Monthly Roundup - August '10

Although I can't believe it is already September, and August seems to have flown by too fast with not enough sewing in it, I am reasonably happy with what I accomplished this month.

1) Simplicity 2907 dress for Myra
2) Another Simplicity 5695 dress for Myra
3) A second pair of New Look 6816 pants for me
4) Simplicity 2563 Cinderella dress for Myra
5) Another BWOF 02/2009-124 dress for me

I took it pretty easy and only two patterns were not previously sewn by me.  No new techniques, just simple fun sewing.  All of the pieces have already been much worn and loved, so I think that is success!!  I sewed a total of 9.25 yards of which 6.75 came from my stash.

My current WIP is another pair of New Look 6816 pants, this time out of 2 ply silk crepe lined with habotai.  I was very nervous about cutting up all of that silk (a total of 5 yards!), but it is done now and the pants are on their way!   I'm starting with the lining, since it is less of a loss if I mess it up!

I have to say, I am really enjoying sewing with silk.  Usually lining fabric is slippery and annoying to sew, and while this habotai is soft and silky, it  has actually been a pleasure to sew.  I wish I couold sew with silk all the time!!  I want these to be finely crafted - pants I will wear a long time.  I'm sewing all french seams and planning to try my first hand rolled hem.  These won't be a quicky project, but they will be satisfying and hopefully will help me move back into more challenging sewing.

This month I will be starting my self-imposed sewing, as I mentioned in this post.  This month's project is...

lucky #3, Vogue 8322.  I have loved this pattern literally for years, but for some reason, just haven't sewn it.  I think this houndstooth charmeuse will make it nicely.  I am a little nervous about the fitting, since obviously I can't fit it to myself at the moment.  My dressform really isn't as accurate as I'd like (duct tape stretches out over time), but I do have some good pre-pregnancy measurements and a few well fitting blouse patterns for comparison, so we'll just work with what we have.  My last couple of fitted Vogue blouses have been big in the shoulders and armholes, so I'm going to start a size smaller and do a larger FBA, then work from there.

I'm also hanging with the Cool Girls, so we're drafting our own trousers.  I'm going to start with my pre-pregnancy measurements, and then add a maternity panel with the help of Kwik Sew 3324, which includes instructions for adding a maternity panel to RTW pants.  I'll blog along as I go - it should be fun!

That sounds like enough planned sewing, but I'll probably work in a few other projects here and there.  I just reorganized my knit fabrics, and found some yummies I had forgotten.  Maybe you'll get to see some...

Happy Birthday!

My son celebrated his fourth birthday yesterday, but I got all the presents!!  (OK, maybe he got a few, but I know y'all aren't interested in the expansion of his Thomas the Train and Veggie Tales collections.)
My parents came for the day, which was great in and of itself, but Mom brought me a bag full of patterns that a friend of her's had given her!  They were left over from her garment sewing days, which appear to have been in the late 80s or early 90s...  There were a lot of cute kids patterns though.

Here is the haul.  Most of them won't fit my kiddos for a couple of years, but they've been waiting this long...

This one is my favorite.  I love the wrap pinafore.  It reminds me a little of an Ottobre.

Then we got the mail, and I got a package from Amber!

She had two copies of this sweet little pattern and she sent me one!  How sweet was that!!  Thanks so much for thinking of me!  My ultrasound is in two weeks, so I'll let you know then whether we'll be making the sweet little pink dress or the blue sailor suit...

What next?

I wish I had something cute to show you, but I don't.  I haven't hit my machine for a week.  I'm ready to cut out my black silk to make pants, but I think I'm afraid of it.  I have no excuse!  I've made these pants twice and wear both versions constantly, so the pattern has been well tested.  It's just more expensive fabric than I'm used to.  I don't want to mess it up!!  In the meantime, I did sew a bunch (like 16) Lightning McQueen beanbags for Logan's upcoming 4th birthday party.

Watch out for those lentils.  They break needles.

While I get over my fear, I have been blog surfing and I ran across this post by Myrna that really resonated with me.  (Actually, a LOT of what Myrna writes really resonates with me.  Have you been by her blog??)  I have a ton of gorgeous patterns and fabulous fabric that keep getting pushed to the back of the queue as I sew, and I really want some of those garments in my wardrobe, and not in my sewing closet.  So, I am going to commit to my own self-imposed sewing club.  I've pulled 12 patterns that I already have fabric for and have been really wanting to sew, but haven't for some reason or another.  I'm bagging them up, and each month (starting in September) I'll pull one out and sew it.  At the rate I've been going, that may be the only thing I sew that month, but I really want to sew these things and get them out of my stash!!  I also reserve the right to a sabbatical around the time that baby is born.  Newborns seem to slow down my sewing...

