Wonderful Gifts

by Kimberlee

(And I'm annoyed that I still haven't found the cord that allows me to upload photos into the computer.)

To be honest, I was sort of not looking forward to Valentine's Day, just a little. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE V-day, despite my tendency to be a cynic, but I had chemo scheduled for that day, so I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.  It generally stresses me out to go out to dinner on V-day evening (too busy), and I had felt too punked to go out the night before.  So yeah, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.  But the atmosphere in the clinic was very festive; there were Valentine's presents being given out, and one of the patients made cookies!

Since it usually takes a couple of hours for the chemo to really set in, we stopped at the Goodwill on the way home.  I love second-hand stores, as I am sure most of you do!  I wish I could show you the lamp base and glasses I scored! (Soon!)  My husband found and pointed out the small pattern section to me, and wow did I hit the jackpot.

In addition to being a second-hand store junkie, I am also a Ren Faire junkie, and just this last year I finally made my own costume, so I have been on the lookout for this year's, and I found it in the discontinued Simplicity 8735, which was inspired by the movie Ever After, the costumes in which were in turn inspired by the drawings of Albrect Durer.

Simplicity 8735

The "Breathe" Dress, pattern A 

The dress I really want to do is Dress C, the one in the upper right-hand corner.  I fell in love with it immediately, although I guess it was the least popular, as I was not able to find any finished costumes representing it online. I've had a lot of fun looking online at Jacquards and Tapestries - I usually don't have a reason to!  By the way, if anyone knows a great and inexpensive place to buy those fabrics from, I'm open to suggestions...

We also found this Edith Head Vogue pattern from 1972, and I had to snatch it up, too:

Very Easy?  I'll be the judge of that!

I adore this pattern.  The dress is an absolute classic, and the kimono jacket is perfect, and it was a dollar.  How much better can you get?  I like the longer version, personally.

OK, I have been pining for this piece of furniture at Target for over 2 years now, and I was going to wait to show you all how it goes into my decor, and I still will, but I can't wait to show you!  This was my big Valentine's Day gift:

Art Deco!

Isn't it adorable?  The bedroom is decorated loosely in an Art Deco/French style, and this fits very nicely into that.  To be honest, I tried to find a place in the living room that it would fit so I could look at it all the time, but had to give in to where it wanted to live.  I can't wait to show you how it looks all accessorized and in its home!

It's just awesome to wait so long for something that you love, and to be totally satisfied!  After 2 years, we kind of got the clue that it was never going to go on sale, much like the Converse tank tops (I know Target, LOL).

The last thing I can tell you about without needing photos are my plans to open an Etsy shop!  I'm at the pricing/gathering supplies stage right now, so we are a ways off, but I'm totally excited about the products I have decided to make and sell.  I don't want to get into too many details, but it will be a mix of affordable beauty products and handmade goods, as well as a few gift baskets because I think gift baskets are the finest things, ever.  I'll have to do a post sometime about how much of a sucker I am for gift baskets - I even like the ones the grocery stores have (fruit and nuts).

Well, since Scrabble was such a hit last time, I thought I'd start winding up posts with a photo of her.  Take care, everyone, and talk to you soon!

Scrabble on the Patio

I am I am I am Superman, and I Can do Anything

by Kimberlee

Well, that's an exaggeration...but I did make my first cape!

It was minus 30 the other day, so it might be a while before I wear it outside, but I'm pretty happy with it.  The only thing I'm going to add is a small snap in the collar to help it stand up more attractively.  Here are some more shots:

Awesome Frog Closure

I used McCalls 5764 (C), which has been seen in several other blogs; I've spotted it in Sew Store Bought and Adventures in Dressmaking.

I made a few changes to the cape - I added a pink flannel lining and found a beautiful vintage frog closure on Etsy in lieu of the buttons.

The pink lining

I had really wanted to make the belt, but I just couldn't figure out how to do it without ruining the cape.  Perhaps at a later date, I'll add it.  If I feel like it!  I like it how it is, frankly.

