2011 and its resolutions...

I find myself truly inspired by Gertie over at her blog with the Sew Alongs and it gave me the idea to do something locally. It got me thinking about the good old fashioned sewing circles and how people used to come together to learn from one another.

So I have decided to do my own Sew Along. I want to help people learn to sew for themselves... the whole "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish you feed him for a lifetime." idea. I figured I would start small with very simple projects and I can use the community room at my building for meeting space.

So here's your formal invitation:
Monday evenings in January 7-9pm
$8 per evening or $30 for the whole month
Community Room at Olympik Village apartments
402 31st Street NE
Rochester, MN 55906
Parking in the front lot or the back lot
You'll have to walk around to the front to be buzzed in, I'm 436.
RSVP via email, there is limited space around the table.
kristen.diane.butler@gmail.com

For this first project, we will be sewing little dresses and simple drawstring pants for little kids in Africa. littledressesforafrica.org for more info, and here is a pattern from Nancy's Notions that we will be using.

Following projects will be our own, for our own clothing but I figured this would be a good first project, suitable for beginners to join in and get some practice in. For this project, bring your sewing machine, any bias tape you are looking to get rid of and we will sew some little dresses! Mature kids older than 10 are welcome to come work the projects too.

Sewing detour while waiting for supplies and patterns to arrive...

So I'm going to the renfest this weekend with a friend of mine and I totally talked him into wearing a costume. I didn't want the costume to be too flambouyant, so I'm only doing a shirt out of this pattern (something I already had in my collection). It will be shirt view B and then we are going to add a wraparound belt over the shirt for a peasanty look.

Then for my costume, I have an honest to goodness corset made by Dajleet of The Measuring Tape on etsy (and if she ever goes back to making corsets again I would buy another. Very well made and I'm a bit of a perfectionist) This is the basic design, though the bottom of mine is shaped differently. The scrollwork is hand embroidered and gorgeous.

So I needed a chemise to wear under my corset and thought I might get away with that as the skirt portion of my dress, however, I have a wrap around skirt that I LOVE that I will be wearing with it. So here's the Chemise (which I've already made)

My criticisms with this pattern (and my roommate's too, as she's made this twice...) is that the front armhole on the dress doesn't match up with the sleeve, so you end up with and inch or so on the front of the dress that you have to cut down to match the sleeve. I didn't read the instructions at all (although my roommate did) but there were no other pattern pieces to suggest the construction to be any different than sewing it together.

I've learned that Costumes are a GREAT way to hone sewing skills when you aren't concerned about wrecking this amazing fabric that's picked out for a specific purpose. For example, with the construction of this chemise dress, I practiced french seams (I was cheap and used muslin) because I knew it would be an easy fabric to sew.

Enough typing for now, I must get to that shirt, view B and basic pajama pants for peasant bottoms.

Vogue 8346

It's official, I bought the coat pattern. I plan to participate in at least the muslin and fitting portion of Gertie's "Lady Grey Sew Along." I know this isn't the Lady Grey Pattern, but I've had this coat in the back of my mind ever since Gertie made it a while back. I LOVE Collette patterns and the things they are doing over there, so don't think I'm hatin'... I just love this coat more and with winters in Minnesota, I'm hoping to make this so I can close the V neck when it's really cold.

Here goes!!

I'm on my way to sewing my own clothes (a secret desire of mine), though I don't think I'm going to take the official oath of ONLY sewing my own, I do intend to sew for myself a good portion of my own clothing. Reason number 1: I'm hard to fit... I have a long torso, broad shoulders and a 10 inch difference between bust and underbust measuremeant. Reason number 2: I live in Rochester MN and they haven't quite figured out the need for a specialty bra store, or plus sized clothing that isn't all middle-aged looking.

I have been obsessing over the desire to make my own bras for a while, I even signed up to an online community and bought a book on drafting my own... which was quite the unsuccessful adventure. Then I stumbled upon a lady's review on the major sewing pattern review website that raved about elingeria's patterns. Did some research and bought 2 patterns including this:




So this is the first real project I plan to document the construction of on this blog. Why the first, you might ask? Because your undergarments are the foundations on which the whole rest of your wardrobe is built... hence them being called a FOUNDATION GARMENT!!

Excited to start, just bought the supplies from bramakerssupply.com.

Lady Grey Sew Along...

So I'm thinking about participating in the Lady Grey sew along.

What is it, you might ask? Gertie from blogforbettersewing is using Colette pattern's Lady Grey trench coat to do a sew along. I do like the Lady Grey coat, but i LOVE the vogue coat that Gertie did a while back complete with vlogs... (video blogs...). So I think I'm going to participate in the sew along but make the vogue coat instead. (Pattern 8346)