I love to wear cardigans.  I'd wear them to bed if I could.  I have long sleeved ones, short sleeved ones, basic ones, and bright ones.  They cover my wobbly bits...and I feel like I am wearing a security blanket all day.  But I've become tired of the cardigans I find in stores.  I want snazzy ones!  Which is what pushed me into knitting.  I want sweaters.  Lots and lots of sweaters.  I entered the time suck known as Ravelry and quickly filled my favorites with sweaters, scarves and skirts!  Did you know you can knit skirts?  And not look like a toddler?  Yes!  I will NOT be knitting yarn bikinis.  Nobody wants to see that...

My first foray into knitting was several years ago when those fuzzy yarn scarves were all the rage.  But mine always looked like lopsided triangles because I kept adding stitches somehow.  I didn't know what I was doing so I quit and shoved everything under my bed.  I've moved since then and continued to shove it under the bed in new houses.  I have since discovered Craftsy and signed up for a beginning knit class.

And here is my first presentable knit project! (Disclaimer:  my picture taking skills are still not very presentable)

I used a black and metallic green yarn by Lurex.  Our local yarn shop had it on sale.  It was not that easy to work with because each time I screwed up and had to pull it out (is that frogging? why?) my fibers would unravel.  By the time I started it the fourth time, I really couldn't see one fuzzy strand from the next.

Amazingly, I still managed to create a scarf.  With a keyhole.  And with lace!  Bailey was at the vet all day and was little upset so I thought wearing a sparkly scarf would cheer her up.  It didn't.


I tried it on for the first time so everyone could see how it looks on.  I just want to say that I couldn't find my black t-shirt today so I am wearing a black pajama top.  I was also too lazy to change my shirt for hula class tonight so I wore my pajama top to the gym.  I wore my pjs out in public and to work today.  I have no shame.


Phoebe noticed that I was doing something that didn't involve her so she joined in the fun.


She also kinda matches the rug too.  Just noticed that.  Huh.

Since I knit at the same speed at which I sew (Grass grows faster.  Paint dries faster.  Sloths move faster.) I might get a nice fall cardigan done by next July....

I know, I know...it is only September...and here I am writing a post about Halloween decor.  But in all fairness, I was picking among the last of the Halloween stuff in the store today because the Christmas stuff was coming out.  So it was either do this now, or wait until it is October and all that would be out would be Valentine's hearts...

I love Halloween.  Not scary or gory Halloween, but cute and shimmery Halloween.  I love costumes, decorating, and seeing all of the tiny tots dressed up for Trick-or-Treating.  I found a wreath that I absolutely fell in love with at Grandin Road. 

Cast a Spell Wreath

Isn't it fun?!  And it could be mine (or yours) for the low, low price of $349.  Um, no.  I'm not spending half my mortgage on a Halloween wreath. 

But I still wanted it.  So off I went to Michael's to try to make my own.  I came home with all my loot and got to work.


So $35 and a few hot glue sticks later I had this...

I added a flower and a big purple spider 'cause I wanted to...


Mine isn't quite a full as the inspiration wreath, and it is a bit more glittery...


I painted a few of my plastic gourds just like the way expensive wreath...


I'm quite happy with my copy cat wreath.  And for 10 times less than the original!!!






It's already hanging up in my kitchen.  Knowing me, it will probably stay there until mid-November.  Now I just have to make my zombie costume for the Zombie 5K in early October.  Only I don't like scary or gory.  I'm going to be the prettiest and least bloody zombie out there!  I might even add some glitter....

Have you ever been to a buffet and piled up your plate with a mountain of food that you will never eat?  You know, the "eyes bigger than your stomach" phenomenon.  This skirt was my Chinese buffet.  I put way too many egg rolls on my plate....

