A bit of...Epiphany? Sewing...

 I had the idea last summer to take advantage of a sale on some Christmas print tea towel kits at Fabric-Store.com.  At first, I was just going to use them for stocking stuffers, and maybe one or two others.  Then I thought of my co-workers...and decided I should make tea towels for them.

I ended up getting 10 kits...that's 20 towels...and it still really wasn't enough.  Stocking stuffers for my daughters/ daughters in law; a goodie for a sort-of secret (but not secret) sister, and the rest went to ladies that have worked with me in the data base in the past year.

The towels aren't difficult...you cut off the selvedge edge, then cut them apart on the  marked line, then hem them; much like the linen waffle towels I made in October.  I made, like, six back in the early fall, then got busy with other things.

I had planned to take my unused vacation/ personal leave (sick) time to work on them during December; then I ended up using my actual sick leave...being sick...and totally useless.  As we got closer and closer to Christmas and I still had the two pirate shirts and the crossback apron to do, it hit me that our first day back at work after the Christmas holiday was Epiphany.

So I was sewing during Christmas break and my co-workers got Epiphany presents, lol.

I thought I took some pics of the construction process when I did the first batch...but if I did, I have lost the photos.  You'll just have to look at the pics on the waffle towel construction...because it's the same.  I did miter ALL THE CORNERS on the tea towels.  (80 mitered corners).  That's lots of practice...but they were simple.  Both sides of the corner measured the same, and the fabric pressed beautifully and didn't fray badly.  It was just fiddly.

I had already given away five of the ones I had made earlier but the other fifteen are in this photo; multiples are stacked together:

  The only print that's not in the photo is the kitty print...I made two of those and they both went to my cat-loving daughters for Christmas.  The 12 days of Christmas print was the one I made the most from...I think I did six of those.

My only complaint is that the towels aren't perfectly square on the fabric.  Trying to get a straight edge yields something a bit crooked looking; after a few tries at that I gave up and just cut it according to the print. It didn't make the edges too off grain to press well.  The prints are lovely.

I will say that these are COTTON towels, not linen towels like I thought in the beginning.  Just so you know.

I've gotten some nice comments from the folks that got them!  Wish I'd had time to make more so I could have enough for everyone....

A Quick? Favor for a Friend...

 Not linking this post to social media, lol, since part of the deal of doing favors is that NO ONE ELSE hears about it.... 

Anyway, I had a friend who had some bibbed insulated outerwear pants that were just a little too short in the torso.  She's a tiny lady, and I'm not sure what size range these pants actually are, but she gave them to me last spring asking if I could add a bit to the shoulder straps so she had a bit more wearing ease.  

I figured I would just add length to the adjustable strap so it would have more room but I wasn't in a hurry...after all, we were heading into summer, this is Alabama...in my midwest-raised brain, these were pants to be worn on a snow day.  I told her I would do them the next time I had black thread in the machine.

Which was, of course, the MOTG lace dress.  Got past the wedding, didn't sew anything because I had a mess to clean up.

The day before I left to go to Florida, she texted me wanting to know if her pants were done yet.  It was going to be a bit chilly (read: lower 50's - upper 40's) for the fall festival outing at the local corn maze and she wanted to wear them.

Never occurred to me that someone would want to wear snow pants with the temps above freezing.   The midwest is still strong in me at times, even after 40+ years in the South...

Well, I clearly couldn't do them before we left, so I told her it would be the first thing I did when we got back.

Looked at them Sunday night...literally the day we got home...and realized it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.  The adjustable straps were sewn in a loop around the buckle, like a bra strap.  I couldn't do the modification the way I thought.  I couldn't recreate that loop if I took it apart; no way my sewing machine could get in that tight spot to sew the end down.

What to do what to do what to do...

Wednesday it hit me...what if I lengthened the other side?  Where the buckle comes up from the front?

Took a look and that was just a simple loop. So I got some black grosgrain ribbon on the way home from work Thursday, and yesterday it took me all of about 20 minutes to add 4" to the front of those straps.

She had told me she didn't care what it looked like; but I don't think this looks too bad....

Next up:  Christmas stocking for the three people who were added to the family this year...gonna hafta get creative for those, too...

What's up, Doc?

I am heading back into the sewing room; but first, I had to take care of a few things that had accumulated.

