What is on the horizon?

Sew.....I am done with the projects I had cut out and planned and now I am at a loss for what to sew next! What is everyone else sewing these days? I know my kids need new jammies and nighties, I need to get some new patterns though and I am not sure which ones yet. Our weather is cool mornings and cool evenings with warm days....so maybe a light weight cute jacket?? Maybe some capris?? I loved Dawn's jean idea, but my stash is non-stretch denim and I am trying to use more of what I have.....I don't know of any great jean patterns....are there any from bwof in the past year? Hmmmmm.....any ideas?

11-2008-124 is done!

Okay, I got it done it time for our ski trip! I like the top, but I don't like it enough to make another. The neck part of it is a little wierd. It looks nice and feels nice but when I look down at it, it seems wierd to me. Okay, that being said, the sweatshirt went together pretty well. Please, excuse the photos, my dh took them and I was just being corny and actually most of them had to be deleted! The bwof instructions actually were pretty clear. The part I didn't really like how the back facing and the front facing were separate, because on the inside it isn't super neat looking. On the outside you can't tell...

I used a hot pink thread to topstitch. Instead of putting it on the coverstitch, I used a stitch on the sewing machine to finish the sleeve hems and bottom hem.

I wish I had got a colored drawstring for the neck, because this looks plain to me. I was actually thinking about dying it to match the topstitching thread but got too lazy and thought it was okay the way it was.

Some sewing...some reading!

I was excited today to get my april bwof in the mail!! I don't normally get it until the first of the month, so this was a whole week early! There are a few things in it that interest me. I haven't looked at the line drawings yet....but I think I can still see a couple of things that I might just have to make! I am finding myself torn about what to make. Even though I live in sunny san diego, our mornings and evenings are still cool....cool enough to wear jackets and sweatshirts. So I am a little torn at whether to sew something cozy and warm or to venture into spring and short sleeves! Anyhow, I am finally getting to work on bwof 11-2008-124, the cozy sweatshirt! I was making good progress until I noticed an area in front that isn't quite even, so I will be doing some measuring to see where the discrepanies are and if I need to seam rip or if I can do some trimming....I am hoping for minimal seam ripping because the sherpa doesn't like it at all!! I had never put eyelets in before and had some issues with those stupid things...after four of them....I finally realized that I forgot to interface the area and so they were ripping out of the fabric. I ripped them out, triple interfaced, them punched them through and pressed them in. Wa...La! I was also having some issues with my coverstitching....while I have done extensive amounts of coverstitch hems, I have not used the chain stitch feature very much. Also, I don't typically use topstitching thread for coverstitching ...I just use serger thread....so, I had to tweak around the needles and settings, and use a net for the topstitch thread, then I got acceptable results. I don't know if the chain stitch is any stretchier than using a straight stitch on my sewing machine.....Oh well. I topstitched the seams on my sewing machine after messing around so much with the chainstitching. Hopefully I finish it up tomorrow! We are going skiing on Wednesday and it would be nice to have a new sweatshirt!

Finished the animal skirt!

Light blue, teal leopards! This super simple skirt turned out very cute and dd loves it! She is wearing it to school today! We were lucky enough to find a shirt in her dresser that went with it! The flounce at the bottom is cute, she was pretending to do the hula because it would swish around! She got her anklet with flowers on it to wear with the skirt. I am always happy when they like what I have made for them! This skirt has 4 pieces (2 pattern pieces each cut twice) and a piece of elastic. I serged the elastic to the skirt and then flipped it and topstitched it down instead of a casing like the instructions call for.....I think it looks more rtw. I did a rolled hem on the bottom with the serger in blue thread that matched the skirt. I actually did the whole skirt on the serger and then did the topstitching with the coverstitch. I also topstitched the seam of the skirt and flounce, so she didn't have something "itchy" on her legs. This only took an hour to sew up.....I can see making more of these in the future!

