My September Sew for 30 Plan

September 1st is quickly approaching.  Are you ready?

I have lots of projects planned for this year's September Sew for 30 Challenge.

Numero Uno - First a foremost is the remaking of my wedding gown into a vow renewal ensemble of some sort.  I am taking the first week of September off of work and am treating it as a mini "Sewing Vacation" and plan to tackle this job first.  I have lots and lots of yardage to work with here as you can see in our wedding photo below - so we'll see what evolves.....

Once the vow renewal outfit is done - I have a bunch of other projects already cut out and ready to sew.  So - here we go - from top to bottom, left to right:

• The bright green will be a new Cynthia Rowley top - Simplicity 2281.  Pretty much a direct copy of the blue one I made recently.
• The two fabrics in the upper right (one stack pink, one stack green/black) will be 3 Sew Together Bags by Sew Demented.  I haven't made these before but am looking forward to it.  I bought the pattern at a craft show earlier this year and the sample bag looked very cute!
• Below the bag stacks is more pajamas!  McCalls 3017 - my favorite pj pattern.  This time, I'll be using a cute flannel with a bug print on it.  Recently snagged the flannel at only $2.00 per yard!
• A turtleneck from the green and blue knit.
• A Katherine Tilton pattern - Butterick 5925.  I've made this pattern before and really like it. This time, I'll be using a medieval knit print and I purchased at this year's Sewing Garage Sale, paired with a polka dot and lots and lots of trims.  This top I think will either be fantastic or a huge flop - we'll have to wait and see!

 Then, if I get all of the projects above done, I have a few crafty ones as well.

• A garment bag out of the top two fabrics.
• Christmas Woolens ornaments to finish. I started these last year but didn't complete them.
• A new Christmas advent garland.  This is half finished too.

I think with all of these projects I should be pretty busy!  What are your plans for September Sew for 30?

Happy sewing everyone!

Star

August MAGAM Completed - Butterick 5608

Hi everyone!  Just a quick post today - I've finished my August MAGAM and wanted to show it before I wear it tomorrow and it gets all wrinkly!  The blouse is Butterick 5608 and the simple elastic waist skirt is New Look 6762.

I made View A of the blouse - this view has a smaller drape around the shoulder area, bust darts that start at the neckline and end at the bust point and almost full length darts in the back.  The shoulder drape starts and ends in the dart lines.  



Here's the back view.  You can't really see the dart lines because of my busy print, but you can see where the drape finishes in the back.

Close-up of the front - can you see where the darts end?

Overall, I really like this top.  I made a size 10 and I think the fit is perfect.  There is no zipper, so it just pulls over your head.  The construction of the facings was an interesting process - not hard, just a different way to sew them.  The front and back facings incorporate the armhole facings too so you have two large pieces to work with.  First, you sew the neckline facings all around, trim, understitch the press to the inside.  Next, you flip the armhole facings to the outside, right sides together and sew from the back notch, thru the underarm seam to the front notch and trim, understitch and press to the inside.  Next, you hand sew the remaining sleeve cap area.  It actually made alot of sense when it was finished, but it was a little more hand sewing than I was anticipating.  I shortened the length by 2 inches.

The skirt is just an elastic waist A-line skirt that really doesn't need much elaboration so I'll just leave it at that.

For the stashbustin totals - here we go!

Blouse = 1.5 yards
Skirt = 1.5 yards
Total YTD = 74.125

That's it for today!  I'm working on cutting out alot of my September Sew for 30 projects and will post them in a few days.  I'm hoping to get ALOT of things sewn with the challenge.

Happy sewing everyone!
Star

New Look 6429 - I'm lovin' this dress!

Ta Da!  I'm lovin my New Look 6429 dress!  After my first test wear at work all day, I'm still calling it a success, albeit a little bit wrinkly.  

My version is from a dark blue pique I had in the stash.  I fully lined the dress as well - although my linings are two different materials - the back is a rayon and I'm not quite sure what the front lining is - but it's still dark blue!  I really like the darts in this dress - they start at the hip line and then slowly curve towards the bust - it creates a very nice line.

