July Showcase

Hello lovely people.

Squeee! I have a showcase this month!

I haven't done one in a while because times they are tight, but these past few weeks I was able to pick up a few goodies for myself and I'm quite happy for my choices.

First some patterns I acquired.

Calico dress commission.

 I love my followers. You all are the most supportive and interested folks I've come across. I'm happy that you all get what you do from my ramblings, and it thrills me when you seek me out and trust me with a garment to make.

One of my readers/etsy customers commissioned me for a dress. The event she wanted to wear it to was a WWII even in her town. She was frustrated with the lack of items in her size, and wanted a nice respectful period dress. 

I was the person to call.

I got pretties!!

Good happy Friday everyone. Whew. I know it seems redundant, but I am still recovering from the last couple of weekends. From work to dance class to extra sewing projects to cooking (made pesto for the first time) to build up of a lot of stuff, to cleaning...geeze. It just kept going and going.

BUT NOW!!!! I feel things have slowed down a bit and 

I can get back on track to my normal creative schedule. Yay! 

First things first. I bought myself some pretties.

Thread!!! 

I wanted to get a decent spectrum of thread for my serger and 

I decided to invest in some spools. 

I love stocking up.

Once, twice, three dyes a lady.

Sweaters are done!

As you all know, I decided to re-dye that navy one with a more 'blue' dye. Welp, success!

I am very happy with the outcome. It is a bit lighter than I thought it was going to turn out, but the color is even and smooth and I used some of my most wicked 20s buttons on it, so yeah, it was worth it.

PPP #2: Vintage flower seersucker

I really like how this one turned out. 

The good hair day might also attribute to my happiness.

The only changes I made were taking in the shoulder points about an inch, bringing in the neckline, and shortening the bodice about 1/2". I wish I had this bodice fit on the first one, but the first one is still pretty swell. I'm wearing this to a swing dance next weekend. Light, cool and breezy. The dress is practically weightless.

More pictures on NVL.

I have the worst luck ever.

Hi everyone. I know I haven't posted much this week. I've been off my game something fierce. I'm not really sure why. I feel pretty good. I had cocktails with friends earlier in the week then went out dancing, which I had so much fun. I just can't seem to get on an even keel.

Perhaps it stress. I'm bugged out on a lot of things. But the plus is I do have a freelance gig lined up. Wish me luck everyone, mama need the cash.

Maybe I'm off because I'm trying to regulate by body clock. I've been trying to go to sleep by taking a mild sleep aid which helped the two days I took it. Then I switched to beer, and well, that didn't help. So I guess I have to get back on the sleep aid. It worked great. I didn't feel groggy or sluggish when I work up, but not too rested either. And I've heard mountains from friends about 'how much sleep' you need. Sheesh, everyone is an expert.

Mainly I think I'm bummed because I don't have the funds from my corset making supplies anymore. My scanner broke, again, and I need it for listing patterns on etsy, which is a good chunk of my income now, so that takes priority. 

Crap. 

I dyed my shoes! Squeeeee!!!

My dye arrived at 3 PM yesterday. An hour after the notice said it would arrive. Hell, considering UPS' normal handling of packages, that's right on time. 

More knot dress progress.

It's finally starting to get hot here, as you can see from my 'glow' :)

Two hats in one day?! I'm that good!

Actually the hats were that easy. Okay, not 'easy' but because I made the pattern and I've made the hats before, I kinda knew where the mistakes were. 

A 30s blouse victory

I decided now that my serger was up and running to go on and knock out a project that I have been wanting to do for some time.

As you all remember, when I was doing a mock up for my jeans, I intended on using them for jimjam bottoms and I wanted to go on and try out my 30s blouse repro for the jimjam top.

Well, I went on and did it.

I just love a pile of cut and prepped cotton chambray all waiting for the serger. It still amazes me how something like this, a pile of cut pieces will be a garment of some kind soon.

Serging (yay) the pieces took no time. Once that was out of the way I prepped the gathered pieces with a basting stitch and set those aside.

The blouse has a front button up placket. This was something I had never rightly done with much success. It's a very masculine type of blouse. I think that was on purpose. The fact that it's an over blouse and has a belt adds to the femininity of the look. In any case, this is for sleeping in, I think...so I was willing to make mistakes on it.

