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.

An Epiphany

I'm a genius, not really. An idea did strike in my sleep though. I'm going to use my daughter's sewing machine to finish my hoodie! See, I told you I was a genius....o.k., o.k., so I'm not, I'll live. Just keep your fingers crossed that I'm not cursed and I don't make her machine go the way of mine right now. All I have left to finish on the hoodie are the sleeves, zipper and hem so, not much. Now, lets see if I can get the boyfriend to help me haul the machine and table out of the basement ;)

What is Going On at My House?

The sewing machine is down for the count and so is the serger....I think I'm cursed. The serger won't chain and the sewing machine keeps throwing stitches. I think those ghosts we were watching on TV earlier jumped outta the screen and into my kitchen. So, you know what this means? I can't finish getting my sewing fix until I can get them looked at on Tuesday. Grrr, what a way to start the weekend.

Finished Gown

Here is the finished gown I was working on not long after our move. I finished it a few weeks ago and the kid has been loathe to take it off ever since (I'm sorta proud of this). It was obvious from her measurements and the pattern itself that this was gonna be big on her, I didn't have a problem with this as she can get more wear out of it. I did have to take a good 6 inches off the hem to make it short enough for her...lol. I left a good deal of length IN the hem so I can let it out as she gets taller (if that ever happens). It is a bit wrinkled in the pic because it had been put into a pile of clothes fresh out of the dryer. I still have some of the striped flannel left and want to make the robe for her. I think I am gonna use Lisa's idea and use some coordinating solid flannel to make the yoke of the robe. The next time I go to Joann's I'll take the remainder of the fabric with me to match it up. If nothing else, I can make the robe from white flannel and create a pillow for her out of the striped flannel.

I did learn a lesson about what type of trim NOT to use around a neckline. This was lovely trim that I found on clearance at Hancock's about a year ago. It had been sitting in my stash since then. It matched perfectly and so I put it to use. I'll have to get a more detailed shot of it to post. It is crocheted with lace run through the middle portion to make a woven look. It worked wonderfully around the arms but, not so well around the neck because of tension on the outer side of the trim, it causes the trim to roll up and sit funny. I also determined that I really dislike 1/2" buttons, they are just too small for my fingers. For any future projects, I'll pay special attention to the button section to determine whether or not I can make room for larger buttons.

All in all, I'm happy with the way the gown turned out and I am very happy that she likes it so much. I know I don't have much longer before she loses interest in the things I make her (the teen years are approaching way too fast for comfort). As much room as she has in this gown, she may be wearing it into her teen years...

In Lieu of Flannel

Until I can get more of the flannel fabric for the cuffs I am going to be working on fleece hoodies for the family to get ready for winter. I'm experimenting with this pattern for myself first so I can work out all the bugs and make some really nice ones for the kids and boyfriend. The last hoodie I made didn't turn out so well. I seem to have an issue getting sizes right. I measure, make the size according to the measurements on the individual pattern and it's still off somehow. My some measured in for a size 8 on a Simplicity pattern, the size 10 just seemed too big. The hoodie was made and it was the right size alright, almost skin tight right size, way too short also. The zipper size the packaging called for was off by 6 inches too. By the time I finished with the garment I was fed up with sewing for a bit. Yeah, right, it only took me two weeks to get back to it and here I am. I will, however, not purchase the zippers anymore until it is time to put them in.