Stunt Sewing

It's Rodeo Time, y'all

Our family doesn't normally go out for the Rodeo and usually my kids barely squeek by with a bandana from the dress up box on Rodeo Day at school.  Lucky me that I've had this shirt in the hopper for a while.  It would have been done sooner but after starting construction (with the intent of using the brown/black stripe for the neckband) I didn't think it had enough stretch to make a good band and that was that, it sat.  All the while this great rib, Ringel, kept staring at me yelling "use me for that neck", and I just didn't.  I'm happy that I finally did.

I took a bunch of close-ups of the hems and neckband so you can see how they look.  I used the coverstitch for hemming and as you can see when switching from mid-weight jersey to lighter weight thermal and all those serged seams on the side there was a little bit of wobble, but not too bad.  To sew the neckband I stitched my piece into a circle, folded it in half, marked each quarter, made the same markings on the shirt neck pinning them together and stretched as I sewed.  I debated about top stitching and didn't.  Mainly, I was running out of light and wanted to get the pictures done.  I might go back and add topstitching, but then again I might not.  I'm already buzzing through another project :-)

coverstitched hem on thermal and jersey knit

hemming knit fabrics

and one just because she's beautiful

Sugar and Spice

and every thing nice. 

This girl and her clothes fit the bill, both sweet and a little saucey. Full of complimentary contrasts, texture reigns king on this ourfit. 

The skirt is the Redondo pattern, with added flounce, made from nice nice soft corduroy, smooth woven cotton and using a rolled hem. The pattern design screams I'm not your ordinary twirl skirt but made in brown, pink and off-white still looks sweet as sugar. 

The sporty double sleeved tee pattern Quiara is a contrast to the cute pink little dogs.  Thermal fabric, and soft jersey in dots and stripes play with texture and the green and off white dots pop and pick up the green from the dog fabric.

Sewing with thermal:

Thermal, this thermal anyway, is a just lightweight knit with texture.  I didn't do anything special to sew it... just popped the jersey needles in the serger and away I went.  Seriously, if you have sewn knits before don't let the fact that thermal has a little texture to it throw a curve ball at you.  If you haven't sewn knits and like the look of thermal ... just do it.  It's not hard!  And if you don't have a serger, DON'T let that stop you.  You can use your sewing machine.  Lengthen your stitch length a little and give it a go.

Side note:  I snapped these pictures before school, better ones will follow :-)

checking it twice ... wait I still need to make it

Getting ready for gift giving is a bit challenging.  I mean right out of the box,  WHERE do you keep your list?  I can't check it a second time because I haven't got it made in the first place.  My kids aren't overly snoopy, and a good thing too or there'd be no surprises.  But I need a list that won't be uncovered at an inopportune time, like say anytime in the next month.  T and I keep talking about what to get the kids but can't seem to finalize it and we're starting to run out of time.  

We're pretty flexible with our devices and let the kids use them pretty much anytime but that takes them out of the running for list making.  I did start making one with actual pen and paper and I just hope it got washed in my pocket otherwise there's no telling when or where it will turn up. 

One think I know for sure is that the 2 kids that wear pajamas are in dire straights.  Both of these girls keep eyeing the David and Goliath rack of fabric and make comments about how great they'd be for p.j.'s. 

Point taken.  I see some quality time with a ball point needle in my weekend :-)

a Tini bit of Thanks

Random quotes from the day:

"Why, there's a turkey in the popcorn bucket!" (said in a very British accent)

"Come take a look at this dough, somethings ... not ... right ..."

"I'm thankful for ... Bacon" said by the last person at the table after everyone else has offered up very heartfelt Thanks.

"May I please have an alternate dessert"

"I'd like to make a toast to fizzy, sugary, goodness"

"You should cover everything in fabric, it makes it look so much prettier"

Speaking of fabric, this is an enlarged version of TINI, made from corduroy, lightweight cotton, and ribbon trim.

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come & knock on our door

I'm feeling a little punchy this evening and my mind wandered straight to the 3's company theme song when thinking up this invitation.  So I've added a little trip down memory lane for you :-)

Three's Company
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Back to business:

You're welcome to come knock on our door for another Banberry Place Open House, Monday, July 25th from 11-7.  The door will be open for you to come and shop our selection of fabric, patterns and trims.  If you're in or around San Antonio we would love to see you!  Please email me (there's a link in the upper left corner over there) for more details.

Three's Company
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on par

This outfit is on par...

It's cute and meets the expected requirements for this 11 year old girl.  The outfit was designed around the need for a black, or mostly black, shirt for a school field trip.   But lemme tell you, it's seeing a lot more than the Texas State Capital, mini-golf is just the tip of the iceberg.

