Posts from — June 2009

Jim was gone this weekend so I was able to fill it with completely selfish activities (well, that isn’t entirely true…all of the laundry is done). His niece is getting married August 1 and I was hoping to make a new dress for the occasion. I though Simplicity 3877 would be perfect. We looked for fabric while were were out in Arizona last time and I found this great polyester? print for only 2.99 a yard at SAS Fabric.1 I finally got to work on it yesterday. After reading the comments at patternreview.com I thought I should probably do a muslin of the bodice…I NEVER do that and I *thought* I was glad I did. I cut the 14 pattern with the D cup and it seemed pretty loose (I wanted it to be close fitting) so I decided to cut the 12 with the C cup instead. DUH. Should you really do TWO adjustments without checking? The answer would be no. The answer to whether one should forgo the wraptop and just sew the flap into the seam would also be no. I kind of suspected early on there were issues, which is why I didn’t do the arm facing. I figured I should just whip out the skirt part so I could see if the bodice was as short as I thought it was.2 The only thing that made me happy about the whole debacle is that the collar looks freaking fantastic.

Long story shorter, the bodice is too short, the front facing is incredibly fussy with this fabric (would maybe line the whole thing instead) and I’m not sure I even like the print when it is all chopped up like this. I put the disheveled, unfinished dress on my form so you can get an idea of what happened. It looks way better on the form than it does on me! I’m not sure what my plan is yet. I’ll either try this pattern again with a solid fabric and research how to line the bodice or just choose another one entirely and try again. Or I may just go shopping.

1. If you’re ever out there be sure to go…huge warehouse , all kinds of fabric remnants, great prices. [↩]
2. Like I couldn’t tell there was a problem when it was inches above my bellybutton. [↩]

I mentioned a while back that I have been helping a friend update her bedroom with some new valances. They have finally been hung and look great in her master bedroom. We still needed to deal with the bathroom though and finally decided only another valance would do. Her husband generously offered agreed to build another one. Unfortunately, the only printed fabric we had left to use were pillow shams, so I had to rip those out and sew them together. Once we had them on there we weren’t loving the way the seams looked so we decided to hide them with pieces of fabric. The end result looks great and the additional fabric totally looks like a design feature. We were obviously quite pleased with ourselves, so of course, celebrated.

Her many pillows are getting a face lift too. There is plenty of the plain fabric left so I should be able to cover all of them. So far I’ve only done two, including one that I embellished with embroidery from my new machine (pattern here)! She is a wine drinker, but ONLY of the Kendall Jackson Chardonnay variety so this motif seemed appropriate.

The winners have been chosen through the magic of a  random number generator!  Thanks so much to everyone who played.  Most of the contest entrants and their blogs were totally new to me so it was really fun to see what everyone is up to!  I now have some new blogs for my list   Now for what you’ve all been patiently waiting for…

Loopykd is getting the 5 oz of hand dyed optim merino

Sandie Russo and Hanna each receive a skein of Tofutsies sock yarn

Sara is getting a $5 Diva Knitting gift certificate

And the “grand” prize of a Namaste Newport Bag goes to PlazaJen If you’re one of the winners, please send me your mailing address using the contact form.

I haven’t gotten *any* knitting done (WHAT??????) I know.  Pitiful.  But there has been sewing!  I have to admit I’m a little disappointed with my new fancy machine.  It has already gone back to the shop for a problem (I just bought it May 11ish) and it’s not handling the multiple layers of jean material very well.  I’ll have to do a little research to see if most people are able to sew jeans fairly easy or if this is a common issue (yes, I’m using a brand new jean needle).  As for the jeans themselves, they’re coming along.  I’m using Jalie 2908…many of the women on the jean sew along recommend it as a great modern looking pattern.  After I saw the pictures at Erica B’s blog I knew this was “the one”!  I’m using  Gutermann top-stitch thread in color 561 and the pocket embroidery pattern is here done with Metro embroidery thread in a coordinating color.  Unfortunately, I ran out of the top-stitch thread (maybe because I had to rip so %&*#! much) so progress is at a stand still until I can get more.  I’m going to try to coerce Jim into a field trip tonight for dinner and thread.