Interchange

Mix-n-match wardrobes are a useful thing as they tend to avoid things like closet orphans and the like.  In my observation, however, as with capsule wardrobes, these mix-n-match pieces tend to be neutrals in white, taupe, gray, or black.  Not really my jam.

Setting aside the fact that those colors make me look like death, they just don't suit my aesthetic.  But I do try to make pieces that work within a palette so that most of my closet goes with everything.  And although I didn't set out to make a mix-n-match set, I ended up with a nice one!

When I was deciding what to make with that Indian block print voile I bought last fall, I went back to the same etsy seller to have a browse.  As you do.  In browsing her shop, I found a few more prints I liked and bought dress lengths of three of them since the shipping was free and the price-per-yard was good.  

Admittedly, I don't wear prints like I once did, but I liked the hand of the fabric and thought it would be cool in the heat.  (I guess that means I'm no longer a printy-utilitarian and have turned more straight utilitarian).  

On the screen, the print looked more violet and green, but it turned out to be that lovely beet-purple and green turquoise that are in my color palette.  By the time I got to sewing this fabric, I had made several dresses from new patterns, and hadn't really found a dress pattern that sang to me, so I decided to make a two-piece set that I could wear as a dress or separates.  (As an aside, I seem to keep trying to find a magic dress pattern and mostly failing--I had one spectacular win this spring--but I just don't reach for dresses much outside of Sunday mornings.  Maybe that is a sign I should stop looking?  I dunno).

I made my simple woven tee pattern for the top and the Free Range skirt hack for the bottom.  My only complaint is that I have to wear a slip with the skirt because it doesn't hang well otherwise, but that is minor.  I've tried to make things that don't require slips because the nylon just makes me hot, but the voile is thin enough that it is okay.  

The print top goes very well with my beet linen skirt, and after wearing the matching 3/4 sleeve top as a two-piece dress a bunch, I sort of wanted a short-sleeve version for the heat.  The Peppermint wrap top I made in the fall didn't fit me by the spring (and frankly, wasn't a great fit for me style-wise), but I couldn't figure out how to reconfigure it to make it wearable.  

I tried a bunch of things to restyle it but to no avail.  I ended up unpicking the entire top twice before giving up and deciding to make a pieced simple tee, which was what I really wanted anyway.  I wasn't sure I'd like the finished piece, since the piecing is very, uh, piecemeal (ha!) but I do! 

I've worn it a lot since finishing it. It's a bit hard to see in the photos, but I did some decorative top-stitching to make the piecing look more interesting, so there is a wide zig-zag down the center panel, and two triangles that radiate out from the side panels. It looks good with the voile skirt and several others in my closet, but I also like it as a two-piece dress with the beet skirt. So 4+ outfits out of everything! (Plus using up almost every scrap of that beet linen--super happy about that).

In other news, the water pipe that connects our house to the main is broken and we have to have a major plumbing repair this week.  The water department shut our water off on Friday morning and we had to wait until Saturday afternoon for the plumber to make a temporary connection to our awesome next door neighbor so that we can have water until the main fix is accomplished.  I'm very grateful to have discovered the leak when I did, since it came in under the front steps in our basement, where there is little to damage.  I don't go back in that corner often but had to retrieve something from back there when I noticed the standing water (almost 3" in the corner!  The floor slopes slightly toward the street so it pooled at the front of the house under the steps by the old coal access).  

The upshot is we now have an outside bib on the back of the house--something we've talked about doing for years but never got around to--so I'll be able to water the garden much more easily once this is all over.  My awkward hose-attached-to-kitchen-sink-running-out-the-back-door setup was getting a bit old. 

While the wheels of the water department churned a bit slowly, once we determined the issue and who was responsible, we were able to find an emergency plumber right away. They are working on the permits and will hopefully fix it all this week.  Thank God for small mercies!  On reflection, I do think that pipe has been struggling for some time, as our water pressure is greatly improved with the neighbor's water, and that pipe may be the original one from 100 years ago.  

