In the Queue Wednesday  

Wednesday, November 11, 2009


Another Christmas gift / weaving project in my queue... Most people asked for waffle weave towels, but a couple of friends loved the colors in these kitchen tea towels. It's another kit from Halcyon Yarn and this one makes 8 towels. The amount of time it takes me to warp (thread or prepare) my loom is ridiculously long compared to the amount of time it takes me to weave a couple of towels (kind of like using the serger!), so I like the one-warp-to-eight-towels ratio of this kit! ;)

Well, I can't guarantee that they'll be done before 25 December, but don't worry, I'll get to them... They're in the queue! ;)

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Weekend Project: Halfsie  

Sunday, November 8, 2009

The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
--Stephen R. Covey

As promised, a post with actual sewing content! I followed Mr. Covey's advice and started working on the onesie for my friend Susan's baby boy (due after the New Year). Despite the title of this post, I'm actually more than half-way done.

I think I already mentioned that the two fronts are not symmetrical - here is a shot of the right front (which will tuck inside):

And here is a shot of the left front, which will wrap around on the outside:

There were several pattern pieces for little strips of fabric, not cut on the bias, for edging around the legs:


Here I have the facing pinned onto the garment (right sides together). This is the seam that is giving me grief, as my wooly nylon thread keeps breaking every time I try to serge it... :(


There's a cute little tab snap to hold the right front together on the inside:



Other than the thread breaking repeatedly on that one seam, this has been a fun pattern to put together. I had to walk away from the serger for an hour or so, or one of us was going down... (No guarantees on which one, however, as that machine is darn tough!)



If I can get that seam done without any more interruptions, there is maybe 30 minutes left of sewing to do. I think I'll make this pattern again!


I hope you had a good sewing weekend! :)


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Friday Confession  

Friday, November 6, 2009



So, I have never tried tissue fitting.

How about you? Have you tried it? Do you like it? Why or why not? If you don't do tissue fitting, what method do you use to ensure the fit of a garment?

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Talk Back Thursday  

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Thank you so much to Christine, Julia, Mamafitz, Gwen, Elaina, Uta, Cindy, Summerset, Becky and Sandy for talking back to my confession last Friday! With Halloween almost upon us, I asked about costume making experiences...

So, do we do costumes? Oh my goodness, do we do costumes!

Of course, there were LOTS of children's costumes mentioned, like Mamafitz's superhero son pictured here:

For children's costumes, people called out:

ANIMALS - like a giraffe, monkey, fish, starfish, ladybug, turtle, dragon, dog, cat, Hello Kitty, one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eater, Quack and a bionic bunny!

CHARACTERS - like Pocahontas, Sacagawea, Pippi Longstocking, Nancy Drew, Indiana Jones, Flintstones and the little boy from "Where the Wild Things Are".

Check out the amazing Sharpay (from High School Musical) costume that Sandy made for her niece here and Cindy's very own Ghost Buster and Twilight character here (scroll down to see)!

TRADITIONAL - like a princess, fairy, witch, angel, mermaid, sleeping beauty, jester, cowgirl, cheerleader, Spiderman, Zorro, pirate, and ninja.

Check out more of Mamafitz's great costumes over the years - doctor, archer (NOT Robin Hood), and Caesar and Uta made this wonderful witch costume without using a pattern!

And there were some odds and ends, like a pumpkin, a flower in a pot, a shrimp sushi, an Egyptian and a spooky dead bride.

At the same time, I was surprised by how many people reported making costumes for themselves – for costume parties (such as New Year’s Eve parties), carnivals and renaissance fairs. Summerset, for example, has made herself a German maiden costume and a Barbie costume!

Here is a picture of one of Becky's many beautiful Lord of the Rings inspired costumes!


Check out some of her other costumes:
an angel, Eowyn #1, Eowyn #2, pirate, dark fairy and the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz.

Some of my favorite stories were about the pairs of costumes – Cindy & her husband, for example, have gone to parties dressed as a pregnant nun and a priest! And Elaina and her son do paired-themed costumes whenever they attend a comic book convention – recently they were King Cactuar and Lulu from the Final Fantasy videogame. Isn't that cool?

All in all, only a couple of people reported waning enthusiasm for making costumes – Christine pointed out that commercial costumes are readily available and inexpensive these days and Gwen seems to have developed costume-overload last year while gluing red sequins onto an Elvis costume...


Of course, I’ve heard that happened to a lot of his actual tailors. ;)

Thanks again, to everyone for your wonderful stories and pictures!

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In the Queue Wednesday  

Wednesday, November 4, 2009


This is the last of my fabric finds from my Missouri trip in October. It's probably some polyestor blend, and I think it will make great dress slacks for work. I'm going to draft my own pants pattern, following the instructions in the January 2008 issue of Threads magazine. I've done this before, and the results showed promise. The one thing I want to change is to make the circumference around my ankles wider - the pair I made before were a bit too narrow-legged for my taste.

