The Savvy Sewer Salon at Sawyer Brook

Hey Everyone--This one will be fun! Whether you choose an SB fabric from your stash or buy one of the new ones coming to the store this week, you'll have lots of fun sharing tips and learning techniques for dealing with this back-in-style fabrication!

Here are the plaids in the store right now.
Fantastic Flax
Brittany
Fleetwood
The Blues
Tikal
Ladderhorn
Plein Air

Looking for Jacket Weight?
Bonfire
Jingle Bell Plaid
Dunbar

I'm so excited for this sew along, and I really hope some people will join me! Plaids are definitely "in" now for the winter. I'll be making a cotton tunic with Fleetwood and McCall's 6187.


I believe Barb is putting a couple of new plaids up in the store this week, too, so I'll wait to start sewing until next week. I still have to get my fabric, too. Meanwhile, to refresh my plaid-sewing skills, I'm going to make a little vest with some (recent but sold out) plaid jacket fabric I have, "Tanglewood."

Anybody game for a plaid shirt? A skirt, perhaps?

Jenny, that is going to be a beautiful tunic. I love the colors in the plaid you've chosen.

Recently I purchased The Blues because I liked the colors and the cotton/linen fabrication. It's the kind of fabric that's easy to wear and sew. When I saw your new sew along Jenny, I went through my patterns and got the idea to use The Blues to make a shirt from a jacket pattern.
The version I plan to make is on top, with the v neckline, small collar, but with plain sleeves that do not cuff. Great Copy Pattern's website shows this jacket made up into a shirt and it looks very wearable.
http://www.greatcopy.com/products/33My plans are to pair the shirt with navy pants that I made a few years ago and never had the right thing to wear as a top.

I'm thinking about cutting the collar on the bias. Also, I may add small patch pockets that blend in completely and are barely noticeable, instead of the inseam pockets in the drawing. Pockets seem to make a garment more comfortable, and patch pockets are my favorite. It's like mixing a smock with a shirt.

Now to search my button stash. I know I have some Tristone buttons in denim that might work here. I never know until I actually place them on the fabric.

Lisa

Lisa, I'm excited you'll be joining me! The back of that jacket looks interesting with the pleat.

After a nuts week, I cut out my Tanglewood vest pieces and took a few photos showing how I match things up. I'll go in more depth with my shirt, but this will get us started. I always cut out plaids one piece at a time, with no folds in the fabric to cut two fronts at once, for instance.

First, to make the front look nice, I pick a part of the plaid repeat to be the center front. In this fabric, I used the center of the boldest lines of plaid. (Does that make any sense?) Line up the center front marking on the pattern on top of the designated center front portion of the fabric.

Cut out the second front piece as a perfect mirror image of the first.
Here, I laid one on top of the other, folding under the seam allowance, so you can see how the plaid pattern will seamlessly flow.

I also took care that the plaid flows from the front to the side front piece (this vest has princess seams) but didn't take pictures of that. It's a little bit more complicated (but not that hard!), and I'll address it when I cut out my Fleetwood shirt.

Here are the two side front pieces. When cutting out the second piece, just make sure all the points match up.


For the back pattern piece, I still did not cut it on the fold. Again, I lined up the fold line with my designated "center" strip of fabric and cut out one side. Then, I flipped the pattern piece, matched points and notches, and cut out the other side.

Here is my vest as it stands now, modeled by my lovely counter stool. Tonight, I will give it a good pressing and then close up the side seams and maybe start the hem.

I'm down to needing buttonholes, buttons, and a final pressing on my vest. I can't find those pesky SB buttons, though. I know they are somewhere and will be perfect! I bought them for a jacket I still haven't finished and don't want to make them wait any longer to serve their purpose on a finished garment. Not surprising I can't find them, though, given the state of my sewing space!

Jenny, your vest is beautiful. The fabric is special, and your sewing work is excellent. I've learned a few things about cutting out plaids from reading your posts. Thanks for the information.

Today I finally got around to cutting out my top. "The Blues" plaid that I'm using is a smaller plaid, but each square is a bit more complex than it looks. So, I studied it before starting to be sure I understand the design. What makes it easy is that the repeat is small, so it doesn't really require extra fabric to match the plaids.

I've made a couple of plaid shirts for my husband, and got good experience that way. However, I've also learned about shirt plaid options by watching old "Frasier" reruns. In every show the father, Martin, is wearing a plaid shirt. Occasionally the back yoke is on the bias, and sometimes the front pockets are on the bias. So I've had lots of opportunity to see how those options look, and I've decided not to put the yoke or the pockets on the bias on this shirt, but rather to let them blend in. My idea for the shirt I'm making is for the style of the neckline and collar be the focus. The collar will be on the bias because it's a v-neck and I'm thinking bias will look more appropriate. But I never really know until I see it.

