Sunday, February 28, 2016

Patterns from the Past

A few months ago I participated in the New to Me Pattern Contest at Pattern Review.  I was selected the Random Prize Winner and the Sponsor was Patterns From The Past.  I won a $50 gift certificate. I had visited their website a few times; last week I visited again and found several patterns for which I decided to acquire using the gift certificate.  I still have a small balance left and plan to visit again soon.

I thought I would share with you my purchases. The newest pattern from the past was a skirt from 2007.
It is not a pattern that I have been searching for; the style just appealed to me and decided to add to my cart.

Here is a pant pattern from the 70's and the flare style is make an appearance more and more.
I just purchased a Simplicity flare pant pattern with a jacket and skirt included.  It will be interesting to compare the two patterns.

Here is a knit pattern that appealed to me probably because of the pink/orange combination of one to the tops and I keep seeing those colors in lipsticks such as Zac Posen's new release for MAC Cosmetics.



From Nordstrom website




From MAC Cosmetics website



















I also selected a skirt pattern based upon a few skirts I have saved to Pinterest

And the last one to show you is a 1967 Stretch and Sew Pattern.  The pattern envelope leaves a lot to be desired.  I began sewing around this time and I know that my grandmother nor I ever used of S&S patterns.  I actually bought my first one in the '90's while living in Florida.  This particular pattern has three neckline variations; I saw them on the website but nothing reflects this on the envelope; only on the enclosed instructions.  Pattern is intact, no tracing marks or anything.  It sold for $1.00 in 1967.





Sunday, February 21, 2016

Freaky February Weather

My last post was about Freaky February Garment of the Month, which has not yet materialized.

Last Monday was a holiday and my big plans for sewing were interrupted by a snow storm followed by sleet and freezing rain.  All of this led to power outage for three days!  Freaky February Storm!

I like snow when I don't have to travel in it; I don't like it when it is snow, sleet and then freezing rain.  Instead of sewing DH and I were shoveling snow.  A young man in our neighborhood came along and using snow blower tackled cleaning my very long and uphill driveway.  My husband and I are still not sure where he came from and when we offered to help replenish his gas he would not accept our gift.  His was a true gift to us as we have enough aches and pains without having to do a lot of shoveling.

So the sun came out while all of this was going on and the snow stopped.  A few hours later, came the sleet and then during the night came the predicted freezing rain. I woke at 3:15 AM on Tuesday morning to quiet and realized  we had no power.

Tuesday, Feb. 16 was my 43rd wedding anniversary.  Going into work at noon, the temps were rising and the rain was over.  That evening we moved into a hotel, enjoyed an unplanned dinner out for our anniversary and enjoyed having lights and heat.

We were able to return home on Friday.

I lived in Florida for nine years and loved every minute of it!  I remember sitting in my recliner watching people dig out from the snow while wearing shorts and sandals and feeling sorry for those that had that digging/shoveling to do.  When I retire I am Florida bound again!!!

My parting comment------


Sunday, February 14, 2016

Jalie 3461 and Freaky February

I have been participating in the Make a Garment a Month group on Facebook.  The February theme is Freaky February.  The 'freaking' is what you hesitant to sew as it freaks you out to do so or in my case sewing pants freaks me out and thus I avoid it almost like a plague.

I am fortunate that I can usually purchase well fitting pants and jeans in the petite department at several retailers.  So I like to spend time sewing other items that I can get a better fit than RTW or I want be wearing the same top as one of my staff members or a friend because I made it myself.

So for Freaky February, I am going to make a pair of pull on jeans using Jalie 3461.  I just spent a good 1/2 hour reading all the reviews at PR about these jeans.  Some more helpful than others.

Last night I traced my size according to their instructions and then pin fitted them earlier today.  I then freaked as the pin fitted pattern really did not fit very well.  One issue is paper does not stretch and these jeans are designed for fabric that stretches 20% at a minimum.  The second issue was the back area which I know needs more tweaking-they need to come up higher than what these did.  I decided to not let this freak me out to where I would not continue with the project.

I am smart enough to know that I will need raise the back length (rise) and pretty much know how to do this after giving it more thought and reading PR reviews.  Tomorrow is a holiday so I plan to make pattern adjustments and cut these out.  I do plan to add 1 inch just in case seams at the side seams.  I did shortened the length by one inch but may need to take another inch off.

Fabric is a recent end of year purchase from JoAnn for stretch denim.  There are some nicer stretch denim fabrics online that if these prove to be successful and I feel like I should no longer freak out over pull on jeans after making these then I will order some.

That's all for now.  It is snowing tonight and tomorrow promises to be more weather issues with sleet and freezing rain!  Nice that I have the day off anyway!

More later.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Another M6996

I completed this sweater knit jacket last weekend.  Just getting around to posting about it.

This is my second version of this pattern.  I previously made this in 2014.  That one was the short version-View A.  That fabric was a sweater knit from Fabric Mart.

This one is View B, the longer version.  The fabric is from Vogue Fabrics, in muted (dull) green color.
I wore it with a long sleeve sweater underneath with black stretch woven fabric-Talbot's side zip pants.  Scarf is from Versona.

I ended up taking 3/8 seam allowances instead of the called for 5/8.  This knit did not have the stretch that my other knit fabric had.

Here is the back view:
There is a little pulling the sleeve, they do run smallish.  I also think this is due from the heavier sweater that I wore under it.  The peplum covers my butt.

This is my semi side view:

I wore this to work on Monday and it passed the wearabilty factor!  I am not sure that I will make another one any time soon; though I may try the other style included with the pattern at a later time.  I have several other garments I want to sew next.

My next garment will be jeans.  This will be a challenge for me as I have limited experience with pants.  I just prefer to sew other things.  My first attempt will be the Jalie pull on jeans.  I purchased some jean fabric at JoAnn's for my test garment.



Thursday, February 04, 2016

Simplicity 1072

Quick post of the red knit with lace overlay sweatshirt.  It is growing on me, I have yet to hem the sleeves and the neck band does not lay exactly as I would like.  The back needs to be shortened if there is another version.






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...