I couldn’t resist the now-classic Minoru pose, but here’s how I’ll more likely wear it:

And yes, I did make it in the not-recommended plaid/check fabric. I have to say, I think it actually works pretty well. Tasia was concerned about the mis-match that would necessarily occur at the raglan sleeve seams, but, a) it’s pretty concealed by the collar, and the neckline gathers, and pretty much anywhere you put your arms, and b) the mis-match is so angled that it doesn’t look like it’s supposed to line up at all, so it doesn’t read as a mistake to me. But you all know that I don’t really mind mismatched seams, so your mileage may vary. (In fact, my side seams are mismatched, actually, despite my best efforts to match them, and I am untroubled.) I managed to match across the front (placket and zipper and placket, oh my) and that’s enough for me!

The fabric itself is a very lightweight nylon coating from FFC eons ago. I bought it for a McCall’s 5525 trench, but I’m really glad I used it for this instead. It was a real hassle to work with, actually, because it was so thin and slippery, and it frayed like mad. For the first time ever I wished I had a walking foot, because it would feed slightly unevenly when I was topstitching causing drag lines between the seam and the topstitching line. But luckily the fabric is generally crumply enough to mask this, and hopefully no one but me will be closely examining all my topstitching! To add a little weight to the jacket, I lined it in a sunny yellow stretch poplin I found at my crazy fabric store (I love this fabric, and I have some left that I have just now decided will become a Cambie dress!) I am happy with my fabric choices in the end, and I think the lightweight nylon works really well with the gathers in this pattern at the neckline and the awesome waist elastic.

In the side view, you can see a little lining peeking out of the side seam pockets I added using Amy’s tutorial/pattern piece. (And like Amy, I think I put them a little low since they hit the hem. Oh well.) I absolutely must have side pockets (I’m like Jack Donaghy trying to act – what do I do with my hands? Give me a coffee cup!), and there was no question I was going to add them, so thanks, Amy, for doing the hard work for me!

You can also see my hood zipper, which, despite being installed using exactly the same method as the one I use in my messenger bag tutorial for the inner zip pocket, and which I’ve done many times, still ended up really wonky here. I’m going to blame the fabric and the slightly-wrong-size waterproof zipper, and again assume that no one but me will notice. But it opens to reveal:

The hood! In general I’m not a things-on-my-head person at all (clearly my hair doesn’t like it), but for a raincoat I think a hood is necessary, and may actually get some use when I forget my umbrella (which is almost always). I also think I like the way the collar lays with the hood out better, which makes me think that if I make this again in another fabric I’ll omit the hood.

And this is probably how I’ll wear it most – open, hood out, hands in pockets. As you can see in the last picture, the zipper is not the best. It is hard to start and tends to open itself from the bottom already. It’s a “waterproof” zipper from Jo Ann, and while I like the smooth surface and it goes well with the jacket fabric, it’s not actually great at, you know, being a zipper. Hopefully it’ll not fail entirely for a long while, even if it stays a nuisance.

Some thoughts on the pattern itself: this is a great jacket that, as many have noted, really fills the not-fancy-but-not-sporty women’s jacket void. I actually can see myself making another one of these in a more-recommended fabric like twill. I like the shape of it, and the elastic waist is genius. It’s my first jacket ever, so I can’t really comment on how hard it is compared to other jacket patterns, but I will say that it didn’t include any techniques that I was unfamiliar with from sewing bags, for instance. The instructions are clear but brief, and there’s a few steps packed into every instruction, so read carefully before moving on! Of course, nothing’s clearer than the sewalong, so be sure to check that out. Even though I didn’t sew along, I did go back and read the posts for certain steps I needed to clarify for myself. Some of the construction things seem easy in concept but were really fiddly and kind of challenging in execution; for example, I had a terrible time lining up the shell and lining to stitch in the ditch under the collar, and my lining ended up a little bigger than the shell, so I had to take a tuck in the lining when I hemmed. The only real fit adjustment I made was to take an inch off the cuff elastic – after making up one cuff, it was so loose that it didn’t feel like a cuff at all, and I almost couldn’t tell it was gathered. On sizing overall, I cut a size 6, grading out to an 8 in the waist only. I probably should have made an 8 on top too, since I learned from my Renfrew that the Sewaholic patterns seem to have narrower shoulders than I have, but the extra ease from just being a coat makes the 6 fine. If I wanted to ride my road bike in it, or wear anything thicker than a long-sleeve tee under it, though, I’d definitely need an 8 in the shoulders. Here’s the link to my pattern review.

