Off the Clock

My daughter messaged me late last night to tell me she's been invited to a birthday party with a 50's pinup theme - and of course she has nothing to wear. I told her I would sleep on it. Feeling somewhat refreshed this morning, I agreed to make her a dress. Mom turned me on to Gertie and her blog, and I knew that I would find something appriate starting there. Darling daughter and I messaged back and forth today and we have settled on Butterick 6049 . Here's Gertie's blog post about this dress. Daughter loved this dress right off the bat, which made me really happy because it is marked as "easy". As I told her, that makes the whole thing much more likely to happen lol. We have to decide if we are going to go whole hog with a crinolin and all, but that decision can wait until the dress is done. In the meantime here is a little gif that made my inner geek smile.

 I love Talk Like a Pirate Day. Every year I get into the spirit with lots of "Aaarrrr"s and "Aye Matey"s and "shiver me timbers". When I was leaving work today I reminded the guys that tomorrow is Talk Like a Pirate Day. So imagine my face when I ran across this fabric at the fabric store's 50% off sale! I mean really - what are the odds of running across this adorable pirate fabric the day before TLAPD? It's not like I was looking for it; I was there buying lining for a couple of jackets I'm thinking of making. So needless to say I knew what I had to get done tonight. I washed and dried the fabric - a cotton poly blend with no lycra. Somehow I managed to stretch out the neckline when topstitching. I'm still not sure how that happened, because I thought Phoebe's IDT system was supposed to stop that from happening. To try and fix it I tried sewing a bit of clear elastic across the back of the neckline. It's minimally ...

I've been busy sewing for my daughter for the last while. She's got a skirt, a sleeveless tee and a short sleeved tee from - what else - New Look 6735 . The problem, well actually there were a couple, is that the skirt ended up a little on the short side (in my humble opinion) for my tall daughter, so I added a yoke from McCalls 6966 . The other problem is that she didn't want the back seam on the tees. No problem, I can cut it on the fold. Except that I forgot when I laid it out and cut it for the seam. Twice. I have fabric to make her two more tees but I need her to try on what I've got done so far. I did write on the bag with her pattern tracing to "cut with a double fold!!!", so hopefully I get it right next time.  Sheesh! So my aim this week has been to do some sewing for me.  An idea I picked up from the internet was to made a 3/4 sleeve tee with a matching infinity scarf.  I saw this done in a pretty solid sage green, and it looked almost like ...

When I first got back into sewing last winter I started stockpiling fabric. Initially I was more disciplined and bought fabric with specific patterns in mind to use them for. Then I started having some success with knits, and bought knits every time they were on sale just to build a stash. The whole fabric-buying concept has turned rather willy nilly with no game plan in place. This isn't quite as disastrous as it sounds because I mostly live in jeans and so knit tops always "go". But I've read a couple of posts lately about wardrobe planning that has made me think I need to be putting more planning into my purchases. Sometimes less is more. I found a new blog to follow, The Vivienne Files , which is all about wardrobe planning. There is an excellent post that talks about the Chanel theory where the author quotes Chanel as saying "One shouldn't spend all one's time dressing. All one needs are two or three suits, as long as they and everything to go wit...

Yes, that's a very corny title, I know. I've been intrigued by the idea of using a press iron ever since I saw one on the website from the shop where I ended up buying Phoebe. The really pretty fancy-dancy red one shown in that video is the one in the pic from my sewing machine store but they don't actually carry that model. Just as well because I believe it runs for around $1,200. The model they do carry is "marked down" to $600, although a quick internet search has it showing up from a number of U.S. retailers for $400. But once I add the Cdn conversion, shipping and duty charges there's not much of a difference in price. My mom has an old cast iron model that she lent me to see if it is something I really want to get. I did struggle with getting the "perfect" press I wanted out of her press, but I think that is party due to not being able to press hard enough on hers and partly due to a lack of experience on my part. Which still left me with th...

Thor loves a good photobomb Well, here's the first incarnation of the Style Arc "Ann" tee .  Let's see if we can count how many ways it went wrong. This was a downloadable pattern being offered for free for a limited time.  Style Arc is a popular indie pattern company out of Australia, and they have a strong following.  It's a scooped neck tee with side ruching on the front. The pattern prints out with full front and back (rather than half cut on the fold).  This was my first time with this and a bit of an adjustment for cutting out.  I used the 12 because that is what my measurements called for, compared to the 14 I use in "Big 4" patterns.  I need to fold the pattern in half to compare it to my TNT NL6735.  It didn't seem too big until I started sewing it together. To be honest I think most of the problems came from the fabric.  This is a thin mesh polyester knit.  I bought it because I loved the pattern on it.  And because t...

Some folks find it challenging to post links on Pattern Review.  Since I spend so much time there I thought I'd do a bit of a tutorial to help those who like visuals.  Hopefully this doesn't make it even more confusing! lol First you need to get the address for where you want to link to.  I had been looking at sewing videos on Youtube so I am using that in this example.  Go to that page and copy the address information from the bar at the top of the page. Next go to your Pattern Review page where you are posting your message.  Click on the http:// button. Then paste the address into the window that opens up, being sure to remove the http:// that is already in the box.  One thing that messes some people up is that they don't remove the http:// that is already in the box when they paste in their address which leaves the address with two sets of http:// at the beginning and will end up with a "broken link"; the link won't work.   There needs ...