Tutorial: Adding a Pocket to Your Loulouxe!

Remember how I said I’d write a tutorial? Well, here it is!!

Find Pattern Piece C (Skirt Back) and make it a full-sized pattern piece. As it is, it’s an “on the fold” piece. Make sure and mark your center line because that will be important later.

Find a piece of fabric that is larger than the pattern piece.

I used a 12-14” invisible zipper. You could also use a regular ol’ zipper too. Figure out where you want the zipper. You probably want it somewhere toward the top but do not go so high that you get right next to the seam allowances.
 

Eyeball where you want the opening to be and make a nice, straight cut across the entire length of the fabric piece.

This is where a ruler and rotary cutter are nice. Right now you are just eyeballing it. We’ll get precise later once the zipper is in.

Install your zipper. Since I used an invisible zipper, I used my invisible zipper foot to install it.  I did not use any interfacing but this knit is pretty stretchy but also stable.

Same thing but from the back.

Here’s where we start getting precise. On your pattern piece, draw a perpendicular line where you want your zipper. Take your full pattern piece and put it on top of your pieced fabric.

Now line up both edges of this horizontal line with your zipper. This ensures that your zipper opening will be straight across horizontally.

Once you think everything is lined up, cut out your piece. Make you DO NOT CUT OFF YOUR ZIPPER TOP! You will probably need to unzip your fabric piece BEFORE you cut to avoid doing that.

Cut out a second piece of fabric that will go behind your zippered piece. You can see here I basted my zipper opening closed. Otherwise, there is a the very real possibility that you will forget there is no zipper stop and pull your zipper head right off. Don’t do that, it’s annoying.

Baste the two layers together and treat them as one piece for the remainder of the construction process. My serger dislikes going over plastic zipper tape, so I always also go over this seam with my sewing machine to make sure those stitches won’t come out. Also, if you are using a metal zipper you SHOULD NOT sew over it. You need to remove the zipper teeth.

Here’s my skirt partially constructed. The only double layer is the one piece. Assemble the rest as stated in the directions! See? It’s EASY!!

A Trifecta of Jalies

I have a race on Friday. It’s only a 12k but I wanted to be coordinate-y for it. I made three new Jalies because of it. (And because I CAN.) The first is the Pika Sports bra/top. I love the shape of the front yoke and I love that it’s fully lined. No pesky seams on the inside to rub on you. The second is the new Loulouxe running skirt. I can’t telly ou how much I love this skirt. The fun flirty shape!! The pockets!! The fit!! I made one more piece but I’ll talk about that below.

 

The dark red is a wicking Supplex. The print is a wicking poly blend. I love these colors together!

 

See how the inside is fully lined?? Love it!!!

 

 

Here’s the back of the sports bra. I really love it!

 

The inside of the skirt has a pair of shorts. There are optional pockets and I added two to my pair.

 

The pockets are really nice and I can put my iPhone in there with it’s annoying grabby LifeProof case.

 

You can tell when something is in my pocket because I get weird thigh lumps. But I would rather have that than some crap I have to carry in my hands.

 

I also added a huge, rear, zippered pocket. I wouldn’t but anything heavy in here because it would bounce around. But sometimes, like tomorrow, you need an ID, a credit card, and a car key and you don’t want to worry about them falling out of another pocket. I’m going to write a post in a day or two to show you people how to add your own pocket too.

 

My third piece is the new Jalie Valerie. This is a form fitting raglan. I wanted something that would keep me warm on race day. (My dog is a stalker and always wants to be WITH ME. When I go to the bathroom and open the door? SHE’S RIGHT THERE. If I go in another room? SHE FOLLOWS ME.)

 

I added fun contrast to the seam lines.

 

The fit is great. Duh. It’s a Jalie! I could always do a swayback alteration but I never do. I could probably do it easily with these side seams.

 

 

This is THE MOST luscious poly/spandex double brushed knit. It’s so cozy and soft.

 

I used a zig zag stitch that is decorative and utilitarian. It’s not the normal zig zag either, it’s the double zig zag because I wanted it to actually show up on this fabric.

 

All in all? I’m super happy with my new running outfit!!!

Hot Patterns DISASTER - Weekender Cargo Pants

I don’t enjoy writing bad reviews. In fact, I would much rather just pretend nothing happened and never write about this. But then, I would feel bad about other people buying this pattern. I had such high hopes. I love the casual styling, I love the topstitching, the pockets are fun, I love the pockets that form the belt casing. It could have been a great pattern. I would have enjoyed the topstitching and the pockets. Alas, it was not meant to be.

