Yet Another Diva Bag

This is the bag that I've used exclusively for decades. I got the pattern at the Pajaro Valley Quilt Show many years ago. I love it. I think it's what one would call a "bucket bag." It sort of folds in half so you can sling the straps over your shoulder. When you unfold it, it unzips to reveal a cavernous interior. It easily holds the many, many items I seem to need to carry with me everywhere, and there's room to add a bottle of water, a sandwich, The Man's glasses and probably also a watermelon. 

 

There is a small pocket between the straps on side #1. It's just the right size to hold my phone so I don't have to dig around to answer it when on the prowl. It could also hold a bottle of water, or a baby bottle. I think this pattern was originally designed as a diaper bag.

There's a larger pocket on side #2. I keep my keys in there. Always. That way I'm not one of those people who keep asking their spouse, "Honey, did you see what I did with my keys?" 

This is probably at least my 8th iteration of this pattern. I've made it from bark cloth, quilting cotton and remnants of upholstery. This version is upholstery fabric, bought for $2 a yard at Crossroads Fabrics in Watsonville (sadly closed now). 

I've had mixed results with upholstery. Some varieties look strong but the surface starts to pill or shred surprisingly quickly. Which makes me glad I didn't choose 30 yards to recover my living room set. This one was a little hefty to manipulate but it feels like it will last.

Here it is unfolded but still zipped up. One thing I love about this pattern is that you can put one strap over each shoulder and wear it like a backpack. Sometimes it's nice to be able to redistribute the weight when you've been out and about for the day.

And here it is unzipped. Tons of room in there, and the opening is nice and big so it's easy to find what I'm looking for. I usually add a few inner pockets too, for stashing a tin of mints or my cowgirl mirror. 

I used an on-sale quilting cotton for the lining. I read somewhere that it's good to use a light-colored fabric to line a purse. It might get dirty-looking sooner but it makes it easier to see what you have in there.

My last version was made from barkcloth and it lasted for almost 5 years. I interfaced the outer fabric, which probably helped. No interfacing in my new version, which saved me some cutting time. 

RIP old friend

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here. And you can get the pattern from the designer, Lynndi Enright, at The Stars Aligned Studio.

Nina Lee Carnaby Dress

I had a couple of weddings to attend this summer. While there are a few dresses in my closet that would have worked just fine for a wedding, these were pretty special events. One was for my nephew and the other was for the son of one of my oldest friends. And I have to admit that when I tried on some of my possible choices, they felt a wee bit tight (curse you Covid pounds, will you never leave me?). So I set out to sew a comfortable dress suitable for an aging wedding attendee. 

Nina Lee Carnaby Dress

I settled on the Carnaby Dress, from Nina Lee. Which is actually a shift-style mini-dress. Hem it to hit mid-thigh and pop it on a leggy young gal and it looks right out of the swinging 60s. Lengthen in to below the knee and dress me in it and it looks much more sober. Like it could work with pumps and a pill-box hat.

Except I don't have pumps or a pill-box hat, and I used a piece of batik that a friend's mother had brought back from Indonesia several decades ago. So maybe it's a bit in between swinging and sober.

I had just 2 yards of 45 inch wide fabric with a wide border at the bottom and narrow borders up both selvedges. The pattern layout was a bear, but I think I got there in the end. I used the bottom border for the skirt pieces, which I modified into one long rectangle so I could use the entire width of the fabric.

I put the seam at center back, so fewer pattern matching woes at the sides!

That stripe up the center back is because I had to use about half of each selvedge border to get those pattern pieces to fit. I'm trying to think of it as a feature, not a bug. 

The batik wedding took place yesterday. The bride and groom rode us out into the redwoods on an old steam train out of Roaring Camp. It was a bit overcast and chilly. We've been having a pretty cold spring and summer here on the Central Coast. We went from May Gray to June Gloom and we expect to head right on into Fogust. With my linen Moss Jacket and a large shawl, my wedding dress worked just fine though.

The ceremony took place in the center of a grove of redwoods. Closest thing to a natural cathedral ever. 

