Tag: sewing

Fearless February Sewing

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Ten Thousand Hours of Sewing

Victoria of the Ten Thousand Hours of Sewing blog is hosting a Fearless February sew-a-long. The goal is to sew something that you have been too scared to tackle.

It is just the kick in the pants that I need to finish the slip cover for the wing chair.
Months ago, I made the slip cover for the seat cushion.

Yet, the chair is still hidden beneath a store-bought slip cover that doesn’t fit, being designed for a different style of chair. It irritates me on a daily basis.

It’s true that other projects have demanded my attention, but I could have made time to sew the slip cover. I have been avoiding it like the plague. I even put the fabric away, too scared to cut it up.

Victoria says the way to tackle such sewing fears is to just pick up the scissors, turn on the sewing machine and just do it. Her sew-a-long promises lots of encouragement, which is good. I’m going to need it.

2012 in Review

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At first I felt as if I couldn’t write a Year in Review post. It seemed like the year had flown by and I hadn’t had a chance to do much at all, but looking back that is hardly true.

The year started off with the Pottstown Knit Out and my teaching a class about knitting charts.

Then, every spare moment in the Spring was dedicated to knitting a hexagon blanket for I was determined to finish before the dog days of summer began despite not needing it done until September. The blanket was a wedding gift to my sister-in-law and her fiancée.

Oddly enough, even though I accomplished my goal of completing the blanket before the heat rolled in, I still knit throughout the summer. Elly got a new twirly skirt.

By the end of summer, I was harvesting the best crop of tomatoes I have ever grown. I only wish I knew what I did right so I would know how to repeat it this year.

In the sewing room, I made a flower dress for Elly and a strapless dress for me.

They were hands down the hardest clothing I’ve ever made. I told everybody at the wedding that I made the dresses, even people who were just making pleasant conversation and could have cared less. Darn it, I was proud.

Right before Thanksgiving Day, Elly and I ripped the old golf green carpet up.

Girl power rules!

Of course, everything couldn’t end in smiles. The dining room wall nearly sent me to the funny farm. It should come as no surprise that the walls still aren’t finished. The wind fell out of my sails not to mention the holidays took over my life.

I have not made any resolutions for the New Year. However, I do hope to publish 2 knitting patterns, finish sewing all the curtains and slip covers that I started last year and placed on the back burner for one reason or another and continue enjoying my time with Elly for she is growing up so fast. I hope 2013 will be a fabulous year for you too!

A Muslin for Me

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It fits!

It also looks nothing like Simplicity 1910.

I changed my mind. When I saw Gertie’s Bombshell Dress class on Craftys.com, I fell immediately in love.

Since having Elly, clothing with clear waist definition looks more attractive on me. It draws attention to my waist and bust and away from everything south, such as my squishy tummy and my American thighs.

It took two fittings to get the muslin just right.

The first thing I noticed was that the cups sagged. My days of being perky are over it seems. A halter strap came to my rescue.

Additionally, the initial fitting had me struggling to breath and that was without the underlining, boning and lining. So, I let out the side seams a 1/4 inch.

It’s perfect now. I can breathe. It fits.

Now, I just have to get the nerve to cut out the gorgeous purple taffeta and irreplaceable Mexican lace. Gulp.

Sewing Progress Slowed by Game Night

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Progress has been slow on sewing a muslin for my dress. I blame Bananagrams and Can’t Stop. Dan and I have been playing one or the other almost every night after Elly goes to bed.

The first time we played Bananagrams, it took forever. We never finished it before bedtime. To stack the odds in our favor of completing future games, we upped the number of tiles “Peel”ed to 2 rather than the recommended one. We both lost the first game we finished. Both of us had words that aren’t in any dictionary. I had added a ‘y’ to joker, making jokery. It looked good, but it’s not a word. Dan had ‘sog’ and ‘qi’. He tried to sell me on ‘qi’ and I almost believed him. Then, when he was looking up ‘sog’ because I swore I had never seen such a word, he realized that not only was ‘sog’ not a word, but ‘qi’ was not either. Too funny!

Can’t Stop is a game that Dan printed out on our printer. To give the board a bit more stability, he then pasted it to a piece of cardboard using modge podge.

As usual, Dan wins almost every game we play. Maybe when he’s older, he’ll become senile and I can start winning a few games here and there. One can dream, right?

The Last of the Red Curtains

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Goodbye red floral curtains. You will not be missed.

I still have 2 more panels to sew of the sheer curtains, but I couldn’t wait a moment longer. It was with glee that I took the old red curtains down and cut into them with my sewing sheers. I hope to reuse the fabric when I make Noodlehead’s Go Anywhere bag. Perhaps I’ll make some pillows too just to remember the curtains by.

With Dan’s help and perhaps Elly’s help too, the new sheer curtains were hung.

Now as much as I love the new sheer curtains and I especially adore all the light they let in, I am on the hunt for new home decorator fabric that can layer overtop. Our front room faces south and gets blasted by the sun all day long. By noon, it’s like an inferno in the living room. The old shades provided much needed protection from the sun by blocking it out. The sooner I can find new fabric and line such fabric with flannel – for that is the key to weather protecting curtains – the less often we will have to run our AC.