But enough about that!  Our berries are producing well (although the blueberries are still immature) and I'm still fighting the good fight against the aggressive birds.  Double netting has helped, but I still lost two berries yesterday to the thieves.  The summer heat has arrived, so I'm trying to keep up with watering but trying to avoid waterlogging the strawberries--such a careful balance!  The watermelon has a tiny watermelon on it, about the size of an olive, plus another nascent one, so we'll see what we get.  

The plumbers have just arrived to start breaking up the sidewalk, so off we go!

Workhorses

At some point in the late spring, I realized that my warm weather uniform had become a linen tee and linen Free Range skirt hack.  I find the woven tees a lot cooler in the disgusting heat, and the linen skirts are an easy addition.  I have a few regular knit T-shirts I'm wearing, but mostly these tees are my go-to.  So I made a few in May and have been wearing them nonstop since. 

This version is my favorite. The linen top is Abyss handkerchief linen, and while I was unsure about the colorway (I have a complicated relationship with navy), it is a much richer and more interesting color than it photographed. The hand of the fabric is almost buttery, and it is one of the nicest linens I've worked with.

The pattern is my super-Frankenpatterned simple top.  It is a blend of the Sorrel dress bodice, the Portrait blouse, and something else that I can't remember at the moment.  The 3/4 sleeve piece is from the Carson dress, but I'm probably going to redraft it sometime soon because I don't love how the sleeve head fits onto the grown-on sleeve cap.  It's a fabric-efficient pattern; I can get 3/4 sleeves with bias binding out of one wide yard, and this cap sleeve version can be cut from 1/2 a wide yard, but no bias binding.

The agave linen I used on the skirt goes with almost everything.  It's a great strange neutral.  I squeaked the skirt out of 1 yard, cut extremely carefully.  There were fumes of fabric left.   

It's been pretty hot the last little while here, so I'm extra grateful for these workhorse pieces!

Basically a sweatshirt...but call it fashun

It seems like every spring I make a number of sewing mistakes, or have a string of outright fails.  Happily, today's makes are not fails, but they both emerged from mistakes.  (Incidentally, this outfit came together exactly how I saw it in my head, so I'm pretty pleased with that).

I found some beautiful sage-green cotton terry from Birch Organics and thought to make another Toaster, since my chili one is a nice spring piece, and we're having quite a few days lately where a wool sweater is not the thing. When the fabric arrived and I realized it was 70" wide (70! inches! wide!), I knew I could make a Toaster dress if I wanted to. I used the Coco dress as a guide for the bottom piece and blended the top and bottom together. I figured if it looked terrible, I could always cut it off at the waist and add the bottom band back in for my original plan.

After wearing the chili Toaster a handful of times, I thought it felt a bit too roomy--I think the Tencel content gives it more stretch than the wool-cotton blend on my first one, and I wanted to experiment with a slightly smaller fit without printing a new pattern size.  I sewed the seam allowances on the top portion at 1/2" (the pattern calls for 3/8") and graded out to 3/8" below the waist, then to 1/4" on the skirt portion.  

Well friends, the Toaster dress looked terrible. I don't know if it was the fabric, or the color, or the fit or what, but it was not happiness. The fit on the top was fine--just the right amount of ease and fit, but the skirt part looked off. So I didn't even hem the thing and just measured and cut to length, and then cut the bottom band out of the top of the skirt portion. For visual interest, I used the wrong side of the fabric on the collar, cuffs, and bottom band, which I like very much.

And the skirt.  My original plan was to make a black version of my quilted sage knit skirt, but the company sent the wrong fabric--a heavy black cotton sweater knit.  After I contacted them about the mix up, the owner offered me several options to fix it, and I decided to keep the sweater knit at a discount and see how it worked instead--variety is the spice of life and all that.  

I thought it would work well with the Elemental Skirt, and so set to it.  I shortened it to the length I was using in the summer, and also straightened some of the pegging near the knees to give myself a bigger walking stride.  It's still pegged, but not as severely.  I added 3/4" to the front and back of the skirt (essentially grading it up a size and a half instead of my usual 1/2" grade) because my Elemental skirts from last spring are slightly snug right now and I thought this fabric would be unforgiving.  I used a 27" Ban-Rol elastic, which is perfect right now.

