Feeling Fall-ish - What's up next! (plus a sneak peak at the Kimono of the Year!)

There's an awareness of change in the air when "Ber" months arrive - September, October, November, and December. We witness Mother Earth's change in her color palette as the days become shorter and the first rain falls.  I suppose there are some who don't welcome the autumnal glimpses around, perhaps signaling an end to our flip-flops, sandals, sundresses, soft tanks, and tee-shirts.  But don't include us among those naysayers, for as much as we love Summer, we love the coming of Fall.

Fall offers the brightest array of seasonal color choices. We love the traditional browns and golds, but there is a wide range of color choices to suit even the pickiest of fashionistas. As we move toward the cooler days, we haven't forgotten the importance of layering - so in picking our next pattern designs and fabrics, we know there will always be a great jacket, sweater, warm tights or boots to add to any garment. More than anything, Fall is a time to wear the colors of Mother Earth in all her splendor.

The rich hues of reflected water is always a go-to choice in fabric...especially for me.

We chose this beautiful silk noil to make another Hadley Top, by Grainline Studio.

Hadley Top with the Alberta Street Skirt!

Silk Noil is a fabulous choice for many garments!
Check out the amazing collection of colors on this link!

Two great necklines on this perfect Hadley!

We already made a Hadley once before (and in the perfect Fall colors) out of an amazing yarn dyed cotton from Anna Maria Horner.

Check out the entire Loominous collection!

Stop by and see this Hadley top and the Safran jeans on display at Stonemountain & Daughter!

Another lovely rayon print in the blue/green palette. We love prints that feature elements from nature, such as these tiny branches. There are so many rayons to choose from!

We decided to pair this flowy fabric with the beautiful Tea House Dress by Sew House Seven.

I also have a gorgeous Tea House made in an ikat.  Stop by and see it on display at Stonemountain!

Love the feel and fit of this dress!

We love the typical colors that exemplify Fall too...those beautiful, rusts, oranges, and golds. We may not in be New England, but we can enjoy our West Coast autumns!

As it often happens, Laurel is making this same dress, the Tea House Dress, in a beautiful gold rayon print - this color palette is very popular this Fall. So Autumn!!

Link to this amazing Rayon!

Even though we like to wear dark colors all year round, they are especially appropriate in the Fall.  And you know me - I gotta have me some Black in my wardrobe.  I love this new Ikat and thought I would make a lightweight jacket for layering.

Cotton Ikats - You can never have too many!

We chose to try another Papercut pattern, the Kochi Kimono.  This jacket is a boxy cropped jacket for all seasons and it will make a nice lightweight addition to any layered look for work. You can make the jacket lined also, but we will just use the unstructured unlined version.

This could be the pattern of the season! The Kochi Kimono!

All together! The Silk Noil Hadley Top, Kochi Kimono and the Alberta Street Skirt!

Some clothes just feel so good on immediately!

The back of the Kochi Kimono is just right!

All together with my shortsleeve high neck knit top from Jalie!

Uh oh I made need more Kochis!!!

And perhaps something to wear underneath that jacket? How about a soft knit turtleneck tee by Jalie.  Love this black knit, and I know I'll probably wear it to death! So many knits to choose from at this link!

No more buying turtlenecks! Check out this new Jalie Pattern!

Jalie 2805

Of course you'll never go wrong picking any fabric in navy.  We wanted to try another Sew House Seven pattern, The Alberta Street pencil skirt.

What a great pattern! The Alberta Street Pencil Skirt!

This skirt is a very fitted unlined skirt that sits just below the waist with a tapered hem just below the knees - perfect for either tights or boots or both! And we chose a stretch denim of course - you can never have enough denim!!

Just a sampling of the amazing cotton woven "bottom weights" available for this skirt!

Hadley Top with my new favorite Jean Skirt!

Look at the drape on this Silk Noil Hadley Top?!

Looks like we're getting a good start on our Fall wardrobe, right? The beauty of sewing is that we can create garments that all go together!

