Modeled Mimosa

After 5 days off, I sure didn't want to get up when the alarm went off this morning but it was a little bit easier throwing off the covers knowing I had a new outfit to wear. Plus, I had to pee. TMI? Hahahaha ... sorry in advance for any young women reading, but the truth is once you're past a certain age, your bladder just doesn't let you sleep in. Isn't getting older grand?

OK, not exactly how I planned to start this post, but once the thought came, it just wouldn't go away.

So here's the OOTD. I really (as in REALLY!) like this top. So much so that I just might be popping out another one come Wednesday. The fit is perfect, with minimal alteration. The neckline is just right, both in shape and depth. The ties are adorable yet not too cutesy for a woman of my age (cough:29:cough). It's an easy sew. And the instant gratification PDF is very reasonably priced at $10.

Here's the lowdown on the minimal alterations, besides the 1-1/2" I added at the hem while cutting. Love that little arm thingie that slides onto my rotary cutter.

1. Moved the bust dart downward. See age comments above. Nothing complicated here. I just drew a box around the dart, cut it out, slid it straight down, and filled in the empty space with tissue.

2. Added 3/8" at the shoulder-neckline point of the raglan sleeve. My bra straps were covered in the muslin, but I just felt I wanted a smidge more. The smidge added was the perfect amount.

3. Fiddled with the raglan dart in the fabric, until I ended up with this new seamline you see in red below. I've had the poof problem with darted raglans before, so I'm definitely chalking this one up to my particular shoulders and not the pattern.

For next time, the poof has been trimmed from the pattern so I should be able to just sew and go.

Parting shot: This pic is for Barbara. A quick blurry and crooked mirror selfie in the messy sewing room after throwing on my black knit dog-walking pants. IOW, the real me. And yes, I love this top so much I left it on to walk the dogs. They were impressed.

Take 2

While the patterns (Butterick 5429 and Simp 2185) were still out, I went ahead and made another 2-piece "dress." This time I added the flounces to the skirt. I figured they would be mostly lost in the print in case I hated them but would still add swish and movement. I do like them. Per the pattern, they are single-layer and raw-edged but hang in such a way that the wrong side of the fabric barely shows. In other words, a quick/easy addition to the skirt. Can't beat that.

This skirt has definitely moved into my top 3 knit skirt patterns so I should probably leave the pattern out a little while longer. I like how it fits closely at the hips even though it has an elastic waist (I changed it from a casing to a serge/turn) and then flows into a swishy bottom. Treena had commented on the first skirt that (paraphrasing) she wouldn't want to sew all those curved seams in the panels. Don't be afraid ... in a knit, it's a breeze. You barely know you're sewing a curve. And the pattern notches are spot on if you want a little more guidance.

I was stupid when cutting out the top, though. I have the pattern marked to add an inch to the bottom when cutting but for some reason I completely spaced. I decided to add a hem band to make up the needed length and to create a blouson effect so this top wouldn't be *exactly* like the last one. It's hard to see on Zillie through the print, but it hangs differently on my body/hips. Once I get pics of me in the new outfit, you'll see.

In my last post, I mentioned the pattern keeper ziplock bags I use for my patterns. I used to buy them from Nancy's Notions, about 50 at time. But they've discontinued them. Boo. I knew Clotilde used to sell the same bags but with their logo instead of NNs. I had received one or two as a sample on a past order, so I wasn't imagining it. Well, the Clotilde company has been bought out by Annie's and the Clotilde website redirects to Annie's. I found this out when needing to order more bags. Since NN didn't have them, I decided to give the Annie's bags a try thinking they'd be the same. They are functional but they are definitely not the same and are of much lesser quality. I found other possibilities after a Google search and might try something else when I'm ready for more. In the meantime, here's the link to Annie's. http://www.anniescatalog.com/detail.html?prod_id=93028&cat_id=1520 I'm not affiliated and theirs are definitely NOT the same as the Clotilde pic you'll see at the Annie's link. Kind of misleading. 

Can you see the pocket outside the bag?

