Jorts go Jorts: Part 1

Jorts Go Jorts! This anthem has been playing relentlessly in my brain since beginning this project. Even earlier, in fact: since I started noticing long jean shorts, a.k.a. jorts, everywhere in my neighborhood. Jorts have nothing to do with sports except the rhyme, but I like the way conflating them implies terms like jortsmanship. Anyway. This is going to be a two-part post, beginning with pattern manipulation and hopefully ending in wearable jorts.

The precipitating incident that got me past the thinking-about-jorts phase to the doing-about-jorts phase was this Wirecutter article, which is pretty bad, but which linked to these jeans, which are pretty good. A listing for a $410 pair of jeans gets you some decent turn photos and specified measurements, but no unskinny models (snooze, show me some variety please) and no line drawings. Yes, I know RTW doesn’t share line drawings, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting them!!

This pair of jeans – and seemingly everyone else in pattern drafting at the moment – uses a “Y” dart, here for back shaping, playing right into my summer 2026 obsession with clothes that look kinda sad and saggy. It’s also got knee darts and a big ol’ karate kick inseam gusset. This is a juicy piece to copy if you’re in the mood to try some stuff. I know when modifying or fitting a pattern, you’re supposed to make one small change at a time and reflect on the result, but I decline! I will be making ten thousand changes at once and fumbling blindly to a result, any result! But I started with an existing pattern.  

I wanted to use a relaxed-fit pair of jeans as my base for transformation. I already own the Daughter Judy Adams pattern, which, bonus, utilizes back darts instead of a yoke, putting me one step farther along the road to rotating the dart. But a quick scroll through the Daughter Judy catalog suggested that the Coe trousers might be a closer match to my inspiration jeans.

The Daughter Judy mid-size model is so hot that it’s hard to focus on the pattern. But I reminded myself that no pants will transform me into a selkie who wins fistfights, and cropped the Adams pants and the Coe trousers images to just the crotch and waist. Pretty similar fit, yeah? Not identical, but for $14 minimum, close enough.

And I figured I’d be modifying the leg shape until their own Jane, His Wife, wouldn’t recognize ’em.

I have great gratitude for Daughter Judy’s unlocked projector file. My biggest reluctance re: projector sewing is that I like altering my patterns. If the industry standard was an unlocked pattern (with layers, even better) I would give a projector some serious thought! 

I decided to edit this pattern digitally in Illustrator, even though I’d be printing and assembling it later, so I could apply some version control. Within the files all is chaos but it’s a nice thought.

Step 1 was removing the seam allowances, of course. Also filling in the pocket scoop. Step 2 was performing a 1” knock knee adjustment that has nothing to do with the Shon design but that I’d been meaning to get around to. Next, chronologically…

3. Rotated the back dart from waist to center back. Increased dart intake ½” (this is an adjustment I usually make on the fly, but I formalized it). 

4. Increased front and back rise by .75” (this is based on the Shon design: lank and droopy, that’s the ticket).

5. Lengthened legs 4” below lengthen/shorten line at knee (I said droooopy!).

6. GUSSET.

Ah, the gusset. The gusset was my greatest intellectual challenge. Everything else was just a matter of sliding things around – I might choose the wrong measurements, but I knew the maneuvers were correct. Not so the gusset. 

Most of the information I could find about pants gussets was about adding a diamond-shaped gusset right at the crotch, but I wanted my gusset to run the entire length of the legs. Eventually I found this tutorial for leggings, but I crossed my fingers and applied it to a woven pattern anyway. 

I adjusted the curves I removed from the front and back legs little by little until they were exactly the same length, while making sure they met the hem and crotch at 90° angles; this was the easiest way I could follow that tutorial and end up with a rational, non-fabric-wasting shape. Once I got the length of the curved lines to be equal, I measured the snipped-off crotch extensions to determine the widest part of the measurement. I placed the bottom end of each curved cut line 1” from the inseam so the narrow ends of the gusset are 2” wide.

I made my gusset symmetrical, so it was just a matter of connecting the dots, and then mirroring it for a full length pattern piece. I am very interested to see how this sews up.

7. Opened a dart along the lengthen/shorten line at front and back knee (originating in the inseam, pointing at outseam). Front knee dart is 5” long with a 1” intake; back knee dart is 7.5” long with a 1” intake. Inevitably, opening these darts narrowed the ankle openings, about 3” total in my case, but the final openings are about 18” so I reckon that’s okay.

8. Trued outseams with a gentle barrel curve. 

9. Drew new pockets (I’m using the original DJ waistband, fly extension, and fly shield, so no need to redraw those).

10. Added seam allowances (½”, 1.5” at hem) and redrew grainlines.

And that’s…that. Is that anything? Who knows!

I suspect the Shon knee darts are actually *tucks*, when I look at the fabric released at their tips, but I’m using darts. Taking predictions now: will these be, in the promise of Shon, utilitarian, sexy, easy, and transformative? Or like Wirecutter’s mom, do you blanch at the process?

I’ve already printed my experimental pattern and cut the fabric for trial jorts, using the knee line as my shorts hem length. So we’ll find out soon!

Big Raspberry

Okay the lede is I bought fabric at Michael’s. What?! But! Here is why! I wanted cheap thick white canvas to dye, and they had it! And I wanted cheap white canvas to dye because I wanted to dye it alongside white cotton webbing, and I wanted coordinating canvas and webbing so I could sew a one-tone Raspberry Rucksack! And that’s what I did!

I’m using extra exclamation points because this color is an exclamation point, and I have nobody to blame but myself. 

This was a meaty project. The inflection point was that after three-plus years of daily use, our backpack-cum-diaper-bag is faded, frayed, and falling apart at the seams. 

