Month: May 2021

Might as well jump(er)

Erin3 Comments

front Grainline Farrow jumper

This is one of my favorite fabrics (and favorite patterns). (You might recognize the fabric from this dress—which I still wear—and this one, which I took apart and from which some of this yardage was recovered.)

The pattern is the Grainline Farrow, modified a bit to turn it into a jumper. (The Farrow has a sleeveless version, which is not quite the same as a jumper version …)

back Grainline Farrow jumper
Farrow back (The bright dots on these pics are sunlight—weird for where I live, I know!)

Because I didn’t have much fabric, I kind of took a “this is deliberate” approach to just picking a stripe direction for each major section and rolling with it. The center front stripe below the pocket isn’t quite right but … eh. “Good enough for Zoom”, that’s my new motto.

pockets Grainline Farrow jumper
pocket + piping
bias binding Grainline Farrow jumper
neck bias
other side Grainline Farrow jumper
side view, slightly dizzying, in a ‘welcome to Castrovalva’ way

I’ve made a few other Farrow jumpers, mostly in denim/heavy twill/corduroy, but I don’t think I’ve blogged any of them. They’re pretty utilitarian, but make a great work-from-home uniform with a long-sleeved tee and leggings underneath. (If you’d told my eighteen-year-old self that someday I would wear Birkenstocks and socks every day for a year, BY CHOICE, I’m pretty sure she would have looked at you with horror.)

I’ve been trying to plan out more projects that will sew down my stash/remnant pile. (I thought that making a metric faceton of masks, a braided rag rug, and enough 2″ squares for a king-size quilt would have taken care of the remnant problem but … lol no. Comments are open for suggestions …) This is the first of two (the other is a buffalo-plaid Fringe that I hope to finish this week, it’s all done but the neck facing/waist seam/hemming/shouting).

Summer is for stripes

Erin6 Comments

blows dust off top of blog, hits power button

Well, I’ve gotten two shots (shoutout to my Pfizer Pfriends) and in a week or so I can perhaps consider leaving the house, so I suppose it’s time to start sewing again?

I have basically been wearing the same seven dresses for a year, mostly in shades of gray and black, and I am assured that at some point I will emerge (like a cicada, only quieter) into the light of the sun. So this seemed like a relatively sunny fabric to start with.

heavily modified Chalk and Notch Fringe dress in Kaffe Fassett yarn-dye
heavily modified Chalk and Notch Fringe dress in Kaffe Fassett yarn-dye

I think I bought this fabric at Scrap in Portland, in the beforetimes, but I’m not sure.

So yeah, this is the Chalk and Notch Fringe dress, which is super-comfortable, even more so when you turn the skirt into a six-panel one and add gathering to the center front and back and extremely deep pockets. As you can see I also turned the facing to the outside so I could play with stripes and piping.

Fringe bodice
turning facing to outside means never having to match the center seam
Fringe back
back with gathering at the waistline
Fringe sleeve
bias finish for the sleeves
Fringe facing with piping
I forgot to interface the neck points so they’re a bit gentler than usual
Fringe hem
bias bind the hem too? why the heck not?

I’ve actually done a tiny bit more sewing since putting this together—I finally bought a cutting mat large enough for my cutting table, so I am now a late convert to the Church of the Rotary Cutter. (Wow, those things are neat!) Rotary cutting means that a bunch of knit projects I always bought fabric for and then dismissed as too much effort to cut conventionally are now within reach—I made my first jersey knit dress in more than a decade (a Cashmerette Turner) recently, and it was such a quick sew! (I also acquired some stretchy bobbin thread and a jersey double needle for topstitching, which was extremely satisfying.)

Anyway, in addition to not sewing, I’ve mostly been spending my time this past year appreciating how lucky I’ve been and trying to quash my incandescent rage at those who made the decisions that caused other people to be hideously unlucky. Also, as is now required by statute, I started a newsletter. (It’s free.)

How’ve y’all been? I’ve missed you.