My only complaint is that the fabric sheds a TON because of the machine knitting.  I finished the edges more than I usually do on a knit for that reason.  The waistband was also slightly tricky as a result.  But the result is comfortable, smooth, and seems to have good recovery for an all-cotton knit.   In any case, I'm totally happy with this fun spring addition.  

This Present Moment

It's hard to know what to write these days.  I'm deeply grieved by the war (for many different reasons) and find I cannot write about it now, if ever.  The situation is highly complex and I dislike the way that the Narrative About What Is Happening is being twisted to suit simple explanations.  I feel my general lack of agency keenly.

It does feel frivolous to share my sewing and knitting in the present moment, but I like to have a record of it here to refer back to later.  (Sometimes I wonder why I do, since it really serves no one but myself, and I weary of adding my poor voice to the chattering classes, but I find I do not want to quit this space just yet).

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to make another Toaster sweater out of some cotton-tencel French terry from Telio. The price per yard was more than I usually spend, but the Kaufman French terry line has a fair amount of spandex in it, and I didn't think I'd like it in a Toaster sweater.  

I made the same size 10 as before, but shortened the body so I could put the bottom band on it.  The arm-to-hem length is about 11", which I think is a good length.  I'm starting to feel like Goldilocks with my sweater lengths, as I can't quite figure out what I like best.  10.5" is right at my waist, but can pull up the back, and 12" is bordering on frump-town, so 11" feels like a happy medium.  

And on that note, I recently reknit the bottom of my Cypress sweater to add some short rows to the back hem and slightly lengthen the body as well as make it long-sleeved.  Now I'm all: Add All The Short Rows! to my previous knits.

But I digress.  This Toaster is a nice weight, and more sweatshirt-like than my first one, but I've worn it several times since I made it.  It feels like a good transition piece on its own and a decently warm piece with a long-sleeve layer underneath.  

The color is more complex than it photographed--it has an undertone of berry in it that gives the rust a great rich color in person.  Imagine dipping rust in red wine and that will get you close.  I really like it. 

 

The silhouette is perhaps a bit more casual than my usual semi-fitted, but my clothes are all over the place right now with my body shape in flux.  

Toaster Sweater #1 & Simple Skirts

Peggy at Sew House 7 recently ran a sale on her popular Toaster sweater pattern to celebrate a regrade and I couldn't resist getting a pdf copy.  I have had such success with her patterns this past year, and I don't knit as fast as would be ideal for wardrobe purposes.  She also restocked her lovely wool-cotton jersey and since I've been wearing my wool-cotton jersey Coco on repeat this winter, I bought another yard and a half, hoping to squeak out a Toaster sweater version.

Nothing much to report on this.  I dithered a bit on the sizing, as I didn't want it too fitted, but I didn't want it sloppy either.  My more fitted clothing doesn't fit quite right at the moment.  

I've gained a fair bit of weight around my middle in the past six weeks (much to my dismay and consternation, as I've not changed anything...I'm working to get to the bottom of it, as well as making some lifestyle changes, but still.  It is frustrating.  I'm not someone who subscribes to the idea that the only good bodies are small bodies, but I feel better in my body when I am at the weight I've been maintaining since around 2015.  So I'm hoping this is a temporary glitch and not the new normal).  I did have a bit of an argument with myself about the basic idiocy of wearing elastic waistbands all the time because they don't constrict me during the day and therefore allowed me to gain weight by not providing adequate feedback before I slapped myself upside the head and told the eating-disordered part of my brain to shut up and go home.  

Anyway, I ended up going with a 10, on the idea that my size 10 Remy was a bit roomy for a summery blouse, but the 8 was more fitted to my preference.  In the wool-cotton jersey, that has very little stretch for a knit, I worried that an 8 would be too tight.  The 10 was exactly the right call, as I love the way this one fits.  I've been wanting something with a high (but not tight) neckline lately, as I can't stand anything tight around my neck (hot flashes!) but I'm cold because of being anemic.  It's a bizarre combination.

