Burdastyle Camp(er) Shirt

 This is another camp shirt sewn to amuse a grandchild. In this case I'm aiming at my grandson, who is very into RVs. He and my son are working on his Mom, trying to persuade her that they need to buy a $55,000 camper. This is the same son who, as a child, preferred fancy hotels with room service and hated hiking because he didn't want to get his sneakers dusty. Go figure.

Last time I made a camp shirt I used another Burdastyle pattern, blouse 116A from the April, 2012 issue. I like that one pretty well, but I'd say this pattern has a more traditional fit. It's cut longer and looser, with a pleat in the back to add extra ease.

Here's a closer look at that pleat, and also at the RV print. 

This pattern has a back yoke, but no inner yoke, so the seam between the yoke and back is visible inside. This is the first time I've made a shirt like that and part of me imagined shrinking from the visible seam allowance. But, heck, it's a camp shirt, not a dress shirt, so I made it according to directions. And it isn't bad at all. If you top stitch that baby down it's  just like any other inner seam.

I'm pretty well supplied with camp shirts at the moment, but you never know when a cute print is going to come along. I'm glad to have two patterns traced out that work for me.

I'll pack this top for my upcoming trip to SoCal to see the grandkids. I'm hoping Miles gets a bigger kick out of the RV shirt than Margot did out of the mermaid shirt. 

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

Archer in Linen

 I seem to be developing a linen problem. I keep getting these emails from the Fabrics-store in the middle of the night. Their write-ups are impossible to resist. Here's what they had to say about this cut, which is a lightweight linen in Cobalt: 

"Dark, brooding and dramatic, the intense blue of COBALT linen was ideal for Renaissance painter Jacopo Vignali's heightened, operatic scenes. 

A leading painter in the Florentine Seicento, Vignali's Baroque paintings were defined by flowing swathes of jewel-toned fabric in midnight blues and crimson reds; set amidst theatrical, directional light, these richly toned colors amplify the romantic agony and tragedy of his stories."

Right?! 

And when it arrived, I wasn't disappointed. It's lightweight and almost sheer, with a bit of a sheen and very nice movement. And the color is a really lovely deep blue; almost navy but brighter. Beautiful.

I used the Grainline Archer pattern, which I've made a fair few times before. I really like the fit, and there's a sew-along on Youtube that really helps with the fiddly parts (hello, collar stand and sleeve plackets).

I hear that linen improves with age, becoming softer and more comfortable with each wash. If that's true, this will be my favorite shirt of all time. 

And I won't feel too guilty about the three other hunks of linen I bought this month. 

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

Shark Puppet

 I'm quite ahead on my holiday shopping this year. Turns out, this is kind of dangerous because I keep thinking of new things that I should gift to my loved ones. 

I'd gotten a surf tee shirt for my great niece. She'll look darn cute in it, but I got to thinking that a tee shirt isn't a very fun present for an 16-month old. I started poking around the web, looking for a quick something I could make her and stumbled over a puppet Pinterest page. Bingo!

How hard could it be to draft up a hand puppet pattern, I thought. Well, after a few hours of fiddling around I determined that it was going to be harder than I'd imagined. I hopped into Etsy and found a pattern that looked cute and also do-able with the time and materials I had on hand. $5 later, I downloaded a shark puppet pattern that was worth every penny. 

The pattern is from The Tucson Puppet Lady, who has a plethora of puppet patterns available on her website. Though I'm happy with my toothless shark, I wish I'd seen her website before I bought via Etsy. Her site has much more to choose from and includes very helpful video tutorials for each puppet. Those tutorials would have saved me from attaching this guy's fins wrongly. But, since he can't swim anyway, I'm going to leave them as is.

Like a lot of kid sewing, this puppet involves a surprising number of little pieces and can feel a tad finicky to put together. The instructions are great though, so it only took me a couple hours to go from concept to shark.

The pattern is written for polar fleece, of which I had none. I did, however, have a piece of sweatshirt fleece and a piece of ponte, both gray, hiding in my scraps closet. Along with some felt squares left over from my granddaughter's doll I had all the elements required. Except for the white felt for shark teeth. Hence, my shark is toothless. But my great niece probably won't notice that for a few more years.

