Out With the Old - a (Long-Overdue) Photo Dump!

Hello again, it's been a while! Once again, I've disappeared completely from the blogosphere for a couple months. One of these days, I will figure out how to juggle writing a blog while I have midterms and labs and assignments and applications and dance and life... maybe.

In the meantime, I keep my Instagram a little more up-to-date with a mix of sewing, knitting, food, and pictures of Montreal when it's not slushy and gross like it has been the past few weeks.

I'm currently enjoying some well-deserved time off over my reading break after a really crazy midterm schedule. I've had a chance to catch up on life a little bit, including finally setting up a dedicated sewing space in my apartment. No more sewing on the kitchen table anymore!

I hadn't checked on my blog in close to a month, so I was a little surprised when I signed on the other day to see a lot of new traffic, since I've been voted one of the best sewing blogs of 2016 on Madalynne, in the 'Up and Coming' category! Thank you SO much to everyone who voted for me - I'm really flattered!

This post has been a long time coming. After my winter break, I realized that part of what's holding me back from blogging is my "blogging queue". With lots of old projects photographed and unblogged, whenever I feel like doing a blog post, I feel like it has to be about one of those old projects. But, when I go to write about them, it just seems like I made them too long ago to even bother! I can't remember the little details specific to each project, and some of them I unfortunately don't even wear anymore.

So, before I move onto posting about some newer, more exciting things (like my brand new sewing machines, my homemade Christmas gifts, and some recent pattern testing), I'm going to sum up all those projects that I haven't blogged about yet in one big photo dump.

This feels like some sort of confession - I'm getting all this off my chest before I can move on!

I'll start off with my favourite of the bunch - yet another Moneta dress! This is my third - I've already blogged about my first, second and fourth. I made this in the summer of 2014 (yikes!) and it's one of my favourite dresses to wear (along with all my other Monetas!).

I used an organic cotton and hemp blend jersey, and lined the bodice with cream bamboo jersey. I added the peter pan collar, which looks a little ripply in these photos because it stretched as I sewed it, but it flattened out with a couple washings. I included the pockets, and they worked really well in the more substantial jersey.

Keeping with the knit theme, I made a couple Bronte tops that summer as well.

I made the red one from some rayon jersey (you might recognize it from my Natalie dress that I made last summer!). I cut a size 6, but sized up at the waist because I don't like my T-shirts skin tight, and I found the fit to be pretty good, but the armholes were a little tight.

For the purple one, I just sized up to a size 8 everywhere, and I prefer the fit that way. I made it from a remnant of the most amazing bamboo jersey, and my favourite part is the buttons - they were from my grandma's stash and they have polka-dot bow ties on them! The buttons on the red one were also from my grandma's stash.

Next up is a skirt I made from handprinted cotton voile from Maiwa on Granville Island in Vancouver. I followed Tilly's guide to make a Picnic Blanket Skirt, which is simply a gathered button-down skirt, to which I added pockets and a lining.

It ended up looking really clean on the inside - in fact it's almost reversible and could have been with a little more planning. Too bad! I'll keep that in mind for a future project...

These buttons were also from my Grandma's stash - they were hand-carved ones she bought when travelling in Africa.

I love the print of this skirt, but it's almost a little too gathered to feel practical. I love it when I wear it, but I don't find myself reaching for it! I might shorten it and see if that helps - I've done that with a couple full skirts and I find it makes them more wearable.

This next skirt is the Chardon skirt by Deer and Doe, a pattern company that I've wanted to try for ages. My mom gave me this pattern for Christmas in 2014, and I made it when I was in Vancouver briefly before going to Canmore last summer.

I made a size 36, which was for a waist measurement a little bigger than mine, but it's snug! The pattern isn't kidding when it says it has very little ease. I put in a hand-picked lapped zipper, and I omitted the topstitching on the pleats, simply stitching in the ditch to secure them instead.

The fabric is some polyester crepe that was in my aunt's stash that she passed on to me. I normally don't like poly much, but it was the perfect weight to hold the pleats and yet still drape, but I found that I never wore the colour since it only matched with this one shirt. So, I dyed it! I haven't taken pictures since, but it's now a gorgeous purple-blue colour. Admittedly, it still doesn't match with very much, although I do like the colour a lot more now.

Since learning to sew with knits, I've also made a TON of underwear from jersey scraps. Here are my first four (experimental) pairs!

I used So, Zo's free pattern as a starting point, but modified it for a lot more coverage and more of a boy-short cut. It took quite a few tries to figure out the right length of elastic to use - you might notice the bottom left pair have waaay too much elastic. Now I can whip up a pair from leftover jersey in under an hour, and they turn out well every time!

