Sherril's Sewing Saga

TNT T-Shirt - Version 2

2012-01-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

I really like my new TNT t-shirt pattern. It will work out just as nicely as a basis for a miriad of t-shirt redrafts as my lost TNT pattern. For my first redrafted version, I only changed the neckline. Pam Erny from Off-The-Cuff wrote a tutorial for a Spiral Cowl Collar and Liana from Sew Intriguing wrote a tutorial for a Twisted Binding. I made my new top with a binding width something in between these two.

I cut my collar 6" wide and the length of the neckline on the pattern. Then without measuring, I just shifted the center back seam of the collar about 2" and basted the collar in half. This left the collar twisted in the same manner as shown in Pam and Liana's tutorial.

I'm not really happy with the way mine turned out. It doesn't drape like Pam's does and it makes the neckline much too high to look flattering on me. This might be a result of the slinky fabric I used. This fabric hangs quite heavy and drags the top down. In fact, it doesn't fit nearly as nicely as the other two t-shirts I've made from this pattern.

While this top wasn't in my original wardrobe plan, the fabric does match and will be a nice addition to the pieces I was already making. I should be able to get the pants cut out today and probably sewn up as well. I will be watching/listening to Season 5 and 6 of Bones while I work today. I've already seen these episodes so I won't have to pay too much attention, but I really love this show and the relationship the main characters have with each other. What do you watch/listen to while you sew?

My New Favorite Attachment

2012-01-13T22:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a hint. It comes in this beautiful space age Judy Jetson pink box. I get such a kick out of the box alone. This box came with my first Singer 500a, AKA The Rocketeer. Thanks Donna! Inside is the Singer Buttonholer and it makes the most beautiful buttonholes on the planet! And I've owned TOL Berninas forever and thought that they made the best buttonholes, until now.

I wasn't quite sure how to use the buttonholer, but I remembered that I saw a video that Brian Remlinger from BrianSews put together about buttonholers. It was very helpful to understand the finer points on how to use this attachment.

I'm not sure I would have known to make a second pass around the buttonhole with the attachment to get a very nicely filled in satin stitch without watching his video. This buttonhole was made with just regular Gutermann sewing thread. Doesn't it look nice?

And by the way, if you don't already have one of these buttonhole chisels, you MUST go get one for yourself. Nothing cuts open a buttonhole better and more accurately. I never have any fear of cutting my threads when I use this. I've had it for about 22 years and it is still super sharp so you have to be very careful with it.

My husband is very entertaining. You can always tell when he takes my picture because, first it's always taken from an angle well above my height--he's 13" taller than I am, second is that I'm usually cracking up and not ready to be photographed. Anyway, didn't this jacket that I almost gave up on come out nice? Everything I used came from the stash including the clashing, I mean contrasting buttons and the thread that didn't match. I'm determined not to buy much of anything for sewing until the Patternreview.com New York City get-together this May. That means I need to stay away from the downtown garment district. That place is dangerous for my pocketbook and stash storage space.

This jacket is very lightweight and won't keep me warm, however, it will help to add a more polished look to my new wardrobe. I had forgotton how much I like this pattern. Does anyone else see a potential blouse pattern from this? Remove the flaps, change the armhole and sleeves, square off the hemline and make a pointed collar, keep or remove the yoke. . . . I see pattern drafting in my future.

Sneak Peek

2012-01-12T23:59:00.000-08:00

Before I call it quits for the night I thought I 'd share with you what I did today. This is M5191 in a lightweight embroidered suede cloth from JoAnn's. It's 100% poly and shreds and creates static like crazy. My Rocketeer didn't want to sew over the embroidery thread (neither did my serger) so I put on the walking foot and didn't have any more problems. I almost gave up on this project but decided to stick it out for the 2.5 yards of fabric I now get to count towards my goal of 25 yards sewn up this month. It was very time consuming (13 pattern pieces!) but I'm glad I stuck with it. I like the finished product and it will get some wear.

I have to figure out how to make buttonholes on one of my vintage machines. My Bernina with the fantastic buttonholes doesn't work at the moment. I think I'll pull out the Judy Jetson Buttonholer tomorrow when I get home from work and practice using it. I've never used one before, so this should be interesting.

Olive Wardrobe Progress

2012-01-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

Just when I was in my deepest sleep this morning, I got a call asking me if I wanted to work today. The call came in 10 minutes before start time. One of the teachers couldn't figure out how to work the sub-finder system so I was personally called. I got up, took a shower, dried my hair, took my son to school, and got there in under an hour. Amazing! All this is to say why I only got this one t-shirt done today.

I'm not sure I like the one giant paisley sitting right in the middle of my body, but whatever. This is one of the fabrics that started talking to me after I decided on my wardrobe fabrics. The colors will work well with the other garments and now I have another 1.5 yards off my shelves.

This is the Ottobre 3/4-length sleeve t-shirt which is my new TNT t-shirt pattern. I've had this fabric forever. I probably got it when everyone was buying buttermilk fabrics from Emma One-Sock and I bought some too. I made a top from part of it way back then and this is the left-overs. There was barely enough to squeeze this top from the fabric. I couldn't even make a neckband, which is why I just turned under the fabric at the neckline and topstitched it with my coverstitch machine. I was thrilled there was enough fabric to make the 3/4 length sleeve. Since buttermilk is only a cool weather fabric, you might as well have the cool weather sleeves to go with it.

Tomorrow I'm going to get another t-shirt done and I hope to get started on the jeans jacket, which I was supposed to start today.

I haven't posted the gratuitous cat photo in awhile, so here is my little princess named Little Girl sitting on the ottoman with one of the pillows I made to match. I'm looking forward to the spring when we can shave her again. She looks adorable with a lion's haircut.

Thank you everyone who commented on my Lissette top. I wasn't saying I didn't like the top, I am just picky about fit and mentioned some fit issues that I saw. I agree that it fits better than RTW and I will certainly make it again, fixing some minor fit issues, because I can!

First Garment of the New Year

2012-01-09T20:24:00.001-08:00

Today was a day off for me because it's parent conference week and teachers aren't allowed to be out. That means no one needs a sub teacher. I'll probably be getting the whole week off which is great because I can sew up all the projects I've got cut out. Up first was Simplicity 2211. I had planned on making this pattern from the striped fabric, but then I remembered what happens to stripes when you have a really big dart.

While I'm not thrilled with the fit and I can see some alterations that need to be made, I still really like this top. It's loose fitting, and fairly comfortable and will be something to wear while I work on losing weight, because, Dang I need to lose weight.

The alterations I made was to add a 1" FBA, shorten it at the waist 2" and add some width to the side seam. I also gave it a shaped center back seam, removing 1-1/2" and center back at waist level.

After seeing the photos, I see that I should have also done a sloping shoulder alteration, cut it smaller through the shoulders and shortened the sleeve cap, and taken a tuck from the neckline because it doesn't lay flat. I think the sleeves could have been longer and maybe a tiny bit added for more bicep fullness. A rounded back alteration could have helped as well.

Tomorrow I will be working on two t-shirts I cut out of some olive matching fabrics that I discovered in my stash after I posted about my wardrobe plan. Since I'm sewing to use up stash, I went ahead and cut them out of my new TNT t-shirt pattern. After that, I'll be sewing up the jeans jacket. Having the week off is going to be fun!

BLOG COMMENTS

I got some very interesting blog comments on my sewing room post. It was nice to hear that you don't see a cluttered room, but a functional one. It is very functional for me, and yes, the two machine cabinets that sit side by side both have Singer Rocketeer 500a's in them. They are the ones I want to keep. I really liked the comment from Rebecca Clayton who said, "As long as a work room is functional, with adequate workspace and organized materials and tools, it shouldn't be compared to interior design photos of rooms where no one really lives or works." Interesting that I think I might just be comparing my room to a room that might be found in interior design photos. I know that I don't want to put curtains up around my stash. I love, love, love to look at my fabrics all the time. I sit and daydream about what can be made from individual pieces and just enjoy the explosion of colors. I think I'm going to concentrate on cleaning out the rest of my house and then see if I need to do any ditching of things in here.

The Daily Ditch - A Borrowed Idea

2012-01-08T02:02:00.000-08:00

Since I didn't get any sewing done this week (cutting yes, sewing, no), I thought I'd share with you my new obsession. Peter from Male Pattern Boldness has instituted the Daily Ditch as his New Year's resolution. I think it's a brilliant idea and have decided to incorporate it into my life as well. I may not ditch something every day, but I think I can work on getting rid of many things throughout the week. Some things will be donated, and others just put into the trash. This week I donated 6 old blankets, recycled 4 old phone books, donated some items from my utensil drawer in the kitchen and ditched about half the pens and pencils in my pen cup by the phone which either didn't work or had unusable erasers. My goal is to get rid of 365 items from my home this year.

Yesterday I worked hard and got my sewing room cleaned up and things put away. However, it still looks very, very cluttered. I'm having to think about incorporating the daily ditch to this room as well. My first reaction is that of course I need everything in here. After all, I've spent the last 10 years seriously collecting all this stuff. How could I possibly do without it?

I have a friend that has a policy that she obsessively adheres to. OK, she definitely has OCD when it comes to keeping her home clean. Her policy is that if one item comes into her home, one thing needs to go. She even keeps one cabinet in her home empty so as not to feel like she has no room to put things. She also lives in a small two bedroom town home with two other people while I live in a four bedroom single-family home with two other people. I'm sure if I asked, she'd be deliriously happy to come over and help me throw things away, and of course I won't ask. She might get rid of something I need, but she's not a sewist and wouldn't understand why I need these things.

So far, I haven't been able to throw away anything from this room, but just look at how cluttered it is, even though it's clean and everything is put away. How about it? Is there a point where every little nick nack and dodad that you've collected over the years needs to be cleaned out? Do I really need 7 or 8 seam rippers, 4 hem gauges, and 4 yardsticks, 2 metal and 2 wood? Do I need 4 Singer 500a vintage sewing machines? How do you decide what to keep and what to donate or trash? Please, if you have any advice for me, let me know. There isn't any room left in my house so things have got to go.

Kaitlynn Blouse - What's Wrong With This Picture?

2012-01-06T01:02:00.000-08:00

I shared in my last post that I needed to do a muslin for this Silhouettes pattern. Of course I need to use the plus size. Since this isn't my first Silhouettes pattern, I kind of knew what to expect. Here's the line drawing for all the pattern pieces:

This is what you'd typically expect a princess seamed pattern to look like, right? Well, if you're not using the Women's sizing for your blouse, that's great! If, however, you are plus sized, which means you have larger hips than the skinny women, than this is what your pattern pieces look like:

Everything in green is what I have added to the pattern to make it fit me. Why in the world would Peggy draft a plus-sized pattern without any space for hips? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

It was this Sonya's Blouse that I discovered this very same issue when I attempted to make it three years ago. The plus sized patterns are drafted much shorter than the regular sizes and have the hip measurement 2" smaller than the bust measurement. In what world are plus sized women shaped like that? Did I mention that I also had to add 4" to the length as well? If you want to read about the drama several plus size women had with this problem on the Sonya's Blouse, do a search for this pattern in Patternreview.com and read the plus-size reviews. I know I wasn't the only one who had this issue so I emailed Peggy about it. She complely disregarded my concern. I got no help whatsoever from her. I am not the only one who tried to contact her about it either. One of the Patternreview.com reviewers also tried to ask her about it and got no satisfaction about this issue so I know it wasn't just me. In fact, I think that Kathleen from Fashion Incubator did a blog post about this very bad draft, but I can't find it now.

After adding to both the front and back at the hip line on the side seam, I got close to a good fit. In fact, I think if I add about 3/4 inches more at the hip on the front and back, do a swayback tuck and shorten the bodice above the bust, then this might be a very good pattern for me.

Sorry about my rant, but it frustrates me that a pattern designer would be so careless with her patterns for women who already struggle endlessly to get a good fit. While I really appreciate Peggy and her teaching skills and the lessons I have learned from her classes that I have attended, I wish she would be more responsive to women who are size challenged. (meaning that it's a challenge to fit the plus-sized woman.)

Winter 2012 Mini-Wardrobe

2012-01-03T23:08:00.000-08:00

One of my goals for the new year is to sew more capsules. This is where I make 5-6 items that all can be mixed and matched to make several different outfits. I like sewing these groupings because they always get lots of wear. Nothing is an orphan, each piece has something to go with it. I usually like to make two pair of pants, two tops, and a topper (jacket) of some sort. For this wardrobe, I've chosen to make three tops.

Another one of my goals is to sew up 25 yards of fabric for the Patternreview.com stash contest. So, by combining these two goals, I have chosen some stashed fabrics that work well together and pulled out patterns to make each fabric into something that can be mixed and matched. Not pictured is some black ponte roma knit.

The first piece is the jacket:

The pattern is McCall's 5191, which is a jeans style jacket that I've made before. The fabric is an embroidered moleskin that I bought at JoAnn's long enough ago to not remember when I got it but I know the store I bought it from has been closed a long, long time. The first time I made this jacket, it turned out fantastic. Then I lost weight and I must have given it away, because I can't find it. Then I gained weight back, and I want a new one. The fabric I used the first time was a stretch denim and the moleskin isn't stretchy so it might not fit well right away. But if I work on my goal of getting fit, then maybe a few pounds might disappear and fitting won't be such a problem. Anyway, this jacket is the backbone of my new mini-wardrobe.

Three tops:

This first top is one I haven't made before. I still have to make the muslin before I cut out the pictured fabric. I always have lots of problems with Silhouette Patterns, but maybe this one will work out. I've altered the pattern in ways that I think will work for me. For some reason on the plus sized patterns, Peggy drafts the side seam without any hip shaping. The side seam cuts into the waist from the underarm, but never goes back out for the hip. She does give the smaller sizes hip shape so I don't understand her reason for drafting the larger sizes like this. Doesn't she know that us larger girls have hips? Anyway, this fabric is a thin cotton knit I think I got from Fabric.com in the first half of last year. I didn't think it was going to be so thin, and I expected it to have some stretch since it's a knit, but it hardly has any. So, I think it will work out well for this top since it does have nice drape.

This second top is another new to me pattern. I still have to muslin it as well, but I think it's going to work out great. The stripe will be the body of the blouse and the green solid will be the outside facing/trim. I still need to pick out the buttons that go down the center tab. I'm thinking of using some shirt buttons that my mom had. There are six buttons in various shades of green in different sizes. I'll have to see how they look when the top is done before I decide. I bought these cotton fabrics to make an Indian designed tunic back when they were all the rage, but I think I missed that boat. This pattern is very popular on Patternreview.com. I hope the stripe works well for this pattern.

I have used this pattern before, except this time I'm making long sleeves and cutting it tunic length. Just in case one of the other tops doesn't work out, my mini-wardrobe will still have enough tops. You might recognize this poly lycra knit fabric from a Coldwater Creek knock-off top that I made a couple of years ago. I gave that top to my niece when I lost weight and she loves it so I won't have two tops with the same fabric in my wardrobe.

Two pair of Pants:

This is my TNT pants pattern, Burda 2569. I've made this pattern at least a dozen times and have loved each and every pair of pants made from it. My last olive pair has very worn out elastic, so it's time to make a new pair. The fabric is showing some wear also, so a new pair is needed. This fabric is a nice RPL that I can't for the life of me remember where I got it. I have enough to make a top or jacket from it as well, and might do that at a later date. I'm also going to be making a pair of black Ponte Roma knit pants from this same pattern. They will be more of a yoga style with the softer knit, but I think will still work with the other garments. It's a rather casual capsule that I can wear to work. Really, anything goes at work. When I sub teach in the severely handicapped classrooms, I like to dress more casual than usual, so this is a casual weekend/work wardrobe.

This plan should take me up to around 12-13 yards of stash fabric used in January. That's about half my goal so it will be a great start. I already have the jacket cut out and hope to get the rest cut out before the weekend, including sewing up muslins before cutting into the good fabric for those two blouse patterns. I sure don't make things easy for myself, do I?

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

2011-12-31T13:52:00.000-08:00

This year was my year to heal. Losing my MIL in 2010 sent me into a spiral that encompassed losing my own mother in 2006. It has taken me a long time to get over losing these two important women and to come into my own. I'm hoping 2012 will be the year I start living for me. I feel like I'm recovered enough and have made a good start in the second half of this year. You can tell I'm doing better because I sew and blog more when I'm feeling good about myself and my life.

Some of my sewing accomplishments for 2011 included learning some new skills and I think I did pretty well towards that goal. I made some panties for the first time. I learned how to dye fabric, which I really liked to do. I also did some home dec projects including recovering an ottoman.

This was the year I lost my very most favorite pattern, KS 2900, the TNT t-shirt. I also found a replacement that I like just as much. I bought a ton of fabric this year and did some travelling. I went to the Patternreview.com meeting in Chicago and I visited my FIL in South Carolina. I lost some weight and gained it all back plus some. I entered a sewing competition that had no winner and I allowed myself to be talked into sewing a costume for my niece. You know I hate sewing for others!

Things I plan on for the new year include taking care of me. My son is nearly grown and will be turning 18 and going to college in 2012. I know my job of raising him isn't over, however, I think the hardest part is. I believe I have taught him to be a self-sufficient human being, now I just need to teach him to drive.

I will be going back to college to take some classes this year. My first class will be Illustration for Fashion and Costume Design. I've been wanting to take this class forever. I'm also going to seriously look into getting my Master's Degree in Family and Consumer Sciences Education which will qualify me to teach at the Community College level. Unfortunately, the school where this program is offered is 55 miles away. That's a really long commute to attend school and I will really have to give this some thought. However, I really want to teach sewing. For 15 years I've been teaching middle school, and I'm tired of the behavior of today's kids. Maybe college students will be different.

I turned 50 this year. I didn't mention it when it happened in July. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Now that I've had that I've had a few months to think about it, I like the idea of being 50. I just wish I was in shape. Not that I want to be skinny (that would be nice though), I just want to be more fit than I am. I want to have more stamina and strength. I don't like the way I feel at the moment. I'm not unhealthy, I'm just very unfit. I plan on doing something about that in 2012. My first goal is 30 minutes of exercise every other day. I plan to mix it up with bike rides, walks on either the treadmill or outdoors, or using the Wii Fit program or other exercise DVDs.

As for sewing, my goal this year is to sew more capsules. I have found that every time I sew up a capsule, I wear those pieces more than anything else. I will also be sewing from the stash. It's getting completely out of control and since I have these lovely fabrics, it's time to use them. I will also be clearing out the clutter in my house. I really do have a nice size home, it's just filled with un-needed stuff and unused stuff and feels quite small. I foresee some major battles with my hoarder husband over this, but everything that I can get rid of will go. I'm becoming the Craigslist Queen and have made some money at the same time. I will continue this in 2012.

To support my goal of sewing through the stash, I've entered Patternreview.com's Stash Contests. My goal is to sew 25 yards in January. I think this is a very doable goal since I usually don't work much (I'm a sub teacher) in January and my fashion illustration class doesn't start until March. Using my stash, I'm going to be sewing up my first mini-wardrobe for winter. I also plan to do a lot more blogging this year. I'm hoping to gain more followers in the new year and of course, I'm always wanting to generate more comments. What blogger isn't a comment ho at heart?

I especially want to wish all my readers a fantastic new year in 2012 and may all your wishes for the year come true!

~Sherril~

What I Did This Weekend or Can You Spot My Mistake?

2011-12-05T20:50:00.001-08:00

Clever title, huh? I've since fixed the mistake. If you're not a quilter, please forgive me. I used to be a quilter. I've won blue ribbons at the Los Angeles County Fair for my quilts, honest. I even once won a special award for my free motion quilting which came with a $50 quilt store certificate. Quilting is something I'm not sure I love, it's just that it's addicting. Kind of like eating potato chips. You can't eat just one. One block becomes two, two becomes three, and so on and so forth. I just can't help myself.

At Thanksgiving dinner I was asked by my sister-in-law to make her some lap quilts. She is wheelchair bound and stuck in Oklahoma with my brother. In a moment of weakness, since I'd hate to be stuck in OK with my brother, I agreed. She only wanted them to be 36" X 36" so I knew that this would be an easy project. I decided not to be anal about matching my seams so that the sewing would go faster. I even had these strips cut from another quilt project I did about 12 years ago. That quilt was a scrappy American flag block made with 1" squares. Those are 3" nine-patch blocks, so this is a small quilt and I'll probably finish it before the week is over. I'm enjoying the process, actually. I have the top completed, except for the borders, so it's going pretty fast. I like free motion quilting, so that should go quite fast as well. I'll make her two, the next one will probably be some sort of scrappy pinwheel quilt. I have lots of quilt fabric left from my quilting days, so I won't be buying anything--and using up stash. Yea!

