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Completed: The Tye-Die Moneta (+ announcements)

Good morning, y’all! I have a couple announcements to make today, and I also have this dress I made a couple weeks ago, so I’m just going to kill two birds with one stone and combine them into the same post-

First up: The Dress

This is another rendition of the Colette Moneta, in a very un-Colette finished dress because this baby is TIE-DYE! Landon kind of hates it; I think he thinks it looks tacky. Whatever!

I actually bought the fabric like that (I’m not at the point of tie-dying my own clothes… yet.) – it’s this cotton/viscose jersey from Mood Fabrics. The colors and style are pretty much unlike anything I EVER wear, so I’m not sure why I was so drawn to it – but I was! I originally had this earmarked for a maxi dress, but I realized it would make a pretty cool short dress with all those dyed stripes.

As far as Monetas go, this one is pretty bastardized. I don’t know if I can even call it a Moneta-proper, because I changed so much of the pattern. The bodice and skirt are Moneta, but I scooped the neckline using the Lady Skater neckline as a guide and added a neck binding. I started with the short sleeves included in the Moneta, but they were all kinds of wrong – too long, too loose (they kind of look like tshirt sleeves) – so I cut them until they were capped and hemmed them a second time.

Speaking of hemming, I broke my twin needle halfway through the skirt of this, so the second half is a zigzag hem. Haha! Whatever, it’s a comfy knit dress. Ain’t no one gonna look at my hem – right?

I realy like how the tie-dye colorblocking (and stripe matching!) turned out! I tried to keep the white away from my waist, and the yellow away from my face. The overall effect turned out pretty cool, though, it’s almost dip-dyed 🙂

Well, that’s enough of that! Now I’ve got some housekeeping to attend to –

NEW YORK MEET-UP: I’m gonna be in NYC this week! Yay! I’m teaching a pants making class at Workroom Social this weekend, and I’ll be trolling around the city this Friday beforehand! To my extreme delight, my homegirl Heather Lou (yes, THAT Heather Lou!) is gonna be lurking in the city THE SAME WEEKEND, so we have got some fabric shopping and hanging to take care of it! I plan on hitting up the Garment District around 3pm on Friday 8/15, and then finding a spot to chill in Bryant Park around 7 or 7:30 (whenever we get kicked out of the Garment District, I guess). I’m open to anyone who wants to join for hang-time, so lemme know if you’d like to stop by! Send me an email and I’ll keep you updated on the deets 🙂

OTHER CLASSES: I just confirmed that I’ll be teaching again at Watkins College of Arm, Design & Film in the fall! I have two classes this year – Intro to Fashion Sewing (9 weeks, Tuesdays) and Intro to Sewing Knits (6 weeks, Thursdays). Any local Nashvillians who are interested in attending should check out the full catalog and can register here.

THE SEWING PARTY: Finally – I’ll be teaching an online class at The Sewing Party! Don’t know what The Sewing Party is all about? From their website:

“The Sewing Party” is the first ever online-all-day DIY event in history!

On November 8, 2014, thousands of DIY-ers will gather for a fun-filled day of sewing and crafting classes taught online by leading bloggers and educational experts. It’s all about Connecting. Crafting. And Creating.

Attendees will have access to more than 30 online classes available on the day of the event and for an additional 90 days. There is truly something for everyone! Classes include home décor, fashion sewing, quilting and upcycling, crafting, costume design, techniques for turning your craft into an entrepreneurial venture, and more!

Space is limited and likely to fill up fast! For just $40, “The Sewing Party” participants can attend classes; chat with participants from across the country; interact with top bloggers and educational experts who are teaching; and explore the latest crafting and sewing tips, techniques and products in our marketplace.

This upcoming event is going to be SO FUN, omg! I’ve signed up to teach a class on inserting zippers (both lapped and invisible) so if you’ve ever wanted a little help with getting those perfect zips (or maybe you’re just curious to see how I am on film – I know I am! Curious and TERRIFIED haha!), you should definitely come join my class! There are lots of cool classes to check out during the event – a few being taught by some of my favorite bloggers and friends, including Jennifer, Madalynne, and Devon. I seriously can’t wait! November cannot come soon enough, that’s for sure 🙂

I guess that’s it! Have a great Monday, everyone!

