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BWOF 11-2008-110 and V8543 progress report

I love my Vivenne Westwood inspired skirt.

I think the secret of this skirt is that it's basically a fitted sack, so for curvy girls like myself, my body adds the shaping required. 

 

Oh and I the fins, I am definitely making this one again.

On the sewing machine is still my vogue skirt.

I used my edgestitching foot to do the top stitching on it, which came as an after thought because I had it for the longest time but have never used it.

I always say I love the vogue curved seamed skirts because they go together so well but I am having a little set back with this one and maybe I'm reading to much into the instructions but I can't seem to wrap my mind around how they want me to finish the hem of the lining and the hem of the skirt with these pleats.

Well, if I can't figure it out I can always post for thoughts on PR. I would love to get a shirt that will match with this color lining.

LOVE IT.

and speaking about shirts, I have such a strong crush on this one

no progress on the jacket but if I can finish up this skirt this weekend I can start the muslin for the jacket next week.

 

more later...

Not jumping the gun

When a project is going great, when everything is lining up right, nothing needs to be ripped out, yada yada, I tend to jump ahead of myself and start messing up on the little things. 

This is why I am taking it slow with this one. I have to do a little, and leave it on the table and walk away. It makes for good thinking time.

My grandma says patience is something my generation lacks, I think she is right, if a web page takes more than a second to load I am already frustrated and tapping my fingers vigorously on the desk in disgust.... 

But I digress.

My skirt

 

is coming along so smoothly that I feel like I need to knock on wood now that have I wrote this. Once made public you could never take it back and if it goes downhill from now on its the faiths trying to tell me something!

interesting, why the stall?

Ah yes, this is due to a simple mistake on my path. I decided to kill two birds with one stone yesterday and went to Walmart to get some photos and to pick up a spool of thread to do the edge stitching on my skirt.

Perfect color, wrong type.

Such is life, if it looks to good to be true it usually isn't, lol.

so we will caught up on this one a little later.

My jacket.

Woos and dilemmas

I have never made a suit jacket before, I am really scared, so much so that I have written about it in my journal and put it on my list of goals.

I absolutely hate failure,,,, across the board and seeing that I feel so much of that going on right now I have to ask myself, do I really want to attempt this jacket right now?

First thing is the fit, well its always the fit but that can be taken care of with a muslin. But check this out.

I usually take an inch off the waistline area but seeing that jacket is make like this I am not sure where to take off the extra length and how to adjust the buttons when I do.

I plan to just make the muslin as is, the "not jumping the gun" approach and just alter after its done the old fashion way.

Next thing, buttons.

Have I ranted before on the fact that I suck at choosing embellishments. This is why I love print knits because the embellishment factor is already taken care off. I don't know what I should do for buttons but I need 3.  

I may need to postpone the buttons purchase until the end of the month so I can stop by at MJ trim and see what's up. Hmm, I wonder if there is a good place in Philly I could go?

So as of right now, I just attached the pattern tissue to freezer paper to "strengthen" it a bit and I'm going to cut out the muslin and see what happens.

Its raining and the day is so gloomy, its definitely sewing weather accompanied with a good audio book.

Sewing, scrapping and freezing my butt off

I'm here....

Gosh, thanks for all the comments on my last post.

Its a good thing no one could have seen me bawling my eyes out reading all those comments, there is somethings you can't live down, lol.

I'm well.

The last few weeks have been madness and now that my mind is at ease I've literally been hitting the sack at 7pm, nothing beats a good night sleep with nothing on your mind.

so what's good?

Friends!

and lots of them, btw, thanks for touching base with me, Tracey, it was great talking to you.

I have lingered back into the world of scrapbooking in order to fulfil the desire I had to make a brag book for my friend Cris's first baby girl Rihanna.

 

I've always found that making something for someone else, or just doing something for someone else when you are in a rut just soothes the heart.

In my world of sewing.

I wore my BWOF 11-2008-110 to work on monday with an orange sweater, it looks fabulous, I will put it on the dress form and take some photos to share in a few days.

New Project.

A few weeks ago I posted that I really wanted this pattern, then the next day it went on sale and I got it. Well it only gets better!

It took like 3 days to arrive my mail and by that Saturday I decided to go down to Fabric Row in Philly to Kincos Fabrics to look for something to make it out of. I got down there for 9am when the store opened and was the first customer there.

Brenda, one of the store clerks, helped me choose out this worsted weight for the suit.

 

You know I said I wanted a black suit but Brenda was like,, you wouldn't see the details in a black one as much as you would in something lighter.. hmm, good point.

This is a brown and tan woven wool, so it has a greyish brown look and a slight sheen, hard to describe. It also looks darker and lighter in different lighting which makes capturing the true color lots of fun.

