September 15 is Make A Hat Day! Or not.

Did you know that today is Make A Hat Day?  Well it is!

In honor of Make A Hat Day and Autumn (which is hopefully almost here in the San Francisco Bay area where it has been between 80 and 106 degrees lately) I decided to break out the fall fabrics and make a hat.

After spending a little time at Joann's Fabrics perusing the pattern books (did you know that Burda has patterns for lederhosen in the men's section of their catalog?) I decided that Vogue 9044 "Patricia Underwood Hats" was the way to go-it has five nice style options, and I went with View A, in the upper right.

I decided to use some vintage Linton Tweed for my project- I have been dying to sew some of it up into something- I thought a hat would be the perfect small project to give it a whirl.

Things did not go as planned. 

Excuse the bad photo- it was both late and dark!

I am sorry Vogue patterns (you know I love you!), but this pattern is NOT graded well.  

Every size, from XS to L, is the same height- it gets wider as it gets bigger, but no taller. This means that my hat ended up being 5 inches from top to bottom (which, according to the photo should land just above my ears), while my head from the top to just above my ear is 7 inches. 

The photo above shows how short it is even before I stitched on the inner band that goes around the bottom- this is a half inch seam, so the final hat would have been even shorter. Does the nice lady in the pattern photo have a really tiny head?

Here is where it ended up.  :-(

P.S.- the pattern includes four other hats that may potentially be lovely and fit perfectly.

Labor Day Sale Roundup!

Labor Day sale notices started rolling into my in box this morning, so I thought I would round them up here! 

Fabric
Mood - 15% off Suiting, today (Friday Sept 4) only, online only
Michael Levine - 20% off entire site, Friday only Extended to Monday! (ends at 9pm PST) with coupon code LABOR2015 
Fabric.com - up to 30% off on selected fabrics
New York Fashion Center Fabrics - Save 20% on everything with code LABORDAY20
Elliott Berman Textiles - Sept 5-8. save 20% with code LDAY20
Gorgeous Fabrics end of summer sale - save 20-60% off on almost everything through labor day!

Supplies
The Sewing Place - 15% off site-wide through Monday 9/7

Learning
Craftsy - Up to 50% off classes and supplies

Patterns
Simplicity Patterns - markdowns on all out-of-print patterns
McCall Pattern Company - Sept 4-8, all McCall, Butterick & Kwik Sew patterns are $3.99 and Vogue patterns are $5.99
Burda Style - 50% off on select patterns


Did I miss any?  If you know of a Labor Day sewing sale that I didn't include, leave a comment and I will add it!

New Patterns from Named Clothing!

In case you haven't heard, Named Clothing's new fall line of patterns is out! Called "New Black," Named describes it as a back-to-basic collection of wardrobe staples, with a modern urban edge.

Images from Named's web site, namedclothing.com

I am a sucker for outerwear, so my favorite is the Harriet Lumberjacket (which I plan to make).  I also like the Lexi A-Line top- I love the clean lines and think it would look great with wide-leg trousers (which I have been obsessed with since last fall). I am not so sure about the Mimosa Culottes... I wore culottes--then called "gauchos"--in about fourth grade, so I think I am ruined for life on them.

I love Named's style- I am not a frilly person, so I really enjoy their simple clean designs.  This past spring I sewed three Inari Tee Dresses from their "SS15 Ticket" collection, and before that I made their Mai Zip Jacket (FW14 - Ritual Collection) and I absolutely adore it!