No Wardrobe Progress

I was too busy over the weekend to get any sewing done. My twin sis has finally moved back to California. It's sad to say, but she left her husband and came home. After years unhappily married, she's moved back to be with her family and we are all so happy to have her home. She's rented an apartment only 10 minutes away from me. I was 6 months pregnant when she left, so now Son and Sister will have an opportunity to get to know each other better.

You know how it is when you aren't sewing, you're shopping. That's exactly what I've done. I have 10 new pieces of fabric and no where to put them. What's a girl to do? I found the only Hancock's in Southern California and did some damage. Son's best friend doesn't live too far from this store, but it's about 25 miles from me. Now that I know where it is, I won't mind driving Son to friends house any longer. I got the first, third and b/w dots fabric from Hancocks. The second one came from JoAnn's and the rest from Fabric.com. The last two fabrics on the right I got on accident. Fabric.com sent to them to me and I didn't get the fabrics I wanted. However, the little sticker says that they are the ones I wanted. The end piece should be a teal twill, but it is a printed cotton and the one next to it should be a crepe knit but it's a slinky. I called them but it was past closing time so I left a message. I almost hope they let me keep these fabrics because I do like them. As of today, they have over 100 yards each of the ones I wanted so I'm sure they will send them to me. I'll let you know what they tell me to do with the incorrect fabrics.


It's a large file, but if you click on the picture you can see how really pretty these fabrics are. I hope to get back to the sewing machine tomorrow.

Wardrobe Pants Are Done

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening working on my brown sueded twill jeans and got them finished. I think they turned out great and can't wait to do the rest of the garments that go with them. The fit on this pattern is perfect in the front and the back. I feel so lucky to have a TNT jeans pattern that I can sew up any time I want. I certainly can't do that with RTW.





The jeans topstitching thread looks really good on the brown twill. It took a size 19 needle to sew these pants, and even then I had to change the needle once because the needle got a burr on it. I don't know how, but the side seam got chewed up a bit when I was sewing so I had to make a larger seam so as not to have holes in my pants.


I really like how the quilting cotton gives these pants an Autumn look. I know no one else will be able to see the fall leaves and green zipper, but I like that I'll see it every time I take them off. It's just one of those things that make sewing for myself fun. I was too lazy to change my serger thread, but again, no one else will know, except you. Don't tell anyone, OK?


Lorri and Keely asked me what was wrong with my Jalie Top that I posted about yesterday. Well, first of all, I recut the armhole on the front and back and cut a different sleeve for it. I forgot to take the "before" pictures. The top looked terrible because the back was showing draglines from my underarms to the neck area. Also, it sits on my back hip fluff even after I pull the top down. Before I recut, the sleeves were just weird looking on my arms. They fit at the cap, but were too tight at the hem for the cap length. I do like the top well enough to wear it now that I've sort of fixed it. It also has draglines from the bust to the waist in the front, which is more obvious from the side. I didn't get a picture of that either, sorry. Tonight I plan on sewing up my redraft of this pattern.


This top is good enough to use as part of my SWAP. I'm not doing an official SWAP, but I'll use the pieces from my mini-wardrobe, adding other pieces I've sewn in the last few weeks and some things I will still need to sew. Maybe without the pressure of a SWAP contest, I'll actually get one done.

3-3-4 Wardrobe Started

I've been sick with bronchitis for the last week but I feel better now. I hate that one of my last weeks was wasted in bed. I've got time to make up so over the last couple of days I got all four garments cut out. I found a separating zipper in Ivory that I think will look nice in my jacket. In my stash I found a forest green zipper and some brown quilting cottons for my jeans. The green zipper won't show because I use the Betzina zipper method which puts the zipper so far inside the fly that it is hidden. I have some orange top stitching thread in my stash that would look great on the brown sueded denim. It's an ambitious goal to get all these items sewn by the end of the weekend. Wish me luck.


One of my favorite notions is iron-on stay tape. It's a real time saver. I don't have to do any stay stitching, which I think actually stretches out your fabric. This is the tape used on the pocket opening and the top of the waist. I bought two rolls of black and two of white from Sandra Betzina a few years ago. I hope I can find some more when I run out, but I have enough so that there is no worry for now.


The reason I want to get the Wardrobe done this week is that I have four more garments to make after that for a complete 11 piece SWAP. I've never finished a SWAP before. It would be great to get it done before my summer is over. One of the pieces I'm using for the SWAP is this Jalie Sweetheart top. I was also using it as my third muslin for this pattern. I sewed in the sleeves and it fit so badly that I took it apart, used my TNT t-shirt pattern, and recut the armholes and new sleeves. It fits better, but I'm still not happy. So I took the TNT pattern and redrafted it with the Sweetheart design lines. I didn't muslin it so I hope it comes out well as it's one of my 3-3-4 Wardrobe pieces. I don't have enough of the ivory slinky to re-cut it so I'd have to come up with a whole new fabric and I really don't want to do that.