I did end up taking off the bottom band as it made the top entirely too long to be flattering on me, and I knew shortening the body to accomodate the band would throw off the proportions.  I did a baby hem of just under 3/8" and called it good.  (Which probably gives you a fair idea of how short-waisted I really am).  Because I was working with a yardage that was just shy of the recommendation, I cut the neck piece on the cross grain and had to piece a tiny bit of the inside of the bottom band but it looks fine and gets over my head okay.  As it happens, since I took off the bottom band anyway, I probably could have made it cutting the neck on the grain, but it doesn't matter.  

The skirt is a super simple knit skirt that I cut using the M7353 as my guide.  The fabric is a thicker quilted cotton knit I found at KnitFabric.com.  I skipped the pockets and used the waistband facing from the Free Range Slacks.  The stitching at the bottom of the facing is a little more visible than I thought it would be, but I could go back and hand stitch it if need be.  I did the hem by hand for that reason.  Since I had skipped the pockets, I also sewed a little fabric loop on the inside of the front facing so I could hook my pedometer to it. 

And because I am making really simple stuff lately, I also made a Free Range skirt hack out of chambray flannel last month and never showed it, so ta-da (shown with the same Toaster sweater):

No construction notes except that I used rayon seam tape on the pocket edges instead of fabric facing to reduce bulk on that seam.  I've worn the skirt quite a bit since I made it.

The keen-eyed amongst you will notice the brace on my left arm. I fell in October and it kept hurting enough to wake me up at night, so I finally got it looked at and I have traumatic tennis elbow. There's a longer medical term for it, but that's the short version. I have to wear the brace as much as possible for the next six weeks and had a cortisone shot, both of which have helped a lot.

Wool Gathering

The past couple of winters, I've been wearing a quartet of thrifted wool pencil skirts from Sag Harbor, probably dated from the early 1990s.  Maybe late '80s.  They fit me well, had a bit of elastic at the back waist, and were just the thing in cold weather. 

Well.  One of the skirts doesn't fit at all right (it was borderline tight to begin with and I always struggled to pair it with other things in my closet).  The other three still fit fine (although are very slim-fitting) but the polyester lining on them drives me crazy with static, so I've long thought to replace it with something less static-prone like bemberg.  Even though I generally try to make things I already have work, I found the skirts a bit uncomfortable, and decided to shelve the lining idea for the moment.  A project for another day.

 

In the meantime, however, I wanted to have at least a couple of easy skirts that were warmer than the Brussels linen or flannel or corduroy.  I found an end-of-bolt yard of Melton wool at Fabric.com that looked like a bright emerald green on the monitor, but turned out to be the most gorgeous shade of peacock teal you could ever want (even better!), and a light pink mystery wool blend in a looser weave. 

The pink wool has tweedy little flecks of teal, green, yellow, and red in the weave, so it is a lot more interesting than a plain pink would be. I decided to line it with the leftover white bemberg from my Sorrel dress, so I had to piece the lining a bit and the hem is a bit wonky, but given the simple shape of the skirt, it worked out fine.  No one sees the hem lining but me, so it doesn't matter.  Even better: I used up all but a 6" square of that bemberg!

A few things to note about making the Free Range Skirt hack in this heavier fabric (probably applies if making the pants in the heavier fabric too).  I originally sewed it all according to the packet instructions (which have you top stitch the waistband and hem), but decided I didn't like how that looked:

 

Too boxy, bulky, and puckery.  So I went back and redid the hem with lace hem tape stitched down by hand and also hand stitched the waistband facing to the skirt.  I think it looks much better that way.  The pockets I left alone.  Because I omitted the front center seam but left part of the seam allowance (just a smidge), I believe I sewed all the seams at 5/8" as directed.

The main change I made to this make was in the elastic length at the waist.  I discovered quite by accident that the elastic needs to be several inches shorter in a heavier fabric.  For my Elemental skirts, 29 1/2" with a 1/2" overlap is perfect, and that length also worked well for the Brussels linen and silky noil skirts. In this heavier fabric, 27" with no lap (just butting the edges) is perfect.  I'm also using Ban-rol elastic, which has a different sort of stretch to the hard elastics found in most sewing supply places.  For reference, my waist is around 32-33". 

