Wow, Really? A Year?

Sunday is my first anniversary, and I can hardly believe that it has been a year!


Yes, we had a ridiculously large wedding party. That's what happens when you have your first wedding in your mid-thirties. You have had decades to make friends, and it is impossible to narrow them down!


The bridesmaids were good sports, and willing to shiver in the cold:


The boys were huddling in the bus (no limo for us, we had to have a whole bus!!). At least the ladies were up to just about anything the photographers wanted to do:


Since we got married in February, we decided to have a Mardi Gras theme, complete with Dixieland band:


This is what happens when you give bridesmaids unlimited access to the hurricanes:


This Sunday we will be celebrating by thawing out the top layer of the cake and having my family over to help us eat it. I hope that everyone has a Happy Valentines Day, or a fantastic Mardi Gras, whichever you decide to celebrate...or celebrate both!

Vogue 1127 Jacket: Finished!

I finished the Vogue 1127 jacket, and am ready to move on to the skirt and shell. The jacket itself was not a difficult project, although I did make some changes to it. For example, the pattern as originally drafted, instructed you to only line the sleeves. First, I thought this odd for a Vogue designer pattern, but because I was using a fairly loosely-woven boucle, I knew I wanted a full lining.

To draft the lining, I just used the jacket pattern pieces, minus the facing, and plus seam allowances. I just sewed it according to the same instructions as the jacket shell, and then attached it to the front facing. I had a bit of a problem finding an appropriate color lining, but finally settled on this yellow:


Here is the finished jacket:


I found two issues with the jacket. The overall length is very short, and the sleeves are very wide and long. The sleeves ended up needing a 2 1/4 inch hem, and are still rather wide, but I left it that way in case I wanted to wear a sweater underneath the jacket.

The length is an interesting issue. It is difficult to see the length in the photo, as the model is hunching over:


And of course there is no scale on the line drawing, although the skirt image does include a dotted line indicating the waist:


I purchased these copper colored buttons for the jacket:


But upon doing a few test buttonholes on scraps, found that I was not happy with the results. The mechanical buttonholer had problems moving the thick fabric around, and my handmade buttonholes are a disgrace. So, I scrapped the buttonholes, sewed the buttons on the outside of the jacket, and added snaps:


If I ever get better at handworked buttonholes, I can always cut off the snaps and redo everything. But for now, I just want to wear the darn jacket!

My Blog-Friends are Awesome!

How cool is this?? A great blog-friend of mine, Skitzo Leezra sent me stuff! A GORGEOUS cream suiting with navy stripes:


Can't you just see it as a pencil skirt? With a navy blazer with piping? Oh-so-very nautical!!

You must go check out Leezra's blog, she has the most awesome ideas for organizing, craft projects, sewing projects, jewelry....one of my favorites is this necktie flower....add a pin and use it as a brooch! After reading that blog post, I immediately hit the goodwill in search of neckties!! You can use the ends for your brooch, and I read in another blog that you can use the interfacing inside neckties for sleeve heads.

But, the fact that Leezra would send me this awesome fabric brings me to another point...isn't the internet a wonderful thing?? I know that among my friends and colleagues, that I am the only person that sews. But, out here in the "virtual" world, I am one of many. And I have been able to make friends with so many people with so much information to offer.

Thanks to the resources and experiences that people post out here on blogs, on places like Pattern Review, Craftster, and Stitcher's Guild, I have seen examples of amazing creativity and received support from so many people which has resulted in advancing my skills.

Before I found these places, I was content to simply follow pattern instructions, and turn out the occasional interesting garment. But now....I have been encouraged to make significant alterations, draft my own patterns, venture into the world of vintage patterns, franken-pattern, and I have started collecting (and even repairing!) vintage machines.

I can honestly say that my sewing skills have leapt forward thanks to these resources, and incredible levels of creativity out there. And I would like to thank everyone (and especially Leezra, who gives me stuff!!) for their encouragement, even when they might not know that they have provided their resources to a faithful lurker!

