Danvillegirl Sewing Diary

I pin fitted the blouse pattern that I traced yesterday. I knew from the measurements provided on the pattern that adjustments were going to be necessary. I had to do a FBA adjustment which proved doable but challenging due to the front pattern pieces. After doing that, I decided to add a center back seam as I needed to do a round back adjustment and the center seam allows for the fit at the neck to be better. In addition I had to make my usual sway back adjustment. The pattern has no hem allowance, so I add two inches to the length to give me something to work with. Otherwise it would not be long enough to tuck in to a skirt or pants.

With the FBA, this added additional width down to waist area, which was needed also. I then pin fitted again to make sure there are no other adjustments to make. I decided not to make forward shoulder adjustment. I feel comfortable that I can now decide on the fabric and cut out the pattern.

I fell in love with the look of this pattern when I read this re…

I took some pictures of my needle felting rectangle and square practice for our Roanoke Needlefelting Divas. Meant to be a show and tell of my felting practice.

Below are two photos of an orange felt square acquired from JoAnn fabrics. It is somewhat difficult to see in these pictures but I drew with a chalk pencil some squares and rectangles as shapes to work with.
The following photos show the roving being needlepunched via the Embellisher onto the felt square. The purpose was to practice felting into the drawn squares using roving or yarns. For the work shown below I used wool roving. At first I attempted to try to just felt within the drawn square, which truly requires more control than I have currently. Then found it was okay to lay out the roving across the drawn square and then take a bamboo skewer and turn the roving outside of the drawing back onto the square. I also trimmed around the drawn edges and then needle felted the edges.

Below is the first squares/rectangles practice. …

Several members of our local ASG started a felting group to learn to incorporate needle felting into sewing projects. Several of us purchased the Babylock Embelllisher and some members have acquired the new Janome Xpressions machine. We had an initial meeting in November to discuss ideas and projects and what we want the group to do and be.

We had our next meeting earlier this month and decided to meet every two months. Each member of the group would be the leader/teacher for that month. I got March!!! I am still in the infant/crawling stage, while some others are off and running a marathon. Everyone of us are at various skill levels so this will be tedious I am sure for some and a great learning experience for us others (me).

I decided to have each member work on learning to make shapes each week in order to learn more about the machine, how to control the feling to make the shape and then I hope to conclude with everyone making some sort of project. I am encouraging members to take ph…

I really wanted to try to do some 10-20-30 minute sewing this week. The work week was very stressful. I did not go to lunch any day last week except Friday. Food from our employee vending machine is good once in awhile, not for four days. Though I did save money and did not eat as much.

By the time I got home from work and then cooked, no energy to do much else. But I did read two sewing magazines from cover to cover, skipping some stuff in between. This morning I traced the Coquette Blouse pattern I purchased a few months ago. Tomorrow I will pin fit pattern for adjustments and then decide on what fabric to use to make the blouse. I have some nice fabric in my stash, just need to decide.

I wrote this post and committed to do something sewing related at a minimum of 4 times a week.

Here is a list of last week's accomplishments:
Completed PMB Jacket with major sewing completed on the weekend.=Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and afternoon.Using my Stitch and Stash Software from Wild Ginger, I began entering my pattern stash information.=Several evenings last week. I am amazed at the patterns in my stash and yet I am not. I feel a pattern sale coming up.Read up and practiced using 3D Sketch two evenings last week. This is going to be a learning curve for me in controlling the stitch creations.Attending a felting class with several ASG members using either Babylock Embellisher ofor the new Janome Expressions machines.I think I did very well. And you know I feel contentment and somewhat revitalized. During this time I have let go of job related stress issues; I am smiling more; and being less of a cranky person. Sewing is truly good for the soul.

Well my jacket is complete! I am thrilled. I started this project about two weeks ago. Though I could have made the jacket in one day if I had uninterupted time, this took longer because of the front embroidery and I don't have uninterupted time.

I just wrote a review of the pattern at PR, click on My Pattern Reviews under Sewing Links under sidebar for that information.

The fabric was great to sew with. No real issues at all. This is fabric I have had in my stash for over two years. I am trying to use my fabric stash for current sewing projects. This is being driven also because of the Fabric Stash contest at PR as well. So far I have made three items and have use about 6 yards of material.

Here are some photos of the jacket in sewing progress and completed:

This is the front with embroidery complete , shoulders sewn and shoulder pads pinned in.




This is jacket with sides basted for further fitting.

This is a side view with glimpse of the back in the mirror.



Here is the completed jacket …

I have never been "tagged" before so I guess it was appropriate to get double teamed. I was tagged by Gaylen and by Lori.

The Rules:
• Someone Tags you
• You post 5 things about yourself that you haven't already mentioned on your blog
• You tag 5 more bloggers

Here goes:
I am an only child and always found ways to entertain myself. I think only children do that well. Entertainment included reading, playing with dolls and paperdolls. I always used different voices and behaviors for each doll while playing. I was so good at this that my grandfather when he called me to dinner sometimes would tell me to invite my friend also.I lived in a great neighborhood where there were lots of kids around and in the summer we played such games like roller bat, red light,hide and seek, scrabble or anagrams, pick up sticks, and jackrocks. God did I just tell my age or what. But as you can see we played outside and did not sit at computers or video games all day.I wanted to become an actress whe…