On Safari in Denim and the January Monthly Stitch Denim Never Dies Challenge

Isn't it a good thing when a sewing year starts off like this? The Monthly Stitch theme is Denim never Dies, I have yards of various colors of denim in my stash and Deby needed a skirt pattern tested where denim was a perfect choice. I even had the color and length of zipper I needed AND all the interfacing. Now that is a good start to the sewing year when all your "sewing stars" align.

A lighter weight brushed denim has been around here quite a while. Originally the hope was a classic style denim shirt. I know they are in and out of style but I am 50 and don't care.

My love for the denim shirt stems from my childhood. My mother was accomplished at needlework. One fall she embroidered all over the fronts and backs of denim shirts for myself and my sister. Mine had the most wonderful southwest theme with cacti, horses, burros, and cowboys. My beautiful sister still has hers and can still wear it!

Just love the pie on the cuff! I'm jealous because mine is long gone. But that is okay I have fond memories of my shirt and in particular remember how all the kids on the playground would gather round and ooo and ahhh over my beautiful shirt.

In January of this past year I had a goal of becoming a master at shirt making. That didn't happen in 2014 but it is back on my goal list for this year. One day, I will have my denim shirt and what the hay, I just might do a bit of embroidery on the back in memory of Mom.

But on to the great start to this year.  With my brushed denim ready to go I prepped Deby's pattern.  January was my one year anniversary as a pattern tester for Deby at So Sew Easy. As the year came to a close she sent us the most wonderful wardrobe builder, a sweet skirt with a fly front and flat felled seams.

I had sewn flat felled seams only a couple of times and never a fly front zip but as usual Deby made it very simple! Just love her easy to follow videos. I am not paid to say these things. All I do is test patterns. This one is easily my all time favorite, is well done and super easy, even if it does have some more advanced sewing techniques, and leaves you with a wonderful wardrobe staple that you can make in a variety of fabrics.

Excited to make more of this skirt and happy about the great start to my sewing year! Now on to the Monthly Stitch February Challenge - my color is black.

Color block, Monosew, Make A Garment A Month and Spandex.

Oh.My.Gosh.

I am in love with this pattern and spandex fabric! For now, I can't say too much about the pattern as it has not been released yet. Deby from So Sew Easy will be releasing the pattern on August 20th. I encourage you to prepare yourself and your fabric because YOU WILL LOVE IT and want to sew a gazillion of these dresses!

Only 4 pattern pieces and some thought put in to fabric choices and bam....a simple to sew stunning dress for a night out. Tone down your fabric choices and you have a great day wear dress that is very comfortable yet stylish. That is why we sew isn't it? For comfort, fit and style?

First attempt with a strip knit. Super comfortable and casual dress.

I first tried this pattern with a stripped knit I had bought at the resale store for 50 cents. Here is a secret; no one wants to buy the knits from a resale store because they frequently are out of style. This stripped knit is a perfect example. Hmmm...for 50 cents, they may be worth the risk. After sewing this version up, I saw the monosewn challenge for Monthly Stitch AND this month's Wardrobe Challenge with Angela Wolf was color blocking! Ooooooo....me thinks this could be one dress that fits two purposes, actually three if the Make A Garment A Month Challenge was included. Now off for some serious fabric shopping.

Enter: Spandex.

This was my first time ever purchasing or sewing with Spandex. While there were a few issues, wowsa, I love this stuff.

This fabric came from Girl Charlee and is soooo soft and drapey and fun. But, also slinky and slippery as all get out! I had to overcome a few issues and it took a long time for me to cut the pieces out because the back middle seam had to be removed and that pattern piece altered. There was no way I was going to be able to match the fabric pattern on that back seam. Altering that piece and the nature of the fabric itself also caused a bit of issue with the hemline.

Removed the back middle seam.

Still amazed the hem turned out. Yikes, it was a mess.

Another issue I had with my first attempt was a gaping neckline, I guess a common problem when sewing knits. You can see a bit of that in the first picture of this post. With some research I was able to get a solution that will work on future knit projects as well.

