Fellowship of the Literary skirt.

Today I'm bringing you a post that I had up on my own personal blog. Because it was sewing related and I think we can all relate to sharing the craft we love so much with others. But first, some housekeeping. Row by Row starts tomorrow we're selling kits with the pattern for $10, if you don't want the kit the pattern is free. The first person to come into the shop with a finished quilt will receive a Color Me Happy Fat quarter Bundle!

We've started a rewards program. After you spend $250 you'll receive a $20 gift certificate. Lastly, we'll be closed on the 4th of July.

SKIRTS:
I sew a little. More then I did whe
n I started and, haltingly, made pajama pants for my sisters and in-law siblings. I am definitely more proficient then the first time I made a dress that was so ill fitting it’s makes me shudder. I wore it anyway because the fabric cost money and it was hard to make! There are photos and not only am I wearing a poorly made dress I’m wearing it very post baby. Come to think of it, that dress is packed away. I should take it out and make the boys Hawaiian shirts or something out of it. I am NO expert and, I don’t really know why I like it but I do. Fabric is so pretty and full of possibilities. It’s nice to use my hands to create something that won’t get weedy and die, or be eaten.

12 years ago my husband and I were shopping for our first washer and dryer at one of those stand-alone appliance Sears and I walked past this little blue sewing machine. It felt like a breeze blew over my heart. My spirit stirred and I just felt like I needed to take that machine home. It felt so frivolous, that’s quite an investment into something you don’t know if you’ll like. Yet, there was something inside me that knew…

All these years later and I am wearing a dress I made as a write this, a dress I rather like. Yesterday I wore a skirt and blouse I made and I think they look cute and vintage and not necessarily home made and there are pieces to a birthday dress on the floor in my studio. Last week, I gave a sewing lesson to one of my best friends. We share a lot in common, she is a writer, mother and all around sweet person. I wasn’t holding my breath that she would like to sew. After all, how could we have so many things in common? At any rate I know that there is a pretty big learning curve to this craft and a lot of people just can’t get past that.

The first of the literary skirts. Delicate and beautiful just like Jen’s main character.

Not only did she like it but She came away with the prettiest skirt. I am not kidding when I tell you that it looks like something from Anthropolgie! She wore it to writer’s group and the rest of that sacred club have decided that we all need skirts. Skirts that sort of match that we can wear as a sort of uniform to our next conference! No one has ever been this wonderfully cheesy with me before and I am over the moon about it! We’re using the same base fabrics and then accents that speak to each of our individual books we’re working on. Isn’t that just the best thing you can think of?!!! The Fellowship of the literary skirt, that’s what this project is all about, and I LOVE it. Some of them already sew, some don’t. We’ll work on them together and hopefully after July I will post a wonderful, sweet, cheesy pic of our skirts filled with our hopes and dreams of our literary future.

The tree of life for our memoire, maps for our Scottish warrior who's a catagrapher, music for me and words for us all.

It is a blessing to share small things with people you love. Silly things that pull us together and make us laugh. I’m glad me and my needle and thread get to be part of that.

If you like this skirt we have a tutorial on this blog for free click HERE and if your interested in this post maybe you'd like to check out my personal blog. Click Here to peruse.

Happy Sewing,
Love,
Jessie

Sew a Skirt Tutorial

Here at Sew Unique we love sharing our love of sewing. One of the things I (Jessie) enjoy is a quick garment pattern. Following is a free pattern and tutorial for a skirt. This is a great beginners project and it’s also very quick. Please keep in mind that we are not professional pattern developers or writers. If you have any questions feel free to contact us and we’ll do our best to help you out.

What you will need for an average adult woman: 1 Yard of Fabric
1 Package of 2’’ wide elastic
Spool of coordinating thread
Sewing machine

LET'S GET STARTED!
1. Measure the amount of elastic you will need by wrapping it around your waist (or the waist you are sewing for) and cut.
2. Cut your fabric down the center being careful to do it so that the pattern on the fabric is going the right direction (I’ve cut the fabric for one skirt the long ways and one skirt the short way, both work one will simply have more gathers.


