New Fabric, New Ideas, and stuff!!!

I’m still plodding along on the Jacket, and it looks like I should have it finished by next weekend. All going well! Thank God!! I am really starting to become fed up with this jacket… so many pieces! I’ll blog about this in another post.

In the meantime, I did a few other things to keep my spirits up. The April newsletter from Darrell Thomas mentioned a sale, so off I went and picked up a few nice fabrics that will make some great pieces for my core wardrobe. The dark fabric is actually a very dark navy wool suiting, it has gorgeous drape. There’s plenty for a good skirt here. Then there’s an off-white silk charmeuse (what can I say, it’s just Heavenly!) and a very sheer cotton (you can easily see the serged edge - for prewashing - underneath) that should make a nice basic white blouse with a silk camisole underneath of course. Finally there’s the cotton home decor seashell print that’s just fun! I thought it could make a cool shift for going to the pool/beach and hanging around in the garden with the kids this summer.

 

Right after I got home, giddy with this new fabric, I got out some pieces from my little stash to start dreaming about what I could do. I put some together just to see: the fine jersey print fabric is the leftover of a Burda dress I made last summer, and is enough for a top, the dark navy is a light-weight stretch cotton sateen from C&M, which should be enough for a slim skirt, and the light beige is a stretch cotton twill from Wazoodle that I got 4 years ago in a free grab pack! I’ll make some capris with this, there’s loads.

Then there’s this bundle! Two of the fabrics I also got in the same free grab pack from Wazoodle: the print is a cotton stretch sateen and the black is a poly stretch twill. I’ll make another jacket with the print, the same as the one I’m working on now but with 3/4 sleeves, and some capris with the black. The green and turquoise fabrics are lovely cotton double knits that I also bought from Wazoodle 4 years ago, and will make simple T-shirts or sleeveless tops, not sure yet. I thought I’d line the jacket with the white poly satin, but I’m not sure now, maybe just a partial lining.

I also popped in to C&M Textiles to see if I could find a lining fabric for my denim jacket, and came away with a fun satin polyester in a giraffe print, brown spots on pale blue. It’s really fun, but it doesn’t go with the denim; so it’s now part of the stash.

Two other things found their way back home with me: a Clover chalk pencil and a magnetic pin holder (in all my years sewing, I’ve never had one, and I love it!) The chalk pencil has a wheel and is so easy to use. Only thing is that the lines rub out easily, so it would be best for short-lived uses. I tried it on the denim in the pic below.

Then I heard about Fabricland’s 50% off sale (that was a week or so ago), so I went to scope out the offerings on the day that H was over at my friend’s house for the rest of the day after Nursery school. For the first time in ages, I walked around the fabrics at the front of the store and found some really nice stuff. Talk about being pleasantly surprised! I’ll have to go back this week for some cotton/silk that is just dreamy, it’ll be wonderful for a summer tunic.

So, I went back the next day with my Mum, and got the poly/satin shown below, which has lovely blue/pink/orange colours and looks great with the blue denim of the jacket. I’ve since got the lining assembled, and should have it in the jacket by end of Wednesday. But I also ended up getting some gorgeous fabric for a skirt suit and camisole; it won’t be part of the core wardrobe, but it will be a great outfit for dressing up.

 

The mauve fabric is made up of large strands of fibres, and ravels like crazy. I’ll have to sew this with fusible strips in all the seams as Sherry suggests in this post. The satin is polyester, and a bit heavier than what I would like I think, but it coordinates SO fantastically.

One last thing: I found a new fabric shop in my neighbourhood, Paula’s Sewing Basket on Bank St. near Walkley. I thought I’d seen her before and only realized where it was when I got home! Anyway, she’s got loads of beautiful stuff, and all natural fibres. I’ll be heading back her way for sure!!

Sewing diapers

For the last 3 years I've sewn a lot of cloth diapers. And I have to say, I was really getting tired of them! The first ones I did for DS2 were copies of Happy Heinys, 8 of them, with my own home-sewn hemp inserts. The trickiest part was making the pattern because I had to trace around the original and pull the elastic as I went. Sewing them was quite fast as there aren't many pieces, but the top layer of PUL tended to slide so the ends of the seams didn't always line up. (And who's going to look?!)


