Pillow Gallery

Way back in 2009, Christy from Sew Much Fabric, Sew Little Time made a great skirt from the coolest fabric I'd ever seen.  Even though cards and chess aren't my thing, I was drawn to this fabric--such cool colors and graphics and...PRETZELS!

I sent Christy an email, asking if maybe, just maybe, she had any scraps left.  She DID!  And she sent them to me!  Finally, three years later, I used the biggest piece to make a pillow for the guest room bed.  The pretzels didn't make it onto the front of the pillow, so I immortalized them on the back.

I love this little gallery of a few of my favorite vintage prints!  Maybe one day I'll follow up by getting some up swatches up on the wall as well.  It's a shame to keep them stashed away in a bin.

Leopard Spotted

I've always liked a good leopard print, whether or not it happens to be trendy.  Note I said a good leopard print.  People often consider animal prints tacky, and they certainly can go very wrong, but I think they can also look very elegant and sophisticated.  This particular print also reminds me a little of the amazing fabric Christian Siriano used for one of his collections which was reproduced from a photo of a Mediterranean coastline.

I picked this fabric up at Gaffney's last summer.  It's a good bottomweight with a slight stretch.  I knew I wanted to make a straighter skirt, but I didn't want to take any chances with an untested pattern, so I used McCall's 3830 which I used a few times before. 

Of the versions I sewed previously, I prefer the one to which I added a waistband, so this skirt also got one.  I feel like that adds an extra bit of adjustability to a skirt which you don't get when you finish off the waist with a facing. 

And since I like to show off the inside as well, here is a shot of the hem and seams.  I love having a huge stockpile of thrifted seam bindings and Flexi-Lace so I can add in those little extra touches!

Fabric Addiction

I went for a wander around JoAnn Fabrics the other day.  I paged through the New Look pattern book, smelled all the candles, and finally went looking to see if any fabrics caught my eye.  Blue and orange is one of my favorite combinations lately, so I grabbed this off the shelf the second I saw it. 

When I got to the cutting table, the sales clerk asked me what I planned to do with it.  My answer, "I have no idea," brought a round of laughs from all present.  Fabric-a-holics, you understand.

I bought two yards, but I am not sure if it's destined to become a skirt or a top.  A top may look a bit like scrubs, especially if worn with white pants.  Which gets your vote?

P.S.  The shoes I posted the other day are from Kmart and are just $15 right now.  I got them in both black and brown and wore them yesterday for the first time.  They were quite comfy for completely flat shoes!  Kmart has a lot of very cute shoes right now.  I would get these if I wore heels:

Or these if they would stay on my feet:

To a Tee

Not to be a broken record, but whenever I sew something from a knit, I talk about how knits scare me.  They're slippery and stretchy and unpredictable, and for the most part, I avoid them.  But paging through pattern books, I am always drawn to a few designs for knits, and I promise myself I will keep trying until I get more comfortable and can sew knits with impunity!  I've also been wanting more printed tops, so when I saw this fabric, I grabbed some and went looking for an easy tee shirt pattern.  Practice!

I settled on New Look 6856.  It looked extremely easy (no sleeves to set in!), three pattern pieces, and I like a boatneck.  First things first:  What stitch do I use?  My mom always says to use a shallow zigzag.  I've done so successfully in the past, but when I started to read through the directions, I noticed a line about "stretch stitches built into many conventional machines."  Hmm.  Might I have a strech stitch and not even realize it?

Turns out I have a jersey stitch.  I tried it on a scrap of my fabric and liked how it behaved, so that's what I used for constructing the tee.  I also read about overlock seams, but that requires a foot I don't have yet. 

For the most part, sewing the tee was a cinch.  The side seams and the hems took about ten minutes.  The neck, though, that gave me trouble.  I understand the concept--you have to stretch the neck band without stretching the body of the shirt--but I haven't mastered the skill.  After much ado, I finally managed to do a respectable job.  The back isn't as smooth as I'd like, but it will do. 

I don't think the top turned out to have as much of a boatneck as I first thought it would be.  I checked photos of other finished tees on Pattern Review and had to laugh, because no two necklines look the same!  I think there was some improvising going on!

 

One important thing to note is that I didn't add even a smidge of length to this top.  It is designed to be a generous length.  Hooray for New Look!

