Wrapping up March

Okay, I'm going to be upfront about it and admit it! I went stark raving crazy and bought 54 yards of fabric this month. Yes, I'm hanging my head in shame but with a slight twinkle in my eye...cause I've blown that goal all to h*ll! Next month I hope to do better cause I can only go up from the hole I've dug myself into! *sigh*

So even though there was a huge amount of excitement, due to "The Little Prince's" arrival...

...gratituous baby shot...

I didn't sew for two weekends, yet I managed to finish 3 garments using 6 yards of fabric...which when you think about it is but a drop in the bucket to 54 yards but at least I do have something going out! All 3 pieces were knit garments - fast sews - but "The Gladiator Dress" as I've taken to calling it...was a new adventure for me. The 4 piece set that the knit dress and the other 2 pieces are a part of still needs the skirt to be completed. I may or may not get to it this weekend, because I do have some out and about plans for Saturday. But it will be finished before the month's end because the cardigan, tank top and skirt will make a wonderful springy outfit.

I am not counting "The Dreaming of Spring" dress in this month's totals...because it's not done. However, I'm very pleased with the progress I've made on it and will finish it up this weekend. Now that the weather is getting warmer, the days are getting longer and my creative soul is seriously stirring...I plan on working on making quite a few more dresses...'cause you know how much I love a dress!

I'm making no pledges for April except that I will be sewing...*LOL*...and spending quality time with my sewing machine!!!

Dreaming of Spring - Part 2

First a picture of me wearing the dress with the back basted together:

This is where the dress stands now. It's missing hems, a zipper and several other finishing details. After working on it for 8 hours today and probably 8 hours yesterday...I am ready to let it sit until my next available time to sew.

The bodice:

Construction on the bodice was done using the typical sequence I normally follow when sewing my TNT dress pattern. The only technique of note was that after sewing the lining to the bodice top, clipping the curves, and edgestitching the facing...I trimmed the seam to a 1/4" to eliminate seam show through.

I also need to add that working with these fabrics has been a truly wonderful experience. I sew with wool crepe all the time since it is a personal favorite but I've rarely used the 4 ply silk crepe and the silk georgette. So not only am I pleased at how the dress is progressing, I am also very pleased with the fabrics ease of use.

Next, the bodice was attached to the band:

Last night I left the dress skirt with the fashion fabric and the lining basted together. Today, I hemmed the lining and added a piece of lace trim to the hem. I also added lace seam tape to the skirt's bottom. I am using that for the hem finish rather than the rayon seam tape I normally use.

Here is a back view of the seaming detail on the dress skirt. The dress back is basted together for this shot.

I also added ribbons to allow the dress to hang correctly on the hanger. They are basted in now and will be part of the final finishing details.

As I originally stated, I still have about another 8 hours of work to finish this up, but right now the dress looks exactly how I envisioned it and I'm very pleased. I had no intentions of wearing it until the middle of April, when the weather warmed up, so this was a good place to stop tonight before I got too tired.

I have officially ended winter sewing with this dress. This one and the next dress (the striped cotton from Metro Textiles) are definitely spring/summer garments. Someone asked if this is my Easter dress...no, it isn't. Since "The Little Prince" will only be 3 1/2 weeks old Easter weekend, we are not going to church. We're having a quiet dinner at home...this is just going to be a very pretty work dress! *LOL*

More later!

Dreaming of spring - Part 1

I have had a wonderful day...I spent the morning with my grandson and then after his mother left with him for a drs appointment, I sat and read the last 20 pages of a novel that I had been trying to finish up for a couple of days.

Around 1ish, I started working on the dress...yes, "Dreaming of Spring" is a variation on my TNT dress which was inspired by the Barrie Pace dress from two posts back. Of course, during the planning stages, I thought of something a little different than the inspiration dress, something a little more me. Also since I spent several days, dreaming about the dress, I ended up thinking through all of the construction steps.

So this afternoon I started with the piece that would be the most challenging to make...the center band. After going through several variations during the planning stages, I decided on a pleated band made from the floral silk georgette.

To accomplish the look I wanted, I cut the band 10" wide x 56" long. Then I placed marks 1" apart on either end of the band.

