Monsters

Back in the saddle

Yesterday was finally cool enough to get back to my sewing room.  Hooray!  I'm working on some Christmas gifts for my family (sssshh...).  I made two cowls using this tutorial, one for my dad and one for my stepmom.  My dad's cowl came out great, but I tried to get a little too fancy on my stepmom's.  Instead of just sewing a nice straight seam around the edges, I decided to try to use one of the fancy decorative stitches, and it, uh, didn't work so good.  So now I have a new cowl for fall and will make another for my stepmom tonight.  With regular stitching.  I'm also going to make matching rice-filled handwarmers for them both.

I'm trying to get this stuff done before this weekend, because we are meeting them at the coast for a long weekend, and I'm not sure I'll get to see them at Christmas time.  I also started a zipper pouch for my stepmom, but it turned into a disaster, so I will have to redo that one.  She won't be getting that this weekend.

Pants, Bags, Sewing Hiatus.

I finally finished the drawstring pants, wore them for half an hour, and they have two tears in the seams.  Apparently, I didn't do a very good job.  Oh well, they will go in the scrap pile and I will either fix them or use the fabric for something else.  At least I hadn't left the house yet when I discovered the crotch tear.  Hooray!

I recently ordered some delightful fabrics from Fabric.com and I have a plan for some zipper bags for gifts.  Unfortunately, my zipper pouch kung fu seems to be rusty, as the first attempt didn't turn out so good.  No matter!  I believe the biggest issue is fixable, and I have plenty more fabric to make many many more!  I have pics of the fabric that I will post if I ever remember to have my camera and computer in the same room at the same time.

I still haven't been sewing much, because it is very stuffy and warm in the sewing room.  Unfortunately, that will be probably be case for at least another couple of months, since we are moving into August and that month is pretty reliably sweltering in the Portland area.  I'm hoping to get some gifts done for my parents before mid-September so I can hand them out when we meet at the beach.  Otherwise, they will have to be mailed later.

If anyone is reading this blog, I'm sorry for the long delays between posts.  I just haven't had much to say because I haven't been sewing.  Hopefully this will be a much more lively blog in the fall/winter when I spend much more time in the sewing room.

OMG

Well, I hope everyone had a nice vacation and no one noticed I wasn't posting.  (Haha, seriously, does anyone even read this?)  Anyway, I haven't had much to post about, since it has been warm and my sewing room is too hot to sew in these days.  I did mostly finish the drawstring pants.  They are a little too long, so I need to re-hem them, but they are otherwise finished and fit well.  I think the next pair I make, I will make the waistband shorter (this one is a little over 3 inches tall) and will use two vertical button holes for the drawstring instead of one horizontal one.  I liked the look of the horizontal buttonhole, but it's not super great.  The self fabric drawstring was easy and looks nice, though.  I will really try to take some pictures and post them.  I also have some pics of some of my zipper bags to post as well.

My most recent project was to make a drape neck top out of some regular cotton knit.  It, uh, didn't go as planned.  It was really hot in my sewing room, but I wanted to give it a try, so I quickly drafted the pattern from a shirt I already own, and tried to add a drape neck.  I really, really need to remember that if I rush things because I'm uncomfortable (hot, hungry, grouchy) then they turn out like crap.  I will probably be able to salvage the shirt, but at the moment it's not wearable as anything other than something to cover nakedness in an emergency.  *sigh*

Wheeeeeee

The linen drawstring pants are coming together nicely.  The size adjustments went well and they actually fit.  However, I neglected to adjust the waist height so they were super low rise, even before I made the casing.  I added a waistband/casing, so now they are super high-waisted, but I figure I can roll the waist down if I feel like it.  All I need to do now is make a drawstring and hem them up.  Yay!

Duh moment

Last night I was working on the muslin for a pair of drawstring linen pants.  The fabric I was using was this nasty cotton/poly blend that I bought at Goodwill for $4.  It's ugly, but $4 for approx. 6 yards was hard to pass up.  Anyway, I was sewing along and I could not get it to feed straight without totally manhandling it.  I kept thinking that the fabric was just that crappy, but then I realized that I was using an old needle that I had been using while working on the Clover pants and a couple other small projects.  So I changed the needle and low and behold: straight seams.  Hooray!  I'm usually pretty good about changing my needle, but since this was a muslin and not for an actual garment, I didn't bother.  

You probably saw this coming....

I have shelved the Clover pants for now.  The waistband is too small and I got everything turned around and put the zipper open on the right instead of the left, so even if the waist band would fit I would have to redo it anyway because the zipper opening on the waistband is on the left.  *sigh*

I have drafted a pattern for drawstring pants.  I'm hoping I have enough muslin to make a quick pair of shorts to see if the hips fit.  I'm not worried about the length, since that's an easy fix.  If they end up too long, I can hem them up a bit.  Now I seem to be struggling with finding time to sew when it is not too hot to be in my sewing room.  It gets the afternoon exposure and seems to be constantly toasty.  Nice in the winter, tho!

I have also been studying one of my drape neck sleeveless tops and planning in my head how to draft a pattern so I can copy it.  I think I'm ready to graduate from boatneck tops that are basically rectangles.  =)