The frog was my favorite addition.  I wanted something special to offset both the simplicity and the exaggerated shape of the cape, and immediately came up with a Chinese Frog, but I had no idea they'd be so difficult to find!  JoAnn's only had 3 different kinds, all of which were too small.  Even the internet lacked in a decent selection.  NOW I see why there are more tutorials than inventory for frogs, and next time I will definitely learn how.  But I lucked into this beautiful vintage one on Etsy, and my second set of eyes (my husband) thought it was awesome, too.

Some other photos:

Me & my Helper

 
So I'm pretty jazzed!  What's coming up next?  Lots of Valentines stuff, of course.  I'm also teaching myself to knit, working on my first quilt square, AND making a dress from my own pattern - another first!  So please stop over again soon, become a follower, leave a message!  I love hearing from you all, you are true inspirations.

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

Favorite Sources for Patterns

After having had two drawers' worth of standard commercial patterns at one time - now considerably pared down - new ones are not often investments that I make. Working from home means I don't have to continually update a corporate "uniform," so in general most of my patterns come from vendors at sewing exhibitions or at specialty sites, and are geared more toward clothing that can double as art, or vice versa. Here are a few of my faves!

Of the patterns available commercially, my long-time favorite has to be the New Look line. Originally from Britain but acquired along the way by Simplicity, their patterns are versatile and affordable, offering many variations from the same pieces. Back in the late 80s, one of their suit-patterns was my go-to choice for my trade show wardrobe: toss in a couple of skirts and silk tanks, and I could pack pretty light for a trip that would take me from setup to working the booth to the reception circuit to teardown.


If you had to choose another general pattern line, I'd give Butterick a good look. They are to Vogue as Target is to Macy's, and the designs share some commonalities.

It's in the specialty area that the pattern possibilities start to get really fun, though, and the grandma of them all is Folkwear. They're a source that every costumer knows for authentic details - I know I have several versions of the Kinsale Cloak in my costume closet, in everything from woolen to velvet, not to mention cannibalizing the Austrian Dirndl for the basics of an Elizabethan bodice - but it's also fun to play with their pioneer and recent-history silhouettes. This pattern, for one, I'm dying to make. Keep your eyes open on eBay for discontinued designs.





Two of my other favorites I first discovered at a terrific sewing show that took place every year in San Mateo when I lived in the Bay Area. Park Bench Patterns, based in San Diego, includes some really interesting jacket/coat designs that lend themselves well to mixing/matching fabrics and wearable art. I especially like the draping and flow of their designs.


And at the annual Sewing and Crafts Show here in Victoria (which I hope is still happening - the host site returns 404 errors right now on anything not cached!), I still encounter the latest from The Sewing Workshop. Like Park Bench, their silhouettes are often asymmetrical, but their range is on the whole much broader and includes many more top and bottom options. My last project there was the Haiku Two jacket shown below, in a beautiful slubbed silk with an overall stippled black/gray/white pattern, but strewn with little jewel-toned bits.


The other nice thing about these more "artisan" patterns is that they are generally multiply-sized for the full small to extra-large range, so you can cut out the pattern on the largest size line you expect to need, and scale as needed from there for gift-giving.

Looking for something a little different to try? Check out one or more of these pattern sources. They're guaranteed to spark your creativity as well as ensure that you won't meet your own outfit coming and going!

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

Failure and Re-Group

I've been dealing with project failure lately, and it stinks.  I was trying to made the Dress from B3598, which Butterick had marked as "easy" and I had foolishly approached as such, using my beloved Groovy Jersey fabric that I had been holding onto for a long time.  I measured it and everything. And I just tried to upload a photo, but the blog isn't cooperating.  It's probably for the best, as now I can't link to a series of photos of my massive failure.  ANYWAY, I thought I had measured enough BUT I only had enough for the front, back and ONE yes ONE sleeve.  I really wanted the long sleeves.  :(  So I thought, "Why not cut the dress shorter, make the bottom out of black fabric, and have enough for 2 sleeves??"

