would you like to meet my biggest cheerleader (next to my Mom that is)? Besides my Mom, this blogger is always the first person to chime in when I'm in the deep throes of tailoring a coat or working on some other hard project. Other than being my cheerleader, Kyle is wonderful with garment construction, owns a phenomenal sewing machine arsenal and authors a wonderful blog called Vacuuming the Lawn. Vacuuming the Lawn!? You can find out more about the name of her blog here, but in the meantime let's peek in to Kyle's sewing world. In the words of William Shakespeare, "though she be but little, she is fierce!".
What things excite and inspire you
in your sewing and the designs that you create?
KYLE: Inspiration comes from many
sources: patterns, fabric, sewing blogs,
the Pattern Review gallery, and Instagram--especially the hashtag challenges.
Have you had formal training or
are you self-taught?
KYLE: My mom, who disliked sewing,
showed me how to use her sewing machine when I was around 12 years old and I
taught myself the rest. It wasn’t until
2010 when I started going to sewing conferences and expos that I began taking hands-on
classes. I’ve also learned a lot from
Craftsy and Pattern Review online classes as well as blog tutorials.
What are your favorite items to sew?
KYLE: Dresses, bags, skirts and shrugs.
What garment or project has
presented the biggest challenge to you?
KYLE: Hands-down, it’s the process of
fitting pants that is so challenging and frustrating. I cried over my jeans muslin in 2012 and
seriously thought about quitting sewing forever over many muslin iterations in
2013.
What garment to date would you
call your masterpiece?
KYLE: Simplicity 2154, the #epicskirt I
just sewed is my current masterpiece. I
had to learn a lot of new-to-me things:
how to work with wool, how to work with slippery rayon bemberg lining,
and how to sew a lining to a kick pleat. I really took my time with it and enjoyed
the process. The result is my best-sewn garment to date.
My best sewn bag is Butterick
6072, which I sewed last year. The best
and funniest comment I received about that bag was from a non-sewing friend who
asked, “Are you sure you didn’t buy this?”
What are your favorite fabric
sources?
KYLE: In person, my favorite fabric
stores are Metro Textiles (Kashi has great prices on a range of fabrics and
ships what I buy at a reasonable rate) and Paron (well-curated, well-organized,
with fabric content and prices on every roll and mirrors for “trying on” fabric)
in NYC. My favorite notions shops are
Pacific Trimming (for an amazing selection of elastic and hardware), SIL Thread
(for invisible zippers, jean zippers that I use for zipper pouches and Clover
notions), and Botani (for high-end custom-made zippers with decorative pulls
for my bags) in NYC.
Do you ever shop for fabric
online?
KYLE: I generally only shop online if I
can get a swatch first because I’ve been unpleasantly surprised too many times.
Are there any sewing techniques
that you have not mastered yet, but plan to work on?
KYLE: I learn techniques as I need to
for whatever project I’m working on, as I did for my #epicskirt. I don’t have a long range plan of techniques
I want to learn but it would be fun to make several of the same thing,
one-after-the-other, to get those techniques down. For example, sewing a bunch of lined pencil
skirts with kick pleats, one after the other.
As it is now, I generally sew one pattern and then move on to a totally
different pattern….
If you could only have five (5)
patterns, which five would that be and why?
KYLE: My very favorite is New Look 6483,
view D/E, an A-line skirt which I’ve made at least 8 times. It is hard to find modern skirt patterns that
hit at the waist. I love this one!
Jalie 3246 for the shrug (I
actually don’t like maxi dresses.) I’ve
made that shrug 9 times. It goes great
with my sleeveless dresses.
Simplicity 1283 for both the shirt
and the pants. The shirt, which I
lengthened, fits so well. And after my
previous pants experience, these pants fit quite well out of the envelope—just
took 5” out at the knee, changed the waistband to a decorative elastic one, and
that was it.
New Look 6071—I made my favorite
knit dress from this pattern, and used it for frankenpatterning another.
Vogue 1351—I sewed my favorite
woven dress out of this pattern.
Other than garment sewing are there
other crafts that you enjoy?
KYLE: Besides stitching bags, I’ve
recently started doing a lot of hand stitching.
In the last 18 months I started stitching Japanese embroidery called
sashiko. Nine months ago, I started hand
stitching little embroidery hoop kits and small softies like those from Heidi
Boyd Crafts and Mollie Makes magazine. I
enjoy these little projects that I can stitch anywhere and stitch a little bit
at a time. Even if I stitch just a row,
I still feel like I was creative that day. If I make a mistake it’s not a big deal to
unstitch or recut a piece, whereas in garment sewing a mistake can sometimes
mean starting from scratch. There are no
issues with fit either!
Can you tell us a little about
your sewing machine fleet?
KYLE: I have 5 machines but mainly use two
of them right now: my BabyLock Soprano
sewing machine and my BabyLock Enlighten serger. My dad generously bought them for me in 2015
and 2014 respectively, and I highly recommend each. Both have lots of power for sewing or serging
through pretty much anything. The
Enlighten threads its own upper and lower loopers and adjusts its own tension, which
means more time for sewing and less frustration. I also need to give a shout-out to my Elna
Press, which has made the process of interfacing and pressing so much easier! Just lower the lid and wait for the beep.
Do you have a favorite sewing or
crafting tip to share with us?
KYLE: Yes! As I cut pattern pieces out, I pin both the
pattern piece and the cut fabric piece to my dressform. It helps prevent pieces from getting lost,
and also prevents me from cutting smaller pieces out of an already-cut larger piece. I even do that for bags!
KYLE: Faye, thank you so much for your support of my blog over the years, from your kind comments left on my blog to interviewing me on your blog! I am honored and flattered!
I hope you've enjoyed getting to know Kyle and her gorgeous blog as much as I have. For epic garment construction information be sure to visit her blog at Vacuuming The Lawn. She's also found on Instagram as vacuumingthelawn...
KYLE: Faye, thank you so much for your support of my blog over the years, from your kind comments left on my blog to interviewing me on your blog! I am honored and flattered!
I hope you've enjoyed getting to know Kyle and her gorgeous blog as much as I have. For epic garment construction information be sure to visit her blog at Vacuuming The Lawn. She's also found on Instagram as vacuumingthelawn...