As an aside, we are so grateful for being part of a wonderful sewing community and that we have the skills, creativity and tools to be able to sew a wardrobe.  As much as we love our Mother Nature, we know that she can be harsh. Our thoughts are with the communities hit by these devastating California fires, knowing that there are many sewists among those who lost their homes along with their precious "me-mades", stashes and machines. I personally had a brush with that harsh reality when my own home and neighborhood was threatened by fire last month.  But we were lucky. I send all our friends and North State customers touched by this devastation my biggest Stonemountain hug.

Peace, Love, and Prosperity,

SuZan Steinberg
fabriclady3@gmail.com
Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics since 1981
Living the Dream Life of a Fabric Lover

FabricLady Tested! These Jeans are so Flattering!

Who doesn't love a good pair of jeans? Everyone, from tomboys to girly-girls, has a favorite fit. Some love a relaxed boyfriend style, like the Morgan Jeans from Closet Case Files, and we all need a pair of the Ginger Jeans also by Closet Case Files as featured in my previous blogs! Some love a slim line, like these Safran Pants from Deer and Doe. If you are like me, you can see any of these styles fitting into various moods and activities.

We can all agree that shopping for the perfect fitting jeans is not only time consuming, but often frustrating! Either they fit in the waist but the booty is to tight, or they are perfectly tapered down the leg, but the rise is way to low. Not to mention, each brand uses a different sizing style, am I a size 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, or a 26, 27, 28, 29, 30? More than likely, if you finally find the perfect jeans, you need to take out a second mortgage to pay the cashier.  And THIS is why you may want to try your hand a making a pair.

My new Safran Jeans and Tea House Top

Here they are with my Tea House Top from Sew House Seven

Getting ready for Layering with my Decades of Style, Threes a Charm Jacket, Grainline Studio's, Scout Tee and
my new favorite Deer and Doe, Safran Jeans! All available over at Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics!

This month, we are making Deer and Doe's Safran jeans. I love the higher waist and the slim, but not skinny, legs. The front pockets are unique - perfect for some great top-stitching details.

Could these Saran Jeans be any cuter?!

I'm using the same stretch denim that I used for my Ginger Jeans by Closet Case Files (Read those blogs here and here), but this time in black for my Safran jeans. We decided on the Neon Pink for the top-stitching, but Laurel wanted to add some drama on the back pockets just for fun, so we are going to incorporate the Turquoise and the Gold thread as well. Shop our selection of fun neon top-stitching thread here!

Choosing "outside the box" with Neon Top Stitching Thread! - Yes we can!

Laurel came up with a swirl detail that we will stitch in all three colors.  She  drew it freehand on paper for a pattern and pinned it to the pocket. Is that an "S" that I see?

She stitched around the edge to the S shape pattern in pink, then removed the pattern and echoed the pink stitching as a guide for the other two colors.

We decided on a single row of top-stitching to attach the pockets.

It's all in the details!

Top-stitching thread is a lot heavier than normal sewing thread, so getting the tension right can be a bit of a challenge.  The important thing to remember is that people can only see the outside of your garment, so don't stress out if the inside stitching is a little wonky.  We notice that this often happens when you plant your needle, raise the presser foot and turn a corner, leaving a little loop of top-stitching thread on the inside. Oh well.

Finishing off the end of the stitching line works best of you gently tug on the bobbin thread to bring the top-stitching thread to the inside of the garment, then tie it off.

When top stitching over a heavier section like a seam, you can stop short of joining the line together and then hand sew, taking the top stitching thread to the inside, creating a "stitch" that joins the line, and then tying it off. This will eliminate any extra bulk that would be created by backstitching with the thicker thread.

We were pretty sure that the Safran jeans would fit, so Laurel installed the fly-front zipper before sewing the pants together.  If we needed to adjust the waist, we could reduce the back or side seams.

Don't forget to be creative with your lining fabric.  Of course you can always use the same denim for the lining, but why not make it fun? One of our many cotton prints would work beautifully! Shop them here. We used scraps of this paper crane cotton from a previous garment. Laurel is the master of reworking scraps!

Great way to use your left over fun scraps!

Another Thursday with Laurel - checking the booty for fit...

Hey, these fit!

Love these pockets!

Look how the top stitching thread pops!

Marking the hem...ready to send them back to Laurel's studio for the final steps.

