Sewing – Ruddy To Craft

Restyling Exchange 2019

Posted on June 22, 2019 by ruddymade

Last year I took part in the Restyling Exchange challenge hosted by @amynicolestudio and @pilar_bear and I had so much fun doing it. But this year I was extra excited when they announced the option of choosing our own partners. I obviously chose my friend, Erin, of Poetic Memory Sewing, who I’ve known since college.

I actually sent her something I made during our freshman year in college during one of my sewing classes but only wore once for the fashion show that served as our final exam and then never again. I chose the style because I knew those intricate pleats would get me an A if I executed them well even if the design didn’t exactly fit my style. I believe the pattern was from Vogue but I don’t remember the pattern number since it was so darn long ago.

I just love how she incorporated the pleats and was able to keep them completely intact. I also love that she used the sleeves to add godets to the side seams. This top is so comfortable and something I will get so much more wear out of now.

She even saved the main portion of the blouse for me because she thought it might still be wearable. There were some holes where she trimmed the pleating off but this was easily remedied with some patches that I covered up with lace trim. She felt bad about the holes she cut into the blouse but I think it was a happy accident because I probably wouldn’t have added the trim otherwise. I was also glad to finally find the perfect project to use these black antique buttons I got at a flea market on. They’re so much prettier than the plain red buttons I originally used. So this is my bonus refashion!

Now onto what I made for Erin…

Erin sent me this Liberty of London x J. Crew blouse that she had thrifted. I really wanted to incorporate some one yard off-cuts I had bought during one of Fab Scrap‘s Instagram flash sales since they were hosting their own refashioning challenge this month.

These were the three fabrics I had to choose from. It was a difficult choice because I was worried they all might be too much mixed with the Liberty of London fabric. So I played around with it until I finally decided on the polka dot/floral mixed print, which is what drove me to buy this pack to begin with. I just thought it was so pretty!

Having a dress form this year helped so much. It allowed me to test out my fabric choices before I settled on one and it was especially crucial in draping and fitting my garment.

I asked Erin for her nape to waist measurement and she said it was 16″. However, this seemed extremely long so I just used my dress form as a guide. I tied a ribbon around the blouse at the waist and marked it with safety pins to get my cut line. The straps/neck binding were done out of a Cotton + Steel remnant I had in my stash.

Then I used the extra fabric from the sleeves and what I cut off the bottom of the blouse and cut it all into 1″ strips to add a ruffle along the part of the skirt where it changes from purple to black. I thought this would help the top and the bottom look a little less disjointed.

I didn’t need nearly as many ruffles as I thought but since I had already cut all those strips and sewn them together, I thought I’d cut them into three even strips and turn them into a braided rag bowl. You can see how much was leftover in the picture to the right. Can you believe I was actually nervous I wouldn’t have enough for the ruffles in the beginning?!

And this is the finished look!

Doesn’t Erin look pretty?

Sewing

My Two Teahouse Dresses

Posted on April 24, 2019July 28, 2019 by ruddymade

I had been eyeing the Teahouse Dress pattern by Sew House 7 for some time before I finally bought it. By the time I finally got around to making it, I was on a hiatus from sewing in my own apartment because of a confrontation with our old downstairs neighbor that was the final straw in us deciding to move out of there. To scratch my sewing itch, I would go to Friday afternoon Social Sewing Time at Gotham Quilts and even went so far as to go to Open Sewing Night at Urban Sewciety, which was quite a trek from Queens but is a great place to meet up with my other New Jersey sewist friends, Hannah and Erin.

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The above photo is from Open Sew Night at Urban Sewciety. I believe this is where I began stitching this dress together but was a little distracted talking to my friends. (I also was constructing it off of my own intuition because it seemed that a lot of instructions were missing. It wasn’t until later that I remembered I had printed them out double sided 🤦‍♀️.) So it wasn’t until the princess seams were completely done that I realized I had forgotten to add the waist ties! This was a bit of a nuisance, especially since I had french seamed everything, but I’m glad I went back in and attached them correctly rather than trying to jimmy them on. I put the very last stitch into this dress during a Friday afternoon Social Sewing session at Gotham Quilts. While Open Sew at Urban Sewciety was free, Social Sewing Time at Gotham Quilts cost me about $25/ hour. I think I only went to two, two hour sessions and finished two projects in that time- this dress and an Ogden Cami. So although it was costly, it was very therapeutic to have somewhere safe to sew outside of my apartment during a very stressful time so I could actually enjoy myself and not feel like I was walking on egg shells in my own home.

