Sunday, January 28, 2007

Coquette Blouse project

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 review at Pattern Review. This reviewer indicated that she thought the blouse ran large. I am not as trim and thin as she appears to be in her photo. I don't think this will be the case for me. Here is a photo of the pattern. Not the most exciting pattern view to look at but the website itself is inspiring once you click on the links and view some of the vintage patterns and clothing made from them.

I pulled two fabric pieces from my stash to make the blouse and still not sure which one I will use. I am leaning toward the pale beige with pale lavendar one as it is a little thicker than the teal/peach one. The teal/peach one was acquired while living in Florida-1991-2000. The other I acquired from Vogue fabrics in late 2005 or early 2006. I have another piece of fabric that I acquired from Britex fabrics in 1990 that has continued to age well, a silk green and orange fabric. I think though I will hold onto this until I make sure this pattern is going to work.

Here are the photos of the two fabric choices.

Needle felting update

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. I was practing needle felting the edges on the top two. I learned that I need to felt one edge, cut off the yarn, turn the fabric and needle felt the next edge. The middle one looks more like an oval than a square, that's more because I did not do what I just mentioned above.


Here are the rest of the "boxes". I found that I prefer felting yarn than roving. I seem to be able to visualize how it should be placed better than roving. The multi colored rectangle was made from yarn I purchased at Walmart called Rag Doll. I love the look of the colors of this yarn and have another skein with warm yellows, oranges and some other colors added to the mix. The blue square was roving that I worked very hard to really fill in the square drawn. I then turned the felt over and needlepunched from wrong side and this pushed some of the orange felt square fibers to the front, thus the square now has some orange floating on the surface. I should have pressed the felt square after I completed the project for it to look flatter and smoother. I did not use any water soluable backing on the felt. Perhaps would have provided a more stable felt square to work with.

I really don't feel qualified to be teaching a group on this process. But we are all learning together. When I learned to sew, I had to practice sewing straight lines, then curves and such. I think learning this is like a baby learning to walk. Usually the first stage is crawling, then taking some baby steps. Some in our group are way past this point.
With more and more books becoming available on the subject, there is a lot more helpful material for learning more about the embellishing machines as well as the hand felting tools and needles.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Needle felting

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 photos of their practice for the week and post on our group page.

This evening I spent time felting rectangles and squares on wool felt fabric. This was the first lesson, to felt the above shapes using yarn, roving or whatever one wanted to do. I took some photos and will be posting on our group. I did fairly well. I need to learn to control, felt and shape. There are more and more books coming out on the subject but it is quite different from cutting out patterns, sewing, fitting, basting and developing a complete and wearable item.

Not my best sewing week!

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.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Sewing Summary

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:
  1. Completed PMB Jacket with major sewing completed on the weekend.=Friday evening, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and afternoon.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

PMB Jacket is Complete!

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 on Alma Marie. The dress form shoulders are wider than mine thus makes the hang of the jacket in the shoulders and sleeves look funky.



Next up is New Look Jacket, Coquette Blouse, and 1945 Skirt.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

I've Been Tagged-twice

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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. I wanted to become an actress when I grew up , but my mother told me I needed to pursue a more "practical career" like a secretary, school teacher or nurse. I tried being a secretary but could not type though I could take dictation. I had attended college for one year after high school and then dropped out and worked briefly as a secretary at Houehold Finance. Actually my title was Office Girl or OG. (Was that discriminatory or what) I proved to be better as the Head Cashier being much better at bookkeeping/recordkeeping than typing.
  4. I returned to college after 1 1/2 years as a drop out and "hippy" and got my BS in Social Work, working during the day and going to college at night. Later in life returned to college to acquire a MBA. Did not get the MBA but have lots of years experience as CEO of non-profit organizations. My degree and my bookkeeping experience combined together has helped me in my profession.
  5. I have been married for 33 years with our 34th anniversary coming up next month. We are DINKS-Double Income No Kids. We did have two chihuahuas who lived to be 15 and 16 years old and they were like our kids!

