Ladies, I have a huge problem. I just discovered there is a HUGE fabric store about 2 minutes from my work!!!
I went there during my lunch break! They have a HUGE selection, but it is a little pricey. A lot of stuff was 10.99 a yard but it was so cute! And I found some really cute Wizard of Oz material on clearance for $5.99, so that is cool. The best part is they offer a lot of classes, including a four hour beginning sewing class, including how to do zippers!! And it is $35, so I might do that, just as a good refresher. The last time I sewed a zipper was in home ec, and that was in...1989? They also have a class on sewing cloth diapers and quilting.
Anyway, I'm excited about that. Do you all have any favorites for getting fabric? Do you shop at big stores mostly or from ebay? Etsy? Where can I get good prices?
Also, Tori is going to be an ambassador for the Ride for Wishes, which is a motorcycle ride to raise money for Make a Wish. I'd like to make a "Disney motorcycle" themed outfit for her to wear. Are there any cool "Tough Mickey" appliques or fabrics? I am probably going to get some "flame" kind of fabric since a lot of their bikes have that.
Ok ladies, here is my first attempt at an American Girl dress. I am very happy with how it turned out, especially considering I just learned how to make this dress and do appliques in the past few days!
Here is a shirt I made for Tori tonight..Want to try a skirt I think to match.
oh that shirt is so cute! And your AG dress with the applique looks great too! LOL about the fabric store close by. You'll find that fabric hording is par for the course around here! Welcome to the club Can't wait to see what you come up with for the biker outfit!
Nursing-Cover-O-Rama continues here. Since I only have a couple hours a few nights a week, I think I need about two more weeks to be completely done.
Regards,
C.
Oh my golly Carrie I cannot fathom that you are still plugging away at those nursing covers!!! how many do you intend to make??? You are one dedicated woman that's for sure!
I am only 30 days until my trip and still so much to do
Hopefully I can get some stuff done this week.
So sorry to hear about your dog, but what a wonderful ending. I can't imagine the roller coaster of emotions but so glad your doggie is back at home.
thank you for your kind words about my pup. I am SO glad to have him home. FX you get a lot of extra sewing time. Although I agree that you already have such great outfits so whether you are able to finish any more or not, your family will look AWESOME!
I think I've finally gotten my machine to behave. All of a sudden she's just decided to only like Schmetz needles. Which is fine with me if that's the only thing I need to fix. It was so weird that she would embroider on felt but not regular fabric.
Last week of school for us! YAY! We head to the beach in two weeks so I need to get moving on some shirts for my own kids...hehe. I hardly ever make them anything but I bought some really cute summer designs I'm excited to stitch out for them.
Hurray for summer vacation! And HURRAY for getting your machine to work. I swear, I think these machines have a mind of their own sometimes! HA!
Just to prove to you all I do still sew I am posting some new things I made. I have been working on orders which are recreations of previous items I made so I don't post those
These were for an emergency Big Give on Facebook
Off to a meeting at Js school and then home to work on some orders.
Oh Chiara, your stuff always turns out so great! Glad you have been so busy in your shop.
A girl goes away for a wedding out of town and the board runs away. There has been so much posted lately that there is way TMTQ, but it has been lovely to see everyone's creations.
I must say that my niece's wedding was very nice and my dd was the flower girl, but it was a bit of a long trip for such a short time (we had to fly for 5.5 hours and drive for 4 to get there - luckily the flight back was shorter (only 4 hours) as it was more direct - the drive was still the same). And we were lucky to see 2 moose on the drive (they were in the swamp to the side of the road and not right in front of us). Now we need a vacation from the wedding.
On an exciting note, I get to pick up a package from the post office today - it is from my cousin and it will be my Aunt's serger! I am looking forward to getting it unpacked and figuring out how to use it!
Welcome back! Wow that's a lot of driving for the wedding. I hope you got some cute pics of your DD as the flower girl. AND SUPER YAY for the serger arriving today!
two questions....
1) if I make a reversible dress then what kind of zipper do I get ? Should I try to use snaps instead of a zipper? I don't know how that would work.
