I can’t believe May is already here and another year of Me Made May. I love this month long celebration of our handmade wardrobes.
I’ll be wearing and posting everyday. Today is my day off so I’m hanging out at home in my one of my many Grainline Studio Lindens. This cozy sweatshirt is made with Liberty of London fleece in pink Morris.
I thought I would start sharing #MakeSomethingLoves stories here about things/places/people that I’m obsessed with. It will likely be lots of local love from Toronto, but hopefully some loves found while travelling (physically and perhaps on the internets).
I spent Sunday night at Roncesvalles shop, Likely General, for a workshop called ‘How To Not Always Be Working‘ led by Marlee from Have Company. I’ll talk more about this wonderful experience later but needless to say I’ve been thinking quite a bit about our discussions that night.
After the workshop I couldn’t help but do some shopping. I don’t ever wear perfume or scents. Sometimes a bit of Ylang Ylang oil. I noticed the black Lvnea packaging right away and tested out all the scents. I kept coming back to the Ghost Pine, so it came home with me. I’ve tried buying perfume oil in the past and many times never wore them. This one is different, I love wearing it. I have even been putting it on before I go to sleep because it makes me so happy.
Lvnea is hand-crafted in Montreal and they make many lovely products that I’ll probably need to buy now, especially the Yuzu Frankincense Ginger Body Serum. I love the idea of using scent to trigger relaxation, happiness and mini mind breaks. Do you have a favourite scent you can’t get enough of?
City Gym Shorts : Free pattern from The Purl Bee
Robert Kaufman : Double Cloth
Bias trim in Robert Kaufman chambray
worn with a chambray Julie Tee
Photographed in Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Bahamas
My goal was to make three pairs of these shorts before our trip, but it was 2am the night before our flight when I finished this pair. Contrary to what I would normally do, I decided sleep was the better option. I do have those other two pairs cut out and ready to sew together, so they’ll be perfect when I need some super quick sewing gratification.
This is a great project for those leftover bits you have from making other projects. This Double Cloth was the leftovers from my first Garment Bag. I was in such a rush to get sewing that I didn’t even try to pattern match the fabric. Oops! (Did you notice?)
I’ve made this pattern before with some Lizzy House Catnap fabric, but the chambray seemed perfect for island wear. The beauty of this pattern is the simplicity. Once you get going they come together pretty quick. The bias tape trims all the raw edges on the outside of the shorts which is a nice detail rather then hemming those curves. Also! They are pretty comfy to wear and the pattern ranges from girls to ladies. City Gym Shorts for everyone!
I really want to add more shorts to my wardrobe but I haven’t found any other patterns that I love. In the meantime, I’m happy to keep making more of these sweet things.
Grainline Studio : Lark Tee
Line Drawings Bluing : Millie Fleur Knit by Bari J. from Art Gallery Fabrics
Photographed in Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Bahamas
We’ve been back from our holiday for a week now and I’ve barely had a chance to go through all the photos I took. I thought I’d start off small and share a few garments I wore on our trip. The sun and the light were especially spectacular after the dark winter light of the past few months.
Traveling handmade always feels pretty great. Traveling handmade to the Bahamas, well that’s beyond great. It was especially nice to bring out some summer weather pieces at the tail end of our Canadian winter.
Knits are perfect travel pieces. They pack well and are incredibly comfortable. My handmade knit wardrobe still has some catching up to do but this Grainline Studio Lark Tee is a great basic. This is my first Lark and I was able to make it from a ‘scrap’ 1 metre piece given to me by Agnes C. at a recent Sewing Date. I’m all about ‘scraps’ that can be turned into garments. Isn’t this print by Bari J. so lovely? These beautiful white line drawn flowers on blue are so good that I ordered a bolt for the workroom and I hope it gets here soon.
The fit was good and I would even consider going up a size or two for future versions. It sewed together beautifully and quickly on my serger. I use a twin needle for all the hemming on my sewing machine. There will definitely be future versions and hopefully they will get to go to the Bahamas too!
The newest Lizzy House collection is set to arrive at the workroom before the end of the month. Lizzy was sweet enough to let me steal her samples of The Whisper Palette when we met up in New York a few weeks ago. It’s given me a lot of time to obsess over every print and make plans for how much yardage I’m going to need when it arrives. (lots and lots!) I wanted to share some detailed photos, so that you can see just how amazing this collection is.
Lizzy has gone through her past prints, selected so many favourites (ghosty ghosts! flags! ugly duckling! star chart!) and recoloured them into a dreamy low volume collection. These fabrics are all the palest blues, greys and creams. These are MY colours! Many of them are sprinkled with bits of metallic. I love stashing these kinds of prints. They work for everything, make perfect background fabrics in quilts and I often wish I had a never ending supply of them.
