Sick Day

I felt horrible yesterday, so I got a sub and went to the doctor. Apparently I have strep throat and an ear infection, gross.

So all I did today was go to the doctor, get my pills, sleep until 1:30 pm and then sit on the sofa with the dog all day. With the heat cranked up.

I did sew down the neck facing for Stephanie's dress and hand-pick the zipper. I might hem it, but I also might go to bed at 7.

Anyone like my new background for the blog? I think it's really cool!

I'm also very excited to have almost 200 followers- only five to go! I reminded Andrew that we never went to a nice dinner to celebrate 100 followers, so we will go to two dinners. Hopefully one will be celebrating a (hopefully good) job offer that he is supposed to get at the end of January! Cross your fingers for us, it will be an exciting move!

I have about 8 cute vintage patterns that I know I will never make, because they are not my size. The joys of small boobs- I can buy 32 bust patterns and not grade them, so I know I'll never learn. Look for a giveaway when I reach 200!! Whoo hoo!

Work in Progress

This is my dress I finished yesterday. It's from the 1970s. My mom bought me the pattern and the fabric, from thrift shops, I think.

I really wanted to get pictures of it today, but it turned cold, windy and rainy overnight. Hopefully, I can get pictures of it sometime this week after work, but who knows. It has a cool neckline, and it was my first attempt at adding padded bra cups to it, so that was exciting!

I am now working on Stephanie's birthday dress. This is the pattern- view D, the girl in grey at the bottom.

Here is the work in progress. It needs sleeves, a zipper and a hem, so I am nearly finished! It's not on the dummy because her waist it 2 inches smaller than mine and her torso is longer. I had to lengthen a pattern for once, instead of shorten it!

I'm sad I didn't get any pictures, but that's winter for you!

I already made my lesson plans for this week, but I need to go make my power points on Ancient Greece!

Vogue 1044 pictures, finally!

Here is my pattern, in case you have forgotten since I started it in November! It is Vintage Vogue 1044. This is another pattern that I became fixated on the picture on the front. I made the 3/4 sleeve version for winter, also in a deep purple cotton sateen from Jo-Ann.

The pictures are from my ipod and Andrew's phone, and I really like all of them. It amazes me that phone camera are now as good as my first digital camera. LOL.

The front:

Here is a close-up of the pleats. As you can see, and I discovered from wearing it once, it needs a hook and eye to cinch the waist closed all the way. I did a great job on the pleats; they are perfectly even. The buttons were some vintage ones from my Aunt Sherry.

The back is fairly simple and plain.
I tried to add pockets, but didn't think about where the seams would end up with all of the gathering and pleating at the waist. So really, this is the creepy "my hands are both directly over my underwear" face. So no standing around with my hands in my pockets, I guess. :(

Sad and angry, commiserating with the lion. We took the pictures at City Park, and the weather was beautiful and sunny! Yay!

I am overall pretty happy with this dress. My mom hemmed it for me over Xmas, and that is what got me to finally finish it. Now all of my November goals are complete! Eeek.

I just finished a 70s sundress, so I'll post pictures of that tomorrow.

January Goals

December re-cap:

1. Make t-rex a fleece jacket (check)

2. Treat wool for Vogue coat (check) The wet-towel-dryer method really does work, good to know.

3. Cut out coat pieces in wool and flannel underlining. (not complete)

4. Hem last 2 Swirl dresses (check)

5. Draft my own pattern for military-inspired long sleeve dress (not even started)

6. Make a flashy dress for NYE. (check, if you count the red velvet dress)

Bonus: I made 2 pairs of pajama pants, one for me, one for Andrew. Also finished the purple dress from (gasp) November. Pictures soon!

January Goals:

1. Cut out all of the dark blue wool pieces and then baste them all to the underlining. I cut out the light blue accents already and cut out and marked all of the flannel. Someday over the rainbow, I may actually begin sewing my coat. On a hilarious note, Andrew seems to think I plan on finishing this coat sometime this winter. LOL. Maybe before next winter, hopefully!

