I chose view E, which is the top left on the pattern cover. My favorite is actually the red tank in the middle but since the shoulder seams cut in so much on that style, I didn’t think it would make a good overdress. I know this for a fact, because I put on one of my tanks (made with that view) over a fitted long sleeve shirt. The shoulder seams didn’t go well together.

After I got out my pattern, I took over the dining room table. The photo below shows the draft of the back bodice/skirt. My pencil marks were not visible in the photo until I used the pencil tool in GIMP to draw the general shape. It really is not this poorly drawn on the actual pattern.

To make this piece (dress back), I first traced the New Look back bodice piece, and then took the side seam allowances down to 1/4″. The neck and arm hole seam allowances I took down to 1/8″ because I planned to use bias binding to finish them. I only took the center back seam down to 1/2″ because of putting a button-ribbon closure at the top. Then I added a skirt, 42″ long and 24-1/2″ wide (which is actually one-fourth the total skirt width).

My friend’s advice helped me tremendously in drafting this pattern. She offered her expertise with the darts and with where to begin the skirt, and encouraged me to make the skirt flatteringly full. All very good tips which I appreciate tremendously!

Then I made the muslin of the dress. It fit pretty well! I had to add an inward curve on the back pattern piece right at the small of the back so it would be more shapely. (Not shown.)

Yesterday afternoon, I began constructing an actual dress out of black linen. I love linen. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again. Who cares if it gets wrinkly (which this doesn’t do too badly because it is a linen-rayon blend)? Linen drapes well, feels good, and is flattering. I also love black.

The center back seam is open at the top 5 inches so I can get the dress on and off. The original shirt pattern calls for this opening. I put a button and ribbon-loop at the top for closure.

Not only do I love linen, but I love using bias binding for necklines and armholes. Bias binding eliminates the need for facings or linings — which add bulk and/or need to be pressed. Have you ever worked with bias binding? I will take photos the next time I work with it to show you how easy it is. And what a finished look it gives! I used bias binding on this dress, stay-stitching before adding it so the openings wouldn’t stretch out (as linen especially tends to do).

I really do like this dress. However, it looks and feels less medieval than I was expecting, and much more like a long jumper. The pictures don’t show many details, especially since the color is black. I plan some other colors because I think I’m going to be wearing this dress alot. I would have liked it to be more fitted, but if I take it in any more at the side seams, I will look bulky at the middle and will end up hating the dress. Better to be a little loose.

For the underdress, I plan on lengthening my current base-layer t-shirt pattern to create a long-sleeve t-shirt dress. In the muslin photo above, the black t-shirt underneath is that t-shirt. I made it from merino wool. So the finished overdress-underdress combination will look similar to what is shown here, although I have yet to make the underdress.

Too many details? The details are mostly for my mom. Thanks for bearing with me.

Because his hair is clipped shorter, the 100% merino wool beanie/skull cap — from when I first started practicing them — fits Jeff perfectly. Except it leaves his neck desiring warmth.

So we created a neck warmer. It is really like a removable turtleneck! And it does the trick. The neck warmer is a serged tube of 100% merino wool, with finished dimensions of 15-inches by 3.5-inches. Very simple and very warm.

This is Naomi in her t-shirt. Haniya’s has the same base blue fabric, but combined with a navy blue instead of the green I used for Naomi’s. (Do you see a little purple in the picture, too? That is because Naomi has her layered-look t-shirt on over top of a purple t-shirt. Just forget about the purple when following the instructions below.)

It is easy to convert any sleeve into a layered-look sleeve. Split the sleeve pattern (perpendicular to the grain) at your desired location. Naomi’s is about 4 inches down from the underarm point. Then add a seam allowance to both pieces at the new cut line. You can do this by adding to the pattern piece or by eyeballing it when you cut out your fabric.

Cut the top of each sleeve from the main fabric color and the bottom part of each sleeve from the secondary color (the one that will look like it is the t-shirt underneath). Seam together a top and a bottom sleeve piece to make each of the two sleeves.

Turn the seam allowances (where the top and bottom pieces meet) up toward the sleeve top and top stitch it down. Do this with two lines of stitching, a twin needle, or a cover stitch. This stitching will make the top part of the sleeve look “hemmed” at this point, just like it is overlapping the bottom of the sleeve.

Then construct the t-shirt, using the secondary color as the binding at the neckline. This makes it look like there really is another t-shirt peeking out from underneath.

That wool that I dyed twice in olive-brown last Thursday did turn out too orange-y. So on Friday, I dyed it black, half strength, and it turned out just like I wanted — a nice chocolate brown.

He looks good, my sweet boy Mikah!

