A Jacket Revisited

 Years ago, I thrifted Simplicity 6601 from 1974

I thought the long sleeve jacket had a lot of potential, and in late 2013 I used some thrifted polyester fleece to make this

I learned two things from this project:

    • The jacket is not only cute, but extremely easy to make
    • I Do Not Like™ polyester fleece

I don't remember the ultimate fate of the jacket, but I do still have the buttons.

So when a recent visit to the Walmart mill end precut bins found some 60" woven boiled wool (?!--I mean, it obviously has something synthetic blended into it, but...still.) in a '2 yard for $4' bundle (??!!), I couldn't resist buying it, and very quickly realized it would work to make a proper version of that polyester fleece jacket

With the same buttons!

Act My Age

When I turned 40, I had the idea to thrift an Over The Hill t-shirt in a large size, then tailor it to be very close fitting.  I found an appropriate shirt fairly quickly, but decided I'd keep looking for something better.  Then I didn't find any more.

Then I forgot about the project.

For years.

When I remembered, world health was such that I did not want to spend time in thrift stores, so I looked online.  I quickly discovered that classic, straightforward (with 1990s design) Over The Hill shirts aren't super cheap, and modern Over The Hill shirts are more likely to be that verbosely hyperspecific typography in a blender style that I am not the target market for.

Then I started playing around with iron-on letters.  One of the sets of letters, acquired second hand, was obviously two sets of the same style and color, so I figured there were enough letters to spell anything, so I sorted out the needed letters, trimmed them close, and tacked them to graph paper

Crossed Animals

 The reason I made that 'test' shirt was because I wanted to make sure I had the collar modifications right, because I had bought an Animal Crossing print from JoAnn with the intent of making a button up shirt, and I wanted to make sure I had the pattern right before cutting into the *gasp* $8/yard fabric (yes that's the discount price.)

Confident in the pattern mash up, I cut everything out

 And in doing so, I made a huge mistake that I would not discover until construction was under way.

 

Thanks Jacket

 A friend recently gave me something for which I wanted to make an item of Thanks.

I poked through my stash, considered that friend's tastes, and ended up with this

I hope it makes the friend cackle gleefully at its horrible black-light-reactive brightness as much as it makes me cackle gleefully at its horrible black-light-reactive brightness.

A...Test?

 A few months ago, I made a button up shirt that I liked, but wasn't quite what I wanted it to be.  So, I called in some parts from another pattern and things looked promising, but weren't yet what I was hoping for, either.  I traced the further modifications from the collar donor pattern, then...made a bunch of other things.

I recently purchased some fabric from JoAnn--yes, I know, me? buying fabric that isn't random? and that costs more than $2 per yard?  And I want to make it into a button up shirt, but didn't want to jump in with the untested pattern modification on the good fabric (again, I know--me??)  I decided to use some of the "sorted out to give away early 2020, didn't, then sorted again in late 2021, kept some, gave the rest away" fabric and make a...test...version.  (I'm pedantic enough not to use the term 'wearable muslin,' sorry.)

I didn't have enough of the rayon blend to make the entire shirt, but I was able to complete it by using almost all of the rest of the lace left over from the quick Halloween shirt. 

 Using up fabric is always nice.

Like I said

 

Hat

Jacket

Shirt

Shorts

Tights

(I thrifted the shoes 7 years ago, and touched up my hair color the morning of the photo)

Shorts!

 Going to be up-front about this project: like the first newsboy cap I made last year, the idea to make this was heavily influenced by something I choose a lot for my character in Animal Crossing--a pair of dark denim shorts.

I've had this vintage Butterick 4703 for years--not exactly sure how vintage it is, since it's from the era when Butterick patterns didn't include copyright dates anywhere, but I'd say it's from the very early 1980s

I had some denim left over from a pair of pants I made for the kiddo a few years ago--definitely not enough for more pants for anyone, but it turned out to be just enough for these shorts (length determined entirely by the available amount of cloth.)

They're really nothing like the ACNH shorts, but there's a lot in life that's not much like Animal Crossing, so that's fine.

Good Project, Bad Pictures

 KwikSew 3764 again.

But!

This time I traced the size I wanted to use (small for everything but the sleeves, which I traced in extra small.) I also took the opportunity to modify the under collar into two pieces on the bias--honestly mostly so it will be more obvious which part is the under collar than in any attempt to make it a More Proper Under Collar.  And the biggest thing: completely reconfiguring the back from "one sad center back seam" to "upper yoke + center back piece cut on fold + two side back pieces."  There's absolutely no shaping in the seams I created, but, hey--there's some visual interest.