Sew Mama Sew hosted the Super Online Sewing Match (which is in no way similar to the Great British Sewing Bee...so don't even go there).  Talented sewists were selected to participate in each challenge and the pool was whittled down until one winner was left.  If you would like to read about the entire match from beginning to end, click here.  I waited eagerly for each challenge and loved reading through each talented entry.

There is also a Super Online Sewing Community Match which anyone was welcome to join.  All you had to do was select one (or all ) of the challenges to complete and upload a couple of pics to the Flickr pool.  The very first challenge was to design and sew your own a-line skirt from Deborah Moebes' Craftsy class...which I had already taken and completed two skirts.

I immediately started looking for fabric and ran across a beautiful (but blindingly bright) yellow tweed wool.  It was on sale (not a surprise) and I scooped up two yards for around $4.00.  My fuchsia lining was about $6.00, so I spent $10.00 for my materials.

The deadline is (or was, depending on when you are reading this) September 10th.  And of course I didn't get started until a couple of weeks before the deadline.  But I had done this before, it would be a breeze!

My breeze quickly escalated to hurricane force winds.

My tweed was woven extremely loose so I opted to underline instead of lining it.  I left the bottom part free when stitching my underlining and tweed together.  It went together so easily!  I even managed to match my plaid!  I've steered clear of plaids or stripes because I am beyond anal about everything matching up and I feared I couldn't do it...but I did!



I mean, it's still not perfect, but I think it is pretty well done for my first try.

Since I was entering this into a competition, I knew my inside needed to be as finished as the outside.  I created a facing out of my tweed and finished it with bias tape.  I also used the bias strips to finish my seams.  I was so proud!



My plaid even match up here as well.  There was no way I wouldn't win something!

Then came the hem.  And my inexperience working with thick fabrics that fray faster than you can say "shreds" came through.

I first tried bias tape around the hem.  It turned out...well...hideously.  My lining was somehow shorter than my outer fabric.  I let my skirt hang for a day or two and then evened everything up.  It still didn't match up.






It hung so straight!  Not really.  Bailey wanted in on the picture taking action also...





Here it is from the side.  I felt a little like a wilted upside down tulip.  Phoebe was helping by chasing the threads hanging off of it.

I tried turning the hem up with the intention of stitching  the bias covered edge to the underlining.  That was just as disastrous because I couldn't ease the hem in at all.  I cut the entire hem off and headed out in search of hem tape or lace.  That was today.  The deadline is tomorrow.

I found hem lace in another totally different shade of pink (this skirt is beginning to look like a circus).  I got it stitched on and then hand stitched my hem up.  I had never used hem lace or tape, so there was some winging it involved (too lazy to look it up...I figured I couldn't hurt the skirt at this point!).


It worked!  My hand stitching isn't perfect (and I normally pride myself on my hand stitching skills...not this time).  But it is now hemmed.  And I'm not redoing it.

The skirt is heavy enough to wear in the Siberian winter.  I won't be wearing it anytime soon since we are still hanging out in the 80's.  I would go back and get some better pictures since it is a competition, but the skirt is hot.  My house is hot.  I'd swelter running back and forth between the camera and the living room.  And that would definitely not make a pretty shot.

Now let's talk shoes!!!  I bought these from J. Crew about three years ago.  They are my favorite shoe.  Suede?  Wedge heel?  Orange?  Pink?  What is there not to love???  Except with my arthritisy feet I can't wear them longer than about 3 minutes.  I just collect pretty shoes to look at and clomp around in Danskos the rest of the time.





Ok, I'm off to try more pictures.  I just looked at the other fabulous entries.  One washed out picture of me standing in my unvacuumed hallway won't win much.  At least I moved my dead and misshapen duct tape dress form dressed in a purple sweater and Halloween skirt out of the way...








If you would like to see the other entries, visit the Flickr pool here.  See why I need better pictures? 

"Can you make me ____________?"

"Can you fix/alter/redo this?"

"I would love to have that.  Can you make me one?"
 

Yes, yes I can (maybe).  But will I?  No.

