Passport picture

You know when you look at a picture of yourself and you know you look JUST like your mother? I took my passport picture and I look just like her passport picture of her when she was in her 20s. I am going to have to go and look for it to do a side-by-side. But for your viewing "pleasure" my passport pic!

6199 Brilliance HELP!

I need help with my Singer. It is CONSTANTLY throwing a C4 code. The bobbin thread is just getting out of control tangled. I contacted singer and they said I must be putting the bobbin in wrong and to watch the  video. Surprise (sarcasm), I was not putting it in wrong. I can turn it off and come back to it and the jam magically has stopped. I have only used it for about 7 projects.

The reviews on Singer are either "I hate it- it jams" (what I am having issues with) OR "I love it!" I want to love it, I really do! It has great features but I am at my witts end trying to fix it. All of my projects are taking forever and my material is getting ruined as it is getting pulled into the jam where the bobbin is.

Any suggestions would be great.

This is the machine:
http://www.singerco.com/products/2181/6199-brilliance

Petticoat

When I am getting ready for work I always pass over my clothes that need a petticoat. I have some wonderful petticoats that are super full and made of chiffon. The problem is that I get very hot and an ultra full skirt is not always the best when you are teaching kid-os sitting on the floor. I found this tutorial (thanks Sew Weekly) on how to make a petticoat out of a sheet and some tulle. I think I may give it a try.



http://stacysewsandschools.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/petticoat-tutorial/

Colette Jasmine

I am taking a second stab at the jasmine's collar. The first time I made the tie collar it was way way too heavy and cumbersome for the light, flowy fabric I made the shirt out of. I went back and got some super light black fabric to contrast the light cream shirt. I am super excited to wear this with a pair of my high waisted pants and my new remix shoes!

Sewing Room

My "sewing" room is a mish-mash of office, records, crafts, library, Rich's closet (he is such a nice guy and gave me the master closet. This is a good thing because I have so many dang clothes), and actual sewing things.

I, which I am sure my fellow seamstresses understand, am a material hoarder. And I "collect" patterns do I can never find the pattern I am looking for which adds to the madness of the room.

So anywho, I was running out of room for my patterns (see pic) and my fabric was just getting piled into heaps. I brought home a file cabinet from my class to store my patterns and set off "organizing" my room.

After I was all done my room still looks horrible and disorganized. I like how the patterns are but hate everything else. I know you should roll your fabric to store it, but I do not think I have the room. Any hints on how to fix my fabric mess would be great.

Before: (the fabric is stacked on the floor)

After I was finished "organizing"

I put all the patterns in different files and the bolts of fabric next to it.

Red Winter Dress

When late fall comes (it finally gets a chill here in Vegas then) I always have an "OMG" moment where I have nothing to wear. All of my clothes are made for warm weather (90% of our weather here!) and when I am faced with the fact of going out I always promise myself to make some cool (not going to say cold because we do not have that weather here) weather clothes.

This dress is made from some "cool weather" fabric I picked up in the fall. When did I make this dress? The spring! (haha). I am ready for fall now! I am totally bringing this on our Christmas cruise (can you tell I am excited?). I wore it with some awesome vintage earings my Mum got me last Christmas.

The Facts
Fabric: Heavy stretch cotton.
Lining- Lined with the same fabric. I also used a store bought chiffon petticoat from mybabyjo.com
Pattern: Butterick Retro 5605
Year: circa 1956
Notions: zipper, covered button, purchased petticoat.
Time to complete: Under 8 hours?
First worn: VLV 2012.
Wear again? Yes! I love the pockets.

Tiki Nightmare Dress

I must say after much fighting with this "Tiki Nightmare Dress" I really like how it came out. I had to take out the boning to fix the length of the bodice and could not get it back in. I wish I could have gotten the boning back in because the top did not have the stiffness in it. I remedied this by using a bustier bra top. I also need to add a hook and eye to the top. While I was dancing the top came undone! Gave all the gentlemen a look at my "remedy" *lol*


The Facts
Fabric: Cotton fabric $2 a yard (see details here)
Lining- The pattern did not call for lining. In the future, I will put one in otherwise the boning casing will show.
Pattern: Simplicity 4559 that I paid too much for (see here)
Year: It's a "new" pattern from the 90's
Notions: zipper and boning
Time to complete: for-ev-er.
First worn: VLV 2012.
Wear again? I hope so.
Changes for the future: create a lining. I changed it TOO much to begin with and had to go back to the original pattern.

Resort Set

I mentioned in a previous post that I had found some great fabric! This is the finished project. I still need to make Rich a matching camp shirt!


The Facts
Fabric: Thrifted Fabric (9 yards) from Savers (see link above of "previous post").
Lining- I used the same fabric because you could see the lining in some places.
Pattern: It was a Frankenstein of patterns!! For the bolero: Simplicity 3748 (the reproduction of their vintage patterns). For the playsuit: McCall's 6331 view A. For the skirt: McCall's 5430
Year: It's a "new" pattern but lends itself perfectly to a vintage look resort set!
Notions: 14" zipper and iron interfacing for waist.
Time to complete: Under 10 or so hours. All the modifications and alterations took a bit.
First worn: VLV 2012. At our engagement party at the pool party!
Wear again? Yes! I want to make more like this with different modifications.
Changes to patterns: 1) I had to add about 4 inches to the body of the playsuit (pattern McCall's 6331) I did not want short shorts! 2) Still on the playsuit- I increased the strap width by 2 inches. 3) Added 4 triangular pieces to the skirt (pattern McCall's 5430) to give it a more full "vintage" look.
Changes for the future: The bolero was a bit short. I would like it to be longer to cover my back a little more.