Cascade Jacket Progress - Hampered by Responsibilities (ick)

Whew, sorry about the silence around here, folks.  I'm getting my butt handed to me with this course I'm teaching, and now that my textbook has arrived (finally), I get to power through it while I try to write two final exams...in less than a week.  AHA yeah that's going to go well, I can tell.

Anywho, I'm plugging away at my jacket.  I finally found the brown leather and wood toggles I wanted, only to realize that brown leather was going to look awful next to the trim I'm using.  I cut up some of my leftover leather from my hitchhikker's jacket, and I like the look.  Even if I did cut the leather loops a little bit too long.  Oops.  I'm attaching the sleeves now, but the sleeves are a little tight across the upper arm, so I have to let them out a bit. 

Using McCall's 6286 as a guide, although I shortened and narrowed them up.

I've also added a bit of shaping to the back through a couple of darts.  I won't do this in the winter coat version though.

Speaking of the winter coat, my fabric arrived!!  I like it, despite how plain and boring it is.  I wanted an easy-to-wear background piece that I could add lots of fun accessories to, like bright knitted hats and cowls and mitts.

The pants material looks pretty much how it showed online.  I'm pretty excited to try sewing these up, but I need to finish this jacket first.  I'm enjoying the slow sewing, which is good because the toggles definitely demanded that!

Ooo question!  I'm trying to find a source for thinsulate interlining material that won't include ordering it from the States of a cost of $25 for the fabric, $35 for shipping, and an additional $20 when you convert that to Canadian.  I suspect I can do better than $80 for 3 m of interlining fabric if I source it in Canada.  Does anyone know if anywhere down south carries thinsulate?

Anywho, I'd better get back to it.  No, not the jacket - I need to come up with 10 exam questions tonight.  :P  Although those sleeves are calling my name...NO HEATHER, BAD.  Back to work, missy!

January Garment: Purple Linden

Uh, wow messy hair much?

My first MaGaM make is yet another of Grainline Studio's Linden Sweatshirt.  Like my last version, I'm totally in love with it; my grey version is relieved because now it's not the only constant in my wardrobe.  (Poor thing is looking a little pilly.)  It's made from a purple ponte knit I bought ages ago, and now I understand why everyone raves about this fabric because it's a delight to sew!  Even ripping seams is easy, or at least easier than most other knits I've messed up on and cursed while tearing out seams.

I recently changed the lightbulb in my sewing room - yay for seeing my stitching, boo for photos.

Uh, sorry for the weird lighting in these pictures.  I keep trying to get better pictures, but either the lighting at this time of the year is being a dick or my camera is.  Probably both.  Just pretend that the sweatshirt is this colour in all of the photos:

Obviously I mean the purple, not the rainbow.

I actually posted about this top earlier in the month, when I accidentially sewed up most of the shirt before leaving for camp.  I basically did the same changes that I did in my grey version (although this time I actually changed the paper pattern), but I made a few other mods.

Can you see up my nose?  I think you can see up my nose.  But at least you can't see my bra strap.

First off, to solve the exposed bra strap issue, I decided to try tightening up the neckband to see what would happen.  I measured the neckline length (28") and then cut a piece 3" shorter.  I basted it on first, because it seemed like it was going to be too tight, but it turned out pretty good.  I'm pleased with the result, it's still wide, but in a nice way and not a 'hey look at my bra strap colour' kind of way.  If I want to tighten it any further though, I'll have to extend the raglan seams up, since I think the top would ripple if I made the neckband any tighter.

Oh, I also made the neckband a bit thicker.

Oh uh, that's a lot of fluff on the front.  I have no explanation for that.

What else?  Oh, I tightened up the cuffs, which I like a lot better.  My grey linden's cuffs were a little too loose, but who's going to rip out a seam, the zig-zag finishing, and topstitching to narrow them up?  NOT ME!

There's a few issues yet - there's some wicked armpit wrinkles on both the front and the back.  I don't really care, but it's something I'll probably poke at to see if I can solve it.  Suzy managed to solve her raglan sleeve wrinkles on her swim suit, so I have hope.