So, the pretty flowy skirt fabric that I showed you last week is calling to me more loudly than these dress pants, but don't worry, I'll get to them. They're in the queue... :)

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Weekend Project: From Rehearsal to Performance  

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Her one chocolate today and it was a damn artificial damn pink-and-white damn sickly damn stupid nougat!
Well, no one could be expected to believe that counted.
--Terry Pratchett, Thief of Time

My apologies for the language. I picked this quote because I thought you might like some help with the Halloween candy! ;)

This week I pulled my practice kitchen towel off the loom and started warping a "real" one. The waffle pattern formed amazingly nicely!




As you weave, you continually wrap the completed weaving around a beam on the front of the loom. Thus, you never see more than a few inches of the fabric. It's easy to lose track of how much you have woven. For example, it appears that I accidentally went a little overboard with my practice towel...


And that's just HALF of it! ;)

Oh well, I'll know better for the real towels... Speaking of which, I spent most of the weekend preparing for the next set of towels. They will also be waffle weave, but in the combination of colors called "Sea Glass":



I'm about 1/3 of the way getting the 402 threads individually through the heddles (hanging needles).



There's no doubt that preparing the loom takes (me) much longer than the actual weaving!

I promise, cross my heart, that next weekend I'll have some SEWING progres and pictures for you!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

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Friday Confession  

Friday, October 30, 2009

Happy Halloween!

As often as I sew for my nieces and nephews, and as crazy as some of the outfits they have asked for have been!, I have never sewn a Halloween costume...

How about you? Have you sewn any Halloween costumes? I bet it was a blast! Any stories about a costume project that stood out as especially epic in some way? If you have pictures on the web and would be willing to leave a link, I'll include some (and the links) in my post next Thursday. Thanks!

Photo credit: Elisabeth Audrey

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Talk Back Thursday  

Thursday, October 29, 2009


Thank you so much to Gwen, Jodieth, Connie, Faye Lewis, Mamafitz, CarlaF, Lori, Summerset, Joannely, Karin, Cindy, Gaylen, Meredith, Lois, Sharon and Elaina for talking back to my confession last week! I asked about experiences with the American Sewing Guild (ASG) and other sewing organizations.

I was a bit surprised to see that almost two-thirds of the people who responded (10 out of 16) are ASG members!

As you might expect, however, among the members there is quite a bit of variability in how active people are. Some, like Joannely, Gaylen and Meredith are extremely acitve and have even started new neighborhood groups and/or served as leaders for their groups.

Other people are not as active, and you can probably guess many of the reasons why: they don’t have a neighborhood group (NG) close by, they have schedule conflicts with the local NG meetings, and/or the local NG has a different focus than they do (for example, more quilts and crafts, less garment sewing).

For the people who are able to participate, it sounds like there are both technical benefits (having workshops and speakers) and social benefits – just getting to hang out with wonderful, classy people! And the 10% discount at Joann’s and other retail stores might have been brought up a few times too… ;)

I did get the impression that that not all NGs are "created equal" and finding an NG that is a “good fit” is a very important factor in determining how much you get out of the organization. In fact, Connie recommended starting your own NG!

Speaking of advice, Meredith gave what is probably the most important advice that anyone can keep in mind when joining any organization – never leave the room when they are looking for volunteers and/or leaders! ;)

Finally, it was also cool to read about some other sewing-related groups. Elaina belongs to a Burda club, Summerset belongs to a quilt guild, Cindy has a "meetup" group and Mamafitz used to belong to an independent pattern club that sounds very interesting! They would pick a specific indie pattern to try each month, and then get together to compare notes (and garments) afterwards.

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to tell me about your experiences! I’ll let you know how it works out for me. :)

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In the Queue Wednesday  

Wednesday, October 28, 2009


This is another of the fabric purchases that I made in Missouri during my visit with Lori of Girls in the Garden. It is a grey sheer with pink and white paisley. I think it will make a lovely skirt. I don't have a particular pattern in mind, but I'm imagining something a bit fitted at the waist and hips, and then godets or something to make the bottom very flowy and full. It will definitely have to be lined! Any thoughts?

I've got some higher priority projects that I SHOULD do first, but this one is showing signs of wiggling its way to the top of the pile! ;)

Even if I do exert some self-control and submit to more pressing responsibilities, never fear - I will get to this eventually! It's in the queue... ;)

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Monday Morning Quarterback: Baby Onesie  

Sunday, October 25, 2009

The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine.

--Dorothy L. Sayers

I mostly worked on my Christmas weaving this weekend, but I cut out the pieces for the baby onesie and I bought the wooly nylon thread for my serger - man, that stuff is expensive! :(

So, here's the layout for the pattern:



Okay, really? Are they serious? A ONESIE for a NEWBORN requires TEN pattern pieces? Yikes!

At first I couldn't believe it, but as I looked over the pattern pieces I realized why. There are two main reasons:

1. The front of the outfit is not symmetrical, so they have separate pieces for the left front and right front (and different facings, too).

2. They don't use bias tape for the edges - they use fabric strip bindings (not cut on the bias) and attach the snap tape to those fabric bindings. That adds several more pattern pieces.

Well, that's not much progress, but hopefully I can get some work done on this during my evenings this week! I hope you had a good sewing weekend! :)

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