pinspiration – Sew Gr8ful

Tank Hack for a Pinspiration Jumpsuit

Yup, Pinterest strikes again. This time I was testing a new pattern from Sonia Estep Designs, the Hollywood. When I made my muslin fit, I tried it on before adding the sleeves and I knew right then I needed it to be a tank. Naturally, I scrolled Pinterest to get some color ideas and came across this fun version.

Yes! This was happening. I went fabric shopping and found steel cupro slub and black cupro pique from Surge fabrics. I have really liked cupro the last two times I used it. It has a little stretch vertical, and about 50% horizontal. I love that it doesn’t have a ton of vertical stretch, which helps longer garments like these pants or a skirt, keep its shape. It is just annoying to make something and then it grows inches after putting it on. No issues with that using this cupro, and it has nice drape.

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Now, I took my hack a little further than just making it a tank, by color blocking my neckband and arm band pieces to match the bodice colors. I also added in the solid black stripe on the legs. Doing the extra color matching added some more math, but over all, converting it to a tank is relatively simple.

Since I liked where the fit was on my non sleeve muslin, I knew I just needed to do a small adjustment to the armscye and make bands. I wanted to have a finished armband of 1/2″ to keep it close to the look of the current neckband. With the seam allowance of 1/4″ for the bodice piece, I marked and removed 1/4″ from the armscyce, which made my finished tank hit the same place as the sleeveless muslin. Be sure to make this adjustment on both the front and back bodice pieces.

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I love to keep my pattern pieces together as much as I can, so I usually tape in the center of my cut, and make a kind of hinge. Then I can fold back the piece I need to remove to make a tank or leave it down for a sleeved version.

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To figure out my bands, I measured the new armscyce and multiplied it by 90%. I like to use 90% for cupro since it has less stretch and I didn’t want my armbands tight, just a comfortable fit. My bands ended up being 17 3/8″ x 1 1/2″ for reference. To make a simple tank version, that is all you need to do. You would follow the pattern tutorial for assembly, with the exception of skipping steps 6 & 7, do step 8, and then attach your armbands.

Now for the “extra” stuff 😂 I really wanted my armbands and neckband to match the bodice colors exactly. To do that, I needed to make my neckband two pieces, and one of my armbands, two pieces as well.

For my neckband I needed gray for one front bodice piece and the back bodice piece, then black for the other front bodice piece. So I measured those two pieces separately, multiplied them each by 85% (yes, 85%. I was worried it wouldn’t hold me in if I did longer, but in retrospect, 90% would have worked as well with this cupro) and cut the two out, using the same width as the original neckband piece. I then sewed them right sides together to make my complete neckband.

For the one armband that had a black front and a grey back, I simply measured the front bodice armscye and multiplied that by 90% for the black portion, and measured the back bodice armscye, multiplied by 90%, to get the grey portion. Sewed the two pieces right sides together, and had the matching armband.

When sewing, you will just match up those seams with the coordinating bodice seams and attach. The tricky part for me was the neckband. Since the shoulder seam is not the quarter point, I had to be extra careful with how much I was stretching and make sure the color block seams met. Of course it was my armband that ended up a little off, but for the most part, it looks like one seam.

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I should note, I did all my color blocking and measuring, AFTER I had already graded the pattern and added length for my side waist, rise, and legs.

The last modification I made to the pattern was adding in the black stripe to the legs. After looking at my pattern piece and the pinspiration photo, I decided I wanted to make the stripe around 3″ wide. I didn’t feel like making two separate pattern pieces for the color block, so I took my front pant piece and measured in from the outer seam, 2.75″.

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I measured and marked the entire length of the pants piece and then connected the marks to make a smooth line. I used the same “hinge” technique for this and cut up and down the line, leaving my secured piece in the middle.

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It is very important that you account for whatever seam allowance you want to use for sewing these two pieces together, or your pants will be too small.

I like to use 1/4″ so when I cut out my grey piece, I cut 1/4″ out from the pattern edge. Then I flipped the main portion back and cut out my black stripe, again adding 1/4″ to the color blocked edge. I figured out that my rotary edge is about 1/4″ away from the blade, so I just line that up with the fabric and it cuts and adds the 1/4″ all in one step.

