Whoa to the second power!

Remember when I saw one of the latest Butterick patterns walk by me at work?  Well guess what I saw at a pre-school tour this week!

Butterick 5522

None other than Butterick 5522 my friends!  In the black and white version no less.

Can you believe it?!?  I know I live in NYC, but still.  It’s pretty amazing to see the real life designer versions of sewing patterns walk right by you. 

I have to admit though, that this dress is pretty shapeless.  I love the sleeves but the dress was doing this woman no favors.  At least she didn’t look pregnant.  😉  

I wonder how I could make the dress less shapeless.

Hunting

This Saturday is the start of my evil plan to take over the world sewing one stitch at a time.  After that I am taking a much deserved break from the secret super surprise and before I start making my kids pj’s for Xmas.  I am going to make something for me, Me, MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

🙂

As I mentioned before, I am jonesing to make something from my small doubleknit collection.  Maybe the grey with some black accents.  Or black and red.  I haven’t had a chance to look through my hefty pattern collection yet, but I perused the selection at ButtMcVogue.  I would have liked to search by fabric type, but that kind of search option is not available on their sites.  Um, ButtMcVogue, it would be great if your search mechanism was a bit more robust please.  I settled, instead to look at all the dress offerings and then looking at what fabrics were suggested for each.  I wanted a slightly fitted dress to take advantage of the stretch of the doubleknit, but nothing too skin tight.  I don’t want to be asked again when my baby is due like I was asked this past weekend.  Can you believe it????  I was so pissed and then so depressed about it.  Where’s a white chocolate bar when you most need it?  Needless to say, I have been back to running.  Let me tell you, there’s nothing like someone saying you look so fat you might be pregnant to motivate you.

There was a sale at ButtMcVogue this past week, so I picked up a few patterns…

Butterick 5559

Remember how I saw someone at work wearing this exact dress???? 

Vogue 8409

Love this dress but may be a little low cut for work. 

Vogue 8666

I love how with this one you can use two different colors.  I wonder how I would color block if I use the view with the sleeves.  Keep the sleeves the main color or the accent color.  What do you think?

I have to look at what I already own too that would work well for double knits.  I’m sure I have at least 5 or 6 patterns from which to choose.

I can’t wait to sew for me!

Do you have any favorite patterns for doubleknits?

Whoa!

I was nonchalantly walking into my office today when out of nowhere one of the new Butterick pattern dresses walked right by me.  I couldn’t believe it.  I took a tour of the new patterns on-line yesterday and then this morning, it just walks past me without a care in the world.

Butterick 5559

How cool is that?!

I have been buying up some double knits for the last couple of months and they would be perfect for this dress.  Now if only my pilates classes would hurry up and sculpt my body to look like hers.

*sigh*

I have some news I am dying to share with you, but I am still setting things up, so it’s not ready for prime time yet.  Apologies for teasing you, but I am just not a good surprise keeper.  And no, it’s not a book deal.  Sheesh!  I’m only famous in my own mind.

😉

Crying uncle

Well, my friends, I think I have to give up the ghost on my tweed jumper.  I just can’t get it to fit around the girls right and now the fabric is looking a little forlorn.  Remember, this is how it looked last time:

1. I tried shortening the fisheye darts — only helped a little.
2. Then I tried letting out the side seams — no change.

At this point, the fabric doesn’t look good any more, so I didn’t have the heart to take pictures of what it looks like now though.  Trying to take out teensy tiny stitches out of a tweed just about did me in and definitely ruined the tweed.  And for some strange reason, the dress keeps hiking up in front so that the shoulder seams go behind my shoulders a bit.  I think that’s why the darts look so high.  But I can’t figure out why it’s doing that. 

I also can’t figure out why this iteration of a TNT is so drastically different from my other two.  The tweed is actually pretty lightweight and not all that different in thickness from the brocade I used for my fancy dress, so I can’t imagine that it’s a turn of the cloth issue as some of you have suggested.  So strange.

Anyway, I am just going to call it a wadder and move on.  I am pretty disappointed though.  As for the next project?  I have so many end of year projects on the docket that I am a little at a loss as to what to start on next. 

We’ll see what I feel like starting tonight. 

Wishing you a sewing day without wadders.

WTH!!!

People, can you see what’s wrong with the above picture (other than the crappy iPhone quality)?

Two nights ago, I tried on my tweed jumper (aka B5147) and was faced with double trouble.  Let’s just say the girls are not happy.  Now do you see what’s wrong?  There is major boob smooshing going on and not the good kind.