CRA Dress 1

I was so excited when the poster for the movie Crazy Rich Asians came out. Not only because of what the film signified for the Asian community, but because the colors matched my dress perfectly! I posted this picture to Instagram the weekend it opened to celebrate. It was also the very same weekend To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before premiered on Netflix. It’s been so exciting for me as a 30- something Asian American woman to finally see Asians be represented in more diverse ways in film and television recently. Growing up, the only role model I had who looked like me was Michelle Kwan. Luckily, she was an amazing one to have (most decorated figure skater in US history- I still worship her to this day!) Kristi Yamaguchi was also a badass on the ice who I adored but I guess I related more to Michelle Kwan because she was younger. There was also Julie on Friends, but she was only around for two episodes! Finally, we got Lane Kim on Gilmore Girls but she was a supporting player! It’s so satisfying to finally see Asians star in things now.

I also broke out this dress to wear while walking around a garden during our trip to California. I just love this fabric so much! Nani Iro sure does know what she’s doing.

As much as I loved my first Teahouse Dress, I wanted a longer version as well because I loved the photos for this pattern on Sew House 7‘s website. I actually thought my first one would turn out longer and was a little disappointed when it didn’t, especially since I had plenty of fabric to do so. I guess that’s why people make toiles? But who has the time for that?! This dress is very easy to put together. The only gripe I had about my second attempt was how shifty this rayon fabric is! I held off on leveling the hem for a few days while it set and once I finally got around to doing it, it wasn’t that bad. But man, rayon is a pain to work with.

IMG_20190420_153502 I made this to wear in time for my friend’s bachelorette party in the Dominican Republic and then I bust it out to wear again to a friend’s wedding last weekend. I think I will now wear loose fitting dresses with waist ties to every wedding. I was able to eat as much as I wanted to and when my dress started to feel uncomfortable, I just loosened the tie 😂.

Sewing

Hooray for the Wiksten Haori!

Posted on April 15, 2019April 16, 2019 by ruddymade

I had been eyeing the Wiksten Haori pattern for some time but the steep price of $18 was holding me back. Finally I just bit the bullet and purchased it and I am so glad I did!

I had a little bit of trouble when attaching the collar to the jacket. It was a little too small and I had to let it out as much as I could to make it work. Even then, I still struggled to make it fit. I think it’s because the interfacing I used was too heavy. It calls for a lightweight fusible interfacing and I used medium weight because I didn’t read the directions before I bought it (whoops!) The only slip stitching called for in the instructions is around the sleeve hems, but I decided to slip stitch the lining to the collar also for a cleaner finish than top stitching it. It took so long but it was worth it. I find that top stitching things closed doesn’t always leave me satisfied with the results on the outside of the garment. I also added patch pockets to the lining in case I’m ever feeling in the mood to wear this with the blue side out.

The outer fabric is sage twill from Fab Scrap and the lining fabric is a Rag & Bone chambray from Mood Fabrics. Fab Scrap is a great company out in Brooklyn that collects dead stock fabric from fashion companies and re-sells it at a low cost to keep it from going to the landfill. I really admire what they’re doing and hope to get out there to volunteer one day. Volunteers receive five pounds of fabric in exchange for two and a half hours of work! So it’d be a great way to help out the environment and build your stash all at once. I just wish Brooklyn were a little closer…

This jacket has been perfect for Spring and I’ve worn it so many times already.

I wore it while perusing my local yarn stores during the NJ Wool Walk. Here I am holding a bag with my purchases from my favorite yarn shop, Yarnia. I also hit up The Local Yarn Store that weekend and it was so cute and had such a good selection of yarn. I definitely need to visit them again. #ShopSmall!

I also wore it to the Turtleback Zoo. I just love how comfortable and easy going this design is. It definitely fits my style because I am lazy and I do not like wearing tight fitting garments.

I do want to make a warmer one out of wool for the fall at some point but lately I haven’t felt the desire to buy much fabric. Yesterday I cleaned out and organized my scrap fabric and there is SO much of it! It makes me feel so guilty because I hate the thought of all of that fabric being dumped into the ocean. I’ve bagged up what I don’t think will ever be useful to bring to H&M to recycle. Hopefully they do actually recycle it…Fab Scrap also takes scrap fabric recycling to turn into shoddy for a small fee but their location in Brooklyn is just too far for me to travel to, especially with heavy bags of fabric. I’m hoping that once they open up their store front in Chelsea, they’ll accept scrap fabric recycling from there since that would be a little easier for me to get to.

