Sewing swag

My old Brother Project Runway sewing machine died. It died a horrible grinding death. It was only a couple years old and it just couldn't take the daily sewing. I've been wanting a new one for a while but I figured you do really get what you pay for so I wanted to wait till I was in a position to buy a good one. I found the Singer 9960 Quantum Stylist on Amazon at 53% off and I fell in love. It does everything I need an more. The only thing that disappointed me was that the lettering you can embroider is not changeable. Meaning, it's only one size, like half an inch tall. Its really only good for making tags or a little bit of script. It also came with no less than like 15 feet. It has a foot for everything you can think of and some I couldn't. I can't wait to try out the walking foot too!

Anyway, I'm working up a quick apron as a birthday present for a dear friend. The polka dot colors and the coral band are colors she is using to decorate her cottage so I think it will be a fun and whimsical apron to wear around. I did a sample tag I wanted to include with her name and the year. I still need to work out the spacing I think.

I also wanted to show the way I do gathers. I find doing a basting stitch and pulling the threads together is just awful. The threads snap and you have to start over, or the gathers end up being uneven. I do a wide zig zag stitch on regular tension and sew over a piece of dental floss (don't laugh, you know you have a hundred little floss containers floating around!) or in this case a piece of cheap embroidery floss. Just sew slow enough so that you don't sew over the floss (of either variety). Then you hold onto one floss end (or wrap it around a pin) and push the fabric into gathers using the other piece of floss. It's amazingly fast and always even. It's also very easy to adjust the gathers if you over gather the fabric. Nothing snaps, it's looks cleaner and you can even pull the floss out once the gathers are sewn over. I think I'm going to try out a nifty decorative stitch on the waistband in a grey thread. Might as well right?!

Finished Mail Order Marian Martin #9234

I found this dress languishing in our coat closet. I started it right before we moved and all it needed was a buttonhole, button and ties. I'm not especially happy with the inside of the dress. I only zig zagged the seams and the hem was done shamefully fast. I hate hate hate the neck facing. If I made this again I would just line the bodice. There is no place to tack the tip of the facing to and it flops around a bit. I tried under stitching it but it didnt work well enough. I used a vintage button from my stash and the fabric is from my Mary Sue inheritance. I also had planned on making the ties yellow but since that fabric is packed somewhere I had to use some blue I had on hand. It's the same blue cotton from the Xmas dress and it matches well enough. I would like to try the pattern again but I would drop the neckline by at least 2 inches and lengthen the bodice by maybe 0.75 inches. I also made pockets for the dress but I have no idea where they went to. Packed most likely. In the end, it turned out to be a wearable little 1940s wrap dress.

Let the moving commence

I haven't posted in forever. I have been sewing though. I also just bought a few new patterns from Joann's when they had their Butterick and Vogue sale. I wasn't going to but I have been wanting these for a while. Sooooo, I picked up Butterick 5708 and 5846 as well as Vogue 2787, 1220 and 8728.

We are down to the wire with moving into our new house. We close the 13th and I will finally have my own sewing room. I am so beyond excited that I can't help but plan every nook and cranny and color. Here are the colors I have so far....

Kitchen will be a light aqua color. We will have wood floors and maple cabinets with a light color Corian countertop. The sun room which will also be our dining room (it opens off the kitchen and has very large windows looking into the woods) will be a light coral, a green, or a yellow. I'm still undecided. I can do a crazier color bc it gets so much natural sunlight. The living room, our office (which is really the dining room) and the family room will all be a light grey color with accents of aqua and coral. Its an open floor plan so I don't want too many different colors on the walls.

Crazy Christmas sewing - preview

I have been a mad woman these past 4 weeks. We are in our rental home and I found a selection of my sewing stash. A small smattering of randomness but enough to keep me mostly going. The problem initially was that my machine was dead. Deader than dead. I borrowed a spare and have been furiously trying to catch up. I made an apron for my mom, crocheted three ear muffler bands and a coffee cup sweater for my dad, one sewn dollhouse purse (scrapped, I need to adjust the size. It was awful), the cute blue dress with vintage rayon collar for Xmas, two Adventure Time hats for Stevie and his best bud (two Jake the Dog hats will follow), fixed the neckline and arm holes of last years Xmas dress, two little girl reversible aprons, a Xmas dress for Lorna, one miserably failed Xmas dress to match hers for me (that's a whole different post to come. I was never more upset about a 40s pattern as I was with this), a knockoff Doc McStuffins pink doctor bag and a little dolly patient, and one Elvis looking Elf on the Shelf; I think there is more but it's hard to remember..... Did I mention I moved and unpacked through all this.

I'll post the rest after Xmas and things calm down. Most of the above mentioned is wrapped anyway. And the bad blogger award goes too.....