The other thing I did was to finish up fitting this muslin. (Sorry about this awful photo . I hope I don't ever get arrested because I'm sure this is what my mug shot would look like.) This pattern is Simplicity 2151. It fit fairly well out of the envelope but I did make some changes to the muslin. You can see that I shortened it at the waist about one inch. I also gave it a sloping shoulder adjustment and I shortened the shoulder length by 1/2 inch.

Another alteration I made was to straighten the seams under the bust for more room around my torso. I can see some pulling around my bust but there really is enough ease, so that confuses me. I cut the C cup but maybe I should have cut the D cup, even though, I'm not a D in bra size. What do you think I should do?

From the side I think the back fits really well, but from the back you can see that I need a rounded back adjustment. Only problem with that is that the back neckline is already almost too high, so I'll have to cut that down and alter the neckline tie to fit.

My niece is coming over again this week to sew with me on Thursday. I'd like to have the quilt sandwich pinned together and the D-cup muslin cut out for my sewing date. I can't tell you how much better my psyche feels now that I'm sewing regularly again.

Return to My TNT T-Shirt Quest

2011-11-29T14:50:00.001-08:00

Over the Thanksgiving week I was finally able to get a few t-shirt muslins sewn up. I tried two patterns, and was only successful with one. The Ottobre 3/4 length t-shirt pattern was a clear winner. I know many people have had success with this pattern. It has a good length sleeve and a nice scoop neckline, not too low or too high. In fact, it turned out so well that I didn't quite finish the muslin. This one doesn't have the sleeves or the hem completed. I was too anxious to get started on one in my good fabric.

This is my muslin done in a whimsical fashion diva print. I've had the fabric forever, not sure what I could make it into. The print and colors are very bright and bold so I think it works up great as a t-shirt and if it didn't work out, it wouldn't be too great of a loss.

I cut the muslin in the largest size, and it is slightly too large everywhere. I cut the shoulders in about 1/2" and made a sloping-shoulder alteration. I had added 2" to the hemline, which wasn't at all necessary. I also shortened it at the waist 1".

Just before I cut out the pattern, I decided to shorten the pattern at the waist 3/4 inches more. It was a really good decision, I think. With these alterations I think I got a great fitting t-shirt. I know it's hard to tell in the photo above, but I think I like the fit of this pattern just as much as I liked my missing KS 2900 pattern.

I am so grateful to finally have a good fitting pattern once again. This put me in the mood to sew, so I invited my sister and my niece to come over and sew with me on Saturday. Two years ago I took my niece to the garment district to buy fabric. Since she wears nearly the same size as I do, we cut out some of my patterns but we never got the chance to stitch them up. Lo and behold (who says that?) we had cut out my TNT t-shirt pattern out of one of her fabrics and then set it aside. No, really! I feel like I just found a buried treasure. I took her UFO and traced out the pattern, front, back, and cap sleeve. It feels so wonderful to have not one, but two TNT t-shirt patterns. Now to trace both again and lock them in the vault so that if I ever lose one again, I still have a copy. OK, so not a vault but maybe a safe deposit box.

Since I was having so much success, I decided to try out another new pattern. This one is Simplicity 2195, a Khaliah Ali collection pattern. It couldn't be more simple with dolman sleeves and a shaped hem. The pattern calls for a neckline facing, but I've decided to do a spiral cowl neckline that Pam at Fashion Sewing Supply, the popular site for interfacing, did on one of her recent garments. Mine will be much shorter than hers because I was running out of fabric, but I think it'll work. While I don't want a whole wardrobe of this top, I like the way it's turning out. I think the underarm curve might have to be resewn closer to my body. Do you think that will work or does the dolman sleeve really sit away from the underarm this much?

Another project I'm working on is this thrift store jacket. It's a Liz Claiborne jacket made in 100% linen with a cotton lining. It must have shrunk in length, because it fits me perfectly except that I need to add shoulder pads. The color is horrible on me so I've decided to dye it using Dylon permanent fabric dye in Bahama Blue, which is probably more of a turquoise color. I had so much fun dying the Fashion Show fabric that I want to do it again. Since this is made of 100% natural fibers, it should hold on to the color nicely.

Don't you think that the trim on this jacket is horrible? The pleated fabric alone would probably have been OK, adding the knotted rope ruined it. Since I'm not sure how the trim would hold the dye, being tightly knotted and layered, I have removed it. I'm spending my evenings going through my Threads Magazines looking for just the right neckline treatment. I'm also replacing the top snap with a magnet. They were selling them at the ETAC conference so I bought a few. I can't wait to try it.

Can you tell I'm super motivated to get back to more sewing? I've felt like such a slacker this year. I hope next year I will be much more productive in my sewing room. Seriously, I've got to start stitching up some of this stash before it all comes tumbling down on my head and kills me.

Pillowtop and Piping

2011-11-20T19:29:00.001-08:00

This weekend's sewing project was a DYI home dec project. Have I mentioned that I hate home dec? Well, I do. However, this one turned out to be mostly fun. I've never done upholstery before. It always looked hard. It was hard, but oh so very satisfying to do.

This is the after picture. I'm still amazed that I made this beautiful ottoman. The fabric came from a local home dec fabric shop, Big Y Yardage Outlet. I wanted four yards, but they only had three, but when I took it off the roll and measured it, there was an extra 3/4 yards on the roll. Score! I have plenty now for several throw pillows. The appeal of this fabric was that it goes with both my red sofa and my brown love seat. I'm hoping they will both look like they belong together.

Once I took off the cover, I got a good look at how the pillow top is attached to the board. I would never have figured that out. I still didn't do it how they did it, mine not being quite as professional as theirs, but it got the job done.

My ottoman went with my expensive mission style chair that I just sold on craigslist. It was much too big for the room, but the ottoman can be placed in a corner of the room and pulled out for comfortable TV watching or extra seating so I kept it knowing full well that it needed a new cover. The ottoman is very comfortable to sit on since it has a spring seat instead of a hard board underneath the pillow.

I was surprised to find that the cover included a zipper to install the cushion. I used this method as well. Good thing you can't see the robin's egg blue zipper. I didn't see any reason to go out and buy a matching one since no one will ever see it.

See how well it goes with the brown loveseat? I think it looks great with either piece of furniture.

Really, the hard part was cutting out the fabric. See what a good job I did matching the pattern. I put the large motif in the center of the top. It looks off center from here, but trust me, it's perfect. Then the box band flows down over the side with a good match and then down to the board cover, it matches as well.

My home is in the middle of a kitchen remodel project so I'm a bit focused on the house. The next few project I sew will be more home dec. I need new curtains in both bathrooms and in the kitchen. I also want to use the ottoman fabric and make pillows for both sofas.

The t-shirt project has been set aside for awhile, but not forever. I'll get back to it during my Christmas break. Two weeks to do nothing but sew. I love my job!

I'm a Winner!

2011-11-12T22:28:00.001-08:00

Today was the Los Angeles ASG Annual Meeting in Calabasas. It was about an hour and a half drive, but fortunately it didn't rain on my friend Karen and I. The meeting was a lot of fun, especially when I won one of the door prizes.

I've won the door prize at the last two meetings I've attended. One was the Chickasaw Tribe Council meeting a couple of months ago. I won a t-shirt. This time, however, I hit the jackpot! Included in the package was a quilt of the month pattern for Halloween, a 5in1 sliding gauge from Nancy Zieman which I've been wanting, a 15-piece fat quarter collection in a lovely metal basket, and a bottle of Mary Ellen's Best Press. When they brought up the package, Karen told me I should smell how good the Best Press was and I told her that I would just have to win the prize--and I did!

The meeting's guest speaker was Leora Raikin from African Folklore Embroidery. While her stuff is really interesting, I'm not going to be picking up a needle and floss anytime soon. However, her stories about South Africa and the life there was fascinating. Next time I have a South African guest to my house, I'll be sure to offer them some tea.

After the meeting on the way home, we just happen to be passing near downtown Los Angeles so we stopped at the garment district where I found 27 yards of knits that needed to be mine. Knowing that I'm close to a new t-shirt pattern, I was on the lookout for some great new fabrics to sew up this fall and winter.

Starting from the left chair arm to the right, the teal blue and purple flowers is a heavy onionskin type poly knit. The next seven fabrics from the brown and turquoise fabric around to the large black snakeskin print are all poly lycra prints. Under these is an embossed orange heavy acetate slinky, then a non stretchy heavy textured poly knit in a black and white print, and then an RPL double knit in navy for some yoga pants. And last but not least, hanging from my dress form is a poly ruffle knit fabric in a red and black tie-dyed animal print fabric. All the fabrics except the ruffled one came from either Michael Levine, or the Loft. I don't remember the name of the store where I purchased the ruffle. It was sitting outside the store and was calling my name very loudly, so I just followed it inside and got 2.5 yards of it. I only wanted 2 yards, but they threw in the last half yard for free. Again, lucky me!

Tomorrow I'm supposed to go clothes shopping with my niece, but all I want to do is stay home and sew up some of these fantastic new fabrics. So far, the 3/4-length sleeve t-shirt from the 2-2007 Ottobre Magazine is looking like a clear winner for me. I cut the pattern too big, so once I trace it again in a smaller size and make it again, I'll know for sure if it's just right for me. I'm not sure why, but I traced it out in the largest size, and I should have made it in a size 48, which is the size I usually cut for this pattern line.

Thank you to everyone for their great ideas on finding my old t-shirt pattern. Trina had a great idea to make a rubbing off one of my old t-shirts. I tried that and the t-shirt made from the rubbed off pattern just didn't fit right. I'm not sure why. However, I did trace that pattern in permanent ink onto my cutting board so I'll never lose it again. I think I'll do the same thing with my new favorite pattern, when I get it perfected.

It's time to take myself and this lovely feline to bed for the night. Do you see why I prefer prints to solids? They don't show the cat hair nearly so much. That, and I think they hide the flabby rolls around my middle. I promise that my next post I will be sharing some t-shirts.

Doing Stuff

2011-11-11T11:45:00.001-08:00

Before I let months go by again, I thought I just do a quick post. I've been tracing and cutting out fabric for my t-shirts. I should get started sewing today since I have Veteran's day off. Tomorrow is my ASG Annual Meeting so I won't get much sewn, but I'll work on my tops again on Sunday.

I also wanted to share the photos from the ETAC fashion show. You can see the video HERE. The fashion show starts at about 9 minutes in. I didn't get any photos on my camera, but Sue from Sew Qwk and Peggy Campbell from my ASG sent me these:

This is the first set of garments. It's what each of would wear to the Friday night get-together mixer. You can see two of us used the border print in a skirt for this event. After seeing these photos, I really hate the way that jacket turned out. The bust fit is awful!

This is the only photo I have of the Memory Lane Photo Shoot garments that I have. Two of the outfits are missing. I think I was the youngest and graduated in the 1970s. The others had garments from the 1960s. Jeanette went way out there in her interpretation of the 1960s with her wig and glasses. She looked great!

This is what each one of would wear to the Big Outdoor Dinner Dance. I really like how that skirt hangs on me. I might consider making it again, just not in a shiny fabric. This one will go into the donation pile. The shawl I made spent the last week in China. One of my friends needed something fancy to wear over a black dress so I let her borrow it.

I hope you enjoyed seeing how we all used the fabrics and patterns in different and interesting ways. Now back to the cutting table for me. More t-shirt posts to come.

The Quest for the Holy Grail - A New TNT T-Shirt Pattern

2011-10-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that I ~~have~~ had a wonderful TNT t-shirt pattern. I've made it over 20 times and have done nearly a dozen design changes to it. The pattern is an altered version of KS 2900.

Some of the alterations I've done include an increase to the hip, shorten the shoulder seam, shape the front hem for extra bust length and add a center back seam to give it some shape and give it a sloping shoulder. Here are some examples of what I have done with this pattern:

The top two photos are the pattern as cut right from the envelope. The brown one is me using the selvage on a seam down the center front and the pink one I borrowed some flutter sleeves to make a summer top.

The red top was made using a scoop neck traced from a RTW top. The black print top has the neckline details from Textile Studios Marseilles Shirt. The green/brown top has an added collar. This detail I copied from another KS pattern. The yoked shirt has a design detail that I copied from a WOF Burda Plus pattern.

The red/black top is an early attempt at pattern drafting. I raised the neckline and added an asymmetrical yoke feature. The green top is my first try at copying RTW. I saw this sweater in a JC Penny's ad and wanted to create my own. The purple top was a 2XL t-shirt that I re-cut using my pattern. The pink one is the t-shirt with a scoop neck copied from a RTW top that I like better than the red one above and I cut the sleeve to cap sleeves length.

This set of tops is where I really started to get creative with this pattern. I started to troll RTW on-line catalogs and found some really great t-shirts with cute details. The green/black top is a Coldwater Creek clone, the black and white one is just a yoke added with gathers above the bust and the red/black one is the same pattern, except I replaced the gathers with a box pleat. The blue top is a Coldwater Creek clone that has a really nice neckline tie. The black one below is the same pattern. I think I've blogged about each one of these tops, just do a search on my blog for KS 2900 or t-shirt and you'll find them.

Again, I think I've blogged about each one of these shirts. The black and brown top are both a Coldwater Creek clone. The turquoise one was a RTW top that someone on Patternreview asked how to make, so I made it, and the brown floral top is the details to the Jalie Sweetheart top cut onto my pattern.

The last item I made with my TNT pattern was this dress. I blogged about it as well. After I made this dress, if I remember right, I put all the patterns together in a safe place. In fact, I put it in such a safe place that after tearing my house apart at least 3 times and my sewing room apart many times, I can't find it. I can't find any of the patterns. None, nada!

I'm almost over the morning period. Actually, I'm ready to move on to find a new TNT t-shirt pattern. At the same time, if you want to look on the bright side, it gives me a great opportunity to cull out some of my more ugly knits. I do have some ugly ones too. I really hope I don't bore you all with my quest for a new TNT t-shirt pattern. However, I really feel like I'm lost without my pattern and this search is a necessary evil. Wish me luck.

Mindless Sewing for Awhile

2011-10-27T01:22:00.000-07:00

After the last two challenging sewing projects, I've decided to do some mindless sewing this week. I haven't been called in to work the last two days, and that's a good thing. (Unless, of course, you ask my husband who worries about things like paying the mortgage.) On Tuesday I cleaned up the disaster that was my sewing room and got a pattern traced.

This is the Smoothie Pantie by Lingerie Secrets. It's a great pantie pattern which is very similar to the ones I pay $8 for at Fashion Bug. There are three pattern pieces for this but the line drawing doesn't show that there is a crotch piece that you cut two layers for.

This first pair was cut using the sizing chart on the front envelope. It says that I should cut the 2XL. That looked really BIG, but I figured that was because the back pattern piece just looks large because the front piece is smaller with the seams being in front, not at the sides. Also, since I have to either lower the front or raise the back, or both, to most pants patterns, I decided to raise the back on this muslin/fitting pair.

They came out really good. I used the coverstitch to insert the elastic after I basted it on in the round on the sewing machine first. That gave them a nice RTW look. However, if you don't have a coverstitch machine, then she has some really great instructions for the sewing machine that give nice results. My favorite part about this pattern is how much cheek room there is and how the elastic is shorter in the back so that it cups underneath the butt and doesn't ride up.

For my next pair I will be sewing a size or two smaller. While they fit OK in this heavyweight cotton lycra knit, I think that when I make the rest out of leftover poly lycra and rayon knits, they might have a lot of bagginess to them. These feel too large and I am working very hard to lose weight. I can see me making all my panties from this pattern from now on, maybe. I would like to know how many of you make your own panties? Why would you take the time to make panties if you can buy them to fit already? While I like these, I'm debating within myself whether or not this is something I should be spending my sewing time on.

For my next project, I want to make this Ottobre 2/2006 Jersey Top with a Collar. I traced out the pattern today and have selected some fabric to make up my muslin from.

There isn't a good photo in the magazine for the top, only this one which shows the collar. By looking at the pattern pieces, I can see that after I petite the pattern, it might just have the right shape for me. I really hope this one works out. If I get another day off, then I'll have this one finished and posted very soon.

The Day After (In other words, I'm done!)

2011-10-23T15:44:00.001-07:00

I don't have any photos of me wearing these garments. I forgot to give my camera to someone. However, I know a couple of people who were taking photos and hope to get some from them. Also, Peggy Sager's said she will have the entire ETAC fashion show as a webcast on her site. I'll give you the link when she has it uploaded. When looking at the garments, keep in mind that I have a smaller waist than squishy Judy does. The garments really do look better on me.

It was a really fun evening. I found that every one of us used the fabrics in different ways, which was very interesting. In fact, only a couple of patterns were shared by the contestants. All of us hated the gray polyester gaberdine. I got a different quality silk from every one else. They told mine was the hand woven type and it was very, very slubby and textured. I didn't like that at first, but then I think it had better drape for my cape than the other kind did, so it worked out great. Two or three of the women made pants from their dupioni, so the machine woven silk worked out well for that use.

This is my Friday Night Get Together outfit. On Friday, I still had three garments to get finished for the Saturday night ETAC Fabric Challenge Fashion Show. This made me very nervous since Saturday morning I had promised the Pasadena ASG Neighborhood group that I would teach them how to make the flowers for t-shirts. Luckily, Friday I got the jacket finished and the shawl done.

I'm not sure I like the jacket. It's made from Silhouettes #915 Meagan's Jacket pattern. The color is more a pink and the fit isn't quite right and I'm not sure it really goes with the skirt. I had used the D cup pattern pieces and I should have used the C cup but since I was doing this at the last minute, literally, I didn't want to go back and trace the other size. I also think it needs a high round back alteration and I added too much fullness for the back flounce. I had some problems getting the collar on the jacket, her construction is something like I've never seen before. It's quick and easy, but the results aren't nearly as nice. I had to shorten the collar by an entire inch and there are some other collar issues that I had to make work as well.

On Saturday morning I got up at 5 am after going to bed at 2 am the night before. I had to make the alterations to this skirt pattern and cut it out before getting ready and driving out to Pasadena to the ASG Meeting. I spent an hour and a half getting ready and driving out there, and then only one person shows up. WTF? After waiting 25 minutes, I turned around and drove back home. The good part is that now I was already showered and my hair was dry and ready to be flat-ironed.

Anyway, back to the skirt. I got it finished when I got home from Pasadena. It only took me a couple of hours to make since it's not lined and I didn't use the drawstring. It's Silhouettes #4300, Paula's Dress, but I used only the skirt portion of the pattern. The pattern has a drawstring waist and is a bit more hippy than I am, but the fabric has enough body to make it work. I actually like this skirt and might sew it again in some fabric that would work into my wardrobe.

It comes to just above my knees so I might even wear this skirt styled with a black cowl neck, some black tights and flats. Since it has an elastic waist, I can keep wearing it as I lose weight. Win!

The top was my reversible garment and the garment I wore with all three outfits. The rules didn't say that only one garment had to meet both requirements, but it worked out that way for me. I used LJ Designs' Margarita Tank Top pattern. Here it is shown with the black side out. To finish the seams I trimmed one side and topstitched down the rest of the seam allowance for a mock flat-fell seam. The neckline and armholes are finished with a scallop edged elastic. I made two muslins of this top and got the pattern to fit nicely, but this fabric didn't have nearly the stretch I thought it did once it was sewn up. Because the bust wasn't fitting, the armholes were gaping horribly. I pulled the elastic to get the armholes to fit more closely. I'm really glad there was the jacket to hide this horrible fit.

This is the outfit for the Memory Lane Photo Shoot. I like the added boots, which is what I might have worn with it back in 1979. The pattern is Silhouette #615 Cathy's Blouse. I shortened the bodice by 4 inches and added a 20" gathered tier to the bottom to make it into my Stevie Nicks inspired dress. I wanted to give it full long sleeves, and more than one tier but I was limited to the fabric I was sent. I sure was happy that I'm short when trying to fit this onto the fabric. Since the fabric was see-through, I put the tank top underneath and wore the skirt for the next outfit inside-out as my slip.

The biggest challenge to this challenge was trying to figure out what to do with the gray polyester gaberdine. I tried to spray paint it without success. That's the sort-of brown at the back end of the fabric. You can see the original color in the middle. Since the spray paint didn't work, I settled on just using fabric paints. First I painted the fabric while wet. It did turn brown but was very uneven and the fabric got a bit stiff. Once I cut the pattern pieces out, then I went over them again with the fabric paint. I finally got the color I wanted but the fabric was much too stiff to do anything with. I wound up just stitching trim to the edges of the bolero since there was no way I was going to be able line it.