Not that you can make out many details at all in my photos, thanks to the jacket being made from a thick french terry that is very greedy about sharing the photons it collects

Insufficient fabric can't stop me

 I thrifted a fabulous very 1980s/early 90s bit of pastel map print cotton knit a few years ago, not much more than a half yard.  I finally decided to see if I could convince it to work to make a shirt.

It needed assistance.

A Simple Project That Just Might Change Everything

 Well.  Maybe that's a bit dramatic.

But what it is is that I've sewn a pair of tights for the first time

And this could be a big thing for me, in terms of my decades long love of tights and in terms of an easy project to do with the variety of weird synthetic super stretchy knits offered by the Walmart mill end precut bins (of which this B&W stripe is one.)

Memento Mori, with a Seaside Vibe

 The fabric in the previous post was acquired in a 2 yard by 60" precut.  I used as much as needed to make that shirt, then decided to see if I could squeeze a shirt for me from what was left.

The fabric limitations meant it would more cropped than I usually go for, but once I decided to see if I had any appliqués I might use, I couldn't resist making it anyway

A Calm Shirt for the Kiddo

I found a few useful-looking pieces of cloth in the Walmart mill end precuts last weekend.  I did not need any more cloth.  But.  They were one piece of black and white stripe knit and two pieces of french terry, one black and one a sort of...sagey muted mint green color.  My tendency to go for loud prints on sturdy cottons plus the Walmart mill end precut section's tendency to present mostly pure polyester means I don't have a lot of plain knits, so I went ahead and got them. (yes, one is striped and not plain, this is not about that.)  

I had wanted to make another sweatshirt for the kiddo, just because.  So I got KwikSew 1650 again

 it goes up to kid size 14, but is a 1980s pattern, so it's a very generous kid size 14.  I didn't measure the kiddo to see what size he'd technically need, because things like t-shirts and sweatshirts have a wide range of "acceptable" in terms of fit.

I used the ribbing of view A and the larger shoulder inset of view B and ended up with this

Elven Moto Jacket

 So.  Vogue 1714.

It...actually wasn't that hard.

 

 even if I probably top stitched twice as much as the directions called for.

 

Jeans Alteration

A few years ago, Husband bought a pair of inexpensive jeans that ended up being a bit small.  Instead of returning them, he gave them to me.  At the time, they were a bit too small for me, too, so I put them away for The Future.

When I finally tried them on after losing weight, they...were too big.

I considered donating them, but the fact that they're relaxed fit and the waistline does sit at my waist means they're quite accidentally in fashion, so I decided to try altering them.

I consulted several websites that said all that needed to be done was pick out the stitching holding on the waist band (and any belt loops in the way), cut out some of the center back, then sew everything back together.  There may have been better and more detailed instructions than that, but that's what I took and ran with.

I tried on the jeans and pinched out the excess in the center back and safety pinned that in place. I then (well...a few weeks later) used ore safety pins to emulate a line of stitching, then tried the jeans on again.  Things felt like they where where they needed to be, so I used my index finger width (which is roughly 5/8") to draw a line with tailor chalk parallel to the pins, and that's where I cut off the excess fabric.

Due to the way I'm shaped, taking out the center back excess but leaving the front intact still leaves the side seams right where they're supposed to be.

I ended up opening the entire center back seam, and a bit of the inseam, which was easier than it should have been, because it was sewn entirely with safety stitches.  All I had to do was cut a bit, find the right thread end, and, zoop, the stitch pulled apart.

I loaded a yellow 'gold' medium weight thread into the top of the machine and left the yellow green in the bobbin in place since it was the same weight.   The color and stitching are far from perfect, but no-one's going to look very closely when I'm wearing these.

I also very quickly decided that I was absolutely not going to do a welt seam. I've never been good with welt seams, and I don't think my machine would have taken it well, either.  When I sewed the inseam back together, I just top stitched through everything.  My serger definitely wasn't happy with what I'd asked it to do.  But, again, no-one is going to be looking.

I haven't worn jeans for a very very long time.  This could get weird.

Repair Pair

 When the friend very generously brought the inherited sewing stuff a few years ago (thanks again!), it included a lot of clothing that had probably been purchased to be used for craft purposes.  A lot of it was still fine--I kept a few pieces, let my friends pick out things they liked, and donated the rest.  A lot if it, though, had also been cut into.  Again, I kept a few pieces to use as doll cloth and let the friends take any they wanted, then put the scraps aside for years before deciding what to do with them.