Lisa

Thanks, Lisa. I'm so glad this is helpful. I'm going to go more in depth with cutting and sewing my plaid top, and I think that plaid will be easier to see the repeat on when I take photos. This vest is kind of a tide-over project while I wait for Fleetwood to get here.

I always procrastinate when I'm going to make an order because I spend days picking all the fabrics I want and then have to cut out about half. Anyway... I expect it will arrive about Wednesday. That'll give me time to find those pesky buttons. I've just been operating under the "they'll turn up" search method, but I'm going to ramp up the hunting tomorrow. I WILL find those buttons. I swear I saw them a week ago!

I think I understand what you mean about cutting the collar on the bias since it will be a V-neck and you want everything to be low-contrast. I guess the only part that would appear as diagonal lines would be the back neck of collar?

Jenny, this will be a really helpful SA. Didn't you get Tanglewood when you were shopping for skirt and cape fabric? Hope you found the buttons by now so we can see the finished product. I haven't found my seam ripper in days (guess it went the way of the lining).

Lisa, you're priceless! You learned a lot about plaids from watching Fraiser.
You are a very observant lady .

Fabric came today! Yea! Didn't have time for anything other than pre-washing, though. Cutting starts tomorrow!

Yes, Alma, I did get the Tanglewood with the cape fabric. I had to have some Tanglewood but only got a yard (cause I'm cheap and knew I wouldn't make a jacket anyway). I decided not to make a skirt with it since I already have a plaid skirt in similar colors. I love how the vest is come out, though. Still haven't located those buttons, though.

Jenny, it's so much fun when a package arrives. Fleetwood is beautiful. I can't wait to see what you do with it. Like you I also spend a while putting things in and out of the SB shopping cart before making the final decision. Thanks goodness for the option to restore the cart from the previous session.

My shirt is now underway. The underside of the collar is cut on the bias, just because it may lay more smoothly. But the top part of the collar, the part that will be seen, I thought would also look good cut on the bias. But a funny thing happened. When I put a bias cut collar on the v neck opening, it turned into straight grain. So, I cut it out again on the straight grain and when I turned it 90 degrees onto the v neck, then I got the look I want. Here are some pictures to show what I mean.


The left version blends in too much and the collar is really the focus here.

I also worked on the pockets and I wanted these to blend in. A few tries were necessary to get both pockets exactly the same, but finally I got it. Now they're hand basted on (a necessity to keep the plaid from shifting) and will be topstitched today.

Next is the back yoke. That should be easy and fun sewing. I'm already looking forward to wearing this shirt along with the linen/rayon navy pants that go with it. It may also look nice as a light jacket over a white t-shirt. We'll see.

Today is Groundhog Day, and I haven't checked, but I expect Phil saw his shadow today. Nevertheless, he is the first sign of spring. Mother Nature has a sense of humor.

Lisa

Lisa, interesting what happens to the collar on the bias (obviously you mean the actual left).
I hope you'll show the jacket with the pants.

Do you think Phil has a slightly cruel sense of humor? It was like walking on grease here today.

Punxatawney Phil predicted an early spring this year. It seems to me what happens is the groundhog comes out of its burrow looking for green shoots to eat. If it finds them it stays out. Otherwise it's back to bed. That's my analysis, founded upon the bites in my dog's snout from a surprised and angry groundhog in early February 2007, the last year Phil predicted an early spring. Since then we put up a fence and now Groundhog Day is fun again.

Today I put on the collar and assembled front to back. Here's what it looks like. It's not yet pressed but this does show how the collar looks. I tried it on and it sits nicely.

The back yoke lining makes a nice, neat facing with no exposed edges.

Lisa

Lisa, the shirt is looking good. I like the feature of the collar grain adding some interest. Also, I don't hand-baste much, but for plaid pockets, I would. Yours look great.

It's time for me to get moving on my Fleetwood shirt today. Lisa is putting me to shame. I'll be coming home after dropping my big boy at preschool, and my littlest helper will watch Elmo (yeah, right - helping me is much more interesting!) while I cut out my top. I'll probably get to some sewing today as well, since there's not much going on here and the weather is pretty dreary.

Lisa, you made a good choice with the collar. I like it!

Jenny, you have nothing to be concerned about since your talents speak for themselves, but Lisa puts us all to shame.