McCalls 7127 (altered)

So I never post here, as you can tell by my numerous *sorry I never post* blogs.  I have been sewing, I usually have to time it, I practice my routines, get my sets built and whatever time I have leftover becomes focus on sewing.
I have sewed McCalls 7127 several times, I have sewed it enough that I bought the pattern 2 more times. I can cut and sew it within 2-3 hours (depending on the back I chose). I decided to do something a little different this time around. I traced the pattern and then cut out a front panel.

The middle panel of fabric was one that I had previously used to make view A of this pattern (go figure).  This time I was making view B. The only other difference in the top is I used spare material to bind the back rather than making a 5/8" hem.

 The front half of the shirt, Zinnia approves and needs attention.

The back half with the cutout and binding. ps-it's a white tank top not my bra.

Someday I would like to post the other incarnations of this top, if I can get a good hair day.

The dress that almost wasn't, but then was.

This starts out as a happy tale, that gets sad, and then happy again.
So My hubby tells me we are invited to a Margarita Ball, which was an invite only-black tie event. I have never been, but my first thought was "crap now I have to get dolled up". I immediately went pattern shopping and gave myself a few to choose from. Well Halloween rolled around so I couldn't start the dress until after that, but eventually I chose simplicity 1415. I picked view B, but did it without sleeves, and chose a stretchy blue taffeta with a navy blue chiffon overlay. I measured myself and cut out the right size...or so I thought. All through the sewing I would try the dress on, but because the zipper wasn't in yet, I couldn't tell how much the dress wasn't actually fitting. I finally get to that last step and lo and behold, it won't zip, it's too tight. I sat on the couched and sulked for the rest of the night, and immediately took it apart.
I bought another dress the next day, so I had a back up. I had 3 days before this ball and I had some determination, I took the skirt off the bodice, and unpicked the seams halfway up (and down on the skirt). I took out the pleats and the darts, and started to rebuild. Luckily I left a seam allowance and this is where I got lucky. I sewed about 1/4 of an inch (pretty much where the serger had stitched), and left the darts of the bodice. I also turned the pleats into gathers (pleats made my ass look bigger than it needed to). I sewed it back together, and put the zipper in, and holy shit, it fit.
I made the bow to hide the mess of the gathers at the waist, and then I was done.
I was able to wear it AND return the other dress (so, money saved there I guess!). Besides, I saw 2 other lovely ladies wearing the same dress, so I guess I was lucky there.

Anyway, here is the dress.

Whoops!

Last time I blogged about sewing was almost 2 YEARS ago.  Yikes. Needless to say I have been sewing, just have not been blogging, I have a lot of catching up to do.  First and foremost, I finished my friends quilt. That was about 2 weeks ago (whoops, slacker!!!)  I didn't take a picture of it myself, so the one I am posting is from her facebook page.
The hesitation to finish it came from it not being "perfect".  I would work on it for a few days, get bored, move on, etc.  Then it came time to top stitch it. I used a Twin Needle, which kept skipping, which was annoying. So I had a choice, keep sewing with it or stop.  I stopped.  Then in October I bought a Coverstitch Machine (oh how I have always wanted one).  It solved the problem of skipping stitches and finally gave it the look I was hoping for.  The next snag was when I layed everything down to stitch the back to the front.  It was wonky, not even, I wanted to cry.  I texted my friend and she said "don't worry about it, I wouldn't have done any of this, even If i had been given 2 years".  So I sew it together.

So there it is, the finished quilt in its glory.  I learned a LOT from this.  Even though it wasn't perfect, my friend loved it, and that's what mattered the most.
I have started saving all the cute shirts my kids wear and those will eventually be turned into quilts, now that I know what is possible.

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.

Another UFO finished.

I have finally finished a top that I previously blogged about.  The original top, even though unfinished was supposed to look like this

so smiley and happy and yellow that day.

 I decided that there was nothing redeeming about the top as it was so I changed it, only slightly.  You can't see it in the top picture but there was a white band that was suppose to go on the bottom.  It wasn't cute.  The shirt was too long and the white band just made it worse.
I took that off.  I also took off the white neckband and traded it for grey (the stars on the shirt are silver, so why not?).  I liked the crossed over look but it never sat right on me so I turned the shirt backwards, and created a scoopneck top instead.

Here is the back.

It's still a bit tight, but it's not as horrible as the top photo.  I will actually wear this out in public when the time is right....

Argyle Scoopneck

I ordered this Argyle fabric about 2 years ago from Mood Fabrics (I had a groupon).  I had been hesitating about what to make, and then I realised that the longer I hold on to this fabric, the more I will fret about what to make.  There is no perfect and ideal pattern for every single piece of fabric I buy and I always find myself hesitating to cut because I worry that there might be a better pattern down the line.  I finally decided "screw it" started cutting.