Mini-Muffin is also starting preschool this fall and will need a bag. The Big Raspberry dimensions were perfect for her lunch gear (so…much…lunch gear. It turns out that I think commerce is a snooze except for stainless steel lunch gear, in which case the Venn diagram of food prep and school supplies hits me right in the pocket). I landed on this color, which the fun and hugely useful Rit color formula calculator calls “Koi fish”, because Mini-Muffin prefers pink and I’d assumed this dye job, like all my previous dye jobs, would take at about 50% intensity and leave me with a peppy strong coral. Incorrect! That’s what I get for following the packet directions (I added dish soap and pickling salt!!).

My dye job is uneven, probably because the fabric is so stiff. Also the cotton webbing appears to have a line of undyed polyester thread running through it, but it’s difficult to look right at this bag for long so I doubt anyone will notice. 

I don’t know whether sewing this gave me project fatigue or eyestrain or both.

I dyed 1 yard of fabric and 4 yards of webbing, instead of ¾ and 3.5, respectively, so I was able to cut around the patchiest parts of the canvas. Also, when cutting the webbing to length, I was over by about 5”, NOT 18”, so I’m glad I took that precaution. Other supplies include the zippers and lining, selected by Mini-Muffin, and the hardware, which cost a fortune but is nice enameled metal and shipped unbelievably quickly. 

I kind of wish I’d bought the zips from the same Etsy shop – the selection is super-cool, but I reluctantly passed by because the coolest ones are 30” long and the pattern calls for 32”, only to flake in the fabric store and buy a 30” handbag zipper anyway.

It was very easy to adjust the rectangle extensions on the bag front to be 1” higher each, and the bag still opens generously (yawns, if you will). You live, you learn. But apparently mostly that first part, because I forgot about the clean finish alternatives I linked to the first time I sewed this pattern, 6 years ago. 

Speaking of not-learning, I had trouble sewing the pop-up pocket again. It was pretty squashy and uneven when I finished, so I edgestitched the outer fabric on the top and bottom to crisp up the shape. That worked but it still didn’t Delight The Eye. I decided, also, that it would be too hard for a three-year-old to reach and manipulate the zip under the flap. So: off with your pocket! I bought another 10” zipper and attempted the pocket I viewed in this video sewalong instead, and it came out pretty good, but not quite good, and I wasn’t settling for less than quite. So I yanked THAT pocket too. I liked having the zipper visible so my final pocket is just a patch pocket with a zippered opening.  

I spent about half of my project hours sewing the pockets I did not use. 

I spent much less time sewing this patch on, in addition to ironing it in place. That’s 10 minutes that give me peace of mind. 

The patch was another Mini-Muffin pick; it came down to this and the frog farting a rainbow, and honestly either would have been a winner.

After the pocket, the longest, hardest step is sewing in the zip. I threw some basting stitches into the zipper tape and gathered it to ease around the curve. This wasn’t recommended anywhere, but neither have I seen it contraindicated, and I got the zipper in quickly. It’s slightly tortured-looking around the corners but I think that was inevitable!

After mushing zippers in all sorts of ways they didn’t want to be mushed, the back panel is straightforward and pleasant. I added a large internal pocket with a lightly elasticated top edge, because why not. I had to unpick the straps once, but only because I forgot I placed them 4” apart on the front instead of 3”, as directed, to accommodate the patch. I don’t mind sewing straight edges to corners which is the only trick left in the bag at that point, so the last few steps accelerated fast.

The final seam is finished with bias binding. I used prepackaged bias tape. There were only two colors on the shelf, pink and white. I didn’t feel like making my own because the seam was bulky enough already without a lot of joins, but the pink is letting the side down a bit. 

Dullsville, though if it bothers me later, replaceable! 

I would rate this pattern “worth the dough”. It’s got some complex parts, and when I didn’t like the result, it was because of my execution, not drafting or directions. Though an aside: this is obviously a homebrew Fjällräven, but the shop-bought kind’s pop-up pocket is unlined. Skipping the lining might make the pocket one skosh easier, especially in a fabric that holds its shape well!

I would rate this backpack “BRIGHT”. It’s so sort of eye-crushing that I can’t evaluate it objectively. But Mini-Muffin likes it, and she’ll always be easy to spot! 

Unfortunately, I doubt it’s worth $90 of supplies; a full-price Kånken is $95, and a thrift store and taking your chances is under $10.

But on the plus side, I have another 6 yards of webbing left, so if I decide to sew one for myself later it’ll cost less and I can dye a color to my own taste. That’s right: mud.

Now to lie down with a cool washcloth on my peepers! 

–

Pattern: Raspberry Rucksack

Pattern cost: NA

Size: Big

Supplies: So many they got their own spreadsheet:

Total time: 14.5 hours

Total cost: $89.90

Bike Shorts

I added two pairs of RTW bike shorts to my wardrobe this summer. Not the real deals with padded bums and sporty overlocking, just a couple black jersey doodalallies with long inseams and a smidgeon of negative ease. The only downside of these magnificent garments is the lack of pockets.

So yeah, I sewed a pair, natürlich! Gather Here had something called “yoga cloth” for sale, which is a beefy (beeeeffy!) 91% cotton/9% spandex knit, and they had it in black, which means this entire blog post will be invisible.

1 yard was enough for my pattern, and I really mean *my* pattern, since I used freesewing.org again.

This is the Lumina custom pattern. I liked it better than any of the other patterns I saw, a.k.a. the one free one I looked at over on Mood (I got lazy). Taking my own measurements is not my best category, but it’s a useful exercise, and hopefully I’ll improve through repetition. Even though this pattern is drafted as shorts it asked for some lower-body measurements, like heel circumference, and it’s nice to have those banked for the future. Sometimes you just want to dive into a project without measuring your heel, y’know?

I used a ⅜” seam allowance (customizable) and sewed with a three-step zig-zag throughout. I changed my mind about which side of this fabric was “correct” between cutting and sewing – I’m still not sure I got it right! It was a pain to mark, but it cut well, with minimal rolling.

