After my wonderful retreats at Alabama Chanin in Florence, Alabama last summer and again this summer, my obsession with AC-style stitching is unrelenting—not driven, but truly relaxing and satisfying.
threadWEAR 301
The tulips and irises are blooming. The toes are painted and sandals are out. It's spring! Wearing dresses is a simple way to get dressed in the morning, year round. But it's essential in the spring and summer to stay cool. In an effort to make every pattern into a tunic or dress, I tackled the Now Shirt.
And the stitching goes on! Using the new eTee download pattern and the Alabama Chanin organic cotton knit in Dark Grey, Kathy created this darling t-shirt that she claims is "girly", but we love it anyway for its creativity and charm.
I lengthened this one 3″ and used two colors of the Alabama Chanin organic cotton jersey in white and natural. Plus I used the embroidery floss to hand stitch some parallel lines of diagonal running stitch embellishment along the lower right front.
Here's a little tutorial so you can create your own Ruffle Urban T-Shirt!
On a recent trip to Mulberry Silks in Carlboro, NC, I saw Nancy Quaintance in yet again one of her fabulous creations. She was wearing an Icon Shirt as a vest made in a combination of leather and wool. I was so enchanted with it, that I came home and made one for myself in a Chocolate Brown Cloque.
Whistle-less shirt in a handkerchief weight stripe linen that is easy to sew and wear.
I don't always want a zipper closure on the Quincy Top. I can't always find the exact color and length of separating zipper - at least quickly. Also, the fabric that I used, EBL004 Linen - Frosty Pink & Green, was so soft and semi-sheer, that I thought a zipper would be too heavy. So it is possible to convert the front to a button closure with some simple adjustments.
Has the eShrug become your summer staple yet? I know it has for me. It's always chilly at our office, so the shrug is so easy to throw on with a simple tank, button-down shirt or sleeveless dress. But what happens when the AC really gets out of hand?
I don't know about you, but collars can be tricky. Everyone wants their garments to look crisp & clean, finished with a professional look. My downfall, precise collars.
Linda Lee can make crisp collar points each and every time. Jealous? I know I'm green with envy. Now you can follow these 5 easy steps to sew perfect collar points!
To download the full step-by-step tutorial, click here.
Now go, show off your amazing sewing skills!
One of the most interesting features of the Liberty Shirt is the beautiful hem finishing. Since the back is longer than the front, there are two corners that need attention in a special way. The bottom hem in the back is a 2 1/2” finished hem and the adjacent side vent hems are 1 3/8”. The instructions for mitering this corner condition is just one of the seven mitering techniques that Linda has written in her book, Mastering Miters.
I do believe that spring is going to grace us with it's presence this weekend. Finally, I can wear floral without a wool cardigan, scarf & gloves. What a concept! I'm ready to pull out the lightweight linen, colorful florals, and vivid accessories.
And when the garments in my closet don't excite me for the upcoming season, why not create something new? Using a pattern that never fails, Linda created a fresh new San Diego tunic.
I just can't stop sewing. Those creative juices are flowing!!!
Next stop, the Verona Jacket. The Verona Jacket has always been "uncharted territory" for me. It's a little more fitted than I would normally choose to wear. I like more movement & flexibility in my clothing. But this is such a great pattern, I needed to find a fabric that would make this garment work for me. Then we received the most amazing heavy-weight wool knits, in floral. I couldn't resist.
I like to layer my clothing so I can adapt to seasonal changes or to temperature variations in buildings, and the one of the best garments to make for that purpose is a tank.
ZEN WOOL FELTED JACKET
The Now and Zen shirt pattern (Zen Version) from The Sewing Workshop Pattern Collection was the inspiration for the white jacket on the cover of Threads magazine, March 2010, Issue 147. From there, the design morphed into something quite different.
To cut out some of the straight boxy shape of the shirt, I drew and then sliced a curved princess line in the pattern tissue from hem to front armhole and repeated that on the back. I shaved a little more shape into the waist on the tissue. Because of the size of the washed jersey piece, I also made a back seam and shaped that a little at the waist. Then added the necessary seam allowances to the split edges of the pattern tissue.
I rounded off the corners of the neck edge and lower front.
The Zen shirt pattern departs from the traditional right-over-left buttoning and buttons left over right. But I buttoned right over left for this jacket.
The ruffle came out very different than first planned. I set aside about 1/2 yard of wool jersey before washing to use as the thinner layer of the inside ruffle. I thought the selvedge edge of this yardage was a finer finish than most jerseys, so I used the selvage edges for both of the ruffle edges – both washed and unwashed layers. I cut the one strip of unwashed jersey 3 1/2” wide and one strip of washed jersey 3” wide – both on the selvage if possible.