Danvillegirl Sewing Diary

I completed the skirt!!!!Pictures soon, I hope.

I am pleased with the entire outfit together. The skirt fits well. I have not made a skirt in a long time that had a waistband. Most skirts I have made of late have elastic. Thus the skirt had some extras to it. I used a regular zipper instead of an invisible one. I really do like invisible ones better. This made me work on my zipper insertion technique for regular zippers, not used in a while.

I am now ready to cut out a dress pattern that is similar to a Vogue pattern I purchased but decided to make it from PMB. I drafted a back zippered sheath dress with neck, sleeveless and french darts. With PMB, the program always drafts facings for sleeveless styles. I am not going to use them as I plan to line the dress and the lining will take the place of the facings.

The inspiration for this outfit comes from the Talbots Catalog. Here is their dress.



This is the jacket. It is shown in another catalog with the v-neck sheath underneath. No button…

I serge finished the edges of the skirt lining fabric. I really like the lining fabric I purchased. It is not the "Hang Loose" lining fabric I usually have to purchase locally. I did buy it at JoAnn's and it is a polyester, but has a great feel to it.

I am ready to sew the panels together and then attach to skirt. I will then only need to sew the waistband to the skirt, affix hook and eyes, hem and Viola! I will have a nice outfit.

I don't remember taking so long to sew something years ago. Maybe I spend more time getting the fit better and focus on the completeness of the garment.

I made great progress on my skirt today. I sewed the front panel or gore to the side front gores/panels. I then embroidered the left bottom of the skirt centering the design on the bottom seam line; allowing for hem allowance and 2 inch slit. I thought about embroidering the design all the way up to the waist but after embroidering this one I thought that this looked great with the one design instead of repeating.

I then cut out a lining for the skirt and serge finished the edges of the lining. I ended there for the day. I had to cook dinner and I want to spend some time with DH watching TV.

Hopefully I can finish this up during the week. I want to take my serger in for a general maintenance review. It has been over three years since I purchased it. I hear a little squeaky noise that I am not sure what it relates to. I don't see any negative changes in the stitches or anything but think it is good to have these machines checked out and perhaps have the blade replaced. So when skir…

I decided to make a four gore skirt, straight lines, no flare at width. I drafted the skirt pattern using PMB (Pattern Master Boutique). I have fairly good luck with skirts made from this program.

I plan to embroider the jacket design down the left front seam line area. This was a suggestion from my husband, which for him to suggest, somewhat surprises me. He doesn't normally like embroidery much. He is not one for "flash". I don't think this is flashy but he usually does.

Once this skirt is complete. I am already planning another coordinating outfit in soft brown tones. This is fabric I have had for over a year now. The dress will be from fabric from Hancock's that I purchased early spring last year.



The other fabrics came from Sawyer Brook and it too was from last spring/summer.


Going to sewing room now.

Here is the cap sleeve blouse that inspired the embroidery on the jacket.


Here is the jacket with the blouse underneath. I see some puckers on the right side but when I look at the jacket they are not there. I think it is the way the jacket is on the dressform when I took the photo.


Here is a close up of the embroidery on the jacket with blouse underneath.


To add a little length to the jacket by not having to turn up as deep of a hem, I added a bias facing using fabric from blouse. Here is close up of that.


My DH has suggested that I sew a skirt with the design running down the length of the front of the skirt. For my husband to suggest this is a major breakthrough for him. He is not one much for embellishment, but then I always tell him he is not wearing the outfit I am. But since he has planted that idea, I have two skirt styles in mind that I think that this would work with. I think it is a good idea, so when I take the jacket off the skirt will pick up the design also.

The jacket is complete!!! For an easy sew jacket this was a bit of a challenge. The jacket was shorter than I thought and to make it a little longer I added a bias piece at the bottom, turning it up partically so that I created an illusion of piping around the hemline. This allowed me to add a little more length to the jacket as I did not want the blouse to hang below jacket hemline. I think by adding this I also tied the embroidery on the jacket front together more with blouse underneath and jacket piping to match.

I took shots of the jacket and blouse this morning. I have to leave for work now and will post the pictures later. I will do a review on Pattern Review as well.

