Danvillegirl Sewing Diary

I was able to get some sewing in this morning, yeah! I started on the KS top with the front gathers. It is similar to a top that Nancy W reviewed at Pattern Review. Hers was a Simplicity pattern I believe, but the technique of sewing the gathers were the same.

Thus far I have sewn fronts together, sewn the gathering stitches, applied the seam binding (twill tape) by pulling the gathering stitches to match key points on the tape and then stitched the tape with gathers into the seam allowance. I have applied bias fusible tape to front shoulders to allow for reduced stretching when sewing shoulder seams. I also applied fusible bias tape to front and back necklines as they will be turned and stitched down.

I had to stop at that point and hope to resume sewing this afternoon.

I finally got in some sewing time. Not actually sewn anything together yet. I did finally get the serger set up to begin the KS top. I had the perfect brown serger thread to use and got the stitches set and ready to go.

After that I cut out Simplicity 3775. I am making the short version like the one the model is wearing but I am going to use 3/4 inch sleeves. I had to make a FBA-5/8, forward shoulder, swayback and shortened the skirt pattern by 1.5 inches. I fell in love with this pattern and have read two reviews at Pattern Review with both sewist having good success with the dress. One did not use a knit, but peach skin and lined her dress. I was impressed with the look of her dress. She couldn't say enough good things about the ruching. It is suppose to be slenderizing and the look of her dress on her proved to be so. So I am going with the ruching effect as well.

I have not found the photos I took of the fabric I am using to make this dress. It is a lovely knit with …

This week is a busy one with no real time to sew. I really hate that! I have gone in the sewing room just for a brief time yesterday and today prior to leaving for work. At least I am thinking about it.

I had to stay late to work this evening due to a meeting with our Board of Directors, at least the Executive Committee. Tomorrow night is our CAB meeting for our ASG; actually it is a special meeting to finalize the standing rules. Thus no time to sew again or even exercise. Perhaps Thursday!

I will go in the sewing room in the AM to re thread my serger to get it ready to make the KS top. I am really hoping that this will turn out well.

I want to make some skirts, yet I am having a hard time conjuring up exactly what I want to make. I see some of the fuller, summery, cotton looking skirts but just not sure that they will look good on me. I tend to make the fitted, straight skirts which look great on me and are what I need for work. "Sometimes a girl just wants to have funnnn!". …

The KS pattern I will be sewing is pictured on this previous post. I am making the knit top and will make it with the sleeves but I shortened mine to 3/4 sleeves. This is the fabric I am using.

This photo does not do the fabric justice. It is much more interesting in "real life". I acquired it from Ann Steeves with Gorgeous Things Fabrics. I made a few pattern fitting adjustments and then cut out the fabric today.
Sorry for the fuzzy photo. This is the dress I am going to make from a nice knit I purchased last August at ASG. I am making a few fitting adjustments to this pattern as well. I was going to post a photo of my fabric but cannot currently locate it in my files. It has a black background with truly colorful coral/orange and green flowers. I am going to make mine like the model is wearing.

I have after setting it aside for a few days, decided I am going to redo the waistband of the skirt. The wide waistband, though a unique feature, just does not work on me. As Vicki suggested in her comment, wear a top over it.

Wearing a top over a high bulky waistband did not work. Perhaps because of the knit top. But something looser still does not quite work either. But narrowing the waistband will make it less unique of course but workable and I believe wearable.

This change will have to wait though as I want to work on two other projects-one a knit top and the other a knit dress.

Sewing is an adventure with the ending being happy and sometimes not. I have shared with you my sewing adventure with the Eva Dress circa 1945 skirt. Now that it is complete, I am happy that it is . BUT-----the skirt is just not flattering on me.



In the first and second grade, I was the second tallest kid in the class. My mother always said I had long legs. Somewhere after the second grade, I was no longer the next to or even the tallest person in class. Today I stand flat footed at 5'3.25". I have worn heels most all of my adult life as they are dress appropriate for my professional job. Thus with those heels I am 5'5" to 5'6", thus I think of myself as tall ; nonetheless I am short legged and petite pants or short length pants fit me well. Shorter skirts flatter me more.


I am regular waisted; i.e. not short or long waisted but yet don't fit the petite waist length so I am either long waisted petite or regular waisted short person. So what the heck is my…

I want to say "Thank You" to Juliet W. who responded to my request for help with the zipper issue I was having with my current skirt project. She suggested that I sew the point end of the dart where the zipper was to be inserted. This truly helped in getting rid of this strange pucker I had.

I had to redo the waistband attachment to my skirt as the skirt was a little tight through the tummy and high hip area in the back right below the waist band. To do this, I let out the right side dart and reduced the back darts sewing them in a curve to give a tad more room through the back hip area. I could have let out the center back seam as well but the fitting issues were in the areas noted.

I also had to cut out the side/back waistband piece adding an additional inch to that piece. This worked perfectly giving me the extra I need to have the turn at the side seam fastenings. I also cut off 2 additional inches from the skirt at the hem line. I really wanted a shorter skirt and …

I began working on my skirt last weekend. Did not do much with it during the week. It is "BUDGET" season at work and it gets hectic and time consuming. I feel for our accounting staff having to put up with us on developing a budget and not getting it all together on the first go around.

