Tag Archives: finished

Hot peppers for PEPR

Posted on by

Back in 2018 Lea Kissner and I talked about the need for a new privacy conference over dinner. Lea noted that there wasn’t a conference where privacy engineering practitioners could meet and talk about the solutions they implement in practice. Most existing privacy conferences were targeted more at privacy researchers or privacy lawyers. Lea had worked as a privacy engineer in industry for many years and I had co-founded a privacy engineering masters program and also had experience starting and running conferences. So Lea convinced me that we should work together to start a new conference. In August 2019 we met in Santa Clara, CA for the first USENIX Conference on Privacy Engineering Practice and Respect.

PEPR 2019 went well and we had planned to continue PEPR as an annual event in the Bay Area, as that seemed to be where most of the privacy engineers are. COVID derailed this plan and PEPR 2020 was held entirely online. The USENIX Association (and every other organization that runs events) struggled through the pandemic and decided they could not afford to run PEPR 2021 online as well. So, the Future of Privacy Forum and Carnegie Mellon University CyLab stepped in to co-host an online PEPR 2021 event and I presented my talk “Illustrating Priavcy Engineering Concepts with Potty Talk” from my third-floor bathroom. USENIX ran PEPR 2022 as a hybrid event (I remotely presented a talk on the design of cookie consent interfaces from my kitchen) and then returned to fully in person in 2023 and has been running PEPR in person ever since, but unfortunately I was not able to attend in 2023 or 2024.

I decided that I needed a pepper dress to wear the next time I attended PEPR in person. Most of the pepper fabric I could find was quilting cotton. I could not find any knit pepper fabric that I liked. I thought about custom printing some pepper fabric, but never found a design I really liked. A week before PEPR 2025 I decided I really needed a pepper dress and scoured the internet for suitable fabric that I could get delivered to my home quickly. Again, I mostly found quilting cotton.

I noticed that pepper PJs in knit fabrics were readily available. So I decided to order a size XXL pepper nightgown and try to cut it up and turn it into a dress. Two days later, the nightgown arrived and I got to work figuring out what to do with it. The website claimed it was 95% polyester 5% spandex knit, but the garment tag said it was 100% cotton. It feels more like polyester to me and a drop of water beads on the top. It only has about 30% stretch so I’m not sure about its spandex content. The fabric features bright red peppers on a dark grey background with black outlines.

I decided to use the Sinclair (free) Valley Skater Dress pattern with a half-circle skirt from the add-on pack. I have made this pattern previously and it was pretty easy and I thought I could adapt it for this project. Because the mystery fabric did not have a lot of stretch and I know the bodice is very fitted, I decided to size up to a 6p rather than using the 4p size I had used previously. I extended the bodice by about an inch and a half as suggested when making the dress without a waistband. I cut the nightgown open at the side seams and projected the two bodice pieces onto it and cut them out, leaving the neckband and shoulder seams from the nightgown in tact.

Then I projected the sleeves onto the fabric from the nightgown sleeves and cut them out with the hem in tact so that I would not need to hem the sleeves. Finally, I had to figure out what to do about the skirt. The nightgown was not quite wide enough to cut out the pieces for the half-circle skirt. I decided to improvise and pivoted the sides of the skirt pieces in until the fit the fabric I had. I left the bottom hem in tact (and thus, not quite as rounded as the pattern called for) and I reduced the rounding on the waist and made sure it would fit the bottom of the bodice. I ended up with something closer to a one-third circle skirt than a half circle skirt.

I really wanted to add pockets to the dress but didn’t have enough nightgown fabric left for deep pockets. I decided to use scraps of cupro jersey from another recent dress project to make the pockets. This is a super lightweight and not very stretchy knit and it worked really well (although it would have been slightly better if it were dark grey to match to dress fabric) — now I want to use it for all my knit pockets. I followed the pattern for inseam pockets but extended the pocket bag a bit to make them slightly deeper. The pocket construction took as long as making the rest of the dress — reminding me of how much I hate assembling inseam pockets. The part I really struggle with is stitching the top and bottom of the pocket openings without catching any of the pocket bag on the outside of the pocket. After trying and failing on the first pocket I unpicked it and used my trusty glue stick to line up the pockets and then sewed them with my edge foot. It still took way too long!

After I assembled the pockets it was easy to attach the skirt to the waistband. Since everything was already hemmed, I added a label and I was done… until I looked at the back and noticed a lot of bunching at the waist.

I decided to add a simple swayback adjustment, and then I was really done.

And then it was time to accessorize! I ordered a bag of plastic pepper charms and added jump rings to turn them into pendants.

This morning we presented our UsersFirst framework at the PEPR conference. As you can see I was fully on theme with pepper dress, necklace and socks. And the pockets came in handy for the microphone pack.

Little black dress

Posted on by

I decided I needed a little black dress — something versatile that could be dressed up or down. I wanted it to be a washable knit with pockets, fit well, and go with everything. I bought some beautiful lightweight, drapey but only a little bit stretchy black cupro jersey last year and had just enough for a short-sleeve Sinclair Alana dress. Cupro is 65% model and 35% poly. It is described as having 50% horizontal stretch and 25% vertical stretch, but in practice I think it has less stretch than that.

Alana is one of my favorite dress patterns because of its flattering princess seams and pockets that are both easy-to-construct and look great as part of the dress. As I have done with my other Alana dresses (this is my fifth one, but first with short sleeves), I graded the seams in at the waist to make it more fitted and extended the front and back facings to below my bra line. I made the short-sleeve, knee length version with with a regular neck in my usual size 4p, although given how little stretch the cupro has I could have sized up. I fused the hems with 5/8″ HeatnBond softstretch light hem tape and then cover stitched them.

The dress is very light weight and I expect it will travel well. I plan to throw it in my bag for all my trips this summer. I think it will look good with a sweater or blazer, dress shoes or sneakers.

Scrunchie Burrito

Posted on by

I had a bit of leftover rainbow fabric from the skort and decided to make some matching scrunchies. I have never sewn scrunchies before, so I searched for instructions online. There are lots of instructions available and I found two that looked reasonable and gave them a try. The first one involved sewing the long end, threading in the elastic, and then layering the shorts together and sewing the loop closed with a sewing machine. This resulted in an ugly and not quite aligned seam, especially with the slippery stretch fabric I was using. The second technique called for hand sewing the end, which worked, but took more time.