I ironed the front placket, pressing down the seam allowances. I didn't press in the allowance on the back fold of the placket. I didn't know how straight I was gonna be able to sew this thing, and I might need the extra fabric that that allows. Next I sewed closed the top part of the placket, sans the seam allowance. That was folded in, and any bulk was clipped away.

I then did the button holes on the front placket. This was the only time I can recall that I added button holes *before* I finished a garment.

I generally don't like to add finishings before the garment is complete because of all the alterations I tend to make. This time it was the only way I could do it because I don't think that I would have been able to get that button hole down there at the point!

For the under placket (both cut from the same piece) I snipped off the point and folded it under. I sewed that to the side of the blouse first and it went on like a champ. That was in part to my Gute thread and the fact that this cotton behaves like paper. Its wonderful.

I matched up the front placket to the markings and stitched it as the instructions said.

No problem.

Until I tried it on.

This is a prime example of what I mean when I say my upper bust is small for my size. See how the placket completely overlaps itself. There is in excess 2" up there that I'll have to get rid of. I marked the placement for the placket against my neck, opened the side stitches and figgled with the placket until I got it laying straight.

That's a lot of fabric off the front. If I had known it was going to be that drastic I would have increased the gathers at the yoke. I'll have to do that on the next one because if I alter it this way I'll be doing something funky with stripage if I decide to use that type of fabric.

The whole alteration, from cutting to repositioning took all of ten minutes. I was happy about that. Once I was done (I just folded back the excess fabric and repositioned the placket) I attached the sleeves and collar.

I did make a blunder on the collar. Well, one for me anyway. The collar attaches with a top stitch all the way around. Well, as I'm sure most of you all know, Mama don't like topstitching, but I had to do some for this one in any case. I attached the under collar first then sewed on the top of the collar. It was that meeting point in the center of the placket that I was concerned about. I started stitching about an inch inside from the start of the seam and I went back and hand tacked that part down.

It's a much cleaner look, but I wish I had paid more attention. I overlapped the collar just a hair too much and I'm getting fold over. Again, not a big deal to some, and because this is my first go at this pattern, totally not a big deal, but I now know that I left open too much seam allowance when I was stitching that collar on.

The rest of the blouse, because it's cut on the fold, was a cakewalk to put together. I did 3/4 sleeves because it's gonna be a night shirt and I also deepened the armholes a bit for that reason. I do really like it and I totally see this in a velvet or a patterned linen.

So now I have some complete pajamas! Yay! As for my wool crepe 30s dress, it's nearly complete. I'm letting it hang for a couple of days to let the fabric lay better. I just have to add the sleeves. For some reason I was just intrigued by the notion of slow sewing, like the slow food movement, and I do that anyway, I guess I'm just fast at it. But I do like the idea of crafting a garment rather than making one and even with this tester I wanted to have the same level of finishing as I would on any of my other garments.

Well...I did do one quick cheat.

I machine stitched my hems on the blouse and the sleeves. Eh, I'll let that go.

Sweater Transformation: Conclusion of the Non Bedazzler Edition

It's finished!

I really like the color and I found buttons that match it perfectly.

It was meant to be, because I had just the right number of buttons too!

I backed the placket with some leftover cotton I used on one of my earlier projects.

Just tacked it in by hand. I then stitched closed the button holes and

re-sewed them in a darker color.

Even removed the tags and uncovered some non dyed parts.

I'm very pleased by this whole process.

It's filling the knitwear gap I have in my wardrobe.

Right now I'm suffering from a head cold, and I'm so loaded up on water I feel like a sponge. The plus is I'll have great skin next week! :)

Once I feel better, I'll be back.

Thanks all!

Sweater Transformation: Non Bedazzler Edition.

My LL Bean sweaters came the other day. I was thrilled, until I tried them on. The first one, a ribbed cardigan, makes me look all doughy. Perhaps I am doughy, but come on!

The second one, the one with the pockets, is a better fit, but Ill have to alter that one as well as the cardi. I was thinking of returning them for a smaller size, but I got a size below me to begin with, and they were on sale, and they were out of the cardi last I looked.

So I'm stuck with them. It's not a bad stuck, more of a I have to work with these a lot stuck.

