Wild colors with Vogue8650

I've been needing a few easy-to-sew knit tops and capri's and so far it's been going well.  I found a wild knit at Jo Ann's that looks like someone threw paint at it.  LOL.  It's some of my favorite colors too, bright blue (almost teal), black, grey & white.  This is a cotton Lycra blend but feels more like a nice rayon Lycra.  The capri's were made from a cotton twill/Lycra blend from Sawyer Brook.  It's a very bright, summery outfit.  Using Vogue 8650 for the top was right up my alley.  It truly is very easy.  I looked up reviews on Pattern review and most said it ran larger then stated on the pattern.  It does.  I did a quick tissue fit to Ruby before cutting a size 14 down until the underarm then to a 16 and finally an 18 at the hip.  It made up very easily and I only changed one thing.  I added twill tape to the inside of the top-stitching on the neckline to stabilize it.  It's low but not too low.  I needed the added insurance of stabilizing to make sure we had no neckline growth.

Here's just a quick shot of the top with the capri's thrown over the shoulder.   I love it and it made me think of Debbie Cook.  See what you've done now?  LOL.

More later...

It's a Wadder - KS 3801

Isn't this a cute pattern?  Especially view B in red?  Well I thought so too.  But, alas, it's not for me.


I love the look but I think you have to be 12 and skinny to wear it.  LOL.  Every now and then JoAnn's will have knits on sale really cheap.  I purchased a couple of yards the last time out and used it to make up a muslin of view B. 

I made up a size large which correlates to my usual size 16 up top.

Here is the result below on Ruby.

Granted, these are not colors I normally wear.  I don't do green.  Green makes olive skin turn yellow.  But aside from the color of the cotton knit.  Its awful.  It looks like you're just wearing a sack.  I modeled it for Alan he hated it too.

I tried looking up reviews on Patternreview but there weren't any.   Like I said earlier, I cut the large.  But the description of view B said "DEEP" neckline.  I cut the medium.  Ha!  With this pattern you would have really raise the neckline several inches to keep from giving everyone a peep show whenever you bent over.

Ugh, this one goes on the donate pile.

I went looking through my patterns and found a couple to try for cute t-shirt so I should have some progress tomorrow.

B5364 - OOP Lifestyle Wardrobe Complete!

Huh...I can't believe but I actually finished the two pieces today.   I really thought I would get lazy.  The hem is done on the top and the pants made.  I used a OOP Simplicity pattern, #8740, for the pants.  Since I already have them sized for stretch fabrics, I just used it instead of trying to fit the ones included in B5364.  Believe it or not, I cut on the XS cutting line.  LOL.  Don't you just love negative ease?










Alan was in a cooperative mood and we got shots of me actually modeling the outfit instead of my dress form Ruby.  LOL.

Man the camera really puts the pounds on you doesn't?  LOL.  This is not my most slimming of jackets but it is comfy.  If I'd added darts, it might have looked a bit better in that aspect.  Oh well.  Next time...probably not.  One jacket like this is enough for my wardrobe. 

Alan knows how to cut the top of my head off and catch me with my eyes closed - all in one shot! Whoohoo!

B5364 - OOP Lifestyle Wardrobe Continued

Well!  It's been a totally busy week.  I had my first classes with Claire Kennedy in OKC in learning tailoring to make a winter coat.  I'll have a blog about it soon.

I've completed the sleeveless jacket and almost finished with the pullover top to wear under it.  Here's a few pictures of my progress.

This little clip is the inside of the jacket.  I decided to add a fake facing on the back as a design element.  I embroidered my label (Belinda E) on it and then serged the edge of the facing.  Before sewing the front to the back I sewed down the facing, using the serged stitching as a guide.  I used a matching batik for the facing and the bias binding on the armholes.  I didn't use the polished cotton to bind the armholes because it would have been way too heavy. 

I had to add embroidery.  I just thought it needed that certain something.  And if you've been following for awhile, you know I love tone on tone so here it is.  LOL.  I used the border hoop on my Ellisimo to do the embroidery.  I think it turned out pretty nice.

