Saturday, December 31, 2005

Sewing Progress

I began sewing the LH Tuxedo Jacket yesterday. The fabric is very ravely. I did not interface each piece, but I did serge finish all edges. For the sleeves I am interfacing the entire sleeve. I am not going to line because of the sleeve hem style. I am sure there is a way to line it but I am taking the easy way out and just interfacing with a softknit interfacing. One to make it a little easier to put arms in and out of the sleeve but also because of the ravely, woven fabric needs this stablizer for everyday wear and use.

I used the SNF lining method on this jacket. Using it on the front and back pieces. The pattern calls for 3/8 seam allowances. I did not trim the allowances to 1/4 and topstitch as we were taught in the recent SNF class on Pattern Review. I kept the 3/8 seams and not topstitching. The topstitching would get lost in the fibres of the this fabric. I also did not topstitch in case I have to make some fitting adjustments. I don't think that I will; I did pin fit the pattern and made adjustments prior to cuttting out the fabric and lining.

I basted the shoulder seams and tried jacket on. Seems to be fitting well. I need to reference the sewing instructions for sewing shoulders with SNF lining method. There is an appropriate time to do so but I think it is dependent on putting in permanent shoulder pads or removable ones. I know I can make a shoulder pad pocket for removable ones, this will be something new for me to try. Thus I have stopped sewing jacket until I review the instructions and make decisions regarding the shoulder pads.

Monday, December 26, 2005

Loes Hinses Patterns Ready.

I cut out the fabric to make the Loes Hinses Tuxedo Jacket. This is fabric I purchased from Vogue Fabrics, months ago. It is a pretty winter white with lavendar, gray, steel gray and rose color threads or slugs running throught the fabric. Not sure of the fabric content. I am trying to find a previous Vogue Fabric swatch mailing with this one included to determine the fibers in this fabric. It was difficult to cut due to the heavy slugs woven through the material.



I am using an off white lining, Hang Loose, for jacket front and back pieces. I am going to use the Stitch and Flip (SNF) method of sewing the lining to the fabric for these pieces only. I am planning on interfacing the sleeves with Soft Knit in off white. I want to keep the front slit included in this jacket styling and not sure that I can line the sleeve or not. Still thinking on that one.

I also finished cutting out the lining and pockets for the LH Butterfly Bag. This was put aside to complete Christmas sewing. So now I am ready to tackle both projects. Lucky me I only to work three days next week so will get more sewing time in next long weekend.

Placemat Purse



Here is a photo, somewhat blurry, of a placemat purse I just made today for a gift for another employee's daughter.

The instructions were from a previous Threads Magazine article. My machine has some difficulty sewing over heavy fabric plus cording. I used a Jeans Needle, size 18. This was recommended in the article. Not sure why my machine had issues.

Don't want to do anything to damage machine as currently the Viking Dealership is open in our area and there is no one locally to repair the machines. Not a good thing.

White Lace Rose Bowl


This is the complete bowl for my MIL for Christmas. I used Badgemaster with this bowl and the stiffness worked perfectly. Much better than Aqua Mesh. AM is okay but you don't want to rinse very much. I was happy with the outcome.

This took over 7 hours to embroidery and this does not count sewing time of the various bowl pieces.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Final Bowl about complete

I am working on another bowl for my DMIL. I have acquired all my bowl embroidery designs from BFC Creations. I am about to finish the bottom of the bowl and one last side of the bowl.

As I have written before these bowls are thread and time consuming. I will be ready to work on other projects that I have traced patterns for. I will be getting some time off for Christmas this week and part of next so plan to use much of it for sewing.

I gave my coworker her Oriental Bowl today. She was very surprised and pleased about the gift. Found it hard to believe that it was all threads.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

What I am sewing now?

I am completing another FSL Bowl for Christmas present for my DMIL. While the machine is embroiderying I have completed the tracing and pattern pinfitting of the LH Tuxedo Jacket. I made some adjustments to the back hip area as it appeared that the jacket may hang up on my hip fluff. So only added to the back area. I also made a slight bust adjustment. I used Nancy Z's pivot and slide method as I only added about a 1/2 inch to that area. Normally bust fits well with LH jackets and I think this will also.

I am debating using the SNF method of lining with this jacket for front and back pieces. I will not line the sleeves but will interface them as it is a boucle type fabric and this will help stabilize as well as make easy to get on and off. The sleeves have a slit in the front area and I don't want to have to try to change that design or fiddle with the lining for the sleeves to fit that design.

