Saturday, September 30, 2006

Linda's Got Her Sewing Groove Back!

Perhaps you've read the book and/or saw the movie "How Stella Got Her Groove Back". That title kept playing through my mind when I decided to make an entry into my sewing diary. I can tell you that I did not go off to Jamaica or any exotic island resort and meet up with a young stud muffin! That certainly would not get my sewing groove back, but maybe something else!

Buying patterns the other day, got me to touching and feeling fabric and thus doing more than thinking about sewing. Yesterday afternoon my Saturday plans changed, for the better, and I was relieved that I would have some more "at home" time Saturday that quickly translated into--I will have time to cut out my jacket pattern time. Couple this with cooler weather and the thoughts of I have nothing to wear for cooler weather yet, that got me going.

After dropping clothes off at dry cleaners and getting a few groceries, I came home to DH cleaning motorcycle and he was going to start on my car. I immediately went to my sewing room and cut out my jacket pattern which included fabric and lining. I adjusted the waist and hip areas of the pattern last night following dinner. Now I am ready to cut interfacing, fuse and sew.

I got some fabric samples from Sewing Studio last week. There was some "Java Brown" fabric including gabardine and knit. The gab fabric looks great with the brown in my jacket, somewhat better than the brown I just sewed up into a skirt. I plan to order some tonight on line. The brown knit is okay but I have two brown knit tops, so I think I am okay with tops to wear with the jacket. This new brown fabric will go well with a print rayon fabric I purchased from FFC some months ago and this will give me yet another outfit and look.

Time for food, so off to cook dinner for now.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Patterns

Guess what? Hancock's-$.99 Simplicity patterns! I am not sewing but by golly I have got $5. So during lunch went to Hancock's and purchased three Simplicity Patterns.

One of the above is for Fleece fabrics and saw some okay fleece at Hancock's while there. I have never sewn fleece before, but the styles of the jacket gave new life to fleece. You can also use boiled wool. I am also thinking about using my Babylock Embellisher for some added details.

I also purchased this pattern after reading about it on Timmel Fabrics or at Artisans Square. I love the look of the knit top and have some new knit fabrics in my collection. The pattern is from Saf-T-Pocket Patterns and is called Perfect Pair-2008. I ordered on line yesterday and should receive it sometime next week.

My plans for the weekend have changed as I thought I was going to get to stay around home both Saturday and Sunday. Back to having a few hours Saturday morning and most of Sunday to get back into the sewing room and finish my start of a making a new jacket. I am feeling some urge again. The weather today changed from early morning warmth, to cooler and wet evening. This says it is time to focus on that fall sewing.

More later.

Etsy Pledge

About a month ago, I took the Etsy Pledge. You can click on the 5.4.3.2 Etsy badge below to find out more yourself. The pledge was I would spend at minimum $5 a month for the next three months.

I placed an order for some neat looking buttons. My commitment was to buy and then write about my purchase on my blog. So when the buttons arrive I will post a photo and comments. I am looking forward to receiving my package soon.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Still not there

I think my problem is being disorganized and need to get back on track. Where most people probably do spring cleaning, I need to do fall cleaning. Mainly in my sewing room, but my home office is a shambles also.

I keep looking in my sewing room and it feels cluttered. It is! I have a very small room compared to my sewing room in my previous home in Florida. I have sewing related stuff in two rooms in my current house. My fabric is located in one room and everything else is in my sewing room. When I am ready to work on some projects, I bring my fabrics into the sewing room and they sit in a container on the floor under the cutting table. I keep culling out those fabrics and putting them back into the fabric room.

I am trying to sew using SWAP. I have those similar fabrics in the sewing room now. Only they are just sitting there. I have one fabric sitting on cutting table to become a jacket. I have made a few strides in altering the pattern using my usual adjustments, but still no further along with that. I have another fabric to be a jacket also, plus I have fabric for a blouse/top to go with the brown skirt I just made.

