Search Results for: mandy

Another Mandy Boat Tee

Dani Malloy5 Comments

Mandy tessuti boat tee

When a pattern’s pretty near perfect, why stop at making it twice? This striped number is my third Tessuti Mandy Boat Tee (with a color-blocked fourth one in the works). I went the same route with this one as I did with my cream-colored french terry version, keeping 1/2″ sliced off the pattern’s side seams. I forgot to shorten the sleeves, which I might go back and do since these are just a tiny bit tight below the elbows.

Mandy tessuti boat tee

The fabric is a buttery soft bamboo-lycra blend from Girl Charlee. I’m going to go ahead and say that this is the softest goddamn fabric I have ever worn. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a striped knit with plenty of stretch.

And that’s that! Since I’ve already written about this pattern, let’s move on to one of the many projects in my queue:

MorrisSideModel

The Morris Blazer! This pattern is fresh off the presses from Grainline Studio. It’s an unlined blazer designed for stretch wovens and stable knits, and I am SO EXCITED to sew this up for my spring and summer wardrobe. My mom commented that Hong Kong seams would be perfect for finishing the center back seam allowances, and I totally agree. I’m excited to test that technique on some scraps and then eventually try it with Morris.

What’s in your queue?

two tessuti mandy boat tees

Tessuti Mandy Boat Tee x2

Dani Malloy2 Comments

The concept of one-size-fits-all is kind of insane. In the real world, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants–style magic does not exist. Most one-size items leave us wondering: Will this look like a cute shift dress or a muumuu? Is it a crop top or an accidental underboob tank? This Buzzfeed pictorial, “This Is What One Size Fits All Actually Looks Like on All Body Types,” does a pretty good job of debunking the one-size-fits-all myth. Some garments fare much better than others, but not one piece of clothing got a universal thumbs up from the women in the testing group.

Naturally, I was a little wary when I came across my first one-size-fits-all sewing pattern. But the beauty of sewing, rather than buying, a one-size-fits-all garment is that you can alter the pattern however the hell you want! Lengthen, shorten, take in the side seams, deepen the neckline, whatever. I’m so glad I took the leap (can I call it a leap if the pattern was free?) and sewed up that Hemlock Tee. It was only a matter of time before the Tessuti Mandy Boat Tee—also *free*—found its way to my cutting table floor.

The pattern is essentially two rectangles and a couple of slim-fitting sleeves. Its boat neckline renders it even less time consuming than the Hemlock Tee because there’s no neckband binding involved. The pattern just calls for you to fold the front and back neck hems down 5/8″ and finish them with a twin needle, which is also how you finish the bottom hem and sleeves. This is such a quick, satisfying sew that I ended up making two Mandies within days of one other.

tessuti mandy boat tee

mandy tessuti boat tee

Mandy Boat Tee #1

Fabric: micro french terry knit in cream; $4.98/yard from Fabric.com (sold out)

Alterations: Cut off 1/2″ from the armhole and side seam edge of the front and back pattern pieces; lengthened the body about 1/2″; shortened the arms (after sewing it up and trying it on)

Tessuti posted a gorgeous Missoni-style boat tee on their blog, and that post recommended lengthening the arms if you lopped inches off the side seams. I did that, but I ended up cutting a couple inches off the arms anyway, since I like the look of above-the-elbow sleeves with this variation. The arms are pretty snug, but they fit me perfectly even after a day of wear. If you are jacked, you might want to widen the arms accordingly.

tessuti mandy boat tee

tessuti mandy boat tee

tessuti mandy boat tee

Mandy Boat Tee #2 (a very looooong tee)

Fabric: tissue french terry knit in teal; $4.98/yard from Fabric.com

Alterations: Cut off another 1/2″ from the armhole and side seam edge of the front and back pattern pieces (for a total of 1″ cut off); lengthened the body 4.5″

I wasn’t sure about the color of this fabric when I first opened my package from Fabric.com, but I have to admit that it’s grown on me. I’m about 10 shades paler than I am in the summer, and somehow this teal doesn’t make my sickly winter olive skin look green. As for the fit, this is probably the most comfortable T-shirt I own. I wanted to make a something that I could wear with leggings around the house, and it totally fits the bill (though the fabric wrinkles like crazy!). I’m not sure if this shirt is versatile enough to wear out yet, since it doesn’t completely cover my buns and I am of the camp that refuses to reveal my legging-clad derrière unless I’m in running tights. That said, I could see pairing this with a borderline pair of leggings—you know, those ones that are super thick and opaque and can almost pass as pants. We’ll see about that one.

