Out of the Blue

... or shall we say, "blues".

It's Mother's Day, and one of my gifts to myself was a little bit of fabric :)

which made me think of all of you. I miss you guys. I hope everyone is sew happy :)

Happy Mother's Day to all you Mommas out there.

I've been away for good reasons... and I'll be back again, but not soon enough.

lovE

Move over Bacon

... the kid is moving into the sewing room :)

With Special Thanks to Karen, who hooked said kid up with a machine of her own. And logic dictates that said machine will be followed by fabric stash of her own and pattern stash of her own and... well, let's just say it's time to clean house.

So this is my stash, bared for all to see. I honestly feel a little naked.

It's still in a messy state, I'll make it all neat in its new home. I had a "before" picture showing fabric oozing out of every crack and crevice in my sewing room, but then I remembered my parents occasionally read this.

It was that bad.

For now, it's just piled according to colors.

I evidently have a thing for stripes - not a polka dot in the bunch!

and no yellows. I wonder what that says about my psyche... Do you think that's a profession out there somewhere? Stash Therapist! Can you imagine the implications of the snake skin?























The scraps and recycle projects have been contained - I even got all my scraps sorted into baggies.

I also discovered I have a good variety of lining on hand.

I have an extremely rough (kindergarten art) sketch of a storage system I'd like to craft. The way I see it, there are 4 essential elements to the fabric storage *working right to left:

1. bins for scraps, 2. shelves (preferably with glass doors) for fabric that is best stored folded, 3. vertical roll storage for large yardage, and 4. horizontal bars to accommodate hanging smaller yardages of fabrics that shouldn't be stored folded. I think of the old fashioned tiered newspaper hanging bars at the library.

My muslin station is already pretty cool. That's tracing paper on top, and there are muslin scraps in the gift bag. You can just see my rulers hanging next to it. Note the glasses ;) !!!

I hear IKEA calling, so there will be more pictures as the stash storage develops.

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I finally came up with an idea to practice my smaller silk painting in a portable way.

I used one of the styrofoam packing inserts from a toaster oven box as a mini fabric stretching frame. It can be placed flat over the design for "tracing" and keeps the fabric raised. The silk scarf, courtesy of Dharma Trading, is stretched across and pinned, it's the perfect size.

Speaking of other nifties, during my quilt making I discovered that the plastic template sheets that JoAnn's sells for $5 are the same as the 3-pack of flexible cutting mats you can get at the dollar store. (Cidell, hope you're reading this!)

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And send me all your lovin' and positive energy, because I think I may have found my dream job*. Fingers and toes crossed.

*Karen, no it's not what we talked about ;)

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And speaking of daydreams- have you ever dreamed about what your Project Runway audition video would be like! Come on, I bet you even chose music!

Sew, Interrupted

Captain's Log:

It's been twelve days now, stranded on this desert island- and there is no sewing in sight. The camera batteries died over a week ago. Lighting McQueen Bubble Machine and Kid #1's tv remote tried to donate, but they just weren't compatible. I fear it wouldn't matter anyway. There is nothing to photograph.

On day seven I spied a hope off the shore- it was the JoAnn's weekend sale. But alas, despite my shouting and frantic arm waving, I just couldn't flag it down. It sailed on by.

I have been scouting the island for anything that could be used in constructing the Amy Butler bags, but nothing here has a strong enough fiber content.

Kid #2's fever has finally broken after three days of madness and things too horrible to describe. I was forced to let another ship sail on by- the Jomar pleasure cruise. Through my makeshift lens I spied crazy knits, 2$/yard prices, and a deck party that included Karen and Kisha. Floating over the water came decadently bitchy laughter. I knew it from somewhere- Project Runway season one, perhaps? But the big ol' ship turned abruptly into the sun and disappeared.

I am separated from base camp, where the leather skirt is hanging, awaiting a major dart reconstruction. Even if I could cross the wasteland back into that region, I doubt I would have the strength to perform such a delicate operation in such an unpredictable environment.

I don't know how long I can hold out here. If I could just get those sleeves basted into the jacket, I'd have a chance at escaping... but everytime I make a move I am thwarted by the natives. I have yet to decipher their language- it's almost as if I am a god and a slave to them (especially that big one). I've discovered that they are distracted by high levels of ice cream and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson movies. I'm hoping that tonight, after cover of nightfall, I can make my move.

e out.

Captain's Log, supplemental:

Note of Meritorious Service, K-9 unit:

I was stranded alone with Kid #2 during the height of his sickness. After witnessing the carnage, the dog turned to me. "Get help" I said.