I decided to look further and found a video and instructions for the burrito method, which allows you to make scrunchies with perfectly aligned seams and no hand stitching. This involves a bit of a geometry trick, as you need to make a donut and then turn it inside out. In the burrito method you cut your rectangle (I used a piece 4″ by 23″) and sew the short ends together to form a loop. You fold your loop in half, right sides together, folding in parallel to the seam. Then you fold the top layer in on itself and bring the bottom layer sides up around the folded in part and carefully stitch the long edge without catching the top layer. As you go you pull the top layer through until you have stitched almost all the way around the (inside-out) donut. You leave a small gap and then turn the whole thing rightside out. Then you thread the elastic in (I used 8 inches of .5″ elastic), sew it into a loop, and then close the hole in the seam. I did all the stitching on my serger except the final hole closing. I didn’t press or pin anything and it was super fast to make!

rainbow scrunchie

AA in Lorrievision

Posted on by

During my 2013 sabbatical I quilted a pixelated self portrait, based  on the Salvador Dali painting Lincoln in Dalivision (1977), which was inspired by Leon Harmon’s grey photomosaic of Abraham Lincoln (1973) that was published in Scientific American. Twelve years later, I decided to take a similar approach to creating a portrait of a dear colleague and renowned privacy scholar who is moving to another university.

I began with a photo of my colleague, brightened the colors, ran it through a pixelator, and cropped it a bit.

I printed out the pixelated image, tacked it to my design wall, and began digging through my quilting fabric stash for matching colors. I cut 2.5-inch squares of fabrics and tacked them up next to the printout. I easily matched all of the blue and off-white pixels, but struggled to find enough of some of the other colors and had to resort to some duplicates. I asked a friend to contribute a few fabrics from her stash, which helped to add some more gold, brown, and black pixels. I also used some fabric scraps from garments, including corduroy, liknit, brocade, and some shiny gold fabric (which I also reversed and used its matte back). I designed a label for the back and uploaded it to spooflower.com for digital printing. While I was at it I printed the original image, the pixelated image, and the CMU Scotty dog mascot in 2.5-inch squares as well. Then I drew a 2.5-inch grid on a piece of light-weight fusible interfacing and transferred the squared from my design wall to the interfacing.

Once everything was transferred (and after a 4-day power outage that delayed this project), I used my steam iron to fuse the squares to the interfacing. Then I folded along each vertical line and sewed each column with a 1/4-inch seam allowance. I clipped the seams at each horizontal line and pressed the rows in alternating directions.

Then I folded along the horizontal lines and sewed each row.The result was a reasonably neat grid of squares without having to piece each one individually. The squares came out less square than I had hoped. The columns were almost perfectly sized but the rows came out a bit shorter than I had planned — note to self that the seam allowances in the second direction may “eat” more fabric than intended.

Next I layered the quilt top on a piece of  fusible polyester cotton batting, and layered that on top of a fun newsprint fabric leftover from a dress I made my youngest daughter. I fused it all together and selected embroidery threads to match the colors in the quilt top.

Finally, I was ready to quilt! I used my free-motion quilting foot to quilt the top with squiggles, basically doodling with thread. I signed my name in thread in the lower right.

Then I cut 1.25″ bias binding strips from a square of fabric and used my bias binding tool to make double-fold binding using my favorite technique. I sewed the binding to the front of the quilt, glue basted it to the back using Elmer’s glue, and then hand stitched in place.

Despite the power outage delay, I finished the quilt just in time to present at a scheduled farewell event.

AA in Lorrievision, 2025, 18″x30″, quilting cotton and assorted scrap fabric, machine quilted

Rayon shorts that look like a linen skirt

Posted on by

After seeing how easy it was to make the Pattern Emporium Sashay Stretch Flared Shorts for my rainbow Pride outfit, I decided to make another pair, this time in dusty sage Pylos Liknit, in the longer length, and with pockets. I followed the pattern instructions to add jeans-style pockets, but I decided not to add the extra quarter-inch for seam allowance (as I felt it was plenty roomy) and I adjusted the pocket opening so it would not dip so low. I used the AU10 pattern with the full skirt option and a 1.5″ elastic covered waistband. This one also went together quickly, but the addition of the pockets and hemming probably doubled the construction time. I used 1 1/4 yards of 58″ fabric.

I love the way the LiKnit fabric works for this skort: it is lightweight and swishy. This is a pattern for knits and the LiKnit is a two-way stretch knit, but it looks a lot like a woven. It also has enough stability that the pockets work well. This should be cool to wear on hot summer days, but this week I wore it to work with the sweater pictured above (Pattern Emporium Sweet Cheeks sweater in versailles brushed hacci sweater knit), tights, and rain boots.

Pride skort

Posted on by

Last summer when I visited Mood Fabrics in New York City I bought a yard of slinky rainbow polyester fabric with the intention of making a skirt to wear at the Pittsburgh Pride parade this year. A couple of weeks before Pride I realized I had not gotten around to making the skirt. I flipped through my pattern collection and decided that the Pattern Emporium Sashay Stretch Flared Shorts would be even better than a skirt. They come in subtle, medium, and full variations, with multiple lengths and waistband options. The subtle version is a slightly flared pair of shorts, but the full version is a skort that looks a lot like a skirt — but offers a little more modesty. I decided to use the full version with a 1.5-inch covered elastic waistband. I was going to add pockets, but after reading the pocket warning in the pattern instructions, I was concerned that if I put anything in them they would stretch out too much with the fabric I was using. So I decided to forgo pockets and plan to wear pocket bike shorts or leggings with pockets underneath.

I cut out the size AU 10 full version at the short length. The shorts are cut with just two pieces (one for each leg) and a waistband. I was just barely able to get these pieces out of a single yard of fabric (and it was clear that the long length would require more fabric). Because I was using striped fabric and I wanted the rainbow to line up where the legs meet at the crotch, I cut out one leg and then flipped it over and laid it down on the fabric, perfectly aligned. I traced around the first leg and cut out the second leg. I used my fabric glue stick to glue the crotch pieces in place before surging them together so that the stripe alignment would not slip.

The pattern instructions said that swim fabric did not need to be hemmed and this slinky fabric is similar to swim and also won’t unravel so I did not bother to hem it. I basted the waistband on three times before I was able to distribute the shorts fabric evenly, but eventually I got it and surged the waistband on. And that was it… easy peasy! Without pockets or hemming, this is a very quick sew!

