LATE - Breast Cancer Awareness

Vogue 8603 (skirt) Butterick 4898 (top)

I made this skirt

in October 2010 for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. However, I had other priorities that had to be accomplished and it did not get finished as plan. I also had this top planned

to match the skirt. I had this pattern in my stash for a Looong time and thought this would be just the moment to make it up.

I don’t have many pictures of the skirt being made up because, well umm, my camera have a tendency to disappear and reappear at will. These are the only photos I have of the skirt in progress.

                

I call them the rough ‘drafts’ of the garments. Very rough. I have a few more photos for the top, but they are not of the finished top because it is not finished. I need to make a mental note to myself to pay attention to detail. I done a 5/8 seam allowance on the collar piece and a 3/8 allowance on the back. But that is ok.

 

(And I didn’t even notice until I had the two pieces sewn together.) I made do because I was not going to unpick. I remedied that by sewing the upper collar and lining the same way. Good job! It looks nice to me.

A close up of the shell of the top.

The back, in the making of something beautiful that celebrates the Power of Women who Has overcome and WILL overcome the black shadows of Breast Cancer.   

The front.

I am moving on to the skirt, until I actually finish the top because this is all I have for it right now.

The first thing I want to show you for the skirt is the lining. I used something, I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s a poly something. I can actually wear it reversible but I am not comfortable with it that way.   

                     

I am really happy with my zipper this time and it would actually look better if the skirt was not so tight. I thought I had out the 14, instead this is the 12. I am going to go back in and let it out a little, since that all the space I can muster up – a little. Then all the “stress points” can disappear and look better than they do now. I wore my skirt to church and was scared to move too much for fear of ripping a seam! Also, I know on the packet the skirts seam a bit high waist, but dang, my skirt kept rising to my chin, it went up so far! lol So, yeah, I will surely let it out as far as possible.

This is the inset detail. As I see this picture, it’s crooked – the skirt. Yeah, those seams are coming out!

                              

The side detail is what had drawn me to this pattern in the first place. You can hardly see it because, like I said, my skirt kept creeping. But, it is really cute and I will be doing another one. I am thinking a black, and maybe a herringbone and hounds tooth in a pretty color. It would look good in a crisp white too. But I AM NOT ONE FOR A WHITE BOTTOM!  

Here’s the whole outfit I wore to church service. I wish I could knit or crochet so I can reproduce this top and scarf in a Neapolitan color scheme. You know the buckets of ice cream where the chocolate is always the last to go…IF it ever goes.

Here are more views of me playing around in my outfit before I HAD to take off my boots. Oh, and go cook dinner.

 

                                         

                                                                                                            

                                                                                                              

Thank you for your time and I will have the top done….one day. But when I do, You know I will post it.

Until later, Schey.

 

Fabric Stash 2011–Simplicity 5284

These are actually the first articles I started on for the Fabric Stash Contest 2011 over at www.sewing.patternreview.com. My goal is not to win anything, instead, my purpose it just to clear out some fabric and get things made that have been in limbo for a while. The tops are for my soon-to-be 2 year old. She likes them very much, but just won’t keep still to take pictures in them. So, I will post what I have. This is the pattern in speaking. For the contest I made top version A. This is my second and third times making it. I made the top once before and the neck band was a dud. I put it down and didn’t pick it back up until now. I remember why I put it down now…I didn’t feel like stitch picking the neckband off. Come on, it’s on a knit! It was worth more of my time to throw it away than redo it. I have more of the material anyways. It was like the blue ‘flowers’ only red.

Here are the two fabrics used for the tops. I think they are very pretty but a little light weight for the winter months. I didn’t know it until I got the fabric here. It sord of remind you of a Swiss dot material in knit – with bad return. But it works for a 2 year old who grows like the grass (Or if you are standing in my yard – like the red dirt). Here’s the front and back pieces sewn together at the shoulder seams. The blue has been turned to the right side.

