Next up- Butterick 6727

Here is my pattern- looks pretty 70s to me... I am making the version on the right, with short puff sleeves, but a slightly longer skirt.

More fabric I purchased at Jo-Ann on sale. It is way less shiny in real life, that's just the camera flash. I really like watercolor flower prints and purple, so I hope this dress is cute.
Musings:

It is the five year anniversary of hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans. It was my senior year of college and we evacuated to Chicago the day before because a friend of a friend was visiting and his flight back was cancelled (also because our mothers were hysterical). I ended up going to Loyola Chicago for the semester and we came back in the spring. My house was uptown by the river, so it fortunately didn't flood. I saw a grey National Guard humvee a few weeks ago and it reminded me of right after the storm. National guard patrols, everything so dark, very few stores open. I love this city and I'm glad I stayed here after I graduated. It has been great watching the city come back to normal. People should visit and come here for vacations and see for themselves! The news stories get it about 1/10th correct...

PS= Thanks to everyone who donated to my project for my classroom. We are currently only 91 bucks away from being funded! Yay! If you still would like to donate, it is tax deductible and you can donate any amount you like from $1 up. Thanks!

Random skirt of my own design

I slapped this together after work today. It took maybe 45 min-1 hr. The fabric is leftover from my blouse I just made, although I bought the suggested yardage. It's a yoke I took from a Butterick(?) pattern and a gathered dirndl skirt.

The zipper is tragic, but I only tucked in my shirt for pictures. Normally it will be invisible.
Good for spinning!
Fin

Butterick 6647

Here is my pattern, Butterick 6647. Bust 30, size 12. It looks late 40s- early 50s to me, but I didn't try to date it exactly. I sincerely dislike the skirt ( not a good look for my giant calves) and the jacket is meh. I made the red blouse, the afterthought in the corner.

I bought the fabric at Jo-Ann's on sale. It is some kind of poly blend with black and beige dots on a white background. It has kimono sleeves, too. I really like it, especailly with my balck skirt I just made.

The back- I was un-lazy and hemmed it by hand, so it looks good.
The front. It has three tiny tucks on the shoulder seam, giving it a nice drape, almost.
I didn't like how the zipper on my last blouse made one side so stiff, so I made a placket and added buttons. Buttons from a jar from a garage sale.
Overall, I really like it. If I were to make it again, I would use something with a bit of stretch. At one point, I tried it on while I was sewing, and I was sweaty and I got stuck in it. It was freaky!

Anyways, thoughts? I think it looks nice- vintage pattern, but not too "vintage-y."

Begging?

Actually yes. I'm not above a little begging! I set up this project on donorschoose.org to fund a class set of books to read during out unit on Egypt. I LOVED this book (Mara, daughter of the Nile) in middle school and it would be wonderful, especially for my honors class to read in full and my regular classes to read excerpts.

Click here to read my proposal!

Anyways, it would be really sweet if any of you have a few dollars to donate to our cause. The students would love this, you get a thank you from students when it's fully funded, and you get good karma! LOL.

PS- I don't know how we count as minimal poverty, since it's the kind of school where I couldn't expect each child to pay $5 to get their own book- some of their parents really can't spare the money. Plus, it's low-income enough to get part of my Perkins student loans cancelled by the government (yay!)

Thanks, everyone, even just for looking. Feel free to re-post it where ever you like!

Halter top and pencil skirt pics

I finished my blouse, and took pictures with my black pencil skirt. Here is the lining and my zipper, which came out sooooo well! My skirt is the second version of McCalls 5817, which I really like. You can see the first version here.

Now the line is a smidge off, bit I'm still happy.
Blouse, with the tie. A vintage pattern that was given to me by a woman from freecycle.org several years ago. It's Butterick 6965.
Another pair of dollar shoes from the estate sale.
More lining. I copied the Selfish Seamstress and just hemmed the lining seperately
The back.
A side view, so you can see the scarf-tie. It kind of blends in with the busy print.
Plus you can see my giant lemons in the background. Still not yellow, but very big. The rest of the plants got murdered during the heatwave when we were in New York. It didn't rain once while we were gone, which is what I was hoping for. Next up, one more blouse.

In progress...Butterick 6965

This is what I'm currently working on:

The blue one with the bow.

