Bathing Suit Progress - Kwik Sew 3238

I had a very productive day making bathing suit bottoms.  I kept sewing until I got really tired and sewed my "sandwich seam" together wrong and had to pick it out. More on that later.

Kwik Sew 3238

I'm using Kwik Sew 3238.  I cut a Medium in the low cut style to test my first pair.  I pinned them together and tried them on, and once I saw that they were too low, I didn't bother to line them.  The fit was perfect, though.  I sewed them together and tested out the elastic.  I'm using 3/8" clear elastic.  I disengaged my serger knife, and I'm having good luck just sewing the elastic in without stretching anything, except at the back of the bum.  I measured my elastic for the first pair, but it works better just to go free-hand.  That way I also save more elastic, as I'm not throwing out leftover chunks from each piece.

First test pair

For the second pair, I added some height to the waist.  I added 1/2" at center back, 3/4" at the side seams, and 1 1/4" at center front.  I left the leg openings the same, except I shaved off a scant 1/4" from the gusset area.

Second pair.  Wearable!

For the flame spandex, I'm using black thread in the needles, and orange wooly nylon in the loopers.  When I switch to blue, I'll use royal blue thread for the needles, and gray wooly nylon for the loopers.  I just got my serger back from servicing, and it's sewing like a dream.  I haven't used wooly nylon for years, and I'm impressed with how well it's working!

I thought I'd share my "sandwich" method that I used.  I've seen a few other people do this.  The pattern calls for lining only on the front piece.  I wanted to line the whole thing.  Layer front, back, back, and front.  I would recommend pinning it loosely and checking.  At the end of the day, it took me 3 tries to get it right, including sewing it together wrong once.  That was my cue to quit!  Thankfully, I still had my serger knife disengaged, so I didn't cut anything off.

This is what it looks like when it's done right.  I am loving doing everything on my serger, and I'm not even pressing anything.

Once I sewed all my side seams together, I pinned the lining to the outer layer. Once this was done, I serged the elastic on.

As of today, I have 2 pairs of flame bottoms done, except for the coverstitch, which I will be doing after all the other blue items are done.

I also cut out my 4 pairs of blue bottoms, and lining!  It's a lot of work to make 6 of anything, no matter how small!  I will be doing a lot of marathon sewing later this week to finish these bottoms and make the blue halter tops.

I'm so excited about the blue ones!  I love my flame fabric, but I've been handling it a lot lately, and cutting into the blue stuff was the highlight of my day!

Orange Camouflage Cargo Capris - Burda 7991

So, I decided to finish my cargo capris before I start making bathing suits.

Burda 7991

I figured it would only take me 2 hours to get these out of the way.  Ha ha.  Remember, I'm a slow seamstress.  They took me 3 hours and 45 minutes to finish, for a total time of 6 1/2 hours.  My first pair only took me 6.  Tee hee!  It never ceases to amaze me how slow I can be.  Oh well.  I attribute the extra half hour to the contour waistband I had to make, since I'm not a big fan of the straight waistband on my first pair.

Vogue 8131

I used the contour waistband from Vogue 8131.  I attempted to make these pants once, and they were so huge!  The only thing I remember liking about them was the waistband.  It hugged me just right, and was so comfortable!  In order for the waistband to fit properly with my capris, I shaved an inch off the bottom of the band.  It's very wide to begin with, so this was a good adjustment.  Once I had the contour waistband sewn on, I pinned the center back seam and tried them on to check the fit.  So far, so good!  

Check out how bright my zipper is.  I tried taking some close up shots, but the colour didn't show up as well.  It's bright!  Here you can also see the pocket yokes that I love so much.  What a great design feature!  Most comfortable pockets ever.  They always lay flat, and the front of the pants is always smooth.

Now that they're done, the waistband is more comfortable, but it's a little tight at the top of the sides.  I'll let them out by 1/4" on each piece next time, for a total of 1".  The pants sit a bit high right now, so I think I can afford to let them out a bit so they fall a bit lower.

