DD Gets Another Early Gift…

I am on a roll here!!!  With notification from my daughter that she was going to make a quick visit home for the day I quickly made up some pillows for her living room from the left over fabric from the snowman wreath I had made earlier.

A few weeks prior to this visit I was perusing the aisles in the Christmas Tree Shop when I came across some bolster pillows that had been marked down from $ 5.99 to $ 2.99. They weren’t exactly in a color I liked but figured…what the heck…you can’t buy the pillow form for that price!!! So I purchased them in the hopes of covering them.

Well…as luck would have it…the left over fabric from the wreath project was perfect to cover these pillows and the project took no time at all to complete. Following is the process I used to make the pillows:

• measure the circumference of the pillow and added 1 ¼” for 5/8ths inch seams
  (mine were 6” + 1 ¼”, I cut two circles at 7 ¼”)
• Measure the width of the pillow and add 1 ¼” for 5/8ths inch seams
• Measure around the pillow and add 1 ¼” for 5/8ths inch seams
• Cut a rectangle from these measurements.
• To be able to remove these covers to wash I added a zipper
• First I serged all fabric pieces before constructing the pillow cover. I did not trim off any fabric just skimmed the edges while serging
• Taking your rectangle of fabric stitch the width ends together, starting with regular stitching and then basting where your zipper is going to be then back to regular stitching. Remember to back tack at the start and end of your basting. You now have a tube.
• Press seam open and install zipper as usual and remove your basting stitches
• You will need to place quarter marks on your circle. Fold your circles in half, mark on wrong side at seam line, fold again and mark
•  Do the same for your sewn tube, these will give you reference points to match up your tube and circles evenly.
• I stitched piping that I made from cording and 2” bias cut strips to the circle pieces and then pinned and sewed the circles to the tube.

Viola…two flannel covered bolster pillows to go and one very happy daughter!

Happy Sewing…

An Early Christmas Gift

Even though Christmas is right around the corner one can not help but give to others a little bit early. Of the many projects sitting in the wings to be completed I decided to help my daughter with decorating her apartment for Christmas. To greet visitors to her new pad I decided to sew up a really cute wreath that appeared in the Better Homes & Gardens Holiday Crafts magazine (You are “Snow” Welcome Wreath, photo page 58, directions page 64 – 65).

When I saw this wreath I figured it would fit perfectly in with her personality and lifestyle. I was right…she loved it and hung it up right away when she got home!!!

Enjoy the holiday season…

What We Won’t Do For Our Children…

A parents’ love is boundless and what we won’t do for our children is limitless; case in point…our 21 year old daughter and the 21’ Colorado blue spruce in our front yard. She has been, shall we say, “pestering” us to put lights on this tree at Christmas time for the past several years. We have sweetly skirted the issue but finally decided to take the hike up the ladder and hang those lights on the tree this year.

What a project this turned out to be! Two different ladders, a rigged up broomstick with a hook on the end, sixteen sets of C7 multi-colored lights and two “wild & crazy” parents swinging from the branches and we finally have a lighted Christmas tree.

This picture shows how we didn't quite get the lights right on this side of the tree at the top...but the pic is cool because I used the moon as the star for the top of the tree.

Enjoy the Holiday Season!!!

One Smart Cookie…

Today is a Snow Day and my dog, Lola, has finally figured something out.

“Mmmm….she is saying to herself…I should go outside for when I come back in my Mommy will give me a cookie for sitting nice and getting dried off."

Well…Lola has taken this to the extreme…she has been outside four times within the last hour…she is definitely “One Smart Cookie” and how can you say “NO MORE COOKIES” to a face lake that!!!

Enjoy the Snow!!!

Hurray....it's a SNOW DAY!!!

With the holidays upon us my time on the computer has diminished. I have been busy sewing and knitting but I just haven't had the time to sit down and blog about it. I’ve taken all sorts of pictures and have posts in mind but the hustle and bustle of the holiday season has slowed me down to a point where time is precious and those Christmas gifts need to be completed before any posting can be done. Oh how I want to tell you about all I’ve accomplished over the past few weeks but time is of the essence, which brings me to today's post…SNOW DAY!

Just the words alone bring back memories of sitting by the radio, listening, hoping and praying the announcer would call your schools name and say the much anticipated words…"Such & Such School is now CLOSED."

