Planning Quilting Projects

Now that all 12 blocks for my first quilt are finished, I am assembling them to become a quilt top. 

That is the layout I chose.  It might change.  The original plan was to separate all the blocks with sashing, making the quilt a bit larger and avoiding having to match all the seams and points on each square.  Once I saw how the squares changed when laid next to each other, making different patterns based on the alignment of the triangles, I decided against the sashing.  I like how sewing the blocks together makes squares that are on point. 

The blocks alone will make a quilt that is 48" by 64".  A border will distance the squares from being altered by quilting and binding.  That will make the quilt a bit larger and compensate for the discarded sashing idea.  At least, that is the plan for now.  Assembly, adding a border, and shopping for a backing.  Yay for shopping.

Last week I made my monthly trip to the big city to shop.  My first stop was Hobby Lobby. (Forgive me, I work with what I now have available.)  I needed interfacing and bias binding for the shirts I plan to sew.  Of course, I looked at the quilting fabric and took a lot of photos. 

Initially, I was amused by the chicken prints. They are in the ballpark of the colors of my scraps.  Then reason took hold and I found a few prints that I would want in a quilt.

There was this perfect combination of gold and ochre that tied in well with the scrap fabric I had planned to use for my next quilt.

Since it was quite reasonably priced, I bought 1 1/2 yards.  It will be the background, or at least the light main color.  The dark main color is a brown floral, a vintage fabric from Swanson's Thrift.  Should I want more fabric for this quilt, I will either buy it online or return to HL next month.  I saw some green almost neutral prints that were appealing.

That's green pine cones, most appropriate for my location.  Here's the neutral, more ecru with a darker green floral print.  That solid sage green is nice, as well as the gold floral.

While standing at the HL cutting counter, I finally found their remnant bin.  It was mostly end cuts of quilting cotton.  That lets you know the kind of shopper that frequents that location.  It suited me and I picked out 4 cuts.  Here they are with the scrap fabrics I already had.

solid brown, 28" long for $4.66, at the top;

solid tan 16" for $1.86, below the gold main color pictured earlier;

orange with white and red squiggles 22" for $2.19, at the bottom; and

black with white and blue denim colored dots 23" for $2.24, not included in this project.

It all works out to $4.38 per yard.  Certainly a reasonable price for my scrap quilt project.  I want to make a quilt, size doesn't matter, modeled after Bonnie Hunter's Fireweed quilt.  She plans to release the pattern this month.  It's an old pattern, outlined in one of her columns in Quiltmaker magazine from 2014.  I'd buy the magazine, but I think the pattern might be a better deal.  I assume that the pattern will have more detail about the quilt design and less extraneous magazine material.  With some fierce googling, I found a photo of the Fireweed blocks.  Images of the entire quilt are (link)

The Fireweed pattern is not available yet, but there are patterns for similar blocks.  I found a Four X Star block on Scissor tail Quilting that is almost the same.  It looked easy enough and uses just plain blocks and half square triangles.  I have made both of those in my first quilt.  I used the bits left from my first quilt to make a test block.  

The Fireweed block adds another half square triangle in each corner.  The HSTs are turned in a different direction as well, which is good.  That eliminates the star pattern.  There's enough stars in the first quilt.  The Fireweed blocks look a little more round in the quilt.  It will be an interesting pattern to try.  I may have enough fabric for a 48" x 54" quilt.  If I enjoy making the block, I can buy more fabric.

It's not all quilting here.  There are other exciting plans and purchases coming up.

Patchwork Break

For some time now,  I have wanted to make a quilted jacket.  While I admire the fabric in vintage quilts, with all the texture created by use and washing, I don't admire the bright colors and frantic patterns--at least not for an item of clothing.  With that attitude, I am thinking that a quilted jacket with a patchwork block or two would be a fun project.  I'm approaching this project cautiously, testing the patchwork waters.

This first patchwork assembly is constructed from 4 half square triangles.  While the center is like an hourglass block, and the construction is like a windmill block, this block is neither.  Regardless of the proper name, this block looks good with the available fabrics and can be used repetitively to create other designs.  

The fabric is all left over from wearable toiles I have made in the past few years. I often use quilting cotton for my wearable toiles.  Some are more wearable than others. The dress I made from the striped fabric was donated a few years ago but it has been succeeded by two other versions of the same pattern, Simplicity 8910.  I am not totally sure that it is quilting cotton. It is not as tightly woven as other quilting cottons, but it is 100% cotton. 

