Pin Fitting Complete

I was able to pin fit both McCall's skirt patterns. I was able to cut out this one.I really like all of the skirt's back views but decided to go with View A. I used this fabric .

I fell in love with these print skirts that were in Lucky Magazine. Carolyn and Marji both made print skirts recently with these skirts being their inspiration.

My second McCall's pattern is ready for me to move forward with cutting out the fabric. I had to take care of several chores this afternoon. For dinner I planned to grill chicken breasts so my time was taken up with cooking. I plan to work on cutting out the other skirt during the upcoming week.

Next up-Skirts

I completed the Butterick dress. All I needed to do was hem it which I did this evening after returning from Danville and visiting MIL. I used my coverstitch machine. I used a tip from Linda T, I used vanishing thread in my bobbin and then basted the hem of the dress in place with right side of dress toward bobbin. The bobbin thread was then the guide for sewing the coverstitch hem on the dress. This worked great-thank you Linda T for this most helpful tip! I then took my water dauber bottle and wet the vanishing thread and viola! it was washed away.

Tomorrow, I will pin fit two McCall's skirt patterns and then cut out both skirts. I will definitely use the fabric I recently acquired from Les Fabrique for this one. I am anticipating using the fabric from EOS for the other one; this is the black and fuschia on cream background fabric. I also have some other fabric in mind, one that has been in my fabric stash for sometime.

So many ideas and limited time.

Vogue Patterns Magazine

I got my Vogue Patterns Magazine earlier this week. The focus is on fall clothing. I am just not ready for fall! I also got a new Nordstroms' catalog yesterday and the focus is on fall. I got my Vogue Fabric Swatch packet also and the fabrics are for seasonal transition. Perhaps there is a hint that we should be starting our fall sewing.

As usual I have not tackled all the summer sewing yet and will continue to move forward on a few more summer sewing projects. Next up is skirts and blouse/tops.

My second sewing project-completed!

Below are some photos of Butterick 5278. This was a bear of a project and was due mainly to "Operator Error" and not the pattern nor the fabric. I just failed to do some things when cutting out the pattern after making some pattern adjustments. For example I did not do a forward shoulder adjustment with the neckline pieces but did on a portion of the sleeves. I had to compensate for this by restitching the shoulder seams on these pieces.

Another issue was the FBA I completed. This of course increased the width and length of the bodice; that was necessary. The FBA required an adjustment to the center front piece which I made. What I did not do is adjust or correct the placement dot on the front bodice piece so that the ties would be placed differently at center front. This creates a situation with tying the ties that I notice right off but I think that others when seeing it will not notice as I do. Because of the way I attached the lining/facing center piece enclosing the front center piece by machine and thus no hand sewing, it is possible to correct. This would however require me to undo way too many pieces. So I will live with it.

These are things that I made note of but not sure that this pattern warrants more than one of this style dress. As mentioned in an earlier post, I had to cut another front piece and I was fortunate enough to have enough to do that. So I am happy that the project is almost over.

All that is left to do is to hem the skirt. I just ran out of steam and had other things I needed to do. So I will take care of the hem later this week. All in all I am satisfied with the dress.

I love the fabric. Amazing how sometimes when I buy fabric it will linger in fabric collection months and even years. This fabric I acquired last month from "Gorgeous Fabrics" and it did not linger long at all. The final two shots are of my backside. At the time these were taken the side seams were only basted in.

For some strange reason, when my camera was set on timer to take self portraits, the first of the two pictures always came out blurry. I have no idea why. So here is fuzzy and non-fuzzy view.

McCall's 5752

Here are some not so glamorous photos of me wearing the completed dress. The ruching does not show up so well with all of these creme circles. Just so you know, my hair is pulled back in a pony tail and I have my bluetooth stuck in my ear. After posing for these shots, I decided to take up the waist line about 1/2 inch more. I also need to stitch down the crossover area as it pulls apart easily when wearing.


.