Finally, for Meredith ... here's the link to the PR discussion that inspired my last post:

http://sewing.patternreview.com/SewingDiscussions/topic/80323

ETA: I've been checking out new blog posts and it's amusing (in a good way!) to see that my questions post inspired your own posts.

Nothing Really New

I don't have anything new to show, but I did get a haircut after work today. This is what I wore to work and the salon. I decided to be "brave" and didn't wear a cardigan or jacket. This meant I had to suck in my stomach ALL DAY LONG. lol But that's good for the ab muscles, right?

I also wore my new pumps. I love new shoes that are comfortable all day, the first wearing. I wish these came in lots of colors because I'd be buying them too.

There hasn't been much happening in the sewing room yet. Last night I had to go grocery shopping. I had put it off from Sunday since it was raining here all day and I didn't feel like schlepping groceries to the car in the downpour.

Tonight was the haircut and then a late dinner. But I did make a very quick muslin of my cowl pattern and my pattern morph needed some adjustment. So glad I didn't just cut the good stuff the other night. But I'm going to throw the rest of my caution to the wind and cut the fabric tonight. Maybe I'll even get it sewn up. I'm not counting on it though, since I only have about 90 minutes before my internal batteries wind down.

I've been thinking about Carolyn's "Quickie" post off and on today, and it suddenly dawned on me that I *want* most of my projects to be quickies, not that it means they will be unflattering or badly finished. But when I thought about it, I realized that pretty much everything I wear is a basic piece and basics usually are quickies. Sure, sometimes I branch out and make a jacket, even lining some, or a Ren Faire costume, but that's not my usual M.O. Pattern alterations is what usually takes the longest time, which is why TNTs are so welcome — because then I have a "quickie" that I can sew over and over. And I'm OK with that. Except that my TNTs are dwindling.

If you want a little bright spot reading about someone who is new to sewing and still excited about the process, her new skills, and her continuing education, go read Stacie's anniversary post. It made me smile.

Parting Shot: I told Tyler to be creative with his pics and this is what I got today (C130 prop). It's really fun for me to see bits and pieces of his Marine Corps life. His first Marine Corps Ball is coming up in a month. I can't wait to see those pics in his dress blues with his new rank! His on/off GF Kelli is flying up to be his date, and I know he's looking forward to that. 

Sunday Miscellany

First, thank you all for the wonderful response to my wallet pattern! I can't wait to see what everyone makes — you *will* be sharing, right??

(In case you missed yesterday's post, the wallet pattern you've been watching come together over the last few weeks is now available in my Etsy shop, and the link is at the top of the left sidebar.)

Speaking of wallets … one of my testers, Beth, has blogged about her testing experience here. I think hers turned out very cute! (Especially for a test and a beginner's first-go at wallets!) Love the purple check! She did run into a snag with fabric choice which you can read about on her blog and which was my fault since the first version of the instructions wasn't specific about recommended fabrics and the prototypes I was showing on my blog used cammie fabric. (But, surprisingly, cammie fabric actually isn't thick at all.) The instructions are updated and I have a feeling Beth will be making another since they're quite addicting.

Here's what my finished and stuffed-full wallet looks like from the side:

In other cammie news … I've been working on a Marine cammie purse order and was all set to finish it tonight, except — I ran out of thread. And Joann's closed an hour ago. ARgghhhhh!

This one is a "special order" from a man who is buying it as a surprise for his wife. (Hmmm ... I hope she doesn't read my blog!!) They have one son who is an active Marine and another in boot camp. He sent a "retired" cammie blouse from the active Marine and since both were baseball players, a lining fabric to reflect that was requested.

I think this fabric is perfect — baseball and patriotic!

It's killing me that I can't finish it tonight, but I guess I'll "sacrifice" and catch up with my DVR and just chill.

In the meantime, here's a pic of what I'm wearing today. Remember when I mentioned a while back that I was buying the Walmart capris in my current size and then a pair in one and two sizes smaller? As of yesterday, I'm in the one size smaller now. My top  is belted and bloused because it's also really too big. Without as much tummy sticking out, it hangs way too far down. Yes, I should re-hem it. And maybe I will. ;-)

Parting Shot: The Marines at Cherry Point survived Hurricane Irene without major incident. They lost power for a while and Tyler reported a soaked and dirty area rug in his 3rd floor barracks room. Yes, *third* floor, but apparently the strong winds pushed the rain under the door and they had a mini flood. But far worse than all of that was this "horrible experience" …

Click to enlarge

Ooops

See how nicely the pants in this ensemble hug the model's shapely legs?

