much better, but I still wish I had more room in the front.

 

 

 

More Red...just not for me

After celebrating an excellent Fourth of July, both of my daughters realized the wisdom in my words "Reapply sunscreen!"  My eldest had been complaining about her current rash guard being too small and didn't want to wear it.  (tsk tsk)
I had her search through my spandex stash to find something she liked which I could make into a rash guard and bikini bottoms.  She chose the red polka dots which I used for my most recent Jalie 3023:

 

I had only purchased 1 yard of the polka dots so there wasn't enough to make an entire rash guard from it, but I was able to make the bottoms of Jalie 2447 in size M.

 

 

 

The bottoms come in either a high or normal waist version.  From previous experience I knew that the high waist version is quite high...about belly-button high.  I cut the high waist anyway knowing that I could trim it down before adding the elastic.  My eldest thought that the high waist was indeed too high and I trimmed it down 1.25" before adding the elastic.   After finishing the briefs, I made a solid red rash guard for her from Jalie 2566 with a raised neckline and lengthened sleeves.   I had enough polka dot scraps to make the neck band and sleeve bands (Renfrew-style) to up the style factor.

 

 



 I topstitched the seam allowances down using a chain-stitch on my coverstitch machine.

 

So there you go...more red threads.  If this keeps up I will soon need a new huge spool of red thread!  

 



Swim Shorts! Jalie 3351

I loved Jalie's new pattern releases.  The first one that made me say "Oooh!" was #3351, the swim shorts. 

 

Jalie 3351

I am pretty conservative when it comes to swimwear.  I always wear a rash guard and typically wear a swim skirt.  While living in India for 3 years conservative dressing was the norm and anything very revealing was scandalous.  I got used to people staring at me no matter what I wore, so it was just better and less stressful/annoying for me to be covered up.  Also, when we first arrived in India, my girls were 2.5 and 4.5 years old; I could not rely on them to get sunscreen on my back so a rash guard was really necessary.

I made the swim short in boring black milliskin matte from Spandex World.   I cut a size X at the waist and a Y at the hip.  I made the shorts as designed with the attached brief.  The leg opening of the brief is very modest and quite low cut.  Like all Jalie patterns I have made, the drafting is excellent.  I had only one issue with the instructions.  The final step didn't mention how to attach the brief to the shorts and waistband.  Strangely, the French version of the instructions didn't mention how to attach the shorts...I emailed Jalie and got a response the next morning:

 

Hi Meigan,

 

You attach the briefs at figure 31 (very last step, after the waistband is attached to the shorts):

Pin wrong side of shorts to waistband facing, at the seam allowance, matching centers and sides (fig. 31). Stitch, stretching the band as you sew.

There is indeed a small mistake on fig. 31 (on the label at the bottom of the shorts). It should be like this:

Thanks for pointing it out! 

 

Have a great day,

Emilie FournierJalie Patterns Inc.

Now, the diagram on my pattern looked just like the one she sent me, but she didn't answer my question about the assembly.  EDIT: I email again before writing this blog post and she agreed that there was a mistake in the instructions and has made a note on the website. (Side note: I still think their errata on the website is incomplete and there is a missing step in their instructions.  I have sent another email and I am awaiting a response.)

****UPDATE****7/3/2014
I just received a response from Emilie at Jalie Patterns.  She realized that they were in fact missing a step between figure 30 & fig. 31.  She has updated the .pdf instructions.  Here is the link:
http://www.jalie.com/product_printing_guide/3351.pdf
 

Rather than waiting for an answer to my original enquiry, I sewed what made sense to me.  I basted the shorts and briefs together with a zig-zag stitch.  Then I attached the waistband to them both.  Ta Da!

 

Front view (photo is lightened so you can see the black)

Pocket!

 

I made the rash guard last summer.  I made it using the Jalie 2566 tee shirt pattern.  I cut at least one size smaller than I would have for a tee shirt, and raised the neckline, added a neck band and lengthened the sleeve.   It was an easy tweak to change the pattern from a tee to a rash guard. 

