Mix It Up March

As you may have guessed by now I love a sew along and this month over at Sew Much Talent is Mix It Up March. And I'm sewing along. Each week is a different sewing requirement. The first week is completing a half done or UFO sewing project. For me this is my LBMD (little black maxi dress), it has been sitting on my table for weeks. I originally started for the LBD contest over at Patternreview but never got around to finishing it on time. 

And here it is, it. I did not make the deadline again which I am not surprised since I found about the sew along late in the week and still didn't get to start on it right away since I had a busy weekend (Thursday and Friday here). I did work on it for a couple of hours on Saturday and I really enjoyed working on it. I now wonder why it took me so long to get back to it. I know I stopped due to lack of notions but still it didn't have to take me this long. But I'm glad I did and will continue to work on it slowly while I work on this week's project.

Up next is my fitted shirt/blouse BWOF 1-2008-124. I still need to work on the fit before I can start cutting. After that I need to sew like the wind if I want to finish on time this time.

Until next time, happy sewing...

M.I.A. But Still Working Sort Of

Oh I hate excuses , but I do have one and hope to make up for the last two weeks of no blogging. First off I got a bit obsessed with figuring out my size so, I took the original pattern and traced every size above 14 to 20. Then I started mixing and matching sizes in muslin, so I would do a 14 front with an 18 back or a full 14 bodice. While it was a bit boring and redundant I did learn something new about my body, I have a VERY broad back. I'm still learning but I think I have a good starting point. Also during this time I became very sick and was on antibiotics for a while and I mean for the first two days I was bed ridden. I'm still not at 100% but I am a lot better. So that is what has kept me away for two weeks. I'm hoping that the next will be much better.

 I have already started working on my lbd but I don't expect it to be done in time for contest. I'll just keep working on it until its done and of course blog about it along the way. I don't expect for it to take long, I just started working on it yesterday and think it will take me about 3 sewing sessions to complete.

Also for the month of December I'll be participating in #reverb12. So I'll hopefully be blogging a lot more for the month and reflecting on 2012 my success and many failures.

Until next time, happy sewing...

Wearable Muslin FAIL

Lesson learned, when you fit a muslin make sure you fit ALL of it. Before starting my wearable muslin I used some cheap cotton mix, and I fit most of the dress other than the sleeves. Now on to the wearable muslin, I don't know if the zipper made the problem worst or what but I did have some pooling of fabric in the back just above my hips but when it came to the wearable muslin with the zipper in it was more like a lake back there. Then once I got the sleeves on which I did not fit in the first muslin it was too tight in the armscye. The last straw happened when I tried to zip it up on my own and the front just split right down the center, which you can see in the pic above.  I have had it for now, two wadders in a row. I'm going to still try and make myself a LBD but I'm going to take my time. Fitting myself with now help is frustrating and sometimes a little discouraging.

I'm going to go ahead with my craftsy Couture Dress class and just take my time. I have to remember "quality not quantity". I'm using Simplicity 2473 which I loved when it first came out but for some reason put it aside. Now after seeing all of the reviews I know I want to make this for myself.  The pattern is not much different from the one what is offered with the class and the only reason I am using it is because the pattern was sent to my Dad's place , the class was a gift from him. So "quality not quantity" is the motto for this and future projects.

I think for next month I'm going to concentrate on working out my real size and my fitting issues. See this is why I need some TnT patterns.

"Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" Winston Churchill

Until next time, happy sewing...

LBD Muslin

 So Blogtoberfest 2012 has ended and I would consider it a success for myself even though my blogging did slow towards the end of the month but I hope to get back on track and continue until the end of the year. Now it won't be everyday like at the beginning of October but I hope to post at least 3 times a week.

Okay now on a sewing note, I'm doing a wearable muslin for my dress for the LBD contest. Now I'm not that into wearable muslins since fabric is not easy for me to get and so I want to make sure whatever pattern I'm going to use that it at least fits me and then after the first wearing I can tweak the pattern more if need be., but with this pattern the fabric I was buying is not wide enough for me to make a good muslin. So since I did fit the upper part of the dress already I decided I could go ahead and do a full wearable muslin in fashion fabric.