I am using a fabric I purchased from Vogue Fabrics through one of their swatch mailings. It is winter white with grey and lavendar and some other colors. I will post photo soon. I have some winter white pants that I purchased from Nordstroms that this will look great with. The top can be various colors. I also purchased some lovely polyester fabric that will go with this and even had thought about using this as the lining. Lovely print with all the colors that are the specs in the winter white boucle. But I thought it would make a great sleeveless or short sleeve top to wear with the jacket. Decisions, decisions.

Here is a link for the LH Tuxedo Jacket pattern. http://www.loeshinsedesign.com/categories/jackets/tuxedo.html

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Oriental Bowls

Here are photos of my other completed bowl.
I am working on a third bowl for my DML for Christmas.
This has been a fun project but I am ready to do some fashion sewing again.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Photos of Embroidered Bowls


This is two sides of the embroidered bowl. This is before washing out the wash away stabilizer. There is so much thread used with these bowls that it takes over an hour to embroidery just one side. Posted by Picasa

Here is a complete bowl except that the pieces have not yet been sewed together.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Update on sewing

Friday evening, I sewed the bowl embroidered pieces together creating the bowl.

I traced the Tuxedo Jacket pattern by Loes Hinses. I need to pin fit the pattern. I also pin fitted the Hot Patterns Plain and Simple T. The bust may still be to small even with FBA made. I read that you can not pin fit knit tops, I suppose because of the knit fabric has stretch. With the adjustments made to the HP T-shirt, I can tell it will fit well around waist and hip. Actually I may end up taking a deeper seam. I may retrace the entire front pattern again and redo. I do not want to waste any more fabric on this top. I do want to get it to fit though.

DH wants me to make a lace bowl for his mother for Christmas. So will start on that soon.

I am beginning to feel I have more to do than time.

My cold is making me feel sluggish. Keep trying to shake it and seems to get better, then I seem to have a slight relapse.

Photos soon of the bowls.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Oh Dear Me!

I have not seen my sewing room in days! I am very busy with work and have the "crud" that is being past around at work. Today I can't hardly talk from coughing so much. Oh dear me!

I have been reviewing pattern catalogs and sewing related magazines to keep my creative thoughts going. I hope to finish up several in progress projects over the next few days. Hopefully I will be able to work on somethings this evening.

DH is working strange hours so hopefully I will get some uninterupted time to work on sewing and embroiderying.

I wore my SNF Jacket Monday to work. Got lots of compliments. I was pleased with the fit of the jacket. The more I look at the inside of the jacket, the more I like the finished seam binded edges.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Sewing Today

Well I spent the morning working on the FSL bowls for Christmas presents. The embroidery part is complete. Now I need to sew the sections together. While the machines were embroiderying I cut out the Butterfly Bag pattern from Loes Hinses. I purchased some tapestry type fabric from EQuilters several months ago.

I also began tracing the LH Tuxedo Jacket pattern.

This evening DH and I attended his company's Christmas dinner at the Homeplace. Nice event, good food and fun time had by all.

Hope to complete one of the bowls tomorrow night.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Where have I been and what's going on with sewing

I had a very busy week at work last week. Thursday and Friday, I was on vacation but was out of town. I was in the DC area. Went to G Street Fabrics in Rockville. Regretfully I just did not see any thing that appealed to me in the way of fabric. I truly looked but just could not find anything that I had to take out of the store.

I did buy some shoulder pads which were of great quality. Cannot find anything like them here in Roanoke. I also purchased some Aqua Mesh stablizer as well as Badge Master. Also purchased a purse pattern that was on sale at 25% off.

I have a head cold so feeling rather blah. I decided to finish the knit top from Hotpatterns today though I am only going to use it for exercise. Just does not fit well. I did retrace the pattern and made a 3/4 inch FBA and lengthened it two inches. I did scoop out the armscye area in the front some. I will see how this does.

I got my third Hotpattern today that was on back order. It is the BoHo De-luxe Woodstock Tunic. I purchase fabric for this pattern at Hancock's today. I also purchased the Twist Top by KS that it is being reviewed frequently on Pattern Review. Purchased four yards of knit fabric to make this top and to try the renovated Hot Pattern mentioned above.

While doing the retrace of the pattern, I finished embroidering one of the FSL bowl projects. Restarted the other FSL that I also plan to give for Christmas.

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...