flutter sleeve sorbetto

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YOU GUYS!  i made my first top!  in my 2 years of sewing, this is the first wearable garment i’ve made for myself!  ta da!

oh man it’s sooo awkward being in front of the camera.  i am no model.  it feels so weird!

the pattern is the sorbetto top, a free download by colette patterns.  i had seen many others have success with it, so i figured it’d be a good first item to try (simple, no zippers to insert).  problem was, i don’t really wear sleveless tops that aren’t tank tops.  dunno why, i just don’t.  then i saw that the always inspiring mena of the sew weekly added sleeves to her sorbetto, and a lightbulb went off!  and THEN she offered afree sleeve pattern!  that was the final push i needed.

something went wrong when i printed her initial sleeve pattern, and i saw it was going to be too small to fit the armhole.  i decided to make it a flutter sleeve instead, because i love flutter sleeves.  this is where i discovered the beauty of TRYING ON AN IN-PROGRESS GARMENT!  this may be obvious to others, but i normally sew for my children who are always sleeping while i’m sewing.  there is very little in-progress fitting.  but when the sleeve wasn’t working, i could just remove it and try again!  i added a little pleat at the top, and narrowed it until it looked how i wanted.  i finished the underarm area with bias tape.  it’s a little wonky, but wearable.

the other “issue” i encountered was with the sizing.  i’m still nursing O, and though i’ve lost the baby weight, my body shape isn’t quite back to normal yet.  so…my…uh…chest and waist measurements led me to a certain size (much larger than i normally wear).  i sewed that size.  it was huge on me.  so i started taking in the side seams 1/4″ by 1/4″ until it was fitted to my satisfaction.  out of curiosity, i set the pattern against my finished size, and it was 4 sizes smaller than i started!  sheesh!  i also lengthened it by 4″ or so.

the fabric is a free spirit voile that i’ve had in my stash for a while.  i love the fabric and was nervous cutting it because i expected to have a complete failure on my hands, but i’m so glad i used it!  i love wearing blue.  and check this out!  i wore it to work already!  it was under a jacket, but no one said a word about it all day.  i think that’s a good sign?  🙂

so yeah, i’m definitely hooked on making more clothes for myself, but i reeeeeally need to work on my modeling skills if this is going to become a regular thing!

(thanks to B for taking my photos – you did a great job, hon…the awkwardness is not you, it’s me!)

SUPER CAPE!

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LOOK!  UP IN THE SKY!  IT’S A BIRD!  IT’S A PLANE!  IT’S….SUPER EM!

FASTER THAN A SPEEDING BULLET

MORE POWERFUL THAN A LOCOMOTIVE

ABLE TO LEAP TALL BUILDINGS IN A SINGLE BOUND

IN THE SUPER CAPE SHE COMMISSIONED FROM HER CAPEMAKER IN HER POWER COLORS, SHE RESCUES ANYONE IN TROUBLE.

HER BRAVERY AND KINDNESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS!

STAY TUNED FOR MORE ADVENTURES OF SUPER EM!!

original cape inspiration here.

(hey, just out of curiosity, would anyone be interested in a tutorial for my version of a kid’s superhero cape?  UPDATE: tutorial here!)

a modern mid-century apron

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ready for a photo heavy post of my lovely sister, laura, in her new apron?  let’s go!

laura found the apron on pinterest (link is to her page), sent me an email saying she loved it, and could i make something like it?  i’ve followed the sew liberated blog for a couple years now, so i immediately recognized it as the emmeline apron, knew there was a pattern, and was excited to buy it from meg.  i think i ordered it up that same day.

laura loves to bake, and whips up wonderfully fancy cupcakes (root beer float, cinnamon toast crunch, salted caramel…my mouth waters just thinking about them).  she really did need a pretty apron of her very own!

we went to fabric depot together, and she picked out her fabric.  i had expected her to gravitate towards the vintage reproduction prints (30s era, maybe?) but she went for anchors and polka dots, in a full-blown red, white, and blue color scheme (more ’50s nautical rockabilly).  this girl is a style chameleon!  the anchors are bar harbor by polly minick & lauri simpson for moda.

the fabric on this side is essential dots, also by moda.  it’s cream with coral-red tiny polka dots that coordinates very nicely with the anchor side (a little hard to see in photos).  i think the blue sash is a kona solid but i’m not sure which.  we were testing a bunch of solids and when we saw that one, we knew it was right.

it was really fun to sew.  i spread the project out over a few days, letting my bias tape hang for a while to let it stretch (i read somewhere you’re supposed to do that?), and took my time to be as precise as i could.  however, i bet it could be sewn up in just a couple hours, especially if you skip the hand stitching.