And lastly, a knitting project!

I used a hand-dyed and hand-spun BFL yarn for this set, which is some of the softest wool I've ever worked with - it's gorgeous! The pattern for the hat was a free pattern I picked up from a local yarn store, but I think the wool wasn't quite bulky enough for it. I used the same cable pattern for the cowl, and skipped the ribbing at the bottom edge to make it roll.

I'm not really sure how I feel about these - they're nice, but neither are quite warm enough for the Montreal winter. The hat is a little small and the cowl is a little big, so they don't really keep my neck and ears that warm! It seems a shame to save these for the fall and spring, so I'm considering re-knitting them into a cozier scarf.

So, that's everything for my photo dump! I'll be back soon with my latest handknit sweater, my tester version of the brand-new Sarah Shirt from BHL, and some handknit Christmas gifts.... promise!

Now to find myself a photographer so I can actually keep that promise...

Completed: Miz Mozelle 2-Piece Set

When I bought this fabric, I was very, very torn. Dress, blouse, or skirt? It really begged to be made into a dress, but I knew that was I needed more at the moment was tops and skirts.

My solution? Make all three!

By making a 2-piece set, I could have something that looked like a dress, but I could just as easily wear the pieces separately.

The fabric is rayon twill that I bought from Plazatex in Montreal - it's a gem of a fabric store that's not in either of the fabric shopping districts, but instead near McGill. I found it while wandering around after moving into my apartment, but it's fantastic! It's a small store, but with lots of selection and plenty of notions. I'll be going there lots next year, now that I know about it!

It took me a while to decide on a pattern, since my initial idea was to use a blouse pattern and a skirt pattern, and the first ones that came to mind were the Pendrell blouse and the Hollyburn skirt (two of my TNT patterns). But, I just didn't think that they would look like a dress when worn together. I spent some time looking online at 2-piece sets, and the ones that are trendy right now are mostly structured crop tops and full skirts - a style that I actually think is kind of cute, but not at all right for this fabric.

I put the fabric aside for a while, and it wasn't until I was browsing through some indie pattern collections that I wasn't familiar with that I had this idea. I found the Miz Mozelle dress by Jamie Christina, and loved it! I immediately thought of this fabric, but then I remembered my 2-piece set idea. Then I thought - why not take a dress pattern, and modify it into a 2-piece set? That way, it'll be sure to look like a dress when the pieces are worn together.

I bought the PDF and taped it together, and cut out a size 2. I'm actually a 4 at the waist and a 6 at the hips, but I figured that the only part that I really needed to fit was the shoulders, since there's plenty of ease everywhere else.

I thought the dress would be one piece, with an elastic casing at the waist, but it has a top and a skirt that are sewn together, and the elastic is sewn into the seam allowance. This made it really easy to make into two pieces! I lengthened the top by 6" and narrowed it just slightly so that it wouldn't be too bulky when tucked in, and I added 1 1/2" onto the top of the skirt, for an elastic casing. I also raised the keyhole opening by 1/2"

I started with the blouse, and I had originally planned to use a cream fabric for the collar, and cream bias tape. After sewing the bias tape to the keyhole, though, I realized that it was just too busy, and ripped it out to use black instead. I also decided to use black fabric for the collar, which I think looked better. Since I didn't have very much of the black fabric and I'd already cut out pockets from it, I had to piece the under collar, but it's underneath so you don't see it at all. I did something that I never do and skipped the interfacing, since the contrast fabric was already stiffer than the rayon. It turned out just fine!

I couldn't find a button I liked, or any cord that would work for the loop to close the keyhole, so instead I used a black wooden bead and made a daisy chain out of some embroidery thread.

I modified the order of construction a little, since I used French seams on all the seams. I don't have access to a serger anymore since leaving home, so I'm experimenting with different seam finishes! I love the look of the French seams, and the rayon is lightweight enough that they worked really well.

The pattern suggests inserting the sleeves flat, then sewing the side seams, but I thought that a vertical French seam under the arm would be less comfortable, so I sewed them in the round instead. I don't mind setting in sleeves in the round, and I find it makes for a nicer finish.

I love this method for the collar - I couldn't quite wrap my head around it at first, but once I understood what was going on, I realized how genius it is. You finish the edge with bias tape, with the collar sandwiched in between the top and the bias tape, and then the collar covers the stitching that attaches the bias tape. I finished the edges near the keyhole by hand, where the collar wouldn't quite cover the stitching, for a cleaner finish.

