Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder..........

and anxiety makes you sleep less.  But let's talk about what makes me happy...FABRIC!

And now that I've bored you to death with the last weeks of nothing to review, I'll just give you a little update on what appears to be a new hoarding habit that's developing in the fabric world of my closet.

Gorgeous Fabrics

This beautiful print I intend to make Vogue 1224 Tracy Reese style- Why is it you look for the exact fabric that is on the pattern envelope?  When I received the fabric today at work, the package made my day.  It was a frustrating day and it's such a treat to get packages that don't contain more work!
          All fabrics were purchased on line at Gorgeous Fabrics.com.  The fabric is actually more multi colored that I thought.  There is very little white when you get close it's only in the and then there are tan and taupe mid tones. At first I wasn't sure but it's kinda great.  Look at it on the form!  A bigger motif than the pattern envelope but it's super bright and cheery. Can't wait to see Allison C finish hers version of this style so I know what to expect from the pattern.

Gorgeous Fabrics- the source and the fabric is pretty too!

Next up- this great yellow!   How awesome is this?  Yellow looks great on me for some reason.  I love it.  And the motif has some swirly flower in the middle.  
This is my first time purchasing fabric on line so it's interesting to get to see the full repeat after just the small swatch.  And again, I have literally no imagination and chose a yellow for the fabric.  We'll see if I actually make this style out  of this fabric. Right now, that's what's intended.
          Finally an impulse purchase..............

Gorgeous Fabrics.com

Kind of a stretchy mesh. Will need an under slip or lining of some kind.  I don't have a pattern for this one but I really like the way it's draped on the form.  If only I had the patience to drape again.......sign.

           So, I haven't been here for awhile due to life stuff that gets in the way of stuff you want to do...... if you know what I mean.         Specifically, I've been trying to sell my house in California because I no longer care to be a long distance landlord and because frankly it's a total pain in the ass as well. It's annoying to have someone complain about your beautiful antique Wedgewood stove when you would rather just be the one using it.  They don't even cook!  I've lost a lot of sleep over the last months and finally I'm in escrow, cue the angels, AAAAAhhaaaa!!!!!.  And for two blessed nights in a row I slept all night for 8 hours!  yay!!!!!!!   Maybe the mojo will come back.
           And speaking of coming back, I will be back from my work trip at the end of April.  Yes, I leave on 3/28 and get back on..........wait for it....................four twenty never.......4/20!!!!!!!  April twentieth!  Stop thinking about the other 420 you freaks.  So, perhaps there will be fabric shopping in Sham Sui Po (totally spelled wrong but it's in Hong Kong) and maybe I'll find something in the market in Vietnam and when I come back the house escrow will be closed and I will have a pile of spring dress projects and maybe.... just maybe it will be above 55 degrees Fahrenheit!!!  Have I said how much I hate to travel?  More on that later for sure.  Or maybe something from the road.
      Thanks for stopping by I'll be here all week and then gone FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vogue 8685 a Winter Dress and Winter Wonderland

After finishing the wool coat I was exhuasted.  I've been super busy at my new job and I get home every night and just want to lay on the couch after dinner.  But, that's pretty boring and lots of episodes of American Idol and Oprah are stacking up and those are really what I play in the background when I sew cause you don't really have to watch them, I can just listen.

This weekend was amazing.  We went up to Mt Hood for the weekend and participated in Romp to Stomp out Breast Cancer- benefitting the Susan G Komen foundation.  This is a snow shoing event where they have a 3K race, a 5k and 3K "walk" and a little tikes dash for the kids. 

My friend Meg in front

View from the trail

It was a beautiful day with sun and fresh powder and although it was super cold (about 11F) I was toasty in my gear from various Oregon companies (Columbia Sportswear, Mt Hardware, Sorel and Ice Breaker).  We went out in the first wave of 5Kers and stomped our way through the snow and never let up the pace.  My only complaint would be that my face swelled up in welts from the cold later in the day- no dates for me on Sat night.  If you've never participated in a snow shoe, it's super fun and easy!

