It's Time for More Crappy Photos

Maybe Santa will bring me a better camera, but for now we're all stuck with a simple Point and Shoot and/or my phone. But at least you get me and not Zillie, right? (cough:cough)

So here's what I wore yesterday, which is the newest Jenna cardigan paired with the Kwik Sew tank and the Butterick "Carolyn" skirt. Love! this skirt. I want two more.

I've been wanting a pinstripe skirt for a while now and I'm so glad it's finally in my closet. I may go back to Hancock's for more of the fabric to make a pair of pants too. It was a steal at only $3.99/yard.

Bought these last night in anticipation of The Big Freeze today. Brrrr! They are very comfy.

I did finish the Hot Patterns Uptown/Downtown Knit Dress last night, motivation rising as the temps kept falling. It was in the THIRTIES people. Good god! This is what I wore today ... Yeah, you can't see the dress very well in these work bathroom cell phone pics, but I like it a lot and it was nice and cozy. New boots, check. Scarf I made last night from scraps of that dress I made and hated, check. And a RTW cardi. Gillian, if you're reading, this is the curved hem RTW cardi I mentioned. Somehow that curve minimizes my hips. I want more of these too. My head looks huge in these pics and I have no chin. Lovely.

 Here I was trying to show more of the dress not hang myself. Not sure it worked out as planned. :-)

And now I'm off to brave the cold again with some dinner out. And tomorrow night is our firm's holiday party for clients, at which I'm "working" (hello overtime!). Everyone says it's lots of fun. I believe them ... the caterers were in all day today setting up bars and food stations all over both of the floors we inhabit in the building. Nice! Staff gets its own party next month.

A picture is worth ...

Thanks everyone for the good wishes! So very appreciated.
(Doing this all on my phone so I'm not sure how it will format/size. Will fix later at home if needed.)

Back in the Saddle ... Kinda

It's that time of year when all the cool bloggers seem to be doing 2012 In Review type posts. Dare I say I'm not a cool blogger? Or is it just because I'm just a lazy blogger? The truth is I can't be bothered to go back and look at the last year on the blog from this laptop (my home desktop is on the edge of dying and I'm not ready to spend bucks on a new one when I have all I need in that at work and the lappie is technically just fine). It's hard enough to type without hitting the stupid touchpad every other sentence. But I digress.

I know I sewed some things during the year cuz I've been wearing most of them to death. But there were some changes in my life in 2012 that seem to be closer to the front of my brain. Separating, moving, officially being hired at my dream job. Yeah, I'd say those were some major rollercoasters, but I'm on the other side and only see a cloud of dust in the rear view mirror. I'm having a ball. Life is good. :-)

Christmas week and beyond has been great. I actually got a wild hair and pulled out the decorations for the first time in years. It's amazing what being happy does for motivation to decorate with tacky Christmas stuff. ;-) Alex got in the mood too and strung lights all over the outside of the house. Which means we weren't the neighborhood Scrooges like I thought we'd be. Go us!

Tyler arrived 12/20, dumped his stuff, and started visiting all his friends. Mom who? ;-) That's OK, I was expecting it and I had to work through Friday anyway. He's been in/out over the last week but we've actually seen him a lot. We spent all day Christmas Eve car shopping and he did manage to come home with exactly what he wanted. Let's hope that this time he doesn't total it within a month. ;-)

Alex's gift to us was tickets to Blue Man Group at Universal for Christmas night, which was a blast and also means that I actually was at Universal Studios for two Christmases in a row since Alex and I spent all day there Christmas Day 2011. Who wudda thunk? Yes, Life Is Good.

Also from the Life Is Good Department, shopping today. For moi. I'm not gonna lie ... love those me-shopping days. But jeez Louise, remind me to NEVER go near the mall the weekend after Christmas. I knew enough to stay away BEFORE and did all my shopping on the lappie, but I thought I'd be safe by now. Hah. Joke was on me. But I had a DSW gift card just burning a hole and off I went. I seriously needed some new black heels and I'm happy to report success. And then some.