Because the Lumina is a custom-generated pattern, there’s no directions. The construction is pretty self-explanatory, but here’s my cheat sheet:

1. Single-fold and hem the pocket openings with a stretch stitch.
2. Attach pockets to side panels. (I did this right-sides-together; you could certainly turn under the hem allowance and topstitch in place if you prefer.)
3. Sew side panel/pocket units to leg pieces. (My side panels had an obvious difference between the edge that joined the leg front and the one that joined the leg back. Depending on your measurements, you might need to pay closer attention.) I serged my seams and pressed the allowances towards the leg piece.
4. Single-fold hem the leg units with a stretch stitch.*
5. Join and finish crotch curve.
6. Sew each waistband piece into a loop. The seam is at center back.
7. Sew one waistband loop to the waist, right-sides-together.† Sew second waistband to attached waistband at top edge RST. Optionally: using a stretch stitch, understitch the seam allowance. 

I did this because even though I’ve been sewing a lot of knits lately, you can take the girl out of the wovens but you can’t take the wovens outta the girl.

8. Smooth the inner waistband in place, letting any excess overhang the existing seam allowance (which it definitely will if you also made your bones on the mean woven streets and understitched like me). Pin and sew. Trim the excess or serge it off.
9. Also optionally: topstitch the waist seam allowance towards the legs, using a stretch stitch.  

*I unpicked and re-sewed my hems after my first try-on because I wanted a deeper hem allowance, and also because I’d broken the stitching on one side. The second time, I stretched the fabric slightly while topstitching the hem in place, and now they have plenty of give.

† This is an EXCELLENT TIME to try on your shorts. Let’s get autobiographical for a minute: my butt had a beak.

I’ll expand. The raised back waist meets in a point. The back waistband (with optional shaping toggled on) also has a point. The meeting of these two points resulted in a triangular pocket.

This had to be an error in entering my measurements, since I don’t have an exceptionally tall butt with a corner in it, but the shorts definitely weren’t wearable in that iteration.

My fix wasn’t fancy: I pinched out the excess and serged with the knife on. I probably could have pinched out even more but the back waist feels too low as is – not too low for function, since so far I’ve only worn bike shorts under skirts/dresses, as pajamas, or in concert with a big shirt to keep the sun off – but lower than I’m used to. 

Also, I didn’t want the back waistband to be noticeably narrower than the waistband in front. I know that part’s not important, it’s just visually weird!

The pockets open immediately below the waistband, which initially surprised me, but I’m pleased to report they’re comfortable and effective.

I am a big-time phone loser but several of the times it was “lost” it was actually just imperceptible in this pocket.

This is one occasion where sewing could be competitively priced, clocking in at under $15 for this pair. I have a largish black scrap left so if I’m feeling particularly sassy I could topstitch pockets to my RTW pairs too. Unfortunately, this particular iteration, while never actually falling off my butt, constantly feels like it’s about to, so I’m not sure this pattern is worth amending. In addition to being low, the waist is also too loose. On the other hand, a well-conforming crotch is nothing to sneeze at. We shall see!

–

Pattern: Lumina bike shorts 

Pattern cost: $0.00

Size: custom; removed substantial wedge from center back/center back waistband (3″?) 

Supplies: 1 yard of yoga cloth in Black, $13.26, Gather Here; thread from stash

Total time: 3.25 hours

Total cost: $13.26

Stone Cold Quilla

I’ve had an email from Fibre Mood sitting in my inbox for several mmm…months? Myears? Anyway, it was supposed to contain a code that allowed one free pattern download. The code did diddly-squat, but the pattern I put in my cart and then abandoned was the Fibre Mood Quilla.

What can I say, I had a sudden urge for deeply pleated elasticated side panels, a familiar urge I am sure you will agree. But I wasn’t willing to pay for something I thought was free, so we’re back to drafting-in-quotes! A.k.a. Plagiarism?!

One benefit of uhhh paying homage to a Fibre Mood pattern is that you can download the instructions without owning the pattern. This was instrumental. I thought the top would have straight-sided front and back panels and trapezoidal side panels, but the front panel is flared, the back is straight, and the side panels are simple rectangles. I already own a pattern with a straight back and a flared front. Or more accurately, I own a pattern where that description applies perfectly to the facing: the Peppermint Button-Front dress.

There was much celebration in the PoundCake household when I realized the Peppermint dress file was not only open-able in Illustrator, but it also had complete pattern pieces with seamlines on a separate layer. It was a matter of moments to move the pattern pieces sans seam allowances into a new file. Now we’re editing with gas!!

I extended the vertical-ish parts of the armscye curves as described above. I also reshaped the neckline to be boatier. 

My side panels are just rectangles, with the size of the rectangle “designed” to place the top edge about 1” above the lowest point of the original armscye curve, in hopes of covering my whole bra. I did my best to copy the look of the official Quilla pattern pieces, using my sizing from the Peppermint pattern.

Adding seam allowances took more attention than usual, since those deep side pleats are created with big seam allowances. The point where the facing meets the deep seam allowance is sewn as an inverted corner. Reviews called the facing attachment “unnecessarily complicated” but I watched the sewalong video and it looked like fun. The square corners ARE fun. The attachment method IS unnecessarily complicated. Anyone who said to sew the facing using the burrito method was right. I couldn’t picture this at first but it’s just the regular burrito method, except for starting and ending with the fun corners!

The panelled construction plus elastic, which I liked so much, also meant that I couldn’t try on this top until it was almost done. And since I was copying the look of a pattern while blagging the drafting, I didn’t really know if it would work out. I cut my side elastics at 7.5” each and attached only one end, assuming I’d adjust those on my body.

Actually the elastic length was fine, but in this case, the wages of sin were gape. There was a huge amount of excess at the back neck. A lot in the front, too, but that felt less urgent. I pinched out 3” from the back and then had to figure out what to do with it. At this point the facing was attached to the armscyes (and the side panels, so help me), so I tried opening up the layers and pinching out fish-eye darts across the back and facing, with the widest part of the dart intake at the neckline. Unsurprisingly, that looked bad.

In the category Doing, subcategory, What You Have To Do, you will find unpicking this entiiire top. I stripped this thing down to the studs. I reduced it back to the original fabric pieces, and then made adjustments. It was the only tidy way! 

