Take a Peek at My Sewing Space

Not here, though! Do you know The Blue Gardenia? Purveyor of delightful vintage patterns, Denise keeps us entertained regularly with enchanting stories based on these very patterns. When she isn't doing that, she is hosting tours of sewing spaces of wonderful sewing bloggers, and I'm honored to be included. Click here, and you can see what I see while I sew. And then spend your afternoon browsing through the patterns at the Blue Gardenia. You're sure to find at least one that you just have to have!

You've Seen Her as a Bride...

Today, my baby girl, turns 23! Happy Birthday, Laura!

She was adorable as a 6-month old:

She's still quite the Daddy's Girl! You can't really see the details of her little Easter dress, but it's one I made and smocked for her. We had attended our church's sunrise service, and then headed to the Mall to check out the cherry blossoms.

As she got older, this is how we usually saw her:

Yep, nose in a book, no matter what the scenery around her. This was taken on a ferry crossing from northern Germany to Denmark.

Happy Birthday!

Bohemian Butterick 5046

Now, this was a fast pattern to make, just as Butterick promised... Fast & Easy!








I've broken a some home sewing rules here, the biggest of which is to not use quilting fabric to make garments. Well, at least if you're an adult. First a picture:

I bought this Andover Fabric design from Whipstitch Fabrics here in Atlanta. I originally was planning to make the dress (view B), but making it a shorter length will be more functional when it starts to get cooler. And it will get cooler. Really.

Things I like:

• the colors and batik-y look of the fabric.
• the 3/4 length sleeve, which you may notice that I narrowed, taking out the hippie-angled hem.
• the bias contrast edging on the neckline and sleeve hem.
• the great Australian timber button I purchased from my Etsy friend, Kylie, in her supply shop, Meluna Beads.
• I'll be able to wear this over jeans or leggings (though I'm not really a leggings girl).

Things I don't like:

•  this cotton isn't a silky feeling cotton, like apparel cotton, but has a more homespun feel. And it's kind of scratchy.
• the sleeves could be just a skootch shorter.
• is it too long for me? I'm kind of thinking that I might shorten it just a bit, maybe an inch, but I might just leave it as is.
• the shoulders are just a bit wide.
• I will always have to wear a cami, or some kind of top under it, as the V is just a bit deep and gappy which is my own fault, as I didn't do any kind of pre-fitting.
• the too-wide shoulders lead to all those wrinkles and extra fabric around the sleeves on the back.

 So, my first fall garment, and I'm mostly happy with it, and it will get some wear. And I was pretty darn excited that I could actually zip up my jeans, albeit with the laying on the bed method. Eek! Good thing the point counting has started.

For my sister: gratuitous picture of avocado plant that I started from a seed.

A Frock by Saturday

OK, I do know that it's Sunday but... I finished my frock yesterday, during the Kentucky-Louisville game. Go Cats. Just so y'all know... I'm a HUGE college football fan. Not fanatic or anything, but I really do enjoy it, and so starting at 12:21 for the kickoff of the UGA-UL-Lafayette game (Go Dawgs!), until I just couldn't stand it anymore last night about 10:30, it was college football! Bottom line, though, is that I just wasn't up to frock fotography. As I write this, I'm watching my alma mater, SMU, try to come back against Texas Tech!

Anyway, back to the dress... This morning, I actually did a little more tweaking, but here it is:

 So this is a combination of the skirt part of McCalls 5466, available free from printsew.com, and the Alexander blouse pattern from BurdaStyle. I did attach them, making it a dress.

Things I like:

• that it's a dress.
• the fit and my method of taking up the extra fabric in the skirt by sewing the pleats all the way to the hem. This helped eliminate the skirt poofiness which exaggerated my own natural poofiness. Now it looks like there are seams.
• the belt loops, and the covered buttons. You can't see the belt loops in any of the pics, but I had a bit of extra from the button loops, and it was perfect for belt loops.
• the peplum. Ordinarily, peplums can be dicey affairs, but I've already got the tummy, and it seems to camouflage it nicely. Am I in denial?
• the lapped zipper and the back vent.

 Things I don't like:

• I'm not crazy about the color on me. The blouse portion is a gray silky-feeling cotton, originally purchased to be a flower girl dress.
• I think the ruffly sleeves may be just a bit twee. Roland didn't like them.
• I'm not crazy about the skirt fabric. I think I mentioned this is from a fabric.com warehouse sale where you bought fabric by the pound. It's a poly-blend suiting fabric that doesn't really want to hold a crease.
• The gapping of the buttons. Because there is a back zipper, the buttons are really just decorative, and I'm going to slipstitch the opening closed.

 It was a fun project, though perhaps a bit ambitious for a quickly made frock, and definitely not a beginner project. I'm working on a little bohemian wrap dress right now, that actually isn't taking that long. And I'm so excited about the navy wool I ordered for my Lady Grey coat! I'll show you pictures when it arrives.

