Hi everyone! I am not, as it turns out, dead. Just a horribly remiss blogger. I have been enjoying catching up on everyone else’s blogs, however!

Cynthia Rowley for Simplicity 2406

I did make up Simplicity 2406 in time for my birthday last month, but then it was too chilly to wear it, so I wore jeans instead. Oh well. I won’t subject you all to my crappy cell phone pics or my bedroom that looks like a tornado hit it. I’ll post pics when I have a chance to get some nice ones.

I’ve joined Faye‘s Summer Dress Challenge for 2011: Stay Cool – Stitch Up a Dress. The goal is to sew your ideal summer dress between June 1 and June 15. A goal I think I can achieve! It’s perfect timing for me because 1) I’ve been wanting to sew a summer dress and 2) towards the end of June I’m starting a graduate school program and I’ll be really busy for the next year. (I hope my sewing time doesn’t *completely* evaporate!) My introductory post on the Stitch Up A Dress blog is here.

I’m making Vogue 1086 (far left in the photo), a Tracy Reese design. It’s the perfect summer dress to me because it is light and airy, with a bit of fwoosh in the skirt and it’s sleeveless. It is also perfect for this sheer cotton floral I got from Fabric.com a while back.

As you can tell, the fabric is quite sheer! So I’m fully lining the dress with a white cotton voile I got at Britex Fabrics in San Francisco. Let me tell you, I can not WAIT to wear this dress. The voile is so soft, it is going to feel great against my legs! (Side note: How do you all pronounce “voile”? I’ve been reading it in my head as “vwahl”, rather French-sounding. It looks like a French word. Then I found out it’s pronounced like it rhymes with oil?! I have a hard time bringing myself to say it that way. I think I’ll just pretend I’m French and say it my way!)

So, progress. I made a muslin of the bodice at the end of May (shh, don’t tell!), which ended up being big, so I went a size down. Luckily I didn’t have to change much. I’m making a size 8 bodice and a size 10 midriff and skirt. I did redraft the back midriff piece to take a wedge out and make it fit closer (I tend to have a narrow back). I also drafted lining pieces for the bodice, since I thought gathers in the lining would be too bulky (and unnecessary). I basically just traced the shape of the bodice front and back pieces, then used the yoke and midriff pieces to figure out the width without gathers. This was absurdly satisfying to me.

Bodice front and back pieces (top) and bodice lining front and back (bottom). I draft on grocery bags from Trader Joe's.

I washed my fabrics (soak for an hour in the tub with Woolite and hot water, hang for an hour, then iron out the rest of the moisture to shrink) then set about cutting.

Normally I hate cutting and marking. Partly because it’s the threshold I have to overcome to get to the fun part (sewing!) and partly because I cut and mark on the floor, on my hands and knees. Ouch. It’s still not my favorite thing in the world, but using my new(ish) Gingher shears and cutting this lovely voile made cutting so much nicer! I never thought I could love a pair of scissors so much. I’m also using a new water soluble marking pen, which I like a lot better than tracing paper and a tracing wheel. Sometimes I feel like there are way more pattern markings than necessary, though.

I constructed the bodice lining first. I’ve only had to glance at the instructions, mostly, since I made the bodice twice in muslin! I’m using all French seams in the construction, which looks SO nice. Seriously, I caught myself just sitting there admiring my work a couple times, lol! I’m sure my stitching could be straighter and better in places, but French seams just make everything look so clean and polished! Here is the bodice lining:

And the inside:

Then I constructed the dress bodice.

Obie inspecting my work.

I couldn’t do French seams on the bodice/yoke seams, but I wanted them to be clean, so I decided to bind them with bias binding, since I had some on hand. Unfortunately, it was too wide. I almost decided to screw it and just serge the seams to finish them, but after a lunch break I got over my lazy inclinations and trimmed down my bias binding and pressed new folds into it to make it work. I’m glad I did. It looks nicer!

Bias-bound seam intersecting French seam.