Tags: classes, completed, dress, knit, knit fabrics, meet-up, Moneta, Mood Fabrics, NYC, sewing classes, the sewing party, tie dye

Comments 38 Comments
Categories completed projects - new

Completed: A Manly Striped Sweater for Landon

19 Dec

Guys, I’m such a mess. It’s December 19th and this is literally the first Christmas present I’ve come up with – I made Landon a sweater!

Or, I should say, I SEWED Landon a sweater. Ain’t fuckin’ around with no Sweater curse.

Y’all know I don’t do much sewing with men’s clothing… I think I average about one piece per year, so here’s 2013’s edition! I don’t know what the hang-up is, because every time I get started on a new Landon-garment, I realize that I really enjoy the process of men’s sewing because it’s so straightforward. No weird fitting (I mean, there’s fitting, but not like fitting a woman’s body with boobs and a butt), no frills, and lots of exact topstitching and mitered corners and fun things like that. It’s also very safe.

We found this navy/pea striped wool knit on Mood Fabrics and Landon immediately pointed out how much he loved it. I’m not surprised- like 3/4 of his closet consists of these colors, or stripes, or this particular cut of shirt. So I’ve basically just created the holy trinity of sweaters for him, I guess.

Anyway, I was iffy about the fabric when I ordered it, but a sweater was promised and I’m a girl who keeps her promises (plus, like I said, I didn’t have to knit is, sooo..). The fabric is actually quite lovely in person – it’s a nice, stable knit, sort of like a ponte, so it holds stitches beautifully without getting all weird and wavy. It’s also wool, which means it steams up beautifully and doesn’t get that weird shine that you sometimes get when you stick a hot iron on ponte. I sewed this up on my serger – because it’s fast and durable (and this is a dude sweater, after all) – but this is totally the type of fabric that can handle a standard sewing machine making the seams, so fear not if you’re part of the serger-less population.

I’ll be straight with y’all – this was a very last-minute project. My original plan for December was the glorious plaid coat I’m working on, but I’ve had some issues with time management this month (and hand-tailoring takes foreeeever, and no, I don’t care if Peter can make a beautiful coat in a week STOP COMPARING ME TO A LITERAL SEWING MACHINE), so the coat, while still in the works, is not quite ready for her debut. Fortunately, knits sew up pretty fast, so I had this finished in a couple of hours – just in time to take some pictures and send the man off on a week-long business trip.

I did not use a pattern for this (see above: time management), but simply traced off an existing sweater that already fit him. From there, I sewed up the main pieces (front, back, and sleeves), tried it on him, and then added the binding for length. I somehow messed up the length of the sleeves (pretty certain that the original traced-off sweater had too-short sleeves, since these were exactly the same length, gr), but I was able to adjust the ribbing width and they turned out fine. Speaking of the ribbing, I tried to source a good navy but ended up with nothin’, so I just used this navy ponte knit from Mood Fabrics, left over from last month’s dress. The color match is perfect, and the lack of visible ribs actually looks pretty polished. So there’s that!

To get the neckline ribbing to lay nice and flat, it needs to be short enough to stretch perfectly within the opening. Even a fraction of an inch too long, and it will wave and flap out. Not a good look! Since I was working pattern-less and didn’t feel like getting my math on, I switched up the sweater construction so the neck ribbing is applied flat. It’s really easy – see my tutorial on the Papercut Patterns blog. I pretty much get perfect results across the board every time when I use this technique, and it doesn’t require any intense maths or measurements. This is what I love about knits!

I also topstitched the ribbing at the neck with a twin needle, making sure to have the seam exactly between the two needles. I just like the way it looks!

Since I had quite a bit of wool knit left over, I made a quick scarf for Landon as well. Super, super quick – just cut two lengths of fabric, sewed them together down the long side, turned the tube right side out and then closed up the open ends with a bit of Stitch Witchery. Landon loves his scarf, and he promises not to wear it with the sweater like I forced him to in these pictures.

I don’t know why I thought modeling the scarf in a bush was a great idea, but it sure seemed hilarious at the time.