How did this happen?  This is my TNT folks.  Not some random pattern I picked up at a bar.  B5147 and I are going steady.  I thought there might even be a ring in the near future.  I feel betrayed!  Suddenly, B5147 doesn’t return my calls and now this!  Ok, my metaphor is losing steam here.  Seriously though…  My bust dart is about 1 inch too high (looks like I have low hanging fruit, hah!) and the fisheye dart looks too high too. 

What do I do in this situation???  Is it a simple matter of sacrificing the side seam allowances and then the dress will fall to the right level with some room for the girls?  Or do I have to actually release and lower the darts?  FYI, the dress fits everywhere else.  Just the bust is the problem.  Please let me know your suggestions.

I guess all the bad food choices and little exercise are catching up to my meager metabolism, not to mention the too little sleep I’ve been getting of late.  *sigh*  Gravity and aging are not my friends.

In disgust, I turned to knitting Jack’s sweater last night and was hit with another disaster.  My gauge swatch had lied to me and my knitting was 3.5 inches too narrow.  (Is there no loyalty with yarns and fabrics any longer?  They’re just like men!)  I had to frog the entire back and start over.   However, now I am confident I am on the right track with Jack’s sweater, although I am not entirely confident I will get either project done by Sunday when our photo shoot is scheduled.  😦  

Hope your yarn and fabrics are treating you nicer than I have been treated this week.

I can haz two colors?

 As I mentioned in my last post, I am making some new design choices with my latest B5147 dress.  I am using a lightweight plum tweed from Paron’s as the fashion fabric, some unknown type of lining (purchased from P&S fabrics).  My thinking was that since this was tweed, I would make a more casual dress, really more of a jumper, as I know I will wear it with a shirt or turtleneck underneath it since the pattern is sleeveless.  As I was sewing the lining to the fabric at the neck, I was inspired to add topstitching to the neckline and armscye.  I thought it would punch up the sporty look of the tweed.  The topstitching combined with my exposed zipper in the back would make this dress look completely different from my silk twill version or the dressier one I made for my cousin’s wedding.

Anyhoo, getting on with it.  I had changed the thread in my machine from the yummy plummy thread to the one that matched my lining.  So when I went to topstitch, I changed it again to the yummy plummy one.  I started to merrily topstitch away when I remembered that I had read somewhere that I could use two different color threads when sewing (one color for the needle and a different one for the bobbin).  What?!?!  You don’t have to use the same color for both the bobbin and needle?  Sacrilege!  Heresy!

Cue in the gratuitous LOLcats and the muse for my post title…

image from icanhazcheezburger.com

Well, it was too late to change my bobbin thread for the neckline topstitching, but I did change it for the armscye topstitching and I love it!  I know no one will ever see it but me and my dry cleaner, but I know that it’s there and it makes me happy.  Going forward, I will make sure that drapery matches the top fabric and that the carpet matches the lining if you catch my drift.  😉 

In exposed zipper news, it took me a good hour and a half to two hours to insert that sucker!  But insert it I did!  I have more to discuss on the exposed zipper front, but that will have to wait until next time.  All I have to do now on this dress is hand sew the lining to the zipper tape and sew the vent/hem.  Then this puppy will be done and ready for prime time!  I hope to wear it to work this week and on Sunday when Jack and I take our annual pictures.  🙂  

Happy sewing everyone.

Feeling exposed

Saturday night I was happily sewing along on my latest rendition of B5147 in plummy tweed.  I had just finished all my darts (all six of them on the shell) around 10:30pm.  I thought for a moment about starting the darts on the lining when I realized that I didn’t have matching thread for the lining.  Quelle horreur!  Not only that, but I didn’t have a matching zipper! 

That’s the problem with having a notion stash my friends.  You just assume you have all the supplies for every project under the sun.  Well, guess what?  Sometimes you don’t.  So that was my deciding factor to pack it up for the night. 

On Sunday, Jack and I headed over to Purl in Soho to peruse the yarn selection for his annual sweater vest.  I know I said that I probably wasn’t going to make his sweater this year, but I booked the appointment for our yearly pictures and I just can’t stand the thought of not having Jack in one of my sweaters.  Call it narcissism if you must!  After last year’s debacle, I made sure to get a color fast yarn that’s easily washable.  I chose Cascade Superwash 128 in a yummy forest green and an equally yummy ivory.  I still haven’t decided how to use the ivory yet, but will kind of “feel” it as I go I think.  