A Frock by THIS Friday?

I've been working on the Frock by Friday sew along that's going on over at Grosgrain Fabulous, but I'm just a wee bit behind after what I thought was a really promising start. Monday's assignment was to tape together the patterns (it's a mashup of a the Alexander blouse from Burdastyle and a free McCalls pattern, click on the link to Grosgrain above and you can see what they are). Oh, and you were supposed to cut everything out. So, I managed to cut out the skirt part, and realized that I didn't really have enough fabric for the pockets (which were the kind that you had to have matching fabric). My solution:

But the Burda blouse didn't actually get cut out. Moving on though, yesterday it seemed I lucked out and the assignment was to sew up the skirt. Well, I managed to get the pleats put in, and the pockets attached. I felt myself falling behind. This sewing along to get a frock done in a week seems fraught with disaster. My pictures aren't that good, but look anyway. A picture of how the pocket looks:

The fabric is a cheapy suiting dark gray thing that I bought a couple of years ago at the Fabric.com warehouse sale. You know, where you bought fabric by the pound. It was awesome in its own way, but I digress.

That brings us to today. I did a pin fitting, and whoops, it was too big. FOUR inches too big. I don't really know how that happened, but I measured the pattern and my body, and cut the fabric accordingly. Well, never mind because too big is easier to fix than too small. With the pockets, I couldn't just make huge side seams, so I added four more pleats, so now there are three pleats on each side, front and back. That worked pretty well, and I did 5/8" side seams down past the pockets, and then widened the side seam allowance all the way to 1".

It looks kind of poofy, and I'm toying with the idea of sewing the middle pleats down all the way to the hem all around. It's something I can do at any stage though, so I think I'll wait. Ignore the white top.

For the top, I was going to use some silver silk charmeuse that Laura had picked out for a sash for her wedding dress, and then she got a different dress, and that meant no sash. (Wedding dress drama) I'm kind of glad that I didn't cut it out though, because I think I'm going with some gray cotton that was going to be a flower girl dress before we decided to go with lavender. The top looks more complicated. Not hard, but just more involved.

No post on Grosgrain today about an assignment, but besides cutting out the top, I need to buy a zipper, maybe buttons, do laundry, and we're having out of town company on Friday. Well, you get the picture.

In other sew along news, I received my Lady Grey coat pattern in the mail today! Woo hoo! Does a black wool flannel coat sound too boring? I think I'm going with black with a snazzy lining.

Beautiful Wedding Photos

Aren't all weddings beautiful? Don't they just make you cry? I know that I'm just a wee bit biased, but Laura and Thomas have gotten their professional wedding photos and they are amazing!

If you ever need a wedding photographer, and are in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend their photographer, Nam Nguyen. He was assisted by Jeremy Harwell, a fabulous photographer in his own right.

Nam blogged about Laura and Thomas' wedding, so head on over to NamNguyenPhotography for a lot of beautiful! (The last link will take you to their wedding.)

Sew Alongs and Muslins

I've been having a lack of luck lately with choosing of patterns and then follow through. I've mentioned making a muslin for the vintage shirtdress. Well, I did finally make a 3rd muslin, basically starting over with the original pieces, altering only the width of the waist. I had really distorted the raglan sleeves, and they were not working. The good news is that the fit is actually not that bad, just a smidge small. I've decided to put this particular project on hold, as the Weight Watcher point counting has begun again. I won't bore you with the details, but may periodically jump up and down if I'm successful in re-losing a bit of weight.

So then I decided to participate in the Cupcake Goddess' pencil skirt sew-along. Because I don't believe that you have to be super skinny to wear a pencil skirt. Well, *ahem* I still believe that, but you do need to choose the right pattern. Suffice it to say that I didn't, and after making the muslin for that particular disaster, that project is on hold too. (see reason above)

All righty then. What's next? Do you read Grosgrain? It seems like who doesn't looking at how many followers she has! She has chosen a really cute pattern for her next Frock by Friday project, I think it will work on my body as it is right this second, and won't look too huge if I do lose weight. I already have the fabric, too.
Stay tuned for that.


Finally, Gertie is planning a coat sew-along on her Blog for Better Sewing. I've wanted to make this coat for a long time, and she is so thorough with sewing details, I think it will be a great learning experience. I've made a coat before, but it was a child's coat, and I'm fairly certain that I didn't do any special tailoring. It's the cutest little girl coat ever, so I'll try to post a picture of it.

Have any of you ever done a sew along? I realize that there really isn't any accountability, but my creativity tank is a bit low, and I'm letting others do the work for me for a couple of months. The frock happens next week (I think), so I'll get to posting pictures of progress soon.