So hooray, my first ever coat is finished! It’s funny, it actually doesn’t feel like the huge accomplishment that I thought my first coat would be – probably because the pattern is actually simpler than some dresses I’ve made. I know this coat will have a happy home in my wardrobe during the rainy season, which is, of course, over until October (hopefully! I hate rain). But this fall, man, I’ll be happy I finally got around to making it!

I will say that this pattern is exactly what it seems to be: a blousy sack dress with a nice pleated neckline that absolutely must be belted (I have no photographic proof, but trust me when I say that it looks like a mod 60s nightgown without the sash). I’m not over the moon about this pattern, but it is well drafted and quite easy, which I suppose won it its “best of” status.

Fit-wise, I made a 10 on top grading to a 12 at the hip. The top fits well, and it’s a smidgen tight across my hips/butt but not enough to need to let it out. What I just realised is that in this picture as well as the envelope picture the use of the (huge!) pockets hides the fact that there is so much balloony-outy fabric at the midsection it’s not even funny. The pattern pieces are sightly egg-shaped, so it’s clearly intentional. A little blousing out on top of the belt is great, but there’s too much poofiness in the stomach area for it to be super flattering. Luckily I love pockets and will probably have my hands in them much of the time – problem solved.

The one fit issue I did have was that the back neckline gaped a ton. I’m sure this is because I have the dreaded “round back” or whatever, as I usually taper in at the center back zipper on dresses with high back necklines, but this is the first time I’ve had to take a back neck dart. I actually made an inverted pleat at center back, taking out over an inch! I just made it with the back and back facing together, since I wasn’t about to rip out the facing and pleat it separately. Here’s a picture of the pleat – I think it actually works well as a design feature to compliment the front pleating and the overall blousiness of the dress.

I also obviously added the contrast band at the bottom, since I had the contrast fabric and I thought it could use something to accentuate the mod-ness of the funky print. I actually made up the whole dress at the drafted length first to see how long I wanted it and how big a band that would require, and it turned out that the unhemmed length was just about perfect (take note, this dress is drafted short!). I cut a 6 inch tall strip of blue for the band using the bottom of the front and back patterns (a 4 inch band, 1 1/2 inches for the hem, and 1/2 seam allowance) then I cut 4 inches off the bottom of the dress and sewed on the band. One of my side seams doesn’t match for some reason (actual reason: only 30 minutes until I had to leave for Girls Night), but I don’t tend to care about those sorts of things. I made a machine blind hem. The blue fabric is a bit heavier weight than the fashion fabric, but I think that works to weigh down the skirt a little and keep it from being too floaty.

In the end I’m happy with this dress, and glad this fabric found a home, but I can’t say I was interested in making it outside of the deadlines I set for myself. There are a lot more practical things I could have made instead, but this jumped to the top for, ultimately, pretty thin reasons. I need now to figure out how to motivate myself this much for everything I want/need to make… so, Pattern Review, could you please have a contest for whatever it is I’m interested in making at any given moment? Cool, thanks.

My review (and contest entry, right under the wire) is here.

Days 3 and 4:

Day 2 was the first with no photo – off to a good start there – but rest assured I wore this dress, the Butterick Muse cowl dress in teal doubleknit. I made this last January and it’s a fantastic cool weather work dress that I wear all the time.

Day 3 brings a blurry photo of wearing my stripey Renfrew while barbecuing (I’m making this salad, which is pretty much my favorite summer salad ever). I do like this shirt a lot, but it’s still kind of annoying to wear due to the non-stretchiness of the bottom band. I’ve got another version of this pattern in my head to make soon(ish), plus now maybe a sleeveless one (thanks to Andrea‘s inspiring Renfrew dress!).

Day 4 was my new Boden twist top knock-off, worn here posing for pictures for the upcoming reveal of my FINISHED MINORU! Consider this a sneak peek, and I’ll try to get it written up this weekend… or sometime. I did not wear the Minoru all day since it was swelteringly warm (finished raincoat rain prevention successful!), but the twist top was great all day. Also in the imaginary queue: more Simplicity 1916s.

