Another skirt, in size: me.

Alrighty, it took me a few years, but I finally cut into my gorgeous Nani Iro double gauze...and it turned into a skirt! Inspiredby my newly organized studio space (read: fabric displayed in open shelves, organized by color!), and the fact that a sweet little stitching studio opened up nearby, I decided it was finally time to get a little instruction for pattern-reading. I'm a completely self-taught sewist. My dad showed me how to sew a straight seam and backstitch when I was a kid, but no one ever told me how to use a pattern properly. I'm not sure how this happened, since my dad made me some dresses when I was little and I know he was using patterns, though I suspect that he was just winging it as I have been all these years. I mean, do people really cut out all those notches? Do they really transfer all of the markings onto the pattern? Do they really cut with the grain? Um, apparently they do. Here are some things I learned:

- After you cut your pattern, fold back the paper to the mark you need to transfer and use a disappearing pen to make the mark (on the wrong side of the fabric!). Maybe this all seems really obvious, but I never really considered how to transfer markings without literally going through the paper. Using this technique, transferring darts was a breeze; I just folded the paper back little by little, making two lines of dots that converged at the point marked on the pattern. Then the darts were pinned by matching the dots up as the fabric was folded (so it was important to mark the dots for each side of the dart in the same horizontal line).

- Use pins. Just do it. It's a pain, they are annoying, but just do it. My instructor had us pin the patterns before cutting fabric and this was probably a lot better than my "stick whatever semi-heavy object it nearest to you on the paper and hope that it doesn't shift while cutting" method.

-Use your cranium before you stick pins into pieces you are preparing to sew together so that they are facing the right direction you'll be sewing in. This took about 1 billionth of an extra second's worth of thought and was really, really worth it.

- I'm not ready to admit that this is a lesson learned, because I'll probably still not do it, but making a muslin isn't a bad idea. I didn't technically make one for this project, but I did decide to make a lining for the skirt...and then the lining turned out to be a muslin and we took the seams in at the hips a bit. Maybe the lesson needs to be to make a lining for every skirt?

The zipper went in all lovey-dovey, and I opted to not create the yoke or placket or whatever for the waist. I just sewed everything with right sides together, then turned the lining and sewed a top stitch to keep it down. I'm good at topstitching, so this is a good solution for me; if you hate topstitching, don't do it!

For the hem, I used the ribbon method from the skirt I made for Bean a few weeks ago. It makes a nice, clean edge and I like hunting through my boxes of ribbons to see what works. I believe this ribbon was from a gift from my mother-in-law (she knows how I save all of this stuff!)

A skirt.

While making a run to the fabric store during my recent semi-annual quilting day (All day! With quilters who know 100% more than I do! And door prizes!!), I of course had to buy a sweet kid print along with my brown fabric for my quilt binding. It whispered, "Make me into a skirt," when I saw it in the shop. It didn't hurt that it had chicken-like birds on it; I'm kind of a sucker for poultry.

This was a one-nap skirt, meaning it took me under 2 hours to make it and it was so simple I could do it without much brain power (I make it a rule to turn my brain off during nap time, it's really what's best for everyone.) I found a simple pattern here (I. Love. Oliver & S.) and pulled a ribbon from my voluminous stash...please refer to my comments on craft hoarding in the previous post. I think you should know that this skirt involves cutting fabric from selvedge to selvedge, meaning you just fold in half and cut it to the length that you want the skirt to be (plus 2 inches for seam allowance). It's truly no muss/no fuss, which is a beautiful thing when you are working whilst brain-dead.

This is definitely going to be made up in lots of different prints throughout the various stages of her toddler-hood. And as you can see here, it's particularly good for wearing while giving tune-ups to your rocking horse.

Stray dogs and center squares.

We found a little beagle on the side of the road very near to our house on Thursday night. It had a collar with a rabies tag, but nothing else. It took a long time to track down the owner...we called the vet from the tag who didn't want to give us the address but called the owner on our behalf. They reached the wife who was out of town who couldn't get a hold of her husband who was with the kids at the park. Arg. The dog (Celie) was very sweet but very eager to explore her surroundings and without a leash, I spent a good half-hour hunched over, keeping her held back by her collar. We got her back to our house and borrowed a leash from a neighbor and waited outside, but not before Celie got a little freaked, strained against the leash and succeeded in pulling my back out of whack. You may remember that I threw my back out a few months ago while needlepointing. Well, at least this time I was being slightly more athletic, but the result is just as crappy: I'm OK lying down or standing up, but sitting really hurts.