The pleats were pinned together and then sewn down 1/2" apart

Pressed flat

And finally pinned to a wool crepe piece cut in the same dimensions as the silk georgette piece and sewn together. I then serge finished the piece. The pleated piece is bigger than the circumference of the dress top and skirt because I wanted to make sure that I had enough. I'm also thinking of doing something special to the waistline finish...not sure if it will work because I have to put the entire dress together before I find out.


The other part of the dress that I worked on today was the dress skirt. My first issue was how to get the pieces out of the 1.5 yard piece of wool crepe that I had...yes, that yellow piece was a remnant...and caused me to work out some serious design inspiration to mask the fact that I needed just a little more fabric to cover my backside! *LOL*

The solution was to piece the back of the dress:

Once that was change was made...and I really liked the way it looked...it was time to add the silk organza underlining. See that's the problem with daydreaming a dress...you think through all of the possibilities... Since I have a few straight wool crepe skirts that are underlined with silk organza that wear like iron during my workday, I wanted to include this extra layer in this dress to make it as wrinkle proof.

I first learned about the silk organza tip on the now defunct Sewing World from Kathryn. There was also a tip shared on how to apply the silk organza to make sure that it was on-grain...of course I can't remember now who posted it. If someone does, could you please leave that info in the comments section!

However, I have refined the original tip. I now lay my fashion fabric piece on my cutting board and add the silk organza to the top of the piece. Then I pin it down. The original tip has you using alot of pins, and I mean ALOT. But I've found that if I put it on the board and pin in the strategic places, then baste the silk organza to the fashion fabric without removing it from the cutting board...I don't have any grain issues. Also my cutting board is not the same size as my cutting table so I can rotate it around as I'm basting the two pieces together...all of this helps to keep the pieces stable and on grain.

The lining was cut out next using the fabric pieces. My last sewing for the evening was to construct the lining and the skirt and then baste the two pieces together. Tomorrow I will work on the top and assembling the dress.

So more later!

Dreaming of Spring

This will be my weekend:



I will wake up bright and early tomorrow morning and dedicate myself to turning this into a garment. It is an ivory 4 ply silk crepe, a silk floral georgette and a ltwt wool crepe. I feel like I'm sewing with the grown-ups using such extraordinary fabric. I can't believe this fabric lives at my house...*sigh* but enough of that.

I'm off to clean the crap that's accumulated on my sewing table this week off and get myself ready to sew. I've worked out my sewing sequence. I've made some notes and I'm ready!

More later!

Some Pretty Pictures

Yesterday I had a lunchtime jaunt to Kashi's aka Metro Textiles, and I met up with some fellow fiberly fanatics...Sherril and her friend, Karen, Elizabeth and Terri. We had a great time but I didn't make it out of Metro fabric free...

These two beauties followed me home:

This is a piece of a ltwt. wool crepe that will work wonderfully with a piece of silk that I already own. Hopefully, the two will become a version of this Barrie Pace dress:

And this cotton piece - that just made me happier and happier back in the office as I showed it around. I will use my TNT dress pattern with this fabric.

I have no pics of the meeting. I don't know why I can't seem to remember that both my blackberry and my cell phone have pretty nice cameras in them...so the only photo is on Sherill's camera and she doesn't leave NYC until tomorrow. Hopefully she will post the group photo on her blog!

Yes...the "yellow" fever has truly bitten me...and I can smell spring so you know I've got more than a few ideas for dresses that are crawling around in my brain begging to be brought to life! I want to work with both of these pieces this weekend...hopefully I will get some sewing time!!!

Mail Order Vintage Patterns

I learned to sew when I was 11 and I've been obsessed ever since! I did everything I could to learn more about sewing especially since my mom did not sew. I took free classes, joined a sewing club after school, and took every sewing class that I could in junior and high school...and of course, I read the local newspaper.

Because back when I was growing up, there was a "Family" section in the local newspaper. This section is now called, "Home and Garden," and it contained the recipes, home decorating tips, fashion articles, comics and of course the sewing columns.

It was the sewing column along with the mail order patterns that were featured next to that column that fascinated me. The Sunday edition of the paper was the best because it had the longest column and usually the prettiest pattern, sometimes even two were shown!

