Nicole at Home

Scoop neck tee from Skirt as Top

2013-05-16T17:10:00.001-07:00

The garment factory accidents in Bangladesh have really opened my eyes to just how our clothing is made. This article, which I heard on our local NPR station, painted a very vivid picture of the awful working conditions. (The article is short, please read it.) As seamstresses, we have a unique opportunity to do something small to help this terrible situation: to make at least some of our own

Menswear: a sorta-Negroni

2013-05-13T21:52:00.001-07:00

With a whole week devoted to my two little boys recently, I thought I should turn my attention to my well-deserving biggest guy. Apart from a quilt many (many) years ago, he has only ever received a pair of linen shorts from my sewing room. Not sure why I've taken so long...perhaps it has to do with the ridiculous lack of men's clothing patterns (that don't involve vests). If I thought

Miter-cornered napkins, two ways

2013-05-09T13:29:00.001-07:00

If you're coming from Britex Fabrics, welcome! At our house, we've been exclusively using cloth napkins for a while now. I typically use quilting cotton for our "regular" napkins, so when I received the cotton and linen yardage from Britex, I almost felt guilty for using such incredible, beautiful fabric essentially for wiping dirty hands and mouths. But as I worked with the linen in

101st post and a new dress for me!

2013-04-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

The boys were a bit too quiet this evening after dinner and I came upstairs to find my youngest using my serger spools as building blocks. "A GIGANTIC spider web, Mommy!" There are definitely worse things to get into in the sewing room, so we're good with thread! During Kid's Clothes Week, I started to cut out a dress for myself, but set it aside. The fabric was bought years ago, and

Kid's Clothes Week: Days 6, 7 + 8

2013-04-29T21:04:00.000-07:00

I got started on one final project for Spring Kid's Clothes Week on Friday, a pair of overalls for my little man. After working on them for what feels like an eternity, I finally finished them today (just a day overdue :). Between constantly switching between regular and topstitching thread, having to sew each seam three times, and all the other details that went into these short-alls, they

Kid's Clothes Week: Days 4+5

2013-04-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

Anyone who sews for boy children knows that there is a serious dearth of cute clothing patterns for little men, and big men, too, actually. So I was thrilled to find the Blank Slate pattern company, which gives little boys their due attention in the cute clothing department, and I quickly purchased the Perfect Polo. The pattern comes in a wide size range, so with the one download, I can make

Kid's Clothes Week: Days 2 +3

2013-04-24T20:42:00.001-07:00

Two days, two sets of pajamas! First up, shorties for my big boy, in the "babyish" lizard print. Having bought only one yard, I didn't have quite enough to make a second shirt AND shorts, so I used the orange rib for the body of a raglan top and the lizard fabric for the arms. I like the look a lot, since it breaks up all those crazy-colored lizards. I used a RTW shirt to rough draft the

Kid's Clothes Week: Day 1

2013-04-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm going to preface this post by divulging that I have been home without children for the entire day. Compound that with not having to deal with fit issues (yay for kid's clothing!) and I was a very productive seamstress today...as should be expected under the aforementioned circumstances, right? On to the daily report! First up, I wanted to make a pair of pants for my super skinny big boy.

Pre-KCW sewing

2013-04-21T21:25:00.002-07:00

I'm in! Kid's Clothes Week starts tomorrow. It's like a mini-resolution: sew for 1 hour a day for a week, focusing on the kiddos. I've intended to get into the sewing habit pretty much forever, so now's as good a time as any, especially since I don't have lecture prep taking up my evenings anymore. Last week, my younger son had a special package hand-delivered from Japan--a big box of

More tops for the spring (kind of)

2013-04-13T14:37:00.000-07:00

Knits and sergers. They're like a foreign language compared to sewing wovens with a regular machine. Whereas I feel confident in my sewing skills on my regular machine, I get nervous and uncertain when I sit down with knit fabric at my serger. Of course the only way to resolve that issue is practice, so over the past few months I've purchased some knits to improve my skills. For this top,

Rooibos, with mods

2013-04-11T15:54:00.000-07:00

As my prize for my Spring Top Sewalong Reader's Choice award last year (has it been a year already?!), I chose one of the gorgeous designs from Colette Patterns: the Rooibos. There's so much to love about this dress--piping, pockets, fitted midriff, work appropriateness, etc. The design is very close fitting, and since I was mostly concerned with the fit of the bodice, I decided to

Farewell apron

2013-03-10T21:16:00.000-07:00

I was sad to learn that one of the lovely teachers at my son's daycare is leaving this week. She is a former elementary school teacher in Japan and is just an incredibly hardworking and dedicated teacher for the children at the daycare. My son has learned so much! Anyhow, I had given her this apron for Christmas; she wore it every week like a pinafore under a cardigan and told me all the

