An email list I'm on, NMSL, is running a "sewalong" right now. Nothing fancy or formal, it's just so we can encourage each other to actually sew. I was feeling like I hadn't really been sewing, when I stopped to think about the last week and realized I had actually sewn quite a bit!
Let's see -- last week Sunday I finished a 6-gore elastic waist skirt for me. It was the same pattern as the handkerchief skirt, Simplicity 4138, but the more "boring" long view without any flounce. The fabric was a dark eggplant suedecloth with a pale pink floral print that had followed me home from Lorraine's bargain loft a couple of months ago. It was so dark that I didn't have any threads in the purple family that worked, so I wound up using brown thread!
I had just over 2 yards left, when 2 of my daughters announced that they needed brown skirts for Tuesday's "Color Day." 2nd and 3rd grade girls had been assigned brown and white. (And I don't believe in white skirts, especially for little girls!) I didn't really have brown fabric, or time to run to the store, so we declared this fabric "brown enough" and I made each of them a skirt Monday evening, without a pattern!
What I did: I cut the remaining yardage exactly in half so that I was guaranteed to have enough for both girls. Then I folded the fabric on the diagonal from the corner (twice) to make the biggest diagonal I could possibly get from that length of fabric, and cut out a circle. I used the remaining fabric to cut a rectangle to be the "yoke," then cut a second circle out of the middle, estimating to make the circumference come out equal to the width of my yoke minus the seam allowances. I adjusted the yoke seam to make it match exactly, and I made a fold-down casing elastic waist. On the first skirt, I only made the top part 8 inches deep (before seams and casing) and while it worked, I didn't quite feel it was long enough for long-term wear, so I cut the second one more like 12 inches. I was much happier with it, and it does make it easier for the girls to tell their skirts apart. (Their waist measurements are very very close.)
On Wednesday, all the kids were home, so I wasn't really planning to sew anything, but a friend called me on Tuesday and asked if I could hem a couple of pairs of pants for her. (Okay, for her husband and son.) They came over Wednesday morning for me to mark the hems. Wednesday evening I finally grabbed the time to do it: I closed the crotch seam on a pair of boy's dress pants and hemmed and cuffed 1 pair each of boy's and men's dress pants so they could have them back by Friday afternoon. (Since Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we were busy.)
Then yesterday (Sunday) I finished a custom order black velvet snood and worked on another custom order, but didn't make so much progress on the second one.
Still, I did do a lot of sewing after all.
Showing posts with label Mama clothes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mama clothes. Show all posts
Monday, December 01, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
slacking off... well, not really.
I have several projects to finish for customers, and as we just had a month of YomTov (holidays) I haven't had very much sewing time at all.
I spent this past Sunday cleaning up the playroom (starting from the end that is really my sewing room).
What I accomplished:
But I didn't do any actual sewing on Sunday, since I was so busy cleaning.
Monday morning I actually played with the littles in the playroom -- good for the littles, and maybe progress towards getting them used to playing and staying in the playroom, but again, no sewing happened, or more to the point, no ironing happened. The most pressing project right now is putting the pleats back into the 4 uniform skirts I shortened several weeks ago. Taking out a hot iron while three littles play under foot... bad idea.
So this morning (Tuesday) I made sure to take some sewing time, but as I also had sole care of the three littles (ages 4, 3, and 1.5), I still wasn't willing to take out the iron. Instead, I went stash diving, and did some sewing for me. Felt like slacking off, but it was fun. And I did need it. (I so need to update my entire wardrobe!)
I was in JoAnn Fabrics about a month ago, picking up some last minute supplies for a project, and was on line to check out when I realized I was actually in the store during the Simplicity $1.99 sale, and what was I doing leaving without taking advantage of it? So I went back in and dug out my pattern wish list. One of the patterns I picked up then was Simplicity 4138:
I chose view B, the long skirt with a handkerchief hemmed flounce. (Shown in pink, on the model). My first choice of fabric, a black variegated rib knit, was discarded when I realized that after washing on hot, the fabric width was only 40" and the flounce wouldn't fit! I pulled out several other fabrics, finally settling on a 60" wide deep wine colored Bedford cord (really soft and flowy!) that I think I bought over 5 years ago. I had just over 2 yards of it, and it was a really tight fit (requiring a very unconventional layout) but I made it work.