Her uniform

Posted on by

I asked my college student what she wanted for her nineteenth birthday and she asked me to make her another pair of her favorite black LiKnit “flowy” pants (PE Urban Boldly pants similar to mine, but adjusted for her taller height).

While I was at it I made her another cropped Bondi (size 4R but graded the waist to a size 0 and then graded the back waist even more, bottom cut at the horizontal waist line shown on the pattern) out of leftover cotton lycra fabric from a shirt I made my husband.

I made her a pair of pants just like this when she went to college, and another pair with the same pattern but in black ponte. I don’t think I have a photo of the ponte pair. She has apparently been wearing these two pairs of pants and the Cleo palazzo pants I made her on repeat all year. In fact I had to rehem two pairs of pants with frayed hems from dragging on the ground and reinforce some threadbare spots.

Short-sleeved Bondis

Posted on by

Bondi is my most-made pattern, and now that I have it adjusted to perfection, I’m making even more. I made two short-sleeve, screwp-neck, 4p Bondi shirts in one evening. I made one from a yard of seafoam and off-white pencil stripe stretch modal jersey that I bought last Fall from Cali Fabrics because it matched my seafoam pants perfectly. I made the other one from a yard of green frost ITY from stylishfabric.com (the color looks like avocado to me) that I ordered last year while collecting greenish fabric options for my daughter’s prom dress. I was in the middle of a lot of light green sewing so I decided to knock these two out before I took the seafoam thread out of my serger.

I cut the striped shirt out carefully and used my fabric glue stick to match the stripes. I was also careful with my placement of the blue stripe in the neck band. I think it came out better than my previous attempts at striped shirts.

I fused all the hems with HeatnBond Soft Stretch and finished with a cover stitch (which did require changing the thread after all, but I did this last after I was done with all my seafoam sewing). I’m still not great at cover stitching, but each time I do it I try to read some tips or watch a video and I’m slowly getting better at it. I can setup my Triumph for cover stitching pretty quickly now, and I have now mastered the technique of pulling the top threads to the bottom at the end so they can be easily tied off. I also realized I was using the wrong table attachment (the hazard of having too many accessories?) and that was making it harder to sew over seams.

Colorful Coda Coat

Posted on by

It’s been over 20 years since I last sewed a quilted jacket (see my first quilted jacket, made in 1999 and my second, made in 2003). Quilted jackets seem to be somewhat fashionable this year, and when I saw the Love Notions Coda Quilted Coat pattern I had to give it a try. I saw lots of people using pre-quilted fabric or turning thrifted quilts into Coda coats (some nice examples and tips here), but since I am a quilter, I decided to piece and quilt my own Coda (some nice examples and tips here). I spent hours asking the Internet to show me quilted coats, and finally settled on using a rainbow of bright batik fabric from my stash in a random-looking pattern of squares and rectangles that I designed. I was inspired by several of the quilted coats I saw, including Thread + Sprout‘s rainbow scrappy patchy jacket. Here’s my finished coat – yes it is very colorful and bright, but sometimes I need that! Now let me tell you all about how I made it.

I started with the size small Coda pattern and projected and cut out lining pieces from batik fabric in my stash. I then basted them together to check the fit of the coat. I decided to make a sloped shoulder adjustment, scoop out the back of the neck a bit, and shorten the sleeves by 2.5 inches. I considered shortening the whole coat since I am 5’2″ and it is drafted for someone 5’5″, but I decided I preferred it to be a little longer (and saw that many other sewists were lengthening their Codas). I could have left the sleeves as-is and cuffed them, but figured the quilt would be bulky so decided to shorten so I would not have to cuff.

Next I needed to decide what type of batting to use. I usually use cotton or fusible polyester cotton batting, but was hoping to make a lighter-weight jacket so looked to see what batting people recommended. I noticed that people who wanted a lighter batting often chose silk or bamboo. I ordered both from Battingsupersale.com (first time ordering from them and was quite pleased) and chose their Simply Bamboo batting because it seemed softer and drapier than the silk.

Next I designed my quilt. I drew out my pattern in Affinity Designer and overlayed it on the Coda pattern pieces. Then I started cutting up my fabric and made a stack of the squares and rectangles needed for each section of the jacket. One piece at a time I laid out each section (guided by a print-out of the design), and pieced it with my quarter-inch guide foot. I pressed the seam allowances in opposite directions so they would butt up to each other nicely, and occasionally applied a dab from my fabric glue pen to achieve perfect alignment.

Once I pieced all the sections, it was time to make the quilt sandwiches. I spread out my bamboo batting on the floor and attached the lining pieces with basting spray, which is basically a light-weight repositionable glue (like on a post-it note). This is the first time I used basting spray, and it was a lot easier than I anticipated. It mostly stayed where I sprayed it and did not have a lot of lingering fumes. I then used the lining pieces as templates to cut out the batting. Then I layered the batting/lining pieces on top of my pieced sections, carefully aligned them, and cut them out. I had designed the pattern so that the front and back pieces all aligned so it was important to get everything lined up properly. I did not use spray baste here because I discovered that the bamboo batting was very clingy and stayed in place just fine on its own without any pins or glue.

Now it was time to quilt. After weighing many quilting options, I decided to go for a simple two-inch grid, quilted with a variegated rainbow polyester thread (with the same thread in the bobbin). I used a hera marker and a ruler to mark the quilt lines, and I quilted it using my walking foot. It mostly went well, but I’ve been having some issues with the bobbin tension on my sewing machine and the stitches are not as even as I would have liked.

After all the pieces were quilted I lined up and carefully attached the pockets. I decided not to bind the tops of the pockets and just folded them under and topstitched. Without binding, they are almost invisible since I matched the pattern and the quilting pretty well. Then I surged around all the edges with pink thread that sort of matched most of the lining.

I had previously considered my construction options. Should I quilt the lining with the top and batting or use a separate lining piece? I decided to quilt the lining because I thought it would further minimize bulk. I think its fine, but you do end up with interior seams that you have to treat. I decided to serge the edges, sew with a half-inch seam allowance, and press open. A nicer option would be to bind them, but I didn’t want to bother. Next time (yes there will be more quilted coats) I may just add a separate lining and keep all those pesky seams hidden from view, as some sewists suggest (this tutorial has lots of great tips).

I ended up sewing the shoulder seams and attaching the sleeves, but leaving the side seams unsewn until after I attached the binding so as to avoid having to bind the sharp corner where the front and the back meet.

