My Friday off to a Great start

Yesterday was my 6 year Anniversary, and Hubby decided to give me an awesome treat for my day off. He drove the kids to Nana's this morning. This way I could stay in my jammies and relax (Yeah Right!)
They left at 6:40 and it is now 8:16. My toast just popped and I am done my chores on my list. Tyler was complaining his winter boots were too small. We just bought them this month. He has finally had one of those growth spurts everyone was talking about. We are small people and we grow is small bits. Tyler has grown a few inches this fall, and that is SUPER awesome.
So I decided to go through ALL of the shoes, sandals, boots slippers and organize them by size. I was tired of hunting and digging only to find one left shoe. Now they are all organized from size 3 to 12. I am good, lol.
The second thing I had to do was fold and put away (ugh) all the laundry. 45 minutes later I am having my coffee. Simon had done the laundry last night but did not have tome to fold it. He said it would take me an hour and I scoffed at him. No, he was right, there was a MOUNTAIN of laundry.

SO now that is out of the way, I am starting to blog this morning, I only hope that I have enough steam to plow through my sewing project today! Wish me luck!

1 p.m.

So I finished the arms on my shirt. Nice job. I am satisfied. I even did the hem on the sleeves. Very happy with my results. I tried it on, and it is BIG. I will definitely use a size smaller from now on.

I have to say that my walking foot has been a GREAT investment. I no longer get frustrated sewing with knits or silky material. Both my projects today involve just that!

Just remember to pull the threads out the back, that way they do not bunch up your material. I learned this the hard way.

After this I started on my New Look 6125 dress. I cut the fabric, lining and interfacing all from the same material. This is my "test" dress for size 12. I am using the fabric I bought at Fabricville for $1.50 per meter. I have the dress done up to the point of pinning the dress to the lining. I must have been tired and hungry as I was getting confused and thought best to leave it aside for the moment. Time for Lunch! I will continue this dress at my course tonight. I have to buy an invisible zipper anyways.


I want to finish Sam's PJ size small after my shower. It looks like the Cynthia Rowley dress will just have to wait until tomorrow. 

Sewing plan for the week

Fabricville had a crazy sale on Black Friday, 50% off all material in store, no exceptions. I stocked up on material that was $2.99/meter, at 50% off it came to $1.50 per meter. I chose 3 fabrics, a stretchy orange, light blue and a dark blue unknown fiber. With these 3 choices I can do a few shirts and dresses and if they don’t come out too well, I have not lost a lot of money. If I like them, I will use my “good” material. I also stocked up on the gripper material for my son’s PJ feet, as well as the ribbing material for all the cuffs.

Then, on Monday Fabricville had a sale on patterns! All New Look and Simplicity patterns are $1.99 each.  I have a nice stash and I have to have a plan to get them all done. I don’t want to end up having a stock pile, and not doing anything with them. I am going to start with the easy projects and work my way up to the harder ones.  I have this Friday off, so I want to make 2 dresses and a PJ by then. This week I have a goal, a sewing plan. I want to sew a Christmas tree skirt, finish my shirt I was making during my sewing class; Sam’s PJ’s in a size small, New Look 6125 dress A, Simplicity 2054 either dress B or C.

The Christmas tree skirt I finished. I had some red material that my father had given me 25 years ago, and Simon bought some gold ribbon. I sew the ribbon around the edge and I reinforced the seams at the opening, and Voila! Done. I had to make a rectangular skirt so that it could fit around the table. We put the tree on a table so that Sam would not grab it or knock it down. We used binders to attach the tree to the table and it is SUPER solid. I only needed a skirt to hide it all. In all the years past I draped the red material around the tree base. Now that I am super crafty, I could sew myself something a bit fancier.

I want to try one more PJ for Sam before I make the boys their Christmas PJ’s in the Christmas material I purchased.  I really like the New Look 6525 pattern. It runs big and even the medium was too long on him. I will take the same material I have left over and try the small. Fingers crossed it fits! If at 14 months Sam fits only into a small, this pattern will last a very only time. I have traced the pattern so as to preserve it. I have used it so much that it is starting to get damaged. I even photocopied the original to preserve it.

I had bought a fun simple blue dress at Reitman’s. Simon LOVED it on me. Everyone loved it, and I was thinking that that dress was SO simple. But hey, if people like it, I will take the complement. The problem being it is a small and I am an extra small now. It runs a bit big in the chest area. I found New Look 6125 that is just like it, so I will try to reproduce it. This one has an invisible zipper in the back, so I can leave that for this week’s sewing class. I also have the zipper to do on Simon’s pants, as well as installing a new zipper pull on Tyler’s winter jacket. This week’s class can be about perfecting the zipper.

I don’t think I will add pockets to this first attempt, nor the ribbon. And I want the plain collar for my first attempt.

I am trying to find other reviews to see how this dress sizes. I am really tired of making things for myself that run too big. I want something I can wear!

When I saw this pattern by Cynthia Rowley, Simplicity 2054, something jumped out at me. It is a basic, dress with simple lines. But I like the added details of the sleeves and collar. The more I think about it, the more I want to do dress C, with the cut sleeves.