Cabin fever

Hi y'all. I haven't been up to much as of late. We sold our house and have just moved into our rental while our new house is being built. It's gonna be awhile I fear. Anyway, since most of my sewing stuff is in boxes or packed away I found a little project that keeps me busy.

A while back I bought a bunch of patterns from a farmer down the street. They are all late 30s and 40s with some early 50s kids and ladies patterns. I had a huge stack of pattern pieces that were pinned together but had no envelopes or primer. They are all unprinted and probably mail orders. I started to go through each pinned groups to identify what they were. Turns out they were in workable groups of common pieces the woman sewing it would use. One pile was random doll clothes pieces, one was some sort of pinafore I haven't figured out yet, another pile was a bodice front and collar in an baby size and the last one was a complete dress about a size 4 I think. It has princess seams, a cap sleeve and set in sleeve variations, waist ties, and an unknown upper bodice. I traced the pieces and thought about it for a while and put it all together except for one piece. I think the mystery piece is a shoulder pleat but I don't know how it all goes together. I think part of it must be top stitched and maybe in a contrast color? Also, there doesnt appear to be any marking indicating how the dress is put on (i.e. a zipper or a back button and loop. i think it will be loose enough to go over the head with a back neck button and loop. Any help would be appreciated!

And shout out to Blogger for making the app IPad friendly finally!

In my non-existent sewing news

Here I am on Pinterest and Houzz in case anyone was curious about what I'm up too as far as my vintage-y house design stuff goes. The only thing that is really throwing me for a loop now is appliances. I wanted retro looking stuff but its all ungodly priced. I looked into vintage stoves but since we will be on propane the stoves won't work and don't have a backflow. A new house is no good if it blows up. A good old fridge is even harder to find. So far I think I'm okay with these couple below. The stove looks pretty interesting and sort of vintage and the nuker is just a necessity. Can't make a microwave look vintage for under like $600.

http://pinterest.com/AlwysAlice/

http://www.houzz.com/user/megandenner

Quick news!

We have sold our house. It sold in 7 days and now we are in a mad scramble to find an apartment and pack. I am having some amazing ideas for the next house so ill have to figure out how to transfer my Pinterest pins and my Houzz tags to the blog.

Here we go!

Well folks, we are moving. So for a little bit I'll be MIA. Once I get everything all packed up and ready to show the house I hope to at least finish the wrap dress I started. I can't wait to move out farther into the country and the new house will have my own sewing area!!

Mail order #9234 - Marian Martin

I have been looking for a dress to use this fabric since I got it in my haul. Unfortunately it was cut and sewn together to make a tablecloth or something. Good news for me is that bc the print is so busy I don't anticipate the seam being visible. I think I will alter my layout a bit so that the back skirt will have the seam.

I am so excited about the pattern too. I love that it has a Swirl style back with a sweetheart neckline. I also had an idea to use buttons at the shoulder swoop and buttons up the back slant then sew the skirt as one piece.

Stay tuned!

Milwaukee Sentinel #9329

Yeah! That only took forever, all it needed was buttons. I used my 1948 Singer buttonholer (minty!) I got from a junk shop for $1. I didn't change anything to the pattern (except the hem) but if I make it again I would take a little bit out of the bodice, it feels a bit baggy under the pits. I love the pockets! All in all it's super de-super comfy.

I put the zipper in by hand bc I honestly think its faster and looks better than my zipper foot.

Working!

Milwaukee Sentinel #9329, hello lover! Fabric is from the Mary Sue Fabric haul. It's cotton however it's super soft drapey. I'm gonna do white vintage buttons too.

My 13 bags of fabric, and still washing

Here it is fellow fabric hoarders; 13 garbage bags of fabric I was given from my wonderful friend Mary Sue. This is accumulation from her (her kids are my age btw) and her mothers stash. I still have 1 full 17 gallon bin to wash too. The bottom weight fabrics are awesome, the teal and celery corduroy are amazing. Everything but one bin is yardage too. The one small bin with the many different prints is all 2 yards and less. Omg, I am in project planning overload. That one bin with the red sailboat fabric is all seersucker too. The majority of the fabric seems to be either quilting prints or men's shirting in various checks, stripes or plaids. I think I'll have to get serious about creating some menswear inspired separates and sewing for my husband. Maybe. I'm pretty selfish about my sewing.

And I'll leave it to Blogger to screw up the order of the pics. Thanks Blogger app.

McCalls #5803

Finally, a pic of the beast dress. The gussets are great, the dress is not so much. I don't like the colors or fabric I chose. I also didn't know until I cut the dress out that the back bodice was all one piece (duh, should have read the back instead of assuming). The fabric was only $2 a yard at Joann Fabrics so i guess i could call it a wearable muslin. Had I to do again I would have done the back in the periwinkle color. I still wear it but I never feel awesome in it. I like the tea length and I would make it again.