The thing about knit circle skirts is that 2 sides stretch more than the other 2.  This has really gnawed at me.  I didn't think the stretch would be as much as it is, but since it is and since this girl likes her skirt I've decided it's time to embrace and accept the stretch.  You know... look at it as a design element and not a flaw.  There are plenty of tunics and skirts out there with the sides longer than front and back on purpose and this is just another of them, despite the fact that it's not what I planned.   The skirt waist is the yoga that wasn't, it needs elastic inserted to do it's job.  I know lots of people that haven't had to do this but I'm not one of them.  When I tried the skirt on her it sunk and hung down way too low ... elastic to the rescue!

 

 

The top is ANTONIA, my all-time favorite tee pattern.  If you've spent any time here you've seen more than a few of them running around.  The main body and sleeve is the same interlock as the skirt, behaving nicely and not stretching out, I might add.  The peace and love jersey is much lighter than the interlock however it's great used as the inset piece.  I used the interlock for the neckband and it was much more fiddly business than when I use a jersey with lycra.  It turned out okay but I was sweating bullets there for a minute.

Game on!

P.S.  We've been loving groupon this summer!  We've been mini-golfing, jump housing, frozen yogurt getting and are planning a trip to a river, all at major discounts. 

 

The Mod Dress

This is a single layer of the Mod tunic modified into a super comfy knit dress. 

love!

the knit fabric, Baby Nay, is not heavy but I opted for a woven neckband anyway.  The reason is that part of the circle band is on the bias and will stretch even more than knit will stretch, regularlily.  There is a facing piece which would probably help control the stretch but I didn't want to chance the neck sagging AND I liked the way this Michael Miller compliments it AND I'm always trying to add more fabric in a design anyway! 

The pattern is abacadabra 118 but is pretty heavily modified.  To see the pattern sewn as is see this post.

 

 

That's a yummy roll

I think this might be my best rolled hem, like ever!

I followed my sergers instructions for rolled hem settings but this time I used wolly nylon thread in BOTH upper and lower loopers,  and look at that magic!  No thread stringys hanging down, just nice solid threaded hem ... Sweet!

 

Mod Tunic Sewing Guide

Preface:  Pre-wash, if that's your thing.  It is mine.  Press if needed and cut out your pattern pieces.  Make sure to measure your girl to ensure proper sizing and add seam allowance when tracing.  Here are the pattern pieces.

1. Place right sides of ouside tunic front and back together and sew the side seams. Place right sides of inside tunic together and sew the side seams.

 

2. Press your bias strips and stitch them to the arm opening of both outside and inside tunics

 

3. Outside tunic: place right sides together, and starting and the mark on the pattern, stitch the back closed.

Inside tunic: place wrong sides together, and starting at the mark on the pattern, stitch the back closed. note: this seems counter intuitive. however by doing it this was you will enclose the raw edges of the opening in a later step.

 4. Gather the hemline of the outer tunic and the neckline on the outer tunic. Note: I found that using that basting stitch gathered my fabric the exact amount needed to fit.

5. Sewing the hem: match the right side of the gathered hem to the wrong side of the under tunic and stitch the hemline together. 

Sewing the neckline: transfer the markings from the under tunic pattern piece. Match up the edges of the outer tunic to the marks and stitch in place.  Remove the basting or gather threads.

6.  Press the back openings and stitch them together starting at the neck, down to the seam and back up to the neck.

7. Stitch together your neckline pieces so that you have 2 circles, open at the back center.  One will be the facing.  So this by matching up the front neckline piece to the back pieces, placing right sides together. Take note in the picture my red markings so youll easily know which side of the back neck pieces to stitch to the front piece.

 

8. Place one neckband right side together along the right side of the outer tunic. Taking care to match up lines on the front and back of the tunic. Baste into place if desired. Place the neckband facing right sides together with the other neckband piece (the tunic is sandwiched in-between). Pin in place and stitch all layers together starting on the short edge of the neckband around the tunic and ending after sewing the second short end of the neckband. Clip corners and turn neckband right side out. Press and topstitch.

Note that the markings on the neckband match up with the center back opening, the outer edge of the back, the front outside edge and the place where the overtunic ends on the front.

 

9. Finish the top edge of the neck band with the last strip of bias binding.

10. Add the button and buttonhole to the neckband

My Mod Girls

This tunic is so rad! I knew from the minute I saw it that it was a must-sew. Sometimes it just takes me a while. It's a good thing summer temps last a LONG time here in South Texas.

This is the Abacadabra 118 tunic pattern. The leggings that just happened to match nicely came from a big box shop.  I was going to hack them to capri length but didn't want to loose the lace at the bottom and the length of lace was too short to "move" it up the leg so we improvised and schunched them up.  That is until G got all Diva on me and wanted them down. 

People, there is no prompting with this girl.  This just a sampling of 1/4 of what goes on around here :-)

 

The blue tunic is sewn as instructed with bubble hem in a Little Folks voile and bizzkids stripe that is just as light as voile but a little looser weave and kind of a linen feel. 

The red tunic has a modified the hem so the under tunic is a little longer than the outer tunic and a rolled hem on both.  The solid is from Anna Maria Horner and the amazing print is bizzkids, a nice lightweight voile.