The Whisper Palette will be arriving soon, but you can pre-order now at the workroom to reserve your favourite prints and collection sets!
Feather Bed Quilt : free pattern by Anna Maria Horner
Background Fabric : Inkwell by Crabapple Hill Studio
Quilted on the workroomBernina Q24 Longarm King Tut Thread : Valley of the Queen (feathers) & Sahara Desert (background)
Started March 2013 / Completed January 2016
Quilts tend to be a many year journey for me. Since I usually have about ten of them on the go at once, I try not to feel too bad about it. It always feels extra amazing to get to the finish line after all that time. I posted some epic winter photos of this finished Feather Bed quilt top two years ago. I finally finished up the quilt back this summer at the cottage. This quilt particularly reminds me of our cottage sewing weekends where most of it was made. Especially since so many of the feather fabrics were shared from Katherine and Jacqueline’s stashes.
I got it on the workroomBernina Q24 longarm and did all the background quilting with loop de loops (technical term). This is one of my favourite free motion patterns because it is continuous (so it flows nicely across the quilt), it looks great on everything and you can really vary how it looks by changing the height and width of your loops. To do this easily, I loaded the quilt sideways, so that my loops flow from top to bottom of the quilt in between the feathers. I took it off the longarm and didn’t get it back on for a couple months. It’s possible to re-load your quilt, which is handy if you run out of time or get stumped on your next step like me. For the feathers, I ended up doing a modified loop that echoes the plumes and goes up one side and down the other. If you look carefully you’ll also see some hidden words, including my name and the year. I also used a different colour of King Tut thread for the background than the feathers and I really like the effect.
I must also mention the beautiful background fabric. Almost everyone comments on it. If I could have bought bolts and bolts of it, I really would have! At the time it was already scarce and I had to get the last two yards to finish up this quilt from a shop in California via my friend Amanda. The collection was called Inkwell and this print also came in a neutral colourway. It’s definitely in my top favourites for fabric.
I’ve got the quilt hanging up in the workroom studio indefinitely, so you’ll be seeing it make some guest appearances in future posts too. I’m pretty happy to just stare at this one for while.
I’ll admit that I’m a bit obsessed with Named Clothing patterns after trying just two of them, in particular this Inari Tee Dress. At first glance the Inari is quite simple, but the details are where it’s at. It is slightly cocoon-shaped with an uneven hem and rolled up short sleeves. It didn’t have pockets, so I added side seam pockets. There are two options for the neckline and I chose to do facings for this version. All together this basic Tee Dress is something you’ll want to grab everyday from your closet but it can easily rock a special occasion with it’s looks.
This is a quick pattern to sew. But take into account that Named Clothing patterns do not include seam allowance. Thus, you must trace out all your pieces and then add the extra seam allowance as directed. It takes time, but I consider tracing your patterns out as an investment in the garment. A traced pattern really pays off when you start making multiples of a piece. I’ve already made two Inaris and I’ve got plans for at least three more in the wings.
One of the awesome things about this pattern is that it is designed for both woven and knit fabric. The drape and feel of this Cotton + Steel rayon is incredible. (I used the Zipline rayon print to make my Handmade Style Tunic) My second version of Inari was made with bamboo knit. I can’t believe that a dress could be so dressy and so comfy at the same time.
Once you get to the sewing, you can knock out this dress in a few hours. You better believe this means that it will be the summer of the Inari.
I love that this pattern is the result of a collaboration between two inspiring small businesses – Fringe Association and Grainline Studio. This bag is meant to be a handy project bag with interior pockets to hold your tools and supplies.
There are two different sizes and I chose to do the smaller version. I was curious to try out lining the bag and figured it was safer to do that on a smaller scale. Kelli from Drygood Designs wrote out a handy blog post on how she added a lining, so I basically followed her advice. One thing that I did differently was to line the pockets. All this means is that I cut an extra set of pocket pieces and instead of hemming the pocket at the top, I sewed two pocket pieces together (face to face) along the top edge and turned them right side out.
This was the perfect project to use my Clover Bias Tape Maker. I used the 1/2″ size which is a bit smaller than the recommended bias tape size for this project, but I like the thinner profile.
The bag comes together really quickly and I love everything about it. It’s such a cute & clever design. I’m pretty sure I’ll be making these for gifts.
I couldn’t resist making a little matching zippered pouch in a size that would fit inside the Stowe. Cute accessories for my accessories!
p.s. Grainline Studio just posted a handy video for step 15 of the Stowe Bag, which is really helpful. I did a permanent gusset on my bag following the Drygood Designs tutorial, but I’m happy to finally understand that step as I wasn’t too sure when I read the instructions.