So, that’s where I am so far! Next I’m planning on attaching my lining and dress bodices using this tutorial from Green Apples. I’m super excited! At this rate, I should have a dress soon! Maybe I’ll even make another dress before the 15th deadline!

So, I am a bad, bad sewing blogger. I have not gotten photos of the finished pink jacket OR the French cuff shirt even though Mr. CV wore it on Saturday night when we went out tango dancing. Also, I haven’t posted in almost a month! Bad blogger. No cookie. In my defense, I have been pretty busy with organizing tango events and putting together my teaching credential program application.

So, because I have nothing new to show, this post is all about asking YOU to show me things! I’ve been wanting to decorate my little sewing corner with some cute, girly, fashiony, sewing-related art, but I’m not sure what I want to put up! I just have two little sections of wall (my sewing space is in the living room), so whatever I put up, it has to be GOOD!

I did a little Googling for ideas last night, and I found this:

How cute are those giant wooden buttons? It probably wouldn’t be too difficult to make something similar. I might need a chisel though… Perhaps make some giant pins and scissors to go with the buttons? Needle and (rope) thread?

I also found these:

Also really cute, and they would be really easy to make. I’m pretty sure I could find some unpainted plaques like that at Michael’s or something and paint them using freezer paper stencils. It would be easier than the buttons!

I’ve thought about framing pattern envelopes. Either vintage ones or vintage reprint ones. Maybe old Vogue covers or something? I bought my aunt a print of this awesome cut paper art, which I really love.

So tell me, what do you have on your sewing room walls?

Ok, I know it’s a little late to be posting about Christmas. But I’m behind, and I still want to share all my lovely sewing-related gifts with you all! (Just about everything I asked for and received was sewing-related. I am a lucky girl!)

First, books:

I added FIVE new books to my sewing library this Christmas.

Couture Sewing Techniques by Claire Shaeffer
I haven’t done more than flip through this book yet, but I’m excited about it! There aren’t many pictures, but there is a LOT of technique instruction, with illustrations to go along. I don’t know how useful the techniques will be fore day-to-day sewing (there is a lot of handwork, I can tell already), but I bet a lot of it will be just the thing to take special projects up an extra level or two! Also, I just noticed that the jacket on the cover has buttons shaped like cicadas. Gross. I mean, they’re not stylized at all. They look like they were cast from an actual dead cicada. The sequin-and-bead work on the sleeve is lovely, though!

Shirtmaking by David Page Coffin
This book helped me finish up the French cuff shirt I made for Andrew. The pattern I used (BurdaStyle’s Jakob) had a casual (and, in my opinion, lame) finish for the sleeve vent. I used this book to draft a sleeve placket, and it came out great. I can’t wait to read this book all the way through, and use it again! Maybe I will make Andrew another shirt.

The Perfect Fit: The Classic Guide to Altering Patterns
Hurrah! Now I can fit patterns without just guessing how to do it! I think my muslin phase will start going much quicker from here on out. This book is chock full of photos. Love it.

Patternmaking for a Perfect Fit by Steffani Lincecum
It turns out that this book is about making patterns from clothes you already own. Not exactly what I would call patternmaking. I’m going to keep it as a resource, just in case, but it’s not really what I was looking for. It IS very pretty though! The design and layout is very clean and modern, easy to see, and the photos are lovely.

Make Your Own Patterns by Rene Bergh
THIS is the type of patternmaking book I wanted. Drafting patterns from scratch. It looks very approachable, there are lots of illustrations. I can’t wait to try it out.

Tools:

Gingher cutting tools! I am so excited. I’ve been wanting my own set of Gingher shears after using my mom’s and feeling how much nicer and sharper and easier they were than my Fiskars scissors. As a bonus, I got a little pair of curved emboidery scissors and a tiny pair of gold handled snippy scissors (which are REALLY POINTY).

A pattern drafting set, to use with my pattern drafting book. Look at all those rulers! It even came with an awl and a compass (for adding seam allowances), things I wouldn’t have even thought of!