The pattern for the bolero is Silhouettes #850 No-Gap Vest. I shortened it 2" and cut the shoulders in to give it a shape that would work with the dress. There was no was this very stiff fabric was going to turn under with a lining so I picked a beaded cotton lace trim from my stash and bought the narrow trim and tea-dyed it to match the beaded trim.

This was my outfit for the Big Outdoor Dinner Dance. I think I was a bit showy in the silver and red, but in my opinion, it really worked.

The top of this outfit is the Margarita Tank Top, just the reverse side from the previous outfit. I was so pleased that the back of this horrible silver printed knit was a solid black. Instead of hiding from the silver, I just with with it. The purpose of this outfit was for dancing, so I chose a swishy swing skirt to go underneath the tank. Silhouette #2010 Three Piece Yoga Skirt worked out nicely for my outfit. It had just the right amount of swing but not too much for the amount of fabric I had. Again, being short really came in handy here. You can't really tell, but the shoes I styled this outfit with are a black strappy sandals with a silver sparkle and a clear 2 1/2 inch stilleto heel. I found them brand new for $10 at the Goodwill Store.

I think this was the most popular pattern in the fashion show. If I remember right, three of us made it. It's LJ Designs' Sensational Shawl. The pattern calls for a fabric with lots of drape. While you don't normally think of silk dupioni as having lots of drape, the silk was soft enough, especially after washing it, that along with the lining, I think it drapes well. I really love the way it looks like I'm wrapped up in a big bow. My son said all he sees is Little Red Riding Hood, but since it's short and has no hood, I don't know what he's talking about.

I can't believe I got all this done in only 6 days. Not quite like making the entire world in seven days, but pretty amazing none the less, if I do say so myself. Now to clean up the sewing room and decide what I'm going to make next. It feels good to be able to sew what ever I want next. I wish I knew what I wanted to sew. Don't worry, I'll come up with something!

Getting There

2011-10-20T22:59:00.000-07:00

I just need three more days. I can't believe it's already Thursday night. I'm beat and I have to go to bed but wanted to share what I got accomplished today.

This outfit is complete and I like it a lot. It reminds me of something that I might have worn in 1979. The colors were my favorites, dark orange and chocolate brown. The belt I had on the dress yesterday broke so I went out today and bought this new one.

Instead of lining the vest I decided to trim it. Adding cotton lace I think makes it looks like it belongs to this outfit. I have a local fabric mill-end store and bought the trim cheap. It already had the wooden beads attached in the right color. The drawstring was something I found in my trims box and worked quite well. Before trimming the armholes, I cut them in somewhat. It hardly resembles the pattern any longer. I did a FBA and the center front still doesn't hang straight. However, I think that actually helps to give me the illusion of having a better shape and I like it.

I got the muslin for the jacket done and have most of the alterations made on the pattern. I'm lengthening it 2" and raising the neckline 2" as well. I want to remove a lot of the gathers in the lower back and I have to shorten it in the upper back and add for my hips and belly.

I may not get much sleep tomorrow night, but I'm sure I'll get it all done.

Making Progress

2011-10-20T00:33:00.000-07:00

I accomplished quite a bit today. I nearly completed the outfit for the dinner/dance. I used the LJ Designs Margarita Top pattern and made it reversible. I used some stashed scalloped edge elastic for the neckline and armholes and left the hems unsewn on both the skirt and top.

The skirt would become too short if I hemmed it and I've seen that RTW leaves knits unsewn at times so I don't feel like this is cheating. I still have to shape the hem on the top. I made fake flat fell seams to hide the silver so that I can wear the black or silver side, making this my reversible garment.

Here I have draped the Sensational Shawl by LJ Designs over the top and skirt to show how I plan on wearing it, but I still need to attach the lining to it. I just bought some cheap Posh lining from JoAnn's in black. I think I'm liking how this outfit is turning out. I do wish the tank fit better. The muslin fit great, but this knit didn't quite have as much stretch to it, unfortunately. I'm thinking about using some serious foundation underneath because while I have been losing weight, I won't be able to shrink the girls enough by Saturday to make the top fit nicely.

Another thing on my list I got done was to get my fabric for the Friday night get together dyed. I've never dyed fabric before and was very afraid I'd ruin all my fabric. My biggest fear was that I wouldn't get the deep red I was looking for and that the fabric would turn out pink. The fabric looked nice and dark while soaking in the dye for over 2 hours.

Unfortunately, they did lighten up a lot after I rinsed out the left-over dye. It still reads as red, just not as dark as I like. I'm also disappointed that they didn't absorb the dyes to the same shade. The border print, while having some lycra in it, took to the dye a lot faster. I think because it was more loosely woven than the pique, which was 100% cotton and fairly tightly woven. At least my designs won't be boring with all that color! Good thing I look good in lots of color, I'm hoping that will make my garments pop on stage.

I got the peasant dress nearly completed. It still needs the neckline hemmed and the drawstring inserted as well as the bottom hemmed. I wish I could have had more tiers on the bottom of the dress and longer wider sleeves but I was limited to the fabric that I was sent.

The bolero is the No Gap Vest by Silhouette Patterns which I shortened to waist length. It also needs some alterations and I have to line it. It's quite stiff with the fabric paint I put on it. It's made from the blue/gray polyester gaberdine I was sent and which went with nothing. I discovered how difficult 100% poly is to dye. I wound up just using fabric paint in the little tubes and brushing it onto the cut pieces. While the vest does need some alterations, I think this outfit will work out great for my 1979 Memory Lane Photo Shoot. My thoughts was that the dress/bolero combo is reminiscent of something Stevie Nicks would have worn with the lace.

More tomorrow.

Design Challenge

2011-10-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

Way back in July or so I was asked to participate in a Design Competition being held during the Education of the Textile Arts in California (ETAC) being sponsored by Peggy Sagers of Silhouettes Patterns. I agreed knowing I had plenty of time and went to work on the story board for my designs. Here is the scenario for this competition:

You are attending a high school reunion a little over three months from now. You are flying on a commercial airline to the reunion and only one carry-on bag allowed so all outfits must fit into the one carry-on bag. You will need three outfits and no one outfit can be repeated. These are the three events that you are going to attend.
First day - Friday night get-together/mixer.
Second day afternoon - “Memory Lane” photo shoot
(must dress in the clothing style of the year you graduated.)
Second evening - Big Outdoor Dance/Dinner

Rules I had to incorporate:
1. One item you make from the fabrics must be visibly worn at all three events.
2. One item must be reversible.
3. Some of all the fabrics must be used.
4. An additional $25 can be spent and will be reimbursed for anything purchased such as additional buttons, fabrics, etc.
5. All outfits must fit into the carry-on bag.
6. Patterns are free and unlimited from any one of the sponsors and ordered through the designer.
Those patterns ordered must be used in the challenge. No other patterns may be used.
7. No additional fabric from personal stash allowed. Any notions may be used from your personal stash. Only an additional $25 can be spent on anything you need. (see #4)

The patterns must be selected from either LJ Designs - Lyla Messinger, Barb's Originals, Barb Callahan, or Silhouette Patterns, Peggy Sagers. Working within this limited pattern selection was a minor challenge. I think I did pretty well picking out patterns that fit the scenerio and my body shape. I've never had much luck with Peggy's patterns, but most of my selections came from her pattern line. I picked two patterns from Lyla and none from Barb's patterns. I suppose I could have selected a purse pattern, but none of them appealed to me.

The fabric that was sent were some pretty horrible stuff. The first fabrics sent included a cotton/lycra border print, a white cotton pique, a dark orange stretch lace, and a black knit with a silver snake skin print. Later I was sent a blue/gray polyester gaberdine fabric and I had my choice of color of silk dupioni. I chose a dark red for my silk.

Oh, and did I mention? The ETAC Conference is this coming weekend. Instead of working on my garments for this event, I made a costume. Either I'm crazy, or else I LIKE working under pressure, probably a bit of both. Anyway you look at it, I'm a BIG procrastinator.

So far I've got the tank top, one skirt, the dress, and a vest cut out. Tonight and tomorrow I plan to get all these pieces sewn and the muslin for the jacket sew up and alterations done. I also need to finish the muslin for the second skirt. I'm really hoping that it won't need any alterations. Stay tuned as I'll be posting my progress every night on my blog. I really need all the encouragement and prayers I can get.

What's Up Next?

2011-10-16T21:39:00.000-07:00

The Ninja Girl is done. I really enjoyed spending quality time with my Niece. I didn't enjoy sewing the costume. Stacy is my twin sister's daughter and is now living with her mom a few miles away. When she was 5 years old, they moved 500 miles away to Tucson, AZ. Luckily it's close enough that we got to visit a few times a year. I love having her back. So now you know why I worked on this costume when I have a very large deadline pressing down on me. But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm going to share all about my next project and the deadline with you in the next post. Stay tuned!

The costume is meant to be a character named Akali from the video game, League of Legends. I've never heard of it, but she's a video game geek and plays it all the time. She attended Comic-Con in New York this weekend and said that over 200 people asked her if they could take her picture including a local paper and the company that produces the video game.

To make this costume, I was forced to called upon my pattern making skills. I used a Kwik Sew Tank suit and a leggings pattern. I also used Silhouettes Yoga skirt pattern to complete the look. Stacey made the patterns for the armor and I made them up using Peltex between to layers of polyester gaberdine. I used some gold gimp trim and gold thread satin stitched around many of the items. To make the belt for her very curvy figure, I draped muslin around her, pinned it to fit her contours and then drew the belt on. I'm so glad I did this because it fits her so nicely and lays against her body perfectly. I probably have 40-50 hours into this thing, which includes making patterns and muslins of the suit, the stockings and the gloves.

To make the face mask, I traced her face and created a pattern. I'm very impressed on how this part of the costume came out since I had no idea what I was doing. For the forehead piece, she drew on her face and then pressed paper onto her forehead to create a pattern. She bought hair extensions and fake bangs to add to the look, including anime large-eye green contact lenses. My sister made her weapons. They were tricky because she had to be able to get on an airplane with them. I've got to remember to say NO next time I'm asked to do anything with a deadline.

ASG Sew-In

Instead of starting my BIG PROJECT on Saturday, I attended the ASG-LA Sew-In. In a I-Don't-Know-What-I-Was-Thinking moment, I volunteered to teach the beginner's class. While I expected three students, only one came.

It wasn't a total waste of time because I got a chance to make this cool tote bag from sueded pleather. I love the trim, which was from a small scrap of fabric that has a striped print. I'm not sure you would have been able to see the pocket without the trim. This tote pattern is what I start all my beginning students with. It gives them many different techniques to begin with and they usually have a completed item to take home with them.

Now to get started on my project, which will include six different garments to be completed by Friday. Yikes!

Nearly A Ninja

2011-10-08T00:26:00.000-07:00

My niece Stacey and I spent the entire afternoon and evening working on her costume. I cut out my pattern and got the suit to a place where she can try it on while she worked on the armor pieces. In the photos, the suit is mostly done with the straps just basted on. The elastic needs to be stitched down on the underarm band and there isn't any elastic around the legs yet. Also, only one stocking has elastic around the top, and it hasn't been topstitched down yet.

I'm going to have to adjust the shoulder straps, but for the most part, I'm pretty happy with it. We both wish the side opening was larger, just a bit more side breast showing and lower too. After all, the character is supposed to be much more scantily clad. It was hard to see just how large to cut away to get a good sized hole. The mock-up fabric I used was a poly/lycra and this one is a nylon lycra, which has less stretch.

I think I really like how modest it's turning out to be. We need to cover some shoes and get the skirt made. I also have to make some type of long glove without fingers. That'll be my job this weekend. I'm going to San Diego in the morning, so I might get some work done tomorrow night. I'm really hoping I don't get much sub work this week so I can stay at home and sew.

I'm still pondering how to put the trim on. We bought some stretch metallic gold fabric today, and I may just add strips of that on top of the folded down elastic. I'll baste some on first to see how I like it and if it will stretch enough for her to put the costume on.

She leaves on Thursday for New York. I hope she has a great time at Comicon. I also hope she never asks for me to sew for her again. It's too nerve wracking sewing for others, especially under such a tight schedule. I don't know how you ladies who sew for a living do it.

Making Progress Slowly

2011-10-02T21:21:00.000-07:00

Today my niece let me know that her plane leaves for New York on October 13 so I don't have much time to get this project finished. My goal is to have it completed by Friday so I can move on to other things I need to be working on.

So far I've completed the changes I needed to make to the pattern. I made up a muslin of a KS tank swimsuit and while she was wearing it, I marked where I needed to put seams. Just when I was wondering how to make the square neckline on the suit, someone on patternreview.com asked the very same question. The answer was to put in seams. I'd get started on the suit if I had some 1/4" knit elastic.

I did a sample stitchout of a knit with elastic sewn around a square cut-out to see if I could avoid the seams, but I got rounded corners instead of a square. When I tried to miter the corners by sewing the corners of the elastic, I wasn't happy with the results. I'm so glad I did the sample, it really helped me plan out my pattern. I want a rounded edge where I left a notch in the pattern but I put seams where I absolutely wanted the suit to be squared off. I sure hope I can figure out where to put the elastic when I sew it together.

These are the fabrics we picked out when we went to Michael Levine's in downtown LA a week ago. They match better than they look in the photo. The fabric on the right is a swimsuit nylon lycra and the one on the left is a ponte de roma, not the nice double knit but the kind cheerleader outfits and tablecloths are made from. That one will be used for the armor. I think I'll sandwich it around a layer of peltex to give it the stiffness it needs and then use the fold-over elastic around the edges to hide the peltex. The gold gimp trim will work on the armor and I'll probably just hand sew it to the suit once she has it on. I like the idea of making a belt attached with hooks. Thanks to Caroline and Trina for those good ideas.

I've decided to use Silhouette's Yoga Skirt to make the skirt. I don't have many patterns in her little size and I think this one will work out perfectly. She wanted it to be twirly and this one is much more a-line than the back of the pattern shows. I'll just cut a shape out of the side of each pattern piece so that it only hangs in the center front and center back. I hope we bought enough of the gimp to go around the edges of the skirt and the armor.

I will be using the fold-over elastic to go around the thigh high sock to keep it up and around the fingerless gloves and the face mask. Does anyone have any ideas how to make the face mask part? I'm open to all ideas at this point. I may just trace the shadow of her face in profile and create a pattern from that with a seam down the center. I'm hoping this goes together very quickly. I hate sewing for others and I'm not enjoying this very much. However, I can't wait to see how cute she'll be in this costume. I know it'll look fantastic on her.

Good Thing I Love Her

2011-09-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

My niece has asked me to sew a costume for her to wear at Comicon being held in New York next month. Yes, in a couple of weeks. I'm also in the middle of sewing for a design competition for Peggy Sager's ETAC event next month. I don't have time to make this costume. However, I love her so I said yes.

I'm starting out with a pattern from the Kwik Sew Bathing Suit Master Book and traced the leg portion of a Kwik Sew leggings pattern and added a toe. I sewed it up in a knit to test the fit, so now I have to alter the swimsuit pattern to have the straps and then make a skirt and belt. She has a cute young body so yes, it will be cut that close to her breast. Oh, to be in my 20's again.

I'm not sure why I always put myself under such time restraints. But then again, I always do my best work under pressure.

Does anyone know of a gold trim I could use on the suit and skirt that would stretch with the nylon lycra I'm making them out of? We bought gold braid and that will be good on the armor since we're using a ponte roma poly fabric stiffened with peltec. The gold braid won't stretch, however. I'm sort of stuck on how to handle that part of this costume. Any help you can offer would be very much appreciated.

Blog Facelift

2011-09-24T02:12:00.000-07:00

Since it's been forever since I last blogged regularly, I decided to give my blog a new look. It took me hours to get something that I wasn't embarrassed about, but I'm still not liking it. I wish I wasn't such a computer dummy so that I could figure things out. You'd think that my computer programmer husband would help me with projects like this. No. However, in his defense when my hard drive decided to stop booting up a couple of weeks ago, he did buy me a new one and figured out a way to transfer all my files from the old one onto my new one. I'm still having to load lots of programs and plug-ins, but that I can do. Anyway, I think there is way too much of that bright green in my blog, but haven't figured out a way to change it since it's part of the template and isn't allowing me the option of a different color in some areas. I'll figure it out, just not tonight.

As far as my plans to sew all summer so I'd have a great new wardrobe when school started, well I really didn't sew much at all. I spent such a fun summer doing some traveling to close by destinations like Palm Springs, Las Vegas, and Santa Barbara. I also got together a lot with my other teacher friends. We went to museums, shopping, and even to a concerts at the beach. But what I did most of all was go out to eat. Which led to weight gain. Which led to needing new clothes, which led to me finding lots of thrift stores that sells practically brand new plus sized clothes.

A few weeks ago I went shopping at JoAnn's and found some fabric that I loved. Now you know that doesn't happen very often and I had a few dollars in my wallet so I bought them. One of them was this sort of crepe/silky fabric with a very interesting border print. I loved the colors and the challenge to use the border in an interesting way.

This is what I came up with. The pattern is Burda 7807 which I've had stashed for quite awhile. Mine is going to be sleeveless and collarless. I don't mind that it doesn't have sleeves since I think a green crocheted shrug that I already own will look great with the dress. I'm dragging my feet getting this one finished because I can't decide if I want to fully line it or just the yoke, like the pattern tells you to. Also, the fabric I cut for the facing shrank horribly even before I got a chance to sew it onto the neckline. Thank goodness that didn't happen after the facing was attached. Anyway, this dress is on my short list of things to get done.

I'm also making some muslins out of a few of Peggy Sager's patterns. This top is made from stretch lace and it's my version of Silhouettes #615--Cathy's Blouse. I'm really happy with the fit right out of the envelope. I didn't make any changes at all and I don't think I will on the final version either. This one is definitely wearable, just not with leggings and turquoise sandals.

One more thing, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who comes here to read my blog. So many of you have let me know that you missed my blog while I was off doing other stuff. Sewing friends are the very best there is. Oh, and if you missed it, be sure to check out the previous post, it's the tutorial for my floral appliqued top that I promised my readers way back in March. Enjoy and don't forget to leave me a comment. I love to read each and every one.

EDITED: Thank you to those who left me comments on my blog's new look. I really listened and did some research. After working for hours I've finally found a look that is reminiscent of the old look, easy to read, and has an up-to-date modern vibe. What do you think?

Can someone can tell me how to add my Google Reader list on here as the BLOGS I FOLLOW gadget?

T-Shirt Floral Appliqué Tutorial

2011-09-22T14:11:00.000-07:00

Nothing like having my blog mentioned on Patternreview.com to light a fire under me to get back to blogging. If you remember, sometime last March I made a t-shirt and decorated it with flowers like you see in RTW all the time for a BIG price tag. I decided to do this myself and then promised I'd do a tutorial. Drum Roll Please. . . . . . . . . . . .

Floral Appliqué Tutorial

Leaves

Using knit fabric that is either matching or contrasting to your t-shirt, cut long narrow leaf shapes by folding fabric in half and cut a long strip wider in the middle and tapered to a pointed end. It can be a straight strip since it will be shaped later.

With matching thread and a long stitch length, sew a single row down the center of each unfolded leaf shape. Gather the stitching loosely to make the leaves. Pull the threads to the back and tie off securely.

Round Flower

Cut two different size circles and stack them. Next, sew a straight stitch in a circle inside the smaller circle of fabric. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Gather these threads so that a small bubble is formed in the center of the flower. Pull the threads to the back and tie securely.

Petal Flower

For the shaped petal flower, fold the fabric in half and then in half again the other direction. Cut a modified teardrop shape so that when the fabric is opened, it will have a four petal shape. Make two of these--they don't have to be exactly alike.

Stack these shapes, rotating one so that the petals are off-set. Then fold the flower stack in fourths again and sew a few stitches across the bottom point. The threads can be tied or backstitched.

Once the flower is opened back up again, a jewel can be sewn into the center.

Arranging

Arrange the flowers and leaves in a pleasing manner on your top and sew them down to the t-shirt neckline by hand.

StyleArc's Lily Ski Pants Fit, Mostly.

2011-05-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

Warning, horrifying fit photos to follow. Sometimes you've got to show your panties in order to help a fellow sewer with her fit. So I hope these pics don't scare you off and if I've offended you, I'm sorry. My goal is to help you, not terrorize you. (Sorry about the mirror shots, but you get the idea.)

Before cutting these out, I laid them on top of the legging pattern I made from Style Arc to see if I needed to do any alterations. They looked like they would need some length, but I wasn't sure how much would be needed. After cutting out and sewing up the muslin in a fabric with the same stretch as my final stretch denim, I got a much better idea on how much more length I would need. The center front looked good because a 1-3/4" waistband was going to be added to the top. The sides, however, needed about 1-1/2" longer to come up to my waist. Don't forget that I'm only 5'1" tall so that's a lot. These aren't sold as being low waisted, but trust me, they are!

