Michael Miller Knit Love

Folks, I am going through a difficult time here. Last week, this beautilicious stack of fabric arrived on my doorstep. *pant pant* It is a tastefully selected, meticulously planned assortment of the new knits from Patty Young and Michael Miller. Each cut has a highly specific place in its respective project. They are so soft. So bright and pretty. I love them, really, too much.

Except.

I'm moving.

And, like, this is a really AWESOME thing, because you probably don't want to hear the whole shebang, but we've been wanting our own House in Southern California (home of the formerly dead American Dream) for a very, very long time. We've gone through, well, some crappy stuff to get here. Nevertheless:

I need to sew! I'm going through withdrawal. I've spent the last few days packing--ugh!--many beloved items. Such as, my books and *gulp* MY FABRIC. I don't know how long it will be before I see these things again. It might be a whole month, ack!

Oh upheaval, how I dread thee!

I have not yet found the strength to pack up these particular knits. I'm hoping if I leave them long enough, I can just carefully strap them into the passenger seat of my CR-V and tote them over to my house by hand.

Who could shove Elvira in Toffee into an anonymous box, with an as yet unknown unpacking date?

I cannot bring myself to say goodbye to Mod Dots in Turquoise, oh no.

Neither Scandi Chirp in Multi. Sob. Can't do it.

And Carnival Bloom in Brown? Psha! Such a print would never languish very far out of my sight!

Oh yes, I have detailed *ahem* professionally sketched designs in mind for all these fabrics! Please.


I have "I-am-a-sucker-for-matching-fabric-and-pattern-marketing" patterns all ready. I'm good to go.

But that dang siren of responsibility calls. Grr.

So, I don't know when I will get to these. Hopefully it won't be too long. But no matter what, I must get some sewing in between all this packing ridiculousness. I really don't want to expire from creative interruptus. I do have a few projects up my sleeve that I am going to try to fit in. In the meantime I may have to write some more lustful sewing/fabric posts, blerg.

Crafts, I Cave to You

Er. Why am I posting a picture of a slightly gaudy, gold, doll bed?

Def not my typical sewing MO. See, I have this crazy dad. He's kind of old-ish. And crazy. (No really. No. REALLY.) But, he nicely decided to craft a couple doll beds for his grandchildren. This is a good thing. My DD got a nice pink doll bed for Christmas. My mom sewed some cute lil' plaid flannel bedding for it. I was real nice and, like, pink. Y'know, girl, schmirl schtuff.

Then, since my niece was visiting CA this month, he decided to finish up her bed and...paint it gold. This gold color. Um, not so popular with the general family opinion.

I, however, in my *cough* infinite fashion wisdom, was undeterred by this gold. I thought, "oh my gosh. I have the perfect fabric to go with this." Which, considering my embarrassing fabric stash, is not that surprising.

A few hours later, the bed was decked out. Something nice my dad made, combined with something fabulous that his daughter made. It gives me all sorts of weird feelings, but overall I am proud. I am glad that we could have something positive to put in the world. Yay this bed.

Fabric: Monkey's Business by Alexander Henry. Possibly one of my favorite fabrics in the world, ever. I constantly stare at it on my shelf and feel terrified to commit it to a project. As this coverlet and pillow took very little fabric, I instantly knew it was a perfect fit.

Pattern: My mom's homey plaid flannel bedding that she made for DD's pink doll bed. Seriously. I just measured it and copied her exactly, just with different fabric and ribbon. It's all smoke and mirrors--I'm only fronting all this creativity.

Love this shoe, ahhh! I pulled my niece into the stash room--coincidentally, also my bedroom--and let her pick out which panels she wanted. At first I think she was a little freaked out by the punky fairytale vibe, but then she excitedly pointed to this shoe. I was like, heck yeah, you are a woman after my own heart. Once I told her that the other panel(s) were Cinderella, she agreed to them as well, and we had a Theme.

