Spring Sewing Plans: My Personal Spring Outfit Challenge

*I’m reposting this because the pictures were only showing as links when viewed on a phone. I’m sorry for any confusion! Hopefully you can see all my pictures now, no matter what type of device you are reading on.*

Hi, everyone! I have something a little different for you today. Normally, I do a photography post the last Friday of every month, but I never made the time to get out and take those photos in March. So instead, I want to share a little challenge I have set myself for the spring.

Now, I love planning sewing projects–and knitting projects, actually, but especially sewing projects. I wanted to try something new for the spring–a personal challenge of some kind. I know there are a million sewing challenges floating around the internet, but I usually have so many ideas of my own that I find it hard to take time away from my never-ending list of fun possibilities to follow the guidelines of a challenge. So, I decided to create my own! I want to try to make myself a spring outfit that all goes together. My plan is to make as many of the pieces as I can. While this isn’t an especially novel idea in and of itself, it’s distinctly different from how I usually work, which makes it fun and refreshing for me.

Here’s a broad outline of what I want to make: a long-sleeved t-shirt, some pants, and a windbreaker for my main pieces. In addition, I plan to make undergarments (which won’t show up here, as I don’t feel comfortable blogging those, but which I will still make), socks, and a hat. I haven’t learned to make shoes, so I’ll exclude those.

All right! That seems like a pretty good list. Now let’s break it down.

Where I live, spring starts off quite cool and takes awhile to warm up. Every year, I wish I had some Breton-striped long-sleeved shirts in bright colors for spring time, so that or something similar is what I want to make for my shirt. (Never heard of Breton stripes? Check out this article on the history of Breton Stripes.)I decided that I would pick my pattern based on what fabric I found. I could use the Union St. Tee from Hey June Handmade if my fabric was pretty stretchy or Vogue 8950 if I found two coordinating stretchy fabrics. If the fabric was low-stretch, I could make the Coco Top from Tilly and the Buttons.

After lots of deliberation, I ordered this coral pink and white striped sweater knit from Fashion Fabrics Club. It’s low stretch, so I’ll make the Coco top with long sleeves and boat neckline.

Since a Breton-striped shirt has nautical roots, I thought it would be fun to make the Sailor Pants, Pattern 229, from Folkwear, which I got for Christmas.

I found some non-stretch, medium/heavy weight denim also at Fashion Fabrics Club. I’ll admit, I’m a little nervous about this, but I plan to compare the pattern to jeans patterns that fit me as well as some genuine sailor pants that I own. The pants I have are the same 13-button style, but are made in a wool gabardine (I think). They are truly high-rise and don’t have quite the bell-bottom shape of the Folkwear pattern. I plan to use them as a guide. I may even make a muslin. All the extra steps and double checking are, admittedly, the kinds of things that usually lead me to procrastinate, so fingers crossed on these.

For my windbreaker, I want to use the sweatshirt pattern in vintage McCall’s 5303.

I have had this pattern for a long time. It’s one I got from my Mom’s pattern stash, although she gave me the medium instead of the large. After looking at the finished measurements, I decided to hunt down a large online, even though anything from the medium through the extra large would fit. I think the windbreaker/sweatshirt will be great to throw on when the wind whips up on the beach, and in a Supplex/Taslan, which is water resistant, it will even keep sprinkles off. It doesn’t hurt that Supplex/Taslan also blocks a good amount of UV rays. Woven Supplex is something I have wanted to try more of for awhile now. Previously I used a tiny bit for the neckline placket and pocket of my Patagonia-inspired sweatshirt, but that wasn’t enough to get a real feel for the fabric. I ordered a bunch from the Rainshed so I can make this and hopefully some hiking pants and board shorts later this year. My original plan was to make the main part in yellow with magenta facings on the hood.

After looking at the various colors I ordered, however, I think I would rather make the main part in yellow with this “Candy” pink for the hood facings. I do need the Candy pink for another project as well, but I’m hoping that with some careful cutting, I’ll be able to make it work for both.

For the socks, I found the free Sew It Forward Socks from Ellie & Mac, a sewing company that is new to me.

Free patterns are such a great way to try out a new company, and a sock pattern I could sew was right up my alley. I’m not quite sure what fabric I want to use for these, but I’m hoping to use up some of my t-shirt scraps.