My local paper was, "The Star Ledger" and when I was younger, Louise Farmer wrote the sewing column. In later years, the sewing column was written by Sandra Betzina...but back to those mail order patterns that fascinated me so both then and now. You could get a pattern for 50 cents and a self-addressed envelope. Of course, I only purchased one every now and again because I had to use my allowance and because they featured girls' patterns only occasionally. But it was amazing to see the different styles featured weekly and imagine how wonderful it would be to make something from one of them.

That fascination has carried over for me as an adult...especially since I now know that I can still purchase some of those mail order patterns. I have tried to be discerning and only buy the ones that I believe I will actually use...however, my heart still beats a little faster whenever I run across one on the vintage pattern sites or on Ebay.

That's how this last bunch came to reside with me...Ebay! I don't really have much time to troll Ebay because it can be quite a time suck and I need to guard my precious sewing time! But I was enticed by an email containing a list of patterns with zero bids. Yes, I bit, but boy am I glad that I did!

These arrived in the mail last week:

Besides the fact that they were plus size patterns they also featured interesting design features. But I have to tell you, mail order pattern instructions are really just a step up from BWOF instructions...except they at least contain a few pictures of the construction process. Take this one for example:

Yeap, that's it. That little square of the bottom half of the instruction sheet are the instructions for the dress pattern. I even flipped the sheet over hoping for more...but no, that's it! *LOL* It is however, full of information and more complicated techniques than a pattern of today...but 1/2 of a pattern instruction sheet!

Of the three that arrived, I really would like to make the dress. No stretch of the imagination there right? And the jacket...I don't know about the third pattern but I'm not kicking it out of the pattern collection! *LOL*

So even though I'm not sewing...my mind is still thinking about it! Hopefully soon...

Do you count lining?

Okay ~ it has been a very busy weekend. I've only had snippets of time to sew here and there so no finished items. Also with a new baby around, I am just not that inspired to spend hours at my sewing machine.

However, I've thought about sewing and worked on "The Pantsuit from Hell!" I am waivering...I may not finish this jacket. Every time I start something on the jacket, I am unhappy with the result. Then I have to lay it down and walk away from it...so it's taking forever to finish. I am just not happy with the project so far...*sigh*

Of course, it's also been two weekends since I've actually completed something and I'm antsy and fabric shopping. Not huge amounts but it got me to thinking...do you count lining fabric in your fabric totals? See my last two fabric purchases have consisted primarily of lining fabric for certain projects...some cotton batiste to go under an embroidered cotton fabric...and some china silk because it was a great price. But do I count them in my monthly total or is lining a notion?

So I'm coming to the court of public opinion and asking you. Is lining part of the fabric collection or the notion collection? I mean I purchase lining in large amounts - 5 yards is usually the minimum amount - I mostly try to purchase 10 or more yards at a time. And every garment doesn't get a lining but so many of them do...that I am just wondering... Notion or fabric? And do you count lining as part of your fabric collection?

*****************************************************************

Thanks for all of the wonderful wishes on baby Daniel's birth! He is such a quiet little thing, smiling in his sleep, quietly whimpering when he wants a bottle or needs his diaper changed. I am sure all of this will change...but he is a joy to hold and snuggle now! So one last Daniel picture.

He will make infrequent showings here on my blog - it is a sewing blog after all! And no, I will not be making any items for him. His mother received quite a haul at the baby shower including several knitted and crocheted items, therefore, it will be quite some time before he needs something handmade from his grandma!

I am back to work tomorrow...so more later!

Snoop Shopping

This morning I went to our local DressBarn with my mom. I like the stockings they sell and since the weather is warming up...I hope...I need stockings to go with my skirts and dresses. And yes, I am firmly on the side of wearing pantyhose...I like them and have no issues with them.

So once in the store I notice that they have a really great selection of plus size dresses. There are a few styles that I've wanted to try on before making them and since my mom was game I loaded up with several different types of dresses and headed off to the dressing room.

If you don't mind, I would like to share a few observations with you:

1. I don't shop! Hardly ever...so I was amazed at the depth and selection of plus size dresses until I walked onto the other side of the floor and saw what they had in the smaller sizes. Ummmm, can we say unfair! Totally and absolutely unfair in the amount of dresses on that side of the floor versus the dresses on the plus size side.