We had used some random chunks of fabric from the decor room at church for the wedding reception.  They had obviously been used for other things, as there were chocolate spots on them when we pulled them out.  They also had not been cleaned because they were just cut yardage...and the poly-organza type fabric was raveling out like crazy.  So I brought them home, serged the ends and washed them. And, while I had a 3-thread configuration on the serger, I also took care of a couple of other things:

-- a friend had purchased a bit of silky poly print that she wanted to turn into a scarf.  A bit of ripping, a bit of cutting, and a little decorative thread roll-edging and it's done.

--The Princess purchased a lacey floor-length dress that she wore for her 'departure' from the wedding.  She'd wanted me to hem the bottom for her, but I wasn't sure the serger would feed it evenly, since it was a textured melange of lacey bits and managed to talk her into just wearing shoes w/ a bit of heel.  Well, there was an incident with the escalator in the hotel when they arrived and suddenly, well, you can see for yourself, as I'm in the process of trimming off the chewed up bottom:

Once it became a salvage job, I wasn't nearly so nervous about serging it.  I cut off about 7", so it is now a  lacey tea-length dress.  And the serger did just fine...

--And, we have more weddings coming up at church so I brought home a dress that will be worn by one of the other office staff young ladies who is a member of one bridal party; it needed to be shortened about 2".  Poly shantung, straight skirt, poly lining.  Took maybe an hour and a halfish.  And I was astonished to find 5/8" seam allowances used in that dress...I thought that was the mark of a home sewn garment...which this most pointedly was NOT.

Anyway, my chartitable sewing done for the time being, I can focus on my next project(s).

And I had a brainstorm for one of them.  I'm going to use the pattern I just adapted for the MOB dress and 1) change the neckline to bateau and 2) add 3/4 length sleeves.  It's a princess sheath...it's very close to ideally fitted...so, Carolyn, I'm heading over into your 'alter the TNT!' camp; we'll see how it works!

And, you know, there were sales last week.  And the second box of fabric just arrived, so I piled all the 'yardage in' onto the sofa and took a picture:

The two pieces on the right came earlier; the stripe is a cottony-feeling rayon/lycra blend, and  the taupey-looking piece is actually a multicolored houndstooth plaid.  The other four pieces came today (and my living room now has that lovely new-fabric smell...); the white, black and green are cotton/lycra poplins and the spotted piece is one of the 'trendy knits' that have been dispersing themselves around the country for some time now.  I know it's an Animal Not Found in Nature, but the normal print colors of yellow/brown/orange do NOTHING for me; this one is black/grey/red and I will wear it just for fun.  Might even turn it into that popular Burda Style funnel neck shirt really, really soon...

I had a scary moment today; I hit Hancock's Big Pattern sale and came home to enter my new acquisitions in my PatternReview Pattern Catalog; when I entered the Chado/Ralph Rucci dress (Vogue 1239) I was informed that it was already in my stash.  I couldn't believe I'd duplicated it...but it turns out I didn't.  I have a Vogue/ Perry Ellis skirt pattern from something like 1990 that has the same number.  So, yeah, you know you're a SERIOUS pattern stasher when the numbers start to repeat...

Skirting the issue...

I put the pedal to the metal (70's cb radio slang, anyone?) on the Compleat Works skirt (a modification of Your Basic Dickens Skirt -- I only used 3 panels instead of 4) last night and got it prewashed, cut out (well, torn to size) and assembled. I tried it on The Actor, who was understandably uncomfortable in a skirt, and the kitten ran underneath it. He looked down at the cat tail emerging from under the hem and said, 'Oh, that's cute! I wish I had a picture.'

'Son, do you *really* want a picture of yourself in a skirt?' I asked.

He looked at me and nodded, 'Good point, Mom!'

So I thought I'd take a picture of it on a hanger, but I took it in to school today and forgot to take a photo. Maybe I'll get a shot of it on him in one of the rehearsals...

And, I brought home the fabric and the pattern for the bridesmaids skirt...it's Simplicity 2512, view B, which will be slightly modified. I don't have the fabric for the contrast trim, so I only need to do it to the hem. I will finish the top of the skirt w/o the trim, so that if there's a problem attaching the trim after the zipper's in it can be left off w/o leaving a raw edge at the top.

