The mind wanders to sewing…

Last night my wonderful boyfriend surprised me with great seats to the Marlins game: 3rd row just to the right of home plate! Now, I have been on the field a few times pregame but have never sat this close during a game. It was great! And he knows how much I love an aisle seat so he made sure of that as well. I would rather get up 52 times for my aisle mates than to have to disturb anyone else when I need to get up. Another one of my quirks.

Unfortunately, my Marlins didn’t have such a great game last night. Once the score got a little out of control, I found my mind wandering to the cutting layout of my current project:

See how I am working with this bold print (from Gorgeous Fabrics) over at The Sewing Divas.

This ain’t your Mama’s poly!

So many of you have been asking about the comfort of the wonderful poly/lycra jerseys from Gorgeous Fabrics that I’ve been sewing up lately. I am here to report that they are quite comfortable, even here in the sticky South! Last week I wore one of my new dresses to a banquet and had to walk quite a ways in the heat to the affair and I was fine. Last night I wore another dress to an early dinner. Thanks to Daylight Savings Time it was still Hot as Hades at 7 p.m., I had forgotten to put on my anti-perspirant (ew!) and still I was comfortable. I already have a few more of these great prints waiting to become dresses and tops and have added some lovelies to my wish list. If you are unsure, at least try a short length for a top. Not that I’m enabling you or anything…

I could not resist this new Fan Dango! jersey. It will make such a pretty summer dress. I think I need a GF fabrics-of-the-month subscription: three yards of each new jersey to be sent to me automatically! Sigh…

Another Cosmopolitan Dress!

As I posted yesterday, I needed a dress to wear to a banquet I am attending with my boyfriend tomorrow night. I absolutely fell in love with this polyester/spandex knit print over at Gorgeous Fabrics and thought it would be perfect for yet another rendition of my favorite dress. All I have left to do is the hem which I will get to later tonight or tomorrow afternoon. With my blindstitch machine it will take me longer to pin the hem than it will to sew it!

I changed the pattern’s scarf sleeve around a bit, which you can see here at the Sewing Divas. This is a super-easy sleeve to draft and is different yet simple.

I’m undecided about which bag to carry: the celery/beige Goldenbleu Emerson crinkled patent clutch or the black python clutch. BTW, the black python was the first expensive bag I bought with my own money right after I graduated high school. In the 28 years since it’s seen a lot of action!

Shoes were easy! I chose these black patent platformw from ABS:

Mother’s Day Week is over - back to sewing!

I had a wonderful Mother’s Day yesterday (actually, I think I celebrated it all of last week!) and collapsed into bed last night too full to move from the delicious Cuban lunch (with Mojitos!) that I had with my sister-in-law and her family and the mouth-watering filet mignon with grilled asparagus (with Margaritas!) that my boyfriend cooked last night. I’m sure I felt a little more junk in my trunk when I went for my morning run today.

Now it’s back to my Hot Patterns Cosmopolitan Dress in this beautiful Flashback Floral Knit from Gorgeous Fabrics.

I’ve been working on this here and there for an entire week and must get it done now as my boyfriend and I have a banquet to attend on Wednesday night. This only leaves me with a few hours today and tomorrow - usually a piece of cake but I still don’t quite have my Sewing Mojo back…

HP Cosmopolitan Dress with scarf sleeves

The first piece of my professional wardrobe is finally finished! I am just not back up to speed yet but I should be cranking things out at top speed pretty soon.

I plan on wearing the dress with these comfortable, conservative Via Spiga pumps. Luckily, I already have four pair of conservative pumps that are office-appropriate (brown, black, burgundy and hot pink). They are always good to have around in the event that I am called for jury duty or must attend a funeral or other somber event - or go job hunting! As much as I love shoe shopping I’m glad I can concentrate on the clothes for now.

Of course, I had to rock it out just a little bit with a mabe pearl pendant on a leather choker!

This weekend I will be posting a quick tutorial at The Sewing Divas blog on how to finish the neckline with bands. It’s so easy and a nice way to use a contrasting fabric. You can also see how I’ve finished the scarf sleeve hems with a quick and easy mitering method!

Speaking of fabric, both fabrics used here are from Gorgeous Fabrics! The main fabric is Modern Dots Knit and the contrast is Dainty Dots Jersey. I’ll tell you, living here in the steamy tropics I resisted polyester fabrics for many years but these are so wonderful that I have been reformed! Plus, Ann’s collection of fabulous knit prints is truly TDF and the prices are easy on the wallet.

New Jalies!

Three weeks ago I ordered three new Jalie patterns and received my fourth one free! I’d been wanting to order the yoga pant pattern because my Kwik-Sew pattern no longer fits me - how nice to get it as a gift! I love Jalie and thought their three latest top patterns would be nice additions to my collection:

This is just a cute, simple tee with a little something extra. You can never have too many of these patterns in your stash!

Yes, I know we’ve seen this Duro look for a couple of seasons but it’s still in the stores, at least here in Fashion Hell. It’s a style that I really like and did not have a pattern for. I like the fact that there is a version without gathers over the stomach. Lengthened, this would make a super-cute summer dress.

Of course, I am powerless to resist a twist top. I like the center front flounce for a little interest.

These yoga pants are a perennial favorite and I’m happy to add this pattern to my collection.

One pattern that I had no interest in was the Criss-Cross Top, #2787. It just looked like it was trying too hard to be cute and different.

