Wandering off-grid to a sewing tip…

Time for summer sewing, and I’ve been refreshing my maxi dress and tee shirt inventory. Wow, I managed to justify all that new fabric in just one sentence!

A lot of the patterns I’m sewing have extended shoulders rather than being sleeved or sleeveless.

I like the look!

And I’ve been thinking about my first encounter with an extended shoulder. When I tried to hem the armhole, a simple fold and topstitch, I couldn’t get the hem allowance to fit inside the opening! It just wasn’t drafted correctly for a turned hem.

Enter an easy re-draft. My example is the Sinclair Cachet Tee, a favorite for fit and silhouette, but it’s just one of many patterns that I’ve adjusted.

Here’s a look at the shoulder. On the left, the original draft, and on the right, the fix:

The underarm approach is similar:

And a look at the original and final draft of the armhole edges:

Other examples, both of these are woven fabrics:

Serendipity Studios Diane Kimono Dress

Butterick 6684 Pussy Bow Blouse

If you managed to get to this point, I hope you’re not sorry you read this! BTW, bet you noticed how you can change the hem allowance on just about anything to make it fit.

Bye for now! Coco

Tessuti Margot and Sinclair Cachet

What fun…britches and a tee!

I’m totally immersed in sewing for warm weather. Believe it or not, I was cold taking these pics. It was in the low 70’s (I know, some of you are laughing), but I’m a Floridian. We get cold when the temps fall below 75…

Great combo. First the pants, the fun Tessuti Margo Pants. I bypassed the ties and added 3″, then turned the pants to an ankle length.

I added pockets, outlined below:

My topper is a variation of the Sinclair Cachet Tee. Easy changes – I dropped the sides to remove curves and cropped it! This can be done with a yard of fabric…

A note on the pants fabric. This is stretch cotton sateen from Mood Fabrics. The interesting bits:

• Sateen is a unique cotton weave, but similar to its satin namesake – weft threads are floated over warp threads in a four-over-one-under pattern.

• While the back is a dense warp/weft, the front has a bit of diagonal pattern. As with satin, the latter encourages the bias mechanical stretch of the fabric.
• The elastane in stretch cotton sateen is incorporated in the weft, giving the fabric some horizontal stretch.
• Just by nature of being cotton, the fabric has some heft. This and the elastane make it perfect for structured dress, jackets, and pants. It doesn’t wrinkle! yet has a nicely contained drape.
• It goes through the laundry like a breeze, just a smidgen of shrinkage. As always, I laundered the yardage before I laid out the pattern 🙂
• Bottom line for the sewist: Use a walking foot and be prepared to control raveling. These are very thin, tightly twisted and woven yarns. Beyond that, just enjoy. And check out the stretch cotton sateen fabrics at Mood, they have an incredible selection.

On the sewing table, a sunflower Blackwood cardi, the color is unexpected and definitely uplifting!

Bye for now – Coco

Sinclair Pattern Bianca shrug

Well, horrible photos while I wait for my new camera but you’ll get the picture 🙂
I actually read that Canon Powershot cameras tend to get dust under the lens cover, well, I think that’s what happened to mine.

Moving on! After my success with the Sinclair Cachet Tee, posted here, I did go back and cruise their patterns. This shrug caught my eye – a shrug is that rescue-me-with-a-little-coverage garment for lots of occasions, evenings out, church, well, you get it. Of course I’m wearing mine with jeans.

May I stop here for a moment and contribute that I really really dislike the ‘new’ block editor on WordPress. OK.

Squint so you can see where this shrug falls on me, please.

Sewing notes:

• I sewed the size 8-tall based on my bust measurement, and I’m pretty happy with it. No changes to the drafting!
• This fabric is totally new to me, it’s a bullet-textured Liverpool knit. It’s very stable, has a bit of heft, reminds me of double-knit without the horizontal texture. Interesting.

From Fabric.com

• I chose this fabric in lieu of ponte de Roma, out of curiosity. I think the very wide bands in the front would sag in a lighter knit. This is 94% poly, 6% lycra, it’s shiny on the backside but the front texture mutes this on the front.
• I found that sewing this fabric was easy. It serges beautifully, and stitches without stretching out when a long stitch is used. On my machine, the latter was 4.0.
• It also presses nicely on a low setting, ‘silk’ on my iron. Because of the rayon content, I did not use steam while pressing.

Above, styled with the Ready to Sew Justine Skirt (it’s a free pattern). Very cute pockets are the differentiating factor on this pattern. Sorry, invisible in the photo!

And on Emile, my loft buddy:

The weekend – I hope it finds you well and loved, bye for now, Coco

Sinclair Patterns Cachet Tee

Taking a break from mask-making, I just had to try this cute tee pattern. A shout-out to Sue at ILove2Sew, because I would not have found this without her post!

I’m a big fan of extended shoulders, that middle distance between sleeveless and short-sleeved. It’s easy to wear, and, IMHO, it’s very flattering to arms of all ages 🙂

This tee is incredibly simple to sew. Mine is size 8 with no changes except to bind the neckline rather than use an attached band. Great length! and it takes less than a yard/metre of fabric. I used a remnant from another project, rayon/spandex jersey.

I had to linger on the Sinclair Patterns site. They have an amazing inventory of adult and children’s PDF patterns, great designs, and reasonable prices. As I write, they have a 15% MeMadeMay discount on the entire site. Check it out!

Warm thoughts for all, Coco