Does this mean I am a sewist?

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Submitted by damien on

For the last few weeks I have been in sewing mode and loving every minute of it. According to Renee, she wouldn't have thought I liked it so much based on all the mutterings she hears emanating from the sewing room. I guess I am rather vocal when I hit a little snag. Despite the small frustrations that happen along the way (an integral part to the learning process), I find sewing to be incredibly satisfying. It is the combination of art/creativity, engineering, math, and precision that I like so much, not to mention the fact that the end result is something that is necessary and useful.

Being a computer programmer by trade, much of what I do on a daily basis is both foreign and unseen by most people. I like to think of software engineering as poetry - it is a very creative process for me. The problem is that the art of software engineering is often unseen and not understood by the majority of people. My family largely has no idea what exactly it is I do to pay the bills. I am finding that sewing is a way for me to express myself in a way that is visible, appreciated, and understood by my family and others around me. Not to mention the fact that there are many practical reasons for learning to sew as well.

My three most recent projects are:

A Winter Coat for Celine: A few months ago Celine saw a pattern for a coat that she really liked. The pattern was relatively simple and could be made out of fleece so she decided that she wanted to try to make it (with my help). We ordered the pattern and the fabric and soon discovered that it was too much for her to handle so I offered to finish it for her (much to her relief). I learned a lot through the process and I am very happy with how it turned out. Celine loves it, it is now her favorite coat.

Pattern: Jalie Stretch City Coat
Fabric: Polartec 300 Fleece

A Pair of Yoga Pants for Renee: We like to keep the heat turned down during the winter months to conserve energy and minimize the bills. We compensate by putting on a few extra layers of clothing. Renee's biggest beef with this is that wearing extra layers usually means her having to wear clothes that are less figure-flattering. One solution I decided to try was to make her a pair of slim-fitting pants out of a thermal fabric. I found a pattern for some yoga pants and decided to try making them out of Polartec Wind Pro, a very warm, stretchy, and wind-resistant fabric. The end result was again very good.

Pattern: Jalie Yoga Pants
Fabric: Polartec Wind Pro

A Soft-Shell Jacket for Laurent: The boy is growing-up. A few weeks ago he put on his fleece jacket and what was once big and baggy on him (wasn't that just yesterday?) is now too small. A staple for our fall/winter hiking is a soft-shell jacket. It is difficult to find anything like this for kids, so I decided to try my hand at making one for him. I found a pattern for a hooded fleece jacket, ordered some Polartec Power Shield fabric and gave it a shot. Again, the result was very successful (this is getting addicting!).

Pattern: The Green Pepper Polar Jacket
Fabric: Polartec Power Shield

Are you getting inspired yet? Looking for a new project?

Time for a Giveaway!

It so happens that in my frenzy of online ordering, I accidentally purchased a pattern twice. Rather than send it back, I have decided to give away the extra pattern to one of you. The pattern is for The Green Pepper Sandpiper Wind & Rain Suit for kids (the same pattern I used for Brienne's windbreaker). All you have to do is leave a comment and you will automatically be entered in the draw. The draw will be made in one week, on Sunday December 13th, and the winner's name announced at the end of this post. Good luck!

Update (12/14/2009): I just wanted to post a note of congratulations to Jim White, the winner of the pattern giveaway! Good luck with your sewing adventures, and I hope you will share the results of your projects with us one day! Thanks to all the rest of you who participated. Please continue to check back with the blog, we have more great post ideas as well as some additional giveaways planned for the new year.

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Comments

Nice

I don't always work from patterns but I certainly sew for similar reasons. One of my most successful projects was a windstopper fleece suit for infants with feet and extra long arms. Nice work on the yoga pants. I am not sure I have the confidence in myself to make something flattering for my wife.
Doug

That fleece suit sounds

That fleece suit sounds great!

I don't have the confidence yet to not work from a pattern. I feel like I am still learning a lot about how pieces of fabric fit together to make a garment. It is my hope to one day be able to make my own patterns for things (at least simple things) but I am not there yet!

Pingback

[...] Because since that time, in the amount of time it would of taken me to half complete his pants, Damien has sewed up three clothing items for our family. My fleece yoga pants, a fleece jacket for Celine and a soft shell jacket for Laurent. Those last 2 projects are featured here. [...]

Wow! I'm impressed with your

Wow! I'm impressed with your sewing! I sew clothes for my daughter but haven't ventured into the world of sewing outerwear yet.