I can't get over how much these look exactly like the line drawing.  Granted, with this crazy print, you can't really tell, but my red ones look just like this!

I still have to add snaps to the waistband, the cargo pocket flaps, and the tabs at the bottom.  I'll do that this week at Dad's upholstery shop.  So much more fun than making buttonholes!

Here's a detail shot of the back.  I love topstitching!

I can't wait to wear these!  It feels weird sewing summer clothes right now.  Spring has arrived on the calendar, but Mother Nature has yet to be informed.  Around here, it's been below freezing and snowing and blowing like crazy.  

Oh well.  In exactly 2 weeks, my hubby and I will be checking into our resort and basking in the muggy heat of Mexico.  I hope my pasty white skin doesn't scare away the locals!  Yikes!

Vacation sewing for Mexico

Today is the first day of spring, but we're still up to our necks in snow, so I'm dreaming of some hot, hot, hot weather in a tropical carribbean location.  We have less than 3 weeks until our vacation to the Mayan Riviera, and I have lots to do!

My first task will be to make some well-fitting bottoms to go with this tankini top I made in college for our activewear class.  I made a pair of bottoms, but they're all kinds of horrible.  Bottoms need to be perfected by trial and error, and I'm expecting these to take at least 2-3 tries to get right.  We'll see if the Kwik-Sew gods are smiling on me...

Once those bottoms get perfected, I'm going to assembly-line manufacture 6 pairs of bottoms.  2 flame, 2 blue stripe, and 2 blue floral.  And if all goes well, I'll have 2 matching halter tops in blue.  And if I can't manage to get that many bathing suits made, my bare minimum is to get 1 or 2 flame bottoms to complete my tankini.  The blue stuff will just be gravy.

This should be a quick task.  These are my orange camoflauge cargo capris that have been lying half-done since the beginning of August.  I can probably finish these in about 2 hours, so I figure now is a good time to get them done and out of the way.  Isn't that fabric amazing?  It's been in my stash for years.  I love me some camoflauge!

My other bare minimum item is this reversible knit dress I dreamed up (literally, day-dreaming in the early morning hours).  This dress is fully lined, so I just thought about how to make it reversible!  That's 2 dresses in one!  I'll be good for the rest of the year with this one.  That black/pink print is what I used for Anita's top last March, and I loved it so much, I had to go back to Fabricland and rescue it from the bargain bin and take it home with me.  I can't wait to see what it looks like!

I'm going upstairs to sew this afternoon, so wish me luck!


Happy Spring!

My wool coat and other favorites...

I've mentioned my wool coat that I made in college a few times, and I wear it quite a bit, so I thought I'd share some pictures of what it looks like!  This is my favorite thing I've ever made, aside from my wedding dress, and probably more so, because I actually get to wear it all the time.

I made this coat in college for our contemporary tailoring course in the winter/spring of 2002.  Contemporary tailoring was very similar to classical tailoring, but we got to learn some "shortcuts".  There's more fusible interfacing and not quite as much handsewing, but there was still a lot, believe me!  I don't remember much about it anymore.  That was 9 years ago!  The pattern is Vogue 9910.  

In college, we didn't learn a lot about fitting or altering what we made.  I did learn the value of the muslin, and we learned a few things about altering for fit, but I've learned so much more from reading sewing blogs and pattern reviews than I ever did at college.  

Aside from lengthening the sleeves, I don't think I changed anything on this pattern, and I didn't make a muslin.  I'm surprised it ended up fitting so well.  This is the 3rd jacket I made from this pattern, and the only one that really turned out.  I attribute that to the quality of the wool.  It's a nice thick melton wool that I bought at Davey Fabrics.  I think they still carry the same wool!

I love this coat.  I call it my crowning acheivement.  I've enjoyed wearing it this winter since wool coats are all the rage, and I get to say I made my own!