The puppet is sized for adult hands. I picture my nephew performing for her, on account of a 16-month old isn't coordinated enough to do a lot of puppeteering. So maybe this is really for my nephew to play with? I bet Baby Jeanne will be enjoying the heck out of it all though. 

The Tucson Puppet Lady has a ton of free felt hand puppets that look super easy to do and simple enough to work that a toddler could have some fun with them. Maybe for her birthday in August?

The eyes are always the trickiest part of a toy sewing project. The line between cute and demented is a thin one. I'm hoping this guy tips over onto the cute side of the divider.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here, if you're interested.

Mermaid Shirt

I sewed up another Burdastyle camp shirt in honor of my granddaughter. She came for a visit a couple of weeks ago and she's very into mermaids right now. She didn't seem too wowed by it, to be honest. She did say that she wanted a mermaid shirt too, but it has to have purple mermaids and I'm not sure I can track down the right fabric. 

But I like this shirt just fine, and that's what really counts, am I right?

I used blouse 116A from the April, 2012 issue of Burdstyle, which is probably one of the first Burdastyle patterns I ever traced out. I can tell because the tracing job is not very good. No wonder I've had trouble getting the collar on right in previous versions.

Here's a close-up of the mermaids. 

And here's a shot of the buttons I used. Pretty nice color match, I think, and the touch of gold brings out the yellow sea weed. I got these buttons ages ago at an antique store in Illinois.

I lengthened the top a couple of inches. It's pretty darn cropped the way Burda shows it. Otherwise, I made it just like they drafted it. I like the fit of this top. It's loose enough to be cool and comfortable enough to wear working in the yard, but it also works for a visit to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium with grandchildren. We kept an eye peeled for mermaids, but no luck.

Side view for you.

I finally went through my closet to cull the herd last week and realized I have a lot of woven tops, and a big whack of them I like enough that I just couldn't get rid of them. My normal routine has me grabbing a tee shirt every morning, but I think it's time to give my wovens some love.

 

It's November 22 and it's almost 80 degrees outside. Camp shirts aren't just for summer anymore here on the Central Coast.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

 

Corduroy Archer

I made The Man a corduroy button-up shirt for his birthday in September and, somewhat to my surprise, I kind of enjoyed the sewing process. I felt a little more competent working the steps that generally make me hyperventilate: the collar stand, the sleeve placket and the cuffs.

I realized that I kind of wanted a corduroy shirt for myself and I might even enjoy the sewing-up part.

I had a pattern I liked, the Grainline Archer, and I even had a piece of baby wale corduroy in my stash. I think I bought it with a pair of Landers in mind, but decided it was a little too light-weight for a pair of pants. Just right for a cozy shirt though.

I'd made a couple of Archers back in the day but the details were fuzzy, so I took a look at the sew-along videos on the Grainline Youtube channel. They are a goldmine of information for sewing any button-up shirt.

I used most of the Grainline techniques, but I threw in a couple tips from Janet Pray's Islander sewing system also, to wit: 

I burrito-ed the cuffs as well as the collar stand and back yoke.

I hemmed the bottom edges before sewing up the side seams. This trick makes it much easier to hem those curvy areas without getting little puckers.

And I think it looks OK on the inside. Better than puckers, anyway.

The shirt is not perfect, for sure, but as far as the sleeve plackets and collar stand go it's the best I've done so far. Cuffs, I had a few issues, but luckily the worst of it is covered by the overlap when the cuffs are buttoned and no one can see anything when the cuffs are rolled up. Those issues, BTW, were not caused by a faulty burrito. That step worked great. I think I have to blame lackadaisical pressing.

I actually had some fun sewing this shirt. Enough fun that I've ordered some cobalt blue linen to make another one. I'm thinking that burrito action will be easier to perfect in a fabric that isn't as beefy as flannel or corduroy.