This post was added to TDC’s June Before and After Party.

TDC Before and After

Elly Models My First Muslin

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Of all the dresses I’ve sewn, I’ve never made a muslin first. I would just cut out the pattern size closest to my bust, waist and hip measurements. Then, I sewed the dress in its entirety and hoped for the best. Sometimes it worked great. Sometimes it didn’t.

Lately, I started reading some really great sewing blogs. Which reminds me, I need to update my blog roll. Time and again the authors of these sewing blogs would mention that they sewed a muslin first before cutting out the expensive fabric they purchased. Though the fabric I purchased for our dresses isn’t terribly expensive, it’s not cheap and I would prefer to not have to buy more.

Based on Elly’s chest measurement, I traced out a size 5T/6. It’s true Elly is tall for her age, but she is not the height of a 5 year old. Assuming the bodice would need shortening and not wanting to make such adjustments on the fancy fabric, I made a muslin of it. The skirt I was unconcerned about. I can always make the hem deeper. Plus, the width of the skirt doesn’t really matter since it is gathered.

I was right. The straps needed to be 1 inch shorter. What I didn’t anticipate was how tight the bodice was in the waist. I had forgotten about Elly’s big belly.

It took slashing the front bodice piece and adding 2.5 inches to keep the bodice from being skin-tight over her belly.

It’s a good thing Elly is only 2 years old. I don’t think she will appreciate me divulging such personal information when she is 13. Ha!

The other thing I learned from the muslin was how to put the pattern pieces together. I mucked it up in the first picture. I attached the shoulder straps next to the side seams when they are supposed to be shifted over a few inches. Nice to figure that out on cheap muslin.

So, I’m a convert. I’ll be making a muslin of my bodice as well.

Next, I have to wash the gorgeous fabric (pictures coming soon), take a very deep breath and cut out all the pattern pieces for Elly’s dress.

Excited and Nervous

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My sister-in-law just announced that she is getting married in September. Her fiance is a good man. I’m so happy for her.

I’m giddy for me!

Within minutes of Dan relaying the news to me, I had dress ideas spinning in my head. Two days later, the ideas have been cemented, patterns decided upon, stash rooted through and missing fabric and notions purchased. Would you like to see?

I’m so excited!

Elly’s dress pattern was taken from Sewing Clothes Kids Love.

It’s the Manhattan Special Occasion Dress.

I just love the twirly skirt, ribbon lacing and sweet collar.

My dress pattern is Simplicity 1910.

You’ll notice that it has some of the same elements, like the ribbon lacing and the full skirt.

Here’s where the nervousness comes in. The fanciest dress I ever sewn was made a few years ago. I wore it recently on our Disney cruise.

Here is a better picture of the dress.

It’s fully lined, but other than that it’s a very simple design.

The dress patterns I have chosen have 4 skirts. 4! They have an overskirt (lace), the main skirt, an underskirt (tulle) and a lining. OK. So the patterns don’t call for all those skirts, but I think they’re essential in creating a fun party dress. The bodice of Simplicity 1910 uses boning. I’ve never used boning. The Manhattan dress has enough pieces to make your head spin. Ack!

But, I think I’m more excited than nervous. I would love any advice you have on dressmaking. I already picked up Couture Sewing from Amazon to guide me through all the rough patches because I know there are going to be several.

Missing Santa

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Elly still talks about Santa and presents.

She was upset that we put away the Christmas decorations yesterday. She’s not the only one missing Santa.

I have an assembly line of stockings being made in my sewing room.
I found this fabric in my stash and it told me that it wanted to be a stocking.

When fabric talks, I try to listen.
Once I started cutting out the fabric for one stocking, I found more fabric that would look perfect hanging on a mantle.

Dan was surprised to learn that I was making stockings. We each have one. Elly has 2 stockings. My neighbor gave me 3 handknit stockings this year. What will I do with these stockings once they are complete? I don’t know. I refuse to worry about such trivial details.

Organizing Tons of Fabric

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Thanks to my mother-in-law’s generosity and amazing good luck, the guest bedroom/sewing room is in major need of an overhaul. This is the before shot:

The trash bags piled high on the bed are filled with fabric and notions. My MIL received the goldmine from a coworker who was moving to London. She didn’t want to pay the enormous shipping fees to send it overseas and would my MIL want it? “Heck yeah” answered my MIL as would any sane woman answer!

My current system of stacking the fabric in the china cabinet won’t work; there’s not enough room.

Enter plan b.

Plan b involves shuffling the bookcases, buying a new bookcase, and reorganizing my current stash of fabric and notions. It also involves finishing the rag quilt before I open the bags of fabric. I know me. If I open the bags first, Elly might have to wait another year before she sees her quilt.

Elly’s 1st Apron

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Elly loves to help me in the kitchen now. A step stool sits in front of the island so Elly can reach the countertop. Stirring is still difficult for her but she keeps trying.

Jake cleans up most of her spills. When she’s not stirring, she’s tasting. Often she ends up covering her face along with whatever she’s wearing in flour. Rather than change her clothes repeatedly and in turn have to do more laundry, I whipped her up an apron.

Full details about the pattern and fabric can be found on my Elly-Made blog.