Happy Halloween!

Sorry I've been such a bad blogger lately. It just seems like it's been so busy around the house lately. I have been fairly productive sewing tho so that is good. I have no pictures to post today, but I promise to post some very soon (hopefully tomorrow!). I made a two of the kids' Halloween costumes this year. The line up for this Halloween is: a witch (Hattie) - she's wearing a dress-up dress that Grammie got her at a garage sale accompanied with a hat I got here for $1.50 at the grocery store. Jack is going to be a mad scientist (think Doc from Back to the Future); I made his lab coat. Will is dressing up like a baker/chef; I made him a cute chef hat & apron. And last, but not least, Andy is either going as a builder or a business man. Why is it still up in the air you might wonder? Because three year olds are complicated creators and who knows what his attitude will be at the time of departure! ;-)

In other sewing, I've made Jack & Andy a few shirts from Ottobre, Andy two new pairs of PJ's, and did a few repair jobs (oh joy, one was a zipper replacement, bleck!). As much as I want to sew for me, I have a few gifts I need to get out of the way for upcoming events so those will take place first, but I think they are quick enough that I can get them done without too much time to spare.

Have a wonderful & safe Halloween!

I got my "Baby" back!

Well I finally got my Baby (Lock that is) back yesterday. I will spare you all the details of the pain it caused me, but now all is forgotten. So now you ask why the picture of pillows? Good question, but I have an answer! I decided since I didn't know a time frame on the return of my machine, I would make some new pillows for our couch. The ones we had were beyond disgusting so I figured that would be a safe and productive project to do with my sewing machine. I had all the fabrics in my stash (they were all actually in the scrap box from other miscellaneous projects) so it was just the cost of four pillow forms which were 50% off this week at Joann's. So for less than $20 and a few hours (if that) of work, my couch is all spiffed up!

I have several things cut out for the boys and think that will be my next project. While I really want to work on stuff for me (haven't I been saying that forever now???), Andy needs new pj's and some long sleeved t-shirts and Jack is in need of a few shirts too. They are all cut out already so they should be pretty fast projects, unless I get side tracked by a Sudoku (my latest obsession ~ they are so addicting!).

What's a girl to do?

My serger is still in the shop and I can't hardly take it anymore. It's been in the shop for nearly a week (tomorrow is one week) and I'm in misery! It needed a cleaning that I'd been putting off, but then the self-threading plunger snapped off when I was threading it last Friday, so I figured I'd better just take it in for servicing. Well they promised me it would be ready on Wednesday, but when I called yesterday to confirm so hubby could pick it up, the part hadn't arrived yet. So I just called today to see if it was ready as they led me to believe it would be there today - still no part. :-( And now the lady told me "don't call us, we'll call you when it's ready" and "it won't be tomorrow or Monday". Geez, in today's world, does it take more than a week for a part to get somewhere - a $5.99 part nonetheless? Needless to say, I'm so bummed. I have things cut out to sew, but they are knit shirts for my youngest that I need to serge, so what's a girl to do? My throw pillows on the couch need recovering so maybe that is what I should be doing. Ugg!!! :-(

Instant Gratification Sewing

I was needing some instant gratification sewing after having a few hang ups over the past week. My first hang up was not having the proper zipper for my skirt made from Ottobre Woman 5-2007-4. Now this wasn't a major catastrophe, but annoying because I really was on a roll. Once that was finished, I started tracing out a blouse from the 8-2007 Burda WOF #117 with the tie front. I read a few reviews about it on PR and learned the shoulders were more dropped than shown in the magazine pictures and line drawing (apparently Burda had fiddled with the blouse in the pictures and that the line drawing wasn't quite accurate). So I did a bunch of fiddling with the pattern and now I need to make a muslin, however I decided I first needed a little instant gratification hence all the knit tops. First up is Kwik Sew 2694! Yes, it's been reviewed over 85 times on PR, but it's clearly a winner. Paired my new top is my fabulous new Ottobre Skirt.

A better look at the Kwik Sew top...

Next up is the famous Jalie Crossover top - another clear winner that uses minimal fabric and takes less than 1 hour to make. I actually made myself three of these in the last two days - purple, red, and white.
Last up is a new Vogue Sandra Betzina pattern #2980. At first I wasn't sure about the top and if I was happy about how it turned out. Well I'm still not happy with the fit, but now that I've made another Jalie crossover top with the leftover fabric, I'm sure the problem is actually the fabric - I think it has a little too much recovery. So I will probably try it again when time allows. It sure is a cute twist on the ordinary t-shirt and went together pretty quickly.
In sad news, my serger has to go to the doctor tomorrow. I had a little mishap that needs repairing, plus it needs to be cleaned too. I think this will be a good opportunity for me to straight up the mess I've created in my studio and hopefully work on my muslin of the Burda top. Until next time, happy sewing!