I already know that my center back is a whole lot higher up than my center front so before I cut the muslin I added 1" to the center back on the yoke only. Obviously it wasn't enough. I wound up also adding 1-1/2" to the top of the pants in the back and kept the 1" in the center back on the yoke as well.

Because of my high full rounded back hip, I rounded up what I added to the back over my cheeks. This sort of gives me a princess seam over my high hip. Did you think the yoke was only for looks? No! It's a great place to add more fabric for those love handles. :D

My pattern alterations were a success. See how they come all the way up to my waist on the front and sides? I'm thinking that if I used the recommended fabric of a 4-way stretch knit, I wouldn't have had so much trouble getting them up to my waist. I might have added some, but not as much as I did. However, this pattern looks more like a jegging, which is why I sewed them up in a very stretchy denim. Obviously I omitted the fake zipper pockets the pattern has you add. The last thing I need is attention on my belly with pockets that don't work anyway.

With my alterations, the pants now come up to my waist in the back. However, there are still problems. Specifically, all the wrinkles under my cheeks. I'm not sure what's going on here. It apparent that the back leg has too much circumference, but I think there is also too much length. I don't mind the circumference so much, but I think I'm going to play with these to see how I might address the issue in my next pair. The problem might just go away if I make them in a less stretchy fabric. This pair feels a tiny bit too large everywhere. Maybe if I just use larger seam allowances. I'll have to experiment.

You can see the length issues in this side view. (Please ignore the giant belly that returned after my MIL died. It will be going very soon, I hope!) Lots of drag lines pointing to the back of my leg and the baggy knee tell me that there is too much length in the leg. Any suggestions on how to get rid of this problem? I have some ideas, but since I'm going back on my low carb diet, these pants fit fine for the moment.

I even plan on wearing them out of the house once I put on some make-up and brush my hair.

Recovered From Chicago Trip

2011-05-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

If you've never attended a Patternreview.com meeting, you don't know what you're missing. I spent last weekend with the most marvelous women ever and visited such a wonderful city. The organizers of this year's event did an outstanding job. You might not know this but sewers are party animals, so what happened in Chicago stays in Chicago and that's all I'm going to say about that!

One of the fabric stores we visited was Vogue Fabrics in Evenston, IL. That's where I bought these delicious fabrics. Starting with the first row, there's a cotton lycra jersey, a beautiful brick colored rayon/lycra jersey that I might just do some discharge dyeing on, next a lovely Christmas red rayon jaquard crinkle woven fabric, a printed cotton/lycra jersey, next a poly chiffon and a rayon challis. I also bought 4 yards of white silk crepe fabric to do silk painting on. I can't believe I kept my purchases down to only 18 yards. My stash is currently overflowing so I did try to show some restraint.

Now that I'm recovered from my jet lag and my sewing room is back in order, I can get started on my StyleArc patterns. Since I did like the free pattern they sent me, which was the legging pattern, I'm pretty sure I'm going to like the pants patterns I bought as well.

I really like the pair of jeggings I bought before Christmas and wear them a lot. I'm hoping this pattern called the Lily Ski Pant fits similarly to my jeggings. They are made for a very stretchy fabric and they include a sample of a wool jersey as an example of what to sew them up in. I plan on using a very stretchy denim. I'm cutting these out today.

The Kerry Cargo pant is a very different sort of pattern. It has a straight leg, which I haven't been very successful in wearing since I'm short and have very small legs compared to the rest of my body. After cutting out the pattern (they come in only one size), it looks like they won't be coming in under the butt like their line drawing shows. The sample fabric that they sent looks like a rayon/lycra blend woven pants weight fabric. I'm not sure what I'll make my muslin out of but if they turn out to be a good pattern for me, then I have a pale spring green stretch linen to make them up in.

The third pattern I bought from StyleArc was the Tiffany Blouse. It is supposed to be made from any drapey blouse fabric. I have several nice rayon challis fabrics in my stash that I could use to make this blouse. It looks like it might fit me with very little alterations, even in the bust. Unfortunately, I've been putting back on a few pounds so I need some new blouses.

My summer vacation has begun so I have about 75 days of sewing ahead of me. I expect to make a dent in my fabric stash and get lots of new clothes sewn. Visit often and leave me comments because I cannot get enough of your comments!

Last Second Sewing for Chicago

2011-05-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

I got everything made for my trip and then found out that the weather will be really bad during the PR Meeting. In order to make my travel wardrobe work for the cold rainy weather I had to add a few more pieces. Good thing I have such a substantial fabric collection or none of these garments could have been possible. It's not like JoAnn's would have had what I wanted.

Because I wanted to stay warm in Chicago, I made KS 3693 in a slinky printed knit. It's just like Chico's travel knit they use for their garments and it will help to keep me warm on our fabric shopping outing on Friday.

This is how I'll wear it. The beaded flower trim on the top leaves the neckline of the cardi quite lumpy, but I think my hair will cover that up. I haven't hemmed the pants yet. I'll wear this outfit with my black waterproof rain boots I bought for my trip to NYC two years ago. They still look pretty good. This outfit will look really nice with my orange Anne Klein trench coat. Good thing I put back on so much weight or the coat wouldn't fit me. Of course, I could have just bought a new one.

As for the Big Event on Sunday where we get to meet the Lt. Gov. of Illinois, I was planning on wearing my new summer dress. However, we are walking to the meeting place and, while it may not be raining on Sunday, it will certainly be cold. So I went to Target to see if I could find a cardi or shrug that I could wear over the dress because, while I do have one cut out, I didn't think I'd have time to sew it up. And how lucky could I be? I found this cowl neck sweater with 3/4 length sleeves that was the perfect color. I like 3/4 length on RTW because long sleeves are always much too long. It looks OK under the dress and I had to style it with brown tights and my brown flats so my legs would stay warm. I think the dress looks fine styled this way and I'll be warm enough during the walk with the trench coat over it.

A couple of weeks ago I bought some Style Arc patterns from Australia which I will share with you when I get back from Chicago. With my order, they sent me a free pattern for some leggings. In the middle of sewing like mad for this trip, I decided to try out this pattern. If it worked, then I'd have another outfit possibly to take with me and help keep me warm. The pattern worked well enough. The fit isn't perfect and I did have to do some crotch scooping to get it to look this good. I shortened the legs 2" but probably shouldn't have. I still haven't hemmed these and they look like they might be almost too short.

If I find the time tomorrow, I'm going to sew up one more thing. I want to make a tunic to wear over my new leggings. There is going to be a pizza party and celebration with fun and games on Saturday night at the University Center and I wanted to be comfortable and warm for this event. I plan on sewing up the animal print from an earlier fabric.com order into a long tunic pattern but have yet to decide which pattern. I better get to deciding since I have only tomorrow to get it cut out and sewn and get everything washed up and packed. Yikes! I need to get to bed, tomorrow is going to be a long day!

Almost Finished

2011-05-08T20:28:00.001-07:00

I'm almost finished sewing for Chicago. My plane leaves this coming Thursday. There's not much time left so I spent my Mother's Day sewing up B5593. My husband was going to get up and take me out to breakfast, but I'm afraid I would have starved waiting for him so I made myself breakfast and we went out with our son for a late lunch. I didn't wear this dress because the sun decided to hide all day. It was in the triple digits last week and I don't think it got to 65 degrees today. Go figure. There were some scary black clouds out as well. I did want to show you how wonderful the roses were looking in front of our house. Aren't they pretty?

I haven't started on the shrug yet, but the dress turned out better than I thought it would. It wound up being shorter than I wanted so I had to add the brown band at the hem to make it long enough. I think that it turned out to be a fantastic design element and it wouldn't have been as nice without it. I was very grateful for my gigantic stash because that's where this fabric came from. I don't think I could have found a better matching knit anywhere in town.

If you want to read the review with every minute detail I did to make this dress, you can read the review here at Patternreview.com. I wrote up a very comprehensive review that I don't feel like repeating. Sorry about being so lazy. If you want to know anything specific and can't access the review, leave me a comment and I'll post more info for you.

Aren't the shoes great with this dress?

I'm not happy with this latest version of NL 6735. Nothing wrong with the top really, it's the shape underneath and the fabric that clings to it that I don't like. This is a too-thin rayon lycra fabric from the stash. It's a great color and my trim matched it so perfectly. Maybe if I put a belt around my middle it would look better. I doubt it. I'll probably have to wear my spanx cami underneath. Target sells a very nice one for not a lot of money.

I got the trim from the big trimming store in NYC a couple of years ago. I think it has initials like ML or something like that. I can't think of the name right now. Anyway, doesn't the floral trim make this plain t-shirt look like something special. I'm thinking it doesn't need a necklace, maybe just some great earrings. Do you agree?

Chicago, Here I come!

2011-05-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

I have only nine days left to sew before I leave for the Patternreview.com Meeting in Chicago. I've never been to Chicago and I haven't met many of my on-line sewing friends that will be at the meeting. I guess you could say that I'm pretty excited about this trip. Of course, I have to have a new, sewn-by-me wardrobe while attend an event of sewing friends.

The events for this meeting will include a fabric shopping day and dinner, a guest teacher/speaker and a pizza party, and then breakfast with the Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. Also, I'll be doing some sightseeing on my own the day after the meeting. I already have figured out what I'll wear to most of the events, thanks to the PR Mini-Wardrobe contest. However, I need something to wear to the breakfast with the Lt. Gov.

I've decided to wear a dress. Of course it'll have to be a new dress. I just bought this See&Sew 5593 pattern on my last trip to JoAnn's.

I'm going to mix it up a bit from the red/black/gray of my mini-wardrobe and make it from a brown/orange print jersey and also make a tie shrug to wear over it since it will probably be cold. I should pack for the trip expecting rain, and then be ready for the sun to shine as well. The shrug I want to make is NL 6559. I think it will look great over the dress. My only concern is that the dress has a tie in the back and the shrug has a tie in the front. Sounds like a lot of ties for one outfit.

Since I'm adding brown to my color palate for the trip, I've decided to make another t-top and pants like the gray one I did for the mini-wardrobe. The pants fabric is a pinstripe RPL and the top fabric is a rayon lycra jersey. I'm using the same TNT patterns and I have a leopard belt that might work. If it doesn't, the belt is reversible with dark brown on the other side and I'll wear my leopard print shoes. I may even do some of the same embellishments to this top as I did on the gray one. I need to do the tutorial anyway so this would be a good opportunity to take pictures.

I know my plan sounds ambitious, but I do my best work under pressure. I have today off and don't have any plans for the weekend except to sit at my machine and sew. When I put my sewing under pressure like this, that's when my sewing machine usually breaks down. Good thing I have lots of back-up machines just sitting around! Please pray for the serger and the coverstitch machine though.

Stuff I've Been Doing

2011-04-30T18:50:00.001-07:00

I took a silk painting class today with Audrey Durnan through the ASG-LA Chapter. The class was super fun and I learned that it isn't really all that hard to create a beautiful masterpiece! I bought the supplies I'd need to make more pretty stuff. I'm not sure I want to branch out into another hobby, but this one could include sewing if I used my painted silk to make garments, right?

I was all set to come home and make me a new dress. No, I didn't make this dress. I happened to stop at a thrift store on my way home from the class and found the dress, the shoes, and the bracelet all for less than a $20 bill. I couldn't believe I found the complete outfit, in my size, at the same store at the same time. And yes, I've gained a few pounds back, thanks for asking. My job this summer will be to exercise my butt off, literally and stop eating carbs. I'm not feeling well and I'm not sleeping at all. But my hair looks good, right?

In case you were wondering, I did get the last thrift store garments remade. The cat's been sleeping on them so they have to be washed before I can share them with you. I guess I better get started on that laundry.

Attention Deficit Disorder in the Sewing Room

2011-04-22T07:29:00.001-07:00

Three posts ago I started fitting a cardigan, which I haven't gotten back to. Two posts ago I bought a really great sewing machine which I haven't done anything with. In fact, the cabinet is still in the middle of my living room. Then my last post had me doing some thrift store refashioning. I did get started on the skirt and sweater conversions, but haven't touched them at all this week. So what did I do this week? Why buy patterns and fabric, of course!

I placed a really big order from fabric.com and they came in on Tuesday. Sorry about the lousy photo. Most of these are for summer sewing.

The one on the right is a cotton/lycra jersey cream and brown argyle with gold foil printed lines. It is very pretty up close. I got 2 yards so I'm thinking it will be a fall cardigan. The next three are poly/lycra jersey prints that will become short sleeve tops of some sort.

The purple print poly/lycra jersey will be a dress. The next two are cotton/lycra twills in lavender and lime. I need summer capris and nothing feels like summer than colorful capris. The last one is black stretch denim that I want to make some Jeggings from. I won't use a legging pattern, I think I'll just use my TNT pull-on pants pattern and narrow the legs a lot. Then add some jeans details like a faux zipper and back pockets with contrasting topstitching.

I also bought some nice patterns, mostly newly issued when they were on sale at JoAnn's last week. The See & Sew dress pattern is what I'm going to use for the new purple print jersey. The McCall's blouse pattern I bought is a duplicate. I hate when I do that. Luckily I don't do it very often and it was only 99 cents so no big loss there. The rest of the patterns will probably be saved until fall.

Last night I got my hair cut. I've been wanting to grow out my layers and have discovered the flat iron. I think I'm the last one on the planet to discover this magical appliance. No more poofy frizzy hair for me. My husband says it looks like my hair went on a diet and he doesn't like it. I told him it's still frizzy and poofy without the flat iron. That made him feel better, LOL! Now to clean up the sewing room and get started on sewing since I have the day off.

Thrift Store Finds Refasioned

2011-04-17T22:42:00.001-07:00

This weekend I attended the California Community College Fashion Symposium in downtown Los Angeles. I participated in this event when I was a fashion student and had an opportunity to attend again. It's a really big event for fashion students to present their work in a runway show. This year, the theme was Re-Image, Re-Purpose, Re-Design Our World. For one of the competitions, students were to Purchase an inspiration piece(s) from a secondhand store to be repurposed and redesigned into a whole new couture-like outfit. They were required to use other recycled materials in the redesign, however, findings and notions could be new. The student's could not exceed a $50 maximum expenditure for all materials. Well, the fashions that I saw in this competition really inspired me to try it myself so today I visited a thrift store and came away with some very nice pieces.

This man's shirt is an XLTall Pierre Cardin 100% cotton shirt. I thought the fabric was very pretty. Probably too pretty for a man's shirt. It was very well constructed and was a bargain for $6. There is a lot of fabric for me to work with here. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to make from it, but I've got lots of ideas rattling around in my head.

I also found this really cute skirt for only $6. The black design is embroidered and has black sequins attached throughout. The skirt is one of those peasant skirts that is entirely too small for me on the top tier. The skirt is also much, much too long for me. My plan is to cut down the top tier to form a yoke which will also shorten it to a more flattering length. I will probably attach some plush back elastic to the top of the yoke to hold it up. The black tank was brand new for $2 and looks good with the skirt.

Having just done the pattern fitting on this cardigan, it was easy to see how this pattern could be made from a sweater. The dropped sleeves that are on a lot of old sweaters would work out perfectly for View C in this pattern cover picture.

To go along with the skirt and tank, I thought a white cardi would look really good with the skirt and also give me some shoulder coverage for work. Funny thing is that I almost bought a white shrug at Fashion Bug this weekend. This white sweater has the dropped shoulders and the fit is spot on for being refashioned. I'm going to use some tone on tone white quilting cotton for the facings and collar. When I visited NYC a couple of years ago I purchased a sweater hook that has clear crystals on it that will look wonderful holding this cardi closed. I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

I don't have any shoes to wear with this outfit so I did some on-line shoe shopping and decided to get these sandals from DSW.com. They should be here in about a week or so. Since I live in saldals from April through October, I can't believe I don't have any nice black sandals. The only ones I have are old and worn out. Sine they won't be here for awhile, I'm in no hurry to finish this outfit, but I have already started on the sweater refashion project. I can't wait to show you how it all turns out.

Look What I found

2011-04-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, first of all, even I think I'm nuts. I found another Singer 500 Rocketeer on craigslist this week. The owner said to make any offer, so I did. I offered him $50 for the machine in the cabinet thinking that he would never accept it. Most are going for at least twice that amount. Lucky for me he accepted my offer. It's a 70 mile drive that I'm going to take on a Friday night to go get it. I'm taking my son with me so that I won't be visiting a stranger's home alone and he can help load it into the pick-up truck.

If you've been following my blog, you know I already have three of these lovely machines. My plan is to use them when I open my own sewing studio. It's a dream of mine that isn't possible while the economy is in the tank. However, if someone wanted to grant me the money to pay rent on a place for one year, than I'd do it now in a heartbeat!

The owner also told me that it had all of it's original attachments. Even in this terrible picture I can see that the box is in good shape and it has the manual! Now to find the room to put it in my house. I asked about condition and he said it hasn't been used in 5-10 years but didn't break, they just stopped using it. One can only hope that it isn't completely frozen up. However, I've brought one of my machines back to life in this condition so I'm sure I could do it again. I hope it won't be necessary though.

Pattern Fitting Time

2011-04-13T14:30:00.001-07:00

Not only did I enter Patternreview's Mini-Wardrobe contest, but I also entered The Stitcher's Guild 6PAC for spring sew-along. I'm using the first 4 pieces from my mini-wardrobe then adding two more garments. I think these will be the garments I take along with me to Patternreview's Annual Meeting in Chicago next month. The two new garments are M5932 and KS 2631.

I'm sewing the KS top in a white poly/lycra woven with black topstitching. I've made this top before in a stretch woven. I liked it a lot and I hope it works in this fabric as well. Since I don't have to do any pattern fitting on the KS top, it should go pretty quickly once I cut it out. I hope to get that done later today.

The fabric I'm using for the cardigan is a knit that's been in my stash since before I had a stash. It's a stable knit that feels like it has some poly in it. Not the best quality, but the color will work perfectly in my 6PAC.

Before deciding to use this cardigan pattern, I read all the reviews on patternreview.com. They were a mixed bag. Not wanting to ruin my fabric but not wanting to do a muslin either, I pinned the pattern together and tried the pattern out on Judy. It fit pretty well with some minor alterations. First, I cut the shoulder slope much steeper, by 3/4" on both the front and back. That meant that I had to fold out 1-1/2" from the sleeve width. That's good because the sleeves looked quite wide. I forgot to mention that when I cut out the pattern I cut a size Large, then tapered to an X-Large side seam at the hem.

The neckline wanted to gape, so I pinched a small dart which I will rotate out at the underarm. I probably didn't have to do this alteration, but since it's easy to do and the pattern clearly needed it, I went ahead and did the alteration. This also meant that I had to reduce the length of the collar.

The back is where the pattern needed quite a bit of help. I had to reduce the center back length by two full inches for it to hang correctly. This is a normal alteration for me, but 2" was quite a lot more than I usually have to do. The tuck tapers to nothing at the side seam. Taking the back tuck will require me to even out the hem but I think I'll remove from the front instead of adding to the back since I will probably want to make it a tad bit shorter. I also had to add 1-1/2" to get the center back to cover my behind so I will be adding a center back seam to get the extra width. I didn't want to add a seam in my stripy knit fabric, but it will help get the fit I need. Oh well.

Without doing my usual high rounded back alteration, the back neckline was going to be way too high on me. One PR reviewer said that she did do the rounded back alteration and now had a bubble under the collar because she added too much. I think that the pattern is just drafted wrong at this spot. I'll correct it by cutting down the pattern and skip this alteration.

After making these pattern alterations, I think I'm going to get a pretty good fitting cardigan. It's still going to have unsewn bust darts, but that's because of the dropped shoulder. I'm not sure there is a way to get rid of that without actually sewing in the darts, something I don't want to do on this simple pattern.

April is almost over and for the sew-along, I need to be done this month so I better get to work. For the PR mini-wardrobe contest, from taking a quick look at the contest gallery, it looks like I came in 4th place. I was hoping to do better, but thank you to all 50 people who did vote for my wardrobe. I know my style of dress isn't everyone's taste, but I think I look pretty good in my new wardrobe. I just can't seem to find the love for the vintage styles that are so popular right now. However, I do love to wear red lipstick now and then. That's about as vintage as I get.

My Mini-Wardrobe Is Done!

