Somethings Gotta Give...

I'm back hitting the books again after a glorious, month long Winter break! I have three classes this semester and it looks like they're going to be a little tougher. Especially Human Anatomy. I'm already seeing that I'm going to have to let a few things go, or at least "lessen my presence". Unfortunately this blog is probably going to be one of them. If you haven't noticed, I have a little poll in the right hand column to see what kind of tutorials and posts about lingerie sewing you'd like to see. I still plan to honor that, but the posts may come far and few between. Not that I've had any rhyme or reason to my posting to date, but you get my meaning. I figure I'll know more as I get into the semester to see really how difficult my classes will be.

As for the poll, I see most of the votes are going towards bras. My fave! So, what do you want to know? Fitting techniques? How to construct a bra from beginning to end? Fabrics, patterns, and other components? Anything?! I'm excited about putting together posts and tutorials and really want to know what exactly you'd like to see! Let me know what you want to see for the other stuff, too. Kelly asked about a bias-cut slip for the curvier set. CarlaF wants to know about fitting bras. I can do a post on sewing panties. What do YOU want to know?! Post in the comments or email me privately if you'd like. I'm all ears!

Handmade Christmas part 1

My daughter, believe it or not, has been begging me desperately for a Christmas outfit to wear to Grandma's. She even wants a dress! The ultimate Jean Girl wants a dress! I think I will faint now... She showed me a picture from a magazine that has a girl in a long sleeved striped top with a little sundress over it. I said I would get to it if I had time... LOL! I'm sneaky that way.

Anyhoo, I've been pouring over all my patterns and Ottobre magazines to find something suitable and hopefully that she'll like. It's probably going to come back and bite me in the butt for not working with her on it, but what can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment! I've already finished the striped top and I wrapped it before I took a picture. Doh! It's Ottobre 2/2007 design #3(I think). I used some Chez Ami black and white striped cotton/Lycra. I actually made myself a shirt with the same fabric and the same pattern. I made mine with an aqua neckband but chose white for hers. I love that shirt and I hope she will like hers. For the dress, I'm using Lana from Ottobre 5/2010. I think the woman in the magazine looks so cute with the long sleeved dress underneath. I figured it'd be a lot more modest and warm than a tiny sundress. The most trouble I've had was finding fabric to use. Most of the knits I have are boyish or way to thin. I ended up going to the thrift shop in search of fabric and came away with a $2 long sleeved knit dress in a pretty plum color. It came with a vest too but I was able to cut the entire pattern from the main dress. That pretty much reduced it to shreds!

This is all I have left!

Now I have the pattern all laid out and ready to sew.

I've read others' reviews and it seems like a quick sew. I'll probably get it done today while she's in school. I may wrap it, but I'm itching to just give it to her when she gets home!

Fall Sewing

Fall has to be one of my favorite times of the year! I love the crisp air. I love taking the kids to the pumpkin patch. Just the general feeling and smell of Fall. I don't know how to describe it. One other thing is wearing layers! I'm not fortunate enough to have a beach bod so tanks and shorts are not really my thing. Jeans, sweaters, skirts with boots, and long sleeve tees...that's my thing. I just splurged on this pattern from Sew Liberated:

I see this becoming a staple in my wardrobe. The tunics I've seen made from this look really good. I have this cute brown rayon I picked up at the thrift store the other day, 4 yards for $4, that I think will work nicely.

If you've made this, let me know what you think of it!

Lucky Number 13 and some Sewing...

Good Morning (or afternoon)! I just thought I'd do a quick post before all the kiddos wake up!

First of all, my baby girl celebrated her 13th birthday on Monday. I can hardly believe I'm the mother of a teenager now. I posted about it on facebook and got lots of comments in support of my impending doom. Above is the cake she picked out. She couldn't decide if she wanted me to make one or just buy one and then she say this lovely confection. It tasted okay but I seriously had trouble sleeping that night from all the sugar! Good grief! I wanted to post a cute picture of her blowing out the candles but she said to me, "NO posting that picture to the internet! I look weird!" Ah yes...it's starts.