Days 5 and 6:

Day 5 I wore my favorite Farmers’ Market dress to, yep, the market and then to work. Higher on the make next list is more of these dresses, McCall’s 5893. They’re super easy to make and wear. Also in this picture are a ton of avocados in the orange bag and some rhubarb, tomatoes and cilantro (among other things) in a bag I made from a t-shirt I got when I rode the Windmill Century last summer. I love the t-shirt bag, but believe it or not I’m having a hard time finding appropriate t-shirts to cut up to make another one.

Day 6 I hosted a taco feast for several friends, for which I wore my wearable muslin of Butterick 5181. I vaguely remember deciding that there was something wrong with this dress when I made it, but I sure didn’t notice anything on Sunday – it was great and perfect for hosting an, um, seis de mayo party.

Days 8 and 9 were more no-picture fail days. On Day 8, a day off from work, I wore my maroon McCall’s 6347 for lounging around the house, and my Simplicity 2369 for running an errand. Day 9 saw me pull out my trusty Vogue 1224 – man I love that dress. I’m sure it’ll show again and I’ll get a fresh picture of it then.

But here are my last two pictures, days 7 and 10:

Can you guess where I was on day 7? Yep, that’s Disneyland! More specifically, the line for Small World. I just had to pose with this topiary moose – it’s the epitome of randomness. The dress is my Simplicity 2443. Who says you can’t wear a dress to an amusement park? This one was perfect, just the right weight for the warm-but-not-hot weather on Monday and with a nice weight in the skirt to keep it from blowing up on the wilder rides (which at Disneyland is not very wild at all – I don’t think I could get away with a dress at, say, Six Flags). We had a fun but long day, since we drove down, did both parks, and drove back all in one day!

Day 10 I wore my pink spotty twist-neck top to work and then to the special movie theatre screening of the live This American Life show. Sorry for the terrible dark iPhone picture, but it turns out it’s hard to take a picture in a movie theatre, even at the end of the show. If you’re a fan of Ira Glass and friends and you missed the screening, I believe they’ll be putting up a radio-ized version of the show on their website soonish that you can listen to there or grab the podcast (my preferred consumption method). It was a really great show, about twice as long as one of their regular radio shows and with a lot of fun visuals. The modern dancing was particularly cool, as was the interactive OK Go performance and Mike Birbiglia’s short film with Terry Gross (NPRgasam!) Hopefully the visual version will be up somewhere too eventually.

So that’s my first week-and-some-change of Me-Made-May – the fun continues, and I’ll do another round-up next weekish. So far so good!

Yes, as usual I’m extremely late to the party (and I’ve missed Karen’s pyjama party entirely! I’ll have to have my own, solo pj bash soon – I need new summer pjs, stat). But I do want to participate, mostly because since September I’ve been getting lazier about wearing the things I’ve made all the time, and I want to get back in the habit. What I want to really concentrate on this month is making real everyday garments, and figuring out what I wear and want to wear so I can sew with that in mind. I imagine there will be many repeats of items I wore in September, so I’ll probably post less MMM-only posts than I did for SSS. I’ll do full posts for new makes, but probably some kind of collagey post every several days for when I’m wearing things you may have seen before. Mostly I imagine I’ll be winging it – I’m feeling rather scattered lately.

Which brings me to my other news: I’m changing jobs at the end of the month. This has been a big, scary decision for me, but I think it’s the right one. I’ve accepted a position at a more local theatre, which means leaving the company I’ve been with for the last six years. As hard as that is, I’m excited to be reducing my commute from an hour each way to less than 10 minutes (or 20 minutes by bike! yes, it’s bikeable!), and the new position will, I think, be somewhat to substantially less weekly hours as well. The new company also has the added bonus slash complication that it is dark in the summer, which means that after my first show there in June, I will be unemployed until it starts up again in September. The upshot of which (as applicable to this blog, anyway) is way, way more time to sew. Do I need to change my blog title? I’m excited to have a summer off, as it’s been years since I’ve been available to, say, attend summer weddings, or lay on a beach, or eat watermelon all day, or whatever it is normal people do in the summers. I’m also excited to have time to (hopefully) sew through my stash (which I’ll need to be doing, since with no income I’m forbidding myself from buying any fabric… that costs more than 99 cents a yard, anyway).