Yeah, well, they had a little help.

Can you believe no one at Kwik Sew caught this before it was uploaded to their website?

So ladies, if you find yourself having trouble with pants fitting, just grab a couple of huge clamps. That seems to do the trick. ;-)

"I have more ideas in my head than in the closet"

Amy commented on my last post and asked me to check out her blog. She doesn't know that I already did (even before she asked) and found the quote above in her sidebar. I wish I had thought of it, because it is SO me! I always have more sewing ideas than what ends up in my closet, and more remodeling ideas than energy or time or money. So anyway, Hi Amy! Nice to meet you!

Now to answer your question, Amy … Do you think Martha really paints her own doors?? Nah! If I had hired painters, I'd have them remove the doors. But since it's only me and DH, no, you don't have to remove doors to paint them. You should tape over the hardware, though, and if you know how to put them back, completely remove the knobs. Otherwise, tape over/around them too. I wish DH had taped hinges when he primed because he did paint some of them and since he did, I had to too. Oh well. I don't think anyone will notice or care, unless I point it out. And if I ever end up with spare time, we could always remove the paint on the hardware or replace it. Yeah. That'll happen. ;-)

Many of the doors in the Money Pit were actually removed when DH spray primed them. Spraying— using one of those "pro" type sprayers not cans of spray paint — goes really fast. The problem is that it makes a MESS and uses twice the amount of paint, most of which gets disbursed into the air, landing on anything and everything nearby. When DH was spray priming, we didn't live here and none of the rooms were finished (most still aren't!) so the mess factor wasn't an issue.

Here is a pic of some of our doors being painted … in the kitchen, before it became an actual kitchen:


Now that we do live here, I really didn't want to take down doors that have been put back up, drag them and the sawhorses outside, spray, hope bugs didn't stick in the paint (we live in Florida — lots of bugs), and then probably have to run to the store for more paint. With the brush painting I've been doing, I started with a new gallon of paint and so far I've multi-coat painted all the crown and floor molding in the living room, and the 3 doors yesterday and I still have 2/3 of the gallon remaining. Brush painting is definitely more economical, even if it's also more hand work.

Another Time Waster

You paid attention during 97% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you still deserve your high school diploma?

All this means is that my brain seems to retain a lot of useless information. I don't think I actually learned a lot of this stuff from the school system. And what's with that "old chap" stuff?

Monday This and That

Sorry, it's Monday and I'm all out of witty post titles. ;-) My brain is also a bit over-caffeinated so I'm wandering around in different directions in this post. Grab your compass!

First, on the Stitcher's Guild message board I saw a link to a fascinating Discovery Channel "How It's Made" video which shows the industrial methods & machines for making a pair of jeans, start to finish. I thought I'd share it here in case you don't read SG. It's worth the watch. Click here.

Next, I did actually finish my black yoga pants yesterday and I'll be wearing these a lot. Can you believe this is the only pair of black pants I own? The fit is pretty good — perfect from the front, so I'll only look at the front. ;-) The back has some crotch smiles so I still need more thunder-thighs room for the next pair. Not a big deal to fix. I need to clear away the project debris in the sewing room so I have a clear view to the mirror. Then I'll post a pic or two. Note to self: Remind DH to hang the dang mirror already.

This morning, I transferred my fit-as-you-go alterations to the pattern paper (yes, I actually cut a Kwik Sew pattern!) and started laying it out on the bengaline. It ain't gonna fit. At least not without some creativity. So I've stalled and will have to regroup. I'm thinking I could do a crotch gusset, since it's the mega back crotch point (thunder-thighs, remember?) that is making the pieces just a bit too wide to lay side by side. In case I didn't mention it, the stretch in stretch bengaline runs lengthwise, not widthwise as you'd expect. Otherwise, I'd have more than enough.