Once you have your stripes and front pant pieces cut out, you will just sew them right sides together, to create your full pattern pieces, and assemble per the pattern tutorial.

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I am ridiculously pleased with this final jumpsuit and know I will be making other versions of Hollywood with the tank modification. What do you think? Pinterest Nail or Fail?

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Enabler alert. The Hollywood is from Sonia Estep Designs and on sale for 50% off until January 26th, 11:59pm EST. The pattern options include a crossover bodice with three sleeve lengths, a shorts romper (in three lengths), a pants jumpsuit, and a skirted shorts romper. Plus you can do a simple mod and make your own tank version 😉

This post may contain affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through that link, I may get a % back, at no additional cost to you. Let’s be honest, we all know it goes right back to adding to my fabric stash.

Faux Moto Patch Hoodie – Sewing for my Husband

I love Moto patches on clothes. Up until now the only one I have actually done though, was on my green pair of DIBY club Augusta Moto pants. These are legit fold and stitch pintucks! While I absolutely love them, I wanted to find something a little quicker when I got the idea to do a moto patch on a hoodie for my husband.

When I first decided to make this hoodie with the moto patch hack, I wondered if I could do a faux pintuck using my coverstitch. Over the past year, my coverstitch and I have had an interesting journey. I struggled to figure out all its little quirks to avoid tunneling and skipped stitches. We seem to be mostly on the same page now, so wanting to intentionally create tunneling made me cringe. Oh husband, how much I love you.

I cut some scrap fabric strips, cranked up my needle and looper tensions, and just gave it a try.

Well, hello there, you gorgeous faux pintucks!! Maybe I should just use this coverstitch for exclusive faux pintucks and get myself a different one for regular coverstitching. I’m only sort of kidding.

I have a Janome 900 CPX and the settings I used were, both the needles and the looper on 9, the highest tension it goes. Then I set my stitch length at a 2.5 and my differential feed at 1. You will need to tweak your own settings depending on the fabric you use and your machine, but the basic goal is to have a longer stitch and tighter tension to pull the two rows of stitching together, pinching the fabric and making a tunnel. Pro tip: before you start messing with your tensions and other settings, jot down a little note saying what they were set at for proper stitching. There is nothing worse than forgetting how to get back to your perfect coverstitch.

Now that you know how I made these faux pintucks, it’s time to talk about what I used them to create. I hacked the sleeves on the Greenstyle Creations Hudson Pullover, and made this awesome hoodie for my husband. I am so proud of this one !!

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After seeing a similar hoodie on Pinterest I showed it to my husband, thinking he would say no. Obviously, I was wrong. I admit, it doesn’t happen often (wink wink), but in this case, I’m glad it did. Since I have made this hoodie once before, I knew exactly how it fit on him and if I needed to make any adjustments for this slightly different look.

Let’s talk about making the moto patch first. If you are like me, when someone says they “eye-balled” something, you just want to smack them. How are you supposed to duplicate eye-balling?? So I’m ducking over here as I say, I eye-balled most of this. To help with my eye-balling, I took pictures and general measurements that you can use to create your own, “eye-balled” moto patch.

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The first thing I did was take the sleeve pattern piece and find the halfway mark. I used the wrist hem to find my center since the sleeve is a raglan and not exactly the same from front to back. I needed that center point though, to ensure the patch was centered on his arm when worn.

Once I had my center line I made another mark, approximately 12.5” down from the neckline, along the center line. This line will serve as the bottom of the moto patch. You can bring it lower if you want it to come closer to the elbow, or make it shorter if you wanted a smaller patch. Eye-ball away.

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Now that I had my lower mark on the center fold, I needed to determine what kind of a shape I wanted for this moto patch. Since I was using the seams for the full top and most of the side lengths for the patch, I just eye-balled a curve. It ended up being about 9.5” down from the top for the back side and 7” down for the front side. Both were more than halfway down the total seam length. Make your marks and smooth out the curves until you are happy with the size and shape. If you have your recipient handy, you can even hold the sleeve piece up on their arm and make sure you like where it will hit. My husband was gone so I just winged it.

