Guess what today was?

Today was Wear a Dress Day per Erin at "A Dress A Day"! I forgot that it was though I pretty much read her blog daily. Even though I forgot, I did wear a dress today and one that I made.

Here is a few shots of the dress when I originally made it. This has been a great dress to wear. Wear it, wash it, dry it, and hang it for the next wearing. Can't get much better than that. This was fabric I purchased when in DC for ASG National Conference about three years ago now. I had enough left to make the Jalie Sweetheart Top.

Sewing-no blogging

I finished pin fitting the pattern yesterday after making numerous fitting adjustments-the usual ones=FBA, swayback, round back adjustment, upper chest and back 1/4 inch tuck.

I then cut out the dress including marking the fabric for darts, etc. I think the fabric will sew up well as it was very easy to cut out, not fiddly nor excessive raveling.

I then stitched the buttonholes for the blouse. One of the buttonholes just did not stitch out correctly so had to undo stitches, which is very time consuming. If anyone reading this has an easy way to remove buttonhole stitches, I am open to any and all suggestions. I began sewing the buttons on the blouse and hope to wear this later this week.

More later.

Brown and blue

This is the fabric I am going to use to make my next Vogue dress.

I purchased this from Textile Studios. The date on the photo is 2007 but I think that I bought this in 2006 and just got around to taking photos in'07. None the less, it is now time to use it as I have pulled it out to make something several times and then did not use it as another item took its place.

Originally I had planned pants, then jacket, then skirt. It is going to be this dress. I have had this pattern laying out for some time and decided that I had the right stripe as used in the dress on the pattern envelope.

I began cutting around the pattern last night so I can do a tissue fitting later today and hopefully move forward on cutting out the dress.

Around those who are sewing

I attended our ASG meeting last night and it was such a pleasure to be around such creative sewists. We always have a show and tell time following the program. Many of the projects at times are related to quilting. That in itself is a talent as some of the projects are just drop dead gorgeous.

There are a few of us who sew garments and home dec projects. We do have a "Designers" group who once a month tackle a garment project and currently they are working on jackets. I would love to participate in some of these groups but work gets in my way.

I missed out on the group trip to Mary Jo's but I was able to live through the experience by the telling of others.

TGIF! I have patterns to fit, fabrics to cut and sewing to start this weekend.

Coco Chanel

Perhaps you have seen the promo for the premier movie on the Lifetime channel for this weekend; but if you have not there is going to be a premier movie on Lifetime about Coco Chanel. I forget who the actress is playing her. (It is 5:22 AM and I am only partially through my first cup of coffee.) It looks like it may be interesting. I have warned my DH that there will be no channel surfing during this moving. I have also programmed it to tape it for that just in case situation.

ASG Meeting

The closest thing to sewing today will be going to our ASG meeting. Our chapter plus friends of chapter members took a bus trip to Mary Jo's in Gastonia, NC yesterday. Unfortunately I did not get to go as I was on vacation last week. I still have some lining and fabrics left from last year's trip. Hopefully I will get to see some of our shopper's treasurers tonight.

I did get to JoAnn's earlier this week and got some very nice buttons for my blouse so I can finish that up and have something new to wear. I did wear my new Vogue dress on Tuesday and got lots of comments about the dress. I have to say that it wore well and the knit I used feels fabulous.

Got to run and finish getting dressed for work. Later.

Quick update

Wow, going back to work after a vacation can be hard. I have not been in my sewing room since Sunday!

I have cut around patterns for a Vogue dress and for the Teagarden T. That's all the sewing related things I have done since returning to work. I have gotten home late Monday and Tuesday so sewing is slower than slow.

Later.

Blouse is complete-except

I finished the blouse, whew! Now that I know what size is best and adjusted pattern pieces accordingly I think that I will make another blouse from this pattern. It runs on the large size so if you think you may want to make this remember that. Another important note about this pattern is that one pattern piece is mislabeled; it is appropriately identified in the instructions. I am not sure if that has been corrected in newer releases or not. It is one of the bottom front pieces.

It was not a difficult blouse to make; yet is does have several pattern pieces that require sewing together. You have separate bottom and top back and front pieces. They all went together well. The view I made has gathered sleeves at the sleeve cap and onto the sleeve cuff. Attaching the cuff to the gathered sleeve edge was a little fiddly.

I did not have the right buttons for this blouse and just to darn lazy to travel across town to see if JoAnn's had something. I hope so otherwise this will require a longer drive to an independent fabric dealer or online purchase. Thus I still need to make buttonhole and sew on buttons.

Here are some shots of the blouse on AlmaMarie:

Blouse progression

Today we went to Danville to take MIL to medical center for some tests. Upon returning home, I spent a little time in sewing room working on the blouse. I attached the front band and decided to take a little deeper side seam from underarm to bust. I had some "wings" there that I did not need.

I am taking this a little slow as I have not made a blouse with front band, plus collar and collar stand. I am going for some perfection here, not speed. I mentioned this before but this is great fabric to sew.

Here are some shots of my progress today. Yesterday I did not sew. I had a mani-pedicure and it was fabulous. I love vacations that you get pampered and just do much of nothing!

Beauty note

Since starting to blog about two years ago, I have read lots and lots of blogs. Most are ones related to sewing. However I have found a few other blogs that are related to fashion and beauty. I read "The Well-Heeled Society" mostly devoted to shoes. There are numerous links from there to Beauty tips and such. My two favorites are "Beauty Tips Revealed" and "15 Minutes Beauty Fanatic".

Of course I find myself trying some new cosmetics as a result. Today I learned I won the August reader gift give away on "Beauty Tips Revealed"-an anti-aging product. She was nice enough to post a link to my blog.

I truly have been lucky winning items from other blogs:

1. A coffee table book all about shoes
2. Nails kit and polish
3. Foot masque
4. Fabric from Burda Style
5. Two Vintage Patterns
6. Anti-aging products

Now if I could only win the Mega Millions Lottery.

Vacation and Sewing

Our vacation, as most do, seem to speed along. Actually it has been a resting vacation for both DH and me. We like to ride our motorcycle when the weather is not too hot or too cold. Yesterday was one of those days where it was overcast and thus temperatures stayed comfortable. We rode to a restaurant called the Pink Cadillac which has a great 50's theme going on and of course a 1950's model Pink Cadillac sits on the property. It is located close to Lexington,VA home of VMI. It attracts a lot of tourists who are visiting the area. Some day I must take photos just like all the other tourist do. After eating lunch we rode up to Fairfield, VA on the back roads and listened to music as we rode. We returned home around 4:30 and I spent time in the sewing room.

This is what I am working on:

I am making View B but without the ruffle as I ran out of material. I really like this pattern, so far. It comes with B,C,D cup sizes. The instructions are good but I don't like how they have you attach the upper and low sections together so I am doing it my way. They have you sew the upper front and back together at shoulder and side seams. Then you sew the lower pieces together for the front and back. You then hem the lower edge and then attach to the upper pieces. I prefer and do sew the lower front pieces together and attach to the upper front pieces and do the same for the back. Then I sew the front unit to the back unit. This allows in my opinion better fitting opportunity or adjustments. You also have one continuous side seam.

The fabric I am using comes from my stash and is a lovely rayon fabric I purchased from Textile Studios several years ago-at least more than two years ago. It was a breeze to cut out and it sews great. I will take photos later. I actually have a complete bodice unit made and hemmed the blouse. This is done prior to attaching the front bands. I am following the instructions here at this point as I have not made a blouse that has a front button band in a couple of years. I have made pullover or back zipped blouses. So there maybe a better technique than this but this one seems to be easy enough to follow and under stand.

More later.