The other wedding was at a park in San Francisco and it deserved its own dress. This version of the Carnaby Dress is in medium weight linen from the FabricsStore in a color called Wild Cherry. Nice to sew and nice to wear but it wrinkled like there was no tomorrow. It's the nature of the beast.

My pattern review is at PatternReview.com here.

Arboreal Sweater

Knitting season is lingering here on the central coast. We've been having a cold snap, along with more rain than we've seen in many a year. I've even been seeing headlines saying that most of the state is out of drought territory, at least for this year.

Anyway, lots of quality time on the couch with yarn and needles. My most recent FO is the Arboreal sweater. There are more than 2,500 versions of this sweater on Ravelry, so it's a pretty popular pattern. I can see why. It's well written and pretty straight-forward to knit, and there is some short row shaping in the upper back, so that the neck sits nicely. 

I used some Louet Gems sport weight yarn that I found in the sale bin at The Swift Stitch here in Santa Cruz. The ball band called the color Pewter, but to me it's kind of a khaki/caffe au lait. I used part of one ball of Cascade super wash in a faded green for the leaves.

I was aiming to make the sleeves about three quarter length, partly to get the sleeves over with and partly because I usually push my sleeves up to the elbow anyway. I think I overshot my mark a bit, but when they're pushed up you can't tell.

I've been really enjoying the knitting lately. I'm not sure why, but it feels like running into an old friend you haven't seen for a few years.

I've been dipping my toe into color work, which may be why I've got the wind beneath my wings a bit. This is a good pattern for a first or second color work project. You don't have many long floats to deal with and the scary part is right up in the beginning, so if you have to back track you don't have too much to undo. 

My Ravelry notes are here.

Moss Jacket

 I've been doing more knitting than sewing lately, probably because the weather has been so wet and chilly here on the central coast. I often watch YouTube while I knit. One afternoon I was catching up on Lifting Pins and Needles and Karina was reviewing the Moss jacket, from Helen's Closet. I thought, "Hey, that's a cute pattern!" and even though I probably have 50 jacket patterns, I decided I wanted to try this one. And I'm glad I did, because I like it a lot.

I do not like my hair in this photo, but you're here for the jacket, right?

It's a loose-fitting, drop shoulder jacket with a wide, fold-over collar and cute yet functional pockets. Ticks all my boxes for an easy layer to wear while walking the dog or hitting the town. 

I used one of the mid-weight linens from the fabrics-store.com in a color called Asphalt. The website says: 

"ASPHALT linen mimics the tone of Vicken Parson's cool, mid-grey shadows, a color suggesting the concrete pavements, rain soaked bricks and hardened metal of the urban jungle."

To my eye, it's a soft, bluish-grey that fits right in with my wardrobe.

I had two yards, which was juuuust enough to cut out the wide-collar, cropped, 3/4 sleeve version. That collar eats up a lot of yardage. It's worth it though.

If I'd had enough fabric I probably would have lengthened the jacket a few inches and moved the pockets down a tad. I'm happy with this iteration though. Even in linen, which I think of as a hot weather fabric, the collar feels nice and cozy at the back of my neck. 

The jacket is unlined and comes together very easily. The only slightly tricky part is curving the collar piece around the neckline in the back, but if you clip and trim it works just fine. I could easily see making another. Maybe the longer version in a warmer fabric. Might have to toss the stash to see what I have in waiting.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

Soldotna Sweater

 Now that the winter has set in (or as much as it ever does in Coastal California) my thoughts have turned to knitting. This is the Soldotna sweater, designed by Kaitlin Hunter.

I'm pretty much a color work newbie, but this pattern seemed very straightforward. The charts were easy to follow and, with no sleeves to bother with, I feel like I finished it in no time. By which I mean, in about 6 weeks. 

The trickiest part for me was choosing the colors. The charcoal was a given because I had 4 skeins of Louet gems in that shade that had been lounging in my yarn stash for probably at least 20 years. I thought it might be enough for this sweater, and it was, easily. 

So I just needed to find 3 colors of similar weight yarn that had enough contrast to show up. I ended up with cream, light grey and what looked in the yarn store like a new leaf green. Once the knitting commenced, though, that green read more as yellow. Which isn't one of my colors, but it's not right up against my face so I'm trying to think of it as my pop of color. It often seems like the pop of color in my projects ends up being a color I'm not too fond of. I guess because the ones I like are always the ones I choose for the main colors.

