Long Distance Sewing and My Commitment to Reducing my Stash

13 Tuesday Sep 2016

Tags

Advance Pattern, Cynthia Rowley, McCalls 6044, Mens Shirts, sewing, Vintage

I have done quite a bit of sewing in the few months or so- but no blogging. I seriously need to take stock and decide what direction I am going to go in 2017! Well, I have pretty much decided which direction… I have to stop sewing for everyone else and get into some selfish sewing – because what is a sewing blog without pictures? And long distance sewing isn’t cutting it for me! Especially when they don’t take pictures!

Regardless of all that I decided I would share some of things I have made and some of the fun things I have coming up. One of the main things I have been sewing this year is men’s shirts. All short sleeve button downs in fun prints. I use McCalls 6044 and don’t even need to read the directions anymore! I need to take a new count but I am pretty sure I have now made over 30 men’s shirts. My son is a lucky young man, as is my brother! I have also made a few for friends that have asked. Star Wars seems to be a popular choice since I recently made two “Darkside” shirts!

I also recently finished up a Superman shirt for a work friend.

And this last weekend I made my son a JAWS shirt and a Deadpool shirt. I am off to California next weekend for a wedding and wanted to bring him some new additions to his wardrobe. (Just a sneaky peak of these since I plan on taking pics next weekend and doing a men’s shirt post!)

I made a Blue Hawaiian dress for Holly from Simplicity 1607- a Cynthia Rowley pattern… This dress is for my middle daughter Holly and she has it in hand but never sent a picture of her in it so here it is on Dolores!

And boy was I SUPER thrilled when I posted it on Instagram and Cynthia Rowley HERSELF liked my photo. 😀 I even got proof since I happened to be holding my phone at that moment and took a screenshot of the alert!

A few weeks back I whipped up 2 skirts – red for Daughter #1 and blue for Daughter #2.

Again, NO pics were sent to me… sniffle… so here they are AGAIN on Dolores.

Shoot- just realized that pic is buttonless but I did eventually find some to match and added them…

I could not find any buttons for this one so made some. I remember back in the day JoAnns had an amazing button selection- now I think it is greatly lacking (my nice way of saying the button selection at JoAnns sucks!)

One of my FAVORITE makes of the last few months was a vintage dress I made out of a floral rayon challis. I used an old Advance pattern I picked up from Etsy…

I LOVE this dress and wish I had spectacular pics to share with you… Instead I have these tiny ones.

It is a truly beautiful dress and I am very pleased with how it turned out. I even made a belt but unfortunately was afraid to put in the grommets so it is still in my possession!

I am adjusting to Texas summers and actually enjoying the thunder and lightning storms, humidity, and mosquitoes. OK- NOT the mosquitoes but I really DO enjoy the huge storms. I am taking Spin classes twice a week and walking every evening even if it is still 90 degrees F out. I have witnessed quite a few amazing sunsets on my walks!

When the time changes I am not sure what I will do since it will be dark long before I even get home from work!

I have some pretty exciting upcoming plans. 😀

I have a pair of Dr. Who Carolyn PJ’s on the deck for me, and Harry Potter PJ’s for Daughter #2.

I have been invited to TWO Halloween parties and plan on making a costume. I will be Regina, the Evil Queen from Once Upon A Time and plan to use McCalls 6818.

And my Christmas dress is also in the early planning stages. I am thinking about making this dress from Vogue (#1502) in either a navy or emerald.

On a final note, I thought I would share my latest commitment to lightening up my fabric stash. I made a year long deal with my cousin who also has quite the stash. We have to sew FOUR items for every piece of fabric we want to buy. I just finished my 4th item so am entitled to one piece of fabric. I am thinking that will cut down on the stash in record time! Hope I can keep to it!

Happy sewing my friends!

I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing… Star Wars Dress and Shirt… FINALLY!

02 Sunday Aug 2015

Posted by Sew Exhausted in Sewing

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

McCalls 6044, sew exhausted, Sewcialists, sewing, Sewing blog, sewing blogger, Simplicity 4432, Star Wars Dress, Star Wars Shirt, vintage dress

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, a young Jedi Princess-in-Training wanted a dress. A Star Wars dress. So her Jedi mother bought the fabric. Enough fabric for a dress for her and a shirt for her handsome Jedi brother who was off battling the Evil Galactic Empire. And the fabric sat. And sat. Waiting for the moment her mother’s Jedi skills would awaken and create the vision of loveliness she imagined.

And the fabric sat. And sat. Then, a date loomed ahead. The 4th of May. “May the 4th be with you.” The young Jedi Princess-in-Training wanted to wear her dress on that special date. But, that date passed. The fabric sat. And sat. And the conversation started:

Jedi Princess-in-Training: “Search your feelings, oh most wise Jedi Mother of Mine. Are you going to make this dress?”
Jedi Mother: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
Jedi Princess-in-Training: “I feel like it will be all too easy.”
Jedi Mother: “I will try.”
Jedi Princess-in-Training: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
Jedi Mother: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”
Jedi Princess-in-Training: “Use the Force, Mom”
Jedi Mother: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”

And the moons rose. And the sun set. And the moons rose again.. And the Jedi mother chanted to herself, “STAY ON TARGET.” She stayed up late into the night remembering the skills of those who had walked before her.

The young Jedi Princess-in-Training arrived home from her own Jedi training and saw her mother, finally, skillfully maneuvering the tools of her trade.

Jedi Princess-in-Training: Said while rolling her eyes…“You don’t have to do this to impress me.”
Jedi Mother: “The Force can have a strong influence on the weak-minded.”

It took the Jedi mother months of staring at the fabric on her cutting table. But finally the long awaited moment arrived! One Star Wars button down shirt and a dress awaited the lucky young Jedi Princess-in-Training and her handsome Jedi brother! They would now be garbed in the skillfully crafted garment their all powerful Jedi mother made after battling the Sith, thousands of Storm Troopers and even the most evil Darth Vader and his Galactic Empire. (Ok… she battled Tiredness at the End of the Day, and the most evil Lack of Motivation.)

Jedi Princess-in-Training: “I never doubted you! Wonderful!” –

And it was good.

Hope you liked that little bedtime story. 🙂 I DID complete a lovely little Star Wars sundress for Kadi and a button down shirt for my son Casey. And it DID take me a LONG time to get to. Here is the rundown!

Kadi’s dress is made from the Vintage Simplicity pattern 4432 that I can’t seem to get enough of right now. The bodice is fully lined and I added pockets to the skirt. This pattern is sized perfectly for her except the upper back needed taking in. I am not sure why that is? As a dancer she has great posture but for some reason I needed to take two big “chunks” out of the back neckline area. I actually put darts in to get rid of the excess and now it is a perfect fit. Whew…

The fabric is one of the Star Wars cotton prints readily available from JoAnns and probably quite a few other fabric stores. I think with the new Star Wars movie on the horizon we will see some more prints heading our way. I am anxious to get some Yoda fabric. For me!

Here is a close up of the fabric and dress. You can see it is a pretty simple design. 4 darts in the front and 2 in the back and a gathered skirt with pockets. And you can see some craft beer I was gathering together in the background!)

For Casey’s shirt I used McCalls 6044. I have made three shirts from this pattern for Casey now. A Green Bay Packers shirt, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt, and Star Wars. I have been making shirts for that boy since he was a toddler. Here is one I made for his Kindergarten pictures!

OMG- I remember those days!

I love making shirts for him because- well, I sew for the girls all the time and this is the one thing I am pretty successful at making for men. AND he wears them!