How many button-ups does one gal need? Apparently, at least four.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

Fenix Sweatshirt

I finished my Fenix sweatshirt just in time for our first stretch of moist, chilly weather. Most welcome, because any rain is good rain here on the Central Coast. We're hoping it signals the end of fire season.

I first noticed this Style Arc pattern on Thorneberry's blog and thought it looked like the sweatshirt of my dreams. Slouchy fit, loose sleeves that can be pushed up when necessary, cute pockets: check, check and check. And that side panel just asks for color blocking. 

A word of caution; these pockets are for hand warming, not carrying stuff. The opening goes from top to bottom, so your car keys or cell phone are likely to slip out at an inopportune moment. They do a mighty fine job of hand warming though. They feel like the traditional sweatshirt kangaroo pocket, but IMO they look classier.

 I decided to use a black sweat shirting from Cali Fabrics, my favorite cut-rate fabric store. I wanted some traditional, 100% cotton sweatshirt fleece, which was surprisingly hard to locate. This was $5.99 a yard, which delighted my fabric miser's soul. It was described as heavyweight, but it didn't seem especially heavy to me. Just as well, because you're stitching through four layers of fabric at lots of points, so heavyweight would not be your friend.

I decided on black, even though I have a Great Pyrenees. I was hoping the public side of the sweatshirt fleece would be smooth enough that the dog hair would kind of slide off, but no such luck. Sadly, I'm a Winter and I look like hell in Great Pyrenees colored clothing so I'm learning to live with a constant light coating of white hair.

Here's a closeup of the pocket, complete with stubborn Pyrenees fuzz.

The pockets are the only tricksy part of the construction, and I didn't do the best job. I think they're very cute though. 

Here's s side shot that shows the slight high-low hem. It's subtle, but it makes this oversize sweatshirt look a bit sleeker than it otherwise might.

And here's a back shot. I like that the band in back curves right under the butt. It conceals the most problematic aspect of a leggings-and-sweatshirt outfit.

I finished this top yesterday and I've been wearing it since, which makes it seem like I could do with another. If I can find the right fabric, I'll get right on that. 

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

A Couple Knitted FOs

 These two sweaters got caught in my annual summer knitting slump. For me, knitting generally requires a blustery day, a nice fire and a hot beverage, so the dog days of summer are a wash. Kind of sad in this case because both of these items were this close to being done at the end of spring.

This one is Anker's Summer Blouse, by Petit Knit. Very simple, top down yoked knit. It's designed for a cotton/rayon/linen blend, but I used some Mission Falls superwash merino that I'd had in stash since the Yarn Dogs closing sale back in '02. Not the best choice, but it's wearable. 

I have some linen upstairs in a storm grey that I might use for a version two. The yoke pattern is just a knit one purl one rib, so this would be a nice knit for a beginner. I'm also thinking it would be easy to swap out the yoke stitches for something else, either another textured stitch or a bit of color work. 

The second one is called Canyon Clay, by Drops Design. Drops Design does a lot of cute, free patterns but I've always been afraid I wouldn't understand the instructions. I decided to give this one a try though, and, sure enough, I didn't understand the instructions. Luckily, kaylakitty had a very helpful comment on Ravelry which got me back on track. Basically, you're doing raglan increases like in any top down knit, but for part of the top you do two increases on each side of the front/back and no increases on the sleeves. I know, crazy talk, but that's what makes the raglan line curve sharply to the sides.

It has kind of a cute, squared neckline.

I'd be tempted to make another of these right away, but it uses a thicker yarn than I usually have in stash. The only stitches used are stockinette and 2x2 ribbing, so this is also a simple knit once you wrap your mind around the instructions for the increases.

I used some Berrocco Suede yarn that my friend Jessica gifted to me when she moved to Ashland last year. Only one year in stash - that's quick use for me!

The pattern calls for short sleeves, but when I tried it on for size I decided I liked the cap sleeve look. So literally all I had to do to finish this sweater was pick up the stitches at the underarms and immediately cast off. Why did it take me 9 months, you may ask? Summer slump.

My Ravelry notes are here, in case you're interested.