A Last Minute Summer Sew

Labour Day long weekend is coming to a close now and school starts on Wednesday for the kids. (I've already been back since last Monday).  The hectic fall season is upon us for sure, but this weekend the weather has been gloriously summery - sunshiny and warm, so I'm wearing a last minute summer sew that I  almost had finished whipping up before we went on holidays - all I had left was the shoulder straps and hem for when we got home.  Not having had an opportunity to wear it since finishing it, I totally forgot about it until this morning.

Of course, it's the new free Orchard pattern from Helen's Closet that you can get just by signing up for their newsletter!  It's such a simple make and comes with a top version with two lengths and a dress version also with two lengths (that even has pockets!).  

I knew as soon as I saw the pattern that I wanted to make mine out of leftover linen that I had in my stash.  Because I was working with scraps I knew that I'd need to do some colour blocking to make it work.  I used the "Summer Breeze" linen in Pomegranate from Pure Linen Envy that I used a couple of summers ago to make my Helen's Closet Ashton Top along with leftover bias binding and a small strip of fabric that was all that remained from cutting out the linen blend from Minerva that I made my Zadie Jumpsuit with (also a couple of years ago). I also seamed the back of the top because I didn't have big enough piece of the solid linen to cut out the entire back piece. Scrap busting at it's finest!! 

To make my colour blocked version I went the easiest route possible.  First to make sure my top would be long enough for my liking, I added  1 1/2" to the pattern right off the hop.  Then I traced out the cropped version and added 5/8" seam allowance.  For my contrast band I traced off the rest of the top pattern from the cropped version line to the cut line and added 5/8" seam allowance at the top.  I cut both pieces on the fold since I had the room for it on my strip of linen blend, then it was just a matter of stitching the band to the bottom of my front and already sewn back pieces.  Then I continued on with the pattern as directed.  I lucked out having enough of the patterned linen bias tape left over from my Zadie to finish everything off with so I didn't even have to piece any teeny tiny bias strip scraps together.

I am really happy with how my colour blocked top turned out and now that I know how darn easy the Orchard Top and Dress is to sew, of course I can't help but thinking of some fall print fabric to make a dress with to pair it with a mock neck Dawson Top.  Hmmmmm...  Before I ponder that too much though I have a couple of other projects in the works - right now I'm working on a Moss jacket and some Winslow Culottes (Helen's Closet has ALL my attention right now apparently!!) and then I have dress I'm planning for early fall and I still want to get the pants hack of the Brampton Shorts made.  So many plans... so little time.  

Speaking of time I have to dash.  It's football practice night and the boys need to be at the field in less than an hour.  Gotta go...

The Brampton Shorts

Hello, hello!  How's your summer been going?  I've been having a great one!  We've had quite the busy one between football practices four times a week and working out in the garden - I refuse to let the weeds take over this year - and we even got in a trip to Saskatchewan that was absolutely wonderful.  We rented a cabin at Regina Beach for a few days and used it as a home base for day trips to Moose Jaw and Regina.  It's got me really excited to spend time over the next few months planning a road trip for next summer!

But here I am again with another pattern release from Itch to Stitch*.  I am definitely not ready to say farewell to summer or summer sewing for that matter, so the Brampton Shorts came at the perfect time for me.  Also, I'd been planning all summer long to make a few pairs of shorts, because I had only one pair left that fit me and so was in a bit of dire need.  The call to pattern test was the kick in the pants (or shorts as the case may be) that I needed to finally get to it.

Brampton comes with two different lengths to choose from, optional inseam and back pockets and optional belt loops and sash tie belt.  It features an easy elasticated paperbag waistband and comes in sizes 00-40.  This is a quick and easy sew, even if you choose all the optional pockets, belt loops and belt!  I whipped up my first pair in no time at all and made a second pair right away.  I didn't require any modifications to my shorts making it even quicker.   I chose to do the shorter length and all the options for both my pairs.

My first pair I made for the pattern test was made using leftover fabric from a previous Minerva project - my Itch to Stitch Anza Dress.  The fabric, that was gifted to me two years ago by Minerva, is a beautifully drapey rayon chambray.  I had just enough to do the shorts except for the pocket lining so I just used a white cotton lawn I had left over in my stash for that.  

The shorts fit great right off the hop.  As I said, no modifications were needed at all, so I was ready to make another pair straight away!  

I  definitely wanted to use all the options again, and this time wanted to try a different fabric to see how it would work out.  I chose a navy blue lightweight linen that I had bought earlier in the summer on sale from my local Fabricland with making shorts in mind.  It turned out to be perfect for the pattern as well!

My linen ones passed the road trip test too - I wore them all day on my trip and was equally comfy sitting for several hours in the truck as I was walking along the beach and lounging in the cabin. 

