SEWmuchKNITting

I am happy to say that I have TWO! garments for this month, using what I think is my favorite fabric of all time: this large houndstooth knit from Haberman Fabrics in Royal Oak, MI. I purchased this fabric at the Sewing Expo in Novi, MI 2 years ago, I believe, and it was just waiting for the right project(s). Enter:  McCall's 6460  and  Vogue 8151 . The use of leather and it's cousin, faux leather/pleather, has been everywhere this year, and though I'm a little late to the party I wanted to jump on board.     McCall's 6460  was the perfect choice, and a great pattern to work with since it is drafted with different fronts for the A/B-C-D cup sizes. The only alterations I needed were my usual sway back adjustment and to lower both the bust darts and the front darts by @ 3/4".  (SO hard to photograph dark fabrics indoors.....winter....I'm over it !LOL) There was absolutely no need to use a zipper here so I...

 

My local quilt guild, the Loose Threads, has a challenge this month: the Paint Chip Challenge. We were to choose paint chips that started with the initials of our name: first, middle/maiden/, last. And not just a simple color name like Pink, but more like the Pleased as Punch that I chose. Below you see the paint chips that match up with my initials: Pleased as Punch, Tree Fern, and Providence Gold (PTP). An additional same # of fabrics could be added, and I just needed to add one, my favorite white: Kona cotton in Snow.  The only restriction was one of size: the piece needs to be at least 45" on each side. I just made the cut with my 50" X 50" baby quilt. We have our monthly meeting next Monday when all will be revealed! After that I will post a finished photo. It will be fun to see what this creative bunch of quilters has made :-) .

More Polar Vortex sewing: The fingerless mitts I have been wearing  just haven't been warm enough while we suffer through the Polar Vortex this winter. I used a wool sweater that I had felted when it got tossed into the donation bin, and this online tutorial. Instead of lining with fleece, I used a cotton knit. It sure is a lot quicker to SEW knit mittens than it is to KNIT them!

In need of some new pajamas, I pulled out McCall's 5248 (bottoms) & Vogue 8151 (top). I have used both of these patterns before, so I could go right to cutting them out and sewing them up, which I did last night. The fabric is a cotton knit from Fabric.com , which I purchased a couple of weeks ago when I needed some yarn and had to fill my cart to take advantage of free shipping....you know how that is, right? I also found a black cotton knit in the stash for the neckline binding and hem band....needed to break up that jazzy print LOL! With the COLD temps we are having in the Midwest due to the polar vortex, these are just what I want to climb into at the end of the day. Guess I'm on a roll with two garments sewn in January, and this one meets the Jungle January challenge!

January's sewing challenge was to try a new technique, and so I chose to sew this more constructed jacket pattern out of a soft sweater knit, using  McCall's 6711 .   Lori noted that this pattern ran large, and I should have taken her recommendations to heart. I did my usual FBA, made an adjustment for a broad back, and also added one inch to the jacket length. Adding the length was necessary, but the FBA and the back adjustment were not. The armscyce seam falls off my shoulder now, and I'll need to go back and take that in a little. In the future, I'll need to pay more attention to making the broad back adjustment without adding to the neck-to-sleeve width. Even with the adjustments to the fit, I am happy with this jacket. The fabric is a very soft, double-sided sweater knit with minimal one-way stretch. I paid all of $1.50 for the 2 yards when I purchased this at an estate sale a few months ago.  I used a soft interfacing at the 2 fronts...