Craftiness is Happiness

I posted on Facebook earlier this week about a pattern I tried and loved recently. It's the Jade Shirt pattern from Made By Rae. It's a cute, boatneck tee shirt pattern that sews up easily and beautifully. I love the options that are included with the pattern - four sleeve lengths and two necklines mean it's a pattern I can use again and again and find myself with a different shirt each time. But what I really loved about this pattern is that it coordinates perfectly with the Isla Dress pattern. Taking the Jade shirt and using it as a bodice and attaching it to the skirt from the Isla dress makes a great fun dress. 


My sweet husband thought I'd lost my mind and our dining room/my sewing space was overrun with pattern pieces and knit scraps for the better part of the week. Excuse the mess, mom's making clothes. I think the temporary mess was well worth the outcome as this week I sewed four Jade+Isla dresses and one long sleeved Jade tee. And all with only nine yards of fabric. 

The craft store on base recently expanded their fabric selection to include knits! Most of the prints are more juvenile than I'd like (think unicorns, sloths, and Harry Potter) so even though I was excited to see more options, I wasn't loving all the choices at the store. But there were a few good options mixed in that I was willing to give a try, especially because all of them were between $3-6 a yard. I ended up buying three yards each of a navy floral in a rayon jersey, a grey on grey narrow stripe in ponte knit, and a stretch jersey knit from Riley Blake in navy and white. 


The navy floral fabric became matching dresses for Natalie and Samantha. There was enough of the grey to make a long sleeved t-shirt as well as a knee length dress for myself. And this morning I put the finishing touches on a maxi dress for myself from the navy and white jersey knit. Because these dresses and shirts are made from knit the comfort factor is off the charts. It felt like I was wearing a nightgown to church today. 


Making these dresses was easy and something that a confident beginner sewist could easily tackle. After sewing one dress I had the construction method down and didn't even need to refer to the directions anymore. It also helped a ton that I have a serger and while you could make these without one, it's so much better and easier with one that I wouldn't recommend it. I definitely could not have made so many items this week without my trusty serger which I used for the majority of the sewing but I also used my regular old sewing machine for some parts of the process. The method of combining Jade and Isla into one dress is really clever. The Jade tee is shortened and then attached to the Isla skirt using elastic thread in the bobbin of the sewing machine. Using elastic thread gathers the skirt while you're sewing which is so much easier and faster than sewing parallel lines of long stitches and pulling the threads to gather the fabric. Then the seam is reinforced with the serger. I bought a twin needle for the hem on the sleeves and the skirt and I love the professional finish using a twin needle gives to projects. 


Now I'm itching to find more knit fabrics so I can make an entire wardrobe of Jade Tees and Jade+Isla dresses. Anyone have a good source for knits that ships overseas?

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