Once you have your moto patch pattern piece made, you will want to measure it. I prefer cutting a square piece of my fabric, mirrored, the size of the patch pattern piece, plus some. Then I take that square piece of fabric and do my pintucks. Once it is done, I cut out the moto patch from it. When you tunnel, it will shrink your fabric piece. My 16”x17” piece ended up being around 14”x 16.5”, when done.

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If I did this again, I’d make my piece 17”x 17”, which is about 3” bigger than my moto patch pattern piece. I ended up really close to the edge on my pieces.

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Don’t forget to add seam allowance to the bottom curve of the patch pattern piece and the top curve of the plain sleeve pattern piece.

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You don’t need to add seam allowance to any other part, as the pattern already includes it.

Making the faux pintucks is seriously my favorite part. Make sure to do a few test rows on your chosen fabric, to get your level of desired tunneling and double checking that there are no skipped stitches. Once you are happy with your pintucks, grab that square piece of fabric. Line up your fabric edge, with the edge of your presser foot, and go. It’s important to take your time and make sure the first row is straight. You will be using the first row to line up each subsequent row, and if it is off, your final stitches will be REALLY off. Make sure you keep your beginning and ending threads at each row too, this prevents your threads from being pulled back in and unraveling all the tunneling you just did. Once you have your first row complete, line up the edge of the presser foot with the edge of the first rows stitching, and make the second row. Continue in that manner until you reach the end and your fabric square is complete. Repeat the same steps for the other patch piece, then sit back and admire all those beautiful pintucks ❤

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If you want to see my tunneling in action, you can watch my time lapse video here. I have to say, making the faux pintucks and watching the video is really soothing and mesmerizing, even my kids enjoyed watching it.

This is a good point to finish cutting out all your regular pattern pieces and preparing them for assembly. I don’t cut my moto patches from the pintucked fabric, until the very last minute. Once it is cut, you have to be careful not to pull or mess with them too much. As soothing as I find making the pintucks, I think I’d find it less so, if I had to double my work.

In addition to the moto patch sleeve change, I also made a slight change to the hem of the shirt. The inspiration picture had a curved hem and my husband thought it looked cool too. Brace yourself, here comes some more “eye-balling”. I lowered the center of the hem an inch ish, and free handed an upward curve as it reached the side seam. Then I mirrored the back pattern piece so they would line up when done.

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At this point I started assembling. Since I wanted to be able to secure the pintucks in as soon as possible, I skipped ahead to the hood assembly in the pattern instructions. Once the hood was complete and ready to attach to the bodice, I went back and cut my moto patches. Remember, be very careful with those patches once you cut them.

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I placed the moto patch, right sides together, with the lower sleeve piece, and sewed them. Repeat with the other sleeve.

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Now you will have two complete sleeves that can be attached to the front and back bodice.

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Do the front sleeves to the front bodice, right sides together, stitching both. Then take the back sleeves and attach them, right sides together, to the back bodice.

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You will now have a circle with only the neckline of the moto patch, unsecured.

Since we already did the hood portion and it is ready, we can attach it to the bodice, following the pattern instructions.

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Now all the moto patch stitching is secured in another seam and we can go back to finish the sleeves and side seams, then hem the sleeves and bodice. Whew, if you hung with me this whole time, you now have an awesome faux moto hacked hoodie.

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Would you believe it took me longer to write this up than it took to actually sew the hoodie?? It did! Now I’m thinking of other places I can sneak in these faux moto patches. Where would you place a moto patch?

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The fabric I used to make this hoodie was brushed French Terry from So Sew English Fabrics. I used the hooded version of the Greenstyle Creations Hudson pullover for this hack. If you want to watch my time-lapse video of coverstitching these faux pintucks, you can on my youtube.

Lexington love and my newest hack

The Lexington recently released from Annelaine patterns, and if you saw my last post, you know I absolutely love the pattern. If you didn’t see it, you can read all about it here.

In typical Danielle fashion I immediately pictured a hack of it to create a matching mother daughter maxi dress set I had pinned.

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I decided to do the red, white, and navy combo with double brushed poly solids that I purchased from Amelia Lane Designs.

I used the empire cut line for the bodice and skirt, which meant that the only modifications/color blocking I needed to do was to the skirt piece and this is how I did it.

