The Pavlova Blouse

The Pavlova blouse is a wrap shirt pattern by Cake Patterns, a wonderful new pattern company from Australia.  

Steph C, the owner and designer at Cake Patterns has an innovative approach to sizing that makes her patterns easily adaptable to a wide variety of body shapes and sizes.  Unlike most patterns in which your size is determined by only one body measurement (usually the bust), Cake patterns allow you to mix and match your pattern pieces based on several body measurements.  In addition, the suggested fabric is usually a knit, which also make fit a bit more forgiving.

I decided that in this, my first foray into using Cake Patterns, that I would follow the pattern instructions blindly, trusting in Steph C’s fitting and drafting ability, and see what came out.  After completing the pattern, I am glad I didn’t try to go my own way.  Cake patterns are NOT like any other patterns, and while I am a fairly experienced seamstress, I would have been lost if had had not followed the pattern exactly as written. 

I ordered the PDF version of Pavlova from Cake’s etsy shop.  I printed the pattern, put it together, started to cut out my size, and only then realized that my size wasn’t present.  Warning:  Unlike the paper version of the pattern which contains all sizes, the PDF pattern does not contain all sizes.  This mistake was entirely my fault.  It clearly says in the etsy ad which sizes you are buying, but I looked only at the picture, and bought the wrong size.  So then I bought the correct size, printed it, put it together, and cut out my correct size.

After putting together both PDF versions of Pavlova, I feel qualified to comment on the quality of the PDF version of the pattern.  I have used many PDF patterns, and while most are perfectly useable, few seem to have had any thought given to the orientation of the pattern pieces on the paper they are printed on.  As a result, PDF patterns often have empty pages, or nearly empty pages or multiple pattern pieces converging on the same piece of paper.  In contrast, there was obviously intentional placement of the  Pavlova pattern pieces on the printed pages.  There were no empty pages printed.  The pattern pieces intersected as few pieces of paper as possible.  Multiple pattern pieces intersected the same piece of paper only when necessary.  All of these thoughtful touches made putting together the printed pages of this PDF pattern easy compared to most of the PDF patterns I have used before.  The pattern pieces could be put together in chunks which fit on my dining room table.  I did not have to clear the entire floor of a room to tape together ~40 pieces of paper at once.  I highly recommend the PDF version of this pattern (just make sure you buy the correct size)!

The pattern itself is brilliant and weird.  I have never see a pattern that looks anything like this pattern.  I wasn’t even initially sure if I was holding it right side up or upside down.  There is no obvious neck line.  There is nothing on the pattern to indicate where the neck line is.  The main pattern piece is the front, back, and sleeve of the blouse.  Imagine cutting a blouse in half through the front and back of the blouse, then cutting cutting the side seam one of your blouse halves from the hem up to the armsyce then through the bottom of the sleeve.  This leaves the sleeve attached to the body, and the shoulder seam intact.  Now lay your blouse half out flat with the back hem at the top and the front hem at the bottom with your neckline forming a “C” in the middle.  Now on the front half, on the side opposite your sleeve add a triangle shaped flap with the narrow part closest to the neck opening and the wide part closest to the hem.  This is basically what the pattern looks like.  Fire Beard described it as looking like “half a bear skin rug,” and frankly I think that is pretty accurate.  