I digress. My point was that I just did not have the sewing feeling when I got home this week or had other places to be. So leaving work today, I came straight home. My DH had to work late, thus I got PST. I continue to work on my skirt.

The skirt side seams are not seams but a long dart. One dart is sewn the other is not and becomes the side opening. You insert a zipper or snap placket. I finally got the gist of what I needed to do with inserting the zipper which went in well. BUT!-you knew that was coming.
When you lap the zipper over the other side of the dart, it just does not lay right and of course there is no seam into which you have sewn the zipper.

I know, I know, it would he…

Yes, I know I have a lot of patterns. But not these! I got them for 60% off at Hancock's ongoing store closing.

No Sweat Easy Sew Butterfly Top and Skirt
No Sweat Easy Sew Geisha Girl Jacket, Pants and Shorts
Simplicity Knit Dress 3775
McCalls Sew News Jacket
Vogue Easy Options Dresses

Yeah! it is complete and here are the photos:
Front view of the shell

Close up of embroidery I did on my embroidery machine and then attached to neckline.

This was a quick and gratifying project. If I had not done the lace it would have been quicker. But I like what I did with this and will consider some other embroidery for future shells.

You are the World
Completion, Good Reward.
The World is the final card of the Major Arcana, and as such represents saturnian energies, time, and completion.
The World card pictures a dancer in a Yoni (sometimes made of laurel leaves). The Yoni symbolizes the great Mother, the cervix through which everything is born, and also the doorway to the next life after death. It is indicative of a complete circle. Everything is finally coming together, successfully and at last. You will get that Ph.D. you've been working for years to complete, graduate at long last, marry after a long engagement, or finish that huge project. This card is not for little ends, but for big ones, important ones, ones that come with well earned cheers and acknowledgements. Your hard work, knowledge, wisdom, patience, etc, will absolutely pay-off; you've done everything right.
What Tarot Card are You?Take the Test to Find Out.

I am working on the Shirley Adams/PMB shell. I started on it yesterday morning as I was off for Good Friday holiday. I decided that I was going to add some lace trim to the front neckline of the shell. Furthermore, I also decided that I would embroider the lace trim myself, using a design from Sadias Designs. I purchased the lace CD at ASG national conference in August of last year.

Because I did all of my grocery shopping yesterday I had all Saturday morning to sew. While I continued sewing on my shell, I had my Janome 300E embroidering the lace trim. The shell is ready for me to stitch the lace trim onto the front neckline. I have sewn up the side seams, but need to check the fit one more time. Then I will hem the top on the sewing machine.

I had thought about adding lace trim to the bottom. But I want to try doing that on another top and using a different method.

I will post photos later when garment is finished.

DH and I are going out to dinner and I need to finish getting d…

Click the link above (the posting title) to look at the Vogue pattern. Then look at this photo of the jacket from Chico's website. I see potential here!! Similar but yet different.


Then look at this jacket also from Chico's

Well the discounts continue as our local Hancocks prepares to go out of business!

Yesterday I went to Hancocks and found they had some buttons for sale for 5 cards of buttons for $1.00. I bought ten cards of course! Buttons are something I never seem to have enough of or the right shade of. Thus I purchased those that were unique in style and of colors that I knew I did not have. Their J&B buttons were 30% off but did not find any that truly said "buy me".

I of course also purchased a few more patterns at 60% off. I kept searching through fabrics and could not find any that I had to have. I have to say their fleece fabric is really disappearing, I always thought they had way to much of that and not enough of the fashion fabrics. Of course, fashion sewing appeals to me more than sewing fleece.

I will post some photos or link to site to show the patterns I just purchased.

These are just a few of the patterns I purchased at Hancock's last week.

I normally don't like to post photos of myself. However, many of you here or at other sites encourage me to show my garments with me wearing them. So here goes, here are some photos of me wearing my New Look 6619 jacket. I really enjoyed wearing it the day I did. I got numerous compliments. I thought I would have issues with the collar. But I really didn't.

Yeah, it is complete! For a fairly simple pattern, it took me longer to complete. Some of this was dyedue to fitting concerns and adjustments. Some had to do with sewing decisions made--hand sewing hem instead of stitching it as instructions indicated and not being able to get a satisfying blind hem stitch on this fabric with my machine. I really want a blind hemmer machine!!!!!! I have no place to put it in my already cramped sewing room.
The fabric is a buttermilk knit from EOS. Hand sewing the hem on the skirt and the top was time consuming. The knit is not forgiving and made hand stitching difficult.
I think the pattern was drafted more on the small size. I used 14 for shoulders and armscye, changing to 18 at bust and then tapering back to 16 from waist to hip on the top. I should have stayed with the 18 from bust down. I did make a FBA using Sandra Betzina technique for princess seams from her Fast Fit book. This worked well. I also adjusted the shoulders for forward shoulder…