New Sewing Project

Well, I spent most of last evening cutting out a new jacket.  I have decided to make myself a new wardrobe, kind of to advertise my skills and maybe drum up some business locally.  I mentioned a couple of days ago that I am doing costumes for the high school’s production of Pirates of Penzance, but i also want to show that I can do ‘normal’ clothes as well!

I’m starting with a jacket from a pattern instead of my own design, mainly because I think it is just really cute!  McCall’s 5478-from last winter:

And I’m using this black and white herringbone fabric that I have been holding onto for a couple of years (part of the stash!):

I’m making view C, the one with the sleeves that are kind of poufy at the bottom, but I may leave them open at the bottom instead.  I like jackets that have a wide sleeve layered over a tight sleeve like from a turtleneck.  So I think I will make it that way and see how it turns out.  I can always put the elastic in later if I don’t like it.  I’m also playing around with cutting some pieces on the bias and some not, or on the opposite bias to add a little interest.

Herringbone is like working with a stripe, so matching wasn’t difficult because of that.  What was a little difficult was the type of fabric.  It moves very easily.  It’s definitely not a tightly woven fabric, so lots of pins and very careful cutting.  I cut most pieces 1 layer of fabric at a time.  I’m going to interline it and line it because I want it to hang nicely.  I don’t always interline, and I can usually tell the difference.

Now I just wish I could start sewing!  I need to!  But the machine is not cooperating.  I have plans to buy a new one in October, but was hoping this one would limp by until then.  I just don’t think it will.  Maybe on some of the basic cotton things I am making for the play, but not on this jacket fabric.  I think the Chazman just got to it too many times without anyone knowing it!  But when Mommy gets her new machine, he will get the old one for his very own.  Who knows, maybe he’ll be a desginer someday!

This is the machine I am looking at:

If you click on the pic it will take you to the Sears site.  It’s a Kenmore, which is a great brand for service and warranty, plus some of their machines, this one included, are made by Janome, a superior sewing machine company!  So I am really excited-I just which I had it NOW!

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In the ‘Having a Stupid Moment’ Category

OK, a quick post this AM, then a real one later, I promise!  I had to share a ‘don’t ever do what I just did’ moment I had this morning.  I was getting ready to go for my morning walk, and had to wear different shoes than normal.  (Thanks to the Chazman pouring corn syrup in my regular ones last night.  He was ‘cooking’.  lol  Cute, but sticky.)  Anyway, my regular ones are these awesomely comfy Skechers that I don’t wear socks with unless it’s cold outside.  So I decide I don’t need socks with the replacement ones either.  They feel fine.  Sure they do…walking out the door.  Until about 10 minutes into my walk when my feet start to get damp and swell.  I get about a mile from home and I feel ’em.  Blisters.  It finally gets to the point where I can’t stand one shoe rubbing anymore so I finally take them both off and walk home barefoot.  In grass as much as possible.  So now I have really sore feet and heels.  Sigh….I even had two ederly gentlemen ask me how far I planned to walk before I could put my shoes back on.  lol  But I did find a dime!  There’s a silver lining to everything, right?!?!?

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Craft Trading at Back-Tack

Yay!  A new craft trade I found at Back-Tack!  Sign up starts (oh, what day IS today, anyway?) September 30th, which is next Tuesday.  And a really great theme, I think:  Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.  How cool is that?  Very unique.  They have a few rules, but nothing too major, and nothing unexpected.  Make sure you go over and check it out, and then return to sign up after the 30th!

I know it’s been a while since I posted.  It’s just been kind of crazy around here!  School (mine), school (the Chazmaster), school (Stuart the Musician), plus now I am making many, many costumes for the high school’s production of Pirates of Penzance.  Which I am really looking forward to doing.  I think it will be fun, plus maybe a good way to get my name out in the community as a ‘seamstress’.  (Hmm…is that what I want to call myself?  Not sure.)  I have most of the kids measured, and a pretty good idea of what is needed for costumes, but have to wait on the go ahead to buy fabric and supplies.  Government entities have really heavy feet when it comes to spending money. 

Plus when I picked up Chaz from preschool on Tuesday I found out that one of the other little tykes there has chicken pox.  So now we are waiting to see if he gets it.  He isn’t due for any more immunizations until right before he starts kindergarten (2 more years), but his teacher had called the health department and said that they advised we go ahead and get it now just in case.  Well, having had chicken pox at age 20 (!NOT FUN!), I would prefer he get it now.  So we are passing on the early immunization, and I’m kind of hoping he gets it.  Which means he probably won’t. 

I don’t think I have posted a picture of the Cutest Boy in the World yet, so here he is:

We’re getting his hair cut today, so he will look completely different, but isn’t he adorable?

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Homework for Adults

So, I started Fashion Design school just last week.  Going back to school isn’t such a big deal for me really, but going for Fashion Design is!  I feel like I get to play for homework! Drawing, looking at the runway shows (this IS Fashion Week in NYC, after all!), reseaching great artists.  How lucky could a girl be?

