Me Made May 2017 - Sign me up!

It's time to sign up for Me-Made-May again!  Details for the party can be found here.

Along with wearing me-mades for the month, my pledge will help nudge me along in my closet purging project.  Here is my pledge:

I, Star of www.starsthreads.blogspot.com sign-up as a participant of Me-Made-May '17.  I will endeavor to wear at least one me-made per day for the entire month and to purge the closet of one item no longer loved for each day of the month too. 

I'll complete a summary post at the end of the month of the me-mades worn along with a heaping pile of items to get rid of!  Clothes, shoes, jewelry - anything goes!

Just a quick post today!

Happy sewing everyone!

Star

More Jalie Cora's

I am just loving the Jalie Cora's workout pants pattern.  Here are version #2 and #3.

Number two was created from an old pair of workout pants that was constantly falling down due to the elastic not being correct.  So I decided to cut them apart and use them in some Cora's instead. I paired the graphic print with some plain black from my stash. Here are the original pants - pretty crazy print I know.

And here they are as Cora's.  Sorry these pics are a bit crappy but you get the idea - they were taken in my closet at home after work.  And no - I don't normally workout in Birkenstocks.  After sewing each seam with the serger, I then sewed it with the coverstitch machine using Wooly Nylon in the looper to create the decorative stitching on the outside of the pants.  That took a little while to figure out, but the wooly nylon thread in the looper is the key for workout pants. 

Here's the third pair using some fabric from the stash.  These were sewn using the coverstitch machine as well, but I used regular serger thread for the decorative stitching.  Not so much luck this time.  Of course the first time I put them on, I heard a "Pop" on the side and sure enough, the serger thread had broke.  They won't fall apart as the decorative stitching was on top of the regular serger stitching, but they might look a bit thready in the future - especially if alot of squats are in the workout plan that day - yikes!  So - lesson learned here - only use Wooly Nylon if I'm doing this stitch in workout wear.  These pics were in the locker room at work post-workout so I have on my normal shoes and gloves that I wear.  

These two pants add to my stashbustin total as both were using stash fabrics for at least some portion of them.  It takes about a yard for each pair so that adds 2 yards to my total.  This bring my YTD total up to 19.25 yards.

Happy sewing everyone!  Just a quick post today!

April MAGAM Completed - Sewing Workshop Poppy Vest

I hadn't decided on my April MAGAM project until this past weekend.  I was thinking about what I would wear to the sewing guild's Spring Event where we will have Linda Lee from The Sewing Workshop as a guest speaker. The event is this coming Saturday, April 29th, so I didn't have much time to make something, but I wanted it to be a Sewing Workshop pattern.

Then I thought of this gorgeous fabric purchased from the sewing garage sale....

There was only a yard of it and I immediately thought of The Sewing Workshop's Poppy Vest pattern. I have made the pattern before, but it has been a long time ago.  So off I go to my pattern stash to pull out it out.  And of course, I don't have enough fabric.  I am short about 9 inches in length and about 6 inches in width.  

So, off to the fabric stash to find something that matches and as luck would have it, I had a piece of plain black wool that was about the same weight and drape as the fabric above.  I added a 10 inch piece that runs from the left front, thru the left shoulder, down to the bottom right - basically just cutting the fabric in half and adding the strip in.  

So now I had enough length wise, I needed to add a section to the left front to make up the width needed.  I added about an 8 inch piece along the left hand side.

Basically, the fabric now looks like it has a giant "T" running thru it.

Once cut out, it was looking a bit plain so I decided to add some embellishment threads to the black pieces:

Now we are getting somewhere.  The black fuzzy is a piece of yarn.  The green is a ribbon I had in my scrapbooking stash and the others were various threads and yarns I had laying around.  Here's a close-up of the threads:

And voila!  The finished product!

I covered a button using the reverse side of the fabric.

I will pair with with some black leggings and either a t-shirt or a turtleneck (not sure of the weather yet for that day).  I think this turned out pretty cute!

Total yardage needed to complete this vest was 1.625 yards.  So after piecing together what I had, I made it work.  And of course, I'm adding this vest to the stashbustin' total for the year.

So far, I'm up to 17.25 yards YTD.  A bit of a slow start this year, but the important thing is that I'm still moving forward and bustin' that stash!

Happy sewing everyone!

Star

Sewing Garage Sale a huge success!

This year's Sewing Garage Sale was a huge success!  With the new, larger facility we were able to hold more stuff and more shoppers!  When I arrived at 7:45 a.m. to assist with the set-up, there were already people in line outside waiting for the doors to open - and some of them brought their own chairs to sit in!  Now that is dedication!

Here we are all set-up right before the doors opened at 9:00 a.m.  Just look at all of those tables full of fabric and sewing goodness!

And here we are fifteen minutes later with everyone inside and shopping like mad:

I have no idea what the final number of shoppers was, but as you can see, it was alot.  Everyone was in a good mood and their bags were full!  I did try to contain myself this year and only buy pieces that I could visualize as a garment or had a pattern in mind for it and I think I did fairly well.  Here are some of the great fabrics I purchased along with my plans for them:

This is a beautiful knit 3.25 yards for $9.00 from Denmark.  I think it will sew up well as Vogue 8512 which coincidentally, I also bought the pattern at the sale:

Another great knit is this angular print that will sew up nicely in a wrap dress - Simplicity 2369.  It was 2 yards for $4.00.

