Recent fabric purchases

I mentioned in an earlier post about some recent fabric purchases.  I finally got around to taking pictures of those.  These are from Vogue fabric.

Denim look cotton

Border print knit

Red jersey knit with red/black/white mesh knit

close up of the mesh knit.

This is from EOS

Avocado green rayon knit

I used this as the sleeves and neckband for the recent McCall's top

Back to work today to earn more money to buy more fabric.

Sewing projects from staycation

Here is the completed top-McCall's-on hanger.

Both fabrics were from EOS.  I was going to use orange as the contrast fabric but I did not like the feel of the orange knit with this knit.  Too much difference in weight to suit me.  Unfortunately there is more green in this fabric only I seemed to have cut out more of the orange printed portions of the fabric.  Photos wearing to be posted later.

Here is my current project using fabric from Fabric Mart-the floral cotton lace fabric and lining from EOS.

Lining side showing

Skirt side showing pinned to lining

This is the skirt pattern I am using

The model is wearing eyelet lace over lining.  Mine will be similar except that I am using the view in pale green where the lining will be somewhat shorter than the skirt.

Back to work tomorrow, time off was nice and accomplished several things on my list to do.

One more photo--this is a new addition to my sewing room.  I have wanted this for sometime and JoAnn's had it for 1/2 price during the holiday weekend.  I assembled it myself and rather proud of that.  Not that difficult but lots of screws, washers and frames and drawer knobs.

New Top

I spent time cutting out two pattern projects.  I had planned to sew the skirt pattern first; yet when I realized my serger had green thread ready to go I changed my mind and decided to sew another McCall's 6964 top.

I made this top in November with similar fabric also from EOS.

This time I made it with the short sleeve and kept the round neckline; I also shortened the top by one inch.  Pictures to follow.

I have only the top and sleeve hems to sew.  I threaded the coverstitch machine and it is ready to go. Having spent two hours on this this morning, my neck/shoulder issue was starting up again thus needed a break.

More later!

PS, don't forget to look at my earlier post about the pattern giveaway.

Pattern Giveaway for the Holiday

This is my first pattern giveaway.  I will do a random drawing May 31.  Just leave a comment as to what pattern(s) you would like to win.  If you are interested in all of them just post all.  Please help me generate an interest in the giveaway by posting a note on your blog.  You should be able to click on the photo do see the size.  All patterns have never been used or traced.  I have no pets and no smokers in the home.

Without further ado here's the patterns.  Good luck:

Holiday Weekend

I am happy that this is my start to an extended holiday weekend, starting today!  I return to work on Wednesday of next week.  Can we get a YAHOOOOOOOO!

This will be somewhat of a staycation for DH and me; okay with me.  We have tentative plans for Memorial day celebration.

To kick off my staycation, I spent last night making a few tweaks to a skirt pattern with lace overlay.  It is a Simplicity skirt pattern that I made previously and have not worn!!!

I am going to use the eyelet fabric that I was going to make culottes for this instead of the culottes.  I decided I needed some fabric with a little more drape for those than this fabric.

Later today I will be posting patterns for a pattern give away.  Check back later!

Off to the sewing room!

Sewing Room Time

I've decided to discontinue my efforts with the Butterick top; it is either the pattern or the fabric that's just not working for me. I'm going to put it aside for a while and consider a different fabric and see how that will work.

I decided that I would switch to making something else. Before doing so I had to do some housekeeping in my sewing room. The room was looking messier than usual. I had been using a super large hefty type bag that I had been putting new patterns in with the intent of sorting through them and file in my sewing cabinet or boxes.

I purchased banker boxes from Staples and put together several of those so that I could sort skirts, tops, dresses and jackets. With this done I then went through my file cabinet, which is actually a chest of drawers that was my mother's that she antiqued many, many years ago. I've actually run out of space to put patterns in that as well. I did cull some patterns, particularly patterns that were for purses totes and the like. I am donating those to Goodwill.

I then found other items lying around that could be tossed or also given to Goodwill. Finally I vacuumed and decided the next task was to go through the large plastic been where I put fabrics I think I'm going to work on in the near future.

This too needed attention, with some items needing to go back into another room that I used to store seasonal fabrics. Again I found a few fabrics that I wonder why I even purchase them, I think you can also relate to that. Those items I also decided to donate to Goodwill.

