Fitting the Sewaholic Renfrew with SunnyGal Studio

In February last year I sewed up my first Sewaholic Renfrew muslin.  What attracted me to this pattern was the amazing collar in view C, and while the collar turned out great, the rest did not....
My issues:

• I sewed the shirt in a double knit.  Oops.  Tight fitting + sleeves + double knit != good combination.
• I started with the size 8.  That was too small to start.
• It was too small in the back--the bra lines are not a good look
• It was too small in the front in the armpit area, creating lots of wrinkles.  It generally felt uncomfortable.  Somehow I wore this shirt on a 6 hour flight but I don't know how!!!
• I also was not loving the bottom band.  It wasn't wide enough really for my hips.  
• Not loving the swayback either.

Sooo...recently Beth of Sunny Gal Studio announced on her blog that she is teaching others to sew in her home...in SF.    I commented that if I lived near her I would have her teach me a few specific things, one of which is fitting the Sewaholic Renfrew.

Two weeks ago, I cut out a muslin from blue sweater knit in 33% stretch crosswise.  I started with a 12 this time, after following how to do flat pattern measurements in the Tilton's Craftsy Class "The Ultimate T-shirt".  I went to the get my hair cut.  I came back and Beth had emailed me to tell me her ideas on how to get the Renfrew to fit. Great!!!

We fit the Renfrew through emailing pictures and Skype!

Here is the end result of the pattern adjustments.  These pix were taken on the fabric I used for the real deal.

1.  Make more space in the armhole area.  There's a lot going on in this photo, but essentially the slope of the shoulder seam was adjusted to add a half inch to the armhole. The sides of the front of the top were "fanned" outward to give more room in the bust.  An inch was added in the bust area of the front of the top but not the back.  I drew in notches on the front and back side seam bust area following New Look 6405 (which had this feature) as my guide.  Basically the back of the top is stretched while sewing the side seam in the notch area.  This gives more room to the bust without changing the side seam length.

 2.  Made a 1" CB swayback adjustment.  The shoulder area was adjusted just like the front (from original starting place at neckline out to an additional half inch at the armhole.  The notches were added.

I cut the pattern across the back at the waistline and overlapped 1".  Then I placed the pattern on the fold.  This means it is a bit wider across the back here but it is shorter.

So I am laughing at my wonky cutting lines. I had traced the stitching line from my muslin to the pattern in purple and then added SA in black. Sadly it wasn't til near the end that I remembered that Jacqui gave me the SA curve ruler to make that process easier.  I evened the lines out while I cut the shirt out.

Here's a closeup of the shoulder adjustment.  As Beth explained, this makes the armhole area larger and makes the sleeve drop, which makes the whole thing MUCH more comfy as there is more room!

3.  Because a half inch was added to the armhole, the sleeve cap needed a half inch added to it.

Soooo....all these adjustments, plus the fact that my "real deal" fabric had 50% crosswise stretch, lead to a VERY comfy top.
Also, I added a little feature....the thumbholes!


This picture reminds me, I sewed all hems using Emma Seabrooke's SewKeysE interfacings and then twin needled the hems.  I'll have to write about that in another post.

This one was sewn on my sewing machine; the next one I want to sew on my serger. The fabric is the same, it's just a different color.

Ok, some more pix



My coworker took the "at work" pix


Collar close up

It is hard to see but here I have flipped the collar up to show you that instead of cutting off the SA, I edgestitched it then stitched again a half inch away. This makes the collar roll quite nicely.




The fabric is from Stone Mountain and Daughter, from PR weekend 2013 in SF.

I want to make two more of these! Like I said, the next one will be on my serger. I've never sewn a garment on my serger before. Just serged the raw edges of wovens to keep them from unravelling.


