Blue corduroy fall coat

The girl was perfectly happy with her fleece jacket but it just looked so . . . sporty. That's fine in and of itself but with a flowery dress it definitely clashed. So I made her this new fall jacket:

The pattern is "Penny" by Citronille. I was inspired by all the smocks we saw schoolkids wearing in France last spring. The boys always had navy blue and the girls sometimes pink. We'd see whole crowds of kids all wearing the same smock-like jacket so I guess it's sort of like a uniform here in the US.

I used featherwale corduroy and the only change I made to the pattern was to leave the sleeves wide rather than inserting the called-for elastic. I think it would actually be better to do elastic or a cuff -- the wide sleeve combined with the wide body is a bit much.

And I lined the jacket.

I *hate* this fabric -- called Dumb Dot by Michael Miller. The dots are way too big for my taste but cute in the small amount that peaks out in a lining.

Year of hats

I've been knitting for almost thirty years but I had never knit a hat until this year. I had a couple purchased hats but for unknown reasons didn't really wear them. And then last winter I got interested in a specific knitting technique -- twined knitting -- and pulled out *Homespun Handknit* for its twined hat by Meg Swansen.


The hat was fun to knit and the twined patterning is beautiful! It's super-warm and quite windproof but not very stretchy.

Then a couple months later I got interested in another technique -- Bavarian twisted stitch -- and knit the Proverbial Cap from an issue of Interweave Knits. Oddly enough this pattern is also by Meg Swansen.


This hat is really comfortable because of the stretchy nature of its all-rib pattern. It took me a while to get used to doing the twisted stitches and the charts almost drove me crazy. Each element has a different repeat so I never was able to settle into a rhythm. I would do this kind of knitting again, but I'd go for something simpler so I didn't have to keep looking at the charts.

Then in the last two weeks I knit three simple Fair Isle hats:


These were great fun. Each only took a couple days of easy knitting and I enjoyed the color patterning. I used the basic info on hat constuctions in Ann Budd's *Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns* and got most of the Fair Isle patterns from Alice Starmore's *Fair Isle Knitting.* The yarn is all leftovers except for the locally-produced cream colored wool from Marr Haven.

Purple batiste dress

This dress is really just so . . . sweet. The fabric is a thin, light purple batiste that looks almost white until you look at the collar (which is white). It's so sheer that I'll have to make a slip for the girl to wear under it.

I've made this pattern (Tuck Dress from Collars Etc) three times now -- once in a red twill with a white collar with tiny printed cherries and once earlier this summer in a red and white dimity check. The two red versions have a cheerful, everyday kind of vibe but this one is totally different -- much more dainty.

I have to admit I didn't so much have an inspiration for this dress as a model -- the pattern company itself made a version in light pink with the little embroidery on the tucks. I totally used their idea and just changed the colors and added embroidery on the front pleat. (I used Floche colors 819, 3348 and 210 for the little pinwheel flowers.)

I did change the back this time. The pattern calls for a full button back but I thought the buttonholes in this thin fabric might stretch out over time. So I put in an inverted pleat with three hidden snaps:


I read the instructions on the Bonnie Blue pattern for Emma Lee for general info although I ended up doing it a little differently. I also had to remove a couple of the side pleats since the center pleat uses so much width, but the collar covers the shoulder seam and thus the fact that there are more pleats on the front than in the back.

Lots of flowers

For a trip we took this spring I wanted a shirt for the girl that would:

1. Be cool.
2. Cover her from the sun.
3. Not show wrinkles.
4. Not show dirt (or chocolate ice cream).
5. Be able to be rinsed out in a hotel sink.
6. Match lots of pants & skirts.

Here it is:


It's a Liberty print (I think called Mauvey) based on the Children's Corner pattern Ainsley. It has a square, faced neckline that's lower in front than back, long sleeves & two buttons up the back. I redrafted the neckline to make it more of a right angle and omitted the waistband. I love this kind of loose top for coolness -- and, indeed, even when I *knew* it was dirty, it never looked it.

Liberty Capucine shirt

I do love the really wild Liberty prints. Mostly I've been sewing lately with very staid fabrics -- little flowers, checks, solids -- but for both my daughter and me I adore the cool craziness of Liberty blouses in the summer. . .

I used Capucine earlier this summer for a nightie for the girl; here's a shirt version:


The pattern has a small ruffle instead of a set-in sleeve; with the help of How to Make Sewing Patterns I made this cap sleeve instead.

