As 2016 is wrapping up I'm realizing that there are a whole heck of a lot of things that I never got around to blogging about, mostly because I made them for me and often can't muster up the energy to take pictures.  And when I do muster up the energy, it's at the end of the day and my clothes are sort of a wrinkly mess.

Like this Archer, for example.

Yes, yes, I made yet another Archer (number 5 if you're keeping count), although I finally got around to lengthening the body which is a pretty small modification, but it definitely makes it more wearable.

The fabric is a Japanese cotton lawn that I bought several months ago at Drygoods Design, but it looks like it's now sold out.  I originally bought the fabric to make a shirt for Ben since he's been complaining that I sew for everybody but him, but the stripe is slightly uneven and variegated and the fabric is a bit crinkly and when I brought it home all he could say was "it hurts my eyes!"  I tried to explain that if he was the one wearing the shirt, he would actually be the only one who wouldn't have to look at it (kind of like the guy who ate at the Eiffel Tower everyday so he wouldn't have to see it) but he wasn't buying my superior logic.  Fortunately, his rejection of my fabric wasn't an issue because it just meant that I got to use it for my own evil purposes.

Some might even accuse me of purposely buying a fabric that Ben hates so that I could ultimately use it all for me.

But, of course, they would be wrong.

What To Sew When Your Fabric Goes MIA

The other day I woke up in a house with no children and a fabulous idea of what I wanted to sew.  Unfortunately, I also woke up with a killer cold and, despite searching high and low, I couldn't find the fabric that I was looking for (it remains MIA).  In the end, though, the missing fabric ended up being fortuitous because it led me back to this beautiful cotton lawn that my sister brought back from Pakistan a couple years ago.  It was a little over two yards of fabric but it was also on the narrow side so there were some definite limitations as to what I could make with it.  Also, it had a really beautiful border print so I wanted to make sure that it was incorporated in some way.  In the end I decided to go back to the Scout Tee pattern with some minor modifications.  I started by lengthening the sleeves to around 3/4 length and I cut the sleeves against the grain to incorporate the border pattern into the sleeve ends.  I also lengthened the body considerably (maybe four inches?  I'm terrible about keeping track of these things).  I attempted to make more of a shirt tail hem on the sides but I didn't do a drastic enough modification so it's barely noticeable.

Most of the seams are French seamed since the fabric is ever so slightly sheer but my sleeves are just serged in.  A couple  years ago I followed Jen's tutorial on French seaming sleeves, but honestly, I found it to be a major pain in the butt.

And that's it, although I'm debating whether I should have made a size four instead of a size two (like I have in the past).  My body has definitely changed over the last couple years and I feel like I'm still figuring out what sizes to sew and what modifications to make.  I'd like to thank growing older and having two kids for these fitting issues.

On a slightly more humorous note, I had Ben retake a couple of these pictures because my posture was so bad in them.  He told me, "That should be your New Year's resolution.  Better posture."
I told him, "It was.  Last year."
To which he replied, "How's that working for you?"

Not so good, I guess.

One. Two. Three.

First there was one.

Then there were two.

And now there's three.

Three people sporting octopi covered shirts that is.

You know what they say "the family that wear octopi together, stays together."  Or something like that.  In any case, 3/4 of our family is now fully outfitted with an octopus-themed garments.  Ben was feeling a little left out so he made his own handmade octopus shirt.  I told him not to quit his day job.

O's dress is from her birthday and my shirt is an Archer that I finished just before starting school in June.  I didn't get to wear it from a couple months because it was blazing hot around here for several weeks.  On the day of our midterms, though, it cooled down to a reasonable temperature and I broke out the octopus shirt as a little good luck charm.  It turns out that is was just the ice breaker that people needed in the middle of hours of tense exams.  I mean, who could be stressed out when the woman in front of you is wearing a button down shirt covered in octopi?  It's simply not possible.

As for C's shirt, it's the Class Picnic Blouse from Oliver and S which makes a great little top and I'm thinking that, with some lengthening, it would also make a great little dress.  I'd be hung go for making it except that C has returned to her natural state of being a mostly ungrateful recipient of handmade goods.