enjoy your apron, girl!  i love you!

oh and have i mentioned i have three sisters?  i’m the oldest of four girls.  laura is #3 in the lineup.  the toddler bathrobe i just sewed was for my sister andrea’s daughter (andee is #2).  hey lilly, got any requests?  don’t want to leave you out, and sister photoshoots are super fun!  🙂

on the beach robe bandwagon

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i think it’s really funny that there’s a sewing blogger bandwagon.  a certain thing (color, theme, pattern) seems to just sweep through every so often.  i’m not judging, i’m totally guilty too!  owls, mug rugs, bucket hats…you get the picture).

the current “everybody’s doing it” pattern is dana’s beach robe.  perfect timing for summer!  my sister had asked me to make her 2.5 year old daughter a bathrobe a few months ago, but i hadn’t gotten around to it because i didn’t know what pattern to use.  dana’s popped up, and i bought it!  then…i had trouble figuring out which fabric to use, had other projects, yada.  kind of glad i didn’t get around to it, though, because i had time to be inspired by my fellow bloggers.  first dana did a roundup and i loved this one by kristina of sir bubbadoo, then anna of noodlehead made a couple not-too-sweet girly ones, then gail of probably actually made a lovely one, plus many more.  i really loved how kristina and gail put the hood contrast fabric on one side of the tie, so i did that.

a few notes on how i made this harder on myself than it had to be:

  1. i used a regular weight towel.  my sewing machine and serger were a little mad at me for that, but it is SUPER cozy.
  2. i picked a STRIPED towel, which meant i had to match those up.
  3. i chose to use a scrap from my picnic blanket to make my bias tape, but it was kind of a long and narrow strip and i needed to piece many short parts together (nevermind the fact that i made my own bias tape).
none of these issues related to the pattern, which is great, but i did find i needed to deviate from the instructions in how i did the bias binding.  the “sandwich and sew” method doesn’t work for me, and i found that the “traditional” method (open up the tape, sew right sides together along the crease, wrap binding around to back, and topstitch catching both sides) worked better with the thicker towel.  it may seem to take longer, but for me the pinning is quicker and ripping out stitches from terry cloth on one of the ties after messing up the sandwich method is a VERY slow process (from experience).  i used a similar method around the bottoms of the sleeves.
other items of note for sewing nerds.  i made a size medium, which fits perfectly (the arms are supposed to be long to keep little hands warm).  the towel is from target (two bath towels), the binding is kona jade, and the contrast print is patty young’s flora and fauna (a fat quarter).  i love how the colors came together, and em has now asked for a robe too…she would like to help me pick fabrics for it, and i have a feeling pink will be involved.
how can i resist a request from my gal?  especially when she seals the deal with a leg hug.

baby blanket and a bonus

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my friend nika asked me to make her one-year-old son a baby blanket.  she asked me to do this back in early may.  in late may, i bought fabric.  and then it sat and sat and sat.  i’m just not a big fan of sewing minky – it moves too much – but i love the cozy blankies it creates when paired with flannel.  last week, i finally got it sewed.  woo!

     

i found this great houndstooth minky at fabric depot and decided to pair it with a really nice quilter’s flannel.  it actually looks like wool, but it’s much softer (and washable!).  i appliquéd the little guy’s initials in my favorite joel dewberry aviary 2 woodgrain.  even though it took me a while to get around to actually sewing it, it didn’t take me long to make and i’m really happy with how it turned out.

the blanket ended up larger than other ones i’ve made in this style.  i usually get a yard of each fabric and have minky left over, but this time i got a yard and a half of flannel and had almost no scraps.  that means it’s crib-size!

blanket done, yippee!

and then…i couldn’t resist making a bonus gift.

i mean, if little brother is getting a package in the mail, it’s only fair to include something for big brother too.  that little dude is so cute.  i made him a superhero cape when nika asked me to make a small blanket for G, and i’ve seen that cape pop up in a few facebook photos since (it makes me excited every time).  he’s actually one year to the day older than em – birthday buddies!

so anyway, i’d seen these spongeballs on aesthetic outburst and thought they’d be super fun, and they totally are.  problem is, our weather here has not been summery in the least recently, and “in the kiddie pool” photos were not happening.  boo!  fortunately, they make good bath toys, too.  i sent three up to seattle, and made a couple extra for my kids to play with.

                      it makes me so happy to cross things off my to do list, and the blanket had been on there a little too long.  sorry about that, nika, and i hope your boys get lots of use out of their new blankie and sponge balls!  😀