The directions and construction diagrams are very good, but made no sense on my initial read through.  I decided to follow the instructions blindly without really understanding what I was doing, and the blouse came together perfectly.  I was sure I was reading the instructions incorrectly in step 5 in which the neck facing is applied.  The neck facing initially looks like it is being applied upside down.  I followed the directions anyway, and realized that the neck facing edges are enclosed by the neck facing itself.  The end result is like tucking the two short ends under and top stitching.  This is easily the most difficult part of the pattern, but it really isn’t hard once you wrap your mind around it.  The last step (step 12) really isn’t that well written.  It basically says finish the rest of the edges.  In this step you fold over the neck facing and the facing of the front wraps and ties and sew them all down at once by starting at the end of one tie, sewing up one side, around the neck, down the other side to the tip of the other tie.  I would recommend pinning starting at the neck.  You will have to double fold the edge under at the neck line so that the inside edge meets the outside edge and the inside is finished rather than raw.  You can then use this amount as a guide for how much you need to fold the front facing under to finish the edge.  The front facing narrows as it goes toward the end of the ties.  The amount you fold under will go from about .5 inch at the neckline to nothing at the end of the ties.  If you do not fold the edge under and instead just sew down the raw edge where it meets the body of the blouse you will end up with an unattractive jog at the neck facing.

Now that I have completed the Pavlova and wore it around a few days, there are a few things I will do differently next time I sew it.  The pattern is made with the back slightly longer than the front, so that the back has a flap that would make it easy to tuck in.  I would extend the length of the front so that it is at least as long as the back, and I may lengthen the body overall, because it is very short.  It is also made so that the front ties simply overlap each other, making them compete for space.  This is much easier than sewing an opening in one side that one tie can slip through, so I understand why the pattern was written this way, but I will opt for a side opening next time.

So the big questions:

Does the finished pattern look like the picture?  Yes, the resemblance is remarkable. 

Would you sew it again?  Absolutely, but I would modify it slightly to better fit my body and lifestyle.  I am actually already planning another.

Olive and Archie

Hillary Lang of Wee Wonderfuls designed these wonderful dolls I made for my kids this Christmas.  These are the Olive and Archie dolls.  The pattern for both dolls is only $15, and it comes with a number of patterns for accessories for the dolls.

I chose to make these dolls for a few reasons.  First, and most importantly, one of the dolls was a boy.  I looked for quite a while before finding a pattern for a normal looking boy pattern.  Most of the boys were elves, fairies, or the like, and this doll was just a normal boy.   The second reason was the doll accessories.  The accessory patterns are not typical of most doll patterns.  Instead, these dolls come with patterns for backpacks, sleeping bags, snow suits, and even a cat.

In the above picture the dolls are wearing winter outfits I made for them while the kids were sick after Christmas.  The kids were worried their dolls would be too cold to play outside after the kids got better.  Archie's sweater and hat were made with a felted wool sweater from the thrift store, and Olive's hoodie, skirt, and boots were made from a pair of pj's my daughter had outgrown.  

Gift Idea #6 - Embroidered Brooch

Another one bites the dust.  Yet one more Christmas present in my queue has been completed. My latest project was this little embroidered brooch, approximately 2" in diameter.  It depicts the Ebola virus, and will hopefully soon adorn the lapel of a young doctor.  I thought it would be a laugh for her colleagues, and a great conversation starter with everyone else.

Gift Idea 5: Heated Eye Mask

Christmas keeps comming closer, as inevivible as the passage as, well, time.  With it comes more Christmas presents.  I made this eye mask out of recycled materials for my grandmother who has eye problems.  If you have all of the materials on hand, and hour can see several made.

Materials for One Eye Mask:

1.  Burda Style Pattern Marcel #7997.  This is a free download, and the entire pattern should fit on a standard piece of paper.

2.  Two pieces of soft fabric approx. 9" by 5".  I got enough fabric for 3 masks from the front of a cotton dress shirt (the rest of the shirt had already been repourposed as napkins.
3.  Flat batting in the same amounts as the fabric above (optional).  I used cotton batting let over from a quilt, but fleece, or rescused batting would work well too.

4.  50" to 60" of ribbon, .75" to 1" wide, cut in half.  Deside on the total amount of ribbon you want to use based on head size. I used the ribbon from a kids store's elaborate gift wrapping.  One package yielded more than enough ribbon.

