Here’s what I made with the Pendleton fabric I bought in Portland last year. This pricey wool was intimidating to cut into. After mulling it over for a year, I went for it with the Tessuti Tokyo Jacket. I did not have a lot of wiggle room with yardage, so I had to be picky about where I pattern-matched.
I added some length to the jacket so I could add a more generous hem (2″), and omitted the pockets. I hand-sewed the hem and the inner neckband. Because the fabric is so thick and dense, it was easy to hide the stitches on the right side–I can’t see them at all!
I used a bit of this fabric to make my belt bag last year. While sewing it, I noticed this material is prone to unraveling. To ensure the integrity of these jacket seams, I used a combination of french seams and Hong Kong seams. When I sewed this patternin the past, it was very challenging to sew the french underarm seam’s sharp curve. Knowing this fabric is much thicker than silk, I used Hong Kong seams instead. I thought it would be a fun color pop to use the same finish on the center back seam. I went Bold with the bias tape, because 1. that’s what I had and 2. I think the unexpected pop of sea foam green brightens up the dark print.
I finished my would-be Rhinebeck sweater (super sad face that this year’s festival is cancelled, but I get it). It’s Kate Davies‘ Weel Riggit. Kate Davies released it in 2019 via her subscription club, so I had to wait a year before I could buy it. This sweater is very, very warm. It was “sorta-cool” today so I decided it would be bearable to throw it on for a few minutes for some pics.
I knew I wanted to knit this sweater with Green Mountain Spinnery yarn. I knit a hat with their yarn last year and loved it. Fast-forward to 2020 Vogue Knitting Live, and I went straight to their booth to see what would work for this sweater. I settled on Lichen, Spruce and Teal Weekend Wool for the colorwork against a backdrop of gray undyed Vermont Organic. The Weekend Wool is much softer than the Organic, so it was quite fortuitous that the pattern uses the colors at the most itch-prone spots of the sweater.
I followed Kate Davies’ pattern to the T, except for the collar bind off. I used the same crocheted bind-off technique that Emily Greene specifies for Tectonic. I love how this finish compliments the raglan CDDs.
Working with 4 colors at once was a big pain. Every few rows I had to untangle all the skeins so I didn’t drive myself nuts with the twisted yarns. I do love the look of the sweater, but WOW was it a lot of work. I understand now why most colorwork is limited to yokes.
We escaped upstate for a long weekend. And, me being me, I made sure we had a few moments to squeeze in a photoshoot of this new skirt/top combo. After quarantining in the city for 3 months, it was amazing to be somewhere else. We went on 2 fire tower hikes and spotted some small snakes (eep!). Upstate New York is glorious in June.
The Skirt
Anyway, here’s the story of these garments. I had some Merchant and Mills linen in my stash since last summer. I wanted to make something special with it, and earmarked it for a dress. Then, I thought of making a summery Fumeterre skirt instead. I hesitated because the thought of matching those stripes seemed overwheliming. After deliberating, I decided to give it a try. I re-created the fabric pattern in Figma, since this fabric has one-way stripes. I decided to focus on matching the angled mitres. I labeled 8 pieces of washi tape with each panel name (left front, left side front, right front, right side front, etc). I worked in groups of two so I could ensure the stripes matched at each mitre. I cut out 1 piece, then took its matching pattern piece, flipped it over, and matched the already cut stripes to it. I stuck the labels on each panel and sewed the angled seam. This labeling and batching system helped me keep everything straight.
^ this is not how i ended up cutting out the skirt
You can barely tell that I didn’t worry about making the straight stripes perfect. It looks like a 5-panel skirt!
The skirt buttons are from Haulin’ Hoof Farm Store. I bought them at Vogue Knitting Live this year (crazy to think about going to an event like that with SO MANY PEOPLE). I was dumb and skipped the interfacing for the placket, and you can tell. I added an “inside button” between the first and second buttons below the waistband to help with gaping. I shortened the skirt by several inches because the length of my first Fumeterre makes it very hard to walk. I am very fond of the midi skirt length.
For the waistband and skirt hem facing, I used some leftover Spectrum Cotton from Purl Soho. I had so little fabric that I pieced the facing, but I can’t tell. I love how the facing and the waistband lining contrast with the linen stripes. The spectrum cotton is pricey but its so nice and soft. I will definitely use it again.
The Tank
I had very few scraps after cutting the skirt. But, I did have enough to eek this modified Wiksten tank out of the leftovers. I had so little left that I had to cut 2 pieces for the bodice front.