At least that is what I thought until I saw Ann’s version last night! Isn’t this a stunner? Naturally, some of that gorgeous fabric is winging it’s way to me for a dress…yes, I am powerless.

Before you make this, be sure to read Ann’s entire review over at Gorgeous Things. Also, if you haven’t yet, you must check out Ann’s online fabric store: Gorgeous Fabrics. Her fabrics are amazing and the prices are unbelievable. And I’m not just Ann’s friend, I’m a customer too!

Burda WOF 4/07 #107B Dress

Here are some photos of the finished dress. I love it but you can see that the skirt is much straighter than the illustrations would have you believe. The little cap sleeves are adorable and so easy. I love the fact that they are cut on the fold and therefore require no hemming.

I thought I’d copy Phyllis and actually style my photos for a change. I’m wearing this today with some high-heeled black boots. Yes, it’s warm outside but it is still February and I’m talking myself into believing that it’s still winter plus I have an appointment today that requires the strut and I-mean-business attitude only high-heeled boots can give you!

Here’s a better shot of the dress itself:

As you can see, I did not use the elastic finish on the neckline. Instead, I serged some plain lingerie elastic to the wrong side of the neckline and turned it under. The neckline could then be topstitched but I often use my blindstitch machine instead because it gives me a dressier finish. On a print like this you can’t even see the tiny little stitches! Hmm, maybe I should do a quick little tutorial so you can see how easy it is.

The fabric is a fantastic rayon/lycra that I bought last year from Ebay seller Bestonlinefabrics. I’ve purchased a few things from this seller and it’s all been really nice.

UPDATE 2/26/08: The tutorial is up! Here’s a link: TSD tutorial.

Fantastisch!

When I arrived home from work very late last night (perhaps early morning would be more accurate!) I was excited to see a small package on my porch. Assuming it was the Hudson jeans I had recently purchased I just set the package down on my sofa once inside the house. Those jeans are a duplicate of a pair I already own so no big hurry to open the package. As I was going through my mail I happened to glance at the return address and noticed that it was from Gorgeous Fabrics! The German cottons had arrived - yay! These are the most wonderful, silkiest cottons I have seen in a very long time. The pink one is every bit as soft as the Sea Island cotton in my stash, the sheen really shows up well in the photo. The navy print is going to be made into a dress, the pink will become a blouse or shirt.

At $14/yd they were already a steal but now you can get them both (and many other fabrics) at a reduced price during Ann’s anniversary sale!

Burda WOF 4/07 #107B

I loved this style the minute my April 2007 Burda magazine arrived but am just now getting around to making it. Surplice tops look really good on me so I can’t resist one that has some unusual detail to make it a little different from all of the others in my closet. Well, when I was in JoAnn’s last week, I noticed that Burda had released this style as a paper pattern, #7828

So, I bought it figuring that the cost of the pattern would more than make up for not having to spend the time tracing. I cut a straight 34 which fit me perfectly right out of the envelope. The only alteration I made was for a forward shoulder, I also narrowed the forearm of the sleeve by 5/8″ on each side during my final try-on. I don’t think my forearms are particularly thin so that might be an area to watch if you make this. The fabric is a beautiful rayon/lycra that I am pretty sure I bought from Textile Studios. I also have this in a red colorway but I thought the purple would look great with jeans.

I used an organza-edged lingerie elastic to finish the neckline - what could be faster and easier than that? The pattern allows for a 5/8″ turn-in at the neckline so I cut it down about 1/2″ because the edge of my elastic is narrow and I wanted to compensate somewhat for the width of the organza edge. That worked out really well.

I really like this style a lot and intend to cut the cap-sleeved dress out tomorrow and probably one more top with the cap sleeve. I highly recommend this as an instant-gratification project!

Oh! I almost forgot to mention that my Japanese Vionnet book arrived today too! You can read about it on Fashion Incubator.

I have been AWOL quite a lot lately and missed Kathleen’s post but I did manage to buy a copy from a Japanese Bookseller on Ebay. Here’s a link to the Buy-It-Now auction: Vionnet book. My copy arrived quickly - in about a week. Mostly, I just enjoy looking at her various designs and how they were cut - pure genius. However, if I ever find myself with a lot of time it would be really fun to copy some of these garments.

I love my UPS man!

Well, the Delman wedges arrived today along with two beautiful knits that I ordered from Lucy’s Fabrics last week. I was going to make a top out of the gold/raisin/rose rayon/lycra but I may make a dress instead using the metallic gold area at the bust and hemline. I’ll have to drape it on my dressform and see… The asian floral is going to be a quick summer dress, something I can toss on with some cute sandals and look pretty and be cool and comfortable. If I have a coordinating solid for the bands and ties I may make the new HP wrap dress out of this.

The shoes are amazing! I probably could have gone 1/2 size smaller but I’ll be putting one of those little pads under the ball of my foot anyway and I need to punch an additional hole in the ankle strap as it’s too loose there. I’ll have to try them out on a rug later and decide then. I’m a pretty solid 9.5 sometimes even needing a 10 or 10.5 depending on the brand so I hesitate to try a 9. I guess I could order the 9 and then send one back. Can you believe I ordered these on Saturday and they were delivered today? Zappos.com’s service is really awesome!

Stay tuned…my fabrics from Ann over at Gorgeous Fabrics will be arriving in a day or two. I’m very excited to see them in person and will post photos then. I have a pattern selected for the dress but can’t decide on a shirt/blouse/top pattern.