Also, a word about the armpit wrinkles. I really wanted to eliminate them and Beth said it's impossible to do that unless you put a dart in, and darts can look weird in knits. The Tiltons put a dart in, in the armhole itself, and I may try that sometime in my quest for a wrinkle free world. But for now, I'm letting it go. ALL of my RTW knit tops have the armpit wrinkles. Part of why I sew is to get a fit that's better than RTW but for now, the top is comfy and I love the collar and the fabric so I have at least 2 more versions I want to sew.

Thank you Beth for helping me fit the Renfrew! I would not have gotten this far without you!  Sewing friends are the best, aren't they???

 Be well!

The Sewaholic Renfrew in Radiant Orchid-ish....

A larger post on my brand new Sewaholic Renfrew is coming soon.  Here's a sneak peak...the sweater knit is purple, one of my orchids that has not bloomed since 2010 is about to bloom, and Pantone's 2014 Color of the Year is Radiant Orchid.  Put that all together and you get this:


In other news, it snowed.

Quite a lot for NJ.

I'm going to try to write a big Renfrew post tmw!  Soooo excited!

Be well!

The ginkgo pillow sham, Elna Pressified

After receiving the Elna Press as a present, I really wanted to make an item that is interfacing intensive to see how much time it would save: a pillow.  That's because the last time I made one, I felt like it was taking forever to press on all that interfacing, and to press the interfacing not just once but twice because the instructions say it should be pressed both front and back.

I had this idea for a ginkgo leaf pillow for a while now, so the time was right.

Leaf and piping fabric:  aqua stretch denim from Haberman's, Sept 2013
Brown uncut (no wale) corduroy:  Joann's, in stash
Interfacing (which make the pillow feel really luxurious):  Fashion Sewing Supply, black medium fusible.
pillow form: Joann's.
Cording for piping:  Joann's.
Pillow and piping tutorial: From this post on the Seasoned Homemaker blog.    Also check out Dana's pillow tutorial; next time I will cut the pillow sham to be the same size as the pillow for a snugger fit as she recommends (in these pix, I "filled out" the corners with stuffing.)
Inspiration Leaf: From my favorite ginkgo tree on Princeton University's campus.

This gives you the idea of how I enlarged a real-life ginkgo leaf.
Trace the original on graph paper and then use the grid to enlarge it on grid interfacing from Joann's.


The first leaf I tried was too large for my 16x16 pillow so I tried a smaller one (the one in red at the bottom of my graph paper).  Then I wound up free-sketching a bit onto the right side of the leaf so that it was more symmetrical.  I wish I had made more of an uneven line at the top but....

Here is the cording I used, and a closer view of the color of the fabric.  I'm SO happy to find this cable cord in a 10 yard package.  It totally beats waiting at the cutting counter.

It is super easy to make your own piping.  I think this is my third time making my own piping and it couldn't be easier.  (Directions are in the Seasoned Homemaker tutorial linked above).

Coming together...

I used wonder clips for "pinning" the front to the back.  Half of these are mine and half are a gift from Jacqui--thanks Jacqui!


Oh and here's what it looked like on the back before adding the piping.



I used Wonder Under to fuse the leaf to the pillow, then used a zigzag stitch to seal the edges.

The back is an envelope style and this time I did it right--the overlap is enough that the pillow is not bursting out.

I try to limit my pillows and other home accessory items, mainly because I don't have anywhere to put them.

Asterisk pillow (2012), ginko pillow (2014), mum pillow (2009).

Here is their natural arrangement

Yes, I took this pic this morning.  Yes, it's still Christmas at my house.

I have ONE more pillow I want to make, and then that will be it for awhile.    You can imagine its future location right now, can't you?

Verdict:  How did I ever live without the Elna Press?  It definitely speeds up the process AND it fuses the interfacing on better than I think my iron ever did.  I feel the board could be larger but still, its surface area is SO much larger than the surface area of an iron.


Currently it lives here; I'm planning on buying a kitchen island or kitchen cart (both are at least 33" tall) from Ikea to replace the two end tables shown here.

Guess what I'm working on! Hint: I gave up on it in March of last year!

Beth of SunnyGal Studio is helping me tremendously with it!  More deets next post.

Be well!