Ah, three year olds.  So stinking cute.  So stinking fickle.

I Think I'm In Love...With This Dress

Remember when I wrote about using nearly 20 year old fabric?  Well, I can now beat that because this dress just so happens to be made out 40 year old fabric that my mom bought back when they lived in Indonesia in the early 1970's.  Now I realize that I'm making it sound like I come from an entire family of hoarders, but that's probably not too far off from the truth.

In any case, my mom gifted me a couple of fabrics that she no longer has use for since she really doesn't sew anymore.  This fabric is a beautiful handcrafted batik and given that and the fact that my mom held on to it for so long, I was more than a little nervous about cutting into it.  Especially, since the last time I tried to use a precious fabric from my mom I ended up making an entire dress....and then cutting a hole in it with the serger just as I was finishing it.  Ughh!  This time I was determined to be far more careful.

I used the Alder Dress pattern by Grainline Studio since I already had a good idea of the fit and I thought it would be a great match for this fabric.  This time around though I went back and properly added three inches to the length and I love the length on this version  You know what else I love?  The fact that I think I've finally figured out how to sew the gathered inset in properly.  The inset on my first Alder is a little rough but fortunately dark blue color hides a multitude of sins.  I also only added one breast pocket to this one, but you may have a  hard time seeing it due to my kick-ass pattern matching (excuse me while I pat myself on the back).

Other than that, there's nothing too notable about this dress.  Except that I really, really, really do like it.  It is totally not something that I would ever try on in a store, but somehow that makes me like it even more.

Oh, and no post would be complete without a picture of my favorite little photobomber.  Hello there, little one.

Alder Dress

After falling in love with the butt ruffle Archer I knew that I needed to get my hands on the dress equivalent - the Alder.  Now I should probably say that when this pattern first came out I was kind of "ehh" about it, mostly because I get the feeling that View A is not the most flattering cut on me.  But then View B's popped up all around the internet and I was sold!

You know what else popped up on the internet - warnings that this dress runs on the short side and it definitely does.  Here's another warning for you - don't try to be lazy and just trace out the size 18 length for size 2 pieces because they don't line up correctly.  Trust me - I learned this lesson learned the hard way.  Use those shorten/lengthen lines that Jen so kindly put on the pattern.  I was able to work a little magic to get the mismatched front pieces sewn together but there's some definite gentle waves in the fabric where the piece was too long.  Aesthetically, it doesn't look too bad nor is it very noticeable, but it drives me a bit crazy knowing that it's not supposed to be there.

The dress is sewn up in a lovely navy double gauze that I purchased from Drygoods Design and all I have to say is "why, oh why, did it take me so long to try out this fabric?"  I now want to wrap myself in nothing but double gauze.  And it's a great option for a flowy dress like this, although I'm concerned that it may be tad see-through if I stand directly in the sun.  I'll have to do a bit more investigation into that potentially embarrassing possibility.

I think this dress is going to be a great option for summer since it's so light and airy but until summer gets here I've been wearing it with tights and a cardigan thrown on top because I'm perpetually cold.

Also, many thanks and big high fives to O for taking these pictures.  And many thanks to C for mastering the art of the photo bomb.

Now get out of my pictures!

Butt Ruffle

Well, my love affair with the Archer continues and if possible, it's grown, because I think I love this version of the Archer even more than my first version.  I may just be a butt ruffle kind of gal...who knew?  Actually, what's probably most surprising about my love for this shirt is that I love it so much even though I made it out of a fabric that I really didn't like.  It's a 100% cotton shirting fabric that I ordered ages ago from a long forgotten online fabric store but as sometimes happens when you order fabric online, when it arrived I realized that it really wasn't what I was looking for.  The color and actual fabric are fine, but I just didn't like the way that the dots were printed on the fabric.  It looked a little...cheap, maybe? In any case, it sat on my shelf for probably three years and I don't know if I would have ever gotten around to using it had I not been forced to dig through my shelves for something to sew with.  While I may not have loved the printed dots, a great redeeming factor for this fabric is it's super-wide yardage which made it so that I had plenty of fabric to work with.  Also, having worn this shirt a couple of times already I can tell you that the fabric is definitely growing on me because it rarely needs ironing when it comes out of the dryer (although, you wouldn't know it from looking at these pictures since I'd been wearing the shirt all day long when I took these pictures.  Bad blogger!)