Flat neckline! Yippee!

I did end up spending some time online, looking up knit fabric techniques and in particular spandex.  I also started a knit notebook to store my new knowledge because well....let's just say my memory is not what it use to be.

Here are a couple of tips that really helped:

1. Pin, pin, and more pins. I pined A LOT. This helped to stabilize the fabric when sewing my side seams and the front and back panels to the center pieces.

2. Stay tape. I wish I had thought to stay tape my shoulder seams but due to the design of the dress and how it fits me, there isn't too much stress on the shoulders...I'll probably be okay. I do have a bit of wiggle room under the arms so am thinking I might redo the shoulders. However, in the future, I will definitely use stay tape at the shoulder seams.

3. Stay tape.:) I did use stay tape around the armscye and at the neckline to prevent those areas from stretching and gaping when being sewn. Here and here are great articles on how to prevent neckline stretch. I used 1/4" double sided tape, laid it down around the armscye and neckline, peeled the backing off and folded over the fabric. This helped in two major areas....completely stabilized the fabric so no stretch and gave me a nice clean line to sew beside. I did not worry about finishing my seams, just trimmed them close to stitching. Spandex fabric does not fray.

4. Use a double needle. I had a lot of "firsts" with this project and a double needle was one of them. That double needle had been in my sewing box for almost a year and I had never tried it. Well, I will probably never sew another knit without one! It worked perfectly on the spandex and produced a beautiful finish with much less fuss than a single needle.

5. Stay tape. :) :) This time on the hemline. This was the hardest part of sewing the entire dress due to my pattern alterations mentioned above. Also, when the seams where sewn there was some creeping of the fabric and, just cutting the fabric out; the slightest movement and the spandex would shift some.

6. Next time I will probably try a rotary cutter and mat to cut pattern pieces. Cutting the spandex with scissors just wasn't that great. Pain in the keester!!

All and all this was a great sewing project. So much was learned about prepping and sewing with spandex and knits in general and also I learned a few things about using my sewing machine and the double needle.

The biggest benefit though is this great little dress I now have that I don't want to take off and as mentioned before, that's why we sew right....comfort, fit and style?

xoxo.

P.S. Many thanks to Deby for agreeing to let me post this before her pattern release!

Second Verse, Same as the First! The Monthly Stitch April Challenge - Sewing Double.

Hello Monthly Stitchers

So happy to be here and a part of your monthly challenges. This is my first post ever at the Monthly Stitch and am so excited I was able to get my Sewing Double garment completed before the end of the month. I joined the facebook group first and have been trying to work my way through Wordpress to get things going. 

There sure is a lot of inspiration on the fb page.  Yesterday, I spent some time visiting many of your blogs. So impressive, all the sewing skill out there! I have a lot of catching up to do.

Last month I sewed up this linen blouse. This blouse is super special because the linen fabric was given to me by my Mom many years ago. Often I have thought about using it for a pillow or curtains or some type of home dec project because it is a mid to heavier weight linen. So glad I never did, because it made a cute blouse that is super comfortable

Polka Dots. Love.

The pattern was a resale shop find. 

Blue dot means it was 50 cents. Score!

I think the pattern may be out of print now, I don’t know. How does one tell how old a pattern is aside from the picture? Do they have dates on them somewhere? 

Anyway, this blouse was my first Simplicity Pattern. I have always kind of been afraid of Simplicity Patterns. I guess I thought they were harder somehow than the other big pattern company patterns. Well not this one, the directions were very clear, and it had simple steps and lots of options for different styles of blouses. I just love it and will be making the V neck version for sure later this summer.

So…today I made my double from some quilting cotton in my stash. 

Fabric is quilting cotton from Dear Stella.

The second time around the blouse got even easier and everything went quick, which is the point, right?? This time I took extra care with each step and made the inside look all purrrrrty.

One thing I will probably change when I make it again is to remove the ease from the sleeve cap. I was poking around on the internet the other day and saw a tutorial for that. But, I would love suggestions from any of you as well as to what is the best way to remove that ease.

Now, off to dig through my knits for next months challenge.