After dashing home through the snow on Sunday morning I started a project for this Vogue dress.

View out the front window of my Beetle- no chains- scary!!!

 I decided to make a "muslin" to see how my adjustments would work out I used some old knit dresses so that's why it looks like a franken muslin.
I made a 2" full bust adjustment and it lengthened the bodice about 1".  It was way too much and with the stretchy fabric, I decided to reduce the modifications so it wouldn't hang off me later.  I ended up with about a 1 1/2" full bust adjustment and lengthened it about 1/4".  I had to also alter the midrif and yoke patterns for width on the front as well as the skirt.

when I cut it all out on Tuesday night I barely squeeked out the pattern pieces. And the reason for that is because I bought the fabric originallly for a short sleeve Burda style dress.  But because I discovered that even if the office is heated, I'm freezing ass cold all the time there because my desk is by the window (i know boo hoo) and it's just not that warm. 

So if I made that dress for winter I would have to wear a long sleeve shirt under it and that would just defeat the purpose. So, I changed to this cute dress that I was going to make out of matte jersey and might still in the short sleeve version.  I'm making option C, long sleeves and straight skirt.  I'm told that the fashion is going away from "Mad Men" and toward "Boardwalk Empire" but alas, I'm Joan and not Margaret.
More later....

Searching for Naughty & Nice

Recently I discovered the Stats of my blog. I was astonished to find that one of the biggest keyword search sources is from people searching "naughty librarian" or variations there of. Holy cow people, who knew that there were so many people searching for naughty librarians? Crazy town.  You know they are not seamsters.  They must be so confused when they get pulled into my blog.

My chiropractor used to call me Librarian by Day, which I guess implied that I was something more fun and edgy by night.  I wore thick rimmed glasses but was not conservative at all, dress wise.  On a side note by chiropractor looked exactly like young skinny Alec Baldwin and I sometimes just wandered into his office for a hug.  His office was in the base of the building I worked in.  Ahh, the good old days.

But I digress.....Oddly, at the same time I discovered this fact, I made another of  this dress: Vogue 2019 in a deep green color to be worn with my camel cashmere cardigan, nude pumps and pearls. Kind of a work outfit, demure in a Mad Men kinda way. Call me Joan.  Just a little different from my own librarian days.

This is such a fast dress to make, I cut and sewed it in an evening and then finished the sleeves and hems the next night.  I could have done it all in one night but I think I didn't start till 8pm and I didn't want to push it.

Dress form just doesn't have the hips and chest I do to make this more Joanish.

Here it is with the whole outfit.

PS; My sister has absconded with my iron to do a Christmas project.  I need that back, clearly.

Alas I have a terrible head cold and with all the cheese that's found it's way to my face in the last two weeks, even Spanx can't help me be hot in this dress.  Back to the gym next week kids.  Enjoy your last minute shopping, baking, wrapping  and merriment.  I will be drug seeking in Washington this morning since Oregon doesn't sell anything good over the counter.   Advil Cold and Sinus anyone?  Yes, Please!

Cut and Sew Sweater Vogue 8597

Earlier this fall I stormed the fabric store and purchased a bunch of cozy wintery fabrics for the season. 

I'm not a fan of cut and sew sweaters, but this fabric begged me to take it home.  What makes a knit a sweater anyway?  It's the stitches per inch.  And there are diverging theories on what number that is but in general it's about anything less than 9 per inch makes it a sweater.  I might be blasted for that?  Anybody have the true answer?

This fabric is 100% wool and it was purchased at The Mill End Store in Milwaukee, Or for 15.99 per yard.  Yikes! I splurged on this one and it was worth it.

I wanted to make a cowl neck so I bought patter 8597 from Vogue.  I read the pattern reviews that it wasn't as deep as the drawing on the envelope and by the way I always worry when there isn't a photo too.  I altered the neck so it would be a little deeper by slashing and spreading the front as below

Used this technique from Pattern Making for Fashion Design by Helen Joseph Armstrong

Then I squared off the center front.