I'm about out of time to make good on my 2006 resolutions so this one will have to roll over for 2007, but a project I've wanted to do is a tailored, lined jacket. I don't have anywhere to actually wear such a jacket, but I still want to do this just to do it. Over the weekend, I ordered the Palmer/Pletsch "Jackets for Real People" DVD. I have the companion book on fitting, but I wanted the video so I could watch Marta Alto constructing jackets. The other P/P construction videos I have have all been well-made, so I expect to enjoy this latest DVD too.

This is one of the candidates. I've been reading the "couture" instructions and am morbidly fascinated. I say "morbidly" because I'm so NOT a hand-sewer. But, still, something is calling to me and I'm thinking I might just try it. If I do, it will likely be 2008 before I'm done because this isn't something I could work on exclusively until it's done.



I've also got tons of current and back issues of Burda WOF, each containing multiple jackets. As long as I have my other resources for construction steps and info, those are a possibility too.

Mindless Internet Fun

I saw this on Beth's blog and tried it out. It seems to be accurate for me, for while I've never lived in the actual "Midland" of the US (as they list them), I have lived all over the eastern side of the country (born in NY, lived in NY, RI, VA, CT, LA, TX, MD, SC, FL). I've moved more than that list represents as sometimes we moved back to a state I'd already lived in.

I've lived in FL for the last 17 years. Once we'd been here 7 years, it became the longest I'd lived anywhere. So I guess after 17 years it's now home and I'm almost a native. But with so many moves in my "formative years," I picked up a lot of accents (age 14-15 was the worst -- a really thick Long Island, NY accent!) but they were subsequently blurred by the accent from a move into another new area. IOW, at some point I stopped having an accent. Well, not to Americans. I'm sure I still sound strange to Brits and Aussies. ;-)

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
Boston
North Central
The Inland North
The South
Philadelphia
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Drowning in blogs??

This is probably old hat to many of you, but for those of you who are becoming overwhelmed with checking all your fav blogs individually, lookee here! MaryB clued me in to Bloglines when I first started this blog, by asking me to add the Bloglines button to my sidebar. (It's at the top right if you're looking.) When she asked, I had no idea what Bloglines was ... being a blog newbie and all. So I looked into it, liked it, and have been using it ever since. Thanks Mary!

Bloglines is free, easy to use, and makes keeping track of new blog entries a snap. It's like an email client for blogs, except there's nothing to download or install on your computer. You join, set up a profile and then access your "feeds" via the web. I keep my personal Bloglines feeds page set as my "Home" page for IE so that when I open IE or click the Home button, I can see at a glance what's new in Blog-land. It's so handy!

Looking at the screenshot above, my folder with my list of favorite blogs is (partially) shown expanded in the left column and the latest entry for the selected blog (mine for illustration purposes) is shown in the right pane. If you look closer at the list on the left, you'll see some blogs have bolded and/or grayed numbers after their name. Bolded means it's new/unread and the number indicates how many entries are new/unread. The grayed numbers are those which I've clicked on and then marked "keep as new" to return to when I have more time to read or if they mention something I want to note for later.

You can choose to be a public or private subscriber to a blog. If you're public, other subscribers will see you in a list of subscribers. If you're a private subscriber, you're an invisible lurker to all. Also, if you're public, the blogs *you* subscribe to are visible. Sometimes I like visiting the blogs subscribers subscribe to. I've found some interesting reads that way.

There are many options for how you subscribe to others' blogs, how those blogs are organized, displayed and updated on your Bloglines page, and other stuff I'm forgetting. It's straight-forward to set up with the defaults, though, and as you become more familiar with the options, you can start playing with them.

To read or add comments, you'll still need to be on the actual blog page and some feeds don't show all the photos, but no problem ... Just click on the blog entry title in the right pane and a new window with the actual blog entry will open. Easy-peasy.

Anyway, I just thought I'd mention Bloglines. There are other subscription services out there but I'm only familiar with this one -- commentors please feel free to plug any others.