P.S. I'd love to see a post on dressing for winter hiking on a budget. We'd love to more outdoors in the winter, but we're unsure about how to dress for long periods outdoors in the cold and snow.

We have been talking about

We have been talking about doing something along those lines some time. So many topics to write about, and so little time! I will be definitely be keeping this request in the back of my mind for a future post.

Sweet!

You are a true inspiration! I think you may have just given me the shove I needed to venture from 'person who sits once a year at a sewing machine' to ' sewing machine adventurer' which, is a much better title. I hope to attempt some more serious gear for my outdoor minded kids to brave the Montana ( used to be Maine! ) kids. Thanks for the inspiration!

I like that, "sewing machine

I like that, "sewing machine adventurer", it has a nice ring to it! There are a lot of really simple yet extremely useful things that one can start out with for outdoor clothing. Things like hats, mitts, and balaclava's are the first things that come to mind. Once you get started and have a few successes, it is hard to stop!

oops. . .

Brave the Montana weather- not the kids- lol guess I can't help kids get dressed to go snowshoeing while typing- apparently I am just. not. that. good. darn-

don't be too jealous. . I

don't be too jealous. . I think we had snow every month but July- and keeping kids warm and motivated in the negative numbers is a challenge. (for four days last week the high (!) was -14) Things are warming up a bit though. . . thinking some winter camping in Yellowstone may be in order soon! Love the tip with hats, balaclavas, and mittens. . . I am thinking about some hats this week. . .how difficult are fleece pants?

Your work looks great!

Damien, I say this as a form costumer for theatre, your work looks great! And I love that you view the process as creative and mathematical. Because it certainly is both! And I was going to say all this without an incentive. ;)

Sew-ist!

Damien,

Great work!

I have a 6 year old son and 9 year old daughter. Unfortunately it seems that performance outdoor wear for kids is either not available or amazingly expensive. I just decided to sew my own- first will be base layers with several yards of Polartec Power Dry just ordered Friday. My next project will be winter shell or lightly insulated pants- possibly Polartec Wind-Pro, Durastretch, or Schoeller fabric.

After that will be wind shells- right now they have some overly heavy, ill fitting outfits. If you don't have a more worthy recipient, I'd love your spare pattern.

Jim White

I think one reason it is so

I think one reason it is so expensive is that the fabrics are generally cost quite a bit more than those typically found on kids clothing. I mean, I am paying as much for a yard of some of these fabrics as many people would expect to pay for a ready-made garment. Being able to sew it myself makes it very cost effective, as I am sure you are finding too.

Those projects sound really cool, I would love to see some photos of your creations when they are done. Maybe I should start a forum or something on this site as a place for people to share those kinds of things... just a thought...

Question on Wind Pro vs. Power Shield for Pants

Great looking pants.

I have two kids- 6 and 9. I find that outdoor gear for kids is either hard to find or very expensive. I'm planning on making pants for winter hiking, snowshoeing, and snow play.

Polartec Wind Pro and Powershield are intriguing. Since your spouse has the Wind Pro pants and your son has a Powershield jacket, what do you think of each fabric? What would you use for kids' pants to be used in temperatures from 20 to 45F? (One big point is that Wind Pro is $15/ yard vs. $30 for Powershield)

Also do you think the Yoga Pant pattern would be good for simple kid's outdoor pants? I figured I could add cargo pockets to the simple design.

Jim

In terms of fabric, Wind Pro

In terms of fabric, Wind Pro is thicker, warmer but less wind-proof and abrasion resistant than Power Shield. Power Shield I more durable and weather resistant but not as insulating. I would say that Power Shield lends itself better to an outer layer and Wind Pro for under layers. You can get Power Shield much cheaper at The Rain Shed. They have a dark gray color on sale right now for $18/yard and a bunch of other colors for $20/yard. It is currently my favorite online store for buying patterns and fabric.

In terms of a pattern, I think that The Green Pepper Polar Pants for children would be more appropriate. It is a super simple pattern and is a looser design which can better accommodate under layers. You can also buy that one at the Rain Shed too.

Thanks for the fabric ideas. Question on Mountain Jacket.

Damien,

Thanks for the fabric ideas. I hadn't seen Power Shield at The Rain Shed. Those prices are the best I've seen (other than for 15 yard bolts of 2nds).

