A few weeks ago, in the midst of a lot of long term projects, I got the itch to sew something quick and simple. So I looked through my bin of patterns and pulled out Butterick Fast&Easy 3383.

​It's a really boxy, oversized t-shirt pattern with three sleeve length options, a pocket option, and the option for side seam slits. I'm not usually a fan of really oversized t-shirts, and I considered altering the pattern from the get go. But I wanted to see what it was going to be like without alterations, and figured oversized was exactly what sewing for my bump called for.

​I picked out some scraps I had in a sturdy navy mystery knit, and some bias tape that I'd had laying around for ages (seriously, I think I've had it since I was like 12) and went to work! Of course, being scrap fabric I didn't actually have enough to cut the pattern out as it was intended. So I decided to split the front into two, and try to make it look intentional. To make it look more like a design detail, I used 1" seam allowance for the center front, serged the sides separately, and topstitched each side. I think it turned out pretty well!

​Actually, the whole shirt turned out better than I expected. A lot of times when I jump into a project and finish it really quickly it ends up turning out pretty terrible for one reason or another. But this boxy look is indeed super comfy for being pregnant. And the slits in the sides help give even more room as I go into the last few months of my pregnancy. I really like the stability that the woven bias tape gives to the scoop neckline, and I love the pocket detail. The only thing I'd change for next time around is to make the sleeves shorter, since every time I wear it I end up rolling them up a turn or two anyway.

I can't say that it's my favorite make ever, but it was the perfect pick for a quick and easy project, and it's a great basic to have in the closet!

Oh! And p.s. this is my Retro Topknot Headband in case you were wondering :)

Sometimes it is so exciting to create a totally new me-made garment! That excitement can get other things pushed to the bottom of the list, like repairing the clothing I already have.

I'm pretty good at repairing anything me-made, I think because I really appreciate those pieces more. But I've been trying to get better at repairing, altering, and refashioning not just the things I've made, but the rest of the clothing in my closet as well. I've been doing better (see my invisible jeans mending post) but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

I would say that about 80% of my closet is second hand clothing, which I love, but they often come with little things wrong with them that, if I fixed them, would make me love them even more. A lot of them are easy fixes too! But my intentions to fix them often end up leaving me with a pile of mending that sits there for months at a time. 

Me Made May has been very inspiring for me in terms of finally getting these things mended and altered. I decided that since my me-made wardrobe is pretty limited while I'm pregnant, that I would include
​wearing things that I've mended and altered as well as the completely self made pieces. And I'm loving it! It has really motivated me to do those
alterations, and to appreciate those pieces more!

I got this shirt at a second and shop, and I love the color and pattern, and the style of the shirt! Whenever I go swing dancing, it always pops into my head as a perfect little retro looking top to wear. The problem is, with swing dancing (as with many things in life) you have to be able to raise your arms with ease. And this shirt did not allow for that. What an easy fix! I just had to take off the sleeves, and turn under the raw edges. And yet... it sat in my mend pile for about a year before I touched it. 

The Striped Dress:

This dress is another second hand piece of clothing that just wasn't quite right. It was a strapless dress, but had absolutely no support on top, which led to a lot of yanking up to make sure everything was covered. On top of that, the white of the bust area was not only slightly see through, but also had some staining in the pits.
Solution: take off the top!
This was another really simple fix. I seam ripped the top from the bottom, cut the zipper down, (safety pinned the zipper down so I wouldn't accidentally pull it off during alterations) and then hand tacked the zipper in place and a hook and eye at the top of the elastic. Voila! Skirt.

Altering the ready to wear clothing that I already have is such a quick easy sewing project. Sometimes it's nice to sit down and be able to accomplish an entire project in a half hour. I also feel like RTW clothing often gets the short end of the stick. I know the quality isn't always great, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be using all the discarded second hand clothing that already exists. Wear it out. And then repair it! RTW deserves to be repaired too! I just need to make it more of a priority....

I've got a great little downloadable freebie for you guys! 

I've always loved the idea of Me-Made-May, but I've always been intimidated by it. For those of you who don't know, MMMay is a challenge started by Zoe Edwards of SoZo to help sewists develop a better relationship with their handmade wardrobe. It is a huge deal on instagram every year, because most people pledge to wear all handmade for the entire month, and post a selfie every day on instagram using the #MMMay18 

​Which is super intimidating right?? My handmade wardrobe is not nearly filled out enough to wear only handmade all month. And posting a picture of myself every day to instagram is quite a commitment for me. 

