Tag: sewing with knits

Take Two for 2022: My little brown clone

On By qplourdeIn Sewing Projects, Take Two, UncategorizedLeave a comment

My serger is broken.

My plaid jeans project ran into a bit of a snag where I realized I did not shorten the back and front legs equally when adjusting for my height. This created a weird twist effect with the legs and I had to pull it all apart to diagnose exactly what had happened. As I was re-finishing up the crotch seam for the 2nd time, one of my serger needles broke. Then it happened again. I decided to abandon this project temporarily while I still had some needles left As I began sewing up my next project, a pair of lounge pants in a plum bamboo knit, I broke 2 more needles. With the last serger needle in the machine, I decided to quit both of these projects until I could take my machine into the shop, which of course closed two minutes before that final needle snapped.

With my first completely free Sunday in over a month, I was incredibly depressed I couldn’t spend it sewing. Everything that is cut right now depends on that serger. I guess it will force me to cut out a blouse I’ve been meaning to start on.

Even though I wasn’t able to do it for February, I’m still determined to write something twice a month. Luckily there are some projects I had been working on earlier this year that I can share.

Pattern: Rowan by Megan Nielsen

While this shirt was not exactly a re-make of another garment, it was actually an attempt to replace something from my wardrobe that was previously purchased. I have this brown knit mock turtleneck shirt with 3/4 sleeves that I absolutely love. It has to be at least 12 years old and it’s starting to show it’s age. The neck shape isn’t what it used to be and the color is bit more muted. It’s still a big staple in my wardrobe that goes with many things so when I found some brown knit in my stash, I figured I could make a newer version that could be a replacement. I tend to hold on to garments a bit too long, but maybe this new version could help me let go of such a treasured shirt.

This old shirt…somewhat faded but still has some life in it?

I decided on the Rowan shirt from Megan Nielsen. This ended up being a very fast sew, back when my serger was actually working. This is the same fabric I used to make my test leggings from this year, so I got some great use out of it, wherever it came from.

New shirt on the right. Seeing them side by side, you can see the new version is a bit brighter than the original
This new version is definitely more form-fitting, which I think is a good thing

I really like how this came out and it should work for what I made it for: a standalone shirt that works for fall and winter as well as a shirt to wear under some of my favorite sweaters. Nothing too fancy or complicated here – there is some knit interfacing to stabilize the neck and twin-stitching on the bottom hem, but just plain old zig-zag stitching on the sleeve hems. Great pattern – I’m thinking Megan Nielsen may be my new favorite pattern company at the moment.

This is on theme for the year, since I am still replicating and improving on clothes I already have. This is something I hope to do more of in the future as well. What has been your experience with replicating clothing you had previously bought?

Take Two for 2022: The crisscross tunic

On By qplourdeIn Sewing Projects, Take Two, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Pattern: Butterick B5954

Over the last few years, I’ve not been great at keeping up with this blog. At the start of each year, I have all these intentions for how I am going to start writing again through all my projects, but it always seems tp fall off very quickly. In fact there are dozens of projects I completed in 2020 and 2021 that I have not written about at all.

All that aside, I had a good idea for my blog this year and I really want to stick to it. As we head into another seemingly challenging year, it feels like many of us are in need of a do-over. As my wardrobe expands, I myself have been looking at my past projects and noticing how I could have done better if I had the experience I have now. Therefore for this year, I’d like to focus my sewing around the remake. A take two for 2022.

My goal is to post at least 2 times a month – hopefully more. It definitely helps to reflect after a project is done before diving headfirst in the next project. Maybe this year I can focus just on the writing and not about trying to have that perfect picture or narrative.

My first project of the year had me re-visiting a pattern from one of my earliest days of sewing. I made this top from Butterick (shown below), which I actually still love, back in 2014. This was before I owned a serger, which means it still has all raw edges on the inside that I didn’t bother to finish. I know no one can see the inside, but I know it’s there and it’s not up to my current standards for garment making. The shirt has held up pretty well despite it’s age, but it was made before I understood the basic concepts about working with knits, such as using a zig-zag stitch or how to hem stretchy material.

Old version on the left, new version on the right

I got the idea to try this one again when I recently saw someone wearing a similar style shirt. I wondered if this style was back in fashion or at least showing up at some clothing store. This seemed like the right time to try out this pattern again, with hopefully a more professional look.

Continue reading “Take Two for 2022: The crisscross tunic” →

Pattern Alteration: Daring to do Diagonals

On By qplourdeIn Sewing Projects, Travel, Uncategorized1 Comment

Pattern: Cake Patterns Cabarita Knit Top

I’m not sure why it was so hard to find a simple pattern to make a chevron-type shirt. I basically just wanted a simple v-neck shirt with this simple diagonal pattern. It probably exists, but I had trouble finding it, until I saw this top from Cake patterns. I actually thought the pictures were showing 2 different views, one with the stripes vertical and another with them on the bias. But after I purchased it, I realized there was only one pattern – one picture was the front and the other, the back. I considered making the shirt as is, since it looked kind of interesting, but I really wanted my chevron shirt. Hoping for the best, I made the decision to cut out the back of the shirt twice, so the back and front were the same.

It actually worked out pretty well. I cut out all four sides of my striped fabric on the diagonal and made sure the stripes matched up. The collar and sleeves are finished with bands, also cut on the diagonal, which made things easy. However, I knew the hem would need twin needle stitching, therefore I used some fusible webbing to keep the fabric stable enough to avoid puckering. The bottom hem is still pretty stiff after a few washes, but at least the stitching looks decent.