2. Make my friend Stephanie a dress for her birthday. It was in late December, so I don't have a deadline. She liked this pattern, the grey version, and I picked out the fabric because she had no preference. It will be interesting sewing for someone else. I told her I would make her a dress for her birthday and she said "But you hate sewing for other people!" Which is true, unless it's my idea, of course. :)

3. Make this dress (second from the left) out of the fabric my mom gave me. It's a 34 bust, so I might have to do some adjusting. I might sew in bra cups? Anyone done that? Good idea or bad idea? Not being able to wear my padded bra would make me sad.

4. This pattern, from my mom, cracks me up. I think I will make it just for laughs, cap and all. So that will be hilarious! I like the middle version with the diaper-shorts and puff sleeves and cap. I bet it uses like 10 yards of elastic!

5. I want to make a pair of gloves. I traced out my pattern, and I will sew up the beige one for practice. I don't know what type of fabric yet.

6. At least draft the pattern for the green dress. Maybe I will make it up, too?

Well, this is what I hope to accomplish. We will see what actually gets done and what does not!

Christmas Sewing Loot

My mom gave me a bunch of patterns, which are cool. These are the blouses, and you can click on each picture to enlarge it.

Then three dresses, which are all super cute in different styles.
My aunt Sherry gave me the two dresses on the left, my mom gave me the freaky pajamas and cap pattern, and I bought the last one at St Vincent de Paul. It's eighties, but also kind of forties styled.
Mom also gave me a jacket pattern for Andrew, and some vintage buttons.
She also made me a ham and sleeve for pressing! Yay! I sewed them up after they were stuffed, so the weird shaped ends are entirely my fault.
We also drove up to POrtland and went to Fabric Depot, the largest fabric store in the USA. It was fun, especially if you like sewing with cotton. It was almost too much to look at; after awhile, I started getting that museum feeling, where you're sleepy and have looked at too many things. Or is that just me?
A cotton lawn from Fabric Depot.
A cotton mom found at Goodwill.
A cotton from Fabric Depot.

I'm excited for a new year! Everyone have a Happy New Year!!

A hand-picked zipper

The pictures are a little blurry since they're from the ipod. My mom helped me finish my lingering purple dress from November and rip out the zipper on my red velvet dress and re-do it. Although, after doing it again on the machine, it still was lumpy and noticeable. So Mom helped me with hand sewing the hem on the puple dress and I finally tried a hand picked zipper.

I thought doing a zipper by hand would be a gigantic PITA, but it turned out to be a piece of cake. You only need to know how to do a pick stitch. I guess I'm a convert; it looks great!!!

It gives you big stitches on the inside, but the zipper is totally secure! Wow!
There's lots of tutorials around for learning this technique- I used the one from Threads here.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas- I'm having a great time in Oregon with my family!

Red Velvet Dress

While cleaning for the arrival of Andrew's family, we put a bunch of stuf in the attic and found a big white, fake Christmas tree! How fun! I bought some ornaments and made Andrew the Grinch help me.

This is my red dress, which I sloppily hemmed on the machine last night and finished this morning. I did not, of course, finish it on time for the work party on Saturday. It's done now, however.

These are parish decorations on the way to work. I desperately wanted my picture with one, and my friends and I look some hilarious pictures. Nothing says Christmas like a giant shrimp and a candy cane!!!

Everyone really liked the dress, and while shoddily made, it is really striking. Due to the red velvet, mainly. It fits perfectly, since it was the second time making up this pattern.

On to the shoddy construction: I steam ironed the velvet, which shockingly didn't ruin it; I seriously f*ed up the zipper and had to rip it out and re-do half of it, which then led to; the back being entirely uneven, as you can see below. Geck. I'll fix it somehow (without doing the zipper again). Oh, and then I hemmed it on the machine, ran out of bobbin thread, threaded it in a different red and then finished it- this morning.

I really like the dress, and I think I like velvet a lot too. I'll do something else in velvet, for sure. I also like the tacky white tree, that was free! Merry Christmas!