Projects done in time

Okay! I have finished my 3 jalie shirts and also finished ripping out the seams and adding back in the side panels on my mom's shirt. I also made some tags to hang on the clothing that say they are made by me! Nothing real fancy, and nothing sewn in....I actually am glad that manufacturers have moved away from the itchy tag in favor of printing on the inside of the fabric! I will get some pictures on xmas of the shirts, since I have already wrapped them all up! Mine isn't wrapped up, but I am too lazy at the moment to get the camera! :)

I got my new stash of fabrics from the evil fabric queen a few days ago. I refrained myself and only bought 4 new fabrics. I love them too!

I don't think I will be fitting anymore sewing in before christmas! My new year's resolution is to sew more than I buy! Only buy if it is something really special, or I have a need on a current project! Do you think I can do it?? My stash is growing exponentially!!!

xmas project progress

Well, I have finished the sweater/shirt for my mom......only to find out, that I didn't give enough extra for the non-stretch of this fabric. The final product turned out great.....but too tight! I am going to have to open up the side seams and add in probably a 2 1/2" strip of fabric. I am very disappointed by this! Live and learn!!!

I am working on the other 3 shirts at the same time since they all can use the same color thread in my serger! Yay! I love when stuff like that happens!! Those are about 1/2 completed. My goal is to knock those out tonight, then work on the fix of the other one. Also, friday is pajama day for the last day of school for my older daughter. She has the pajama bottoms I just made, but no shirt to go with it yet. Now, she does have about 15 pairs of pajamas/nighties....but I am not sure the majority of them are thick enough to wear in this weather (it is cold here now....high 40s/low 50s...yes that is cold for here I know that isn't cold for some of you!!)

Update to polar bear pjs!

I have 3 of the 4 pairs of pjs completed! Yeah! The last pair sits, cut out, on top of my sewing machine, just waiting for me to get tired of the computer and come sew them. Wonder how long that will take!

Here is a picture of one of the pairs of pjs. I didn't take pictures of all of them, because they pretty much look the same!

Pictures of past projects

Here are a few pictures of some of the projects I have completed since summer:

Jalie 2794 Jalie 2804 Jalie 2788

Jalie 2793, Jalie 2797, Jalie 2806

Jalie 2005

Cutting in progress....

Whew. I just finished tracing out Jalie 2804 in a few sizes and then cutting out 4 versions. One is for my mom, one for my sister, one for my friend, and lastly one is for me. I have made this pattern before in the sleeveless version with the ruched sides and I love it. I decided this time to skip the side ruching and add 3/4 sleeves to a few of them and long sleeves to one of them. I have this really cool fleece that is long hair fuzzy on one side and soft as imagineable printed on the other side. It isn't particularly stretchy, so I cut a size larger than I would normally make for my mom....I hope this works out. ZASaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa And that was my lovely cat jumping up on the keyboard now standing in front of my monitor as I type. Got to love them! Here are some pics of the fabrics: This is the one for my friend. This is the one for my mom. This is the one for my sister. This is the one for me. And to top things off....I dropped my camera on my foot and the flash isn't working correctly!!! I have to send it in to get fixed, but I don't want to until after the holidays.....so I need to go out and by a flash that can mount on top of my camera. It is always something. So excuse my poor pictures, the colors in some don't look quite right!

Where is the time going?

I really thought it was only last week that I wrote here....can't believe it was thanksgiving! Where is the time going???

Update on the gymnastic suits (yes, I know I still need a picture!) - on Monday the coach came and asked me if I really made the suits and wanted to know if I would make some for her daughter. Nice compliment. I never feel like making stuff for other people though....they always offer to pay me, but I can't see that my time would be worth what they would pay. It would take me a minimum of 2 hours to complete the project plus the cost of supplies.....even if I charged $40 it doesn't seem worth it. I can do consulting work (I am an engineer) and make $60/hr.......(no supplies). Sewing is something I enjoy doing for me and my family and an occasional friend as a present. It is something special that no one can go buy. I am sure my fellow sewers feel the same way. I enjoy it because I am creating something that no one else has and I am making it the way I want it to be done - whether it is for me, my kids, husband or anyone else. I don't want everyone to have what I (or my daughters) have....... Okay, I am done ranting.

I am making pajamas for everyone. I have my husbands cut out finally. My older daughter's are almost done, just need hemming, my youngest and mine and seamed up, but the elastic and hem aren't in yet. Here is a picture of the fabric....it is a flannel. I am making the bottoms out of this, and the top out of fleece.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I am up and coffee has just finished brewing, I am starting to wake up. We are traveling to my inlaw's today for a great turkey day! The dd's are super excited to get to see gma and gpa! I made two pies (apple and pumpkin) and fresh cranberry sauce. I am getting hungry just thinking about it all! The leotards (did I mention I made 4...) turned out really cute! At class, I had a bunch of people comment on how cute they were (people I didn't even know...) and my friend asked where I bought them; to which I smiled proudly and told her I made them. It is always a compliment to my sewing ego when someone asks where I bought something! I still have the polar bear red flannel pants cut out in 3 sizes (still haven't made it over to pick up a pattern for dh's pair). I want to get dh's cut out and sew all 4 at the same time. I pulled out my jalie 2805 again to make a black long sleeve t-shirt for myself. I don't seem to have one in my closet. I also pulled out jalie 2448 thinking of making some fleece socks and maybe a pullover. I have some great purple power stretch fleece that would sew up nice for this pattern! Well, no more sewing dreams for now, I have to start getting everyone up and packing things for our dinner tonight!

