Ode to a Sewing Chair

 

It’s been 10+ years since I’ve had a decent sewing chair, and it’s hard to believe how much nicer my sewing experience has become and harder still to understand what took me so long to get here.

Back in the day, I had a secretarial chair, brought home by DH when his office redecorated. It was sturdy, comfy, cushioned, and rolled easily on our floor - just about perfect. Nothing lasts forever though, and it rolled its last just before we moved here. I was too busy to choose a proper replacement, and ended up getting a cheap, hard plastic desk chair ‘for now’. It had no cushioning, no support - for back or tush - and every time I bent forward to get something from the floor or a low drawer I felt like I would slide right off the seat - yikes! But no more.

Now I’ve finally come to my senses and gotten a new chair. Spurred on (probably) by the incomprehensible tariff threats of the current WH resident, it seemed to be sensible to get a new chair while they were (a) still available and (b) still affordable. So (drum roll) my new chair - a Reliable SewErgo 200SE. Designed and manufactured in Canada (proudly, I expect, as that is how most Canadians roll). It is sturdy, easily assembled and comfortable. The only thing that keeps it from perfection (in my eyes) is that it doesn’t come with wheels - which is honestly mentioned in all the descriptions of it I’ve seen (again, that’s how Canadians operate) - and in any case, you can get wheels that fit it pretty easily. In fact, since I took that pic it’s been tricked out with some slick rollerblade-type wheels.

So thank you Canada, for making a very nice chair, at a reasonable price, and sending it across the border to a sew-er who appreciates the chair, and appreciates you as a neighbor. 

A Verona for Summer

 

It’s definitely pushing the season — we’re barely into a proper Spring here — but when I saw a lovely cotton eyelet fabric at LA Finch a while back I just couldn’t resist.

I wanted a simple, airy pattern to show off the fabric and went with the Verona by Style Arc. It was a good choice for what I wanted to create, but I did run into a couple of issues — mostly due to my own decisions.

First up, I had more than enough fabric length for this pattern, but neglected to check the width — doh! Not enough to cut out such a full sleeve, especially on the bias. So, first pattern alteration was to narrow the sleeves. It’s still a full sleeve, still bias cut, just not as full as the designer intended. I also needed to cut a contrasting yoke for the back to insure I could lengthen the body to the finished length I prefer. I had some handkerchief linen that I was using for the hem facing and the neck binding, and that worked well for a back yoke. 

Pattern instructions call for a double turn of the sleeve hem to insert the elastic. I didn’t want any visible elastic so I used some voile scraps to make bias casings for it instead. It’s fine, but I think a better look would have been to gather the sleeves into narrow bands of the linen. I was tempted to re-do it that way, and still may, but I’ll need to test it out on my scraps as I’m not totally sure it would look any less stiff done that way.

And then we come to the neck binding. It is folded in half and first sewn to the inside of the neckline, then turned over the outside of the top and machine edge stitched. I have no issues with that method in theory, but the width of the bias strip when folded is very narrow when allowing for 2 ‘turns of the cloth’ and going around curves. Soooo, re-cut the binding and re-attach, and of course forget to stitch it to the inside of the neckline first — what a dumb move on my part! I ended up leaving it sewn to the outside and hand stitching it down to the inside. A high price to pay for my inattention.

Still, with all that, I made it to the finish line and I’m pleased with how it looks. Now we just need a pleasant summer day!

Gratuitous close up of the fabric: 

Almost there

 

One more detail and then it’s done — I’m waiting on delivery of some buttons to finish things off.

I’ve surprised myself by how (relatively) quickly this has come together. Very glad that I went with a different stitch pattern from my inspiration piece as the v-neck shaping was not too difficult for me. I was able to find a stitch pattern for the trim that mimicked the squares in the main pattern and also provided spaces for eventual buttons — so, no worries about buttonholes either.

Keeping things simple in both stitch choices and garment shaping has allowed me to come up with a piece that fits my original idea and will be a pleasure to wear. It has also provided me with a pleasurable activity for much needed respite from the craziness we find ourselves in these days. 

Details: Yarn - Silk City Fibers Cotton Bamboo & Linen, color - denim. Sport weight on 1.1 lb. cones - 1,650 ypp. Used 1 cone with leftover yarn. Main stitch pattern - #86 from “Crochet Patterns Book 300” Trim stitch pattern - Block Edging from “The Crochet Stitch Bible” by Betty Barnden. Crochet hook size E (3.5mm)

——-

Thought it might be of interest to add a screenshot of the original cardigan which inspired my recent project. Not too great to see details, but it was the best I could find.