Monthly Archives: November 2009

Burda Lite

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Remember how I ♥’d this skirt in the December Burda?

Burda 12-2009-112

Well, I made up the muslin yesterday (sz 40) and it fit!  Here’s a pic of my muslin. 

I can’t believe it but I actually understood all of the directions on my own without any help.  It’s a 1.5 dot pattern with 1 dot being the easiest, hence the title of this post.  It went together pretty easily.  I hope making up the fashion fabric goes even better.

stretch suiting from paron's

I pre-treated the fashion fabric (the grey one) by steaming it with a wet towel in the dryer and cut it out last night.  I have two yards left I think, in case someday I want to make a matching jacket or a dress. 

Today, while Jack is napping, I’ll try to sew most of it.  I am adding a lining using a method from this book, “Easy Guide to Sewing Linings,” by Connie Long.  It sure sounds easy.  Let’s hope that’s the case. 

I hope Jack takes a long nap!  😉

Happy sewing!

I succumbed

At the advice of Sue who commented on my last post about the December Burda issue, I trotted over to Gorgeous Fabrics online and bought some fabric to assuage my need for instant gratification.  I know, you’re shaking your head at me right now.  Why is this girl buying online when she lives in NYC you’re asking yourself.  Well, even though I live in the city, it’s not very convenient from my home or work to pop over to the garment district and I haven’t sourced out a store for sweater knits here yet.  So I found the following two fabrics on sale and can’t wait to receive them. 

Feast your eyes!

This sweater knit…

Heathered Gray cotton sweater knit from Gorgeous Fabrics

 For this Burda sweater.

Burda 12-2009-119

This tweed…

Brown Harris-type tweed from Gorgeous Fabrics

for this Burda skirt.

Burda 11-2009-120

And let’s not forget one of these fabrics…

stretch suiting from paron's

for the latest Burda pencil skirt.

Burda 12-2009-112

I think I have more than enough to keep me busy now.  Don’t you think?

Happy sewing everyone!

Can you say “YUM!”?

I absolutely j’adore the following two items from Burda’s December edition.  LOVE THEM!!!  Can you say pencil skirt here I come?  Or how about the comfy sweater thingy??? 

Burda 12-2009-112

Burda 12-2009-119

 

I checked FabricMart and they have a navy sweater knit that might work, but I am not sure it’s as “thick” as this sweater knit.  If you have any suggestions on where to get a similar fabric for this extremely comfy looking sweater, I am all ears!!!

Can it get any better than this?  And, I think I actually understand the directions for both AND they’re at my skill level.  A marriage made in heaven!

Happy sewing!

OMG!

I’m the featured member on PatternReview.com today. 

How cool is that?!?!??!?!!

Yeah!

🙂

 

ETA:

Oh, and thank you Deepika!

I coulda been a contenduh!

Ok, so here are my Burda contenders for my next project after the trench….  They are not all pencil skirts.  What do you guys think?  I haven’t yet checked PatternReview to see if anyone’s made them up yet.  Let me know if my fabric choices are not appropriate to any of these projects.  Remember, I’m clueless a newbie.  😉

First up in no particular order preference, 11-2009-120.

Next, 4-2009-101B.

And finally, 6-2009-125.

 

And for memory purposes, here’s a repost of the fabric.

stretch suiting from paron's

 

So what do you think?  Let me know!

I can’t believe it

Out of the 6-80 patterns I own, I have only one or two skirt patterns and neither of them are tickling me just right.  I really want to make some cool pencil skirts with the fabric I got at Paron’s a month or so ago with Karen.   Something simple with one little design feature that will make it look special, but not a feature that will torture my little mind.  This skirt is supposed to be my palate cleanser after the trench coat.  So I guess I am going to peruse my Burdas tonight in search of the perfect little pencil skirt.

These are the fabrics I think would look great as a pencil skirt:

stretch suiting from paron's

 

In trenching news, I finally put up my update post.  Check it out at the Trench Sew Along

Two more commissions (!)

After posting about my first knitting commission, I have received two more requests for matching hat/mittens sets.  One from my sister-in-law for my beautiful niece Haley and the other from my friend Jennifer of Jennifer Weisbord Photography.  Remember when I mentioned that I had Jack’s picture taken professionally recently?  Well, we worked out a deal where I will make her daughter Hannah one of the hat/mittens sets in exchange for use of the digital photo files of a few of the pictures she took of Jack.  I want to order Xmas cards using those images and I wanted to use one image for the blog to show you the sweater I made on Jack. 

Jennifer takes the most beautiful pictures.  I love how the colors just pop and how she expertly frames each picture so that the subject is so wonderfully shown.  My neighborhood has some beautiful parks right next to the Hudson River and our photo shoot used this built in background to great advantage.  Jack loved running around the park and playing on the jungle gym.  Jennifer’s shots were candid and so effortlessly caught Jack’s personality and joy.  I have been such a failure at catching his smiles myself, but she seems to just draw it out him.  🙂  Have a look and see!

Jack running 110109

Image from Jennifer Weisbord Photography

Doesn’t Jack’s sweater look so cute on???  *pats self on back*

If you live in the NY Metro area, I highly recommend Jennifer.  She’s great with kids and takes the most beautiful photography.