Finished Kwik Sew 3484

I finished it! See the happy model below! I think he likes it....he was actually worried where to hang it so the kitties didn't jump on it and ruin it! Then he said he thought it looked expensive. He is definitely my biggest critic. It was a really hard fabric to sew on because the threads in the fabric would get pulled just under the tension of the needle. I started off using a denim needle then switched to a microfiber needle. That definitely helped. The material has some lycra (or stretch of some kind...) in it, so I had some puckering until I lowered the tension considerably. All in all I like the finished product, I am sure I will make another sometime, but not too soon!

Simplicity 4104

I am making the skirt with the cute flounce on the bottom for my older dd. I just cut out the fabric, it looks like something super easy to put together. Just two pattern pieces cut twice each for a total of four parts with an elastic waistband. I hope it turns out cute because I could see making a few different versions... It calls for a weave fabric, but I am using this knit:

Hopefully it won't be too big, I may have to do some adjusting as I make it.

Oh yeah....no, I am not done with my dh's shirt yet! It was easy to cut this out while cooking soup for lunch! I couldn't go and sew while cooking lunch! :) Now I have two projects waiting in the wings for the dh shirt to finish!

Not Done Yet but significant progress

Here is a glimpse of the almost done shirt. I still have to do the buttons and buttonholes, hem the sleeves and hem the side slits. Then I will get a finished product shot! I am happy with how it is turning out. I fussed with the collar a little bit (as I always do....) but it turned out well. I need some couture class of collars, because I want mine perfect and they never seem to be absolutely perfect. Well since my kitty insists on sitting in front of my computer monitor and I can't see and I need to get dinner going (easy to lose track of time now that it stays light later.....), I will have to add more later!

martini beach

Here is the embroidery on the panel of dh's shirt. I found the martini and the palm tree for free on the web, then sized them, put them together and added the martini beach. Yeah, I finished that, so now I can start sewing!! Stay tuned!

I cut it out!

So here is the cream colored sherpa fleece all cut out waiting to be sewn up! This is a really soft fabric with very nice stretch and recovery! I ordered some "natural" colored drawstring cording last night to go with it for the front tie. I was debating using a raspberry colored cording but then wimped out for something that didn't stand out! I ordered the cording from http://www.mendels.com/creativity2.shtml . I have never ordered from there before so we'll see how it turns out! Got to love the web!! How did people ever get supplies before with the totally sucky fabric stores out there now?? Anyhow, this is waiting to be sewn (along with my dh's shirt). Hopefully soon!!

BWOF 11-2008-124

I have been eyeing this pattern since I saw it last November. I loved Dawn's version of it....but I was holding off because I knew I would not only have to trace but also have to grade up which I have never done before! I figured I would need a size 48, and this pattern went to 44, so I needed to grade 2 sizes.....except when you jump up to a size 48 from 46 the jump is bigger than the jump from 42 to 44, almost double the jump in bust inches. So, I decided to grade 3 sizes from the pattern to compensate. So I traced the 44 then moved it down to the 38 line and retraced the 44 in essence gaining 3 sizes. We'll see how this works, because some pieces this seemed sort of iffy on and I just kind of eyeballed it.

I finished the tracing and am about to cut it out then I have a sherpa fleece in mind for it!

My gymnastic suits are done!

I finished my gymnastic suits!! Yeah!! Here are my two models! These went together very straight forward with no problems. I used my serger to sew them together and put in the elastic, then topstitched with the coverstitch part of the serger on the arms, legs, and neckline. There is elastic in the leg holes and neckline. These are #5 and #6 that I have made from the Jalie 2792 pattern. This time I made a larger size for each of the girls. My little one will have some room to grow into it. I used swimsuit materials from ebay for these. They are still wearing them, so they must be comfortable! BTW we are having just a beautiful day today! It must be 77F outside right now! I do love San Diego.....I like visiting the cold, but I love the temperate weather here! I am off to plant some flowers and vegetables now!!