I realized with the finished product that I should have slashed again further down so that cowl would sag deeper into the front but anyway lesson learned for next time.

The sweater is super long but I also have not hemmed it yet- lazy

This fabric is a little shear so the pretty seam allowances show as a detail
I used a tiny zigzag stitch for the seams and did a double row.  Then I was able to trim very close to the outside row in order to create a finished seam look with out a serger.  When do I splurge for one of those folks?  Before or after the new computer and Vita Mix blender?

This is the back neck, it wraps around from the front which is an interesting detail

This is a better view of the front neck

 I also hand stitched the sleeve hems. This garment is pretty delicate and will certainly need to be dry cleaned.  I wore it tucked into dress pants at work and it was too long.  I just purchased a cute pair of slim pants from J Crew that I probably could make myself but, anyway, I didn't.  This would look better over those.  I guess I should hem the thing.

Ok kids, off to Christmas shop.  The mall opens in one hour.  Next I'll show you to cool sewing history book I got for my birthday!

BWOF 6/2010 skirt 134, Revival of Sloppy College Sweatshirt.

Let it be said that I'm new to the blogging thing.  And therefore, I get going on a project and forget to take pictures as I go and end up trying to retro fit it so you can see what happened.  Here it is the original Oregon State University Sweatshirt.  (PS. I did not pick my living room rug based on my college affiliation)

Now, I graduated in '93, and I'm positive that I bought this either upon exiting the school or some time shortly after so it's a total mystery as to why it says 88 and why it shows XL as the size because it is a large.  At any rate I've had it in my closet for close to 18 years and I never never never wore it even around the house.  About 3 years ago when I moved back to Oregon from California I tried to motivate myself to wear big sloppy collage sweatshirt by cutting the neck a la Flash Dance, but alas it become no more appealing to wear. 

So, I've had in my head for some time to make it into another garment because it's a really great quality Champion thick fleece and if you look in the fabric stores it's nearly impossible to find a brushed fleece in heather gray anywhere.  Along comes the June issue of Burda Style and what do I find in the "sewing and styling" section but a grey fleece skirt and lo and behold there's a pattern for it!  Yippee.  Enter big sloppy college sweatshirt that has followed me around for 18 years and my scissors.  I cut and assembled part of the skirt before I took the above picture but you get the gist that this is what it looked like before I cut it up.  Anyway, I decided that I wanted to use the bottom rib hem for the hem of the skirt so I just layed out the pattern pieces and cut so that I just had to sew the darts and side seams. Magic right? 

The lame part was that in order to do that it meant that I could't get much of the design on the actual skirt piece because it was so long and I wanted it above the knee. And, I thought it was better to have the rib at the bottom then to have the logo XL across my bottom, which it kind of is, but if I wear a shirt untucked you don't see.  I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this does absolutely nothing for my actual XL a$s, but man is it comfy.   I digress.  So I ditched the pockets even though I did cut them out of leftover black knit and I was going to use the rib as the pattern advises, but because the way the sweat shirt was originally there is a double panel of rib along the side seam so that would be WAY too bulky on my hips and I didn't need the pockets.   The waist is finished with a facing and then the black and gray cording is passed through it for a drawstring.  I just punched holes in the front with my eyelet tool from scrapbook world.  I'm sure they'll frey out at some point.    But it works for now.

And finally because there was only half of the design used for the back panel, I thought I would use the rest to make a little kanga pocket on the front, repeating the rib at the edges of the pocket openings there instead of at the side seam. 

I just applied it flat to the front panel w/a raw edge in the rip n repair sort of manner which makes it OK that the the design is not centered on the pocket but pretty much is on the garment.   Also, I don't have a close up, but the bottom edge of the pocket is not jaged it's just the negative space in the print making look like it is.   

