Lace Bolero

Here is the finished product! The is McCall's M5144, the bolero. This is a heavy lace with gold sparkle in it. I got this from the evil fabric queen. I just got my box from her yesterday and I was proactive getting everything out and washed! This fabric called out bolero to me. After the kids went to bed, I started. It took me two hours from cutting to finish. Nice quick rewarding project after spending so much time on the jeans! I serged the seams and then topstitched them down on the sewing machine. For the edges I turned under about 1/2" and then just topstitched them down. The advantage of the material is that you can't see any of the topstitching, so it could be crooked and no one will ever know! :) I am just noticing that the picture on the envelope shows 3/4 sleeves and mine ended up full length. I am short. I whopping 5'1". So I always have to shorten things. I like the full length sleeves. I am very happy with this little project! Here is the lace material.

Here are the finished pictures!

Okay.....I wish I had a fabulous body like some of our sewing friends, so I could showcase my creations more pleasingly.....lol! Alas, I am what I am for the time...

This is a picture of the pocket details. Here is a picture of the backside of the pants. Here is a picture of the front of the jeans. Here are riveting details. Which I had some issues practicing putting them in. I kept having the pin punch through the top of the rivet.....then I realized that the top side needs to be down and hammer from the inside of the jeans on the back side of the rivet. I saw the light and then didn't have anymore issues with the rivets. I used an awl to punch a hole through the material, then inserted the pin. I then capped the pin with the top of the rivet, turned the whole thing over so the rivet top side was on the ground (in the garage on the concrete floor), then hammered on the back side of the pin with a rubber mallet. No damage to the rivet front side or back side. I purchased the rivets and buttons from grommetmart.com . I bought a pack of 100 of each. Paid somewhere around $30 with shipping for both.

Here is a picture of the front waistband detail and buttons.

Here is a picture of the fly detail. I just drew it in instead of copying it from the pattern, adding the reinforcement in the desired places.

Making progress on the jeans

WELL....I would be lying if I said that these jeans were easy sailing. The pattern isn't difficult, it is just the heavy material and thick thread that probably have posed the most problems. I have ripped out so much thread because of tension problems and getting "gobbly guck" on the underside during topstitching. I have tried using the coverstitch and have had problems with the thickness of some areas....so I ended up using a combination of some topstitching on the coverstitch and some on the sewing machine. It looks as good as any rtw topstitching, not perfect though in my mind....some times I get stuck on the perfect look of the stitches, which are never noticed later anyhow! I haven't got the camera out to get photos, but soon!! I also have to photo my dd's nighties (which they love, thankfully!) I ended up reducing the width at the knee and down on the legs by about 2" on each seam, so that is quite substantial....I like the look better. I put the pants on without the waistband and determined pocket position, put the pockets on... then attached the waistband and no longer liked where they were. I had to rip them off and raise them up about 2". After I got them on and checked them again, I wish I had raised them even more, but I was done messing with the pockets. I wanted the pockets to sit a little lower on the butt like a lot of the rtw ones do. They sort of look right....with a shirt they will look right for sure. I don't think I will make this pattern again for jeans. I must get the new jalie jeans pattern. I just wasn't sure about using it for non-stretch denim. I could just go up a size for the non-stretch. The pockets on these jeans are not long enough for my liking. I like to be able to stick my hands all the way in. These don't allow that. I am debating fixing that still. I didn't really follow bwof directions for the zipper, I just put it in. It was long, so I have to remove some of the teeth with some needlenose pliers, then cut off the rest. It looks good installed. I had a b**ch of a time with the button holes, which I normally don't have any problems with. I think it was just the thickness and heaviness of the material and the thread and it wasn't feeding properly on the feed dogs. I should have increased the presser foot pressure. Hind sight.....it was 11pm last night when I was working on it and I just wanted to finish! Which, I finally did. SO, I have to hem the pants, install the two tack buttons, and install six rivets (which I haven't tried using yet...). Give me the strength to finish these!!!! Pictures coming, I promise!

