Ruchey Goodness Tutorial

If there are any fellow sewers out there who actually wanted to try out the ruchey goodness shirt, I have made a tutorial for you! Here are the following steps.

Remove original neckband (if you want to reuse it, seam rip it and set it aside)

Fold front of shirt in half, mark the distance from the fold of how much you want to take out (I removed 3 inches from the centre, 6 in total)

You can either leave the middle section folded, or unfold it like I did.  You will use this piece as a template for your new section.

Take your middle piece and lay it down on the other piece of fabric that will become your new middle piece. Add once inch around the side and the top (for seam allowance)  I added 20 inches from the bottom of the original hem.  Add as much or as little as you want for desired ruching effect.

Now gather the fabric.  I gathered mine by basting, and then hand gathering. 

Pin the right sides together of the new middle piece and the front sides.

Pin your neckband to the shirt. I have also re-hemmed the bottom and taken the sleeves up

Once you are all hemmed up, you are finished, voila!!

Yea, I hate taking my own picture, that is why I am wearing those glasses.

Ruchey goodness

I have been in love with a certain top from Rickis, but since I am not in Canada, and don't feel like paying a ton of money for the shirt, plus shipping, I decided to DIY.

The shirt in question that I am trying to recreate

Forgot to take a before picture of the original top, but this is the same shirt in black.

The end result

It didn't turn out exactly like the shirt, I should have added more length to the grey section so it gathered a lot more, and also should have made it less wide.  I will still wear it, but I am trying it again with the black shirt as we speak.

Green Stripe Goodness

This shirt started out originally as a mens Large shirt.  I bought it from Old navy a while ago because it was green and stripey and I couldn't resist it.

Ignore the mess behind my mannequin, this is sort of the "catch all room".

It looks un-even, but trust me it's just the mannequin

I cut off the original neckline, dug through my scraps and found a dark emerald green that matched the green stripes on the shirt.

Elastic on the sleeves

I didn't end up cutting any length off the sleeves because I wanted to do that "elastic sleeve" look.  I found the middle of the sleeve and ran elastic from the bottom of the sleeve to the shoulder to make it look gathered.

The top ended up looking just the way I wanted, and it didn't take much effort since I didn't do much hemming of the shirt.

Hello new Toy....

Whenever I hear "toy shopping" I always imagine walking down the aisles of Target, looking at Thomas the Tank engines, or going to the Disney store, because frankly, I enjoy the Disney store as much as my kids do.  I don't spoil my kids rotten, and don't buy them toys all the time, I wish I could, but then what kind of example would I set?

Sorry, off topic, back on track, My hubby has been listening to me rant and rave for the last 5 months about how much I hate my sewing machine and how I want to throw it out a window, or set it on fire.  He either A)got tired of listening to it or B) saw the frustration I was feeling, because I asked on friday if I could get a new one and he agreed.
It's not my "dream machine" exactly, I would LOVE an embroidery machine, but that requires quite a lot of money, so it is out of the cards.....at least for a few years.  I did however find a beautiful machine that will meet all my needs, plus needs I didn't even know I had!

Meet my new toy, I haven't named her yet, but she is becoming fast friends with my serger.

Ignore the water bottle, shes a camera whore.

It's a Husqvarna Viking - Emerald 183.  What does that name mean? Well, I'm not sure, but it sure sounds fancy.  It has a bajillion more stitches than my old one, and some of those stitches include the Alphabet.  It also has several more presser feet than my old one, which is a bonus.  I have used it a few times for sewing and it's quiet and it sews like a dream.  I still have to read the manual to learn all of it's functions, the manual itself is 44 pages Small print, small pictures.  My last one was probably 20 pages, big print, and lots of pictures.   I still have so much to learn about this machine, but I'm so excited to try out different projects on it!!!

Blue Polka Dots

I think if I sew during nap time I could possibly get one dress or top or skirt done a week.  It might take me a while to bust through my stash but it seems like now that Ms.Baby takes longer naps I am able to do more.

I have had this skirt pattern on my -to sew- list for a while now (since before Ms.Baby came along).  

This is the skirt pattern cover

My finished product

The fabric for this skirt is a weird texture, sort of stiff, not very flowy, but I had enough of it that I wanted to try this skirt.  I think I will try making this skirt again, but next time I am going to use lighter weight material.  Until then I will be happy with the fact that I am finally able to start and  finish making my own clothes.

Eyelet Skirt

I better write quick before the children wake up, heh heh heh.

So I am slowly (and I mean slooooowly) busting through my fabric stash.  I seem to hit a wall whenever I go to sew something.  I either have the pattern, but not the fabric, or I have the fabric but them hem and haw over what to do with it.

This was the skirt that almost wasn't.....
My mom bought this black eyelet material for my sister about 6 years ago, she was supposed to make a graduation dress out of it.  She ended up buying a dress and I snatched up the material quickly.  There was quite a bit of it, so I used most of it to make a dress for a wedding I went to.  I found the rest of it on Monday, and was about to cut it into a top, but stopped and decided that I wanted a pretty skirt.  Because it is eyelet it is see through, so I found some other unused material in there and cut it into skirt lining.  I think it turned out better than I had hoped it would, and I will be wearing it out soon (date night perhaps?).

The first picture came out really dark because the flash was on, but it focused on a white bag that I cropped out.

 This is the skirt with the flash actually working.  I like the end result, even if it took a few days.

I should also mention that I just about killed my sewing machine a few weeks ago.  I had been messing with the tension, and then it just wouldnt work.  It took about a week of sewing, and yelling, and messing with the tension to get it back to "normal".  It will at least sew 2 pieces of cloth together now without unthreading completely.
Looks like its time to start saving for my "dream machine".

White Butterfly Top

I call this my Butterfly top because the sleeves are flowy, and remind me of wings.  I started this top about 3 years ago, I hated the sleeves, the shirt was too big and I kept taking it in and taking it in until it fit.  Then I tried to take the sleeves in to make them not so flowy.  I hated how it all turned out so I threw it in my pile of -works in progress-.  After I found it I couldnt figure out why I hated it so much, and after I saw what I had done to the sleeves I undid all the stitching and realised I loved the butterfly wing sleeves.  I added a band to the bottom of the shirt like I do with all of my tops so it would add length and I wouldnt have to hem it.
Yay.
Here is the top...

 Before

After