A lot ended up in the scrap-filled floor pillow, but I realized a few pieces actually could be repaired.

Skirt Into Fall

After I made the blue corduroy shorts, I still had a lot of that fabric left.  I felt like making a long skirt from it would be good.

Then my brain started complicating things: it demanded a center front button placket.

Well, I thought, that still wouldn't be too hard--might even be possible to make without a pattern, just gather the waist into--

"No," the brain said. "It should be an A-line skirt."

Well...OK...I do have an A-line skirt pattern with a center front seam that could be hacked...

Buuut I really didn't want to do that.  So, I checked the next JoAnn pattern sale and purchased two possibilities: McCall's 7981 and 7906.  7981 has some non-gathered views that are pretty much what I envisioned, but 7906's pleated (and top stitched!) waist shaping was also really appealing, so I decided to go with that one.

 

But.

I am still getting a feel for sewing things with waists, and my waist measurement, last time I measured (which was when I was still planning to make this) was somewhere between 16 and 18.  The finished waist measurements are printed on the pattern, so I decided to risk things and go with the 16.

At this point, however, I also decided not to jump right in with the corduroy, so I grabbed something from the stash that's not my usual color scheme, but was just the right length that there's not a whole lot of it left over.  After a few days of sporadic sewing, I ended up with this

Halloween Patchwork Jumper: The Video

 When I made the Halloween-print patchwork jumper just over a month ago, I also recorded bits of the process to make a video.  I may have gone too far in the "you don't have to record every single step" direction, and that long, tedious project ended up condensed to about 6½ minutes

Chair-y

 Several years ago, I thrifted this chair

Yeah.

In Between The People Here

 As the kiddo's birthday approached and he hadn't asked for anything specific (he knew he was getting a better computer), I asked once again if he wanted anything in particular.  Ever in pursuit of the meme, he said "Amogus."

Of course there are official Among Us plushies, but, not only were they not available at that time, I also knew he would be happy with something, shall we say...very off-model.

So.

I didn't use any patterns and it is terrible and he grinned so much when I gave it to him.

Weighty

 I have recently started following Buried Diamond.  I like the sewing projects a lot, but it was the post about making pattern weights with resin that really set something off within me.  I have been interested in resin for years, but nothing quite made me want to finally acquire the necessary materials like seeing those pattern weights.

And it just happened that JoAnn had a big blowout weekend sale that did not include resin but did include a 60% off coupon that I could use on that full-price resin, along with a 40% off coupon I could use for a basic 4-cavity round soap mold (and another 40% off coupon put toward some moldmaking compound so I can make my own designs for jewelry use in the unknown future.)

And so I jumped right into my first resin project ever, with four layers each and loads of research into when the best time to add the embeds and the glitter and the next layers, and it being a lovely day so I could open EVERY window and put a window fan set to exhaust in the nearest one.

I demolded them the next morning and here they are

Blues

 I made the striped knit shirt two posts ago fairly randomly, and the blue corduroy shorts in the last post I made specifically to go with the striped knit shirt, and the temperature dropped a bit so I felt like today would be a good day to debut the ensemble.

Then I messed up the light levels for the pictures, so...blurry.

I ran errands today and 2/3 of the cashiers complimented the outfit!

I'm mostly happy with it--next time I make the shorts, I need to fiddle with the crotch curve, because things conform a bit in places where they should be skimming, but it's promising enough that there probably will be a next time.

Blue Cord Shorts

 When I got KwikSew 3854, it was for view A (shorter version)

When I looked up reviews of the pattern, I discovered that view B was what most people wanted out of it, some to the point of being...ah...very disparaging of view A.  This did serve to make me maybe possibly consider making view B at some point, but determined to make view A first.

Stripe Knit Shirt in Blue (and other colors)

 I can resist most of the fabrics that show up in the mill-end pre-cut bins at Walmart, but not all of the fabrics that show up in the mill-end pre-cut bins at Walmart.  The main saving factor is my dislike of wearing synthetics, but that...can be overridden by the cloth being really really cool...

So I bought a 2 yard for $4 roll of very probably synthetic knit in an interesting stripe (and texture, although that texture is on the purl side and I can never think of that as the face of a knit, so...just stripe) in shades of dark blue and burgundy and cream and black.

