Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Bonnie Woven Top in Orderly Fashion

A little over a month ago, I received a package containing these gorgeous goodies in the mail!


Looks like a work assignment for me, right? Right! Well, sort of. To me, it’s more fun than work. But yes, it’s a number of sewing projects, because Jess has a new line of modal rayon fabrics out that she designed for Cloud9 Fabrics.

Of course rayon fabrics mean garments, which are usually larger projects than bags, so for the first time I needed to flip up the other leaf on my new cutting table and see how everything fit in the room. It actually worked quite well… close, but still with room to maneuver.


So, I proceeded in Orderly Fashion, which just happens to be the name of the fabric line. See the selvage?


This first fabric design that I worked on is called Nevermind. As you might (or might not) guess from looking at the pattern pieces above, the first project was a top, the Bonnie Woven Top by StyleARC.

I decided the best (and quickest) way to finish the seams and all those facing pieces was to serge them, so that’s what I did.


It was a pretty simple top to sew. However, the instructions in the pattern were minimal, which I guess StyleARC is known for. That was okay, because I’ve sewn lots of garments, and something like this should’ve been fairly easy… but the way they said to connect the back neck facing to the center back had me tearing my (also minimal) hair out, because I simply could not figure out what they meant to do! I did some googling to see if others had had problems, and sure enough, there were some frustrated sewers. Most had gone ahead and done it their own way, and the ways varied, which was visible in the photos.

I figured out what I ‘thought’ the instructions meant and did it that way, which seemed to work out okay and looked right. I also, out of curiosity, emailed StyleARC and asked them about it. I received a very helpful reply the next day, and it turns out that the pattern has an update, which they sent me the pages for. That made all the difference in the world! I wish they’d sent the update to their wholesalers right away (the pattern is several years old - not like it was something just discovered). It would’ve save a lot of frustration. Also, as it turned out, my method was not correct, making the center back fold in the wrong place. Since it was too late to redo it by then, I had to do a little “fudging” when adding the buttonholes and buttons. But it turned out okay and is not really noticeable.

So here’s the Bonnie Woven Top… front…


… and back:


Here is Jess modeling it:



It’s wearable, although the armholes are a little bit snug and it’s a tad small across the back. I’ll be making another one in a different fabric soon, and hopefully my plan for adjusting it will make for a better fit. Thats’s the trouble with having Jess live so far away. Fittings for garments aren’t very handy.

Bag making is fine, though, and when I mailed the top to Jess, I sent the Two Zip Hipster (see my previous post) along with it. She loves it, and I guess she likes the fabric/strap combo so much that… well… have a look for yourself:


Fun, right?

Part of my next project is completed, but I won’t be showing you until it’s ALL done. So I’d better get at it. By the way, all of this rayon sewing is being done on my faithful old Kenmore. My Sailrite could do it (except for the buttonholes), but it would mean a lot of tension adjusting, and I’d rather leave that machine set for heavy fabrics. I do still enjoy sewing on the Kenmore, anyway.

Friday, May 5, 2023

Two Zip Hipster Bag #3, modified

A few years ago (oh gosh, it’s been over 11 already!), Jess asked me if I would make her a Two Zip Hipster bag from the pattern by Dog Under My Desk. I did so, and it was such a great pattern that it began my love for all DUMD patterns, most of which I ended up testing after they were written. She then thought it would be fun if I made a second Hipster out of another of the canvas fabrics she designed. Since I thought it’d be fun, too, I agreed. So this one is the bag she carried for many years until it finally wore out (she had gifted the first one).

Fast forward 11 years, and she asked me if I’d like to make her another Hipster! Who am I to say no? Ha! This time she’d seen some fabric I’d gotten in a terrific grab box I’d come across, and she asked if she could have it for the bag… even though it was blue, which was MY favorite color and hers is orange. 🤔 She had an idea of how she wanted it to look. Sure, why not?

The fabric turned out to be some really tough water-proof stuff. It was a good choice for sewing on that new machine of mine. I just love the perfect stitches it produces!


I kidded Jess that the fabric/zipper combo matched the machine so well that I could hardly see what I was doing. 🤣


Jess wanted this new bag to be two inches shorter, which was just a matter of shortening the rectangular pattern pieces - super easy. It came together so beautifully.


Just look at those perfect stitches!


There’s a little secret tucked inside the bag. 🤫


Apparently the sew-in interfacing I used also makes good pattern pieces. Haha. I’d gotten it from Jess’s friend, Rachel, who owns a fabric store and was cleaning house and gifted me a bunch of fabrics and interfacings she had no more use for. I thought this would be appropriate for Jess’s bag. Here’s a closer look at what it says. It was just funny to my mind.


Jess had in mind a striped strap made of webbing, so she ordered this from an Etsy shop. It was designed by Tula Pink for Renaissance Ribbons. It saved me the trouble of making a strap for the bag. All I had to do was cut it and attach it.


Here’s the new Two Zip Hipster, shortened to be almost perfectly square.


I used silver waterproof canvas for the lining. With that and the sturdy outer fabric, no other interfacing was needed besides the sew-in. Also, the bag is so tough that it just might last Jess the rest of her life! Or MY life, anyway. 😅


Just more pretty stitching:


So that’s my second-to-last sewing finish. The last one is on its way to Jess right now along with this bag. I’ll give you a clue… it’s made from her new line of rayon fabric. I’ll post after she receives it and tries it on… and Alex finds time to take some photos. Three more projects are in the queue out of the same rayon (in different designs), so I’d better get busy! 

P.S. There’s still enough of that blue fabric left for something for myself, which I might also have in the works. 😉 And there’s still more left!