Vanguard! For a Biking Shirt!

Pattern - Love Notions Vanguard Kit long sleeve tee
Skill Level - confident beginner
Fabric - Discovery Fabrics Polartec Delta
Skills - Colour blocking

My grandson is turning 9 in a few weeks.   For part of his present, he said he wanted a biking shirt with padded elbows.  I knew that I couldn't possibly make something that would give him proper protection, but my son assured me that what he really wanted was a shirt with a moto look.

- like the Moto Maxx pants I'd made him the previous year.  Okay - that I can do! (Click on any picture to see it in more detail.)

The Fabric

I had the perfect fabric on hand.  He loves athletic fabrics and Discovery Fabrics specializes in athletic fabrics.  I had 3 colours of Polartec Delta sitting on the shelves - marine blue, apple green and grey - and decided to use them all.

Polartec Delta is a wonderful fabric and I had previously used it to make competition shirts for my son and his training partner.

It's highly breathable, has superior wicking properties, regulated drying, reduced clinging, odor control and is highly durable.  You can see from the picture above that it's also constructed to pull moisture away from your body. Just what my hot-bodied grandson needs.

The Pattern

The Vanguard Kit is one of my most-used patterns.

There are all kinds of options built right in - even colour blocking.  But the colour blocking I had in mind, I was going to have to figure out myself.

Colour Blocking

I drew up and coloured a design of what I had in mind and then printed off and cut out the plain fronted shirt with long sleeves.

Then I drew lines on the pattern pieces and wrote the colour on each section also making a note of where I would have to add 3/8" for seam allowance.  I cut double the middle grey sleeve sections, because it was going to have moto stitching on it.  That was going to be the padded portion.

After cutting the colour block sections, I placed each colour with its fabric.  I was ready to cut out.

I didn't add a seam allowance as all my lines were going to be straight.  I used my ruler as the guide to add the seam allowance.

You can see on this piece that the seam allowances are all there.

Sewing

I worked on the front first.

I laid all the pieces out in order and working from the bottom up, pressing the seam allowance up (and I used a pressing cloth so the fabric wasn't damaged) and topstitched as I went.  The diagonal blue section was added last and topstitched.

Then on to the sleeves.

I laid them out just as I did with the front with the grey section being two layers, pressing the seams up and topstitching.

For the moto stitching, I drew lines with tailor's chalk.

I stitched the lines on my coverstitch machine.  I could have used my regular sewing machine, but I wanted this section of the sleeve to have lots of stretch.  I used a notch on my foot as my guide in stitching.

So here is what the sleeve looks like front and back.

Now with all the piecing done, all I had to do was sew up the pieces, put on the neckband and hem.  Sounds like a lot of work, but it only took me a morning.  I know my grandson will love his new biking shirt.  He loves this fabric and he'll appreciate all the amazing properties which will keep him cool and dry while he's out on the mountain biking trails.  If you don't already have this pattern, you can get it from my affiliate link below.  And do check out Discovery Fabrics for all the amazing products they carry.

Love Notions Vanguard Kit
Discovery Fabrics

Moving Darts - and another hint or two

Pattern - Love Notions Sonata Dress
Skill Level - Confident Beginner
Fabric - Apparel cotton from Fabricland
Skills - Adjusting a pattern

The latest pattern from Love Notions is the Sonata - the perfect dress for summer.  It's flattering, loose and yet semi-fitted with its empire waist, fits sizes XS to XXXL and comes with 4 sleeve options and 4 bodice sizes.

The attractive neckline also has a couple of options:  you can have the facing on the outside for a contrast or face simply on the inside with topstitching on the outside which is how I did mine.

And to give you the best fit - it has darts!  Darts are what give the Sonata its shape.  And just as it's important to match your full bust to a pattern's bust line, it's equally important to make sure the darts fit your unique shape.

The first time I had to move a dart I was pretty nervous!  However after doing a few I feel a lot more confident.  Plus I was surprised at how easy it actually is.  So here are the adjustments I had to make so that my bodice fit my shape.

The first thing I had to do was establish that the bodice was going to be long enough for me.  Love Notions patterns are drafted for an average height of 5'5" and I'm 5'8".  The bodice is supposed to come to about 1" to 2" above the natural waist.  After holding the piece against myself and seeing that I was going need a little more length as well as having to move the bust dart down, I decided I needed to add 1" above the dart.

I placed the pattern piece on my cutting mat, lining it up against a vertical line and taped near the bottom.  Using my rotary cutter and rule, I sliced across the bodice, moved the piece up 1", keeping it lined against that vertical line and taped it to the cutting mat.  Taping it to the mat ensures that my pieces aren't going to move on me.

Then I added added a strip of paper, taped it in and sliced off the extra paper.  I was ready to move the darts.

I held the adjusted front bodice against my body so that it was about 3/8" over the shoulder seam of my top and lined up against the middle of my body.

Using a pencil, I marked my apex - that's the most prominent part of my bust - usually the nipple.

Apex marked, I could now plan out the movement of the darts.  I could see that I was going to have to move the bust dart down about 1.5" and the waist dart would need to be lowered about the same amount and moved slightly to the right.  Tami's clear instructions in her patterns are what gave me the confidence to make my adjustments so I followed her directions.