Because it is often cool here during a lot of the spring, I thought a hat might be a good idea as well. I plan to make The Oslo Hat–Mohair Edition from Petite Knit. It will be nice to throw a little knitting into the mix.

Maggie at Pintuck & Purl gave me some mystery yarn on a cone and after doing some tests, I’d guess it’s a wool fingering weight yarn. I plan to pair it with some silk mohair from The Farmer’s Daughter Fibers to make this hat. I picked out the color “Stagecoach Mary” from their Mighty Mo line over on the Wool & Co. website.

If the season gets ahead of me and warms up before I finish with this, I still plan to make it, but I’ll consider substituting a bag pattern or just taking this off my spring outfit list without substituting something else for it.

And that’s it! I’m really excited about this! Even when I work in larger batches of several projects at once, I don’t usually try to coordinate my projects, so it’s fun to do something a little different. We’ll see how I get on as the season progresses. I have a few things to finish up, and then I plan to get started tracing all my patterns. As I get going, I’ll post some projects that I finished recently, and by the time I’m done showing you those, I bet I’ll have some of this challenge finished! If this sounds fun, feel free to join me and make your own spring outfit using whatever parameters sound good to you, then leave me a link in my comments so I can check out what you’re up to!

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New Jeans! A Four-Pattern Mashup in Japanese Selvedge Denim

I finally finished my jeans!!!!!! I’m so excited!

Since I tend to do batches of patterns, moving them as a group through the tracing, cutting, and sewing stages, I suppose most of my projects take awhile, but once I get to the sewing part of things, I want the garment to fly off my machine.

But this one got held up.

It wasn’t some dramatic life event that did it (thankfully), it was just the fact that I decided I would work out some of the fitting and design choices at the end, in the sewing phase, instead of deciding everything up front like I usually do.

Some fiddling with fitting can happen in the sewing portion of any project, but these had more the than the usual, and the longer they took, the more frustrated I became, which was increased by the fact that I wasn’t always sure which way I wanted to go.

My initial goal was to make some slightly flared jeans, similar to a pair I got from the thrift store.

To keep this post (and me) from running on forever, let’s tackle this in list form.

Patterns + How I Used Them:

•  Jutland Pants from Thread Theory, View 2
  • let out pants to full length (normally I shorten them by 1″) and added 2″ at the bottom for a deep hem
  • tapered in from hip to knee on outseam by 1/4″ on front and back
  • added 1/2″ at bottom to outseam and inseam on front and back tapering to nothing at the knee
  • gave all side seams 1″ seam allowances for fitting by adding 3/8″ to existing seam allowances
  • taped pocket facing behind front pant piece so that I could add patch pockets to front

• Simplicity 1020, View D, scrub pants
  • I used the front pockets as my front patch pockets
  • lined pockets with bits of an old sheet

• Morgan Boyfriend Jeans from Closet Case Patterns
  • used the curved waistband from this pattern instead of the straight waistband from the Jutland Pants since I needed something that would hug my back rather than gaping; the Morgan Jeans are a non-stretch denim pattern so this seemed like a good choice
  • I did not interface my waistband
• Ginger Jeans from Closet Case Patterns
  • I used the back pockets as a starting point for my back pockets

Fitting and Style Changes

• I let the inseams out slightly at the crotch, using a 3/8″ seam allowance and tapered back in to my 5/8″ seam allowance about 10″ down the leg; I did this because even though the pants were comfortable, there were a lot of drag lines showing that I needed more thigh room in the front and back
• I widened the flare at the outseams just a little bit more, making my seam allowance at the bottom of the outseam 5/8″ and tapering in to a 1″ seam allowance partway up the leg
• shaped the back pockets to be a little bit different; I had a lot of fun looking at Viapiana Custom Denim for inspiration–Ben’s jeans are works of art!

• I used a combination of the directions for the Jutland Pants and the Ginger Jeans.  This time I used the front fly directions for the Ginger Jeans.  The Jutland directions have always left me with a strange little fold of fabric at the bottom of the zipper, but using the Ginger directions eliminated that.  Yay!!!  That is something that has always bothered me, and now I know how to eliminate it.  It’s an important lesson for me–sometimes I need to try a different method on a pattern I am used to just following the directions on.