So, I guess the moral of the story is, when in doubt, make a sweater! Or if you’re super short on time, make a scarf! Either way, my knit scrap stash has just made itself incredibly appealing to me…

Tags: completed, knit fabrics, Landon, men, Mood Fabrics, Mood Sewing Network, stripes, sweater, wool, wool knit

Comments 37 Comments
Categories completed projects - new, Mood Sewing Network

Completed: The Lola Sweatshirt Dress

27 Nov

I keep complaining about the cold, being the delicate flower that I am, but for some reason I also keep finding myself in dresses on a daily basis. What’s a girl to do?

DUH, MAKE THAT SHIT OUT OF SWEATSHIRT FLEECE.

Pair it up with some merino leggings and you’ve got yourself a nice ~~stew~~ outfit!

This is Lola from Victory Patterns. A dress pattern specifically designed to look like a sweatshirt, who woulda thunk!

I don’t feel like I have much to say about this pattern, but I’ll try anyway. I cut the size 2, although I did take in the lower bust seams (toward the empire waist seam) and the upper skirt seams for a slightly closer fit. Actually, I recut the entire skirt because the first time just wasn’t doing it for me – I had shortened it, added the ribbed band at the bottom, and it just looked… weird. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cute look (lord know I’ve made millions of these types of fitted knit dresses with bands at the bottom, lolz, back when I used to ~sell~), but with this fabric/ribbing/on ME, it didn’t look good. So off it went, and I had to cut a new skirt because my shortened skirt was tooo short for even me. Bummer, because I had been thinking about making Landon a sweatshirt with the remaining fabric, as it’s a color that he really likes. BUT NOT ANYMORE, SORRY LANDY.

So, I left off the bottom band. I also left off the pockets, as I felt like they added unnecessary bulk. Of course, now I find myself reaching for said nonexistent pockets – oh well! Perhaps the next version of this dress will include them, I dunno.

At any rate, this was super quick to make up, especially since I used my serger for nearly every seam. And it looks pretty cute, if I do say so myself, although I think I prefer to wear this color with burgundy tights instead of brown. My favorite part is the little V at the neckline, it really makes it look like a proper sweatshirt! I debated flipped the fabric to show the wrong side as suggested in the pattern, but it just looked like I had sewn the V on backward and ain’t nobody got time for that.

Next time, I will try this in a ponte knit, like my homegirl Sonja already did (you should probably know by now that I spend most of my sewing life trying to emulate her and her makes, it’s tru). With the sweatshirt fleece, it’s pretty casual – which is nice!, but it would also be nice in a not-casual fabric too. I might even try doing the ribbing in a matchy color, instead of the contrast I’ve got going on here.

Speaking of which….

So, the pattern calls for actual rib knit to finish those edges. Guys, where the fuck do you even find that shit? I saw a giant (like, bigger than me) pile of assorted rib knit odds and ends while I was in Chicago at the Textile Discount Outlet, and obviously I grabbed an armful (eh, they were like a quarter apiece, sue me), but all the greens I got were all wrong. And not all wrong in a cool contrasty way, they were all wrong in a “I tried to match this but I done goofed” way. So much for that! I’m a big fan of finishing knit edges with self-fabric, but this fleece is not terribly stretchy, so what did I do?

Oh yeah. I went there. RIP American Flag Sweater, hope u enjoy your new life as a pillow!~*~*~*~

Basically, I just cut the rib knit off the sweater (including the bottom hem rib knit, but we all know how that did not work out) and treated it like it was the kind you purchase by the yard. It sews in the same way as those knit bands I looove, although I would rly rly recommend using a serger for this particular task, since it likes to shed. A lot! And it looks pretty profesh! Good idea to file away for those huge novelty sweaters you have but don’t ever wear (am I the only one with a stash of those? All right), especially since you can sew the sides up and make it into a pillow :3 lol my couch is so patriotic now.

So there’s that! No flat shots because I’m wearing this as I type this post, heh heh heh! Sorry, not sorry! If you were wondering, YES, I did get a hair cut! Got me some bangs, and I think I love them! I also should point out that every time I typed “sweatshirt” in this post, nine times out of ten it came up as “sweatshit.” Where is my mind. I need a vacation.

EDIT Looks like Victory Patterns is running a Black Friday sale woohoo! Take 30% off your entire order with the code “happyanny”! Thanks to everyone who alerted me of this, yay for saving money! haha!

Tags: completed, dress, knit fabrics, Lola, rib knit, Sweatshirt fleece, Victory Patterns