The pattern suggests making your own double-fold bias binding tape, something I had never done (I usually bind with French-fold binding, as is common for quilts). But I read that making double-fold bias binding tape was pretty easy to do, especially with the help of a cheap bias tape tool. Some sewists even find making binding tape quite enjoyable. Having now tried it, they are not wrong. I used this nifty technique where you start with a large square, cut it into two triangles, mark them lines parallel to the hypotenuse, and sew them together in a staggered way so that you can use your scissors to cut one long continuous bias trip. Then you run it through your bias tape tool and iron and you have binding. I followed this process with 2-inch strips to make half-inch bias binding. It worked great except that I miscalculated and started with a 15-inch square, and ended up with slightly less binding than I actually needed, so I had to stop attaching the binding and go make some more. Next time I’ll probably go with an 18-inch or 20-inch square to make sure I have more than enough.

Once I made the binding, I followed the pattern instructions to attach it to the jacket by first unfolding it and sewing it to the inside, then wrapping it around to the front and sewing it in place. Instead of pinning it to the front I held it in place with a thin bead of Elmer’s washable school glue, and then set it with my iron (you can still easily peel it off, even after ironing). Yes, I have really embraced the use of adhesives in sewing – for this project I used basting spray, fabric glue pen, and Elmer’s glue. Once the binding was in place, I stitched it near the edge, sewed up the side seams, added a label, and I was done.

I tried it on and was fairly pleased with the results, but despite my use of bamboo batting, it was still pretty stiff. I decided it needed to go through a round of washing and drying to loosen it up a bit, shrink it slightly, and turn it into its natural puckered shape. If you never wash a quilt you can keep it nice and crisp, but I plan to wear this one enough that it will need to be washed, so I figured I might as well get that over with now and soften it up in the process. I always have a little bit of fear about washing a quilt though. I tossed it in my washer on delicate cycle with Woolite, and then after a quick spin in the dryer it was ready to wear (and much more comfortable now).

This project took a bit longer than most of the clothes I make because first I had to make a quilt and then turn it into a jacket. It would be much faster with pre-quilted fabric or cutting up an old quilt. But I really enjoyed both the process and the very colorful results!

Fire spinning skirt

Posted on by

My daughter joined a fire spinning club and has to wear 95% cotton or wool clothing while playing with fire. Personally, I would go with tight jeans in this situation, but she doesn’t like to wear jeans. I previously made her a pair of black cotton french terry pants (which apparently I never photographed), but a few weeks ago she emailed me that she wanted a black skirt, and sent a sketch of what she had in mind. She wanted a midi-length skirt with a slit on the right side, but in several inches from the side seam so that she could dance in it, ideally pockets, and a waistband that wouldn’t move around. She wanted the skirt to have a little bit of swish, but not so much fabric that it would be a big fire hazard.

I decided to use the Pattern Emporium Heartlight skirt pattern, which I previously used to make a short skirt for myself, modified to have pockets. I used the size AU 10 pattern with AU 8 waistband, just as I had made for myself. I used about 2 yards of 95% cotton/25% spandex black jersey fabric.

To achieve the slit I split the front panel of the skirt into three pieces. I drafted pocket bags that I could anchor between the side seam and the interior front seams, with top diagonal pocket openings. I’m showing the front pattern piece in the figure below, divided into three, with the pocket pieces laid over it. The pockets fold up at the green dashed line. (I know she only asked for one pocket, but once I figured out that I could anchor them in, I decided to give her two.)

I sewed up the left seam but only sewed the top 10 inches of the right seam and then serged the raw edge of both sides of the slit and top-stitched them down. After she tried it on and found the waist not as secure as she wanted, I threaded elastic into the waistband.

She says it is exactly what she wanted for her fire spinning performances and she likes it so much that she will wear it even when she is not performing.

Magnificent Magenta

Posted on by

I bought three yards of a beautiful magenta ponte fabric from Mily Mae last year because I love the color (it matches the highlights in my hair) and I love working with this kind of ponte (67% Rayon/28% Nylon/5% Spandex). I thought about making a dress out of it, but eventually decided on a magenta suit. I already have a (store-bought, me altered) purple suit, but I don’t have a pink suit. Magenta is on the more purply side of pink, which means it can be interpreted either as pink or purple.

Unfortunately, magenta doesn’t seem to quite match either pink or purple threads, so I had to order several threads online until I found a close match that I could use for top stitching that would blend into the fabric. None of the Gutermann or Coats & Clark threads I ordered were quite right, but Amann Saba all purpose poly wrapped poly core thread tex 30 color 1059 did the trick.

I used the Boo & Lu Onyx blazer pattern for my magenta suit jacket, with the same modifications I used for my hip length grey ponte version with pockets. I had hoped to get the facings interfaced and catching in the top stitching properly this time, but still ran into problems that required extra gluing and fusing to resolve. I still feel there must be a better way to make the facings, and if I make another Onyx maybe I will figure out what it is.

I used the Pattern Emporium Urban Wide Leg pants pattern to make magenta pants to go with the jacket. I haver previously made three tapered and three wide-leg pants with this pattern (plus a few mashups with this pattern and the PE Walk Boldly pants). I made these size AU10 low-rise (which ends up being high-rise on me), with the waist graded in and the waistband modified to be a contour waistband lined in athletic knit and with elastic added. I added front jeans pockets with straight pocket openings.

Last winter I also bought some super soft purple 86% Poly/12% Rayon/2% Spandex Monaco Rib fabric from Mily Mae, and it turns out to be almost the exact same color as the magenta ponte. Why they don’t call them both by the same name is a mystery to me, but regardless, I clearly needed to make a rib-knit sweater to go with my suit. I used my favorite Sinclair Bondi classic fitted t-shirt patten in size 4p hip length with a screwp neck, adjusted slightly for a broad and sloped shoulder. I cover stitched the hems, using the magenta thread spool and a bobbin wound with the same thread for the needle threads.

The whole outfit looks great together, and I will wear it as a suit with my matching magenta booties! I expect I will also wear the pieces as separates. Although this is a color I wear year round (I also have a cashmere sweater and a winter parka in this color), to me it is really a spring color.

April update: I couldn’t resist some magenta jacket photos with the magnificent magnolia trees in front of my house!

