Sunday, October 30, 2011

What next?

I completed the Butterick skirt this AM.  Decided that I needed to do some culling out of sewing debris and went through a huge bag of patterns in my sewing room that I will either sell or give to Goodwill.

I want to make this Butterick jacket, the view at the bottom right.  I have enough of the tobacco/camel wool fabric as well as the black.  I am thinking of making the sleeves in black and the rest in the other color.  I want to wear the jacket with the new skirt; but I am thinking that just may be too much color blocking together.  I think that doing that I could still use the jacket with other black pants or skirts. 

I would really appreciate your feedback about this. Is it to much color blocking? Please take a moment to comment.  Thanks.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

It’s almost a skirt

I had an opportunity to try on the skirt this evening after work.  I added the lining and prior to doing that, I had taken deeper side seams on both the skirt and lining. I may let out the seams a little as I am seeing some puckers.  Those could be where I need to press the seams again or perhaps not.

I thought I would take a few photos of how the skirt will look when finished.  I need to sew the front and back facings together and then attach to the skirt.  Then hem the lining and the fabric.

Butterick color blocked skirtButterick color blocked side view-blurryButterick color blocked semi-back view

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made the decision to use a black exposed zipper.

I plan to make another skirt from this pattern but use one of the other views.  I think after that I will make some jackets.  Time for a new direction and a new sewing challenge.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Progress

For sometime now DH and I have wanted to purchase a new bed, Tempur-pedic bed.  So setting aside funds to do so, we were able to get our new bed delivered yesterday.  It is everything I expected and then some!!! Not affiliated with the company so this is not an advertisement, etc. for them.  Just only expressing my humble opionion and sharing a little of what happened yesterday.

With all that going on and getting bedroom prepped, no sewing took place yesterday.

This AM I have been going at a fast pace of making the Butterick skirt.  Front and back pieces are sewn.  Next zipper, side seams, lining made and insert, hem and new skirt.  More later.

Friday, October 21, 2011

Crazy week

Work has been exhilarating and crazy.  We are preparing for two audits next week that requires extra meetings to make sure all documentation is in place, accurate and timely.  It is also "budget season" so I am spending after hours crunching numbers.  And I have the crud so missed taking a flu shot this week.

I am so looking forward to the weekend.  New bed arrives tomorrow and once all that moving in and out is complete I plan to sew.  I continue to take the 5, 10 and 15 minutes of sewing I can spare to keep the sewing going.

TGIF!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

A moment here and there

I continue to work on the new skirt pattern as moments will allow.  All the skirt pieces have the edges serged.  Most of the time when I am going to line a garment I still serge finish the edges.  On occasion I may not depending on the type of fabric I am using.  Most of the time I also serge finish the lining fabric as well.  I just like how all of that looks.

We are in the process of redoing our bedroom.  This is also occupying some of my free time between working, eating and sleeping.  So I take my moments here and there to do a little sewing.  As things stand now I should be able to finish the skirt this weekend.

More later.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Plans can go awry

My big plan for the weekend was to cut out and sew up Butterick 5556.  I woke up Saturday very ill.  I had some sinus issues which triggered an inner ear issue causing me some dizziness for most of the morning.  Taking some medication, going back to bed and sleeping several hours helped alleviate the problem.

Today I am much better and was able to cut out the skirt pattern.  I am using two wool pieces-wool gabardine.  One is labeled tobacco, a golden brown color.  The other is black. both are left over fabric pieces from other projects.  I am making the view that the model is wearing.  I also used the pattern pieces for the underskirt for another view to cut out lining fabric.  I always line wool.

Here is a shot of the front and side front pieces laying on the cutting table. The flash somewhat washed out the color of the tobacco wool fabric.  It is actually much darker than this.
I am not sure that I will get much more than this completed for today.  More updates later.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Final sewing for Monday 10-10-11

I attempted to make an eShrug from Sewing Workshop during the summer.  I messed up with the markings and the sleeves were inserted kind of "wonky".  Because it was a stretch lace, I decided not to redo the sleeves.

I did cut out another test garment using some free crinkle knit fabric that someone gave away at our ASG meeting several months ago.  Everything went together well; you can see it somewhat in this picture.  Black of course is hard to photograph.

It fits well from shoulder to shoulder.  But it is a little too tight through the back.  I used the smallest size as normally SW patterns run pretty large on me.  Next one to try will be Size 2.

This was the last thing I sewed today. 

Holiday weekend sewing

I finished Simplicity 2413!  Two new skirts thus far for fall/winter.

I have had this pattern forever and recently learned that it is OOP.  I saw a review on PR of this skirt and it looked lovely on the reviewer.  I decided it was time to pull this out of the stash and make it up.

The fabric I used was included in a fabric bundle from Fabric Mart.  This has been around in my stash for at least two years if not longer.  It was great to sew.  Not sure of the actual fabric content and it is a stretch woven.

This skirt was fairly easy to sew.  It does have some tedious sewing requirements such as numerous pleats that require accurate marking; a fold over facing again requiring accurate marking.  A side invisible zipper that needs to be stitch accurately because there is a side pocket as part of the seam for one side of the zipper.

It is not lined which is good again due to all the pleating and such.  The fabric I chose seems to work well for one that is not lined.

