Sew It Yourself Kimono

July 26, 2015January 3, 2016

Boho style is all over the place right now and I thought I’d try to catch up with this Sew It Yourself Kimono. The wrap is part of the Bohemian Chic trend which is all about being unconventional, artsy and spirited. To me, it’s a very relaxed and airy style but the “chic” part keeps it classy.

I’ve been in a fashion rut ever since having my little guys. I’m much happier (and more comfortable) in my yoga pants and a t-shirt any day. But whenever I have a “girls trip” with my hip city friends, I feel like the frumpy charity case…so I decided to do something about it!

I’ve been eying up Kimonos for awhile, but when Sew Caroline had a post referencing her FREE pattern on IG one day, I knew I had to suck it up and make my own. The pattern is one size fits most and being a whopping 5’3″, it was good for me 😉

When selecting fabric for a Kimono, you need some good drape. I knew anything from April Rhodes, was gonna be perfect. Luckily, one of my favorite prints came in voile, so I snagged up Dreamcatching Flare from the Wanderer collection right away. For trim, I wanted some earthly lace. I tried to get a friend to crochet some for me (hehehe,) but ended up at my local JoAnn’s! Who knew they had such a selection?!? As I was gathering supplies, I thought I should make two styles….so I picked up Leah Duncan’s Bare Nopal Gloom from Morning Walk in voile at my Local Quilt Shop (LQS). For the trim on this one, I used some delicate vanilla lace from my stash to complement the steely blue.

Version A- Morning Walk:

Sew Caroline‘s pattern and instructions are pretty straight-forward and simple. However, I did get hung up on how she attached the trim to the sleeves. I tried to find some pattern reviews online to show me how, but couldn’t find any (at least without having to pay subscription fee.) The following are the steps as I interpreted them so there would be some pictures out in cyber world 😉

With the right-side facing up, measure 3/4″ down from the end of the sleeve and mark.

Pin the trim right-side facing the sleeve fabric on the line marked.

Sew the trim onto the sleeve with a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Fold the end of sleeve up 1/2″ and press (not pictured.) Fold up another 1/2″ press and pin in place. Sew 1/8″ from edge fold next to lace.

Fold the entire casing to the inside of the sleeve and press. Sew on top of the inside seam (under my index finger) to secure .

After I added the lace on each sleeve, I tried on the Kimono and wasn’t 100% happy with this technique. The sleeves “belled” out on their own and didn’t lay down as nicely. The extra folding and all the seams made the sleeves stiffen out a bit. However, I left the sleeves be and hoped that some washing will soften them out.

With the lace on the bottom of the Kimono, I decided to test out a French Seam technique that would drape more and allow for more of the lace to show.

Clockwise from top-left:

Serge or straight-stitch with wrong side of fabric and lace together.
Fold the seam over with fabric and lace are right-facing. Press and sew 1/4″ seam
Fold lace out and press. Sew seam in place.
Outside of Kimono finished.

Version B- wanderer:

After making the Morning Walk Kimono, I made a few adjustments with this Wanderer one. The first adjustment was to make the back a little longer with the colder autumn season quickly approaching. I’ll wear this with denim jeans and leggings to go along with the amazing burnt orange color.

I cut the back piece 2″ longer than the pattern piece. After attaching the front pieces to the back, I folded the entire Kimono in half and made a cut connecting the original length of the front pieces to the longer back. This made for the nice drop to hide my bum 😉

The second change I made was how I attached the lace. I wanted to have as much of the lace showing because it’s just gorgeous and I didn’t want to stiffen up the sleeves like with Morning Walk. The lace was attached with my serger (blade disengaged) and then I top-stitched it into place.

The interior isn’t as pretty as the original pattern instructions, but I don’t mind one bit. I got all the extra length and flow I expect from a Kimono. The width and the weight of the lace will most likely keep the inside seams hidden away…

I absolutely love both versions of Sew Caroline’s Kimono pattern and definitely recommend this as a beginner garment. I can’t wait to strut around with some more Boho Chic style this season 😉 What are you making this fall? I need some suggestions for some future wardrobe fillers!

Happy stitching,

Cristy

Testing the “Jacks Quilt” Pattern

July 19, 2015August 19, 2015

The “Jacks Quilt” pattern has just been released by Bryan House Quilts and I was fortunate enough to be one of the testers. I’m SO excited to finally reveal my #SecretSewing project! It’s tough not being able to show what I’ve been working on lately…especially since it’s just so darn pretty 🙂

This quilt pattern is gorgeous! You can find the pattern in Becca’s shop currently for 30% off as part of it’s new release (discount code on her blog.) This design is based off of a 16-patch and paper-pieced stars and has so much versatility. You can omit the patches and play with the number of blocks to have completely different looks.

