Hello Internet friends!
It feels like a whole age since I last wrote here but in reality it has only been about two weeks! I purposely postponed last weeks’s scheduled post and took a step back from posting my own content on Instagram to allow for voices in the BIPOC communities to be heard, and to do my own research, learning, and reflection. I say this not to ‘get a pat on the back’ but to acknowledge my own short comings, failings, and to re-affirm to myself, and to you, to continue to listen, to learn, to accept criticism, and to continue the work of identifying/dismantling my own internalized biases. This is not something that can be done over the course of a few weeks or months, it will take years. There will be mistakes that I make along the way, much like any type of learning, but I have committed to starting and I am committed to this life long path. I hope that you too have taken some time to reflect and begin this much needed work! I have collated all of the resources I’ve been sharing on my Instagram stories in my highlights under resources, I’ll continue to update these as time continues, and I hope they are just as helpful to you as they are to me.
Today I’m sharing two Seamwork pattern makes, one that I made over a year ago and one that is brand new! First up is the latest of the two makes, a Lito T-Shirt Dress made in a striped cotton from BlackBird Fabrics (recently restocked I believe! this is the Gingerbread and Ivory colour way if you’re interested! Love how the colour is called gingerbread mostly because I love food 😅). Highly recommend this fabric for a dress (I may have recently bought more in a different colourway for another one lol) as it has great drape and recovery and is opaque enough for a dress without being overly thick.
The Lito pattern itself is a great pattern! I like they very subtle waist shaping to the oversized T shirt shape which works great for a #shortgirl like me. For my version I cut a size 10 and modified for shortness by reducing the length by 4”, and I think the fit is pretty much spot on! I like the overall fit, not too boxy and over sized but also not too tight in the bust or hip to cause pooling in the lower back. I can really see this becoming a summer staple since it’s so easy to throw on and to style. For the contrast neck/sleeve bands I decided to simply cut the horizontal stripe vertically instead of trying to find matching ribbing and I really like the effect! I’m slowly but surely getting better at stripe matching, I did make a slip up when cutting the back piece but I don’t think it’s tooooo noticeable in the final product.
The only thing I would add to the instructions for this pattern would be to add some clear elastic to the shoulder seams to make sure that they don’t stretch out over time. I would say if you are new to sewing with kits this is a great pattern to start with as they are a lot of helpful ‘sewing with knits’ tips included in the instructions! Oh! And I think I finally figured out my twin needle sewing issues, I needed a longer stitch length and lower tension and now it seems like my twin needle is doing just fine and I was able to use it to hem sleeves and bottom hem in addition to top stitching the neckline. I don’t know if things finally worked out because this is a bit of a thicker jersey with more stability, but the real test will be after I wash it as that’s when I find you really start to see issues with tunneling of the fabric or the stitches just coming apart, fingers crossed it works out fine post wash!
On to the Audrey Jacket! I made this jacket well over a year ago and it has gotten a TON of use! I initially made it for my trip to Japan and was kind of under the gun to get it finished lol. I really wanted it to have that lived in feel from the get go so I washed the denim twice (a 10oz cotton denim from BlackBird that had been sitting in my stash for wayyy too long, as well as a scrap piece of denim from a pair of jeans that I made for a friend for the under collar as I was just short of fabric) and dried it in the dryer to really get the softening of the fabric started. For the construction I used a combination of the Seamwork instructions in addition to tips and tricks from the Hampton Jean Jacket Sewalong, the main tip that I would highly recommend from the sewalong is to interface where the welt pockets are inserted to ensure that your pockets will stand the test of time with heavy cellphones and keys.
For my version I sewed up a straight size 6 and shortened the sleeves by 1/2”, I probably could have done with 1/4” shortening as the sleeves are a * tad* too small when I put my arms out front of me but other than that it’s been perfect!. For this jacket I went with the size 6 as I sized based on my high bust measurement since the final bust measurement is quite generous and since I knew I would probably never button it up all the way I wanted the fit in the shoulders to be a bit more snug. I can button it up if I would like and I have worn it with bulkier sweaters underneath and it works great! This is one of those great examples of how having the final measurements of a garment in addition to thinking about how you would most often wear it can really inform your sizing decision. I also made a quick muslin before cutting my denim just to make sure that the smaller size would still work for me.
I think this is the first jean jacket that I’ve every owned that I didn’t have to roll up the sleeves for which is awesome! I really like how the final jacket turned out, it’s undergone a few more washes to continue the ‘aging’ process as well as some buffing of the seams with a sweater stone to really help give it that lived in look.
I've been wearing this jacket a ton this spring for my semi-daliy walks and quick trips to the lab and back for work. It’s also allowed me to display a bit of my enamel pin collection, for these photos I have my two crafted moon pins (the octopus and ‘fabric only’ scissors) as well as my maker pin from twill and print 😍 I know i’m going to continue to get a lot of wear out of this jacket so I’m glad it’s held up great so far over the past year, and I’m glad I took the extra time to reinforce those welt pockets!
Hope you are all doing well and staying safe! See you next week with more summer makes!