sewing, cutting and losing weight

Well, I made it home from our vacation in palm springs! It was fun in the sun and lots of pool time! Everyone is tan and kind of peeling! Very dry weather out there and we are having a heat spell here right now! Inside the house it is 77F, outside I think it is in the high 80's or low 90's! I just went and checked....95F! Hot! Shorts weather!! Well, since I have been home I have cut out 6 pairs of panties for dd's and 4 nighties for dd's. My jeans accessories arrived while on our trip, so those are all ready for deployment! However, instead of the jeans, I worked on the panties! Those are all done! I worked on the nighties next, and all four of those are done! I think I am procrastinating on the jeans! Could it possibly be because I have seemed to have found another 5 pounds lately? Especially since I haven't shed the 5 I put on at xmas.....not to mention I had 40 to lose anyhow!!! I wish I had one of those super fast metabolisms and hated chocolate! So, today I decided enough is enough and it is time to trim the excess. My goal is 25 for now....once I get there I will set a new goal. I always need that push mentally to get going and after getting on the scale this morning and seeing I had entered a new weight decade (I didn't want to be in the last one....), I decided that I had just gotten the push I needed!

Easter is near and some projects...

Well, I haven't got a start on the jeans yet. It looks like no sewing is going to happen before our easter spring break trip. I have great intentions that don't always pan out with 2 dd's! The one thing that I did get done though is to order all the little notions that I needed. At grommetmart.com I ordered 100 rivets and 100 jeans tack buttons. At Atlanta Thread I ordered 4 spools of the Levi gold jeans thread. Hopefully this works well on the serger. At zipperstop I ordered a few black jeans zippers. They are 7", so I will have some trimming to do for the pants on the waiting table. Some other things that I ordered were really for projects that my dh has planned for me and his new boat. He wants a longer cover than the boat has to protect the gelcoat from oxidation, so I ordered some sunbrella marine canvas from fabricmaster (50 yard bolt to be exact) and then ordered some of there lycra fabrics for swimsuits and gymnastic suits (to have in stash). I also ordered up some marine vinyl (to match the vinyl in the boat) from trimstore.com because he wants me to make a bag to put the camping bbq in so it doesn't spew black stuff on the new boat carpet. He has so many projects for me....I am not sure when I am going to get in my stuff! And his projects are, simply put, boring! Last year he had me make 10 wheel covers to cover the wheel and tires on his boat trailers and motorhome so the tires don't get sun damaged. I also had to make 2 spare tire covers (that had embroidery on them) for the boat and sea doo trailers. He also wants me to make covers for his tools in the garage. He also wants some sort of cover for the back of the suv that he can attach for when we drive down the rock road to the campsite with the boat, so that the rocks kicked up from the suv don't hit the new boat. (A little paranoia with the new boat......) Does anyone else have their dh want so much? Oh well....at least he sees my sewing obsession as useful to him too. :) On the funner side, I spent last night parusing my past issues of bwof to jot down all of the potential projects. This was actually a really good exersize, because I forget what I wanted to make. Speaking of bwof, how many of you rely of the pictures versus the line drawings. I used to look at the models and decide from there if I wanted to make the item, now I am realizing that the line drawings provide much more insight to the pattern. So many times, it is hard to tell the details of the garment from the models...I also get swayed by their fabric choices. Looking strictly at the line drawings enables me to think of my own fabric choices a little clearer. Something else, I always like to make stuff for my dd's, but the clothes they have in bwof for girls are usually items that I would never make for mine! I was pleased to see some shorts in one of the recent issues. Looking at the line drawings, also let me see the potential in some pants patterns too. Most of the tops are too fussy for my dd's. I made one from 8/2008 and spent a lot of time making it perfect and I loved it, but dd wore it once and declared it to be "itchy". It was 100% cotton weave material. She is a knit lover. I put the top away for the younger dd, hoping that it will get more than 2 wears in its life! Well, I better get some laundry started or we won't be taking clean clothes on our trip! I also have Easter eggs to fill and hide in a luggage with the easter baskets, jelly beans and chocolate bunnies! Happy Easter everyone!!! Eat lots of chocolate!!

