Testing...

I haven't posted lately because of this new Blogger interface,, I liked the old one.. not sure about the new one... I almost had to use the video's on Youtube  to learn how to get to my reading list of blogs.. hummmff,, oh well, I guess change is good in some things.. but I don't have to like it....lol....oh well, guess I better get to sewing so I can post something... :-)

Still sewing,,

Just got side tracked by School starting back. I keep trying to remember to take pix of what I have made,, and every time I either don't have a camera, or I don't have my model, my Dd...



But, I do have another pic for you. This is a pic I took at our local JoAnn's,, the material pictured is their fat quarters,,,this is in a "shelf" by the checkout station,,, there is about maybe 50 in here,,, the store is moving and they are trying to see inventory..if you think this is bad,, you should see the rest of the store behind me,, half of the store was already cleaned out,, can't wait for Aug 31st for the new store to open.....

ITY top

Another take on my TnT knit top,,  but with one difference,, I used ITY fabric,,, now I made one several months ago,, and didn't like it at all,, so I thought I would try it again,,, I LOVE this one,,,, it is so comfortable  the difference,, I added about 3/8 in to the middle of the side seam,, and yes just to the middle. You know had some shirt styles go in a little for the hour glass shape,,, well my pattern did to,, so I left the side seam straight,, and it worked perfectly,,                    

I wanted to do something different on the neck,, but couldn't decide what,, I wanted it to stand out just a bit and not blend in so much,,, I wanted to put a trim on with the binding,, but with what,, and what color, I either had off white or green to choose from in the colors form material to work with,,, so I got to looking at the material and noticed the white on the salvage,, perfect,, only problem it is not bias, so that means I have to curve it myself,,,

                               

                                      Time for the iron, and a lot of steam,,,,

                                                         

                                                          Whala....

Twin set.

I love twin sets.... sometimes I have to realize that a twinset may not be the top and over shirt that comes together in a pattern, but sometimes its what  you put together... this set  is the jacket form  Vogue 8559 and a self made top,  the material is a slightly heavy sweater knit,, actually a little heavier than I wanted, but it will work, for now..........I don't just love it, so I am definitely going to make the pattern again,, cause I just like the casualness... (is that a word) of it,,, besides, any thing that hides tummy fluff it a good thing,, lol...

Oh,,, I found something to do with my dress form,,,, HA...I don't have a mirror to take pix of myself, so this is the next best thing,, problem is, clothes look better on the form than on me,,,, oops, did I say that...

 Ok ok,, so I went a little overboard with the pix,,  I had such a hard time deciding which ones to post,, I posted them all,, well not ALL,, I did delete about 5 or 10 or,, oh you know,,,,

Felting wool.

Now this is something totally new to me,,, I felted wool....... 

I have seen and read about it being done,, but never tried it.. I was cleaning out a storage room, and found some wool I had purchased from Fabric.com,, 3 years ago,, I know,, I am slow,,, uhem,, so slow in fact I forgot whether I had pre-washed it or not,,, well I obviously hadn't ,, cause this is what happened....

I  washed it in cool,, and dried it,,,a side view,, see how thick it is, now this is just from the washer,, the piece on top is before,, the one on bottom is after it was washed,, I was going to take a pic after it came out of the dryer,, but drying it didn't make any more changes....

It literally fluffs the material up,, 

 Trying to get a good picture, sometimes you need to take several,, sometimes you even need to post several,,, ha...

 I also isn't as shiny, now I could have dry cleaned it and kept the flat shiny look,, but i don't dry clean my clothes hardly at all,, so I pre-wash and dry everything the way I am going to use it after I make it,,

This was so much fun,, I think it is nice when you read or see something in blog land that you would like to do,,but are maybe afraid to try,, then you say what the heck and do it anyway,, 

So now I can say I have felted wool.....

I have 4 yards each of the green and blue,, now what to do with them,,, that is for a later post... he he....