Back in Illustrator, I tried drafting out the excess, but that placed the armscye part of the back panel at a very obtuse angle to the side seam part of the back panel, and I wanted that line to be visually continuous. Ultimately I added two darts to the outer back neck and used my redrafted upper back for the facing. I had just enough fabric scraps to recut the new back facing with an added center seam.

Ideally the darts wouldn’t be coming from the neckline, but also ideally I wouldn’t have had gaping that rivalled the open maw of Lord Jabu-Jabu. It was challenging to angle the darts on my own back, and neither the angle nor the length look correct, but I promise it’s an improvement. 

By the way I tried on the tank I made from the Peppermint dress facing and found back neck gaping there too. Not as extreme, but I really should have seen this coming.

I didn’t have enough scrap fabric to do anything about the front but I went ahead and updated the pattern piece anyway. I’m not sure what this adjustment is called but I essentially removed a fisheye dart from the upper chest, based on how the fabric collapses into, you got it, a fisheye-dart-shape. 

I don’t really need another of these tops but I’m so tempted to sew another!  I want to know if I got it right. Or at least right-er!

A chaotic comparison:

Anyway, the second time I sewed this puppy went a lot faster. I imagine a third would similarly accelerate. A word for the fabric: it’s 1.25 yards of Windham Handloom Cotton in Bayou and I love it, and maybe that’s why I also genuinely like this top! I can see room for improvement, of course, but dang it, it’s cute! 

This color is great! It’s fun to wear! Not so bad for a discount code that didn’t work.

–

Pattern:  Fibre Mood Quilla (kinda)

Pattern cost: NA

Size: E, based on the Peppermint block

Supplies: 1.25 yards of Windham Handloom Cotton in Bayou, $17.00, Gather Here; thread, Michael’s, $2.65; elastic, $9.00, Gather Here

Total time: 5.5 hours

Total cost: $28.65

Hair Hair

Hairkerchiefs! Bandannas! Headscarfs! Whatever their proper name, I missed the trend to wear a li’l kerchief in the nineties and I was determined to catch it this time. At the most basic level this project can be constructed as follows:

1. Know what a square is
2. Make that

But I had two sub-goals, one of which was to save fabric and the other one of which was to try a new-to-me company. You don’t strictly need a pattern for a triangle plus a rectangle, but Stitchmaiden has a free one, and Stitchmaiden is also the pattern company voted Most Likely To Make Me Change My Whole Personality and Probably Adopt a Toad.

I was excited to trial them and possibly begin my second act as an aesthetic witch (pardon me, æsthytick wytch), and I don’t want to cast shade on a company which is doing something deliberate and specific and joyful, but their booklet is…nuts. All the nuts. Please don’t hex me!

I was so bewildered by it that I found it easier to trace the pattern pieces in Illustrator and take measurements. When I looked them over in a nice boring void, it became much easier to figure out which pieces went with which views and select accordingly. I made myself the most basic version, the plain triangle “flap” plus the back scrunchie-style band. The benefit of sewing it as a triangle instead of a square is that you save literally half the fabric. Well, almost, depending on how you rotate it. 

Instead of following the cutting layout, I placed my triangle one turn 45°, so the hypotenuse/forehead edge was on the cross grain and the A and B sides were both on the bias. This fit easily on ½ yard of fabric. Ideally a square bandanna would be around 21” finished, which would require ¾ of a yard, so I saved ¼ yard. But hey, a little in abundance is a lawt (sidebar, I grew up seeing this all the time and assumed that phrase was a universal touchstone)!

The bias edges of the triangle are finished with a double-fold hem, which means the point contains 9 layers of fabric. Three from folding one edge, then those three get folded under twice. Yoiks! My basic machine was not entirely happy with this situation. Instead of pivoting at the corner, I just sewed up to it twice and knotted my threads where they met.

I did like the elastic join, however – after wrapping it in the scrunchie band, the elastic is stitched to the forehead band, so the scrunchie band isn’t tensioned while topstitching it into place. It’s a nice touch. Incidentally, the forehead band could be grown-on to reduce bulk, but I didn’t mind it as a separate piece.

Mini-Muffin requested one of these for herself. To adjust it for a kid head size, albeit a kid with big hair, I shortened the elastic.

To adjust it for a my always-would-be-fancy kid, I added the ruffle. The ruffle kicked my butt! The two ruffle pieces are sewn together into a 90° corner and then sewn around the head flap. The diagram made it look tidy and straightforward, but mine was a puckered mess.

I could not stop fiddling with that corner. I must have sewn it three or four times, and eventually settled for what I had when the fabric started looking haggard. The short diagonal seam is pressed to one side, instead of open, and kind-of sort-of falling apart, but at least I didn’t catch any tucks.

I knew I had to stop unpicking this particular project, but I was still determined to learn how to do it better. It took me a while to figure out how to ask the question but once I started thinking about that corner as a v-neck instead of something ruffle-specific, I found a couple old-school blog tutorials about how to sew a right-angled band finish with a mitered seam – this one, and this one (eyeball warning for light text over chevrons). What they both have in common is that the mitered seam joining the two bands at the corner is sewn last. Every time I tried this ruffled corner, I sewed the diagonal join first. D’oh! In my defense that’s what the directions said to do, but nobody was going to come to my house and like, check.

I wasn’t totally satisfied by my hair-kerchief, so I used my cotton scraps to zoop up a quick, simple head scarf too. I looked at this tutorial, used their dimensions, and eyeballed the shape. I cut mine with the long flat edge on the fold, making this truly three lines of sewing and then done. I even topstitched the turning opening instead of ladder-stitching, reasoning that it would be under my hair at all times. The corners aren’t perfectly turned out, but as a test of the head scarf system, it’s sound.

Both this and my kerchief are functional. The kerchief is useful to prevent helmet hair (by exchanging it for kerchief hair), but I prefer the wider proportions of the kerchief on Mini-Muffin.

I also feel like the head scarf is a little too short. That similar feeling across two projects has me asking the tough question: IS MY HEAD BIG?