Just can't seem to get there. (whine, whine, whine!) As a good friend says to me, you need to go by Kroger's and get a new attitude. She's right.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Comments

It was interesting to see comments about my sewing funk. Most interesting is I am not alone in feeling this way. The only sewing related thing I did in the past two days, and I am stretching it here, is I bought something for sewing room and I am selling some patterns.

I bought a huge magnet from the auto department at WalMart that has a neat rubber bottom and is like a magnet bowl. It holds my pins so nicely and easy to get them when pinning patterns to fabric or turning up hems. I read about this in a safety article on sewing written by Welmoed Sisson.

The other thing was I photographed some patterns and listed them for sale on Pattern Review. You can see the few I did list here. If anyone is interested let me know, $2.50. All are new and never used. I need to make room for my ever growing pattern stash. I really need to quit buying them for awhile.

Perhaps by the end of the week I will be back to sewing. No major plans for the weekend so hopefully my sewing mojo will be back.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Dear Diary-I have the sewing funk!

I seem to find myself in a sewing funk. I am thinking about sewing, I even bought more fabric necessary for my current project. I decided the lining I have is not quite the color I needed. A friend of mine went to Schoolhouse Fabrics and I got her to buy some lining for me that does go with the jacket fabric better than the lining that was in my stash.

I just can't get myself into the sewing room to do anything. I walk in, look around and walk out! My skirt is done. Jacket pattern is waiting for me to pin fit, alter, cut and sew.

We are going to Danville to visit my DH's mother and aunt. Thus I will not get in the sewing room today and tomorrow will be the normal weekend grocery shopping. Maybe a weekend away from sewing will get me in the mood.

I am reading my sewing blogs and reviews at PR. I even posted a review this morning for my skirt. I am thumbing through magazines-sewing and fashion related for inspiration.

I am sure the spirit will move me soon.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Completed skirt

The skirt is complete. It hung for over 24 hours before I could hem it. Actually the bias parts of skirt did not grow as I thought they might; perhaps it is the fabric. I will make another skirt. I did not do the flatlock stitching that I had originally planned to do with this fabric and with this skirt. Maybe on another one.

I need to play around with the flatlock stitch on my serger to see how it will do. I have not used it on this machine. I really have not done much in the way of flatlock stitching over the past many years I have had a serger.

Here are photos of the skirt. I tried to lighten it up some so you could see the front and front side yokes.





Here is the inside waistline with twill tape stitched down.

Monday, September 18, 2006

Felted Fleece Scarves

I completed two fleece scarves using the Babylock Embellisher to felt. I really didn't have any particular design in mind with either of these. The first one I used more roving and yarns than on the second one. Mainly because of lack of complimentary colors for the second one and ran out of some yarn that I was using.

The "Autumn" one-golds, browns and beiges-was made using mohair yarn, multi shades of browns roving as well as a gold roving. I trimmed edges with the mohair yarn.

The "Pastel" one-blues, pinks, yellow and coral-was made using some wool yarn for the circles and center, yellow and coral roving, and a tealish mohair yarn for the trim. They are rather short so I think they will be more for little girls than women.

Our ASG sponsors a Bridge Party and these will go into the auction for the Ronald McDonald fundraiser.

(Blogger is currently not letting me load a picture.) Click on my Flicker badge to see them.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Progress with Skirt

I have to say I am rather pleased with the skirt. It was truly an easy skirt to sew. The main issue for me was selecting the correct size. I cut out an 18. I am never sure what size to cut unless I am using Pattern Master Boutique. In Neue Mode and Burda, 16-18 is my best size. The 18 in this skirt was too big. Better to be too big than not. I had enough seams to take up.

I ended up taking in the front seams, side seams as well as back darts. Some of this is due to the fact that the skirt falls an inch below one's natural waist. Because it has no fitted waistband either, I normally have a fitting issue with the fit of the waist.

