Bike bike, paddle paddle, sew sew, new pattern

My bicycle, Daisy, and I went on a long bike ride together a few years ago. We rode down the Mississippi and across the hot plains of Texas. Here are some photos of the day we arrived at the Gulf. It was a nice feeling to make it that far.

To save weight on the road, I wore the same clothes everyday and washed them at night — yellow Baggies, a blue cotton tee (note to aspiring touring cyclists, maybe don’t go the cotton tee route. It was not my smartest move), and a pair of Teva sandals.

Daisy also carried my tent, sleeping bag, sweater, rain jacket, extra shirt, pants, and shorts for rest days, repair kit and tools, and of course, snacks.

This summer, I bought a big stack of fun colored nylon taslan and started making a shorts pattern for new adventures inspired by those shorts.

Follow along for a day on the lake with my paddleboard to see how the pattern is looking so far.

I’m jealous of those people who have nice husbands who take beautiful photos. Until I find one, I’ll just precariously perch my camera on the flotation device, ready to plop into the depths at any moment…. I signed up for Tinder last week, so, you know, there’s always hope.

Sunrise Colorblock Hack - Sweet Pea Sweatshirt

Here’s how to do it!

1) Make a paper copy of the pattern with a full front bodice. I’m using my Sweet Pea Sweatshirt Pattern.

2) Grab a long ruler. Stick a pin in the left side, or hold it with your finger as you pivot to make all the lines. For mine, I positioned the left side of the ruler 14” away from the edge of the pattern. Play around with how far away you want the end of your ruler to be to get different angles on your colorblock lines.

3) Grab a pen. Draw three colorblock lines as you pivot the ruler. Try to pivot the ruler a consistent number of degrees for each line. For example, the first line is 0°, the next line is 20°, and the last line is 40°.

4) Cut the pattern along the lines.

5) Cut each piece with the color of sweatshirt fabric you want. Add 1/2” (1.3 cm) seam allowance on the sides that are going to be sewed to the other colorblock pieces.

6) Sew the pieces together with 1/2” (1.3 cm) seam allowance. Serge seams. Press seams down and topstitch with matching thread.

7) Follow pattern steps to sew the rest of the sweatshirt together.

That’s it!

You can grab the Sweet Pea Sweat Set here!

The best sweatshirt fabric source I’ve found for thick, colorful, 100% cotton fabric is Nick of Time Textiles.

Also… the other day I signed up for TikTok!

The Daisy Dress

For the joy of simple sewing and elegant silhouettes, the Daisy Dress, the latest pattern in my series of Paperless Patterns!

Paperless patterns invite you into the process of drafting the pattern for your specific body using your own measurements as the scissors’ compass. It’s a fun and exciting way to sew!

The Daisy Dress has a classy vintage silhouette that functions well at special events, dates you are day dreaming about going on with that guy you have a massive crush on, and casual jaunts to the library to pick up your interlibrary loan books.

Paperless patterns have the unique ability to connect with and satisfy the deep inner longing to create something. It feels so good to scratch that itch.

You can grab the pattern here!

Sewing Day

Making a Juniper Quilted Jacket. I sewed lines of stitching in three directions for this one. Vertical, horizontal, diagonal. Lots of stitching, but lovely results.

Xx Sarah

If you want to make your own quilted jacket, you can grab the pattern here!

Here’s another quilted jacket I made with some photos of the whole process.

If you’d like some tips on how to get started with quilting fabric, this post is for you.

Tips for Sewing a Quilted Jacket

It can be intimidating to start a quilted jacket project. It feels like a big undertaking, and it’s hard to know where to start.

Albeit scary, the quest for a quilted jacket is worthwhile. Here are some thoughts and guidance to help it feel more possible and accessible than ever.

1) Stitching design

If spending a lot of time stitching is intimidating, good news!

I ran the numbers. In this example of jacket sleeves, increasing the spacing just 1/2” (1.3 cm) from 1 1/2” (3.8 cm) to 2” (5 cm) between lines decreased the total length of stitching by 25%.

That means if it would normally take you three hours to quilt all the pattern pieces, if you increased the spacing 1/2” (1.3 cm), you could save 45 minutes of sewing time.

2) Marking stitch lines

The best way to get consistently straight stitching is to mark each line with chalk. You don’t even need to use fancy fabric chalk. A stick of classroom white chalk works perfectly and is easy on the budget.

Without marking the lines you may end up with some stitching like this. But if you do get wavy lines, fear not. They are hard to detect once the jacket is washed. Plus, they are kind of extra cozy anyway.

3) Sewing

If you only remember one thing from these tips, remember this one. Starting from the center and sewing towards the sides allows the fabric to stretch toward the outsides as you sew. If you start on the outsides and go towards the center, you will likely end up with lots of excess fabric and wrinkles in the middle.

Sew all the lines of one direction before you start the other direction. Do all of the vertical lines before the diagonal or horizontal, etc. This is for the same reason — to let the fabric stretch toward the sides so no wrinkles build up.

4) Trimming around the edges

Stitching several hundred inches across multiple layers of fabric is inevitably going to result in some fabric edges and corners not lining up. Don’t worry. That’s what scissors are for! When you’re done sewing, trim around all the edges that need truing up. Easy peasy.

5) Waiting to wash

For quilted jackets, I’d like to make a case for throwing out the rule of thumb of washing fabric before you sew.

One of the joys of quilted jackets is their wrinkled lines. Sew the whole jacket and then throw it in the wash. It will shrink up and be so extra cozy.

If you’re using fabric and batting that shrinks significantly (may want to do a test patch), start with sewing one size larger.

If you’d like to play with a new quilting project, you can grab my Juniper Quilted Jacket pattern here!