I think it’s possible if I come across a particularly adorable cotton I’ll make another bandanna. But no bells and whistles. Just 1. Square 2. Make it. A nice big square for my generous melon!!

–

Pattern: Stitchmaiden Freesia/Vintage Hair Scarf

Pattern cost: NA

Size: NA (one size)

Supplies: .5 yards of Fableism block print cotton in Wild Floral Blushing, $6.80, Gather Here; scraps of Fableism block print cotton in Flowering Violet; scraps of Fableism block print cotton in Wild Floral Blushing

Total time: 1.25/1.5/.75 hours

Total cost: $6.80

Flower Revel

I don’t usually get hopelessly moony over fabric but as soon as I saw the images of Fableism’s block print cotton I wanted some, and when I saw it in person I bought enough for this top immediately. I’d go as far as “smitten”, though no power on earth can make me say “luscious”. But I do like it very very much!

The fabric is a 45” wide cotton in a colorway called Flowering Violet, and the pattern is the Sew House Seven Revel topper. 

I only needed 1.5 yards. It’s vibrant, lightweight, easy to mark, press, sew – okay, it’s a summer-sewing allstar. I repeated the precaution I took the first time I sewed this top, which was sewing the facing to the shirt front before cutting any part of the front opening, but I think that was unnecessary. I also added a new precaution this time, which was interfacing both pieces at the point of the slit. My first version isn’t fraying noticeably at that point but it’s definitely wearing.

This cotton is a littttle bit sheer, but the pattern doesn’t bleed through, it’s just brighter white at the facings and darts. 

The first time I sewed this pattern my side seam finish didn’t capture the complete raw edges of the dart, because the intake doesn’t lie directly on top of the side seam. This problem is visible in the sewalong as well! Real forethought would have been reshaping that area slightly to line up perfectly when folded. My actual midthought was just yanking the edges to line up. Seems to have worked, since I can’t see any distortion.

That was lucky, since the one place this cotton doesn’t score 10/10 is in give. A firm, stable weave can be a plus, obviously, but drapeyness and ease of manipulation are nice too.

The tight weave caught me out in one step. The shoulder/back neck seam is meant to be French seamed. It has a total ⅝” seam allowance. Not only could I not French seam it, I couldn’t even take the whole seam allowance without puckers and tucks. I tried dropping the needle in various places, sewing with either side up, pins, no pins, whatever. I could only manage a ¼” seam allowance. Fine: I resigned myself to a slightly taller back collar and roomier sleeves.

From the outside it looks as designed, unless you know what you’re looking for, but the inside lacked ~*hanger appeal*~. I DEMAND HANGER APPEAL (OCCASIONALLY).  

Our local creative reuse store, Make & Mend, has a drawerful of vintage rayon seam tape, which I’d only ever seen used by Laura Mae at Lilac and Lace. But her seam finishes are famously beautiful and I’d made a mental note to try it myself one day. When this seam defeated me I hied over to Make & Mend – totally forgetting my fabric – and picked up 3 likely candidates for $1 each (originally 19¢ in 1966). I think the bold violet is the most fun accent but I was worried about show-through. 

Also, I had light blue thread already. The first tutorial I found was, surprise, at Lilacs and Lace!

My installation leaves much to be desired but it’s a real step up from serging and a whole lot lighter than cotton bias binding! I wish this notion were more readily available; I don’t need 100 yards of any particular color, as it seems to be sold today, but I’d love the option to pick up a few coordinating yards per project. I’ll shop that Make & Mend drawer while it lasts.

The armhole facing was also a little tricky to manipulate but once I had it attached, I could press it mostly into shape. It’s not crème-caramel-smooth but hey! Stop looking at my armpit!

The next time I sew one of these I might try adding the armhole facings in the round. The bottom of the armscye meets in a “v”, so I’d have to clip something, but this is the rare occasion where sewing in the flat is at least as fiddly. The topstitching is done in the round either way.

I took the full seam allowance on the side seams even though the fit tugged down over my hips is snug. I want to maintain the tapered shape without making the shoulders wider, so I won’t be sizing up or adjusting the pattern. I only wear it tucked in, so in practice it’s not an issue, but it’s something to think about if your hip and bust fall into different sizes as mine do.

I really thought I’d sew my second version of this top in something drapier, but I’m enjoying the featherweight, crisp cotton during our languishing heat wave. There’s probably a drapey solid-color one in my future next. Though right now I’m feeling particularly charmed by the past, both by the whiff of vintage in this piece but mostly by the back of my rayon seam tape label:

Aw! I want generous trimmings!!

–

Pattern:  Sew House Seven Revel topper

Pattern cost: NA

Size: 8

Supplies: 1.5 yards of Fableism block print cotton in Flowering Violet, Gather Here, $20.40; thread from stash; rayon seam binding, Make & Mend, $3.00

Total time: 4 hours

Total cost: $23.40

Summer romper

Are you tired of my green cotton? This romper KOs my last big scraps, so you’ll get a break after this post. 

I unpicked my failed culottes and in combination with the scraps from the Jenna shirt, just eked out another Purl Soho summer romper. I sewed this free pattern 2 years+ ago and there’s been some ch-ch-changes in the meantime: 16 pounds and 10 inches, fer instance, which makes any fitting effort I put in then verrry moot. But I remembered it ran small!

Some of my sizing choices seem frankly goofy but given my first experience and my belief (justified??) that a high-end New York brand prioritizes the willowy and is not at home to the robust, I cut big. As in, I cut the width marked for an 8-9 year old. The listed waist measurement matched Mini-Muffin’s waist measurement (which I took fairly casually and while she was seated, but she’s three! She’s always casual and often seated!), 23”. We’ve been dressing her in 4T clothes, so I cut the 4-5yo length. There’s no finished measurements provided so I based sizing entirely on those figures. 

I should possibly have been concerned when cutting fabric and the measurement given for the waist casing took almost every bit of the waistband I unpicked from the Tanias, made for Full-Size Adult Woman Me, but I had scrap blindness. Oh it fits on my limited fabric? Then it is correct! Saith the stash!!