I'm so excited with this pattern and how it fits and wears!  I have some burnt orange viscose twill that I bought the same day I bought the navy linen with the intention of making some Helen's Closet Arden pants, but I changed my mind.  I'm going to hack the Brampton Shorts into pants.  I'd hoped to make them before my trip, but ran out of time, so I definitely want to make them for back to school.  I think they'd be super comfy as pants and I know that pattern fits well so it'll be a fuss free pants making venture!

If you want to get a copy of the Brampton Shorts they are on sale for the release week and I highly recommend them for any of your summer sewing plans!  I'll keep you posted on how the pants making goes! But for now I'm off.  I have to eat my breakfast and get out on the tractor and get the grass cut, then get into the garden and tackle the weeds and pick some veggies for supper tonight!

The Reynolds Top

Here we are the middle of summer and it's finally a rainy day - we've had such a hot dry summer here in the prairies, so it's very welcome.  It also means that I have some time to sit down and write a blog post that I had actually intended to write at the beginning of July instead of August.  However, since I've left it so long, I now have another project to add in here. Procrastination at it's finest.  Ha ha!

One month ago today, I turned 50 years old.  Leading up to my birthday, I decided that a 50th birthday was an occasion that definitely was deserving of a special new dress, even if my plans for my birthday included nothing more than sticking around home for the day other than a short hike at our favourite spot to take our dog Jasper for an off leash walk.  

When Helen's Closet released the Reynolds Dress and Top pattern I snapped it up the minute it was released, printed it off and assembled the PDF the same day.  I had my fabric cut out by the next day. And my dress was sewn and hanging up waiting well in advance of my birthday.  It took quite a lot of restraint to not wear it before hand, but what is the point of a special birthday dress if you're not going to wait until your birthday to wear it?

I love this pattern so much!!  It's quick and easy to sew which is my favourite thing these days!  It's a simple design so it lets your fabric really shine as the star of the show.  As with all of the Helen's Closet patterns the instructions are well thought out and include all sorts of helpful tips throughout.  The attention to small details is there as well with mitred corners on the side slits of the dress and the option of doing flat felled seams.  I sewed up a straight size 18 D with absolutely no changes to the pattern at all.

I knew exactly what fabric I was going to use on it too, without any hesitation.  In fact, I had my fabric picked out of my stash from the minute Helen had said on the patreon podcast that she would be releasing it soon. I had my eye on this large scale floral linen at Fabricland for over a year!  When it came out, I fell in love with it, but it was just too expensive to justify buying.  Every time I saw it in the store I was tempted to buy it, but even when it was discounted it still wasn't justifiable.  Then earlier this spring I was wandering through the clearance section of the store just having a browse about and suddenly I spied the bolt of fabric marked down to 70%!  Hello!  That's a completely justifiable purchase in my books!  I couldn't believe my luck.  I bought it and tucked it away in my stash waiting for the perfect pattern to come along. 

I was thrilled with how my dress turned out!  The Reynolds is great to showcase the large scale print, and it's so comfortable to wear.   I wore it, as planned, all day.  I even swanned about Tourond Creek in my hikers and dress when we took Jasper for his walk that day.  It was quite a look, I'm sure.  Ha ha!

I kept thinking that a Reynolds Top would be a great addition to my wardrobe too.  I have a couple pairs of cropped Itch to Stitch Samara Pants* that I made a few summers ago.  One pair I pair with a modified Crystal Cove Cami as a faux jumpsuit, but the other pair I really have nothing to go with so they continually just sit in on the hanger unworn.  I had bought some linen last summer with the intention of making a Ashton top out of it, but never got around to it, and thought that it might work out nicely as a Reynolds, so I sewed it up on Monday morning in about an hour and a half.  (Had I not had to change serger thread, ran out of bobbin thread and broken a needle it would have been even quicker).  

The only difference from the pattern was that I lengthened it because I'm not one for wearing cropped tops at all.  Otherwise, like the dress, I made no modifications.  I'm really happy with how it turned out too.  Don't mind the wrinkles.  I ironed it, then sat down for a bit in it before taking the photos and well, it's linen.  You've just got to embrace the fact it wrinkles if you so much as look at it.  

While I'd made my top originally thinking solely of having something to wear with my purple and blue Samaras, I was pretty excited to realize that it would go with my other pair as well.  It's nice to have a different look for them than just my faux jumpsuit one! Win! Win!

Now I'm wondering how many Reynolds are too many Reynolds?  I have some more fabric that would be perfectly suited to a top and I've got some cotton that I'm thinking might be cute in a shorter version of the dress... decisions, decisions...