I ordered my Power Dry for the base layers from Mill Direct Textiles- they sell only Polartec items with lots of discounts. I just received a swatch pack with over 100 different items from their "specials" list.

This will be my first project sewing garments from scratch. I've done a tent as a teenager and hemmed a bunch of pants last week.

The Green Pepper patterns

The Green Pepper patterns have very good instructions, especially for beginners. The Jalie patterns assume you know a little about sewing and are much more brief. I would highly recommend doing a few different projects before ordering a Jalie pattern for this reason.

I have found the Green Pepper patterns to be relatively slim fitting, which is good for my kids who tend to be pretty lean. I have found that to get the best fit for my kids, I measure them and cut the pattern pieces to the length of one size bigger. That is to say that if my son measures to be a size 8, I will do the size 8 pattern, but cut them so that they are as long as the size 10 pieces. This allows for some growing room while keeping things nice and trim fitting.

Yes, I have been pretty much happy with all of the patterns I have used.

  • The Polar Pants are great, they are easy and the end result was very good. This is a very easy pattern, great to start out with. To keep things really simple when I was first starting out I didn't do the pockets.
  • The Sandpiper wind jacket turned out pretty good, but had a little hood issue (see here for details). Another issue I had with this jacket has had to do with the fabric. I used a light weight fabric and a rather heavy thread (some left over polyester thread from a Ray Jardine backpack that I had sewn). The thread was too thick for the fabric and therefore the larger holes from the thread seem to have weakend the fabric causing some of the seams to tear. I have been very happy with the results from using Gutermann 100% polyester thread, which is a little finer and seems to flow better in my machine. Also, if doing this pattern again, I think I would size it even bigger. That is, if the kid is a 6, I would make an 8 and cut it to the 10 length. The reason I would do this is to better accommodate thicker under-layers.
  • The Polar Jacket has been quite good. The hood seems to fit a little strange, but otherwise is a great pattern. I may not do the hood next time, but my son really likes it.
  • The Jalie City Coat pattern fits really nicely all around. It is definitely a more difficult pattern than the Green Pepper patterns, and is more oriented towards fashion than practical outdoors use, but I would make it again if one of my daughters wanted it.
  • The Yoga pants are great, I would definitely make them again too. As with the other Jalie pattern, the instructions are much more spartan, and assume that you know a little about sewing. I will definitely be making these pants a lot for my family.

Polar Pants- Powershield?

Damien,
Thanks for all the tips. I spoke to a nice lady at The Green Pepper today and she suggested I use Power Shield with the Polar Pant pattern for kids' snow pants. They have dark gray Power Shield on sale for $16.98/yd!

I'm thinking I will make a midlayer pant with the polar pattern first before I use the expensive fabric on the outer pants. What fabric did you use for the pants? I was thinking Powerstretch or plain Polartec 200.

I'll follow your lead and leave off the pockets, or maybe add cargo pockets after the fact.

Jim

Thanks Nicola! Yes, her coat

Thanks Nicola!

Yes, her coat is hooded, although the pattern was designed to be either with or without. The cool thing about the Jalie patterns is that they are sized from children all the way up to adults - one pattern does it all.

Wow

I am super impressed and super jealous!! I have wanted to sew my own clothes for awhile now, but it certainly is a process. Thrift stores have kept me warm thus far, but I would love to give a pattern like this a shot!

Thanks Candelion! Nothing

Thanks Candelion! Nothing wrong with thrift stores if you can find what you need (I have had problems finding the right outdoor clothing in thrift stores). It is a process, and requires practice, but very rewarding!

Incredible!

You have done an incredible job of sewing for your family! I'm still learning the ins and outs of garment sewing, but I thrive on making anything useful. I tried my hand at school backpacks for my girls this year. What a learning experience!

By the way, the pics of your kids walking in the blizzard inspired my trek this morning. Normally, I ride my bike to catch the bus to work. Unfortunately I can't ride my bike through three inches of snow. Instead of having my husband pile the kids in the car to drive the measly mile to the bus stop, I threw on my boots and scarf and walked it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The snow was gorgeous. Thank you for the inspiration!

The Blizzard Walk Photo

I think it was from a post in March??? I'm new to both of your blogs and have been perusing old posts. :-)

P.S. I started a bit of whining this morning that it seemed windier and maybe my hubby should drive me to the bus stop. He handed me a pair of ski goggles and sent me on my way. I survived. :-)

I'm impressed!

