Resurfacing

Well folks, it has been quite a while since I posted. I'm not sure why I am today, except that I just found a cool blog and they hadn't posted in a long time and I thought "how sad", then realized that I had done exactly the same thing!

So here is a post with a picture of my latest project in the works.

This is a locker hooked piece that I plan for a cushion cover (I think, maybe). The three crayons are there because this was for my yearly Spin In's crayon challenge. Everyone randomly picked 3 crayons from a bucket and had to make something with those three colours. You could use as little or as much of each colour as you liked and the three colours had to make up at least 60% of the final item.
I still have to add the blue for the sky but the rest all came out of my stash. I was pretty darn proud of that!

The other big project at the moment is below

That is our new cat Vex and her 3 little surprises.

Vex showed up in the backyard one day and after a while we assumed she had been abandoned. There was never a notice on any of the local FB pages nor were any flyers ever posted. 

We adopted her one night when we had a terrible storm (I couldn't leave her out in that!!!) and then realized about a month later that she was pregnant. Fortunately she only had three but it has been a HUGE learning curve for me and the family as no one has ever done new born kittens in our house. EVER! 

It has been great though and I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Now we just have to find homes for them when they are ready. 

I will try and keep posting and maybe catch up on some projects I have done in the past so there is some kind of record out there. 

Until then...ta ta for now!

The Prom dress - finished!

Well, I know I teased you all with a post that included the fact that I was making my eldest daughter's prom dress so here it is.

I used McCalls 6893 and some lovely fabric from Fabricland, with some ribbons for the straps.
The blue was a bit of a pain to sew but once I figured out what it needed (to be held taut while sewing) it went well.
There were a number of fittings to get the top correct and I did not add any boning as a) I've never done boning before and b) her bra already had some.
I also didn't do an invisible zipper as that's something else I've never done.

The top has about an inch more coverage than the original as neither my daughter nor I was happy with the amount of clevage showing. There were some adjustments for a full bust but I think I kind of did it backwards (taking in at the top and sides) rather than doing an FBA. Eh, it worked, who cares how! I also shortened the bodice (see previous post) and added that length to the skirt (which was needed) as a precation

Since it did take so much work and the fit is quite lovely now I'm taking the rest of the material used for the skirt muslin (a thrift store sheet that's really nice material)  and making her a white summer dress. Why waste a good fitting, right? I'll be adding pocket to the sundress version because everyone needs pockets!

Here's another picture of C and her beau B. Aren't they cute?

Can you be petite and not...at the same time?

It was a holiday weekend recently here and for me that means sewing!
I was working on two seperate projects but both of them led me to that above question.

The fist project is DD1's prom dress. Yes, I get to make her dress and honestly, I'm thrilled. A little scared, but thrilled.
Here's the pattern we're using, McCalls 6893 and here's a picture of the view we're working on.

 



 

At the same time I was working on a Tonic T from Skiin Bitch Curvy Chicks for myself.

 

 Now they are technically a company for petites and at 5'7" I shouldn't fit into that.

 

But!!

 



In the course of test fitting DDs dress and straight cutting (after comparing to t-shirts I already own)  I discovered that the best fit occured when I took out 3/4 of an inch from DD1s bodice and left my t-shirt alone. Even after knowing that others lengthened the t-shirt by up to 4"s.
(DD is only a wee bit shorter than I - 5'6")

My conclusion - neither of us are "regular" petites but we're probably both "top half petites". This is something that NEVER would have occured to me before but it's pretty hard to ignore and it sure explains why t-shirts can be very long on both of us.

Things that make you go Hmmmm

My next topic - different sizes front and back? LOL

Ta

OMG I made leggings!

Hello all, sorry for the radio silence lately. I have some posts partial written but 2013 just didn't seem like "the year of finishing posts" or something. LOL

Today though I have a doozy because I broke out of my comfort zone and made something I never would have thought I would or could! That's right I made leggings!

Now, let me say that I don't usually wear leggings (and never as pants, sorry I'm just too old fashioned and too big for that...plus I have a flat tush so they don't have a rear to accentuate lol) but I'm going to Quebec City next month on a field-trip with DD2 so I knew I needed some extra layers.