I got the measurements of the lady who will wear it; I'll need to add to the waist as she does not have as much difference between her waist and hips as the pattern expects, but I don't think that will be too hard. Basically, I'll adjust the fancy waistband and then just gather the skirt a little less in order to fit. A Petite Plus will look better w/o quite so much pouf anyway.

And, given the schedule I have this week, tonight is my best shot at sewing. So I'm off...

Gonna help a friend..

We have a Wedding this month in our church family...one that is going to be very well attended, with a large number of attendants in the party.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that a very important member of one of the happy couple's families is about to leave the country on an extended job-related assignment (hopefully that is vague enough not to make anyone feel I'm being indiscreet...), the wedding had a very short planning time.

The attendants will be wearing skirts and blouses; due to the costume sewing I'm involved in, I had to decline to help sew the skirts when first asked about it. However, the young lady who *is* making the skirts (13 of them?) did not feel very comfortable about grading the pattern up for one of the bridesmaids, who is a petite plus.

So, when asked again at church, I considered that Compleat Works is not going to require the amount of sewing we originally thought, so I think I can handle one.

Details to follow...

Christmas '08 Project Number 2

I *really* don't think the intended recipient of this little appliqued stocking will stop by here...but just the same I'm not going to say whom it's for.

I used the reverse side of some sweatshirt fleece for the fuzzy look... ;)

One Down

The biggest home-crafted Christmas present to come out of my sewing room this year is finished...that's a sigh of relief! Unfortunately, due to the very slight possibility that the intended recipient will drop by, I can't post any pictures or say what it is.

Pictures wouldn't help much anyway and I'll spill the beans after the gifts are opened.

I'm just glad I can move on to the next project! ;)

The PR Quilt Square

I'm postponing the report on cutting a little...as the WIP list grows incrementally ;)...
Pattern Review recently passed the 100,000 member mark, and to commemorate the event, there's a quilt being voluntarily assembled and quilted by one of the members from squares submitted from any PR member who has a desire to do so. It will be given as an appreciation gift to Deepika, PR's founder. The deadline for sending the squares off is July 31, so yesterday I decided it was time to do mine.

Now, although I really do want to make at least one quilt someday,I'm not a quilter. And,I don't have any embroidery capability on any machine, but I wanted it to kind of be unique.

I also have a personal quilt philosophy that quilts should be 1) made from scraps and 2) look hand crafted.

I think I succeeded on both points... ;)
My square is made from scraps from the Eyelet Projects...the blue base fabric is from Michael's and the eyelet is from Gorgeous Fabrics, both sources that I never would have found had I not joined up at PR 5 years ago...it was my door to the internet sewing community. So I figured that would be an appropriate square from me...

And about the embroidery...well, before I stuck it in the envelope I twice tried to pick up my initials from the square, thinking that little squiggly black line was a loose thread!

It'll be fun to see what the finished product looks like.

OFF TOPIC: If you need some Happy News, I have some dear friends who are in China right now at the culmination of months and months of prayer and preparation to give an abandoned Chinese baby a home. They've been posting daily about their experience, with photos of their new addition. Just thought I'd share it with anyone who's interested...Journey to Sadie Beixi

Must Sew Project 2

While I was sewing the Bible costumes at church in March, the church receptionist mentioned that she and her family were heading for California immediately after her son's graduation. Turns out one of the places they would be visiting is Carmel-By-the-Sea...home of Loes Hinse's boutique. I laughed about how much I would love to visit that little shop and gave her the web site and headed off to work.

A little bit later, she stuck her head in the door of the room I was working in. "I found a bag on that website that I love!" she said. "It'd be perfect for me to take on the trip...could you make me one like it? I'd pay you and everything..."

Well, of course it was The Weekender Bag. I laughed and told her that I'd made a few of those already...she had even seen one of them, but didn't realize what it was. She said she'd like hers in denim, and I said we'd talk after Easter... ;)

Well, ya gotta know this lady. She is one of the most gracious people you'd ever want to talk to, and has the ability to make folks feel like they are among her dearest friends...valued. She even took a big stack of robe sashes and headband tubes and turned them inside out for me whilst we were frantically trying to finish the costumes up. And, I just happened to have a large chunk of well-aged denim in the stash....so I didn't say anything to her, I just made it.

Graduation is Tuesday, and they're leaving on Wednesday, so I gave her her bag at church yesterday. She was surprised and delighted...it was cool.

