My Renfrew Tops

I just ordered three patterns from Sewaholic, and absolutely LOVE them!! I cannot recommend them enough! First patterns I tried was the Renfrew Top. This is my first try. The fabric is Rayon-Jersey. It's also the first time that I worked with this kind of fabric, and it wasn't all that bad. It took me a while to find the straight, and I had to be careful while pinning because of its lightweight, but in the end it turned out quite well. But I don't think I will use this kind of fabric again for this top. It is just too flimsy. And this was meant to be a wearable muslin anyway.

According to the pattern envelope I would be an 8, but because I was using stretch knit I cut out a size 6 and it fits perfectly. My second try is from Organic Cotton Jersey. Thicker than the Rayon Jersey, a breeze to sew with and very comfortable to wear. There is already some Cotton Jersey in dark blue and Tencel Jersey in gray waiting in my stash to become a Renfrew Top.

First Project with knit and some bags

A couple of weeks ago I bought the Kyoko dress pattern by modkid.

I love the pattern and plan to make it with Karavan knit by Valori Wells, the Obi belt will be from the same line in the Fuchsia solid knit.

But before I was to cut into the good fabric I made this wearable muslin from $1/yard knit that I bought at Walmart a while ago. I have never sewn with knits before and I thought I would try it our first on some cheap fabric. After reading a couple of tutorials about sewing with knits and reading the knit chapter in the "Fabric Sewing Guide" by Claire Shaeffer I felt confident enough to give it a try. This particular knit is very lightweight and has a lot of drape. It looks way better on the dress form, then it does on me, though.

This is the back of the dress. First when I finished the dress I was very disappointed with how it looked on me. But then I decided to make the Obi belt too, and it gives the dress a way better look. At least with this fabric I wouldn't wear it without the belt. The hem of the skirt is finished with a lettuce hem.

I finished all the hems with my serger and I really like the look of it. With the other fabric I will finish the hems with binding from the solid Fuchsia color. The Obi in this version is just one piece of fabric finished with a narrow hem with my serger, since I didn't had enough fabric left to make it from two pieces. 

The intention here wasn't at all to make wavy seams like this, but I am also very new to the whole serger thing and still have to figure out a lot of things. I might take a serger class at the store where I got my Bernina sewing machine. If they let me with my second-hand Singer serger ;-)

I took a break from sewing cloths for a while, because I was so unhappy about the outcome of this dress, so I decided to make some bags. I made this reversible shoulder bag with this tutorial 

It was nice to do some stash busting. I used two different fabrics from Lark by Amy Butler. 

Initially I bought this polka dot fabric for the Dino Baby Quilt I made, but I ordered the wrong kind and ended up with 1 1/1 yard of this cotton duck. So I decided to make this tote from the book "The new handmade" by Cassie Barden. I didn't put the plywood bottom in it. I think it's just fine without.