I’ve been working a little here and there since Friday on practicing the skull caps for Jeff and Mikah. The hat I made today fits Mikah, which probably means it will be too tight for Jeff. I was modeling these wool hats from Ibex — Meru Skull Cap and  Zephyr Skull Cap. Only I didn’t flatlock the seams like Ibex does. I used a wide 3-thread serger stitch and I coverstitched those down flat with a wide 2-thread coverstitch.

Mikah was rubbing his eyes; he didn’t want me to show this picture, but I’m going to anyway (sorry, Mikah) because it shows the top of the hat.

Each morning and afternoon, the kids have been going to take care of our neighbor’s 13 goats and 2 dogs. The snow is covering the grasses on which the goats usually graze, so the kids go over there and give them hay while the neighbor is at work or staying in town. The kids are still sledding, too, although 2 of the 3 sleds are now cracked or broken clean in half.

That’s all fun, but the bad news is that we’re losing trees. A cedar fell down; Haniya found it yesterday. I haven’t seen it yet, but that makes me sad because I love cedars the most of all trees. Behind the barn, a madrone tree is completely uprooted. There are trees bent over from the weight of the snow, as well as trees snapped broken. Broken branches are lying scattered here and there. Right now, Jeff is outside with his hand saw, trying to prevent any more damage.

I sewed Jeff a pair of the water-repellent supplex pants this morning. He wanted some, too, although he abhors elastic waist pants and would prefer suspender-like straps to hold them up. But that’s a project for another day — today he got the regular elastic-waist style. Now I’m the only one who doesn’t have any rain pants. I hope to remedy that, but I’m not sure when.

Yesterday and today I made water repellent pants for all the kids to wear when sledding. They are staying perfectly dry in them for hours. Using their pajama pants patterns, I enlarged them and lowered the crotch point for layering underneath the pants.

This morning, getting ready to sled!

All of the pants came out of that 3 yard bundle. I haven’t even touched the roll. I’m pleased — water repellent pants for all three of them for $5!

But no, the weekend really starts when Jeff walks in the door on Friday nights.

We are almost leaving to go see friends for the afternoon. The kids are excited. We haven’t visited these friends for awhile, due to general busy-ness.

I have been working on my base layer t-shirts. On Tuesday, I made 4 practice t-shirts. Yes, 4. I can actually wear 2 of them, so that is pretty good. I made them all from thrift store knit or recycled long sleeve t-shirts, also from thrift stores. I had to play around with where I prefer the shoulder point and the degree of desired fitted-ness.

This morning, I used the light-weight washable wool knit I bought and made myself a base layer t-shirt. It is good. I think the shoulder point is still not right, but as I will always be wearing it underneath other layers, that’s not too big a detriment.

Today I have been working on a long sleeve t-shirt pattern for myself. I am modeling it after a shirt I have that fits really well. I am stumped, though, because the sleeve cap on that shirt measures 7 inches and I can’t believe that is true. But that is what it measures! Normal for most adults is between 5 and 6 inches. Well, I am going to go with 6 inches and pray for the best.

I cut it out of red cotton knit. Don’t want to ruin that merino until I know the pattern works! I’ll sew it this afternoon, but before I do that, the kids and I must do our reading aloud. We are still reading about Commodore Perry and the Land of the Shogun.

I haven’t mentioned that I have been unsuccessful so far in creating a gluten-free sandwich bread. I’ve gotten a soggy mess out of one recipe, a moist inner and super hard thick crust from another recipe, and the third recipe gave me a brick. I’ll keep going ahead on that, too. In the meantime, if anyone has a gluten-free bread recipe using whole grains and not requiring eggs or dairy, please share! Please?

My wool interlock samples from Covered Caboose arrived on Saturday. It was so exciting to open the package. We all opened it together since the whole family has been involved in wondering what it would be like and what we can do with it. As I said before, my goal has been to make base-layers that would be warm but also very soft since they’d be next to skin.

Jeanne, the thoughtful lady behind Covered Caboose, included felted samples of other cloths. I am so glad she did because they showed me that the wool, when felted, is incredibly stretchy. So I tossed my wool in the wash, twice, and felted it. My hope now is that I have washable wool. I need to verify that. I also need to verify that my front-loading washing machine’s “wool” cycle offers sufficient agitation to truly felt the wool.

On Sunday, Jeff and I prayed over the project. We prayed that both in the result and in the process, God would be glorified. I had been practicing for this project — making him a wool base layer shirt — for a year, in different respects. I have practiced on cotton knit, fine tuning a pattern and my technique. I recently acquired Organ light ball point needles for both the serger and coverstitch machine, which wouldn’t cut the wool but slip through without piercing the yarns. (Those needles do a beautiful job.) I purchased stretchy thread — Superior Threads Polyarn. All the pieces were in place.