Pair #1:

Pair #2 (Please ignore the dirty stuff in the sink back there. I know I am.):

Pair #3 (totally impractical but so pretty. And comfy):

Uh ... my name is Debbie and it's been 10 hours since my last shoe purchase:

I'm almost embarrassed by this. Almost. And there's at least 30 pairs you can't see at the ends of those shelves and the floor to the right. Shoes and fabric. What can I say?

Also for me today ... another wild hair but this time at the nail salon. Aren't they cool? I've been inspired by nails on Pinterest lately and decided to just go for it today. Love them! (Hate the old lady hands.)

And speaking of fabric. A trip to Joann's today for purple thread also yielded this, which will become a top to go with the purple ponte Magic Pencil skirt I'll be making tomorrow when I actually get into the sewing room again and back in that saddle.

Yes, Life Is Good.

If I Had a Million Dollars ...

(Do you know that Barenaked Ladies song?)

I'd buy me ...

Gawd how I love these shoes. I mean L.O.V.E. But, alas, $250, or even the sale price of $189, is not a realistic budget item for me for YAPOS (yet another pair of shoes ... funny how that rhymes with Zappos ... hmmm.) Sure, I could splurge and try to justify but ...

So, what popped up in Zappos' sneaky-intelligent targeted advertising last night?

Not a bad second choice. I caved, and they'll be here Tuesday.

It's been a no-sewing-Sunday, but I did survive the grocery store so I'm counting the day as a win.

A Little Shopping

Today was Walmart day. You know how I love me some cheap crap from that place. Remember these shoes I recently bought?

Well, I just love them. So today, I bought them in brown too. AND another duplicate pair in black because, well, they're WALMART shoes and they won't last and I've been wearing the heck out of the first pair. Now I can delay the inevitable a little longer.

I also bought this dress. Seventeen bucks. I'm loving dresses for work, especially now that I've let the pantyhose go bye-bye. It takes me 4 minutes to get dressed in the morning. Not counting the shower, hair, and make-up, of course. ;-)

The last interesting bits from the Walmart run this morning are a new bracelet and ring. Excuse the wrinkled old lady hand. Good god, when did THAT happen? Tonight is the first of what will be at least monthly girls' nights out with a few single friends from work. We're going to go see Magic Mike (because who cares about plot when you have half-nekkid men on the screen, and one of them is Matthew Mc - hi Belinda!!). Did you know it's set in Tampa? That will be an extra fun bonus, although I've heard they've taken liberties with location accuracy. Then we're going for dinner and drinks. I'm wearing the new jumper/dress and the new "jewels." But probably flat shoes to keep things more casual, although I may cave for the brown shoes above. And next weekend my sister will be here sans hubby and there will be more going out on the town. Yay, I *have* a life after all.

After Walmart, I fell off the fabric wagon and got these ITY lovelies from Fabric.com. I'm in a brights mood and most of what's in my stash is earth tones. These WILL get sewn up before they become part of the stash. We still have MONTHS of summer to go, so once they're made into dresses, they will get plenty of wear.

Parting Shot: These goodies arrived from Japan from the Marine.The chocolates were melty, but still tasted fine. Oops. Did I just admit to eating them? All at once? ;-) Alex has taken over the beverages. I wish I could send him (Tyler, not Alex) on a Japanese sewing book/notions trip but I wouldn't know where/what.

Kwik Sew 3915: Modeled

I'll post pics of the dress and details on the pattern failure, but today I'm going backward a couple of days for the promised pic of KS3915 on me.

Can you see me here? I feel like I blend right in to my back yard. And sorry,  no jazz hands. This is kind of dressed down for me at work but it's Florida in the summer and everyone slacks off a little bit.

Close-up of the shoes. I love these, and it's been hard NOT to wear them every single day. They are soooo comfortable.

I'm not sure if I feel up to hemming the dress tonight. But if not tonight, it will be soon.

McCalls 6032 First Look

This dress took me far longer to sew up than I anticipated so I'm not entirely feeling the love right now, although I am planning to wear it to work tomorrow. Mostly because I spent more time sewing than doing laundry. ;-)

Apologies for the blurry pic, but it's probably just as well since I spent most of the day in loungewear (OK, it was my PJs!!) and my hair is sticking out in all directions. I'm hoping to get a full complement of outside pics after work tomorrow.

