Sewing block and other comments

I have almost finished the white jacket but tweaking the fit through upper chest area. I have only had bits and pieces of time to sew this week. I had more opportunities but experiencing what we sewists all experience from time to time and that is "sewing block". This is similar to "writers' block" IMHO. I do have lots of ideas going through my head about my next projects. They will come soon enough. When I experience this phenomenon I love to spend time browsing Pattern Review as well as numerous blogs to see what others are doing. It truly helps to provide inspiration.



I have to admit I took advantage of the recent Butterick $1.99 sale through club BMV. Like I need another pattern or two. My pattern cabinet is overflowing, so I will be culling out my collection and hopefully finding new homes for some of my patterns.



On another note, many bloggers take advantage of free backgrounds for their blogs. I have used the CutestBlogOnTheBlock for years. I wanted to see what new backgrounds they may have and cannot get to their website. Getting numerous error messages. Has anyone else had this problem? Care to share what you may know about what is going on. I hope they have not shut down their site.

Happy sewing.

Updates

Wow, I didn't blog anything this weekend. So much going on and the weather being so nice I find I vacillate between sewing and being outside doing "stuff".

I made a lot of progress with the white jacket and probably could have finished it on Sunday but the weather was so nice that I spent time outside with DH while he washed vehicles and did some yard work. By the time I decided to go back inside, it was time to start on dinner and then it was TV time for the rest of the evening.

Back to update on the jacket--this is an easy-peasy jacket to make. My only regret at this time is I wish I had lined the jacket. My fabric is a poly-gabardine,and I thought it was rather opaque and did not need lining. I also wanted it to be lightweight for summer and for cool offices. There will be some visibility of what I am wearing under the jacket from the back view. The sleeves are lined and I had enough white lining for that.

The only thing left to do at this point is to insert the sleeves, add shoulder pads and hem. Here is a glimpse of it before I pinned in the sleeves for sewing.

I appreciate your comments

Just wanted to say thank you for the nice comments about the dress. I really like the dress style and think I will make another one. I found a Burda bolero jacket in one of the BWOF magazines that I plan to use the left overs from the fabric to make a jacket to also wear with the dress.

I have been able to take a few moments here and there to work on the white jacket this week, so should be able to complete it over the weekend. Got to run and finish getting ready for work, TGIF.

McCall's Dress

I had a moment to take a couple of photo shots of the completed dress. There is a funny little spot from the flash that shows up in the photo, not sure why that is there. Working on the white jacket now to wear with this.

Bias Tape Maker Update

Nancy's Notions replaced my Simplicity Bias Tape Maker. I did take the opportunity to test it today and I am happy to say that it works like it is suppose to.

White jacket

The jacket pattern has been adjusted-FBA/FSA/Swayback/shortened sleeves. The fabric has been cut with only sleeve lining needing to be cut out as well as fusible interfacing for front and back facings.

This fabric I won at an auction that our local ASG conducted two years ago as a fund raiser. This fabric was also mixed in with 2 yards of tartan wool fabric and chocolate brown quilted fabric. I was going to make a vest with the quilted fabric but never got around to making it. I actually had another fabric piece in mind when I decided to make a white jacket; after pulling that piece out I discovered that it is an off white. I remembered this fabric and this is truly white.

I am feeling under the weather today. I have been fighting allergies and felt much better a few days ago. Yesterday afternoon, my throat started hurting and today though throat is better I have lost my voice. After cutting out the jacket pattern, I felt tired and lethargic. I have just stayed in the lazy boy chair all afternoon. If my energy picks up, I plan to at least cut out the sleeve lining fabric and fuse the interfacing. Later.

On to the next project

I completed the blue and white dot dress today. Yeah!

I decided my next project is going to be a white jacket. I am going to make this jacket out of white polyester gabardine. This is an unlined jacket and I think this fabric will do well without a lining.

I have so many dresses that a white jacket will go well with them. I am not a fan of sewing white but I will proceed with the intent of not getting any thing on the white fabric.

I think after making the white jacket I will again concentrate on making dresses again. I have some great fabric for them and so many dress patterns that I am finding it hard to decide what to make first.

I will try to take some photos of the finished dress tomorrow.

More fabric, no sewing

Well this has been a busy, busy week at work. Two days in Richmond=extra hours the rest of the week to catch up. The only thing close to sewing is pinning in the area on the dress that needs to be hand stitched!

Hopefully this evening after grocery shopping I will spend some time in the sewing room completing the hand stitch work, sewing the lace to the edge of dress to hem and sewing the lining hem. Then done!

I think I have enough fabric left to make a short jacket to go with the dress. I also want to make a white jacket to go with this dress plus several other ones that I have in my closet already. You know I really don't like to sew on white fabric, I tend to always get something on it. I am taking the plunge though as I really need a white jacket!

Though not sewing I did order two knit fabrics from Lucy's Fabrics yesterday. I found a notice in my email this AM that they were shipped! Wow, quick service. Don't you love??

Later

Business travel and sewing

Well I did get some sewing in yesterday and a little this AM. My dress is almost complete. If I had only another hour it would have been finished. I had to travel to Richmond this afternoon for two days of business meetings so could not finish the dress. I am sitting in hotel room now writing this post.

