Costume officially started

I finished up Simplicity 2806 and wrote reviews for that pattern along with the Vogue 2967 yesterday. Last night, I started crocheting a shopping bag. Something to do while I'm going over school work with my son.

Today, I started working on the Ottrobre jacket pattern which is destined to become the Indiana Jones jacket for my son's halloween costume. I have enlarged the pattern but didn't leave enough room between the pattern pieces to add the seam allowance or hems. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have time to outline the revised pattern pieces and retrace so I can add the seam allowances. Tomorrow, is going to be a very busy day - volunteering for 2 1/2 hours in the morning, and an appointment in the afternoon. Sometime in between the volunteering and the appointment I will need to take orders to the PO. After my son gets home from school it's off to the library and then on to a class.

Happy Sewing!

Another pair of grocery bags, etc.

I finished pressing the Vogue top today and DH took pics for me. I'm not happy with the pictures and I'm not not happy with the top now. I've been calling this top the "Look she's got boobs top." Now, I'm looking at thinking that it may be too big. I will go ahead and do the review and post the pictures.

Yesterday and today, I've been working on another set of grocery bags - Simplicity 2806 View B. This is similar to the bag from Craftster that several people have been using. However, this bag will stand up without me holding it up. I'll have pics tomorrow after I finish the second one. Then it will be on to the Ottobre jacket.

Happy Sewing!

Another Fine Day of Sewing.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day. I spent a lot of it finishing up the Vogue top (2967). Yes, that's right. It is all finished except for a final press and some pictures for the review at Pattern Review. I would say that overall this was a well drafted pattern and I'm glad that I have finished it.

I think I will throw in another super quick and easy project before I start on the jacket for the Halloween costume. The jacket is from Ottobre and needs to be enlarged. So, once again, I have given myself a fun project. I hope it doesn't take a month to get it finished because I still have to draft a bag as part of the costume also. I have made a rough drawing of the bag so that I have some idea of what I want.

Happy Sewing!

Another great sewing day!

I had a wonderful afternoon to sew. I put the sleeves in the Vogue top and amazingly the next size of sleeve still eased onto the blouse beautiful. Next, I got the sleeve lining ready with the seams all stitched and pinned the two together at the hem edge to stitch and realized that I didn't know what size seam to make. Would you believe that I can't find the instructions? I had them a couple of days ago and now they have mysteriously disappeared. I'm going to finish the sleeve with a 1/4" seam but I'm unsure of how to proceed with the hem facings. Any one out there with the directions for V2967, could you let me know how the hem facings are suppose to be finished? I am so close to having this top finished. I want to start something else like that Halloween costume.

Off to see if I can locate those instructions. They have to be somewhere nearby.

Happy Sewing

It's Friday, and no I'm still not done with that top!

Where did the week go? It went by very, very fast. I have been sewing but not necessarily on my Vogue top. Wednesday, I made another grocery bag. It was from the Burda Style Charlie bag. It is a rather large bag. I did a review at Pattern Review. Here's my version of the Charlie bag: floral bag. It has (2) 100 oz bottles of Tide inside with room for more items.

Thursday, I very carefully removed the sleeves from the Vogue top. The sleeves had gone in so nicely. Such a shame. Today, I traced the size F sleeve, cut out the new sleeves, and eased all the way around the sleeve instead of from notch to notch. Tomorrow, I intend to put the sleeves in.



Happy Sewing!

Grocery Bags Complete!

I did finish the grocery bags today. It really felt good to get something completed. Of course, I'm now the proud owner of 3 grocery bags. I no longer need to feel as guilty when I go to the grocery store. I'll admit that 3 bags are not nearly enough for my grocery order normally. So, I will definitely be making more bags. This will require diving in the stash because I don't want to purchase additional when I own so much fabric.

Tomorrow, it is back to the Vogue top. I will not allow this to become an UFO.

Happy Sewing!

It was a good sewing day!

It has been a wonderful sewing day. I did set the Vogue top aside. It has been a very painful process but I will finish it.

So far today, I have cut out 3 grocery bags, the lining, and the handles. All the fabric was found in my rather large stash. The pattern that I used is from The Creative Thimble called the "Let's Go Green Fabric Shopping Bag". I used three different fabrics. One fabric for the outside of all three, another fabric for the lining, and a third that made the handles on two of the bags. The third bag will have the same fabric as the outside. These bags will be wild and crazy. Hey, no one will have a bag like mine. If all goes well, I will have pictures tomorrow and will return to the Vogue top.

Happy Sewing!