Jumping into the future:  Since I am an instant gratification person, I had to cast on Sunday night to see how the yarn looked.  I’m using Ann Budd’s book for the sweater vest pattern with a few modifications.  Me likey…

in progress: back of sweater

 

Back to the past:  Unfortunately, Purl didn’t have a large selection of thread and zippers for my new dress, so Jack and I had to walk over to P&S Fabrics to get those items.  P&S is my go to neighborhood fabric/notions store.  While their fabrics aren’t necessarily the best, you can find some bargains there occasionally and they have a decent selection of notions, buttons and yarn.  I started to panic, however, when they didn’t have an invisible zipper to match my plummy tweed.  What’s a girl to do without an invisible zipper in this modern age???  (Read: I have no idea how to insert any other kind of zipper.)  Near the zipper section, P&S has a few grubby bins filled with one-off zippers, some of them regular zippers that you could use as an exposed zipper.  Since I was already envisioning this dress as more of a jumper than an elegant sheath dress, an exposed zipper might be just the ticket!  There were two that I liked in two different lengths, 18 in and 20 in.  The pattern calls for a 20 in zipper, but an emergency call to Carolyn confirmed that an 18 in zipper would do just as well; I’m not an amazon being only 5 foot 4 inches tall.  And as it so happens, the 18 inch zipper (the one at the top of the picture with the deeper purple tape) is the one I like best with my fabric. 

Of course I have no idea how to insert an exposed zipper.  And of course, I went searching on the internet for a tutorial on how to insert one.  The tutorial I like best so far of all that I found was on the Husqvarna site (click on the exposed zipper tutorial).  That’s the one I will use tonight.

I sewed the darts in the lining last night and started to attach the lining to the dress at the neck.  I had a huge moment of inspiration at that point and am adding more detail to this simple sheath dress pattern to make it my own.  But that’s a post for another day…

I know.  I’m such a tease.  😉  

Happy sewing everyone!

Purplicity

image from http://www.unboxedconsulting.com

A SHORT POP QUIZ

1. Can one really have too much purple in their wardrobe?  A: I think not!
2.   What do my recent wool coat and my soon to be new sheath dress have in common? A: Plum thread.

 A pleasant happenstance this evening, while choosing thread for my new sheath dress, was that I didn’t need to rethread my sewing machine.  Why?  Because the thread I used for my coat was just the right shade for my new sheath dress.  I think I have just enough thread for the project too.  How cool is that?! 

I don’t know if I’ve admitted it before, but purple is my favorite color.  And while I haven’t indulged that much in it in my wardrobe in the past, I have begun to notice a purple trend in my stash lately.  Oh, I may have conveniently forgotton that one of my winter coats is purple.  And did I mention that I recently bought purple corduroy to duplicate my father’s jacket?  I don’t think I am going to use that corduroy for this jacket now though.  I mean, how can I get away with 3 jackets/coats that are purple???  That’s just a purple overload. 

I may need to join Purple Lovers Anonymous.

I made decent progress on my dress tonight.  I could have pushed my limits and finished all the darts on the lining too tonight, but I am sensibly knocking off early.  I don’t really have any thread that matches my lining and I need to buy a zipper, so I will just wait until I can pop over to P&S tomorrow and check out their selection of thread and zippers.  I like to be matchy matchy like that.  That’s just how I roll. 

Happy purplicity everyone.

A TNT it is then

And so my next project will be my TNT sheath dress, B5147.  Are you guys bored yet?  😉

Butterick 5147

 

This time I am using a tweed I purchased from Paron’s at the NY Shopping day.  I loves me a good tweed.  Remember my tweed Burda skirt and how I enjoyed pressing that tweed and what great pleats it made?  Ahhhhh….  This tweed is in the mauvish/purple family.  I know you all are shocked by this color choice, right?

I cut it out on Monday night, but was sick yesterday.  Unfortunately, I won’t be able to get to it again until Thursday, so this won’t be the quick palate cleanser I thought it would be.  But it will still be easy.  This time around I plan on making a few more changes to the TNT:

• I added back some of the armscye that I had taken away on the dress for the wedding and will sew the side seam a little tighter right under the arm.  If you’ll remember, I showed a little too much fat in that area.  I was trying to take out the gaping there, which I did, but then ended up with a bit of a freak show as well.  I will just tighten it up at the side seam instead, thank you very much.
• I am putting back some length to the bottom hem.  I just feel more comfortable with longer skirt. 
• I am definitely keeping the lower neckline though.  I like it on me.  It’s still office appropriate, although I will most likely wear this with the Burda turtleneck I plan on sewing next.
• I am also going to reduce the width of the front fish eye darts that I increased for the dress for the wedding.  Since I know I will be wearing something underneath the dress, I don’t want it hyper-form-fitting.