The pattern is from a previously loved top that I was no longer wearing.  I took it apart, traced it and viola!  The front is the argyle pattern and the sleeves and back is dark purple.

Somehow I was able to sew most of it during naptime, if it had not been for my machine acting up I would have finished all of it during naptime.

Quick "weight loss" fit

I bought this top online about 2 months ago from Rickis (damn I love that store), and I had a size large, colour purple sitting in my online shopping cart.  Well, Rickis played a cruel cruel joke on me, and when I checked out they said "oh, hey BTW the shirt colour and size you wanted are gone, your option is a XXL in grey/black".  I really liked the shirt, and it was a good deal, so I said "Since we are SUCH good friends, I WILL buy this shirt and I will take it in.

Without further ado, here is the before and after.

Before - big boxy, and shapeless

Oh hey, my "unimpressed face"

 After-fitted, and still long enough to suit me.

Oh, even better, my "pretend to smile" face

It was fairly quick, and I think in the end I took about 4-5 inches on each side, BAM.  The arms might not be completely matched underneath, but no one will be checking up in my business so it's ok.

This shirt needs more fedora....

As I've said before, I hate taking pictures for this blog, but using my "judy" isn't as fun because the tops I make look weird on it. I decided that my shirt needed more Fedora.

I started this shirt about 2 years ago, but then I got preggers and stopped working on it.

The  material itself is really thick/heavy, and super stretchy, so it took a few tries of taking it in to get it just right, The shoulders are supposed to have pleats throughout the sleeve I said "screw that" and just did one big pleat at the top shoulder seam.

I might make this top again but next time I will use a lighter-weight material, and figure out a way to just omit the pleats from the shoulder.

This was the pattern I used Simplicity 2283, view C (can't post a picture because it won't let me save it, boooo)

Colour Block tank top (Rickis knockoff)

I found this top yesterday off of http://www.rickis.com/by-category/tops/spliced-tank/prod1069ED76484.html and immediately thought "yea I can make that", so I did.

I found a tank top pattern in my stash that I liked, traced it, and cut it into 5 pieces.  I made sure to add a seam allowance to all pieces and I labeled them to make sure I put them back together correctly.
This is one of The easier shirts I have made, and I am really proud of how it turned out.  I plan on making another one, in different colours.

I might retrace the pattern and make the cut-outs smaller, but either way, I will be wearing this one, possibly a lot.

Star Shirt, Cut out Back

I have been busy sewing, that is why I haven't been busy blogging, I am going to post 2 different tops I've actually finished sewing and I've worn out in public (not just in the house)

I had a very minimal amount of this fabric left so I had to improvise.  I cut out as much as I could of the fabric and then use black and white fabric to compensate for the sleeves and the bottom band.

The top that I was used as a pattern was one that I loved but it just didn't fit right (too tight, and too short), I traced the top and used it as a draft pattern..

Win/Lose, Fail/Success

I had about 10 white leftover from Superman that I planned on using for Gem, but I decided that I didn't want them to be white anymore (well they were already yellow and gross anyway).  I have been aching to tie-dye for week and weeks and finally got around to it.  I bought a bunch of Dollar store buckets and started mixing colours.  Little did I realise that Every colour was going to come out the same shade of Blue or Green.  The only "win" in this sitation was my purple/red combo I threw together.  At first it was mostly red, and the red for some reason came out all gloopy and didn't mix well.  Then I threw in more purple and avoided disaster.

The white onesie is the "before" shot.

  The purple tie-dyed onesies was supposed to be blue, but it looked awful, I threw it into the red/purple mix and it came out great.  Another thing I learned was - do NOT take off the elastics until you have rinsed everything in the washing machine.  All my colours ran together and made the tie-dyed look terrible.

Also, two of the onesies are the same colour, one was supposed to be ombre dyed, but again, that didn't work out.

Maybe I will try again later.

Owl Cards

Though this is not technically a sewing project it was something I made so I found it suitable to show on my blog!

I have been searching for birthday invites for Gems first birthday and shutterfly as well as others are going to cost $40+ for 20 invites.  I thought her picture on the invite would be cute, but then I realised that once my friends are done with the invites they might just toss them in the trash.  I don't want pictures and the address of Gem floating around in the world of trash so I decided to make them.

I found this blog post Owl Invitations and since this blogger so nicely included the template I decided that these invites would be the perfect ones for Gem.  I also have a ton of scrapbooking paper (I don't scrapbook, and yet people buy it for me) so the only money I put out for these invites were for the googly eyes and the envelopes to send them in.

Ok, sorry for the long spiel, here are the cards (they are all different)

I wasn't sure how I felt about a patterned bird and patterned body, but I am happy with how they turned out, now I can get them addressed and send them out.