Pocket Onyx, more shoulder adjustments, and why the type of interfacing matters

Posted on by

I made another Onyx blazer, this one hip length in charcoal grey ponte (charming heather legacy ponte from Zelouf) with pockets. I tweaked the pattern some more before I cut it out, this time to add a simple sloped shoulder adjustment (in addition to the round-back adjustment and small-bust adjustment I made on my purple cropped Onyx). I noticed that when I raised my shoulders (as in a shrug) the drag lines I saw on the back of my purple Onyx mostly disappeared. So I lowered the outside point of the shoulder by .75 inch and adjusted the shoulder line on the center and side front and back pieces accordingly. Then, I lowered the armscyes to meet the lowered shoulder point, ensuring that the size of the arm openings did not change. This reduced the excess fabric from the shoulder area that had been pooling around the armscye and helped reduce drag lines on the back. The fit of the back is now about as good as I’m going to get so I will stop tweaking and use this going forward. I made a size 4 hip length, shortened by two inches. I reduced the height of the pockets by only about .5 inches and made them a tad narrower to fit the shortened side-front pieces.

For the purple Onyx, I cut the facing pieces using the front-center pattern piece so that I could sew them down when I top stitched the front seams. I used a lightweight fusible interfacing with no stretch. I noticed that the interfaced facing shrunk a little bit, making it more difficult to attach smoothly, but I made it work. However, on the grey ponte, the lightweight interfacing was a complete disaster. When I clipped the facing to the front center pieces, I found the facing was about an inch shorter. I tried to make it work but it was clearly not happening. Then I remembered that I had tricot interfacing (Superpunch Fusi-Knit White HTC1300), which has some stretch to it. So I cut new facing pieces and fused the tricot interfacing on, with the stretch running vertically. This time the facing did not shrink and everything went together the way it was supposed to! This was a great lesson in selecting the right interfacing for the job.

I did most of the sewing on my serger but I used my sewing machine with my quarter-inch edge foot to do the stay stitching, basting, and top stitch the front and back seams. I used my regular edge foot to top-stitch the tops of the pockets. I sewed the arms to the bodice with my sewing machine before serging, and I made sure to start and stop the serged seam in the armpit. As with the purple Onyx, I sewed the center back seam with my sewing machine, pressed it open, and then topstitched a quarter inch on either side of the back seam. This makes for a nice flat seam that looks very nice.

I used fusible hem tape on the bottom hem and sleeve hems before sewing. I also used it to hold the facing edge in place before top-stitching. I used a glue stick in a few places to keep pieces aligned before sewing.

Ponte is a comfortable fabric to wear, washes well, and resists wrinkles, snags, and pills. The charcoal grey should go well with a lot of things and I expect I will wear this one a lot. The pockets are a nice convenience too, although I probably won’t routinely put my phone or anything heavy in them as it will stretch the ponte. The hip length is just long enough to cover an untucked shirt, which makes it a pretty versatile length to wear with a lot of things. Here I am modeling it with black ponte PE Urban Wide leg pants and a Sinclair Bondi top in plum brushed sweater knit. The jacket also looks great with the PE Urban Wide leg pants I made previously in the same charming heather ponte fabric.

Summary of modifications to size 4 hip-length pattern with pockets:

  • Small-bust adjustment (performed by redrawing the inner curve on the side-front pieces to have less of a contour and then shortening the center front pieces to match the length of the new curve)
  • Sloped-shoulder adjustment (3/4 inch)
  • Round-back adjustments (2 5/8-inch adjustments near top and bottom of arscye)
  • Deepen back neckline by about 3/4 inch and adjust back facing
  • Shorten bottom hem by 2 inches
  • Shorten sleeves by 2 inches
  • Shorten pockets by 1/2 inch and adjust width to match width at hem line
  • Cut facing and interfacing from front-center pieces instead of facing pieces

Cropped Onyx Blazer

Posted on by

After making my tulip Onyx Blazer, I went down a rabbit hole of fitting adjustments. My first Boo & Lu Onyx fit reasonably well, but seemed too loose in the back. After much experimentation and sewing up an entire muslin of the hip-length version with pockets out of an old couch cover, I came to the conclusion that 1) a size 4 would fit me better than the size 6 that I sewed and 2) I need a round back adjustment. Although I have recently also discovered that I need sloped shoulders, broad shoulders, and sway back adjustments on some patterns, it wasn’t clear that these were needed here so I decided to proceed with my cropped purple scuba suede Onyx without these adjustments, although now I am reconsidering.

I finished the blazer yesterday and it was warm enough this morning to snap a few photos outside before I walked to work.

I started with the size 4 pattern, opened it in Affinity Designer, and added two 5/8-in round back adjustments near the top and bottom of the armscye. I had added a small-bust adjustment to the size 6 version that was a bit difficult to execute and did not result in the contour I really wanted. I read in the Boo & Lu Facebook group about an alternative SBA that involved simply redrawing the inner curve on the side-front pieces to have less of a contour, and then shortening the center front pieces to match the length of the new curve. This was easy to implement. I also slightly lowered the back neck line (I find this more comfortable, in part due to the round back issue) and adjusted the neck facing accordingly. I used the crop length and extended it by two inches so that it wouldn’t be quite so short. I shortened the sleeves by two inches because I am short and have short arms. Finally, instead of using the front facing pieces, I cut extra center front pieces to use as facing. This allowed me to solve the problem of the front facings not lying flat by stitching them down when I top stitched all the seam joining the side and center front pieces.

I cut out my cropped onyx from leftover purple scuba suede I had used to make a Sinclair Alana dress two years ago. This fabric is thick and stretchy, so wasn’t the easiest to work with. I fused ultra-light interfacing to the facing pieces, which stabilized them. However, even though I had stay-stitched as recommended, it was still difficult to join the facing pieces to the front pieces that did not have interfacings as the front pieces had a tendency to stretch more than the facing pieces I was trying to match them with. I had to unpick and resew one side twice until I got it right. I also wasn’t able to achieve a really sharp edge. After it was all sewn together I topstitched along the front and back seams, using my quarter-inch edge foot as a guide. My first attempt at this was a mess — the lines weren’t straight and the facing didn’t fully catch in the stitching. I unpicked the top stitching and used Steam-a-Seam 2 fusible tape to glue the edge of the facing to the inside seam it was supposed to align with. Then I carefully redid the stitching and it came out much better.

