Käthes Schwester

One of my goals this month was to try Kathe's Sister Hoodie by Konfetti Patterns!

I'm pleased to say that not only did I achieve this goal but I've been wearing it nonstop! Each time I love it a bit more!

A few quick notes:

• The pattern is in German but if you've sewn a knit before, there is no reason why you can't do this! It has photos and it's a very detailed pattern. Also, Google Translate is your friend!
• Makerist is the easiest to shop with if you use Google Chrome, as it translates the page automatically.
• The pattern is meant to be printed on A4 paper. You can purchase it on Amazon *affiliate link* and it's easy to use. I adjusted the paper tray on my printer to A4, then when printing, selected A4 size. Easy peasy.
• You have to add seam allowances. This isn't hard and I learned on Facebook that you can measure a highlighter and if the pen measures 1/4 inch, you can just use it and go around the pattern! Super fast!
• Speaking of Facebook, there is a wonderful group called International Knit Sew-a-Longs. Everyone is very supportive and it's fun!
• Kraft-Tex *affiliate link* is a really neat thing to get and I think it elevates the look of your hoodie. A lot of the patterns on Makerist have cute little details that this stuff comes in really handy for! 

I'm hoping in 2018 I'll get a little more confident/better at taking photos of myself in clothes but...that might not happen! *laughs* 

The main things I love most are the thumbholes, extra long sleeves, pleat detail and the bust darts.

• Pattern: Käthes Schwester by Konfetti Patterns
• Fabric: Raspberry Creek Oatmeal French Terry
• Modifications: Moved the dart down. Took 1/4 inch off each side below the dart, shortened the longest sleeve option one inch. Size 50 made, I prefer my clothes a bit looser.
• Lessons learned: Translating a pattern from German to English, different style of thumbholes, darts on knits!
• Sew Again: YES! Absolutely! The pattern has quite a few different views, this is the extra long sleeve with thumbholes, middle cut length. It's long enough to wear over leggings which is awesome! I'd like to do the mini pleat version, regular sweatshirt length next. 
• Pattern Difficulty: Easy peasy! The only thing that I did incorrectly was I didn't pull the pleated bit up high enough on the shoulder, I think I missed a set of notches in the pattern.

Next up for February is Pattydoo Nelly! I've gotten sucked into the world of European knit fabric and patterns. I think I can easily sew hoodies to wear until at least March, then it may get too warm here! :D

This post contains affiliate links to amazon.com. That means if you click the link and purchase something, I earn a tiny percentage of your purchase without any additional cost to you. All items I talk about are things I've purchased myself with my own money. :)

Alder Shirtdress

I bought the Alder Shirtdress pattern when it was first released and then again as a Sprout! I realized some what belatedly that the Spout wouldn't work because I'd need to do an FBA so I'll most likely making it for a friend.

This pattern has haunted me since I bought it! All my friends have made it and all the photos I've seen of it are just DARLING! 

Now that I've learned FBA, collars, plackets, etc I thought it would be perfect time to give it a try!

• Pattern: Alder Shirtdress by Grainline Studio
• Fabric: Big Roar in White
• Buttons: Purchased at Heartstrings.
• Modifications: Graded up one size, FBA of 2 inches, added 1 inch to the skirt.
• Lessons learned: I loved the sew-a-long and ended up using it instead of the pattern. I'll use her tips and tricks for perfect points on all my collars. 
• Sew Again: This is tricky. I'll explain a bit below!
• Pattern Difficulty: Easy! Very thorough! 

I worked hard getting the fit correct because I'm larger than the largest size on this but in the end I gave the finished dress to Ashleigh. The fit was so nice on me but I've never worn a dress in this style before and I just didn't feel comfortable in it. In hindsight, I should have tried on a RTW dress in a similar style. I kept the ease the same and the silhouette identical but I couldn't pull it off! Ashleigh however, looks awesome in it!

Since I did a ton of work getting the bust to fit beautifully, I will most likely make this again but as view A! And I have a RTW dress with chain loops on the sides and a self fabric tie, I *think* I'd do the same, just to pull in the waist a smidge. I don't want to give up on it completely because it did fit great!

This taught me a SUPER valuable lesson: even if the finished garment fits properly, you might still not feel comfortable in it! I think my previous mindset for sewing clothes was that if it fits properly, I'll automatically LOVE it on me but that's not quite true. I'm glad Ashleigh wears dresses often so in case this happens again, I can give it to a good home! ;)

I made a swimsuit! Jalie 3350

This is a crazy post to make because I'm still kind of in awe by this.

I made a freaking swimsuit. And it fits. And I literally have had the best summer because I can go to the city pool, I can go to the lake, I can lay in the sun, I can do whatever I want and know I have a suit that makes me feel good!

I'd tried a few patterns by Jalie and had really good results. Their customer service is so good, any time I previously had a question, I always received a well thought out and helpful response. I thought "WHY NOT!" And bought pattern 3350. 

Next I needed fabric. I've been quilting for many years so online shopping isn't new to me ;) I found Imagine Gnats through instagram and saw she carried swim fabric and power mesh. It wasn't too terribly expensive, I figured this would be a muslin! It couldn't hurt to try. Her customer service was also great, I placed my order one evening and the next day she sent out a newsletter about swim suit sew-a-long with a promo code. I asked if it would be possible to use the promo code on my order and not only was she super nice about it, she sent over some wool jersey swatches we'd been chatting about on instagram! *High Five!*

I mentioned on the 29th of June on Facebook that I really wanted to do this and everyone was like "WHOA WHATTTT". And it turned out to be not hard at all! By July 1st I had a swim suit that FIT and the next day...POOL TIME!!!!!

