No Sweat! Workout Pants

Pattern: Papercut ooh la leggings

Ooh la leggings complete

I was inspired to make these leggings by Karen’s Sporty Summer Sewathon, and also in an attempt to get me back on track with my own exercise routine.  This past year, my active-ness has ranged from triumph – running my first half-marathon (Yay!) to disappointment – having to drop out of my second half-marathon due to injury (Boo!).  But I’m ready to put all that behind me and get back to work!  Oh look a button!

didyoumakethat

I immediately liked the Papercut  pattern, because the seams are actually quite flattering and more interesting than your normal boring leggings pattern.  In order to make these leggings into a pair of practical running pants, I knew I had to add a back pocket.  Often for races, I need a spot to hold a car key, license, and maybe even some cash.  Instead of constructing an actual pouch, I thought it might be easier to just double up the waist area and create a pouch that way, similar to another pair of running pants I already had.

Making a pouch

I cut two panels of each and serged the front and back of each separately.  I then stitched the waist pieces together, seams on the inside, and used it as one piece when attaching the legs.  I used a serger on all the seams, because, you know…knit.  I decided to use an invisible zipper for the back pocket, in order to keep that clean, legging-like look.  I cut a slit on the back panel, sewed in my invisible zipper (cut to fit), and sewed a seam Continue reading “No Sweat! Workout Pants”

In the Summertime…

Pattern: McCalls 3566Cutting out the bathing suit

Nothing says summer like outdoor BBQs, Mungo Jerry, and new swimsuits!  I have plans to make two, and I even cut out two separate suits, but I only had time to make one this past weekend.  What I love is that you don’t need a lot of material to make a bikini, so I got these less-than-a-yard “scraps” at Fabric Place Basement in Natick, MA.  The pattern is out-of-print I believe, but I had a hard time finding one that I liked.  It’s from the late 90’s, but I think the suits featured here are still in fashion.  I decided to make top C and bottom G.

McCalls 3566 Suit Yourself

 

 

 

 

 

 

I want to start off by saying I felt like I was cheating a bit, because I actually used my mom’s brand new electronic sewing machine – “Mega-Weapon.”  (Yes this is my name for the machine, my mother would never call her machine Mega-Weapon).  She had recommended I use a stretch stitch for these, and since I didn’t have time to figure it out on my machine, she told me to use hers.  This thing is insane – you change stitches with the touch of a button and it cuts, pulls in the bobbin, and does the back stitch all automatically as well.  I don’t know, it was cool to use it, but I think I actually prefer Continue reading “In the Summertime…”

The New Patterns are Here!

The Jerk

Hooray!  There was just a big online sale and I just got a whole bunch of new patterns in the mail!

People often ask me, why do I have so many patterns?  Well mostly because I’m obsessed, but also because I am able to get them so cheap.  Last summer I decided to spend the $9.99 to join the BMV club so that I could get McCall, Vogue, Butterick, and Kwik Sew patterns for a discount.  The discounts have more than paid for themselves.  And it’s nice because a lot of times I would find a pattern I liked at a store, only to find out they are out of stock.  I highly recommend it if you think you are going to buy a lot of patterns in the coming year (as I was).  But you can also sign up for emails to get notified of their sales.  The sales are pretty good and you can often get patterns for $3.99.  So, maybe some upcoming projects in the future!  What do you think – anything strike your fancy?

New patterns

The Dress-for-Wedding Challenge: Part 2

Pattern: Vogue Patterns American Designer, Kay Unger New York #V1353….continued from part 1

There is nothing like a slightly rainy holiday weekend to give you the motivation to sew!  Things have been so busy over the last couple weeks with work, random obligations, and my actual graduation from business school that I hadn’t gotten a chance to work on my new dress.  I was grateful for the 3-day weekend to get started.

But I first want to mention that my oldie New Home machine is now in semi-retirement.  I’m sad that I won’t be using it as I’ve gotten quite attached to it, quirks and all. It will be a good thing in the end because I have far less bobbin issues with my mom’s old (my new) Husqvarna machine.

New Home sewing machine

Okay back to the dress.  The pattern seems very straight forward, instead of cutting the front bodice on the fold it had me do a little flip-around thingy instead since there were really no other pieces to cut on the fold.

Bodice patternI was able to get it pretty even.

The front bodice has darts and pleats.  I hadn’t done darts in forever, so I had to try to remember how they worked.  I had to go online for a refresher video to remind me how to sew the triangles in and press them down.  Ah yes, it was all coming back to me.  They were so easy, I may start putting darts in everything now!

The pleats along the neckline were something I hadn’t done before so I watched a few online videos (like this one) and figured it out.  I had some trouble with this research because there were a lot of references to box pleats and knife pleats and I had no idea what type this was.  I still don’t actually know, but the video I found showed me a picture of a pattern that looked like mine.  Works for me!  The pattern markings Continue reading “The Dress-for-Wedding Challenge: Part 2”

Everyday I’m Serger-ing

Pattern: New Look 6816
Gray striped shirt

Yay!  My mom’s serger is out of the shop and ready to go.  So, time to sew some knits!Serger

For those of you that don’t know what a serger is, it looks like this:

A lot of the clothes that you buy are made with a serger, which makes a certain type of stitch that finishes the edge while it sews.  It was perfect for this cotton stretch knit material I bought and used to make this cute little top with kimono sleeves.

At first this looked like a top I could complete in a few hours, but I don’t have a ton of experience with knits and there were a few unforeseen challenges.

The first thing I realized was that I was going to have to match up the stripes.  The back was two separate pieces so it needed to line up, Continue reading “Everyday I’m Serger-ing”