African Sunset

Back with another finished project!  This time it's Simplicity 2372, which is one of those sportswear patterns that doesn't look all that interesting on first glance.  The ensemble on the model did not appeal, but I wanted to give the top a try, because I'm always looking for simple patterns for cotton tops to wear in the summer.  In cases like this, I immediately remove all the pattern pieces unrelated to what I'm sewing and mark the envelope accordingly.  The cats love to have a pile of tissue to romp around in!  You can also use the pattern tissue as, well, tissue paper for wrapping little gifts.

The fabric is an African print I bought at the thrift shop, two yards for four dollars.  I wasn't actually crazy about the print, because I kept thinking of it as either bows or wrapped candies,but cutting in the other direction mitigated that, and now I really like it! The state of the price tag tells me I prewashed this at some point.  It's especially important to prewash ethnic fabrics like this, because you never know what sort of dyes they used.  I usually dump in about a half cup of salt for the first wash, to set the dye. 

I am pretty pleased with the result! 

I lined things up pretty well in the front...

...and in the back!

 There was one flaw in the fabric, which I didn't notice until it ended up right in the front.

I wore the top, as is, and it didn't seem too noticeable, but just to make myself feel better, I zigzagged over it with some matching thread, just to help it blend in.

My only problem was figuring out how to wear it.  The darkest color in the print is actually navy blue, but I don't own any navy bottoms.  I tried it with black for the pictures, but that seemed too stark.  Finally, I ended up wearing it with brown pants and a brown, beaded necklace.  I thought that did a nice job of warming it up! 

The Diplomat Dress

As promised, I'm back with the Diplomat dress from Lisette Patterns, Simplicity 1878.  I am in love with this pattern and this dress.  It is easy to sew and easy to wear.  Love, love, love, love, love!  I used a piece of fabric I bought way back in October of 2009.  It is a really nice quality cotton from Makower UK, and I bought several yards, because I had it earmarked for a dress all along!

Look!  SLEEVES!  And not fluttery sleeves or cap sleeves, either.  Lovely, short. but not too short, sleeves!  If you enlarge this picture, you may be able to see the detailing on the bodice.  Four pieces come together right under the vee, and there is topstitching.  It doesn't show up so well on this busy print, but it is a nice detail.

This is a back view showing the scariest part for me: the long zipper.  I don't mind doing skirt zips, because they're short and can be easily hidden if I screw up, but putting a zipper into a dress?  Yikes.  I have to say, though, this went in so easily, I am ready to try it again.

This is how uncomfortable I am posing!  I sometimes just freeze up because I don't know what the heck to do with myself.  But I know it just isn't the same seeing garments on a hanger, so I will stick with it!

A word on the length.  The dress length, view C, was not going to work for me.  View B, the tunic, looked better.  I ended up cutting view B with two inches added.  I wanted it to be knee length, and that's what it took on 5'9" me. 

Now that I'm back on the machine, I've decided to start posting reviews at PatternReview.com as well.  I'm heading over there now, and if all goes well, I will be back to add a link!

Whee!  My first review!  Click here!

Portfolio Top

Without further ado, a finished project!

This is not my preferred method of taking pictures, but I can't wait any longer to get back to posting about sewing projects!  I hope you've stuck around through all the fiscal fasting and living room redecorating, because the sewing machine is in business again!

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I just finished this top, which is Simplicity 2245, view C.  It's one of the Lisette patterns, and it's called the Portfolio top.  When the first set of Lisette patterns came out, I was really excited and bought them all.  Then, after looking at them some more, I realized they were mostly a little too unstructured and bohemian for me.  That sort of stuff appeals to me, but I'm never completely comfortable wearing it.  Tunics?  Love the look...on OTHER people.  But I still felt the pull of the cute styling on the pattern envelopes, so I decided to give the top a try.

The fabric I used is a cotton gauze.  This must be my first time sewing on gauze, because it's a pain, and I would have remembered!  It's wiggly and crinkly, frays easily, and demands to have everything finished to the Nth degree.  NOT the fabric to choose if you just want to fly through a sewing project!  But I already had it, I liked the color, and this was really meant to be a practice run, so I went ahead with it.

The pattern itself is not hard to put together, despite there being a lot of little extras such as the square yoke, the button loops, the cuffs, etc.  I would warn anyone who is tackling this top to choose their fabric carefully.  There is a LOT of piecing in the front, and any sort of directional design is going to make that really hard to navigate.  As it is, my fabric has a bit of a stripe from the weave, and I didn't always get it completely straight, which kind of bugs me.  Now imagine a pattern intersecting all around that square yoke piece.  Yikes!