Gymnastics

Well, I have two gymnastic suits cut out for both girls (Jalie 2792), I cut out my red polar bear flannel to make jammy pants for me and both of the girls. I still need to get a pattern for my dh's pair. There is a store close by that sells kwik sew patterns (cheaper than I can even find online, imagine that!), so maybe I will get over there later today to find a pattern for his pants! I finished a fleece sweatshirt and matching hat (light blue with a little darker light blue polka dots) for my littlest one and I finished a lavendar fleece sherpa sweatshirt that I embroidered the word "paris" on for my older dd. I used the jalie 2805 t-shirt pattern in long sleeve and just made them one size bigger than what I have for their t-shirts. They both turned out cute. I will have to get some pictures one of these days, because isn't that why we read others blogs! To see the cute pics of what we have sewn!

My list

Sew....what should I get started with??? I have cut out a fleece sweatshirt for my youngest. I have traced off a wool jacket pattern from bwof 09/2008. I have found the material I want to use for the jacket, I am still debating about the lining material though. While I was looking through my stash for lining material, about a dozen more projects leaped into my head. I had ideas for each piece of material as I purchased it, however, time has kept me from the project. Anyhow, I was looking at some flannel that I bought last year to make Christmas jammies for the whole family. It is red with polar bears. I wanted to make matching pants for everyone, then a top in red fleece (I have that too in my stash) with a polar bear embroidered on the front. I am thinking this would be a good time to get started on those (not sure I have the right patterns though...). I was thinking that if I am going to make any christmas gifts, I better get a plan together soon!!! Wow. I feel stressed just thinking about it all! Okay, enough for now!

Halloween 2008!

Halloween was a blast this year! The girls were as cute as can be! I had a tinker bell and a candy corn! They were fairly simple costumes to put together, I just freehanded them together. The hardest part is getting them to stand still long enough to get a measuring tape around them!! We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins too!

Can you hear them saying "cheeeeeessseeee"???

Almost Time to Go!

Okay, I am counting down the hours now until I leave! I finished a swimsuit coverup this morning! I made Kwik Sew 2775, with some fabric from the evil fabric queen! It turned out quite cute. This is going to get me off on another subject, but I always have some idea in my mind of the what the material I purchase could be used for. This time I didn't have anything in my growing stash designated "swimsuit coverup", so I just started rummaging through. I narrowed it down to two contenders and got some opinions and started cutting! I love being able to go to my stash like a fabric store right in my own home! I blame the evil fabric queen for most of my stash. Actually, if I hadn't of stumbled upon her yahoo group one day about a year ago, who knows if I would still be sewing right now. I was getting very disappointed in local fabric store offerings and the local fabric store patterns. Joining fabric and notions one late night, opened up a world of sewing to me! Now, many boxes and crates of fabric (stuffed in the depths of my hall closet where no one goes) later, I feel like I have my own fabric store to shop from for the multitudes of patterns (from BWOF) that I want to make! What a rant that was! Anyhow, my suitcases are packed (with new swimsuits and coverup) and I am ready to go!

Getting Ready

I am getting ready for our big trip to the bahamas! I am really excited! I have been sewing bathing suits for the trip! I finished the first one and am now working on the second. I used a Kwik Sew pattern (2775) with some modifications. I added a sweetheart curve to the front top, lenthened the top by 3 inches and flared out the addition for my curvy hips! :o I added soft cups to the lining shelf bra for added support and coverage. I also modified the bottoms by taking off 2 inches at the bottom back center, tapering to 1/2" on the sides, and the front I took off 1/2" pretty straight across the top. I fully lined the bottoms for added coverage and a nicer look! I purchased the fabric from ebay from big4lycra. He has great swimwear fabric! I have purchased about 10 different pieces from him with never a problem! On the first swimsuit, I also made a coverup skirt from the same material and a hair scrunchie! The second suit, I added a short skirt to the bottoms for additional thigh coverage and to change the look a little. I also lettuce edged the bottom edge of the top and the bottom edge of the skirt on the second suit. Maybe I will actually get my camera and take some pictures!

I finally did it!

I finally created a blog! I have no idea if I will actually keep it up, but it is a start. Let's just hope that this will motivate me to keep sewing, not the opposite! I am a blog reader of many blogs that inspire me to sew and buy more patterns and magazines, I hope that I can do the same for other fellow sewers out there! Once I realized that the sewing world consisted of more than the Big 4, I really started to enjoy sewing! First I fell in love with Kwik Sew, then I moved on to Jalie, now my new love is BWOF! I just subscribed and my first issue was August 2008. I made a pair of pants (128B), a dress/top for my daughter (135), and am now working on a blouse (129)! I have my next project already planned out from the September 2008 issue!

I have the pants and my daughter's dress finished. No photos taken yet....I am almost finished on the blouse! I have buttons to sew on and the buttonholes to rip, then viola!

Time for some sleep!