New Summer Staples

My Helen's Closet Suki Robe finally got made in May!  A couple posts ago I was telling you how I had purchased the pattern and ordered some embroidered cotton from Minerva almost immediately after and then I sat on it for the last few years.  Like so many projects I have NO idea what took me so darn long to make it.  I was obsessed with the idea of a shortened Suki as a summer cover up for over tank tops and tees after seeing Helen's version on her blog. Really, it's a bit silly to say, but the thing that held me back was deciding on the length I needed to make the robe.  (Told you it was silly! How do I let things like that hold me back?!?!).  

 
This spring I took the fabric back out of it's pile it had been languishing in and put the pattern pages together - oh yes. I'd even printed it out as soon as I bought it.  My ridiculousness knows no bounds.  Ha ha!   It was such a quick sew once I got started.  And I was so happy to have it done!  I'd planned to wear it during Me Made May but alas.  I had absolutely nothing that looked good with it.  My love of florals can sometimes be a problem given almost all my tops are in some sort of bold floral print or another.  I really wanted a solid coloured top underneath so that the embroidery on the fabric could really shine.

Took me a few weeks more to get around to getting some solid coloured linen-look black fabric and whip up a modified ITS Crystal Cove Cami, but I got it done eventually - not in time for Me Made May of course, but whatever.  My Suki is done, I love it, and I certainly don't need to wait for an occasion or event to wear it.  I'm going to sew up a pink Crystal Cove as well so I can have a couple colour options to wear.  I bought a metre of it as well when I bought the black, I just haven't got around to actually making it.

Oh! And all that fear I had about the length?  Well - actually it turns out I cut it too short really.  Ooops!  But the world didn't come crashing down on me, nor did the gods of sewing punish me, so I guess it's alright. Ha ha!  I just used some really wide 2" bias binding I had in my stash and created a facing type hem instead and made a note on my pattern to add a bit of length for my next one.  Did I mention how much I love my shortened Suki Robe?  I might splurge on some pretty fabric to make a full length robe for lounging at home too down the road, but I've not had anything catch my eye just yet.

My other project that I am super happy I got made is another Helen's Closet pattern, the Ashton Top.  I sewed it up on the last day of Me Made May and immediately put it on for the rest of the day. I definitely need more in my life because it is getting a bit embarrassing how often I wear mine.  I hadn't sewn anything with linen in so long that I'd forgotten what a joy it is to work with and how amazing it is to wear, especially in the heat of summer.  The Ashton Top was another pattern that I've sat on forever.  I think I got it last summer when Helen started talking about "Ashton August" and all the hacks she was planning for it.

I joke that this past winter was the "Winter of Elliots" because I made and wore the Elliot so often - actually I just realized I'm wearing an Elliot tee as I type this!  I'm thinking I may have to dub this the "Summer of Ashton" because I continually wear it... see comment above....  It's just so easy to throw on with jeans, or shorts, or palazzo pants and it's cool and comfy and if it wrinkles I do not care because it's linen and that's what linen does.

I'm currently putting linen in and taking it out of my cart online because I know I shouldn't actually buy fabric.  I don't need fabric.  But I want fabric darn it.  I've even braved going to the fabric store specifically to look for linen.  (Didn't find anything I loved for an Ashton so it was kind of a disappointment - although I did find a great bargain on a linen blend for some floaty, breezy Winslow Culottes...) What I do think I might do, is take apart a dress I made forever ago when N graduated from high school and use the skirt of it for an Ashton.  It was a black and white linen blend print that I loved but lets face it.  I'm never going to fit into the dress again, so I might as well enjoy what I can of it!

So that's been my two - well I guess three with the Cami - new sews for summer that I'm going to be living in.  If you see me wearing either of them on constant repeat, just pretend you don't notice.  I'll try to at least make sure they're clean...

Oh and as for Me Made May?  My pledge was :

I challenge myself to wear at least one me made garment each day and to assess what the holes in my me made wardrobe are and to try and fill those holes by sewing some new garments.

Well, I did wear at least one me made garment each day and as it turns out, without a single repeat.  Which tells me I have a heck of a lot of clothes and not a whole lot of holes in the wardrobe.  Although, I did notice it was tops, tees, cardi's, hoodies etc.  Other than a few pairs of me made shorts, I haven't got many bottoms to go with the tops.   So I guess if I'm meaning to fill holes, that should be where I start.  I mentioned a pair of Winslow Culottes, but I also want to make a pair of cropped Lander Pants and I have fabric put aside for the Arden Pants as well.  We'll see how it goes though.  If nothing else, I tend to be pretty fickle with my sewing plans.  "Oooh look at the shiny new thing... I want to make that instead!"

Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other.