A while back I posted about the baby kimono I’d made for a friend who was expecting. Well, here is Charlotte modeling it for me. Hello, cuteness!

Speaking of things that go well with onesies and stress-induced ADD requiring mindless handwork, more baby items were in order for this particular friend. It seems like it’s easier to find somewhat hip baby stuff these days — beyond the pink and blue and media-branded items — but who wants to pay $20 for something that baby is going to outgrow in a few months? So I used this übersimple gathered skirt pattern to throw together a couple of skirts to pull on over the onesies.

The bicycle skirt is a nod to the daddy-to-be:

The leaves are something that the mommy-to-be would probably wear herself:

The fabrics are Michael Miller Citron Gray Bicycles and Nature Walk Organic Leaves Crimson, both purchased from Fabric.com. I ordered half a yard of each fabric and made the 12-18 month size. For the smallest size, you could get two skirts out of a half-yard — I had plenty of fabric left over. For the bicycle skirt I used the full width of the fabric (44″, less selvedges), but I felt it was a little too full, so for the leaf skirt I cut about 6 inches off the width.

(I also grooved on this tiered gathered skirt for babies, but lacked an infant for measuring and didn’t have enough coordinating fabrics around to pull it off.)

A coworker told me that when she had her baby boy last year, that in spite of all the baby clothes they had been given, the only thing she ever put him in for the first few months was a kimono-style wrapped jacket and a onesie, because they were the easiest things to get on and off. This was exactly what I wanted to hear, as I had already planned to make this kimono jacket for a friend’s expected baby. The pattern is the free simple kimono wrap from Habitual; I made the 6-12 month size. I wanted a print that was fun and suitable for a girl or boy, and I think this one fit the bill.

I was a bit confused when I added the ties, and had to rip out the one that’s supposed to tie on the inside and insert it so it went–you know–on the inside. I also tried to use a technique I learned from one of my Japanese sewing books to serge each side seam in one go, but I had to snip the stitches in the corners a little and resew them with the sewing machine. I need more practice on that one. The end result was still pretty darn cute though.

Recycling content a little here, but I finally gave away all the stocking ornaments I made a couple of years ago, so it’s time to make some more.

You can make some too, with my downloadable PDF pattern and photo tutorial.

Last year I stumbled on a pattern for an ultralight waterproof backpack posted by Jan Rezac from the Czech Republic. The pattern splits the pack into two parts: an outer shell that supports the shoulder straps and hip belt, and a waterproof dry bag that is strapped into the outer shell. The dry bag can be constructed from a very lightweight fabric because it doesn’t have any stress points for straps and it’s protected by the sides of the outer shell, and this allowed Rezac to get his pack weight down to 320 grams, or about 11 ounces. My pack is about 24 ounces and E’s is about 16 ounces, so the idea of an 11 ounce pack was intriguing.

I sent off for a bunch of fabric samples from Seattle Fabrics, and E helped pick the fabrics and other materials needed for the pack, and we ordered them… and then they sat under the chaise in my studio for a year. However, I finally got to the project, and here’s the first prototype:

Doesn’t look like much without the sleeping pad to give it some structure and with the dry bag all crumpled up inside it like that, but I still think it’s pretty cool. The various pieces are sewn from different fabrics, depending on stress and wear. The bottom is a sturdy 330 denier Cordura — tough and water resistant, for putting it down on the ground. The back is 200 denier coated Oxford — waterproof, and heavy enough to support the stress of the straps and hip belt. The sides and front are waterproof 140 denier ripstop nylon, to protect the inner bag from branches and other wear.

Here’s the back view:

The shoulder straps and hip belt are made of 1/4″ foam padding, which I perforated with a 1/4″ hole punch to further reduce the weight (marginally) and to allow it to breathe. There are also strips of grosgrain ribbon sewn to the back where the shoulder straps and hip belt are attached, to support the additional stress at those points. The hip belt is sewn in to the seam where the back and bottom meet, and attached to the lower grosgrain strip with short strips of heavy elastic, to provide support and accommodate the pack’s bouncing as you walk.

The side pockets are made of dive mesh, with a light-weight elastic gathering them into the protective sleeve at the top:

The dry bag is made of heat-sealable fabric — the outside has a waterproof coating, and the inside has a heat-sealable coating. I sewed around it with about a 1/2″ seam allowance first, then used an iron to seal the seam allowance and also 1/2″ inside the seam allowance. In theory only the heat sealing is required, but should it fail I wanted to make sure stuff wasn’t going to fall out. The webbing and velcro across the top allow the flap to be folded over a couple of times and then buckled, so it’s waterproof:

I’m not totally in love with the dry bag. I had originally purchased some 1.9 ounce silicon coated ripstop, which is much lighter but would require sealing the seams. Then I got a photocopy of the article about the heat-sealed dry bags and thought I’d try that instead. We’ll see how it works. The ripstop was also a light blue, which I suspect would be easier to find in a dark camp site.

