A New Top! Finished McCall's M7331 Tee

Now that the weather is about to change and that I won't be wearing thick sweaters and cardigans for much longer (one can hope!), I started looking through my stash of knit fabric for stuff I could use to make some cute tees.

I bought a bunch of McCall's patterns a while ago when they were on sale for $3.99 and included in the stack was M7331 which is basically a really cool module with four different patterns.

I made view B (the top with the elbow length sleeves) with scraps from my Blackwood cardigan.

This was such an easy sew! There is basically no shaping at all - no darts and very few seams. Even the collar is crazy easy - just turn down and topstitch.

I have to say - this is super comfy. The cotton knit fabric is really soft.

I think I'm going to have to buy all the knits and make a bunch of these tops for this summer.

The details:

• Pattern: View B of McCall's M7331
• Size: 20 - no modifications
• Fabrics: Cotton Jersey designed by Carolyn Friedlander for Robert Kaufman Fabrics

I Heart You Quilt

I'm back with another pink heart quilt! I couple of weeks ago, I blogged about a heart quilt I made for a set of twin girls my son and his wife are expecting in April. This is the quilt for twin number 2.

I used the I Heart You quilt pattern by Then Came June. But instead of using the same fabric for the hearts, I decided to use scraps and I'm absolutely in love with the results. The other fabrics I used were Kona White for the speech bubbles and Kona Peony for the background.

Like I had done for the first heart quilt, I use FMQ flowers for the quilting in Aurifil #2000 thread.

The backing is the same fabric I used in the first quilt and the binding is Kona Azalea.

The details:

• Pattern: I Heart You by Then Came June
• Size: 55" x 61"
• Fabrics: Kona White, Kona Peony, Kona Azalea and pink scraps 
• Thread: Pieced and quilted with Aurifil #2600 in 50 wt

My Practice Version of the Pona Jacket

When Helen's Closet published its Pona Jacket pattern a few months ago, I wasn't sure I wanted to make it - wasn't sure the really boxy shape of the jacket would suit me. But then I started seeing versions pop up on Instagram and some of them were so nice, I just had to try it.

I didn't really have anything in my stash that would have been perfect for this, but I found a Cotton & Steel quilting cotton I purchased for a quilt back so decided to make a practice version with that. (It's an Alexia Marcelle Abegg print called All the Warm Fuzzies.)

I made View B (the shorter version) but used the longer length for the sleeves.  The pattern suggests choosing the size based on your bust measurement because there is a lot of ease around the waist and hips so I went with a size 16.

This is 100% cotton so it wrinkles like crazy - I took these photos the day after I finished it. It had been pressed but then hung in my closet overnight and all those wrinkles you can see on the back were from just getting squeezed in! I can just imagine what this would look like after sitting at my desk for a whole day.

Like all of Helen's patterns, the instructions for the Pona are stellar. She really holds your hand through the whole thing - this was my very first jacket and it came together fairly easily.

I'm really tempted to purchase some light-weight denim or chambray and make another version. Or maybe a nice flowy tencel would be nice too.

The details:

• Pattern: Pona Jacket by Helen's Closet
• Size: 16 based on my bust measurement
• Fabrics: All the Warm Fuzzies by Alexia Marcelle Abegg for Cotton & Steel

Baby Heart Log Cabin Quilt

Our family will be welcoming baby twin girls in just a few weeks and I couldn't be more excited!

When I asked my daughter-in-law which colours she'll be using in the nursery, she said white, gold and pink. I had the perfect stack of fat quarters in my stash and decided to pair that with some pink scraps. I found a scrappy log cabin pattern from Sew Can She a little while ago and went with that!

I love the gold in the background fabrics. This was a really easy and fun quilt top to put together - just log cabin blocks set on point.

I quilted it with FMQ flowers with very light beige thread in 50 wt (Aurifil #2000).

The backing is a pink print and I pieced the binding from pink and purple fat 1/8s I had in my stash.

The details:

• Pattern: Baby Heart Log Cabin Quilt by Sew Can She
• Size: 42" square
• Fabrics: White/beige/gold fat quarters and pink scraps 
• Thread: Pieced and quilted with Aurifil #2000 in 50 wt

Raglan T-Shirts for Hubby

I actually wasn't going to blog about these makes because getting the hubby to model these new shirts was near impossible. However, I'm so pleased with how they turned out and I'm so in love with this pattern, I decided to post anyway. I've only got one decent picture but hopefully the information below is going to be useful to someone who is looking for a raglan sleeve pattern for men.