Back in the Studio, Laurel attached the waistband and belt loops and finished the top stitching and hems. Nothing left but that pesky buttonhole and jeans button. Everything was going great until that perfectly sewn buttonhole was on the wrong side of the fly. Making mistakes is part of the creative process - we all do it, but Laurel finds it particularly annoying.

We were both reminded of one of my favorite books, Debbie Ford's The Dark Side of the Light Chasers. In this book we learned that we ALL have aspects of our nature that we don't like, but more to the point, we ALL have things that annoy us about other people. Debbie contends that it is these very things that we hate in others that also exist in us, perhaps even hidden. This hidden "Shadow" side of our personality, as Debbie calls it, is something that we must learn to embrace so that it no longer has an emotional charge.

Assuming that Debbie is on point (which we believe she is SO on target), after reading Debbie's book, Laurel shared that one of her trigger words was "stupid", as in not very smart or not smart enough. We won't go into all her issues with this word "stupid", but after reading about this concept of embracing her dark side, she can now easily admit that she too is sometimes "stupid."

Yes, that buttonhole is on the wrong side...rookie (stupid) mistake!! But hey, at the end of the day, she laughs at it, let's it go and let's her creativity kick in.  Throw a patch on that mistake buttonhole, attach the jean's button and call it a day!

Aaahhh.  Embracing her stupid side turns out to be a good thing for me!! Actually, I don't think this is a mistake after all - looks like it belonged there all along.

XOXOXO

 

Going to love these jeans!!

Laurel and I! She looks great in my Tea House top - so much that she's making one for herself!
All my indie me-made clothes are all working so well together :)

Feel like embracing your own "Shadow"? You can pick up Debbie's book The Dark Side of the Light Chasers from Amazon Books, or at your local bookstore. It will definitely give you something to think about. As women, we want to love our whole selves, not just the parts we like or that others find pleasing. It's okay to be "not good enough" once in a while!

And meanwhile, embrace your whole self and your creativity and sew a little heart in your jeans!

Yours Creatively,

Suzan

More Cotton Ikat choices on this Link!

Layering garments can be so much fun with the the Three's a Charm Jacket, Scout Tee
and the Safran Pants! Denim Dot Jacket fabric is at this link...Shop any of
our Woven Cottons at this link for the perfect Scout Tee!
Check out all the great "Bottom weight" choices for making pants at this link, too!

Pacific Leggings - Quick and Easy!

With the weather changing, my thoughts are turning to working out more! We have been collecting some wonderful nylon/lycra and cotton/lycra knits for leggings, activewear, and swimsuits.

One of these had my name all over it!  Our Sewaholic Pacific Leggings are just the ticket! The panel at the waist hugs my belly in just the right way and stays up where I need it to.

This pattern has a lot of options, but we decided to keep it simple.  You can make them long or short, and there's a lot of fun to be had with colorblocking.  There's also the option to put a zippered pocket in the back of the waistband.  Great for storing your phone or keys while running!

Shown here with another activewear pattern from Sewaholic, the Dunbar Top.

When choosing a fabric, make sure you look for four-way stretch.  Sometimes these kinds of knits are also advertised as activewear, dancewear, or swimwear.  All knits will stretch in at least one direction, usually crosswise.  A four-way knit stretches both crosswise and along the selvage.  These kinds of knits are necessary for activewear and swimwear, where garments require a tighter fit than regular street clothes.

You can sew them with a serger or your regular sewing machine!  Easy to get done in about an hour! Just make sure you have a ballpoint needle in your regular machine.  It will make your life so much easier.

As you can see in the picture on the right, there is a small piece of elastic sewn onto the top of the waistband.  This gives a smooth, flat finish.  Laurel used a zig zag to attach this, which is a stitch that will stretch with the elastic.

Love the fit of these!  Not too tight, not too loose.  Sewing your own activewear may be intimidating to some, but you can get a great pair of leggings that fit just the way you like it.  And when you compare the cost to some brands of RTW out there...we'd much rather make them ourselves!

Time to get silly and practice those core exercises!

Now it's time to chill in my comfy leggings! 

Stop by Stonemountain & Daughter and see them on display in our Knit Section and look at all our choices for your leggings.

Keep on Sewing!

Suzan

Fabriclady3@gmail.com

Sewaholic Pacific Leggings and my
 Toaster Sweater by Sew House Seven