Pamela's Patterns: A T-Shirt Workshop

I waited until today to post my weekly garment as I wanted to write about a great workshop that I took yesterday and about the top I created.  My local American Sewing Guild Chapter sponsored Pamela Leggett from Pamela’s Patterns to come and teach a t-shirt fitting workshop.  The event started on Friday night with a trunk show where Pamela shared her garments along with lots of useful tips about garment fit and construction.  The next morning about 20 of us gathered, and Pamela walked us through the measuring, layout and construction of our own t-shirts.  Most of Pamela’s designs are exactly the kind of clothes that I wear and like to sew:  simple, stylish, easy to sew, well fitting and comfortable.  She works with a lot of knits and has patterns for tops, jackets and skirts.  What makes her patterns unique is that she incorporates a lot of the common pattern alterations required by women (forward shoulder and rounded back, shorter shoulder seam length and others) and provides easy to understand instructions for making other necessary changes for a custom fit.  The 20 women present represented a pretty wide range of figure sizes and shapes, yet each of us was able to leave the workshop with a finished (or nearly finished) t-shirt that fit us much better than any ready-to-wear garment and for many, a better fit than we’ve been able to accomplish with commercial patterns.  Here’s my plan:  using some of the huge volume of knits in my stash, cut out about six t-shirts with various necklines and sleeve finishes and have them ready to sew when time allows.  I’m willing to bet I can sew one of these in less than an hour if it is cut out and ready to go.

Here’s a picture of my final t-shirt.  It fits great and is comfortable and stylish.

The rest of these pictures are shots of some of Pamela’s garments and her products.  She was a great teacher and has a true talent for drafting great patterns.  I can’t wait to try her pencil skirts.  I had a super time yesterday, the best part of it being time to see my fabulous sewing friends and spend a whole day together doing what we like best.  When you are done reading this post hop on over to my friend Jane's blog to read another one on this workshop (and you will see why Jane and I get along so well.)

Fabrics, waiting to become t-shirts

A Rack of Pamela's Garments

The Perfect Tank Top

Pencil Skirt from stretch lace

Bias skirt made from a vintage tablecloth

Pamela with a selection of her garments

Patterns

What I Like in May: Peonies

It’s the last day of May (though it feels more like mid-August this week) and I am sharing with you some pictures of yet another item off my favorites list.  This month it’s peonies, those sweetly scented, shabby-chic, tousled mop-heads of the flower world.  The former owners of my house were kind enough to plant two peony beds around our deck so that I can enjoy them each May.  I also am drawn to designs featuring peonies, and have included a few shots of those along with a few of the real thing.  I hope you enjoy them.

Progress, a Wadder and a Hong Kong Vest

This week has seen some true ups and downs in my sewing room.  I began the long and arduous task of cleaning out and reorganizing that was truly necessary.  I am making good progress but really needed to do some creative work for my sanity.  So often, I clean up enough to start another project and it goes downhill from there.  This time I promised myself that I would take a break and then get back to the task at hand.  Only, the project I started was a big bust.  A true trashcan wadder.  To try and salvage the day I turned to my mending box which I had unearthed in my cleaning frenzy.  Now, this might not sound like the most fun job on my list but it was gratifying.  Several things needed nothing more than a button and ironing.  A few needed only ironing.  So I was able to feel like I accomplished something and can now get back to the cleaning at hand.

Since my defunct project was going to be my featured garment for this week, I’ve headed back into my closet and pulled out a vest I made a number of years ago.  The pattern is The Sewing Workshop’s Hong Kong Vest.  The fabric has an interesting history.  My husband’s family spent many years living in Japan.  This navy and white cotton fabric, called Yukata, was brought back by my mother-in-law who gave it to me.  The 14” wide fabric comes in a roll with many, many meters; I can’t read the Japanese script but I am guessing at least 20 yards of fabric, enough to make dozens of these vests.  And I've got about 6 rolls of different prints.  The lapel on the vest is hand stitched with variegated cotton thread in a sashiko stitch pattern, further playing on the Asian-inspired theme of the garment.

Tomorrow is my children’s last day of the school year and for the next several months my time will be far less my own than usual.  I am still optimistic that I will get a wee bit of time in my sewing studio each week so watch and see what I come up with next.  I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend.

