a new pair

Hey there! I'm back! I'm so pleased so many of you found the fabric dyeing tutorial instructive, and I do hope to see some hand-painted goodies popping up in my blog reader in the future! If any of you do decide to tackle some fabric dyeing yourself, please send me some pictures! I'd love to steal your ideas wait... that's not right... I mean, suck your creative juices... no... not that either... hmm... let's just go with see what you come up with! Kidding.. kidding...

So what brings me to this rambunctious crop of palmettos on this overcast summer day? I wanted to show off my two latest makes, of course! You might recognize the fabric for this top as the sample that I dyed in my tutorial.  Although the camera was being a bit silly with color - the blue dye is a deeper hue than it appears in these pictures.

I dyed just under two yards of this white silk crepe de chine - just enough to make a Scout tee! I've been craving some easy, basic summer staples this season, and the Scout definitely fit the bill. I also felt like the pattern lends itself really well to using fun fabrics, like this hand dyed number.  And I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't especially tempted to whip up a Scout as part of that awesome Kollabora contest, but in true Sallie fashion I just didn't get my shit together in time to meet the deadline! Which is a damn shame, because I love prizes. I love prizes almost as much as I hate deadlines! So, as you can see, I am doomed to a life of no prizes and dissatisfaction... woe is me.

All joking aside here (hehe... I never put the joking aside) I was destined to make this Scout sooner or later as part of my systematic attempt to have my wardrobe littered with Grainline patterns.  Jen, do you make these patterns specifically for me?? I just have to ask. And if so, have you been getting those brain waves I've been sending you? Great, thanks - I'll expect to see sketches on my table by next week then? 

Omigod, I just can't stop the kidding today. What's with me?? Alright. Serious face. Just the facts m'am. I made this top in a size 4, no adjustments.  While this size matches my measurements (exactly - I mean... she's gotta be making these just for me! Right... sorry... back to business...) I could also see me sizing up in the future to get an even slouchier fit for optimum cool-itude. And, as literally everyone everywhere has said about this pattern, it was a breeze to sew up, even in silk, making it a great project for a long afternoon.  I finished all the seams with french seams, not because I'm particularly partial to the, admittedly, pretty finish, but because I was too lazy to change my serger thread from black to white. Ahh yes... you know you have a problem when your laziness induces more work...

And on to project number two! This past spring I decided it was time for a new pair of jeans.  It had been about a year since I made my first pair - and then commenced to wear them every. single. day of the following 365 days. Funny that it took me an entire year to realize that I should really have more than one pair of jeans in my wardrobe! But after a year of hard wear, my first pair of jeans were no longer looking like my 'nice' jeans - but rather like my 'work' jeans.  Several gallery installs and deinstalls had resulted in paint stains - a years worth of bike commutes meant a few grease stains and the odd snag or two - and countless washings and dryings had meant faded color and tarnished buttons.

It was time.  This was also a great opportunity for me to refine the Built By Wendy pattern (only available in the Sew U book) I've been using as my base for pants. (Question: at what point does a commercial pattern become your own?) Gotta hand it to a years worth of wear 'n tear to show me where a pattern could be improved! Don't get me wrong, I was incredibly happy with my first pair of jeans. Obviously. But there were some small adjustments I wanted to make on this pair - like the depth of the front pocket opening and the overall width of the front pockets.  My first pair's zipper also had a tendency to show a teensy amount, so I used a different insertion method for the fly (Grainline's, in fact!)  But perhaps the biggest adjustment's happened with the fit.  I loved the fit of my first pair of jeans - at first. But over time I noticed that the grain was off on the legs and it really bothered me.  I knew this happened because I took the outer seam in to get them to fit after I sewed up the inseam.  I really needed to adjust the fit overall, and redraw the grainline. So that's what I did with this pair.

I measured an old pair of Levi's to determine a few style points on this pair.  One interesting thing that I found in doing this is that the pants front were significantly narrower than the pants back.  I think this creates an optical illusion of being curvier in the back, and leaner in the front - and it also makes anatomical sense - since the muscles in the back of our legs tend to be much fuller than our front.  I also decided to have these jeans be a bit less 'skinny' in the ankle than my first pair, so they are cut a bit straighter from the knee down, and I hemmed them shorter.  I like to think of this as a gentle transition from my hipster art school days to a more 'mature' look. Ha!!

I used a Marc Jacobs denim from Mood, with just a hint of stretch along the cross-wise grain.  I know some people are anti-stretch denim, but me? I loves it.  I have to say, I'm really happy with this denim.  Definitely quality stuff. It has the color and feel of old school denim, and it didn't bleed nearly as much as the denim I used on my last pair. Which I take as a good sign. I get a lot of questions about where to buy jeans supplies, and I always recommend Mood for their denim. I order a couple of swatches and choose from there.  My buttons and rivets are from Taylor Tailor (who has a whole store full of really great looking jeans supplies, including some drool-worthy selvedge, non-stretch, denim that I think I might use to make my husband some jeans) and my thread is just Gutterman topstitching thread - though Taylor Tailor has some really gorgeous topstitching thread I might splurge on for my next pair!

Well that's all for now! I literally have a 'to sew' list a mile long... anyone else have this problem? I swear, all these gorgeous indie pattern companies keep releasing winners this season. I'm having a hard time saying 'no'!

xx