Halfway there

Two down, two to go. I used Simplicity 2363 for mom. I finished it up yesterday.

I think it turned out okay for the most part. Good thing is mom likes the color and the fit is dead on. Except for the sleeves. I think the next one we will put a little elastic in it. Just along the bottom edge of the sleeve. She has requested that I lengthen the dress a bit as well too. No problem there, the main thing is it has the fit and ease she was wanting.

I was a little put out on one thing though. The embroidery work. I had problems with the interfacing, it is too stiff. It also caused the fabric to pucker around the stitching. Not sure why that happened. This particular design was supposed to be done in pinks, but I wanted to match the fabric colors. I also turned the fabric a quarter of turn to make the design run up and down instead side to side. Also, it took me longer to run the embroidery machine than it did to sew the dress. The design is bit involved and has a long (at least to me) run time. Then, the hooping each time (six times) along with thread changes (3 colors, six times) was a little boring as I like to work faster. Thankfully I didn't choose one of the designs that had like six or ten thread changes. Here is a shot of the yoke to show the detail better.

Like I said, the fabric puckered on me, but she liked it and that is what is important. Overall, I count is as a success. What do you think?

I also finished up my daughter's zebra print skirt. Funny thing about this pattern was the yardage I used. Miss J picked out this zebra print fabric because she has a top that is made of similar fabric. After looking over the fabric, I decided which way I thought the stripes should run and cut accordingly. I used the Simplicity 2606 pattern again for her, cutting it down a size. The pattern called for 2 1/8 yards, but when I cut it out, I used less than 2/3 yards. Goodness, what to do with the left overs?

Now, to start on my dress and the bible cover. Then I will have to have a quilt fix before cutting more garments out. LOL I have way too many ideas running around in my head as well, but I will work them out one at a time.

As a side note of interest. I joined a sewing challenge called Self-Stitched September. You can read about it by clicking on http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com/2010/05/join-me-self-stitched-september.html Zoe, did a similar challenge, Me Made May, and had a huge amount of participants, most of which wanted to keep it going. So here we go. I am challenging myself to make 12 items for either me or my daughter in September. I may have to include what I make for my mom as well. We will see how it goes.

Cutting is done.

I finally got done cutting. I have some sewing projects.



This is the pattern I am making first, it is for my mom. Making the shorter version with the quarter sleeve. She wants a comfy dress to wear of an evening to play cards and dominoes. The ladies have some pretty hot games going in the evening there at mom's place. I saw this blue paisley fabric and just fell in love with it. Especially at just under $3.oo a yard. It is a cotton blend so will wash and wear nicely. The gold is going to be the yoke. You can't really tell in this photo, but the outline is this same color gold. I needed a plain fabric for the yoke as I intend to embroider on it to dress it up a bit. Just don't want it to look like a house coat. I looked over some posting to blogs from some people that had already made this. Interesting was how consistent on the view that this pattern was sized generously, or had a lot of ease. After reading those postings, I decided on a size for mom and made no adjustments. This is kind of a practice piece anyway, before I use the fabric she picked.

In fact, I was so taken by the fabric that I bought the whole piece, about 6 1/2 yards. To make mom's dress and to make me a dress, I needed 7 1/3 yards, but since the yoke was out of a different fabric I decided to just go for it and with some careful cutting was able to get my dress out of it as well. There actually is a direction to the print, so used a little more fabric than I would normally so I could get all the pieces going the same way. In fact, I have enough scrap left over to make a doll outfit to start my little online business with. I decided on this pattern for my dress.

I love the look of vintage clothes. The lines are simple and elegant. This is a reprint of a vintage pattern Butterick 6582, so it is in current sizing instead of the sizing used years ago. I don't fit any of the ranges completely, so I just went by the bust and hips figuring that the bust is more fitted than the hips. I lengthened the bodice as I am long waisted and dresses are always hitting me a little short which bugs me, makes me want to keep trying to pull it down. However, in all my pride of remembering to do this, I forgot to add to the waist width. Hopefully it will fit, if not will just have to work a little harder to whittle that waist. I am doing the full skirt version. I even cut out the fabric for the belt, which I did remember to add a few inches to. I will have to head to JoAnn's to get a zipper and see if they still make those belt kits that come with the buckles. If the dress fits well enough to wear, am thinking I may make a red belt and wear red shoes with it.

While I was cutting, I got a little scissor happy and cut out a skirt for Miss J and a bible cover for my new bible. It is a larger bible than my old one so doesn't quite fit. Am using pre-quilted fabric for the cover and no pattern, just making it up. Will see how that goes. I do love the fabric though, will post a photo when I am done with the cover. I am thinking I will go back and get a little more and make a casserole carrier out of it too.

I have posted my plan, have had a sandwich, have laundry moved around, have chicken in the crock pot for supper. Have four projects cut out and am ready to sew. Will see how far I get this evening. Check back and see how it goes.