Well…today is one of those days…One can only smile in how your lifestyle can be brought to a screeching hault by a tiny, miniscule frozen item when combined with millions of other tiny, frozen flakes to give you a snow prediction of 5-9 inches. To be given the opportunity to take a breath during this busy season and take stock of what truly is important and to slow down if only for a moment is heaven.

I am taking this moment in time to just relax, have a cup of coffee and enjoy the view from my sliding glass door overlooking the deck and the forest below. Oh how I love the freshness of a new fallen snow and watching the birds come to the feeder. It is so peaceful and calming.

Life is good…Enjoy!!!

Mail Call…Another Sewing Goodie

Through my online web surfing I have come across another sewing blog that has peaked my interest. I stumbled upon the “Go Chanel or Go Home” blog purely by accident and am grateful for that minor “click” that led me in that direction.

I have been interested in making a “Chanel” jacket for sometime and this blog is all about creating your own jacket in combination with sharing your creation process with other fellow “sewists” as well as the internet community who share a similar love for Coco Chanel and her designs.

In wanting to create a “Chanel” jacket I needed more background information on the construction process. That is what brings me to today’s Mail Call…as I quickly rip open the large manila envelope out comes the book I’ve been anxiously awaiting to arrive from Amazon. “Great Sewn Clothes” from Threads Magazine has come home to reside with my collection of sewing books. For me…this is the start of the process in the making of my “Chanel” jacket…I will be devouring pages 8 – 13 once this post is up.

The patterns I have in mind…Vogue 8369 or Vogue 8259. Being as these are out of print patterns I will leave my options open and peruse the other pattern companies for jackets of similar construction as well as reviewing what fellow “Go Chanel or Go Home” bloggers have used.

I am open to suggestions or any ideas as to the most appropriate pattern to use for this process.  Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Wish me luck on my quest for the couture sewn jacket!

Happy Sewing…

M5142

PR: M5142

Pattern Description: Misses’ Classic Fit Jeans in two lengths with two waistband treatments

Fabric Used: Non-Stretch Cotton Denim, 12 oz.

Pattern Size: EE Cut a 20 but will need to cut smaller size next time

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? Yes but I did modify the design to fit my taste

Were the instructions easy to follow? Didn’t use them

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern? The pattern was easy to sew. Being a Palmer/Pletsch I figured that there would be at least an explanation of the flat back pleats in the instructions but there weren’t any. I didn’t need this information but for an inexperienced sewer who doesn’t understand fit they would require an explanation as to what to do with this fit technique.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made: I participated in the Build A Better Jeans class and didn’t have the opportunity to buy the Jalie 2908 jean pattern that I had wanted to use for this project so had to resort to using this one being as it was readily available locally. I made several alterations to this pattern being as I didn’t like the final shape shown on the pattern envelope and technical drawings. I wanted the jeans to be more like my RTWs so I adjusted the side seam going from the hip area and tapering in at the knee by 1 ½ inches and then flaring back out at the hem. I also did the same for the inseam starting at the crotch tapering in 1 ½ inches at the knee and back out to the flared hem. I shortened the crotch front by 3/8 inch and lengthened the jeans 2 ½ inches. I added 3/8 inch to the waistband to bring it in line with the width of my RTWs. Due to the increased width in the waistband I added some length to the belt loop piece. I didn’t want my side front piece to be all denim so I changed the design cutting the piece from my lining fabric and making a denim piece to overlay half of the side front so that the lower part of the pocket was out of the lighter weight fabric and reducing some bulk in that area. I decreased the width of the ticket pocket and moved its position over a little bit towards the side seam. I moved the back pockets as well not liking where they were sitting on my form. They had them too close to the center back. As far as fitting goes, this pattern offers a generous 1 inch seam allowance but I found I needed to take an additional 1/2 inch to 1 inch more from the waist down to the knee. I did make up the pattern according to my hip size but still needed to make these additional adjustments. Being as these were my “mock-ups” I will have to redraw my pattern downsizing and adjusting it for the additional amount needed to be taken in. I also did the “Rocketboy Waistband” treatment on my jeans. An explanation of this can be found on PR under the Jeans Sew Along thread, page 31 as well as on my blog M5142: The Finishing Touches.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others? Yes but if you are looking for a tight fitting jean, this pattern isn’t it, you might want to consider the Jalie 2908 instead using stretch denim with lycra.

Conclusion: All in all I am satisfied with how my jeans turned out. I will be making another pair to try and improve the fit. I liked the fact the jeans were sewn from denim without lycra in it.