{"id":305,"date":"2020-04-16T23:45:23","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T23:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/?p=305"},"modified":"2020-04-16T23:45:26","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T23:45:26","slug":"various-plague-time-projects-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/2020\/04\/16\/various-plague-time-projects-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Various plague-time projects (part 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
In our matching donut outfits!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My last post<\/a> covered about half the things I made from January through April, and here I’ll share the things I made after the crucial date of Feb. 27, when my son was born and the world teetered into chaos (unrelated, although kind of not).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before that, though, I’ve been meaning to share two small but exciting (to me!) improvements to my sewing life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Snaps!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First: snaps! Kids’ clothes often involve snaps and I’d been using a standard snap kit, with metal rings and a set of pliers. But it was pretty disappointing: the snaps were hard to attach and, worse, tended to pop off. On a tip from another blog, I bought a KAMSnap<\/a> kit, which is widely available and pretty inexpensive. I bought the plastic snaps<\/a>, which come in a huge array of colors, and I’ve been really happy with them. I find them much easier to apply than the standard snap kit, and much sturdier. I love all the colors — you can even get them in cool shapes<\/a>. So that’s my first small win!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Wavy seams at every adjustment of the differential feed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Second: serged seams! I love my serger, but I’ve had a terrible problem with wavy seams. All the guidance I’ve read suggests that the answer lies in adjusting the differential feed. So I adjusted. And adjusted. And adjusted. The seams stayed wavy, no matter how fervently I pressed them, to the extent that I was about to give up on serging things. Finally, I posted the question in a Juki Facebook group. The very first comment yielded the answer: my stitch length was way too short! I lengthened the stitches and the wavy seams magically straightened out! I’m not sure why the stitch length made such a difference, but I’m SO happy to have fixed this problem. Now I want to serge everything!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franky baseball tees<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Franky baseball tee, my first postpartum project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

OK, on to the actual projects. My records<\/a> show that my first postpartum project was completed March 8, about a week and a half after Davy was born. I made two Franky baseball tees from the Tilly Stretch<\/em> book, one from some kind of pink terry and the other from a tiger-patterned double-knit from Miss Matatabi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Second Franky baseball tee.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’m not sure what possessed me to make this pattern, specifically. I guess I just wanted something stretchy and comfy to accommodate my newly unfamiliar postpartum body. I like them both fine, but I’m not crazy about them, which is too bad, since I really like the tiger fabric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winnats tank<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Winnats tank<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Continuing in the comfy-and-stretchy vein, I next made a Winnats tank from Wendy Ward’s A Beginner’s Guide to Sewing with Knits<\/a><\/em> book. I really like this one; it’s super comfortable. I’m sorry to have used up this mysterious striped knit, which I got by the pound at Sas Fabrics<\/a>, in El Segundo. It’s quite heavyweight, like a ponte, and is great for tops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baby shirts and pants<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I made a bunch of onesies before Davy was born, but shortly afterwards, I remembered something that had occurred to me with my last baby: shirts are actually easier than onesies, since they’re a little simpler to put on, and what is the point of a onesie, anyway? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Actually, there’s not much point to any item of baby clothing, particularly when you’re not allowed to leave the house, but why have a baby if you don’t dress him up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, I chose a shirt pattern that would be easy to maneuver over his giant head, the raglan-sleeved baby jacket<\/a> posted by Spoonflower. I substituted binding for ric-rac and snaps (KAMsnaps! woot!) for velcro. Cute and easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pants are the Just Hatched pattern<\/a> from Made by Rae, which is adorable, with a giant diaper butt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appleton wrap dress<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Appleton wrap dress<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Next up was the Appleton wrap dress by Cashmerette<\/a>, which I thought would be comfortable and easy to wear. It is both of those things, although I made the mistake of cutting the skirt a little too big. It’s meant to be more of a pencil shape than a twirly shape, but the way I cut it, it’s neither here nor there. Also, the instructions don’t ask you to interface the waist tie, but I kind of wish I had, since of course it stretches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fabric is a nice knit, a gift from my mom, who accidentally gave me 6 yards instead of the 3 she’d intended. So I still have a good amount left. Dora wanted a matching dress, so I made her the Boardwalk Wrap Dress<\/a>, by New Horizons. I have not yet been able to corral her for a photo, though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Easter skirt and tee<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
My little bunny<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was determined to make this a really happy Easter for Dora, despite our homebound status, and she requested an Easter skirt. She’s been a little less interested in twirly things lately, so I went with the Super Easy Skirt with pockets by Lili and Stitch<\/a>. It was, as advertised, super easy, and I made her a matching pink tee. There was also a purse in the mix, though I don’t have a picture of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fabric is a recent purchase, I’m sorry to say. I’ve been really good about not buying more fabric lately, but this organic cotton Birch knit was less than $9 a yard (why so cheap?? IDK!) at a place called Prickly Pear Fabrics<\/a>, and I couldn’t resist. I also picked up some strawberry-patterned cotton<\/a> and this cotton barkcloth<\/a> decorated with sloths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’m now working on a long-promised Fairfield button-up shirt<\/a> for my husband. It’s a fairly complex pattern, at least for my quarantine-addled brain, and my desire to work on it comes and goes. So I may take a break from it to work on something a little simpler — maybe the Closet Case Fiore skirt<\/a>, which I have the physical pattern for. I need to have a real come-to-Jesus moment with the tape measure to figure out what the hell is going on with my postpartum body, but for the time being, I have enough on my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you’re safe and that you and your loved ones are able to ride out this quarantine in relative peace and security. Here’s hoping my next update comes in a happier time!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My last post covered about half the things I made from January through April, and here I’ll share the things I made after the crucial date of Feb. 27, when … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Various plague-time projects (part 2)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/miriamposner.com\/classes\/sewing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}