Vacation and sewing

I am taking a vacation day today so my long holiday weekend continues. I am making progress on my Butterick dress. I am about ready to go to sewing room and resume sewing. I always like to drink coffee and catch up on emails/blogs/Flickr photos and Pattern Review. I am limiting my time however as staying at the computer definitely eats up the sewing time.

I plan to take photos of the McCall's dress today and will post photos here. I want to write a review for PR as well.

More later.

Mastering the coverhem machine

I wanted to share photos of the coverstitch hem on the McCall's dress. I still need to practice, practice, practice.

I was able to eliminate the tunneling issue I have been experiencing. Here are close up shots:

I needed to adjust the lower looper tension as well as the tension on the presser foot

This is the underside of the stitch. I still have issues of keeping the stitching along the edge of the turned under hem. This is the practice/practice part.

Starting new project-Gremlins or Bad Karma

http://sewingbytheseatofmypants.blogspot.com/2009/07/ever-have-one-of-those-projects.html This is a link to a post by Karen at "Sewing by the Seat of my Pants" blog. I happened to read it yesterday. As I said to Karen when those projects happen, I think I may decide to quit sewing garments and take up sewing quilts. Thank goodness I don't.

Last night I completed the McCall's dress and I began getting ready to start the Butterick dress that is next up. I threaded the sewing machine, serger and coverstitch machines. I then cut out interfacing and fused to garment pattern pieces.

This afternoon I started on the dress. The first step was to turn under 5/8 seam allowances along the edge of the ties for the dress bodice and then stitch them down. This was rather fiddly, but got it completed. I then stitched those to the front bodice. The next step was to sew the center front piece to the two front bodice pieces. There are two of these pieces and one serves as a facing or lining after the non-interfaced piece is sewn to the two bodice fronts. Reading the instructions described sewing the facing piece after this step. This step per instructions require one to sew one side by machine and the other side is sewn by hand. Sewing by hand is an annoyance to me and having worked in a sewing factory for a brief period while attending college there is no hand sewing in RTW; couture but not RTW.

Thus I had an idea of attaching all pieces by serger. To make a long story short, pieces did not line up and issues developed requiring me to remove the serger stitches-pain #1. After doing so I basted one center piece to one front bodice, then basted the facing piece to other side and then re-serged. More issues-pain#2. I then realized that the center piece was attached upside down, requiring removal of serger stitches AGAIN.-pain #3.

All of this required me to have to cut another front bodice piece and fortunately I had enough of the fabric left to pull this off. I then cut two more center front pieces. The above steps have now been completed and I am happy to report I did not have to do any hand stitching. Perhaps with 20/20 hindsight, I should have followed the instructions.

After this I decided it was time to take a break. I watched a sewing video. Later or tomorrow is a better time to sew.

McCall's Dress complete

The brown and creme knit dress is complete. I will post photos of the completed dress later. I am pleased with the outcome of the dress.

I have a question to ask about how you store or hang knit dresses. Some of the knit dresses I make are from slinky knit and I learned over the years that slinky can grow, so for slinky knit tops I fold and store in a drawer. For dresses I fold them over and use a pant hanger from the cleaners where the dress is folded over the cardboard covering at the waist. I have some other knits like buttermilk knit that I hang like woven dresses or tops.

Other knits are not slinky or buttermilk and are rather stretchy. I use seam binding or fusible bias tape to secure the shoulder seams to help keep them from stretching too much.

So I am curious how you store or hang your knit dresses that have a tendency to stretch?

A quick note!

It is Friday and I am on holiday!!!!!!!!

I spent time last night setting up coverstitch machine to hem my dress and to get the settings right so the hemming will not have tunneling. I am still learning this machine. I really do like it. Hems are pinned in place for sleeves and skirt hem so will finish that up today and it will be complete.

I then need to rethread serger and sewing machine to start on the Butterick dress. I also plan to take time to cut out two skirt patterns this long weekend so I can get going on two skirts I want to make. One is TNT and the other is one I have been wanting to make for some time now.

Off to fix my coffee and catch up on reading blogs.