Nevermind, I have a quilt along to keep up with! I've been going at it in short bursts since I can't sit for too long, but so far I have all of my strips sewn, a little less than half of them ironed, and the center of my quilt all made up. Pretty, pretty!And in the interim, when I have to be lying down, I am happily involved in the fourth book of the Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I'd started the series a while back, put it down and then picked it back up again when I heard they'd done an HBO series based on the book. I think these are just about the sweetest stories ever (perfect summer reads) and although I think Jill Scott and the woman playing Mma Makutsi are doing a wonderful job, there is a lot lost in translation. I also cannot figure out why new characters have been made and plots changed significantly (like, entire mysteries are solved to be something completely different) but I'm trying to be open minded about it. I think that's what Mma Ramotswe would want at least! Anyway, I have lots to do while laying down, even if I can't figure out how to rig my sewing machine so that I can operate it whilst horizontal.

Simple tools, scary tools.

Here's the latest progress on my JJ blouse...
I covered some buttons which was very fun and a little addicting. You get a little kit that comes with a simple tool to make the covered buttons. It's kind of like the potato chip phenomenon, you can't make just one. I don't think this project calls for seven buttons, but I couldn't help myself! Extras will be dealt with in an appropriately crafty fashion.

I also secured my ruffle (I'm using only the one ruffle on the princess seams) to my shirt. More importantly, I USED MY SERGER! That's right, that wonderful machine that I have owned for (dare I admit it) over two years now and haven't used yet. Well, I did try to use it once. I'm a big believer in the no-first-project-is-too-big-too-attempt and therefore I decided to break my serger in making a t-shirt. Out of knit fabric. Had I ever worked with knits before? Did it really matter because could anyone have convinced me not to try knits for my first serging project? Long story short: major failure; serger gathered dust (and the occasional pissy sideways glance from moi) while covered in knit t-shirt fabric for a few years. But I bought a book, mustered up some confidence and found the rolled edge stitch on my cotton fabric to be very easy. Yay!

I'm continuing with my french seams, though it seemed a little odd to make them over the ruffle. May be a little too bulky in the end, but we'll see. For now, I'm still loving the project, though the impending sleeve and collar instructions are scaring me. Never mind, I still have my quilt along project to distract me...

A blouse.

We are full of buying and selling house stress over here. I don't want to bore the blogosphere with my story of our real estate adventure, but let's just say that our weekend involved open house preparations and an overflowing toilet. Thankfully we survived and celebrated on Saturday with lunch at one of our favorite little spots in a quaint little shopping district nearby. As luck would have it, Andrew parked the car right in front of the quaint little fabric shoppe (it's quaint, you need that extra "pe") and I decided that since I was still smarting from our plumbing and vacuuming extravaganza, I needed a pretty piece of fabric to make it all better...his fault for parking in front of the fabric store!

Here's what I got and I decided to try my hand at my first Burda Style pattern, the JJ Blouse. It has a lot of ruffles, which I might pare down to just one. I like this interpretation.

This is the second downloaded pattern I've used (the pinafore was the first) and I rather like the cutting and pasting of the pattern pieces. I figure I'm going to have to trace the pieces anyway if I'm using an already-printed pattern...and frankly, without a light board, I find tracing to be a pain.

So I've started sewing but need to wait for a nap before I get photos in progress. Let's just say it involves french seams, because that is my new favorite skill.

WIPs

Finding a matching handle to the originals on my jewelry box is proving to be insanely difficult. I've looked through door hardware (too big), cabinet hardware (getting warmer), and miniature supplies (too tiny). I started searching for cabinet "hardware" or "knobs", but I do believe that I end up more in the size range I'm looking for (3") in the category "finger pulls". On a different note, who the heck names these things?!

OK, so here is the WIP that is the jewelry box. I'm really happy with the paint colors (just stuff in the basement that I've had from other projects) and how well the grey goes with the yellow interior. I think this may be my new favorite color combination.

I did a very wee little bit of distressing. Such a very tiny amount that maybe it just looks sloppy rather than intentional, but I figure there's going to be plenty of wear and tear going on with a soon-to-be-toddler in the house so sooner or later it'll look weathered.

And here's my week's work for the quilt along. This is my first jelly roll project and oh. my. god. When I bought the thing I felt a little bad like I was cheating or something. Now that I'm using it, I definitely feel like I'm cheating and I HEART IT. The only downside that I can so far see is that there was an abundance of little fuzzies that flew everywhere when I opened the roll. Next time, I'll bat it around outside a little before opening it up indoors. Otherwise? I did lots of ironing and cutting for my background fabric and then happily got to the jelly roll and lazily unwound it and chose my fabrics. Done and done. I should also note that I gave myself a three-inch burn along the back of my arm from my iron. I know, I know. What the frick was I doing with my iron to burn the back of my arm? The iron was behind me and when I yanked the plug out of the wall, my arm backed into it. We were leaving for a party as I did this (of course) and our host had to use hairbands to hold an ice pack on there for me. I don't want to get a scar, but if I do, I'm going to enjoy calling it my quilting battle scar.

And because I have quilts on the brain lately, here is a hand-quilted number that is making me crazy happy.