My fabric was very easy to sew. This skirt would make up well in a more drapey fabric as well. My fabric is a midweight fabric and it drapes okay but a little stiffer but has body. A softer fabric, like wool or rayon challis, even wool crepe would do well. The view I made, the side front flounces are cut on the bias, which aides in a nice drape. The back flounce is cut on the fold creating a semi-circle, thus sides of the back flounce are on bias as well.

The instructions advice letting the skirt hang 24 hours before hemming due to the bias. I agree with that. The hem is a narrow 5/8 inch hem. One could possibly do a decorative hem.

I used an invisible zipper for the side seam. I had thought about transferring zipper to back, but I like the look of the back yoke without marring it with a zipper. I also used Peggy Sager's technique for inserting an invisible zipper, thus eliminating that little pucker that I get sometime after stitching the zipper then trying to line up the bottom of the invisible zipper and sewing the remainder of the seam. Peggy has you insert the invisible zipper; then you sew the remainder of the seam by starting at the opposite end and sew up to the ending stitches where one has inserted the zipper. A picture of this would be more helpful than how I am trying to describe it. Anywho, it worked!

The waist is trimmed with twill tape by stitching it on the outside of the waist area; it is then turned under and stitched down. I think a lining with this skirt with certain fabrics would do very well. I will take pictures soon after it has hung overnight and when hemmed.

I hope to get my pattern started for my jacket tomorrow. However, I have to make up some fleece scarves for an upcoming fund raiser that our ASG participates in to raise funds for the Ronald McDonald house. These items will be auctioned. I plan to embellish the fleece using my Babylock Embellisher. Hopefully they will be nice enough to create some attention at an auction.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Change of plans

Thanks for the comments about style of jacket to go with the skirt. I had several people email me and the suggestion was clearly to go with a fitted jacket. The more I looked through pattern catalogs the more I saw the boxy style jacket with pants not skirts. I have decided to make this jacket. This is Simplicity 4081, View B. The great thing about this patten is that it comes with front pattern pieces for B,C and D cups. Hopefully no FBA to make.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Skirt and jacket project

Here is my next skirt project-Simplicity 4091. I purchased a chocolate brown fabric from Hancocks several months ago. I had in mind to make a gored flared skirt and flatlock the seams in a contrasting thread color. The color I had in mind was teal. I had seen a clerk wearing this skirt and liked the look. I never found a skirt pattern that appealed to me so this design has stayed dormant. I have some lovely teal and brown paisley tapestry type fabric I also purchased from Hancocks about a year ago that will go with this brown fabric very well.

Here is the look of the skirt with the brown fabric. I am making View F.
I had thought about this jacket-Simplicity 4328. But I am thinking it may be to boxy for this skirt. Here it is with the fabric I plan to use. I am was thinking View E.




What do you think? Should I try a more fitted jacket with this skirt or go with the current jacket posted above? Feedback appreciated.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Photos of Alma Marie

Several commenters and friends have said I need to name my dress form. I decided to name her Alma Marie. These are the names of two very special ladies in my life who are no longer with us physically, but they are in my mind and heart daily.

Alma was my maternal grandmother who taught me to sew. She actually bought me my very first Singer sewing machine when I was only 5 years old. It was a small minature machine, that you turned the handwheel to sew. She cut out some squares and I made a small quilt with this machine. I wish I still had that quilt. She then bought me another Singer machine, one of the traditional black with gold lettering all over it but had an electric foot pedal. I made a knit jersey evening gown and jacket for an event I had to go to as I could not afford to buy the gown at the time. I don't know how I got that dress made as the machine was not all that kind to knits. This was in the early 70's. I think back then I had no fear when it came to working with what I consider hard to handle fabrics now. Maybe I just know too much about the fabric than I did then. I made lots of garments with this machine which then led to other machine purchases.

