Monday, April 11, 2016

Finlayson in Indigo Interlock

I rarely sew for my husband.  Despite that, he's always been supportive of my hobby (obsession?), never commenting on how much I spend on material and even scouting out fabric shops for me to peruse when we go on family trips.  Yep, he's a keeper!  So when this fabric arrived and it wasn't exactly the colour I was expecting but happened to be the colour of his favourite hockey team, I knew what to do with it.  (side note: you can now get a swatch card for this fabric line, which is great because it's often hard to get a true sense of colour from a photo).   

So I told him I was making him a sweater and consulted him on pattern choice.  Well, kind of -- the Finlayson from Thread Theory is the only mens sweater pattern I own so I asked him if he would be okay with that style.  Thankfully he said yes!    






This fabric really is lovely --  very soft and a perfect weight, not too thick but definitely not flimsy.  It's easy to work with, too, with since it doesn't curl or shift like some knit fabrics.  Being able to get good quality coordinating ribbing is also fantastic.   I used the ribbing for the cuffs and waistband and it matches perfectly.  


And I can attest to the durabilty of the interlock --  I ordered an extra metre because I knew I wanted to make something adult-sized so when I was cutting out the sweater I was thinking about what I could do with the "scraps".  They ended up being big enough to make a pair of shorts (Jalie 3351) for me so I sewed those up right away.  I've been wearing and washing them at least once a week since then and the fabric has held up well -- no pilling or stretching.  They look just as good as when I made them back in February!  

Of course I really should have made the sweater first because it took me awhile to get back to it.  I don't think my husband quite believed that I actually would finish but he's happy that I did!   


As I was taking pictures, I realized that both of these are totally Canadian projects -- the fabric is manufactured and produced in Canada and sold by a Canadian retailer, both the patterns are by Canadian designers and they were sewn up by a Canadian.  Pretty good, eh?   

Patterns: Thread Theory Finlayson Sweater, Jalie Swim Shorts (both used before)
Fabric: Interlock from l'oiseau 
I received 1 metre in exchange for a blog post, I purchase the 2nd metre + the coordinating ribbing ~$24

Monday, April 4, 2016

Blaverry Gracie

K. has a massive wardrobe of clothes and definitely doesn't need anything new. She's so enthusiastic and appreciative whenever I do make her something that I get a lot of joy from making her new things, though :).  And I knew she would love the Gracie dress by Blaverry.


It's a quick sew and, because of the slim fit, doesn't require very much fabric.  The heart fabric is a super soft, cozy sweatshirt fabric from l'oiseau (it was a presale and is not available any more but they have lots of lovely retail fabrics and another presale event coming up).


This is a straight size 8 and the only change I made was to sew up the side seams using a 1/4" SA instead of 3/8".  The sweatshirt fabric has a bit of stretch but I didn't want it to be too tight.


As you can tell, she likes it :)

Pattern: Gracie by Blaverry given to me free of charge in exchange for this promotion
Fabric: Falling Hearts from l'oiseau, used approx 1/2 yard $8, blue cotton lycra approx. $6
Total: approx. $14