School is Haites

I should be back very soon. These last few weeks at school have been very hectic. I completed a few projects before I fell off the face of the planet. I'll get them up as soon as possible. Finals are next week and things should settle down for a bit after that.

Flannel Update

This is Alexis's shirt made from the end of bolt flannel. It has several mistakes but otherwise turned out good. It gives her some room to grow into it. The applique was a lucky find on a clearance rack at Joann's a year ago. Gotta love the bargain shelf.

I'm still holding out for some of the other flannel to complete a shirt for myself. I'm crossing my fingers that someone out there has spotted some of the fabric on a shelf somewhere and it's wearing my name on it. If you've seen any of it, please email me.

Russell's Jacket

So, this is the Ottobre pattern I'm working on for Russell. There seems to be a certain lack of boy's patterns on the market. I invested in an Ottobre subscription for one year to try it out. I've never worked with patterns like this before. It should be an adventure to say the least. My eyes crossed when I pulled the pattern page out. Eventually, I ended up tracing around the pieces I needed for the jacket with a sharpie so I could see it better through the pattern fabric, that did the trick. I'm just hoping I have the sizing right. I WILL be making a muslin for this one, to make sure. I added 1/4" seam allowances to the pattern as I traced it. Converting the metric measurements over to inches should be fun when adding the zippers. The fabric saga continues though. Thinking I had found the perfect fabric for it, I buy it and bring it home only to hate what I had picked out. I'll find something to do with that fabric eventually but right back to the drawing board on what to make this out of. I've never worked with knits before so, a chance to gain new experience awaits me! Whoo-hoo! Let's hope this is not a total disaster, it very well could be.

More Flannel

Flannel, flannel everywhere! There's just something about flannel in fall weather. It's so snuggly and warm and perfect for shirts. I still have a shirt for myself cut out and waiting to be sewn up but I'm still lacking about 1/2 yd of the fabric to make the cuffs. If you look back a few posts, you'll see pics of it. If anyone knows where to find some of this PLEASE let me know, I'll be very appreciative and would be willing to throw a vintage pattern in on the side for the trouble. The flannel this tunic is made out of was end of bolt fabric. There was just enough to squeeze the tunic out of it WITHOUT matching. I've got to get better at that. I made view E without the ruffle for Alexis in this plaid fabric, she thinks ruffles make you look like you're from the 1700's. It's finished and in the dryer. I'm rather proud of it even though there are so many mistakes in it. She loves it, that's what counts. I'll post pics of the completed shirt in the next couple of days.

On a side note, I found a sewing guild chapter here in town! I'm going to sit in on a meeting in the next couple of weeks. I'm so excited. I've never had a group of people to sew with. I hope I'm not hyping myself up too much. I've been looking forward to something like this for a looooong time.

My New Book

Looking through the books in the craft section at the book store the other day I found this book. It was staring at me, calling my name. My boyfriend ended up getting it for me and paid around $25 for it. I'm so excited about some of the projects in this book, I've already made one of them for my son. I had just the right amount of fabric to make the small floor cushion for him. He's been dragging it all over the house since I finished. I was able to throw it together in just a couple of hours yesterday. This one will be tattered and well worn in a matter of time. Great book, practical patterns, easy to understand instructions.

I Like This Jacket

The picture arrangement makes it look like the cat picture is the jacket I'm referring to....

Just a useless observation.

I absolutely love the way this jacket turned out. Originally I was going to make the whole thing out of the blue fleece but, I ran short of this fabric (this fleece has been in my stash for almost three years...) The cream colored remnant with the hearts on it finished it wonderfully. I admit I was not paying too much attention while I was cutting the heart fabric and some of the hearts are upside down but, I'm o.k. with this as is Alexis. She's worn this jacket EVERYWHERE since I finished it Friday. If you notice the picture with the construction of the pockets, the buttonholes were not all that even. I ended up measuring and remarking them myself. These were my first real buttonholes on any project and I feel like they turned out well. I was, however, using a vintage machine attachment for buttonholes made by the Geist Co. that I found at an estate sale some time back. It worked wonderfully and now I don't feel I have to avoid projects with buttonholes. I have a limited number of size cards for the attachment, I'm o.k. with this because I found I do not like small buttons and most of these are guides for larger buttonholes. The pockets were some of my best pockets ever. They are straight and even and the machine didn't hitch up on the stitching to make a mess of the fabric. I would highly recommend this pattern to anyone wanting to make a fall jacket for a young girl. It went together easily and quickly. It definately boosted my sewing esteem.

The kitty in the picture at the top is Bones. He was a stray in our neighborhood who found us. Anyone who knows anything about cats knows that you don't find cats, they find you. He wandered up on our step a little over a month ago, when the weather was really bad. This is a picture that was taken after he was with us for about three weeks as before that the pictures would have been too disturbing to show. We are lucky he's alive. He was so far gone when we took him into the vet the first time we didn't have to use a crate. He sat calmly in my lap in the waiting room and did nothing buy lay on my jacket in the exam room. Every bone in his body protruded out from his skin and he did not even have the energy to play. It was determined we could not give him his shots right away because he was so unhealthy. Fleas, worms, ear mites, malnutrition, lacerations, the poor little guy had been lucky to survive as long as he did. His feline leukemia/FIV tests were negative, we were extremely happy about this. He was about 3 1/2 months old and weighed less than 3 lbs. His last visit to the vet was about a week ago. He received his shots and weighed in at a healthy 6.3 lbs, still growing and turning into a dear of a cat. He has quite the purring motor, once he starts he doesn't like to stop. We are still battling tapeworms and hopefully we can have this nixed soon. I'm looking forward to seeing just how big of a cat he's going to be. He got his name from two places, the first was the show Bones on t.v., and the second, he was a bag of bones when he wandered onto our step. It suits him wonderfully and hopefully he'll stick around long enough to make great use of it.