5.  Rice.  I used about 0.125 pounds of inexpensive long grain rice.  You can probably find enough in your pantry.

Instructions:

If you know how to sew, this will probably be a no brainer, but Burda Style has no instructions on this pattern (as of this writting), so....

1.  After printing and cutting out the Marel pattern, pin the pattern piece to your fabric (with the grain of the fabric), mark the side openings noted on the pattern on your fabric, and cut the fabric in pattern.  Do this so that you get two pieces of fabric in pattern shape, then do the same with the batting.

2.  Make the following fabric/batting sandwich; (Beginning on the bottom) batting, fabric (right side up), fabric (right side down), batting.  Then stitch around the edges of the mask with a 5/8" seam allowance, leaving the spaces that were marked "ribbon" on the pattern open.

3.  Turn your "sandwich" inside out.  The fabric should now be on the outside, the batting on the inside.

4.  Insert one of the ribbons about 1" into the ribbon slot, fold the fabric around the ribbon slot inward to that it looks as if it had been sewn with the rest of the eye mask.  Sitich the ribbon in place very close to the edge of the mask. DO NOT SEW THE OTHER RIBBON IN PLACE AT THIS TIME.

5.  The ribbon slot on the other end of the mask is still open.  Use this opening to pout in your rice.  Make a funnell with a spare bit of paper, stick the small end in the ribbon slot, and pour the rice in the large end.  Pour in enough rice so that half of the eye mask is full.

6.  With the rice at the opposite end of the mask, attach the 2nd ribbon as shown for the first in step 4.

~Happy Holidays

Edit:  If you would like to heat the eye mask, place it in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute.  Test it's temperature on the sensitive part of your arm before placeing it on your eyes.  It should be warm, NOT hot.

I-Pod Nano Case

My latest project is finished.  It is an i-pod nano case for my cousin.  The tutorial was from Made by Petchy.  All of the measurements she gives are in cm, so if you, like me, live where yo can't find a metric cutting mat to save your life, let me know.  I have already figured out all of the English measure equivilents and can share them with you.

Closed.

Open, with an "i-pod" inside.  I don't have an i-pod, so I made a paper one to the correct dimensions to make sure the case would work.

Open and Empty.

Mini Stocking Advent Calender

The website Burda Style has recently published a free and easy stocking advent calender pattern. They even have a step by step tutorial that makes this project easy as pie for even beginners.

The stockings are small enough to use up scraps of fabric and ribbon, and they sew up quick enough that they could still be made before December. Even if you couldn't make them all in one go, you could make them one per day in December taking only a few minutes per day. Pictures of a few of mine are below.

Not interested in the stockings? You should still check out Burda Style. They have beginner to advanced sewing patterns that are mostly free, and great sewing info, and several quick holiday projects (even a few for ambitious hand sewing).I made all of my stockings thus far out of home dec weight fabric leftovers from other projects (mine, and the leftovers I have collected from other crafters), and scraps of ribbon. I really love the eclectic look.

Paved with Good Intentions

I had big plans for this week's blog posts. A whole bunch of quick Christmas projects were buzzing along, nearing completion, and posting, and then.....
And then my very old sewing machine began to sound as if it was working VERY hard. Far harder than it actually was working. I thought that it was high time to do some long over due routine maintenance, before a real problem occurs. It was taken apart, cleaned, and oiled with little incident (the bobbin did give me a few problems - but I was sure that was nothing). I sat down to test out the machine , run the oil through the gears, and get oil on scrap fabric, rather than on anything I wanted to keep.

Within a few stitches it was clear there was a problem. The bobbin tension was far too tight. Despite the fact that I knew the tension was already set low enough for the muslin I was sewing, I adjusted it down, as if I was sewing the most delicate of fabrics. I ran the fabric through the machine, or rather I tried to run it through the machine again, because a few stitches it, the machine simply stopped working. I would not turn over, not even by hand. Even worse, the tiny screw that holds in the bobbin case (the part that I was pretty sure was the culprit), was almost completely obscured. I spent the better part of the next two days simultaneously trying to figure out how to reach the screw with a jeweler's screw driver and stay sane. In the end a stiff piece a wire was able to reach he screw and turn it. I was able to pop the bobbin casing out, and there was a small piece of thread behind it. Fixed, right? Wrong!