As for the shirt, what is there to say that hasn't been said before.  This is a straight size 2 with no fit modifications.  I followed all the pattern directions, except that I used Andrea's tutorial for attaching the collar.  The pattern and instructions are great and I'm a huge fan of the ruffle on the back even if it is kind of a mullet shirt.

Business in the front.

Party in the back.

You would't know it from the silence around here, but I've actually been sewing a ton for myself lately.  I just can't get up the motivation to actually take pictures of the garments.  I'm hoping that Me Made May will finally force me to debut some of my most recent makes.  I'll probably be playing along on Instagram if you want to follow.  Let's hope that I stick with it longer than I did last year.

Archer!

Well, in true Carolyn fashion I finally got around to sewing something that the rest of the sewing community has been making for the past two years - an Archer!  In my defense, when the pattern came out I thought it looked great, but I also thought that it really wasn't something that I would wear.  Oh, how wrong I was, though, because this one has been getting a ton of wear (hence all the wrinkles) and I definitely see some more in my future (in fact, I already cut out out another one - only this time with a butt ruffle!)

Truth be told, I was also late to the game in making in an Archer because so many people commented on what a time consuming project it was and I'm more of a simple project kind of gal.  I was worried that I would find the project long and tedious and that I wouldn't enjoy it at all.  I'm happy to report, though, that my experience couldn't have been farther from that.  Yes, it took a couple sewing sessions to finish, but I loved the fact that knowing that it was going to take me some time caused me to slow down and take time in getting things right.  I have a tendency to speed through things unnecessarily and the process of slowing down definitely led to a much better end-product.  How embarrassing is it that I'm just learning this now?

For my first Archer I made straight size 2 with no modifications.  I was a bit worried about the fit because I'm definitely a pear shape and I usually grade to a larger size around the hips but I compared the Archer measurements to store-bought shirt that I had and they seemed to be comparable.  The overall fit seems to be right on although the more I wear it, the more I wish that it was just a tad bit longer.  Maybe about an inch?  (For reference, I'm 5' 6")  Fortunately, that's an easy enough modification to make in my many Archers to come.  The directions were great and I used the sew along on the Grainline Studio site to help me along when I got stuck.  And, following the sage advice of many other bloggers, I used Andrea's collar tutorial and it made the collar installation pretty easy.

The fabric is from Nancy's Sewing Basket and I bought it on a particularly memorable Mother's Day outing that ended with both kids crying hysterically in the car and O having blood all over her face because of some obsessive ear-picking that she did back when she was three.  This fabric is probably the only good thing to come from that day.  The fabric is a cotton with a tiny bit of stretch to it and I originally purchased it thinking that I would make some sort of dress out of it, but then I got smart and realized that I rarely wear dresses and this was the far more practical solution.

And it is.  The end.

All Grainline, All The Time

Alternative Title: "The One In Which I Blatantly Copy The Lovely Ms. Beeman"

Perhaps this top looks a little familiar to you?  Probably because it looks exactly like the version that Jen sewed up for her tutorial on how to turn the Scout Tee into a Madewell-inspired top.  What can I say?  I'm a total copy cat.  But imitation is the highest form of flattery, right?  If so, I hope she considers herself truly flattered.

Well, let's start at the beginning and talk about how this top came to be.  I know that I've mentioned it before, but I'm trying my best to work with what I have in making new garments this year.  That certainly doesn't mean that I haven't bought new fabric or new patterns in the last 9 months, but that does mean that I'm trying to be a bit more thoughtful in what I do purchase and that I do my best not to jump on all the latest crazes.  It also means looking at patterns in new ways to see how they can be altered slightly to make garments with different design features.  The fantastic thing about this project though was that all that work was done for me thanks to Jen writing a couple of posts about how to reconfigure the Scout Tee into this lovely garment.  She did a great job writing out a tutorial on how to alter the pattern and all I did was follow her directions (which were lovely - as usual).  I love the curved hem and the cuffed sleeves on this version, not to mention the split neck.  Three little modifications that make for one awesome new garment.

