Business cards!

After 18 months in my new job, I finally got some business cards. Rather than start a new large project, I decided to spend a few minutes this evening making myself a business card holder out of fabric scraps. I used the super simple tutorial I found here.

Next time I would increase the width from 4.5" to maybe 4.75" or so. The final round of edge stitching made the pockets just a tad too narrow, so I have to work a bit harder than I would like to get the cards in the pockets.

Sorry for the blurry photos, but I didn't feel like taking them again when I uploaded them to my laptop and realized they weren't clear.

Still not sure what my next sewing project will be. Guess it's still a surprise!

Simplicity 2444 Modeled: My Easter Dress

It is sunny and warm here today, so I wore my new dress to church and then convinced James to take some pictures when we got home. As you can see, I added a little lace collar to the neckline. I got a whole bag of lace extras from Leah a little while back, and I decided this would be the perfect dress to liven up with a bit of lace.

Here's a shot of the front where I'm not being silly and my hands aren't in my pockets so you can see that the skirt does, in fact, hang correctly.

I need to make a few small adjustments still. I had tried to fix the gapping of the front neckline by putting in two small darts. While that fixed the neckline itself, I still have too much fabric across the top of my chest, a few inches below the neckline. So I will have to mess with my darts to fix that.

The little bit of wrinkling at the small of my back seems to be caused by the fact that I need to take the waist in a tad and I had cinched my belt tight, causing some fabric puckering.

I think the lightweight poplin worked perfectly for this dress because it gives a bit of body to the skirt.

A few detail shots:

-- lace Peter Pan collar (you can kind of see the excess fabric just below the neckline in this shot)

-- hand-picked zipper

-- seam-lace finished hem

This was not a complicated dress, and I may end up making it again. If I do, I'll try to fix my last little fitting issues with the pattern before cutting out the fabric.

Oh, and remember this dress?

Well, I spent a bit of time fixing the fitting issues with this one a few weekends ago and am much happier with it now. I actually wore it to work recently! I took in the waist at the side seams, and that helped a bunch. But I also put in a dart right at the point of the V on the neckline, and put in a decent-sized dart on each side of the back neckline to pull it all in. The fit is much improved.

Pardon the wrinkles, I haven't ironed it since I wore it to work, and the linen/rayon blend wrinkles really easily.

I'm finally happy with this version of New Look 6643, but I spent so much time trying to get the fit right by redrafting a smaller size, resizing and fixing seams, etc, etc, etc, that I think I'm done with that pattern. I have a couple of other patterns for a sheath dress, so there's no need to deal with the headache that is this pattern. I definitely learned a good lesson with this one though --- don't bother buying a pattern if the smallest size is too large and you can find the same silhouette with better sizing from another brand.

I'm not sure what I will work on next. Maybe a skirt, maybe I'll try to fix the fitting issues on the vintage-pattern dress I started, maybe I will work on another sun dress. I guess it will be a surprise for me too!

Simplicity 2444

Things weren't going quickly and easily enough for my vintage dress foray over spring break, so I decided to make something else that would go more smoothly (hopefully). I haven't had much time for sewing (or anything not related to work) over the last several weeks, and I didn't want to spend what little time I did have trying to figure out ways to fix huge fitting problems. I just wanted a simple, fun new dress. So I pulled out Simplicity 2444 and a cotton poplin I already had in my stash from Fabric.com ($2.49/yard on sale several months back). I decided on the simple, unadorned view:
Happily, everything did indeed go quite smoothly, for the most part. I saw several references on PatternReview to gapping of the front neckline, and I ended up with the same problem. To fix it, I put a small dart on either side of the center front (if I make this again, I'll modify the pattern itself to take out a wedge of fabric at the center front neckline).

I didn't really modify much else. I cut my typical 8 for the bodice and graded to a 12 at the waist. I put a small tuck in the pattern at the back neckline to prevent gapping in the back, and I had to shorten the skirt by 3". But those are all usual for me with Simplicity patterns. I skipped the invisible zipper this time (they were sold out at the store and I didn't want to wait), so I hand-picked the zipper instead. I kept the inside finishing really simple and mostly just made good use of my pinking shears. I used seam lace to hem the skirt and that seemed to help avoid the problem of easing in the fullness of the skirt.

I just finished the dress tonight, and it's being washed to remove the washable marker marks. I will hopefully have modeled pictures tomorrow. Happy Easter!

Spring Break Sewing!

It's finally spring break! I thought it would never get here. I get a week off from teaching --- but that does not equal a week off from work. Nevertheless, here I am at home, drinking my coffee in my pajamas on a Monday morning. I have a huge pile of grading to work on today, and lectures for next week, but I'll work from the comfort of my own home and on my own time today. Tomorrow I'll go back into the office and actually try to get some research done (yay, research!).

In the spirit of actually having a bit of a break, though, I'm going to make sure I am not spending 10 hours (or more) at work every day and I'm going to get some sewing done. My plan is to jump into the vintage patterns that have started appearing in my pattern library.

Up first is Advance 3540. I won this pattern and fabric in a giveaway hosted by Gertie back in June. I'm not sure about the size, so I started making a muslin of the short sleeve version yesterday out of some cotton fabric I cannibalized from an early sewing project that turned out just ok (meaning: I've never worn it). I figured this would at least be a useful reason for cutting it up. So far, the pattern is very simple and once I get the fit settled, the actual dress should go very quickly. There's no zipper, just two buttonholes in the front for the tie at the empire waist.