My denim for 9-2008-138

Here are a couple pictures of the denim that I am using for my bwof 9-2008-138 pants. I am going to go subtle and use the black side of the fabric. You can still see the gold through it. My dh said I should do the pockets in the gold side. That would be really cool if I had an a** that I wanted to draw attention to.....I am going to stay black for the pockets. I have the pattern cut out. Of course, I don't have any of the notions I need....like the zipper. It shouldn't be a big deal finding a black jeans zipper though....even walmart should carry that! I have heavy black thread for the stitching. I wonder now if I need to be using heavy thread for all of the stitching....I suppose I should be. See, something else I need to get! I wanted to do the majority of the stitching on the serger to enclose the seams and stop fraying. I need to look for heavy duty cone thread! I have denim tack buttons. I don't have rivets.....I wasn't sure if I was going to use them or not. This project will probably have to wait until after our spring break vacation! I should have been cutting out swim suits!!!

Working on bwof 9-2008-138

I have really wanted to get in on Dawn's jeans sew-along! I really wanted to buy the new jalie stretch jeans pattern. But....I have two very cool pieces of Seven denim in my stash that are not stretch and they really do want to be made up into some jeans. So, I have been pouring over my issues of bwof (I have 9/2008 - current issue) to find a pair of pants that doesn't call for a stretch fabric that would be suitable to make into a pair of jeans. I finally came up with bwof 9-2008-138. Upon first look this is a trouser pattern...but, I studied it enough to feel it could make up in denim, the only thing is I will have to add some back pockets. The yoke of the pants is good sized so the pockets will sit a little lower, which will work just fine in the vision in my mind. I have traced out the pattern. Now I am just debating which denim to cut into.....they are both black, but one has silver thread in it and the other has gold thread in it. I really like the silver better, so I am debating whether or not to use it since this is my first time making this pattern. I will probably make it up in the black with gold.......

Panties anyone?

Here are two pairs of kids panties hot off the presses! These are for my two dd's! A tiny pair for my little one and a bigger pair for my bigger one! These were pretty simple. I didn't get too fancy with the fabric because most importantly, I wanted them to be soft and comfortable. I had some leftover siltex interlock that fit the build perfect. I used a darker pink lycra cotton for the waistband and leg bands. I topstitched the seams in the middle and the butt on my sewing machine, then coverstitched the band seams to have more stretch. These didn't take very long, and I am sure that they would go quicker next time. I put them together on my serger with a 4 thread overlock. They haven't been worn yet, later tonight after bath will be there debue! I definitely see making more of these!

that*darn*kat childrens undies pattern

Well, I found something to sew! Not super exciting, but a needed project none-the-less. I was reading someone's blog and found this pattern and checked it out and decided to try it! So far, I have already cut it wrong.....because I failed to read the instructions....but easily fixable so no big deal! I have the undies for my younger dd started and the ones for my older dd cut out (yes, they are cut wrong too....). I don't have pics yet, but when they are done (tomorrow) I will get some pics. These are super easy, just no sewing time today. Well I was planning on posting the link and when I went to her etsy site, the undies pattern doesn't seem to be there anymore. Hmm...I just got it last week and it was e-mailed in a pdf format. Oh well. Here is the link to the etsy shop anyhow http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5195957 . Here is a picture from the pdf document for the pattern. They look super cute! Mine are going to be much plainer! My scrap bin doesn't have a lot of soft cotton scraps....so the first couple pairs are just pink (nice siltex interlock though). Stay tuned!

I appreciated the ideas on what to sew next! I really don't hardly wear dresses or skirts anymore (not sure I ever did come to think of it)....I am a pants, capris, shorts type of person. Maybe I need to branch out though.....get out of the comfort zone? Maybe.....it is a thought! I am such a t-shirt and pants person!