The Man’s cammies take a serious beating at work. I don’t know what he does while he’s wearing them, but whatever it is, I think it must involve sandpaper and scissors, because that’s certainly the only way I could get my clothes to look that way.

Today’s damage report wasn’t so bad; just two missing buttons, and some worn through spots on the inseams near the ankles. When Erik reenlisted last year, I bought myself a big ol’ honkin’ spool of thread, because I knew I’d need it (and not just for cammies, either–khaki is the best neutral ever! I use it on everything, especially quilting). Yep, this baby is bigger than your average cone of serger thread, even. Stats: Gutermann (only the best, for me) 5500 yard cone, $16 at SewTrue. While I love my huge cone of thread, it doesn’t actually fit on my
thread post (not even my "large spool" auxiliary post), so I wind two bobbins from it, then use one as my top
thread.

This is what the inseams look like. If you look closely you can see that I’ve already repaired these once before with a zig zag stitch.

Here’s the stitch function I use to mend spots like this. My manual calls it a "darning stitch" but I’ve seen it called "mending stitch" also. There is absolutely nothing special about this stitch, it is just a glorified straight stitch. It stitches forward and backward, only moving the needle position slightly at each reversal to cover a wider area. You could do exactly the same thing with a straight stitch, just stitch forward and reverse, and shift the fabric slightly with each pass.

Here are the repairs.

And lastly, new buttons. I have a bunch of military surplus buttons, but they’re all forest cammy colors. Luckily, it doesn’t matter, because these are totally hidden, and anyway, I’m pretty sure the regs don’t mention anything about what color your buttons are. Besides, if someone is inspecting your fly, they’re way to close, even if it is your superior officer.

Little G, who will henceforth be known as "McScreamy" (at least until this phase of his passes) is growing too dang fast. Sewing is, of course, a byproduct of growing, so I made him some summer pants/shorts. The pattern description calls them "three-quarter length pants." Okay, fine. I used last summer’s Ottobre 3/2006, design #12, in size 80. That’s supposed to fit about a 30" tall baby.

*Quick note: Even though McScreamy is getting big enough for toddler sizes, I always use baby sizes because they have more diaper ease. Since he’s in cloth, that extra space is really important. When drafting my own patterns, I make sure to add plenty of extra ease in both the waist/hip and the crotch depth.*

I started these last night, and here’s how I left them at around 12:45 am (yes, I’ve fallen into a terrible habit of staying up very late to sew… where’s my 12 step program?)

The fabric is 100% cotton mid-weight canvas, which I picked up for
$2/yard in February. I washed it with another more blue piece which I
got at the same time, and the other piece bled all over everything, and
stained this one up pretty good. Even so, it just came out looking a
bit distressed.

*Another quick note: If anyone has any tips on how to wash cotton
canvas and twill without getting permanent creases in it, please let me
know! There are some spots that I just can’t press flat.*

Okay, so on to the pants. Is this not the cutest little cargo pocket you’ve ever seen? It’s certainly the cutest one I’ve ever made. It’s 4 inches wide and 4.5 inches tall. Just right for pebbles, farm animals, and gold fish crackers. I haven’t put any buttons or velcro on yet, and I’m not sure I will. I’ll let him wear them a while before I decide. If the flaps flap about too much, then I’ll do something.

Look, the pocket lining matches Miss O’s outfit! This is as "matching" as my kids get.

The pattern says to stitch the pleats at the top of the pocket, but I thought it would make it too hard for me to get MY hands in there to empty out "treasures" before I did laundry. I just pressed the pleats instead. I looked at the Man’s cammies, and some of his cargo pockets have stitched pleats, some don’t, and some have them stitched on one side only. Like all other aspects of the military, I was left rather befuddled… but anyway, back to these cute pockets.

You can see here the evidence of a very important lesson I’ve learned over and over again. If you’re going to topstitch something, make sure you have enough of the same color of thread. I started off with a BRAND NEW small spool of bright yellow thread, wound my bobbin, and happily started stitching away. About half way thru construction I realized my spool was starting to look sparse, so I started switching back and forth between khaki for seams and yellow for topstitching. Then the spool ran out, so I put the bobbin, which still had some yellow, on the spool post and used khaki in the bobbin. Then the rest of the yellow ran out, so I used khaki and finally off white to finish topstitching the waist elastic and hem. Moral: always buy the biggest spool of the color you need. In fact, buy three of them.

Another view of those adorable pockets. You can see the gusset here, and how I pressed them flat, sort of like a paper grocery bag.

Front view! I used 5/8" elastic, but I really think I should have gone with 1" elastic, since this fabric is pretty stiff. It doesn’t really look like it gathered up properly, all though it is the right size in the waist. It’s a little stretched on the hanger, too.