In addition my aunt gave me this kind of ridiculous (and awesome) tiny iron. I’m not kidding. It’s about 2 inches wide and 3 inches long.

Dress Form

Hurrah, a dress form! Since I started fitting my patterns instead of making them straight out of the envelope, I have been wanting a dress form. It’s hard to pin out extra fabric on your own back! This one is adjustable, and the stand is off to the side (instead of centered) so I can use it to fit pants, too! Unfortunately, I was flying back home after Christmas, so I had no way of taking her with me. So she’s living at my parents’ house until I can take a little road trip up there.

Fabric

Speaking of road trips, I took one with my mom and aunt to Berkeley to check out this cool fabric store called Stone Mountain and Daughter. Keep in mind, my experience with fabric stores is almost exclusively of the JoAnn’s/Hancock’s variety. I’ve been to two independent fabric stores, one that is home dec-focused, and one here in Santa Barbara when I bought fabric for my first project ever. I haven’t been back to the local store because it’s expensive! Although maybe I should give it another chance. Anyway!

Stone Mountain and Daughter was amazing! It’s big, and PACKED with fabric. I wish I had taken some pictures inside, but I was so overwhelmed with fabric choice! While I’m used to picking through a bunch of crap to find a few nice bolts, EVERYTHING in this store was quality! There were two rooms downstairs, and a room full of sale fabrics upstairs. Here is what I bought:

Charcoal gray wool with violet pinstripes. It’s actually darker than this in real life. And easier to see the stripes, too.
Imported from Italy. So beautiful and soft! Would you believe $10 a yard?

Light gray polyester with lavender pinstripes.
So drapey! $4.50 a yard.

Blue and gray plaid wool. Imported from Italy. Super soft. Also $10 a yard.

I think I made out like a bandit, don’t you? I’m planning on using the two pinstriped fabrics for slacks, and the plaid is destined to be a pencil skirt with a wide, bias-cut yoke. I just don’t know which to start first!

I am a bad blogger. I haven’t posted anything since early November! But with the start of a new year, I thought I’d do a “year in review” type post. 2010 was the year I really dove into sewing. I’ve been dabbling for a few years, but in 2010 I found the sewing blog world, which filled me with inspiration! So, here are the projects I stitched up in 2010. (Most of these have not been blogged, I suspect. Also, the pictures most likely suck. Please forgive.)

Clutch purse

This was a combination really late Christmas/birthday present for my friend Liz. The pattern called for piping, but I didn’t have any, so I decided to do a pleated ribbon trim. I ended up having to go buy more ribbon anyway, but I like how it came out! (Yes, I pleated the ribbon myself. Apparently, you can actually buy it that way?)

Halter top

Bleh. Please excuse the awkwardly posed photo. I'm not trying to show off my armpits, I swear.

I used my serger to create a rolled hem on the ruffle, which was pretty exciting. I’ve worn this once, but I probably won’t again. I used fusible interfacing for the facing, which then is gathered in the center, and the texture of it is just horrible. It’s like newspaper. The gathers are like the opposite of soft. Oh well. (This fabric also ravels like… a ravelly thing.)

Pocket!skirt

McCalls 5591
I really like this skirt, though I still haven’t worn it. (Both times I planned to, it ended up being too cold out.) I think I need to shorten it, though. Which is annoying, because that topstitching on the hem band? It’s TRIPLE STITCHED. Yikes. (Ok, the picture is taken with my iPhone in a dark room, so the quality sucks and you can’t tell there’s top-stitching. But there is.) It fits great, though!

Watercolor Flowers Dress

Butterick 5209, a reprint of a 1947 pattern. Blogged here.
Ah, what muslining can do! I love this dress.

The Pink Cupcake Dress

Butterick 5317 by Maggy London. A super cute (if I do say so myself!) pink pleated dress with pockets. Which I wore to two(!) weddings and a birthday party. Blogged here. The only thing I *don’t* love about this dress is how easily it wrinkles and what a pain it is to iron pleats.

The Anda Sheet Dress

Where I left off.

