Post Thanksgiving

Happy Monday, everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  I just came back into town yesterday after a marvelous vacation in Southern California with my family.  The weather was gorgeous and the crowds at Disneyland plentiful.

I came home yesterday to find that my two Colette Patterns had arrived.


Clover


Jasmine

Wow!  I must say that these are the nicest patterns I've ever seen!  The Big 4 could certainly learn a thing or two from Colette.  Rather than coming in a paper envelope with tissue paper patterns, these came in a sort of "book" for the instructions and tucked in the back flap was the pattern printed on higher quality paper than the Big 4 use for theirs. I actually feel I'm getting something for my money.

I think I will make the Clover pants first.  I have tons of fabric at home I can use.  I think I also have fabric I can use for the Jasmine top, too but I have to look at the fabric recommendations first before I make my final decision on those.

Stay tuned to see which fabrics I use.  Have a great day and keep on sewing!

Colette Patterns

I just bought my first two Colette Patterns  and I'm really excited.  I've been eying these patterns for quite some time and I thoroughly enjoyed making the Sorbet and I wear it constantly.  It was so easy and it turned out great. I got the Clover pants and the Jasmine top.  Links to the patterns are below the pictures.


clover


jasmine

These pants might just replace my Vogue cigarette pants but we'll see.  I really like that the pants have a pocket.  Pockets are very important to me.

On other fronts, I'm determined to do some sewing this weekend although, the coming holiday may very well throw that idea out the window.  I don't have much to do other than clean the house and do laundry, as I'm not cooking this Thanksgiving.  Whew!  But, it will be an uneventful weekend with plenty of sewing time.  I might just give my husband's boxers a second go.

Have a great day and keep on sewing!

Vogue 1264

I'm wanting to begin making these cigarette pants but I fear I've purchased the wrong size.  In RTW, I wear a size 12-13.  In sewing, I usually wear a size 14. 

I pulled out this pattern over the weekend to finally begin and looking on the pattern pieces, the finished measurements of size 14 are 10 inches smaller than my measurements!! Even the waistband is considerably smaller.  I can't imagine that I'll have to cut a size 22 - and in the process have to buy another pattern.

This comes as one of my biggest obstacles in sewing - getting the right fit.  I take some quick measurements before every project because goodness knows, the older I get, the more I'm changing.  I match them up to the pattern and even estimate the finished pattern measurements before I cut.  Lately however, I've been relying on the printed finished measurements on the pattern pieces to guide me.  So far, I've been fairly fortunate. 

This pattern though, has really thrown me for a loop.

I hate the idea of making muslin's because I like more instant gratification but I fear I will have to do it in this case.  I really don't want to buy another pattern and if I  need a bigger size, it would be too much work to just re-trace a larger size from this pattern.

So, muslin it is.  I don't have any muslin fabric so I will have to stop at Goodwill and see if they have a cheap sheet I can use as a muslin.

Wish me luck!

Kwik Sew boxer shorts

Yes, yes, I know. I'm just now finishing up from the Male Pattern Boldness Men's Boxer Short Sew Along here and I'm seriously disappointed with mine.  My waistband is uneven (see top of picture - one side is nicely gathered but the other, *sigh*) but that isn't the worst of it.  Take a look:

The flaps veer out when they should be one on top of the other, correct?  In addition, there isn't anything on the instructions to finish the right bottom flap and I didn't realize it until it was too late to do anything about it.

Another problem is the bottom seam.  They are uneven!  The front is much narrower than the back.  So, how is it the manufacturer could make such a blunder??  (Heh, yes, I'm sure I cut the same size, front and back)

These have turned out so horrible that I will need to start all over.  I suppose I shouldn't be too disappointed because that means another trip to the fabric store to get more elastic.  But, I really liked this fabric, as did my husband, and I really don't know where I went wrong.

So, I picked out the elastic and will try again with another bit of fabric I had.  Wish me luck!

Gone with the Wind - for boys!

We are in the middle of potty training my little guy and because the weather has gotten considerably colder, he is wearing pants.  The potty training is hit and miss but like most boys, he forgets he needs to go and has an accident on his clothing. Because of this, we have been changing his pants at least twice a day and have gone through all his clean clothes in one weekend.  So, I decided it was time to make some easy pull on pants for him.  Oh, I feel so Scarlett O'Hara!

Out of an old pair of curtains made from this great olive twill:

They are a little long but I don't care.  They work.

It was already hemmed so I didn't need to do that step.

I was going to make more pairs for him out of old jeans that we don't  - ahem, er, um - fit into anymore but I put those aside to try and complete the boxers for my husband.  So far, I'm not happy with them.  More on that next post.

So, whaddya think?

Have a great day and keep on sewing!

Sewing Book Review

Hello, everyone.  I’ve been so busy lately and then came down with a bad cold, I haven’t had much time to blog.  Yet, I did receive something in the mail from Amazon that I’m happy to share with you.

As I’ve written before, I’ve been looking for sewing classes to take but haven’t really found anything that works with my schedule or sewing level.  In my search, I came across a certification program through Association for Sewing & Design Professionals that I thought looked pretty interesting.  Although I do not feel I am a good enough seamstress to take a certification course, I did download the book list required for the program.  Many of the books were ones I already had by authors we’ve all heard of – Susan Khalje, Claire Shaeffer, etc. – but, I found a book I hadn’t heard of yet.  It’s called Dressmaking: A Step-by-Step Course by Leila Aitken .

When the book arrived, I noticed it was a little outdated with many of the pictures from the 1980s but I think it is a great little book for beginners.  The pictures are clear and the directions simple.  There isn’t too much information, which can be nice for a beginner.  The book doesn’t talk too much about fitting or tailoring clothing but it *is* about dressmaking so it isn’t bogged down with tutorials on sewing pillows or stuffed animals, which is also nice (I personally pass up many sewing books because they are filled with cute crafty projects - but I'm really not interested in making pillows too often, and how many fabric satchels can you have? heh).

I believe though, that I really need to think about buying any more sewing books. I have an entire library of books with the same sewing information and Dressmaking is just one more.  Granted, I’m a book lover and I always feel that one book may talk about the same steps but say it in such a way that it’s different and thus, something I didn’t understand before suddenly becomes clear.

 As an intermediate seamstress, I found Vogue Sewing Revised and Updated to be far more encompassing and thorough however, Dressmaking is geared more towards a beginner. 

That's all for now.  We are expecting rain in Phoenix this weekend and I have my sewing project all ready to begin.

Have a great day and keep on sewing!