I was thinking about sweatpants (too bulky) or normal leggings (too thin) and then I came across some fleece lined tights. Now that sounded warm and not too bulky, but my first purchase was terrible. They weren't fleecy at all (which means a soft fuzzy inside to me) and they looked moth eaten when they were on!

My next thought was some fleece lined leggings I saw but I after my first purchase I was hesitant to spend that kind of money.
Then I saw some posts and happy reviews about Cake Patterns Espresso Leggings

and discovered that they were a) available in my size and b) totally customizable!!!  I thought...I have got to give these a try. So I bought the PDF off of the Etsy site and started doing some measuring.

This weekend I finally got around to cutting out and sewing the pattern I traced out and I am thrilled!

The leggings I made aren't 100% perfect but baby, they are sooooo close (98%?).
I have never had a pattern fit like this on the first test and I can honestly say that the fault is not the pattern it's me and only because I was being extra cautious.
The best news is that they fit my apple shaped front, they don't bag over my flat tush and they don't bunch up ANYWHERE.
They do need a wee bit more room in the front thigh (seems my thighs are like my abdomen - more in the front than the back) and they are a bit long (tall?) in the crotch-waist (which has NEVER happened before but is totally due to me being paranoid about things rarely fitting me there). Totally wearable though and so comfy. These test ones will probably become dog walking leggings for wearing as an under layer with my jeans to keep me warm. I don't need much more than that for walking at night here in the rain-forest of BC.

For Quebec I have some polar tec with lots of stretch (Sewing Cake recommends 5% spandex/lycra)  coming the mail from The Rain Shed. They have been a great place to deal with and I'm in love with them.
 I ordered a couple of samples around Christmas and then just ordered my fabric choices last week. Now normally I would never order material to make something for a trip in less than three weeks (NOT the fastest sewer) but the Espresso pattern is so quick to sew up, I have NO worries that I'm going to be able to get 2 pairs of leggings done in time for January 31st.
As soon as I do I promise to post some pics...just not of me wearing them LOL

**Sewing for Apples addendum - one of the things that I did when I did my measurements for the pattern was to measure and use 2 separate measurements for my waist.
 I took a separate Front Waist and Back Waist measurement and inputted those numbers in rather than just the 1 number.
One of the problems I have as an Apple (carries weight in the front mainly in the abdomen) is that while a pattern may fit my waist it will often "pull" to the front because there is too much material in the back and not enough at the front.
By doing the two measurements I fixed that and my leggings don't skew at all. Yay

Refashioning my Refashion

In my last post I remade some new knickers but as I mentioned they weren't quite perfect for my apple body shape.
After wearing them for a bit I noticed a little problem and it's one I'm way too familiar with; there isn't quite enough material in the front. They kept slipping down. Now a quick tug brought them back up but that's not really the thing I want to be known for at work or out in public! LOL
My first thought for a solution was just to add another row of the elastic lace at the top.

That worked.....sort of. It added the necessary coverage in the front but added way too much at the back and sides. Not a huge issue but as we all know, most sewers sew because we want more than just adequately fitting clothes - we want clothes that really fit us. Adequate is for off the rack!
What I really needed was what I have now called an FAA. That's a Full Abdomen Adjustment. It's kind of like the familiar FBA (Full Bust Adjustment) but a little... lower. Same theory though; more material needed width wise and height wise, to cover a fuller figure part.
Has anyone else ever done something like that? I'd love to see what other sewers have figured out for the "apple" figure.
Please comment if you know of another blog that's talked about this!


My next attempt at a fix went kind of like this.
Start by marking the center back, center front and sides with pins.

I want about 1/2 or less of the elastic width at the back (I wanted the elastic at my waist and not my hips but I could have left it where it was, no problem. I also thought it would be easier to re-fashion this way rather than going to no increase at center back. I'm not 100% sure what I will decide for the pattern fix. Maybe 2 patterns?!?) - pin elastic 1/2 way down.

I need all the extra elastic width in the front - pin close to the edges.

Find a nice easy slope for a transition from front to back that doesn't leave wrinkles (3/4 of the way down at the sides?) I did this part while I was sewing, no pins. Not the most scientific or precise method, but it worked for me.