To start with I eyeballed my lengths for the color blocking and used the peplum front and above knee front cut lines to gauge a starting point. In the case of my daughter’s, it was the front peplum and front dress cut lines.

From looking at the pinspiration picture, I felt that the top red portion and the bottom red portion were about the same and the white portion was a little smaller than them. I also knew I wanted my blue strips to be the same size, and around 3”, when finished. I marked the skirt pattern piece a few times for each section, until I got it to where I wanted. Keep in mind the actual measurements, for your skirt color blocking pieces, will vary depending on your specific size chosen. Just to give you an idea, I will share what I used for my daughters and mine. I ended up with around 14.5” for the red pieces, 4” for the blue pieces, and 9.75” for the white piece. On my daughters, I ended up with around 11” for the red pieces, 3” for the blue pieces, and 9” for the white pieces.

Now comes the fun part. Since the center of the skirt piece color blocking was lower than the side seams, I needed to create that V for each piece. To do so I measured from each point I had marked on the fold line, UP 2”, and marked it on the side seam edge (pictured in red below).

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I repeated until I had all 4 pieces marked.

Then taking my ruler I drew a line from the upper mark, to the lower mark, for each one. I wanted to curve my centers so I went slightly past my lower mark when connecting the two marks.

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I chose to make my center points less V like because I figured it would be easier to attach the pieces and with the skirt gathers I didn’t want my lines to look choppy once the dress was done. Then I smoothed out the line and the marks to have a clear cutting line.

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Seam allowance needs to be added to each piece as well. You can choose to do so now, by making new pattern pieces for each color block, or you can do what I did, and add it when you cut the fabric out. If you choose to add it when cutting the fabric, make sure you do, or your skirt will end up too short. I forgot on two of my pieces and it made me panic before I reminded myself that it was my hack so I didn’t have to follow exact amounts, whew, bullet dodged. To account for this “design adjustment”, I added a little more seam allowance to the connecting pieces.

When adding seam allowance, you will only need to add it to the bottom of the top red piece (R1), the top and bottom of the blue pieces (B1 & B2), the top and bottom of the white piece (W), and the top of the bottom red piece (R2). The original skirt pattern piece has the top seam allowance and the bottom hem allowance already included, so we can skip those.

You can use your new skirt pattern pieces to cut out your chosen colors. Since we are doing the straight floor maxi skirt, the front and back skirt pieces are the same which allows for us to cut two of each color block piece. When cutting, I marked my pieces and made sure to keep them in order so my skirt would fit back together correctly. I labeled them as R1, B1, W, B2, R2, in descending order from the top of the skirt.

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Once you have all your pieces cut out (10 in total), you can assemble your skirt. To assemble I did both the front and back skirts at the same time, to avoid any confusion of which piece went where. I have this bad habit of walking away to tend the kids or some house thing, and I forget where I was in my sewing. I didn’t want anymore “design adjustments” and I figured this would be easiest to keep it organized.

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Take your R1 piece and lay it right side up, fully open. Taking your B1 piece, lay it right side down on R1, lining up the bottom of R1 and the top of B1. Clip and sew that seam. Repeat for the back skirt piece.

Take your R1B1 piece and lay it right side up again. Place your W piece right side down on R1B1, lining up the bottom of R1B1 with the top of W. Clip and sew that seam. Repeat for the back skirt piece.

Take your R1B1W piece and lay it right side up again. Place your B2 piece right side down on R1B1W, lining up the bottom of R1B1W with the top of B2. Clip and sew that seam. Repeat for the back skirt piece.

Last one! Take your R1B1WB2 piece and lay it right side up again. Place you R2 piece right side down on R1B1WB2, lining up the bottom of R1B1WB2 with the top of R2. Clip and sew that seam. Repeat for the back skirt piece.

Now you have your front and back skirt pieces complete and you can attach them together and finish the dress exactly like the pattern instructs.

We really love our matching pinspiration and are on the lookout for our next color combos.

