But Wait, there's Mor-Orange!

The biggest drawback with purchasing fabric online has to be that you can't see or feel the fabric before buying it.  I am certainly not the only person who has raised their eyebrows when opening their fabric package.  My problem seems to be that I keep buying what turns out to be orange knits.  Online retailers seem to be very creative in their descriptions, I have purchased "Pastel Tangerine" and "Salmon Orange" and "Dark Orange".  Guess what?  The "pastel tangerine" and "salmon orange" are only ORANGE.  There's no pastel or salmon involved in either of them.  Ack!  You may be wondering about the "Dark Orange" well, it is darker, but mostly, it's ORANGE!  I mean orange like Virginia Cavaliers Orange or Syracuse Orangemen orange

UVA (where I live now)

Syracuse University (near where I grew up)

So...Meigan what have you done with all of this orange knit?  Returned it like a normal person?  No?  Oh...  Do tell....

The first thing I made was a wearable muslin of Kwik Sew 3341 from the Pastel Tangerine (Blogged here)

Not very pastel is it?

Then I used more of it for the shorts underneath my second version of KS3341 (blogged here)

Not pastel, but also not seen!

Which brings me to a later purchase of the Salmon Orange Jersey knit.  I pulled up the photo on the webside and did a side by side comparison of the two:

Yeah, it's not even close.  I sent an email to Denver Fabrics wondering if they sent me the wrong one, but they didn't respond (grrr...)  It was so cheap I didn't think it would be worth spending money on postage to return it.  So I made another trial garment.  I used the Maria Denmark Kimono Tee pattern.  (Free pattern download Here).  The pattern worked out ok.  I'm pretty sure I cut a medium tapering to a large at the hip.  I think the jersey was a little thick and may look nicer in a floppier knit.  The strange thing about this tee shirt is that I have worn it several times since I finished it.   

Maybe the online fabric market has a sinister plan to infiltrate my wardrobe with orange, or maybe the Universe is trying to prevent some freak hunting accident by having me wear orange all the time.  In any case, that's not all of my orange.

In a desperate need to sew something (anything!), I pulled out the Dark Orange Jersey and made Simplicity 2766, only with short sleeves slightly gathered at the hem.

I'm not happy with the sleeves, but that could be cast-off unhappiness coming from my feelings toward all of the orange.  Since I have leftover fabric (of course) I may replace the short sleeves with long.  Maybe if I distribute some of orange across more seasons, it won't feel like quite so much.  

In closing, I, Meigan, will not be purchasing any Orange, Orange Sherbet, Orange Spice, Orange Crush, Light Orange, Pastel Orange, Orange Rust, Tangerine, Kumquat, Papaya or any variation of Orange online for the foreseeable future!!  No MORANGE!

Me Made May 2013: The Finale

I made it!

I, Meigan of Get My Stitch On sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavor to wear at least one item of handmade clothing 5 days of the week for the duration of May 2013'

I only took 2 days off the entire month!  Yay me!

Last week I did up the ante and pledge to wear a skirt at least one of the 3 remaining days, and to prove my commitment, I wore one twice instead!

Here is what I wore on the final days:

Day 29: unfortunately no photo from that day but I wore my Kwik Sew 3341 skirt, (which I also wore on day 19 as seen here) but this time I wore a red RTW tee shirt.

Days 30-31:

Day 30: Another Skirt!  McCall's 6654 which is possibly the simplest thing I have ever made.  It is an A-line knit skirt with an elastic waistband.  I made the entire thing on my serger (my regular machine was in for repairs) and I finished the hem with a lettuce edge hem.  It's one of those patterns that I had trouble believing I actually spent money on it is so simple.  Look a the line drawings:

I made view G in a size 18.  So stinkin' easy!

Day 31 is a 2 part-er:  I wore my purple burnout renfrew (again), and went to the beach in the afternoon where I wore my second Jalie 3023 bathing suit.  I do wish I had cut the skirt longer, but I was too quick with the rotary cutter.  Oh well...

So that's it!  Me Made May Mission Accomplished!

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!

Spring AHEAD! Another KS 3341

We had a snow storm on Wednesday which left us without power for part of the day.  I took advantage of that time by cutting out my next version of KS 3341, this time in a light blue denim from my stash.

Kwik Sew 3341

Using a non-stretchy fabric for the skirt made the assembly much easier than my first version.  I still had a bunch of the bright orange knit left so I used that for the shorts again.  This time I lengthened the legs of the shorts by 2", which is more comfortable for me.  I also lengthened the skirt by 2" as I did in my first version.  

A surprise bit of color underneath!

This time I kept the side slits at the bottom of the skirt. 

I used a leftover bit of cotton for the pocket facing.  I couldn't believe how well the blue in the print matched the denim.

The cotton was leftover from this top, New Look 6920 (unblogged and un-PatternReviewed), that I made in Sept 2011 in India.

