December 2017 – Threading Lightly

Pattern: The Toaster Sweater by Sew House Seven

Well the dust is off the machine now.

I’ve found a new enthusiasm for my old hobby of sewing clothes and I’ve been working through projects like crazy lately, finding every free moment I can to sew. As the weather starts to change and get cold and snowy, I have been planning out my new winter wardrobe and cutting into sweater knits and over heavy-ish fabrics. I’m like a phoenix rising…okay maybe that’s taking it a bit too far. But I have felt revitalized in getting back to the fiber arts.

I had this great sweater knit fabric that I bought a while back and couldn’t find the right pattern in my collection to go with what I wanted. I was picturing something casual, but that could be dressed up for work. I did some research and found this Toaster Sweater pattern from Sew House Seven. This is the first time I’ve tried a pattern from this company and I have to say I’m very impressed. The pattern directions were so well written and the simplicity of the pattern itself made this top a breeze. I cannot recommend it enough. I sewed up version 2, however I can definitely see me trying out version 1 at some point.

Making the cut

My only real mistake with this one was Continue reading “The winter me: My favorite toaster sweater” →

Pattern: Aurora tank by Seamwork

Skills acquired:

Double needle for knit
Installing a walking foot

Hello sew blog my old friend.

This past summer, running was my life as I was training for my first marathon (as seen in my other blog). It was almost impossible to find time to sew. The good news is that I’ve been sewing quite a lot in the last month, so I’m hoping to be able to carve out some time to write about my projects.

Amidst all the training, I was actually able to complete one project over the summer – the Aurora tank top by Seamwork patterns. On top of everything else, I also got a new job this September, so I never got around to writing about this project. I had picked this particular pattern due to it’s simplicity – only 3 pieces to cut out and Seamwork patterns are known for their quickness to assemble. All are supposed to take under 2 hours. I worked on this in pieces of time that I could find here and there, but I’m pretty sure the 2 hours is accurate.

The walking foot! It was kind of a pain to put on as I had to take a few things apart to install, but worked pretty well in the end.

The only thing that was really challenging was trying to use a double knit needle. I had threaded a double needle before when I was making my corduroy pants and I remember Continue reading “Tanks for everything: the Aurora top” →