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Pattern used was the Womens and Girls Lexington from Annelaine patterns which is on sale through February 13th. We used the empire, floor length maxi, sleeveless, and the scoop neck options. Fabric was red, white and navy solid double brushed poly from Amelia Lane Designs. If you haven’t heard of Amelia Lane, they are a newer fabric company. They have some pretty neat offerings and I’ve been impressed with the quality, shipping speed, and customer service. They are currently having a site wide 20% off sale with code PERFECTPAIR ending February 17th.

Pinspiration – You win some and you lose some

Where do you find your sewing inspiration?

I have my own ideas (usually when I’m trying to sleep), get inspired by other seamstress makes, and “shop” on Pinterest. I really love “shopping” on Pinterest because I can save the things I like and can come back to it when I need something to sew or I find the perfect fabric. Another thing I love using pinterest for is finding examples of those late night ideas I get. I can search for things that are similar and make my notes to save them for later. Usually, when I find something I want to make, I have to search for a pattern or figure out how to hack one I already have, like I did for my first pinspiration (blogged here). In the case of these two recent pinspirations, I had both patterns already and no hacking needed, yay for saving time and money !! It also helped that I have made both patterns several times before so I knew they would be a good fit.

I’ve had really great luck with my pinspiration creations and usually love the way they turn out. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with this purple cardigan. Let me start by saying, I love the pattern I used (Coffee and Tea from Annelaine ). It has several different options which allow for you to make a bunch of different cardigans from the same pattern. Another yay for saving money!! I have used it several times, several = 5, and each time it comes out beautifully. This time, my 6^th, was no different.

I liked the fabric too. It was a Purple Hair I snagged in a bundle from So Sew English Fabrics. It washed well, sewed up well, even with the extra “hair”, and it had a unique look to it.

The problem came when I tried it on. I really did not like the way this specific combo looked on me. I tried it with several different looks and just couldn’t say I loved it. I was so bummed too. I had really wanted this to turn out. I mean, a purple fluffy sweater, who doesn’t need a purple fluffy sweater??

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To get this look I used the Coffee version, length between the long and short cut lines, hemmed loose sleeves, and the slim bands. Plus pockets, because, POCKETS.

My other recent pinspiration was a solid landing in the win column. I love this pattern too (Union St. Tee from Hey June Handmade)!! I have made several, several = 4 in this case. I like all the options the Union St Tee has, but I really found the v-neck instructions easy to follow. All three of the v-necks I have done, have turned out great.

Then there was the fabric. It is a brushed hacci from So Sew English, and is so so SO dang soft. Soft and cuddly, and soft. It is soft ya’ll ! I tried it on and it was instant love! The hardest part was trying to photograph it to make it look like the pinspiration picture.

I gave up, I’m not a good selfie taker, and I’m okay with that. Making my bed and cleaning the mirror is totally not worth it. I’m kidding, but seriously, selfies are hard. I applaud all of you with selfie skills!

The options I used for this top were long sleeves and v-neck.

Pinspiration. You win some and you lose some.

Anyone looking for a fluffy purple cardigan?? I happen to have one just hanging around.

Denim Obsession and My First Pinspiration Hack

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I have been obsessed with searching for just the right denim fabric to make myself, and my kids, some pants. This fabric couldn’t be just any denim though. I had fabric requirements and so did my kids.

~~My kids requirements first~~ My requirements first, lets be real, I need pants more than they do. This fabric needed to have stretch and lots of it. It also needed great recovery, I really HATE sagging pants after wearing for a short time. It needed to actually look like denim if it wasn’t true denim. I also needed it to be squat test approved, you know the test where you squat down and force your children or husband to tell you if it is see through? Unless of course you can contort yourself well enough to see your rear in a mirror or you get brave and decide to take a squatting booty selfie, that you promptly delete. PROMPTLY DELETE. It also needed to work for one of my favorite patterns, the Peglegs from Patterns for Pirates (free with the code from their facebook group ), plus a few other patterns I have on my radar this year. I had about given up finding the right fabric when So Sew English Fabrics (SSE) got in this crazy Stretch Denim.

I say crazy because it is Cotton Spandex Heavy French Terry, say what??? I’d never heard of it. Amanda, the owner of SSE shared a video of it in their facebook group and wow, this stuff looked amazing! It has the denim look on the inside and outside, no faux here. Plus the stretch (80% x 50%) and recovery to make my Peglegs. All I needed for it to pass my list of requirements was passing the squat test. So, like any logical seamstress, I ordered 2 yards to try it out.

