my first project

A few posts back I commented that I don't usually make clothing out of tablecloths except in one case. Well, my very first apparal project for myself was made out of just that - a tablecloth.

From the time that I was 7, I was sewing. Granted, I was sewing doll clothes and blankets, as well as aprons, potholders and these cute little animal pillows that my grandmother and I designed together (I should post on these later). As my skills and confidence progressed, I was allowed to help make my clothes, but never to complete them from start to finish.

One day when I was 14 (and I surprisingly remember this day vividly) I was going through my mom's stash (she's worse than I'll ever be) and came across this really fun and funky looking fabric. I pulled it out, asked mom if I could have it (which she looked at it with disgust and said "please, take it") and then proceeded to pick out the right pattern. My mom had all of her patterns from when she was a teenager, so I found a pattern for these great hip-hugger bell bottom pants. Not really knowing completely what I was doing, I measured myself and then looked at the pattern. I determined my size and cut those suckers out. I did know enough that I would have to lengthen them by a couple of inches (at 14, I was the same height I am today - 5'10") but I didn't know that the lengthening needed to happen at a point other than the hem - so that's where I added them (making them even MORE bell-bottomy than they already were).

This is the finished product:


I had enough of this tablecloth leftover and I used it to make an A-line mini skirt. I think I made both pants and skirt in a weekend.

Here is the skirt:


Here is an up-close of the fabric:


I wore both the skirt and pants quite a bit until I completely outgrew them. I was a late bloomer - it wasn't until my junior year of high school that I started growing out of my Twiggy look (yes, I'm 28 and I know who Twiggy is).

Until I was a junior in high school all of the apparel sewing I did was random, spur of the moment, pick whatever I felt like using from my mom's "throw away" stash. I never even thought to take the time to match up patterns - and I probably wouldn't have even if I did have the thought. Sadly, the skirt and pants made from the same hippie tablecloth is all I have left from those days (any pictures of me in any of my other strange creations burned up in a fire two years ago).

Those were the days - if only I could get away without having to do any real alterations today and still have something that was cute and wearable (at least in my distorted 14-year old brain)!

My next post will be about my first REAL project that was actually planned and had a purpose - my junior prom dress. I just have to find the picture of 16 year-old me wearing it!

a quickie

Today I was in need of some instant gratification. The fabric for hubby's shirt is giving me fits and I needed to bust out something quick and easy. One of my friends was having a birthday today (although I won't see her again until Tuesday) and I was planning on making her an apron so I decided that today was the day.

I used McCall's 3979 which is a vintage apron in 5 styles. The sizes run S-XL but my friend is a very small petite (4'11" and less than 100lbs) so I adjusted the pattern to what would be an XS and shortened it by 2". I did a full review on PR that can be found here. It's a pretty simple pattern and I used quilting cotton in pinks and browns as well as purchased brown bias binding. Next time I make this pattern I will make my own binding but I was a little pressed for time. If given more time, I would have made binding from the pink paisley print.

Here is the finished product:







I have a few more people with this pattern in mind. It's a really cute vintage design.

the poppy jacket is finished!

The poppy jacket is finally DONE! You can read my PR review here.

Here is the finished product:

Here is the inside of the jacket:
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I'm glad this beast is finally done, now I can focus on the other projects I have planned!

Read all posts on this project here.

some changes

Today I did some housecleaning on the blog. I removed some dead links from some of the older posts so that anyone who might be looking back at those posts won't wonder what happened to the links and pictures.

I also put up progress bars (courtesy of Yarn Tomato) to keep track of the projects that I have coming up...because I have a lot.

That's it for now. I hope to have the final update for the Poppy Jacket up this week as well as Hubby's shirt that I'm currently working on. If I can figure out what's wrong with my buttonholer on my ancient Singer, I hope to have it totally done by the end of the weekend. If not, I'll have to wait until my mechanical genius of a mother comes up to visit me in a couple of weeks.

making progress...

just not as much as I would like. I didn't get my poppy jacket finished just yet. Too many other things have gotten in the way. All that needs to be done is applying elastic to the sleeve cuffs and then hemming the cuffs (I want the elastic so that when I lose more weight, the sleeves won't look super-huge on my *hopefully* thinner arms). Once the sleeves are finished I just need to add eyelets to the belt and sew the beltloops on and it's done! I WILL finish it tonight after work.

I have been getting sidetracked by my husband's need for new shirts. He really likes retro/bowling shirts and wants a collection of shirts in different color block variations. I think I will make a whole series of posts about these shirts because if he has his way, he'll have 20 when I'm done. I have ordered some polyester poplin from Vogue Fabrics for his first "real" bowling shirt and then will evaluate whether or not to continue making them of the same fabric. Hubby will probably love it, I'm not a fan of making clothing out of tablecloths (except when I was 14, but that's a story for another day).

For the first "muslin" of the pattern and process, I'm going to use black and burgundy peachskins that I got at Denver Fabrics. Hubby really likes the fabric and will definitely wear the shirt so it's a good choice for a wearable muslin.