And here's why.....

I love sewing.  I really do.  There are some days when I'll be sitting in my sewing room furious because I can't figure something out, but I love the entire process.  There is no pressure on me when I create things because I know it is for me and if I screw it up, no one knows.

I teach special education for my real job.  And although I love it, it is a job.  It has all of the stress and pressure that jobs usually have.  I don't want to bring that pressure into the craft that I love.  And I would.  I would be pressured to finish something by a certain time.  I would stress if every single seam wasn't perfect or if the fit was off.  I don't want that to happen because I would begin to dread my dates with my sewing machine.

People are also under the assumption that sewing is cheaper than buying clothes at the mall.  I quickly realized that wasn't true.  By the time I buy all of my fabric, thread, notions, it quickly adds up!  And I don't charge myself an hourly rate.  If I were to charge someone else for my time, say $20 an hour, the cost would be over a hundred, possibly two hundred (I'm slow.....really slow....).  Some people may be willing to pay upwards of $200 for a handmade garment.  Most aren't.  I'm not running a sweatshop where I work for $0.20 an hour!

And my most selfish reason???  It would take time away from my own projects!  I may not be married or have kids, but I am still quite busy.  I barely have time to squeeze a half hour of sewing or knitting into my days.  I'm not giving that up so that I can make something for someone who is underpaying me for my time. 

What will I do?  I will happily teach anyone to sew.  I'd love to help someone create their own wonderful pillow, garment, curtain, etc. 

So instead of asking me to make you something from scratch, ask me to teach you how to do it.  Trust me, it will be all the more special for you!  And I get more enjoyment from inspiring others to create than doing it for them.

Oh, I do make occasional exceptions for my immediate family or close friends.  But I still make them buy the materials...no one gets everything for free!

From the hilarious Selfish Seamstress

Today was the first day of school and I always like to start the year with a new dress.  Only instead of buying something from Macy's, I made one to wear.  Ok, that's a lie.  I made SIX to wear!  My first day dress is a mash up of Simplicity 2217 and a self drafted skirt.

Remember my vintage Alfred Shaheen fabric I found on vacation this past June?  If not, I was rambling around in a little fabric shop while on vacation in Emerald Isle, NC when I found just over two yards of fabric by Alfred Shaheen.  Shaheen was the pioneer behind the iconic Hawaiian shirt.  He also designed fabrics and women's dresses. He is considered a pioneer in the textile industry.  Sorry, that kind of reads like a middle school book report.  At least I didn't tack on "The End" or end my paragraph with "And that is the history of Alfred Shaheen." 

Blue Velvet Vintage

Dresses

Shirts

Posh Girl Vintage

I considered my fabric find to be a treasure that I couldn't ruin.  I agonized for weeks trying to decide how to best use it.  Then one of my readers, Danielle, suggested using Simplicity 2217 as my bodice.  Simplicity 2217 is from their "Amazing Fit" collection, which I think translates to "ginormous amount of ease added."  I liked that the pattern had varying cup sizes so that saved me from having to do an FBA.  Again, my measurements placed me in a solid 22, but after making up the muslin, it was obvious that taking a few seams wouldn't work and I sized down to a 20.  When I looked at the measurements for the finished garment, the bodice allowed for 3+ inches of wearing ease!  Since I wanted my bodice to be fitted and not hanging open in the front (which would be oh so appropriate for a middle school teacher to wear to work), I went down a size and still had to take in some along the front princess seams and the top of the side seams.  I also added an invisible zip instead of a lapped zip.  I did that for no real reason other than I know how to do invisible zips.  My bodice fabric is a basic black cotton that collects Phoebe hair faster than honey attracts flies.  I think I sewed up the equivalent of a whole cat in this since she likes to lay on whatever fabric I am working with.  Um, hope none of my students are allergic to cats...  I also put the bodice together in a little different order than what the instructions stated because I was adding my own skirt and I made a muslin instead of fitting as I went. 