2) Why does it seem that the majority of you use patterns that you've downloaded instead of buying them and using paper ones ? I can not even fathom taping together pieces of paper so cut out a pattern ? And all of the ink.... Why, for those of you who do, do you buy them that way ? It seems like more of a pain than going out and buying the paper pattern.
As a new sewer (well, new-ish to garment construction anyway) I really appreciate the in depth directions and extra tips that the PDF patterns give. Often I am confused by the jargon used in the commercial patterns (even though I am TRYING to learn). the other thing that bothers me about commercial patterns is that they have such a large seam allowance. I have trouble sewing neatly still, so I like to use my presser foot as my guide and with commercial patterns I can't do that. Plus having a 5/8" seam guide seems like such a waste of fabric to me. i do know it's there so that alterations can be made.
My goodness, just reading your story gives me tears in my eyes. I can't imagine living THROUGH all of that. I am glad to hear that you have a wonderful vet and your dog is on the mend.
This is a long weekend for us. My weekend project was to plant a few annuals and work on a set of baby shower gift. This is the baby shower gift (bibs, burpies, and a crayon roll for the older sibling). One burpie is partly flipped over to show the back:
thank you! I still get teary eyed when I think about how kind the vet was to our family. Your baby shower gifts look cute. i am sure the family will appreciate them and they will get PLENTY of use!
I figured out the problem!!!
Google is my friend!! There are plastic gears at the top that drive the hook and bobbin mechanism, and apparently one of them is prone to breaking esp if it is old and the plastic degraded....
I took of the top of the machine and the gear is broken into itty bitty bits...as in pieces i couldnt even take pictures of. There are directions on voldemort (see I read page 1 ) how to replace the gear..which is about $13 so gonna try doing it ourselves...if we fail then bring it to someone.
I also got her ugly avocado green case off her so hopefully I will have her up and running in a week or so, as soon as the gear gets here
My mother said she had it completely serviced and cleaned before storing it...and I think she got ripped off. there were LUMPS of blackish gunk in places that the pictures I see online obviously do not have it! Plus wouldn't they have noticed the gear was in pieces or damaged enough that it needed replacing?
Thank goodness i have my cheapo brother to at least continue working on stuff
Hurray for figuring out what was wrong! I think I'm the only person left in the world who actually LIKES the vintage avocado green color. And I agree that it's likely that the damage is from it sitting unused in the basement over the years. Glad it is something that you can get fixed.
I need to go back over the white stitching on the bottom, but other than that, I am happy with it![/QUOTE]
Just returned from visiting my parents for a week and having NO internet connection. A lot of cute outfits and bags have been posted duriing the week
Sheila
Welcome back!
I know I don't post too often (lurk all the time!), but I knew you guys would commiserate with me. My machine died yesterday!! Luckily I finished DS's pair of patchwork shorts just before it died (probably what killed it), but I still had some shirts to applique. Guess I'll be doing iron-on tees for the rest of their outfits. I do have a second machine, but I don't know it very well, so I'm going to just be done sewing for this trip.
Oh no! So sorry to hear about your machine dying on you. At least it was kind enough to wait until AFTER you finished those shorts. Any chance you could sneak it into the dr before you leave?? I think you should take this opportunity to get to know your second machine better!
Here are some items I recently did for Justin's BG that the family has received. Amy helped by buying the shirts, Heather helped by giving us all the designs, and Amy paid for the shipping. Amy's dd Allison also enclosed an AWESOME picture in the package.
Peter Pan is for Justin, Captain Hook is for Hayden and Callie naturally gets twirly Tink.
I am not thrilled with the Tink -- the greens all lined up as did the lavenders but there was no way to make it look good -- I like the Tink I did for Glo much better. I still think it's decent though and hope Callie enjoys the dress (she's modeling it in the ptr).
Boy's Shirts:
Dress:
Oh Andrea these came out wonderful! I love the boys' shirts! And I think the tink twirl looks fabulous. The color combo looks fine to me! I LOOOOOOVE the detailing embroidery on some of the squares. GREAT JOB!!!!
Sunshine