I finally got to do some sewing for myself. I used some of the delicious Liberty Lawn that I purchased on my trip to London last year and created a simple, yet beautiful top.





Materials

• Liberty of London Claire-Aude A Tana Lawn
• Interfacing
• Thread
• Invisible zipper

I love the Liberty Lawn. The fabric feels so great and it was so easy to sew with.


Pattern

Sewaholic Alma 1204

This pattern is perfectly suited for the Liberty print. The print is so busy and colourful, it needs a simple top pattern. The Alma creates a great silhouette that lets the fabric speak. A complex top pattern would just be too loud and take away from the Liberty print.


Alterations

I only made a couple of alterations. I measured the sleeve pattern pieces and realized that they were close to my arm measurements, which means almost no ease. After measuring a couple of other shirts I owned, I decided to increase the sleeve width by 1/2".

I sewed 1/2" seams on the sides (instead of 5/8"), since I found my first Alma a little tight (it fits, but I wanted a little more ease). This little change made the shirt fit almost perfectly.

I have a small amount of fabric pooling at my lower back. This means I probably could have done a swayback adjustment. However, I don't think this is noticeable to most people in this busy fabric.


Update: I forgot to mention that I went with reverse felled seams for most of the shirt. For the armhole seams, I used a zig-zag stitch and trimmed the seam allowances.


I love my new shirt and will probably wear it at least once a week for as long as it lasts.


This top is also my project for the Simple Top Challenge for the group Stitch Once Rip Twice.

I made myself a lovely, new hat to go with my jacket.


Pattern

The pattern is Quincy from Made in Brooklyn.

My gauge was ok when making my test square with the US size 10 and 10.5 needles. But, they seemed too big, when I was actually knitting the hat. My hat would have been too tall. So, I restarted with US size 8 and 9 needles and it worked great.

The pattern is simple, but has ample style. The half band is created by making a rectangle of stitches. Then, the ends are stitched together, while twisting the rectangle. Basically, you end up with a Mobius strip.


Yarn

• Berroco Lodge (47% Nylon, 47% Wool, 6% Rayon)

The wool is so soft and lovely! It has multi-coloured flecks in it and the purple flecks match my jacket.

My hat is very nice. The only thing I might change is possibly lining it. The big stitches don't hold much wind out on a cold and windy day.

I'm excited! There's a new sewing contest celebrating Sewaholic as an independent pattern company over on PatternReview.com. I'm definitely going to enter, since I'm already working on another Sewaholic Alma.


Another exciting part of the contest, is that my Cambie is used as an example. Apparently, it's one of the Member's favourites. Yay!

I was able to fix my broken Singer 533. If you recall, my feed dogs suddenly stopped working. When I opened up my machine, I discovered that I had a broken feed dog gear. I also found out that a good indication of the condition of the gears is by taking a look at the bottom cover.


This cover is right underneath the bobbin area. You will see lots of black plastic filings on the right of the case. This is right under the feed dog gears. There is also a bit of black plastic showing up on the left, which is under the bobbin hook drive gears. It is likely that my hook drive gears will soon break, too.

I found many places online that sold parts and ordered a set of hook drive gears and a set of feed dog gears. They still haven't arrived, but I was super lucky. My husband was shopping in a second hand store and found this Singer 522 (for $5.00!). It was missing the foot pedal, but was otherwise in okay shape.


I feel doubly lucky that I was able to get this machine and to have such a great husband, who is actively interested in what I do.

The only difference I could find between this Singer 522 and my Singer 533 is that my Singer 533 has the Flexi stitch option and the 522 does not.

Singer 533 (above) and Singer 522 (below)

I checked the parts manuals for both (available on the Singer website) and sure enough, most of the parts are the same.

So, I took apart the Singer 522 sewing machine. I checked the bottom cover to see if there were any signs of wear with the gears.


The previous owner did not take good care of their machine. The cover is full of lint and dirt. Luckily, there were no signs of plastic filings. The gears also looked in good shape. There were no broken or worn teeth.

I took the gears out of the Singer 522 using the directions from this video made by Sewing Parts Online. The video is very good, so I won't go through all the steps they show. But, there are some important things to note:

• Always replace both gears in a set, not just the broken one. Gears wear out and the teeth get misshapen with age. Your gears will wear out faster if you pair an old one with a new one (if they even work together at all). 
• I think there is a mistake in the above video. He makes the mistake of putting the hook drive gear with two set screws on the top shaft. I believe the hook drive gear with the two set screws goes on the bottom and not the top. At the very beginning of the video and near the end of the video when he is setting timing, it looks like the gears are in the proper positions with the gear with the two set screws on the bottom.
• It's a good idea to take pictures or even video of where your needle is in relation to the hook before you take everything apart (if your timing is right to begin with). It will make it easier to put it back in the right place and time your machine.

My hook is just starting to go under the left feed dog as my needle comes up. The needle eye is lined up with the hook inside edge.

• As suggested in the video, use a good helping of grease on the gears when you are done. This will keep the plastic from drying out and cracking. It also makes everything sound nice and smooth. Just make sure that the grease is safe on nylon (which is what the gears are usually made of).

Greased up hook drive gears (left) and feed dog gears (right).

That's it. The Singer 522 will be my parts machine. And when I finally get my other gears in the mail, they will be ready to go if and when these gears die.

My machine works again and sounds very lovely. Now, I can get back to sewing. Hurrah!

For week 7 of the Wardrobe Architect, we are supposed to explore what prints and solids we like.

Looking through my wardrobe, I notice that most of my tops are prints, while I like solids for my bottoms. Although, occasionally I wear skirts with prints and solid on top. I like pairing a print with a cardigan or jacket that goes with one of the colours in the print.

Here are some of the tops I love:


Lots of big floral patterns with bold colours and some more subtle, novelty-type prints. I love the robots - I wear that top year round.

And here are some of the fabrics in my stash that I love:


Some Liberty of London lawns and some other large florals. I'm think of making most of these into tops. But, I might also make a dress or a skirt.

So, when it comes to patterns, it seems that I don't like stripes, dots, or animal prints. Instead I like floral, geometric, and novelty prints. 

I do have some nice solids in my stash, too:


I have a lovely, brownish-grey wool suiting fabric and a nice pale blue cotton stretch sateen. I want to make pants out of both.

So, no surprise, I like colourful prints and I like to make sure they are paired well with solids. I did find out that I think I need more robots and subtle, geeky prints. Even though the actual robot shirt is a bit uncomfortable, I love wearing it because of the robots.