Cynthia Rowley Tunic + Life

June 24, 2011clothes, sewingalteration, Cynthia Rowley, Muslin, quick, Simplicity 2584, Simplicity 3700, Tunic, yellowHenrietta

We have “settled into” our temporary housing. It has certain perks.

These are now decorating my sewing table and the tv area.

I hope I’m not the only person in the world who has put flowers in a Nalgene instead of a vase…

Here’s a peak of my new sewing space before I made a mess of it.

It really isn’t very fun condensing all your sewing goodies that will be required for the next month into one grocery bag. Very sad. At least we’re moving on to bigger and better things.

And here’s one after I settled in to alter the pattern…

I couldn’t bring myself to show you how messy it is now, in full on sewing mess mode.

I started sewing this Cynthia Rowley top on Monday night, in foolish hopes that I’d be able to get it done by lunch on Tuesday. Of course, that didn’t happen.

Original Inspiration: This version by LindsayT

She did these two other ones that I really liked, and here’s one by Miss Muslin, and one from Amanda at Adventures in Dressmaking

It looked good judging from PR, so I jumped right in.

I used Carolyn’s method to alter it, and was very careful with my alterations.

I’m glad I’m using an old sheet from Goodwill to do a muslin, the first go round didn’t go too well. It looks alright standing in these pictures, but it did not FEEL comfortable at all. Too tight and too big in all the wrong places.

Now its back to the drawing board again, or to the dining room table as the case may be.

Going to try a Full Bust Adjustment for the first time.

Looks manageable right?

Before I begin the slashing, I’m going to go enjoy the lovely life around me for a bit and hopefully go back refreshed.

(I planted the begonias myself, and I am so proud! Let’s see how long they survive!)

Life without the internet

June 20, 2011UncategorizedHenrietta

I’m back!

We have successfully moved to our temporary housing, and are set to close on a house in about a month if all goes well!

After a week of no internet, and a week before that of crazy packing and moving, we once again have high speed!

Must get back to sewing!

Me Made June Week 1

June 7, 2011clothes, Photography, sewingBaby portraits, family portraits, Me Made June 11, moving, packing, stormsHenrietta

I wore something me made for about an hour yesterday (the refashioned capris), and spent the rest of the day in sweats. So no picture for the 6th.

I think I’ll just do a weekly post about outfits. Kind of annoying to post every day to flickr and then to here.

In other news, got to do some awesome family portraits the other day as well as some baby shots, and a picture I took of a storm was on the news. Exciting!

We’re getting ready to move, and I would really rather be sewing than packing. But I need to pack. We are officially moving this Saturday, and have to be out on Sunday.

Ok, back to packing!

Me Made June 2

June 3, 2011clothesCapris, jeans, Me Made June 11, recycle, refashionHenrietta

Old tshirt & soft, thin navy (even though it doesn’t look navy in the picture) jersey hoodie & recycled jeans that were skinny jeans in a former life.

Have a good Friday everyone!

Me Made June 1

June 2, 2011clothes, sewingMcCalls M5640, Me Made June 11Henrietta

My mother in law has saved the day and given me her sewing machine, which she never uses!

Hooray!

Trials and Troubles

June 1, 2011clothes, sewingBurda Plus Spring 2011 Dress 411, dogs, epic fail, grading, graduation dress, hyacinth, improvise, Jamie Dress from SisBoom, Me Made June 11, pattern alterations, Random Pictures, sewing machine fritzHenrietta

Well Friends & Neighbors, I am extremely frustrated. I made the muslin for the graduation dress, and finished it today. It was awful. Not just sort of not good, but awful. Apparently I am no good at grading. The shoulders extended three inches beyond the movement point of my shoulder, the bodice was about 6 inches too wide at the underarms, and the boob pleats gave it waaaay too much ease.

So very frustrating. I wasn’t going to blog about it, but I think its important to share our struggles and not just our successes. Otherwise, I think the sewing blogosphere can come off as a bit too perfect.

I ripped it apart before I took any pictures, so there is no evidence of my failing. Sorry. Since that is the case, I am going to show you some VERY random pictures. Some are old, some are new. None are borrowed or blue though, so don’t worry about that.

Also, if you’d like to read a slice of the stories associated with these pictures, head on over to the Flickr photostream. They will still appear to be equally as random, but hey, they might make ya giggle.

What is my solution with graduation looming in a mere 3 days?

I don’t know.

Plan A – trace off whatever the largest size of bodice was Burda offered, and compare it to where mine had too much ease. Maybe that will provide some help, and I can just sew it up.

Plan B – Version 2 of the Jamie Dress from Sis Boom Patterns. Did I ever mention that I finished my muslin of that? And hated it? And promptly threw my hands in the air and threw the muslin in a pile on the floor? It was supposed to be an Easter dress. Now its June. But I eventually picked it back up, and determined where I needed to add and where I needed to take away. The good thing about that dress is that it cut out very quickly, and didn’t take a super long time to sew up.

Plan C – dig out the pattern from a dress I made last summer that I know fits me, and use it.

Sigh. In three days?! While I’m trying to pack all my earthly belongings and buy a house?!