3.  Now we are going to sew the two pieces together so that we have one long strip of fabric. We will do this by making a french seam. To make a french seam:

    1. On one side pin the short sides of the fabric together wrong sides facing.

    2. Sew 1/4’’ seam.
    3. Trim the seam
    4. Fold the fabric over so that the right sides are now facing. Press (iron).
    5. Sew a 3/8’’ seam. (Your raw edge will now be encased inside the french
seam)

4. On the long edge of the skirt that will end up being the top of the skirt fold over a 1/4’’ and press. Fold it over 1/4’’ again and press. Sew down the length of the fold. The top of your skirt now has no raw edges.
5. On your sewing machine select a wide basting stitch (probably a three or four). Just below the folded top of your skirt sew across your skirt. Leave a long thread tail at the beginning and end of your row of stitches.

6. Just below the first row of basting stitches sew another row leaving long thread tails. You’ll now have two rows of basting stitches to use to gather your skirt.
7. Now it’s time to gather your skirt. Find the middle of your waist band by folding
the elastic in half. Mark the middle with a pin. Lay the elastic on a flat surface.
8. Lay the fabric below the waistband, with the middle of the fabric lined up with
the middle of the waist band.


9. Starting on one side of the skirt take your threads and begin gathering your skirt by pulling on the threads. Take your time and be careful to spread the gathers evenly. Gather until one half of of your fabric is the same width as that half of the waistband.
10. Repeat step 9 by gathering the other half of your fabric.

11. Pin the gathered fabric to the waistband with right side of the fabric against the wrong side of the waist band. Pin the fabric about half way (or one inch) up on the waistband. Sew along the waistband keeping your presser foot along the bottom edge of the waistband.


12. We are now going to sew up the the side of the skirt. Repeat step three to make a french seam on the side of your fabric sewing from the bottom of the skirt to the top of the waistband.
13. To hem your skirt fold the bottom up 1/4’’ and press then fold it up again 1/4’’ (your can make the fold bigger if you’d like your skirt to be shorter) and
press. Sew along the fold keeping your presser first along the bottom of the skirt. Sew a second line of stitches keeping your presser foot along the first row of stitches.
14. Remove the basting stitches at the waistband.
15. Wear and enjoy!!



Anniversary outfit

I finally cleaned my sewing room. It took some doing and about half way through I really needed a nap. I had coffee instead. There's something about an organized space that just gets the creative juices flowing, which then leads to an unorganized space. Weird. 

I got out my patterns and fabrics for my new summer projects, even though the sky is terribly grey with low angry clouds, decidedly not summery. I have a vision in my head for this first outfit. A pencil skirt with a light flowy blouse. There's always a risk when you create; will the product look anything like what you imagined? Will it look good on you (or your couch, or bed etc) will it look better? When it does work I suppose the risk is what makes the reward so worth it. I'm hoping to wear this for my anniversary dinner, if all goes according to plan... The floral blouse fabric is from Robert Kaufman and is as light as a dream, holy smokes does it feel good. I stumbled upon a pattern that matches what I was imagining pretty close in a book I already had (huzza!) The Colette Sewing Handbook I love Colette's instructions, they are always easy to follow. Sometimes I think they're sizing is off, which can be really frustrating. The blouse will be fine and I'm hoping since I'm using knit for the skirt it will be more forgiving.

This second outfit I'm not as sure about. I bought this knit fabric online because I have a vision of several comfortable knit dresses in my closet for summer. I picked this particular fabric because it was 100% cotton (great for summer right?) and I loved the teal color. It is so heavy! Not at all what I expected. And, the fabric has snagged in a couple places when I pre washed it! It was not terribly expensive so I'm still going to use it and hope for the best. At the very least it will give me an idea if this dress pattern is worth making again. I hope it is because I prefer dresses and skirts over the way shorts look as long as it's comfortable. These patterns aren't cheap, either, so using it again is something I hope to do.

The Moneta dress pattern from Colette. A pattern made for knits
and comes with a bunch of collar options.

This brings me to my conundrum. How do you pick out clothing fabric? Cottons are easy, I work in the shop with the most fantastic cottons ever, but if you want something like knits or bottom weights the choices in stores are pretty slim. If you have tips I'd love to hear them. Especially for summer fabrics, primarily knits. I always thought cotton was the best for summertime but maybe there's better options?

Don't forget about our headband giveaway. All you have to do is enter a comment on this post to be entered to win. We'll choose a winner Monday.

I hope all your sewing plans are successful

Happy Sewing

Love,

Jessie and Sue.