Where am I and what am I doing?

If you do for some reason follow this blog (there are 7 of you I believe), you may wonder, where are you? what are you working on? why even bother having a sewing blog if you aren't going to write in it?

Well I can answer all of these questions.

Where am I?
 I am at home, sewing.  Mostly for others, I have been experiencing "sew-ers block" if you will.  Everytime I walk into the sewing room all I do is look at patterns and touch fabrics, and think about what I would LIKE to sew, but then have to find material to go with that pattern.  You know the story "if you give a mouse a cookie"? That's my sewing habit. I sewed a pair of shorts for my son, and then 2 pairs for my daughter (so she can wear skirts but not show off her diaper)  I have been fixing my friends clothes, and cloth diapers.  After that I started on this....

What are you working on?
My friend asked me if I could sew her a t-shirt quilt, I said yes, because I've always wanted to sew one, but was too afraid.  The opportunity came up to work on one that isn't for me, so the pressure was off me to figure out what I wanted to do.  While it is slightly stressful to not screw it up she also said she doesn't care as long as it gets done (because she couldn't do it).  So when the front is all sewn up I will take another picture to post my progress, and eventually the "end result".

why even bother having a sewing blog if you aren't going to write in it?

Shut up, that's why.  Just kidding, I am the worst for updating my blogs, and even I still don't know how to internet properly.  Maybe someday I will have a fabulous blog like all the other crafty ladies out there.

Butterick 5497

Before I actually bought this pattern, I kept hesitating on it.  I would pick it up, have it in my cart and then put it back.  I really didnt think it would look good after being sewn up, finally one day I decided to bite the bullet and buy it because it was on sale.
I also googled it to see other peoples versions of the patterns and they all looked awesome so I figured I would give it a shot.

 The top is loose but the gathering looks nice and is quite flattering.  I cant wait to actually wear it out somewhere.

I loved the back of this shirt, I will have to wear it with a tank top as the low back shows off bras.

I used some spare black material I had, I wanted to make sure that I actually liked the style before I tried making it with some of my good fabric.
And....fin.

Finished Colour Block Shirt (with sleeves)

I know the pictures to this are sort of terrible, but since losing my "sewing area" and now sharing it with my hubbys office, it's cramed quarters, and nowhere to take pictures. So here it goes.

Here is the front section cut out but not sewn together.  I decided to put my purple colour in the middle to break up the blue/green I had going on

 Here is the top sewn together (but not pressed).  At this point it was that I realised that I made a good choice in the colour scheme (and happy I had to use brown instead of navy blue material). 

 

 Next I cut out sleeves.  I sort of "franken-patterned" this top.  I dug into my pattern stash and grabbed the first one that I saw had sleeves I had sewn before. Simplicity 4076 (which is apparently still in print)

I cut out the back and the sleeve at the same time.

 Sewed the shoulders together

 Then sewed on the sleeves (after that I forgot to take pictures).  I sewed up the side seams, and hemmed the bottom of the shirt with a twin needle.

I ended up cutting out bands to go around the sleeves because they weren't long enough, as well as making a make-shift neckband for the collar of my shirt. It doesn't look "perfect" on the dummy, but I am really happy with how it turned out.  however I really do need to get my serger in to be looked at, it's not running like it should be.

A tutorial of sorts...

I had a commenter on my blog ask me for a tutorial of my "colour block top".  I said I would get it on my blog soon, and then I took too long, and for that I am sorry.  I still haven't created a top with sleeves, and this is why

 I cannot get past the 3 colours and what to pair them with.  I wanted navy blue but couldn't find the type of jersey knit I wanted in navy blue.  I settled on brown, but I'm not sure about all 3 colours with brown, and I don't want to do another black top.
Instead I will show everyone what I did.  First I started with this pattern Simplicity 4699 (it is out of print).  But you could use any t-shirt pattern (for jersey knits) that you would like

 I traced view A

Then I cut it into 5 different sections (I made sure I labeled them so I wouldn't screw it up)

 

I had also added length to the front of the shirt, so I made sure to add it to the back as well.

Once I figure out my colour scheme I will post a proper tutorial, and I do apologize for the lack of explanation.
I'm so sorry.
Worst.Sewing.Blogger.Ever.

Cambie dress *almost done*

Wow, it's been over a month since I updated.  In between moving and having 2 kids who now share a room and have messed up their sleep times and slowly trying to find all my sewing stuff I just haven't found the time to sit down and sew.
When I did have the time I would procrastinate and just not do it ie- "Oh hey there are other things that need to be done, this couch isn't going to sit on itself now".

The Hubby pushed me several times to get in there and sew, and thankfully I did that.  It's not completely done (it needs to be iron, and hemmed), but it's almost wearable.

