Something new for me,,,

I am still working on lace,, but had to get some more needles,, I get tired of having to go to Joann's for them,, so I decided to order some,, I got 10 in the package, for about the same I would pay for 5., now just to see how they work,, stay tuned.

A teaser,,, making lace!!

Hmmmm, what's it for,, will let you know.....

Back to sewing again...

Actually I joined the JAM, (jacket a month) thread at Stitchers Guild,, and I must say the ladies over there have put out some really pretty jackets,,,


Ha ha, I was almost ready to post this and forgot that I didn't put the pattern  info on here, Burda 7634
Material used is  a light weight linen,, the lining is voile..

Well here is my 1st, I am a little behind as this is my first one,, but you know,,,

Ok all the good, bad, ugly, and whatever,,, I have leared a few things sewing this jacket,,

First off the alterations,, I am one of the unlucky ones that I have to make alterations to every stinking thing I make,, bleck....

sleves, I had to add 1/2 in to the width,,,

the side bodice, this was a little more tricky for me,, I am not real good at figuring out alterations yet,, but I  had to add over an inch to the width, then I had to bring the top,   down a half and inch,, you can see this better in the pic below,,

 Ok now for one of the lessons learned,, I have been seeing different sewing techniques on blogs for a while, so I decided I wanted to try one,, Hong Kong finish here I come,, it should have been here I go,, as in bye bye,,, first off,, I don't know if there is a way to do a HK finish on a princess seam,, if there is,, I didn't find it,, because it didn't work too well for me,,,see the wave,,, first off I forgot to pull the bias strip just  a little,, hence the ripple,, but second it isn't easy pulling a bias strip on the inside of a princess seam,,, keeping the seam flat,, so it doesn't ripple, sewing and ugh,, you get the idea,,

 So I had to go back re-sew it while it was pinned, well I didn't sew over the pins,, but darn near it,, then I ironed it good,, so now it looks like this,, not bad...

 Ok details on the HK finish,, you cut bias strips, I made mine 1 1/4 in wide,, you do not cut off the seam allowance of the garmet,,, you put the bias tape to what would be the right side of the seam allowance,, and sew a narrow seam, I think mine was just over 1/4 inch,, I just put the material under the edge of my pressure foot,,, and sewed,,

 Then you turn the bias strip to the back around the seam,,  (a HK finish basically finished a seam just like a serger,, but with a serger you are using thread,, ) and pin, above pic,, see where the pin is,, that is the seam for sewing the bias strip on,, then you do something called stitching in the ditch, basically sewing over the seam to sew on the bias stip,,( am i getting a little redundant here,, ok moving on,,,,

Ok on the back of that seam you have the excess, you trim that off as close to the seam as possible,,,

 Pic of finished jacket,, I must say I am still proud of it,, I have a TNT (tried and true) pattern now,, and that is a great thing,,

 More pix of the HK finish,, ok another thing learned,, HK finishes are a pain,, they are fairly easy,, but they take forever to do,, forever,,

Oh another pic of the princess seam,,,,

Patterns.

                                                     

Butterick 5557, This is a set, but I love the look of this top. 

  Butterick 5562 I already have a McCalls pattern 6164 that has the same sleeve treatment,, but i fell in love with the neck on the green top,, and my daughter loves cowl neck lines,, besides i seen this made up in a sweater knit at sharon sews and I have a couple pieces of fabric that would be perfect for it...

I just like the simple clean lines of this jacket,, I may have to add a closure to it,, don't know if I like just having a belt to keep it closed,, will see.

Another purse,, well two....

Ok I need to do more of these,, they are fun, just choosing the project and the font is the hardest,, this was  an embroidery design I got from  
here  My Embroidery Haven,,, I omitted the ribbon,, and put on the font instead..

I decided to throw one more in, this is one I got from a  blog.. outside was easy,

The inside however was a little more tricky,, not putting the pockets in, but sewing the 'inside" up,, I had to take out some seams and make the lining smaller so it would lay flatter. or more flat... ha ha..

Which to do first,

I have gotten back to the sewing room,, several times in fact,, problem is I need to narrow down what I want to do.. I got started on the pouch/purse things,, I even got another one made, will post pix soon,, but I also started sewing clothes again,,, uuhhhhh,, don't faint,,, it has been a while,,

See I figured out something,, ok this is going to sound totally crazy, I love to sew and embroider, but I do my best when I am helping someone, and they are telling what to do,, like what designs or patterns, material, thread colors,, in other words,, I am not making the "decision",, starting to sound familiar,, 

Which brings up another scenario,, my husband,, now this is a good thing believe it or not,,, you know how most women say thier husbands have no style,, well fortunately mine does, and in my case,, very fortunately,, cause I have had to go to him several times to ask his opinion on, colors, (eeks) fabric,, (shock),, I mean he is like a woman,, uh let me be clear,, lol,, in the terms of taste,, he is very should I say gifted,, he just has good tastes,, and ideas.

I said all that to say this,, I was in my sewing/bedroom,, ha ha,, the other day, looking through material to see what i wanted to do with what,, and I thought,, everynow and then i make something, (for our daughter Holly) that he just doesn't like, for one reason or other,, problem is I do it fairly often,,(ok let me insert this here, you know the saying "what were you thinking" when you bought that,, i mean, even with clothing,, maybe more so, with clothing, just because its on the rack doesn't mean it should be purchased, I mean has anyone seen the emails, "poeple of Wal-Mart",, ) problem is, I probably get a lot of materail that you could say that about,,) now most ladies I know would just say, its just my husband,, if i want to make it I will,, well just like clothes that we buy, we want  them to be liked by our family,, we just feel good, or better when someone says,, oh that looks nice, or I like that,,,, well, DH does when he likes it,, but he also says something when he doesn't,, which lately  has been faily often,, soooooo,, I decided to ask him on material,, ok don't thow things at me yet,, cause here is the scenario,(should I be numbering these yet, hhmmm) I am looking at material, trying to look at it from his prospective,, ok this is what he says,, "looks too busy,, too small print,, too old looking, oh yeah,, that will work",, and I think I need to separate this material, because I have pieces in there that I want to make,, but I need to find out what would work best for her first,, so what do I do,, ha ha,, this  was my great idea,, I have never actually done this before,, not on material for clothes anyway,   I asked him to help me pick out material that  he likes for her,,, we go through about 20 pieces of material in about 5 min,, i pick them up, and say what do you think,, he looks at them and says,, yes or no,,, or great, or ^&%$ no,,, lol...

So I start pairing material with patterns after that,, it was SOOOO easy,, I paired up about 5 things after that,,, why didn't I do this sooner,, I could have saved myself so much frustration,, I have about 20 more pieces for hime to look at in the closet, but at least I have a direcion now,,,

So that is  part of the reason i havent't posted, I am busy trying to figure out what to make first,, well thats not completely true,, I am sewing a jacket,, that just why I havent posted on embroidery,, I am trying to figure out what to make next, I want to to a font on something,, I just haven't decided what yet..

And you might say, well you asked DH about the material,, ask him about the embroidery project,, huh, no way,, I want "something" to be me,, even if it does look like crap mess up at least its my crap mess up.

Embroidering projects

I am doing some embroidering for a change,, pouches and key fobs, they are so fun, and addicting,, I am going to make more of the key fobs, they are really fast,, and pretty easy,, the pouch takes a little more time,, but it is padded,,  they both came from  http://www.embroiderygarden.com/store/index.php  Reen is a wonderful designer, and she has great ideas.

I am going to try monogramming next,, I can't believe I have had an embroidery machine for so long, (blush) and have never done that yet..