 

I'm not really sure why, but shortening the elastic made a huge difference to the fit and feel of the skirt (so much so that I went back to my plaid flannel skirt and shortened the elastic there as well--much better!) 

As per my now-usual, I applied the waistband facing as directed, at a 5/8" seam allowance, and then divided the waistband and elastic into fourths, and zig-zagged into place on the seam allowance so that the gathers are evenly distributed (as opposed to inserting the elastic into a channel and sewing the ends together). 

I think what I like so much about this pattern is that it is a slim skirt (that actually feels slim to me while I'm wearing it) but it is still flattering and easy.  The pink isn't in my usual palette, at least not for a bottom weight, but I've worn it a ton, and it goes with much more of my wardrobe than I would have thought!  I love it with this teal top, and it goes nicely with my Evendoon and Stripes! sweaters (both of them!) 

Winter embrace

Flannel is a beautifully warm and cozy cold weather fabric.  It lacks the warmth of wool (unless the flannel in question is wool, but that is a rare beast in the wild).  In cotton, however, flannel is a close second.  Oddly, most of the ready-to-wear garments in flannel are pajamas or made in plaid (or both!) so it can also be a challenge to match fabric to day wear pattern.  Never stopped me before, so I figured I might as well just march into the unknown.

I mentioned that I accidentally picked up a couple skirt lengths of cotton flannel at Joann when I visited my parents at the end of November.  (Honestly!  I went in for thread and sewing needles.  But when the perfect shade of green in cotton flannel is on sale, well...)

I dare you to walk by that fabric and not swoon at the perfection of the shade.

I'm usually a one or two-trick pony when it comes to sewing for myself.  I find something I like and make a lot of versions of it.  What can I say?  I likes what I likes.  (Although I'm getting into sewing undergarments and seeing the value of trying different patterns).

So it goes with my Free Range skirt hack.  It's funny--this skirt comes out differently every time I make it, depending on the fiber substrate.  In Brussels linen or silky noil, it has a swish and drape to it that more structured fabrics don't have, but each fabric type I've tried, I appreciate different aspects of the finished garment, to say nothing of the comfortable waistband!

It's a thing to realize I've been squishing myself into hard waistbands all these years when I could have been enjoying style and comfort.  It's not that the hard waistband skirts don't fit right--they do--but my waist changes a LOT during the day (thank you, gastroparesis).  What feels great in the morning often doesn't by suppertime or has rolled in unflattering ways due to my exceptionally short waist.  It's nice to feel good in my clothes all day long.  

So, not much to note about this skirt but for two things.  The three panel construction means there are several places to let out or take in, depending on the type of fit I'm looking for, and the 5/8" seam allowance means there is plenty of room to change the fit.  In drapey fabrics, a straight size 12, with all the seams sewn at 5/8" is perfect.  In more structured fabrics, I'm finding a bit more finesse is needed. 

Take one.

I originally sewed this one exactly like the Brussels linen and silky noil, but when I wore it, it felt and looked too tight across the hips.  Sausage-like even.  (See pics with pink sweater).  

The waist and sweep were fine, however, so I decided to curve out the seam allowance on the back seam of the side panel and the center back from 5/8" at the waist to about 3/8" and then curve back in to 5/8" at the hem.

Smiling with irony because I can't take a normal stride!

Worked a treat!  I'm totally happy with the fit now, and find it exceeding comfortable and cozy. 

 

I've also found that doing the waistband construction like the Elemental skirt doesn't exactly work, especially in heavier fabrics.  After some trial and error, my preferred method of attaching the elastic is to sew the waistband facing at the stated 5/8" seam allowance, then divide the waistband into quarters with pins, sew the elastic into a circle, divide into quarters, and attach to the edge of the seam allowance with a wide zig-zag.  The first time I tried it, I ended up with visible stitching on the facing inside, but I've fixed that so it doesn't show at all once the facing is attached at the bottom.

Making this skirt also informed how I approached some skirts I've yet to share here, but will as I'm able.  My kids are on winter break now, so my time is not my own at the moment.  Hopefully I won't get too backlogged!