Fabric Challege - Vogue 9292

Happy September!!!!!  I am a little late to the party.  But hey, better late than never.  At Sew Camp this year we received 3 yards of this Soft Black/Warm Stone/Off-White Cinnamon Cotton/Lycra Double Border Floral Print Sateen Twill Milly print from Fabric Mart for a sewing challenge.

My biggest dilemma was picking out what I wanted to make.  Originally I was going to do a mash up of a Burda pattern with a  cool sleeve I saw on Instagram from twistedangel.sews.

In the end,  I decided to go with V9292 due to time, and well, I have wanted to sew this pattern up for quite some time.

If you don't have this pattern in your stash, please get it.

It is an easy pattern to sew and the design is timeless.  It reminds me of the dresses from the 1950s, and lets face it, those ladies had lots and lots of style.

This dress is not lined. But in making this version, I can easily make a lining with the dress pieces provided if I want to.  The pattern comes with neck and arm facings. 

It doesn't hurt that this pattern also has pockets,

and I am loving it. 

Had my car keys in here so I am not routing through my purse to find them.

Another feature of this dress is the sexy/proper factor.

Hey I can go out to an elegant function or dinner with my husband and show the cleavage Saturday night,

then turn around and be prim and proper on Sunday Morning. 

Hey there is no walk of shame here. 
I hemmed the dress by hand, would have liked to use some lace, but didn't have any handy and didn't feel like machine sewing. 

I had originally wanted to make the longer version, but did not have enough fabric, so, that just means I get to make another version of this dress when the right fabric peaks my interest. 

But until then, I'll just enjoy this one.   

One of my favorite TNTs for Summer- McCall 6559

Good Morning !!!!!!  As I sit here finishing up by breakfast and the end of my 4th of July weekend, I'm thinking about my recent experience at Sew Camp and the lovely ladies I got to spend time with.  First off, I want to thank Carolyn of https://sewingfantaticdiary.blogspot.com/ for all the lovely photos.  Girl we go way back and you could have spent more time sewing, but instead wanted to make sure all of us had enough photos so that all we had to do when we got home was type and post.  Thank you, thank you!!!!!

During camp I got a chance to do a little bit of everything.  I even had to leave and sing at a wedding while I was there.  It cut down on my sewing time, but I still got 5 pieces done, and my summer wardrobe is a little refreshed for it, which makes me happy.,  I have not been able to get any sewing done, and that weekend reminded me how much I've missed it.  Fabric Mart was a blast!!!!!!!  If you ever get a chance to visit in person, please go.  I have a very bad addiction to fabric.  It's a place I need to not frequent too often  as I purchased over 60 yards of fabric. (SIKE!!!!)  Who am I fooling.   Hey, this addition is better than other additions and it helps me with a useful skill, so I'm not going to complain.  I'll take pictures and show you what got purchased in another post.  I shipped my box home this year and to tell you how fast they were, the box was waiting for me when I arrived home.

Anyway, I don't want to keep you guys waiting any longer.  One of the garments I worked on at sew camp was McCall 6559.

 I think I've had this pattern forever, and it is definitely one of my favorites.  I love this maxi dress.  I also think everyone owns this pattern.  To tell you how old this pattern is, I think it's been around since 2012.  Someone please confirm this for me.  If you don't have it,  get it as it's a classic and should be in everyone's stash pile.  It's an OOP pattern, but I'm sure it can be found online if you search for it.  This maxi can be worn out to a summer party or function dressed up, it can be worn casually around on a summer day and it can be worn around the house just lazing around or worn to bed as a nightgown.  It all depends on your fabric choice and how you want to wear it.

This time I chose to wear this beauty casually.  My fabric choice is a cotton knit that I've had a few years that I picked up at Jomar.  The fabric is very comfy and I love the feel against my skin.  As simple and easy as this pattern is, it's a good piece to ease into when you feel like sewing but don't want to work on anything complicated.

Because I was going for a more casual look, I chose to do the racerback version for the back of this maxi which is taken from views E and F of this pattern.

I'll be making at least 1-2 more before the summer is over.  I hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend and your summer.  I'm off to go do some spinning as Tour de Fleece started yesterday.  I think I'll also be wearing my maxi today.  Let me know what you're up to.

Enjoy and be blessed!!!!!

Andrea

My Sunday Sweater

The Sunday Sweater by PetiteKnit came up in my Ravelry feed in December and it was love at first site.  I knew I just had to make it.  My yarn stash  is abundant (and lets not talk about my fabric stash) so I knew that I wanted to work from it to make this sweater.

This pattern calls for a worsted weight yarn which is knit on size 8 and 10 needles.  The yarn I chose to make this sweater is Lion Brand Scarfie.  It is a worsted weight yarn.   I had 2 skeins in my possession and only had to buy one extra skein to complete this sweater.

This is the year for stash busting  and I intend to try and stick to it except for Sew Camp or anything to do with spinning.  I'm even cutting back on pattern purchases as I need to focus more on pattern drafting.

Anyway, one of the things I love most about this sweater is the detail on the upper part of this sweater

 and the fullness of the sleeves

In all the years that I have been knitting, I don't recall ever knitting a worsted weight sweater.  I know that sounds weird coming from me, but it's true.  I've mostly know either dk and aran weight sweaters.  I am still trying to figure out how that happened, because I've learned that I love knitting worsted weight sweaters while making this one, because, let me tell you, they knit up fast, and I LOVE IT!!!!!!

This sweater is worked top down and the great thing about that is that you can try this sweater on as you knit it to check for fit and length.  I liked that a lot.  Being a tall girl, I always have to make my sweaters longer in the body.  I added an additional 2 inches I think in the length from what the pattern required. 

The other change I made in working up this pattern was in the amount of stitches I picked up at the armhole area.  If I had worked the pattern up using the amount of stitches the pattern stated  to pick up, I would have had a couple of holes that I would have had to sewn up, I have learned that in following the pattern I'm working on, it's okay to pick up a couple more stitches to avoid any holes and still work the pattern accordingly and in finishing up to knit the sleeve(s), I don't add any additional stitches than what the pattern originally required for the sleeves.  After all the increase rows were made, I then knit a total of 16 rows before doing the decrease row for the the wrist shaping. 

After all these years I am still working on making more garments in color.  A friend told me a long time ago, that I should put more color in my life because I had the complexion to pull it off.  I still like to wear black, but I can say that I have ventured out.

If you are interested in a new knitting project and want a fairly quick knit with a little detail and stylish flair, try this Sunday Sweater out.