2011-03-31T08:43:00.001-07:00

I'm really excited that I got this finished in time to enter it into the patternreview.com contest. It's the first time I've actually finished a contest. I only had to change one garment from my storyboard, which is pretty amazing. It helps that I used all TNT patterns. I'm telling you, everyone needs to have a set of basic patterns already fitted in the pattern drawer. Then when you want to sew something in a hurry, all you have to do is cut and sew. Alterations are so tedious, but very necessary. At least for me they are.

Anyway, there are some fantastic wardrobes entries into the contest, so be sure to check them out. Also, don't forget to vote in the contest. If you like my wardrobe, you can vote for me!

The first of the two pair of pants I made were these pull-on slacks made with Burda 2569. I've made these pants half a dozen times and need to make more because I've worn them to death. This pair in a classic charcoal color is going to be a well worn pair of pants as well. They fit great and are super comfortable. I absolutely love RPL, rayon, polyester, lycra. It washes up perfectly wrinkle free and because of the poly, won't fade, but because of the rayon they have beautiful drape. The lycra gives it enough stretch so I can sit comfortably while they are cut close to my body. What's not to love?

These are my TNT jeans pattern that I've used about half a dozen times as well. Like I said, get a good fitting basic pattern and you'll never want to try a new pattern again. I'm disappointed with the way these fit. The last time I used the pattern, I had gained a lot of weight so I enlarged the pattern. Now I'm down in weight and took those alterations back out, but forgot that I was using a stretch denim. I had to take them in even further, but they are still too big. However, if I had taken them in any more, than I wouldn't have been able to put my hands into the pockets. All in all, they still do fit and I will wear them. Especially when I want to feel like I'm wearing my pajama pants. They are so comfortable!

Next up is NL6940. It such a cute top pattern, very trendy right now. My fabric choice works very well, the flower placement happened purely by accident but I like how it turned out. I got this poly/lycra jersey from Michael Levine's Loft in downtown Los Angeles. This is the store where all the fabric is $2/pound. You have to do some of what I call dumpster diving, but it's really cardboard boxes you have to dig your way through. Sometimes I even find a great piece of fabric, like this one for example. I bought enough so that I can also make a dress for the summer with even some left over for a skirt.

This last pattern is NL 6735. I spent some time in my last blog post on this top so I won't discuss it much here. I'm really loving the placement of the embellishments. The flowers make this plain charcoal t-shirt look like something special. I had to add a belt to finish the look. I think embellishments and accessories are going to be my theme song for this year. Did you notice that I managed to sneek in the animal print fabric from my reject garment? I cut a strip of the fabric, didn't even finish the edges, and turned it into a scarf. I've fallen in love with animal prints, lucky for me they are in fashion right now!

I almost forgot to mention the last piece of my wardrobe. The contest rules required you incorporate a garment already in your closet. While I haven't had this jacket long, I didn't think I had enough items to wear it with as it is made with a fancy woven poly jacquard fabric in a basic color. I couldn't decide if it was dressy or casual. Now that I have pieces to wear with it, I think it can be both. Because it's poly it is really warm, but since it's not lined, it's very lightweight. Great to take with me when I travel, it won't wrinkle either. I picked it up when Khol's was having a big sale--but when are they not? It's a size 1X and was too large so I had to take it in at the sides. I didn't take in too much because I wanted it to be a layering piece.

Up next will be a new wardrobe based on a dark navy pair of denim pants. I haven't decided what pattern to use. I think they will just be some pull-on skinny pants. I already have a TNT pattern for them, of course.

Mini-Wardrobe, Plan C

2011-03-26T19:09:00.001-07:00

Plan A turned out to be an epic failure. The lace is too stiff to drape well at the neckline and the stripes run the wrong way! Yes, I did that on purpose. It's the direction of the stretch on the fabric but I was hoping it wouldn't be noticeable. I know you had to read more once you saw the photo. You were hoping I wasn't ever going to actually wear this out of the house. Don't worry, I won't. But it left my my mini-wardrobe lacking one item.

Plan B was also an epic failure, which I have already discussed since I sewed it before I sewed the garment that was already planned for the wardrobe.

Plan C, DING-DING-DING, we have a winner! This top is the ever popular New Look 6735 that I sewed up in a gray rayon lycra knit. In the photo, I don't have the sleeve hem or the bottom hem sewn yet. I need to finish with the black thread in the serger on the jeans before I move it onto the coverstitch machine. What makes this a winner is the embellishments I added to it.

This is the most fun I've had in the sewing room in a long time. I did some major google searches on embellished t-shirts from RTW and then I googled different ways to make fabric flowers. I took a bit from several inspirations and then worked on placement until I found just the right look. I really love the look. It transforms a plain, but really nice t-shirt into a very expensive looking t-shirt.

I can't wait to get the jeans sewn up so I can do my photo shoot. I ordered some red shoes and some leopard designed shoes, both from Naturalizer, and think I can style these pieces to look fabulous. Now if I can only get the jeans sewn up, the reviews posted, and the photo composite complete before Thursday.

Two down, Two more to go

2011-03-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

I finished the gray slacks for my mini-wardrobe but didn't get them photographed. I really like them. So much, in fact that as soon as they were finished, I wore them out to dinner. Even before I could get them completely pressed! I also completed New Look 6940. It's a pattern I've made before and really like how it looks on me. I will need to wear a cami definitely under this one because the knit was a bit stretchier than the last one I made and it shows my bra.

As a back-up top for my mini-wardrobe, I made this Burda Style 2-2011-138 mock wrap tunic. The fabric is a poly knit burnout velvet. It's a bit dressier than I wanted but the color was right for my mini-wardrobe so I decided to use it on this pattern in case one of my tops didn't work out. I sewed it first because the fabric was so lovely and I wanted to see how the pattern would look on me. I'm very impulsive in the sewing room. Something went wrong because all I can see when I look into the mirror is this:

Besides the too dressy fabric, the pattern isn't flattering my body shape. Maybe some time in the magic wardrobe (closet) and it will grow on me, but for now I'm not going to wear it. I haven't even finished the hem yet because I'm not sure how long to make it. I think it also needs some shoulder pads. Oh, how I envy those of you with square shoulders. Round shoulders on a round short girl just adds to the oompa-loompa-ness of my body.

I need to get another top done and some new jeans before the end of the month. I will also have to do a photo shoot for the composit photo. I really want the prize for this contest, so wish me luck!

Still Sewing After All These Months

2011-03-19T18:12:00.000-07:00

I've joined a Pattern Review contest to make a mini wardrobe with 4 sewn items and one item from my closet. I also want to do the Spring 6-piece collection or 6PAC at Stitcher's Guild. I'm in need of new clothes for attending the Pattern Review meeting in Chicago and thought this would be the perfect time to really get my sewing grove back.

I have been doing some sewing, just not blogging. Here are a few things I've made in the last few months since my mother-in-law passed away. Amazing how something like that can really knock you off your feet.

This one is S2283 and I really like how it looks on me. You can't see all the great detail with the wild print I used, but you can read more about it in my review.

This top is my muslin of Burda 7-2007-124. It's a nice twist top that has a sort of shawl collar which helps it to be more modest than most Burda Magazine patterns. I think the sleeves are hitting me at an awkward location and will make them either shorter or longer next time I make this top. And there will be a next time!

This is a really cute tunic and it looks good on me, so I'm not sure why I haven't finished hemming it yet. I'll have to get that done while I'm on spring break this week as well. The pattern is B4856.

Sorry about the bad picture, I was trying to mess with the lighting so you could see the details of this really cute top. It's KS 3621. I am behind on writing my reviews for most of these tops but will get that done during my spring break as well.

I'm going to try not to neglect my blog anymore this year. Hopefully all will stay safe and healthy around here and I can go back to doing the things I love the most. Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think of my latest sewing saga. I miss you guys!

Happy Holidays to You

2010-12-22T09:57:00.000-08:00

I wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and I hope everyone has the best year ever in 2011. This year has been a struggle for so many people, myself included. But no more talk about that. There has been some good things happening here as well.

First, I've taught myself to crochet. I guess I should say I've relearned how to crochet. I haven't done it since I was living at home some 30 something years ago and had forgotten how much fun it is. It was easy to pick up using youtube videos and an ugly pink ball of yarn. Then I went to JoAnn's and bought The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet.

This pattern caught my eye, but it was marked for an intermediate skill level. It wasn't very difficult and I really enjoyed making it. Next I want to make a sweater for myself. But don't get me wrong, I haven't given up on garment sewing.

Over Thanksgiving weekend (and into the next week as well) I joined Ann Steeves PJ Sew-along. I never officially joined the sew-along, but I did make some pajamas. I was very glad to have a large sewing room stash because I didn't have to go out and purchase a single thing to make these pajamas.

The bottoms are a TNT pull-on pants pattern and the top is a SewKeysE pattern that I was using as a muslin. I don't like the top pattern but it works for pajamas. I also tried out a new Burda WOF Magazine pattern from July 2007. It's a plus sized pattern.

I think mine turned out pretty well. Be sure to click the pictures to get the full sized view. I am planning on making another with long sleeves for the winter. I really like how it isn't too low cut while still having a little twist. I'll be experimenting with new t-shirt patterns since I still can't find my TNT KS 2900 and the dozen or so variations I've drafted with it.

I promise not to stay away from my blog for so long again. Happy sewing.

Ten Things About Me

2010-09-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

Carolyn was nominated for the Beautiful Blogger award and even though she no longer believes in passing along blogger awards, she suggested to her readers that she would love to know 10 things about them that they haven't shared before. So Carolyn, here goes:

Ten things about me:

1. I know how to do Gregg shorthand and still use it sometimes. My first job out of high school was as a stenographer/secretary. I worked for the Los Angeles Planning Department in the Environmental Impact Report Section for the Director.

2. I didn't go to college right out of high school. I worked (see #1) and married my high school sweetheart. Then after the divorce I went to college and got a BS in Communications, Public Relations. My goal was to graduate before I turned 30 and made it by one month.

3. I used to play the accordion. I took lessons for two years and was really pretty good. My parents were going to give me either dance or music lessons. Unfortunately it was Milton Mann's Accordion Studio that came knocking on the door first. I lost interest at puberty, who wants a squeeze box on your newly developed breasts?

4. I'm addicted to Diet Pepsi. When I started Metabolism Miracle I quit cold turkey. For nine month I did without, but with the stress over my MIL, I'm back to a 3-4 can a day habit. My favorite used to be TAB until they changed the formula and added aspartame.

5. I love Mexican food. I could eat it everyday. Cheese enchiladas are a particular favorite of mine. It's hard to make the food too spicy for me. I like my salsa hot.

6. I'm a daddy's girl. I think my dad is the most wonderful person in the whole world. I think every girl should have that one person who makes them feel very loved and special.

7. I lived with my husband for over 10 years and dated for 2 years before that before we finally tied the knot. On August 15^th this year we celebrated our 13^th wedding anniversary. I think I love him more today than I did when we were younger. I love having a partner that respects me for being a strong, independent woman.

8. I can't sleep without my favorite pillow. It's an ancient down pillow that I hug and snuggle. Without it, I wake up sore and stiff. I took the pillow with me when I spent two weeks in Italy and when I went to New York City for a week and it goes anywhere I go if I won't be coming home at night. Luckily I can stuff it into any tiny little place in my suitcase and then it fluffs right back up once I unpack it.

9. I can type 90 words per minute. I used to type 120 words per minute but I don't type for 8 hours a day and haven't for a long, long time, so I've slowed down. I make more mistakes now because of my arthritis, but I try to be careful about my spelling and will always fix mistakes once I spot them.

10. I don't text. I don't know how to text. I don't want people to bother me with texts. I don't want to pay to get texting on my phone and I don't want a text keyboard on my phone. I want people to call me and actual engage in a conversation with me. I will, however, spend hours on Patternreview.com chatting with sewing friends in the chat room.

Just One More Machine

2010-09-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

Obviously I don't need any more sewing machines, but I just couldn't resist this one. It's a beautiful Morse 4400. Once I clean it up it's going to be drop dead gorgeous. I've already oiled it and cleaned it a bit and adjusted the tensions. It sews beautifully on all the stitches and it's really fast on full speed. I'm thinking even faster than my TOL Bernina 170 computerized machine.

Unfortunately, while doing some minor maintenance on the machine, I discovered this beauty had a BIG problem. This photo is of the cam gear that makes all the stitches. I didn't know it had any plastic nylon parts or I might have thought twice about buying it. At the moment, the crack isn't causing any problems with the decorator stitches, but once it goes into regular use, I'm afraid it will just crumble. I only spent $45 on it, but I sure would like to keep using it. It's so pretty and really fun to sew with when I feel the need for speed!

If you have any idea where I could find a replacement gear I would really appreciate hearing about it.

Fall Pants Small Pants

2010-09-18T00:53:00.000-07:00

After losing 30 pounds I got rid of all my clothes that no longer fit. That included just about all my pants. I did buy a few things for the summer, but it's almost time to start wearing long pants again. Unfortunately my weight loss has come to a stand still, luckily I haven't gained anything back either. In another two weeks I'll be joining a gym, but first I have to have an estate sale and get my MILs house rented. In all my free time (yea, right!) I've decided that I could squeeze in sewing pants for me.

Like a lot of my plus-sized sewing friends, I find that Burda has the best fitting pants with the short front crotch and the long back crotch. This pattern is from the Fall 2005 Burda Plus WOF. Because my time is rather limited, I decided to sew up a pair of pull-on pants. These are straight legged and the front seam can be eliminated. At least for the first trial pair for fitting purposes. With the darts in front (hidden in the seam) and in the back, they should be rather close fitting around my hips and waist.

In one of the fashion shots of these pants, the leg looks very wide. However, on an actual plus-sized person I think they won't look quite so wide. At least that's what I'm hoping will be the case.

In this fashion photo of the pants, the leg doesn't look bad at all. After measuring it looks like I can wear a size 24 (European petite size 48, not an American size 24) after I remove the excess hip/thigh. If I don't, they'll look like jodpurs instead of a nice pair of slacks. Burda size 24 equals a size 20 petite in American sizing. I don't plan to use a stretch fabric, so wish me luck on the fit. I hope to get them cut out sometime this weekend and then sewn next week.

A New Herd

2010-09-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

Summertime is my favorite because I get lots of time off to sew. Except this summer it was all about taking care of my mother-in-law. With very little sewing going on (I forgot to mention the 7 costume dresses I made for Steven's play but they don't count because it wasn't fun sewing), I started to go into withdrawl. I'm sure we've all experienced this some time or another. What I usually do is buy fabric when this happens. Well, I really don't need any fabric. I mean I REALLY don't need any more fabric! Besides, I didn't have time to go shopping and Bob was around much too much for package deliveries. So what's a girl to do?

I don't know if you noticed (how could you not?) but on Patternreview.com, there has been all sorts of noise about vintage machines. Of course I had to see what all the fuss was about. Now I'm hooked. You see it all started when I first saw someone, I think it was Donna Hodgson, post a picture of a Singer 500a Rocketeer on PR. It was love at first sight. Then I learned that they were from 1961! I had to have one for my birthday because you see, I'm from 1961 too, July 6, 1961 to be exact. (I missed blogging on my birthday because we were with my MIL.) When discussing this with a sewing friend, she decided to gift me a Singer 500a Rocketeer that needed some TLC. Yea! She sent it to me in time for the machine and my 49th birthday. She also included lots of accessories and goodies to go along with it. I immediately became discouraged because I couldn't get the brown stitch lever to budge, not one micro-meter. But while waiting to figure out how to fix it, I found another lovely Rocketeer 500a on Craigslist in the art deco cabinet for $125. All I had to do is drive a 4-hour round trip to pick it up. I don't think I would have gotten it except it had the cool cabinet and I had a morning to myself for the drive. I'm so glad I did go get it because it was working almost perfectly and clean as a whistle inside and out. It'll be my go-to machine when I want to use a Rocketeer.

During one of my stays with my MIL, I spent lots of time on the computer looking up information on vintage machines. This included browsing on Craigslist. I just about fell out of my chair when I found another Rocketeer 500a for $35 in a very nice vintage Copenhagen cabinet and they lived only two miles from my MIL. I drove down right away and paid the money and picked it up the next day. It's the machine I used to sew my niece's little outfit from my last post. It also came with lots of accessories and attachments. Now I own three Singer Rocketeer 500a machines. Aren't you jealous? I've got them all working perfectly now and plan to use them for my students when I either open a studio or start teaching again at the Parks and Recreation in a city closer to home. I really would like to find one more.

These next two machines are Japan made Super Delux Zigzag machines. The beautiful green one has a badge from Revere (the copper bottom pan company) and is dated from the late 1950's. The real surprise was that I found it in my own garage! I didn't even know it was there. Well, that's not true. It belonged to my husband's grandmother. For the last 14 years it has been sitting on the floor of my garage near the door where water came in. It sat in a puddle for the rainy season each year. I knew it was a bucket of rust and wasn't interested in it. Well, I went to throw it away to make room for my MILs things but decided to look at it first. It was a beautiful immaculate machine in a lovely shade of two-tone greens, and it didn't really need anything more than cleaning and a good oiling. Even the belt was in good working condition. I only replaced the bobbin tire and it needs some work on the pressure foot lever because it doesn't want to stay up. That's it, a machine I had all along, and it was free! It has a carrying box that needs to be recovered and it didn't come with any attachments, but it was free!

The pretty pink Japan made Kenmore machine from the late 1950's was another wonderful Craigslist find. I had been cleaning out my house anticipating having to bring some of my MILs things home. I had a lot of things to go to Goodwill so I decided to have a yard sale and I made $80. The pink machine was only a 25 minute drive and cost $50, less than I earned at my yard sale, and it came in the really cool Martha Washington cabinet. It came with lots of attachments too. It was sad when I brought it home because during the drive home the cabinet wire rubbed against the top and gave it a pretty bad scar but I think I can cover it up with some model paint. I just have to look for the light pink color at the hobby shop.

As if this wasn't enough machines, after my MIL has passed, I was given her Singer 221-1 featherweight machine. I've never really been a fan of these tiny machines, but this one means a lot to me because it was hers. It's the only machine she's ever sewn on and for that, I'll treasure it forever. It has the box with attachments and the card table. The table is in bad shape but the box looks pretty nice for its age and I know it was well used.

Last, but not least, is the Singer 66 Redeye treadle machine. I posted about this machine before, so I won't bore you with all the details. It's mine from my MIL's estate as well. So there you have it, how I went from owning one very loved Bernina 170 sewing machine to a herd of eight. I can't wait to start teaching classes so that my students can feel the power of a real sewing machine, not those plastic throw-away machines they are making nowadays and beginning students always seem to buy. Anyone want to come over and sew with me?

Summer Sewing

2010-09-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

At the end of the summer last year, one of my co-workers asked me if I would sew a bathing suit for her. Keep in mind I hate sewing for other people. I always feel such serious anxiety when I even think about sewing for others. However, I said yes. Since it was the end of summer and school had already started and she said she was in no hurry, I put it off. That is until June this year rolled around and school was out and she wanted to go swimming.

What she wanted me to do was make another suit like the one she had worn out. To do this I took apart her old suit and copied it exactly. I spent hours and hours on just the pattern and ripping apart the old suit. However, I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I think it looks as good as the old one, if not better.

I don't know why blogger wants to turn some of my pictures sideways but if you turn your head to the side you can see how good the bottoms turned out. The original had this same belt and belt straps. I used the original suit's D-rings for this suit. The only real problem I had was sewing those straps down to the suit. However, mine looks just as good as the ones did on the professionally sewn suit, so I was happy. Too bad you can't see them better in the photo.

I couldn't figure out how to put in the bra cups I bought for this suit, so I made a pattern from the old suit for this part as well and just sewed in the old bra cups. I think they look silly in this color but she said they don't show through so I'm not going to worry about. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I certainly charged her enough for it. :-)

I didn't sew anything else that month because at the end of June is when we found out that my Mother-in-Law was sick and she went into the hospital for treatment for chronic diarrhea and then again for chemo treatments for the leukemia. However at the end of July, while Bob and I were taking care of her between hospital stays, I left my husband alone with his mom and took my son and I on a week-long stay at my dad's timeshare condo in the mountains. After all, it had already been scheduled and our son deserved his summer too. We took one of his friends with us.

If you look closely in the photo, you can see lots of sewing stuff laying around. While my son and his friend had lots of fun running around in the woods and hanging out at the club house, my sister and I sewed. I made two dresses, one for myself and one for my niece. I can't find a picture of the dress I made for my niece, but it was McCall's 3672 in a pretty pink pin-whale corduroy.