• Pattern: Jalie 3350 View B front, View A back
• Fabric: Snakeskin from Imagine Gnats & Black Powermesh
• Notions: Bra cups, lingerine strap slides and rings, swim hook all from WaWak.
• Modifications: I am very large busted but have a narrow waist so I shortened the shoulder straps and tightened the under bust/upper back piece. This gave me plenty of support, even without underwire. I also added a few discrete stitches in the upper bust area because I was worried it was too much cleavage. I underlined the entire suit with power mesh.
• Lessons learned: Trust the pattern and really focus on your measurements. I had so many moments of "this is not going to fit" but when I put it on and it fit perfectly, I almost cried. I was THRILLED. The front cross over part had me a little confused because I was overthinking it. I also accidentally crossed the opposite direction of the pattern. Design feature right. ;) I learned adding elastic to knits.
• Sew Again: YES! My suit has held up beautifully. In a future version, I think I'd avoid underlining the whole suit, the outer fabric dries super quick, the lining not so much. I'd also skip using my coverstitch machine and just zig-zag stitch the entire suit. It would have been much faster if I wasn't switching between machines.
• Pattern Difficulty: 2.5 out of 5. Jalie just gets to the point in their patterns and includes well illustrated diagrams.
• Size Made: DD. My waist is 38/39 which was why I was able to tighten that upper back section for extra bust support, pattern is drafted for 40.

I'm not quite ready to share a full body bathing suit shot but I will share a selfie I took at the pool this summer that I used for an instagram story! 

Here's the thing about sewing a bathing suit: it gives you this feeling of AWESOMENESS. You don't have to feel that awful dressing from feeling and you can wear a suit that fits! I don't have a "beach body" (whatever that even means) but I enjoyed my time at the pool so much. I wasn't worried about wardrobe malfunctions or swimsuit drama. It stayed put, I swam around, I read books by the pool, I did laps, I cannon balled over unsuspecting kids. Yes, my body was the same, it's pudgy and lumpy but YOLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

It gave me a ton of confidence and I'm so glad I did it!

Ashleigh's Birthday Dress: McCall's 6696

I took a bit of a crafting/blogging break unintentionally! I'd made this huge list of projects I wanted to try this year but I ended up trying something completely different- sewing garments!

I've never really sewn clothes before or wanted to. But I was in a crafting rut in April, Me Made May was coming up and I thought "well, I can try this"! My personality is such that when I want to learn to do something, I want to REALLY learn it and immerse myself in it. So I researched, sewed, researched, sewed a bit more.

Ashleigh's birthday dress was my first "big" woven project. I'll say woven because I also sewed myself a bathing suit but that's knit and totally different. ;)

It was a PROCESS. Total process and I *loved* every second of it. 

First, a bit of backstory:

Ashleigh only wears dresses. She is the most ladylike lady you'll ever meet. She loves ModCloth and we stumbled upon a ModCloth dress one day out of Alexander Henry fabric. It got me thinking "what if eventually I could sew Ashleigh a surprise dress". Which turned into me deciding in July that I'd make her a dress. I'd only been sewing clothes since the end of May. And her birthday was July 28th.

The pattern was an easy choice- McCall's 6696 and the fabric was easy-ish too. Ashleigh loves Alice in Wonderland AND Rifle Paper so that was a win win. 

In order to make her the dress, I was like a sneaky spy! I asked if I could "borrow" one of her brand new dresses so I could "try it on so maybe I could get one as well", which is so goofy because I don't wear dresses! But I had a physical garment that I could lay the pattern pieces against to make sure it fit.

I then spent a week asking her the most RANDOM questions such as:

"Hey, I just cleaned out my closet and I found some brand new bras in a D cup...would they fit you?!" Because the pattern is based on cup sizes. Spoiler alert: I haven't worn or owned a D cup bra since probably 2009! ;)

"I was just telling Eric how tall your sister is, how tall is she again? How tall are you compared to her?" Because I needed to hem the dress and I didn't want it to be too short!

"Oh, I'm thinking about getting some Rifle Paper fabric, which one is your favorite print again". 

And so on. This was tricky because she is my best friend so I needed to be sneaky which I am absolutely not known for. I'm the type of person who will buy you a Christmas gift and then give it to you months before Christmas because I AM TOO EXCITED AND I CAN'T WAIT. So this was torture. And we work together all day. At one point I was so afraid that I wouldn't get it done that I had her on FaceTime with my computer angled up so she couldn't see what I was sewing while I was on the phone with her!

Thankfully, it all came together beautifully!

I scheduled out 4 hours a day for a total of 12 hours. It ended up taking me closer to 19, mostly because I learned I am a very, very, very slow sewer. 

Here are the details:

• Pattern: McCall's 6696
• Fabric: Rifle Paper Co. Mad Hatter in Black.
• Buttons: Purchased at Heartstrings.
• Modifications: I skipped all the hand sewing and used an edge stitch foot for very tidy results.
• Lessons learned: First yoke, placket, buttonholes, collar/collar stand I've ever sewn.
• Sew Again: YES! I'm not someone who wears dresses but I tried this on as I went just to make sure everything was straight and tidy and I liked it! I picked up Big Roar to use as a wearable muslin.
• Pattern Difficulty: I had to google a few steps that weren't super clear to me, along with the height McCall's drafts for. Out of 5, I'd give it 3 stars, keeping in mind that this was my very first big project. :)

I'm excited to blog about some of my projects and get into the swing of sharing again. :)