My Sewing Space

This skirt has been completed for awhile. After I finished it, I took a bit of time to decide if I liked it and then a bit more time to decide how to wear it. I haven't had a skirt this long or this full in years. It feels really different. Even though this is a pretty simple project, I bought a pattern (Simplicity 2609) for it. The main fabric is pretty lightweight and sheer, so a lining was pretty important. I saw this pattern during a Simplicity sale and figured I could use View A for the skirt and View D for the lining. I think I like the skirt now, but I almost abandoned it mid-project. I spent a long, frustrating time trying to find the straight grain of the fabric and then started cutting out the pieces when I thought I had it. Turns out that I didn't have it at all and the pieces were all off grain. But, I don't think anymore fussing would have helped. It was just one of those fabrics. (But, I can't complain - it was $1.50/meter). The skirt required ne...

The fourth (and final!) part of the Coordinated Christmas Clothing project is a skirt for me. Truthfully, this was the piece I sewed first for a couple of reasons. I originally bought the fabric to make something for me and I knew that if I didn't like my garment I wasn't going to want to go ahead with this endeavor. So, I actually sewed this at the end of November and it might be a stretch for me to remember the construction process! I searched awhile for a pattern that I liked. I wanted something a little more interesting than my usual plain choices, but didn't find anything from the major pattern companies that jumped out at me. I've never sewn a Knip Mode pattern before, but I've seen others make unique things, so I perused their site. There I saw this skirt that did jump out at me. I tried buying the pattern when I saw it, but I was having computer issues and couldn't get the transaction to go through. Then I started thinking more about the patter...

In this post , I mentioned that I've been enjoying more simple handmade things this year. This post is a bit of a round-up of some of those things. Potato Stamping I saw this on Made by Rae and wanted to put some extra packing paper we had to good use. I used paint from a dollar store. I would not recommend it. It worked poorly and smelled like formaldehyde. Scary. Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments Nothing new or novel here, but it was a fun project to do with the kids. Ours didn't turn out that fabulous. I think I rolled the dough out too thin and then they stayed in the oven 40 minutes too long (it was The Preacher's responsibility to take them out. He's been forgiven). Hence, they have a bit of a curl. Next time I'll be more patient and just let them dry on the counter. Felt Christmas Ornament I'd love to have a Christmas tree full of handmade ornaments. For this one I used some lovely wool felt that my MIL gave me and followed this tutorial . M...

Now that I'm done with the Christmas clothing sewing, I'm turning my attention back to my Dress Warm project. For my third dress this season, I made a lightweight sleeveless knit dress. Sounds perfect for winter in Ontario, right? Actually, it has been unseasonably warm less cold but still a long way from summer-like. On it's own, this dress is not at all seasonally appropriate. But, I made it with the intention of wearing it with a long black cardigan that I picked up at a thrift store awhile back. I liked New Look 6071 when I first saw it and have been wanting to try it out. I give the fabric pretty mixed reviews. I used a rayon jersey - very soft and drapey and nice to touch. However, it was difficult to sew and I think it will keep growing. This dress probably won't last beyond this season, but I'm okay with that. This is the last piece of this type of knit I had in my stash and I likely won't buy any more. My local Fabricland always has a lot of it ...

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...

Item No. 2 in the Coordinated Christmas Clothing series is a dress for my younger daughter. I liked this dress in the most recent issue of Ottobre when I saw it and thought it could work for combining the glen plaid and dark red fabric. I'm quite happy with how it looks now, but when I first tried it on my daughter I was not hopeful about it. My first thought was, "I didn't know a three-year-old could look frumpy!" But, cutting off some length helped as did the addition of sleeves. This dress looks better on a body in motion than it does in photographs. Here the back looks a bit big, but it's just a very basic A-line shape. The plaids match nicely at center back, but maybe you notice that the sleeves are cut with the plaid going the opposite way. I was seriously in danger of not having enough fabric and played pattern tetris for awhile to get everything I needed squeaked out. Switching the direction of the sleeves was the only way. I think the sleeves mak...

This year I wanted to make coordinating clothes for the whole family to wear at Christmas time. I have no idea why. I've never wanted to do this before. And right now I'm having serious doubts about whether I still want to do it! When I explained my idea to The Preacher, he gave me a please-tell-me-you-are-kidding sort of look. I'm not sure he's on board yet, but that's okay. I'd say the project is 90% complete and I'm hoping to be completely finished by Saturday night. I started with my older daughter's jumper. She had a piano recital last weekend so I used that for an early-ish deadline. I chose a pretty simple pattern from Ottobre 3/2011. This is a summer issue and the pattern is shown as a sundress, but it worked just fine as a jumper. I cut the bodice on the bias and added piping around the top and at the waist seam. The piping at the waist seam made the jumper stand away from her body like she had a hoop in there. Not a good look (but really ...