Sewing

A Couple of Kalle Shirts for Shirt Month

Posted on April 1, 2019 by ruddymade

When Allie Olson of Indie Sew first announced this year’s Shirt Month back towards the end of January, I was excited to finally be pushed to make the Kalle Shirt. I had bought the pattern during Indie Sew’s Black Friday Sale two years ago but it just sat in a basket because I was too afraid to cut it out and also too lazy to trace it. Since January was also the first time I had found myself unemployed in over two years, it seemed like the perfect challenge to keep me distracted while I half-heartedly looked for new work and recovered from a stressful few months at the same time. I thought it was pretty humorous when Allie introduced the new fabrics she was stocking for shirt month the next day and one of them was pretty much identical to the fabric from my stash that I had planned on using. The only difference was that my fabric has that extra thin stripe running down and across it.

I traced out the size 6 and it took me so long. I usually don’t trace patterns and just cut into them because I just don’t want to deal with all that extra work. Sewing for other people for a living, I just want to get right to the fun stuff when it comes to myself. In the end, I’m glad I did trace it since now my original Kalle pattern is still intact and I will be able to make other sizes from it in the future. I also took the risk of cutting the pieces out of my fabric as I needed them because I just hate plaid matching so much and wanted to get straight to sewing, especially after spending so much time tracing the pattern. I was pretty sure I had enough fabric though so I wasn’t too worried.

This was my first time doing the burrito method. The first time, I made the silly mistake of not attaching the front pieces so I had just enclosed the shoulder seams of the outer and inner back yokes. When I was done, I was confused as to how the front pieces get attached. So I referenced the sew along on Closet Case Patterns‘ website, said “duh!” to myself and then got it right on the next try.

After that, it was on to the side seams! I french seamed them because I like my homemade garments to look as neat as possible on the inside when I have the time and motivation to do so.

I didn’t realize there was a front and back piece to the sleeve cuffs and only traced and cut out the back cuff piece so it was huge! And I didn’t realize why until I was done. So I kept taking it in until it fit. So it’s a little awkward around there but I think it still looks fine. I also cut the cuffs out on the bias because, again, I hate pattern matching.

And as much as I hate pattern matching, I love that inverted back pleat!

I actually finished a second Kalle Shirt while I waited for some wooden buttons from Arrow Mountain to finish my first one. This one went so much quicker and smoother since I had just gone through the trials and errors of making it the first time. I lengthened both of them by 3″ and wish I had lengthened them just a little more since I don’t like my shirts to be too short. The original cropped length the pattern comes as DEFINITELY would have been too short for me and I am SHORT!

I love this floral Rifle Paper Co. fabric so much. It feels so luxurious when I wear this shirt. I know so many places carry Rifle Paper Co. fabrics but I got mine from Sew Jersey because I like to support small NJ businesses as much as I can, it being my home state and all. The little buttons are from Yarnia, my favorite local yarn store.

I wore my floral Kalle shirt to the bookstore and I think it goes pretty well with the wood of the shelves I’m standing in front of.

Here I am wearing my plaid Kalle shirt. I had been saving it to wear for the first time to my friend The Rambling Rosie‘s Easter themed get together. I even attempted dyeing an Easter egg to match my shirt. How’d I do?

Sewing

Christmas Gifts 2018

Posted on December 30, 2018 by ruddymade

Christmas is always my busiest time of year. While I enjoy the holidays, my work schedule always makes it hard to fit in celebrating. So I like to spend little bits and pieces throughout the year making gifts for my family as my own way of enjoying Christmas all throughout the year. Here is a summary of what they all received this year…

This was the year of the sock. Back in August, Fancy Tiger Crafts announced a knit-along for a sock pattern called the Basecamp Socks. I had always wanted to knit socks but was always too afraid to try because I heard they were complicated. Someone in the comments section of their Instagram post asked if it was a good pattern for beginners and they said yes. So I decided to dive right in because I thought a knit-along would be a good motivator. Though it was a little tricky at first I am now addicted to knitting socks and most of my family members received socks as gifts this year. The red pair went to my mom. The beige pair went to my dad. And I gave the purple pair to my sister-in-law as part of my baby shower gift.

