McCall's One Hour Dress

Well, it's done!!! I still am not 100% sure if I love it or not...but ah well. It's wearable and kinda cute I supposed. Certainly not a one hour project....but still fast.

Check out those pockets!!

Back view:

Modifications:Skirt seam: sewn at 1/4" instead of 5/8"
Back strap: Shortened approx 3" so it would pull the shoulders up (they were drooping)

Next time:Use stretchier fabric
Make it more of an empire waist line (the seam at the waist is too low..it should hit wear you would wear the belt, but it doesn't.)

$0.25 patterns!

I went to St. Vincent's in Hancock this weekend (actually looking for a Halloween costume for Matt) and look what I found:

$0.25 patterns!!!

Woo hoo!! So I found these four which look nice. :)

However, we were unable to find Matt a Halloween costume. Darn!


This weekend I was able to finish my costume (the dress portion). Now I need a headpiece and a handpiece and it's done! Yay!

I also finished my knitting cardigan. I am waiting on 2 extra buttons being sent up from my mom, though...

And I finished my "one hour" dress!! (Pictures to come soon!)

The Hunger Games

By the way, you should read this book:

It's amazing.


ANDDDD...the move is coming out in March. Woo hoo! It's a trilogy that you can read more about here.

I think I read the whole thing in a day.

:)

New Dress!

Here's my dress! Okay, okay..it's not QUITE done, but I was too excited not to post pictures. I still need to hem it and fix one small little waist detail....

 Sexy back view:

Ooh, check out those pockets!!!!

Okay, tonight I will hem it and fix the waist. Then I will try to convince my husband to take some nicer pictures..then I'll post more info about the dress. :)

One Hour Dress? Ha!!

Well...it's just been one of those weeks. You know?

I've been working on my Halloween costume and for the most part it's been going well. It just might be too small. Heh..well I will put in the zipper and see for sure. Hope it's fine.

Also, I've been working on this so-called "one hour dress" from McCall's:

And well, it's definitely taken more than one hour!! Now I realize that the one hour did not include cutting the pattern pieces out or marking them or pinning..

I realize also that the one hour did not include my inability to cut the sleeves following the grain (which I now fully realize why you are supposed to follow the grain markings especially on stretch fabric) or ripping out my 5/8" seam on the sleeves and resewing them at 1/4" to make them fit.

The one hour also does not include me sewing in the pockets backwards and having to redo those. The one hour also does not include the 4 gazillion times I had to redo the strap on the back to make it fit properly and the time it took to turn it right-side-out after sewing it.

So...I'd say all in all, I do really like this dress...just wish I didn't make so many mistakes! I think it will turn out very well in the end. It's almost done-I have hopes of wearing it tomorrow, but that may be too aggressive of a goal. We'll see. I can definitely say that I can wear it to work on Monday if tomorrow doesn't work. (Besides, Fridays are casual days anyway)

*******

On another note, I received a GIANT package today from my mom. It includes all sorts of exciting things including a whole bolt of black cotton duck fabric to make more bags with!! It also has lots of zippers (including invisible zippers so I can finish my Halloween costume) and yarn to finish my knitted cardigan that I'm making.

So, here is my goal for the weekend:

**Finish Halloween costume

**Finish "one hour dress"

**Finish knitted cardigan



Mug Rug Swap #2

Here is the mug rug I made for my second Ravelry Mug Rug swap. :) It was a Fall or Winter theme depending on what your swapee wanted. Mine obviously chose winter.

I made an applique snowman and just used the fancy snowflake looking stitch to make the eyes and to quilt it together to make the snow. I used a fancy heart looking stitch for the buttons.

We were supposed to sign our work. I wasn't sure what to use-my husband helped me to a water test to see what would bleed and what would be okay. I ended up using a marker that I had for my scrapbooking things. Hope it stays okay.

Bavarian Apple Torte

Another apple dessert. Here is the Bavarian Apple Torte I made. It's pretty much almost gone now and it's DELICIOUS!

Hehe

Apples!

On Saturday morning, we pressed apples! We pressed 6 gallons of juice to make apple wine plus we pressed a few extra for some apple cider. :)

I made some apple crisp. Yum! Tonight I'm going to make Bavarian Apple Torte. :)

Another to-do List!!

Another to-do list in order of priority:

1. Finish special order knitting tote
2. Mug rug swap on Ravelry-due before October 15th
3. Halloween costume-due before October 31st
4. Finish knitted cardigan
5. Knitting samples
6. Vogue 1 hour dress
7. Jersey long sleeve shirt
8. McCall's jacket
9. McCall's skirt
10. Whatever else I can get done! :)

And they match my shirt I just made!!!