I marked the pleats with marking pencil but recognized that with the fold over facing, the markings were not going to be so visible unless I marked on the right side of the fabric.  I decided to baste stitch the pleating marks which worked out great.  In the end I had to take deeper pleats as the waist was a little to big.

I like the skirt, but it feels a little full.  The model’s version of the skirt on the pattern envelope does not look as full.  I was concerned about the horizontal stripes on the bottom skirt band.  When you are short that is not necessarily the best look as it can of widens and cuts you off.  But 2/3’s of the skirt is vertical stripes, so I decided it would be okay.

Here are photos of the completed skirt. The first one is the skirt on the hanger; there is sash hanging down the front.

Simplicity 2413 on hangerBack view below:

Simplicity 2413 Back view

I am holding the pleats in this view.

Simplicity 2413 front 2

I like the pockets.

Simplicity 2413 front view

Sunday, October 09, 2011

Fabrics from Waechter’s

I wanted to share with you my recent fabric purchases from my trip to Asheville and Waechter’s Fine Fabrics.

I had so many choices to make; their selection was great but I was on a budget so I had to leave some of my fabric wants behind.

I loved the fit of the Vogue 8750 skirt pattern that I decided to purchase a dark navy blue cotton bottom-weight fabric to make another skirt.  Navy blue cotton pima-bottom weight-Waechter's 2011

I love the feel and weight of this fabric.

Displayed near by was some 100% rayon fabric.  One particularly caught my eye was a navy blue background with shoes printed all over.  I want to make a blouse/top to wear with the navy blue skirt to be.

100% Rayon-Betsey Johnson-blue with shoes-Wacheters2011

This photo does not do this fabric justice.  The blue background is much darker than it appears here.

The fabric below is another rayon of crème, gray and blue.  Again to made into a top/blouse.

100% Rayon-cream and blue-Waechter's 2011

The final piece was a gray textured knit.  I am thinking cowl neck knit top for this one.  Textured knit-gray-Waechter's 2011

Back from Asheville

Well I am back from my recent business trip to Asheville, NC.  Let me say that it has been several years since I visited this lovely city. I wish I could have extended my stay there.  There is so much to see and I just did not get the time to do all that I would have liked.

I did get some time to visit Waechter's Fine Fabrics.  They were about 10 minutes from the hotel. Once I checked in and knew I had about four hours before the reception, I entered address into Verizon Navigator and I was on my way.   I did find some fabulous fabrics and picked up a few independent patterns.  Their employees were so helpful and entertaining.  It was a great visit.

I have been recharging camera batteries so I could take a few photos of my newest items to my fabric/pattern collection.

I resumed my sewing again yesterday evening and getting closer to finishing the Simplicity skirt.  It is not a real difficult pattern to sew; the challenge for me is the sewing steps are rather different from my thoughts on how you would sew it.  Yet their way makes a lot of sense.

I am hoping that I now have several weeks ahead of me for sewing and less traveling.  I have so many sewing ideas and items I want to sew.  More later.

Monday, October 03, 2011

Front view 2 V8750over exposed

Overexposed photo of skirt. I wanted you to see the paisley/floral overprint of the skirt onto the demin fabric. Fortunately I have more left and need to decide what it shoud become. This is from EOS. As posted previously I used what was possibly the wrong side but the right side for me.

Front view 2 V8750

Front view 2 V8750 by Danvillegirl
Front view 2 V8750, a photo by Danvillegirl on Flickr.
Front view of skirt with top tucked in.

Front view V8750

Front view V8750 by Danvillegirl
Front view V8750, a photo by Danvillegirl on Flickr.
I was having some issues with the camera. I had untucked my top and realized I needed to take a few more photos. So I turned the top under and took this with top untucked.

Semiside view-Vogue8750

Semiside view-Vogue8750 by Danvillegirl
Semiside view-Vogue8750, a photo by Danvillegirl on Flickr.
Another view from the side. It is very difficult to see the details of the topstitching and the curved side pieces.

Back view V8750

Back view V8750 by Danvillegirl
Back view V8750, a photo by Danvillegirl on Flickr.
I took some photos after work so you can see the completed skirt. I love the fit of this skirt. I wish I had tucked my top in better as it looks from this view as if I am "lopsided".

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Skirts

Vogue 8750 is complete including the hand work--yeah!!  I am ready to begin sewing my next skirt which is a Simplicity Project Runway skirt and is now OOP.  I have had several plans to make this skirt but seemed to always put it aside as another pattern become my focal point.

I think I posted previously that I am using a striped fabric with the stripes running vertical and the band at the bottom edge will run horizontal.  I read through the instructions last night and glad that I did.   I would not have pleated the fabric the way the instructions have you do it.  I think that the instructions are probably better than if I had done it the way I was thinking.  There are pockets and side zipper involved and can see where it would be better to sew those first than doing the pleating first.  I will share more about that later.

I have another business trip coming up next week; I will be traveling to Asheville, NC.  Waechters' Fine Fabrics is located there and has been several years since I visited their shop.  They are in a new location since I was there last so looking forward to seeing the new shop and all the goodies. My plan is to go there first before checking into the hotel!!!!  I have my priority in clear focus.

I will try to take some photo shots of the completed skirt and the Simplicity work in progress.  More later.

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...