And to be honest: the romper is big, but it’s not *3 times* her span-to-date big. Mini-Muffin can wear this comfortably and the only inconvenience is the straps sitting somewhat too far down her shoulders.

Well, that’s sizing. Wacky, but I think we got away with it. Meanwhile, sewing was straightforward, but that was the last time “straight” entered into it because using the straight grain was not even an option. Every piece is cut off-grain, some more severely than others. It’s most obvious on the back leg hem, which undulates. This pattern calls for some shorty-short inseams – I didn’t take the whole hem allowance.

Fabric limitations meant I also had to piece the front and back bodices, the front vertically, the back horizontally.

I sewed the back with a shallow point to pretend like it was a style line, but the angle is so shallow I didn’t even have to clip the seam allowance to topstitch it flat. It’s useful to differentiate back from front, anyway, and credit where it’s due, the back leg does have a higher rise and longer extension than the front, so it matters.

Joyfully, I could reduce reuse and recycle the Tania pockets! I placed the romper front leg outseam right on the unpicked Tania outseam and kept as much of the pocket bag as possible. 

I trimmed a lot from the top and just a little from the bottom, where it overflowed the romper hem. Before topstitching the romper hem I sewed and trimmed the pocket bag to fit entirely inside the hem without folding, so it’s flat and trapped there nicely. 

The slash openings are not huge but they fit a three-year-old’s hand no problem, and the pocket interior is generous!

I’m very pleased with this addition to the pattern. And also at barely having to sew anything. Lazy mwahaha.

I had to piece the straps. I’m willing to commit to this much: each piece was at least partly and sometimes even mostly on the bias. Knots to finish, though beads would have been cute!

It took me a couple passes when sewing the bias(ish) tape to cover the chest/back elastic ends accurately and entirely, one of those cases where I could have saved time by hand-basting. Surely there’s some lesson there…? Nah. The chest and back elastics are 7.75” each.

I sewed the interior waist casing the same way I did the first time, with a permanent finished opening. Inserting through a vertical seam makes sewing the elastic without twisting so much easier! Adjusting it, too! I first cut the waist elastic to 25” (somewhere between the 4-5 and 8-9 size) but tweaked a couple times after that, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d cut off a whole 2” little by little. This elastic is one of the worst and rolliest elastics I own, which is why I found enough for this project in the stash. The cobbler’s children, etc.

I’m very glad and grateful to have a pile of theoretically useful fabric turned into an actually wearable garment instead of junkin’ up the place. My leftovers have been getting out of hand, and I don’t like buying fabric when surrounded by fabric, so I’m very excited to move this to the “win” column. And even though it’s not a dress Mini-Muffin deigned to wear it! Can’t get much winnier than that!!

–

Pattern: Purl Soho summer romper

Pattern cost: $0.00

Size: 4-5 length, 8-9 width; 7.75″ chest elastic, 25″ waist elastic 

Supplies: leftover Fableism Watercolor Wovens in Jasper, from stash; thread, elastic from stash

Total time: 4.5 hours

Total cost: $0.00

Jenna shirt

One new shirt pattern every four years or so isn’t too bad, right? I bought the Jenna shirt in a recent CC sale and while this wasn’t a had-to-have, I really liked the shirt’s proportions, if not so much the price tag. But I’m always on the hunt for a bigger shirt!

I’d pictured a light denim version but I had nearly a yard of cotton leftover from these shorts, plus green buttons which I purchased to replace the buttons on this shirt (then didn’t), so I was like 1/3rd of the way supplied with stuff from my stash already. Instead of denim, I bought another 1 ¾ yards of the cotton, Fableism Watercolor Wovens in Jasper, and got to getting.

I printed a size M at !!!100%!!!SCALE!!!FOR A CHANGE!!! The pattern came together quickly. Happily the skirt pieces are given as dimensions, not pattern pieces. I did accidentally assemble the pattern piece for the skirt bodice back, though (no yoke). Into the bin! And stay there! Cutting was simple too, as was most of sewing. If you’ve sewn a shirt, you’ve more or less sewn this shirt. 

Obviously, we are here to discuss the complications.

Beginning from the top down…

I sewed the collar my standard way, not the CC way, because I think it’s a competitively neat result and a lot easier to apply. While I initially reshaped the ends of the collar stand to be angled, it wasn’t working here. The corner was fighting the curve of the hem, plus I might have been too grabby with the seam allowances, and the width looked stingy. 

I had plenty of scraps left to recut a wider stand (about 5/16” wider) with curved ends. Nota bene: it’s not that I can’t sew curved ends, I just usually don’t. They’re a pain. But I’d accidentally sewn the collar in upside-down anyway, so actually resewing didn’t feel like a chore. Welcome collar stand version 2: bigger and curvier!

I think this slightly exaggerated collar stand has a sense of humor, insofar as a collar stand can have one of those.

Next, the side seams. The side seams curve into the hems. I wasn’t thrilled about double folding the front plackets, so early on I folded the hem inside the plackets, like so. 

This is the most accurate shot of the green.

This locked in my commitment to a double-folded hem – no bias tape finish here. Then, when it came time to sew the side seams, I was a bit stumped. I decided to treat the side and sleeve seams as a continuation of the hems, so I pressed them open, then double-folded and topstitched them.

I didn’t like it. Two side-by-side “hems” like that made it really obvious when one wobbled in width, and when they both wobbled, hoo boy and yuck. I didn’t get a picture of this because I wasn’t sure my moral fortitude would last the night, so I unpicked the whole shebang right away (I finally adjusted the tension on my machine correctly and now unpicking takes FoREveR, by the way!!). 

Pretty much every other non-serged finished seam required clipping into the seam allowance. I decided on French seams, added some abundantly-cautious staystitching lines, and snipped. 

No takebacks! I folded over the short raw edges at the clip lines and trapped the folds when stitching so the hems and side seams won’t fray. 

