Amy Butler's Little Stiches for Little Ones? Got it. Never made a thing out of it.
Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing? Got it. Never made a thing out of it.
Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings? Got it. Never made a thing out of it.
You get the point, right?
But perhaps I'm turning a corner, because with this project I've made two (yes, two!) projects out of Meg McElwee's Growing Up Sew Liberated. And for the record, I love both of them.
Now I should probably say that knits are definitely not my favorite thing to sew with, because while I've had some successes in the past, they've definitely been accompanied by some major failures. But with all the cute knit items that I'm seeing lately (like this one...love!) I've become convinced that I need to get over my apprehension of knits once and for all.
And I'm hoping that this little tee will do it for me.
Now my only complaint will be the slim-pickings that exist when it comes to knit fabrics.
Yeah, yeah...I know that Spoonflower offers amazing knit prints galore, but for the time being I'm avoiding Spoonflower like the plague because I'm afraid of an instant addiction to their adorable array of knits. And the last thing that I need right now is a twenty-seven dollar per yard fabric habit!
Fabric: Interlock cotton knit and ribbing - both purchased at Joanns
Pattern: Envelope Tee from Growing Up Sew Liberated
Size: 0-3 months
adorable!! great work! i'm afraid, but gotta just jump in i guess!
ReplyDeletethat's a great little tee! i wish my joanns carried knits that looked like that. i can't wait to break in my copy of that book....i'm sure it'll happen sometime in the next 2.5 years :)
ReplyDeleteHA! so funny, i do the same thing with sewing books, but i basically learned how to sew on simple sewing, so i have a love for that one. growing up sew liberated really does seem to be a goodie, though. i've just sewn one project from it (and heavily altered) but it was great. super cute shirt!!
ReplyDeleteI so feel you on the Spoonflower danger. So cute, so pricey! I love this shirt and I really like that book. Lotta's simple sewing for babies is great, especially the swaddler, I made one for Jude which he promptly rejected. But I've made quite a few other things from that book and they really are dead simple. Your little ones are so lucky to have such a crafty mama!
ReplyDeleteI have Growing Up Sew Liberated and all the projects look cute but I'm having a tough time finding cute knit fabrics. I'm also avoiding Spoonflower and our local fabric store has lots of Disney and babyish prints which I don't like. I like your choice for this shirt though. Green is my favorite and the strips work well.
ReplyDeleteYeah I have a few books I've never sewn from, too! But never say never, right? And they're all inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI love that top and it looks beautifully sewn.
I'm a total Spoonflower enabler and can I just say the fabric is really wide, so you can get a lot from a yard. E.g. I got the front & back of a 9y.o. t-shirt and the front of a 5 y.o. t-shirt from a single yard. And you can mix the prints with matching plains that you buy elsewhere... and I also found out they will sell the plain unprinted basecloth for $10 a yard (cos I asked). It's a really nice natural cream colour so great to do, say, contrast sleeves.
Sorry to er, push you closer to the Spoonflower precipice!
So cute, but yes, Spoonflower can be rather eye-watering on prices. I'm off on an online hunt for some solid jersey knit for a project for me, I'm not holding my breath on a glorious array of options!
ReplyDeleteDarling! I love the green stripes. I really haven't worked with knits but I have a couple fabulous pieces of knit fabric in my stash that are begging to be made into something.
ReplyDelete$27 a yard fabric... bad. love the shirt though, she is going to be adorable in it!
ReplyDeleteLooks great! Do you use a serger? I've wanted to try making some clothes, but don't know where to start when it comes to sergers, especially without breaking the bank incase it doesnt "stick".
ReplyDeleteI do have a serger, but honestly I mostly use it just to finish the seams (which you don't really need to do with knits). I'm too scared to just use it to sew the seams since serged seams are more the permanent side (or atleast a total pain in the butt to take out!)
DeleteI think it's totally fine to have books with untested projects in them. After all it's not like you bought them but never read them, right? So why have different standards than for other books. Great mini tee!
ReplyDeleteWhoa! Hi! Thanks for the linky! (I actually just got a blurry photo of the subject baby IN the owl gown, and it looks great - squeeeee!)
ReplyDeleteThe top is super cute, and I completely agree - the selection of knits at the fabric store is cheap but way uninspiring, Spoonflower is amazing but really pricey. There's not much in-between. Why don't more of the quilt-fabric designers do knits? (I can guess the answer to that. Demand, blah blah blah. But really, come on, TRY US. We might buy more than you think!)
I'm starting to kind of ... this is crazy talk ... *like* sewing with knits??! And I don't even have a serger or anything.
That looks great! I'm getting inspired by the Made By Rae knit series, but the one time I tried to hem up a knit tank top, it got jammed in the throat of my machine. I still haven't recovered from that.
ReplyDeleteI also have a pristine copy of Little Stitches with not one project to show from it, but I just finished some quick-change trousers and the Pretty as a Picture dress from Handmade Beginnings. Both were pretty quick and adorable--they're gifts, but I really wished I'd had the book back when my youngest was born. The trousers, especially, would have gotten some serious use.
sweet! As you may know, I got that book and immediately passed it on to someone who can "really" sew.
ReplyDeleteThat shirt looks so sweet! Congrats!
XO
So cute! I had a hard time finding cute knits for a long time, but my newest obsession is girlcharlee.com. They've got literally tons of awesome print knits, both for kids and grown ups, and the prices are pretty good. Check it out... or don't, if you want to avoid my fate of buying like 15 yards on your first visit!
ReplyDeleteOh, and I'm another serger-shunner when it comes to knits, I find them much easier to handle on a regular machine. Love my serger for woven seam finishing, though!