The Christening

The new sewing room has officially been used to make something ... other than a mess. Woo hoo! I love all the room to spread out in there. This was an easy project but that's just what I needed right now after the busy week of moving things in and around, plus the usual football Team Mom duties.

This tee is for DS#2 and is made with my TNT (tried and true) tee pattern for my sons, Kwik Sew 3299. He doesn't know I've been making it so he'll have a surprise when he wakes up tomorrow. Since tomorrow is a Game Day (for his brother's Varsity team), I'm not sure if he'll wear this or a football theme tee shirt. We'll see. I won't be insulted if he chooses the latter. (5 AM Update: He chose the Metallica tee!)

Once again, I used my favorite "embellishing" trick for my teen sons' mom-made tees — iron-on transfer paper for dark colors. I love this stuff because it has an opaque white background. Anything white in the image stays white after it's ironed on to the fabric. Most transfer papers have "show through" where white would be and are best used on plain white fabric. This paper gives results much more like screen printing and you can use it on any color, even black. It also washes well and the print colors don't fade. I made the first tee shirts using this transfer paper a couple of years ago and they are still in great shape. My review for this pattern is here.

I used to buy Epson brand transfer paper at Office Depot until they stopped carrying it or Epson stopped making it — I'm not sure which. I bought my last supply at http://www.printonit.com/ (NAYY). I bought 50 sheets for about $1/sheet. I can usually get two designs per sheet if I lay them out carefully. Still, the fabric was "free" since it's been in my stash forever and the pattern has been used many times making it nearly free too ... so $1 for a design paper is pretty cheap I think (especially if you add in the "looks RTW and not homemade" factor). If you don't want to spend $50, you can also buy in smaller quantities for just a tiny bit more per sheet. (Hmmmm. Maybe I should think about coop-ing this stuff.)

Here's a close-up of the design. I grabbed my sharp, pointy embroidery scissors, plopped myself down in a chair, and custom cut the design to incorporate the dripping outline. I think it turned out pretty darn cool.



The colors are a bit off in the photos. In reality, it's an olive drab tee with a darker olive rib at the neck and the inside of the transfer design matches the tee fabric perfectly. From a short distance it looks like an outline instead of a filled shape.

Here's another close-up showing the contrast coverstitching around the neckline and shoulder seams. Gosh, I love that little coverstitch machine!

As for the sewing room ... boy is it ever nice to walk to my pattern notebooks, pick out a pattern, pull it from the drawer, cut my fabric, sew, press, serge and coverstitch ALL IN THE SAME ROOM!

The jury's still out

So this, the free preview & premier issue of Blueprint (a Martha Stewart Living publication), arrived in my mailbox on Tuesday. At first glance, I'm not sure what to think. I will say that my overall initial impression is that it's hard to tell the content from the advertisements and the layout is a bit too cutesy for me. Why I'm mentioning it here, though, is one of the editors, Katie Hatch, is a sewer and her bio blurb says she makes most of her wardrobe herself. So maybe there's hope for the fashion portions of this new rag?? We'll see. I don't know how many others will read the "fine print" on the editors or if there'd be any impact at all even if they do.

There's also a free dress pattern download (designed by Katie, natch) for a grown-up version of what I've known as a pillowcase dress. Blueprint refers to it as "elegant." I know I'm not a fashion plate, but somehow a sack belted in the middle doesn't meet my expectations of elegant. Cute, comfy, casual -- now those are the adjectives that come to my mind and this would work for a fun summer frock on a slimmer figure than mine. I also found the cost breakdown of the outfit interesting. The fabric and cord were $76 (the fabric is $35/yd. silk twill). The belt is $150, the earrings $50, and the bracelet $449. For a total of $725. Hmmm ... maybe that's why the Blueprint editors dubbed it elegant??

But go ahead and download it, even if you know you'll never sew it. Hopefully Blueprint will be tracking the downloads and if this one is popular, maybe there will be a next. And maybe that one will be elegant. We need to encourage all the home sewing promotionals we come across.

ETA: Drat! I had links which should've put you directly at the magazine contents, editorial, and download pages, but they're not working as they should. You should be able to find everything easily though once you're on Blueprint's site.