I left the house at 8:30am this morning with full intent on getting the supplies I needed to dye one of the sweaters today. I walked (I like to walk) to three stores looking for a stew pot and some dye. Previously someone mentioned a higher quality dye, and I would have tried that, but I'm already out nearly $100 for these all cotton sweaters, and i didn't want to shell out $30+ for dye when I already had to buy stuff.

After finding the dye at a grocery store up the street and two blocks down from where I first went, I couldn't find a stew pot large enough for the sweater. I wanted something that would give the fabric some room to swish, so I could be certain that the dye was evenly touching all the fibers.

My last stop was a Ross, a discount department store. It was a fairly picked over one that is in a complex above a grocery store and a DSW shoe warehouse. I know. Every time I go in, which isn't often, I'm disappointed. That trend continued today. I didn't find my stew pot, but I did find a rather large plastic Umbra garbage can that was just the right size and price.

$10, sold!

I got it home thinking all sorts of things:

How hot can I make the water so it does not harm the plastic and crack it?

Will this fit in the sink in case it cracks?

Can I pick it up with the water in it?

All these thoughts were running through my heat as I set it in the sink. It fit. *whew* I decided to use hot tap water and a kettle of boiling water to top it off.

I soaked the sweater in hot water and then added the dye to the trash can with half a package of salt. Once I mixed the soup, I added the sweater and it soaked up the dye in a flash. The water was a great temperature and was smoking for a good 30 minutes.

Now, the challenge for me was to pour out the dye water without splashing. I was up against hot water that would stain anything it touched, a heavy plastic container that was being used for a purpose it was not intended, a soaked dead weight piece of fabric that could plop out and splatter all over the counter, and plastic baggies covering my hands because I forgot to get gloves.

Success! I managed to pour out the water very, very slowly and it drained with no incident. Even the rinse water when I filled the bin (about 2/5th of the way max at all times) the first time. I then did a rinse a second and third time, salting the water to lock in the dye. After that, I washed the thing in the can, and rinsed it twice again.

The wash took out tons of dye and by the last rinse the water was very clear. I was so happy.

I squeezed out the water and now the sweater is hanging outside drying. After some time, I might throw it in the dryer and see if it shrinks a bit. I still plan on tailoring the thing later on.

Overall the process went smoothly and I could have messed up major. I kept thinking that the trash can was going to split and pour hot salted dye all over my rental floor. Man, that would have sucked.

My casualties were small. A few aftermath splatters on the paintjob and some will fade eventually stains on the counter.

Overall not too bad.

As for the color, I'm very pleased with the navy. For the other one, I plan on making it brown. Those two colors will go best with my wardrobe. Once the sweater is dry, I'm planing on adding more button holes. Stay tuned!

I don't think I'll dye the other one for a while.

I need brown dye first off.

That, and deying is exhausting.

Overalls progress: Pants mock up complete.

Here are the jimjam bottoms. I've been wearing them all afternoon. The buttons are vintage, but I wanted something that would pop, but could also be laundered frequently. There are nothing special, so I don't have to worry about loosing or braking them.

I've also thought about the top I'm going to make for these. I think I'm going to use my 30s blouse pattern instead of the double breasted number. Although it's super cute, I sleep on my stomach and I don't want all those buttons poking me.

After wearing them this long I think I'm going to add an inch to the back of the seat. Its not a big alteration, but it makes me glad I did these first. Im excited about the overalls now. Im cutting out the pieces this evening. Got the thread and the needles ready!.

Wish me luck!

Overalls progress: Pants mock up.

Hello all.

As I finished up altering the pattern for the slacks, I decided to do a test. With the colder weather coming I wanted to make a set of pajamas. What better way to test the slacks than to make some jimjam bottoms.

They fit great!

Im so happy with the drape of the legs and the fit at the waist.

I didn't make the darts, I plan on gathering the waistline because I want the bottoms to be casual.

I did notice some discrepancy in the pattern.

Perhaps it was my alteration, but the sides of the front waist is about an inch lower than the bak. Not a big deal at all, but I might alter the back of the overalls to compensate.

My favorite part though is the side placket I made on the fly.

I just cut two strips of fabric and sewed one piece to the inside of the front, and the other I folded in half to make a good stabilization piece for the buttons.

The jacket of the jimjams I think is going to be a pattern I recently acquired.

I figure a double breasted jacket to sleep in was posh enough, right? Ive trimmed up the overalls bib and plan on cutting it all out when I finish up the chambray pajama bottoms.