I'm using a cotton sateen that I bought for $1.99 a yard from fashionfabrics club a few years ago, so $6 for a dress that fits is not bad, I think. The pattern is a morph of Simplicity 4118 and Simplicity SewSimple 1993 which is just a reprint of New Look 6347.

New Look 6347

Simplicity SewSimple 1993

Simplicity 4118

So this is where I am currently, everything cut out and ready to go.

I also preped my final fashion fabric for the LBD, it was raveling so bad that I decided to serge the cut ends before I washed it. I have not read about doing this anywhere but it was the only solution I could think of so that I would not loose any yardage in the wash. It worked just fine, no extra raveling or shredded ends.

Until next, time happy sewing...

A Visit To The Fabric Store

 Last night I got a chance to pop in on one of my favorite fabric stores to pick up some fabric for my LBD. I decided to take some picks so others can see where I shop here. There are others but this is one of my favorites because his prices are reasonable has a good selection within such a small space and its easy for me to pop in and out of sometimes unlike some of the other stores that are hidden within the walls of the souk. The man who runs the shop does not speak English so I just have to go on touch and drape or sometimes the salvage of the fabric to tell me what it is and my fabric knowledge is VERY limited, but can tell me in English how much per meter everything is and if not I have learned my numbers by now so even if he belts it out in Arabic I understand.

So a quick tour, this is the view from the door from the main road side. It has two entrances one off the main street and then the back which is within the walls of the souk.

This pointing in the direction of the door from the first photo, on the left are some of his knits.

 Again this is pointing in the direction of the main entrance that I was standing in in the first pic.

This is looking at the other entrance to the souk. Think of it as an "L" shape and I am standing right where the corner is and this is the other way I'm looking from the one above.Is that clear as mud?

 Again looking at the second entrance but the other side behind the counter and the fabric they have laid out all over the counter. These are some of the cottons and cotton satins all shirt or dress weight.












This is behind the counter, mostly cotton satins here, this is the corner of the "L" shaped store behind the counter so standing where I am you can see both entrances to each of my sides. Also if you look at the roll on the counter or the bottom of the pic, it is one of the pieces of fabric he showed me when I was looking for my fabric it is a black cotton satin., I did not get it since I wanted something with a bit more drape and a little more weight to it also something that would not wrinkle like crazy.

Close up of some of the knits and don't be surprised if you see some of these pop up on here sometime in the near future.





 So this is what I ended up with, 3 meters of I don't know what. It looks a little like a linen but I can tell its not and it has some weight but not stiff. I tried to give you and idea of the drape and texture in the next two pics. I did a burn test but again still not sure.


































As for my pattern I'm still not sure and I need to make up my mind soon. The Simplicity Project Runway pattern 2359 has just gone missing and I have not idea where it can be. So now to keep looking. As far as my jeans are concerned they have been put on hold for a minute, I had some issues with the fit and I have been trying to figure out how to save them and I think I have found a way but I need to walk away from them for a minute and then come back.

Until next time, happy sewing...

My LBD Is A Maxi

Okay, last time I talked about this I said I planned on using BurdaStyle 9-2012-109 as my little black dress. Well the more I think about the length I'm going to have to add to it, the more I think its not going to work. I don't want something that is going to look like a sack and its hard to tell from the line drawings how much shape is already drafted into the pattern. So at this point I'm still debating with myself which pattern in my collection to use. At this point Simplicity 2359 is the front runner with BurdaSyle in second and a few others behind but I won't reveal those at this point since I'm not real sure about them.

Which one would you choose?

Until next time, happy sewing...

P.S. Surprisingly I have no black fabric which means a shopping trip soon, I'll keep the camera phone out for pics ;-)

BurdaStyle 9-2012-109 In A LBD

Remember that post a few weeks ago where I talked about all the things I wanted to make from the September issue of Burdastyle. Well now I'm ready for my first item with a plan. I'm hoping to use the shift dress in the LBD contest coming up next month over at PR.com. Once I finish up my jeans I want to start fitting it and have it ready on October 1 so keep an eye on Instagram. I'm still waiting for the rules to be posted but I don't think there will be any surprises.
On another note, I think I am done with my jeans pattern but my fabric was not ready, so while that was washing I took time out to look for a basic dress pattern for the contest, so studio time was put to good use.

Until next time, happy sewing...