This is an invisible zipper in the back and two more fitting darts in the back as well.  I added 3 inches to the length and made a size 12 at the bustline (which I ended up taking in to about a size 10), tapering down to a 14 at the hipline.

You can see the curved bust dart a little better in this picture.

The cut outs in the front are just great!  The look of the cut-outs is created by 3 different tabs sewn to the front bodice that then sew into the front neck bands.  

I feel like I should be somewhere tropical but the palm trees in the back yard will have to do.

Stashbustin total yardage for this dress = 3 yards
YTD total = 71.125

Did I have a yardage goal for this year?  I can't remember....will have to look, but I am getting awfully close to sewing 100 yards this year.  Wow!  That's a lot of fabric yet the stash still doesn't look like I've made a dent....

Until next time - Keep on stitching!
Happy sewing everyone!
    Star

Vogue 1297 - a Sandra Betzina design

Here is a Sandra Betzina dress - Vogue 1297 - View B.  It's made from a funky print I've had in the stash for a few years.

I wanted to make View A with the gathered sides but just didn't have enough fabric so I made view B instead.  This actually turned out to be a good thing.  When I started constructing the front and backs (without the side flaps added yet), but bust darts were in the right place.  However, when I added the side flaps, the weight of the fabric pulled the darts down about 1.5 inches so they are now pointing to the wrong place.  However, the fabric has such a busy print, that I really don't think anyone will notice.

The flappy things (for lack of a better description) on the sides are quite large.  

But, they do have pockets in them, which is always a bonus!

The back looks ok.  This dress is not really that spectacular, but it will make a nice and comfortable addition to the wardrobe.  I did not care for the construction method of the neckline and armholes.  First - you iron on staytape in the middle of the seamline around all three areas. Next, you trim the seam allowance by 3/8" and then sew on the neckbands and armbands at a 1/4" seam allowance.  I did this for the neckline, but somehow either threw away or lost the pieces for the armholes and ended up just using bias tape instead.  I think it would be better to first, trim the pattern pieces by 3/8" in the neckline and armholes, then apply the staytape at the seamline - that way it's 3 less things you have to trim manually because they are already cut to the correct size.

Just a short post today.  Hope everyone is having a good August!

Stashbustin' totals:
Yardage for this dress = 3 yards
YTD Total = 68.125

Happy sewing everyone!
Star

August MAGAM Determined

My August MAGAM project will be a skirt from the purple linen and a blouse from the rayon batik.  I let the yardage amounts determine which patterns I will be using for both of them.  

For the skirt - I only have 1.25 yards and the only skirt pattern in my stash that will fit that amount is New Look 6762.  I'll be making View C - hopefully on the bias, but we'll see if that fits.

For the blouse - I have 1.5 yards of the batik and although I had a few patterns that would work with that yardage, I have been wanting to give the now out of print Butterick 5608 a try.  I'll be making View A.

Well see how the turn out!  The reviews for the blouse on PatternReview are all over the place.  Wish me luck!

Happy sewing everyone!
Star

July MAGAM - Finally finished - Vogue 8757

It's a few weeks late, but I'm finally finished!  My July MAGAM "Opposites" Challenge was to make something from the opposite season.  We are currently in the middle of a very hot summer, so my opposite was to make a quilted winter vest.  Since the theme for July was my idea, I feel kinda guilty for being so late in posting, but I have some good reasons:

• I ordered a custom color-matched zipper for the front closure.  After waiting for it to come in, I realized that I forgot to add the height of the collar in the length calculation and had ordered the wrong length!  It was too short!  (Math never was my best subject!)
• My lining was too short (which I knew it would be from the start) and I was trying to come up with a creative finish for the inside bottom but my mind was just blank (until yesterday - finally!)
• Our refrigerator decided it had had enough on the last day of an 8 day, 100 degree+ heat wave and it quit working.  So after living out of ice chests and doing some creative cooking for the last few weeks, I'm hoping it is finally repaired and working properly again.   

This vest really wasn't a hard project - but as usual, I tend to complicate things with extra embellishments and stitching.  I wanted to highlight some of the seam lines and used the tan satin fabric to make piping.  After sewing the piping into the seams, I then trimmed the seams and spread the seams and topstitched each seamline.