​But then, I listened to episode 38 of the Love to Sew Podcast, which featured Zoe and the MMMay challenge. And Zoe emphasized that this challenge is NOT a photo challenge, and it is NOT the same challenge for different people. You get to choose what you want to challenge yourself to do. You don't have to wear me-mades from head to toe. And you don't have to post an instagram selfie every day. You can track your challenge however you want!

So of course, my mind jumped straight to bullet journaling! 
I'm obsessed with my bullet journal, and I love creating new spreads to help me keep track of my life, so I whipped up a few pages to help me track my newly inspired MMMay!

I made a page for writing down my pledge, and another with a space to review at the end of the month. I also created a fun spread for cataloging my handmade closet!

I made a monthly overview spread, to make sure I had a place to mark off each day that I succeeded (I love crossing things off) and to write out any big events that may affect what I'm wearing that day.

Lastly, I created spreads for the individual weeks. Each day gets its own space where I can draw up a little flat sketch of my daily me-made, and write a couple notes, like the weather for the day, what the rest of my outfit was, or what I did that day. And there is even more room for notes at the end of each week, to jot down some ideas on how to fill in wardrobe gaps, or record your favorite outfit of the week!

I love my Me Made May spreads, and I think it is going to really help motivate me to stick to my pledge this year! 

I started wondering if other people may want to use a fun tracking system like this too, and I decided to throw them up in my shop as a free printable for you! It's a fun way to participate in the challenge without the added pressure of selfies! I'm still gonna try to put pictures up on instagram, but somehow it seems more doable if I don't HAVE to do it. 

I am a total sucker for sewing tools. Anything that makes creating more fun and enjoyable, or cuts down on tedious tasks is A-Okay with me. These Pilot Erasable FriXion markers came highly recommended by a fellow sewist, and I had to try them out! I figured I'd share my findings with you too!

So these markers are not actually intended for fabric. They are actually erasable markers for paper! Which is pretty cool too! Your writing disappears when heat is applied to the ink. Which is why they come with a little rubber tip on the end, so that you can "erase" with the tip, which actually creates heat from the friction, which makes the ink disappear. Obviously, they recommend not trying to erase on very delicate paper that might rip from erasing, but other than that, they really work well!

But what my fellow sewists have discovered, is that you don't actually HAVE to "erase" with the tip. It's really just any significant heat that will do the trick. Like..... an iron!! Which of course is so perfect for sewing!

I've used a wide variety of marking utensils on my fabrics over the years. And some I like way better than others. Honestly, I do sometimes just use a normal pen or marker when I'm 100% sure it will never be seen on my finished project. I  also use chalkboard chalk, tailors chalk, and tracing paper. ooh and I do love a good clover chalk wheel. It gives such a nice thin line. But what about if you are experimenting with where a line may go, and you want to be able to change it? Or if you don't want to have to wash your work to get all that chalk out?  I've used some fabric markers that disappear with time, and that is a good option too. But honestly, I'm the queen of finishing a project 2 months (or years) after I've started it. And I'd rather not have to remark everything I do every time I find time to come back to it! Which is why I'm loving these Frixion markers! 

They easily draw on your fabric, stay until you WANT them to disappear, come in a squillion colors, and.... some colors even show up on dark fabrics! Look at the black knit in the picture above! I'm not saying that it's super obvious on black, and may not show up on all fabrics, but you CAN see it on this if you have good lighting.

The Drawbacks:
Obviously, not every sewing tool is right for every situation. You should test your marker, and it's erasing abilities on a scrap piece of fabric before you go all gung-ho coloring on your project. And remember that this marker only disappears with your iron IF your fabric can be ironed without melting (once again, test it!) The biggest drawback is the cold! I've  tested the fabric by throwing it in the freezer to see if the ink comes back in the cold. And unfortunately there is a ghosting effect. The color doesn't come through as strong, but it does come back some. It can be reheated and disappear again, but that's a bit annoying to have to redo! Note to self: don't use these markers for a winter coat! The last drawback is kind of a funny one. Be sure not to accidentally apply heat to your markings before you are ready. A friend warned me that she'd used these markers for a beautiful bullet journal page, and then unthinkingly set down her cup of coffee on the paper. And then found that she had a coffee cup sized blank space in her writing haha.

I bought my markers from a friend's sewing shop in Bloomington: The Tailored Fit but I know that you can find them on Etsy, or even at Target and probably a million other places.

A few weeks ago, I saw in instagram post by Closet Case Patterns that completely blew my mind! She was sharing an interview she did with Rain from Indigo Proof. She is a specialist in denim repair, and you absolutely have to take a look at Rain's before and after photos. The ones below are just a small example of the amazing work she does. It is complete magic! 