And here's a picture of the completed sleeveless jacket and the not-quite completed top.  The top still needs to have a hem.  I was putting them together here to figure out how much to cut off.  They want you to put in a 1 1/2 inch hem and that's just dumb.  I'm going to put in a baby hem instead.

Remember you can click on the picture for a larger version to see details.

Both the jacket and the top are quite loose fitting.  I did a tissue-fit of both pieces and I probably could have cut a size smaller.  But because of that, I can see myself wearing this jacket over a long sleeved sweater this fall/winter.   So that's a good thing.  LOL. 

Here's some of the tissue fitting I did on the top.   If you click on the picture, it will blow up and you'll see how I used a blue marker to draw my cutting lines.  I used a size 16 (the smallest on this pattern) at the neck and armhole moving out to an 18 at the sides.

As you can see, there's plenty of room in this loose top.  I was worried about getting it over my head so I left the size as it was. 

I snapped this pretty quick and didn't take into account the crappy lighting I have here in the afternoon.  So it looks yellow.  It's really white.  LOL.   This is before I got the bias binding on the neck and armholes too.  Again, the pattern supplied facings and I just really don't like them.  To me, a garment like this just looks more polished when it has bias bindings applied.  I did do french seams on the side seams too.  I'll try to remember to take a picture of the top in the morning in better light.

I hope to finish the top's hem and make the matching pants tomorrow.   If I can get hubby to cooperate, I'll even model the outfit and you'll have to tell me what you think.  I like it so far but it has turned out just a bit dressier than I thought it would.  My lifestyle is pretty casual so this just may mean I'll have a nice outfit for dinner out.

Oh and I did want to say thank you to you gals for the well wishes for Matthew.  We still haven't heard anything about a firm date for his return home.  Hopefully it will be soon.

New Fall Vogues...

Yeah I know I'm late to the party.  LOL.

On the last day of Hancock Fabrics $3.99 Vogue pattern sale, I picked up my favorites from the collection.  I'm not enamored of sleeveless dresses for fall/winter or skin hugging dresses for anytime.  LOL.  But that's just me. 

Here are my purchases, I just love the casual elegance of this alice + olivia t-shirt.

And this DonnaKaran jacket I love except what's going on with jackets and no closures?  Don't they know it gets COLD here?  LOL.  I really like it but I'll have to figure some sort of closure to really make it work here in Oklahoma.

I'm not sure that I'll ever make it but I love the details in this Marcy Tilton jacket really caught my eye.

That's all for today.  Tomorrow I'll post more about the sleeveless pink jacket.

Off Topic...

Every now and then I'll post about my nephew Matthew.

As you may remember, Matthew is in US Army and in Afghanistan; his second tour I believe.  I was talking to my sister this morning and she told me his outfit hit yet another IED.  He was in the hospital with his second concussion and this is the 4th IED his truck has hit. He's scheduled to come home sometime in August.  I hope you all will join me in keeping him in your thoughts.

More later...

B5364 - OOP Lifestyle Wardrobe

This time I've decided to make a complete outfit.  I'm liking the look of a long vest that ties with a stand-up collar along with a cute shell with tucks and a pair of skinny pants.







The vest is really long; 31" from the base of the neck to the hem.  A bit too long for me; a more flattering length would be around 28".  So I'll be taking out 2 or 3 inches.  And I don't know about those pockets.  They are right at the hips, which is my widest part and I don't want to emphasize it.  LOL.  It looks like I'll probably be making a quick muslin out of this.

These are my fabric choices.  The pink polished cotton will be the vest, the white cotton/nylon blend will be the shell and the cotton/lycra print will be my skinny pants.

I'll report back when I make up the muslin of the vest.  Lata!

It's a BEAST!!!!

LOL  My new iron arrived.  For awhile I spent more time reading iron reviews than sewing.  Now you know that's just WRONG!