This pattern was a good choice for this big print because the front is cut all from one piece so everything lines up. No need for the tedium of matching the print!

Only thing I don't like about this shirt is the little buttons. They're too purple; a grey or bright pink would be better.

Where I sew

Pink Chalk has a beautiful set of photos of people's sewing spaces. They're lovely -- but also almost all are entirely out of my reach. I just measured my space and it's 4.5 square feet.

In our old apartments my sewing machine was set up on some spare table if the apartment was spacious or put away in the closet if not. In this house for years one of the bedrooms was my study and sewing space. But now it's my daughter's room. After the kids arrived for a couple years my sewing machine got pulled out when used. But maybe 3 years ago I realized I wanted to have my sewing in the midst of the household activity and also that I wanted it to be always set up.


So I ended up with this. Actually, I love it. It's in a corner of the dining room, so I just pull a chair over. The tiny table is an old metal typewriter table. It's slightly lower than standard table height, which means that the bed of the sewing machine itself is the right height. I fold out the left leaf when I want more room.

Light isn't ideal here but the clip-on Tolomeo light improves things.

Scissors, etc. go in the shallow drawer on the front. You can't easily see it in the photo, but the whole front of the table is a one-inch deep drawer. More supplies are in the plastic box stored underneath the table. The box is an old one from Martha Stewart's Kmart line and is set up like a tackle box with lots of compartments. The blue basket on the floor was made for me by Jonathan Kline to the exact size to fit under the right leaf when unfolded. The basket holds mending (that is, the stuff that isn't sitting on top of the machine) and other works in progress or queue.

I usually just put my tabletop ironing board on the counter in the kitchen around the corner. I have to get up to iron but I figure that's probably actually good for my body.

One thing I love about this set up is its portability. On nice days when I'm doing a big project, I wheel the table through the living room and out the front door onto the porch. Then my light is fabulous, the heat from the iron is outside and I get to chat with passersby.

Of course, I'd love to have a little more room. . . .

Simple dress

It was hot here in July. Way too hot. So I made a cool and simple dress for my daughter.


I loved the idea of simple crisp gingham with no waist seam; it seemed just the thing in the heat. But while I had an old pattern called Lauren's A-Line Dress from Bonnie Blue (no longer available -- Bailey seems to be the new name) it wasn't quite right (wrong size, gathered sleeves, full-button back, etc.). So I ended up drafting the pattern myself, using bits from here and there. It turned out cute, but took me forever with pieces of newspaper and scribbled measurements all over the living room.

I wanted embroidery that wouldn't take forever so I just drew a heart and then started embroidering from the middle with running stitch, lazy daisy stitches and French knots. Then I just mirrored it on the other side.


The sewing was the simplest part of this dress -- 3 tucks on each side of front and back, shoulder & side seams, set in sleeve with attached Swiss embroidery and a 2 button placket on the back. I did face the hem and hand hem it so that took a while but was entirely pleasant. . .

Cross-stitched blanket

I love the (expensive) blankets from Swans Island. The blankets are wool but are designed for summer. They're light, thin and much cooler in our (un-air conditioned) bedrooms than the thin quilts or flannel sheets we used to use as bed coverings in the summer. Both kids have one; I just wish we adults did!

I love the simplicity of the blankets but I esp. like that plainness when contrasted with something fancy. So I cross-stitched a monogram on my daughter's blanket:


The design is from one of the Rouge du Rhin books I got from The French Needle. I did the cross stitching with a couple strands of DMC floss over two threads. It was easier in some ways than stitching on linen because the space between the threads is bigger but more difficult in that the wool sticks together. But it turned out fine.

I did this one in 2010 but *still* haven't done one for my son. . . .

Shadow stitched butterfly dress

Ooh, I like how this dress turned out.


After the very traditional, little-girl white & blue smocked dress I made for my girl, I wanted to make something that seemed a little more grown up. I used the Jane's First Day Dress pattern again, used a bright orange & cream dot fabric and shadow stitched a butterfly on the front. This was only the second time I did shadow stitching; it was quick and easy.

The trimming is a small brown rickrack; I sewed it into the seam around the front panel and attached it by hand to the collar. You can't see it well here but there is small cream Swiss embroidered trim on the sleeves.

I altered the pattern slightly by raising the neck a little and doing a round rather than a pointed collar.