Fitting Changes to Make Next Time

• Add to the back inseam starting at the crotch and tapering down to nothing by a bit more; this will give me more thigh room in the back which is the one place where I still have a lot of drag lines
• Do a full seat adjustment, maybe 1/2″ to 1″ to see if that will raise the top of the back of the pants a bit; I’m trying to eliminate any hint of “Plumber’s Butt” when I sit or crouch 😉
• If making the same style, consider letting out the bottom of the inseam slightly to widen the flare; I meant to do that on this pair, but forgot and finalized the seam by finishing, trimming, and topstitching them before I remembered

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There were a lot of missteps along the way.  I tried to use the selvedge in decorative ways that didn’t really work out, had to change out the waistband, and almost covered my pockets in bandana fabric, but decided against it in the end.  My pants were a bit long as well, so instead of turning them up twice, they are turned up three times, which gives a nice weight, but is probably as thick as I could go without things looking strange.  I also forgot to interface the area where my jeans tack/button and buttonhole would go, so I put a little patch of iron-on mending tape on the inside before installing the jeans tack.  You can see that below.

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And…I may have cut through some of my buttonhole stitching.  Oops.  Time will tell if that holds up.

Resources

• For help in figuring out how to get the leg shape I wanted, I used a tutorial called “Creating a Flare Pant Pattern”, specifically the section entitled, “Pant Flared from the Knee”.
• Once I hit fitting problems, I consulted Pants for Any Body by Pati Palmer and Susan Pletsch (revised and expanded edition, copyright 1982).
• It was Erica Bunker’s post on her Butterick 6691 jumpsuit where she mentioned the full seat adjustment that helped clue me in to that as a possible solution for the back of my pants being lower than I wanted.  I’ve used this adjustment in the past, but had completely forgotten about it.
• The back pocket topstitching templates from Closet Case Patterns were also really helpful.  I almost always use these to find fun topstitching designs for my back jeans pockets.  Note that you need to sign up for their newsletter to get access to these.

And of course I have to mention the amazing fabric that I used for these pants.  It was a birthday present from a friend, and is Japanese Selvedge Denim in a vintage wash/color from Fashion Fabrics Club.  (The link goes to all their Japanese Selvedge Denim since I’m not sure which is the exact one I used.  It is not an affiliate link.)  It’s a nice midweight, and I LOVE it.  Fashion Fabrics Club has a lot of selvedge denim at some pretty great prices (and it sometimes goes on sale) if you are looking for some.

The fun tag I used was a gift from a classmate of mine in a class at Pintuck & Purl a few years ago.  If you look around on the internet, you can still find these tags from various sellers.

These pants feel great.  They aren’t perfect, but after all the struggle and time, they are just what I want.  I think my biggest lesson from this project is that I prefer to have my details worked out on the front end of things rather than figuring out as I go in the sewing part of the project.  I’m sure there will be projects where I’ll need to make design decisions as I go, but I think I will enjoy my projects more if I can make those choices earlier in the process.

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I am SO GLAD these are finished, and I can wear them.  I’m finally wrapping up my spring sewing, on the first official day of summer, no less.  Happy Summer Solstice!

 

 

 

Hey June Handmade Brunswick Pullover in Polartec Curly Fleece

It’s still cold spring here, but I think this is my last spring sweatshirt…and it’s a good one.  This is the Brunswick Pullover from Hey June Handmade, my first pattern from this company, and probably not my last.  This is a great pattern.

I made View A with the cowl neck of View B in a size 16 bust and 18 hip. I used a green Polartec Curly Fleece from Fashion Fabrics Club (just like last week’s sweatshirt) and a Rifle Paper Co. quilting cotton from Pintuck and Purl.  The zipper on the pocket was from Wawak (I wanted the specific length called for rather than a zipper I would have to shorten, so I had to order it) and the anorak snaps, thread, and interfacing came from my stash.