And when I took off the label and unrolled it, I discovered that there was only one yard.  Even at 60" wide, that still severely limited my project options.  I decided, yesterday afternoon, to figure out what to do with it, and turned to a pattern I've had for a long time--so long that it's been partly cut in a very small size: New Look 6068 (and...I had honestly forgotten that I'd used it for projects a few years ago).  But!  Not all of the views use the same basic bodice pieces, and the mixn'n'matchin' was obvious

View C, with the little sleeves, in my current size, plus the neckline and collar from View A (adapted from being cut in a smaller size.)

Well, y'know...more or less...

Zippy Zips

 So I had two decent-size rectangles of the Ikea fabric left over from the scrap-filled floor pillow(ish) project, and apparently what my brain wants to do with scraps of Ikea fabric is make zip bags.

So.

Here are two more zip bags made from Ikea fabric.

The pattern placement turned out as good as it would have if I had been making these intentionally--well, on the one with the bird, at least.  The other is...minimalist.

See?  Even the print on the back of the bird is a nice assortment and distribution of elements.  The other one is...a void. And what you can see on the other side of that one in the first photo is all of the print on it.  I think it's funny.

They both use yellow zippers that I remember Mom buying in bulk in a weird fabric store in the very early 1980s.  No lining, just serged the very few seams, so these were super fact to make.

No ideas yet what I'll do with them, but, hey: I'll have em when I do figure that out.

Quick Halloween Shirt (Not Terribly Well Thought Out)

 I've wanted to make another large-bow version of McCall's 5675, like I did with the pillowcase shirt project, but this time with fabric that...wasn't so excessively synthetic.  And maybe in a Halloween print?  And I wanted the whole project to be quick.

I managed to do all that, and probably will do a project with the same descriptors again, but I'm unsure about the wisdom of my choices in this particular instance.

Scrap-filled Floor Pillow...ish

 So, I recently finally dealt with all the fabric that had been in plastic tubs in the garage since I made the effort to downsize and organize fabric in my stash after receiving all of the friend's relative's destash in 2019.  I donated the usable yardage, keeping some I decided maybe I would use after all, and had a large trashbag left of scraps of fabric that were not suitable for patchwork or small crafts, or that were Very Unpleasant Textures, and also a lot of pieces of clothing that had had parts cut off in unrepairable ways.

I do know that there are institutions that will recycle fabric, but, if there are any around here, their web presence does not make that obvious.  I was almost ready to just sigh and throw it all away...but...wait...

So I looked up floor pillows stuffed with fabric scraps and found that that is indeed a thing.  I shuffled through my fabric and found two small pieces of decorator weight Ikea fabric (that I think cane from two different people's destashes.)  I measured nothing, just started ripping things to what seemed to be good sizes.

A lot of the projects I'd looked at had piping, so after some waffling, I got one of the bias tapes I'd made randomly and filled it with textured acrylic yarn I'd thrifted, made 4-ply with the aid of a drill.  Family members gave me some odd looks while I was doing that.

I basted the piping to the edges of the top and bottom pieces

Inserted a lapped zipper so I wouldn't have to deal with stitching anything closed later

Assembled it and started stuffing

It needed more than the scraps I'd had in the trash bag, and will probably benefit from more stuffing in the future, but, hey, that should be easy enough with the zipper, right?

Yes, it's a big lumpy mess, but it's also just the right height to put your feet on when you're sitting on the couch

Husband says the weight means it'd probably be a good punching bag, too...

Another quickie

 This time for the kiddo, who currently wears his hair in a low ponytail held with a black jersey knit scrunchie that was in a package of otherwise doll stuff someone gave me.  So, I thought I'd offer a different scrunchie.

He likes purple.

(and of course I didn't measure the fabric, just squared up a scrap that looked roughly the right size)

Halloween Patchwork Jumper 2021 In Action!

 Taa daa

Gotta keep the average up

 What do you do after a project that takes a week?  You do a project that takes almost no time.

Now...I was a teen the first time scrunchies Were A Thing, and I...didn't particularly like them back then.  I still remember making some, probably to give to people, and I remember being extremely vexed about how to make them.  I've started wearing my hair in a ponytail when sleeping, and decided I wanted a scrunchie for that instead of the random loop of knit I was using (yeah...)

So I looked up how other people were making scrunchies and of course the method I liked most is the one on Ikat Bag.  Now, me being me, I didn't measure the fabric, instead using the entirety of a bit of feels like? silk that was in the small yardage stash, destashed from a local doll person.  It works.

Halloween Patchwork Jumper 2021

 The only reason I didn't buy KwikSew 4138 in the big sale was because I already had it...in the form of McCall's It's Sew Simple 9603

I chose view A and immediately set about making it a lot more complicated than it needed to be