I made this dress for me. (Sorry about the goofy smile) It's the cover dress from the 5/2008 issue of Ottobre Women's pattern magazine. The dress was designed to use a woven, but I made it from a poly/lycra knit I bought at Michael Levine's Loft for $2/pound. It's really a wild print and the details of the dress are completely lost in it. I cut out a size 48 and had to take it in at the sides and the center back for a more fitted look. With a FBA I could probably use the same size pattern with a woven. I wish I had used the same sleeve pattern they did on the cover. These are almost too short for me but are nice for the summer.

During my MIL's final days I had a lot of free time on my hands. I had been spending time on Craigslist searching to add to my recent sewing machine collection, more on that later, so I had a machine with me that I had just picked up. I also had some fabric in my car along with sewing supplies that I carried for my beginning sewing classes that I teach. I whipped this dress up for my niece. It's the same dress pattern as the pink corduroy one except that I cut it shorter and added a ruffle at the neck edge and hemline. To do the ruffle, I used the ruffler that came with the CL machine.

I'm very happy with the way the ruffles turned out using the ruffler. If you have one that will fit your machine, you should try it. I don't think I'll ever go back to using the thread pulling method again.

The pants pattern was found a thrift store, another thing I did to keep myself busy while staying at my MILs house. Don't worry, I didn't leave her alone. By that time we had hired 24-hour caregivers so that we could sleep and my husband could go back to work. I was off for the summer and my dad was staying with our son.

As always, you can click on the pictures to see them full size to get all the pretty details. It's time to sew me some fall clothes. Since losing weight, I don't have any pants that will be appropriate for the cooler weather. Watch for pants muslins coming soon.

Rest In Peace

2010-09-09T09:34:00.000-07:00

On August 22 my mother-in-law passed away. Having already watched the dying process in my own dear mother didn't make seeing this once strong and vibrant woman disappear little by little any easier. I am so grateful for having known her. I feel so lucky to have spent so much time with her at the end and she kept her enthusiasm for life right through to the end while not fighting the dying process. Our family seems so much smaller now that she's gone. She has certainly left a hole in our hearts that will take time to heal.

Thank you everyone for your loving posts. It's very comforting to know that so many of you were keeping us in your hearts and your prayers. With everything that has happened to our family, we have realized how precious life is. We all hold each other a bit tighter and enjoy the moments we have together even more. We really see that in the end, it's not what possessions you have or how much money you have, it's how much you love and are loved. Please take the time to let those important in your life know that you love them.

My Sorrowful Summer

2010-08-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

A few of you probably have noticed that I dropped off from my blog and other sewing places that I hang out. I've been having a very sad summer because my mother-in-law has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. She will not be with us for very much longer, I'm afraid.

Arlene has been part of my life for over 25 years and I'm heartbroken to see her failing in health so fast. This picture was taken when we visited the Grand Canyon last October. My husband, son, and I are her only family so I've been busy with her care. I'm so grateful for summer break so I have had time to take care of her.

I go back to work tomorrow so we've had to hire 24 hour care for her, but I'm trying to visit her all I can. She lives over an hours drive from my home. Arlene is a remarkable woman, especially considering she is 77 years old. After high school she went on to earn a Bachelor's degree from University of Washington in Drama. Then, after raising my husband and then divorcing his father, she went on to get a Master's degree in English Literature and another Master's degree in Archaeology. For 20 years she served as a United States Forest Archaeologist working to find Indian Villages and at times in charge of field crews. I remember many stories she tells of spending 3-4 days in the middle of the forest, sleeping in a tent all by herself and living like this week after week doing her job, summer, winter, spring, and Fall. She was very good at it and is still a respected name in her field. She has authored a book, The Noontide Sun, and has published many professional papers presented to the American Rock Art Research Association.

I can't think of many women from her generation that I respect more. Please put our family in your thoughts and prayers as we go through this difficult time.

Mood

2010-06-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Stephanie and I visited the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising museum in Downtown Los Angeles today. They were showing Disney's Alice in Wonderland design exhibition. Several people came in costume as they were holding a competition. It was fun to see how people off the street interpreted the movie's costumes. There were some really great costumes and some not so great. Inside the museum they had a display of student's interpretations of the Alice in Wonderland theme. Unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos, but one student made the most wonderful dress for the Queen of Hearts. It was stunning. They also had many costumes from the movie on display.

After visiting the museum and having a lovely lunch at Marie Callendars, we were off to visit Mood. I still haven't forgotten that I'm supposed to be on a fabric fast, so I only got one piece of fabric. It's been a long time since I've been to Mood, so I thought I'd treat myself with this piece of cotton/lycra jersey. I thought it'd make a nice t-shirt for the summer. Mood is much more pricey than shopping downtown, but I make myself feel better by telling myself that the fabric is from Italy.

One thing you might not know is that Mood Los Angeles has a store dog like the New York store does. He is a little chihuahua named Oscar. Too bad they didn't name him anything cute like Swatch, which is the name of the dog that lives in the New York store. The chihuahua was so tiny my cat could have eaten it for lunch.

On another note, yesterday I celebrated my 100th blog friend. I just wanted to thank everyone of you who visit my blog. I'm thrilled that some of you make my Sewing Saga a regular stop during your day. I have lots of exciting things I want to start creating. Sewing for myself will be included, but I want to get more creative in what I sew, so stay tuned!

New Projects

2010-06-10T07:54:00.001-07:00

I think I mentioned in a previous post that I will be making seven dresses for my son's play, The Wizard of Oz. The performances are late July so it's time I get started making the dresses. I'm on a world-wide hunt for the trim. If I have to, I'll replace the trim on the dresses I don't have to make so that they all match. My dear friends, if you've seen anything with sequins and in rainbow colors, please let me know. I've found a few leads on patternreview.com, but won't know until next week if they are going to pan out.

It would work out better if I could find it in yardage so that I can cut it into any shape. I'm willing to purchase large quantities since I need to put it on seven or more dresses and the production group would like to have some stockpiled for future performances since new dresses may need to be made if the current dresses, including the ones I'm making now don't fit the actors for future performances.

I also have to make a bathing suit for a friend who asked me at the end of last summer to clone her favorite suit. That won't take me very long I hope. I already have all the materials I need. Another project will be to make a pillow for another friend who gave me the fabric much more than a year ago. You see, I hate home dec and I hate to sew for other people. However since I'm not wanting to sew for myself right now, completing these projects will keep me sewing and get them off my plate and out of my sewing room.

I haven't started my summer exercise routine yet. After I clean my house, today is probably going to be the day. My weight loss has been stalled for about a month. I'm back down to the weight I was at when my son was born and at that time I stayed there for over 5 years. I guess set points are real and I'm stuck at one. I really think exercise is what it's going to take to get past it. The diet I'm on requires exercise and my age requires exercise. I guess I better get started exercising, you think?

I'm not OCD-Really!

2010-06-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

I couldn't let go of the idea that my new purse needed that big floppy pocket divided into a pen and sun glasses pocket. I must have been serious because I had to remove my hand sewn stitches in the lining bottom to open the bag back up. I don't take sewing by hand lightly and avoid it at all cost when I can. Then I had a devil of a time getting the purse back under the pressure foot to sew these lines. I couldn't put it in the machine to sew from front to back so I had to use free motion sewing and sew the lines sideways on my machine. I was very careful about it sewing one stitch at a time and it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Sweet Harmony Handbag

2010-06-07T08:07:00.000-07:00

This is the newest Amy Butler handbag pattern called Sweet Harmony. It comes in both the handbag and tote sizes and I decided to make the handbag. I've had the fabric in my stash for only 2 or 3 years and I bought the pattern last December. While cleaning out my sewing room yet again, I ran across the fabric and decided that this bag would be my next project. Unfortunately, the pictures do not show just how beautiful this bag is. The fabric has a gold line around the flowers and the print has a jacquard stripe that adds texture to the purse.

I only had one yard of each of these two fabrics and the pattern called for 1-3/8 for the body and 1-1/8 for the lining. I had plenty with my 54" home decorator fabrics. In fact, I had enough to fussy cut each piece of the body. I placed one side pocket so that it would feature one of the roses. Because both sides of the purse are alike I decided to make them different by using the lining for the body behind one of the pockets. That way I could tell which pocket I put things in. I hate searching for things in every pocket until I find it.

For the other side of the purse I matched the print on the pocket with the body of the bag. I think it turned out great and matches perfectly. I was tempted to do some free motion quilting around the roses but decided that it wouldn't add much to the look and might even detract from the beautiful print, making it look more quilted wearable art than a designer handbag.

I really liked the design and placement of the cell phone pocket. This is the side where I'll keep my keys and the phone. That way I won't have to search for them in every pocket the way I do now. I wish I had added this type of pocket for my sunglasses as well. I'll be sure to make that addition the next time I make it. And there will definitely be a next time. I like purses like some women like shoes. It drives my son crazy because when I tell him to get something from my purse, he can't ever find it since he can't keep up with which one I'm currently carrying.

The inside pockets that the pattern called for weren't so great. The pattern had you install a zipper on top of a panel which would have been bulky and much too big. I made the pocket and omitted the zipper, which is one option the designer provided. I wish I had sewn a dividing line down the middle of this pocket because it flops open inside the bag. It's just too big and should be divided. I think putting two dividing lines would be nice allowing space between the lines for a couple of pens would have been cool. It's too late to add that now, however.

For my zippered pocket, I decided to do my own thing and made a window for the zipper and added a pocket bag behind the zipper. That way my things are inside the lining and out of the way inside the pocket. This is where I keep my lipstick and advil and other small things I don't want to lose on the bottom of the bag.

The inside of the bag is roomy and will certainly fit all I need to carry. You can see in this photo that I've changed the handles from the strange one that the designer created. I like the two handles that allow me to fully open the bag instead of the way the original handle is one that is bifurcated near the bag to allow it to open.

While this wasn't a quick and easy project, I'm quite satisfied with the way it turned out. I had many issues with the pattern instructions and decided to just stop using them and made the bag the way I thought it should be done. I don't know if Amy Butler is this way with her other patterns, but she is overly wordy which makes for a lot of confusion and head scratching. I was getting very frustrated until I stopped reading them and just sewed it my own way. The pattern, however, makes one terrific handbag.

Love My T-shirt Pattern

2010-05-26T13:51:00.001-07:00

I went shopping for fabric in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday and this fabric followed me home. It's a poly/lycra jersey that I found at Michael Levine's loft for $2 a pound. I'm pretty sure this dress weighs less than 2 pounds so I got it for next to nothing. There was plenty of this fabric left over after cutting out the dress. I'm thinking it would make a cute skirt as well. I bought several other pieces at the loft too so expect to see more t-shirts very soon.

The pattern is my TNT t-shirt pattern KS 2900 which I altered to add a round sort of yoke and gathers. I made it up in a muslin, but never got around to making a t-shirt from it. Stephanie and I were discussing t-shirt dresses on our way home from downtown which inspired this dress. Sunday I altered the pattern by lengthening it 18 inches. Next time I'll only add 16" because I had to hem it up 3 inches which meant I cut 2" off the 1" hem. I also had to remove four inches from the side seams at bust level and 8 inches at the hips to make the pattern fit me. Pretty soon, I may have to find a new TNT t-shirt pattern. That will be a very sad day for me, and yet, quite exciting as well.

The dress looks so cute with these earrings. I've had them for a very long time but none of my clothes went with them, so I don't think I'd ever worn them before. The colors match the dress perfectly.

If I ever wanted to get lost in the jungle, this would be the dress to wear. It's a great camouflage. My son said I shouldn't wear it grocery shopping because I look too nice, however, it feels like I'm wearing my nightie. I plan to make lots more t-shirt dresses for my summer wardrobe. I think they are the perfect clothes to wear for losing weight in the summer. The pants I bought a couple of months ago are all getting too loose so I don't think I'll get anymore pants for awhile and pants patterns are too hard to fit, especially since I'd have to do it all over again in just a few months once I lose even more weight.

I'm not sure I ever posted this top once I got it finished. I still need to write the review, but I love how it turned out. It's NL 6940 and it was too tight when I made it in early March, but it fits me perfectly now.

Fusion

2010-05-16T18:52:00.001-07:00

A week ago Friday I was rear-ended on the freeway. Luckily no one was hurt, except the cars. My '05 Pontiac Grand Am was totaled. At first I was upset since I only had a year and a half left to pay on it. However, now that I have my dream car, I'm not so sad anymore. I never did really like the Grand Am. It was a compromise when I had a choice to either buy a used car and go to Italy or buy a new Ford Fusion.

This car is a 2010 Ford Fusion SE but it has over 20,000 miles on it so I bought it for a steal. I love my new car! Already today, I was stopped in the parking lot by a man who wanted to ask me about my lovely car. He wanted one as well. After all, it was voted Car of the Year by Motor Trend.

Besides dealing with the insurance company, rental agency, and shopping to buy another car, I did have a chance to pick out some fabrics for some summer sewing. Last summer I made a mini SWAP in red and black. None of those pieces fit any longer so I've decided to make another red and black wardrobe. From left to right: Top row - Black RPL for pull-on pants, white jaquard stretch twill for white skirt, b/w animal print poly mesh for top, Red cotton knit w/black trim for top, Bottom row - gray RPL for pull-on pants, black/gray herringbone for jeans, red/black poly lycra knit for dress, and white dotted swiss for blouse. I have some red capris and some black burmuda shorts that will go great with this wardrobe. I understand that black/white is big this summer and I've added a splash of red since it's a color I look good in.

Besides making this wardrobe, I have seven dresses to make for my son's acting troup which will performing The Wizard of Oz late in July. I'm making the dresses for the rainbow dancers.

I'll be making the one with the full skirt and I need to add a short puffed sleeve with a cuff. They will all be in rainbow shades of poly satin with sequin trim at the waist and sleeve cuff. I also have to add a satin ruffle at the neckline, which with this pattern, will be easy to do. Wish me luck with the fitting. Luckily they are only costumes and don't have to look perfect. But you all know, I'll probably make them look much better than I have time for and the fit will drive me crazy!

A Motherless Day

2010-05-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

I've been motherless for the last four years and Mother's Day is probably the day that I miss my mother the most. Growing up we weren't close. We were never friends. In fact, from as far back as I can remember through my early 20's, if you'd asked, I would have said I hated her. And I would have meant it. It took a few years of counseling and a divorce (on my part) to understand her. To see her life through her eyes. She grew up with a mother that was mean and a dad that was not home as he was usually out on the farm. Also, she spent most of her life either depressed, in pain, or both. She lived with pelvic pain the same way I did. She went through many surgeries to fix her health issues, but she was always in pain. To say she was cranky would have been an understatement. She was mean too. I was afraid of her, as were my sisters and my brother. In my late 20's and early 30's, she became a non-issue for me. I ignored her for the most part, except at family gatherings where I was friendly, but we weren't friends. About 10 years before she died, my dad spend a couple of weeks in the hospital suffering from serious heart problems. Mom stayed with me and for the first time, she was able to show a kinder, softer side. She was afraid and worried about my dad and yet, was pleasant to be around. It was probably the first time in my life I'd ever seen her vulnerable. Then, when my son was a pre-schooler and I was recovering from gall bladder removal surgery, we started becoming friends. She came and stayed with me for a week to help me out. At that time I think I was still trying to figure her out. However, it was not until she was in her 60s that we became close. Not close like best friends, but where I wanted to call her and see how she was doing. Just close enough to where I looked forward to her visits. Three years before she died at the age of 71, I had the privilege of having her and my dad stay with me for nearly 2 weeks while wildfires ravaged the mountaintops where they lived. They had no idea if they would have a home to go to or not. That time is when we really became friends. I think it was the strength she showed when I would have just worried and been afraid for what I was losing. She was grateful for everything that she still had. With her courage, she gained my respect. I am so grateful that we were able to be friends before cancer took her life. So on Mother's Day, while I will be motherless for the rest of my life, I'm grateful that I had my mother in my life and that I was finally able to love her.

Pattern Drafting Again

2010-05-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I've done any pattern drafting to my TNT pattern KS2900. I posted a couple of weeks ago about all the new tops I wanted to make with it this spring and summer. So of course, I didn't start with any of the wonderful inspiration pictures I showed you.

When shopping for the latest Burda Style magazine and not finding the May issue out yet, I decided to go look at the sewing books. They never have a very good selection but I always check anyway. This time I found a new book that looked interesting. Design-It-Yourself, Simplified Patternmaking by Cal Patch is a gem of a book if you're looking to dabble in patternmaking without taking a college level course or having to wade through Helen Armstrong's Patternmaking for Fashion Design.

This project caught my eye and since I had a $10 gift certificate in my wallet, I decided to splurge and get the book. The line drawings took the guess work out of what cut lines I needed to make on my TNT pattern.

After tracing out KS 2900 and making some fit alterations to my pattern to accommodate for my weight loss, I used the diagram from the book to draft a new pattern. I chose to only add one of the side bust cuts and I added 5/8 inch at each place. I wasn't looking for a flowy maternity-type blouse. I only wanted to add a design feature.

I'm very happy with the way my muslin turned out except for the gaping at the insert neckline. I'm not sure why it's doing that except that maybe I didn't have it on the fold correctly, but instead tilted away from the fold at the neckline. When I make my real garment, I may just tilt the pattern piece over the fold at the neckline in order to eliminate the gaping.

I want to add a disclaimer that I did NOT read the book yet, I just used the pictures to make my new pattern since I know quite well how to draft patterns. You can read the reviews at Amazon and decide if you want to own this book, but even though I haven't read the book yet, I'm glad I got it. Amazon has a good price for it too.

My New Skirt

2010-04-25T13:20:00.001-07:00

I should have had this skirt finished earlier in the week. After all, the muslin only took me about 10 minutes to sew. I tried every day this week to get this skirt done. I got the back seams done during my intermediate sewing class on Tuesday while the students were cutting out their patterns. I finally took the time to sit down yesterday and got most of it done, and I finished it this morning.

I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. The fit with the lycra fabric is perfect. If I were going to nitpick about the fit, it would be that I need to remove another 1/4" from the back as it's got just a tad bit too much length under the waistband. But like I said, that's nitpicking and with an untucked top, no one would notice.

I'm very happy about the length. I would have looked ridiculous in the micro-mini length that was drafted, but with my additional 6 inches, it's perfect for a middle aged overweight mom. It looks good with low heeled sandals and with my platform sandals, which is how I'd probably wear it to work.

I love the details in this skirt pattern. The pocket is a nice touch and my fly zipper turned out great. It's the first one I've done without first reviewing Debbie's tutorial. I decided not to use a straight waistband, which I said I was going to use after trying on the muslin. Instead I altered the front band so that it had very little curve while I left the back waistband unaltered. You can see in the pic that it's pulling just a tiny bit, but it's much better than the muslin. Again, that's just nitpicking.

I searched my stash and then went JoAnn's and couldn't find a button that matched to use on the skirt. I just used a white button and painted it with a blue permanent marker. It'll be interesting to see how this does in the wash.

In order to make this skirt adjustable for weight loss, I sewed it a bit differently from the pattern instructions. (At least I think they're different as I didn't really read the directions.) I made the back, added the waistband, then the facing. I made the front piece the same way, with the waist band and facing attached. Then I sewed the front and back together all the way through the waistband and facing.

This way, all I have to do is remove the stitching that holds the facing down, press the seam closed and then take in the side seams. No fussing with the waistband at all. The only problem with this method is that I eliminated the staystitching, which means that the facing wants to turn out and show at the top of the waistband. That wouldn't have been a problem if my facing had matched but I was trying to use up some old quilt fabric scraps. The best part is that you can't even tell I didn't sew the waistband as one piece and I'll be able to wear the skirt for a longer time through my weight loss.

I did make the belt loops but decided to leave them off for now. If the skirt becomes too baggy after I've altered it once, then I will apply them so that I can use a belt to hold the skirt up if I still feel like wearing it. It's just one of the trick used for sewing for weight loss.

While I'm usually not a tuck-in kind of girl, I'm thinking this skirt looks OK on me with the top tucked in. I didn't pull it out for any of the pictures because, well, I was trying to show you the skirt. What do you think, tucked or untucked?

Tilted Waist Alteration

2010-04-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday there were a couple of comments asking about how I make a tilted waistline alteration. I do it differently depending on whether there are pockets or not. If not, I can just cut down the front and then add to the top of the back. However, when there are pockets involved, things get a bit more complicated.

When I do a tilted waist alteration, I always leave the side length alone and lower the center front and raise the center back. Since this pattern had pockets to deal with along with princess seams, I decided to take a wedge from the front side pattern piece. I cut from the princess seam to, but not through, the side seam stitching line along the lengthen/shorten line. Then I clipped from the side seam to but not through my first cut. This left a hinge where I could overlap a full inch, but leave the side seam length the same. After taking out the wedge, the pattern piece became decidedly crooked. I had to true up the sides of the pattern piece by taking a ruler from the straightest two points and drawing a line. I did this on both the princess seam and the side seam. The white pattern piece above is what it looked like after truing.