You know, when I got my first Rowenta, I thought they were big.  But this Reliable is a tank!  First it holds almost 2 cups of water.  Way more than the Rowenta.  I've been catching up on my clothes ironing and have done several shirts.  There's a bit of a delay when starting to steam but after that, it just steams merrily away.  So far, I'm pretty pleased with it.  I'll give another review after I've used it for a few months.

More later...

It's That Time Again...

What time is that you say?  LOL.  I mentioned last year that I'm a member of the Tulsa Smocking and Heirloom Sewing Guild.  Every year we purchase an American Girl doll, make a wardrobe of clothes for her and raffle the whole shebang off to some lucky mom or grandmother to give to their little darling.  The money we make from the process goes into our treasury so that we can bring in a great educator for the group.  Two years ago we had Michie' Mooney and this last year we had Wendy Schoen

I'm going to make a couple of outfits for our doll and I also volunteered to create a doll bed with all of the accompanying bed clothes to go with it.  Here's a pic of it so far.

Forgive the lighting.  It was evening when I took the shot.  I got the idea of making the bed from www.dollclothespatterns.net/ 

The bed itself is made from a wicker basket turned upside down and painted white inside and out.  The cute headboard is made from decorative garden edging also painted white.  The headboard is wired and hotglued to the back of the bed.

I made a bed-skirt with 2 rows of eyelet ruffles, 2 flat sheets, a pillow and pillowcase and finally, a reversible quilt.  I'm in the process of making a little rag rug to go by the bedside and a little knitted throw for the end of the bed.

I think it turning out so cute!

Blueberry Preserves...

Well I spent most of yesterday afternoon making a batch of preserves from part of the crop we picked and froze.  It turned out really nice.  If you go to the web site www.pickyourown.org  you can find good low sugar or even no sugar recipes for all sorts of fruits.  I used a lower sugar recipe and its delicious.  The recipe made a bit too much for the number of jars I had sterilized so we ate the excess over vanilla ice cream last night.  LOL.  Here is a picture of the fruits of my labor.  LOL.  Sorry...couldn't resist the pun.

We grow about 4 different varieties of high-bush blueberries in our backyard.  We only have 8 bushes in 2 large raised beds, but this year has been a banner year for berries.  We're still picking but to date have about 25 pounds put up.  We try to go as organic as possible too. 

These 7 jars only took about 8 cups of berries.

My next recipe to test is Blueberry Chipotle BBQ sauce.  I can't wait.  LOL.

Tunic & Pants - Done!

I've finished buttons and buttonholes this morning and the pants were done yesterday.  Here's a shot of each.

More later...

Tunic & Slim pants - almost complete

Hopefully I can post the pictures of the fabric Blogger was giving me a hard time about a couple days ago.  Sigh.  Here's my fabric choices.  Finally Blogger cooperates.  LOL.

I know they aren't very summery colors but I believe I can wear the pants into winter and make them 3 seasons versus just 1. 

In the following pictures of the Tunic, you'll see what I mean by the back cupping the butt area.  LOL.  I really like the pattern and will make it again, but I'll be making a plain back to minimize my bootie.  First is a full shot of the tunic.  Instead of one pocket, I did two.  I haven't had 2 pockets in a while and thought I'd change it up.  I did tons of top stitching on this top too.  Much more than called for by the pattern.

One potential problem I encountered in this pattern is their treatment of the armhole on the sleeveless version.  In the pattern, they tell you to just turn it under 5/8 and sew it down.  Well...that just won't make a nice finish.  Geeezz.  The very bottom of the armhole where you sew front to back is NOT rounded.  It almost creates a v-shape.  I chose to round it out a little with my trusty rotary cutter and also cut out 1 inch stripes of the same fabric for bias binding of the armhole.  Much more professional and finished looking in my opinion.

Here's a closeup of the top showing some of that top stitching. 

Ah a picture of the pleating in the back panel causing fatal booty cup.  LOL.

And here's the Oh So Lovely side view.  LOL.


All I have left to do is make buttonholes and sew on the cool buttons I found for it. 

The pants are almost complete too.  I only need to install the elastic at the waistline and hem.