Month: June 2015

A Quick Repair and Another Skirt

~ Michelle ~ 4 Comments

Recently I was wearing one of my Shelley bras, and something just didn’t feel right about the back. I felt around and I was all done up, so really didn’t know what was going on there. So I had to wait until I got home and could look in a mirror to see what was going on.

What Happened Here

This is what I saw! Well, that’s just isn’t working, is it? I knew I would want to repair this bra right away, as it’s one of my favorites. It didn’t take me long to realize the elastic I used at the back just wasn’t strong enough to hold … well, it wasn’t strong enough hold anything.

I had this elastic in my stash, and hadn’t used it at all because it was so flimsy.

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You can see here, I had a fair amount of it too. I hadn’t used it on any bras because it just stretched out; it didn’t recover. I decided this is not anything I wanted in my stash, and it wasn’t good enough to send to a friend. It has left my home and is where it belongs now.

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There are times when a repair or fix needs to happen, and after carefully sewing things on so they won’t come off, I just don’t want to rip things apart. I felt that way after double stitching my  hooks and eyes on, and zigzagging the edges as well. So, what other options are there for a repair?

For my repair on this, I ripped the old elastic out up to the hooks and eyes. Then I trimmed it really close to them. I butted the new stronger elastic up to where I’d trimmed the old away and zigzagged that first. This allowed me to not need to remove the hooks and eyes, which weren’t the problem anyway.

Then I attached the rest of the new elastic to the band. I’ve worn this a couple of times now and no problems at all. Bad old elastic!

This week I finished another skirt. I live in skirts in the summer. In fact, I have my next skirt all cut out waiting to be sewn. Skirts are my summer staple.

If you haven’t tried the Flirt Skirt yet, I really recommend it. It’s a very comfortable skirt to wear, and I get so many compliments on it. It’s that back part. The part I call the ‘flirt’. That’s the part people are saying, ‘Turn around’. ‘Did you make your skirt?’ ‘What pattern is that?’ It’s definitely fun.

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This skirt has no stretch in the material, so I changed the pattern a bit – instead of using my knit sloper, I used the woven one to determine how big to make the pattern. The denim I’d used before only had a bit of stretch, so I didn’t need to adjust this one that much. This is a light-weight cotton with a denim look.

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And from the side with that flirty part showing.

No photos of me in my skirt just yet – my photographer is absent at the moment, and has been too busy to be my photographer this week.

Happy creating!

A Few Thoughts From Other Blogs

~ Michelle ~ 10 Comments

This week I want to share a few thoughts I’ve had from reading other blogs.

The first one is from Erin. Do you follow The Sewing and Life Adventures of Emerald Erin? On her June 11th post Erin made an announcement:

“A Special Summer for the Bra-A-Week Challenge!

Hi All! I said earlier this week that I would announce the summer host for the Bra-A-Week Challenge – and here is the announcement!
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I am delighted to announce that the Bra-A-Week Challenge will be hosted by the lovely….

Michelle!
 
 
“Michelle is such a wonderful fellow bra-maker, and I’m sure you’ve all admired her work over the last 21 weeks like I have, and she most generously offered to host the challenge for the months of July and August for me!!”
Thanks, Erin! I’m pretty excited about hosting the challenge, and hoping some of my bra-making friends will join me and sew up a bra or two (or more) along with all the other wonderfully creative sewists who have contributed.  There’s more information on Erin’s blog if you’ve been participating in the challenge already and want to continue. You’ll still send your submissions to Erin. I’ll just be doing the write-up and posting it.
It’s great that the challenge will continue over the summer months!
This next blog comment I want to make really has nothing whatsoever to do with sewing – or does it? My good friend, Valerie over at Intricate Knits has been blogging about and telling me about her favorite author for years now. She just recently posted some scarves she designed that were inspired by Susanna Kearsley’s novel A Desperate Fortune. You can see Valerie’s designs here. After seeing the scarves, and having heard so much about Susanna, I decided I’d get A Desperate Fortune and read it myself.
This photo is from Valerie’s blog and shows a couple of the designs Susanna’s book has inspired. Valerie does such beautiful work. Check out her blog, and if you see something you love, she sells her beautiful creations on Etsy.
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Aren’t these lovely?  This morning as I came into my sewing room, I didn’t even want to sew! I wanted to get back into A Desperate Fortune. So far, I have to say, I can recommend Valerie’s favorite author as well.
Happy creating!

A Pale Yellow Flirt Skirt

~ Michelle

I definitely have my favorites when it comes to clothes I’ve made, and clothes I’ve bought. One of my habits is to go through my wardrobe twice a year. I only keep what I can wear in my closet, so if it’s Summer, you won’t find Winter clothes in there. Same goes for Winter time – no Summer clothes.

