Sew Very Cheeky

 A retrospective of quilts made by yours truly.   The first quilt I ever made was for a baby who was born very, very, early. He would up in the NICU for several months, and I was able to finish it before he went home with his very relieved parents. I also like to go big or go home so I both pieced the quilt and sewed it myself on my little singer. The second quilt I finished I designed the pattern myself, and was for my cousin's first baby.   I quilted this one by stitching in the ditch. I also made him a little dog out of the scraps, and finished him on the train to the baby shower! Another baby quilt made for the first daughter for a friend. This one sewed up very easily. It's the Cozy Throw Quilt from craftsy.  I made a graduation from highschool quilt for a teen I was very close with using Lee Heinrich's Greek Key Quilt     I made it queen sized, and quilted it all myself. Apologies for the photos - I didn't get very good ones before gifting it. I found the absolute

 I bought a length of a lovely sunshine colored, ombré striped seersucker last summer, planning on making myself a sundress with it. I finally used it last week. I thought the Centaurée Dress by Deer and Doe would work perfectly (spoiler alert! I was right!). I really love the details - the double straps made from the bias tape along the neckline, the triangle point bodice. I also knew it would be less than straightforward to do a bust adjustment - which is probably why I waited on it. There is a sew-along which gives you really, really good direction on how to assemble the dress. The two that I found the most helpful were the advice in the muslin , and the SBA .  The muslin pointed out that if you're doing a bodice mockup you really should baste on the zipper so you can get accurate sizing. Normally I make a line and struggle ridiculously to pin my muslins/mockups to myself. Adding the zipper is both genius and a no brainer. Also more difficult than I thought as I did only the

In May, I dropped by Finch to pickup something I had ordered that had arrived, and found that they had new fabric in, which is always dangerous. Does it matter that I have a backlog of sewing projects to complete when there's shiny new fabric to be had? No it does not.  The fabric to catch my eye was this lovely nearly sheer white, pink and grey striped light weight woven fabric. It has a lovely hand feel, and drapes very nicely. Because of how sheer it was, I worried about what pattern to make, and the lovely finchettes recommended the Elodie Dress by Closet Core , with a slip underneath. I don't know of a slip pattern out there, so we decided to lengthen and modify the Ogden Cami by True/Bias and make a slip out of a lovely grey fabric that was also in stock.  Closet core has written a guide for adjustments for the pattern. Closet core patterns are based on a B-cup, and instead of doing a true SBA for this pattern, I used the alternate method for a small SBA - using the siz

 A very long time ago, I bought yardage of an adorable fox print in japanese cotton oxford from Stonemountain and Daughters. I had absolutely no idea what I would do with it, until I saw the Amelia Jacket on the cover of the Lisa Comfort Magazine from Sew Over It. It's now available as a stand alone pattern so you don't have to buy the now discontinued magazine.  The Amelia is a cloth bomber jacket with elasticized wrists and waist band. It sewed up very easily with no adjustments, and is now a staple in my wardrobe since I finished it in March. It doesn't have pockets, and normally I add them to my makes, but I feel it would really destroy the lines of the jacket. I just make sure to wear it with other items that do have pockets. I did have difficulty sourcing a metal separating zipper - but eventually found one I liked with a round decorative pull from the zipper lady . Forgive the clashing patterns - I had literally just finished it. The zipper the pattern required wou

 Last fall, the lovely Afterblossom  allowed me to use her chibi Star Wars Kylo Ren and Rey with BB8 design to print fabric at Spoonflower. I ordered yardage of the organic cotton sateen. I was originally planning on doing a Gertie full circle skirt dress, but felt that the lovely neckline of Sew Over It's Rosie Dress would lend itself to the pattern more. Sew Over It drafts their patterns with a B/C cup in mind, so I had to do a small bust adjustment, and made a mockup of the bodice. The SBA was fairly straightforward, and I was able to adjust it easily. As the bodice is fully lined, the finial mockup became my bodice lining! The only other adjustment I made was to add pockets. The Rosie doesn't come drafted with any, and with such a full skirt, it doesn't ruin any lines. I used the pattern from the Deer and Doe Myosotis for the pockets. I think I was slightly manic in attempting to get this one finished before hoping on a flight to travel for work - I didn't quite ma

In spring of 2020, I signed up for the Introduction to Garment Sewing class at  Finch Knitting and Sewing Studio  in Leesburg, one of my favorite local fabric and sewing spots. The class was once a month for several months, and it introduced me to such great things as Swedish Pattern Paper (honestly, at this point I should own stock in it), how to read a pattern, how to draft between sizes, how to transfer patterns, how to gather, how to sew darts, what a bust adjustment was, and many more skills. Honestly it was the best thing I've done for myself in a long time. In person learning and being able to ask questions is wonderful. Youtube tutorials can only take you so far, helpful as they may be. It was eventually indefinitely postponed and then canceled due to COVID-19, but before that happened, I had chosen my first pattern for the class - the Myosotis Dress by Deer and Doe . One of the things Sylvie, my instructor, had told me that I have since kept to heart was that a) you should