I cropped the tank by several inches and removed almost all the A-line shaping and hem curve. I also added a hand-stitched deep hem facing. There’s something about the armholes/strap drafting of this tank that I don’t love. The back gapes at the neck and the arms don’t lay nicely. The linen stripes are carrying this top, for sure. Overall, though, its a great summer top!
Woo-hoo. Made it through! The pandemic made capturing photos challenging, but it was a nice motivator to get dressed in real clothes every day. Thanks for reading!
Confession: I totally forgot about Me Made May until May 3. Back in April it was on my mind, but it fell away. So, I recreated my outfits from May 1st and 2nd as laydowns. Because it makes more sense for the scrollback, I’m going to go in total reverse order, so May 1 will be at the end of this post, and May 7 at the top.
A friend sent me some awesome woven fabric she found at an estate sale. She asked if I wanted it, describing it as “Emily fabric.” Spoiler alert: I said yes, and when it arrived last week, I immediately got to work. I thought it would look great as a shirtdress, so I gave the Blaire pattern from Style Arc another go. The first time around I made the shirt version, so this time I wanted to make the dress.
To compliment the elaborate woven fabric, I used some bright blue scraps for the pockets. I think they go together pretty nicely. I drafted a hem facing instead of hemming as the pattern suggests. When I made the shirt version of this pattern, the hem was a nightmare because of the X-TREME curves, so I wanted to come up with an alternate solution. I googled “blaire style arc hem facing” and found a particularly helpful post from someone who accomplished this quite nicely, so with my initial instinct validated, I went for it.
I feel too strange to go outside for pictures right now, so instead here are some COVID-style glamor shots of the details:
pretty happy with how this collar came out.
closeup of the pocket!
the pocket sticks out a teeny bit, very cute detail.
Friday night, I cleared off my makeshift work desk to reveal my sewing machine, because I thought sewing would help me relax and feel like things are temporarily “normal.” I’ve had the Kabuki Tee from Paper Theory on my to-make list for a long time, so I decided to give it a go. I decided to use this extremely soft vintage cotton/poly blend from my stash, so I got to cutting.
This is the most comfortable woven top I’ve ever made. The body has great shaping, but still has a boxy look. The fabric certainly adds to its comfort, but the unique arm drafting makes it so easy to move around in.
So, I couldn’t let it go at that, and immediately decided to cut out another version in some eyelet. I spent some serious time figuring out how to arrange the pattern pieces to make the small amount of leftovers I had work. I didn’t have anything that I thought would look nice underneath the eyelet, so I went with silk organza. I hand-basted the organza to the eyelet and used it as an underlining, and used french seams througout. One exception: I bound the armhole seams with bias tape. I decided to blindstitch the armhole and waist hems to make it feel a little more fancy. The organza helps “diffuse” whats happening underneath, and works very well as a modesty layer.
Hey, this wasn’t part of my last post! Ahem… a little something bypassed my sewing queue. What is the point of life if not for unplanned sewing projects? I had a long weekend at home, and the idea for this fabric/dress combo popped into my head. Without any hesitation, I got to work. Sewing with fervor like this, running on fumes of whim and inspiration, is one of my favorite parts of life. For 5 hours straight, I didn’t do anything but work on this dress. I don’t experience that level of focus too often, so it felt great. Luckily, the fabric was ready to use because I pre-washed the fabric ages ago. The bonus to all this is now I have a beautiful Myosotis Dress!
This Blackbird Fabrics viscose has been waiting patiently in my stash for 3 years. The print and dress combo is definitely loud, but I love it. I am not usually on Team Viscose, but I must say it feels delightfully swishy to wear. As you can see, I embraced The Ruffle for this dress. Right now, I’m loving the midi length, but figured if I tire of it I can re-hem to knee length. I don’t have many ruffle-y clothes, we’ll see how they fit in to the rest of my wardrobe.
Construction Notes
Except for the ruffles, I used french seams throughout this garment. I should do this more ofte n because french seams look so nice. For the ruffle seams, I used lace tape to hide the raw edges. I haven’t yet, but I’m planning to hand tack them down with a blind stitch.
Unlike my first Myosotis, this version is unlined. I figured that I can wear a slip / undershirt if I want some more layers. Its funny how sometimes I am adamant about lining, but then here I am, not adding a lining and proud. :shrug:
emilyWools 