What's Up: Maria's skirts, Cora's dress, Mishaps

Howdy, Readers.  This past week or so has felt utterly crazy, and I'm not entirely sure why.  Devon's on staycation, so the schedule has changed, but that's not the whole story.  The girls both came down with hand, foot, and mouth disease, so that added to the chaos.  And I think I was suffering from bad luck, at least in the sewing room.  Maybe that poltergeist returned.  Whatever the cause, my patience and my seam ripper have both gotten a good workout.  So I don't have much to show, but show it I will!

I finished Maria's skirts, and I'm happy with how they turned out.  The first is a chevron jersey skirt (the style I practiced by making my own).  I got very nervous at the last minute that it wouldn't fit well because the fabric wasn't as stretchy as my practice skirt (which I had her try on to judge size), but it all worked out so my jitters were for naught.  I love the fabric she chose (an Ella Moss Rayon Striped Jersey from Hart's fabric - now out of stock):

I did a fold-over yoga waistband on this one instead of elastic.  Maria liked it enough to order a second one, so that's good news.  And I am working on the tutorial, but it's harder to write up than I expected.  I'll get it out soon, promise!

Maria's second skirt was a simple A-line which we mixed up by added a band of solid fabric and then a band of the main fabric, but in the reverse direction from the rest of the skirt.  The fabric is Joel Dewberry's Heirloom Marble Stripe in Green:

I also made a dress for Cora a week or so ago.  Getting photos proved difficult as she's decided she's not sure she likes the dress (humpf), but here's my reluctant model:

I found the fabric in the remnant bin at Hancock's and put it together similar to how I made my refashioned t-shirt dress (but I made the bodice for this one).  Cora thought the polka dot fabric looked like a "fire dog" so I found an image of a dalmation online, used that to cut out the fabric, and then appliqued the dog to the dress by hand and machine.  Hopefully the dress will grow on her!

I've got a number of things in the works, including a new handbag style (for Jill), a linen skirt (for Eileen), skirts for a new client (Stephanie), and a dress for myself that I hope to finish in time to submit it to the Burdastyle Summer Sewing Challenge.  I sure hope my bad luck is cured.

Have a great week!

What's Up: Chevron Skirt, Sewing Supplies Organizer, New Fabric

Greetings!

One of my new clients, Maria, ordered a chevron jersey skirt.  I'm making it from a striped fabric, so I needed to create a prototype to figure out how to do it before I started cutting up her lovely Ella Moss fabric.  Since it worked, I now have a new skirt for myself!

The fabric is a striped rayon jersey that I bought from Fabric.com a while back because it was a) on sale for $2.39/yard, and b) a interesting color combination for a stripe.  It's now out-of-stock so don't fall in love with it!

I had to do some fiddly cutting out and pinning to get the chevron effect at the front and side seams but it was certainly worth the effort.  I hope to get a tutorial up for this skirt by next week for those who want to DIY, and I hope to have pictures of Maria's version of the skirt by then, too.

I wrapped up a different kind of project that I started while I was on vacation in Pennsylvania.  I did most of it there but needed some tools that I didn't have to finish it up, and I finally found a free hour this weekend.  This pocket organizer is long overdue in my sewing room:

I used a large upholstery swatch and some thick plastic wrap that came with something we bought ages ago.  I usually love to throw things out, but this plastic looked like it might be useful someday.  And now it is!  I generally followed a tutorial I found over at IndieTutes.  I also think this would be a great project for recycling a crib bumper and the vinyl wrapper that housed it.

Fabric.com had a big sale on ITY and other knit fabrics and I went a little chevron crazy there.  I did buy a few not-chevron prints, but as you can see, the chevrons won! 

To my clients: let me know if you see something you like for a late summer/ fall top.

The top I worked on this weekend would look fantastic with a chevron print and I've got a couple variations of this top in my head that I hope to produce soon. The top is based on the Simplicity 2580 pattern that I used for a dress a few weeks ago.  And it also features one of my new loves: fold over elastic!  I'll wax poetic on wonderful stuff another day.  And I'll have better photos of the top later, but here's a quickie:

Next week I'll have some lovely client skirts to show and a funky dress I've been working on for Cora!  Have a great week!

What's Up: Owls, Chevrons, and a Muslin for Spencer

This felt like a slow week.  It might be the heat that is making time seem to slow down - I'm sure that humidity makes for a lethargic tick tock.  Nevermind that my whole being just droops when I walk outside into a wall of 97 degree weather.  I think I also always feel like I haven't accomplished much when I'm tracing or drafting patterns because there's no wow! to show at the end of it.

I did finish up Jen's little owl parliament (yep, I googled it.  A group of owls is called a parliament.  Isn't that lovely??).  Here they are looking a bit mischevious on our front lawn:

I'm thinking about offering crib bumper recycling as a service on Etsy.  I loved that with this project almost all parts of the bumper were recycled (fabric became cover, fluffy batting became stuffing) and the only "new" materials I used were felt scraps and thread.  I can see turning crib bumpers into a variety of soft toys or even dismantling them completely to make clothes. 

My personal project this week is making a chevron skirt out of striped jersey fabric.  One of my new clients, Maria, ordered one and I wanted to get some practice before cutting out her lovely Ella Moss fabric from HartsFabric.com. 

I'm using a turqouise and tan fabric from fabric.com (no longer available) and I'm excited to show you the results (and a tutorial!) next week.

I made a muslin of Spencer's skirt and now I can't wait to get down to the real thing.  It's a six-panel a-line skirt with contrast fabric between the panels.  I get to work with Joel Dewberry's Heirloom Empire Weave Garnet fabric again, and I love the richness of this design. 

Other than that I've been ordering tons of fabric for fall (July 4th sales) and I can't wait for the boxes to start arriving!  I think I could get drunk on fabric. 

This week I hope to finish Spencer's skirt and start on Maria's, while finishing off my skirt and another personal project.  And I'll be taking some time out to grill and drink cocktails with Devon tomorrow.  Hope you all have a wonderful week!