Dunno what it is about toddler girls, but all the ones I know are obsessed with Cinderella. Sure, they like the other ones fine. But when push comes to shove, Cinderella always comes out on top. I guess I can't complain, because she was my fave when I was a little girl, too. Hmm.

As you can see, I put the Cinderella ball gown on the pillow and the cleaning Cinderella panel on the coverlet, for an all-Cinderella eye sweep. You also might notice that Cinderella's hair styles in these fabrics often obscure her face, causing only one eye to be visible. This may have been what threw off my niece.

Oh yeah, sewing. I used Wonder Under to fuse the panels to the coverlet, then satin stitched around them. The whole thing is actually doubled. I sandwiched the ruffles inside 2 rectangles--one appliqued, one plain--stitched around the edges, then turned and pressed.

The ruffles are gathered strips of the Princess and the Pea print from this line (those stripes are actually all stacked mattresses, which is ridiculously awesome). I serged each short end and the one long edge, pressed them up, and stitched close to the edge for the hems.

My mom had used narrow ribbon for the ties, which is totally her right, as this was her design, but I couldn't find any ribbon in my box that matched my fabric. I had this wide lavender satin stuff though, which after some contemplation seemed perfect.

Okay, now my genius family just needs to ship this to her, because, HELLO, a bed like this does not fit in a suitcase. D'oh!

That's all for now! I am off to camp with my hubby and kiddos and friends this weekend, so I probably won't get much sewing done. On Monday I should have some goooood Patty Young knits eye candy though, so stay tuned. Happy weekend, everyone!

Lollipop Hopscotch Skirts

Do these cousins not look like they are having the best time? Does it not appear that each might have had her own hugendous, personal ice cream cone not hours before? Is there any indication that 1 day hence, one of these smiling girls will have to fly home, several states away? Thereby leaving the other in heinous, bitter bereft-ness? Ah, the innocent joy of youth.

As you can see, DD has been having a blast with her cousin visiting. I decided to join in this celebration and make them some matching skirt outfits with some of Patty Young's gorgeous new Playdate fabric. Holy crap, I LOVE. This. Fabric. I think Patty's girls might have something in common with my DD, because she used their input when she designed this fabric, and it's genius. I mean, hello, hot pink, lollipops, and hearts?? Perf.

Fabric: Lollipop Dreams and Squiggly Stripe in pink by Patty Young. 100% cotton purple rib knit from Golden D'Or fabrics via the Walmart clearance table. Y'know, the hi-lo mix.

Pattern(s): Hopscotch skirt by Eva on Sewing Mamas. (Can you tell I'm obsessed with this pattern?? Seriously. Gitcherself over there, register for cripes sake, and download this tutorial. It's free and fabulous.) Ottobre 04/2004 #33 tank top.

I used the same single fold binding in-the-flat technique that I showed in my tutorial. It also works great for tank top bindings! As you can see, I went the extra mile and trimmed the inside edge of the binding this time. See. I can be bothered sometimes. Sniff.

This purple doesn't exactly match any of the purples in the Playdate fabric, so I used hot pink thread for all my top stitching and then added these rad pink heart buttons. Now they look like they go perfectly, but it's all trickery. *creepily drumming my fingers together*

Hmm. My hems are not perfect, but hemming rib knits can be pretty darn dicey. I could have done a lettuce hem with my serger, but I just wasn't up to setting up my machine for rolled hems yesterday.

These pockets don't come in the Ottobre pattern. I usually self-draft my pockets, since I like to add them here and there on this or that. And by self-draft, I mean I drew a U-shape on a piece of paper. It was super hard. I couldn't wait to breezily mention that I did it. *cough* I self-drafted this pocket. *casually blowing on my nails and wiping them on my sleeve*

Oh! But I must point out that yi canna' just throw a knit pocket--especially a rib knit pocket--on a knit top and stitch it down. Much swearing will ensue. I stabilize mine like crazy first, and it works like a charm. Just:

1. Cut 1/4" to 3/8" wide bias strips of woven interfacing.

2. Fuse a strip underneath the stitching line of the top hem.

3. Fuse another just inside the seam allowance of the side and rounded edges.

4. Run a line of long stitches or serging around the edges of the pocket, then hem the top edge.

5. Fold in the seam allowance of the side and rounded edges. Steam press like heck.

6. Put a nice big square of tear-away stabilizer underneath where you want your pocket. Pin your pocket down on top.

7. Stitch the pocket to your garment. I like to use my left edge top stitching foot.

Knit pocket success!!

