aimecommemarie - must have, plus fabric shopping in LA

Hurrah!  Vacation has ended!  Since I spent the first day of it fabric shopping at the garment district in LA, I spent a lot of the rest of the time hanging off cliffs dreaming about what I would sew when I got home.  The result was a fabric mess all over the living room, dining room, etc...and it was hard to pick something and just get started.  So I went for something simple!  Then I got totally hung up on how to finish the neckline and this has dragged on for days, until I got sick of looking at it.  I'm definitely no good at keeping UFOs around.

This is my first finished product by aimecommemarie.  When I first saw the patterns I knew I was in love.  They are hand drawn and overlap (boo to necessary tracing) but the instructions are also hand written and drawn with illustrations.  They are inconveniently in French, but luckily French is pretty easy to figure out.  This shirt comes as a pdf and is only three pieces.  I traced a M to start, recognising both that I need to start sizing up if I want things to fit (re: my poor Anna), and remembering that euro sizing is much more fitted in general. 

Fabric: leftover from Anna.  I didn't have enough to fold the back piece, so I sewed two halves together.  Possibly made the back a bit wider by doing that, oh well.

The pattern gives you a few options for finishing the hem and neck, but no definitive instructions.  This might annoy some people.  It left me in limbo for about a week.  I finally used black bias tape and sort of tried something new by folding it to the inside.  I like the look but it makes the neck droopy.  So I just zig zagged the sleeves because I didn't want to change their look at all.  What do you do to avoid that droopy neck??  It seems like all non-knits are prone to this problem any time you use bias tape.

Ok...so regarding Los Angeles.  Well, I had a backup plan, which was a beautiful selection from Mood fabrics that I ordered ten minutes after that 20% off sale ended.  Stupid time difference.  I shipped it to my nice friends in Salt Lake City so it was waiting for me when I got there.  In LA I wanted to find linings - Bemberg, to try it out, and some silk..  Linings have been the hardest thing to buy online, I've found.  Oh and I wanted some leather to make my Victoria Blazer because I'm totally copying Kim.  As many before me have noted, the garment district is not a great place to go when you have a flight to catch in 3 hours.  I'm also a newbie and still not great at differentiating fabrics.  Things like the Michael Levine loft were wasted on me, because too much of the fabric just felt plasticky or yuck, and without knowing what it was, I wasn't interested.  I did have some success with silk at a random shop, picking out a few colors for about $12/yard.  Compared to New Zealand prices that was total success and now I wish I'd gotten more...Michael Levine stole the rest of my time and money.  I may end up making a short-sleeve Victoria though because I'm not sure I can magic two sleeves plus the body out of the three lambskins I found on sale.  But either way - leather jacket for $50!  I'm excited...and I really hope I can manage to get that to fit!

My new return crazy enthusiasm hasn't quite worn off and I have about ten pieces of fabric in the wash and patterns have taken over the living room.  I'm trying for a few simple projects to see if that helps me get focused! 

Jalie thermal underwear (and a shopping spree in Wellington!)

Took a little break from dresses in favor of a bit of practicality.  I was hunting for awhile for a men's thermal underwear pattern.  I had gotten some nice black local merino wool and my boyfriend was keen for a pain of longjohns.  Via various forums I found the out-of-print Jalie thermal underwear pattern, available for download on their website for $9USD.

I am so far not in love with pdf patterns.  The Jalie pattern was particularly confusing because it has an unreliable amount of overlap and doesn't outline each piece clearly so you know where to cut.  Luckily my boyfriend was willing to help since he got something out of it : )  He did the cutting and we taped together.  He's a skinny 31 waist and he chose a size U (the pattern covers toddler to big adult), which in retrospect was a touch big, but he says he likes it that way (I also cut off about an inch of the waist to make it sit slightly lower toward his hips.)

It was my first time working with knits!  Jalie recommends first zig zagging the seam, then following it with a straight stitch.  I did that in some places, although it seemed better to do the straight stitch first which held the fabric and then I did a zig zag to better hold the edge.  The instructions were a bit funny for the fly and I had to undo some mistakes there when I sewed the front and the back together, but it was otherwise straightforward construction and my first ever elastic application went well.  I did use a ball point needle, and I'm not sure it's totally necessary but seemed like if that would improve the final product I might as well go for it.

Overall it is a functional result but definitely a quick job - the fly bias tape is a bit funny and I didn't cut the top above the elastic totally straight since I shortened it by guesswork.  I'll admit I still don't own any kind of a ruler except for my measuring tape.  My next attempts at knits will probably be tshirts as another project that will be quite straightforward.

Speaking of which - I went to a conference in Wellington last weekend, just for a day.  Quite a rushed day because of course it was a priority to get to the fabric store!  I had to choose which lectures to miss of the conference, and I was still late getting back.  Global Fabrics has changed its name to The Fabric Store, a bit dull but this *is* New Zealand.  And they were having a sale!  My frantic hour in the shop taught me something about needing to have a plan before you enter the shop!  I ended up with some merino wool in aqua and green, green twill for my upcoming Minoru jacket, some green wool I couldn't resist, just in case, rainbow striped shirting, and some interesting stuff for pants involving lurex threads and silk-cotton blends. 

Of course I'm totally sure I left some incredible things behind but I suppose there will eventually be another trip to Wellington, and I definitely have enough to keep me occupied already!