Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Summer Sewing I


We spent the weekend at the inlaws' celebrating the holidays.
Lots of outdoor activities planned, and suddenly last week
I remembered Emily had no shorts. So instead of packing,
I sewed shorts. Like this:
And the sight of all that knit strewn all over the sewing room

floor made me feel like sewing a bit more.
So I talked myself into sewing skorts:

and skirts:

This is the only non-knit garment I made for the kids.

In the summer, they will almost only choose to wear knits,
so I don't bother with regular cotton much. Also, I personally
would rather be made to eat slugs than wear ruffles myself
but the girls seem to like them.
And a stretchy sleeved shirred dress for Kate. I was a little

bored with the shirred tube-style dress with spaghetti straps,
hence this variation, based loosely on an existing dress that
Jenna wears a lot now. Very nice, I thought it looked on Kate,
except it was meant for Jenna. After shirring, it was closer to
Kate's size, so I recut the sleeves in Kate's size, raised the hem
and apologized to Jenna, promising her I'd sew her something
else soon. Always hard to tell with shirring-on-knit how big/
small it will turn out in the end.
Anyway, wanted to share this new needle:

Remember some time ago, I wrote about buying a wing needle?

I tossed this twin needle in the shopping cart to get free shipping,
and now I like it more than the wing needle (which I am not
friends
with right now). This is the universal twin needle and not
the ball-
point jersey twin needle that is probably better with
knits, but it
worked perfectly without skipping stitches or
pulling fabric.
I need to buy the extra wide twin needle ASAP,
for even more
top-stitching and fake cover-stitching
possibilities, but even
this narrow one
is very useful for stuff like this:

I've used it to fake a coverstitch as well - used in
conjunction
with the regular overlock stitch on
the serger,
it produces quite good results.

Here are some preliminary photos of the linen stuff I've
made
for me. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to find
time to
get photos of myself taken actually wearing them,
without
some child or dinner preparation or darkness/
bedtime getting
in the way. I will attempt it again, I promise,
if nothing else, to
see the fit of this dartless bias-cut
blouse I've been blathering
on about:
And yes, it's printed linen. Very not-me.

But blue and brown on natural - couldn't resist.
Goes with both my cloned corduroy skirts,
which made me feel very clever.

And the yellow tunic askew on its hanger, sans embroidery.

Some time this month, I will do the embroidery (partly to
camouflage the mess made by the wing needle on the cuffs)
and rephotograph it.
Have two more skirts, but too lazy to get them photographed.



6 comments:

  1. As always love the garments, love the fabric choices, love the designs. I bought a twin needle a few months ago and haven't had a chance to make it, will be making some baby gifts this week so I was planning to give it a go when I topstitch a taggie blanket I'm going to make. Any tips for using it or any pitfalls to watch out for? I guess making sure the thread doesn't get tangled..... Wish me luck!

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  2. I LOVE the bias-cut blouse - looks like it would fit well and be very comfy! And I'm amazed as always at how much sewing you get done with three little ones.

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  3. I never cease to be amazed at all the sewing you accomplish! Such lovely garments!!

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  4. OMG Love all these. And what a cutie!

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  5. Oooh, I want a twin needle too! I've tried sewing two lines of top stitching but I still need much practice to make them parallel. This way I won't have to - I can cheat!
    I love the printed blouse, can't wait to see it on! The colour/print choice is great too. Much superior to all that pink stuff.

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