And don't forget, check out Leezra'a blog!!

In other news, I spent way too much money at the fabric store today. Wait...that's not news! That's just a Saturday! Anyway, I went to one of our nicer, independent stores looking for buttons for my jacket-in-progress. They were $4.00 apiece, but I found some really nice buttons for the jacket. They are flat copper/glittery with a slight texture:


Since I got the boucle at the $1.95 a yard sale at Fabric.com, the buttons actually cost MORE than the entire rest of the jacket!! I also needed to get some small, round buttons for the back of the neck on the shell. I found these apricot-color pearls. They are lying on top of the silk, which I washed and it now has a wonderful drape and the iridescence is not so pronounced:


Even though the store that I went to largely caters to quilters and home dec, they also have a small section of apparel fabric, and luck! I found stretch denim in a color that I really liked, and at only $6.00 a yard, is comparable to the prices at Fabric.com and Fashion Fabric Club (neither of which have stretch denim in stock right now):


Now I can make my Jalie jeans! And everyone knows that I can never pass up the sale table. I found this eyelet with black embroidery for just $4.00 a yard:


Overall, a good day's work! Now I need to do some sample buttonholes before attacking the jacket.

Homemade Valentines

I have a bunch of really great girlfriends. We talk by email every day, we IM, and whenever we have a chance we get together, either traveling to each others cities, or all getting together someplace in between. I can honestly say that these ladies are my best friends, so much so that all but one of my bridesmaids was from this group:


This year, they had the idea that we should all send each other valentines...and that all the valentines should be handmade.

Now, contrary to what my obsession with sewing might indicate, I am NOT a crafty person. I can't draw. Glitter is just an invitation for me to make a gigantic mess. I don't do needlework, because I have no patience. Knitting...let's not even start. I made a scarf once. Even my mother...who thinks that everything I do is fantastic...won't wear it.

So, I needed to find a way to make SEWN valentines. I looked around online and found this tea wallet tutorial. I decided that I would use heart-motif fabric, and fill it with whatever kind of tea came in pink packages!

Here are the finished products:


Each one has the heart fabric on the outside:


And solid pink on the inside:


I used a pink ribbon and pearly plastic button for the closure:


Each one got loaded up with 4 flavors of tea, including English breakfast, white tea, raspberry, and cinnamon:


Here it is, loaded up and ready to go:


I figured that if they were tea drinkers, the could make sure that they always had their favorite flavors with them. Or, they can use it for their metro card or as a tiny wallet for those events that require a tiny, sparkly purse.

In other news, I finished the shell for my jacket:


Now the lining is done, the shell is done, and I need to finish the collar and insert the lining. The sleeves are going to have a HUGE hem in them. They are super-long, as well as wide. Plenty of room for my chubby little arms in this jacket! Right now, the shell is feeling really "sweatery," but I hope that once the collar goes on that it will give it a more formal look.

I hope to get some more work done on it this weekend!

Vogue 1127, Continued

After finishing my first version of the Vogue 1127 skirt, I decided that I was ready to go ahead and cut out the fabric for my suit. I purchased an orange/gold silk for the shell and a yellow lining for the jacket and skirt to go with the cobalt boucle:


Yesterday and today I finished cutting out the suit fabric and the lining, and today I sewed the lining for the jacket together. Reading through the pattern instructions, I found that they direct you only to line the sleeves of the jacket, and then make binding from the lining for the remainder of the exposed seams. I was not entirely happy with this. I thought that it was silly to go through the trouble of making a lining and then only putting it in the sleeves. So, I decided that I would draft a full lining for the jacket.

It was not difficult, all I did was lay the facing pieces on the jacket front and back and draw their edges directly onto the jacket pieces. I then re-traced the front and back pieces, adding a 5/8 inch seam allowance to the line I drew indicating the edge of the facing.

