An Aloha Shirt for Hubby

Last summer, my family took a trip to Honolulu to show my daughters where their Dad grew up. He was born and raised in Honolulu but hadn't been back to visit for 30 years. We visited Pearl Harbor, North Shore, Blow Hole, and all the must-see sights of Oahu. We had a small Memorial Service for their grandparents at Hawaiian Memorial Gardens and took the girls to Punchbowl to locate their great grandparents' graves. We went to Leonard's Bakery for malasadas and W & M Burger for teriburgers.We found all of the nine houses that my husband lived in while growing up there.

Now this is a sewing blog so you know where this story is going. I asked my family if I could make a quick stop at Fabric Mart. I knew this would not be a quick stop. Thousands of rolls of fabrics! I bribed them suggested to them that if they would each choose a fabric, I would make everyone a garment to help them remember Hawaii.

They were agreeable and this is what we came up with. Shirt for hubby, shorts for son-in-law, blouses and dresses for my daughters and myself.

I bought the Hawaiian Classics aloha shirt pattern from the Victoria Jones Collection at Fabric Mart for my husband's aloha shirt. He likes the authentic aloha shirts. He also likes his aloha shirts made wrong side out for a more muted appearance.

Patternreview Link

There are lots of great tips included in this pattern. For example, the pattern not only suggests grading certain seams, it also indicates which seam allowance to cut wider and which to cut narrower. There is also a tip for preventing the undercollar from peeking out.

I used Pro-Woven Shirt-Crisp from Fashion Sewing Supply for the front band and collar and Pro-Woven Super-Crisp for the neckband. This interfacing is great! I probably would not be making shirts had I not discovered this interfacing.

 

I think my favorite detail of this aloha shirt pattern is the side vent. It is an overlapped vent and makes the shirt look very authentic and classic.

The instructions for this vent are very good, but just to be sure that I understood them before I "clipped to the dot" on the real thing, I made a mock-up with a scrap of nonwoven interfacing.

Now that makes one finished and six more to go from my Hawaii stash. This project was the most detailed of the seven so the rest should be a breeze!

Thank you to Patternreview and Sawyer Brook Fabrics!

I've had a little excitement in my little sewing corner of the world.
I won the Patternreview Little White Dress Contest!
 Thanks to Patternreview for sponsoring such a great contest.
 The contest encouraged me to work on my fitting skills and add a few extra little touches
 to make the LWD in a classic style that my daughter can wear for years and still be quite in style.

Thank you to Sawyer Brook Distinctive Fabrics for sponsoring this contest. I can't wait to sew

with your beautiful fabrics!

And this is the dress that I made for my daughter to wear to the Kentucky Derby. She bought a beautiful hot pink hat to wear with it. She is all set!

A Katniss Cowl

I don't often find time to blog two days in a row. Sunday night we had ice and then snow on top of ice so I haven't left home since Sunday. The mailman hasn't delivered mail for two days and I couldn't make it to jury duty today. However, I am catching up on UFO's, Ravelry projects, photoshoots, and blogging.

My daughter loves The Hunger Games and really wanted to knit a cowl similar to the one that Katniss Everdeen wore in the movie. We found a pattern on Ravelry and I helped her start it back in January. It was a quick, chunky yarn kind of knit but she would get busy with classes and put it aside for a week or so. Then we would have to reacquaint ourselves with the pattern and knit a few more rows. I helped her refashion the neck section last night to a more wearable version of the Katniss cowl and she was able to quickly finish it up. This post is a little heavy on pictures but it was good to get out of the house so we really enjoyed the photoshoot in the snow covered field, or should I say, District 12!

Ravelry Link

If you would like to knit your own Katniss cowl, check out these links.....

Katharina Schnorr's blog

Pattern Information on Ravelry.com

My Katniss cowl and project notes on Ravelry

I'd love to see pics of your Katniss cowl!

Welted Fingerless Gloves and Shear Madness

A couple of years ago in Savannah, Georgia, I found this beautiful merino/silk blend fiber at Wild Fibre Yarns. It was very easy to spin so I spun it up pretty quickly and added the yarn to my stash because, as usual, I couldn't decided what to knit with it. I have always had my eye on the Welted Fingerless Glove pattern by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. In my destashing frenzy of 2014, I matched up the yarn and pattern and, after a few evenings of knitting, ended up with these warm and cozy mitts.

Ravelry link

My first Ebay purchase many years ago was an assortment of 1200 small pearl buttons! I used 10 of them to sew onto the welts of the mitts.

If you are looking for some knitting or spinning inspiration, check out Shear Madness on National Geographic about a city girl turned sheep farmer with her husband and five kids. It just started last Saturday night. I missed it but caught up watching On Demand. I don't watch a lot of TV but this is pretty interesting stuff for knitters and spinners.I had to turn my head in one scene - a little more animal science than I needed to see!

Kwik Sew 3740 and Knit Tips

I'm still working on my one and only New Year's Resolution which is to reduce my fabric stash. This is my 12th sewing project this year. I don't blog all of them because some are actually a little boring to sew so I'm sure they would be even more boring for you to read about!

I decided to make a few long sleeved t-shirts since all of my RTW tees have shrunk nearly up to my belly button! I used my Kwik Sew 3740 and cut the neckline about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 higher at center front. I found this dark gray cotton blend knit in my stash which, at first, I thought was pretty ugly. Why did I buy that? I offered to make my daughter something out of it but she wasn't interested. Determined to use the piece, I cut out a long sleeve t-shirt. I had to add a center back seam since I only had 1 1/4 yards. I cut self-fabric neck "ribbing" about 1 1/2 inches wide and folded in half.