We went to Wonderland Park in Amarillo, TX on Saturday to celebrate a little early. I have no pictures 'cause I forgot the camera. It was so nice though since our little man no longer needs a stroller. We didn't have to carry/push anything! It was amazing! My husband didn't have stroller duty so he actually got to ride some of the rides. He never really minded before since he has some inner ear problems and he doesn't do well on rides anyway. But I think he enjoyed himself even though he got a bit dizzy and nauseous. This is a nice amusement park that's not too big and still has some really great rides. The birthday girl and I rode all of the rollercoasters! Our fave! Mr. C even rode his very first one which is really saying something since he is terrified of heights. He loved it, though!

Secondly, I have been sewing! My sewing mojo is still seriously lagging but I've managed to bust out a few things. I made my daughter a swim suit!

                                         

It started with this top. She wanted a bikini oh-so-bad so I thought I'd give it a go. This top is from New Look 6357. The fabric and lining just weren't thick enough and everything shows through! Yikes! Plus, I'm not so sure how I feel about her in a bikini...

So, the second try I just did on my own without asking her opinion (which usually gets looks od disgust). I have several Jalie swimsuit patterns in my stash and this one is #2447. I picked out some fabric, also from the ol' stash, and just went to town. She didn't really know what I was doing and that can be a good thing. Anyhoo, this pattern goes together so fast and smooth I could hardly believe it. Oh, and it fits her ever-so-nicely! She's pear shaped so I really should have made the bottoms the next larger size but these will do. The top has a bit of room to 'grow' too, if you jnow what I mean. The fabric is from Chez Ami, of course, since I have a butt load of the stuff. It's really nice and the weight is perfect. I used a thicker lining fabric for the bra cups and I think it'll be okay. The suit has yet to see water so, we'll see.

Lastly, I'm test sewing again! This one is for Patterns by Figgy's and I must say these are some great britches! They look super sharp on too. I can't get my 'model' to model so my poor table has the job. These look so good on him! They have a flat front and elasticized back,

Contrast lining,

and front pockets.

I chose to make the pockets with the contrast fabric just for fun. The main fabric is a pale olive, stretch twill from a co-op and the lining is a quilting cotton called "Route 66" from Alexander Henry. This pattern will be released Aug. 1st and since this was a test there may be some slight changes in the final product. I thought it was pretty great as is but you never know... 

I'm getting geared up to spend the weekend at my Mom's. My sister and her family are back in the States for awhile. I think they go back to France at the end of July? Anyway, they're staying at Mom's for a couple of weeks and I haven't seen them since Christmas, I believe. I can't wait to see them!

Well, I have one little one that just wondered out of his room and is need of some snuggle time! Weekend is almost here, have a great one!

Getting Organized...

...and then getting sidetracked! Ahhh...the story of my life! Well, anyhoo, last weekend I decided it was high time I get my shit together and start organizing my fabric and pattern stash. I have a shelf with some (okay, who are we kidding here? I have shelves!) of my fabrics and it always looks a mess. No matter how many times I fold and refold and try to be carefull getting stuff out it all just falls into a damn mess. Awhile back a blog featured a free download to print out your very own fabric wraps. I cannot for the life of me remember where they came from so if you know PLEASE tell me! Ack! That drives me nuts.... So anyway, I got through the messiest shelves. They being the messiest because they contained most of my smaller pieces of fabric from when I was making purses and totes. There was some seriously cute fabric in there that I totally forgot I had! I'm now using those shelves for the awesome pattern boxes my Mom and Dad gave me for Christmas.

Here's where I am so far. And, YES, all of those pattern boxes are FULL!

I have an illness. Leave me alone.

Nice, neat little bundles!

This is next! Eeeek!

Geesh, that is seriously messy! I'm almost too embarrased to post those pics. Egads!

