So, How was your weekend?

I hope you all had a great weekend. Saturday I hung out on fabric row or what we call in Philadelphia, 4th Street. While doing so I got a chance to hang out with my knitting gal pals Lisa and Robin. We had a blast. Robin had asked me to sew her a few drawstring sacks to hold her larger knitting projects in, so we went there to pick out fabric. I made 7 of them last night.

So far I have 2 done for her. I made another 2 that I'll be gifting, and I have 3 leftover. I still need to make a few more for her and for myself.

I didn't get any spinning done this past weekend like I'd hoped. I'll try to tackle that by the weekend. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my next sewing project is New Look 6828. I'm making the dress with long sleeves.


I have the pieces cut out. I still have to iron them, check the length on the dress and pick out my fabric. I now also have all the material I want to use for the Burda vest/waistcoat 01-2009-124.



I figure I'll try it in muslin first as this is my first Burda. If it turns out alright, I'll definitely be making more designs from these magazines.

In knitting news, I'm still working on my socks and I'm slowly moving along on butterfly, my newest pattern. I had to back out 6 rows today because I forgot a yarnover, but I'm moving along now. That's pretty much it right now. I'm cold and I need a cup of hot chocolate or maybe some hot tea. Mmmmmmmmm...

Fashion Warehouse

I wanted to thank you all for the lovely comments and emails that I've received about my last post. A few of you have asked me about Fabric Warehouse. It's located at 2838 Street Road in Bensalem, PA 19020. There are 2 other locations in Rahway, NJ and Belleville, NJ. You can find the information here. I didn't think they had a website as this is an outlet for upholstery, drapery and fashion fabric from designer mills. They do have an ebay store, but most of the fabric sold there that I can see is the upholstery and drapery fabric.

It's Saturday evening and I'm sitting here getting ready to do some knitting and even maybe some spinning too. I'm watching the Secret Life of Bees. What are you all up to?

A Sewer's Weekend!!

I've been going through some crazy stuff/issues at home and because of that, I haven't felt much like doing anything. Last Saturday I completed a skirt but I'm saving that for another post since I haven't taken a picture yet.

I finally wore Butterick 5247 to work last Wednesday and got lots of compliments.

My one co-worker that knew I made it told me I did a fantastic job. She said it looked store bought. I think the fabric print was the major hit though. You can find my review here.

This weekend was definitely a sewer's weekend. I hung out at JoAnn Fabrics twice, and made it over to Fabric Warehouse for their 50% off sale. Yesterday I decided to make this dress at the last minute to perform in last night. It Butterick 5211Please excuse my appearance. This picture was taken after singing, dancing and sweating the night away with my band. I just finished my review on pattern review which you can read here.

On Friday, I purchased the 10-2008 Burda Magazine from Sew Baby. I owe Mimi a huge thank you for giving that info out last year on her blog. I don't have a subscription to this magazine as I like to buy it by the issue just in case there's an issue I don't like. For some reason, the October issue never made it Borders. I haven't seen the February 2009 issue yet. I hope that's in the book store soon. I saw the preview the other day and think it's one I might want to purchase.

Now, with all this sewing going on, do you think I have had a chance to get any knitting done? You and I both know the answer to that one. Right now I'm concentrating on this.

I have a few more things in the works, but I'll save it for later. Plus I haven't taken any pictures. It's about 1:15 am and I've got to go to work tomorrow, so I'm going to call it a day/night, or whatever. I'll talk to ya'll later. By the way, I want to thank Judy for also giving me the Kreativ Award. It's the second time I've gotten this award. If you have not read her blog, you need to. This woman can knit and crochet her butt off. She is amazing!!!

Weekend Update and Product Review

I had a killer productive weekend. I'm still trying to figure out where the energy came from. I did just start taking flaxseed this past Thursday. I wonder if that's the reason. It's suppose to be very good for you, so I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. The product I'm using is Barlean's Essential Woman.

On Saturday, I finished the waistband and hemmed the pants I had started using the parts portion of Butterick 4604. I wore them to work today. I also made a pair of lounge/pajama pants using the same pattern. I just realized that my hearts are upside down. Wow, I really wasn't paying attention when I cut these out. Can you tell that I haven't worked with pattern fabric much? Oh well, thank goodness I'm only wearing these in the house. I lived in them last night watching the Super bowl. Did anyone else catch that game? The last few minutes were the best I think. During the game I cut out Butterick 5247 . I think everyone and their mother has made this pattern. Overall like everyone else has said, this is a very easy pattern, and I think it's a great staple for any wardrobe. I didn't even need to follow the pattern directions. I will be making this dress again, but in a solid color. I might even make a few tops and maybe the short sleeve dress version. The only problem I ran into was lining the fabric up, but that was my fault not the pattern. I think when I laid my material out it might have been a little of, but It wasn't anything that I couldn't tweak. I lengthen the pattern by 2 1/2 inches. When I belted the dress, it still only reached knee length and that's without a hem. Next time I think I'll add another inch to an inch and a half. I also noticed I might want to add a little length to the sleeves as well. To finish this dress off I might add bias tape to complete the hemming process including the sleeves. I'm hoping that will help. What do you think? If you guys have any better suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

I also took a leap this weekend and ordered fabric from Fabric.com. I've never ordered fabric online before as I like to see and touch what I'm buying, but for $2,74 a yard, I figured I'd give it a try.

Mr. D has asked me to make him a Hugh Hefner robe in Electric Blue. After a few laughs and me asking if he wanted me to throw in an ascot too, which he said yes to, I agreed. I'll be using Butterick 6837. The lining will be black Flannel. We are still picking out the fabric for the actual robe. I think he leaning toward a velvety tie-dye Electric Blue fabric we saw over the weekend.

The only knitting that got done this past weekend was about 3 rows on a sock I started for Mr. D. I'm hoping to have them done in time for his birthday later on this month. I hope he doesn't read this post.

On to my product review. In my quest (and yes I do that sometimes) to be a little more economical. I bought this cone holder back in December. Anyway, I put it together on Saturday and tried it out. Can I tell you, I love it. I'm using of course the 100% polyester thread cones. The cones hold 3,000 yards as opposed to the spools of thread we normally buy that only hold 250 yards. In doing the math, I'd have to buy 12 spools of thread to add up to 1 cone. So far I've been purchasing just my basic colors and I can find them anywhere from $1.99 to $2.50. I think that's a steal. I purchased my cone holder at JoAnn Fabrics with my coupon and only paid $6.00 . If you're interested in trying one and can't find them in your area, give me a shout out, I can probably get one for you.

I've blabbed enough for today. I want to go give my hair a deep conditioning and figure out my next project. Hopefully, I'll have knitting news later on in the week.

Happy Crafting!!