I resized the pattern down to a 16 and cut/sewed that with the only other alteration being to move the underbust seam/gather hole thingie down 1". I didn't do an FBA and there's plenty of room for the girls. The shoulders keep wanting to slide outward so while I'm watching TV tonight, I'm going to "whip up" some bra keepers to hold things in place. I think I really need no bigger than a 14 in upper bust these days so some more resizing will be in my future if I stick to my pattern stash.

I'm going to need to stick on some Hollywood tape at cleavage level because even though I raised the front neckline about 2", it's still hovering in "look down to see my belly button" range. Nothing shows, so it's technically not too low, but I want to keep it that way and the tape will do that. I also raised the back neckline mega inches and it's OK now. The pattern notes as drafted it's something like 9" below the back neckline. Uh, no thank you. Not for work, anyway.

The front waistband is supposed to be twisted, but when I tried it, it collapsed onto itself and looked wimpy so I left it straight (still gathered into the sideseams). The "belt" is just a length of the border sewn into a tube and tied around the waistband. I'm still deciding on it, but it does cover the CF seam running down the skirt, which even though it pretty much matches across the seam, still looks weird to me.

I also added a back waistband, which I like, and I cut the back pieces on the fold so there's no weird seam. In a knit, I didn't need a zipper so I didn't need a seam. If I ever make this dress again, and I probably won't, I will cut the front piece on the fold too. There's really no reason not to.

This dress is supposed to be lined at the bodice. I didn't bother. I just turned the neckline under 5/8" and coverstitched it in two passes (due to the vees front and back). Lastly, I cut the armhole seam allowances to 3/8" and subbed in my TNT Ottober tee sleeves (after walking the stitching line to be sure it would work).

Thanks to Eljean for suggesting I look at Walmart for toe hose thingies. I found some and I think they will work fine. Some of you seemed to be confused - I'm not going to wear them with open shoes where they would show. They are for my closed shoes that will feel funny with bare feet and they won't show with those, I tried 'em out already.

Speaking of shoes ... these cheapies fell into my cart while I was Walmart. They will probably only last a season, but they are priced to be pretty much disposable anyway. At least now I have a pair of black heeled sandals to wear with the new dress.

A scare and a reward

Before I get to the scare, here's the status of my dress (M6032). I've inched my way through spending about an hour a night after work. The pattern downsizing and adjustments are done and it's nearly all the way cut out.

I decided NOT to cut on the cross grain to take advantage of the border because there's not much stretch that way. Instead, I'm cutting the border off and will sew it back on at the hem. A little more work, but this way I get the stretch where I want/need it and I can decide on final length at the end. A good trade-off for extra steps.

The scare was last night around midnight, right as I was getting ready for bed. I went to round up the dogs for a pee outside before bed (the dogs, people, not me!) and found Chili laid out flat on the area rug in the family room and not really moving. Now, if you knew Chili, you'd know that him laying on the floor instead of a sofa or a bed is strange enough, and that was an immediate flashing red light to me. And upon further inspection he was lethargic, not using his back legs at all, and was very twitchy and jittery. Gulp!

After a rush to the emergency vet (thankfully only 2 miles away), we still don't know exactly what was wrong but the vet's best guess was that he ingested some sort of animal or chemical neuro toxin, and to quote her, "was tripping his brains out." Poor baby. I elected to let them inject fluids under his skin (think Jack Russell Camel hump)  in an effort to dilute whatever it was and for me to take him back home instead of leaving him for observation.

We got back home around 1:30 a.m. and I stayed up with him for a couple more hours. I had emailed work and let them know the story and that I'd be in late. I woke up around 6 a.m. and he had moved spots on the bed, which was a good sign. When I woke up for good around 9 a.m. he was back to normal. Whew! I made into work around 10:45 a.m., so not too late.

That little guy sure knows how to give me a heart attack! No more psychedelic mushrooms for him.;-)

Now for the "reward." Well, at least that's my justification after a hard month of moving and unpacking and then the trippy dog adventure last night. You KNOW what this box means, right??? It's the first one to me at this address, and I fear not even close to the last. I'm sure Zappos is relieved that I'm back in business. :-) I may be on a fabric semi-diet, but shoes? Never!