Here are the arm and neckband pieces with some turned to the right side.

                         

The shirts sat like this (unhemmed) for a few days. Dangling form the chandelier that I rescued from the landfield about 5 years ago. I just do NOT like putting hems in knits. But thankfully, I ran into this technique that is really neat and fun and makes some good hems on knits. I’ll do a how-to later – so I can use some fabric where you can actually see what’s going on. It’s not a new technique at all; it just works for me.

                

 I was trying to get my baby to turn to the front for a picture but I guess she likes the back more than the front. Then she wanted to stand in the chair (second picture) like her sister was doing for the hemming of her Jalie’s. She still wanted the back to be pictured.

Well, I got to turn around but she started taking off the shirt! She really don’t like the front, huh? :~?

Well, I actually had another opportunity to get a front view. But now she won’t look at the camera! OMG…I quit. lol Kids. (Oh, the dress that’s hanging in the background is for a lady who asked me to fix her sides seams. I called and left a message and have not heard from her, yet. Sonny, if you are reading this blog, your dress is done.)

Since the owner of the blue top did not want to continue her diva shoot, I decided to just lay the red one on the chair and click take a pic.

I tried to do another technique I read somewhere. (I have got to remember where I read these things!) I may do a how-to for this one too. I said ‘may’ because I am not too happy with the results. It could may as well be the fabric though. I’ll try again on another fabric and see how it works. If it does good then I’ll post it. Cool? Cool.

     

Here is how the hem turned out with that technique. It looks like there was a band put on but really it’s not.

That’s all I have for the tops. So, as always, until next time,

Schey

Fabric Stash 2011–Jalie 2908

 

Retro Jalie

Here is, yet another, pair of the famous Jalie Jean. Another item for the Fabric Stash Contest 2011 over at www.sewing.patternreview.com. These pants are a twist of two tails. The denim has been cut out since the beginning of school and the green corduroy is what will used toward the contest. I started cutting and sewing and then things went crazy in my head. Life showed its ugly face and made my creations mock its ugly self. But it didn’t succeed because these pants turned out cute. They have a retro feel to them. You know the pants you used to wear back in the day. Only back then, each leg width was about the same as the waist and the yoke was so high they made the waistband touch your chest bone, and you wonder why the bottoms never touched the top of your shoes. Yeah, high-water bell-bottoms. Well, here are my daughter’s new Jalie’s and their triumphant journey into their new resting place – her closet.

The tale of two tales.

 

Pockets in the making.

Nonfunctional pockets – wrong side.

Nonfunctional pockets – right side.

The nonfuncts are put together. I serged the ‘pockets’ so that raveling will be reduced.

These are the pieces I gave my daughter to choose from. She had to pick from numbers 1 and 2 and then from 3 and 4. She chose 2 and 4. So those are the ones I put together and put the other two parts together for the second pair.

Back of the corduroy and the pretty shaped pocket.

 

 

 

 

Pair one with the fly and functional pockets.

 

The inside of my pants are getting better! I forgot to serge the seam that connects the yoke and back before I sewed it down. I just left it that way.

Here are the front and back with the loops and button.

***The next pair will come as soon as I clear my memory and take those pictures too. ***

Ok, so I have more pictures of the retro Jalie jeans for my daughter.

I will simply post them with a brief descript since I am pressed for time and trying to do my school work at the same time.

Front and back of the functional pair of Jalie jeans. I tried to block out the belly but the darn thing kept creeping in the pictures. I made them long because we all know kids grow up faster then they grow out. (Unless they live off fastfood and cookies everyday and play the 360 and XBox all the time.)

This is the front and back view of the nonfunctional pair. There’s that belly again. I think a belt is really in need here. The waistband stretched bad on this pair.

Oh yeah, I thought I’d let you see the inside of the nonfunctional pair. I used the fly just for a guide for the mock opening.

 

Until later, Schey.