This is a *heavy* bag, though...the denim is substantial. The flowered tapestry I used for the pockets (I put one on each side) is the last bit of remnants from a coat I made myself back in, oh, 1989?

I gotta make one of these for myself one of these days! ;)

Tracing and Cutting

Ach, I had plans...
But I forgot we'd signed up to do our volunteer stint at the local listener-supported-Christian radio station's annual fund drive this morning. So, I'm running be hind what I'd planned. I've got a stack of patterns that I'm tracing/altering/tweaking (including the Vogue wrap dress and PJ's dress pattern); I expect to spend the evening cutting out...

But, whatever gets cut today will be the queue for the next week or so. I gotta hit the machines tomorrow. I've got PJ's dress and a surprise for a friend that both need to be cut soon and finished quick. ;)

The Green Dress

PJ told me she'd have her gold Medieval Dress (McCall's 4889) at church today; I'm going to run by around noonish and take a look, just to make sure I'm correct in remembering what I let out at the end. Then I will be cutting! I'm planning to cut today; PJ's green dress for sure, and if I'm moving well I may cut a couple of the pieces I bought over the weekend. Or at least see if I can get the pattern that's in my head drafted for one of them, but that'll be a post for another day, if it works... ;)

It's Be a Blessing Month...

What can I say? This isn't about making a living...it's about being a Body.
I took the last bit of costume laundry I'd done back to church yesterday, and was just about to leave, when two of the teen girls came round a corner and saw me.

It's pretty, um, affirming to be the recipient of such delight to be seen. Apparently, they'd just been talking about me, wondering if I could help them, then...there I was!

Their Jr/Sr Banquet is tomorrow night. They are being escorted to the banquet by two of the Icelandic HMC students. The guys had just gone to Burlington Coat Factory to purchase suits and discovered that suits are sold with the pants unhemmed. Could I please, please, hem the guys pants?

Now, who among you would look into two pairs of big pleading eyes and give that little S&K speech? Not me. Fortunately, one of the guys was at church and had his pants with him, so I got him to put them on and I marked the hem. White linen, underlined in poly. So it was a wee bit more involved than I expected...but I finished them up yesterday evening...late yesterday evening, after our monthly women's meeting (about which I can only say 'Wow'). During the fellowship time at the meeting, I ran into Pastor Jackie..."PJ" from last summer's 'Medieval Costuming' project. They're about to gear up into their conference/camp season and will be needing some more costumes. For the moment, she just needs another dress from the pattern I used last year...McCall's 4889. In green, preferably the same type of fabric as the first (crushed panne velvet...shudder). Well, I've got a little jaunt up to Sir's Fabrics already planned for this Saturday, so I'll see what they've got. The last time I saw panne velvet at Hancock's was about a month ago...on the clearance table. *Maybe* there's some left...I'll check when I'm out today, returning the hemmed pants and collecting pants pair 2. But making the dress shouldn't be difficult, since it's already fitted.

And my friend the bride will be bringing her shoes over Friday so I can mark and hem her dress.

I guess any 'for me' sewing done this week will be the Vogue wrap dress; it will need the white/cream serger thread that's on the machine....

What're Friends For?

I almost feel sheepish after my mini-minor-rant a couple of days ago, but I'm altering a dress for a friend. I'm not putting it in the same category as the rather presumptuous requests I get to 'fix stuff'...she's very, very petite and is remarrying at the end of the month, on a tight budget. She found a very nice Isaac Mizrahi dress at Target that is simply too long...so I'm going to shorten it. Take it up at the shoulders and hem. Of course, it's bias cut crinkle poly chiffon, so it won't be exactly a cakewalk, but I'm cautiously optimistic that I can do it for her.

And, even though she doesn't sew, she has come and helped with non-sewing/hand sewing costuming issues at church in the past. So I really don't mind helping her out here.

But I will be holding my breath a lot ;)

Gift Bags are DONE!

I told myself I couldn't post today until they were finished; I had to really coax the sewing machine to go through those last few bulky steps, since that stripe fabric is a bit textured and lumpy (the white stripes are woven with bulkier yarns than the blue stripes) and it took a LOT longer than I expected. But they are done...and I can surprise the rest of my friends this weekend with their long-overdue appreciation gifts. Won't that be fun!

I'll write a review of the pattern later today...right now, I'm rushing to get DS2 out the door for a winter camp-out (Brrr! Not *MY* idea of a good time...)

