Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Something got finished

Whew, I finally got something finished.  Sort of ground to a halt on the last top I was making her, due to weather and other malaise, but I did get a pair of brown knit pants cut out and sewn.  They were in the works for a week, just waiting for the hour it took to get them stitched up.  Today I finally got them finished, and the little girl is thrilled.  I'm glad to get that done with!


So excited, she could hardly hold still.  



Thursday, September 12, 2013

Too Hot

I meant to have another small garment finished by today, but it's just been too hot to do anything lately.  Hopefully it'll cool off and I'll recoup over the weekend, because Lucy needs the pair of pants I have cut out and yet to finish.  I'm also hoarding some red silk-linen and debating making a dress.  But who needs a red every-day dress, really?  (My husband thinks it would be great.)  I'm thinking I'll make a normal dress in brown or green broadcloth and use that to fine-tune a red version, which I'd wear for all the RSCDS (Scottish dancing) balls and parties I'm scheduled to play for in the winter and spring.  Festive!  Now I just need to procure some brown or green broadcloth, no polyester please, at a good price.  

Friday, September 6, 2013

Second verse, same as the first

Number two is in size 2T in a quilting cotton.  I didn't get a good shot of the fabric detail, but it is a medium pink background with white, pink, and orange dots.  I wanted orange buttons, but these are ok.


Front


Back


The cotton is a bit stiff.  A good wash ought to soften it up a bit.  But, as it is, it's a cute shape.


(Turning around and saying "cheese")


On to the third!  Next is a light blue cotton lawn that incredibly soft.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Finished!

This came together fairly quickly, once I was able to put in twenty minutes here and there.  It helped that Lucy wanted to "sew", too, so one afternoon I spent an hour and a half sewing while she sat next to me and stuck pins in pincushions, etc.  I sewed on the last buttons yesterday evening, and then Lucy wanted to wear it for a while.  The light was terrible, so I didn't get any good photos.  Another time!

The front

The back


The fabric is a light peach cotton lawn (I'm guessing it's a lawn, because it's crisp and not drapey like a voile) that stays a little wrinkly, but it pressed nicely on all the hems and pintucks.  It didn't ease well on the sleeve caps, but I'm ok with that.  The buttons are from the fabric store up the street.  The topstitching went well, thanks to easy seam guides on my new machine.  

I am really satisfied with this project.  This was hands-down the best clothing pattern I have ever used.  The outside is lovely, the insides have no exposed seams.  I can't wait to trace up the next one and try other patterns.



Thursday, August 29, 2013

Pintucks

There are twelve of them.



I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked because my sewing machine is too loud to use while Lucy sleeps - every time I have tried to get something done quickly, she comes out of her room and lets me know it's too loud.  Trying to sew while she is awake was somewhat productive, but only as long as she was distracted with pins and a pincushion.  Long story short, my husband convinced me that maybe a newer, quieter machine would be a good idea.  Frugality and thrift runs in my family (though I didn't get a huge dose), so I didn't want to give up my perfectly good free machine from the 80's....but, I found a really good deal (necessary to appease the thrift gene) and caved.  Hello Singer 9660, hello uninterrupted sewing time.  It is a very quiet machine and I am very happy.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Ready to Go

I managed to get to the fabric store yesterday, which is no small feat.  Fabric Corner, the store up the street from me, sells mostly quilting cottons with a huge selection of quilters' batiks, but they also have a large section of upholstery fabric and are expanding their small dressmaking section, which is stocked with high-quality things.  It tends to be an expensive store, but the owner is capricious in his discounts - if you buy more than a yard of something, sometimes he'll give you 70% off, or maybe 30% off, or maybe something for free just because.  You never know how much you may or may not pay.  I think they have coupons and days when there are deals, but nothing is heavily publicized so it's always a surprise to get, oh, free embroidery floss and a 40% off coupon if you come back on Wednesday.  

Anyway, there was a nice bunch of new cotton lawns (said to be English, reminiscent of Liberty) so I picked out a small blue floral print and some coordinating buttons.