Here's what I got. I'm giving the no-hose and self-tanner a go and I need some shoes that feel OK without hose. (Which reminds me, where can I get those "toe hose" thingies and do they really stay put in closed shoes?)

I thought I'd only be keeping one pair, but I love them both. And these below were on sale for $47, so how could I even think about sending them back? That's right, I can't. Plus, with that cushy platform, they are as comfortable as wearing flats.

Of course, I really need some new black heeled sandals too ...

In for a Return and Out With Shoes

I stopped by Dillard's on the way home tonight to return the three dresses I'm not keeping. My bank account sighed in relief. On the way out, I tried on 6 pairs of party shoes and left with one pair. I've pretty much decided that strappy ain't for me, both in comfort and in flattery. The end of a work day in heels is a good time to try on new shoes. If they feel good then, they will feel good all night at the wedding.

And, yes, I've heard the anguished cries against my sheer black hose thoughts. Truthfully, black wouldn't look good with these shoes anyway. But sheer black hose are 1980s? Really? I'm not convinced. So now I've got to find some sparkly NUDE hose that both fit my thighs and stay up all night. I'll probably go undergarment shopping over the weekend and pick up some then to try.

These shoes are a lot more sparkly than they look in the pics - the "body" of the shoe is silver metallic texture and the front thingie is covered in rhinestones. The heel and platform are silver. I will probably look at more shoes because I was really hoping for something more decorated but these are pretty and comfortable and if I don't find anything else I like better, they will be just fine.

The big boss is taking us out to lunch tomorrow, for some relaxation and laughing now that the big weekend event is over. We're going back to the Hyatt. It was nice last time and we had a great big private table. Word is they have a fajita bar on Tuesdays. Yum! And good for me since I can eat everything except the tortillas with no guilt. I'm down another 2 lbs since last week and I don't want to stop the momentum. Now that I'm THE graphic designer, it's up to me to come up with the "awards" in the morning. I started them Friday, actually, since I knew they were coming. Good thinking, 99. (If you get that, you're old like me. Yes, I'm looking at you Belinda!)

And hey — look what was delivered to me today!! I'm SOMEBODY! lol Now I need to make myself a business card holder.

And, finally, I'm curious — did anyone else receive what was essentially spam from McCall's? An ad for skin care crap? How exactly does that relate to sewing? I would unsubscribe but then I'd miss the pattern sale notices. Which might be a good idea after all. ;-)

That's it for me tonight. Time for some DVR vegging and planning tomorrow's outfit, with shoes I can walk 5 blocks in.

Can You Stand Another Shopping Post?

I promise this will be a sewing blog again one of these days, just not for a couple of weeks at least. Carolyn's post the other day really resonated with me, because even before she wrote it I was thinking the same thing about my blog. I like sharing details and usually do when I have them, but lately, my sewing has been down and dirty, with pretty easy projects, and my time for details has been limited so I've been putting out more "look at what I did" posts instead of sharing the process. But I tend to go in cycles with most aspects of my life, so if you're hoping for construction details on more complicated projects, hang in there — they'll be back eventually.

I worked yesterday from 9:30-4:00 and again today from 9:00-3:00, and I got a lot done. Yesterday morning, our network went down. Thankfully, everything I had planned to do is not on the network so it didn't affect me too badly. But our email is down, which means Outlook is down, which means I can't access the emails and lists of stuff I need to do other things on my long list. It was still down when I left the office today, so I'm sure there will be grumbling in the morning, but, really, what can you do? It will be fixed when it's fixed. I'm sure the IT peeps had better things to do on their weekend too.

I planned to stop at the mall today on the way home to return some things from my recent JCPenney  and Coldwater Creek orders. Well, I didn't make it out of JCP so CWC will have to wait until another day. But I hit the mother lode, and had to talk myself OUT of many things because my closet is close to bursting at the seams as it is and I do plan to sew soon, AND I still had the things waiting at home that I kept. But what's working overtime good for if you don't spend some of the bonus money on fun stuff, right? ;-)

So, here we go …

I love this outfit. The blouse has a flounce around the vee neck and cute cap sleeves. It's lined front and back (sans sleeves), and I'm digging the 1940s vibe. Now I *need* some spectator pumps. The skirt is black, with gray dots …

… which you can see a little better here if you click the pic to enlarge it.