Sew and pray and see how it turns out. Hey, not half bad. It looks a little odd but after wearing it for a while it's pretty darn comfortable! Besides, who's going to be looking at my undies anyway?!? Well, except for you all!

Thanks Sew Sassy for having minimums to buy so that I had enough lace left over to make over most of my new panties! (I did not have enough to re-re-fashion the blue ones as I used blue lace on 2 pairs. I may take it off the 2nd pair and use it on the first or I might just make those wear 'around the house day' undies, where no one cares if I have to adjust periodically.)

Next - figure out how to make all these changes onto the paper pattern I made when I had the originals all laid out flat. I could actually end up with a drawer of nice underwear for a change! LOL

Refashioning underwear.

Well, as you can see, not a lot of posting has gone on in the last year.
There are a couple of reasons for this but probably the main one is that I haven't done a heck of a lot of crafting. There has been a wee bit of sewing and the same of knitting but since I was barely feeling the crafting mojo I had even less blogging mojo going.
I will try and remedy that! I promise.

So to start my latest project (I promise to catch up on previous projects soon) - underwear refashioning!

A while ago, while away from home I popped into my favorite clothing store. I didn't find any regular clothes I wanted to buy but just at the end of my visit (as younger family members were getting tired of being there - parents, you know what I mean!) I spotted a sale on knickers. So, I quickly grabbed the 'special' (5 or 6 for ?$), paid and headed out the door.
Problem was I was assuming that if I wore pants in a size Q (Like I'd really tell anyone what size I wear!) then panties in a size P/Q would be the right size....wrong! They were close and maybe for fancy pants only worn for an hour or two they'd be fine but not for regular everyday wear and as they were cotton....

So they sat, languishing in my underwear drawer too un-comfy to wear regularly and too new to throw out.

I thought I might be able to do a re-fashion on them but never really got around to until - I realized I was going to be traveling with a school group next year and rooming with someone I didn't know and who I just really didn't want to share my slightly ratty (but comfy) knickers with. Eeek!

Eventually I came up with a plan; first take off the top elastic and see if that helps. The real aggravation to the fit was the top elastic biting into my squishy bits. Those bits of mine are squishy but not quite that much!
I tested the fit on one pair after removing the elastic and it was much better but.....not quite good enough to bother with a whole lot of fussing, if you know what I mean, so I left them.
A lot of the time if I leave a project I'm having trouble with and let my sub-conscious work on the problem, it comes up with an idea.
Which it did!
My sub-conscious said; if you're going to take the top elastic off and replace it with elastic lace (which I find much more squishy-bits friendly) then why not take the panties apart at the side seams and add a strip of the lace down the side too, adding some extra to the side seams?

Sub-conscious....what a great idea, let's go try that. So we did and here's how it went and what I learned along the way.

Step 1 and 2 - take off the elastic at the top and take out the side seams so you're left with a flat piece like so.

 Step 3 - pin some elastic lace (purchasable in a WIDE variety of colours [the variety I got]

 and widths for a great price from  Sew Sassy ) to the sides. I used 2 inch wide elastic, Sew Sassy has a lot in that width and more in other sizes.
As you can see I didn't do a hem on the bottom, just did a quick fold-over and assumed the sewing of the side would take care of it. So far it's working.

Now you don't have to pin your lace to the very outer edge of the fabric. If you don't want/need the full width of the elastic feel free to just pin your lace where you need it. You can trim back your side seams later (for fullest see-through) or do a 2nd line of stitches at the edges of the elastic (so it doesn't flop around or fold over on you.). The choice is up to you!

Step 5 - sew the side elastic. I used the magical 3 stitch zig-zag. I LOVE this stitch for sewing anything knit. It flexes with the knit, it's easy to do and I like how it looks. Tie off all your threads and trim the elastic at the top.

Step 6  - pin (if you want, I didn't bother by the 3rd pair) and sew the elastic lace around the top of your underwear. I will admit the I didn't pin, or pre-cut the elastic for this step. I just laid it down and sewed for a bit, then laid more. When I got close to the end I cut it where it gave me enough for a bit of an overlap, then sewed up one side of the overlap, across the overlap at the top and down the other side to the very beginning.

Voila! New to me knickers!

