Mary Jo's trip

Yesterday I took a trip with about 30 other ASG members to Gastonia, NC. We went to a fabric store called Mary Jo's that was loaded with fabrics for all sewing enthusiasts whether for garment, bridal, or quilting. Also items for knitters and hand embroidery. Let me just say it was a great "candy" store. Also in the same center was a Bernina dealer with numerous items for sewist as well.

We then visited Longcreek Mills, also known as the Thread Man. What a sweetheart he was and his staff were. great also. They are probably one of the few remaining thread manufacturers in the USA. Such southern hospitality was offered up. I walked into the store and was simply amazed. They had wall to wall thread. Thread for sewing, thread for upholstery, thread for embroidering, bobbin thread, woolly nylon thread in numerous colors, and more. Every imaginable thread color was available also. I loaded up because the prices were fantastic and the quality truly was great.

Here are photos of my fabric purchases. The first two are knits, somewhat like slinky, yet have more "body".

Grey is the color for fall and thus I purchased a plaid/golden brown and beige plaid wool blend fabric for a jacket. Of course, I needed a grey dress as well, the grey is wool crepe.

I also bought liningfabrics. One is China Silk, one is Hang Loose and one is Ambiance!

Of course, they had buttons on sale for 20% off so I purchased buttons that simply appealed to me and not necessarily will they go with what I have in my fabric collection.

I also purchased two books, one related to serging and one to free motion embroidery. It was a great trip and we are thinking G Street for a spring trip.

Fall Projects

Yesterday I cleaned up my sewing room. Here is a photo of unfinished summer projects.

Removing these and putting them back in the storage stash, I then pulled out some fabrics that I want to make up in the next several weeks.

One is this McCall's Jacket. The fabric is a rayon-polyester that looks like a snakeskin. I also want to make the plaid dress but I don't really like plaids so I will make it up in a chocolate brown gabardine. I fell in love with this dress and jacket when I first got my Aug/Sept Vogue Patterns Magazine. In the photo, the boucle fabric does not look like it goes with the golden brown crepe, but in real life it goes with it well.

Today I began the process of cutting out the patterns and beginning the fitting process. It feels good to have some sewing plans again.

A few more photos of my latest dress

I thought I would take a moment to show some photos of me wearing my latest version of Simplicity 3775. I wore this earlier this week. Even though sewing this knit was a little more of a challenge than the first version of this dress, I have to tell you I love this knit. It was so soft, swooshed when you walked and I just loved the feel of it. I acquired this from Gorgeous Things earlier this year.

It is extremely hard to take a good picture looking in the mirror, trying to see into the view finder, hold the camera with one hand and take the shot without a crazy look on your face. Plus I find it hard to hold the camera steady and then click it to take the shot and keep your hand steady. So if the photo looks blurred, it is!

The knit jacket I am wearing is a Misook Jacket that worked great with this dress.

The shoes are Donald Pliners and I love the wedge heel, so retro looking to me. The wedge heel has a patent leather look while the rest of the shoe is a microfiber. I would love to have them in red, green and navy!

Sleeve lining tutorial

I wrote about preparing a tutorial to show how to install a sleeve lining if you are going to use the 'bag a lining' method. Several people have written they like the bag a lining method but just can't figure out the sleeve part.

Let me say that this "video" is my first ever trying something like this. With my new computer I have a lot of new "toys" or programs to play with and I thought I would try this. Blogger has now added a movie upload feature so I thought let's give it a go. As I have written before, you all know I am not a great photographer. Someone else could probably really jazz this up. I used this method on my recent McCall's Jacket.

Hope you find it helpful. I hope it works!




I reviewed this after posting. It looks better on my computer because it is on a wider screen. Some of the printed comments included in the photos look a little blurred in some. I think you can still get the gist of it. I can send this as an email attachment if you have an interest. Just post your email in the comments.

Made It Work

I was bound and determined to complete this dress and make it be wearable.

First thing this AM, I cut out the neck band in the black knit from my stash. I cut it two inches wide. I pressed in half, wrong sides together. I then placed the folded edge of the neck band to the edge of the neckline, stretching it as I went. This is the neck band application method shown on the THREADS website and I wrote a tip on it at PR years ago. This method works the best for me. Once determining the appropriate length, I cut the end at that point and then stitched 1/4 inch seam. Then divide in fourths, divide neckline in fourths, pin neckband to neckline matching quarter marks. Then stitch either using your sewing machine or serger. I used my sewing machine.




I then cut another piece of black knit using the tie belt pattern cutting it on the fold and using the width of the piece. I then folded this in half, serged the edges, turned right side out and then stitched the edges, stitching 1/4 inch from the edges.


I then stitched 5/8 from the hem edge using fusible thread in the bobbin. I then used this stitching line to turn up the hem evenly all around and pressed adhering the thread to the fabric. I then topstitched the hem of the dress.


I tried it on and I am once again happy with the look of this dress. Here are some more photos of the completed dress.

This is FOE used around the sleeve edge.




This is the back of the dress. Alma Marie is a little fuller than I am in the back.

This is the completed dress with the black knit sash. I think it works okay with the contrasting black at neckline and sleeves.





This is the dress without the band.

My Favorite is not so favorite at the moment

DH and I went riding on the motorcycle today on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Weather has changed some and not so awfully hot, but warm enough for me. Upon returning home, I went to work on my dress.

From my last time in the sewing room I had to make some fitting adjustments. After making those I attached the cap sleeves and then used black fold over elastic instead of turning up the hem and topstitching.

