That Was Quick!

by Kimberlee

Wow, the month of June just flew by, didn't it?  I apologize for taking so much time off from Magpie, and I hope I didn't lose too many of my dear readers for it!  I've had many things unrelated to arts & crafts going on, so I needed a little break.

But it doesn't mean I wasn't thinking of you all!  I have some exciting things in the works, from the Renaissance Faire coming up to a very possible launch of an Etsy store!  I can't say much about the Etsy thing yet, but I'm working on a few products that I haven't seen anywhere else.  Needless to say, I am very excited, and also plan on making it part of a future give away.

Before I get into some of the things going on, I'd like to thank my friend Amy for lending me the fantastic book, The Crafter's Devotional. I hadn't been aware of this book, but it has been very inspirational and has gotten some of my creative juices re-flowing after June's crafter's block.  I haven't yet begun to follow the plan, but have as of yet just been absorbing the book.  So thank you, my wonderful friend, for you and your husband's visit, your beautiful gifts and most of all your belief and faith in me and my talents. Oh, and for teaching me how to knit on those circular needles!

I have good and bad news about our Green Thumb Projects.  The good is that the community garden seems to be going very well, unfortunately the weather for getting a lot done in there has been bad, flailing wildly from average atmosphere on Venus to pounding rain, with little usable days in-between, but we've fortunately lost little of our crop, and do plan on also doing a Autumn harvest. 

Sadly, the Plant Condo (aka the palette project) has failed.  It was doing very well, so much so that I had harvested lettuce from it.  In retrospect now, I am happy I had the wherewithal to take photos of the first salads made from the patio crop...

...as they were the only ones.  All it took was a couple of days of searingly hot weather to kill half the plants in the palette.  I don't know if it was how the water drained through the set-up, or if the wood was just bed, or what.  I re-planted those left living, and they seem to be doing fine, excepting the strawberries that may or may not make it.  All the other patio plants are doing amazing well, however:

Gangbusters!

 

And a few other odds & ends - I haven't made a piece of clothing in a dog's age!  I think I lost a lot of my confidence after a number of failures, but I currently have a piece on Betty that just needs to be sewn, and I am really excited about it:

Simplicity 2472

All she needs is to be sewn, and I am thinking about adding elastic to the waist (what do you think?  I'd appreciate opinions), so wish me luck!  I've promised myself that if I mess up this one, I'm just going to try the pattern again.  I'm simply a little rusty on the machine, I think, and many here I hope can sympathize with losing your mojo.

I also finally settled on an outfit for this year's Ren Faire. I had made my own garb for last year's faire, but this year I decided I wanted to order a basic outfit that I could customize to my heart's desire, and I finally settled on this beautiful set. Please check back to see how I add to this already lovely dress!

Well, that's it for now.  Thank you so much for catching up with me!

New Year's Re-sew-lutions

by Kimberlee


One of the things I have trouble doing if finishing a project.  I'll get discouraged and put it away, then start something new, or more likely become excited about something new!  So here are my Re-sew-lutions for sewing that I will finish this year.  It should be interesting to see what I manage to hold to.  In no particular order!

This is Butterick 5398, one of the first patterns I bought and possibly the best bang for the buck (literally, it cost a buck), considering it is an entire wardrobe.  I've tried to make the very easy dress a few times - once I was short on fabric after I had cut the rest, once I cut all the fabric but it fell apart during sewing, etc etc.  But I love these designs, and want to do them all (in the same colors, too) as the patterns - except for the pants, which are no great shakes.  I also want lime green flats now, too.

The Yellow One from B5045. I don't know what it is about how the yellow is cut, but it looks super comfy.  I want to make it out of some fabric that is both casual but fancy at the same time, and I'd be happy to take ANY suggestions!

Something awesomely retro. I have yet to make a retro item (Ren Faire notwithstanding, but possibly too retro), but I really want to make something that looks straight out of a classic movie.  I love these robes(B5152), and I'd get a lot of use from them, as I practically live in pajamas. It would be really cool to make a fabulous retro party dress, too, which brings me too...

I've had this pattern, Simplicity 2444, for a very long time as well, but I've been waiting for a dress form to finish it.  Now that I have one, and a muslin for the bodice, I'm excited to make a custom fitted party dress.  The PR patterns are a little funky, more exactly the instructions are, and were definitely too much for a beginning sewist.  I'm making the pink dress in the drawing, as I'm not a "huge bow" kind of gal.  More power to you all who are, but it's not how I roll.

This dress should be easier but I may be cursed.  S2472 is a dress/tunic option with a really cute belt.  Like, supercute.  Why did mine wind up looking like a tshirt and why are the instructions for the belt mystifying? I'm open to any fabric suggestions!  Much like this pattern, the next re-sew-lution is mostly made:

I was into capes before anyone else.  One of my most beloved pieces of clothing is a poncho/cape I bought at Top Shop for 50 lbs (when one pound = 2 dollars!).  I knew it would be a while before I was on a High Street again, and it was so perfect and army green, and then I had to go get cash out because there's some chip in English credit cards that American cards don't have, etc etc. But this was over 3 years ago!  Now I want to make this cape, and C (the blue one) is at home, all cut, but for some reason there is no lining, and without a lining it has about a two week wear-season here in MN.  So I created a lining which I have to figure out how to put in, and want to make a hood to go with it.  I don't know how to make a hood, so I have been studying the hood on my beloved cape like crazy, hoping to match it.