Next is Simplicity 5315, that I won in a giveaway hosted by Leah at Struggle Sews a Straight Seam. I was at Hancock Fabrics yesterday picking up a few McCall's patterns for $1 each, when I saw this aqua and dark chocolate (not black) cotton pique for $2.95/yard and thought it would be perfect for this simple, casual sheath (sleeveless version).

These are both really simple patterns that should go together quickly, but I'll have to make muslins of both to check the fit, and that is what will slow me down the most. I have one more vintage pattern in my library, but I doubt that I will get to it this week. And who knows what I'll be in the mood to sew when I next have time to start a project? I tend to just go with however I'm feeling. I figure that it's my free time and it's supposed to be fun, so why should I stick to a "plan" and have it feel like a chore, right?

Anyway, I should probably get started on that grading so that I can avoid feeling guilty when I stop working at 3 or 4pm and start sewing instead. :P

Happy spring break!

Hey girl

source

This really speaks to me right now. I'm watching Downton Abbey Season 2 and I recently had two grant proposals rejected. Thank you, Handmade Ryan Gosling!

No sewing, but...

So I haven't had a whole lot of time for sewing or knitting (or indeed much of anything) over the last few weeks. Here's what I have been doing since my last post a month ago:

1. I was at a weeklong conference in Austin, TX. I ate too much barbeque and now feel sick at the mere thought of beef brisket or pulled pork. The conference was good, but busy, and I was able to spend some time with some great friends and colleagues that I haven't seen in a while.

2. I have been teaching a new class for the first time. Each lecture is taking me ~12 hours to put together. Add to this the time required for creating homework assignments, grading homework assignments, and developing the lab and presentation components of the course, and I have easily been spending 40 hours per week on just this class.

3. It's proposal season. I have four proposals I'm hoping to submit by the deadline on Feb 24. I put one together this week and have sent it to collaborators for comment, one was written last year and just needs to be modified this time around (some modifications accomplished yesterday), another that will require some preliminary results to justify the proposal (analysis started yesterday), and another that may or may not get off the ground in time.

4. James was offered and accepted a job while I was in Austin, and has been working full time since I got back home. His schedule has been all over the map, and it quickly became clear that we couldn't both get to and from work with a single vehicle. So extraneous free time has been spent researching vehicles online, and culminated with the purchase of a 2009 certified used Honda CR-V EX 4WD in silver last weekend. The freedom to come and go on my own schedule has been really nice this week!

5. We're hiring some additional faculty and have had ~60 job applications to read and 3 meetings to discuss and rank candidates.

I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, but isn't this enough? I feel tired just reading this list. I can't wait for February to end, and with it, all the craziness I've been living under for the last 6 weeks. The proposals will be submitted, for better or worse, spring break will happen, my class will move from being lecture-heavy to being student presentation and project-heavy, and I'll be spending more time interacting with interviewees in person and going out to dinner with them than trying to learn about people from what they decided to write on a piece of paper.

I think I will try to spend a little time sewing or knitting this weekend (even though I need to put together a homework assignment and a lecture for Monday) just so I can try to relax a bit.

Vogue 8555

I finished Vogue 8555 a few days ago but was just able to get modeled pictures today. I'm really happy with how it turned out!

The fit is not exactly perfect, as you can see with the wrinkles radiating from my waist in the picture below, but it's pretty close and allows me to move without constriction. I shouldn't have any problems sitting down in this dress.

The skirt isn't quite as pegged as the illustration on the pattern would lead you to believe. If I make this again (which I might), I might try to peg the hemline a bit more.

Here I am being silly while James was taking pictures. I think the colors are more accurate in this picture, because the flowers in the pattern actually borde on turquoise.

Ok, on to the details. The fabric is a stretch cotton poplin from Fabric.com in ivory with turquoise flowers and dark brown leaves and stems. I used about 1.5 yards of the 2 yards in my stash (purchased for $4.19/yard on sale).

I originally cut an 8 for the bodice and graded out to a 12 at the waist and a 10 at the hips (my typical sizes), but I ended up taking in the waist quite a bit (probably ended up with a 10 instead). I still have a bit of ease left in the waist that I could happily lose and still be comfortable with, so I might have been able to get away with an 8 there, which is odd because I can't do that with Big 4 skirt patterns or else I end up feeling like I'm wearing a corset. Several other reviews of this pattern have noted that it runs a bit big, but I didn't see that anywhere except the waist. The bust and hip sizes are right on.

I didn't make that many modifications to the pattern or instructions. I did tuck out about 1/2" total at the back neckline, which I have gotten in the habit of doing to avoid gapping in the back (I just tape a small dart in the pattern paper before cutting). I decided not to line the skirt and to just wear a half slip instead so that the material skims over my hips better, but I did use a nude-colored cotton lawn for the bodice lining. I put in an invisible zipper and enclosed the waist seam with seam tape (the turquoise ribbon in the pictures below).

I didn't want too much bulk in the side seams, so I skipped my usual French seams and went with a turned-under seam instead. I almost always have to shorten Big 4 patterns by 3-4" in the skirt length, but not here. I decided to put in blind hem, which worked pretty well with this poplin.

Overall, I think this was a very successful Christmas project, and I have another fun dress hanging in my closet in anticipation of the hot, humid summers ahead!