Smocking a blue-dotted dress

I started a new dress for my girl. She's getting older and it seems to me that the window for making really traditional, high-waisted, collared, smocked dresses is closing but I wanted to sneak a couple more through.

The fabric is tiny blue pindots on white. I don't have a pleater so I always hand pleat for smocking; this time I could use the dots for spacing so I didn't have to mark it out with a ruler or smocking dots. I didn't think it through but as I was pleating realized that this means the dots themselves line up in rows.

I'm using the Ginger's Basic Yoke Dress pattern. It's just a straightforward puff-sleeved, Peter Pan-collared dress but I chose this pattern years ago because of the wide size range (6 months - age 12). The smocking is with a single strand of Floche in colors 3325 & 775 and the smocking design is from 'Jennifer" in Australian Smocking & Embroidery #82.

8/17/11 update -- here's the completed dress (finished back in June)! I shadow-stitched the bow on the yoke. It was the first time I did this kind of embroidery and it was easy-peasy.

Citronille nightgown

Today it's hot. Yesterday it was hot. Unseasonably hot. The poor girl's eczema has been acting up and she's been wearing her knit pajamas. So I wanted to make her something to sleep in that was as cool as I could make it.


I used the Capucine pattern from Citronille; I bought it in person from Entree des Fournisseurs but they do international mail order too. I modified this shirt pattern by lengthening the pattern 15" or so, angling the side seams out an extra inch or so, and adding an extra inch in width to the gathering in the front and back.

The fabric is a very thin lawn -- see how sheer the (single-layer) sleeves are.

Hopefully the girl will sleep better tonight. . .

Kit's room

So for her birthday we got my daughter a longed-for American Girl doll. I think these are just very expensive, but we've both enjoyed some of the books. And my girl really wanted one and it was lovely to be able to get the doll for her.

Anyway, one of my concerns was where to keep the doll. They're big -- 18" tall. Most kids I've seen with them keep them on top of some surface -- a dresser or a bookcase or something -- but she doesn't have that furniture in her room. So we decided to use the 3' space at the end of her bed as Kit's room, a place for her to keep the doll and accoutrements and to play with her.


The only problem with this idea was that the door to the attic is on the facing wall so we had to be able to access it. Also, because the space is so small we wanted as few obstructions as possible -- i.e., no legs. So we made a deep shelf out of plywood and hinged the supports. So when we want to get into the attic the table folds down.


We can even still hang up her play tent when the table is folded out of the way. In use, the table is fine for putting the bed on, dressing the doll, etc. It's not sturdy enough to lean on or draw at -- there's too much play in the hinges. I think if we decided it needed to be stronger we'd think about putting fold-down legs just in the front corners.

You get a peak here at some of the clothes I made for Kit. The Frannie dress pattern for girls includes a version for an 18" doll; that's my favorite thing I made so far.

Easter rabbits 2011

This year's Easter rabbits weren't quite ready on time -- the kids got them Easter morning but they were naked.

These went together easily, as they really should since I've now made 6 of these Gail Wilson rabbits. The only real problem was that the oatmeal linen I used was kind of thick so the girl rabbit's pinafore was a tight fit over it before I let out the seams.

The pink wool is leftovers from a coat I made years ago. I didn't have a good fabric for the inner ears so I used the same pink and needle felted on some cream and brown roving. It looks cute; we'll see if it holds up. . .

Citronille coat

I made this coat for the girl last fall. She continues to wear only dresses & skirts so I wanted her to have a dressy coat. The pattern is Citronille's Alice.

The outer fabric is an inexpensive wool from Mood Fabrics. I deliberately chose something thin because some of the coats I'd seen made from this pattern were bulky at the gathers. But while I wanted thin fabric I also wanted warmth! So I lined it with warm back satin lining and interlined it with boiled wool from an old coat of mine. And then for extra warmth I knit inner cuff liners for the sleeves.

I even made bound button holes in the outer fabric and hand-worked buttonholes on the inside.

It all turned out just grand, except that I should have interfaced the hems -- the fold line is decided inelegant.

Easter rabbits

I love this pattern from Gail Wilson. These rabbits are made of wool, stuffed with wool, have button joints and tiny button eyes. The pattern comes with the clothes too, and even pantalets for the girl bunny.

