#kwik sew

[justsewwhat]

[tinyfashionparade]

This evening I used Kwick Sew 2921 to make A pair of overalls to go with the original long sleeve t-shirt that this doll came with. Her full original factory outfit includes the pink jumper dress, the striped long sleeve t-shirt and headband, white socks and white fabric sneakers with pink shoelaces. In the moderately near future, I will be making other tops which will coordinate with both the jumper dress and the overalls.

[akcvance]

Kwik sew K4354 after my son saw the one my daughter and I made he wanted his own. He got to pick out the fabric but he didn't want to help make it any more than that.

[professorpski]

Study in Blues: Kwik Sew 3658

I have now made a total of 4 different version of this knit top by Kerstin Martensson which was first published in 2012. As I mentioned when I first blogged the pattern, It features a standing shawl collar which is lined by doubling the top half of the pattern and sewing up the center seam to the neckline V. The center back neck seam is then closed and the front meets the back past the top shoulder line. The result is a clean-finished neckline and a lined section over the bust which is useful for sheer fabrics.

This rayon model blend which I found online at Fabric Mart is a very soft fabric which would be perfect for pajamas though my goal was a top for work. I had to bring the neckline up because the drape brought it lower than the synthetic that I used for my muslin. The fabric was a panel print with flowers placed at wide intervals at the diagonal. This is a common placement for large-scale prints and allows you have the informal balance of interest at one shoulder and then at opposite hip on a dress. With top, you make sure to place at the shoulder and then live with cutting off the flowers at the hip.

I was able to make this into a top I can wear to work under a suit. The solid dark blue is mostly what people see with a bit of print at the neckline where you want interest. Take off the jacket, and it easily becomes after-work wear as the large blooms blossom into view.  However, I am more convinced than ever that the very soft knits like rayon and modal are for pajamas, unless they are mixed with cotton which gives them more body. Stay tuned for that version.

[akcvance]

Kwik sew K4354. Made with my 8 year old daughter. The pattern actually did say to sew through all the layers at anypoint, but we decided to stitch in the ditch around the rectangles. A bit lumpy and sloppy because she is new at sewing and I don't make quilts/blankets, but a good 1st try for both of us. Probably have to make at least one more (my son wants one too). Still trying to not buy new fabric, so it was made from the stash which is why it doesn't follow the pattern.

[professorpski]

Why They Loved Small Prints, Kwik Sew 3658 and the Enormous Repeat

I have been making a number of easy knit tops from an old Kwik Sew pattern. The first was a old gold and black synthetic burnout print which served as my test muslin as the fabric had cost almost nothing. I turned out well, so I started in on some fashion fabric beginning with this ITY knit for a work top to wear with a black suit.

But then I hit some problems. First, I got fixated on the fuchsia blob of color and wanted it at my right shoulder. But once I had cut out the right front pattern piece (I was doing the front one at the time) I realized I had a frenzied print which included a weird red blob just below the waist. See the first photo with the rejected piece pinned to the finished one. It still hurts my eyes. I decided to recut the right front pattern piece and recognize that the main color needed to be black with only swirls of the colors.

Which brought me to my second problem: how to cut a new right bodice piece and still have enough yardage. The repeat is enormous, some 23 inches long by 27 inches wide in a directional print. At least the yardage was wide enough to offer 2 repeats across. After a nervous ten minutes of positioning pattern pieces, I eventually reversed the bodice piece cutting one with the neckline towards one end of the cut fabric and the other towards the other end.. The result is dynamic, but not frenetic. And the back pattern piece also centers the black portion of the print. The fuschia blobs were relegated to the sleeves.

I do like the result, but I kept thinking of the Dress Doctors’ advice to opt for small repeat prints because of their ease of use -- no need to match prints across a front seam!-- and the little waste that resulted. Small repeat prints were in fact the most popular fabric choices for home dressmakers in the mid-20th Century. I suspect those dressmakers created drama in other ways: with their choice of colors of  their prints and their harmonizing or contrasting color accents either in the garment or in accessories. 

Lessons for the day: Avoid large prints unless you are willing to wrestle with them. Outline your layout choices in chalk before picking up your scissors. And thus avoid some panicked moments at your cutting table.

[doctortdesigns]

Blink Twice for No

Blink Twice for No #sewing #patterns #paperpatterns

Writing reviews for new pattern releases used to be one of my favorite parts of posting to this blog. I know a lot of people would read specifically because of those reviews, but at a certain point it got to be too much for me. It was a combination of several things; burnout, for sure, but also a reconsideration of who and what gets promoted in the sewing space, and what I want to be promoting on…

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[cosmomoore]

McCall's and Kwik Sew (!!!) patterns are on sale for $1.99 at JoAnn until 3/3!!

It is a shame I spent more ordering from the site since they went on sale a day after my patterns arrived (but at least I was able to get the sizes I needed for sure).

But!! At least now they are cheaper so the ones I was waffling on I can get now lol