So the month of May for me is an ending and a beginning, with a busy few weeks finishing at the old job, a week off, and then busy again starting new. So I don’t know that my concentration will be always on MMM, but I’ll try. One day at a time, right? So here’s what I wore today, appropriately both old and new – it’s the first knit top I made, and my second ever review on Pattern Review, but this is the first time I’ve worn it this year. It’s long sleeve, so it got passed over during our warm winter weather, but now that it’s quote unquote spring, the terrible gloom has set in and it’s colder than January was, so I pulled it out.

I like this pattern (McCall’s 6120, now out of print apparently), and I keep meaning to make a sleeveless version, but haven’t gotten around to it. The Simplicity I just used for my Boden knock off is very similar, but I do like the midriff band on this one. Into the queue it goes! That’s what the Me-Made-Months are about, right? Rediscovering the old and refining it for the new? I guess that pretty much sums up this May for me!

When the contest came around, I went hunting for a suitable pattern, and actually found it in my stash! Simplicity 1916 was one of their new spring patterns, and I bought it when it came out just because I liked it and then I promptly forgot about it. It’s basically perfect for this top. So here’s my version:

(Yes, I am trying to duplicate the original photo – hey, it’s a requirement of the contest! Also, I’m not sure why Boden paired a gray top with khakis, but I went with it.)

I really made very few modifications to the pattern. The base, with the pleated crossover top and center gathered lower front, was exactly like the Boden top. I used the pattern piece for the long sleeves and cut them off about 2 inches below the underarm. I was going to draft pieces for the twist overlay, but then I discovered a pattern piece for a midriff overlay on View F that was perfect! I cut two instead of one, stitched them into tubes and gathered the ends a little, then hooked them through each other and basted them onto the sides of the constructed front piece, basically splitting the midriff seam so the twist would cover it up. I probably should have cut the overlay pieces just a little longer than the pattern piece, since with the twist it pulls the back of the top a little tight across my back. The pattern calls for bias facing the neckline, but the Boden top clearly has a self facing that’s not stitched down. I tried to duplicate that by zigzagging clear elastic along the seam allowance and folding it under, but it wouldn’t stay put so I ended up twin-needling over it. The only fit modification I made was to pinch out an inch along the front neckline as an SBA.

I really like this pattern as itself, too, not just as a vehicle for a knock-off, and I’m sure I’ll make one without the twist overlay at some point as well. It went together really fast and easily, which is basically my only criteria for a winning pattern at this point. My pattern review/contest entry is here.

This was the last of the projects I had queued up for April, so believe it or not, I have actually returned to my sad, abandoned Minoru rain jacket and have made progress on it! I know, you’ll believe it when you see it. I’m thinking that by finally finishing it, it will prevent any rain from falling until October, giving me no opportunity to wear it until then. But I’m okay with that. Bring on the summer weather!

• polyester is evil
• starting a dress on Thursday night for an event on Saturday is not wise

Now, have I actually learned these things? Will I always in future avoid the temptation of pretty floaty polyester fabrics because I remember how much I cursed this fabric as I was cutting and sewing it? Will I plan ahead better for events I might want to make a dress for and, say, choose the pattern and cut the fabric more than three days in advance of the wear date? No, probably not. But I am naming this project the “Never Again” dress in hopes that that will at least make me think twice before doing either of those things again… or at the very least before I do both of these things on the same project.

Anyway, I did in fact make a dress, and I wore it on Saturday, but I must say it’s got to be the shoddiest sewing I’ve done to date. Floaty polyester does not lend itself to rushing, and rush I certainly did. And although I was hand sewing up the front at work, minutes before putting it on, it was wearable in the end, though it’s not exactly my proudest work:

Ugh, see the extra fabric pooching out under the arms (not taking the time to fit the bodice properly), the wubbly-ness of the front neckline (unstable floaty polyester), the terrible, terrible lazy uneven hem (oh yes, I serged, folded over and stitched without pinning or pressing – hey, I was short on time!)?

On the back my shoddy work is even more evident:

Look, it’s a totally visible invisible zipper and back darts that end in big bubbles… and I don’t even know what’s going on under the arms here.

