Sewing Mojo Drain

Well, the skirt project drained my mojo (see parts of the project here).  The last time I saw it - the skirt, not the mojo -  it looked like this:

This skirt has been stowed away in its own box in a cabinet until I really, really, really want to work on it again.  The skirt will be most useful when I want to wear dark colors more than I want to wear light, bright colors.

Think: winter in Florida - which, I admit, is not really saying much.  Like, two, three days a year?

Yes, I can get off track.  A little.

I did something nice for myself last weekend.  I had a manicure on Saturday a week ago, then bought new sandals the next day, and DH painted my toe nails Sunday night.  Here's what they look like with my favorite color, purple:

That's a "Florida Casual" look above; to go to work, throw a shirt over it:

I hope to get another set of bed sheets cut out this week (see original project here).  I will try to post about that soon.

Next up will be inspirations for summer dresses.  Here's hoping I actually make some summer dresses before it's no longer hot enough to wear them!

More Sewing "baby steps"

Sewing progress is very slow.  One day, I moved the skirt in progress from the cutting table to the ironing board:

A few days later, I placed the skirt in position to be pinned for the hem:

Like my husband likes to say to other drivers, "Can you Go any Slower?"

Guess not ...

Pressing open a Side Seam

I got back to work on the skirt today.  I have a lot of pictures of the progress of the skirt, and I intend to eventually compile a how-to for this pattern, New Look 6343.

In the meantime, here are some pictures to describe how I press open the side seam of this skirt.  I use "Dritz Ezy-Hem" plates, which are metal and thus help to suck the heat out of the fabric.  I also use a "ShopSmith" 2" x 48" aluminum ruler, which is also metal and also rather heavy.

I pull the skirt over the ironing board with side seam centered, hem first.  I pull it on so far that the waist is inside the tip of the ironing board:

I press open the top half of the side seam, place two hemming plates over the opened seam, and place the iron on top to hold them down until the pressed seam (and the plates) cool:

I pull the skirt waist off the ironing board until the lower part of the side seam is straight.  I press that seam open and place a shopsmith ruler over the opened seam allowances until they cool.

Here is a close-up of the pressed side seam.

Here's the other side seam, ready to be pressed.  I don't know why I didn't notice before that the length of the skirt would fit on the ironing board.

Here is the pressed side seam, cooling off.

Eat Paleo, Wear Red, and Sew a Little

Here's a picture of a typical type of dinner we eat on the paleo diet.  This was from one night earlier this week.  It was basically a roast and a catch-all of vegetables that had been cooked in the crock pot:

Where I work, many people choose to wear red on Fridays, in support of our troops.  It's a habit that would be hard for me to break.  Here's the outfit I wore today -- M5893 with a thrifted shirt worn as a jacket:

Last, but not least, I sewed the lower skirt pieces to the middle skirt pieces.  I pressed each seam flat, first on one side ...

... and then I pressed the other side ...

... then I pressed each seam up:

I also trimmed each seam by about half:

The next step will be to topstitch each seam from the right side, but I will save that for a later day.

More Sewing Progress

No matter how small the accomplishment, sewing progress IS sewing progress.

I have been working on New Look 6343, ever so slowly.  I am using the lines of the black and white view for both the front and the back:

I recently cut out all the pieces.  Today I pinned the lower skirt pieces, and they are now ready to be sewn:

I will post my progress.

A Little Sewing Progress Today

I finally finished cutting out the current project. It is the New Look 6343 skirt pattern.  I made it before (click here) in a jersey fabric called Jet from Joann's.  It is a really cheap-o, thin knit, but I was able to make it without hemming it.

I am now making this skirt in a Navy ponte de roma knit, which has more body and is altogether a classier fabric.  I have lengthened the skirt by five inches, and I also plan to hem it.  I have taken pictures of the current project in progress.  You can see the pictures and my comments by clicking on the picture below.

Enjoy!

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How Slow (-ly) can I Sew?

Last weekend I showed you this:

... and in a whole week, all I've done is this:

I am going to lengthen this, the top section, by five inches.  The waistline, shown at the left, is more than five inches from the end of the fabric, which is off the picture to the left.  The bottom edge of the top piece is where I cut the pattern, but I also cut towards the edges of the fabric so that I can angle the side seams correctly.  I hope to take a picture when I do that so you can see what I mean.

Getting a Round Tuit

I'm getting a Round Tuit, and will share it with you.

First, I will show you the current sewing project which has been waiting for me to get that Round Tuit for about a week now.

I have decided to recreate an old skirt in a better fabric.  See the discussion here.

Shown on the cutting table is the New Look 6343 skirt pattern, pressed with a dry iron and ready to go.  Behind it on the right is the folded ponte roma knit in navy which I will use for this pattern.

And now for that Round Tuit I promised you:

Sewing Mojo Problems

My sewing mojo has been inconsistent lately.

I started to alter a RTW skirt that was too long.  I cut off the waistline casing with elastic and drawstring, then serged the cut edge.  I left that on the cutting table for a long time.

I traced and cut out stretch woven, above-the-knee shorts, but left that project on the cutting table for a few weeks, too.

I traced a pattern to make my DH some knit pajama shorts, then cut it out in a light-weight woven fabric.  I know that a test garment should have similar properties of the final product.  What Was I Thinking?!?  That sat there for a couple weeks, on top of the cutting table, in the mess of tsunami-like piles of stuff.  You know - flat-surface syndrome.

Realizing that files of stuff were not helping my attitude towards sewing, I decided to do something that I Really Wanted To Do.  Read that as:  Make Something for MySelf.  Easy stuff first.

Using the "one step at a time" method combined with the "one day at a time" method, I managed to iron open packaged wide double-fold bias tape, pin it to the top of the skirt, and press the bias tape to the inside of the skirt, which took at least three days.

One day last week, I was wearing a particular skirt that is just simply getting old.  It's made of cheap navy jet knit and I'm not enjoying it as much as I used to.  I decided to replace it.  I bought some navy ponte roma knit, which I really like.  I will probably use the same pattern as the skirt it's to replace, but add some length to it - about three or four inches.  Here's the original skirt:

nl 6343