One of the things you may find is that your panty material, if it's a  knit, may try and roll over on you. To combat that I would lay the elastic on the material down from the top and sliiiide it up to the point that I wanted, unrolling the fabric as I went.

As an add on - I did some more modifications based solely on my body shape after I finished. I'm an 'apple'. That means I carry most of my weight in my front which causes some interesting problems in fitting. I will share those modifications in another post later.

Silky Pillowcases - done!

Why yes, yes I do post a lot more when I'm on vacation, how nice of you to notice LOL!

Well here we are, two posts in two days. I'm thinking this is probably as close to a miracle as I'm going to get this week ;-) Here they are, two green "silky" pillowcases with Tiana borders.
They aren't perfect but one of the things I've had to learn over the past few years is that perfection and I don't really do well together. I'm not perfect, my sewing isn't perfect but on the other hand I certainly pay more attention to detail than the big clothing/decor corporations and I'm learning to be okay with that.
So ...ta da!

Pretty simple construction just one big rectangle sewn up 1 side, Tiana border attached (with some fancy stitches my machine does) and then sewn up the other side. Both sides were serged since this material frayed like crazy.

There's really nothing special about these except that they're probably one of a kind, fill a need for Little Miss C and they're danged pretty. I guess they are special! Time to wrap them up!

Ta!

On the sewing table

This week I'm off (on leave, vacation, escaped...what ever you want to call it!), so of course I have lots of sewing planned (and a whole lot more chores planned too!). I know I won't get it all done...I never do, but I thought I'd give you a glimpse of what's on the sewing table waiting to go.

First up is a birthday present (don't worry, it's for Little Miss C and she's too young to be blog reading on her own!)

By the end of the week (or even earlier I hope) this will be a pair of "silky" pillowcases with a Tiana border so a little princess can sleep happily without having to choose between a Disney pillowcase or a "silky" one. Ah if only all of life's dilemmas could be solved to easily.
Green was not my first choice for this project since Little Miss C is more of a pink or purple girl but it was the best match the store had and who knows, maybe it's her new favourite colour, since we all know *that* can change in a heartbeat with a 5 oops, 6 year old.

Next on the table is a mix in blacks and whites;

This will become the No Pattern Bias Skirt in the current (June/July no 161) issue of Threads. By the directions there are supposed to be 5 different materials but again my local fabric store failed me and I could only find 4 that fit my requirements. Besides a desire for black and while like the picture in Threads my biggest need was mainly that it be cotton! For me there's no point in making a summer skirt that's supposed to be for hot weather wearing if it's not cotton or linen or some other natural fibre. Sadly that means a limited selection since Fabricland has an affinity for polyesters and such. With no air conditioning at home or really at work either (not that I'm likely to wear a skirt to work!) and being a larger woman...natural fibres are my true friends!
3 of the 4 are shirting material with the 4th (top) being a quilting cotton. I know, I know, that's pretty much a no-no for clothing and it's SO not the same weight as the others but hey...it's skeletons and pins! I couldn't resist! Keep your fingers crossed that I can get this work with only 4 patterns of fabric. I'm pretty sure I can but extra good wishes never hurt.

Well, if I plan to get any sewing done I'd better get a move on.

Ta!

What is or isn't sewing?

I was getting ready to write today’s post (it was going to be about how I didn’t sew this weekend) when I started to think about the things I*did* do this weekend; mended some stuff, restyled a shirt so I’d actually wear it, hemmed a pair of pants and spun some lovely wool.

 

Of the 4 main things (besides laundry, grocery shopping and dishes..ick) I got done this weekend 3 of them included a needle and thread so why don’t I, at first "glance", consider that sewing?

An interesting question that made me think. 

Is it because I think of sewing as a creative process? Possibly. Sewing has always been one of my creative outlets and I love that sense of accomplishment I get when I have taken a pile of papers, materials, and threads and turned them into something else. Within that narrow definition then what I did this weekend would not qualify as sewing. But then, if not sewing….what? The major components of sewing were all there; scissors, needles, thread, a plan.

Perhaps it’s that there is a difference between “Sewing” and just “sewing” to me and “Sewing” involves some creative process to me.

Something to think about. ;-) 

Ta

I sewed!