First I cut a box around the bust dart and moved it down so that it was pointing to my apex and just slightly above it - as it had been to the pattern's apex.  I taped it in place and filled in the open spot with scrap paper.

Now it was time to move the waist dart.  It only needed to be moved slightly to the right but it needed to be lowered 1.5".  First I established the new point and drew legs to that point.

Then I cut out the dart and moved it slightly to the outside filling in the open spot with scrap paper and trimming the edges.

And that's all there is to it!  I now had a bodice front that matched MY shape!  If darts have you concerned, don't be worried.  They're surprisingly simple to move.  And isn't that just the most amazing thing about being able to sew your own clothes?  You finish up with something that fits YOU!

Now another couple of hints to help make your sewing experience as easy as possible. Since I was planning on sewing my facing to the inside of the bodice, I serged around the outside edge of the facing.  After stitching it in place and clipping the curves, I understitched around the neckline - except for the V.  If you're not familiar with understitching, check out the blog post before this which explains it fully.  Understitching makes it so much easier to turn the facing to the back and not have any of it showing.

I used that serging line as my guide for the topstitching.  Lots of pins held the facing in place and I simply did my topstitching from the wrong side in the centre of the serging line.

Love Notions' Sonata is a great pattern to try out these tips.  You'll get a lovely dress that takes you into summer and one that is uniquely adapted for you.  And if you need any further assistance, you know that we are always ready to guide you on the Love Notions Support Group in Facebook. You can get the pattern through my affiliate link below.

Love Notions Sonata Dress

Hey Presto!

Pattern - Love Notions Presto Tunic
Skill Level - Intermediate
Fabric - rayon challis from Fabricland
Skills - topstitching, buttons and buttonholes

Spring is just around the corner, isn't it?  Well, we need to work on the spring wardrobe, then.  And Love Notions has just the thing - the Presto Tunic!  Made from a light woven, Presto has the usual multiple options - 4 sleeve lengths and a choice of mandarin collar or a bias-bound neckline.  The loose body has darts at the front and optional shaping darts for the back.  And, of course, it has a full bust option for people like me - how I love that full bust option!

The pattern's tutorial is detailed and well-illustrated as we've come to expect and in addition, two video links help you with the trickier aspects - the inset panel and the split hem.  Therefore, in this post, I'll concentrate on the topstitching, buttons and buttonholes.

Buttonholes seem to worry quite a number of people, and they really aren't that difficult.  If you're in the market for a new sewing machine, make sure you get one that has one-step buttonholes.  It's an option that nearly all modern sewing machines have these days.


Before you can do the buttonholes, the panel must be readied.  The tutorial instructions will walk you through this.  One tip I'd pass along is that when topstitching the placket in the panel, do all your stitching in the same direction. (Click on the pictures to see them in more detail.)

My sewing machine's foot has red dots at the 1/8" mark to help with topstitching.  By keeping that dot on the edge I get sharp, even lines.  I do my first line of stitching on the side away from the seam with pins holding the placket in place.

Then I topstitch the seam edge.  With all stitching going in the same direction, I lessen the chances of distortion with the light fabric I used.  Topstitching done, I'm now ready for the buttonholes.

The buttonholes will be on the shirt's right side of the panel, so I place the buttonhole guide next to that placket.  If you're in any confusion which side that is, just make your pieces mirror those in the tutorial. I mark the bottom of each buttonhole with a pin as this is where my machine will start.  Then I take the placket piece to my sewing machine and stitch the buttonholes.  Now we're ready for buttons!  And you can do that with your sewing machine, too!

First, I place the two pieces of the panel beside each other so that I know exactly where the buttons will go.  I use a glue stick for this step and dab a bit of glue on the back of each button before positioning it on the left panel placket.  The glue will be dry by the time I stitch and won't hurt the machine's needle at all.  And just a note - I regularly check out my local thrift store for buttons - which is where I bought these ones for a whole 30 cents!

Buttons in place, I'm ready to machine stitch them on.  I have a button foot and my machine has a special stitch for that but don't worry if yours doesn't - I tell you how to get around this later.  I lower the needle into the first hole (I go diagonally across the holes as these buttons have 4 holes), then when I think I have the button properly placed, I lower the foot.

I always do the first couple of stitches manually to make sure that the button is in the right spot, then let the machine do the rest.  I do all of one diagonal side first and trim off all the threads.

Then I flip the piece to do the other diagonal side, trim the threads and I'm done.  Takes all of a minute or two!

And once you've had a taste of letting the machine do the work, you'll never go back to hand-sewing buttons again!

Don't have a button foot?  Your machine doesn't have a special button stitch? No problem.  Take the foot off your sewing machine.  Set your machine to zig zag with the shortest stitch length you can - like 0!  Adjust the width of the zig zag until it's the right width for your button holes.  Turn off the feed dogs.  Lower the needle into one of the button's holes and then lower the post of your machine's presser foot onto the button.  Hand wheel the first stitch or two.  Then zig zag some stitches - about 6 or 8.  That's it!

Once the panel is sewn in place - and remember there's a video to help you with this step - it's clear sailing until you get to the hem - and there's a video for that, too!

Warm weather is on the way - treat yourself to a Presto or two.  You can get the pattern through my affiliate link below.

Love Notions Presto Tunic