Oh goodness.

As you may have noticed, today is the beginning of June. As I have yet to actually get dressed and put on “real” clothes, I will be wearing something of mine in an hour when we go inspect The House.

Yes, we are so enamored with it that I will, from here on out, refer to it as The House with capital letters.

But back to clothes. So I will post tomorrow what I wore today, or this afternoon. Whatever. Yay Me Made June!

Oh. And did I mention my sewing machine is on the fritz?

Awesome.

Me Made June~!

May 31, 2011UncategorizedHenrietta

‘I, Amy Jo of http://www.BlueHippoArts.com, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-June ’11. I endeavour to wear something I’ve made or refashioned each day for the duration of June 2011’

Ok, I failed miserably at Me Made March. So I’m going to give it another go, this will certainly be challenging since I will likely be moving at least once in June, and hopefully twice! (Yes TWICE! Crossing our fingers on a house that we are IN LOVE with!) But this time around I have two pants options that I have refashioned (using the term loosely) so that should make it eaiser!

Lisette top is finally finished

May 25, 2011clothes, sewingblue, finished, Lisette cotton lawn, shirt, Simplicity 3700Henrietta

The Lisette cotton lawn top is FINALLLLLLY finsihed.

I don’t know what my problem is with finishing things. It took me forever just to sew on the darned sleeves!

I really don’t care for this shirt. Its wearable, and it will be cool this summer, and I love the fabric. But I think it looks a little like some strange caftan or smock or something from the 70’s. Sometimes these things happen. Also, its too big, too low cut, and too bell sleeved.

Whatever! Its done, and its breezy. Two important characteristics of clothing for an Indiana summer.

Current projects

May 24, 2011Bits Of Life, sewingbaby, Baby portraits, Burda, Burda Plus, Burda Plus Spring 2011 Dress 411, clothes, fields, flower print, flowers, gift, Graduation, green, house buying, mojo, pink, purple, quiltingHenrietta

Let me be honest, I’m super unmotivated to create anything lately.

My sewing room is a disaster and I’ve been sewing in the dining room, which is half full of boxes. Blue Hippo Arts is in the process of buying a house, which has been rather arduous for us. Everything feels very up in the air, and that is a difficult place for me to live for very long.

I decided to not take class this summer, so I have a ton of time I could be sewing right now, but I’m not. I feel like its not even worth talking about. So for now, I’m going to give you some pictures and tell you about the stuff that’s on tap to sew soon.

1. Dress for a graduation next weekend

(If you click on the line drawing, it will take you to the downloadable pattern at the Burda website.)

I wish I could find my Burda Plus Spring/Summer 2011 to show you the picture from the magazine. It looks lovely, much lovelier than the line drawing. Alas, I am ALWAYS misplacing my darned Burdas. Oh well. I’m sure it will turn up sooner rather than later.

Its going to be in this lovely fabric:

I’ve also begun a set just for whatever I make out of this issue of Burda. You can see it here.

So far I have altered the pattern, and sewn the muslin for the skirt. The altered muslin for the bodice is cut, partially pinned, and ready to be sewn.

2. Presents for graduation. Ok, I can’t actually talk about these because I hear that at least one of the recipients has read or reads my blog. Sorry. Lame, I know, but here are some of the fabrics I’ll be using.

Hopefully I’ll be back sooner rather than later, with completed projects to show you!

What I’ve been up to lately:

May 10, 2011Photography, sewingApril, Capris, Fisheye Lens, flowers, Pond, refashion, Short Pants, Summer, Wild MustardHenrietta

I’ve been busy. In between finals and whatnot, it became summer all of a sudden. I have this week off and plan to do a lot of sewing/blogging, so hopefully I’ll get back in the groove of this!

Like I said, it is all of a sudden hot and summery. So I “refashioned” some jeans into capri pants today. Took approximately 5 minutes. Very challenging stuff I’m into these days.

Sorry the picture is horrible. I really need to figure out a better way to take pictures of clothes I’m wearing.

One of my best girlfriends and I used to be devoted capri wearers around our sophomore year in college. Our friend Brandon asked her one time why we would ever wear short pants, and not just regular long pants. We thought the fact that he called them short pants was a riot, and here I am years and years later still calling them short pants. Old habits die hard I suppose.

Wild mustard is everywhere in Indiana at this time of year. I know it’s “just a weed” but it covers the fields and especially at sunset is just stunning. There’s a particular field on the way to my In Laws that always is filled with it. Its got a lovely creek on one side, and this beautiful saturated yellow on the other. Love it.

I had a chance last Thursday to go sit by a pond I used to spend a lot of time at when I was younger. It was so peaceful & a great way to celebrate being done with my first final.

Some of my momma’s flowers @ her greenhouse

Flowers the Husband bought me in April 🙂

One of my husband’s friends loaned me a fisheye lens, so I’ve been playing around with it.

Well friends and neighbors, thats all for now. I have a bunch of cleaning I want to get done before a going away dinner for a friend tonight. I have about 3 hours, so we’ll see how far I can get!

Have a good evening!