Danvillegirl Sewing Diary

Yes, the faux leather skirt is complete; I finished it earlier this evening.  By the end of the project, my sewing machine was just not liking the fabric and I started having issues with sewing the hem.  I changed needles three times with this project.  When I had several layers to sew through I had to turn the hand wheel to sew and guide the fabric under the presser foot.

I learned  even more about sewing faux leather. I made a faux leather jacket  two years ago with fabric I purchased from EOS. Most recently fabric from Mood.

Here are a few shots of the skirt on hanger.


I plan to wear the skirt next week and will take some photos of me wearing.

I wanted to try sewing some sweater knits, something I have not done in quite some time.  I saw a pretty sweater knit from EOS while visiting her site last weekend and placed an order.  It arrived on Wednesday before Thanksgiving.  I love the colors.
I bought it with the idea of using it to make this McCall's pattern
I purchased another sweater knit from Fabric Mart which I still have not taken a photo of to make this pattern.  It did not have the required stretch.  This may be my next project after I sew the carmel/black skirt which is ready to sew.

I was surprised and delighted when I got an email from Pattern Review.  I was selected in the 2nd day of Thanksgiving Giveaway!  You can see it here.

I hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving holiday.  We went over the hills to our niece's home to celebrate the day and to spend time with family.  It was a 2 hour trip going and coming; well worth the drive.  We saw the shopping frenzy going on as we traveled back home since we go by several WalMarts and other shopping centers.

I want to say thank you to all who visit here.  I appreciate hearing from you and that you read my blog.  It is such a nice way to meet so many other sewists from around the world.  I appreciate your comments and feedback; I in turn love to visit your blogs to see what you are creating and to learn from you.  THANK YOU!

Yesterday I looked like this when I screwed up sewing my exposed zipper onto the faux leather skirt.



Today I am like this
ALL SMILES!

I just was not going to let this situation defeat me, so I turned it into what a coworker always calls a "challenge" an OPPORTUNITY!  I searched via Google for examples of sewing exposed zippers; very interesting stuff out there.  Many I had seen before and some new ideas as well.  Thinking about it off and on yesterday evening while out and about with DH, I kept thinking that I could stitch it somewhat like I do with an invisible zipper with the zipper seam not basted together. 

So this morning after sleeping and letting my solution percolate, I was able to install the zipper very nicely if I say so myself!   Not the greatest photo, it was taken with my iPad and I did not adjust lighting, etc. before posting here.

I sewed the center back seam from the bottom edge of the skirt to the marked placement for zipper stop.  I then sewed a stitching …

Here is photo of the back of the faux leather skirt from yesterday.


This AM I decided to go with an exposed zipper instead of an invisible zipper.  The first reason was that it looked good and second reason was aligning the yoke pieces at center back and not wanting to have to potentially resew that area if it did not line up. Lastly, I don't have a Teflon coated zipper foot and that was going to make sewing the zipper treacherous.  My Teflon foot is too wide to sew over an invisible zipper and of course I can not find my Foot Magic Telfon tape to attach to the bottom of the zipper foot.  So exposed zipper it is as I have done this easily on several garments.

Here I am after attempting the exposed zipper
I have sewed so meticulously and slowly so as not to have to undo seams because of the holes that are left when you remove thread.  I have sewn zippers numerous times and in some cases I use Magic Scotch Tape because it is so easy to remove; it is a sewing tip from long ago in a P…

My November Garment a Month project is the faux leather skirt.  This is my third version of this skirt.  My first one was a denim fabric with lace look woven into the fabric, I acquired it from EOS.  I love this version as it works for fall, winter, spring and summer.
My second version was fabric from Fabric Mart that was also a fabric similar to denim yet the second one was a stretch woven. The bottom side pieces on this one were cut on the bias.
Here is the front piece of my faux leather version. 
This is lovely and easy to work with fabric I acquired from Sawyer Brook in 2012.  I would love to acquire this same type faux leather in another color.  The pattern calls for top stitching of the upper, middle and lower front side pieces; also top stitching of the front seams.   I decided to not do that on this until the skirt is more complete.  I have a concern about the "give" of this fabric and I think it will do okay yet if not I did not want to have to undo top stitching b…

