Monday, May 27, 2013

Completed Items - Finally!

I've been on a roll this past week.  I completed not one but TWO projects that I've been thinking about for months.

First, my polka dot skirt. No, not the brown one I posted about previously - a new and improved black and white polka dot skirt. But more importantly: I mastered the invisible zipper!  You have no idea how intimidated I've been by those zippers. I love the look of invisible as opposed to lapped zippers so it seemed like a good time to learn how to do them properly as I needed to wear the skirt to an event - and there's nothing more motivating than having nothing to wear. The other issue is that I don't own one of those magical invisible zipper feet for my machine. I had to go old school and use a regular foot. Anyhow here's the completed zipper:




And here's the finished skirt. Please excuse the picture; I don't have a dress form yet.


My second project was a petticoat.  I used the instructions from The Sewing Lab to put it together. I can't lie, it was a bit of a nightmare. I decided to use the gathering foot on my serger, but it was too imprecise so then I found this tutorial about changing the tension of the threads to gather fabric and it was perfect! I'm really getting so much more use out of my serger now. So here she is:


I don't have anything to wear her under yet, but my next project is the Butterick 5882 dress now that I have the instructions that Gertie just posted about how to do the FBA.  I cut out the pattern last night, but I'm definitely going to make some changes. I want the band to go underneath my bust as opposed to across it. I understand why she designed it that way, but I think it would look odd on my generous bosom.  I'll definitely have to do a muslin for this one.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

I've Conquered The Invisible Zipper!

Remember the brown polka dot skirt I've been working on since the turn of the century? Well I finally picked it back up a couple of days ago and I remembered why I never finished. There, on the table, was...

AN INVISIBLE ZIPPER

That might not be a big deal to most people, but while I love the look of invisible zippers, I never mastered putting them in. To be honest, I never mastered zippers, period, but I digress.

I really need to finish some of these projects so I went on the interwebs and found these helpful tutorials:

Smarmyclothes on YouTube
Gertie
Coletterie
Angela Kane Part 1 and Part 2

What I learned is that all these years, I've been doing it wrong by sewing next to the curled teeth instead of uncurling the teeth and sewing in that little ditch.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Oh My, Is It May Already?

So, yeah, I've been gone for quite some time and I can't possibly tell you everything that's happened (some good, some bad - you know how it is.) Anyhow I'm back now and just to tie up some loose ends, I finished these socks and I wore them pretty regularly.  At first I was hand-washing them, but they're actually better after coming out of the dryer.  They're amazing.

I started a second pair that I call my Highlander socks.  They're knee-length, grey with two big cables.  I meant to wear them with my big winter boots, but alas they're not finished - I have 1-1/2 socks.

I have about 5 dresses to make. Over the years, I got into the habit of buying everything I need when I buy the fabric so I just need to cut, fit and sew. I also have a bra to make, but we'll get to that in another post.  I'm going to document the ENTIRE process so hopefully it'll help someone. 

(Whoa, I just realized I'm in a polka dot phase.  I have a fuschia/white polka dot fabric on my sewing table, I'm sitting next to some black/white polka dot fabric for a skirt, I'm (sadly) still working on that brown/white polka dot skirt AND I bought some black/pink polka dot fabric for my first bra/panty set.  How did that HAPPEN?)

Speaking of which, last week I wore a very cute outfit to work and sadly, it brought a lot of questions. That's when you know you've fallen off - you look halfway decent and people ask where you're going.  I felt really good though and got compliments, even from a bicyclist that rode past me.  So now I'm working out some new outfits (and new hairstyles) so that I always have something cute to wear. Mostly I want to bridge the gap between too casual and too dressy, although if I have to pick a side, I'll go with too dressy.

Anyhow right now, I'm going to set up my sewing for the day, take some pics and I'll see you back here soon. No really.