Here's a view of the inside after the seam has been cut, the piping spread apart and topstitched.  

The original armholes on the vest were very, very snug.  I like my armholes a little on the looser side so I lowered them by 2 inches at the bottom of the armhole and tapered that up about 1/2" on the shoulder seam.  The pic below shows before, after trimming, and after applying bias tape to finish.

After the zipper length disaster, I decided I didn't like the look of the zipper anyways on the front and thought that if I ever wore the vest open with the collar flopped down, the brass teeth on the zipper might catch on the quilted stitches and cause a bunch of snags, so it was probably a good thing that I ordered the wrong length!  Instead, I found a vintage covered button kit in my stash.  These buttons were passed down to me from my Nannie and they are probably from the 1950's (I'm guessing here) and I'm glad I was finally able to use them.  As you can see, they come in three sections - the outside brass ring, the inside section that gets covered with fabric and then the bottom piece that snaps everything together.  After cutting and hand sewing and small circle of fabric to the middle sections, they snapped together beautifully.

Views of the front.  Each covered button has a large snap behind it - those took forever to sew on by hand!!

The old blouse that I used for the lining looks quite sharp!  I didn't have enough material to match up the design lines on the print, but I think it looks ok.  I mentioned earlier that I was trying to come up with something creative for the inside bottom hem.  Because the length of my lining was about 1 inch too short, I needed something at least 2 inches wide for the bottom.  I ended up using the ties from the blouse to make a band that is sewn into the bottom hem and then hand stitched to the lining pieces above it.  Not my usual flashing finish for the bottom, but a more subtle look, which doesn't take away from the busy lining fabric.  

And here it is on me!  A bit grumpy looking in this picture, but it was hot again today and after putting on the jeans and standing in front of a fan for awhile, I managed to snap a few photos before I started sweating to death!  This will be a nice and cozy vest in the wintertime!

I managed to stick to two of my original "opposite" ideas for this project.

- Opposite Season - making something for Winter when my current season is Summer. - Yes!!

- Old versus New - turning something old into something new again by reusing the old top for the lining. - Yes!!

- Zipper versus Snap - Change the closure from snaps to a zipper.  - Nope - went back to the snap idea.

Here are the numbers for those interested:
Vest yardage = 2.25 yards
YTD Stashbustin total = 65.125 yards

Happy sewing everyone!

Star

September Sew for 30 - 2016!

September is National Sewing Month in the United States.  We all lead very busy lives and finding time to do the hobby we love can be difficult so I'd like to encourage everyone to "Sew for 30 minutes" everyday during the month of September.   It's amazing what you can get done in little increments of time!  A seam here, a press there and before you know it - you have a brand new little something!

The goal of September Sew for 30 is to MAKE TIME to do what you love and by gosh, by golly, let's have a little fun doing it this year!  As sewer's, we are naturally creative people and being creative with our time counts too.  Let's showcase what and how we are squeezing in that hobby time!

How will you spend your 30 minutes a day?  Here are some ideas:

You get the idea - have fun with it!  Here's a recent pic of me on a shopping spree at Mill End Fabrics in Reno, Nevada.

I'm in! - Sew now what do I do?

Blogs - Yes - if you have a blog, by all means, please post your sewing adventures there.  Blog posts are a great way to get involved.  Leave a comment with your blog address below so others can follow you.

Pinterest - This year, I'm encouraging everyone to have fun with the theme and post your sewing adventures to the new Pinterest group board! Sewing selfies are encouraged! To sign-up to post to the board, please send me an e-mail at starsthreads (at) gmail (dot) com.  You will receive an invitation from Pinterest with further instructions.  Please allow 1 - 2 days for the participation e-mail to come thru.  Be sure to include the hashtag #septsewfor302016 on your posts too.

Instagram and Twitter - Post your adventures and be sure to use the #septsewfor302016 hashtag.

Grab the Sew for 30 button - Feel free to grab a Sew for 30 button and add to your blog.  Just copy the code in the box on the upper right of this post, add a widget/gadget to your blog and your in business!

Go ahead, make the commitment!  You know you want to!  I'm looking forward to seeing your sewing adventures!

Happy sewing everyone!
Star