Happy National Sewing Month!

I have big plans to help me celebrate National Sewing Month. Since this year's theme is to sew for the beauty of it, I'm going to start off my first project for Mama R. She has been waiting for another cardigan style jacket for quite some time. Her request is for one in black and I found a beautiful wool with a soft nap and I'm going all out and lining it in silk. I have some colourful silk charmeuse but Mama R was hoping for something, hmmm, let's say less loud. The other day, I found some black silk satin that I think she'll like more.  

My most beautiful work comes when I take my time and that is what this year's theme means to me. I'm not rushing through this project or taking any short cuts. I'm taking my time with all the hand-stitching even if it means I only make one project this month. But I hope to get around to a little special project for moi. Stay tuned.   

How about you? How will you be celebrating National Sewing Month?  

Happy Sewing!  

August in Review...

Sewing:

Clockwise top L to R:  Silk dress, Tessuti Patterns Eva dress; black and taupe sateen dress, Simplicity 2372; black ITY knit dress, Vogue 9268; cotton apron, out-of-print (OOP) Butterick 5263, six pairs of cotton knit panties, Simplicity 8229. 

The Fasts:

I will admit that I almost fell off the ready-to-wear (RTW) fast a week ago when I spotted an ankle length wool sweater coat at Winners. Almost. My will power failed me in the fabric store. I picked up the quilting fabric for Mama R's new apron when clearance fabrics were marked down an additional 50% off. My bad. There were some others that made it into the fabric stash. Oh and there was lovely silk satin to line a jacket for Mama R. I'll try again next month.    

The Stats:

Supplies	Quantity Used from the stash this Month	Quantity Used this Year	Added to the Stash this year
Basting Tape	0 metres	3.83 metres	0
Bias Tape	9.1 metres	15.6 metres	10 metres
Buttons		45	50
Chain		0	0
Cord Stopper		0	0
Elastic	16.8 metres	32.3 metres	38 metres
Fabric	15 metres	94.6 metres	75.3 metres
Fusible Tape	4 metres	43.26 metres	6 rolls
Hand needles		2	0
Hook and Eyes		0	0
Interfacing	0.5 metres	6.7 metres	6 metres
Lace trim		2.6 metres	0
Pattern (new)	1	14	18
Pattern (previously used--TNT)	4	25	0
Ribbon		1.1 metres	5.3 metres
Serger needles		0	0
Serger thread		4	12
Sewing machine needles		4	9
Snaps		5	0
Thread		14	18
Trim		2 metres	7 metres
Velcro		0	0
Zipper	1	7	10

The Plans:

National Sewing Month begins tomorrow and the theme is to sew for the beauty of it. I have quite a bit of sewing to do for my beautiful Mom. She wants a new jacket in black. I have a lovely napped wool fabric set aside for that project and splurged on some silk lining. And then she would like another dress in a navy satin back crepe. There is an Eva dress to make for a friend. For myself I would really like to concentrate on sewing some comfortable pieces of sleepwear. I'll see how these plans work out.    

Happy Sewing!

In Sewing News Today...

Good morning lovely people! I'm in the most amazing mood because the leaves are starting to fall off the trees and that is a sure-tell-all sign that autumn is fast approaching. I love autumn and the idea of fall sewing. And the fabric stores are starting to fill their shelves with fall fabrics. 

Polyester knit fabric I couldn't resist.  Source:  Fabricland 

  

Lots of polyester which doesn't necessarily make me happy because I'd rather have a natural fibre wardrobe and polyester doesn't do a great job at keeping me warm on those cooler days fast approaching. I will admit that I did pick up a piece just because of the lovely paisley design. I'm a sucker for a paisley. I did however resist the beautiful rose printed scuba knit, recalling the sewing and wear challenges from the last time I sewed with those knits. And to tell the truth I have enough to sew as I did stock up on lots of lovely wool suiting pieces when Mitchell Fabrics closed.  

I've been thinking about what charity sewing I want to do this year and while going though my fabric stash I realized that I have quite a bit of wool coating fabric. I'm going to dig out my copy of Vogue 9219 and make a couple of little girl coats for Koats for Kids, a local charity that supplies warm winter clothes to kids.  

Their website states that they are in need of girls and boys coats sizes 4 to 10. I think that I can dig through my extensive collection of winter hats and gloves to donate some of those items now that I'm no longer working as a TA in the school system. I used to carry around extra gloves and mitts during recess duties for the kids that came to school without or were wearing ones that were soaked from playing in the snow. Well, now that I've got some plans in place for some cool weather sewing, I should get to work gathering all the supplies. 

Well, that's all in sewing news today.  

Happy Sewing!  