Along with the interview, Heather (of Closet Case Patterns) also put up a blog post about how to try this invisible mending technique for ourselves. I can't tell you how excited I was when I discovered a giant hole in my husbands jeans over the weekend... 

I don't think he's ever seen me so excited to mend his clothing.

The process was actually really simple!
I used some scraps of fusible interfacing (lucky for me they were black to match the pants!) to interface the holes, and the area around the holes. Then, using a matching thread color (also lucky for me, because I of course have black thread) I sewed over the holes along the grain of the denim weave, imitating the fabric itself. 

Heather recommends that you use a darning foot, and that you mix up the top thread color to imitate the many hues of your worn jeans. Well, I don't actually own a darning foot for my machine, so instead I just used a regular foot, put the stitching length at about 1.5, and it seemed to work just fine! I also only had one color of black, so I didn't vary the hues at all. My repair work definitely isn't as invisible as Rain's is from Indigo Proof, or even Heather's attempt, but they look pretty damn good to me! It's a lot less noticeable than your underwear! 

A couple of my pattern testers made a particular request after reading through my Inara instructions. After seeing one of the photos of my grey robe at the end of the instructions, they each let me know that they would love to read a blog post about how I added the lace to it. The good news?? It was super duper simple to do!

The great thing about lace (most lace anyway) is that your can cut it, and it doesn't fray. So really, this beautiful lace overlay was really as simple as cutting out pieces of lace that I loved, pinning them in place where I thought they looked good, and then I chose a matching thread color and topstitched the pieces down. Easy as pie. I'm not sure why people say this, pie seems like a rather intimidating dessert to make. Easy as.....no bake cookies. There you go.

If that sounds wayyy too simple, here are a few details and tips of what I did, in case you are planning on replicating it:

- I placed the lace onto the robe after sewing the side seams but before the bottom hem step, and before adding the binding. In retrospect, the stiffness of the lace did weird things to my hem, so next time I'd hem and THEN add the lace overlay, and then put on the binding. I added the sleeve lace after hemming the sleeves, and as you can see it lays much nicer!

- The lace sleeve bands are 3" tall. The lace around the hem is about 4", except at the sides where it goes up to 8" above the hem. I LOVE the way the higher lace on the side seams accentuates the curve of the hem. 

- As you can see in a photo below, I didn't have one nice big piece of lace to work with. There are actually several parts that are pieced together. But the beauty of matching your thread color is that you can only tell that it's pieced if your eyes are about a foot from my butt. And I don't usually let people get quite that close to my rear end. 

- I added a final touch of lace to the center back neck of the robe. I love that it brings the triangular motif of the hem to the back of the robe as well. 

- Unfortunately I cannot point you in the direction of this beautiful lace I used. It was a small sample piece in my stash from when a local fabric store was downsizing. #makeyourstash
​

​I would LOVE to see how you guys hack The Inara pattern to make it your own style, this way or any other way! And if you have any questions about what I did, just comment below! In the meantime, I'm now going to go make myself some no bake cookies....

I'm so excited to be releasing my third garment pattern! This is the my first pattern that uses my animal sizing, which I absolutely love. And it's already a staple in my closet! I've made three for myself, and I already have plans to make a fourth one! Robes are one of those garments that I never knew I wanted until I had one. My mother in law surprised me with a super fuzzy and warm robe for Christmas a few years ago, and now I barely take it off during the winter because I'm always freezing. But I decided I loved wearing it so much that I wanted a cute summery version too. 

​And voila! The Inara was born. The name is a nod to the show Firefly, because Inara is one of my favourite characters and a flirty robe seems right up her alley! The robe is short and sassy with a hem that curves up on the sides, and it works great with all the lightweight drapey fabrics in your stash. It can be a beach coverup, a bridesmaid gift, lacy lingerie, a maternity delivery robe, a house coat, or a light outer layer for summery days. So much possibility! 

And it's a great pattern for Capable (advanced beginner) sewers! The curved hem, the thread belt loops, and the homemade binding might be new skills to add to your repertoire, and they each come with step by step instructions, tips, and even a few videos to help you along your way. And of course, I'm always here as a resource! I can't wait to see all the fun you have with this pattern!

I can't tell you how this pattern fits on a baby, if it is easy to take on and off a baby, or show you a picture of what the options look like on a baby. Because my baby won't be here for another 4.5 months. But I can tell you how easy the pattern was to use, how quick it was, and how much fun I had!