The back is pretty...big.  I'm slowly removing all of the excess ease that's supposed to be in this pattern, but oh well.  Actually, now that I think about it, I took about an inch out of the back width, but I think next time I might try cutting a smaller size for the back.  Or nipping out a bit more.  Oh well, don't care, love this sweatshirt!

Here's a flat picture, so you can see that I still haven't put any kind of shaping to it.  I never thought I'd be a fan of boxy tops, but here we are.  Hilariously, I'm also knitting a sweater with this exact same shape, and...this exact same colour.  Hmmm.  More on that another time.

My 2015 tag.  Was going to do a dangly one, but forgot to sew it in before finishing that seam. Oops.

How do you like my tag?  REALLY needed in a top like this, since it's really hard to figure out which side is the front and which side is the back.

So, with this Make a Garment a Month thing, there's different themes each month.  This month was supposed to be "something new"!  Uh, there really isn't anything new about this top, except perhaps the new tags?  I was planning on adding a zippered breast pocket, but I liked the clean look of the front so veto'd it.  And then I was going to add thumbholes to the cuffs, but after 3 different cuffs and a lot of shouting, I gave up on that too.  That crap is not an easy technique (still want to figure it out, but another time).

But I'm alright with not following the themes.  I mean, I've joined to encourage me to sew more often, not to follow themes that may not work for my garment needs.  If those two line up, then I'll go for it, but if not, I'm not going to worry about it.

What's with the curls, hair?  Maybe it also approves of this top.

So yeah, successful garment.  Again!  And despite having other garments I really should work on (like the Watson bra I'm half-way through sewing), is it bad that I'm plotting my next Linden?  Serious love for this garment guys, can you tell?

Auto Sewing, Practical Plans, and New Labels

For once, my time out of camp didn't fly by.  I'm not sure why, usually it feels like I blink and it's time to go back to work.  It's not like it was boring or tedious - I had a fantastic time filled with friends and parties and skiing and chilling with The Boyfriend.  It was just...perfect.

I even had time to dig out my disaster of a sewing room (again) and do a bit of sewing.  I'd really just planned to cut out another version of my Linden in a solid purple ponte knit, and save the sewing for when I get back from camp.  But then The Boyfriend went to hockey, and all I remember was wondering into the sewing room to find a marker and suddenly there was this sitting on my sewing table:

Not the true colour.

Seriously though, this pattern goes together in no time.  There's six seams there: two for each raglan shoulder and one on each side.  After that, there's the sleeve cuffs, hem and neckband (which I didn't get to).  That's it.  Granted, I haven't attached any bands to this.  I was going to, but then The Boyfriend arrived home and distraction!

Not quite the true colour either, but closer.

My auto-sewing brain apparently choose to add some clear elastic to the raglan seams, probably because the cross-grain stretch along that seam seemed (heh) excessive, and thought this would stabilize it a bit.  I hope so, anyways.

This is going to be my January piece for Make a Garment a Month (MaGaM).  Their theme this month is 'something new' (or...something like that - I can't get on FB at work to confirm), and this definitely isn't a new pattern to me.  But the one thing I want on my other version of this top is a breast pocket to tuck my ipod or hair pin into, so I'm going to try my hand at adding a small zippered pocket. I've never done that before, and I think this stable knit should be able to handle it.

I'm tentatively planning on doing a lot of basic and very wearable garments this year that have little details (pockets, embroidery, maybe trims) to add more interest.  I want to challenge myself, but I also need wearable cake instead of pretty frosting!

The true colour, at last!  Silly camera.

Oh, and I found my 2015 labels!  I'll be adding a bit of this rainbow ribbon on garments and maybe some accessories to indicate the year it was made in.  Fun idea, eh?  I keep thinking about having proper labels made, but "Things I Make.  Plus Rocks" doesn't fit very well, and I like this idea better.  Plus it's much cheaper!

Do you add labels to your garments?  I found that my Linden really needed one, because there is very little difference between the front and back.  And it looks cute!

fo: Linden Sweatshirt of LOVE

I have to say this before anything else: I LOVE THIS SWEATSHIRT, above and beyond anything I have ever made (and that says a lot, because I've been sewing/knitting/crafting for a very very long time)!