The fabric arrived and I immediately loved it. I knew as soon as people started getting their orders and sewing it up, it was going to disappear quickly. I moved my pair of peglegs up on my “to be sewed” list, just in case I needed to get more. Then, Heidi, from SSE, posted her pair of peglegs, in this fabric. It was exactly what I was looking for. I got so excited! Then I realized that I wasn’t the only one who thought they were amazing. Shoot, that fabric was going to be gone fast. Naturally, I got online and ordered a “few” more yards. I told you, I’m logical. I needed more for shorts, pants for my kids, and if it passed the squat test, I was going to need a few pairs of my own.

I washed up my yardage and sewed up my peglegs. I sewed them up live by the way, in the Sew Inspiring facebook group. You can see that here if you are so inclined ha ha ha. It was my first time sewing live and while it was very nerve wracking, I had a ton of fun chatting with the ladies that joined me. Back to my leggings. I tried them on and yup, I took one for the team, they absolutely pass the squat test. *cheers*

A few details about sizing in case you were lucky enough to snag some of this denim. I made my usual size peglegs that I do with ponte. This means, I size up the legs one from the chart and make my waistband my true size. I usually do that, because while I like snug fit leggings, I have health issues that cause me to get uncomfortable if it is past a certain snugness. I make my usual waistband size since ponte can relax a little after wearing and I don’t want to risk slippage. This denim has the right stretch and amazing recovery. The recovery is so good that it has a little more of a snug feel. While I really like my first pair, I will probably size up my waistband as well as my leg pieces for my next pair.

When I was looking for something to wear with my new pants, I pulled out one of my first sews, from 2016. It got me thinking. This shirt was my very first pinspiration make and pattern hack. I had seen it floating around pinterest and just knew I wanted to have one of my own. I had no idea what I was doing and it took me FOREVER to figure it out. I laugh now because it seems so simple when in reality I was doing all kinds of math and had lines all over my pattern piece. It worked though and totally gave me the confidence to try more hacks and pinspiration makes.

For anyone wanting to make one of these sleeve stripe raglans for themselves here are the few steps I took using the Slimfit Raglan from Patterns for Pirates. I made a few pattern pieces to cut out my fabric but for the sake of this tutorial I will be drawing and marking on the same piece so you can see the effect.

Step 1. I cut out the floral using the short sleeve line. Shown below in red.

Step 2. I measured out and marked a 1.5″ strip, overlapping the short sleeve line from step 1, by 1/4″, for the white fabric. Shown below in blue.

Step 3. I measured out and marked a 1.5″ strip, overlapping the bottom line of step 2, by 1/4″, for the floral fabric. Shown below in purple.

Step 4. I used the remaining bottom portion of the sleeve, adding 1/4″ to the top and overlapping the bottom line from step 3, for the white fabric. Shown below in green.

I used 1/4″ as the overlap amount for each piece since that was the amount of seam allowance I chose. You can see below how all the pieces will go together.

Cut out your four pieces and sew them together. You will do this twice, once for each sleeve.

Take the piece from step 1 and place it right sides together (RST) with the top of the piece from step 2. Sew together to create the beginning of your new sleeve.
Take the 1/2 piece and place it RST with the top of the piece from step 3. Sew together.
Take that 1/2/3 piece and place it RST with the top of the remaining piece from step 4. Sew together.

You should now have your new sleeve 1/2/3/4 all ready to assemble the rest of the pattern per the included instructions.

There are a few other ways you can achieve a similar stripe look but I chose to go this route since it gave me the complete sleeve and clean look I was going for. This shirt was pre serger time for me and was completely sewn using my starter sewing machine. It is so neat to look back at where I started and see how much I have learned and improved.

I love the fact that my first pinspiration pattern hack from three years ago, not only looks so great with my new stretch denim leggings, but that it has held up and still looks almost brand new. Longevity sewing makes my heart and wallet happy <3.

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I think it’s also safe to say that my denim search obsession has come to a close. Now I get to work on the list of denim makes I have planned with my “few” yards.

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