There you go. Now my tags are Twisted Angel, Cindi, Liana, JuliaR, Isabelle.

Friday, January 19, 2007

Happy Birthday to me!

Yes today is my birthday! And I had a great day! Ate way too much sugar loaded foods today but what they heck, it was my birthday.

When I left to go to work this morning, I stopped at Starbucks and got a Cafe Mocha! Love my coffee in the mornings. When I arrived at work, upon entering the building the receptionist was smiling even more than she normally does and as I headed toward my office, I saw a sign on my door that my secretary had put up saying it was my birthday. Several staff wished a happy one.

About 30 minutes later, my secretary asked I could go to the conference room with her to show me something, several staff that work in my division were in the room and sang Happy Birthday. We then had donuts!! My favorite chocolate covered with creamy stuffing!!!! No calories here, right! There were some lovely flowers on the table and those had just been delivered and were from my DH! I had already gotten other presents from him at home prior to work so this was just a really pleasant surprise.

I had lunch with a friend and we went to the Hotel Roanoke for one of their fabulous and very tasty buffet lunches. I had a salad and crab bisque soup and banana cream pie!! Again no calories here.

Late afternoon, another division was celebrating all January birthdays so I got a piece of chocolate cake with fabulous white icing. I only ate a small portion. I am one of these people that I just as soon eat the icing and forget the cake!! So I am sure you know what small portion I ate.

I will be at CURVES first thing in the AM and will have to do more than the 30 minute program.

No dinner was necessary and DH and I had already planned to have my birthday dinner tomorrow night! Thinking about CURVES, perhaps an hour is in order.

This evening after getting home from work, I spent time in my sewing room. I made good progress on my new jacket and should finish it tomorrow. I took some photos of the jacket showing my progress and will download from camera to computer later.

My sugar high has subsided so I am going to go sit and watch TV and look through my new Chico's and Nordstrom's catalogs. Hopefully I will see something inspiring for me to copy and sew.

Later!

Monday, January 15, 2007

Ideal Career Test

Your Career Personality: Empathetic, Loyal, and People-Oriented

Your Ideal Careers:

Chef
Corporate trainer
Designer
Events Coordinator
Librarian
Politician
Psychologist
Small Business Owner
Social Worker
Teacher



Some of the above does fit. Chef!!!! Read earlier post from today about cooking. NOT!

Photo of KS top

I hardly ever post photos of me wearing my creations. Mainly because it is hard to take photos of oneself and have them turn out decently. But I am pleased with the fit and thought I would share.
I may take up the waist band on the next top, just a tad. This fits well and is comfortable but I think I could take it in about 1/4 inch more and give it just a little more fitted look. I washed this top this weekend and the knit did very well.

Holiday and PSD

Today was a holiday and I took advantage of the free time to sew and to go shopping that was sewing related. Because I could not sleep in as I thought I would, I was up early and I was very productive.

I began working on my jacket this morning. I stitched the darts, serge finished the front side seams. I serge finished the center back and then stitched the back seam. I then sewed the shoulder seams. I then basted the side seams for fitting. After inserting shoulder pads as I had drafted for this, I was pleased that the shoulder fit was good.

I am very happy to report that the designs down the front aligned up perfectly on each front piece. That is always a tricky thing to do but was accomplished. I need to take a photo of this.

I lengthened this version of the jacket as I felt the first draft was going to be too short. This one however is currently looking like it is going to be too long or longer than I wanted the look to be. I will probably cut off about an inch. I allowed for a two inch hem. The jacket hem line was intended to be below the waist, but not at hip line. I am short from waist to hip. I attempted to find a photo of the jacket on the Macy's website as Macy's here is where I saw the jacket, top and pants outfit. I could not find it on their website, nor the particular brand. Go figure??????

