I am in a midst of a sewing frenzy! I am sewing a number of tops - up to 4 in various stages of completion so far, as I prepare for my first adventure in fabric dyeing. It's kind of a big production for me as I have to set up in my garage. I wanted a number of items to experiment with so thought I might as well try out some different top patterns at the same time. I'll be doing both low immersion dyeing and discharge dyeing. I did a quick test with some scraps and regular bleach, just to see what colors would be pulled out, and I should be ready to go either tomorrow or Friday. This is exciting! Pant fitting is temporarily on hold, but I'll be going back to that while the dye is setting.

I've been busy still struggling with a jean style narrow leg pant. I do think I've made progress, but you can only baste and rip a muslin so many times before it's stretched and no longer accurate for tracing. So I'm taking a little break from that. As a confidence booster, I tried a looser fit pant with a narrow lower leg and am very pleased with the fit.

Next, it's another ruched tee - getting ready to experiment with bleaching out the fabric.

My next revision of the ruched tee is in polar fleece - no ruching, but I left the sleeves long and sewed in thumb holes - love those! I also turned the collar around, left the seam open, overlapped the front edges and voila, easiest convertible collar ever. I didn't even need any closures as the fleece sticks to itself and stays put. I have a regular version cut in a slinky knit and my final version for now is in a black slubbed rayon lycra, just needed a good basic black top. Then it's back to another round of pant fitting before starting my jacket. It's going to be a busy month. Pictures coming soon! And here it is - collage showing some of the ways you can wear the collar.

Making Progress

Sewing was sporadic over the holiday, but I did make some progress. Finished the techno skirt, and it was a little tricky sewing, the interfacing did not adhere well and I had to end up stitching it down. What helped was switching to the walking foot and turning the feed dog pressure down to 2. I had a little trouble with the lining at the top by the invisible zipper - ripped it out 3 times before I got it, but I will remember for the future! I also finished another ruched tee and since I had left over fabric, made a matching skirt as well!

Chinooks

are back - power was flickering badly the last couple of days so I decided to not risk messing up the electronics on my sewing machine. Zipper is in, and the lining edges are all serged. I'm trying something new with the kick pleat. I found this article in the last issue of threads, and I have the hem interfaced and pressed, ready to go, but I think it's going to have to wait for the New Year! On the exercise front, I've managed to get in 4 solid workouts in the last 5 days - tired, but glad to be getting back into shape again.

Techno skirt

I found this very cool fabric at Joanne's

I made the long version(view C) of this Burda skirt for a semi-formal event I attended earlier this year, so I already had the pattern alterations done. I am going from a stretch cotton sateen to this non-stretch fabric, but I'm planning on just using a smaller seam allowance. I also have plans to do the lace version. This is a very simple pattern, well drafted, nicely shaped - a winner all the way around.

Here is a neat technique for sewing darts from "Threads"

Getting ready

This next year is going to be good - because I will make it sew - heh.
Santa was good to me and I have a new sewing machine!

It's a Juki Exceed F600 and I love everything about it! Here it sits next the my Juki 735 serger - nice pair!


 

 This year I focused a lot on trying to get the perfect fitting pants. Well, I'm not there yet, but a heck of a lot closer than I was.

My goals for this year are to focus on controlling my fabric and pattern addiction, and shopping my stash, as well as making a great fitting pair of jeans. Oh yeah, and after a month long break, it's time to start running again. Starting over is never fun, but at least I already know that it will be totally worth it.