 

I wore the shorts swimming before writing up this post, because I wanted to give a complete and thorough review. 

 

First of all: elastic that is comfortable when you are in your sewing room and dry is a little too loose when swimming.  I did not follow Jalie's elastic lengths and measured what was comfortable on my waist instead.  Well...it's a little loose.  Not falling off in the water loose, but "I'd be happier if it were a little more snug."

Second, the shorts stayed soaking wet for a very long time. There is a lot of fabric that holds a lot of water.  Granted, my fabric is not super thin, so it's likely to be wetter and heavier than a thinner fabric, but I was noticeably wetter longer than normal when wearing a swim skirt.  For my next iterations, I may do something fancy and omit the pockets, and also use thinner spandex but for the sake of sharing knowledge, it's something to consider. 

 

Here are some more photos:

Side view

And because we are all friends, here is what I meant about the briefs being very modest and low cut around the legs:

 

 

So in summary, they look great, they feel good.  The length of the shorts was very good.  The instructions are missing a tiny bit of info, and consider the weight of the fabric when wet.  I will get some good wear out of these swim shorts and will make more pairs in the future.  Another winner from Jalie.

 

A Refashion: From Dad's Golf Shirt to Girl's Golf dress

My husband is rather fussy about his golf shirts.   I had purchased a few at Marshalls for $13 and they were quickly rejected as not being soft enough.  Rather than taking them back, I put them into the refashion pile thinking that I could trim them down to my size.  This morning, my youngest was trying to find something to wear to the first day of golf camp and was very upset when I insisted she could not wear her one collared dress because it was dirty (it was worn yesterday).  So the little wheels in my brain began to turn.  Could I turn a men's size L shirt into a girls dress?  Of course I could!!  In fact, I could use 2 shirts and make it into a more interesting girls golf dress!

I started with 2 identical shirts: one white and one light blue shirt (tags still on):

 

I forgot to take a 'before' photo before chopping off a sleeve :)

I started by cutting off the sleeves and cutting up the side seams of the shirts keeping the shoulder seam intact.  I marked the center line on the front and back and then I pulled out my trusty Jalie 2566 tee shirt pattern.  I cut out the front and back from the white shirt and cut the sleeves and skirt from the blue shirt.  

I gathered the skirt, keeping the original hem and sewed it to the bottom of the shirt.  To add a little more interest to the sleeves, I cut a white band and used the "Refrew techinique" of serging the bands to the bottom of the sleeves so there was no hemming!  

I swapped out the original wood-like buttons for some light blue & white ones from my button stash.  

Ta da!

A closeup of the front:

This took less than 2 hours from start to finish.  I hope she likes it!!

MMM Day 15 to 19

We are 19 days in to Me Made May and I have only taken 2 days off.  I pledged to wear me-made 5 days a week so I am doing very well!  Both of those days off were Saturdays and were chock full of the kids' activities which required me to schlep to soccer/softball fields and sit in the sun or (as was the case yesterday) in the rain.  Apart from my newly made tee shirts, I don't have many me made tops that have sleeves which I need when out in the sun.  That is definitely a wardrobe hole.  Another need I have is shorts.  I have started a muslin for a pair of Sewaholic Thurlow shorts.  I cut a straight size 12 even though I was worried the waist would be too small.  However...that was not a problem, quite the opposite.  The hips were ok, perhaps a tiny bit big, but the waist was huge!  Check it out:

I am always perplexed when there is such a big difference between what I expect and what is.  (That applies to life in general-not just sewing)  I will be taking these in along the sides and may take some fabric out at the center front as well.  There are some very good things about this pattern, but in it's current state it is definitely a work in progress. 

But let's get back to Me-Made-May!

Wednesday May 15, Day 15:

Hey look!  A new Tee shirt for me!  Another Butterick 5354, this time made in a Rayon blend Tee shirt knit from Denver Fabrics (which is very soft, thin, and it wrinkles like crazy!)

Love this neckline!!

