Thursday, September 13, 2012

I Made A Pattern......ME!

Well I guess anything is possible. I actually made a pattern for an A line skirt. I know it's only a skirt with 2 pieces, but for me it is a great confidence builder. On one of the sewing blogs I read about another craft site (like Craftsy) that has online video classes. I was curious. Although the sewing projects they have are limited (a few dozen) I decided to give them a try. They offer different subscription packages and you pay one fee for access to any class on the site. I signed up for the 1 month trial membership to see if I liked it.

Anyway back to the skirt. They offer an A line skirt class that starts with the drafting of the pattern from your measurements, to completion of the sewn skirt. I found the whole process of drafting the pattern an awesome experience. Of course the success of this will depend on the fit and completion of the skirt, but for tonight I prefer just to gloat :) over my accomplishment....

Monday, September 3, 2012

Craftsy Sewing with Knits: 5 Wardrobe Essentials


Well I finally took the plunge and signed up for a Craftsy class. Sewing with knits: 5 wardrobe essentials was a great class! The class includes 5 PDF downloadable patterns for making a hoodie, 2 T shirts (a V neck and a scoop neck), yoga pants or shorts, and a surplice style dress. I really enjoyed this class and gained a lot of confidence along with a nice "hoodie" that I will definitely wear. Meg walks you through each project step by step while adding many useful tips on sewing different types of knit fabrics along the way. The course is pretty basic but I really enjoyed it, and no longer fear sewing with knits.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Project Runway All Atars Finale


So tonight was the finale of project Runway All Stars. I think the win went to the right designer. Would love to hear others opinions.

New McCall's Summer Patterns


Well McCall's released their new Summer patterns today, but I only saw one I really liked. It's not like I haven't seen this silhouette before, but I know this particular style looks well on me, and I love the open back on View B (the striped dress). Other than this one dress I really didn't see anything I liked. It is interesting to see the pattern companies are showing more "blocking" in their patterns to incorporate different patterns and colors. I don't know about anyone else, but all these warm weather patterns are giving me Spring fever.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

New Summer Simplicity Patterns

Have you seen the new Simplicity patterns? I opened up my email yesterday and immediately went to the website. They have a few dresses I really liked:



I like the styles of all of these dresses. I'm sure I will be picking them up at the next pattern sale.

















Monday, March 19, 2012

Finally Back and Pattern Organization


Well it has been how long since I posted??? I have been sewing here and there but I am finally back. Changing jobs twice in the last year (after working at the same company for almost 30 years) and having back surgery has been stressful and put sewing on the back burner. In the last few weeks I have gotten my serger up and running, and have organized my huge pattern collection. I had boxes of patterns everywhere and was not sure of what I even had. I made a master list accompanied by a photo of each pattern (including the vintage ones), and purged some of the styles I knew I would never sew. Then after checking several sewing blogs with ideas on pattern organization I purchased an Aneboda chest from IKEA. Wow am I pleased! It has 3 large deep drawers (deep enough to hold the large Vogue designer pattern envelopes) and approximately 5 rows across of patterns in each drawer. I was able to place every pattern I owned in there with room to spare. I am very pleased with this purchase. It was on sale for $49.00 (regularly $69.00), and it only took me about an hour to assemble it . If anyone is interested in purchasing this I suggest you do it soon as it is being discontinued. Now on to the fabric stash............