Danvillegirl Sewing Diary

I love days off from work, especially when I have the house to myself. I got up at 7:15, that's late for me. I fixed coffee and read a few emails. At 8:00 I was in my sewing room ready to get started on sewing my skirts. Since the sewing machine and serger were threaded for black, I decided to sew the Butterick skirt using the fabric from Fabric Mart bundle that is black and white, a mini-houndstooth. I am not sure what the fabric content is, I am thinking linen or cotton blend. It does wrinkle.


I decided that I would sew the skirt fabric as well as the corresponding lining fabric. I followed the instructions and sewed the center and side back pieces first. I decided to use an invisible zipper, so I inserted that first in the center back piece and then sewed from hemline up to zipper to eliminate that pucker one can get using an invisible zipper. I then sewed the side back pieces to the center back. I did the same with the skirt lining pieces.


The view I am making has the pleated po…

Wearing Blouse
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl Thought I would post a shot of me wearing the newly completed McCall's blouse. I really like this blouse. I will use it again and will make some fine tuned adjustments to the next blouse.You can go here to see some poses of me wearing the blouse.

Skirts are my next projects. This OOP Vogue skirt took up most my attention today. I spent some time reading reviews of this skirt pattern on PR. I am going to make View C in lavender wool crepe. I spent all morning pin fitting and making adjustments. The pattern is now ready to cut out.

The other skirt pattern that I pulled out to work on is this Butterick pattern. I also read reviews for this skirt on PR. I am going to make View B. I have a black mini herringbone fabric that I got in a fabric bundle from Fabric Mart that as soon as I saw the fabric I visualized a skirt. I need to pin fit this pattern.

I am traveling to Durham, NC tomorrow AM to visit my father who suffers from Alzheimer's and lives in an assisted living home there. There will be no sewing time tomorrow. Tuesday, after PT, I plan to move forward with the skirts.

Neither patterns call for a lining but I will add it as I like the fit and feel of linings in skirts.

Front with tie in bow
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl I completed the McCall's blouse pattern. It is an OOP. I had some issues with the v-neck line and the bias binding piece. Next time I will use bias binding and not the pattern piece to cut a binding. The pattern piece for binding is too big. I made other adjustments as well. I wanted to show the tie, tied into a bow. I lightened the photo so you could better see this.

I have the blouse hanging for 24 hours since front and back are cut on bias. This is done in case the hemline grows.

All in all, I like the pattern and now know what fitting changes to make next time. I will post a review at PR soon.

Wow, it is almost Christmas. I am doing some Christmas cooking today and trying to sneak some sewing in as well.

I hope all of you have a very, very, very, Merry Christmas.

I made fairly good progress on blouse pattern. I had cut the blouse at the longest length and decided that this would look like a tunic instead of a blouse, so I recut the length. I have sewn the shoulders together. I basted the side seams for first fitting. I will need to take a deeper seam at the underarm area, tapering to 5/8 at waist line and then switch to 3/8 at hip to hemline.

I sewed the blouse tie but made an error by not marking the circles and triangles well. Fortunately I had enough fabric to cut out new tie pattern pieces and carefully marked so the tie will line up correctly. There is a neck band facing that is attached to the neckline and over the basted tie neckline piece. Thank goodness my fabric is not thick, nor would you want a thick fabric to make this blouse, but when all of those pieces are attached to the neckline you are sewing through five fabric layers.

This is an OOP pattern. It has some mislabeled views with descriptions in some places so you reall…

I was able to get a couple of hours sewing in this evening! :-)


I started on a blouse pattern that I cut out sometime ago but put aside to make a jacket and dress instead. This should be a quick project. I used some fabric that has been in my stash for at least three years and came from JoAnn Fabrics. Thus if it turns out poorly I did not use up some of my really good fabric that I want to use to make this blouse if it turns out well.

I also pulled out two skirt patterns that I want to try soon. I have the fabric out that I want to use to make the skirts. It felt good to spend time in my sewing room this evening.

Sew Random: Toasted, Fried AND Burnt....

I was reading some blogs that I had not read in awhile when I ran across the above post at Sew Random. Click on the link to read her post. I got a similar request regarding my photo of the McCall's dress on Flickr. I had to read the request twice; yes they were wanting to post it on the worst fashion trends of 2008. Heck I didn't make the dress because of any trend, I liked the style. I also chose not to respond though I did search through the person's Flickr photos. Sometimes it is best just to ignore some requests/people. I do want to acknowledge and to thank all of you who commented on my dress, giving me some constructive feedback about fit as I requested.

I can't believe I have not posted anything since Monday. It is now Friday and there is really no sewing going on here at the moment. My time is taken up by holiday festivities and work.

Yesterday I took my staff out to lunch. In years past, I have tried to make little simple gifts for staff, but this year I ran out of time and perhaps desire to do so. Gift cards to a local department store was my gift to them. I know some people think gift cards are just not appropo for a gift. I disagree. I love gift cards myself and from what I gather from my staff, friends and family they love it also. They get to buy what they desire/want.

I did give myself a little gift, I subscribed to BWOF last night. I had a subscription before but never made anything from the BWOF. I let the subscription expire and just bought a magazine from time to time from Fashionista Fabrics or PR.