grainline studio archer button up

Next up for me is Grainline’s Archer Button Up! I’m excited to work with a woven material again and learn some things about shirt-making along the way. The steps seem a little daunting to me right now, but I’m planning on following Jen’s sew-along for extra help. If anyone has any tips on conquering the perfect Archer, hit me!

grainline studio tamarack front

Grainline Tamarack Jacket

Dani Malloy4 Comments

When I first started blogging about my clothes (in 2013!), I’d try to get a post up pretty soon after I snipped the last thread. That often meant snapping ill-lit photos in a dirty mirror, using my phone’s timer to take poorly composed photos inside my apartment, or nicely asking Marc to snap a couple pics on the way to dinner. (The latter always yielded the best results.)

The point? I cared less about quality and more about showing my makes to the world as soon as humanly possible. Nowadays, I’m lucky if I blog about a sewing project within a month or two of finishing. Sure, I give sneak peeks on Instagram, but something (freezing Chicago weather, work, social life, laziness) usually gets in the way.Read More »

Tessuti Ruby Top in Mustard Linen

Dani Malloy2 Comments

Tessuti ruby top

Remember when cutaway necklines starting cropping up a few years ago? I’ve always liked the look, but the bra situation can be dire. Standard bras are out, since the straps peek out in both the front and the back. I avoid strapless bras like the plague unless one is absolutely necessary. For now, I settled on pairing this top with a racerback bralette bought from Gap Body god only knows when.

Tessuti Ruby top

Bra-talk aside, I am thoroughly pleased with this pattern: the Ruby Dress/Top from Tessuti Fabrics. This is the second Tessuti pattern I’ve sewn—the first being the Mandy Boat Tee. The directions were yet again straightforward and easy to follow, and the cut of the pattern is modern and flattering, probably on a variety of shapes. Here are the deets:

Fabric: mustard linen blend from JoAnn fabrics; leftover dark-gray linen for the binding

Size: cut an AU size 10. The units are in cm, so a 10 roughly corresponds to 35.8″-31″-39.8″ bust-waist-hip measurement. I decided to go with the bust measurement as my guide, since the top slightly flares at the hemline. It’s a teensy bit big, but the style’s so forgiving that a little extra width doesn’t make a huge difference.

Alterations to the pattern: added 1″ of length to the bottom hem

Tessuti ruby top facing

Construction: I followed the pattern’s directions for the French seams, double-turned hem, keyhole facing, and thread-chain-loop closure. Tessuti has a helpful tutorial on its website for those of us who haven’t sewn a thread loop before. Sewing one reminded me of the hours I used to spend making friendship bracelets that were no doubt lost or thrown away after a week. Oh to be a fickle adolescent again.

Tessuti Ruby Top back

I strayed from the directions in two places: stabilizing and binding. I couldn’t find tearaway Vilene shields (used to prevent the neckline and armholes from stretching), so I just staystitched those edges. It seemed to work fine. As for the binding, the pattern instructs you to apply the binding to the right side and then stitch in the ditch to secure. I REALLY HATE stitching in the ditch, so I took a tip from the Thornberry blog, which suggests applying the binding to the wrong side and then topstitching in place on the right side. That worked great for me! It’s the same technique used in the Colette Sorbetto top, and I once again used Colette’s trusty tutorial for making continuous bias tape.

Tessuti Ruby top

One of my favorite things about wearing linen (blends) is that you don’t have to worry about wrinkles. It’s the one fabric where massive wrinklage is expected. (We all know wrinklage should be a word so let’s just accept it.) I’d be wary of anyone who wears linen without having it become a creased mess. There’s probably some Stepford shit going on there if that’s the case.

And that’s that! Ruby in linen gets a big thumbs up from me. Have you sewn any Tessuti patterns lately? I’d love to hear about any favorites!

Thoughts on Me Made May 2015

Dani Malloy4 Comments

So, Me Made May 2015 has come and gone. What did I learn? To respect the almighty #mmm15 hashtag and its inspiring bounty of outfits. That I have a uniform and it consists of a boxy T-shirt, long necklace, and jeans. That a mere year ago, I didn’t understand the importance of “finishing” the guts of a garment. Whoopsies.

me made may 2015
The four most popular makes, according to Instagram likes. Clockwise from upper left: modified Scout Tee, french terry Mandy Boat Tee, jersey Mandy Boat Tee, split-hem Linden Sweatshirt

It’s been a pretty revelatory month. My goal for the challenge was to wear one me-made garment five days per week. In reality, I wore one (and sometimes two!) me-made garments 24 out of 31 days. I’d say that’s a goal achieved!