Thursday May 16:

A warm day needs a summery top.  My first Sorbetto was pulled out!

And guess what else?  I got a wireless remote control for my camera!  Ka-Pow! 

Friday May 17:  My husband (who works from home) and I went out to play 9 holes of golf in the afternoon.  I wore my orange (aka "light tangerine") Kwik Sew 3341 for the first time.  There are knit attached shorts underneath the skirt and I was a little worried that I had made them too short to be comfortable playing golf (or doing anything in the heat).  I almost changed my mind about wearing them but decided to suck it up and give it a go.  

I don't have many collared shirts that will go with an orange skirt.  I chose navy rather than black to avoid a Halloweenish outfit.  Verdict on the skirt: yes the shorts are too short, but everything else is great.  I may add on a strip of matching fabric to the bottom of the shorts to lengthen them.  Oh, and I could use a white polo shirt.

Saturday May 18:  Day off of MMM.  I pledged to wear me-made items 5 days a week so I haven't broken that pledge yet :)

Sunday May 19:  

Once again a whole Me-Made outfit!  The top is my just completed (yesterday in fact) Jalie 2566.  Let me tell you it is a great tee shirt pattern.  It is quick, classic, and versatile.  I've made 3 versions for my girls and finally got around to making myself one.  It may even be better than the Sewaholic Renfrew.  I had fewer wrinkles under the armpits with the Jalie.  I plan on doing a side by side comparison to evaluate and decide for sure. The skirt is my second version of Kwik Sew 3341.  When I made this version, I lengthened both the skirt and the shorts underneath.  Smart move.  The shorts are perfect: there's no bunching or riding up and no 'chub rub'. :)

That's it for now, more soon!

MMM Day 2,3,4,5, & 6

True to my word there have not been daily posts.

Lets start with Day #2 (Thursday):  I wore my purple Renfrew hot off the machine and my eldest daughter, who was home sick from school, wore her matching Jalie 2566 (not blogged yet).  The fabric was purchased from Denver Fabrics and is a nice thick jersey with good stretch and good recovery.  I used the same fabric for my New Look 6150.  I think 3 tops out of one piece of fabric is pretty good.

Friday May 3:

I realized today (day 3) that I really don't have many places to go and it's difficult to get dressed up for a trip to school to pick up the kids when I don't even have to leave the car.  But I did it anyway and it turned out to be a good thing.  My youngest and I wound up going directly to the doctor's office.  Long story short, she had a splinter under her thumbnail (ouch) and it got infected, wasn't healing very quickly and her teacher and school nurse recommended taking her in to get checked out because they were terrified of staph infection.  Sigh.  So we spent some time at the doctor's office where I wore this:

The top is an unblogged version of New Look 6111, and the skirt is my favorite most worn me-made item ever: my denim, McCall's 3830 pencil skirt.

 Day 4: Saturday May 4
It was an unseasonably cold Saturday morning watching a softball double header, and I had to break out my long sleeves and a winter jacket.   I wore my Purple New Look 6150 (no photo from that day-oops!):

Day 5: Sunday May 5 (Cinco de Mayo)

Worn to swim practice (thankfully it is indoors right now): my newly finished and not yet blogged Vogue 8390 in Brown jersey knit.

A proper review of this is forthcoming, but you can see a couple of issues I had with this top.  I cut a straight 14 and the shoulders are too wide.  You can see where the seam is versus where my shoulder is.  I will cut it narrower through the shoulders and upper chest.  In the left photo you can see the under-layer (left front) is a bit floppy by my left hand.  I found the entire layer too loose.  Next time I make it (and there will be a next time) I will take a pie shaped piece out of the center front of the left front to take out some of the looseness.  Otherwise it is a big winner!

Day 6: Monday May 6

Spent the day at home after going to the gym in the morning.  It was chilly again so I wore my long sleeve Vogue 8323.  Looking back I never did a blog post nor did I do a PatternReview.  Tsk tsk, especially since I wear it a lot.    

Look! An action shot of me making bias tape:

That's the state of my MMM so far!