Simplicity 2222 and New Look 6843

The past couple of weeks I have neglected this space a little. Not sure why, I suppose settling into my new job and generally laziness in many areas of my life. But spring has sprung here in Edmonton and it's difficult not to feel some renewed energy when the sun streams through your living room windows.

I'm working on Simplicity 2222 at the moment. I'm making the "classic" version of this dress. Oh yoy, if I hadn't been thinking this dress would have been 8 inches too short. Warning to all who are over 25 that make this pattern, it is short. I hope when I have the dress finished I don't wish I hadn't added even more than the 6 inches.

I was really impressed with machine's ability to handle the buttonholes. It did a lovely job!

 And I think I'm finally getting the hang of topstitching ... that took awhile!

 This is my other finished product from this week. It's a New Look pattern that I've had for several years. Super easy, and you could easily make ten of these. I like the super thin waistband and made in this super soft knit (yeah, that's right, three supers in a row) that I've had for over ten years I think I'll have trouble convincing myself to wear something other than this skirt to work.

Simplicity 2593 and Vivat Veritas Dress

I actually made something for myself that I like. You probably can't imagine how very rare this is. I mean I make things for myself but they often quickly fall into the category "Oh, gee, that was a nice attempt but of course you would never wear that in public." I think I will wear this in public, and proudly.

On Friday I was feeling a little directionless so I went to Fabricland, bought some of this navy and white floral pattern for $7/metre and a couple of Simplicity patterns to work with and I made this top. Ok, as usual I cheated in multiple ways. The fabirc I had was much too slippery to make your own binding (which this pattern requires) but luckily I had some double wide bias tape kickin' around that I used instead. I kind of like the details it gives the top by encircling the armholes.

I'd seen on multiple different reviews that the ruffle was difficult to attach, but I didn't have too much trouble. Sometimes I think anticipating that it will give me trouble allows me to take my time and employ a little patience that I wouldn't normally. I must say, the hanger doesn't really do it justice ;)

 I also practiced a litttle patience with the Vivat Veritas Big Button Dress I was making for my sister. I pretty much undid every seam that had been sewn. I added a 3 inch band to the arms so that the sleeves would be more sleeve-like and I made an insert at the shoulder seam of nearly 2 inches. This brought the whole dress down a bit and is a much more attractive neckline for my sister. She tried it on and there are still a couple of things that need doin' but we're real close and I think it looks super cute on her (all it needs are some really big earrings!)

Valentine's Day has come and gone

It's amazing to me that every year Valentine's Day comes and goes with very little hoopla around here. That's fine with me, it all feels a little forced and kinda awkward! Bah-humbug. Tee hee.

Nonetheless I did my part (I usually don't) and brought out a small wall-hanging my mom made a few years ago and I made this silly little mobile which stood in as a chandelier over a meal of crepes (je t'aime Montreal).

Although I've been sewing a little bit this week it hasn't resulted in much that was picture worthy. And I still find it challenging to take a good photograph at night.

I made another pillow the other night. It matches my first pillow in colour palette and is similar in size. It's a funny mix of things: muslin, vintage fabric from the 70s, ikea stripe, some scraps from Josh's grandmother, and a covered button with some leftovers. I'm happy with it's sorta scrappy result. I even like the look my little haphazard birds -- when I look closely at the machine applique it looks not too bad, which felt like a gamble at the time, am I going to ruin this nice pillow with some terrible applique??

I would quote a source for this pillow but I think it's truly an amalgamation of all the bird pillows out there in blogland. I love them all ... so thanks y'all for the inspiration.

Other than pillows I've been working on another loose-fitting jacket-like thing for my mom. It's a Butterick pattern made with some polyester I had kicking around. I'm using it mostly as a muslin this time around to see what the fit will be like and whether my mom likes the shape. The sleeves are wide and the shape is quite box-y so I'll have to see what it looks like on before I go ahead and cut out some nicer material.

The pattern requires a fair bit of topstitching and that actually went quite well. The results are nice so far. For right now progress is stalled however... no more black thread. Heheh.

A new dress and another WIP complete

I cannot tell a lie ... I work part-time. Not that this isn't completely obvious considering my obsession with my hobby and with other people's blogs about my hobby. As a result, though, I have Mondays off most of the time. So on Monday I started a new project out of my newest book Sew U: Home Stretch, of Built by Wendy fame. If you live in Canada and are anywhere near Chapters/Indigo/Coles you should go buy this book for the rock-bottom price of $5.99 (oh, yeah, I suppose you could order it online, I never really think of doing that, what can I say, I don't use a cellphone either a.k.a I live in the dark ages).

Of course you should start with the t-shirt pattern because that is where you learn all the skills you will then apply to your other projects ... or you could skip to the dress, because what's more fun than learning on the fly, non? So, yeah, I skipped to the dress, and here is a picture of what I learned.

1. I love my machine and will never criticize it ... but it doesn't love this fabric. Or maybe it does love it because it liked to EAT it. So, all of my seams look like this. What is that, you say? Little, teeny, bits of tissue paper that are left over after feeding all the seams through with tissue paper under them. Hmmm.

 2. My shoulders are narrow, like really narrow! So when I put this dress on for the first time after making it the shoulder seam was down my arms and the little puff on the sleeve was more like an awkwardly placed bicep. I made an extra dart along the top between neckline and shoulder line on both front and back to gather up a little fabric and bring that puff back on to the shoulder.

3. Oh yeah, and sewing with knits is hard. I know, I know, Wendy says it's easy but I kinda think it's hard. Not impossible but challenging when you don't own a serger!

Next week - back to cotton! YAY! Oh knits, I'll be back -- I just need a little time with some fabric that likes to be pressed and folded and cut, oh yeah and sewn!

Meanwhile I have this pile of leftovers to take a look at!

PS My mom's cardigan fit and I didn't ruin the hem!

A world without cable...

leaves quite a bit of time to sew! My husband was off for a gig today that took most of the afternoon and evening so I was left to my own devices this Saturday.

At first I spent a good deal of time surfing the internet looking at everyone else's sewing (I am religiously following Project Run and Play, and a number of other blogs) until I decided that there is something pretty lame about gawking at everyone else's work when you don't do any of your own.

I had a difficult time picking out which project to work on (which is silly) and then decided to start something completely new (hee, hee). I told my mom that I would work on a swing cardigan for her from the Butterick 5498 pattern that I bought a while ago. I used some "linen look" fabric that she already had and I went at it.

This is an extremely easy pattern and really took only 3 hours or so (although at the moment it is still unhemmed). I think the fabric has great drape and I hope that it fits my mom because in many cases I've already finished the seams. I even made my own bias tape to finish the facing (what has gotten into me?). It was really fun and I didn't get held up by unclear instructions.

It's hard to tell due to my lack of picture-taking prowess but the fabric is blue-gray and not as drab as it may appear here. But I was still afraid that it looked a little plain, so I went ahead and made a little purple organza flower for the lapel.

I'm happy with the way it turned out.

I only made one change to pattern and that was that I decided to topstitch the facing down because it always drives me crazy when it starts to creep around.

For many years my mom made a dress for me for every important occasion in my life -- and yes, that included my wedding dress. I suppose this is the start of paying some of that back.