This skirt below is a little tight at the moment, but how could I resist an ORANGE skirt? You *know* my love affair with that color! Plus, look at it with my recent blouse purchase from CWC. I'm pretty sure by summer, the skirt will fit great. It really only needs about 5 more lbs gone. I think I may get the turquoise one too. At $20, fully lined with back welt pockets, I can't even THINK about making it for less.

I'm not sure about this top. It's really more for the weekend, but it blouses in a way that makes me look like I have jelly rolls around my waist. I think if I hem it shorter, that will fix it, but I'm still thinking about it. It's brown/beige, not black. The skirt is a jeans skirt (fly front, scoop front pockets, back jeans-style pockets). Also for the weekend, and jeans Fridays. (I not especially fond of jeans Fridays, BTW. I just don't like dressing DOWN for work. I feel schlumpy.) New shoes also, which I just ADORE!! They are 4.5" platform espadrilles, with bone patent leather cris-cross peep toe uppers, and they are extremely comfortable. I'm going to wear the heck out of these this summer and I'm already regretting not buying a back-up pair, since they're now sold out.

This blouse looks better without a flash photo, since all the contrast is washed out and it (and me) looks like a big blob. It's ivory, with a matching separate cami underneath and a bias tube belt with rings on either side. It's has seamed, gathered shoulders and is very floaty and pretty. And it's ONLY NINE BUCKS. Run to JCP and buy yourself one.

It's also got lingerie guards already in place. I nearly fainted when I saw that, FOR ONLY NINE BUCKS!

Green jacket. This is badly in need of a pressing and the back vent is still stitched closed so it's sitting a little snug at the hips until I snip that. Only $35. And more new shoes. Black loafer platform pumps. I'm still deciding on these. I like them and they're comfortable, but will I kill myself walking around in such high heels? Trust me, they are MUCH taller than they look in this pic.I'm almost 5'10" in these suckers since I could look Alex in the eye, and look at where my head hits on the door compared to the pic below. I also bought the white tee today too. You can't see any details, but it's a ruffle knit and will be a good basic underlayer. It's too long at the moment, though, so it needs a trip through the coverstitcher. There! I mentioned sewing. ;-)

This blouse is gauze-like, but a little more substantial. It has flounces on the 3/4 sleeves and the matching tank came with it. The blouse definitely needs to be belted and the armholes are low/wide, but it will be so comfortable when the humidity is at 3000% in August that I'm willing to overlook those deficiencies. And are you diggin' my Carolyn shoes?? I love them! Unfortunately, they are a little too wide (in the regular width) which you can sorta see at the back of the foot on your left, but I'm going to buy some foam insoles and I'm keeping them. I loved them when I saw them on Carolyn and I love them in person. Better a little too wide than too tight. ;-)

A new necklace.

And, finally, another new tote bag. I like this one better because it's bigger and costs less, so I'm sending the other one back to Zappos. If you're like me and don't need someone else's name or logo on your bag, then JCP is the place to shop. They always have a ton of nice bags at great prices. I can buy shoes all day (and night!), but I'm really cheap when it comes to purses.

So what did YOU do this weekend? I think NEXT weekend, I need to be dumping all the things in my closet I've been holding on to that are really just too darn big. I now desperately need the space.

It's the Weekend!

Project Runway All Stars is queued up on the DVR and my sewing room is calling me to work some more on the dress. I did pin a sleeve last night and it seems like it's still going to be snug but not as bad as a sausage casing, so 1/4" seam allowances will be in order. But I did pin haphazardly at 5/8" so there should be some leeway. I won't really be able to tell for sure until the back bodice is attached since it's such a weird piece.

I've had two requests for info on the clear elastic hanging off the one bodice piece I worked on last night. I'll put together a post/tute on that soon, but it won't be this weekend and I'll have to convince Alex to be the photographer since I can't spare a hand when sewing on clear elastic. 

