The New "Perfect" Bag!

 A new bag for a new year!

Isn't it a cutie?!   I keep thinking my fascination with bags will wane at some point...but not yet!  There is just something so satisfying about hooking a bunch of pockets together!  

Why, you may ask, do I need another backpack?  Well, to be quite honest, I don't.  But that hasn't stopped me yet.  The somewhat spurious rationale for this one, is that my former "perfect bag" has gotten too big!  When I have the room I tend to fill it up and that means I end up hauling around too much stuff!  In Michigan where most of the time I am getting in the car to go places, having a bag that is a bit heavy isn't too much of a problem.  But here in Key West I am on foot or on my bike and extra weight is very noticeable.  I wanted something smaller that would hold the essentials that I want and nothing more.  

I started with the idea of making a 'fanny pack.'  It would be about the right size....But...it just reminded me too much of a 1980's Saturday Night Live skit.  I just couldn't do it.  I also realized that the reason I started carrying a backpack in the first place was to balance the weight of a bag evenly on my body.  If I am out all day I notice that whichever side has been carrying the bag gets all tensed up.  So I decided to stick with the backpack format.  

Next I got out the 'essentials.'  My phone, my wallet, my glasses (reading and sunnies), my mask and hand sanitizer (I will be glad when these might not be essential anymore), car key and foldable tote...just in case shopping happens! 😉  I started sketching ideas and very quickly realized that all my drawings look eerily similar to the backpack I was trying to replace!  Apparently the design and arrangement of pockets is still perfect!  So I didn't reinvent the wheel...this time!  I simply made all the pockets smaller.

Since I was working with smaller real estate I simplified some of the features as well.  I didn't put a zipper on the front pocket, I put the wallet pocket zipper on an angle to get more opening length, I added a snap to keep the main pocket closed.  I kept the cell phone pocket on the side, which has become my favorite feature on my 'homemade' backpacks, I also kept the convertible straps the same.

I will have to use it for awhile to really figure out if it is the new "perfect" bag, but right now it is a strong contender!!  p.s.  I am pretty proud of my pattern matching...😁

12 Shirts a Sewing

 Another year...I will be interested to see how these past two years "go down in history."  Will they be a turning point?  Will they be forgotten in the wake of other events?  I know for me they have been a time of major reassessing.  The idea of living in the present moment has never made sense to me.  How do you live without a "plan?"  But for the past two years plans have seemed superfluous and a bit of a luxury. Living each day and letting things unfold has been the only option.  I do miss a good plan, but watching the days more closely and seeing the small wonders that still find their way, has been important learning.  If there is a silver lining, living in the present moment is it for me.  That said...last year my "plan" to make a white shirt for each month was something that kept me going.  I didn't have major events or occasions to sew for and I really don't need that many pairs of joggers!😝 Finding a new twist on a classic white shirt each month kept my interest and creativity sparking.  

As I look back on my sewing in 2021, firstly I am surprised at just how much I really sewed.  Moving and selling our house was such a major time sucking process that I can't believe I actually had enough time to make anything.  But I did sew...a lot!  I guess that was the balancing element for the stress of moving.  Sewing has always been my "happy place."  

After 25 years in my sewing room, it is a little odd to have two sewing rooms!  I divided my sewing goodies between the two new spaces and duplicated many of my "can't sew without" things.  There are many head scratching moments when I wonder where some treasure or another ended up.  "I know those ceramic buttons that I got at the street market in London are somewhere!?"  But I am finding that I sew different things in each place so, over time I think the things I use in each place will find their way to the appropriate spot.  And collecting new treasures is always and option!

I collected all of my white shirts for this post and wow, they are all so different from each other.  This of course is a good thing since I really don't need 12 white shirts, particularly 12 white shirts that are all the same!!!!  I do find that I wear most of them and don't find myself choosing between them.  The weather and what I'm doing on any given day usually narrow down the choice to one obvious shirt.  Here's the line up....

January...Ha!  Trick question.  I didn't think about doing the challenge until the end of January so the first actual shirt was in February.

February:  My fabric store in Key West is quite limited in terms of garment sewing fabrics.  They have a wonderful quilting selection, yarn, and decorator fabrics, but not much for those of us who make clothes.  I opted for a cotton canvas twill for a shirt jacket.  I used my favorite Tabula Rasa pattern as the starting point and added fun metal buttons.  