I do have some patterns that I set aside and will do a pattern giveaway in the near future. I've not done this before but feel it will be simple to do and will do a random drawing for those lucky winners.Finally I took photos of some fabric recently purchased that I have not documented. I will post those shortly.

Now that I am a little more organized the next thing to do is decide what to sew next. Because the boxy top did not work I am delaying sewing the culottes pattern. More updates later. I hope your sewing time this weekend has been productive.

V9022 Wearing

I finally wore the geranium and black dress today, Vogue 9022.

Here are a few shots of me wearing and getting ready to go to work

Back View

Semi side view with hand in pocket

Front

Dress with scarf and how I wore it today!

Sewing progress

I spent a lot of time on B6175-crop, boxy top.  I am not exited about how the top is shaping up.  Some of my dislike is that the fabric is not performing as I thought it would for this top.  The other dislike is not so sure that this top is going to work for me.

I had to make some fitting adjustments throughout the sewing process for this top.  As you will recall from an earlier post, I had to cut a new front piece which improved the fit and allowed me to re-position the darts.

I decided to use an invisible zipper for the back piece, which I like and glad that I did.  I now think though that I might should have taken a deeper back seam.

I had to remove 1/2 inch from the shoulder width as after basting in one of the sleeves for fitting purposes I discovered that it was falling off my shoulder too much.  I removed 1/2 inch from the back of the armscye and 3/8 from the front of it.  This helped improve the fit.  I also took a deeper back seam below the zipper.  I think my next move will be to taper the seams from the waist down to make it less boxy!  The sleeves are seem a little long, they are not yet hemmed.  I may shortened them before I am through!

I  pressed all of the seams after sewing and I am not liking how they look after pressing, that I know is due to the polyester fabric.

This may prove to be a wadder.  I have sewn a few of those over the past few months.

I really need to remeasure my shoulder width, upper chest and more as all the tops I am making of late are just to large.  I do buy my top patterns based on upper chest measurement.  When you get past a certain I think you do shrink.  I use to be 5'3", now I am 5'2.25"!  I have been getting in my workout time so that changes things also.

Here are some parting shots of work in progress:

I was still in PJ's and no shower and make up so what you get is what you see.

I am ready to move on to some other projects.  Perhaps it's time to make something in a pattern that is already fit perfected.  I need a winner.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all that celebrate!

Late night

Tonight was our Annual Awards Event where we recognize various business and donors in our community.  It is always a nice event as it was tonight.

One of the things I like about the event is seeing the clothes that the ladies wear.  It is amazing that when I see something someone is wearing I immediately think I have a pattern for that or I have a similar fabric in my stash.  Sometimes the style is a unique design and find myself complimenting the garment and then enquiring if that bought this local or at some boutique.  My hope is that it is a local store and will take the opportunity to go and see and touch the garment.  You really can not go around touching some of the clothes on these people, they are usually ones I see maybe twice a year unless they are involved in my business segment.

I walked away with some new design ideas.  Now if I only could gain a few more hours in the day and a tad more energy to sew after a 10 hour day!

B6175

I spent some time sewing this weekend-yeah!  I just have not had the mojo to sew much.  With the nicer weather this weekend I felt like spring and was able to move forward with sewing Butterick 6175.

I am making View C without the collar.  After pin fitting Friday evening, making pattern adjustments and cutting out the fabric yesterday, I was ready to sew today.

I immediately ran into a problem with the darts.  They were way too low after making a 1 inch FBA. Unfortunately I could not redo them and like the outcome.  Happily I had enough fabric to cut out a new front piece after going back and making adjustments to the front pattern piece.

There is a lot of ease in this top and think that the finished bust measurement is not truly accurate.  I went down a size, adjusted the dart angle and cut out a new front piece.

Here is the top in progress on Alma Marie.  Had to take a break from sewing to actually fix dinner; seeing how it does not fix itself.

Front view 

Side view

The instructions call for a back seam with facings attached and fasten with hook and eye.  I am going to insert an invisible zipper.  I think I will like that better.  I plan to baste a zipper in place and check the fit.  I recently have been taking deeper center back seams of late and think that this boxy top may require that also.

More later.  Hope your sewing weekend was a good one.