The finished weight of our prototype, with dry bag, came to 16 ounces, which is about the same as E’s current lightweight pack (which, unlike this pack, doesn’t have a hip belt). It fits me quite well, and it seemed to adjust all right to E’s height (he’s 6′ 2″, I’m 5′ 6″). We’re going to give it a test run this month.

More bad iPhone photos. It’s not really the phone, I suspect; more likely the fluorescent overhead lighting, the industrial carpet, and cubicles. Though, check out the lovely exposed brick in our historic landmark building. (And the windows open, which is awesome, and if you look out the window you can see the San Francisco Bay. Pretty nice, all in all.)

Since it’s hard to see above, here’s a close up of the front of the skirt:

It’s an eight panel skirt from this Japanese pattern book. The panels taper in at the top for waist shaping. There’s a front fly zip, which I totally botched, but since it’s covered you can’t see that. There was also a waistband, but the waist was already very high on me so I skipped it and drafted a facing instead. My new technique learned on this skirt was French seams, which is how I finished all the panel seams. They look very nice on the inside too! There are also small patch pockets high on the back, that are just big enough for my id badge and some cash.

The fabric is an amazingly soft brushed twill that I’m sure I bought very cheaply at Discount Fabrics. It sat in my stash for a very long time while I tried to get up the courage to try this skirt. There are a lot of pieces, and the instructions for the fly were a bit confusing — at first I thought it was just because it was in Japanese, but then I looked around for other instructions on doing a fly zip, and they were equally confusing.

I notice I seem to be developing a uniform for work: black top, black or grey knee socks or tights, cardigan (usually also black) and then the skirt, which can be playful/casual like the mod skirt or this one, or more classic. This is a step up over my previous work uniform of black t-shirt, jeans, and a hoodie.

Given the option of waiting until my photographer can get a picture in front of the bamboo stand, or having a coworker take a quick photo on ye olde iPhone, I opted for the latter. This was my quick gratification project this weekend.

The fabric is a 21 Wale Stretch Corduroy from Fabric.com (on sale for $4.98/yard right now!) and no, that’s not your eyes — it really does look like a 1970s sofa that you need 3D glasses to look at. The motif is actually centered on the front and back. I must be standing slightly askew here.

The pattern is my staple A-line skirt from the Sew U book from Built by Wendy. I drafted out the back seam and did the front and back as two pieces with side zip, because I only had a yard of fabric and I didn’t want to deal with matching the fabric in the back seam. I did manage to match it at the sides though. w00t!

Also, the top is the free Minimalist Cowl pattern from The Selfish Seamstress, which I made a while ago but haven’t photographed yet. The fabric is a bit stiff/heavy for a cowl, but it has the interesting side effect that it’s very sculptural and tends to stay where I put it. Which is great when I remember to style it, which clearly I did not this morning. Ah well.

Things to do when one is procrastinating and has scraps of fairly expensive Japanese fabric that are begging to have something done with them. I’ve seen fabric coasters that have batting or flannel between the layers, but I didn’t bother. Finished size is a scant 3-3/4″ on each side.

Super Fast Instructions

Cut two 4″ squares of fabric. Curve the corners to make it easier to turn them inside out (I just followed the corner curves from the card wallet pattern around each corner — they have a 1/2″ radius). Place squares right sides together (if you want to add an extra absorbant fabric layer, place it on top of the other two pieces so it’s on the inside when you turn everything right-side out).

Sew around the perimeter of the coaster with a 1/8″ seam allowance, leaving about 2″ open along one side for turning. (Backstitch and the start and end of the stitching so it holds together while you’re turning.)

Turn right-side out and press flat. Fold raw edges from opening towards the inside and press so they’re straight.

Top-stitch around the entire coaster very close to the edge (I use the 2mm marker on my sewing machine foot), backstitching at the start and end.

You’re done. I told you it was going to be super fast!

Longtime readers may recall the fabric card wallet I made some time back. Today as I was, well, procrastinating on writing an article about designing keyboard-only interactions for web sites, I started cleaning my studio and found a bunch of fabric I’d cut to make more robot wallets. Then I decided to procrastinate on cleaning my studio and make robot wallets instead. And then I decided to write a tutorial!

Read more…

I told you it would be a surprise!

This is the cover dress from Machiko Kayaki’s Simple Chic, which was one of the first Japanese sewing books I ever bought. I love the book because the dresses are all lined and nicely finished. That said, I ended up not lining this one — I just went with the facings.

The big thing I learned on this dress was how to properly hem a very curved hem. Every skirt I’ve done has had minimal flare, so I’ve never had to baste and gather the hem. It turned out to be very easy, but there was a lot of blind-stitching to do. I think the hem was easily double that of any other thing I’ve sewn.

At this point I feel like I’ve really got the hang of  invisible zipper installations.

Super happy with this dress. I can tell from the photos I have some mild fit problems, but I feel like I’m getting to the point where I can sew things that are more complex and get decent results.