March:  I found a hunk of white linen in the meager stash that came with me from Michigan and added a cotton lawn from the Seam Shoppe (my local!) to make a woven tee-shirt.  If I am honest, this is one that I don't pull out very often.  It looks like it would be really cool, but for some reason, the lawn does not breath all that well.  I will see how it goes this season.  The cooler days in Key West are coming up.

April:  It was even hotter in April, so I bought the lightest weight cotton T's I could find, one white and one ivory, and remade them al a Natalie Chanin style into a tank top.  

May:  Back in Michigan....cold springtime in Michigan.  I had ordered an amazing length of a rayon fleece that was just too warm for my first quarter shirts, but just perfect for the chilly days of May in the north.  I worked very hard laying out the pieces, and used every scrap to be able to make shorts and a tank top along with the hoodie.  I used the Closet Core Mile End Hoodie and Plateau Jogger patterns and made up the tank top myself.  It is very luxurious, the rayon is so soft!

June:  Back to linen!  I am loving linen, in both my places.  I love working with it and wearing it, it has become my new go to fabric.  I also started with one of my favorite Merchant and Mills patterns.  It is the Factory Dress without the skirt.  I had fun doing the black hand stitched outlines. 

July:  July was rather disappointing for our 4th of July revelers.  No swimming this year. 😬It was really cold!!!!  So back to the fleece!  This time a sport fleece.  I drafted a hood for my favorite self drafted T-shirt pattern.  I think it is the first time I have done that and it worked out really well.  

August:  Ah, back to more appropriate summer weather!  So back to linen.  This time I dug into my linen scrap box.  I pulled out all the white-ish scraps and came up with enough for a bias cut camisole.  I used a piece that I got at an art fair a few years ago for the center front.  This was the most worn white shirt!  I really love it!

Interlude...I decided, after the fact, that I really needed to make a January shirt.  It just seemed a bit of a breach of protocol to not have 12 shirts, sooooo, this is the honorary January shirt...it is also not quite white!  I used a tablecloth with embroidered tulips in the corners.  It was from the 40's and had that really smooth, worn texture of vintage linens.  I used a series of 40-ish feeling quilting prints to outline the front and back necklines.  This one is really, really cool and easy to wear.

September:  This shirt is a challenge 'twofer.'  Threads Magazine asked the digital ambassadors to choose a designer and make an ensemble influenced by their designs.  I chose Isabel Marant and made a tunic and vest inspired by her over-the-top lacy garments.  Disclaimer, I did work on this more than the month of September ;)

October:  What a glorious October we had!  Warm and full of fall colors.  Just spectacular.  It required another warm weather shirt.  I had collected a whole pile of lace for my Threads project and ended up not using any of it.  A simple square top with lace trim.

November:  I had found a grey sweater knit earlier in the year and lived in it!  So when I saw it in ivory...had to do it!  Love this one just as much as the grey!

December:  Back in Key West!  I had been saving a white embroidered cotton to try out a merchant and Mills top that I wanted to make.  It's the Heron Top.   It feels very feminine and definitely needs a floaty shirt.  I'll add that to my 2022 sewing list!

And there you have it..12 months of white shirts.  Whew!  I really did enjoy having a bit of a plan, so I am busy thinking about what I will challenge myself with in 2022.  In a time of great challenges, I am hopping that whatever I challenge myself with in the sewing room, is the biggest challenge of the year!

I am holding tightly to the idea of a safe, healthy, peaceful new year, filled with creativity and fun!  

Home for the Holidays with My December White Shirt

 I actually made my December white shirt early in the month.  I figured that things would just get busier and busier as the month progressed and I figured correctly!  It took until now to get a photo (albeit not a great one) and a post written (albeit a scatterbrained one!).

We arrived in Key West for the winter season just before Thanksgiving and had a lovely warm holiday after several weeks of Michigan snowy, late fall.  It's amazing what a bit of sunshine does for my mood. 

Just after the holiday our eldest son arrived from London for a visit.  It was the first time we had seen him since everything shutdown in 2020!  We were so glad that he was willing to do all the extra testing and paperwork that it takes to travel right now.  Having him here was a lovely early Christmas present.  