Actually a sewing goal of mine for this year was to make a garment from BWOF pattern. Let me say there was a sk…

I decided to take some shots of me wearing the new dress. Shots of the dress on the hanger does not really reflect the style of the dress. I updated the photos on pattern review also. I still have some fitting issues. There is still some fullness in the bodice in the back and front at the sides. Overall the dress will be wearable. Take a look at the photos and give me your feedback about the fabric folds. You can see my "low rise" underarm as referenced in the review.

Here is my parting shot:

Several others have posted about coverstitch and blindhem machines since I posted a poll. I wanted to acknowledge that feedback and to say again thank you for your input and comments. I am trying to find a local -one to two hour drive-to some dealer who has a coverstitch in the shop for demo. I am on vacation after Christmas and thought it would be a great time to try one out!

I decided that I had to finish THE dress today!!!!! I knew if I put it aside to pin fit some skirt patterns, that I may not go back to it for weeks. I hand sewed the dress hem and machine sewed the lining hem. I used Claire Schaeffer's method of attaching the lining to the zipper tape and I am truly pleased with how that looks and being able to sew the lining to the zipper tape by machine.

After cleaning up from the finishing of the dress. I pulled out several skirt patterns that I want to pin fit and get ready to make those skirts over the next few weeks. I also pulled out some knit top patterns, including my new pattern from JStern Designs. So I am planning on sewing, even if it is more in my mind than reality. My work next week is another busy start to finish kind of days ahead. Tomorrow I am traveling with my boss to the western part of the state for a business lunch followed by several other meetings. When traveling alone I can think about sewing and designing that ne…

Pattern Description: McCall's 5746-dress with dart detailing, varied necklines, with cap sleeves, sleeves and sleeveless.

Pattern Sizing:14-20. I used 14 through upper chest area and shoulders. Then switched to 18 for bust and waistline, tapering to 16 at hip to hemline.
Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Somewhat so. My plan was to make the red dress view with cap sleeves. However due to FBA and adding a bust dart at the under arm area, I created a situation where the underarm area was not going working well with the cap sleeve. More on this later. Were the instructions easy to follow?Instructions were easy to follow though I deviated considerably.
What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? I liked the look of this dress pattern when it first appeared on the McCall's website. The waistline darts with their unique shaping, almost like a starburst the way I visualized them, was the key attention grabber…

This work week has been crazy! Time at work is non-stop; meetings, reports, spreadsheets, more meetings. Today I had to have a mammogram and then the afternoon was my first physical therapy session regarding my left knee. In between was work.

DH fixed us dinner tonight and I was just too tired to go to the sewing room to begin pinning up the hem in my dress. I am sitting in my chair with laptop writing this.

I did receive a new pattern in the mail today from an independent pattern designer. I think this tee has great potential and I saw a tutorial the designer developed with a neat modification to this tee pattern, adding a ruffle insert in the center.

I am putting myself on a pattern diet as I have purchased quite a few in the past few months. I am also planning a pattern sale soon. I need to scan or shoot photos of the patterns I have set aside. More about this later.

NO! I spent considerable time on the McCall's dress today. I made all the fitting adjustments discovered last weekend. Reduced the front bodice/skirt seam allowance from 5/8 to 1/2 in order to lower the front waistline.Took deeper underarm seam for dress and dress lining.Removed the cap sleevesUsed single fold purchased bias binding for armhole. Dress will now be a sleeveless one.Serge finished bottom edge of the dress and dress lining.The final steps are to hem the dress and the lining. I also want to adjust the back collar, tacking it down the back neckline so as to keep the collar in one position. It shifts all around if I don't.My next few projects I want to be less complicated, something that will give quick gratification.
Here are some parting shots of the dress as it is now:
This is the bias binding that was attached and then turned in and pinned. Ready for hand sewing.

The binding is sew in attached to the lining fabric.You can go here to see some other photos

I traveled to Richmond, VA on Thursday to attend a business meeting and stayed over as the meeting would continue to the following day. We all went to dinner at a place called Crab Louie's. Great food and great service.

When traveling to Richmond, I had to get to the Midlothian Turnpike. As I am heading down the road, I spot a Hancock's Fabric store. Fortunately I was able to stop at the store when I was heading out of town. I did find some nice fabric but left it all at the store. It was nice but was not jumping of the shelf into my hands. I was able to pick up a Simplicity pattern and three Kwik Sew patterns. More on those later. Since the closing of the Hancock's here, I had not been in one in almost two years.

This was a pretty good size store. I wish I had had more time to shop. I had another commitment that evening so needed to get on the road.

Thank you to all who participated in the poll on coverstitch and blind hemmer machines. Your comments were appreciated as well.

The BabylockCoverstitch received this highest votes. What I read about this machine has been positive. The frustrating part for me about buying either machine is that both local dealers of Babylock and Janome do not have a coverstitch machine in house for me to try before I buy. I recognize that perhaps these machines are not the top sellers but wouldn't you have one in house to let people test out???

Well, still undecided about what I will do. Again thank you for participating and responding.

Since returning to work, no sewing going on here. Tomorrow I travel to Richmond, VA for business, staying overnight for AM meeting on Friday and returning home Friday evening. So sewing is on back burner for the moment. Later..........