I’m pretty happy with the end result. It fits better than my first Onyx and the fabric is fun. The length works really well with dresses, but as you can see here it also works with pants. I don’t think this length looks as good with shirts not tucked in though, so I’ll probably make a longer one. It does go perfectly with the dress I made from the same fabric. The rounded back adjustment and lower back neck were a good improvement that makes the blazer more comfortable to wear and keep the back closer to my body. I feel like there is still something more I should be doing on the side back pieces to reduce the drag lines pointing to my armpits (which were not as prominent on my muslin, but maybe because it was made from a woven fabric with less drape). Maybe I do need a sloped shoulder adjustment? Also note that the front is fairly open in the photos and so you can see some fabric bunching under the right arm. When I pull the front pieces closer together that goes away.

Even though I didn’t do any of the fancy seam finishes, I do like how the seams look on the inside, sewn with my serger and neatly top-stitched in place. I did sew the center back seam on my sewing machine and serged the edges so that I could press it open.

Now that I have a collarless blazer pattern that fits pretty well, I want to make more! (But maybe keep trying to address the back drag lines with a sloped shoulder adjustment?) Next up, the hip-length version with pockets.

My new best (sweater) friend

Posted on by

Winters in Pittsburgh are generally relatively mild, but we’ve had more cold days than usual this winter, and the forecast for this coming week predicts more snow and below-freezing temps. I like the instant gratification of sewing in-season items that I can wear right away, so I tend to only sew warm sweaters in the winter and lightweight dresses in the summer. I bought a whole bunch of heavy sweater knits on sale at the end of last winter and only sewed some of them before it got too warm to contemplate wearing them. I was in the middle of futzing with suit jacket pattern adjustments, but decided this week’s forecast called for a new heavy sweater: Something warm and snuggly that can be thrown on over multiple layers and worn on repeat both around the house and outside.

I’ve previously made three Pattern Emporium Sweet Cheeks “roomy” sweaters. But I sized down three sizes to an AU4 and made them all at the cropped length so that they wouldn’t be so roomy. I made a brown mid-scoop neck and a green v-neck out of brushed hacci knit and a purple v-knit out of stretch sweatshirt fleece. This time I decided to go full-on roomy, slouchy and made my normal AU10 size hip length and with a v-neck. I made the pattern without any adjustments other than shortening the sleeves by 1 inch and slightly reducing the diameter of the wrist bands. I used Morraine double cashmere sweater knit from Surge Fabrics in the kelp color. This is a soft 320 gsm 44.5%Rayon/35.9%Poly/19.6%Nylon fabric with 4-way stretch. I used matching Banff ultra thinck 1×1 rib sweater knit for the v-neck, cuffs, and bottom band. (I like the kelp color, even though it isn’t purple. My daughter has a thrifted wool sweater in this color that she wears constantly and I had to darn it when she was home over winter break.)

I cut the sweater out yesterday morning and sewed it all together after dinner. I’m getting better at making all the bands, but they still take some effort. My normal size is, indeed, very roomy, but not too roomy. I think going one size down would still be roomy enough, and if I was using a lighter-weight fabric I think I would want to size down. The hip length gives a very different look than the cropped length, and I like them both. I’m modeling these with PE urban tapered pants in black ponte, but they also look great with leggings or jeans, including my wide-leg cargo jeans for a totally relaxed and slouchy look. (Also, I made the necklace at a ceramics party a few years ago.)

Pocket scarf

Posted on by

I had carpel tunnel release surgery on my left hand this week (I did the right hand a month ago), and its healing well but I have to keep it bandaged up for a week. A polar vortex is forecasted here for the coming week and I was concerned about not being able to fit a glove over my left hand. I thought about sewing a large mitten, but I saw the free pattern from Sinclair for a Mojo scarf with pockets, I decided to give it a try. I do, after all, like to put pockets on everything. The pattern comes in Sinclair’s full range of sizes, in a narrow and wide width, and with the option of adding a hood, ears, and cape. I went with my usual size 4p, narrow width, and hood. I decided I didn’t need a cape and ears, although those could be fun too.

I used leftover Polartec sweatshirt fleece from a sweatshirt I made recently, and sewed it with the fuzzy side out. The fabric is about 70 inches wide so I cut the length of the scarf as one piece and chopped off some of the end for a pocket. This resulted in a scarf that was slightly too short, so when I realized that I added three inches on to each end. You can see the extra seam near the bottom of the back of each pocket.

It was pretty straightforward to sew, but took longer than I expected. I guess it is just a lot of fleece and layers to sew as everything is double-layered, which makes it warm and reversible with a nice clean finish. I sewed almost all of it on my serger (except for some basting, topstitching and closing the seam in the back after I turned it right-side out), and was glad to have a machine that could easily sew through so many layers of plush fleece.

Boo! (& lu Onyx blazer)

Posted on by

I’ve collected a few Boo & Lu PDF sewing patterns but had not gotten around to sewing any of them until now. I’ve been thinking about sewing up the Onyx blazer since it came out because it has princess seams for nice shaping, can be made in either knit or woven fabrics, and it is collarless. I have a closet full of blazers with collars, but over the past few years have found that blazer collars are increasingly uncomfortable on the back of my neck so I’m looking to expand my collection of collarless blazers, which it seems are harder to find (both ready made and in patterns). The Onyx also has several options, including a hip-length version with optional pockets, a peplum version, a tulip-bottom version, and a cropped version. I may eventually try them all. The pattern also includes options for bows on the back of the blazer. While they are cute, I am less likely to add them to a blazer for me to wear. There is a kid’s version of this pattern and I think the bows would be super cute on a blazer for a child.

I started with the tulip version since it looked like a style I would likely wear a lot and it looked like I had enough leftover black ponte fabric from a pair of pants to make it. It has a lot of pieces, but they are all fairly small, so I was able to make good use of some of the scraps. This version requires only a little bit more than a yard of fabric (assuming ~58 inch width) in my size. I made a size 6, with a 1/2-inch small bust adjustment and sleeves shortened by 2 inches. (And it matches the pants — PE Walk Boldly — so now I have a suit!)