Now on to the reason for my sidetrackedive-ness (yes, that's a word). My li'l guy is growing. He is growing out of his clothes... and his undies! Those size 4 Spongebob's just aren't cuttin' it anymore. Whilst straightening book shelves I came across the undies pattern from That Darn Cat that I bought forever ago and never used. I needed a break from organizing so I thought I'd make up a pair. See what's what. Seriously, this is A Darn Cute Pattern. It's awesome. You can use small bits of fabric and no elastic is involved. The first pair I made promptly went on Little Mister's behind. He loved 'em. In his own words, "I really like my new underwear pants!" When asked if mommy should make him more he exclaimed, "Ooh yeah, you can make me lots!!" Alright, that may sound a bit more dramatic than what really went down but still it's pretty much word for word what he said. Cute! And it made me feel good knowing one of my children still appreciates my sewing capabilities. So seven pairs later.... 

he's all stocked up for now. I'm going to make a few more and that should be good. There are only 5 showing as he's wearing one and the other is in the laundry. You can see on the second pair from the right where I messed up the fly. I used my coverstitch machine to attach the binding, which worked ever-so-awesomely, and I fed the fabric through the wrong way. DOH! He hasn't figured out how to use the fly yet so it's not a big deal. Now I'll need to start in on some for the girl. She walked in while I was finishing up a pair and was like, "Gosh, how many pairs are you making him! Where's mine!" Mehmehmeh, whinewhinewhine... Little brat. So....I'll be working on hers later this week. LOL! Yeah, I'm kinda soft.

In other news, I've decided to go back to school this Fall! Yes, my 34 year old ass is going to be a student again. I'm super excited and totally nervous. Ultimately, I want to go through the Nursing Program our community college offers and it's a really good one from what I understand. Since Conner starts Kindergarten this Fall I'm just going to take the Gen. Ed. classes needed like Human Anatomy and English Comp. to get those out of the way. Then I'll apply to the program next year. The program takes 2 years and then you can call me Nurse Heather!

I'm not planning on getting all wacked out on drugs, tho. ;-D

First Ever GIVEAWAY!

Okay, y'all! As promised I'm going to have a giveaway to commemorate my 5th Blogiversary and my birthday. The Blogiversary is on Feb 26th and my B-Day is Mar 1st!

What are ye gonna get? Well, everything in the above picture! You know my love of underpinnings by now so of course it has to be lingerie themed. It includes a simple muti-sized pattern for a slip, suitable for a beginner. It's a vintage Sew Lovely and has never even been opened. Cool! I also think that you can size it up easily if you need to. Also, enough peach nylon tricot to make the largest size (There is probably enough that you could even make a matching pair of panties! This stuff is like 100"+ wide!) and a selection of stretch lace to adorn your lovely new garment with. I might even throw something a little extra in there. I love surprises, don't you!


Okie dokie, the details are:

1. You must leave a comment here on the blog or email me privately between now and March 1st, 2010. lil-miss-muffett@sbcglobal.net

2. I want you to tell me your most crowning sewing or crafting achievment! If you don't have one tell me something that you've done or has happened to you that is super cool. Anything goes! You shagged Tom Cruise? I wanna know! LOL!

3. The giveaway is open to my international readers too!

That's it! Pretty simple. I'll use one of those random generator thingies to choose the winner and I'll announce it on Tuesday, March 2nd.

Let the games begin!

Bra sewing again!

I've finally carved out a little time to make myself some new bras! All of mine are getting worn out and after having several conversations about bra making with Kristin, my juices got flowing to make some. Also, Pattern Review is holding a Lingerie Contest. It ends Feb. 14th and I thought I should get busy! LOL! The bra above is a mock up of one of my custom drafted Danglez patterns. If you look closely you can get a glimpse of the fabric I'm using for the contest piece. It's a really fun animal print with swirls and little silver paillette thingies. This bra has a diagonal seam cup and I just love how it fits! The details are more visible here on my dress form:

I wore it all day yesterday and didn't have to tug or adjust and I just love that! The contest bra is proving to be a little bit more difficult than the trial bra. It just sort of sewed itself. The print fabric is really stretchy and lightweight, almost to the point of being a mesh. Needless to say, it has to be fully lined and that makes things fussy. I'll cut a panty or two to go with it. Hopefully, I can get it all done before the weekend!

