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. . .