I take advantage of that twice yearly sorting to clean out anything I don’t wear. I just gave away a few cardigans I hadn’t worn all winter when I did the Spring switch-over. I don’t like to keep things around if I’m not using them.

I also notice when I love something. If I end up wearing a garment all the time, I know it’s a keeper. My denim Flirt Skirt is one of those garments.

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I found myself wearing the skirt all day, and then thinking it’s needs to be washed, so I’d go home and wash it right away so it would be ready to wear again the next day. I decided, if I’m wearing something that much, I need to make another one.

So, here’s my pale yellow denim Flirt Skirt.

skirt front

This skirt has two things I love: I really love pale yellow. The last two years I’ve been seeing more of it, and I’ve been picking up a bunch of pale yellow garments. So when I found this pale yellow denim, I scooped it up right away. The other thing I love is this pattern.

From the front it looks straight – which is something I can’t wear. I’m just too curvy for straight styles and always have been. I also find straight styles suit taller women – something else I’m not. However, this does look more straight-ish, at least to me. But the back… well, that’s just fun, and whimsical, and flirty.

The Flirty Part

There’s the flirty part of the Flirt Skirt. I love that! It acts a bit like a kick pleat but material has been added to serve the same function the kick pleat serves – it allows me to walk when wearing it! I’ve also hear it described as a fish tale. But no matter how one wants to describe that – it’s just fun. I was wearing my skirt this week, and that flirt part at the back was what was getting noticed and complimented. It is very fun and flirty.

The Flirt Skirt is a super easy pattern, and I made this up in an afternoon. I think these are quickly becoming my summer wardrobe! Both my dark denim and my pale yellow denim skirts just went to the mountains with me. That back flirt section of the skirt makes it great for walking in, whereas a straight skirt isn’t great for that. There’s lots of room for a full walking stride.

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Here I am on a rainy day. My hubby helped me out with some pictures. But he wasn’t the only one helping me out. Our rescue pup, Tiberius, came and helped out too. Anything I’m doing, and he’s right there with me. His toys are all around my sewing room! He’s with me for every project.

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Here we are showing the flirtier part of my skirt. He’s not always quite so agreeable though. I took my son to an appointment, and thought I’d read while waiting. Nope. My pup wasn’t going to let me read. Thankfully, he’s fine with my sewing!

Tiberius on my book

Happy creating!

A Summer Jacket – McCall’s 6516

~ Michelle ~ 8 Comments

I recently made the McCall’s 6516 jacket and love it! I made view D. I was thinking Summer jacket, cool evenings. I wanted there to be lots of options to cover me up and keep me warm – collar, sleeves, as much as I could get. I’m always the one wrapped in a blanket in front of the fire pit trying to stay warm.

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The material I chose is perfect too. I’ve shown this before.

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It’s a beautiful cotton with a waffle texture to it, and a gorgeous floral pattern.  I love this material. I went to the fabric store and saw it. It was not on my list so I left it, and then turned right around and went back in knowing there was no way I could leave it behind. I knew it would be a great jacket. And a jacket for summer was on my sewing list.

This jacket is perfect for cool summer evenings, and not too heavy if I have to carry it around during the day. It just made a trip to the Rocky Mountains with me for a couple of days, and as the weather was calling for rain, I carried it around a fair amount. I also love those big front panels that lay open – when it’s a bit cooler, they’re wonderful to wrap around me and cover me up more. See, I’m all about trying to stay warm.

Jacket Front

The jacket went together smoothly and quickly. It’s a great and fun jacket to wear. I’ve had lots of compliments on it already.

Jacket Side

Here’s the side.

Jacket Back

And the back.

One nice feature on this jacket is the faced cuffs. I really like that when I fold the cuffs up, the facings there make it look more professionally finished. Nice touch!

Here I am in my new jacket. I have both sleeve cuffs folded up, so the sleeves hit just above my wrist. You can also see my white stripe in my hair. I’ve decided to let it come in. It’s a bit Cruella or Rogue, depending on your age and your frame of (movie) reference. A friend encouraged me to let it show. ‘Not everyone gets to have a stripe. Wear it with pride.’ I’m not minding it most days.

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There’s a little bit of material left over from my jacket, and it’s just too pretty not to use. I’m planning a denim quilt. The first of the squares have been cut out. These photos show the waffle texture of this material too.

Squares

As much as I love my new jacket, a fitted jacket is something my wardrobe could really use. Finding one that fits a short curvy girl like me is a challenge. So, recently when I saw a class on sale at Craftsy, I signed up. It’s Jacket Fitting Techniques with Pam Howard. The class comes with the McCall’s pattern 6172 for three styles of jackets, including a fitted jacket. I’m trying to work up my nerve to attempt this for my curvy curves. I love Pam’s Flirt Skirt, so thought I’d try one of her classes. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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Here’s the photo from the front of the M6172.

Happy creating!