I decided to do this on the neckline. What a disaster that turned out to be. The neckline does not lay flat and looks ripply with this elastic. I cannot get the front waist tie to work right either. The back is still too full also. My mantra during all of this is "make it work", "make it work". So I decided to trim out about 3/8 inch from the back midriff at the side seams. I decided to eliminate the front belt tie and will make a belt/sash to use instead. My idea is to make it long enough to wrap around my waist and tie in the front, helping give some definition for the midriff. The knit fabric is so light and thin that the ties insert as directed just droop when inserted.

I also cut off the fold over elastic at the neck. I found some black knit fabric in my stash that I plan to use as the neckband. My hope that this is heavier than the current knit and will lay flatter to upper chest/neck area than the current fabric would, given the amount of stretch I am seeing. Plus it will, I think, work with the black elastic on the sleeve hems.

I was getting so frustrated with this that I decided it was best to leave it for now and do something else. I thought I will post what is going on here and if anyone reading has any suggestions, please leave a comment. All help, suggestions, support is greatly and always appreciated.

Work and sewing

These two do not necessarily go together. My week has been a little crazy with work related issues taking front and center. By the time I get home I have no energy left, it is all used up at work.

I only have a few more stitches to make to finish my dress. Summer will be over before I wear it! Well labor day will have come and gone. But I still may wear white shoes with it and if not, black will work also. I am sure that the heat will not go away just because labor day has come and gone by the time I can wear the dress.

Which leads to finishing the other dress that I have not started except to get the bodice pieces fit. I am still going to finish my fitting project. It is hard for me to put those things aside too long. Besides I really want to tackle this.

Sounding like a 'rambling rose'. Time to go dry my hair, put on my face and get going to work!

Actual sewing took place this weekend

I started on the Simplicity 3775 dress that I made before. I had to tweak this one a little more due to the difference in the knit used for this one. This knit is a little thinner/ lighter in weight than the earlier version I made. It also stretches more in length than the other knit fabric as well.

I ended up taking an additional 3/8 seam through the shoulder. I also had to take a deeper seam at the center back of the bodice and midriff. Even though I adjusted the back midriff for sway back with the lengthwise stretch of this knit, I still had too much fullness in the center back creating folds in the fabric in the middle of the back at the waist. The best way for me to remedy this was to take a deeper seam in the upper back between bodice and midriff. I started the seam toward the side and then took a deeper seam in the center area tapering back to the original seam near the opposite side. This worked in pulling out some of the back length and eliminated the horizontal folds.

I am using the cap sleeve for this dress and the sleeve for the sleeve hem is 5/8 inches. I thought it would make the sleeve shorter than I want. I then decided to use fold over black elastic to encase the hem area giving a nice contrast and no loss of length.

Here are a few shots of the fabric and stages of progress. I am almost finished with this dress making other adjustments needed found during the fitting process. I hope to complete it by sewing some tonight and tomorrow night.

Fabric purchased from Gorgeous Things.

Front view of dress with bodice and midriff attached. Front bands are basted to the side seams.

Back view with bodice, midriff and skirt all sewn together.

.

Recent pattern purchases

Here are a few of my recent pattern purchases. They have been acquired over the past month or so.

I have the perfect jacket fabric for this one but I am searching high and low to find the right black fabric for the dress. I ordered some tencel fabric from Sewing Studio recently as part of their recent summer ending sale. It was listed as black. What I got was navy blue. But I liked the navy blue so well and it was a great price, so I decided to keep it.

This one I purchased over a month ago. It looks summerish and it may end up being next year but I am hoping I can capture a summer into fall look with it.

This one caught my eye as soon as I saw it. Little did I know at the time that it was going to be such a big hit as a result of the ode to this pattern in the current Sew Stylish Magazine. They have created some really great garments with variations of the skirt, the jacket and the pants. After reading Carolyn's comments on her blog about how inspiring this issue of the magazine was, I had to go out and buy it today. She was right they have made some really nice garments from this one pattern. Truly inspiring.

I fell in love with this blouse pattern when I received my Vogue Patterns catalog in the mail a few weeks ago. I immediately snatched this one up.

Simplicity 3774

I am making progress finally on the fitting of this pattern using a new method. I screwed up the front bodice piece my first attempt and purchased another copy of the pattern to have a usable front bodice again. I redid the back and front bodice working on both yesterday and today in between other issues.

I am please with the results of the bodice pieces and will pin fit them later to see if there is anything wacky. This is my usual method of fitting patterns, pin fitting then determining adjustments needed then, making the fit adjustments, re pin and adjust more if necessary.

I like learning new things so this is appealing to me. I have yet to sew a stitch in my other dress that is sitting on the side lines waiting for attention. I have threaded the serger and all is ready to go, except me. My thoughts are now that I will sew some tomorrow and then go back to the fitting of the other later.

No Sewing Here

I have not sewn since over a week ago.

My old computer needed to be replaced and I spent all weekend reloading software. What a time consuming project that is. I am one of those folks that when I start something like this I can't let it go and keep on keeping on. Until I am just forced to stop, like fixing dinner so we can eat; or having to give my hand and shoulder a rest from being at the computer hours on end.

I have about three more programs to reload. Fortunately the hard drive on old computer did not die and Firedog folks were able to transfer all of My Documents-docs,excel,photos etc. over to the new computer. So not all was lost.

I am taking two vacation days at the end of this week so will definitely begin sewing one of the dresses currently cut out and waiting to be sewn. The serger and sewing machine are threaded and ready to go.

I am still working on using my sloper to adjust the pattern for the other dress. I am finding I am enjoying that process, it is like working on a puzzle. Learning quite a bit as well.

All for now, got to get dress to go to work.