Sunday sewing - sigh!

Very little sewing was accomplished today. It turned into a day where I was running errands with my son, taking pictures of my son, and then running out and getting a cartridge for the photo printer. I spent a lot of time in my car today. However, my son now has his poster ready for the student counsel vote. So, he's happy. I'm very proud of him for trying to do this.

Back to the Vogue top, I'm very tired of this top. I did let the sleeves out a little bit this afternoon and the sleeves feel better but I think that they are still a little bit snug. I will be cutting out new sleeves tomorrow after I decide just how big they need to be. Of course, these sleeves are lined so I need to allow a little bit for that too. I may quit on this for a day or two as I really need to just sew and not have to think about it too much. Maybe I will make a grocery bag or two. Be productive, get rid of a little bit of stash, and have a sense of accomplishment all at once. The bags shouldn't take too long to make.

Happy Sewing!

Saturday's Sewing

I did make to the Vogue top today and I did get the invisible zipper in. The zipper looks fantastic. I have never put in an invisible zipper that looks this good. Honestly! I have to admit that I groaned when I saw the invisible zipper. I groaned even louder when the instructions said to interface the area where the zipper was to put after the seam was sewn and then to put the zipper in. I have always followed the instructions that you put the zipper in before you sew the seam. You know where you always end up with an area under the zipper that you can't seam and have to close by hand. So, I went looking for information on the net and I found Diva Els Sewing Invisible Zipper Tutorial. Folks, if you have problems putting in an invisible, go as fast as you can to get this tutorial. Even if you don't have problems putting them in, go look. I didn't follow the instructions 100% and I still have a wonderful invisible zipper application.

Ok, as for finishing the top, the sleeves are a little too tight. I am going to attempt to let out the seam allowance a little bit and see if that helps the situation. If it doesn't, I will cut out a larger sleeve an carefully ease it in. Amazingly, the rest of the top looks pretty good on especially that zipper. Yes, I will put a picture up as of the pattern, my version, and of course, the wonderful zipper. So, maybe by Monday, the top will be finished. I can only hope.....

Happy Sewing!

I've been sewing!

Wow! I didn't realize that it had been three days since I have written anything. Yes, I'm still working on the Vogue top but it is almost there. Tomorrow, I will be installing the invisible zipper and if all goes well I will finish the sleeves and possibly the hems. If that occurs, the blouse will be finished. I'm certainly ready to move on to the next project.

The next project is my son's halloween costume which will include a jacket, whip, and a bag. He wants to be Indiana Jones. The costume is not intended to be an exact replica. I still need to locate a belt and a handle for the bag. I think I will make a trip to the Goodwill store and see if there are any possiblities there.

Next item in line will be some groceries bags. I may move them up a little bit so I can have some instant projects to feel good about. How hard can they be? I have extra fabric and multiple patterns to try out and best of all, I'll be green if I remember to take them to the store with me. I may even look around at the Goodwill store and see if there are any fabric possibilities there.

Ok, my goal for the weekend is to finish the Vogue top and write a pattern review. We'll see how it goes.

Happy Sewing!

Slow going on Vogue top

I was finally able to carve out a couple of hours to work on my Vogue top. This top has so many pieces. So far, I have the sewn the 3 back pieces together and 5 of the front pieces. I have decided to remove and resew a couple of the seams. This is definitely not a pattern for a beginner sewer. I don't expect there to be information in a pattern regarding finishing seams but I do expect there to be information regarding easing either in the instructions or on the pattern pieces. This pattern doesn't have either one. I was very surprised. Since I had traced the pattern, I thought that maybe I had not noticed the information on the pattern but it really wasn't there. I even checked Pattern Review to see what had been said about the pattern and there was very little there. Tonight, I made a mad dash to JoAnn's to get the invisible zipper for the top. The rest of the evening I plan on ripping out the seams that I was unhappy with. I hope that I don't stretch them too much since they are on the bias.

I hope that I'm able to find more time to sew tomorrow. I really wanting to find out if this top is going to fit.

Happy Sewing!

Vogue Top Cut Out

Yesterday, I didn't find time to do any sewing. Today, I made time in between other things to do and finally got the V2967 time cut out. When I was laying out the pattern on the fabric, I realized that I had forgotten to trace one of the back pieces. I thought when I traced the other day that I had traced all 16 pieces but I was unable to locate it. I know tomorrow I will find the missing piece and the cat will have had something to do with the disappearance. The only thing that I have found so far that I do not like about this pattern is the number of pattern pieces that need to be on the fold.

