Danvillegirl Sewing Diary

I have been under the weather the past two weeks. I have had a continuous headache that I can't get rid of. I hate going to doctors but decided earlier this week I needed to. Earlier in the month I had the "crud"-a head cold with terrible sinus issues. With an antibiotic prescription to heal the sinus infection, I began to feel better.

Meanwhile, I received a letter from my health insurance provider in December, indicating that a medication I have taken for fours years for acid reflux was no longer going to be covered except as a Tier 1 drug; i.e, I will pay close to full price for this prescription. They are now going to provide Nexium, a drug that up until now they would not cover. Since my other prescription, Protonix, was no longer going to be covered, my physician wrote a prescript for Nexium the beginning of January. I began taking that at the first of the month. Three days after taking, I began having headaches, cough, stomach issues, etc. All of the known side eff…

Past few days have been very busy at work with late night yesterday due to our board meeting. Plus the weather was truly crappy but not as bad as folks in say Arkansas or Kentucky. Sewing is in the back of my mind, but there it stays for now. Hopefully this weekend will give me more sewing opportunities.

Front view of Vogue Jacket
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl

Front view of Vogue Jacket
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl

Front bottom swinging out
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl

Sideview showing side seam issues.
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl

Jacket in progress side view
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl

side front lining
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl

Let me say that the economy is impacting my job and this week most all of my time has been spent on budget revisions and potential department restructuring. I have spent most of my past three days in meetings from 8 to noon, a small break for lunch which has consisted of pretzels, water or coke. Not a very healthy diet.

DH and I had a nice dinner last night and then when we got home. I took a small sewing break to work on my jacket. I basted the side seams and then tried it on. I still have the bottom front swinging out at the bottom. Not sure if this is because of the FBA I made which was necessary but created more bias at the upper side front. Not sure how that would impact the bottom. It is not a huge swinging out but I notice it. Others may not. I also may need to trim some of the shoulder length. It was nice just to spend time thinking about fitting and not about budgets!

Thank you to Lori for nominating me for the award! I appreciate being thought of for this award. Here are the rules for this award: Copy the award to your site.Link to the person who nominated you.Nominate 7 other bloggers and link to them on your blog.Then leave a message on their blog notifying them you have nominated them for this award.

My 7 nominees are:1. Cidell-Miss Celie's Pants; 2. Cennetta-The Mahogany Stylist; 3. Lindsay T-Lindsay T Sews; 4.Trina-The Slapdash Sewist; 5.Sigrid-Sigrid Sewing Projects. 6. Carolyn-Diary of a Sewing Fanatic; and 7.Sharon-Adventures in Sewing

Thank you all for the birthday wishes. The snow for my birthday was very minimal but I know many of you have had more than enough of the white staff. It basically was "spitting" here.

I did get some sewing in for the day. I sewed the front/side fronts as well as the back/side backs of my jacket. I added the faux welt pockets to the jacket front.

My DH had to have an emergency root canal yesterday afternoon so that put a little damper on the end of the day. All in all it was a nice day.

It was back to work today. We did get to stop a meeting to watch the swearing in of our new President. What a great moment! DH recorded the event so I got to see more of the event this evening. I liked what the First Lady wore; the daughters were precious. Today I feel so much better about the future and the hope for some real change.

Today is my birthday!!! Having a day off for a holiday and it is my birthday day is just great. I started working on the Vogue jacket yesterday and plans are to continue on that today.

We are anticipating a little snow today. When I was a small child it seemed that it always snowed on my birthday. So I was actually hoping for some snow today. It will probably be only an inch yet that is a little something.

Off to sew now!

The skirt is finished and I still need to take photos of the completed skirt. I cut out the Vogue jacket pattern today. I decided to pin fit the pattern again as I found a note I made when I started this pattern before. The note was about issues with the bottom of the jacket not hanging correctly.
The real issue was that I had not made an adequate FBA the first time around. So I added another inch using FFRP method for princess seams. Pin fitted again and pleased with the pattern fit. I just did have enough fabric left to make it. I did run out of lining fabric. I only needed to cut out the side front lining piece so used the polyester charmuese fabric that I am also using to make a blouse.
I plan to make this McCall's blouse. I plan to make View D. The fabric is from Gorgeous Fabrics. Here is a photo of the fabric. I also used some of this as lining for the jacket. Learning from others who use silk or poly charmuese, you really need to cut the pieces single layered as this is tr…