THAT Hoodie

I'm going to post the last few projects I've been working on in order over a few days so one post does not end up too picture heavy. I seem to be picture stingy lately and am attempting to fix that. Comments and Emails are much appreciated!

Here's the hoodie. This is the one that my machines went down on. The one I think looks like it belongs in a circus show. I love the stripes and the colors, I planned poorly. This would have looked much better had I placed the stripes going horizontal instead of vertical. I'm not very happy with the sleeves at the cuffs as I would like an actual cuff, like on a sweatshirt, and this does not have it. I made a boo boo on the hood but was able to adjust slightly for it. I can see the mistake and if you look hard enough at the close up of the hood and zipper, you may be able to see it too. My matching is atrocious. This is a flaw in my sewing habits that I must fix and soon.

So Im a Neurotic Personality....

Not to mention I have erratic behavior tendencies. I like to refer to it as spontaneity. Both of these traits show in my sewing. I start out with a few pre-planned projects and get sidetracked along the way. When I have the time, I will go back to back with projects and get as many done as I can. Then, I will go long periods with sewing nothing at all, my poor, beloved machine (which has been worked mercilessly lately) collecting dust while I'm on some other kick/trend. The hoodie which was half finished when both my machines were wounded in action is now complete. I'm not very happy with it at all (will post pics very soon) will be used as a house jacket. The reason for this will become evident when the pictures are posted and I give more details on the project. Almost as soon as I completed the hoodie (the same day actually) I began cutting a jacket pattern for my daughter. Thursday morning I set out to cut the pattern from the fabrics and mark it. Well, I got a little obsessed and ended up completing it by Thursday evening. This jacket makes me very happy for a few reasons. It was not a difficult pattern, it went together quickly, even though I ran out of the blue fleece I was originally going to make the whole jacket from I managed to dig up a remnant from my stash that completed it while making it look wonderful at the same time and, last but not least (the biggest reason in my book) my daughter LOVES it. She put it on and ran outside to show it to all of her friends. Plans were made to wear it today but I had to use a little elbow grease to get the markings out from the buttonholes. Initial wearing was postponed until this afternoon when the wash/dry cycle was complete. It is still on its initial run, running around the house. I'll have to wrestle her out of it to get her to bed. Well, the story does not end there. I was still feeling inspired Thursday night after completing the jacket so I went back to my pattern and fabric stash. Current project is a tunic for Alexis made from end of bolt plaid shirting fabric. The tunic sits on my ironing board half finished when I look at the Ottobre magazine and I find a zip jacket I want to make for Russell. Out comes the tracing fabric and the insert from the magazine. My kitchen table is now covered with tracing fabric, pattern pages and a pen. Apparently I don't know when to quit. The upside to it is that I have all weekend to work on the two and hopefully finish at least one. Pictures will be coming before Monday so check back to see them! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend :)

Happy Veteran's Day

A huge thanks to all the vets out there! Your service is much a appreciated.

One Down, One to Go

My sewing machine is home and working. I left it with them for an hour and it was fixed when I returned. The timing is off on the serger. They're really backed up with orders right now so, it's gonna take about a week to get it back. The good news is, it is still under warranty so, nothing out of pocket to get it fixed. I love my sewing maching repair shop. If anyone is familiar with Erie, I frequent Yaple's on 26th street. Wonderful people, very knowledgeable, and great service. They have a lifetime customer here. At least at this point I can finish my hoodie. I need to take the machine in at the end of the month for a service. I'm gonna go through sewing withdrawls. Oh well, I guess it's all in a days work for the seamstresses among us.

P.S. I never did find the pedal for Lexi's machine. I feel a fit of spring cleaning coming on.

Confessions of a Pattern Hoarder and a Gaming Junkie? What gives?

I hoard patterns, shamelessly. My basement has one whole corner devoted to nothing but holding my beautiful patterns from floor to ceiling. I have them dating from the mid-1930's to the present. I admit, with no guilt whatsoever, that I will continue to hoard them, even against my boyfriends better judgement. I have a theory (for my hoarding obsession anyway) that I will stop when I find, "that pattern", the elusive "one". A pattern to end all patterns, one that will speak to me in a way no other pattern has, it will rush to my rescue and cause me to cease my uncontrollable urges to stockpile these little beauties.

In an alternate reality maybe. Who am I kidding? I've been bitten by the vintage pattern bug. It is like malaria, lasting for days on end in a feverish state, needing that fix from your next score, only to end in a lethargic state from the intensive stalking...I mean searching for your next victim. Maybe not that extreme but you get the idea, I can't help myself. Even if one day they did come up with a cure for obsessions, I don't think I would take it. To take it would be to take my passion and that's something I'm not giving up anytime soon (over my dead body actually).

Just like my pattern obsession I have been bitten by the computer gaming bug. A game that I discovered a few months back called Second Life has my attention also, I'm hooked. Lately you can find me running around disguised as a ring-tailed lemur in female form, I can even fly and change my hair color to boot. It's a game that even though I want to drop it like a hot potato sometimes, I cannot. I have a small plot of land I have been decorating lately. There's a house, a few trees and it's surrounded by water. In the next few weeks, I'm even gonna put a sewing machine there too. What a kick, this machine will probably work better than my real life machines at this point.

By the way, I take both of them in tomorrow to fix their boo boo's. Let's hope this turns out prettier than what I'm expecting.

No Such Luck

After spending all day in the basement looking for the pedal....I couldn't find it. It was the sewing weekend from Hell. Hopefully this weekend will be better. I'm determined to make it that way.