The End of Corduroy Days

Well, I think I'll be wearing corduroy for a while still since there's still snow on the ground, but it's hard to imagine sewing a corduroy skirt in March.  Not when there's some lovely spring and summer fabrics to work with anyway!

Corduroy prints for grown-ups can be so hard to find.  I love corduroy but I certainly don't want to look like a six-year-old when wearing it.  I had to put in some serious ogling time to find these (window shopping online is such hard work!)

Marcia's skirts:

From Stone Fabrics (UK)

from GorgeousFabrics.com

I had to give this otherwise plain skirt a little sumthin sumthin

Melissa's skirt:

from Vogue Fabrics

This was fun!

Bryn's pencil skirt:

I bought this from a de-stasher on Etsy - same fabric I used for my own skirt last year

Lara's hidden pocket skirt:

I made a pencil skirt for Diane with this fabric last year (fabric.com) and had just enough leftover for another skirt

Marides' gored skirt:

from JoAnn's!

Jen's skirt:

another de-stasher on Etsy

I hope I get this lucky next year!

A Few Finished Skirts

I finished up a few client skirts last week that Carol started for me before the holidays.  My process with Carol has been that I draft the pattern, she cuts the fabric and bastes the skirt together, then I do the fitting and finish it off.  So far this has worked well and it allows me to get skirts out the door a bit faster.

I think Carol did a stellar job using the fabric print on these first two skirts.

This is Kendra's straightforward yoked a-line skirt and the fabric is a stretch poplin I bought from Fabric.com ages ago.  Don't you love the colors??!  Because the yoke is curved, we decided not to try to match the print there.  My instructions to Carol were something like, "Be thoughtful about how the print comes together at the yoke line."  Yep, that's me, super helpful.  And I love what Carol did!

This second skirt is Lisa H's gored a-line using some kind of stretch drapey twill I bought from GorgeousFabrics.com.  Because the skirt has six panels, we knew we couldn't match up the print across the seam lines or we'd run out of fabric (I had three yards, but it was only 42" wide and the skirt is long).  Carol and I took a look at the fabric together to figure out how best to use the print, and Carol came up with the diagonal idea.  When she went to cut it out, she didn't have enough fabric to continue doing this across that back, so genius struck and she reversed the direction for one panel.  Nice, huh??!

Front

Back

This last one took me a while to figure out how to draft.  Lara wanted a pencil skirt with a front pleat, but I didn't want to do panels because the wool had a somewhat looser weave, and I was worried about it getting all stretched out of shape.  I spent a good hour or so reading through the Adele P Margolis book, Make Your Own Dress Patterns, and finally came up with the ideas of inserting a side pleat that ran from the top of the skirt to the bottom, that is sewn shut until about 7 inches up from the hem.  The pattern piece looks kinda crazy:

with pleat un-pleated (disregard length difference between two halves)

with pleat pleated

The lovey wool fabric is from a haul I bought from a woman selling off her stash (thank you, Craigslist!).  I've had this lovely button (from the Eonomy Shop) in my stash for a couple of years now and I'm glad it finally found it's place.  I knew there was a reason I didn't use it earlier!

Finally, I'm happy to report that Mooper eventually decided that she likes her birthday dress (she wore it three days in a row until I insisted that it needed a wash). 

 

 

And check out the pink cowboy boots that Grandmother gave her!  Yee-haw!!

Out of Focus

I think I've lost my head.  Is that it over there?  Oh, no, that's just a giant hair&threadball that's accumulated under a chair because I've been too busy to vacuum.  Dear Readers, if you find a tired looking head with (mostly) dark hair, please send it back to me.  I don't know that it will do me much good but at least it will give me something to blame when things go awry.

I started the week with a high level of productivity, banging out two client skirts and making good progress on my Gertie bow-tied top.  Then somehow things began to fall apart when I found myself ahead of schedule for once.  Does that happen to you?  You finally have a chance to get ahead and you blow it just by being unfocused and stupid??

Here's one of the skirts:

I found this lovely, thick stretchy corduroy on Etsy and immediately thought of my client Jen (she's a bit of a pink addict).  There was about a 1/2 yard of the dark brown and 2/3 yard of the pink paiseley and I used almost every inch in making the skirt.  The dark brown actually has a damask pattern that's hard to see unless I do some crazy adjustment of the photo, like this:

In keeping with my productive-one-moment-and-stupid the next week, I completely forgot to take photos of the other skirt.  And it was cute, too.  Trust me.  Some of my best work.

I was able to be so productive early on because I tried a new techique I just read about on Grainline's Blog: Chaining.  I love this technique!  It put me in the mindset of being efficient without rushing, and I could get through the basic construction of the skirts much quicker.  Then (because, afterall, it's this kind of week), I smashed my finger under the needle housing thingy on my serger because I got carried away.  This is why I keep band-aids in my sewing kit: so I can keep sewing without bleeding all over someone's fabric.

