Everything I Made in June
I genuinely cannot believe we’re halfway through the year! The last 2 months have passed at warp speed. I am so grateful for my past self starting this series at the beginning of the year. I feel like I say this every month, but this really is such a great ritual for me to reflect and take stock of where I’m spending my creative time and energy, otherwise I know I would lose sight of all the things I’ve accomplished and have made progress on.
Here’s the deal. I suffer from the age ol’ problem of having more ideas than I can realistically accomplishment while simultaneously having severe time blindness (thanks, ADHD!) that makes me believe I actually do have time to them all done. Then when I have time to work on a project, I freeze — I only have so much time! What is the best thing to work on? F*** I’m wasting valuable time trying to figure out what to do!! Followed by, beating myself up for not planning better and instead, mindlessly scrolling to disassociate because I hate feeling frozen, which turns into a spiral where my Bully Brain Barbara loves to tell me that everyone else is doing cool sh*t and I’m wasting my time watching videos of people making things instead of actually making the damn things. Aaaaand scene. 🎬To summarize, because I have so many ideas that don’t get executed it’s easy for me to feel defeated rather than focusing and celebrating all the things I DID actually make. That’s what this whole “Everything I Made…” series is about.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff
What I Made in June:
Sewing
The Nico Tee — This pattern is from Summer Haus. Kristine kindly gifted me the pattern because she saw that I was scared to sew with knits and wanted me to give it a try. This was my very first knit sewing project I am happy to announce that it wasn’t as intimidating as people made it seem! There is a little learning curve, but my only issue was trying to catch both sides of fabric with the twin needle. If what I just said, means nothing to you, it’s okay. You’ll be glad I mentioned it when you go to sew with knits for the first time.Here’s my take: I think with a good pattern anyone can sew knits. I sewed this tee on a very basic sewing machine with a stretch needle and a twin needle. Note: it does take about twice as long to sew this way because you constantly have to switch out needles between steps, but overall it’s still a very quick sew. If you have a serger, it’ll be even easier and quicker!If you haven’t tried sewing with knits before, give it go! I used a thrifted knit cotton sheet for this which took the pressure off of messing up any nice fabric. After successfully completing this shirt, I did treat myself to some striped knits and ribbing from lyrical fabrics. I’m trying out one more knit tee pattern and will report back on which one I prefer.
Spaghetti Betty - I started sewing this dress less than 24 hours before the event I wore it to. I had been planning it out, but things kept coming up and getting in the way of me cutting out my pattern and starting to sew until it was down to the wire. It was a whirlwind, but I got it done! The Spaghetti Betty is a spaghetti strap hack of the Betty dress by Cayden Naughton. Cayden has all the video tutorials I used for this on her instagram. I made a size 15, reduced the bodice yoke length by 1” and used the E/F cup (I will size down to the C/D next time). I fully lined the skirt, yoke, & bodice, did elastic channels in the back instead of loops and ties, and obviously the spaghetti straps. I’m going to link each tutorial below if you want to make your own because it’s a little difficult to keep track of them all. The last two I haven’t personally tried yet, but wanted to include them for easy finding. I would definitely considering making this dress again! I think I would get a lot of wear out of one in a red gingham.
Matchy Matchy Pattern’s All Day Culottes which is a FREE pattern!I lengthened these to be full length so I guess they’re no longer culottes, but they made a really great pair of wide leg pants. I made them from a thrifted linen curtain set and unfortunately the linen had a pretty major color difference across the panels (probably why someone donated them) and they’re also quiet sheer. My plan is to dye them to even out the color and make them more opaque. I’m thinking green or a faded denim blue then possibly paint some kind of floral motif on top of them, but I may also just leave them simple.
Avenue Shorts - My third pair of Avenue Shorts which unfortunately are still not released, but I know Sydney is working as fast as she can to get them out! I’m calling these my 90’s sofa shorts because this fabric looks like it came straight off of a 90s sofa. The fabric is from 100% cotton curtain panels I thrifted, but it’s unfortunately a little stiff and scratchy so they’re not the most comfortable to wear. I’m hoping a wash in a little vinegar will help soften them up a bit. If you have any other tips to make fabric softer, let me know in the comments!I Made these in a size 26 because I wanted to compared the fit to the 24. I prefer the 24 on me, particularly the width of the leg opening. Because I have a pretty small waist to hip ratio (only a 6” difference. Most indie patterns I’ve found are drafted for a 10-11” difference), I’ll go back to making the 24 for future pairs.
Hoping to sew more in in July since June was a bit of a slow sewing month for me. I have several summer pieces I’m really excited about making.
Crafting
I finished my It’s All In the Stitch Nordic Flowers needle turned applique wall hanging! My husband got me this kit for Christmas, but he chose the black and red color palette and I wasn’t a fan of the black so I used a green cotton linen blend for the flower stem instead. The weave on the cotton/linen made it a bit more difficult to do, but once I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed it. Using the right needles makes a huge difference. Kira recommended size 5 sharps needles to me and they were great! This was my on-the-go project for a good bit of the month. I love how portable it is and it’s easy to start and stop without losing your place. Now that I know how to do needle turn applique I can definitely see myself returning to it for patches and other projects! It’s a fun sewing skill to have.
This cross stitch hat is the first project in a series I’m doing on instagram. I have been consuming so much lately and not creating as much as I want so I’m challenging myself to make the projects I’ve been saving in my “create” folder on ig and on pinterest. I started out this project intending to make a quilt block cross-stitch hat, but I couldn’t decide on a color palette. Instead, I pivoted to do a cute little goose on the front and I added “T!IMI!” to the back as an ode to never getting tired of saying “Thanks! I made it!”. I also added little flowers along the sizing band to tie in with to the flower on the front. This might be my favorite project from the whole month and it’s definitely the one that will get the most wear.
Bonus Baking
My birthday was in June and I hosted a little birthday pizza party with some of my best friends to celebrate! My husband braved the 100*F heat + South Carolina humidity and made 12 pizzas in our ooni pizza oven. For dessert, I couldn’t decide on just one, which is very on brand for me, so I made a key lime pie with a graham cracker & saltine crust, tiramisu with homemade ladyfingers, and a rhubarb spoon cake with salty sweet cream ice cream.I am an avid cookbook collector so all of these recipes are from cookbooks on my shelf. The Key Lime Pie is from The Book on Pie, the Tiramisu + lady fingers are both from Joshua Weissman: An Unapologetic Cookbook (full disclosure, this is book was a gift and this is the only recipe I’ve made from it), the Rhubarb Spoon Cake is from The Lost Kitchen, but I found the recipe on her site! And lastly, the Salty Sweet Cream Ice Cream is from the Salt & Straw Ice Cream Cookbook. As I always, I highly recommend checking to see if your local library has any of the cookbooks in rotation before purchasing them yourself. That way you can try before you buy. If you were to purchase one, I would recommend The Book on Pie. 🥧
That wraps up what I made in June! I’ll be sharing my summer sewing plans next week! I need help making a few decisions so be sure to weigh in, in the the comments. I’ve got a few patterns already cut out and a couple more that are top priority. The only thing stopping me is my hesitation to cut into the good fabric. 🤭
💖 Ashlynne
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