I'm Feeling a bit Wild!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?