More Thank You Gifts

Miss R was the friend who actually perceived that I was in need of help and did a bunch of phone calling to round up the other four ladies to come and pack. So, I made a matched tote bag/apron set for her.

I love this fabric and had a hard time not using it to make a topper for myself... ;)

The linings are ready on the final two bags; I just need to put the bags themselves together.

Back to Monday Night Cutting

I wasn't sure I could maintain the Monday Night Cutting; DH withdrew from his Monday evening Bible study; just not enough hours in a week. He was so pressed for time that he wasn't doing the preparation for it and wasn't getting nearly the full benefit; I was sad for him to withdraw, but I know he's got enough on his plate without it. So, my 'evening at home alone' went away. Plus, I signed up for a ladies' exercise class at church that meets on Monday evenings (gotta do something about those scary scale numbers). But, when I went I found out that class only goes from 6 - 7...it's not an evening devouring thing.

So,after I got home last night, I happily pulled out the cutting table and cut out four knit shirts (3 for me, one for DD). I have hopes of maintaining my Table Time after all;).

Now I've got a sizeable queue...in the still messy sewing room. I've cleaned a bit, but there's still a lot to do. However, I've GOT to get those Thank-you gifts done and distributed this week...I gave Miss L her bag, and it'd been so long that she forgot what she'd done that I was thanking her for!

Um, that's kinda pathetic that it took that long...but, as a result, she was Really Surprised to get her bag! A gift from the blue...that part was fun.

I wonder if the other ladies will remember?

Oops

The bag on the right is correct; the bag on the left has a boo-boo. I don't know why I had in my head that those straps should connect *across* the bag instead of *along* the bag, but I did. I thought it was a little weird to carry, but it wasn't until I was making the second one that the lightbulb went on. But the truth is, there are NO illustrations of the finished bag in the instruction guide; the only sketch of the finished product is on the back of the envelope. When I finally hunted the envelope down (it was still on the cutting table) and saw that yes, those straps are to connect on the same side I was seriously embarrassed.

Ok, so I did it correctly on L's bag...then I wondered what to do about K's bag...the one on the left. Should I just call it 'an alternative arrangement' and give it to her? Or...unpick all the topstitching and the seams and redo the straps?

I haven't been following Summerset's adventures with the American Beauty set for nothing; I absorbed the lesson of Three Linings and was awestruck. So, with that as my example, I spent about half an hour last night with the seam ripper and fixed it.

Now my conscience is clear. ;)

Overdue Thanks, Part 2

I don't know why I was all hush-hush on the first Overdue Thanks post...the chances of any of the five ladies for whom I'm making things stopping in here are just slightly higher than the chances of President Bush dropping by the house to say hello. So, anyway, here's the first of the Thank-You gifts; it's Loes Hinse's Weekender Bag, slightly modified. I added two pockets...one on the outside (that's a fused-on initial) just by putting a lined layer between the handles, and a second on the inside by simply omitting the edgestitching along the top edge of the zippered pocket. I also stiffened the bottom a bit with some double-sided Peltex. I haven't put the button on yet; I'm making a total of four of these bags and I thought I'd just sit down and sew all four buttons on at once.

This is a cool bag...it's my first attempt at bag making and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. I'm not crazy about sewing bulky fabric...but this upholstery fabric wasn't so bad, about the same as jeans-weight denim. Actually, the biggest problem I had is that the fabric had been coated with some sort of stiffener on the backside that made it rather sticky to work with. I have one more bag to make out of this fabric; the other two are out of a textured blue and white stripe, which is a little lumpy and may give me more trouble. But Loes was pretty careful to minimize seam intersections and such to cut down on the bulk as much as possible, which helped considerably.

I may even make one for me one of these days...

Overdue Thanks

In August of 2004, 5 dear ladies from church showed up at my house to help me pack up the household goods on very short notice...shortly thereafter I purchased some fabric to make them appreciation gifts. But life didn't give me a break in which to put said gifts together.

That's one of those long-delayed projects that I'm using the available 'down' (as in no major sewing projects due) time to catch up. I've got four cut out...they're all the same pattern...but the fifth is different and it'll wait until the others are done.

I don't *think* any of these ladies stop by here, but just in case I'll hold off on what they are...for now...

I'll post photos after they've been distributed.

Oh, it will feel *SO GOOD* to have finally taken care of that!