I finally did some sewing! After a bout of procrastination, a skirt mental block and 2 months out with a bum hip (who knew sewing could be so dangerous?!?!) I finally got some sewing done this weekend.
Even better? It's a long weekend here in Canada so I have another day!

Who knows, I might even get something worth taking a picture of!

In the meantime I will share a picture of my first finished project of the year.

This is a short row scarf I made from a pattern in spin Off Magazine. It's a very easy pattern and my first ever time knitting short rows. It's made from hand spun yarn that I spun last year after buying the roving at the Ryder Lake Spin In. It's from a wool I don't remember with angelina and silk mixed in. You can see some of the gleam of the silk in the 2nd photo. It's lovely to wear and I'm quite proud of it.

So stay tuned, I might have some pictures of sewing soon, now that I'm back at the sewing table. In the meantime here's a look at what I'm back to working on; Simplicity 8640

Ta!

What's been going on?

So with such a long break between posts it would probably be good to do a little explaining on what happened.
Basically life happened, and then it snow balled and then it got embarassing to have not posted for so long.
But I'm over that and I have lots of sewing news to share.
First (and because I have no pictures right now) the life part;

As you know if you read my blog earlier this year, Scooby became a bit of an escape artist. In June/July he reached a new pinnacle. He not only got out of the backyard he jumped over the balcony to do it! I'm not sure why but for the first year ever fireworks totally freaked him out. So up over the balcony he went, over the yard fence and into a major intersection not far from our house. Happily (considering) he was found by a dog friendly couple who got him into their car (not hard, trust me!) and they took him home with them to safety.
At that point he became a much more restricted doggie and sadly he was fine with that. It got to the point that he didn't even want to go outside by himself at all, even to eat. And for a dog that lives up to his nae....that's a huge thing.
So now, a few months later we have moved from a dog that was outdoors 24/7 to a dog that's indoors 24/7! That's a pretty radical change for him and for us.

Add to that some ex-husband and family drama, a teen and a tween and well, you have a pretty busy life and a busy me. But I really missed blogging so I'm back and I promise I will do better....well, better than the last 6 months anyway!

Right now the camera is unused and there's a fair pile of things to photograph and lots of projects in the works (2012! It's a big year for costuming folks!) but for now I'll get this up and then see what happens.

Thanks for reading Ta!

I'm back

Hopefully for a good long haul this time.
I have lots of things to tell the world about but in the meantime a little haiku for you all......

The days pass slowly

Then rush by, too fast to see

Why no posts lately

Stanley Cup Final - the aftermath

I'm sorry to say that this is not going to be a sewing related post. Frankly there hasn't been enough sewing done in this house to warrant one. :-( There will be one soon though, I promise.

In the meantime I wanted to take a quiet minute or two and write a bit about a rather bizarre local event that some of you might have heard about in the news. They're calling it Riot 2011 or The Stanley Cup Riot or the Vancouver Riot.

It was a travesty, it was sad and awful and is in no way something that Vancouver or BC is proud of. For those who don't know the story the Vancouver Canucks made it to the final round of the Stanley Cup. They fought hard and took it to 7 games. That final game was played in Vancouver. We lost. And then some people got really stupid. There were fires and looting and people got hurt. Lots more people got scared.
The only good thing to say about the riot is that no one died.

We as BCers are ashamed at how a small group of people acted. We just ask that people remember that it was only a small group and that it in no way represents the rest of us.

There are some good things that happened during and after the event and I would like to focus on that.
There were people who stood up for what was right and there were more people that stood up for them.
A lot of people came out into Vancouver where some of the worst damage and looting happened and helped clean it up yesterday.
After 2 police vehicles were burned Wednesday night another police car was found today covered in notes of gratitude and well wishes for the Vancouver police. It is a beautiful sight.
Some people have realized that what they did  Wednesday night was wrong and have come forward and turned themselves in. I applaud them for doing the right thing. I know that admitting you're wrong is never easy. Wednesday night they were people to be ashamed of, today I can feel a small piece of pride in what they did today.

This is not an event to be celebrated but perhaps, if we learned from it, we can celebrate that.

Ta! 

PS  To all those people who posted about their "accomplishments" during the looting or posed after being caught on camera being stupid....do the rest of the world a favour and don't procreate..Please!!!

It's Polyester Pants time!