Marie was my mother. She sewed some but sewing was not her passion. She loved to crochet and knit, two things I have never done well. She also loved to hand sew quilts. I avoid hand sewing with a passion. She also had great decorating talents. Her Christmas Tree was the best decorated trees in the family and neighborhood. She could bake the best desserts and turned into a fairly decent cook when she retired to take care of Alma when her physical health began to falter. She loved me with a passion the only way mother's can.

Both of these ladies were and will continue to be a great inspiration to me. They were tough minded women and taught me that I could always take care of myself. They helped me understand independence as well as interdependence.

So I name my dress form-Alma Marie.

Dressform Progress

Dressform is almost complete. According to the directions, you put the cover on the form and the foam form will make the cover expand to fullest. You then need to measure the form's bust, waist and hips. You then take your measurements and determine the difference. The assumption in the instructions is that the form measurements will be larger than yours. For mine, they were. You then determine the difference between your and form's measurements, divide that amount by 4 and that is the amount you need to adjust the side seams to of the dress form cover. Once you do this, then you are to put this back on the foam form and it is my assumption that the form will compress some more and thus form will be close to your measurements.

Carolyn, Diary of a Sewing Fanatic, asked in a comment here if the form is close to my shape or are there some more fitting issues to address. There are a few still. I have a little "tummy" pooch/pouch right below my waist in front that is not quite showing up on the form. The bust is also a little fuller but hopefully by performing the above it will compress the "perky" boobs that the form has. If not, I may have to perform a bust augmentation on my form.

Other than these two issues, I am pleased with the outcome. I took some photos this morning so will post later. Right now I am cooking dinner and need to run.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

What I am working on now!

I started on 9/1/06 working on the cover for my new dress form by Uniquely You! My ASG friend, Cindi, provided much assistance getting this project started. I then worked on it some more that holiday weekend. I then put it aside for a breather and to do some sewing. I just completed another LH Faux Wrap Skirt which I will photograph soon and report more about that particular project.

Today after grocery shopping, I came home and pulled out my dressform cover and I am happy to say that I have completed it. Let me add here that I have worked on it off and on some evenings following work so that aided in my completing it today.

I hope to put it on the dress form this evening. This was an interesting project and one that took longer to accomplish than I thought it would. But if you want to get the right fit you really need to do a lot of adjusting to get it to fit like a second skin to capture your lumps, bumps and the real you! I suppose for those with younger, lithe shapes it may go smoother. I hope to have pictures of the finished project tomorrow. Providing all goes well getting the cover on the form.

Over at Artisans Squares-Sewing Guild, several people gave me some pointers on putting the form on the foam body. Hopefully this will go well.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Bianca Photos

Here are some photos with arrows pointing to specific items mentioned in my previous post.
The arrow points to the scooped out neckline.
Compare this to the pattern photo. You can see how high the neck comes up. I simply could not pull this over my head. It is a little hard to tell from this picture as she has a scarf on covering up the neckline.


I also used shorter sleeves rather than the long sleeves shown here. Perhaps for winter, longer sleeves will be in order.

Here is a close up of the topstitching.
The red line points to the sewn shoulder seam after the topstitching. I am proud that I got it to line up so nicely.

Here is a close up of the pintucks at the bottom edge. I used the two inch hem instead of the shorter, serged edge view. You can see that in the pattern photo above.

You can click on my Flicker badge on side bar to go to photos of the top without the red markings.

With this finished, I am now working on another LH Wrap Skirt. I entered the "One Pattern Different Looks" contest on Pattern Review. This one is made from a coneflower pink faux suede fabric purchased from Vogue Fabrics about two years ago. I added a decorative stitch along with topstitching and edgestitching for an added change. I have one more idea in mind for a third skirt. I mean how many LH wrap skirts can you really use! I am trying to use up some of my fabric stash on these skirts, saving some of my newer purchases for some other, more current patterns I have recently purchased.