I made a couple easy changes to the pattern. For one, I lengthened the body quite a bit. Like by about 7 inches. When the designer says "cropped," she means cropped. I also fiddled with the charts a bit so that I didn't have any long floats on the backside. I'm not good at tacking those puppies down so they tend to catch on everything.

My goal is to watch some YouTube videos and learn about float management by the time I do my next color work sweater. I actually had enough fun knitting this sweater that I've already scrounged up yarn for my second version.

My Ravelry notes are here.

Quick and Easy Burdastyle Blouse

 I was quite pleased with the December issue of Burdastyle. There's a nice pair of high-waisted trousers, a cute skirt and a few nice dresses. And also this loose, boat necked blouse.

Here's the line drawing. Simple shape, loose fit. I like the neckline, and also the little pleats at the the cuffs. They give it a little something extra. The sleeves are kind of dropped, which may or may not be your jam. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the shaped hemline, but I think I kind of like it.

Here's a look at how loose that fit really is. You want a drapey fabric, that's for sure. I used a polyester something that I bought at Hart's some time ago. I loved the print and the colors. I had a hard time finding the right pattern for it though. I wanted something with no darts to break up those chrysanthemums. The fabric was very light, with a crepe texture and just a bit of stretch, so I didn't want to have to mess with buttonholes. This pattern was just the ticket.

Here's a side view. I like where the hem sits.

I especially like the length in the back. I just covers my butt, which is always a plus.

I finished it just in time to pack for our weekend in San Francisco. I wore it out to dinner with some navy StyleArc Barb pants and I tucked in just the front. Is that what they call a french tuck? It felt comfortable but just fancy enough for dinner in SF.

I'd be happy to make another of these if I find the right fabric. I might even be brave enough to try it in something fancy, like silk. The sewing is simple enough that I could focus all my anxiety on fabric handling. 

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.

More Kid Sewing

My niece, Isabella, came out for her first post-Covid visit at the end of October. We planned a bunch of fun activities: Monterey Bay Aquarium, dog walking, dinners out. And, Isabella wanted to sew another dress. Last time she visited she made this little number, and we had a blast doing it. 

This time we did some emailing back and forth ahead of time to zero in on a pattern and fabric. That way we could spend maximum time at the machine. 

Isabella is a young teen (a.k.a. tween). I pawed through my back issues of Burdastyle and  I was a bit surprised how few of the patterns are aimed at tweens. There are tons for babies, girls, and boys, but only a few for the young teen. We settled on dress 133 from the June, 2015 issue.

It was recommended as a good pattern for the beginning sewist, so right up our alley. Just a couple of pattern pieces, and with a loose enough fit that I thought we could make it work in the short time we had available. Isabella found a couple of fabrics she liked by perusing the Hart's website. I picked up a few yards, got the pattern traced out in what I hoped would be her size and we were ready to hit the ground running.

There were just a few bumps in the road. For one thing, the pattern was drafted for a woven but we would be working with a knit. I figured the design would adapt pretty well, but we decided to beef up the straps by inserting some elastic before attaching them. 

The second issue was my bad. I bought the recommended yardage and pre-washed it, but I didn't try laying out the pattern pieces ahead of time. Wouldn't you know it, the fabric had shrunk enough that we couldn't quite make things fit without doing some creative jiggering. I told her parents we were doing sewing with some bonus math. By shortening both the overlay and the skirt, we were able to make it work and still keep that maxi-dress spirit going.

Once we came up with the pattern layout, Isabella took over and did the whole shebang herself: cutting out, pinning and sewing. Here she is, working away at the machine. Even working with knit fabric and seams on the bias, she kept everything accurate and tidy.

And here she is, wearing the finished dress. Beautiful, am I right? 

Isabella is a dancer, so she really knows how to rock a swishy maxi-dress.

I bet by next visit she'll be into the lady sizes and then the sky will be the limit.

My pattern review is on PatternReview.com here.