Here is the finished jacket lining:


The next issue is to deal with is the collar. According to the pattern image, the collar is upright:


The instructions indicate that both sides of the collar should be interfaced, but I am not positive that given the weight of the fabric that the interfacing that I have will hold the collar up like that. I am considering using a lightweight hair canvas that I have leftover from another project. I have a ton of the boucle, I may cut a few collars and put them together with different interfacings to determine which is the best for this project.

I also need to select buttons for the jacket, but I may wait and take the entire jacket to the fabric store, rather than just a swatch. Given all the effort that I am putting into the suit, I don't want to slap any old plastic buttons on it. I am also considering skipping the buttons and doing large snaps instead. But, that is a question for another day. More later...I hope to get the jacket shell done tomorrow.

Vogue 1127: "Test Run"

Since I recently purchased a huge amount of the cobalt boucle at the last Fabric.com $1.95 sale, I have decided that I would like to use it to make a suit...specifically Vogue 1127, a Badgley Mischka suit with raglan sleeve jacket and pencil skirt.


Because the skirt is closely fitted, I decided to give it a "test run" before cutting into my boucle. I had a length of sage and black herringbone wool that I had gotten from Fashion Fabrics Club many, many months ago, and decided that this would be a good skirt for that. Most of the other narrow skirt patterns that I own have multiple panels, and I decided that would just be too much of a pain trying to match the pattern:


Since the front of the skirt is a single piece, and the back has only two and two small darts at the waist, I thought that this would interfere the least with the pattern on the fabric. Here you can see my questionable pattern matching on the back:


This skirt is also very short. They are not kidding when they say "2 inches above mid-knee." Since I am 5'6", pretty much the height that patterns are drafted for, the skirt did hit above the knee. The waistband, as per the description, also sits below the natural waist:


The skirt is also fully lined, although the instructions for the lining were a bit odd. The directions indicate that you should make a binding out of the lining fabric and apply this to the bottom edge of the facing. I have done this before, for example, when I lined the cape that I made recently:


I decided not to use their instructions, but to trim down the top of the lining and sew it directly to the bottom edge of the facing:


I also attached the lining to the vent, per the pattern instructions. Unfortunately, I am a terrible hand-sewer, and it looks like my 12-year-old niece did the work...It's not pretty:


Overall, I am quite happy with the results, but this "muslin" did reveal a couple of changes that I want to make to the second version. First, I want to lengthen the skirt by three inches, so that it will hit just below the knee. I will also peg it a bit more. Second, according to the finished garment measurements, cutting a size 20 would give me 1 inch of ease in the waist and no ease at all in the hips. Based on this, I cut a 20, and added an additional inch to the hips. However, when I put the skirt on after it was finished, It was definitely loser than I typically like:


There is too much ease at the hips, and the waist is too loose. This tells me either a) I lost weight in the 20 hours that passed since I measured myself or b) I am just really bad at measuring myself or c) I am a bit skanky and really like tight clothes. Since option a is unlikely in the extreme, I'm going to go with both b and c, since either are equally likely. So, when I make the final version, I will cut an 18, grading out to a 20 at the hips.

All in all, I am pleased with the finished results. I can easily go back and take in the hips a bit, that is a simple fix. I think it will be a nice option for work, either with a jacket or without.

Alteration-Induced Migraine

Since Sunday I have been working on Burda Style 12-2009-116, a pair of cargo trousers in cotton twill. Technically, these are my muslin, because I had NO IDEA how to go about making alterations to these pants. In fact, I am pretty sure that just thinking about it gave me a migraine. I normally don't have trouble making pants alterations, but these had crazy seams going in every different direction:

The back pant piece is split into two pieces, and then wraps around the side of the leg. Here is a quickie drawing of what the pieces look like, and in their relative locations with the pockets marked:


Normally, the alterations that I make in pants are as follows:

• Extend crotch curve to accommodate additional "thickness" in body
• Add wedge to raise back of pants, keeping the underpants hidden
  
• Taper towards waist, to prevent waistband from gaping
  
• Add 2 additional inches of width to back leg, tapering to 1 inch at waist

I'm getting pretty good at these alterations, but in these pants??? I had no idea where to start. To start, I used my TNT Burda pants to retrace the crotch curves. I then added the additional width that I needed on the back leg at the seam that split the back leg vertically. I also split the back yoke and added tissue there, and then re-drew the curve on the bottom edge. I also added width to the back waistband. Fortunately, this pant already had a contour waist, so no need to change that.