Getting things done..

Wow, it feels so good to sew again,, I have sewn more in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last 2 months,, almost the last 2 years,, oh well maybe not THAT long,, but it feels great,, I have got the sewing bug again,,, and  I LOVE IT.....pix will be posted soon........:-)

A new contest...

I have been reading about this, and decided to join,, I really needed a fabric stash contest,, but pattern stash is good enough.. Well I guess it is almost fabric stash,, I am getting rid of fabric to... lol...

Behind, behind....

 I was looking through my computer at pix I was supposed to put on my blog,, I am bad,, really bad,, I take pix thinking I am going to post them, then they sit on my computer forever.... ok for instance... both of these I have had since August 2011,, the ones from Fabric.com. are ITY,, my 1st purchase of this type of fabric,, and,, ( this isn't so hard to believe) I still have to make them up.... the one from GF,, is a very lightweight cotton knit,, somewhat sheer,, should be fun to work with,,

From Fabric.com

From Gorgeous Fabrics...

I see other things on there as well,, project, embroidery,, more,, more,, and still MORE fabric,, hopefully I will get to it soon,, but don't hold your breath....

Burda 7595

This is another new favorite,, any pattern that I can make for my Dd straight out of the envelope is basically a favorite,, lol..

 I used a very light weight almost sheer knit from my stash,, Making view A,,I  shortened  it a couple inches, and the collar, it calls for it to be hemmed, but I didn't want the wrong side to show, so I folded it in half and sewed both ends into the neckline.. then I finished the hems with a double needle,, 

New top.

Simplicity 2147 is up next, I have been working on this  had it on my table a while,, I can claim procrastination for part of it,, but mostly it was a lack of commitment in design that got me,,the body of the shirt is supposed to be tucked,, but I didn't know how it would look over DD boobs,, I didn't want the material straining pulling the tucks apart, so I gathered it instead,, it actually looks good,, and I didn't have to do a FBA,, YEAH,,,,,

I think I sewed a 14 straight out of the pattern,, so if this fits that well over her, you know it has to have a LOT of ease,, the yoke "that includes the sleeves", kinda gets lost in the busy pattern of the material,, which is ITY from fabric.com.. I was really nervous about using it, cause it is a little drapey, (is that a word?) I was afraid too drapey,, but it works,, and it works even better with a undershirt,, the gathers don't fall between the um boobs, so it looks good that way... and she likes it,, YES,, we have a winner,,   

I think I will try and make her another sometime, and put a piping or contrast material between the yoke and body, so it distinguishes then...

Nothing special,,,

Another Vogue 8151 done,, I think I could have taken this one in a little more in the arms,, but it still works... 

I am trying to teach Holly to pose a little,, I think we'll keep trying,, lol...

Embroidery,

I decided to sew out some of my emb designs that I have had for a while,, now there are not samples,, these are good designs I purchased from a lovely lady, Kas from Designs in Stitches,, here

Funny how different threads work differently,, the yellow on the lower left is Wal-Mart variegated rayon thread, the white ones are Marathon rayon, the pink is Sulky rayon, and the dark pink top right is Isacord poly,,,,so maybe poly is the best???? hhmmmm...

The Isacord flower is the only one that is soft and pliable. I am going to make some more and see you they turnout...

Patterns.

Just what I need, more patterns,,,always.......

Enlightenment,,,

I got a serious wake up call this weekend,,, that I need to seriously downsize and organize,,,, I have 3 emb machines, my D1 that I use regularly,, well if you can call it regularly,, my Bernina 600 and 330...

