Tag Archives: Aurifil Artisan

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The thread featured in this post was given to my by Aurifil.

Seven years ago, when they were small, I started making garments for my children. They were fun little projects and much faster than making and finishing a quilt. These clothes were all made out of quilting cotton, though once I made a satin skirt for a friend's daughter. Quilting cotton is easy to sew with.

For years now I've been wanting to make garments for myself. In August of 2017, I started listening to the new, weekly Love to Sew podcast. Co-hosts Helen and Caroline are an inspiration as they "engage with the global sewing community and encourage listeners to create their dream wardrobe by sewing their own clothes." But still, I didn't sew myself a single garment. In January 2018, Caroline's shop, Blackbird Fabrics, offered a black and white bamboo jersey knit (95% rayon from bamboo/5% spandex). One of the things I love about her shop is that the fabric listings include recommendations for what types of garments a fabric is suitable for. This information is gold to a newbie garment sewist! And I'd been wanting to make a Blackwood Cardigan. So I ordered the fabric. And I love it. The more than two-year procrastination of actually making said cardigan was some combination of not liking the size I am, intimidation about sewing knits, and living an overextended/busy life. As an Aurifil Artisan for 2019-2020, I was delighted to see Me Made May as the May Artisan Challenge. I seriously thought I'd get it done way ahead of time and then share it in May. Nope. True to form, I was still sewing at the 11th hour. Last Friday, I started cutting out my fabric.

This project was the perfect opportunity for me to try out Aurifil 40/3. This thread was created with longarmers in mind, but I'd heard of other garment sewists who prefer this weight for their garments. It worked well for me. I pieced my cardigan using a zigzag stitch with a stretch needle. Due to my inexperience with sewing knits, during my test sewing I struggled to get a nice topstitch that didn't create puckers. So I opted to leave the pockets off (where will I put my M&Ms!?) and I should add topstitching to the front band later (the final step). I'll continue with the trial and error of finding the right settings/needle combination to get a result I like for topstitching. More needles are on the way!

My 8-year-old daughter took photos of me in the cardigan.

The pattern was clear and easy to follow. It certainly could have been sewn in a day or two. My cardigan is the long view in XXL of the original version of the pattern (equivalent to a 20/22 B-cup in the current version). I added 2" of length since I'm 5'7" and like my cardigans long. I don't think this was necessary, but I figured that I'd rather it be too long than too short for my liking. :-) It was hard for me to measure myself to really understand how long the pattern would be on me... and I failed to take into consideration that it would stretch a bit when it was on from the weight of the fabric.

Tips from my experience sewing my first knit garment:

  • Be really careful of fabric stretching when you lay it out to cut.
  • Mark notches using a marking pen.
  • Pin liberally.
  • Do a lot of test sewing to find a stitch that works well. Label each sample with your settings/needle. (See above.)
  • Maybe don't choose stripes for your first project. It added a level of difficulty.
  • Try stretch, jersey, and ballpoint needles (as the pattern recommends) as you may get different results with each.

Check out what others are sewing and wearing for Me Made May on Instagram at #memademay. See more Blackwoods at #blackwoodcardigan.

Since I mentioned them, here are a few of my favorite garments that I made for the kids years ago:

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When I heard that this week's Project QUILTING challenge was Vibrant and Vivacious I immediately thought rainbow.

Before I forget, this is your official reminder that we're nearing the end of Show Me Something Rainbow! Be sure to link up your finished rainbow projects by the end of March. There's still time to finish something up in the next nine days. :-)

I chose a rainbow of fabric in lighter and more vibrant tones. I realized as I started piecing that my wonky, irregular log cabin wasn't really very wonky, but I went with it. My strips were cut without a ruler, approximately 1.5" wide.

Once my quilt top was complete, I started to consider my options for quilting. I couldn't resist pulling a rainbow of thread for the quilting. Including white for attaching the binding, I used 14 colors of thread on this project.

From left to right, the thread I used: Aurifil 50wt Light Lilac (#2510), Light Robin's Egg (#2710), Light Avocado (#2886), Champagne (#2105), Fleshy Pink (#2420), Baby Pink (#2423), Dove (#2600), Red (#2250), Burnt Orange (#1133), Yellow (#2135), Green (#2870), Medium Delft Blue (#2783), Dark Violet (#2582).

I considered wishbone quilting but opted for this variation with loops on one end and points on the other. In the end, I like that my quilting looked like a series of Vs for the Vibrant and Vivacious challenge. I wish I could say I planned it. ;-)

My quilt finished at 16" x 16". The great part about making a mini this size is that you can back it with a fat quarter. I chose this black and white silhouette fabric for my backing. I wanted black and white so my many colors of thread would be visible on the back.

Thanks for visiting. Be sure to hop over to Kim's blog to see the 100+ quilts made this week for the Vibrant and Vivacious challenge.

And on to my next rainbow project! I'm participating in the Mini Series SAL on Instagram and I've chosen a rainbow to feature in my blocks.

I've linked up to Free Motion Mavericks.

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First, a reminder to link up to my first monthly Show Me Something linkup... Show Me Something Purple! You can find all the details in that post, but in short, I'm inviting you to share 1-3 new or old finished projects that fit the monthly theme. While I'm writing this we already have 38 pleasing purple projects linked up so far this month. One week left to linkup your project. That's even plenty of time to start and finish something new. :-)

Now onto my latest purple finish...

The last holiday gift I made was this little Open Wide Zippered Pouch. No secret that this is one of my go to patterns, especially for gifts. This one I made for my 12-year-old niece. I optimized to use as much of my remnant of this fabric as possible, so this pouch landed halfway between a small and a medium.

I decided to quilt the outer panels. I'm excited about Aurifil's new Color Builders boxes. I've used these palettes as inspiration to find the gaps in my thread collection (mostly the lighter colors). Of course, I already have the purples. :-) I pulled the three Amalfi Purple colors in 50 wt. for consideration: Lilac (#2562), Violet (#2520), and Medium Purple (#2545). I chose the Violet for my quilting. I considered a crosshatch quilting motif, but opted for diagonal lines in just one direction. I marked my first line with blue tape on each panel so I'd be sewing at the same angle on both pieces and then I used the edge of my foot as a guide to sew parallel to these lines to fit the panel. I opted for irregular spacing. So forgiving!

Once I was done with the quilting I was super underwhelmed. I had chosen the purple that blended in perfectly with my fabric. So I decided to add more lines of quilting in Lilac and Medium Purple. I think that while subtle, the three different thread colors added a dynamic quality to the quilting.

I lined the bag in a white on white print. I like a light lining to be able to easily find things in a pouch or bag.

My niece loved it and immediately moved some of her art supplies into the pouch. :-)

 

Thank you for visiting. Be sure to hop over to Show Me Something Purple to linkup your projects and to check out the dozens of purple projects shared by others.