Cake Patterns Cabarita Top!

I've been eyeballing the Cake Patterns Riff Cabarita top for a while.  I already bought this adorable tonal knit from Girl Charlee just for this shirt.

Buy here!

I'm in love with this fabric.  It's gorgeous.  The color is hard to capture in a photo, so this swatch from Girl Charlee is the most accurate.

Cake's Riff pattern line is a condensed version of a pattern.  Simple instructions, plus the pattern.  Previous experience with knits (even better, experience with Cake Patterns) is recommended.  I wasn't 100% sure that I qualified for the project, but it didn't include any new techniques so I figured I would be okay.

Cake Patterns has an innovative sizing method where you basically trace your own size.  This keeps fitting adjustments to a minimum, which I think is pretty damn cool.  The bodies of women vary so widely, in size and shape and length and dimension, really Steph's patterns are quite genius.  This is exactly why I started sewing.  My body is so uniquely shaped that it can be hard to find off the rack clothes in the styles that I want.  Sewing allows for full customization.  What's not to love?

The only issue I had in making this top was attaching the collar.  Generally you pin right sides together, sew, then the seam gets tucked inside.  However the collar "rolls" and I was a little confused.  I think I did it right in the end, but we'll see how it wears.  Since my fabric is pretty lightweight I did add a lightweight interfacing to the collar.  I also handsewed a few tacks to keep the collar and the seam in the right place.  The collar is understitched to prevent the seam from rolling to the front, but I think the weight of the collar kept pulling it out anyway.

I also realized when I switched to my twin needle that I had been using my universal needle instead of a ballpoint.  Which explains why the stitches are a bit weird.  But, whatever.  It seems to be okay for now.

All in all, I made a top that is freaking adorbs and I love it!  I haven't gotten around to taking a legitimate picture, but I was growing impatient in posting this so here is a photo of me at work.  Here ya go:

I love this color so much that I bought a solid version for Tilly's new Coco pattern!

Butterick See & Sew B5870

There are three - count 'em, three - reviews of this pattern on the interwebs.

 See & Sew B5870

Obviously, besides how freaking adorable Sewmanju made it, I needed to add a review and pictures of my own to the world.

I think I stumbled across Sewmanju's version somewhere between googling the Lady Skater dress, and wool jersey.  I was looking for inspiration for wintery sewing stuffs, because as adorable as sun dresses are, they just aren't practical for me at the moment.  Here in Minnesota.  Just after surviving a Polar Vortex.

After my own Lady Skater dress, I fell in love with the idea of wearing cozy knit dresses with cozy fleece lined leggings or tights.  (Have you tried them?  They're both amazeballs.  And cozy balls.)  I wear my Lady Skater dress about as much as is socially acceptable and haven't gotten around to making more.  Yet...stay tuned.  This dress with a nice cozy cowl is just asking to be made with a nice weight knit and be worn with fleecy tights.  Okay, my mission is actually to make my wardrobe entirely of work-appropriate pajamas. 

I couldn't find wool jersey, at least in any sort of affordable price range, so I found an acai purple cotton knit from Girl Charlee.  It's a nice medium weight and should make a great winter dress.

As per the usual, as soon as I came home with my new pattern in hand I read through the instructions.  They're supposed to be easy but my copy had several typos and misprints.  Luckily this isn't my first knit dress and I'm getting fairly good at knowing how things are put together without completely sticking to the directions.

The pattern only called for 2 1/8 yards but I used EVERY BIT of my 3 yards.  I had to cut it out single layer in order to fit every piece.  Another challenge is this knit was very sneaky about which side was the right/wrong side.  Luckily I inspected each piece very carefully and the finished dress has every piece facing the proper direction.

The dress was coming along swimmingly until I came to an ABRUPT halt trying to figure out how to attach the damn cowl.  The instructions were ZERO help.  After staring at the pieces, pinning, unpinning, and trying them on for about half an hour, a light bulb went off and I turned to my BFF, Google, to find a tutorial for me. 

Let me just tell you, sewalongs are a GODSEND.  I found Tasia's Renfrew sewalong and was able to attach the cowl!!! 

 From there I would like to tell you it was easy... but it wasn't.  Nothing at the fault of the pattern, but my own lack of coordination/knowledge.

First I ran out of thread.  I was surprised at first, then I realized it was because I was stitching a double seam per the instructions.  Well, duh, that makes sense!

Next was the ongoing issue I was experiencing with my thread tension.  When I first started the project my upper thread was snapping, even with a super low tension.  I was eventually able to get it to sew, but the tension still wasn't right.  It seems like one side is too tight and one side is too loose.  I've tried playing with the tension and it's helped a bit, but not completely.  It's also skipping stitches.  So, here my inexperience shows itself because I don't know what to do!

On a happier note, this dress included my FIRST set in sleeve!  Really, this wasn't nearly as terrifying as I expected.