With PMB you draft the facings for the jacket and can select the facing widths in doing so. I failed to adjust this setting for this jacket. I want the facing to cover up the backside of the front embroidery. I will be manually redrafting the facing pattern to make it wider. Fortunately I have enough fabric left to cut out new facings.

After spending about an hour in my sewing room, I then showered and dressed to travel about an hour to the Viking dealership to purchase the 3D Sketch Software accessories to complete my total upgrade to 3D Professional. I then looked around and purchased a new sewing plate for my machine that has imperial measurements--1/2 inch, 5/8, 1/4. Old habits die hard!! I also purchased some adhesive spray similar to Sulky Spray that I had not tried before. I also purchased a purse pattern. Like I really need another pattern.

Once home, I viewed some embroidery tutorials. I then became Suzy Domestic and cooked dinner. I really don't mind cooking when not rushed to do so. Unfortunately, having more or less time does not make me a better cook!

Sunday, January 14, 2007

Sewing Progress for PMB Jacket

I have been busy with drafting, printing, fitting and starting my PMB Jacket. I used the Classic Style draft for the jacket using PMB software. I then removed all waist darts and kept only the side dart. For front closure, I chose a zipper closure, only because this will allow me to keep the front with no closure and no overlap to have to cut off. I lengthened the jacket from my original draft after fitting I discovered that with 1 1/2 to 2 inch hem, the jacket would be too short. Thus lengthening gives me a deeper hem allowance and a jacket that will fall close to hip area.


I embroidered the fronts using my Endless Hoop which allows for easy alignment of an endless embroidery. Photos below show my progress.

Pattern laid out with extra fabric around edges to allow for loss with embroidery.



Other pieces laid out for cutting.




One front piece with embroidery down the front opening. Blue lines
are for alignment and are outside the final cutting area.




This shows the Endless Hoop used with a print out of the embroidery on
paper to help align the design where you want it.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Sewing Blurb for Wednesday 1/10/07

Well I have continued to do something sewing related since my post on Monday.

Last night I entered information on four more patterns into the Stitch and Stash program. I only a 100 more to do, but I am making progress.

Tonight I traced the front and back pattern pieces of jacket drafted from PMB. I use Swedish Tracing paper so I can pin fit the pattern for potential adjustments. I also finished taping the printed pieces together for the sleeve and facing part of the jacket. I also plan on lining the fabric as well.

Oh yes, I also took some photos of my red KS top I wore to work today with top and pants. Need to download from camera and look at them before posting.

Tomorrow night is our local ASG chapter meeting and will attend that.

Going to catch up on some blog reading now. Sew later.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Something sewing daily

In reading through various blogs the past weekend, I read where many of you were starting new year resolutions. I don't do them anymore "officially". However, I am trying to work on "affirmations" that will lead to more positive outcomes.

I affirm that I will do something sewing related at minimum of 4 times a week. Sewing related will include actually sewing, machine embroiderying, cutting out and/or fitting patterns, cutting out fabric, organizing and cataloging my patterns and fabric on my new Stitch and Stash Software, writing to my "sewing diary" (this blog) and/or reading about sewing in magazines and on blogs.

Today, I posted five patterns to my S&S software, including scanning photos of the patterns. I also ran a tutorial on one of my embroidery software programs.

" I feel good, like I knew I would". Sew Good, Sew Good!

PMB Jacket

I drafted a jacket pattern yesterday using Pattern Master Boutique 3. I keep seeing this very simple style jacket in the local Macys. It is short, no closure with bust darts only, somewhat boxy and short. The front edges are embroidered or have some sort of decorative stitches. Not very pricey-yet I have similar fabric, great sewing and embroidery machines that I could use to replicate.


I have decided to move this to the front of my sewing list. I need a more adventurous project now that I have sewn two knit tops that was to be easy and fast sewing. They were easy just not sure if I want to call them fast.