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Hey June Handmade is a company whose patterns I’ve had my eye on for awhile.  Last year, I planned to make the free Durango Tank, but never got around to it.  I saw this pattern release, though, and really liked the pattern as well as the various photos of people’s finished pullovers around the internet.  Katie’s Brunswick with the striped hood and other details was really inspiring as was Loni’s Brunswick with the white outside and Rifle Paper Co. button placket.  This last one was the inspiration that stuck with me as I looked for my own fabric.

Although I prefer paper patterns, this is only available in PDF currently, so I decided to put my preference aside and go for it.  Adrianna Appl, the designer, makes this PDF really easy to use with layered sizing (meaning you only have to print the sizes you need) and loads of information about printing and taping PDF’s, cutting your fabric, and sizing before you even start.  I was impressed from the very beginning by the detail and depth of information.  There is a lot of hand-holding in the pattern in the best way.  Adrianna does everything possible to ensure that you have a good and successful experience sewing her pattern.

I think the thing that really drew me to this pattern is all the fun little details you can add that take this from merely a cozy sweatshirt to cozy sweatshirt with a distinctive twist.  Here are some close-ups of my choices:  a contrast zipper pocket on the sleeve,

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functional snap plackets on the sides lined with contrast fabric,

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and a big, cozy cowl neck.

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A few notes from sewing the pattern:

• I used a walking foot and a jersey/ballpoint needle as well as a lighter presser foot pressure.
• To mark the pocket on the arm, I used tailor’s tacks since fabric marker or chalk wouldn’t have shown up well on the fleece.
• Because I was using fleece, I couldn’t press without melting the fabric, and therefore couldn’t use fusible interfacing.  I opted to hand baste some sew-in woven interfacing at the necessary points.  Where the pattern called for pressing, I finger pressed.
• It can be a little bit hard to tell the front from the back when the pullover is finished if you used the cowl neck option (unless you memorize which arm the outer pocket goes on), so I made a little tag out of a pretty bit of selvage and sewed it inside the back near the neck seam.

This was a really enjoyable pattern to sew.  I love, love, love the finished product, and I’m so impressed with all the attention to detail in this pattern, that I would love to sew another from this company.  Plenty of patterns out there are good, but I think the quality of this one is a step above.  I’m glad I tried it.  It’s been fun to have a bright colored sweatshirt to fight off the spring rain and chill, too.

And with that, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite outtakes/silly shots:

Many thanks to my long-suffering photographer.  😀

 

 

Want a Patagonia-Style Fleece Pullover? Try the Green Pepper F722 Polar Pullover in Polartec

If you sew, what drives you to make a particular project?  Maybe sometimes it’s wanting your own version of something you saw another person make.  Maybe you can create a designer-inspired piece for an affordable price.  Maybe you love construction and couture details.  For me, I often want to see what it would be like to make something.  I find this to be the case in both cooking and sewing.  I may only make the food or article of clothing once, but I want to know how it’s made and what it takes to make it.

That’s what happened when I was contemplating some patterns by The Green Pepper at Joann Fabrics one day.  I had never tried any of these patterns, but I noticed one that was for a fleece jacket like the ones at L.L. Bean.  The pattern in the store may have been a zip-up version, and I was interested in the classic pullover style, but it got me thinking.  This style has been around for decades and is probably more well-known from Patagonia, an early adopter of fleece fabric in garments.  (In fact, this pullover at Patagonia looks amazingly similar to what I ended up making.)  I found The Green Pepper F722, Polar Pullover and Vest on Etsy.  There is a similar style on The Green Pepper website, number 512.  It looks like an older pattern (copyright 1999) and is a slightly different version with a different finish for the sleeves and collar and only one pocket flap option.  My pattern has a copyright date of 2013 on the envelope.

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For fabric, I hit the jackpot at Fashion Fabrics Club.  This website can be a little overwhelming, because there is just so much, but looking at the fabric on a screen bigger than a phone helps.  I found Polartec Double Sided Curly Fleece in Sour Lemon

as well as woven Supplex in Dark Turquoise (which I thought was nylon, but the website says is cotton), and a stretchy nylon/spandex Creamy Pink Jersey Knit (no longer available) for my inner neck edging.  I chose colors I liked together on my computer, and ordered them, hoping they would work in real life.  Shipping took awhile, but when I finally got everything, I was thrilled.  The colors were great together!  Other odds and ends came either from my stash or Joann’s, with the exception of my snaps.  The pattern calls for heavy duty snaps, and I, being a snap novice, didn’t really know what that meant.  So, I went looking for snaps in the color I wanted, rather than worrying about what “heavy duty” meant.  I found Snap Source pastel pink size 16 snaps at Wawak, which I thought looked most like what I was seeing online at Patagonia and L.L. Bean.