​

Simplicity 2291 came into my hands because a friend of mine was getting rid of some of her pattern stash. I immediately snatched up all her baby patterns. Ever since I found out I was pregnant, I knew I'd want to make at least one outfit for when little Stage arrives. This pattern was perfect because it offers great unisex options and we aren't going to find out what gender our baby is! I ended up making a unisex onesie, little unisex sweatpants, and a skirt (just in case!). It took so little time to cut and sew them all, and SO little fabric! I think I've discovered the perfect scrap busters! Now it's going to be even harder to part with my scraps...

I made a few adjustments to my little memades. First, I made the onesie short sleeved instead of long sleeved (since baby stage is going to arrive in the summer). Second, I adjusted the sweat pants to accommodate my lack of fabric. I made the legs a bit narrower at the bottom, and left off the pockets. I also cut them shorter than the pattern called for, but used extra scraps to create cuffs on the bottom. An extra little strip of fabric became a fake drawstring bow. I love the result even more than the pictured pants on the envelope. I didn't have any lace for the skirt, so I just left that out as well. 

Now I just hope that these adorable little makes will fit well enough to be worn at least once! 

While at my selfish sewing retreat, I ended up making myself a top from Simplicity pattern 1113. It's a tank top with a high-low hem, and a very flowy silhouette. I figured it could be a good maternity top for me! 
​

Not intending to sew this top, I hadn't brought any fabric for it. Which meant that I ended up using fabric scraps from another retreater. But Whitney's fabric scraps are beautiful and relatively sizable. I found two coordinating fabrics (although one was woven and one was knit) and managed to cut just about all the pattern pieces out. I only ended up missing one of the back hem stripes. So I decided to just go with it, and adjusted the seams at the sides to make sure that at least the bottom stripe lined up correctly. I also had to piece together the banding for the neck and armholes. I really like how the color blocking ended up looking on this top! I also ended up with armhole banding that was significantly wider than the neck banding. I'm not sure if this was a pattern detail or a mistake on my part, but I wasn't digging it. I ended up turning the banding onto the right side of the tank and top stitching in place to make the banding look smaller.

If I made it again, I would make the arm holes a little larger, and make it narrower across the shoulders and upper bust area, and also fix the arm banding issue from the start. I would also skip my length alteration, assuming I had enough fabric this time. I think my alteration caused the top to lose some of the beautiful drape that was meant to be in the top. Or maybe I would lengthen the entire top, seeing as my growing belly will need more fabric in the front. But overall, it was a quick easy make, and a very forgiving pattern because of the cut and fit!

A cabin in the woods, complete with sewing machines, hot tub, and more delicious food than you could ever eat in a week. If that sounds like a hot slice of heaven to you, that's because it is. 

​Once a year, in January, when the rush of the christmas season is over and the rush of prom season hasn't yet begun, my ASDP group (Association of Sewing and Design Professionals) spends 4 days at a selfish sewing retreat. There are around 8-12 of us, and we each bring our machines, and projects, and we each take a meal to be in charge of. That way we only have to cook once in the four days. Just going four days with fantastic home cooking that I don't have to do myself is heaven enough. We set up the ping pong table as a cutting station, and set up our machines in the beautiful sunroom, which got cozy enough that we ended up cracking open the windows even during an Indiana January! 

I call this the Selfish Sewing Retreat because the one rule is that you cannot sew anything for clients. Which is pretty much the best rule I've ever heard. Because despite what you may think, owning a sewing business does not mean that I make all my own clothes. Ever heard the saying "The cobbler's children go unshod"? that pretty much sums up my wardrobe. I spend so much time sewing for my business that extra sewing is rarely on the list of things that I want to do after my work day. Even when I want to, my back sometimes has other ideas. You can only take so long sitting a sewing machine or leaning over a cutting table!

​But once a year, I let myself off the work-sewing hook and become a completely selfish sewer. Honestly, I need to just start implementing this into my monthly schedule. Because it feels so good! And that way I won't be bringing the same project back to the retreat year after year because I still haven't found time to finish it (I think most of us ended up bring back a project from the last retreat haha).

​I went this year with every intention of finishing up my wedding quilt (just like last year). Because it has been over 4 years now. Come on! So I only brought supplies for that one project. To keep myself from getting distracted. Fat chance!

​Between the fabric scraps that Whitney brought me, and the patterns Diane and Cathy shared with me, I ended up coming home with two new maternity tops and three little baby garments. All out of scraps! The baby clothes are especially satisfying because they take up such a small amount of fabric that it is so easy to use up scraps this way! I have a feeling there are going to be a lot of baby clothes in my future. And there will be some blog posts soon about these makes :)

​I did actually get some good work done on my wedding quilt... just not as much as I'd hoped. I'll just have to finish my quilt on my own this year. Or bring it back next January....we'll see.