Unselfish Sewing: The Panties Edition

I have a whole list of items that I need to sew for Mama R including cotton undies.  

I turned to my favourite pattern of 2017, Simplicity 8229, for this task. Cutting out six pairs at once, this project became an activity of production sewing.  

There is one pair not like the others. Can you spot it? It's hiding at the bottom of the pile.

Six are in a cotton knit and the Sunday's best pair on the right are stretch lace underlined with lightweight cotton knit. All of the knit and lace fabrics were sourced from Fabricland. The picot elastic is found at Northwest Fabrics.  The pattern, well the pattern is quickly becoming my favourite of 2017 even though I've only made the panties. I'm a fan of this pattern because the fit is perfect and it's a well drafted pattern with well written instructions and illustrations. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one.


The Stats:

Fabric:  4 metres

Elastic:  16.8 metres

Pattern:  Simplicity 8229

Additional Tools & Supplies:  Sewing machine, walking foot, cutting table, scissors, clippers, tweezers, iron, ironing board, serger, threads (for the sewing machine and serger), ball point needle, brushes, sewing machine vacuum to clean the machine of lint and dust, good tunes, many breaks to stretch, heating pad for the back after sitting too long, and coffee.

Happy Sewing!

Strawberry Fields Apron

I picked up this strawberry field print quilting cotton fabric and seam binding yesterday to make Mom an apron. She's been waiting for an apron for a long time a very long time. Mama R really liked the apron I made six years ago with OOP Butterick 5263. Except she didn't want a reversible one. She said it was too heavy to wear.  

She just wanted a simple single layer apron that could protect her dresses when working in the kitchen. I still used OOP Butterick 5263 to recreate one for Mama R. Instead of sewing two layers together, I finished the edges of the neckline, armhole and hem with red seam binding.   

I had some really cute buttons that I wanted to put on the back but Mama R wasn't having any of that, insisting that she's just going to pull it over her head and wouldn't want to fuss with buttons. The back is stitched closed, after using my seam ripper to remove the first attempt at a buttonhole. 

And look at how cute she is in her new apron!  

The Stats:  

Fabric:  2 metres 100% cotton  

Bias Tape:  2 packages of pre-made bias tape.  

Pattern:  OOP Butterick 5263

Additional Tools & Supplies:  Cutting table, pins, scissors, ruler, measuring tape, sewing machine, walking foot, buttonhole foot, tailor's chalk, iron, ironing board, serger, 4 spools of threads (cotton for the sewing machine and polyester threads for the serger), seam ripper, and coffee.  

Happy Sewing!  

Retail Therapy...

Okay, my birthday was low key this year. First year in almost a decade that I worked on my actual birthday. This is great news because I'm usually laid off for the summers. And lay-offs are difficult. But my birthday also fell when one of my oldest and dearest friends was packing up and moving away. Of course, I wish her and her husband well but it's sad to see them move. So, some retail therapy was in order. This is my excuse for breaking my fabric fast this month and I'm sticking to it.     

I found these lovely fabrics at my local Fabricland store. They are going to be made into things for others but they just make me happy.  

Seriously, how awesome is this print? I want to frame it but instead I'm going to turn this fabric into some reusable shopping bags. It was one of the home decor fabrics.   

This one is a quilting cotton that I'm reserving for some more microwave bowl cozies.  

Same with this fly print, I wish the colour showed up better, the background colour is actually blue. I thought it's a hilarious print for soup bowl cozies. 

I love this strawberry field print, another quilting cotton but this one is reserved for an apron for Mama R.  

I did do some selfish shopping as well. A little birthday present for myself.    

I do love a paisley design and this red and black knit caught my eye. It is part of the new fall line showed up at the store. And I picked up two metres to make myself another Marcy Tilton skirt, Vogue 9060. Now, I just need to get to work.  

Happy Sewing!  

It's Like It's My Birthday Or Something

Ever since Fabricland/Fabricville stopped carrying Simplicity patterns the only way to get those lovely patterns has been to order them online or search for them on Etsy or Ebay. So, since they disappeared from the Canadian retail brick-n-motor landscape my Simplicity pattern purchases dropped significantly. It's sad because they have some really cool designers lately and many have been TNT patterns.  

And some super cute kids patterns as well. Seriously, how cute is this pattern?  

Well, that all changed when I spotted this instagram post. It's like they knew I didn't have a chance to celebrate my birthday earlier this week and they wanted to mark the occasion. So I picked up a couple of birthday presents for moi. Squeal! Okay, there's also a pattern for Mama R.  

Yes, all those must-have-essential and too-cute-for-words patterns are available at 40% off with the discount code found on their instagram post for this weekend. 

Happy Sewing!