I deviated a little from how I normally line sleeveless dresses and decided to use the technique used in the pattern instructions. So I have a little hand sewing to do at the upper edges of the shoulder/armscye. I also need to hem the dress and the lining. It will then be complete.

Because I wanted to take advantage of the border on one selvage edge, I had to placed the hemline of the dress pattern at the selvage edge. I added 1/2 inch for attaching lace to the hemline so I could turn up that 1/2 inch to hem.

I re-pleated the neckline edge to better fit that area for my upper chest and bustline. I like the outcome the changed pleating made. I took some shots of the dress before I left town.
Here is a neckline close up. Here is a back view, hanging on a hanger is not the best look. And of course a front view.

I need to make a jacket to go with this dress and may try my hand at the one included with the pattern, though there are several others I want to try as well. I have some white fabric to use for the jacket and could use it with several other garments as well.

Going to shut down now and prepare for tomorrow's meeting. Later!

A few minutes here and there

I have been snatching a few minutes each day to do a little more on the blue and white dotted dress. I am starting on the lining now. I have the sewing machine threaded with white thread and have pinned in the back darts.



After seeing the Mahogany Stylist dress she made for her daughter, I have decided that I want to use that pattern to make my next dress. As Cennetta wrote on her blog, she is liking the Project Runway patterns more and more. I am finding the fit to be pretty consistent among the Project Runway patterns as well; thus the fitting adjustments I have to make are pretty much the same. The really nice thing about those patterns are they provide so many options for design.



Got to go get ready for work, later.

Easter Bunny bought me these!

Upper left shoes are Antonio Melani from Dillard's-black. Upper right shoes are like the black but in deep navy. Lower left Vaneli-black with chain, wedge heel about 2.5 inches. Lower right bronze metallic, open toe by Clarks' Artisan line. Lower shoes purchased from Rippe's in my hometown.

I am pretty much set in the way of shoes for work!

There once was an old lady who lived in a shoe!

As promised here are photos of shoe purchases made in December and early 2010.
Left- shoes are a taupe suede with leather toe by Ferragamo, brand new, never worn purchased from the Discovery Shop, a local thrift store for the American Cancer Society. Top center shoes are green faux skin by Liz Claiborne purchased at DSW in Fredericksburg-30% off sale price! Right- another pair of never worn brown metallic with black toe Ferragamo from the Discovery Shop.

Back to work Tuesday

Well my holiday/vacation time is over and it is back to work today. Yesterday was a very productive sewing day. I began working on M5818 dress. Here is a shot of my dress in progress.

I completed the dress part yesterday. This photo shows where I pinned in a deeper vertical darts. I also adjusted the pleats at the neckline,(adjustement not shown in this photo) they were sort of pulling at the front. I also decided that right under the arms to waist line that I will reduce the seam allowance from 5/8 to 3/8 as the bust area is pulling a little bit. I did a FBA and I also used a 14 at the under arm adjusting to 18 at the bust line. I probably should have used a 16 at that area.

I really like the look of the dots going from sparse to clustered. Next I need to sew up the lining fabric. I usually sew that first and let that be a test for fitting but just dove into sewing the fabric first. I am using a white lining as I did not have the right shade of blue lining to go with this dress.

More later.

What's taking place in my sewing world.

I decided I really did not like the McCall's blouse in the end. Perhaps wrong fabric though I though it was appropriate but did not like the look of the top when all was said and done. I will donate it to Goodwill and hopefully someone will be able to use.



I am now working on a new dress-McCall's 5818. You can see how it looks at the top of the right sidebar. I am using fabric I acquired recently from Fabric.com. It is a cotton lycra. One selvage edge has more clusters of white dots compared to other edge. I wanted to take advantage of this and thus used that edge at the hem line for this dress. Fabric and lining are all cut out waiting for my attention. I hope to do some sewing later this evening and tomorrow is a vaca day for me so more sewing time.

Happy Easter

I hope you are enjoying a Happy Easter with friends and/or family. DH and I traveled to Danville yesterday to visit MIL and his sister. We went to a local store called Rippe's and the Easter Bunny bought me two new pair of shoes and a new purse! Shoes are better than chocolate eggs any day of the week-but chocolate is always a close second. I got two pairs of pumps in Richmond on Thursday. Can you tell I love shoes!

Photos to follow soon.

Bias Tape Maker

Thanks Ann and Sheila for your comments. I never think about going to You Tube; I am missing a lot of helpful videos there. After reviewing videos on You Tube and at Nancy's Notions, I called customer service at NN and explained what my bias tape maker was doing. The technical support person and I spoke about the quirks of mine running then not running. We even discussed the rollers that feed the fabric through. In the end, they told me to return it and would send me a new one. So I sent mine back. It really does a good job when it feeds fabric through.

Simplicity Bias Tape Maker

Does anyone have the Simplicity Bias Tape Maker that runs bias strips through the bias tape maker and rolls over a heating unit? I bought one for myself for Christmas and tried it this evening. It does have potential and the fabric I was using was the rayon crepe that I used to make the McCall's top. So it was challenging just to feed it through the tape maker.

If you have one and have used it, did the fabric run through the tape maker over the heating element on its own when you pushed the run button or do you have to assist in pulling it through? Again my fabric was so fiddly that I was concerned that it would not run through and assisted it coming through. I have to say though that the machine did press a nice fold to make a bias tape even for such fiddly fabric.