Sew Very Cheeky

 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 s...

The second dress I tackled turned out to be much more complicated than I realized it would be. I had found some lovely purple eyelet in the remnants bin at Finch Knitting and Sewing Studio  and knew it would make a lovely sundress, and so I decided to make the Hazel by Colette (now Seamwork).  There were two things I knew that would have to be modified on the dress for both the fabric, and my body time. First, I knew going into the make that I would need to do a small bust adjustment or SBA. I've realized that I will always need to do one as an A cup sewing in a C cup world - but there are worse problems to have. It just means more mockups. Second, the eyelet has large holes. I would have to line the dress. I decided to just line it with muslin, and as I was using muslin to do my mockup, I'd just repurpose it as lining. Instead of doing a separate lining, I decided to sew the muslin to the eyelet and treat the two pieces of fabric as one. When I made the Hazel, I'd only ev...

My brother in law is very hard to shop for. He loves coffee, but we've gotten him too many coffee themed gifts in the past (it honestly also feels like a cop-out at this point). He loves being outdoors, kayaking, camping, and birdwatching, but there's not much I can get him that he and my sister don't already have - or might not want anyway. He's not really a things person - functional things yes, knicknacks no. He reads a lot, but with my luck I'd buy a book he already has. While at Stitch Sew Shop in Alexandria, I happened upon the Newcastle Cardigan pattern by Thread Theory . It's a lovely men's sweater and feels very sophisticated and professorial - and seemed very much like my brother in law. I decided to make him a sweater.  The newcastle has many options for construction - I decided to go with a contrasting yoke and back piece with the shawl collar.  I happened to be buying fabric to make the Toaster Sweater for my mother and sister (more on that in ...

  One of my very best friends stated she wasn't wearing pants while working from home. She said it enough that it became sort of a meme in our friend group. She also doesn't really wear pants in the summer anyway - she's like me, and wears skirts or dresses. It's hot and air circulation around your legs is lovely. Anyway, it became a running joke. Enough that I decided to make her a pair of pants for Christmas. Said friend group has a private discord channel to talk and another one of our friends made custom emojis for, which I then turned into a poly crepe de chine on Spoonflower . I really like the drape of the fabric - I only wish that spoonflower had a non-polyester option. I chose the Jalie Simone Wide Leg pants  because they're a very loose and casual fitting pattern - which is great when you're making pants for someone as a gift and you can't put them on said person to fit them. The back waist is elasticized and it has a lovely tie detail in the front...