Patternreview link

Once I got past fighting with the curled edges and got the thing seamed up, I couldn't stop stitching on it. I used my coverstitch to topstitch the neckline and the sleeve seams.

I decided to add one of those little decorative V's in the center front just because I see them on all things casual and sporty.  I discovered that stitch 309 on my Bernina looks very similar to what I see in RTW. I drew a V with my chalk marker, added stabilizer underneath, and updated my plain, gray t-shirt.

I convinced hubby to help me with the pics. He is actually pretty good! This is the Plain Jan(e) version.

A little sporty with a touch of Burberry plaid.

Brightened up with a red fleece vest.

I showed my daughter my trendy V in the front and she replied, "Ooooooh".  I'll bet she wishes she had taken me up on the offer to make her one!

A few of my Sewing with Knits Tips. 

• Prewash the fabric in the manner that you plan to wash the finished garment, especially if it is cotton or a cotton blend.
• If you are sure of your sleeve length, hem the sleeve before sewing the sleeve seam, especially if hemming with a coverstitch.
• Sew one shoulder seam, add the neck ribbing, and then sew the remaining shoulder seam. Press the shoulder seam towards the back and stitch it in place at the ribbing/neck edge so that it lays flat.
• Sew the sleeve in before sewing the sleeve seam and the side seam which can then be sewn in one continuous seam.
• I usually hem the sleeve just a smidgen longer than I think I want it to be. It always works up a bit with wear and elbow bending.
• When hemming with a coverstitch from the right side, I sometimes draw a line on the right side with my Chakoner marker. If I press up 1 1/4" for a hem, I draw a line about 1 1/8" from the folded edge. I can then "straddle" the chalk line with the presser foot.
• If the knit is especially stretchy, I secure the hems with 3/8" double sided fusible before hemming with the coverstitch. This also prevents the hem from "tunneling" and the stitches from becoming buried in the fabric.

Little White Dress Contest

Back in January I entered a Little White Dress Contest on Patternreview. I've always wanted to enter one of their contests but always got sidetracked. This time I clicked on the "enter contest" button determined to follow through. I got a late start (a week before the end of the contest) but that's okay. I need a deadline to motivate me.

I decided to make a white pique dress for my daughter since she wears more dresses than I do. It's difficult to find patterns in size 4 but we agreed on Simplicity 1650. We looked beyond the peplum to the basic lines of the pattern. I made a muslin to check the fit and it's a good thing I did. One adjustment that definitely needs to be made before cutting is the width across the front neckline area. I had to take out about 3/4 inch from the front width by moving the pattern over at the fold about 3/8 inch at the top only. Otherwise, I would have been adding darts to the front neckline!

The front princess seams needed to be taken up a bit but I decided to adjust that after cutting out the bodice so that I could pin the adjustments on her body. I compared the skirt to a favorite skirt pattern and it was very close so adjustments were easy for the skirt.

We liked the cap sleeve but not the gathers at the top especially for the weight of the pique. I spent more time on the sleeves than any other part of the process. I don't know a lot about sleeve drafting so I laid the cap sleeve pattern (with the extra fullness folded out) on top of tracing paper on top of the basic short sleeve and drafted a new sleeve with the parts that I liked from each.

 

I added self-fabric piping to the neckline and to the bottom of the sleeves. I love piping! I used a Bernina #3 buttonhole foot which has grooves in the bottom and I was able to get a lot closer to the cord than with a zipper foot. I also used the #3 foot for the invisible zipper and it worked just as well, if not better, than my invisible zipper foot. 

This is the sleeve piping before understitching with the lining opened out from the sleeve. The piping is tapered at the underarm seam to reduce bulk.

 

I made thread loops at the side seams with a method I learned from a Children's Corner pattern many years ago when I smocked for my daughters. I think I might be a nerdy seamstress because I counted the number of loops so that the thread chains on each side would match! 

 

 

Here she is all accessorized for an evening out.

 

Evening out without the belt.

This is the casual daytime version with brown leather belt and strappy wedges, brown wood beads, and a denim jacket.

This is the blank canvas. My daughter loves the dress. I think she will be able to wear this very classic style for many years, dressed up or down, or somewhere in between. 

I lined the dress with a poly/cotton batiste and inserted an invisible zipper in the back. Total cost of the dress is $16 for pique, lining, and zipper with coupons and my "over 55" senior discount at Hancock Fabrics!

Link here to my review of this dress on Patternreview.

A Cape for the Cold

Lucky for me Daughter wore Stashbuster #5 to church this morning and I was able to get a picture before she changed clothes. We have noticed lots of capes and ruanas in the stores in recent months and liked the idea of throwing on a quick wrap on a cold day. I picked up Simplicity 1521 (a Sew Simple 97 cent pattern) on a WalMart shopping trip and made a quick, lined cape with a button closure at the neckline.

The fabric is a very inexpensive gray wool blend from Hancock Fabrics lined with a black polyester lining. We decided not to make the buttonholes in the underarm area for a belt. At least, not right now. She likes to just throw it on without having to bother with a belt. Sometimes, simple is best.

2014 Stashbuster Totals
Yarn - 295 yards
Fabric - 7 yards