One of my sewing affirmations for 2009 was to learn at least two new sewing techniques.
As many of you know from reading here, I hate to do much hand sewing. I don't think I am very good at it; plus my right hand hurts when I do a lot of hand sewing. I have always attached my linings to zipper tape by hand. However, most of the time I just don't like the look of it when I am through.
While thumbing through the book "Easy Guide to Sewing Linings", I found a section on attaching linings to invisible zippers. Thus I tried with much success the first time when I completed the Butterick skirt recently. When finishing up the Vogue skirt, I decided to try it again. I am pleased that the results were good again. So this will become my method of choice from now on. Here are two photos showing the attached lining to visible zipper.





I sometimes ask myself why did I not know this before. I have been sewing forever. I know that no one taught this to me either and of course, did n…

It is extremely cold here today! When I got up it was 0 degrees!!!!! Thus coffee, email and sewing were my priorities today. I have completed my Vogue skirt. I finally got the waist and hip fitted correctly. I will do a review at PR later. I also need to do a review for my Butterick skirt that I completed about two weeks ago.

I took some photos of fabric I am going to use to make a blouse and if possible use to line the Vogue jacket that I have decided to make to go with this skirt. I will post those photos later.

I have a three day weekend so I truly have some ambitious sewing plans.

Thanks for your feedback about the jacket. Most of you suggested the Vogue jacket. I think I will be making it. I attempted this jacket before but then did not finish the project. The fit adjustments have already been made to the pattern; should be easy to just cut it out and sew!

Hopefully the skirt will be completed on Saturday. Sunday will allow me the opportunity to cut out the jacket. Monday is a holiday so sewing, sewing, sewing for me!

My skirt is almost finished. Again I had to take much deeper seams through waist and hip. I actually think fabric is stretching some and I did interface the waist area of the front and back yoke. I also think the ruffle kinda pulls the skirt down. The fabric is wool crepe. I have not had much in between or dedicated sewing time since Sunday.

Yesterday morning while getting dressed for work I decided to slip on the skirt for fitting. I was stunned at how much I had to take up. I have now basted the side seams taking in about an inch on each side from waist to just below hip area. I have not tried it on again since doing this but will do so hopefully in AM while getting ready for work.

With that said, I am so undecided about what kind of jacket to make to go with this skirt. I have numerous jacket patterns but just can not decide what is going to work with this skirt. Here is a view of the OOP Vogue skirt pattern. I made the view with ruffle. I was thinking about using this p…

Back zipper with yoke
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl Close up of the back seam and yokes.

Close up ruffle-kickpleat
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl

Back view
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl Here is a view of the back.

Skirt front pinned on Alma Marie
Originally uploaded by Danvillegirl Skirt progressing well. Here is photo of skirt front not yet attached to lining, nor hemmed. I have to take up side seams at waist to hip about 1/2 inch on each side.

Going back to work after a vacation is truly hard. The first day back is truly the most intense as you have mail backed up, people wanting a lot of your attention, etc. Then I start bringing work home so I can continue to work, thus time is taken away from my favorite past time.

But continuing to want to work on my sewing affirmations, there were some sewing moments to take advantage of this week. One ten minute session before work allowed me to pin the front skirt yokes to the skirt and the lining. Another 20 minute session allowed me to sew those yokes to both and to serge finish the seams on the side back and back pieces of the skirt and the lining.

I am getting ready to shower as later this month is my birthday and my friend's birthday was earlier this month. So this afternoon and evening we are getting together to visit and then go to dinner. I am sure I may find another 10-30 minutes of sewing later today. I will say this I am liking the look of this Vogue skirt and ca…

Lindsay T had a nice post yesterday about one's sewing past. You can click here to take you to her post.

As she noted, bloggers may have written something before. Yet there are more new sewists and bloggers potentially and they may not have gone back to a previous post on this subject. So here is my "sewing back story":

My grandmother was my inspiration. She was born in 1906. Lived on a farm with about 10 other children. They pretty much lived off the land. Her inspiration was a Sears and/or Wards catalogue. She and another sister were the seamstresses as well as her mother. They made clothes for themselves and the other sisters. My grandmother from the time I was born until her retirement worked either with Health Tex making children's clothes or Tate's Manufacturing making men's uniforms-shirts and pants.
My grandmother bought me my first sewing machine which is a hand cranked, beige Singer machine for little girls. She had me cut out squares and we sewed the…