Back view! Look, (mostly) matched stripes! There’s a back yoke, too, and plenty of topstitching.   

Verdict: Hot damn, I’m good.

*A few hours later…

McScreamy woke up from his nap, so we tried these on. Obviously, the fit in the seat area is terrible, but it looks great everywhere else. I probably sliced off too much of the top edge when I serged on the elastic. No big deal. I’ll just pick out the elastic, then attach a waistband with elastic in it instead. That should give me at least another inch and a half, which should be just about right.  I’ll call it a design detail, and nobody will ever know, unless they read it here. I may even try to hit up the quilt shop for the right color thread, which will undo the "design detail" described a few photos above.

But just so we’re clear, those pockets are still totally cute, no matter how much diaper is sticking out.

Since the weather is heating up like crazy, it’s time to do some summer sewing for the kids. Thanks to tiny happy I found this excellent tutorial for a girl’s twirly skirt, and I tried it out. Erik’s step-mom brought me some wonderful retro-reproduction fabric the last time she was here, and Olga picked the blue piece with "Hey Diddle Diddle" on it.

I don’t really like how the gathered waist band feels, but it is very cute. The waist band is the full width of the skirt, so all the bulk is gathered up by the elastic, rather than some of the fullness being gathered into the waist band and the remainder taken up by the elastic. I doubt it’s the most comfortable on a little girl’s tummy, but she’s not complaining, so we’ll go with it for now. I need to shorten the drawstring considerably, since it’s long enough that she can wrap it around her neck (my fault, not a fault of the pattern).

The cute top is an interpretation of New Look 6476. The pattern calls for a facing along the top edge, which finishes the edges and makes a pretty contrast when the shoulders are tied, but I didn’t have any matching fabric in large enough quantities to pull it off. (Why is this always a problem–I have a ton of fabric, but never the piece I need!) So I bound the top edge with 1/4" double fold bias tape instead. I don’t really like the fit of the shirt, but it seems comfortable, and Miss O likes it. 

Construction wise, the outfit came out perfectly, but there are a couple things you might notice in person that aren’t quite right. First, the bias tape is "berry" not red, so it’s a bit darker than the red of the skirt. Not that big of a deal. The other thing is that when cutting out the red fabric for the skirt, I mis-read the instructions, and only cut one waist band piece, then cut out the drawstring. When I realized my mistake, there wasn’t enough red left to cut out another waistband piece, so I cut it out of something else, and it doesn’t match nearly as well (it’s this fabric, actually).

One of my most favorite customers (hi Kate!) send me a mohair sweater that she was sentimental about, and asked that it be made into something she could use. The sweater itself had accidentally gone through the wash, so was considerably fulled and very distorted. My apologies for the rather poor photos. I took them after midnight in my under-illuminated garage/studio.

Step One: This sweater has a "v" neck, so I cut the body of the sweater off at the base of the "v." For a crew neck sweater you can cut across at the underarms for a slightly deeper purse.

Step Two: As this sweater is fulled, but still has space between the stitches, I wanted to line it. I used a 23" souvenir scarf, because it was approximately the right size. This will keep whatever goes in the purse from getting covered in mohair, too, since this sweater still sheds rather profusely.

Step Three: With pins, outline a pleasing shape for the finished purse. I rounded the corners, because I intend to pleat the top edge when it’s done, and it will look more like a slouchy hobo bag this way.

Step Four: Machine sew and trim away the excess, leaving about 1/2" seam allowance. Turn right side out and steam the seams so they lay flat.

Step Five: Sew the side seams of the lining, then miter the corners. 

Step Six: You could just round the corners of the lining, just like for the
outside of the purse, but by mitering I still get a roughly equivalent
shape, and I don’t have to cut the fabric at all, so I don’t have to
worry about the rayon fraying. The mitered corners are soft enough that
they won’t be noticeable when the purse is assembled.

Step Seven: With wrong sides together, pin the lining into the sweater. The lining is slightly smaller than the sweater edge, so I’ll just ease the knit to the scarf as I sew. I don’t want the lining to show from the outside, so I’ve pinned it about an inch below the edge of the sweater.

Step Eight: I machine sewed the lining in place, because I intend to cover the stitching line with additional trim anyway, but you might prefer to hand stitch it in place.

Step Nine: I’m afraid I didn’t photograph the next few things very well, so I will do my best to explain.  I pleated each side to the center, and pinned it in place to check the effect. The top of the purse would have been much too wide, otherwise. I also found this beautiful ribbon in my stash, and sewed it on as a handle. I sewed vintage white rick rack around the top of the purse, directly over the lining stitching line. The rick rack stitching holds the pleats in place, too.

That’s it! I steamed the purse a final time, and now it’s done! Sentimental sweater revived, mission accomplished.