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Cat Lady Art

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done any house sewing and home revamping. A few years ago I started moving the living room color scheme from beachy whites with blues, to sunset reds, purples, and oranges…but then life got in the way as it does. It’s something I want to finish before end of year.

When I found these panels in the remnant bin at Bolt, I about died. This is from a 2017 Moda Fabrics collection called Catnip by Stacie who owns Gingiber. You can see her original post and colorways here. These are not easy to find anymore, let alone in the dark colorway! They take me back to the Rachel Perry lip gloss art of my childhood. They’ve got a late 70s/early 80s art nouveau vibe I am so very in love with. (If you love these as much as I do, there are some tea towels with this design here on Stacie’s site.)

The first thing I did was order canvases to put these on. These are the canvases I got:

As is the nature of panels and things on bolts, they’re never perfectly printed on grain. It’s just something you learn to work around after buying a few panels or border print fabrics. There was no perfect sized canvas for the cats…especially when the plump cat was factored in, so I went with larger-than-panel size at 16×20 inches. This worked out, because it allowed me to then border the panels with coordinating fabrics for my living room.

I sewed a strip of fabric on the top and bottom, then used a tiny spritz of 505 adhesive to position them on the canvas, before I flipped the canvas over to staple them down.

That’s the actual spray I use, and yes, I know, at $25, that’s really expensive! However, I use it so rarely that one can has lasted me over 5 years. I literally use it in bra making to just keep fiddly pieces still, and at times like this.

I popped some painters tape over the back to keep the staples from scratching the wall too.

Here they all are, close up. We named each one after cats in our lives. This is Frack.

This is Lucy.

This is The Spud.

And this is our beloved Big Boy, Frick.

I’m quite happy with them. Here they all are up in their spot.

It turned out to be quite the nice “palate cleanser” after a crazy couple months of Frocktails and socializing. I think I got the remnant for around $15? $20? I don’t recall as it was well before Frocktails… and the canvases were about $22, the other fabric was in my stash, so about $40for a refresh? Not bad, eh?

Speaking of… I have a few of the Frocktails craft stations embroidery hoops left. I think I’ll finish them up and put them around the living room too.

These are by Aimee Ray, and they’re really cute. Aimee is known for those Doodle Stitching books. I print them on water soluble paper, then the paper sticks just enough to the fabric for you to embroider through it. When you’re done, you wet it and block it as you normally would, and in that process, the paper melts away.

I also revamped my couch cushions and drapes… I may need to do a whole living room reveal….if I ever finish! hahaha. Do you use your sewing for around the home?

(you may have noticed there’s a few aff links. It’s my first time trying them out, so we’ll see how it goes. <3 I really did use these exact items and am happy with them.)

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PATTERN: Sew House 7 Tea House Dress

This is one of those “Why didn’t I sew this sooner?” patterns. I mean…I know why:

  1. It’s hard to find dresses/skirts that work in my lifestyle. I like to go from running and/or yoga, to playing in the garden, to vacuuming to park to desk to sewing to kid-carpool to making dinner… I don’t have a 9-to-5 job in a sea of gray cubicles anymore…I have a 24 hour job.
  2. I’ve had some pretty severe “misses” in the dress sewing category. Everything I *think* is going to be lovely, flowy, easy ends up being maternity, frumpy, terrifying. The only exception of late has been my black shroud of a Kielo dress which I love, but doesn’t work in 90+ Fahrenheit  heat.

But OHMYGOD do I love this dress. I finished it 6 days ago and I’ve worn it for 4 days, including today. In 90+ heat, hanging laundry on my “solar dryer” and THE POCKETS are perfect for clothespins!

I feel a lot like how I remember my Grandma Crouse…in her dresses, puttering around the farm house in Pennsylvania…then it dawned on me… I’ve been thinking of the pattern name in my mind as TEA HOUSE dress….DUH. This is a HOUSE DRESS. Like grandma used to wear! I can be really obtuse sometimes.

I bought 3.5 yards of this 45″ width of fabric (WOF) in the remnant section at Bolt Neighborhood Fabric Store in late May. There’s something about going in there when Mahri is working….I feel so at home. Anyway, I grabbed the fabric instantly. It reminds me of Anna Marie Horner’s fabric designs, although I don’t know the designer of this particular fabric. It’s a light cotton, likely found via a jobber or something by the lovely Gina (owner of Bolt.)

Anywho, this fabric HAD to be either a Sew House 7 Tea House Dress, the long view with the wide belt. It had to be. But….on the back of the envelope, it says for 45″ WOF, one needs 5 yards for my size. Now…I’m pretty good at pattern tetris, but not usually 1.5 yards-saving-good. I had a back-up plan of an elongated Seamwork Mojave with a belt if I couldn’t get it to fit (one Mojave hanging on the line here), but luckily I got it to fit.

Obviously, I didn’t try any pattern matching whatsoever….not that I would have if I had endless yardage. This is like a hippie-rainbow-ikat-plaid-stripe-tie dye crazy fabric. I prefer my sanity.

