Sheridan Sweater & Brunswick Pullover

Coming soon: New Jessica Jones fabrics, in french terry and knits from Cloud9 Fabrics! As you know, "soon" is a relative term, and this year more so than ever. Things have gotten slower in a lot of ways and places. But, this fabric is scheduled to be released in "April/May 2020". Since April ends today, we'll assume it'll be May. :)

I of course was lucky to get some of Jess's sample fabrics to make things from. Jess chose this "Nocturnal" print french terry as her favorite, and she wanted it made into the Sheridan Sweater by Hey June Handmade. So here it is!

There are a variety of combinations of styles in the pattern, and Jess chose the built-up bateau (a.k.a."funnel") neckline, with cuffs and banded bottom. Here she is modeling it.

The french terry is luscious and easy to sew. It's about the weight of sweatshirt fabric. I love it!

If you know me, you know I like all things blue, and I chose Nocturnal as my favorite print from her new line, too. Fortunately, there was enough fabric that we could each get a top made from it. I liked the Brunswick Pullover pattern, also by Hey June Handmade, which makes a nice, loose-fitting, over-sized sweatshirt. The pattern offers either a large hood or a cowl neckline. Both took up a lot of fabric, though, and there just wasn't enough for either. Plus, neither was 'me'. I liked the neckline on Jess's Sheridan better, and it only required a little bit of fabric for a facing, so since the patterns come in many sizes, I printed just the neck pieces in my size from the Sheridan and adapted them to fit my Brunswick. It worked, and was quite simple to do. Voila!

I took the pics myself using my tripod and remote. And yes, I intentionally cut my head off. :D

A cute feature about the pattern is that it has side slits that button up.

Here's a closer look:

You can wear them as buttoned or unbuttoned as you wish.

I think if I made the shirt again, I'd skip the side slits, save a lot of work, and just make it more of a regular sweatshirt, as it's easy to get on and off with the sides closed.

Since the front and back neckline are very similar, I stitched a little "cheater" bartack so I wouldn't have to always hold the shirt up to tell front from back. You can buy cute little tags that say "This is the back", but I didn't have any of those, so I made do with this subtle little reminder.

I sewed both shirts entirely with my serger, which made them go really fast, since the serger finished the seams as it sewed them. I also serged the raw edges of the neck facing pieces, which you can see above. Neat and tidy.

So that's the first of the french terry sewing. I've completed a couple more tops, which I'll show you in another post or two. I've also been working on another pattern test. That pattern is due to be released by tomorrow night, so I'll show you my tester in the next post. It's another winner!

I've made a couple of face masks, too, and have three more in the works. They're quick and easy, but I haven't taken any photos, and I'm not sure whether I will bother or not. Do YOU have to wear a mask when going out? They aren't required here YET, but I'll be prepared if/when they are. Or maybe I'll start wearing one even if they aren't required.

Card, Cash & Coin Combo

Hi. How is everyone doing these days in this "strange new world"? It's weird, isn't it? Has this surreal feeling about it all. Like it's just a bad dream and we're going to wake up and it'll be life as usual. If only.

Have you been keeping busy? I've been doing pretty much as usual. I have a never-ending list of things I want to sew. Some are very quick projects, which is good for these times. They don't require a lot of concentration or effort, and you get a feeling of accomplishment in no time. Doing something creative is a good morale-booster. Win-win!

Here's a cute little project I highly recommend. It's the Card, Cash and Coin Combo by Erin Gilbey of Dog Under My Desk. I once again was one of her pattern testers, and here's my first tester result.

You actually get instructions to make both of these little pouches. One is a minimal wallet, with just card slots and a pocket for bills. The other holds coins or whatever you choose to put in it.

The wallet has become my go-to for shopping these days, which consists of the occasional only-when-I-have-to trip to the grocery store. It fits easily in my pocket, so it's protected from any virus bugs that may be floating around.

The pair can be used together, and they have the ring tabs on opposite ends so you can carry them back-to-back on your key ring and the openings are on the outsides. Very thoughtful planning! Of course you can make them any way you want or leave them off entirely if you choose.

This first set was made from cork fabric that I received for Christmas. It's not regular cork fabric, though, and I wouldn't recommend the regular stuff for these pouches. This is paper-thin and is ideal here without making the seams too thick. Yet you get that beautiful cork look. Perfect!