The green Chevron print is left over from a later version of that pattern.  It was listed as apparel fabric.  I thought it felt like quilting cotton.  Now that I am using it in patchwork, I see it is not good for that purpose because the print is too bold and is directional.  This became apparent once I put the first photo in Layout to mock up quilt designs.  I found Layout app somewhat helpful, especially in making me feel like a productive quilter.

Thanks for that suggestion, Layout, but that is excessive.  The dark blue is a quilting cotton remnant I bought on impulse but never used much.  I think I made some bias binding with it.  The camo-like floral is quilting cotton with a very soft finish. It became a dress I really like.  That was a useful toile that demonstrated that the princess seams in McCalls 8192 needed adjustment to fit me properly.  

Above is the type of design that might look good on a jacket, perhaps combined with chevrons.  Since this mock up in Layout was done, I have refined the block, first by constructing three more of these blocks 

and then rotating the three other ones to make a sawtooth star.

That effort resulted in my first finished quilt block, a sawtooth star with a diamond in the center that is made with corner square triangles.  The center block could have been left plain, as in the Layout illustration.  However, inserting the square in the center distracts from any imperfections in the alignment of the stripes in the center fabric.  It's not perfectly aligned and probably, with the limitation of my beginning quilting skills, would never be aligned.  The final quilt top will have sashing around each of the 16" squares that will mask any problems with aligning either the stripes or the points.

For reference, and to aid my poor memory, the starting point was two 5" squares, sewn diagonally from point to point 1/4" on each side of the diagonal.  Cutting between the two lines of sewing produced two half square triangles, each 4 1/2" square.  Four of these half square triangles were sewn together to create the quadrant,  Four quadrants sewn together produce a 16 1/2" square with a sawtooth star pattern.  The corner squares were about 2 1/2" squares.  I adjusted the size to leave a 1 1/2" border of striped fabric around the square.

There are enough half square triangles to construct 8 more of these blocks.  However, changing the layout is possible at this point.  I have a flannel board that will help me visualize different designs. I also have other leftover fabric.  Lots of possibilities, lots of time.  I wouldn't need a jacket until the fall.

 

Vintage Butterick 6457 Combined with Simplicity 9952

I'm so excited to try something new! Butterick 6457 is an old pattern from 1988, one of the few I didn't throw away years ago when I found my old sewing supplies in a flooded closet.  I have no idea why I bought this pattern.  Nonetheless, I was intrigued, after my shirt-sewing episode last summer, with the pattern because it has dolman sleeves--no sleeves to set in and no sleeves cuffs to take up my shirt sewing time and patience.  Unfortunately, the back pattern piece and collar piece is missing.  Curiously, there are a couple of extra  pieces in it from another pattern I have in storage.  Maybe, if I am lucky, the missing pattern pieces are in the stored pattern. tick-tock Much later, I found the missing pieces, yay.  Due to my eagerness, it was too late for this make.

A recent acquisition, Simplicity 9952, a shirt pattern that is super-oversized looked like a similar shirt.  The cap sleeves are actually just side seam openings and the shoulder seams in the size M follow the same line as the vintage Butterick shirt in a size 12.  It was simple to extend the shoulder line in the Simplicity pattern to include the sleeve from the Butterick.  

Since this is a toile, the fabric is an inexpensive quilting cotton.  It is 100% cotton and features a dynamic arrow print with gold and white arrows on a black background.  There were 4 yards of 44" wide fabric that regularly sells for $7.99/yard.  At the end of summer, it was on sale for $3/yard on sale, $12 total.  

Cutting out the combo pattern in a size M was complicated.  It only fits on wide fabric, and this fabric is a horizontal print that will probably look like stripes from a distance.  

While assembling the shirt, it became obvious that the print does look like stripes--stripes that did not match across the back seam.  After continuing on with the rest of the construction and deciding the shirt was looking ok, that mismatched seam had to go.  Since the side seams match well, it must be that the bottom layer of fabric biased when I cut it.    There's a good reason to cut directional prints that look like horizontal stripes, or any other majorly noticeable design, in a single layer.  

Realigning the seam skewed the back pieces, of course.  Really, one half of the shirt is now 1/2 lower than the other half.  A little trimming and use of the seam allowance and it's only off 1/4". Since the back seam was properly matched, I celebrated that feat by coverstitching it down (pseudo flat fell) with contrasting thread.