So there you have it the random skirt that I made from an old college sweatshirt and am actually wearing to work today.  We have a pretty casual crew here but I do usually try to step it up.  Then my boss tells me that some peeps are coming from a well know shoe company, that we are doing a collaboration with, today and I'm totally embarrassed that I'm wearing a sweatshirt as a skirt to work when we have a meeting that I didn't know about.  Whatever, they can get over it.    This is the perfect skirt for lounging around, doing laundry, running to the grocery store etc.  AND, this weekend I'm going down to OSU w/my sistas to visit the old sorority and have a sleepover!  So I can wear this skirt while we braid each other's hair and have pillow fights (yeah that's what we are going to do with our time).  Yes, look out Corvallis, we're coming to the Kastle and you will never be the same.  If we can stay up past 10 pm that is..... AND I hope to purchase another college sweatshirt or item that I will actually wear.

Coming up on a very special... Circus.

I hit the fabric store on my half day Friday to pick up fabric for my next few projects.  The store was empty except for the staff who all hung out with me ooing and ahhing my fabulous fabric choices.  I felt very special.  I know they were just bored but hey, I had fun.

First up: 40th birthday party dress 

My best friend's husband and I are throwing a "surprise" birthday for her 40th in August. We are having it at a winery in Wilsonville.  I hope this turns out well and in time for the party.  Stay tuned. Now I just need to figure out what to wear to MY 40th birthday party. I have 5 months. tick tock.

Next: This McCalls 6083 jumpsuit.  I'm either going to do; Crop pants w/halter B, or shorts with short sleeves D

I have no idea why I think I need this garment but I thought it might be fun to try this trend with a knit. Could be cute with a black belt and black sandals.  OR could be total disaster.  I know you are on the edge of your sofa.

Next, and actually I think I'm making this first:

BWOF 7/10 Dress123 in this lovely Hawaiian print.  I've become compelled to make a dress out of a tropical print.

I found this awhile back and took a swatch of it home. I thought I wanted to do this dress, Vogue 7848

and I think I was drawn to the tropical print on the envelope. Or maybe I was thirsty for a margarita and Jimmy Buffet was on the radio.  Anyway, I decided that I needed a dress with sleeves, so i had more options to wear it.  The Burda dress could be too dumpy though. I'm a little nervous about it being a sack. Let's see.

Cute Naughty Librarian outfit

This turned out SOOOOOO cute! Who knew that a dress that hits mid calf would be so hot? Sometimes less is more, ya know? I would totally wear this on a coffee date or to work. The little dress month continues and the weather is starting to cooperate with my desire to bike to work in a dress.

Vogue 2019 View B:






See my pattern review of this style at Pattern Review

When I started sewing again I was interested in knits. Since, in my career I'm a knit expert, I know they are forgiving and easy to wear, but not having a serger anymore (gave to Goodwill- stupid, stupid, stupid). I went a lookin' in the blog world for help with the best way to sew knits.

Here is a little of what I found: Laura's Sewing room
She seems to be on hiatus right now (pesky kid growing inside pushes mommy far away from machine...... and blog) but I read through all her posts and she has great links to great sewing tips. I found the link the a Burda workshop on Jersey however if you follow the link now it doesn't lead anywhere.

Only a week or so after I found Burda World of Fashion did it dissolve into what it is now for the English speaking world. I was so confused! I couldn't figure out where I was looking before when I found stuff and then I started reading the rants and I understood. I found similar info on the Sewstylish Copy your Favorite Tee article.



Stay tuned for that project. Page three shows the teeny tiny zig zag used. That's my main tip, to sew with a tiny tiny zig zag. I set my machine (Brother Inno-vis 80) to 2.5.

I wore this to the office with a J. Crew cable knit cardigan in dark pink and dark pink Banana Republic croc pumps and all I have to say is.............hot! I loved it. It's comfy and pretty and looks great with a sweater over it or alone, with pumps or flip flops. I was kinda kidding about the naughty librarian thing, but not totally.

Eventually, I might add some pics of me in these garments as my dress form isn't rocking it like I do. She's too "skinny" if you know what I mean. And without shoulders it's not the same for this sweet dress.

Ciao bella