Seriously. How beautiful is this fabric?! Luuuuurve it!

I put a different color ribbon in the back of each girls' skirt so I could distinguish which was which.

The full, twirly view. Can I pimp these Hopscotch skirts even more? Go make one now!

Oh yeah. When I made these outfits and laid them out, they looked pretty awesome. Got them on the girls and...well. The tops are a leetle long. I think the main problem is that, because the rib knit is 100% cotton with "eh" recovery, they stretched out quite a bit in the sewing process.

I'm crossing my fingers that they shrink up real good in the wash. If DD's is still this voluminous on her after a trip through the wash, then I'll whip out the cover stitch and re-hem. Hopefully that won't be necessary though.

At any rate, the girls love them, and that's what's important. Hopefully these outfits will give them a bit of comfort as they say goodbye!

Look Ma, We Got Company!

Well, gowrsh. Little did I know the other day that a simple lil' thing like an email from Beth at Sew Mama Sew and my dress up on their blog would precipitate all these hits. Outta nowhere, I tell ya! I'm speechless.

So if you came by yesterday...and you came back today (because you *must* have had nothing else to do, right?), then welcome! I'm Leah. And I would like to warn you that regarding my sewing, a) I don't possess much patience or proper time management, and most importantly b) I might say something inappropriate from time to time. It's not my fault. My two small children took my sleep away, and they are always hiding my filter, darn them! (They also took all my couture and muslins and fitting and yadda yadda uppity know-how with them, but that's neither here nor there. Oh, waiting, I'm lying; I never had those things in the first place. Sad now.)

*yawn*....waazzat? You want sewing posts? Oh fine.

T-shirt Binding and Bar Tacks

I know, I know. I've been promising a tutorial for, like, ever. Well, as it turns out, even though I have an admittedly atrophied degree in Technical Writing, I tend to procrastinate when it comes to writing instructions. I guess because it's kind of a lot more work than just describing an outfit. Nevertheless, I feel the need to share the sewing knowledge love, so here I am. Bear with me here, as these may be the worst instructions ever.

*ahem*

I get a lot of questions about my knit sewing. These comments usually go something like, "I could never do that!" I always counter that, "yes! You can! Knits are easy once you know the techniques to use!" But no one ever believes me. Sniff. And, like, I understand, because if you are used to sewing with fabric that doesn't move around on you, knits can come with quite the learning curve. So I thought I'd try to do some tutorials so I can show that, yes, it's possible to sew knit garments that look professional. No voodoo needed. I swear!

I am starting with...

How to Sew a Single-Fold T-Shirt Binding in the Flat

Why? Well, because these days there are a lot of tips & tutorials out there on how to sew with knits (see and excellent post by Patty Young here), but I haven't seen too many for this type of binding, which I do a lot. Also, it's one that you can do on a regular sewing machine.

By "in the flat", I mean that you will sew one shoulder seam, bind the neckline, and then sew the second shoulder seam. This technique is as opposed to "in the round" where you would sew both shoulder seams, sew your binding in a circle, and then attach the binding to the neckline. Both ways have their plus and minuses, but as I am lazy and hate to measure, I am partial to this one.

P.S. You will have to supply your own T-shirt or tank top pattern. Check out the Kwik Sew or Jalie websites for some great choices.

Once you have cut out your pieces, lay out your front and back side by side.

