The Knit Dress

I made really great progress on this dress for two days! Taking a break from the unpacking and hoo ha was just what I needed.

I sped along through the pattern and nearly finished it. The only thing remaining were the armhole and skirt hems.... then the organizing bug hit again!

I'm not really liking the dress. It fits well and the knit was easier to work with than I anticipating. The problem for me is the style vs. my figure.

It's much more of an empire-y waist than I thought from the pictures on the envelopes. I thought the slant of the midriff would come down the sides to my waist. However, they are much higher.

That combined with the gathering in the front makes the dress hang rather unflattering on me. It feels like a maternity dress, which quite frankly gave me flashbacks and sent me into a cold sweat!

I'm pear shaped. While the free skirt is good for hiding my generous hips, I like to accentuate my waist and flat stomach. So I now have a dress that shows off (oh boy!) my small boobs, hides my one good feature (my waist) and does nothing one way or another for the hips. This design is just not suited to me.

Having said all of that, it is a well drafted pattern and was easy to sew. The directions are clear and if your figure type likes this style, I'd highly recommend it.

I'll post pictures in the next day or so... In the meantime, I've resumed "getting-the-house-in-order" duties.

Knit Wit

My sewing room is semi-finished: The main area is basically ready. The extra area looks like a disaster zone. But it was good enough for me to get in there and fire up the machine.

Two days before the packers came, I prepped and cut a pattern. One of my goals this year was to try knits. Apart from the anti-fabric Catwoman costume and some knit velour for a costume, I've never worked with knit... Also, I've only ever made two garments that weren't a costume or vintage (pajamas for my son and a shirt for my husband).

So in a recent pattern sale, I picked up Vogue 8489 to use with some knit I picked up on sale at JoAnn's on clearance. I'm not a pink person, but I liked the muted tones, batik background and brown paisley pattern. The design looks like it can a large print.

I'm hoping this project will get my sewing mojo going. Since knits are new to me, this pattern hopefully won't be too complex. There are two reviews on PR and both are favorable. I've progressed a bit today and the only problem I had was that the bottom layer of fabric got swallowed in the feed dogs on a few occasions when starting off... I'm using a three step zig-zag set rather narrow. The seams so far look nice.

This project will probably be one of those that either turns out really, really well or will look positively hideous. It just doesn't seem have "OK" written on it! We'll see what tomorrow brings!

We're In!

Yes, that's right! We're in the new house!

Thanks for all of your kind comments. Overall, the move went well. There were a few little *things* like the screws for my son's bed disappeared, a few light scratches turned up on the kitchen dresser and the hot tub tipped and fell on the inside of the truck after it was loaded. The relo company will send a furniture guy out to patch up the dresser. The fact that all of the china, crystal, kitchenware, antiques etc. made it in tact is amazing.

The super-duper great news is that we sold our Chicagoland house in the final hour. People wanted to get in (really get in) the day we vacated. The showing was set for 7:00 p.m. We finished vacuuming and cleaning out the sinks then locked the door behind us for the final time at 6:55. The offer came in the next morning and after relo and buyers negotiated for a day, a deal was made. This means we not only got our buyout price but a 2% selling bonus.

We were stunned and felt sooooo lucky.

On this end I've been plugging away at getting things organized. I don't want to just shove things into closet and cupboards. I did that at the last house and it never got done properly. This time, I'm taking my time.

Last night I was surprised when my little brother and his buddy from work stopped by. I knew he travels to this area a few times every quarter so it was nice for the visit.

The kitchen, sunroom, dining room and both boys' bedrooms are sorted out. Today's task is...... THE SEWING ANNEX !

I know I won't get it all done. But if I can at least get the main area complete, all systems will be GO! And I'm ready to GO!

Thanks again for all of your kind wishes!

The Invasion

The movers invade tomorrow and start packing us up. I'm so excited! This has been in the works since October and I'm thrilled that it is finally happening!

Sewing and my projects has kept me sane. There has been much to do and many details to sort out. And I'm a worrier. I even worry about the fact that I worry too much! Sewing has kept my mind occupied and has helped to pass the time.

I'll have email access for another week, but my online time is likely to be sporadic. I have many of your blogs to catch up on, and I will definitely do that once I'm settled in or need a break from the hoo-ha. Rest assured, my low activity at the moment is not due to lack of interest.

Now, up to my sewing room to finish packing all of my things that are NOT being handled by the movers.

Vintage Jewelry

Vintage jewelry and accessories are part of the territory when you love vintage clothing.

Ladies of the day certainly knew how to pull an ensemble together. Whenever I hit garage sales or the local Goodwill, I look for jewelry (amongst other things). On the list are pins, scarf clips, bracelets and in particular, clip on earrings.

I suppose I have an affinity for the earrings because when I was a girl, my grandmother had an old fabric jewelry box filled with costume jewelry. No doubt, it wasn't expensive stuff. It was mostly from the 50's and 60's, the kind of jewelry that dripped with beads, faux pearls and sequins. The majority of her collection was earrings.

Unfortunately, I don't know what ever became of her jewelry. It's likely that my grandfather gave it to charity, the Disabled American Vets, when clearing through her things some years after she died. At least it went to a good cause.

