I don't know what it is about the week leading up to a big to-do that makes me want to sew so much, but it seems like whenever would be the least likely time to whip out the machine is exactly when I choose to do so.
I'm going to admit. I'm not an everyday stitcher. I'm not even an every-week sewer, but book me a plane ticket out of the state and I'll set up the machine in the dining room.
I, of course, realize that some of this has to do with my need to show-off (seriously, I have a blog to document it all for goodness sake). Mothers and mothers-in-law are great audiences for showing-off my handmade stuff.
For example, just before leaving for my bridal shower back last summer, I sat around hand-sewing the hem of a summer dress. Just before I left for my wedding in October, I made this dress:
Just before I went to my mother-in-law's for Christmas I made this one:
This time around, I'm doing crazy-tons of theatre stuff and I make a shirt. I know you were expecting "dress," but I'm branching out.
So yes, I made a shirt. The last time I made a shirt, I was in high school and it was a very simple, very boxy men's bowling shirt and my dad got one of the folks at his work to stitch "Miss Leah" over the pocket. I still have it, and maybe after I add some much-needed darts to it, I'll post it here.
But after a 7 year or so break from shirts, I decided to dive back in again. You see, I have this *crazy* idea about slowly crafting an entire wardrobe - except t-shirts and underwear, because I'm not that crazy.
Of course, about halfway through the shirt I realized that I didn't have a clue how to make buttonholes on this machine.
Let me say, I love the buttonholer on my machine. Love it! It made the whole process so easy I just want to run around putting buttonholes on everything. Forget cute as a button, how about cute as a buttonhole? And the more I type "buttonhole" in a row the less it sounds like I should be typing buttonhole. Also - did you know you can sew on a button with a machine? I'm so excited by this development in my life!
This was definitely A learning shirt, between the pin-tucks and lots of curved seams. But I'm super-proud of the hem and it was the best go I'm had with sleeves recently. So it's all to say I'm getting better - even if the collar on this shirt is a bit of a mess.
My other confession about this shirt? The contrast stitching was totally unintentional. I bought some dark blue thread for another project, which when I went to sew the shirt was the only blue thread I could find, so I assumed I got it for both projects. About halfway through the shirt I found the light blue thread. Ah well. As for that other project? I'm going to have to buy more thread, because this is ow much thread I had left at the end of this shirt:
PS - for those who are curious. The pattern was McCall's M5322 version A without the trim.