In the meantime, gotta love me a Zappos fix. I ordered these * well after* I got home from work last night and they were here today. How DO they do that? Now the hard part will be deciding which pair (or two) to keep since they all fit. I think I'm starting to amass shoes like fabric. Of which, a box of *that* arrived today too. ;-)

Merry Christmas, and Some Sewing

Chances are by the time you're reading this, Alex and I will be in line at Universal, waiting to ride a rollercoaster. I'm hoping this will be as cool a Christmas as I'm thinking, as I type this on Christmas Eve. At the very least, it will be different.

Today was a ME day. I had nothing to do but sew and watch football all day. You couldn't pay me to go near a store on December 24. And the day was a great present to myself! It's been busy at work this week (although the non-traffic driving in/out of the city has been a dream!), so I haven't felt much like sewing or computering in the evenings. I thought about it and that's just as far as I went. Instead, I curled up with my Kindle and read or played some word games. Sometimes you just have to decompress.

But this morning I slept in, then took the dogs out (and for those who asked, yes, we still have 3), and then planted myself in my sewing room and was productive. I cut and finished both the Butterick top and another Magic Pencil Skirt, and here they are:

And with a cardi that also is in this same color family of weird greenish gold:

Pretty great match, right? I love it when fabrics spontaneously match themselves from different orders and different times. This one took a while, though. The print is a buttermilk knit (remember those?) from Emma One Sock and has been waiting in the stash for years. The skirt is a Silhouette doubleknit very recently purchased from Fabric.com. It's perfect for a skirt or pants, but Silhouette is not interchangeable with Sophia. It's more synthetic feeling/looking, but I can tell it will wear like iron. With the polyester content of these pieces, this outfit ought to outlive me by 300 or 400 years. ;-) I still have a couple buttermilk tops which look as vivid as when the fabric first arrived, even after many, many wearings/washings.

Here's a shot of the top from the inside, since the seaming and twist are lost in the photos of the print.

I did add to the neckline at the shoulder seams and just turned under the hem and didn't bind it as I thought I might. I used Wonder Tape to hold it down while stitching, and once that is washed out, the neckline will have its stretch/recovery back. As you can see, I didn't finish every seam, mostly to reduce bulk and partly because these seams lay best when open flat. I also changed the construction order a bit so I could turn under the neckline edge and loop/hole (where the twist happens) while they were still relatively flat. Like Barbara of Sewing on the Edge, I'm in line to be hired by a pattern company to write better instructions. Also like Barbara, I'm not holding my breath.

I added a CB seam and kick pleat to the Magic Pencil Skirt, which is just barely discernible in any of these photos, including this one below which was taken specifically to show the detail. Oh well. I also made the higher-waisted version of this skirt this time, because I wanted to use the elastic at full-width. I'm not wearing my gut-sucking-in pantyhose in these pics, or else I might have tucked in my top to show you. You'll just have to take my word that the waist is indeed higher on this one than the last.

I'm also modeling my new shoes. It's been a month or so, so it was time for another pair, right? Plus, I don't want to wear out my current favorites so I needed to expand the repertoire.

You can't really see them in my pic, so here's the Zappos shot.

I also ordered these for kicks. I wanted to see how they looked and felt, not really intending to keep them. They are actually surprisingly comfortable, but alas a little too tight on my pinky toe. Since I've vowed to not keep shoes that aren't comfortable from the instant I first put them on, these will indeed be going back. But I'm definitely open to try a similar style now. Or am I too old for another round of platforms?

* * * * *

Rebecca Grace asked, "since knits are all different in the stretch, how can you test fit a pattern using one knit from the Sorry Sale Bin and know whether the Good Knit that you really like is going to make up with the same fit as your "muslin?""

I wish I had a scientific, proven method for you but I don't. The honest truth is I just wing it. But I've been sewing knits for a long time now and wearing them even longer, so I'm reasonably experienced and, yes, good, at knowing how different knits will behave and what adjustments I'll have to make between Sorry Sale Tester and Good Don't Want To Ruin It fabrics. So I guess my best advice is to just try, knowing you will fail sometimes but from that failure will come experience and knowledge. It's only fabric. ;-)

* * * * *

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate! I hope Santa brings you everything you've wished for. Happy Holidays to those otherwise celebrating, and Have a Great Sunday to those who aren't. (Did I cover everything/everyone?)