Belated birthday sewing

My husband’s birthday is at the end of November. It has been on the same day as long as I’ve known him ;-), but for some reason, this year I struggled to get my gift for him done in time. As in, nothing would go right…it was as though I’d forgotten how to sew. SMH.

• I sliced into the front bodice (is it still called that for men?) trying to fix a button band and had to recut it.
• Any pieces that could have been sewn on backwards, upside-down, or wrong side out, I did it.
• Nearly cut too far snipping the corners off pretty much every single collar point/cuff.
• My cuffs still don’t look sharp and pretty as I’d like.
• I interfaced the button bands with too stiff of interfacing so had to recut them.
• My hems still weren’t level, even after adding length to the pattern pieces–which I still don’t understand, since I compared the side seams of the pattern pieces and they matched after my adjustments. You sure couldn’t tell it by the finished seams though. Hmph!
• There wasn’t a package of bias tape to be found that came anywhere close to the grey-green striped fabric–in fact, notions for that fabric were nearly impossible all around.

All I can say is thank goodness past me (because these fabrics were both in my stash for the last 4+ years) bought the full yardage recommended by the pattern! I wouldn’t have needed but about 2/3 as much, but all my goofs meant that the extra came in very handy! I guess the other thing that turned out really well was the sleeve plackets and my topstitching–both of those things are gorgeous on both shirts. Neither of them are something that anyone but me (and you–since you’ll get close-ups) will notice, but at least something turned out right! And all of this trouble on a TNT! I’ve made this pattern at least 6 or 8 times before!

Sleeve placket. I have to admit I find these slightly terrifying. Still have 3 to go. Wish me luck!! 😥 #sewing #sewcialist

A photo posted by Sew Sarcastic (@sewsarcastic) on Nov 24, 2015 at 11:48am PST

#bpsewvember Skill Up. I need to improve my photography skills in a bad way. I have an amazing #lumiaicon that takes gorgeous pictures, and I also have a decent camera…so why can't I take decent pictures? The world may never know.

A photo posted by Sew Sarcastic (@sewsarcastic) on Nov 24, 2015 at 7:22pm PST

I only included ^ one because it shows the blue shirt in progress in the back–proof! 😛 (Trust me, it’ll make sense in a moment.)

Like a boss! Perfectly matched "stripes" (actually just stitches), and *almost* perfect topstitching even without a fancy foot. Whew! #sewing #kwiksew #sewcialist

A photo posted by Sew Sarcastic (@sewsarcastic) on Nov 20, 2015 at 12:01pm PST

So here are the pictures of the finished shirts, all ready to be worn by my wonderful husband:

OK, so this picture is actually from this post, but it’s the exact same pattern, fabric, and size. So I’m cheating by not retaking the pictures. Call me lazy if you’d like. 😉

 

In the end, I’m glad I did these. Hubby’s closet was getting rather shabby–all those clothes he’s been wearing since 8th grade (Grrr! I wish I could still wear stuff from that long ago!) are finally starting to wear out, and all at once too! If I had more time, I’d probably replace a few more in his wardrobe, but the money is the same whether I make ’em or buy ’em, and I’m a selfish seamstress at heart. 😉

PJs for Scotch

Fleece footed pajamas are ubiquitous, and also very hot. I finally had had enough of Scotch waking up every morning stinky from sweat. So last weekend I decided to take action.

Enter KwikSew 3126. It’s a toddler pattern I’ve had since Irish was a wee one, and it makes some really cute PJs. I also knew that I had some scraps of flannel in the stash from some PJ’s from Irish, so I got to work. I managed to get the measurements from an uncooperative toddler, and he was a perfect size T1 with the shirt length from T2.

The first version I made collarless because of the way I sewed the facings, and honestly, I wish I’d have just picked out the topstitching and made the collar–flannel doesn’t make very good bias tape. The seams are bulky, so they didn’t fit through the tape maker very well and it sews up bulky too. I should have known this, but I wasn’t thinking.

OK, so I had to buy some red flannel because I ran out of the brown…I made it work though. 😉

The second and third versions have collars, but I used some white voile scraps from my stash to make the button placket facing and under collar. I wanted lightweight to reduce bulk, but the voile maybe wasn’t the best choice. A slightly heavier cotton would have been a better choice, but voile was what I had, so I made do. Again I used leftover flannel from pajamas from Irish, and I was a bit short, so made the sleeves and collars in contrasting colors. I think they turned out really cute. 🙂

Cute!

I used my Singer 301a with her buttonhole attachment to make all the buttonholes, and while I’m getting better at using it, it still seems fiddly. I can’t complain about the quality of the finished product though. If anyone knows of a tutorial for tips/tricks on using one, I’d be interested.

Overall, I think they turned out cute, and Scotch wore the trial pair last night and didn’t wake up stinky!! Winning!

Bonus action shot on big brother’s bed. 🙂

A sort-of sewing dare

After the birthday dress disappointment, I wasn’t sure what to work on. I knew I wanted to make something, but I kind of felt a bit down on myself for not being able to make the dress work and was afraid I’d screw something else up. So I asked my husband to randomly pick a fabric from the stash and I’d sew it up.

He closed his eyes, threw a pen, and it hit some green stretch plaid. So, I made up a sleeveless KS3199. There’s not much to say about the construction that I haven’t already mentioned, except! I know they say you can’t just leave the sleeves off and expect it to work perfectly. I ignored this, and the shoulders are too wide. Maybe I’ll throw in a tuck or two and call it a “design feature”? Also, I don’t love how this fabric and the interfacing I used interact with each other. So now my collar is doing wonky things and no amount of steam and pressing seems to make a lick of difference. You know what though? I’m not sure how much I care, I need more shirts that I feel can be worn on a daily basis for the non-glamorous life stuff, and if it’s not suitable for nice occasions I’m not going to feel bad if this gets a grease stain on it during harvest or something. Though it’s probably got a little too much poly for it to be amazing in the summer heat…

What is up with the collar?!

From the front.

The back is perfect.

My tuck idea. #Lazy Also, this is the actual color.

And I’m still on the fence about how this color looks on me, I am not convinced it’s a color I should regularly wear near my face…

P.S. the more observant of you may have noticed a lack of fasteners. I hadn’t put the pearl snaps (I had an exact match in green!) on yet at the time these were taken–it’s hard to make yourself smash things with a hammer when the baby is sleeping!