His Christmas list included a 'shop coat.'  He brought one that he likes with him for me to check out.  When he asked about it I was a bit worried that it was going to be complicated and I wouldn't be able to get it done while he was here. Turned out that it was pretty straight forward and having a sample that fit him in person was a great help!  I really enjoyed making it so ended up making a second!   I may alter the pattern a bit and make one for myself!  Getting him to "pose" for pictures was the hardest part of the project!

This version of the 'shop coat' is made with a brown, heavy cotton twill.  My son says that, "it will wear in nicely!"  Apparently the more worn the better.  It's dang tough so I think it will hold up to the wear and tear.

The second version is made with a really heavy decorator linen.  I love the charcoal color!  My son liked the metal buttons, but it took a bit of head scratching to figure out how to attach them.  I was trying to conceal the ends of the fabric strip in the lapel and facing seams, but in the end I opted to stop the top of the strip at the collar roll line.  I think it works just fine.  They do look pretty cool!

...and here is my final white shirt of 2021.  It is a version of the Merchant and Mills Heron Top.  The pattern is part of their Workbook and, like all the M&M patterns I have tried, it's great.  I think I must be the right size and shape for their patterns.  I really don't have to do too much besides adding some length for them to work.  After all these years of sewing I finally found a pattern company that makes patterns for me!!!  😁

The fabric is a soft cotton lawn with white on white embroidery all over it.  The weight of the fabric is nice for the cross over style of the pattern.  I think heavier fabrics might be a bit bulky and warm.  Although, I have seen it made up in a linen that was very lovely.  It feels very "lady like" with the little back 'peplum' and the side bow.  I think I might make a soft, floaty skirt to wear with it.  

So that is the last white shirt!  I will collect all of the photos and do a review of the "Year of the White Shirt" once things calm down in the new year.  I do have to say that I am pretty proud of myself for getting them all done.  With all the moving and resettling that we did last year I wasn't sure I would even find my sewing machines, let alone use them!  

On our way to Florida in November we ran into the actual house where they filmed "A Christmas Story"...one of my favorite holiday movies... in Cleveland! Who knew!  It felt very familiar and reminded me, as does the film, of what Christmases were like for me growing up in Michigan.  

As we settle in for our second winter in our Key West house I am starting to feel like this whole crazy snowbird idea might just work out!  Christmas looks a little different, but it's still home.  

Happy Holidays....see you in the New Year!

November's White Shirt and a Quilty Coat

 It is still gloriously Fall, but it has gotten colder.  I was really loving the long lingering finish on this summer, the warm sunny days seemed to just keep coming.  So as I was thinking about my November white shirt I was definitely thinking long sleeves and cozy.  

When I got the grey sweater knit earlier this summer I also picked up the last little bit of the same fabric in a creamy off white.  Duh!  I am still fawning over it.  I didn't have a huge piece, but I had enough to get a very comfy long sleeved top with a mock turtle neck that is cut in one with the yoke.  I had seen the neckline on a sleeveless top at some point in time, and decided to try and recreate it and add sleeves.  I am very happy with the outcome and the sweater knit is just the right weight for the collar.  

I went back and forth about whether to run the 'cables' across the yoke.  In the end I didn't have a choice...I didn't have enough fabric to do otherwise...but I really like the way it turned out and the cables help keep the collar fold neat and tidy.

November white shirt...Bam!  I can't believe I'm almost finished with my year of white shirts.  I might extend to January since I actually didn't start the challenge until February.  We'll see...

I also made a new coat this month.  I wasn't thinking that I would be making many coats going forward, but this idea was nagging away at me so I just had to do it.

I have been seeing lots of quilted jackets on social media.  Some in solid colors with designs stitched into the quilting pattern.  Some that use traditional quilt blocks, some random and patchy...I thought it would be interesting to make the outside in something "quilt-like" and stitch it to a sweatshirt fleece instead of batting to provide the structure and warmth.  I found a nice heavy fleece and then started rummaging around in my boxes to see what kind of 'quilt' I could come up with.

Once again I defaulted to my box of linen scraps.  It seems that this is the year of the linen scrap pile.  I chose a palette of grays and naturals.  As I started to play around with my pile-o-linen, I realized that I would only have enough if I did a random pattern.  I started by cutting a bunch of 4" squares and sewing them together in pairs.

I didn't want to end up with the same fabric next to its self so I laid out each section of the jacket to make sure I wasn't doubling up anywhere...