A great pair of pants.  I'm terrified to make pants.  I just don't know how to.  Before the end of the year, I will make a pair, learning how to...

...by following a book learning course.  This wonderful book, which was on my Amazon wishlist and was picked up by a friend, is like a sewing 101 course for beginners, and one of the things I dearly want to do this year is to start at the beginning and, with Betty's help, follow it in order.  At the end, I think I'll be a much better seamstress and of course have a wardrobe made to fit my body perfectly.

Make a tee shirt quilt.  Several sites have instructions on this, and I plan to follow a mix of traditional quilting and the instructions in Generation t (love this book!).  And if this is a way to preserve something for an eternity, why don't I..

...make an Infinity Dress. The latest issue of Quick Stuff to Sew has an infinity dress pattern that I am dying to try.  In fact, I am dying to try a LOT of things in the mag, and elsewhere, but I figure things that are a day project don't need to be listed here.  Inspiration is everywhere, and one site I'm often inspired by is BurdaStyle.

Talea

 

Talea

Malissa

At least one of these projects.  Ideally, I'd get to all three.  The Talea Skirt is already cut and ready to sew, and that leaves me deciding whether to do the dress or the jacket next.  Thoughts?

Overarching Resewlution

Learn to Knit
Make Something that Can Be Sold
Get 100 Followers
Have Enough of a Wardrobe to wear all my own clothes for 2 weeks

Little Dress on the Prarie

by Kimberlee

I DID IT!!!!!  I finished my very first real live dress.  The design is McCalls's M5925 (without Adding 'McCall's to the M5925, Google gives you strange things,seriously try it), which I bought at one of JoAnn's $.99 sales, and fell into obsession with immediately - moving it to the top of my sewing chart.

hanging out by the porch corn

I used the arms from A and the body from C, though I think I'll go for a straight B or D in a plain flannel or supersoft cotton next time, like broadcloth, rather than the for-quilts cotton I used this time. But I do love the pattern and colors,and I'm sure it will soften up with a few more washes.

PLUS, I really learned how to sew long stitches and make ruffles, not to mention matching nap.  The plaid on both designs was pretty easy, as it was alike both upside down and right side up AND left to right.  But back to those ruffles...

ruffles across the chest, in the sleeves and in the skirt

 PLUS>>>

all across the back!

All in all, I'm thrilled with how it turned out.  I think with all this ruffle practice, I am definitely making my petticoat skirt and a ruffled pillow next.  But before that, let me show you my awesome hat (a friend of my friend Tara knitted the flower).

How much does this hat kick ass?

AND IN CONCLUSION

YAY IT'S DONE

My First Muslin AND First Darts

by Kimberlee
 I've been terrified by one of my patterns that I've also been dying to make, Simplicity 2444.  I haven't been sewing that long, about a year, and I only made my first dress about a month ago, but I've had the pattern for A WHILE now, back to when I used my archaic New Home/Janome machine.  Did you know that only one place in the entire US carries parts for this type of machine, and it's in California?  Yeah, me neither until it broke.  Which is ok because it weighed about 25 lbs and didn't even have a reverse setting.

Anyway, one of the reasons I was so scared of the pattern was the presence of darting in the bodice, but I shouldn't have been.  I also am so relieved I chose to do a muslin of this dress!  I killed two birds with one stone (not that I would, I love birds) by getting a jump start on the apron I've been wanting to make and discovering that the pattern I was using would be a little too snug for me.

 Don't say you haven't ever used a chair as a dress form.

Fairly well made darts, not bad for the first time.

So that's it!  Next time, I'll try not to be so afraid of trying a new trick!  It's only sewing, after all.

The A-Line, the Stitch and the Wardrobe Series

by Kimberlee

I have an obsession that I suspect many of you share - JoAnn's one dollar pattern deals.  It's a great chance to save tons of cash (my last receipt told me that I had saved 107 dollars!), and to pick up stuff I would normally feel guilty about.  I would normally never buy a pattern full price anyway, unless I really need it, but what beats ten patterns to fawn over, for ten bucks?  Nothing.

My last bacchanalia brought home about half practical-half frivolous patterns from Butterick.  True revelation - I fawn over their Making History series, and picked up a caplet dress and muff, a collection of shirts, old-timey nighties, and gloves.  I have no idea what I'll do with gloves, and they look really hard, but every other pattern has something I can use. I really want to make the cape and muff with modern fabrics- the cape would look supercute with plaid and faux fur- and of course the PJs.

Another awesome thing I discovered in my dig was the Lifestyle Wardrobe Series (not everything on the link is from the series).  I picked up the cool V-neck dress centered wardrobe.

Part of the reason I love this so much is that the central dress is basic but necessary, and what a deal to get a jacket, scarf, skirt, top and pants (which I am going to use in my ongoing creation of a pajama wardrobe - that's for another post)!  The pants are no great shakes, I like my daytime pants to have non-elastic closure, but imagine taking this to your fabric store and picking up a bunch of coordinating fabrics.  That's what I dig about the Wardrobe Series - you can stamp your taste on the basic shapes, and it's a great bang for the buck (literally), even if you are paying the full price of $16.95. 

Speaking of the Historical patterns, I purchased one earlier for the Ren Faire, and am almost done with the wide, non-corset belt that will look amazing with almost any dress.  I can really see it with the basic dress from the are-mentioned project.

I know it doesn't look mostly finished, but trust it is!

So of course now I have plenty of patterns, and now the problem is fabric.  I wish JoAnns had one dollar fabric days....