New York, New York: A Fabric Shopper's Mecca

What a great day I had on Saturday, despite the fact that it started at 4:30 a.m.  I joined over 50 sewing friends on a bus trip to New York City for some sight-seeing, fabric shopping and all-around good fellowship.  The best part, for me, was getting to gab and laugh uninterrupted with my friend Joyce for hours.  Next best was getting to see some friends I don't see enough of and making some new friends along the way.  The shopping was pretty fun, too, and the weather was beautiful.  Here’s a little glimpse of the loot I brought home.

The bus let us off on West 38^th Street, and we made our first stop at Hai’s Trimming.  This store was full of beautiful and unusual trim like the two pieces pictured above.  These are raw edge silk chiffon flowers stitched to a net background.  I’m going to use them to embellish a couple of t-shirts.  This store also carries ribbon, rhinestones, chain, buckles, and feathers.  I’ve been looking for some of the latter and picked up a couple of different versions for use with my handmade flowers.

Our next stop was Metro Textiles.  This tiny shop on the 9^th floor of an office building is jam packed with bargains.  The shop is not normally open on Saturdays but the owner, Kashi, was kind enough to open his doors to us since we let him know we were coming.  There was room for about 8 of us at a time, and you need to have a bit of an adventurous spirit to shop here since sifting through the merchandise is part of the experience.  I purchased four pieces that I couldn’t resist – I had them shipped to me so I can’t share pictures with you yet.

We hit a number of other places in the late morning and early afternoon but I managed to resist buying anything (which was an amazing feat at Paron’s since that is usually my downfall).  A fairly long walk led us over to the bead district where we stopped in several shops.  I picked up these interesting flowers at Bead Empire.  I think they are made from resin and will make distinctive “buttons” on a jacket.

A little further down the street we stopped in M & J Trimmings which never disappoints.  I’ve been in the market for some stretchy ribbon to use on the back of ring bearer pillows.  I envisioned velvet, which they had, but when I saw all of the other options they also had I was in heaven.  I came home with four different pieces.  The selection in this store is truly amazing.

M & J is a colorful place and I couldn’t resist taking some pictures inside the shop (NB:  when shopping in NYC, make sure you ask before taking pictures inside stores.  Some merchants prohibit this). 

Here’s my friend Joyce purchasing her treasures.

A souvenir button postcard from M & J

Our last stop for the day was, perhaps, my favorite.  Tinsel Trading Company is a fairy tale full of vintage treasures that you just don’t find elsewhere.  There is a wall, stocked floor to ceiling, with every imaginable flower and gobs of ribbon, trim, ephemera, beads, ornaments, home accessories and more.  On the counter I discovered three charming flower molds.  Made of cast iron, these presses were heated and used to mold silk into floral shapes.  I loved the vintage glass glitter and all of the ornaments made with it.  I couldn’t resist some vintage grosgrain ribbon, flowers and a bottle of pearls, beads and sequins.

It was a long day (I didn’t sink into my own bed until nearly midnight) but it was so worth every minute.  There really is something about NYC that can’t be found anywhere else.  And the selection of goodies for sewing fans is incomparable.  I always look forward to my next trip.  Please share your favorite places to shop in the city so I can start making my list for next time.

Tiered Gauze Skirt

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a skirt I made for my friend.  I was so surprised how fast and easy that skirt went together.  So, when I decided to write a tutorial on an elastic waistband technique that I like to use, I thought I should make myself a similar skirt in the process. 

The fabric that I used is a brown cotton guaze, perfectly lightweight for a summer skirt and for easy gathering.  This skirt has four tiers, each one slightly longer than the previous.  I decided to try gathering the tiers by zigzagging over a heavy cord and this worked quite well.  If you begin with the lowest (biggest) tier, you can reuse the same piece of cording for all of the other tiers by pulling it out once you've sewn down the gathers.  I used a 6 mm x 6 mm zigzag and crochet cotton for my cord.  The hem of this skirt is quite full, about 120 inches.  I'm looking forward to wearing it this summer.

Tomorrow I board a bus for a day trip to New York City with my sewing guild.  I'm really looking forward to a day of shopping in the city, something I haven't done in over 5 years, before my first son was born.  Mostly, I'm happy to be spending the day with like-minded gals and seeing friends I don't get to see as often as I like.  I'll be sure to report back next week after my trip.