This was the first shirt I made and the collar is definitely not perfect but hubby said it was probably the most comfortable shirt he ever wore! Yay! I was so pleased he liked it that I immediately got cutting for a second version and I nailed the collar on that one! Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of it so you'll have to take my word for it. :-)

The fabric I used is a super soft cotton/lycra knit from Fabricville - I purchased it in navy, white, grey and black. The fabric was really easy to sew with although it does curl at the edges a little bit. I'm not very experienced with knits and I managed to make two shirts pretty easily.

The pattern is the Rocky Mountain Raglan by Peek-a-Boo Patterns. The pattern is extremely well designed and true to size. The instructions are clear and I love that you are able to print the PDF in the size you need only. I would highly recommend this pattern if you are new to sewing knit shirts.

And hubby has already requested many more of these!

The details:

• Pattern: Rocky Mountain Raglan by Peek-a-Boo Patterns
• Size: XXXL (hubby has a 53" chest and waist and it fits him nicely with just the right amount of ease)
• Fabrics: Cotton Lycra knit from Fabricville (lots of colours available)

Cielo Dress ... and Top!

Back in September, I purchased the Rome pattern collection from Closet Case Patterns and then in October, I got to work sewing the Pietra pants from the collection. They were super easy to sew but they had some really interesting details to them so I was anxious to sew another pattern from the collection.

In November, I made a muslin of the Cielo top (view B). Although I really liked the results, I wanted to try making view A with the short sleeves with a flowy fabric. I also wanted to try to dress.

I started with the dress. Based on the muslin I made back in November, I knew a size 14 would be good, but I still wanted to test the fit over my hips as well as the length (I like skirts and dresses to hit me at the knee or a little bit below). For my test, I went with a Cotton & Steel cotton in a cute print.

The fit was good - the length was just how I like it and it was really comfortable on top and around the hips.

However, as much as I love the pockets in the front, the fact that the dress has no shaping around the waist isn't flattering on me at all. There is one version of the dress which comes with no pockets, but which would allow me to add a belt so I might try that one instead.

After this failed attempt at sewing the Cielo dress, I decided to use some Tencel Twill I purchased from Blackbird Fabrics to make the short sleeve top. I once again went with a straight size 14 but lengthened the pattern by 2 inches.

The fabric is amazing to the touch and it drapes beautifully, but boy oh boy it was challenging to sew with. As a result, my darts look a little bit funny and there are definitely some minor issues with the set-in sleeves. But there's no way I'm going to let that stop me from wearing this top!

So now that the fit on this pattern is pretty good, I just need to make more so that I can nail sewing this with nice and flowy fabric. This is going to be such an amazing top for the summer!

A Precarious Quilt Finish

Like many quilters, my sewing room is in danger of being overtaken by scraps! I have a shoebox-size plastic bin full of scraps for every colour of the rainbow and in some cases, a couple of bins for the same colour. So at the start of this year, I knew I really needed to get these scraps under control. For 2020, I want to make AT LEAST five scrappy quilts and Precarious is the first one.

The pattern is from the book Stash Statement by Kelly Young. I purchased this book a while ago (because I've been trying to manage my scraps for years now!) and I've done one other quilt from the book: Regatta.

The background is a Kona cotton (can't remember the exact colour) and I really like how the scraps pop next to the grey.

The quilting is wavy horizontal lines with the walking foot. I've got some intense drag lines on there which drives me a bit crazy but I'm hoping once the quilt is washed, those drag lines will disappear somewhat. According to the little bit of research I did, the reason I'm getting drag lines is because I'm not alternating the direction in which I stitch the lines. I've basically been starting in the center of the quilt and then quilt all the lines to the right. I then rotate the quilt and do the same thing to the other side. I've always quilted lines this way and never had issues with drag lines until recently, but maybe I need to try alternating the direction of each line... 

The backing is a navy blue print with small green flowers. And the binding was pieced together from leftover binding strips.

The details:

• Pattern: Precarious from the book Stash Statement by Kelly Young
• Size: 54.5" x 64.5"
• Fabrics: Kona grey (background) and scraps 
• Thread: Pieced and quilted with Aurifil #2600 in 50 wt