Sewing in May

Gosh, is it May already? Time it does fly. Today I have to show you some things I've sewn for myself. A friend lent me her serger and, after having it a long time, I finally got it out of the box to try. I guess it was thinking about having to get it threaded that made me put it off, as I'm not the most technically minded person. But, am I glad I got it out of the box, because this is just the best thing. I love it!

I read up on sewing with knits by checking out this book from the library:

Great book, and I recommend her books highly. The book comes with her own patterns in an envelope, but I made a tester shirt using another pattern. It would have been cute if I hadn't used a "tester" fabric. I made it again in a slinky rayon (had to photoshop in the "mom" tattoo to cover up what the slinky fabric revealed, and sorry, the shirt does look wrinkled!):


The rayon fabric is too slinky to wear on its own outside, but I thought it would be a fine pajama top. Then I made two tops yesterday, one is a cowl necked shell out of the same slinky rayon:


I can wear it under a cardigan and it looks quite all right. It was so easy to make, just two pieces to cut. And the other shirt I decided to draft my own pattern for and copy my favorite long-sleeved shirt. This was a black one I got at the shop Janeville. It's just a basic shirt, although the original had seed beads around the neck ribbing before some of them popped off and I had to remove them all. My favorite one is the right length, fits me well, and is pretty much worn as often as it's clean and in the drawer.


I used some pretty cheap rib cotton from Joann's. It was really easy to work with after the rayon, and I was amazed when the shirt came out pretty much like the original.

I have all kinds of ideas for other projects. First, I'm going to make a knit top using one of the Built By Wendy patterns. Then I have one more piece of knit fabric to use before I run out, and it's just like the blue rib used for the long-sleeved shirt except it's sea green. I may make another t-shirt out of that, or try a tank top. My friend has told me I can use her serger as long as I like, but I'm very tempted to shop around for one of my own. They are really a great thing and these few successes have injected a little life into my sewing.