This sweater knit I have nick named my "Lava Lamp" fabric and it was labeled as coming from Mood Fabrics originally.  It was 2.5 yards at $5.00 (I'm sure it's original price at Mood was much more than that!).  I am seeing this one as Sandra Betzina's Vogue 1375 long vest with a black trim on the edges.

These two fabrics will become a t-shirt of some description.  The black crinkle knit is from Peggy Sagers 2.25 yards for $4.00 and the black/white/grey cotton lycra blend was 1.5 yards for $3.50.  There is enough of the black crinkle knit that I can probably squeek out another t-shirt too.

 
This knit just feels like butter!  It's from Emma One Sock and is a design from Theory.  I can see this as a turtleneck.  It was 2 yards for $8.00 - a bit much, but it feels glorious!

This red cotton holey knit is from Emma One Sock.  It was in two separate pieces for a total of 2.25 yards for $3.50.  I'm thinking a cardigan or jacket or sleeves on something.

This mixture includes from the top clockwise - a black/grey/white knit that will be a long sleeve t-shirt - 2 yards for $4.00.  The red will be an accent to a tunic from The Tunic Bible - .75 yards for $1.00.  The blue/white/black gauze I'm thinking will be a shawl of some sort - 1.75 yards for $2.75.  The lime green mesh will be used in workout wear - 1.5 yards for $1.00.

We are getting near the end of my haul - just a few more to go!  This black and purple reversible fabric was 2.66 yards for $5.25.  Not sure what the content is, but I'm thinking a skirt of some sort.

This green and teal reversible knit will be a Marcy Tilton t-shirt.  It was 2 yards for $5.00

I'm a bit behind with the cold shoulder trend, but I think this knit will look nice as McCall's 7468.  It was 2 yards for $6.00.

This white knit was sitting all by itself so I thought I could give it a good home.  Only one yard for $1.50, but maybe it can be sleeves on something?

And lastly, we have this gorgeous Italian stretch jacquard in black and chartreuse.  It was only 1 yard for $2.50.  Not alot to work with here but I'm thinking of pairing it with a plain black to make a vest.

So that sums up my fabric purchases from the sale.  I bought a total of 30.5 yards of fabric and in addition to other goodies (patterns, notions, etc.) my total spend was around $80.00.  Not too shabby!

I hope everyone who attended had a great time and a special kudos to the lady in line who reached out to me to tell me she followed my blog!  Whoop!  Whoop!  Thank you!  It's always a pleasure to meet fellow sewists!

Happy sewing everyone!

Star

The 2017 Sewing Garage Sale is coming!

Time to mark those calendars again!  The 2017 Sacramento Chapter of the American Sewing Guild's Annual Garage sale is quickly approaching!  And bonus this year - it will be in a new, bigger location!!

April 15, 2017

Orangevale Community Center

6826 Hazel Avenue

Orangevale, CA  95662

9:00 am - 1:00 pm

Get there early as the line starts forming at about 8:00 am!  

If you would like to sell some of your own items, please click on this link for more information.

So far, I have 81 items to sell at the garage sale - which includes 53.75 yards of fabric.  So, if I stay below that amount in my yardage buying, I will be still be ahead in my stashbustin' challenge - well - at least that's how I'm justifying it in my head!  

I've already boxed up everything I plan on selling this year before taking pics of the items, but I thought I would show some of the garments I've made this past year from previous garage sale fabric purchases to show you some of the fabulous finds you will come across!

Vogue 9077

The multi-print rayon in this dress was purchased at the garage sale.  

Asymmetrical Skirt

The boiled wool and the lining fabric were both from the garage sale....

Simplicity 1587

Nice rayon print purchased at last year's sale....

Butterick 5925

The faces knit print was from last year's sale and the polka dot was from a previous year's sale.

Vogue 8553

A nice knit print from last year's sale (I think - could have been from the year before).

All in all - lots of good finds!  This year, I will be focusing more on finding knit prints and matching from fabrics that have been in the stash for awhile so I'll be bringing fabric swatches with me to match!  At least that's my plan at the moment - anything can happen on the day of the sale!

Happy Sewing everyone and I hope to see you at the sale!

Star

McCall's 7405

It has been ages since my last post, but hey, I've been busy!  Though, not too busy to squeeze in a little simple sewing here and there and this dress was a super simple one to make.  Seeking some warmer weather so I could actually wear the new dress, we headed to beautiful San Diego for the weekend.

I bought this fabric last year from Joann's because I just LOVE how the colors blend together.  It has been sitting in the stash waiting for the perfect pattern to come along and low and behold, McCall's came up with the winning pattern. This is McCall's 7405 - a pattern designed for the beginning sewer. I made view D with a little elastic casing at the waist creating a blouson effect (I think that's the right word!).  It has a belt as well.

There is a casing around the front neck and the back neck pieces with a tie at the back neck - so no zippers or buttons in this dress!  There is supposed to be a slit in one of the side seams, but I decided to just sew both side seams to the hem.  Also - I made a size Medium and I think it's just a little bit too big.  An easy alteration to make it a little smaller though - just unpick the casings at the sides, sew up the sides and restitch the casing down.  Should be simple enough to fix.  

Here I am trying to blend in with the locals....

  Ahhhhh - don't you just love the ocean!

That's it for me today - just a quick post.  I'm not sure which took longer to do - the sewing of the dress, or the time it took me to write up the post today!

We're adding this puppy to the stashbustin total too!

Total for this dress = 3.5 yards
YTD Total = 15.625 yards

Happy sewing everyone!

Star