Here is my fabric, a poly chiffon like thing. It has a cool abstract print.
Here is my completed, fully lined, black, wool skirt. It turned out very nice. I will post a picture of the zipper I did- I am so proud of myself!!
This will be my next project. The blouse on the right, in this cute pattern to match my new black skirt. It will be super cute!!!
I can already tell this school year is going to be a million times better than last year! I think I will be able to teach, and have a LIFE at the same time!!! Gasp!! Hooray! Cheers to future sewing!

I amaze myself

..and not in a good way. I finally finished my other pink and green tablecloth.

I was having a terrible time, because the thread kept snapping and I could not figure out why. Was it the ruffler? no. Was it the bobbin and shuttle? No. Was it the tension? No. Was it the needle point? No.

I am an idiot? Yes. Do you see where this is going?

You see, I put the needle in backwards! I was convinced that the flat side had to face right. Finally, after hours of torment and frustration, I looked at the diagram on page ten.

Oh, to the left.

Duh.

Anyways, the tablecloths are done, and the ruffler is a great attachment when operator error isn't bringing me down!

Please tell me other people do dumb stuff like this, and I'm not the ONLY one!! :)

Ruffled Tablecloth

Today was the first day of school, and I still have done no sewing. Here is my ruffled tablecloth. I haven't finished the other yet. It is the reverse, pink on top with a green ruffle.

It turned out a little smaller than the table, so I don't know what happened. I measured again, and my measurement were correct. I think it had something to do with the corners. I taped it to the table and stretched it as far as it would go, but I had to strategically put some books on the back left corner.

What a great color scheme! Hot pink, lime green and tons of maps- I like my room!

Someone left a comment about a tutorial for the ruffler. I am not a maker of tutorials; I enjoy teaching, but sewing is my hobby. Besides, Susan at Spare Time has made a wonderful, incredibly detailed, 5 part series on how to use all the features of the ruffler. I couldn't even top it if I wanted to! You can see part one here.

Thanks, Susan!!

Wool for my coat

I chose the blue!

While the burgundy and mauve were beautiful together, I wasn't sure. The textures of the two wools were different, which I think would bother me a little. Plus, the coat will look very retro and perhaps burgundy would make it look old-fashioned. I think the blue is more modern.
Plus the blues have the exact same texture, which pleases the perfectionist in me.

My question for you:

Should I interline this coat in flannel? It will be a long coat, which is more for winter. The wool is medium weight, so it's not very heavy. Plus, we won't live in New Orleans forever, so it will be my investment coat. I will have it forever.

P.S. Here is my fabric for my classroom tablecloths. Hot pink and apple green. I bought them on two separate trips to Jo-Ann's to use two 40% off coupons.
Hopefully I will be able to carve out a little time each day to sew and make some progress. I have the black skirt, my cape, my tablecloth and the pattern cut out and fabric purchased for another skirt! I refuse to have UFOs!

Too busy to sew?

School has started, at least for teachers, so I have been really busy. Plus, since we got the dog back from boarding him he has had what we can euphemistically call "intestinal distress."

Sadly, my sewing room is his favorite place to hide and have horrifying, horrifying diarrhea. So, I have not been doing any sewing. Don't worry, he is on meds and a bland diet and will hopefully be feeling better soon, poor baby.
I did wear my cute blue dress I made this summer to back to school night. That is when the students and parents can come to meet their teachers, get books and buy gym uniforms, etc.

My room's theme is hot pink and neon green- it is very BRIGHT and FESTIVE and ENGAGING!!! I have made one ruffled, coordinating tablecloth for my two long tables, and I have one in the works. My thread keeps snapping though and it is frustrating. I can't figure out why. It did force me to clean out the feed dogs and the shuttle, so it's not all bad.

I'll post some pictures when I finish both. They are cute, and I am learning how to use my ruffler, which is an AWESOME foot! If you have one, try it. I know it looks menacing, but it is so fast and awesome and evenly perfect.

Havr a good week! Who knows when I'll be able to post something new?

Vogue Coat colors

NY was fun. We went to the Met and I took hundreds of pictures of artifacts to use in my Powerpoints for World History. I especially liked this Greek bird-woman. With a mullet!

We ate pizza and Senegalese food, we went to the Statue of Liberty (at my insistence), walked miles, I saw the great exhibit on American fashion in Brooklyn, saw Andrew's fam and a friend from college, went to Long Island and most importantly----

got my fabric at Mood!

Remember my pattern...

Guess which color combination I chose! Guess! The darker shade for the coat and the lighter for the contrasting cuffs and collar....

For now, I will leave you hanging.....

and go try to learn to use my ruffling foot...