The PUL and Micro Fleece lining fabrics came from Wazoodle (update: they don’t list the micro fleece lining in their Diaper section on the new website, but they use the DiaperMaker Lining Pique fabric instead…I used it for later diapers, which I write about below), and the Organic Hemp Fleece from Cloth Diapers EH!. (It looks like they don't carry the pure hemp now, but offer an organic cotton fleece instead.) I was disappointed with these diapers, as the leg seams always wicked very quickly, and in the end I gave up and switched to Kissaluvs.

Now, before DS2 was born I'd bought a dozen of the Kissaluvs Fitted diapers newborn size and loved them so much I had to make them! Over the next 2+ years I made a whole slew of copies: a handful of the newborn size, then about a dozen each of the next 2 sizes, but with Velcro instead of snaps. Snaps would have been really nice, but the presses are quite pricey. This pic is of the first few I made, the rest are simply bigger.



The fabric, also from Wazoodle, is a 14 oz. cotton sherpa that was initially made for a diaper maker customer of theirs. I'd bought 10 yards of this stuff anticipating making many, and I'm glad I did. The Kissaluv diaper design was the best of all the diapers I've used (I bought several other kinds to try out over time), but it's the most difficult to sew. The leg elastic is sewn between 2 layers before the inner and outer layers are serged around the edge. Initially I sewed the elastic using a waving stitch to make sure I'd caught it, and only after making about 20 diapers did I start to feel comfortable using a straight stitch. I'd had to do a lot of resewing to catch the elastic, and that tends to stretch it a bit too much. I have to admire the Kissaluv sewists, their diapers look great!

Last winter I needed to make more diapers for DS2 but didn't feel like making another batch of Kissaluvs copies, so I went shopping to see what was new. I decided to copy the Flip diaper! and then I might be able to make use of the hemp inserts, which were never used. In the end I made 9 of these, the first 4 of which lasted only 1 month before the PUL (from Wazoodle) totally separated! This pic is the result:



I made foldover laundry tabs (red jersey) to cover the Velcro closures, but wasn't too thrilled with them.

The next 5 were made from a (red) 2 mil PUL that I bought from Cloth Diapers EH!, and are still in great shape. I think the original Flip diapers are made from a 1 mil PUL as they have a much softer drape than my red ones. Instead of foldover laundry tabs, I sewed a piece of loop tape onto the back facing and just folded the closure tab back on it when I washed the diapers. These diapers went together pretty well, like a typical pocket diaper, except when it came to the leg elastic. The Flip diaper design has the elastic fixed at each end inside an enclosed casing, and this was a *real* hassle to sew (I had to do quite a few resews along the way). For the leg casing and tab closures I used a medium weight polyester/spandex double knit that is used in dance outfits (according to the label at Fabricland). The original Flip diaper also uses a similar fabric for the closures as it has a nice stretch and allows some give at the infant's waist.



The diaper uses a soaker pad insert, and I made about 8 of them from 2 layers of Wazoodle's ZORB (it is *FANTASTIC* stuff, I wish I'd had it earlier! I think it's very similar to Sham Wow), with a top layer of their DiaperMaker Lining Pique. This soaker was thinner and lighter than the insert that comes with the Flip diaper, but it holds a bit more liquid. (I did a comparison test with both kinds and was pretty pleased with myself! 2 cookie sheets, one for each, and measuring cups with water!)

Here it is! The final product, with my little white "no-name" label sewn into the seam by the tab closure. You can just make out the soaker pad inside.


Oh, the blood, sweat and tears!...of sewing the darn things! Unfortunately (or maybe not) I potty trained DS2 about 2 months after making these!!! Potty training with him went extremely well.

Summer Pyjamas

At last! They're done...only took 3 years! These are the third pair of summer pyjamas I'd cut out for my older boy, right before my 2nd boy was born. Things got busy...I made 2 pairs before the birth, now this pair is for DS2!! And as luck would have it, red is his favourite colour.