That dog dodged house bombs and climbed a flight of stairs, and proceeded to knock Kid #1's door open with his head. He alerted them immediately and backup arrived just in time.

see how his eyes reflected the light? I think he was rotating one eye away from the flash at the shutter moment.

***

Houston, we have a problem.

In all my sewing days (all 300 or so of them), I've never had a pokey dart.

Until now.

I'm showing the rear dart, but all of them are poking at least slightly.

And the problem is that it's in suede.


and it's already been topstitched.



And frankly, I'm afraid to go in and start messing with it.


Everything seemed fine when it was flat, but as soon as I connected the seams (this skirt has one long horizontalish seam that spirals around) and pulled it on... well- let's just say I know my butt is in need of a few laps, but it's not got corners yet. And the muslin was soooooooo perfect.

So I'm stalled. I have a good idea of how to fix it, thanks to the PR boards again, but I'm not too eager. I have doubts as to my ability to pull this off :( And my machine is not happy. I tried to use the Trusty White from my mom to do the seams in the suede, but it didn't even break the surface. My Viking D1 is proving to be as tough as it is pretty, but as all tough girls know, the tough need a break.

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In the eternal search for the AB bag fabric, I did come across some neat buttons that I would like to use for purse feet:

But no fabric yet. To be honest, I've read so much about the difficulties of the thick home dec fabric in the Weekender that I'm thinking I might just beef up some lightweight fabric with interfacing and go with it. I promised my machine a break after the leather, and I can't really find any home dec that I like. I'm thinking silk shantung. In chartreuse. With a baby blue liner.

or maybe I've just been looking at this dress (on PR) too long.

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I'm thinking about stash organization. Have you seen this flickr site?

The best just got better!

sorry there's a big ol' packing sticker in the middle, but I often favor laziness efficiency and figured I didn't need to dig the box out and turn it.

I found this cover your ears, j bigayss box o' polyfill when I was cleaning out the sewing room today. Oh yes. I could lose a small moon/space station in that room amongst the clutter. I immediately thought of The Slapdash Sewist's recent post on dressforms. This fiberfill is what I used to fill both of my forms *you can check the forms out over there on the righthand column under Things I Do*.

I had a coupon for a bigbox craft store and was grasping at straws for what to fill my form with. I grabbed this box, figuring it was about twice as big as my torso, so I could afford to mess up. It ended up being really good stuff to use, very easy to fit into cracks and crevices. Funny thing about this fiberfill is that it expands. We're talking 3rd trimester expansion. Put it this way, after I filled the first dressform, there was so much polyfill oozing out that I couldn't close the box again! I filled 2 dressforms out of this box, and could easily do 5 more - which is absolutely not going to happen. I've got scars from the last one. I'm hanging up the duct tape and getting a professional form. someday. (all suggestions on that subject are welcome :).

So what's a girl to do with a here it is again bigayss box o' polyfill? Say it together, folks!

Give it away!

I'm figuring I can just package it up somehow and ship it out to whomever might be wanting some for the cost of shipping. It weighs almost nothing, so you do the math. Just drop me an email. I'm sure somebody out there is working on a neck donut right about now!

Here is the muslin for that Burda skirt. OMG I need to start running. I had to add an inch to my usual waistband length. Hurry up, warm weather!

I'm prepping the leather for tracing as soon as I can see my cutting table again. cleaning. right. that's what I was doing.

:)

Check this out

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20090217_Penn_student_collecting_sewing_machines_for_Zimbabwe.html

Spread the love :)

I'm just not that into you

This McCall's 5657 started off so well.

I was pleased with the way the bodice was going in the intial rendering, and the fact that it came together rather quickly was a plus. After I attached the 5 (!) panels of ruffled skirt... well, it kind of lost me. Maybe it's because I know spring isn't right around the corner. Or maybe I know I need to get to the gym more before I'd ever even wear it in public. At any rate, I've cast off the strappy poppy dress and moved on to bigger and better things.

Leather :)

I have juuuuuust enough of this forest green suede for the BWOF 08-12-118 skirt.

The suede has a beautiful silky softness that makes you want to rub your cheek against it. The piece measures about 50" square, and I got it for only $25 during the Philly get together last November. It's so light and drapey, I love it. I'll need to find a funky contrasting remnant for the waistband, because I definitely don't have enough for that.

Still no AB bag fabric. I got all the interfacing at the BigBox sale this weekend, and I had two rolls of clearance home dec on the table to be cut... but I chickened out. I actually stopped her just as she opened the shears. I'm just not sure what I want the bags to look like. Do I want a funky print? Do I want sophisticated black? Do I want red? (don't I always?)

Speaking of red, Happy Love Day all ;)