I wanted the blouse to be evenly gathered when tucked in, so that it would look more like a dress. Enter, elastic thread! I sewed five rows of stitching with a bobbin of elastic thread to shirr the waist, which worked really well! It was my first time shirring with elastic thread, but I'll definitely use it again. It took some samples, and I had to play with the bobbin tension on my machine a little, but it was easy after that.

For the hem, I just turned up 1/4", then 1/2", and hemmed by hand. The stitches are completely invisible in this fabric!

Onto the skirt - I added pockets (of course), but I wasn't quite sure how to make them work with French seams. This tutorial helped a lot! I love how they turned out.

I used a modified version of the pockets from the Cambie dress, which I extended so that I could sew them into the seam that made the casing, for stability. I used the same black fabric as I did for the collar, because I thought pockets from the rayon might be too flimsy and delicate.

To make the casing, I just turned under 1/4", then turned under 1 1/4" and stitched it. I used 1" wide elastic, and just enough length to fit snugly around my waist. For the hem, I did the same as the top - turned under 1/4", then 1/2", and hemmed by hand.

I'm really, really happy with how these turned out! I love both the top and the skirt, and I think that they really do look like a dress when they're worn together. I could maybe have sewn the shirring a little bit lower, since it pokes out a little from the skirt when it's tucked in. Since the skirt is also gathered at the waist by elastic, I don't think it's super noticeable. If I did something like this again, I might shirr the waist of the skirt before making the casing so that it looks even more seamless.

The top is great with jeans, or with a plain black skirt, and the skirt is great with pretty much any solid colour top. I think these pieces will get a lot of wear!

Thanks for reading!

UPDATE: This outfit has been chosen as a finalist in the Monthly Stitch's Separates Contest. There are so really fabulous outfits made for the contest that you should check out, and if you like mine, I'd really appreciate a vote! Thanks!

Completed: Denim Hollyburn Skirt

What's a girl to do when she finds a cute blouse at a thrift store, but doesn't have anything to wear it with?

Make a skirt to match, of course!

Only joking. Sort of. I did come up with the idea to make this skirt because of this blouse, but mostly because I needed a casual summery skirt that I could wear with everything.

I don't usually buy tops at thrift stores unless they're silk or really well made, but I fell in love with this print - it's teacups! It feels like a cotton blend, and it was a few sizes too big, but I took in the sides, the darts and the straps quite easily, and it fits me pretty well now, considering that it's only a semi-fitted blouse. It'll be a nice casual piece for summer, and great for layering! Not bad for $2.50 and an hour's work.

Right after that trip to the thrift store, I went fabric shopping, and while I was there, I realized that I didn't have anything except jeans to wear it with, since all my skirts are either black (which I don't like wearing with navy, or with bare legs in the summer) or printed. I happened to be standing near the denim section at the time, and I had the idea - why not make a denim skirt? It would be casual but still my style, and it would go with just about everything.

That's how this skirt started, and it later turned into an idea for an outfit for The Monthly Stitch's Indie Fangirl Contest (I will post about the blouse that I made to go with it tomorrow).

The denim that I bought is a lightweight (I believe it was 5 oz) denim from Fabricana, which probably wasn't the best choice. It wasn't expensive, and I soon discovered why! It gives off a funny smell when it's ironed (even though it's 100% cotton), and it's quite loosely woven, so pulls a little at the seams. In retrospect, I could have chosen a slightly heavier weight denim, but I do love the drape of this one.

The pattern is the Sewaholic Hollyburn Skirt, which is a great simple skirt. I've made it once before (before this blog, but you can see it in my Me-Made-May posts and my 2013 Round-Up post), and I've worn it out completely. I made view C in size 0 since I had already traced that view, but lengthened it an inch, and added the belt loops from view A. 

I love how quick this skirt is to make! Even with all the hand sewing (which is optional), I finished this in probably about five hours? I didn't really keep track! 

Rather than the centered, machine-sewn zipper called for, I put in a hand-picked lapped zipper - my favourite kind!

I hand stitched the waistband down rather than topstitching it, which takes more time but looks really clean and polished. 

The hem was probably the hardest part - I still struggle with curved hems! I took a really narrow hem, but decided to use contrasting rayon seam binding, for fun. Next time, I'll try hemming it with bias binding, because I found the seam binding difficult to ease in. I catchstitched the hem, and I'm happy with how it looks from the outside, anyways! I really love the looks of hand-sewn hems.

I'm really happy with this skirt! It came together quickly, and I think it will get a lot of wear. I'm glad I tried out this pattern again, because I love it! I can see myself making many more this summer. 

Blouse: Thrifted and taken in (brand unknown)

Skirt: Me-made (Sewaholic Hollyburn)

Belt: Thrifted (brand unknown)

Shoes: Thrifted (Arnold Churgin)