That encouraged me to apply a Hong Kong finish to the shoulder seams.

And also on the side seam, but simply overcasting the trimmed underarm seam and the pressed open sleeve seam.

I cut the collar band a little larger to compensate for a slightly longer neckline.  It worked well, no real problems with the collar, following the pattern instructions, once I figured out that the uninterfaced collar is the side that is stay stitched.

The end result is a wearable toile.  The size M is oversize enough for me and I find that the collar fits much more comfortably than the properly fitted collars on my other shirts.  However, there are some problems with the Simplicity pattern that discourage me from using it again.

The back shoulders sit forward, making the back hem look shorter than the front hem in this pattern.  I would write that off to the dolman sleeves.  There's no shoulder, no sleeve cap.  The simple and easy construction does not fit my shoulders well enough.

It works well enough as a casual overshirt.  Just what I need to hide the loose shoulders in the black jersey dress.  

Of course, no make is complete without cute details--buttons and pocket.  The pocket deserved embellishment from my coverstitch machine.  I saw in one reviewer commented that the Simplicity pattern looks like a shirt Billie Eilish would wear.  I couldn't pass up the chance to imitate...

Now I want to make one in the Butterick pattern. 

A couple more McCalls 7122

Finally, in the knit dress closet restock, there is McCalls 7122, a pattern that I have made up before in a long sleeve version.  Raglan sleeves have always fitted my shoulders well.  Besides that, they are easy to construct.  The first version was cut from 3 yards of Prussian Blue Poly/Lycra brushed sweater knit.  The fabric is exceptionally soft, but pills after washing.  At least, the pants I made from it a couple of years ago have pilled.  There was ample fabric at 58" wide.  It was another Fabric Mart bargain at a mere $3/yard.

Pilled or not, it will be an easy one to wear and will look good with an overshirt.

This photo is more true to color--a navy blue that will coordinate with a lot of my shirts.

After finishing this dress, the black shirt I used to practice coverstitching began looking much better to me.  Washing made it look so much better that I finished coverstitching the neckline and put it back in my closet.  After washing, the coverstitched hem on the ruffle did not warp or bias.  However, the turned under edge of the sleeve ruffles shows a little biasing.  It may just be that the sleeve ruffles were cut off grain.

There was enough of the 100% cotton black tissue jersey left to make a black version of this dress.  The neckband is still a bit loose, but it will fill that knit dress gap in my closet.

One problem with the neckline is that for me this pattern should be smaller on top.  I don't have the medium size block, just the large.  There's a gap in my pattern collection!   

Coverstitching the neckline did not help with the fit.  It just taught me that I unable to trim a neckline edge after coverstitching without cutting the stitching--need to trim before coverstitching!  Although serging the neckband on and coverstitching over the serged seam would be the best approach.  However, the coverstitched hems on this dress look good and were very easy to construct.

Simplicity R10180 and a Twice-used Toile

The knit dresses for summer project continues with a 3/4 length sleeve dress, cut from 3 yards of gray cotton/poly/spandex interlock purchased for $28.73 at JoAnn's.  After cutting, there was about a yard left.  There is also a 32" piece of the same fabric found in the remnant bin for $2.34.  With the two pieces combined, there's probably enough for another dress, or at least a t-shirt.  I will miss JoAnn's remnant bin.  

The pattern is a simple dolman sleeve dress or shirt, Simplicity R10180.  This is one of their "hacking" patterns that offers several suggestions for gathering the sleeves or side seams.  In the back of my closet I found an old wearable toile from another dolman dress cut from Butterick 6525.  It is well-worn and headed for the discard pile.  Since it is similar in shape but several inches larger in the side seams, it served as a toile for the Simplicity pattern.  Once it was cut to pattern dimensions and resewn, it looked like a medium would work.  So an old toile became a new toile.

Construction was surprisingly simple and quick.  The dress was done in a day, probably 2-3 hours total.  There's just 2 pattern pieces.  

Since it was the first time I had made a dress from this pattern, I changed from narrow zig zag to basting stitch after the side notches on the body.  After a try on, I narrowed the seams to 3/8" from 5/8" from the notch to 8" below the notch for a little more ease and pulled out the basting.  In the future, I would just repeat that adjustment or cut that area a little wider in the front.  Once I make that adjustment, I can use lightning stitch or the serger for all the seams. 

