A new crop of garments has been spotted in Hancock Fabrics stores, and I thought you might like to see a few of them. Perhaps it will inspire you to go hunting for a little piece of spring for yourself. (Goodness knows that the weather isn’t providing most of the country with spring feelings yet!)
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Child’s Jacket – McCalls Pattern# 5509
The flare at the bottom of the jacket was cut from a circle. This makes the edge a bias, which means it wants to stretch when you hem it. To solve this problem, Mary (the seamstress) first serged the edge of the hem, then stitched a decorative rick-rack to the edge, and finally she turned the top of the rick-rack under and top-stitched to create the hem. The rick-rack stabilized the bias edge so there was no stretching.
Mary suggested using a sharp new needle to sew with because the sportswear fabric she used was woven very tightly, and a sharp needle worked the best. She also said to read the instructions and follow closely, because there were some steps done differently than she expected.
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Fashion Top – Simplicity Pattern #3535 Inspired by Project Runway.
This top was made by a seamstress named Virginia. She said it was easy to make, and with no notions it was very inexpensive to make. The fabric used for this top was a 60″ wide rayon fabric. At that fabric width, the pattern required less than a yard of fabric for up to a size 16 top – not bad at all! It’s a great pattern for any age, and for just about any level of sewer. When your garment is complete, you tie a simple square knot at the bottom of each sleeve. The day I took this picture, I discovered my daughter had just picked up a new top – the same style from a department store, square knot on the sleeve and all!
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Rain Cape – Pattern unknown
While visiting one of the Washington stores last week I saw a great idea that I just had to share with you. They get a lot of rain in that area of the country, which makes these very appropriate for outdoor sports. The seamstress purchased some of the collegiate tablecloth vinyl fabric and sewed it into a hooded poncho. The bottom edge of this project was a fast finish by just serging the edge. You could pick from several patterns to make this great project. The store carried the vinyl there for two colleges so of course they had to be fair and make one for each of the colleges.
Eyelet Top and Pants – Top: Simplicity Pattern #4127, Pants: Palmer/Pletsch McCalls Pattern #5142
Now this is the perfect outfit for the hot days of summer. The top was made from a white eyelet fabric, cut so that the scalloped edge of the eyelet creates the hem. This gives it a nice, flirty feel. The straps on the top were made using the same ribbon that is used at the empire waist, tying the whole look together. The pattern for the top actually has 6 different styles, which makes it a great pattern investment.
The pants were made from a light sportswear fabric, but the pattern is also popular for making jeans. Again, this makes for a good pattern investment as you can choose different fabric types and weights. Can’t you just see yourself going to a picnic in something like this?
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Sleeveless Dress – Butterick Pattern#5079
When you look at this dress you just know this dress is going to be comfortable to wear. The fabric is a stretch knit and is in the colors we are seeing everywhere right now. Those of you who have looked at the Flikr gallery before have seen this dress before, but I’ve received some questions about the pattern so I decided to include with this post. Hopefully, this will help to answer some questions you may have. I have been asked how the knot on the front of the dress is constructed.
There is an opening left in the center of the top. Another piece of fabric is added to the top and is pulled through the opening which causes the gathers on that piece to make it appear as if there is a knot. There really is not a knot at all, but this technique makes a good illusion of one.
Sheila Reinke, Heart of Sewing
Sheila
Today, I’d like to share with you a charm bracelet that I have recently completed. It started out, as these things often do, when I spotted some new charms at Hancock Fabrics. They were just adorable – full of all sorts of sewing icons. Now, I may not sew – but I know a lot of folks that do, and I could easily see one of my co-workers loving this piece. The charms are by Marian and Me, and are actually marketed as scrapbooking charms (so you may have to hunt a bit to find them).
Since the pewter charms were obviously the largest, I placed them first. This set of charms actually comes with a spring ring clasp, so I used that to attach them – I liked the length it gave to the dangle. Next, I added the buttons. These were added using 26 gauge silver wire because I wanted them to hang straight down. You could choose to use a jump ring and small piece of chain instead – the look is up to you.
Here is an image of the buttons as I added the wire – you can see that the button on the left has the wire run through two of the button holes, while the button at the right has that same amount of wire twisted together to form the ‘link’ I used to attach them to the bracelet.
If you are going to use the method I did in creating the loops at the bottom of the bead charms, make sure you have TRUE round-nose pliers. They can be found in almost any craft/sewing store. Here’s a picture in case you have not heard of these before. Another tool that makes this task so much easier are the new Craft Snips by Fiskars. I like the idea of having a pair of scissors that I can use instead of always hunting for wire cutters to do my beading. As you can see from the picture below – they are very well made, and of a good size. There is also a safety catch that will keep the scissors closed – something most wire cutting pliers don’t have.
Sheila Reinke 