I cut out the shirt. Before sewing it, though, I spent more than an hour running samples through my serger and coverstitch machine.

For my serger, I settled on a 3-thread overlock. The wool is so stretchy that I felt the stretchier 3-thread seam would work better than the less stretchy but more durable 4-thread seam. I put Superior Threads Polyarn in both the upper and lower loopers, leaving an all-purpose thread in the left needle.

For my coverstitch machine, I settled on a wide, two needle coverstitch. I put Superior Threads Polyarn in both needles and in the looper. I would need this machine to attach the neckline binding and also because I intended to coverstitch each seam for a faux flatlock. The faux flatlock would make all the seam allowances lay flat for greater comfort, and also add additional durability to the seams.

I was having a problem with the coverstitch machine that I have had for the last year (as long as I’ve owned it) — not being able to get the tension loose enough. Even with the dials turned down to zero, using stretchy thread, and adjusting the stitch length, differential feed and presser foot pressure, the seams continued to come out extremely tight from the needles and the looper, as well as extremely erratic from the looper. Not pretty.

I bowed my head and asked the Lord to show me the problem. I looked up and saw the thread nets around the spools of thread — I have been using them since getting the machine a year ago because they’re supposed to aid in consistent tension! Well, the Lord drew my attention to them. I instantly recognized that the fuzzy Polyarn was getting caught on the nets and feeding tightly as a result. That was the whole problem! I took off the nets and got the beautiful, loose stitching I have been desiring. Thank you, Lord! Now I can safely attempt to put the looper stitches on the right side of my garments without worrying about the stitches looking funky and erratic.

I could finally sew the shirt. The wool sewed like a dream! I serged all seams and then faux flatlocked them by running the seams through my coverstitch machine. For this garment, I left the coverstitch machine’s looper stitching on the underside. The wool is so stretchy that I had to reduce the chest girth of the shirt by 6 inches overall and each arm by 3 inches overall. I didn’t faux flatlock the side seams or arm seams.

Here is a front view of Jeff in his shirt.

Here is a back view.

Both of them show the arm hems not having been sewn yet. For the hems, I did a wide 3-thread hem on the serger. No turning under the fabric. It is less bulky that way. With the Polyarn fluffing up and filling in the gaps between threads, the hems look very, very nice.

The shoulder point is low. That is a result of having had to take in the side seams so much. The chest and arms fit now but the shoulder points stayed put. On the master pattern, I went back and raised the shoulder points a little. But not much, because shoulder points do look more manly a little off the shoulder, rather than higher up as women prefer.

The wool is like nothing else I’ve ever sewn. The shirt fits him really well and it feels good to him. The true test will be when he gets home tonight — will he be dying to take it off because of a slight itch or will he still be comfortable? Will he have been too warm or not warm enough?

In addition to this 12-ounce 100% merino wool, I received 2 yards of a beige washable wool that is very light-weight. I am not sure what I’ll do with it. I think I should make a long sleeve base layer out of it, too. That way Jeff will be able to compare the lighter and heavier weights as base layers.

You see the wool is natural in color. At some point, I’ll have to learn how to dye it. I got a book from the library on natural dyeing methods, using plants. I am interested in black, brown, green and blue dyes for these base layer garments.

One of the felted samples I received from Jeanne at Covered Caboose was a 97% merino wool/3% lycra blend. I like it better than the 100% merino. It snaps back better when stretched. That will be more durable in the long run. In addition, it feels a little softer than the 100% merino. If Jeff is comfortable today, it is likely we will buy a whole roll of the blend and outfit the whole family.

I do want to address the issue of cost. This fabric cost $13 per yard; it is over 50 inches wide. I’ve never spent that much on fabric before. I used about 1-1/2 yards on this shirt. The shirt is extra long as Jeff prefers, so it stays put when tucked in. So the cost is about $20, not including thread and needles (or my machines). To buy an equivalent shirt from Ibex would be at least $70. We just saved $50! Besides the benefits of having fun with the project and Jeff keeping warm out in the field, is an important treasure for me — God showed me He cares about me by solving my coverstitch machine tension issue. I went to bed last night praising Him.

And now I’ll end this lengthy report. Thanks for seeing me through it.

I began this morning by making him 5 pairs of boxers. I had already drafted the pattern last summer, and I lenthened it a bit, but it really didn’t need other changes.

The blue pairs are from a thrift store flannel sheet and the black pair is from black t-shirt knit. The Star Wars boxers are his favorite. He found that remnant one day in JoAnn’s and asked me to make him some boxers out of it.