Boo & Lu Onyx blazer, size 6 with tulip bottom in black ponte, modelled with Sinclair Bondi top and PE Walk Boldly pants

The pattern includes a lot of instructions and notes, including suggestions for a full bust adjustment and small bust adjustment. In my case, I needed a small bust adjustment, something I had never attempted previously. The pattern has step-by-step instructions for the full bust adjustment, and then suggests doing the opposite for a small-bust adjustment. Most online tutorials take a similar approach. Bust adjustments are somewhat complicated as they involve making adjustments to a flat pattern piece designed to fit a round part of the body. Generally, you take paper pattern pieces and cut them apart and tape them back together. Since I am working with projected PDF files, I figured I should be able to do this electronically in Affinity Designer. I found an AD tutorial that explained how to do full bust adjustments. After watching the tutorial I attempted to follow the steps on my own, except the opposite. I realized that my AD skills are still fairly poor, but I learned quite a few things about using AD in the process — I should really watch more AD tutorials when I get a chance! I had trouble getting my head around how to execute this adjustment in the opposite direction, but after a lot of puzzling, I eventually figured it out and completed an adjustment that seems to have worked out ok.

I projected my pattern pieces with the adjustment and cut out the Onyx tulip pattern with no other adjustments. I knew the sleeves would be too long (they always are unless the pattern comes in petite sizes) but decided to cut the full length and adjust the sleeves on the finished garment after I tried it on.

The pattern has 3/8-inch seam allowances and offers five options for finishing the seam allowances. I chose the easiest, which was to just surge all the seams with a 1/4 seam allowance, trimming off 1/8-inch as I went. Since ponte is a knit, this works well and with all black fabric and black thread, it looks fairly neat too, although of course not nearly as nice as a bound seam allowance. The main downside is that ponte is fairly thick fabric and it would have been nice to be able to press some of the seams open rather than having them pressed together to one side. I think if I make another Onyx in ponte or other heavy fabric I might take the time to serge all the edges (without trimming) that will be seamed and then sew the 3/8-inch seam allowance on my sewing machine. But I am somewhat of a lazy sewist, so then again I might not!

For the most part, the blazer went together fairly easily, but I struggled a bit with attaching the sleeves. The pattern has great instructions and everything is nicely marked, but I still somehow clipped everything together backward, but realized something was off before sewing. I eventually figured it out, clipped everything together properly, and basted it with my sewing machine. Then I serged it together, but made the mistake of starting and stopping at the shoulder, which made it more difficult to smooth out the shoulder line. Next time I will start and stop in the armpit — or maybe just do this on my sewing machine and skip the serging.

Another problem I ran into was one of the front princess seams not lying as smoothly as I wanted. At first I thought it was a pressing issue, but after pressing again I realized one of my seams actually had an unwanted dip in it — it was only off by about an eighth of an inch, but it was enough to cause a noticeable bump in the princess seam right in the middle of the bust line. I resewed about 3 inches of seam on the correct seam line and that fixed the problem.

The instructions noted that the facings might not stay smoothly in place, and indeed mine did not. I tried their suggestion of fusing them in place with a few small pieces of fusible hem tape, and that did the trick. The interfacing I used on my facings was some leftovers from another project that I grabbed, and it was more of a medium weight than a lightweight interfacing. Next time I might try a lighter-weight interfacing.

Attaching the tulip pieces was fairly straightforward except for lining the corner of the tulip up with the front facing. Perhaps due to my heavy fabric and interfacing, I could not get the tulip corner aligned perfectly. I did try unpicking a few stitches at the bottom of the facing and clipping the corner, but it is not aligned as well as I would have liked. This is one downside of the tulip version that should not be an issue in the cropped or hip-length version of this pattern.

I made good use of several feet on my Bernina sewing machine. The patchwork foot with guide made the quarter-inch top stitching around the edges very easy. I also used my darning foot to stitch in the ditch to hold the facings down and my edgestitch foot for the sleeve hems.

Overall, I liked the instructions in the pattern and found the suggestions and photos helpful. I did find a couple of things that are probably errors. On page 11 the finished measurements for the four variations appear to be mislabelled. The crop version has the longest length, but clearly it should be the shortest. Even accounting for that, my finished garment was about an inch shorter than the measurements would suggest. The other error is on page 71 where dark lines are drawn on a photo of the facing to show the raw edges finished with a serger. I believe the lines on the top of the neck facing should be on the bottom of the neck facing.

The blazer fits me well and goes well with both pants and dresses. It has a really nice tailored look, but is less work than a fully lined tailored blazer. I expect I will wear it a lot. When I took photos of the back (see below with PE Walk Boldly pants in black and PE Urban Wide Leg pants in purple, Sinclair Bondi top) I did notice some drag lines beneath the back shoulders. After pondering the cause, I believe it is likely a shoulder slope issue so I plan to try a muslin with a sloped shoulder adjustment and see if it helps before I make another one.

I’m looking forward to making more Onyx blazers. I’m planning out a ponte suit in a bright color with matching wide-leg pants. I’ve already worked out how to cut the blazer and the pants out together from 3 yards of fabric. I love the length on the tulip version, but would also like to try the hip-length with pockets (I will certainly have to shorten it though). The cropped length is fairly short, but I might make it specifically to wear with a dress, and I might round the front corner more similar to the tulip version. The peplum version is also cute, although wonder if it will be too poofy around my waist. I could also see lengthening the cropped version to be the same length as the tulip version…. so many options!

(It’s too cold outside for outdoor photos now so will have to make due with indoor fashion shoots. I’ll try to improve the lighting though.)

Still sweet

Posted on by

I was so pleased with my Pattern Emporium Sweet Cheeks cropped v-neck sweater in sweatshirt fleece that I decided to make another one in brushed hacci. This time I used the peat moss color of the versailles brushed hacci sweater knit from Surge Fabrics. This is the same polyester/spandex fabric I used previously for the scoop neck version in a different color. It is brushed on the inside so it is super soft and cuddly. Once again I sized down from an AU8 to an AU4 so it would be less oversized.

It was still a lot of work. I love the split hem band detail, but it takes some effort for proper alignment. The v-neck and the arm bands also take some time. That said, I did finish it all in one day yesterday (even with only limited use of my right hand after surgery) so it didn’t take that long and the instructions are very good.

One thing I like to do that isn’t in the instructions is to zigzag over the raw edges of the bands with a wide and shallow stitch before attaching them to keep the layers of fabric aligned and prevent them from curling under. It takes a little bit of time but saves having to unpick and redo when a layer slips out of place (which has happened to me multiple times on other projects). I’ve seen fabric glue recommended to do the same thing and I’ve tried it and found it doesn’t work as well for me as you have to wait for the glue to dry and on some fabrics it doesn’t seem to hold well.

