mandarin raglan princess

One of the patterns I picked up at the fabric fair was New Look 6519 - a fitted jacket with raglan sleeves, a mandarin collar, and princess seams (and pretty simple pants, skirt, and purse) after reading about it on Pattern Review I decided to make a muslin to check the poofiness of the sleeves, and determine the proper size. My flexible tape measure is MIA so I used a 40" knitting needle to find my bust size (37.25) and decided to try the size 14. I haven't put on the collar yet, but so far, it looks like I don't need to adjust anything!
Another interesting facet of this pattern - it only had the 1st page of instructions in it - I'll be winging it for the lining and cuffs.

meanwhile, back at the ranch

Every now and then I get reminded that I have this blog .. mainly when some other site asks for my website. So I just joined facebook, and that reminded me that I have this blog. More time to spend vegging at a computer!

The jacket mentioned in the last post was pretty much a loss - the fabric stank of cigarette smoke even after baking soda and two launderings. It was also really weak, and a little too small.. but I got some good pictures out of it. But since then, I've knitted a shirt for the lad, which I'm fairly happy with, and made a dress shirt with the help of my mom and Shirtmaking by David Page Coffin. I've also made two skirts for myself, one of which requires some shortening, and I haven't decided yet how to do that. I also bought a really cool skirt at the Salvation Army so I can try to copy it (it's pink, and a bit too big.. but really cool): it has horizontal box pleats that make it rumple in a fascinating way.

Hmm .. pictures? maybe next time.

fabric fair!

Today was lots of fun with Grandma and Aunt Laurie at the annual Salvation Army fabric fair - I spent $34 and was tempted by a few more things, but am very happy with my purchases. I've already started one project entirely with things I bought there: some lightweight black cordorouy and a toddle jacket pattern. The pattern was size 1, and he's alomst 2 1/2, so I measured and added an a few inches in length. I also added a waist; the original pattern had a completely pointless underarm seam which was straight on grain on both pieces, and the instructions said to sew it up on the first step. I thought about just eliminating the seam altogether, but eventually decided to make it a slightly fitted jacket. Perfect pattern for the fabric piece - I just had a strip about 5 inches wide left over!

simplest first

Of the projects mentioned in the last post, most are still whirring through my head (or set aside for a much later time) but one is done! Both the zipper packaging and the Janome website warned me that I'd need a special foot to really get an invisible zipper to be invisible, but I'm satisfied with what I got with a regular zipper foot. A friend gave me 8 yards of this fabric, and asked for a pair of pillows covered in it. So now I have 7 yards left, and I'm imagining an almost-circle skirt in alternating gores of red and gold. I'd love to make a more-than circle skirt, but I think that would take more like 10 yards. Time to break out the ruler and pencil, or find someone who has CAD..

Even if I'm just hemming 7 yards of skirt though, I think I'll want a rolled hem foot. Also, this stuff frays like crazy, so I'll have to figure out what to do with all of my bias-cut seams.

midnight thoughts on sewing

I'm stumped by the sewing project I thought I wanted to try next - a fitted winter coat. So now I'm back to daydreaming about simpler things: a bias gored skirt, some pants with a welt pocket (they just look so tidy), some throw pillows to practice inserting invisible zippers. And this is why I can't get to sleep; I'm thinking about how to fit the bias triangles without wasting fabric, I'm thinking about where and when I can get some sewing machine time.. I'm thinking about how tired I'll be tomorrow if I don't get to sleep now, but that doesn't help.