As an avid follower of numerous sewing blogs, I have decided to try and follow Zoe's
Self Stitched September. When I was laid off work for two months earlier this spring, I became extremely spoiled with tons of time to do all sorts of sewing and managed to create a fair amount of clothing. However, since the end of May I have been working full-time (yay!) and am currently working at a full-time job
and a second part-time job; needless to say I don't have much time to sew. Not to mention that this summer was incredibly busy - full of fun things though... camping trips, family vacations, ball tournaments and ultimate frisbee, etc. etc. etc...
I managed to finish this yellow blouse in time for September 1st. It's from Simplicity 9872 (circa 1980) which I found at the thrift store (big surprise!). I used a lovely lightweight cotton-eyelet fabric which was on sale for 70% off earlier this spring. I was originally planning to use it to make a
JJ Blouse, but decided that a simpler pattern would show off this pretty fabric much better.
This was the first time I've ever used French Seams (a method for encasing lightweight fabric safely within a seam so it doesn't fray.
This is a good tutorial on how to do them). The selvege at the bottom of the fabric is a very beautiful scalloped edge, so I didn't need to hem the bottom at all. I very narrowly avoided turning this project into a Fail by not paying proper attention when I was cutting out the fabric (sheesh, will I ever learn?!?!?). I accidentally cut two right sleeves and didn't have enough fabric left to cut a left sleeve.
Luckily I managed to find the last remaining bit of the fabric in the remnant bin at Fabricland
but it was now $5.50 for 0.8m!!!! I had only paid $3/m a few months earlier - argggg!!!! Oh well, hopefully this will teach me a valuable lesson? :-D
This last photo just cracks me up. My in-laws live on a lake in the Okanagan region of British Columbia and a huge swarm of gnats had just come up from the lake and tried to fly up my nose!
I actually spent a good portion of July and August doing a bit of sewing for our friends' wedding. The bride asked me to do the bridesmaid dress alterations as well as making some sashes for the flower girls' dresses to match the wedding colors. My camera wasn't working the day of the wedding, but here is a photo of my handiwork (all except for the bridesmaid second from the left). The best thing that came out of doing these alterations was the discovery that my 1970s sewing machine does blind-hemming!!! Of course, in typical fashion I didn't discover this until I was nearly finished hand-sewing the hem of the fourth (and final) dress! Oh well... Now I know for future projects, right?
I also did a bit of up-cycling for my hubby. In these tough economic times, his office has decided to save money by not using air-conditioning (which, if you've ever spent any time in the Shuswap during summer you know how hot it gets!). N was lamenting the fact that he had no shorts to wear that were office-appropriate, i.e., not board shorts, so I took him to Value Village and we got a couple pairs of pants that I was able to turn into shorts. These grey plaid shorts are my favourite of the two; they used to be a pair of rather tight, skinny pants that I would imagine some trendy Asian man wearing in Vancouver and looking fab. To accomodate for my non-trendy, tight-pant fearing Interior husband, I had to use some of the extra fabric from the lower portion of the legs (and taking care to match up the plaid) to widen the legs. He says he likes them a lot, and I'm sure of it since he wears them at least 4 days a week! Great success!
I managed to finish this yellow blouse in time for September 1st. It's from Simplicity 9872 (circa 1980) which I found at the thrift store (big surprise!). I used a lovely lightweight cotton-eyelet fabric which was on sale for 70% off earlier this spring. I was originally planning to use it to make a JJ Blouse, but decided that a simpler pattern would show off this pretty fabric much better. 
This was the first time I've ever used French Seams (a method for encasing lightweight fabric safely within a seam so it doesn't fray. This is a good tutorial on how to do them). The selvege at the bottom of the fabric is a very beautiful scalloped edge, so I didn't need to hem the bottom at all. I very narrowly avoided turning this project into a Fail by not paying proper attention when I was cutting out the fabric (sheesh, will I ever learn?!?!?). I accidentally cut two right sleeves and didn't have enough fabric left to cut a left sleeve. Luckily I managed to find the last remaining bit of the fabric in the remnant bin at Fabricland but it was now $5.50 for 0.8m!!!! I had only paid $3/m a few months earlier - argggg!!!! Oh well, hopefully this will teach me a valuable lesson? :-D 
This last photo just cracks me up. My in-laws live on a lake in the Okanagan region of British Columbia and a huge swarm of gnats had just come up from the lake and tried to fly up my nose!
I actually spent a good portion of July and August doing a bit of sewing for our friends' wedding. The bride asked me to do the bridesmaid dress alterations as well as making some sashes for the flower girls' dresses to match the wedding colors. My camera wasn't working the day of the wedding, but here is a photo of my handiwork (all except for the bridesmaid second from the left). The best thing that came out of doing these alterations was the discovery that my 1970s sewing machine does blind-hemming!!! Of course, in typical fashion I didn't discover this until I was nearly finished hand-sewing the hem of the fourth (and final) dress! Oh well... Now I know for future projects, right?
I also did a bit of up-cycling for my hubby. In these tough economic times, his office has decided to save money by not using air-conditioning (which, if you've ever spent any time in the Shuswap during summer you know how hot it gets!). N was lamenting the fact that he had no shorts to wear that were office-appropriate, i.e., not board shorts, so I took him to Value Village and we got a couple pairs of pants that I was able to turn into shorts. These grey plaid shorts are my favourite of the two; they used to be a pair of rather tight, skinny pants that I would imagine some trendy Asian man wearing in Vancouver and looking fab. To accomodate for my non-trendy, tight-pant fearing Interior husband, I had to use some of the extra fabric from the lower portion of the legs (and taking care to match up the plaid) to widen the legs. He says he likes them a lot, and I'm sure of it since he wears them at least 4 days a week! Great success!
Posts
Good sewing efforts and kudos to you and your man for the shorts, such a sensible idea for summer office wear!
ReplyDelete