Pattern: Linden Sweatshirt, by Grainline Studios

Fabric: Two medium-weight mystery knits I've had for ages - the grey patterned one I bought years ago at Value Village (thrift shop) for a few bucks and suspect is pure polyester; the black is a cotton-poly fine-rib knit (I think) that I got in a large fabric package from a friend a couple of years ago. Despite the difference in stretch (the first has about 20%, the second closer to 50%), they paired well in this garment.

Size: I cut a size 14 through the sleeves and upper body, gradually grading to size 16 at the hips.  And then I chopped a bunch off.

Modifications: There were a couple - mostly due to me wanting something less loose with this stiffer body fabric, but also because I suspect I have very short arms.

Of course, I took exactly 0 pictures of this entire process, but I found the body was just too wide once sewn up.  Cozy and comfy, and I might've kept it as is, but it pushed just past the sloppy line and I knew it'd bother me.  So I took my trusty chalk and marked, on both sides, 1/2" from the hem and wrist stitch line, and 1" from the underarm stitch line, connected them all with a smooth line, and restitched.  This means I took 4" total off the width at the bust and upper arm, and 2" total off the wrist and hemline.  And now it's a perfect fit!  Still loose and comfy, but I'm not drowning in oversized sweatshirt.  (Although if I used a thinner or more fluid knit, I might not make these same mods.)

 

 

 

The only other mod I did was to hack 2 1/4" off the sleeves, because raw they were longer than I wanted them finished, and I still had a 2" cuff to add!  Easy peasy alteration though.  I nearly added thumbholes to the cuffs, but then changed my mind.  Mostly because sleeves long enough for thumbholes to be used drive me batty.

ETA: OH!  I also cut off 1/2 inche from the bottom hem, because I don't know it made sense at the time.  Forgot about that, until I looked over my notes from last night.  Oops.  This is why I learned to take notes, becaue my brain is rubbish at remembering things sometimes.  Slacker brain.

The only critique I have for this sweater and pattern, and this is purely personal preference, is that the neckline is a little too wide.  My bra-straps, sadly, get shown off nicely in this sweatshirt.  I'm not choked up by this though, because this sweatshirt is cozy and perfect for layering, which I do like sediment deposits in the warmest months, nevermind in winter.  BRING ON THE BRIGHT TANKTOPS!

I think, to solve this next time, I may either project the raglan seams, shoulders, and back neckline up a bit to get more coverage.  I could probably try a smaller size considering how much I chopped off the sides as well, but I think I have the fit I want worked out there, and this might be a fun drafting exercise.  Alternatively, I could try pinching out some of the width on the front and back piece to reduce overall width.  Hmm.  Any other suggestions?  Have any of you tried something like this?

None of that above distracts from the pure love I have for this garment, and I don't even want to make anything else until I've made at least 3 more.  Already I'm plotting how to incorporate all of my knits into this pattern, and different ways I could alter the pattern (lace? zippers? pockets? embroidery?)!  And it's so quick and easy; I think it took me about 2 hours total (ignoring interruptions like dinner and a gym visit) to make up last night, and that includes putting it on constantly and running out to show off to Darryl (the boyfriend - I guess I should finally give him a name on this blog).

That expression screams 'damn proud'.

And because I don't have anything else to say but OMG LOVE THIS PATTERN SO MUCH SQUEEEE, here's a few more detailed pics.

So glad I "saved" this patterned knit for just this project - nothing else would've worked nearly as well!  This is why extensive stashes are a must for any crafter.  *nods*

Neckline ribbing and topstitching.  Plus the purple ribbon I'm using to designate 2014 makes (and which side is the back).

Don't know why, but those sleeve cuffs ans topstitching brings me joy.

Don't be fooled by the even-ness of the bottom topstitching - the damn seam meanders like a slow-moving river.  WHATEVER DON'T CARE.

Have you sewn this super easy pattern up yet?  If not, do you think might in the future?