Somewhere in my pre-sewing research, I read a review which cautioned against adding too much to the length.  Until then, I was planning to add a few inches, but I took their suggestion to heart and cut the pattern as is.  I figured I could eke a bit of length out of the hem if need be.  As it turned out, I sewed only a narrow hem rather than the 1 1/4 inch hem it called for, and I am happy with the length.  Too much more would mess up the proportions.

 

Overall, this came out better than I expected.  The pattern went together very smoothly (aside from a diversion when I followed directions for the wrong view), and I think it's a pretty flattering shape.  There are no sleeves to set in, if that's something that worries you, and I was happy to find that the gathering was minimal (I am not a fan of gathering!). 

 

Next up: Another Lisette pattern!  The Diplomat dress, Simplicity 1878.

 

Summer Sewing

My, my.  Look who has taken over as my sewing aide.  Isabella used to love to get in the way help with pattern layout, too!  Doesn't she look nice in navy?  I guess every cat thinks it's an invitation to lounge. 

I'm not sure what happened, but after a long hiatus, I am sewing again. Maybe it's because I am tired of some of the things I've made previously? In any event, I hit up the pattern sales at Jo-Ann's for some new ideas.  My pattern collection desperately needs a good look-through and some organizing.

Much as I like all the colored skinny jeans I see in magazines and on blogs, I don't think they are quite the thing for me.  I decided to improvise with an orangey skirt, although it isn't as bright as it looks in this picture!  All it needs is a hem, and then I'll take some pictures of it in action. 

I love the pockets!

There is MUCH to show, but I will hold off until I have proper photos.  Have you discovered any
new favorite patterns lately? 

Weekend Wrap Up

I don't know about you, but I got a TON done this weekend!  I cleaned, I organized, and I forced myself to work on jobs I've been avoiding.  For example, there's been a little pile of things on the kitchen counter waiting to be mailed for months, so I sat down and put everything into envelopes and addressed them.  Was that so hard?  No!  I also decided it was high time I reclaimed my laundry basket.  It's been filled with refashions and mending jobs since, oh, about the time I purged my wardrobe.  I worked on a few of them back in March, but that barely made a dent.  Today I finished SIX more things!  I sewed buttons, mended holes, shortened straps, and brought in the sides of a top I thrifted last summer.  But this is my favorite!

This is a Simply Vera Wang dress I bought several summers ago.  It was deeply on clearance, and it seemed like the chicest thing I'd ever seen.  I loved the print and the fact that it had pockets.  I loved the sleeves, and I loved the pleating detail at the neckline.  I pictured myself wearing this (maybe with leggings?) and looking, oh, I don't know, sort of urban or minimalist or Scandinavian or something! :)  But whenever I put it on...blah.  I felt like a housefrau in a muumuu.  It was not good, and putting a belt on it made it even more ridiculous.  I finally removed it from my closet, but I couldn't bring myself to throw it away.  Maybe I would use the fabric for something.

Well, today I got the idea to chop it off.  I played with it as a skirt, and then I played with it as a top.  I decided to go with the top, so as not to lose the pleating detail that had drawn me to it in the first place.  Well...it was better, I thought, but looking a bit maternity.

So next, I got out my handy dandy fashion ruler and took in the sides.  Now we're talking!  That looks so much better, don't you think?

And here it is, all hemmed and ready to go!  I left it long enough to belt, should I get the urge, and this was the best belt I could find in my closet.  I'd like to see it with a wider black belt or something brighter, but this is what I had handy.  Something to keep an eye out for at the thrifts!

Did you spot both kitties in my pics?

Refashioning Returns!

For me, the toughest part of No-Thing New has been trying not to shop for clothes.  I don't ordinarily buy a lot of brand new clothes anyway, but for the purposes of No-Thing New, I am trying not to buy anything secondhand either, unless I really need it.  For the first two months, I did pretty well.  I bent the rules and went thrift shopping on my birthday, and both Gerry and I went looking for shorts for the upcoming warm weather, but I didn't do a lot of pining for new things.  However, now that the trees are in bud, and the daffodils are blooming, I am VERY tempted to pop into the local thrifts to look for colorful, new-to-me duds. 