2217 has a more fitted skirt with a couple of pleats at the top but I opted to do a self drafted gathered skirt for fullness.  It is a basic dirndl (you know, two rectangles...how hard can it be?).  I did not gather it in the front or the back because I imagine it makes me look slimmer.  Or at least not the size of a water buffalo.  I also lined it in a light blue lining from JoAnn's.  I have no idea what it is made out of but I do know it was next to impossible to work with and feels hotter than summer in Hades.  Or I'm having hot flashes.  But I'm still blaming the lining.  So I'm assuming it is polyester.  On the bright side, it is a pretty color.



I took these pictures after the first day of school and after meeting with our HOA's accountant I've hired to straighten out my mess I created while pretending I know what I am doing as Treasurer.  Apparently there was some money missing.  Don't worry, I don't have some elaborate scheme to collect HOA fees for my own bank account...I'm not smart enough to figure that out.  I just applied some stuff in weird places.  Oops. Wait, my point was that I'm tired.  Exhausted, actually.  Hence the unruly hair and sleepy look.









When I first took these pics the first few had a bunch of orbs in them.  I guess my place is now haunted.  All of those noises I blame on Phoebe must be due to spirits moving about.  Ok, ok, the orbs disappeared once I cleaned the lens of my camera.  But I'm checking into blessing the house just in case.  They may have just been hiding for the second round of pics....


See the cat hair?  And the cat?  She's pissed that I picked her up and since I was trying not to be clawed to death (and having my own spirit join my orbs) I forgot to set the auto timer and took a picture of my chest instead.  Sadly, this is after I went over it with a lint roller. 



On a completely unrelated note, this green is the for real color of my living room.  All of my other pictures seem to wash it out.  I keep thinking if I make my house look like it belongs at the beach, I'll fool myself into believing I actually live there and not in the mountains of SW Virginia.  A girl can dream, right?

In conclusion, my dress is very comfortable to wear and I love it.  And that is my blog about my dress.  The End. 

I just finished Kitschy Coo's Lady Skater dress!  Woo Hoo!  I was a "sewing with knits" virgin until I tried this dress.  I had seen it pop up on blogs all over internet world, but I shied away from it because it was a knit.  And I knew that my illustrious sewing machine would chew it up and spit it back out for me.  Then I saw Lladybird's version and it had to be mine.

Lladybird

To be completely honest, I wanted the fabric too.  Until I put it in my cart and the total was $107.  That's expensive even when I am getting paid, much more so when I am living off of savings until school starts back up.  Not a millionaire, yo.  I assumed knits would be cheap because, well, t-shirts are cheap.  They aren't cheap.  I finally found a pretty one on Fabric.com for just over $17 total.  Yes!  Once it arrived I realized why it was so inexpensive...it was also see through.  And who wears a slip under a comfy knit dress?  Not me!

I ran out to JoAnn's in search of a knit to use for the lining and a muslin.  I found a lining, but at $12/yd I wasn't turning that into a muslin.  So I used an old t-shirt sheet that was stained with muddy Bailey paw prints from when she was spry enough to get on the bed.

I was too scared to attempt a knit on my own and I went in search of someone to help me.  I found a class on knits nearby that was only $475.  Um, no.  If I had $475 I could go out at buy multiple knit dresses!  I located another person in my area who taught private classes in her home but wouldn't do one class, she would only do 8 beginner sewing lessons for $300.  Really???  Not to brag about my mad sewing skills, but I'm beyond starting out beginner...AND I don't have $300.  It was beginning to look like my ton of knit fabric would be turned into one big pile of cat bed.

I expanded my search a little and found my savior...Nan at Pins & Needles Studio in Raleigh, NC!