This is KwikSew 3034. The other 2 pairs I made were great for DS1, and he liked the fact that they don't have bands on the bottom of the sleeves and pants. (He still refuses to wear pyjamas with bands.) The fabric is a soft, lightweight cotton jersey that I got from Wazoodle.

This pattern is great, it sews up really fast with a serger, including the waist elastic on the pants. The back of the neckband has a piece of navy cotton jersey covering the seam, like what you find on a lot of RTW tops. I've done this on a few tops now and love the way it finishes off the seam. The hems (and waistband finish) have been done using a triple cover stitch, which was not recommended for lightweight knits (according to my machine). After doing several trials of tweaking with the tensions I found a combination that doesn't look too bad. I sewed it on the wrong side so the looper thread is on the right side, mimicking the stitch you find on many RTW sports wear.

Jalie 2110 Raincoat

I finally started this lined jacket pattern, Jalie 2110, for my oldest son a few months back. Actually, I traced the pattern almost a year ago and when spring rolled around I realized that he may not even fit into the size 5 I'd traced! Luckily though, I'd also traced size 7 at the same time...and I may end up having to make the bigger one immediately!

I bought the laminated cotton fabric for this at C&M Textiles in a bright yellow and something like a teal. There wasn't much selection in this kind of fabric, so I bought enough for 2 jackets. Even though the pattern has contrasting bands on the raglan seams and sleeves, I'm still not sure if I like this detail. It seems a bit busy. Maybe I won't bother adding them on jacket #2. The lining is Procool Wicking Jersey from Wazoodle.

This is the jacket so far, with the (white) lining hanging behind.


I've also applied Seam Grip on all the seams so far, and it was pretty straight forward. You can see it shining in this shot (I also did the outer hood seams).


I had to do this on the dining table with the ceiling fan going so the fumes wouldn't be too much!

Now I just need to get the energy going to pick it up again! I got back from my vacation alone with the boys almost 2 weeks ago, and I was sooo tired! We landed back in Ottawa at 01:15 AM! Over an hour late. And for some reason DS1 woke up at 9:00. I hate the eastward flying, it really messes up your inner clock! The boys were very good on the plane (both ways), and they were running off their cooped up energy at Calgary airport for about 3 hours! It didn't help that I'd stayed up late with my sister the night before we left watching the meteor shower; it was the peak night, and we did see one amazing burn-up. The light was amazingly intense and lasted a few seconds, and the tail lingered for about 30 seconds more. It was well worth it. By 02:00 AM (PST) we were done in.

And it's been busy ever since. A couple of days after I got back I spent 3 days rewiring my parents' bathroom (with BX cable...it's really hard to strip at the ends). But best of all, I sorted out my new sewing room. While we were away my wonderful, darling husband rearranged the topsy-turvy rooms in our house, so we're now all sleeping upstairs again. My new sewing room is bigger than the old, and it's got much better lighting. Next project that I'm going to tackle (after the raincoat is done) will be to build a new work table: wider, higher and with storage underneath. I've also got a large sheet of pegboard, but haven't figured out what to hang on it!!! Any ideas?

Jalie 2796 Skort

I haven't been keeping up with the blog, but I have managed to do some sewing since last summer, though it's been in dribs and drabs. This Jalie skort caught my eye last year, and I finally made it last month, in time for some unusually warm weather. I made the regular waist height, and it easily covers my belly-button.
I actually did make a muslin for the compression shorts, and found that I needed to make the swayback adjustment; it fitted really nicely after that.

The skirt top layer is a Wazoodle ProCool Wicking Pique, and the compression shorts are a technical wicking fabric that I found at C&M Textiles in Ottawa. You can see the wicking side of the fabric in the interior shot below, it's really soft.

The only thing I did differently from the pattern instructions was to top-stitch the side seams in order to keep them flat (above left), and I cover-stitched the waistband seam too for the same reason.
This skort went together really fast, and I'll definitely make another one with some more fun fabric for the skirt layer.