Sunday, May 4, 2014

Selfish Sewing Week.....

This past week was deemed, "Selfish Sewing Week".  The idea behind it is that so often, we are sewing for other people and here is one week we set aside to sew for ourselves.  It's nice in theory, but reality says otherwise. ;)

In keeping with the theme of trying to do at least one hour a day, throughout the week, I attempted Selfish Sewing Week, but I didn't accomplish a lot. ;)

I started out learning a very, very valuable lesson.  When printing PDF patterns, 1/6" of an inch off, makes a HUGH difference.  I did check the measurements of the testing square, first, but I was in a hurry and I thought it was correct, or so close to correct, it must be correct and I'm just picky! :P  Well, after taping, tracing and cutting out a muslin, then sewing, I knew something was off.  Sure enough the whole thing, along with the other patterns I had also printed off, taped together, traced off and cut out the patterns, were going to be off, too. :(  I took a great deal of time to fix this error.  I will have a post coming about the PDF issue, just to warn others who might have this same error.  I may not get to that post until next week.

Once my pattern was correctly printed, taped and traced off, I was finally able to do my Women's Metro T-Shirt pattern, by Liesl + Co.  Here's what I did each day:

-Day one of the week was spent tracing off the wrong scaled pattern, cutting and sewing a muslin.
-On day two, I spent the day fixing the error on the scaling, then doing that for the other patterns I had incorrectly printed off.  I traced off and cut out the pattern and my new t-shirt.
-Day three, I sneaked in some time to sew the shoulder and side seams.
-Day four, I decided how I wanted to finish the armholes since this was to be a tank t-shirt. I put the neckline together and hemmed the shirt.
-Day five, no time to work on the shirt, but hit the fabric store while out doing errands and purchased a 3 metre length of silk fabric for a skirt and scarf I want to make for myself...that's truly selfish!
-Day six, I cut out the binding for the shirt, the rest of the time I selfishly spent repairing a skirt for my daughter so she could wear it (much more important than my tank t-shirt and I was so happy to do that. :)
-Day 7, I sewed the binding on the shirt.... with the exception of tying off the coverstitch tails, which I will do tomorrow, in the light of day.

The Salsa Skirt was made back in February for when I attended Sewing Expo.

Until tomorrow,

Good Night......



Saturday, May 3, 2014

More Salsa Skirts

Back in February, I was busy getting ready to attend the Sewing Expo.  I was on deck to make a few Salsa skirts for us to wear.  I made a total of  7, two for me, two for Olivia and 3 for my sisters.

All skirts are made out of knit fabric.

This skirt is Olivia's and it's made from a cotton/poly blend from Girl Charlee, which I see is not in stock at this time, but is in the cream with green writing.

 These three skirts are made from a cotton/poly blend as well, again, from Girl Charlee, which they do still have in stock. This picture is before I finished up the rolled hems on the skirts. ;)


There are only two in this picture, but I did make three of them.  They are made with fabric from Fabric.com, the designer is Robert Kaufman and the fabric is so wonderful!  So, so soft and just the right weight.  It has 95% cotton and 5% lycra, which make it a dream to work with and to wear.
I have seriously lost track of how many times I have made this skirt...LOTS!  I have made it in floor length, stretch denim, knee length stripes, and all for small people, too.  Great, fun skirt to make and wear. ;)

Good night......

Carol