That first set was so fun to make that I decided to make another! The fabric this time was a gift from a friend of Jess's, bought when they were shopping together in Seattle (back before life got crazy). She bought it for me because she liked it so much herself, so as a little thank-you, I made her a set of the pouches for her birthday (which for her was a huge disappointment because some very special surprise plans had to get cancelled due to the corona virus). Aren't they pretty? If you look closely, you can see that the silver flower designs have a bit of sparkle. I hope they brightened her day a little bit.

Here's my hand holding them, just to give you an idea of how little they are.

The linings for both sets were from grab bags I'd purchased some time ago. This project is a great scrap buster for using up little pieces.

So here are both sets. Notice that I didn't add the ring tabs on the second set (Jess's decision).

I used spring snaps, just because I thought they looked really nice with these fabrics, but KAMsnaps work great, too. The pattern also has instructions for using an invisible magnetic snap or elastic for closures.

So fun. I have another set in mind from some other pretty gifted fabric. Gee, as I write this, I realize I've been gifted quite a few fabrics... people must think I like to sew! ;)

I apologize for not getting this post written sooner. The pattern is on sale right now at 20% off, but only through tomorrow (April 15th). If you hurry, you can still get it at the discounted price, although it's not that expensive, anyway... only $8.00... still a bargain for such a well-written, detailed pattern. You'll find it here. If you want to read Erin's blog post for more details, that's here. You'll get an idea of how much work Erin goes to in writing her patterns, and she even has a photo of her big pile of prototypes. There are lots of pics of the pretty tester pouches, too.

I have another quick-and-easy project to show you soon. Plus some garments I made from Jess's new line of lucscious french terry fabric which should be coming out soon. Stay tuned.....

Goldfinch Clutch

I guess it's time I do a little more blogging, eh? Trust me, I've been doing a lot more sewing than I have blogging. Sewing is definitely more fun. Ha.

Heading back to Christmas for just a second... an online friend and I decided it'd be fun to gift each other a subscription to the Jan.-Apr. Bag of the Month Club. It was only $15 at the early-subscribe rate, and this time around it was going for 4 months instead of the usual 3, for the same price. We couldn't really beat that, especially when sending a physical gift would've been much more expensive, considering international shipping rates. Win-win, right?!

Each month the pattern is by a different designer, and you don't get to see what the pattern is until that particular month. The January pattern was for the Goldfinch Handbag and Goldfinch Clutch by Lockwood and Webb... so actually two patterns! I decided to make the clutch, as the handbag was much larger than I would want to carry.

The next decision was "which fabrics?", which is always one of the hardest and takes me the longest. Soooo many choices. I narrowed mine down to these. I knew I wanted to use the bottom one, which is one of Jess's earlier barkcloth designs. The two lining options were pieces I'd gotten in fabric grab bag purchases. Which would you choose?

Though the brown fabric matched so well, I decided on the other. I thought the pop of color on the inside would be more fun. Below is a view from my sewing room, just after I'd finished fusing the interfacing on all the pieces. (The book was for reading while on my NordicTrack, which you can't see.)

Some more in-process photos....

And here you have my completed Goldfinch Clutch. The original pic. It was hard to find a good place to take photos at the time, so I opted for a chair by the window.

I wasn't pleased with the space behind the bag, though. However, I'd recently stumbled across an iPad app called "Retouch" for editing and removing unwanted objects in photos. I tried it on that pic, and see how it turned out below. Better, right?

And the inside... hmm, I didn't like my finger there, so....

I "Retouched" it out. Yay!! Worked like a charm!

So that's my first BAGOMC project. Actually, I didn't quite finish it, since I didn't add a strap. It could be carried without it, of course, but I mainly didn't add it because I didn't ever expect to use it (it's just not my style), so why bother? Anybody want it? It's up for grabs. A strap could easily be added with strap clips, which the pattern called for.

I did have some struggles getting it made. There are some really thick seams, and the final topstitching nearly got the best of me. Also, there wasn't enough room to topstitch past the turnlock, even with my skinny machine foot. I had to improvise. But I got 'er done.

As for the Feb., Mar. and now April patterns... I haven't made them and don't have plans to do so. I'm not too crazy about any of them. I don't think we'll be doing the club again. I'd rather see patterns before I purchase them, even if they do cost a little more that way. So much for that.

I have a half dozen other completed projects to blog about! And another one to start today or tomorrow. I'll be back.....

(Did you notice I didn't even mention THE BIG TOPIC OF THE TIMES even once in this post? You can read that elsewhere. Everywhere else, in fact. I'd rather sew. We're fine. So far.)