I’ve been able to wear this shirt many times, and I really love the look. I made sure to adjust the sleeves, as they seemed a little on the long side. The whole thing sewed up really fast and looks pretty polished with the diagonal design. I think the fabric I chose was perfect as well, as it’s a pretty sturdy knit.

Continue reading “Pattern Alteration: Daring to do Diagonals” →

Top Dog Top: The Vienna Tank Waits for You

On By qplourdeIn Sewing Projects, Uncategorized1 Comment

Pattern: Itch to Stitch Vienna Tank

It’s fall in New England, but currently it still feels like summer. Since I didn’t have much time for my blog this summer, I thought I would take the opportunity on this hot sunny day in September to write about some of the summer projects I worked on.

I’m extremely proud of this tank top, which uses the Vienna Tank pattern from Itch to Stitch. This pattern was intriguing to me because it uses both knit fabric and woven fabric and I had just the knit that I wanted to use. I found this great wiener dog fabric at Fabric Place Basement in Natick, MA and I thought it would make a cute animal-themed top. I found some soft black cotton for the yoke and ruffle to complete the garment.

This pattern required knit interfacing to stabilize the arm holes, as well as some stay tape for the pleat down the middle. I knew the interfacing would work well since I had successfully used this technique when sewing up another tank I had made.

Fusible knit interface helps stabilize the arm holes

No crazy twin needles this time, and that was okay by me. I just used a zig zag stitching on the hems. The knit was pretty stable and not too stretchy, so it worked really well with the woven back.

Continue reading “Top Dog Top: The Vienna Tank Waits for You” →
Oslo sweater

Time for the warm & fuzzies: The Oslo cardigan

On By qplourdeIn Sewing Projects, Uncategorized1 Comment

Pattern: Oslo Cardigan by SeamworkOslo pattern

It’s been a pretty strange winter, weather-wise. An overly warm fall turned into a very mild November. And then all of a sudden, the snow rolled in by mid-December, after what seemed to be spring-like temperatures. By the time Christmas and New Years hit, we were plummeting into single digit and negative temperatures. January in New England began to feel like Minnesota. Lucky for me that I had already completed this project – a new cardigan that I can wrap myself in on those bitter cold days.

This was my second Seamwork pattern and again I was amazed by how fast I was able to sew this project up. I used a fairly thin sweater knit fabric that I had envisioned would be perfect for a large cardigan just like this one. The pattern lived up to most of my expectations, however I was surprised at how huge it ended up being, even making the XS size. I even tried to take the shoulders in a bit so they didn’t droop down so much, but it still ended up a bit too large in that area.

Elastic installed on shoulders
The only extra notion you need is this clear elastic, which I was lucky to have bought for another project (that I haven’t started yet). It stabilizes the shoulders nicely, especially since this fabric was not too thick.

I did really like the cuff-finish on the sleeves. Since I don’t have a top-stitch machine, Continue reading “Time for the warm & fuzzies: The Oslo cardigan” →

Another day, another knit skirt

On By qplourdeIn Sewing Projects, Uncategorized7 Comments

Pattern: McCall’s M6966McCalls M6966

I’ve seen so many cute long knit skirts lately worn by people at work.  So I thought, why not make my own!  I had just bought myself a serger – exciting news.  So this was the perfect project to test out my skills.

Not much to say about this one.  I had used this pattern before, but this time I decided to try view C, but with the yoke I had constructed for view D.  It’s pretty basic, with just a back panel and a front panel, and the yoke pieces to form a waistband.

IMG_3010

I did start to sew up the waist incorrectly, sewing where the elastic is supposed to fit in the wrong place.   Continue reading “Another day, another knit skirt” →

Striped knit skirt

Dr. Strange-seam or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bias

On By qplourdeIn Sewing Projects, Uncategorized11 Comments

Pattern: McCall’s M6966McCalls M6966

gray knit skirtstriped knit skirt

 

These skirts were inspired by the many striped knits skirts I’ve seen people wear at work. I saw this pattern online, and thought my skirt would really stand out having the stripes going in different directions (view D). Those diagonals were intimidating – there seemed to be a lot of room for error if I cut wrong.  But if I did it correctly, I would have a skirt that was not only me-made, but something you would see in stores as well!

My first attempt was a wearable muslin in a charcoal gray knit. I needed to make sure I could actually make this with bias seams before I ruined my striped material.  Turns out cutting out those pattern pieces on the bias was harder than I thought, but not for the reasons I originally thought. I bought 3 yards of fabric, thinking it was a bit excessive but safe. It worked out in the end, but if I make this again I may buy an extra half yard to avoid the cursing and the sweating. Fitting the pattern pieces so the diagonals match up perfectly took some creative adjusting, and every time I thought I had it with one piece, I adjusted for the diagonal and it would overlap another piece. Gah!

Advice: try to fit the two largest pieces first (bottom back and front) and then work your way to the next biggest. Trying to go by the picture for laying out the pattern does not work.

I tried to make sure the pieces were all going to fit before I cut, but its tough when you are cutting two pieces from the same pattern piece. These pieces were so large so I don’t think that folding the fabric would work in this case.  The good news is if you have successfully cut everything out, the hard part is over.

The rest was easy – I used my mom’s serger to sew up all the seams. This pattern is definitely one of the easiest I have attempted Continue reading “Dr. Strange-seam or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bias” →

Everyday I’m Serger-ing

On By qplourdeIn Sewing Projects6 Comments

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” →