This multi-coloured skirt is one of my all-time favorites.  I absolutely love it.  This is made from my favorite A-line skirt pattern (McCall's 3341).  It's a size 14, and usually it's a bit snug and short on me, but I've lost some weight this winter, and it fits better now!  Yay!  The fabric is printed on the diagonal, and I like to think that it adds some curves to my straight hips.  

I also made the black jacket in 2004.  I designed it myself based on the close-fitting bodice sloper we drafted in one of our first year classes in college.  I was always impressed with how well shirts and jackets fit when they were custom drafted for your own personal body.

Funky Ironing Board Cover

I will have lots of fun sewing projects to show you in the coming weeks.  My husband and I are going to the Mayan Riviera in April, and I have lots of sewing to do before then.  Some of my projects include swimwear, tank tops, short skirts, the exciting conclusion to my orange camoflauge capris (still only half done since last August!), and a reversible knit dress.  In the meantime, I just had to show off my new ironing board cover.  I found this at Winners for $10.  How funky is that?  It even matches my wall!  Squeal!

Sleeveless Top - New Look 6160

I've had this pattern forever, and lately I've had quite a hankering to make some t-shirts and tank tops.  I've always loved the pink and yellow version on the front of the pattern envelope.  I now have some pink stretch in my stash, and I'm sure I have some yellow spandex buried somewhere.  That'll be my next version.

The fabric I used for this was some white/heather gray t-shirt knit that I bought at Davey Fabrics from the discount bin.  I'm not a big fan of wearing plain white, but for some reason, I just love this colour.  I decided to use the funky stripe spandex from my latest kimono sleeve top to use for the shoulders and neck binding.  

I measured my favorite fitted t-shirt, and I made the following alterations to my pattern:  I added 2 1/2" of length at the waist.  I cut an 18 at the bust/shoulders, and a 16 at the waist and hips.  The torso is perfect.  

Before

I ended up with some gaping at the armhole, but I decided to go ahead and stitch down my armholes and see if it made a difference.  It didn't.  I had to make a bust dart at the armhole.  On the pattern, I will be transferring this to a 
side seam bust dart.  I don't mind having darts in a t-shirt, if it means it'll fit as good as this!

After

Another minor adjustment I did was to hem the armhole 3/4" at the shoulder, instead of the recommended 3/8".  Next time, I will also do a 1" swayback adjustment, and add the same length to the hem at center back.

It feels slightly odd to have a t-shirt that feels, well, tailored!  I like it!  I'm going to tackle the other shirt from this pattern, and make the same changes.  I don't have a lot of t-shirts, and I need all kinds: long-sleeved, short-sleeved, sleeveless, racer-back, etc.  I'm excited to get started on the next one!

I topstitched everything with orange thread and the coverstitch on my serger.  I like how it looks.

I'm beginning to see a trend here.  When I have a pattern or fabric that I really like, I will make it at least twice.  I've made 2 kimono sleeve tops (with at least one more to go!), and I've used this funky pink fabric twice, and there's lots more where that came from!  Also, remember the fucshia/purple/orange flame fleece I made my onesie out of?  I have enough left to make a Jalie hoodie!  I'm so excited to dig into more of these projects.  Plus, working with knits is quick and satisfying.  

Yay! sportswear!

Kimono Sleeve Top; Round 2 - Burda 7866

I whipped this up on Friday night after supper.  I thought it would only take me an hour.  Apparently, I'm slow.  It took me an hour and 55 minutes, which is only a 10-minute improvement from the last one.  And I only sewed my seams once, not twice.  Hmm...  Call me a slowpoke.

I wanted the stripes to all be going sideways, but the main pattern piece looks the same no matter which way you turn it, so I accidentally cut the stripes vertically instead of horizontally.  I didn't even notice until I sewed the waist seam and saw that the stripes were perpendicular.  Oh well.  It still looks good this way.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with this top.  It's bright and funky, and very comfortable.