 

 

First, the crotch height is um, high. Like, the highest draft I’ve ever seen. This almost reached to the bottom of my bra. I don’t understand it. At all. How can the draft be this high? Can you see the faint white chalk marks where the rear pockets go? The pocket flap would start on my back!!

 

Look, you can actually see the bottom of my black and white sports bra. The top of the pants go way above my ribs. And the seam allowances are 3/8” on this pattern. Even if you took that into account, the height on these is crazy.

 

So then I had an ah-ha moment. Maybe it’s NOT the pattern. Maybe I need to make a larger size? And pull them down more?? Maybe my hips are not letting the fabric settle down where it should be? So I loosened the pins holding the CF together and ended up with the weirdest low, pointy crotch ever. No, it’s not me. It’s definitely the pattern. When it is pulled up to rib-ville, the crotch curve actually fits okay. At least, it really felt like that is where it is supposed to be.

 

On the plus side, I used crappy muslin fabric and didn’t spend too much time on this.

Anyone want to buy a pattern? I won’t be using it. I bought it because I love my Jalie Vanessa pants (which I’m wearing right now) and thought these might be similar. Hahahhahahahahhaa. Maybe, instead, I will add the details I like (the pieced and topstitched legs and the large pockets) to my Jalie pants instead. They never let me down. The Hot Patterns tally is 1 for 2 now. I have one more pattern to try out. Oh, and I did email Hot Patterns last week about the missing pattern piece on my HP t-shirt. No response. It’s been a week.

Jalie 3350–Swimsuits

You are probably bored by the swimsuits by now. I make a lot of them. Little people keep growing. Darn the little people!!! This is two more versions of Jalie 3350 which is one of my favorite one-piece swimsuit patterns.

 

On the blue/orange version, I had a black accent piece cut out. But then I forgot to put it on the bodice when I sewed the top bodice to the bottom bosice. Oops. Dammit. I wasn’t going to go back and rip it out just to add it again.

 

These are size O. The girls have a bit of a swayback issue (what’s in the cat is in the kittens!) which I could easily fix (I’m just lazy). One thing I did that I think is clever (go me!) is that I took the too-long straps and sewed them to the CB seam allowance. My hope is that these will last long enough that I can add more length if I need to. Probably the material will die before then, but you never know!

Another Jalie winner. Hell, they are all winners!

Hot Patterns: Riviera Once, Twice, Three Times a T-Shirt

The other day I bought three Hot Pattern patterns and I finally had a chance to sew one of them up. And you know what? I love both versions I made. I would love to make up the third version but I think I’ll need a thicker knit.

Here was my first version. On this version, I made the “regular” t-shirt and added the armbands to make the sleeves a little longer. I put the sleeve band on the cross grain for a little stripe fun. This knit is really thin and was a bit hard to sew. This pattern uses facings which I interfaced. This is a true boat-neck and the neckline is just a straight line between the shoulders. I found the neckline to be wide so I sewed the neckline seam about 1/2” more narrow on each side. This wasn’t quite enough and my bra strap shows. I have one criticism with this top. There is no pocket pattern piece on the pattern sheets. Okay, I have a second one. There is also no pocket placement line on the t-shirt. This is EXACTLY the type of thing I struggle with; the “correct” dimension on a pocket and where to put it. It is those small details that really makes something look homemade versus professional. So, no pocket for me. I may email them and ask about it.

 

I’m not in love with the facings but I think it may be the best way to deal with this type of neckline. Overall, it’s a win. Pooling above the butt because of my prominent ba-donk-a-donk.

 

This is version #2. I’m in love with this version. I narrowed the neckline down a little bit more than the first version. I ended up making the neckline 1” more narrow on each side. This width is about perfect for me.

 

Look at those sleeves! I had to laugh when The Sewing Lawyer put up a post recently about the stupidity of bell sleeves. I couldn’t agree more. This has the fun of a bell sleeve but with functionality. I CAN eat when I am wearing it!

 

This top is designed to be about 2” longer than the plain t-shirt. I like this length better than the other one.

 

I left the sleeves unhemmed and it will be fine in this fabric. Overall, I’m in love with this floral version.

 

I kind of wish I had made it a dress. I don’t think there would have been enough fabric for that though.

So far my experience with Hot Patterns has been one for one. We’ll see if the streak keeps up. I have the pants on the table right now so we’ll see how those fit. Oh, and for the record, my measurements fit into the size 8 and I made a size 8 with no alterations and things fit well. I didn’t even add length which I almost always do.