All that said, I still kind of love the fabric (from my crazy 99 cent store). It’s so pretty, but it frays like mad and couldn’t stay on grain to save its life. It’s a particularly floaty (staticky) sheer polyester chiffonny type thing, and I lined it with a similar, if slightly heavier and a little more stable navy polyester something-or-other. The pattern is Butterick 5181, which I used to make my Old Navy knock-off dress last year. Because I had only made it in a knit, and only the other bodice style, I was way off on the sizing. I cut a straight 12, which was a full two inches too big in the midriff and more than that in the bodice (I clearly should have taken it in even more at the sides), and frankly there’s just too much gathering in the skirt of this pattern (might be because the skirt width is the same for all sizes, so there’s more gathering in a 12 than a 20, say). This bodice version is very, very low cut, which is usually fine on me because I have no cleavage whatsoever, but because of the unstable nature of the fabric the front gaped funny and I had to (hand) sew up the front neckline a couple inches. I am glad I went with this simple a pattern for this fabric, since anything with more than the five pieces this had would have had me screaming (even more) and throwing my scissors at the wall/husband/cat/neighbors. I even converted the front bust darts into gathers (since we can see from the back how well this fabric does darts). The pattern could not be easier – now I’m tempted to try it in a nice, stable cotton. Polyester: Never Again! Until next time, of course…

Last year sometime, I bought just a yard of Anna Marie Horner Little Folks voile in the Four Square pattern with the idea that it would make a great spring/summer top of some kind (I’m fairly sure my purchase was inspired by a top Rae herself made at some point), but spring and summer passed and no patterns jumped out at me as perfect for the fabric. It fell to the bottom of the Stash Monster’s belly and I forgot about it. Then a few weeks ago when my mom was visiting, we popped into the Anthropologie and saw this tank on the sale rack:

Of course, the first thing through my mind was “$39 on sale?! I could totally make that.” Which is pretty much what I think when I see anything in a store nowadays, but my follow-through is abysmal. But then I suddenly remembered the Spring Top Sewalong, and my long forgotten voile, and off I went to hunt for a pattern. I knew I’d have to draft the back, since it was unlike any blouse pattern I’d ever seen, and I thought I’d probably have to figure out the pintucks in front and the front neckline too, but wouldn’t you know, I lucked out with New Look 6104. Bingo – the front is almost identical! The tucks are a little smaller, and it has bias bound edges, but it was a fantastic jumping off point. So I dug out some tissue paper from my gift-wrapping bin (yeah, I pretty much never trace patterns), drafted some back straps and a front facing, and cut into my precious voile (using literally every bit of it). And much to my surprise and delight, it turned out pretty much just right!

Here’s the front view – basically no pattern modifications. Amazingly, the bust dart actually works for me, and the bust isn’t too large (I made a straight size 10). I actually really like this pattern – it fits me well with no adjustments. I did convert the bias neck/armhole finish to a facing, since that binding wouldn’t really work with back straps (of course, the one time I’d rather have a pattern with facings and I have to make them myself). I basically just traced along the neckline/armholes, and arbitrarily drew a straight line across about an inch below the lowest underarm point to make the facing pattern. I totally failed to take into account how I would finish the top of the button bands, though, and I didn’t make the facing long enough to include the bands… so I ended up sort of binding just the top of the button bands. It’s not ideal, but it’s okay and not too noticeable (or maybe it could be considered a design feature?) I also actually put in functional buttonholes, even though I can absolutely pull the shirt on over my head. Why did I torture myself with making buttonholes when I could have just sewn up the front and attached decorative buttons? No idea. I guess it was just a weird momentary deviation from my usual lazy sewing self. Also, these are my favorite. buttons. ever. I thought I’d be standing at the button wall for hours, debating between a bunch of not-quite-right options, but nope, I walked up and saw them first thing. And good buttons were vital, because I think they make the back:

If I like the front of this top, I love the back. It’s so fun, and it actually wasn’t hard at all to figure out. I took the pattern piece for the back and cut straight across one inch above the top of the side seam – I wanted the top edge across the back to come straight back from the lowest point of the armhole, and the extra inch was my self-facing for the top edge that forms the channel for elastic between the straps. I also laid out the pattern piece about an inch and a half away from the fold to add a total of three inches across the center back to gather. Obviously I omitted the back darts. I sewed a channel across the top just between where I wanted the straps to be (since that’s how the original was done) then cut about a 5 inch piece of 3/4 inch elastic, secured it to one side of the channel, pinned the other side and tried it on for fit before securing the loose side as well. Here’s a closer look at the back, and you can also see the front facing and my jankety button-band-binding:

I did not make real buttonholes on the back straps, because the uninterfaced voile puckered really badly on my test sample. I just sewed the straps on with the buttons. I did belatedly iron on a couple scraps of interfacing to the back facing under where the straps attach just to reinforce the area a bit.