2. If you are going snoop shopping make sure you wear a good bra (check), a good pair of undies (check) and any foundational garments and/or hose you would normally wear. Since this was a spur of the moment decision, I didn't have the last two. However, the store did sell control top pantyhose, I purchased a pair which helped alot in the decision-making process.

3. The dresses I took into the dressing room were:

~ a poly/lycra knit short sleeve wrap dress

~ a pin tucked sleeveless straight dress

~ a v-neck dress with a ruched waistline and full skirt

~ a border print black/white dress with a defined waist, belt and short sleeve cropped jacket

~ a waisted dress with a short sleeve sweater jacket

4. I have no idea what size I wear in RTW...I originally bought the wrong size into the dressing room with me...which meant my mom had to retrieve several pieces in the correct sizes!

**I learned that I can wear a belt (both skinny and thick...haven't worn one in at least a decade) if the style of the dress is right.

**That I am still not sure if I look good in a wrap dress but it may have been the print and the pleating on the side of this particular wrap dress. My mother thought I looked slimmer and I thought my butt looked like a big old shelf! But I am more amenable to the whole wrap dress thing now that my last knit dress worked so well.

**That the right dress with waistline seaming can be a slimming look on me.

**And most importantly, that I'm thankful that I sew!

Jeeze Louise if I had to relie upon RTW to dress, I would look terrible...or have to spend an inordinate amount of time in the mall, in the stores, constantly dressing and undressing to find a few items that fit. I also now understand how so many women have issues with their bodies...RTW does not help you. It glorifies the young, the skinny, the flat... Who is like that except a 12 year old?!

Okay, I didn't post this to rant about RTW...but so many times when other plus size women write me and ask how I know what works for my body, I always give the snoop shopping advice. Today I took my own advice and now I have to add one more piece to my snoop shopping tip ~ don't be discouraged by what is available in the stores! The point is to find out what shapes/styles look good on you and to realize that you can make the right length, the right fit, the right color/print/pattern for you...and if you see something in a smaller size and you believe the shape would work well for your body, go for it! This exercise is to just get an idea!

Also realize that I rarely base my dress-making decisions upon plus size offerings. I know what works for my body type and if I see something in any size that I know I can interpret...I go for it! If I stuck to what RTW offered there would be no "Dior Dress" or the "Michael Kors knock-off dress" or even my classic sheath dress.

After this exercise, I did walk out with a dress. I was so amazed at how I looked in it after slogging through the other try-ons, the price was right and it's something that's not currently in my wardrobe. However, I am purchasing a similar Butterick pattern during this weekend's $4.99 sale and making my own version, soon!

Here's a look at the DB dress - sans make-up and how I tried it on in the store:

Butterick 4914 - which I think can give me an alternative but in the fabric, color and styling I want:

Finally, I believe that snoop shopping can be very beneficial to your sewing. Especially when new styles come out and you are not quite sure if they will work with your body type. This advice, of course, applies to women of all sizes. I don't know if I'm going to keep the dress...already I'm revising the look in my head! *LOL* But it was a morning well spent and I'm off to sew because despite yesterday's snow event, I do believe that spring is coming soon and I've got to be ready!

More later!

...and this is spring?!

Spring arrived today at 7:44 am...it is cold...34 degrees F and snowing! Seriously...it is snowing on the first day of spring...time to retire to my sewing area!!!

The Little Prince has arrived!

Daniel Aiden

was born at 10:45 pm

on March 17, 2009

weighing 5 lbs. 9 oz.

and 18" long

Mother and son are doing fine and will be home tomorrow!

Update

Well the baby shower was a great success! Loads of people...loads of fun...loads of gifts and loads of contractions! No, there isn't a second grandson yet...but we are officially on babywatch! Doctor said 24-48 hours max!

Of course I haven't thought much about sewing this weekend due to the current events...and a very clean apartment! Isn't it amazing how putting all of your sewing things away can help to push it further from the forefront of your mind!?!

Anyway, I will keep you updated!

More later!

Sneak Peeks

I had a very productive weekend...not only did I get the dress completed but I worked on another version of my TNT Burda cardigan and the camisole pattern from Butterick 5146.