I think I may make this dress according to my measurements, but in a cheap material. The reviews I read do not say that the pattern runs large. I will have to take the pattern out and see how it measures up against my measurements.

Simplicity 1916 Misses' Knit Tops

I have decided to make a shirt for my next sewing class project. I chose Simplicity 1916, view A. I had picked out a really nice turquoise stretchy material to match the pants I made in my sewing class. The pants were a washout as they were WAY too big, and not flattering at all. So, I was really hoping that I could make this shirt and wear it. There has not been one thing that I made during the sewing class that I could wear out in public. Stuff I made after at home have come out, and the pants I made for the boys were good. Now, if only I could make something for me!
I had cut out the pattern and material at home. It was straightforward, no issues. I did the first few steps, including the collar, no issues. Then I got to the left and right sides and something was wrong, something DID NOT make sense. What I had done was put the left side on the right side and the right side on the left. Now, being this is stretchy material and if I undid the whole project, including the neckline, the material would rip. SO my sewing instructor help me save it. Now instead of the wrap wrapping to one side, it wraps to the other. No biggie! It is saved.
My instructor, Pauline, suggested when you have a pattern that has a left and a right side, take your tailor's chalk and write LEFT or RIGHT on the piece. That way you do not get confused.
So I only have the arms left to attach and the hem. I tried it on, and it FITS! I used a size 14 and it is a good fit. Unlike all the pants I made a size 14 seems to be good. This pattern is quite low cut, as I found out from other pattern reviews AFTER I cut out the material. I will have to wear this with a camisole underneath. I usually do anyways!
My teacher and I joked that I would not be doing this pattern again. However, after trying it on and seeing that it actually fits, I may just try view D! I will post pictures after I am done this pattern. I have the double jersey Knit needle. I am not sure how to thread it, so I will have to search for some info on the internet before trying it. I will keep you posted!Wish me luck!
This shirt is B-I-G on me. I should have sewed a size 12. Oh well, maybe my niece can wear it? I still have the bottom hem to do, but I want to do this with the serger in my sewing class.


UPDATE
My teacher surged the bottom hem for me and she informed me that there are a few pieces that I put on backwards. With this material it is so hard to tell which side of the fabric is the good side and which is the wrong side. She showed me and I still can't tell. I wore it with a tank top underneath and it looked fine. I am now making everything in size 10, so hopefully these fitting issues will be no more,  

Bias tape accomplished!

So I decided to tackle Bias tape during this class. I drafted my own pattern for Sam's bib. I think I did a good job. The bias tape I chose was quick narrow, and I should have chosen the larger tape. Well, I really had to work at it and I certainly learned how to apply bias tape.
I pinned and pinned and pinned. I basted and basted and basted. Then I sewed zip zip zip. 3 hours later and I have a new bib!
We had this material when we made diapers 5 years ago, as well as the Velcro. I sewed this using my Singer Esteem and I used my new Walking Foot.
So, what do you think? Will Sam enjoy getting food all over it? I bet Tyler will want his own new bib, just watch!





So, I was right. Tyler wanted me to make one for him as well. I had JUST enough bias tape left to complete a bib for him. I had maybe half an inch left over. Making the second one took much less time, now that I am a "PRO" at bias tape. I unfortunately took a narrow bias tape, a wider one would have been much easier to work with. If it is your first project working with bias tape, I recommend the widest possible tape. It will make it easier. That being said, because it was so narrow, it required a LOT of attention to detail. I am now not afraid of it, I now feel that it is only a pain in the you-know-what and time consuming.

My trick was to PIN-PIN-PIN and then BASTE-BASTE-BASTE. Yes, this did take some time, but it was done properly, and I am sure as my skills improve I will not need to do as much, maybe.

  

As you can see there were a lot of pins. I pinned it on the wrong side first, basted, removed the pins then sewed. I then turned the bias tape over and pinned on the right side, then basted, removed the pins and then sewed it. I had to make sure that while I basted and removed the pins that my sewing thread did not get caught up in the pins sticking out. My fingers got pricked a few times. Oh well, that is all a part of the learning curve. 

New Look 6110 Leggings

I sewed yesterday New Look 6110, size 12 leggings, pattern A. 
This was my first attempt at sewing with stretchy material. I found a very nice brown stretchy material that was 50% off at Fabricville. I have about 3 yards so I can make a few pairs of pants.

Now, I have to ask my sewing teacher on Friday what happened, but the tension was way off on my machine and the material was being fed into the feeder plate. I could not do the buttonhole on these pants, the material got eaten up. So, I omitted the buttonholes for the twill tape. No biggie, I did not want it anyways.

I made my pattern piece shorter to accommodate my lack thereof. I think I under measured, because I would have missed about an inch. Not a problem! I made a cuff for my pants, and I think it worked out better that way.

So I know what happened to the material. I bought a walking foot and the material does not get fed into the feeders. I make sure the thread is all the way in the back, and voila! No problems. Thank goodness. I really like these pants, but they are big. I may make them again in a size 12. I already have a stain on them, ugh. And the material is so comfortable. And I will make them about 1 inch shorter on the waist as I am short.
All in all a great pattern, easy to accomplish and you can add some changes really easily if you want to change it up and make it your own.