Since I don't actually go in all that much at the waist (leftovers from past pregnancies), I folded down the top inch of the pattern to make the waist part a bit wider and closer to the hips. I also did a rolled hem on the flounce instead of the narrow hem the pattern called for, but those were the only changes I made. The instructions for the elastic waist suggest cutting a piece of elastic equal to your waist measurement and then trying it on and adjusting as necessary -- I did that and wound cutting off quite a bit of elastic. (At least 6 inches.) But I finished it in one day and I have a new and exciting skirt! (Couldn't find a hanger to showcase it properly, and didn't feel like changing just now.)
This evening I did actually get to that ironing... but I had a deadline, as Rosh Chodesh started tonight, and I don't iron, sew or do laundry on Rosh Chodesh. So I checked when sunset was, set the timer on my watch, and pulled out the iron. I finished pressing one skirt and got maybe 25% done with a second. Maybe Thursday night I can finish them and finally give them back? Then it's on to a big special order snood project.
I spent this past Sunday cleaning up the playroom (starting from the end that is really my sewing room).
What I accomplished:
- I found a large percentage of the floor (there really was one under all that mess!)
- I filled a big garbage bag with fabric scraps, food crumbs!, random bits of paper and broken toys
- I sorted the unbroken toys into a multitude of toy boxes. We definitely have too many toys!
But I didn't do any actual sewing on Sunday, since I was so busy cleaning.
Monday morning I actually played with the littles in the playroom -- good for the littles, and maybe progress towards getting them used to playing and staying in the playroom, but again, no sewing happened, or more to the point, no ironing happened. The most pressing project right now is putting the pleats back into the 4 uniform skirts I shortened several weeks ago. Taking out a hot iron while three littles play under foot... bad idea.
So this morning (Tuesday) I made sure to take some sewing time, but as I also had sole care of the three littles (ages 4, 3, and 1.5), I still wasn't willing to take out the iron. Instead, I went stash diving, and did some sewing for me. Felt like slacking off, but it was fun. And I did need it. (I so need to update my entire wardrobe!)
I was in JoAnn Fabrics about a month ago, picking up some last minute supplies for a project, and was on line to check out when I realized I was actually in the store during the Simplicity $1.99 sale, and what was I doing leaving without taking advantage of it? So I went back in and dug out my pattern wish list. One of the patterns I picked up then was Simplicity 4138:
I chose view B, the long skirt with a handkerchief hemmed flounce. (Shown in pink, on the model). My first choice of fabric, a black variegated rib knit, was discarded when I realized that after washing on hot, the fabric width was only 40" and the flounce wouldn't fit! I pulled out several other fabrics, finally settling on a 60" wide deep wine colored Bedford cord (really soft and flowy!) that I think I bought over 5 years ago. I had just over 2 yards of it, and it was a really tight fit (requiring a very unconventional layout) but I made it work.
Since I don't actually go in all that much at the waist (leftovers from past pregnancies), I folded down the top inch of the pattern to make the waist part a bit wider and closer to the hips. I also did a rolled hem on the flounce instead of the narrow hem the pattern called for, but those were the only changes I made. The instructions for the elastic waist suggest cutting a piece of elastic equal to your waist measurement and then trying it on and adjusting as necessary -- I did that and wound cutting off quite a bit of elastic. (At least 6 inches.) But I finished it in one day and I have a new and exciting skirt! (Couldn't find a hanger to showcase it properly, and didn't feel like changing just now.)
This evening I did actually get to that ironing... but I had a deadline, as Rosh Chodesh started tonight, and I don't iron, sew or do laundry on Rosh Chodesh. So I checked when sunset was, set the timer on my watch, and pulled out the iron. I finished pressing one skirt and got maybe 25% done with a second. Maybe Thursday night I can finish them and finally give them back? Then it's on to a big special order snood project.
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