Thursday, August 31, 2017

Hurricane Harvey!

Such a disaster for Houston and other parts of Texas and Louisiana due to Hurricane Harvey!  I was reading emails and there are many appeals and many places for one to make a donation to Hurricane Harvey relief.  I lived in Corpus Christi for 8 years in the 80's and loved it.  We moved there a year or two following a rather damaging hurricane and an oil spill.  While there a hurricane came through just south of us centered more over Mexico.  Fortunately it was not the intensity of this one.  Texas is one of my favorite states where I have lived.

Numerous Indie pattern sites are offering their patterns with a percentage of the price going to help with Harvey relief.  There are other ways to support as well and hope that you will do so.  We have a lot of sewing friends in that area and my prayers go out to them and everyone going through this challenging time.


Friday, August 25, 2017

The Great Reveal!!!

FINALLY!!!!!!!


I finally finished the tunic and took the opportunity to pose for pictures after work.  I did not wear this to work, just a little too warm today for this medium weight linen/rayon fabric.  Though the weatherman says we will have fall like weather this weekend!

Without further ado:

Ruffle neck tunic from The Tunic Bible
Fabric came from a fabric store in Charlottesville; the store closed about a year or more ago.  It is a linen-rayon blend.  It was a one side border print.  I wanted to incorporate the border with the ruffle all around the neckline but simply did not have enough to make the ruffle and fit the neckline.  So I used it to one side of the neckline.

Matching border seam
I was pleased that I was able to cut and line up the border at the side seams.

With the back pattern piece, you can choose to sew using darts or not.I had to play around with the darts some.  The first darts I sewed made the back too fitted.  I reduced the darts to more of an essence of darts and that made the back too poofy in the middle, so took the darts in about half way from the original darts.  This makes the back fit better with my swayback.

Here is close up of the ruffle.  I used my ruffle foot to make the ruffles and plan to use it again.

Tunics are not something I have worn; I liked all the pictures of the tunics in the Tunic Bible (link -Amazon Affiliate).  I thought this fabric reminded me of fall so I will have one garment ready for cooler weather.

Have a nice sewing weekend!

Almost done

I am sure we have all worked on a sewing project that at some point we are wanting it to end.

I finally finished the ruffle neck tunic last night.  I only had to hem it and redo the back darts.  I will review soon with pictures.  I like the finished product and really took my time sewing it working to match up the border, etc.

I am just ready to move on to the next projects.  I have so many patterns I want to try and need to work on reducing my fabric stash.  There's a reason why this is becoming more important and will reveal in my next post or two.

TGIF, ya'll!!!!

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Tunics and Tanks

The ruffle neck tunic is almost complete!!!🙌  I only need to hem it.  I also plan to do a little something with the ruffle at the chest point.

What's next is The Perfect Tank Top from Pamela's Patterns.  I have had this pattern for a couple of years and never made it.  I have seen a few people review on their blogs, Pattern Review and saw this on one of our ASG Chapter members.

I have some leftover knit fabrics from previous projects and decided to give them a try.

Photos to follow the tunic once I hem it.  Hope you had a great weekend and hope next week is a good one.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Simplicity 1366

I posted a picture of this top on Instagram a week ago, a work in progress.  I completed it and finally wore it to work.  I took some pictures of this top after work deciding to shoot them outside in the front of the house.  I am tired of the hallway, kitchen and bedroom photos.

I used the tripod and timer to take these.  I have to say I was wondering to myself  what are the neighbors thinking seeing me do this.  Oh well, if they are curious enough they will ask.

Back view


Here is the hands on hip pose
and another hands on hips, not my best smile-it was hot outside


Front view

I love the fabric, a Nicole Miller design sold at JoAnn's; I like the top.  It is a little wide in the neck area and would adjust that more so should I make this again.  It is a boxy top with drop shoulder.