I ordered some knit fabric from Fabric Mart earlier this week and expected it to arrive next week.  What a nice surprise to see a box on the front porch this AM.  I took advantage of their 30% off ITY knits and bought several solid color knits as well as a black and cream striped knit.
I also ordered a boucle knit fabric in a cream/almond color.  It was not exactly what I thought it was going to be.  I had hoped that it would be suitable for this McCall's 6844.  It does not have quite enough stretch.  It still may be suitable as all of the reviews I have read indicate that the pattern runs large.  I had put this fabric aside and thus no photo of it at this time.  I have a few other jacket patterns that I think will be suitable.

More later.

The camel and black skirt has been cut out.  I have not cut out the lining yet as I decided to cut out the faux leather skirt this evening.

Here is shot of the faux leather skirt cut out.  I still have a good amount of the fabric left and hopefully can use it to make a simple jacket.   The backing of this skirt is felt/knit backing and I was able to press out the fold lines in the fabric pressing with light steam and light heat setting. 

It was so nice to start my staycation today!  I am off from work until Dec. 2.


To start the day off, I began finalizing the pattern draft for the camel and black skirt.  As I posted previously I printed a skirt pattern using Pattern Master Boutique.  The fit was off and I updated my measurements in the software program and changed the skirt pattern so that it drafted for skirt with a center front zipper.
There is a feature with the program to edit the pattern pieces; I am just not proficient with that component of the software.  I re-drafted the pattern manually.

After tracing the new pattern I pin fitted the traced pattern.  I made a small adjustment and the I traced a second front piece. The front piece had a dart and so I drew a line through the dart for the left front, cut through the line and then added 5/8 seam allowance to that front piece.  To the right front I added what I cut off from the left traced front creating my asymmetrical front with exposed zipper.

For the back piec…

I pulled several skirt patterns today to decide on what the faux leather skirt should look like.  I still have not decided.  Here are some of my choices from pattern collection.
I have made this one twice and I love the fit of it.  Neither one were lined as the pattern did not call for it and the fabric used really did not need it.  I think with this faux leather I may want to line it.  If I do I will just make a simple lining without all of the pieces for this skirt.

I have made this one also with success.
And this one also.

I have a Hot Pattern skirt also that I am considering.  My success with this brand has not always been very good.  There is is also a Sandra Betzina one that I like as well but I would have to shorten it considerably.

Now for my color block skirt.  With all the patterns I have in my stash I did not find one that had a simple front piece with no waist band.  So I decided to draft one using Pattern Master Boutique 5.

I have not used this in some time …

I ordered some fabric from EOS.  It is a bottom weight slight stretch woven in camel and black.  I also ordered some zippers from Wawak which are to be stitched to be exposed.

This is the skirt that is the inspiration for this purchase. And this is fabric I acquired at our ASG meeting Thursday evening.  All three pieces are lining fabrics

On to more sewing.

I finally finished this jacket.  And I am not really happy with the outcome.  I decided to complete it and most likely I will give it to charity.  Here are a few pics of the completed jacket.




So far from what you have seen have you noticed the peplums that go from front to back?  Yeah, me neither.
And that is the issue and the reason I am not happy with the outcome. It is not really a problem with the pattern, it is my choice of fabric, it is rather "busy" so you just don't see where they are.

Even trying to show you the peplum you just can't see it.  If I had given this more thought I perhaps could have added piping in black.  I even pulled out some black ric-rac after the fact and that does not cut it. Another lesson learned and something I need to work on.  If the fabric was not so loosely woven and ravels just looking at it and because of the loose weave thread gets embedded in the weave, I found it most difficult to remove stitches.  I decided not to undo the p…

I have completed the lining unit and attaching my way instead of per instructions.  I don't like hand stitching and the instructions call for catching stitching the lining hem and sleeve linings by hand.  I prefer to "bag" the lining and eliminates a lot of hand stitching.

