My Sewing Space

This vest was actually completed a couple of months ago, but I had very mixed feelings about it and it just hung out on my dress form for a long time. I finally decided that I needed to actually wear it to determine how I really felt about it. The fabric is a synthetic fur that I found in the clearance section at Fabricland. It looks striped from the pile being quilted in different directions. I liked it when I saw it, but knew that it would require a simple pattern for it to work for me. I chose to use Kwik Sew 3453 with a few modifications. I moved the pattern's forward shoulder seam to the actual shoulder, eliminated pockets and zipper, added a lining, and shortened the length a little bit. The fur made a horrible mess of my sewing room, but was otherwise easy to sew. I like the side panels on this pattern and chose to place the stripes on the bias for interest. This isn't as visible as I thought it would be. In my mind, the side panels came more to the front...

Item No. 3 in the Coordinated Christmas Clothing series is a vest for my son. While my girls have often had matching dresses, this is the first time he has been included. When I asked him if he would like to match the girls he was pretty excited about it. The shirt and pants were hand-me-downs from another family. For the vest, I used Burda 9990 - a good pattern for both the pants and the vest. The front has welts (but no pockets) and the back has darts with a belt. I underlined the front of the vest with a lightweight cotton because the glen plaid is fairly loosely woven and I thought some more structure would help. There are supposed to be four buttons on the front, but I only had three of the same and didn't want to buy more. I also made the black tie. It is completely opposite of everything these ties tried to be. This one is made from a crafty-type tutorial (as opposed to in-depth instructions from an expert). This one is cut on the straight grain to save fabric (as...

No new fabric until after Christmas. That's my goal. I love accomplishing a goal. To make it happen I'm cutting out several things at once and then sewing them up. Some of this first batch were things that were necessary for my daughter's wardrobe ( this and that ) and then others are fabrics that I bought for a certain purpose but aren't very exciting to sew, so they have been pushed waaaaay down on the list. First, is this fleece pullover for my older daughter. I bought this fleece as a remnant when the Fabricland in town closed. Each season I like to make sure each of the kids has at least one of these extra layer type garments. My older daughter has been lacking one for awhile now. Ottobre to the rescue. I'm counting on those wrinkles coming out in the wash! This is the "New Generation sweatshirt" (#38) from the 1/2010 issue. I wasn't hopeful about finding a matching zipper and didn't want to buy one, so I went with one that I had and made...

When I began blogging, I posted my makes right after they were finished and the blog was a chronological record of what came off the sewing machine. That isn't the case anymore. Now I blog when I get around to taking pictures, which can be awhile. In the case of this vest, it's been at least 8 months. It normally doesn't take nearly that long, but I didn't have a shirt to wear under it when I finished it, and then the wrong season came along (summer). Finally I wore it a few days ago and got a picture. Excuse the funny shadows. And the funny hair. You'd think after waiting 8 months, I'd get it right... The problem with blogging long after creating is that it's hard to remember what I did or changed. I do know that I'm happy with the fit of the vest, particularly across the back. The construction seems sound, too. I think I used cotton batiste to underline the tweed fabric. It isn't a very high-quality fabric and the loose weave needed a little ...

My MIL gave me this fabric at Christmas time. She was planning to make a vest out of it for my SIL but got pretty frustrated with it (her machine really didn’t like it). The fabric came complete with the inspiration photo from a Lands' End catalog – Winter 2006. So, I’m only two years beyond on this trend, but that’s about right for me. Most of the RTW clothes in my closet are hand-me-downs from my fashionista sister and they are about two years old, too. My MIL had tried to copy a different vest that my SIL had, so the front and back pieces were already cut out. I was able to selvage those pieces using Kwik Sew 3453. This is a great pattern! It has side panels with pockets in the front seam and forward shoulder seams. The seam lines worked well with the lapped seams. I traced off a size small and didn’t make any fitting alterations to this pattern. I increased the seam allowances to ½” and trimmed off the seam allowances on the pieces that would be on the top. I trimmed of...