Tomorrow, I plan on sewing the top together. I ended up cutting the cap sleeve instead of the 3/4 sleeve because I realized that the sleeve pattern would need to be altered for the width of my arm and I didn't feel like doing it. I did manage to pin the pieces together to see if the bust point and waist line were in the right spot. I have my fingers crossed that this will be a good size. Then, I should be able to get some nice fabric and make another top.

Happy Sewing!

Paper pattern fitting?

Among all the things that I did today, the only thing that I was unable to do was pin the Vogue pattern together. I did take all the pieces out but I've never pinned together a paper pattern shaped liked this or with so many pieces. So, I have decided to just cut some fabric and see what happens. That will be tomorrow's job. Hope everyone else is doing better at Pattern Stash contest than I am.

Tomorrow, I will need to spend 3 or 4 hours with my job. The bright side is I will finish the painting that I have been working on all week in the morning. Yippee! Free from painting for a few days.

Happy Sewing!

Another long day!

Whew! It has been another long day. There was a breakfast at the school, painting at home, my normal WAH getting stuff ready for the post office, going to the post office, gardening, and more WAH stuff. However, I did find time tonight to cut out the Vogue blouse that I traced yesterday. Yes, I did this while I was listening/watching the TV. There were a lot of little pieces to the pattern. Here's what I'm hoping to make: V2967. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will fit.

Tomorrow, I plan on tissue fitting. I have not had much luck the Today's Fit patterns but I keep hoping that I will figure out which size is my size. This will be my first project for the Pattern Stash contest at Pattern Review.

Happy Sewing!

Pajama Pants (er, shorts) completed

I finally found time tonight to cut out the Sponge Bob flannel to make a pair of shorts for my son. Yes, they were suppose to be pants but I didn't have enough flannel and my dear son was unwilling to give up his flannel. He didn't care that his cousin could get a pair of pants from the flannel. He wanted it. So, he now has flannel shorts that hit about the knee. First, completed project of the month. Quick and super easy.

Sorry, the photo isn't the best. I can't seem to get a good photo when I reduce the size of the picture with the Kodak software. Any recommendations for photo software would be greatly appreciated. However, you can see that it's a super cute print. Too bad I only found a yard plus a few inches.

I didn't do anything significant with these pants. Just serged all the seams, applied the elastic with the serger, put a little piece of satin ribbon in the back to mark it, and zigzagged the elastic down. The elastic hasn't been steamed yet. It takes time for the steam iron to generate enough steam to do anything and my regular iron spews water at me every time I put water in it. Actually, the water spills out the bottom of the iron when it gets hot. Yes, I know it needs to be replaced. I need to decide what kind of replacement to get. The steam iron is a Rowenta and I've had very good luck with it. But the "everyday" iron never seems to last more than two years. I guess I'm really hard on irons. It doesn't even matter what the brand is. Generally, I go to KMart and get the heaviest iron that they in stock.

Tomorrow, I will be starting on the Vogue top for myself. My day is filled with exercise, painting, and work. So, we'll see if I can at least get the top pinned together to do a quick check on fit.

Happy Sewing!

Pattern Stash Contest - Day One

First day of the Pattern Stash Contest at Pattern Review found me busy tracing patterns. I traced three patterns - one for me and two for my son. I traced V2967 top pattern for myself, an Ottobre jacket pattern for my son, and a Kwik Sew pant pattern for my son. The Kwik Sew pattern doesn't count toward the contest. I'm starting pjs and needed a easy pattern. The Ottobre jacket pattern is actually too small for my son. I will be grading up 3/4 sizes. I will need to double-check all of the measurements so that I don't end up with a jacket that is too wide. My son is very slim. Hopefully, tomorrow I will have some time to sew up the pj pants. Those were the ones that I was convinced that I could finish yesterday. Maybe tomorrow.

Today, I chose to freeze beans and tomatillos, and can some tomatoes. The gardens here in PA seem to be late this year. Usually, the tomatoes start about the first of August but this year it was the last of August. I guess it was the same with the beans. I doubt that I will get very many peppers from my garden.

If you like salsa, here's a quick and easy recipe using the tomatillos:

8 oz tomatillos + 1/2/3 hot peppers

Roast in oven about 5 minutes per side. Cool. Blend with ~ 1/4 cup of water depending on how thick you want it. Add 1/4 cup finely chopped onion. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add chopped cilantro.

This is very, very good. Quick tip on the peppers. It doesn't matter what kind of hot peppers you use. I've used habernos, jalapenos, and sarranos.

Happy Sewing!