I then needed to shorten the center front pattern piece the inch, but instead of taking out a wedge, I just took out a full inch across the whole pattern piece. You won't see that on my pattern piece however. Since the pattern piece is parallel down the length, I just removed the inch from the hem.

Please click on the photos to see them closer up. After making the new side front pattern piece, I needed to adjust the pocket pattern. It became skewed so that I had to add to the center seam and adjust the grainline. You can also see that it changed the height of the pattern piece at the side seam so that it didn't match the back piece. In the picture you see my side seam alteration for my thicker waist on the pocket piece and the side back piece.

To add to the back I just taped more tissue to the top waist and drew in my shape. I know my shape because it's the shape that happens to my elastic waist pants when I tie my elastic around my waist and I pull them up and down until they hang properly. The inch and a quarter was a guess and as you can see in my muslin from my last post, it was too much.

I finally decided on what fabric to use for the skirt. The blue floral is a stretch twill and I only had a small amount. Luckily it was just enough to cut out this skirt. I had the blue cotton knit in my stash and I think it matches really well. My husband thinks it's too much blue, but I think that a monochromatic color combination may make me look thinner. At least I hope so. I also want to make a white top to go with the skirt.

Weekend Sewing

2010-04-18T22:04:00.000-07:00

I haven't quite finished the purple blouse. I haven't started the skirt yet either. I know I need to get them finished before they are too big for me, but I'm just not feeling the love for the blouse so the skirt isn't feeling right either.

However, I need clothes to wear. I went through all my clothes on Saturday and pulled out two kitchen size trash bags worth of clothes to give to my nephew's wife. There are a few things that are going to Goodwill, and my t-shirt remakes all went into a box. I kept them for my trunk show that I present when I teach my Designer T-shirt class.

Instead of completing my purple outfit, I decided to make a denim type skirt. Since McCall's patterns were on sale for 99 cents this weekend, I picked up McCall's 5429. I checked out the reviews on patternreview.com and decided to make the short skirt, just lengthen it 6" because a micro mini isn't a good look on me, even though I do have nice looking legs. You can't tell from the drawing, but it's an a-line skirt. I like the seams and pockets very much. It has the fly zipper which is a must for a denim-type skirt.

I spent most of the morning making my alterations to the pattern. I added the length which was 6" plus 1" for a hem, I gave it a tilted waistline and I altered the waistband and skirt for my thick waist. I used the largest size, which is size 20. The pattern hip measurement was exactly my hip measurements for this size.

Most of my alterations were perfect. I know the skirt looks quite tight on me, and it is. You can see my not quite as big as before round belly outlined in the photo. However, I plan to sew it up in a stretch twill which will give me the ease I need. Muslin doesn't have any stretch at all. I have to say I'm pretty happy with the fit for the most part. I didn't put the pockets on the muslin since they wouldn't make a difference to the fit.

For the muslin I cut the center back on fold, but when I sew up the garment, I'll put in that seam. It looks like I probably added too much at the center back and will reduce this by 1/2" before I make the final garment.

I'm very pleased at how I got it to hang evenly at the hem and still fit my tilted waistline. I wonder if this tilt will go away when my big round belly goes away? Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

If you're not already taking pictures of your garments to check out fit, you really ought to. I didn't see that the waistband was pulling toward center front until I studied the photo. I really shouldn't use a shaped waistband. They never fit right. The circumference is perfect, so I think it's just the shape of the curve that's causing all the pulling. I've decided to use a straight waistband for this skirt.

So, if I don't work tomorrow, I'll have a new skirt and hopefully a new t-shirt to go with it. Too bad it's supposed to rain on Tuesday or I'd have a new outfit to wear to teach class in. The students should be finishing their tote bag and will start on the apron. I'll try to remember my camera so I can show you their very first projects.

Pretty In Purple

2010-04-11T16:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not so pretty today, which explains why I have no head. I'm going quite slow on this top and will probably not finish it today because I have work to do for my beginning sewing students and I'm not feeling well today.

When I first made this shirt in the black w/white dots, I added a FBA that was probably too large. Now that I've lost more weight, I removed most of the FBA and all of the excess added under the bust. Still, I had to take in the sides by 3/4", that's a total of 3" to make it fit better. However, now it fits weird in other places, like the neckline and under the bust. Maybe it fit like that in my first version of this blouse, but that fabric was much softer than this stretch cotton shirting.

There is also too much fabric going over the bum which I should have removed at the princess seam instead of taking it all from the side seam. The shoulders are too long and I should have noticed that they needed to be reduced before I sewed in the sleeve and serged the seams together. Oh well, since I don't expect to wear this one for very long, I'll keep it as is.

If you were wondering where I got the new short sleeves from, they are the short sleeves from Sandra Betzina's weird blouse V1017. Sorry, but the pattern is now OOP. I really liked them on her pattern envelope and think they are perfect with all that puff for this blouse. I still have to sew buttons and buttonholes and hem it. I'm thinking that it needs to be shorter by maybe 2 inches. What do you think?

I hope everyone has a great week.

Health Update

2010-04-05T18:56:00.001-07:00

I just got back from the Gynecologist's office and the pathology report showed all normal cells. Everything is fine and I'm definitely in menopause. The polyps were removed and I don't have any ovarian cysts. I shouldn't experience any more problems and I won't need a hysterectomy. I lost 6 pounds since March 21st.

I don't think I've ever left the Gyn office feeling like I was walking on air before. It was just good news on top of good news. Yea! I just want to thank everyone for their good thoughts and prayers. Prayer works.

It's No Garden Party

2010-04-03T14:00:00.000-07:00

It's a sack. At least that's how the Indygo Junction Garden Party Pullover looks on me. The description says it's a mid-hip pullover with raglan, cap sleeves that are easy to sew and comfortable to wear. The inset can be adjusted up or down depending on desired coverage. Gentle gathers above the bust add an easy fit and empire seaming in the back is slimming.

They are right, it was easy to sew and is comfortable to wear. But so would a bag. I have to admit that since this fit over my body and especially my bust, before I lost weight I might have be tempted to be happy with the fit of this blouse. I think what appealed to me about this blouse was the pretty fabrics on the front of the envelope. In muslin, it doesn't look good at all.

Does that empire seam look slimming to you? I think all those seams in the back break it up and add inches. However, I did use the seam to take my swayback adjustment and it looks to be successful. The raglan sleeve seam, which is hard to see in the picture, might be a good place to make my sloping shoulder adjustment if I were inclined to actually make this garment. Which I'm not.

So, while I've wasted a day of tracing and cutting/sewing my muslin, I'm am not going to waste any more time and fabric on this pattern. I have already decided what my next project is going to be.

I'm going to make a skirt and blouse from these fabrics. The purple will be a skirt using S2609 and the blouse will be my Kenneth King Clone top I made from a RTW blouse. I think the two patterns will look good together.

Unfortunately I haven't made the skirt before, but I think I'm going to just measure and plow forward with my purple silk noil and anti-static lining. The blouse fabric is a stretch cotton shirting. I'm definitely going to make the sleeves shorter on the blouse as it will be for a spring outfit. I love the idea of an elastic waist skirt because it should last longer during my weight loss. All my pants are getting so baggy in the butt that I'm embarrassed to wear them. I've gone from size 20 to 18 and now I'm wearing 16s that are baggy in the butt.

I want to thank everyone for their encouraging words regarding my weight loss. I couldn't be more happy with myself. I know I didn't gain it over night and it will take over a year to come off, but I've never felt so empowered to actually make my goal. Sondra, your comment on my last post really spoke to me. My husband doesn't read my blog and doesn't know how much I weigh either. He's 6'2" tall and just this week I've lost enough to weigh the exact same as he does. If I were to dwell on that, I might not have the courage to move forward. My next goal is to weigh less than my son who is at 165 pounds.

Happy Easter to you all. I hope you have a great weekend.

Fitting Butterick 5300

2010-04-01T13:28:00.000-07:00

Last June I worked on fitting Connie Crawford's blouse pattern, B5300. This pattern comes in regular and plus sizes and I made up a muslin in Woman's 1X and one in the Misses XL with only adding 5/8" to the seam allowance. You can read about it and see the pictures of each muslin here.

According to my blog entry, I altered the misses XL pattern giving myself a ton more ease but I never did make another muslin. Now I wish I hadn't made the alterations either.

This is a comparison picture of me in the XL muslin in June 09 and of me wearing the same muslin today. I don't need any more ease added. In fact, a dart is trying to form under my bust and I'll need to rotate it into the side dart to make it hang properly. Since this is a pattern that I didn't trace but took my scissors directly to the pattern, I may have to re-buy the pattern. It's possible that I bought it twice but I'll have to go on a hunt through my hundreds of patterns to know for sure.

I think it fits pretty darn good right now with only the 5/8" added to the side seam. It still needs a tiny amount of ease in the bust but I think it'll be fine if I lose 3-5 more pounds. This is the first eating plan that I've ever been on where my bust didn't shrink fast and dramatically. My belly and hips are what I'm losing this time around. If I can keep my bust and lose only my belly and hips, then I am calling this plan a miracle.

I've been busy cleaning up my sewing room today so that I can then search for the pattern. I hope to get the blouse cut out and started later today or tomorrow. Next week the beginning sewing classes begin that my partner Stephanie and I will be co-teaching. I'm going to be so busy I won't know if I'm coming or going and personal sewing time will become extremely limited.

Designing Designer T-shirts

2010-03-30T10:22:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I taught a pants fitting class for a quilt store. The owner sponsored an ASG class I taught called Ready-to-Wear knock-offs and invited me back to teach the pants fitting class. It was a fun class for me to teach because I think a few of the students might actually try to sew themselves a pair of pants. After the class a couple of the students asked me how much I would charge to do the fitting alterations for them. Since my goal is to teach, I declined.

I was again invited back to teach my t-shirt knock-off class. This time I'm going to call it Designing Designer T-Shirts. Since I didn't get called in to work today, I've spent much too much time on the computer looking at RTW t-shirts. There are so many variations of the t-shirt to be bought and every time I find something cute, I copy it to my hard drive so I have quite a collection of ideas. Here are a few that I'm thinking about trying:

This first one is simply an overlay with cut-outs. It would be very simple to do if you had the right template for the cut-outs.

I think I could probably do something similar using this template. I could eliminate the stem for a couple of the flowers and enlarge and decrease the size of the flower as well. It's a good place to start anyway.

Another simple element that could be added to a t-shirt neckline would be to add some embellishments like this bead and soutache trim. I could use the pattern as is except to change the shape of the neckline.

This pretty flower applique would be very simple to do. It appears to be oval shapes that are gathered in the center and applied in bunches. Simple but would take a plain t-shirt into the spectacular range. I even have a cross-over t-shirt already drafted.

This simple t-shirt is quite lovely with the lace at the neckline. I think this one will be the first one I do because I already have the fabric and lace picked out in a spring orange color and a skirt that I could wear it with. It will require a redraft of the neckline and shoulder area, but it wouldn't be hard to do.

This top is a button down blouse, but I think the yoke with gathers and the tie/binding would look good on a t-shirt as well. The redraft would be quite easy to do and I think the gathers would flatter my bustline. It's a bit like the HP Metropolitan Tie Me Down Top in shape which I really liked, but hated to do the shirring. This would give me the shape I want without having to sew the elastic. Win-win!

This pleated top would take more redesign that the others, but it wouldn't be hard to do. Just seam lines added and pattern pieces spread for the pleats. The neckline shape would need to be altered as well. Don't you think a very short pleat puffed sleeve would look darling with the bodice pleats?

I can't say how many of these I'll get done before the class, which is scheduled for June 12th. The class will be held at Patchwork Penguin in Tujunga at 10:00 am. It's a cute store and if you are anywhere near the area, you should stop in to visit.

Broke my Fast

2010-03-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

You knew I was going to do it, didn't you? Frankly, so did I. I mean, how am I supposed to visit the Los Angeles garment district and not come home with great fabric. OK, so I've been know to do it, but it's been almost 4 months since I've bought fabric. I was weak. But you've got to see what I found!

This fabric was discovered amongst the cotton voile. It's such a pretty spring fabric that would make an adorable top. Doesn't the fabric look like a garden party? I bought 4 yards just because I couldn't decide between a blouse and a summer dress.

I'm thinking that this Indygo Junction pattern called Garden Party Pullover will look lovely in my new fabric. I even already own the pattern. At first I was sad that the fabric contained some poly along with the cotton. That was until they told me that it was $2 yard. It was purchased at Michael Levine's and I got to use my ASG discount for even more savings.

This lovely fabric, also from Michael Levine's, is a cotton/lycra twill and unfortunately they only had 1-1/2 yards left. I imagine it sold out quickly after being marked down from $10 to $5. I got all of it thinking I could get at least a skirt for the summer out of it. I have a couple of skirt patterns that I can alter or if I work it just right, maybe it could become a summer shift dress if I lose enough weight to look good in such a thing.

The third fabric I bought from Michael Levine's was a poly/lycra jersey with a very large pattern that is repeated all over. The color is a bit off and is more olive and brown than the strange green that is showing up on my monitor. I got 3 yards since it was only $2/yd and I thought I might need extra to work with the large motif. Any ideas? Maybe the Jalie Sweetheart top pattern? Debbie Cook used a motif fabric for the top and it turned out beautifully.

This sweet trim was found at Buttons and Trims for $2/yd and is decorated with sequins and beads. I thought it would look good at the hem of a blouse so I got 2 yards.

I had a great time shopping with my friend and co-worker, Cathy. She went to school for fashion design at LA Trade Tech and was a pattern grader for a few years but hadn't been downtown in almost 30 years. We really enjoyed the FIDM museum exhibit: Hollywood 2010, The Art of Motion Picture Costume Design which featured over 100 costumes from more than two dozen of last year's movies such as Julie & Julia, Star Trek, An Education, and The Young Victoria. We also got to see the fashions from The Duchess, the 2009 Academy Award winner for Best Costume Design. My favorite was the costumes done for Where the Wild Things Are. Even though the movie was made with computer animation, they still had to do full size models to be digitized in 3-D. Amazing!

I wanted to tell everyone who heard me say that Kash-Cool had disappeared that it is not gone, just different. They've changed the name to L.A. Alex's and have moved the cash register from the left of the door to the right. The owners are even the same. I'm sure you be relieved to hear the good news. On the next block north of L.A. Alex's is a new notions store that sells dress forms, rulers, industrial machines, thread, and lots of other goodies that I didn't have time to explore. I didn't even get the name of the store, sorry. I can't wait to go back and give this little gen of a store the time it deserves.

And on a different note, I called my Dr. this morning. I left a message for him and his clerk got back to me while we were on the road downtown. She said that the dr. said he did talk to my husband after the surgery. Yea, I know that. She said that the dr. said that he removed all the polyps and that the pathology was clean. Yea, how does he know that without a report? She said he said that I was to talk to him about it when I have my 2-week follow up visit. That's going to be a neat trick since he wasn't available for a 2-week follow up visit when it was convenient for me so I have an appointment with his nurse practitioner. I do hope somebody knows what they are doing.

Goodwill

2010-03-26T00:19:00.000-07:00

After reading Beangirl's post about Goodwill, I thought twice about posting my Goodwill thrift store finds. But you've just got to see what I found today. First, it helps to shop the Goodwill store in a better neighborhood. We visited the store in Lake Forrest (for those who don't know it's upscale Orange County, as in The OC) instead of Pomona. There was a definite difference in the quality of the merchandise.

This lovely China Silk top from Coldwater Creek was bought by my friend for $4.99. I picked it out for me, but it was too small so my friend tried it on and it will go perfect with the new denim skirt she just bought at Ross. I have to take it in at the neckline on the shoulder seam so that she isn't completely exposed to the world, that's why I have it instead of her.

I didn't go home empty handed, however. I found this very cute asymmetrical knit top in a beautiful teal blue colorway for $4.49. It's a bit tight right now, but should be perfect for me for summer. I have a stretch denim in that color that needs to be a skirt or some capris. I can't decide.

I also found this cute ITY knit top with an interesting yoke and bust gathers. The sleeves are adorable as well. The color looks good on me too and it was only $5.49. However, my favorite find today was my new summer purse.

Isn't it beautiful? I love the summer colors, the fact that it was cloth instead of plastic, and that it had real wood handles. It looked brand new, with no wear or dirt at all. It's the perfect size to fit all my summer stuff.

I'm usually not crazy about a purse that has a divider in the center, but since the cosmetics and cell phone pocket help to distinguish each side area from the other, I decided that I could make it work. I love the fact that the inside was pink.

The center compartment had this bright and happy sun shaped zipper pull that was adorable.

And since my girlfriend had just gotten home from Hawaii the day before yesterday, I was convinced that this purse had to be mine. The $4.99 price tag didn't hurt either.

It was a good day today. I want to thank everyone for your good wishes and prayers for me. I didn't get a hold of my Dr. today and I may not have time to call tomorrow since I'll be visiting the museum at The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in downtown Los Angeles tomorrow and shopping the garment district fabric stores. I'm of the belief that if it was bad news I can wait for it and if it was bad news they'd get a hold of me to let me know. So I plan to enjoy the rest of my spring break touching and feeling fabric and trying hard to keep to my fabric fast. Wish me luck!

Health Update

2010-03-24T09:27:00.001-07:00

I made it through my procedure yesterday. It was such an ordeal, especially when the surgery center had me come in six hours before getting me into the operating room. My mother in law had her cataract surgery scheduled on the same day so my husband had to be with her. She is 77 yo, has no husband and Bob is her only child. Of course he had to be with her. That worked out OK because while I was waiting my six hours, six hours!, he showed up before they took me in. It was nice to have him there with me.

When the Dr. was finished with my procedure he went out and told my husband that I had several polyps in my uterus. I'm guessing he removed them. I'm guessing that we are waiting to hear from the pathologist. The Dr. never came in to talk to me after the procedure. I have a follow-up office visit scheduled with the nurse practitioner on April 5th. I hope that if they find cancer, that at least they call me before my appointment. I mean, it would be nice to know.

I can't believe I had to fast for so long. I mean, I was starving! The hard part now is that since I had to miss four of my scheduled meals, I have to start back to step 1 for 10 days of my diet. No carbs for 10 days! Since I'm still recovering today, I'll start tomorrow. :)

The good news is that I feel fine today and am planning on cutting out and sewing a couple of new tops. I haven't decided exactly what patterns I'll use.

Thank you everyone who kept me in their thoughts and prayers. I'll update again as soon as I hear something more.

I made something

2010-03-23T01:38:00.000-07:00

It's the first day of Spring break and I actually got something made. It's NL 6891 and I really like it.

Unfortunately it's a tad too big and has that maternity thing going on. However, that's the current style so I look fashionable. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. This was my muslin and it has fitting issues, but I still think it turned out cute. I'm toying with the idea of making pink knit shorts and calling it summer pajamas.

The back needs darts to get a better fit but since it's supposed to be a looser style I think it looks good without them. What it really needs is a drapey fabric. If I make it again I'll use a chiffon or some type of silky fabric. I don't know why I'm so attracted to this style of pattern. It rarely looks good on someone with a bust line.

You can read my review here on Patternreview.com.

Spring Time

2010-03-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Monday starts my spring break so no work for a week. It's great to have the time off, but I don't get paid for time off. I've been lazy about sewing lately. I think it's because I'm still losing weight and I don't want to sew a lot of things because I know they won't fit for very long. However, my plan today is to cut out a few new tops for spring using patterns I haven't sewn before. Sewing my TNTs, I was always guaranteed a great fitting garment, but now those patterns are all too big. I'm back to sewing blindly again and I'm not comfortable doing that so wish me luck!

I also wanted to share that on Tuesday I go in for my D&C to check for cancer cells. I've never had this procedure done before and after looking it up on the internet and seeing a video of one actually being performed (I know that was a stupid thing to watch) I'm so thrilled I'll be completely out for the procedure. I'm getting nervous about it. My husband will not be with me on Tuesday because he has to be with his mom who is having her cataract surgery the same day. She is divorced and Bob is her only child so he really needs to be with her. That means I have to find someone else to take me to the hospital and bring me home. I think I'll ask my Dad to be there for me. I'm sure he'll be happy to help.

After I'm feeling better, I hope there is still some of my week off left to get back to the sewing machine. I'm feeling the need for pretty spring clothes. I wore a dress to work yesterday and got nice compliments on it and I didn't even make it. Dresses will shrink with me better than pants will so that's what I want to sew along with some skirts and tops.