1. Sew one shoulder seam. I like start with the right shoulder seam. Why, I don't know, but this seems to be the one they sew first in RTW, so I just follow blindly. Baaa.

Here you can see the T-shirt back on the left, and the T-shirt front, which I have appliqued, on the right. If I had not appliqued the front, you would still be able to tell which one it was because the front piece's neckline almost always comes down lower than the back piece.

I like to use clear elastic to stabilize my knit shoulder seams. It gives the shoulder seams strength while keeping them nice and stretchy. I like to buy the 1/4" heavy duty clear elastic from Sewzannes for this. I just order 10-20yds at a time and keep it on hand.

To attach the elastic to the shoulder seam, lay it on the wrong side of the back shoulder seam as you're stitching the seam. I stretch mine a teeny bit as I'm serging so that it has the right amount of give, but this may vary depending on what machine you're using.

Make sure you press the shoulder seam towards the back.

This is what your T-shirt will look like now. The right shoulder seam is sewn, but the left one is still open. Do not freak out. We will sew it up later. I promise.

This is what it looks like from the top. Now you will sew the binding on, starting at the back neckline.

2. Sew the neckline binding on.

For this neckline, I cut a 1.5" wide binding strip along the entire width of my fabric, selvedge to selvedge. Whatever I have left after this project I will put in my ribbing bin and save for another project.

Starting at the soon-to-be back left shoulder seam, align one of the long raw edges of the binding strip with the raw edge of your neckline, right sides together. Sew the strip along your neckline with a 1/4" seam allowance. If you are using a sewing machine, the 1/4" seam allowance should begin at the left most edge of your zig zag stitch.

Continue around until you reach the other end of the neckline. Make sure you stretch your binding strip as you sew, but don't stretch the neckline. That's how you get a crappy wavy neckline, which let's face it, nobody wants. (duh)

This is what your neckline should look like now.

This is how it looks from the underside. Don't worry about how shoddy it looks right now. Knits often look funny when you're sewing them, but once you steam press, everything goes back where it should be.

3. Fold the neckline binding under. Starting at the back neckline again, fold the raw edge of the binding strip over the seam you just sewed.

Keep folding it over until you have wrapped it all the way around the seam allowance.

This is how it will look from the top. If you'd like, you can steam press now. I personally don't like to do that until after I've top stitched the binding, but that's just personal preference. You can try to press it now, and if, like me, you find it utterly futile and aggravating, feel free to move on to the next step.

Now we are going to top stitch. As I have mentioned before, I am a somewhat lazy sewer (wha...? You surpris-ed?). For this binding I didn't want to a) re-thread my coverstitch, or b) set up my twin-needle. So, I'm going to use a single needle to top stitch. Strictly speaking, I would not try this w/o my beloved Left Edge Top stitching foot. If you do not have one of these feet sent from Heaven, I recommend you use a zig-zag, twin needle, or "stitch in the ditch".

I like to set my stitch length a little longer when I top stitch, especially for knits. For this neckline I'm going to use a 3.5mm stitch length. I also set my stitch width at 1.5mm so that my stitches fall a little closer to the inside edge of my binding.

4. Top stitch the neckline binding close to the inner edge. See that red mark on my Left Edge Top Stitching foot? It corresponds to a groove on the underside of the foot. That groove is what guides the foot directly along the inner edge of the binding. If you choose to stitch in the ditch of that seam, I suggest you cut your binding slightly wider to make sure that you catch it underneath when you stitch.

This is what your neckline should look like now. This would be a good time to hit it with a good shot of steam and press it into submission. If you like, you can also trim the underside to make it neater inside. But, if you are like me and super lazy, you can tell yourself, "hey this is just my own kid, why waste time?" and move on to the next step.

5. Stitch the left shoulder seam. Again, I have laid down some clear elastic along the backside of the seam to stabilize it. Make sure your binding edges are matched up so that when you open up the seam your neckline is even. Also, make sure you do not trim your threads. You will need them in the next step.