Here are my top takeaways from this year’s Me Made May:

  1. Taking a daily outfit pic is exhausting. For those of us who don’t revel in posting #OOTD snaps on Instagram, taking bathroom selfies or forcing a loved one to take yet another boring outfit photo gets old real quick. The founder of MMM makes it clear that the challenge isn’t about daily pictures, but it kiiiind of seems like par for the course.
  2. I should make more bottoms. I wore me made bottoms five times throughout the challenge: a half-circle skirt three times and Hudson Pants twice. Looks like I’ll bump a skirt and pair of Maritime shorts up to the top of my queue.
  3. I’m in love with my Mandy Boat Tees. Seriously, I don’t know how Tessuti made such a gem of a one-size-fits-all pattern. I’ve got two of ’em, and I’m not ashamed to admit to wearing each twice throughout the challenge. I suggest making several for yourself if you haven’t already. Kelli’s got the idea.
  4. Building a handmade wardrobe takes time. Some sewing folks seemed to wear me-made from head-to-toe for most of the month. It’s inspiring and daunting at the same time! I’ve accepted that either 1). These folks have been sewing for awhile, and I too can get there someday, or 2). They have seven arms.
  5. Take a look back to take a step forward. You don’t realize how far you’ve come with a skill until you look back at earlier work. I was planning on wearing a floral shirtdress I’d made last year until I spotted the armhole seams, which I’d left completely unfinished. The humanity! That day I didn’t have the time to go back and fix it, so I sadly left the dress in the closet. It’s hard to believe that I made that dress just one year ago. Since then, I’ve learned a lot about finishing seams. What’s the point of making a beautiful dress if the insides look all gnarly? I don’t have a serger, so I’ve used pinking (probably more often than I should have), zigzag stitches, flat-felled seams, and french seams to finish my woven garments. The Reader’s Digest Complete Guide to Sewing contains a bunch of pretty finishes, and I’m excited to try even more.

I’d say Me Made May was a success. It’s revealed holes in my wardrobe and lit a fire under my buns to get sewing again. I definitely won’t miss taking those daily pics, tho. I like to limit my selfie game to horribly unflattering Snaps, thank you very much.

Did you take part in MMM? How’d it go for you?

First Half of Me Made May 2015 and Road Trippin’

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This should technically be the titled the First 41.9% of Me Made May, but mama’s goin’ on a road trip and will not be blogging for the next two weeks. I’ve had the travel bug BAD for the past year. After our plans to go to Sweden didn’t work out, Marc and I decided to keep things Stateside. Gas can’t stay this cheap forever (can it?!)!

Neither of us has seen the Grand Canyon, so the planning started there and then snowballed into a 4,000+ mile, 12-day, half-of-the-country course. Here’s the tentative map:

road trip map

On the tentative itinerary:

1). Getting through Nebraska unharmed

2). Enjoying the bounty of mountains and beer that Denver has to offer

3). Camping in Canyonlands, UT

4). Camping near the North Rim, AZ

5). Betting in Old Vegas (aka the cheap casinos)

6). Avoiding sunburn at the Flamingo’s pool

7). Exploring Santa Fe

8). Pit stop in Oklahoma

9). Lookin’ at trees in Mark Twain National Forest

Whew. I’m beyond excited to get out of Chicago for a bit and get some nature in my life. I love my city, but hot damn it has been gray and chilly lately! Let me know in the comments if you have any favorite spots in cities along our route. I’m always down to check out the World’s Largest Ball of Twizzlers or whatever it is that people stop to see on the side of the road in ‘Merica.

Oh, and Me Made May! Almost forgot. I’ve been having a pretty fun time with the challenge, but it has already uncovered a glaring weakness in my sewing wardrobe: a serious lack of pants, skirts, and shorts. I might bump the Maritime Shorts to the top of my queue when I get back. Here are a few of my favorites from my shirt-heavy #mmmay15 feed (with a skirt thrown in for good measure!):

me made may 2015 collage
L to R: self-drafted half-circle skirt, Archer Button Up, Plantain Tee, Mandy Boat Tee

How is Me Made May going for you?