This is a unisex pattern with all available sizes in one envelope, and according to my measurements, I was a medium in the chest and waist and a large in the hip, so that’s what I traced.  I opted for the pullover with the collar and rounded chest pocket, but you can also choose a vest, hood, or pointed pocket.

As soon as I took the pattern instructions out of the envelope and started reading them, I could see that a lot of time, thought, and care had gone into making these directions.  There is a lot of information to help you before you begin, which is great.  My favorite part, though, was all the detail that was put into the construction directions.  This pattern doesn’t assume you have a serger, and gives clear, thorough instruction, including which direction to sew your seams, when to use a straight stitch and when to zigzag (something not all knit patterns have), and lots of small details that will give you a professional finish.  I was only a few steps in before I felt like I could trust this pattern.

I made sure to use a walking foot, a jersey/ballpoint needle, and a lighter presser foot pressure, except for the neck facing, where I changed to a stretch needle after some trial and error.  I was surprised that a lot of my seams were sewn with a straight stitch and finished with a zigzag, which also served to flatten out the seam allowances.

One slight issue I had on the front placket was in section J, step 1, where it said the placket should extend half an inch above the top of the jacket.  That wasn’t the case on my jacket—it’s possible that I made an error, but after measuring the pattern pieces to be sure, I think the error is in the pattern.  I went back and recut the placket, making it 3/8″ longer.  This error seems to be on all sizes.

One other issue I had, which was my fault occurred while installing the snaps.  I was trying to use prong snaps, when the pattern had called for heavy duty snaps, which are larger and have a post.  I got the top side of my snaps in, but couldn’t get the bottoms in.  I bought some heavy duty snaps and did some tests on scrap fabric to confirm that they would work (they did), but I really wanted pink snaps.  After going down a major rabbit hole where I started researching powder coating and other types of paint, and calling people who repair outdoor gear (Boulder Mountain Repair and Specialty Outdoors were kind enough to talk to me and point me in some helpful directions), I finally visited L.L. Bean to do a little sleuthing.  It looks like they are using colored plastic snaps, about the size of my original pink snaps, but they had trimmed all the bulk out of their facings, whereas mine had (in some places) two layers of fleece and four layers of Supplex.  My husband had suggested that I trim this area before I went on my snap saga, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to make it work until I felt the facings on the L.L. Bean sweatshirts.  So, I went home and opened up the facing, trimming down the bulk in the bottom facing, after which I had no problem installing the bottom of my snaps.  Consider me older and wiser now—I will do this on both parts of the facing next time, which will give me a ton of color options for snaps, thanks to Snap Source.

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Snap saga aside, this pattern was a joy to sew and VERY interesting.  I got really professional results and a brightly colored sweatshirt I can wear during this cool and cloudy spring.  The pockets are a major bonus, including the chest pocket!

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There’s even a little hanging tab.

It’s warm and cozy, and it’s very encouraging that I can find professional materials.  It was hard to find heavy-duty snaps in all the colors of the rainbow (although some colors are available), but trimming down the fleece in the facing gives you more options.  I think final cost for this sweatshirt was under $35, which is great, considering that many of these sweatshirts in the store are in the $70–$120 range.

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If I were to make this again, some things that would be fun to try are swapping out the elastic in the casings at hip (pictured below) and wrist

for a stretchy binding on cuffs, hem, and top of collar, as well as trying the pointy pocket, possibly in a double layer of Supplex instead of fleece.  It would be fun to order some of my own labels and sew one to the front as well (if only I could decide what to put on them!).  And I’d love to try out some Polartec WindPro so the wind couldn’t blow through.  I’m not sure how many of these sweatshirts I need, but this was really nice to sew.  Since The Green Pepper also has a zip-front pattern (number 507), maybe that would be a good one to try too.  If this is a style you like, I highly recommend this pattern.