I am still here.

Since my last post my mother has been in hospital and now a rehab facility battling pneumonia. I have been spending most of my waking hours with her. Everything else has been put on the back burner. I don't know who, if anyone, reads this blog, but if you do, please pray for her recovery. I could use all the help anyone can offer. My mom is my best friend, a kind, gentle soul who loves her life, and fortunately for me, loves me. She has always been my closest confidante, my teacher, my friend, my shoulder, my heart. I am lost without her- and would do anything for her. Please, please God pull her through this.

Perfection!

I just had to share this amazing Simplicity film from 1948- it made my day. Thanks to Lucky Lucille's blog for the link! I wish we all dressed like this still and had home ec! Imagine!

March??!

Oh dear, oh dear. It's March already and I've been away from this blog (and my projects) for too long! My dear mom has been ill- I thought she was on the mend but she went downhill again and so I've brought her over to my home for some serious 24/7 caretaking. Thankfully, she is improving. My sewing skills, however, are not. I need to catch up!

I managed to go to sewing class Wednesday for 2 of the 3 hours while my husband stayed with my mom. I worked a bit on the polka dot dress for Scruffy Badger's Frock Fest but still have a good bit left to do. Mom heads back to her apartment this week and I am hoping I will be able to find some time to finish this up. I wish I'd taken better pictures of my progress on the dress so far, but they are mediocre at best. My mind really has been all wrapped up in worry about my mom.

I will try to post another update (with pictures) on my New Look 6000 on Wednesday after my class. Happy March everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day

Have I mentioned lately how much I heart the internet? Well I do! I've spent some time looking over more great sewing blogs and continue to pick up new tips & lessons daily. It's overwhelming how much I don't yet know about sewing, but it's wonderful to be learning something new that I am passionate about. 

Today I came across several great tutorials that were about muslins or "toiles". There are some great suggestions for how to piece them together, and fitting them and making adjustments. I realized after making mine the other day that I could have pinned everything (meaning the darts and sides) instead of machine basting them. For some reason I thought I would baste it up and slip it over my head and I'd magically see what needed to be done. It didn't work that way. I need to fine tune my eye for fitting to know what adjustments I need to make. 

Here's a wonderful tutorial: Making A Toile by Frabjous Couture. So helpful!

And on fabricfixation: New Look 6000 Muslin 1, 2, 3, 4. (These 4 test muslins use the pattern we are using for the February Polka Dot Frock Fest!) I am learning so much! Woo!

There are so many ways to work with patterns, too. From tracing with tailors chalk to tracing wheels and tracing paper, sewable swedish tracing paper, to the people who pin and cut the actual patterns and jump right in- what's the right method? I will continue to try to figure out what works best for me.

Hopefully I will learn to appreciate the mistakes I make along the way.

I will leave you with a couple of books I've been mulling over:

The Collette book has wonderful detail for beginners-the more I sew, the more I enjoy rereading these chapters. Chapter 4 is "What Is A Good Fit?" and covers everything from Ease, Darts, Tissue Fittings, Dress Forms to Muslins and Altering Patterns. A wonderful resource!

Another book I am loving is this one:

Great layout, photos and detail throughout. It's more advanced for a beginner like me, but it inspired me to sign up for a Pattern Drafting class that starts in March. I look forward to working on a sloper and understanding all of this better.

New Look 6000 Polka Dot Frock Fest

I was catching up on my sewing blog reading during our blizzard weekend and came across several sewing challenges that caught my eye. The one that tempted me the most: Polka Dot Frock Fest!

As a good polka dot dress is a particular weakness of mine, I am going to throw my hat in the ring and give it a try. I am probably nuts to try, as I don't know what I'm doing AND I have about two weeks left to complete [read: start] this challenge, but hey, life is short! Yikes!

I got the last copy of the pattern at my local JoAnn Fabrics, but I couldn't find any fabric that wooed me. Yesterday I drove out to a favorite discount fabric shop, and at the last minute found a flocked taffeta material I liked, some pearly buttons and zipper and thread. I'm ready to start!
(Of course, this means my shift dress will go on hold temporarily.) My mom, who is finally on the mend, is coming over today and I am excited to show her my purchases and go over the pattern with her. And then I start! Wish me luck!

Simplicity 6541 Part I

Simplicty 6541

In my quest to make a shift dress (see my earlier post on the shift dress kit FAIL) I decided to tackle one of the many patterns I purchased last year on Craigslist. (I own an inordinate amount of shift dress patterns. This will be the first that I actually make.)

I purchased some patterns from a woman here in New England shortly after we moved here. She also gave me a bonus bag of patterns that had no cover. While I was sick with the stomach bug  I went through that bag and found tons of intact patterns (uncut) that were missing the envelopes*, but were from the 60s, and in MY size. Weird! Thanks to the internet I have been able to find most of the covers.  Another of my upcoming projects will be printing these out and pairing them up with their patterns.

I would love to do a post with some of my finds-- so many cute dresses!

*Just read  a bit of history on the sewcraftful blog that explains the missing envelopes:

I can't say enough about the sewcraftful blog- a wealth of wonderful information on using and caring for vintage patterns!! 

Getting the pieces together...

Simplicity 6541 is one of the patterns that DID have the envelope, but when I opened it up, the pattern was "well loved" and torn. I ironed the pieces carefully, taped the backs up, and spent some of my Saturday during the blizzard tracing them onto Swedish tracing paper.

Tracing the pattern

The darts were completely torn and shredded- I tried to copy them but wasn't sure how they would turn out.

This morning I cut out a muslin since I am bit skeptical of the fit of this dress (especially because I was redrawing the darts). I basted it together and the results are here:

It fit me fine, though I thought the neckline was too high for my taste. I'm glad I made a muslin as I will try to use a neckline from another of my patterns if I can find the right one.

Bust and waist darts need adjustment.

Back darts. The dress will have a 22" zipper here but for the muslin I stitched it up all the way.

I don't know much about fitting, though I hope to. I'm reading a lot of sewing books (and blogs!) for advice and culling together what I've learned. After I make adjustments (and redo the neckline) I will move on to my pink fabric, a simple polyester blend. You can see it in the 2nd photo from the top (the pepto bismol pink, hee hee!) I swear it had nothing to do with that stomach bug I had when I bought it... or did it?

Blizzard 2013 and other things

We've had a blizzard here in New England. I finished Ollie's coat in class on Wednesday. He was glad to have it in all the snow. (I learned to do a welt buttonhole on the back for the leash to go through.)

My Snowbunny (Ollie) in Hello Kitty

Outside and Inside of Welt Buttonhole

Please forgive the messy photo of the buttonhole. I finished it at the end of class and so my stitching was a bit sloppy. I had hoped to redo it but there wasn't time. Ollie has been wearing the coat daily since!

Snow day dining

We are digging our way out from all of the snow (26"+) and hope to be able to drive tomorrow. In the meantime, I've been at work on my next project. I will put that in a separate post.