(photo taken on my rooftop in India)

Again, the pockets come out really well, and very RTW:

Again I had difficulty constructing the waistband as directed.  I ended up making a casing with the waistband before inserting the elastic which worked much better than trying to attach the elastic first and then make a casing around it.  Now that I have made this pattern twice, I will do the waistband my way from now on.

A lightweight, light color denim skirt is perfect for spring and I'm hoping spring arrives soon.  I have had enough winter!

KS 3341 Golf Skirt/Skort: from Good Idea to Hot Mess and Back Again

I have finished Kwik Sew 3341, my bright orange knit golf skirt.  

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The making of this skirt was a journey which began with the hopes of using up some less-than-loved orange jersey knit.  This skirt has knit shorts underneath and an overskirt.  I lengthened the skirt by 2" so it is more appropriate for the golf course.  I made the side pockets as well.  The pattern does NOT suggest knits as a  fabric choice for the overskirt.  I used it anyways.  

The skirt was coming along very well until I attached the waistband.  I had basted the shorts and skirt together as instructed, stretching the shorts to fit the skirt.  I eventually got the waistband on properly...between the skirt, shorts, and waistband (a stretchy trifecta if you will) there was a lot of stretching going on and my initial attempt was rather sloppy.  Keep Calm and Grab the Seam Ripper!! 

source

I then serged all of those raw edges together to try to keep things neat.  So then after attaching the ends of the elastic to the interfaced (non-stretchy) front waistband...the instructions tell you to tuck the elastic under the seam allowance, then fold over and stitch in the ditch.  This excellent review on patternreview.com, alerted me to be careful here so I followed her advice and stitched the elastic to the seam allowance prior to folding it over.  This is where the "Hot Mess" happened.  There was too much stretchiness, too much bulk (due to the serged seam allowances perhaps??), too much mess.  A disaster.  Again, I grabbed the seam ripper and freed my elastic.

What to do?  What to do?  Well in a normal knit skirt, you'd make a casing at the waistband and then thread your elastic through it.  So that is what I did.  I left the interfaced front waistband open and folded over the back waistband and hand basted it down.  Then I top-stitched it to form my casing.  I switched my elastic to a more narrow 3/4" wide and sewed it down at the edge of the interfaced front waistband and threaded it through the casing.  Then I was able to try on the skirt and adjust the elastic to fit me.  It always makes me nervous when you are instructed to cut a particular length of elastic and sew it in before being able to try it on.  It seems like a recipe for problems (and for grabbing the seam ripper!).

Without further ado...here it is:

There's a little bit of extra pouf/volume/fabric at the waist right by the pockets.  You can see it well just below my right hand.  I'm not positive why this is here but there could be multiple reasons.  It could be because there is interfacing along the pocket edge which is creating extra stiffness and puffiness.  Serging the seam allowances could have added additional stiffness or it could be that there is simply too much fabric there.  I may slide the fabric more toward the back and then stitch through the waistband and elastic to keep the extra fabric toward the back.  Another option would be to make the skirt in a size smaller at the waistline (only if using a knit) to eliminate some of the extra fabric.  

Here is a view of the pocket.  The edge of the pocket is interfaced to make a nice crisp edge. 

Let's Review:

Pattern Description:  A skirt with knit shorts underneath with side pockets and elastic back waistband.  

Pattern Sizing:  XS-XL.  I made a Large and the sizing was accurate

Did it look like the pattern envelope?  Yes

Were the instructions easy to follow?  Follow?  Yes.  Implement?  Not so much when dealing with inserting the elastic at the waistband (see below).  

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?  I have a great golf skirt with attached shorts underneath.  This pattern was perfect to try to replicate it.  

Fabric Used:  I used a cotton-poly knit for BOTH the shorts and skirt.  The pattern does NOT suggest using a knit for the skirt, but I had a lot of orange knit that I wanted to use up, so I decided to give it a try.  For the most part it worked well, but since there were 3 stretchy layers (shorts, skirt and waistband) coming together at the waistband instead of 1 stretchy layer (shorts)  I needed to address the waistband differently to help deal with all of the stretchiness.   

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:

• I made the skirt 2" longer so it would be about 18.5" finished length.
• I folded and hand basted the back waistband down to create a casing.  Then top-stitched it down.
• I threaded elastic through the casing and tried it on before stitching the ends to the front waistband.  
• Folded over the front waistband and top-stitched down.
• I also used a twin needle for the hemming of the shorts and skirt.  

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?  Yes and yes I would!

Conclusion:  This is a nice pattern that can be sporty or more dressy depending on the fabric.  I love having the shorts underneath.  While it wasn't recommended to use a knit fabric for the skirt, it wasn't disastrous either.  Considering that at one point I used the phrase "hot mess" to describe this skirt, I'd say this turned out to be a save and maybe even a win!