From this post to the shirt god’s ears, anyway! This doesn’t feel absolutely secure at the stress point, but nothing better jumps to mind.  

Which reminds me: the gusset that wusset. Ahem. Wasn’t. My not-very-challenging conspiracy theory is that the side seam and gusset directions are deliberately lacking to encourage punters to buy the shirt class (no), but here’s a good clear video tutorial that would apply to the Jenna. Only: I didn’t feel like doing that. So I tried a bunch of “labor saving” applications and ultimately ditched the gussets altogether. 

Instead I added a wee bit of topstitching for strength. 

A case of unevenly matched topstitching here, because the thread needed the seam allowance behind it for support, and the side seams are pressed toward the back. Because of the way I folded over the raw edges there’s not enough fabric right at the juncture to support bartacks – they were more likely to rip the fabric than prevent ripping. Because of the loose fit these joins are not under a lot of stress, but I’ve ripped enough pockets on sticky-outy latch bolts not to get complacent!

Finally, the tower plackets. I ran out of green buttons for the plackets, but I knew I would wear these sleeves rolled anyway.

My minor quibble, I sewed the plackets as directed but I found all the pre-pressing a waste of time. I’d rather just press in place once, so I know everything will line up perfectly on the day. I didn’t like the pre-shaped triangle, either; I think it’s easier to tuck in the corners of a rectangle symmetrically than press both triangle edges precisely. I did NOT redo these, however. 

I also didn’t redo my armscye topstitching, even though my perfunctory stab at making both sides even failed mightily. It’s funny what you can live with. 

One visible line several inches shorter than the other? Eh. Mismatched seam junctions in the armpits? BURN IT DOWN. 

My first impression is that this is a nice shirt but not transformative. Going forward, I’m thinking the Jenna is a good fit for light, crisp fabrics, and I’ll save drapey stuff for more Olyas. I still like the deep yoke! And I always enjoy sewing shirts!

But, as always, the existential quandary remains: is it bigger *enough*?

–

Pattern: Closet Core Jenna shirt

Pattern cost: $14.40

Size: M

Supplies: 1.75 yards of Fableism Watercolor Wovens in Jasper, $20.86, Gather Here; leftover Fableism Watercolor Wovens in Jasper; thread, $2.65, Michael’s

Total time: 10 hours

Total cost: $37.46

Odds and Ends

Time for some odds and ends. Okay, one each. Which is the odd and which is the end? You tell me!

First, another pair of T&T Cove shorts for Professor Boyfriend. His go-to shorts (Thread Theory Jeds) blew out a seam in a noticeable location. I did my preferred version of visible mending – stick some interfacing to the back, choose my closest available thread color, and go ham with stitching back and forth – and it turned out as visible as anyone could desire. Oh, the mending was the point? Oops. 

Anyway, he wanted a replacement pair in a similar color and weight without the crotch confetti, and I wanted to hand them to him less than 4 hours later, so I called in the Coves.

My first pair was completely without drama, except for my printing errors. Despite my mis-scaling they still fit fine, so I just did it all again as written. Someday my prints will come…out at 100%. In the meantime I fudge it!

Professor Boyfriend mentioned that the pockets didn’t need to be so big, which I correctly translated into “he doesn’t like front patch pockets but lacks the vocabulary to say so”. The pockets were already the right size. Now they are the right size, and also single-layer pockets.

Very simple: this Cookin’ and Craftin’ tutorial has pictures. Any shape of pocket will do; hers are curved, these are rectangular. I used a straight line for the pocket opening instead of the Cove curve and faced it with an on-grain strip to prevent stretching. The pocket bag edges are serged and topstitched to the front leg. Like I said, simple!

I used the plain waistband piece instead of the drawstring band, and there’s nothing easier than not sewing a drawstring. My one complication was, once again, finding suitable elastic. 1.5” would be perfect. 1.5” could not be found. Very well, then, 1.5” would be made!! Michael’s had 2” elastic and 3/4” elastic. Last time I trimmed wide elastic to fit, and it’s lasting fine, but the 3/4” elastic had a pleasanter hand and stretch – softer and less squeezy. I planned to zig-zag two side-by-side pieces of the 3/4” inch and then treat it as one piece. 

Not until I got home did I realize that this was the only elastic pack that held 1 yard, not 3 yards. Not with the best goodwill in the world would one yard go around this one man twice. Fine: my baggie of elastic scraps had a 1/2” wide piece that was around 26” long, a.k.a. still several inches too short. This elastic was a different color, thickness, width, and hand. But it’s not illegal to jam together 5” trimmed from 3/4” elastic and zigzag it heavily to a 26” long 1/2” wide piece and then put it side-by-side with a 31” piece of 3/4” elastic and zigzag them together AGAIN the long way and then hide the evidence inside a waistband. Not illegal. Just, um, messy.

I topstitched across the waistband at the side seams to reduce twisting. Pray for me.

Next is a pillowcase. But wait! It’s a ~silk!~ pillowcase. Backstory: we got Mini-Muffin a rainbow silk tutu for her birthday and she wears it nonstop, to be fair, but 8 or 9 inches of the hem stitching pulled out in about a week, which is pretty annoying. The good news is it got me over my mental hump about sewing silk. I popped in a Microtex needle and grumpily sewed the hem up again and it went…fine? Nothing happened? No explosions/earthquakes/sinkholes/skipped stitches.

And a silk pillowcase for her curly hair has been on my to-sew list for six months. I had purchased a yard of colored silk from Dharma (12mm Charmeuse/Silk Crepe Satin in Sea Glass) and then lost my nerve. Once I found it again, I followed this Brother tutorial. I pulled threads to find on-grain cutlines and I’m so glad I did because those were the wibbliest looking straight lines I’ve ever seen! Cutting silk for a precisely fit garment is, I’m guessing, WORSE than an earthquake. Sinkholes preferred.

I did several things wrong on purpose. First, I machine washed and dried the silk, because that’s how I launder Mini-Muffin’s bedding, full stop. Also, I used my regular pins, because those are the pins I have. And I used a higher iron setting than indicated. I suspect I could have gone even hotter and it would have been fine! And I was striving for fine!

