Jalie 3881 - Rose - Sleeveless Button-Up Top

Okay, you guys know I'm all Jalie Fangirl, but I love this pattern, It's hot right now and I'm dying. Remember that I'm an Alaskan girl, so when I'm dying of heat, it's like 65 degrees. Anyway, DYING of heat lately. This is a loose, button-down (button-up??) woven top. It's a very simple design but with small details I love and a perfect Jalie fit. I made my standard size S. I love the regular, non-ruffle version for myself and the ruffle and bow version for my girls. I think it would be a great work shirt too to wear under a cardigan or sweater with the shirt tails peeking out.

I made my version out of a mystery poly (rayon?) woven. There is a ReMade store close to me which is basically a really cool Goodwill. It is local people donating local goods, and then local artists re-make them into awesome things. You can find lots of "need a little love" items to fully created art pieces. I love to go in there and look around. I've found a lot of great fabric there. This fabric seems to have birds (I like to think of them as bats) on a blue, green, and pink background. The drape is perfect for this pattern. 

I added my standard 1" above the bust (without disrupting the armholes) and the fit is perfect. I love the pleat in the back, the shirt tail hem, and the ever-so-slight hi-low hem. On this pattern, there are no darts for shaping. The only shaping comes from the side seams. 

I used small, pink 11mm buttons. Although, on these pictures, they look white. I never put a button on the collar stand because I never button my shirts up that high. See? Bats, totally bats. 

And, of course, when my kids are helping me take pictures, they pose me in all sorts of ridiculous ways. 

B: Mom! Take the cat! The cat wants to be famous. 

C: Mom, why are your arms all veiny and weird and stuff?

Me: It's SO HOT. 

C: What?? It's not hot. You're weird. 

B: Mom, why is your mouth open in every photo you take? 

Me: Touche, B, touche. 

(I'm wearing this top with my new Jalie linen shorts. I really love them and they go with everything!)

Here is the kid version I made for my little twinny. It's SO CUTE in this floral cotton voile. Although, it does mean I'll have to iron it, but maybe that's okay for a shirt this cute. 

Don't you love the fabric? And the ruffle bow tie? Although, I had the hardest time making a good bow. I finally had to watch a YouTube video on how to do it. 

Cute, eh??

Jalie 3355 Times Two

My twins are always in need of cozy, snuggly, warm sweatshirts. I love this Jalie pattern and I've used it so many times. I'm sure it's in the 30's by now. This time, I made them one size too big and added four inches to the length so they are more tunic-y length. I think they'll be perfect over leggings, which is their pant of choice at the moment. 

I couldn't resist adding a little bling to them. On the red/pink sweathshirt knit, I added a blue silk woven X to the front. I added decorative stitching to the sides to attach it to the front. I got this inspiration from the most current Ottobre kids magazine. 

On the second sweatshirt, I added a little orange rhinestone bling to the front and shoulder. This is a hard fabric to photograph. It's little darker and warmer than this picture. This is the same fabric as this Ottobre tunic. I didn't do the hood only because I didn't have enough fabric. 

I've talked about these before here. They are plastic rhinestones attached to this mesh and they are so easy to add. Plus, they are indestructible. 

I wanted to show you my little helpers. This is a small room with a lot of stuff in it. Why is it, when I'm in here, that BOTH furry creatures need to be in here too? Why can't they sleep outside the door?? The cat mostly leaves my stuff alone now and just sleeps on this dresser. Sometimes, though, the serger threads are too tempting and she gets "invited" to leave the room. 

Birthday Gifts for Twinsies

So my twin Little People will have a birthday soon and, as per tradition, they each asked me to sew a special something for them. They both love jackets and so each went through my patterns and found something they thought they would like. One of them adores my floral bomber but wanted something a little more flashy. The other one wanted a tough moto-jacket.

For the bomber, I used my trusted Jalie 3675 Charlie jacket. For the moto-jacket, I used an Ottobre pattern from 2016 (it’s 04-2016 #29 in size 140).
 

Since The Cousin was in town, she got to try on the jackets and be the model for the day. The twinsies still haven’t seen these but I need to wrap them before they find them. The Cousin is about the same size as the twins so she’s the perfect model.

I used a lace overlay with no stretch and put it on top of a black wool. The back is just the black wool. I figured that it needed some stretch so I didn’t do the flashy red, lace, sequin fabric on the back.

I attached this red lace to the wool by topstitching the woven with red thread.

One thing I wanted to show people is how  made a zipper stop. When you use a metal zipper you can take off and reposition the metal stopper. When you use a plastic zipper, you can’t really move the stopper without breaking it off. So, instead, I used the skinny zigzag on my machine. I made it fit in the area between the zipper teeth and the edge of the fabric. Then I reversed once or twice to make a hump.

Next I made this Ottobre moto jacket. I really like how it turned out. It took me a LOT of time with the padded, quilted arm patches, shiny bling, topstitching, and the waistband. I used a sweatshirt fleece with zero stretch. It’s really cozy on the inside though.

So much topstitching on this. I used a light violet and did my triple stitch so it would really show up.

The inside of the elbow has a piece of Warm and Natural and another piece of the main fabric.

I used a sew-on snap on the collar.

I love how the inside is finished on this jacket. The deep hem is folded up and topstitched.

I really, really, really like how this jacket turned out. I’m really excited! I hope they love their jackets as much as I loved making them.

Scrap Bin Busting!

Don’t you love using up scraps? My scrap bin was overflowing so I took the opportunity to use some of the scraps to whip up two Jalie Marie-Claude shirts for my twins. They are almost 11, but measure more in the eight or nine size range. I typically make them a smaller size and add length. For this pattern, I made the size N and added an inch to the torso and the arm length. For both patterns, I made the slouchy neckline and the arms with thumbholes. The black and white fabric is from this Jalie dress. The tie-dye blue fabric is from this modified Jalie top.

I love that the back neckline piece is pieced. You could add some fun color back there.

The crazy print is from this Jalie Bella dress. The solid-ish (it is actually flecked with bright orange) blue is just in my bin. I don’t remember ever using it before so I have no idea where it came from. It matches the crazy print perfectly though.

Here you can just barely see the flecks in the blue fabric.

They are in love with their kitty.

So much happiness with pets!

The shirt in action at the park.