Heidi top for spring

2013-03-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

Heralded by beautiful pink cherry blossoms in our back yard, spring has officially arrived in Northern California. All the gorgeous wool and plaid fabrics I purchased this winter, with unrealistic dreams of making warm and toasty work clothes, must be packed away for another couple of seasons. But remember this fabric, purchased on our trip to Zurich, Switzerland, last summer? With the

Tutorial: Double-drawstring bag

2013-02-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

My son loves those little Velcro wooden fruits that you can cut into pieces with the wooden knife. The set Santa brought was in a cute little wooden crate, but at the end of the day, a wide-open, boxy crate isn't going to cut it as a storage vessel at our place. Instead, I wanted to make a little drawstring bag to keep them all together (without taking up a crate-sized amount of space).

Peplum silk blouse

2013-02-12T18:00:00.000-08:00

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Pura seta

2013-01-30T21:05:00.000-08:00

The anticipation! After three silk muslins, the good stuff was finally cut into and sewn. I'll be revealing photos of the finished silk blouse soon in my first post as an official Guest Blogger for Britex Fabrics!

Me, pinable

2013-01-13T19:05:00.000-08:00

For Christmas, my husband gave me the most perfect gift: a dressmaker's form! Until now, I spent a lot of time topless (or bottomless) pinning and repinning in-process clothing in front of the bathroom mirror. It took a while to find the right dress form for me, but I ended up getting a Fabulous Fit, because of how customizable it is. The form itself comes very tiny, with a bunch of foam

Apron times two

2012-12-31T13:35:00.000-08:00

As my last post of the year, I wanted to share the two aprons I made for my youngest's daycare teachers. Both were based on this vintage pattern, though I made enough changes to the first apron that it's virtually unrecognizable as the same style: The apron on the left (in my photo and on the pattern) is a simple design--one piece, cut on the fold. The only sewn seams are at the shoulders

Merry Christmas!

2012-12-25T23:30:00.000-08:00

Hands down, my favorite decoration for the house is this advent calendar, made three years ago. I based it on my in-laws wood version, but ours is all felt, with tiny rick rack, ribbon and seed bead decorations for the ornaments. Clearly made before child #2 came along, each number was hand cut with an exact-o knife from freezer paper and then stenciled. I still can't believe I went through

Dumplings for Christmas

2012-12-20T13:09:00.001-08:00

Other than the tree skirt, I only set out to make aprons for my son's daycare providers for Christmas this year in a conscious effort to reduce holiday stress. The 2 year old goes to a Japanese immersion small family daycare**, and the teachers wear cute little cobbler-style aprons every day. Clearly, I had to make one for each of the two main teachers! So, in preparation, I purchased

Christmas tree skirt

2012-12-17T16:00:00.000-08:00

After seeing this tutorial, it was immediately imperative that I make a tree skirt. Not that we needed one; on the contrary, I own a beautiful skirt with rows and rows of cute little pompoms that I actually like quite a bit. No, I had to make one because despite not being a matchy-matchy type of person, I had some extra fabric left over from the stockings I made for the boys in previous years

Cozy PJ bottoms

2012-12-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

I bought that sweet mug at a student pottery sale at my college yesterday! Even in a land where I know the location of 3 pairs of sunglasses and no idea where my umbrella is (and it's currently raining), cozy pajamas are a must-have in the "winter". I purchased this fabric (In the Clearing Winter, part of the LouLou flannel collection by Anna Maria Horner) online, not knowing that the

Peplum blouse, pattern review

2012-11-30T20:54:00.000-08:00

During my recent visit to Britex I purchased a beautiful stretch silk floral fabric, the most expensive piece of fabric I've ever purchased (but so worth it!). I only got a small amount, with some kind of sleeveless shell in mind. After making the Minna blouse by Salme patterns, their Peplum blouse caught my eye. E-downloads make those impulse pattern buys oh-so easy! I made not one, but two

Henry Turtle pin cushion

2012-11-05T20:34:00.001-08:00

I could not resist this pin cushion pattern from Heather Bailey. Truly, the price was a bit high at my local boutique fabric store, but I bought it anyway--it's that cute. In an ongoing effort to reduce my fabric stash, I used what I had on had: some leftover Lotta Jansdotter "Bella" dotted yellow for the body (and the stripe for the belly) and Anna Maria Horner "Good Folks" for the shell.

Pleated clutch

2012-10-19T11:58:00.004-07:00

Samantha from At Home with Mrs. H has created a lovely new pleated purse/clutch pattern and I had the opportunity to test it out! For my version, I used an upholstery-weight linen/viscous blend. I adore this orangey-pink nubby fabric that I snapped up from FabMo--it's perfect for a vintage-y clutch. The bag is lined with a Robert Kaufman quilting cotton. The only changes I made to the