More to come, so stay tuned!

slight diversion

Hubby and I took a 4 day weekend trip to the lake house to spend some time with his parents. I have taken a bit of time to finish up the final touches of the poppy jacket (which I hope to post here tomorrow). In the meantime, I found a small diversion from relaxing.

As with everyone else, I blame this on Gorgeous Things.

You are Strength

Courage, strength, fortitude. Power not arrested in the act of judgement, but passing on to further action, sometimes obstinacy.

This is a card of courage and energy. It represents both the Lion's hot, roaring energy, and the Maiden's steadfast will. The innocent Maiden is unafraid, undaunted, and indomitable. In some cards she opens the lion's mouth, in others she shuts it. Either way, she proves that inner strength is more powerful than raw physical strength. That forces can be controlled and used to score a victory is very close to the message of the Chariot, which might be why, in some decks, it is Justice that is card 8 instead of Strength. With strength you can control not only the situation, but yourself. It is a card about anger and impulse management, about creative answers, leadership and maintaining one's personal honor. It can also stand for a steadfast friend.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

fabric, fabric, everywhere there's fabric!

I got a package from UPS the other day containing the coral chainlink fabric I bought from Gorgeous Things!! It is so fabulous. I'm thinking of making a dress with it. While my original inspiration for that fabric was the Hot Patterns Cosmopolitan dress, after seeing that Ann had made the exact same dress, I decided to find another pattern. I have several weddings to attend over the summer and into the fall so this fabric would definitely fit the bill for one of the late summer weddings!

On another note, I also ordered several more yards of fabric from Gorgeous Things. First, if any of you don't recall an earlier post where I had talked about not only buying the chain link, but also the Stylized Floral Knit and the Bright Floral Cotton Stretch. Well, the next post discussed how I ended up not getting the Stylized Floral. This is OK, I replaced it with the Hot House Flowers Knit Print in blue

I also took full advantage of Ann's Wild Wednesday Sale she had yesterday and bought:
3 yards of the Black,White&Yellow Floral Stretch Woven, 2 yards of the Cabana Stripe knit in pink, 2 yards of the Cabana Stripe knit in turquoise, 2 yards of the Aqua Mesh and 1 yard of the White Sheer Ottoman Knit

I should have these sometime next week.

poppy jacket #1

I *finally* found time to finish the muslin of Simplicity 4698. Ok, so I didn't do as complete a muslin as I should have - but I was so dumb for thinking that I could just cut out the 22 and alter it down from there. After taking in almost 3" in the back, I decided to tear it apart, cut it at a size 18 and start over. What was fascinating to me was that the straight size 18 fit pretty darn perfectly (with the exception of my 1-1/2" length alteration). I decided not to worry too much about other alterations and just go for it - especially after seeing that JoAnn's has two more bolts of the fabric in stock. I've been too busy working on the jacket to download the pictures to post, but I'll rundown the changes I have made (or have planned):

Fit alterations:
The only fitting changes I made was to add 1-1/2" to the length

Other changes:
Sleeves - Instead of the long sleeve or 3/4 sleeve options, I decided to use a short, cuffed sleeve from a shrug jacket pattern I already had in my stash. It was a one-piece sleeve. The gathered cap and bottom looked cute on my muslin fabric, but I think the twill may be a bit heavy for the look, so I may just pleat the cap and bottom to get the same fullness without puckery-looking gathers.

Closure - I awoke from a deep sleep several nights ago with the idea of having a buckle/belt closure for a jacket (the original idea stemmed from this great piece of black velveteen I've had in the stash for a couple of years). Since the poppy fabric was relatively inexpensive ($5/yd), I decided to test out the idea on this jacket. It should work well since I am making View E, which is the single-button front. I will attach the belt to the side seams, have a pair of belt-loops on each side to keep the belt from flopping about.

Embellishment - Since the fabric is quite busy (and impossible to match the pattern without several additional yards of fabric) I thought it might make be a nice touch to bind the edges. I opted for a white bias binding (I was originally going to use a white twill, but it was too heavy, and white satin was too shiny and transparent - so I just went with the pre-made stuff). I edged the belt in a narrow binding and the jacket will be done in a slightly wider binding.

Finishing - Because I decided not to line it at all (just using a high thread-count white sateen cotton for the facings to keep a clean look), I used a modified Hong Kong finish completely binding the seams. The front princess seams were heavily clipped, so I pressed those towards the center front and am going to enclose those in the facing instead of binding them. I also think I'll make the center-front seam just a bit larger than usual to ensure that the front pieces meet in the center rather than overlap. I would ordinarily cut off the extra allowance first, but because I'm experimenting I wanted to make sure I wouldn't change my mind and have to go to the store and buy more fabric to start over.

There are some things that I would do differently next time, but those will be saved for the next - and probably final - post on this jacket.

Read all posts on this project here.