Up until now, the hems were sewn with a twin needle, with mixed results.  Really, a twin needle works fine on some fabrics that don't do well with a simple topstitched hem or even a blind hem.   However, most knits tunnel with a twin needle.  Some finer gauge knits both tunnel and bias against the stitching.

Above is an example, a shirt from a couple of years back.  It didn't look too bad after hemming, even with the bit of tunneling.  Over time, the hem biased.  Whether it is due to the cutting or to the stitching will be determined now that the twin needle hem has been replaced with a coverstitch hem.

As mentioned in my last post, I have a new coverstitch machine.  After coverstitching the hem of my recent Roscoe dress, I decided I could use more practice.    Besides not being instant magic, the coverstitch machine takes much more practice than the serger.  It works well, but since the hems are visible, it is important that the stitching be straight and evenly connected.  With a serger, the stitching is hidden inside the garment, along with any uneven or crooked stitching.

Above is the new hem on the old shirt.  Once it is washed, we shall see if it biases.  The neckline of the old shirt was replaced with a neat new neckband (I have more of this fabric, as you will see in my next post.) that was coverstitched down.  It would have worked out well but the fabric has only mechanical stretch, no recovery.  The neckband stands up a bit too much.  That's one more reason to throw this worn-out shirt away--after I wash it and check the hems.

The coverstitching was acceptable, but it is not magic.  It doesn't change the basic characteristics of fabric. The hem of the Roscoe dress is turning up, as does every 5/8" or narrower hem I do.  Ah, well.  (A quick fix is to put clothespins on the hem when it is hung to dry.  Then iron it.  Even if you dry it in the dryer, putting the clothespins before hanging and then ironing before wearing helps.) However, I have found that the coverstitch machine is more intuitive and easier to understand than the serger.  I have never threaded my serger.  It came threaded, so tying on a new color and pulling it through the machine, then threading the needle is all that I have had to do the change thread. I planned the purchase to avoid threading the serger.  

I thought I might be able to treat the coverstitch machine the same way, avoiding the difficulty of threading.  I purchased 4 spools of thread at the dealer and persuaded the sales associate to thread the machine while I watched.  Then I carefully packed it and brought it home threaded.  My luck didn't hold.  I was forced to re-thread the looper when it came partially unthreaded.  Fortunately, I was able to follow the guide in the manual and remember what the sales associate demonstrated.  I have also had to thread it for 2 needle coverstitching and then back to 3 needles.  However, the needle thread follows a simple pattern through the color coded guides across the machine.  I think that coverstitch machines are much like sewing machines, except that they have more needles and the bobbin is replaced by a looper.  As a result, they seem much easier to thread than sergers. 

For this pattern, the cuffs, hem and neck are all just turned under and sewn down.  With my Bernette 42, I coverstitched them.   The gray ITY knit is easy to handle and hem.  My only misgiving is the dolman sleeves.  They do wrinkle.

Roscoe in Jersey Knit

Last May, I made a note that I was looking for light, short sleeved or sleeveless dresses in knit fabric to wear all summer.  Couldn't find any in my closet.  Fixing that omission:

The fabric is 100% cotton heathered dark cerulean/multi blue Jersey Knit,  52" wide, $6/yard.  They were to send 3 yards, but Fabric Mart sent more by mistake.  The fabric was probably knit in a tube.  When it arrived, it was full of sizing and pressed into the usual fabric dimensions.  After washing, it became a shapeless mess, floppy with no apparent grainlines.  It did not look promising enough for a dress.  After an attempt to make a t-shirt from Simplicity 9272 proved that the fabric stretches out very easily but has no recovery at all, it went back in my stash, along with the failed t-shirt.  

The crummy looking t-shirt proved useful.  It served as practice material for my serger and later for my coverstitch machine.  (That's a recent acquisition that will be discussed as soon as my experience develops sufficiently.) The more useful the crummy t-shirt proved to be, the more convincing it was that the material was good stuff.  The fabric must be on grain on the right side.  The grain on the wrong side appears to bias across the fabric, but the knit stitches on the right side, tiny though they may be, are fairly vertical to the cut edge that has been treated to form a fake selvage.  

With the grain line crisis resolved, pattern choice was on the table.  After some consideration, it made sense to use the Roscoe pattern, even though it is not meant for knits.  It is comfy and forgiving and has raglan sleeves that are simple to construct.  The knit fabric justified cutting a size 8 (my first Roscoe was a 10).  (Sizing down for knits is standard when adapting a pattern written for woven fabrics.)