I also fiddled around a little more with the pantsuit...and have decided to add piping to the cuffed sleeves:

Thanks everyone for your very kind comments on the dress, which I wore today. It will take some getting used to wearing such a close-fitting dress. My dresses made from woven fabrics give the illusion of being close-fitting but aren't really. This knit dress was laying right next to my skin and I kept pulling on it all day because I was very aware of the fit. However, I am going to make it again...I'm thinking of using either a turquoise double knit or the black double knit that I bought from Metro Textiles to make a pantsuit...both fabrics have a little more body than the poly/lycra knit.

My daughter's babyshower is this weekend, so I don't know how much sewing I will get done...but I will be off on Monday the 16th so there is always hope!

More later!

Butterick 5146

I love the stylings of knit dresses. I really love wrap dresses that are based upon the Diane Von Furstenberg original wrap dress. BUT I hate the way the backside of knit and wrap dresses look on some plus size women. I don't know if it's because plus size women think that we aren't suppose to wear foundational garments, or if they think they don't make them in our size or what...but those back views have caused me to steer clear of knit dresses...until today!

See there are just more and more gorgeous knit fabrics out there...and I can only make so many cardigans or twinsets! Well, actually I can make quite a few more *LOL* but I really want to try out a knit dress...cause you know how much I love a dress! So Butterick had this pattern in their $3.00 sale a couple of weeks ago and I bought it...and I'm so loving Club BMV now because the actual price of the pattern was $2.70.

As you can see it's a simple straight dress with long sleeves and a very low v-neckline. It was a cute style and Fabric Mart had their knits on sale for 20% off with a PR Membership discount...the two ideas ran together to become this:

Please understand that I am simply incapable of making a pattern straight out of the envelope. This dress is lined and has a lacing up the front that I think gives it a totally different vibe than the dress pictured on the pattern envelope...

Okay some stats:

Fabric:

2 yards of ITY polyester/lycra knit jersey

2 yards of a nude knit lining from Metro Textiles

Notions:

3 yards of 1/2" satin rattail

Construction Changes:

1. First this pattern goes up to a size 22 with a finished hip width of 47" - I need a little more than that. Originally I was going to do a pivot and slide and add some inches...but as I was putting the pattern pieces back into the folder, I saw that the hip width of the jacket was 57" which was perfect. So I simply laid the two pieces on top of each other (jacket first then the dress) layered them with a new piece of tracing paper and traced a new front and back dress piece by using the top of the dress and the bottom of the jacket.

2. I added a lining to the dress body using the knit lining fabric from Metro Textiles. This was done by eliminating the front and back facings the pattern provided and laying the lining and the fashion fabrics right sides together...then stitching them together at the neckline. I clipped curves, turned and pressed then added some topstitching to the front neckline to prevent the lining from rolling to the outside.

3. When constructing the dress shell, I added stay tape to the shoulder seams of the fashion fabric but not to the lining. I also added a 1/2" piece of stay tape at the u-neckline to give it stability when I sewed the fashion fabric and lining together and when clipping the seam line in that area.

4. All of the hems were pressed closed using stitch witchery. Then using a double needle, I topstitched the hems. The stitch witchery was used to stabilize the hems and prevent the wavy hemlines that can sometimes occur when using a double needle treatment.

5. After trying the dress on, I noticed that the fronts were flopping around. Of course in the pictures on the pattern envelope, the fronts lay perfectly flat. I guess on my "real world" body that just wasn't happening...so I got the idea to add a lacing to the front. It would hold the front pieces stable and provide an interesting detail.

My first thought was to make eyelet circles (a stitch on my machine) to use for threading the rat tail...but my machine did not like this fabric no matter what I put under it to stabilize it. Then I realized that keyhole buttonholes if made small enough would do the trick...so that's what I used. I make 8 keyhole buttonholes...4 on each side of the dress front approximately 3" apart. After threading the rattail through the buttonholes, the floppy dress front issue was resolved.

This is a very simple dress to make. It will give you much instant gratification and a lot of bang for the buck. I was surprised that there are only three reviews for this on Patternreview ...two for the dress and one for the tunic top & camisole. I am sure that my plus size sisters never even looked at the pattern, cause I sure didn't before it showed up in the $3 sale!

