Oh my heck, it has been a while!

Aloha Friends!

It has been awhile, hasnt it? I have done some small sewing projects but with the beginning of school, a change of grade level, and wedding plans coming together I have been busy planning all of them (and sewing for them)! Seeing I am home sick I decided to do some catch-up blogging! This is a quick run down on what I have been doing...

First Project: 
I have made some pillows (cat and the hat themed for my classroom) and made a skirt to match my classroom). I used the Colette Ginger pattern. I will take a picture of myself in it in my Seussical classroom when I finally wear it!
The Facts
Fabric: Cotton fish and a fleece upper (not the best choice).
Year: modern
Notions: zipper
 Time to complete: It was a UFO because school started. Could not have taken me more than a few hours though.
First worn: I just finished it! I wanted to wear it the first day of school at the end of August... (only 2 months late).
Wear again? Yes! Only to school though.

Second Project:
The shorts I was talking about from Simplicity 3748 in a prior post fit my friend beautifully. I finished them and gave them to her as a gift. (My first garment I have ever given as a present). I am waiting for her to send my a picture of her in her new shorts. I made a super cute insert to go in with the garment. My mom ordered me some circle seals for the tissue paper and I put this insert in with the shorts.

Third Project:
Fall always brings the "I have nothing to wear!" statements. Fall here in Las Vegas is not cold but you do not want to wear your pastel summer loving colors to events, just for the pure principal of it! So I was at Joann's 50% off red tag fabric (they always get me to spend so much money when they have those!) I saw some super cute fabric (mostly summer *sigh*) There was this cotton chicken/rooster fabric I thought would be just perfect. It is not hot (fall here in Vegas is 70-85 degrees) but it still looked "fall-ish".

 

Cute, huh?

 I am making another swing skirt with this material. I am using my tried-and-true modern pattern I used for my Christmas and Thanksgiving and Day of the Dead (not on here) skirt I got a super cute home-made yellow knitted shirt to go with it (pictures to come soon- I am sick again and no one wants to see what I am working with at the moment).

The Facts
Fabric: Cotton from Joann's Fabrics. $2 (it was their 50% off sale) a yard... 4 yards ($8)
Lining- None... I always wear a petticoat I purchased from mybabyjo.com
Pattern: McCalls 5811. I do widen the waist band substantially.
Year: It's a "new" pattern but lends itself perfectly to a circle skirt.
Notions: 7" ziper, hook and eye (or button), iron interfacing for waist.
Time to complete: Under 4 hours.
Changes: I use a heavy weight fusible interfacing in the waistband (that I widen). I add a pocket on the right side seam, and I am not sure on the closure on this one but I sometimes use different buttons.

 I must say now that I finally have a machine that does zippers I am getting much better at installing them! Check it out!

I could not get it to turn around... stinkin' blogger ;)

Fourth/Fifth Project:
I am still working on Rich's shirt (I have decided I do not like men's wear) and I am going to make a rough draft of these pants:

Colette Jasmine 2

I finally finished this shirt and got to wear it on our mini vacation to Reno! I had orginially planned on tucking it into highwaisted capris and wear my remix shoes (see below) but sadly, I must have eaten one (ok 13) too many cupcakes and it just did not look good!  Don't freak out, I am on the path of working off those cupcakes! I wish it was so easy to get rid of the cake as it was to eat it! Anywho, let's get down to the nitty gritty:

The Facts 
Fabric: black and cream nylon. I can not remember the name of it. Feels like peach skin.
Lining- none.
Pattern: Colete Jasmine
Year: modern. I think it has a vintage feel though.
Notions: just interfacing
Time to complete: I can not remember the time. It was a UFO for a bit...
First worn: July 2012.
Wear again? Yes!Hopefully when I am a little less "fluffy"
Changes: I made the arm hole a little wider. Not by much. I changed the seam allowance from 5/8 to 1/4ish and it worked out great. I plan on making this again but I would add a little width to the collar. I was not a fan on how the collar sat. I ended up tacking it multiple places so it sat how I wanted it to. 

I even like this without sleeves. I see a tank top in the future!

Finally done!

I love this stitch. They used it so much in the 50s to finish things. I used clear thread to not contrast on the cream/black.

Please ignore the faces I am making. We had just traveled 9 hours and were heading to get a bite. I was a little quirky feeling to say the least! As you can see I opted, because of the extra fluffy filling ;), to wear my cigarette pants from billie jo retro.

A

 Pictures from my Previous Post:

Orange Creamsicle

Honestly, I have not been hiding! Mid July we went to Reno for a wedding and it seems like after that it has been a whirl-wind of "to do". The school year is almost starting so this teacher has been busy making her classroom Cat in the Hat-tastic (more pics on that later). But, back to the wedding- this is the dress I made to wear to the wedding. Love it.