There are five different sizes you can make. I opted for the throw, which is a 4 x 4 block. It’s a generous size and I could (always) use another couch quilt 🙂 Not mentioned is the possibility to make a mini with a 2 x 2 block (approx 34″ x 34″.) This would be a perfect baby quilt or stroller blanket.

When I received this pattern, I knew I was going to use my Black and White Cotton + Steel bundle. The 16-patch made for some good mixing and matching of the fabrics for a checkerboard look. To bring out the stars and add some fun, I chose Tula Pink’s Butterfly Swarm in Jam from her Moonshine collection. This saturated fuchsia was perfect against the Black and White. I paired the Butterfly Swarm with Kona Cotton in Valentine to complement, but not compete against the busy fabric. All of these fabrics were balanced out with Kona Cotton in Snow to make the design of the quilt pop out. I added Architextures Grid in Black as possible binding, but I’m not entirely sold on it just yet…

There is a good amount of paper-piecing involved for the stars, but luckily it involves only three fabrics per Star Spoke and they are a generous size. Becca provides great instruction on the process to help you along. If you are new to this and need some more help, this is a great video tutorial on paper-piecing as well.

I found that prepping all the fabric at once and setting up an assembly line worked the best for me. Then I could have a “modified” chain-piecing line. This is “modified” because you generally do not sew through the seam allowance on paper-piecing templates, so I had to lift the presser foot to pull the templates through vs continually feeding fabric.

When attaching the spokes together, I decided not to nest the seams to keep the look of the triangles clean (since they were white and you could see through to the seam allowance.) So to match up the points, I pinched the ends where they met.

Then I flipped over the pieces to check that the points indeed matched. I pinned the pieces and sewed away 🙂

A great tip from Becca was to grade the seam allowances of the stars as you assemble the blocks. This takes out some of the bulk and allows the blocks to lay better for pressing. The points of the stars get pretty bulky otherwise.

So far, I’ve completed the quilt top and am waiting on the backing fabric to arrive so I can quilt this puppy. I can’t wait to show you more….plus, this will be my first quilt completed on my new sewing machine….eek!!!

***For pictures and the post of the completed “Jacks Quilt,” go here.***

Happy Stitching,

Cristy

The pattern was provided by Bryan House Quilts as part of testing. All material was purchased and selected by myself. All opinions and comments are my own and have not been influenced by 3rd parties.

Honest Sewing Room Tour – Supply Pegboard

July 13, 2015July 17, 20154 Comments

I’m going to give you a sneak peek into my new sewing & crafting room. It is still a work in progress…I’ll show you sections of it as I go and this post will be all about the Pegboard! If you have been following me on Instagram @loveyousew_, you’ve already gotten a look but I’ll explain the method behind the madness here 🙂

For the past 5 years, I’ve been sewing down in the basement and I called my space the “Dungeon.” It’s dark, has poor lighting, and I was sewing with the creepy crawlspace in front of me. Combine that, with having the water heater to my left, and the rumbling furnace behind me and you can understand why the “Dungeon” tag name was appropriate!

Earlier this year, I moved my boys into the same bedroom. They were so excited to share the space and I was even more excited to move above ground…with natural light! After I painted the room and moved some furniture around, the first part of the sewing room to be tackled was the Pegboard.

I bought two of these 24″ x 48″ boards from a big box hardware store but you can also find them here. These were initially painted with acrylic in coral to add a little life down in the dungeon but when I moved them, I freshened up the finish with Valspar household paint in Passion Pink. I wanted to keep the same color and vibrancy for my special space 🙂

Here are a few reasons why I love the Pegboard:

Supplies are accessible – If I’m in the sewing “zone,” I hate to get up and ruffle through a bunch of boxes to find something. I like to keep my most used supplies right in front of me.
Inventory Management – I can easily keep tabs of what needs to be replenished. The pegboard keeps me from wasting money by buying items I already have because they were lost in a box!
Space-saver – I don’t have a big closet or a lot of floor space, so this also allows me to better utilize the walls for supplies.

So what do I keep on the board? Of course, my most used thread! With the Etsy shop and a lot of side projects, I tend to go through many colors and types of thread in a single session at the machine. It’s nice to be able to just reach over and grab my next color without missing any momentum. I keep back-ups of these threads in my supply closet as well.

Remember my first Organizational Tips post? Here are the Mason Jars sitting in a basket ready for use at any time with my Wonder Clips and Quilting Pins. The Binder Clips are keeping my zippers organized and I can readily pick out the color and size I need for projects. I have a box of these great handmade cards my brother made me up in the corner. It’s always nice to have pretty inspiration on the board too! And last, but not least, I need some Band-Aids around for when I poke myself with needles….we do not need blood on fabric, right?!?