I'm also going to have to start lesson planning since I think that the city parks and rec classes finally have some students signed up. I have to make a sample PJ pants and a sample collarless robe made before the end of the month. Will shopping for these garments count? I'm on a fabric fast for the entire year and haven't cheated even once. Maybe I already have something in my stash I can use. Repeat after me, "It's fun to shop the stash." Also, next Saturday I'm teaching a pants fitting class at a quilt store. Lots of prep to do before that class as well. I should be feeling better by then, I hope!

I'm Feeling a bit Wild!

2010-03-09T17:24:00.000-08:00

I got some sewing done this weekend, which included Monday, as I had the day off. I worked on NL 6940 and I thought the fit would be good enough so I went ahead and used the good fabric.

I was wrong. While technically it does fit, it fits way too closely for my comfort. There are way too many rolls showing, although that may be hard to see with my busy fabric. It's the first size 16 pattern I've used in about a hundred years. I usually opt for a size 18 and then I upsize it generously in the bust and hips. For this size 16, I only added a tad to the hips and did a full bust adjustment. I think by this summer it should fit perfectly, so I'm not calling it a wadder, but I certainly won't wear it out of the house any time soon. There are some fit issues, like the way the fabric collapses under the bust. I'll need to remove some length there. In the photo I have the hem pinned up about 5 inches. I've shortened the sleeves 2 inches and won't be doing the elastic to rouch up the hem.

All in all it's a nice pattern and it gives me a place to start with alterations for my smaller body. I think if I just add about 1/2" to the sideseams, I can make this again and actually wear it out of the house.

Here's a picture of my son and our newest feline acquisition. He's about 6 months old now and has grown to be a very large boy cat. We did think he was a female at first. His new name is Reggie and Steven loves him. Here they are sleeping on his bed. I don't know why Blogger decided to rotate the photo. That's not the way the pic is on my hard drive.

More later when I can get back to the sewing machine.

Life Keeps Getting in the Way

2010-02-27T14:33:00.000-08:00

You know you've been away too long when someone writes to tell you they miss your posts. What sweet message that was too. Thanks Julia! A couple of things have been going on and none of it includes sewing.

The good news is that I'm continuing to lose weight, now down 25 pounds (I don't get to change my tracker until Monday). I've had to buy some new clothes because I couldn't alter patterns and sew them up quick enough to keep my behind covered. It was fun to shop because things were fitting me. I'm now officially an XL instead of a woman's 1X in tops and I am now wearing size 16 jeans. No more shopping in the woman's department. I have to get down another size to shop in the petite department though. That's my next goal. Bob just helped me pin up a couple pair of new pants that need to be shortened. I hope to get them done today. Maybe after that, I can get back to some real sewing.

My partner Stephanie and I were supposed to start our sewing classes through the city parks and recreation department this month but no one signed up. We probably won't get any students until the official brochure of classes is mailed out.

The bad news is that I'm having some health issues. Sorry if this is TMI. Because I had post-menopausal bleeding twice in the last 8 months with the last one being two weeks ago and lots of pelvic pain, the gynecologist wants me to have a D&C. He wants to check to see if I have any cancer cells growing in my uterus. I had an ultrasound in November and my uterus looked normal and all my ovarian cysts were gone which the Dr. said was probably because of my diet. However, endometrial cancer wouldn't have shown up on the ultrasound. Being the HUGE procrastinator that I am, I'm going to wait to worry about this until I've had the test and my Dr. tells me there is something to worry about. I was so hoping that with menopause I would be saved from the hysterectomy my gynecologist and family Dr. wanted me to have 13 years ago. I'm just now waiting for approval from the insurance company for the D&C.

Today I was planning on visiting the 18^th Annual Art of Motion Picture Costume Design exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles with Stephanie. It was raining pretty hard this morning and I was feeling lazy so I postponed the trip. Instead I dropped my son off at the library and then went across the street to JoAnn's. That's only my second visit this year. They were having a sale on patterns and I picked up a few on sale and managed not to bring anything else home with me.

I think this Rebecca Taylor dress is so pretty and I have some poly jersey that should be perfect for it. Of course, I'll have to make the neckline a bit more modest and I'll make the hemline straight across instead of having a shirt tail shape, which I think looks stupid.

I've had my eye on this pattern for a long time, but I just felt it wouldn't do anything for my big round apple shape. Now that my apple is getting smaller, I decided to go for it. Again, some poly jersey would be great for this one. I plan to make all the pieces from this one.

While I have a TNT pattern similar to this one, I liked the different sleeve options. I would also have to alter my TNT pattern anyway so I thought I 'd start with this new one. I like both the looped neckline and the twist front. I think the twist front would look great as a dress.

Here's another dress that I thought could shrink with me because of the drawstring. I love those tiny puff sleeves on view c. I think it would be perfect in a lightweight cotton knit, I'll need to do a FBA for this one.

As you can tell, I'm getting ready to do some summer sewing. It's going to be hard to guess what size I'll be at the end of May, but I'm going to use a size 16 pattern and do a small FBA and cross my fingers that they fit.

Losing Weight

2010-01-25T10:20:00.000-08:00

I didn't get any sewing done this week. That happens when I have to go to work. How do you all with full-time jobs get any sewing done? Since I don't have anything to show for the week I thought I'd tell you how my weight loss journey is coming along.

As you know, I'm following the Metabolism Miracle eating plan. This is a plan I can follow for the rest of my life. I know I said it was a low carb plan, but it's much more than that. It's a plan that will fix people like me whom the conventional wisdom of calories in minus calories expended doesn't equal weight loss. If it did, than all those years on Weight Watchers would have made me thin. I'm not thin, so obviously something different needed to be done. I'm not counting calories or fat grams. I'm not even really counting carbs, just watching them.

This eating plan is done in three stages. During the first stage which lasts 8 weeks (but I did it for 9 weeks) I lost 20 pounds. That's more than 2 pounds a week. I also started sleeping 8 hours a night. Before that, I was sleeping only 4-5 hours a night. I thought my lack of sleep was being caused by menopause. Not so! My hypoglycemia disappeared the very first week on this eating plan. I had it bad too. Whenever my blood sugar levels would drop, I got seriously cranky and if you got in my way I would knock you down to get to some food. I felt like a version of Dr. Jekel and Mr. Hyde. Carbohydrate food like cookies, potatoes, pasta, ice cream, etc. would be what would fix my "problem." Low carb food wouldn't do. My craving for carbs disappeared with the hypoglycemia. I haven't had sugar in three months. Nothing, nada. Who knew?

During step 2, you are to add back a 11-20 carb every 5 hours. Let's face it, our body needs carbs. But people with metabolism's like mine need them in small, controlled amounts. Luckily eating them like this keeps those cravings away. I don't even want them because I know what they do to my blood sugar levels and I know how lousy I'll feel.

The first 3 weeks of step 2 I only lost point 6 (.6) of a pound. However, this last week (week 4) I lost 2 more pounds. That puts me at a total loss of 22.6 pounds which works out to almost 1-3/4 pound a week. I never was able to lose more than half (.5) a pounds on Weight Watchers ever. While my loss is probably going to be slow, not anywhere as slow as WW was and I'm feeling better than I ever did on WW eating pasta and potatoes. Obviously low fat and restricted calories aren't what works for me. If it works for you, then Yea! It just doesn't work for everyone.

Now the good news. I've lost inches, lots of inches! I've lost 5 inches off my hips, 4 inches off my waist, and only 1 1/2 inches off my bust. None of the clothes I made over the summer fits except one top that shrank after I made it. Sadly, all my TNT patterns now need to be altered and aren't TNTs any more. Luckily, I have hundreds of other patterns that I'll be trying out. I plan to start tracing some Burda WOF patterns this week so I'm sure I'll be back to sewing new clothes very soon.

If you want to read more about this eating plan you can go to these links:

January 4, The Daily Mail - The metabolism miracle: The revolutionary diet that can help you stay slim forever.
January 5, The Daily Mail - The metabolism miracle diet part two: Eat carbs and still lose weight!
January 6, The Daily Mail - The metabolism miracle diet part three: How eating five meals a day can burn away your fat!
January 7, The Daily Mail - Chocolate? That's what I call a diet! The final part of our revolutionary scientific weight-loss plan. . .

The above links are from the Daily Mail, a British on-line magazine. You can also find out more info from the Author of The Metabolism Miracle from her website. I'm sorry to sound like such a commercial, but if it will help someone else, than that makes me happy. It was one of my ASG Neighborhood Group members that recommended it to me, and for that I'm grateful.

More UFOs

2010-01-19T08:40:00.000-08:00

I spent the long weekend doing a little housework and cleaning up the sewing room after sewing up the last batch of UFOs. It's incredible how messy my sewing room becomes. I found a few more UFOs to sew up and got started on them.

This knit top was supposed to be the tank to wear under a matching cardigan. I'm very happy with the way it turned out, but it's not even close to the original plan. I really do need some long sleeved t-shirts so that helped me make the decision to turn this into a t-shirt. This one is a bit dressier than your average t-shirt because of the embroidery. It's an army green interlock knit and it sewed up beautifully.

The reason it didn't turn out to be a tank with a matching cardigan is because something went wrong in the cutting out process. Somehow a big chunk was notched out on one of the sleeves. I don't know how that happened because I can't remember cutting this out. It's at least two years old and probably more. I honestly can't even tell you what pattern I used for the tank. The cardigan pattern was probably the pattern from the brown cardi in my last post that didn't fit me very well. I've decided that it's probably KS 2948 which has a tank pattern included. I don't remember ever making the tank but that might be what this top is from. To make the tank into a top I just sewed in the sleeves from the cardi. To replace the sleeve with the missing chunk I just took the back piece of the cardi and re-cut out a new sleeve.

The back neckline was going to be quite low and I don't like my tops low in the back. To solve this problem I just used a very wide binding. I had a binding cut that I think was supposed to be the front band for the cardi. I have to say, I'm very pleased with how the binding turned out. I was really feeling the love for my coverstitch machine. If you don't already have one, you don't know what you're missing. Ladies, you must save up your pennies and get one.

The coverstitch makes everything look so professional. I really liked how the wide band looked on the neckline so I decided to add them to the sleeve hem as well.

This dress is another UFO I started working on yesterday. I made the dress in August 2007 and I hated it. That is, I hated how it looked on me. It's really a nice dress, lovely fabric, and the Burda WOF pattern 07-2007-125 is really cute too. I even had a discussion about this dress on patternreview where it was decided that the dress was wearing me, not the other way around. On Sunday I removed the sleeves and cut 6-1/2 inches off of them. Then I cut six inches off the length.

I also played around with ways to raise the neckline so I wouldn't have to wear the cami underneath. After sewing it all back together, I decided that I really do like this dress on me. Then I went in to show my husband and son and my son said, "Wow Mom, your new way of eating is really working for you!" That did it, now I really love the dress. I took the picture by myself with the timer so once I get the dress and sleeves hemmed, I'll grab husband and get him to take some good pictures so I can update my review on PR of this pattern.

Finished UFOs

2010-01-16T16:42:00.001-08:00

I didn't get called in to work except for one day this week because of parent conferences. That's the bad news. The good news is that I've been sewing up those UFOs I mentioned in my last post. I managed to get two garments completed this week and another one almost done.

This zipper jacket is from a capsule wardrobe that I planned in the summer of 2008. Click for the storyboard I made of that capsule. I completed both pants to go with it, but the t-shirt was a wadder and I never got the jacket made. The pattern is NL 6609 which I've made before. Last time I made it, it was part of another SWAP where I sewed up the jacket in lime green and white and it was reversible. I'm pretty happy with the fit although I did take a 5/8" wider seam allowance on the sides to get a closer fit after sewing up the jacket. I don't think this garment will fit me for very much longer, so I'm glad I made it up in this season. It's very warm to wear since the fabric is some type of poly/lycra stretch suiting I purchased on sale from EOS at least 4 years ago.

I think the reason I never finished it was because of the way the placement of the fabric design turned out. The repeats lay next to each other on the panels but there was nothing I could do about it, so I think I'll just enjoy it while I can. Another reason I didn't sew it up for the wardrobe capsule is because I didn't know how to insert the zipper. I wanted this top to look like the Loes Hinse's Zipper Jacket but I didn't want to spend the money on the pattern only to have to alter it to fit. I wish I did buy the pattern because then I would have had the directions on how to insert the zipper so that it doesn't show. The only directions for a separating zipper I could find anywhere was for an exposed zipper. Since I wanted to get this top done, that's the instructions I used.

The second garment I completed was this cowl neck top. It's made from the same fabric as the twin set which I made back in November of 2008. I can wear the cardigan with the cowl top for a warmer weather twin set. The pattern is Loes Hinse's Cowl Neck pattern with the cowl significantly reduced in size. The pattern is meant for someone with a much longer neck so I shortened it 4". I really love how this top turned out. I have no idea when I cut this top out or why I never sewed it up.

The last garment I worked on this week was this brown knit RPL cardigan. I'm very unhappy with the fit of this garment. I'm not sure what pattern I used but I have 3-4 cardigan patterns that fit me fairly well, but I don't recognize the tiny band that was cut out for the edge. Maybe that's why I never got it sewn before now. I must have run short of fabric for the band. I'm not sure what to do about a closure for this cardi. I may just use a sweater clip. I think I have a couple in my stash. Anyway, I think I'll cut it a few inches shorter and give it to my neice after I get the hems sewn. I just bought me a new sweater last month in this color, so I don't really need it in my wardrobe. She'll be very happy to get it, I'm sure.

The Clone Continues

2010-01-12T16:46:00.001-08:00

I may just have to start shopping for RTW clothing so that I could bring them home and clone them. Then make me some clothes that look like what's in the stores, but make them to fit! I think this is the very first time I've ever lamented not owning RTW clothing. I love the way my new clone top turned out.

Well, I'm not thrilled with the sleeves, but they weren't cloned. I couldn't find my pattern for the ones I wanted and found this pattern in my search. While they're not perfect, they are much better than the ones that came on the original blouse. The next blouse I'll use the same sleeve pattern, just make it about 3 inches shorter and take out the gathers.

Be sure and click on the photo above. It's a composite of 3 views and the original blouse. I know all the details are lost in the black dotted fabric, but I thought the fabric had just the right hand for the blouse AND it was in my collection. Remember my goal to sew only from the collection? Now if only my jeans fit as well.

OK, now I have to get back to sewing those UFOs and I think I'll search for another fabric to make this top in again while it still fits.

The Clone

2010-01-10T20:42:00.001-08:00

If you ignore the fact that I was having fun with Husband (and not standing up straight) when the first pic was taken and he'd pissed me off by the second picture, you can see that I was quite successful in cloning my original blouse. Yea! I put the pin up too high on the muslin so that the necklines look different, but they aren't. I didn't copy the sleeves because I don't like them. I plan on using the puffed sleeves that I used on my whimsey blouse. In the mirror this blouse is much more flattering.

There are a few alterations I need to do including doing a petite adjustment at the waist, do a high round back alteration and add some ease over my butt, and more ease all around. I plan on sewing it up in fabric that will look better on me than white eyelet or muslin.

So, do you want to know how I did it without destroying the original blouse?

It kind of reminds me of Burda WOF patterns that you have to trace. And, that's exactly what I did! First thing you do is draw or thread trace your grain lines on the original. If it is striped or plaid, all the better. Then if you can't see the seam lines through the silk organza, you need to thread trace them as well. Draw a line parallel to the selvege down the middle of your organza and also make a cross mark. Then you just pin your line to the grain line on the garment, Pin along all seam lines, and start tracing with colored pencils. After that, trace it onto pattern paper, add seam allowances and you have a pattern. Of course, it's a lot more complicated than that, but you'll need to take the class if you want all the instructions.

Now, a few of you asked how I liked the class. I really liked it. When the class begins, you are given the lessons in pdf files. These become sort of like your textbook. KK didn't give any lectures, however. He had a chat so that we could ask him all sorts of questions about what we read. That was a very fast hour. Then we spent a few days following the instructions to make our pattern pieces. Then there was another chat. That chat was tonight. There is supposed to be another chat next Thursday night. The transcripts for tonight's chat should be available for the students to read tomorrow. I won't have any further questions for him on Thursday, but I'm sure there'll be questions by others in the class. KK's pdf instructions were very complete and I only really needed his help on how to handle the gathers. His instructions only covered darts and pleats. He told me to handle the gathers like a dart, which is what I guessed I was supposed to do. I hope he is available even after the class when I try to clone another garment.

If you've got RTW that fits reasonably well, I highly recommend taking this class if it is offered again. It's a method that really works! Can you tell I'm impressed?

Cloning with Kenneth King

2010-01-08T08:23:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a class on patternreview.com called Clone Your Favorite Garment with Kenneth King. Last night was the first chat and I have to tell you, this class is fantastic. KK has a great sense of humor which doesn't come out clearly on a chat board, unfortunately. Anyway, I've picked a blouse that has never fit me well and I want to alter it to fit better, because it's really cute.

Now that I'm doing the actual copying, I'm regretting picking a garment with 9 pattern pieces. That's a lot of copying. Today I'll be thread tracing all my grainlines and seamlines. You who know me know that that's a lot of hand sewing for someone who hates to hand sew. I'm still a little confused about how to handle the bust gathers, but I asked KK last night and he explained it. I'm just waiting now for Deepika to post the chat transcripts so I can go over carefully what KK said to do.

I can see this blouse in a sleeveless and long sleeved version. I have so many wovens in my stash and very few patterns to use on them. I'm really looking forward to getting this pattern made and then altered to fit.

As always, I'll keep you posted.

Tie Me Down Again

2010-01-06T20:36:00.001-08:00

This is the same pattern from my last post. It's the Hotpatterns Metropolitan Tie Me Down Top. There are 11 reviews for this top on Patternreview.com and at least three of them are from plus-sized women. You can see my muslin for this top on my last post. Many of you said I should wear the muslin, but I think I'll probably give it away to my neice. I still haven't hemmed it yet. My biggest problem with the muslin is the fabric. I know lots of you liked the top and the fabric, but I don't like me in white. My coloring isn't right for white. I never feel good in white and people always ask me if I'm feeling OK when I wear it. So, for my final version, I used some fabric in my colors.

I think it looks much better in this lace and animal printed sueded drapey knit. The fabric is left over from one of my first renditions of KS 2900. I'm not sure why I had so much of the fabric left over but I'm glad I did. The first top was torn to shreads when my son was having his first of many rages. (Thank God he doesn't have those anymore!) The color is more appropriate for me and I feel good wearing it.

I wound up sewing it in a size 16 with a size 18 at the sides. I think if I lose 10 more pounds I can just take it in at the side seams. I serged them so it shouldn't be hard to just serge them again with a larger seam allowance. The shoulders are still a bit long, but that may be because I didn't stabilize the shoulders and they are being pulled by the sleeve. I also didn't use the facing that is included with the pattern.

The back is still too wide, but in this drapey fabric, you can't really tell. It probably also needs a rounded back alteration, but I didn't bother with it. I really like the sleeve cuff treatment. The pattern says to sew the elastic gathers 2" from the hemmed edge, but I don't like sleeves hanging down over my hands, so I put it close to the hem. I shortened the sleeve a lot, but that's also a normal alteration. I also straightened out the shaped hem as well.

I shortened the tie. On the muslin it's much too long, especially on my 5'1" frame. My bustline also doesn't need a large floppy bow laying on top. I shortened the ties about 5" for the purple version. I think the bow is just right at this shorter length.

The only thing I really don't like about this pattern is the sleeve gathers. They are fighting with the shoulder gathers and losing the battle. The drapey knit isn't doing them justice either as they just hang limply and they should probably be spread out a bit more. The pattern has you put them at the very top of the shoulder, so that's what I did.

The top is quite fussy to make and I didn't really enjoy having to tie all the elastic thread ends. Which, by the way, the pattern doesn't tell you to do. However, I didn't want the elastic to come undone so I think it's an important step. That's 14 rows of stitches with 2 ends on each row for 28 knots that need to be made. If you hate gathering, DO NOT make this top.

All in all I really do like the top, just don't like making it. However, I'll probably make it again once I lose a few more pounds. I like how modest the neckline is and that it didn't need a FBA. Anyway, I recommend the top, just don't think it's one of those get it done quickly type of patterns.

For my next project, I've found a few UFOs that are cut but not sewn. I think they will probably fit me, if not now, then very soon. I'm excited to see if they will fit me. I don't have any clothes smaller than I am right now, so I'm going to have to keep sewing so I'll have something to wear. Just as soon as I'm down into a size 14 RTW, I'm going to do some thrift store shopping to get by. There are some pretty good thrift stores around me so I don't think I'll mind wearing gently used clothes. It's better than going out nekked!