Then I forged ahead....and found that side seam pockets are NOT my friend. The Hot Patterns Marrakesh pant lulled me into a false sense of security (because those turned out so awesome) and made me think that in spite of the fact that I am a fluffy girl that I can wear side-seam pockets. WRONG!! And I spent so much time on those pockets, too. They gaped terribly when I tried the pants on for fitting.

I also sewed the pockets on the legs totally flat, rather than making "bellows pockets" as instructed. I kept the pleat on the front, for appearances, but then sewed it down to reduce bulk. I have chubby legs already, I don't need giant expandable pockets tacked to each thigh to draw people's attention to it...you know, in case they didn't notice.

I started by switching the pocket flap to the back rather than the front, so that I could button the pockets shut (I ran out of khaki twill so used a funny print for the pocket lining and waistband):


But, no dice. The pockets still gaped terribly. So, I sewed them shut! But, I left the pocket bags there, so you know...when I lose weight I can open them back up (yeah, right!):


I have to say, that these pants took FOREVER to make, partly because of how long I sat and stared at them blankly trying to decide how to alter the pattern, but also because of all the topstitching. You do have to be careful bringing the pieces together, so that the seams match. Here is the back yoke:


And here is the front. The yoke seams have to be matched across the fly, so make sure you baste that zipper! You can see that I managed to match the yoke seam, but somewhere lost my ability to use the seam allowance guide, because the waistband doesn't match:


In the end, I am probably 75% happy with these pants. They are REALLY comfortable. Because of all the topstitcing, you can easily justify machine hemming. The pockets bug me, but that was my fault for ignoring what I KNOW to be true about the kinds of clothes I can wear and the kinds I can't. And the fit is nearly there. I usually have issues with the back, and get creases under the buttocks, hence the reason that I have to add to the crotch extension and the additional width across the back pant leg. Here are the pants from the back:


Considering that I had NO CLUE how to alter those given the seams going in a million different directions, I can definitely say "not bad." It could be better, but the seam down the back leg are vertical, as are the side seams:


But, since these are a casual pant, meant to be "slouchy," I'm not sure how much I want to mess with the fit, considering they are currently comfortable, and don't make me look fatter...which is always a key consideration for pants!


I may give these pants another go...you know, after the migraine fades. There is a second version in the December issue, this one made without the bellows pockets, and the pockets switched to open as welts in the seam between the pant front and the front yoke:

In the magazine, they made these to be more of a dress pant, which might be another option if I want to go back to working on fit:


I would certainly recommend these pants to a sewist who doesn't mind the repetitive top-stitching. If you think jeans are the most awesome thing ever to sew...you'll probably like these just fine! However, I would not recommend this pattern for someone who is not very, very familiar with sewing pants. I have done dozens of pants, and I really was stumped by the alterations on these. There were a couple of times that I just had to walk away from them for a while.

Also, the Burda instructions are completely useless...so if you don't already know how to assemble a yoked pant, they won't help you for more than order of assembly.

If I haven't scared you away....then make these pants. They are a good option for the fluffy girl who likes the look of a cargo pant, but doesn't want to look like they accidentally left the house in their husband's pants. So many RTW cargos have drawstrings, or are deliberately made to be huge and droopy...not a good option for those of us who want to look LESS fluffy, not more. As I said before, I'm about 75% happy with these pants...which means I'll certainly wear them! Overall, not bad for a muslin.