Completion, Progress, and Learning

Completion:

As promised about a week ago - here's my finished a-line skirt. I had to do some adjusting to the waistband (because my waist is not rectanglular), but I love the finished product. It isn't a fabric I would normally pick out or wear, but somehow, here it works.

Progress:

Whenever I'm knitting a sweater, I'll periodically ask Mr. Cleaver "Does it looks like a sweater yet?" Answer right now? : Yes!

Learning:

I mentioned last week I was drafting a tee and trying my first knit-sewing experience. The sewing part was okay, but the tee fit terribly. It was about 2 inches too short (not even counting hemming), the neckline was off, and it was bunching at the arms in an altogether unattractive way.

Mistakes seem less daunting when you have Cadbury creme eggs.

I wandered around the house in a shirt full of pins for about a half an hour trying to figure out where I went wrong.  I'll admit that the instructions for this one aren't terribly detailed - I'd suggest measuring a lot of your store-bought shirts first for things like length - and I was dissapointed that there were no alteration suggestions in the book, then I realized what I needed - the full bust adjustment.  So I've totally redrafted the top for version 2.0 and purchased some more (probably inappropriately thick interlock) jersey and will hopefully cut it out later this week.

Meet Hildy or Pre-Lent Productivity

Last SaturdayI took the plunge and bought a new sewing machine:

That's her on the right. She's a Pfaff Select 3.0 and her name is Hildy (like Brunhilda, because of the German engineering). The day after the purchase I went over to my friend Maggie's house for a sewing party. I helped her work through her first commercial pattern and I worked together a wearable muslin of the a-line skirt I drafted at the beginning of the month.

To get the full effect, I need to get an outfit shot, so for now here's a sneak peak:

With the purchase of my machine (from the highly recommended Sew Portland) I also get a 2 hour intro to the machine class, which I haven't scheduled yet as well as a monthly "new owner" project class for one year.

My first new owner class was the Monday after I bought Hildy and I made this cute little Origami bag.

The sewing was pretty straightforward, but the construction is clever (hint: it involves two squares sewn together). And i'm now using it to hold my knitting notions.

I'm currently in the process of drafting my second piece from Cal Patch's book, the basic tee - which will require me to try sewing knit for the first time - gulp!! But I'm sure with Hildy at my side I can handle it :)

Sewing Fever

As I mentioned before, one of my 2010 goals is to make more time for sewing. Part of the reason for my renewed enthusiasm is that my friend Maggie just started sewing and there is nothing more contagious than the enthusiasm of a new sewer.

Friday after work be drove out to Stanford and visited the newly-expanded fabric section of Marden's (a local surplus/salvage chain). Rows upon rows of fabric, most priced at $2.99 a yard. Let us just say that our cart was pretty fully by the time we hit the cutting table. I whedled my selection down to the five pieces above.  I already have plans for a few of the cuts (from left to right):

The green on the bottom I hope to make into the Ceylon pattern from Collette Patterns.

Some kind of dress, but I'm sure yet- any suggestions are welcome!

The next two pieces will likely be tops of some sort.

The yellow piece second from the top is going to be a flouncy skirt of some kind, with a dark navy contrast

The flowered piece on the top I'd like to make into a version of this top.

I also just finished drafting a simple A-line skirt from my new favorite craft book - Design It Yourself Clothes, I'm hoping to work my way through the book over the course of the year. Now I just need to solve that pesky sewing machine problem 9 but the research is on!)