Off the Clock

At the suggestion of some members on sewing.patternreview.com I've decided to try NewLook 6735 for my next project (click the pic to embiggen - 6735 is in the middle). This is a popular pattern on patternCentral and the top looks flattering on everyone that has posted to the review gallery . So off I went to my local Fabricland (I haven't decided if it is a blessing or a curse that it is 2 minutes from my house) to buy NewLook 6735. When I went to cash out the cashier said it was $1.67. WHAAATT?? Apparently they are getting out of selling NewLook patterns so they are on sale. Well. Needless to say, I headed back to the pattern books. I ended up with nine patterns for about $15. The cheap b@stard in me is very happy, even though I bought three dress patterns and I never wear dresses! lol I rarely see women in dresses where I live but maybe it's up to me to change that? Either way I have lots to drool over and plan over the holidays. No one ever accused me ...

so it looks like the blonde model in the grey tee is wearing view A; with negative ease? Really? I don't have much experience sewing with knits. Actually I don't have a lot of experience with any sewing lately. I often end up with work related shirts that are men's shirts, and as much as I often want the logo on the shirt, I don't like the cut. I have had some success adding vertical darts to some men's button down shirts, so a few years ago I bought a basic tee pattern, Butterick 5215 , with the goal of re-making some of the t-shirts. Well truth be told I haven't had much luck with that . So I decided to smarten up and learn to make a tee that I am happy with. When I had cut out B5215 I was using view B, the semi-fitted version. I think I shied away from version A, the fitted version, because it has negative ease and I wasn't sure that would work out with the existing tees. So this time around I decided to make a wearable muslin with view A. First I t...

I promised in an earlier post to post pics of my roman blinds. After the t-shirt disasters I needed something positive to post, and these blinds definitely qualify. I've lived here for twelve years and never put any window dressings in my kitchen. I didn't want to do regular curtains which could come across as bulky in my smallish kitchen. I have had mini blinds in other kitchens and they end up all caked in grease and dirt and are so hard to clean. So I just left those two windows bare. I figured it is good to see what is going on outside, and it let in all the light. Then this summer I was looking at the fabric rolled blinds my sister-in-law made for her kitchen window at her cottage, and I fell in love. I decided to go with roman shades instead of ones that you hand roll and tie up. I used 1"x2" pine for the header and stapled the finished blind to it, then used small metal brackets to mount them in the window frame. I initially just tacked the wooden dowels...

Because this learning curve is so steep! Lol I've been hemming jeans this week. Regular length jeans are just a tad too short when washed and "tall" jeans are too long, so either one often needs an adjustment. First I let down an old pair that was just a tad short. Yes, you can tell they've been let down, but they are old and faded so will be ok for very casual pants. Then I did an old pair that are too long, but I decided today I didn't shorten them enough. Finally I shortened a brand new pair and they turned out just right. Whew! I used a little trick I picked up from this video where you cut out a notch on the double seam so that that part of the hem only gets folded up once to eliminate bulk. I found that worked really well. Then last night I worked on three projects. Two were disasters. First I re-shortened the still-too-long jeans and now I'm happy with them. It went downhill from there. I moved on to a t-shirt project. Now this is a remake of a sto...

When Steve got married I finally felt justified in taking over his bedroom permanently. I wanted to turn it into a dressing/sewing/craft room, but being as it was the smallest bedroom at 9' x 10' there wouldn't be room for everything I wanted to do. Because it is now essentially a large walk-in closet, I don't have room for a cutting table, or a soaping table, or much else for that matter. The more I thought about it I knew that even a dedicated sewing machine table would just end up getting burried with other stuff and be a major pain to be able to do a quick mending project. I wanted something where I could leave the machine set up for a quick fix but not be in the way. Then I realized the closet was no longer being used for clothes because I made the wall my clothes storage area. So instead I made my sewing space inside the bedroom closet. I bought a 4' length of countertop and installed it inside the closet. I made sure I could fit a couple of rolling stor...

Final exams, that is. Although I'm still wondering how it can be that I take two classes and BOTH final exams are on Saturday nights! At least I can see light at the end of the tunnel with only one more semester to go. I have to focus this week for my programming exam next Saturday because I really don't know this stuff but I'm just hoping for a pass in this class. Then I can crack the covers on my two new books and play with fabric and such until January :) Feel free to leave any comments on the books if you're familiar with them. In other sewing stuff I finished the second pair of jammie pants out of the eyeball fabric . I made them an inch higher in the waist and longer in the legs. I also bypassed using ties at the waist instead just tightening up the elastic a bit. They are comfortable and look presentable. I may never wear regular pants on the weekends again! lol So for eye candy this week I thought I'd share my improvised cutting table (sorry for...

Well I finished the jammie pants and I have to say that I am happy with them (ignore the mess in my dressing room). So much so that I never took them off all weekend! lol They turned out pretty much identical to the pair I was copying, which seems like a "no duh" thing to say but things don't always turn out that way in my experience. Yes, they are low-cut, but I find that cut comfortable and I usually wear a long top with them (I'm holding it out of the way in the pic). I did cut the second pair an inch higher in the waist and longer in the leg. I'm not sure that was necessary but even though I pre-shrunk the fabric you just never know if there's a little shrinkage left in there. I am so excited about these that I am planning another trip to the fabric store to stock up on flannel while it's still on sale {evil grin}

I can't believe my last post was in 2011. I don't imagine I even have anyone following my feed anymore. So I guess this is starting from scratch. There have been a lot of changes in my life, with the biggest being the death of my son just over a year ago. I'm not going to get into that right now, perhaps I will at a later date but I want to keep this post positive. My daughter got married this summer and I was adopted by two new cats that I call Holley and Mallory (as in Holley carbs and Mallory ignitions lol). That's all I'm going to get into the personal stuff for this initial "back from the badlands" post, so I will move right along to projects.  I was always into the knitting for my blog posts, and part of the reason for me being absent for so long is because with my night school on top of full-time work I haven't had a lot of time for crafty stuff. Well I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel school-wise, ...