However, I love the finished dress. I love the way it fits and how comfortable it is to wear. I love the lining because you can't see my foundational garments beneath it and I would be comfortable walking down the street knowing that no one is going to be staring at my backside. The dress pattern comes with a camisole but since I had a RTW one available I decided to wear it with the dress.

This dress was envisioned as part of a set of 4 garments. Right now laying on my cutting table is my TNT Burda cardigan and a skirt cut from this brown knit that I purchased from Fabric Mart at the same time as the printed knit. My aim is to get a mix and match knit wardrobe from these pieces for the transition into the spring/summer season!

One last shot...and I'm back to my sewing machine!!!

More later!!!

Dead Tired

I only have about five steps left to do on the jacket and the pantsuit will be completed. It's hanging up and looking pretty good to me. I'm inspired to finish it this weekend...and I had a post about the lining...pattern pieces I made up and the changes I made to make it more my own...but I'm just too tired to download pictures and write it all up...so maybe tomorrow.

I also love the beginning of the month because the fabric clock turns over and I can purchase my 8.33 yards of fabric...though to be truthful I got a little more than that! *LOL* However, several pieces are in the washer right now...going through the prewash process so that they will be ready to go when called upon.

It has been a long week at work...next week will be worse...and right now I'm tired...dead tired...so I'm gonna curl up in bed (cause the apt is empty - yeah!!) and read my new Threads!

Finally ~ a sneak peek because I realize that I haven't shown anything but a detail here and there...don't get excited or disappointed...it will look better than this...the best details are yet to come!

More later...

A Wonderful Thought

Lori, from Girls in the Garden nominated me for this award:



...and I have to tell you that I feel extremely honored...because "sisterhood" really means soooo much more to me than "excellence in blogging awards" do. This time, I'm gonna break my rule and nominate some of the friends I've made since I've started blogging...

So in no particular order, I am sharing the sisterhood award with these women, who I really call friend!

1. Summerset - Pins and Needles - "My you like me, you really like me friend!"

2. Marji - Fiber Arts Afloat - my every day/in and out friend!

3. Cidell - Miss Cellie's Pants - my kewl friend - you make me look back in wonder!

4. Kathryn - I Made This! - My inspiration...I wanna sew just like you when I grow up!

5. Liana - Sew Intriguing - the Godmother of my blog!

6. LindseyT - LindseyT Sews - My garmento friend!

7. Ann - Gorgeous Things - the Diva Extraordinare!

8. Gaylen - GMarie - we may be on different coasts but you ALWAYS check on me!

9. Karen - Sewing by the Seat of my pants - My Philly connection!

10. Shannon - Hungry Zombie Couture - my fabric twin!

and I need to add one other...sister girl, I know you haven't been blogging lately...and I've let you have your space...but the awesome LauraLo...finally I would like to give a shout-out to Faye and her crew (Lisa/EbbyJ.), hopefully we can become better friends!

The rules of this award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

I know you have noticed that the posts have been scarce lately...I haven't felt much like blogging...my feelings were hurt by someone on the internet a little while ago...so I've pulled back some...and Lori you gave me this award at just the right time!

It is so appreciated!!!

I'm taking my time

Now isn't that an interesting title! *LOL* But I am...I have been struck by the wonderful garments that are being shown all over blogland...and I know that these garments were not rushed...were not thrown together...but lovingly constructed and given the proper amount of sewing time.

It is the beginning of March and soon the warm breezes of April will be blowing and I will want to make spring and summer dresses. Heck, I want to make them now!!! So these last two outfits (the red suit and the pantsuit) need to be completed...there isn't even that much left...so they should just be completed.

In that mindset, I did not make another pair of black pants. I am taking the four pairs of pants to the cleaners tomorrow and getting them back in a few days. I have plenty of other outfits that I can wear in my closet...I will wear several of them. So I started working on the green/beige striped wool crepe jacket...the pants are finished. They haven't been worn. They are lonely waiting for the jacket to be completed...it's time.

One sleeve is in...one more to go. The hems are pressed up and ready to be sewn down. Buttons have been chosen. I am taking my time...getting the elements sewn in correctly...realizing that I will be grateful when the suit is completed and I can pull it out of the closet and wear it.

I am taking my time!