The bobbin tension was too high in the next test as well. The only thing that hadn't changed, that had not been fixed, was the bobbin itself. I changed it, and it sewed beautifully. I can't tell you exactly what happened to it, but somehow it had actually increased in width.

Regardless of what happened, I am back in business. I have already gotten a few more projects finished, and hope you enjoy the days to come.

Halloween Costumes

My daughter wanted to dress up as a mighty knight for Halloween since she saw the Backyardigans' Tale of the Mighty Knights. In fact she wanted the entire family to dress as characters from the video. So, Mr. Incredible and I made the kids mighty knight costumes.

"A Mighty Knight"

Then she got sick. She felt too bad to go trick-or-treating, and instead lay miserably on the couch wishing that she was knocking on doors and demanding candy from strangers. Even though she had only just turned two last Halloween, she remembered trick-or-treating vividly, and had been wanting to go for months."King Pablo"

The next day she was feeling better, so Mr. Incredible and I went to the store and bought some candy, gave it to my in-laws, and dressed the kids up for a mini trick-or-treating outing.

"A Mighty Knight with Eggbert the Dragon"

30 Minute Gown

Violet will be three soon, but she is already the height of the average four year old, and has the waist circumference of the average 2 year old. She is quickly out growing her clothing in length even though most of fits her just fine. The other morning, while I watched her walk around the house in too short pj's, I decided to make her a new night gown. So at 7:00 that night - 1 hour till bed time - I started making the gown that she would wear to bed that night.

Here is the finished result;
I had seen a similar gown made for adults out of vintage pillow cases; however, I had no vintage pillow cases, and while tall, Violet is much smaller than an adult. I do have a fabric stash though, which includes the cute paisley shown from Robert Kaufman's Barn Dandy's collection.

The gown was very simple in construction, basically a tube with semi-circle cut outs for the arm openings. Here is how I made it.

1) First I cut a rectangle that was about 125% of her chest circumference by her shoulder to knee length.
2) Next I used a french seam to attach the two shorter ends. This could be done using a regular seam. I used a French seam to give the garment a more finished look, without the use of a serger.
How to do a French seam:
a) Sew the seam with WRONG sides facing.
b) Trim the seam allowance.
Pre -trimPost Trim

c) Turn inside out so that the right sides are facing, and press the seam.
d) Sew the seam with the right sides facing.
This is what a finished French seam looks like.
3) Hem the bottom edge.
4)Cut the arm holes. I lay the garment out with the seam denoting the center back. I marked the garment at four inches from the top and four inches from the side on both the right and left sides of the top of the gown. Then I cut a half u shape connecting the marks through BOTH layers of fabric.
5) Finish arm hole edge by turning over twice and stitching in place like a hem.
6) Hem the unfinished top edges by turning them over a small amount, pressing, then turning them over about 1 inch and stitching them in place leaving the side edges open.7) Cut a very long length of ribbon, and run it through the open side of the top front of the garment (as seen above), then through the corresponding side of the back top. Tie the ends in a bow on one side.

Ta-da!

Wrap Pants

Three pairs of pants, zero dollars.

I found this wonderful tutorial on making these super simple wrap pants. So far I have made two pairs, and assisted my sister in making a third. The adult sized pants used about 2 yards of fabric each. I used the left over fabric from my own pants to make my daughter's pants. I origionally made my pants MUCH too large, so much too large that I used the fabric I trimmed off my pants to make my daughter's. I wonder what that says about my self perception, or maybe my diet? I think next time I will have someone else measure me.