As for alterations, I actually kept the bodice entirely unaltered even though the pattern didn't go up to my size.  I added just a touch of width to the sleeves, and I added several inches to the hips to accommodate my booty.  I did about a 2" hem to bring up the length and it seems to hit almost the right spot for me.

Oh, you wanted to see the finished product?

I will eventually provide you with pictures taken by a real camera in my dressing room, but the room is still a work in progress.  Patience, my cats.  Oh, and you see that?!  FLEECE LEGGINGS!!!  Glorious.  Excellent winter work wear.  I only need to make 846 more uber comfy dresses!

UFO, Finished Projects, Future Projects, and Excessive Thoughts

I got bored with my purse.  I was getting so frustrated trying to sew the damn straps that I just gave up.  I did sew one strap on, as well as snap a needle.  Here is a picture of the almost finished product:

It came out satisfactory.  My mother in law actually gave me a book on bag making for Christmas, so I'm looking forward to picking up new ideas and info from it.

Moving right along, just because I finally have an official UFO (unfinished object) doesn't mean I haven't been sewing and planning future projects.  I try not to plan too far ahead or buy the fabric before I have an intended purpose for it.  Otherwise I'll just go crazy with all the stuff I want to do but can't do.  So I try to take it one project at a time.

First up, I made a Lady Skater dress.  It's imperfect, but it's stupid comfortable and I love the fabric.  I got this charcoal rayon blend jersey from Joanns.

My apologies for the dirty mirror.  I really should clean it someday.  Or upgrade to taking real pictures.

This was my first adventure sewing with knits.  Well, besides Hub's Renaissance Festival costume which was whipped up with minimal thought put into it.  (I meant to link to a post on this, but apparently I never blogged about it.  It just consisted of a modified long sleeve t-shirt and modified pj pants.)  Honestly, I don't know why people are so afraid of sewing with knits on a regular sewing machine.  With the right tools it was easy as (frozen) pie, and the end result is about a million times more comfortable than a woven.  The Lady Skater pattern also came with insanely excellent instructions and lots of resources for info sewing with knits.  I'll very likely make another one and work out the kinks.

I also made a Christmas skirt inspired by Lauren's Tree Skirt Skirt.

I was trying to draft a circle skirt, but they're a total mathy PITA, so I used the circle skirt pattern pieces from a dress I've made previously and modified the waist to sit lower on the hips.  I cut a long rectangle for the waistband, inserted a pocket in the side seam, and hand picked the zipper on the opposite seam.  I also made a new black petticoat to go with it.  I could have made it fluffier but I was short on time (nothing like last minute projects!) and, well, petticoats are a huge headache to make.

This is what happens when someone tells me to dress festive - I go all out!  I literally picked out the loudest, most colorful holiday fabric from Joanns and went crazy.  You can't tell, but the skirt is also covered in silver glitter.  Bam.  My side seams are perfect and my hand picked zipper is gorgeous.  Unfortunately the skirt ended up several inches too big so I had to pin the sides to make it wearable.  I say unfortunately because the waistband is adorbs and it's a shame no one got to see it.  (These pictures were taken after a full day of sitting at work, hence the wrinkles.)  Oh well.  I made the skirt knowing I would only get to wear it a couple times so I didn't bother taking it in.

Next I have two patterns I plan on working on.  I'm not sure which one I'll do first, probably the dress.

I bought this royal purple jersey for the dress...

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and this Paris Green tonal stripe jersey for the top, both from Girl Charlee, which is now my favorite online source of jersey fabric.  Everything is like $6/yard, which is perfectly in my price range!

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I tried to keep in mind my personal style and what colors and prints really appeal to me for every day wear.  I know sometimes this is an issue with sewing because we get so excited over pretty prints and colors when really they aren't things we would reach for on a daily basis.  I know these jewel tones and a subtle stripe will fit right into my wardrobe.

The dress I first saw on another blogger's page and decided it was for me! 

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It's basically like a Lady Skater with a cowl neck.  I might even use the Lady Skater skirt pieces, because they are just so swingy and fun.  Oddly enough I can't find this dress on the interwebs, only the blog I found it on and one other.  So that will be great fodder for my blog!  I will make sure to tag it up the wazoo for other people to find.

Next up is Cake Patterns RiFF Cabarita top.

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This is a nice basic t-shirt with a little visual interest in the collar and back v.  It's really made to highlight stripes, but I would like to make it in a solid too just to have another basic top to wear around.  I plan on making the sleeves elbow length for a little extra warmth.

I might have mentioned before that I was planning on making a pattern off a dress I already own, which I did, but I haven't made progress on the dress except to buy lining fabric.  I plan on making a muslin out of my lining fabric to make sure the dress will fit properly, but it isn't really a priority since it's been so cold.  Wearing a short sleeve dress isn't very appealing right now.  More dresses out of a nice weight jersey sound much warmer, so that's what I've been looking at!

So, there is a lengthy update on what I'm up to and what I've been doing.  What kind of clothes do you like to make in the winter?