I also knit my mom this Pre-Wrapped Wrap by Purl Soho out of Lily Sugar N’ Cream yarn. I like the idea of wearing this over dresses at special events when it’s chilly out so I may have to make one for myself at some point.

I made a Linden Sweatshirt out of some of this peach print jersey I had leftover at the beginning of the year and set it aside for my sister-in-law. I also made her the Lil’ Foxy Roxy scarf in Lipstick Red by Wool and the Gang. It was a much brighter color than I had anticipated, more like a hot pink than red, but I still think it’s pretty.

My sister received an Oversized Infinity Scarf designed by Krysten Ritter for We Are Knitters and (surprise, surprise) a pair of Basecamp Socks in some yarn I got from my local knitting shop, Yarnia.

My brother is an avid runner. He’s run the NY Marathon TWICE now and got his name in the NY Times both times afterwards! So I made him this drawstring bag using a tutorial from Purl Soho so that he could pack his shoes in it when he travels for races and not get his clothes dirty because I’m a germophobe and I think about that kind of stuff. I also included a gift card to Running Warehouse and a booked entitled “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” to keep the whole gift running themed. I’ve never actually read that book myself so fingers crossed it’s good! You can read about his running adventures at Rich Moy Runs.

For my nieces and nephew, I made them these blankets using all fabric from JoAnn, except the green plaid, which I had to order from Amazon at the last minute because the fabric I originally purchased wasn’t wide enough. *Shaking My Head.* I also thought the Minnie and Daisy fabric was flannel but it turned out to be fleece so it was much thicker to sew through than I was intending it to be but I guess that’s what I get for ordering things at 6:00 in the morning and not reading product descriptions carefully! Oh well. They’ll just be extra warm this winter.

I made my newest nephew this teddy bear using a pattern from Purl Soho and a Wiksten Animal Bonnet out of yarn that is also from Purl Soho. I CANNOT WAIT to see the little guy wear that hat. I’m hoping one day he’ll look at all the pictures and say to us, “You all really took the fox theme too far.”

My aunts and uncles all received these wash cloths I made using a pattern from Purl Soho out of Lily Sugar N’ Cream yarn and these adorable soaps from Anthropologie.

Lastly, I wrapped my mom’s and sister-in-law’s gifts in these reusable drawstring bags I made and I hope they’ll reuse them again next year to cut down on using wrapping paper. I think they look so cute and once the bags are done they actually make wrapping things so much easier. (You should have seen Kevin trying to wrap an oddly packaged toy kitten for our niece!)

Phew! Summing it all up here, it doesn’t seem like that much but I have to remind myself that this all took me almost a year to plan and execute. Homemade gifts are a lot of work but I find them so much more satisfying than buying a bunch of stuff from big box stores. I probably won’t be able to keep this kind of homemade gift giving up forever, but it’ll be fun to do while I can.

…Now what to make for next year….?

Sewing

Mini Moy Baby Gift Roundup

Posted on November 9, 2018 by ruddymade

When I found out my brother and sister-in-law were expecting a baby, I couldn’t wait to get started on making gifts for them. Their Pinterest board was full of woodland creature themed decor so I went onto Fabric.com and searched for “woodland creature fabric” and loaded up my cart with everything that I thought might look good together. Then I edited it down and the above photo features what I finally decided on.

I’m not really a quilter. The only other quilt I’ve ever made was a crazy quilt back in sewing class sophomore year of high school. So this may not be the most conventional way to choose fabrics for a quilt, but it is the lazy (and too excited to get started) woman’s way of choosing quilting fabric. The fabrics I chose were:

Dear Stella For Fox Sake Mixed Animals Peyote
Art Gallery Hello Bear Buck Forest Silver
Art Gallery Hello Bear Oh, Hello Fog
Dear Stella Cold Comfort Woodland Dreams Multi
Michael Miller House of Hoppington Frolic Fog
Dear Stella Stay Wild Animal Vignettes White
Cotton + Steel Magic Forst Squirrels Neutral
Dear Stella Stay Wild Fox Bunny Floral Skylight

I brought my quilt top to Gotham Quilts in NYC for them to do the quilting on their long arm machine because, again, I was too lazy and excited to get it done.

I love the fabric I used for the backing of this quilt. I originally ordered it from Miss Matatabi last Black Friday with intentions of making a Fen Dress out of it. But once I received it in the mail, I felt like it was too perfect to make a baby blanket out of and stashed it away. Little did I know my brother and sister-in-law would be making their announcement only a few months later!