Overall I’m really in love with this top! It took kind of forever, but I also took my time to get it right (after my debacle with the button bands, anyway). I don’t know that I’ll get to wear it for a while, since our springs here tend to be mostly foggy and dismal, but for now I’ll just admire it in my closet and revel in the success of my first Anthropologie knock-off!

These are the needles I use (I stock up at Jo Ann during the half-off notions sales – one starts today!). For a while I went out of my way to get the stretch twin needles (only available at one local sewing machine store, and expensive), but I’ve actually found the regular ones to work just fine on all but the most slinky stretchy poly jerseys.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed about sewing with twin needles, it’s that every sewing machine does it differently. Sure, you have to have two spools (I keep an old bobbin around to wind as my second spool), and thread both threads through the machine to the needle, but my old machine (a cheapo Sears-branded Singer) preferred that both threads go through the machine together, while my new machine (Bernina 1230) is very, very picky about threading. It is vital that I start with the right-hand spool, have the thread coming off the front of the spool, make sure it gets on the right side of the tension disc, and through the little thread catch above the needle, while the left spool must have the thread coming off the back, go on the other side of the tension disc, and not into the thread catch at all (why is that important? no idea, but repeated thread nests tell me it is). Here’s a look at what I mean:

I also always have to lower the tension to get a good stitch. I’ve found, with this machine at least, that the thinner the fabric, the lower the tension. For really thin knits I’ve had it all the way down to .5! Usually around 2 is about right, though. Test swatches are your friend!

At first I tried to secure the start and end of the stitching by backstitching, but several pulled-out hems indicated I needed another method. (Also, the Bernina gets all tangled up if I backtack with a twin needle.) Now I simply tie the thread ends to each other. For a regular hem (one that starts and ends at the same point), I stop sewing as close to my start point as possible (without overlapping), then I tie the two top threads to their counterparts, and on the reverse side, I tie one bobbin thread end to the other. I’ve found this to be much more secure. Here’s a picture showing the top threads tied off (I always start and end at a seam), as well as the reverse side of the stitching (yes, I used white bobbin thread so I wouldn’t have to wind a second bobbin. Let’s pretend I did it for demonstration purposes.):

But what to do about hems on sleeves, for example, that don’t start and end at the same place? Here’s my cunning (I think so, anyway, maybe everyone does this?) method for tying off the thread ends: I thread both of the top threads through a needle, stick the needle in between the two lines of stitching, and pull the threads to the back. Then I tie the bobbin thread to the two top threads.

Easy, clean, and secure! This example is from my Vogue 1250, but I’ve also used it on Vogue 8728, Vogue 1224, and Simplicity 3503 (that’s a lot of dresses with cut-on cap sleeves – do I have a thing?)

Finally, as great as the twin needle is, it’s still not as durable as a professional coverstitch, and I do still get popped hems occasionally when the bobbin thread just breaks somewhere in the middle of the hem. Rather than rip out and re-do the whole hem when that happens, though, I’ve discovered that I can carefully pull a short tail of bobbin thread out on both sides of the break, then pull out the top threads from that section (leaving them long too), and just re-sew the short section of hem. Then I tie off all the new threads to the old ones. Patched!

I really like hemming knits with a twin needle, and I do encourage you to try it if you never have. Don’t get discouraged if your machine seems to hate it – just keep re-threading and trying again until you find the right threading method and tension for your machine. Twin needle hemming has become my preferred knit edge finish method for all patterns, but I’m still amazed that no pattern instructions recommend it or even mention it! It can be tricky, but I think it’s totally worth it. What about you?

So without further ado, meet Malcolm, aka The Orange Terror:

Yeah, I know, he doesn’t seem very intimidating, but trust me. He is a stalker of moving objects, a knocker-down of items from tables, a consummate getter-into of bags and boxes. He is afeared of nothing except the terrible Vacuum Monster (he is certainly not afeared of me). I have found that most other cats I’ve met seem to think they’re people, and as such they are entitled to equal rights in the house. Malcolm’s entitlement works differently – I’m pretty sure Malcolm doesn’t think he’s people… he thinks we’re cats. The hierarchy in our household is as follows: my husband is the alpha cat, Malcolm is his second in command, and I am some kind of minion to be ordered around and arbitrarily attacked anytime I turn a corner or enter a room. Weirdly, despite The Terror’s dominion over me, he doesn’t insert himself too much in my sewing. Perhaps he is too lofty to be concerned with the doings of the lowly serf-cat of the house? Whatever reason, I’m glad that he mostly hasn’t ruined any of my projects or fabric (yet!), though he has contributed a generous amount of hair to everything I’ve ever set down anywhere in my house. He does really enjoy sitting on pattern tissue, but I can usually enlist the aid of the alpha cat to yoink him off the table and distract him while I cut. The weirdest sewing item he likes to mess with, oddly, is pins. Though I’ve never seen him do it, I have found pins in rooms far away from the sewing table, and I can only assume he is carrying them there in his mouth. All right, weirdo. It must be a natural outgrowth of his love of twisty-ties and wire and cut-off ends of guitar strings.

Here’s one last “aaawwww” picture for you:

This is from about a week after we adopted him, almost 9 (!) years ago. (It’s black and white because I used to shoot film and develop/print it myself – until the idea of a “rental darkroom” went the way of the dodo – and there was a time when we didn’t have a point-and-shoot type camera, so all our pictures of Tiny Malcolm are scans of black and white prints from my ancient Mamiya-Sekor SLR.) He was so little and floppy and orange and furry and bitey… and not much has changed except he now takes up much more space on the bed. We’re still waiting for him to stop acting like a kitten and for-God’s-sake-stop-waking-us-up-at-daybreak-by-knocking-things-off-the-dresser, but I have a feeling he’ll just always be The Orange Terror no matter how old he is. But he’s our Terror and we love him… as long as he keeps his claws off my fabric.

Thanks Cindy for making me share him, and for a badge that will make me smile every time I see it in my sidebar! As far as passing on the award, I don’t know of any sewists-with-cats that haven’t already been honored, but if you have a Terror of your own you’d like to share, grab the badge and consider yourself awarded!

]]> http://notimetosew.wordpress.com/2012/04/08/meet-the-orange-terror/feed/ 7 aleah42 Sewing With Cats_0002 lazy malcolm Little Malcolm http://notimetosew.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/vogue-1250-the-kickstart-dress/ http://notimetosew.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/vogue-1250-the-kickstart-dress/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2012 08:33:08 +0000 aleah http://notimetosew.wordpress.com/?p=524 Read More

Well, the unthinkable has happened. I finished a dress in two hours. Total! No, really! I didn’t think it was possible either. I mentioned on Friday that I decided that the best way to kick my butt back into sewing gear would be to tackle a super easy project with a close deadline. And so it was that on Thursday night I took a half hour to cut out Vogue 1250 (all three pieces of it), on Friday morning I sewed for a little over an hour and got it all together, and on Saturday, before leaving for our anniversary trip, I hemmed the bottom and sleeves in another half hour or so. Into my suitcase it went!

We snagged this picture on the patio of the B and B we were staying at (great views!) before heading out to dinner at the most amazing restaurant – if you find yourself in Paso Robles ever, check out Artisan; it’s every bit as good as everyone says… just like this pattern!

I don’t have a lot to add to what others have said about this pattern – I really did make it with no modifications. (My full review is here). I cut a size 10 on top, grading to a 12 starting around the waist so the size transition would be complete before the dart craziness at the hip. Though my cutting was not the most precise ever, so nothing lined up quite perfectly, it still went together easily and fit just right with no adjustments. I used a twin needle to finish the hem and the sleeves, but I still used the binding for the back neck (although rather than fold it I just cut it in half lengthwise and left the inside edge raw). I made the front “facing” a bit deeper by cutting it at the size line for the 14.

The fabric came from my crazy fabric store, and was just about a yard, so I suppose this dress cost me 99 cents (not counting the pattern or the thread, of course… all right, but $6.50 is still pretty good). I like the dress, but more importantly it made me excited to sew more! It was great to be back at the machine after more than three weeks of not touching it.

So what’s next? I picked up a slew of new summer patterns last week at Jo Ann, which made me excited to jump into summer sewing even though we won’t have real summer weather here for months (if at all – our summers here are dismal and foggy). But I think next I really need to FINISH MY MINORU, and also I have a couple RTW knock-off tops I want to make, to enter in various contests in the next few weeks. Thanks, kickstart dress, for inspiring me!

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