I had attached one of the sleeve linings to the sleeve yesterday.  I decided to try on the jacket to be sure that the sleeve lining and sleeve were hanging right.  I realized at that point just how wide the sleeve was and even if I wore a sweater top under the jacket I would have more than enough sleeve room.  So I have some more tweaking to do with sleeve width in the upper arm area, at wrist sleeve is okay. 

I did not get to do any sewing after work last night so jacket is waiting for my undivided attention on the sewing machine.

Photos and more to follow.

Here are my three independent patterns I purchased recently.

I have seen nice tees made from Angela Wolf's Ruched T pattern so thought I would give it a try.  It has several neckline variations besides just the cowl neck.

The J Stern The Tee pattern is one I previously purchased.  I should/could have traced what I thought was the correct size and then learning that it wasn't then I could have traced another size.  I did not do this and the result was a Humpty Dumpty pattern-meaning I could not get all the pieces back together again. 

I have never tried a Sew Chic pattern and have seen this dress made up before.  There are some nice design features with this that I thought I would try.

So now I am on a pattern purchasing diet until March 2014!

Recently while blog reading I read several post about the new fall patterns from Vogue.  It is interesting to read people's opinions about the latest offerings; McCall's had some new ones also.  It seems many people are in the camp that the offerings are not so great and others found some they liked.  I like reading the differing thoughts on this.

I have subscribed to Vogue Pattern Magazine for a number of years.  Some earlier issues this year presented a new format that was found lacking.  There were some potentially good ideas there but the articles were too focused on the sewing industry, or fabric development, etc.  I can get that information from other related magazines such as Threads.  This is a PATTERN magazine and that is what I want to see-patterns. 

The recently released edition has reverted back to the older format and showcased lots of patterns; and a lot of garments were made up in winter white.  To me, way to many winter white garments;  let me say I truly got t…

I am continuing to make slow progress on the jacket.  I am participating in the Make a Garment a Month and I have decided that the project will be a faux leather skirt using some fantastic faux leather purchased last year from Sawyer Brooks Fabrics.
It's time to sew this loving fabric.  I am thinking that I will have enough left over to use as a design feature with something else.  What I have not decided is what skirt pattern I will use.  I have several skirt ideas pinned on my Pinterest board that will become the inspiration for whatever I choose. 

I have some stay-cation time coming up at the end of this month-can we get an AMEN!  So needed and so looking forward to it.  I plan to not only sew this skirt for my garment of the month but have several knit tops I want to sew up as well.

Sew much more later!

Wednesday new fabric from Mood showed up in my mail box!  I got an email announcing 2 fabrics on sale for a particular day; for whatever reason I normally see this email a day late.  I guess it was meant to be.   One of the two fabrics for sale was an Italian Abstract Brown Wool fabric.  The price was right and I took advantage of the sale and also purchased lining fabric as well.  It has been awhile since I purchased any fabric from anyone.  This was a nice treat to myself.




Here is a close up view:
Several ideas floating around as to what this will become.  When I decide you will be one of the first to know.

I have made good progress with the Cordova jacket this weekend.  The jacket unit is complete with sleeves attached and separating zipper installed.  I began working on the lining unit and will attach that somewhat differently than the instructions call for.

I still need to tweak the bodice portion some in the front.  I took a deeper center back seam which helped fit better and you can actually see the peplum from the rear.  The front looks rather boxy still and the peplum is not so noticeable; the pattern drawings show this as being more distinct and more of fitted waist area.

I will make this adjustments before attaching the lining unit.

This fabric has been a true bear to work with.  Stitches get lost in the fabric and having to take apart seams have been troublesome. Now that I have most of the fitting issues resolved, a jacket in another fabric may be in the future.