Pins and Needles

Over the summer months Nan offers open studio time in two hour blocks.  She provides the machines and space, all you have to provide is the project.  Each two hour block is only $15 and worth so much more!  I traveled to Raleigh, crashed with my sister and brother-in-law, and spent two days at Pins and Needles working on my dress.  Nan was wonderful to work with.  I could use her ginormous cutting table that was cat free!  I could use one of her BabyLock sewing machines (which made mine look even more craptastic that it already was)!  She even taught me how to use a serger (also on my list of wants now)!  I still feel guilty for monopolizing her time when my dressmaking went an hour and half over our allotted time on the last day.  She didn't seem to mind and was determined that I would finish my dress.

My dress fabric is black sketchy roses that remind me of tattoos...hence the tattoo dress.  The only measurements needed were my high bust and my high waist.  I fell perfectly in the size 7 but after making the muslin I realized that my hips and rear are about a size 10 (and the dress only goes up to an 8).  "Baby Got Back" is my theme song.  Nan helped me enlarge my pattern by an inch on both sides of the bodice and skirt.

We strayed a bit from the directions because I was lining it.  My lining fabric also forms the neckband and armbands.

I also found my shoes in Raleigh (well, Durham, if you want to be picky).  They are Swedish Hasbeens from Anthropologie.  How did I afford those you ask?  Buy shoes that are already more than 50% off and ask for an additional discount because there is a miniscule scuff on the toe.  That's how.  I didn't realize these were a fashionable brand until our fresh out of school guidance counselor squeeled when I told her they were Swedish Hasbeens.  So I guess I really am hip, right?  Except I just called myself hip.  I suppose that ship has sailed...

But aren't the shoes adorable!  Red!  With bows!  Although with the wooden soles I kinda sound like a rhinoceros in clogs clomping around in them.

And a parting close up of my new red hair and purple extension...with a camera in the middle.  Because that always adds a lot to portraits.

Thank you to Kitschy Coo for such a wonderful pattern, thank you to Lladybird for enticing me to attempt one of my own, and the biggest thank you to Nan who helped me through every step!

After furiously trying to get this dress finished for the Threads Magazine Summer Inspiration Challenge, I decided I needed a small break from sewing clothing for a while.

This poor dress still isn't finished, and I was taking these pictures just before the contest's midnight deadline.  I'll blog about this one when it is actually finished and I don't have pins holding my hem up...

In the meantime, I decided to embark on another project.  My youngest sister has been asking me to make her something, anything, for a while now.  I've done things for my mom, I've sewn most of my other sister's curtains in her house, I've done things for friends and their kids, but nothing for her.

Since she is a kid at heart like me, I thought I would do something fun for her and not boring like curtains.  A few months ago I bought a random book at JoAnn's because it was on sale. I love this book!  It has all these magical creations and almost no directions on how to do any of them so it has sat on my shelf looking pretty since I bought it (how's that for a run on sentence???). 

Tilda's Studio on Amazon

  I tackled the giraffe for my sister.  I knew the directions were missing some pertinent info so I thought about doing a tutorial for the giraffe.  The directions are basically "cut your fabric and sew".  For the new sewist (is sewist a word?  Blogger says no but I'm sticking with it), this would be like me going to a mechanic to learn how to change the battery in my car and all I get is "open the hood and switch 'em out".  It would end in an explosion.  Probably.  I started taking pictures as I went but then got so involved in it that I sort of forgot to continue taking them.  So if anyone out there wants a tutorial on making the giraffe, let me know and I'll post what I have.  It will get you through the giraffe itself but not the dress.  But if you can figure out the giraffe, you can figure out a two piece dress, right?

Overall, she went together fairly quickly.  Just don't count my do overs in that time and and I could say she was created in a few hours.  I also used fabric that I already had, so I didn't have to buy a thing!

I couldn't think of a name for her, so I'll just let my sister name her.  I'm quite infatuated with her and might have to make another.  Or the elephant.  Or one of the angels.  Or the cockatoo...

Isn't she adorable?!?!  I love her!  I hope my sister does as well!