I was actually working on this very quilt the day our downstairs neighbor (who played loud music at all times of the day) came storming up to our apartment and told me I “couldn’t” have my sewing machine anymore. We moved out a month later. So I guess this baby has already changed our lives for the better!

My sister-in-law had pinned a Boppy Pillow slip cover from Etsy with fabric I recognized from JoAnn. So I offered to make it because I knew it would be much cheaper if I did. Then I realized that that fabric was sold out on their website but I think this Robert Kaufman fabric is much cuter anyway. I used a pattern I found online to make it but I can’t find where I got it from for the life of me! Luckily there’s so many tutorials on how to make these online if you just search “boppy pillow cover pattern.” For some reason, I just can’t locate the exact pattern I used. I do remember the blog post stated that it would need to be fit and adjusted to the pillow so I had it sent to my apartment so that I could fit my new cover over it instead of having it sent directly to the mom and dad-to-be.

One of the images on my sister-in-law’s Pinterest board had the most beautiful embroidery hoops with different animals on them. I am not the best at drawing, so I ordered a kit to make these hoops from TataSol on Etsy. I’m very bad at checking dimensions on things before I order them. So I was surprised at how small these were when I received them in the mail (about 2″ in diameter) but I think being so tiny makes them even more adorable.

And last but not least, a pair of hand knit socks for the my sister-in-law because the mom-to-be deserves a homemade gift as well! She is doing most of the heavy lifting, after all! (Sorry, brother!) These are my own two feet modelling the socks because there was a knit-along going on for this sock pattern (the basecamp socks by Kaylee Lockhart) hosted by Fancy Tiger Crafts and I wanted to share them before it ended on September 25th. The best part is that the pattern is free on their website!

And there you have it! I was glad to have these projects to keep me busy while we anticipate the arrival of my future niece or nephew. Thankfully, work will be busy for the next couple of months to distract me because time always goes seems to go so much slower when you’re excited about something!

Sewing

Striped Chambray Tamarack Jacket

Posted on October 24, 2018October 24, 2018 by ruddymade

I had had my eye on the Tamarack Jacket by Grainline Studio for a while because I still wore my old North Face fleece jacket from college when the weather turned cool in the Fall and I wanted something more adult looking. Thankfully Jen Beeman, the owner of Grainline Studio, announced a new sew-along for this pattern to give me the push I needed to finally make it. The quilting took me the longest and my lining seized up a little bit underneath in the process, so I think next time I make this jacket I’ll cut the lining pieces out slightly larger than the outer fabric.

It all still worked out in the end though. Look how pretty this fabric by Kelly Ventura for Windham Fabrics is?! I love her artwork so much and was so excited to come across this fabric at Michael Levine Fabrics on our vacation to California. While the quilting was the most time consuming part of this project, the welt pockets were the most difficult. I can’t believe in all my years of sewing, I’ve never done a welt pocket! They came out alright though. On my first attempt, I hadn’t sewn far enough past the welt and had to go back and stitch a little further so my corners are a little awkward. Next time I need to double check my markings! I think my they were off on my lining since it had seized up during the quilting process.

We had the perfect weather for this jacket a couple of weeks ago when we went to Greenwood Gardens to celebrate our wedding anniversary. I love the snaps that I had installed by Nancy at Steinlauf & Stoller. They look so professionally done and I didn’t have to run the risk of ruining my new jacket in the last hour! Better yet, Nancy kept complimenting my jacket when I brought it to her which made me feel really good. I bet she looks at things like this all day so she probably knows her stuff, right? I also followed some tips I read on Instagram before making my jacket and made the sleeves a little longer so I could cuff them and show off that beautiful lining fabric.

And here I am flashing you! Underneath I am wearing another one of Grainline Studio’s great patterns, the Linden Sweatshirt. I think I have about a half dozen of them because I’m so obsessed. Next time I make this jacket, I’ll probably use flannel to line it for more warmth. While I love this one, it’s already gotten a little too cold where I live to wear it so it’ll probably be more of a Spring jacket.

Even though I’ve finished my jacket, I’m still loving following the hashtag for the sew-along. Search #TamarackSociety to see some other amazing Tamarack Jackets!

(And if you want some of that chambray fabric for yourself, I bought mine in the NY Garment District but I came across some on sale at Miss Matatabi as well!)