It feels good to be sewing again. 

Happy sewing everyone!

Lots to Show and Tell

I’m back from the wilds of the Midwest and have lots to report.  I met my new niece Chloe who’s cute as a button.  Jack fell in love with her and was so sweet with her.  He loved caressing her little head.  So cute to see him be so tender.  🙂 

As for those of you asking for pictures of the dress in action at the wedding (ahem, Karen), sorry but no actions shots were taken.  I just was not in a dancing mood I guess, and I felt shy about asking anyone to take a picture.  Here’s my take on how the dress “wore” though.  I’m stealing the interview idea from Tasia…

How did the dress look?  It looked pretty good standing still and as I was running. 

What do you mean by “standing still” and “running”?  Well, when I stood talking to people it looked great.  It was also fine as I was running to the wedding after the taxi driver dropped me off at the opposite end of the pier.  I had to sprint about two football lengths in 7 minutes with another wedding attendee.  Both of us looked mahvelous!  😉  

So how did it look sitting?  Funny you should ask actually, as that was the part with which I was most dissatisfied.  When I sat down at the wedding ceremony, my dress rode up so high pooling at my waist and thighs, almost 3 inches of my lining was left exposed for all to see.

Why on earth did it ride up so high???  Well, I suspect the underlining was the culprit.  I used silk organza because I was being all fancy.  The last time I underlined (the Christian LaCroix skirt), all I had on hand was cotton batiste, which worked, but this time I was prepared with yards and yards of silk organza.  As most of you know, silk organza has a stiff hand, which helps enormously with preventing SBS (Saggy Bottom Syndrome otherwise known as bagging out) and wrinkling.  It also has the added effect of giving the fashion fabric more body.  In the case of my Vera Wang fabric, too much body, as the brocade had body already, just needed the protection against SBS.  I should have used cotton batiste in retrospect.  *sigh*   Live and learn I guess…

Any other things you liked or disliked about this version of B5147?  I’m so glad you asked.  Dislikes: If you’ll recall, I altered the armscye to cut in towards the chest.  Boy was that a big oops and I will be putting that back in.  Now everyone has the viewing pleasure of the fleshy area between my arm and chest.  Isn’t that a great visual?  Bet you didn’t know that area could even be fat.  Likes: Love the scoop neck.  Not too deep but just deep enough.  I also pegged the skirt near the knees and really like that silhouette.  And I loved the sheathier look of widening the fisheye darts in the front of the dress; they were much more figure flattering.  I will definitely keep those changes for future iterations if there are any.

Will you make any more B5147’s?  Hmmm… Not sure.  My teacher Thea thinks that I can get a much more flattering fit with less fiddling around with a princess seamed sheath dress, so I am going to try another dress soon.  I’m considering the Simplicity Amazing Fit sheath dress, S2648.

What’s next in your project queue?  I am finally getting to my Fall coat for the Trench Sew Along.  I am making another Simplicity pattern, S5380.  I already have my purple wool, bought the purple charmeuse at the PR Shopping day a couple of weeks ago, and today I ran out to buy cotton flannel with which to interline the coat.  Not sure how much tailoring I am going to end up doing.  We’ll see how in depth I’m willing to go later.

**********************************************************************

Ok, enough with the pseudo interview.  Do you want to see pictures of my new baby up close and personal like?  I’m talking about the Singer Featherweight 221 from 1938 that received this past weekend.  Oh boy am I excited and yet a little intimidated.  The directions on how to just thread the machine don’t make any sense to me.  It came with a bunch of feet, most of which I have no idea what they are for.  Can any of you deduce their purposes?

Original manual!!!

My very own buttonholer!!!

Slightly broken zigzagger with inscrutable manual

Here are the feet for which I have no idea of their purposes:

I think this might be a quilting guide but a slightly bent one

a ruffler perchance?

some kind of binder? if so, what kind?

Let me know if you know what feet I actually have.  Can’t wait to start playing with them all.  I am super excited about the Singer Buttonholer!!!

Happy sewing everyone!