So I again cut my pretty fabric to have enough for sleeves, and sewed on a black jersey to the bottom.  I was feeling pretty good about all this, but after I laid it out, it looked....well, ugly. I don't even have a photo of it!  I thought, "Well, I'll sew it anyway and see if I have something to work with.  And I wish I had just cut the great fabric longer and turned it into a tunic!"  Then, the unheard of happened...the machine ATE it, like, sucked it into the bobbin.  I had to cut it out of the machine!

Sooo angry.  I haven't been able to make a garment since the Ren Dress.

I took a step back and a deep breath, and decided to reorganize.  I have several projects started that I need to finish - a faux leather belt, a vinyl purse, and a re-purposed flannel shirt dress.  I've been meaning to teach myself how to make cloth flowers.  I hate working with pattern tissue!  I wanted to make wrist bands!

The flowers have been fun, I've been mixing at matching little bundles of fabric, and I am going to use some of them to make wrist bands.

I'm using the wrist cuffs off the afore-mentioned flannels, they are just the right size, and they have a built in button-hole, which is plus.

Also as I mentioned, I hate working with tissue paper, so I decided to affix some of my patterns.  I used watered down white glue, craft paper and a large brush.  You only have to coat the top of the tissue, as it soaks through to the craft paper.  Be careful and watch for bubbles, and when it dries it is AWESOME.  Just cut around the lines and you're done.  I mark the pattern number and what it is on the outside of the roll, and tie a clip onto the tying cord to hold the smaller pattern pieces.

Pre-cut patterns.

I'm getting pretty good at the rosettes, too.  More complicated flowers to follow soon!

So I am not quite sure where to go next - jump into a project, do some of this smaller prep-work, or what.  Any ideas?

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.

Something Wicked this Way Comes

Confession - I unabashedly love Halloween, so much so that I coo over Martha Stewart's Magazine, which I usually ignore.  I was pretty impressed with this year's 10 dollar opus on Halloween, which I have read cover to cover (albeit during trips to the grocery store - I can't be the only one who sees those places as lending libraries).  Anyway, I spent a big part of my weekend decorating our balcony, and my goal was to spend as little cash as possible buying new things.  I think it turned out pretty well.

Our chairs got the leaf garland treatment, I had this left over from a post-Halloween sale last year.

I sunk a large rock and a Styrofoam block into  a coffee can and put that into a larger pot.  I gathered several spooky-looking branches, spray painted them black, and sunk them into the foam.  I just added spanish moss and little ghosts made of cheesecloth.

 This is the spiderweb wall.  That stuff sticks to everything.

 The spooky "graveyard."  My pretty fairy statues look like creepy angels covered in the webbing.

 YIKES!  See?

 A fairly good view of most of the right side.

 Mr. Bones presides over the balcony.  He was also picked up last year after Halloween.

GARRRRRR!!!!!!!

I'll try tonight to take some decent night photos from the ground.  All that webbing looks neat lit up with the orange lighting, the balcony seems to glow, and looks like a little haunted room.

Oh, unless I forget:

Pumpkins!!!

As far as sewing is concerned, I don't have a costume in the pipeline, unfortunately.  I am working on a red vinyl purse, which is going to look really cool.  I've also been drooling over fabric flowers , which are literally all over the sewing and crafting blogs.  I've been cutting squares of coordinating fabric to try some, and I'll post the results.

As far as bigger projects, I've been planning on getting started with the Coordinating Wardrobe. I need to go get fabric for the Wardrobe, I don't usually have anything larger than a yard hanging around, which brings me to my final thought:

 I plan on making the dress several times, with differing sleeve and hem lengths, if it turns out as nice as the pattern looks (I'm going to try it in a cotton/cashmere mix as well as sweatshirt material), and I do have one jersey fabric lying around that is going to be the "basis" of my coordination.  It's a lovely retro pattern, and the only thing I have that's over a yard. Is it just me who experiences anxiety cutting into a new fabric, or starting a project?   I hem and haw over which fabric to use for stuff, even fabric less than a yard and small projects.
I'm often scared to death of cutting into fabric - I know I'm going to make lots of mistakes sewing!  Does anyone else have these issues?