 I wanted something dark apricot or peach-colored and wandered into the quilting cottons and found this.  (With some buttons shown, though nothing is definite yet.)


And found some lovely pink mother or pearl buttons for the other fabric I already have.


Pattern is all traced out (phew!) so I'll start working on these off and on for a while.  


Buttons and fabric....  Sewing combined with all the cooking I've been doing (we have a CSA share this summer) makes me feel extra homemaker-y.  





Friday, August 2, 2013

Pretty New Patterns

I ordered a few patterns from Oliver and S, a company whose patterns I have loved for years and years, but never had an excuse to use.  Cue a growing 2-year old girl who needs new clothes for the fall, and there is my excuse.

(These photos are a little blurry, and I can't seem to get my camera to focus well.  It's been one of those days.)

The dress on the left can be shortened to a shirt-length, which I plan to make soon (optimistically speaking).



Out of this fabric perhaps -a peachy-pink cotton I had lying around.  (The only way to get an accurate color was to wave it around the room and check the color on my camera screen.  So that perhaps explains the weird, blurry background.)




And I'd love to make the dress itself.  The dress on the right, I'd like to make with some warmer fabric for her to wear over tights or leggings.  


The pants and long-sleeved shirt patterns are just what I need - a way to find relief from the lime green and hot pink selections in the little girls' clothing sections.  And the jumper is classic.  Too bad the blouse pattern isn't included...it is a separate pattern, but I didn't realize it soon enough.



I'm so excited to start on these sometime soon.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Finished Birthday Dresses

They are done!  It feels good to complete a project, no matter how small.  These were simple to make, but involved twelve gathered tiers of fabric - two fashion fabrics and two lining fabrics, which was a bit time-consuming.  But they came out pretty well.  They're both made of embroidered eyelet with cotton batiste to line them, for anyone who might care to know, using Simplicity 5695.

White (like Mommy's, by request)


(Pardon the trash on the floor.  Everything is a "sticker" these days.)

And yellow.


She has been wearing the yellow dress around for the past hour, so I'd deem it a success.

To hem the dresses, I held her on my lap while sewing.  Desperate, I know.  She held onto the scissors very carefully and handed them to me when I needed to clip threads, and talked about bobbins in the machine, how the needle goes up and down, and how sharp the needles and pins and scissors are.  Who knows, maybe she'll want to learn to sew in a couple years.  That could be fun!


For fun, I pulled out her birthday dress from last year.  It still fit, but is a good 6 inches or more shorter now.


Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Birthday Dresses

They are almost done.  The bodices are machine-sewn, the skirts are hand-basted and waiting to be sewn by machine.  Just the hem left after that.  Phew!  

(The yellow is pretty bright in the picture - it's a bit darker and more muted in person.)



Monday, July 1, 2013

Some sewing

I am working on a couple dresses for miss Lucy.  One white, one yellow.  Same simple pattern.  Hoping to be done by her birthday in August.  She picked out the yellow fabric, and then also asked for a white dress to wear together with me when I wear my white dress.  How could I resist?

Today I got the bodices finished.

The white bodice.



The yellow bodice.  And a cat.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Another new hat

I made another hat, using some yarn leftover from an old sweater project in a light golden olive-y color.    (In this photo it looks a bit on the brown side, but it is greener than that.)


Still need to block the brim, although I can't say I'll get around to it soon since I'm liking the hat as-is.

The pattern is from a Jane Austen Knits issue, and it's the "Modified Mobcap" seen sideways here:


I love their choice of yarn and wish I had that sitting around, but the textured stitch pattern came out nicely in a solid color, I think, and I didn't have to pay a cent.  Not bad.  My daughter grabbed it from my head and put it on hers as soon as she saw it, saying "mama ghee hap!" (mama green hat)  I take that as a good thing.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Lucy's Hat


She may look less than thrilled here, but she actually brought me her hat and asked to wear it this morning.  And kept it on for about 15 minutes.  Success!