The pattern was cut to view A, which is used for both the short dress with a ruffle and for the blouse.  That meant removing the additional 2" I had added to the body pieces.  The resulting extra fabric allowed and me to add 3" to the sleeve. 

Using a ball point size 12 needle and the lightning stretch stitch, I sewed the facing on the neckline slit and assembled the blouse (sleeves, front and back).  I have decided to serge the seam allowances once I am reunited with my serger.  Or not.  They seam fine, ha ha

Next I gathered the neck and sleeves and sewed the binding on them with a narrow zigzag stitch, trimmed the seam allowance and hand stitched bindings on the inside.  Since I never have had luck with catching the binding on the wrong side consistently when stitching in the ditch, I prefer to hand stitch the bindings down on the wrong side.  Using the coverstitch machine to sew them down would be an option once my coverstitching skills improve.  Finally, I cut the ruffle pieces and coverstitched the hem before attaching it to the blouse, making it a dress.  

The top is 54" wide at the hips.  This pattern is huge.  How small a size should I cut? Even the size 0 is 44" wide.  A flowy, boho look works with a light cotton and with this soft jersey.  Other fabrics might need to be a size or two smaller.

maybe 3 or 4 sizes smaller?

So that is a dress in a light knit fabric.  Next is a short sleeved one. Then a 3/4 sleeve short dress.

My 2024-25 Sweater: Jethro

It's true that I am now making only one sweater each year.  This one spans the calendar so much that it may count for two years.  I began this sweater in late September 2024.  Initially, I was attracted to several design features--boho, loose fitting, a combination of crochet and knitting--those points were in its favor.  Again, initally, I was put off by the name.  It only reminded me of the character in the Beverly Hillbillies.  Once I read the designer's description and watched her videos, I realized how wrong I was and how right this name was.  Jethro Tull was and still is one of my touchstones.  I have the original vinyl record and often play it, as long as I play Aqualung among the other songs.  I renamed this sweater "Aqualung Blues" and made it mine. 

I already had the perfect yarn, a cotton blend from Noro.  The cotton is blended with rayon and silk to give it more drape and with nylon to make it softer.  I bought a group of blues and gray colorways in 2021 to make the Oma Goodness top.  Those colors got re-routed to Jethro, but there's probably enough of them left to do the top.  The granny squares don't use a lot of any one color.

There's about 40 granny squares crocheted together, with only the sleeves, hem and buttonbands knitted.  I like it, even though it's not one of my usual hand knitted projects.  The pattern, Jethro by Tanis Lavalee (available on her website) is clear and simple enough.  My only complaint is the drop shoulders--although it's not a design feature I favor, it is one that works well with granny squares.  

The squares crocheted up quickly.  I finished them by the end of October. Joining them all together only took a couple of weeks (keeping in mind that I only work on this project about an hour a day). Then I tried to make it just a bit larger.  You see, this was sport weight yarn and the gauge was a bit smaller.  I thought it could use a little more ease and wanted it to match the specifications of the size 3 Jethro.  I also wanted to change the shoulders a bit.  I got an idea to alleviate the drop shouldered, wider in back, narrow in front effect by adding squares below the armholes with small triangles above them for shaping.  I reasoned that change would improve the fit and provide a little more fullness in the front.

It made a more traditional armhole, one that resembled something that would fit a shaped sleeve cap. 

While the additional squares under the arms made the sweater meet the size schematic dimensions, they did not change the shape of the sweater.  It is obvious that a sweater made of granny squares is mostly square--or rectangular.

Since the rounded armhole is shaped like one that fits a sleeve with a cap, I added a sleeve cap.  Failure.  All the cap did was add extra fabric that made the shoulders stick out. I ripped back and tried adding a gusset at the bottom of the armhole.  The first gusset had the usual decreases on every other row.  That wasn't enough, so I replaced it with paired decreases on every row.   

After the gusset, I decreased the sleeve circumference further with decreases on either side of the end of round marker.  The drop shouldered boxy look needs narrow sleeves to offset the oversize style.

The gussets under the arms allow for the narrow sleeves that offset the wide body, as well as providing room for a sleeved top under the sweater.

Once the sleeves were complete, I finished the simpler knitting--the hem and button bands-- quickly.  The end result is quite satisfactory.