I have decided on two skirt styles and will make final decision tonight. I used PMB to draft the two patterns. I will then cut out skirt pattern this week and hope to have this project fully complete by weekend.

Here is a photo of the embroidered front piece of my jacket in progress. Work has been extremely difficult this week with it being "budget season" and I am short one managment staff, so guess what, I am wearing two hats again. Thus I have not had time to work on my jacket any evening this week. Tomorrow is a holiday!! Guess what, I will sew some and hopefully finish this tomorrow and then decide on what skirt style I am going to use to make the skirt for this.



The photo makes the left side look a little different in color. But it is photographer error or lighting error because they are the same color. I am so excited that I got the embroidery to mirror and line up exactly!!!;-). That is the hard part of doing embroidery like this, I think.

More later.

I did it again! I bought more fabric. Textile Studios' Tempting Tuesday sales can be addictive. Going to their website is addictive. I purchased some beautiful fabric that has large dots all over it; it is a beige background and the dots are in luscious spring, muted colors. I saw a suit in Talbot's catalog that was large polka dots and as soon as I saw it, I remembered this fabric on TS's site. Of course, with no hesitation, I went to the computer, clicked and ordered. It arrived yesterday!

I will post photos soon.

Well I did it! I embroidered the jacket today. I think it is looking good! Hopefully when all sewn up the embroidery will match up as planned. It looks that way now. I hope to take pictures of this soon.

I have had a stomach virus that has really kicked me. Every time I think I am feeling better, the next wave of nauseua and just feeling ill gets me. I spent most of yesterday sleeping. Today I am feeling human again. So human that I am fixing a really special meal. So that is why I can not do any more multi-tasking like cooking, sewing and photography.

I have more sewing ideas as of result of the success of the blouse and hopefully jacket. I have the fabric, I just need the time.

My blouse is now complete. Since DH had to work late, I got some free time tonight to sew. I didn't have a lot to finish, just neck and sleeve binding and then machine hem the blouse. I will take photos later to post.

I will be testing my embroidery design tomorrow and hopefully will stitch out well. Then will embroider on the jacket. I am really excited about this project. Maybe all will go sew well that I can then decide on skirt to go with this, perhaps the one included in the pattern and will have a new suit to wear.

Here is a photo of one of the embroidery designs from my new embroidery card.



Here is a photo of another design from the card.



Here is the design I took into Embird, split some of the squares from the design above, then seperated them, then imposed those on the other design creating this.
Here is the blouse fabric

I will embroider this onto the linen blend fabric to be made up into jacket and skirt.
I hope to test the embroidery this weekend.

I don't know if others do this, probably so. I pulled some fabrics from my fabric collection and matched them with patterns to sew. Thus the recent skirt I made. Meanwhile I ordered fabric from Vogue Fabrics which arrived a week or two ago. All of a sudden, I have to make an outfit with some of the new fabric.

The outfit was bubbling in my mind early on and I knew I wanted to make it up soon. But now it has worked its way above all others.

I have pin fitted the Vogue pattern I am using. That is I pin fitted the shorter jacket view and the blouse/top. I made my usual fitting adjustments. I then proceeded cutting out the fabric. I am undecided about the skirt. I am 5'3" and sometimes I think the long skirts shortened me, unless I am wearing a high heel. I like the look of the skirt and may decide to shorten it some.

I also just purchased a Viking Embroidery Card called Endless Sensations. The reason for the purchase is two of the designs have some of the same elements of the b…

Here is the completed KS skirt.


The hem is not completed in this picture. I had edged finished the hem line and begun to turn it up.

Here is an inside look of the elastic. I serged the edges of the fabric as it was rather ravely. I then zigzagged the elastic to the edge of the skirt.



Next I turned under and sometimes I sew right along the edge of the turnunder elastic to form a casing, stretching and stitching as I go. I like the Comfort Elastic method, found on Pam's "Off the Cuff" blog. So decided to do that with this skirt. When you wear it, you don't see an elastic casing, it is smooth (mostly) and looks more like a faced skirt.

You just stitch in the ditch through the side seams and I also stitch through front and back seams if there are any. This holds elastic in place.