Bianca Update

I completed the Bianca Top. Photos to follow.

Well! My grandmother would say that is a deep subject. I seem to always have some fitting issues with LH and Textile Studio Tops. I also don't like their sew the shoulders, sew the sides, turn under 3/8 of inch at neckline and topstitch from wrong side. My turning under and topstitching never goes smoothly following those instructions.

On the Bianca top, I sewed one shoulder seam. I then serge finished the edge which not really necessary for knits but I think it looks more finished that way and this gives you a guide for turning under the 3/8 inches all around. I then topstitched from the right side allowing me to see how it is looking from the right side that the public will see. I then carefully lined up the neck edge of the shoulder seam and actually basted the edge together to make sure when I actually sewed that second shoulder seam that it stayed in alignment. I then had a very nice looking neckline.

Let me add here that the first version I cut the neckline as is from pattern and followed their method. It was okay but had a terrible bump at neck shoulder seams. Also when trying on for fit to sew side seams, I could not get the top over my head. I thought all along that the neckline was rather small! It was extremely small. All my topstitching threads popped immediately event though I had used a longer stitch length for the topstitching. This is truly a design fault of this pattern. To wear that jewel neckline in this pattern truly requires a back zipper IMHO.

I suppose I could have scooped out the neckline at this time. However I had enough of this fabric to cut out a new front and back. I decided to adjust the neckline on the pattern so in the future when I make another one of these tops the pattern is already adjusted. I now have a nice looking top that can be pulled over the head and it fits nicely around the neckline.

I will update this to show some photos of the neckline and topstitching. I like the top and the pintuck featured on the bottom. A recent Threads magazine article was about pintucking so this top is in line with that design idea.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

LH Bianca Top

Bianca Top

I am cutting out this top today. I have pinfitted the top to my current dress form and added a FBA of about 3/4 inch. I made my usual swayback and FSA. I have some leftover brown matte jersey, purchased from Hancock's earlier this year. I made the KS Twist Top from it and it sewed up great. It washes and wears well also.

I decided to use it for this top and may have enough left for another top of some sort. I got it on sale and thought I was going to make some other pieces from it. Obviously I didn't.

More to report later.

Uniquely You Dress Form Update

This is an interesting process. Cindi-Cindi's Sewing-assisted me in my quest to perfect a dressform that is "uniquely me". The instructions are pretty clear on doing this, it is simply time consuming process.

You zip the cover on, check the neck fitting for the front. Once that is determined to fit appropriately, you then undo the side seam up to the side bust dart. You then find your waist line and sew in some small darts to define that area. From there you undo the rest of the side seam. You then proceed to pin side seam to fit right and left sides. You then focus on fitting the bust area. The hard part of this is you need to get the bust area and bust point areas to line up correctly and to do this you really need to release shoulder area, though directions don't have you do this. But you have to because you then have to fit upper chest, and further define your bust and midriff.

You then proceed to work on the back area. With Cindi's assistance we got the front and a lot of the upper back part completed. This took approximately 4-4.5 hours. Yes we chatted, but worked and chatted. This was tiring for us both and other appointments awaited.

Upon return home, I did some more tweaking of back based on our work and defining what was needed for the back adjustments. I spent at least 1.5 hours on this for myself. But I am pleased with the outcome. My DH who was home while working on this began to tell me he thought it was rather form fitting! I thanked him for his comments and explained that was the intent of this little exercise to get a second skin form fitting cover. This is why I don't like to have him too involved in my projects.

The remainder to be done is the bottom half which I may or may not be able to complete on my own. Cindi was a great help-Thank you, Cindi! A second set of eyes are great help in seeing the right fit and near misses.

Today I plan to set this aside and cut out some patterns that are ready to become some new clothes for me for fall.

August Sewing Simplicity 7295

 I am not doing well as a blogger. I have been working on this project since July 30. Today, I finally finished it. It has been a stop-and-g...