Once I had all the pairs laid out I stitched them in rows and then stitched the rows together.  Finally I stitched them to the fleece using a twin needle and following the seam lines.  Nothing fancy, but I liked the affect.  The project did remind me of why I don't make quilts 😝!!!!  It seemed to take forever to get to actually making the coat.  I used the fuzzy side of the fleece to make cuffs and a collar.  I tried a bazillion different ideas and in the end I did a simple cuff and band collar.  I think I just got worn down!

I used some cool tortoise shell snaps for the closures.  The thought of putting button holes in quilted sweatshirt fleece made me kind of squeamish...the snaps are really lovely and keep the front from getting too busy with buttons and plackets....

When I finished I told my husband that I wasn't sure I liked it.  I think it was kind of like when you cook something all day and by the time it's ready to eat, it doesn't even taste good.  I worn it out a few days later and actually had two different people comment about how 'elegant' it was.  Elegant was not what I was thinking when I started making a quilted coat...crafty maybe, or cutesy...but elegant is much better...I'll take it!

It has started to grow on me and I really like the weight for the weather we are having right now.  It is just the right level of cozy!  We'll see how I feel about it next May when I get back to Michigan.  Maybe a winter away will make the heart grow fonder!

...it seemed to fit right in with the sculpture at the Shiojiri Japanese Garden in Mishawaka, Indiana.  We visit this garden each fall to see the Japanese Maples in all their autumn glory!  The sculpture was a gift from the school children in Japan who were the pen pals of the Mishawaka kids when the garden was made.  It is a really sweet place.

   

An October "T"

 What an ammmmmazing fall we are having!!!!  I have said this before, but it bares repeating....I am a huge fall fan!  It is my favorite time of the year, especially here on the west coast of Michigan.  The orchards are full of apples, the wineries are busy putting up the next vintage, the days are warm and sunny and the nights are cool and perfect for sleeping.  Ahhhhhhhhhh!  This fall has been exceptionally warm.  I am trying to decide if this is always how it is here and I have just never been around for it, or if indeed it is actually warmer than usual.  I guess I will have to experience a few more falls to really figure it out.  Anyway, it is glorious!

I was thinking my October white shirt would be something wooly and cozy, but it has been very summery and a new white T-shirt seemed much more appropriate.  So out came the linen...again!  I also grabbed some of the lace that I did not use for my Isabel Marant project.  I am not sure when I will use it all up!

The shirt is really simple but figuring out how to insert the lace between the lower linen and the upper sheer linen was just enough of a challenge to keep it interesting.  I am pleased with the outcome and know it will be in heavy rotation until the cold weather finally settles in.

I also tried a new pattern from Merchant and Mills this month.  It's called The Ellsworth Shirt.  A sewing buddy and I made it together and it was such a fun day.  It ended up being a looong day, but there was a lot of chatting along the way.  We are going to have to call each other before showing up at the same party!

I liked the way the pattern came out so much that I immediately made another one.  I love the Japanese cotton I used from Marcy Tilton's website and I think it looks great in the pattern...but...it doesn't have the weight of the polk-a-dot linen so it doesn't hang quite as well.  The sleeve length is also and inch shorter which puts the sleeve placket right at my elbow.  I'm not quite sure how that happened because I cut it the same as the first one.  It might be that the linen is just enough stretchier that it hangs longer.  In any case I like that length better.   It is always interesting how much the fabric influences the outcome. You would think these two shirts would be pretty much identical, but I know I will reach for the first one more often.

The fabric for the second round was only 45" wide so I ended up putting a center back seam to get the pattern to work.  I also used a coordinating cotton to line the cuffs, collar, placket and hem facings.  I might have been able to squeak out a few of those pieces, but I thought it looked more "intentional" if I did all of them with the second fabric.  I like the way it turned out.  

As I finished my October white shirt I pulled out all the shirts for the months I have been in Michigan.  I have a couple others in Florida that will add to the total.  It was kind of amazing to see them all together and realize how different they are from each other.  It is getting harder and harder to pick a favorite.  When I picked this challenge for myself I thought I might end up with a couple of shirts that I liked and the rest would be fun exercises, but not necessarily wardrobe staples.  I think I was mistaken!  I love them all!  I will have to decide whether my November shirt will be a Michigan shirt or a Florida shirt, since we will be heading out around Thanksgiving time.