Some sewing, believe it or not!

Yes, I do sew! Imagine that!

Here are some before and after photos of Ottobre 5/2007 Design #12A. The fabric I used was some Bamboo/Cotton/Lycra and it is extremely soft and has a lot of drape. Unfortunately, it shows every bump that lies underneath it. Not so good when you're a big girl. Anyhoo, I think that with the fabric containing Lycra and being so drapey it really stretches when wearing. The top came out much longer than I had intended and it just looked plain sloppy!

I trimmed it up quite a bit so it rested about mid hip and then added the ruching as described in the instructions for this pattern.

It's a little more flattering now and in the last photo you can see the ruching. I think that helps add a little shaping to the sides.

On a most exciting note: I fixed my serger! All. by. myself. Well, I had an assistant who ran and got me screwdrivers and compressed air and got in my way a bit (I'm not, ahem, talking about kids here either....) but for the most part I did it myself! I was having a problem with the fabric not feeding through and could feel/see that the back feed dogs were really loose. It was just a matter of tightening two little screws but the getting to those screws proved rather difficult. It only took about 30 minutes and now I'm back in business. Plus, it saved me quite a bit of money. Yay!

Have a lovely week!

In Progress: HP Uptown/Downtown Dress

and I need some suggestions!

Okay, the neckline is giving me fits and I'm thinking about just sticking some elastic in there so it'll lay flat! This is one of those patterns where, for the neckband, fabric choice is key. If it ain't stretchy enough it just ain't gonna work right. I *thought* my fabric was stretchy enough but I was sorely mistaken. The neckband on the size 20 is 10" shorter than the neckline and no matter how hard I pulled I just couldn't get it to fit. Well, I just barely made it all the way around and at the end got a tiny pleat. When I put the dress on it look horrid! It was all bunched up and the sleeves looked crazy. I'm sorry I didn't take a pic to show you. The pattern calls for rib knit for the bands and it mentions that you can use self fabric but it better have super elasticity and excellent recovery, that's all I'm sayin'. I did rip out the original neckband (ugh, dark thread on dark fabric!) and made the neckband about 6" longer. While this technically worked it makes the band stick up and I just don't care for it at all. Hence the idea for elastic or do you think it will look like crap? Please, please help! I love this fabric and hate to see it wasted.

Thursday is now the Official Recipe Day!

Last Thursday I posted a couple of shampoo recipes and I think I'm going to keep it up! I love to cook and make up my own bath and body stuff so I'll post some sort of recipe every Thursday. It could be brownies or it could be body scrub. You just never know with me!

First things first though, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who gave in to Fabric.com, that evil temptress! Second, I really need to thank the UPS man for bringing all that fabric I ordered from Chez Ami early yesterday! My husband would just die! Now it's all safely hidden in the bins in my garage. Of course he's used to my fabricaholic tendencies after 15+ years. If you sew for children then you really need to head over there. They have some of their fabrics clearanced for $2.50 a yard. You have to buy it in two yard lots but it is sooo worth it. The fabric is excellent quality and washes beautifully. I've made my son several things and they all still look great after several washings. Anyhoo, I'm sort of ashamed to say I bought *gasp* 42 yards. Yes, you read that correctly. I know, awful right? I plan to use it for at least 5 people so it'll go fast. Some good friends of ours have a 2 year old daughter and I want to make her a whole bunch of stuff. Her daddy lost his job a couple months ago and I know they don't have the money to buy her a bunch of Winter clothing. So, I'm arming myself with my Ottobre mags and will get down and dirty as soon as I get some of this fabric washed.

Okay, on to the recipe!

This is another shampoo that we love and is easy to make. It's my daughter's new favorite and really does smell fresh. My little guy and my big guy like it too. Bonus!

Minty Fresh Shampoo

1/4 cup Distilled Water
1/4 cup Liquid Castile Soap (I use the unscented stuff from Dr. Bronner's)
2 tsp Jojoba Oil
1/8 tsp Peppermint Oil
1/8 tsp Tea Tree Oil
Bottle

Pour water and soap into bottle and then add your oils. Swish around to mix. Shake well before use in the shower. Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Rinse well.