Yep, you read that right folks.
My next project (delaying my actual sewing for me! Which I will write about later) is a pair of 1970's polyester pants. Miss C is doing a project for school and needs a costume for it so .... here we go.

I'm going to be using a vintage pattern from a Golden Hands books, specifically this one. The pattern for the pants on the cover is included in the book.

I have a small collection of these 1970's Golden Hands books. They're kind of fun and luckily they all seem to have their sewing patterns still in them. Each issue had a free sewing pattern stapled to the middle of the book.

The pants are actually rather cool because they don't have a zipper front but instead one that buttons up, kind of like sailors pants. I don't remember having a pair of these but then I think I lived in jeans pretty much through the 70's. LOL

Here's another interesting feature of the pattern;

This is the whole pattern piece for the pant back. Not very long huh?

That's because part way down it says "Cut on this line and insert 18.5 inches".
I found that really interesting. I'm not sure if this was just to save paper or maybe to make the magazine less bulky...? No matter the reason it's neat. Naturally I didn't cut it there but rather traced the pattern to the size I needed and added the 18.5 inches while I was tracing.

So hopefully today I'll get everything cut out and the markings placed. Then it will be easy to get some little bits of sewing done during the week.
I find if I have everything cut out I can fit in 15 or 20 minutes of sewing during the week, but if I have to cut stuff out I stall until the weekend. Weird huh?
Well, off to continue working.

Ta!

It's now complete

We had a lovely weekend here and since sunny weekends seem to equal me wanting to sew I managed to turn a remnant into an apron for Miss S's costume so maybe people will stop telling her she's very "fancy".
shrug I know, I don't understand how a fairly plain dress with about $2 worth of trim can be fancy...but there you have it.

So this is (hopefully) the final costume for Miss S.
It dang well better be the final costume....the play is in 2 days!

Here's a quick snapshot of the gusset I did for the dancing.

Basically I opened up the arm hole seam up until ...the notches probably? Then I had Miss S put the dress on and raise her arms. I measured the gap that opened and made sure it was going to be enough and not put any strain on the arm hole. From there I just made this football shaped thing (cut on the bias for maximum stretch) that was the length of the portion of the seam I let out by the width of the gap created.
Pin, sew and done! FYI I sewed the gusset in by hand as I felt I'd have more control. I was right. If I was to do this again I would sew one side of the gusset down and then sew the sleeve in going across the gusset rather than the armhole. But of course I was doing this after so....hand sewing was easier.

Ta!

It's done

No pictures of todays work as it's a dull rainy day here today but I'm happy to announce.....it's done!
The gussets are in and they worked out well; the Villager can stretch for her dance. I'm very happy with it and hopefully the teacher will be too.
Here's a bonus pic of the Villager dancing.....

Villager Costume progress

So today sees the villager costume virtually complete!
In fact it would be complete if it wasn't for the fact that said villager is dancing during the play and apparently needs to raise her arms above her head.
So today I've been researching gussets. I've done gussets before in T-tunics so I'm starting from scratch (thank goodness). As of right now I'm tending towards the thought of a football shaped gusset rather than a square; just seems easier. I've taken the seam apart and asked Miss S to raise her arm and a 1 1/2" gusset is looking like what I'll need.
For now it's time to let the brain work on it while I do something else like watch Amazing Race. Yes, my Sunday night guilty pleasure.
Here's a picture of all the trim done though I think it makes a real difference. Enjoy!

Saturday Progress

Wow! It's been just over a day since I posted on the dress and I can't believe how much I've gotten done.
I'm not a fast sewer so this has been a real journey for me. I think the difference here is that I've made this dress before which isn't something I do very often. It has really helped.

So, what have I gotten done?
Yesterday the main parts of the body got sewn together and then I took the back and inserted the zipper. I figured it would be easier to do that while the back wasn't attached to the rest of the dress - less material to cart around. After pinning I decided to pick stitch the zipper in. Call me a perfectionist but the thought of having an obvious zipper in a "medieval" dress just irked me. I knew though that I don't have time to do lacing so....a fairly innocuous zipper seemed the solution. Plus I like hand sewing.
The sleeves got their cuffs on and then I hand stitched the ribbon on while they were still flat. To me it seemed only logical and easier to do that before the sleeve seam went in. The ribbon looks really nice and stitching on the flat allows the ends to be hidden in the seam.