I had submitted a couple short assignments, but was starting to feel a little wobbly, I have to admit.  The instructors had commented on almost everyone else’s work-EXCEPT MINE!  My self-esteem was starting to slide.  But then I went online today, and my Fashion Week review that I posted yesterday not only was complimented by 2 of my fellow students, but by my instructor as well!  I am feeling much better now!  So much so that I am going to post my little review here:

Fashion Week started out with many designers showing loose, flowing designs. Comfort seems to be the word of the season: perhaps feeling that consumers would be uptight enough with the economy being in a downslide, designers want to give them soft, comfortable clothing to relax in come spring. This includes soft, easy fabrics such as silk, chiffon and jersey to lounge in.

Color follows that vein as well, showing many different pastels, with blues, lavenders, peaches and greys seeming to be the top choices. A few lines went with stand out colors of off-orange or other brights, but pastels truly seem to be the choice of the season. Black is also big this year, running concurrent with the theme of a sad economy.

Prints for the most part are of a mosaic type, soft and free flowing as well. Little is seen of dots and stripes, although they did have a strong showing at least one house in particular. Digitized/stylized prints are showing up too. These beautiful prints make for lovely dresses, tops and even jumpsuits in a couple of lines.

Influence from previous decades is strong. Perhaps designers are wanting to remind cautious consumers of past flush times with circle and poodle skirts, slim suits and rocker-glam reminiscent of the 50s, as well as almost-neon colors, cropped, oversized sweatshirts, and suit jackets obviously influenced by the opulent 80s.

Overall, the designers seem to have the collective thought that if a woman won’t be able to spend a lot this season, they will at least make her feel beautiful in whatever she is wearing.

Ok-I know it’s nothing too fabulous, but I am proud of it.  Especially for a first assignment after years of not doing anything remotely similar!  Here’s a couple of my favorite looks:

 

 

Embellished black dress from Victoria Beckham

Asymmetrical black shirtdress from Boy by Band of Outsiders

  

Yes, I like black if you can’t tell!  Victoria Beckham surprised everyone with an uber-classy dress collection that oozed femininity.  Every one of her dresses truly makes a woman look and feel like a woman-in a good way!  Boy by Band of Outsiders had a totally 80s line.  Actress Kirsten Dunst did all the modeling-kind of an odd ‘show’-no runway show per se, rather they flashed scenes of her in their clothing all over the walls and ceiling.  Makes it kind of hard to actually see the clothes, I would think, but everyone wants their presentation to stand out and be different.  But the collection itself was really cute and totally wearable.  A great place to check out these and all the rest of the new fashions is The Online Home of Vogue Magazine –style.com .

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Getting ready for Football Season

This Friday is the first home game of the season for our local high school’s football team.  My husband is the director of the marching/pep band.  I picked up some really cute fleece on eBay this summer to make Chaz a fleece blanket for the few moments he might actually sit still and get cold at the game. (Mum gets it the rest of the time!)  Since our weather has been unseasonably chilly already, I thought I should probably get it out and make it this week.

This is the fabric.  Two pieces-one white with black paw prints, the other red with black.  I had originally planned just to tie them together to make fringe all around.  Then I found this really cute idea for a checkerboard-fleece-blanket .  I’m thinking instead of making the checkerboard pattern, I can somehow incorporate the pawprints as the cutouts at the ends.  I’ve got it all trimmed to fit together, now I just need to do the sewing and cutouts.  I’ll show the finished product in a couple of days!  I wish I could remember where I found this pattern-if I could give credit, I would!

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Hello world!

It’s a grey, rainy day here today.  The kind that makes me want to warm up the house with some yummy smelling dinner in the crockpot.  So…I went online to find a recipe in which to use some ground turkey I have on hand and found this:

 

 

A recipe for Crockpot Lasagna on recipe4living.  Yum!  I even took a little walk in the rain to our local grocery store (only 2 blocks away) to get a couple of ingredients I was lacking, and it’s now bubbling nicely away.  Well, not bubbling yet, but it soon will be!  And it’s healthy, too.  Ground turkey, fat-free cottage cheese, low-fat mozzarella-and the best part is, my family won’t be able to tell the difference!

 

Now, as I said in my About, my husband tells me I am soon to have my very own red room.  We do have a red room of sorts in the house already.  I should tell you that the house we live in is one that we purchased about three years ago for about $5 over the what the land was worth.  Before you all flip out and think Wow!  How lucky could you be!?!?, I have to tell you, this house was most definitely NOT liveable at that time.  It had been left empty for three years before and animals and who-knows-what had been allowed to roam freely through it.  We had to take it completely down to the studs and redo everything to make it habitable.  We’ve actually lived in it just a little over a year.  It is FAR from finished (I’m thinking another ten years may do the trick), but it’s really nice to be able to do everything the way you want it.  Even when you have to do every bit of the work yourself on a very tight budget.

So the current red room has been my daughter’s.  She kind of liked the color, but since we knew she would be going to college and we would be moving my son in there eventually, we didn’t go overboard in completing the room.  This is what it looks like now:

 

The actual color is somewhere between the two shades it shows up as in the pictures.  I’m in the process of moving some of my daughter’s things into storage, my sewing/craft items into the room, and also fixing the room up to be my son’s.  A bit of chaos right now, yes.

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