This is what the shoulder seam should look like from the inside after you've sewn it. Notice I have not trimmed the inside of the binding. That is because I do not care. So there.

Yay, look how pretty from the top! Okay, see that pesky serger tail on the inside edge of the shoulder seam? Now we are going to take care of that. (P.S. If you are using a sewing machine, you should also have a long-ish tail of your two threads, which you will use in the same way.)

6. Bar tack the left edge shoulder seam. You will start by pulling the thread tail to the back, inside shoulder seam. Finger press the seam allowance to the back, over your thread tail.

This is what it will look like from the top.

Cut off a small piece of tear-away stabilizer to put under the shoulder seam.

Place it under the shoulder seam. The stabilizer will help the feed dogs move the fabric along from the underside of the bulky neckline binding.

Place the shoulder seam on your machine with edge of the neckline "hole" facing toward you. Starting at the top stitched edge of the binding, sew a few stitches forward to the "hole" edge, then backstitch back to where you started. That's it.

Ta-dah! A perfect bar-tack! Okay, you're not quite done. You do need to clip your threads and tear away the stabilizer from the back.

Look, now it's so pretty. You're done! And that's how you sew a neckline binding "in the flat". Not so bad, eh? Please let me know if anything was unclear, and I will be happy to edit the instructions.

Tea Pahty

Here we go with the last of these coral tops, whew. This one is a little different, since I planned it in my head quite a few months ago...before it started to get kinda hot. It's really more of a Spring outfit, a season that is pretty brief around here. More accurately, our Summer starts in May and goes until November. What I would give for a REAL Spring, the kind that gives you a chance to breathe and appreciate the flowers before the Hell of Relentless Summer begins!

Okay, I know that there are places that are way hotter than here, but I just have a really low tolerance for heat. And I like to whine.

DD likes to be in sleeveless clothes for Summer, but she is pretty in love with this outfit. I'm crossing my fingers that it will still get lots of wear.

Fabric: Sweets Tea Time and Sweets Hearts, both by Michael Miller. The two quilting cottons don't exactly match, but I am all about sort-of-matching, so I made it work. Mystery cotton/lycra jersey for the t-shirt.

Patterns: Modified Hopscotch skirt by Eva on SewingMamas. Top is Ottobre 3/09 #29.

Upon reflection and DD wearing this outfit all day yesterday, I think I made the skirt a leetle too full. The standard width for this skirt is two full widths of 44" wide fabric. It works great for a single layer of fabric, but I think it is just a bit much for 2 layers of fabric on what is basically a drop-waist. This much fullness works great for her dresses that have a slightly raised waist and a longer skirt, but I think if I were I to make this again I would take out at least 1/3 of width .

All that said, DD adores ridiculously full skirts, so she might disagree with me.

I made the ruched tie about 1/3 of the way in from the side seam, before I gathered the skirt. The ties are just strips of the jersey that were left over from when I cut up this coral jersey. They naturally rolled in to make a nice, round tie, so I decided to save myself some trouble and use them as the ruching ties. Yay for lazy shortcuts!

I put this applique on the same as the last shirt. Just Wonder Undered on & then stitched on with a straight stitch.

One must have tea when one is wearing a tea party skirt.

Mmm, muddy outdoor tea set.

I am so in love with this fabric. The second I saw it on Fabric.com, I had a moment of weakness and ordered it on the spot.

Another reason I wish the skirt weren't quite so full is that it you can't see the fabric as well because it's so gathered. Ah, well. Like I said, she is all about it, so whatevs.

One must have a centerpiece for a tea party.

P.S. I am so totally sold on nicer quality sandals this year. She wears these basically everyday, with everything, and they are holding up bee-yoo-tifully. I mean, how many shoes does a kid really need? Just one really good neutral pair, and you're done.

Hmm. I just realized she's not supposed to be picking my mom's flowers off that particular bush. Whoops.

Coming up I still have that tutorial, and then some DRESSES!