Stitches West 2015

Every year for the last four, I've gone to Stitches West, which is described on their FAQ as a "fiber experience" but is really just a huge yarn/knitting/crochet/weaving/spinning/etc. convention. Usually I come back with a huge bag of yarn and various associated sundries. This year was no exception!

This year the only yarn I got was some lace from Sincere Sheep, and some 2-ply and worsted from Miss Babs. I also picked up some cool knit blockers from Knitter's Pride, a shawl pin, and surprisingly, some sewing pins.

Knit & Lace Top

Last year, I wrote about this shirt I made for the guys of Electroloom, using parts of Vogue pattern V8877. When I did that, I used pattern tracing paper like I normally do, and was able to trim it down a bit to make a top for myself.

This pattern is extremely easy, with just four pieces. I did a lot of altering after the initial construction–I didn't alter the pattern that I made for Aaron, erring on the side of having too much seam allowance. This would be fine, except I also didn't take into consideration that it's already a very, very loose pattern.

Self Enclosed Seams

Last week I demonstrated the French seam, but while looking through my books for descriptions of how to do them properly, I discovered two other ways to enclose seams.

I've never tried these in projects, but thought a good place to start would be some scrap samples, which I photographed to put up here.

The picture above has a flat-felled seam on the left, and a self-bound seam on the right. They're very similar in construction, but some small details create a very different effect.

French Seams

I've written about finishing seams before, but since I used a French seam on my camisole last week, I wanted to take the opportunity to write about some more advanced seaming techniques.

French seams take a little bit of thinking, but they're very neat! You can use them for most, but not all, garment construction, and the bound seam allowances give your finished product a classy, couture feel.

In this post, I'll show you how to do a French seam, as well as its sister, the mock French seam.

Silk Camisole

This is neither a Blag-a-Bag nor my typical Technical Tuesday post, but I've started a new job this week and have yet to figure out an ideal schedule. But I have managed to find a very little bit of time between getting oriented at work and trying to learn Italian, to do a little bit of sewing!

This is a simple camisole from Simplicity 1366, made using some blue silk charmeuse I picked up last year at Britex.