The pants were all made from some linen fabric that has been sitting in my stash for at least two years, so I didn't go out and buy any of the materials to make them - hence, zero dollars. However, these pants could easily be made for less than $10.

Here are a few pics of the finished products.The front of my pants. These do expose some thigh when I sit down. The back of my pants. The ties are hidden by my shirt.My sister's sparkley linen pants.The pants unwrapped. They are huge. They remind me of the after picture for a diet plan.My daughter's pants. I used elastic in her waste band rather than relying on ties alone to hold up her pants. She has one tie that is purely decorative. I think she likes them!

Back in the Hospital

For the second time in two months I spent most of the night in the emergency room with my husband. He again had symptoms reminiscent of a heart attack. He appears to be in no immediate danger, but we still have no idea what is wrong. So another barrage of tests is on the horizon.

Ironically, I spent yesterday in our doll hospital, performing plastic surgery on Isa, my daughter's iguana friend who was brutality attacked and mauled by our dog. She will always have the scars, but I believe that once she fully recovers from the surgery she will be able to lead a normal life.

The following pictures are of Isa post surgery. I will not be sharing preoperative pictures, as they are simply too gruesome.

On the up side I was able to do a lot of knitting in the hospital. I finished the large swatch for my sister's bag, and felted it today, Swatched for the Holly Jacket, and made an apple and lime which I finished today. Here they are;

Napkins, napkins everywhere

What can you make with nearly any piece of clothing past it's prime? A napkin of course.
Napkins range in size from a 16 to 18 inch square dinner napkin, 12 to 14 inches for a lunch napkin, to 4 to 6 inches for cocktail napkins. You can cut at least one square, of one of these sizes out of even baby clothing.

A little while ago my husband ripped a large gash in a nice button down oxford shirt. When I finially got around to cutting it up, I was suprised to find that I was able to cut 4 12" squares from the back and sleeves of the shirt that I can make into luncheon size napkins. The rest of the shirt should yield at least 4 more 4 to 6 inch squares for cocktail napkins. One of the finished napkins is pictured below.
How to do it:
1) Cut as many squares of the desired size as possible out of the ruined piece of clothing (make sure you cut the squares with the grain of the fabric, rather than at an angle to it. If the fabric is woven, and as thick as you feel a napkin should be you can simply stop here (woven fabric cut on the grain will unravel very little after washing).
2) I felt that my squares were too thin, so I doubled them up. You could then hem the pieces under, or stitch around the edges so that the pieces stay together and leave it at that. I decided to make mine a little more polished, and decided to use bias tape to finish the edges.
3) Bias tape can be found in any craft store; however, it can also easily be made out of any light weight woven fabric, and since this is all about reusing that is what I did.

how to make bias tape;
Tutorial
If you have any questions feel free to ask.

4) Pin the bias tape around the edge of your napkin, so that the bias tape encloses the edge of the napkin, then stitch around the edge of the tape.

Ta Da! A beautiful napkin.

An Ode to the Humble Flat Sheet

A spare flat sheet is one of the most versatile implements in the home decorating arsenal. Why you ask?

1. It is one of the cheapest fabric values you can find. For example, a 100% cotton, 250 thread count, Queen size flat sheet from Target is $14.99. How much fabric is that? A Queen size flat sheet is 90 inches x 102 inches. That is twice the width of a wide piece of cloth available from a fabric store, and almost three yards of length. That is about $2.50 per yard, and better values can be found at discount stores.
2. A flat sheet that same size as your bed (a queen size sheet for a queen size bed) can serve as a bed skirt on beds of standard height.
3. Flat full size sheets are about the same width as most beds are long making them great candidates for bed curtains - and can be a perfect match for your bed sheets.
4. Sheets are also so long that they can serve as floor to ceiling curtains on all but very tall windows.
5. Sheets are the perfect no sew option for the always popular toga party.

Below is a picture of my sheet, turned one time bed skirt, and now bed curtain.