I think boxy tops are "okay" and work with slim pants or even a longer skirt; maybe even a more fitted short skirt.  I don't wear them often.

This was to be an entry in the Pattern Review pattern from stash contest.  I just could not get it completed in time.

I took a deeper seam in the under arm area and used 3/4 inch seams in the sides. I hemmed the bodice and sleeves using 1 1/2 inch hems.

After this little photo shoot, I cut out the sleeves for the ruffle neck tunic.  That project will be completed by the weekend.

More later!





Sunday, August 13, 2017

Ruffles and ruffle foot

I purchased a ruffle foot for my sewing machine years ago.  In deciding to make the Ruffle Neck Tunic from the Tunic Bible, I decided to try the ruffle foot.  It is (was) a rather intimidating foot.  After reading the sparse instructions that came with the foot, going to Threads Archive DVD that had a great article on using a ruffle foot and last and should have been first going to YouTube for a visual aid, I got the ruffle foot to ruffle my fabric.

I truly love the results.  You can also use this to sew the ruffle to another fabric and per You Tube works like a charm.  May try it in the future; as long as it makes a piece of fabric ruffle, I am good with that.

The fabric I am using is a linen rayon and medium weight.  To make the ruffle fit the neckline you need to measure the neckline length and pretty much double the length for the fabric strip.  The strip is 5 inches wide x  2 times length.  Fold the strip in half length wise and baste edges together and then create a ruffle.

I had to sew two fabric lengths together to make this ruffle.  I wanted the border print to go around the neckline but did not have enough fabric to do that.  I cut the border print 18.5 inches and cut another piece from base fabric the same length.  I stitched them together.


Here is the ruffle pinned and basted to the neckline.



I finally got this attached and topstitched.

I stopped at that point and now off to sewing room to attached the sleeves, sew the side seams and hem.  More updates later.

Thursday, August 10, 2017

Ruffle Neck Tunic

I started working on a tunic for the Tunic Contest on Pattern Review.  
This is the front view.  This is a border print fabric I acquired from Les Fabrique, formerly located in Charlottesville, VA.  Unfortunately they closed their shop.  They had some gorgeous fabrics for sewist and quilters.  This was fabric in their remnant section.  This is a linen rayon blend.  Medium weight.

I cut the ruffle piece using some of the border print.  There was not enough of the border print to use so had to sew the border print to a piece of the main fabric to have enough fabric to ruffle.

I have a ruffle attachment foot for my sewing machine and have tried using it.  Tested it on some fabric pieces to mimic the ruffle piece and I still need to practice getting this to the right ruffle length as well as depth.

I have had this foot forever and never used.  I still may end up attaching knit yarn to the edge, zigzagging over it and then pulling the yarn to get the fabric to gather, which is similar to ruffles.

This pattern is from the   (Amazon Affiliate)

Will share more in the near future.

Saturday, August 05, 2017

Pamela's Patterns Bias Skirt!

I finally wore my PP Bias Skirt made during a recent sewing retreat with Pamela Leggett.

I normally do not wear long skirts, I  did not get on the maxi dress/skirt train.  I did go with a midi length though.  I wore this to work on Thursday.  I like the drape of the fabric on the bias.

The skirt past the weariability test, not a lot of wrinkles.  This is a rayon purchased from Fabric Mart that was in a kit to make a wrap dress by McCall's.  It was called Pick Up Sticks and the little sticks remind me of that game I played a lot as a child.



After taking these pictures I realized that my black top tucked into the skirt left a blackish background under the skirt.  I wore a flesh colored slip.

Some of the bias skirts shown by Pamela at the retreat were from some gorgeous fabrics that had great drape and very flattering.  I do want to make a shorter version and plan to do so toward September.

I finished a Simplicity top pattern by Cynthia Rowley.  Hope to wear it soon, here it is on AlmaMarie before sleeves and bodice was hemmed.
I am working on a tunic from the Tunic Bible.  More on that latter.



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...