I finished these last night!!!

I trimmed a little bit off of the sides of the crotch because last time I made these, it was a bit too "bunchy". This helped a lot! Also, I added some lace this time to make them fancy. Ooh la la!

:)

I also started cutting my Halloween costume. So far, so good. :)

I did get my Fabric.com package yesterday, too. YAY!

"Sew" much to do!

Sometimes I think about all of the things I want (HAVE) to make...and my heart starts beating really fast and I get overwhelmed and then freak out. Does this happen to anyone else?

Haha..

See...the problem is...right now I'm working on that pair of underwear that I mentioned in a previous post...and I can probably finish those before the weekend. Then...I am getting a big shipment in today from fabric.com....YAY!!! In the shipment (which should be waiting for me when I get home hooray!) will include fabric to make these:

Another one of these bags for a custom special order:

Some beautiful jersey fabric to make a "one hour" dress from Vogue:

Fabric to make this beautiful jacket:

My fabric for this skirt is backordered (thank goodness because I have enough projects, don't you think?):

Then...not to mention I can't find fabric that I like for this jacket. I really would like to do a zebra print denim, but it apparently doesn't exist. I'm worried a cotton wouldn't be structured enough:

Well, and then I have this pattern and I have a cheap denim that may or may not look okay...actually I think it's a cotton that just looks like denim..I just can't decide...but I still keep thinking about it:

And also...now I have my fabric for my Halloween costume that I need to design...and that really needs to be done before October 31st!!

Oh yeah, and I also bought extra jersey fabric so I can make another one of these...except with longer sleeves and maybe a wider neckline:

 

And then I have the problem of going onto other people's Blogs and MySewingCircle.com...and then I get inspired and want to make even MORE beautiful things...and that's when I start panicking.

Not to mention my knitting projects!!!!! AHHH!!!

And all of my customers wanting more chalkboards and knitting totes...

And...I want to just embroider a million things thanks to my new Janome embroidery machine.

Like I said...it's getting to be a serious problem!! Haha!

French Bread/Halloween Costume

Last night I made a french bread. Doesn't it look like it came right from the bakery???

I bought material to make my Halloween costume. I am very excited to actually planning a Halloween costume for this year. It's one of my favorite holidays and I never have anything to dress up as!!! Well...I better start sewing it so it will be done in time. :):):)

Here are some teaser pictures for my costume:

Jeep!

This past weekend we were finally able to take the Jeep out with the top down!! We had a picnic lunch at Calumet Water Works. It was awesome. Here we are cruising:

I also made a lot of cookies this weekend. I made Island Cookies (basically chocolate chip cookies w/ nuts and coconut) and oatmeal cookies. They are SOOOOOOOO yummy I can't stop eating them!!!!!

Tee-Shirt

It's funny how the first time I made this...it seemed so much harder!!!

Well, here is a simple tee-shirt. This is such a great pattern from Kwik Sew. It is a very easy pattern (I think there are only 5 steps!!) The only hard thing about it is that you are sewing with stretchy fabric.

I made View B, but I cut View A's collar and made a size small. The only change I made was that I sewed 1/2" side seams instead of 1/4". It fits perfectly.

Here's the first shirt I made from this pattern:

I was hoping to make THIS dress out of this fabric, but I didn't have enough (I only had 1 yard). So instead, I cut enough for the shirt plus THESE undies (which I've made before)

My first pair:

Raincoat

I finished my raincoat just in time for the fall, rainy season!This coat fits perfectly and I love everything about it! It's another Amy Butler pattern. The exterior is a laminated fabric from Michael Miller and the inside is a cotton from Portage Quilt House. I made the size small, short length, with the pleated pocket option.

This hood is so perfect and big.

Here's the pocket--it's big, which is great because I use every inch of my pockets sometimes!

And the back side:

Check out my super awesome pink floral lining!!!! Thinking back now, I may have made an inside pocket if I had thought about it...ah well!

I love that there is even a hook to hang the coat. I'm worried that it's a bit small for the weight of the coat-we'll see if it falls off.

I did the pleated pocket option instead of the gathered pocket because it was a little bit bigger:

I was really dreading these buttons..I've never covered my own buttons before and didn't realize how EASY it is!!! And they match perfectly. :)

The inside has smaller buttons to help stabilize the bigger exterior buttons.

The only modification I made was that I made belt loops out of the exterior fabric instead of thread loops. I just couldn't understand after putting in so much effort into the coat why anyone would want thread loops????!!! Also, I tacked the back of the belt down so it wouldn't fall off.