Seamwork Bo Top

Pattern/Technique: Bo box top by Seamwork, size 18

Modifications: Shortened length by 1.5”

Materials: 1.75 yds (44” wide) Ruby Star Warp & Weft Holiday

New skills: Bias facing

Lessons: When attaching the cuffs, the instructions tell you to topstitch (aka not in the ditch of the seam, but offset from the seam), so you want to align the inner cuff with the line of stitches, rather than overlap it.

Collar staystitch should be a scant 1/4” (some of mine was visible below the seam because I wasn’t accurate.

When making bias tape with a bias tape maker, it’s important not to pull on the fabric tape itself (or drag your iron over the folded edge while you’re pressing it) , which will cause it to stretch out and not fold correctly when being fed through the tool. Instead, just pull on the tool and repeatedly press and lift your iron in little sections.

What I'd do differently: I’d like to work on making the spacing more even on my topstitching by slowing down my sewing speed.

I'll only shorten the top by 1”. On the bottom hem I could only do the 1.5” fold before I hit the same length as the Torrena box top, so I serged the raw edge instead of doing the 1/4” fold to hide it.

Care: Machine wash cold, dry flat.

Essex Apron

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I’ve been watching a lot of cooking videos featuring folks wearing really nice aprons. My partner mentioned in passing that they’d love to have an apron for making bread, so when Seamwork released an apron pattern in their 2020 gift collection I got to work.

Pattern: Alex Apron by Seamwork in size L. Made in Robert Kaufman yarn-dyed Essex in Nautical.

Note: The original pattern includes a pocket at hip height. I find that most apron pockets seem really impractical (what are you going to put in there?!) so I left it off. If my partner would like one, it’s really easy to attach a patch pocket.

New skills: Working with fusible interfacing, grading seams, creating stitch sequences on my sewing machine

Lessons: Grading seams is really important and shouldn’t be skipped. (In fact, I should abide by the rule that if a pattern goes to the trouble of providing an instruction, it should be followed.) Grading essentially tapers the thickness of a seam, making it less obvious on things like turned loops. On this pattern it was particularly important for the small strap attaching the D-rings, because the rings would rub the ungraded seam and stress the fabric.

A couple months ago I bought a new (to me) sewing machine* that has the capability of creating stitch sequences. My initial goal was creating text that would seamlessly integrate with a running stitch, but I couldn’t quite get that to work. I suspect it would require creating a long line of straight stitches before/after the text, and using offsets to align the text with the bottom of the running stitch—by default straight stitch is aligned with the middle of the letters—and sewing a test seam to get the distance from the edge of the fabric correct. Because this was my first time, I instead opted to just sew a sequence with my partner’s name just above one of the finished seams, and a heart with my initials at another spot. Sequences also allow programming a STOP function, which is very handy because by default the machine will repeat the same sequence.

Pay attention to which direction you’re supposed to press seams, e.g. to the side vs. open.

Using a damp press cloth protects your iron from interfacing adhesive and provides a good gauge—when the cloth is dry the adhesive is probably set.

What I’d do differently: Be more careful with laying out the interfacing pattern and cutting it, specifically the inner curve at the top of the interfacing. (It was pretty hard to cut with a rotary cutter—mine’s pretty large, maybe a smaller one would be easier? Should try this out.) I fudged it a bit, and ended up with an interfacing piece that didn’t quiiiite align with the edge of the apron, but I managed to make things work.

Care: Machine wash, lay flat to dry.


*A Pfaff Performance Icon; I’m pretty stoked about it as it’s a machine I can grow into. I’m also excited that I got it used because Pfaff—really all the big sewing machine companies—did a less than stellar job stepping up to support Black sewists. I’m definitely still learning how to use my voice to advocate effectively, but voting with my wallet seemed like a very basic immediate step.

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