Hands in Pockets (to show off the pockets)

No hands in pockets

I am going to do one more "dummy" dress- in View B (the view I am actually planning on wearing in my friends wedding).  I might also try to change the neckline (getting rid of the sweetheart neckline).  View B has a gathered skirt, so I might also try to omit the pockets as well.  One last alteration is I might change the zipper placement to the side.  I cannot zip this dress up by myself when the zipper is in the back.
The only fit problem I am having is the portion between the bodice and skirt.  It's tight fitting so I will need to make adjustments there as well.

Cambie dress (cont....)

Well I've reach the part of sewing that I hate, ZIPPERS!!! I hate them so much, with a passion, and I try to avoid them whenever possible.  My Cambie dress pattern requires a DUN DUN DUNNNNNNN "INVISIBLE ZIPPER".  My least favourite word in zipper history.  I have never sewn with an invisible zipper before, so there was so much unknown to me.  First off, I need a whole other zipper for to install one.  Secondly, how am I going to find an Invisible Zipper at the fabric store, it's um...Invisible, duh?!?.  Just kidding, I'm not an idiot.
I got the zipper, got the sewing foot.  Misplaced the zipper, bought a new one, found the original after I bought the second one *grrrr* and I was on my way.

Oh, also, according to the internet, you need to "iron your invisible zipper down to get as close to the teeth as possible".
Ok, I did that too.
You know what, I will let the photos speak for themselves.

The back of the dress, do you see anything?

I don't see anything, but my seams are lined up.

BAM, THE ZIPPER WAS IN THE DRESS THE WHOLE TIME!

So, It took me 2 tries (I didn't get the seams lined up right the first time), but it wasn't horrible at all, and it looks really good.  So I am almost on my way to being finished.  HOORAY!

My future Cambie Dress

This is the back of the dress (sans Zipper).  Don't worry, the back will get sewn up eventually

Front of the dress.  I have yet to sew the lining on, so the straps on properly on their either

A close up of the fabric I used.  A teeny tiny sequins sits in the middle of all the flowers.

Booyah, I actually kept my promise (but I almost forgot at the same time).  I have made a skirt out of this fabric previously, but had enough to cut out View A of the Cambie dress.  I still have to have a crack at View B, but first I must finish this dress.  The lining of the dress is a bright magenta because I had a shit ton of it lying around, so why not?
Next, I have to get an invisible zipper foot for my machine, and then I will sew in the zipper, after that comes the lining, and then hemming the dress, aaaaand we're done after that.

The cambie Dress.

Le Sigh, still not sewing as much as I would like to, but on the plus side I have started cutting out my mock up Cambie dress for my friends wedding. I will take pictures for my blog tomorrow, but it is still just chilling on my Judy.  Firstly I need an invisible zipper foot to sew in my magical zipper (ugh, zippers no thanks please).  I've been reading up on hand-picking zippers, but I think at the end result the invisible zipper is the way to go.
That's my update for now, until tommorrow, when hopefully my slacker self get the pictures up.

My ReSEWlutions

Ah here we are, 4 days into the New Year, and I have not even written on EITHER of my blogs for a long time.  I know I said one of my resolutions this year would be to Sew more, and write on this blog more.  So I really need to stop slacking.  I started thinking this morning "Ok, you want to sew more, but what to you want to sew more of?".  It hit me that, much like writers block, I get sew-ers block.  I will sit down and be ready to sew something and then think F#*%, what do I want to sew?  I spend about a half hour humming and hawing and then before I know it, the babies are up from their naps.
Mind you my work-out schedule is about to change so I can probably sew more after hours if I get home from the gym by 7pm and not 9pm.  I need to start a list of things I want to sew and maybe the block won't seem so hards when it comes time to sit down and focus on my task at hand.
So here are things I want to get accomplished this year.

• Finish at least one UFO a month (I know it seems like a small task, but in the bigger picture, I have a ton of fabric that needs to get sewn)
• Make a mock up dress for my friends wedding (to see if the dress is appropriate attire for a bridesmaid to wear).
• Sew a skirt that I will actually wear out in public
•  Sew a shirt with more structure (vs. a jersey knit t-shirt)
• Start sewing "gift bags", and using scrap material as ribbon so I have them on hand for birthday parties for quick wrapping duties.
• Only buy patterns that I know I can and will use more than once
• Keep interfacing on hand at all times
• Focus more on sewing a garment properly than how quickly I can sew it.
• Learn more about my measurements and how to read a pattern and correctly cut out the right size

• Blog both my successes and failures in sewing (because it might appear that I'm not sewing, but I am. I'm just not proud of all of them)

So, there it is, my shortlist of things that I would like to achieve in the sewing world this year.