I have a friend that I thought might be interested in one,, so asked her,,, OH YES,,, she said,, so I decide on the 600,, now this was my 1st emb machine,, it is a work horse, if I have my D1 in the shop for any reason, I use it,, which is odd, cause its only a 4x4 sewing area, and my 330 is 5x7,, ( my D1 is 6x10 sewing area)BUT,, its dependable,, I can put almost any thread in it and it will sew,, and sew good,,, its quiet, and sturdy,, the 330 well.......now, thats not saying I am giving her a lemon, it is a good machine,, its just I have the 600 to compare it to, and well, if the 330 had the bigger sewing area,,, and bigger bobbins,, it would be great,, but she has never had an emb machine, so I think she will actually do fine,,,

Anyway,, I start looking for everything for the 600,, Buzz box, check; usb cable check; instruction book check; installation  cd, installation cd,,,, oh crap... no installation cd,, OH NO,,, it has been soooo long,, um years? since I last used the 600 that I forgot what we did with it,, and  actually, I told my Dh,, that if the installation cd is actually floppies??? then to get it loaded on my laptop we had to have gone to the OESD site and downloaded the drivers.. laptops don't have  places for disks... sooo,,,for hours I tore apart.(it seemed like) every part of the house I could think of that the "cd" might be,, finally,, no go...

So, I went with plan B,, I would give her my 330... so here I went again,, looking for everything that went to it,,, cables, Cd's instruction book,,, instruction book,,,,, eeeeeeehhhhh,, NNOOOOOO,,, not again,, ok by this time,, I am seriously,, stressed,, and I don't stress out too much, but I am thinking,,, I am sooooo tired of this,,, why why why,,, I have wwwwaaayyy to much stuff,,,,,,,, when I put the "stuff" for each machine up, I really thought I had put everything with it,, well I looked in a bag that went with the 330,, and found the book,,, huge sigh of relief,,,

But now,, my sewing room,,,, WHY is it so bad,, cause I procrastinate.......

I have so much stuff that I put off doing,, or I see something new that looks interesting and get it.. that I just don't have room for everything that I have,,, and I don't do anything with  anything,, it just keeps stacking up....

So,, to the point,, finally huh,, I am going to try to do something in my sewing room everyday, something,, I am putting things up on Sewitsforsale, that I have been wanting to get rid of for a while,,,  I am cleaning off my cutting table so I can cut out fabric,, and I am going to start making little pieces of lace (free standing lace) out of my old Sulky spools of rayon thread that I have had for years, that I didn't know what to do with before,,, so I can get it used up, and my emb designs,, oh my designs,, man I am so glad that they are stored on my computer,,

You know something I have realized lately though,, and no its not that I am a hoarder,,, ha ha,, but that  I like to buy stuff,, well at least sewing related, but stuff,, now it really is generally something that I can use,, but not really something that I NEED,, books, designs, material, patterns, well books and designs,, IF they are on sale,, yes I may buy them,, cause they are easy to store,,  but material,, uh no,,, I am on a fabric fast for a while,, and patterns,, well they are seasonal,,,  and they don't take up too much space,,

So,,,,,,, let me see what I can get done this week,, ha ha,, I just thought,, pictures and blogging is included in this getting something done,, see I have 2 tops, to put on here that have been done for  a while,,, so, I guess I had better get started.......

And more books..

I love Crazy Quilts,, I know you can use scraps with other quilts,, but withe CQ, you can do other embellishments that just make the quilt "pop" that you don't do with other quilts.. like adding lace pieces..even if they are just little strips,, or lace medallions with Cq's you can use up things that are just setting around,, maybe one day I will get to doing one... yeah right!!!

 I am finally getting my book list whittled down,, only half a dozen more to go.. slight exaggeration there,, well maybe... hehe...

New book.

I seen this in Jo Ann's while back. so before I got it,, I looked it up Pattern Review  my go to place for info on sewing,,, anyway,, I found several interesting comments,, on it,, so I went back and looked through it more.. and got it.. I have only read a little but so far,, I love it,,, I am a very visual person,, it doesn't have a lot of info on "lots" of  the garments, but it has thorough  instructions on finishing the edges of neck lines and armholes,, that will help a lot,,