Weekend Highlights!!

I did not get much done in the line of sewing or knitting this past weekend. I did work a little on my new sewing space compliments of my husband. Once it's finished, I'll take pictures. We are sharing the spare bedroom in our house or more like I'm sharing a room with his containers and my sewing and crafting containers.

Saturday was errand and washing day. Saturday night I went to a fundraiser. A good time was had by all. I made the cable hat in black for a friend, but stupid me forgot to take a picture. Fortunately, I'm making the same hat for Mr. D in some Noro yarn, so I'll have pics in the future.

Another friend of mine has asked me to knit slipper booties for his wife. He's given me the pair she has now so I'm reworking a pattern from them. I'm hoping they turn out as I am in the dark right now.

Although I got no sewing done, yesterday I did take a little drive. I needed my phone re-wrapped against scratching so I took a trip to the King of Prussia Mall for that. Since I was in the area, I drove to Norristown in search of Jomars. I usually go to the one off of Delaware Ave. in South Philadelphia area. I had heard that the Norristown store had awesome designer fabric. I am trying to find a stretch plaid for the Burda jacket. I didn't find any, but I did stock up on buttons. You would have too if you were told it was $2 a cup. I got 116 of them. I also found 6 1/2 inch wide stretch lace at $1.09 per yard minus 20%. In the end, I walked out $20 lighter. I wasn't upset with myself as I'm trying to keep to my fabric diet. I'm trying to work from stash first, and then if I can't find anything, I'll then go on a hunt at the fabric stores. Now I can work up my underwear patterns with the right fabric/lace. I see some dying in my future as I want different colors other than white.

I have to Thank Carolyn for blogging about this book.

I purchased it on Friday night and I was not disappointed. The clothing designs are FABULOUS and Mrs. O's style is impeccable. If you haven't seen this book, check it out.

On a last note, here is my current inspiration. Thanks for the link Rachel.

52 Katherine

New Projects and a Review

One of my favorite things right now is the Chalk Cartridge Set put out by Dritz. I've wanted a chalk pencil like this for quite some time. I saw a similar one in a Threads magazine a few years ago, and said to myself I want that. Well, when I was in JoAnns a couple of weeks ago and saw this baby in the Quilting Section, I grabbed it. I tried it out on my outfit this past weekend, and it's a keeper. I'll be adding this to my wonderful collection of chalks (Love Them) that I got from Greenberg & Hammer. What are some of your favorite tools to work with?

As promised, here's a picture of me in the Valentines outfit from this past weekend. You can read my PR review here.

I've been trying to get in the mood for Spring. With that in mind, and today also being Ash Wednesday, I'm thinking about Easter and what I'll be wearing. Normally I pick out a pattern first and work from there. This time I picked the fabric first. I settled on this recent Vera Wang purchase of 2 yards. I'm hoping it's okay for Spring as the colors are a little Fall-ish.

At first I thought about making a skirt with a matching blazer. I settled on Simplicity 4256 for the blazer. It was either yesterday or maybe the day before that I figured with 2 yards, I could make a dress, so I'm now deciding between Simplicity 2658 View B and the dress from Vogue 8491. I'm leaning toward the Simplicity dress, but my decision isn't final yet. What do you think?

The other project I want to start is pants. I've decided to go with a Burda Pattern. The two that I'm looking at are 4-2009-188 and 11-2009-124. I know I'll probably make both, I'm just undecided as to which pair to make first. I'll probably go with 4-2009-118 first because I keep looking at the picture and I also want to make 4-2009-116 from the same issue and I think they'd go well together.

Happy Valentines Day and Vogue 2980 and more t-shirts!!!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!!!

It has been a while, but with all this snow, I've been a little incognito. Don't get me wrong, I love snow, but come on, I think enough is enough. This is what our place looked like when the storm was starting to calm down on Wednesday night. Can you even see Mr. D in the first picture? I think snow totals in my town of Ridley Park were around 79 inches. I'm thinking it should melt my the end of March, maybe. At this point we're all at a lose, and no one knows where to put it. The best part is that we're suppose to be getting more tomorrow. Anyway, I've been kind of lazy lately, so I haven't worked on much. I did finish a hat for one of my neighbors. I hope he likes it.

Last night my band played a Pre-Valentine dance at a club. We did this dance last year, and it was lots of fun. Last year we gave out roses to ladies in the crowd. It was a big hit. This year we did the same thing but you all know how I'm on the t-shirt stenciling, painting kick. Well, I have now added iron-ons to that list. Mr. D helped me with the graphics, as I am not a pro with photo shop yet. A little scanning, and maneuvering, and we got this. Which after a little trimming and cutting out becomes this.For the iron-ons I used this, which I purchased at Dick Blick.
We gave them out to some of our regulars as a thank you. They turned out to be very popular, I actually had a couple ladies come up and ask for one.

Yesterday, I worked on Vogue 2980. I think everyone and their mother has done this top. If you haven't tried it yet? Put it on your list. The top is 4 pieces. Aside from figuring out which size to make for yourself, some minor pleating on the bolero part of the top, it's very easy and it makes for a nice staple in your wardrobe.

I originally was going to use stashed fabric that I had for another dress, but at the last minute I ran to JoAnns Friday night and picked up some Sew Classic Knit. I think that's was it's called. Sheila please correct me if I'm wrong, cause right now I'm drawing a blank. This fabric looks great at first sight, but be careful if you use it. I used the polyester rayon blend. The one you can put in the washing machine and dryer. Well, as you start sewing, sometimes the fabric likes to have runners, like the ones you get in pantie hose when you catch them on something. The other problem, is don't rub up against too many objects or things either, the fabric pulls. Aside from that, it's great. Here are preliminary shots as I forgot my camera last night, but I'm suppose to get a pic by email sometime today. I sewed up a pencil skirt to go with it to give the illusion of a dress.

Burda 1-2010-128

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Except for a little craziness on Saturday night and the unexpected snow, mine went pretty well. Now, I know I was suppose to be working on my suede skirt knock-off from Newport News, but I couldn't get Burda 1-2010-128 out of my head. It also didn't help that my fabric from fabric.com arrived. Can I tell you that the fabric from the Vera Wang collection is like butter. All the pieces I received are beautiful and from this first piece so far, it's really nice to work with(aside from the wrinkles of course). The satin twill fabric is of medium weight and that was a little concern of mine since the pattern called for a light weight fabric. After talking to Sheila, Karen (thanks ladies!!!) and my mom, I went ahead and made the dress as the weight of the fabric would be perfect for this time of the year.

I traced the pieces out during my lunch hour on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday night, I headed over to JoAnns to pick up a zipper. Let me tell you, I had the hardest time finding a Chartreuse colored invisible zipper. In the end I went with a Spinach color, and I like it. The contrast in color looks intentional on my part, and works nicely with the fabric.

I started cutting out the dress on Saturday afternoon. Nothing like waiting to the last minute. I am so glad I made a muslin first, as for me, I think the tunic/dress runs a little snug in the hip area. I added about a half inch to that part of the dress, and it was fine after that.

The dress by far is pretty easy in construction. I started reading the directions but stopped about half way through. I think it was my short attention span. Here is a front view of the completed dress. Here's the back.

A close-up of the front. A little of the inside construction.I was going to actually do buttonholes but opted to just sew the buttons on as I could slide into the dress pretty easily.

This final picture is with my friend Chrissy. She's a local designer in the Philadelphia area. She had her fashion show at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Saturday night. I slide all over the highway getting there, but thank GOD, no one hit me. And no, I wasn't speeding. There was black ice all over the road. Cars were hanging out in ditches all over the place. I was one of the lucky ones.