So what do I have in the queue?  I decided to limit to envelope patterns, mostly because I didn't want to sort through my burdas.  I know lazy, but there it is.  Since I also want this to be a bit of a stashbusting venture as well, I am only including projects for which I already have fabric, although I will allow linings or underlinings and notions to be purchased, since I don't tend to stash those.  I sorted through my envelope patterns and chose 12 that I really want to sew, but have been putting off.  Then I hit the stash, and pulled fabrics for each pattern.  In some cases I already had linings as well, which is nice.  Each pattern/fabric combo went into a 2 1/2 gallon zipper bag.  I'll number them and then choose a number at random in order to select the one to be sewn each month.

In the bags: (in no particular order)
Simplicity 2614, made from a printed green and white lawn from FFC
Vogue 8603, made from a lovely brown RPL, with coordinating brown and green floral lining both from Gorgeous fabrics
Vogue 1027, made from a brown ITY, origin forgotten - (Yes, I am totally plagiarizing Elizabeth's gorgeous brown version of this dress!)
Vogue 1050, made from navy and turquoise peachskin from Joann
Colette Ceylon, made from black and white polka dot lawn from FFC
Vogue 1099, made from turquoise cotton pique with a paisley lining both from Hancock
Vogue 8601, made from pink wool from Pendleton Mills, lined with a green shoe print charmeuse from Joann
burda 7738, made from stretch denim from Fabric.com
Vogue 8604, made from black stretch wool from Fabric.com
Vogue 8322, made from a black and white houndstooth print charmeuse from Hancock
Vogue 8543, made from a black and silver suiting from FabricMart, lining TBD
Simplicity 2764, made from a black and white houndstooth wool coating from Hancock with pink acetate lining from Buttons & Bolts

So, what will be first?  I'll let you know September 1st!  Hopefully, with an online commitment, I'll be able to stick closely to my plan.  Help me out and bug me if you see me falling of the wagon, will you??  But first, I must go cut up some silk!

BWOF 02/2009-124 : Lady in Red

I'm such a sucker for a red dress...

This is BWOF 02/2009-124 again, this time made from a lipstick red ponte knit from Fabric Mart.  I wear this version all the time, but the wide stripes make it feel a bit casual, so I decided I wanted a dressier one for church and other occasions.  And in case you don't have my due date stenciled somewhere (and why don't you??), I am 21 weeks in these pictures.  More than halfway!!

This time to ramp up the dressy factor, I avoided any topstitching, so the neckline is finished with a self fabric band and the hems are hand blindstitched, which is soooo easy on a double knit.  I think it has a nice va-va-voom factor on it's own, but maybe a skinny black belt with a bow at the empire waist?  What say you?

I was also inspired by Amber's awesome knit dress, and I explored some of the other stretch stitches that my machine offers.  Usually when I sew knits I stick with the straight lightning stitch or the triple stitch, but check this out...

This awesome stitch combines the straight triple stitch, which has a ton of stretch, with a quick overcast every third stitch!  So it seams and finishes the edges in one step, while still retaining elasticity and giving a smooth seam on the outside!  I don't have a serger, so I am loving this!  I can't wait to try it out on some less stable knits and see how it performs.

Simplicity 2563 : Pink Cinderella

We all know Cinderella's dress is blue, but when you are 2 years old, everything has to be pink!

So, here is our pink Cinderella.

Her dress is made from Simplicity 2563, which is an official Disney Princess costume pattern.  Simplicity also publishes this pattern in the girls and misses size ranges, for all of your princess needs.  As far as costume patterns go, this one is pretty good.  The bodice is faux lined (that is, you sew the shoulder seams of bodice and lining separately, attach them at the neckline and then treat them as one).  I'm not a fan of that, since part of the point of lining to me is to have a clean finish on the inside, so I lined it the traditional way.  It does run a bit large.  Myra is currently between a size 1 and 2, so I made the 2.  I had to pin it up in back to keep in on her shoulders.  Part of that is that the neckline is quite low, but then so was Cinderella's.  It is also drafted with a VERY long skirt.  The photos on the pattern envelope would have you believe that this is a knee length dress.  In fact, in order to get the length you see, which drags the floor on Myra, I had to remove 5 inches and do a 2 inch deep hem.

Here is the inside.  The lining is a dark pink poly crepe that my mother gave me.  I did get a bit lazy and set in the sleeves with bodice and lining as one, then bound those ugly seam allowances with bias tape.  Of course, I used an invisible zip.  I'm not sure I'll ever center a zipper again.  I'm not very good at it, and invisible zips are so easy.  To finish the skirt seams (which I didn't line), I double stitched and pinked, and I pinked the seam at center back under the zipper tape.
This dress was actually pretty fun to sew, or at least it would have been if I had not been using wretched polyester.  I have nothing good to say about this fabric.  Ick.

Myra is delighted with her dress though.  In the end, that is all that really matters.