One thing I really did need was a white tee shirt.  Mine had a stain, which was fine for layering, so I happily wore it under sweaters all winter.  I looked at a few thrifts for a new one, but had no luck, because white tees just aren't the kind of thing that hold up well.  And, I confess, it was hard for me to resist looking at everything else in the store, so I wound up bringing home a black silk tank, a fleece jacket. and two sweaters.  Ooops.

I finally decided to just buy myself a brand new tee.  Sometimes that's probably the best course of action.  One trip to Marshalls, $5.99. 

Now that I'm feeling completely guilty about buying stuff I didn't really need, I am looking for other ways to satisfy my craving for something new.  I started by pulling out my refashion basket to see what I could find there.  The dress in the picture above was a thrift buy years ago.  I always intended to chop off the top and make a skirt.  No time like the present!  It turned out to be a bigger project than I expected, because I wanted to keep the lining intact, but it's finally done, and I have a "new" skirt!

I also chopped a few inches off a dowdy pair of capris to make a "new" pair of shorts.  They will be worn so much more now that they're a more flattering length.

Also on the agenda:  A blouse that needs new buttons, and tank that needs its straps shortened.  It's like getting new clothes, only it isn't!

Parsnips with Personality!

Here is one of those top-secret craft projects I was working on for Christmas:  parsnips with personality!  This year I was determined to gift my husband with homemade gifts.  Between the things I made and etsy, he only ended up with one commercially manufactured gift: a hat.  And now that I think about it, I'm a little upset with myself about that one, because it's something I could have made! 

Why parsnips?  Because Gerry loves parsnips like only an Irishman could.  We even grew our own parsnips from seed this year, and we are not enthusiastic gardeners!  One night I was checking etsy to see if the same seeds we grew this summer were available (not yet) and spotted a cute parsnip Christmas decoration from tazzyb on etsy.

Inspiration Parsnip

One change I made was to make the greens a little less antler-like.  Unfortunately, that also meant I didn't have such a great place to attach a hanger.  To solve that problem, I added some structure to the greens with floral wire--just bent it into shape and stitched it onto the felt.  The stiffened felt they sell would have worked as well, but I was determined to make do with what I had!

I just asked Gerry to contribute a comment to the blog about his parsnips.  Here is what he said:  I was surprised, and my heart was warmed by them! 

Health, Harmony, and Balance

So enough with the teasing...I was making miniature prayer flags! 

I've always loved the images of prayer flags in the Himalayas and the meaning behind them, so I thought it would be neat to make a little mini version for my Christmas tree.  I ended up going in a different direction with the tree this year, but still used the idea to make gifts for my friends at work. 

One of my favorite things about this project is it allowed me to use up some of the small pieces of fabric I've been saving!  I keep all my scraps sorted by color in big ziploc bags. 

 I rooted through the bags to find the five colors I needed: blue, white, red, yellow and green. 

I cut the individual blocks without measuring.  I wanted the finished product to be kind of loose and free and organic, so measuring or using a rotary cutter wouldn't have been appropriate!

 I used both solid and print fabrics.  If you are going to do the next step and rubber stamp on the flags, just try to use subtle prints so the words show up.  I think the flags would also be effective sans words, in which case you can use more busy prints, but for the ones I was giving as gifts, I wanted their meanings to be clear.

This little set of rubber stamps came from JoAnn Fabrics, and I bought it with a 50% off coupon.  It is a handy little thing to have around.

Each color represents one of the elements.  Blue is sky; white is air; red is fire; green is water; and yellow is earth.  You are going to want to do these assembly-line style!

Make yourself a pile of each color so you can just sit down at the sewing machine and fly through them!

Again, I'm not being very precise here.  I didn't want the finished banners to come out too perfect.  Just fold the top bit over a length of hemp cord...

...and sew a little channel in the flag.  Be careful not to catch the cording in the stitches!

I didn't clip the thread after each flag, because that would a) waste a lot of thread and b) take longer.  I just moved a little ways down the cording and continued with the next color.

It's sort of reminiscent of when I made my first quilt ever!

Once you have all five colors on there, you can cut all those threads at once.

Nice and neat.

Then slide all your flags together and tie a knot at each end so they don't slide right off the cording!

And there you have it!

I am including a little explanation with the flags, explaining that my simplified version of prayer flags is meant to be a wish for health, harmony, and balance in the coming year.