I couldn’t wait for perfect light to take photos – sort of pointless this time of year…so here are some clearer shots albeit in the shade. I prefer the dress tied in front. I didn’t do an FBA, and while I get some slight boob-separating from the yoke, I don’t really care. It feels fine and there’s no actual tugging, pulling, or tension marks, so I’m calling it good.

The drafting is superb. The skirt is rather flat in the front, and front-flat-yoke area makes it so I don’t feel the usual maternity vibes. This makes me just elated. It’s full and swishy enough I can do chores, walk all around, breezy in the heat, but I don’t feel like I’m going to start square-dancing.

While there is a back-box pleat under the back yoke, it doesn’t add too much volume. There’s just enough extra room to give back-shoulder movement, and walking movement in the skirt as the back is one-piece.

The midi-length is my favorite. Long enough I can put off shaving, but short enough I still get a lovely breeze in the heat.

Let’s talk about the yoke. There’s some extra work here in prepping the yoke with easing technique and also applying some interfacing. It’s quite brilliant. It actually FEELS worth the work when you’re wearing it. It molds and fits tailored around your shoulders, but not tight… If you know what good tailoring feels like, it’s like that. Then it’s combined with this easy dolman sleeve styling… Am I gushing too much? At least you know my elation is real – I don’t hide my hate for most dresses. lol

So…I want like … 5 more and I’m opening my heart to dresses a tiny bit. I like belted, but not fit/flare. I like casual workhorses with clever shaping. I’m not sure I’ll find myself with a closet full of dresses, but this one will remain a favorite for quite awhile. I’m already drawing up thoughts on dresses that would feel similar, and looking at fabrics for more Tea house-dresses.

How do you feel about a “house dress?” Any fond memories of them in your life?

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Cone Mills Stretch Denim Gingers x 2

All the hype about Cone Mills Stretch denim? It’s real. It’s so real. I’m A, really happy I bought 6 yards last year from Blackbird Fabrics, but, B, so freakin’ bummed, even more than before, that the American mill has closed.

Sorry ’bout the lighting – I was chasing some morning sun…some wins, some fails. Whatevs.

Back to the denim and the Ginger skinny pattern. If you use another jeans pattern, I implore you to construct them so that you’re basting your outside leg seams last, so that you can try them on before committing to serged seams/flat-felled seams and all that jazz.

The Cone Mills has a lot more stretch to it than the Robert Kaufman pair, so I went down a whole size in this dark pair, and almost a full size in the lighter pair (below with purple shirt.) No reason on the discrepancy between the dark and the light other than I want the dark ones really tight. I’m hoping both shrink up even more in the wash.

I want them PAINTED on! lol

While this denim has more stretch to it, it also feels a bit more….sturdy. It’s got a really good feel to it. I wish I had another 6 yards.

Denim jacket is a used eBay find from last year, Hellacopters shirt is from, well, Hellacopters. 😀 Hat I made, and shoes by NIKE. Gloves are some RTW I got a few years ago and are well loved…I’ve had to stitch them back together a few times.

Damn bright winter sun.

The lighter pair lends themselves to more pastels.

Some of these photos look like I’ve got some weird cat whiskers thing happening with the crotch, and some look perfect….that’s just a difference in me sitting in these, about a cm more room in them, and just room for movement. I’ll probably wash them on hot a few times.

Obligatory butt shots. I moved the pockets up higher than my first Robert Kaufman pair too…. my flat butt needs all the help it can get. I can do squats until the cows come home – the strength is there…but it ain’t gonna be no poppin’ booty without a LOT more work.

Sweatshirt is an old me-made Renfrew in a double-knit from Bolt Fabrics.

some closer up so you can see the fit…I am a bit knock-kneed (TRUTH: I look like a goofy ostrich when I run) but I don’t care enough to do a knock-kneed adjustment…as much as I move and am active, I prefer the extra bit there.

I’ve got a smidge more room in the waist of these, and that is why I went even more extreme-tight on the darker pair.

Alright, a little tech talk.

Alexander Henry fabrics for the pockets (this is where being a quilting cotton hoarder comes in real handy), basic metal “denim” zip, shanked metal button – but I may swap that out for a matching brass button later…

I knew it as I was doing it but didn’t really care…yeah, that’s some pocket material visible from the outside.

I’m skilled enough to copy RTW, sure, but that’s not my goal. I couldn’t care less about copying RTW. So, yeah. That’s how that’s gonna be.

Serged…but you can see my first set of seams….and then where I took it down farther….then top stitched.

I haven’t hemmed any of my jeans except my Velvet Gingers. And I’m not going to. For now I’m wearing them rolled up anyhow….I like keeping my options open. Just a 3-step zig-zag to keep them from fraying too crazy.

So, that’s a pretty lengthy, double project post…I think I covered it all. I top-stitched with the same color thread that I assembled with…Gütermann Poly 40wt.

I see there are still a lot of people scared of sewing jeans…and yeah, fitting pants is kind of a pain….but once it’s done, you can copy the general shape of the crotch that works for you on to other pants patterns. So…bonus!