I made these in 2009 for the kids' Easter basket. All the fabrics were leftovers and everything went together smoothly. Then in 2010 I made these:



I like the colors on these but the head shape isn't so good. I think the fabric I used -- some long-ago leftover black wool crepe -- stretched lengthwise more than widthwise so I couldn't get the nose to stuff outwards and instead the heads just grew. I still think they're cute.

The problem now is that the kids want rabbits for 2011 too!

New dress WIP

This is a new pattern --Jane's First Day Dress, by Sew Beautiful. I'm not sure if it's still in print; I got it off eBay. The fabric is a teeny blue tattersall I got from Farmhouse Fabrics with the embroidery done in dark blue Floche. It's not done -- no sleeves, the collar is pinned in place and the chain stitch edging around the white is only half complete.

I don't like the collar -- the whip stitch edging is too dark. Thinking of doing either a white collar with a little bit of white lace trim or else a white collar with a blanket-stitch edging in the Floche.

The sleeves will just be short-sleeve caps, probably with some little white edging.

My girl isn't so sure about this dress -- she thinks it doesn't have enough pink or flowers. I keep reminding her that I'll add some sort of lace trims and that it will have a bow on the back. She's unconvinced. . .

5/6/11 update

Here's the finished dress, complete with blue Floche embroidery, chainstitching (in lieu of piping) and double blanket-edging around the collar:
And my girl *does* like this dress, in part, I think, because she likes the bow on the back. My favorite thing is the teeny Swiss embroidered edging at the bottom of the sleeves.

Embroidered winter dress

When cold weather arrived I realized my daughter had no long-sleeve dresses in her closet. Last year I think she was wearing jumpers over t-shirts but she's decided she doesn't like jumpers (too bad because I think they're cute). And I don't think she's worn pants except during cold soccer matches in at least six months. So I ordered some feather-wale cordury and started sewing.

This was the first dress I made for her. The sewing itself was quick; I used the Daisy May pattern from Petite Poche and modified for long sleeves. The embroidery was time-consuming but not difficult -- just satin stitch, French knots and backstitch. It's based on a design in Alicia Paulson's Embroidery Companion -- one of several things I'd like to stitch from that lovely book.

Two Frannie dresses

I made both these dresses (from a Lyn Weeks/Especially for You pattern called Frannie) last summer. I like this pattern because it protects my kid's shoulders from the sun but seems really cool. And it's got such a cute, vintage-y feel. It's fun to make because there aren't many pattern pieces and the sleeve construction is unusual. It goes together pretty quickly -- very few pattern pieces and only two buttons on the back -- but the piping (which I love) does add to the time and complexity of the pattern.

The pink & blue fabric is from a line called Hello Betty.

The red gingham dress was more work because of the embroidery. I used Floche for the padded satin stitch and got the P pattern from a French embroidery book called Alphabets. It has red & white picot trim on the sleeves & collar and the piping fabric on the yoke seam is white with tiny cherries.

Liberty shirt

Last summer was hot and I was enjoying the blessed coolness of my own Liberty of London shirts so much that I decided to make a couple for my daughter. I love this one, both because the fabric is so beautiful and because it was a new shape.

I made the shirt by modifying the Frannie dress pattern by Lyn Weeks (Especially for You). I've made this as a dress multiple times; for the shirt I narrowed the skirt and changed the neckline to be a v-notch (inspired by an Oliver and S pattern). I lined the yoke only with white batiste.

I dithered about whether to add some trim to the edges or the curved yoke seam; in the end I just chain-stitched along the yoke seam. I think it would have been cute to add something to the sleeve edge -- a tiny trim or piping or something.

Ruffle collars

This summer I made a new variation of the basic shirt I've made multiple times for my daughter. I use the shirt pattern from the Kitty pattern by Children's Corner -- it's a Peter Pan collar shirt without puffed sleeves. This time I decided to add a ruffle to the collar. I made a bias strip about 36" long, hand hemmed it and then sewed it into the collar seam (I made the collar a little shorter to adjust for the width of the ruffle). I narrowed the ruffle as it neared the edge.

I made the short-sleeve purple gingham one first and liked it but thought the ruffle was a little too deep and the collar itself a little too wide (the ruffles overlap a little where they meet). I like the proportions on the long-sleeve pink one better.

My daughter loves these ruffles, and I like them too. It did take forever, though, what with hand-hemming the ruffle and then fiddling with the gathers to make them even. . .