Sunday, February 22, 2015

Weekend sewing

I have been fighting the "crud" all weekend.  Last year I got lucky and did not catch a cold; not so this year.  I have been sneezing, coughing all weekend.  Plus stuck in the house because of more snow Saturday on top of what we go on Monday/Tuesday.  Granted what we got is nothing like what has been going on in Boston, it was still enough to bring everything to a stand still in my neck of the woods.

Yesterday I pin-fitted Simplicity 1199 and made my usual adjustments.  This morning I cut out the fabric.

I did not have the battery charged for the camera so took a shot of the pattern and the two fabrics with an inexpensive tablet which does not do will for taking photos.   I am making View A, which is the same view as the model wearing the striped fabric.

The fabrics are from my stash.  The print fabric is a light brown, gray/green with cream background, the side panels will be sewn using the cream colored fabric.  The print is a knit I purchased from EOS and the cream I think I acquired from Fabric. com.  Probably both have been around for two years or more.

I began sewing the top after reading the instructions.  The construction process is not what I expected yet I think it will sew better their way than I had visualized sewing this.  I stopped sewing as I started to feel "yucky".  Hope to sew more later, but the Oscars are tonight and do plan to watch most of it.  I think it drags in places and unfortunately I am not real excited about this year's MC/host.  I like him as an actor just don't think he will do well for hosting.  We will see.

I hope you had a sewing weekend that was productive.  More later.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Updates since last week

I was surprised to see it had been a week since my last post.  Here's what has been happening:

I made a skirt from this McCall's pattern-M6654.  I made the fuller version View G.  I used the fabric leftover from my recent top.  I did not add a casing as the pattern called for.  Instead I used a wide black elastic stitched to the top edge of the skirt.  Photos to follow later.  I ended up taking out some of the fullness.  I will have to get use to this style.  I wear pencil skirts the most so this feels and looks quite different.  Not sure I like the wavy stripes running horizontally across my lower half.

I fell off the no pattern purchase bandwagon on Saturday!  Simplicity patterns were on sale at JoAnn's for 5 for $5--$1 a piece how could I refuse.  Here are the ones I purchased.




This pattern buying binge led to taking advantage of Club BMV purchases!!!!  My last Club purchase was December 18.  Will post which ones later.

I began the pattern fitting process for the Simplicity 1199 on Sunday.  I plan to make View A, the same as the model is wearing.

I also ordered fabric and expect one package to arrive today.

We had 12 inches of snow starting Monday afternoon.  Yesterday spent the late morning digging out and the other part of the day was work at home.  Enjoyed the quite time and was very productive.

That's it for now.  More later.


Wednesday, February 11, 2015

I wore the top

Yesterday I wore the new McCall's top I recently completed.  I could not wait for a skirt to be made so wore it with black pants.  I took these photos before leaving for work.


It past the wearability test!  Actually a very comfortable fabric for cooler weather.You can see the neckline standing away from my neck,  I can live with it.

Sunday, February 08, 2015

Top finished

As I posted recently, not much going on in my sewing room.  Yesterday evening I finally sat down and hemmed my new top M7019.  I took photos of the top hanging.

Back

Front
I played around with lighting to better showcase the fabric colors on the view of the front, but still not showing how the colors truly look.  The stripe fabric is from Sew Much Fabric and the black is a lighter weight double knit from my stash and not sure if this came from Fabric Mart or Mood.

The bottom piece of the top wraps around to the front.  I ended up having to take 3/8 inch seams through the hip area to the bottom edge as it was a little snug.  I still could use a smidge more width in that area and will add that to the next version.  I used Sandra Betzina technique for increasing the bust area which worked out good as I did not want a dart at the bust. 

I made a 5/8 swayback adjustment with the top and after sewing the back bottom to the upper back, I went back and sewed an additional 3/8 tapering back to original 5/8 near side seams.  This helped with too much fullness in that area.

The top was very long on me, more like a tunic which was not the look I was going for.  I ended up serging off 5/8 inch from the bottom edge before turning up a 1 1/4 inch hem.  The neckband stands away from my neck at the shoulder seams and at the front a little.  I have thought about taking a small tuck in the front neckband area treating it as a design feature.  I am not sure if it is due to the type of knit or I needed to have made the neckline a little tighter.  

All in all I do like the top and will wear it.  I planned to make a skirt with elastic waist to go with from the same fabric.  I still plan to make the skirt but not sure how the top style will work with the skirt.  It looks good with pants.

I wish I could capture the color of the fabric better in the photos as it has silver metallic threads running vertically, plus golden brown or rust color as well as some gray and of course black.

More later.

Thursday, February 05, 2015

A Little of This and a Little of That

Not much sewing going on at Casa Danvillegirl.  Motivation to sew has been somewhat lacking.  I only have to hem the McCall's top and I will have a new one to wear.  I just turned up the hem a moment ago and totally lost interest in sitting down to sew.

I thought I would just take a moment to post something on the blog; unfortunately blogging has been neglected some also.  I am not a big fan of winter and I can feel the winter blues at the moment.  Yesterday we had a glimpse of spring and today temperatures plummeted.  I know compared to some others this is hardly winter.

I have made it through January and 5 days into February without buying a pattern. I have been very tempted as new ones keep cropping up.  Since I am not feeling the mojo to sew I have in the past purchased patterns.  I am telling myself no sewing mojo no patterns.  Trust me I have a lot to motivate me when the sewing muse hits again.

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...