A wearable muslin. On hold until Spring.

The Overly-Tailored Pink Jacket

McCalls 5525. I’m planning on a full blog post dedicated to this jacket. But here’s a preview of the finished product!

The Cat Toy

Ok, this isn’t really a sewing project so much as a whim. I improvised a pattern and turned some muslin scraps into a simple mouse toy for my kitty. He loved it. It’s currently hiding under a piece of furniture somewhere (where all his favorite toys end up).

The French Cuff Shirt
I haven’t mentioned this yet because it was a Christmas present for my boyfriend. It’s technically not done. It needs buttons, buttonholes and a hem, but I’m waiting for him to try it on and make sure it fits, first! When it’s done, I’ll take some pictures.

Not a terribly impressive year when you compare it to other blogs, but there it is! (I’ve always been a procrastinator.) Pretty productive for me, I think. Especially as I’ve been feeling my way through the whole fitting process! Hopefully, I’ll build on this next year, and have more successes!

Aie, it’s been too long since I posted. I was holding off because I wanted to have some progress on my McCalls 5525 jacket to show you all, and I don’t. Not really. It’s not because I haven’t been working on it. I have. But I haven’t cut into my fashion fabric yet!

I’ve been busily muslin-ing for the past week. Partly this is because I’m learning by trial and error. I try it on, pin out extra fabric and guess how that should translate into changes to the pattern pieces. It worked out well on the back. I cut a huge chunk out of the center back and a little bit at the upper curve of the princess seam.

Changes to the back pattern piece

But it turned out the be more complicated in the front. First I marked up the front piece based on what I had pinned, but it looked funny-shaped.

Funny-looking front pattern piece

So I decided to take the fabric out of the front piece below the bust, and out of the side front above the bust.

Side front

In addition I took it in at the sides. All this ended up making the whole thing fit really odd (and too small). Oops. (Unfortunately, I didn’t take any fitting pictures, as I just wanted to fix it!) First I made new side front and side back pieces to undo taking in the sides. But the front was still funny, so I went back to the original pattern piece for the side front. I made a new front piece taking out the amount of fabric I originally marked above the bust, but instead of curving out and back in, I just curved it straight into the existing seam. So the pattern piece looked normal, just with more curve than the original. (Sorry for the lack of pictures for the rest of this. Bad blogger! No cookie!)

I found that it was fitting better, but still too tight, and the princess seams were off to the side too much. So I added fabric to the outward curve on the side front piece to accommodate for the fabric I took out from the front piece. (This put me at muslin #6.) It was almost there. I could’ve called it good, but I’m a perfectionist, so I made yet another side front piece with a bit more fabric on the outward curve, and muslin #7 was it! The shell finally fit!

Now I just had to adjust the collar for the altered back (now with less fabric!) and fit the sleeve. I took the excess fabric out of the collar and it fit on the shell no problem. In making the sleeve I discovered that the free arm of my sewing machine is not small enough for the bottom of the sleeve to fit around it. Lame! I eased in my first sleeve ever. (And didn’t take pictures. I suck.) There are a couple puckers, but who cares, it’s a muslin! I tried it on to discover that the sleeve is too tight in the upper arm. It’s not the bicep or the tricep, either. Anyway, it’s tight. Which is weird. Because I have SCRAWNY little arms. So there is some sleeve adjusting in my near future.

But my lining fabric came in the mail from Gorgeous Fabrics! I was super excited. This was the last thing I needed!

Super cute lining

The print is so cute! Unfortunately I’m really disappointed in the feel of the fabric. I knew it was 100% polyester when I bought it, but I thought it would feel like other lining fabrics I have – not great, but drapey and smooth and slippery. You know, lining. But this feels… stiff? My boyfriend says it feels like a tent. And he’s kind of right. Bleh. I’m washing it right now, hoping washing the sizing out of it will help. If not I might just have to buy something else. Which bums me out because I am in LOVE with the print. (Also because I paid $8 a yard, which is more than I spent on the outer fabric!) What would you do?