Finally!

Vogue 9022 is complete, finally!

I feel like it is taking me forever to complete projects.  I know I am spending extra time making fitting adjustments.  Of late I have to adjust the back on just about everything I sew.  Length is too long or width in upper back is too wide, hip area too tight!!!

I am happy with this dress.  Sorry no photo of me wearing yet.  This one of those dress that when it is hanging it is not as appealing as on, or at least for me.

Here is the front and back hanging:

I pinned the pockets to the dress because when hanging they gape.  While wearing they don't.  I plan to wear the dress next week and will take shots of me wearing it.

Next up

I am going to make one of these boxy style tops. View E or View C.  I also plan to make culottes shown in View E above.  I will share more later.

New Addition to the Sewing Room

This is the iron I used for 10+ years. It has been a good iron. However lately when the iron heats up and the steam button is pushed discolored water leaks from the iron. There really should be no water coming from the iron because the water is in the base unit. Fortunately I have not damaged any fabric yet.

When cleaning out the base unit a plastic screw type item fell out. Not sure of its function. Some other peculiar things were happening with the iron. I decided that I would look for a new iron.

Because I had use the Rowenta iron with good success I began to look at new Rowenta irons. Yet I learned that they were being manufactured elsewhere and that experience with the newer models was not satisfactory. I happened upon Oonaballoona's sewing blog and her post about a Maytag iron.

After reading the blog post I began to do my own research and found that this was a reasonably priced iron, much less than what I paid for the Rowenta over 10 years ago, and that the features were very likable. I then researched where I could buy the iron hoping that I could buy it from a local retailer. I found that I could purchase it from J C Penney but it would have to be ordered online. Of course there was Amazon also. I knew that I could get the iron quicker from Amazon than J C Penney based upon previous shipping experience.

So my new iron arrived earlier this month and for the past couple of days have been able to use it quite frequently. I like how it functions and the feel of it.  The steam feature is good, almost as good as my old Rowenta when it was new.  It is fairly light weight and the ease of filling the water tank is a nice feature given that the Rowenta held a lot of water in the base unit.  I think it was a good purchase for the price and the two year warranty.  Let's hope it last longer than that.

Back Up and Re-Design

I had a nice sewing weekend. I spent considerable time yesterday and today working on the Vogue dress.Yesterday I began cutting out the fabric after making fitting adjustments to the pattern. I had measured the geranium fabric and thought that I had enough to cut out the pattern. However in the process of cutting out the fabric I realize that I was going to run short.

My next thought was what other fabric do I have that I can use to make this dress. After pulling out two other double knit fabrics, I decided that neither one of those were what I wanted to use. Digging further through my stash I found I had enough black double knit to use with the geranium double knit.

The challenge was how best to use the two fabrics. Because I had already cut out several pieces from the original fabric and I determined I had enough black fabric to cut two back pieces, it was obvious what I had to do.  I had enough of the original fabric to cut out one back piece but not enough for two. I really did not want to have two different colors for the back.

I have completed the front unit and the back unit and you can see the results below. Both pieces have been pinned to Alma Marie.

Back piece pinned to Alma Marie

Front piece pinned to Alma Marie

I am hoping that when the back and front are stitched together that I will not see the gaping pockets as they are now. Updates to follow.

TGIF

I have had a week of Mondays.  I am so looking forward to the weekend.

I plan to pin fit both the Vogue dress pattern and the Butterick blouse pattern tomorrow and will most likely sew the dress pattern first.

I might even made a stab at one of these this evening.  Off to fix a light dinner and then we will see where my energy level is after that.  Maybe the glass of wine is giving me high hopes. :-)

April Sewing

Not much going on in the way of sewing for the past week or so.  I have cut around pattern pieces for two projects I want to sew soon.  One is a Vogue dress pattern, V9022.  There are nice reviews of this pattern on Pattern Review.  I plan to use a double knit from Gorgeous Fabrics, called geranium.

I purchased this in 2012.  I pressed it this evening as I had washed it last weekend to prepare for sewing.

The other pattern I pulled out and cut around pattern pieces is a new purchase. Butterick 6175.  You can tell that this pattern is loose fitting. I may not make mine as loose.

I plan to use this fabric that I acquired from Schoolhouse Fabrics in Floyd, VA last year.  It is a Robert Kaufman polyester semi sheer fabric.

Both of these pieces make me feel like spring time!

I have so many sewing plans running through my head and need to get moving.

On the Road

I have been traveling some this past week -work related.  Traveled to Asheville, NC, a four hour drive one way.  I spent the night in a very nice hotel and the business purpose of the meeting was fantastic as well.  The weather arriving and departing was just lovely.  Sunny and warm, not to hot and not too cool.  Usually when I traveled there I would make time to visit Waechters Fine Fabrics. They no longer exist as I believe I recall that the owner retired.  I would not have had time to visit there if they were open.  I think I have one or two fabrics from them still in my stash!

Today I am again traveling to NC for a family reunion with relatives from my father's side of the family.  Unfortunately with my parents divorcing I did not have the contact with my father's side of the family as much as I did with my mom's side.  So it will be good to actually meet cousins and their families that I have never met or when I did meet them they were very little.

Not much in the way of sewing this weekend.  I have some patterns ready for pin fitting and hope to squeeze in some time tomorrow.

Hope your weekend is a pleasant one.

Sewing Tidbits

Well it's back to work today. Yesterday I was able to basically finish the Kwik Sew top. I still need to hem the sleeves as I had to take deeper seams as they were still too large. I need to remove the previous stitching so the seam will lay flat at the hem.

I took some pictures of my recent fabric purchases.The top three photos are fabrics from Fabric Mart. Top photo is a Crimson red twill fabric; the second photo is a black diamond quilted double knit, this is from March swatch mailer. The third photo is a novelty weave Jacquard.The last photo is red and gray blouse weight crepe from Mood.

The final photos are of the Kwik Sew top.

Back

Front

Happy Easter!

I have had a long weekend, starting with Good Friday.  I am taking a PTO day tomorrow.
Friday, I spent time shopping, bought two pair of shoes at Macy's and got 30% off.  I ordered a pair online as they did not have my size in the store.  Photos to follow.

Saturday AM spent time at the Y on tread mill, came home and sewed some, then DH and I had to run errands and then a nice dinner out.  More sewing last night.

Did more sewing this morning and I am still working on the KS top!  I had ambitious plans for sewing for the long weekend; I always do.

Let me say that the KS top, is taking forever to sew.  The overlay is a nice design feature but there is a lot of hemming involved.  The knit I am using for the overlay is a little "fiddly" so turning and sewing the hem around the bottom edge required me to use stitch witchery to fuse the folded fabric together to give it some body to sew nicely.

I am almost finished; I have no energy to finish this evening.  Maybe I will get a second wind.  Just finished dinner and the clean up and really feel like just sitting and reading.

I hope your Easter was a pleasant one!

EOS Fabric-a better view

At Carolyn's request, here are photos of two knit fabrics recently purchased from EOS.  The print is a gray, white and plum with dark gray/black and the solid is a plum shade.

Both have nice body or weight to them, not real clingy.

I also recently ordered and received two blouse weight crepe fabric from Mood.  Pictures to follow.

Update on KS top, the brown sleeve has been inserted, one more to go.  Slow progress.  Long holiday weekend coming up so plan to get more sewing in.  Later.