Sweet fleece

Posted on by

I enjoyed sewing and wearing my charcoal grey soft cozy Polartec sweatshirt fleece Pattern Emporium Urban Tapered Pants so much that I decided to make a Pattern Emporium Sweet Cheeks Sweater (sweatshirt) in purple to coordinate. I bought the purple Polartec fleece from Surge Fabrics. It is very similar to the charcoal grey Polartec fleece from Califabrics that I used for the pants. Both are very smooth on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

This is my second Sweet Cheeks Sweater. I previously made one in a lighter weight brown brushed hacci sweater knit to go with my pink plaid Walk Boldy pants (but actually I wear it with all sorts of things). Last time I made the mid-neck cropped length, and sized down from an AU8 to an AU 4 so it wouldn’t be so oversized. This time I did the same combo but switched up the neck to a V-neck. I really like the V-neck but it was more work to assemble. The sweater has more structure with the sweatshirt fleece than the hacci, which gives it a somewhat different look and causes the cropped length to sit a bit higher (more cropped). I like it both ways!

I’m really happy with the sweater, but note that it includes several components that require an extra step or two in order to get good results. The V-neck and bottom bands (see photo below for all these sharp details and a peak at my Triumphant surging) require some extra basting and alignment and the sleeve cuffs must be gathered and basted too. The pattern comes with terrific instructions and tips for how to do this, and I’m pretty pleased with my results. All of these features add too a really nice looking garment. Still, these steps take time and effort. I think the sweatshirt fleece was a little less forgiving than the hacci I used previously, which caused me to go even slower to prevent any mishaps. Nonetheless, I already have plans to make this pattern again! At some point I would like to try the hip length version and maybe also a t-shirt version without the sleeves.

A lot of Alana

Posted on by

Over Thanksgiving weekend I made my fourth Alana dress. It was my first Sinclair pattern and still one of my favorites. It’s supposed to fit somewhat loosely at the waist, but I’ve altered the size 4p pattern a bit to remove most of the ease at the waist to get exactly the fit I want. After initially making it according to the pattern and then experimenting with shaving a bit off all the princess seams, I now have my alterations marked on my PDF pattern and I was able to cut my modified version from the start. (Also, having recently tweaked my projector setup I can project each pattern piece onto my cutting table in its entirety without the need to shift.) The only other alteration I make is extending both the front and back facings to below my bra line, as I have done before. This time I made the above-the-knee-length option, so it is a couple of inches shorter than my other Alanas.

And, of course, I make the version with pockets! I love how the pockets fit between the front princess seams and don’t require the addition of side seam pocket bags.

For this version I selected a black, blue, and white geometric textured poly/rayon/spandex double knit that I bought from Cali Fabrics last spring. It’s a midweight, almost heavy knit with four-way stretch. It stretches well over the bodice, but also has enough body to give a nice fit and flare shape to the skirt. It is a comfortable cold-weather dress that will never need to be ironed.

I projected and cut this dress out on one day and sewed the whole thing together on another. There is a lot of princess seaming but it comes together pretty quickly, especially with a serger. There is no gathering, easing, or tricky seams to line up so it is a pretty straightforward pattern to sew.

I was so excited about my new dress that I wore it to work today and took some photos in my office!

Urban tapered pants two ways

Posted on by

I made a pair of Pattern Emporium Urban tapered pants last winter out of some grey cotton Lycra fabric. They fit ok, but the fabric gave them somewhat of an athletic look. I’ve worn them a lot for casual wear, and I’ve used the wide-leg version of the same pattern to make a couple of pairs of pants in a ponte fabric, with a dressier look. I decided to try the tapered version again, this time with black ponte fabric and some additional modifications. It’s easier to get a good fit with wide-leg pants, but I’m getting the hang of tapered pants too.

I started with the size 10 tapered pattern with the low-rise waist, and graded down from the hips to the waist and altered the pockets to have a deeper pocket bag and straight opening as I had done in one of the wide-leg Urban pants I made. Then I added an extra-high contoured waistband lined in athletic knit and reinforced with half-inch elastic as I had done in my orange Urban boldly pants. I also extended the bottom of the crotch seam about half an inch in both the front and back. When I initially basted on the waistband and tried on the pants they seemed too wide in the thigh so I extended the grading on the outer leg seam down to the knee and resewed the side seam, using my serger to trim off the excess as I sewed.

The pants fit well and are super comfortable to wear. They have a slim fit but they are not skinny pants. Except for the waist, they have plenty of ease. However, even in the ponte fabric, I think the look is still somewhat casual, maybe a bit baggy — the wide-leg versions look dressier to me, perhaps because they fall in a straight line down the leg without folds. For a dressier look, I may try a pattern for slimmer fitting pants.

For a casual look, the Urban tapered pants are great, and they are awesome for travel — comfy and plenty of room in the pockets (especially after I cut the pocket bags a little bigger to make sure my phone would fit below my hip crease for maximum comfort). While wide-leg pants are cool and breezy in the summer, a cool breeze up your legs is not optimal in the winter. For travel, less fabric to trip over or pool around your feet can be advantageous. I have already taken these black tapered pants on two trips and wore them for two days straight each time, including wearing them overnight on a red-eye flight (if I have to take an overnight flight I definitely want comfortable pants!).

I decided to go ahead and make another pair out of Urban tapered pants, this time with the intention of using them for comfy athletic pants. I used a charcoal grey super cozy 250 gsm Polartech stretch sweatshirt fleece made from 51% Polyester/38% Nylon/11% Spandex. The fabric is smooth on the outside and fluffy on the inside. I made these with the same modifications I used for the black pants, except I made both the inner and outer contour waistband from the fleece, I made the waistband a half an inch shorter, and I used stitched pockets (borrowing from the PE Just Peachy Shorts pattern but with a straight pocket opening) instead of pocket bags to reduce bulk from the fleece. I especially love the way the pockets came out!

These pants are also super comfy and the contour yoga waistband feels great. The back darts really add to the waist and rear shaping and in combination with a graded-in waist and contoured waistband mean that there is no extra fabric gathered beneath the waistband.

These are very comfy and warm — they will be great winter pants to wear with a warm sweater all winter (pictured here with my Sinclair Soho cozy quilted tunic). In fact, this is what I wore this evening (with a coat) when I ventured out into the 26 degree chill and I can confirm that they kept my legs pretty warm.