Love Notions Presto Tunic

 I finished this top. I made a few alterations. I lowered the bust dart and blended between sizes. I think if I make this again I will take a little fullness out of the front. If it were made with a stiffer fabric it would look terrible.

Buster photo bombing.

Attempting to insert photos

 Well, I watched a video for this so hopefully I can keep this going. 

I made this top years ago. It’s a simple dolman sleeve that I hand embroidered on the side. This photo was taken at Sturbridge Village with my sister-in-law a month or so ago.

Long, long time away.

 Of course there has been sewing, but no documentation. I am still not proficient in using this system. As I write this I realize I don’t have a clue how to save it, edit it, add a photo or anything else. I received a email from Blogger about another blog I guess I tried to start and never deleted. I really would like to start keeping a record of what I sew so that I can remember. I saw a note in my diary that said I finished a repair on my friend’s husband’s pants that I don’t have any remembrance of doing. I very rarely do alterations or repairs and it surprised me to read it. It’s time for coffee and to get out of bed now.

For once I have followed through with an online sewing challenge or maybe it's not a challenge but rather a theme. I think theme is a better description of Jungle January. I made my dress using Simplicity 3775 view A (out of print now and I think I picked it up at Goodwill.) I wanted the scrunched band in the middle but there was not enough fabric. The pattern was very easy to put together (as many people noted on Pattern Review.) I think I will make another one of the views with this pattern.

   

Pattern drafting class project

This is my muslin that I made for my pattern drafting class. The fabric was a bear because it raveled terribly. I had to finish the inside seams just to keep it from falling apart. A pain for a muslin.

I like the dress, but the pattern needs some work. I think the beginning step will be to work on my basic bodice pattern. The fit was not as good as it should have been. I wanted to fix it but I just ran out of available time to do that. So I pushed forward. 

The errors are: the shoulder seams are too far forward, I should have turned the pleats the other direction and it could have used a little tiny bit more shaping at the waist or had a lining put in it.  I hope when I correct the shoulder seams that will help it hang straighter. I think the back has some issues, but I have to get better photos. I was just learning to use the remote control on the camera and I think I skewed the position, or it is maybe just a bad fit. I will check later.  Once again time was the big issue with this project.

It seems that I  sign up for classes long in advance and when class time arrives something extra is going on in my life. I started The Little Black Dress class last Thursday evening and so far things are all right, but there are 7 more weeks.....tonight we discuss pattern choices and fabrics, underlining, lining, etc. Last week we took photos and made croquis of ourselves. How enlightening that was. Time for more exercise and an overhaul of my eating. Hopefully Spring will come to the Northeast sometime soon.  Please let it be so!

I'm trying to learn how to post to this website using my I-Pad, because I am rarely on the computer anymore. It's a learning curve though. I need to take the laptop and have it cleaned up because it is exceeding slow, to the point of making me grit my teeth the entire time I am on it. Typing on the I pad is slow without a wireless keyboard.

Well, I made this little dress for a baby shower this past weekend. I think the mother to be liked it, or at least I hope so. It turned out to be really nice with little bloomers to match.

We are off to a Jack and Jill shower tonight. I wish it wasn't rainy though oh well.

I think there will be sewing time this weekend. I hope so, I received two Style Arc patterns and I would love to try one of them out soon.

More later and by that I hope I mean sooner rather than later.

New sewing space

Blogging finally. I am enjoying a week of vacation at home. This is day 4, wow, it really goes quick. I started my time off on Thursday. My husband, myself and a young helper began the process of moving my sewing area out of the basement and up into my new sewing studio. Getting everything together is a process that is going to take a little while to complete, but once it is finished it will be fantastic.

My husband purchased  cabinets at auction a year or so ago. They are from some kind of lab, so they are heavy duty metal with drawers. Right now they are an ugly grey, but eventually they will be a beautiful light blue with black countertops. We set up the cabinets in an "L" shape that is 9 feet by 14 feet with  four workstations, one of which is double wide. I will probably put the embroidery machine in the double wide space. On the back wall, I have the Neechi (in cabinet) that I purchased last year and I have my mother's old Kenmore (in cabinet) that I brought to my house after my father passed away last year. I need to take it in to the shop for service, but I sewed quite a bit on that machine when I was in high school and my mother made a lot of clothes for us on it.

Our home is an old warehouse that we are almost finished converting into a home. It has been a couple long years of lots of construction, but in the end it will be worth it. There are old wooden beams that we left in place. (Actually Thursday started out with my husband giving the wooden beams one last sanding because they had some sheet rock mud on them.)

This is my attempt at taking a panoramic photo with my I-phone. The room is straight in reality, but I had a difficult time keeping the camera level as I moved. But you can get the idea of what it looks like.

Here is a straight shot into the room. You can see the wooden beams. I really like them. All of the little dark spots along the wall are for electrical outlets. The boxes are the blinds waiting to be hung.

These are my cabinets before we put them together. They now have the wood on top of them and the drawers are not standing or laying down on the floor, but are bolted into place. I lined all of the drawers with cork. I have to work on getting the tags off of them tomorrow and putting more things away.

Tomorrow after I do some more straightening up and finish a sewing project, I will take some more photos to post.