I am using a faux suede fabric with satin backing. This is exactly the fabric of the jacket at Macy's. I have not embroidered on this type fabric before so will attempt a test embroidery hopefully one evening this week. I purchased this fabric about two years ago from a sewing/fabric store in Harrisonburg. I am also somewhat motivated because of the stash contest on PR. I am again focusing on what I have on hand and not out to make numerous fabric purchases from other sources currently.


Here is a photo of the printed and taped pattern that PMB produces.

This is the front of the jacket. Normally if I draft a new pattern and one not previously made, I will trace the pattern using Swedish tracing paper. Then I can pin or machine baste the tracing paper for fitting. I normally make any adjustments onto the tracing paper and make note of that. I then attach tracing to printed PMB pattern for storing.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Vogue 8151 complete

I was able to complete the blue knit top. Here are photos of the top on Alma Marie.

This is the front view of the top and the side view you get to see is a the reflection in the mirror that was to the side of the dress form. I didn't plan it that way but there you go!


Here is the back view.

The bulges at the upper back near shoulders is from the bra that Alma Marie is wearing. Not the best for knit tops.
I wrote a review for the top at Pattern Review and entered it into the fabric stash contest they have going on at that site.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Sewing this week

Well I have not done the sewing I wanted to do this past week and particularly today.

I did work on the SB Knit top today. For simple patterns and truly easy to sew, it is taking me forever to get close to being finished. Prior to today, I had sewn the shoulders and the dart for this top. Today I sewed the neck binding which I basted to neck line three times! I really wanted it to be perfect and I admit that the last time was very good. I then serged the binding and pressed. I have now flat sewn the sleeves.

Tomorrow I will baste the sides and try on for final fitting before serging the sleeves and side seams. Then I should be able to hem sleeves and top and be done with it.

Next up---I have several projects going on in my head. They are:
  1. Simple jacket with side dart, decorative stitching embroidery down the center front, no closure.
  2. Vogue skirt with interesting back seaming.
  3. See list on sidebar.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

KS 3435 Top


This is the front view of the KS 3435 top.


This is the back view.

Fabric is from the Sewing Studio-Oregon, called Trelana Knit. Very soft feel but is medium weight with good body. Sews well.

I just wrote a review for this pattern at Pattern Review and entered it into the Stash Contest.

Monday, January 01, 2007

New Year's eve sewing

Yesterday morning I was very productive, sewing wise. Friday, I cut out two patterns using the Trelana knit fabric I purchased from The Sewing Studio. This is a lovely light to medium weight knit, that is somewhat like a soft sweater knit.

Originally I had planned to make the KS pattern out of the blue knit. I am glad I checked the amount of fabric on hand versus the amount needed. I truly thought I had enough of the blue to make the top but found I only had 1.5 yards, pattern called for 2.25. Even more fortunate was that I had 2 yards of the red knit and was able to make the top from that, so the .25 was more than I needed.
I finished the top yesterday around 2:00 pm, just in time to stop and begin the preparations for going to Danville for NYEve party. I need to take a photo of the completed top. I used my new clothing label for this top as well.
Below are photos taken of the cutting process. I decided to make the Sandra Betzina Knit top pattern out of the blue. I made this top before with good success. There were some adjustments I wanted to make after making the first one. These included lowering the bust dart by 1/2 inch and lengthening the top at the waist line by one inch. I also scooped out the front armscye area by 1/4 of an inch. This is something that Belinda-Australia has mentioned she does in several of her reviews on Pattern Review and I am finding that this makes for a better fit for me as well.









HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I can hardly believe 2006 came and went!

My DH and I went with some long time friends to a New Years Eve party last night. This is the first time in ages that we did not wake up in front of the TV to watch the ball drop in NYC.

We truly enjoyed the time with friends and saw some old acquaintances and met some new people as well. The weather was bad, light and heavy rain with fog. We drove back home around 12:30, which was an hour and 30 minute drive, in bed by 2:00. I slept in=7:30. Once I see daylight, I can't sleep.

I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and look forward to a more productive sewing year!

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...