This is a good one for this time of year with cold and flu season upon us (well, in the Northern Hemisphere anyway). The tea tree has excellent cleaning properties and is an analgesic, decongestant, and expectorant. The peppermint is also good for sinus congestion and is a pain reliever. So the next time you have a cold or a headache, hop in the shower armed with this shampoo!

Tomorrow, I want to unveil my version of the Hot Patterns Uptown/Downtown dress! See you all then.

Dang you Fabric.com and Hot Patterns!

I caved this morning. It's all due to stinkin' Fabric.com, too. They're having this 12 Days of Christmas sale and the first day was 60% off the Vera Lavender Collection. I've been eyeing several of those fabrics for some time so I pretend shopped and filled my cart with a few things knowing I probably wasn't going to buy anything. Then the next day I check my emails and I've got one from Fabric.com. It basically says, "Hey wait, you have stuff in your cart and you forgot to check out! Here, we'll give you and extra 15% off if you come back and buy up this stuff you don't really need!" How the hell do they know I put shit in my cart and didn't check out?! Creepy. So anyways, I go back to Fabric.com and see what all I put in my cart. Some of it is mysteriously gone, btw. Then I see that patterns are on sale today with the frickin' 12 Days thingy and I sink out of my chair and onto the floor (well, not really. I just said that for dramatic effect.) 'cause now I'm doomed. There are several Hot Patterns that I want so I added a few to may cart and used my coupon (which was ABAND2009....can you believe the nerve of these people! They said I abandoned my cart, for cryin' out loud! Oh, poor cartie baby, I'm sorry!). I got this, this, and this. I bought the last two because I loved Debbie Cook's versions. (Okay Debbie, now it's all your fault! heehee). You know I just had to order more than $35 to get the free shipping. So, there goes Christmas for the kids. Just kidding....

Sorry no pictures today. I do want to thank everyone for their super sweet comments about my coat! Sarai liked it too so that was truly icing on the cake!

Have a good one!

Awesome Thrift Score, Awesome Pin-Up, and Awesome News

Can things get any more awesome?! Teehee! Well, it is Friday after all.....

I wanted to share a bit of awesomeness that has come my way in recent days. First off, I went to the thrift store yesterday to see if I could find some fabric for a coat I'm making (more on that in a bit). Instead I come across a shoe box of mugs that I thought looked terribly familiar. See, I used to work at a gift shop as their Bridal Consultant, which basically means I just registered brides for all the stuff they wanted people to buy them for their big day. Anyhoo, these mugs looked familiar because they are made by a brand that the shop carried. Okay, are you ready....They're Denby Greenwich! DENBY!!! Hello?! I only paid $2.75 for 10 of them!!! The lowest price I could find online was over $20. EACH! Honestly, I felt kinda guilty because they had no idea what they had. But, here I sit, sippin' my coffee, in my new mug, and it's feelin' pretty good! ;~D hehehe

I also found some clogs that were brand new for $4. The brand is Indigo by CLARKS! For Heaven's sake!

Next up is the "new girl" I drew for my hubby's band logo. I think she turned out pretty awesome:

Lastly, you may or may not know how much I love Colette Patterns. Well, the other day Sarai had a call on her blog for test sewers for her new line of patterns coming out soon. I thought "what the hey" and contacted her asking for a slot. Lo and behold, she emailed me back and said I'm in! Awesome!!! Without giving too much away, I signed up to make a short wrap coat. The line drawing is great and her sample is just gorgeous. I ordered fabric and it's on it's way. I chose a wool gauze in a lovely, deep red and a dark purple for the lining. I just got the email this morning that it had finally shipped. 'Bout damn time! I was getting a little panic-y about not having it here in time hence, the thrift shop run.

Well, that's my awesomeness for the week. Do you all have any awesomeness to share?

Oh yes, the word for today is awesome. See how many times you can use it!