McCall's 7638 Shirt-Jacket Muslin

 I have been sewing a quilt the last few months.  So now it us time to start sewing apparel again.  I am sewing McCall's 7638, which is a shirt-jacket or a "shacket".

I am making figure A,  it has a collar and is lined.  I bypassed on this pattern until I saw this picture in a Joann's advertisement.  It doesn't look anything like the drawing on the pattern.

While visiting Joe's mom in Juneau, AK last month, I went to their Joann's to see what they had.  It is a far bigger one than here by our house.  I ended up buying some beautiful blue flannel for this pattern.  I then ordered the blue sherpa for the lining from Joann's when we arrived home.  Everything on sale, of course.

I decided to make a muslin in large with two inches added to the sleeves to see how it fits using my Bernina 930 sewing machine.

The muslin fits fine but I think I will only add one inch to the sleeves of the shacket.

You can see the plaid I am using in the picture.

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I Can't Resist A Bargain

 I mention all the time in this blog how much things cost me.  I am a bargain hunter, so when a true bargain comes along I get excited.

Joann's had Simplicity patterns for 99 cents, so I bought several.  One of them I bought was a pattern for a Henley shirt and pants.

Simplicity 11085

Then a week later when I was in Wal-Mart, I found a precut  2 yards of a beautiful stretch knit In lovely red for $2, perfect for the shirt.  The matching thread cost me more than the material.

Of course I had to sew it on a vintage machine.  This time I picked my Singer Diana.  It has some stretch stitches, so it was perfect for this shirt. It is an electronic machine from the 1970s.  I bought it two years ago from the thrift store for $3.25. The plastic gears that were crumbled cost $10.

Once I traced the pattern onto tissue paper, I started to sew.  I had not worked with knit fabric in a long time.   I found sewing with a ballpoint needle and using the straight-stitch plate and foot kept from having skipped stitches or the fabric being sucked down the plate opening.

The Diana has a two-step button hole program that made it easy to get the buttons on.

It is a comfortable shirt.  I am glad I made it.

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Butterick 2124

 After watching some educational sewing videos put out by mainelymenswear.com on YouTube, I decided to try Duane's "go to" shirt pattern.  This is Butterick 2124 from the 1960s.

I bought my pattern on Etsy .  A couple of the pieces were pretty fragile, so I copied them onto Swedish Tracing Paper.   This was also recommended by Duane.  The paper is tough but opaque so copying is really easy.  I purchased a 16 neck pattern because this equals size 42, which should fit Joe.  When holding the pattern up to a recent shirt, I realized the only difference was the Butterick was two inches longer.  I decided to move ahead with the shirt without modifying the pattern.

I used my Bernina 1120 to sew this shirt.

This pattern is a little more difficult than modern patterns.  The left and right fronts are different because the right has a sew-on placket and the left simply folds over.  The instructions call for sew-in facing, but I used Pellon 881 fusible.

It also has a small yoke.  When doing the burrito method to sew on the inner yoke, a person really has to roll everything tight.

The hem is a rolled-hem, so I used my Bernina's rolled-hem foot to make quick work of it.  

Joe likes the shirt and the matching mask.

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Kwik Sew 4045 Shorts

I was trying to decide what my next project would be when I went to the local thrift store and found 4 yards of red denim fabric for $2.99.   Automatically I thought of shorts to wear around the house, and Kwik Sew 4045.  I hadn't used this pattern before, but with such reasonably priced material, I decided to move ahead without a muslin in medium.

Once that was decided I needed to choose which heavy duty sewing machine to use.  Since I used a 1980s Viking for my last project, I thought a 1970s Viking would be appropriate.  Therefore, my Viking 6440 would do nicely.

I also decided to serge the seams with my Brother home lock.

The shorts turned out fitting perfect.  Now I know Kwik Sew 4045 is sized appropriately.

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Viking 190 and a Shirt

 I use my different Berninas all the time because they are smooth and have perfect thread tension.  But I have many different types and brands of sewing machines. 

One brand I like besides Bernina is Viking.  I have several Vikings, both mechanical and electronic.  The Vikings I like the most are made in the 1980s, and are made in Sweden.  I have two older ones that I like, but the 1980s seem to have a style I like the most.

This brings me to the Viking 190 I am using for this shirt.  It is a mechanical model, but it has the needle up/down feature I like so much.  It also has a four-step buttonhole.  And it is a free-arm with the tool box removed.

I did a YouTube video on it six years ago, if you are interested you can watch it here.

It is easy to tell this machine's age by what the models are wearing.

I have had this machine for several years, but I forgot how much I like it.

I used my Singer Quantumlock 5 to serge the seams.

I am using McCall's 4079 in medium for this shirt.  I made it in a long sleeve in 2012 in size small. It still fits, but I wanted a loose shirt for hot Summer days.   I am making a short sleeve now from some material bought at Joann's.

McCall's 4079

Shirt made in 2012 with this pattern

I aged a little since previous shirt.

I am sure I will wear this shirt many times.

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Floral Quilt

 National Quilters Circle had a Springtime quilt-a-long that took five weeks.  A new block was put on the internet each week, and the last week was putting the blocks together to make a 62" by 62" quilt.

I purchased the fabric at Joann's during a sale, plus I used a 20% off coupon to make the fabric a good buy.

Block one

 Block two

Block three

Block four

I used my Bernina 817 with a 1/4" foot to make the quilt and my Necchi Supernova straight stitch machine to quilt it.  I quilted it by stitching in the ditch with clear thread.

I made the quilt sandwich in the driveway.

I bound the quilt with my Bernina 910.

Here it is finished.

This was a fun little quilt to make.  It sure brightens up the room.

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Where Does Time Go?

 It has been three months since my last blog, but it seems like yesterday.  I have been sewing, but nothing blog worthy.  A shirt for Joe, a night shirt for my mom, and lots of masks.

I dislike wearing the same mask all the time, so I have made several, with and without embroidery.  Here are a few.

I have used my Simplicity SE3, my Singer Futura, and my Bernina 640 for the embroidery.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I purchased a Necchi Supernova at the thrift store for $2.50.

I want to try a jacket again, I purchased three patterns on eBay. 

I am going to sew a Muslim of the Simplicity 9803 because it says easy to sew.  I am doing medium with two inches added to the sleeves.

That is all for now.

Thanks for stopping.