So when I buy vintage or vintage-like jewelry, it's no surprise that I go for the stuff that looks like the items from my grandmother's collection. Here are some of the things I've picked up along the way.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day weekend; a heartfelt and respectful thanks to those who died in the line of duty. You will never be forgotten.

The Dress is Finished

I've finished, been photographed by my official photographer (my husband) and got my PR review written and submitted into the Vintage Contest.

The more I work with vintage patterns, the more I love them. Not only is the attention to styling and fit superb, but in my experience with them, they sew together so well. Feel free to read my full review on PR.

This Week's Work

I'm lumping a lot into one post. I've been on a mission this week to complete the project, taking lots of pictures. But by the end of the day after the kids were in bed, I was just too tired to post. Be alerted: this is a long post!

The collar and cuffs are made from the dot dress fabric. Initially, I had some concerns about how the slightly stiff but lightweight fabric would handle the curves. I didn't need to worry, it sewed up beautifully. For the collar, I made the facing piece out of the linen/silk jacket fabric and used fusible interfacing. For the cuffs, both the fabric and the facing piece were the dot fabric and again, I used fusible interfacing for the facing piece.

After seaming the two collar pieces around the outside edge, I pinked the seams. It was easy to press the seams out prior to turning. The pattern didn't call for understiching. Even though the dot fabric pressed out nicely, I wanted the collar to keep it shape so I understitched anyway. When I pressed the finished collar flat, I was pleased with the smoothness of the curves.

Attaching the collar to the jacket was straight forward. Everything lined up perfectly and there wasn't any fussing to ease at the back neckline. After seaming, I graded the layers when trimming, longest layer being the one closest to the garment.

The next step was constructing and attaching the facings. The front facings were attached to the back neck, the middle back was attached to the back sides, which were attached to the side of the fronts! It was one big loop and I had to keep checking to make sure I'd sewn them together properly!

The pattern didn't call for finishing the edges of the facing that would be attached to the lining. I gave them a quick zig zag...

Then I constructed the cuffs. As with the collar, there were no instructions to understitch after the cuff and facing were seamed on the outer edge. After trimming and pressing out, I understiched the facing side.

For attaching the cuffs, the instructions called for the jacket sleeve to be sandwiched between the cuff layers, kind of like cuffs on a shirt. Because the lining would be pressed under and slipstiched, I sewed them on right sides together instead, then turned and pressed the seams up towards the sleeve . I understitched AGAIN on the sleeve.

After this, I did the buttonholes. It was during this that I had a mishap that I'll call The Blue Chalk Incident. It was my Token Project Incident, which I have come to expect with every project. In fact, until said incident occurs in any given project, I get uneasy, feeling that my project will spontaneously burst into flames. Once the Token Project Incident has taken place, I feel as though order has been restored in my sewing universe. Said project has survived and I can carry on to completion.

I was hesitant to use blue chalk because I didn't want it to stain the ivory linen/silk. Against my better judgment, I used a wee bit to lightly mark the lines of my buttonholes... well, I don't really want to relive this so the basic story is that after marking the lines, my phone rang. In a rush to answer the phone, I placed the chalk down on top of the jacket (cringe)... It just so happened I bought a new iron and my old iron was sitting on my cutting table next to where the jacket lay. In the haste to grab the ringing phone, my hand knocked over the iron right on top of the chalk, which broke into many pieces, leaving blue marks all over the front of my jacket.

I nearly cried, realizing that I'd have to wash the whole thing. So that ended my sewing for the day. After washing the jacket (and yes, the blue chalk came out) it lined dried over night. What a buzz kill!

Then I had to iron and press the whole thing out the next day. This set me back time wise, but as far as mishaps go, I was thankful the jacket wasn't ruined. By the time I finished pressing, I had fully recovered from the Blue Chalk Incident and moved on to the lining, after tacking the facings in place.

Although the instructions called for the entire lining to be hand slip stitched on, I machine stitched it in along the fronts, between the top of the darts, and around the back neck edge. This was so much quicker and efficient. I then slip stitched the sleeve linings.

After the sleeves, I pinned the bottom lining edge in place. I treated it a bit like a hem, measuring from the bottom of the jacket up. I wanted to avoid pulling and puckering from an uneven lining.

Almost finally, I decided to make matching covered buttons out of the dot fabric. I had two packs of covered buttons lurking my stash and when I read the instructions, I saw the easiest pattern EVER! The button pattern provided on the packaging is a circle that says "Button Pattern". I thought that was hilarious! Having said that, I was thankful that they took the guesswork of what size to cut.

Because the dot fabric was thin, I interfaced the circles with fusible... Four dots fit perfectly on the front of each button. I just needed to be mindful of placement so that they were all uniform when complete.

I got the buttons sewn on right before dinner. I still need to sew on the snap and that's it! For all practical purposes, it's finished!

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this project. The only thing I wish was a bit different was the ironability of the linen/silk. It is difficult, and nearly impossible, to get some creases to press out, much more so than pure linen.

Nevertheless, the end result is nice. I'll get pictures tomorrow, post them and then write up the review on PR for the Vintage Contest.