The Facts
Fabric: Cotton from Joann's "baby" collection. $1 a yard!
Lining- Lined with the same fabric.
Pattern: Vintage Vogue 8789
Year: circa 1957
Notions: zipper and 3 hooks
Time to complete: I can not remember the time. It was not very long once I got the darts right.
First worn: July 2012.
Wear again? Yes! I love the dress.
Accessories: Remix reproduction shoes (worth every penny), thrifted hat (changed the ribbon), pearl earrings, straw bag, trusty parisole (it was so hot!), crocheted gloves, petticoat that I "made" from a thrifted wedding petticoat. 

This dress was one of those "this is too easy to be true" dresses where you know something is going to go wrong! I did not like how the darts sat and redid them about a million times! I also do not like how the arm hole lining sits. I would make it longer. I notched it a bunch and it still did not sit correctly. The pictures were taken in Rich's aunt/uncle's yard and then at the park the wedding was held in. There's a few piccys!

I had to add a cute shot of the "soon to be"

 

Such nerds! Doing our own photo shoot while the bride and groom took pics!

 

 Although cute, the pictures don't show all the work in the dress. This dress seriously required EPIC gathering. I used Colette's trick of three lines of basting to gather. 

Crazy gathering!

I understand now why they have you make a cummerbund! To cover all these funky gathers!

I understand now why they have you make a cummerbund! To cover all these funky gathers!

 

I am proud of how closely I matched up the lines. This is only my second cheveron dress and I am pleased with it :) 

Simplicity 3748 HELP!

I need some help with the Simplicity 3748 retro shorts. They came out just awful! They look great until I put them on and then they are a hot mess and a 1/2. This was a "practice" set made from some free material, but I am still upset at how they turned out. I am not sure if I need to extend the seat or what (they kinda ride up, if you know what I mean). The short leg-holes are so wide I could become a flying-squirrel with them! I have made the bolero in this set and adore it, I was hoping for the same result with the shorts. I was wondering if anyone out there has attempted to make these before. Any help would be great.

This is a picture of the pattern:

Darts with Artist's Tape

I recently got a snippet from Colette about ways to improve your dart making skills. And I don't know about you, but I always fuss over how my darts look! No matter what I do they aren't perfect; chalk, pins, basting lines all did not result in a perfect dart.

In this snippet it said to use artists tape to mark along the dart lines. I figured, "what the hell?" and went to Joann's with my 40% off coupon to get some. After much hunting a nice lady found it for me in the fancy painting supplies (not the crafter paint the faaaaancy paint lol). I picked up a low-tack tape and was on my way.

I did the same as always, marked my darts, blah blah (won't bore you with the details) but then I used this tape and put it on the leg of my dart on both sides. And I am telling you, man did it make it easy to match up the legs in an exact manner. I then pinned the darts, pressed (I was worried the tape would melt, it did not because it is paper), and used a zipper foot to stitch. By using the zipper foot I was able to get right up next to the tape line. I made a mistake on one and went through the tape a tiny bit. I was worried I would have to unpick it because the tape would be stuck. I figured I would try to rip the tape off and if I saw it ripping the stitches I would stop. To my delight the tape came off super easily! I then pressed the dart in the correction direction and finished it off by tying the tail ends. (hats a whole other lesson I learned about darts a few years back!)

The lesson of this story: try Art tape out. It's $3.50 without a coupon. Why not pick some up on your next trip to the craft store?

**I had a question about what exactly this tape did for creating a dart. I'm sorry I was not more clear as I was typing (blame the espresso ;) ). The tape helped: stabilize the fabric during sewing and made the fabric more manageable for a precise matching of the marks, enables the dart to be tapered correctly so the end/tip of the dart did not pucker, created an excellent straight line to follow. I hope this clarifies things**

More Patterns!

Recently a friend of mine had a garage sale and was getting rid of her sewing stash. I wasn't able to make it the day of the sale but I did swing by the next day. The darling said I could have it all, as payment I took her donations to a thrift store. After sorting through scraps etc. I found some gems. Check out the pics :)

I am thinking about using the brown fabric for that 1940s simplicity pattern. I'm worried the fabric is not time appropriate, it has a suede to it. What do you think?

Now I have to actually start sewing instead of watching Law and Order reruns!

Simplicity Retro

Simplicity patterns are in sale at Joann's this week so of corse I had to pick some up while I was there getting MORE material for my practice wedding dress (more about that later).

I picked up the new 1940s pattern they just came out with along with baby patterns. I know the baby ones aren't new but I have a few friends that have buns in the oven or just had a kid-o and I thought I needed the patterns. (notice the word need lol). I really like the woman's pattern I picked up. I don't look very good in dresses from the 1940s but I would like to try to make this one for winter.

Speaking of winter, is anyone else totally wanting to sew for winter? Maybe it's my desire for the 110+ weather to be over but I want to make some coats and heavy dresses.

Anywho- enjoy the pattern pics!