As for sizing, I used the size two in the Scout Tee but with the length of a size 18 garment and I'm sure glad I did because it would have been way too short otherwise - especially since you take some length off of the sides with the curved hem.  The fabric is a Kaufman chambray and is as lovely as everyone says it easy.  Super easy to work with and very affordable - especially since it's such a wide fabric.  I think I bought two yards to make this shirt but only used maybe a yard and a quarter.  Now I need to figure out what to do with the other 3/4 of a yard.  Oh, to have such troublesome problems.

Oh, and why All Grainline, All The Time?  Because I happen to also be wearing my favorite Grainline Maritime Shorts.  A fully handmade outfit?  Yes, please!

Sewing For Summer At The Beginning Of Fall

I realize that most of you all have moved on to fall sewing, but you should probably know that I live in a state of eternal denial so I'm still firmly in the midst of summer sewing over here.  Hence, the shorts that I just made.  For the record, this is my third pair of Maritime Shorts.  Why another pair?  Well, my waistline seems to be spreading a bit lately (I'm not pregnant - I should probably just make that clear) making all my pants and shorts ride up just a little bit.  The problem is that this pair that I made is already on the short side so any additional shrinkage is causing some real issues in that we're quickly approach butt-cheek exposure area (an area that I generally try to avoid).  So, it was back to the Maritime Shorts again, only this time adding about an inch and a half to the length.

I love how the length came out but I probably should have taken into account the fact that I used a different type of fabric in making these shorts (oh, when will I learn?).  The fabric is a cotton sateen but there's a bit of stretch to it, making the shorts a bit bigger than they would be in a regular woven fabric.  Because of that, there's a bit more fabric in the front than I would prefer, but what are you going to do?  After all, they're not exposing my butt to the world.   You win some, you lose some.

Speaking of which, this is what happens when you try to take pictures in the backyard.

First you get one photobomber, who looks so sweet and innocent that you can't help but give her a little hug.

And then the other kid hops in.

And pretty soon it's all gone to hell.

The good news is that Ben's a good sport about it all.

Hence, this awesome t-shirt that I still like to wear.  I'm pretty sure that I have at least 2 more years before my kids start to tell me that I embarrass them.

Butt Birds

I don't know what it says about you when you make a piece of clothing for yourself thinking "this is going to be hilarious."  Hopefully it's nothing too horrible because that's exactly what I did when I couldn't quash my desire to make yet another pair of Maritime shorts and I thought it would be hilarious to make a pair with a bird on each "cheek" (if you catch my drift).

Yes, sometimes I even embarrass myself.

The good news is that I didn't have to go far to get this ridiculously awesome fabric.  I actually purchased it years and years ago to make some new cushion-covers for a chair.  Obviously that never happened (and, in fact, we don't even own that chair anymore) so I now have many yards of this fabric to use up.  It's a 100% cotton fabric but with a thicker texture so that it looks like there's some linen in it (which there isn't).  Amazingly they still sell it at fabric.com (you know, in case you too want birds on your butt).

This time around I made a size 6 again but I slimmed the bottom of the legs just a tiny bit so that they're just a bit more fitted.  I also left off the back pockets again because nothing was going to come between me and my butt-birds.  And I made the pockets and the waistband lining out of some Anna Maria Horner voile left over from this shirt because it's truly yummy fabric.  Oh, and I used a button a closure instead of a hook and eye closure. Truth be told, I kind of like the button closure better.

Perfectly matched pocket.  Boo-ya!