I like to keep these rulers and washi tape up at the top of the Pegboard. They are quilt specific so I keep them organized but up higher since I don’t use them as often. The dowel for the tape and twine has been a great help. I can see all the different rolls I have and grab as much as I need without have to move them off the board! Bonus – I use the dowel at craft shows with some display hooks!

The scissors….I love my scissors and rotary cutters. I keep a lot around for different purposes. When I’m deep in projects, they end up all over my sewing room, so I (obviously) need extras 😉 These are all held in a standard Multiple Tool Holder for pegboard. I used larger tool holders for my Pinking Shears. As you can see, I have plenty of fabric ones, but I also keep Dollar Store cheapies just for paper crafts or cutting patterns. My 4-year old even has a safety pair on my board. Whenever he wants to hang out with me, we work on his scissor skills with scraps of paper. He gets a kick out of having something in the room that is all his own. Speaking of safety…with my sewing room being right next to my boys’ room, I need to keep all of these sharp object up and out of their reach. The pegboard and some education helps give me some peace of mind…

I hope you enjoyed the mini-tour. I’m quite eager to share the rest of my new sewing space with you…but I have a little more work to do before then 😉 If you would like to follow the progress or see more, check out #LYSstudiomigration on IG.

Stitches and Hugs,

Cristy

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through the links, I receive a small commission. This helps cover the costs of keeping this blog running.

Astrodelic Quilt Hack: Resize to a Mini

July 5, 2015July 6, 2015

If you have been following my posts, I shared the re-cap of my Instagram based Alison Glass Mini-Quilt Swap experience last week. This week, I’ll share how I hacked and re-sized the Astrodelic Quilt pattern from a 42″ x 42 ” throw to a 21″ x 21″ mini using the amazing 2015 Sunprints line. Based on the colors selected, I decided to call my mini, “Fireball.”

How did I decide on this size? Honestly, it seemed like the easiest way to resize to a fourth of original by halving many of the fabric cuts. The measurements fit within the parameters of the swap and I could follow all of the instructions without having to deviate too far…Simple enough, right???

I re-drew the design on good old graph paper and I scaled each block to 1.5″. This made it easier for me to visualize the changes to the pattern and where I need to adjust for seam allowances. Plus, counting the blocks is a nice double-check before having to actually cut the fabric 😉 As you can see, my sketch is nothing fancy and not worthy of the refrigerator, but it does give a good picture of my color selection and placement.

To get started on construction, you will need to download the FREE Astrodelic Quilt Pattern designed by Frances Newcombe for Art Gallery Fabrics. This will provide all of the instructions and I will reference her fabrics as A, B, C, etc.

Cutting Directions:

Fabrics A & E: 3.5″ x 2″ [cut 4]
Fabrics B & F: 6.5″ x 2″ [cut 4]
Fabrics C & G: 9.5″ x 2″ [cut 4]
Fabric D: 2″ x 2″ [cut 6]
Fabric H: 2″ x 2″ [cut 6]
Fabric I:
- 6.5″ x 6.5″ [cut 4]
- 5″ x 2″ [cut 8] matches with Fabrics A & E
- 3.5″ x 2″ [cut 8] matches with Fabrics B & F
- 2″ x 2″ [cut 8] matches with Fabrics C & G
Backing fabric – 24″ x 24″
Batting – 22″ x 22 “
Binding – 2 1/3 yd

Follow the instructions exactly as directed, making sure you use a 1/4″ seam allowance. If you don’t quilt much, double-check your seam allowances on scraps. A mini is not as forgiving on measurement inaccuracies as a larger quilt since your eye is focused on ALL of it at once. If it’s not perfect, quilting will always help and some good washing for the awesome crinkle will help diffuse the attention as you can see in the title photo.

I hope you enjoy this hack and use it in your next mini quilt swap!

#AlisonGlassMiniQuiltSwap, #AGTeamSpectrum, #AlisonGlass, #AstrodelicQuilt #LoveYouSew

Happy stitching,

Cristy

IG Alison Glass Mini Quilt Swap Re-Cap

June 28, 2015June 30, 20156 Comments

Thinking about joining a quilt or craft-related swap? Do it!!! I just finished up the Alison Glass Mini Quilt Swap on Instagram (IG) hosted by @ReapWhatIveSewn. #alisonglassminiquiltswap #agteamspectrum

It was a great experience, not only because I got to play with beautiful fabric by Alison Glass…or the amazing quilt I received…but for making new “friends” with a bunch of quilters I might not have followed if it weren’t for being in this swap.
The main requirement for this swap was to use primarily fabric designed by Alison Glass (AG) (per the swap’s namesake) and to make a miniature quilt that was 13-24″ squared. I was dying to get all of the 2015 Sunprint fabrics, and this swap made it easier to pull the retail trigger 😉 The intense colors in AG’s fabrics are just pure eye candy. I love using them in rainbows and they pop against Andover black chambray (one of my stash staples) so beautifully!