Today;
Today I started with sewing the back to the front and doing the first official dress try on. It looks pretty good but it did need to be let out a bit. I was actually expecting that so it didn't bother me since I'd already planned it out in my head.
The reason I was expecting it is that the first dress was made out of a knit that we found on the clearance rack so it's fit was a bit looser and more forgiving. It was so forgiving that the first dress actually has no zipper at all!
I got that done and approved by Miss S and then moved on to the sleeves. The sleeves and facing are all attached now but I need to play with the sleeves a bit. They're a very close fit and hence don't have a lot of reach to them. When you're dancing you need 'reach' so I'm going to add an underarm gusset in a bit. My brain is currently thinking on that.
While my brain simmers I got the facing sewed on and pressed and understitched and pressed again. I don't know that I've ever understitched before but I have to say I will certainly do it again! It made the facing look so nice.

Right now it's time to walk the dog again and then I'll work on hand sewing the ribbon around the neck line. I want to do that before I tack the facing down so the facing can hide all the stitches. We have a bunch of movies for the long weekend that I borrowed from the library plus HP and the Deathly Hollows Part 1 that I bought so I'll have lots to pick from when I do the handsewing.
That's it for today although I'll try and add a picture later today too.

Ta!

Presenting .....one picture!

If I was really going to give in to my perfectionism I'd be worried about the bodice wrinkles but frankly I haven't got the time. Probably a good thing, don't you think? lol

Villager Costume Friday

Allrighty! here's todays update on the villager costume for Miss S.
First a picture to show the colours;

The green isn't really showing up well, hopefully when the dress is done I can get a better picture but the ribbon is pretty darn close (at least on my monitor!).
I got 4 m of ribbon and right now I'm not sure where it's going to go. The pattern has it at the neckline and the join of the sleeve/cuff. I'm not sure if I like the sleeve/cuff thing. I'll probably make it all up and then decide. Especially as the ribbon is something that may get done after the first deadline.
Mrs B wants the costume by Tuesday but the play isn't until the 4/5 of May so.....what she sees on Tuesday may not be the final version LOL

So far I've gotten the pattern redraft done (the neckline needed to go up a touch and I had CRAZILY thrown out or lost the bits of the bottom the straightens the hemline!)

All the cutting out is done and all the serging is done as well.

I always serge the bottoms of facings so I don't have to finish them another way and I also serged the bottom hem (in case it's not hemmed for Tuesday) and the bottom of the sleeve (ditto).

Not bad for not even noon here.

Time for a break now and the dog needs a walk.

Ta!

Bi-polar Seamstress?

A little while ago the Sew Weekly question of the day (to win one of the wonderful pin cushions!) was three words that would describe your approach to sewing this year. I said "little bits, regularly". I then explained that I need to try that out because I seem to go in fits and starts with sewing; sewing like a crazy woman for a period of time and then not touching sewing for an age because I's burned out. A bit bi-polar in the sewing am I. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground and I know that's something I need to work on because I know I'll be happier that way.

Sadly it doesn't look like it going to happen right away.

In Miss S's school they do a musical every year. This year is The Princess and the Pea and Miss S is a villager. Villagers are to wear a floor length, long sleeved "medieval" dress. Really the teacher isn't  all that picky except for sleeves and skirt length but um.....I'm a bit of a perfectionist and a bit of a costume snob so I couldn't exact take Miss S's 1909 skirt and add a ruffle or something >shudder<
Nope, just couldn't do it!

Instead I decided to use a pattern from Miss C's 2008 Hallowe'en costume.
Here it is made up as a pink and black witch;

I know, doesn't seem particularly medieval but if you look at the pattern envelope;

 You can see how medieval could be used to describe it. I'll be doing the long version but without the yoke and collar and decidedly no angel sleeves this time around! The material is a sage-y sort of green and we found some lovely plum (?) velvet ribbon to oomph it up. I'll do pics tomorrow if the sunshine holds.

So now that we have the teachers okay, that's what I will be spending my holiday weekend doing.....sewing like a maniac...again! Costumes are due Tuesday. >sigh<

Ta!