I'm very new to sewing but I'm mightily impressed. We're very outdoor-oriented people as well. I don't think it ever occurred to me to sew our outdoor gear. I'm feeling inspired now! I'm glad I found your blog!

Hello, I just found this blog

Hello,
I just found this blog through FIMBY. I'm really enjoying it. My husband is also a computer programmer and loves sewing. Must be something in the line of work? Anyway...great projects. Love Celine's coat. -Debbie

Okay, is family not able to

Okay, is family not able to get in on this!! I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A RAIN SUIT FOR MY KIDS FOR-EVER!!!!
I'm too cheap to buy. I have brought my sewing machine up from the basement recently (trick to actually get my butt sewing).

You're projects are AWESOME!! COMPLETELY inspiring. I suppose I could just borrow the one you have. *wink*

Great job Damien! Maybe now, if you could inspire my husband. ;)

Dawna

Of course family is able to

Of course family is able to enter the contest! Why do you think that my mom and mother-in-law left comments ;-) Just because you are family doesn't give you any special edge though... and if you don't win, you can borrow the one I have.

Congratulations Jim!

I just wanted to post a note of congratulations to Jim White, the winner of the pattern giveaway! Good luck with your sewing adventures, and I hope you will share the results of your projects with us one day!

Thanks to all the rest of you who participated. Please continue to check back with the blog, we have more great post ideas as well as some additional giveaways planned for the new year.

Thanks for the Pattern!

Thanks a bunch for the pattern. It will definitely come in handy.

My order of Polartec Powerdry and Powerstretch just arrived today from Mill Direct Textiles, so I guess I had better stop talking and start sewing!

I'm going to start with base layers out of Powerdry, then do midlayer pants from the Powerstretch using the Green Pepper Polar Pant pattern, then Powershield Polar Pants.

Next will be wind shirts and luckily I'll have your pattern to do those.

By that time I'll either be a decent beginning sew-ist or ready to hang it up and go back to RTW. (I just learned that's what sew-ists call store bought or "Ready To Wear" clothes).

Jim

My first two garments!

Managed to do a pretty good job on long johns for my 6 year old son. Made a "practice" pair with one leg wrong side out first. Then went on to make a good pair from Powerdry and another from Powerstretch! They look almost good enough to be called "seconds"!

The two Powerdry johns took less than a running yard of fabric, so my production models cost well under $5 each in materials.

I used some pajama pants for the pattern. Pretty simple. The pattern and practice pants took about 2 hours, the production models took under an hour each. Of course a production sewist would probably crank out one in about 5 minutes!

Jim

Sounds like you did pretty

Sounds like you did pretty good for your first attempt. Kudos on making your own pattern, I haven't done much of that yet. You can't beat that price either. I am curious, what did you do for the waistband?

Baselayer waistband

I used 3/4" waistband elastic from JoAnns. I folded the fabric in over the waistband so it wrapped around the elastic. Then I sewed along the bottom edge of the elastic, holding it in place and keeping it covered with fabric.

For cuffs I made strips of the fabric about 20% shorter than the hem length, doubled them over and stretched them while sewing. I did this before sewing up the leg seams so I could do it out flat.

After playing with different stitches, the one that worked best was an "overedge stitch" where it does a forward, backward, forward lock stitch then one zigzag and repeats. It is very strong and very stretchy.

Working on baselayers for my daughter now. I made Powerstretch yesterday and doing Powerdry this morning.

I would like to try doing

I would like to try doing waistbands using an exposed elastic some time so that they are not too bulky. I think that I need to purchase special elastic for that, so I am going to have to look for it some time.

I am going to be hitting the sewing machine pretty soon too, my mother-in-law has her order in for a pair of the Power Stretch yoga pants that I made for Renee.

sewing machine recommendation?

Hi Damien,

I've been thinking of trying my hand at making some power shield clothing myself - such a soft durable material. I love the clothes in this old blog post of yours, too.

What kind of sewing machine do you use? If you were buying a new machine today, would you buy a different one?

All the best.

Hello Amy, We have two

Hello Amy,

We have two sewing machines, one is a hand-me-down from Renee's mom (a Janome) and the other is a hand-me-down from Renee's grandmother (a White). Both are ok, but not stellar by any means. If I were to buy a new machine, I would stay away from anything computerized and get something quality but basic. You don't need a lot go get good results. Lots of reputable brands make a high quality basic machine.

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