My Quilt

The partner I was paired with unfortunately, was not very active on IG…and by not active, I mean practically non-existent. She posted one picture of when she received her fabric for the swap and that was that. I know life happens and not everyone checks or posts to their accounts daily or weekly. Completely understood! But when you sign up for a swap that’s strictly on the IG platform, you wish your partner did participate a little more. It’s makes the experience a little easier and it’s more fun with the participation 🙂 The only information that I had was the completed registration questionaire. This gave me (1) my partner likes red, yellow, green, orange and (2) she likes modern quilts. That’s it….what was I going to do???

Luckily, I had the Astrodelic Quilt design fresh in my head from checking out free patterns on Art Gallery’s website. The palette my partner named was a challenge. I wanted to make sure I balanced out the red and green so nothing looked “Christmas-y” and that the yellows and oranges would all complement each other. It was nice to have all of Sunprint 2015 on hand to play around with color!

Kona white is always a safe choice as the background. With the bright colors selected, I didn’t want anything else to compete with this “Fireball.” Carolyn Friedlander’s Architextures Crosshatch in Shadow finished as the binding…Again, chosen to not draw away from the design. As for the quilting, I try to leave mine pretty fuss-free…straight-line is my go-to and I followed the 45* angles created from the piecing. This mini finished at 20″x 20″…a bit on the larger side, but easier on the quilt math 😉

Extras

Although not required, it’s always nice to send some extra “love” with your mini. Since I was getting no indication of likes/dislikes or any personal info off IG, I kept my gifts pretty generic. The rainbow mug and scissor pouch are from Michael’s. I included a wooden spool of thread from my vintage collection and a fun little tape measurer. I ordered Ex Libris directly from AG’s shop, so I got a few stickers (!!!) with my order and included one here. The pin cushion was a special little gift I made using scraps of Sunprint with Jeli Quilt’s Goosed Up pattern. Sewing notions are always a good inclusion so I added a few zippers to match the mini as well. Many swappers include food/candy, but it was scorching hot around the US, so I didn’t want anything to spoil or melt…hence no yummy goodness from me.

Mini Received

So off my package went (yes, it was on time!) and the waiting game began. It’s fun to watch the other swappers on IG receive their packages and you can slowly mark off who was not your partner. Luckily, I did not have to wait very long. My parcel arrived just a few days after I sent mine off.

And….it was this gorgeousness!!! Go ahead…take it all in…..yesssssss………mmmhmmm…..

Kitty of the Night Quilter made me this amazing hexagon shaped quilt from Robert Kaufman’s Prismatic Medallion FREE pattern. I know only because I have downloaded it for my personal Quilting Queue. But maybe I don’t have to try to make it anymore?!? The fabric selection was just on-point! I LOVE IT!!!

And there’s more! Remember the Hour Basket from my Sewing Room Organization post? Here it is with the mini stuck inside. There was also some small and large washi tape. I can’t wait to use the measuring tape one on packaging later on down the line! Kitty also included tea and candy that I love…and how did she know? She posted questions out to our swap group asking about what we would like in our packages and I just responded…so glad I did! It’s nice to get a surprise, but also nice to get something you know you will eat or use. Lesson learned – answer questions from your fellow swap-mates!

From sign-up to shipping, the swap was about 5 months. So if you are thinking of joining a swap, this is an ample amount of time for a mini. I got my design and quilt top pieced early on…probably within the first two months. I liked getting it done early just in case something pops up on the personal front (which you know always happens.) I owed it to my partner to be on time, since I wanted the same for myself. Good sewing karma pays off…in gorgeous mini’s!!!

Have you participated in any craft or sewing swaps? I’d love to hear your (positive) experiences.

Hugs and Stitches,

Cristy

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. By clicking on them and purchasing products through the links, I receive a small commission. This helps cover the costs of keeping this blog running.

Love You Sew

Handcrafted from the Heart

Category: Uncategorized

Sew It Yourself Kimono

Version A- Morning Walk:

Version B- wanderer:

Testing the “Jacks Quilt” Pattern

Honest Sewing Room Tour – Supply Pegboard

Astrodelic Quilt Hack: Resize to a Mini

IG Alison Glass Mini Quilt Swap Re-Cap