 

The moral of the story is that I am currently working on the skirt which has been going along smoothly from the jump off. The jacket I am more weary about and I will write about that in a later post else this one will be way to long.

okay, hoped your thanksgiving was fun, mines was fabulous!

comfy clothing

  I had no plans to show a photo of me in the skirt, why?

because I knew the details would not show up, but anyway, here it is.

It was the perfect thing to wear today, I had to go back for a body scan which meant I needed comfy clothes, a sweater, a wool skirt with comfy boots did the job, I didn't even need the blanket they offered me at the hospital, I swear I could sleep in what I had on today.

Moving on....

You know, it seems like fall is a good time to get some wardrobe essentials sewn and I'm definitely working on mines and seeing that I'm in the mood for WOOL, I'll just keep it going.

My next project will be

 

in Grey wool, you could never go wrong with a grey skirt and I need a new one. I guess I will be cutting this one out tonight and maybe start working on it tomorrow.

Oh,, and one last thing, I got my vogue pattern I posted about yesterday, Carolyn sent me an email about trying to get it when VoguePatterns.com had there next sale and today happened to be the day,, YAY,, I am so freakin' excited!

Thanks Carolyn for sending me the good vibes.

EOM Port Essoauria: V7937 Pencil Skirt

Hmm, I know what you are thinking...."I thought you totally threw your EOM collection away with all those knit dresses you have been making..."

Ahhh,, not quite so.

In fact, a little break is good, it keeps the mojo going, NO?

I made M5522, I did so with the intention of also making the skirt to wear with it and that is why I never posted a photo of me in it, because its mate was not ready yet.

 

Initially, I was not planning on making A.

I wanted to do view C but I decided to do a muslin of A and I had to a lot tucking and clipping to make it fit on my waist and hip right. While my mom was here she helped me fit it but I couldn't finish it because my sewing machine got sick.

The Fabric I got from Metro Textiles, its soft and used the London pretreating method to shrink it. I hope you can see the back its really had to see it in this color fabric.

I am going to make view C but in a grey wool,,,, maybe in a couple of weeks. This was a quick sew project once I got the fit down right.

 

In other news.....I spent Labor day cutting patterns and fabric so I have a lot of things on my to do list as usual.

 

Monday I wore B5242 but my dh was MIA for photos, so I will have to pics of that the next time around.

 

As for the new Mccalls patterns, I will definitely make time to put in my two cents about that later but as for now,,,,

   

The top is See by Chloe and if I can get my hands on some silk charmeuse, its over...

more later.

 

She's so Pique-cular Collection: Set 2 Garden Party

SHE SAID: You have to do it your way, even with implementing good advice, it has to be on your terms. Its the only way to be truly happy with your final decisions.

The Party continues.....

For my collection I wanted to do two sets for day events which was casual to semi formal  like a christening, baby shower etc. I figure the skirt sets would be appropriate with lots of personality.. people tend to comment on anything that is bright and festive for the summer so its good for getting the conversation going.

Set 2: Garden Party

The Top: Vogue 2980

 

This is seriously going to be my profile pic,,, watch!

Okay

Its simple, easy and I love it. I want 10 of them,, in every color, I couldn't believe how easy this was to make.
I went down a size after I did a flat pattern measurement. I figure the stretch will compensate for ease. I highly recommend a rayon jersey for it. The sleeves, bolero/shrug piece are doubled and the front piece has a fold on the bust area until under the arm area. The shrug itself has so pleats so give it shaping.
with nothing else to say I will show you some close up photos.

The double sleeve

Close up of Pleat of shrug

Side view of Upper back

The Skirt: Simplicity 4236 (8 panel Gore Modification)

I made 8 godets, by drawing a cone, enlarging it, then grade it down to wear I thought looked about right. I positioned the godet where I wanted it to start and cut of the excess.

I decided to do an invisible zipper on this one because it would blend with the godets better, I guess I will be working on that technique on something else.

And you won't believe after the skirt was done, I got an email about how to get the "look" of SC's tulip skirt which was my inspiration, so I will looking in to that as a self drafted project in my next collection.

I added a soft crease to the godets to give it some definition seeing that the pique has stretch and heavy, the godets did to flow into the shape of the skirt unnoticed.

and one more

YAY!!!

Peculiar Tidbit

I became a vegetarian when I was 14.

I just got up and decided to do it, like most of my major life changes, lol. When I went to Marine Corp Boot camp at 19, I got really sick and the doctors told me if I didn't try to get my protein via poultry or meat, I would not be able to complete training. So, I started back to eat animal products because I just didn't want to fluke out of boot camp or endanger myself trying to prove a point.

It beautiful here in Philly, perfect weather for the "the start of Summer"

Happy Memorial Day everyone, please take some time to reflect on the reason for the holiday

and happy sewing, I am working on SET THREE right now, more later.