I'm kind of in love with these shorts which is a bit odd considering that I never thought of myself as much of a "shorts person."  But given the crazy amount of sunshine we've had around here lately and the fact that I only work four days a week now, it seems like shorts are becoming a staple of my weekend wardrobe.  And I'm apparently not the only one who's noticed because on Sunday Ben told me "I'm kind of sad that the weekend is over.  Mostly because that means that you can't wear your new shorts tomorrow."

Sometimes he just really gets me (and that's why I let him take close-up pictures of my rear-end).

Shorts On The Line: Lace Shorts

Welcome to my little part of the Shorts On The Line series!  If you're wondering how I got so lucky to hang out with such an amazing group of crafty women, well don't worry, so am I!  So you'll just have to forgive me for taking a second to thank Carla and Rachael for inviting me to be a part of this fantastic series.  Thank you!  But in addition to that I want to thank them for giving me the kick in the butt that I needed to actually get around to sewing my first(!) ever pair of shorts (well, if you don't count culottes as shorts, that is).

I actually bought Grainline Studio's Maritime Shorts pattern several months ago with every intention to whip them up in the spring. But then I totally chickened out and the pattern just laid around our house, buried under the mounds of papers that call our desk home.

Until now that is.

See that, people?  Shorts!  For me!

Now I did do something very un-Carolyn-like in making these shorts - I actually made a muslin!  But I mostly did it out of fear because I was really worried about getting the fit right since I've never sewn shorts before.  Unfortunately I made my muslin out of some left-over quilting cotton and so I thought that the size four was going to be a perfect fit.  But when I sewed up my first pair out of a bottom weight fabric that was thicker than the muslin cotton, the fit was a bit tighter (and therefore shorter) than I was looking for.  I hemmed and hawed and groaned over it for several days and then made my peace with the fact that I just wouldn't be happy wearing shorts that tight and short.  So it was back to the drawing tracing board as I traced out a size six and kept my fingers crossed that things would go better this time around.  And fortunately they did.

I purchased the gray lace overlay fabric at Pacific Fabrics back when I went to the Sewing and Stitchery Expo and the underlining is a cream cotton lawn that was hidden in a package of fabric that my little sister brought back for me from Pakistan.  I've been eyeing the fabrics that she brought back for ages but I've been a bit terrified at cutting into them and messing something up.  I figured though that if I was eventually going to find the courage to cut into them, some plain cotton lawn was the safest place to start.  Oh, and no handmade garment would be complete without a little something extra thrown in, right?  Hence the bright pink lace hem tape.  Ka-pow!

As for the pattern itself, I love Jen's garment construction because it results in a garment that looks handmade rather than homemade.  I mean look at this fly front!

It's a little sewing miracle in itself that it looks this good considering that I've never sewn a fly front before and that I had no idea what I was doing when I put it together.  Instead I just blindly followed Jen's instructions and hoped that this little sewing trust exercise would work out in the end.  And for the record, I totally trust her now.

I did choose to leave off the back pockets because I figured that I wouldn't really use them since the pattern already has very functional front pockets.  Plus back pockets would probably distract from the lacey awesomeness of the fabric.  I also chose to hand sew the waistband and the hems on the legs of the shorts to make these little suckers as pretty, pretty as possible.  Hand sewn hems aren't just for dresses, you know.  Show a little love to your shorts!

Now go check out some of the other great posts that are part of this fantastic series.   But most importantly - go sew some shorts!

This post is part of shorts on the line sewalong hosted by imagine gnats and small + friendly, sponsored by Jo-Ann, Pretty Prudent/Pellon®, and Hawthorne Threads.

6/10 - Petit a Petit and Family and Schwin & Schwin

6/11 - Delia Creates and Buzzmills

6/12 - Cirque du Bebe and Sanae Ishida

6/13 - Fake It While You Make It and elsie marley

6/14 - No Big Dill and Max California and Designs by Sessa

6/17 - girl inspired and Casa Crafty

6/18 - Frances Suzanne and Caila Made

6/19 - Made by Rae and Craftstorming

6/20 - Noodlehead and emmyloubeedoo

6/21 - Siestas & Sewing and Made with Moxie

6/24 - imagine gnats and small + friendly