Here’s my step-by-step silk review. Marking and cutting: bad. Pressing: bad (it’s constantly trying to slither off the ironing board and creep back to the mulberry grove. Okay, this isn’t mulberry silk, but I couldn’t think of another worm grove). Topstitching: wobbly but doable. Regular seams: wobbly but doable. Precise seams: bad. Unpicking: very bad, very many runs very quickly. Fraying: bad. Overall rating: bad!

Each step is worse than every other…and yet I think I want to do it again? Sewing silk is a strange way to get your kicks, but it’s undeniably a kick. And I’m sure it’s a dream to wear. Something to add to my ever-growing to-try list!

These projects aren’t a natural pair except that they were both for other people.

Now I can get back to sewing for meee!

–

Pattern: Twig & Tale Cove shorts

Pattern cost: NA

Size: ~35

Supplies: 1.5 yards of Essex cotton/linen blend in Cadet, Gather Here, $20.24; thread, elastic, Michael’s, $6.49  

Total time: 3.25 hours

Total cost: $26.73

–

Pattern: it’s rectangles

Pattern cost: NA

Size: 

Supplies: 1 yard of 12mm Charmeuse/Silk Crepe Satin in Sea Glass, Dharma Trading Co., $18.05; thread from stash

Total time: 1.5 hours

Total cost: $18.05

Blomma Trio

More noodling with free patterns: the Blomma tank again.

My first wearable version of this pattern is cute. Cute and TIGHT. However, the pattern listing shows it worn with more ease, and I couldn’t stop thinking about Tori’s versions, which have a fit that looks expensive yet casual. I’ve also been ruminating on how place affects my sense of what looks “good” – when visiting the area where I grew up, the women I know tend to dress more body-consciously, and their clothes fit “correctly”, with intention to flatter. In the city where I live now, women dress in looser clothes, and the strongest relationship is to current fashion, not the lines of their bodies. There’s also the practical consideration of futzing with clothes. Tight tops need tugging to correct the fit, loose clothes need rearranging. Sometimes I feel like either is right; sometimes whatever I’m next to looks like the one true path. 

Anyway, it never hurts to have options, and since I recently ordered several yards of 100% cotton rib knit, this seemed like a good time to try sizing up. The knit has great mechanical stretch, 50% or more, but no “ping” – anything sewn to be worn tight was not going to stay that way!

I reprinted this pattern during my recent tape-first-and-measure-later binge, and it’s 98%. Not even the same wrong percent as last time! The impact on the seam allowances (¼”) is minimal, so at least this is a problem math can solve. I cut an F bust, G waist, and G hip – but, you know, 98% of that. 

Otherwise sewing proceeded as normal. It took me a little while to get the hang of sewing these bindings again, but I really like the finish. The only downside is that with three passes of stitching, they’re difficult to adjust after the fact. But they’re fun and tidy and enclosed. The shoulder seam is barely visible after binding, and it didn’t seem worth hauling out my serger for a fabric that lies flat and doesn’t fray, so I used a traditional zigzag for everything but the hems. I love my pal triple ziggy but I haven’t figured out how to achieve predictable topstitching with that stitch.

Tank 1 is a moderate success.

There’s a ton of puddling in the small of my back, though, even when untucked. There’s also mild gaping at the front armscye. 

Still, I was reflecting that I like this cut and that it looked a little grown-up, dare I even say…sophisticated? And then I tripped over my kid’s ride-on snail. Anyway, it was good enough to cut another one, and I decided to try and knock out some of that back excess along the way.

I performed a 2” swayback adjustment, following these directions for a knit top without a center back seam to a T. Yet I strongly felt I fudged it. Not sure why. Separately, when tracing my pattern piece I realized the brown tank back was ⅜” wider than drafted – the cut line of the pattern was close to the margin line and I missed it, and when I cut my fabric I placed the margin on the fold. I guess my scissor skills Need Work! Despite that recent proof of my ding-donginess, I went ahead and cut my next set of pieces anyway. Only fabric, right?

A note about colors: I really thought the brown was going to be sandier and the green greener, but I’m aware these are variations in the key of Ditch. Anyway, this is tank 2!

I was pleasantly surprised that my adjustment yielded results! There is less fabric pooling at my back! 

However, the swayback adjustment also broadened the back at armpit level, which I suspected would make the armscye gape more. Sure enough, it did. 

So I went back to the pattern and rotated just the armscye curve from the outer shoulder point to remove 1” in width at armpit height, without changing armscye length, and blended from the armpit point into the waist. 

By now I was in the groove, and since my perfect tee is on temporary hold, I cut into my white knit to make tank 3. I’m really pleased with this one. 

The armscye still pops near my bust but much less so, and to a degree I think can be fixed by targeted stretching – i.e., stretching the binding on the front armscye more than the back. 

And the pooling is diminished too!

It felt good to make deliberate, direct progress toward a goal. And if that lands me in Dom Toretto-tory, so be it (fact check: where’s the giant crucifix??).   

I finished this trio right before a couple days of pure swelter and wore them immediately. The cotton is slack but not clingy, they go with most of my shorts, and they breathe well. This isn’t high-end fabric, so they won’t last forever, but I could see this top becoming my summer MVP. I have my snug fit version of this pattern stored separately, so now I can have two styles of tanks from one free pattern. Hooray! A nice kick-off for summer sewing!

–

Pattern: Paradise Patterns Blomma tank x3

Pattern cost: NA

Size: 98% of F bust, G waist, G hip/ “” 2″ swayback adjustment/ ”” rotated armscye to narrow back 1″ at armpit height 

Supplies: 1 yard of Brown/Green/White Organic Cotton Solid 1X1 Rib Knit Fabric, Girl Charlee, $27.57; thread, Michael’s, $2.89

Total time: 2.5 hours/1.5 hours/1.5 hours

Total cost: $9.29/$12.18/$9.29