I tackled bound buttonholes for the first time for the Gertie bow-tied top I'm making myself to go with the pencil skirt I have yet to unveil.  The fabric is a ponte knit, so I don't know if that means making the buttonholes was easier or harder than it would be with a woven.  Not perfect, but not bad for a first attempt:

Nice color, huh?  Then after that good bit of work, I've allowed myself to be stymied by the collar.  I don't think it's that hard, but my brain can't seem to process the instructions.

And speaking of being stymied, I have a dress that I need advice on.  I made this dress a few weekends ago and I'm not sure what I think of it.  It's one of my favorite knit/jersey patterns (Simplicty 2580) and I like the print of the fabric, but I think the fabric is just a bit too lightweight.  I feel like I'm wearing a nightgown  and I'm conscious that every little lump and bump is obvious.  I have some stretchy black lining that I'm thinking about putting in the skirt of the dress, but I'm worried that will make the skirt too heavy for the bodice.  I've also thought about cutting it shorter and just making it a top (the excess fabric would make a nice knit scarf).  Can my sewing friends please weigh in on this??

Please excuse the hair.  This was taken before I finally scheduled a much-needed haircut.

I included this second photo even though it a pretty sad shot because it shows just how much I need help with this dress.

And today was mostly a wash because I had to rush Mooper to the ER last night.  She woke up in the middle of the night and could barely breathe (I'll remember that wheeze in my parent anxiety nightmares).  The poor thing has croup (or do you say, "The Croup"?)  That sounds like an illness that must surely be out-of-fashion but apparently it's back.  Thankfully we have up-to-date treatments for these old-fashioned illnesses.

If If I get some sleep tonight I'm going to try boning for the first time.  The UPS man delivered a package from CorsetMaking.com last week so I've got my spiral-steel boning, wire cutter, and pliers all gathered up and ready to go.  Now if I could only find my head . . .

What's Up: Marides' Skirt, Bangle Bracelet

Greetings!  I am going to make this post short and sweet as I've hired a babysitter today (and Thursday!) to get caught up on orders and I want to be as productive as possible with this time!

I finished up Marides' skirts this past week and I'm almost done with Johnah's.  I had some more fun matching prints across seams - this really is becoming a bit of an obsession for me.  Here are Marides' skirts:

A-line with Yoke - Joel Dewberry Tile Flourish in Amber fabric

I'm starting to feel like a pro when it comes to matching the print along the center back seam!

But matching the print along the front yoke was a challenge!

Bias trim skirt with navy twill and Amy Butler Fresh Poppies in Sky

Button & pocket detail

Side slit detail

I didn't have a lot of personal sewing time over the weekend but I did want to do a little something.  My friend Candice runs a wonderful blog called Candoodles, and every day she posts amazing tutorials that she has found or created.  Last week she posted a tutorial for making a rosette bracelet.  When I read the title I pictured something different from what the bracelet actually looked like. 

Rosette Bracelet from SewCraftCreate

It's a lovely bracelet, but I decided to make what I had pictured when I first read the title:

I used curtain fabric that I bought from a thrift store for wrapping the bracelet and making the rosettes (I just added the pink serged seam finish).  The bracelet came from the same thrift store.  I want to do more experimenting with this idea and I'm hoping I can score big on cheap bracelets at the Family Dollar Store this week.  And then I'll likely put together my own tutorial!

Wish me great productivity during my babysitter hours this week!

Peter Piping Pencil Skirts

It has been WAY too long since I last put up a post, but I have been busy busy busy.  I feel like a little sewing worker bee! 

As you know, I fell in love with pencil skirts a while back and I've been playing around with new styles.  My latest inspiration came from fellow Etsy seller Dig For Victory.  Eleanor Callaghan has created a line of lovely dresses that she sells through Etsy and her own website.  This is my favorite:

Stunning, right?  I particularly love the contrast lines around the midriff.  I wrote to Eleanor to find out what it was and it's piping - that's right, the stuff that you often seen on the edge of a throw pillow!  So I experimented with using it to define the yoke on a couple of yoked pencil skirts.  And, ta-da!, here they are:

(Remember this fabric?!  It was one of the prints I listed in my post on corduroy for grown-ups.)

And here's a yoked pencil skirt without the piping:

I found this stretchy twill fabric online at Mood Fabrics - and then learned that the Project Runway contestants get their fabric there, so I felt very cool and trendy!

I bought a couple of Vogue dress patterns recently and I'd like to try the piping around the midriff idea on these, too.  What do you think?  Can you picture it??

Vogue V8555 & V2960