Did I mention that Jack already lost his hat that I made recently???  Yes, and it’s not even winter yet.  So I had to make him a new one.  Since the old one (hard to use the word old on something not even two months old!) was slightly too large, I went down a needle size and now the hat fits just right.  Now it’s just so right that one might even say it’s almost overfitted.  But I am done with this one and if it’s a mite tight, oh well.  Here’s a pic of the latest hat.  I’m not going to say it’s the final hat, because I have a sneaking suspicion that he might lose this one before the bitter end as well. 

Jack 2nd Hat 2009

Should I make a tassel or a pompom for the hat?  I am leaning towards pompom, but wasn’t sure if that was gender appropriate.  What do you think?  And then I have to make the mittens too.  And next I want to make myself this scarf in the same color family.

I know I never got around to posting about the trench coat, but I promise that by this time tomorrow, I will have posted it on the Trench Sew Along.  I promise.  Really.  No, really!  I mean it.  Seriously.

Happy knitting and sewing everyone!

Organize or Die, or how my feng got shui’d

So I had been feeling a mite poorly in the recent past.  A multitude of reasons for it, each one more boring than the last, so I will spare you the agonizing details.  You can thank me later.  😉

But one glaring thing in my environment was really bringing me down: my sewing area.  I thought that having the metro shelves out in the living room/dining room would make it über convenient for me to sew whenever I wanted.  It did accomplish that but it also made my living/dining room cramped, messy looking and dark.  Do you need a reminder of what my creative space looked like?

Creative Space 1

Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I have never been a neat person.  Clean, but not neat.  Don’t get me wrong…  My mom tried her hardest with me, but I came without a neat and orderly gene.  I was still lovable though.  Uh, sometimes.  Well, maybe once. 

When you combine really messy not so neat with open shelving… um well, you can see what happens. 

I wanted my apartment to be more of a home for Jack, rather than just a place where we go to sleep every night.  I want Jack to be proud of his home, to think it’s pretty and a relaxing environment.  So, I did what any normal, sane person does.  I went to the Container Store and bought a mortgage payment’s worth of shelving for my bedroom closet and various other organizing accoutrements.  For those that might ask, the metro shelves were too wide and deep to fit in the closet, drat it all!

Later that day, a good friend of mine came over to install said shelves, an iron/ironing board holder thingymajig and a few framed art pieces and all of the sudden I had “insta-home”!

Ok, I didn’t all of the sudden have a home because I had to clean up the even bigger mess I made in the name of organizing and put everything in its place (haha!  everything has a place now — how cool is that?!?!?). 

My fabric is neatly folded and I found some that I had forgotten about — it was like finding $20 bucks in your winter coat the first time you wear it again.  All my patterns are in one place (well, except for the ones still open and lying around on the dining room table, but we won’t mention that, will we?).  My Burda magazines and sewing reference books are in a bookcase.  My supplies are neatly organized into bins and I have a craft box full of all the tools of the trade (way better than the shoe box in which I could never find anything).

Here are some pics of Project Organization in progress.

living & dining room 1

Sewing closet

Closet, left side

sewing closet 2

Closet, right side

The pros are that I love that I have more room in the living room.  Love the brighter, neater space.  The feng shui is so much better.  I am much happier walking through my door every day now.  The only con?  Well, I am going to have to be really sure I have all the supplies I need out of the bedroom closet for any project I am working on because I won’t be able to go back in there once Jack is asleep.  He’s a light sleeper.  It’s a small price to pay for Jack’s home though.  🙂

Ok, the barf inducing sickly sweetness is over. 

Happy sewing everyone!

Oh, wait, I have a P.S.!  I have two more commissions for hats and mittens after posting pics of my first commission.  How cool is that?

Back from the dead

and with the living now.  Apologies for the long absence.  I came out of my malaise a week ago, but have been extremely busy.  I have a few finished projects to show you…

I was able to complete Jack’s sweater in time for his Christmas card picture photo shoot.  And he looked super duper cute with the biggest smiles I have ever seen.  Unfortunately these photos aren’t available for me to post on the blog as they were taken by a professional photographer and I don’t have digital files of them.  But to satisfy (albeit somewhat unsatisfactorily) your curiosity, here’s the sweater without a little 2 yr old in it.

Jack's 2009 Xmas Sweater

And I completed the commission.  I made my first successful pompom for the cute little hat and knitted a pair of mittens as well.  The mittens need some practice.  I loved the gusset for the thumb, but the actual thumb part itself, I found a little lacking in finesse.  Maybe it’s the scale for small child, I’m not sure.  Maybe it would be better for an adult.  Without further ado, the commission.  Both hat and mittens patterns are from Ann Budd’s book, “The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns.”

mittens and hat commission

I have worked on the trench coat, but will post the progress on the trench sew along later today.  Check back after 5pm to see my progress.  I think I need about two more evenings of intensive work on it before it will be finished.  I never said I was fast.  😉

Also, in somewhat sewing related news, I did a major overhaul of my apt/sewing studio.  Story and pictures tomorrow…  I know, I’m such a tease. 

I’m happy to be back and have missed being connected to you all.  I just have been overwhelmed with projects and too little time to blog and comment on other people’s blogs.  But hopefully my time commitments will ease up. 

Ha, right!  *mired in delusions*

Happy sewing!